Trump media, the company behind the president’s personal social media platform Truth Social, is inexplicably merging with a Google-backed fusion energy company called TAE Technologies. The deal is worth $6 billion, according to reporting by Financial Times.
Why is an entity known for publishing frenzied hot takes by the president at 3AM combining with a fusion energy company? Who the heck really knows, but a statement says the two organizations will join together to build the “world’s first utility-scale fusion power plant.” This would be huge, if true, as there are currently no operational commercial nuclear fusion power plants.
�TAE Technologies, a premier global fusion power company, to merge with Trump Media & Technology Group to create one of the world’s first publicly traded fusion companies.
We know what TAE would bring to the table in that scenario. The energy company has been around since the 1990s and has attracted interest from Google, Chevron and others. Trump Media would be a great partner when building a reactor powered by insults, but doesn’t seem to offer much of anything else.
The merger statement does mention that Trump Media would provide TAE with “access to significant capital.” The company lost $55 million last quarter, as there’s only so much money in a social media platform primarily used by just one person.
However, the president himself is likely the world’s most renowned raiser of funds when it comes to personal pet projects. He knows how to get a roomful of billionaires to open up their wallets, provide copious compliments and even hand-deliver gold statues. The terms of the deal state that Trump Media will provide TAE with $300 million in capital as a bonus of sorts, though we don’t know where that money is coming from as it represents over ten percent of the company’s entire valuation.
This is an all-stock deal and stocks aren’t exactly immune from the manipulative whims of billionaires. To that end, shares in Trump Media have risen dramatically since this deal was announced. President Trump shifted his stake in the company to a revocable trust that he is the sole beneficiary of and is controlled by Donald Trump Jr.
There’s also the potential notion of using access to shore up federal support for grants, low-interest loans and permit approvals. That kind of thing seems particularly thorny and, to put it mildly, legally gray.
Creating a power plant for large-scale nuclear fusion would be an incredible undertaking and it’s something humanity has yet to figure out. TAE CEO Michl Binderbauer told CNN the newly-formed company will have it done in “five-ish years.” Most experts put that time frame in the “30-ish years” category.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/trump-media-is-merging-with-a-google-backed-fusion-energy-company-in-a-deal-worth-6-billion-180910779.html?src=rss
Trombone Champ: Unflattened gets an official crossover with indie hit Celeste, adding 10 tracks in a new song pack today.
For the unfamiliar, Celeste is a 2018 flatscreen platformer developed by Maddy Makes Games. Playing as Madeline, you seek to climb Celeste Mountain while a personification of her self-doubt attempts to stop her. It features a soundtrack by composer Lena Raine, this song pack is now officially available in both Trombone Champ and Trombone Champ: Unflattened.
Flatscreen edition trailer
Flat2VR Studios advised that because some included songs originally ran for 10 minutes or more, they have “carefully edited them down for length while keeping the parts that hit.”
You can find the full Celeste Song Pack track list below:
First Steps
Madeline and Theo
Resurrections
Spirit of Hospitality
Scattered and Lost
Starjump
Reflection
Confronting Myself
Heart of the Mountain
Reach for the Summit.
While Unflattened only receives the Celeste Song Pack, the flatscreen version of Trombone Champ gets two additional DLCs today with 14 songs each. One is based on cartoon platformer Pizza Tower, joined by an Undertale + Deltarune pack. It’s worth remembering the latter previously received Unflattened DLC in August, though that only contained six songs.
The Celeste Song Pack for Trombone Champ: Unflattened is out now for $7.99 on Quest, PC VR, and PlayStation VR2.
As you build your DIY toolkit, you’ll quickly discover there’s rarely just one version of any given tool. Of course there are Phillips head and slotted screwdrivers, but even hammers—possibly the simplest tool of all—come in a surprising range of varieties designed for different tasks.
When it comes to power tools, the differences can be more complex to suss out. Take drills: When starting out on a job, how do you know if you need a standard power drill, a hammer drill, or whatever an “impact driver” is? While you can get pretty far in your home maintenance career without knowing the difference, but there will come a point when using the right tool for the job will make your life a lot easier. If you’ve managed to get through life without knowing the difference between a drill, a hammer drill, and an impact driver, here’s the rundown you need.
Drills vs. impact drivers vs. hammer drills
Drills, impact drivers, and hammer drills are all used to drill holes and drive fasteners, but they work in different ways and are well-suited to different tasks:
Drills are the easiest to understand, conceptually: Your trusty power drill spins the bit, delivering consistent, constant torque at a variety of speeds. When the motor encounters resistance, it disengages. That means that when your drill hits its limit, there’s not much more it can do to drive a fastener or bore a hole. A standard drill is good at both drilling and boring holes.
Impact drivers also spin the bit and provide consistent torque—until the driver hits resistance. Then it adds a rapid, perpendicular, concussive force that temporarily increases the torque beyond what a standard drill can do. If you’ve ever hit something on the side with a hammer to loosen it, or clamped a wrench in place and hit the handle with a hammer to get a stuck bolt moving, that’s what’s going on here, but it’s happening dozens of times a second. The impact driver doesn’t have a clutch and will keep working even when it hits resistance. It’s usually pretty loud, and the vibration involved can tire out your hands and arms. As a result, an impact driver isn’t great for drilling—it’s best used to drive fasteners.
Hammer drills operate like a standard drill, but when they’re in hammer mode (which you have to select), they deliver a downward-driving force (like a hammer hitting a nail) as opposed to the impact driver’s horizontal force. Hammer drills can operate like a standard drill if you disengage the hammer function—and like a standard drill, the motor will disengage when it hits resistance. A hammer driver in hammer mode is best for boring holes in tough materials, but not driving fasteners.
How to choose between a drill, impact driver, and hammer drill
Knowing how each of these tools works makes it a little easier to decide when to use one over the other. In general, here’s when to use a drill, impact driver, or hammer drill on your project:
Drills are precision tools that are ideal for driving small fasteners like standard screws or boring holes into softer materials, like wood or drywall. It’s an ideal general tool for most small-scale DIY projects, and when you need more control over the driving or drilling action.
Impact drivers are best used on denser materials, like very hard woods, or with larger or longer fasteners that require a lot of power to drive home. If you’ve ever tried to drive a long screw with a drill and discovered that it becomes frozen halfway through, that’s when an impact driver might be the answer.
Hammer drills are best for drilling or fastening in very hard materials like stone, concrete, or brick—in fact, you should avoid using hammer mode on lighter materials, because it can cause damage. But because you can disengage the hammer function on most hammer drills and use them as standard drills, they can be a good multipurpose choice.
One final difference: Hammer drills and standard drills use a chuck that can accept a variety of bits, but an impact driver will only work with 1/4-inch hex-shaped bits.
Since a hammer drill can also be used as a standard drill, it’s the best option if you’re not sure which tool you should get or you want to avoid buying an additional tool for a future project—it gives you both standard drill capabilities and the added power of the hammer action. You can hold off on picking up an impact driver until you tackle a project that actually calls for one.
Street Gods, one of two Norse mythology-inspired VR roguelites coming to Meta Quest in December, emphasizes style and power fantasy over any real impactful combat.
Developer Soul Assembly has a long history with combat-heavy VR titles, like the Drop Dead series, Last Stand, Warhammer 40,000: Battle Sister. While it occasionally dabbles in other genres, like working on Just Dance VR, action games are its bread and butter. All the aforementioned games, primarily shooters mind you, received mostly the same critical response. Straightforward, albeit shallow, and fun to play with friends.
The Facts
What is it?: A Norse mythology-based roguelite Platforms: Meta Quest 3/3S (reviewed on Quest 3) Release Date: December 18, 2025 Developer/Publisher: Soul Assembly Price: $19.99
So, given Soul Assembly’s history and the genre we’re dipping into, the first thing that surprised me in this game is how forward the story is. Most roguelites deliver the setting in a cursory introduction that just sets the table for the carnage that will ensue. Street Gods surprisingly takes its time with a lengthier than expected multi-part tutorial that arguably takes a bit too long with the setup, but in hindsight turns out to be the best part of the game.
You play as Val, a street-smart graffiti artist who happens upon Mjölnir, the signature weapon of Thor, the Norse God of Thunder. As you approach it, Mjölnir inexplicably begins to speak to you. This voice is Thor himself, entrapped in his own weapon for reasons beyond his own understanding. You pick up the hammer and are immediately attacked by what can only be described as Norse zombies, who look ripped straight out of the Drop Dead universe with different clothes on.
It’s here that my primary issue with Street Gods comes up. Thor teaches you how to swing and throw Mjölnir to defeat the undead, but nothing really lands. I realize that when playing VR, you are ostensibly always swinging at air, but most melee-heavy games get around this with a combination of controller haptics, sound effects, and visual cues (sparks, blood, enemy reactions, etc.). There is no real crunch here, no impact, no visceral immersion to the combat. The controller haptics are extremely weak, so when unleashing power attacks like shooting lightning from the hammer, it doesn’t feel like much of anything because both the haptics and sound effects are so subdued. The ‘clank’ sound of the hammer on impact is fine, but not enough. It needs more oomph, to be blunt.
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Street Gods early-game combat – Captured by UploadVR on Meta Quest 3
Now, this may be by design, since you are imbued with the power(s) of a God in this game, but the power fantasy here is muted by the lack of physicality. This is a fairly lightweight arcade-like experience with a heavily comic book-inspired aesthetic (more on that later). The arcade feel shines through as you tear through enemies like wet paper with all of your various abilities, but I couldn’t shake the combat’s lifeless energy.
Having said that, Street Gods makes up for its general lack of substance with all kinds of style. As you quickly unlock new abilities, you’ll be tossing enemies around with lightning-powered hammer uppercuts, a golden lasso that can yank foes all over the map, unleashing lightning attacks, and so on. The elongated introduction has a stretch where you are falling through the merging of Earth and Asgard, and that sequence is terrific. The game feels cool to play, but that level of cool can be fleeting depending on your personal tastes. I found myself losing interest about 20 minutes into each of my runs because of combat.
This extends to the power-ups. After dispatching all the enemies in an arena, you are presented with a chest with the standard assortment of power-ups and perks: more health, better defense, increased attack power when health is low, and so on. New abilities are unlocked in an arena that lets you practice before you move forward. Occasionally, a new ability would spawn as a perk, like dropping a bomb behind you when you dash, but they are few and far between. All the tropes are here, but at its core, there’s nothing new to veteran roguelite players.
Street Gods screenshots captured by UploadVR
One of the tricky things to get right in a game that plays in power fantasies is balancing said fantasy with a sense of peril. Street Gods falls woefully short here. I never felt any real sense of danger during any of my runs. Enemies can spawn all around you, but maybe owing to the limitations of standalone VR, there are never more than a handful onscreen at any given moment and they go down so easily that you hardly ever get hit.
Even as the game ramps up with a few new enemy variations with area of effect attacks, they’re still taken out from range simply by throwing Mjölnir (which eventually gets powered up to hit multiple enemies). Health is dropped in droves by enemies upon death too, so even if you do take damage, it’s easily nullified. Compare this to Drop Dead: The Cabin, another Soul Assembly title, where restrictions on map traversal and scarcity of supplies make every run a struggle and that is sorely missed here.
Visually, Street Gods is an interesting study in contrasts. The story of the game is the Norse realms are colliding and merging with Earth (Midgard), so you do battle in city streets with otherworldly vines and giant crystals protruding from them. It looks quite nice, but after the umpteenth time in the same map, even with switching things up with different times of day & weather, it gets old pretty quickly. Most of the maps are quite colorful, except for the snow-covered areas. These are blindingly washed out, so much so that I had to turn down the brightness on my Quest.
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Acquiring a new blessing in Street Gods – Captured by UploadVR on Meta Quest 3
Occasionally, between levels, you’ll travel to a hub between realms to get some exposition from your talking hammer and a rock with paper drawn eyes and a crown representing Loki. This hub area is the nicest looking part of the game by far. You can also damage the vehicles and dumpsters in each level, but like the enemies, the damage just sort of happens. If you are old enough to recall destroying the car in Street Fighter II, same idea here. Frame A, perfectly fine. Frame B, destroyed. With no animation or motion between the two, other than a plume of fire for vehicles.
As stated earlier, the common enemies look ripped straight from a Drop Dead game, with gangly looking movements and a comic book-esque word pop-up when getting hit, but in motion, they don’t look great. If they are far away from you, they visibly move at a lower framerate and this frame drop repeats when you knock them far away. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. Graphically, Street Gods is a mixed bag.
The world of Street Gods doesn’t take itself too seriously, choosing to lean on the (hopefully) fun combat and powers to keep the player engaged. The exchanges in the hub area are mostly played for laughs, with the voice actors delivering their lines like the straight man in a goofball comedy. Some of it lands, but most of it doesn’t. Val and Thor also quip endlessly during combat, with some of their lines clumsily stacking over each other, and after 2 or 3 runs, I had heard them all and was begging for a mute button. Same with the music, which felt very run-of-the-mill and on a short loop. There is a story here, with hints at Val’s backstory and questions as to how and why Thor is imprisoned in his own weapon, but the dialogue and the characters are so ho-hum that it’s difficult to get invested.
Comfort
Street Gods uses artificial stick-based movement with no option for teleport movement. Players can choose between snap and smooth turning with speed settings for each, a sitting mode with a height adjustment, and a motion vignette while moving.
Mjölnir, your primary weapon in the game, defaults to your right hand. This can also be changed to your left hand in the settings menu.
Finally, when I was approaching my first boss fight, I entered the portal and the game crashed after 3 minutes of black screen with music playing. When I reloaded, it just dropped me back into more waves, this time in a new element type (snow) that I hadn’t seen yet. I had to let myself die and delete my save data to in essence restart the game to get back to the boss fight, which thankfully loaded on the second attempt. Performance was fine to start, but after that crash, I started to see some stuttering and frame drops when a lot of enemies were onscreen.
Hopefully this can be fixed with patches, but having to restart took me out of the game completely. I put it down for some time before jumping back in.
Street Gods – Final Verdict
If you are an action junkie just here to wreck enemies, there are better roguelites available in VR with more engaging combat than Street Gods. Even as a power fantasy, the lack of weapon variety, uninspired enemies, repetitive locations, and power-ups make Street Gods a struggle to hold your attention for long.
UploadVR uses a 5-Star rating system for our game reviews – you can read a breakdown of each star rating in our review guidelines.
The holidays have snuck up on us. How is it already that time?
If you’re on top of things and have already bought all your Christmas gifts, I commend you. Not all of us are so conscientious. In fact, one of us is so behind on holiday prep that he is not only running late on buying gifts; he’s also behind on publishing the Ars staff gift guide he said he’d write. (Whoever could we be talking about?)
So for my fellow last-minute scramblers, I polled Ars writers and editors for gift ideas they know will be solid because they’ve actually used them. As such, you’ll find gift options below that Ars staffers have used enough to feel good about recommending. Further, I made sure all of these are available for delivery before Christmas as of today, at least where I live.
You can add Japan to the list of regions where Apple has been forced to do something it would rather not: open up the App Store. On Thursday, the company announced changes to iOS in Japan to comply with the nation’s Mobile Software Competition Act (MSCA). The tighter regulations for Apple and Google, which overlap with Europe’s, took effect today. Users in the US and elsewhere won’t see any of these changes.
Apple’s changes in iOS 26.2 in Japan revolve around alternative app stores, payments outside the App Store and browser choice. The company worked with Japanese regulators on new protections for increased security risks.
The company calls this set of safeguards Notarization. It involves an authorization process for alternative app stores and child-safety protocols. Third-party marketplaces will need to undergo a baseline security review. This uses a combination of human and automated checks to block malware and other threats.
Naturally, Apple cautions that Notarization is less comprehensive than the App Store’s reviews. “The App Store — where every app is reviewed to meet the App Store’s high bar for privacy and security — remains the best place for iOS users in Japan to discover and download the apps they love,” the company wrote.
To state the obvious, the App Store is a booming business for the iPhone maker. In 2024, it generated $1.3 trillion in total sales. Opening it up poses a threat to one of the company’s most reliable revenue streams. Big Tech seems to talk a lot about fewer rewards and more penalties for users when their own money trees are at risk.
Apple CEO Tim Cook in Tokyo in October 2025
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS via Getty Images
iOS 26.2 in Japan also introduces new payment options. Developers can now use non-Apple payment processors within their apps or link to external websites for purchases. (Children’s content is exempt from this.) Here, Apple again warns the user about the penalties for doing something that will hurt its bottom line. “For apps that use alternative payment processing or link users to the web for transactions, Apple will not be able to issue refunds and will have less ability to support customers encountering issues, scams or fraud,” the company cautioned.
The last big change involves picking defaults within the operating system. Users in Japan will see new browser and search engine choice screens. They’ll also find default controls for navigation apps and app stores. Finally, developers can now offer browsers that use alternative engines other than Apple’s WebKit.
Apple’s announcement comes a day after Google detailed its compliance with the MSCA. Since Android is more open than iOS, Google’s changes in response to the regulations are a bit less pronounced. Android users will find new browser / search choice screens, expanded billing options and side-by-side comparisons of external vs. Play Store payment options.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/apple-opens-up-ios-in-japan-in-response-to-new-regulations-174854950.html?src=rss
MSECore’s latest small form factor system, the MV10 Mini PC, is a compact computing beast. The diminutive machine features four cooling fans to manage the heat from an Intel Core i9-14900F and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB, along with up to 64 GB of DDR5-5600 MT/s RAM and a 4TB NVMe Gen 4 SSD. There are also 32GB DDR5 and 8GB GDDR5 GeForce
I really like my Pixel 9a, but there’s one glaring issue with my Pixel that stares at me every time I unlock my phone. And it’s the At a Glance widget on top the screen that Google just won’t let me remove. I like a clean lock screen, and eventually, I got so frustrated looking at this totally uncustomizable widget that shows the time and the weather that I gave up and switched to Niagara Launcher. And if you think that this is just my own pickiness, I can confidently say it’s not just me; Reddit is filled with people complaining about this.
But seems like after 10 iterations of Pixels, Google is finally letting people get rid of this widget, clearing space for something, anything better than this. The new option will be part of Android 16’s QPR 3 update, which will be out sometime in March 2026. But if you install the beta, you can try it now.
How to install Android 16 QPR 3 beta 1
Android’s QPR betas are refreshed every quarter, and anyone with a compatible Pixel device can enroll. Visit the Android Beta Program website and enroll your device. Reboot, and you’ll be on the beta channel. It’s really easy to hop on, and it won’t require a factory reset. But getting rid of an installed beta is not so easy. Once you install the latest QPR 3 beta, you’re in for the long haul, at least until Android 16 ships the stable version in March. If something goes wrong, or if you’re facing battery issues, the only way to downgrade would be to wipe your device. So before you start, make sure you have a full backup.
How to disable the At A Glance widget in Android 16
At a Glance is an interesting idea, but it’s rarely helpful. It’s supposed to show you relevant information like the weather, your next appointment, alerts, air quality, and even suggestions from fitness apps and delivery updates. But instead, what it shows is unpredictable and pretty barebones, and it takes up valuable screen real estate. Worse, you can’t customize it to make it better. I’m excited to get rid of it once and for all.
Once you’re running the latest software, it’s quite straightforward. Long press the At a Glance widget and choose the Settings option.
Credit: Khamosh Pathak
Here, disable the new Show on home screen option below the Use At a Glance toggle. This will disable the home screen widget instantly, but you’ll still have access to it on the lock screen. Disable the Use At a Glance toggle as well to get rid of it from everywhere.
Credit: Khamosh Pathak
And there you have it. Your home screen is free at last. You can leave the space empty if you wish, or, like me, you can add a big old clock right up there instead.
Credit: Khamosh Pathak
If you want to bring the At a Glance widget back, tap and hold on an empty part of the home screen and choose Home settings, then tap the Gear icon next to the At a Glance option. From here, you can re-enable the widget using the Show on home screen toggle.
The UK Met Office projects that 2026 will see global temperatures rise between 1.34C and 1.58C above preindustrial levels, placing it among the four hottest years since records began in 1850 and continuing a streak of extreme warming that has pushed the planet into unprecedented territory. The central forecast is slightly cooler than the 1.55C recorded in 2024, the warmest year on record. But climate scientist Adam Scaife, who led the forecast, noted that “the last three years are all likely to have exceeded 1.4C” and 2026 would be the fourth consecutive year to do so. “Prior to this surge, the previous global temperature had not exceeded 1.3C,” he said.
The forecast suggests another temporary exceedance of the 1.5C threshold set by the Paris Agreement is possible in 2026, following the first such breach in 2024. The 1.5C target is measured as a 30-year average, so it remains technically achievable even as individual years cross the line. EU scientists said last week that 2025 is “virtually certain” to rank as the second or third-hottest year on record.
NVIDIA has promoted their R590 driver series to stable with the release today of the NVIDIA 590.48.01 Linux driver as their latest new feature branch version…
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Meta has made virtual reality accessible to many more people, offering good VR headsets for much cheaper than the competition. Right now, the 128GB Meta Quest 3SGorilla Tag Bundle is on sale for $249.99 (originally $299.99) and comes with a $50 Amazon gift card by hitting the “redeem” button or using the code “QUEST3S50” at checkout. This is the lowest price it has been, according to price-tracking tools, and the gift card makes it an even better deal. You can also double the storage with the Meta Quest 3s Batman: Arkham Shadow bundle for $349 (originally $399.99), which comes with a $49.01 Amazon credit.
With a $50 gift card
Meta Quest 3S Gorilla Tag Bundle (128GB)
$249.99 at Amazon
$299.99 Save $50.00
$249.99 at Amazon
$299.99 Save $50.00
With a $49.01 Amazon credit
Meta Quest 3S 256GB VR Headset With Batman: Arkham Shadow and 3-Month Meta Quest+
$349.00 at Amazon
$399.99 Save $50.99
$349.00 at Amazon
$399.99 Save $50.99
The Meta Quest 3 has better graphics, but it costs substantially more (currently $499.99) than the 3S version. Lifehacker staff writer Stephen Johnson tested both VR headsets to decide which of the two is better, and the Meta Quest 3S was his winner—you can read a more in-depth review of the Quest 3S here. There isn’t enough of a difference between the two models to justify the additional cost, with the Quest 3S’s graphics looking very close to the 3 and running the same games and apps.
The Meta Quest 3S has a Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 processor, 8GB of RAM, a display resolution of 1,832 by 1,920 (per eye), and a refresh rate of 120Hz. Once you put them on, the horizontal field of view is 96 degrees, and the vertical view is 90 degrees. The audio is stereo, which is nice, and the speakers are compatible with 3D spatial audio. When it comes to battery life, expect up to two and a half hours of juice before having to recharge (it takes about two hours for a full charge).
What makes the Meta Quest 3S special is how cheap it is to jump into the VR world, with other headsets going for much more (Apple’s Vision Pro is still $3,499). The bundle deal and gift cards make these deals even better.
Cycling and sponsors have a history almost as long as the sport itself.
In fact, the biggest events on the annual calendar were created as a form of advertisement, with newspapers L’Auto, La Gazzetta dello Sport and Informaciones responsible for founding the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and La Vuelta a España, respectively.
Bike brands followed, setting up their own teams from the 1920s.
Companies from outside of cycling got in on the act in the 1950s, and today, the professional peloton’s team names are a smorgasbord of supermarket chains, bike brands, gambling companies and a couple of caffeine-filled concoctions (one of which you put on your hair…).
But, unlike most sports, team names change as sponsors come and go, with most big-money switches made during the off-season.
As big news as the signings of the transfer window, they determine the team-name tongue-twisters that fans and commentators will have to contend with the following season, while providing outfits with injections of cash that are more important to the future of a team than any rider.
From mergers and swaps to complete rebrands, here is a summary of the key sponsor swaps to get your head around before the 2026 road cycling season.
Every 2026 Men’s WorldTour team title sponsor swap
Alpecin–Deceuninck → Alpecin–Premier Tech
Decathlon–AG2R La Mondiale → Decathlon CMA CGM
Groupama–FDJ → Groupama–FDJ United
Intermarché–Wanty → Lotto Intermarché
Israel–Premier Tech → NSN Cycling Team
Alpecin – Deceuninck becomes Alpecin – Premier Tech
Premier Tech joins as co-sponsor of the team formerly known as Alpecin – Deceuninck. ON SACRE (Photo by TOON SACRE / BELGA MAG / Belga / AFP via Getty Images
The Belgian outfit behind Mathieu van der Poel and Jasper Philipsen embarks on its fourth WorldTour season with German caffeine-containing shampoo Alpecin joined by new co-title sponsor, Premier Tech.
It takes over from the Belgian window and door company, Deceuninck.
The Canadian machinery and equipment manufacturer had been a co-title sponsor of Israel – Premier Tech, but stepped away after the negative publicity surrounding the team’s Israeli identity, relentless protests at 2025’s La Vuelta, and the war in Gaza.
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team becomes Decathlon CMA CGM Team
CMA CGM describes itself as “a global player in sea, land, air, and logistics solutions”. Gautier Demouveaux/NurPhoto via Getty Images
After almost three decades in the sport, insurance company AG2R La Mondiale is stepping down as co-title sponsor of France’s biggest team.
It’s set to be replaced by another French company – shipping and logistics specialist CMA CGM.
Decathlon remains the driving force behind the team, which has competed on the brand’s Van Rysel range since the retail-park behemoth came on board in 2024.
Groupama – FDJ becomes Groupama – FDJ United
Groupama – FDJ has a small name change for 2026. Groupama – FDJ United
The other big French team of the WorldTour peloton, Groupama – FDJ, gets a minor name change for 2026, adding ‘United’ to its title after France’s national lottery rebranded to FDJ United in 2025.
Israel – Premier Tech becomes NSN Cycling Team
Biniam Girmay is NSN Cycling’s big-name signing for 2026. Manaure Quintero / AFP via Getty Images
The beleaguered Israel – Premier Tech team has new title sponsors, a new registered location and a fresh look to its rider line-up for 2026, with Biniam Girmay the biggest signing of the off-season.
While you may have never heard of NSN Cycling, it’s the cycling arm of NSN (the ‘international sports and entertainment company’ co-founded by Spanish football World Cup winner, Andreas Iniesta).
The team is backed by Swiss-Spanish investment platform Stoneweg and will ride Scott bikes in the pro peloton.
The involvement of the controversial former team owner, Sylvan Adams, remains unclear.
Intermarché – Wanty and Lotto have merged. Dario Belingheri/Getty Images
Belgian team Lotto returns to the WorldTour in 2026 with a new co-title sponsor, the French supermarket chain Intermarché.
The company had previously sponsored Girmay’s old team, Intermarché – Wanty, but made the switch with the merging of the teams at the end of the 2025 season.
Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team becomes Pinarello – Q36.5 Pro Cycling
Although not in the WorldTour, Tom Pidcock’s Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team is getting an additional co-title sponsor for the 2026 season, with Italian bike manufacturer Pinarello stepping up as a key backer and replacing Scott as the team’s bike supplier.
Both Pinarello and Q36.5 are owned by South African billionaire and former mining firm boss Ivan Glasenberg, who co-owns the Swiss team alongside Q36.5 co-founder Luigi Bergamo and manager Doug Ryder.
With a raft of signings including Fred Wright, Sam Bennett and Thomas Gloag, expect the team to be knocking on the door of the WorldTour very soon.
Beat Saber gets the Coldplay Music Pack, featuring 12 songs covering the band’s wider history.
Out now on Quest and Steam, Beat Saber’s Coldplay Music Pack covers the band’s wider discography from the last three decades. It features songs such as ‘Yellow’ from debut album Parachutes, all the way to ‘feelslikeimfallinginlove’ from 2024’s Moon Music. This also adds a new environment that Meta confirmed “draws inspiration from the band’s vibrant live shows, music videos, and album artwork.”
The Coldplay Music Pack comes with all twelve new songs for $14.99, or you can pay $1.99 for individual tracks. Here is the full track list:
A Sky Full of Stars
Adventure of a Lifetime
Clocks
feelslikeimfallinginlove
GOOD FEELiNGS
Something Just Like This
Speed of Sound
Talk
Trouble
Viva La Vida
WE PRAY (ft. Little Simz, Burna Boy, Elyanna, TINI)
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This latest music pack was previously revealed during last week’s announcement for a free, upcoming Coldplay concert in Meta Horizon. Meta confirmed it’s partnering with iHeartMedia to bring the band’s Music of the Spheres concert tour to Meta Horizon, using 180-degree VR. That’s based on the band’s stint at Wembley Stadium and goes live on December 30.
There’s still more to come for the band’s collaboration with Meta. Last week also confirmed that Coldplay is returning to fitness app Supernatural in the US and Canada, following its original appearance in 2022. This will introduce three new workouts, and that begins on December 29.
Beat Saber – Coldplay Music Pack is out now on Quest and Steam.
