Dyson finally made a better robot, but a worse vacuum
Tech/AI

Dyson finally made a better robot, but a worse vacuum

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The Spot + Scrub Ai nails navigation and mopping, but a third-party motor undercuts its $1,200 Dyson price tag.

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268473_Dyson_Spot_JTuohy_0006
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy
is a senior reviewer with over twenty years of experience. She covers smart home, IoT, and connected tech, and has written previously for Wirecutter, Wired, Dwell, BBC, and US News.

I’m deeply conflicted about the Dyson Spot + Scrub Ai robot vacuum and mop. It’s the company’s best robotic floor cleaner to date, with excellent mopping performance, good navigation and obstacle detection, and a multifunction dock that takes much of the busywork off your hands. But Dyson’s first attempt at a vacuum-and-mop combo is a worse vacuum than its predecessors, and that’s because there’s no Dyson motor in this vacuum.

You read that right. For $1,200, the Spot + Scrub doesn’t get you a Dyson vacuum; instead, you’re getting a third-party motor and brush system. “It’s not one of our V10 motors, it’s one of our partner technologies,” Nathan Lawson McLean, senior design manager at Dyson, told me.

Overall, the robot “merges new and already existing Dyson technologies with other platforms.” Lawson McLean confirmed that the Dyson tech is mostly found in the cyclonic auto-empty dock, the Dyson-designed roller mop system, and the Dyson-developed AI-powered stain-detection feature that gives the device its name. Hence, my conflict: how do I review a Dyson robot vacuum whose vacuum isn’t a Dyson?

6

Verge Score

The Good

  • Great mopping
  • Big, bagless dust container
  • Excellent navigation and obstacle detection
  • Simple, easy-to-use app

The Bad

  • Worse vacuum than the Vis Nav
  • Too wide to navigate some furniture
  • Stain-spotting is spotty
  • The dock is an eyesore
  • Very loud

The Dyson Spot + Scrub is a robot vacuum that can also mop your floors. It uses a large, self-cleaning roller mop that dispenses 140-degree-fahrenheit heated water as it runs, and sensors tell it to raise the mop while vacuuming carpet. Its vacuum has a claimed 18,000Pa of suction and uses a single rubber/bristle roller brush along with two spider-like side sweepers to capture dirt. There’s a camera on board for AI-powered obstacle detection and stain spotting, along with lidar for navigation.

It comes with Dyson’s first multifunction dock that, in addition to charging the bot, empties its onboard dustbin, cleans its mop, and drains and refills its water tanks. The giant dock is an eyesore, but it works and is a welcome upgrade. The lack of a self-empty feature on Dyson’s last robot vac, the 360 Vis Nav, was a big miss.

Dyson has ditched the D-shaped Vis Nav and opted for a more standard round look. It has also abandoned its purely camera-based navigation in favor of lidar paired with camera-based AI obstacle recognition. iRobot made the same pivots last year when it began working with a third-party manufacturer to catch up with rapidly evolving competition — a few months before it filed for bankruptcy.

While Dyson isn’t likely to follow Roomba’s financial path, its latest model is clearly an attempt to keep up with the plethora of Chinese manufacturers in this space. The Spot + Scrub has a few signature Dyson features, but it is much more like the competition from Roborock or Ecovacs than any of Dyson’s previous bots. Right down to its motor.

Dyson wouldn’t share which third-party manufacturer (known as an original design manufacturer, or ODM) it worked with, but mounting evidence suggests that Dyson built its flagship robot on the bones of Chinese ODM Shenzhen Picea Robotics’ R2 ODM platform. The product shares a lot of DNA with robots that we know were manufactured with Picea. It’s similar under the hood to Anker’s Eufy Omni line and iRobot’s 705 Combo Max, with the wheels, side brushes, and mop all bearing a strong resemblance (see picture).

Of course, there are plenty of Dyson touches. A large air filter takes up much of the robot’s body and is much bigger than those found on competitors. It features the signature green laser of Dyson stick vacs for detecting dirt (which is also present on the latest Shark robot vacuum I reviewed; Shark is a Picea customer). The huge, clear “Cyclonic” dust canister in the dock is all Dyson — complete with Dyson blurple plastic. This is actually the dock’s best feature; not only does it eliminate the need for disposable bags, but the clear exterior makes it easy to see how well the vacuum is doing its job.

Lawson McLean also points to the bot’s 12-point hydration system, which self-cleans the microfiber roller as it mops, as a Dyson feature. This is also found on Dyson’s other wet floor cleaning products, the Clean + Wash and the Pencilwash. However, self-cleaning roller mops aren’t unique to Dyson’s robot mop — Eufy, Ecovacs, Roborock, Dreame, and 3i (Picea’s in-house brand) have similar designs.

A Dyson by any other name

Arguably, Dyson needed to work with an ODM that knows how to make a good robot vacuum that doesn’t get lost and can navigate well. Its previous robovacs were great vacuums, but terrible navigators. Switching from vSLAM camera-based navigation to the more tried-and-tested lidar has definitely improved things. Buying the tech from elsewhere rather than spending time developing it themselves was also the right move (if Dyson wanted to get a new vacuum out this decade), and working with ODMs is common in the industry. But a vacuum company putting someone else’s less powerful vacuum in their flagship robot floor cleaner feels like the wrong compromise.

Overall, the vacuum is fine, but it’s not great, which you would expect for $1,200. It does a good job on hard floors and low-pile carpets and tackled my dried oatmeal and chocolate powder tests there easily, sucking up most of them on the first pass. And while its 18,000Pa suction is impressive, combined with the generic brush design, which I’ve seen on dozens of lower-priced robots, it’s just not as good as the Vis Nav.

This was most evident on carpet. The Spot + Scrub really struggled on my high-pile living room rug, leaving almost all the dried oatmeal in my test. That’s disappointing compared to the Vis Nav, which has significantly more power and is one of the best robot vacuums I’ve tested for cleaning carpet.

Instead of the long, fluffy brush of the Vis Nav that reaches along the edges, the Spot + Scrub has a small, single rubber/bristle hybrid brush in the center of the bot and two spider-like side brushes to divert dirt toward the brush. This design abandons everything that was good about the Vis Nav. When I asked Lawson McLean about the change, he said the bristle fibers help agitate the dirt better so it can be picked up by the vacuum. That’s true to some extent on hard floors, but in my years of testing robot vacs, it’s clear that these bristle brushes don’t work well on thicker carpet. They’re also much more prone to tangling. The brush was full of hair after just a few runs.

But the Spot + Scrub is a mopping robot at heart, and its long, blue microfiber roller mop, which extends 1.6 inches beyond the robot to clean along edges, does a good job of keeping hard floors clean. The robot also kept the mop clean during a job, and the dock washed and dried it reliably, if loudly and over a long time. However, in my two weeks of testing, I’ve yet to see noticeable benefit from the flagship AI stain-detection feature, which is purportedly capable of identifying stains and adapting its cleaning accordingly.

The Spot + Scrub didn’t appear to treat the stains I put in its path differently from the rest of the floor, and in a couple of cases involving strawberry jam, it actively avoided them. (Lawson McLean said Dyson is working on improving the vacuum’s approach to “paste-like” objects; currently, it avoids them so as not to get the side brushes gloopy.) The dried milk I left for it didn’t get any special treatment — despite leaving residue after its first pass, it didn’t turn around to check on it and fully clean the spot as it is supposed to. The robot does generate a “Clean Map” in the MyDyson app after every session, showing where it spotted stains, and it didn’t “see” the milk. I also tried testing it with darker stains, like soy sauce, and had the same results.

Lawson McLean says Dyson is working on this: “We have a whole roadmap of over-the-air update improvements, including behavior adjustments that adjust how it cleans,” he said, adding they should be coming this summer.

One area where the Spot + Scrub excels is AI-powered navigation and obstacle detection, which are light-years ahead of the Vis Nav. It moved around obstacles like shoes, socks, and cables nimbly, and navigated between table legs and over small transitions very well. It rarely got stuck. That’s impressive for a bot this big.

But its size and bulk did mean it couldn’t get everywhere I wanted it to. While it fits under semi-low furniture (there’s no lidar tower on top; instead, lidar is built into the front of the robot), it is too wide to fit between the legs of the stools at my kitchen counter and struggles mightily to cross my thick pile living room rug. It’s also unbearably loud when trying to heave itself up onto the rug. To its credit, it eventually did, but only while making the most obnoxious robotic grunting sound.

The other problem I found with the Spot + Scrub is that, while the mop stayed spotless, the rest of the bot got gross quickly. The brush area was sticky and icky after a few runs, and the base station was littered with dirt and debris that fell out of the robot when it docked and undocked, which is, again, a loud and laborious process.

While the Dyson Spot + Scrub does some things well, it doesn’t deliver on everything it promises. If you have a home full of hard floors and a few low-pile rugs, you’ll be happy (as long as you can find somewhere to hide the dock). But for other setups, there are better solutions.

The Matic and Roborock’s Saros 10 are my current top picks in this price range for excellent all-rounders. A more direct competitor as a mopping bot is the Roborock Qrevo Curv 2 Flow. At $1,000 (often on sale for $850), it’s cheaper and has a similar roller mop setup, along with a better vacuum/brush system. Its 20,000 Pa suction and duo divide brush system demolished my carpet oatmeal tests and didn’t get tangled.

The Qrevo also has a nicer-looking dock, but the vacuum itself is not as nimble as the Spot + Scrub and is more prone to getting stuck. If you’re mainly looking for a good vacuum and the mopping portion is of less importance, there are good, cheaper options with similar suction power and better brushes, including the Roborock Qrevo S Pro and Dreame L40S Ultra, both around $700.

If Dyson had been able to combine the power of the Vis Nav with the intelligence and mopping prowess of the Spot + Scrub, this could have been a great robot. Dyson’s engineering and motor power are its strengths, and sadly, they’re lacking here. Instead, Dyson outsourced this core feature to an ODM, resulting in a middling vacuum with a high-end mop and navigation.

Photos and video by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

Specs: Dyson Spot + Scrub Ai

  • Price: $1,199.99
  • Size: 4.3 inches high, 14.7 inches wide (robot)
  • Suction power: 18,000Pa
  • Navigation: Lidar, camera-based AI-powered obstacle detection
  • Brush style: Single rubber/bristle
  • Mop style: Self-cleaning roller, with hot-water washing
  • Mop lift: 10mm
  • Mop extension: 1.6 inches each side
  • Works with: Amazon Alexa, Google Home
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Trump scraps Scotch whisky tariffs ‘in honor’ of King Charles
Economy

Trump scraps Scotch whisky tariffs ‘in honor’ of King Charles

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U.S. President Donald Trump repealed tariffs on a key U.K. export on Thursday, after a state visit from King Charles III and Queen Camilla appeared to help mend transatlantic relations dampened by a series of political standoffs.

“In Honor of the King and Queen of the United Kingdom, who have just left the White House, soon headed back to their wonderful Country, I will be removing the Tariffs and Restrictions on Whiskey having to do with Scotland’s ability to work with the Commonwealth of Kentucky on Whiskey and Bourbon, two very important Industries within Scotland and Kentucky,” the president said in a Thursday Truth Social post.

“People have wanted to do this for a long time, in that there had been great Inter-Country Trade, especially having to do with the Wooden Barrels used. The King and Queen got me to do something that nobody else was able to do, without hardly even asking!” he added.

Queen Camilla, King Charles III, U.S. President Donald Trump, and First Lady Melania Trump pose on Grand Staircase during an official state dinner at The White House on April 28, 2026.
Samir Hussein | Wireimage | Getty Images

Trump later told reporters that he “took all the restrictions off, so Scotland and Kentucky can start dealing again.”

“And I did it in honor of the King and Queen who just left,” he said.

The U.K. government confirmed to CNBC on Friday that the changes announced the previous day would apply to all whisky tariffs, including those on Irish whiskey.

Last year, the U.K. became the first country in the world to secure a trade deal with the Trump administration after the president’s so-called liberation day tariffs were unveiled. The terms of the U.K.’s deal included a 10% blanket tariff on goods imported to the United States.

That meant a pre-existing zero-tariff trade environment for exporters on both sides of the Atlantic was overridden, slapping new duties onto Scotch whisky and other spirits sent to America from Britain.

The Scotch whisky industry employs around 40,000 people in Scotland, where whisky accounted for 23% of all goods exports in 2025. The sector is also a major purchaser of used bourbon barrels from the United States.

Distiller Donald MacLeod rolls a barrel of whisky in the warehouse of Isle of Harris Distillery in Tarbert, on the Isle of Harris, in the Outer Hebrides, in Scotland, on April 30, 2025.
Andy Buchanan | Afp | Getty Images

Officials from the Scottish and U.K. governments had lobbied for a return to the zero-for-zero tariff conditions on spirit exports, which the Scotch Whisky Association said in September was costing its members £4 million ($5.44 million) per week in lost exports.

Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney, who leads the devolved government in Edinburgh, said in a statement after Trump’s announcement that he had made it his mission “to do everything possible to lift U.S. tariffs on our whisky.”

“People’s jobs were at stake,” he said. “Millions of pounds were being lost every month from the Scottish economy … I express my thanks to the President for listening and acting to lift the tariffs. And Scotland is grateful to His Majesty the King for the key role he played in this tremendous success.”

The whisky industry had also been facing the prospect of tariffs on single malts returning to 25% in the coming months if a deal was not made with the White House, as a five-year suspension on those tariffs was set to expire.

In a statement on Thursday, Mark Kent, CEO of the Scotch Whisky Association, noted that the U.S. is the industry’s most valuable export market.

“Distillers can breathe a little easier during a period of significant pressure on the sector,” he said. “For months, many have worked tirelessly to return zero-for-zero tariff trade for whisky and bourbon. The special relationship that the Scotch Whisky and American Whiskey industries share will be reinvigorated by this announcement.”

The King and Queen concluded a four-day state visit to the U.S. on Thursday, which included a series of engagements in Washington, D.C., including an address by the king to a Joint Meeting of Congress, and a state dinner hosted by the president and First Lady.

King Charles received a standing ovation in Congress after delivering a speech that touted the value of the so-called transatlantic “special relationship,” calling for the U.K. and the U.S. to stand united in a “volatile and dangerous” era.

Britain’s King Charles III is applauded by U.S. Vice President JD Vance and U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson as he arrives to address a Joint Meeting of Congress on April 28, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Henry Nicholls-Pool | Getty Images

“The challenges we face are too great for any one Nation to bear alone,” he said, before reminding Congress that NATO came to America’s aid in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks on New York City.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s relationship with Trump soured in recent weeks, as the president took issue with the U.K. government pushing back against his interest in Greenland and requests for assistance in Iran.

Earlier on in his second term, Trump had described Starmer as a friend, despite their political differences, and said the U.K. was protected from the brunt of his trade policies “because I like them.”

Many onlookers credited King Charles with rescuing the “special relationship” from jeopardy during his four-day trip this week.

Following Tuesday’s state dinner, Trump labeled the king a “great friend,” telling reporters: “when you like the king of a country so much, it probably helps your relationship with the prime minister.”

In an emailed statement on Friday morning, Buckingham Palace said the king had been informed of Trump’s “warm gesture” and “sends his sincere gratitude for a decision that will make an important difference to the British whisky industry and the livelihoods it supports.”

“His Majesty will be raising a dram to the President’s thoughtfulness and generous hospitality as he departs the U.S.,” the palace’s spokesperson said.

Matthew Barzun, who served as U.S. Ambassador to the U.K. under President Barack Obama, told CNBC’s Tania Bryer on Thursday that King Charles’ so-called soft power “certainly increased the reservoir of trust, respect and understanding” between Britain and the United States.

“The job of diplomacy, or a diplomat, is to leave that reservoir a bit higher than you found it,” he said. “It goes down with time, and sometimes you get big shocks to the system, and you lose a lot of trust, respect and understanding. In that context, I think there was very quantifiable benefits to this visit. I think that reservoir was raised. It is higher than before that week, and that’s important.”

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Inexpensive seafloor-hopping submersibles could stoke deep-sea science—and mining
Tech/AI

Inexpensive seafloor-hopping submersibles could stoke deep-sea science—and mining

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Smack dab between Australia and South America, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) research vessel Rainier is currently on a mission to map more than 8,000 square nautical miles of the Pacific seafloor in search of critical mineral deposits. But it isn’t doing it alone; for a month starting this week, it will deploy two oblong neon submersibles as the project’s special agents, sending them nearly 6,000 meters down to hop along the seafloor. 

The submersibles, built by the young company Orpheus Ocean, are designed to explore just this environment: a squelchy substrate that teems with life of all kinds, from tiny microbes to worms and snails, along with egg-size “nodules” of metals—such as copper, cobalt, nickel, and manganese—that are crucial for technologies worldwide.  

Scientists and companies have long sought to probe the deep sea and bring such treasures to the surface. Orpheus, which spun off from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in 2024, could be well positioned to make those possibilities a lot more economical. The company has designed its vehicles on a simple philosophy: “deep for cheap,” says Jake Russell, Orpheus’s cofounder and CEO, who is a chemist by training. The vehicles cost a couple of hundred thousand dollars each to build, whereas existing options can range from $5 million to $10 million. And unlike most autonomous ocean vehicles, they can push into the seafloor and capture cores of sediment—and the creatures within. 

Orpheus’s engineers have been tinkering with their deep-sea designs for years, much of the work taking place at WHOI and in collaboration with NOAA and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Its prototype vehicles were rated capable of diving to 11,000 meters—the deepest part of the Mariana Trench. They’ve completed two commercial deployments, but this new expedition marks the submersibles’ biggest test yet: operating over large ranges for multiple weeks and with multiple instruments at play. Using Rainier as their home base on the ocean’s surface, the vehicles will swim out for 10 kilometers at a time, taking one high-resolution image every second and up to eight physical samples from the seafloor apiece.

If all goes well, the test could help establish the vehicles as a tool for government agencies, scientists, and companies that hope to probe the vastly understudied deep sea and the resources it holds. And while they’re not the only option on the market, Orpheus hopes their size and low building cost will soon make them one of the most accessible. 

At present, to reach these depths scientists must wait for time on a limited and expensive set of submersibles owned by government agencies and research institutes. That formula lends itself better to capturing snapshots of the deep sea than it does to probing its interconnected ecological and biogeochemical systems. “A lot of this region that we’re surveying … has really never been explored in any kind of detail,” says Russell. “Anything we see is going to be new to NOAA and new to science.”

A sediment specialist

The Orpheus subs are classified as autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), which operate on a mix of preprogrammed commands and live decision-making and without being tethered to a ship. But unlike traditional AUVs engineered for long-distance, high-speed gliding, these submersibles are short and stout with little legs—better for making soft landings on the seafloor and then pushing into the mud to suck out sediment cores for scientists. When they do land, the submersibles can lift off the surface, thrust a few feet, and settle once more in a “hopping” fashion.

Their bodies are made mostly of a buoyant material known as syntactic foam, with the important electronics encased in a thick sphere of glass. The same kind of foam, which is interspersed with hollow microspheres of glass to prevent it from collapsing under high pressures, went to the deep in the vehicle that carried the filmmaker James Cameron to the Mariana Trench in 2012; he even donated leftover material for use in earlier Orpheus prototypes. 

At less than two meters in length and under 600 pounds (270 kilograms), Russell says the Orpheus robots are the smallest—and correspondingly the least expensive—ocean vehicles on the market capable of descending to 6,000 meters. They’re designed to populate future fleets of robotic explorers.

The approach stems from a fundamental challenge, says Victoria Orphan, a geobiologist at the California Institute of Technology, who has previously worked with an Orpheus vehicle on a science campaign: “Anytime you do things in the deep ocean, you always run this risk, when you put something over the side [of a ship], that it might not come back.” With existing fleets of large, expensive vessels operated by groups like NOAA, WHOI, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), losing a vehicle can be disastrous, not least because scientists must already compete for their limited time.

In the spring of 2024, Orphan and her colleagues put an Orpheus sub through its paces during an expedition to study deep-sea methane seeps off the coast of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. They hoped to use the vehicle to create maps of the area before the team sent down a human-crewed submersible called Alvin to study specific areas—and the microorganisms and animals that live there—in more detail. 

But as with any sort of new type of technology, “there’s always growing pains,” recalls Orphan. Frigid temperatures and steep topography added unseen challenges, and it took the full three weeks for the sub to get high-resolution photographs of the seeps. 

The setback didn’t dull Orphan’s excitement about the potential of these machines. “There’s a lot of real, unknown science right at that interface between the sediment and the ocean surface,” she says. “The Orpheus-type class of instrument, with the right kinds of sensors and samplers, could be a very enabling tool.”

Russell envisions pairing the vehicles with specially designed payloads that can sense the heat of chemical seeps and detect plumes of sediment, DNA shed from ocean life-forms, or the magnetic tug of buried cables. 

The vehicles are the “the best of both worlds,” says Andrew Sweetman, a deep-sea ecologist at the Scottish Association for Marine Science, who has not worked with Orpheus. While they can roam large areas like an AUV, they can also carry out precise sampling maneuvers like a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), a robot connected to a ship via cables that fulfills real-time human commands.

In addition to the low price tag, says Sweetman, the small size of the vessels means they don’t require a large research vessel to ferry them out to sea. That might make exploration more accessible for smaller or poorer countries without such ships, he says: “It will, in a way, help democratize deep-sea science.” He imagines using the sediment cores the submersibles gather to probe how seafloor-dwelling animals cycle nutrients—a crucial element of the ocean’s role as a carbon sink. 

The mining push 

As much as smaller, cheaper ocean vehicles have caught scientists’ eye, they have also piqued the interest of companies. Russell says inquiries come in weekly from businesses involved in deep-sea mining, defense, offshore wind, telecommunication, and oil and gas. He notes that Orpheus is merely a “service provider,” helping collect data where needed but not making decisions about how to use the seafloor. And he says that better data—such as information on the shape of the seafloor, the sediment quality, and the presence of life—also “raises the bars” that governments and regulators are only beginning to set.

But many scientists are far from eager about the growing push for seabed mining, which an executive order from President Donald Trump stoked further last week by mandating that the US government rapidly develop mineral exploration and processing. And earlier last month, the administration announced the creation of a new government office: the Marine Minerals Administration. 

the Orpheus from below with flare from its two lower lights
A view of an Orpheus vehicle from below.
ORPHEUS OCEAN

Given the current dearth of information on the deep sea, says Sweetman, “I think the push for deep-sea mining is happening way too fast.” And deep-sea communities are “probably the most stable environment on our planet,” adds Orphan. “The organisms that live there are really not adapted to a lot of disturbance, and it takes a really, really long time for them to recover, if at all.”

One mining method that governments and companies propose involves a machine that essentially operates like a giant bulldozer, trawling the seafloor, sucking up a trail of material, and leaving scar marks and sediment plumes in its wake. Brett Hobson, an ocean engineer at MBARI, says that Orpheus-like technology might enable companies to “take samples in a more surgical way, instead of just grossly scooping everything up off the seafloor and filtering through it.”

Hobson, who has run MBARI’s work on ocean vehicles for decades, also notes that Orpheus submersibles won’t be the only option available. Companies and government agencies—including those in Norway, France, Japan, China, and the UK—are developing similar deep-sea vehicles, he says: “What we really need [as] a society is just more of these systems out there.” 

As Orpheus’s neon vehicles plunge into the Pacific over the next few weeks, their readiness for future scientific and resource surveys should become clearer. Each time they dive, they will get a little bit more data—“just the smallest of postage stamps of our planet,” says Orphan. “There’s still so much to learn.”

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Trump nominates Fox News doctor to be the next surgeon general
Tech/AI

Trump nominates Fox News doctor to be the next surgeon general

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In a series of social media posts Thursday, President Trump withdrew his nomination of Make America Health Again influencer Casey Means to be surgeon general, lashed out at Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) for Means’ stalled nomination in the Senate, then announced a new nominee: Nicole B. Saphier, a breast radiologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, a Fox News contributor, and founder of an herbal supplement company who has questioned vaccines.

Trump’s abandonment of Means comes as no surprise. The nomination of the Stanford University-trained doctor has been stalled in the Senate since her February confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, which Cassidy chairs. Afterward, it became clear that several Republican lawmakers, including Cassidy, had reservations about her nomination.

Doubts about Means

Specifically, concerns centered around her vaccine views and qualifications. Although she has a medical degree, she dropped out of her medical residency and does not hold an active license, which means, if confirmed, she would serve as the country’s top doctor without being able to practice medicine. During her hearing, she largely tried to skirt questions about vaccines, avoiding explicitly recommending lifesaving shots or contradicting the views of anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Since abandoning her medical career, Means has built a lucrative wellness career, becoming a prominent influencer among Kennedy’s MAHA movement. As such, she has peddled diagnostic tests, herbal remedies, various wellness products, teas, supplements, and “elixirs,” while providing dubious health advice. In the book Good Energy, which she co-authored with her brother and which some consider the “MAHA bible,” there is a chapter titled, “Trust Yourself, Not Your Doctor.”

In a post about Means’ failed nomination, Trump blasted Cassidy, calling him “a very disloyal person,” who “stood in the way of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Nominee, Casey Means.” He then clarified: “I nominated Casey, a strong MAHA Warrior, at the recommendation of Secretary Kennedy, who understands the MAHA Movement better than anyone, with perhaps the possible exception of ME!” Trump ended by thanking Means and saying she would continue to fight for MAHA.

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Where to Dine in Dallas at the Moment
Lifestyle

Where to Dine in Dallas at the Moment

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Image might include Dish Food Meal Bowl Soup Noodle Soup and Ketchup

Ngon Vietnamese Kitchen

Image by Ngon Vietnamese Kitchen

Situated in the lively dining district of Dallas’s Lower Greenville area, Ngon Vietnamese Kitchen offers refined Vietnamese staples reflecting Hanoi’s essence. Influenced by cherished family recipes and a vibrant street food scene, Ngon’s offerings are colorful and bursting with taste. The servings are generous, yet not “Texas sized,” so you needn’t fret about post-lunch fatigue. A remarkable success prior to receiving a Michelin Bib Gourmand in 2024, Ngon has established itself as a fundamental dining spot in the community. You can’t go wrong selecting any dry or wet noodle options for your main course, but the mango salad appetizer is a must-have. It provides an ideal mix of tangy, crisp green mango alongside delicately poached shrimp and squid, all combined with a delectable fish sauce dressing and garnished with fried shallots and peanuts. It’s an extraordinary blend of sweet, salty, pungent, and aromatic flavors. There’s a reason it’s a popular choice at every table.

Just beyond the city borders in nearby Richardson, TX, the finest Iraqi cuisine in the Metroplex can be found. Although the sandwiches and small plates are excellent, Al Baghdadi‘s Salam Grill stands out for its family-style dining. Opt for a platter featuring succulent lamb tikka, yogurt and spice-marinated chicken called shish tawook, saffron rice, hummus, and baskets of freshly baked khubz (flatbread). Dishes are cooked over charcoal grills, imparting an irresistible char and aroma that electric grills simply cannot achieve. After your meal, take a stroll to the bakery section and indulge your sweet cravings. Gorgeous spiraling displays of z’labia (akin to a funnel cake) are fried fresh right before your eyes. Trays of diamond-shaped baklava adorned with pistachios are pulled from the ovens stationed in the back. Thick squares of daheen, a rich and gooey cake infused with cardamom syrup, are cut to order. In summary, the bakery is unmissable, regardless of how stuffed you feel.

From trendy, modern Western aesthetics to timeless steakhouse grandeur, these venues go all in on Texas-style cuisine

The tall, rounded ceiling of this converted Quonset hut frames the horseshoe bar of local hotspot Far Out. With cozy seating and terra cotta-clad cacti inside and outside, it boasts a rugged Texas charm. Nestled near the fairgrounds in a predominantly unpopulated area just outside Downtown, Far Out feels insulated from the urban frenzy. The menu showcases familiar influences from chef Misti Norris (formerly of Petra and the Beast), incorporating ferments, pickles, and preserves throughout. The offerings are fun and draw on various inspirations, but Texas remains the heart of its concept. On a warm summer evening, try the duck confit salad: A medley of fresh herbs (mint, basil, cilantro) mixed with red cabbage, crunchy pickled jicama, and a creamy chile emulsion dressing topped with succulent duck confit and a crispy black rice crisp. With a plentiful dose of Western flair (and an even larger outdoor area), Far Out fosters a welcoming, laid-back environment that invites further storytelling (and cocktails) under the Texas stars.

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OpenAI's latest security framework is exclusively for 'essential cyber guardians' only.
Tech/AI

OpenAI’s latest security framework is exclusively for ‘essential cyber guardians’ only.

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Similar to Anthropic’s Mythos, the GPT-5.5-Cyber will initially be accessible to ‘trusted’ parties.

Similar to Anthropic’s Mythos, the GPT-5.5-Cyber will initially be accessible to ‘trusted’ parties.

STK155_OPEN_AI_CVirginia_C
STK155_OPEN_AI_CVirginia_C
Robert Hart
is a reporter based in London at The Verge focusing on AI topics and serves as a Senior Tarbell Fellow. He has also contributed articles on health, science, and technology for Forbes.

OpenAI is poised to unveil a new cybersecurity framework, GPT-5.5-Cyber. Sam Altman, the CEO, stated that this model would not be opened to the public generally but would initially be distributed to a select cadre of reliable “cyber defenders” to bolster their cybersecurity measures.

The restricted rollout is expected to commence “in the coming days,” Altman noted on X. “We will collaborate with the entire ecosystem and the government to determine trusted access for Cyber.”

It remains uncertain who will be the initial recipients of the model, although prior “trusted access” initiatives involved vetted professionals and institutions. Further specifics about the model and its capabilities are likewise not clear; OpenAI has not disclosed any technical attributes or specifications. The name suggests it is a tailored variant of the newly launched GPT-5.5, which it described as its “most intelligent and user-friendly model to date.”

The phased rollout is part of a rising trend within the AI sector of firms branding their foremost models as too risky for public access due to the potential for abuse. OpenAI has previously staged the introductions of other cybersecurity-focused models, along with its new dedicated life sciences model GPT-Rosalind, aimed at facilitating biology research and drug discovery. Recently, Anthropic adopted a similar approach with Claude Mythos, albeit with much more publicity, and it mismanaged the model’s secure launch in regrettable ways.

The White House has expressed significant interest in the rollout of Mythos, despite ongoing friction with Anthropic following its disputes with the Pentagon. Recently, it has opposed plans to broaden access to Mythos, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. Sources from the White House not named relay that both cybersecurity issues linked to increased access to Mythos and concerns that heightened demand might impede the government’s ability to leverage the system are behind this opposition.

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Eli Lilly surpasses quarterly projections, raises forecast as Zepbound and Mounjaro sales soar
Economy

Eli Lilly surpasses quarterly projections, raises forecast as Zepbound and Mounjaro sales soar

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David Ricks, CEO of Eli Lilly & Co., at the Semafor World Economy Summit during the IMF and World Bank Spring meetings in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, April 17, 2026.
Aaron Schwartz | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Eli Lilly on Thursday disclosed first-quarter earnings and revenue that greatly exceeded projections and raised its full-year sales forecast by $2 billion, as the demand for its leading weight loss drug Zepbound and diabetes medication Mounjaro surged once more.

The pharmaceutical powerhouse now anticipates 2026 revenue to range between $82 billion and $85 billion, an increase from an earlier estimate of $80 billion to $83 billion.

Lilly also predicts that its full-year adjusted profit will fall between $35.50 and $37 per share, compared to prior guidance of $33.50 to $35 per share.

Strong demand for Zepbound and Mounjaro has contributed to several robust quarters for Lilly despite reduced prices for these drugs in the United States.

Mounjaro generated $8.66 billion in sales for the quarter, marking a 125% increase from the same period last year. This performance exceeded the $7.26 billion that analysts forecasted for the quarter, according to StreetAccount.

Zepbound, which was launched about three years ago, recorded $4.16 billion in U.S. revenue for the first quarter. This figure is up 80% from the previous year, as demand for the medication also grew despite a decline in realized prices. Analysts had expected $4.04 billion in U.S. sales for Zepbound, as per StreetAccount.

Here’s how Eli Lilly’s first-quarter results compared with Wall Street expectations based on an analyst survey by LSEG:

  • Earnings per share: $8.55 adjusted vs. $6.66 expected
  • Revenue: $19.80 billion vs. $17.62 billion expected

The company reported fourth-quarter revenue of $19.80 billion, a 56% increase from the same period last year.

U.S. revenue rose 43% to $12.1 billion. Eli Lilly attributed this growth to a 49% increase in volume — or the number of prescriptions or units sold — for its products, primarily Mounjaro and Zepbound. This was partially countered by lower realized prices for Zepbound and another drug for psoriatic arthritis and other conditions, according to the company.

The pharmaceutical behemoth recorded net income of $7.4 billion, equivalent to $8.26 per share, for the first quarter, compared to net income of $2.76 billion, or $3.06 per share, a year prior.

Excluding one-time items related to the value of intangible assets and other adjustments, Eli Lilly reported earnings of $8.55 per share for the first quarter.

The company’s recently approved GLP-1 pill for obesity, Foundayo, was launched in the second quarter, so its sales will not be included in Thursday’s report.

Nonetheless, the pill’s introduction is expected to be a major topic during Lilly’s first-quarter earnings call. Executives will likely encounter questions regarding whether Foundayo can achieve the same level of momentum as the competing Wegovy pill from Novo Nordisk, which had the advantage of a three-month lead in the U.S. market.

It is premature to evaluate the success of Lilly’s pill. However, initial prescription data indicate its early rollout has been “modest,” according to a note from Leerink Partners analyst David Risinger last week.

In February, Lilly expressed optimism about benefiting from Foundayo’s launch, Medicare coverage of obesity medications starting later this year, and sustained global demand for Mounjaro and Zepbound. However, the company anticipates facing pricing pressures, influenced by a drug pricing agreement with President Donald Trump and decreased cash-pay prices for Zepbound, among other factors.

Still, Lilly CEO Dave Ricks stated in an interview in late April that he expects lower prices to boost prescription volumes in the U.S. He also projected that global GLP-1 usage will rise from about 20 million patients at the end of last year to 30 million by the end of 2026.

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Merck surpasses quarterly projections due to the success of Keytruda and new offerings, revises forecast.
Economy

Merck surpasses quarterly projections due to the success of Keytruda and new offerings, revises forecast.

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Dado Ruvic | Reuters

Merck announced on Thursday first-quarter figures that exceeded projections due to strong interest in its cancer treatment Keytruda and several recent products.

The pharmaceutical leader also refined its sales forecast for 2026 and increased its adjusted profit projections, partly owing to favorable core business performance and currency benefits.

Merck expects its revenue for 2026 to fall between $65.8 billion and $67 billion, tightening the lower end of the range from $65.5 billion. The company anticipates adjusted earnings to range from $5.04 to $5.16 per share, an increase from the prior forecast of $5 to $5.15 per share.

Merck experienced a quarterly loss; however, it attributed a $3.62 per share charge to its acquisition of Cidara Therapeutics, a biotech firm focused on a flu preventive medication.

Merck has engaged in a series of acquisitions to counter the generic competition expected for several medications, including Type 2 diabetes medications Januvia and Janumet later this year, and Keytruda in 2028.

The following compares the first-quarter results released by Merck with analyst expectations compiled by LSEG:

  • Adjusted loss per share: $1.28 versus $1.51 anticipated
  • Revenue: $16.29 billion versus $15.82 billion expected

The company recorded a net loss of $4.24 billion, or $1.72 per share, for the quarter, in contrast to a net income of $5.08 billion, or $2.01 per share, for the same period last year.

When excluding acquisition and restructuring expenses, Merck reported a first-quarter loss of $1.28 per share.

Merck generated $16.29 billion in revenue for the quarter, reflecting a 5% increase compared to the same period last year.

Keytruda, Winrevair surpass projections

Merck’s pharmaceutical division, which produces a variety of medications, achieved $14.35 billion in revenue in the first quarter, a 5% rise compared to the previous year’s similar timeframe.

Sales for Keytruda exceeded $8.03 billion for the quarter, marking a 12% increase from the same quarter last year. Analysts had forecast revenue of $7.78 billion, as per StreetAccount estimates.

The growth in Keytruda sales was partially driven by increased utilization for early-stage cancers and robust demand for treating metastatic cancers, according to the company.

The newly approved injectable version of Keytruda contributed $128 million in sales during the first quarter. This formulation is crucial for Merck’s strategy to mitigate potential revenue decreases once the original intravenous formulation loses its patent protection.

Additionally, Merck’s new drug Winrevair, utilized for treating a rare and severe lung condition, recorded $525 million in sales for the quarter, reflecting an 88% surge from the same quarter a year ago.

Analysts had anticipated the drug would yield $487 million, according to StreetAccount estimates.

This drug’s growth, which launched in mid-2024, is attributed to increasing adoption in the U.S. along with its early entry into select international markets.

Merck has continued to face challenges with sales of Gardasil, a vaccine aimed at preventing HPV-related cancers, the most prevalent sexually transmitted infection in the U.S.

In February last year, Merck disclosed plans to suspend shipments of Gardasil to China starting that month. For the first quarter of 2026, the company noted continued weak demand for the vaccine in China, alongside reduced sales in Japan and the U.S., partially due to “unfavorable public-sector purchasing trends.”

Gardasil achieved sales of $1.07 billion for the quarter, down 19% compared to the same quarter last year. Nonetheless, this figure exceeded the $1.05 billion analysts had projected, as per StreetAccount.

Merck’s animal health sector, offering vaccines and treatments for pets and livestock, reported nearly $1.79 billion in sales, marking a 13% increase from the same period a year prior. The company indicated this reflects heightened demand for products aimed at livestock and companion animals.

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PlayStation now mandates a ‘one-time online verification’ to validate your ownership of a game
Tech/AI

PlayStation now mandates a ‘one-time online verification’ to validate your ownership of a game

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Sony has denied the speculation that players would be obligated to connect online every 30 days.

Sony has denied the speculation that players would be obligated to connect online every 30 days.

A photo of the PlayStation 5 console with its controller in front of a blue illustrative background made up of tiled PS5 consoles.
A photo of the PlayStation 5 console with its controller in front of a blue illustrative background made up of tiled PS5 consoles.
Jess Weatherbed
writes news with a focus on creative sectors, technology, and online culture. Jess initiated her career at TechRadar, reporting on news and hardware evaluations.

Sony has ultimately intervened to clarify the rising uncertainty surrounding a new DRM (Digital Rights Management) framework on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 systems. Users noted that the latest updates to the system appeared to initiate a rule mandating an online connection once every 30 days to verify game licenses, but Sony now claims this is inaccurate.

In a comment to GameSpot, a representative from Sony Interactive Entertainment stated that “only a one-time online check is necessary to validate the game’s license, after which no additional check-ins are required.” The DRM speculations had fueled worries that gamers who do not log in each month could lose access to their games due to license expiration, but Sony assures that “players can keep accessing and enjoying their purchased games as normal.”

This timely clarification should offer PlayStation players some reassurance, although it arrives several days after content creator Modded Hardware first raised the DRM concerns on April 24th. Subsequent screenshots circulated online seemed to display a 30-day countdown associated with PlayStation Store purchases made after March 2026.

With no formal response from Sony to clarify the updates initially, users theorized that the updated DRM necessitated monthly online connectivity, possibly to combat refund abuses that exploit jailbroken PS4 consoles for digital game licenses. The introduction of a one-time verification process could still be intended to address such a weakness, though Sony has not verified the rationale behind the modifications.

Sony’s delayed reaction has rekindled worries regarding ownership rights for digital games. The contentious scenario resembles similar issues from 2013 when Microsoft mandated Xbox One owners to undergo online verifications every 24 hours. That was quickly rescinded following backlash from irate gamers, but not before Sony put out an advertisement mocking its rival’s policies.

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