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Scientists uncovered a link between mild heart trouble and microscopic signs of brain damage that may raise the risk of memory problems down the line.

The new study, published Monday (July 6) in The Journal of Neuroscience , did not prove that the heart issues directly caused memory problems. But it "adds to the overall picture that preserving healthy brain-heart communication is key for healthy aging," said Dr. Jan Scheitz , a consultant stroke neurologist and head of the Brain-Heart Lab at the Charité University Hospital in Germany, who was not involved in the study.

"A healthy lifestyle that protects the cardiovascular system will not only benefit the heart but also the brain," he told Live Science in an email.

The work could one day help doctors identify patients at risk of memory problems early on through routine heart-function tests, said study co-author Dr. Xia Zhang , a doctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Germany.

"The broader implication is that the brain may show subtle tissue-level changes related to cardiac dysfunction before we see obvious brain shrinkage or clinical dementia," Zhang told Live Science in an email.

Early warning signs

Researchers already knew that heart and brain function are closely interconnected . Heart diseases such as heart failure, atrial fibrillation and heart attack impair communication between the heart and the brain. This can contribute to thinking problems and dementia by restricting blood flow to the brain and causing chronic inflammation.

So far, though, scientists have only studied changes in the brain in people already diagnosed with heart conditions. They haven't necessarily assessed the changes that take place earlier on.

In the new study, researchers followed 73 patients who had sought care for heart-related symptoms at the Heart Center Leipzig in Germany, some of whom had confirmed coronary artery disease and/or heart failure. They also assessed 95 people without any heart-related symptoms. The researchers measured heart function at the start of the study. Then, about 3.5 years later, they performed cognitive testing and an MRI scan of the brain to take a snapshot of its structure.

Among all 168 study participants, those whose hearts pumped blood less efficiently at the start of the study showed greater signs of tissue damage in their gray matter years later. This was true regardless of whether or not they had diagnosed heart failure.

The cognitive tests were given only to the heart-disease patients, and they assessed attention, executive function, learning and memory. Only memory showed a link to weaker heart pumping. The participants with weaker heart pumping showed more microscopic damage in memory-related brain regions, and those brain changes correlated with worse memory scores.

The degree of brain damage also correlated with the levels of stress hormones released by the heart, but this link was only seen in patients who already had heart failure.

"What surprised us most" was that subtle reductions in the heart's ability to pump were tied to later brain changes, even in patients who did not meet clinical criteria for heart failure, Zhang said.

One limitation of the study is that the researchers didn't take MRI scans at the start. That means "we do not know whether some changes were already present at the beginning of the study period," Scheitz noted. This is something that Zhang and her colleagues plan to test in future studies.

"The next step for the field is replication in larger cohorts with multiple time points, so that cardiac function, brain microstructure, and cognition can be followed more precisely over time," she said.

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The brain damage flagged in the 73 patients happened in parts of the brain that are important for memory and are vulnerable in Alzheimer's disease. "These regions helped identify a possible brain pathway through which poorer cardiac function may contribute to later memory problems," Zhang said.

However, until this idea is tested directly in future studies, it is too soon to say if the heart function-related brain changes seen on the MRI scans point to a higher risk of Alzheimer's, Zhang cautioned. The team did not measure proteins related to Alzheimer's, so they cannot conclude that the patients with measurable brain changes are developing Alzheimer's disease.

The study also did not directly test the effect of exercise on heart and brain health, but the findings may help explain why regular exercise is often linked to better brain health and cognitive aging, Zhang said.

"Regular exercise supports cardiovascular function, vascular health, and cerebral blood-flow regulation," she said, "all of which may help protect brain tissue over time."

This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to offer medical advice.

What do you know about the body's hardest-working muscle? Find out with our heart quiz!

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McLaren rebuilt the forgotten M6GT using original moulds and intensive archive research.

Bruce McLaren envisioned the road car decades before F1 transformed supercar expectations.

Restored one-off debuts at Goodwood where McLaren founder lost his life testing in 1970.

Ask most enthusiasts about McLaren’s first road car and they’ll point to the legendary three-seat F1 . They’re only about 25 years too late. Long before Gordon Murray rewrote the supercar rulebook, company founder Bruce McLaren had already dreamed up a road going machine of his own called the M6GT.

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The original M6GT grew directly from McLaren’s dominant M6A Can Am racer and was intended to prove the company’s racing know-how could work just as well on the road. Bruce hoped to build 50 examples, but the project never got beyond three prototypes before fate intervened.

Related: A 1-Of-765 McLaren Died In A Michigan Fire, And Bidders Smell A Deal

Now McLaren Special Operations (MSO) has finished what its founder started. The company has painstakingly recreated the M6GT using original body moulds, historic drawings and archive photographs, along with a period correct small block Chevrolet V8 and gearbox. Rather than modernizing the car, the brief was to recreate Bruce’s original vision as faithfully as possible. It even had help from some of the mechanics who worked on the original.

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That attention to detail extends everywhere. The chassis comes from a period M6A racecar, the suspension uses restored original hardware, and even the aluminum rivets were installed by aerospace craftspeople. Inside, there’s a hand turned walnut gear knob, groovy 1970s green carpet, custom vinyl upholstery and a cream white exterior called Colnbrook, named after the factory where Bruce developed his road car ideas.

Headed For Goodwood

The one-off will make its public debut at this month’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, a venue which carries extra significance because Bruce McLaren was killed in 1970 while testing an M8D Can Am racer at the Goodwood circuit. He was just 32 years old. Today, that same circuit hosts the Goodwood Revival, the Festival of Speed’s sister event, making the M6GT’s return especially poignant.

MSO director Jon Simms called the project “a labor of craft and care,” adding that it serves as “a living reminder of Bruce’s ambition to take McLaren beyond the racetrack.” Looking at the finished product, it’s hard not to wonder what might have happened if the M6GT had reached production. The F1 may still have become an icon, but perhaps it wouldn’t have carried quite so much responsibility for starting McLaren ‘s road car story.

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McLaren

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Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot said Monday that he has instructed his Cabinet to move toward a decision on recognizing Palestinian statehood.

The move comes after the militant group Hamas announced earlier in the day that it would dissolve the body that has governed Gaza for the best part of 20 years. Hamas stepping away from power is one of Prévot’s prerequisites for Belgian recognition of Palestine.

Speaking to VRT , Prévot said: “I don’t know if we will be ready by Friday,” referring to a ministerial council scheduled to take place, “but it will be on the table soon.”

European support for recognizing Palestinian statehood has grown in recent years due to Israel’s war in Gaza, which it launched in response to an attack by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. The Hamas attack killed about 1,200 people in Israel, a large majority of whom were civilians, and took 251 hostages.

The health ministry in Gaza, which was under the Hamas-run government, said that more than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military since the beginning of the war, according to the latest figures; United Nations agencies and independent experts consider the ministry’s casualty records to be generally reliable.

Meanwhile, increased violence and expansion by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, diplomatic incidents with European nations , election interference , Israeli military campaigns against nearby countries and aggressive rhetoric by Israeli politicians have also soured relations with Europe.

French President Emmanuel Macron led an effort which saw France, the U.K., Canada and Australia recognize Palestinian statehood in 2025. The move drew condemnation from the U.S. and Israel.

Spain, Ireland and Norway all recognized Palestinian statehood in 2024 , as the death toll of Israel’s war on Gaza grew.

While Hamas moving away from its role in Gaza’s governance was cautiously welcomed by observers such as the U.N., the issue of its disarmament remains unanswered, as does what impact this announcement will have on the ground.

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SpaceX will launch a passel of satellites to orbit early Tuesday morning (July 7), and you can watch the action live.

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 81 payloads is scheduled to lift off from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base on Tuesday, during a 95-minute window that opens at 3:10 a.m. EDT (0410 GMT; 12:10 a.m. local California time).

You can watch the mission, which is called Transporter-17, live via SpaceX . Coverage will begin about 15 minutes before launch.

As its name suggests, Transporter-17 will be the 17th mission of SpaceX 's Transporter rideshare program. The company operates another rideshare series as well, called Bandwagon, which has launched four missions to date .

The 20 Transporter and Bandwagon missions that have flown to date sent more than 1,800 payloads to Earth orbit. Transporter-1 lofted 143 of those back in January 2021 , which remains the global single-launch record.

The 81 payloads going up on Transporter-17 include "cubesats, microsats, hosted payloads and orbital transfer vehicles carrying eight of those payloads to be deployed at a later time," SpaceX wrote in a mission description .

Perhaps the biggest satellite riding the Falcon 9 on Tuesday is CAS500-4, a South Korean Earth-observation craft that tips the scales at about 1,100 pounds (500 kilograms).

The satellite, whose name is short for "Compact Advanced Satellite 500-4," will be the fourth member of a planned five-satellite CAS500 fleet in low Earth orbit (LEO). CAS500-4 will help the South Korean government monitor crops and forests , among other tasks.

A long-exposure view of the Transporter-16 launch on March 30, 2026. (Image credit: SpaceX) If all goes according to plan on Tuesday morning, the Falcon 9's first stage will land about 8.5 minutes after launch on the SpaceX droneship "Of Course I Still Love You," which will be stationed in the Pacific Ocean. It will be the 11th flight for this particular booster, according to the company's Transporter-17 mission description.

The Falcon 9's upper stage, meanwhile, will haul the 81 payloads to LEO, where they'll be deployed starting about 50.5 minutes after launch. CAS500-4 won't be released until nearly 2.5 hours after liftoff.

Transporter-17 will be the 79th Falcon 9 launch of 2026. Nearly 80% of this year's missions have been devoted to building out Starlink , SpaceX's giant broadband constellation in LEO.

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FromSoftware president and game director Hidetaka Miyazaki is one of the most revered names in today's games industry. Even figures like legendary former Tekken boss Katsuhiro Harada hold him in high esteem: Recently asked on X about his opinion of Miyazaki , Harada said the Dark Souls creator is a "rather unique, yet extremely serious game developer."

But while he called Miyazaki's career "remarkable," Harada said it's one that isn't fully appreciated by those touting FromSoft's achievements, because more attention is paid to the breakout sales successes of the Souls games than the gradual growth of the developers that made it possible.

(Image credit: Bandai Namco / FromSoftware) What makes Miyazaki's career "so unique," Harada said, is that the FromSoft director was a relative latecomer to game development. After working as an Oracle account manager, Miyazaki made an abrupt decision to pursue a game dev career at age 29 after becoming enraptured with Ico on a friend's suggestion. Given his lack of industry experience, few companies were willing to consider his application—but FromSoft did.

"It's remarkable that someone who wasn't even a game developer during the dawn of the polygon era eventually became one of Japan's most representative game creators," Harada said. "In other words, compared to the rest of us from the same generation—including myself—his career path is exceptionally unusual. Most notably, unlike many of us, he was not working at one of the major development studios that held a significant technological advantage during the early polygon era."

First working as a designer on Armored Core: Last Raven, Miyazaki would later shift into a director role on Armored Core 4 and For Answer—and eventually, Demon's Souls and Dark Souls. While Dark Souls' ascendance as a global phenomenon might have seemed like it emerged out of nowhere, Harada said his tenure as Bandai Namco producer and marketing general manager—a tenure that overlapped with the Souls series and Elden Ring development—allowed him to appreciate how FromSoft had honed its craft as a studio.

From my perspective, Miyazaki is a rather unique, yet extremely serious game developer.His career did not begin in the game industry. In fact, he didn’t become a game developer until he was almost thirty years old.Even among developers of my generation (those of us born in… https://t.co/YjgDysT9u1 July 5, 2026

"From that perspective, I can say that Dark Souls didn't suddenly become a massive success overnight," Harada said. "It was the result of everything Miyazaki and his team had built up through their previous titles."

According to Harada, the acclaim that FromSoft enjoys feels like "almost complete reversals in attitude" compared to "the days when [Miyazaki] and his team were struggling the most." It was a contributing factor to his own exhaustion with people who he says can only judge a game's merits "by saying things like, 'That title cost X billion yen to make and sold Y million copies.'"

"There were so many people who couldn't appreciate the journey or the growth of the developers themselves," Harada said, expressing surprise that "even if people couldn't properly evaluate that journey, nobody seemed interested in trying to understand the process of how those developers gradually reached where they are today."

(Image credit: From Software, Elden Ring Reforged Team) He made sure to clarify that he wasn't talking about fans, indicating that there may have been some on the business side at Bandai Namco who didn't have much patience for game devs' long-term professional development. (Given today's wide-ranging Xbox layoffs , that's evidently an international issue.)

As for Miyazaki himself, Harada says the FromSoft director seems to have a pervasive case of impostor syndrome. According to Harada, Miyazaki's discomfort with appearing in video interviews is due, in part, to a feeling that his own understanding of game development "is still shallow" and that he's not in a position to speak about the discipline authoritatively—a notion that the Tekken boss thinks is absurd.

"It's common for well-known developers to say, 'I still have a long way to go,'" Harada said, "But whenever someone like him says that, my reaction is always, 'Come on, if you say you're still not there yet, then the rest of us won't feel qualified to talk about games at all.'"

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World of Hyatt offers 500 bonus points per night on qualifying stays at new hotels. Although 500 bonus points might not sound like a lot, they are worth $8 based on TPG's July 2026 valuations .

Hyatt doesn't require members to register for this promotion, so you may have forgotten (or never known) about it. Here's a quick look at the World of Hyatt promotion that allows you to earn 500 bonus points per night at new hotels.

How to earn 500 bonus Hyatt points per night

The promotion is simple: World of Hyatt members receive 500 bonus points per night for qualifying stays at select hotels new to the Hyatt portfolio. You must stay within a set time frame to earn the bonus points, typically in the first few months after the property opens. Specifically, you'll earn bonus points only if your checkout date falls within the offer period for your hotel.

To earn bonus points, you must provide your World of Hyatt number when checking in. You must also pay an eligible rate or redeem a Hyatt free night certificate (including Hyatt points), but groups, conventions, other promotional offers, tour packages and special rate programs aren't eligible. You'll only earn bonus points for one room per night.

The terms of this promotion note that it may take three to four weeks for the bonus points to appear in your account. In practice, though, Hyatt typically posts the new-hotel bonus with the other points you earned during your stay.

Related: Best Hyatt hotels in the world to book with points

Eligible new Hyatt hotels

Hyatt regularly updates a list of participating properties . Here's a quick overview of where you can currently earn 500 extra points per night.

17 new Hyatt hotels in the US

Chesapeake, Virginia : Hyatt Studios Chesapeake until Sept. 30

Destin, Florida : Hyatt House Destin until Aug. 31

Ewa Beach, Hawaii : Hyatt House at Hoopili until Aug. 31 and Hyatt Place at Hoopili until Aug. 31

Galveston, Texas : Hyatt Select Galveston — Beachfront until Aug. 31

Harrisonburg, Virginia : Hyatt Studios Harrisonburg until July 31

Jacksonville, Florida : Hyatt Studios Jacksonville / St. Johns Town Center until July 31

Mesa, Arizona : The 233 Suites until Aug. 31

Monroe Township, New Jersey : Hyatt House Monroe / Cranbury / South Brunswick until Sept. 30

Ontario, California : Hyatt Place Ontario Airport from July 22 to Oct. 31 and Hyatt House Ontario Airport from July 22 to Oct. 31

Portland, Oregon : Hyatt House Portland Airport from July 23 to Oct. 31

Santa Monica, California : The Georgian until July 31

Scottsdale, Arizona : Hotel Solaya until July 31

St. Louis : Hyatt Select St. Louis Airport until July 31

Texarkana, Texas : Hyatt Studios Texarkana until Sept. 30

Woburn, Massachusetts : Hyatt Select Boston / Woburn / Burlington until Sept. 30

Related: Hyatt just launched a new brand geared toward efficient, affordable stays around the country

The Georgian. MAE HAMILTON/THE POINTS GUY 6 new Hyatt hotels in China

Beijing : UrCove Beijing Wangjing 798 Art Zone until Sept. 30

Hangzhou : DC Hotel Hangzhou CBD until Aug. 31

Jiaxing : Hyatt Place Jiaxing Nanhu until Sept. 30

Nanjing : Hyatt Place Nanjing Xuanwu until July 31 and UrCove Nanjing Confucius Temple Xinanli Resort until Sept. 30

Tianjin : Hyatt Place Tianjin South Railway Station until Sept. 30

13 new Hyatt hotels in other regions

Beldersoy, Uzbekistan : Beldersoy Resort & Spa until July 31

Brussels : The Standard, Brussels until Aug. 31

Burnaby, British Columbia : Hyatt Place Vancouver / Metrotown until Aug. 31

Heredia, Costa Rica : Hyatt Place Cariari / Convention Center until Aug. 31

Hua Hin, Thailand : The Barai Hua Hin until Sept. 30

Kochi, India : Hyatt Regency Kochi Malayattoor until Sept. 30

Leipzig, Germany : Me and All Hotel Leipzig from July 20 to Oct. 31

London : Hyatt Regency London Olympia until Oct. 30

Niagara Falls, Ontario : Hyatt Regency Niagara Falls Fallsview until July 31

Piedras Negras, Mexico : Hyatt Place Piedras Negras from July 14 to Oct. 31

Seongnam, South Korea : Hyatt Place Seoul Pangyo until Sept. 30

Toulouse, France : FirstName Toulouse Residence until Aug. 31

Umluj, Saudi Arabia : Miraval The Red Sea until July 31

Related: A data analysis of Hyatt award chart changes across 1,078 properties

Bottom line

On top of earning 500 extra points per night, staying at a new Hyatt hotel can also be fun since you'll likely get to be in a room with new furnishings. However, new hotels may still be resolving some issues, and not all on-site facilities may be fully operational.

The current list includes six Category 1 hotels and 12 Category 2 hotels. So, if you want to redeem World of Hyatt points for your stay, you can find several low-category options on this list.

Related reading:

How to transfer Chase points to Hyatt: A step-by-step guide

Best time to apply for World of Hyatt Chase cards based on offer history

World of Hyatt elite status: What it is and how to earn it

Which credit card should you use for Hyatt stays?

Editorial disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.

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Pixel users report an audio glitch that cranks up volume levels when they try to access a voice assistant.

The phenomenon does not appear responsive to Android 17’s assistant volume slider.

Google confirms awareness of the issue, and is gather data from affected users.

Having ubiquitous access to voice assistants is one of those modern conveniences that’s all too easy to take for granted, and with as many connected devices as there are in our lives, a lot of us are within earshot of an eager virtual assistant more often than not. While we’re usually just a quick wake word away from accessing them, that process doesn’t always work as smoothly as we’d hope. Right now, a bunch of Pixel users have been complaining about some issues with how their devices respond to “Hey Google,” but we’ve got some good news to share with them.

Over the weekend, a submission to Reddit’s Pixel sub detailed the underlying problem here: When wearing headphones, after delivering your “Hey Google” wake word, affected phones would momentarily crank the volume to ear-splitting levels. While it would almost instantly go back to normal, that is not at all the sort of experience you want when all that volume is being pumped directly into your ears.