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The second installment of James Gunn and Peter Safran 's DC Universe, Supergirl , had a steep decline in its second weekend at the box office. The movie opened to poor critical and commercial response last week, grossing under $70 million worldwide in its first frame. In its second weekend, the movie fell by a cataclysmic 74%, grossing under $10 million domestically. Including its overseas revenue, Supergirl has now grossed exactly $100 million worldwide in 10 days of release. The movie cost a reported $185 million to produce, which means that the chances of it turning a profit in its theatrical run are next to nil. A movie of this size would typically need to gross twice its reported budget in theaters in order to break even, given the revenue-sharing norms between studios and exhibitors.

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Deep in a limestone cave on Turkey's Mediterranean coast, archaeologists have uncovered evidence that Neanderthals and the modern humans who moved in later left behind surprisingly similar traces of their daily lives — evidence that they hunted the same animals, crafted the same stone tools and collected the same type of seashells.

The findings, published Monday (July 6) in the journal PNAS , feed into some of the biggest questions in human evolution: How similar were the cultures of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens , given that we're so closely related? And did we share information with one another?

A series of archaeological finds over the past few decades, including the new paper's finding that the two had similar cultural practices, suggests that Neanderthals and H. sapiens behaved far more similarly in the Middle East than once assumed.

The new evidence comes from Üçağızlı II Cave (pronounced Ooch-ah-UHZ'-luh), on a stretch of coastline just north of Syria that served as a prehistoric corridor between the Levant (an area of land east of the Mediterranean) and Eurasia. Although the team found only teeth and a partial jawbone within the cave, they were able to distinguish between the remains of Neanderthals and H. sapiens by analyzing the internal structure of the fossilized teeth. Meanwhile, they dated the sediment at the site using optically stimulated luminescence, a technique that reveals how long ago buried mineral grains last saw sunlight.

The team found that the Neanderthals had lived within the cave between approximately 77,000 and 59,000 years ago, while H. sapiens stayed there between about 59,000 and 47,000 years ago. Despite the different time periods, the layers from both of these periods show "substantially uniform hunting-gathering strategies and lithic technology," showing how similar the Neanderthals and H. sapiens were in their hunting-gathering strategies and stone-tool use, the team wrote in the study.

The research team performs excavations at the Üçağızlı II cave site in 2024. (Image credit: KyotoU/Naoki Morimoto) What's more, Neanderthals and H. sapiens got raw materials, such as flint, from the same local sources and hunted the same prey: wild goats ( Capra aegagrus ), fallow deer ( Dama mesopotamica ), roe deer ( Capreolus capreolus ) and wild boar ( Sus scrofa ). Layer after layer also turned up 29 shells of a small marine snail, Columbella rustica , carried into the cave not for food but seemingly as ornaments. Some were pierced as if meant to be strung, and one shell dating to the Neanderthal occupation showed signs of deliberate heating that altered its color.

"Our findings indicate a deep level of cultural interaction," study co-author Naoki Morimoto , paleoanthropologist at Kyoto University, said in a statement . "These two distinct but closely related human groups were not just adapting to the same environment: they were probably sharing symbolic preferences."

That pattern breaks from findings at Mandrin Cave in France, where Neanderthals and modern humans are thought to have alternated occupation in distinct pulses from about 56,800 and 41,500 years ago, but did not leave evidence of a continuous culture. Instead, it echoes evidence from Tinshemet Cave in Israel, where researchers recently reported similar signs of shared behavior between the two groups tens of thousands of years earlier, from about 130,000 to 80,000 years ago.

A view of Turkey's Üçağızlı II Cave, which housed Neanderthals and Homo sapiens at different times. (Image credit: KyotoU/Naoki Morimoto) Üçağızlı II Cave in Turkey and Tinshemet Cave in Israel suggest that even though there was a "biological" turnover as the caves went from being occupied by Neanderthal groups to modern humans, there weren't major cultural turnovers, too.

"Rather, we hypothesize that the two human species that coexisted in the region were in contact and shared cultural aspects," the researchers wrote in the study.

"A fascinating region"

Sites like these are forcing a rethink of how these two types of human were culturally related to each other, April Nowell , a Paleolithic archaeologist at the University of Victoria in Canada who was not involved in the new study, told Live Science in an email. "By demonstrating cultural continuity and elevated levels of interaction, sites such as Tinshemet and Üçağızlı II are changing what we thought we knew about Neandertals, Homo sapiens and other contemporary Homo groups … a fascinating region just got even more so!" she said.

But that cultural continuity only heightens the mystery of how modern humans and Neanderthals interacted, with Neanderthals eventually going extinct around 40,000 years ago. Two types of human can't occupy the same ecological niche indefinitely, Nowell noted, and some research into Neanderthal cognition suggests Neanderthals were less-flexible thinkers than modern humans, with more limited capacity for language and less of the kind of self-awareness and creativity that may have given H. sapiens an edge. (However, there is pushback against the idea that Neanderthals weren't as cognitively complex as H. sapiens .)

If the archaeological record at sites like Üçağızlı II shows this much overlap in behavior, Nowell said, the real differences between the two may be ones the fossil record simply hasn't revealed yet.

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The authors noted that many big questions remain, including when and where these shared cultural practices took place and whether these cultural similarities happened because modern humans mated with Neanderthals .

Ongoing and future excavations at sites like Üçağızlı II Cave may help to answer these questions and build a "more comprehensive picture of human evolution and cultural development during the Late Pleistocene ," the team wrote in the study.

How much do you know about our closest relatives? Find out with our Neanderthal quiz!

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The latest mass layoff at Xbox will see roughly 3,200 people lose their jobs —1,600 today, and 1,600 more over the next fiscal year—and four game studios turned loose into the forest: Compulsion and Double Fine as independents, Ninja Theory and Undead Labs under new ownership. It's bad no matter how you look at it, a reflection of flailing leadership at Microsoft and a dreadful state of affairs for the game industry as a whole.

The bloodletting has inspired a range of reactions across the internet—and yes, there is a small subset of the gaming population celebrating what it sees as a victory of 'real gamers' over some imaginary ideology that holds too many game studios in its grasp.

For the most part, though, the responses are shocked, sorrowful, angry, and even among those who insist these cuts were necessary, filled with regret.

Griffin DeClaire, who was laid off from Bethesda Game Studios today, said the cut came as a complete surprise because he was just told he'd be getting a raise. "I really don't know what my next steps are," DeClaire wrote on LinkedIn.

Arkane founder Raphael Colantonio, who left the company in 2017 and now heads up WolfEye Studios, embraced a bit of dark humor in response to Sharma's statement:

(Image credit: Raphael Colantonio (Twitter)) We initially thought that Obsidian, which isn't mentioned in Sharma's announcement, had escaped the axe, but that later proved to be false: Narrative lead Kate Dollarhyde said on Bluesky that the studio "lost many excellent developers and wonderful people" in the layoffs.

Among those let go was Daniel Alpert , who joined the studio in 2005—just two years after it was founded—and most recently served as art director on The Outer Worlds games.

Alpert said he was grateful for having spent more than two decades at Obsidian but added, "We are clearly at a turning point in the games industry. These past months have been difficult for so many talented people, and unfortunately, it seems the challenges aren't over yet."

Larian's publishing head Michael Douse was as surprised as any of us to discover that through all these years, Xbox did not have a chief operating officer.

(Image credit: Michael Douse (Twitter)) Gloomwood developer Dillon Rogers pointed out the incongruity between Sharma's stated commitment to Bethesda's biggest franchises, and gutting the studios that make them:

(Image credit: Dillon Rogers (Twitter)) Mike Kern, who was laid off after nearly 14 years at ZeniMax Online Studios, noted the obvious difficulty that many in his position don't talk about publicly: The videogame industry simply cannot reabsorb all these people. Talent is going to be lost on a massive scale.

Dan Callan, a former designer who was let go amidst last week's layoffs at that company, reflected on the deep and inescapable shittiness of pre-announcing 1,600 layoffs that will happen over the next fiscal year.

This was the best part about the last year of Bungie, through multiple layoff cycles it was a daily battle between survivor’s guilt and waiting for the other shoe to dropI would reiterate people will not make a good video game under these conditions but that assumes any of these ghouls care

— @danjamin.bsky.social ( @danjamin.bsky.social.bsky.social ) 2026-07-06T22:08:18.292Z

Jason Schreier of Bloomberg shared the same sentiment, saying that Blizzard employees are being left hanging until further notice.

Case in point: the staff of Blizzard Entertainment were told today that they won't hear how the reorganization impacts them until "further communications"

— @jasonschreier.bsky.social ( @jasonschreier.bsky.social.bsky.social ) 2026-07-06T22:08:18.063Z

Others pointed out that the cuts come as Microsoft continues to pour billions of dollars into a pursuit of AI that seems to be growing increasingly desperate, including notable AI industry critic Ed Zitron , who had some harsh words for all involved:

(Image credit: Ed Zitron (Twitter)) This sounds insane until you remember that Microsoft is ALL IN on Ai. These folks believe most of us will be out of work in the next 5 years, drawing from UBI. What will we do with all that time? XBox hopes we'll spend our time & money with them. Dystopian thinking.www.pcgamer.com/gaming-indus...

— @crobertcargill.bsky.social ( @crobertcargill.bsky.social.bsky.social ) 2026-07-06T22:08:18.814Z

Sure Microsoft may have fired thousands of people and gutted its games division but at least it had more money to pour into Copilot, the 4th most popular AI, a product nobody wants or likes except rich executives, that is constantly losing horrendous amounts of money

— @oldpappythomas.bsky.social ( @oldpappythomas.bsky.social.bsky.social ) 2026-07-06T22:08:18.503Z

But AI-focused employees aren't immune: Kevin Flynn, a commerce growth and AI product manager who said he'd increased "PM AI adoption from 12% to 91% in 3 months by building a PM specific AI harness," revealed on LinkedIn that he'd been let go.

"The last four years have been brutal in the industry," Epic Games lead level designer Scott Maclean said in his own post about the layoffs. " I’ve not seen anything like this in my 25 year career. I keep expecting it to normalize, to balance out, but that seems to not be the case."

Keith D. Boney, a former user researcher at Bethesda whose entire team was impacted by today's layoffs, shared a similar thought, writing that "this recurring trend in the Games industry is one that is extremely detrimental to psychological safety , let alone fiscal stability."

There's more, of course, but the inherent absurdity of supposedly serious executives talking nonsense about entertaining "more than a billion people each day," which PC Gamer's Harvey Randall aptly described as " delusional ," has a way of making it all feel a bit futile .

Layoffs like this, which have become par for the course since Microsoft swallowed up Activision Blizzard in 2024, are outrageous and heartbreaking, and there has to be a better way. But as we careen from " never looked stronger " to "our business today is not healthy" over the course of a single year—both of them resulting in layoffs—I find myself wondering if we're ever going to find it, or if we're just going to keep howling into the social media void until there's nothing left.

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The U.S. just celebrated its 250th birthday, and Americans living off the planet had a great view of some of the parties down below.

"The International Space Station orbited over Los Angeles on July 4th as America marked 250 years of independence with a burst of fireworks lighting up the city below — a celebration so bright it reached all the way to space!" NASA officials said on Monday (July 6) via the agency's ISS X account.

That post featured a 15-second video captured from the orbiting lab, which showed hundreds of firework shows flickering across the L.A. area at night like cameras flashing in quick succession at a concert or a football game.

The International Space Station orbited over Los Angeles on July 4th as America marked 250 years of independence with a burst of fireworks lighting up the city below — a celebration so bright it reached all the way to space! pic.twitter.com/SMCXTFYRjD July 6, 2026

There are seven people living in Earth orbit at the moment, members of the ISS' current Expedition 74. Three are Americans: NASA astronauts Jack Hathaway, Jessica Meir and Chris Williams, all of whom serve as flight engineers.

The others are the European Space Agency 's Sophie Adenot and cosmonauts Andrey Fedyaev, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev. Kud-Sverchkov is Expedition 74's commander, while Adenot, Fedyaev and Mikaev are flight engineers.

NASA didn't just passively observe celebrations of the United States' 250th birthday; the agency marked the occasion in multiple ways as well.

For example, NASA painted big "America 250" logos on the Space Launch System rocket that launched the Artemis 2 astronauts around the moon this past April. The four Artemis 2 crewmates also wore special patches commemorating the anniversary.

In addition, NASA conducted a series of airplane flyovers in the Washington, D.C. area over the July 4 weekend and will perform more in the coming weeks and months. You can learn more about the agency's anniversary activities in this Space.com story .

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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.