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Usually when I hear about a party thrown by the most famous person in the world, I don’t immediately assume that someone like me should be there. What does make me think that delusional thought is when the guest list is populated by people that I have met, chatted with, and shared space with, albeit only once or twice. That is: authors. Literary folk. People who (very occasionally) attend the same media events as me (like when Danielle Haim and I were at the same Paris Review party last fall). The distance between me and Taylor Swift may be wide, yet somehow it’s never felt smaller than when I perused her guest list .

People don’t usually become writers to become famous. But maybe they should! Here’s a running list of every literary person who attended Taylor Swift’s wedding. For obvious reasons, we can’t count the hundreds of attendees who have written a celebrity memoir, but from there the rules get a little more dubious. Let’s start with the most undoubtedly literary guest of all:

| Author Zadie Smith attended Taylor Swift’s wedding. pic.twitter.com/2xfQ3xLpMS

— The Taylor Swift Updates (@theTSupdates) July 6, 2026

Zadie Smith

The writer who set me down this train of thought: the author of White Teeth is unquestionably one of the most famous novelists in the world, but notably (for our purposes here), she hasn’t dabbled too much in the general entertainment industry. She mostly just writes books. But she is simultaneously a woman about town who seems to always get invited to the splashy events: she’s even attended the Met Gala , where she and Taylor apparently “rubbed shoulders.” Of any author, count on Zadie Smith to rub shoulders with a pop star once ten years ago and then get invited to their wedding. She is also a good friend and supporter of Lena Dunham, Swift’s longtime friend, and perhaps their circles have become a Venn diagram because of this connection.

| Jenny Han, writer of TSITP attends Taylor Swift’s wedding! pic.twitter.com/PeZxXWfrD6

— Taylor Swift Updates (@swifferupdates) July 3, 2026

Jenny Han

Once, Jenny Han was just a YA writer. The word “just” should be taken lightly, as she was the creator of two of the most massively successful YA book series in recent history, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before , and The Summer I Turned Pretty . Her star skyrocketed when the adaptation of The Summer I Turned Pretty —for which she was the co-showrunner—became a hit. The show included numerous Taylor Swift songs, apparently due to a personal request Han made of Swift. It’s rare when Swift licenses her songs for TV and film, and is usually due to a special connection that the singer feels with the work: it makes sense that Swift and Han built a friendship (or something) based off this mutual admiration.

Glennon Doyle

Glennon Doyle may have already been a name before her memoirs (I guess she was some sort of Christian mommy blogger/influencer), but I have to doubt Taylor Swift knew of her before Untamed took over the bestseller charts. Doyle became a literary phenomenon: an author who managed to write a memoir so specific and universal that the whole world, even Taylor Swift, learned her name. In 2020, Swift referenced having read the book, and that it was a “huge help” to her.

Ronan Farrow Attends Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s Star-Studded N.Y.C. Wedding https://t.co/i0zSgtxNez

— People (@people) July 4, 2026

Ronan Farrow

Decidedly celebrity-adjacent from the get-go, son of Mia Farrow and Woody Allen (so they say), but in his own right: he’s just a magazine writer. He’s just like us! Just kidding. But he’s a solidly literary persona, both a New Yorker staff writer and a bestselling author. Apparently in 2020 Taylor Swift wrote him a letter about his book Catch and Kill . It turns out 2020 was a great year to be a bestselling author: the chances were at their highest that Taylor Swift would personally correspond with you. (Maybe, just like us, she was trapped inside and reaching out to any and everybody.)

| Ethan Hawke arrived at MSG for Taylor Swift’s wedding. pic.twitter.com/11QWHi8svb

— The Taylor Swift Updates (@theTSupdates) July 3, 2026

Ethan Hawke

Ethan Hawke has been a famous film star since the late 80s, but in another life I can see him as a struggling author, holed up in an attic somewhere working on his Great American Novel for all of eternity. The good news is that in real life, he managed to whip out not one but four novels, in addition to his extensive list of directorial and acting credits. He’s that rare combination of having the personality of a dreamy, romantic poet, and having the productivity of, well, Taylor Swift. H e’s been famous since he was a teenager, yet has appeared to maintain that true spark of creativity throughout it all. I hope everyone has seen him wax poetic about that very subject , which inspires me to no end.

*

Now that we’ve reached the end of this albeit short collection of names, we both might be left wondering why there weren’t more authors on that staggering guest list. We’ve heard that Travis identifies as someone who “can’t really read that well” , but Taylor is a self-proclaimed book lover. Maybe authors aren’t that fun at parties? Zadie Smith might be the only literary gal who can let loose?

If it were you, what authors would you invite to your thousand person wedding? Personally, I’m thinking of Patricia Lockwood, who I think would give a great speech, David Sedaris who would be ideal to sit next to, and George Saunders, who just seems like a really nice guy.

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Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever suggested President Donald Trump may be taking the U.S. World Cup defeat to Belgium “hard,” while joking that he wouldn’t be the one to bring it up when the two meet.

Speaking to Flemish public broadcaster VRT News, De Wever said congratulations on Belgium’s victory have become the first thing people mention to him at the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey.

“Everyone’s talking about one thing, and that is congratulations for the well-deserved victory of the Red Devils,” he said. “Of course, the losing party is also present. That also happens to be the biggest partner in NATO.”

Asked whether he was worried Trump could be upset by the result, De Wever quipped that the president “has the reputation of sometimes reacting a bit irritably to things that he doesn’t like, and I think this defeat will hit hard.”

Still, De Wever said he had no plans to needle Trump. “I’m not going to start about it myself,” he said. “But if he were to say something about it, then I’ll see what that is and how I can react to it.”

The exchange comes after the White House mounted an extraordinary effort to keep U.S. striker Folarin Balogun eligible for the knockout match against Belgium.

After Balogun was shown a red card against Bosnia and Herzegovina, Trump personally called FIFA President Gianni Infantino while senior Trump administration officials and U.S. Soccer made the case to FIFA to overturn the automatic one-match suspension.

FIFA ultimately lifted the ban, allowing Balogun to play — a highly unusual move that prompted the Royal Belgian Football Association to explore legal options and fueled criticism from European football governing body UEFA over the perception of political influence on an ostensibly independent disciplinary process. Belgium ultimately won anyway on Monday in dominant fashion, eliminating the U.S.

White House FIFA World Cup Task Force Executive Director Andrew Giuliani praised the U.S. team despite the 4-1 defeat.

“Obviously it was disappointing the way the U.S. team played last night,” Giuliani said on Fox News. “But … at the end of this match they all gathered together afterwards, thanked the fans and prayed together. I think that shows the character of these men. To go through a moment like that in their career and do that — it’s a great group of men.”

Giuliani also defended the administration’s involvement in the Balogun case, arguing that Trump’s intervention was aimed at ensuring fair play rather than influencing the outcome.

“There’s a lot of politics in soccer. When you think about all the money and power on the line, there might be more politics in the world of soccer than there is in Washington, D.C.,” Giuliani said. “President Trump is squarely focused on making sure that everything is fair with regard to everything happening on the ballot box or anything happening on the pitch, and that is why he has been such a great leader throughout this incredible World Cup.”

Emilio Perez Ibarguen contributed to this report.

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Windrose delivered dozens of electric trucks, yet some staff claim they went unpaid.

A US judge ordered the company to pay one executive $413,000 in full.

The company relies on contract manufacturers and local assemblers.

Questions have started to swirl around Windrose, one of many electric truck startups, after two former employees alleged that the company’s boss refused to pay them and that one of its pricey trucks has gone missing.

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While the name Windrose Technology may not ring a bell, the company says it has raised roughly $400 million and aims to establish itself as a serious player in the electric-truck race, building a hauler to rival the Tesla Semi . The firm is Chinese-owned and runs out of a headquarters in Belgium, and beyond its US launch, it has locked in orders from buyers in Norway, Chile, and Australia .

Read: Ford’s First Heavy Duty EV Truck Swaps Diesel Grit For Electric Grit

But as we’ve seen so many times before with newly established vehicle manufacturers, not everything has been smooth sailing for Windrose. According to the Wall Street Journal , the company’s founder and chief executive, Wen Han, reportedly lost track of one of the company’s trucks earlier this year.

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Unpaid Wages

Windrose

Travis Waite and Harold Keller, two former employees fired in January, allegedly refused to help Han locate the truck until they received $91,000 in unpaid wages and benefits, according to the WSJ. They say that as of July, they still hadn’t been paid, and the truck had yet to turn up. Han contends the sum Waite and Keller claim they’re owed is “unfounded.”

The company’s boss has admitted that he “hired too quickly and too aggressively in order to help the company expand”. He also acknowledged that Windrose has had payroll issues but insists it has the funding to support its ambitions for global expansion. Later this year, Windrose wants to go public through a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company.

According to the WSJ, the company delivered its first electric truck in late 2024 and currently has 36 of its trucks operating worldwide. Han says the company’s trucks deliver roughly double the driving range of equivalent electric big rigs from Volvo and Daimler, all while costing significantly less. This is in part thanks to the company using contract manufacturers in China to build the truck, before they’re shipped to regional partners for local assembly.

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Windrose

As the company has grown, Han reportedly sponsored a basketball team near its Belgian headquarters, pledged $15 million to Stanford University once Windrose goes public, and said the firm has facilities in California and Georgia ready to start local assembly. Over that same stretch, employees’ paychecks have allegedly been frequently delayed.

Last October, the company’s first North American operations boss, Jason Gies, demanded payment of unpaid wages, the WSJ reports. He was fired just days later, and after filing a lawsuit in federal court, a judge ordered Windrose to pay him $413,000.

More recently, Windrose drew the attention of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration after it was revealed that two of the four Windrose trucks in the US had VINs indicating they were made in Georgia, even though they were built in China. Han has blamed this issue on a former employee. Clearly, the company is experiencing growing pains, and only time will tell if it can iron out the kinks.

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Credit: Ryan Haines / Android Authority

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Galaxy A18 leak points to an almost unchanged design, with Samsung making only minor tweaks to the camera housing while keeping the familiar 6.7-inch Infinity-U display.

The biggest upgrade may be under the hood, with the Galaxy A18 5G rumored to ditch Exynos for a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip.

Size changes are barely noticeable, as the A18 is only 0.1mm narrower and 0.34mm thicker than the Galaxy A17.

Samsung’s next budget Galaxy phone is beginning to take shape, but if you were hoping for a dramatic redesign, you may want to lower your expectations. A fresh set of CAD renders of the Galaxy A18 has now surfaced, and the device looks almost identical to the predecessor with a few changes.

The renders, shared by Smartphone Checker in collaboration with well-known leaker OnLeaks, are reportedly based on factory CAD files used by accessory makers before launch. These files don’t necessarily show final colors or finishes but are generally considered reliable for dimensions, button placement, and the overall shape of a device.

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In some parts of the US, up to 30 percent of people may carry the antibody behind a red meat allergy spurred by tick bites, far exceeding the estimated number of people who actually have the allergy, according a study published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report .

The findings suggest far more Americans than previously thought may be at risk of the allergy, which can make having a hamburger for dinner a potentially life-threatening choice. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has previously estimated that only 0.14 percent of the US population (up to 450,000 people) has the allergy. But the study also highlights how little we understand about this unique disease—and the challenges of accurately diagnosing it.

The study surveyed blood donations for the disease's key antibody, which is in a class dubbed IgE and specifically attacks a double-sugar molecule called galactose-α-1,3-galactose, also known as alpha-gal. This disaccharide is found decorating the cells of nonprimate mammals, including cows and pigs, but it's also released in the saliva of ticks, particularly the lone star tick ( Amblyomma americanum ). People bitten by ticks can develop IgE antibodies against alpha-gal, which can sometimes trigger an allergic response to eating red meat as well as other animal products, such as dairy and gelatin.

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A team of conservationists has discovered and restored the tombstone of Sebastian, a formerly enslaved man who died free in 1729.

"That discovery is likely one of the oldest gravestones of a free Black person in America," Michelle Wu, the mayor of Boston, said in a July 4 speech . "It's been there all along. We just had to go look and share the story."

The stone marker is inscribed with Sebastian's chosen name, Boston, and features an image common in 17th- and early 18th-century tombstones in New England: the death's head . The symbol includes a stylized skull flanked by wings, which were possibly intended to symbolize spiritual resurrection .

On the tombstone, a simple, five-line inscription reads:

Original Inscription

HERE LYES Y e

BODY OF BOSTON

AGED 70 YEARS

DEC D FEB Y Y e 28

1728

Modern English

HERE LIES THE

BODY OF BOSTON

AGED 70 YEARS

DECEASED FEBRUARY THE 28

1728

In 18th-century American writing, the word "the" was often abbreviated with a Y-shaped letter form called a " thorn " representing the "th" sound. Tombstones also frequently abbreviated "deceased" and the month. Somewhat confusingly, before 1752, the American colonies regularly used the Julian calendar , as did Britain, in which the new year started on March 25. Boston's year of death is listed on the tombstone as 1728, but his February 28 death was actually in 1729 in our modern Gregorian calendar.

Kelly Thomas, the director of the Historic Burying Grounds Initiative for the Boston Parks and Recreation Department, told WBZ News Radio that she identified the gravestone during a restoration project at the Granary Burying Ground , the city's third-oldest cemetery. Established in 1660, the cemetery includes over 5,000 graves, including the final resting places of Declaration of Independence signers Samuel Adams and John Hancock; the U.S. Revolutionary War officer Paul Revere; and Crispus Attucks, a sailor of mixed African and Indigenous ancestry who is thought to be the first American killed in the Boston Massacre.

"I was reviewing the photos of headstones, and then I noticed that the stone only had one name," rather than a first and last name, Thomas told WBZ News Radio, suggesting that Boston was either enslaved or free when he died. Based on a search of historical records, Thomas determined that Boston's enslaved name was Sebastian and that he also went by Bastian.

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A surprising amount of information was recorded about Boston and his wife, Jane Lake. In 1701, they had their daughter, also named Jane, baptized at First Church in Boston, where they regularly attended worship services. But while the two were married with children, they were also both enslaved and lived in different households, historian Gloria Whiting wrote in a 2016 study .

Boston was likely freed in the early 18th century, some time after the 1702 death of John Waite, who had held him in slavery. By 1708, a list of free Black people included the name Boston, and he had gained a reputation in the city as a hardworking handyman, according to Whiting's study. He had been freed for roughly 30 years when he died in 1729 and was well-known enough to have an obituary published for him in the New-England Weekly Journal , a rare occurrence for enslaved or freed Black people in colonial America.

Wu also said that, in recent weeks, archaeologists in Boston had discovered musket balls and gun flints from the infamous Battle of Bunker Hill that took place on June 17, 1775. The battle was fought by British Crown forces and New England troops in the first stage of the American Revolutionary War.

See if you know what these mysterious artifacts are with our archaeological fragments quiz!

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Yesterday's layoffs at Xbox took, and will continue to take, a terrible toll. Some trumpeted the fact that no studios were closed, although the practical impact of spinning them out to independence or new ownership remains to be seen, but that has no bearing on the blow to morale caused by such deep cuts to long-standing dev teams.

One former Elder Scrolls Online developer put words to those feelings in a short, poignant thread on X , lamenting the state of the game and developer ZeniMax Online Studios, which was reportedly purged of half its employees in the layoffs.

"I’m just so angry today," wrote Andrew Young, a content designer on Elder Scrolls Online who worked at ZeniMax Online Studios from 2012-2042. "People will never know the blood, sweat, and tears that went into making ESO or how we basically funded other failing projects while never getting enough resources to really keep up with our release cadence. The team deserved much better."

The Elder Scrolls Online has had a tough go of it over the years. Its launch in 2014 did not make a great impression , and while the shift to Tamriel Unlimited a year later turned things around , it always felt to me a bit like an afterthought MMO: The second cousin to World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy 14 whose face you recognize in photos, but whose name you can't quite put your finger on.

(Image credit: Andrew Young (Twitter)) But things seemed to take a darker turn in 2025. Just a year after a GDC talk extolling the actually-quite-remarkable success of TESO , game director Matt Firor—also the president of ZeniMax Online Studios—suddenly left the studio , a move he later said was the direct result of Microsoft's 2025 bloodbath layoffs that also saw the cancellation of a new ZeniMax Online MMO known as Project Blackbird.

That Microsoft saw fit to cut even deeper into the studio just a year after that has some concerned about its future. Following the layoff announcement, TESO community manager Jessica Folsom reaffirmed the dev team's commitment to the game but added that previously announced roadmaps for the new seasonal structure " will be shifting ." There's no indication of anything more serious in the offing but I can't help thinking of Amazon's New World, a moderately successful MMO that was nonetheless canned when Amazon decided that its own "go big" strategy for gaming wasn't working.

"I’ve been gone for a while, but talking to people today and realizing there’s really no one left and no changing it now makes my heart ache," Young concluded. "For the people, our game, who we were as a team and a studio. This is a serious loss, and I don’t think people know how much."

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Eric Schmidt has enjoyed a long career in the technology industry, including a decade at the helm of Google. Since then, he's been heavily involved in the realm of defense – and has had a thing or two to say about the new reality of conflicts around the globe.

Modern warfare

Schmidt was speaking at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Saudi Arabia about the rise of drone-based warfare, contrasting this with the historic prevalence of tanks and armored vehicles.

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This article is part of TechRadar Pro's QOTD project to provide an insight into the minds of the brightest and most recognized figures in the technology industry today and in years gone by. Read the full series here .

The cost-to-damage ratio is incredibly favorable, as he urged the US and Western allies to transition away from legacy tech in favor of drones and other related technologies at the heart of a new kind of warfare.

His expertise in this realm comes primarily from his role advising the US government and military on technology, with the former Google CEO chairing the Defense Innovation Board from March 2016. This organization primarily connects the tech sector with the Pentagon.

Between 2019 and 2021, Schmidt also co-chaired the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, which had a mission to make recommendations to the US president and Congress on the role of AI in the future of defense.

Look to the skies

Schmidt's comments came two-and-a-half years following the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, a war that's been defined by next-generation technologies including robotics and drones.

Ukraine has, for example, used AI drones to strike vital Russian supply lines, while in recent weeks, news emerged that Russia has also stepped up use of jet-powered drones that can hit speeds of up to 500 km/h against its adversary.

Drones are incredibly cheap compared with technologies used in the past – and they're also incredibly effective. We also see examples of the way drones have been used in the conflict between the US-Israeli forces and Iran .