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The Elder Scrolls Online team is unfortunately part of Microsoft's ongoing plan to cut 3,200 employees at Xbox , leaving the developers behind the Bethesda MMO far fewer in number than before.

In fact, the team is apparently as small as it was about a decade ago, when the game only really began to take off after its shaky launch – or, at least, that's what prominent community figure Baratron, who helps run the Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages and its Discord , reports.

He reveals as much in a new message, explaining that he learned the news from associate design director Jason Barnes and associate director of community management Jessica Folsom.

It came during the past weekend's Elder Scrolls Online Tavern event in Hesse, Germany, where fans and developers gathered to celebrate the MMO.

"This is important," writes Baratron. "According to both Jason Barnes (Associate Design Director) and Jessica Folsom (Associate Director of Community Management), Zenimax Online Studios is now at the same size as it was when they made both Wrothgar and Summerset."

That's shocking, to say the least – but he doesn't seem to think it's a bad thing. After all, "both are highly acclaimed DLCs," as the UESP admin puts it. "So while the layoffs are extremely upsetting for everyone involved (of course including players), this is not necessarily the end of new content or the game going into maintenance mode."

Baratron assures that there's more reason to think the end of Elder Scrolls Online isn't near, too.

"Also Nick Giacomini (Game Director) and Susan Kath (Studio Executive Producer) are specifically not at the ESO Tavern because they're working on the new Roadmap of when content will be released," he states. "It really is not the end yet."

It's a bit of bittersweet, good-and-bad news, all things considered – the layoffs, obviously, are not nice to hear about… but it's reassuring that they don't spell the demise of the MMO.

Here's hoping any and all affected developers are able to land on their feet, and The Elder Scrolls Online proves to have a brighter future than fans expect following the upsetting news circulating recently.

"There's really no one left": Former Elder Scrolls Online dev says the MMO "basically funded other failing projects" as Microsoft guts the studio

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This is the web edition of STAT’s AAIC in 30 newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox here .

Hi there from Day 2 of AAIC. There may be 10,200 people here at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference — up 1,700 from last year — from 115 countries, as the association’s Maria Carrillo announced at Monday’s plenary session. But by far my favorite person is the woman I saw taking a nap on a bench in a corridor, her sunhat pulled over her eyes. You are an inspiration.

One housekeeping note: Due to the vagaries of newsletter scheduling, we won’t have an edition tomorrow, but will be back in your inbox with a wrap-up edition on Wednesday. Keep your eyes on statnews.com tomorrow though and expect some conference news around 9:15 a.m. Eastern.

Latin American study praised as ‘landmark’ effort

For a disease that’s proven as intractable to treat as Alzheimer’s, it’s been known for quite some time what factors can heighten one’s risk for dementia. Poor nutrition, sleep, and cardiovascular health; a lack of physical activity and social engagement; and lower education levels all increase the likelihood that a person will develop Alzheimer’s.

A study reported at last year’s AAIC put interventions designed to reduce risk to the test. The U.S. Pointer study found that an intensive, structured program that encouraged improved diet and exercise, cardiovascular health monitoring, and other steps helped protect cognitive function among older adults at risk of dementia to a greater extent than a lower-intensity program that participants navigated on their own, even as both groups saw benefits. The study underscored that healthy habits contribute to a healthy brain.

Continue to STAT+ to read the full story…

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Today, the DAG Foundation announced the winners of its second annual DAG Prizes , which award $20,000 each to a visual artist, a writer, and a musician “whose work expands the possibilities for American art.”

In particular, the DAG Prize for Literature “aims to support writing that offers significant innovation—for example, at the level of form, content, or genre—and is meant to support the second book-length prose project of a writer whose work has not yet received prominent literary recognition.”

Its 2026 winner is Tegan Nia Swanson , whose second novel-in-progress, We Do Not Dream of Salt Plagues “is a climate gothic love letter to queer and trans community.” In a press release, the DAG judges praised Swanson for the “uniqueness and audacity of her vision,” and her work for its “purposeful” politics. Swanson was chosen from a shortlist of seven announced earlier this year, itself winnowed down from 220 applicants.

“In our second year of the DAG Prize, it was so important to us to continue honoring new work that speaks to a new generation of artists and a new world we find ourselves living in, one that threatens the survival of art funding and innovation,” said Alyssa Graham, who founded the prize with her husband Douglas Graham, in a statement. “The winners help us to see a bright future in the arts—one in which artists can continue to explore new territory and push boundaries, ultimately paving the way for new dialogue and a more collective experience.”

The other two winners are Erick Alejandro Hernández (DAG Prize for Visual Art) and Luz Elena Mendoza (DAG Prize for Music). Each winner will be awarded $20,000.

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Built in 1975, Lai Tak Tsuen was one of Hong Kong's first public housing developments. Spread across the estate's tower blocks are 2600 individual dwellings, housing approximately 11,000 residents.

Located on a hillside, the estate's most distinguishing features are the two bicylindrical towers, uniquely shaped amongst Hong Kong's public housing estates. Each cylindrical tower has a central, circular atrium that is open air, extending unobstructed from ground level to the top of the building. This creates an optical illusion-like effect from virtually any level of the tower. In addition, the unusual angles of its corridors, the triangular staircases and views over the city, add further to the towers futuristic appearance.

Lai Tak Tsuen featured in the 2017 live-action adaption of the popular Japanese media series 'Ghost in the Shell', with even Hollywood affirming the long held notion that the estate resembles something out of sci-fi film.