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Satoru Iwata was already a legend in the gaming community while he served as Nintendo president, and that legacy has only grown since his untimely death in 2015. He led the company through the highs of the Wii and DS era, but it's his actions through the financial lows of the Wii U and 3DS generation that are perhaps best remembered these days. Game developers are now subjected to the constant threat of mass layoffs at major publishers, but Iwata took a different approach.

Iwata famously slashed his own salary by 50% in 2011, in response to poor financial results following the launch of the 3DS. Other executives at Nintendo took smaller pay cuts as well, but the company did not lay off employees even during a period of three back-to-back years of operating losses as both the 3DS and Wii U failed to gain ground.

In 2013, an investor asked Iwata why Nintendo was not restructuring in the wake of those poor financial results. "If we reduce the number of employees for better short-term financial results," Iwata argued, "employee morale will decrease, and I sincerely doubt employees who fear that they may be laid off will be able to develop software titles that could impress people around the world."

You may have seen that quote being resurfaced back in 2024, when mass layoffs were happening across the game industry, and it's sadly still relevant now, because those layoffs have never really stopped.

"Some employers publicize their restructuring plan to improve their financial performance by letting a number of their employees go," Iwata said in 2013, "but at Nintendo, employees make valuable contributions in their respective fields, so I believe that laying off a group of employees will not help to strengthen Nintendo’s business in the long run. Our current policy is to achieve favorable results by continuously cutting unnecessary expenses and increasing business efficiency."

That policy doesn't really seem to have changed since Iwata's death, though there are caveats to keep in mind. Most notable is that Japanese labor laws make it much harder for employers to simply cut their workers, as compared with the at-will employment regulations in the US and some other Western countries.

I don't want to put Nintendo on a pedestal here – the company certainly has other issues beyond its unwillingness (or inability) to lay off employees – but Iwata's recognition of the human cost to the developers left behind when layoffs strike remains remarkable, especially as we continue to see devs cut by the hundreds and the thousands at publishers like Sony and Microsoft .

In 2009, late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said it'll take "20 years or so" for game purchases to become mostly digital.

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Commons health committee also recommends end to junk food advertising on billboards and public transport

Fast food chains such as KFC should be stopped from opening near schools, and advertising for junk food on billboards and public transport should be banned to help curb obesity, MPs will say today.

The Commons health committee will also urge ministers to stop giving in to food industry lobbying and get tough to tackle a problem that costs the UK £74bn a year and causes huge illness.

Supermarkets should be forced to display fruit and vegetables prominently, for example near entrances and checkouts, to help boost sales.

All food must start carrying front-of-pack, traffic light-style labels telling consumers how healthy or unhealthy they are, which some supermarket chains already use.

The government should urgently progress its previously announced intention to compel food producers to reveal what percentage of their sales come from healthy and unhealthy products.

Ministers should “be more courageous [and start] standing up to challenge from industry”, which often seeks to delay the introduction of measures to limit bad diet.

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Alaska Airlines is making changes in Hawaii.

The Seattle-based carrier will add two new routes from its hub at Honolulu's Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL): daily service to Idaho's Boise Airport (BOI) from Dec. 17 through March 21, 2027, and Saturday-only flights to Spokane International Airport (GEG) in Washington from Dec. 19 through April 17, 2027.

Both new HNL routes will be flown with Boeing 737 Max aircraft.

At the same time, Alaska will end Hawaiian Airlines ' service to New Zealand. Flights from HNL to Auckland Airport (AKL) on an Airbus A330 will not resume in November as planned.

Hawaiian began flying the HNL-AKL route in 2013, schedule data from aviation analytics firm Cirium shows.

Alaska said the changes are "designed to align capacity with evolving travel demand."

The airline will add flights during peak periods from HNL to Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) in Las Vegas with the A330s freed up from the AKL route.

Post-merger map changes

The pace of network changes is picking up since Alaska closed its merger with Hawaiian in 2024. In June, the airline ended five routes to Mexico in favor of added capacity between the mainland U.S. and Hawaii. And, in 2025, it ended Hawaiian's flights to Boston Logan International Airport (BOS), Fukuoka Airport (FUK) in Japan, and Incheon Airport (ICN) near Seoul from HNL.

At the same time, Alaska debuted new intercontinental flights from its Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) base. Nonstops to Tokyo's Narita Airport (NRT) and ICN began in 2025. This summer the carrier is adding service to London's Heathrow Airport (LHR), Keflavik International Airport (KEF) in Iceland and Fiumicino Airport (FCO) near Rome .

The goal, as Alaska CEO Ben Minicucci puts it, is to build the airline into a global carrier.

"We are creating the fourth global airline in our country to compete against the Big 3," he said in January referring to American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines.

Prior to the latest changes, seats on Alaska and Hawaiian from HNL were down nearly 1% this year compared to 2025, Cirium schedules show. Seats from SEA were up nearly 2%.

Alaska Atmos loyalty members can still access New Zealand on one of the carrier's Oneworld alliance partners. For example, American serves AKL from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and Qantas Airways from Sydney Airport (SYD).

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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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The Grand Tour will return on September 4 with new hosts.

They’re James Engelsman, Thomas Holland, and Francis Bourgeois.

Fans seem split on the reboot, but many said they’ll give it a chance.

Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond signed off as host of The Grand Tour in the fall of 2024. Now, nearly two years later, the program is set to return with a trio of new hosts.

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In a series of social media posts, The Grand Tour announced the show would return on September 4 on Prime Video. They added it’s the “same show,” but “new knobs.”

More: This Is Who’s Taking Over The Grand Tour After Clarkson Left The Tent

The hosts were announced earlier this year as James Engelsman and Thomas Holland of Throttle House fame. They’ll be joined by lesser-known trainspotter Francis Bourgeois, who is just 26.

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Little is known about the new season at this point and it’s not even on Amazon’s official press calendar. In fact, the retail giant hasn’t said much about the reboot at all.

That doesn’t exactly exude confidence in the series, but the debut is still nearly a month and a half away. As a result, there’s plenty of time left for teasers and marketing.

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That being said, fan reaction has been somewhat mixed. A number of people have chimed in on the post to say they’ll give the rebooted series a shot. Others are less optimistic and have suggested “no one cares” as it was the chemistry between Clarkson, Hammond, and May that made the original worth watching.

It’s hard to argue with that as Top Gear famously struggled after their departure and has been off the air for years. Furthermore, viewers established a relationship with the trio over decades and were invested in them.

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That’s not the case with the new group, but Holland and Engelsman should have plenty of chemistry as they’ve been working together for years. They’re also widely known in automotive circles, so they seem like a natural fit.

With all that being said, are you interested in the new version of the show and will you be watching?

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The U.S. Navy is looking for a family of carrier-based drones that can fulfill a variety of missions, according to a July 14 Request for Information.

The sea service “is exploring the industrial base’s capacity to deliver highly capable, autonomous platforms optimized for operations from Ford-class and Nimitz-class Nuclear Aircraft Carriers,” according to the RFI . The response deadline has been set for Aug. 13.

The drones the service is targeting, part of the Air Wing of the Future Family of Systems, can be designed as “a single-role platform, a multi-role platform, or a modular FoS [family of systems],” according to the service.

But whatever the solution, the Navy wants the platforms to be capable of performing eight different missions: strikes against surface ships, strikes against land targets, anti-submarine warfare, air-to-air combat against enemy aircraft and missiles, electronic warfare, ISR, aerial refueling, and resupply flights for a naval task force.

The service is soliciting “industry expertise to identify a mix of platforms that can provide affordable mass, risk-tolerant platforms that can perform the above missions to counter current and emerging threats,” the request states.

The RFI lists a few specific requirements, including a minimum 1,000-nautical mile range for strike missions.

Drones must also possess “flight autonomy (e.g., carrier pattern, taxiing) and mission autonomy (e.g., dynamic tasking/retasking, threat evasion, automated aerial refueling) maturity.”

Additionally, they must be compatible with existing Unmanned Carrier Aircraft control systems, according to the RFI.

Significantly, while the RFI mostly focuses on carrier-based drones, the Navy also wants vertical-takeoff UAVs that can operate from other types of vessels, such as destroyers and mobile sea bases.

“The Navy is interested in novel concepts that can operate from any air capable platform in addition to the CVN (e.g., DDG, ESB) using Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL),” the RFI said.

The RFI is indicative of the Navy’s desire to eventually move on from fourth-generation carrier air wings to an air wing composed of fifth- and sixth-generation manned and unmanned aircraft.

The new drones “must demonstrate increased combat effectiveness over current fourth generation platforms at a given spot factor.”

The Air Wing of the Future, as designed, appears to be modeled for an old-fashioned battle of attrition, in which combat is waged by affordable — and expendable — drones rather than a handful of expensive platforms.

Contractors responding to the RFI are asked to “detail how your production approach supports rapid scaling and elasticity in a surge scenario,” and what techniques they will use to “keep unit recurring flyaway (URF) and sustainment costs within sustainable limits.”

Companies should also explain how their proposed designs will minimize maintenance requirements and fit into existing naval supply chains, according to the RFI. Potential manufacturers should also submit “planned capital investments (CAPX) or Internal Research and Development (IRAD) commitments to mature the solution.”

The Air Wing of the Future Family of Systems is part of the Trump administration’s Golden Fleet expansion plan for the Navy.

Existing family-of-system drone projects include the MQ-25A Stingray tanker and the Collaborative Combat Aircraft, or CCA.