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2026 has been a huge year for God of War fans, even though it's fast approaching four years since the launch of God of War: Ragnarök . All the way back in February, Santa Monica announced that it was working on a full remake of the original God of War trilogy, which will give fans a chance to relive Kratos’ conquest of the Greek pantheon. Just last month, at one of PlayStation’s most anticipated State of Play events in history, Santa Monica closed out the showcase by unveiling 20 minutes of interrupted gameplay footage from the first God of War spin-off game, God of War Laufey , which will be centered around Kratos’ late wife. The game still does not have an official release date, but it’s likely to launch sometime in 2027 .

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Ford expanded a seat recall to cover nearly 388,000 Explorers and Aviators.

Second-row seats can tip or slide unexpectedly as the vehicle is moving.

Some affected vehicles had already received the previous recall repair.

Ford is recalling another 387,911 SUVs after discovering the problem behind a previous safety campaign wasn’t limited to the vehicles it originally identified. The expanded recall covers 2020-2026 Ford Explorer and 2020-2027 Lincoln Aviator models equipped with second-row easy-entry seats. More notably, it also includes some vehicles that had already undergone the original repair, suggesting the issue proved more persistent than first believed.

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At the heart of the recall is the second-row seat’s easy-entry switch bezel. According to Ford , the bezel can become misaligned or unseat during normal use, causing the switch to bind or remain stuck in the pressed position. If that happens, the seat could unexpectedly tip forward or slide while the vehicle is in motion, increasing the risk of injury, especially during a crash.

Read: Ford’s Recalling A Quarter-Million Cars Because It Can’t Recall If It Fixed Them In 2018

The latest recall builds on campaign 25V393 , launched in June 2025. At the time, Ford traced the problem to incorrectly installed switch bezels supplied by its seat manufacturer and instructed dealers to inspect the bezel installation and replace damaged components. Production changes and additional quality checks convinced Ford the issue had been contained. Turns out, it wasn’t.

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In late April 2026, Ford reviewed new field reports involving vehicles built after the original recall cutoff and identified five additional cases of unintended second-row seat movement while driving. The company also found four reports involving vehicles that had already received the earlier recall repair.

Those findings prompted a new investigation, which ultimately led Ford to expand the recall population to include all affected vehicles built through June 24, 2026. That’s when the original bezel design was finally removed from production. As of June 16, Ford had identified 14 reports of unintended seat movement linked to the defect.

Eight of the vehicles involved weren’t covered by the previous recall, while six were SUVs already repaired under the earlier campaign. Ford says it’s aware of a single customer complaint filed with NHTSA, though it knows of no crashes or injuries tied to the condition. The fix has dealers swapping the easy-entry switch bezel for one with stronger retention force, which should, in theory, keep it from working loose… again.

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A common culprit behind severe gum disease may also stiffen and narrow the heart's aortic valve, preliminary research suggests. This may help explain links between gum problems and poor heart health.

Scientists have long linked severe gum disease to inflammation throughout the body and a higher risk of heart problems , including coronary artery disease , which can raise the risk of heart attack. Studies have also found that treating gum disease can improve blood-vessel health.

Now, researchers suggest that Porphyromonas gingivalis , one of the main bacteria involved in severe gum disease, may also contribute to calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD), a condition in which calcium builds up in the heart's aortic valve. The findings were presented in July at a meeting of the American Heart Association in Boston and have not been peer-reviewed yet.

Dr. Elena Aikawa , a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School who was not involved in the study, said the findings "fit well with our current understanding of calcific aortic valve disease as an active, inflammation-driven disease rather than simply wear and tear of the valve."

Periodontal disease is likely just one contributor among many, rather than the sole cause of CAVD, she added. But the study does identify a biologically plausible pathway linking oral health to heart health that could open new opportunities for prevention and treatment.

How mouth bacteria harm the heart

CAVD affects millions of people worldwide , and there are no approved drugs that slow or stop its progression. As the disease worsens, people may develop fatigue, shortness of breath and chest pain, and in severe cases, they often require valve-replacement surgery .

Meanwhile, prior to the new research, it was known that bacteria and inflammatory signals from the mouth can sometimes enter the bloodstream and affect distant tissues, said Richard Lamont , chair of oral immunology and infectious diseases at the University of Louisville School of Dentistry, who was not involved in the study. Over time, these effects can accrue and gradually reshape how the immune system behaves, he said.

In CAVD, calcium builds up in the aortic valve, which connects the left side of the heart to the large artery that carries oxygen-rich blood to the body. (Image credit: Noctiluxx via Getty Images) P. gingivalis is known to be particularly destructive to gum tissue, causing lots of inflammation, and it's been tied to cardiovascular disease in the past. To see if the bacterium might be directly impacting heart health, researchers at Fuwai Hospital in Beijing looked for P. gingivalis in aortic valve tissue removed during valve-replacement surgery. They compared this diseased tissue to valves that weren't calcified.

The calcified valves contained much higher levels of P. gingivalis DNA and proteins made by the bacterium. " P. gingivalis was about 30 times more abundant in calcified valves than in non-calcified valves," study first author Dr. Chenyang Li , a doctoral candidate at Fuwai Hospital, told Live Science in an email.

To test whether the bacteria might directly contribute to valve damage, Li and colleagues injected live P. gingivalis into the bloodstreams of healthy lab mice. The bacteria reached the animals' aortic valves, triggering inflammation, calcium buildup and narrowing of the valve.

"We were surprised to see valve calcification even in mice without high cholesterol," Li said. "This suggests P. gingivalis may directly contribute to valve disease, beyond traditional cardiovascular risk factors."

A comparison group of mice was given antibiotics before the injection and had less bacteria in their aortic valves and slower disease progression. Meanwhile, mice injected with dead P. gingivalis bacteria did not show any changes in their aortic valves.

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The researchers traced the changes in the mice's hearts to interleukin-1 beta, a signalling molecule that normally helps the body fight infections. Exposure to P. gingivalis ramped up the production of this molecule, and in turn, the immune signal switched on genes that pushed healthy valve cells to behave more like bone-building cells, which is a hallmark of CAVD . This switch causes the cells to lay down calcium in the surrounding valve tissue.

When the scientists blocked interleukin-1 beta in some mice, the animals developed much less valve calcification even when the bacteria reached the valve. Lamont said that the mouse experiments strengthen the case that there's a biological mechanism directly linking gum and heart diseases. However, he cautioned that mice have very different oral microbiomes than humans, making it difficult to know whether the exact same process occurs in people.

That said, the team also saw the same pattern in human valve cells grown in the lab. Exposure to P. gingivalis increased inflammation and calcium buildup among the cells, while blocking interleukin-1 beta blunted those effects.

Both Aikawa and Lamont said more research is needed to confirm the relationship in humans. The findings give researchers a new pathway to explore for future treatments, raising questions of whether targeting inflammatory signals like interleukin-1 beta could help slow the progression of this widespread heart disease.

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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Marilla Country Store has been open for business since 1851, which means it has outlasted the Civil War, two World Wars, the Great Depression, the rise of the shopping mall, and a global pandemic without ever shutting its doors.

Three families have owned it across that span, and the current owner, whose family took over in 1979, can tell you the life story behind nearly everything on the shelves and most of the people who walk in to buy it. Inside, there's a 1917 safe still bearing the dents from a long-ago dynamite job, a collection of guestbooks going back 25 years that doubles as an oral history of the surrounding community, and a shelf of locally made specialty foods that have nothing to do with the hardware sitting next to them.

It is, somehow, still a working general store rather than a museum about one — the kind of place where regulars get asked about their kids by name, and where a woman once drove all the way from New Jersey just to see it for herself, then drove straight home, satisfied.