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At this point being into the digital versions of Blood Bowl is basically masochism. In the 1990s MicroLeague published a version that was so cheap and nasty I said , "to call it barebones would be an insult to skeletons." Cyanide picked up the licence after that, releasing two decent adaptations whose DLC model was controversial at the time but seems blessedly sensible compared to Blood Bowl 3, a live-service seasonal microtransaction confusatron that's basically a poster child for "look how they massacred my boy" memes.

Blood Bowl 3 was published by Nacon, which has filed for insolvency and left strategy specialists Slitherine to pick up the ball. Cyanide's still the developer, but there's room to hope the next iteration, called Warhammer Blood Bowl, won't be another own goal.

According to Marco Alessandro Minoli, director of publishing at Slitherine, "Our goal with Warhammer Blood Bowl is simple: we want this to become the definitive Blood Bowl videogame—not just at launch, but for years to come. Our vision is to support and expand it over time, turning it into a living, constantly evolving experience, just as we've successfully done with other Warhammer titles such as Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector and Warhammer 40,000: Gladius."

Rather than being a whole new game it's an update of Blood Bowl 3 to bring it in line with the tabletop Blood Bowl's current "third season" edition, adding two new teams: Tomb Kings (undead Egyptians) and Bretonnians (Monty Python French). There's also going to be a "Rumble Mode" where teams of seven players face off in faster matches, which we'll be able to test in a demo Slitherine says is due at the end of summer.

Anyone who owns Blood Bowl 3 will get Warhammer Blood Bowl for free, and any additional teams and cosmetics you've bought will carry over. Which rather suggests they're keeping the model where we have to buy teams separately and also the customizations to make individual players distinct. But if it didn't find a way to hurt us, it wouldn't be Blood Bowl. The full release is scheduled to come out in fall.

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The Trump administration announced a major civil nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, after decades of on-and-off conversations between the country and the Obama, Biden and Trump White Houses.

The Department of Energy confirmed in a press release that Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Saudi Minister of Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman signed two agreements that would allow private American nuclear companies to export to the Saudi market.

It would represent “a decades-long, multi-billion-dollar partnership” whereby private U.S. nuclear companies can help develop a civilian nuclear power program in the Middle Eastern kingdom, the DOE release said.

“These agreements reflect our two nations’ shared commitment to strengthening U.S.-Saudi commercial relations, delivering prosperity at home and security to our allies abroad,” Wright said in a statement. “Rest assured, these agreements uphold the highest standards of nuclear safety and nonproliferation, while relying on the world’s best nuclear technology and scientists, designed right here in the United States.”

The announcement comes as the war between the U.S. and Iran again intensifies. Saudi Arabia, which hosts U.S. military bases, has been struck several times by Iranian missiles, and Iran’s Houthi allies in Yemen threatened a blockade against the kingdom in the Red Sea this week.

The Saudi deal also comes amid the president’s campaign to boost nuclear power in America and abroad, which includes a Department of Energy program that recently helped reach a major developmental milestone in four advanced nuclear reactors.

DOE has yet to announce many key details about the agreement — even to key members of Congress.

“I have talked to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about this on a number of occasions and both of us have been in agreement that an appropriate nuclear agreement would be in the best interest of both of our countries,” Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told POLITICO in a statement. “Idaho is the birthplace of nuclear energy, so this matters deeply to me. I look forward to seeing the details of the agreement and working with the Administration to review it.”

Depending on the specifics of the deal, federal law will either require congressional approval before taking effect or will allow Congress 60 days to block it.

The principal agreement with the Saudis is known as a 123 agreement, so named because they get their authority from Section 123 of the Atomic Energy Act, which allows for the transfer of nuclear technologies and materials abroad by private American parties if foreign countries agree to certain guardrails.

123 agreements are a decades-old diplomatic tool, and a key part of President Donald Trump’s nuclear strategy. In May 2025, Trump signed an executive order that featured a directive to the State Department to “aggressively pursue at least 20 new 123 Agreements” by January 2029.

Since then, the Trump administration has signed one pact with Thailand, concluded negotiations with El Salvador and initiated negotiations with Malaysia.

It’s also exploring nuclear power cooperation with Bahrain and Ecuador. But an agreement with Saudi Arabia has remained elusive — and highly controversial — for a decade.

Throughout 2018 and 2019 , then-Energy Secretary Rick Perry worked to negotiate a 123 agreement to export U.S. nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia. Congress pushed back with an investigation and a bipartisan bill that would have restricted any agreement, and the first Trump administration never reached a final accord.

Historically, a major hurdle to a Saudi deal was that 123 agreements typically require the International Atomic Energy Agency to supervise and monitor any nuclear program, in part to check for any potential use of nuclear materials for weapons. In 2018, bin Salman — the de facto ruler of the kingdom — said that his country would develop nuclear weapons if Iran does .

“The Saudis wish to keep open the option of pursuing nuclear weapons,” said Thomas Countryman, a former acting undersecretary of state for arms control and international security. “The additional protocol restricts future options of Saudi Arabia with a nuclear program.”

“When I discussed this on three occasions with the Saudis … 10 years ago, I made clear that we have to have a Saudi additional protocol signed with the International Atomic Energy Agency,” Countryman, who is now chair of the non-profit Arms Control Association, continued. “That was the point that prevented them from moving forward into actual negotiations during the Obama administration.”

Tuesday reporting from the Wall Street Journal said the agreement forgoes the typical IAEA additional protocols in favor of a different monitoring program, but the administration has yet to announce details about how future transfers of nuclear materials and technology will be supervised.

CORRECTION: Editing changes have been made to correct the timeline for the 123 agreement goals in the May 2025 executive order.

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The main job of the U.S. Air Force’s growing fleet of F-15EX Eagle IIs has been and continues to be air-to-air combat, especially in defense of the U.S. homeland . However, operational and test units are laying the groundwork for F-15EXs to also take on air-to-ground missions.

Despite its primary mission set, air-to-ground capabilities are inherently a part of the F-15EX’s design. The Eagle II is a member of the extended F-15E Strike Eagle family, having been derived from the F-15QA developed for Qatar .

Last week, the Oregon Air National Guard’s 142nd Wing shared that one of its F-15EXs had dropped training bombs for the first time ever during a trip to Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho back in May. The 142nd, based in Portland, Oregon , is currently the Air Force’s only operational unit flying the Eagle II.

A stock picture of one of the 142nd Wing’s F-15EX Eagle IIs. USAF

“The crew dropped a total of 24 BDU-50s and 12 BDU-56s over 10 missions with zero safety incidences and satisfactory scores,” according to an official release . “These ‘bombs’ were loaded onto the F-15 EXs and dropped in the Mountain Home firing range complex.”

The BDU-50/B and BDU-56/B are inert training bombs with the same shape and weight as live 500-pound-class Mk 82-series and 2,000-pound-class Mk 84-series bombs, respectively. In U.S. service today, bombs in the extended Mk 82 and Mk 84 families are far more commonly employed in combination with Paveway laser guidance or Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) GPS-assisted guidance kits.

The BDU-50s and BDU-56s are still useful tools for training more general ‘dumb bombing’ skill sets for aircrew and for handling of air-to-ground weapons on the ground. This includes things like going through the procedures for targeting and safe release from an aircraft, as well as loading and unloading the bombs from planes.

A stock picture of a pair of BDU-50/Bs on a dolly about to be loaded onto an F-15E Strike Eagle during training. USAF

Basics are especially important for the members of the 142nd, which previously flew F-15C Eagles with no operational air-to-ground capability. It’s also worth noting here that the F-15C was a single-seat type, while the F-15EX is a two-seater. However, the Air Force’s plan, at least initially, has been for a single pilot to fly the Eagle II, something we will come back to later on.

The 142nd does have some personnel with air-to-ground mission experience from prior assignments, but this is still a new mission set for the unit as a whole, which requires new training regimens.

Three pilots from the 142nd “attended a 9-month training course to understand the science behind dropping bombs and the tactics involved. They were tasked with creating a program to train the rest of the wing’s pilots on the basics so they could make the first steps to be able to drop munitions,” according to the official release. Earlier this year, weapons loaders from the Wing also “traveled to Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. where they worked with F-15 E-models assigned to the 59th Test and Evaluation Squadron to become certified on loading bombs.”

The Air Force’s Test and Evaluation community has already been validating the F-15EX’s air-to-ground capabilities . This testing is now extending overseas. Earlier this month, the 85th Test and Evaluation Squadron brought an Eagle II from Eglin Air Force Base in Florida to Kadena Air Base in Japan to support a munitions load training event. An F-15E Strike Eagle also took part in that training. Pictures the Air Force released on Monday show that live GBU-53/B Small Diameter Bomb IIs (SDB IIs), also known as StormBreakers, were among the munitions that ground personnel at Kadena practiced loading onto the jets.

GBU-53/B Small Diameter Bomb IIs sit on a dolly in front of an F-15EX from the 85th Test and Evaluation Squadron during a training event at Kadena Air Base, Japan, on July 8, 2026. USAF

Airmen assigned to the 67th Fighter Generation Squadron prepare to load GBU-53/B Small Diameter Bomb IIs onto an F-15EX Eagle II assigned to the 85th Test and Evaluation Squadron at Kadena Air Base, Japan, on July 8, 2026. USAF

Two active duty squadrons of F-15EXs are set to be established at Kadena , taking the place of units previously based there that had flown F-15Cs. The Air Force has been deploying F-15Es and other fighters to the base on a rotational basis to fill the gap in the meantime.

The Air Force has previously announced plans to stand up National Guard F-15EX squadrons in California, Louisiana , and Michigan . The service’s proposed budget for the 2027 Fiscal Year outlines plans to dramatically expand the total size of the Eagle II force, which could lead to a dozen squadrons or more flying the jets in the end, as you can read more about here . How this might change the Air Force’s plans for employing the jets remains to be seen.

In its 2027 Fiscal Year budget request, the Air Force continued to stress that “the F-15EX aircraft will be used predominantly in defensive and offensive counter-air missions at both Air National Guard (ANG) and Air Combat Command (ACC) operational squadrons.” However, it did also note that the “F-15EX will perform the Homeland Defense mission and provide Combatant Commanders (CCDR) with strike packages capable of operating in Highly Contested Environments (HCE).”

As TWZ has been reporting for years , it has been more or less clear from the start that the F-15EXs would eventually take on more of a multi-role mission after entering service, despite the emphasis on the air-to-air role. This has also raised the possibility that Eagle IIs could be flown with Weapon System Officers (WSO) , another pilot with multi-role skills, or a mission specialist, in their backseats, just like their F-15E cousins.

A stock picture of an F-15E Strike Eagle with a pilot in the front seat and a WSO in the rear. USAF

“We currently don’t have conformal fuel tanks [CFTs] for it [the F-15EX], but there is a plan to get us conformal fuel tanks . And then when we do, we can start talking about putting all kinds of air-to-ground capabilities into the airplane, potentially putting WSOs or other experts in the backseat as well to have us do any number of multi-role capabilities that it’s just physically not possible to in the C model,” now-retired Col. Michael Kosderka, then commander of the 142nd, told TWZ in an interview back in 2024 . “So the X has tremendous growth capability. It’s really exciting.”

The F-15EX is capable of being fitted with the same CFTs as the F-15E, which give the aircraft more hardpoints for stores on top of providing extra fuel. The current status of the plan to get CFTs for the Eagle IIs assigned to the 142nd is unclear. The initial pair of jets for the Wing were delivered without them. The picture released of the F-15EX at Mountain Home for the air-to-ground training in May, seen at the top of this story, shows that jet, at least, still lacks them. The default configuration for Eagle II test jets includes the CFTs, as seen below.

An F-15EX assigned to the 40th Flight Test Squadron with CFTs fitted. USAF

“Basically, what it’s going to do is turn a wing with a primary mission that is on life support, frankly, into something that has America’s newest fighter, and we’re going to be relevant with that airplane for decades to come,” Kosderka added at that time.

“Gen. Kelly made it very clear in his public address here that the F-15EX is going to have an inherent capability that we need to put to work from day one, to include limited air-to-ground capability,” Lt. Col. Robert Waller, then commander of the 40th Flight Test Squadron at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, also told TWZ in a separate interview in 2024 . Waller was referring to now-retired Gen. Mark “Grace” Kelly, who was head of Air Combat Command at the time.

All of this makes perfect sense given the F-15EX’s inherent ability to carry a lot of payload, including both air-to-air and air-to-ground munitions, over a long distance. The Eagle II can also accommodate outsized stores . These are attributes that have already made the F-15E one of the most heavily in-demand platforms in the Air Force today .

An F-15E seen loaded with five AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) cruise missiles, underscoring the jet’s payload capacity. USAF

Strain on the aging Strike Eagle fleet, which has been further magnified by the total loss of four of those aircraft this year during operations against Iran , might prompt the Air Force to consider further expanding the air-to-ground role of the Eagle II. Additional planned F-15EX purchases could very well enable the retirement of at least some older F-15Es, as well as other aircraft . In 2024, Congress blocked an attempt by the Air Force to divest roughly half of its Strike Eagles .

There is already substantial overlap between the F-15E and F-15EX communities , as underscored by the 142nd Wing’s milestone air-to-ground training at Mountain Home in May.

Air-to-air missions still look set to be the dominant task for the F-15EX fleet, at least in the near term, but work is being done now to ensure the jets can also take on air-to-ground missions if the call comes.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

The post Air-To-Ground Capabilities Are Already Creeping Into The F-15EX’s Mission Set appeared first on TWZ .

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The face of a young woman crowned with a laurel wreath, buried in elaborate clothing and unusual cork sandals, has appeared nearly 1,700 years after her death.

She is one of 16 people from Aquincum, a Roman-era city in present-day Hungary, whose faces have been reconstructed for "Once We Were Like You," a new exhibition at the Aquincum Museum in Budapest. The display pairs skulls excavated in and around the ancient city with scientifically informed approximations of how their owners may have looked in life.

Six of the reconstructions are hyperrealistic silicone models, complete with artificial eyes, human hair, eyebrows, eyelashes and, in some cases, beards. The exhibition, which runs through Oct. 31, includes men, women and a child who lived during the region's period of Roman rule.

"The face is the most important feature for recognizing a person," Emese Gábor , a forensic facial reconstruction specialist who sculpted the silicone faces, told Live Science in an email. Although a skull cannot reveal every detail of a person's appearance, reconstruction lets museum visitors encounter the faces as those of "a real human being rather than as skeletal remains," she said.

The entrance to the "Once We Were Like You" exhibit at the Aquincum Museum in Budapest. (Image credit: Gábor Lakos Aquincum Museum Budapest) Rebuilding a Roman face

Aquincum stood on the Danube frontier of the Roman Empire in what is now Budapest. The city was home to a diverse population in the first through fourth centuries, and genetic and archaeological analyses of the individuals in the exhibition point to connections with regions including present-day Italy, Scotland and Syria, as well as Sarmatian groups from the Eurasian steppe and Celtic communities that lived in the region before Roman rule.

The remains of those who lived here have also been unearthed, and continue to be discovered today during the excavation of cemeteries," according to a statement from the museum.

Creating a reconstructed face begins with a high-resolution 3D CT scan of the original skull. Specialists then produce an exact 3D-printed replica, allowing experts like Gábor to work without repeatedly handling or disturbing the ancient remains.

"The latest scientific advances — including 3D scanning, CT imaging, archaeogenetic (ancient DNA) analysis and facial approximation research — are incorporated whenever possible," she said.

"If a hyper-realistic reconstruction is required, I create a mould and cast the face in coloured silicone, finishing it with real human hair, eyebrows, eyelashes and, where appropriate, a beard," she said.

ARC-heo art-REKO Studio ARC-heo art-REKO Studio ARC-heo art-REKO Studio ARC-heo art-REKO Studio ARC-heo art-REKO Studio Ancient DNA can sometimes provide additional clues about pigmentation, including probable eye, hair and skin color. But the results are still approximations, not portraits. For instance, hairstyle, expression and many details of the person’s appearance are usually more speculative.

The woman with the laurel wreath

Of all the people she reconstructed, Gábor said she found it especially difficult to forget the woman known as the Jablonka Road mummy .

The woman's skeleton was relatively well preserved, but the soft tissue on her face had decayed, leaving only the skull. A laurel wreath still rested on her head, and, according to Gábor, her burial contained fine clothing , a spindle for weaving, bird-shaped cork sandals and a painted male portrait that had been placed near her feet. Archaeologists have suggested that the portrait may have represented her husband or father, although his identity is unknown.

The silicon reconstruction of an ancient construction worker. (Image credit: Gábor Lakos Aquincum Museum Budapest) "Based on these details, the archaeological context and the anthropological data, it was the archaeologists who pieced together her story while I reconstructed her face," Gábor said. "That was very moving."

Other individuals selected for the exhibition include those of a young girl who died in childhood and a woman interpreted as a nurse or healer who was buried in a children's cemetery. Some of the other reconstructions include a construction worker, a military officer and a blacksmith.

Two women appear to have met particularly violent or punitive ends. They were buried face down with their legs bound together, Gábor said. The exhibition's interpretation associates one woman with an accusation of witchcraft and the other with poisons, although such details are historical interpretations rather than evidence-based findings from the burials.

Gábor stands in front of a display showing the reconstructed face of a child from Aquincum. (Image credit: Gábor Lakos Aquincum Museum Budapest) "Every reconstruction is a journey," Gábor said. "As I shape each face, I find myself reflecting on that person's life again and again, and by the end, they no longer feel like anonymous remains, but like real people."

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Analyses of the skeletons suggest that many of the individuals endured strenuous physical labor, periods of hunger and chronic inflammation. This evidence led museum curators to conclude that many represented the less wealthy inhabitants of Roman society — people whose names and experiences were unlikely to appear in surviving written histories.

For Gábor, the physical reconstructions offer something that a digital image cannot: Visitors can stand face-to-face with a life-size person, walk around the model and study it from different angles. Her hope is that this encounter encourages visitors to think beyond the scientific data and imagine the full lives that once surrounded the excavated bones.

"When you see a face, you don't just see bones in a display," Gábor said. "You see a person — someone who was born, who grew up, who worked, who loved, who laughed, who struggled, who fought with challenges, who raised children. Some were sick. Not everyone died of illness. Some died in accidents. Some through violence. And eventually, all of them died. That sense of shared humanity helps spark empathy."

Can you match these historical maps to the empires that ruled them? Test your geography skills with our ancient empires quiz !

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Editor's note: The below contains spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 5. There's a William Shakespeare quote that aptly summarizes House of the Dragon 's third season so far: "Heavy is the head that wears the crown." Individuals seeking power usually don't enjoy its day-to-day logistics, nor do they withstand its weight without sacrificing many of the philosophies by which they'd planned to rule. Rhaenyra Targaryen ( Emma D'Arcy ) has encountered countless obstacles since assuming the Iron Throne . Previously, she had demonstrated the traits of a fair and thoughtful leader : weighing every option, minimizing bloodshed, and mercifully cautious to a point some interpreted as hesitant. Compare that diplomatic prudence to her biggest foil, Daemon ( Matt Smith ), who earned his Rogue Prince moniker by flying off the figurative handle.

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Tesla’s Cybertruck is falling even shorter of expectations than Ford’s infamous Edsel.

Both vehicles paired bold engineering with polarizing styling and lofty sales ambitions.

Commercial failure doesn’t erase innovations that could shape future vehicles.

The Ford Edsel has spent nearly seven decades as the auto industry’s gold standard for commercial failure. If Tesla’s Cybertruck stays on its current trajectory, it’ll own that title outright, a comparison Bloomberg recently drew as well. The irony is that, much like Ford’s infamous flop, the Cybertruck is far more interesting as an engineering exercise than its sales figures suggest.

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Ford expected to sell around 200,000 Edsels during its first model year after launching the car in 1957. Instead, it managed less than one-third of that target before sales continued falling until the model was discontinued just two years later. Tesla’s numbers somehow look dramatically worse.

The Numbers Don’t Add Up

1959 Edsel Corsair Sedan (Photo: Mecum )

Elon Musk once suggested Tesla could eventually build more than 250,000 Cybertrucks annually if demand existed. According to new S&P Global Mobility registration data cited by Bloomberg, only 7,133 Cybertrucks were registered in the U.S. through May. Even allowing for a partial year, the truck remains on pace for well under one-sixth of Musk’s stated ambition. The figures look worse the further we dig.

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More: $131 Million Worth Of Cybertrucks Went To One Buyer, And Elon Musk Owns It

Edsel’s sales peaked during its first year. The Cybertruck saw its current peak, around 39,000 units, during its first year as well. Last year, Tesla sold around 20,000, and it had a little bit of help that Edsel never did. During Q4, almost 19 percent of all Cybertruck sales were to Musk-controlled companies. Now, through half of 2026, it appears that Tesla is on pace for roughly 18,000 Cybertruck sales unless Musk’s brands buy up plenty more or demand inexplicably jumps.

Innovation At The Wrong Price And Time

Both vehicles arrived with styling that immediately divided opinion. Both promised to redefine their respective segments. And both were introduced with expectations that ultimately proved far too optimistic. Yet dismissing either vehicle as simply a failure ignores what each brought to the table.

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The Edsel wasn’t just remembered for its controversial grille. It also introduced genuinely forward-thinking ideas, including its steering-wheel-mounted Teletouch push-button transmission. The system proved unreliable, but it represented the sort of ambitious thinking that’s increasingly rare in the auto industry. The Cybertruck deserves similar credit.

1958 Edsel Citation Convertible (Photo: Mecum )

Setting Musk aside for a moment, Tesla’s pickup is one of the boldest production vehicles we’ve seen in decades. Its steer-by-wire system fundamentally changes the driving experience, making a full-size pickup feel unexpectedly agile while eliminating the traditional mechanical connection between the steering wheel and front axle.

Its 48-volt electrical architecture is another significant step forward, reducing wiring complexity and weight while laying the groundwork for future vehicle electronics. Those aren’t marketing gimmicks. They’re genuine engineering advances that many competitors will likely adopt in one form or another. Unfortunately, innovation alone has never guaranteed commercial success.

Hurdles That Engineers Can’t Overcome

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Like the Edsel before it, the Cybertruck asks buyers to embrace styling that’s anything but conventional. It also became substantially more expensive than many expected after its long development cycle, with early production models costing well into six figures despite Tesla initially discussing a much lower starting price during its unveiling. Then there’s another hurdle the Edsel never had to clear.

Whether deserved or not, the Cybertruck has become inseparable from Elon Musk himself. For many buyers, it’s no longer just an electric pickup but a public statement about the man behind the company. That association has almost certainly narrowed its appeal even further, regardless of what owners or reviewers think about the truck itself.

1958 Edsel Bermuda Station Wagon (Photo: Mecum )

History has been kinder to the Edsel than buyers were in 1958. Today it’s appreciated for its ambition as much as its mistakes, proving that commercial failures can still leave a lasting mark on automotive history. The Cybertruck appears primed to follow the same path. It could end up remembered as one of the industry’s biggest sales disappointments while simultaneously influencing the next generation of vehicle engineering. Those two things aren’t mutually exclusive. History suggests they often go hand in hand.

Photos: Tesla / Mecum