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Kate Gombach recently celebrated four years in recovery from an eating disorder. Such a milestone once felt impossible for the 35-year-old who recalls growing up at the height of "heroin chic," a time in the early aughts when celebrities like Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie appeared in tabloids looking extremely thin. 

"I didn't realize that living the way I'm living now was even an option for me," Gombach tells Mashable. "I thought trying to shrink my body constantly was what I had to do because of the body that I was born in." 

SEE ALSO: Using AI for health questions? Here are 4 tips for the most accurate answers.

Since Gombach completed treatment at the Eating Recovery Center, she'd mostly been able to tune out the kind of messaging and advertising that typically triggered her disordered eating. But over the past several months, that became much harder thanks to one of the most popular medications of the 21st century: appetite- and hunger-suppressing GLP-1s. 

Suddenly, Gombach saw bodies shrinking everywhere she looked, particularly amongst celebrities and on social media. Creators who once championed body positivity or neutrality began weight-loss journeys with little explanation or initial disclosure about paid partnerships and sponsored content, Gombach witnessed.

"I didn't realize that living the way I'm living now was even an option for me." - Kate Gombach

Even as Gombach pruned certain accounts from her feed and actively disliked weight-loss advertising on Instagram and TikTok, Gombach still encounters marketing for GLP-1, or semaglutide, drugs there, not to mention on television and the wider internet. 

"It's not easy, and it's not fun, but [I'm] trying to push through it, maintain my recovery, and hold on to my beliefs, despite a lot of people around me kind of switching," Gombach says. 

Fighting to stay in recovery

She's not alone. Mashable interviewed others in recovery who described the same seismic shift toward thinness and diet culture triggered by GLP-1 drugs. 

In just the first nine months of 2025, the pharmaceutical companies Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly spent $700 million marketing their GLP-1 medications, Wegovy and Ozempic, and Zepbound and Mounjaro, respectively, according to Reuters.  

This advertising rush has made weight loss content inescapable for many. That might help explain why Americans are flocking to online black markets to purchase Eli Lilly's "retatrutide," a drug not yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration that reportedly leads to significant weight loss.  

Meanwhile, influencers pitching wellness optimization strategies, and Make America Healthy Again proponents who promote thinness as virtuousness, have revived diet culture after it fell out of favor in the late 2010s. 

Now former patients like Gombach find themselves fighting to stay in recovery. 

Social media and eating disorders

"Many people feel like they've come through on the other side," said Jessica Scheer, CEO of the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA). "But it's a hard thing to protect now."

Gombach spends several hours a day on social media, where she connects with recovery-focused influencers. Building that network during treatment aided Gombach's recovery, because her friends had neither experienced an eating disorder or lived in a larger body, like she does. 

Yet experts say social media can also be risky for those in recovery as diet culture and pro-disordered eating are extremely difficult to moderate online. 

SEE ALSO: TikTok 'fear food' challenges: Can they help with eating disorder recovery?

Earlier this year, the eating disorder care company Equip surveyed 828 adults about how social media influenced their body image. A number of respondents named GLP-1 ads unprompted as a distinct source of distress. 

A recent survey by NEDA found the same. Clinicians reported having weekly conversations with patients about GLP-1 advertising and increased disordered eating behaviors. 

New research published in JAMA Psychiatry suggests that GLP-1 use may be higher among people with eating disorders compared to the general population. The study authors, who did not look at the role of social media, wrote that these people might use GLP-1 drugs to achieve rapid food restriction and weight loss.

Whether or not they are actually taking the drugs, people with a history of disordered eating may be more at risk online. A 2024 TikTok algorithm study, conducted by researchers at the University of Melbourne, found that users with a history of disordered eating were served more videos featuring "toxic" eating disorder content than those without prior struggles. 

The researchers attributed the increased likelihood of seeing such videos to the platform's content personalization system, particularly the way TikTok collects and profiles users based on personal data. The platform, they wrote, may see lingering on content as a sign of engagement. 

The researchers noted several limitations of their study, including that they evaluated videos based on hashtags, an "imperfect" indicator of their content. TikTok declined to comment on the research. 

Positive engagement or eating disorder risk?

Dr. Blair Burnette, a Michigan State University assistant professor and principal investigator of the eating- and body image-focused ARISE Lab, called the findings of the study "extremely disturbing." She was not involved in the research.

"It was very clear that the people who were struggling were getting delivered more harmful content," said Burnette, who is overseeing multiple studies on social media's effect on body image, GLP-1 advertising, and eating disorders. A patient can unintentionally direct more GLP-1 related content to their feed simply by pausing on a video or searching for seemingly unrelated content, she explained. It's become a greater worry for her as a clinician. 

Equip survey participants also reported that actively seeking body-positive or recovery-focused content led to seeing more about fitness and body transformation, as well as restrictive eating. 

GLP-1 content on social media

Dr. Elizabeth Wassenaar, regional medical director of the Eating Recovery Center, said that social media usage is cropping up more and more in treatment with the rise of GLP-1s. Patients are vulnerable to posts about GLP-1 weight loss, and platforms are responding to it, she said. "The algorithm likely curates content that gets more interaction, and when people are engaged in a mental illness, the content that gets more interaction reinforces that mental illness."

While their effectiveness is still widely debated, many platforms offer content controls intended to weed out such posts. Still, less obvious content can derail recovery. A favorite creator suddenly posting an image of their thinner body, for example, is not easily flagged by moderation tools or necessarily clocked by users themselves. 

In fact, Scheer explained, eating disorder content readily "shapeshifts" into whatever nutrition and wellness trends are taking over the internet at any given moment. Unhealthy or restrictive food habits can be repackaged as "clean eating." Compulsive exercise is reformed into "hot girl walks" or daily gym vlogs. GLP-1 influencers are lumped in with wellness advice accounts.

"It's a great business model." - Sharon Maxwell, weight inclusivity advocate

Scheer points to advertising phrases like "take control of your health" or "get back control of your body," which mirror the mindset of many people experiencing disordered eating habits. 

Co-opting the language of recovery

The diet industry has also co-opted the language of recovery and anti-diet spaces to sell their own products. For example, GLP-1 ads often promise to quiet "food noise," or incessant rumination on hunger and eating. Food noise happens to be one of the most common indicators or struggles among people with eating disorders, explained Sharon Maxwell, a weight inclusivity advocate, consultant, and content creator. 

"People with eating disorders are very susceptible," said Maxwell. "It's a great business model."

Maxwell started posting online after they left a restrictive cult upbringing and were diagnosed with an eating disorder. They built a career offering weight inclusive curriculum to large businesses and eating recovery facilities, even collaborating with Meta's former moderation team on better age-gating of eating disorder content. But in recent years that work has dwindled. 

The human safety teams Maxwell once worked with have been reconfigured or shrunk, they note. In the year since, they say they’ve seen a rise in anti-fat content. And as platforms bank on questionable drug and wellness advertising revenue, Maxwell says creators they used to work alongside have pivoted to sponsored GLP-1 posts.

Eating disorder recovery in the era of GLP-1s

Content about GLP-1s, already hard to moderate, is supercharged by stereotypes about larger bodies and weight loss. GLP-1s are much less criticized because they result in thinner bodies, said Wassenaar. Though researchers are still learning about their long-term effects, GLP-1s have surged in popularity, even as established interventions that have nothing to do with body size, like vitamin K shots for infants and life-saving vaccines, are increasingly rejected. 

For those in recovery, this type of messaging can generate guilt and shame, explained Wassenaar. GLP-1 marketing constantly suggests the need to change one's physical appearance — and that there are several choices available for doing so. 

"You could make a choice to be on a medication. You could make a choice to be on a diet. You could choose a lower calorie food, but you're not, and that's why you think your body is flawed," Wassenaar said of the normalization of weight loss interventions. "It's insidious."

"I don't have to lose weight. I don't have to go down that path."  - Kate Gombach, former patient

Maxwell says they'd be lying if they didn't feel enticed to use GLP-1s for weight loss. 

Gombach similarly wonders about GLP-1s. She says two of her doctors tried to prescribe her a GLP-1 based on her body mass index, despite the fact that she's in good health. "Would people be nicer to me if I did that?" Gombach asks.

Maxwell and Gombach say GLP-1s aren't the solution to such thoughts.

"It's not the medicine itself that sounds appealing to me. It's the outcome of being in a smaller body," Maxwell said. "I know what happens if I engage in intentional weight loss, and that is a relapse into anorexia, and I'm not willing to do that."

Managing social media while in recovery  

Since entering treatment, Gombach finished her masters in clinical mental health counseling and specializes in eating disorder care. That may give her unique insight into coping with ubiquitous weight-loss messaging, but she still uses multiple strategies herself. 

Gombach leans on practices she learned in acceptance and commitment therapy, which focuses on aligning behavior with one's values. When Gombach sees content that could trigger negative feelings about her body, she affirms that it's not for her and doesn't match what she wants for herself. 

She also focuses on "clarity of intention," or the reality that an influencer, brand, or pharmaceutical company preys on people's insecurities so that they'll buy a product and feel better or achieve greater acceptance. 

Then there's training her algorithm. She immediately unfollows a creator when they announce they're on a GLP-1 drug. Every few months, she mass unfollows accounts that have begun sharing diet culture content. Gombach also tries to adjust her ad settings, but frequently sees harmful marketing content nonetheless. 

SEE ALSO: I tried to scrub weight loss content from my FYP. Here's what I learned.

Gombach says she hasn't considered quitting social media because "it’s still something that ultimately helps me." 

Time to turn away from social media?

Dr. Erin Parks, co-founder and chief clinical officer of Equip, says even former patients' best efforts to filter content run headlong into algorithms that don't distinguish between thinness and health. 

She doesn't discourage patients from eliminating screen time altogether, because it may be helpful to them. Yet, she does want them to consider whether being on their phone is like attempting not to drink but spending all their time in a bar. 

Parks recommends people in recovery curate their feed with a clinician when possible and stay open to their changing needs. Content they find tolerable one day may trigger disordered eating thoughts the next. That's why she says it's important for people to closely monitor their social media use, including their intended time spent versus reality, as well as how they feel before, during, and after scrolling. 

Maxwell has also scaled back their time online because of GLP-1s. They stopped posting about eating disorder recovery years ago, opting to highlight the joys of living in a larger body. "So often in eating disorder recovery we're obsessed with staying in the disorder, and then we become obsessed with the process of recovery, and that almost replaces the eating disorder," they explained. "My life isn't about recovery, recovery allows me to have a life."

While the rise of GLP-1s has made the desire to escape weight stigma difficult to ignore, Maxwell still envisions a future where social media can support those in recovery and fight weight discrimination. 

"I do have hope," Maxwell said. "How much? Not as much as a few years ago, but it's still there, and I'm still holding on. I've got a vice grip on it."

If you are concerned about your eating behavior, visit the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) website for more information. You can also text CONNECT to 741741 for immediate support from a trained volunteer at the Crisis Text Line.

The Kia Forte quietly disappeared after the 2024 model year, replaced by the new K4 as Kia continued reshaping its sedan lineup. Unlike many discontinued cars, the Forte wasn’t pushed aside because it was outdated—it simply became another compact sedan overlooked as buyers moved toward SUVs.

Wes Ott tries out the new Aliro standard with the Nuki smart lock. He goes over why this new standard from the CSA matters and how it will change smart home keys.

Dyson just released an updated version of its latest multi-styler, the Airwrap Co-anda2x, just one year after the original version of the styling tool became available.

The updated Airwrap, available to purchase as of July 9, comes with a new lineup of attachments and a more powerful motor for creating longer-lasting styles. The new Co-anda2x retails for $749.99, putting it at the same price point as the first version of the styler. (The first iteration initially went for $699.99, but jumped up $50 in price after its release).

Opens in a new window Credit: Dyson Dyson Airwrap Co-anda2x $749.99 at Dyson
  Shop Now The updated Dyson Airwrap Co-anda2x: What's new

While the latest Airwrap Co-anda2x looks rather similar to its predecessor at first glance, the upgrades made could go a long way for anyone looking for the longest lasting styling possible.

Updated attachments

The first major update to the new Airwrap is the four new attachments, replacing some of the lineup from the 2025 release of the Airwrap Co-anda2x.

The 2026 Airwrap Co-anda2x attachment lineup is as follows (new attachments are bolded):

• Conical Co-anda2x curling barrel: a tapered barrel for creating more defined curls that can style hair closer to the root

• Large round volumizing brush 2x: a larger round brush with a 2.8-inch diameter, which is larger than that of the round brush included with the previous generation Airwrap

• 1.6-inch Co-anda2x Curling Barrel (Long): a curling barrel that's the same diameter as the larger barrel option on the older Airwrap, but features a long barrel, making it easier to grab thicker or larger sections of hair

• Air straightener 2x: a clamp-style straightening iron that uses air to create and set the style

• Fast dryer2x

• Anti-snag loop brush 2x

Dyson also updated the curly/coily model of the Airwrap, but it's not available just yet. According to a Dyson spokesperson, that version of the Airwrap will hit store shelves in the coming weeks.

As a reminder, the 2025 Airwrap Co-anda2x attachments are as follows:

• 30-millimeter Co-anda2x curling barrel

• 40-millimeter Co-anda2x curling barrel

• Round volumizing brush 2x

• AirSmooth 2x attachment

• Fast dryer 2x

• Anti-snag loop brush 2x

The new Airwrap Co-anda2x attachment lineup... Credit: Dyson Compared to the curly/coily lineup of the previous gen. Credit: Dyson

The addition of the Air straightener 2x marks the first time that any Airwrap has featured a straightening attachment that isn't a brush. Anyone looking to get in on the Dyson air straightening tech before this Airwrap would have to buy the Dyson Airstrait, which goes for $499.99 at full price. While there are multiple new attachments on this Airwrap, the straightener is by far the biggest deviation from any previous Airwrap model.

Like its predecessor, these Airwrap attachments are RFID-enabled and can automatically change the air speed and temperature for optimal styling results. I was skeptical as to how much of a difference this could make when I tried out the first-generation Airwrap Co-anda2x, but pairing the multi-styler with the app and using the automatic adjustments genuinely made for longer styles that felt less effortful to achieve.

The attachments are also available to buy separately, and are backward compatible with the first version of the Airwrap Co-anda2x, but no other previous Airwrap model. (So far, we can only find the new versions of two out of four of the attachments on Dyson's site, but we will update this piece when the rest become available.)

• Conical Co-anda2x curling barrel 2x — $39.99

• Air straightener 2x attachment — $44.99  

• Large round volumizing brush 2x — $39.99

• 1.6-inch Co-anda2x curling barrel — $39.99

A new motor

The other notable upgrade is the introduction of a new motor: the Dyson Gen 2 motor. While not as flashy as new attachments, the headline here is increased air pressure, which is designed to create and lock in styles better. In my experience, multi-stylers in general, including the Dyson Airwrap, can struggle with longevity in styles, as they do not rely on heat as much as traditional styling tools. The new motor, then, seems to be an answer to customer concerns over this reality.

Where to buy the new Dyson Airwrap Co-anda2x

As of July 9, you can pick up the second-generation Dyson Airwrap Co-anda2x at Dyson's website and at Sephora in the ceramic pink colorway. A jasper plum colorway will become available later this year.

Where to buy the Dyson Airwrap Co-anda2x Dyson.com Dyson Airwrap Co-anda2x $749.99 Shop Now Sephora Dyson Airwrap Co-anda2x $749.99 Shop Now The older gen Dyson Airwrap Co-anda2x $749.99 Shop Now

Homelabs don't always have to be massive. Sometimes, just a Raspberry Pi, a laptop, and an old phone or two can be an ideal lab setup. I'm in the latter camp, preferring old phones to tinker around with in my free time. My latest experiment is repurposing an old Motorola phone in my homelab.

Saving money at the pump usually means making compromises, whether it's paying more upfront for a hybrid or settling for a less desirable car. But one affordable sedan quietly breaks that rule, delivering exceptional fuel economy without demanding a premium price or sacrificing everyday usability.

I'm someone who smashes TikTok's "Not Interested" button like I'm getting paid per click. 

Content about losing weight, eating clean, or glow-ups have become an easy target for my lightning quick thumbs. Post about how healing your gut microbiome also made you lose 20 pounds? Not interested. The latest Serena Williams Ro ad? Certainly not interested! Vlog about packing a palm-sized, crumb-filled "snack" tin? What did I say? Not. Interested!! 

I believed in that precious button. I thought it was a tool in the fight against companies hawking GLP-1s or weight loss apps and creators platforming unhealthy body transformations while disguising unhealthy eating habits as trends.

SEE ALSO: GLP-1s are inescapable online. Here's why that's a problem.

More than 30 million Americans will have an eating disorder in their lifetime — and every 52 minutes a person dies as a direct consequence of an eating disorder, according to the Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders (STRIPED). Meanwhile, our federal government is funneling taxpayer money into ads that call people in larger bodies "nasty," all while slashing at affordable food programs, healthcare, and federal food regulation. 

I've worked hard to keep that messaging out of my life, but I've noticed that weight loss influencers still frequently infiltrate my daily scroll. About every third ad is for a weight loss service. I'm seeing GLP-1 influencers more than my friends. What's going on, "Not Interested" button?

If you are like me, shouting disinterest to the TikTok algorithm gods, I have horrible news. It doesn't appear to do anything. 

TikTok's "Not Interested" button isn't what you think

After what I would estimate was years of trying to curate my FYP, check out what my advertising settings looked like when I went over them last month:  

Credit: Mashable screenshot / TikTok Credit: Mashable screenshot / TikTok

Health & Wellness: Interested. Weight management: No preference.

Well. I thought I had made my preferences and interests pretty clear, actually.

I also looked at my content topic preferences, which users can edit using a sliding scale from "See More" to "See Less." They were all still set to the default, including "Health and Fitness." This is the closest to weight-related settings on this page, since there isn't a specific sliding scale for weight loss or body-focused content. 

Credit: Mashable screenshot / TikTok

TikTok's own advertising guidelines prohibit "exaggerated or harmful weight loss or muscle gain claims" and products such as fat burning pills, appetite suppressants, and weight loss or detox foods. The app's community guidelines ban content that promotes disordered eating and risky weight management behaviors, including sponsored content from creators. The company says its "goal is to foster a body-positive and inclusive environment" and the platform hosts a large community of body positive creators, several I follow.

And yet.

I had incorrectly assumed that by smashing "Not Interested," TikTok was also automatically changing my account settings. It's not. Instead, "Not Interested" is more like a thumbs down, adjusting how the algorithm is categorizing me and my interests in a much more simple manner. If I hit "Not Interested" on one GLP-1 creator, or even go as far as blocking their page, it would continue to show me others. It's not registering that I don't want to see any content like that, just that I didn't enjoy scrolling by that one. 

To be fair to the billion dollar company, the button wasn't designed or advertised to act the way I and other users think it does. But research has found that it may not be effective at its intended purpose, limiting specific content, either.  

A recent Northeastern study used hundreds of bot accounts to test the impact of the tool — which researchers still called "the most effective explicit" signal to the algorithm — on user agency. It found that video topics can reappear mere minutes after hitting the button under these conditions.

"Worse, we find that once accounts cease to indicate disinterest in a topic, many find their feeds dominated by such content again," the study authors write. TikTok declined to comment on the research. 

Content settings: Solution or part of the problem?

That's not to say you shouldn't use TikTok's "Not Interested" button. It's also not the end all be all of personal content moderation on the platform. In fact, there's a plethora of settings users may not know exist. Specific content control tools and ad preferences — including ones related to weight loss and nutrition — are embedded deep in profile settings.

What I changed in my TikTok settings

For content preferences (at the top of your settings), I moved "Health & Fitness" all the way to "see less" and adjusted "Fashion & Beauty" as well, just to be safe.

Then, I scrolled to the bottom of my settings to find ad controls. I clicked "manage ad topics" to adjust specific types of content and "mute advertisers" to hide accounts. I adjusted every related setting to the equivalent of "Not Interested," including removing any personal user details that could potentially indicate my interest (like my gender and age) under "edit personal details." To find settings for "weight management," I had to select "Other" under "manage ad topics."

I cleaned out TikTok's "inferred" preferences, too. Yes, you can see what assumptions TikTok has made of you. I recommend you take a look. 

Credit: Mashable screenshot / TikTok Credit: Mashable screenshot / TikTok

The app gave me notice: I may have to wait 48 hours to see any changes. Finally, I thought, these may actually do something.

I gave the app the full two days, waiting to see a change… and I kept waiting. In fact, I am still waiting, months later. 

Not long after I changed my settings and began testing the "Not Interested" button more intentionally, the ads seemed to only get worse, just like the Northeastern researchers posited. I started screenshotting every ad I got just out of pure incredulity. Here's a sampling:

May 9: Two Wegovy semaglutide injection ads. 

May 14: A sponsored vlog from an account named "Lily Nurse&Lifestyle" with the caption "Unrecognizable ✨ #tryeden #glp1community #fyp"

May 27: One ad for TrimRX. One for Hers' Wegovy subscription. A vlog of a woman who "mysteriously" lost half her body weight. 

May 30: A Ro ad, featuring images of semaglutide injection pens and the Wegovy pill. An ad from BitePal: Food Calorie Tracker showing possibly AI-generated women wearing anatomical onesies with fat pads attached. A vlog from a GLP-1 influencer with the caption "How to get started on a GLP-1 🤍".

Nearly two months after first reporting this story, I am still inundated with ads.

I blocked Ro. And yet there the brand was... Credit: Mashable Instagram and weight loss content: What to know

I recognize it's not just a problem for TikTok, so I also explored Instagram's tools to personalize content and reconfigure user preference profiles.

Under content preferences, users can see and edit their own algorithm, including things you want to encounter less. Unlike TikTok, users can also "snooze" suggested content from profiles you don't follow for 30 days at a time. (Do that.)

Credit: Mashable screenshot What Instagram knows about me right now. Credit: Mashable screenshot

But here is the real difference between the two platforms, experts told me: Unlike TikTok, Instagram's main feed is not designed to show you a never-ending flow of content from people you don't follow.

Yes, you can go to the app's explore page. Yes, the app can inject suggested content into your scroll. But you can also avoid those things much easier than on TikTok (who actually uses the "Following" tab over there?), and stick with only the accounts you have carefully chosen to pay attention to. 

I checked my settings, which are linked across Meta platforms like Facebook, and adjusted them only marginally. As long as I stick to my main feed, I haven't had as much of a problem.

This isn't to say Instagram is perfect. In fact, parent company Meta was recently found liable for misleading consumers about the safety of its platforms when it came to mental health and content tools. But I feel a bit better over there. For now.

Can you ever be fully safe from weight loss ads online?

In the midst of a growing frustration with my feeds — that I have still not solved — I turned to experts. 

I asked Jessica Scheer, CEO of the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), why it's so difficult to protect our feeds, and why GLP-1 ads have seemed to skirt the tools above. 

"Because of the political construct we're in right now," Scheer said, "we're seeing much more of a laissez-faire approach to any type of active content moderation on either accounts or algorithm programming."

"It's really, really tough, because everybody's competing for the views, the clicks, the likes," said Dr. Elizabeth Wassenaar, regional medical director of the Eating Recovery Center. "The algorithms are designed in favor of the creators, not in favor of the consumers."

And even when platforms have robust controls, weight loss content can very easily slip through the cracks, explains Dr. Blair Burnette, a Michigan State University assistant professor and principal investigator of the ARISE Lab. Videos featuring disordered eating, body checking, and anti-fat sentiment are not easily caught by algorithms trained to scan captions, comment sections, and audio for explicit words and phrases. 

Not only are brands still creeping up, but so-called "GLP-1 influencers." Credit: Mashable How to clean your feeds, the best you can

If I can offer you one takeaway, it is this: Continuously update your profile settings. Not once, not twice, but consistently. 

Scheer says NEDA is still figuring out best practices for being online in this landscape, working alongside clinicians, caregivers, and people with lived experience to determine which tools work, which ones don't, and how tech companies can step up. But in the meantime, routine (or even clinician-supported) audits of your feeds are crucial. "Algorithms re-train slowly so repetition is key," the organization writes. 

"Oftentimes, these fixes are only temporary," said Scheer. "It only really helps you, maybe, for a few sessions, and then you might have to recalibrate yet again."

Burnette told me she is also still figuring out the best advice for patients who want to stay online while in recovery. But there are ways to regain some control. 

She recommends her patients utilize device screen time limits and additional time-limiting apps like Roots. She suggests following new forms of content and purging your following list regularly. You have to be intentional in who you choose to follow, Burnette advises, like creators who are specifically anti-diet or accounts that never post images of their bodies. 

This advice works just as effectively for those who aren't in active recovery. If your feed isn't working anymore, scrap it. If something feels off about accounts you've followed for years, block them. If your phone is causing more anxiety than joy, put it down. Don't be precious about it, either. That's how Big Tech (and its sneaky older sibling Big Pharma) want you to feel. 

If you are concerned about your eating behavior, visit the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) website for more information. You can also text CONNECT to 741741 for immediate support from a trained volunteer at the Crisis Text Line.

Are you currently learning Bash? Have you seen things like $0 and $EUID and wondered what they mean? Or what the difference is between $UID and $EUID? I'll cover these and more: what they do and why they're important.

Valve's second-generation Steam Controller released in May 2026 and sold out almost immediately. When you're looking at it, it is immediately obvious that it is a continuation of the original Steam Controller, but there are some important differences.

Paying monthly for Claude made sense until I actually looked at what I was getting versus what I was giving up. The cost adds up, and I'm sure that more people are starting to see this too. If you've had that same realization, the tools below are worth knowing about. They cover the main features that Claude has without the major downsides and takedowns.

TL;DR: Live stream France vs. Morocco in the 2026 FIFA World Cup for free on ITVX. Access this free streaming platform from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN, an Official Supporter of the FIFA World Cup 2026.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup only has a handful of games left to play. We've reached the quarter-final stage, with four fascinating matchups on the schedule.

This stage starts with France vs. Morocco, arguably the best game of the round. France have been electric in this competition, with incredible displays of attacking talent from the likes of Mbappé and Olise. Morocco have come through fixtures against Brazil and the Netherlands to reach this stage. They're a passionate team stacked with elite players, and they're sure to give France a real test.

If you want to watch France vs. Morocco in the 2026 FIFA World Cup from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.

When is France vs. Morocco?

France vs. Morocco in the 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off at 4 p.m. ET on July 9. This fixture takes place at the Boston Stadium.

How to watch France vs. Morocco for free

France vs. Morocco in the 2026 FIFA World Cup is available to live stream for free on ITVX.

ITVX is geo-restricted to the UK, but anyone can access this free streaming platform with a VPN. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in the UK, meaning you can unblock ITVX to live stream the 2026 World Cup for free from anywhere in the world.

Live stream France vs. Morocco for free by following these simple steps:

1. Subscribe to a streaming-friendly VPN (we recommend ExpressVPN)

2. Download the app to your device of choice (the best VPNs have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more)

3. Open up the app and connect to a server in the UK

4. Visit ITVX

5. Watch France vs. Morocco for free from anywhere in the world

Opens in a new window Credit: ExpressVPN ExpressVPN (1-Month Plan) $12.99 only at ExpressVPN Get Deal

The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but most do offer free-trials or money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can access free live streams of the 2026 World Cup without actually spending anything. This obviously isn't a long-term solution, but it does give you enough time to stream France vs. Morocco (plus more World Cup fixtures) before recovering your investment.

ExpressVPN's regular 30-day money-back guarantee is not available for any subscriptions purchased during the FIFA World Cup between June 10 and July 11. ExpressVPN remains our top pick for sport, but you will need to pay the monthly rate. Alternatively, Proton VPN still offers that all-important money-back guarantee.

What is the best VPN for ITVX?

ExpressVPN is the best choice for bypassing geo-restrictions to stream live sport on ITVX, for a number of reasons:

• Servers in 105 countries including the UK

• Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more

• Strict no-logging policy so your data is secure

• Fast connection speeds free from throttling

• Up to 10 simultaneous connections

A two-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $68.40 and includes an extra four months for free — 81% off for a limited time. Alternatively, you can get a one-month plan for just $12.99. That covers you for the duration of the World Cup.

Live stream France vs. Morocco in the 2026 FIFA World Cup for free.

For years, buying an affordable electric SUV meant accepting one major compromise: limited driving range. That's no longer the case. Advances in battery technology and growing competition have made it possible to get well over 300 miles on a charge without spending luxury-car money.

A direct Ethernet line should be faster than a Wi-Fi connection. That's what I thought at least. Downloads were taking forever. Web pages were slow to load. Sometimes, the reason can be a handful of network adapter settings that affect how your PC handles its wired connection.

Spend five minutes on the World Cup side of TikTok or scrolling through X, and you might come away with one glaring conclusion: Everyone is rooting against Argentina.

That is not exactly true, of course. Argentina has one of the loudest, most passionate fan bases in the tournament, and Lionel Messi remains one of the most beloved athletes on the planet. But online, the defending champions have become the World Cup's biggest lightning rod, as every rival fan base seems ready to cast Argentina as the tournament's heel, the team that always seems to thrive amid controversy.

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The latest fuel came after Argentina's dramatic 3-2 comeback win over Egypt in the Round of 16, a match that ended with Egypt filing a formal complaint to FIFA over disputed VAR decisions and officiating. Head coach Hossam Hassan even suggested the governing body wanted to keep Messi in the tournament, allegations FIFA has not substantiated.

BBC Sport later analyzed the match and concluded that while several officiating decisions were undoubtedly controversial, they did not amount to evidence of a conspiracy. Still, the outlet noted that perception has become part of the story, pointing to statistics that have fueled online debate and FIFA's decision to appoint an all-Argentine on-field officiating crew for France's quarterfinal against Morocco, a choice it described as "not a great look."

But the anti-Argentina pile-on is bigger than one controversial match. It is what happens when sporting rivalries, geopolitical tension, Messi fatigue, and internet fandom all collide.

That is the strange beauty of the World Cup. Every match carries decades of history onto the pitch before the opening whistle. Or, as one Portuguese-language X user put it, "The World Cup is 20% soccer and 80% colonial resentment."

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Unlike club soccer, where rivalries are built around cities and leagues, the World Cup asks entire countries to compete. As writer Franklin Foer argued in How Soccer Explains the World, the sport often reflects far more than what happens on the field; it can become a proxy for nationalism, historical conflict, and cultural identity.

On social media, those fault lines get compressed into memes and 130 characters. Argentina is not just Argentina; depending on who is posting, it is the team that broke France's heart in 2022, the rival England still associates with Maradona and the Falklands, the opponent Mexico fans love to hate, or the Messi-led dynasty some viewers are simply tired of seeing win.

Geography doesn't always dictate loyalty, either. While fans often talk about Latin America rallying behind one of its own, the region's football rivalries run deep. Brazil and Argentina have spent more than a century battling for continental supremacy, while Uruguay and Chile each have their own sporting history with La Albiceleste. Mexico, meanwhile, has repeatedly seen its World Cup dreams ended by Argentina, helping turn every meeting between the two countries into an internet event of its own.

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Argentina's relationship with the rest of Latin America is complicated by more than football. Historians and sociologists have written about the country's long-standing self-image as a uniquely "European" nation within Latin America, an identity that often minimized or erased its Black and Indigenous history.

That history has collided with soccer before. After Argentina won the 2024 Copa América, the French Football Federation said it would file a complaint with FIFA over "racist and discriminatory remarks" in a chant sung by Argentina players about France's diverse team; Enzo Fernández later apologized, and his Premier League club, Chelsea, opened an internal disciplinary process.

That broader conversation has followed Argentina into this year's World Cup. FIFA is investigating allegations of racist abuse directed at YouTube creator iShowSpeed during Argentina's Round of 32 victory over Cape Verde after footage from his livestream appeared to capture an altercation with an Argentina supporter. The investigation is ongoing, but the incident quickly became another flashpoint in the wider online debate surrounding Argentina and race.

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None of that means every Argentina fan shares those views, or that every anti-Argentina post is about race. But it helps explain why some Latin American and Black football fans online are reading this year's incidents through a broader history, one in which Argentina's image of itself as white and European has long been contested.

So, the next time your For You Page insists that "everyone hates Argentina," remember that you're probably looking at more than just another soccer take. You're watching decades of history condensed into a 90-second video and one very heated comments section.

Android has come to dominate the global smartphone marketplace, and a large part of why this has happened is thanks to its open-source nature. Any phone maker can put Android on its phones with no licensing fees, and its adoption has also spawned a massive app ecosystem, so unless you're a trillion-dollar company like Apple, going a different way isn't sensible.

Why carry both a phone and a laptop if one device could do both? A Redditor has built a DIY "laptop" shell that is fully 3D printed, complete with a folding keyboard, a hideaway mouse, a massive battery, and a shoulder strap. It doesn’t have a processor of its own—instead, it uses a Pixel 9 running on GrapheneOS as the engine.

At a glance

• Aurora 1.5 is a major extension of Microsoft’s Aurora Earth System foundation model that adds 22 more weather variables relevant to energy, agriculture, transport, and climate risk, along with hourly temporal resolution and probabilistic ensemble forecasting.
• Released as open source on GitHub with model checkpoints on Hugging Face, Aurora 1.5 enables researchers and developers to use, evaluate, and build on the model.
• Aurora 1.5 connects open research to Microsoft Weather services, linking the model with data, infrastructure, managed access, and operational use for weather and Earth-system applications.

Aurora 1.5 is a major update to the open Aurora Earth-system foundation model, adding 22 new weather variables for a broader view of atmospheric conditions, hourly forecasts, and probabilistic ensemble forecasting. Developed by Microsoft Weather as an extension of the original model from Microsoft Research AI for Science, Aurora 1.5 shows how frontier research can move into broader use: open for researchers and developers to evaluate and extend, and designed to support customers where additional data, infrastructure, and operational assurance is needed. As climate and weather-related risks continue to affect communities, infrastructure, and economies worldwide, advances in Earth-system forecasting can help improve preparedness and decision-making.

What is Aurora?

Aurora is a foundation model for the Earth system developed by Microsoft Research AI for Science, first introduced in 2024 and published in Nature (opens in new tab) in 2025. It showed that a single model could be adapted to medium-range weather, ocean waves, atmospheric chemistry, and emerging climate applications, including high-resolution weather forecasting through fine-tuning. Its growing use has reinforced the value of an open, collaborative model that is easier to adapt, evaluate, and put to use. 

This next phase of Aurora (opens in new tab) builds on that foundation by making the model openly available for the global community to adapt, extend, and build on. 

What is new in Aurora 1.5?

Aurora 1.5 advances the broader effort to make open weather foundation models practical and scalable for organizations that rely on atmospheric and Earth-system intelligence. Alongside new variables and higher temporal resolution, Aurora 1.5 adds one of the most requested capabilities from users: ensemble forecasting. Because forecasts are sensitive to initial conditions and model uncertainty, ensembles run multiple simulations to show the range and likelihood of possible outcomes. Aurora 1.5 builds on Microsoft Research’s scientific foundation with new product engineering, cloud infrastructure, managed access, and decision-support capabilities. Together, these advances make Aurora 1.5 a valuable enterprise-grade weather solution for organizations. 

Figure 1: Illustration of the capabilities of Aurora 1.5 ensemble for predicting new impactful parameters such as total cloud cover and solar radiation. Ensemble mean and standard deviation are shown. 

The breadth update adds 22 new variables to Aurora’s original 4, including representative surface, pressure-level, wind, temperature, humidity, precipitation, and radiation fields. That broader coverage makes the model more relevant for sectors that depend on integrated Earth-system signals, from energy and agriculture to transport and resilience planning. 

The update to hourly temporal resolution enables fine-grained detail for precision operational guidance, such as the onset of precipitation, trade decisions, or a landfalling tropical cyclone. 

“Aurora 1.5 is a meaningful step toward making weather foundation models more open, useful, and practical. By releasing the model openly, we give researchers, developers, and organizations a clearer path to evaluate it, adapt it, and understand where it can help. Microsoft Weather’s role is to connect that open research foundation with the data, infrastructure, and applied workflows required by enterprises to use weather intelligence responsibly and with confidence.”

Sridhar Iyer, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft AI

video series

On Second Thought

A video series with Sinead Bovell built around the questions everyone’s asking about AI. With expert voices from across Microsoft, we break down the tension and promise of this rapidly changing technology, exploring what’s evolving and what’s possible.

Explore the series Opens in a new tab Ensemble Forecasting in Aurora 1.5 Unlocks More Confident Decisions in the Face of Weather Uncertainty

The ensemble version of Aurora 1.5 introduces stochastic perturbations to represent model uncertainty, allowing the generation of multiple forecast members to estimate the spread of possible futures. For a multitude of applications including power systems, transport, agriculture, extreme-weather planning, and climate risk, the model distribution matters as much as the best estimate. 

This ensemble capability was developed through multi-stage fine-tuning on top of the original Aurora model. After expanding the variable set and adding hourly temporal resolution, the team introduced controlled perturbations into the model’s latent conditioning pathway and optimized the ensemble for probabilistic forecast quality. A final round of auto-regressive fine-tuning on ECMWF High Resolution (HRES) analysis data from 2018 to 2023 improved rollout behavior and stability.

Figure 2. Comparing Aurora 1.5’s probabilistic forecasts with the ECMWF ensemble forecast. The shading shows relative probabilistic forecast error, using ECMWF ENS as the baseline: blue areas indicate where Aurora 1.5 performs better, and red areas indicate where it performs worse. Across upper-air geopotential, temperature, and humidity, together with five surface variables, Aurora 1.5 outperforms ECMWF ENS on 88.9% of the evaluated variable-and-lead-time targets. 

Aurora’s ensemble approach summarizes uncertainty across multiple model runs. Its probabilistic forecasts outperform those of the state-of-the-art ECWMF dynamical ensemble on 88.9% of evaluated targets (Figure 1). In evaluations on all 2024–2025 tropical cyclones, Aurora 1.5 substantially reduced track errors, including roughly one-third lower track error when comparing the ensemble median to the original Aurora. An example for the devastating Hurricane Helene shows how Aurora 1.5’s skill translates to high-impact weather applications. 

Figure 3. Hurricane Helene ensemble forecast from Aurora 1.5, showing multiple plausible storm tracks starting at 0 UTC on September 24, 2024. The probabilistic ensemble forecast envelops the verified track, effectively capturing uncertainty in the storm’s progression. Figure 4. Aurora 1.5 reduces track error relative to the original model across lead times. Ensemble mean and median tracks are used for diagnostics, with the median showing the strongest gains, reaching roughly one-third lower error by day 5. Results reflect track position only.  Beyond weather: Aurora as an Earth-system foundation

Beyond medium-range weather applications, Terradot – part of the Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund portfolio—is working with the AI for Good Lab (opens in new tab) and the Microsoft Research Accelerator on TerraNova, using Aurora-derived weather representations (opens in new tab) to estimate and optimize carbon dioxide removal from enhanced rock weathering under real field conditions. Sasankh Munukutla, Co-Founder of Terradot, highlights, “By building on Aurora, we’re significantly advancing our R&D timelines and accelerating our path towards gigaton-scale carbon removal.” This work shows how Earth-system foundation models can support climate mitigation and public-interest science beyond forecasting, including settings where rigorous evaluation and responsible deployment matter.

Aurora is also being explored with partners such as the UK Met Office, exploring how foundation models can work alongside established physics-based systems to tackle problems from weather to climate time scales. The aim is faster, more flexible forecasts that support decision-making without replacing the science behind trusted prediction. 

“Microsoft’s Aurora model is an exciting and promising tool, enabling Met Office scientists to bring their data and expertise to help solve climate problems and provide new kinds of climate information. Met Office and Microsoft scientists and engineers are working together every day to translate lessons from AI weather prediction into the climate information space, sharing expertise in data science and climate science. Aurora is a great platform for learning how to translate these tools for use in climate projection to make the AI climate models of the future.”

— Doug McNeall, Science lead for Data-Driven Climate Modelling, Met Office Hadley Centre  Connecting open models to operational use

Microsoft connects open research, product engineering, responsible deployment, and partner ecosystems so that models can move from scientific advance to evaluated operational use. As an example, Aurora began in Microsoft Research AI for Science and is now being built on for operational use by Microsoft Weather, with AI for Good helping to evaluate public-interest applications. The platform path brings Aurora into Microsoft Foundry and Planetary Computer Pro, alongside Agent skills and Azure services that connect models with geospatial data, scalable infrastructure, and applied workflows. BKW provides an early proof point: the company is using Aurora 1.5 alongside existing operational Microsoft Weather models to support energy operations where weather-dependent generation, infrastructure planning, and environmental data need to come together. 

“This collaboration demonstrates how advanced AI capabilities and robust cloud infrastructure can be applied to one of the most strategic domains — energy, where weather plays a fundamental role. In a time of accelerated transformation, it supports our ambition to operate increasingly renewable-based systems, where generation is inherently weather-dependent, and to better anticipate and manage this variability with greater confidence and precision.” 

Farhat Quiñones Yamshid, Lead, AI and Technology, BKW  From open research to broader impact

Aurora’s open-source availability is intended to help researchers, agencies, companies, and civil society evaluate, apply, and extend the model. Microsoft Weather is building on that open foundation to deliver easier access to Aurora forecasts through managed services, integrations, and responsible deployment paths for organizations that depend on weather and Earth-system intelligence.

Foundation models should complement—not replace—physics-based models and domain expertise. The opportunity is to use them responsibly, with careful evaluation and transparency, and to invite researchers, agencies, companies, and public-interest partners to test where Aurora and related Microsoft Weather capabilities can improve forecasting, planning, and climate resilience in their own settings.

About Microsoft Weather 

Microsoft Weather is the AI-based forecasting team behind weather experiences across Windows, Bing, Copilot, Edge, and MSN, reaching more than a billion devices across 180 countries. The team has been applying AI to operational weather forecasting for more than seven years and has built a proven track record of delivering high-quality forecasts at global scale. Microsoft Weather has won multiple forecasting competitions and was ranked the world’s most accurate global forecast provider by an independent third party for three consecutive years from 2022 to 2024. Building on today’s Aurora 1.5 announcement, the team plans to extend this work in the coming months with additional fit-for-purpose AI weather models designed for enterprise scenarios where forecast quality, speed, uncertainty, and operational decision support matter most.

If you are interested in exploring Aurora and Microsoft Weather solutions for commercial or organizational applications, please contact us at AIWeatherClimate@microsoft.com 

Aurora 1.5 on Microsoft Foundry Aurora 1.5 on GitHub Aurora 1.5 paper Agent Skills for adapting Aurora to new applications

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The post Aurora 1.5: Extending open foundation models for weather and Earth-system applications appeared first on Microsoft Research.

Are you just using your home server as if it was a spare desktop? If so, you're using it wrong. Your home server is capable of so much more, so here are three things to help you change how you think about your home server.

As numerous miniseries have shown us, not all powerful crime stories require multiple seasons. The most impactful ones are presented as sharp and focused, with their destination apparent from the get-go. This is where crime miniseries really stand out. They dive directly into the heart of the story, the drama, and the repercussions that follow, and we can't look away.

The owner of X, the everything app, has announced a new feature that might be useful but also annoying.

In a standalone post on X, Elon Musk announced that Community Notes will get a new feature at some point soon. If a user interacts with a post that has since been corrected via Community Notes, a bot will send them a direct message about the correction.

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Musk's posts were pretty vague and raised a few questions. For starters, we don't know when this feature will launch. More importantly, though, Musk didn't specify what kinds of interactions will prompt one of these automatic DMs. Will any interaction, such as a like, trigger one, or does the user need to repost or quote the post for the bot to send a message?

Beyond that, it's worth asking how effective this will actually be in curbing the spread of misinformation. Oftentimes, a post will gain a ton of traction before a Community Note corrects it, and sending messages to people who helped spread the post will only work if the users actually check their DMs, and then actually feel like removing whatever interactions they made with the corrected post.

Still, some accountability is better than none, I suppose.