MEXICO CITY, MEXICO - APRIL 16: General view of first tee during day one of LIV Golf Mexico City at Club de Golf Chapultepec on April 16, 2026 in Mexico City. (Photo by Hector Vivas/Getty Images)

Time's up?

LIV Golf’s Saudi backers are reportedly pulling out after pumping $5 billion into the tour

The 2026 season will continue “uninterrupted and at full throttle,” LIV’s CEO said.

Tom Jones

A little under four years ago, LIV Golf officially stormed its way into the golfing world with its inaugural event at the Centurion Club in Hertfordshire, England, where Green Jacket winner Charl Schwartzel took home $4.75 million for winning the competition — more than Rory McIlroy pocketed for winning the Masters on Sunday and the biggest tournament prize pot in the sport’s history at the time.

Now, even as LIV golfers tee off at a tournament in Mexico City, the flashy PGA Tour rival could be on the brink of collapse, following reports that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) is looking to cut spending on the competition. The fund has pumped more than $5 billion into the project since it was founded in 2021, per The Guardian.

LIV and let die

Earlier this week, prominent golf blogger Ryan French tweeted that a “bombshell announcement” on LIV’s future was “imminent,” while the FT reported that an update had been expected as soon as Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Attempting to assuage staffers’ anxieties, LIV CEO Scott O’Neil sent out an internal memo telling workers that “Our season continues exactly as planned, uninterrupted and at full throttle.” Slightly less reassuring, however, was the tone that O’Neil took to end the email, signing off with “It matters. You mattered. Now, let’s go win.” — his partial use of past tense fanning online chatter further.

The reports of LIV’s death have sparked a morbid interest in the controversial, ultra-moneyed golf organization, with Google searches hitting some of their highest points since the year of its first event. For the competition’s backers, the buzz might just be too little, too late.

LIV PGA social media followers chart — Sherwood News

Despite bumper signing bonuses, prize pots, and contracts that lured the likes of Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, and Jon Rahm, LIV just never made the online splash that the Saudi Kingdom’s financial managers were likely hoping for. Even on YouTube, where the tournaments can be livestreamed for free in many markets, the LIV Golf channel has racked up just 437,000 subscribers — arguably not a great return on $5 billion.

Millie Giles4/15/26

The most popular male and female names in the US, according to the latest Census

New data published Tuesday by the US Census Bureau has revealed the most common names provided in the 2020 Census, in the first release to include forename data since 1990.

As described in the brief, Michael was the most popular name for males in the US, with roughly 3.5 million American men reporting having this name or a close variant. This is up from fourth place in the 1990 Census, when the top US male name was James — though there were still 3 million Jameses in 2020’s tally.

Despite a three-decade gap, Mary remained the top name for American females in both censuses, with the 2020 survey counting almost 1.8 million females with this given name. Interestingly, Mary was one of just two predominantly female names that broke the top 10 given names in the US, with the overall list dominated mostly by male monikers.

Most popular names US census 2020 chart — Sherwood News

In all, American females had far more first-name diversity than male counterparts: 16% of US males had one of the top 10 most frequent names among men, compared with 7.8% of women. Zooming out, almost 3x as many given names were needed to cover a quarter of the US female population than that of males.

Max Knoblauch & Tom Jones4/14/26

6 months after hiking Game Pass prices by 50%, Xbox determines it may be too expensive

Microsoft’s new Xbox chief, Asha Sharma, thinks the division’s recent price hikes have been a mistake, per an internal memo to employees seen by The Verge.

“Short term, Game Pass has become too expensive for players, so we need a better value equation,” Sharma’s memo reportedly read.

It’s an interesting take, given that Xbox hiked the price of its Game Pass subscription by 50% in October, before Sharma took over. The memo is a signal that Sharma’s tenure — which began in February, taking the industry by surprise — will include some big changes for Microsoft’s gaming strategy.

Whether Game Pass prices will drop is not yet clear. Last month, The Information reported that Sharma and Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters have “kicked around ideas” about potential bundles. That would fit with Netflix’s renewed gaming ambitions.

Xbox Game Pass ‘has become too expensive,’ says Microsoft’s new gaming chief in leaked memo

Millie Giles

LIFELINE

4/14/26

Will a resolve to reduce screen time see a revival of landline telephones?

For parents trying to limit their kids’ exposure to smartphones, the answer could be yesterday’s tech.

Millie Giles

IN THE GREEN

4/13/26

Rory McIlroy just secured a second consecutive Masters title — and the biggest prize pot to date

Winning a sixth major title in the year of a record purse, McIlroy is now the Masters’ highest-earning golfer.

Max Knoblauch4/13/26

Roblox announces age-based accounts for young users as child safety lawsuits pile up

Roblox on Monday announced its first accounts created specifically for young children and teens, furthering its efforts to increase child safety on the platform.

In June, Roblox Kids (for ages 5 to 8) and Roblox Select (for ages 9 to 15) will roll out, following the company’s global launch of mandatory age checks in January.

The new account types will feature different default settings — chats will automatically be set to “off” on Kids accounts — and limit access to games of certain ratings depending on age.

Child safety lawsuits and social media bans are piling up for Roblox, whose shares have dropped more than 30% year to date. In February, Los Angeles County sued the platform, alleging it created a “largely unsupervised online world” in which “child predators can readily locate, contact, and interact with minors.”

Roblox Introduces New Age-Based Accounts and Expanded Parental Controls for Users Under 16

Roblox gaming platform says it is ready to make changes to get Russian ban lifted