Entertainment
Why did Amazon Prime Day shift to June? Heres what the company has said (and not said).
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Amazon is hosting its 2026 Prime Day sale from June 23 to 26 instead of mid-July like usual, throwing the summer retail calendar for a loop. What gives?
The company isn’t sharing many details about its reasoning. But based on what it has said, and what it’s prioritizing lately, it’s fairly easy to deduce an answer: There’s a lot happening this July already, and shoppers will want to stock up for the festivities.
“This year, we have the [FIFA] World Cup,” Jamil Ghani, worldwide VP of Amazon Prime, told Reuters earlier this month. The international soccer tournament, which is being hosted across North America this year, runs through July 19.
“We’ve got also the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence [on July 4],” Ghani added, “and so we thought this week [in late June] was the best week for us to hold Prime Day.”
An Amazon spokesperson previously told Mashable that the company “felt holding the event earlier in the summer was the right choice for our customers.” When asked how an earlier Prime Day would benefit shoppers, exactly, they declined to elaborate. But as Reuters pointed out, Amazon is likely positioning its June Prime Day as an opportunity to save on groceries and household goods for July’s celebrations.
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A bigger focus on grocery savings
Grocery delivery has become a massive part of Amazon’s business. In January, the company said it was the second-largest grocer in the U.S., with everyday essentials now representing one out of every three units it sells online. Amazon introduced same-day delivery of fresh foods in thousands of U.S. cities last August. And earlier this month, it expanded its 30-minute delivery service for groceries and essentials in dozens of locations.
Prime member benefits include free same-day grocery delivery on orders over $25, exclusive discounts at Whole Foods (which Amazon also owns), and 5% cash back on groceries with a Prime Visa card. Notably, Amazon is running a free grocery sweepstakes ahead of Prime Day 2026.
Amazon has shifted Prime Day’s schedule before
Technically, this isn’t the first time Prime Day has fallen outside of its regular time frame since it launched in 2015. Back in 2020, Amazon pushed its members-only sale to October because of supply chain issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The following year, it moved up Prime Day to late June — its earliest slot thus far — before returning it to July from 2022 to 2025.
Amazon had similar reasons for moving Prime Day to June in 2021. CFO Brian Olsavsky cited “a number of factors” for the shift in an earnings call that year, per ZDNet, including July being “a big vacation month” and the timing of the 2020 Olympics, which had been rescheduled to that summer.
Olsavsky framed the 2021 June move as a test at the time. “It might be better … for customers, sellers, and vendors to experiment with a different time period,” he said. That seemed to have panned out: Prime members “shopped more and saved more” on Prime Day 2021 than any Prime Day prior, per a company earnings report.
Prime Day 2021 also saw record-breaking sales for third-party sellers on Amazon, but its earlier timing probably wasn’t the only contributing factor. Amazon funded a “Spend $10, Get $10” promotion on products sold by small businesses that year.
Other major retailers usually run their own sales alongside Prime Day in mid-July, and this year, they’ve all adjusted their calendars accordingly. Walmart is hosting a Summer Deals event from June 22 to 28; Target is having a Circle Week Deal Days sale from June 23 to 26; and Best Buy is running a Tech Fest sale from June 22 to June 28.
Entertainment
How to watch Sweden vs. Tunisia online for free
TL;DR: Live stream Sweden vs. Tunisia in the 2026 FIFA World Cup for free on ITVX. Access this free streaming platform from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup is finally here, and the start of this famous tournament has already delivered loads of huge moments. We’re expecting more of the same from Sweden vs. Tunisia.
These sides will battle it out with Netherlands and Japan for places in the knockout rounds. On paper, it’s a really difficult group to predict. We could see any of these four sides taking control of the group, so these opening games could prove pivotal.
If you want to watch Sweden vs. Tunisia in the 2026 FIFA World Cup from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.
When is Sweden vs. Tunisia?
Sweden vs. Tunisia in the 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off at 10 p.m. ET on June 14. This fixture takes place at the Estadio BBVA.
How to watch Sweden vs. Tunisia for free
Sweden vs. Tunisia in the 2026 FIFA World Cup is available to live stream for free on ITVX.
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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 Sweden vs. Tunisia for free by following these simple steps:
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Subscribe to a streaming-friendly VPN (like ExpressVPN)
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Download the app to your device of choice (the best VPNs have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more)
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Open up the app and connect to a server in the UK
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Visit ITVX
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Watch Sweden vs. Tunisia for free from anywhere in the world
$12.95 only at ExpressVPN (with money-back guarantee)
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 Sweden vs. Tunisia (plus more World Cup fixtures) before recovering your investment.
If you want to retain permanent access to the best free streaming services from around the world, you’ll need a subscription. Fortunately, the best VPN for streaming live sport is on sale for a limited time.
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:
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Servers in 105 countries including the UK
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Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more
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Strict no-logging policy so your data is secure
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Fast connection speeds free from throttling
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Up to 10 simultaneous connections
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30-day money-back guarantee
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. This plan includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee. Alternatively, you can get a one-month plan for just $12.99 (with money-back guarantee).
Live stream Sweden vs. Tunisia in the 2026 FIFA World Cup for free with ExpressVPN.
Entertainment
As an early Prime Day treat, Amazon is offering 3 months of free access to Kindle Unlimited
SAVE $35:97: Get three months of free access to Kindle Unlimited as part of Amazon’s early Prime Day special offers. In total, that’s a savings of $35.97 for the three-month duration. Current and past Kindle Unlimited members aren’t eligible for this deal.
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Prime Day is officially on the calendar. Instead of July, Amazon is hosting Prime Day between June 23 and 26 this year, but the deals have already started. One of the best offerings applies to those who plan to spend the summer reading. Here are all the details.
For a limited time, Amazon is offering a free three-month subscription to Kindle Unlimited, which usually comes with a bill of $11.99 per month. In total, that works out to a savings of $35.97. You’ll need to be new to Kindle Unlimited to be eligible for this deal, and it’ll auto-renew at $11.99 per month until canceled.
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You have the Kindle, but you’ve been waiting in a Libby line for your titles to become available. We’ve all been there. Instead of waiting, consider upgrading for the summer by snagging this free deal from Amazon that’ll give you three months of access to nearly unlimited book titles.
Kindle Unlimited has more than 5 million digital titles, audiobooks, and magazines. The Kindle Unlimited subscription is a bit like a library hosted by Amazon. Members can borrow up to 20 titles at a time, and magazines don’t count in this title total.
If you have a Kindle, that’ll be great for reading your Kindle Unlimited books, but it’s not a requirement. You can use Kindle Unlimited on any device with the Kindle app. That includes your phone, tablet, computer, or any web browser. But if you’re wondering, the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite is Mashable’s favorite Kindle.
If you’ve never tried out Kindle Unlimited, but you’re interested in reading more for the next three months, hop on this free deal.
Entertainment
Claude Fable 5 vs GPT 5.5: Is this why the Trump admin banned one and not the other?
Earlier this week, Anthropic released its most powerful public model yet: Claude Fable 5. This model is the “safe” version of an even more powerful model, Mythos, that Anthropic has yet to release to the public due to potential dangers.
Just days later, the Trump administration issued an export control directive barring the use of Fable 5 from foreign nationals. As a result, Anthropic was forced to disable Fable 5 for all its customers to comply with the order.
In a statement, Anthropic said it believed the order was issued by the U.S. government to use a method to “jailbreak” Fable 5 to identify vulnerabilities. Anthropic claimed in its statement that other AI models could do the same without a bypass. The company specifically named GPT 5.5, the latest AI model from its biggest competitor, OpenAI, as one such model.
There are currently too many unknown variables to determine if this is accurate. However, Mashable was preparing a piece comparing Anthropic’s Claude Fable 4 and OpenAI’s GPT 5.5 prior to the Trump administration’s order.
It appears the U.S. government’s concerns could be related to just how powerful Claude Fable 5 appears to be, even with its safeguards.
Here’s how Fable 5 stacked up against GPT 5.5.
Claude Fable 5 vs GPT 5.5: Feature set
According to Anthropic, “Fable 5’s capabilities exceed those of any model we’ve ever made generally available.”
“It is state-of-the-art on nearly all tested benchmarks of AI capability, showing exceptional performance in software engineering, knowledge work, vision, scientific research, and many other areas,” Anthropic says. “The longer and more complex the task, the larger Fable 5’s lead over our other models.”
When GPT 5.5 rolled out in late April, OpenAI said that the model had improved on its “agentic coding, computer use, knowledge work, and early scientific research” capabilities.
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Both are very similar when it comes to their feature set and stated purpose. These aren’t images or videos. generation models. These are large language models used for document analysis, data interpretation, and advanced coding and development. Both are definitely competitors when it comes to use cases.
The difference between the two competing models will be how they perform.
Claude Fable 5 vs GPT 5.5: Leaderboards and benchmarks
On the popular Arena leaderboard, Fable 5 far and away leads all of the other AI models.
Claude Fable 5 currently sits at the top of the Arena leaderboard with Claude Opus 4.7 Thinking and Claude Opus 4.8 Thinking taking the second and third spots. The top three are all Anthropic’s models, with OpenAI’s GPT 5.5 coming in fourth.
Fable 5 also leads in Artificial Analysis, Simple Bench, and practically every other leaderboard that has ranked the AI model.
Credit: Anthropic
According to Anthropic’s own comparison chart, when it launched Fable 5, the AI model simply blows GPT 5.5 away across multiple benchmarks, from agentic coding and knowledge work to cybersecurity.
While it may be accurate that other models can also identify these alleged vulnerabilities, perhaps the U.S. government calculated that Claude Fable 5 was just too dangerously good at it based on the data.
Claude Fable 5 vs GPT 5.5: Availability and pricing
Before Anthropic pulled Fable 5 due to the U.S. government’s order, Fable 5 was available to paid subscribers on Pro, Max, Team, and seat-based Enterprise plans at no additional cost until June 22. Anthropic planned to remove Fable 5 from these plans on June 23 and temporarily move to a usage-based paid add-on model until demand for Fable 5 dissipated.
Fable 5 was priced on its Claude API and consumption-based Enterprise plans at $10 per million input tokens and $50 per million output tokens.
Fable 5 is no longer available for any of Anthropic’s users.
OpenAI has made GPT 5.5 available to OpenAI Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise users in ChatGPT and Codex. Usage-based API pricing for GPT 5.5 starts at $5 per million input tokens and $30 per million output tokens.
GPT 5.5 is currently available for OpenAI’s users.
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