Technologies
Everything You Need to Know About the Sonic the Hedgehog Magic: The Gathering Drop
Sega’s superspeedster is getting some genuinely awesome cards in a limited drop next month.
Magic: The Gathering hit a goldmine earlier this month when it released its Final Fantasy set based on one of the most popular video game franchises of all time. Final Fantasy was reportedly the bestselling Magic set before it even released, thanks to extensive preorders. Now, Wizards of the Coast is hoping to repeat that success with Secret Lair drops themed around video game icon Sonic the Hedgehog, launching Monday, July 14.
Depending on which century you were born in, you’ll either recognize Sonic as the star of 1991’s Sega Genesis video game Sonic the Hedgehog, or as the star of Paramount Pictures’ Sonic the Hedgehog movies. (Or maybe you know him from Smash Bros. or Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, or any of the countless other places he shows up.) Now he’s joining the storied Magic: The Gathering card game in a year where Magic is aggressively investing in crossovers with other properties.
Those crossovers started years ago with The Walking Dead, which became an official Magic series called Universes Beyond when it released a Secret Lair drop for Stranger Things. We’ve gotten Magic cards for everything from Street Fighter to Lord of the Rings, The Evil Dead, Jurassic Park and even SpongeBob. Lord of the Rings was the first full Universes Beyond set, but it set the table for Final Fantasy last month, and we’re getting full sets for both Spider-Man and Avatar: The Last Airbender later this year.
The new Sonic Magic: The Gathering cards are different from the game’s Final Fantasy set because these are Secret Lair products — limited-run drops of a handful of cards, rather than a full set of hundreds of Standard-legal cards. That means you can’t build decks for most tournament formats around Sonic. Like many Secret Lair crossover products, these cards seem aimed at the casual multiplayer Commander format that lets you build decks around your favorite characters and play with a group of friends.Â
Sonic being a legendary creature with white mana, blue mana and red mana in his color identity, means that a Sonic Commander deck allows you to include his allies Tails, Knuckles and Amy Rose in the deck. Shadow costs red and black mana, which means he doesn’t fit in a Sonic Commander deck, but he would fit in a Dr. Eggman deck.
And, gang, these cards are kinda wild. Whenever Sonic attacks, he puts power-increasing counters on other creatures with flash or haste, which not-so-coincidentally includes all of the aforementioned allies that fit in his deck. And Sonic having the haste ability himself means he can attack the same turn you cast him, virtually guaranteeing one activation. Tails can draw cards when flying vehicles enter — a nice nod to his plane, which first showed up in the late stages of Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Knuckles has a lot going on, including the ability to create treasure tokens that can help you cast spells — or just outright win the game if you have enough while he’s on the battlefield.Â
There’s also some mechanical synergy between these cards and the new Final Fantasy cards. Amy Rose automatically attaches equipment when she attacks and then can buff the power of other creatures, making her a great fit for the Limit Break Commander deck led by Cloud (or Tifa), which cares about equipment and power stats!Â
Similarly, Dr. Eggman gets to draw cards at the beginning of your end step — if you also control Y’Shtola Rhul from the critically acclaimed MMO Final Fantasy XIV, you get an extra end step, allowing you to draw two cards instead of one for the low, low cost of ending your turn.Â
All of that adds up to mechanically fun Magic cards that feature a lifelong favorite character for me. And it’ll add up financially if I can get my hands on either the foil Sonic: Friends & Foes collection ($50) or the nonfoil collection ($40), the cards in which are less likely to warp compared to the foil treatment.
There are two other Sonic Secret Lair drops announced, including one that focuses on reprinted artifacts like vehicles and equipment and another that rounds up existing cards that synergize with the new cards. Both will be available in $40 foil or $30 nonfoil versions. All three Secret Lair sets go on sale Monday, July 14, at noon PT (9 a.m. ET).Â
When they do, and I cannot stress this enough, you gotta go fast to get ’em.Â
Correction, June 30: This story has been changed to reflect corrected pricing from Wizards of the Coast on the Sonic: Friends & Foes collection.
Technologies
Passengers and crew foil co-pilot’s apparent attempt to crash FlyDubai flight to Israel
One of the pilots on a FlyDubai flight headed for Israel stabbed the second pilot, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
On-duty flight crew and passengers managed to foil a pilot’s apparent attempt to crash a FlyDubai flight, after reports emerged of a fight in the cockpit.
The incident on flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv happened when a co-pilot stabbed a pilot, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who praised the victim’s quick thinking.
“Despite being stabbed and seriously injured, he fought back, resisted, opened the cockpit door, and enabled passengers and crew to overpower the attacker — preventing a catastrophic mid-air disaster. He saved the lives of 174 people, including Israeli citizens and other nationals,” Netanyahu wrote in a post on X.
FZ1073 was diverted to the Tabuk airport in Saudi Arabia, the airline said, after being successfully secured and diverted by flight crew.
FlyDubai in a statement said that an “altercation” occurred on the flight deck of the plane, but did not mention a stabbing.
However, the airline added that the underlying reasons and motives for the clash is currently unknown, urging all parties to refrain from speculation.
The injured pilot was identified by Netanyahu as Indian national Smit Machchhar. No details have been released on the identity of the attacker, except that he was being interrogated by Saudi authorities.
The Indian embassy in Riyadh said on X that Machchhar is in a hospital in Tabuk, and is reported to be in stable condition.
The Israeli Prime Minister also identified the passenger who broke into the cockpit as Yaniv Hayun, calling him a “hero” and adding he deserved “a global medal of honor.”
Flight data from tracking site FlightRadar24 showed that the plane had experienced extreme altitude fluctuations before broadcasting a “general emergency” squawk code.
FZ1073 had dropped from over 14,000 feet in just 29 seconds, and FlightRadar24 also added that vertical speeds ranging from approximately -30,000 to +10,000 feet per minute were observed from the transponder data.
For context, vertical speeds during normal operations rarely exceed plus or minus 4,000 feet per minute, it added.
Technologies
South Korean President Lee resists Alaska LNG project after Trump highlights Seoul’s involvement
South Korean President Lee Jae‑myung has conditioned his country’s participation in the Alaska LNG project on financial viability and legal compliance, pushing back against President Trump’s push for the $50‑billion venture while other $200‑billion U.S. investments move forward.
South Korea’s $200 billion investment in the United States, which President Donald Trump said would transform America “for generations,” is not yet finalized in full.
The South Korean investment blueprint includes nuclear power plants, a natural‑gas power facility in Texas, and potentially the long‑planned Alaska liquefied natural gas project.
Trump posted on Truth Social late Wednesday that the two nations had agreed to move forward on the Alaska LNG venture, estimating its value at $50 billion. This prompted a response from South Korean President Lee Jae‑myung, who stressed that participation in some projects remains tied to commercial considerations.
In an X post Thursday local time, Lee said that involvement in the Alaska LNG project hinges on its financial viability and legal compliance. He added that investments in nuclear power plants would also require a plant‑by‑plant assessment of commercial feasibility.
The US‑South Korea joint statement Wednesday also noted that work on the project is contingent on “commercial reasonableness,” without detailing allocations toward the venture.
The Alaska LNG project aims to move natural gas roughly 1,300 km (800 miles) from fields on Alaska’s North Slope to the state’s southern region, where it would be liquefied for export to markets including Asia, according to Yonhap. The initiative has long faced scrutiny over its economics, given the substantial upfront capital required.
Industry Minister Kim Jung‑kwan labeled it “high‑risk” last year and said participation would be challenging unless the project could generate sufficient cash flow.
Overall, the investment package allocates $22.3 billion for a 6,472‑megawatt natural‑gas power plant in Encinal, Texas, which will supply electricity to nearby data centers. The venture will be led by developer Related Cos. and U.S. power provider NextEra Energy.
Trump said the investments would turn South Korea’s commitments into “huge construction projects” and create “tens of thousands of American jobs.”
“These are massive energy projects, adding power capacity in the United States,” Trump remarked. “This is new construction, new manufacturing, and great jobs for American workers.”
The two countries said they would seek to broaden Korean firms’ involvement in the Texas project across equipment supply, engineering, construction, and long‑term operations and maintenance. The U.S. also plans to give Korean companies opportunities to supply equipment, including turbines, for similar projects domestically.
Another $120 billion has been earmarked for plans to build eight large‑scale nuclear reactors in the United States. Of that sum, $100 billion is designated for construction costs and $20 billion for contingency reserves.
The nuclear accord was signed by both governments as well as Westinghouse Electric, Korea Electric Power Corp., and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power. The plan also calls for Korean firms to pursue a potential significant minority stake in Westinghouse, with terms subject to commercial negotiations.
Technologies
Washington’s big crypto bill is stuck. The SEC is pushing ahead anyway
The SEC has proposed new rules that would make it easier for investment advisers and regulated funds to hold cryptocurrencies on behalf of clients.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed new rules that would make it easier for investment advisers and regulated funds to hold cryptocurrencies on behalf of clients, as U.S. regulators push ahead with writing crypto rules after a sweeping legislation stalled in Congress.
The proposal, announced Thursday stateside, would establish a tailored framework governing how registered investment advisers, investment companies and business development companies hold custody of crypto assets.
The changes are aimed at modernizing decades-old custody requirements and removing regulatory barriers that the SEC says have limited advisers’ ability to offer crypto-related investments.
Under the proposed rules, crypto assets could be held in self-custody under “certain circumstances,” while state trust companies could also serve as custodians for crypto assets belonging to clients and regulated funds.
The changes could also give regulated funds greater scope to offer investors crypto-related investment strategies, according to the SEC.
SEC Chairman Paul Atkins said existing regulations had failed to keep pace with the rapid expansion of digital assets, which have grown into a multi-trillion-dollar market.
“Today’s proposal would provide a clear regulatory framework for the custody of crypto assets, giving investment advisers and funds a compliant pathway where none existed before,” Atkins said.
The proposal comes as U.S. regulators push ahead with building out a crypto rulebook under their existing authority after the Clarity Act, a sweeping crypto market structure bill, stalled in the Senate in September.
That marks another step in the SEC’s broader effort to rewrite the U.S. regulatory framework for digital assets under Atkins, and will be open for public comment for 60 days after it is published in the Federal Register.
With broader crypto legislation stalling in Congress, regulators are exerting their existing powers to address individual parts of the market, said Jeff Ko, chief analyst at blockchain infrastructure service provider ViaBTC.
“What we’re increasingly seeing is the SEC using the authority it already has to solve individual bottlenecks one by one, issuance, tokenization, trading exemptions and now custody,” he told CNBC via email.
The regulatory push also comes as crypto markets show signs of renewed momentum following a volatile start to the year. Bitcoin has rebounded over 40% from its July low, as improving risk appetite have helped revive demand for digital assets.
The recovery follows a prolonged downturn from late 2025 into the first half of 2026.
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