The Social Network Part II, a follow-up to the 2010 Mark Zuckerberg biopic, is in talks to cast comedy legend Bill Burr. The comedian could be joining alongside actors Jeremy Allen White, Mikey Madison, and Jeremy Strong, who are wrapping up their deals. Aaron Sorkin, who won an Academy Award for writing The Social Network, is returning to write and direct the Sony Pictures-backed sequel. The film is inspired by The Facebook Files, a series of articles penned by Jenn Horwitz for The Wall Street Journal. White will play Horwitz, Madison will play Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, Strong is said to be playing Zuckerberg, while Burr is said to be portraying a fictional character, per The Hollywood Reporter. The original was focused on the social media giant’s inception and meteoric rise. The sequel will focus on the company’s negative effects on teens and children, and how it was aware that misinformation being spread on the platform contributed to violence, including the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots. Production is due to begin later this year in Vancouver. Burr has previously appeared in the 2020 film The King of Staten Island and the TV show The Mandalorian.
A Polish ski mountaineer has become the first to descend from the highest point of Mount Everest all the way to base camp without supplemental oxygen. Andrzej Bargiel, 37, made his way down to the bottom of the 29,032-foot mountain on Monday, his team said. The mountain’s extreme altitude conditions are known as the “death zone,” where oxygen levels are very low and the risk of altitude sickness is high. The mountaineer has attempted the feat two times before; he did not complete his runs in 2019 or 2022. Bargiel, who is known for skiing down steep and “utterly deadly slopes, was also the first person to have skied down K2, the world’s second-highest mountain on the border of China and Pakistan. K2 has a high death rate, with approximately one-fourth of the people who reach the summit dying while attempting to climb. While describing the 16-hour climb up Mount Everest, Bargiel said, “The ascent was difficult because other expeditions are closed at this time of year. Much more work is required [and] the conditions are much more difficult.”
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Actress Joanna Page is opening up about her scary experience being held captive while working in South Africa 20 years ago. During a recent appearance on the “Five Brilliant Things” podcast, Page, 48, revealed she was once taken hostage while filming the 2005 BBC miniseries To the Ends of the Earth. The Gavin & Stacey star said she was visiting a nearby mall when she asked a local man, who told her he was a taxi driver, to bring her back to her hotel. Instead, the man drove around for 90 minutes, refusing to let her out of his car and telling her he would force her to strip for naked photos. “It was the only situation I think I’ve ever been in in my life where I thought, ‘You’re in the s—. This is serious. You can’t get yourself out of this,’’ Page told host Russell Howard. Eventually, the actress decided to charm the driver into letting her go. “I thought, okay, just laugh with him, make him laugh, tell some jokes, be saucy,” said Page. The man ultimately returned her to the hotel, where staff told her she was “so incredibly lucky” to have gotten away unharmed. However, Page wasn’t the only cast member to face a dangerous situation during production. Her co-star, Benedict Cumberbatch, was later abducted and held at gunpoint alongside two friends after their car broke down during a break from filming. The actor said in 2012 that surviving the ordeal had “made [him] want to live a life slightly less ordinary.”
Spotify said it is working to crack down on the tidal wave of “AI slop” inundating its platform, saying it has removed over 75 million “spammy” tracks from its library over the past 12 months. The streaming giant unveiled a slew of new safeguarding measures on Thursday, designed to prevent the platform from becoming overrun with AI-generated music. These measures include an enhanced spam filter to prevent mass uploads, SEO hacks, and artificially short tracks intended to boost streaming numbers and payouts fraudulently. Greater scrutiny will also be placed on spammers using deepfakes to impersonate the vocals of real artists. “The pace of recent advances in generative AI technology has felt quick and at times unsettling, especially for creatives,” the company wrote in a blog post. “The future of the music industry is being written, and we believe that aggressively protecting against the worst parts of Gen AI is essential to enabling its potential for artists and producers.” The company also announced it was working with industry leaders to develop a new standard in song credits, which would “clearly indicate where and how AI played a role in the creation of a track.”
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Sleep can be hard to come by these days. From city noise and snoring partners to late-night scrolling and spiraling thoughts, there’s a lot that can get in the way of a good night’s rest. In fact, research suggests that one in three adults doesn’t get enough sleep. (Hello, fellow insomniacs!) Luckily, you don’t have to accept exhaustion as your default—Ozlo Sleepbuds can help improve sleep hygiene sans habit-forming treatments or sleeping in separate rooms (aka ‘sleep divorce’).
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Billionaire Jeff Bezos’ Amazon will cough up $2.5 billion to compensate customers in a “historic” settlement. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) accused Amazon of illegally using “manipulative, coercive, or deceptive” designs to “trick” shoppers into enrolling in auto-renewing Prime subscriptions and making cancelling too hard. Amazon did not admit to any wrongdoing. “Today, the Trump-Vance FTC made history and secured a record-breaking, monumental win for the millions of Americans who are tired of deceptive subscriptions that feel impossible to cancel,” said FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson in a press release. $1 billion of the settlement will be a civic penalty, the largest ever for a FTC rule violation. The remaining $1.5 billion will repay eligible Prime subscribers. Prime customers who signed up for a membership via the company’s ‘Single Page Checkout’ between June 23, 2019 to June 23, 2025 will get $51 as long as they can show they were unintentionally enrolled in Prime, or were deterred from canceling their subscriptions. The settlement also requires the company to change its Prime enrollment and cancellation methods, including adding a clear button for customers to decline Prime. “Amazon and our executives have always followed the law and this settlement allows us to move forward and focus on innovating for customers,” said Amazon spokesperson Mark Blafkin in a statement.
Researchers have a sci-fi movie plot point as a plan to deal with a “city killer” asteroid on a potential 2032 collision course with the moon. The team, which includes NASA scientists, published a Sept. 15 paper outlining their idea to use nuclear bombs to destroy the 300-foot asteroid named “2024 YR4.” Fans of the 1998 film Armageddon, starring Bruce Willis, are likely familiar with this concept. But instead of sending people to plant the bombs, the plan would be to launch a nuclear arsenal at the 10-story, building-sized asteroid. The space rock first made headlines when it was thought to have a historically high chance of hitting Earth. Now, the asteroid, which was discovered on Dec. 27, 2024, has a chance of hitting the moon, according to NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies. An impact on our lunar body could cause moon debris to destroy satellites and potentially even threaten astronauts aboard the International Space Station. But this nuclear option comes with the risk of inadvertently altering the asteroid’s course to Earth, according to the researchers. The team says if this mission were to happen, it would need to launch between 2029 and 2031.
Authorities arrested a former anti-drugs czar after a cocaine “crystallization” lab was found on land he owns, officials said. The suspect—Felipe Cáceres, 63, who ran the Bolivian government’s controlled-substances office from 2006 to 2019—was detained on Tuesday. According to a report by the BBC, police said the facility—near the sand-and-gravel business Cáceres owns in the Cochabamba region, a major coca growing area—could employ up to 10 people. It is unclear whether Cáceres—a former union rep for coca growers—was aware of the operation. Prosecutors are now working to establish who ran the lab and whether Cáceres profited from it. Former president Evo Morales called the arrest a “set-up” by the government “to detract from its own scandals,” although he did not specify what scandals he was referring to. The case comes amid a rotten run for Bolivia’s anti-drug brass. Ex–narcotics chief Maximiliano Dávila was extradited to New York in December to face cocaine-smuggling charges, according to charging documents and U.S. officials, which he denies. Another former top official, René Sanabria, received a 14-year U.S. prison sentence in 2011 after being caught in a trafficking sting.
President Donald Trump has driven Colin Firth’s ex-wife to return an honor bestowed upon her by the British government. Livia Giuggioli gave back the MBE awarded to her by the U.K. in protest over the president’s state visit in September. Giuggioli, an Italian national known as the “queen of the green carpet” for her work in sustainable fashion, also slammed Trump for what she called his “poisonous rhetoric.” The 56-year-old ripped up her MBE certificate in a video on Instagram, saying, “I have been reflecting on his visit to the U.K. last week and I am afraid I can’t reconcile [with] the way he was appeased and honored and, again, legitimized.” The environmentalist added that the U.K. had rolled out the red carpet for “someone who stands for the obliteration of the natural world and the most vulnerable people on Earth.” She was given the fourth-highest award in the Order of the British Empire as part of a tranche of foreign nationals in 2019. An MBE, or Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, is awarded by a member of the royal family for sustained, positive contributions to society. Giving hers back, Giuggioli said, “As I write this, we see that horrible excuse of a human (called Trump) in full flow at the U.N. General Assembly.” She was referring to his rambling, almost-hour-long speech after the teleprompter broke. She and Firth were married from 1997 to 2019 and have two sons together.
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Turn your holiday countdown this year into something a little naughtier (and more fun) with Lovehoney’s Advent calendars. A spicy spin on the class tradition, these calendars are an erotic journey of passion, play, and connection. Choose from five tantalizing options, each loaded with toys and treats to keep things steamy all winter long. The ultimate pick? The Couples Calendar. With 24 luxe goodies—think card games, blindfolds, and whips—it’s full of ways to turn everyday into a new adventure with your partner.
Lovehoney Couple’s Advent Calendar (24 Day)
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Aggressive waves swept away two women and a child after posing for photos during Typhoon Ragasa. The video, filmed in the South Horizons district of Hong Kong, captured a huge wave rising quickly above them and crashing, pushing them several feet into a metal fence. The wave receded around them, leaving them struggling to get back on their feet. More than 2 million people relocated across the area in preparation for the super-typhoon that hit. Typhoon Ragasa weakened after causing deaths in Taiwan and the Philippines earlier this week. By Thursday, it was no longer as strong but was moving west along the southern coast of China toward Vietnam. The storm caused flooding in the streets and homes in the economic hub of Guangdong province. In the province, half a million households lost power and more than 100,000 trees were damaged. Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh instructed government agencies and authorities to protect their infrastructure. They sought to protect hospitals, dams, and other coastal assets. The government executed evacuation protocols and search and rescue operations.
Austria has thanked the U.S. for providing it with a “brain gain” after it said it poached 25 “top researchers” from institutions such as Harvard, Princeton, and MIT, with grants set up in response to the Trump administration’s funding cuts for top universities. “Thank Trump for this brain gain,” the Austrian Academy of Sciences said in a statement on Thursday. “We have succeeded in bringing these outstanding individuals from the United States to Austria. They bring with them new ideas, new perspectives, and international networks. That is a big win for Austrian science.” Recipients of the grants will receive $587,000 each to study their post-doctoral fields over the next two years, while President Donald Trump has cut funding to top U.S. universities over allegations of antisemitism and civil rights violations. “At a time when political interference and authoritarian tendencies are encroaching on research and teaching, we are taking a strong stand against them,” said Eva-Maria Holzleitner, Austria’s minister for science and research.