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The Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed on Thursday the U.S. economy’s persistent weakness under President Donald Trump, with the June jobs report showing nearly 60,000 fewer jobs created than economists had anticipated. In June the U.S. economy added a paltry 57,000 jobs. The Dow Jones consensus forecast had expected a gain of 115,000 jobs. The BLS report noted that employment in the leisure…

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This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for its newsletters.

California scored another win against the Trump administration in their battle over how to address the homelessness crisis here and nationwide. 

A federal judge this week shot down the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 2025 attempt to divert money away from permanent housing and instead fund temporary shelters and programs that require sobriety. But the judge stopped short of banning the Trump administration from making such changes in the future.

“The federal court’s decision to reject the Trump-Vance Administration’s attempt to disrupt essential housing services for people experiencing homelessness, including families, seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities, is both appropriate and just,” Renee Willis, chief executive of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, wrote in a media release. 

In November, the Department of Housing and Urban Development said jurisdictions applying for about $4 billion in federal Continuum of Care funding can’t spend more than 30% of it on permanent housing – a move that would result in a significant cut to the type of long-term housing that for years has been a cornerstone of the fight against homelessness.

Last year, California communities spent about 90% their share of that money on permanent housing. 

A group of states, including California quickly sued. San Francisco, Santa Clara County and a group of national homelessness nonprofits filed a separate lawsuit. In December, a federal judge in Rhode Island temporarily blocked the changes. In February, Congress ordered HUD to renew grants from 2025 under the old rules. 

This week, U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy partially granted the plaintiffs’ request for summary judgement in both cases. She ruled that the federal agency did not try to foresee the harm its “breakneck” transition away from the country’s longstanding “housing first” model – which prioritizes getting people into housing without first forcing them to seek treatment – would have on the country’s homeless individuals.

“Overall, the actions undertaken by HUD in attempting to hastily eliminate its housing first approach serve as the hallmark of unreasoned decision making,” McElroy wrote. 

HUD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The ruling wraps up both cases, unless the Trump administration decides to appeal. 

But the fight isn’t over. The Trump administration tried again last month, moving to shift 2026 federal funding away from permanent housing and the housing first framework. Housing advocates tried to challenge that latest shift in the prior lawsuit. The judge rejected that attempt, but welcomed the plaintiffs to file a new lawsuit. 

The housing advocates said they are weighing their next steps.

Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here.

The post Judge shoots down Trump’s homeless funding shift:  ‘The hallmark of unreasoned decision making’ appeared first on Lookout Santa Cruz.

I’m writing the end-of-week update a day early today, because Daily Kos has July 3 off for the holiday. Happy independence day! What We Changed This Week What Are Working On Next Week *The “Jump to Comments” box is something we are trying out. I know a lot of people don’t like it — please keep sharing your feedback. It seems like the logout issue is much better for a…

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President Donald Trump is once again hawking a company in which he owns stock.

Trump announced Thursday that stock in Micron Technology Inc., a semiconductor company, had leapt nine points on the stock market following the company’s commitment to donate $250 million to the president’s Trump Accounts, the individual savings vehicle for eligible American citizens under age 18.

“Thank you Micron!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Trump’s thanks aren’t just on behalf of America’s children—it seems that the president personally benefited from the stock’s sudden rise.

Trump’s recently released financial disclosures from 2025 revealed that the president already owned between $1.67 million and $6.65 million worth of stock in Micron. In March, as the administration was making preparations to launch the Trump Accounts, Trump purchased between $215,000 and $550,000 in Micron stock, according to MeidasTouch.

In a press release Tuesday, Micron said the donation was the “largest corporate commitment of its kind.” At the same time, the company is facing a federal class action lawsuit over allegations of collusion and price-fixing with other chip manufacturers.

In 2025, the president raked in loads of cash in the stock market by buying or selling a whopping 21,000 times with companies he talks about publicly, such as Nvidia and Intel. And Trump has a history of manipulating the stock market by boosting certain companies on social media.

This also isn’t the first time the president has attempted to boost a company tied to Trump Accounts. In December, Dell pledged a $6.2 billion commitment to the accounts. A few months later, Trump purchased at least $1 million in Dell stock, and then went on a rant about buying Dell computers.

This post is updated throughout the day to reflect the latest incidents. It was last updated at 9:31 a.m..

Here’s what’s happening on the roads this morning…

▼︎ new incidents   ▼︎ long-term incidents

Road incidents as of 9:30 a.m. on July 2

• Alternating lanes are closed on Highway 9 at Riverdale Park in San Lorenzo Valley because of bridge work. The closure is expected to last until 6:59 a.m. on April 30, 2027.
   
• There is one-way traffic on Highway 9 at Cascade Avenue in San Lorenzo Valley because of ongoing work. This closure will last until August 31.
   
• Highway 9 is facing closures in both directions at Pool Drive in San Lorenzo Valley because of bridge work. The closure will end at 5:59 a.m. today.
   
• A lane on North Highway 9 at Two Bar Road in San Lorenzo Valley is closed for bridge work. The closure will end at 6:01 a.m. today.
   
• A lane is closed on westbound SR-152 at Clifford Drive/Ohlone Parkway in Watsonville/Pajaro for asphalt paving. The closure will last until 5:59 a.m. tomorrow.
   
• CHP helped with construction work at the intersection of Highway 9 and San Lorenzo Ave. in San Lorenzo Valley today.
   

Long-term projects

These have been going on for a while, but are still worth keeping in mind.

• Mill St. between Main St. and Highway 9 in Ben Lomond will be closed to general traffic on July 4, August 1, September 5, and October 3 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day. Emergency vehicles and local driveway access will still be allowed.
   
• Pine St. (between Hwy 236 and Harmon St.) and Lomond St. (between Pine St. and Railroad Ave.) in Boulder Creek will be closed for the Boulder Creek 4th of July Parade.
   
• Soquel Drive between State Park Drive and Trout Gulch Road in Aptos will be closed on July 4 from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. for the annual Aptos 4th of July Parade.
   
• Playa Boulevard will be closed between Palma Avenue and Benito Avenue in La Selva Beach on July 4 from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. for the annual La Selva Beach 4th of July Parade.
   

Disclosure: Traffic incidents are partially generated by artificial intelligence. We are constantly working to improve the accuracy and quality of our AI-generated content. However, there may still be errors or inaccuracies. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us.

The post Thursday morning traffic: Highway 9 lane closures, July 4 parade road closures appeared first on Lookout Santa Cruz.

Donald Trump has made enormous changes to the White House during his time in office: He’s paved over the Rose Garden, stripped the palms from the Palm Room, and most unforgivably, razed the executive estate’s East Wing.

But one strange detail about Trump’s bathroom renovation, revealed by New York Times reporters Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman in their new book, Regime Change, might be the grossest yet.

“New carpet was laid in the bathroom on Inauguration Day, as before,” the authors wrote. “Trump’s preference for a fully carpeted bathroom had posed a challenge for the Residence staff during his first term. The portion nearest the shower would often be soaked through; the staff was never quite sure why, but they worried about mold growing underneath.”

Carpeted bathrooms became trendy in the 1970s and ’80s, several decades after synthetic fibers—namely nylon—were first introduced as carpet materials, making wall-to-wall carpeting a possibility for American homeowners. The novel idea was initially marketed as a luxury option, extending the lush comfort of the bedroom into the washroom.

But the fad quickly fell out of style for obvious reasons. By the late 1980s, carpeted bathrooms had largely been replaced with vinyl or tile to reduce the possibility of trapped moisture and mold growth.

Trump, however, seems to have held on to the fantasy that it could be done well.

“It was important to him to have a fully carpeted bathroom, and residence staff’s solution to the damp problem, or the potential mold problem, was to get essentially a small piece of carpet and overlay it as if it was a bath mat on top of the carpet in front of the shower, and then substitute and rotate that carpeting,” Swan told MS NOW. “So, we do have some details from inside the residence, including some disputes and tensions between the president and the first lady over the interior decorating and renovating.”

The Times duo’s reporting revealed further interior decorating disputes between Trump and his wife, with the president often removing items that Melania had intentionally placed around the residence and stowing them away in his office.

Security sleuths say last month’s FortiBleed campaign is tied to two separate ransomware groups, after they found evidence of one initial access broker group member logged in to two affiliate panels. SOC Radar’s Threat Research Unit (STRU) said at least one of the group’s 20 members was actively negotiating with victims, which it believes signals a direct link between the thousands of FortiBleed victims and the ransomware ecosystem. STRU spent weeks mapping FortiBleed’s infrastructure across hundreds of servers after the attack was disclosed. Due to an opsec failure in one of these servers, the team gained visibility into the IAB group’s internal files and logs, revealing that one of the individuals was logged into the affiliate panels of both the INC Ransom and Lynx ransomware groups. “Finding a single operator working both panels, using infrastructure traceable back to FortiBleed, is the clearest evidence yet that FortiGate credentials harvested through this campaign are being handed off, or used directly, for ransomware deployment,” SOC Radar said. Following examinations of both the IAB group’s internal logs, compromised endpoints, and claims made via the leak sites of INC and Lynx, STRU linked at least 12 ransomware attacks to FortiBleed victims so far. While initial reports pegged the number of successful attacks at more than 70,000, STRU said its data was derived from scanning 11,250 Fortinet portals, although more than 430,000 firewalls were targeted. Admin-level access was confirmed on 409 targets, and on 354 of these the attackers executed the full attack chain, compromising VPNs and gaining access to domain controllers and domain admin. STRU said the finding is significant because it shows how the exploit was not just an exercise in harvesting credentials, but an attack that feeds directly into the ransomware economy. “What this investigation shows is that FortiBleed isn’t an isolated credential-theft operation sitting off to the side of the ransomware economy, it’s feeding directly into it. The same access broker infrastructure that quietly intercepted authentication traffic across hundreds of thousands of firewalls is connected, through a shared operator, to two of the more active ransomware brands operating today. “For organizations running FortiGate infrastructure, this raises the stakes on an already urgent finding: exposure to FortiBleed is not just a credential exposure risk, it is a potential precursor to ransomware.” FortiBleed in brief Disclosed on June 17, the attack did not exploit novel vulnerabilities. Experts characterised it as a large-scale campaign that involved intercepting SSL VPN authentication hashes and cracking them using a 45-GPU cluster hosted by Hashtopolis. They then used the credentials to access victims’ Active Directory environments and gain persistence. Fortinet tried to counter these kinds of attacks in early 2025 by introducing the PBKDF2 algorithm for storing credentials, but because the changes were not applied until each admin logged back in, many organizations were likely still using SHA-256 with salt, which is vulnerable to brute-forcing. Early estimates suggested a little more than 73,000 unique firewall URLs were successfully targeted, leading to a long list of major organizations being compromised. FoxConn, Samsung, Comcast, Siemens, Lenovo, FedEx, PwC, Accenture, and Oracle were among those listed in the early reports. An unnamed Turkish NATO defense contractor was also thought to be among them after investigators found signs of classified files being copied. ®

Early-stage firm Magnify Ventures has raised a $46.6 million Fund II from LPs including Melinda French Gates’ Pivotal Ventures

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has reportedly proposed giving 5% of the company’s equity to a U.S. sovereign wealth fund, reviving discussions about letting the public share in the financial gains from the AI boom.

TV Time, the popular TV tracking app, is shutting down on July 15 as parent company Whip Media pivots toward enterprise AI products.

⚡ Quick Take

• The upcoming Ocean’s prequel film will star Margot Robbie and Bradley Cooper and follows Danny’s parents in 1962.

Margot Robbie dropped some information about the Ocean‘s prequel film during CinemaCon 2026, and it has us very intrigued. The film, which still doesn’t have an official title quite yet, will take place at the crown jewel of the Formula One circuit, the Monaco Grand Prix. It will focus on Danny Ocean’s parents back in 1962. And yes, this Ocean‘s prequel movie will star Robbie as well as Bradley Cooper, presumably as Danny’s mom and dad. As previously reported, Cooper will write and direct this next installment in the franchise. Recently, Variety reported that Josh Gad will also start in the Ocean’s prequel film, with his role being significant yet a mystery at this time.

Warner Bros.

“Before Danny Ocean ever stepped foot in Vegas, two masterminds taught him everything he knows — his parents,” Robbie said at CinemaCon. “You’ll see them in their prime, and in our new movie, pulling off an epic heist at the 1962 Monaco Grand Prix.”

Wagner Moura will portray the film’s villain, and Monica Barbaro is also joining the cast in an unknown role.

Originally published on April 15, 2026.

The post Josh Gad Joins OCEAN’s Prequel Cast in Major Role appeared first on Nerdist.

Justice Samuel Alito doesn’t like birthright citizenship, so he tried to legislate it away from the bench. Luckily, he failed. But he’s not the only one fuming. “The Supreme Court’s ruling on birthright citizenship is a tremendous betrayal of the republic,” tweeted Kevin Roberts, the president of the arch-conservative Heritage Foundation, who gave us Project 2025. “The Justices in the…

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The company announced a new slate of executive hires meant to help turn things around, as Gravity SUV sales are not taking off as expected.

⚡ Quick Take

• Most of Matt Smith’s House of the Dragon castmates did not know which incarnation of the Doctor he played nor what year his era started.

Long before Matt Smith wielded a sword and caused chaos in Westeros in House of the Dragon, he traveled through time and space in a blue box that’s bigger on the inside. Doctor Who fans and those who are into British TV in general are very familiar with his turn as the Eleventh Doctor from 2010 to 2013. Hilariously, most of Matt Smith’s House of the Dragon castmates did not know which incarnation of the Doctor he played nor what year his era started. 

During an ensemble cast interview via Vanity Fair, Smith put his HOTD comrades in the hot seat by asking them what number Doctor he was and what year did he make his debut. Fabien Frankel, who portrays Ser Criston Cole, was immediately loud and wrong, proclaiming that he was the Twelfth Doctor. That incarnation was played by Peter Capaldi. He also admitted that he somehow thought Matt was the Second Doctor previously. Matt Smith wasn’t even alive when that Doctor made his debut in 1966. 

He continued to be funny, saying the year was 2000 and guessing that Matt was 25 when he took on the role. Smith jokingly told him to “never ask a lady her age” in response to Frankel’s question about how old he is currently. Matt Smith will turn 44 in October 2026, and he was 26 when he came to Doctor Who. 

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Olivia Cooke wasn’t sure which number but she did correctly guess that his Doctor era started in 2010. Emma D’Arcy also correctly guessed that Matt Smith was the Eleventh Doctor, with Tom Glynn-Carney saying Twelve. Other cast members looked like deer in headlights and didn’t give an answer at all. When Matt Smith revealed the answers, Fabien Frankel responded with a swear while the others laughed.

BBC/HBO Max

It’s a funny clip that shows this cast’s camaraderie and chemistry that shines through on House of the Dragon. They may not know something that’s widely known about Matt Smith, but they do know that he continues to be legendary as Daemon Targaryen.

The post Most of Matt Smith’s HOTD Castmates Don’t Know Which Doctor He Played appeared first on Nerdist.

Microsoft's prediction that attackers probably wouldn't rush to exploit a newly-patched SharePoint bug hasn't aged especially well. CISA has added CVE-2026-45659, a remote code execution flaw in on-premises Microsoft SharePoint Server, to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog after confirming that crimes are now actively exploiting it in the wild. The bug stems from an insecure deserialization issue and affects SharePoint Server Subscription Edition, SharePoint Server 2019, and SharePoint Enterprise Server 2016, all of which received patches from Microsoft in May. Unlike some of SharePoint's more infamous bugs, this one isn't pre-authentication, though attackers need surprisingly little to pull it off. According to Microsoft, anyone with valid credentials and nothing more than Site Member permissions can execute arbitrary code remotely on a vulnerable server. "Any authenticated attacker could trigger this vulnerability. It does not require admin or other elevated privileges," Microsoft said in its advisory. "In a network-based attack, an authenticated attacker, who has a minimum of Site Member permissions (PR), could execute code remotely on the SharePoint Server." Microsoft also noted that the attack can be launched remotely over the network with low attack complexity, making it straightforward to exploit once an attacker has a foothold. CISA didn't disclose who's exploiting the flaw or how widespread the attacks are, but its guidance leaves little room for interpretation. "This type of vulnerability is a frequent attack vector for malicious cyber actors and poses significant risks to the federal enterprise," the agency warned. It directed federal civilian agencies to follow Binding Operational Directive 26-04 by applying Microsoft's fixes no later than July 4, or discontinue use of affected systems if mitigations aren't available. The vulnerability carries a CVSS score of 8.8, but perhaps the more interesting number is Microsoft's exploitability assessment. When the patches landed, Redmond rated real-world exploitation as "Less Likely." That's a prediction, not a guarantee, and history has a habit of making those forecasts look optimistic once patches give attackers a roadmap to reverse engineer. For anyone still exposing an unpatched SharePoint server to the internet, CISA's KEV listing is a reminder that the race between patching and exploitation is usually won by whoever starts first. ®

A top Democrat on the Senate's Intelligence Committee warned that the information accessed on a Homeland Security intelligence-sharing network may risk national security.

The president’s worldview is getting increasingly bizarre.

Donald Trump posted an AI-generated clip to his Truth Social late Wednesday, sharing a depiction of himself as a white coat-wearing doctor supposedly “curing” celebrities of “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

“Have you or someone you know been diagnosed with TDS? The symptoms can be relentless. Fortunately, I’m Dr. Trump, and I have a treatment plan,” the depiction says.

The video then showcases deepfakes of several actors, comedians, and talk show hosts who have been vocal critics of the president and his policies, including The View hosts Rosie O’Donnell and Whoopi Goldberg, as well as Robert De Niro, Julia Roberts, Edward Norton, and John Leguizamo.

“I really was unsure I could help some of these people. They were so far gone, I wasn’t really sure,” Trump’s avatar says after several fake testimonials.

Trump then encourages viewers to “turn off fake news” and “just have a Diet Coke like me.”

The president has proven himself to be a big fan of AI-generated media, though the practice has frequently landed him in trouble. In May, The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump’s executive assistant, Natalie Harp, was the inner circle figure primarily responsible for the president’s late-night social media binges. Over the last several months, Harp has reportedly shared an AI-generated video that depicted Barack and Michelle Obama as apes, and an AI-generated image of Trump as Jesus Christ.

Trump took down both posts after they spurred immense public backlash. In the former instance, Trump claimed he did not see the section of the video that racistly mocked the former president and first lady. A White House official blamed the mistake on an editing error. In the second instance, Trump claimed he thought he was being shown as a doctor.

White House officials deleted photographs of the crowds at Donald Trump’s Great American State Fair kick-off rally after the president raged at the dismal turnout.

“We’re told that the aerial image of the crowds from his rally last week enraged him so much that officials ended up deleting them,” CNN’s Kaitlan Collins reported Wednesday evening.

Dozens of attendees were seen flocking toward the exits during Trump’s kick-off address, but the president insisted the event was “packed to the brim.”

Photographs of the event showed that there was a crowd, but not a very big one, and certainly not the 45,000 that Trump claimed on social media.

Attendance at Trump’s supremely underwhelming Great American State Fair has remained visibly low, as the festivities have been beset by technical difficulties, lame programming, and disappointing weather delays.

White House staff are reportedly concerned that Trump’s rally planned for the Fourth of July will spark yet another presidential meltdown.

That rally is scheduled to take place outside on the National Mall, as temperatures in Washington are forecast to reach a stifling 100 degrees (at least). The rally will be punctuated by a massive fireworks display, currently scheduled to begin at 11 p.m. Unlike in past years, attendees will not be able to bring coolers to help beat the heat.

⚡ Quick Take

• Episode two of The Vampire Lestat sheds some light on the vampire bond between Armand and Daniel and how it manifests. And it is ROMANTIC.

Unfortunately, the vampire Armand does not appear in episode two of The Vampire Lestat. And yet, his presence hovers intensely over the narrative as we finally spend an honest moment with his fledgling, Daniel Molloy. In the first couple of episodes of The Vampire Lestat, Daniel is in fine form. He busily needles at Lestat with an icy humor and a sharp tongue, guzzles blood from a hookah, and overall drips with snark and disdain as the tour’s resident lovable menace to society. Absolutely, though there’s not a trace of transformation trauma on Daniel. No sir. He loves being a vampire. But in episode two, we get a brief moment where Daniel’s walls drop, and we see a brush of what’s underneath, something yearning and vulnerable. And for Daniel, much to the delight of Devil’s Minion shippers, this The Vampire Lestat moment comes courtesy of Armand… Or at least the impact of the vampire bond that lives between Armand and Daniel. And yeahhh, to us, the way Armand and Daniel’s maker/fledgling connection manifests couldn’t be more romantic. (Note: This piece was written after episode two of The Vampire Lestat)

AMC

It’s hard being a vampire whose maker has abandoned you. Doubly hard when you broke your only vampire friend’s trust to publish a book about his life, and inadvertently caused yet another breakup for him. But the good thing about vampiric life is that it tends to be long. And Louis begrudgingly agrees to speak to Daniel again in The Vampire Lestat episode two. Only, we bet he wishes he didn’t when Daniel starts to wax poetically about his vampire bond with Armand, the vampiric equivalent of girl talk, we suppose… Except this time it involves Louis’ manipulative ex, who lied to him for over 70 years, so it’s not surprising he’s not too thrilled about the topic. We, however, are seated.

Vampirism might not be exactly what Daniel expected. #TheVampireLestat pic.twitter.com/6PgM2TeDf8

— The Vampire Lestat (@AMCsAnneRice) June 17, 2026

“I have this weird thing that happens where suddenly everyone around me disappears, like the rapture’s come… and I… You know, I feel him.” Daniel confesses to Louis, suddenly stripped of his cackling shrewdness and draped in wide-eyed helplessness. And phew, we have to hand it to Eric Bogosian, who plays Daniel; the delivery of these lines is absolutely crushing. For me, a person invested in this romantic relationship, it stabs me right in my heart. Daniel’s obvious loneliness, the hesitant way he clearly wants to talk about Armand and their vampire bond, but has been locking away the thoughts, even from, especially from, himself—all of that comes flooding to the surface in this brief moment. And the incredible skill it takes to make us feel every bit of Daniel’s vampiric infancy, the way he’s lost, looking for an anchor that isn’t there, we cannot say enough about it.

AMC

Also incredible is the deadpan, unimpressed way Jacob Anderson’s Louis delivers, “Armand?” in response to Daniel’s confession, making me briefly cackle. But Daniel presses on, self-depricating and wry, asking “Yeah…That happen with you and Lestat?” Louis confirms it didn’t. (“No. Sounds weird.”) And they move on. But I’m still stuck in that moment.

There’s a lot to unpack here. Of course, according to Louis in Interview with the Vampire season one, all vampires are connected to their makers in an intense, emotional way, and vice versa. Louis, not immune to poetic maker whims himself, describes his own connection with Lestat in the following gorgeous way. “The vampire bond. There is no human equivalent… It’s a bond that can never fully be severed. A bond like that makes you believe there are only two of you on the planet. Freedom and chastity wrapped in one person.” And, in season two of Interview with the Vampire, it’s implied that after Louis transforms Claudia’s companion, Madeleine, into a vampire, she can sense his feelings, and he can sense her presence and absence. While in both cases, a powerful tie exists, it does seem like Louis’ great love for Lestat makes his bond with his maker even stronger and more affecting.

AMC

Which leads us to Armand, Daniel, and the case of the missing universe. Because even though Louis notes his vampire bond with Lestat “[makes] him believe there are only two of [them] on the planet,” we guess he means that figuratively, not literally. Whereas Daniel seems to be indicating he’s experiencing… an actual falling away of reality that leaves only Daniel and the feeling of Armand in existence, when Armand isn’t even there… That we know of. That feels like a pretty powerful vampire bond to us. A bond of love, we might extrapolate? If it’s magnifying the impact of the maker/fledgling connection even beyond where Louis and Lestat’s bond lives, taking it into completely new territory.

We don’t yet know exactly how Daniel was turned in Interview with the Vampire, and it sounds like we may not know for certain until season four. We also don’t know whether fan theories based on Anne Rice’s books, which speculate that Armand and Daniel fell in love when Daniel was young, only for Armand to erase those memories at some point, hold any water. What we do know is that we can’t imagine anything more beautifully romantic and deliciously toxic than the whole world turning to nothing, leaving only Armand and Daniel in it, as a reflection of their vampire bond. Inject it. Put it in my veins.

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THE VAMPIRE LESTAT Review: Devil’s Minion Edition

Weirdly, I’m reminded of Wanda and Vision from the MCU, who were meant to be the romantic heart of the franchise. And though I personally didn’t really super resonate with their love story, even I could see their most intense line was point-perfect. In Avengers: Infinity War, Wanda has to destroy Vision, and as she does, he tells her that she doesn’t have to worry about him because, “I just feel you.” In a sense, it feels to me like Daniel isn’t really feeling much of anything at this point, but sometimes he just feels Armand.

All of this just over the ephemeral vampiric bond between Armand and Daniel, and the pair haven’t even shared a scene yet in The Vampire Lestat. I know I speak for many people other than myself when I say, “and then what happens?”

Update after Episode Four of The Vampire Lestat: Having seen the vampire bond between Armand and Daniel in action in The Vampire Lestat, I can affirm it is the most romantic thing ever. While Daniel might think that it’s messed up, the way the world wipes away around them, leaving Armand and Daniel as the only two people left in it, is truly gorgeous in the most haunted, and, okay, Daniel, messed-up way. But when we look at true fictional love, the idea of a bond being so strong that nothing else can withstand it is up there with all the other epic love stories. We hope, in time, Armand and Daniel’s vampire bond brings something important and powerful to them.

hey guys. remember how this is just canon now. armand loves daniel. that’s canon. pic.twitter.com/WqbeeoNmsb

— emma (@hucklesrobby) June 29, 2026

The Vampire Lestat releases at 9 pm ET/PT on AMC and AMC+. You can also read The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice today as you wait for the next episode of the series to arrive.

Rotem Rusak is the Editor-in-Chief of Nerdist. She is ready for Devil’s Minion to become canon so one of her ships can finally sail.

This post has affiliate links, which means we may earn advertising money if you buy something. This doesn’t cost you anything extra, we just have to give you the heads up for legal reasons. Click away!

Originally published on June 14, 2026.

The post The Manifestation of Armand and Daniel’s Vampire Bond Is SO Romantic (THE VAMPIRE LESTAT) appeared first on Nerdist.

Microsoft follows Amazon, OpenAI and Anthropic with its new AI deployment group.