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President Donald Trump blatantly lied about how much oil is actually traveling through the Strait of Hormuz, amid growing backlash to his peace deal.

In a post on Truth Social Tuesday, Trump bragged that the 19 million barrels of oil that flowed through the strait on Monday constituted “an all time RECORD.”

That’s a complete lie. Before the U.S. attacked Iran, an average of 20 million barrels of oil passed through the strait every day, according to the International Energy Agency—more than Trump’s so-called “all time RECORD.”

Plus, Trump’s numbers don’t seem to add up anyway.

From Saturday to Monday, only 109 vessels passed through the Strait of Hormuz, The New York Times reported, citing Kpler, a global maritime data firm. That’s the largest three-day number since the war began in February—but still less than the nearly 140 ships that once passed through the strait on a daily basis. It seems unlikely that 19 million barrels could have passed through in one day with the strait still facing restrictions.

This wouldn’t be the first time that Trump pushed phony numbers about oil. Trump previously claimed that he’d directed the military to conduct a “secret mission” to send more than 100 million barrels of oil through the Strait of Hormuz without anybody knowing—including his own energy secretary!

Trump’s latest lies were part of a larger meltdown Tuesday, as Iran denied having made commitments the Trump administration had touted as a done deal.

President Trump is practically begging Illinois Governor JB Pritzker to allow a federal takeover of Chicago.

“At least 39 people injured, 4 dead, in Chicago weekend shootings. Governor Pritzker, I, as President, can fix this, FAST and Permanently. D.C., Memphis, New Orleans, all down to record lows, and quickly!” Trump wrote just after midnight Tuesday on Truth Social. “CALL ME!”

Trump said the same thing out loud on Monday, calling the city of Chicago a “shooting field.”

“If the governor would call me … I would solve the Chicago problem in three, four months,” he said in the Oval Office.

While talking about the reflecting pool, Trump says if Governor Pritzker calls him, he could solve the Chicago problem. pic.twitter.com/EQNRL7ynoN

— Acyn (@Acyn) June 22, 2026

Chicago has long been on Trump’s radar for a federal takeover, and he has exchanged barbs with both Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson since his return to the White House last year.

President Trump has already brought federal takeovers to Washington, D.C., Memphis, and Minneapolis, with varying results. His claims of cleaning up each city are tenuous at best, as each city has had violent and negative experiences with the influx of federal agents and the National Guard.

Pritzker has yet to respond, while Johnson spoke out Monday after the president’s comments.

“Trump has worked overtime to defund the agencies and programs that actually build safer communities. Whether it’s by defunding the ATF—the federal agency tasked with getting illegal weapons off our streets—stripping our community violence intervention partners of their funding, or starting illegal wars that send prices skyrocketing, Trump has completely betrayed his promise to working Americans and is making all of our lives less safe,” Johnson wrote on X.

It was President Donald Trump who took the United States to war with Iran, a catastrophic decision that caused gas and other prices to spike as the Middle Eastern nation blocked one of the world’s major oil passageways. And it was Donald Trump who, in a fit of desperation, agreed to a deal in which Iran gets hundreds of billions in reparations, new revenue from tolling the Strait of Hormuz…

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⚡ Quick Take

• Decades after it made its debut and changed horror cinema, The Blair Witch Project will get a reboot film with Dylan Clark as its director.

The Blair Witch Project changed the face of horror forever in 1999. Shot on a minuscule budget, it pioneered not only the found footage genre, but also the use of the internet as a marketing tool for film. It captured the mainstream zeitgeist in a way few horror films outside The Exorcist or The Silence of the Lambs had. Back in 2024, Variety reported that The Blair Witch Project franchise would return for a new reboot, courtesy of Blumhouse Productions and Lionsgate. Jason Blum will team with producer Roy Lee, who previously produced the 2016 Blair Witch reboot. Two years later, things are moving forward, as Variety reports that Dylan Clark will be its director.

He will also pen the film’s script. There aren’t plot details at this point, but original stars Joshua Leonard and Michael C. Williams are coming back once again.

Lionsgate

The original film changed the game, landing young directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez on the cover of TIME Magazine. Yet none of its sequels have ever been able to capture that lightning in a bottle again. A more traditional horror sequel came out just a year later in 2000, Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2. It failed to make much of a splash, and many thought of it as a cash grab. Sixteen years later, after the found footage genre became hot again, we got a new installment, with 2016’s Blair Witch. Critics liked it overall, but it found little love at the box office. There have also been games. Can Blumhouse turn things around for this franchise?

The Blair Witch Project was about three college students who went into the Maryland woods to film a documentary on a local legend. They disappeared, and the terrifying footage they left behind became the basis for the film. Audiences in 1999 absolutely believed the movie was an actual documentary, leaving movie theaters totally shaken. Filmed on a budget of $200,000, it made micro-budget horror a trend, one which Blumhouse later capitalized on with Paranormal Activity. So in many ways, this partnership makes perfect sense.

The Blair Witch Project reboot film will release on September 24, 2027.

Originally published April 10, 2024.

The post Blumhouse’s BLAIR WITCH Reboot Film Reveals 2027 Release Date appeared first on Nerdist.

Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) will switch off its 2G network starting in summer 2029, meaning that anyone still operating devices that use the technology must start planning an upgrade. The UK network operator says it will start to switch off its 2G signal in 2029 as part of an ongoing mobile transformation plan. This will see it expand and upgrade its 4G and 5G support, leading to reduced energy consumption and a faster and more reliable service for customers. 2G cell networks first started operating in Britain back in 1992, meaning the technology will have been around for nearly four decades by the time it is phased out. O2 can trace its roots to Cellnet, which launched as a joint venture between British Telecom and Securicor in January 1985. Cellnet introduced its digital GSM network in December 1993, before BT bought out Securicor, renamed the business BT Cellnet, and later spun it off as O2. All of this stems from plans announced back in 2021 by the previous UK government for all 2G and 3G mobile networks to be phased out of use by 2033. All of the major networks had managed to phase out 3G services by the end of 2025, but 2G is proving more problematic. This is because many devices have come to rely on the 2G service as a a low-power, cost-effective conduit for small volumes of data. In the UK, this includes such hardware as smart meters installed by utilities, telecare alarms and other medical devices, and many Internet of Things (IoT) devices. The topic was covered by The Register a couple of years ago, when a Parliamentary committee questioned what was going to happen when millions of smart meters lost their connection back to the mothership. The big three network operators – VMO2, BT/EE, and VodafoneThree – signed a government 2G switch-off charter earlier this year, undertaking to ensure that the switch-off takes place safely and effectively for all users of 2G services, including for vulnerable users, life-critical systems, and critical national infrastructure (CNI). The operators also agreed to publicly announce the end date of their 2G services a minimum of three years before it happens. BT/EE will begin closing its network from May 2029, and Vodafone will switch off in spring 2030, well ahead of the government deadline. Another undertaking is that the telcos will verify that "reliable 4G and/or 5G coverage" is present for their network before switching off the old service. From Reg reader comments on earlier articles, we understand that many locations in the country still lack a 4G signal, so this will be interesting to follow. But don't worry – they also agreed to encourage suppliers and customers to "upgrade and/or mitigate 2G devices" well ahead of the doomsday date. VMO2 says its 2G service currently carries less than 0.5 percent of all data traffic across its mobile network and is already closed for international roaming. By reallocating the spectrum to more efficient 4G and 5G services and replacing old network equipment, it claims the switch-off will allow it to provide customers with faster and more reliable connectivity. PP Foresight founder and analyst Paolo Pescatore told us that O2's 2029 date is an important marker that the switch-off is now moving from theory to reality. "But this is not just about old phones. There are still many devices and services that need to be supported through the transition, from smart meters and telecare alarms to payment terminals, security systems and enterprise IoT estates," he said. Not all smart meters will need to be replaced. In many cases, the communications hub can be upgraded, Pescatore added. "But a clear program is needed to identify which devices can be migrated, which need a new 4G communications hub, and which require a full meter replacement." "The clock is now ticking for utilities, local authorities, healthcare providers, alarm companies and businesses to map their 2G estates and act early. Arguably, now is the time to fully migrate to 4G communications hubs to ensure a smoother transition and make these services more future-proof." ®

⚡ Quick Take

• A fan of the Apple TV series WIDOW’S BAY edited the show’s intro to look like it was straight out of PARKS AND REC.

Threads user Warren Buchholz (@warrenbuchholz) edited the intro sequence of supernatural comedy horror Widow’s Bay in the style of Parks and Rec. Featuring both the hilarious and terrifying sides of the show, the short video is a dream for fans of both franchises.

Parks and Rec leans entirely to the comedy side. Widow’s Bay integrates horror as well, and this video combines the best of both worlds. Seeing silly moments mixed in with clips of monsters and action sequences in this fan-made video gets across the show’s juxtaposition.

It’s hard to make comedy-horror work. The two genres seem like they should exist on opposite sides of a spectrum, and oftentimes they do. However, some movies and series have braved the blurring of that line. Evil Dead 2, Shaun of the Dead, and The Cabin In The Woods are some examples, though some lean into comedy more heavily than others.

Widow’s Bay keeps up with the citizens of a coastal New England island town as they interact with the supernatural. We follow the mayor of the town, who starts the series unable to believe in its terrifying mythology.

Apple TV/NBC

Since premiering at the end of April, the series has had an overwhelmingly positive reception from its audience. Apple TV has already renewed the show for a second season.

“Widow’s Bay” is a quaint island town 40 miles off the coast of New England. But something lurks beneath the surface. Mayor Tom Loftis is desperate to revive his struggling community. He wants these people to respect him. They don’t. Miraculously, he succeeds: tourists are finally coming. Unfortunately, the locals were right. After decades of calm, the old stories that seemed too ludicrous to be true, start happening again.

The release date for Widow’s Bay season two is not yet public.

The post WIDOW’S BAY Intro Gets a PARKS AND REC Makeover, Thanks to a Fan appeared first on Nerdist.

The Pentagon wants $80 billion from Congress, mostly to cover the cost of the U.S. war against Iran, the Associated Press reports.

This is on top of the White House’s request to boost defense spending in the 2027 budget to $1.5 trillion—nearly 50 percent more than current allocations. Increased military spending in the budget would come alongside cuts to housing, health care, and green energy programs.

Given that, it’s even more galling that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been reportedly making his way around Capitol Hill, asking senators for an additional $80 billion to cover war expenses.

When Hegseth testified to Congress last month, he estimated that war costs would be around $29 billion—far lower than today’s asking price. But that estimate didn’t include the cost to repair or rebuild damaged U.S. military sites in the region, which may require extra cash, according to the AP.

However, the estimates for how much this war will cost American taxpayers have been all over the place: The Pentagon’s initial estimate was a whopping $200 billion. Whether Hegseth will actually get this money is a different story. The Iran war is opposed by a majority of Americans, and the Pentagon may struggle to get congressional support.

“You’re spending families’ hard-earned tax dollars on a war that many strongly oppose,” Democratic Senator Patty Murray told Hegseth last month.

Hawaii Senator Brian Schatz hasn’t polled his fellow Democrats, but he told the AP, “I haven’t found anyone who wants to do this.”

When 14-year-old Mehjabin Habib took the microphone at an early June meeting held by New York City’s Rent Guidelines Board in Queens, her legs shook. She was there to give testimony as a rent-stabilized tenant from a largely Bangladeshi neighborhood in Astoria (Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s former New York Assembly district), and she wanted to get it right. Rent-stabilized housing is one of New York’s bright spots in a city otherwise notorious for its sky-high cost of living, but for years, Habib had lost neighbors—and friends—pushed out by increased rents. “I love New York City, and I don’t want to leave,” she said. To Habib, the more than 12 percent increase in rents under former Mayor Eric Adams constituted “a threat to our safety.”

But at the top of her mind was not just the undue budgetary pressures placed on her family, a latent anxiety for parents that children so often absorb. Habib’s community has faced harassment from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; having a home to run to was the “first line of defense” when federal agents came knocking. “As a U.S.-born citizen who comes from an immigrant family, I am still afraid of ICE,” she told the board. “When ICE is detaining any person of color on the street, I fear being outside my home.”

Habib is a youth member of the Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence, or CAAAV, one of many groups organizing tenants to demand a rent freeze. This Thursday, June 25, New York City’s Rent Guidelines Board will hold its final public meeting and vote to determine whether this cornerstone of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s campaign will become a reality. The RGB regulates annual lease adjustments for rent-stabilized apartments, affecting 2.4 million tenants—arguably the most organized group of voters that helped lift Mamdani into power. A rent freeze was, for many, the campaign promise that elevated him beyond the likes of Andrew Cuomo. Today, however, those I spoke to say freezing the rent is all the more necessary, particularly for a sizable contingent of immigrant tenants facing threats from their landlords by ICE.

The overlap is hardly surprising; working-class New Yorkers, immigrant or not, rely on rent-stabilized housing to live in one of the most expensive cities in the world. But immigrant tenants are particularly vulnerable right now, and to some landlords, that added vulnerability is an asset. It’s illegal in New York to retaliate against anyone who reports housing issues. Yet, for decades, the business model many rent-stabilized landlords have followed has relied on pushing longtime tenants out, often through neglect or overt abuse. To Irene Hsu, communications manager at CAAAV, ICE has become another tool in landlords’ toolkits: They “stand to profit from the displacement and deportation of working-class tenants.”

The RGB is a nominally independent body, though it tends to follow the proclivities of whichever mayor is in office. Just before exiting Gracie Mansion, former Mayor Eric Adams attempted to stack the Board with pro-real-estate members. Ultimately, Mamdani was allowed to choose six board members. Since then, he’s mostly kept mum on the RGB’s work; in early May, after the board’s preliminary vote capping rent increases between 0-2 percent for one-year leases and 0-4 percent for two-year leases, he only said he was “encouraged” to see them “taking seriously the data around affordability, operating expenses, and the pressures facing both tenants and small property owners as it sets this preliminary range.” For Mamdani, this was a notably cautious statement, a far cry from his campaign trail pronouncements.

His tact is, frankly, necessary, if only to avoid drawing further ire from local real estate groups practically frothing at the mouth over a potential rent freeze. In mid-June, for instance, Gotham Housing Alliance hired fifty or so counterprotesters dressed as zombies outside an RGB hearing, warning that a rent freeze would mean more “zombie” properties—that is, empty buildings due to the landlord’s inability to maintain them.

But as J.W. Mason, an economics professor at John Jay College, recently showed, the “great majority” of residential properties generate income well above their operating costs, even with rents much lower than today’s. Under Mayor Adams, operating incomes actually rose by roughly 30 percent. The problem is that many landlords borrowed too much money at inflated prices, based on the hope that rents would increase faster than they actually have. If landlords are having problems maintaining their buildings, it’s because, by and large, their financial gambles didn’t pan out. “No matter what landlords say, the data supports a rent freeze, and the majority of New Yorkers support a rent freeze,” Sumathy Kumar, executive director of Tenant Bloc, said in a statement to The New Republic. “A blanket rent hike for 2.4 million rent-stabilized tenants would simply reward landlords for long-term neglect.”

For rent-stabilized tenants like Parveg Hasan Dolar—a Bangladeshi immigrant in his early 70s, also a CAAAV organizer living in Astoria—this meant a roughly $400 rent increase within the past four years. Dolar, who worked in a Halal cart until he required heart surgery in 2024, isn’t in a position to leverage his finances to own a building, let alone multiple buildings in New York like his landlord. But today, he and his neighbors carry the brunt of the responsibility to bail their landlord out. For his family, this means rationing food to accommodate rent increases; he says the stress of working additional hours to make ends meet is what contributed to his heart condition.

At a New York City Council joint oversight hearing on Housing and Immigration in April, officials heard testimony from tenants threatened with deportation for simply asking their landlord for repairs. One tenant in the Bronx reportedly refused to go to housing court because his landlord said ICE would be there. Since then, there have been multiple cases of management companies posting signs in the lobby encouraging tenants to report immigrants to ICE—“a pretty clear retaliation” against organizers, said Joanne Grell, a tenant organizer in the Bronx working with Community Action for Safe Apartments, but, she added, “The buildings we want to shame are never going to be secret.”

While New York isn’t seeing the kind of ICE occupations witnessed in Chicago or Minneapolis, a recent investigation by The City Reporter, a local nonprofit newsroom, showed street arrests clustered around Canal Street in Manhattan, Sunset Park in Brooklyn, and Corona, Queens: immigrant neighborhoods with a sharp overlap of rent-stabilized apartments. When ICE recently visited Dolar’s building, knocking on the doors of tenant leaders at around 5 a.m., “none of us opened our doors,” he said. But the threat alone was enough to change the feeling in the neighborhood. “People are afraid.”

Tenants in New York have reached a high-water mark of mobilization not seen in decades, but the terrain is shifting. Suddenly, door-knocking takes on a different valence: Many working-class immigrant households are no longer opening their doors, for fear of ICE. New York’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development is already taking efforts to make immigrants feel safer when answering the door for apartment inspectors. “When I got people to come testify at the RGB, I told them we would have marshals there to keep an eye out… If I ever see cops in the neighborhood, I call my neighbors to see if anything happened.”

All of this combined is “making a crisis for working-class people.” A rent freeze would be “a good first step, but we know it’s not enough. I want to decrease my rent. I pay around $2,200 on rent, and all of that money is for my landlord’s luxury. We, as tenants, need so much more.”

This is the second data breach to affect LastPass customers in recent years, after one of the password manager's tech partners was recently breached.

HaloBraid aims to help salons speed up braiding with its first device, slated to launch later this year, that acts a braiding assistant for professional stylists.

President Donald Trump’s acting Director of National Intelligence, Bill Pulte, has wasted no time purging staff members from his new office.

Pulte, a housing regulator with no experience working in intelligence, has already begun implementing sweeping personnel changes in the intelligence community.

“The deep state firings have begun,” a source familiar with the matter told NBC News. Pulte formally assumed his new post on Friday, and the firings reportedly began Monday.

These are significant changes made by a temporary lackey. Pulte has none of the military or intelligence background necessary to lead ODNI, instead making his name by targeting the president’s political enemies while leading the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

The day before Pulte started at his new post, he directed ODNI staff members to identify 400 employees to be fired from the National Counterterrorism Center in the coming weeks, another source told NBC News. The agency was previously headed by Joe Kent, who abruptly resigned earlier this year in opposition to Trump’s war in Iran. CNN reported that Pulte had requested a list of every employee at ODNI so he could determine who to purge.

Earlier this month, Trump selected Pulte’s permanent replacement: Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York responsible for the shoddy redactions in the government’s files on Jeffrey Epstein. The president then upended Clayton’s Senate confirmation hearing, messing up Republicans’ chances at renewing a key spy bill.

⚡ Quick Take

• Our exclusive clip from The Legend of Vox Machina season four finale stars Vex, Percy, and Taryon. It’ll make you laugh, cry, and want a hug.

Say it ain’t so! The Legend of Vox Machina season four is almost at a close. In our review, we called this season one that “never fails to entertain and amuse”… and break our hearts. After a tragic set of mid-season episodes, we’re still reeling from loss and heartache… And not at all ready for what’s to come in the closing episodes of this penultimate season. And that makes it an absolutely perfect time for Nerdist to debut an exclusive sneak peek clip from The Legend of Vox Machina season four’s finale episodes. Not just to get us all VERY excited about what’s to come, but to remind us that this Critical Role animated series is a mix of all things: tragedy, comedy, and, most of all, deep, deep love. You can check out our exclusive The Legend of Vox Machina season four finale clip below.

“Happy endings are guaranteed in the storybooks,” Vex gently reminds Taryon Darrington in our exclusive The Legend of Vox Machina clip. Taryon is spiraling in a mix of anxiety and pain caused by the agony of possibly having lost dear friends forever and the weight of what the future holds. “But you’re more than a story to me… You’re not some hero from fiction, you’re the real deal.” We all need a Vex pep-talk like this, honestly, delivered with Percy knowingly looking on.

Prime Video

But this The Legend of Vox Machina season four clip isn’t just a bolstering for Taryon. It’s a beautiful in-sum moment of what The Legend of Vox Machina is all about. This isn’t a tale of perfect heroes who shine in the sun and never do wrong or fail. No, it’s a gorgeous story about the humanity of our fantasy, and the way all the different threads of existence—laughter, tears, and love—come together to make a gorgeous whole. We don’t necessarily feel like the finale of The Legend of Vox Machina season four won’t mess us up forever, but this clip is like a balm on our souls. Whatever happens, we’ll have one another! I know I’ll be watching this one another thousand times.

Prime Video Prime Video

The Legend of Vox Machina season four is streaming now on Prime Video. It’s finale episodes will release on June 24. The Legend of Vox Machina is an Amazon MGM Studios, Critical Role, and Titmouse production for Prime Video. The series stars Critical Role founders and cast members Laura Bailey (The Last of Us: Part II), Taliesin Jaffe (World of Warcraft), Ashley Johnson (The Last of Us), Matthew Mercer (Baldur’s Gate 3), Liam O’Brien (Marvel’s Avengers), Marisha Ray (Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft), Sam Riegel (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), and Travis Willingham (Dispatch).

The post THE LEGEND OF VOX MACHINA Exclusive Season 4 Finale Clip Makes You Laugh and Sob appeared first on Nerdist.

The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library is set to open in North Dakota on July 4, but President Donald Trump is getting an early peek because he will “join Freedom 250” for the dedication of the library on July 1. We all know this is going to be terrible, right? Even the announcement of Trump’s visit is weird, coming as it does from Freedom 250 instead of America 250.

Source

Valve has opened pre-orders for its forthcoming Steam Machine – but it is going to cost you quite a lot, thanks to the AI-induced storage shortage. However, the company is expecting such high demand that it is setting up an automated lottery system, so that the lucky people whose orders go through will get random places on the waiting list. The machine will come with an AMD Zen 4 hexacore CPU, as we covered back in November when the company's three new hardware models were announced. The desktop model will be offered in two configurations, with either a 512 GB or 2 TB SSD. You can order just the base unit, or if you want, get it bundled with Valve's new Steam Controller. The announcement lays out the pricing: Both models come with 16 GB of DDR5 RAM (plus 8 GB of GDDR6 VRAM), and if you're feeling rich, you can upgrade the main memory yourself. There's a microSD slot for more storage. You can pre-order the machine on its Steam Store page, although this vulture isn't eligible – in our 15 years on Steam, we've never bought a game. If you do want to get in line, you have until Thursday, June 25, to do so. There's also a Steam Hardware News Hub for news and updates. The company is randomizing the placement of orders, and there are separate queues for North America, Europe (including the UK), and Australia. Or you can do-it-yourself with SteamOS 3.8 The reason that the largely non-video-game-playing Reg FOSS desk is looking at the news is that the machine will run SteamOS 3, which, as we have covered before, is a relatively radical Arch-based Linux distribution. It has dual immutable Btrfs root partitions, which update one another ChromeOS-style, with automatic rollback and recovery in the event of failed updates. SteamOS 3.8 was released just last week. It now uses KDE Plasma 6.4.3 and defaults to a Wayland session, although you can still choose X11 from the Steam developer settings or via the steamosctl command. Perhaps the most interesting thing about this version is that the company now permits you to install SteamOS on your own hardware – so long as it uses an AMD GPU. (Nvidia support is planned: the company says "we're working on expanding support for the future.") The latest version of the SteamOS Installation and Repair page includes downloads and instructions. We lack suitable hardware for testing, but it looks like you need an 8 GB USB key for installation, the machine needs to have UEFI firmware, and you need to disable Secure Boot – all of which are very reasonable. However, the fancy partitioning scheme means that it doesn't dual-boot – so any existing OS will be erased. If you have anything on your machine you want to keep, we suggest buying a second-hand SSD, and disconnecting any other drives just in case. ® Bootnote Despite the continued non-appearance of Half-Life 3 – which has been awaited for so long that even this geriatric vulture played the original game 28 years ago – Valve seems to be doing well. It is privately held company, so it doesn't release public finances, but industry analysts peg the company's annual operating profit at around $2 billion to $3 billion – most of that coming from Steam. According to Robb Report, which seems to be a website for very rich people to learn about other very rich people's new toys, Valve boss Gabe Newell has just ordered another new €700 million yacht for his collection, part of a fleet which to his credit is also used for marine research. Perhaps he will keep it with his other six.

⚡ Quick Take

• George Lucas will have lines in the upcoming MINIONS AND MONSTERS movie, set in 1920s Hollywood.

The newest addition to the Minions franchise is set to feature a cameo from master filmmaker George Lucas of Star Wars fame. According to Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri, Lucas told him he was a fan of the franchise and absolutely loves the Minions.

“I had this privilege of meeting George about two years ago, and what led to my meeting him is how much he loves Illumination movies, and specifically Despicable Me, and even more specifically, the Minions.”

Illumination Entertainment/Universal Pictures

Lucas’ lines were recorded in Paris, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The trailer for Minions & Monsters came out a while ago and gave us a peek into its bizarre plot. It appears the story will follow the Minions as they enter the star-studded world of Hollywood (meta much?) and their many misadventures casting their monster movie.

It has not been revealed who Lucas will play or how large a role he will have in the Minions & Monsters movie. Regardless, the premise promises chaos only the familiar yellow characters could bring.

This is the rambunctious, ridiculous and totally true story of how the Minions conquered Hollywood, became movie stars, lost everything, unleashed monsters onto the world, and then banded together to try and save the planet from the mayhem they had just created

Since their introduction in Despicable Me (2010), the Minions have become beloved, immediately identifiable characters. They have since appeared in four Despicable Me movies and are going on three of their own Minions movies.

The original franchise followed Gru, voiced by Steve Carell of The Office, and his adopted daughters. Then, after the minions became the audience’s favorite characters, they got their own movies, starting with Minions in 2015. Since then, we have followed the minions through multiple eras, including their misadventures in Great Britain and the beginning of their relationship with Gru. This movie jumps back again to the 1920s, the early days of Hollywood.

Minions and Monsters hits theaters on July 1.

The post George Lucas to Voice Character in MINIONS & MONSTERS appeared first on Nerdist.

⚡ Quick Take

• The Vampire Lestat actor Joseph Potter spoke to Nerdist about his character, Nicholas de Lenfent.
• Among many topics, Potter discussed changes to Nicki’s death, his relationships with Armand and Gabriella, and his great love for Lestat.

In The Vampire Lestat, we get new perspectives on characters and moments that we saw before in Interview with the Vampire through a different lens. One of these characters in The Vampire Lestat is Nicholas de Lenfent, Lestat’s first and/or great love, depending on who you ask. In The Vampire Lestat episode three, we walk the paths of Nicki and Lestat’s relationship and its ultimate tragedy to incredible impact. The telling of Nicki’s tale is equal parts captivating and harrowing, and played to perfection by Joseph Potter. In the wake of Nicki’s important story on The Vampire Lestat, we sat down with Potter to discuss Nicki’s pure heart, great jealousy, difficult life, intense undeath, and heartbreaking actual death.

AMC

Nerdist: So you’ve played three versions of Nicki now. Armand’s Nicki in seasons one and two, Lestat’s Nicki, and the Nicki hallucination that Lestat has in the modern day. What do you feel is different about each one of them, and what do you think gets closest to the truth of Nicki?

It’s interesting, isn’t it? In the playing of him, I try and not to overthink too much the levels of the difference between them. I try to have the book as my reference point and try to stay fairly truthful to that. And just the way in which it’s written is leading, I don’t know, the way in which it’s perceived. I think my favorite one to play has definitely been Lestat’s Nicki. And I feel like that’s closer to my perception of what truth is, but that feels like it’s constantly changing and being challenged in this show, which I think is really, really good.

Do you think any of the perspectives we’ve seen of Nicki have been wrong?

I mean, I think Armand’s in season two; his version definitely lessens that kind of narrative about the importance of Nikki’s and Lestat’s relationship, I think.

That makes a lot of sense. That is the Armand way.

Yeah. Cheeky Gremlin.

Lestat calls Nicki his great love at times, but also alternately dismisses him as just his first love. In your mind, what place do you really feel Nicholas held in Lestat’s heart?

AMC

I think he’s an important love. He’s a great love in the context of how he informs the rest of Lestat’s relationships and how he carries him through in our season and through the rest of the books. I think that first love, I mean, we’ve all had it, and it can sometimes be a bit of a train wreck, but the way in which you hold that and the lessons that you’ve learned from that relationship and carry it through matter.

I feel like the way in which his and Louis’ relationship is informed by the tragedy of Lestat and Nicki’s relationship is really important, and there’s a semi-mirroring going on there, and obviously, some of their relationship, Louis and Lestat’s relationship is fairly tumultuous, but probably it ends in a better way than mine.

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How THE VAMPIRE LESTAT Gives Louis All New Storylines

How do you feel Nicki’s relationship with Lestat informs his relationship with Louis?

I feel like the lessons… I mean, the first mistake he makes in a way is of taking Nicki into eternity or trying to anyway. And I think his decision, when Lestat turns Louis, he has to be so sure that that is the right decision because he’s made that mistake before. And ultimately, Nicki’s demons: even when he’s in Auvergne, I think, in the book before we see him in Paris, he’s carrying something, but he’s not fully honest with Lestat about that pain or that jealousy, or what’s festering inside him. And then it comes out, and Lestat’s turning of Nikki is almost more of a guilt because of the deception and the dishonesty. It’s, “I’ll give this to you because I wronged you. ” Whereas with Louis, it’s I’m giving this to you because I know that you are capable of this, and I’m sure of that decision.

Though he turns Claudia… Which doesn’t end necessarily well. But we’re allowed to make mistakes. Even vampires make mistakes.

In the novel, Armand chops off Nikki’s hands, but in The Vampire Lestat series, he does it to himself in the grip of madness. Why do you think that change was made by the writers, and how do you think it changes your character in the series?

AMC

I never asked Rolin and Hannah about that, but I think there’s a level of just increasing the pain of it. And also if Nicki does it to himself, one, I think there’s something I had to … Obviously, he’s manic, but in playing that, you have to find a sense of it in the madness. You can’t just play mad. So I think there’s something about the betrayal he sometimes feels: the best way to hurt someone you love is to hurt yourself. And I think there’s a little bit of that going on, but also then the pain of his death and that loss is, I think it’s more on Lestat if Nicki does it to himself rather than it being someone else… It actually, I don’t know if this would be the right word, but it implies more blame on Lestat, which kind of explains why he carries it with him with him for longer.

Rather than blaming it on the naughty Armand.

But who knows? Is it real? Is any of it? Well, that’s the question. This is what I’m still asking.

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Conversely, in the books, Nicki brings himself into the fire, but Lestat tells Daniel that Armand pushes him in and makes sure he stays there in The Vampire Lestat version. What do you think of that change?

We didn’t see it. We don’t see it. So, who knows? Who knows?

I mean, the image of that when I read it in the script, I was like, “Gosh, that’s pretty horrendous.” And then the last kind of line that I have, or the last thing that he says, is, “Forgive me. ” And if he’s being held there, is he ready to go? Does he want to go?

There’s a sobering after the hand’s gone because I feel like his hands and the music have driven him to a point. That was his way of expression, and that’s what drove it. The music’s so mad in his head, and once the hand’s gone, that kind of noise goes, and there’s a sobering. And if he’s being held there, then there’s a level of… And then Lestat says, actually, in that scene, that he realized that it was just nothingness and that kind of knowing that after all of this, there’s just nothing is immense.

I think that Rolin, Hannah, and the whole team do such a good job of keeping the nature of the books, but just extending it and making it more painful, which you wouldn’t even know if that was possible, but they do it.

And there’s something about not seeing it as well, and the way that Sam Reid delivers that is just so incredible. Oh my gosh, it’s amazing.

Yeah, it’s a harrowing scene. But as you mentioned, we don’t actually see it happen, even though we hear Lestat’s detailed account. So do you believe there’s more to the moment or that we might revisit it in the future?

AMC+

I mean, I’d love to revisit it. I’m always up for revisiting anything. I mean, such a privilege to play this part with this amazing team of actors and creatives. But yeah, there’s a lot of history between Armand and Nicki that I’m really intrigued by that we haven’t necessarily seen too much of there.

Yes. Tell me, what do you think Nicki thinks of Armand?

Without sounding too strange, I was always fascinated by when Lestat goes away in the book, and Nicki’s just left with Armand in the theater. That dynamic is… I’m really fascinated by that. And that kind of power dynamic at play between them, with Armand in control. I think it’s a fascinating place. I mean, you don’t know what’s going on there. I mean, I’d be intrigued.

Why do you think Nicholas wanted to become a vampire so badly? And what was it about vampirism that ultimately harmed him so much?

I think he feels profoundly wronged, and he’s had such a hard life and has been quite unlucky. And I think in my head, he had a very tumultuous, toxic relationship with his father, that he almost believes that goodness doesn’t exist, and that then the realization that vampirism and this thing exists is then a proof that evil does exist. And so then it does explain everything that’s gone wrong in his life, why it has. And then he feels like Lestat isn’t using that gift the way it should be, that kind of power.

I mean, everything he says in the book is so reflective of that. They’re two different sides of the coin. Lestat has this light and Nicki has this horrible kind of darkness. And I think he’s infected with jealousy. So anything that Lestat has, he wants, and it just feels a betrayal. I think he loves him ultimately. And if he feels like he can get that vampirism, that might keep him closer to this light. I don’t know if I’ve said two things there that contradict utterly what they said, but—But this is why it’s so rich. Do you know what I mean?

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Nicki is the person who brings music into Lestat’s life, and ultimately, music is the way Lestat chooses to tell his story. Do you feel like that makes Nikki’s presence interwoven into Lestat’s whole journey in The Vampire Lestat?

AMC

I think so. Yeah. The first line we have before we first see them is, “I heard music.” And then that’s the journey that he goes on too… The stutter disappears. For Nicki, music is pure expression, and I think that’s exactly what it is for Lestat, too. So maybe that line of “First love, not great love” is deceptive. But that’s a step one lesson. It’s so clever how he’s interwoven throughout the story. He’s a presence throughout.

You spoke about turning to the books to form your Nicki in The Vampire Lestat. Were there any moments from the books that haven’t yet been brought to the screen that you’d love to bring to life?

I mean, there are so many. Oh gosh, I mean, we get it. We get a little bit of it with the… When we see them in the theater, and he says, “I’ll give you the Theater of the Vampires.” But I love that in the book, I love when all the vampires come in and they start dancing. That’s amazing.

There’s also a really tender moment with Gabriella, I can’t remember what chapter it’s in, or Gabrielle. And there’s a kind of tenderness between them, and he’s catatonic, and I think she’s doing his hair or just dressing him, and Lestat says he looks like, I can’t remember what the exact quote was, but “He looks like a young priest” or something like that. It’s quite interesting the way when he’s chopping off the hand, and Jennifer’s laughing at me, or Gabriella’s embarrassed, or like, “What’s going on here?”

There’s something about it where you’re like, “Oh, is that a reliable narrator on different relationships with different characters with Armand, with Gabrielle.” And there’s so much. I mean, I’d love to revisit anything.

And just to conclude, as we end our time, of course, you’ve brought so much from the books, but do you think there’s anything that you brought to Nicki in The Vampire Lestat? Anything where you thought, “I’m going to add this to this character in this way”?

AMC

Yeah, I mean, I think the game that you are always trying to play is what’s similar and what’s different. I feel like Nicki has a real, despite his madness, it’s all done through this open heart of love. And so I always try and sympathize with him. So I feel like I try to bring that kind of semi-openheartedness of myself even in his mania. I mean, I like playing tragic young men, and I seem to do it quite a lot. So he was another one, but it was just with a French accent this time.

The Vampire Lestat airs on AMC and AMC+, Sundays at 9 pm ET/PT and midnight, respectively. You can snag The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice to read, if you’d like to know a little bit more about what’s going on.

Rotem Rusak is the Editor-in-Chief of Nerdist. Devil’s Minon is her endgame in The Vampire Lestat, but she’s never opposed to other ships on the side—Nicki and Armand, why not?

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The post Joseph Potter on Changes to Nicki’s Death and His Love for Lestat in THE VAMPIRE LESTAT appeared first on Nerdist.

A special 79-year-old man has received unparalleled access to Eli Lilly’s obesity drug.

Millions of Americans are eagerly awaiting access to retatrutide, a powerful new drug from the pharmaceutical company. But one unidentified person has been able to gain premature access to the drug via the FDA’s “compassionate use” program, STAT reported Tuesday.

The FDA program is designed to prioritize access to experimental drugs for patients with grave or life-threatening medical issues. And while the name of the individual is not known, several signs indicate that they are likely very well-connected.

A senior clinician at the National Institutes of Health, Ranganath Muniyappa, requested access to the drug for the unnamed patient in April. Muniyappa cited a diagnosis of refractory obesity with obstructive sleep apnea and pulmonary hypertension, a potentially life-threatening disease characterized by high blood pressure in the lungs. The request reportedly drew the attention of top health officials, which STAT noted was indicative of the patient’s influence.

Based on the vague parameters of the patient’s identity, STAT reached out to the White House to see if the recipient could possibly be Donald Trump, who similarly suffers from obesity and has publicly expressed interest in obesity drugs. The White House did not explicitly deny the patient was Trump.

When asked if Trump was the 79-year-old man in question, White House spokesperson Kush Desai did not say no, and instead referred STAT to the Department of Health and Human Services. When asked if Trump had obstructive sleep apnea and pulmonary hypertension, Desai offered Trump’s latest medical evaluation as a counter, which he falsely claimed “covers this,” according to STAT. It does not—the memo makes no mention of either disease.

HHS did not address the issue of the retatrutide application or the patient’s identity.

“The FDA supports expanded access programs that can provide patients with serious or life-threatening conditions access to investigational treatments when no comparable or satisfying approved therapies are available,” HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard told STAT. “Each request is reviewed on a case-by-case basis based on the clinical circumstances and applicable statutory and regulatory requirements.”

Whoever the patient is, they had been previously treated with other obesity drugs such as tirzepatide, though sources who spoke with STAT indicated the patient experienced only moderate weight loss as a result. Muniyappa reportedly recommended against bariatric surgery because of the patient’s age and comorbidities.

The Trump Justice Department planned to subpoena journalists at The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, attempting to force them to testify before a grand jury for vague national security concerns. The subpoenas were eventually withdrawn this month without any explanation after news organizations pushed back.

This was an extremely unprecedented decision that follows the all too familiar trend of weaponizing the DOJ against whomever President Trump is upset by that day.

Washington Post reporter Ellen Nakashima—who covers the security and intelligence community, including the present war on Iran—was subpoenaed this spring. The Post was in the process of fighting Nakashima’s subpoena before the DOJ suddenly rescinded it.

“The unwarranted subpoena of our reporter Ellen Nakashima — a clear violation of constitutionally guaranteed press freedom — was another sign of the government seeking to compel journalists to become instruments of its investigations,” a Post spokesperson said. “We will continue to stand fully behind the journalism of The Washington Post and fight all efforts by any administration that violate our First Amendment rights.”

Three Wall Street Journal reporters, who also cover national security issues, received grand jury subpoenas from the DOJ, according to the Post. In May, the DOJ also subpoenaed the Journal’s reporters over leaks from the Department of Defense related to the Iran war.

The DOJ has yet to comment on or explain its decisions to file and rescind the grand jury subpoenas.

“The potential of the government intruding into the newsgathering process is even greater when you are in the grand jury than it is for a subpoena for documents,” said Gabe Rottman, vice president of policy at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. “The administration has taken a number of extremely aggressive steps in respect to the press … These are all aggressive attempts to target journalists reporting on the actions of the Trump administration. They are a dangerous intrusion of the independence of the press.”

Oracle's workforce shrank by 21,000 over the last year, according to the company's annual report. In June 2025 [PDF], Big Red reported that it employed "approximately 162,000" employees. By June 2026 [PDF], that figure had fallen to 141,000. US headcount fell by 9,000, while the international workforce declined by 12,000. "Our periodic workforce restructurings and reorganizations can be disruptive," Oracle stated. "Deployment of AI technologies across our operations have resulted, and may continue to result, in reductions to our workforce." "We may initiate new restructuring plans in the future," it added, ominously. Reports of layoffs at Oracle have circulated in recent months as the company seeks to finance its AI datacenter build-out. Estimates have ranged from 20,000 to 30,000, while the annual report shows that its workforce shrank by approximately 21,000 over the last year. Oracle spelled out the effect on the company and remaining staff, saying: "These types of restructurings have resulted, and may in the future result, in increased restructuring costs and reduced productivity. These types of restructurings may also lead to shortages of sufficiently skilled employees in certain roles, loss of valuable institutional knowledge and damage to employee morale and retention." The company is legally obliged to highlight the risks in these reports, but it's a point worth making. "As our cloud and AI businesses grow, we will continually balance our resources and restructure our development group to help ensure we have the right people delivering the best cloud and AI products to our customers around the world," the company said in response to The Register's request for comment. Big Red is hardly alone in laying off staff as companies roll out AI technologies, spend billions on infrastructure for the tech, and seek to improve the bottom line by cutting payroll. Microsoft has laid off thousands of workers in the last year, something CEO Satya Nadella said was "weighing heavily on me." Nonetheless, in April, the company offered a voluntary departure program to some US employees. Microsoft has not confirmed how many staffers have taken the option to depart, but one commented: "Seeing a lot of 'I'm accepting the retirement' posts this week," to which another responded: "Folks leaving behind some big shoes to fill." All of which highlights one cost of layoffs for companies. For affected staff, the experience can be traumatic, even when departure is voluntary, but the loss of institutional knowledge can be difficult to quantify. ®

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