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⚡ Quick Take

• You can now celebrate Stranger Things’ 10th anniversary by rewatching season one like its the 1980s, with Netflix’s special new VHS edition.
• Nerdist Take: The VHS Stranger Things release is a gimmick, but honestly it’s a pretty cool way to watch season one.

Stranger Things debuted ten years ago today. When it did no one could have predicted that a love letter to the ’80s would turn into a modern day smash. But while the hit horror series might have said goodbye to audiences last year, Netflix is giving fans a new way to watch. The streamer has come up with a fitting tribute to a show that was itself a tribute to pop culture. You can now experience season one of the Duffer Brothers’ series the way you would have if it came out in the very decade it’s set, with a special Stranger Things VHS edition.

Netflix Nerdist Take: The Stranger Things VHS Re-Release Is a Gimmick But Actually Pretty Cool

Netflix subscribers can now rewatch Stranger Things’ first season in a different format. The new VHS Special Edition Stranger Things is designed to look and sound exactly as it would have if the show had been released on that old home format. Gone is the high-definition wide screen of the actual series. Instead, there’s all of the grain and gruff that those of us who grew up watching movies on local TV remember. This VHS version even includes pan-and-scan for a truly authentic experience.

RELATED ARTICLE

STRANGER THINGS’ Entire 5-Season Score Gets Massive Vinyl Box Set

Gimmick? Yes, of course. But it’s actually pretty great. This Stranger Things VHS edition is the ultimate embrace of the show’s ’80s ethos. It might not be the last, either. Netflix says, “If enough of you nerds watch it, maybe we’ll do the rest of the seasons…”

Don’t threaten us with a good time, Netflix.

Netflix More Stranger Things 10th Anniversary Celebrations

This season one Stranger Things VHS rerelease is just part of the streamer’s 10th anniversary celebration. There have already been new merch releases. Today, Netflix also debuted a new retrospective video called “Stranger Memories.” It features the cast sharing some of their favorite moments from the making of the show while looking through old Polaroids.

That’s also a fitting tribute to the show. For those of you who don’t remember, Polaroid photos are as ’80s coded as VHS tapes.

The post Watch STRANGER THINGS True ’80s Style With New VHS Edition appeared first on Nerdist.

Salesforce’s flagship AI agent platform is struggling to convince customers of its value, according to an investment bank. The SaaS giant has bet the farm on AI agents, hoping they will fetch and carry data from its systems into a conversational UI, according to its vision of headless CRM. The cornerstone of the strategy is Agentforce, which the vendor promises will help customers build, test, deploy, manage, and orchestrate AI agents in the enterprise. However, a report from KeyBanc Capital Markets cites its recent CIO survey, which found customers did not view the CRM plan favorably. "Our checks and customer conversations have not been strong, nor has the feedback been on Agentforce. What we can piece together in the disclosed numbers does not signal building momentum and, most recently, our CIO survey delivered another blow with Salesforce being a standout for the wrong reasons," the report says. The report, authored by Jackson Ader, the investment bank's managing director for software equity research, and three other analysts, says KeyBanc Capital Markets view of Salesforce was not down to the negative perception of software companies generally — the so-called SaaS-pocalypse. "We attend more Salesforce partner and customer events than any other company in our coverage, and feedback from those customers has been consistent in two ways: 1) customers' data is not in order to do meaningful AI work; and 2) Agentforce, as a product, just isn't there," it claims. "Partners we speak with are just now beginning to convert Agentforce proof of concepts into deals in the pipeline, and more CIOs in our survey expect to deprioritize Salesforce within their IT budget than the other way around over the coming 12 months." A Salesforce spokesperson told The Register: "Agentforce is the fastest-growing product in Salesforce history, with customers like Engine, Falabella, and AAA going live in weeks, not months. We’re focused on helping customers move faster, including through forward-deployed engineers and out-of-the-box agents." The KeyBanc report says Salesforce is presiding over "aggressive price increases" while the majority of customers are "not willing to pay for AI capabilities through their CRM provider." Salesforce, nonetheless, has retained a commanding position in the CRM market, the investment bank says. Speaking of pricing, back in January, Gartner warned Salesforce users that a capped enterprise agreement for its AI and data platforms may not be available when they come to renew these deals, potentially meaning customers could struggle to predict costs and understand value – although Salesforce strongly disputed this contention at the time. Bill Patterson, Salesforce EVP, Corporate Strategy, told us at the time, "The claim that we are moving away from capped agreements is inaccurate." Meanwhile, an earlier report from global equity research firm Bernstein said Agentforce was "still in early stage of adoption" and would not drive Salesforce’s growth in the short term. "Consumption-driven monetization at AgentForce will take longer than most expect. We also believe that AgentForce will be most successful in the company’s core CRM market and not that well-used outside the core as there are other AI platforms and many SaaS vendors and the hyperscalers are offering their own AI functionality," the report says. Wall Street bettors seem to share this bearishness toward the company in general, sending its stock down over 36% this year. ®

The hacker used an employee's credentials to access source code, which revealed how Suno scraped decades of audio.

⚡ Quick Take

• Starfleet’s greatest heroes are coming to Magic: The Gathering this fall.
• Get a first look at several new Star Trek cards showcasing characters from the Final Frontier.
• The new Universes Beyond set will drop beginning July 14.

Last year, news broke that Magic: The Gathering would journey into the final frontier, with a long-awaited collaboration with the Star Trek brand. Now, Wizards of the Coast has just shown off a first look at the Universes Beyond set during the July 14 WeeklyMTG stream. Below in our gallery, we have a good first look at several of the cards, which feature characters, ships, and planets from across the franchise’s sixty-year history. And we mean the whole franchise, including the original series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Discovery, Lower Decks, and even the J.J. Abrams’ alternate timeline trilogy of movies.

Seven iconic Star Trek actors individually signed this set’s headliner cards, including William Shatner and Kate Mulgrew. (These include approximately 250 copies of each signed card.) Five other Trek stars contributed autographs as well. According to Wizards of the Coast, “this set was designed by Star Trek fans, for Star Trek fans. If there’s something from Star Trek you love, chances are it appears in this set.”

Wizards of the Coast

Like previous Magic: The Gathering releases, Star Trek comes with four preconstructed Commander decks. The characters used as the face Commanders are Captain Picard, Mister Spock, a Klingon warrior, and a lethal Borg drone. Bundles are making a return as well, including the cheekily titled “Beam Me Up Bundle.” They just couldn’t resist throwing a “beam me up” joke in there somewhere.

MTG Star Trek will feature four Welcome Decks designed to be friendly to beginners. Designed as a way to ease newbies into the game. Fans can expect new reveals from MTG Star Trek rolling out over the next several months, with a large reveal of even more details around October. Fans should also expect to see something at the Star Trek Las Vegas convention in August. For more details, head on over to the official MTG site. The set will leave Spacedock on November 13, 2026.

The post Get a Look at Several MTG STAR TREK Cards Coming Soon appeared first on Nerdist.

Republicans were already unlikely to win Minnesota’s governor’s race this year. President Donald Trump is deeply unpopular in the state, and Democrats have a strong candidate in Sen. Amy Klobuchar. But now he has all but ensured the race will be off the board for the GOP. On Wednesday, Trump endorsed conspiracy theorist and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell a little less than a month ahead of the Aug.

Source

Livestream shopping platform Whatnot has acquired AI startup Shaped, a machine learning company focused on real-time recommendations and search. The deal will bolster Whatnot’s personalization and discovery features as it expands into new product categories.

A cartoon by Pedro Molina. Related | Susan Collins mildly concerned after ICE executes immigrant in her state…

Source

In the days after the Supreme Court upheld birthright citizenship as the law of the land, an enraged Trump administration has been rigorously investigating new ways to crack down on “birth tourism,” a practice that refers to pregnant women who come to the United States solely to give birth and obtain US citizenship for their children. And to do so, they have floated an alarming option: a potential ban on pregnant foreigners.

“You have mothers that come in fully pregnant, have a baby, go home,” Stephen Miller told Fox News, as host Jesse Watters cracked about “banning foreign pregnant women” from entering the US. “That baby then gets Medicaid,” Miller continued, “and that baby gets welfare, and that baby gets cash assistance.”

In a separate Fox News appearance, wherein host Brian Kilmeade similarly suggested a blanket ban on pregnant tourists, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin seemed receptive to the idea. “It’s absolutely a national security issue,” he said, going on to describe an elaborate scenario in which Chinese nationals give birth in the US and return to China with their newly minted American citizen babies. Once there, Mullin continued, these Chinese mothers would raise US citizens in a “communist regime,” only for them to return as adults to attend American universities where they could begin “stealing intellectual property.”

It is not illegal for foreign nationals to give birth in the US. But coming to the US solely to give birth, thereby lying on visa applications or deceiving border officials, is prohibited. So too are companies that sell birth tourism schemes. But for all the warnings about the scale and vastness of birth tourism, there is scant data on the issue. “There’s no direct data on this, which is what’s creating the confusion,” Muzaffar Chishti, a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, said. “Everyone is pandering to numbers with whatever they feel like.”

“If you’re determined that this is the obsession you have, cost doesn’t matter.”

The lack of data hasn’t stopped Trump officials, who remain determined to fundamentally reshape our understanding of who is considered to be a “real” American after losing at the Supreme Court, albeit narrowly. But in targeting pregnant foreigners, they omit a key detail: A 2020 federal regulation that denies travel visas to pregnant people and gives border agents wide latitude to deny entry to women suspected of birth tourism already exists—thanks to the first Trump administration.

That regulation, according to Chishti, amounted to a “significant change in the way we structure US law,” in that it shifted the burden away from the government to establish an attempt at birth tourism to a pregnant person having to prove they weren’t traveling to the US just to give birth. If found inadmissible, the regulation also denied pregnant people opportunities to plead their cases.

So, how are such determinations made? Do Customs and Border Patrol officials, who have such broad discretion to deny anyone entry into the country, carry pregnancy tests? Have OB-GYNs been engaged to patrol airports to assess how pregnant a person is? Theoretically, we should have some answers about how such determinations are made, given that the regulation has been on the books for over six years. But when Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia, attempted to FOIA information about how enforcement was being carried out, she never received an answer.

According to Homeland Security’s online guidance, officers will often consider “the date your child is due for delivery and the length of time you intend to stay in the United States.” They also tend to check if you have sufficient insurance to cover any medical expenses. But nothing is said about how officers determine a woman is pregnant in the first place, which is troubling considering the enormous variation in how a person’s physical appearance coincides with their gestational state.

“I don’t trust a customs official to know how people look different at different stages of pregnancy.”

“I don’t trust a customs official to know how people look different at different stages of pregnancy,” Frost said, adding that she was concerned with how the policy “polices pregnant women.”

No such concern was evident at the Supreme Court in April, when Solicitor General John Sauer claimed that 1.5 million Chinese nationals hold US citizenship because of birth tourism. But Chief Justice John Roberts appeared skeptical. When pressed on how rampant birth tourism actually was, Sauer acknowledged, “No one knows for sure.”

That’s true. But a more accurate response would note that although there is no official tally, experts widely agree that the number is far less than 1.5 million from a single country. Even the conservative anti-immigration group, the Center for Immigration Studies, estimates that there are 26,000 such births at most. Which adds up to less than 1 percent of all babies born in the US in a year.

Roberts, in upholding birthright citizenship, referenced this very lack of evidence in his opinion. “The trouble is that there is scant evidence for this dramatically revisionist view. Certainly, no one said that such a change had occurred.”

The natural question, then, becomes what more the Trump administration could do beyond enforcing the already existing federal regulations. One option, Chishti said, could be ramping up the number of women placed under expedited removals, which sidesteps the legal right to a judge—the same process that the Trump administration has used in its wider immigration crackdown to quickly deport people without a court hearing. Also on the table: prosecuting individual women, instead of organized groups that sell birth tourism services.

As for pregnancy tests at the border, that might seem extreme, even for this White House. But Chishti cautioned against dismissing the potential of such alarming— not to mention logistically complicated—measures getting added to the government’s enforcement protocol. “If you’re determined that this is the obsession you have,” Chishti said, “cost doesn’t matter.” In fact, the US has a long history of using medical tests to bar entry to foreigners, including those who tested positive for HIV and Chinese immigrants who tested positive for a slew of diseases and infections during the Chinese Exclusion Act back in 1882, as well as using forced sterilizations against Black and indigenous groups. Should pregnancy exams take place at the border, they would arrive at a moment when states are increasingly embracing digital surveillance tools to track pregnant people seeking abortions.

It certainly helps the Trump administration that birth tourism, to the extent that it is a problem, does not poll well with Americans, even though a majority of Americans support birthright citizenship as a constitutional right. That’s because many see the former as a strategy for “others” to game a system through exploitation. The reward? According to opponents, it’s largely access to the US welfare system. But for many, Frost said, Americans are more likely to disapprove of birth tourism because it insults their notions of American belonging. To them, “citizenship is not just about a passport and legal rights,” she said, “it also carries a sense of membership, a being part of ‘us’—and [birth tourism] offends those ideas.”

All of which, under the right scenario, could open the doors for more profiling. For now, it’s unclear what exactly the Trump administration has in mind. But considering the once-unthinkable ways the administration has carried out the largest deportation campaign in US history, and the unnervingly close decision that barely saved birthright citizenship, it seems reasonable to prepare for the worst.

Chief penguinista Linus Torvalds has declared that Linux is not an "anti-AI" project, telling contributors who object they can either walk away or fork the kernel. On lore.kernel.org, the archive for Linux kernel mailing lists, reformed potty mouth Linus was responding to a discussion about some negative sentiments toward AI. It is one area where Torvalds said he was willing to “absolutely put my foot down as the top-level maintainer … Linux is not one of those anti-AI projects, and if somebody has issues with that they can do the open-source thing and fork it." “Or just walk away.” Ever the pragmatist, Torvalds described AI as a tool, “just like other tools we use. And it’s clearly a useful one. It may not have been that ‘clearly’ even just a year ago, but it’s no longer in question today. “Anybody who doubts that clearly hasn’t actually used it.” In October 2024, the Linux kingpin branded 90 percent of AI as marketing hype, saying he hated the hoopla generated by the tech industry. He said at the time: “I really don’t want to go there, so my approach to AI right now is I will basically ignore it.” He predicted things would change in five years, though he has softened his stance in 21 months. AI can be a “somewhat painful tool, both for maintainer workloads and just from an ‘it keeps finding embarrassing bugs’ standpoint,” Torvalds conceded this week. “But the solution is not to put your head in the sand and sing ‘La La La, I can’t hear you’ at the top of your voice like some people seem to do.” The solution, he said, is to make sure LLM tools help maintainers rather than cause them pain. “We’re not forcing anybody to use it, but I will very loudly ignore people who try to argue against other people from using it.” The kernel project continues to be about technology, Torvalds added, and while the social angle of developing open source software is an important aspect, it is a “side benefit, not the point of the project.” “In the kernel community we do open source because it results in better technology, not because of religious reasons. And so we make decisions primarily based on technical merit. Not fear of new tools.” The seeming shift in stance was evident when The Register's SJVN spoke to senior Linux maintainer Greg Kroah-Hartman in March: he told us AI-assisted bug reports and code review had improved dramatically. "Something happened a month ago, and the world switched. Now we have real reports… All open source projects have real reports that are made with AI, but they're good, and they're real." Torvalds in May said AI tools were only useful if they help “rather than cause unnecessary pain and pointless make-believe work.” Some maintainers in open source have complained of burnout - not helped by AI slop bug reports - and others worry about the quality of vibe-coding. Work still lies ahead before AI consistently proves it's more help than hindrance. “AI isn’t perfect,” said Torvalds in the mailing-list post on Tuesday. “But Christ, anybody who points to the problems at AI [sic] had better be looking in the mirror and pointing at themselves at the same time. Because it’s not like natural intelligence is always all that great either.” Quite right. ®

Answers given by Jay Clayton, Donald Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence, in his Senate Intelligence Committee hearing Wednesday suggest that, if confirmed, he would be a pawn in the president’s election-meddling pursuits in the vein of former DNI Tulsi Gabbard.

Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff pressed Clayton about Gabbard’s presence at a February FBI raid at a Fulton County, Georgia, election facility. The operation was based on Trump’s debunked election fraud claims. And her attendance—at the president’s request, she has said—ignited a scandal, as the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s role in election security is to counter foreign threats, rather than be weaponized for domestic, partisan ends.

Clayton prevaricated when asked about his familiarity with the Fulton County incident, claiming, to Ossoff’s dismay, that he had only learned about the raid the day before, when he met privately with the senator.

Ossoff then asked if Clayton would comply with a similar request from the president: “If the White House chief of staff or the president asks you to travel somewhere across the United States and oversee the execution of a domestic search warrant on a sensitive election facility, will you do it?” the senator asked. “Is that appropriate for the director of national intelligence?”

Clayton threw his hands up. “Um … that’s a hypothetical.” Pressed further, he declined to comment on the matter.

“Disqualifying,” Ossoff replied.

😳 this is not going well for Clayton AT ALL

OSSOFF: Are you aware that Director Gabbard was present at the Fulton County raid earlier this year?

CLAYTON: ...

OSSOFF: What is going on here?

CLAYTON: ... ...

OSSOFF: Are you aware that members of this committee are probing… pic.twitter.com/2QdWuUIHnh

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 15, 2026

Moments later, Senator Mark Warner, the Democratic vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, chastised Clayton for his waffling.

“It strains credibility to think that you are not aware of Director Gabbard’s intervention in the domestic election activities in Fulton County, and that that was subject of a great deal of consternation and review,” Warner told the nominee. “Even if you weren’t aware, in preparation for this hearing, I would’ve thought, ‘Hey, we gotta be ready for the Gabbard questions.’”

Clayton mustered a far-from-reassuring response: “To be clear, the ODNI’s role is principally outside of the United States.”

Also in his heated exchange with Ossoff, as well as with other senators, Clayton, like countless other Trump nominees before him, avoided saying that President Joe Biden won the 2020 election, instead opting for weasel words so as not to contradict the president’s election denialism.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche tried to claim at his Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday that he was committed to meeting with Jeffrey Epstein’s victims, but quickly backtracked. 

“When it comes to the victims of this horrible man, we will never, never not talk to victims. We will never not do everything we can to prosecute anybody that committed any crimes against any of these women,” Blanche told the Senate Judiciary Committee. 

But when pressed by Democratic Senator Richard Durbin on why he hasn’t met with Epstein survivors yet, and whether he’ll commit to doing so in the next 30 days, he struggled to answer. 

“If they have lawyers, as you know. I’m prohibited from meeting directly with them,” Blanche said. “I have met with counsel for survivors, as have many people in the Department of Justice. But if they are represented by counsel, we will work with their counsel.”

“It can get done as soon as today. It could have gotten done last week. We remain available to meet with any victim at any time.”

That’s not what Epstein’s survivors say. In May, Blanche said at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing that he had met with survivors and their lawyers, drawing an immediate statement from 18 of Epstein’s victims, who said he was lying. 

“Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has not met with any of us. As survivors, we previously sought a meeting with former Attorney General Bondi and Department of Justice officials, but no meeting occurred,” the survivors said. “We should not have to be this persistent to engage with DOJ—the department responsible for handling the Epstein files, protecting their privacy, and answering for years of secrecy and failure.”

Last month, 19 victims came out publicly against Blanche’s attorney general nomination after a New York Times report revealed he was among the Trump administration officials who met in the White House Situation Room to discuss how to respond to public pressure for more transparency on the government’s Epstein files.  

These survivors have multiple grievances against Blanche for inconsistent redactions on the released files, which have put some of them in danger after exposing their names, personal information, and illicit photos.

“We are especially concerned that Todd Blanche, the person nominated for the highest law enforcement position in the country, was at that table. Blanche has consistently minimized legitimate concerns about how the files have been handled, including problematic redactions and the exposure of survivors’ personal information. Blanche failed to deliver transparency, and he has gravely failed survivors. This is failing upward, plain and simple,” the women said last month. 

A Mozilla-commissioned report is claiming that Microsoft is indulging in all manner of bad behaviors to nudge users toward its Edge browser. However, judging by market share statistics, any potential efforts in that direction are not going too well for the Windows giant. The Over The Edge 2.0 report, commissioned by Mozilla, was published earlier this week and documents design choices from Microsoft that sent users into the arms of Edge. It also looked at differences in Microsoft's approach in Germany (as a stand-in for the European Economic Area (EEA) ), India, the UK, and the US. The conclusion? "Microsoft still does not allow users to download, set as the default, or keep using alternative browsers without harmful interference." This might take the form of an "All you need is right here" banner in Bing when attempting to download alternative browsers, the pre-pinning of Edge to the Windows taskbar, and "misleading" wording, which, according to the report, could trick users into making Edge their default. Then there is AI. The report's authors found that Copilot ignores the default browser when opening links, and that Copilot data-sharing toggles are preselected to ON in the US and India. The above highlights another finding in the report – where Microsoft has been forced to make changes (in the EEA), it has done so. The "All you need is right here" banner, for example, does not appear in the EEA, but does in the UK, the US, and India. There's also no injected Edge banner on the Chrome download page, and Windows Search doesn't automatically use Edge instead of the default browser. The Browser Choice Alliance applauded the report and criticized the tactics documented in it: "The researchers' findings in 'Over the Edge 2.0' reveal how Microsoft continues to use manipulative tactics to push users toward Edge, limiting users' ability to choose and run their chosen browser. "The report demonstrates how Microsoft deploys harmful patterns against users on Windows 11 devices at a global scale. We call on Microsoft to respect its users and stop using the Windows ecosystem to steer users toward its own browser in ways that restrict user choice, undermine web freedom, and unfairly tilt the playing field away from fair competition and innovation." Other browser makers were also scathing regarding the practices the report accuses Microsoft of employing. Bruce Lawson, Vivaldi's Technical Communications Officer, told The Register, "We're glad Mozilla's independent researchers confirm what we've been telling regulators for years … Microsoft is very reluctant to compete on the merits of its own browser product, so abuses its dominance of the Windows ecosystem to manipulate users. "The threat of scrutiny in EU means that it's not quite so bad in Europe, but it's still not a level playing field - and we continue to urge the UK, Australian and Japanese regulators to step in and make their markets fair. Vivaldi will be happy to co-pilot the code changes need, to avoid Microsoft having any unfortunate Copilot involvement. "We know how 'well' those projects turn out." The Register approached Microsoft for comment, but the Windows giant did not respond. The alleged antics found in the report, if true, do not appear to be serving Microsoft particularly well. While the company does not publish official figures, Statcounter (which has tracking code on more than one million websites globally and records billions of page views) shows Edge's market share hovering at just over 10 percent – a decline from 13 percent in June 2025. Mozilla's Firefox, on the other hand, has grown its share to 6.44 percent from 5.84 percent a year ago. Thus, if Microsoft is adopting the dubious design practices its competitors are accusing it of, it doesn't appear to be working particularly well. If Statcounter is to be believed, then even with all the alleged nudging and steering from the Windows giant, Edge remains that thing customers use to download an alternative. A spokesperson at Mozilla sent un a statement: "Firefox is competing hard and growing on many platforms, but looking specifically at Edge market share on Windows - which is the relevant market - the researchers note that Edge was the only browser to gain share on Windows over the last two years. This led the authors to say (on page 10 of the report): "We hypothesise that previous harmful patterns have played a role in this growth."®

⚡ Quick Take

• Amazon MGM Studios’ trailer for I Play Rocky shows how Sylvester Stallone got to play Rocky.
• Nerdist Take: Anthony Ippolito’s performance in I Play Rocky might be too uncanny to handle.

How did Sylvester Stallone, a complete unknown, get to play Rocky Balboa in Rocky? Cinephiles might know the story about how he wouldn’t sell the rights to his film if he didn’t get to star in it, but for those who don’t Amazon MGM Studios’ new film I Play Rocky will show you. And it will do so with a lead actor, Anthony Ippolito, who might look and sound too much like Sylvester Stallone. Take it all in as you watch I Play Rocky‘s trailer below.

….Okay. Lot to take in here. That includes that this story of an unlikely contender reaching the pinnacle of his profession is essentially a de facto remake of Rocky. Only it also feature a bunch of remade Rocky scenes.

Like we said, lot to take in. Whole lot. In fact, we’re gonna need a second to gather our thoughts about I Play Rocky and its trailer. So you can read the film’s official synopsis while we do that. From Amazon MGM Studios:

The film is an electrifying true story about an unknown actor with an unshakable belief that he wasn’t just meant to write Rocky—he was meant to be Rocky Balboa. Told “no” at every turn, Sylvester Stallone bets everything on himself, holding the line on playing the lead against seemingly impossible odds. The result is the ultimate underdog story behind the ultimate underdog movie.

Amazon MGM Studios Nerdist Take: Anthony Ippolito’s Performance as Sylvester Stallone in the I Play Rocky Trailer Is TOO Uncanny

Apparently when you need someone to portray a Hollywood legend in a project about them being in a famous movie, you turn to Anthony Ippolito. He previously played Al Pacino in Paramount+’ miniseries The Offer, which we will now think of as I Play Michael Corleone. In this I Play Rocky trailer, Ippolito sounds exactly like Stallone in Rocky. The resemblance is uncanny, too. And he captures all of that without the real thing’s help. Stallone previously said he had no involvement with I Play Rocky, despite the fact he played Rocky. We’re going to call this possession a little too uncanny. It’s a wild age for biopics.

Directed by Peter Farrelly with a script from Peter Gamble, the movie also stars Matt Dillon, AnnaSophia Robb, P.J. Byrne, Toby Kebbell, Tracy Letts, Jay Duplass, Stephan James, and Kiki Seto.

We’re not sure whether or not any of the above actors will look and sound too much like the person they play. And we have no idea if that is better or worse. We’ll find out when I Play Rocky plays in theaters on November 6, 2026.

The post I PLAY ROCKY Trailer Delivers Uncanny Sylvester Stallone Look Alike appeared first on Nerdist.

Microsoft's monthly release of security fixes, dubbed Patch Tuesday, resolved a record 570 security vulnerabilities across the company's product line, thanks to discoveries with AI.

President Trump said on Wednesday morning that ICE should continue making vehicle stops, appearing to contradict his own administration’s suspension of the stops following federal officers fatally shooting two men within a week.

“We must be strong, tough, and smart, and we CANNOT give up one of I.C.E.’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP!” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Once we do, we are playing right into the criminal’s hands.”

ICE agents killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston last Tuesday and Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine on Monday. Both men were unarmed, neither was the actual target of a federal immigration operation, and the agents did not wear body cameras.

People with knowledge of the directive told several news outlets that federal officers had been told to temporarily halt pulling over drivers on Tuesday, but it remains unclear what officer conduct the administration would evaluate during the pause.

“What I understand [from] talking to the director of ICE, it’s a short pause just to make sure we are doing the right thing,” Tom Homan said on Fox News on Tuesday, insisting that the decision would not affect the number of ICE arrests. According to the Associated Press, the suspension includes carve-outs for carrying out criminal warrants or working with partner agencies.

Since the start of Trump’s second term, federal immigration agents have shot and killed at least 11 people. Five of them were in their vehicles at the time. As my colleague Sophie Hurwitz wrote last week, the Department of Homeland Security’s go-to justification is that the victims weaponized their vehicles and were thus dangers to the officers and the public. Noah Lanard reported for Mother Jones, that, according to ICE’s own data, none of its officers have been killed by an immigrant and law enforcement officers are taught not to shoot into cars, as doing so will likely not stop a moving vehicle. 

Even if the Trump administration follows through with its temporary suspension of vehicle stops, its violence will continue. Isabela Dias noted in January that ICE implements the brutality by design with its goal to hit record numbers of arrests. According to the New York Times, federal officials detained more than 10,000 people in five days, and ICE has doubled its daily arrest numbers from last year.

Republican Senator John Cornyn directed serious concerns about the status of President Trump’s “anti-weaponization” slush fund to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche at his confirmation hearing on Wednesday.

In a series of well-directed questions, the Texas senator undermined the very basis of the settlement agreement resolving the Trump family’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over Trump’s leaked tax returns, which created the slush fund.

“There’s so much that’s unusual about this,” Cornyn said. “[The leaked tax returns] happened back in 2020, and the lawsuit wasn’t brought until 2026, so with the two-year statute of limitations … that struck me as unusual.”

Cornyn then moved on to the text of the settlement agreement.

“On page four: ‘This settlement agreement … may be modified only upon the written agreement of the parties’ Has there been a written agreement of the parties to modify the settlement fund?”

“No, the settlement fund is just not moving forward,” Blanche replied. “There’s no modification. It’s just it never started. No money went from the Treasury to any other account. There’s no commissioners. It’s not moving forward.”

“Is the settlement agreement enforceable as a contract by the parties?”

“Well, yes, it’s an enforceable document,” Blanche conceded. “So I suppose if President Trump’s counsel sought to enforce it, that they potentially could.”

“Including the weaponization fund,” Cornyn said, making the obvious connection.

“Well, they could try to enforce the contract. They can’t force the Department of Justice to move forward with the weaponization fund. They could potentially say that, I suppose, that we breached by not moving forward. They haven’t done that, and I’m not aware that they’re planning on doing that,” Blanche replied.

Cornyn then asked directly what Blanche, Trump’s former personal lawyer, had been avoiding.

“But just to be clear, the president of the United States, who was the plaintiff in this lawsuit, has not agreed in writing to delete the weaponization fund, and there’s no guarantee that he or one of the other plaintiffs might raise that issue by way of a lawsuit and a breach of contract lawsuit in the future?”

“Well, senator, the plaintiffs have no power over the fund. The fund was administered solely by the five commissioners and through the Department of Justice. So no, they don’t have any power with respect to the fund at all. I suppose they could bring a lawsuit, and then we would litigate it. But even if we were litigating it, there’s no fund, so the results of such litigation, whatever it would be, wouldn’t be a revival of the fund.”

Blanche can say how dead the slush fund is as much as he wants, but that won’t convince anyone until it’s actually in writing, which it isn’t. It’s a bad look for Blanche when even Republicans realize that.

CORNYN: The president, who's a plaintiff in this lawsuit, has not agreed in writing to delete the weaponization fund, and there's no guarantee that he or one of the other plaintiffs might raise that issue by way of a breach of contract lawsuit?

BLANCHE: I suppose they could… pic.twitter.com/6bAAvuVL4p

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 15, 2026

⚡ Quick Take

• Matt Reeves’ The Batman – Part II will prowl the streets of Gotham again as a DC Elseworlds movie project. Here’s what we know about the film.

Although it will not belong to the main on-screen DC Universe, we were very happy to hear that The Batman – Part II will continue on in DC’s new world order. Under James Gunn and Peter Safran, The Batman – Part II will belong to DC’s Elseworlds Projects. These projects will take place in TV, movie, or game form but will not factor into the main universe story. Still, they play a critical role in keeping the DC Universe varied and interesting.

Warner Bros.

After A LONG journey, The Batman — Part II finally has an official logo. However, the movie has also been… Yes, delayed again. The Robert Pattinson movie, which was originally meant to release in 2025 (!!!) will now arrive on February 18, 2028. Holy cannoli, Batman. You can also check out our first look at The Batman — Part II below.

Here’s everything we know about The Batman – Part II.

Title Warner Bros.

For now, the sequel to The Batman carries the descriptive title of The Batman – Part II.

The Batman – Part II‘s Plot

We don’t know much yet about The Batman – Part II‘s plot. But we do know that a cinematic universe is building for The Batman. Next up, we’ll see a Penguin series on HBO Max, and that will tie directly into the coming sequel.

Warner Bros.

One thing is clear about The Batman – Part II; its focus will stay on Batman, a.k.a Bruce Wayne. Reeves shares:

To me, the thing that I really feel is that I also believe that Rob [Pattinson] is so special in the role. My goal has always been to do these point-of-view stories that allow the character to always be the emotional center of the story. Because a lot of times what happens is, after you do the first one, then suddenly other Rogues Gallery characters come in, and they kind of take over, and then Batman takes a backseat sort of character-wise, or emotionally.

But what is the current state of The Batman – Part II? Unfortunately, the film has been delayed once more. Although The Batman – Part II was originally meant to arrive in 2025, it will now be released on October 1, 2027, after two delays. James Gunn confirmed the news on Threads, revealing, “The only reason for the delay is there isn’t a full script (those of you who follow me here probably know that already). Matt is committed to making the best film he possibly can, and no one can accurately guess exactly how long a script will take to write. Once there is a finished script, there is around two years for pre-production, shooting and post-production on big films.”

But happily, Matt Reeves and co-writer Mattson Tomlin have finally finished The Batman—Part II‘s script. They took to Instagram to celebrate the news. And hey, although the script was delayed, it comes right on schedule, at least according to James Gunn.

Gunn recently shared in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, “Listen, we’re supposed to get a script in June. I hope that happens. We feel really good about it. People should get off Matt’s nuts because it’s like, let the guy write the screenplay in the amount of time he needs to write it. That’s just the way it is. He doesn’t owe you something because you like his movie. I mean, you like his movie because of Matt. So let Matt do things the way he does.”

Gunn additionally shared, “I am irritated by people. I mean, it’s just that thing people don’t need to be entitled about. It’s going to come out when he feels good about the screenplay. And Matt’s not going to give me the screenplay until he feels good about the screenplay.” Happily, it seems like that time has finally come. Reeves and co made the June deadline. And, according to Variety sources, “the studio is thrilled with Matt Reeves’ just-submitted screenplay draft for the sequel to The Batman.” Huzzah!

The Batman – Part II‘s Cast Warner Bros.

For now, we know Robert Pattinson will return as our Bruce Wayne/Batman. It just wouldn’t be a The Batman movie without him. In addition, an article in GQ notes that Matt Reeves has confirmed Andy Serkis’ return as Alfred Pennyworth in The Batman – Part II.

A February 21, 2024 interview on Vanity Fair also confirmed Barry Keoghan—who had a brief cameo in the first film as the Joker—will return, presumably in a much bigger role, for The Batman – Part II.

Warner Bros. Behind the Scenes

Matt Reeves is returning to write the sequel to The Batman. But this time, he will find a co-writer in Mattson Tomlin. We assume Reeves will also direct The Batman – Part II.

The Batman – Part II Release Date

The Batman – Part II will release on February 18, 2028. Production on The Batman—Part II officially began in the spring of 2026.

Originally published on February 8, 2023.

The post THE BATMAN – PART II Delayed AGAIN appeared first on Nerdist.

President Donald Trump made it clear on Wednesday that he fully supports the actions of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency as more and more innocent people are being killed by the agency’s agents. “The men and women of ICE are doing a GREAT job, one that has to be done,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social. Trump added that “we cannot give up” on ICE’s use of traffic stops…

Source

⚡ Quick Take

• Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is more than just a big budget epic, it’s a deeply thoughtful and moving work of art with something to say.

I walked out of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey with one word in mind – “thoughtful.” It’s an impeccably made big budget movie with stunning sequences and an almost unfathomable scope, but that’s not what it is. It’s an incredibly thoughtful work of art in every way. It engages Homer’s epic poems with reverence. It treats both Ancient Greece’s real history and mythology with the seriousness of a scholar rather than a big-budget summer blockbuster, but in a way that makes it accessible to modern audiences. And it understands, in deep, meaningful ways, why these stories transcend time and cultures, all while speaking to the world of 2026 right now. It’s as good an adaptation as anyone who cares about The Odyssey could hope for. Every scene, every line of dialogue, and every decision is all just so thoughtful. And it only gets better on a second viewing.

Universal

I have a million things I want to say about The Odyssey and why I love it. Some of them are easy to talk about, like how the cast is absolutely incredible. I could write this entire review just about how good they are. Matt Damon gives maybe the best performance of his career as Odysseus, the great hero of the Trojan War, who is lost in all ways. The same is true of Tom Holland, who has never been better as his broken-hearted, naive son Telemachus. Meanwhile, Anne Hathaway has scenes so good as the long-suffering wife Penelope, it’s hard to imagine anyone else in the role. And Robert Pattinson might very well win a Best Supporting Oscar for playing the sneering villainous suitor Antinous.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg of standout performances in The Odyssey. Elliot Page, Jon Bernthal, Lupita Nyong’o, Hamish Patel, John Leguizamo, Samantha Morton, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, and Corey Hawkins are all absolutely fantastic. It’s like the ’27 Yankees of casts. This might be a mythological story that takes place during a “time of apparent magic,” but the performances are nuanced, authentic, and human. The result is multiple scenes and character moments that land with the emotional weight of a lightning bolt to the heart.

Universal Pictures

Nolan’s ability to create spectacle has also never been better. And yes, I realize what I just said. Forget the mass attack on the city of Troy in The Odyssey, which is so big and terrifying that it’s among the most harrowing war sequences ever put to film. The scenes on the sea are so good, I had to actually remind myself they weren’t CGI. It just seems impossible anyone took a bunch of actors out on an ancient-style boat and actually filmed a working script. There are also parts of this movie so good–including some that put most horror films, action movies, and thrillers to shame—that they left me completely awed by their scope and intensity. (Nolan also gets a big assist from the film’s fantastic score.)

But for the many things I can discuss about The Odyssey, there are far more I can’t get into because this is a spoiler-free review. I know that sounds funny since this story is roughly 3,000 years old, but Nolan’s script is truly an adaptation. It has its own point of view and makes changes in service to his version of the story. (Which also pulls from Virgil’s The Aeneid and Homer’s The Iliad.) This is not the more traditional, straight adaptation the movie’s underwhelming trailers teased. This is a film that has something to say. It has a reason to exist beyond just bringing Homer’s tale to the screen.

Universal Pictures

The Odyssey answers every question I had about why Nolan picked this specific, unlikely story as his follow-up to Oppenheimer. I ultimately understood and enjoyed every change he made along the way, including why he altered the inciting event of Odysseus’ long struggle to get home. Even the movie’s much-maligned color scheme and costumes made perfect sense. They are all in service to the film’s themes, which also pull directly from actual Mycenaean Greece history.

But I did not understand all of Nolan’s choices along the way. For most of the movie, I didn’t even understand why he wanted to make this film. That’s because The Odyssey intentionally holds back what it’s really about for the majority of its lengthy runtime. (Which flies by, FYI). For a long time, even while I was enjoying it, I couldn’t stop thinking, “Okay, but why? Why did he make this movie? What’s the ultimate point to all of this?”

The moment the movie lets you in and answers that—in what is also its best scene—I more than got it. I was moved by it. In that instance, it was though I had been putting together a puzzle without knowing what it was supposed to look like. Only then, when I suddenly realized the big picture, could I fully appreciate all the parts that had already been put in place.

Universal

This movie has something to say. And what it has to say is both timeless and timely. This is a story about how even across time and culture, humanity’s failings and successes have always been the same. They bind all of us, just as we are bound to one another and always have been. The question is whether we always remember that or not. It’s about the world we create, the world we live in, how we treat one another. This film asks us if whether or not we appreciate what we have and why we should hold on to it. Nolan’s The Odyssey is about what we want from life and who or what we blame when we don’t get it. Or, in some cases, when we do.

It’s all just so thoughtful in a way most movies, especially most blockbusters, just aren’t and don’t want to be. But its thoughtfulness wasn’t the only thing I could think about after I saw it. I walked out really loving this film, but I also walked out wanting to see The Odyssey again immediately. What I wanted was to watch it, knowing what it was about from the opening scene. I wanted to know if that knowledge would make a great movie into a truly special one. And that’s exactly what happened.

This was the rarest of times when I was able to see a second screening before writing my review. (Though sadly not on an IMAX screen like I did the first time, and I would 100% recommend seeing it on the best and biggest screen you possibly can.) As I suspected, Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey was even better the second time. When I wasn’t so concerned with thinking about what it’s about, I thought it was even more thoughtful.

Universal/Nerdist

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. He wasn’t even that excited for The Odyssey after seeing the trailers. You can follow him on Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

The post THE ODYSSEY Is a Moving Work of Art and a Deeply Thoughtful Adaptation appeared first on Nerdist.

This post is updated throughout the day to reflect the latest incidents. It was last updated at 8:31 a.m.

Here’s what’s happening on Santa Cruz County roads this morning…

▼︎ new incidents

Road incidents as of 8:30 a.m. on July 15

• A gray car was found flipped over on its roof on the right shoulder at the Green Valley Road off-ramp from northbound Highway 1 in Watsonville around 8:27 a.m. today. No one was seen in or near the car. Emergency services were on their way.
   
• There are alternating lane closures on both northbound and southbound Highway 9 at Pool Drive in the San Lorenzo Valley because of bridge work. This is scheduled to continue until April 30, 2027.
   
• Highway 9 at Cascade Avenue in the San Lorenzo Valley has one-way traffic due to ongoing work. This closure is scheduled to last until Aug. 31.
   
• A lane on Highway 9 at Kirby Street in the San Lorenzo Valley is closed for asphalt paving. The closure is scheduled to last until 5:59 a.m. tomorrow.
   
• The California Highway Patrol helped Caltrans with maintenance work at the intersection of Highway 9 and Felton Empire Road in the San Lorenzo Valley. The work is scheduled from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. today.
   

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 Wednesday morning traffic: Overturned car on Highway 1; multiple Highway 9 lane closures appeared first on Lookout Santa Cruz.