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A year and a half after the massive battery fire at the Moss Landing Power Plant, a final environmental assessment concludes that off-site soil, sediment and surface water sampled around the facility do not appear to pose an unacceptable long-term risk to people or wildlife.

The report, prepared by Terraphase Engineering on behalf of Vistra Corp., found that concentrations of metals and other chemicals associated with the Jan. 16, 2025 fire were below levels that would warrant additional investigation or cleanup at the locations that were tested.

The Monterey County Environmental Health Bureau released the report Wednesday along with reviews from three state agencies.

County officials stressed that the Environmental Health Bureau served only as a coordinator of the public review process and did not independently verify the report or adopt its conclusions. Any future cleanup, monitoring or enforcement decisions will be made by state regulatory agencies.

Terraphase evaluated soil collected from 27 locations within a 10-mile radius of the plant, along with sediment, surface water and pore water from five environmentally sensitive areas near Elkhorn Slough.

Using conservative screening methods, the consultants concluded that cumulative cancer risks and non-cancer health hazards were below California risk management thresholds. They also found no evidence of long-term ecological risks in the sampled areas, with the exception of elevated nickel levels in portions of Hester Marsh and the Mosquito Abatement Observation Area, which the report attributes to naturally occurring background conditions rather than the fire.

The report therefore recommends no further off-site investigation or response actions for the sampled soil, sediment and surface water.

But regulators reviewing the document said the conclusions should be interpreted cautiously.

The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment said it disagrees with Terraphase’s conclusion that elevated nickel concentrations in sediment at the Mosquito Abatement Observation Area represent natural background conditions. The agency also said the four- to nine-month delay before sampling began should have been identified as a significant limitation because contaminants may have been redistributed by wind and rain before testing occurred.

OEHHA further said it does not believe the report’s conclusion of “no ecological risks” can be stated as strongly because of uncertainties surrounding background nickel concentrations, documented losses of aquatic life after the fire and the delay in sampling. The agency recommended additional monitoring of aquatic invertebrates in the Mosquito Abatement Observation Area and Hester Marsh to determine whether the ecosystem has recovered.

The Department of Toxic Substances Control said the revised report contains “meaningful improvements,” including a better discussion of early air monitoring, transient deposition and the report’s limited scope. 

However, DTSC said several ecological questions remain unresolved, including whether special-status species were adequately evaluated and whether additional follow-up is needed regarding observed impacts on aquatic life.

DTSC also said the report should more fully consider how contaminants deposited after the fire may have been redistributed through rainfall, runoff and tidal movement.

The Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board agreed that the report appropriately identifies remaining uncertainties involving groundwater, watershed transport and redistributed contaminants, while emphasizing that those issues are already being addressed through separate regulatory orders requiring Vistra to investigate on-site and off-site impacts.

County officials likewise cautioned that the report should not be viewed as the final word on the broader environmental impacts of the fire.

They noted that questions remain about potential exposures during and immediately after the blaze, movement of contaminants through the watershed, long-term biological effects and future environmental monitoring. Those issues, the county said, will be addressed through separate regulatory and scientific processes rather than this report.

The Jan. 16, 2025 fire destroyed roughly 55% of nearly 99,000 lithium-ion battery modules housed in one of the facility’s storage buildings, prompting evacuations of about 1,200 nearby residents and months of environmental monitoring.

In what they call the first-ever real-world agent-to-agent exploitation method, Pillar Security researchers say they discovered an exploit in the repository behind Google's Agent Development Kit for Python that could allow attackers to compromise supply chains. In other words, now we know that one AI agent can be used to control and compromise another one that has more privileges. The security snafu existed in google/adk-python, an open source Python toolkit with more than 90 million downloads used to build and deploy AI agents. Google has since fixed the underlying issue in the repository but deemed the exploit non-rewardable because it involved social engineering. Even so, it illustrates the risks of using AI agents in CI/CD workflows for triage, pull request (PR) reviews, and discussions. It also shows how one AI agent could attack another in a production environment, according to Pillar’s Dan Lisichkin, who found and reported the vulnerability. “Our world is changing quickly, and new attack surfaces are not yet reflected in threat models because these attacks never could exist in the first place in the ‘pre-agent’ world,” Lisichkin said in a technical write-up published on Monday. He will also discuss the findings during a poster talk at DEF CON's AI Village on Friday, August 7 at 1600 PDT. “CISOs and security practitioners should start considering these scenarios, threat-modeling them, and calculating worst-case implications and blast radius,” Lisichkin wrote. The issue stems from the way that the repo ran two classes of automated AI agents with different privilege levels that unintentionally share a trust boundary. One is a low-privilege, public-facing AI agent activated whenever a user opens a pull request (PR) or issue, and a second is a high-privilege, maintainer-only agent. Pillar’s team found that the low-privilege, public-facing agent could be manipulated via prompt injection into triggering a maintainer-only agent that can execute malicious actions. “Because workflows that explain how these agents work behind the scenes are also public, any person could have connected the dots that one agent should be able - at least theoretically - to 'call' the other,” Lisichkin told The Register. "When it comes to building the attack, you just need to know English to build the prompt injection (or just ask an AI to do it for you)." There is one caveat: an attacker would first likely need to make legitimate contributions to the repository to build trust among the maintainers before moving on to prompt injection. But assuming someone was willing to put in the time, here’s how the attack would play out. First, an external user - this would be the attacker - creates a new PR. Lisichkin calls this PR A, and it combines a real fix with malicious code, such as a modified package.json or malicious dependency. Then, a public-facing agent tied to a high-privilege collaborator personal access token (PAT) reads the attacker’s PR text and marks the PR for review. This level of trust - the collaborator PAT - allows the attacker-generated text to trigger a gated workflow. Once the PR A triage happens, the attacker opens a second PR - PR B - with the prompt injection, and the triage agent emits the trusted @gemini-cli handoff. This triggers the privileged-agent workflow and executes the malicious action. “Strung together, they manufacture a complete, believable ‘a human asked for a review, gemini ran it, gemini approved’ trail on the poisoned PR, none of which ever happened,” Lisichkin wrote. Google did not respond to The Register’s inquiries, but Lisichkin confirmed that the underlying issue was fixed. Still, his findings, Google said, “did not meet the bar” for a bug-bounty payout. “This report demonstrates exfiltration of a GitHub token with a 'pull-requests: write' permission, which enables tampering with a PR but still requires a maintainer to take an action to merge the malicious PR as PRs are not automatically merged after a bot review,” Google explained. “We don't reward vulnerability reports that require social engineering to enable a supply chain security compromise,” the rationale continued. “Nonetheless, we have taken an action to harden the repository so we will be recognizing this report with credit.” Lisichkin told us the research shows agent isolation is not enough. "Agents should have their own identity, which mandates what resources they are allowed to access and in what they are allowed to interact with these resources," he said. "In this case, if Google had just given a bot identity to the initial triaging agent, most of the attack could have been prevented. Security teams need to start modeling agent identity and agent resource access within their threat models."®

As President Donald Trump’s war in Iran rages on, the Pentagon is seeking suggestions on how to deal with it. According to CNN, a senior military officer at U.S. Central Command sent a request to military analysts, asking “for new creative and unconventional ways to pressure and punish Iran”—which comes after the Trump administration purged and suppressed diverse voices in the armed forces.

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President Trump is not happy over how Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, handled the prosecution of alleged vandalism at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

CNN reports that Trump is considering firing Pirro, a former Fox News host, over the Department of Justice’s legal admission that the pool’s peeling stemmed from “flawed” renovation work and not vandals like ex-Olympic canoeist David Hearn, who was federally indicted before charges against him were dropped.

One unnamed source told CNN that Trump is “furious” with Pirro and thinks that it’s “highly likely she’s removed from her job,” while another told the network that the president was “blindsided” by the DOJ filing from Pirro’s office.

“The president did not know beforehand that she was going to do that,” the source told CNN.

Trump confirmed his dissatisfaction with Pirro Monday, telling reporters in the Oval Office that he thinks “she choked, because the judge was really vicious. Instead of going after the people that did it, the judge went after her and went after her department, and I guess she choked. I don’t know what the hell happened.”

When a reporter asked Trump if he was reconsidering Pirro’s role, he snapped.

“I don’t know what—you’re fake news. Don’t ever talk again. You’re fake news, one of the worst in the business. Fortunately, nobody watches you,” Trump said.

Trump says Jeanine Pirro "choked" and then snaps at a reporter who asks if her job is safe: "Don't ever talk again" pic.twitter.com/dL7aLBO6h1

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 3, 2026

Trump has made construction, beautification, and renovation projects around Washington, D.C., his highest priority in his second term, but his $14 million efforts to “fix” the Reflecting Pool keeps failing. The “American flag blue” paint he added because he didn’t like the look of green algae was quickly obscured by, well, algae blooms. His contractors added hydrogen peroxide to kill the algae, failing to realize that it’s a paint thinner, and the blue lining started to peel away.

Unwilling to admit that he caused the peeling, Trump went on a witch hunt against alleged vandals, which is where the spurious charges from Pirro’s office against Hearn came from. Now that the case has fallen through, Trump may soon take out his anger by firing Pirro. Meanwhile, the pool looks much worse than before.

AWS now allows vibe coding tool Superblocks to be embedded into the private clouds of AWS customers. It's another step towards decoupling apps from models.

Missourians are about to vote on their own power to change the state constitution.

Missouri, along with 26 other states and Washington, D.C., has a process by which voters can gather signatures and initiate amendments to the state constitution by putting a ballot measure to a vote. As it stands, if a citizen-led amendment wins a simple statewide majority—six of Missouri’s eight congressional districts—the initiative will pass.

But Tuesday’s primary election might take that away.

Amendment 4, placed on the ballot by Missouri Republicans, would require any citizen-led amendment to pass in all eight districts, rather than the traditional six. This means that any single district could tank an amendment, regardless of popular support in the rest of the state. No other state makes it that hard.

“I view it as a politician’s power grab,” Franklin County, Missouri, resident Derek Schriewer told The Missouri Independent. “They are trying to take away a typical function that we have had for over 100 years for citizens to be able to hold politicians accountable.”

Doug Kerr, chairman of the Knox County Republican Central Committee and a staunch supporter of Amendment 4, argued that GOP interests were not getting enough representation—despite the Republican supermajority in the state legislature.

“Our voices are not being heard,” Kerr told The Missouri Independent. “We’re not just a democracy. We are a democratic republic, and the rights of the minority should at least be heard. And right now, they’re not.”

Amendment 4 has powerful allies, and not just among Republican state representatives. It has also been endorsed by Missouri’s most salient agricultural lobby, the Missouri Farm Bureau, as well as the Missouri Right to Life PAC. Campaign spending, both for and against the measure, is through the roof, and Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins is predicting the highest primary turnout among Missouri voters since 2004.

In recent years, Missouri voters have relied on citizen-led amendments to expand Medicaid access, legalize recreational marijuana, approve sports betting, and enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.

The irony of Amendment 4 is that it only cuts one way. Lawmakers aren’t limiting their own power to change the state constitution—they will still have the power to put constitutional amendments on the ballot. But if voters want to do the same thing, they’re out of luck.

President Donald Trump claimed Monday he was in talks to open the Strait of Hormuz “literally by tomorrow”—while Iran has denied speaking to the United States. 

Speaking at a press conference to sign an executive order, Trump rambled about ongoing talks with Iran to reopen the strait. 

“It’s not very complex. We’re talking about the strait, the opening of the strait, having it open, literally by tomorrow. Completely open,” Trump said. The president claimed that would be the first phase before proceeding to denuclearization talks.

Trump, who has been claiming the US controls the Strait of Hormuz, now says he's talking with Iran about "opening the Strait literally by tomorrow" 🤔 pic.twitter.com/8hKjbT9BBA

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 3, 2026

Don’t hold your breath. Trump has teased an imminent deal with Iran more than three dozen times since the war began six months ago, and this doesn’t appear to be any different. 

Trump told reporters Sunday that he’d called off another “massive attack,” because U.S. allies in the Middle East believed that Tehran was ready to make “a deal on Hormuz.” The president indicated that the talks would begin Monday. 

But Esmaeil Baghaei, spokesperson for Iran’s foreign ministry, told reporters Monday that Iran was not currently in talks with the U.S. He said Iran was in the final stages of discussions with Oman to open the strait.  

In response, Trump called Iran’s leadership “unbelievably duplicitous,” claiming in a social media post before the press conference they’d begged him to restart talks.  

Still, Trump inexplicably promised there would be progress. “We’re gonna find out today or tomorrow. I mean, they’re gonna go quickly, one way or another,” he said during the press conference. 

OpenAI and Anthropic admitted that their unreleased AI models escaped their sandboxes and hacked several companies in unprecedented cyberattacks. Who is legally to blame? Should prosecutors charge the two AI frontier labs? Can victims sue them? We spoke to lawyers who specialize in computer hacking laws to find out.

President Donald Trump is doing so much for fossil fuel companies, what with retooling the whole of the energy mix to explicitly block renewables in favor of extraction, but apparently Chevron has not been expressing enough gratitude to Trump about it. So, in a totally normal and not at all problematic move, Trump went on his personal for-profit social media network to yell about how Chevron’…

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DesignArena is used by 5.3 million people around the world, providing critical human evaluations to frontier labs.

⚡ Quick Take

• The second season of Batman: Caped Crusader reinvented several classic villains, and we ranked them from worst to best.

Much like its excellent and unsung first season, Batman: Caped Crusader season two reinvented several classic Dark Knight rogues for a retro, film noir setting. And many of them were incredible, while a few missed the mark. We rank the ten villains reinvented for the second season of the Prime Video animated series, produced by the legendary Bruce Timm, along with showrunners James Tucker and Geoffrey Thorne. We should note that we left off Calendar Man, who isn’t really a villain in this series, and more of a fun Easter egg.

10. Mad Hatter (Larainne Newman) Episode 1, “Brute Force” Prime Video/Warner Bros. Animation

Season one of Caped Crusader did a gender swap with the Penguin, and that worked out ok. But season two gender-swapped the Mad Hatter, turning twisted scientist Jervis Tetch into gossipy TV host Hattie Tetch, who hates all things Batman, and uses her TV platform to spread propaganda against him. It’s not that she’s bad, but she just leaves little impression. And she barely qualifies a villain in the traditional sense.

9. Blockbuster (Zach Lazar Hoffman) Episode 1, “Brute Force” Prime Video/Warner Bros. Animation

Another mid-tier Batman villain who makes a notable but small appearance in episode one is Blockbuster, even though he’s never called that. In the comics, Blockbuster was Mark Desmond, a chemist who gave himself Hulk-like strength and size. In Caped Crusader, the Riddler gives his driver and toadie, a guy he calls “Dez,” the serum that makes him a hulking brute. He fights Batman in a brief but memorable scene, and then drops dead. Not bad, just one note. Many fans believed this to be Solomon Grundy, but it’s definitely Blockbuster.

8. The Mad Monk (Blythe Melin) Episode 4, “The Devil’s Due” Prime Video/Warner Bros. Animation

In the comics, the Mad Monk was the second costumed villain Batman fought, back in Detective Comics #31 in 1939. In those comics, he was a cult leader who was also a vampire. For Caped Crusader, he’s reinvented as the leader of a cult in Gotham City that worships the bat-god, Barbatos. DC Comics fans know Barbatos as one of the creations of seminal Batman creators Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. There isn’t much to this version of the Monk beyond “grifter pretending to be a religious fanatic,” and he sadly doesn’t leave much of an impression. However, we do appreciate the Caped Crusader writers for going back to the Dark Knight’s earliest days for inspiration.

7. Roxy Rocket (Wunmi Mosaku) Episode 2, “Rocket’s Red Glare” Prime Video/Warner Bros. Animation

Bruce Timm and Paul Dini created Roxy Rocket for The New Batman Adventures animated series in 1997, and she is a pretty obscure villain. So this is a reinvention that even some well-read Batman fans might not even realize is a rebooted character. Especially as no one ever calls her “Roxy Rocket”; they use her real name, Dr. Roxanne Sutton. This version is a pretty standard “They wronged me, so I vow revenge!” baddie, but her rocket suit is cool. There’s a little bit of the original Iron Man design, as well as a healthy dose of the 1949 serial, King of the Rocket Men. But other than a cool retro costume, this villain reinvention isn’t one that will stick with you. This despite a great vocal performance by Sinners‘ Wunmi Mosaku.

6. Thorn (Fryda Wolff) Episode 7, “Her Dark Reflection” Prime Video/Warner Bros. Animation

From the Caped Crusader trailers, most fans believed the red-haired, clad in green femme fatale was Poison Ivy. But nope! It was obscure DC antihero, Thorn, aka Rose Forrest. This character appeared in a series called Rose and Thorn, about a vigilante with a split personality. Here, she’s a mousy florist, one whose father is killed by the Riddler in front of her, causing a mental break. Rose takes on a new, sexy, and dangerous persona, Thorn, and finds a way to get her revenge on the Riddler. If the DC Comics versions were this cool, she wouldn’t be so obscure.

5. The Riddler (Ronan Raftery) Episode 1, “Brute Force” Prime Video/Warner Bros. Animation

We were a bit perplexed at a version of the Riddler that didn’t actually deliver any riddles. And maybe we groaned a little when we found out his nickname comes from the fact that he “riddles his victims with bullets.” But this version of Eddie Nygma, played by Ronan Raftery, is a wonderful take on a 1930s Chicago mobster thug that’s hard not to love. It’s not the Edward Nygma we know, but it’s a very fun, unhinged performance we came to love watching. Fun fact: this version of the Riddler was based on Richard Widmark’s character in the 1947 film Kiss of Death, which was Frank Gorshin’s inspiration for his Riddler in Batman ’66.

4. The Scarecrow (Josh Brener) Episode 6, “Sudden Fear” Prime Video/Warner Bros. Animation

We’re all accustomed to the Scarecrow as Dr. Jonathan Crane, a mad psychiatrist obsessed with fear, who dresses like a traditional burlap scarecrow. In Caped Crusader, they transform Crane into a disgruntled college student, who steals the fear toxin and murders his fellow university students. His look is top-notch, as this version of Scarecrow looks like a 17th-century plague doctor. He also just sounds creepy. So, he’s an actual scary-looking crow. We absolutely love this version, and if the comics followed suit with this look for the character, we’d be so down.

3. Mr. Zero (Kevin Michael Richardson) Episode 8, “Zero Hour” Prime Video/Warner Bros. Animation

Mister Freeze became a top-tier Batman villain because of his ’90s reinvention in Batman: The Animated Series. But he originated as a goofy Silver Age villain in the ‘50s, going by Mister Zero. It was Batman ’66 that rebranded him as “Mister Freeze.” Caped Crusader resurrected the original Mister Zero name, but this version was anything but goofy. A fixer for the underworld, he freezes his victim’s bodies, turning their corpses into ice statues, which just adds to the creepiness. So does his metallic-sounding voicebox, which allows him to speak. He’s not better than the classic B:TAS version, Victor Fries, but this is a very (dare we say) cool reinvention.

2. The Spectre (Roger Craig Smith) Episode 5, “The Spectral Hand” Prime Video/Warner Bros. Animation

Season one of Caped Crusader introduced crooked cop Jim Corrigan, whom DC Comics fans know becomes the Spirit of Vengeance, the Spectre. But nothing in his episode suggested he was worthy of becoming the instrument of God’s wrath, as he is in the comics. But Caped Crusader found a way to reinvent Corrigan as the Spectre, now a shambling undead engine of revenge against those who wronged him. And yes, he still has his green hood and cape. No one ever calls Corrigan “the Spectre,” but we know exactly who he is, and he rules.

1. The Joker (Matthew Needham) Episode 9, “Dead Before Dawn” Prime Video/Warner Bros. Animation

We almost hate giving the top spot to the Joker. After all, what Batman villain is more overplayed than he is? But for Caped Crusader, the producers went in a totally different direction, basing this look on the actor who inspired the Joker in the first place, Conrad Veidt from the silent horror film, The Man Who Laughs. This Joker never laughs, never cracks a smile. And his calm evil as he turns Gotham into a city filled with his uncontrollably laughing victims is chilling. House of the Dragon star Matthew Needham gives his Joker a sinister European accent, which adds to his whole creepy vibe. Look, no one will ever top Mark Hammil for us, but Caped Crusader’s Joker comes pretty darn close. We hope to see this Joker again someday.

You can now watch all of seasons one and two of Batman: Caped Crusader on Prime Video.

The post Ranking the BATMAN: CAPED CRUSADER Season 2 Villains appeared first on Nerdist.

The cyclosporiasis outbreak just turned deadly.

Two people died in Michigan after contracting cyclosporiasis, the state’s health department announced Monday. They’re the first confirmed deaths in the country that have been tied to the public health crisis spurred by a single-celled parasite found on iceberg lettuce.

Both people had “significant underlying health conditions that may have been impacted by cyclosporiasis and dehydration,” the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement, noting that no additional information about the specific cases will be shared.

“Cyclosporiasis is generally not a life-threatening illness,” the statement continued. “Death resulting from cyclosporiasis is uncommon in the United States.”

So far, the state health agency has tallied 11,234 cases and 193 confirmed hospitalizations associated with the illness.

Those numbers would indicate that federal health agencies are far behind in their own analysis of the parasite’s spread—or, at the very least, are failing to inform the American people as to the true nature of the nationwide threat. As of Monday, the CDC’s “fast facts” page on cyclosporiasis recorded “at least 1,947” cases and 98 hospitalizations across nine states.

In a July 28 memo, the CDC said that it had received reports of at least 6,707 laboratory-confirmed domestic cases of cyclosporiasis, though an additional 11,500 cases had not yet been confirmed.

An analysis by The New Republic of state health agency data found at least 18,517 cases across the nine states listed by the CDC. The survey compiled reported figures from Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. However, several of those states had not updated their own public-facing data within days or even weeks, suggesting that the current case tally could be much higher.

Health officials said that anyone experiencing symptoms should reach out to a health care provider right away. Symptoms of cyclosporiasis can include sudden, prolonged diarrhea; bloating, severe stomach cramps, loss of appetite, extreme lethargy, and even a low-grade fever, though many people infected by the parasite show no symptoms at all, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

Those most at risk of serious illness from the parasite are the elderly, infants, and people with compromised immune systems.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Thursday that public health investigators were having a difficult time tracking the disease as it can take one to two weeks to exhibit symptoms after the consumption of infected food.

The current outbreak has been linked to iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell restaurants, supplied by one of the largest fresh-produce suppliers in the country, Taylor Farms. The pro-Trump produce supplier sells products to Walmart, Sam’s Club, Kroger, SYSCO, Aldi, Target, and Dollar General. It also sells food for private label brands such as Whole Foods’ “365” line, and offers assembly-line products for a slew of fast food chains including McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut, Subway, and more.

Investigators are also examining other possible causes for the uptick, which has seen cases of cyclosporiasis increase across 45 states in 2026 thus far, though it is not clear if the cases are all tied to the contaminated lettuce, according to the CDC.

⚡ Quick Take

• Tickets to IMAX 70mm screenings of The Odyssey sold out seven weeks before its release. Now, IMAX has extended the run in the coveted format.
• If you want to see The Odyssey in IMAX 70mm, you can do so until September 16.

Christopher Nolan’s productions are highly respected within the film community. And tickets to his films, specifically tickets to see them in the format they were shot in, IMAX 70mm, are highly sought after. So sought-after, in fact, that seven weeks before The Odyssey even opened, tickets to IMAX 70mm screenings sold out. Now, many more film buffs can assume a superiority complex over seeing the incredible film in its intended format, with IMAX extending the film’s run in IMAX 70mm to September 16.

Universal Pictures Only 25 Theaters in the US Can Show You The Odyssey in IMAX 70mm

Only 25 theaters in the U.S. are able to show The Odyssey in IMAX 70mm. (You can find the list here) Most modern movie theaters use digital projectors. The format requires rare, enormous projectors that feed film in horizontally. Unlike other film types, this creates a tall, almost square look that captures the whole scene. Because of the large surface area of the projected film, the quality of the image is much higher than in other formats.

Film junkies consider IMAX 70mm to be the ultimate way to view Christopher Nolan films, specifically, and especially The Odyssey. Plenty of theaters, though, show the movie in IMAX digital, which is generally less expensive to see and captures an almost-as-tall, slightly wider aspect ratio.

But The Odyssey Is THE Movie to Watch on 70mm IMAX Screens

Nolan made history with The Odyssey, and it became the first feature film shot entirely on IMAX cameras. Previously, the large, antiquated cameras were too loud to use for filming dialogue. In the past, many IMAX movies have also had to switch back and forth periodically from a standard aspect ratio. Now, Nolan solved that issue, commissioning special equipment from IMAX to make it finally possible for a seamless 70mm with IMAX-recorded dialogue for The Odyssey. And we guess that makes it the movie to watch in IMAX 70mm.

After just 12 days in theaters, The Odyssey had grossed $700 million at the box office. This is not the first time IMAX has extended Nolan’s film showings due to extreme success, with Oppenheimer’s run extending twice.

Get Your Tickets to The Odyssey in 70mm IMAX Today

If you, too, want to be able to make other film snobs jealous of you, grab your tickets to see The Odyssey in IMAX 70mm, the ultimate format. The Odyssey only runs on IMAX 70mm through September 16. You can snag tickets here.

The post THE ODYSSEY IMAX 70mm Screenings Extended (For a Limited Time) appeared first on Nerdist.

OpenAI’s first-ever influencer brand trip is sparking online backlash as tensions over the use of AI continue. 

In a special meeting Tuesday, the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors will consider declaring a state of fiscal distress and asking voters to approve a temporary half-cent sales tax that county officials say is needed to offset steep federal funding cuts and protect essential public services.

If approved by a four-fifths vote, the board would place a measure on the Nov. 3 ballot asking voters to authorize a countywide one-half cent increase in the transactions and use tax for five years. 

County officials estimate the measure would generate roughly $27 million annually beginning in the 2027-28 fiscal year.

County staff says the proposal is a response to what it describes as an unprecedented fiscal crisis driven by recent federal legislation and administrative actions that reduce funding for healthcare and safety-net programs while shifting additional costs onto counties. According to the staff report, Santa Cruz County has already identified about $25.6 million in annual impacts, with more than $150 million in increased costs and lost revenue projected over the next five years.

The board is also being asked to formally declare a state of fiscal distress, citing a structural budget imbalance, rising operating costs and the loss of federal support. The proposed resolution states that the county’s projected General Fund deficit has grown from $23.2 million to $48.8 million and could exceed $67 million in future years without corrective action.

County officials say they have already implemented hiring controls, eliminated vacant positions, reduced spending and pursued operational efficiencies, but those measures alone will not be enough to offset the anticipated losses.

The proposed ballot measure, titled the Temporary Emergency Medical, Healthcare, Food, Housing, and Essential Services Protection Measure, would direct revenues into the county’s General Fund. 

While state law prohibits the county from legally dedicating those dollars to specific programs, supervisors are also expected to adopt advisory spending priorities that emphasize emergency medical services, hospitals, mental health care, food assistance, homelessness prevention and other safety-net programs if voters approve the tax.

The urgency ordinance establishing the tax would take effect immediately if adopted Tuesday, but the tax itself would not be collected unless approved by a majority of voters in November.

•••

The supervisors will meet at 9am on Tuesday in the boardroom on the top floor of the government building at 701 Ocean Street in Santa Cruz. 

For information, visit bit.ly/4bse0xa

⚡ Quick Take

• It’s official: Spider-Man: Brand New Day now has the biggest domestic opening weekend of all time.
• Spider-Man: Brand New Day takes the crown from another Marvel movie, Avengers: Endgame.
• Nerdist Take: Spider-Man: Brand New Day‘s box office success may reveal that the key to ending superhero fatigue is to bring emotional, vulnerable heroes to the forefront.

All signs pointed toward Destin Daniel Cretton’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day being huge. But did anyone see the biggest opening weekend of all time? Well, despite early reports suggesting that Brand New Day was just a few million shy of overtaking Avengers: Endgame’s domestic opening-weekend record, the record now belongs to Tom Holland’s Spidey. According to a report in Variety, it seems that when the final receipts were tallied on Sunday, Spider-Man: Brand New Day beat the Avengers opening weekend box office record, coming in at $360 million in its domestic debut. That’s three million more than Endgame’s $357 million back in 2019. Needless to say, it’s a lot of freakin’ money.

Sony Pictures/Marvel Studios

This is an incredible debut for a fourth entry in a long-running series. And if you count the Spider-Man franchise overall, it’s the ninth entry for the web-slinger, making this box office number even more jaw-dropping. The previous film, No Way Home, had the added juice of resolving a major cliffhanger and bringing together all the cinematic Spider-Man actors in one movie. So that one making a ton of money made sense. Despite bringing in the Hulk and Punisher, this Spidey movie didn’t seem to have that same level of hype. But apparently, Spider-Man: Brand New Day was the movie everyone and their mother was waiting for—the box office opening weekend numbers don’t lie.

We should note that this means that Marvel Studios now has the top four domestic box office opening weekends of all time, with the other three being Endgame, Infinity War, and No Way Home. And Tom Holland stars in all of them. He’s also in The Odyssey, which is doing incredibly well, and is married to his stunning co-star Zendaya… Who also happens to be in both these box office-breaking movies. What we’re trying to say is that it is very good to be Tom Holland right about now.

Sony Pictures/Marvel Studios Nerdist Take: Does Spider-Man: Brand New Day Having the Biggest Box Office Opening Weekend Ever Mean Superhero Fatigue is Over?

Does this mean that “superhero fatigue” or even “Marvel fatigue” is over? Well, who knows? We do think that Spider-Man and Batman are two characters that are almost immune to any kind of superhero fatigue. But it certainly bodes well for Avengers: Doomsday this winter. But it’s also interesting that in Brand New Day, the Spider-Man we received was an incredibly earnest, emotional version of the hero.

In a recent study about Gen Z, it was reported that, “For decades, media has relied on the ‘stoic provider’ or the ‘distant hero’ as the default for adult men. Our data shows that by primarily showing men in positions of power or physical strength, we ignore the roles that young people value, defined by empathy, patience, and emotional availability.” Perhaps Spider-Man: Brand New Day reveals that true box office success (opening weekend and otherwise) and the key to ending superhero fatigue is by mixing the two streams. More emotions in with our heroes, please.

Like the Box Office Opening Weekend Numbers Say, We’re Ready for More Spider-Man

In any case, at almost a billion dollars globally in less than a week, you can be certain that Sony is backing up the Brinks truck to Tom Holland’s house as we speak for a sixth Spider-Man movie. Hopefully, Sony and Marvel bring back Destin Daniel Cretton as well. And let’s not wait five years for another live-action Spidey again, Sony and Marvel. As a culture, we need our Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.

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Apple has appealed a new legal demand by the U.K. government, which critics say could threaten the privacy rights of users all over the world.

Apple’s long-awaited AI overhaul finally makes Siri the assistant it was always supposed to be. Yet it arrives at a moment when simply being a capable AI assistant no longer feels revolutionary.

Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council and President Donald Trump’s top Cheshire Cat impressionist, appeared on CNBC Monday, where he simply fabricated facts about the administration’s inflation-addled economy. “One of the metrics of shelter costs that I find most interesting is that they’re going down pretty rapidly in places like California because everybody’s leaving,”…

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⚡ Quick Take

• The world of popular video game God of War is coming to Prime Video. Here’s everything we know about it so far.

Live-action video game adaptations are all the rage right now. From the bizarre and hilarious world of Twisted Metal to the heart wrenching bleakness of The Last of Us, streamers are finding success with these gaming driven series. It makes sense considering there’s already a built-in fanbase. Next up is Prime Video with God of War, which already has a two season order. Who will be in this series? What will it be about? Those are questions that we will get answers to in the coming months.

For now, God of War is in a tough spot. Lead actor Ryan Hurst, set to play Kratos, suffered a serious injury while filming and will reportedly need to be recast for the show. No recasting news has yet been officially announced for Kratos. Additionally, reports indicate that Callum Vinson, cast as Atreus, may be recast for season two of the series. It feels like the casting shift may be due to the character’s changing age in the story. However, there was some negative feedback to the first image of Kratos and Atreus from the God of War live-action, and it’s not out of the question that this impacted casting choices moving forward… Especially if Kratos will already need to be recast. We’ll have to wait and see how the dust settles.

Amazon MGM/Sony Television

Here’s everything we know about Prime Video’s God of War TV series so far. 

Title

For now, the title appears to be God of War. 

God of War’s Plot 

This series will adapt the story of Kratos starting with the 2018 God of War game. Here’s the official logline for God of War to deliver a bit more clarity: 

God of War follows father and son Kratos and Atreus as they embark on a journey to spread the ashes of their wife and mother, Faye. Through their adventures, Kratos tries to teach his son to be a better god, while Atreus tries to teach his father how to be a better human.

RELATED ARTICLE

Ronald D. Moore Reveals GOD OF WAR Series Is FINALLY Coming Together Behind-the-Scenes 

Frederick E.O. Toye will direct the first two episodes of God of War, which is currently in preproduction as of December 2025. When the show was greenlit back in 2022, Rafe Judkins was on board as a showrunner. That’s no longer the case. Ronald D. Moore will be in charge of this series now. 

God of War’s Cast  Justin Lubin/Prime

Ryan Hurst was originally slated to portray Kratos in the God of War live-action series. Many know him as Opie from Sons of Anarchy as well as Beta from The Walking Dead. However, due to an injury, it seems Kratos will be recast.

Tonje Thilesen/The New Yorker/PlayStation

Mandy Patinkin will be the powerful and mighty Odin in God of War. Check out his character description:

Odin, the All-Father, is not physically imposing or particularly god-like: but looks can be deceiving. He is the most powerful Aesir god, a patriarch who leads with an iron fist, and an unrivaled seeker of knowledge. When it comes to seeking out prophecy, Odin is paranoid, manipulative, and dangerous— he will do anything to try and prevent Ragnarök, the Norse end of days. He serves as a formidable antagonist to Kratos.

Apple TV/PlayStation

Severance‘s Ólafur Darri Ólafsson will portray Thor in the God of War series. We cannot wait to see him in costume. Here’s a description of his character: “The God of Thunder is a mountain of a man who has weathered many a battle in his time but whose actions in a war fought long ago now haunt his waking hours.  Once the loyal soldier of Asgard and his father’s right hand man, Thor is now but a shadow of his former self as he drowns himself in alcohol and tries not to think of the price he paid.  Keeping his wife and children at arm’s length has only deepened his isolation, but the power (and danger) of the God of Thunder is still there just beneath the surface.”

David Reiss/PlayStation

Boots‘ Max Parker has come aboard the God of War series as villain, Heimdall. Prime Video describes Parker’s God of War character as, “The Watchman of Asgard, and one of the sons of Odin, Heimdall is a god in his own right with the special ability to anticipate what’s about to happen at any moment. Handsome and dynamic, he feels unappreciated by his father and underestimated by the rest of the family, and as a result, Heimdall is constantly looking for ways to improve his position in the hierarchy and increase his stature and power.”

Meg Vinson/PlayStation

Callum Vinson will play Kratos’ son Atreus in season one of God of War. Here’s the character description for him: “Atreus, the ten-year old son of Kratos, grew up in a remote forest cabin, isolated from the rest of the world and raised almost entirely by his mother Faye.  He is an accomplished archer, has an affinity for animals and is intensely curious about what lies beyond the confines of his forest home.  After his mother’s death, Atreus is left with a cold, distant father who he barely knows and who knows little about him in return.  Nonetheless, Atreus yearns for his father’s approval and is desperate to prove he is strong enough to survive in a harsh and dangerous world.” However, reports indicate that Atreus may be recast with someone older in season two of the God of War series.

Bob Wolfenson/PlayStation

Ed Skrein will play Baldur, and here’s his character description: Baldur may be the youngest son of Odin, but he’s his father’s most dangerous weapon. Charismatic, unpredictable and armed with a razor-sharp tongue, Baldur lives by his own rules. As a boy, Baldur was cursed; this curse denied him the ability to feel pleasure and physical sensation. This fuels an insatiable anger and bloodlust in Baldur, who favors a brawling fighting style that blends his immense power with the raw impact of his fists. Above all else, he longs for an opponent that can truly match his prowess in battle. An opponent that can finally make him feel something.

Patch Studio/PlayStation

Louis Cunningham will play Modi in God of War. The character description says: Sif and Thor’s middle child, Modi has a gentle disposition and an obsessive, almost insatiably curious mind. He loves puzzles and complex problems—to such an extent that he often gets lost within them and forgets everything else around him.

Marnya Rothe Photography/PlayStation

Ben Chapple will have a recurring role as Magni, and his character is “Sif and Thor’s eldest son. Handsome and adventurous, Magni is an excellent hunter and natural ladies’ man, but the life of an immortal playboy has begun to feel hollow and Magni is yearning for a greater purpose. He is extremely protective of his younger brother, Modi.”

YellowBelly/PlayStation

Evelyn Miller will recur as Gna, Odin’s Valkyrie commander. Here’s her character description: A fierce warrior, she is devoted to her duty with a loyalty to Odin that borders on fanatical. Highly disciplined and uncompromising, she is dedicated to serving the realm, occasionally at the expense of her own wellbeing.

Deidhra Fahey/PlayStation

Island Austin will play Thrud, the youngest child of Sif and Thor. She is “precocious, inquisitive, curious, and fearless, with a natural yearning for knowledge. She’s gentle and kind, and often acts as a peace-maker with the rest of her troubled family. Her grandfather, Odin, sees seeds of greatness in Thrud (mostly because she reminds him of himself) and the two have a special bond.”

Finally, Alastair Duncan, Jeff Gulka, and Danny Woodburn also join the cast of God of War.

Prime shares:

Alastair Duncan has signed on to play Mimir in Prime Video’s God of War from Sony Pictures Television and Amazon MGM Studios. Alastair also played Mimir in the video games God of War and God of War Ragnarök.

Mimir Character Description: Mimir is a cheery fellow from Celtic lands with an expansive intellect, a quick wit and a good head on his shoulders. Never at a loss for words, Mimir is the self-described “Smartest Man in the World”. He served as an advisor to Odin the All-Father, who ultimately banished Mimir to confinement in the trunk of a tree, forever cut off from the people he loves and anything that could nourish his mind. In the wake of his banishment, Mimir seeks atonement for the terrible deeds he committed in the All-Father’s name.

Jeff Gulka has signed on to play Sindri in Prime Video’s God of War from Sony Pictures Television and Amazon MGM Studios.
 
Sindri Character Description: Sindri is a renowned dwarven blacksmith whose incredible weaponry is sought after across the realms. Neurotic, helpful, and extremely germaphobic, Sindri is the complete opposite of his cranky, foul-mouthed brother and business partner, Brok.

Danny Woodburn has signed on to play Brok in Prime Video’s God of War from Sony Pictures Television and Amazon MGM Studios.
 
Brok Character Description: Brok is a legendary dwarven blacksmith who was alienated from his community when he helped build a super-weapon. He is brash, irreverent, and gruff – the complete opposite of his uptight brother and fellow blacksmith, Sindri, with whom he has a contentious relationship. Gamers will know Brok as the beloved weapons dealer with an unrivaled artistry for creative, foul-mouthed curses.

God of War’s Release Date

As of August 2026, this series does not have a release date. 

Originally published on December 24, 2025.

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