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Last year, on June 26, I wrote a story headlined, “Trump’s DOJ is targeting Daily Kos.” At the time, I couldn’t explain what was happening. A gag order prevented it. Now I can. It started on May 5, 2025, when I received an FBI order demanding that Daily Kos preserve records related to a user account on this site, which I will not identify. This is the document…

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AI workloads are eating into datacenter capacity faster than most operators can add to it, and once the power budget is spent and the racks are full, the wall is a physical one. Server consolidation, once treated as a long-term efficiency project, has become an immediate operational priority. In our latest Hot Seat, Tim Phillips talks to Kira Boyko, product manager at Intel, about how the Intel Xeon 6+ processor with 288 efficient cores has been engineered with core density in mind to address that constraint. Many organizations cannot easily build new datacenters or expand the ones they already have, Boyko explains, particularly at the edge. That makes consolidating legacy servers onto a denser, more efficient platform the practical route to immediate efficiency and TCO gainsIt also recovers space and power budget that the next generation of AI infrastructure will demand. The Intel Xeon 6+ processor is built for that high-density environment, with particular relevance for 5G core and cloud-native use cases. Consolidation and AI expansion, Boyko argues, can no longer be treated as separate exercises. Retiring older server estates onto Intel Xeon 6+ is how operators create the headroom their next AI deployments will require. Watch the Hot Seat for Boyko's view on the case for upgrading, the performance and efficiency gains on offer, and how soon Intel Xeon 6+ can be put to work. You will learn about: Server consolidation as your AI enabler: Why retiring older Xeon servers onto Intel Xeon 6+ can recover fleet footprint and energy budget, and why that recovery is likely to be a precondition for AI innovation across many service providers. New in Intel Xeon 6+: The shift to Intel's 18A manufacturing process doubles the core count and delivers a five-fold increase in last-level cache, alongside faster memory. This product is engineered for core density and delivers performance per watt, efficiency and TCO gains through consolidation. Help for 5G and edge environments: Why performance-per-watt now matters more than raw speed for telco and edge deployments, where power availability is scarce, cooling infrastructure is constrained, and carbon reduction commitments cannot be wished away. Security at scale: How Intel's SGX and TDX deliver hardware-level isolation for containerized workloads, cloud deployments, and agentic AI applications, with TDX enforcing security policy during execution rather than after the fact. How to monitor application energy usage: What Intel Application Energy Telemetry captures that package-level monitoring misses, including accurate per-workload billing and identification of the heaviest power consumers. Benchmarking against the competition: How Intel Xeon 6+ stacks up against AMD's EPYC 9965, and which metrics matter most when comparing performance in tomorrow's datacenter. Anyone responsible for infrastructure refresh, server fleet management, or making AI ambitions fit within a fixed datacenter footprint will want to watch this one. Sponsored by Intel.

Meta told TechCrunch that it's considering ways to monetize the new feature, but didn't share specifics on what that could look like.

X will now let you 'react with video' to posts.

Russia's domestic spy agency says it has uncovered a sprawling foreign espionage operation that allegedly turned the smartphones of senior Russian officials into pocket-sized surveillance devices, though it has so far offered little in the way of evidence. In a statement Tuesday, the Federal Security Service (FSB) claimed foreign intelligence agencies implanted malware on the mobile devices of high-ranking Russian officials, allowing operators to steal data, intercept conversations, and secretly activate microphones and cameras to monitor targets and their surroundings. “This software is used to steal existing data, eavesdrop on ongoing conversations, and conduct covert acoustic and video monitoring of the environment near electronic devices, all aimed at obtaining sensitive information,” the FSB said. The agency said it had opened a criminal investigation into illegal access to computer information and the distribution of malicious software. It did not identify the alleged intelligence service responsible, disclose how many officials were affected, name the malware involved, or provide any technical indicators that would allow independent verification of the claims. As things stand, the FSB has revealed the accusation but not the proof. However, the notion that foreign intelligence agencies might target the phones of senior Russian officials is hardly farfetched. State-backed mobile surveillance campaigns have become a routine feature of modern espionage, and Moscow has spent years accusing Western intelligence services of abusing consumer technology platforms for intelligence gathering. In 2023, the FSB claimed that thousands of iPhones had been compromised in a US National Security Agency spying operation. At the time, Russian security vendor Kaspersky disclosed what became known as “Operation Triangulation”, an iPhone surveillance campaign that infected devices through iMessage. Apple denied cooperating with any government, while Kaspersky stopped short of attributing the operation to the NSA. Moscow's spy agencies are hardly strangers to offensive cyber operations themselves. Last year, the FBI warned that hackers linked to the FSB's Center 16 were exploiting a years-old Cisco vulnerability to collect configuration files from thousands of network devices associated with critical infrastructure operators. So while the FSB's latest allegations may ultimately prove accurate, they lack the technical evidence security researchers would normally expect before accepting claims of a major cyber espionage campaign. ®

Anthropic is expanding Project Glasswing, its security vulnerability program, and access to Mythos to 150 organizations across 15 countries — targeting critical infrastructure in power, water, healthcare, and communications where a cyberattack could affect 100 million people.

The MacBook Neo shipped 1.1 million units in its first weeks on sale, IDC estimates, as Apple pushes deeper into the mainstream laptop market.

The continuing AI memory crunch saw DRAM prices effectively double in calendar Q1, and the bad news is they are likely to rise again by more than 50 percent in the current quarter, if TrendForce forecasters are on the money. The Taiwan-based market watcher says contract prices for conventional DRAM went up by up to 98 percent during Q1. This was good for the memory chipmakers - which have seen their industry revenue spike 81 percent to $97 billion in the same period - but not so good for buyers. The situation is not set to improve anytime soon, TrendForce says, as inventory levels held by DRAM suppliers remain extremely low, and any incremental supply is prioritized for high-capacity RDIMMs for AI servers. This continues to limit product availability for PC and smartphone vendors, with the result that bit shipment growth for conventional DRAM is expected to remain constrained. TrendForce expects contract prices for these everyday memory components to rise by another 58 to 63 percent this quarter. Hyperscale customers have shown a greater willingness to accept price increases, the market research firm claims, which has forced other customers to follow suit to secure supply allocations. The end customer has been the loser in all of this, with the average price of laptop and desktop PCs up by double-digit percentages in Europe, as The Register reported this week. Pricing pressure is only likely to ease if there is an increase in the available manufacturing capacity of everyday memory parts, or there is a slackening off in demand for the higher-margin high-bandwidth memory chips used in AI servers. However, TrendForce notes that the top three suppliers – Samsung, SK hynix and Micron - are continuing to prioritize production and shipments of HBM. SK hynix Chairman Chey Tae-won told reporters in Taipei this week that it aims to double its silicon wafer output capacity – but only gradually over the next five years. As such, the shortage could persist until 2030, he warned – but other analysts have said they expect it to last until the end of next year. Micron said last month it has started DRAM manufacturing at its Manassas, Virginia, fabrication plant and expects initial wafer output at its first Idaho fab in “mid-calendar year 2027.” Meaningful new capacity is projected to come fully online in 2027 and 2028, it said. One piece of good news is that a threatened strike by workers at Samsung Electronics was called off at the end of May after the company agreed to create a fund that will share profits with workers. Industrial action raised the prospect of disruption to memory production, which could have worsened the global shortage. Beyond the big three, Taiwan-based suppliers Nanya, Winbond, and PSMC continue to focus on mature-node DRAM products to fill market gaps left by tier one suppliers as they shift to advanced process technologies, TrendForce says. PSMC in particular is expected to aggressively expand supply capacity. ®

The sci-fi series Silo, which stars Dune’s Rebecca Ferguson, has quietly become one of the most acclaimed series on Apple TV+. Stephen King has even cited it as a favorite. The show, created by Graham Yost, is based on the Silo trilogy of novels (Wool, Shift, and Dust) by author Hugh Howey. Silo takes place in a dystopian future where an entire community lives inside a giant underground silo made up of 144 levels. Ferguson plays an engineer who becomes engulfed in several mysteries involving the silo and its long history. The series was recently picked up for a third and fourth finale season, completing its story. If you’re already a fan, or you’re looking for an excuse to get started on the series, you can check out the trailer for Silo season 3 right here:Silo Season 3’s Trailer Brings Us New Mysteries

The 10-episode third season of Silo will premiere on Apple TV with the first episode on July 3, followed by one new episode every Friday through September 4. The third season reveals an origin story set centuries earlier. It also continues the saga of a dystopian society of 10,000 people living underground. In the present day, Ferguson’s character, Juliette Nichols, survives her forced “cleaning” but returns with memory loss. This happens as the silo recovers from rebellion and faces a dangerous new threat. Meanwhile, journalist Helen Drew (Jessica Henwick) and representative Daniel Keene (Ashley Zukerman) uncover a conspiracy pulling them into disaster. We get a taste for the tension and the suspense that will soon come our way in the Silo season three trailer. And it makes us ready for more.

Apple TV+

Apple TV+ has already renewed Silo for a fourth and final season. And this will bring the story from the novels it’s based on to its proper conclusion. So there won’t be a series finale without closure and you can start or continue watching in peace. We all hate those abrupt endings, don’t we? Along with Ferguson, the cast for season three includes Common, Harriet Walter, Chinaza Uche, Avi Nash, and Alexandria Riley. Rounding out the cast are Shane McRae, Remmie Milner, Rick Gomez, Billy Postlethwaite, and Clare Perkins. Joining this year are Zukerman and Henwick, who appeared in the season two finale, along with Colin Hanks.

When Does Silo Season 3 Release?

If this trailer has you intrigued, Silo season three arrives on Apple TV+ on July 3.

The post SILO Season 3 Gets a Mysterious New Trailer appeared first on Nerdist.

Groceries and household essentials will be a main focus of this year's deals event.

It’s primary day in California, and many voters remain undecided on who to back in the hotly contested governor’s race. Some people, primarily Democratic or left-leaning, are waiting for the last possible moment to vote for … whichever Democratic candidate looks more likely to take the nomination. “I will vote for whoever is ahead,” Nancy Goodban, executive director of Fixin’ San…

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CEO Dave Limp said damage to the company's launchpad in Florida was not as bad as expected. But Blue Origin still hasn't shared the cause of last week's explosion.

COMPUTEX 2026 In his Computex keynote speech this week Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon offered a glimpse of an AI-augmented future straight out of an episode of Black Mirror. According to Amon, agents — automated systems which harness AI models to automate complex tasks without the need for human supervision — will fundamentally change humanity’s relationship with technology. “The phone, today, is at the center of your digital life and therefore everything is around the phone,” he said. But in the not too distant future, Amon argues that agents will take their place. Phones, like wearables, will simply become an extension of the agent. Imagine your own personal Jarvis accessible from any connected device whether it’s a pair of earbuds, smart glasses, smartphone, or notebook. These devices will be constantly feeding sensor data to an agent. “The agent isn't tied to the device, it actually moves with the user. It’s there with the user, regardless of the device that you have,” he explained. “Once you understand that change, you understand how the whole mobile industry is going to change.” And of course, Amon expects, 6G networks will supercharge these sensing capabilities. “If you have smart glasses, they see what you see, so the connectivity needs to enable a very fast uplink,” he said. “6G is going to make all of us into walking cameras in this world.” Not creepy at all then. It’s no wonder Meta is so keen on making smart glasses a thing. Agentic AI adoption becomes yet another funnel by which data can be used to serve you ads. It doesn’t stop there. If Amon is to be believed, realtime AI analysis of 6G radio waves will allow for even more pervasive prediction models. Each radio connection, he explains, will be like a radar, and by tracking and triangulating hundreds or millions of these connections, network operators will be able to generate a digital twin of your neighborhood, city, and eventually country. “You're going to detect on every road, every car, every bicycle, every truck, every pedestrian,” he explained. “You can actually identify those objects.” Like most things in modern society, this shift will be driven by economics. “Resistance is futile,” the chip exec said. That’s because for this vision of the future to be economical, the agents can’t just run in the datacenter. Each of these devices will be responsible for offloading varying degrees of the workload. For example, an agent harness might run on your smartphone’s CPU. Smaller, less complex tasks might run on a local model on the device's NPU or GPU, while more complex tasks might run at the network edge or a neighboring datacenter. And to Qualcomm’s credit, while local AI can offer greater privacy, that’s only true so far as the software vendor’s willingness to respect it. Last we checked, Google’s business model revolves around turning telemetry gathered from your digital life into targeted advertising. Amon claims that distributing the load can drive down costs by as much as 4x. And if done right, it will be entirely transparent, much like how most users have no idea how much they already rely on cloud compute until they toggle airplane mode on their phones. Naturally, all of this is going to need new software and hardware, and according to Amon, Qualcomm is already well positioned to build it. “It plans, it executes, you verify, will keep interacting with it until the task is done, and that by definition changes the hardware,” Amon said. “If it is challenging to make your phone last all day with you operating it, what happens when you and the agent are operating it?” “We now have the ability to build systems that are sub two milliwatts from an ear bud with micro power Wi-Fi that connect to an agent for personal AI audio devices all the way to kilowatts,” he said. The latter end of that refers to Qualcomm’s Dragonfly datacenter-scale compute platform, which Amon teased toward the end of his keynote. “Now with Dragonfly, our portfolio spans every single tier of the compute continuum, from the smallest wearables that will connect to agents to datacenters at a very high performance,” he said. But for details we’ll have to wait until Qualcomm’s investor day on June 24. ®

This post is updated throughout the day to reflect the latest incidents. It was last updated at 6:31 a.m..

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

▼︎ new incidents

Road incidents as of 6:30 a.m. on June 2

• Southbound Porter Dr and southbound Salinas Rd are closed from San Juan to Railroad in the Watsonville/Pajaro area due to road and weather conditions. The closure is expected to last until 4:00 a.m. today.
   
• North Highway 1 at 41st Avenue in Capitola / Soquel is facing closures because of striping work. The closure will last until 4:59 a.m. tomorrow.
   
• South Highway 1 at Park Avenue in Capitola / Soquel is facing closures for roadway excavation. The closure is expected to end at 7:01 a.m. on August 19.
   
• Alternating lanes are closed on South Highway 1 at Grant Street in Eastside / Live Oak because of bridge work. The closure is expected to end at 6:01 a.m. today.
   
• A lane on westbound SR-152 at Clifford Drive/Ohlone Parkway in Watsonville and Pajaro is closed for asphalt paving. The closure will last until July 3 at 5:59 a.m.
   
• Alternating lanes are closed on Highway 9 at Pool Drive in San Lorenzo Valley because of bridge work. This closure will last until April 30 at 6:59 a.m.
   
• Highway 9 at Cascade Avenue in San Lorenzo Valley has one-way traffic due to ongoing work. The closure is expected to end at 7:01 a.m. on August 31.
   
• A lane on North/South Highway 9 at Kirby Street in San Lorenzo Valley is closed for utility work. The closure will last until 6:01 a.m. tomorrow.
   
• Highway 17 at Granite Creek Road in Scotts Valley had one-way traffic because of bridge work. The closure is expected to end at 6:01 a.m. today.
   
• A lane on Highway 17 at Beulah Park/La Madrona in the Eastside / Live Oak area is closed for utility work. The closure is expected to end at 2:59 p.m. on June 8.
   
• A lane on east SR-129 at Riverside Rd in Watsonville / Pajaro is closed for electrical work. The closure will last until June 4 at 2:01 p.m.
   
• There is one-way traffic on SR-152 at Holohan Road in the Watsonville and Pajaro area because of pavement repair. The closure will end at 3:01 p.m. today.
   
• A man was seen walking south on the right shoulder of Highway 1 North at 41st Avenue in Capitola/Soquel. No vehicles were involved. The incident was reported as a traffic hazard today.
   
• CHP helped with construction work at 10395 Soquel Dr in Aptos today. The CAL TRANS YARD was also mentioned. There were no crashes or injuries.
   

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 Tuesday morning traffic: Highway 1, 9, 17 lane closures, detours in effect appeared first on Lookout Santa Cruz.

Have you ever dreamed of becoming a Pokémon trainer? Of course you have. What a joy it would be to catch ‘em, train ‘em, and get into some epic battle action. LEGO is giving Pokémon fans the chance to live out that fantasy with a whopping twelve new sets, two of which include a SMART brick to bring a fantastic interactive element to life. 

The two all-in-one sets include LEGO Pokémon SMART Play: Training House with Pikachu and Charizard vs. Jolteon Ultimate Battle. Here’s a bit more about what comes with Pika’s set as well as a few photos, including some that we captured at LEGO and Pokémon’s premiere : 

• LEGO® Pokémon™ SMART Play: Training House with Pikachu (72164) All-in-One set for ages 6+. This set includes a Pikachu-inspired tree house, training items, a Poké Ball, buildable sandwich, and more. Fans can get the chance to become a Pokémon Trainer as they nurture, feed, play, train and battle LEGO Pikachu. Includes 1 SMART Brick, 4 Tags, Figure and Charger.  

Click To View Gallery LEGO/The Pokémon Company LEGO/The Pokémon Company LEGO/The Pokémon Company LEGO/The Pokémon Company

And get into the details about Charizard and Jolteon’s super fierce battle:

LEGO® Pokémon™ SMART Play: Charizard vs. Jolteon Ultimate Battle (72167) All-in-One set for ages 8+ features Charizard and Jolteon in a fierce battle between the two iconic LEGO Pokémon. Look around and use the healing spray for support in the battle or have the Pokémon jump into a friendly training session together on the training grounds. Includes 2 SMART Bricks, 4 Tags, 2 Figures and Charger.   

Click To View Gallery LEGO/The Pokémon Company LEGO/The Pokémon Company LEGO/The Pokémon Company LEGO/The Pokémon Company

The other sets include the following Pokemon and, while they do not have a SMART play brick, they are interactive and fans can use a SMART brick with any of them. When you pop that brick onto an item or a character, it makes incredibly realistic sounds that are true to the universe. Here’s the list of what you have to choose from or you can, ahem, catch ‘em all:

• LEGO® Pokémon™ SMART Play: Berry Bash with Bulbasaur and Bidoof (72155) compatible set for ages 7+. In this set, children can roleplay one of the key steps of any great Pokémon Trainer – nurturing your LEGO Pokémon. The set comes with two Pokémon, the beloved Bulbasaur and Bidoof. Make a delicious berry smoothie in the juicer and feed the snack-hungry Pokémon!  

• LEGO® Pokémon™ SMART Play: Trainer’s Buggy Adventure with Squirtle (72156) compatible set for ages 7+. Fans can take LEGO Squirtle out for a ride on the passenger seat in a beach buggy. The vehicle has 2 water stud shooters and a water stud storage compartment for Squirtle and the Trainer to extinguish fires at the veggie grill.  

• LEGO® Pokémon™ SMART Play: Charmander and Geodude’s Cavern Clash (72157) compatible set ages 6+. Fans can play out the ‘Trainer’s First Adventure’ with LEGO Charmander and Geodude. Charmander explores a cave with treasure and crystals. Stay alert and watch out for the angry Geodude. 

• LEGO® Pokémon™ SMART Play: Sprigatito, Fuecoco and Quaxly Battle (72158) compatible set for ages 8+ lets children play out stories for the three Paldean First Partner Pokémon. Each of the three LEGO Pokémon has a different type: Sprigatito is Grass-type, Fuecoco is Fire-type and Quaxly is Water-type. The spinning wheel can help choose your opponent and determine who gets to battle next! 

• LEGO® Pokémon™ SMART Play: Jigglypuff Concert (72159) compatible set for ages 7+ features LEGO Jigglypuff. This Pokémon loves to sing and play music, with key elements like microphones, speakers and a music stage. 

Click To View Gallery LEGO/The Pokémon Company LEGO/The Pokémon Company LEGO/The Pokémon Company LEGO/The Pokémon Company LEGO/The Pokémon Company LEGO/The Pokémon Company LEGO/The Pokémon Company LEGO/The Pokémon Company LEGO/The Pokémon Company LEGO/The Pokémon Company LEGO/The Pokémon Company LEGO/The Pokémon Company LEGO/The Pokémon Company LEGO/The Pokémon Company

• LEGO® Pokémon™ SMART Play: Drone Search for Mythical Mew (72161) compatible set for ages 8+ shows the Mythical Pokémon Mew. Children can go on searching for LEGO Mew, using a Poké Ball inspired drone to search for the ancient ruins where Mew hides. 

• LEGO® Pokémon™ SMART Play: Eevee and Lapras’s Treasure Hunt (72162) compatible set for ages 8+ features LEGO Eevee and Lapras off on a sea adventure to find the map to the shipwreck. Lowering the mast to lift a rock reveals a treasure chest full of coins and gems.  

• LEGO® Pokémon™ SMART Play: Mewtwo’s Lab Break (72163) compatible set for ages 10+ lets fans recreate a scene where LEGO Mewtwo breaks out of its lab tank. The set includes an adjustable lab tank, Mewtwo info screen, rare Master Ball and Mewtwo figure. 

• LEGO® Pokémon™ SMART Play: Umbreon vs. Garchomp Championship Battle (72165) compatible set for ages 10+ sees LEGO Umbreon and Garchomp together in a fun championship, battling to win the Poké Ball trophy. A giant Poké Ball is included.  

• LEGO® Pokémon™ SMART Play: Cubone and Gengar’s Spooky Showdown (72166) compatible set for ages 8+ shows LEGO Cubone trying to defeat Gengar to collect the treasure hidden underneath.  

This really makes a collection feel expansive and, of course, means there are more Pokemon to catch and train. Whether you like a fast attack or want to charge them up and go for a major strike, you can get into the action as you please. 

In addition to battles, you can even feed and tickle them for some heartwarming fun. It’s the perfect marriage of two fervent and fun fandoms because, according to LEGO Chief Product & Marketing Officer Julia Goldin, there’s an 80% crossover between LEGO and Pokémon fans. These LEGO Pokémon SMART play sets go on sale on August 1, but you can get your pre-order in for them right now. 

The post You’ll Wanna Catch All of These LEGO Pokémon SMART Play Sets appeared first on Nerdist.

The new Wetland Intrinsic Potential tool provides both agricultural and conservation interests a more accurate way to find wetlands that might need preserving. By Chad Small for Inside Climate News As the United States limits what can be considered a wetland, and qualify for federal conservation measures, many Washington state residents are trying to protect more of them for water…

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Masters of the Universe is a movie that has no business being as delightful as it is. That’s partially because MOTU, as a property, has no business working as well as it always has, going back forty years. Mattel Toys originally conceived it as an action figure line to compete with Star Wars. Mattel employees Roger Sweet and Mark Taylor took 1970s-era Frank Frazetta fantasy artwork, Flash Gordon sci-fi, and the in-vogue bodybuilding mania of the Arnold Schwarzenegger era, and smashed it all together into something that obsessed kids in the ‘80s. And all of those elements have now been translated miraculously onto the big screen into something so fun, one can’t resist it.Amazon MGM

In the beginning, MOTU barely had any lore or story, it was a concept they sold to kids on vibes. And boy oh boy, did those vibes work on a whole generation. (Well, they worked for about five years or so.) But one of those “He-Man generation” kids was me. So, director Travis Knight’s movie had the uphill battle of both being a fun, solid fantasy movie, while also delivering on recreating those vibes of yesteryear on my now adult (adultish?) brain. He absolutely succeeded in this regard. I’m here to tell you Masters of the Universe is a blast, working onscreen even when it probably shouldn’t.

RELATED ARTICLEThe Weirdest Deep Cut MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE CharactersWithout a doubt, MOTU borrows heavily from relatively recent hit movies, specifically from Marvel Studios. There’s a great deal from Thor and Thor: Ragnarok, the humor of Guardians of the Galaxy, and the “wink-wink-nudge-nudge,” self-aware camp of 1980’s Flash Gordon. And much like Flash Gordon, there’s even a Queen needle drop in this movie. All of these references are rather obvious, held together with Scotch tape and a prayer. But that’s almost exactly like how the original concept was back in the day, a mashup of different pop culture artifacts that just somehow works.Amazon MGM Studios The movie is largely faithful to the original MOTU brand, with one big exception. In the world presented in the film, the mythical planet Eternia was conquered by the evil Lord Skeletor (Jared Leto) when Prince Adam was about 10 years old. The opening sequences of the movie show how Adam was small for his age, and struggled to keep up with the other kids in his combat training. His mentor, King Randor’s Man-At-Arms, a gruff but charming Idris Elba, is stern but loving with Adam, who is best friends with Man-At-Arms’ daughter, Teela. We get a few brief glimpses of life in Eternia before Skeletor attacks, hoping to seize Castle Grayskull, the source of all power in Eternia.Amazon MGM StudiosThe key to Castle Grayskull is the Power Sword. So, Adam’s mother, Queen Marlena, rushes to Grayskull’s Sorceress (Morena Baccarin) so she can open a portal to send her son to safety, along with the Power Sword. She sends him to Earth, where she’s from (that’s canon!), but on the way to our world, Adam and the Power Sword are separated. This is a sequence very reminiscent of Thor from his first movie, where he’s banished to Earth and separated from his mystical hammer. Only Adam is stuck on Earth for 15 years, not a few days. And in Oklahoma City, no less.Now an adult played by a delightfully bumbling (yet wildly handsome) Nicholas Galatzine, Adam lives a mundane existence, working in a cubicle and living with a roommate who thinks he’s a bit nuts. He spends all of his free time looking online for the Power Sword, to the detriment of his work. This leads to a pretty funny bit with his boss, played by Agatha All Along’s Sasheer Zamata. We already knew that Travis Knight was a Gen Xer who grew up with the cartoon, but now we can also infer that he probably really loved Office Space in his 20s. There’s a lot of that movie in these scenes.Amazon MGM StudiosAdam finally finds his sword in a comic book shop, and steals it in a rather hilarious sequence, but his finding it activates Skeletor’s forces as to its location. Skeletor’s minion Beast-Man is sent to Earth to retrieve it, but Adam’s childhood friend, Teela (Camila Mendes), intercepts him, and we get the film’s first big battle, and a sweet reunion between friends. From this point on, we leave Earth behind, and the rest of the movie takes place on Eternia. This is where MOTU improves on Thor, which mostly took place on Earth and not Asgard. Travis Knight understood that no one is paying to see sword fights in Oklahoma City for 90 minutes.Adam and Teela return to a devastated Eternia, ruled by Skeletor. And although I don’t like Leto personally, he absolutely rules in this role. He doesn’t have the high-pitched voice from the cartoon, instead affecting a British accent with some digital enhancements. But his campy evil just works. We hate to make another Flash Gordon comparison, but it feels like Max Von Sydow as Ming. An Oscar-worthy talent just basking in the camp ridiculousness of it all. And Alison Brie’s Evil-Lyn brings her own level of arch kitsch to the role, playing perfectly opposite Leto’s Skeletor. Any time they are together on screen, it’s perfection.Amazon MGMAt one point, Adam asks Teela why Skeletor does what he does. This is the part of the modern blockbuster where we learn the villain’s tragic backstory. Whatever it is that led him down the path of evil. But Teela simply says “He has a skull for a face.” I couldn’t help but think this was Travis Knight saying, “Sometimes a mustache-twirling bad guy can be just that with zero explanation.” And he’s right. No kid in the ‘80s asked why Skeletor was evil, he just was. And no kid who watches MOTU today is going to ask either. Like Teela says, “Because he has a skull face.”The score by Daniel Pemberton is also absolutely fantastic. We can’t forget to mention that. It just screams the ’80s, with all the dramatic guitar riffs. And it does a lot of the heavy lifting when a particular scene is not all that great. It helps that Queen’s Brian May contributed a lot to the guitar portions, which just makes it all the better. Also, retro-influenced rock band the Darkness contributes a theme song, simply titled “Masters of the Universe,” and it’s everything you could want it to be.Is everything great in this movie? Nah. Sometimes the digital compositing is wonky, particularly in the chase scene where He-Man battles Skeletor’s Roton vehicles. The production design is great overall. But there are more than a few moments where the heavy CGI of it all is just too much. A few of the jokes are awkward and forced, and just don’t land. Or, they interrupt a genuinely emotional beat with an ok joke that feels out of place. James Gunn was much better at nailing this kind of tone. But these flaws don’t drag the movie down in a significant way. It’s just too fun and colorful to let the negatives bring down a movie that’s such a pure good time.Amazon MGM Studios A lot of the general consensus is MOTU feels like a true ‘80s movie, in the best possible way. But what’s great about MOTU is that it feels not like the ‘80s movies everyone names first. For every Conan the  Barbarian, there was a Beastmaster. A slightly more off-brand version, one that nevertheless won us over with its less ambitious charm and energy. And sometimes, those movies were more fun than the bigger films whose coattails they rode. In a similar fashion, MOTU is sometimes more enjoyable than the arguably more polished MCU movies it riffs on. Oh, and like all those MCU movies, you definitely want to stay for the post-credits scenes. Masters of the Universe had everything going against it, but we have a feeling that pound for pound, it’ll wind up as the sci-fi fantasy favorite of the summer of 2026.Amazon MGM Studios ⭐ (Youtube Video)

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Microsoft has moved to calm an increasingly noisy backlash from the security community after appearing to threaten legal action against a researcher who spent the past several weeks dumping Windows zero-days onto the internet. In a statement published on Monday, Redmond said it has "no intention to pursue action against individuals conducting or publishing security research”, a noticeably softer position than the one it adopted just days earlier when it condemned a string of public vulnerability disclosures and invoked its Digital Crimes Unit. The updated statement follows a public feud with a researcher known as Nightmare-Eclipse, who released multiple Windows zero-days along with proof-of-concept exploit code. Several of those vulnerabilities have since been exploited in the wild, turning what might have remained an obscure disclosure dispute into a much larger argument about how vendors handle security researchers. Last week, Microsoft described the publication of exploit code for unpatched flaws as "never justifiable" and warned it would work with law enforcement when criminal activity harmed customers. The statement triggered immediate criticism from parts of the security community, with researchers warning that the language risked creating a chilling effect around vulnerability research. Former Microsoft employee and security researcher Kevin Beaumont described the company's position as a "dumpster fire of its own making," while Luta Security founder Katie Moussouris, who created Microsoft's bug bounty program, told The Register the response sent mixed messages. She questioned Microsoft's decision to tout researcher compensation and recognition while responding to a researcher who claims he received neither, and argued that references to the Digital Crimes Unit made the post feel "vaguely threatening." She added that, regardless of the specifics of the dispute, Microsoft risked creating a chilling effect on other researchers considering whether to report vulnerabilities. What’s more, if Microsoft's goal was to isolate Nightmare-Eclipse, that may not be going entirely to plan. The researcher claimed over the weekend that other researchers had begun handing over vulnerabilities following Microsoft's response, including an alleged flaw dubbed "Bitskrieg" that breaks Secure Boot trust guarantees and bypasses BitLocker. Nightmare-Ecipse said the bug will be released “sometime in June”. Against that backdrop, Microsoft's Monday message read more like damage control than deterrence. "We have no intention to pursue action against individuals conducting or publishing their security research," Microsoft said, adding that legal referrals would be reserved for people engaging in malicious activity that causes harm to customers. The company also acknowledged that "some interactions have fallen short" and said it was working to learn from feedback. Notably, Microsoft stopped well short of conceding any of Nightmare-Eclipse's specific allegations. The researcher had accused Microsoft of deleting accounts used for vulnerability reporting, refusing to pay bounties, and mishandling communications through the Microsoft Security Response Center. The company has not publicly addressed those claims directly. Nobody should mistake Monday's statement for a sudden conversion to the church of full disclosure. Microsoft remains firmly of the view that researchers should report vulnerabilities privately, give vendors time to fix them, and avoid dropping working exploit code onto the internet for everyone else to play with. The problem for Redmond was that the argument had drifted well beyond the actions of one researcher. What began as a dispute over a string of Windows zero-day releases was rapidly turning into a debate about Microsoft's relationship with the security community and whether the company was comfortable invoking lawyers when that relationship soured. The updated statement looks very much like an attempt to slam the brakes on that narrative. ®

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