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Rivian's CEO RJ Scaringe is speaking at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 to detail his journey, and the lessons it’s bestowed.

FlightAware says that Kalshi used its name and data to offer bets on flight cancellations without the flight tracker's permission.

This post contains major spoilers for House of the Dragon‘s season three finale. If you want to avoid them for now you can instead check out our coverage of episode seven.

⚡ Quick Take

• Rhaenyra’s descent into “madness” was on full display in House of the Dragon‘s season three finale.
• The stories of Daenerys Targaryen and Rhaenyra might not be exactly the same, but they both became “Mad Queens” for the same reason.
• Rhaenyra and Daenerys’ desperate pursuit of power caused them both to develop a god-like savior complex.

HBO

Rhaenyra Targaryen spent House of the Dragon‘s second season trying to avoid bloodshed. Her refusal to rain fire and blood on the Realm was so obvious that Ormund Hightower, who mocked her concern as a woman’s weakness, counted on her temperance as part of his plan. In season three’s finale, even Ulf laughed about how Daemon wouldn’t use his dragon against Tumbleton because the Queen had him on a short leash.

He wasn’t wrong. She instructed her husband to “not make a monster” out of her while attacking the city. That doesn’t sound anything like Daenerys Targaryen, Rhaenyra’s descendent who showed her enemies no mercy and claimed the Iron Throne by burning King’s Landing to the ground.

And yet, despite the differences in their actions, it’s clear House of the Dragon is drawing a clear link between Rhaenyra and Daenerys. They were both good women whose quest for power made them mad queens with a savior complex.

HBO

House of the Dragon‘s season three finale had multiple references to “The Bells,” Game of Thrones‘ penultimate episode where Daenerys turned King’s Landing into a smoldering ruin. In the prequel, Helaena saw a pale horse, the same kind of harbinger of death and doom that Arya saw. Just like King’s Landing nearly 170 years later, we also experienced the horror of a smoldering city through the eyes of a queen’s loyal follower who looked on in disbelief at the destruction the war had wrought. Alyn even acted as a stand-in for Grey Worm, two noble warriors committing atrocities on behalf of their Queen.

Unlike Daenerys and the capital, Tumbleton’s destruction was not directly Rhaenyra’s fault. It’s certainly not what she wanted. Daemon was (for him) judicious in his use of Caraxes. Once the Red Worm blasted open the city’s gates, the King Consort proceeded on foot. It was Ulf the traitor acting on behalf of the Greens who brought fire and blood to the market town.

Regardless of who was responsible, the devastation was the same. Each Queens’ attack brought the same carnage to the very people they wanted to save. Innocent people burned and suffered in wars that both Rhaenyra and Daenerys waged so they could sit upon the Iron Throne. And each got to that spot after slowly succumbing to what many in the Realm call Targaryen madness.

HBO

Were the dragonlords of old Valyria who conquered Westeros really more susceptible to going mad than others? Did a “taint” run in their blood like some said? Did inbreeding cause some Targaryens to do unspeakable acts? Or were they simply as susceptible as anyone who lived a lavish lifestyle without consequence, pursued the throne, or both, to losing themselves to the trapping of power? Daenerys’ didn’t seem mad when she was liberating slaves in in Essos. It wasn’t until she faced multiple failures, setbacks, and personal loss in Westeros that she snapped. The Khaleesi who liberated Slaver’s Bay was not the woman who burned innocent people after King’s Landing had fallen.

Neither was the Rhaenyra who risked her life to meet with Alicent in King’s Landing on the small chance she could avoid war the woman who declared herself The Prince That Was Promised in House of the Dragon‘s season three finale. And that, far more than the similarities of an atrocity of dragonflame, is where Rhaenyra and Daenerys’ stories mirror one another on HBO. Once Daenerys claimed the Iron Throne she announced her plans to “break the wheel” across the entire world. She would free everyone everywhere, whether they wanted her to or not. Then she would rule them.

That declaration pushed Jon Snow to kill her. When he first went to speak with Tyrion after King’s Landing fell, Jon made excuses for why she’d done something so horrible. But Tyrion told Jon what he already knew. “She believes her destiny is to build a better world for everyone,” and she would do so by spreading fire and blood to all of it.

Rhaenyra also believed she was destined to save everyone. She shared the biggest, most important secret in the world during an emotional, desperate frenzy where she claimed the gods had surely chosen her to rule. It was Daenerys’ own declaration in another form. Standing on the steps of Baelor’s Sept after she had the High Septon killed, Rhaenyra, compared herself to the most famous kings of Westeros in a stilted, wild speech about mythical monsters, prophesy, and divine purpose. It had to sound like madness personified to anyone who head it.

The gods summoned my ancestor, Aegon the Conqueror…. to the Seven Kingdoms to unite a fractured Realm beneath one banner of black and red. They named him Protector of the World of Men. His duty, to shield it… from an ancient and sinister darkness that looms in the far North… beyond the Wall, beyond the lands of winter. And only the might of dragons can stand against it. The Conqueror passed this sacred charge to his chosen descendants, to the Old King, Jaehaerys, then to my father, then to me. The Hightower line cannot fulfill this prophecy. If your world is to survive… I must light the way. Because I am the Shield of the People. I am Rhaenyra the Chosen.

HBO

“I am Rhaenyra the Chosen.”

We know Rhaenyra is partly right. An ancient and sinister darkness looms beyond the Wall. But we know she is not the prophesied Prince. Even if she were, how could anyone else at her absurd, chaotic, deadly coronation believe anything she said? Any ruler declaring themselves the literal chosen savior of the gods would sound as mad as any Targaryen who ever wielded power in Westeros. That was how Daenerys sounded to Jon Snow when she justified her plans for world domination. She told him, while King’s Landing still burned, only the two of them know what is “good.”

In her quest for power, her entire reason for living, Daenerys lost herself. She wasn’t born mad. Khaleesi turned her grief, frustration, sadness, loss, and desperation into anger. That led her to develop a god-like savior complex. And when you believe you and you alone know what’s good for everyone, you can justify any actions as right. It’s how you justify burning down a city you want to rule and had already won.

HBO

But while Rhaenyra didn’t want to look like a monster and her sins were not one of fire and blood, her descent came about for the same reasons as Daenerys’ own. Just as her descendent will do, Rhaenyra turned her own grief, frustration, and desperation into anger. That manifested into the same god-like savior complex that is no different from “madness.” And maybe that’s why so many Targaryens seemed to follow a similar path. When you become obsessed with power and believe you are owed it, you can go mad trying to prove to everyone you’re right.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow Mikey on Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

The post Rhaenyra’s Descent Into Madness in HOUSE OF THE DRAGON Mirrors Daenerys appeared first on Nerdist.

The Trump administration has announced that it is relying on video gamers and artificial intelligence bots to provide critical air traffic control infrastructure, despite ongoing labor shortages in the sector. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced on Monday that thanks to an advertising campaign, more than 2,000 avid video game players have been added to the air traffic…

Source

Fusion power startups are turning to Kyoto Fusioneering to supply components for future power pants. The Japan-based startup just received a grant to build a part of the fuel system.

⚡ Quick Take

• We believe The Rings of Power’s Dark Wizard is really a Blue Wizard.
• The Rings of Power‘s season 2 finale pointed to the Dark Wizard being Saruman, but the showrunners call that unlikely.
• Not much is known about the Blue Wizards from Tolkien’s lore and texts, but what is known matches with what we know about the Dark Wizard in The Rings of Power.
• Go Deeper Into the Lore: For more on wizards and the other inhabitants of Middle-earth in The Rings of Power, head to “Every LORD OF THE RINGS Race We’ve Met So Far on RINGS OF POWER“

The Rings of Power‘s season two finale saw the return of Ciarán Hinds’ Dark Wizard. His goals and allegiances turned out to be different than we thought, but in an episode that confirmed The Stranger is really Gandalf, everything we saw from Hinds’ powerful sorcerer pointed to him also having a famous name. Just like everything else he did during the season, he gave us plenty of reason to believe he’s really Saruman. Only, the Prime Video series showrunners have said that’s likely impossible. So if the Dark Wizard is not Saruman, who could he be? The identity of the Dark Wizard may be revealed to be one of J.R.R. Tolkien’s ill-fated Blue Wizards of the Second Age.

Prime Video Table of contents

• The Dark Wizard Seemed Like the Perfect Saruman
• The Rings of Power ‘s Showrunners Said the Dark Wizard Is NOT Saruman
• Here’s Why the Dark Wizard Could be a Blue Wizard Instead
• Regardless of the Dark Wizard’s Identity, Gandalf will Seek to Help Him
• The Rings of Power Season 3 Is Coming Soon

The Dark Wizard Seemed Like the Perfect Saruman

From the moment he arrived on Middle-earth, all signs pointed to The Stranger secretly being Gandalf. And that’s exactly who he is. The same has been true of the Dark Wizard and Saruman since he made his debut in season two. Everything about him, including his appearance and staff, pointed to him secretly being the infamous White Wizard of The Lord of the Rings. And that continued into the final episode, where he cast aside his sinister human loyalists and cult followers and tried to embrace his “old friend” The Stranger.

Despite both being emissaries of Manwë, King of the Valar, The Stranger did not ally with his fellow Istar. The Dark Wizard hopes to succeed Sauron after defeating him. Gandalf would rather wander the desert nameless than try and rule. That greatly upset the Dark Wizard who’d waited a long time for his friend to arrive. He responded by trying destroy the halflings to teach his “kin” a lesson about showing pity in a world fighting Sauron.

Prime Video

The Dark Wizard’s actions in the season two finale only strengthened the theory around his real identity. He arrived long before the Stranger as one of five Istari to aide in the defeat of Sauron, yet he wants to replace Sauron as Middle-earth’s ruler. He also loves Gandalf and wants him by his side, but turned on The Stranger in anger when Gandalf refused. That all aligns with Saruman’s story in the Third Age, in the same way The Stranger’s own story on The Rings of Power has aligned with Gandalf’s. Saruman the White will arrive as the noble, good, powerful leader of five wizards. But after a long time he will succumb to darkness. He will ally with sinister forces, including Sauron, in hopes of replacing the Dark Lord as Middle-earth’s ruler.

The Rings of Power‘s Showrunners Said the Dark Wizard Is NOT Saruman

Yet, despite all those many obvious and direct connections, it is apparently “highly, highly, highly improbable” the Dark Wizard is Saruman. That’s what The Rings of Power‘s showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay told Vanity Fair in an interview about season two. Payne said it might actually be “impossible” for him to be Saruman. McKay then added “it would almost defy the laws of gravity and physics for [the Dark Wizard] to be Saruman.

NewLine Cinema

Their clever choice of words does not rule out the Dark Wizard being Saruman entirely. “Almost impossible” still means “possible.” But if they’re correct, who could Hinds be playing if not Saruman? Like the Dark Wizard, Payne and McKay referenced five wizards. One of the other three they cited is Radagast the Brown, of which there is no evidence he’s the show’s Dark Wizard. But the other two intriguing figures they mentioned do make sense. Known as the Blue Wizards, their story has much in common with Hinds’s Istar on The Rings of Power.

Here’s Why the Dark Wizard Could be a Blue Wizard Instead

In classic J.R.R. Tolkien fashion, the canonical history of the Blue Wizards in Middle-earth is unclear. Tolkien changed their story over time while not giving definitive answers about who they were or what happened to them. Even their names changed. But what he did say connects them to The Rings of Power‘s Dark Wizard. Also known as Ithryn Luin for their sea-blue robes, they were two of five Istar who made up the Order of the Wizards.

Named in one place as Alatar and Pallando (whom Alatar convinced to come with him), they arrived in Middle-earth in the Second Age with a mission to “circumvent Sauron.” They were there to undercut remaining loyalty to Morgoth and Sauron among men and to raise up those who opposed them. Whatever they did or didn’t accomplish, the only wizard who remained true to his purpose entirely was Gandalf. Tolkien wrote he didn’t know what exactly happened to the Blue Wizards of the Second Age, but he feared what befell them. And that fear mirrors the Dark Wizard’s story on The Rings of Power. Here’s what the author said:

I think that they went as emissaries to distant regions, east and south.

Missionaries to enemy occupied lands as it were. What success they had I do not know; but I fear that they failed, as Saruman did, though doubtless in different ways; and I suspect they were founders or beginners of secret cults and “magic” traditions that outlasted the fall of Sauron.

Prime Video

The Dark Wizard made clear his first mission is to stop Sauron. That’s why Manwë sent him and his fellow Istari to the east. But after generations on Middle-earth a cult of mystics rose up in Rhûn around the Dark Wizard. They believed he also wants to serve Sauron. And while his original intentions might have been noble, the Dark Wizard is now a killer who believes the means justify the ends. He’s lost whatever good was in him in his quest for ultimate power.

That sounds like Saruman. But The Rings of Power showrunners are right, there are obvious issues with that possibility. It also makes way more sense their Dark Wizard is really one of the Blue Wizards we know so little about.

Regardless of the Dark Wizard’s Identity, Gandalf will Seek to Help Him

Gandalf actor Daniel Weyman shared that Gandalf hasn’t given up on the Dark Wizard yet. And that in The Rings of Power season three, Gandalf will try to touch his heart and save him from darkness. Undoubtedly, when that happens, we will also learn the true identity of the Dark Wizard on The Rings of Power.

But no matter what his true identity—whether he’s Saruman, Alatar, Pallando, Radagast, or someone else entirely—The Stranger’s identity will always matter more. The only wizard the races of Middle-earth can count on in the Second Age is the one they will also rely on in the Third, Gandalf.

The Rings of Power Season 3 Is Coming Soon

The Rings of Power season three premieres on Prime Video on November 11. The full release schedule can be found here. If you’d like to get yourself ready for this return to Middle-earth, you can pick up The Fall of Númenor: And Other Tales from the Second Age of Middle-earth or The Silmarillion and read more about Tolkien’s vision of the time when the show takes place.

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

Originally published October 4, 2024.

The post If THE RINGS OF POWER’s Ciarán Hinds Isn’t Saruman, Then Is He A Blue Wizard? appeared first on Nerdist.

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Inside Washington

The big question in Iowa’s Senate race

Is Iowa still a swing state? That’s what Democrats are testing in the increasingly red state’s races for governor, U.S. Senate, and four House seats this fall. Josh Turek, the Democratic nominee for a vital U.S. Senate seat, is hoping to prove that a Democrat can still win in Iowa. But he faces an uphill battle.

Turek, a Paralympic gold medalist basketball player who has served in the state legislature since 2023, is facing Ashley Hinson, a former TV journalist and current member of the House of Representatives, a role she’s held since 2021. The two are vying to replace retiring GOP Senator Joni Ernst. 

Both Turek and Hinson list affordability and agricultural policy high up on their policy platforms. Turek wants to raise the minimum wage, set term limits for members of Congress and Supreme Court justices, and address cancer-causing water pollution—a serious problem in Iowa that has been linked to agricultural runoff. Hinson’s platform includes limiting regulations for family farms, moving federal agencies out of D.C. and into the states, and cutting government waste. Both candidates want to see Congress pass a farm bill, and Turek says he wants it to include anti-monopoly provisions and a “right to repair.”

In the last decade, Iowa’s status as a swing state has become increasingly debatable. The state has elected Republican governors since 2010, and both Senate seats have been held by Republicans since 2015, when Ernst was elected to serve alongside long-serving Senator Chuck Grassley.

President Donald Trump won the state in 2016 by over 9 percent, a massive 15-point rightward swing from the 2012 election. He then won Iowa by 8 percent in 2020, and by over 13 points in 2024.

Turek hopes his “prairie populist” vibe, which has won him elections before, will help him flip the Senate seat. In the state legislature, he represents the 20th district, which includes his hometown of Council Bluffs. He won the seat by just six votes in 2022 and 561 votes in 2024—even though Trump won the broader Pottawattamie County, which includes the 20th district, by 17 percent in 2020 and 20 percent in 2024. 

“When I went door to door, crawling up stairs and dragging my wheelchair behind me, the first question people always asked was ‘how in the world did you get up here?’ I would tell them ‘I crawled up here, because that’s how important your vote is to me. I think more than anything, people want their representatives to be willing to listen and fight for them, not for the billionaires and the large corporations,” Turek said in a written statement to The New Republic.

Turek will need independent voters this November. According to a new Emerson College Polling/Nexstar Media survey, independent voters break for Turek by an 11-point margin. But he still trails Hinson in the poll, with support from 45 percent of respondents to her 48 percent. Six percent of respondents remained undecided.

Some political analysts think Turek’s ability to appeal to independents and conservatives still won’t be enough. “If a Republican is disaffected this year, they’re a heck of a lot more likely to not show up or to skip over various offices on the ballot than they are to vote for a Democrat,” said Charlie Cook, founder of the Cook Political Report, in a speech at Des Moines’s Drake University in late July. “We’ll have to wait and see whether the Iowa Senate flips, but I’d give it probably a one in four chance.”

The Cook Political Report rates the Senate race as “leans Republican,” and Cook himself said that he believes Iowa hasn’t been a swing state “for a long time.”

—Emma Janssen

Outside Washington

The Ohio Capital Journal has published a trio of pieces reviewing candidates’ data center positions in three key races: gubernatorial (Democrat Amy Acton versus Republican Vivek Ramaswamy), Senate (Sherrod Brown versus Jon Husted), and the 9th congressional district (Marcy Kaptur versus Derek Merrin). Ohio passed tax breaks for data centers in 2017, and now ranks sixth in the nation for current and planned data centers. All three races are believed to be a dead heat, although there’s very little public polling on the 9th. While data center backlash transcends partisan divides, the pieces show that, across the board, Democratic candidates in Ohio seem to be adopting a more aggressive regulatory position. 

One of the water utilities recently targeted in suspected Iranian cyberattacks on the U.S. water supply, The Washington Post notes, was in western Arkansas—one of three states that sued the Environmental Protection Agency under Joe Biden to prevent it from instituting a requirement to harden water systems against cyberattacks. “Had the EPA rule been in place, some experts say, the Arkansas utility or others like it might have been spared,” write Ellen Nakashima and Amy B. Wang

—Heather Souvaine Horn

The Ideas Factory

The Open Markets Institute’s Center for Media and Digital Governance director, Courtney Radsch, condemns last week’s Federal Communications Commission vote to scrap a rule that limited TV media consolidation. “This decision effectively places FCC Chair Brendan Carr in open defiance of Congress, and it gives us yet again another reason to call for removing him from his post,” said Radsch in a statement.

Public Citizen co-president Lisa Gilbert calls last week’s Senate confirmation of Todd Blanche as attorney general a “stain on the record of Senators who voted to confirm him.”

After yet another company announced a settlement agreement with Trump’s Interior Department last week to abandon its offshore wind leases, the Natural Resources Defense Council notes that this brings the tally of such settlements up to “nearly $4 billion in U.S. taxpayer funds.” In a statement published on the organization’s website, NRDC policy analyst Pasha Feinberg said that “American consumers are paying twice, once with their tax dollars and the second time with higher utility bills.”

—Heather Souvaine Horn

In Closing

Four Questions For: Crystal FitzSimons, president of the Food Research & Action Center

Interview by Monica Potts

Q: Who are you, and what are you working on right now?

A: I am the president of the Food Research & Action Center, where I’ve spent 27 years working to end poverty-related hunger in America. Before stepping into this role, I spent many years leading our child nutrition work. Right now, we are focused on restoring, protecting, and strengthening the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program after Congress made unprecedented cuts to the program in July 2025. Since then, five million people have lost access to SNAP.

Q: What is the most difficult thing about your line of work?

A: Helping policymakers feel the urgency of ending hunger can be one of the hardest parts of this work. Children only get one childhood, and there are no do-overs. Growing up in a food-insecure household, as one in five children do, can have a lasting impact on how they grow, learn, and thrive. Hunger is solvable. It just requires political will.

Q: What was your biggest success in the last year or two?

A: We have made significant progress on Healthy School Meals for All. More schools are offering school breakfast and lunch to all their students at no cost, regardless of household income. That’s a win for kids who have the nutrition they need to thrive in school, families who can count on school meals to help ease pressure on their household budgets, and schools who have students who are well nourished and ready to learn. 

Q: What keeps you going in these stressful times?

A: What motivates me is knowing that hunger isn’t inevitable; it’s a policy choice. We know what works. We have the tools to solve it. And that is what we focus on every day at FRAC. I also draw strength from the commitment and passion of my colleagues, who bring that same sense of purpose to the work.

Political Trivia Question of the Day  

A Democratic Wisconsin senator from the 1960s and ’70s was the creator of Earth Day. Who was he? (Sign up for The Blue Book to find the answer in tomorrow’s newsletter.) 

If President Trump’s disastrous renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool gets investigated, a Project 2025 operative will be overseeing it.

Trump nominated Dennis Kirk, an author of the conservative manifesto and former adviser to Tulsi Gabbard, as the Department of the Interior’s inspector general. Kirk, who worked in the Office of Personnel Management in Trump’s first term, would oversee any probes into alleged malfeasance or corruption within the Cabinet department.

Kirk created a training video for Project 2025 and wrote an essay warning against “progressive ideology” in the federal workforce. As inspector general, he’d be in charge of ethics investigations in the Interior Department, as well as closer looks at Trump’s pet building projects in Washington, D.C., including the $16 million renovation of the Reflecting Pool.

The move immediately drew backlash from Democrats. Representative Jared Huffman, the ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, called Kirk a “fake and fraudulent watchdog” in a statement last week.

“[The inspector general’s office] is weighing serious ethics investigations into senior officials in this administration. It’s no surprise the White House suddenly wants its own man inside the one place that Trump’s cronies still have reason to fear,” Huffman said.

The Reflecting Pool project is a disaster, with a peeling and tattered “American flag blue” paint job ruined by hydrogen peroxide that was added to kill algae. Trump pushed an unfounded vandalism allegation and had the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro try to prosecute people who simply got close to or touched the pool and its peeling paint. Those charges all fell through.

David Hearn, an ex-Olympian who faced spurious vandalism charges that were later dropped, is exploring legal options against the federal government, and Democrats are looking to investigate the project and botched prosecutions by seeking documents from the Interior and Justice Departments. That effort could run into Kirk, a conservative operative and Trump loyalist.

A previous Interior Department inspector general, Mark Lee Greenblatt, doesn’t have confidence in Kirk’s ability to carry out the job, saying to The Hill last week that “the chilling effect on whistleblowers is real.”

“Who would jeopardize their careers by submitting a complaint about an administration official to an I.G. who is avowedly aligned with the administration?” Greenblatt said.

US cyber agencies are warning critical infrastructure operators to patch their internet-facing kit after Gunra ransomware affiliates were spotted exploiting known vulnerabilities to break into networks. Gunra first surfaced in 2025 and has wasted little time expanding. CISA, the FBI, NSA, Secret Service, and partner agencies in the US and South Korea say it now operates as ransomware-as-a-service, with affiliates attacking organizations worldwide. Targets have included healthcare, financial services, government, professional services, nonprofits, and other critical infrastructure organizations. The attackers have exploited CVE-2024-55591 and CVE-2025-24472, authentication bypass flaws in Fortinet's FortiOS and FortiProxy, to gain administrative access through internet-facing appliances. Once inside, Gunra affiliates follow the now-familiar double-extortion playbook: steal data, encrypt systems, and demand payment for a decryptor and a promise not to publish the haul. Negotiations take place through a Tor-based portal, according to the advisory, with victims typically given between five and seven days to cough up before their stolen data is published. "Gunra is another variant in the ongoing trend of ransomware attacks causing disruption and harm to US and international organizations," said Chris Butera, CISA's acting executive assistant director for cybersecurity. Trend Micro first observed Gunra in April 2025, initially targeting Windows systems and borrowing elements from the Conti ransomware operation. The security shop later uncovered a Linux variant, broadening the range of systems its operators could scramble. That Linux version can run as many as 100 encryption threads in parallel and supports partial encryption, allowing attackers to specify how much of individual files should be encrypted. It can also store RSA-encrypted keys in separate keystore files. Trend Micro has seen Gunra activity in Turkey, Taiwan, the US, and South Korea. The gang's own leak site casts the net wider, claiming victims in Brazil, Japan, and Canada as well, including manufacturers, healthcare providers, IT companies, and law firms. The agencies are urging potential targets to patch known exploited vulnerabilities in internet-facing systems, secure VPN gateways and RDP access with multifactor authentication, segment networks, and maintain offline, immutable backups to make life harder for attackers who get through the front door. ®

⚡ Quick Take

• Video game-to-screen adaptations have been very successful, and studios are continuing to ride that wave.
• From Sonic 4 to Elden Ring, major video game movies are rolling out soon.
• It doesn’t stop at movies, with popular game-to-show series getting renewals and plenty more announced to be in production.

To say that video game adaptations have been doing very well in recent years feels like an understatement. For example, A Minecraft Movie grossed $960.3 million worldwide in 2025, and there’s a sequel coming in 2027. Games are also becoming popular TV shows, with streaming series like Fallout and The Last of Us scoring additional seasons and even more fans.

With that said, fans of many more popular franchises can expect to see live-action and animated adaptations, both new as well as continuing stories, coming to the screen very soon. Here is our ultimate list of upcoming video game-to-screen adaptations to keep on your radar.

The Video Game Movie Adaptations That We Want to See

The next few years are going to be packed with game-to-movie adaptations. And these are only the ones that we know about right now. From Lara Croft to Freddy Fazbear, iconic video game characters will be making their way to the screen in live-action and animated forms.

Resident Evil Sony Pictures

Capcom’s most famous horror game, Resident Evil, is finally getting a reboot. The first Resident Evil game came out in 1996 on the PlayStation and has since become part of a widely beloved, expansive video game universe. The new movie will have aspects of the second through fourth (of thirteen) games, and fans are hopeful for a better adaptation than the 2002-2021 series.

Zach Cregger, director of Barbarian and Weapons, told Entertainment Weekly that the movie is not a retelling of the games, but instead a separate story taking place in their world. Resident Evil will come to theaters on September 18.

Street Fighter Legendary/Paramount

Another Capcom title, Street Fighter, is no stranger to the screen and is getting another cinema round. Based on the 1990s 2D arcade game, the movie will include not only beloved characters but callbacks to iconic moments in Street Fighter history. The trailer references Chun-Li’s epic fight with Vega in the 1994 anime, Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, and the car-smashing side quest seen in multiple games. Not to mention, the fight choreography and costuming look pretty legit.

Street Fighter comes out on October 16.

Angry Birds 3 Paramount Pictures

It’s not often a mobile game gets a movie, let alone three. The first two installments of this series focused on the main “angry bird,” Red, saving the birds from the threats of the evil green pigs and the eagles. Now, Red will face his biggest challenge yet: fatherhood. Despite a synopsis saying Red will be “saving the world,” the official trailer gives very few details about the plot and focuses almost entirely on Red’s two teenagers and infant. Both Chuck, played by Josh Gad, and Bomb, Danny McBride, returned in the trailer and certainly upped the funniness factor.

Angry Birds 3 will come out on December 23, 2026.

Sonic The Hedgehog 4 Paramount Pictures

Throughout the first three movies, Sonic goes from a shunned criminal on Earth (after fleeing his home world) to a hero. The fourth movie will bring on a new challenge: Metal Sonic. Jim Carrey will be returning as Sonic’s hilariously evil primary villain, Dr Ivo Robotnik (a.k.a. Eggman). James Marsden, the king of talking-creature movies, will continue to play Sonic’s human sidekick. And of course, Ben Schwartz will reboot his role as Sonic.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 comes out on March 19 of next year.

The Legend of Zelda Nintendo

Besides a 1989 animated series, Zelda fans have really only had the games. Now, the series is getting its first movie. Not much is out yet about the plot other than a generic outline that pretty much every game in the franchise follows: Link will save the kingdom of Hyrule from Ganon.

Link is the main, playable hero in every Zelda game, but he rarely ever speaks. When he does, dialogue options are chosen by the player. Seeing a dialogue-heavy Link onscreen would be… weird, to say the least. Stills from the movie are encouraging when it comes to production quality, though.

The Legend of Zelda will come out on April 30, 2027.

A Minecraft Movie Squared Warner Bros.

With Jack Black playing Steve and Jason Momoa co-starring as Garrett Garrison, the first Minecraft movie was a big hit. That movie ended with a post-credit scene in which Steve meets Alex, who now lives in his old home. The second movie will feature Kirsten Dunst playing Alex.

A Minecraft Movie Squared comes out on July 23, 2027.

Elden Ring Bandai Namco/A24

Elden Ring is a 2022 fantasy game with world-building and writing by George R. R. Martin. The game’s story is reportedly difficult to understand, but A24 is turning it into a movie anyway. Martin is attached as a producer, and there is no information yet about the plot, though the studios have made the cast of characters public. Since its announcement, fans have spotted sets that look like locations from the game around the UK, and Bandai Namco reported that filming started in Spring 2026.

The live-action Elden Ring adaptation will come out on March 3, 2028.

Video Game Movie Adaptations With TBD Release Dates

• Five Nights at Freddy’s 3: Fans loved that the first two movies drew from the FNAF games in so many ways, seeing animatronics full-sized and in motion, and the many niche fan references. The third installment is expected to follow the prior two movies’ lead and represent the franchise’s third game, following Michael, a security guard in a horror attraction, with Springtrap as the antagonist.
• Helldivers: HELLDIVERS is a shooter video game franchise containing two games published almost a decade apart. The movie was supposed to star Jason Momoa, but as of this June, he exited the project. Prior, it was estimated to come out in November 2027, but now, nobody knows.
• Call of Duty: Activision is reportedly working on a movie based on the first-person shooter game. In April at CinemaCon, Paramount debuted a sizzle reel teaser (using almost all video game footage) and revealed the release date of June 30, 2028.
• Metroid (Unconfirmed): This is a fan theory that I personally have chosen to believe out of sheer hope. Nintendo has been sitting on the Metroid IP for decades, throwing fans a bone every ___ years or so with a new game, but according to rumors from April, Sony and Universal were bidding for the rights to make a Metroid movie.

The New and Returning Video Game TV Adaptations That We Can’t Wait to See

There is even more mystery surrounding upcoming TV adaptations of video games. For most of them, audiences are left in the dark with no information coming out about plot or, more importantly, the release dates. But this is what we know is coming up.

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (Season 2) Netflix/CD PROJEKT RED/TRIGGER

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners had an incredibly successful first season. Years later, the show is getting a second season. It will follow an entirely new cast of characters. The trailer explains nothing about the season, but it features amazing character designs, bloody action, and a nu-metal-esque song playing in the background throughout.

The show does not have an exact release date yet, but we do know it will be coming to Netflix this Fall.

Ghost of Tsushima Sony/Sucker Punch Studios

Ghost of Tsushima is being made into an anime by Crunchyroll, PlayStation Productions, Aniplex, and Sony Music. In the game, you play a samurai defending his island from a Mongol invasion. While no plot summary is public yet, we can assume the anime will follow the same main character.

It is set to premiere exclusively on Crunchyroll in 2027.

Fallout (Season 3) Prime Video

The Fallout series starring Ella Purnell has been one of Prime Video’s most successful video game adaptations. It quickly captured the hearts of Team Nerdist as well as you lovely readers, so we can’t wait to cover it once again.

No release date has been set for the post-apocalyptic show’s third season, but it could possibly land in later 2027.

Assassin’s Creed Netflix

Assassin’s Creed‘s live-action adaptation takes place in Rome, according to Tudum, and “is a high-octane thriller centered on the secret war between two shadowy factions — one set on determining mankind’s future through control and manipulation, while the other fights to preserve free will. The series follows its characters across pivotal historical events as they battle to shape humanity’s destiny.”

There’s no release date at this time.

Far Cry FX

Far Cry, a first-person shooter/survival franchise, is getting a limited FX series following the format of the games, with each season introducing a new location and cast of characters. There is no release date set nor a plot reveal for the first season, though one could imagine it will loosely follow along with the first game.

Tomb Raider Jay Maidment/Prime Video

“They’re making another Tomb Raider?” Yes, indeed. Starring Sophie Turner, the Prime Video live-action show is based on the 1990s adventure game following archaeologist Lara Croft. There’s no set release date yet, but some estimate it may be ready by late 2027.

God of War Sony Santa Monica Studios

Prime Video has a God of War live-action series is in development, and it will focus on the Norse era, which only spans the two most recent games. The series hit a major snag when its lead Ryan Hurst suffered a major injury that caused him to leave the series altogether. A new casting announcement for Kratos has yet to happen, and there’s no release date at this time.

Persona

This extensive Japanese slice of life/murder mystery/supernatural RPG series is being adapted by Netflix. Each game includes various odd, lovable characters and a high-school-aged protagonist who band together to fight dark forces.

Unnamed Riot Games Projects

After the global success of Arcane, a series following several characters from Riot Games’ League of Legends, a multiplayer battle arena game, Riot is gearing up for three new unnamed shows.

Editor’s note: Nerdist is a subsidiary of Legendary Digital Networks

The post Video Game Movie and TV Show Adaptations That We Can’t Wait to See appeared first on Nerdist.

The Trump administration is targeting military spouses and their families for deportation. Now congressional Democrats are launching an investigation.

In a letter sent Sunday, a group of more than 60 Democrats accused the Department of Defense of collaborating with the Department of Homeland Security to detain and remove hundreds U.S. servicemembers, veterans, and their families. The letter writers noted that military recruiters are still promising immigration protections, even as the federal government pulls back those policies.

“These efforts imperil military readiness, weaken service members’ morale, and betray America’s promises to the people who put their lives on the line for our nation,” the letter said. The effort was led by Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut.

Last week, the Associated Press reported that the Trump administration had detained more than 50 military members’ spouses and parents. The report followed the president’s evidently hollow gesture to form a Military Spouse Commission.

In April 2025, Immigration and Customs Enforcement rescinded its long-standing policy that treated military service as a “significant mitigating factor” when deciding whether to pursue immigration enforcement, and issued a rule stating that military service alone “does not automatically exempt” non-citizens from being swept up in enforcement actions.

A few months earlier, amid sweeping immigration enforcement operations across the country, recruiters for the U.S. military and National Guard urged high school students to join their ranks in order to protect their immigrant families.

In response to queries from lawmakers, the DOD has continued to insist there have been no recent policy changes. Democrats claim the Trump administration is misleading the public and U.S. servicemembers and luring them and their families into a trap.

“Donald Trump is breaking our country’s promises to servicemembers by tearing apart dozens of military families who were promised immigration protections,” Warren said. “That’s just plain cruel, and it’s hurting our military readiness and morale.”

The Democrats warned that if the DOD was involved in the immigration enforcement actions, that would violate the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits using the U.S. military to enforce domestic laws. They also warned that if U.S. military servicemembers were detained, it could violate the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, which provides protections to all active duty military members, including non-citizens, from immigration proceedings and other civil actions that interfere with their military duties.

The coalition of lawmakers demanded that the DHS, DOD, and the Department of Veterans Affairs provide answers to a range of questions about protections for U.S. military servicemembers by August 23.

Outgoing Senator Bill Cassidy—an on-again, off-again thorn in President Trump’s side—is now lambasting the president for his Monday executive order to divide the measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, childhood vaccine schedule into three separate shots instead of one, falsely linking the previous protocol to autism.

“We want three separate vaccinations given at separate times. Together there could be a possibility they’re quite lethal, and separately it looks like they are not at all lethal,” Trump said at the signing event, baselessly suggesting that the shots kids have been receiving for years were killing them.

“I’m a doctor. This executive order is wrong. The President does not have the expertise to make these changes. Vaccines are overwhelmingly safe. Vaccines are effective. Vaccines DO NOT cause autism,” Cassidy wrote Monday on X. “Breaking up vaccines will mean children have to get more shots to get the same protection, not fewer shots. It will increase hesitancy and make children less safe. Parents should listen to their child’s pediatrician about vaccines rather than listening to an inaccurate executive order. This is so wrong.”

Cassidy is right. This policy is nonsensical and likely be a hard threshold to meet for many families, leading in turn to sicker kids and adults. But hearing it from him is especially rich given that he cast the decisive vote to confirm Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who also lacks the expertise to make massively consequential health decisions like this.

Cassidy also recently backed Kennedy’s pick for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention head, Erica Schwartz—even though she gave no guarantees on vaccination scheduling. For what it’s worth, the CDC officially states that there’s “no published scientific evidence [that] shows any benefit in separating the combination MMR vaccine into three individual shots.”

My book, The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War On Democracy, launches in one week. The momentum so far is stunning. I’m doing interviews with major media shows—including NPR’s Fresh Air with Tonya Mosley!

One reviewer in The Irish Times wrote: “The Nerd Reich is a fantastically unputdownable must-read...” Kirkus Reviews called my book “A detailed guidebook for understanding why Big Tech now seeks not just wealth but political domination.” Publishers Weekly called it a “transfixing” and “ominous look at an insular elite arrayed against American democracy.”

This morning, The Nerd Reich book is sitting at #119 on Amazon.

But I still need you! First week sales are super important. They help determine whether this story gets told to the world, or whether it fizzles. If every reader of this newsletter pre-orders the book, it will be a huge success.

This is it! So, if you haven’t already, please pre-order The Nerd Reich book today wherever you buy your books.

You can use this Bookshop link to support independent bookstores (and this newsletter).

Or click here for the official Nerd Reich book page for other pre-order options.

Thank you for being part of this journey. There was a time when I wrote this newsletter for about twenty people. Yesterday, I was a guest on NPR’s Fresh Air with Tonya Mosley. Click here for the full interview.

Esta traducción fue generada utilizando inteligencia artificial y ha sido revisada por un hablante nativo de español; si bien nos esforzamos por lograr precisión, pueden ocurrir algunos errores de traducción. Para leer el artículo en inglés, haga clic aquí.

Funcionarios del gobierno local y líderes de organizaciones sin fines de lucro afirman que siguen comprometidos con ayudar y apoyar a la comunidad inmigrante del condado de Santa Cruz mientras continúan los temores a la deportación.

Varios funcionarios, entre ellos el fiscal de distrito del condado de Santa Cruz, Jeff Rosell, y el sheriff Chris Clark, se unieron el martes en Aptos al representante Jimmy Panetta, cuyo distrito congresional representa a una gran mayoría del condado, para explicar cómo han continuado apoyando a los inmigrantes, quienes a menudo tienen miedo de solicitar servicios debido al temor de ser detenidos y deportados por funcionarios federales.

Panetta dijo que el temor “siempre presente” que muchos inmigrantes han sentido durante los últimos dos años fue provocado por las políticas federales de inmigración implementadas por la administración de Trump.

“Están afectando a los trabajadores esenciales que tenemos en nuestras comunidades. Están afectando al sistema de justicia penal,” dijo Panetta. “Y están afectando la confianza, no solo en nuestro sistema de justicia penal, sino en todas nuestras instituciones.”

Clark y Rosell señalaron que el condado de Santa Cruz no coopera con agentes del Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas de Estados Unidos (ICE). “Estamos aquí para cumplir con nuestra misión principal, y esa es la seguridad pública,” dijo Rosell.

En los últimos seis meses, Clark dijo que su departamento ha recibido menos de una docena de llamadas de cortesía de agentes de ICE para notificarles sobre sus actividades. Lookout informó anteriormente que funcionarios de inmigración han visitado el condado al menos 39 veces desde que comenzó la segunda administración de Trump sus esfuerzos de deportación.

No ha habido redadas a gran escala en el condado, como las que se han llevado a cabo en otras zonas del estado. En cambio, cualquier actividad migratoria reportada en la comunidad ha consistido en arrestos dirigidos contra personas específicas, dijo Clark.

Clark dijo a Lookout que su departamento decidió no solicitar alrededor de seis subvenciones federales porque estas exigirían que los beneficiarios interactuaran con funcionarios de inmigración. Las subvenciones variaban en monto y estaban relacionadas con aspectos como equipos y vigilancia comunitaria, explicó Clark.

“Antes las veíamos sin condiciones,” dijo Clark. “Ahora las estamos viendo con condiciones vinculadas al cumplimiento de las leyes de inmigración. Obviamente, no vamos a participar en eso.”

Santa Cruz County Sheriff Chris Clark speaks at the county courthouse in November 2024. Credit: Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz

El año pasado, Clark se comprometió a no volver a solicitar una subvención que proporcionaba a funcionarios federales información sobre personas indocumentadas encarceladas en las cárceles del condado de Santa Cruz. Confirmó a Lookout que sigue comprometido con esa promesa.

Con el inicio del año escolar este mes, el superintendente de escuelas del condado, Farris Sabbah, está asegurando a las familias que las escuelas de todo el condado son espacios seguros para ellas, independientemente de su estatus migratorio. Sabbah agregó que los agentes federales no han intentado realizar arrestos en las escuelas ni cerca de ellas.

“Incluso cuando los estudiantes están físicamente presentes, ese miedo los sigue hasta el salón de clases y puede dificultar que se concentren, participen, se relacionen con los demás, se enfoquen en el aprendizaje y tengan éxito,” dijo Sabbah.

Otros líderes comunitarios, como Erica Padilla-Chavez, directora ejecutiva de Second Harvest, recordaron a la comunidad inmigrante que los recursos que ofrecen sus organizaciones siguen estando disponibles. Padilla-Chavez agregó que el banco de alimentos ofrece servicios de entrega a domicilio para las familias que podrían tener miedo de salir de sus casas.

Second Harvest Food Bank CEO Erica Padilla-Chavez addressed local media following deep federal funding cuts in 2025. Credit: Cat Cutillo / Lookout Santa Cruz

La conferencia de prensa del martes fue una continuación de una reunión celebrada en enero, en la que funcionarios locales dijeron que estaban comprometidos a proteger a los residentes más vulnerables del condado de las redadas migratorias, tras las acciones violentas de agentes de inmigración en Minneapolis.

Desde entonces, la Junta de Supervisores del Condado de Santa Cruz aprobó una ordenanza que prohíbe a los agentes de ICE utilizar instalaciones propiedad del condado, como edificios, estacionamientos y parques, con fines de aplicación de las leyes de inmigración. Otras ciudades e instituciones, como la ciudad de Watsonville y Cabrillo College, aprobaron resoluciones similares a principios de este año.

El condado también se sumó en junio a una demanda presentada por el fiscal general de California, Rob Bonta, y el condado de Santa Clara, que busca impedir la construcción de una instalación federal de control migratorio planificada cerca de Gilroy.

The post Panetta, funcionarios locales y líderes de organizaciones sin fines de lucro se comprometen a apoyar a los inmigrantes mientras persisten los temores a la deportación appeared first on Lookout Santa Cruz.

Bumble is ditching the rule that it has enforced since launching in 2024. Men can finally message first.

“The thing that will always stay with me,” former California Rep. Katie Porter said of her harrowing experience hiding with then-colleague Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez during the January 6 attack on the Capitol. “I was saying: ‘Well, don’t worry, I’m a mom, I’m calm, I’ve got everything here we need. We could live for like a month in this office.’ And [Ocasio-Cortez] said, ‘I just hope I get to be a mom. I hope I don’t die today.'”

At the time, the remarks reflected the fear felt by two female lawmakers, as rabid men on the hunt for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi roamed the halls of Congress screaming, “Where is she? Where is she?” But when I first heard about this exchange, nearly one month after the Capitol attack, I recall being struck by how much Ocasio-Cortez’s comment echoed my own thoughts as a woman of a similar demographic: mid-30s, working, and hopeful for motherhood but unsure how it would unfold. Would it ever happen? If so, when? Have my choices hurt or helped that one outsized desire? Such questions tend to hum anxiously in the background for a woman of a certain age, in both mundane and extraordinary moments, as the one Ocasio-Cortez shared with Porter. (For me, now the mother of one kid, the questions surrounding the next loom even more profoundly.)

“I think it’s important for us as leaders to have these conversations and share these processes, especially for working women across the country, and normalize them.”

I thought of this anecdote again this weekend after the New York congresswoman posted a series of videos announcing that she was freezing her eggs. “This is a choice that I am making to feel more in control of my life,” Ocasio-Cortez said in one Instagram video. In another, the 36-year-old progressive filmed herself injecting the procedure’s hormone medications into her abdomen. “I think it’s important for us as leaders to have these conversations and share these processes, especially for working women across the country, and normalize them,” Ocasio-Cortez told ABC’s Jonathan Karl on Sunday.

It was in the same interview that the progressive lawmaker made her strongest public comments yet that she was considering higher office. “I haven’t ruled out the possibility,” Ocasio-Cortez responded when asked if she would ever consider a presidential run. What about minority leader Sen. Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) seat? “Anything is possible at this juncture,” she replied.

For Ocasio-Cortez, the two potential futures—kids and higher office—are braided together, because of course they are. That is not surprising for so many of us in the face of aging, careers, and prohibitively expensive reproductive health procedures.

When it comes to her reproductive choices, Ocasio-Cortez does not owe the public any explanations—full stop. Still, the timing of her fertility journey, specifically the way it dovetails with her intimations that she might seek higher office, has predictably inspired some petty criticisms, particularly from those on the right who disparage the disclosure of her personal decision as a calculating play for political virality.  “AOC Shocks Internet: Lifts Up Her Shirt To Reveal Her Medical Treatment,” MAGA influencer Benny Johnson declared in a video posted to this YouTube channel. Others, like the conservative commentator Matt Walsh, appeared to assume the role of reproductive physician, arguing that at 36, she was already too old to consider having kids. “Totally backwards and ridiculous,” he wrote on social media. Then there were arguments, nearly all from men, that she should try to have kids naturally and soon—a wild claim that assumes so much of Ocasio-Cortez’s personal life.

But the most interesting responses came from the video’s unlikely supporters and defenders. “The same people who call themselves pro-family think a woman’s uterus has an expiration date they get to police,” said Newsmax political analyst Mehek Cooke, citing her own experience of having children later in life because her “body did not cooperate with her schedule.”

“If one woman wants to preserve her right to have children, which means more than having none—we should celebrate that,” Katie Miller, the right-wing podcaster and wife of Stephen Miller, wrote on X. “If she inspires other women to have babies, we should celebrate that.”

It would be shortsighted, if not downright asinine, to view Miller’s post as a kind of political evolution; she and her husband appear singularly obsessed with declining birth rates, a preoccupation that is by turns racist and hyperbolic, often blaming those rates on birth control and feminism. But in applauding Ocasio-Cortez, Miller and her ilk still revealed something significant: That at least with the issue of fertility, many are not in lockstep with staunch conservatives who see reproductive procedures like egg freezing as immoral. Indeed, they even appear to welcome more options for people struggling to have children.

Options. Aren’t they what Ocasio-Cortez may be exercising as she embarks on her fertility journey? By freezing her eggs, the congresswoman isn’t ruling out the possibility of having kids, much in the same way Ocasio-Cortez isn’t not thinking about the White House in this very moment either. In fact, it seems that for Ocasio-Cortez, the two potential futures—kids and higher office—braid together, because of course they do. That is not surprising for so many of us in the face of aging, careers, and prohibitively expensive reproductive health procedures. Any anger from men on the right underscores how deeply ignorant they are about the acute challenges many people of reproductive age face in considering fertility and climbing professional ladders. And yes, that includes all the way up to the White House.

This is a quick story to let the community know that the ability to add your own default image (so you don’t automatically get the blue squiggly people) was released this morning. To add yours, go to Settings on your profile page And on the General tab of the Settings menu (below email and password), scroll down to set your Default Title Image. Adding your Default Title…

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The investigation shows that North Koreans are able to infiltrate government agencies, as well as private organizations and crypto exchanges.

Democratic socialists have been on a roll this primary season, and the fearmongering around them has stayed true as well. Nithya Raman, who is facing incumbent Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass in the midterms this November, has been tagged with every lefty title under the sun by mainstream media. Communist. Champagne Socialist. Democratic socialist. And while she’s been a member of…

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President Donald Trump secretly switched planes following assassination threats from Iran—leaving some staff and members of the press as decoys aboard the old Air Force One.

When Trump departed the NATO summit in Turkey last month, he told the press he would skip a ride on his newly renovated Qatari-gifted Air Force One, opting for the original “for old time’s sake.” In reality, top administration officials had hatched an elaborate ruse in the face of a credible assasination threat from Iran, The Washington Post reported Monday night.

After boarding on camera, Trump was quietly rolled off in a catering cart that pulled up to the plane, two U.S. officials told The New York Times. The president made his escape to England in a third military plane, and secretly returned to the original Air Force One after he landed.

Meanwhile, members of the press and some staff members remained on the plane, none the wiser—and evidently vulnerable to attack. While it is standard for the Secret Service to use a decoy in response to threats, in this case, the White House purposefully misled the press to report that Trump was aboard Air Force One, endangering their safety.

Only a few top administration officials were briefed on the plan, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and General Dan Caine, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, an official with knowledge of the plan told the Times.

Following a report last month detailing security concerns regarding the new Air Force One, Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, hinted that the administration might use subterfuge to aid in the president’s departure from Turkey.

“As the president has said recently, there are many enemies of America who have their sights on him, and we use every tool at our disposal—including distraction and misdirection—to address those threats,” he said at the time. When the Times asked for new comments about the president’s latest farce, the White House reissued Cheung’s statement without the line on “distraction and misdirection.”

On the ride home from England, reporters asked Trump why they had flown there on the old Air Force One. Trump claimed he wanted soldiers stationed there to see his new plane. When they asked Trump why they’d been asked to keep their window blinds shut, Trump ranted about his dangerous life as the president.

“I’m number one on their list, before you,” the president told the reporters. “But if I go, you go. Right?”

It seems that Trump and his team were sort of hoping it would be the other way around.