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A group of survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse are going door-to-door on Capitol Hill to deliver the government’s files to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The survivors gathered for a press conference at the National Mall Wednesday to launch the Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Bookmobile, which will carry bound copies of all 3.5 million files to communities across the country throughout the midterm elections.

As part of their launch, the survivors delivered printed copies straight to lawmakers’ offices, according to Miles Taylor, a former Trump official turned activist now involved with the bookmobile.

The survivors took copies of the files to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is set to vote on advancing acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s confirmation on Thursday.

Speaking at the press conference, the survivors urged against confirming Blanche, who only recently met with survivors after months of dodging victims and their demands for the Department of Justice to keep investigating. That meeting did not go well.

“A vote for Todd Blanche is a vote against justice,” Elizabeth Stein, an Epstein survivor and anti–human trafficking educator, said Wednesday.

Blanche previously tried to downplay the Epstein files’ thousands of redaction errors that exposed the names of survivors while concealing the identities of alleged perpetrators.

Blanche’s confirmation is already in jeopardy at the hands of his own party. Two Republican lawmakers are refusing to approve Blanche unless he puts in writing that Trump’s “Anti-Weaponization Fund” is actually dead.

The federal government’s investigation into former FBI Director James Comey has taken some extremely bizarre steps.

Comey was charged with allegedly threatening violence against President Donald Trump in April with an Instagram post of numbers spelling out “86 47” in seashells. On Tuesday, Comey filed a motion to dismiss the case, and in that court filing, his lawyers listed some drastic steps taken by the authorities.

The Department of Justice spoke to former mafia boss Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano in an attempt to prove that the “86” in Comey’s post was an allusion to murder. But Gravano’s interview didn’t help their case, as he pointed out that real organized crime figures would think using the term was too obvious.

Gravano also suggested the FBI should contact former federal prosecutor and judge John Gleeson for his opinion on the term, only for Gleeson to say, “The claim that ‘86’ is mafia jargon for ‘kill’ is preposterous.” Gleeson, who prosecuted notable organized crime cases, said that in thousands of hours of debriefings and conversations with mobsters, he had never heard the term used that way.

Federal agents also used emergency cell phone tracking, which doesn’t require a warrant, to monitor Comey’s location while he was driving from North Carolina to Virginia shortly after he made the post. That location tracking is only supposed to be used in extreme situations, such as an “imminent threat to life or limb.”

No such emergency existed, and one Secret Service agent later said in a memo that “we did not believe that anyone’s life was in immediate danger and legally it was a bad idea to ping the phone.”

Trump fired Comey in 2017 over the federal investigation into Russia’s involvement in the 2016 presidential election, and has targeted the former FBI director in his second term as president. This case against Comey has fallen apart several times already, and has only recently been revived by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. It seems destined to fail yet again.

A suite of new laws restricting cooperation between Maine law enforcement and Department of Homeland Security agents is set to take effect today, less than three weeks after an ICE agent shot and killed 25-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine. These “ICE Out laws,” as they’re collectively known, will limit collaboration between state and local police and federal agents, and forbid landlords, hospitals, and schools from sharing personal information with ICE.

“What we saw in Biddeford was not an aberration,” said Zach Heiden of the ACLU of Maine at a press conference Tuesday. “It was the result of intentional changes at ICE that have unleashed thousands of masked and menacing agents on communities across the country.”

The new laws, Heiden explained, are meant to reshape the relationship between those agents and local institutions such as elementary schools, libraries and the DMV. “These new laws will affect hundreds of entities, including 253 school districts, 107 police departments, and 17 housing authorities,” Heiden said.

Since the start of Donald Trump’s second term, a dozen states have passed similar laws. These are outgrowths of the “sanctuary city” and “sanctuary state” laws of the first Trump term, which generally limited local police partnerships with ICE. Those policies, according to a landmark Stanford study released in 2020, did effectively reduce deportations—and, contradicting right-wing narratives about immigration, did not lead to an increase in crime rates. But laws like Maine’s go further, extending these non-cooperation agreements beyond police.

“That includes not just police departments and sheriff’s offices, but also state agencies responsible for enforcing labor law, environmental law, housing law, or any other state or local law,” said Michael Kebede of the ACLU of Maine at Tuesday’s press conference. The goal is to “make sure local resources are not used to support the deportation machine.”

Data from the Migration Policy Institute shows that the number of state-level laws relating to immigration surged in the first year of Trump’s second term. A total of 106 immigration-related laws were enacted in 2024—which more than doubled to 213 in 2025. Meanwhile, tracking by the National Immigration Law Center indicates that at least 12 states have passed laws this year restricting ICE’s operations within their borders. But at least eight states have passed laws mandating local agency cooperation with ICE, instead. These states now require participation in 287(g) deputization programs, and some have outlawed local sanctuary policies.

Maine advocates hope that new “ICE Out” policies—signed into law months before Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero’s death, but only now coming into effect weeks after he was killed—will help prevent further violence.

“Every day, we hear from families who are afraid to participate in ordinary life, workers who are afraid to speak up, parents who are afraid to take their children outside, send them to school, or seek medical care,” said Ruben Torres of the Maine Immigrant Rights Coalition.

“We see businesses lose employees, communities lose opportunities, and all of us lose something when fear becomes a part of everyday life.” Because ICE is a federal agency, Maine cannot fully bar it from operating in the state—but there are some things states can do to restrict the agency’s movement. ICE Out laws, Torres said, “offer a different path.”

Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is calling for the impeachment of President Donald Trump, a dramatic about-face for someone who has been an unflinching supporter of the president for years.

Jones based his demands on Trump’s war on Iran, which many on the MAGA right were opposed to from the start, viewing it as yet another endless foreign war—a pattern Trump ran on ending.

“The big issue is how to stop Trump. And we have to have Congress go for the war powers. They’ve tried three times to vote on war powers—they’re supposed to authorize a war. This is a war; they’re getting the draft ready. If this isn’t a war, nothing’s a war. I mean, this is absolutely out of control,” Jones said in a video posted on Tuesday afternoon. “And so I’m calling for it right now: Twenty-Fifth Amendment, impeachment, whatever needs to happen to get this front and center, to get control of our country.”

Jones went on to allege that Trump is preparing for a boots-on-the-ground invasion of Iran, a line in the sand for many in the “America First” wing of MAGA.

“They want us in a total war so they can censor and take our freedoms, nationalize everything, and push us aside with AI—total liability, immunity, and protection. This is a disaster. We are facing tyranny, but the public’s awakening,” he continued. “We’ve got to come together and transcend left and right, and we have to say no to an expanded war that will definitely destroy the economy and kill a bunch of our troops. They’re preparing a massive ground invasion. It’s all confirmed. This is going down right now.”

BREAKING: Alex Jones Calls For Impeachment Of President Trump For Attempt To Reimplement The National Draft & Launch Total Ground Invasion Of Iran!

"The Big Issue Is How To Stop Trump! 25th Amendment, Impeachment, Whatever Needs To Happen To Get This Front & Center!"

Americans… https://t.co/zaIGbDAfpz pic.twitter.com/Ar6bUYdq4p

— Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) July 28, 2026

While this announcement is historically uncharacteristic for Jones, the internal MAGA split on the Iran war has been brewing for some time.

“How do we 25th Amendment his ass?” Jones wrote back in April after Trump warned that “a whole civilization will die tonight,” referring to Iran. “WAR CRIME ALERT!!—Trump on Iran: ‘A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. The definition of genocide is destroying an entire civilization/people! Trump literally sounds like an unhinged super villain from a Marvel comic movie. This IS NOT WHAT WE VOTED FOR!!!”

Conventional chatbots respond to individual prompts and often retain only limited context. AI agents may carry out longer, multi-step jobs that span sessions, making persistent memory more important. Object storage vendor MinIO claims it can provide that memory. AI agents can help make decisions, create documents, draft analyses, and answer questions once handled by people alone. MinIO characterizes the resulting output as organizational knowledge – a record of what an enterprise knows, decides, and learns – and argues that controlling it will be essential to scaling agentic AI. AIStor is MinIO's object storage software. AIStor Memory treats agent memory as a native data type alongside objects and tables, allowing agents to retain context across sessions, resume interrupted work, and operate on enterprise data under existing governance controls. MinIO says the resulting knowledge remains on infrastructure controlled by the customer. AB Periasamy, MinIO co-founder and co-CEO, said: "Knowledge generated by AI agents becomes organizational memory, and organizational memory belongs on enterprise-controlled infrastructure. AIStor Memory brings long-term memory, persistent workspaces, and secrets together on a single enterprise-controlled foundation. A single agent's memory becomes the shared substrate for the entire organization." MinIO says AI teams currently have to combine object storage, vector stores, metadata databases, secrets managers, governance tools, and synchronization pipelines to give agents persistent memory. AIStor Memory promises an integrated alternative that mounts directly into existing sandboxes and works with current tools and frameworks without modification. AIStor Memory is built for long-running, multi-step agent workflows, where work must survive interruption and sensitive enterprise data must stay governed. MinIO cites four example use cases: Software engineering agents working across large codebases. Deep research and analysis spanning hours or days. Human-in-the-loop workflows that pause and resume over extended periods. Enterprise AI systems handling governed or regulated data. AIStor Memory sits beneath the KV-cache layer – served by MinIO's MemKV – and preserves the broader state of an agent's work rather than only the context used during inference. MinIO lists the following capabilities: "Infinite" context. Memory scales with available capacity rather than the model's context window, without data being truncated, summarized, or evicted from the persistent store. Standard interfaces. Memory, Workspace, and Vault are available over HTTPS or a POSIX folder mount. Integrated, not assembled. No separate database, vector store, metadata tier, or synchronization pipeline. Enterprise-grade durability. Memory uses AIStor's erasure coding, bitrot protection, encryption, compression, and fault-tolerance features to protect against drive, rack, and datacenter failures. No memory leakage. Memory stays on customer-owned infrastructure, protected by customer-held keys, rather than leaving the organization's environment. MinIO says that as agent-generated work accumulates, memory created for individual agents can become a shared organizational record built by humans and machines. The question, it argues, is where that record will reside and who will control it. AIStor Memory is the company's answer: keep it on enterprise-controlled infrastructure. Bootnote The notion of organizations having AI activity-related memories is spreading, with data protector and resilience supplier HYCU and IT Brand Pulse separately surfacing the concept. ®

Editor’s Note: Welcome to The TNR Blue Book. It’s our new daily newsletter that covers Congress and much more, but with a distinctly TNR twist: Our focus will be strictly on Democrats, liberal and progressive groups, and the fight to take back power and save democracy. Every morning, you’ll get a rundown of late-breaking news, what Democrats on Capitol Hill are thinking, quick hits on what you need to know nationally, the latest on what’s coming out of the think tanks and activist groups, short interviews with progressive newsmakers and authors, and more (including some humor and political trivia!). There’s nothing else out there like it.

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Inside Washington

The wildfire fighter who just might flip Montana 

Smoke jumper and union organizer Sam Forstag, running in a shocking dead heat against Republican Aaron Flint in the fight for Montana’s 1st district according to the latest poll, just became one of the most progressive candidates in the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s Red to Blue program. On Tuesday, the DCCC added Forstag along with four other candidates to the program, which lends support to Democratic candidates in competitive districts.

Forstag, DCCC chair Suzan DelBene said in a statement, “puts his life on the line to protect his neighbors and community from wildfires. Deeply committed to Western Montana, Sam is the kind of authentic, dynamic leader that working people want fighting for them in Washington.” Forstag became the official Democratic candidate after winning the primary on June 2.

The other candidates added to Red to Blue on Tuesday include Arizona state Representative Amish Shah in Arizona’s 1st congressional district, Pia Dandiya in Florida’s new 22nd congressional district, Iowa state Representative Lindsay James in the 2nd congressional district, and Jake Johnson for Minnesota’s 1st congressional district. That brings the number of Red to Blue candidates to 30.

Forstag now joins Randy Villegas, who is running in California’s 22nd congressional district, in representing the party’s insurgent left in the DCCC’s program. The DCCC originally endorsed Villegas’s moderate opponent, Jasmeet Bains, stirring up controversy and claims that the party was protecting moderates. A similar scene played out in Maine’s 2nd congressional district, where Matt Dunlap, the state auditor, won his June 9 primary over DCCC-backed State Senator Joe Baldacci, who was featured on the Red to Blue list. After his win, the DCCC added Villegas to the Red to Blue program. But the DCCC hasn’t yet done the same for Dunlap.

Forstag is backed by progressives like Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, but also has the endorsement of a handful of Republican former electeds in Montana. He’s also supported by former Democratic Senator Jon Tester, who won the district in 2024 despite losing the state. The district, established in 2023, includes liberal college towns Bozeman and Missoula. In recent years, tens of thousands of Washington, California, Colorado, and Oregon residents have moved to Montana, which some think could make the state more liberal—although the jury’s still out.

In the general election, Forstag is facing Aaron Flint. Flint is 46, and Forstag is 32; whoever wins the election will be the first non–baby boomer to represent the state in Congress in three decades. Both Flint and Forstag attended the University of Montana, and both served as student body president. Forstag went on to fight fires and now is vice president of the National Federation of Federal Employees Local 60, representing around 800 U.S. Forest Service workers; Flint joined the National Guard and now works as a radio host.

While Forstag highlights his endorsements from progressives, Flint campaigns against them: “AOC, Mamdani, and Bernie want to flip the House and turn the US socialist. Eliminate private property, ban pickups and fossil fuels, put men in little girls’ locker rooms, and re-open the borders for illegal aliens and deadly drugs,” Flint’s website reads. 

The two are vying to replace Republican Representative Ryan Zinke, who took the seat in 2023 after a brief, rocky tenure as secretary of the interior under President Trump’s first administration. (Zinke resigned his post at the Interior Department after 18 federal investigations—most of them ethics-related—were initiated against him in under two years.) Zinke and Trump quickly endorsed Flint when he registered to run.

Polling suggests a tight race. Forstag and Flint each have 44 percent of the vote in an Impact Research poll of 500 likely voters conducted in late June. Libertarian candidate Nick Sheedy was supported by 5 percent of respondents, and 6 percent remain undecided. Another poll, from early May, showed Flint up five points against Forstag.

Flint is hoping to ride the state’s red tendencies to victory, and he very well may: The seat is still rated “likely Republican” by the Cook Political Report. But, if Forstag pulls off a victory, it will be a win for both the DCCC and its progressive critics, who are eager to prove that candidates like Forstag can appeal in rural, redder areas.

—Emma Janssen  

Outside Washington

AI deepfakes enter a Connecticut judicial race 

The Democratic primary for probate judge–yes, for probate judge–in Bridgeport, Connecticut, has taken a disturbing turn. Attorney Mark Bradley, challenging incumbent Paul Ganim, recently released a campaign video that “appears to use artificial intelligence to create synthetic versions of Mayor Joe Ganim and Probate Judge Paul Ganim, complete with fake voices delivering dialogue neither man actually spoke about raising taxes and stealing money. The videos seem to be created using still photos, one of which appears to have been used without permission from CT Insider’s archive,” CT Insider’s Jordan Nathaniel Fenster reports. Contacted by Fenster, Bradley didn’t deny that the video was synthesized with AI and included fake quotes, but claimed “nothing in the messaging of my ads are false or misleading.” Make of that what you will.

Fenster notes that while state lawmakers have debated a bill to regulate AI-generated campaign videos, they haven’t actually passed one.

Elsewhere:

• A shocking new poll from Texas Public Opinion Research has Democrat James Talarico up by five percentage points over Republican Ken Paxton for the U.S. Senate seat, at 45 percent to 40 percent. Even more surprising, the Texas Tribune’s Gabby Birenbaum reports: “TPOR’s poll found Talarico leading among voters who do not have a college degree—a group that has consistently favored Republicans in Texas and across the country—and dominating among independents, less than a quarter of whom said they planned to vote for Paxton.” Caveat: This poll is something of an outlier, particularly in the cross-tabs. A New York Times/Siena poll previously found an eight-point advantage for Paxton among voters without a college degree. Birenbaum fairly notes that, while formally nonpartisan, TPOR is headed by Democratic strategist Luke Warford. 
• Civil Eats’ Rebekah Alvey looks at which Trump-era funding cuts, specifically, have made the current cyclospora outbreak—the “largest in history,” causing thousands of cases of “explosive diarrhea”—harder to fight. Surveillance cuts come out looking particularly foolish.
• Stateline’s Nada Hassanein reports on the troubling rise in preteen suicides, and discusses experts’ recommendations at both the personal and political levels. These experts aren’t sure what’s driving the uptick, but Covid-19, sleep disruptions, education trends, lack of unstructured outdoor time, and social media (and general media) use are all floated as possible factors.

—Heather Souvaine Horn

The Ideas Factory

Public Citizen releases a “legislative guide to bolstering resilience and promoting affordability through state resilient home retrofit grant programs.” These policies, the organization says, could help homes withstand wildfires and storms and limit property insurance costs. 

The Southern Poverty Law Center is suing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on behalf of Alabama Rivers Alliance, Black Warrior Riverkeeper, Healthy Gulf, Ogeechee Riverkeeper, and Savannah Riverkeeper over two natural gas pipeline projects recently greenlit via a “federal permitting process they say allows major natural gas pipeline projects to avoid detailed environmental reviews and adequate public input,” the Alabama Political Reporter reports.

In case you missed it: Earlier this week, Open Markets Institute published a report on how consolidation in the container shipping industry has led the U.S. to rely on “container cartel of six foreign carriers not only to stock store shelves and support businesses, but increasingly to provide military sealift capacity during national emergencies,” in the words of Arnav Rao, the institute’s transportation policy analyst. “That should ring alarm bells for anyone who cares about economic resilience, national security, or fair competition.”

—Heather Souvaine Horn  

In Closing

Book of the Week: America’s Middle East: The Ruination of a Region by Marc Lynch

WHY NOW: The book came out late last year, but between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington on Tuesday and the continued chaos of Trump’s war on Iran, Lynch’s arguments are going to be on a lot of minds this week. 

THE GIST: Lynch, Lisa Anderson neatly summarized in Foreign Affairs, “argues that the heady ambitions of the unipolar moment permitted American policymakers, Democrats and Republicans alike, to pursue the imposition of a U.S.-centric order without the resolution of the central conflict in the region—that between the Israelis and the Palestinians.” 

CRUISING THE INDEX: Lynch, a professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University and longtime blogger, covers a lot of ground in this sweeping—and cutting—summary of U.S. policy in the Middle East since the 1970s. Although the book was published shortly before the U.S. began an all-out war with Iran, Lynch covers the U.S.-Israeli strikes in the early summer of 2025 as part of the Trump administration’s larger effort to reshape the Middle East. His attention to the role the U.S.-Israeli relationship played in those efforts is particularly bracing.

TNR’S QUICK CRITICAL ASSESSMENT: Lynch persuasively argues that U.S. efforts to shape the Middle East have failed on both policy and humanitarian grounds. He’s particularly persuasive on the latter. “It took me a long time to accept the ultimate core of the problem, but after decades of close observation it became unavoidable,” he writes in the preface. “What America doesn’t seem willing to accept is that people in the Middle East are actually human beings. US actions over decades suggest that it does not consider Arab or Muslim lives to matter as much as American or Israeli lives.” As the U.S. and Donald Trump drag out a senseless war on Iran with well-documented civilian casualties, this argument will likely resonate with a lot of readers.

—Alex Shephard

Political Trivia Question of the Day

Since 1980—that is, the last 12 presidential elections—how many times has the Democrat carried Florida, and when? (Sign up for The Blue Book to find the answer in tomorrow’s newsletter.) 

In his two terms in office, President Donald Trump has always had one thing going for him: No matter how bad his approval got with Democrats and independents, his standing with Republicans was so strong that it prevented the bottom from falling out for him and his party. But after Trump made the ill-fated decision to launch a war in Iran—which is now entering its sixth month and continues to…

Source

Turn VMware’s mandate into an opportunity with Nutanix Many VMware customers assumed the most disruptive effects of Broadcom’s acquisition were already behind them. Licensing changes and pricing shifts required attention, but infrastructure strategy largely stayed the same. But that assumption is about to be tested. Before the October 2027 end of general support for vSphere 8, VMware customers must decide whether to upgrade or migrate1. And what sounds like a routine upgrade could have much larger implications. The timeline is compressed. Hardware and operational changes may be required. And organizations are being pushed to rethink platform strategy at a time when they are balancing modernization, cost control, and new demands such as artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud-native development. Infrastructure transitions rarely happen quickly. Moving workloads, retraining teams, validating interoperability, and maintaining resilience all take time. When migration is mandated rather than optional, the risk profile shifts. CIOs must act within a certain window of time while still supporting critical systems and ongoing initiatives. A shift in trust and long-term strategy Industry analysts expect more than one-third of VMware workloads to move to alternative platforms by 20282. That projection reflects a reassessment of vendor dependency and long-term cost predictability, pressures intensified by ongoing supply‑chain delays and rising hardware costs. Pricing changes and bundled licensing have introduced uncertainty into infrastructure planning, prompting many leaders to reconsider whether maintaining the status quo still makes sense. At the same time, modernization pressures are building. Hybrid cloud has become foundational and application teams increasingly develop in containers. AI workloads are moving from experimentation into production. These shifts require platforms that can support traditional virtualization alongside modern application models without adding operational complexity. Some enterprises are responding by containing their existing VMware environments while directing new workloads elsewhere. Others, according to Lee Caswell, SVP of Product and Solutions Marketing at Nutanix, are evaluating full platform transitions to regain flexibility and cost control. Turning a required migration into a strategic advantage The VMware deadline is more than a compliance milestone. It offers a chance to rethink infrastructure design for the next decade. A modern platform should enable organizations to: run virtual machines, containers, and AI workloads side by side operate consistently across on-premises, cloud, and edge environments preserve hardware investments and team expertise maintain resilience, security, and operational simplicity The Nutanix Cloud Platform supports this transition by providing an enterprise virtualization foundation that integrates hybrid cloud operations, container orchestration, and AI readiness within a single operating model. Built-in migration tools and flexible deployment options can help reduce switching friction while giving organizations control over the pace of modernization. As infrastructure decisions become harder to reverse and modernization pressures accelerate, CIOs face a clear choice. They can treat the VMware deadline as a forced disruption or use it as a catalyst for transformation. For organizations willing to act early, the difference may shape operational agility and innovation capacity for years to come. Learn more by visiting www.nutanix.com/vmware-alternative/transition. 1 Facing CIO backlash, VMware extends support and slows down release cycles, Gartner, Inc, Gyana Swain, July 18, 2025 2 The CIOs Guide to Broadcom’s Acquisition of VMware, Gartner, Inc, Julia Palmer, Mike Cisek, Tony Harvey, April 3, 2024.

Polar has come out with an AI-first browser aimed at knowledge workers, and it has now raised a $5.7 million seed round led by Madrona.

⚡ Quick Take

• The Royal Shakespeare Company has announced the cast of The Mad King, a Game of Thrones prequel play about the infamous Tourney of Harrenhal.

In 2024, George R.R. Martin teased an upcoming stage play in London about one of the most momentous events in the history of Westeros. It promised to let A Song of Ice and Fire fans finally see what really the happened at the infamous Tourney of Harrenhal. That’s where Rhaegar Targaryen met Lyanna Stark, a romance that forever changed the Realm. That play was expected to premiere some time in 2025. It obviously didn’t. But don’t worry, this is not another The Winds of Winter situation. It’s really happening. Soon. Martin and the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Game of Thrones: The Mad King was supposed to arrive in London on July 20, with shows through September 5.

However, many fans were angry when the first week of shows were cancelled. According to Deadline, director Dominic Cooke came onstage for the first preview performance on July 28 to address the elephant in the room. Fans were quite angry about the cancellations, especially those who booked flights and hotels to see it. And, because future shows are all sold out, that means they will completely miss their chance to see it. The first preview apparently received a standing ovation, so we guess the extra time taken to refine the production was worth it.

HBO What Story Does the Game of Thrones: The Mad King Play Tell?

Game of Thrones: The Mad King, a prequel set more than ten years before the events of HBO’s show/Martin’s first novel in the series, will showcase Westeros in a different manner – on a live stage. Tickets are already on sale at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s website.

The stage show, from playwright Duncan Macmillan and directed by Dominic Cooke, will tell a story that has always been at the heart of A Song of Ice and Fire. It’s when Jon Snow’s parents met. That set off a war that changed the Realm forever. It also might have saved the world from the dead.

But as the title of the play suggest, that romance is only one part of this tale. It’s named after King Aerys II, the man who nearly destroyed his entire house forever. The Mad King, long a recluse, was in attendance because he suspected the tourney was really cover for something else. In a statement, Macmillan and Cooke teased the conspiracy that made the Tourney at Harrenhal dangerous even before an unlikely love bloomed. From the show’s official announcement:

A long winter has started to thaw and, for the first time in years, all the great houses come together for a tournament – destined to be the greatest of the age. It feels like a new dawn, full of hope and opportunity. But tournaments always have a darker purpose.

HBO

In his own statement, Martin said, “Duncan’s masterful script honours the world completely, and I am so excited for both fans of the series, and perhaps people who have never picked up one of my books, to experience this new story in a theatre.”

Who Will Star in Game of Thrones: The Mad King?

And now we know who will bring this legendary event to life. The RSC has announced the play will have a 36-person cast. Because whether on the page, on the screen, or on a stage, Westeros is a really big place with a whole lot of people.

The Royal Shakespeare Company additionally revealed the names of the 36 stars of its show. (Which we first heard about at Variety.) Among the most notable casting announcements are Michael Shaeffer playing the Mad King, Aerys II. Michael Abubakar stars as Eddard Stark. Noah Ritter joins him as Rhaegar Targaryen, the Prince who fell in love with Harmony Rose-Bremner’s Lyanna Stark. She was the betrothed of Callum Woodhouse’s Robert Baratheon, the sister of both Luke Brady’s Brandon Stark and Miles Barrow’s Benjen Stark, and the daughter of Alexander Newland’s Lord Rickard Stark.

Maxim Ays will also play Ser Jaime Lannister. Daisy Franks stars as his twin sister and lover, Cersei Lannister. Marty Breen will play Catelyn Stark, Tanisha Spring stars as Ashara Dayne, and Islam Bouakkaz as Howland Reed.

Learn More About Game of Thrones’ Mad King

And those are just a fraction of the famous characters who will join the stage. Why are so many notorious figures from Game of Thrones involved? Not sure what to expect from this play? We have you covered. Read our pieces about The Mad King, Rhaeghar Targaryen, and his relationship with Lyanna Stark. Soon we’ll all find out together what has always been myth and what really happened. This play might have been delayed, but unlike some other projects in Westeros it really is coming soon.

Originally published February 18, 2026.

The post GAME OF THRONES Prequel Play THE MAD KING Finally Previews (And Fans Have Thoughts) appeared first on Nerdist.

⚡ Quick Take

• The creators of the horror hit Final Destination: Bloodlines are developing an animated Venom movie for Sony Animation.

The live-action Venom films starring Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock are seemingly over. However, Sony isn’t done with the alien symbiote just yet. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sony Animation has hired Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein, the duo behind Warner Bros.’ highly successful Final Destination: Bloodlines, to direct and produce an animated Venom film. The project is in its earliest stages, but Tom Hardy is expected to have some involvement, perhaps just as a producer. Although he could voice the titular character, giving life to a whole new iteration of the iconic Marvel Comics antihero. In July 2026, Sony Head Amy Pascal confirmed the movie is coming.

Marvel A Sony Animation Venom Movie Is Coming

Sony Animation has had great success with its two animated Spider-Verse films. Not to mention last year’s surprise megahit, Kpop Demon Hunters. So if they can extend that creative juice to Venom, it would give the character a new lease on life. It’s unclear if this upcoming animated Venom will tie into the Spider-Verse movies, although there’s an easy way to do it. So far, the character has not appeared in Into the Spider-Verse or Across the Spider-Verse. Sony has canceled their plans for spin-offs for more Spidey villains after the failures of Kraven, Morbius, and Madame Web. But Venom is the outlier, making tons of money at the box office. They were never going to allow this franchise to die.

As of July 2026, Sony Head Amy Pascal confirms: “There is a Venom animated movie in the works.” There you have it!

Will Spider-Man Appear in the Venom Animated Movie? Sony Pictures

The big question about this project, however, is “Will Spider-Man appear?” The original movies severed Venom’s origins as a major Spider-Man villain. Which is why he doesn’t have the giant spider emblem on his chest in the Tom Hardy movies. At the time, the MCU had just introduced Tom Holland as Spider-Man in the MCU, and Sony couldn’t overtly reference the character. But animation is a different beast. An animated Venom movie could focus on his relationship with Spider-Man, only told from Venom’s point of view. Venom is the perfect character to receive the animated treatment because of his visual and cartoonish nature. Here’s hoping that Sony Animation gets it right.

Originally published on February 20, 2026.

The post A VENOM Animated Movie Is Coming, Confirms Sony Head appeared first on Nerdist.

The startup analyzes calls, messages and CRM data to identify effective sales techniques and turn them into playbooks for AI agents.

Katalyst Space's LINK spacecraft is having some attitude problems on its way to rescue NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, resulting in a multi-axis spin and loss of communications. LINK has three reaction wheels for attitude control, pointing, and stability, but the company said two are currently not operable. NASA reported some loss of functionality in its cold-gas thruster system as well. LINK remains in contact with its controllers despite the sporadic communications, and its other major subsystems are operating as expected. The problems began over the weekend, and the team is using LINK's electric propulsion thrusters to halt the spin. If it can restore a stable attitude, Katalyst will update the guidance, navigation, and control system for the spacecraft's new configuration before considering revised plans to approach and capture Swift. LINK was built to rescue Swift before the observatory re-enters Earth's atmosphere. Less than a year passed between the contract award and its launch earlier this month aboard the final Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket. Katalyst then began commissioning, deploying the solar arrays, generating power, and checking the vehicle's systems. The commissioning hasn't gone entirely smoothly. On July 15, the company reported: "Early in commissioning, Mission Operations identified attitude control and communications anomalies during flight operations. "The team implemented flight software patches and operational updates that restored reliable communications and enabled three-axis stabilized attitude control, allowing LINK to accurately point and orient itself in space." Shortly before acknowledging the latest issue, Katalyst stated in a LinkedIn post that "LINK has been gradually increasing the duration of its thruster burns to prepare for the longer, multi-hour burns it will execute in the rendezvous phase." Katalyst Space did not explain why two of LINK's three reaction wheels are not operable. The team is instead using electric propulsion thrusters intended for the rendezvous phase to stabilize the tumbling spacecraft. With Swift expected to deorbit later this year, LINK has only a few months in which to reach it. Katalyst said it was "seeing the intended effect" from the thrusters, adding: "The mission remains active and we continue to believe that with these changes, LINK has a viable path to rendezvous with Swift." ®

A federal judge Tuesday tossed FBI Director Kash Patel’s $10 million lawsuit against a blogger who called him a “googly-eyed Kremlin bitch.”

In his final order, Nevada Chief District Judge Andrew Gordon dismissed Patel’s lawsuit against Jim Stewartson, finding that he did not have “personal jurisdiction” over the internet commentator.

Gordon’s order put an end to a legal saga that began long before Patel was ever made director of the FBI.

In June 2023, Patel filed a complaint that Stewartson was smearing him online by calling him a “blatantly incompetent chud” and a “Kremlin asset” who plotted to “overthrow the government” on January 6, 2021.

Initially, Stewartson didn’t respond to the lawsuit, which led to Patel winning a $250,000 default judgment in August 2025. Stewartson challenged the default judgment on the grounds that he had no meaningful ties to Nevada, where the case was filed, and declared that Patel was a “googly-eyed Kremlin bitch” and, again, a “chud.”

Stewartson celebrated the final order, which referenced his comment in a footnote. “I’d like to commend the judge for including ‘googly-eyed Kremlin bitch’ in his ruling,” Stewartson wrote on X Tuesday.

“PSA: Now that my case is settled, you are free to refer to @FBIDirectorKash as a ‘chud,’ a ‘googly-eyed Kremlin bitch,’ and a ‘traitor’ without fear of legal repercussions!” he wrote in another post.

Following President Donald Trump’s lead, Patel has filed six defamation lawsuits against journalists in just seven years. Patel recently filed a $250 million lawsuit against The Atlantic for reporting on his excessive drinking at work.

President Donald Trump drew a racist backlash from his supporters on his own social media platform for endorsing a congressional candidate in Michigan.

“It is my Great Honor to endorse Amir Hassan, who is running to represent the fantastic people of Michigan’s 8th Congressional District!” Trump wrote on Truth Social Tuesday night. “From bravely fighting for our incredible U.S. Navy, to protecting his Community as a Federal Law Enforcement Officer, Amir has served our Nation with distinction, and will bring that same Fighting Spirit to the U.S. Congress.”

To Trump’s MAGA base, though, it was an egregious error by the president to endorse someone with a seemingly Muslim name, even though, per his campaign website, Hassan “recently reaffirmed his commitment to Christ, stating ‘Jesus Christ is his Lord and Savior.’”

“No way. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul? No political gain is worth insulting our Christian faith. 🚫 No Muslims in America 🚫 No Muslims in office,” one Trump supporter wrote in a reply on Truth Social.

Another Truth Social supporter asked, “What has happened to you?”

“Have you lost your mind, endorsing Muslim candidates? Don’t we have enough of them in Government already?” wrote user ConitaDrew. “You are not the man that I voted for three times, you have no wisdom whatsoever where Islam is concerned, you are arming people or wanting to arm people ‘Turkey’ that hate us and Israel, that someday will come for us.”

“Honestly??? Why????” posted kimberlee2922, who describes herself as a “Proud Conservative.” “Do you think there are already too many foreigners in congress??? Don’t you think enough is enough at this point????”

Hassan was actually born and raised in Flint, Michigan, his campaign website states. But that’s not local enough for some Trump supporters.

“YOU ARE BEING MISLED, President Trump! This guy is a snake in the grass. Muslim and never voted for a republican in his whole life. Moved to Michigan last summer and immediately filed to run for office. Thank you for your attention to this matter!!” wrote JoniMarieForLiberty.

According to the Michigan Voice, Hassan is a Muslim. He’s also a Navy veteran who was stationed at Guantanamo Bay and a former federal law enforcement officer who calls himself an America First Republican. He claims to have “zero tolerance for extremists who pervert Islam into something evil,” and “believes Israel is our strongest ally in the Middle East.” But apparently that’s not enough for Trump supporters.

The Democratic National Committee was scammed out of nearly $29,000 by an email from someone pretending to be Chair Ken Martin last year, according to reporting from NOTUS.

This most recent blunder comes amid growing calls for Martin’s resignation after The New York Times’ report on the party’s internal dysfunction and general lack of funds.

“Schedule B supporting Line 29 of the Detailed Summary Page discloses a disbursement for ‘Misdisbursement—seeking return of funds’ totaling $28,860.92,” DNC senior campaign finance and reviewing analyst Jack Baisden wrote in a July 8, 2025, letter to treasurer Virginia McGregor. “This transaction appears to be related to an apparent unauthorized disbursement of Committee funds. Although the Commission may take further legal action regarding this apparent improper use of Committee funds, any further clarifying information that you can provide will be taken into consideration.”

The fraudulent request was made in February 2025, and fulfilled by a staffer who no longer works for the DNC. Just $7,000 of the $28,860.92 has been recovered.

“The DNC takes seriously our duty to protect the funds provided to us by millions of patriotic Americans chipping in to fund our mission,” spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg said to NOTUS. “This was a one-off mistake that was promptly caught and addressed, and no similar issues have occurred since.”

It’s hard to view this situation as just a one-off in the context of the greater chaos within the DNC. Various politicians and both national committees have been hit with fraud and embezzlement scams over the years. But Martin’s DNC falling prey to this one wouldn’t feel so ridiculous if they weren’t already $18.5 million in debt and dealing with a report from the Times detailing Martin’s paranoia-driven July outburst, in which he threw a phone at an aide. Multiple notable voices have called for his resignation since, and that doesn’t take the drama around the DNC’s lack of transparency over the 2024 autopsy into account.

This has all been very embarrassing. Martin can’t raise money, can’t keep money, and can’t unite the base under the “big tent” he likes to talk about. While his term is up in 2029, it certainly seems that his days as chairman are numbered.

⚡ Quick Take

• Michael B. Jordan is a very sexy billionaire with sticky fingers in the action-packed trailer for The Thomas Crown Affair.

Back in April, Academy Award winner Michael B. Jordan came to CinemaCon to talk about his new film, The Thomas Crown Affair. It is a new remake of a film about a billionaire who is up to criminal activity, specifically stealing a painting. Jordan said that he dreamed about making this movie and watched the 1999 film with Pierce Brosnan as the titular character when he was a kid. We got to see the trailer for The Thomas Crown Affair and now it is finally online for all to see. There’s one major takeaway here: Michael B. Jordan continues to be the hottest man on the planet.

Jordan’s Thomas Crown flirts with a woman who is onto his scheming, and she’s played by Adria Arjona. He’s giving very secret badass energy and has a few things in his possession that don’t belong to him, including a specific painting. Jordan is in full action swing, scaling the sides of buildings, beating down his detractors, and driving a race car.

This movie was clearly made with Tai Gooden (hey, that’s me!) in mind. It is no secret that I love Michael B. Jordan deeply as well as a flick that has fly clothes, crime, mystery, and a healthy dose of romance. I also watched the film with Pierce Brosnan and it remains one of my favorite films starring him.

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The Thomas Crown Affair, which Michael B. Jordan also produces and directs, is set for a March 5, 2027 release date. Jon Baptiste is on the score, and also made an appearance at CinemaCon to play the piano, and Adria also briefly appeared to greet the crowd.

Amazon MGM Studios

Let’s go and sit at the theaters to wait right now.

Originally published on April 15, 2026.

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With the Light Phone, Kaiwei Tang and Joe Hollier have spent over a decade exploring the value of simplicity in our relationship to technology, partnering along the way with players like Andrew Yang, Kendrick Lamar, and Pete Davidson. Now, with a new flip phone and a growing wave of “attention activists” pushing back against Big Tech, they think the rest of […]

Security researchers at Tenable suspect the Iran-linked faux hacktivist outfit CyberAv3ngers was behind the cyberattack that disrupted more than 30 Minnesota water facilities. Neither state-level nor federal officials have made any claims regarding attribution for the attacks, however, Tenable reckons the operational pattern is consistent with the crew's previous raids, noting the timing relative to recent government warnings. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) updated an advisory on Iran-linked attackers targeting programmable logic controllers (PLCs) across critical infrastructure on July 22, four days before Minnesota said the attacks targeted its systems. The advisory warned that Iran-linked hackers were attempting to disrupt operations using tactics previously associated with CyberAv3ngers. Government facilities, water and wastewater systems, and energy providers were among those urged to remain on high alert. What happened in Minnesota? On July 26 and 27, more than 30 community water systems across Minnesota were disrupted by what officials called "a coordinated cyberattack" targeting operational technology (OT). Minnesota IT Services (MNIT), the state's IT agency, said the Department of Health is working with the affected water facilities to ensure public health is maintained. No cities have yet asked citizens to modify the amount of drinking water they consume, per MNIT's latest update. The agency did not offer many other details about the attacks, other than to mention all the different agencies, organizations, and bodies it is working with as part of the investigation. One of the first cities to report issues, Braham, warned that its water reserves were limited in its initial notice. Citizens were asked not to water their lawns or use water for recreational purposes, although the problems were resolved the same day. No such directives were issued in other affected cities. Maple Plain declared a state of emergency, allowing it greater flexibility to coordinate resources, but did not ask residents to adjust their consumption. The same was true in the Twin Cities suburb of Plymouth and in South St. Paul, which both confirmed cyber-related problems on July 27 but did not ask residents to curb water use. "Cyberattacks against critical infrastructure require a coordinated, whole-of-government response," said John Israel, MNIT assistant commissioner and Minnesota CISO. "MNIT is working side by side with our partners to share intelligence, support affected communities, and help utilities restore operations safely while strengthening defenses against future attacks. "This incident demonstrates why Minnesota has invested in strong cybersecurity capabilities and partnerships. Our response worked as intended, enabling agencies at every level of government to rapidly coordinate, contain the incident, and help prevent more serious impacts to critical services." What is CyberAv3ngers? First identified around 2020, CyberAv3ngers is widely believed to be linked to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), specifically its Cyber-Electronic Command division (IRGC-CEC). For the first two years, the group began as a "propaganda persona," as Tenable puts it, claiming disruptive attacks on Israeli infrastructure – claims that were later debunked as fabrications. Its first sustained campaign came in November 2023, when it compromised PLCs at the Municipal Water Authority of Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, defacing them anti-Israel messages. Tenable said CyberAv3ngers compromised at least 75 Unitronics Vision Series PLCs across the United States, Israel, the United Kingdom, and Ireland as part of the campaign. They did so by exploiting default passwords. Between 2024 and 2025, the crew developed the IOCONTROL malware kit, built for attacks on OT and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. OpenAI said in 2024 that the group's members used ChatGPT in the development process. CyberAv3ngers stepped up its activity in 2026, targeting US critical infrastructure through Rockwell Automation/Allen-Bradley PLCs from March onward. CISA's July 22 update added Schneider Electric and Siemens equipment to the list of potential targets. In some cases, the attacks - which targeted multiple critical infrastructure sectors - disrupted operations at affected facilities, federal officials said, though they offered no specifics on what those disruptions entailed. CyberAv3ngers is known for targeting small water and municipal facilities, which experts believe are among the lowest-hanging fruit in US critical infrastructure. Many small and rural facilities lack dedicated cybersecurity resources. Tenable said some operators manage OT environments using remote-access software such as TeamViewer and AnyDesk or leave their PLCs exposed to the web. "These access methods bypass enterprise security controls entirely, creating an attack surface that is invisible to conventional security monitoring," Tenable said. Poor segmentation between IT and OT environments can also allow a single intrusion to spread across much of the network. ®

⚡ Quick Take

• The trailer for Jumanji: Open World takes the game to another level by bringing pure chaos into the real world.

We must admit that the Jumanji films starring Kevin Hart, Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, and Karen Gillan are very, very good. They balance heart, humor, and the action that we’d expect in the game’s universe quite well. And we are really happy that this quartet is back together again in Jumanji: Open World, the next sequel that will take things to another level in the real world. The trailer for Jumanji: Open World, which we actually first saw at CinemaCon, is here and we are ready to buy our tickets right now. 

The final film in this trilogy brings the Jumanji world into the real world, from its characters like Dr. Bravestone to a host of dangerous animals. To make things even worse, the avatars are all stuck in demo mode, which apparently makes Bravestone speak with a Spanish accent. It is all truly chaotic and we love to see it. This approach to the storyline is great because we get the four young actors in the film, who are great and deserve more screen time, along with the game characters.

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JUMANJI Sequel Reveals Its New Title, Shows Footage

It is the final level of this game that will present the greatest challenge of all: setting the world back right as Jumanji’s universe wreaks havoc. The Jumanji: Open World trailer perhaps gives away a little too much, revealing that Spencer’s mom will get sucked into the game as Bravestone while he is Ruby Roundhouse. What fun that will be!

What Is the Release Date for Jumanji: Open World?  Sony Pictures

Jumanji: Open World will come to theaters on December 25 to make Christmas Day awesome.

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