The episode description says, "The polls point to a Democratic wave, but neither party seems to believe them," and that "the final days of campaigning have taken a bizarre turn with Rep. Haley Stevens making a surprise endorsement for Mike Rogers." The Playbook newsletter published the same morning said the hosts would "walk listeners through the twisty final days of campaign season, plus the latest on U.S.-Canada trade talks and Sen. Chris Murphy's health."

What the hosts discussed

According to a transcript of the episode, Steakin listed developments from the cycle that included the primary-season scandal involving Graham Platner in Maine, the appearance of a second candidate named Dan Sullivan in Alaska's Senate race, redistricting fights in several states, unexpected competitiveness in Kansas and Iowa, Democratic weakness in Michigan, and what he described as polling overconfidence at a time when both major parties are deeply unpopular. Wren said POLITICO's reporting had been at the center of several of those stories, and that Stevens had signaled for weeks where she was headed before her late reversal.

That morning's Playbook newsletter, co-written by Steakin, Wren and Dasha Burns, reported that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called Stevens and urged her to reconsider amid rumors she would withdraw her endorsement of Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed. Playbook reported, "After a 25-minute phone call Stevens told the progressive star she was still on the team," and that in text messages reviewed by Playbook, Stevens told Ocasio-Cortez she thought she "did the right thing." The newsletter also reported that Stevens had told Playbook last Monday, "Nobody wants the Democratic Party to feel like an exclusive club." It said Stevens did not respond to several requests for comment Sunday evening.

The endorsement

Stevens, who narrowly lost the August Democratic primary to El-Sayed, endorsed Rogers on Sunday, Nov. 1, after attending a service with him at Perfecting Church in Detroit, CBS News and ABC News reported. In a video posted to social media, she said, "Our Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, Abdul, said that I was no longer welcome in his campaign and that I should stay away, and he's right," adding, "And that's why I am endorsing Mike Rogers for the United States Senate today."

The move followed a public dispute over an ad from an outside group that Stevens said was antisemitic, NBC News reported. CBS News identified the ad as coming from Rebellion PAC and reported that El-Sayed said his campaign did not produce it and that he does not agree with it. El-Sayed had accused Stevens of being "intent on relitigating a primary that ended three months ago," according to NBC News, which also reported that El-Sayed's campaign had asked her to no longer attend campaign events. Stevens had been expected to appear with El-Sayed and Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina at a unity event on Sunday.

Speaking to reporters after the endorsement, Stevens said that "90% of the votes I'm going to cast are going to be for Democrats," ABC News reported. Rogers said he was "honored to have Haley Stevens' support," according to POLITICO's news report on the endorsement, and described the move as "more a statement about standing together against hate and the future of this state and the future of this country than it is anything else." El-Sayed told reporters, "I actually don't think about Haley Stevens."

Reaction from party leaders

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who backed Stevens in the primary, wrote on social media, "This is a despicable betrayal from Rep. Stevens." Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel wrote on X that Stevens "is not a current member of the Michigan Democratic Party, nor will she be in the future," NBC News reported. POLITICO reported that several members of Stevens' team, including her chief of staff of eight years, Justin German, resigned Sunday morning.

President Donald Trump praised Stevens on Truth Social, writing that she "showed great and almost unprecedented loyalty to the Great People of Michigan with what she did," according to CBS News. Republican National Committee spokesperson Hunter Lovell said in a statement reported by POLITICO that "Democrats who feel Abdul has abandoned them have a home with Mike."

POLITICO's Inside Congress newsletter reported on Monday that eight House Democrats said they want Stevens removed from the caucus or otherwise punished. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said, "Haley Stevens made a terrible decision, blindsided everyone and isolated herself from the House Democratic caucus. We will have a discussion about appropriate next steps upon our return."

Election-eve context

The winner of Tuesday's Michigan race will succeed Democratic Sen. Gary Peters, who is not seeking another term, according to NBC News. Playbook reported that a final batch of New York Times/Siena polls found Democrats leading in all seven toss-up Senate races, outside the margin of error in Michigan and Texas.

The same newsletter said the final POLITICO Poll before Election Day found about 1 in 8 voters are certain to cast a ballot but have not settled on a choice. Playbook also reported that Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, suffered a stroke and was hospitalized at Johns Hopkins over the weekend. POLITICO plans live election-night coverage beginning at 9 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday, with Steakin and Wren among the participants, according to the episode and the newsletter.

According to the FlightStory release, The Diary of a CEO had 21.3 million YouTube subscribers on Sunday, Nov. 1, compared with 21.2 million for The Joe Rogan Experience. The company said it checked YouTube's public subscriber counts at 13:40 GMT that day for every show on the chart. YouTube rounds public counts to three significant figures, so the displayed gap between the two channels is about 100,000 subscribers, Net Influencer noted. Podcast News Daily reported the show's count as 21.4 million.

How the ranking was measured

The comparison is FlightStory's own analysis rather than an official YouTube ranking. YouTube's weekly podcast chart, which the company launched on May 15, 2025, ranks shows by watch time, not subscribers. YouTube said the chart is updated every Wednesday and generally includes playlists designated as "podcasts" by creators, excluding playlists that contain only clips or Shorts. In that announcement, YouTube said podcasts on the platform have more than 1 billion monthly active viewers.

FlightStory said the channel grew from about 14.2 million subscribers on Dec. 29, 2025, based on an Internet Archive capture, to 21.3 million on Nov. 1, an increase of about 7.1 million, or roughly 50%. Podcast News Daily noted that YouTube subscriber counts are not the same as podcast downloads or audience consumption.

Views, episodes and translated audio

The release said the channel published 87 full-length video episodes between Jan. 1 and Oct. 31, 2026, and recorded more than 1 billion YouTube views between Jan. 1 and Oct. 30, compared with about 399 million in the first ten months of 2025, citing FlightStory's YouTube Studio data.

FlightStory attributed much of the growth to international audiences. The company said 260.8 million of 1.12 billion YouTube views from Jan. 1 to Oct. 31, or 23.3%, came on audio tracks in languages other than English, led by Spanish, Russian, German, Portuguese and French. Net Influencer pointed out that the release gives a separate channel total of 1.03 billion views, including Shorts, for a slightly different period, and that FlightStory did not explain the gap between the two figures.

The company cited the Oct. 22 episode with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as an example. FlightStory said the conversation was recorded in Ukrainian with two human interpreters and later made available in more than 20 languages using artificial intelligence voice technology, and that it passed 7 million views in 10 days.

"Strategically, translating every episode of the show into more than 20+ languages has been an incredible unlock and allows us to reach the rest of the world," Bartlett said in the release.

Bartlett on the milestone

The show began in 2017 as a personal audio diary about Bartlett's experience building a business, and it started publishing full video episodes weekly on YouTube in 2020, according to the release. "When I started The Diary Of A CEO, I was sitting in my bedroom in Manchester, recording into a microphone. About 40 people listened to those first episodes. It's quite difficult to comprehend where it's got to today," Bartlett said.

In an interview with the newsletter Press Publish, Bartlett credited Rogan's influence on the format. "I, and many others owe Joe Rogan a huge debt," he said, adding that Rogan and other pioneers "built the blueprint that so many of us, frankly, copied." The newsletter reported that the show is on track to generate $60 million in revenue this year. Bartlett also told the publication that within the next year the team expects "30 to 40 million people to be listening to the show in a language other than English."

Other rankings and recent developments

FlightStory also pointed to outside rankings. Podscribe ranked the show first by estimated average downloads and views per episode in March 2026 and July 2026, at about 3.3 million and 4.4 million respectively, and the show placed second in Spotify's global Top Podcasts list for 2025. Net Influencer noted that Rogan's show held the top spot in that Spotify list and that Forbes ranked Rogan the highest-paid podcaster of 2026 at an estimated $82 million.

The milestone follows the September launch of OBSN, a creator venture between Bartlett's holding company, Steven.com, and Authentic Brands Group. In the Authentic announcement, Bartlett said, "We are aiming to deploy up to $400m in creator businesses over the coming years," as Variety also reported.

The show has also described changes to its editorial process. Executive producer Hans Sahni told Business Insider in a report published Oct. 30 that the show had raised its accuracy standards after a BBC investigation in late 2024 found it had shared harmful health misinformation. "We're being more rigorous than we have in the past," Sahni said. He said an independent medical Ph.D. researcher had fact-checked 71 episodes, about 13% of the 540 long-form interviews in the show's YouTube catalog.

The Diary of a CEO is available on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and other major podcast platforms, according to FlightStory.

Netflix describes the film as "a sinister gothic mystery filled with intrigue and betrayal set in the atmospheric Scottish Highlands," TheWrap reported. TheWrap said the streamer plans the fall 2027 theatrical run before the film arrives on Netflix later that year. None of the reports disclosed what Netflix paid for the rights.

Cast, writers and source material

Joel Coen wrote the screenplay with his brother Ethan Coen, novelist and screenwriter Eleanor Catton and playwright and screenwriter Conor McPherson, according to IndieWire. The film is based on Frances Frederica Montrésor's 1901 novel The Alien: A Story of Middle Age. Variety reported that the story is set in 1880s Scotland.

Ferran, whom The Hollywood Reporter identified as a 36-year-old Olivier Award winner, stars alongside O'Connor, Lewis and Manville. The Hollywood Reporter described O'Connor and Lewis as Golden Globe winners and Manville as an Oscar nominee. Deadline noted that Netflix is reteaming with O'Connor after Rian Johnson's Wake Up Dead Man in 2025 and his Emmy-winning turn as Prince Charles in The Crown.

The producers are Robert Graf, Frances McDormand and Joel Coen, along with Steven Rales for Indian Paintbrush and Graham Broadbent and Pete Czernin for Blueprint Pictures, with Donald MacKinnon serving as an executive producer, Deadline reported. McDormand, Coen's wife, also produced his 2021 film The Tragedy of Macbeth. Behind the camera, Coen reunites with Oscar-nominated cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel, who shot Inside Llewyn Davis, and composer Carter Burwell, who has worked with the Coen brothers since their 1984 feature directorial debut, Blood Simple, according to Deadline.

How the sale came together

Variety reported that the deal caps a sales process it first described in August. In an Aug. 10 report, Variety said the film had wrapped in Glasgow late last year and had screened for several prospective studios. Sources told the outlet at the time that the initial cut ran nearly 150 minutes but showed "immense promise," and that a tighter second version appeared to have "hit the sweet spot." That report added: "An acquisition announcement is expected sooner rather than later."

The Coens are represented by UTA and attorney Pat Murphy, and UTA represented the sale, according to Deadline, Variety and TheWrap. The Hollywood Reporter reported that Netflix sees Jack of Spades as a major awards prospect, and Variety wrote that the theatrical window positions the film as a likely awards-season player for the streamer in 2028.

A return to Netflix for Joel Coen

The acquisition marks Joel Coen's second collaboration with Netflix following The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, the 2018 Western anthology he made with Ethan Coen, Variety reported. That film earned three Oscar nominations, including best adapted screenplay. TheWrap noted that The Ballad of Buster Scruggs was the last film the brothers made together.

Jack of Spades is Joel Coen's second solo directorial outing after The Tragedy of Macbeth, according to Variety. TheWrap noted that the 2021 film, which starred Denzel Washington and McDormand according to Deadline, was made for A24 and Apple. Ethan Coen, meanwhile, has directed the crime comedies Drive-Away Dolls and Honey Don't! on his own, Deadline reported.

Deadline noted that Joel Coen is a four-time Oscar winner, with three awards for No Country for Old Men, for best picture, adapted screenplay and directing, and one for the original screenplay of Fargo.

Netflix's film leadership in transition

TheWrap reported that the acquisition comes after a leadership overhaul at the streamer. The company said on Oct. 15 that Peter Rice, the former chairman of Walt Disney Television, would become chief content officer effective Oct. 26, replacing Bela Bajaria, who was leaving after nearly 10 years, according to a Netflix announcement. In the announcement, Rice said Netflix has "shown again and again that they're willing to take chances on distinctive voices and fresh ideas."

TheWrap reported on Oct. 19 that film chief Dan Lin was also leaving the company. TheWrap reported that Lin, who took over Netflix Film in April 2024 after Scott Stuber's exit, held a hard line on theatrical releases, and that he told The New York Times in June that Netflix would not work with filmmakers who insist on a theatrical-first release. TheWrap also noted exceptions under Lin, including a full theatrical rollout for Greta Gerwig's Narnia: The Magician's Nephew and a two-week Imax run for David Fincher's The Adventures of Cliff Booth before its Dec. 23 Netflix debut.

The executive changes came as Netflix laid off 1,000 employees, Variety reported. On the company's third-quarter earnings call, co-CEO Ted Sarandos addressed the leadership change, saying, "I know that we could do better, and we want to build on that momentum."

The reports did not give a specific theatrical or streaming date for Jack of Spades beyond the fall 2027 window.

The deal covers Druski and his production company, 4LIFERS Entertainment. The Verge reported that Collect & Praise will be the first of "several original projects" planned under the agreement, citing a press release, and noted that the announcement is the latest in Netflix's efforts to bring creators from platforms such as YouTube onto its service.

What the deal includes

According to Deadline, the agreement includes a set number of projects rather than a traditional overall or first-look deal. Deadline also reported that Collect & Praise was self-funded before Netflix acquired it.

In addition to new programming, Netflix will license select titles from Druski's existing catalog, including Coulda Been Love, Coulda Been Daddy, Coulda Been Records Auditions and his comedic skits. Variety reported that those series, which were posted directly to YouTube, have generated more than 1 billion views collectively.

"I've built my platform by creating characters and comedy that resonate with people," Druski said in a statement. "This partnership with Netflix will give me the resources to build on that comedy foundation and bring my work to a new global audience."

"Druski has a gift for building characters that people can't stop talking about," said John Derderian, the Netflix vice president who oversees Next Gen Content. "We want the best talent in the world to bring us their most ambitious work, reach new audiences and build their brands."

From viral sketch to series

Collect & Praise stars Druski as a money-hungry megachurch pastor and Mike Epps as his unpredictable deacon. The Hollywood Reporter said the two characters "scheme their way through scandal, chaos and controversy," and that the series is based on a pastor character Druski has played in a video that drew millions of social media views and reprised while hosting the BET Awards earlier this year. Deadline identified the source material as his Mega Church Pastors Love Money sketch.

Variety reported that the series marks the first time the 32-year-old, who was born Drew Desbordes, will adapt one of his internet personas into a long-form television production, and described the deal as his first major partnership within the Hollywood studio system after he built his career by self-financing his content and distributing it independently on social media.

Druski has spoken publicly about Netflix's earlier interest in his work. On The Diary of a CEO podcast, he said the streamer had turned down "multiple different projects" of his over the years, Deadline reported. "Now, it's a whole different story. Now they want to purchase these shows that we've made and do more in the future. Now, it's a bidding war," he said.

A busy stretch, including SNL

According to Netflix, Druski began posting skits on Instagram in 2017 and has grown his following to nearly 40 million across all platforms. He has appeared in the films House Party, Praise This and Livestream from Hell, and in music videos for artists including Drake, Jack Harlow and Lil Yachty. Netflix said he became the youngest-ever host of the BET Awards and appeared on the cover of TIME's 2026 TIME100 Next issue. Deadline reported that his next film role is in The Catch, a baseball romantic comedy starring Emma Stone and Chris Pine.

The Netflix announcement lands days before Druski hosts NBC's Saturday Night Live on Saturday, Nov. 7, with the Strokes as musical guest. NBC New York reported that he will be the first digital content creator to host in the show's 52-season history, and The Hollywood Reporter said the episode will be the Strokes' fifth time as the show's musical guest.

Netflix's wider creator push

The Druski agreement adds to a run of Netflix deals with creators who built audiences on YouTube. TheWrap reported that Netflix has existing deals with Alan Chikin Chow, Nick DiGiovanni, Mythical Entertainment, Ms. Rachel, Mark Rober, Salish & Jordan Matter, Danny Go!, Hot Ones and the Stokes Twins, and that it is paying several million dollars a year for co-exclusive rights that let those creators upload to YouTube and Netflix at the same time. Druski's deal, by contrast, calls for original content made exclusively for Netflix.

The licensed creator shows have drawn large audiences. Deadline reported in July that the first season of Ms. Rachel was Netflix's ninth-biggest title in the first half of 2026 with 37.3 million views, and that Salish & Jordan Matter recorded 25.8 million views after its April launch. In its second-quarter earnings report, Netflix said, "We've had success with creators including Danny Go!, Ms. Rachel, Mark Rober, and Salish & Jordan Matter."

The Verge noted that the Druski announcement follows Netflix's most recent earnings report and a period of company changes, including layoffs of around 1,000 employees. Collect & Praise is scheduled to begin streaming on Dec. 1.

The race marked the 50th anniversary of the five-borough course, first run in 1976 to celebrate the U.S. Bicentennial, and organizers New York Road Runners said nearly 60,000 athletes took part, according to a race-day release. Official finisher numbers were scheduled to be released on Monday, Nov. 2.

A debut win decided in Central Park

Almgren, 31, arrived in New York as the world half marathon champion and European 10,000-meter champion but had never raced a marathon. Athletics Weekly reported that he had "never covered the full 26.2 miles, even in training," and that he chose New York because, with the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics in mind, it offered a championship-style course. He began his career as an 800-meter runner and has a best of 1:45 at that distance.

The lead group stayed large for most of the race. World Athletics reported that Zouhair Talbi of the United States pushed the pace through halfway in 1:04:01 and tried to break away again on the Queensboro Bridge, but each move was covered. Fifteen men were still together at 35 kilometers, according to Runner's World, before defending champion Benson Kipruto ran a 4:38 mile that cut the contenders down to Kipruto, Almgren and Crippa.

Almgren took the lead for the first time just before 40 kilometers and surged again on Central Park South to finish 13 seconds ahead of Crippa, who ran 2:06:14. Kamohelo Mofolo of Lesotho, competing on his 21st birthday, finished third in a personal best of 2:06:26, one second ahead of Kipruto. New York Road Runners said Mofolo became the first athlete from Lesotho to reach the podium in New York.

Asked whether the moderate early pace had helped him, Almgren said, "I mean, this is my first marathon. I don't really know how it's supposed to feel at those different points," as quoted by Runner's World. Athletics Weekly quoted him as saying, "I've probably never felt so emotional after a race ever."

New York Road Runners said Almgren was the first Swede to win any division of the race and the first man to win the open division on his marathon debut since Gebre Gebremariam in 2010. Abbott World Marathon Majors said he is the first Swede to win one of its races and the first non-African winner of a Major since Yuki Kawauchi in Boston in 2018. Runner's World reported that he earned $100,000 for the win, a figure also reported by Swedish broadcaster SVT Sport, which said he called it the biggest win of his career.

Four American men finished in the top 11. Talbi was the top U.S. finisher in sixth place in 2:06:43, followed by Ahmed Muhumed in eighth in 2:07:09, Ryan Ford in 10th in 2:07:17 and U.S. record holder Conner Mantz in 11th in 2:07:27, according to the official results.

Chepkirui regains title as McClain reaches the podium

The women's race started slowly. World Athletics reported that Obiri led the pack through the first 5 kilometers in 18:23 and that McClain led an 11-runner group through halfway in 1:13:52. Chepkirui led at 20, 25 and 30 kilometers before Obiri moved ahead at 35 kilometers, and Chepkirui was back in front at 40 kilometers, according to FloTrack.

With 400 meters to go, Obiri attempted to kick, but Chepkirui covered the move and pulled clear, World Athletics reported. Chepkirui, the 2024 champion, won by six seconds for her second New York title in three years. Obiri, who set the course record of 2:19:51 in 2025, had beaten Chepkirui in New York a year earlier.

McClain, a 34-year-old from Scottsdale, Arizona, had trailed the two Kenyans by several seconds late in the race. Runner's World reported that she ran the tangents through the curves of Central Park while the leaders stayed in the middle of the road. "I was taking the shortest line possible," she said. She overtook Obiri with steps remaining to finish second in 2:24:42, one second ahead of Obiri's 2:24:43.

"I just felt really strong with 400 to go," McClain said, according to Runner's World. Her finish was the first podium by an American woman in the race since Shalane Flanagan placed third in 2018, and Runner's World reported that she earned $85,000 combined in overall and top-American prize money. Edna Kiplagat, the 2010 champion, was fourth in 2:25:42. Americans Carrie Ellwood, Weini Kelati and Paige Wood finished sixth, seventh and eighth, with Kelati running her marathon debut.

Swiss sweep of the wheelchair races

Switzerland's Marcel Hug won the men's wheelchair race in 1:28:14, one second ahead of American Daniel Romanchuk, for a record-extending eighth New York title, according to the International Paralympic Committee. Romanchuk appeared to have made the decisive move on the second entry into Central Park before Hug passed him in the closing meters. "The race was very close. Daniel was very strong today. He was always with me," Hug said.

Catherine Debrunner, also of Switzerland and the world record holder, won the women's wheelchair race in 1:40:02, 30 seconds off her own course record, for her fifth Abbott World Marathon Majors victory of the year. Tatyana McFadden and Susannah Scaroni of the United States finished second and third. "New York is definitely a special place to come," Debrunner said.

The change shifts daylight from the evening to the morning. In Boston, the sun rose at 7:16 a.m. and set at 5:39 p.m. on Saturday, before the change, and was forecast to rise at 6:17 a.m. and set at 4:37 p.m. on Sunday, CBS News reported, citing the National Weather Service. Weather.com listed post-change sunsets of 4:52 p.m. in New York City, 4:44 p.m. in Chicago, 4:57 p.m. in Denver and 5:45 p.m. in Atlanta.

What the extra hour does to the body clock

Sleep researchers say the gained hour does not always translate into more rest. "Our bodies don't know the clocks have changed," Hannah Peach, a sleep health expert at UNC Charlotte, said in a university Q&A. She said people with consistent sleep patterns may simply wake up an hour earlier than usual, which "can be especially true for children," and that most people "should adjust to the time change within one to two weeks."

Experts generally describe the November change as the easier of the two. In the days after the March switch, scientists have measured "higher rates of lost sleep and an uptick in heart attacks," according to Scientific American. Beth Malow, a professor of neurology and pediatrics at Vanderbilt University, called morning light "one of the strongest forces" that aligns the body's circadian rhythm with the outside world. Jamie Zeitzer, a sleep scientist at Stanford University, said waking well after sunrise after the fall change poses less risk than cutting the body clock short. "You're basically sleeping in," he said.

Peach said the fall change "shouldn't lead to sleep loss" but may affect other aspects of wellness, such as seasonal depression, because of shorter days with less sunlight.

What sleep experts recommend

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine advises getting at least seven hours of sleep per night before and after the time change, waking up at the same time each day, including weekends, and heading outdoors for early morning sunlight in the days after the switch. The academy also recommends avoiding extra caffeine late in the day and giving children and adolescents more time to adapt.

Guidance on light exposure varies among clinicians. Dr. Cecilia Young, a board-certified physician with Inova in Northern Virginia, wrote that the adjustment takes "about eight days" on average and that 30 minutes of bright light in the evening "has been shown to reduce adjustment time to three days." She also suggested limiting morning light with blackout curtains and exercising earlier in the day.

Darker commutes bring safety warnings

Weather.com, citing an analysis by AAA Northeast, reported that pedestrian crashes in the 5 p.m. hour in Connecticut rose 147%, from 43 in October to 106 in November, based on 2020 to 2024 data, and nearly doubled in New York in 2023.

In New York City, the Department of Transportation and the NYPD launched their annual Dusk and Darkness campaign on Thursday, Oct. 29, pairing messages on LinkNYC kiosks, expected to generate an estimated 3.3 million impressions, with increased police enforcement during late afternoon and evening hours. "When the clocks fall back, fall evenings become the most dangerous time of year for pedestrians," said City Council Transportation Chair Shaun Abreu.

In Michigan, the state Department of Transportation and the Office of Highway Safety Planning cited University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute research finding that pedestrians face greater risk of serious injury in the weeks after the return to standard time, with the first hour of darkness the most dangerous. "The earlier onset of darkness creates additional risks for pedestrians and bicyclists, particularly during peak travel hours," said OHSP Director Alicia Sledge.

AAA Western and Central New York urged drivers to keep at least four seconds of following distance, check headlights for clouding or yellowing and watch for deer, noting that New York reported 36,743 animal-related crashes in 2024. "Now is a good time to eliminate distractions, slow down and be prepared for changing road conditions," said Elizabeth Carey, the club's director of public relations and corporate communications.

The push to stop switching

The clock change came as federal legislation to end it remains unresolved. The Sunshine Protection Act, which would make daylight saving time permanent and let states opt out before the law takes effect, passed the House in July and went to the Senate, CBS News reported. President Trump, who supports the bill, accused Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton of holding it up. Cotton responded that Congress had tried permanent daylight saving time before, only to return to the twice-yearly change "once Americans experienced absurdly late sunrises in the winter." AAA Western and Central New York said the bill is stalled in the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation with no floor vote scheduled. Pending bills expire in early January, when lawmakers elected in the Tuesday, Nov. 3, midterm elections take office.

Sleep medicine groups favor the opposite approach. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine supports permanent standard time and pointed to a separate House bill, the Sunshine for Our Kids Act (H.R. 9638), that would establish it nationwide. Scientific American reported that the American Medical Association, the Sleep Research Society and the academy have opposed making daylight saving time permanent. Unless Congress acts, daylight saving time will begin again at 2 a.m. on Sunday, March 14, 2027.

Directed by Siddharth Anand, "King" is scheduled to open in cinemas worldwide on Thursday, Dec. 24. In the post announcing the song, Khan wrote "Of Love and other Battles" and gave the release date as "in cinemas 24.12.26," according to India Today. The film will be Khan's first theatrical release since "Dunki" in 2023, the year he also starred in "Pathaan" and "Jawan."

Romance intercut with action

The music video, released on the T-Series and Zee Music Company YouTube channels, opens with Khan delivering a line of dialogue that India Today translated as: "I am not a killer, but a lover. My beloved is my target, and what kind of lover would I be if I did not pierce the heart?"

The Indian Express reported that the song begins with Khan dressed in all black, walking on an island with a gun in his hand, and that it moves between dance sequences with Padukone and scenes of his character smuggling guns hidden under a bed of fish in cargo. The Hollywood Reporter India described the video as set primarily along a beachfront, with romantic scenes intercut with gunfire and bloodshed. The video closes with another line that India Today translated as: "This time, a fire is raging in my heart. It will not stop until it has set the world ablaze."

Both The Hindu and The Indian Express noted that the song's mix of romance and intrigue recalls "Besharam Rang," the Khan-Padukone number from Anand's 2023 spy thriller "Pathaan." India Today reported that the track has drawn mixed reactions online, with some listeners praising Singh's vocals and the lead pair's chemistry while others questioned its familiar sound and styling.

Arijit Singh, Ed Sheeran and the music team

The lyrics were written by Kumaar, while Sheeran wrote his own English rap, according to India Today. The choreography is by Piyush-Shazia. The Hollywood Reporter India said the song marks the second collaboration between Singh and Sheeran after "Sapphire" in 2025. Hindustan Times reported that the track marks Sheeran's debut as a playback singer in Indian cinema.

The Indian Express reported that Singh recorded the song before announcing his retirement from playback singing in January, and that Sheeran recorded his portion during a visit to India earlier this year.

The release came on the same day India Today, citing a report by Bollywood Hungama, said that composer Anirudh had reportedly stepped away from the film because of his commitments in the South, with Sachin-Jigar taking over both the soundtrack album and the background score. A source quoted in that report said: "Anirudh has given the theme track of King to Shah Rukh Khan as a mark of his respect for the megastar." The source added: "So King will still have the Anirudh touch with the theme track, but the entire score and the album will be done by Sachin-Jigar."

A changed birthday ritual at Mannat

Khan's midnight appearance on the balcony of Mannat, his bungalow in Mumbai's Bandra neighborhood, has become a birthday tradition for fans. That tradition was broken this year because the actor has temporarily moved out of the residence, according to Hindustan Times. Filmibeat reported that Mannat is undergoing major reconstruction and expansion work.

Instead, a handwritten note from Khan was displayed outside the house. It read: "Thank you all for your wishes and love. Sending mine right back to you all." Hindustan Times reported that the display also carried lines of dialogue from the film, including "King Akela Kaafi Hai" and "Darr Nahi, Dehshat Hoon." The Indian Express reported that Mumbai Police had increased security outside the bungalow from Sunday evening.

Later on Monday, Hindustan Times reported that Khan greeted the crowd outside Mannat with waves, flying kisses and his trademark arms-wide-open pose, and that Red Chillies Entertainment shared a video of the moment with the caption: "The KING of hearts, with his kingdom of love!" The Hollywood Reporter India reported that Khan waved to fans from his car.

Cast and release plans

Kareena Kapoor Khan also used the birthday to confirm a dance number with Khan in the film. She shared a monochrome image of the two in silhouette, with a caption that included "The forever Ruler of the kingdom" and "Let's dance together," India Today reported.

"King" is produced by Gauri Khan's Red Chillies Entertainment and Siddharth and Mamta Anand's Marflix Pictures. It is the first film to feature Khan alongside his daughter, Suhana Khan, according to Hindustan Times. The cast also includes Abhishek Bachchan, Jackie Shroff, Arshad Warsi, Jaideep Ahlawat, Raghav Juyal and Abhay Verma, while Rani Mukerji, Padukone and Kapoor Khan have special appearances, Hindustan Times reported. The Indian Express reported that Bachchan plays the chief antagonist and that "King" is Khan and Padukone's sixth film together, after "Om Shanti Om," "Chennai Express," "Happy New Year," "Pathaan" and "Jawan."

Hindustan Times also reported that the film is said to be inspired by the 1994 French film "Léon: The Professional," and to follow an aging assassin played by Khan and his young protégé, played by Suhana Khan. The song's release follows the unveiling of a new poster for the film last week, India Today reported.

The appearance was arranged as a field segment for Letterman's Netflix interview series, "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman," in an episode featuring Damon that is scheduled to premiere later this year, according to Vulture.

A six-second walk across East 61st Street

The two men appear about eight and a half minutes into the episode, titled "Ring the Bells." Deadline and Vulture placed the moment at 8:33, while Decider put it at approximately 8 minutes and 44 seconds. Dressed as 19th-century gentlemen, Damon and Letterman cross East 61st Street between the Van Rhijn and Russell homes as the camera pans toward the house where George Russell is recovering after being shot at the end of Season 3. Vulture reported that the appearance lasts six seconds.

Neither man speaks or appears in any other scene, TV Insider reported. Deadline reported that Damon wears a top hat, an ascot and a long coat, with sideburns and a mustache, while Letterman wears a bowler hat, an all-black outfit and the beard he has worn for several years. According to Decider, the shot comes directly after a scene in which Hector, the Duke of Buckingham (Ben Lamb), is asked to choose between his wife, Gladys (Taissa Farmiga), and their baby during a difficult birth in England.

A nearly 50-year ambition

Isabel Richardson, the showrunner of "My Next Guest," told Vulture the idea grew out of Letterman's nearly 50-year-long quest to become a background actor. She said it began in 1977, when Letterman spotted his friend, comedian Gary Mule Deer, in a scene in "Annie Hall." Letterman was "tickled by the fact that this guy was recognizable to him in the shot, but that most people probably didn't recognize him," Richardson said.

Richardson described several earlier attempts that fell through. Letterman hoped to appear in the background of Wes Anderson's "The Phoenician Scheme," but the dates did not work out. He also tried to appear in the upcoming remake of "The Thomas Crown Affair" while taping an episode with Michael B. Jordan, and he once sat down on the New York set of Jason Bateman's series "Black Rabbit." "He asked a PA to put him in the shot, to no avail," Richardson said.

While researching Damon's episode, the Netflix team learned that the actor had started his career doing background work alongside Ben Affleck. "It'd be really fun for Dave to do this with Academy Award-winner Matt Damon, and it tied into his origin story really well," Richardson told Vulture. She said Damon, offered a list of possible field segments, "unequivocally chose this idea as his favorite."

How the cameo was arranged

After reviewing productions filming in New York, Richardson's team pitched "The Gilded Age" through a line producer's contact on the show. The request reached executive producer Kate Churchill, who took it to series creator Julian Fellowes, HBO head of drama Francesca Orsi and HBO chief executive Casey Bloys, according to Vulture. Churchill said everyone found it "hysterical," but she was concerned that the two famous faces could distract viewers.

"The only way I could think of was if we did it in a very controlled manner and it was a shot that we needed, so there was a high chance of it making the cut," Churchill told Vulture. The scene was filmed on the show's "hero street," a closed back lot in Old Bethpage on Long Island where, Churchill said, "the public doesn't have access."

Churchill said the arrangement involved more paperwork than expected. "Things like, Matt had to be paid as a background person, but of course he works under his own company," she said. "There were a lot of emails going around, but people really locked arms, and both studios saw that it was a fun collaboration where we could help each other."

Both men attended a costume fitting, as every background actor on the series does. Damon had shaved the beard he wore for "The Odyssey" for an appearance on "Saturday Night Live" the weekend before the shoot, so the show's hair and makeup team made period facial hair for him. The bowler hat Letterman wears on screen is his own, custom-fitted at what Richardson called "the oldest hat shop in London." The scene was shot in May. Richardson said Damon "was laughing so hard throughout the day" that he had to hold on to his mustache, while Churchill said, "Dave was like a kid in a candy shop on the set."

The Season 4 premiere

The premiere opens nine months after the Season 3 finale, TV Insider reported. Deadline reported that it also includes the wedding of Oscar van Rhijn (Blake Ritson) to Enid Turner (Kelley Curran), and Screen Rant reported that Agnes van Rhijn (Christine Baranski) is preparing to host a dinner for President Grover Cleveland, played by Jim Gaffigan. The cast also includes Carrie Coon, Morgan Spector, Cynthia Nixon, Louisa Jacobson, Denée Benton and Audra McDonald.

Season 4 has eight episodes. New episodes air Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and stream on HBO Max, according to TV Insider.

The Learjet 60 went down at about 12:50 p.m. on Military Trail, between Cresthaven Boulevard and 10th Avenue North near Greenacres, according to the Federal Aviation Administration and the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office. The FAA said the aircraft had departed Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas and was headed to North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said there were no reports of anyone on the ground being killed or injured, the Associated Press reported.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed on X that everyone on board had died, calling the crash a "horrific tragedy." He added: "Please join me in praying for the families and loved ones of those we lost," according to the BBC. As of Monday morning, authorities had not publicly identified the victims or said how many were passengers and how many were crew, CBS12 and CNN reported.

Final radio calls described ice and turbulence

Air traffic control recordings archived by LiveATC.net captured the jet's final minutes. The plane was flying east at 35,000 feet when the pilot reported icing, turbulence and precipitation and asked to climb another 2,000 feet, the AP reported. "We have light, clear ice that is manageable and moderate turbulence," the pilot told controllers at the Miami Air Route Traffic Control Center.

Moments later the jet entered a steep dive. "We are in an overspeed condition descending 20,000 feet per minute," the pilot radioed, followed by: "We're going to crash into the ground." According to Reuters, as published by Arab News, the last words heard from the cockpit, about 35 seconds after the first mayday call, were "We're out of time." Flight-tracking service Flightradar24 said its data showed the descent rate at one point exceeded 32,000 feet per minute.

Dashcam video shared online showed the aircraft falling almost vertically before exploding into a fireball beside the roadway. "It was a cataclysmic plane crash," DeSantis told reporters at the scene. "It looked like a missile going down and left a big crater on the side of the road." He also said, according to Reuters: "When you see that video, it's a jarring thing."

"I heard and felt the boom," Andrew Mannino told CNN. "The power immediately went out and is still out."

Cause not yet determined, experts urge caution

The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation with support from the FAA, and officials have not said what caused the crash. Scattered storms were in the area at the time, and CNN reported that the plane passed through a stronger storm cell a few minutes before it began descending, though it was unclear whether the weather played a role.

Aviation safety expert Steve Arroyo told the AP that icing and turbulence could have been factors and may have caused the plane to stall, but stressed that investigators would not rule anything out at such an early stage, including how the pilot responded to the conditions. Mary Schiavo, a CNN aviation analyst and former Transportation Department inspector general, said the dashcam footage would be important evidence. "That is not a controlled descent," she said. "It's clear, whatever happened, they had lost control of the plane."

Specialist outlet Aviacionline noted that while ice and turbulence are the focus of early attention, there is no confirmation they caused the loss of control, and that it has not been reported whether flight recorders were recovered. The outlet added that the NTSB usually publishes a preliminary report within about 30 days, while a final report with a probable cause typically takes one to two years.

FAA records list the aircraft, tail number N722BD, as registered to LR60271 LLC of Wilmington, Delaware, the Miami Herald reported. The jet, built in 2004, is listed as available for charter online, according to WPBF. An Austin airport spokesperson said it was a private flight and that the airport did not have "access to information regarding passenger and crew identity, aircraft history, ownership and operator of the aircraft." Canada-based manufacturer Bombardier said it would fully support the investigation, according to Reuters.

Displaced residents and a closed road

Palm Beach County Commissioner Joel Flores said the crash left a "massive crater" near the entrance to a mobile home park and that about 600 people were being evacuated and relocated to shelters. Evacuees were moved to the Greenacres Community Center, and nearby John I. Leonard High School was closed Monday, CBS12 reported. Officials said damage to infrastructure, including water lines, meant the road would stay closed for at least 30 days, the BBC reported.

The crash is the second deadliest in the United States this year according to NTSB records, after a skydiving plane crash in Butler, Missouri, killed 12 people in June, and the deadliest ever involving a Learjet 60, according to Flight Safety Foundation data cited by CNN. Bishop Manuel de Jesús Rodríguez of the Diocese of Palm Beach scheduled a memorial Mass for the nine victims on Monday, All Souls' Day, at Our Lady Queen of Peace Cemetery in Royal Palm Beach.

According to the episode description, Warnock joined Martin at the Flying Biscuit Cafe in Atlanta, where the two discussed Democrats' prospects over breakfast biscuits and grits. POLITICO also published an edited version of the interview in Martin's column, "Faith, the South and Jon Ossoff: Raphael Warnock on Democrats' Next Chapter," posted at 7 a.m. Eastern. Martin, POLITICO's senior political columnist and politics bureau chief, wrote that Warnock remains the pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church and is also considering a run for president in 2028. After the meal, the column says, the two walked the grounds of the church.

A case for investing in the South

Asked whether a Democratic Senate majority now felt within reach, Warnock said, "I am nauseously optimistic." He added that "the stakes are so high" and that "the margins are small," warning that "the way to lose is to become overly confident." He predicted, "We're definitely gonna flip the House," and said, "I think we have a great shot at the Senate."

Martin pointed to Mississippi and South Carolina as two Southern Senate races that had become competitive late in the cycle. Warnock said the fact that both states are in play reflects "how badly this administration has screwed up," and he repeated an argument he said he has made privately to the party and to donors: "I believe that the road to a sustainable majority in the Senate for Democrats runs right through the South." He added, "I actually think Mississippi is a blue state that just needs to be organized."

Warnock recalled donors asking him, "Well, I'm helping you. Where else should I be looking?" and said his answer is Mississippi. Comparing the state with Georgia's own long climb, he said near-misses there once felt "like Lucy and the football," and he urged Democrats to "prepare to invest in Mississippi the day after the election, no matter the outcome." He also said Texas belongs on the same trajectory, and when asked whether Texas Senate candidate James Talarico could preach at Ebenezer, he answered, "Oh, I'd love to have him."

Faith and politics

Martin asked whether the country needs a spiritual rebirth. Warnock called President Donald Trump "a serious problem for our country" and said, "Only a nation that is spiritually sick could elect Donald Trump twice." He said politics has become "a new civic religion" and argued that "religion has become politics" with the emergence of Christian nationalism.

Discussing whether Democrats need a 2028 nominee who can speak fluently about faith, Warnock said advisers on his first Senate campaign put a reminder on his memos: "Remain the reverend." He stressed his support for the separation of church and state, saying, "I don't want to live in anybody's theocracy." He cited capping the cost of insulin for seniors at $35 as the kind of result that makes Senate work worthwhile and said, "I'd like to see us repeal Citizens United."

2028, Jon Ossoff and Georgia's governor's race

Pressed repeatedly on his own 2028 plans, Warnock did not commit. "My focus is on winning the midterms," he said, adding that if Democrats fall short, "2028 could very well be theoretical." Asked about fellow Georgia Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, who is on Tuesday's ballot, Warnock said Ossoff "has been an incredible United States senator" and that anyone with something to contribute should get involved: "We need a real primary." He described their working relationship by saying, "Jon Ossoff and I are a happy couple, if you will," and said his children know Ossoff as "Uncle Jon." At the end of the interview, Warnock said, "I think we should have a robust primary."

Martin noted that if a Democrat does not win Georgia's governorship, a Republican governor would fill any Senate vacancy created by either senator. The governor's race pits former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms against Republican Rick Jackson, whom Martin described as "a sort of self-financing business guy." Warnock said Bottoms' chances differ from those of Stacey Abrams in earlier races because "every cycle is different," calling 2026 "clearly a change election." Asked about 2024 results among Black men, he said, "Black men have been suffering, and they've been suffering for a long time," citing mass incarceration and policy choices made by both parties.

Same-day CNN interview

Warnock carried several of the same themes into a CNN interview with Jake Tapper on Sunday morning, which CNN posted under the headline "Warnock 'nauseously optimistic' about Democrats winning the midterms." Tapper noted that Warnock's current Senate term ends in 2028, and Warnock said, "come 2028, I will be running for high office." When Tapper asked whether that included the Senate, Warnock agreed that it did. On CNN, Warnock again called Mississippi "a blue state that just needs to be organized," said Mississippi Democratic Senate candidate Scott Colom can win and argued that "a ceiling of 52 for Democrats in the Senate is unsustainable and unacceptable." He told Tapper he is "cautiously optimistic" about Tuesday's results.

The On the Road series, in which Martin interviews political figures in their home states, has featured guests including New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina this fall. The Warnock episode description says the conversation also covers the future of U.S. alliances. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3.

Curry opened the broadcast from Fredericksburg, Texas, with Andrew Horowitz, host of the podcast DH Unplugged, sitting in as co-host, according to the transcript posted on the show's searchable episode archive. "It is time for the final edition of the No Agenda Show," Curry said at the top of the program. Horowitz described the mood on air: "It's emotionally draining, but yet at the same time, it's a wonderful tribute."

Why the show ended

Dvorak, best known for his long-running Inside Track column in PC Magazine, died unexpectedly on July 20 in Albany, California, at age 80, a family spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that No Agenda announced his death in its newsletter published July 22 and that the cause of death was not disclosed. In July, Curry said he planned for the program to continue, telling listeners, "This family, this community that we built with him is too big and too vast to end," according to the Chronicle.

The show did continue for several months with guest co-hosts. In mid-October, however, Curry said he would step away. Podnews reported on Oct. 16 that the Oct. 29 show would be his last, and that Curry said on No Agenda: "When John died, honestly, the show died as we know it." At that point, he said he hoped the program would continue in some form, according to Podnews.

The Czech podcast news site Ceske podcasty reported that Curry told listeners he had considered leaving while Dvorak was still alive, but postponed that conversation after Dvorak underwent double bypass surgery. The site also reported that Curry said Dvorak's death ended half of the business partnership behind the show, quoting him as saying, "I can't offer the other half to anybody."

The decision to end the show itself, rather than only Curry's role in it, came on Episode 1915, "Off The Rails," which aired Sunday, Oct. 25, and marked the program's 19th anniversary. "Thursday will be the last, not just my last episode, but it will be the last episode of No Agenda," Curry said, according to the episode transcript. He said that after discussions with Dvorak's family, "we have all collectively agreed that the show is not the show without John and Adam."

A finale built around listeners

No Agenda carried no advertising and was paid for by listeners who contributed money and volunteer work, according to Ceske podcasty. The show's archive describes Curry and Dvorak as "the pioneers of the Value for Value model," the listener-supported approach the program used throughout its run. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the show focused on questioning mainstream media and released episodes every Thursday and Sunday.

Much of the final episode was devoted to listener donation notes, musical tributes sent in by contributors and archival clips of Dvorak from his TechTV-era program Silicon Spin, according to the archive's episode summary. The broadcast also included what the archive describes as Dvorak's final recorded goodbye, from an episode of DH Unplugged in July 2026.

Curry closed the show with an extended list of thanks. He thanked "the guest co-hosts who sat in John's seat this year so the show could keep going," and "the people who listened and never sent anything at all. You are here and that counts." He also thanked the Dvorak family "for John and for sharing him with us for 19 years."

What comes next

On the finale, Curry said the Dvorak family will produce a new program called Party Line, at partylineshow.com. He said his podcast We Get To Do This, which he co-hosts with Pastor Jimmy, will continue and, as of Nov. 9, will move to two days a week, on Mondays and Thursdays. The archive's episode summary also notes that Curry and the Keeper, a podcast Curry previously hosted, is returning, and that the No Agenda website and meetups will continue under producer management.

Ceske podcasty reported that Curry, who is listed as the "Podfather" in the description of We Get To Do This, plans to focus on what he calls "kingdom work," including Godcaster, a company he said helps Christian radio stations get online.

Dvorak's career

Born in Fresno, California, on April 5, 1946, Dvorak earned a history degree from UC Berkeley and moved his Inside Track column from InfoWorld to PC Magazine in August 1986, The Hollywood Reporter reported. He was a contributor to the 1995-99 CNET Central series, hosted radio shows including NPR's Technically Speaking and wrote more than a dozen books. The Chronicle reported that in 2007 Dvorak became vice president of Mevio, the San Francisco-based entertainment network founded by Curry, and that the two began co-hosting No Agenda the same year.

The first episode released after Dvorak's death, No. 1,888, came out July 24 and featured his widow, Mimi Smith-Dvorak, among the friends and relatives who shared stories about him across roughly six hours, according to the Chronicle. With Episode 1916, the program that grew out of that partnership has now published its last show.

The gap between the two films was $200,684, The Associated Press reported. The documentary, directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, played in 3,243 theaters, according to Box Office Mojo, and fell 43% from the previous weekend, according to Deadline. "Clayface" played in 3,478 theaters and declined 57%.

Deadline's daily breakdown showed how close the race was. "Clayface" won Saturday, Halloween night, with about $4.2 million, while "You Can See Everything" earned $3.58 million that day. The documentary had led Friday with $3.56 million and was estimated at $3.45 million for Sunday, compared with about $2.8 million for "Clayface." Deadline reported that some rival distributors' figures showed "Clayface" with the edge for the weekend, and that the contest would continue into Monday's actual numbers.

"That's a rare achievement for any film, let alone a documentary running more than three hours," Paul Dergarabedian, Rentrak's head of marketplace trends, told Variety, referring to the documentary reaching No. 1 in its third weekend.

A low-budget documentary keeps climbing

"You Can See Everything" has earned $63.88 million domestically, Variety reported, against a production budget of $7 million. It has yet to open in most international markets. Deadline reported that the film is playing only in Turkey, at 120 locations, and is scheduled to open in Australia and New Zealand on Nov. 12 and in the United Kingdom on Nov. 20.

According to Deadline, the film has already surpassed the domestic totals of several well-known documentaries, including Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" ($24.1 million) and the Leonardo DiCaprio-narrated "Hubble 3D" ($52.5 million). Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" remains the highest-grossing documentary outside the nature and concert genres, with $119.1 million domestically. Deadline also reported that A24 has crossed $500 million at the domestic box office this year, the company's highest annual total.

'Clayface' leads worldwide

"Clayface," an R-rated origin story about the Batman villain directed by James Watkins, has grossed $44.1 million in North America and $83 million worldwide, according to Variety, which reported that the film cost $44 million to produce. Deadline reported that the film ranked No. 1 worldwide for the weekend with $22.8 million. Variety noted that DC's next big-screen releases are "Superman: Man of Tomorrow," due next summer, and "The Batman: Part II," starring Robert Pattinson, in 2028.

Halloween weighs on overall ticket sales

With no new wide releases from the major studios and Halloween falling on a Saturday, overall business was slow. Deadline estimated that all films grossed $62.2 million, down 38% from the previous weekend, making it the third-lowest-grossing weekend of 2026 after Jan. 23-25 ($54.7 million) and Feb. 6-8 ($61.9 million). Variety, citing Rentrak, put the Friday-to-Sunday total at roughly $60 million.

"With costume parties, trick-or-treating and countless other Halloween activities, theaters were facing some pretty stiff competition for people's time and attention," Dergarabedian told Variety. Analyst David A. Gross of FranchiseRE wrote in a post that Halloween has fallen on Friday and Saturday nights in each of the last two years and "the major distributors won't compete with it by releasing a big new title," according to Media Play News. Deadline noted that the last time Halloween fell on a Saturday outside the pandemic year of 2020 was 2015, when the overall weekend grossed $74.1 million. Next year, the holiday falls on a Sunday.

Despite the slow weekend, the domestic box office remains up more than 17% from last year, with nearly $8.5 billion in ticket sales to date, the AP reported.

The rest of the top five

Laika's stop-motion animated film "Wildwood," released by Fathom Entertainment, held at No. 3 with $7.5 million, down 39% in its second weekend. Variety reported that the film has earned $25 million domestically and $35 million worldwide against a $100 million production budget. Fathom said combined Friday and Saturday PostTrak polling showed 97% of general audiences rating the film "Excellent" or "Very Good," Media Play News reported. Gross wrote that "Clayface" and "Wildwood" "would be doing significantly better if kids, teens and young adults weren't focused on costumes, candy and trick-or-treating."

Black Bear's romantic comedy "Wicker," starring Olivia Colman and Alexander Skarsgård, placed fourth with $4.1 million, down 28% in its second weekend, for a domestic total of $13.2 million. Variety reported that Black Bear acquired the film after the Sundance Film Festival for $2.5 million. Paramount's "Street Fighter" rounded out the top five with $3.2 million in its third weekend, a 63% drop, bringing its totals to $53 million domestically and $91.9 million worldwide. Variety reported that Legendary and Capcom co-financed the film for $82 million.

Limited releases and studio notes

Sony Pictures Classics' John Turturro crime thriller "The Only Living Pickpocket in New York" expanded to 1,112 theaters and earned about $1.9 million, entering the top 10. Netflix opened Peter Berg's World War II drama "The Mosquito Bowl" with $455,000 from 349 locations, while its drama "La Bola Negra" added $418,000 from 38 theaters, for a running total of $1.2 million.

Sony did not report weekend grosses for "Klara and the Sun," starring Jenna Ortega, which opened the previous weekend with $720,000 from 880 locations, Variety reported.

"It is with the heaviest heart that I share the devastating news that Liam passed away following a motorcycle accident on October 30th at approximately 2 AM," Rinaldi wrote, according to the New York Post. "He suffered severe injuries, and despite the efforts of those who tried desperately to save him, they were unable to bring him back."

The exact circumstances of the crash have not been disclosed, the Post reported. Us Weekly likewise noted that very few details about the crash were immediately publicly available. None of the outlets that reported the death, including People, the Post, Us Weekly, TMZ and Hearst-owned WXII 12 News, reported where the accident took place.

Girlfriend asks for privacy

Rinaldi's post also addressed the impact of the loss on those close to him. "There are no words to describe the heartbreak of this loss. This is an incredibly difficult and heartbreaking time for everyone who knew and loved him," she wrote, as quoted by People and WXII.

She also asked the public to respect the family's privacy. "Please keep Liam's family, loved ones, and everyone closest to him in your thoughts and prayers," Rinaldi wrote. "Please give us grace, love, and privacy as they navigate this unimaginable loss. Rest peacefully, Liam. We love you so much."

TMZ reported that Rinaldi had previously posted clips of Fitzgerald and his motorcycle on social media, including a TikTok video in March in which she stood in front of him and the bike with the caption "I'm his biggest problem," and a June video showing the motorcycle captioned "Time for a sunset cruise."

From Wisconsin to Miami

Fitzgerald was born in Evansville, Wisconsin, and spent most of his childhood in Washington state before moving to Arizona at 18, according to a February 2026 profile in Inked magazine, which named him its Man of the Month. After six years in Arizona, he moved to Miami, where he worked as an online coach and content creator, the magazine reported.

On Instagram, Fitzgerald shared posts about fitness, style and finances, and he offered one-on-one training sessions, according to People, which cited his website. The New York Post reported that he also maintained an OnlyFans account, which he promoted through his website. Us Weekly described him as offering both social media and fitness coaching in addition to subscription content.

In the Inked interview, Fitzgerald said he preferred a more grounded description of his work than the "influencer" label. "I love making content that's relatable with a good message," he told the magazine. "I want to help people achieve their personal goals, whether that's fitness or brand building."

The profile also described the personal meaning behind his tattoos. One, on his left chest over his heart, is a portrait based on a photo of him as a baby with his mother, who the magazine said largely raised him on her own. Another, a 333 tattoo topped with a halo on his hand, was meant as a contrast to the number 666. "I chose 333 because it's the opposite. To me, it means you have to be the light and the good in the world," he said.

Motorcycles a frequent subject

Inked reported that Fitzgerald was passionate about weight training, long-distance running, MMA and fighting, and hiking, and that he was deeply into motorcycles and was learning stunt riding at the time of the February profile. "I'm all about positivity and personal development," he told the magazine.

He frequently showcased motorcycles on his own social media accounts, the New York Post reported. In June, he shared a photo of himself riding shirtless on a bike with the caption "He ain't nothing like me." Since his death, some commenters have left messages under that post warning about the dangers of motorcycles, according to the Post.

Tributes from friends and fellow creators

Friends and supporters posted condolences on social media after the news. "Damn brother. We never got to do any of the things together we said we would this year. Rest easy, forever an inspiration to me & so many others," one friend wrote on Fitzgerald's final Instagram post, People reported. "I'm at a loss for words. I'm devastated," another commenter wrote under Rinaldi's post. "Liam had the biggest heart. He motivated everyone."

Fitness model JT Reinhard, who referenced his own near-fatal accident in January, wrote in a comment on Rinaldi's post, "Emotional stress and the road do not mix well," according to the Post. "He seemed like he wanted to do good for this world," Reinhard added.

Content creator Austin Georgas also paid tribute. "I'm so unbelievably sorry brother! I had the pleasure of meeting you a few times and it was truly always love when you were around," he wrote, according to the Post. "God took an amazing human from us today. You have inspired millions of us and I'm so grateful to have even had the chance to know you."

Us Weekly added Fitzgerald to its running list of content creators who have died in 2026. The list also includes Athira Auni, who the magazine reported died on Jan. 3 at age 21 after a motorcycle accident.

Thousands of students and fans stormed the rain-soaked field at the final whistle, the AP reported. NBC Sports noted that it was the first time USC had beaten a top-five opponent at the Coliseum since 2015. The victory moved the Trojans to 7-2 overall and 4-2 in the Big Ten, while Ohio State fell to 6-2 and 4-1.

Freshmen deliver the big plays

Freshman receiver Trent Mosley set the tone on USC's second snap, catching a screen pass behind the line of scrimmage and running 69 yards for a touchdown. The Buckeyes had not allowed a play longer than 36 yards all season, according to NBC Sports. "That thing opened up wide," Mosley said afterward, as quoted by the Los Angeles Times. He finished with five receptions for 101 yards and also set up Jordan's 9-yard touchdown run in the first quarter with a long punt return.

"I think we learned how good we are," Mosley said, according to the AP. "When we trust each other and play together as a team, that's what we can do."

USC led 20-9 at halftime. Early in the third quarter, linebacker Desman Stephens II punched the ball loose from an Ohio State ball carrier and defensive tackle Floyd Boucard recovered, the Los Angeles Times reported. On the next play, Maiava found freshman tight end Mark Bowman over the middle. Bowman hurdled a defender, broke multiple tackles and was pushed out of bounds after a 70-yard gain, and Miller scored two plays later to make it 27-9. The Times reported that Bowman had been on a pitch count after missing the previous month with an injury. CBS Sports reported that Mosley and Bowman combined for eight receptions, 180 yards and a touchdown.

Ohio State coach Ryan Day was asked about the Bowman play. "That was ridiculous," Day said, according to the AP. "We're going for the punch-out there. We've just got to get him on the ground around the 40-yard line and live to see another snap."

Red zone and penalties decide it

Ohio State finished with 464 total yards, including 204 on the ground, according to the Los Angeles Times. But the Buckeyes did not score a touchdown until Jeremiah Smith caught a 1-yard pass with 2:12 remaining, the AP reported. Their 2-point conversion attempt failed, USC recovered the ensuing onside kick, and the Trojans kicked their third field goal with 1:46 left. Smith's touchdown was the 40th of his career, breaking Braylon Edwards' Big Ten record, according to the AP.

The Buckeyes reached the USC 1-yard line shortly before halftime but settled for a field goal after a stuffed run and two incomplete passes. "I just think that speaks volumes," USC defensive tackle Alex VanSumeren told the Los Angeles Times. "That's a grit play, a toughness deal. A mindset thing." The Times reported that Ohio State converted seven of 16 third downs and scored 12 points on its first six drives into USC territory.

"The red zone was obviously maybe the biggest differential in the game, how well we played defensively in the red zone," Riley said, according to Scarlet and Game. Referring to defensive coordinator Gary Patterson, he added, "I thought Gary called a really good game. I thought our guys executed their best in those moments."

Ohio State was flagged 11 times for 75 yards, the AP reported. Bo Jackson rushed for 121 yards, and Smith had 10 catches for 83 yards.

Fahey's first start

Freshman quarterback Luke Fahey made his first career start in place of Julian Sayin, who injured his arm two weeks earlier against Indiana. Fahey, who is from Orange County, California, completed 21 of 38 passes for 260 yards and a touchdown, according to the AP.

"At the end of the day, as a team, we weren't able to play well enough to support a young freshman quarterback who has his first start on the road like this," Day said, according to the AP.

According to the AP, Ohio State had not lost two games this early in a season since 2011, and the Buckeyes are now 58-2 against unranked teams under Day. CBS Sports noted that Ohio State still has games remaining against Oregon, Northwestern, Nebraska and Michigan.

Riley answers questions about his future

The win followed a week of public speculation about Riley's job security after the loss at Wisconsin, which NBC Sports reported ended 24-7. The Los Angeles Times reported that it was Riley's first win over a top-10 team at USC, and that he closed his postgame news conference by reading from a prepared statement. "This win is for all the staff members, the players, the leaders, admin, all the people within the walls. I said before this game, that I'm the right person for this job, and as long as all those people know that, that's all I care about," Riley said.

The AP reported that the Trojans are almost certain to return to the AP Top 25. USC has a bye next week before visiting Indiana on Nov. 14, while Ohio State hosts Oregon on Saturday, Nov. 7.

The Hollywood Reporter said Klum arrived in a truck covered in red "danger" signs and was helped to the ground by actors in yellow hazmat suits. Her face sat at the center of the hand, above a bloody wrist, while the fingers carried rings and a fresh manicure. The outlet noted that she appeared without her husband, Tom Kaulitz, who has dressed up alongside her in recent years.

A replica of her own left hand

Klum told E! News on the red carpet that the idea came from looking at her own hand. "Literally, my left hand inspired me," she said, explaining that she wondered how her body could fit inside it, with her two legs serving as fingers and her body in the palm. E! News reported that it took her six hours to get ready on Oct. 31 and that her team had worked for months on the prosthetics, which Klum summed up as "Many hands doing this hand."

The costume reproduced personal details, according to E! News, including a green stone wedding ring and a finger tattoo reading "Tom" in honor of Kaulitz. "I got it on our wedding day," Klum said of the tattoo. She also explained the red nail polish: "I do like red nails," she said, adding, "I think a red nail just pops, you know, on the red carpet."

Speaking to reporters at the event, Klum said, "It took a lot of hands putting this hand together," and estimated the number at "I think about 10 or 20 hands," the BBC reported. She told the broadcaster, "I always try to come up with something unusual and I don't think I've seen an actual person walking around like a hand. I thought that was something new and different."

A year in the making

In an interview with Vogue hours before the party, Klum said she began developing the concept about a year ago, before her 2025 party, when she dressed as Medusa. She said she first pitched it to her costume designer, Mike Marino, who told her he needed to focus on Medusa first.

"Some of the most interesting ideas come from the most ordinary things," Klum told Vogue. Marino led the work with his ProRenFX team, the magazine reported, using existing scans of Klum's body. "[Mike] has all of these scans of my body, so he was able to use those to create an exact replica of my hand," she said. "We even recreated my engagement ring and wedding band, as well as the little tattoo on my finger."

Marino, who won an Emmy for his work on "The Penguin," had said in a recent interview that "this costume this year is one of the most elaborate costumes ever made. It's so difficult to do and just the complication of it is really challenging," The Hollywood Reporter noted. Klum had told People earlier this year that the look would be "very, very bloody" and "goes very well with red wine." She partnered with Apothic Wines on limited-edition Apothic x Heidi Klum Type 'A' Blood Bags, a Halloween collectible that was also served at the party, according to the trade publication.

E! News reported that Klum, 53, had teased the look on Instagram on Saturday, Oct. 24, one week before the event. The Hollywood Reporter said she also posted glimpses throughout Halloween day and invited followers to guess what she would become.

A 25th anniversary party

"This year is especially exciting because it's the 25th anniversary of my Halloween party," Klum told Vogue. Deadline noted that the party has run for 27 years but skipped two years during the COVID pandemic. According to Variety, Klum's past costumes include E.T., Fiona from "Shrek," Jessica Rabbit and the werewolf from Michael Jackson's "Thriller," as well as a peacock, a worm and a butterfly. At last year's party she dressed as Medusa, while Kaulitz went as an ancient Greek soldier she had turned to stone.

Deadline listed Kyle MacLachlan, Questlove, Andrew Rannells and Eric McCormack among this year's guests. E! News reported that Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka dressed as the twins from "The Shining," and that MacLachlan, attending with his wife, Desiree Gruber, appeared as Cliff Vandercave from his 1994 film "The Flintstones." Klum's children Leni Klum, Johan Samuel and Lou Samuel walked the red carpet together, according to the outlet.

Other costumes reported by E! News included Ice-T as a burglar alongside Coco Austin as a cat burglar, and James Charles as Yzma from "The Emperor's New Groove," a look he said took seven and a half hours. Taylor Momsen, who told the outlet she has toured with AC/DC for the past three years, said, "I'm Angus Young tonight." Model Karen Mulder dressed as Karl Lagerfeld in the late designer's own clothing. "These are his actual clothes, and these are his actual sunglasses as well," she said. The BBC reported that singer Jade Thirlwall attended as a stone angel statue and that actor Tramell Tillman wore intricate face makeup and prosthetics.

Klum told Vogue that her planning cycle restarts as soon as the party ends. "November 1 is also when I start thinking about next year," she said.

Speaking to the news agency ANI on Sunday, Nov. 1, FDA Commissioner Tukaram Mundhe said, "Even if the concerned person has moved the High Court, we have already started adjudicating proceedings and will proceed in accordance with the law," according to Moneycontrol.

The statement followed a press conference on Friday, Oct. 30, at which Mundhe said the department's investigation into the three actors had concluded. "Three actors sought time to respond. The assistant commissioner has completed the investigation and found that they violated the state's rules in the Vimal Pan Masala advertising case. The proceedings have now concluded, and the case will be proposed for adjudication before the joint commissioner, who is the competent authority, by next week," Mundhe said, as reported by The Times of India. The Hindu reported that the Joint Commissioner is the authority that will adjudicate the case.

What the FDA alleges

Shah Rukh Khan, Ajay Devgn and Tiger Shroff came together for the Vimal Elaichi ad campaign in 2024, according to The Hindu. In August 2026, the Maharashtra FDA issued show-cause notices to all three, alleging that advertisements for the cardamom-flavoured mouth freshener amount to surrogate promotion of Vimal Pan Masala, a product prohibited in the state.

Surrogate advertising, as The Indian Express explained, is the practice of promoting products that are banned or restricted from advertising, such as alcohol, tobacco and pan masala, by marketing another product under the same brand name, logo or visual style. Maharashtra has prohibited gutkha and pan masala containing tobacco or nicotine since 2012, with the prohibition renewed every year; the current order has been in force since July 13, 2026, the paper reported.

The notices cite Sections 24 and 53 of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, which deal with misleading food advertisements and penalise those involved in publishing them, India Today reported. Section 53 provides for a penalty of up to Rs 10 lakh for anyone who is a "party to the publication" of such an advertisement. The actors were given 15 days to respond with written explanations and supporting documents.

According to Devgn's petition, as quoted by LiveLaw, the notice asks him to "immediately discontinue his participation in and endorsement of the said Advertisement," remove the promotional material from platforms under his control, provide details of the due diligence he carried out and of the endorsement agreement, and explain "why legal action should not be initiated against him." The notice also carries a "Final Warning" that further action may follow if no explanation is received or if the explanation is found unsatisfactory.

Devgn's challenge in court

LiveLaw reported that Devgn replied to the notice in September, maintaining that he took part only in an advertisement for Vimal Elaichi and did not endorse Vimal Pan Masala. His petition argues that the notice is, in effect, a decision the FDA has already taken. "The Impugned SCN is also ex facie violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India and of the principles of natural justice," the plea states, describing the notice as "mala fide, patently illegal and wholly arbitrary."

According to The Hindu and Bar & Bench, the petition contends that the notice was served on Devgn as an actor rather than on the company that makes the product, and it challenges the constitutional validity of provisions of the food safety regulations. The Hindu also reported that Devgn has argued he should be excused from the proceedings because he is no longer associated with the brand.

The petition is likely to be heard by a division bench of Chief Justice Mahesh Chandra Tripathi and Justice Advait Sethna, according to LiveLaw and The Hindu. Bar & Bench reported that Devgn is represented by DSK Legal, with a team led by partners Parag Khandhar and Chandrima Mitra.

An earlier challenge in Delhi

The Bombay High Court petition follows an unsuccessful attempt by the manufacturer to have the notices set aside in Delhi. PB Agro LLP, which The Hindu described as a licensee for the manufacture and sale of elaichi and of pan masala not containing tobacco under the Vimal brand, approached the Delhi High Court. On Sept. 14, that court declined to entertain the plea, observing that courts in Maharashtra were the appropriate forum for the challenge, The Hindu reported. Bar & Bench reported that the Delhi court ruled it lacked territorial jurisdiction because the dispute concerned action taken by the FDA over alleged activities in Maharashtra.

Similar notices were served on Shah Rukh Khan and Tiger Shroff, Bar & Bench reported. Mundhe said on Oct. 30 that all three actors had responded to the notices and sought additional time to submit their explanations, Moneycontrol reported.

The adjudication is expected to proceed before the Joint Commissioner while the Bombay High Court considers Devgn's petition. India Today reported in August that the Food Safety Act, unlike the Consumer Protection Act, does not specifically mention endorsers or brand ambassadors, and that treating an actor as a party to the publication of an advertisement is a possible interpretation of the law but not a settled one. Bombay High Court advocate Sankalpa Rajpurohit told the outlet that the FDA itself cannot levy the Rs 10 lakh penalty. "The penalty can only be imposed by an Adjudicating Officer of at least the rank of Additional District Magistrate under Section 68 [FSS Act, 2006]," he said.

Asked about his relationship with Nicholson, 89, Douglas said: "I would have liked to have acted with Jack. He's not working any more. He's well. He has disappeared. I know that."

He continued: "I still see him, but he is fine. He is up there by his house and walking around in his slippers. It happens. He deserves it. I understand. He is a few years older than me, but I understand."

USA Today reported that it had reached out to Nicholson's representatives for comment.

A partnership built on 'Cuckoo's Nest'

The two men never appeared on screen together. Their professional link is the 1975 film "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," which Douglas produced and in which Nicholson starred as Randle McMurphy. According to Variety, the film earned nine Oscar nominations and won five, including best picture and best actor for Nicholson. The Independent noted that Douglas won his Oscar as a producer of the film after acquiring the rights to Ken Kesey's novel from his father, Kirk Douglas, who had previously owned them. The best actor prize was Nicholson's first Academy Award.

Nicholson's other credits, as listed by The Independent, include "Five Easy Pieces" (1970), "Chinatown" (1974), "Batman" (1989), "A Few Good Men" (1992) and "As Good as It Gets" (1997).

An unofficial retirement

Nicholson has never formally announced his retirement, but he has not appeared in a film since the 2010 romantic comedy "How Do You Know," which The Hollywood Reporter noted also starred Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd and Owen Wilson. He has also rarely been photographed in public since then.

One of his most recent public appearances came in February 2025 at NBC's "Saturday Night Live" 50th anniversary special, which Variety reported he attended with his daughter Lorraine. USA Today reported that Nicholson appeared briefly on camera during the broadcast to introduce a musical performance by Adam Sandler.

Lorraine Nicholson has also offered occasional glimpses of her father on social media. In April, she shared photos on her Instagram Stories to mark his 89th birthday, People reported. Variety reported that one image showed Nicholson clapping and smiling while sitting next to singer Joni Mitchell. People reported that Nicholson has six children.

Others in Nicholson's circle have described a similarly quiet life. The Independent reported that music producer Lou Adler told the "WTF" podcast that Nicholson now prefers "sitting under a tree and reading a book." Actor Carol Kane, who appeared with Nicholson in "Carnal Knowledge" (1971) and "The Last Detail" (1973), told The Independent in 2024 that the two remain in touch. Asked whether he was doing OK, she said: "Oh, he's still Jack."

Nicholson addressed his reduced workload more than a decade ago. According to USA Today, which cited a Vanity Fair account, he told The Sun in 2013 that if he was taking fewer roles, it was because he was less driven to "be out there any more." USA Today said those remarks followed an unconfirmed report that had attributed his retreat to memory problems.

A headline-making memoir tour

"One Helluva Ride" went on sale Tuesday, Oct. 6, according to People. USA Today reported that the book covers Douglas's 2010 throat cancer battle, past drug use and his strained early relationship with his father, along with behind-the-scenes accounts from films including "Fatal Attraction" and "Basic Instinct."

The book's most widely reported revelation concerned Kathleen Turner. In an excerpt, Douglas wrote that he and Turner had a romantic relationship while making the 1984 film "Romancing the Stone," The Hollywood Reporter reported. Turner responded in a statement to People: "Good heavens what a fuss about something 40 years ago! I love Michael and I look forward to enjoying the book."

Douglas has also promoted the book at live events. The Swansea Building Society Arena listed its "Michael Douglas: One Helluva Ride" evening for Monday, Oct. 26, billing it as a live stage appearance with a special guest host and stating that every paid ticket came with a hardback copy of the memoir. The venue's listing said Douglas would discuss his first marriage, his struggles with alcohol and drugs, his son's addiction and his battle with stage IV cancer.

The marches were organized by the initiative Gen Z regelt, roughly "Gen Z takes charge." According to AFP, the group said some 120,000 people took part nationwide, below the roughly 180,000 it had expected. The Associated Press put turnout at more than 100,000, mostly young people, who called for more government investment in education, housing and climate protection and for daily life to become more affordable.

What the protesters were demanding

Gen Z regelt spokesperson Lina Friedrich told the BBC: "What matters most to us is better support for the health and education systems. We are against compulsory military service and we are in favour of a fairer distribution of the burden." AFP reported that the movement also objects to sharply increased military spending and to a new voluntary service model aimed at boosting troop numbers, which some participants fear is a step toward bringing back conscription.

The German marches were part of a wider wave of mostly youth-driven protests across Europe. On the same day, more than 320,000 people demonstrated in France for a third consecutive weekend, according to French interior ministry figures cited by the BBC and DW.

Looting in Frankfurt and clashes in other cities

The daytime rallies were largely peaceful. Frankfurt police said up to 8,000 people joined the march there, which police broke up after officers were repeatedly targeted with firecrackers, bottles and stones, according to a dpa report published by Tag24. Groups then moved into the city center. Police said in a statement quoted by AFP that "violent riots" were taking place: "Windows have been smashed at several shops. Molotov cocktails are also being thrown at emergency personnel."

Police sealed off the Zeil, posting on X: "Anyone not involved who is still on the Zeil can leave. Access to the Zeil is no longer possible." A gun shop was among the stores broken into; police said they arrested a suspect and seized two weapons. Special police units, water cannon and a helicopter were deployed, according to Euronews. Police told public broadcaster hr that the situation calmed around 3 a.m. local time and that more than 30 people had been provisionally detained by Sunday morning.

At a press conference on Sunday, Hesse Interior Minister Roman Poseck gave a fuller account, according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. He said up to 1,300 officers had been on duty, that 54 people between the ages of 13 and 29 had been detained, and that 17 shops were damaged and five looted. One officer lost teeth after being hit in the face by a stone, he said. Frankfurt police chief Stefan Müller said a special investigative unit had been set up overnight and that extensive video footage should help identify suspects.

In Berlin, an evening protest separate from the official Gen Z regelt events grew to about 3,500 people. Police said 27 officers suffered minor injuries and up to 56 people were temporarily detained, the FAZ reported. In Hamburg, police said about 120 people were taken into custody after rioters built burning barricades and threw stones, bottles and fireworks. A Hamburg police spokesperson told Euronews: "Unfortunately, troublemakers have today mingled with the peaceful demonstrators in order to deliberately provoke and commit criminal offences." In Cologne, officers near the cathedral were pelted with bottles and bicycles, DW reported. Cologne police chief Johannes Hermanns said it was "deeply saddening that young people who wanted to peacefully demonstrate for their future were infiltrated today by extremists who had nothing but violence in mind."

Who is to blame: officials and organizers respond

On Saturday night, Poseck said "around 100 clearly identified left-wing extremists" had infiltrated the Frankfurt protest, the BBC reported. On Sunday he also pointed to violent groups of young people, saying police believed they had faced 1,000 to 1,500 violent troublemakers, mainly from migrant backgrounds, while adding that most of those detained hold German citizenship, the FAZ reported. Hesse Governor Boris Rhein said: "I am shocked by the violent excesses in Frankfurt, which will not go unpunished."

Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt accused "violent left-wing groups and troublemakers from the immigrant community" of hijacking the peaceful demonstrations, the AP reported. "The rioters and looters will be identified and held accountable," he told the Bild newspaper. Speaking before the worst of the Frankfurt violence, senior police union official Andreas Rosskopf told the Rheinische Post, according to DW and ZDF: "The Gen Z protests have turned out to be very peaceful."

Opposition leaders cautioned against letting the riots define the movement. Left party co-leader Ines Schwerdtner said the violence outside the protests could not be justified but warned it was being used to discredit demonstrations she described as peaceful and legitimate, Der Spiegel reported. Greens co-leader Franziska Brantner condemned the rioting and said the federal government must respond to the young protesters' message.

Gen Z regelt posted a statement on Instagram distancing itself from "any form of violence, as well as violent acts by other groups or individuals" who were not part of its demonstrations. A spokesperson told hr that the initiative had no influence over what happened after its rallies ended. A press spokesperson told dpa, according to hr, that the group plans to join Europe-wide protests on Nov. 20. Tagesschau reported that the core organizing team consists of five people, three of whom want to remain anonymous. Frankfurt police said property damage was considerable but not yet quantified.

According to the episode description, Hochul discusses working with Mayor Zohran Mamdani, her conversations with President Donald Trump over ICE operations and "why she says data centers should bring their own power," and also weighs in on the possibility of a Palestinian state, the Democratic Party's 2028 presidential field and her hopes for the Buffalo Bills. Martin recorded the conversation at Barney Greengrass, the Upper West Side delicatessen, he wrote in an accompanying POLITICO Magazine column that includes an edited version of the interview.

A third term in 2030

Martin led his column with Hochul's own ambitions: should she win next week, she told him, she intends to seek a full third term as governor in 2030. He noted that a win would put her alongside Nelson Rockefeller, Thomas Dewey and Mario Cuomo. Asked about Rep. Pat Ryan as a possible future candidate for governor, Hochul said, "Well, we have no term limits, so I’m not going anywhere anytime soon." She added: "Everybody’s got to wait their turn. I like Pat enormously." Martin described Hochul, who has been governor for more than five years, as the first Western New York governor since Grover Cleveland.

On Sen. Chuck Schumer's future, Hochul said what he does "is absolutely up to him," adding that he "is focused on taking back the Senate at this very moment." Asked how much easier her job would become if Benjamin Netanyahu loses Israel's upcoming election, she answered, "A lot easier," and said a Palestinian state would not come about "as long as Netanyahu is sitting there."

Working with Mamdani

Hochul described a working relationship with Mamdani, a democratic socialist, built on shared priorities. "I could go back to the old New York model of being at war with the mayor," she said, calling that approach "very destabilizing." She cited common ground on universal child care, housing and protecting subways and streets from crime, and said, "I need New York to be successful — I need the mayor to be successful." Asked whether Mamdani has proved pragmatic or ideological, she said, "I’d say very pragmatic when it comes to getting things done."

Hochul said Mamdani's decision to retain Jessica Tisch as police commissioner "was important to me before I supported him." Asked how long that commitment should last, she said, "As long as the commissioner wants."

ICE and the Bronx shooting

On Trump, Hochul said the two had "a respectful call right after we had the shooting with the 5-year-old in the car in the Bronx." She recounted telling him, "I want you to stand down ICE operations for the time being. We have to get to the bottom of this. I wanna see the body cam footage." She told Martin she had yet to see that footage, and that she warned the president, "this is hurting your party politically, in case you haven’t noticed, either."

The shooting took place just after 4 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 8, in the Marble Hill neighborhood, when an ICE agent fired into a vehicle with a 5-year-old in the back seat, CNN reported. The driver, Oscar Belgal, 28, from the Dominican Republic, suffered a superficial wound to the neck, according to officials cited by CNN, and federal officials said the agents believed their lives were in danger. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin rejected a pause the next day. "We’re not putting a pause on enforcement," he said at a news conference, CNBC reported.

Hochul told Martin that the relationship between Mamdani and Trump should be judged by "what didn’t happen." Pointing to Chicago and Los Angeles, she said, "That easily could have been us."

Data centers and the final stretch

The data center discussion follows a policy Hochul set in July. On July 14 she signed Executive Order No. 62, which directs the state Department of Environmental Conservation to hold applications for data center permits in abeyance while the Department of Public Service prepares a Generic Environmental Impact Statement; the order does not apply to permits from local governments. Empire State Development described it as the nation's first moratorium on new hyperscale data centers, pausing state environmental permits for up to one year. The next day, according to a transcript released by her office of an appearance on MSNOW's Morning Joe, Hochul said: "Bring your own power source or pay a premium to tap into our grid."

Hochul enters the final weekend with a lead. A Siena Poll of 807 likely voters, conducted Oct. 19-22 with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points and released Oct. 28, found her ahead of Blakeman 54% to 40%, up from 50% to 41% in September. For the first time, a majority of voters viewed her favorably, 51% to 45%, and voters said by 68% to 23% that they expect her to win. Syracuse.com reported that the candidates were nearly even upstate, 49% to 48%, and in the New York City suburbs, 49% to 47%, while Hochul led 67% to 23% in the city; early voting runs through Sunday, Nov. 1. In the interview, Hochul said the state "is far more purple than people realize," adding, "This is not a foregone conclusion. It is still a tough state to run in."

The series will also be released as an audio-only podcast on all major platforms, according to the report. CBS Boston, citing Pave Studios, reported that each week Read and Jackson will take on a current criminal case and examine how it was investigated and prosecuted. The deal was brokered by UTA Creators on behalf of Read and Jackson, and financial terms were not disclosed, according to Podcast News Daily.

What the show will cover

Pave describes the program as a series that aims to "take a fresh new look at the modern justice system from the eyes of a wrongly accused woman and her trial lawyer." The company said the hosts will examine "a new real-world case each week, from local controversies like Sandra Birchmore to national headlines like the Kohberger Idaho slayings."

"They reconstruct what happened, examine how the case was investigated and prosecuted, and identify the details, decisions and evidence that may have been overlooked or misunderstood," Pave said, in a description that the company also republished on its own website.

In a statement the company posted to Instagram, Pave added that the hosts will also look at how cases were "covered." "Each week, they'll take on a current case and examine how it was investigated, prosecuted, and covered, from the details that may have been overlooked to the decisions that shaped the outcome," the company said, as quoted by The Boston Globe. "Most people in true crime study the story. Karen lived it," Pave Studios said, according to CBS Boston.

What the hosts and Pave said

Read described Jackson's role on the show. "Alan isn't simply analyzing these cases from the sideline," Read told The Hollywood Reporter. "As one of the country's most prominent trial attorneys, he's represented high-profile clients in some of the most closely watched and scrutinized legal battles, many of which turned out to be far different from how they first appeared."

Jackson, in turn, pointed to his client's own experience. "When the justice system falters, lives hang in the balance. Karen has a unique firsthand perspective of our system's imperfections, understanding what it means when a legal case becomes a media narrative and the public reaches a verdict long before a courtroom does," he said.

Pave Studios founder and CEO Max Cutler said the pairing gives the company a different angle in a crowded category. "Karen knows what it's like to be on the other side of a true crime story, and Alan has spent his career inside the courtroom," Cutler said. "Each week they'll take on a new case with a perspective almost no one in this genre can offer, and that's what makes this show unlike anything we've done."

The case behind the hosts

Prosecutors had charged Read, 46, with second-degree murder, alleging that she backed her SUV into O'Keefe early on Jan. 29, 2022, after dropping him off outside a home in Canton, Massachusetts, the Boston Globe reported. The defense argued she was framed. Her first trial ended in July 2024 with a mistrial due to a deeply divided jury, according to CBS Boston.

At her retrial, the jury acquitted her of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death, CBS Boston reported. She was convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol and sentenced to one year of probation. Jackson has said there was a flawed police investigation that was corrupted in an effort to frame Read.

The legal fallout has continued. After her acquittal, Read filed a lawsuit against the Massachusetts State Police and Canton police alleging "a culture of bias and corruption," and key witnesses in the trials have sued her for defamation, according to CBS Boston. She also faces a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the O'Keefe family. The Globe noted that a number of related civil lawsuits remain pending.

The case drew national attention and was the subject of the Investigation Discovery docuseries "A Body in the Snow: The Trial of Karen Read," The Hollywood Reporter noted, adding that a scripted series is in the works for Amazon Prime Video.

Crime House expands across platforms

The new show joins a Crime House slate that has been moving beyond podcast apps. Earlier this month, Pave announced that its original video podcast "Clues" and a new show, "Mother Knows Murder," will stream on Disney+ and Hulu, Podnews reported on Oct. 16. "It's the first of many places we expect these stories to go," Cutler said at the time.

The Hollywood Reporter said it is possible "Read Between the Lines" may ultimately land on Disney+ and Hulu as part of that arrangement. Pave's broader portfolio also includes OpenMind, which produces "Khloé in Wonder Land" with Khloé Kardashian, and Rewind, a history-focused brand launched this year, according to Podcast News Daily.

Yormark is expected to take a role outside of college sports, the Kansas City Star reported, noting that the league announced the move following a report by ESPN's Pete Thamel. CBS Sports likewise reported that he will take a job outside of college athletics. The conference's announcement did not identify the new position.

"Serving as the commissioner of the Big 12 Conference has been an extraordinary honor," Yormark said in the conference's statement. "I am looking forward to passing the baton to the next commissioner and continuing to cheer this league on as a lifelong fan of the Big 12."

Leaving ahead of his contract

The announcement comes about a year and a half after Yormark signed a three-year contract extension that was to run through 2030, according to an Associated Press report published by Fox Sports. He has been commissioner since Aug. 1, 2022, Yahoo Sports reported, and will have served four and a half years in the job when he departs, according to USA Today.

The conference described him as its fifth commissioner since the league was formed 32 years ago. Kansas Chancellor Douglas A. Girod, chair of the Big 12 Board of Directors, credited him with steadying the league. "When Brett arrived, we were at a crossroads in the Big 12 and as a college sports enterprise," Girod said in the statement. "Brett's vision, business acumen, and confidence put us on the path we find ourselves on today."

An outsider who reshaped the league

Yormark came to the conference from outside college athletics. He was chief executive of Jay-Z's Roc Nation when he was hired to succeed Bob Bowlsby in 2022, Yahoo Sports reported, and he had previously served as CEO of the NBA's Brooklyn Nets, according to the AP report. CBS Sports noted he had also worked in NASCAR.

His first major accomplishment, the Kansas City Star reported, was finalizing six-year agreements with ESPN and Fox worth $2.28 billion, reached after Texas and Oklahoma had announced their departures for the SEC. CBS Sports reported that Yormark moved ahead of the Pac-12 in those television negotiations and then lobbied Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Arizona State to leave that league, a sequence that ultimately contributed to its collapse. Those four schools joined the Big 12 after UCLA and USC left the Pac-12 for the Big Ten, the Star reported.

Yormark also oversaw the arrival of BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF, a move negotiated by Bowlsby, according to the AP. In total, the conference said he oversaw the integration of eight new members. In his statement, Yormark said the next commissioner "will inherit a conference that is '16 Strong.'" He added: "There has never been a better time to be a member of the Big 12 than right now."

Sponsorships and international games

Under Yormark, the league signed a multi-year agreement making Monster Energy the entitlement partner of Big 12 football and basketball regular seasons, with a co-branded logo now on jerseys, fields and courts, Yahoo Sports reported. CBS Sports noted the league also introduced a live music halftime show at the Big 12 Championship Game.

He pushed for games abroad. Kansas and Arizona State played a conference football game at Wembley Stadium in London this season, the Kansas City Star reported, and Yahoo Sports noted that Big 12 teams have appeared in Ireland's Aer Lingus College Football Classic in each of the past two years, including Iowa State and Kansas State in Dublin in 2025. The Star also reported that the Big 12 men's basketball tournament extended its stay in Kansas City through 2031 during his tenure.

Beyond the conference, the Big 12 said Yormark was involved in national discussions over the implementation of the House settlement, the creation of the College Sports Commission, the Protect College Sports Act and the expansion of the College Football Playoff.

The search ahead

Girod has said he is not looking to replicate Yormark. "I'm going in very open-minded," he told ESPN, as quoted by CBS Sports. "I don't need a (Yormark) twin." He said he wanted someone with campus experience who "is going to be an innovator and help us on that path of revenue diversification."

CBS Sports reported that the next commissioner will take over heading into the back half of the league's television contract, with more realignment expected ahead of a 2031 contract date. USA Today, citing people with knowledge of the league who were granted anonymity, reported that names mentioned as possible candidates include SEC chief legal officer Jessica Presnall, who spent a decade with the Big 12 and rose to chief operating officer, and American Conference commissioner Tim Pernetti. The Big 12 has not announced a timeline for naming a successor.

Co-founder and chief content officer Jeff Harmon outlined the initiative in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, published that morning. "We promise there's never going to be nudity, and there'll never be sex on screen," Harmon said.

Three commitments

According to Angel's announcement, the Angel Promise rests on three commitments. The first is that the Guild always decides: if a film or series scores below 70 out of 100 in member voting, it does not enter what the company calls the Angel entertainment ecosystem. Members vote under a Guild Pledge to choose projects that are "true, honest, noble, just, authentic, lovely, admirable, or joyful."

The second is a set of what Angel calls "non-negotiable standards" for all future films and series: no nudity and no sex acts on screen; no release of original films or series that misuse God's name, which the company defines as irreverent or profane use; and a language standard that bars the F-word in any story and bans profanity in titles submitted for children 12 and under. The release states that "sincere, reverent, or devotional use in any faith is respected."

The third commitment covers parental controls. Guild members will collectively set recommended age ratings and plain-language story notes for titles, and new controls rolling out in the Angel app will let parents tailor what plays in their homes. "A PG-13 rating from the MPA isn't precise enough for families seeking values-based entertainment," Harmon said in the announcement. "Our Guild tells parents what's actually in a film, and our parental controls let each family decide what plays in their home."

What the rules cover

A detailed Angel Promise page on the company's website says that below the 70-point threshold, "a title does not come to Angel. There is no override," and that if the Guild vetoes a film, "not even we as founders can decide to take it." The page lists three boundaries that it says "hold permanently and will never change": no nudity on screen, no sex acts on screen and no misuse of God's name. The language rules are also mandatory, but the company says they are not permanent "because the meaning of certain words changes over time."

The page notes that the rule on God's name applies to Angel's original productions. For stories already produced, it says, the company offers parental controls "so each family can decide what belongs in their home." Violence is not covered by a fixed rule. "Violence is a grey area, and grey areas belong to the Angel Guild, so the Guild votes on every title," the page states.

Harmon's case for the policy

In the Fox News Digital interview, Harmon framed the standards as a response to the broader industry. "I think Hollywood generally kind of lives in a bubble," he said. "These are excellent craftsmen. They're the best storytellers in the world. Hollywood has built the best storytelling infrastructure in the world." He added that the industry has "kind of drifted more and more away from the values-based audience that they used to serve."

"This is the first time in history that a major Hollywood studio, or top 10 studio in the United States, has come and said, we're going to let the audience have a veto right," Harmon told Fox News Digital. Variety and Deadline reported on the policy on Friday, Oct. 30, both citing the Fox interview. Variety noted that Angel's recent releases include "Runner," "Young Washington" and "David," with upcoming titles including "Drummer Boy," "Angel and the Badman" and "Zero A.D.: The Birth of Christ."

Harmon told The Christian Post that the standards are meant to outlast the company's founders. "We're trying to build a 100-year-plus company," he said. "How do we make sure that in 50 years to 100 years this thing doesn't just go off the rails and become Hollywood rather than blazing its own path?" The outlet reported that in July, co-founders Neal and Jeffrey Harmon transferred more than 10 million super-voting shares into the Angel Mission Trust, an irrevocable arrangement intended to preserve the company's independence and values. According to The Christian Post, Harmon said the restrictions are not intended to prevent filmmakers from exploring difficult subjects, and more than 100 projects are currently being evaluated by Guild members.

The business behind the Guild

The Guild is the center of Angel's business. In a Sept. 14 release, the company said the Guild had surpassed 3 million paying members, doubling from 1.5 million on Aug. 23, 2025. Members pay recurring fees, screen films and series before release and vote on which projects Angel distributes in theaters and on its app.

Angel's second-quarter 2026 results, reported Aug. 4, showed Guild revenue of $90.7 million, up 93.8% year over year and about 81.2% of total company revenue of $111.7 million. The company reported a net loss of about $23.8 million for the quarter and positive operating cash flow of $16.9 million, and said it had seven theatrical releases slated for the second half of 2026. Angel's corporate description says its model shares profits with filmmakers, with cumulative earnings of nearly $300 million. The Christian Post reported that Angel became a publicly traded company in September 2025.

Meta, Instagram's parent company, confirmed that it is paying some creators but did not disclose amounts. "We've been public about the fact that we are funding Features content directly with some creators right now to support them," a Meta spokesperson told Business Insider. "The details of those deals are confidential, but we're excited to see the content going live."

What the deals reportedly require

The agreements do not require creators to post exclusively on Instagram, multiple people familiar with them told Business Insider. One person said Instagram is asking creators to post to Instagram, on the same day, any long-form content they publish to YouTube. Tubefilter, which covered the report the same day, noted that it is not clear whether the amounts are paid per video, per month or as a one-time fee.

Reza Izad, co-CEO at Underscore Talent, which represents creators including "Subway Takes" host Kareem Rahma and Noah Beck, called the deals an "exciting opportunity" for creators, according to Business Insider. "Every time there's a new feature in these apps that the company's promoting, people will have more opportunity to be seen because there's going to be algorithmic preference to this kind of content," he said. "And unlike short-form, there's not a lot of abundance."

Dexerto and the creator-industry outlet Net Influencer also reported on the offers, both citing Business Insider. Net Influencer noted that the report was published three days after the format was announced. Instagram has not publicly named the creators it is paying during the test.

How Features works

Instagram announced Features on Monday, Oct. 26. That day, The Hollywood Reporter reported that the company was starting a test of horizontal videos up to 90 minutes long with select creators in the U.S., aimed at podcasters, comedians and other long-form creators. Instagram had already been testing the format with creators in Brazil and plans to expand it to tens of thousands of creators in the U.S., the outlet reported. It named early U.S. participants including podcast host and Skims co-founder Emma Grede, beauty and fashion creator Monet McMichael, Preston Rakovsky and football content creator Donald De La Haye.

Features will appear in users' feeds and on the Explore page, and a related test called Clips as Reels lets participating creators link up to eight Reels clips to a longer video, TechRepublic reported. Instagram's TV app will prioritize Features, according to The Next Web. That app launched on Amazon Fire TV in the U.S. in December 2025 and has since expanded to Google TV and Samsung TVs, with Apple TV support coming.

The move reverses Instagram's earlier position on long-form video. "For a long time, I have been against doing long-form video on Instagram," Instagram head Adam Mosseri said in the announcement video, TechCrunch reported. The outlet said Instagram VP of Product Tessa Lyons, who had argued for the change, persuaded him to try long form again. Instagram previously offered long-form video through IGTV, which launched in 2018 and was shut down in 2022, according to Business Insider.

The open question of pay

Instagram has not announced an ad revenue-sharing program for Features. "It's too early to share a long-term monetization model, but we're exploring ways for creators to earn from brands, fans, and Instagram, including performance-based incentives," a Meta spokesperson told TechCrunch. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Lyons said existing ad deals will carry over into the videos and that the company would work with creators who do not have existing placements to find deals.

Mosseri addressed creators' concerns on Wednesday, Oct. 28. "We understand the economics matter a ton, and are exploring multiple options to help long-form creators get paid," he wrote in a post on X, Business Insider reported.

In his Oct. 26 interview on The Colin & Samir Show, Mosseri called Instagram's small performance-based payment program "ROI negative" and said scaling it would mean "burning capital," Net Influencer reported in its review of the episode. "If we don't figure out a way for creators to get a sufficient amount of value, whether it's dollars or something else, out of posting Features, they won't post Features," he said, according to the outlet.

The format competes directly with YouTube, which pays creators in its Partner Program 55 percent of the ad revenue their videos earn, according to The Hollywood Reporter and Net Influencer. Net Influencer also reported that YouTube says it paid more than $100 billion to creators and media companies over four years.

Paying creators to post on its apps is not new for Meta. Business Insider reported that the company paid creators thousands of dollars to post short-form videos to Instagram and Facebook last year, amid TikTok's potential ban. In 2021, while IGTV was still active, Instagram funded long-form episodic shows from creators including TikTok's "Sway Boys" and "Dance Moms" alum Nia Sioux, according to the same report.

Under the new arrangement, Gaga adds commercial stewardship of the business to the creative direction and product development she has led since the brand's launch, The Business of Fashion reported. Trade outlets including TheIndustry.beauty and Cosmetics Business followed with reports of the appointment, each attributing the news to The Business of Fashion.

Statements from Gaga and Jones

"Ben and I started Haus Labs together eight years ago, and I'm incredibly proud of what we've built. I'm excited to take on a more active role in the company and work alongside our incredible team to build on everything we've accomplished together," Gaga told The Business of Beauty in a statement. "I have a lot of vision for this brand, and we have so much more we want to do."

Jones also issued a statement, according to the same report. "Stefani and I set out to build a forever brand that stands apart, and I'm incredibly proud of the vision we brought to life. I'm confident she will continue to build on that foundation and take the brand to even greater heights," he said.

The Business of Fashion reported that Jones joined Haus Labs after Michael Yanover, then head of business development at Creative Artists Agency, introduced him to Gaga. Before joining the brand, Jones served for nearly two years as chief digital officer of The Honest Company, the consumer goods business founded by Jessica Alba, and previously held leadership roles in the video game industry, the outlet reported. Brazilian business magazine Exame reported that his gaming experience included time at Zynga.

The leadership change follows another executive departure this year. Chief marketing officer Angela Simpson, who had been with Haus Labs since 2025, left in August to join makeup brand Patrick Ta, The Business of Fashion and Vogue Adria reported.

From Amazon exclusive to Sephora

Gaga first used the Haus Laboratories trademark in 2012 for her debut fragrance with Coty, Fame Eau de Parfum, according to The Business of Fashion. After a Series A funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, the brand launched in 2019 as Haus Laboratories, her first independent business venture and the first beauty line to release exclusively on Amazon, the outlet reported.

In 2022 the company was renamed Haus Labs by Lady Gaga and relaunched with Sephora. At the time, WWD reported that roughly 100 stock keeping units across eye, lip and cheek cosmetics would debut in 25 Sephora doors on June 9 of that year, with plans to expand to more than 500 locations across the United States and Canada, at prices from $22 to $38. Exame, citing the company, reported that revenue grew 400 percent between 2021 and 2022, and that the brand later entered Sephora in the United Kingdom in June 2023, Sephora's European stores in March 2024 and Sephora locations inside Kohl's in August 2024.

The Business of Fashion reported that the Triclone Skin Tech Medium Coverage Foundation, which it described as the brand's hero product, has become a Sephora bestseller, and that Jones said in 2025 the brand had grown "substantially" over the preceding three years. Exame reported that Jones did not disclose numbers at the time.

Bronzer apology earlier in October

The change at the top comes weeks after Haus Labs publicly apologized over the shade range of its Sun Dipped Bronzing Veil. Beauty creator Golloria George criticized the planned six-shade range in a May 29 Instagram video after trying the product ahead of its planned July launch, and the company halted the release, USA Today reported.

In a statement from Gaga posted by the brand on Thursday, Oct. 1, Haus Labs said, "Although we went through our shade development process, at some point the decision was made internally to launch with only six shades. That was the wrong decision." The statement also acknowledged that the company had asked Golloria to remove her post on the grounds that she was under embargo. "This was unkind and not at all how a creator, or any customer's voice, should ever be treated," the statement read, according to USA Today.

"I truly apologize to Golloria and the community for where we fell short. You were 100% right. We will work hard to make sure it never happens again. Personally, I will see to it," Gaga wrote, as quoted by Entertainment Weekly. The brand said it paused the launch and expanded the bronzer from six shades to 11, according to Entertainment Weekly and Cosmetics Business. Fashion business outlet OSF reported that the bronzer has since been released in 11 shades.

Gaga's other beauty-related business, Outer Bio, a skin research company she co-founded with entrepreneur Michael Polansky, publicly introduced itself in August 2026, focusing on skin health through its discovery platform, Yuna, Cosmetics Business and TheIndustry.beauty reported.

Reports differ on his age. Variety, citing the Press Trust of India, and Hindustan Times gave his age as 59, while The Indian Express and NDTV reported that he was 57.

What police have said

Hindustan Times reported that police said CCTV footage from the house showed Gupta, who had been sitting in the drawing room, walk to the kitchen at around 2 a.m., lose his balance and fall against a wall. "His head hit the corner of the wall between the kitchen and the drawing room. He fell down; a dog was also seen nearby him. However, as his wife, son and daughter were asleep in their bedrooms, they didn't come to know about it," a Versova police officer told the newspaper.

The family found him on the floor when they woke up in the morning and took him to a nearby hospital, where he was declared dead, Hindustan Times reported. The body was sent to a government hospital for a post-mortem examination, and a forensic team visited the house. "Also, it is clearly seen on the cameras that he lost his balance and fell," the officer said.

In a statement to News9, Versova police said Gupta "passed away yesterday at midnight after losing his balance and falling inside his home," and added: "The family has no suspicion or complaint. The body has been sent for a post-mortem (PM)." Senior Police Inspector Deepshika Vare told The Indian Express, "As of now nothing suspicious has been found, we are investigating the matter." Deputy Commissioner of Police Purushottam Karad told the Free Press Journal that family members were sleeping when the incident occurred, Variety reported.

Director Milap Zaveri, a longtime friend who worked on the dialogue for "Kaante," confirmed the death to PTI. "It is true that he passed away. He fell and hit his head," Zaveri said, according to Variety. The Indian Express reported that the family's funeral announcement set the final rites for 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 31, at Pawan Hans Crematorium in Mumbai.

A career built on crime thrillers

Gupta made his directorial debut in 1994 with "Aatish: Feel the Fire," starring Sanjay Dutt and Aditya Pancholi, and went on to direct "Ram Shastra," "Jung" and "Khauff," Variety reported. His professional partnership with Dutt extended across 10 films, including projects Gupta produced, according to the trade publication.

His 2002 heist thriller "Kaante," which brought together Amitabh Bachchan, Dutt, Suniel Shetty, Mahesh Manjrekar, Lucky Ali and Kumar Gaurav, was set in Los Angeles and earned Gupta a Filmfare nomination for best director, Variety reported. Through his company White Feather Films he produced "Shootout at Lokhandwala" (2007), and he later directed "Shootout at Wadala" (2013), a prequel drawing on S. Hussain Zaidi's nonfiction book "Dongri to Dubai." His other films included "Musafir" (2004), "Zinda" (2006), "Jazbaa" (2015) and "Mumbai Saga" (2021). Hindustan Times described "Kaabil" (2017), starring Hrithik Roshan and Yami Gautam, as his most successful film at the box office.

Tributes from the film industry

Dutt, who first bonded with Gupta on the set of the 1990 film "Thanedaar," where Gupta worked as an assistant director, posted a tribute on Instagram, Hindustan Times reported. "Gupts, my brother. I still cannot believe that you are gone. We have shared so much together, so many memories and so many years of friendship," Dutt wrote. He said the two had recently discussed a sequel to "Kaante" and pledged to make it: "I will make Kaante 2 your dream, in memory of you my brother."

Suniel Shetty wrote, "Still trying to come to terms with this news. We've spent so many days together, made films, shared laughs, arguments, ideas and memories that will stay with me forever." Kajol called the news "heartbreaking," and Kangana Ranaut said in an Instagram story that "what is unsettling is that he was not even unwell," according to a PTI report carried by Hindustan Times. Filmmaker Ashoke Pandit, among the first to confirm the death, wrote in a social media post, "A great loss to our industry," NDTV reported.

Ronit Roy, Rohit Roy, Rakesh Roshan, Fardeen Khan and Farah Khan were among those who visited Gupta's Mumbai residence on Saturday to pay their respects, The Indian Express reported. Gupta is survived by his wife and two children.

"Hi, it's me. I know I've been quiet for a couple of weeks since October 11, and you deserve to hear from me directly, and I'm sorry that it's taken this long," Blair said in the video, as transcribed by Deadline. "There is a legal matter going on, and my lawyers have asked me to not say anything about that day, and I'm listening to them. And I take this very seriously."

What Blair said in the video

Blair did not describe the events on the plane. "What I can tell you though, is very simple and the truest thing I know about myself, and that not one day ever have I intended to hurt or frighten anyone a day in my life," she said, according to Deadline. "And so, to the people that I disappointed, that I hurt, that I frightened, alarmed, I am so sorry."

She thanked people who had contacted her, saying their messages "meant everything to me and my son, who is my world, as is Scout, who is also OK." NBC News reported that Scout is her service dog, and Entertainment Weekly reported that Blair is the mother of 15-year-old Arthur, whom she shares with fashion designer Jason Bleick. "So right now, I'm going to be taking care of my health and my son, and thinking of you all with gratitude and love," Blair said at the end of the video, according to NBC News.

What authorities allege

According to a statement from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey cited by The Associated Press, Blair was accused of injuring two flight attendants on the plane bound for JFK, then kicking a police officer who was taking her to the hospital and kicking a nurse once she got there. CBS New York reported that the incident happened at 11 p.m. on Delta Air Lines Flight 938 and, citing a law enforcement source, that one flight attendant was bitten, the other sustained a laceration and the crew needed to restrain Blair.

In air traffic control audio cited by CBS New York, the pilot asked for medical personnel at the gate, describing "a bloody nose as well as some bite marks." The pilot added: "It sounds like the disruptive passenger also bashed her head on the bulkhead or something like that." Delta said in a statement that it "has zero tolerance for unruly or unlawful behavior, as the safety of our customers and crew always comes first."

Blair was taken to Jamaica Hospital for evaluation, according to CBS New York, and prosecutors said she kicked a Port Authority officer in the ambulance and assaulted a nurse at the hospital. She was arraigned in Queens on two counts of second-degree assault, which are state charges, and pleaded not guilty. A judge set bail at $20,000 cash or $60,000 bond, the station reported, and the AP reported that the judge issued a protective order for the officer and the nurse. Her next court date is Jan. 19, 2027, according to Deadline.

The FBI also issued Blair a notice charging her with assault related to her actions aboard the aircraft, according to a federal law enforcement official who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity. The BBC described it as a federal summons for assault within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States. CBS New York reported that no date had been set for the federal case.

Her representatives' account

At her Oct. 12 arraignment, Blair's attorney, Shawn Barnes, told the judge he did not believe the assault was intentional and said Blair had missed several doses of medication and fell and hit her head on the flight, NBC News reported. The Hollywood Reporter reported that Barnes also told the court Blair had been working long hours before the flight, adding, "These factors, coupled with the altitude, resulted in a state of severe confusion and disorientation."

On Oct. 16, Blair's representatives released a longer statement. "Selma Blair experienced a medical emergency on the flight," it said, according to the AP. "There was no attempt to open the door of the aircraft. Selma did not intend to harm anyone." The BBC reported that her team was denying media reports that she had tried to open the aircraft door. The statement said Blair, whose multiple sclerosis diagnosis has been public since 2018, also has pseudobulbar affect, "a neurological condition secondary to her MS, which bears directly on how a medical episode presents to people who do not know her." Citing the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the BBC said the disorder can cause sudden, involuntary episodes of laughing, crying or anger that do not match how a person feels.

The statement also said "the authorities took her dog from her"; CBS New York reported that the service dog was in the custody of her attorney. "Selma had never been arrested before Sunday night," the statement said. The AP noted that in 2016, Blair apologized for statements she made during a flight from Cancun to Los Angeles, saying she had mixed alcohol with medication and blacked out. Blair's major film roles include 1999's "Cruel Intentions," 2001's "Legally Blonde" and 2004's "Hellboy," according to the AP.

The man, Miguel Parra Hernandez, 48, broke his leg and remains in federal custody at a rehabilitation facility, District Attorney Sean Teare said at a news conference, according to The Associated Press. "The evidence we have in this case is as clear as any that I’ve ever prosecuted or investigated," Teare said. The Houston Chronicle reported that Morales, 33, is believed to be the first federal agent charged in Texas over an incident tied to the Trump administration's expanded immigration enforcement.

What prosecutors say the video shows

According to the AP, Parra Hernandez was in a pickup truck that ICE tried to stop near Clay Road and Texas 6. He and another man got out and ran, and Morales followed in a Jeep Cherokee. Teare played body camera footage synchronized with surveillance video from a nearby business. In the body camera video, the officer can be heard saying, "Got a runner, got a runner," before appearing to turn the steering wheel toward Parra Hernandez, ABC News reported.

"As you can clearly see, Morales aggressively steered his vehicle into Parra Hernandez. Not only did he hit Mr. Hernandez, he ran over both of his legs, leaving him seriously injured and hospitalized to this day," Teare said, according to ABC News. The AP reported that after another ICE officer arrived, Morales said, "I was coming in and I hit him with the car." The other man escaped.

Teare also released a recording of a 911 call in which Morales requested an ambulance. "I tried to get around him, and he hit my car," Morales told the dispatcher, according to The Texas Tribune, and he said Parra Hernandez was "just complaining of pain." Reuters, in a report carried by StreetInsider, said the district attorney's office announced the indictment in a post on its website and released copies of 911 calls and video from the incident.

Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said two handcuffed people were in the back seat of Morales' vehicle before the crash. "I know of no law enforcement agency that would deem that to be acceptable," Gonzalez said, according to the Tribune. Teare said Morales was hired in 2025 as part of an ICE hiring surge and raised concerns about his background without giving details, the Tribune reported. Teare also said two detained witnesses have since been deported.

According to the BBC, Teare said Parra Hernandez has lived in Texas for more than 30 years and had no criminal record or deportation order. A separate Chronicle timeline said he was left with a broken leg, a fractured ankle and injuries to his hip and below his knee, and required multiple surgeries.

ICE, defense and federal prosecutor push back

An ICE spokesperson called the indictment "nothing more than a political stunt by Houston Sanctuary politicians," according to ABC News. "Allegations that ICE struck Miguel Parra-Hernandez intentionally are reckless and false," the statement said, as quoted by the Tribune. In a statement to Houston Public Media, ICE said "federal officers acting in the course of their duties can only be investigated by other federal agencies." Teare called that claim "patently false."

Morales' attorney, David Lindenmuth, told FOX 26 that his client is innocent and that the crash was an accident. "This is an unfortunate accident. It is not a good thing to happen, but it is not a crime," Lindenmuth said, adding that Morales was trying to avoid striking another vehicle. "We will be surrendering him on the warrant on Monday," he told the station; FOX 26 reported that the planned surrender date is Monday, Nov. 2. The Chronicle reported that Lindenmuth expects proceedings that could move the case to federal court because Morales is a federal employee.

Aaron Reitz, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas, said he saw "no basis for federal charges at this time," Houston Public Media reported. "This time, he's pursuing what looks like a political prosecution of an ICE agent for doing his job — exactly what his allies have been agitating for," Reitz said in a press release, according to the station.

Disputed account and next steps

ICE has said Parra Hernandez ran in front of the vehicle, an account Teare said is contradicted by video, the AP reported. ICE also said its agents were seeking a man named Jose Mendoza-Cervantes. FIEL, a Houston immigrant rights group, said his daughter told them he has been dead since 2017, according to the AP. "From the beginning the video told a different story than what was offered by the agency," said Kim Bruno, an attorney for Parra Hernandez.

KPRC 2 reported that, according to a search warrant affidavit, ICE officers left the scene with the vehicle before the investigation ended, and that as of Oct. 23, DHS and ICE had been "unresponsive" to a warrant to examine it. Teare's office is also investigating the fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo by an ICE agent in Houston, the Tribune reported.

According to that morning's POLITICO Playbook newsletter, published under the headline "Shapiro waves the flag" and written by Adam Wren, Dasha Burns and Will Steakin, Burns and Steakin used the episode to analyze what is at stake for Shapiro beyond his reelection. The newsletter said the episode also covered President Donald Trump struggling to stay on message, California Gov. Gavin Newsom "stirring the pot" in Republican Ken Paxton's Texas Senate race, new Senate polls and a 200-second interview with former Michigan state lawmaker Mari Manoogian.

A test of Shapiro's coattails

Playbook reported that Shapiro "appears headed for a double-digit blowout" over Trump-backed Republican Stacy Garrity, and that his coattails will be put to the test on Tuesday. According to the newsletter, Shapiro has put Democrats on the brink of flipping four hotly contested congressional seats and has put the Republican-controlled state Senate in play, potentially setting up Pennsylvania's first Democratic trifecta since 1993. Playbook reported that Shapiro "plowed $7 million from his own campaign fund" into what it called a state-first strategy.

PennLive reported on Oct. 23 that the money Shapiro had steered to Democratic Party efforts for the state House and Senate had topped $10 million, including about $1.5 million to the state party, $1 million to the House Democratic Campaign Committee and $2 million to the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee that month. Republicans hold a 27-23 majority in the state Senate, PennLive reported. WENY News reported that 25 of the chamber's 50 seats are on the ballot this year and that Democrats would need to keep all of their current seats and flip three to take control; in a 25-25 tie, Lt. Gov. Austin Davis, if reelected, would allow Democrats to control which bills are brought up for a vote.

"[We] have this historic chance to flip the state Senate, expand our state House majority and obviously reelect the governor," Pennsylvania Democratic Party Chair Eugene DePasquale told POLITICO Magazine's Kathy Gilsinan, according to Playbook. Speaking at a stop where he urged an audience of about 100 people to vote for Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti, who is running against Republican Rep. Rob Bresnahan, and state Senate candidate Brian Wrightson, who is challenging Republican Sen. Rosemary Brown, Shapiro told Playbook: "If we can win enough seats here in Pennsylvania to change the balance of power in Washington and be a check on Donald Trump, then we can both hold the president accountable and get stuff done in Washington."

He added: "So I’m not focused on the sort of political story. Respectfully, you’ll write that. I’m focused on the tangible results we can deliver if we win." Asked at Pocono Raceway about his 2028 aspirations, Shapiro told Playbook, "If this is a metaphor," adding, "it’s for finishing the race strong." In a companion POLITICO article by Wren, Shapiro said: "We may have a lead, but you’re coming down this home stretch. People are nipping at your heels." He continued, "You’ve got to run hard."

What the polls show

Public surveys have shown Shapiro with a wide lead. A Franklin & Marshall College poll of 808 registered Pennsylvania voters, conducted Oct. 7-18, found Shapiro ahead of Garrity 52% to 30%, PoliticsPA reported, adding that it was the fifth consecutive poll to show the governor at least 20 points ahead. A Quinnipiac University poll of 1,159 likely voters, conducted Oct. 1-5 with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points, found Shapiro at 59%, Garrity at 34% and Libertarian Ken Krawchuk at 2%. Playbook separately reported that just one-quarter of Americans think political polls are accurate, according to The POLITICO Poll.

The rest of the rundown

On Trump's closing schedule, Playbook reported Friday morning that his weekend events in Kansas and Iowa had been scrapped as he shifted toward more than a dozen tele-rallies. NBC News later reported that the White House had rescheduled the rallies for Sunday in Salina, Kansas, and Dubuque, Iowa. "The rallies were rearranged for scheduling purposes to accommodate nearly 20 additional tele-rallies that were recently added to the President’s schedule," a source familiar with the plans told NBC News. Trump was also scheduled to appear Friday in Daytona Beach, Florida, campaigning for Republican Rep. Randy Fine and Sen. Ashley Moody, NBC News reported.

In Texas, Paxton, the state attorney general and Republican Senate nominee, canceled a campaign rally scheduled for Nov. 1 in El Paso, KFOX14 reported, and his team was evaluating whether to reschedule it. Paxton faces Democratic state Rep. James Talarico. "Ken Paxton is canceling rallies because nobody is showing up," Talarico told CNN on Thursday, Newsweek reported. Newsweek reported that Paxton's team attributed the El Paso postponement to scheduling and logistics, and that a YouGov poll of 1,000 Texas registered voters conducted Oct. 13-21 gave Talarico 50% to Paxton's 45%, while a Fox News poll of 1,398 likely voters conducted Oct. 15-19 had the two tied at 49%.

The company did not name any of the interested parties or disclose proposed terms. It said there can be no assurance that the process will result in a transaction and that it does not intend to comment further unless and until it determines disclosure is appropriate or required.

What the company says it is worth

In the announcement, the board said it believes PodcastOne's current stock price does not reflect the value of its business. The company described itself as the No. 6 U.S. podcast publisher according to Podtrac, with more than 200 podcasters, more than 1 billion monthly impressions and $61.7 million in revenue for fiscal 2026. It also pointed to 750,000 hours of content that it said could support AI training and data licensing opportunities, as well as television, film and streaming opportunities built on creator-driven intellectual property.

"The level of strategic interest we are seeing supports the Board's long-held view that the market has not valued our platform for what it has achieved. We intend to run a rigorous, competitive process on behalf of all shareholders," Robert Ellin, executive chairman of PodcastOne, said in the statement. The company said it expects to select a financial advisor in the near term and will continue talks with interested parties while the process is structured.

Shareholder pressure and market reaction

The announcement followed a push from an outside investor. Podnews reported on Friday, Oct. 30, that one of PodcastOne's shareholders had sent the company a letter telling it to retain an investment bank or strategic advisor and saying its shares were undervalued. A Schedule 13D/A filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday, Oct. 27, shows that the letter came from Galloway Capital Partners, which reported beneficial ownership of 893,000 PodcastOne shares, or about 2.95% of the outstanding common stock. In the letter, dated Oct. 27 and addressed to Ellin, Galloway Capital chief executive Bruce Galloway wrote that a valuation of three to four times the firm's estimated annual revenue of $65 million to $75 million implies an enterprise value of approximately $195 million to $300 million, which he said could translate to approximately $6.50 to $10 per share at the upper end. The letter also stated that PodcastOne ranked eighth among participating U.S. podcast publishers and networks measured by Podtrac in September 2026, reaching approximately 5.8 million unique U.S. listeners.

Investors responded quickly to the company's disclosure. Inside Radio reported that PodcastOne shares rose 36% on Wednesday to close at $2.45. Market analysis site Tickeron reported that the stock had closed the previous session at $1.80. By Friday, Podnews reported that the shares were up around 50% on the news and trading at around $2.59, while noting that they had traded at more than $5 in May.

A strategic review already underway

The potential sale comes about a month after PodcastOne's largest shareholder, LiveOne, said it was examining the company's structure. In September, LiveOne said it was working with bankers to explore a potential consolidation of PodcastOne back into the parent company, a move executives said could save as much as $3.5 million a year by eliminating duplicated public-company costs, according to Podcast News Daily. The trade publication reported at the time that LiveOne had bought 1.47 million PodcastOne shares since March 31, bringing its holdings to 20.8 million shares.

LiveOne spun PodcastOne out as a separate public company in September 2023. According to Podcast News Daily, the stock fell from $8 per share to under $3.50 within weeks of its debut and reached an all-time low of about $1.40 in October 2024. The outlet reported that Ellin, who is also chief executive of LiveOne, told investors that LiveOne had more than $400 million of potential deals in its pipeline and was receiving inbound interest from strategic and financial buyers. "We can buy, merge, partner, or monetize assets depending on which path creates the greatest value for our shareholders," Ellin said, according to the publication.

Recent results and industry dealmaking

PodcastOne's most recent quarterly report, for the three months ended June 30, 2026, showed record revenue of $16.1 million, up 8% from a year earlier, and record adjusted EBITDA of $1.6 million, according to a company release issued on Aug. 12. The company reported a net loss of about $1.6 million, or $0.05 per share, for the quarter. In the same release, it said it had reached its highest-ever Podtrac ranking at No. 6 and had acquired The Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan and Life Happens with Barb and Michelle.

Inside Radio reported that PodcastOne President Kit Gray told investors last month that the company also continues to consider its own acquisitions, including companies involved in podcast representation, paywalls and technology. Podcast News Daily reported in September that Gray predicted dealmaking among both larger and smaller podcast companies over the next six to 12 months. "There's more and more companies with great opportunities and great ideas," Gray said, according to the publication. PodcastOne has not said how long its review of the acquisition interest is expected to take.

According to ESPN, citing ESPN Research, it is the first time in the common draft era, which began in 1967, that a defensive tackle has been traded for multiple first-round picks. The deal came 12 days before the league's trade deadline, which ESPN's trade tracker lists as Nov. 10 at 4 p.m. ET.

Simmons' record and contract

The Bears said Simmons, a three-time AP All-Pro, was named first-team All-Pro last season after leading all NFL interior defensive linemen with a career-high 11.0 sacks and 17 tackles for loss. According to the team, his 72 career tackles for loss are tied for the third-most by any interior defensive lineman since he entered the league in 2019, and his 46.5 sacks rank fifth among interior linemen over that span. The club said he has started 104 of his 106 regular-season games and set a Titans single-game franchise record with 3.0 sacks in a 2021 AFC Divisional Round game against Cincinnati.

Tennessee selected Simmons in the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft, and he was named to four Pro Bowls during his time with the franchise, according to the Titans. ESPN's trade tracker reported that Simmons, 29, signed a three-year, $105.8 million extension with $100 million guaranteed with the Titans in June and is under contract through the 2030 season.

How the deal came together

Titans general manager Mike Borgonzi told reporters Thursday that the team had not been trying to move its star defensive lineman. "At no point anytime since I've been here did we ever try to trade Jeffery Simmons," Borgonzi said, as quoted by ESPN. "We've gotten a lot of phone calls on Jeff really since I've been hired here, but it's never really crossed my mind." He said the offer came in a call late Wednesday from Bears general manager Ryan Poles, adding, "We considered the compensation, and it was too good to pass up." ESPN reported that the two executives worked together in the Kansas City Chiefs' personnel department from 2009 to 2021.

Borgonzi said Poles was "really the only person who came out and said 'would you accept this?'" according to Pro Football Talk, which reported that Borgonzi accepted the offer after speaking with Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk on Thursday morning. The outlet noted that Simmons had told reporters Wednesday afternoon that he had not heard anything leading him to expect a trade. ESPN reported that the Titans, who are 1-6, are projected by ESPN's Football Power Index to hold the No. 1 pick, while the incoming 2027 Bears pick is projected at No. 26.

Titans head coach Robert Saleh described the move bluntly. "It sucks. Everything about it sucks," Saleh said, according to USA Today. The newspaper reported that Borgonzi dismissed the notion of a fire sale, saying he had "not picked up the phone once" to seek offers on any players. The Titans' website reported that the team is now scheduled to have four first-round picks across the next two drafts.

Bears' reasoning

In the team's announcement, Poles said, "We are fortunate to have the opportunity to add a player, and a human, like Jeffery to our team, and we look forward to Jeffery's leadership and command as we continue to work toward sustained success." Head coach Ben Johnson said in the same release, "Jeffery is one of the most respected players in the National Football League."

Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Poles said he had asked Borgonzi about Simmons before, FOX 32 Chicago reported. "The answer on him was always no," Poles said. "I honestly didn't think it would ever happen." He also said, "You do this type of move when you have a combination of impact player on the grass as well as someone who can impact your culture." According to the station, Poles noted that Super Bowl champions dating back to 2018 have all had a high-level defensive tackle.

Context around the league

ESPN reported that the 5-2 Bears now have the second-best chance to win the NFC at 13%, according to ESPN Analytics, behind the San Francisco 49ers at 39% and ahead of the Seattle Seahawks at 11%. Both of those teams made trades on Tuesday: the Indianapolis Colts agreed to send defensive tackle DeForest Buckner to San Francisco for a 2027 fourth-round pick and guard Quenton Nelson to Seattle for a 2027 third-round pick and a 2028 fifth-round pick, according to Pro Football Talk's deadline tracker. ESPN also reported that Chicago ranked 23rd in pass rush win rate from interior defenders this season, and that the Bears' next game is a road matchup against the defending-champion Seahawks.

The Hollywood Reporter, which also reported the deal Thursday, said Crooked Highway has a producing deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment to produce feature films for Screen Gems. The trade noted that Kusama, Manfredi and Hay previously worked together on the 2015 psychological horror thriller The Invitation and the 2018 Nicole Kidman thriller Destroyer. No cast, story details or release window have been announced, Inven Global reported.

Developer and publisher confirm the deal

Wrong Organ confirmed the project on X shortly after the trade reports, according to Inven Global, which quoted the studio as writing, "The rumors are true," and adding, "The Tulpar journey goes on, we hope it continues to hurt." Inven Global reported that Critical Reflex said the film will be produced by Screen Gems, and quoted the publisher's own post: "You thought you could escape responsibility by turning off your console?"

The film announcement coincided with the game's expansion beyond PC. Mouthwashing launched on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, Xbox One and Xbox Game Pass on Oct. 29, 2026, according to a post on Xbox Wire published Oct. 20, which said the title would be available "day one with XBOX Game Pass." The Hollywood Reporter said the game launched Thursday on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and Xbox platforms. Engadget likewise reported that as of Thursday the game was available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and through Xbox Game Pass.

What the game is and how it has sold

Mouthwashing follows five crew members stranded aboard the space freighter Tulpar, which crash lands on an asteroid, The Hollywood Reporter said, describing a first-person game that combines surreal visuals with a nonlinear narrative exploring responsibility, denial and the consequences of unchecked power. The game's Steam store page describes it as "a first-person horror game following the dying crew of a shipwrecked space freighter."

Sales totals differ slightly by source. Deadline reported the game has sold close to 1 million units, and The Hollywood Reporter said it has sold nearly one million units on PC. Xbox Wire and Critical Reflex, as cited by Inven Global, put the total at more than 800,000 copies. The Hollywood Reporter said the game earned an 88 score on Metacritic and "overwhelmingly positive" user reviews on Steam, and won the best narrative and players' choice categories at the Horror Game Awards as well as best hidden gem at the New York Game Awards. Per the studio, content about the game has generated 63 million views on YouTube and nearly one billion views on TikTok, the trade reported.

Deadline reported that Wrong Organ, an independent studio based in Stockholm, is currently developing Carcass Clad, a co-op tank horror game in which players take the roles of Commander, Driver and Gunner.

Sony's recent run with game adaptations

The Hollywood Reporter framed the acquisition as Sony's next game adaptation after the studio relaunched the Resident Evil franchise with Zach Cregger's film. That reboot opened to $60 million domestically in September, the largest debut in the franchise's history, with a global start of $108.3 million, Variety reported at the time. Variety said Sony spent $75 million on the film. "Putting Zach Cregger in charge of a major franchise like 'Resident Evil' [made] something familiar feel fresh and original again," analyst Paul Dergarabedian told the outlet.

By early October, Deadline reported that the film's release in China was on course to make it Cregger's highest-grossing movie, passing the $270 million worldwide total of Weapons. Box office tracker The Numbers lists the film's worldwide gross at $385,194,016, including $154,885,964 domestically, and lists Sony Pictures as its domestic distributor with a home video release set for Nov. 3, 2026.

The filmmakers behind the project

Derrickson and Cargill signed their first-look deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment to produce feature films for Screen Gems in June 2024, Deadline reported at the time. In a joint statement then, the pair said Screen Gems' "commitment to giving thoughtful, intense, genre films theatrical distribution is in line with what we very much want to be doing both as a company and as artists." Ashley Brucks, then president of Screen Gems, said in the same announcement that the studio felt "lucky to have them here at Screen Gems."

Kusama was nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards for directing the series Yellowjackets, on which she also serves as an executive producer, Deadline reported. Her film credits include The Invitation, Jennifer's Body and Girlfight, for which she won Best Director and the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. Manfredi and Hay's credits include Clash of the Titans and the Ride Along films, according to The Hollywood Reporter, which said Derrickson last directed The Black Phone 2 and The Gorge, both released in 2025.

The experiment applies to creators "facing immediate termination due to certain Spam policy violations," according to the post, which was published by a TeamYouTube staff member identified as Jensen. The post refers to "certain" spam violations without listing which ones qualify, and describes the option as available only to channels that are "eligible for this experiment."

How the 30-day lock works

Under the test, an eligible channel enters a 30-day locked period, and the channel owner is notified by email and in YouTube Studio on desktop, YouTube said. While the channel is locked, certain actions, including uploading new videos and posting comments, are unavailable.

YouTube outlined three ways for a creator to resolve the lock. The first is to fix or remove specific videos, using editing tools in YouTube Studio to edit or delete individual uploads that violate its policies. The second is to delete every video uploaded to the channel, which YouTube said unlocks the channel immediately. The third is to submit an appeal if the creator believes the channel complies with YouTube's policies.

"Once violative content is removed and passes review, your channel will be unlocked," the post said. "Failing to address the issues within 30 days, or taking no action, will lead to channel termination." YouTube added that if a creator's manual cleanup is rejected in review, the creator can still choose to remove all videos as long as the 30-day window has not closed, allowing the channel to keep its subscribers, channel handle and YouTube Partner Program status.

Social Media Today, in a report by Andrew Hutchinson published Thursday evening and syndicated by Yahoo, reported that the new processes are in early testing. Polish entertainment site BOOP.PL also reported on Friday that the announcement was made in a thread for creators by the TeamYouTube staff member Jensen and that a channel whose owner ignores the notice will be closed once the month runs out.

What the change means for viewers

Android Authority reported on Friday that the option to wipe a channel's full library could leave viewers subscribed to channels that suddenly have no videos. "The second option is more drastic," the outlet wrote of the delete-all route, noting that creators who use it can retain their subscribers, handle and monetization status. Android Authority reported that, under YouTube's existing approach, channels found to have committed repeated or serious spam violations faced permanent termination, with an appeal as the only recourse.

YouTube's spam policy covers practices including engagement manipulation through bots or rewards for likes and subscribers, comment spam, videos made solely to drive viewers to external sites, detection evasion, mass production of near-identical content with automated tools or AI, re-posting scraped material without original additions, scams and maliciously misleading titles or thumbnails. The policy page says YouTube may suspend monetization or terminate a channel for violations, and states: "If you get 3 strikes within 90 days, your channel may be terminated."

YouTube's help page on channel or account terminations lists "a single case of severe abuse (such as predatory behavior, spam, or pornography)" among the reasons a channel can be removed, and says terminated channels in the Partner Program are no longer entitled to earn revenue. A separate help page on Community Guidelines strikes notes that deleting content does not remove a strike already issued, and that a single case of severe abuse can lead to termination without warning.

Builds on last year's second-chance pilot

The test is YouTube's latest change to how it handles banned creators. On Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025, the company announced in a YouTube Blog post a pilot program allowing some previously terminated creators to request a new channel. "We know many terminated creators deserve a second chance," YouTube wrote at the time, adding that it had paid more than $100 billion to creators, artists and media companies over the previous four years and counted more than 3 million channels in its Partner Program.

That program differs from the new test in key ways. According to YouTube's help page on rejoining the platform, terminated creators cannot request a new channel until one year after their termination date, and the pilot is unavailable to creators terminated for copyright infringement or for violating YouTube's Creator Responsibility policies. The blog post described an approved request as a fresh start on a new channel, with creators able to re-upload prior videos that are within the Community Guidelines.

The Verge reported when the pilot launched that it was open to some creators banned under COVID-19 and election misinformation policies that YouTube no longer enforces. By contrast, the new experiment acts before a termination takes effect, giving eligible channels a chance to avoid removal and keep their existing channel.

The awards program, launched in 2011, recognizes talent across fields including fashion, art, literature, entertainment, architecture, design, technology, music, philanthropy and cuisine, Billboard reported. Dua Lipa, Cara Delevingne and Ciara were among the stars who attended, according to red-carpet coverage from Page Six.

Rosalía accepts from Patti Smith and addresses Spain's train crash

Rosalía, who was named this year's Music Innovator, received the award from Patti Smith, Vogue España reported. The magazine reported that Smith had received the Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts in Oviedo less than a week earlier and that Rosalía wore a spring-summer 2027 design from Schiaparelli to the ceremony. In her acceptance speech, Rosalía told Smith that she had first been her mother's hero before becoming her own, and said she had been inspired not only by Smith's work but also by the way she exists and presents herself and by her courage on stage, according to Vogue España and Europa FM.

Speaking in Spanish, Rosalía also used her remarks to address the high-speed rail crash in her home country. "Sending my condolences to all the people affected by the accident that recently occurred in my country," she said, according to Billboard's translation. "There was a train accident and there were many victims. And the truth is that I would like to send all my love and support to each and every person affected by it."

Billboard reported that the collision took place in the central region of Castilla-La Mancha on the morning of Wednesday, Oct. 28, that 69 people were killed and that Spain had entered a three-day period of mourning. Europa FM, which identified the site of the crash as Urda, reported the same death toll and said 15 people were seriously injured.

According to Billboard, the award came days after Rosalía collected multiple Billboard Latin Music Awards, including the Billboard Hall of Fame Award. The outlet reported that her 2025 album "LUX," which features 13 languages, debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 as her first top 10 on that chart, and that she recently concluded her LUX Tour with 57 sold-out dates. Vogue España and Europa FM reported that she is nominated at the 2026 Latin Grammy Awards, scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 12, in Las Vegas, though the two outlets gave different nomination counts. Europa FM reported that she is the eighth artist recognized in the program's music category, following honorees that include Billie Eilish in 2025, Charli XCX in 2024 and SZA in 2023.

Chanel on the red carpet for Blazy

At least two guests wore Chanel on the night Blazy was recognized for fashion. Lipa wore a textured black-and-white jacket and pencil skirt from the house with a matching hat, the Daily Mail reported. The paper reported that Blazy designed the dress Lipa wore when she married actor Callum Turner this summer, and that it was his first bespoke wedding dress for Chanel.

Model Bhavitha Mandava arrived in a look from Chanel's Pre-Fall 2026 collection, The Tribune reported. According to the Indian newspaper, Mandava was spotted by a modeling agent at a New York subway station in 2024 while studying at NYU, made her runway debut at Bottega Veneta under Blazy and later followed him to Chanel. The Tribune reported that she became the first Indian model to open a Chanel show in December 2025 and was named the house's first Indian ambassador this spring.

Other designer credits reported by Just Jared included Delevingne in Erdem, Lupita Nyong'o in Brandon Maxwell, Ciara in LaPointe, Lux Pascal in Willy Chavarria, Ashley Graham in Ernesto Naranjo and Emmy Rossum in Hermès. The Daily Mail described Delevingne's look as white velvet trousers under an Erdem tuxedo jacket with a long scarf and reported that Ciara arrived with her husband, Russell Wilson.

Guests named by Just Jared also included Irina Shayk, Jordyn Woods, Gayle King, Meadow Walker, comedian Marcello Hernández, Seth Meyers, filmmaker Darren Aronofsky, Christian Louboutin, Jason Wu, Joseph Altuzarra and models Imaan Hammam and Adut Akech. Billboard and Europa FM both reported that A$AP Rocky was also among the guests.

Poehler and the other honorees

Poehler was named WSJ. Magazine's Innovator in Comedy, Film Daily reported. The outlet reported that she recently received the first Golden Globe awarded for podcasting and is returning to a starring role in scripted television comedy with "Dig," a Peacock series she created with Michael Schur. In comments published by Film Daily, Poehler said, "How we all work together is more important than the big idea."

Film Daily identified Hassabis with Google DeepMind, James as an author, McDonagh as a filmmaker and the Savannah Bananas as an entertainment sports team. Associated Press photo captions from the evening show Poehler and Savannah Bananas members Bill LeRoy and RobertAnthony Cruz attending the ceremony at the museum.

The trailer runs nearly three minutes, Zee News reported. According to The Indian Express, it opens with Kapoor in traditional Lavani attire performing before a large crowd, and moves between the character's public life as a celebrated performer and the difficulties she faces away from the stage. In one line quoted by the paper, the character says, "Naach ke muqable mein taqdeer bhi nahi jeet sakti," which The Indian Express translated as "Even destiny cannot win against you in a dance battle."

Filmfare reported that an early scene shows Kapoor's character throwing mud at a life-sized cutout of her own photograph, and that the trailer later returns her to the stage before large audiences. Near the end, the character defends her traditional Navvari saree as the pride and identity of the Maharashtrian people, The Indian Express reported.

Cast, crew and a launch at Plaza Cinema

Randeep Hooda, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Siddharth Jadhav and Anant Joshi also appear in the film, The Hindu reported. The music is composed by Ajay-Atul, the film is written by Kshitij Patwardhan and the cinematography is by Akash Agrawal, according to The Times of India, which reported that Hooda's first-look poster had introduced his character as Anna Sawant Merchant, Vithabai's husband.

The project reunites Utekar with Maddock Films after "Luka Chuppi" (2019), "Mimi" (2021), "Zara Hatke Zara Bachke" (2023) and "Chhaava" (2025), and returns Kapoor to the production house after its "Stree" films, The Indian Express reported. Film historian Dilip Thakur told IWMBuzz that Maddock had launched the "Chhaava" trailer at the same single-screen theater, which he said has operated since the 1930s and was where filmmaker V. Shantaram released his films.

Speaking about the role, Kapoor said, "It's a story about a woman whose art, courage and individuality make her unforgettable," according to statements carried by The Hindu and Zee News. "The more Laxman sir told me about the character, the more I felt connected to her world," she said. Utekar described the film as "the story of an artist who became a legacy" and said the team had "brought together authenticity, emotion and scale," both outlets reported.

At the launch, Kapoor said she was injured during filming. "There was also a mishap that happened while dancing on set. I had a muscle tear," she said, according to NDTV. Utekar told the gathering that the team held a one-week workshop with senior Lavani dancer Shakuntala Nagarkar, NDTV reported. Asked whether the makers had sought permission from Vithabai's family, Utekar said "Eetha" is not a direct biopic and draws on incidents documented in the book "Tamasha: Vithabaichya Ayushyache," according to the same report. Kapoor added, "this is not just Vithabai's story. It is a story of all those Tamasha artists, thousands of them."

Vijan praised Kapoor's casting on stage. "Only Shraddha can play this role," he said, according to The Free Press Journal, which reported that he also said, "You will know Shraddha Kapoor before Eetha and after Eetha." Hooda described the central character as a fighter. "Not all warriors carry swords. Some carry love," he said, News9 reported.

Who was Vithabai Narayangaonkar?

Vithabai Bhau Mang Narayangaonkar was born in Pandharpur in 1935, grew up in a family of folk artists and began performing at a young age, The Indian Express reported. The Times of India reported that she earned the title Tamasha Samradni, which it translated as the Empress of Tamasha. The Hindu has reported that she received two President's awards, in 1957 and 1990.

One widely recounted episode from her career, which was depicted in the film's teaser, involves her going into labor during a Tamasha performance and delivering her baby backstage, according to The Indian Express. The paper also reported that she worked to secure state pensions for Tamasha artists, and that she died in January 2002 amid reports at the time that her family struggled to pay her hospital bills.

A December release after an August delay

"Eetha" was originally scheduled for release on Aug. 28. In August, Maddock Films moved it to Dec. 4, a shift The Indian Express reported came after Yash's "Toxic: A Fairytale for Grownups" set an Aug. 26 release. At the time, the paper reported that the new date put "Eetha" against an untitled Anees Bazmee film starring Akshay Kumar and Vidya Balan, one day after the scheduled Dec. 3 release of Prabhas' period war film "Fauzi."

The Hindu reported in August that "Eetha" is Kapoor's first theatrical release since "Stree 2." Following Friday's launch, the film remains scheduled for a nationwide theatrical release on Dec. 4, according to Zee News and Filmfare.

"He has been held in the warm embrace of family and friends, surrounded by live music, prayer, tears, laughter and the kind of profound emotion that only he could inspire after a lifetime of devotion to us all," the statement said, according to the Los Angeles Times. The family statement said he died "in the loving care of his wife," the BBC reported. He is survived by his wife, the singer Sunny Ozell, and by two children from his first marriage, Daniel and Sophie Stewart, according to the BBC.

From the Royal Shakespeare Company to the Enterprise

Stewart was born on July 13, 1940, in Mirfield, West Yorkshire, England, the Los Angeles Times reported. He left school at 15 and worked as a newspaper reporter before choosing acting, and he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1966, Variety reported. In two decades with the company he appeared in more than two dozen productions, including as Oberon in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice," according to Variety.

He was cast as Picard at 47, The Guardian reported. He played the role throughout the 1987-1994 run of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," in more than 170 episodes according to the BBC, and then in four feature films: "Star Trek Generations," "Star Trek: First Contact," "Star Trek: Insurrection" and "Star Trek: Nemesis." He returned to the character for the Paramount+ series "Star Trek: Picard," which ran for three seasons from 2020 to 2023.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Stewart was initially hesitant to take the part because of the length of the television commitment. In a 1987 article announcing his casting, the paper described him as "an unknown British Shakespearean actor." He also earned four Emmy nominations and a Tony nomination, Variety reported. The Guardian reported that he won two Laurence Olivier awards, in 1979 for "Antony and Cleopatra" and in 2009 for "Hamlet," and a Grammy in 1996 for a spoken-word children's album. He was knighted in 2010, according to the BBC.

Professor X and a final film role

Stewart first played Professor Charles Xavier in 2000's "X-Men," opposite his longtime friend Ian McKellen as Magneto. His final film role will be in Marvel Studios' "Avengers: Doomsday," which opens in theaters Dec. 18 and marks his ninth time playing the character on the big screen, Variety reported. Marvel Studios confirmed in its tribute that the film would be "his final on-screen appearance."

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige said in a statement: "I'll never forget the first time I saw Sir Patrick Stewart on the set of the first X-Men." Feige described him as "brilliant, charming, warm, generous, with a quiet strength and gravitas," according to Variety. The studio called him "a singular talent, a generous collaborator, and a true gentleman."

In an interview published by TV Insider in July, Stewart said he did not plan to retire. "As any actor my age will tell you, there are fewer and fewer available roles as we get older," he said, according to Variety. "I'll always and forever be an actor."

Tributes from co-stars

McKellen called Stewart "the most respected and beloved actor of his generation on either side of the Atlantic," The Guardian reported. "He wore his heart on his sleeve, which made him a man to rely on, to admire and in my case, love," McKellen wrote on social media. The two met at the Royal Shakespeare Company, and McKellen advised him against taking the "Star Trek" role, NBC News reported. "Well, he took the risk and thank goodness for us all that he did," McKellen said. The pair co-starred in "Waiting for Godot" and "No Man's Land," and McKellen officiated Stewart's 2013 wedding to Ozell, according to NBC News.

Fellow Enterprise captain William Shatner wrote on Facebook: "Captain Picard stood for the best of us, and so did the man who played him," Variety reported. Jonathan Frakes, who played Cmdr. Will Riker, said: "There's no one on this planet that I have acted with or directed more often than my late great friend Patrick Stewart." LeVar Burton said: "He was family. There is no other context in which to hold him that makes sense."

Hugh Jackman, Stewart's "X-Men" co-star, wrote on Instagram: "We lost one of the greats of stage and screen today," according to The Guardian. George Takei, who played Hikaru Sulu, posted that Stewart "inspired a whole next generation of star-gazers who looked longingly ahead to a brighter future for all humanity."

The Royal Shakespeare Company described Stewart as a "colossus of both stage and screen," the BBC reported, and theatres in London's West End will dim their lights for two minutes on Nov. 3 in his honor. Huddersfield Town, the English football club he supported throughout his life, called him a "titan of his craft." Variety reported that donations may be made to the Johns Hopkins Alzheimer's Disease Research Center Fund and Alzheimer's Foundation of America Caregiver Resources.

Blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs said the theft was the largest cryptocurrency heist on record. "An attacker moved approximately USD 6.36 billion out of Binance wallets on ten blockchains, most of it in about 20 minutes," TRM said, according to CBS News and The Associated Press. The previous record was the roughly $1.5 billion theft from the Bybit exchange in February 2025, which the FBI attributed to North Korea and TraderTraitor.

How the funds left the exchange

Blockchain analysis company Chainalysis said funds began leaving Binance hot wallets across multiple blockchains at around 4:20 p.m. Eastern Time on Oct. 29, and that unauthorized transfers totaled approximately $6.4 billion. Analytics firm Arkham put the total at $6.01 billion, taken from hot wallets on nine blockchains between 4:10 p.m. and 7:05 p.m. ET, Decrypt reported. Hot wallets are wallets connected to the internet.

In a statement on X late Thursday, Binance said: "Binance's initial investigation suggests that the security incident may involve a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop, which allowed an attacker to gain access to a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions." The company added: "We have found no evidence of any wallet private key leak," according to NPR.

On Friday, the exchange said its investigation had uncovered "additional points of breach." Co-chief executive Richard Teng wrote that the attacker "did not simply use one engineer's permissions, and this was not a single 'one-click' action," describing "a more complex attack process," Decrypt reported. "Our investigation has not attributed responsibility to any individual," Teng wrote.

North Korea attribution

TRM attributed the attack to TraderTraitor, which it described as North Korea's elite hacking unit. "We make this judgment with high confidence," the firm said, according to CBS News. TRM said preparations for the attack began at least 36 hours before the theft, with the attackers using the cryptocurrency mixing service Tornado Cash to fund their wallets, CNBC reported.

Chainalysis said its strongest evidence came when its investigators observed funds stolen from Binance mixing in real time with funds stolen in last month's exploit of the Bitget exchange, which had been attributed to North Korean actors. Analytics firm Elliptic also attributed the theft to North Korea, putting the total at $6.43 billion drained across 11 blockchains and calling it "almost certainly the largest theft of any kind in history."

Elliptic cautioned that "No government or law enforcement agency has confirmed attribution, and Binance has not commented on who was responsible." It noted that only around $39,000 of the Binance funds had reached the address shared with the Bitget proceeds, and that a shared laundering network does not necessarily mean the same hacker carried out both thefts. North Korea has always denied involvement in such attacks, the BBC reported.

Frozen funds and withdrawals

Stablecoin issuers moved quickly as funds left the exchange. Tether chief executive Paolo Ardoino said the company froze the equivalent of more than $1.5 billion related to "a potential Binance exchange hack," and Circle co-founder and chief executive Jeremy Allaire said Circle froze more than $800 million "in coordination with law enforcement," according to NPR. Ripple helped halt the movement of $200 million linked to the attack, Binance co-founder Yi He said, CNBC reported.

Ari Redbord, global head of policy at TRM Labs, told CNBC that a freeze and a recovery are separate steps. "A freeze stops the money from moving, and recovery follows through legal process," he said. Bitcoin and ether, which have no issuer able to freeze them, are harder to recover, he said. As of Friday morning, Arkham's page for the attacker showed holdings of about 18,270 bitcoin and 488,364 ether, alongside frozen stablecoin balances, according to Decrypt.

Binance said it would cover losses from its SAFU emergency fund and from company funds. By Friday morning deposits were operating normally, while withdrawals remained suspended during a security overhaul; the exchange said it remained on track to resume withdrawals in 45 hours, Decrypt reported. Binance.US, a separate exchange for U.S. residents, said it was not affected, according to the BBC.

"Bottom line – your money is safe, and we're covering every loss," Teng said, The Guardian reported. Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who pleaded guilty in 2023 to a felony related to failing to prevent money laundering on the platform and was pardoned by President Donald Trump in 2025, posted that "User funds are safe!" but said the incident "does look like a hack on Binance."

Market reaction

Bitcoin dropped more than 3% in early Asian trading on Friday to a six-week low of $76,368, The Guardian reported. Sean Farrell, head of digital asset strategy at Fundstrat Global Advisors, told CNBC: "The most important takeaway for markets is that this does not currently appear to create meaningful solvency risk for Binance." Farrell said the key indicators to watch were how quickly withdrawals resume and whether outflows remain orderly.

In the United Kingdom, the Financial Conduct Authority said that Binance was not registered with it to provide crypto services there, but that it was "aware of the reported incident and engaging with them to understand the impact," according to The Guardian.

On the show, Playbook co-author Will Steakin and POLITICO's Megan Messerly discussed the New Democrats' position, according to that morning's POLITICO Playbook newsletter, published under the headline "A moderate proposal." The episode also covered a New York Times report about efforts to recruit a second Dan Sullivan into Alaska's Senate race, Flávio Bolsonaro's arrival in the United States, and a defamation lawsuit filed by Twitch streamer Hasan Piker against conservative commentator Scott Jennings.

What the New Democrat leaders told Playbook

New Democrat Coalition Chair Brad Schneider of Illinois and NewDem Action Fund Chair Greg Stanton of Arizona told Playbook that moderates expect to deliver the majority and do not intend to let a handful of insurgents on their left flank dictate its agenda. "Our friends who are DSA, when they won in the primaries, of course those were blue-to-blue," Stanton said, referring to the Democratic Socialists of America. "They didn’t win a new seat for our caucus."

Schneider said the coalition could grow to as many as 150 members this cycle, up from 114 today, Playbook reported. Two Democratic nominees who identify as democratic socialists, Melat Kiros of Colorado and Darializa Avila Chevalier of New York, declined to commit to backing House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries for speaker on an Oct. 16 episode of POLITICO's The Conversation with Dasha Burns. "If you’re saying that you’ll only support him because of this particular vote or that particular vote, I think that really undercuts him," Stanton told Playbook. Schneider acknowledged that a narrow majority could give the far-left group outsized leverage: "If you’re at 217, each person becomes a kingmaker."

According to Playbook, Schneider called the progressive Medicare for All proposal a "slogan," not a "solution," said he was wary of DSA members' push for an arms embargo on Israel, and said transgender rights "is not the number one issue." The New Democrats also warned against forcing "dumb votes" that could hurt vulnerable members. "A lot of these people are coming in with their minds locked, their positions frozen," Schneider said. "We should stop talking about ideology and talking about results."

Both wings are already organizing

A POLITICO report by Riley Rogerson, published the same morning, said competing wings of the party are "jockeying for position" in phone calls, group chats and strategy sessions. The Congressional Progressive Caucus gathered incumbent and incoming members in Washington for a September retreat run by its chair, Rep. Greg Casar of Texas, the report said. Rep. Delia Ramirez of Illinois, who is mentoring incoming progressives including Avila Chevalier, Claire Valdez of New York and Kiros, told POLITICO: "There’s going to be some real tension, because we have to move."

On the centrist side, Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey told POLITICO he was eyeing "concrete steps to stop socialists trying to jam the extremist parts of their agenda." Rep. Nikki Budzinski of Illinois, who is running unopposed to chair the New Democrats in the next Congress, said the group's size "will make us a force in determining the Democratic caucus’s agenda." Stanton told POLITICO that every candidate the group endorsed supports Jeffries for speaker, while Kiros did not say in an interview whether she would back him, according to the report. POLITICO's Inside Congress newsletter described the competition under the headline "House Dems' war of the wings is underway."

Earlier in October, CQ Roll Call reported that the New Democrat Coalition Action Fund had endorsed 50 candidates this cycle and that New Democrat-backed candidates made up 36 of the 46 names on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's "Red to Blue" list of top recruits. "We expect that our numbers are going to swell in the next Congress," Stanton told Roll Call.

Alaska's two Sullivans and a $72.5 million lawsuit

The New York Times reported Wednesday, Oct. 28, that people working with Democratic Senate nominee Mary Peltola's campaign and senior aides at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee took part in efforts to recruit a man named Daniel J. Sullivan into the race against Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan, CNBC reported. Peltola's campaign told CNBC that it "has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign," and a DSCC spokesperson said, "The DSCC is not involved with Dan J. Sullivan." President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social that "Mary Peltola should suffer the Legal and Political consequences for what she has done, A FRAUD ON THE AMERICAN PUBLIC," POLITICO reported. Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski said in a statement, "By contrast, recruiting candidates to manipulate the field and influence voting outcomes is simply wrong." ABC News reported that Alaska courts found nothing illegal about Daniel J. Sullivan's bid to be on the ballot, and POLITICO noted that the Cook Political Report rates the race a toss-up.

Piker filed a 38-page complaint on Tuesday, Oct. 27, in federal court in Washington, D.C., alleging that Jennings defamed him on an Aug. 11 episode of "The Scott Jennings Show" by playing doctored video from a 2024 livestream, NBC News reported. "Mr. Jennings did not merely mischaracterize something Mr. Piker said," the complaint says, according to NBC News. Piker is seeking $27.5 million in compensatory damages and $45 million in punitive damages. Jennings did not immediately respond to NBC News' request for comment. Variety reported that, as a public figure, Piker would have to show that Jennings either knew his statements were false or acted with reckless disregard for the truth.

The final out came at 11:13 p.m. local time, when closer Trevor Megill got Richie Palacios to ground out to second baseman Brice Turang, MLB.com reported. About 31,000 fans watched the game on the scoreboard at American Family Field in Milwaukee, roughly 1,200 miles away, while thousands of traveling Brewers fans filled sections of Tropicana Field. The official attendance was 40,489, and the game took 3 hours, 5 minutes, according to the Baseball-Reference box score.

"It's the best feeling ever. All of our fans are here. I know the city's waited a long, long time for this," said Brewers captain Christian Yelich, the AP reported. "We're so happy to bring it home to them."

How Game 5 Unfolded

Pratt gave Milwaukee a 1-0 lead with an RBI single off Rays starter Drew Rasmussen in the second inning. In the fifth, he singled for his sixth consecutive hit, a World Series rookie record, and scored on David Hamilton's single off Kevin Kelly. In the sixth, Contreras doubled off Garrett Cleavinger to score Yelich, and Pratt added a sacrifice fly to make it 4-0. Pratt, 22, made his major league debut in June and had gone 4 for 5 with a tiebreaking solo home run in the 12th inning of Game 4, according to the AP.

"This is one of the greatest moments of my life. Oh my gosh. It doesn't even feel real," Pratt said. "This is surreal. It only took four months!"

Misiorowski, a 24-year-old right-hander and two-time All-Star, held the Rays to two hits, a walk and a hit batter on 86 pitches before a right calf cramp forced him out in the sixth inning, MLB.com reported. He did not record a strikeout until the fourth inning, the first time in his career it had taken that long, and finished with two. He went 2-0 with a 0.84 ERA in the series, after going 16-5 with a major league-leading 1.80 ERA and 252 strikeouts in the regular season.

"I'm happy I left it all out on the field," Misiorowski said. "I obviously wish I could have gotten one more out, but it is what it is. We got the win."

JoJo Romero, Abner Uribe and Megill finished the game. Megill pitched the last two innings and allowed the Rays' only run on a two-out RBI double by Chandler Simpson in the ninth. Misiorowski was credited with the win, and Rasmussen took the loss. Milwaukee went 11-2 in the postseason after a franchise-record and major league-best 103 regular-season wins, beating the San Diego Padres in the National League Division Series and sweeping the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series.

Contreras Named World Series MVP

Contreras, 28, went 8-for-21 with four RBIs in the series and threw out four of nine Rays base-stealers, according to MLB.com. Tampa Bay had been 11-for-11 on stolen-base attempts in the postseason before the World Series. Milwaukee's pitching staff posted a 1.91 ERA and held the Rays to a .182 batting average in the series. Ten of Contreras' 13 challenges under the Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System, in its first season in the majors, were overturned during the series.

He is the eighth catcher to win World Series MVP or co-MVP, and the first since Salvador Perez of the Kansas City Royals in 2015. "I don't have words to say how I'm feeling," Contreras said through an interpreter. "But I'm just appreciative of my teammates, appreciative for [manager Pat] Murphy, and just want to thank all of them."

Jackson Chourio set a record for a five-game World Series with 11 hits, the AP reported. The two teams combined for four home runs in the series, three of them by Milwaukee.

A 44-Year Wait and Friday's Parade

The title came in the 58th season for a franchise that began as the Seattle Pilots in 1969 and moved to Milwaukee the following year. The Brewers' only previous World Series appearance, in 1982, ended with a Game 7 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals. Milwaukee's only previous major league championship was won by the Braves in 1957. "This group of guys right here, the 2026 team, will be remembered forever - and they deserve that because they were a team," said Murphy, 67, who was named National League Manager of the Year in 2024 and 2025.

The Rays, who began play in 1998, fell to 0-3 in World Series appearances after losses in 2008 and 2020. Tampa Bay, Colorado, San Diego and Seattle are now the four MLB franchises that have never won a World Series. "They're banged-up and hurting right now, but just grateful for the way they carried themselves all season long, winning a bunch of games. It's as close-knit of a group as I've ever been around," Rays manager Kevin Cash said. The AP reported that it was the first World Series since 1991 between two teams in the bottom half of payrolls, and that a management lockout is likely to begin Dec. 2 as owners push the players' association for a salary cap.

The Brewers' Parade of Champions is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 30, beginning at 10 a.m. CT at N. 4th Street and W. Wisconsin Avenue and ending with a rally and fan festival at Henry Maier Festival Park, according to MLB.com. Milwaukee Public Schools announced that all schools and district offices will be closed Friday. The festival grounds open at 8 a.m., and tickets for the rally went on sale Thursday, with net proceeds benefiting the Brewers' charitable foundation, WBAY reported.

The results, published at 7 a.m. Central European Time (2 a.m. ET), also showed Acast's highest adjusted profit margins to date. Organic growth, which strips out acquisitions and currency effects, slowed to 18% from 41% in the third quarter of 2025, and sales in Europe rose 5%. Acast shares closed at SEK 30.50 on Nasdaq Stockholm that day, down 5.86%, according to share data shown alongside the release on MFN, the figure also cited by PPC Land.

Record Sales, Record Margins

The quarter topped the previous record of SEK 776 million set in the second quarter of 2026, according to Acast's investor presentation. Podcast News Daily, which converted the figures to dollars, put third-quarter revenue at approximately $84 million, up from $67 million a year earlier.

Adjusted EBITDA nearly doubled to SEK 77.8 million from SEK 39.7 million, lifting the adjusted EBITDA margin to 10% from 6%. Adjusted operating profit rose to SEK 51.9 million from SEK 18.1 million, an adjusted EBIT margin of 6%, compared with 3% a year earlier. Net profit for the quarter was SEK 45.4 million, up from SEK 7.3 million, and basic earnings per share were SEK 0.25, compared with SEK 0.04.

Gross margin held at 39%, unchanged from the third quarter of 2025, while adjusted operating expenses excluding depreciation rose 11%, according to the CEO letter in the release. Items affecting comparability totaled SEK 4.2 million and were mostly transaction costs tied to the purchase of Backyard Ventures.

Acast counted 1.155 billion listens and views in the quarter, up 4% from 1.108 billion. Average revenue per listen or view, the company's main monetization measure, rose 20% to SEK 0.69 from SEK 0.58. Acast said its view counts currently cover only HLS, the video format Apple uses for video podcasts.

North America Becomes the Largest Segment

North American net sales rose to SEK 384.0 million from SEK 248.7 million, according to the full interim report. Organic growth in the region was 41%. Backyard Ventures, an Austin-based creator network that Acast acquired on Aug. 11, contributed SEK 27.9 million to the region's sales in the quarter. Europe's net sales rose to SEK 361.9 million from SEK 345.5 million, with organic growth of 3%, and the Other Markets segment grew 18% to SEK 56.4 million.

Chief executive Greg Glenday attributed Europe's slower growth to a tough comparison with the prior year and to a strong second quarter that he said was partly supported by advertiser activity around the World Cup. He noted that Europe had grown 16% organically over the first nine months of the year.

"Record revenue, record margins, and our growth is translating into profit," Glenday told investors on the company's Wednesday earnings call, according to Podcast News Daily. He also said Acast could keep growing without large audience gains. "We have unsold inventory, and we have a long tail of smaller shows that we can activate against," he said.

Acast announced the Backyard Ventures deal in August for a total consideration of $20 million, made up of $16 million in cash and $4 million in Acast shares payable on a deferred schedule, according to the acquisition announcement. That announcement said Backyard generated $16.1 million in revenue in 2025 and represents creators including Ryan Holiday's The Daily Stoic, Piers Morgan's Uncensored, Cal Newport's Deep Questions and Mark Manson's Solved. Podcast News Daily reported that the business now operates as Acast Austin.

Video, YouTube and New Leadership

Glenday said Acast now has close to 1,000 shows using HLS video but that audio still accounts for most consumption. "It's still much more L than V," he said, according to Podcast News Daily. Chief financial officer Anders Hägg said the company's audience totals still exclude YouTube views, explaining that changes YouTube made to its view-counting method in August led Acast to wait for clearer measurement standards. "We rather wait until the industry standards are aligned, rather than report a number that we might have to sort of restate later on," Hägg said.

In the release, Acast cited its Podcast Pulse 2026 research, which found that 88% of listeners consume both audio and video podcasts, up from 78% a year earlier, and that 63% have started an episode in one format and finished it in another. The company also named Liv Sandberg, who leads advertising across 17 markets at TikTok, as executive vice president for Europe, a role she takes up in early 2027, and appointed Mark Bulling, formerly of WPP Media's Choreograph, as vice president of product, according to the release.

The report also showed Acast's maximum obligation under minimum revenue guarantees offered to certain creators at SEK 289.7 million on Sept. 30, up from SEK 207.4 million a year earlier, according to PPC Land's review of the filing. Acast, which says it connects more than 140,000 storytellers with more than 4,000 advertisers, is scheduled to publish its fourth-quarter and full-year 2026 results on Feb. 11, 2027.

The remarks came during a special session titled "Unlocking the Global Potential of Japanese IP," which the Motion Picture Association and UniJapan organized on TIFFCOM's opening day, according to the official TIFFCOM program. Credeus CEO Shinzo Matsuhashi, a producer of the live-action "Kingdom" films and "Kokuho," and Steven Maeda, an executive producer of Netflix's live-action "One Piece," also spoke. TIFFCOM, the industry market of the Tokyo International Film Festival, runs Oct. 28 to 30.

What Marini Said About Spending

Trade outlets reported the commitment in slightly different words. Deadline quoted Marini as saying, "High-quality content is in demand so we're going to double our investment to reach an international standard and attract global audiences." Variety reported that the Japan studio is doubling its investment to bring its content up to global standards.

Marini told the session that the company's approach in Japan had changed. "Amazon Prime has been acting as an aggregator for content, and we grew that business very successfully, but going forward we wanted to focus more on original content – not just in Japan but worldwide," he said, according to Deadline. He added that the studio is "flexible on whether projects are released through theatrical or streaming."

Asked how Japanese IP is budgeted with global audiences in mind, Marini said, as quoted by Screen: "It's a subject that we talk about a lot, internally. It depends on the subject matter, of course, but you really have to spend the money to satisfy that global audience." He also said, "Japan is just such a treasure trove of IP."

According to Variety, Marini explained the company's position this way: "Since our service is global, our audience isn't really concerned with which country the content is from." He also said script development is central to the strategy. "When it comes to elevating our content to IPs that can resonate globally, I truly believe that the reverse-engineering process is the most important factor," he said.

Marini was appointed head of Amazon MGM Studios Japan in March 2026. He previously served as managing director of Warner Bros. Discovery Japan and as CEO of Hulu Japan, and he founded Mangamo, according to his TIFFCOM speaker biography. Screen described the session as the first time he had spoken before an industry audience about his plans since joining the studio.

The Slate and Its Partners

Deadline reported that Amazon MGM is working with partners including Korea's Studio Dragon and Japan's Credeus, Toho, TV Tokyo and Wowow on Japanese live-action and anime content, primarily for Japanese audiences but with the aim of reaching viewers abroad.

The most prominent project Marini discussed is a live-action series based on "The Apothecary Diaries," Hyuganatsu's light novel series, starring Mana Ashida as the protagonist Maomao. Amazon MGM Studios and Toho are co-producing the series, which is scheduled to stream exclusively on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories in 2028, according to a September announcement from Stardust Promotion, which represents director Yuki Saito. That announcement lists Erika Yoshida as screenwriter and TOHO Studios as the production company, and says the novels have more than 57 million copies in circulation, including translations in 16 languages.

"Big IPs like The Apothecary Diaries are challenging. They're beloved," Marini said, according to Screen. Deadline quoted him as saying the series "has been entirely produced in Japan by Japanese staff members and cast."

Marini also discussed "The Silent Service," the adaptation of Kaiji Kawaguchi's submarine manga produced with Credeus. Screen reported that it was the most-watched Japan-produced Amazon MGM Studios series in 2024, that the sequel feature "The Silent Service: Battle of the Arctic" grossed ¥1.15 billion ($5.64 million) in theaters in 2025, and that a third season, "The Silent Service: Awaken, New York," will debut on Prime Video in summer 2027. Variety reported that the slate also includes "Bless," a live-action adaptation of a manga about an aspiring makeup artist.

Other recent Amazon MGM productions in Japan include "Chloe and Emma," made with Wowow and streaming since June 2026, and "Criminal (Hanzaisha)," directed by Daishi Matsunaga and produced with TV Tokyo subsidiary Protx, which premiered in July, according to Deadline.

Other Speakers on Adapting Japanese IP

Matsuhashi described how Credeus has moved to hold rights in its projects, including through CK Works, a rights-holding joint venture with Kodansha for the "Blue Lock" feature. "It's rare for production companies to be involved in holding IP rights, but it's starting to become more standardized and practiced globally," he said, according to Deadline. Variety reported that films he has produced passed ¥100 billion ($633 million) in cumulative box office this year.

Maeda described the budget negotiations over Netflix's "One Piece." According to Variety, he said fans of an adaptation want it to stay faithful while new viewers still have to be brought in. "And if you succeed, you can have an international success," he said. "And if you fail, everyone hates you."

At the time of the bans, Morhulets had 1.1 million followers on TikTok, with a combined 13.6 million likes on his videos, and nearly 12,000 followers on Instagram, according to the Irish Examiner.

Meta and TikTok act days apart

Meta confirmed the Instagram removal to the Irish Examiner on Tuesday, Oct. 27. "We don't tolerate harassing content, however it was captured, and have removed the account @rendy_vlad for repeatedly violating our bullying and harassment policies," a Meta spokesperson said in the statement published by the paper.

Meta also makes the smart glasses Morhulets used. In the same statement, the company said: "The vast majority of people use our AI glasses because they're helpful in everyday moments like listening to music, getting live translation while travelling, or making a call hands-free." The spokesperson added that every pair with a camera "has a bright light on the front that flashes when you take a photo or video you can share with others," and that "If the glasses detect that the capture LED light was covered, physically tampered with, or destroyed, they'll automatically disable the camera."

TikTok's action followed. According to the company, content that violated its guidelines had already been removed from the account, and after further investigation it banned the account entirely, the Irish Examiner reported. TikTok said it does not allow content that harasses or bullies others, and pointed to Community Guidelines that prohibit the marketing of regulated or high-risk goods and services, including gambling and gambling-like activities. JOE.ie also reported that the TikTok account appeared to have been removed.

Extra.ie reported that one of Morhulets' videos was taken down by TikTok earlier this year for breaching its rules on sexual abuse; it is understood the clip showed a young woman having a medical emergency in Cork city. Other content described by the Irish Examiner included interactions with retail staff and "pranks" in which he pretends to give money to vulnerable people before taking it back. No response from Morhulets was included in the October reports.

Smart glasses, monetisation and an unlicensed gambling site

In a July investigation, the Irish Examiner reported that Morhulets, who calls himself a POV (point-of-view) prankster, filmed with Meta Ray-Ban glasses. After being removed from a furniture store over a prank in which he hid under the sheets of a display bed, he told a staff member: "This is how I make my money." Several people he filmed told the paper they saw no recording light.

The same report found that his videos promoted Rainbet, a crypto gambling platform that does not hold a licence to operate in Ireland. In one clip, filmed while hiding under the bed, he says: "Let's actually play some Rainbet." The Irish Examiner reported that TikTok's creator rewards program is not available to creators based in Ireland, leaving brand deals as a main source of income.

The Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland told the paper: "It is illegal for an individual to promote an unlicensed operator." The regulator said unlicensed bookmaking is an offence under the Gambling Regulation Act 2024 and carries a potential penalty of up to eight years' imprisonment. Morhulets did not comment when contacted for that report.

Calls for regulation in Cork and at the Oireachtas

The bans follow months of local controversy. In May, Labour Senator Laura Harmon raised non-consensual filming at the Oireachtas Committee on AI, Cork Beo reported, after reports that women in Cork had been filmed at work and during medical emergencies. "Regulation must work to keep pace with evolving technologies," she said. "These wearable recording devices and any others that follow must be limited to protect privacy and reflect informed consent above all else."

The Echo reported at the time that Labour councillor Ciara O'Connor had put down a motion asking Cork City Council to seek an urgent review of the regulation of AI-enabled smart glasses. The paper also reported that gardaí were making enquiries into an incident at a Cork city gelato shop in which a staff member threw a spatula at Morhulets after he repeatedly re-entered the premises.

The privacy concerns predate this case. When Facebook introduced its camera-equipped Ray-Ban glasses in Ireland and Italy in 2021, Ireland's Data Protection Commission and Italy's regulator said: "It has not been demonstrated to the DPC and Garante that comprehensive testing in the field was done by Facebook or Ray-Ban to ensure the indicator LED light is an effective means of giving notice."

Some businesses have also acted. Extra.ie reported that BD Gyms, West Wood Club and FlyeFit have banned wearing and using Meta glasses on their premises.

Chanel, which Oui Speak Fashion reported had led the ranking for the previous three quarters, slipped one place to No. 2, and Miu Miu fell one place to No. 3, according to FashionNetwork. With Miu Miu in third, Prada Group now holds two of the top three places. Lyst summed up the quarter by saying that "the brands gaining ground are those that create a distinctive aesthetic, pointing to fashion's ability to sell an idea as much as an item," FashionNetwork reported.

How Prada climbed back to the top

Lyst said in its report that desire and discoverability spiked during fashion week, with the skirts featured in Prada's September show in Milan becoming "a fixture of discourse across social feeds." WWD reported that Lyst also credited the retail launch of Prada's fall 2026 collection during the third quarter with turning fashion week attention into shopping interest. Prada had stayed close to the top in earlier editions, ranking No. 5 in Q4 2025, No. 7 in Q1 2026 and No. 6 in Q2 2026, according to FashionUnited, which noted that the No. 1 position had passed between Miu Miu, Loewe, Saint Laurent and Chanel since the end of 2023.

The house's Wish Silk Duchesse Pouch was the quarter's hottest product. Lyst said searches for the pouch rose 498%, while WWD and FashionNetwork described demand as surging nearly 500% from the second quarter. WWD reported that the style was first introduced in 2024.

The ranking follows Prada Group's nine-month trading update. In a statement dated Oct. 22, the company reported net revenues of 4,541 million euros for the nine months ended Sept. 30, up 15% year over year at constant currency and 4% on an organic basis. It said retail sales for the Prada brand rose 2% over nine months and 1% in the third quarter, while Miu Miu ended the period up 1% against growth of 41% a year earlier. "The environment remains complex and volatile, requiring focus, agility and rigorous execution," Prada Group Chairman Patrizio Bertelli said in the statement.

Celine breaks into the top 10

Celine rose five places to No. 10, its first appearance in the top 10 of the index, under creative director Michael Rider. Lyst said demand for Celine menswear was up 62% year on year and that the Celine/Reebok Freestyle Lo sneaker "sold out as soon as it landed." The shoe ranked third among the quarter's hottest products. FashionUnited reported that Lyst also credited the label's L'Été collection and its recent runway shows.

According to WWD's footwear coverage, the Freestyle Lo is a lambskin leather version of a classic Reebok sneaker that was released in September after debuting on the runway at the men's show in June. It is offered in eight colorways, and a distressed "Alldayeveryday" version in Optic White is priced at $850, the outlet reported. "There's something strange to me about a brand-new shoe," Rider said backstage after the spring 2027 men's show, according to WWD. The index was published the day after Rider received the 2026 WWD Honor for Menswear Designer of the Year.

The rest of the top 10, as reported by FashionNetwork, is Gucci at No. 4, up one place; Saint Laurent at No. 5, down one; Dior at No. 6, down three; Burberry at No. 7, up one; Ralph Lauren at No. 8, down one; and Chloé at No. 9, up two. Bottega Veneta rose three places to No. 11, with demand up 66%, as interest in Louise Trotter's debut spring 2026 collection lifted demand for its bags and accessories, WWD reported.

New entries and the quarter's hottest products

Dries Van Noten entered the ranking at No. 16 after a 27% quarter-on-quarter rise in demand, and its Long Wrap Scarf-Skirt was the quarter's fifth-hottest product, according to Lyst. Diesel returned at No. 18 for the first time since Q1 2024, which Lyst attributed to "a viral SS27 show, Glenn Martens' last," FashionNetwork reported. Khaite debuted at No. 20, with Lyst shoppers searching for its Danielle jeans and its eyewear collaboration with Oliver Peoples.

Accessories and footwear led the product list. COS's Trullo Flap Bag ranked second and Vans' Premium Authentic sneaker ranked fourth, according to WWD and FashionNetwork. FashionNetwork reported that demand for Vans was up 29% year on year. Phoebe Philo's Peak sunglasses, Free People's Forever Young Bloomer Pants, Balenciaga's Rodeo Bag and Chanel's ballet flats also made the list. Cartier's Tank became the first watch on the hottest products list since 2021, with demand up 83%, FashionNetwork reported.

Lyst also named three fast-rising labels. Searches for Conner Ives rose 49%, demand for New York-based Emily Dawn Long rose 17%, and demand for Copenhagen-based Mfpen rose 37% as the label marked its 10th anniversary and collaborated with New Balance, according to FashionNetwork. To build its product ranking, Lyst says its formula "filters more than eight million items by volume of social media mentions alongside searches, page views, interactions and sales on Lyst." FashionUnited reported that the index draws on the shopping behavior of Lyst's 160 million annual users, combined with search, social and other discovery signals.

A division bench of Chief Justice Mahesh Chandra Tripathi and Justice Advait Sethna adjourned Khan's petition after Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, appearing for the Centre, sought more time and assured the court that no coercive action would be taken against the actor before the next date, CNBC-TV18 reported in a Press Trust of India story. The Hindu reported that the matter will be taken up at 3 p.m. on Monday.

What happened in court

Singh asked the bench to defer the hearing because Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who was to represent the FRRO, could not join, according to LiveLaw. The Indian Express reported that Mehta was occupied before the Supreme Court in another matter. Khan's counsel, senior advocate Venkatesh Dhond, pointed out that the notice required his client to leave India the following day. "Milords, we are giving assurance as we are only seeking time till Monday," Singh told the court, LiveLaw reported.

According to LiveLaw, the bench recorded in its order that the Oct. 14 notice "will be kept in abeyance, until the adjourned date of hearing i.e., November 2, 2026." The Times of India reported that the order noted Dhond had "fairly" not opposed the request for an adjournment.

The Times of India reported that lawyer Sunil Kumar, represented by advocate Subhash Jha, argued that the FRRO notice falls under criminal jurisdiction and that Khan's civil petition therefore could not be heard. Dhond questioned the intervener's standing and called him a "third party bystander," The Indian Express reported. The newspaper said the bench orally observed that the matter arose out of a "civil consequence" and that it "did not see a criminality attached to it."

Why the notice was issued

The notice followed Khan's alleged participation in an Oct. 10 demonstration at August Kranti Maidan in Mumbai, held in solidarity with a Cockroach Janta Party agitation in Delhi demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, according to CNBC-TV18 and The Times of India. The Indian Express reported that BJP leader Kirit Somaiya filed a complaint alleging that Khan had violated the law by taking part in the protest, and that the FRRO then issued the notice for an alleged violation of the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025. The PTI report carried by CNBC-TV18 said the order was issued under Sections 7(2)(C) and 29 of that law, and that deportation proceedings would follow if Khan did not leave by the deadline.

Khan was detained by Mumbai Police at the protest site on Oct. 10 along with his partner, actor Lekha Washington, and his cousin, actor Zayn Marie Khan, and the three were released hours later, The Indian Express reported. Before the detention, Khan told reporters, "I don't have demands. I am here as a citizen, as a person who lives in this city. I am here to see why freedom of movement is being restricted. Why are people's voices being suppressed? That is why I am here," according to a Times of India report citing ANI. He later posted a photo from inside a police van with the caption "Apparently I'm going for a drive." Mumbai Police said more than 400 people were detained at August Kranti Maidan that day, the Times of India reported, citing ANI.

What Khan's petition argues

Khan moved the High Court on Oct. 17 and challenged the action as "unconstitutional, manifestly arbitrary and disproportionate," The Indian Express reported. The petition argued that the FRRO had acted "at the behest of and on the timetable of a political functionary who holds office under the IFA," according to the newspaper. He has also received a separate FRRO show-cause notice asking why his OCI status should not be revoked, CNBC-TV18 reported.

In the petition, filed through advocate Zulfiquar Memon and MZM Legal, Khan said he had not participated in the gathering and had no association with its organisers, according to the PTI report. The petition called the notice "illegal, arbitrary, perverse and drastic" and said it reflected "patent non-application of mind and the arbitrary targeting" of a public figure. The Times of India reported that the plea said Khan was merely "curious" when he passed by and saw the crowd, and that he left immediately when police asked him to. The Hindu reported that he also challenged the notice because he was not allowed to be heard.

Khan was born in the United States and has lived in India for almost 42 years, since the age of two, the Times of India reported. He is the nephew of actor Aamir Khan, according to the PTI report, and made his film debut in the 2008 romantic comedy "Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na," as noted by The Indian Express. Bar and Bench listed the case as Imran Khan Pal v. Union of India & Ors.

On screen, Khan made a cameo in "Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos," which was released in theaters on Jan. 16, 2026, and is reported to be part of the Netflix romantic comedy "Adhure Hum Adhure Tum" with Bhumi Pednekar, which he has said is targeting a Dec. 18, 2026 release, according to the Times of India. The High Court is scheduled to resume hearing his petition on Nov. 2.

In the role, Kennedy will lead the delivery of all four ceremonies: the Olympic opening on July 14, 2028, and closing on July 30, and the Paralympic opening on Aug. 15 and closing on Aug. 27, Variety reported. The Olympic opening ceremony will be held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Exposition Park and SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, the Los Angeles Times reported. The Associated Press, in a report published by Los Angeles Times en Español, said the Olympic closing ceremony and the Paralympic closing ceremony will both take place at the Coliseum, while the Paralympic opening will be held at SoFi Stadium.

What LA28 and Kennedy said

LA28 chairperson and president Casey Wasserman praised the appointment in a statement. "Kathleen is a legend. She is one of Hollywood's all-time greats, with a rare gift for storytelling," Wasserman said, according to Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter. "When the stars align to focus the world's attention on Los Angeles for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, I can't think of anyone better to conjure the magic of Hollywood than Kathleen."

The organizing committee's announcement said the appointment "reinforces LA28's commitment to harness the unparalleled creativity, cultural influence and storytelling power of the entertainment capital of the world," the Los Angeles Times reported, adding that the goal is "ceremonies that are distinctly Los Angeles and leave a lasting impression on the global stage."

Kennedy said she and her husband, producer Frank Marshall, have long followed the Games. "The Olympics have been a touchstone in my life. My husband, Frank Marshall, and I have attended virtually every Games since Los Angeles in 1984, and sport remains one of the great unifying experiences we share," she said, as quoted by The Hollywood Reporter. "Peter Rice has laid a terrific foundation, and I can't wait to get to work with Ben Winston, our creative director, and the whole LA28 team."

She also said, according to Variety, that "Casey Wasserman has a bold vision for what these Games can mean for Los Angeles and the world, and I'm thrilled he's asked me to help bring it to life."

The ceremonies team and Peter Rice's move to Netflix

Kennedy joins a team that includes executive producer and creative director Ben Winston and Scott Givens, a longtime Olympic and Paralympic ceremonies producer who serves as executive producer of production, according to TheWrap and Deadline. The ceremonies will be produced with support from FulFive, a newly created joint venture of Fulwell Entertainment and FiveCurrents, the outlets reported.

Rice, the former chairman of Walt Disney Television, was hired to run the LA28 ceremonies in June 2025, Deadline reported on Oct. 15, when it first said he would remain an executive producer on the ceremonies. That same day, Netflix announced that Rice would become its chief content officer effective Oct. 26, replacing Bela Bajaria, who is leaving the company after nearly 10 years. Netflix said Rice will oversee scripted and unscripted series, film, live events and more across all regions.

TheWrap reported that, after the Netflix announcement, many in the industry had wondered how Rice could manage the streaming role while continuing to lead LA28's ceremonies operations.

Kennedy's career and Lucasfilm exit

Kennedy, who is 73, according to the AP, has more than 100 film credits, TheWrap and The Hollywood Reporter reported. TheWrap said she has received eight best picture Oscar nominations, including for "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," "The Color Purple," "War Horse," "Lincoln," "Munich," "The Sixth Sense," "Seabiscuit" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." She co-founded Amblin Entertainment with Steven Spielberg, and the company she founded with Marshall made "The Sixth Sense," "Seabiscuit" and "Lincoln," according to the Los Angeles Times.

Reports differ slightly on the timing of her departure from Lucasfilm after 14 years as president. The Los Angeles Times, TheWrap and the AP said she stepped down in January, The Hollywood Reporter said she left earlier in 2026, and Variety said she left at the end of 2025. Variety reported that she maintains a relationship with the studio, with recent credits including "The Mandalorian and Grogu" and the upcoming "Star Wars: Starfighter," starring Ryan Gosling, which The Hollywood Reporter said is due in 2027.

The Hollywood Reporter also noted that Kennedy produced "Olympic Glory," a short documentary about the 1998 Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan, and that Marshall received an Olympic Shield in 2005 for more than a decade of service on the executive committee of the U.S. Olympic Committee.

Separately on Wednesday, LA28 unveiled "Stars Align" as the official slogan of the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline reported. Deadline noted that the Games and Wasserman have come under increasing scrutiny over costs and other issues. TheWrap reported that the LA28 board saw changes after the Epstein files revealed ties between Wasserman and Ghislaine Maxwell, that Wasserman left his agency, which has since been renamed, and that LA28 organizers stood behind him as chairman.

Hanzha said 13 people were injured, four of them in grave condition: an 11-year-old boy, men aged 40 and 53, and a 26-year-old woman, according to Interfax-Ukraine. He said the remaining injured were in moderate condition and that all were in the hospital.

What happened at the station

Ukraine's state railway operator, Ukrzaliznytsia, said a jet-powered drone hit one of the platforms where train No. 866, running from Dnipro to Zaporizhzhia, was standing, Ukrainska Pravda and Irish broadcaster RTÉ reported. Zaporizhzhia is about a two-hour train journey to the south, according to DW.

Ukraine's Air Force said four Russian jet-powered drones attacked the area at around 11 a.m. local time and that air defenses downed three of them before they reached their targets, the Kyiv Independent reported. Law enforcement officers also said the strike was launched at around 11:00 and that the drone hit an electric train waiting at the platform, according to Ukrainska Pravda.

The railway operator said people were on the platform even though a heightened-danger warning had been issued. "Despite an increased threat warning, people were on the platform," the company said, according to DW. Ukrzaliznytsia chief executive Oleksandr Pertsovskyi said in a statement quoted by Ukrainska Pravda: "An air-raid warning had been issued, but unfortunately there was a significant number of people on the platform."

Dnipro Mayor Borys Filatov said a civilian train had been hit. "A tragedy has occurred in Dnipro. A drone struck a passenger electric train," Filatov said on social media shortly after the attack, CNN reported. "Many people were killed. Many others were injured." Ukrainska Pravda reported that the mayor also urged that such strikes not be called "attacks on infrastructure facilities."

Zelensky calls for sanctions to stay in place

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the strike as "horrific," saying Russian forces had attacked a platform "where a regular commuter train and a regular passenger train were standing," Euronews reported. He said the attack showed that "fair and decisive actions by America and Europe are needed against Russian escalation," according to Euronews.

Zelensky also tied the strike to recent sanctions relief for Moscow. "Sanctions against Moscow and its war machine must not be eased for as long as this Russian war continues," he said, according to DW and CNN. CNN reported that U.S. President Donald Trump waived a slate of sanctions related to Russian fossil fuel sales earlier this month and announced he had agreed to allow Russian diesel exports to global energy markets. CNN also noted reports on Wednesday that Washington was in talks with the Kremlin to lift sanctions on Russia's sovereign wealth fund.

French President Emmanuel Macron expressed "deep concern" that Russia continues to "opt for escalation" by targeting civilians, DW reported. "Together, we must redouble our efforts to achieve a just and lasting peace and bring Russia to the negotiating table," Macron said on social media.

Ukraine's railways under repeated attack

The Dnipro strike is the latest in a series of Russian attacks on Ukraine's rail network. With commercial air travel in Ukraine shut down during the war, the railway has become essential for moving people and goods and for entering and leaving the country, DW reported. Ukrzaliznytsia told the AFP news agency that more than 5,800 trains had to be evacuated in September alone because of the threat of strikes, according to DW and Euronews.

The Kyiv Independent reported that Russia's use of jet-powered drones against railway facilities has led to strict rules during air raid alerts, with passengers often evacuated from trains in the countryside for hours until the all-clear. Passengers waiting at stations are likewise told to leave trains, the outlet reported.

Other strikes and upcoming talks

Russian forces also attacked other Ukrainian cities on Thursday. Around noon, Banderol cruise missiles struck the center of Chernihiv in northern Ukraine, killing two 15-year-old girls, regional governor Viacheslav Chaus said, according to the Kyiv Independent. City administration head Dmytro Bryzhynskyi said at least 23 people were injured there, including four children. In Kremenchuk, in Poltava Oblast, Russian drones struck an apartment building, killing at least three people and injuring 15, according to local authorities cited by the Kyiv Independent.

Overnight, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said "613 UAVs flew towards the Moscow region" between Wednesday night and Thursday morning, adding that 231 drones were destroyed on the approach to the capital, Euronews and RTÉ reported. Zelensky said on Sunday that Ukraine, the United States and Russia are set to hold trilateral talks in November in a bid to revive stalled peace negotiations, Euronews reported.

On the show, Dasha Burns and Adam Wren "weigh in on Democrats’ expensive push to keep Epstein in the midterms conversation," according to that morning's POLITICO Playbook newsletter, which ran under the headline "The Epstein election" and noted that Election Day was eight days away.

The spending behind the ads

The Senate Majority PAC, the super PAC aligned with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, has spent more than $20 million on Epstein-related ads in Senate races in Alaska, Maine, Iowa, Ohio, Kansas and Georgia, according to a spokesperson for the group quoted by Playbook. Across House and Senate races, Democrats have spent about $36 million on Epstein-related ads, Playbook reported, citing an AdImpact analysis. The Washington Examiner also reported both figures, citing POLITICO.

Playbook reported that the Epstein case has become shorthand for a broader Democratic argument about corruption, an issue that 88% of voters said they were extremely or very concerned about in a recent Fox News poll, compared with 85% for inflation and high prices. Jesse Stinebring, co-founder and CEO of the Democratic firm Blue Rose Research, which works with the Senate Majority PAC on polling used to inform the ads, told Playbook: "It’s a critical plank in a larger argument that we’re prosecuting the cycle." He added: "I think that Epstein has become emblematic of this larger system that Americans feel is rigged against them."

Earlier in October, POLITICO reported that internal Senate Majority PAC polling of more than 4,500 voters, conducted by Blue Rose Research, found that a 44% plurality of voters think the Epstein issue is "serious" and that Republicans should be held responsible. State-level research from the PAC found that the ads can shift races three to six points in Democrats' direction, according to the same report.

Republicans describe a turnout risk

According to Playbook, the ads are not necessarily meant to persuade Republican voters to back Democrats, but to keep some of them from voting at all. "It’s problematic," one senior Republican official working on midterm elections told Playbook. "It’s designed at making frustrated Republican voters who are a little soft right now more frustrated and more soft." A Republican pollster described the aim to Playbook as "Republican base suppression."

Playbook also described an ad from Scott Colom, the Democratic Senate nominee in Mississippi, featuring a lifelong Republican voter named Mark who broke with Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith over her vote to block the release of the Epstein files. Colom told Playbook that the voter had said, "They lied to me about that. They’ll lie to me about anything." A spokesperson for Hyde-Smith did not respond to a request for comment, Playbook reported.

The Washington Examiner reported that the ads typically focus on donors connected to Epstein, incumbents' votes against releasing the Epstein files or references to candidates in the files, and that some Republicans have run their own ads tying Democrats to sex offenders, including one targeting Kansas Senate candidate Adam Hamilton.

New POLITICO Poll and a House Democratic report

A POLITICO Poll published Wednesday, Oct. 28, in Playbook PM found that 55% of Democratic midterm voters say ads linking candidates to Epstein are fair game, and 35% say such an ad would make them think less of the candidate being attacked. Republican midterm voters were more divided, with 47% saying such ads are fair game and 35% saying they cross a line. The poll was conducted by PF Global.

Also on Oct. 26, House Judiciary Committee Democrats, led by ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin, released a staff report calling for an independent special counsel to investigate Trump's alleged ties to Epstein, according to a committee Democrats' press release and NBC News. "There is more than sufficient evidence to launch a criminal investigation," the report says, according to NBC News. Playbook reported that House Democrats are making clear they plan to continue that line of inquiry if they retake the majority.

Trump has repeatedly denied any knowledge of or involvement in Epstein's criminal activity, NBC News reported. White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis said, according to NBC News: "None of these allegations are true. This ‘report’ is nothing more than a desperate attempt by crazed Democrats to distract Americans from the surging Republican momentum driven by President Trump’s historic achievements."

Wilson will start out as a consultant, The Hollywood Reporter said. Variety reported that he will lead the company's podcast content acquisitions on a contract basis, and Deadline said he has been contracted by the streamer to lead its podcast acquisitions. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Fifteen years at Apple Podcasts

Wilson spent 15 years at Apple, where he worked across editorial, partner relations and marketing, according to Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter. TheWrap reported that he was at Apple from 2006 to 2020 and was one of the earliest members of the Apple Podcasts team. Variety said he most recently headed marketing for Apple Podcasts, partnered with podcasters and networks, and left the company in December 2020.

After Apple, Wilson became chief strategy officer at QCODE. TheWrap described Daylight Media as the company formerly named QCODE and said he served as its chief strategy officer from 2020 to 2026. Variety described the two as separate stops, reporting that he spent nearly six years at QCode before joining Daylight Media in the same position. Deadline said his QCODE role covered partnerships, marketing, distribution and content strategy.

QCODE produced scripted podcasts including "The Prophecy" with Kerry Washington, "Carrier" starring Cynthia Erivo and "Blackout" with Rami Malek, as well as "The Edge of Sleep" with creator Markiplier, TheWrap reported.

In a LinkedIn post announcing his exit from Daylight last month, quoted by TheWrap, Wilson wrote: "If you've worked with me for any amount of time, you know I'm happiest building." He added: "I've been thinking a lot about what creators actually need from platforms, and about community and in-person at a moment when trust online is thin. More soon."

Netflix's podcast slate

Netflix's first major podcast move came through a partnership with Spotify, announced in October 2025, covering select video podcasts from Spotify Studios and The Ringer, including "The Bill Simmons Podcast," "The Zach Lowe Show" and "The Rewatchables," The Hollywood Reporter reported. The streamer has since licensed podcasts from iHeartMedia and Barstool, according to the same report.

Variety reported that Netflix offers more than 60 video podcasts. Its original video podcasts include "The Pete Davidson Show," "Shut Up Evan" hosted by Evan Ross Katz, "Murder With My Husband," "The Puzzle Room With David Kwong" and "Allegedly," a true-crime podcast from NBC News correspondent Ellison Barber, according to Variety.

Licensed shows on the platform include Jay Shetty's "On Purpose" and Jake Shane's "Therapuss," TheWrap reported. Deadline said Netflix recently expanded its video partnership with iHeartMedia to add podcasts from Martha Stewart, Kate Hudson and her brother Oliver Hudson, and Lele Pons, and began streaming Charlamagne Tha God's live show "The Breakfast Club" in May.

Netflix has not released viewing figures for its podcasts, The Hollywood Reporter reported, and TheWrap noted that the company left video podcasts out of its viewership data for the first half of 2026.

Hire follows layoffs and leadership changes

The appointment comes two weeks after Netflix announced it would cut about 6% of its workforce, roughly 1,000 jobs, Variety reported. According to an email to employees from co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters cited by Variety, the cuts primarily affected product, technology, legal and HR teams. The co-CEOs wrote in the memo: "Our mission — to entertain the world — is ambitious, and delivering on it requires us to be disciplined about where we prioritize our people and resources."

The company has also overhauled its content leadership. Chief content officer Bela Bajaria, film chief Dan Lin and film executive Doug Belgrad were among the executives pushed out, according to Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. Veteran television executive Peter Rice was named to replace Bajaria, Variety and Deadline reported, and TheWrap said Wilson's appointment came just over a week after that change.

The results below are partial and unofficial. The Central Elections Committee (CEC) says hundreds of thousands of "double-envelope" ballots, mostly cast by soldiers, police officers, diplomats and others voting away from their home polling stations, have not yet been counted.

The latest count

On Wednesday, Oct. 28, the CEC published results covering 85.6% of all votes cast, according to The Times of Israel. That figure, timed at 2:32 p.m. Israel time (8:32 a.m. ET), includes about 93% of ordinary ballots. As of about 2:30 p.m. ET on Oct. 28, it remained the latest count available; the committee had said it did not expect to update the figures again soon.

At that count, seats were distributed as follows:

• Likud (Benjamin Netanyahu): 26
• Yashar! (Gadi Eisenkot): 21
• Joint List (Yousef Jabareen): 12
• Together / B'Yachad (Naftali Bennett): 12
• The Democrats (Yair Golan): 8
• Yisrael Beytenu (Avigdor Liberman): 7
• Ra'am (Mansour Abbas): 7
• United Torah Judaism: 7
• Otzma Yehudit (Itamar Ben-Gvir): 7
• Shas (Aryeh Deri): 7
• Religious Zionism–Zehut (Bezalel Smotrich and Moshe Feiglin): 6

That adds up to 53 seats for Netanyahu's bloc (Likud, Shas, United Torah Judaism, Otzma Yehudit and Religious Zionism–Zehut). The Eisenkot-led bloc (Yashar!, Together, The Democrats and Yisrael Beytenu) has 48. The two Arab-led parties, Ra'am and the Joint List, have a combined 19, which the Times of Israel called a historic high. Ynet and Israel National News reported the same seat distribution.

The Associated Press reported that with 85% of votes counted, Likud had 20.8% of the vote and Yashar 16.1%, and that Arab-led parties together had 14.9%.

Parties must pass a 3.25% threshold to win seats. According to the Times of Israel, three parties were below it at the latest count: the Reservists, led by Yoaz Hendel, at 2.6%; Amcha Yisrael (People of Israel), led by Ofer Winter, at 1.6%; and the Haredi Public at 0.2%.

What the Push post showed

The Israeli news account Push (@push.il) posted an earlier snapshot on Instagram on Oct. 28. Its graphic shows 4,421,561 of 5,695,682 votes counted, or 77.6%. At that stage Push put Likud at 27 seats, Yashar! at 22, Together at 12, the Joint List at 11, The Democrats at 8, four parties at 7 each, and Ra'am and Religious Zionism–Zehut at 6 each. Its bloc totals were 54 for Netanyahu, 49 for Eisenkot and 17 for the Arab parties.

Later counts moved several of those numbers. Likud and Yashar! each lost a seat, while the Joint List and Ra'am each gained one. That cut both main blocs by one seat and raised the Arab parties' total from 17 to 19. In both snapshots, neither bloc reaches 61. Push also stressed that its figures were interim and could change.

Partial counts shifted throughout election night and the following day. Earlier, with 70.7% counted, Ynet reported 54 seats for Netanyahu's bloc, 47 for Eisenkot's and 19 for the Arab parties.

Record turnout

Turnout at the close of polls was 77.7%, up from 70.6% in 2022, the Times of Israel reported. Israel National News said it was the highest turnout since 1999 and cited a figure of 80% for Arab Israelis.

Ballots still to be counted

The CEC said the remaining 7% of ordinary ballots need additional oversight. It initially put the number of outstanding double-envelope ballots at about 600,000, then revised that to an estimated 430,000 to 480,000, according to Ynet and the Times of Israel. The committee stressed that the estimate is preliminary because the envelopes are still being processed. With each seat worth roughly 40,000 votes, the Times of Israel said, these ballots represent about a dozen seats, though its analysis found historical trends suggest they are unlikely to break the deadlock between the blocs. A CEC official told the AP and Ynet that counting would run until Thursday evening. The Times of Israel reported that the full count is due Thursday afternoon, and that final official results are expected on Nov. 4.

Fraud claims and the committee's response

Likud said the election had been "stolen" by Arab parties and demanded an investigation, according to the Times of Israel. Likud has not publicly presented evidence for the claim. In a statement, the CEC said its election-integrity monitoring operation "as it does in every election" would examine all inquiries from parties about alleged errors or irregularities, and that it was reviewing Likud's request.

What happens next

President Isaac Herzog said he expects to receive the official results next week from Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, who chairs the CEC. He will then consult each Knesset faction about forming a government, the Times of Israel reported.

"We must do everything we can, certainly after yesterday, to avoid another round of elections. So I expect everyone who comes here to come with an open mind," Herzog said.

Under Israeli law, the president gives the task of forming a government to the lawmaker he judges most likely to succeed. That is usually, but not necessarily, the one recommended by the most Knesset members. The nominee has 28 days, which can be extended by 14. If the nominee fails, the president can choose a second lawmaker. If that attempt also fails, 61 lawmakers can ask the president, within a further 21 days, to assign the task to a particular member.

The coalition math is difficult. Netanyahu has called for a "strong, right-wing" government and ruled out partnering with Arab parties. Eisenkot has pledged to form a "Zionist government." Some leaders in his camp have ruled out relying on Arab parties, though Democrats leader Yair Golan has urged a coalition with them. During the campaign, Netanyahu's main rivals ruled out serving in a unity government under him, according to the Times of Israel. Until a new government is sworn in, Netanyahu stays in office as caretaker prime minister.

Official results are expected only after the double-envelope count is finished and the CEC certifies the tally. Seat numbers may still change before then.

Original report: Push (@push.il) on Instagram. iShook Daily verified and updated the figures against the sources below.

Sources

• Push (@push.il), Instagram post, Oct. 28, 2026: https://www.instagram.com/p/DfCWLimCxb9/
• The Times of Israel, "With over 85% of votes counted, pro-Netanyahu bloc gets 53 seats, Eisenkot-led bloc at 48 and Arab parties have 19": https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/with-over-85-of-votes-counted-pro-netanyahu-bloc-gets-53-seats-eisenkot-led-bloc-at-48-and-arab-parties-have-19/
• The Times of Israel, Oct. 28 liveblog (Likud fraud claim, CEC response, turnout): https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog-october-28-2026/
• The Times of Israel, "Herzog urges parties to avoid another election": https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/herzog-urges-parties-to-avoid-another-election-calls-for-open-mind-in-coalition-talks/
• The Times of Israel, "Caretaker role will limit Netanyahu though he'll retain war powers": https://www.timesofisrael.com/caretaker-role-will-limit-netanyahu-though-hell-retain-war-powers-as-possible-iran-attack-looms/
• Associated Press, "Israelis await final election results as Netanyahu rivals weigh joining forces with Arab parties": https://apnews.com/article/israel-elections-netanyahu-eisenkot-arab-coalition-results-d4680e90210c9a8611853fda9d0deb61
• Israel National News, "100% of regular votes counted: Neither bloc is victorious": https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/435272
• Ynet, "Israel election results: Netanyahu bloc at 53 seats, Eisenkot bloc at 48 as nearly all votes counted": https://www.ynetnews.com/article/hjnatbkaml
• Ynet, "Election Committee: Estimated Number of Double Envelopes Is 430,000-480,000": https://www.ynetnews.com/article/1ihq7kcd8
• The Times of Israel, "CEC estimates up to 480,000 ballots from troops, police, diplomats yet to be counted": https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/cec-estimates-up-to-480000-ballots-from-troops-police-diplomats-to-be-counted-worth-some-12-knesset-seats/
• Ynet, "70.7% of Votes Counted: Netanyahu Bloc at 54 Seats, Eisenkot at 47": https://www.ynetnews.com/article/id4ldfii7
• Central Elections Committee, national results (official, Hebrew/English): https://votes26.bechirot.gov.il/nationalresults?lang=en