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‘The Echo Chamber’ Review: Luca Marinelli, Alicia Vikander and Susan Sarandon Reverberate Through a Smoky, Somber Single-Location Love Story
Variety’s review assesses “The Echo Chamber,” a single-location romantic drama directed by Andrea Pallaoro, based on the final screenplay co-written by Bernardo Bertolucci before his death in 2018. The film, starring Alicia Vikander and Luca Marinelli as new lovers whose relationship is complicated by addiction and recovery, is praised for its visual beauty and restrained…
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Christian podcaster flashes menacing glare as he’s arrested for threatening to kill Trump
A Christian podcaster, Benjamin Azariah Southworth, 40, was arrested in Los Angeles after allegedly making repeated online threats to kill President Donald Trump, including calls for his execution. Southworth, host of the “Yass, Jesus!” podcast and a prominent LGBTQ+ rights advocate, has been charged with making harassing telephone calls, cyberstalking and threatening the president’s life,…
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It took two years, but Civilization 7 is finally reaching the Atomic Age with a free update
Firaxis Games is finally bringing an “Atomic Age” to Civilization 7, covering the 1950s to the mid-21st century, in a free update that will let players build nuclear weapons and see their civilisations take on modern-day appearances. The addition addresses a long-standing complaint about the 2025 strategy sequel, which launched without this staple era despite…
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Hikers stranded on Mount Shasta after relying on AI to plan trip, sheriff says
Three inexperienced hikers had to be rescued after becoming stranded overnight on California’s Mount Shasta, with authorities saying their reliance on an AI chatbot for trip planning was a “critical misstep” that contributed to the ordeal. The Siskiyou County sheriff’s office said the men, from Roseville, had used Google Gemini to plan their route and…
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How to set up ChatGPT’s parental controls to protect your teen
OpenAI launched ChatGPT for Teens in August as an educational, safety-focused version of its chatbot aimed at under-18s, offering stricter content controls and features meant to encourage healthier habits among young users. While the platform automatically enrols users it believes are minors, child safety experts have warned that the default settings don’t go far enough,…
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At Telluride Film Festival, Bill Gates Compares Lack of Control Over AI to HAL in ‘2001’: ‘You Could Say “Please Shut Down,” and It Would Say, “OK, I Took That Under Advisement, But…”‘
Speaking at the Telluride Film Festival, Microsoft founder Bill Gates warned that current AI systems lack meaningful human control, comparing them to HAL 9000, the rogue computer from “2001: A Space Odyssey” that ignored direct commands. He argued that instructions to AI systems get weighed against everything else the model has read or been told,…
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GSC Game World says there’s a reason it didn’t give Stalker 2 more time in the oven: ‘To make something better, you need to receive feedback, and this feedback should be fresh’
GSC Game World has explained why it chose not to delay Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl any further before release, saying that feedback from players needed to be gathered while it was still fresh and relevant to ongoing development. The Ukrainian studio’s comments speak to the wider pressures developers face when weighing extra polish time…
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Stella Parton condemns AI misinformation following her sister’s death
Stella Parton, sister of the late country music icon Dolly Parton, has publicly criticised what she called “fake AI garbage” and “snarky tweets” circulating in the wake of Dolly’s death. In an Instagram post, she thanked fans for genuine expressions of support but condemned strangers exploiting the family’s grief with AI-generated content and misinformation, saying…
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Political heavyweights clash over Budget tax plans and Trump’s Falklands signals
Laffer warns Labour against “taxing Britain to death” as Burnham backs public control; Hitchens questions the special relationship; plus Katie Taylor’s retirement, gambling site data breaches and a big Premier League weekend.
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How to find your iPhone even when it’s off
Apple’s Find My feature can still locate a lost or stolen iPhone even after it has been switched off or run out of battery, but only if certain settings are enabled in advance and the user acts quickly. This matters because a thief’s first move is often to power down a stolen device to prevent…