MagazinAisle

Author: rb809rb

  • Victor Wembanyama traveling with team for Game 3, but his status remains uncertain

    Victor Wembanyama traveling with team for Game 3, but his status remains uncertain

    Victor Wembanyama suffered a concussion during Game 2 of the Spurs-Blazers playoff series.

    SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Victor Wembanyama will travel with the San Antonio Spurs to Portland for games this weekend, even while continuing to complete the steps mandated by the league’s concussion protocol.

    That said, Spurs coach Mitch Johnson stopped short of saying Wembanyama will play. Wembanyama is “progressing,” Johnson said, but his status for Game 3 of the matchup remains uncertain.

    Wembanyama was at the team’s practice facility for a second consecutive day on Thursday, walking around in a black hoodie and gray sweatpants. He even got a few shots up, teammate Julian Champagnie said.

    “He was only around for a little bit this morning,” Spurs guard De’Aaron Fox said Thursday. “Obviously, we just want him to be healthy.”

    Wembanyama — the league’s first-ever unanimous Kia Defensive Player of the Year and one of three finalists for the Kia Most Valuable Player award — suffered the concussion in the Spurs’ Game 2 loss to Portland on Tuesday night, leaving the game in the second quarter.

    Game 3 of the series — tied at a game apiece — is Friday in Portland (10:30 p.m. ET, Prime Video), followed by Game 4 there on Sunday. The Spurs were flying to Portland on Thursday afternoon.

    There are very specific steps that players have to clear before being removed from the league’s concussion protocol. Players begin the return-to-play process with light exertion — such as riding a stationary bike, jogging, agility work and non-contact basketball drills — and each step is followed by another neurological examination.

    Wembanyama’s results will also be compared to his baseline neurological evaluation — which players undergo prior to each season — before doctors permit him to move forward in the return-to-play plan.

    “It’s pretty straightforward,” Johnson said. “Obviously, we hope he’ll be back at some point. But we’ll allow the protocol to play out. And again, there’s nothing more important than his health.”

    Any extended absence by Wembanyama would be a massive blow to San Antonio, which finished with the league’s second-best record behind the versatile 7-foot-4 center from France. They were 12-6 in the regular season without Wembanyama.

    Wembanyama averaged 25 points, 11.5 rebounds, 3.1 assists and a league-best 3.1 blocks per game this season. He was also with his teammates on Wednesday evening, when they all donned cowboy hats and surprised teammate Keldon Johnson after he was announced as the league’s Kia Sixth Man of the Year.

    “We know that he’s chomping at the bit to get back on the court and be with his guys,” Johnson said.

  • AJ Dybantsa announces he is entering 2026 NBA Draft

    AJ Dybantsa announces he is entering 2026 NBA Draft

    BYU standout AJ Dybantsa averaged 25.5 ppg last season.

    AJ Dybantsa has made it official: He’s entering the NBA draft.

    The BYU forward — widely expected to be a top candidate to be the No. 1 pick — made the announcement Thursday. Dybantsa led the nation by averaging 25.5 points per game in his lone college season, along with 6.8 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game.

    He’s the first player to have a season with all those averages and be named a consensus All-American since Larry Bird did it for Indiana State in 1978-79.

    “Now the work starts again, all over again,” Dybantsa said. “I’ve had a lot of NBA players tell me that it kind of restarts once you get there. I’m just looking forward to that next step, being a rookie and learning from all the vets.”

    Dybantsa made the announcement at the Davis School in his hometown of Brockton, Massachusetts — the home of boxing greats Rocky Marciano and Marvin Hagler, among others.

    “It’s the city of champions,” Dybantsa said. “I just want to be considered like one of those champions.”

    Dybantsa attended the Davis School until fifth grade and said he still values the lessons instilled in him there, including the importance of education. That’s part of the reason why, even though he’s going to the NBA, Dybantsa said he will simultaneously remain in school and continue working toward a mass communications degree at BYU.

    “My mom wanted me to stay in college to graduate,” Dybantsa said. “But I told my mother that I’m going to declare for the draft and also finish and get my degree online. I’ll probably finish within the next four years.”

    The NBA Draft Lottery 2026 will be held on Sunday, May 10 and air live on ABC at 3 p.m. ET. The first round of NBA Draft 2026 will take place on Tuesday, June 23, and the second round will take place on Wednesday, June 24.

    The Washington Wizards, Indiana Pacers and Brooklyn Nets all have a 14% chance of landing the No. 1 overall pick. When asked what team he would like to play for in the NBA, Dybantsa gave an immediate answer.

    “Whatever team drafts me, bro,” Dybantsa said.

    He’s not lacking for confidence and hopes to give another speech in Massachusetts — the home of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame — when his playing career is over.

    “The next speech — the next big, big speech — I should have is the Hall of Fame speech,” Dybantsa said. “So, we should be good.”

    Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

  • Google Takes Aim at Nvidia With New Tensor Chips to Power AI Boom

    Google Takes Aim at Nvidia With New Tensor Chips to Power AI Boom

    In brief

    • Google introduced eighth-generation Tensor Processing Units with two architectures: TPU 8t for training and TPU 8i for inference.
    • TPU 8t delivers nearly 3x the compute performance per pod over previous generations, scaling to 121 ExaFlops.
    • TPU 8i features 3x more on-chip memory to handle the iterative demands of AI agents.

    Google unveiled two AI processors at its Cloud Next 2026 conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday, marking the company’s eighth generation of custom silicon designed to challenge Nvidia’s AI chip dominance.

    The training-focused TPU 8t delivers nearly 3x the compute performance per pod compared to its predecessor, with a single superpod scaling to 9,600 chips and delivering 121 ExaFlops of compute capacity. The architecture also offers 2.8x better price-to-performance, according to Google.

    The TPU 8i takes a different approach, optimizing for inference workloads with 3x more on-chip SRAM than previous generations—384 MB of on-chip SRAM paired with 288 GB of high-bandwidth memory. The chip delivers up to 80% better performance per dollar and 2x the performance per watt, the company claimed.

    Both chips leverage Google’s new Boardfly architecture, which achieves up to a 50% improvement in latency for communication-intensive workloads by reducing network diameter, the technical documentation shows.

    The hardware announcement follows Google’s expanded partnership with Anthropic earlier this month, which will provide the AI startup with multiple gigawatts of next-generation TPU capacity. The deal highlights how Google is leveraging its custom silicon to attract major AI companies seeking alternatives to Nvidia’s GPUs in the increasingly competitive infrastructure market.

    Google CEO Sundar Pichai positioned the chips as purpose-built for AI agents, stating they deliver the massive throughput and low latency needed to concurrently run millions of agents cost-effectively. The company has already secured adoption from Citadel Securities, with the financial services firm choosing TPUs to power their AI workloads.

    The dual-chip strategy reflects the diverging computational needs of modern AI systems: massive parallel processing for training frontier models versus rapid, memory-intensive operations for deploying those models as interactive agents.

    Pichai said Wednesday that Google is on track to spend up to $185 billion this year alone to power AI infrastructure for the “agentic era,” with the firm already generating nearly 75% of its new code with AI under the watchful eye of engineers.

    Daily Debrief Newsletter

    Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.

  • World Cup 2026: Italy government officials slam idea of taking Iran’s place

    World Cup 2026: Italy government officials slam idea of taking Iran’s place

    Italian government officials have hit back at suggestions that their national football team could still be sent to the World Cup 2026, even if already-qualified Iran does not compete at the finals.

    Since the United States-Israeli war on Iran began on February 28, Iran’s participation in this summer’s edition of FIFA’s global showpiece has been in doubt because all of the country’s group-stage matches are scheduled to be played in the US.

    Recommended Stories

    list of 4 itemsend of list

    The tournament is co-hosted with the US by Canada and Mexico, leading to suggestions that Iran’s games could be played at alternative venues.

    The speculation about Iran’s participation has been rife, with officials from both Iran and the US weighing in on the topic, including US President Donald Trump.

    In a statement on Wednesday, however, Iran’s government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said all necessary arrangements for the team’s effective participation in the tournament have been ensured by the Ministry of Sports and Youth.

    An envoy for Trump, though, has been quoted as suggesting that Italy, who have failed to qualify for the World Cup for a third straight edition, should replace Iran at this year’s World Cup.

    Paolo Zampolli, an Italian-American who is ⁠a US envoy for global relations, told the Financial Times that he made the suggestion to both Trump and FIFA President Gianni Infantino.

    “I’m an Italian native, and it would be a dream to see the Azzurri at a US-hosted tournament. With four titles, they have the pedigree to justify inclusion,” said Zampolli, who has no official connection with the World Cup ⁠or Italian football.

    The plan seems to be an effort by Zampolli to repair ties after Trump and Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni fell out amid the US leader’s attacks against Pope Leo XIV over the Iran war.

    The suggestion, though, did not come from Trump or anyone within his administration.

    Italian Sports Minister Andrea Abodi has rebuked the idea, saying “it ‌is not appropriate… You qualify on the pitch,” while Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti described the concept as “shameful”.

    The suggestion has also provoked embarrassment from Azzurri fans, with Italian media reminding readers that the idea has a very familiar feel.

    Italy’s main sports news websites gave the story only a passing reference, but politicians and officials were quick to reject the idea.

    “First of all, I don’t think it’s possible,” Italian Olympic Committee President Luciano Buonfiglio said. “Second, I’d feel offended. In order to go to the World Cup, you have to earn it”.

    Leading Italian coach Gianni De Biasi told Reuters it was an unlikely proposal, with any theoretical Iranian absence logically to be filled by the team behind them in the qualifiers.

    “Furthermore, I believe Italy doesn’t need Trump’s support on an issue like this. I think we can manage on our own,” he said.

    David Aganzo, president of Spain’s Association of Footballers and former head of the global players’ union FIFPRO, was a little more cautious, saying: “People who want to go to the World Cup have to earn their place on sporting merit. We all agree on that, and we’re going to make that clear to FIFA.

    “But let’s take a look at the issues involved, as there may be different perspectives or situations in this regard that we might ⁠not be aware of.”

    Football’s world governing body FIFA responded by pointing to Infantino’s previous comments on Iran’s participation.

    “The Iranian team is coming, ⁠for sure,” he told last week’s CNBC Invest in America Forum: “They really want to play, and they should play. Sport should be outside politics.”

    Italy missing third successive World Cup

    Currently, there is no suggestion that Iran will withdraw or be banned from the tournament, which Italy missed out on after losing in ⁠a playoff for the third World Cup in a row.

    Iran qualified for a fourth successive World Cup last year but, after the start of the war, requested that FIFA move the team’s three group matches from the US to Mexico – a suggestion that was rejected.

    Iran is seemingly ⁠proceeding as planned. “We are preparing and making arrangements for the World Cup, but we are obedient to the ⁠decisions of the authorities,” Iranian football federation President Mehdi Taj told reporters at a pro-government rally in Tehran on Wednesday.

    Four years ago, Zampolli, when he was a United Nations ambassador, wrote to Infantino saying that “the world is demanding” that he disqualify Iran because of the country’s poor human rights record. He suggested then that the team be replaced with Italy.

    The request was ignored as Iran took part and went out after the group stage, having lost to England and ‌the US and beaten Wales.

    In the seemingly unlikely scenario of Iran being excluded, the decision on who would replace them lies in the hands of FIFA, which, under Article Six of the World Cup regulations, is at liberty to call up any nation it chooses.

    The Asian Football Confederation would be expected to lobby hard for the replacement to come from ‌Asia, with the United Arab Emirates, who lost a qualifying playoff to Iraq last November, the obvious choice.

    The World Cup gets under way on June 11 with Iran scheduled to kick off their campaign against New Zealand in Los Angeles four days later.

  • US reclassifies some marijuana products as less dangerous drug

    US reclassifies some marijuana products as less dangerous drug

    Step is latest example of shift away from heavy penalisation that has given way to widespread legalisation efforts.

    By Reuters and The Associated Press

    Published On 23 Apr 2026

    The United States has announced it will reclassify state-licensed medical marijuana as a less dangerous drug, a step in line with a growing trend away from penalising its possession.

    The Department of Justice clarified on Thursday that the change does not legalise recreational or medical marijuana under federal law.

    Recommended Stories

    list of 3 itemsend of list

    But it does move certain marijuana products from the Schedule I category to the less restrictive Schedule III on the federal government’s five-tier system for regulating drugs.

    Schedule III is for substances with “a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence”.

    “This rescheduling action allows for research on the safety and efficacy of this substance, ultimately providing patients with better care and doctors with more reliable information,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement.

    Advocates of looser restrictions have long argued that placing marijuana in the same category of highly addictive drugs as heroin has led to disproportionate rates of arrest and incarceration.

    They also point to the medical benefits that some patients describe from marijuana usage, as well as lower barriers to marijuana-related research.

    Blanche has previously said that the US government would fast-track the process for a broader reclassification of marijuana, with hearings set to begin in June.

    Once the focus of law enforcement efforts that swept millions of people into the US criminal justice system, marijuana has gradually seen more mainstream acceptance in recent years.

    In December, President Donald Trump issued an executive order calling on the Justice Department to loosen marijuana restrictions. His Democratic predecessor Joe Biden had taken similar steps to reclassify marijuana, but the process had not been finalised by the time he left office in January 2025.

    Marijuana is currently legal in some form in 40 US states, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found that one in five people in the US reported using marijuana in the last year.

    A 2024 poll by the Pew Research Center found that 57 percent of US adults said that marijuana should be legal for both recreational and medical purposes, while 32 percent indicated it should only be legal for medical purposes. Just 11 percent said the drug should not be legal at all.

    Companies offering cannabis products have also become a lucrative industry, with the market researcher BDSA predicting $47bn in legal sales in 2026.

  • David Harbour Sets Emmy Bid for ‘DTF St. Louis’ in Supporting Actor With Multiple Noms in Play (EXCLUSIVE)

    David Harbour Sets Emmy Bid for ‘DTF St. Louis’ in Supporting Actor With Multiple Noms in Play (EXCLUSIVE)

    We now know who killed Floyd Smernitch — and the man behind him could be headed to the Emmys stage.

    “DTF St. Louis,” the HBO Max limited series, is materializing as a formidable contender in this year’s Emmy race, with star David Harbour now positioned as a major player for his first career win.

    Variety has learned exclusively that Harbour, who plays Floyd Smernitch — an American Sign Language interpreter found dead and tied to a local dating app — will be submitted in the supporting actor (limited or anthology series or movie) category. He joins his cast ensemble of Jason Bateman and Richard Jenkins, also in the supporting actor category, while Linda Cardellini and Joy Sunday will compete in supporting actress, as Variety previously announced.

    The series centers on a tangled love triangle involving Clark Forrest (Bateman), Floyd Smernitch (Harbour) and Carol (Cardellini). When Floyd is discovered dead at a community pool, surrounded by a poisonous cocktail and a vintage “Playgirl” magazine, two detectives (Jenkins and Sunday) begin unraveling the bizarre chain of events leading to his death. The series was created, written and directed by Steven Conrad, known for “The Pursuit of Happyness” (2006) and “Wonder” (2017).

    Harbour’s presence on TV and film circuit this year puts him in a position to make a sizable impact during the season with multiple opportunities at gold. In addition to his acting submission, he is also eligible for a nom as an executive producer on the HBO Max miniseries, which is looking more viable by the day.

    The project began development in 2022 with Harbour and Pedro Pascal attached to star, drawing early inspiration from James Lasdun’s New Yorker article, “My Dentist’s Murder Trial: Adultery, False Identities, and a Lethal Sedation.” By 2024, Pascal had exited, Bateman joined the cast, and the creative direction shifted to an original concept. Harbour executive produces alongside Bateman for Aggregate Films, with Lasdun, Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal and Steve Tisch for Escape Artists, Molly Allen, Bruce Terris and Michael Costigan for Aggregate Films, Kristina Wenson for Bravo Axolotl, and MGM Television. The ensemble also includes Jenkins, Sunday, Peter Sarsgaard, Chris Perfetti and Wynn Everett.

    Harbour could also factor into the supporting drama actor race for his role as the hardened sheriff and father figure Jim Hopper in the fifth and final season of Netflix blockbuster series, “Stranger Things,” for which he previously earned Emmy nominations in 2017 and 2018.

    At 51, Harbour’s imposing physicality has long made him a natural fit for genre and superhero fare. But in “DTF St. Louis,” he delivers his most tender and human performances to date. Beyond the series’ provocative premise, its most resonant moments belong to Harbour. Whether Floyd performs an ASL interpretive dance at a concert as his wife watches adoringly, or his final shot through the window signing, “I love you,” he breaks your heart and makes the audience fall in love with him, every step of the way.

    Floyd’s innate goodness radiates throughout the performance, evoking the everyman appeal associated with actors like Tom Hanks — “America’s Dad” — while pushing Harbour into new emotional territory.

    “DTF St. Louis” is expected to be a centerpiece of the platform’s limited series push, alongside the anticipated “Half Man.” Both projects will compete for a limited number of nomination slots against strong Netflix entries, including “Beef,” “Lord of the Flies” and another Bateman-led project, “Black Rabbit.”

    HBO Max comes into the Emmy season with a deep bench of contenders, including drama series such as last year’s winner “The Pitt,” the third season of “Euphoria,” and freshman entries “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” and “Task.” On the comedy side, the platform is backing “Hacks,” “The Comeback” and “Rooster.”

    With Harbour committing to the supporting race, he could quickly emerge as a potential frontrunner for his first Emmy win, particularly in a category that may feature six to eight nominees. Much may depend on how performers from “Half Man” position their campaigns, but Harbour could resemble previous category winners such as Paul Walter Hauser’s thematic central figure in “Black Bird” (2023).

    The supporting actor (limited) category could ultimately mimic the 2022 year, when only three series dominated the field: “The White Lotus” and “Dopesick” accounted for three each, alongside a lone entry from “Pam and Tommy” (Seth Rogen). This year, a similar consolidation could occur, with “DTF St. Louis” (Harbour, Bateman, Jenkins), “Half Man” (Richard Gadd, Stuart Campbell or Jamie Bell and Mitchell Robinson) and “Beef” (Charles Melton, Song Kang-ho) potentially filling much of the slate, with additional contenders such as “Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette” (Alessandro Nivola) and “Lord of the Flies” (David McKenna and Lox Pratt) also in the mix.

    This year’s Emmy timeline begins with nomination-round voting from June 11-22, followed by nominations on July 8.

  • Rivian begins production on the R2 electric SUV

    Rivian has begun production of its R2 SUV. However, you can’t get one just yet: The first customer deliveries (of the most expensive version) aren’t expected until later this spring.

    On Wednesday, CEO RJ Scaringe drove the first electric SUV off the production line at the company’s Normal, IL, factory. A storage and logistics building at that factory was damaged by a tornado last weekend, with Wednesday’s rollout event seemingly designed to reassure nervous customers and investors.

    “We are really excited to be producing R2 for our customers,” Scaringe is quoted as saying in a news release. However, Rivian CFO Claire McDonough told Reuters that customers won’t be able to configure their vehicle orders until June. Electrek reports that these first units rolling out now are going to Rivian employees.

    Rivian

    If you were drawn to the R2’s $45,000 starting price, well, Rivian won’t have any of those for a while. First off the line (this spring) is the Launch Package, starting at $57,990. A Premium trim, expected late 2026, will cost $53,990. Then, in the first half of 2027, a Standard (RWD long range) variant arrives at $48,490. And as for that headline-grabbing $45,000 base-model R2, I hope you like waiting. It won’t be here until late 2027.

    The Rivian R2 was revealed in 2024. Smaller and lighter than the flagship R1, the company is positioning the EV as its answer to Tesla’s best-selling Model Y. All versions of the new two-row SUV are rated for at least 300 miles per charge. Each trim has a native NACS charge port. The vehicle can charge from 10 percent to 80 percent in under 30 minutes when using a DC fast charger.

  • Coinbase, Ripple and 100+ crypto firms urge Senate to more forward on Clarity Act markup

    Coinbase, Ripple and 100+ crypto firms urge Senate to more forward on Clarity Act markup

    Coinbase, Ripple, Kraken and more than 100 crypto companies and industry groups are urging the Senate Banking Committee to move forward with a markup of the CLARITY Act, according to a joint industry letter published earlier today.

    1/ Today, @BlockchainAssn and @crypto_council, joined by a broad coalition of more than 120 organizations from across the digital asset ecosystem, urged the Senate Banking Committee to move forward with a markup on market structure legislation.

    Years of bipartisan work have… pic.twitter.com/JM9kWsubqC

    — Blockchain Association (@BlockchainAssn) April 23, 2026

    The letter, led by the Crypto Council for Innovation and the Blockchain Association, argues that the US needs a comprehensive federal market structure framework for digital assets and warns that delay risks pushing investment, jobs and technological development offshore.

    The renewed industry push lands after months of slippage in Washington. Senate Banking Republicans released fact sheets for the CLARITY Act in January ahead of an expected markup, presenting the bill as a framework that would draw clearer lines between SEC and CFTC oversight, strengthen disclosures, protect software developers, and address illicit finance.

    But the committee postponed its planned January debate after Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong publicly opposed the draft, arguing that parts of the bill would weaken the CFTC’s role and effectively kill stablecoin rewards. Disagreements over those stablecoin provisions had already divided lawmakers and industry participants, forcing the bill off its original schedule.

    Since then, the legislation has remained stuck in negotiations. The market structure bill was still stalled in the Senate Banking Committee in March because of an ongoing fight between the banking industry and crypto firms over stablecoin rewards.

    The latest delay pressure has only intensified. Galaxy said this week that the CLARITY Act passed the House in July 2025 by a 294 to 134 vote and has been under intensive Senate negotiations since January. Galaxy also said the Senate Banking Committee had been widely expected to announce a markup for the last week of April, but that timetable began slipping after Senator Thom Tillis said the panel should wait until May before scheduling it.

    The groups say Congress must move quickly to establish a predictable federal baseline, preserve US leadership in digital asset innovation, and provide legal clarity that regulators alone cannot guarantee.

    They also highlight several priorities, including keeping activity based consumer rewards tied to payment stablecoins, preserving a clear division of labor between the SEC and CFTC, protecting developers and service providers tied to decentralized technologies, and improving disclosure and token certification rules.

  • Warnings from a Chinese Bitcoin Whale: “The Strait of Hormuz Issue Is Being Underestimated—Be Careful”

    Despite rising geopolitical risks in global markets, the continued rise in risky assets signals a serious vulnerability, according to some analysts.

    Bitcoin whale Garrett Jin stated that the Strait of Hormuz crisis has been seriously underestimated by the market and that a solution has yet to be found.

    According to Jin, the fact that Brent oil prices are trading around $103 while the S&P 500 index is reaching record highs is one of the clearest indicators of the disconnect in the markets. According to Goldman Sachs Prime Brokerage data, the global short/long ratio rose to 7.6:1 in March, marking the fastest net sell-off in 13 years. The 7.1% rise in a single day in the bank’s basket of the 50 most shorted stocks following the ceasefire announcement, according to analysts, points to a classic “short covering” movement rather than strong buying appetite.

    During the same period, trend-following funds (CTAs) directed record levels of capital into US equities, the “Big Seven” (major technology stocks) recovered 20% from their March 30 lows, and the NASDAQ Composite index recorded its longest winning streak since 1992.

    Related News JUST IN: Tether Carries Out Its Largest Asset Freeze to Date – Two Wallets Holding $344 Million Frozen

    However, Jin argues that the fundamental assumptions supporting this rise have not materialized. Expectations such as the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, falling oil prices, declining inflation, and a Federal Reserve interest rate cut have all failed to materialize.

    Indeed, recent developments support this view. After Iran announced on April 17th that the strait was “fully open,” Brent oil prices fell by 9% to $90. However, less than 24 hours later, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard opened fire on oil tankers and declared that “every ship will be hit,” forcing at least nine tankers to turn back. Today, it was reported that Iran fired on three more ships and seized two others. These developments have led to interpretations that a de facto two-way blockade has formed between the US and Iran, while Brent oil has risen again to $103.

    Risks are also increasing in the global logistics sector. According to the CEO of German shipping giant Hapag-Lloyd, rebuilding the maritime shipping insurance system will take at least 6-8 weeks. Furthermore, events such as Israel’s attacks on the South Pars natural gas field, Iran’s targeting of the Ras Laffan LNG facility in Qatar, and damage to industrial infrastructure in the UAE are said to have caused damage to energy infrastructure that could last for months or even years.

    According to the analyst, this indicates that despite seemingly high risk appetite, systemic vulnerabilities are steadily increasing.

    *This is not investment advice.

  • ‘Nanny Diaries’ Series in the Works at Netflix, Scarlett Johansson Exec Producing

    Netflix is eyeing an early 2000s bestseller for its next series adaptation of a book.

    The streamer is developing a show based on The Nanny Diaries, a 2002 novel by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus. Scarlett Johansson, who starred in the 2007 feature film based on the book, will serve as an executive producer on the project from Warner Bros. Television and Berlanti Productions.

    Amy Chozick (The Girls on the Bus) and Jenny Bicks (Sex and the City, HBO’s Divorce) are adapting the novel and will serve as showrunners on the potential series.

    Whereas the film more or less followed the book’s plot, the series description suggests a somewhat different take. “Annie, a broke, aspiring writer in search of a story, takes a nanny job for a magnetic Upper East Side socialite, plunging into an elite world of unimaginable excess,” the logline reads. “When she lands the book deal of her dreams to go undercover and expose the salacious lives of the ultra-rich, Annie must try to keep up this double life even as she grows attached to the people and this world … and finds out what her elusive boss is actually capable of.” Authors McLaughlin and Kraus both worked as nannies before writing the book.

    The Nanny Diaries is the latest in a long string of literary adaptations at Netflix. The streamer recently ordered a series based on Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections, and Bridgerton, His & Hers and The Night Agent are among its biggest series so far this year.

    Chozick, Bicks and Johansson (via her These Pictures banner) will executive produce with Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter and Leigh London Redman of Berlanti Productions; Jonathan Lia and Keenan Flynn of These Pictures; and Gary Barber and Sean Hoagland of Spyglass Media Group.

    Deadline first reported the news.