Author: rb809rb

Chiba Institute Joins Theta Academic Network

Chiba Institute of Technology has joined Theta Network’s global academic network through a partnership with Theta EdgeCloud. The collaboration will give the university’s Takagi Laboratory and its Web3 club (which has more than 250 student members) access to decentralized computing resources for AI research, simulations, and student projects.

Theta Network is a decentralized computing network. Its EdgeCloud platform provides access to distributed GPU capacity through more than 30,000 edge nodes, offering an alternative to traditional cloud infrastructure.

The partnership includes Professor Toru Takagi and his laboratory, which researches systems using mathematical models that can be processed and simulated by computers. The lab also works on game theory, AI-based automated proving, and the modeling of cellular activity.

Image: Magnific

August 13, 2026
There’s Significant Whale Activity in Two Altcoins Today—Here Are Those Altcoins

The cryptocurrency market has seen a surge in on-chain activity from large investors. Recent data indicates strong accumulation and selling activity in Hyperliquid’s native token, $HYPE, while also showing millions of dollars in transfers in Chainlink ($LINK)-connected wallets.

According to on-chain data, a crypto whale bought another 40,000 $HYPE from Coinbase today, worth approximately $2.3 million.

It was stated that the wallet in question increased its total $HYPE holdings to 260,000 tokens through purchases made from Coinbase, Bybit, and other sources over the past two months. At current prices, the whale’s $HYPE position is worth approximately $15.1 million.

Another Hype Whale Goes on Sale

Another major investor reportedly invested 60,000 $HYPE in Hyperliquid and has begun selling.

The whale has so far earned approximately $1.77 million in exchange for 31,560 $HYPE. Additionally, it’s noted that two TWAP orders for selling $HYPE are still active in the wallet.

It was reported that one of the active orders is worth approximately 40,000 $HYPE, or $2.1 million, and has about 15 hours left to be completed.

The same wallet also sent approximately 1.67 million USDC to Coinbase.

On the Chainlink side, a different whale movement was observed. A large investor transferred approximately 213,810 $LINK, worth $1.87 million, to their Gnosis Safe wallet.

The whale withdrew the aforementioned amount of $LINK from Binance approximately two weeks ago. The transfer of the tokens from the centralized exchange to a self-custody platform like Gnosis Safe could be interpreted as an indication that the assets are not being held for short-term sale on the exchange. However, wallet transfers alone do not provide a definitive signal regarding an investor’s future transactions.

*This is not investment advice.

August 13, 2026
Trump-Controlled Kennedy Center Board Votes Again To Close Main Performing Arts Complex For Renovations

The Trump-controlled Kennedy Center board voted once again to close the arts institution for renovations, after a judge rejected a previous move to shutter the complex because it did not fully consider the scope of options and impacts.

At a meeting on Thursday, the board approved a plan in which the main complex would be shuttered but a newer extension, called The Reach, would still offer limited programming and as a memorial to John F. Kennedy, according to a source familiar with the deliberations.

The board will still have to submit its action to U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, who previously ruled that the closure plan needed to consider other factors, including programming. Cooper wrote that the board was “derelict” and “based its decision on an insufficient, one-sided presentation of information and neglected to consider the full range of its statutory obligations and potential adverse consequences of closure on programming and memorial functions.” His ruling left open the possibility of closure, but only if the board conducted a more comprehensive analysis.

In the same ruling, the judge ruled that the board overstepped its authority by adding Trump’s name to the center, ordering that it be taken down from its facade, website and other materials. A crew removed the lettering from the front of the complex in an overnight operation in June, but left up a tarp that now conceals much of the original name, The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.

The center is appealing the judge’s ruling.

The New York Times first reported on the board vote.

Congress appropriated $257 million in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act for Kennedy Center repairs and renovations. In February, Trump announced the plan to close the complex during the overhaul, and the board, in which he leads as chairman, endorsed the proposal the next month. But Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH) sued the center over the name change and the closure, arguing that it failed to fully account for the impact on programming, among other things. The plan also was approved amid declining attendance and a number of artists pulling out of shows after the name change.

The judge has ordered a status update on the center’s plans for construction and future operations by next week, as well as on the purpose for the tarp at the front of the complex.

The center’s final large events ended in early July, the original target date for closure, but there have been smaller performances at The Reach, which opened in 2019 as a major expansion on the complex’s south side.

More to come.

August 13, 2026
Where to Watch 2026 FedEx St. Jude Championship Online
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The 2026 FedEx Cup Playoffs commence on Aug. 13 as the top 69 golfers (formerly 70; Daniel Berger withdrew due to injury) compete in the St. Jude Championship. The four-day tournament, the first of three playoff events, has a $20 million purse at stake ($3.6 million for first place) and, of course, advancement to the BMW Championship. This year’s St. Jude Championship will air across CBS, ESPN and Golf Channel, all three of which can be livestreamed via DirecTV (with a five-day free trial) or Hulu + Live TV.

At a Glance: How to Watch FedEx St. Jude Championship 2026
Dates: Thursday, Aug. 13-Sunday, Aug. 16 (broadcast times below)

TV channels: CBS, ESPN, Golf Channel

Stream online: DirecTV, Hulu + Live TV
Since three primary TV networks share broadcasting rights of the tournament (CBS, ESPN and Golf Channel), neither Paramount+ (which will simulcast CBS’s two weekend windows) nor ESPN+ (which will simulcast ESPN’s linear TV coverage on Thursday and Friday mornings) will suffice for full event coverage — only partial. In a similar vein, live TV streaming service Fubo includes both CBS and ESPN (and also offers a five-day free trial), however, due to a carriage dispute, it does not currently carry Golf Channel.

Where to Watch FedEx St. Jude Championship 2026: Broadcast Schedule

The 2026 St. Jude Championship will be broadcast across CBS, ESPN and Golf Channel from Thursday, Aug. 13 through Sunday, Aug. 16.
Thursday, Aug. 13: 6-8 a.m. PT (9-11 a.m. ET) on ESPN; 11 a.m.-3 p.m. PT (2-6 p.m. ET) on Golf Channel

Friday, Aug. 14: 6-8 a.m. PT (9-11 a.m. ET) on ESPN; 11 a.m.-3 p.m. PT (2-6 p.m. ET) on Golf Channel

Saturday, Aug. 15: 10 a.m.-12 p.m. PT (1-3 p.m. ET) on Golf Channel; 12-3 p.m. PT (3-6 p.m. ET) on CBS

Sunday, Aug. 16: 9-11 a.m. PT (12-2 p.m. ET) on Golf Channel; 11 a.m.-3 p.m. PT (2-6 p.m. ET) on CBS
Note: ESPN+ (which is also available via DirecTV’s five-day free trial period) will air early morning coverage leading up to the National TV coverage listed above.

Where to Stream FedEx St. Jude Championship 2026 Live Online

The tournament will be broadcast across CBS, ESPN and Golf Channel, all of which can be livestreamed on any streaming service that carries said networks, namely DirecTV (with a five-day free trial) and Hulu + Live TV (more on each plan below). Since the tournament runs for four days and DirecTV’s free trial runs for five, new subscribers can enjoy full PGA Tour event coverage (via its Choice, Ultimate and Premier Signature packages) at no cost.

Alternatively, Fubo includes both CBS and ESPN (and also offers a five-day free trial), however, due to a carriage dispute, it does not currently carry Golf Channel, meaning select windows of coverage will be absent.

DirecTV

Five-day free trial; packages from $19.99 per month

CBS, ESPN and Golf Channel are included in DirecTV’s top three Signature packages: Choice, Ultimate and Premier. Plus, DirecTV offers a five-day free trial for its streaming service, meaning new subscribers can tune in at no cost for a limited time.

Hulu + Live TV

Three-day free trial; packages from $89.99 per month

Watch CBS, ESPN and Golf Channel with Hulu + Live TV, which offers a three-day free trial. Subscriptions come bundled with Disney+ and ESPN+, and start at $89.99 per month.
August 13, 2026
‘The Matrix’ Director Lilly Wachowski Says Hollywood Won’t Finance New Film With Trans Cast

Lilly Wachowski, who co-directed The Matrix franchise, is opening up about the struggle to get financing for her new film that features a “wall-to-wall trans cast.”

During a recent interview on KCRW’s The Business podcast, the filmmaker acknowledged that it’s unfortunately “not the greatest time in the industry to be trying to make these kinds of things because all of these opportunities are dwindling for folks with those kinds of stories to tell,” specifically those with “underrepresented voices and marginalized points of view.”

Wachowski used her next project, The Hunted, as an example, saying it’s been a challenge because when she showed the script around Hollywood, nobody wanted to finance the dystopian political thriller that’s budgeted at roughly $10 million.

“People like it, but they really don’t want to make it because it’s [got a] wall-to-wall trans cast,” she said of the film. “I have to get creative and figure out different ways that I can get this in front of people.”

Wachowski added that the script, which she co-wrote with her partner, Mickey Ray Mahoney, “was extremely important for me to write.” She continued, “It was a response to what is happening in the world for trans people, and it gave me a hugely cathartic receptacle to dump all of my anger and rage and frustration into.”

Despite her funding obstacles, Wachowski said she’s pivoted to other ways to get this story in front of people “that maybe isn’t a $10 million movie,” such as holding a live table read at Los Angeles’ Dynasty Typewriter theater earlier this month.

“I’m just going to go out and I’m going to grab that trans joy with all of my friends. And we’re going to hopefully experience this together.” Wachowski said of The Hunted table read. “It’s not the thing that I had imagined it was going to be, but the end result is the same.”

In addition to Wachowski and Mahoney, The Hunted is being produced by Lawrence Mattis and Sarah Marie Flores at Anarchists United and Natasha Lyonne at Ariadne Collective.

Wachowski is best known for helming 1999’s The Matrix, 2003’s The Matrix Reloaded and 2003’s The Matrix Revolutions alongside her sister, Lana Wachowski. She’s also directed 1996’s Bound, 2005’s Speed Racer, 2012’s Cloud Atlas and 2015’s Jupiter Ascending, as well as co-created the TV series Sense8.

August 13, 2026
Indian Freedom Fighter Bhagat Singh Series in Development at Collective Studios’ Historyverse (EXCLUSIVE)

A new original series exploring the life of Indian freedom fighter Bhagat Singh is in development at Collective Studios’ Historyverse.

The project is being made in association with Hathiramani Commercial Ventures and co-produced with investor and entrepreneur Manish Hathiramani, who marks his producing debut with the show.

The series is designed to move past the familiar episodes of Singh’s story and instead examine the man beneath the myth – his childhood, intellectual development and the social and political forces that shaped his convictions in early 20th-century India. Rather than revisiting the widely known chapters of Singh’s life, the show will track how his ideas evolved across the different stages of his journey, culminating in the revolutionary figure whose legacy continues to endure.

Sudeep Lahiri, head of channels and distribution at Collective Media Network, said: “There are some figures in our history whose stories we think we know completely. Bhagat Singh is one of them. But behind the icon was a young man whose ideas, influences and experiences shaped the person he would become. That is the story we are interested in exploring. Having Manish come on board as a co-producer makes this collaboration particularly exciting, because we share a strong belief in finding new perspectives within stories that have already been told many times and bringing them to audiences with scale and ambition.”

“Bhagat Singh is a figure whose life has always fascinated me, but what interests me most is the person before the legend,” Hathiramani added. “We know the revolutionary, the freedom fighter and the icon; this series gives us an opportunity to understand the many facets of Bhagat Singh’s life and the journey that shaped him. I am delighted to be producing this project with Historyverse and to bring a fresh perspective on his life and legacy to audiences.”

Title, cast and additional details are to be confirmed. Singh has been the subject of at least five Indian features, among them “Shaheed” (1965), “Shaheed-E-Azam” (2002), “23rd March 1931: Shaheed” (2002), “The Legend of Bhagat Singh” (2002) and “Rang De Basanti” (2006). The Bhagat Singh project joins a Historyverse slate that already encompasses titles drawn from Indian mythology and history, including projects centered on Shivaji and Swami Samarth.

August 13, 2026
Zurich Film Fest Galas Set for Award Contenders ‘I Play Rocky,’ ‘Possible Love,’ ‘Josephine’

The Zurich International Film Festival unveiled highlights from its gala program Thursday, with a selection of “auteur cinema for a broader audience” in the words of festival boss Christian Jungen —that should further cement Zurich’s position as a key international stop for awards season.

The gala lineup includes several of this year’s buzziest titles, among them Peter Farrelly’s I Play Rocky, Beth de Araújo’s Josephine starring Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan and Possible Love, the new drama from acclaimed Korean director Lee Chang-dong (Burning).

I Play Rocky, starring Anthony Ippolito as a young Sylvester Stallone, will have its world premiere in Toronto. Netflix title Possible Love premieres in Venice. Josephine screened at Sundance and Berlin.

Love, After All

c_Andres_Dresen_Kordes_und-Kordes_Film_Pandora

Zurich also announced three world premieres. Films from two of Germany’s most acclaimed directors: Love, After All from Andreas Dresen (Cloud 9) and Doris Dörrie’s How Can I Help? will both launch at the Swiss fest — “their films are grounded in everyday life and, with a little wink, reflect on the state of our society,” says Jungen — as will Simon Wallon’s documentary The Hammer, a look a famed auctioneer Simon de Pury.

How Can I Help?

Zeitsprung_Pictures_Wild_Bunch_Germany_Mathias_Bothor

The Hammer

Kiss__Kill

Other 2026 Zurich festival galas include 111 – Echoes from Halifax, a true-life drama from Mexican-Swiss director Mauro Mueller about the 1998 crash of Swissair Flight 111 off the coast of Halifax. The film will open this year’s Atlantic Film Festival in Halifax in its world premiere.

111 – Echoes from Halifax

Courtesy of the Zurich Film Festival

Three more Venice titles: Casey Affleck’s Company starring Nick Nolte and Ben Mendelsohn; Nanni Moretti’s It Will Happen Tonight with Louis Garrel and Jasmine Trinca; and the documentary Burgundy from The Truffle Hunters directors Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw will also screen as Zurich galas.

The 22nd edition of the Zurich Film Festival runs Sept. 24 – Oct. 4.

August 13, 2026
The AI-Generated Pattern Hides You From Surveillance Cameras—Including Flock
In brief

Bill Swearingen’s noRecognition project generates patterns that stop camera software from classifying what it covers—people, faces, or cars.

The patterns defeated all 11 open-source detection algorithms he tested, including the software behind Flock license plate readers, Axon body cameras, and Clearview AI.

The first public test came Friday at Def Con in Las Vegas: a 2009 Toyota Yaris wrapped in the pattern, driven past a Flock camera.
Bill Swearingen spent the past year running one experiment over and over from his home in Kansas City, where he co-founded the SecKC security meetup. About 31 million tests later, he says he can produce patterns on demand that hide whatever they cover from the detection software wired into Flock cameras—the controversial surveillance system being rolled out across America.

He showed it in public for the first time Friday at Def Con, working with the YouTube channel Donut Media to cover a 2009 Toyota Yaris in one of his newest patterns and roll it past a Flock camera.

Myriad: How many days will Claude go down in August? Click to make your prediction.

“We proved it was effective,” Swearingen told TechCrunch, though he said the wheels were a challenge. Donut Media said video of the demo lands in the next few weeks.

The pattern doesn’t blind the camera. Footage still records normally, and a human watching the screen sees a car. What breaks is the layer on top—the object-detection model that decides “that’s a vehicle, that’s a plate, log it.”

So basically, feed an AI detector with enough visual noise engineered against its own math and it logs nothing. The car goes back to being a needle in a haystack.

Image credit: Donut Media

That’s adversarial machine learning, and it works because computer vision doesn’t see what you see. A wrap that reads as loud graphic design to a person can read as nothing at all to a classifier.

Swearingen built it with a reinforcement learning model that grades its own homework. Pattern gets detected, model adjusts, tries again—what he described as teaching the model “how to paint.” It now spits out fresh patterns every minute, and he’s keeping the strongest ones offline so camera vendors can’t train against them.

“Privacy is a fundamental right,” he said, calling the patterns a way for people to “opt out of being tracked.” He said the idea took hold last year when he wanted to attend a protest and worried about the cameras logging everyone who showed up.

The long tail of hiding from machines

People have been improvising against detection systems for years, usually with hardware store solutions. San Francisco activists put traffic cones on the hoods of Waymo and Cruise robotaxis to freeze them in place, an exploit that needed no code at all.

During last year’s Los Angeles immigration raids, protesters went further and torched several Waymos. Masks, hoods, and brimmed caps remain the default on protest lines. Adversarial clothing labels have been selling face-confusing prints for years, and anti-recognition eyeglasses have arrived with thin evidence they do much.

What separates Swearingen’s project, which he calls noRecognition, is the target list. Swearingen tested against the specific stacks in wide deployment, and Flock is the one drawing heat. The company is facing a growing backlash on Capitol Hill, and internal documents show it pitched a plan to turn 350,000 Uber and Lyft dashcams into a rolling plate-scanning fleet.

Automated readers have already pulled over innocent drivers at gunpoint over bad matches, and immigrants and protesters keep getting swept into ICE’s AI dragnet. Lawmakers are pressing Meta over facial recognition in its smart glasses on a parallel track, so any legal measure to fight against automatic detection technology is being studied by privacy enthusiasts.

Swearingen’s noRecognition project is running a crowdfunding campaign to fund early merchandise—T-shirts and hoodies now, vehicle skins later. Swearingen said the goal is resolution high enough to work at a distance and design good enough that people will actually wear it.

Driving a wrapped car on public roads is its own legal question, and plate obstruction statutes vary by state. The patterns cover bodywork, not plates.

“Every failure improves my model, and so [the patterns] keep getting better and better,” Swearingen said.

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August 13, 2026
Andreas Dresen, Doris Dörrie Films to World Premiere at Zurich Film Festival

The world premieres of two major German films, Andreas Dresen’s “Love, After All” and Doris Dörrie’s “How Can I Help?,” are among 10 titles to feature in the Gala Premieres section of Zurich Film Festival.

The selection also includes Oscar contenders “I Play Rocky” and “Josephine,” and Switzerland’s most anticipated film, “111 – Echoes From Halifax.”

Christian Jungen, CEO of the festival, said the section is “dedicated to auteur cinema for a broader audience.”

“We are particularly delighted that two major figures of German auteur cinema, Andreas Dresen and Doris Dörrie, have entrusted us with the world premieres of their new films,” Jungen said. “Their films are grounded in everyday life and, with a little wink, reflect on the state of our society.”

He added, “We present films that will play an important role later in the award season, such as ‘I Play Rocky.’” The film tells the story behind the making of the cult classic starring Sylvester Stallone, which won the Academy Award for best picture in 1977.

Jungen explained that, from a Swiss perspective, “111 – Echoes From Halifax” deserves special mention. “From multiple perspectives, the film sheds light on a major event that shook our nation: the crash of a Swissair aircraft near Halifax,” he said.

The full program of the 22nd Zurich Film Festival, which runs Sept. 24 to Oct. 4, will be revealed on Sept. 9.

I PLAY ROCKY
European Premiere
Biography
U.S., 2026
Director: Peter Farrelly
Cast: Anthony Ippolito, Matt Dillon, Stephan James, AnnaSophia Robb, PJ Byrne, Toby Kebbell, Tracy Letts, Jay Duplass
Unknown actor Sylvester Stallone is writing a screenplay titled “Rocky” that a studio is desperate to acquire. But Stallone refuses to sell the rights – unless he gets to play the lead himself. Despite numerous setbacks and rejections, he remains determined to make his dream a reality: playing Rocky Balboa. The result is the ultimate underdog story behind the legendary underdog film.

JOSEPHINE
Drama
U.S., 2026
Director: Beth de Araújo
Cast: Channing Tatum, Gemma Chan, Mason Lily Reeves
When 8-year-old Josephine witnesses a violent crime, her world is out of joint. She is trying to find a way to regain a sense of security. While her emphatic mother (Gemma Chan) wants to help her process what happened, her father (Channing Tatum) believes in preparing Josephine for the harsher realities of life but increasingly finds himself overwhelmed by the situation. With the suspense of a thriller, director Beth de Araújo tells a deeply empathetic family drama about fear and the limits of parental care. Channing Tatum gives one of his strongest performances in this year’s great Sundance Film Festival sensation.

111 – ECHOES FROM HALIFAX
European Premiere
Drama
Switzerland, Canada, 2026
Director: Mauro Mueller
Cast: Ursina Lardi, Kris Holden-Ried, Djebril Zonga, Fathia Youssouf, Natalie Brown
On Sept. 2, 1998, the crash of Swissair Flight 111 off Halifax changes the lives of many people forever: relatives struggle for certainty about their loved ones, helpers try to offer comfort, and the residents of the Canadian coast are confronted with the traces of tragedy. As time passes and questions remain unanswered, the film shows how grief connects, relationships change, and new perspectives emerge. Mauro Mueller’s film is a quiet, poignant drama about loss, memory and the power of human closeness.

COMPANY
Mystery
Canada, U.S., UAE, 2026
Director: Casey Affleck
Cast: Nick Nolte, Ben Mendelsohn, Adelaide Clemens, Scoot McNairy, Emily Alyn Lind, Caylee Cowan
On a winter night in 1975, a mysterious woman named Evelyn arrives uninvited at a holiday gathering and tells the story of Tom, an aging hermit who rescues a stranded actress during a Colorado blizzard in 1953. To pass the night, the actress recounts an older tale of a farming couple who take in a troubled young drifter as a series of grisly murders spreads fear across the frontier. As the stories intertwine across generations, “Company” becomes a meditation on grief, vengeance, forgiveness and the quiet acts of compassion that can heal even the deepest wounds.

POSSIBLE LOVE
Drama
South Korea, 2026
Director: Lee Chang-dong
Cast: Jeon Do-yeon, Sul Kyung-gu, Zo In-sung, Cho Yeo-jeong
“Possible Love” follows the intertwined relationship of two married couples facing different paths and hidden desires. Mi-ok (Jeon Do-yeon) lives quietly with her laid-off husband Ho-seok (Sul Kyung-gu) and their young son Cheol until a funeral brings them into the orbit of Ye-ji (Cho Yeo-jeong), a documentary filmmaker chronicling laid-off workers, and her husband Sang-woo (Zo In-sung) – a couple whose affluent lifestyle stands in sharp contrast to their own. When Mi-ok agrees to be filmed, she grows close to Ye-ji, and finds herself uneasily drawn to the unreadable Sang-woo. As their worlds collide, fractures begin to appear in their daily existence. Marking his first release in eight years, highly acclaimed director Lee Chang-dong (“Burning,” “Poetry,” “Secret Sunshine”) brings his signature nuance to “Possible Love,” capturing shifting emotions, conflicts, and contrasting outlooks that shape these relationships.

LOVE, AFTER ALL
World Premiere
Tragicomedy
Germany, 2026
Director: Andreas Dresen
Cast: Dagmar Manzel, Joachim Król
Lore (Dagmar Manzel) and Harry (Joachim Król) have been married for nearly 40 years and there is rarely a moment of silence between them. Old stories, missed chances and the uncertainties of retirement fuel heated discussions. Lore is afraid of growing old and bitter in the garden alongside Harry while he longs for stability and peace. There is only one thing they agree on: Their daughter Gloria has little luck in love. Now, she wants to get married for the third time – this time to a wealthy man who is almost the same age as Harry. A warm-hearted love story inspired by real life, drawing the audience in with its authentic characters and lots of humor.

IT WILL HAPPEN TONIGHT
Romance
Italy, France, Spain, 2026
Director: Nanni Moretti
Cast: Louis Garrel, Jasmine Trinca, Hippolyte Girardot, Angela Finocchiaro, Melina Åkerman Kvie, Elena Lietti, Andrea Lattanzi, Antonio De Matteo, Nanni Moretti
I’ll wait for you, for as long as you want me to. But will it ever happen?

BURGUNDY
Documentary
France, 2026
Director: Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw
Cast: Enzo Ferraroli, Céleste Kalis, Eric Goettelmann, Patrick Maniere, Guillaume Baroin, Bertrand Devillard
Burgundy is one of the world’s most famous wine regions. Through the eyes of novices in hospitality and viticulture, the film offers a fascinating glimpse into its unique wine culture, where time-honored traditions live on in rituals centered on luxury and indulgence. Blending documentary and fictional elements, directors Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw pay homage to the remarkable and charming people whose zest for life shapes and preserves this unique region and its centuries-old culture.

HOW CAN I HELP?
World Premiere
Drama/Comedy
Germany, 2026
Director: Doris Dörrie
Cast: Angela Winkler, Laura Tonke, Josef Ellers, Via Jikeli, Eugene Boateng, Zoë Baier
Mrs. Winkler has a fall and becomes a nursing case. Her daughter, overwhelmed by her needs, hires a care robot. After some initial resistance, Mrs. Winkler grows quite fond of him. He takes perfect care of her and keeps her entertained – except that he is also supposed to kill her in case her condition deteriorates further…

THE HAMMER
World Premiere
Documentary
France, U.S., 2026
Director: Simon Wallon
Cast: Simon de Pury, Jeff Koons, Marina Abramović, Chloe Wise, Lou Zhenggang
A documentary portrait of famed auctioneer Simon de Pury, whose career saw him leading auction houses such as Sotheby’s and Phillips, being the curator of major world collections, an artist, even a DJ, and always being an unavoidable personality “the Mick Jagger of auctions” takes us behind the curtain of the extravagant art market. Art fairs, collectors’ homes, artists’ studios, galas… The film is a welcoming and entertaining dive amongst the 1% and explores the complicated relationship between artists and commerce. Ultimately, it questions what it means to be an artist today. It was shot between New York, Tokyo, London, Cannes, Miami and Monaco.

August 13, 2026
SushiSwap-Backed Pools.fun Announces Protocol Token Launch with Buyback and Airdrop Plans

Pools.fun, the token issuance platform developed jointly by decentralized exchange SushiSwap and automated trading agent Bankr, is preparing to launch its own protocol token. Bankr founder 0xDeployer revealed the plans on X, outlining a structure that includes token buybacks, burns, an airdrop, and a points program.

Tokenomics and Fee Allocation

According to 0xDeployer, 30% of protocol fees generated by Pools.fun will be allocated to token buybacks and burns. This mechanism is designed to reduce circulating supply over time, potentially benefiting long-term holders. The founder also confirmed that fees intended for buybacks are already being accumulated ahead of the token’s official launch.

The announcement detailed a points program that rewards user activity. Trading volume on the platform and the trading volume of tokens issued by users will both factor into the points system. While the exact conversion rate between points and token allocations has not been disclosed, the program is expected to play a role in the upcoming airdrop.

Context and Platform Background

Pools.fun emerged from a collaboration between SushiSwap, one of the oldest decentralized exchanges in the DeFi space, and Bankr, an automated trading agent focused on on-chain strategies. The platform aims to simplify token issuance, allowing users to create and trade tokens with built-in liquidity mechanisms. Its positioning draws comparisons to other issuance platforms like pump.fun, but with a distinct emphasis on automated trading integration.

The decision to launch a protocol token follows a broader trend in DeFi where platforms introduce native tokens to incentivize usage and align stakeholder interests. However, such launches also carry risks, including regulatory scrutiny and market volatility.

Implications for Users and the DeFi Ecosystem

For active users of Pools.fun, the points program and airdrop could provide tangible rewards for early participation. The buyback-and-burn mechanism may also create a deflationary pressure on the token’s supply, which some investors view positively. Yet, the success of such initiatives depends on sustained platform activity and market conditions.

Industry observers note that token launches of this nature often generate short-term speculation. Long-term value will hinge on the platform’s ability to attract and retain users beyond initial incentives. The integration with Bankr’s automated trading tools could offer a unique utility, potentially distinguishing Pools.fun from competitors.

Conclusion

Pools.fun’s protocol token launch represents a significant step for the SushiSwap-Bankr collaboration. With a clear fee allocation strategy and user-centric incentives, the platform is positioning itself to reward early adopters. However, as with any emerging DeFi project, potential participants should conduct thorough research and remain mindful of market risks.

August 13, 2026