PCMag.com is a leading authority on technology, delivering lab-based, independent reviews of the latest
products and services. Our expert industry analysis and practical solutions help you make better buying
decisions and get more from technology.
Amid an extra hot heat wave in Los Angeles, Clarins kept the temperature high by hosting “A Night of Extra” at the Academy Museum on Friday night.
The beauty brand welcomed a long list of stars, influencers and Hollywood insiders to the scenic Dolby Terrace where Maroon 5 delivered a headline performance with frontman Adam Levine (joined at the bash by wife Behati Prinsloo) belting out the band’s “Sugar” to start the show. Maroon 5’s set also featured such tracks as “Sunday Morning,” “This Love” and “Moves Like Jagger.”
“It’s good to be here on arguably one of the most beautiful nights of the year,” commented Levine as the sun had finally set to close out the steamy week. Standing on the terrace were stars like Brooks Nader, who was fresh from Venice Beach where she’d been filming Baywatch, telling People, “I know you’re going to love it.” A pregnant Samara Weaving, who had been busy promoting Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, huddled with Malin Akerman.
NFL breakout Jaxson Dart made the rounds at one of his first major Hollywood parties during the off-season. Tell Me Lies co-stars Thomas Doherty and Sonia Mena reunited. Model couple Nara Smith and Lucky Blue Smith chatted with friends and fellow models. Quenlin Blackwell walked the carpet and spoke to reporters on the heels of her livestream hosting gig with Jake Shane at the Vanity Fair Oscar party. Also there: Candice Swanepoel, Rudy Pankow, Branden Cook, Spencer House, Rainey Qualley, Paris Brosnan, Leven Rambin, Greta Onieogou, Leah Kateb, Miguel Harichi, Josh Richards, Sophia Culpo, Bachelor couple Zach Shallcross and Kaity Biggar, Noah Fearnley, Lauren Perez, Pia Mance, Kayla Ewell, and Julie Benz and more.
The party had a purpose: Clarins rolled out the bright orange carpet to promote the launch of its new product, Extra-Firming Energy. The moisturizer is the latest addition to Clarins’ Extra-Firming line. See more from “A Night of Extra” below.
Levine and Behati Prinsloo
(Photo by Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images for Clarins)
Brooks Nader
(Photo by Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for Clarins)
Quenlin Blackwell
(Photo by Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for Clarins)
Samara Weaving and Malin Akerman
(Photo by Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for Clarins)
Rudy Pankow and Thomas Doherty
Credit: BFA.com/Courtesy of Clarins
Lucky Blue Smith (in Dunhill) and Nara Smith
(Photo by Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for Clarins)
Jaxson Dart
DJ Tay James performs during the bash.
(Photo by Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images for Clarins)
Atmosphere inside the Clarins party.
Getty Images for Clarins
A group of Democratic lawmakers are sounding the alarm about foreign investors backing Paramount Skydance‘s $111 billion proposed deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery.
The senators, in a letter to the FCC on Monday, called for a “full and independent” probe of the merger, citing concerns that financing from Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds and Chinese gaming giant Tencent could give them influence over editorial decisions at CBS News and CNN.
“This constellation of foreign investment from China and from Gulf states, with complex and sometimes competing relationships with the United States, demands rigorous, not perfunctory, review,” the letter reads.
Saudia Arabi’s Public Investment Fund, the Qatar Investment Authority and Abud Dhabi Investment Authority are collectively providing roughly $24 billion in funds to help bankroll Paramount’s bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, according to SEC filings. For years, these funds have bankrolled global buyout firms, including Apollo Global Management, which is among the groups financing the offer. The deal was structured to provide capital through non-voting equity investments, meaning the financiers don’t have any governance rights.
In the letter, the senators said that the financing was purposely designed to avoid triggering mandatory review by the Committee on Foreign Investments (CFIUS) in the United States, which assesses investments in businesses that could pose a national security risk. The Middle Eastern funds could try to advance “conflicting interests” from those of the U.S. with influence over CNN’s editorial decisions and business priorities, they wrote. Of particular concern is Saudi prince crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is widely believed to have ordered the murder of The Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, according to the letter.
“The $24 billion aggregate investment gives these governments a significant financial stake in the future content, licensing, and strategic decisions of a combined entity that includes some of the most-watched news and entertainment networks in America,” the senators, led by Cory Booker (D-N.J.), wrote.
These concerns extend to Tencent, which committed $1 billion in equity financing, reported Bloomberg in March. The lawmakers said that the Chinese government, through the company, can impact decisionmaking over major news outlets owned by the combined company through information rights, licensing deals and content output agreements, among other things that give Tencent implicit leverage. The letter points to Chinese laws requiring domestic tech companies to cooperate with state intelligence demands, saying that Tencent’s stake gives the government a “concrete avenue for potential foreign influence over the editorial independence of American broadcast journalism and content.”
Paramount Skydance has maintained that the FCC’s role in the deal is “minimal,” describing the foreign investment component as warranting only a cursory review. The senators urged the agency to reject that premise and conduct a full probe under the Communications Act, which bars foreign entities from owning more than 25 percent of the equity in a U.S. entity that has an FCC-issued license. For approval to be granted, the agency must determine that the arrangement serves the public interests. They also called for the FCC to coordinate with the Justice Department, CFIUS and intelligence agencies before concluding that the financing is risk-free.
Booker was joined by Sens. Chuck Schumer, Mazie Hirono, Dick Durbin, Richard Blumenthal, Elizabeth Warren, Sheldon Whitehouse.
Iran’s paralysis of the Strait of Hormuz has led to major disruption in global oil and gas supply and many countries have begun tapping into their strategic oil reserves to evade an economic crisis.
Since the US-Israeli war on Iran began on February 28, Tehran, whose territorial waters extend into the Strait, has blocked the passage of vessels carrying 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquified natural gas (LNG) from the Gulf to the rest of the world. The strait is the only waterway to open ocean available for Gulf oil and gas producers.
list of 3 itemsend of list
Last week, the price of Brent crude topped $100 a barrel compared to the pre-war price of around $65.
The United States Trump administration has tried and failed to re-open the strait. First, it called on Western nations to send warships to help escort shipping through the strait – an option all have declined or failed to respond to. Then, on Sunday, Trump gave Iran 48 hours to reopen the strait or face US attacks on its power plants.
However, on Sunday, Iran said it would hit back at power plants in Israel and those in the region supplying electricity to US military assets. And, on Monday, Iran said it would completely shut the Strait of Hormuz if US attacks on its energy infrastructure continue.
Following Iranian attacks on energy infrastructure across the Gulf over the past three weeks, countries including Saudi Arabia, UAE, Iraq and Kuwait have also cut their oil output, raising further concerns about global oil and gas supply.
On Monday, Trump appeared to backtrack on his Hormuz ultimatum when he ordered all US strikes on power plants in Iran to be paused for five days and claimed the US was holding talks with Iran. Iran has denied this.
In the face of chaos, on March 11, the 32 member countries of the International Energy Agency (IEA) agreed to release 400 million barrels of oil from their strategic emergency reserves – the largest stock draw in the agency’s history. It is far higher than the 2022 release of 182 million barrels of oil by the group’s members after Russia invaded Ukraine.
What are strategic oil reserves and which countries hold them?
A strategic oil reserve or strategic petroleum reserve (SPR) is an emergency stockpile of crude oil which is held by the government of a country in government facilities.
This oil reserve can be drawn on in cases of emergencies like wars and economic crises. Governments generally buy the oil through agreements with private companies in order to keep their reserves filled.
According to the IEA, its members currently hold more than 1.2 billion barrels of these public emergency oil stocks with a further 600 million barrels of industry stocks held by private organisations but under government mandate to be available to supplement public needs.
Other reserves are also held by non IEA members like China.
Beijing is not an IEA member, but holds the world’s largest strategic oil reserve.
According to China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Beijing “started a state strategic oil reserve base programme in 2004 as a way to offset oil supply risks and reduce the impact of fluctuating energy prices worldwide on China’s domestic market for refined oil”.
“The bases are designed to maintain strategic oil reserves of an equivalent to 30 days of imports, or about 10 million tonnes,” according to a 2007 report from Chinese state news agency Xinhua.
These strategic oil reserves are primarily located along China’s eastern and southern coastal regions such as Shandong, Zhejiang and Hainan.
China does not officially publish information about its crude inventories so it is not clear how much oil the country has in reserve. However, according to energy analytics firm Vortexa, in 2025, “China’s onshore crude inventories (excluding underground storage) continued to rise… reaching a record 1.13 billion barrels by year-end”.
According to data from Kpler, China bought more than 80 percent of Iran’s shipped oil in 2025. As the war in Iran escalates, therefore, Chinese companies such as refiner Sinopec have begun pushing for permission to use oil from the country’s reserves according to a Reuters report on Monday.
“We basically won’t buy Iranian oil, this is pretty clear,” Sinopec President Zhao Dong told a company results briefing in March, according to Reuters.
“We believe the government is closely monitoring crude oil and refined fuel inventories and market situations, and will advance policies at the appropriate time to support refinery productions,” he added.
Of the IEA members, the US holds one of the largest strategic oil reserves with 415 million barrels of oil. The stores are maintained by the US Department of Energy. It has confirmed that it will release 172 million barrels of oil from its SPR over this year as its contribution to coordinated efforts with the IEA.
On Friday, the Trump’s administration announced that it has already lent 45.2 million barrels of crude from the SPR to oil companies.
The US created its SPR in 1975 after an Arab oil embargo triggered a spike in gasoline prices which badly affected the US economy.
The reserves are located near big US refining or petrochemical centres, and as much as 4.4 million barrels of oil can be shipped globally per day.
The SPR currently covers roughly 200 days of net crude imports, according to a Reuters news agency calculation.
US presidents have tapped into the stockpile to calm oil markets during war or when hurricanes have hit oil infrastructure along the US Gulf of Mexico.
In March 2024, US President Joe Biden announced oil would be released from the reserve to ease pressure from oil price spikes following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and amid subsequent sanctions imposed on Russian oil by the US and its allies.
An IEA member, Japan also has one of the world’s largest strategic oil reserves.
According to Japanese media Nikkei Asia, at the end of 2025, the country held about 470 million barrels of in emergency reserves which is enough to meet 254 days of domestic consumption. Out of this amount, 146 days worth of oil are government-owned, 101 days are owned by the private sector, and the remainder is jointly stored by oil-producing countries.
Japan set up its national oil reserve system in 1978 to prevent future economic disruptions following the global oil crisis in 1973. That oil crisis heightened Japan’s vulnerability and dependence on oil from abroad. The country remains one of the world’s largest oil importers, relying on fossil fuels from overseas for about 80 percent of its energy needs.
Japan’s reserves are primarily located in 10 coastal national stockholding bases with major storage sites in the Shibushi base in Kagoshima in southern Japan.
On March 16, Japan announced that it had begun releasing oil from its emergency reserves amid the global energy crisis sparked by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told journalists the country would unilaterally release 80 million barrels of oil from stockpiles amid supply concerns.
As of February 26, according to the UK Department of Energy Security and Net Zero, the UK holds about 38 million barrels of crude oil and 30 million barrels of refined products, as strategic reserves. The reserves are thought to be able to last around 90 days.
The country established its reserves in 1974 following the oil crisis of the 1970s and also to meet its IEA obligations. Members of the organisation are required to maintain at least 90 days of net imports in reserve.
The UK’s strategic reserves are largely held by private oil companies, but are regulated by the government. Milford Haven in South Wales and Humber in northeast England are key locations of reserves.
The country is among the 32 IEA nations releasing oil from its reserve to address the oil crisis amid the war in Iran. The UK government will be contributing 13.5 million barrels as a part of the release.
EU member nations including Germany, France, Spain and Italy, all IEA members, also hold strategic oil reserves.
Germany has 110 million barrels of crude oil and 67 million barrels of finished petroleum products which are held by the government and can be released in a matter of days, according to Germany’s economy ministry.
France reported about 120 million barrels’ worth of crude and finished products in reserve at the end of 2024, the most recent data publicly available. About 97 million barrels of that is held by SAGESS, a government-mandated entity, with a breakdown of about 30 percent crude oil, 50 percent gasoil, 9 percent gasoline, 7.8 percent jet fuel and some heating oil. Another 39 million barrels are held by the country’s oil operators.
On March 16, Spain approved the release of around 11.5 million barrels of oil reserves over 90 days to counter supply shortages caused by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, Energy Minister Sara Aagesen told reporters. This is the country’s contribution to the IEA release. The country has around 150 million barrels of crude oil reserves in total.
Italy, by law, was holding about 76 million barrels of reserves, representing 90 days of Italy’s average net oil imports, in 2024.
Strategy (MSTR) has unveiled a $42 billion at the market (ATM), equity program, split between $21 billion of Class A common stock (MSTR) and $21 billion of its Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Stretch Preferred Stock, Stretch (STRC), according to an 8-K filing.
The company also introduced a new $2.1 billion ATM for its $STRK preferred stock, replacing a prior $STRK program that had more than $20 billion remaining.
The company expanded its sales syndicate. Strategy added Moelis & Company, A.G.P./Alliance Global Partners, and StoneX Financial, bringing the total number of agents to 19. These firms act as intermediaries, selling shares into the market over time, allowing the company to raise capital gradually rather than through large, one-time offerings.
As of March 22, Strategy still had capacity remaining on its existing ATM programs. This included approximately $6.24 billion of common stock, $1.98 billion of STRC, $20.33 billion of $STRK, and $1.62 billion of STRF available for issuance.
The company last week purchased another 1,031 bitcoin, bringing holdings up to 762,099 coins. Shares are modestly higher on Monday as bitcoin trades up slightly from the Friday close at $71,300.
NovaBay Pharmaceuticals (NBY) — a nanocap with a market capitalization of about $30 million — has renamed itself Stablecoin Development Corporation and changed its ticker to SDEV, marking a full shift from healthcare to crypto.
This follows a $134 million private placement backed by firms including Framework Ventures and Tether Investments, the company said.
The firm is using those funds to build a large position in $SKY, the governance token tied to the Sky protocol, a decentralized finance protocol that issues the cryptocurrency-backed dollar-pegged stablecoin USDS..
The company currently holds about 2.06 billion $SKY tokens, roughly 8.78% of the total supply, worth around $147 million. It acquired over half of that on the open market at an average price near $0.065. The rest came as part of the financing deal, which included cash and stablecoins.
The firm has also begun staking its holdings to earn rewards. It reports earning about 26.6 million $SKY tokens so far, with these rewards varying based on network rules and participation.
CoinDesk has reached out to Stablecoin Development Corp for comments, but hasn’t heard back at the time of writing.
Sky, which evolved from MakerDAO, currently has a $SKY staking rate of over 10%, according to the protocol’s website. The token’s value is down around 1.45% over the last 24 hours, while the broader crypto market rose 4% over the same period, as measured by the CoinDesk 20 (CD20) index.
NBY is higher by 5% on Monday.
Leonid Radvinsky, owner of the adult content platform OnlyFans, has died. He was 43 years of age.
“Leo passed away peacefully after a long battle with cancer. His family have requested privacy at this difficult time,” OnlyFans said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter on Monday after Radvinsky’s death on March 20.
Born in the Ukraine, he grew up in Chicago and graduated with an economics degree from Northwestern University. With a specialty in open source software development, Radvinsky bought Fenix International Limited, the company that owns and runs OnlyFans, in 2018.
OnlyFans was launched in 2016, the same year as TikTok, and started out by connecting models directly with fans to sell them photos and videos. Where pornography had mostly been viewed for free on online sites, OnlyFans developed a subscription-based model for creators with their own OnlyFans accounts, with most being sex workers. In 2021, OnlyFans banned sexually explicit video content on its site as it looked to bring on outside investors and responded to requests from banking partners and payment providers, including major credit card suppliers.
After the deal with Fenix International, Radvinsky became a director and the majority shareholder of the company. The audience for OnlyFans has risen to around 300 million users.
Radvinsky, who was a billionaire through his ownership of OnlyFans, was also an investor in other business ventures. Since 2024, his shares in Fenix International had been held in the LR Fenix Trust.
Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.
Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.
European buyers dig Bill Evans.
Distributors across Europe have snatched up Grant Gee’s experimental biopic Everybody Digs Bill Evans, starring Sentimental Value actor Anders Danielsen Lie as the legendary jazz pianist, following its premiere at the Berlin Film Festival, where it won best directing honors for Gee.
Mister Smith Entertainment, which is handling international sales on the project, inked deals for the film with UFO in France, Cinemaran in Spain, Wanted Cinema in Italy, Paradiso in Benelux, and Another World Entertainment in Scandinavia. Break Out Pictures previously acquired the title for release in the UK and Ireland.
Other international deals for the film include with Green Narae Media for South Korea, Front Row Entertainment for the Middle East, Shaw Organization in Singapore, Blitz in Ex-Yugoslavia, and The Film Group in Greece.
Everybody Digs Bill Evans traces Evans’ story from June 1961, when, after recording two seminal live albums with his original trio, tragedy struck. Evans’ beloved bassist and musical soulmate Scott LaFaro died in a car crash. Unable to imagine performing without him, Evans cancelled all his tour dates and sought refuge with his retired parents in Florida, where he struggled to get off drugs (he was a heroin addict) and find a reason to play again.
Centered on that period in Evans’ life, when he was unable to play, Gee’s film flashes forward to the 70s and 80s highlighting other moments of tragedy in the musician’s life. The 60s scenes are shot in stark black and white, the more modern sequences in garish color. Bill Pullman and Laurie Metcalf play Evans’ parents.
Everybody Digs Bill Evans is Gee’s feature debut, after acclaimed music documentaries Meeting People is Easy (1998) and Joy Division (2007). He co-wrote the script with Mark O’Halloran (Conversations with Friends), based on the book Intermission by Owen Martell. Janine Marmot of Hot Property Films produced the movie together with Alan Maher for Cowtown Pictures.
Everybody Digs Bill Evans is still searching for a U.S. distributor. Mister Smith Entertainment is co-repping U.S. rights with CAA.