Gemini founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss have transferred around $130 million in Bitcoin to the exchange’s hot wallets over the past week, said Arkham.
The blockchain analytics firm speculated that the transfers were “presumably to sell,” while others suggested that they could be intended for purposes such as exchange liquidity.
The crypto exchange recently laid off a quarter of its staff and exited the European and Australian markets.
The founders of crypto exchange Gemini, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, have transferred roughly $130 million worth of Bitcoin to Gemini hot wallets over the past week, according to blockchain analytics platform Arkham.
In a tweet, Arkham said transfers made from wallets it had tagged as belonging to the pair were made over the past week, suggesting potential sell-side positioning as Bitcoin trades near local highs.
THE WINKLEVOSS TWINS SOLD $130M BTC
The Winklevoss Twins transferred $130M of BTC to Gemini Hot Wallets since last week, presumably to sell.
The Winklevosses once owned 1% of the circulating BTC supply – and now continue to hold $764M of BTC. Their total PnL on BTC is currently… pic.twitter.com/Pjzp45V3K7
Bitcoin is currently trading at around $70,720, up 4.4% on the day according to CoinGecko data.
While Arkham claimed that the transfers were intended “presumably to sell,” neither Cameron nor Tyler Winklevoss have publicly confirmed the purpose of the moves at publication time. Wallet transfers to exchange-linked addresses are commonly treated by traders as potential distribution signals, but they do not by themselves confirm completed spot selling.
Given that the transfers were made to hot wallets at the pair’s own exchange, commenters on Arkham’s post suggested that they may have been intended to facilitate OTC transfers, for custody rebalancing or to provide exchange liquidity.
Gemini’s recent pivot
Arkham said the twins still hold about $764 million in BTC, and estimated their aggregate Bitcoin profit-and-loss at around $1.8 billion, underscoring how much early positioning remains on their books despite recent transfers.
Last September, Tyler Winklevoss predicted that Bitcoin could “easily” trade at 10x its then-current value of $116,000.
More recently, in February, Gemini saw its stock price plunge by double-digits after the firm announced that three key executives were leaving, just weeks after it laid off a quarter of its staff and exited the European and Australian markets. At the time, Gemini stated that it was pivoting to focus on its prediction market plans, as well as driving efficiency gains through streamlining processes with AI.
Gemini’s stock has since rebounded from its late-February lows—after closing as low as $5.82 on February 20, it has climbed back to around $8.71 as of the latest close, according to market data from Yahoo! Finance.
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In a new Fraud Strategy 2026 to 2029 document, the UK government has highlighted the “growing risk” posed by cryptocurrency.
The report noted that crypto is increasingly part of “routine activity,” but pointed to its role in facilitating investment fraud.
Blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis argued that crypto’s transparency has created a “powerful flywheel” by which criminal activity can be tracked and tackled.
The UK government has published its Fraud Strategy 2026 to 2029 document, highlighting the “growing risk” posed by cryptocurrency.
The report’s authors noted that cryptocurrency is now part of “routine activity” in day-to-day life, alongside social media, telecommunications and digital payments. But, it argued, emerging technologies will “continue to shape” the threat posed by fraud, pointing to crypto’s role in facilitating investment fraud.
The policy paper framed fraud as a system-wide threat and said that delivery will rely on stronger coordination across government, police, private-sector platforms, and civil society. It also pointed to operational measures including a new public-private Online Crime Centre, an expanded “Stop! Think Fraud” campaign, and the rollout of the Report Fraud service as part of the state response.
While the strategy page does not center crypto as a standalone chapter in its summary text, blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis said digital-asset flows are now too large to treat as peripheral. In comments shared with Decrypt, Jordan Wain, UK Public Policy Lead at Chainalysis, said that globally in 2025, “up to $17 billion in crypto was transferred to addresses associated with scams and fraud,” adding that industrialized scam networks are increasingly using AI-enabled social engineering and pig-butchering tactics.
Wain said the UK has “long been leading by example” on fraud policy and argued that the latest strategy can go further by hard-wiring blockchain analytics into existing fraud-sharing frameworks spanning banks, fintechs, telecoms, online platforms, and crypto firms. He added that crypto’s transparency creates a “powerful flywheel of fraud disruption,” affording investigators visibility into financial flows that is often harder to achieve in traditional finance.
Nevertheless, while Chainalysis pointed to crypto’s transparency as giving investigators “visibility that traditional finance often lacks,” the conversation around crypto privacy tools is increasingly gaining traction, with the U.S. Treasury this week conceding that coin mixers such as the previously sanctioned Tornado Cash can serve lawful privacy purposes.
Crypto fraud around the world
A central pressure point highlighted by the report is geography: with roughly three-quarters of fraud against UK individuals and businesses described by Chainalysis as originating from, or being facilitated from, overseas, Wain said the strategy should be treated as a “transnational security challenge” rather than a purely domestic consumer-crime initiative.
The report highlighted the cross-border nature of cryptocurrency, with “poly-criminal” fraud operations incorporating human trafficking, money laundering and organized crime spreading beyond hubs such as Southeast Asia to South America and even Europe.
So-called “scam compounds” have become a growing issue across Southeast Asia, with Amnesty International warning that mass escapes of coerced workers have created a “humanitarian crisis” in Cambodia. In September 2025, the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned 19 entities across Burma and Cambodia, while last month the cross-agency Scam Center Strike Force, established in November 2026, announced that crypto seizures and freezes had reached $580 million.
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Artificial intelligence holds a net favorability rating of -20 among U.S. voters, ranking below figures including President Trump and Kamala Harris in a new NBC News poll.
Despite the weak sentiment, 56% of respondents said they used an AI platform such as ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot or Google Gemini in recent months, up from 48% in late 2024.
A majority of respondents, 57%, said the risks of artificial intelligence outweigh its benefits, reflecting broader concerns about privacy, economic disruption and trust in the technology.
More than half of Americans said they had used an artificial-intelligence platform in the past two to three months, according to a new poll.
Yet when respondents were asked to rate their feelings toward the technology, AI ranked near the bottom of the list.
The survey of 1,000 registered voters was conducted by NBC News in partnership with Hart Research Associates and Public Opinion Strategies, from February 27 through March 3.
Just 26% of registered voters view AI positively, while 46% say they view it negatively, yielding a net favorability score of minus 20 points.
AI’s net favorability trailed Immigration and Customs Enforcement at -18, the Republican Party at -14, President Trump at -12, Kamala Harris at -17, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom at -18.
Only the Democratic Party, at -22, and Iran, at -53, ranked lower.
Usage figures, however, point to a different trend. Some 56% of respondents said they had used an AI platform such as ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, or Google Gemini in the past few months, up from 53% in August 2025 and 48% in December 2024.
The data indicate Americans are adopting the tools even as their views of the technology remain lukewarm.
The poll also asked whether the benefits of artificial intelligence outweigh the risks. A majority of respondents, 57%, said the risks outweigh the benefits, while 34% said the opposite.
The results align with a Pew Research Center survey from last September, which found that 50% of U.S. adults were more concerned than excited about AI, up from 37% four years earlier.
Other surveys paint a similar picture. A December 2025 YouGov poll found that 35% of Americans use AI at least once a week, yet only 5% say they deeply trust it.
Trust is lowest in healthcare and finance, sectors where AI is also expanding fastest. A Quinnipiac University survey from April 2025 found that just 4% of Americans think they can trust AI-generated information almost all the time, and nearly three-quarters said the government should intervene to prevent AI-caused job losses.
The NBC data also show a sharp partisan gap in how the question about AI governance is framed: Democrats trust the U.S. to regulate AI at lower rates than Republicans, while Democrats are more likely to trust the EU with the task—a reversal of the usual pattern on foreign institutions.
Overall, most Americans think neither party is good at handling AI policies, with 33% saying both are bad, 4% unsure, and 24% saying they do a similar job.
But despite that perception, politicians have not slowed down their interest in AI.
President Trump is pushing for tighter controls on AI hardware, while lawmakers are exploring ways to expand domestic AI industries without alienating voters.
The debate is unfolding amid persistent concerns about privacy and the technology’s economic impact.
At the same time, the White House is advancing AI infrastructure projects, including the controversial Stargate Project, even as the technology holds a net favorability rating worse than most politicians.
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United States President Donald Trump has said he is “thinking about taking over” the Strait of Hormuz so that it remains open. The strait links the Gulf to the Gulf of Oman. It is the only route to the open ocean for oil producers in the Gulf.
The war in Iran entered its 11th day on Tuesday, as attacks continue on Iran as well as on Israel and US assets in the Middle East, including in Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
The war has sent oil prices soaring. As well as attacking US military assets and infrastructure in Middle East countries in retaliation against the US-Israeli campaign, Iran has threatened to attack ships traversing through the Strait of Hormuz, putting the route at severe risk for about one-fifth of the world’s oil supply.
Why has the price of oil soared?
One major reason is the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Ebrahim Jabari, a senior adviser to the commander-in-chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said on March 2: “The strait is closed. If anyone tries to pass, the heroes of the Revolutionary Guard and the regular navy will set those ships ablaze.
“We will also attack oil pipelines and will not allow a single drop of oil to leave the region. Oil price will reach $200 in the coming days,” Jabari wrote in a post on the IRGC’s Telegram channel.
As a result, oil prices had shot up by more than 30 percent by Sunday, when the international benchmark Brent crude at one point topped $119 a barrel. The price of crude has since seen a decline, but remains above the price it was before the war began on February 28. On Tuesday, it was hovering around $93 a barrel.
(Al Jazeera)
Placing further pressure on fuel prices, Qatar’s state-run energy firm and the world’s largest producer of LNG, QatarEnergy, halted LNG production last week following Iranian attacks on its operational facilities in Ras Laffan and Mesaieed in Qatar.
Saudi Arabia shut down operations at the Ras Tanura plant, its largest domestic oil refinery, which is operated by Saudi Aramco, after a fire broke out at the facility, which officials said was caused by debris from the interception of two Iranian drones.
Iranian officials have publicly denied attacking QatarEnergy or Aramco.
The volatility in energy markets caused by the war on Iran will worsen over time, members of the industry have warned.
“There would be catastrophic consequences for the world’s oil markets, and the longer the disruption goes on, the more drastic the consequences for the global economy,” Aramco CEO Amin Nasser told reporters on Tuesday.
(Al Jazeera)
What has Trump said about the Strait of Hormuz?
During an interview with CBS News on Monday, Trump said he was “thinking about taking over” the Strait of Hormuz to ensure it remains open.
Trump also threatened to increase attacks on Iran if it disrupts the flow of oil in the Hormuz Strait.
“If Iran does anything that stops the flow of Oil within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the United States of America TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far,” Trump said during a news conference in Florida on Monday.
“I will not allow a terrorist regime to hold the world hostage and attempt to stop the globe’s oil supply. And if Iran does anything to do that, they’ll get hit at a much, much harder level.”
Trump also said he expects the war to be over in a short amount of time.
Earlier on Monday, Trump told Republicans at his golf club in Doral, Florida: “We took a little excursion because we felt we had to do that to get rid of some people. We’ve already won in many ways, but we haven’t won enough.”
Earlier, Trump said that the war, which began on February 28, could last “four to five weeks” and that the US military had the “capability to go far longer than that”.
Can the US occupy the Strait of Hormuz?
During his CBS interview, Trump did not explain what the US plans for “taking over” the Strait would be. Technically, the US cannot “occupy” the strait, however.
Alexander Freeman, a partner in the shipping team at UK-based law firm Hill Dickinson, said: “The United States has no jurisdiction over the Strait of Hormuz, which are not international waters under UNCLOS [the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea]. Without the consent of Iran and Oman – whose sovereign territorial waters cover the Strait – the US taking over the Strait would likely amount to an incursion on Iran and Oman’s jurisdiction – even where it is aimed to protect the safe passage of vessels.”
In the absence of a ceasefire and the reopening of the strait, however, it is possible that ships could be escorted through the strait by US or international navies.
During an interview last week, Trump said the US Navy would escort ships in the waterway “if necessary… as soon as possible”.
In Florida, on Monday, Trump reiterated this, saying: “We’ll perhaps go alongside them for protection.”
Speaking in Cyprus on Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron said France and its allies are also preparing a “purely defensive” mission to escort vessels through the Strait of Hormuz once the “most intense phase” of the US-Israeli war on Iran ends.
Macron did not provide further details, but he said the “purely escort mission” must be prepared by both European and non-European countries.
How has Iran responded, and what is its strategy?
Iranian leaders have not shown any signs of backing down over the war or the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
The country’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Tuesday that Iran would keep fighting for as long as necessary.
In an interview with CNN, Kamal Kharazi, foreign policy adviser to the office of the supreme leader, ruled out diplomacy and said the war would continue.
“I don’t see any room for diplomacy any more. Because Donald Trump had been deceiving others and not keeping with his promises, and we experienced this in two times of negotiations – that while we were engaged in negotiation, they struck us,” Kharazi said.
He suggested that Gulf and other countries need to place economic pressure on the US and Israel to end the war in Iran for diplomacy to be back on the table.
Rob Geist Pinfold, a lecturer in international security at King’s College London, told Al Jazeera that Iran has been engaging in a “completely different approach to war fighting” than in the past, when it seemed to opt for slow and steady escalation.
Pinfold said Iran’s claim that it is attacking only US assets in the Gulf “has to be taken with far more than a pinch of salt”. Iran’s targets are primarily large-scale infrastructure and civilian ones, he added.
“What they’re doing now is trying to unleash as much chaos as possible to destabilise the region and global markets, hurt the economy, hurt the GCC states, in order that the US will at some point decide that this conflict is no longer worth its while any more and will push for a ceasefire.”
What could happen next?
Scott Lucas, a professor of US and international politics at University College Dublin, told Al Jazeera that if the domestic situation worsens for Trump, there may be an opening for the Gulf states to ask for a pullback.
Lucas added that this would be “especially true” if there is another surge in the price of oil in the coming days.
With the US mid-term elections approaching in November, the domestic pressure on the Trump administration to halt the war on Iran could build up.
For the first time since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the price of oil skyrocketed past $100 per barrel this week, driven by ongoing energy uncertainty after the United States and Israel’s war on Iran began on February 28.
About 20 percent of the world’s oil comes from the Gulf region, and most of it is shipped on massive tankers through the Strait of Hormuz. This narrow waterway, located between Iran and Oman, is only 21 nautical miles (39km) wide at its narrowest point.
More than 20 million barrels transit through the strait per day, which is one-fifth of global petroleum consumption and accounts for one-quarter of all oil traded by sea.
(Al Jazeera)
According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), more than three-quarters of the world’s oil supply (79.8 million barrels per day) travels by sea, funnelled through a handful of critical chokepoints with no easy transit alternatives.
Why are oil prices surging?
Since the Iran war began, marine traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has nearly ground to a halt. Attacks on vessels and interference with navigation equipment have pushed most operators to anchor their ships at the waterway’s edge rather than risk the crossing.
Without the flow of this oil, global supply chains are severely disrupted. With a limited supply and rising demand, prices are likely to increase, putting pressure on consumers and businesses.
While prices briefly dipped on Monday after US President Donald Trump said, “The war is very complete, pretty much,” analysts warned that high prices could persist if no agreement is reached between Washington, Tel Aviv and Tehran to stop the war.
“It’s all about risk,” Ismayil Jabiyev, supply chain analyst at CarbonChain, told Al Jazeera.
“Think about the Strait of Hormuz and cheap drones. It’s not a physical blockage – Iran hasn’t built a wall across the sea. Cheap drones will always pose a risk, even if all the launch sites are destroyed because hidden drone launches could continue for months. As long as hostilities continue, the disruption is likely to persist. I don’t see any real progress or resolution on the horizon,” Jabiyev added.
Which countries rely most on Middle Eastern oil?
About 89 percent of the oil that flows through the Strait of Hormuz is bound for Asian markets with China, India, Japan and South Korea the top buyers.
If traffic remains restricted, Gulf exporters will be forced to seek alternative routes, but options are limited with Saudi Aramco’s East-West Crude Oil Pipeline and the United Arab Emirates’s Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline (Habshan-Fujairah pipeline) offering a capacity of about 4.7 million barrels per day (bpd).
The Saudi pipeline runs from eastern oilfields to the port of Yanbu on the Red Sea, one of the few arteries that bypasses the strait entirely. However, of the 7.2 million bpd that Saudi Arabia exported in February, 6.38 million bpd relied on passage through the strait, according to Kpler, a global trade data and analytics firm.
Gavekal Research, an independent macroeconomic research firm, estimated that Gulf exporters, including Iran, could reroute at most an additional 3.5 million bpd to terminals outside the strait. But as long as the bulk of tanker traffic remains suspended, the world would still be facing a sudden supply shortfall of about 15 million bpd.
“I’m somewhat sceptical about those alternatives. Yes, the East-West pipeline and the Fujairah pipeline exist, but capacity-wise, they don’t come close to the main route.” Jabiyev told Al Jazeera.
“There’s also the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline from Iraq’s northern provinces to Turkiye, but that’s limited to northern field production. The major Iraqi output comes from the southern fields, so again, it’s a partial replacement, not a full one.”
What is the highest oil price ever recorded?
Oil prices rose to their highest levels during the global financial crisis. On July 11, 2008, Brent crude, the European benchmark, hit $147.50 per barrel while West Texas intermediate crude, the US benchmark, hit a peak of $147.27. That spike was driven by a mix of a weakening US dollar and a massive influx of speculative money rather than a physical disruption to supply.
Throughout history, there have been a handful of energy market shocks when oil supplies were actually threatened, most notably the 1973 oil embargo, the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, the 1990-1991 Gulf War, the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
(Al Jazeera)
“I think the Gulf War of 1990-91 is the most instructive comparison. Iraq and Kuwait together represented two major producers, and the disruption was serious and prolonged – lasting roughly half a year or more, even though the military phase was fairly brief,” Jabiyev told Al Jazeera.
“The world experienced high crude oil prices for an extended period and eventually faced some economic slowdown as a result. That makes it most analogous to our current situation: a likely long-term disruption, sustained high prices and a meaningful risk of economic slowdown. The key variable, as in 1990, was how quickly the affected countries could restore their production infrastructure and bring supply back online.”
How does crude oil become petrol?
Crude oil is a yellowish-black fossil fuel pumped from the ground and refined into fuels like petrol, diesel and jet fuel. The refining process also produces numerous household items.
Oil is graded by thickness and sulphur content. Light, sweet crude is low in sulphur and easy to refine and thus more valuable. After extraction, crude oil is sent to refineries where heat separates it into products. Lighter fuels form at lower temperatures while heavier products, such as asphalt, require much higher heat.
A barrel contains 159 litres, or 42 gallons, of crude oil. Once refined, a barrel typically produces about 73 litres, or 19.35 gallons, of petrol to power cars and trucks.
(Al Jazeera)
What products are made from oil and gas?
Oil and gas are used for far more than just fuel. They are raw materials for thousands of everyday products.
Plastics, including water bottles, food packaging, phone casings and medical syringes, are all derived from crude oil.
Crude oil is also the hidden ingredient in synthetic fabrics, such as polyester, nylon and acrylic, which is in everything from sportswear to carpets. It also underpins the cosmetics industry in products that include petroleum jelly, lipsticks and concealers.
Household items also rely on oil-based ingredients with laundry detergents, dishwashing liquids and paints all derived from petroleum products.
The global food supply is essentially built on natural gas in the form of fertilisers, used to enhance crop yields and ensure that food production can meet demand.
(Al Jazeera)
How high oil costs drive up the price of food
Oil prices and food prices move in lockstep with energy prices affecting every stage of the food supply chain from the fertilisers used in the fields to the trucks that carry food from the fields to supermarket shelves.
Rising oil prices directly affect shipping and the cost of transportation.
“The lifeblood of the global economy is transport,” economist David McWilliams told Al Jazeera. “It’s getting stuff from A to B. It’s a logistics problem, a supply chain problem, and ultimately, transportation is the energy of the global economy.”
Fears of stagflation – rising inflation and rising unemployment, which major oil shocks have historically summoned – are rising. Economists pointed to the crises of 1973, 1978 and 2008 as evidence that every significant spike in oil prices has been followed, in some form, by a global recession.
In lower-income countries, where populations spend a far greater share of their income on food and import large quantities of grain and fertiliser, rising oil prices could rapidly translate into food shortages.
Bitcoin has climbed more than 4% to roughly $69,100 as risk assets steadied after oil retreated from a spike tied to Middle East tensions.
Futures open interest and aggressive buying in perpetual markets suggest traders are cautiously returning to leveraged positions.
U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF inflows have risen to about $934 million, even as trading volumes and network activity remain subdued.
Bitcoin’s market structure is showing early signs of stabilizing after weeks of pressure, according to a new market note from on-chain analytics firm Glassnode, even as the escalating conflict involving Iran continued to roil global financial markets.
Bitcoin is up 4.3% on the day to around $69,100 and holding relatively steady after recent volatility tied to geopolitical tensions and surging oil prices sent digital assets lower last week.
In its weekly market pulse published Monday, Glassnode said the crypto’s internal metrics suggest the worst of the recent stress may be easing, though the recovery remains “tentative.”
“Overall, conditions are stabilizing, with momentum, ETF demand, and profitability metrics improving,” the firm wrote, noting that price momentum has firmed modestly but still lacks the strength of a decisive bullish shift.
Analysts have previously pointed to the broader macro backdrop, which remains unsettled, as global markets have grappled with the fallout from the intensifying conflict in the Middle East.
Crude prices surged on Monday on fears the conflict could disrupt shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, briefly pushing Brent crude as high as about $119.50 a barrel before retreating to roughly $91–$100 after President Donald Trump suggested the war involving Iran might soon de-escalate.
U.S. equities have swung sharply in recent sessions, with major indexes slipping as investors weighed the inflationary impact of higher oil prices and the risk of a prolonged geopolitical conflict.
Modest uplifts were observed late in the U.S. trading session following Trump’s comments, with the S&P 500 closing 0.8% higher on the day.
These markets are more correlated, more leveraged, and faster than the infrastructure connecting them, Ryan Kirkley, co-founder & CEO of Global Settlement Network, told Decrypt. “Settlement systems built on T+1 or T+2 cycles cannot absorb shocks that propagate in real time across asset classes, currencies, and geographies,” he added. “That gap showed up again last week. It will show up again this week.”
Against that backdrop, Glassnode said several indicators within the Bitcoin market are beginning to stabilize.
Futures open interest has increased, suggesting a modest build-up of leverage, while aggressive buying in perpetual derivatives markets points to renewed interest from traders.
While Bitcoin has yet to “fully earn” its “digital gold” narrative, its practical use case as a “digital escape hatch” is becoming “increasingly relevant,” analysts at QCP Capital wrote in an investor note on Monday.
“Although its long-term trajectory remains uncertain, recent price action against a backdrop of escalating tensions suggests growing recognition of this function,” they added.
ETF flows have also strengthened, rising to $934 million, up 20% or $158 million, from the week prior, Glassnode wrote.
Still, other indicators suggest the recovery remains fragile.
Spot trading volumes remain subdued, and network activity has waned, pointing to limited participation.
“Capital flows remain soft,” the report noted, indicating broader conviction has yet to fully return.
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There are clichés that critics go back to, and when I realize I’m guilty of overusing one (sometimes once can be too often), I’ll vow never to use it again. Here’s one I did that with: lauding something as “the movie we need right now.” That’s a phrase so cringe I’m ashamed I ever used it. The reason I bring this up is that “Project Hail Mary” is a cosmic adventure that feels diagrammed, if not programmed, to be The Movie We Need Right Now.
It’s a lavishly scaled feel-good environmental outer-space thriller, starring Ryan Gosling as a science geek who is sent many lightyears away to save Earth. So it’s a movie that recalls such lone-astronaut-in-the-void hits as “Gravity” and “The Martian.” (It’s adapted from a novel by Andy Weir, who wrote the book “The Martian” is based on.) The film was directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who started off as animators (“The Lego Movie”) and have the skills to turn the mysteries of space into a catchy techno fantasy. Gosling, who has already anchored one space-travel movie (Damien Chazelle’s unfairly maligned 2018 Neil Armstrong drama “First Man”), makes the hero, Ryland Grace, a charismatic space bro, sheepish and funny and relatable. And the movie, which turns on Ryland’s relationship with an alien who joins him onboard, is like “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” remade as an intergalactic buddy movie. “Project Hail Mary” wants to be the kind of great escape we need right now, and I have no doubt that many will hail it as one.
So forgive me if I say that it’s not a very good movie. There’s certainly an abstract commercial grandeur to it. I saw it on an IMAX screen (it will open on many of those), where it becomes the kind of bedazzling warm bath your eyeballs can sink right into. But here’s the rub. “Project Hail Mary” is way too long (two hours and 36 minutes), because there’s not much variation to it. It’s baggy and incredibly derivative of movies you’ve seen before — like “Interstellar,” from which it lifts the premise of a space voyage as the last chance for human survival (in this case, the sun and other stars are dying, which means that we’ve got to travel to the lone star that isn’t in order to figure out why).
More crucially, everything to do with the onboard alien is far too cute and formulaic. We don’t think so at first, because his spacecraft is a daunting dazzler (it looks like a giant oil rig made of pick-up sticks), and the creature doesn’t have one of those beguiling faces. In fact, it has no face at all. It’s made of rock (it looks like the Thing recast as a five-legged spider), with a flat slate where its features should be. How will Ryland and the alien, who he nicknames Rocky, communicate? By mimicking each other’s body poses. Then by hooking the alien up to a computer, which translates his thoughts into one-liners that, within half an hour, are adorable enough to be sitcom-worthy. I should add that there are hugs. Too many of them. “Project Hail Mary” never stops figuring out ways to make you fall in love with it.
The film opens with Ryland waking up in the spaceship, after decades of lying in an induced coma; he’s got greasy long hair and a beard, and doesn’t remember who he is or how he got there. But it will all come back to him. His two colleagues, including the ship’s captain, have both died in hypersleep. The film then flashes back to Earth, where we’re given the elaborate “Interstellar” setup (in this case, it’s global cooling), and we get to know Ryland as the antic misunderstood genius he is.
He’s a middle-school science teacher in nubby sweaters, because his research as a molecular biologist was rejected by the establishment as too radical. But it turns out that he was right about everything. When the sun begins to lose heat, he’s recruited by the powers that be in Washington, represented by Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller), an official of stoic Euro command who’s the head of the Hail Mary project to save Earth. A mysterious line has been found linking Venus and the sun. It’s dubbed the Petrova line, and Ryland discovers that it’s made up of single-cell organisms, called Astrophage, that can be used as rocket fuel. That’s how they’ll be able to travel to Tau Ceti, a thriving star about a zillion miles away. Ryland is only supposed to be a consultant. That he ends up as part of the onboard mission hinges on a twist of desperate treachery.
Gosling’s performance in the Earth sections is quite winning, because he plays Ryland as an anxious brainiac who’s in over his head. But one of the key flaws of Drew Goddard’s screenplay is that once Ryland is on the ship, that neurotic aspect of him isn’t sustained. It kind of melts away, so that he’s just Ryan Gosling, icon of witty golden-god valor. (He has no flight training but masters the ship in no time.) The film feels padded, whether it’s stopping in its tracks for Eva to do a full-blown karaoke version of Harry Styles’ “Sign of the Times” or spilling over into a finale that doesn’t know where to end. The sentimental dilemma of whether Ryan, at one point, is going to go forward with the mission or turn the ship around to save Rocky is string-pulling of a very generic order. “Project Hail Mary” will likely be a hit, but the movie we need right now — or, really, anytime — is one whose drama extends beyond its ability to push our buttons.
Hearst Media Production Group is set to premiere the new original home renovation series “Home for Good” on ABC stations as part of the “Weekend Adventure” block starting Saturday, April 4.
The series, which also comes from home fire safety brand Kidde and Epic Entertainment and Media Group, centers on helping “everyday heroes – from first responders and military veterans to community champions.”
The 30-minute weekly series is hosted by Art Edmonds. “Home for Good” centers on giving “life-changing home transformations for deserving recipients who have overcome extraordinary challenges,” while also providing home safety and DIY guidelines.
Edmonds’ credits include Lifetime’s “Military Makeover with Montel,” in which he and Montel Williams gave home makeovers to wounded U.S. veterans. Edmonds also also served as a narrator on Discovery+’s “Caught!,” Discovery Science’s “Built by Hand” and Nat Geo Wild’s “Dr K Exotic Animal ER.”
“This series is our way of saying thank you to everyday heroes,” said Bryan Curb, HMPG executive vice president and general manager, education/information, in a statement. “These inspiring stories highlight the impact and purpose of serving others and will resonate deeply with our audience.”
Hearst Media Production Group is a business unit of Hearst Television, and produces fare for linear, streaming, digital and social media platforms for domestic and international distribution in 100 countries. Besides “Weekend Adventure” on ABC stations, its weekly educational/informational (E/I) programming blocks include “CBS WKND” on CBS, “The More You Know” on NBC, “One Magnificent Morning” on the CW, “Mi Telemundo” on Telemundo and “Go Time” on independent stations. It also produces for FAST channels Xplore, The Jack Hanna Channel, Rovr Pets and Lucky Dog Channel.
X has told UK’s MPs or Members of Parliament that it suspended 800 million accounts to combat state-backed campaigns on the website, according to The Guardian. Wifredo Fernández, X’s head of global government affairs, told the officials that the suspensions happened over a 12-month period in 2024 and that the accounts were suspended for violating X’s rules on platform manipulation and spam. Russia was allegedly behind most of the accounts that were flooding the website with spam, followed by state actors from China and Iran.
The Russian accounts were trying to “stoke division” and disseminate a “particular type of narrative” to manipulate the 2024 US Presidential Elections, he told MPs on the foreign affairs committee during a video call. Fernández also claimed that the attempts to manipulate discussions and spam on the service aren’t done yet. “There are efforts every single day to create inauthentic networks of accounts,” he said. Apparently, X suspended an additional “several hundred million accounts” last year as well, presumably also due to foreign state-backed manipulation campaigns.
To note, Statista estimates the number of users on X to be 429 million in early 2024. The Guardian also says the platform has approximately 300 million monthly users worldwide.
Sonos has just announced its first new products since 2024, when the company’s plans went sideways after a disastrous update to its app. First up is the Sonos Play, the company’s latest portable speaker. Long-time Sonos watchers will recognize the name from the old Play:1, Play:3 and Play:5 speakers, but this new model has little to do with those products of the past. The $299 Play is a Wi-Fi and Bluetooth speaker that sits between the $179 Roam 2 and $499 Move 2 and could be the “goldilocks” speaker in the company’s portable lineup, at least based on what I know so far.
The closest comparison for the Play is the excellent Era 100, which Sonos released back in 2023. At 7.6” tall, 4.4” wide and 3” deep, it’s much thinner than the Era 100 which is over 5 inches deep. And compared to the Move 2 (9.5” x 6.3 x 5”) it’s much more portable. That goes for weight, too — the Play is less than 3 pounds, compared to over 6.5 pounds for the Move 2. It’s not the kind of speaker you’ll throw in your bag and forget about, like the tiny Roam 2, but it’s far more portable than the Move 2. Finally, the Play is IP67 rated, just like the Roam 2. That means it can be submerged in up to a meter of water for up to 30 minutes; it’s also dustproof.
The grab handle on the back of the Sonos Play. (Sonos)
From a speaker component perspective, it’s again quite similar to the Era 100. It has two tweeters positioned at a 90-degree angle for stereo separation paired with one midwoofer; it also has two additional passive radiators to increase the bass response in its relatively small case. The Era 100 lacks those passive radiators but is otherwise identical. Obviously, we’ll have to listen to the Play before saying how closely it compares to the Era 100, but this speaker should significantly outperform the Roam 2 simply due to the increased size of its components. The Move 2, on the other hand, is extremely loud and will likely still be the best choice for people who want a speaker to cover a large outdoor space.
You’ll find familiar controls on the Sonos Play, which comes in black or white. (Fingers crossed for future color options like the lovely trio that Sonos offers on the Roam.) On the top surface are buttons for play/pause, volume up and down and a microphone toggle. On the back is a power button, a Bluetooth button and a physical switch that disconnects the microphone for increased security. Finally, there’s a new feature here: a removable plastic grab loop.
Sonos was keen to note that the Play is a full-featured member of the Sonos ecosystem. Like all of its other speakers, that means you’ll see all Sonos speakers in the app and can group them as you see fit, or have different music playing on different speakers throughout the house. You can also pair two of these in stereo. If you remove one from your network (say you’re outside and away from Wi-Fi), you’ll need to re-pair them though. In addition to controlling playback via the Sonos app (which, in my testing, is functioning fine and recovered from the 2024 debacle), you can stream music via AirPlay 2 or Spotify Connect. The Sonos Voice Assistant as well as Amazon Alexa are also on board here for anyone who likes to shout at their speakers.
The Sonos Play on its wireless charging base. (Sonos)
There’s a new trick here for both the Play and Move 2, as well. For the first time, you can group Sonos speakers together through Bluetooth. After pairing a Play to your phone via Bluetooth, you can press and hold the play/pause button on three more Play or Move 2 speakers to add them to the group. If you want to cover a larger outdoor space with multiple speakers, this sounds like a pretty handy way to do so.
The Play also has line-in via its USB-C port, and you can use it for Ethernet as well; both features require a separate adapter. You can even use the USB-C port to top up your phone if you’re so inclined. And while you can also charge via the USB-C port, the Play comes with a wireless charging dock which makes for a nice home base for the speaker’s primary location. Annoyingly, Sonos did not include a charger, so you’ll need to provide your own USB-C brick.
A pair of Sonos Era 100 SL speakers with a turntable. (Sonos)
Sonos is also adding a second, much simpler speaker to its lineup today: the Era 100 SL. Like the One SL before it, the Era 100 SL is identical to the Era 100 with one key difference. There are no microphones on it at all. As such, the Era 100 SL is also a bit cheaper, coming in at $189 compared to $219 for the standard model.
Otherwise, there are no differences in acoustic architecture or feature set here. As its most affordable speaker besides the portable Roam 2, Sonos is positioning the Era 100 SL as the ideal entry point into its products. I can’t really argue with that, as the Era 100 still sounds outstanding and is also quite flexible with features like line-in and Bluetooth as well as all the standard streaming options. Both versions of the Era 100 are compatible with each other, too — so if you get an SL and then decide you want a stereo pair, a standard Era 100 with a mic will work there and bring voice control to your system as well.
Both the $299 Play and $189 Era 100 SL are up for pre-order now, and Sonos says they’ll be shipping on March 31.
