US President Donald Trump attacked Michigan’s Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, repeatedly calling him a ‘hater of Jews’ and ‘a hater of Israel.’ El-Sayed won the Democratic nomination on Tuesday, overcoming millions in campaign spending from pro-Israel lobbying groups.
Published On 6 Aug 2026
On-chain data analysis platform CryptoQuant has reported that investors known as “whales,” who hold large amounts of assets in Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and $XRP, have recently increased their holdings. According to the company, this trend indicates that the cryptocurrency market may be approaching the final stage of its long-running bear cycle.
According to an analysis shared by CryptoQuant, it has been noted that historically, a significant indicator is when large investors buy rather than sell during periods of continued price decline. Similar movements have been observed in past market cycles when long-term investors believed prices had reached attractive levels.
However, the analytics firm emphasized that the current data alone is not sufficient to confirm the market bottom. According to CryptoQuant, while whales buying is considered a positive signal, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and $XRP prices may fall further before a bottom formation is finalized. Therefore, investors should be cautious about short-term fluctuations.
Experts note that the accumulation process of whales is often part of a long-term investment strategy. Large investors prefer to buy at low prices during periods when fear dominates the markets, while individual investors often act more cautiously due to uncertainty. This is a common characteristic observed many times in the final stages of market cycles in the past.
CryptoQuant noted that while there are signs that the bear market may be approaching its final phase, macroeconomic developments and global liquidity conditions will continue to be decisive factors in price movements. In particular, central bank monetary policies, regulatory developments, and the attitude of institutional investors towards the market are among the main factors influencing the direction of crypto assets.
*This is not investment advice.
FIFA’s President Gianni Infantino gets the support of executive members at an emergency meeting in Morocco after his failed plan to sell a stake in the World Cup. But, Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney, whose country co-hosted this year’s event, says he’s lost faith in Infantino.
Published On 6 Aug 2026
The spouses and parents of US service members have been reportedly detained or deported after the Trump administration ended protections for military families. The Associated Press believes the dozens of cases its investigation found are just the beginning.
Published On 6 Aug 2026
It seems Rihanna is at “work, work, work, work, work, work” on her next album.
With fans incredibly hungry for another album from the Grammy winner, especially since it’s been a decade since she released her last studio project, 2016’s Anti, her longtime partner, A$AP Rocky, is offering a little status update.
During a recent interview on The Jason Lee Show, the rapper was asked by host Jason Lee, “Are you the reason why we don’t have an album?” He was referencing the long-running joke among fans that the delay in new music was due to her relationship with Rocky, their growing family (they share three children) and Rihanna’s many business ventures.
However, Rocky shut down those claims. “Nah,” he replied. “She in the studio right now. Yeah, I said it. Sorry, babe.”
He added, “Bro, she working. She cooking, no funny shit. Damn, I’mma get in trouble for this. Her fans are going to kill me.”
When Rihanna’s Anti dropped in 2016, it became a hit, spending two weeks atop the Billboard 200 chart. It also included her fan-favorite songs “Work,” “Needed Me,” “Love on the Brain” and “Desperado.”
Though she hasn’t released an official album since then, she has put out a few standalone singles tied to film soundtracks, including “Lift Me Up” and “Born Again” for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and “Friend of Mine” for Smurfs.
When Rihanna was previously asked for an update on her next album, dubbed R9, she told Entertainment Tonight in 2024 that while she’s “starting over,” she also doesn’t “want to neglect the songs that I have, so I actually want to go back and listen to stuff with new ears, with my new perspective and then see what applies and what I’m still in love with.”
That same year, she also told Interview magazine that her “brain is working backward right now” regarding her next musical endeavor. “I usually have the music first, and the music leads me into all of these visual opportunities, and now I’m having all of these visuals,” she added.
Elsewhere on The Jason Lee Show, Rocky was also asked if fans could expect a “double album of y’all both together on every song” in the future.
“Nope,” the rapper quickly replied. “I would hate Rocky and Rihanna if they both did that. That’s trash. Nobody wants to hear us together, bro.”
Rocky explained that he believes their separate sounds wouldn’t make sense together because “I make subversive weird ass indie rap,” adding that “the music that I make is for a niche demographic of people who actually get this shit.”
Iceland-born, U.S.-based producer Sigurjón “Joni” Sighvatsson has the kind of résumé that speaks for itself: David Lynch‘s Cannes Palme d’Or winner Wild at Heart, Julian Schnabel’s Basquiat, Kathryn Bigelow’s The Weight of Water, plus music videos and series including Twin Peaks and Beverly Hills, 90210.
This week, the Palomar Pictures principal — who co-founded Propaganda Films in 1986 — returns to the 79th edition of the Locarno Film Festival to receive the Raimondo Rezzonico Award in the Piazza Grande on Thursday evening. The honor is named for the man who served as Locarno’s president from 1981 to 1999.
Ahead of his trip to Switzerland, Sighvatsson spoke with THR about his excitement over returning to Locarno, his read on the festival circuit at large, and why he believes his work doesn’t belong in the “closed system” he says Netflix has built.
Sighvatsson has visited Locarno before and remains a fan, largely thanks to its more adventurous, less predictable curation. “The festival is not just focused on what is in the competition,” he says. “Everything has changed. When Wild at Heart won in Cannes [in 1990], that was a big platform for that kind of unusual film to get. Now, we don’t know really what Cannes is anymore. What are they catering to? What is their vision? It is a very different festival from Locarno.”
Unlike the bigger festivals, he adds, Locarno “never had this incredible focus on just getting stars, or just a competition, or just this.” That flexibility, he argues, will serve it well: “I love Locarno. I think some of the other festivals have become prisoners of their own success, and with the business changing, they have changed. I think festivals like Locarno, which are smaller and have a slightly lower profile and different approaches to film, will do better.”
AI’s Impact On the Industry
With AI a hot topic of debate in Hollywood and beyond, what is the producer’s reading on the technology’s likely impact on the film industry? “I think AI actually will help in many ways, but I don’t really see AI movies changing things because in the end, movies are about people and they’re about stories,” Sighvatsson tells THR. “I see it working for some projects. For the new The Odyssey, Christopher Nolan was not using AI for a reason — because he doesn’t want to make people feel it’s AI. I heard the new [live-action] Moana, the Disney film, feels just like an AI film, even though it’s using real characters [and CGI].”
His bottom line: “I think it’s a double-edged sword, but AI will help. It’s like any very powerful tool, for example, the atom bomb. It’s all about how you use it, or if you use it at all. And I think a lot of filmmakers will opt not to use AI because they don’t need to. But others will use it. Will it change the course of cinema? No. I think it will change television more.”
On Netflix and the “Closed System”
Sighvatsson isn’t optimistic about television’s current state, largely because of streaming — and he draws a sharp line between films and what Netflix produces. “There are things that Netflix calls films. I don’t call them films,” he says. “I call them Netflix films. That’s very different than a film.”
He elaborates: “Most of the things that Netflix does don’t have a very deep meaning, and they are not supposed to. You still need a lot of skill to make those big Netflix films, but they don’t really expect them to have a long life, and they are shown only within a closed system. It’s the Netflix system, so Netflix is just making something for a closed system, whereas everything that I’ve made, even music videos, is for an open system that anybody can access.”
The distinction, he says, comes down to distribution: “The difference is that Netflix doesn’t even sell any of its product to anybody else but Netflix. So they’ve created the language that fits this box that is called the Netflix box, and they’re very successful, including with some of the animation and some of the children’s content. And even though Netflix is changing, it doesn’t change the fact that a Netflix film fits only in a Netflix box. It wouldn’t fit in an Imax theater, for example. … And when you’re producing for such masses, you automatically demand less complexity.”
Given all that, don’t expect a Sighvatsson-produced Netflix title anytime soon. “I don’t think so,” he says. “I don’t think it’s my thing. I don’t think I’m in the Netflix universe.”
Still, he gives the streamer credit where it’s due. “I think it’s great that other people [create content for] it. That’s fantastic, and Netflix has changed the business,” he says. “What I think Netflix has done well is give people in other countries an opportunity to make material in different languages, in different cultures. That, I think, is the greatest contribution Netflix has made.”
ProSiebenSat.1 posted lower first-half revenue as Germany‘s weak television advertising market and competition from broadcasters carrying the World Cup weighed on its entertainment business.
The German commercial broadcaster, which is controlled by the Berlusconi family’s MediaForEurope (MFE) group, reported first-half revenue of €1.54 billion ($1.77 billion) on Thursday, down 9 per cent from a year earlier. On an organic basis, excluding portfolio changes and currency effects, revenue declined 2 per cent. Second-quarter revenue fell 8.5 per cent to €768 million ($881 million).
The company said advertising revenue continued to be affected by a slowdown in the German TV market, the ongoing shift of ad spending to digital platforms and competition from broadcasters airing major sporting events, particularly the World Cup. Entertainment revenue fell 6 per cent in the first half to €952 million ($1.09 billion), with linear TV advertising down 9 per cent.
Digital advertising remained a bright spot. Digital & Smart advertising revenue rose 6 per cent, driven by ProSieben’s streaming service Joyn, content distribution on third-party platforms and the group’s audio business. Advertising-supported streaming revenue at Joyn increased 8 per cent in the first half, while subscription revenue climbed 20 per cent.
Despite the revenue decline, earnings improved sharply as the company cut costs and continued a broader restructuring. First-half EBITDA rose by €152 million ($174 million) to €124 million ($142 million), compared with a loss of €28 million ($32 million) a year earlier. Programming expenses fell to €404 million ($464 million) from €496 million ($570 million), while personnel costs declined to €299 million ($343 million) from €416 million ($478 million), reflecting restructuring measures, asset sales and lower content costs.
ProSiebenSat.1 has also continued to slim down its portfolio. Since the start of the year, the company has sold six non-core businesses, including Studio71 U.S., as it focuses on its German-speaking entertainment operations.
The company is also betting big on Joyn. Last month the streaming service announced a deal with ZDF to add on-demand programming from the German public broadcaster. ProSieben is also developing a shared streaming technology platform with MediaForEurope, for use across the group’s European markets. MFE pan-European network of commercial broadcasters also includes Italy’s Mediaset and Telecinco in Spain.
ProSiebenSat.1 reaffirmed its full-year outlook, maintaining its forecast for slight organic revenue growth and a significant increase in EBITDA, while cautioning that visibility in Germany’s advertising market remains limited.
What do the CEOs of AMC Theatres and Regal Cinemas have in common? Both have been enticed to back David Ellison’s $111 billion quest to merge Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery.
Regal chief Eduardo Acuna was the latest to go public with his blessing on Wednesday. The endorsement from the leader of a major exhibitor is notable given that the lawsuit filed by 12 states against Paramount to halt the deal is being waged as an antitrust battle on the turf of the fragile theatrical marketplace. If the theater owners themselves aren’t worried about Paramount’s undue influence on the landscape, well, then why should the states? At least, that may be the logic of Team Ellison.
The states’ logic is quite different. In a lawsuit led by California attorney general Rob Bonta, their argument goes that the merged studios will have undue influence over the supply of product to movie theaters. “Movie theatres rely on competition between Paramount and Warner Bros,” stated the complaint filed July 13. “Through this competition, theatres incentivize creativity and quality, and they secure competitive prices and terms for themselves and for audiences.”
The states argue that a merged WarnerMount will control 30 percent of movies that have earned $100 million-plus at the box office and have been bowed in 3,000 theaters for wide release. The case against Paramount is also backed by Cinema United, the lobbying group that represents movie theater owners and chains, including Regal and AMC.
“The ramifications of further movie studio consolidation will be significant and lasting, not just in Hollywood, but on Main Streets across this nation where local movie theaters serve as cultural and financial cornerstones for communities of all sizes,” Cinema United’s top exec, Michael O’Leary, said when the states filed suit in July.
Paramount CEO Ellison has pledged to ramp up production of features and release a combined 30 movies a year theatrically with 45-day theatrical windows. Regal CEO Acuna made reference to these promises in his statement (in full below), noting, “I believe David is sincere in making these commitments.”
Regal, the Knoxville-based division of exhibitor Cineworld that emerged from bankruptcy in 2023, is the second-largest circuit in the U.S. behind AMC Theatres. Adam Aron, who has led AMC for the last decade, was a relatively early backer of the Paramount-Warner Bros., making comments supporting Ellison’s bid at CinemaCon early this year.
Sean Gamble, the CEO of Cinemark, the third largest chain stateside, hasn’t been as explicit as Aron or Acuna but appeared to express support for Paramount and Warners over a suitor that would be less theatrically-minded, like Netflix.
Paramount’s legal team has argued that the high-stakes court battle should take place in November of this year but a judge disagreed and set the trial for March 2027. That sets up a long waiting game, which may be why the battle in the court of public opinion is only heating up. In recent days superagent Ari Emanuel, Aron and Ellison himself have all penned op-eds explaining the Paramount side of the logic for a merger. On the opposing side, another star-studded letter led by Benedict Cumberbatch, Alan Cumming and Benedict Wong argued against the merits of the deal.
Regal CEO Acuna’s full statement is below:
This year has been an important one for our industry. Attendance is up, younger audiences are coming out in numbers we haven’t seen in years, and the upcoming release schedule looks just as strong. While there is real momentum, we need a thriving studio system to ensure that the industry has a platform from which to grow.
This is why, after much consideration, we believe it’s time for Paramount Skydance’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery to move forward. I’ve spoken directly with Skydance Paramount CEO David Ellison and his team about what a combined company would mean for exhibition, and he has made some specific commitments: at least 30 theatrical films a year, a protected theatrical window with 45 days for TVOD and 90 days for SVOD for a minimum of three years, and a $30 billion annual investment in media content. I believe David is sincere in making these commitments, and he has offered to execute a consent decree to the State AGs to that effect. These are tangible and important commitments that will benefit the industry and which can be measured.
A long fight in court that extends into spring or summer doesn’t put more films in theaters, and is not beneficial to studios, filmmakers, the guests who go to the movies, or theater businesses like Regal and the people who work for them. It just creates more uncertainty and distraction that could be damaging to our industry as we build on our current success. It is time for all parties to sit down and work out how to formalize these commitments. With these measures in place, we believe that Paramount can be an effective steward of these studios that mean an enormous amount to people who love movies.
Regal Cinemas CEO Eduardo Acuna released a statement on Wednesday evening in support of the looming Paramount-Warner Bros. merger.
“This year has been an important one for our industry. Attendance is up, younger audiences are coming out in numbers we haven’t seen in years, and the upcoming release schedule looks just as strong,” Acuna wrote. “While there is real momentum, we need a thriving studio system to ensure that the industry has a platform from which to grow.”
“This is why, after much consideration, we believe it’s time for Paramount Skydance’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery to move forward,” Acuna continued. The CEO explained that he spoke to Paramount-Skydance CEO David Ellison, who has made “some specific commitments” to ensure the theater business continues to thrive. Those commitments include, “At least 30 theatrical films a year, a protected theatrical window with 45 days for TVOD and 90 days for SVOD for a minimum of three years, and a $30 billion annual investment in media content.”
“A long fight in court that extends into spring or summer doesn’t put more films in theaters, and is not beneficial to studios, filmmakers, the guests who go to the movies, or theater businesses like Regal and the people who work for them,” Acuna added. “It just creates more uncertainty and distraction that could be damaging to our industry as we build on our current success.”
Regal’s backing comes a week after AMC Theatres CEO Adam Aron published an op-ed in Variety explaining his own reasons for supporting the deal. With the addition of Regal, Ellison now has the country’s two largest theater chains on his side, which will prove to be key allies as he prepares for a March 2027 antitrust showdown against California attorney general Rob Bonta and his coalition of 11 other state AGs.
The development is a blow to the states’ lawsuit, which was filed on July 13. It alleges that the $111 billion merger violates the Clayton Act by diminishing competition in three key markets: wide-release theatrical distribution, “top-grossing” theatrical distribution and basic cable licensing. The suit also claims the wallets of theater owners and consumers will be hurt if Paramount and Warner Bros. are allowed to merge. However, with AMC and Regal now in the Ellison camp, it will most likely be extremely difficult for Bonta and his team to prove that the exhibition will suffer in a post-merger industry.
Acuna and Aron also appear to be at odds with Cinema United, the exhibition industry trade group, and its head, Michael O’Leary, who have come out swinging against the sale of Warner Bros. to Paramount. Last week, O’Leary reaffirmed the group’s opposition in a letter to its members, writing, “this transaction will result in fewer movies, higher costs for you and your patrons, and ultimately, fewer theatres. The promises of support for theatrical being made in the media are high-level and unenforceable and as such do nothing to alleviate the harms.”
On Tuesday, Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin issued a ruling that the antitrust trial will last 12 days, running from March 2, 2027, to March 19. In a July 31 motion, Paramount requested the judge schedule the trial in November, while the states and the Writers Guild of America, who are also suing to stop the merger, requested the trial take place in March. Paramount wants this deal done as soon as possible, considering that it has to pay a “ticking fee” to Warner Bros. Discovery of $7 million for every day past Oct. 1 that the deal remains in limbo.
Ellison published an op-ed in the New York Times on Tuesday, in which he wrote that the real reason the state AGs want these deals blocked is that he will control CNN if he’s allowed to scoop up Warner Bros.
“I believe this fight is not really about market share,” Ellison wrote in the essay. “I believe a plainer worry sits beneath the briefs and the news releases: the news. The issue is whether I can be trusted as a steward of Warner’s CNN.” Ellison, reasserting his promise of an independent and fair CNN, added, “When it comes to our news operations, I do not aspire to lead these companies to bend their newsrooms to my views. I believe that news should be based on facts and truth.”
Deadline was the first to report Acuna’s statement backing the merger.
Here’s an example of Muse Code’s multimodal visual coding capabilities. In this demo, the user inputs a fly-through video of a home into the terminal as an mp4 file. Muse Code interprets the video and produces a visually rich website with booking capabilities. pic.twitter.com/3CAfIMYmAB
— AI at Meta (@AIatMeta) August 5, 2026
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