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‘Under Salt Marsh’ Creator on Jackie’s Pregnancy, Possible Season 2 and Picking the Murderer: ‘I Want People to Say, “Of Course, Holy Sh-t, It’s [SPOILER]”‘

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains major spoilers for “Under Salt Marsh,” which had its season finale on Friday.

“Under Salt Marsh” is one of Sky Atlantic’s biggest non-HBO drama pushes in recent years. The original six-part series (Sky has yet to confirm where it’ll land in the U.S.) stars “Yellowstone’s” Kelly Reilly as Jackie, a detective turned teacher with an unfinished case that comes back from the dead when, late one night after a secret tryst, she stumbles across the lifeless body of one of her pupils in a ditch. Soon, it’s confirmed that he’s been murdered, making him the second child to die in the small Welsh community of Morfa Halen in three years. With a storm threatening to destroy vital evidence – as well as the coastal village itself — Jackie teams up with her old police partner, Detective Eric Bull (Rafe Spall), to try and find the killer.

Ahead of the season finale on Feb. 27, Claire Oakley, who created, co-wrote and co-directed the series, sat down with Variety to talk about her inspiration for “Under Salt Marsh,” if Mac was always going to be the killer and whether audiences will see Jackie and Bull team up again for a second season.

Where did the idea for the show originate?

I really wanted to set something [in North Wales], because I’d really fallen in love with the area, and particularly the salt marshes. They’re such a rare and unique environment.

And I came up with the idea that if we had a detective series, then we could get really into the fine detail of these marshes, and suddenly the ecology and the salt content in the water and all of these little things would become really vital.

This is a bit conceptual, but the salt marshes protect us. They protect us from the sea level rise from the storms. So they’re very important if we want to continue living here, because our island is getting smaller. And so [there as] this idea of protection and “What if we don’t protect the things that we need to?” What if we don’t protect the future generations against potential horrors? I started to think about the plot in that way, like, how would this detective story, this murder mystery, reflect that idea?

Claire Oakley and Kelly Reilly on the set of “Under Salt Marsh” (Courtesy of Sky Atlantic)

One early scene a lot of viewers have discussed is in Episode 1, when Jackie insists on telling Cefin’s parents about his death rather than letting the police do it. Why did you make that choice?

I liked the idea that Jackie is often acting on instinct and that is probably what made her ultimately leave the police and perhaps not be the best type of person to join the force. In some ways, she’s a very good detective. In other ways […] she can’t cope when things get personal. And I wanted to put her in a position early on where, as a human being, maybe she felt it was right that she had to tell the parents as soon as she could, they were going to be the first people that she would go to and she wasn’t going to wait for the police, who, in this particular community, might take quite a long time to get there. But as it’s happening, [she’s] realizing, like, “oh […] it’s kind of a very irresponsible thing to do.” I was interested in these moments where she’s not responsible, but she’s responsible emotionally, on a human level.

I also really liked in that scene the idea that she turns up covered in mud and shell-shocked and pale and obviously in distress. And their response to her is like, maybe that’s not abnormal [for Jackie]. Like, “We thought you were doing well, Jackie. Sit down and I’ll call your dad.” It was a way to understand that she had a complicated past.

Viewers have also been remarking on Jackie’s big age gap relationship with Dylan (played by Harry Lawtey). Was that written into the script or was it a result of casting Lawtey?

It was written in. I felt that [worked] for Jackie, the idea of a younger boyfriend who might not demand from her all the things that someone her own age might demand — Like, are we going to move in together? What’s going to happen? Is this a real relationship?

She could get love and passion and sex from this person, while also not having to give much of herself and not have to take responsibility in that way.

Was there a particular intention behind making Jackie pregnant?

I liked this idea that she’s stuck in the past. She can’t move on until she finds out what happened to Nessa — a little bit like the whole community, they’re already eroded by this awful thing that has happened — but she, in particular, can’t. On the surface she’s got a new job, she’s got a new career, she’s doing it. But the pregnancy allowed me to suggest that all is not quite well. If you are happy and you feel steady about your future, there’s no reason not to tell your boyfriend that you’re pregnant or really anyone else.

I was actually also pregnant as I was writing it, so that almost certainly gave me some insight.

In Episode 6 where the storm has hit the village and Jackie is chasing after Dylan, there’s a huge wave that hits his car. How did you create that scene?

We built the whole center of the village. The chip shop, the butcher and that whole T-junction, where that wave occurs, is all a set in Dragon Studios in Cardiff. It was all built outside on the back lot of the studios, and we had to create this special concrete pad that had to take the weight of all of the set and also the water.

We had a first level of water. When Jackie and Dylan are there, it’s kind of knee-high. The cars can still drive through it. So that was the first level of water and we were working in that water. It was January. There were like 1,000 conversations about, “What if the water freezes?”

But we couldn’t heat the water because then it starts to steam. Then there were endless conversations about, “How long could someone — either a member of the cast or crew — be stood in this almost freezing water at a time? Were we going to be able to shoot a 6-page dialogue scene?”

And then that wave. We had this huge kind of slide, essentially, with massive buckets of water at the top on cranes, and we tipped them down, and so they shot out across. The car was rigged on a winch. So as the water came, we winched the car backwards, because the water was never going to be powerful enough to move the car in reality.

A lot of what you see was done in camera but then the water was augmented to be slightly bigger — so that we could believe it would push the car — in VFX.

Rafe Spall as Detective Eric Bull in “Under Salt Marsh” (Courtesy of Sky Atlantic)

And what about the scene when Mac has locked Bull in the room, which is flooding with water, until James [Osian Emlyn] stumbles across him and lets him out?

That was actually two different sets. Inside the room, when it’s filling with water, we had a hydraulic set that was a three-sided room on a hydraulic platform that went up and down in a tank in like a big swimming pool. So as it’s filling with water, we’re just slowly lowering the set into the water as Bull does his take.

There was no door in that set. So the opening of the door was in another set that we built where it was the outside of the room, that kind of corridor-y bit and the stairs. And when [James] opened the door, in real life we had a stunt person.

Was Mac always going to be the murderer?

Not really, no. I was commissioned by Little Door to write the pilot, and that was before we took it to Sky.
I hadn’t planned out the whole series. I think I had a brief outline […] and that these were the things I wanted to explore with the killer and it needed to be linked to the environmental reasons why he did it or she did it. But I didn’t have anyone pinpointed. And then Sky came on board and they wanted a second episode written before they decided on whether to greenlight it or not.

We did a small writers’ room. It was me and Jonathan Harbottle, who came on board to write Eps 3 and 5 at that point, and we sketched out just the first half, so the next two episodes, so Eps 2 and 3 together, and then I went away and wrote Ep 2, and we still didn’t know who the killer was. We still hadn’t addressed the second half of the series. And so I wrote Ep 2, had [my] baby, we got greenlit, John wrote Ep 3, and then we realized we had to figure out the second half of the series. And so we did another writers’ room, and that’s when Nikita Lalwani came on board, who wrote Ep 4. We did it in my sister’s house, she lives one street away from me, so that I could be brought the baby to breastfeed every three hours while we were doing the room. And I think we did 8 days and we planned out the second half of the series.

It wasn’t ideal, in a way. In some ways it meant it happened very organically, the story. In other ways, it made things hard, because we’d already had three eps written without really knowing the ending.

You then have to go back to the beginning, and re-work things in and feed things in. Like, we knew with Mac, once we’d settled on him, then it’s about protecting your reveal but when he’s finally revealed, I didn’t want people to say, like, “What the fuck?” I want people to say, “Of course, holy shit, it’s him. How do I not see that?” So it needs to add up and not be too wacky.

When you have a story about two kids being murdered, there’s the possibility it’s sexually motivated. But Nessa and Cefin are both killed – directly or indirectly – because of the toxic waste. Did you ever consider giving Mac a different motivation?

No, I definitely didn’t want to explore a sexually motivated crime, or even a crime of passion or a psychopath or those sorts of things. I was interested in exploring the idea that someone “normal,” if any of us were in that specific situation, we may have done the same thing. That it was just someone who was under a huge amount of pressure, whose idea of life had become skewed because of that. And it was a bit of a self-protection; he ultimately kills those children in order to protect his reputation and his status in the community and what he feels he’s doing for good. He’s building this seawall, he’s protecting this community, but at what cost? “But at what cost are we doing these things?” was the idea that I was trying to dig into. So I wanted the crime and the killer to represent those themes right from the beginning.

Is there a likelihood we’ll see Jackie and Bull reunite for a second season?

We’re exploring what a second season might look like. We’re looking at different options of how we could take it forward, if it got commissioned.

This interview has been edited and condensed for space and clarity.

February 27, 2026
Google and OpenAI employees sign open letter in ‘solidarity’ with Anthropic

Hundreds of employees at Google and OpenAI have signed an open letter urging their companies to stand with Anthropic in its standoff with the Pentagon over military applications for AI tools like Claude.

The letter, titled “We Will Not Be Divided,” calls on the leadership of both companies to “put aside their differences and stand together to continue to refuse the Department of War’s current demands for permission to use our models for domestic mass surveillance and autonomously killing people without human oversight.” These are two lines that Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has said should not be crossed by his or any other AI company.

As of publication, the letter has over 450 signatures, almost 400 of which come from Google employees and the rest from OpenAI. Currently, roughly 50 percent of all participants have chosen to attach their names to the cause, with the rest remaining anonymous. All are verified as current employees of these companies. The original organizers of the letter aren’t Google or OpenAI employees; they say are unaffiliated with any AI company, political party or advocacy group.

The open letter is the latest development in the saga between Anthropic and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who threatened to label the company a “supply chain risk” if it did not agree to withdraw certain guardrails for classified work. The Pentagon has also been in talks with Google and OpenAI about using their models for classified work, with xAI coming on board earlier this week. The letter argues the government is “trying to divide each company with fear that the other will give in.”

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told his employees on Friday that the ChatGPT maker will draw the same red lines as Anthropic, according to an internal memo seen by Axios. He told CNBC on the same day that he doesn’t “personally think the Pentagon should be threatening DPA against these companies.”

February 27, 2026
Ultraprocessed Foods As Addictive As Tobacco, Researchers Say
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New research shows that ultraprocessed foods may be as addictive as cigarettes. Image Credit: Alexander Spatari/Getty Images
A recent review found that ultraprocessed foods (UPFs) may be as addictive as tobacco products.

The researchers found that UPFs are designed to heighten reward and accelerate the delivery of reinforcing ingredients.

The “addictive” quality of these foods means they drive compulsive consumption and disrupt appetite regulation.

The review authors suggest that ultraprocessed foods should be subject to regulations similar to those for tobacco products.
Currently, there is no single universal definition of ultraprocessed foods. Some people define them as foods that contain ingredients you would not find in your kitchen cupboards, such as emulsifiers and additives.

Many professionals use the NOVA classification to define ultraprocessed foods. This talks about foods that contain “formulations of ingredients, mostly of exclusive industrial use, typically created by a series of industrial techniques and processes.”

“I agree with this study, as ultra-processed foods are specifically engineered to be highly appealing to most individuals,” Mir Ali, MD, bariatric surgeon and medical director of MemorialCare Surgical Weight Loss Center at Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, CA, who was not involved in the research, told Healthline.

Research from 2023 estimates that over 73% of the foods in the United States are ultraprocessed.

“Cigarettes and UPFs [ultraprocessed foods] are not simply natural products but highly engineered delivery systems designed specifically to maximize biological and psychological reinforcement and habitual overuse,” noted the new study’s research team from Harvard, Duke, and the University of Michigan.
The review synthesized findings from addiction, public health history, and nutrition in order to identify sensory and structural features that increase the reinforcing potential of both cigarettes and ultraprocessed foods.

“Not everyone is ‘addicted’ to these foods, but for a meaningful minority, they trigger classic addiction-like patterns: strong cravings, loss of control, and continued use despite negative health effects,” said Michelle Routhenstein, preventive cardiology dietitian at EntirelyNourished, who was not involved in the study.

“These foods are deliberately engineered with refined carbs, added fats, salt, and flavor enhancers to maximize reward and repeat consumption, and the industry uses aggressive marketing tactics, especially targeting children,” she told Healthline.

The researchers focused on five key areas:
delivery speed

hedonic engineering, or designing foods to be irresistibly good

dose optimization

environmental ubiquity

deceptive reformulation, or “health washing”
They found that, like cigarettes, ultraprocessed foods are fine-tuned to deliver the right dose of sugar.

“Refined carbohydrates stimulate dopamine release via the vagus nerve, whereas fats do so through intestinal lipid sensing,” the researchers wrote.

“… UPFs with high levels of refined carbohydrates and added fats are some of the most potently rewarding substances in the modern diet. Notably, this refined carbohydrate-fat combination is almost nonexistent in nature.”

The way these foods rapidly deliver “feel-good” chemicals to the brain makes them potentially addictive, similarly to cigarettes.

The review noted that while cigarettes are engineered to deliver nicotine quickly, ultraprocessed foods are engineered to rapidly digest and absorb, as they typically have little to no fiber. This makes it easier for the body to process fat and sugar more quickly.

The researchers also explain that ultraprocessed foods give intentional flavor bursts that fade quickly and textures that melt in your mouth. This all helps to deliver more dopamine and encourages you to eat more.
According to the review, both the tobacco and food industries have long used a strategy called “health washing.”

This is where products are marketed and reformulated to create an illusion of reduced harm while preserving the core of their addictive properties.

Health washing in the tobacco industry gained traction in the 1950s with the introduction of filters on cigarettes.

These were marketed as protective innovations that would trap tar and particles before they reached the lungs. In reality, filters offer little meaningful benefit.

However, people typically adapted by inhaling deeper or smoking more frequently, which offset any reduction in toxin exposure.

The food industry has taken a similar approach. It uses labels like “low fat” or “sugar-free” to market ultraprocessed foods.

However, these foods still contain the same highly reinforcing ingredient combinations. The issue is that these reformulations offer a superficial appearance of health while the product’s addictive structure and metabolic harms remain intact.

The researchers noted at the end of their paper that food and tobacco are not the same thing.

Still, they cautioned that certain ultraprocessed foods function like highly optimized consumables rather than actual food. They recommended that public health policy should reflect this reality.

“Tobacco provides a warning, and tobacco control provides a source of hope,” the researchers wrote.

Due to regulations, smoking rates in the United States have fallen and have “reshaped cultural views of tobacco and eroded trust in the industry.”

“I believe increased education regarding the negative impact of ultra-processed foods is essential to reduce general consumption and improve public health. The strategies used to reduce cigarette consumption have been effective and may be a helpful model for ultra-processed foods as well,” said Ali.

“I don’t think UPFs [ultraprocessed foods] should be regulated exactly like cigarettes, but they do warrant stronger, tobacco-inspired policies: marketing restrictions, clear front-of-package labeling, tighter standards on health claims, and limits in schools or hospitals,” added Routhenstein.

The researchers reminded people that minimally processed and unprocessed foods have sustained human health for millennia.

“Legal action against health damages and misleading health claims, restrictions on UPF advertising, taxation of nutrient-poor UPFs, markedly reducing UPFs in schools and hospitals, and clearer labeling of ultraprocessing could all serve as next steps,” they noted.

“Policies that confront UPFs with the same seriousness that once applied to tobacco, while actively promoting real food, offer the most promising path out of the current crisis.”

Routhenstein agreed and told Healthline that public policy should expand access to fresh, minimally processed foods. This is especially true in lower-income neighborhoods, she explained. Access could be expanded through subsidies, support for local markets and grocery stores, and school or workplace programs.

“Making real food affordable and convenient reduces reliance on UPFs and addresses structural barriers that drive unhealthy eating patterns,” Routhenstein said.
February 27, 2026
The PS5 Pro is getting upgraded upscaling tech in March

After suggesting a version of AMD’s FSR 4 could be ported to the PS5 Pro last year, it looks like Sony is finally rolling out an update with the upscaling tech in March. Mark Cerny, the lead architect of the PS4, PS5 and PS5 Pro, shared via a blog post that the PS5 Pro will be updated with a new version of the company’s PSSR (PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution) upscaling tech next month, and Resident Evil Requiem is one of the first games to use it.

PSSR is “an AI library that analyzes game images pixel by pixel as it upscales them,” Cerny says, which boosts the visual fidelity of games on the PS5 Pro, while running them at a less demanding resolution. The upgraded version of PSSR “takes a very different approach to not only the neural network but also the overall algorithm,” and is now able to keep both framerate and image quality high when it’s enabled.

Cerny’s blog post includes comparison images if you’re curious about the visual differences the new PSSR is able to achieve. Masaru Ijuin, a Senior Manager from Capcom’s Engine Development Support Section R&D Foundational Technology Department, also provided comments on how the new upscaling tech improves Resident Evil Requiem:

With Resident Evil Requiem, we focused on enhancing the presentation quality of the protagonist through an upgraded version of RE Engine to deepen the player’s immersion in horror. For example, each individual strand of hair and beard is rendered as a polygon, allowing it to move realistically in response to body motion and wind. The way light passes through his hair changes depending on how the strands of hair are overlapped as well. This detailed expression of texture is one of the many details that we would especially love for our fans to see.

The upgraded PSSR has allowed us to elevate our expressiveness by successfully processing these details and textural particularities, which are traditionally difficult to upscale because of their intricacy. We hope you will experience this unprecedented level of horror and visual fidelity, and the new gameplay feel it delivers.

Sony and AMD formally announced “Project Amethyst,” their collaboration to develop machine-learning technology to improve graphics and gameplay, in 2024. The partnership has already benefitted both companies: Cerny says Sony contributed to the development of AMD’s FSR 4 and similar improvements are now trickling back to the PS5 Pro. Both companies’ plans to improve everything from upscaling performance to energy efficiency could also pay further dividends in future consoles and GPUs.

Sony Interactive Entertainment

The upgraded PSSR will roll out to PS5 Pro owners as part of a software update in March, and will be able to be toggled on and off in the console’s settings, according to Cerny. Around the same time, multiple PS5 games are also supposed to be updated to support the upscaling tech. While the graphical improvements are still incremental over a normal PS5, the fact that Sony’s still squeezing more performance out of its console should at least be reassuring to anyone who spent $700 (or now $750) on a PS5 Pro.

February 27, 2026
DCTRL Vancouver: Iconic Bitcoin Hackerspace Closes Downtown Location After 12 Years Due to Zoning Changes

DCTRL Vancouver: Iconic Bitcoin Hackerspace Closes Downtown Location After 12 Years Due to Zoning Changes

DCTRL, a Bitcoin hub and hacker space out of Vancouver, the fair-weather Canadian city, has announced the sunset of its downtown basement location, iconic among early adopters for its tinkerer mindset and hardware hacker culture. The community will be migrating to a new location in the coming weeks, and updates to the vision of the hub. The Vancouver Bitcoin community is renowned for having set up the first Bitcoin ATM in History, with DCTRL specifically having hosted a variety of renowned characters that, over the years, gave this industry much of its cultural and innovative flair.

Visited by some of the most influential people in the Bitcoin and broader Crypto industry in its 12 year run, DCTRL is far from done being a hub of the Canadian Bitcoin and Crypto scene. Preparing to move due to a change in zoning laws, plans to relaunch in a new location are in the works, as active members consolidate the historical moments, relationships, and lessons learnt during perhaps the longest-running Bitcoin hackspace experiment in the young industry’s history.

It all started at Waves cafe on Howe Street, in Vancouver. The Bitcoiniacs, a group of four OGs that operated a Bitcoin brokerage at the time — still active to this day — decided it was time to get the robots involved. So they rigged up an ATM to sell bitcoin to the public, rallied the local Vancouver tech, finance, and burgeoning crypto scene, and hosted a historical launch party.

“The first Bitcoin ATM in the world was a massive event,” said Freddie Heartline, a Bitcoin enthusiast and co-founding member of the DCTRL hacker space. In an exclusive interview with Bitcoin Magazine, Heartline went on to recall the event, saying, “Oh man, the vibes were incredible. It literally felt like a really good rave. But it was smarter. Way smarter. That’s how it all came about, actually.” referring to the founding of DCTRL.

The timing for the Bitcoin ATM event was perfect, it was October 2013 and bitcoin had just gone from a few dollars to almost 150, consolidated for a few weeks around 100 and was getting ready to take a shot at 1,000 a coin. The energy across the Bitcoin community as electric, this was the end of the longest bear market in Bitcoin history, in a way this rise in price was proof that Bitcoin was here to stay.

The launch of the first Bitcoin ATM, as a result, made national and international news. The idea of a Bitcoin ATM being operational was considered a historical milestone in the adoption of Bitcoin as money.

Tens of thousands of Canadian dollars worth of bitcoin were sold that day and over the coming weeks, likely creating a few millionaires over the years, spawning copycat ATM projects and even a handful of Bitcoin ATM manufacturing companies to boot. It also inspired the creation of the DCTRL hacker space, called “Decentral Vancouver” at the time.

Cameron Gray, another Bitcoin enthusiast who was volunteering with the Bitcoiniacs event and a friend of Heartline, was the one who had the idea. “Cam was absolutely an essential part of founding Decentral.” Heartline recalled “He literally turned to me one day – as he was operating the bitcoin ATM at Waves – after I complained about the lighting at the coffee shop – and said ‘we should open a space.’ And that was it.”

Soon, they had secured a basement location in downtown Vancouver, grimy, humid, but cozy. Over the years, this spot became a hub for Bitcoin engineers, founders, crypto enthusiasts, and eventually legends. The decor got better, the leaks patched, and the walls decorated with Bitcoin art. The empty spaces filled up with hardware of all kinds, modified to operate or somehow interact with the orange coin.

Heartline and Gray were starting a lifestyle project of sorts, and while Bitcoin may have been doing well at over $1,000, it would soon correct back to $300, another bear market, which had important consequences for the industry. During that time, the bills for DCTRL’s rent had to be paid somehow, and so Heartline moved in. Not into the basement, but onto the rooftop. In order to keep the lights on during that bear market, he literally set up a tent. Not a bad setup either if you have a look.

DCTRL started hosting meetups, the Vancouver Startup Weekend community got wind of it, and a gentleman known as Greg began to visit the hub. Soon enough, the Startup Weekend events were taking place at DCTRL as well, pulling in the local tech startup scene. Before long, even Vitalik Buterin, founder of Ethereum and former writer for Bitcoin Magazine, showed up.

Greg had another important contribution to DCTRL; he made a donation that created a symbol for the local community. He donated $500 to the space with one condition: “It has to be used for something creative …” Heartline recalled, “so I found a Pepsi machine on Craigslist. Greg even helped us move the thing in a pickup. Him, me, Cam, and Mike Olaff moved that fucking insanely heavy and awkward thing down the stairs – lol almost killing Cam.” The Pepsi machine would soon get backwards engineered, hacked, and rebranded to the Bepsi, for obvious Bitcoin reasons.

In the above video, you can see Greg making an on-chain transaction to the pop machine, milliseconds later dropping a soda for him on Q. The satisfying sound of Bitcoin being used as money for the small pleasures of life became a staple of DCTRL. A digital version of the Bepsi was eventually made, which fans from all over the world used to make donations. Many iterations of the underlying software took place over time, rig-wired into the Cold War era pop machine with a Raspberry Pi and some hacker ingenuity. A decade later, even the Mayor of Vancouver Ken Sim, dropped by to pay homage to this staple of Vancouver hacker culture, this time buying a soda from Bepsi with a lightning payment.

Vancouver Mayor @KenSimCity using the Bepsi machine with @lightning at DCTRL pic.twitter.com/bTE2VNiiFK

— DCTRL (@dctrlvan) November 7, 2025

Today, the Bepsi supports practically every Bitcoin protocol, a testing ground for the cutting edge of Bitcoin technology, including protocols like Taproot Assets, Spark, and Arcade OS. “We even issued our own Bepsi token. One Bepsi equals one soda from the Bepsi machine… it’s like a stable coin… pegged to the price of the pop can.” said Heartline. The Bepsi, which in a way was inspired by the Bitcoin ATM, also inspired copycats, such as the 21up vending machine hosted in a nearby Blockchain lab known as MintGreen. To this day, funds collected by the Bepsi machine have gone to support the operation of the hacker space and cover costs, serving as a cornerstone of the community. Control over the Bepsi’s underlying wallets and tech stack in a way setting rank among the most active members and hosts.

Visited by Legends

Throughout the years, big names within the industry visited or engaged with DCTRL in one way or another. Vitalik Buterin personally visited the space and hung out there in the very early days of Ethereum, as demonstrated by this photograph hung on their wall, featuring Gray, Heartline, Vitalik, and another active member referred to as Kyle.

The founders of CaVirtex, the first Canadian Bitcoin exchange, were also photographed there. This brand is little known now as they were bought out by Kraken years later, but they had a deep influence on the Canadian Bitcoin scene, selling the coin to Canadians since before the first bull run, which peaked at $30 per coin. Without this exchange, many of the big Canadian Bitcoiners may not have gotten in.

Virtually, Bitcoin celebrities also attended DCTRL events throughout the years, answering questions from the local crowd, such as Roger Ver, before the fork wars, Andreas Antonopoulos, and Willy Woo. Erik Vorhees, who came to fame in Bitcoin for creating the first major instant swap, crypto-to-crypto exchange called ShapeShift, is seen in this video doing a fireside chat at DCTRL during a local meetup.

Even one famous scammer attended the hub, a man who was a regular in the Canadian Bitcoin scene in the 2014 era, and who to this day remains one of the unsolved mysteries of crypto-related crime, Gerald Cotten of QuadrigaCX. Cotten, whom I personally met multiple times in Toronto at the time, was a charming and smooth-talking entrepreneur in the scene at the time, before his turbulent professional history was revealed and the exchange went down in bankruptcy, leaving millions of dollars of user funds unpaid. Cotten allegedly died suddenly and mysteriously in India just before the exchange went bankrupt, taking the crypto keys with him, but many who were personally affected by this centralized exchange collapse are skeptical of that story.

Further evidence of DCTRL as a microcosm of the industry as a whole was seen years later during the fork wars, as Gray, the other primary co-founder of the hub, took the ‘big block’ side of the debate, resulting in intense debates and ultimately a falling out with the local community and broader Bitcoin scene. Gray, nevertheless, is highly respected and appreciated by the active members of DCTRL for his contributions to the DCTRL social scene, which would inevitably suffer from the same forks and tensions that the Bitcoin protocol went through at the time.

During those difficult times, DCTRL served as a forum and debate space for these topics, even hosting Peter Rizun of the alternative implementation Bitcoin Unlimited — a big blocker — who debated Taylor, seen on the right in the photo below.

Overall, DCTRL enjoyed more than 12 years of continuous operation, boasts hundreds of events hosted, over 1500 registered community members, and 69 recorded talks published on YouTube, which touched many elements of the Bitcoin and crypto industry. Throughout this whole time, the hub was operated entirely by volunteers and sustained through public donations and, of course, the Bepsi.

As the location of DCTRL gets rezoned by the city government, and a new building will be going up in its place, the active members and hosts of DCTRL, have begun organizing a transition to a new location, alongside an update to the brand and

According to DJ, one of the active members who prefers to stay pseudonymous, the hub has had record attendance in recent months. And while the location will change, its future is brighter than ever. Those who would like to be a part of the future of DCTRL can learn more at www.DCTRL.wtf.

This post DCTRL Vancouver: Iconic Bitcoin Hackerspace Closes Downtown Location After 12 Years Due to Zoning Changes first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Juan Galt.

February 27, 2026
3 Solana data points highlight resilience, but is SOL undervalued?

February 27, 2026
It’s a Deal: Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery Unveil $111 Billion Megamerger

Paramount‘s $111 billion megadeal for Warner Bros. Discovery is officially a go.

The two companies formally unveiled the deal Friday after Netflix formally bowed out of the running a day earlier, citing a price that was “no longer financially attractive.”

Paramount mogul David Ellison said: “From the very beginning, our pursuit of Warner Bros. Discovery has been guided by a clear purpose: to honor the legacy of two iconic companies while accelerating our vision of building a next-generation media and entertainment company. By bringing together these world-class studios, our complementary streaming platforms, and the extraordinary talent behind them, we will create even greater value for audiences, partners and shareholders — and we couldn’t be more excited for what’s ahead.”

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav added, “I’m very pleased with the outcome we achieved for WBD shareholders and the entertainment industry. Our guiding principle throughout this process has been to secure a transaction that maximizes the value of our iconic assets and our century-old studio while delivering as much certainty as possible for our investors. We look forward to working with Paramount to complete this historic transaction.”

The deal will see Paramount pay $31 per share for WBD, but it also had other elements, including a ticking fee payable to shareholders equal to $0.25 per quarter beginning after Sept. 30, 2026, as well as a $7 billion regulatory termination in the event the transaction does not close due to regulatory matters. The ticking fee means that the price of WBD will rise the longer the regulatory process takes.

The dea, is backed by $47 billion in equity commitments from the Ellison family and RedBird Capital, and $54 billion in debt financing from Bank of America, Citigroup, and Apollo. Paramount added that “at closing, the equity may include other strategic and financial partners,” though it did not disclose those partners. Previous bids included funding from Middle East sovereign wealth funds, Tencent, and Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners.

Paramount has also paid the $2.8 billion termination fee that Warner Bros. was required to pay to Netflix to abandon its signed deal.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta has already said they have an open investigation and intend to be “vigorous” in their review of the deal.

In announcing the deal officially, Paramount also made some commitments meant to assuage concerns from the town. For starters, the company says that it will maintain both Paramount and Warner Bros. as independent studios, with a commitment to 15 films from each every year, with full 45-day windows before going to premium video on-demand, with longer windows for hit films.

The company is also committing to continue selling its programming to third parties, and to be a buyer of content from other studios.

And Paramount reiterated its estimate that it can yield $6 billion in “synergies,” which it says will be “driven by a combination of: technology integration (such as migrating the combined company to a single enterprise resource planning system and consolidating streaming technology stacks), corporate-wide efficiencies, including procurement savings, optimizing the combined real estate footprint, and otherwise streamlining operational efficiencies.”

Of course, Hollywood is bracing for substantial layoffs following the deal close, though the announcement also suggests that other notable assets (do both Warners and Paramount need their own studio lots in L.A.?) may be sold.

“Warner Bros. is a world-class organization, and we want to thank David Zaslav, Gunnar Wiedenfels, Bruce Campbell, Brad Singer and the WBD Board for running a fair and rigorous process,” WBD co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters said in a statement Thursday. “We believe we would have been strong stewards of Warner Bros.’ iconic brands, and that our deal would have strengthened the entertainment industry and preserved and created more production jobs in the U.S. But this transaction was always a ‘nice to have’ at the right price, not a ‘must have’ at any price.”

February 27, 2026
Neil Sedaka, “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do” and “Laughter in the Rain” Singer-Songwriter, Dies at 86

Neil Sedaka, the buoyant singer-songwriter and pianist who had No. 1 hits with “Laughter in the Rain,” “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do,” “Bad Blood” and, for Captain & Tennille, “Love Will Keep Us Together,” died Friday in Los Angeles. He was 86.

“Our family is devastated by the sudden passing of our beloved husband, father and grandfather,” his family said in a statement. “A true rock and roll legend, an inspiration to millions, but most importantly, at least to those of us who were lucky enough to know him, an incredible human being who will be deeply missed.”

First teaming with lyricist Howard Greenfield — a neighbor in his Brooklyn apartment building — while still in his teens, Sedaka scored his first hit as a songwriter in 1958 when Connie Francis recorded the duo’s “Stupid Cupid,” a peppy single that rose to No. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100.

They wrote several other hits for Francis, including 1958’s “Fallin’” and “Where the Boys Are,” the theme to the popular 1960 MGM comedy; the latter reached No. 4 in the U.S. and became her signature song.

The clean-cut Sedaka quickly cemented his pop stardom with a string of popular tunes that included “Oh! Carol” (No. 9), “Stairway to Heaven” (No. 9), “Run Samson Run” (No. 28), “Calendar Girl” (No. 4), “Little Devil” (No. 11), “Happy Birthday, Sweet Sixteen” (No. 6) and “Next Door to an Angel” (No. 5).

Sedaka and Greenfield’s “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do,” with a carefree, nonsensical opening — “Do do do, Down dooby doo down down, Comma, comma, down dooby doo down down, Comma, comma, down dooby doo down down” — proved irresistible to teens, enjoying a 14-week run on the singles chart and in the summer of 1962 becoming Sedaka’s first No. 1 hit.

“I was the king of the tra-la-las and doo-be-do’s in the ’50s and ’60s,” he told Reuters in 2010. “It had to have a very catchy tune, with a catchy beat that you can dance to.”

Between 1958-62, Sedaka and Greenfield would sell 25 million records, with 10 big hits in a row.

“First, his songs have clever lyrics and wonderfully infectious tunes,” The New York Times wrote in 1976. “Second, his melodies have just enough soft‐rock and rhythm and blues underpinnings to avoid bonelessness. Third, he leavens the cheeriness with sentimentality more innocent than crass. Fourth, he has remarkable voice — a sweetly mellow, evocative high tenor that shades imperceptibly into falsetto.”

Despite all that, Sedaka’s popularity and that of other American pop stars began to wane in the mid-’60s amid the British music invasion. He didn’t release an album for six years as singles including “Sunny,” “The World Through a Tear” and “The Answer to My Prayer” barely made a ripple.

When his label opted not to renew his contract in 1966, Sedaka took a break from singing and focused on songwriting. Over the next several years, he teamed with Carole Bayer to write “When Love Comes Knockin’ (at Your Door)” and “The Girl I Left Behind Me,” hits for The Monkees.

He and Greenfield also penned tunes for The Cyrkle (“We Had a Good Thing Goin’”) and Davy Jones (“Rainy Jane”). The 5th Dimension landed in the top 20 with “Workin’ on a Groovy Thing,” a tune he wrote with Roger Atkins. The Carpenters, Andy Williams and Shirley Bassey enjoyed success with “Solitaire,” a song Sedaka recorded and wrote with lyricist Phil Cody.

When his album releases in 1969 (Workin’ on a Groovy Thing) and 1971 (Emergence) didn’t generate much excitement, Sedaka moved to England in 1970 to change things up. After a chance meeting with Elton John in 1973, he signed with John’s fledgling label, The Rocket Record Co.

The move led to one of the most successful periods in Sedaka’s career. In 1974, Polydor Records released Sedaka’s Back, a collection of songs — some recorded with future members of 10cc — from three albums that had only been released in the U.K. It peaked at No. 23 on the Billboard 200 album chart and gave Sedaka his second No. 1 song when the lilting “Laughter in the Rain,” co-written with Cody, became a stateside sensation.

The following year, Sedaka scored again with the Rocket Records release The Hungry Years. It went gold in the U.S. and gave him another No. 1 with “Bad Blood,” featuring John on backing vocals. The LP also featured a new version of “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do”; rearranging it as a ballad, he breathed new life into the song and turned it into another top 10 hit and a Song of the Year nominee.

In 1975, Captain & Tennille recorded his “Love Will Keep Us Together” and featured it as the title tune on their debut album. The jubilant tune became the year’s best-selling single and was named Record of the Year at the Grammys. (Toni Tennille gave him nod by ad-libbing “Sedaka is back” in the song’s closing frame.)

“The crowning touch was winning the BMI award for Most Performed Song of the Year [for ‘Love Will Keep Us Together’],” Sedaka said in Bruce Pollock’s 1979 book, When Rock Was Young. “It was the dream of a lifetime. I mean, I’d been going to that BMI dinner since I was a kid. I got six awards in one year, including the Most Performed Song of 1975, beating out ‘Rhinestone Cowboy.’”

Neil Sedaka during his 1976 NBC special, Neil Sedaka Steppin’ Out.

Courtesy Everett Collection

Sedaka was born in Brooklyn on March 13, 1939, and raised in the Brighton Beach section of the borough. His father, Mordechai, drove a taxi for 30 years. His mother, Eleanor, took on part-time work in an Abraham & Straus department store to pay for his first piano when he was 9.

“My parents told me that when I was an infant, I wouldn’t eat until the radio was playing music,” he said in the 2014 BBC documentary Neil Sedaka: King of Song.

In 1947, Sedaka landed a scholarship to Juilliard’s School of Music’s Preparatory Division for Children. “Without blowing my own horn, I have the musical training. I studied many, many years,” Sedaka said in a 2019 interview with The Morning Call newspaper. “Matter of fact, in 1956, Arthur Rubinstein, the great pianist, chose me [to be] on a radio program, and I won as the best New York City high school pianist. I was 16 years old.”

Sedaka’s mom wanted him to pursue a career as a classical pianist, but Greenfield, a budding poet, convinced him that they should write pop tunes together. They began working together in October 1952 when Sedaka was 13, and one point, they had written at least one song a day for 500 straight days.

In 1956, the pair approached Jerry Wexler at Atlantic Records, and soon, their songs were being recorded by the likes of The Clovers (“Bring Me Love”), The Cookies (“Passing Time”), LaVern Baker (“I Waited Too Long”) and Clyde McPhatter (“Since You’ve Been Gone”).

Meanwhile, Sedaka tried his hand at singing, joining forces with three Lincoln High School classmates to form the Linc-Tones. He went solo in 1957, but not before the group enjoyed some success with “While I Dream,” “I Love My Baby,” “Come Back, Joe” and “Don’t Go Away,” all Sedaka-Greenfield compositions. (The Linc-Tones would evolve into The Tokens, who hit pay dirt in 1961 with “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.”)

Over the next year, Sedaka released “Laura Lee,” “Ring a Rockin’” and “Oh Delilah,” all written with Greenfield. He didn’t cause much of a stir as a singer, though he performed “Ring a Rockin’” on American Bandstand. The songwriting team fared better, however, and landed a contract with Al Nevins and Don Kirshner at Aldon Music in the Brill Building.

Through Aldon, they arrived at the home of Francis, who was in search of a follow-up to “Who’s Sorry Now,” and presented her with a selection of ballads. “They played and they played and they played, and I was really falling asleep,” she said in King of Song. “I said, ‘Fellas, I don’t know how to tell you this, your music is beautiful, but it’s too educated, the kids don’t dig this kind of stuff anymore.’”

On a lark, Sedaka played “Stupid Cupid,” which he and Greenfield had written for another act. Francis told them on the spot she wanted it for her next record, and its success put the songwriters on the map.

As he and Greenfield continued working with the singer, Sedaka observed her writing in a journal. He wanted a look inside, but she refused, and that inspired him to write “The Diary.” Little Anthony and the Imperials recorded a version, but Sedaka’s take (he also played piano on it) got him a recording contract with Aldon.

Sedaka wrote “Oh! Carol” in 1958, drawing the idea for the title from Carole Klein, a girl he had dated at Lincoln. He encouraged her to join him at the Brill Building in Manhattan, the mecca for songwriters, and she did.

There, Klein joined forces with her future husband, Gerry Goffin, and as Carole King, she became one of the most influential singer-songwriters of her generation. (“Oh! Carol,” meanwhile, sold 3.5 million records, and he said his life changed when he received his first royalty check from that song, for $42,000.)

The year 1959 saw the release of Rock With Sedaka, his first solo album as a recording artist. “The Diary,” its debut single, charted, as did the second release, “I Go Ape.” It also contained Sedaka’s takes on “Fallin’,” “Stupid Cupid” and “Another Sleepless Night,” which Jimmy Clanton turned into a hit the following year.

“Howard Greenfield and I mastered the art of the 2 1/2-minute single,” he said. “We could tell a whole story from beginning to end [in that time].”

He eventually split with Greenfield and partnered with Cody, and “Laughter in the Rain” marked his big comeback, landing at No. 1 in 1975 in its 16th week on the Billboard Hot 100. “I went from making $30,000 a year to $6 million a year with [that] song,” he said.

A five-time Grammy nominee and member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Sedaka would write or co-write 700-plus songs and release more than two dozen studio albums during his career.

In 2005, Erik Jackson and Ben H. Winters conceived Breaking Up Is Hard to Do, a stage musical celebrating the songs of Sedaka, Greenfield and Cody. It has been performed in the U.K. and throughout the U.S.

Around that time, “(Is This the Way to) Amarillo,” a song he wrote with Greenfield that was first recorded by Tony Christie in the ’70s, became another huge hit for him when it was rereleased.

Survivors include his wife, Leba, whom he married in 1962, and his children, Dara, a recording artist and vocalist for commercials, and Marc, a TV writer and film editor.

“I think the reason that my music is so special is it was a combination of show music, pop music, evergreen standards and rock. It’s like me and Phil Cody and Carole Sager and Howie Greenfield — we had a combination of all of those styles,” Sedaka said in his Morning Call chat.

“I saw Stevie Wonder not long ago on television and he was asked, ‘Who is your inspiration?’ And he said, ‘Neil Sedaka. They used to call me ‘Whitey’ in Detroit because I liked and played Neil Sedaka records.’”

February 27, 2026
Condé Nast’s LGBTQ Media Brand Them Acquired by Equalpride, Publisher of Out and The Advocate

Condé Nast’s Them has a new home.

Equalpride, publisher of standout queer brands like Out, The Advocate, Out Traveler, Health PLUS Wellness, Pride.com and Advocate Originals, has aquired the LGBTQ media brand launched by Condé in 2017. Equalpride confirmed the news on Friday, and said the acquisition is designed to expand its portfolio and strengthen its position “as the most comprehensive and influential platform for LGBTQ+ news, entertainment, culture and community connection.”

But the news comes a week after a significant number of staff cuts at Equalpride, including The Advocate editor-in-chief Alex Cooper, Pride.com editor-in-chief Rachel Shatto, brand partnerships manager Erin Manley, community editor Marie-Adélina de la Ferriére, and Out magazine staff writers Moises Mendez and Bernardo Sim.

Them, led by editor-in-chief and former Netflix staffer Fran Tirado, is a digital platform focused on LGBTQ+ culture, politics and identity. Based in New York City, it maintains a strong readership among Gen Z and millennial audiences with a healthy 1.1 million Instagram followers.

In addition to Tirado, the Them team includes executive editor Ludwig Hurtado, managing editor Samantha Allen, lifestyle editor Quispe López, associate director of audience development and analytics Mandy Velez Tatti, social media manager Ana Osorno, executive director of video programming and creative development Mi-Anne Chan, manager of video programming and creative development Catherine Mhloyi, staff writer James Factora and a number of contributing writers and editors-at-large.

“Equalpride exists to elevate, celebrate and protect LGBTQ+ storytelling at scale,” said Equalpride CEO Mark Berryhill. “By combining the strengths of our brands with this respected digital platform, we’re creating a unified ecosystem that delivers even more impact for our audiences, advertisers, and community partners. Adding the Them brand accelerates our mission and expands the ways we can champion LGBTQ+ voices year‑round.”

He added: “This is about scale with purpose. Together, we’re building the most trusted, far‑reaching LGBTQ+ media network in the world that honors our history while innovating for the future.”

Them was always a bit of an outlier among Condé Nast brands as the lone LGBTQ title among publications like Vogue, Vanity Fair, GQ, The New Yorker, Self, Architectural Digest, Bon Appétit, Condé Nast Traveler, Glamour, House & Garden, Wired, Pitchfork and more. In recent weeks, Them has made news of its own by launching a new weekly column and companion newsletter led by Tirado titled Feral, and a recently-launched video series, Privacy Please!

The media business has faced headwinds in recent years, times made even more tough on brands serving niche audiences. Cultural attacks on LGBTQ content and the administration’s focus on dismantling DEI programs have created further challenges, issues that Berryhill acknowledged in a memo sent to staff last week ahead of the layoffs.

“Companies aren’t spending as much on marketing due to current economic concerns and challenges. In the last few months, we have had cancellations of major advertising campaigns, which have dramatically impacted our company,” he wrote. “We can’t let the economic and political climate overshadow our calling to amplify the voices that need to be heard as our queer community fights for inclusion and faces daily setbacks in human rights.”

Dylan Mulvaney attends the Them Now Awards at New York’s Public Hotel on June 14, 2023.

(Photo by Craig Barritt/Getty Images for Conde Nast)

February 27, 2026
With Paramount Looming, CNN Braces for Impact

The cold, hard truth that many inside CNN have been grappling with these past few months was that the venerable cable news channel, Ted Turner’s greatest invention, was about to undergo radical change, whoever won the battle for parent company Warner Bros. Discovery.

If Netflix won, CNN would be spun out into a debt-laden public company, which was widely expected to slash costs and consider a fire sale of its assets (Nexstar’s Perry Sook is said to have coveted the cable channel, though it isn’t clear whether he would have pursued it, given his company’s ongoing pursuit of TEGNA).

But Paramount has already been undergoing a news overhaul, with CEO David Ellison installing Bari Weiss at CBS News with a mandate for change. Weiss and Ellison are both said to be obsessed with the (undeniable!) fact that consumers, regardless of political affiliation, are losing trust in the mainstream media.

“We are not producing a product that enough people want,” Weiss told CBS News staff last month. “We can blame demographics or technology or fractured attention spans or ‘news avoidance,’ but these are all copes.”

While the execution of that plan remains in flux, Weiss has sought journalists that put themselves at the center of the story, taking a cue from creators and influencers on TikTok and YouTube, while also bringing more right-leaning voices into segments.

Or as David Ellison told Paramount shareholders earlier this week: “As part of this revitalization, we are focused on expanding the range of stories covered and the voices amplified.”

Assuming the Paramount deal goes through, that change is coming for CNN. Weiss is widely expected to expand her remit, though she may not be alone: It has not been lost on some at CNN that their former colleague Chris Wallace has quietly joined RedBird Capital Partners, which is Ellison’s financial and operating partner at Paramount, as a senior advisor.

Wallace (the son of legendary CBS newsman Mike Wallace), who most recently hosted a CNN interview show, previously served as a longtime anchor and analyst for Fox News, and also moderated NBC’s Meet the Press. RedBird leans on its team of advisors (which also includes former Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter) to help advise its investments. And of course Jeff Zucker, CNN’s former president, is also working with RedBird as an operating partner and the CEO of its RedBird IMI joint venture.

For CNN staff, the angst is driven by a seemingly never-ending barrage of owners, from AT&T to Discovery to Paramount, with each change followed by new cost cutting. And it is also driven by comments from the President of the United States, who has made it crystal clear that his primary interest in the sale of WBD is who will control CNN.

“I think the people that have run CNN for the last long period of time are a disgrace. I think it’s imperative that CNN be sold,” President Donald Trump told reporters in December. The Wall Street Journal had also reported at the time that Ellison promised to make significant changes at the channel, though the specifics of those promises are not known.

That being said, CNN is a substantially stronger business than CBS News, despite neither outlet dominating the ratings charts. WBD disclosed as part of the sale process that CNN is projected to have $1.8 billion in revenue in 2026, rising to $1.9 billion in 2027, $2 billion in 2028 and $2.2 billion by 2030. CNN’s adjusted EBITDA in 2026 is estimated to be about $600 million, before falling to $500 million in 2027 and remaining flat at $600 million through 2030.

CBS News has substantially lower revenue than that, though it isn’t exactly an apples-to-apples comparison, with CNN scoring dedicated pay-TV carriage fees, with CBS News sharing those fees with the rest of CBS. Sources have pegged CBS News at around break even or with a slight low to mid eight figure loss (depending on how you account for those fees).

CBS News and CNN had actually discussed a potential merger years ago, multiple sources say, when CNN was owned by Time Warner. Those talks were driven by a desire to save costs. A source says that the negotiations fell apart when the complexities of merging the unionized CBS and the non-union CNN became clear. It will be Paramount’s problem now.

But Weiss has had a hard time assuaging CBS staff that her desire is driven by a sincere desire to pull the network news division into the 21st century, rather than being a political project for the company’s owner. Anderson Cooper chose to leave CBS’ 60 Minutes while staying with CNN, and what he does if and when this deal closes is sure to be closely watched.

And while WBD CEO David Zaslav genuinely enjoys news coverage (he frequently texts CNN anchors to discuss segments and interviews he watched on-air, and his daughter is a producer for the cable news channel), Ellison appears to be more squarely focused on the entertainment business.

Or as one TV news veteran said, most media executives “don’t see [news] as an opportunity, they see it as a problem.”

It’s a setup that has CNN staff understandably on edge, as CNN CEO Mark Thompson seemed to recognize in a note to staff Thursday evening.

“I want to end this note with two thoughts: “Despite all the speculation you’ve read during this process, I’d suggest that you don’t jump to conclusions about the future until we know more,” he wrote. “And secondly let’s not forget our duty to our audience. We’re still near the start of what is already an incredibly newsy year at home and abroad, one that will culminate with critical U.S. midterm elections and who knows what else. Let’s continue to focus on delivering the best possible journalism to the millions of people who rely on us all around the world.”

As Thompson notes, CNN needs to focus on the midterm elections as its employee base grapples with what the next steps will be. Pending deals are always a drag on morale, and in the media business that can sometimes be seen onscreen.

Or as Jake Tapper told CNN viewers in a “Breaking News” alert Thursday evening: “We have some breaking news in our national lead that affects everybody I’m looking at right now in the studio.”

CNN is about to be changed, but exactly how remain obscured for the time being. In the meantime, tension appears poised to rule the day.

February 27, 2026