The Justice Department argued that Donald Trump can legally ban CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House because he determined that they didn’t meet the “minimum requirements of professionalism.”
Last month, a federal judge granted the three outlets a temporary restraining order that forced the White House to reinstate dozens of their reporters’ hard passes. The outlets are now asking the judge to extend that 14-day order for a longer term via a preliminary injunction, claiming that Trump’s ban is a violation of their First and Fifth amendment rights.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, has said that he is bound by the precedent set in In a 1977 D.C. Circuit opinion, Sherrill vs. Knight, in which the judges ruled that “the protection afforded newsgathering under the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of the press requires that this access not be denied arbitrarily or for less than compelling reasons.”
In a court filing on Friday, the DOJ claimed that the Sherrill case still would allow for the president to restrict the three outlets from accessing the White House grounds because the White House has a “compelling interest.”
The DOJ lawyers claimed that the Sherrill decision does not “prevent the President from concluding that bona fide journalists would identify sources instead of relying on anonymous sources, commit to factual accuracy, and provide the White House an opportunity to comment, rather than ‘perform their duties in a way that … interfere[s] with the White House’s daily operations.’ …At a bare minimum, it is a significant violation of decorum to publish classified and sensitive national security information.”
The news outlets’ legal team has rejected that assertion, writing in a filing earlier this week that Trump’s “statements also make clear he implemented the ban to coerce more favorable coverage from CNN, MS NOW, and Politico, and to deter other journalists and news organizations from newsgathering and reporting that the President might view as negative. And his administration has continued to retaliate against Plaintiffs even after the temporary restraining order, only underscoring that Defendants’ motive is to punish and chill journalism they dislike.”
Even as access to the White House grounds has been reinstated, the White House has continued to restrict CNN from coverage of TV pool assignments, including travel with Trump on Air Force One.
The outlets’ lawyers, led by Theodore Boutrous Jr., also noted that Trump and other White House officials “overlooked that the First Amendment protects reporting on matters affecting national security.”
Kelly has set a hearing for Thursday on the news outlets’ motion for a preliminary injunction.
In granting a TRO, Kelly concluded that the White House failed to provide due process to the news outlets.
The DOJ has pointed to letters sent to the outlets as evidence that they were given due process. But those letters were sent on Sept. 22, four days after Trump’s ban was started.
The judge also has noted that some of the objectionable stories cited by the DOJ do not have to do with national security. Kelly wrote in his order that “even the justifications provided to Plaintiffs after this case was filed are ambiguous about the true purpose of the revocations: while Defendants’ letters to Plaintiffs mention national security concerns, they purport to identify reporting that ‘threatened national security and/or spread falsehoods’ leaving open the possibility that all the stories fall into the later bucket, rather than the former.”
A school district recently fired a California teacher for forcing her students to recite the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance while facing an LGBTQ+ pride flag, as social media posts claimed in late 2026.
Rating:
What’s True
The Newport-Mesa Unified School District in Costa Mesa, California, announced it placed a teacher — whom it did not identify — on administrative leave for posting a video of herself saying the U.S. flag made her “uncomfortable” and suggesting to one student, possibly jokingly, that he recite the Pledge of Allegiance to a pride flag displayed on her classroom wall. However …
What’s False
The video was recorded in 2021, a fact some people omitted from their “breaking” social media posts in 2026. No evidence showed the teacher, who taught English at Back Bay High School, “forced” any students to pledge allegiance to the pride flag, as was falsely claimed in memes and posts using fake, AI-generated images.
What’s Undetermined
A district spokesperson said at the time, “The teacher is no longer in the classroom. We follow due process and our investigation continues.” The statement didn’t identify the teacher by name, nor did it specify whether she departed the school because she resigned or because she was fired. People who claimed she was fired didn’t offer evidence to support it.
A rumor that a California school district fired a teacher for forcing students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance while facing an LGBTQ+ pride flag circulated online in September 2026.
For example, on Sept. 29, a Facebook user posted a meme (archived) showing three images of a woman smiling, laughing and wearing a rainbow-striped shirt and jacket. Pride flags also appeared on the wall in the background. The meme read, “A California teacher has been fired after forcing students to pledge allegiance to the pride flag. Do you believe she deserved to be fired?”
We found these posts contained a mixture of truth, falsehood, speculation and artificial intelligence.
The Newport-Mesa Unified School District in Costa Mesa, California, did once announce (archived) it had placed a teacher — whom it did not identify — on administrative leave for posting a video in which she could be heard saying the U.S. flag made her “uncomfortable” and suggesting to one student, possibly jokingly, that he recite the Pledge of Allegiance to a pride flag displayed on the classroom wall.
However, this all took place in 2021, a fact some people omitted from their “breaking” social media posts in 2026. No evidence supported the claim that the teacher, who was reportedly named Kristen Pitzen and worked as an English teacher at Back Bay High School, “forced” any students to pledge allegiance to the pride flag. Images used in the above meme and otherposts that supposedly depicted the educator were in fact AI-generated and inauthentic.
At the time of the incident, a district spokesperson said, in part, “The teacher is no longer in the classroom. We follow due process and our investigation continues.” The statement didn’t identify Pitzen by name, nor did it specify whether she departed the school after submitting a resignation or whether she was fired. People who posted the claim she was fired didn’t share evidence that the district had terminated her employment.
Via Messenger, Snopes contacted an account possibly belonging to Pitzen to ask questions. We will update this article if we receive further information.
Here are the facts
On Aug. 27, 2021, an educator — reportedly Pitzen, who was listed at the time as an English teacher for Back Bay High School in Costa Mesa — allegedly shared a video on her personal TikTok account in which she said she had packed her classroom’s U.S. flag away and appeared to indicate she didn’t intend to display it again.
In the clip, she laughed when recalling a story in which a student said her class was reciting the Pledge of Allegiance without a flag, then pointed the camera at a pride flag on her wall. She said she told him, “We do have a flag in the class that you can pledge your allegiance to.” She laughed at several moments during the video, suggesting she may have been at least partly joking. No students or other staff were visible in the clip.
People then reposted the video and named Pitzen as its originator, with some X users organizing and calling forherfiring that same day. Some users claimed her (now-defunct) TikTok handle on the account on which she shared the video and other clips was @mrsgillingsworth. We could not independently verify whether she truly owned the handle or if the videos originated from a different account.
In the video, she says the following:
Ok, so during third period, we have announcements and they do the Pledge of Allegiance. I always tell my class, “Stand if you feel like it. Don’t stand if you feel like it. Say the words if you want. [You] don’t have to say the words.” So, my class decided to stand but not say the words. Totally fine.
Except for the fact [laughing] that my room does not have a flag. It used to be there but I took it down during COVID because [whispering] it made me uncomfortable. And I packed it away and I don’t know where and I haven’t found it yet. [laughing] But my kid today goes, “Hey, it’s kind of weird that we just stand and then, you know, we say it to nothing.” And I’m like, “Oh, well, you know I’ve gotta find it. Like I’m working on it. I got you.” [laughing, shaking head]
In the meantime, I tell this kid, “We do have a flag in the class that you can pledge your allegiance to.” And he like looks around and he goes, “Oh, that one?” [laughing, pointing to pride flag]
Following a wave of social media backlash, someone posted on the district’s Facebook page the next day — a Saturday — posting (archived) that a teacher had been placed on administrative leave after causing “alarm and concern related to saluting the American flag.” The post did not identify Pitzen by name.
(Newport-Mesa Unified School District – NMUSD via Facebook)
On the following Monday, Aug. 30, the district reportedly published a statement saying the teacher (still not identified) was “no longer in the classroom.” The statement appeared in news articles, including in the Los Angeles Times:
We are aware that one of our teachers posted a video on her personal social media that caused alarm and concern related to saluting the American flag. We assure you that we take matters like this seriously. Showing respect for our nation’s flag is an important value that we instill in our students and an expectation of our employees. The teacher is no longer in the classroom. We follow due process and our investigation continues.
Via email, district spokesperson Annette Franco confirmed the authenticity of the statement. We also asked whether the district fired the teacher mentioned in their statement — or whether the educator resigned. Without naming the teacher, Franco told us, “I can confirm that she is no longer with the District.” We also requested comment from current Back Bay High School principal Scott Mazurier, who started at the school in 2024 and was not present during the incident. We will update this article if we receive more details.
The school district’s policies include information about “patriotic exercises,” including “the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance.” One part of the policy documentation says, “Individuals may choose not to participate in the flag salute for personal reasons.”
“Back Bay and Eastbluff to Welcome New Principals.” Newport-Mesa Unified School District, 16 May 2024, https://web.nmusd.us/departments/public-information/news/details/~board/nmusd-news/post/back-bay-eastbluff-principals-scott-mazurier-daphne-eby.
“CA Teacher ‘Uncomfortable’ with U.S. Flag Would Rather Have Students Pledge to Pride Flag.” WSET, WKRC, 31 Aug. 2021, https://wset.com/news/nation-world/ca-teacher-uncomfortable-with-us-flag-would-rather-have-students-pledge-to-pride-flag.
“Ceremonies And Observances.” GAMUT Online, Newport-Mesa USD | AR 6115 Instruction, 8 Sept. 2009, https://web.archive.org/web/20210830213520/http://www.gamutonline.net/district/newportmesa/DisplayPolicy/597434/.
Gleeson, Scott. “Teacher Removed from Class after Suggesting Student Pledge Allegiance to LGBTQ Pride Flag.” USA TODAY, 2 Sept. 2021, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2021/09/02/california-teacher-removed-after-urging-student-pledge-lgbtq-flag/5693430001/.
@iluvdj274. “Posted on Newport Mesa School District about Kristin Pitzen Aka …” X, 30 Aug. 2021, https://x.com/iluvdj274/status/1432560564924866560.
KTLA 5 Digital Staff, et al. “O.C. Teacher Investigated after Joking about Pledging Allegiance to Pride Flag Instead of American.” KTLA5, 30 Aug. 2021, https://ktla.com/news/local-news/o-c-teacher-investigated-after-joking-about-pledging-allegiance-to-pride-flag-instead-of-american/.
Nguyen, Lilly, and Sara Cardine. “Newport-Mesa Unified School District, Teacher under Fire for Social Media Post Rejecting Flag.” Los Angeles Times, Daily Pilot, 31 Aug. 2021, https://www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/news/story/2021-08-30/newport-mesa-unified-school-district-teacher-under-fire-for-social-media-post-rejecting-flag.
“On Friday Evening, One of Our Teachers Created a Personal Social Media Post …” Facebook, Newport-Mesa Unified School District – NMUSD, 28 Aug. 2021, https://www.facebook.com/NMUSD/posts/4302990113070915.
Robinson, Alicia. “Newport-Mesa District Investigating Teacher’s TikTok about Saying Pledge to Pride Flag.” Orange County Register, 30 Aug. 2021, https://www.ocregister.com/2021/08/30/newport-mesa-district-investigating-teachers-tiktok-about-saying-pledge-to-pride-flag/.
“Staff Directory.” Internet Archive Wayback Machine, Back Bay/Monte Vista High School, 18 June 2021, https://web.archive.org/web/20210618114317/https://backbay.nmusd.us/staff.
Yurcaba, Jo. “Teacher Faces Backlash for Suggesting Student Pledge Allegiance to Pride Flag.” NBC News, 30 Aug. 2021, https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/teacher-faces-backlash-suggesting-student-pledge-allegiance-pride-flag-rcna1817.
Tony Gilroy blasted the “tragic” nature of the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger at the world premiere of his new film, “Behemoth!” Produced on a $36 million budget, “Behemoth!” is representative of the mid-budget, adult-oriented drama that once sustained Hollywood’s theatrical business — and allowed filmmakers like Gilroy to make a name for themselves in the industry. He fears the impending merger (which David Ellison just announced would place both of the historic movie studios under a company named Skydance) threatens to dismantle the very “healthy and beautiful business” he has worked in for over three decades.
“People say the movie business is in trouble,” Gilroy told Variety Friday night at Alice Tully Hall. “You go around, you stand anywhere you want, what do people talk about? Did you see this? Did you see that? What episode are you on? The business is solid, and to destroy the architecture that made it so in the name of venture capital, it’s tragic.”
“Thank you for making [the festival] so elegant and glamorous, and for surrounding us with so many amazing films,” Gilroy told the crowd. “The way this is curated this year, this is a freakin’ lineup! Holy sh*t. And everybody knows it. When so many things go to shit in Hollywood, this is like a thank you. Thank you for letting us bring our soufflé to your groovy party.”
Gilroy also thanked Matt Greenfield and his partners at Searchlight Pictures, the indie studio owned by the Walt Disney Company, which also produced “Andor.”
“This is not an easy movie to greenlight, and it’s not an easy movie to sell,” he concluded. “But here we are. We’re here. We got here calmly, gracefully, no drama, and our joie de vivre intact.”
Tony Gilroy introduces his new film “Behemoth!” at its worldwide premiere at #NYFF:
“This is a hard movie to green light, and a hard movie to sell. And here we are.” pic.twitter.com/WeHLKyJ8Gc
Skydance has tentatively set Tuesday, Oct. 6, to close the merger, which will consolidate Hollywood’s traditional Big Five studios (Disney, Universal, Sony, Warner Bros. and Paramount) under just four corporate owners. While Ellison has maintained that Paramount and Warner Bros. will retain their separate studio identities under Skydance, industry figures — including “Behemoth!” producer Sanne Wohlenberg — fear the consolidation will make the “possibilities for a filmmaker alarmingly limited.”
“God, it’s certainly turbulent and uncertain times, isn’t it? It never seems to get any easier,” Wohlenberg said. “I do think you have to take a deep breath and keep believing that things will be circular and come back. When you look at history, there have been many, many bad times. Sadly, we are steering into one, which will make the competitive nature of the industry and possibilities for a filmmaker alarmingly limited. And it shouldn’t be like that. I think we will survive it and I hope for better times.”
A young woman who developed a rare form of blood cancer has shared her story as a reminder for others to stay on top of their health.
When Rowan Bland developed a sore throat last year, she was diagnosed with tonsillitis after a visit to her doctor and was prescribed a course of antibiotics.
With symptoms which often resemble the flu, tonsillitis lasts around a week and impacts up to millions of Brits each year.
However, Rowan’s symptoms did not ease up, with the 28-year-old developing random bruises across her body as well as bleeding gums and blood blisters in her mouth.
The creative writing student also suffered from extreme fatigue, meaning that she often felt dizzy when walking, as well as clusters of rashes and extremely heavy periods.
Rowan was sent for further blood tests for suspected glandular fever – only to be diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukaemia (APL), a rare form of acute myeloid leukaemia.
For weeks, Rowan believed her acute promyelocytic leukaemia (APL) was tonsillitis (SWNS)
Reflecting on the life-changing diagnosis, the Edinburgh native explained that she hadn’t previously known anything about the disease, which is a group of blood cancers which attack the white blood cells in your bone marrow.
“I was pretty happy with the assumption of glandular fever because a lot of unspecified illness in people my age, I thought, kind of tracks,” she said, adding that she’d believed the misconception that ‘leukaemia is for babies’.
“And cancer is always like a lump. That was my mindset.”
She added: “Just because you’re young, it doesn’t mean you can’t get a serious illness. I was a bit naive in my health. I just took it for that.”
Once diagnosed, the cancer is considered highly treatable, with the 28-year-old now in remission (SWNS)
“I was feeling worse and worse.”
Informed by doctors that she was seriously ill, Rowan was transferred to the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre in Glasgow the following day after arriving in A&E for further diagnositc tests.
It was revealed that her blood counts were extremely low and she immediately needed blood and platelet transfusions.
She would remain in hospital for around six to seven weeks, undergoing treatments such as induction treatment, intravenous arsenic and ATRA tablets every day.
Despite complications such as sepsis and blood clots, the treatment worked, and Rowan was now in remission, meaning that she was allowed to undergo six months of chemotherapy as an outpatient.
She completed the cycle in November 2025, with a subsequent bone marrow biopsy in January revealing that she had no evidence of the disease. Rowan now has monthly blood tests to monitor her health.
Rowan has since taken up running and wants to raise awareness about cancer in young people (SWNS)
“If you feel like something isn’t right, you need to push harder.”
Still in remission, Rowan says the diagnosis has left her feeling like a ‘completely different person’. She has since completed a 5K Race for Life in Glasgow, is currently training for a 10K and hopes to raise awareness about cancer in young people.
“If you feel like something isn’t right, you need to push harder,” she said. “I would just tell people to really push for things like blood tests.
“I went undiagnosed for over a month and that could have ended very badly for me.”
Del Toro took to X to call out naysayers of Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s film ahead of its Friday release. “Entirely Petty headline,” the director wrote in response to a review of Warner Bros.’ R-rated black comedy. “Love it or not. And yes, I do. The film delivers in scale, ambition and reach at a theatrical screen level. Daring, bold and cinematically complex. Decidedly a theatrical experience.”
Del Toro has also reposted others’ positive reviews, including one praising Tom Cruise’s performance as the film’s lead.
“Funny, I go into the platform and without even scrolling down, these are popping at the top of my timeline…” he wrote alongside the repost. “So… I will just keep posting them. Tune in or drop out—” In another repost, he wrote, “Dig or Die – c’mon!”
Funny, I go into the platform and without even scrolling down, these are popping at the top of my timeline… So… I will just keep posting them. Tune in or drop out- https://t.co/sEgiticKRa
Del Toro also compared the negative reviews of “Digger” to those of “The Big Lebowski,” “The King of Comedy,” and “The Counselor,” all of which drew scrutiny at release but later found appreciation with audiences.
I remember the review for BIG LEBOWSKI and KING OF COMEDY and a few more… to me (I know it is still not accepted) THE COUNSELOR and all the ones in your list. https://t.co/1dnvUdlzKj
“Digger” is currently at just 51% on Rotten Tomatoes. Variety’s chief film critic Owen Gleiberman said that, although the film feels like a comedy, it failed to actually be funny. “I’m not sure that ‘Digger’ is going to connect, because it’s so full of itself — so top-heavy with importance,” Gleiberman wrote in his review. “The movie cost north of $125 million to make, and that figure is not only too big to probably justify itself; it’s a testament to the arrogance of the filmmakers — to the assumption that we’ll turn out in droves for this ponderous absurdist lecture.”
The film generated just $3.4 million domestically at the box office on Friday following a slew of negative reviews and divided word of mouth ahead of its opening. The film is shaping up to be one of the year’s biggest flops, with estimates of just $7.5 million domestically in its opening weekend.
Cruise also took to X on Saturday in support of “Digger,” writing that he was “honored to have had the opportunity to create this film alongside such talented artists.”
DIGGER is officially in theaters and I am so honored to have had the opportunity to create this film alongside such talented artists. Thank you to the entire cast and crew for your dedication, hard work, and joy. The experience was truly unforgettable and I’m so proud of what we… pic.twitter.com/3YBblCnL3E
Tavus says 26 of 54 participants (48%) believed Griffin-Lite was a real person after a one-minute video call, versus 1 of 41 for its previous system.
Griffin-Lite ranks first on Nvidia’s VideoFDB benchmark, scoring 3.83 out of 5 on generation against 2.80 for the next-best system and 3.92 for a human reference.
The results come from Tavus’ own research page, participants were told they would meet another person, and Griffin-Lite is limited to select trusted testers while Tavus works on safety measures.
AI startup Tavus says its new model, Griffin, convinced 48% of the people who talked to it on a live video call that they were speaking with a real human.
The company unveiled it on October 1 and calls it the first Human Interaction Model, an AI built to understand and generate face-to-face conversation, paying attention to expressions and pauses as well as words. Its previous system scored 2.4% on the same test.
Griffin-Lite, the version Tavus tested, faced 54 people, and 26 of them said afterward they believed their partner was a real person. The older system faced 41 people and got exactly one believer.
Tavus explains that participants were told they would be matched with another person for a one-minute video call about what they were looking forward to this year. Only at the end were they asked whether it had crossed their mind that their partner might not be real.
That’s not the classic Turing test, proposed in 1950 by British mathematician Alan Turing, where a judge talks to a hidden human and a hidden machine and has to work out which is which. Nobody on the call was told a bot might be on the other end.
The results come from Tavus’ own research page, and participants were recruited through what it calls an independent research platform. A community note on X has already flagged that the results are not independently verified and do not follow a standard protocol. Tavus says the people who grew suspicious usually did so within 20 seconds.
AI companies building towards this has been a thing for a while. A UC San Diego study found OpenAI’s GPT-4.5 convinced judges it was human in 73% of conversations, when prompted to play an introverted, internet-savvy young person. That test was text only.
Griffin adds a face and a voice, in real time.
On NVIDIA’s VideoFDB benchmark, a test of live audio and video conversation, Tavus says Griffin-Lite ranks first. Its generation track, which grades how natural and expressive a model’s responses are, gave Griffin-Lite 3.83. The next-best system got 2.80, and the human reference scored 3.92.
The perception track, which checks whether a model understands what it sees and hears, shows where it still trails people. Griffin-Lite scored 3.73 against 3.44 for the strongest baseline, while the human reference hit 4.20. Tavus says NVIDIA ran the evaluation independently.
BitcoinBTC · USD
$84,710+0.66%
Sep 26Sep 28Sep 30Oct 2Oct 3
$86.8k$85.4k$84.0k$82.7k
24h HighHigh$85,014
24h LowLow$84,441
VolVol$564.6M
Market projectionsOdds by Myriad
→
Griffin is also full-duplex, meaning it listens, watches and talks at the same time, like a phone call instead of a walkie-talkie. In a Tavus demo, it coaches a man through a Rubik’s cube based on what it sees in his hands, and waits when he goes quiet to think. Audio-to-video delay averages 0.43 seconds on NVIDIA H100 chips, the kind used in AI data centers, which Tavus says is half that of the next fastest method.
Why should anyone outside tech care? Well, for one thing, because scammers already work on video calls.
Back in January, North Korea-linked hackers used deepfakes, AI-made video that imitates a real person, on Zoom or Teams calls to pose as trusted contacts. Security researchers attribute the intrusion to BlueNoroff, a Lazarus Group subsidiary. Victims get talked into installing malware disguised as an audio fix.
David Liberman, co-creator of Gonka, a decentralized network for AI computing, said in that report that photos and video can no longer be trusted as proof that something is real. Those models were not as advanced as this one.
Companies already improvise their defenses. In 2025, Kraken flagged a suspected North Korean job applicant after its security team asked spontaneous questions, like requesting government ID and the names of local restaurants. The candidate struggled.
We tried Tavus’ models and the results were… disappointing. After some research, it turns out Griffin-Lite is not available to customers, only to select trusted testers as a research preview, and the company says it is working on disclosure features and with AI safety organizations.
This is because Tavus says Griffin needs safety measures before a public release.
Tavus raised a $40 million Series B in November 2025, led by CRV. The system that scored 2.4% stitched together three separate models, one each for visuals, dialogue and perception.
Trusted testers can request access to Griffin-Lite by submitting a form on the Tavus site.
Daily Debrief Newsletter
Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.
The CryptoJobsList data for 2025 also shows no comparable August-September surge as would be expected if the end of summer was such a prominent factor. That said, 2025 was a subdued year for crypto hirings from start to finish. The most active month was October, with a mere 373 listings. The figures were flat throughout July, August and September.
While listings may have surged in September this year, applications have not. CryptoJobsList recorded 25,700 applications in July, 24,631 in August and just under 20,000 in September.
The platform interprets this divergence as evidence that competition for specialist workers is tightening, though its data alone doesn’t establish why application numbers have gone the opposite way to listings.
The comparison of listings nevertheless provides some indication of where demand lies. Finance was the largest job category over the past three months, followed by engineering and trading, with stablecoins, AI, security and compliance all also in the top 10. Bitcoin was the most frequently sought blockchain familiarity, followed by Ethereum and Solana, as would be expected being the three largest networks in the crypto industry.
CryptoJobsList’s data suggests the crypto job market enters the fourth quarter with a lot more openings than any time previously this year, but not necessarily more applicants chasing them for the time being.
Lyrical Animation is developing a new animation series based on “RuneScape” in partnership with creator Charlie “MoistCr1TiKaL” White and game developer Jagex, the company’s CEO Jon Bellamy announced on stage at RuneFest in Birmingham, UK, on Saturday.
The project will bring the world of Gielinor to the screen, and marks a new step in Jagex’s ambition to expand the “RuneScape” world beyond the gaming ecosystem.
“For 25 years, our players have helped shape ‘RuneScape’s’ extraordinary world, its characters and its stories,” said Bellamy. “When we talk about the future of ‘RuneScape,’ we don’t just mean games. We see huge potential to bring Gielinor to life in new ways, both for the millions who already know and love it and for a whole new audience. It’s early days, but we’re excited to explore that potential with Charlie and the team at Lyrical Animation, and we wanted our players to be the first to know.”
Jagex first released “RuneScape” in 2001, and it has grown into a massively popular fantasy multiplayer online role-playing game. Through quests, combat, exploration and cooperative adventures, players can forge their own paths through the medieval fantasy world of Gielinor. The franchise now includes “RuneScape,” “Old School RuneScape” and “RuneScape Dragonwilds.”
White is a longtime member of the “RuneScape” community and has amassed more than 25 million followers across his channels and platforms. “I’ve been playing RuneScape for 22 years, and it’s one of my favorite IPs ever,” said White. “I’m so excited to be working with the team on this project.”
“RuneScape has such a unique storytelling voice, at once laugh-out-loud funny and effortlessly insightful,” said Daniel Dominguez, creative director of Lyrical Animation. “To be allowed to help bring that to life for its millions of fans alongside our dear friend Charlie again is a dream come true.”
Lyrical Animation will produce the project alongside White’s Meatier Productions. Development is in its early stages, and the company expects to reveal more details in 2027.
Gambardello also noted that strong inflows into spot ETFs, expectations of a crypto-friendly political environment, and high market interest played a significant role in Bitcoin previously surpassing its all-time high. However, the analyst stated that he does not consider this rise to be the “true crypto bull market,” arguing that a stronger movement could begin in the coming period as economic expansion accelerates.
The analyst supported his thesis not only with Bitcoin but also with assets sensitive to economic growth, such as the copper-gold ratio and the Russell 2000. According to Gambardello, these assets weaken during periods of economic contraction and strengthen during periods of expansion. The cryptocurrency market, however, is located at the more extreme end of the risk curve, and therefore reacts to economic recovery more slowly than other asset classes. Gambardello believes that the sideways movement seen in the altcoin market, particularly outside of major cryptocurrencies, throughout 2026 can be explained by this delay.
Another point Gambardello highlighted was the end of the monetary tightening process. According to the analyst, after the Fed’s quantitative tightening ends in December 2025, a normalization process will begin in the markets, and the economic cycle will turn back towards expansion. Gambardello stated that their self-developed US Business Cycle Index also recently signaled expansion. He said that the index combines the monthly manufacturing surveys of five regional Fed banks and generates a signal of economic expansion if it remains above certain thresholds for three consecutive months.
The analyst also believes that AI-driven productivity increases could accelerate economic growth in the coming years. Gambardello stated that an economic environment similar to the strong productivity period of the 1990s could emerge, and that Bitcoin and crypto assets could play a significant role in this process with trends such as institutionalization, tokenization, and the AI economy moving onto the blockchain.
