Payments-focused cryptocurrency $XRP is on track for its best weekly performance since November 2024 after a U.S. Treasury announcement fueled market speculation that policymakers could ultimately resort to yield curve control (YCC), an aggressive monetary-easing tool.
$XRP has surged 51% to $1.50 since Monday, beating its peers, bitcoin $BTC$77,176.83, ether $ETH$2,446.46, and Solana ($SOL), by a big margin, according to data from CoinDesk. $BTC and $ETH have gained 22% and 30%, respectively, while $SOL has rallied 28%.
$XRP‘s outperformance follows a period of lackluster price action, during which the cryptocurrency consistently lagged the broader market’s bounce. It has been characterized by a massive unwinding of short, or bearish, bets in futures. According to the data source Coinglass, shorts worth nearly $2 billion have been liquidated this week.
The surge in $XRP and other tokens began early this week after the U.S. Treasury said that, from Sept. 9 to Nov. 4, it will buy back $4 billion or more of its own long-duration (10- to 30-year) bonds on multiple occasions, double the previous $2 billion cap.
2026 has been a traumatic year for cash-strapped consumer technology lovers so far, with major players like Apple, Dell, HP and Asus all hiking prices. And it doesn’t look like the second half is shaping up to be much better.
Amazon has now hiked prices across a range of its smart home devices, as well as its Kindle line, and its Fire TV stock by as much as 60%, citing the ongoing chip crisis and component inflation. Its cheaper items appear to have been the most impacted by price rises, first spotted by Fortune.
Echo Dot is set to jump $30—60%—from $49.99 to $79.99, while the Echo Show 11 will jump $30 from $219.99 to $249.99.
Meanwhile the 16-gigabyte Kindle will go from $109.99 to $149.99, while its 16-gigabyte Kindle Paperwhite will go from $159.99 to $199.99. Amazon’s Fire TV Stick HD will rise about 14% from $34.99 to $39.99, while the Fire TV Stick 4K Max rose $25 (over 40%) from $59.99 to $84.99. Amazon’s wireless mesh networking system, the eero 7, was one of the least impacted products, rising 14.30% from $349.99 to $399.99. Meanwhile, the eero Pro 7 also rose 14.30% from $699.99 to $799.99.
One of the only product lines spared was Amazon’s Ring series, which saw no price rises.
An Amazon spokeswoman attributed the company’s decision to “significant increases in memory and storage component costs.” She added: “After absorbing these increases for as long as we could, we recently adjusted pricing across our product lines.”
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Amazon’s prices might no longer look so appealing, but many of its competitors have also bumped prices in recent months. Fire Stick competitor Roku bumped the prices of its Roku Ultra streaming device $50, from $100 to $150. Meanwhile, its entry-level Roku Streaming Stick moved to $40 from $30.
The Echo Dot is still cheaper than Google’s Google Home Speaker, which retails at $99.99, though the price gap has thinned significantly.
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Nick Glennie-Smith, the British composer, conductor and keyboardist known for his collaborations with Hans Zimmer and for his work on films including The Rock, The Man in the Iron Mask and Secretariat, has died. He was 74.
Glennie-Smith died peacefully Aug. 16 surrounded by family at his home in Charlottesville, Virginia, his wife of 52 years, Jan Glennie-Smith, told The Hollywood Reporter. No cause of death was revealed.
As an orchestral conductor, Glennie-Smith teamed with two-time Oscar-winning composer Zimmer on such notable films as The Lion King (1994), Crimson Tide (1995), The Simpsons Movie (2007), Transformers (2007), X-Men: First Class (2011) and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011) as a member of his Remote Control Productions team.
For Michael Bay’s action-packed The Rock (1996), he shared principal composing duties with Zimmer and Harry Gregson-Williams.
He also composed the soaring score for Randall Wallace’s The Man in the Iron Mask (1998) before reuniting with the writer-director on We Were Soldiers (2002), Secretariat (2010) and Heaven Is for Real (2014).
Nicholas Hugh Glennie-Smith was born in London on Oct. 3, 1951. He began his professional career as a keyboard player and would perform or/and or record with the likes of Paul McCartney, Roger Daltrey, Leo Sayer, Cliff Richard, Roger Waters, Phil Collins, Tina Turner and Elvis Costello.
He came to Hollywood in the late 1980s and played keyboards and/or provided music for films including K2 (1991) and Cool Runnings (1993).
Glennie-Smith also worked in various capacities on Bay’s Bad Boys (1995), Beyond Rangoon (1995), Smilla’s Sense of Snow (1997), Con Air (1997), The Peacemaker (1997), King Arthur (2004), The Da Vinci Code (2006), A Little Bit of Heaven (2011), Wreck-It-Ralph (2012), Man of Steel (2013), Pacific Rim (2013), The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014), The Little Prince (2015), Deadpool (2016), Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018) and Mufasa: The Lion King (2024).
His older son, Seth Glennie-Smith, is a composer and music editor with credits including Project Hail Mary, It Ends With Us and the rebooted Magnum P.I.
Survivors include his other son, Joss; daughters Haley and Katharine; daughter-in-law Caroline; son-in-law Nick; grandchildren Dylan, Milo and Charlotte; and siblings Steven and Ali.
Glennie-Smith also served as musical director for Zimmer’s live concerts and conducted the 60-piece orchestra at the 2012 Academy Awards that featured compositions from Zimmer and Pharrell Williams.
“We are deeply saddened by the loss of Nick Glennie-Smith,” the Facebook site Hans Zimmer Live posted. “Nick was far more than an extraordinary musician and composer. Through his many years alongside Hans Zimmer, he was a trusted creative partner, band member and, above all, a longtime friend.
“When people share so many years of music, creativity, stages, journeys and memories, that bond reaches far beyond the work. The music remains, but so does the friendship behind every note. Our deepest condolences to Nick’s family, friends and everyone whose life was touched by his music and his presence. May his music, his spirit and all the memories created together live on. He will always be the leader of our band. Rest in peace, Nick.”
Sony Pictures‘ releases claim the top two spots at the domestic box office, as Spider-Man: Brand New Day grosses $39 million for the weekend amid its historic run. This brings its domestic cume to $854.9 million through Sunday, surpassing 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home to become the No. 3 highest-grossing film ever at the domestic box office. This also puts Brand New Day as Sony’s highest-grossing domestic film after it set the record last weekend for the top global release in the studio’s history.
Additionally, Brand New Day becomes the No. 6 release of all time at the worldwide box office with $2.22 billion. This surpasses 2015’s Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens, which moves to seventh on the chart with $2.07 billion. The latest Spidey film is now just behind Titanic at No. 5 with $2.26 billion and Ne Zha 2 at No. 4 with $2.27 billion.
Insidious: Out of the Further occupies second place with an opening weekend of $25.3 million for the sixth installment in the horror franchise. The series hails from Screen Gems, Stage 6 Films and Blumhouse Atomic Monster and kicked off with 2011’s original Insidious. Without major studio horror releases for the next four weeks, Out of the Further aims to extend its run with limited competition. It earned a C+ CinemaScore, tying 2023’s Insidious: The Red Door for the series’ lowest grade.
Debuting in 3,330 North American theaters, Out of the Further stars Amelia Eve, Brandon Perea and Lin Shaye and centers on a young mother who can bring spirits back with her to the real world. It follows The Red Door, which saw the return of original series stars Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne. That one opened to an impressive $33 million domestically before grossing $189 million worldwide throughout its run.
Amelia Eve in Insidious: Out of the Further.
Sony Pictures
“This summer has been so big,” Regal Global Entertainment head of marketing Vikki Neil tells The Hollywood Reporter. “Spider-Man, obviously, is huge, and we’re seeing horror films, as a general rule, do extremely well for us. We definitely see a lot of those perform really well with young people.”
With an $18 million production budget, Out of the Further holds a 57 percent approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes and a 70 percent audience score. Critic Frank Scheck wrote in his review for THR that the film “proves routine in its elaborate plot machinations.”
Also opening this weekend is Mutiny, as Statham’s latest action title picks up $7.5 million for the frame to land in sixth place from 2,600 North American screens. Lionsgate’s film earned a B+ CinemaScore from audiences. MadRiver Pictures and Punch Palace Productions produced the project that carries a $40 million production budget.
Director Jean-François Richet’s feature stars Statham as a former Marine who sets out to prove his innocence after getting framed for murder. It holds a 50 percent approval score from critics on Rotten Tomatoes but an 87 percent score from audiences. Mutiny follows Statham’s Shelter, which opened with $5.5 million domestically earlier this year for Black Bear.
Jason Statham as Cole Reed in Mutiny.
Dan Smith/Lionsgate
Universal’s The Odyssey is finding a home in third place with an estimated $19.5 million for its sixth weekend to bring its domestic total to $539 million. Over the weekend, Christopher Nolan’s mythological epic will become the acclaimed director’s highest-grossing film domestically of his career, surpassing 2008’s The Dark Knight. Starring Matt Damon as Odysseus, the movie moved past Deadpool & Wolverine during the week to stand as the highest-grossing R-rated title globally.
In its sophomore frame, PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie is targeting $9.1 million for fourth place. The third film in Paramount Pictures’ animated franchise brings its domestic tally to an estimated $35.4 million. It crosses the $100 million threshold globally, with its worldwide total reaching $103.4 million.
Close behind its fellow dinosaur movie and also in its second weekend, director David Robert Mitchell’s The End of Oak Street looks to scarf down around $9 million to bring the Warner Bros. release’s two-week domestic total to $38 million. Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor star in the survival feature that places fifth.
Expanding to a wide release in its third weekend is A24’s Tony, starring Dominic Sessa as a teenage Anthony Bourdain. The feature serves up an estimated $5 million from 1,600 North American screens to claim seventh place and bring its domestic cume to around $6.6 million.
Black Bear’s comedy Spa Weekend is currently in ninth place with an estimated $3.05 million domestically from 2,000 locations. Earning a B+ CinemaScore, directors Jon Lucas and Scott Moore’s movie stars Leslie Mann, Isla Fisher, Michelle Buteau and Anna Faris.
This weekend’s milestones include Focus Features’ Obsession crossing the $500 million mark globally. The worldwide total for filmmaker Curry Barker’s low-budget horror sensation now stands at $501.6 million.
Director Destin Daniel Cretton‘s blockbuster Spider-Man: Brand New Day keeps spinning to historic heights. Tom Holland, Zendaya, Sadie Sink and Jon Bernthal star in the film that recently set the record as the fastest movie to hit $800 million domestically. After the weekend is over, only 2015’s Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens and 2019’s Avengers: Endgame will hold bigger domestic cumes.
The 2026 domestic box office has now crossed the $7 billion mark, according to Rentrak, as this summer’s titles combine for an estimated $4.444 billion domestically. This puts the season 20.4 percent above last year’s tally to that point, with the all-time summer mark remaining 2013’s $4.75 billion.
More to come.
This story was first published on Aug. 22 at 8:55 a.m.
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“Words matter, and so does the willingness to draw a line when legitimate debate gives way to antisemitic tropes,” Berk wrote. “We commend Paramount for speaking clearly and refusing to allow prejudice to masquerade as political or corporate criticism. At a time when antisemitism is too often minimized, rationalized or repackaged in more socially acceptable language, this kind of moral clarity matters.”
“Invoking Israel in an issue where it is completely irrelevant is a textbook case of obsession and demonization. Paramount was right to call it out. More leaders and institutions should have the courage to call antisemitism what it is, regardless of who is spreading it,” his statement concluded.
Earlier this week, the Oscar-nominated actor, who has been an outspoken opponent of Paramount’s $111 billion deal for Warner Bros., highlighted Larry Ellison’s (Paramount CEO David Ellison’s father) Oracle’s ties to the Israeli military amid the Israel-Gaza war. Ruffalo resurfaced a clip from 2024 of former Oracle chief Safra Catz talking about “profoundly scary technologies” the tech company had built in relation to Israel’s war effort in Gaza. The actor also described the war as a “genocide” that “was built on an apartheid system of oppression powered by Oracle.”
In response, Paramount clapped back, calling the Marvel star’s remarks “antisemitic.” The studio’s spokesperson’s statement read in part, “We are, as always, troubled when antisemitic tropes are invoked in purported service of a business dispute. Words like ‘genocide’ and ‘apartheid,’ applied to a corporate transaction, aren’t just wrong — they’re a bridge too far, and they cheapen the very real suffering those words are meant to describe. This doesn’t deserve a response in kind — and to be clear, we don’t tolerate prejudice of any kind, against anyone.”
Creative Community for Peace, a Hollywood-based pro-Israel advocacy organization, has also called for Hollywood to boycott Ruffalo until the actor “retract[s] these remarks and apologize[s],” the group’s executive director, Ari Ingel, wrote in a statement.
“Mark Ruffalo’s rhetoric has increasingly crossed the line from criticism of Israel into extremist and antisemitic messaging,” Ingel also wrote, adding, “Point blank, he has been warned before about the consequences of this rhetoric, yet continues contributing to the toxic antisemitic atmosphere we are witnessing today. That makes him culpable. His argument increasingly fuses hostility toward Israel and Zionism with Jewish-associated wealth, media ownership, oligarchic power and ominous warnings about concentrated control into a single narrative. Those echoes are impossible to ignore.”
On Saturday, Ruffalo took to X to dismiss Paramount’s claims that his comments were “antisemitic” as well as offer a distinction between his criticism of the Israeli military and his views about Jewish people. He wrote in part, “The accusation that I am antisemitic is appalling and fundamentally dishonest. Criticizing the actions of the Israeli prime minister, a military technology contract or the executives who supply it is not the same as criticizing Jewish people. This critical and necessary dialogue is then dishonestly framed as being anti-Israel.”
Dr. Dre, the legendary hip-hop producer and performer, sees AI as another tool in the music-tech toolbox akin to synthesizers — and asserted that only people “who have trouble creating” are afraid of AI.
Dre, founder of the Aftermath record label and co-founder and CEO of Apple’s Beats, said that he doesn’t see AI “as a threat,” in an interview alongside his longtime business partner Jimmy Iovine, which was published Sunday by the New York Times. “I think the only people that see it as a threat are the people who have trouble creating.”
“I had a discussion with a few people a few days ago,” Dre said. “They were against AI and I’m like, ‘OK, you sound like the person that would have been against the drum machine when it came out.’ Or synthesizers, right? It’s a new tool for creativity. Some people are afraid of learning new things.”
Dre said he’s using AI tech in music “as a tool to see what it would do with what I just did.” Iovine added, “So is Timbaland — another brilliant producer. By the way, there’s a lot of closet AI producers out there.”
Asked what he most recently asked an AI chatbot, Dre said his query was, “How do you put on muscle and lose fat at the same time? That’s it.”
In the music industry, AI remains controversial and the subject of ongoing legal disputes. For example, last week indie music publisher Round Hill Music sued Suno and Anthropic, accusing the two AI companies of copyright infringement by illegally scraping hundreds of its songs to train their models without permission. Suno has been sued by all three of the major labels — Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group and Sony Music — though it settled with WMG last year. In addition, Suno recently struck a licensing agreement with BMG (which sued Anthropic this year for allegedly using its recordings to train AI models in what it called a scheme of “widespread and systematic infringement”).
Meanwhile, Apple Music said it will begin labeling songs derived from AI platforms later this year, following Spotify’s decision to label the profiles of artists that appear to be AI-generated as “AI Personas.” Last month, a coalition including the RIAA, IFPI, the Grammys and SAG-AFTRA united to advocate for a new industry labeling program for AI-produced songs similar to labels flagging explicit content.
GRAMADO, Brazil — “Seduction” (“Sedução”), a feature set in the Amazon Rainforest region and helmed by Zelito Viana and Marcos Palmeira, will have its world premiere on Sept. 11 at the 30th edition of the Inffinito Brazilian Film Festival in Miami.
H2O is also releasing in local theaters Miguel Faria Jr.’s doc, “Tom Jobim – Esse Seu Olhar,” in the week of Jan. 25, which marks the celebration of the 100th birthday of the legendary composer of “The Girl From Ipanema,” who died in 1994, said Jorge Peregrino, member of the board of H2O Films, the distributor of both films.
Tom Jobim
Courtesy of Ana Jobim
H2O hosted a panel during the Gramado Film Market at the 2026 edition of the Gramado Film Festival, in Southern Brazil.
“Seduction” marks the debut as a helmer of Marcos Palmeira, a major actor who starred in dozens of telenovelas, series and films in Brazil over the past 50 years. He toplines and co-directs the pic along with his father Zelito Viana, a vet producer of Cinema Novo classic films and director of several features, such as “Villa-Lobos: A Life of Passion.”
In the plot, Paulo (Palmeira), a renowned actor, when he learns of his father’s death in the Amazon Rainforest, embarks on a journey to settle his father’s unfinished affairs, faces the rough reality of the region and undergoing a radical transformation.
“In my opinion it is the best film of Zelito Viana, even better than ‘Villa-Lobos: A Life of Passion,’” Peregrino told Variety. “And it is fair to say, and I believe Zelito will agree with me, that Marcos’ direction work brought a freshness to the film.”
Peregrino stressed the high production value of the pic, lensed in Alter do Chão, in the Amazon region, along the Tapajós River. The pics deals with local issues, such as illegal land grabbing.
“Seduction” also features two Brazilian film and television stars: Camila Morgado plays Sara Teixeira and Dira Paes portrays Maria Rita Martins in the film.
The Inffinito Brazilian Film Festival is the largest Brazilian film fest held abroad and a pioneer in the promotion and dissemination of local pics in the international market. It takes place in several cities, such as Miami, NYC, London, Vancouver, Rome, Milan, Madrid, Barcelona, Buenos Aires and Shanghai.
“Tom Jobim – Esse Seu Olhar” marks the new documentary by Faria Jr, recognized as a top Brazilian director of feature-length docs about music composers. He has helmed the critically acclaimed “Vinicius” (2005), about Vinicius de Moraes, which had a strong box office performance, and “Chico: Artista Brasileiro” (2015), about Chico Buarque, another legend of Brazilian music.
“Tom Jobim – Esse Seu Olhar” is an Arpoador Audiovisual and Urca Filmes production which is co-produced by Globo Filmes. Peregrino and Leonardo Edde are producing. Diana Vasconcellos co-wrote the doc’s screenplay along with Miguel Faria Jr. and also serves as the film’s editor.
“Miguel Faria Jr. conducted extensive archival research. He gathered interviews with Tom Jobim from television and other media and edited them in such a way that 70% to 80% of the documentary is narrated by Tom himself,” Peregrino said.
Eric Trump vehemently denied claims that US President Donald Trump is preparing to launch a new cryptocurrency. Responding to social media posts suggesting Trump would release a new coin, Eric Trump stated that there are no such plans and warned investors against potential scams.
A post that garnered nearly 2 million views on X, from an account called Whale Scan, claimed that Donald Trump was “about to officially launch his new coin.” Eric Trump, quoting the post, responded, “What a joke… This is absolutely not true. Nobody is launching any coin. If anyone says otherwise, it’s a scam.”
The rapid spread of the allegations on social media was also influenced by the Trump family’s previous token ventures in the cryptocurrency sector. Just days before his second presidential term in January 2025, Donald Trump launched the Official Trump ($TRUMP) memecoin on the Solana network. With a total supply of 1 billion units, $TRUMP attracted intense speculative interest after its launch and quickly became one of the most prominent assets in the crypto market.
Following Trump, Melania Trump also announced her own memecoin called MELANIA. Thus, the Trump family became two of the most important examples of the memecoin trend directly linked to political figures. While both tokens experienced significant price fluctuations in their early stages, they remained at the center of controversy, particularly due to token distribution, potential advantages for insider investors, and the intertwining of political influence and crypto assets.
FileJump’s 2TB lifetime cloud storage is on sale for a one-time $54.97 (MSRP $467) through August 25.
The browser-based dashboard supports drag-and-drop uploads and files up to 15GB. The plan includes unlimited downloads and can store images, videos, spreadsheets, PDFs, Word documents, PowerPoint files, and other common formats.
Built-in previews let users view supported media and documents without downloading them. Unencrypted Office files can also be edited in the browser through OnlyOffice.
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Automatic version history tracks changes for up to one year, providing access to earlier versions of the file. WebDAV has been tested on Windows with CyberDuck, providing another way to access stored files.
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