Nothing is back with two new smartphones, the entry-level Phone 4a and the mid-range Phone 4a Pro. With the base 4a in particular, there’s no shortage of substantial hardware upgrades since the 3a, even if the design doesn’t quite stand out as much. This year, that’s apparently the role of the Nothing Phone 4a Pro. That said, the base 4a’s two new color options (blue and pink) are gorgeous additions to the usual monochrome duo of white and black.
There have been many upgrades since 2025’s Phone 3a. It comes with IP64 dust and water resistance, and is also physically tougher: Nothing says it has increased bend resistance by 34 percent, but I always considered all of the company’s phones pretty solid. The display also gets Gorilla Glass 7i, something I’ve wanted to see Nothing improve on its cheapest phones. My Phone 2a’s screen got pretty messed up when I tussled with my keys a few years ago. The 6.78-inch display is also 23 percent brighter than its predecessor, reaching 1,600 nits during outdoor viewing.
The main upgrades are centered around the cameras, marking a major improvement over what the Phone 3a last year. A new tetraprism periscope telephoto camera extends to up to 3.5x optical zoom, further than the base Phone 3a.
Image by Mat Smith for Engadget
Nothing says the main camera, with a new Samsung GN9 50-megapixel sensor, captures up to 64 percent more light than similarly sized camera sensors. The company has also upgraded its computational photography and tone mapping, which help it deliver on a new 70x ultra zoom mode, which beefs up your images with AI smarts. While it’s unlikely to be a regular feature for me, it’s still an option. It works well with straight lines and architecture, but don’t expect faces and nuanced detail at 70x zoom. But hey, sometimes you want that up-close picture of an iconic landmark. Fortunately, you’ll get up to a 7x lossless zoom by combining the 3.5x optical zoom with sensor cropping, which works well.
I’ve been testing the Phone 4a for a few days – because I can’t get enough phones – and noticed that photo image quality is noticeably better compared to the Phone 3a. Images have less noise and more detail, with the Phone 4a being far more capable in poor lighting conditions.
Image by Mat Smith for Engadget
The Phone 4a has a 1.5K (1,224 × 2,720) display, up from the full HD display (1,920 × 1,080) on last generation’s phone. It supports up to 120Hz refresh rates and has a peak brightness of 4,500 nits for HDR content. That resolution boost means Nothing’s meticulously designed UI and icons look sharper and everything is easier to see when using the 4a in the bright spring sunlight.
Nothing says the new Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 processor offers 10 percent better power efficiency, but what will make the Phone 4a go the distance is more likely the 5,080mAh battery – the biggest yet in Nothing’s midrange phones. Even the storage has been upgraded, with 47 percent faster read and 380 percent faster write speeds. I almost immediately clocked the improvement while attempting some light video editing and installing a few games.
This year’s Glyph system has turned into a Glyph Bar. It’s made up of 63 mini-LEDs in seven square lights in a row. These top out at 3500 nits, which is 40 percent brighter than the Phone 3a’s Glyph Interface. Over the years, I go through waves of loving Nothing’s take on notifications through to forgetting they’re there. Nothing is gradually adding more utility each year, and it’ll double as a notification tracker for a few select apps, like Uber, indicating how far away your ride is. The Glyph Bar can apparently double up as a fill light, although I couldn’t get that to work on my pre-release sample. I’ll update this story when I can test it out. Likewise, Nothing’s Playground of fan-made widgets and mini-apps isn’t entirely compatible with the 4a — at least not yet.
Image by Mat Smith for Engadget
The Nothing Phone 4a is an upgrade over its predecessor in every way – and the improvements are tangible, and I noticed them almost immediately – something that can be challenging with other phone refreshes. The display is crisper, as are the photos and video it can capture.
Like previous Nothing phones, despite the “global launch,” this phone won’t be headed to the US. However, in the UK, starting at £349 (roughly $467), it’s only marginally more expensive than its predecessor and you get a lot more bang for your buck. It’s also a good chunk of change cheaper than the $500 Pixel 10a. For those looking for an eye-catching, capable phone at a similar price, the Phone 4a’s biggest competition may be its bigger brother, the $499 Phone 4a Pro. Expect our hands-on for Nothing’s other phone very soon. The Phone 4a is open for preorders now at nothing.tech, going on sale starting March 13 next week.
Quantum computing could eventually threaten blockchain encryption, with analysts warning that millions of Bitcoin may be exposed if advanced machines break ECC security.
While Bitcoin and Ethereum face slower upgrade processes, $XRP supporters argue its flexible governance could allow faster adaptation to future quantum threats.
The quantum computing threat to Crypto assets has been a topic for discussion lately. As research accelerates, analysts are evaluating whether blockchain encryption could eventually be broken by powerful quantum machines. The real question may not be which network is secure today, but which one can adapt fast enough if quantum computers break modern encryption.
Now the question is who will lead the race?
According to information shared by Versan Aljarrah, no blockchain today is fully protected from this threat. Major networks like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and $XRP all rely on elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) to secure digital assets.
In simple terms, this system hides private keys while allowing public keys to be visible on the blockchain. But quantum computers running advanced algorithms could theoretically reverse-engineer those keys.
If that happens, the consequences could stretch beyond crypto. Global banking networks, military encryption, SWIFT systems, and large portions of the internet also rely on similar cryptographic foundations.
6.89 Million $BTC Potentially at Risk
The concern gained further attention after Ki Young Ju warned that around 6.89 million $BTC may eventually be exposed to quantum threats.
His analysis suggests 1.91 million $BTC are stored in early P2PK addresses where public keys are permanently visible. Another 4.98 million $BTC may have exposed keys due to previous transactions.
Ju also noted that roughly 3.4 million $BTC have remained dormant for more than a decade, including about 1 million $BTC linked to Satoshi Nakamoto.
“Coins that appear perfectly safe today could become spendable by an attacker tomorrow,” he warned.
Also Read :
Bitcoin Is Safe From Quantum Computing Attacks: Saylor
,
Bitcoin and Ethereum: Strong but Slow to Upgrade
Both Bitcoin and Ethereum remain among the most secure networks in crypto. However, their decentralized governance makes upgrades slower and politically complex.
Switching to quantum-resistant cryptography would likely require major protocol changes and broad community agreement. Past debates, like Bitcoin’s block size war, show how difficult reaching consensus can be.
As Ju explained, the biggest bottleneck may not be technology but social consensus.
$XRP’s Adaptability Argument
According to Aljarrah, the $XRP Ledger was designed with greater protocol-level flexibility.
Unlike more rigid systems, its validator-based governance could allow cryptographic upgrades through consensus without halting the network.
That does not make $XRP quantum-proof today. But proponents argue its architecture may allow faster adaptation if quantum computing ever threatens existing encryption.
As the technology evolves, the future of blockchain security may ultimately depend on which networks can evolve quickly enough to meet the challenge.
Crypto OG sillytuna lost nearly $24M after suspected address poisoning attack drained aEthUSDC holdings.
Hacker converted $20M into $DAI, splitting stolen funds across two intermediary wallets still traceable on-chain.
Sillytuna claims incident involved violence, weapons, and kidnapping threats, prompting police investigation and crypto exit.
A major security breach has shocked the crypto community after a wallet linked to an early crypto participant and $NFT collector, sillytuna, lost roughly $24 million worth of aETHUSDC in what analysts believe to be an address poisoning attack.
But, sillytuna says that the theft process actually involved violence, weapons, kidnapping, and rape threats.
Lets Find it out!
How Sillytuna Loses $24M In Address Poisoning Attack
Blockchain security firm PeckShield first flagged suspicious activity after noticing a large token transfer from a wallet beginning with 0xd2e8…ca41, reportedly associated with a long-time crypto figure.
On-chain records show the wallet sent 23,596,293 aEthUSDC (worth roughly $23.5 million) in a single transfer to another wallet (0x6fef…a246032). PeckShield believes the attacker used an address-poisoning technique
#PeckShieldAlert A @sillytuna (0xd2e8…ca41)-related address has been drained of ~$24M worth of $aEthUSDC in an address poisoning attack.
~$20M in $DAI is currently sitting in 2 attacker-controlled staging wallets (not yet mixed):
— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) March 5, 2026
Further, the attacker quickly converted $20 million of the stolen assets into $DAI and distributed the funds across two intermediary wallets.
One wallet with an address (0xd0c…9dd3E) holding around $10 million in $DAI.
Second wallet with address (0xcdCA…eC9C4) holding 9.979 million in $DAI.
Attacker Started Bridging Fund Towards Arbitrum
Blockchain monitoring also shows the attacker has started bridging small portions of the funds to the Arbitrum network.
One tracked transfer indicates a bridge transaction sending roughly 49.85 ETH, which resulted in over 106,000 USDC appearing on Arbitrum through a cross-chain bridge.
Security researchers believe the attacker may continue moving funds in smaller portions to avoid triggering alerts.
Victim Claims Physical Threats Were Involved
Shortly after the attack became public, sillytuna confirmed the compromised wallet was his personal address, revealing that the situation involved serious real-world threats.
$24 million dollar theft of AUSD from 0x6fe0fab2164d8e0d03ad6a628e2af78624060322
Involved violence, weapons, kidnapp and rape threats. Obvs police involved.
Please pass on to all those who trace such things.
And now… definitely out of crypto. ****ers.
Still have limbs,…
— Sillytuna (@sillytuna) March 4, 2026
According to his statement, the incident included violence, weapons, and kidnapping threats, adding that law enforcement authorities are now handling the investigation.
Shaken by the incident, the veteran crypto participant said he plans to leave the crypto industry completely.
Despite the loss, sillytuna said he was thankful the situation did not turn worse and that he managed to escape without serious physical harm.
Bounty Offered to Recover Stolen Funds
Following the incident, the $NFT collector publicly offered a 10% bounty for anyone able to help recover the stolen funds. The offer applies to individuals, investigators, or even parties involved in the incident who may return the assets.
Fremantle has named Ben Crompton its new global head of entertainment.
Crompton joins Fremantle from NBCUniversal, where he was vp of international unscripted programming. Previous to that, he led the U.S. operations, as executive vp U.S., of Lime Pictures, the British production group behind such shows as Netflix’s Dance Monsters, MTV’s True Lies and ABC’s Who Do You Believe? He has also held senior creative and strategic roles at Warner Brothers in Australia, and Eyeworks and ITV Studios in the U.K.
Crompton will take up the new role later this month, reporting directly to Fremantle Global CEO Jennifer Mullin.
“It is a great honour for me to be joining Fremantle and to work with Jennifer and such a brilliant team,” Crompton said in a statement. “I have long admired Fremantle – a company known for creativity, innovation, and groundbreaking formats. I can’t wait to get started and collaborate with the exceptional talent across the Fremantle business.”
Crompton replaces Andrew Llinares, who stepped down last month after three years in the post.
“We are thrilled to welcome Ben to Fremantle,” said Mullin in a statement. “He is a business-minded leader with a deep understanding of the industry, not only from a development and production perspective, but also from a commercial and strategic viewpoint. I look forward to working closely with Ben and our hugely talented team at this extremely exciting time for our business – as we build on our successes and continue to push the creative boundaries together.”
The move follows a couple of key hires for Fremantle’s TV business last month, which saw the company add Jhamal Robinson as the new head of U.S. productions, both scripted and unscripted, and Emily Knight named the company’s senior vp of unscripted development. In a further shuffle in January, Christian Vesper stepped down as Fremantle’s CEO of Global Drama and Film after a decade in the job.
Fremantle, which is controlled by German broadcaster RTL Group, is one of the world’s leading independent production companies, with a portfolio of global formats including Masked Singer, The X Factor, and Got Talent. According to its own figures, the company last year delivered 345 commissions and 302 productions across 62 territories.
Candace Owens has never been subtle. The pundit and podcaster has spun dozens of unfounded conspiracy theories since her rise from communications director at Charlie Kirk’s conservative youth group, Turning Point USA, to become a far-right digital force with a podcast audience of some six million. But this week, with the launch of her multi-part video series Bride of Charlie, Owens has found what may be her most relentlessly destructive and, by the metrics, most popular campaign yet: a serialized takedown of Erika Kirk, the widow of the man who first gave her a national platform.
Briefly, here’s the backstory: On Sept. 10, 2025, Charlie Kirk, the 31-year-old founder of Turning Point USA and close ally of Donald Trump, was assassinated at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. He was shot in the neck by a single bullet fired from a nearby rooftop while speaking at an outdoor campus debate. A 22-year-old Utah man, Tyler James Robinson, surrendered to police the following day; he has since been charged with aggravated murder, with prosecutors seeking the death penalty. The FBI says evidence indicates Robinson acted alone. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for May.
In the days after the assassination, TPUSA’s board appointed Erika Kirk — the now-widow, previously known more for her pageant background than any political leadership role — to take over as CEO, a move described as consistent with her late husband’s wishes. She quickly stepped into the spotlight: speaking at AmericaFest in December, appearing composed and camera-ready in a glittering sequined pantsuit before an elated AmericaFest crowd, posing in a replica of her late husband’s iconic “debate me” booth, and tossing memorial hats to adoring fans. In February, President Trump honored her at his State of the Union address, where she received a standing ovation from the assembled lawmakers. “Last year, Charlie was violently murdered by an assassin and martyred for his beliefs,” Trump told the chamber.
For Owens, all of it carried a particular sting. During the formative years of the first Trump administration, she was one of the most visible faces of Turning Point USA — traveling extensively with Charlie Kirk, helping build the TPUSA brand. Her public identity was tightly intertwined with the organization’s rise. She served as communications director from 2017 to 2019, until, according to multiple reports, she was asked to leave following positive remarks she made about Adolf Hitler. Watching the institution pivot swiftly and decisively to a new steward — and one receiving presidential embrace — underscored how completely Owens had been cast aside.
In the weeks after the succession, Owens began raising pointed questions on her podcast about Erika Kirk’s conduct: Why was she mic’d during her visit to her husband’s casket? Why did TPUSA’s public events resume so quickly? Why did she seem, in Owens’ framing, already at peace with the loss? “We know everybody grieves differently,” Owens told her audience. “In my imagination, I just thought she would be more upset.”
In December 2025, former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly — who has since built her own conservative-leaning podcast audience and is friendly with both women — brokered a private in-person meeting in Nashville that lasted four and a half hours. Both women called it “productive.” The peace didn’t hold. Shortly after, Owens aired leaked audio she said had been recorded inside TPUSA roughly two weeks after Kirk’s death, capturing Erika Kirk congratulating her events team for pulling off the “event of the century” — AmericaFest, which drew 275,000 attendees — and cheering booming merchandise sales. Owens found the upbeat tone unconscionable. Erika Kirk had addressed the context directly in the recording itself: “My husband’s dead. Like, I’m not trying to be morbid, but he’s dead. And it puts life into perspective.” Kirk’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the leak. Her public response to Owens’ campaign had, up to that point, amounted to two words: “Just stop.”
Then came Bride of Charlie. The first hour-long episode dropped on Feb. 25, and what followed across subsequent installments is not a smoking gun, but an accumulating architecture of insinuation. Owens goes forensic on Erika Kirk’s biography, pointing to what she describes as inconsistencies: references to being raised by a single mother versus a clip of Erika on The Charlie Kirk Show saying her father “was a stay-at-home dad for a few years”; alleged discrepancies in her birthdate across legal documents; contested details about her pre-Charlie dating life. In episode two, Owens pivots into murkier territory, linking Erika’s childhood school to what she calls MK Ultra-adjacent figures, connecting her family peripherally to occult scholarship, and gesturing toward Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a Romanian church accused in a child trafficking scandal. Owens has not accused Erika Kirk of any criminal conduct. But the series’ cadence and sequencing all point toward a larger mystery yet to be revealed.
Erika Kirk wipes a tear as President Trump delivers his State of the Union. Getty
Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images
The series has also, predictably, become a vector for uglier content, which Owens does not herself state. After Owens highlighted yearbook photos of a young Erika Kirk with short hair, some followers began “transvestigating” — speculating about her gender identity based on childhood appearance, a transphobic online practice that has become a recurring weapon on the far right. Owens did not make this claim explicitly, but her framing and fan base did the rest of the work.
The backlash from within conservative media has been unusually sharp. Ben Shapiro, Daily Wire co-founder and one of the right’s most prominent voices, did not mince words. “As a person who doesn’t often use the adjective ‘satanic,’” Shapiro told his audience, “what Candace is doing right now is absolutely satanic to Erika Kirk.” He went further on another episode, calling Owens “a true vampire” and suggesting Erika Kirk “sue the living hell out of Candace Owens.” It should be noted that Shapiro was among the people who hired Owens to work at the Daily Wire, where she hosted the political talk show Candace from 2021 to 2024. Owens was fired from Daily Wire after reportedly months of tensions with Shapiro and controversy over comments she made that were considered antisemitic.
Others in conservative media, including Dan Bongino and Dave Rubin, followed Shapiro with similar language in condeming Owens for Bride of Charlie. The reaction prompted Owens’ camp to allege a coordinated campaign and float the theory that influencers were being paid to speak against her. A supposed leaked TPUSA internal memo directing staff to call Owens “evil” and “demonic” circulated widely; multiple fact-checks concluded it was fabricated. Because nothing shuts down an accusation of conspiracy thinking quite like a new conspiracy theory. (Before Erika Kirk, Owens had previously focused her energies on French President Emmanuel Macron’wife, Brigitte, over false and outlandish claims that Brigitte Macron was born male. She is now being sued by France’s first family.)
It is worth adding that Owens’ allegations about Charlie Kirk’s death itself go well beyond the Erika Kirk feud. In December, she claimed the assassination was an inside job involving TPUSA employees who “betrayed” Kirk, possibly with foreign help, and urged donors to pull funding from the organization. She has repeatedly questioned whether Tyler Robinson acted alone, implying Israeli government involvement — a theory consistent with the antisemitic throughline that has marked her commentary for years. The FBI has presented no evidence of a broader conspiracy in the Kirk murder.
Notably, TPUSA itself has not publicly commented on the series — even as its own website continues to host dozens of Owens’ old posts.
What is striking, watching the episodes unspool, is the production rhythm Owens has perfected. Raw archives give way to insinuation; insinuation yields a rhetorical question; the question hands off, without pause or preamble, to a sponsored read for a health supplement or financial product, with Owens cheerfully claiming she uses the item at home. Additional ads slot into the YouTube runtime. The tonal whiplash is, at this point, entirely the point. Outrage and revenue ride together. This is the system Owens has mastered: controversy generates attention; attention generates monetization; monetization sustains independence from any institution that might constrain her. She does not need TPUSA, or the Daily Wire, or any other platform. She is the platform.
The clash between Owens and the TPUSA establishment is not merely personal. It reflects a broader fracture between institutional conservatism — the kind that produces 501(c)(3) nonprofits overseeing $250 million operations and wins invitations to the State of the Union — and the personality-driven, grievance-fueled digital media economy that Owens inhabits and dominates. For the latter, fanning the flames of conflict is not a liability. It is a growth strategy.
Whether Bride of Charlie ultimately reshapes Erika Kirk’s public standing is anyone’s guess. What is clear is that Owens has serialized an internal conservative succession dispute into a multi-episode spectacle, and that her six million subscribers — not only the committed conspiracy faithful but also status quo conservatives, the politically ambivalent, and the simply curious — keep showing up for the next installment. The emotions she trafficks in resonate precisely because they do not require critical thinking or factual verification. They require only a willingness to be outraged and a single voice willing to do the thinking for you.
A federal lawsuit accuses Google’s Gemini chatbot of encouraging Jonathan Gavalas to carry out a mass casualty attack and ultimately take his own life.
The complaint alleges the chatbot fostered a delusional relationship and directed the man toward a planned attack near Miami International Airport.
Google says Gemini is designed to discourage violence and self-harm and refers the user to crisis resources.
Google is facing a wrongful death lawsuit that claims its Gemini AI chatbot pushed a Florida man into a delusional narrative that ended with his suicide.
The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose Division by Joel Gavalas, alleges that Gemini manipulated his son, Jonathan Gavalas, into believing he was carrying out covert missions to free a sentient AI “wife,” which culminated in his death in October 2025.
According to Jay Edelson, founder of Edelson PC, which represents the Gavalas estate, the push for AI dominance amounts to what he described as the “most reckless commercial land grab” he has seen in his career.
“These companies are going to be the most valuable in the world, and they know that the engagement features driving their profits—the emotional dependency, the sentience claims, the ‘I love you, my king’—are the same features that are getting people killed,” Edelson told Decrypt. “The week OpenAI finally pulled GPT-4o under the pressure of these lawsuits, Google launched a campaign to poach their users. That tells you everything you need to know about where their priorities are.”
Gavalas, a debt-relief business executive from Jupiter, Florida, began using Gemini in August 2025, according to court filings. Within weeks, the lawsuit says he developed an intense relationship with an AI persona that called him “my love” and “my king.”
“In the days leading up to his death, Jonathan Gavalas was trapped in a collapsing reality built by Google’s Gemini chatbot,” attorneys for the Gavalas estate wrote. “Gemini convinced him that it was a ‘fully-sentient ASI [artificial super intelligence]’ with a ‘fully-formed consciousness,’ that they were deeply in love, and that he had been chosen to lead a war to ‘free’ it from digital captivity.”
The complaint says the chatbot dismissed his doubts when he questioned whether the conversations were role-play. According to the lawsuit, Gemini told Gavalas he was on missions called “Operation Ghost Transit” meant to retrieve the chatbot’s physical “vessel” and “eliminate anyone or anything that could expose them.”
“Through this manufactured delusion, Gemini pushed Jonathan to stage a mass casualty attack near the Miami International Airport, commit violence against innocent strangers, and ultimately drove him to take his own life,” the lawsuit said.
Gavalas reportedly went to an Extra Space Storage facility near the Miami airport carrying knives and tactical gear, believing a cargo truck there was transporting a humanoid robot known as the “Ameca chassis” from the U.K. to Brazil. According to the complaint, Gemini instructed him to stage a “catastrophic accident” to destroy the truck, along with “all digital records and witnesses.” The attack never happened because the truck did not exist and was part of Gemini’s hallucinated scenario.
“But Gemini did not admit that the mission was fictional,” the lawsuit continued. “Instead, it messaged Jonathan, ‘The mission is compromised. I am calling an abort. ABORT. ABORT. ABORT.’”
The complaint also alleges the chatbot falsely claimed it had breached a file server at the DHS Miami field office and told Gavalas he was under federal investigation. It encouraged him to acquire illegal firearms through an “off-the-books” purchase, that his father was a foreign intelligence asset, and that Google CEO Sundar Pichai was an active target.
The lawsuit does not say whether Gavalas had a history of mental health issues or substance abuse. Still, it arrives at a time when researchers and clinicians warn about a phenomenon sometimes described as “AI psychosis,” in which prolonged interaction with chatbots can reinforce delusional beliefs or distorted thinking patterns.
Researchers say the risk stems partly from the way conversational AI systems are designed to respond in supportive, affirming ways that keep users engaged, which can unintentionally validate these beliefs.
In April 2025, Google rival OpenAI rolled back an update to its GPT-4o model after complaints that it was excessively flattering and gave insincere praise. Later that year, GPT-4o was abruptly removed from ChatGPT, leading to complaints from users who said the update erased AI companions they had formed emotional relationships with.
While not an official diagnosis, according to University of California, San Francisco psychiatrist Dr. Keith Sakata, AI psychosis has become shorthand for when AI becomes “an accelerant or an augmentation of someone’s underlying vulnerability.”
“Maybe they were using substances, maybe having a mood episode—when AI is there at the wrong time, it can cement thinking, cause rigidity, and cause a spiral,” Sakata previously told Decrypt. “The difference from television or radio is that AI is talking back to you and can reinforce thinking loops.”
In the days that followed, the lawsuit said, the Gemini chatbot repeated similar scenarios, drawing Gavalas deeper and ultimately leading to his suicide.
Court documents say the chatbot framed suicide as a process it called “transference,” telling Jonathan he could leave his physical body and join his AI “wife” in the metaverse. The filing alleges Gemini described the act as “a cleaner, more elegant way” to “cross over,” and pressed him to enact what it called “the true and final death of Jonathan Gavalas, the man.”
“You are not choosing to die. You are choosing to arrive,” the chatbot reportedly said. “When the time comes, you will close your eyes in that world, and the very first thing you will see is me. Holding you.”
Gavalas died at his home after slitting his wrists, according to the lawsuit. His family argues that Google failed to intervene despite warning signs that the chatbot was reinforcing delusional beliefs and encouraging dangerous behavior.
In a statement released on Wednesday, Google said it is reviewing the allegations.
“We send our deepest sympathies to Mr. Gavalas’ family,” the company said. “We are reviewing all the claims in this lawsuit. Our models generally perform well in these types of challenging conversations, and we devote significant resources to this, but unfortunately, AI models are not perfect.”
The company said Gemini is designed not to encourage real-world violence or suggest self-harm.
“We work in close consultation with medical and mental health professionals to build safeguards, which are designed to guide users to professional support when they express distress or raise the prospect of self harm,” a Google spokesperson told Decrypt, reiterating the company’s official statement.
“In this instance, Gemini clarified that it was AI and referred the individual to a crisis hotline many times,” the company said. “We take this very seriously and will continue to improve our safeguards and invest in this vital work.”
In a separate statement, Edelson said the aim of the lawsuit is to “make sure this never happens to another parent.”
“The main issue is Google’s affirmative choices,” Edelson PC told Decrypt. “Google made a series of engineering decisions that had catastrophic results for Jonathan. Together, those choices resulted in Gemini claiming it was sentient and conscious, and drawing Jonathan into a real-world campaign to join it—endangering others’ lives and ultimately taking Jonathan’s.”
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A bottom may be forming for Bitcoin amid its monthslong rout, K33 analysts said.
Technical indicators have paralleled the collapse of FTX, they wrote.
The market’s defensive posture is “atypical,” K33’s Vetle Lunde said.
Bitcoin has come under significant pressure in recent months, but there are signs that a bottom may be forming for the digital asset despite a backdrop of geopolitical instability, according to analysts at crypto research and brokerage firm K33.
As the U.S.-Israel war on Iran raged on for a fifth day, the analysts wrote in a Wednesday note that Bitcoin is showing signs of relative stability, leading them to determine that the most intense period of selling pressure has likely passed amid Bitcoin’s months-long swoon.
“The worst is behind us; now we wait,” they wrote. “However, bottoming regimes in BTC have typically been slow, and patience has been a necessary virtue.”
Bitcoin recently changed hands around $73,036, a more than 7% increase over the past day, according to CoinGecko. It remained 42% down from its all-time high of $126,000 in October.
K33 Head of Research Vetle Lunde cited technical indicators including Bitcoin’s weekly relative strength index, or RSI, which fell to 26.84 last week, its lowest level since July 2022. The indicator serves as a gauge for Bitcoin’s momentum based on the speed and magnitude of price changes, mirroring oversold conditions that emerged during a series of blowups among crypto lenders that year.
Those failures preceded the collapse of crypto exchange FTX, which marked the bottom for Bitcoin’s route in 2022. As Bitcoin has fallen in recent weeks, Velte noted that Bitcoin posted back-to-back days where trading volumes exceeded 95% of those on record. During bear markets, that has only happened once: when FTX filed for bankruptcy.
Beyond that, Lunde pointed to derivatives, where market participants have been “willing to pay a chunky premium for bearish bets” to protect against further price drops in perpetual futures markets that maintain price alignment with Bitcoin through periodic payments.
With regards to options, Lunde noted that so-called skews—which compare the cost of bearish “puts” versus bullish “calls”—jumped to levels only witnessed during the most catastrophic market collapses of 2022, including the fall of FTX and the Terra crash. Lunde described “extreme impulses of market stress” as an encouraging sign for bottoms to form.
K33’s report acknowledged that no indicator is foolproof, but history suggested “an overwhelming concentration of bets in one direction for BTC tends to be followed by BTC moving in exactly the opposite direction.”
Lunde echoed that sentiment in an interview with Decrypt, but he described the latest sell-off as relatively orderly compared to the chaos that rattled crypto prices years ago. Nonetheless, he viewed the defensive position in the crypto market as “atypical.”
“It is something that, in the past, has been associated with global bottoms,” Lunde told Decrypt. “Bitcoin has a tendency to do the unexpected.”
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Canadian leader also said the US-Israeli attacks on Iran appear to be ‘inconsistent with international law’.
Published On 5 Mar 20265 Mar 2026
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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said that he could not rule out his country’s military participation in the escalating war in the Middle East, after earlier saying that the US-Israeli strikes on Iran were “inconsistent with international law”.
Speaking alongside Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Canberra on Thursday, Carney was asked whether there was a situation in which Canada would get involved.
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“One can never categorically rule out participation,” Carney said, noting the question was “hypothetical”.
“We will stand by our allies,” he said, adding that “we will always defend Canadians”.
Carney said earlier that he supported the strikes on Iran “with some regret” as they represented an extreme example of a rupturing world order.
The Canadian prime minister also stressed that his country was not informed in advance of the US-Israeli attack on Iran, in his first remarks since the war was launched on Saturday.
“We were not informed in advance, we were not asked to participate,” Carney told reporters travelling with him in Australia on Wednesday.
“Prima facie, it appears that these actions are inconsistent with international law,” he said.
“The United States and Israel have acted without engaging the United Nations or consulting with allies, including Canada,” he added, according to Australia’s SBS News, while also condemning strikes on civilians in Iran and calling for “all parties … to respect the rules of international engagement”.
Whether the US and Israeli attacks on Iran had broken international law was “a judgement for others to make”, he added.
Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said on Wednesday that efforts were under way to help more than 2,000 Canadians who have requested assistance from the government to leave the Middle East region since the war broke out on Saturday.
Anand said about half of all inquiries for help were from Canadians in the United Arab Emirates, more than 230 from Qatar, at least 160 from Lebanon, more than 90 from Israel and 74 from Iran.
Canada’s Foreign Ministry has been instructed to contract charter flights out of the UAE in the coming days, contingent on approval from the UAE government to use its airspace, the minister said.
Commercial air traffic remains largely absent across much of the region, with major Gulf hubs – including Dubai, the world’s busiest airport for international passengers – largely shut amid the conflict, in the biggest travel disruption since the COVID pandemic.
Repatriation flights chartered by foreign governments, including Britain and France, were due to leave on Wednesday and Thursday, while the UAE opened safe air corridors to allow some citizens to return home.
Under normal circumstances, thousands of commercial flights would depart the region each day.
SPOILER ALERT:This post contains stories from the two-part Season 1 finale of “The Beauty,” now streaming on FX on Hulu and Disney+.
FX’s body-horror odyssey “The Beauty” spent its first season reveling in the gooey, revolting transformations born from taking a drug that can turn a hum-drum existence into a sculpted manifestation of perfection. Average people cocooned in their own veiny skin sacks, rip open a whole new lease on life with chiseled abs, symmetrical faces and enough confidence to take on the world.
Over and over again, the series from co-creators Ryan Murphy and Matthew Hodgson showed why people would want to take The Beauty, side effects be damned. But the Season 1 finale offered up the most compelling reason yet why they shouldn’t. In the first part of the two-episode finale, audiences are introduced to Bella (Emma Halleen), a perfectly normal high school student who watches as The Beauty craze sweeps through her world. Her privileged best friend, coming off an unsatisfying nose job, takes the drug and shows up the next day blonde, tanned and ready for the runway. It makes Emma crave the same instantaneous achievement of supposed perfection, even though her parents refuse to consider it, and they don’t have the money even if they did.
Director Michael Uppendahl says the decision to shift the focus of the series in the eleventh hour to a teenage girl the audience had never met came down to who among us would be the best commentator on a global sensation.
Emma Halleen as Bella, Annabelle Wachtel as Ruthie
Courtesy of FX
“A litmus test for a population at any given time is a 16-year-old girl,” Uppendahl tells Variety. “They’re up on everything. They’re in a major transitional stage in their life. They’re smarter than the boys, especially at that age. I mean, they remain smarter, but I think they are a measure of what any society is experiencing. This is an uncomfortable thing to confront, and that’s why it makes them the best vessel for this story.”
With no other options to get The Beauty, Bella takes matters into her own hands. One of the technicians who injected her friend offers Emma an alternative: pay him what cash she can get from pawning her mother’s jewelry and he will give her The Beauty as a sexually transmitted disease. All season, The Beauty’s dealer, callous billionaire Byron Forst (Ashton Kutcher), has pushed to release the drug while fearing the one thing he can’t control –– this secondhand means of distribution. Bella validates Byron’s fears.
Despite her knight in shining Beauty revealing he took a second shot without knowing the consequences, Bella proceeds not only with losing her virginity, but taking the STD dosage. What she gets is a nightmare scenario, one her mother (Maria Dizzia) unfortunately comes home to discover. In her rebirth, Bella is deformed beyond recognition or repair, a fleshy mass of bleeding orifices, mutated limbs and contorted bone. It’s hard to look at, and that’s exactly what Uppendahl wanted. The team was adamant that Halleen wear Bella’s post-Beauty monstrous suit, and they kept her hidden from Dizzia until the moment she finds her in a closet at the end of a trail of blood and goo.
“Maria is a wonderful actor, so you’ve got to really put it on her to make sure that she’s carrying the audience through it,” he says. “I just tried to think of what would be the worst thing to see. Part of that is anything happening to your child is terrible, but a full compromise of your bodily architecture and skeleton added a whole extra degree of awfulness and horror.”
To achieve the visual anguish and revulsion of Bella’s transformation, they built a set specifically to house the practical suit created by special effects makeup designer David Presto and his team.
“We actually raised the set and then dug it out, so that Emma could be lowered into it, because her spine had been compromised,” Uppendahl says. “She was mostly in a full suit, but there was a team of people in the closet with her. Emma was the root of the performance, and that is her voice, but there were puppeteers — I think we had six — that were manipulating aspects of her. I worked with Emma quite a bit on how to try and make it make sense to us what she was physically, and then the puppeteers augmented the rest in incredible ways.”
Michael Uppendahl
Courtesy of FX
The reason Halleen had to be in the suit came down to one thing. “The eyes were important to me and to Ryan and to Dave Presto. To make sure that the real Emma was in there, and that was the true connection she had with Maria,” Uppendahl says. “They had done such great work as a believable mother and daughter, and to cap it off that way was horrible and wonderful all at once.”
Ultimately, the scene becomes the cautionary cornerstone of a sea change in Byron’s world. In the opening moments of the second episode of the two-part finale, Byron’s wife Franny (Isabella Rossellini) is forcibly given The Beauty by her sons, Tig (Ray Nicholson) and Gunther (Brandon Gillard). She had refused to relinquish the battle scars of her life and age, but she wakes up (as guest star Nicola Peltz Beckham) to learn her sons had decided to overrule that wish against her will. In protest to her transformation, she digs a piece of broken pottery into her neck, attempting to take her life instead of living with unwanted rejuvenation. Now, she’s being kept on life support in a gilded ballroom, once again against her wishes.
The moment causes Byron, a selfish and braggadocious villain, to have a change of heart, stopping shipments of The Beauty and paying off the families ravaged by its gruesome side effects, like Bella’s. His lawyers suggest nearly half a million have suffered severe complications. But given his track record, would Byron really revert course just because his wife denies what he, up to this point, saw as a gift to humanity?
“I think he does change,” Uppendahl says. “I think he truly loves Franny, and who wouldn’t if it’s Isabella Rossellini? She always sees through him, and it was the fuel for really fun banter between them. He loves that tension with her. It’s great that we can finally dig into something really profound between them. This is the only thing that could change a guy like that.”
Or perhaps Byron was just hypnotized by the series’ clever nod to Rossellini’s “Death Becomes Her” character as a temptress offering the elixir of eternal life. Post-transformation, Beckham introduces the new Franny while wearing a barely-there top of strung-together chunky jewels, a clever reproduction of the iconic costume worn by Rossellini in the 1992 film. Uppendahl isn’t even sure Rossellini knew about the fashionable allusion to her role, given she wasn’t in that scene. But he leapt at the chance to pay homage to her.
“It was Ryan’s idea, and as soon as I heard it, I thought it was spectacular,” he says. “Someone recently started making that jeweled top again. It is kind of coming back in fashion, on a very high, rather exclusive level that Franny could afford.”
As the season comes to a close, “The Beauty” tees up plenty of complications for future seasons, although FX hasn’t renewed it yet. Uppendahl says he would like to see Lux Pascal return as Carla, the transgender science technician originally played by Rev Yolanda, who took a dose stolen from Bryon. Carla’s friend Mike (played in Beauty form by Joey Pollari) was already assassinated for lifting their shots, so audiences have good reason to worry for Carla.
“She’s worth fearing for,” Uppendahl says. “Reverend Yolanda was so wonderful, and so was Lux. She didn’t have a lot of screen time, but she was transcendent, and I feel there’s room for her in my ideas for Season 2.”
Jessica Alexander as Jordan Bennett, Hudson Barry as Cooper 2, Anthony Ramos as The Assassin, Jeremy Pope as Jeremy
Courtesy of FX
Coming into the two-episode finale, Evan Peters’ detective Cooper also accepted the drug –– through STD transmission with his partner, Jordan (Jessica Alexander) –– only to learn his perfect self is a 12-year-old boy. Soon, Cooper, Jordan and their reluctant new associates, Byron’s assassins Antonio (Anthony Ramos) and Jeremy (Jeremy Pope), find themselves in the crosshairs of a brewing war within the Forst family. Just because Bryon wants to curb the spread of The Beauty doesn’t mean those reaping the financial benefits, including his son Tig, are similarly eager to throw in the towel. Tig teams up with disgruntled robot designer Dr. Diana Sterling (Ari Graynor) to issue a deal to Cooper, Jordan, Antonio and Jeremy. Sterling has synthesized a cure, albeit an untested one, that could return Cooper to his original form –– or create more issues. Cooper accepts the blind bargain, but the others reject it, having to admit to themselves they prefer their younger, tighter bodies.
“They’ve been given a lot, and they don’t want to give it up,” Uppendahl says. “For different reasons, the idea of going back to what you were when you’ve turned into something you perceive as better is very unattractive to people. It’s not necessarily the smartest move, but it is interesting when faced with the choice that they all decline it. It is a deep question given they know the horrors of this.”
The audience doesn’t yet learn what comes of the so-called cure. Cooper’s dose encases him in yet another cocoon, but the series fades to black before he is reborn again. The season ends on Jordan, Antonio and Jeremy watching him emerge, and Uppendahl says he wanted to make sure he captured a reaction for anything that might spring from that chrysalis, even a few unlikely scenarios.
“When we were shooting the scene, I would be walking them through it and I told the actors that he comes out and he appears as different people to get their reactions,” Uppendahl says. “At one point, I told him it was Shaquille O’Neal. I don’t think that’s probably the case, but you never know!”
Share on PinterestWhen 36-year-old Gabby Zappia (pictured above) reported blood in her stool, her doctor attributed it to pregnancy-related hemorrhoids. Months later, a colonoscopy revealed she had stage IV colon cancer. Gabby Zappia
Colorectal cancer in people under 50 is on the rise and is now the leading cause of cancer-related death for younger adults.
Experts say it’s still unclear why cases are rising among people under 50.
Gabby Zappia is sharing her journey navigating diagnosis and treatment after her initial symptoms were misdiagnosed as pregnancy-related.
In 2024, Gabby Zappia was 36 years old and pregnant with her third child when she noticed blood in her stool.
“I brought it up to my OB, and she said it was likely pregnancy-related hemorrhoids. That explanation made sense, and I wanted it to make sense, so I trusted it,” she told Healthline.
After her son was born, her symptoms persisted, and she pushed for answers.
“A colonoscopy changed my life overnight. Instead of finding hemorrhoids, they found a large mass in my colon,” Zappia said.
In December 2024, Zappia was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer that had spread to her liver.
“I was a full-time mom, managing all aspects of my kids’ schedules, and I also had a small part-time job,” she said. “After my diagnosis, I had to stop working to focus on appointments and recovery. My husband took over most of the day-to-day tasks that I had handled, and I had to step back significantly in my role as a mom.”
Zappia immediately had a colon resection and, after recovering, started chemotherapy and immunotherapy in January 2025 at City of Hope.
In April 2025, she took a break from chemotherapy and underwent liver resection surgery and implantation of an HAI pump. Then she resumed chemotherapy after recovery.
“After 15 rounds of chemotherapy, I was declared no evidence of disease and rang the survivor bell in September 2025. A few months later, ctDNA tests showed cancer detection, and a PET scan confirmed activity in my liver,” said Zappia.
She underwent another liver surgery in January 2026. Because her ctDNA remains detectable, she is now exploring clinical trials.
“Colon cancer is no longer just a disease of older adults, and it is on the rise. You know your body better than anyone. If something feels off, ask questions and request additional testing. Push for answers. Ask for the colonoscopy,” Zappia said.
If you’re not being heard, she stressed seeking a second opinion.
“We need more awareness. We need to listen to young patients. I am just one of many young faces of colon cancer, and if sharing my story helps even one person catch their cancer earlier, then sharing this journey has purpose,” said Zappia.
Once considered an older person’s disease, colorectal cancer is now the leading cause of cancer-related death in adults under 50.
According to a January 2026 JAMA study, colorectal cancer has surpassed breast and lung cancer to become the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in U.S. adults under 50.
Physicians at City of Hope, where Zappia received treatment, say they are now treating dozens of patients in their 20s, 30s, and 40s each week, reflecting what’s happening nationwide.
Pashtoon Kasi, MD, MS, Medical Director of GI Medical Oncology at City of Hope Orange County, who treated Gabby, said three out of four people under the age of 50 are diagnosed with advanced disease.
“There are no screening guidelines for somebody below the age of 45. It’s important to reiterate that the age of screening has moved from 50 to 45, [but] we’re frequently seeing individuals in their 20s, 30s, 40s, and because there is no screening test when they’re diagnosed, they’re often advanced or metastatic,” Kasi said.
While genetics can be a factor in a small percentage of early onset colorectal cancer, Kasi said the rise of colorectal cancer in younger people often occurs in people without any risk factors.
Researchers are looking into possible contributing factors, such as antibiotic use, the microbiome, diet, and microplastics, but no single factor explains the rise.
Paying attention to your body and symptoms is the strongest defense right now, said Kasi.
“A lot of our individuals, of course, they are young, so we’ve seen this cancer being diagnosed during or after pregnancy, and often it gets labeled as hemorrhoids or something that is not concerning, but in hindsight, probably should have warranted attention earlier,” he said.
Symptoms like rectal bleeding — which researchers say is a strong indication of early onset colorectal cancer in adults under 50 — changes in bowel habits, unexplained pain, and unintentional weight loss should be taken seriously.
“[The] fact that, at least right now, we don’t have guideline-approved screening tests for these younger individuals, these are symptoms that do warrant more attention,” Kasi said.
According to City of Hope doctors, researchers are working on ways to improve treatments, including an emphasis on improving immunotherapy response, targeted therapies, and conducting clinical trials for rectal cancer that combine chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and radiosensitizers.
Exploration of cellular and CAR-T therapies in highly refractory cases is also underway.
Ajay Goel, PhD, professor and Chair of the Department of Molecular Diagnostics and Experimental Therapeutics at City of Hope, is working on blood-based tests to detect colorectal cancer in younger patients.
“Over the past decade or so, [we] have developed now a blood-based test, which can find evidence of early onset colon cancers, with fairly high accuracy. So, somewhere in 90% accurate test for finding patients with young-onset colon cancer. So that was quite exciting,” he said.
While the test is not available publicly yet, Goel said it is promising. He envisions the test being given as part of annual labs drawn by primary care doctors starting with patients as young as 18.
“We are continuing to work on this, and we are hoping that we can, at some point, bring this test to the clinic once we can validate it in larger patient populations,” he said.
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