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US Government Moves $103 Million in Seized Bitcoin and BNB, But Hasn’t Said Why
In brief

Wallets Arkham labels as belonging to the U.S. government moved about $103.2 million on Tuesday.

Arkham ties the Bitcoin to forfeited HashFlare fraud funds and Bitfinex hack seizures, and the BNB to seized Alameda Research funds.

No sale has been announced. Arkham research puts U.S. holdings at about 325,000 BTC, ahead of the U.K. at 61,245 BTC and El Salvador at 7,200 BTC.
Cryptocurrency wallets controlled by the U.S. government moved more than $100 million in Bitcoin and BNB on Tuesday, according to data from blockchain analytics firm Arkham.

Some of it landed at Coinbase Prime, which market observers typically interpret as being deposited for sale. But the reason for the move, or if any sale is planned, is currently not confirmed.

Myriad: How high will Bitcoin go? Click to make your prediction.

The Bitcoin part of the stash amounted to 833.6 BTC, worth about $71.6 million. It hopped through two unlabeled addresses before reaching deposit addresses Arkham tags as Coinbase Prime, the service Coinbase runs to trade and store crypto for big institutions.

Arkham ties about 568.7 BTC of that to forfeited funds from Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turõgin. “Forfeited” means a court has signed off on the government keeping assets tied to a crime. The two Estonians ran HashFlare, a crypto-mining service that sold mining contracts without the computing power to back them.

Bitcoin transfers from government wallets. Image: Arkham

Prosecutors say HashFlare took in more than $577 million in sales between 2015 and 2019. A federal court sentenced both men in August 2025 to the 16 months they had already served. The Justice Department said forfeited assets would be available to repay victims.

The other 264.9 BTC came from the Bitfinex hack. In 2016, hacker Ilya Lichtenstein stole 119,754 BTC from the exchange. In January 2025, the Justice Department argued that 94,643 BTC should go back to Bitfinex. The government kept moving funds from that wallet throughout the day until it was fully drained.

The rest of that $103 million in crypto was BNB, the token of the Binance exchange. The government moved 40,285 BNB, worth $31.63 million, to an unlabeled address, which later passed the full amount to another one. Arkham traces the coins to funds seized from Alameda Research, the trading firm tied to the collapsed FTX exchange.

A transfer, though, is not a sale. Coinbase Prime also acts as the government’s custodian—basically a vault service—so a deposit can mean storage, as in a similar $288 million move in July. Only the government knows which one this is, and it hasn’t said.

BitcoinBTC · USD

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The U.S. government has sold plenty of seized Bitcoin before, but it’s been a while. When it sent 19,800 BTC from the Silk Road haul to Coinbase in December 2024, worth about $1.92 billion, Bitcoin slid more than 2% within 24 hours. Silk Road was an online black market the government shut down.

Bitcoin’s price runs on supply and demand, and a government unloading a big pile at once can push it down for every holder. That is why traders watch these wallets.

But when it comes to crypto sales at the moment, the government’s hands are partly tied. A March 2025 executive order created a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, a stash of forfeited Bitcoin that “shall not be sold.” Bitcoin counts only once it is finally forfeited, so coins tied to open criminal cases sit outside it.

BNB isn’t Bitcoin, so it falls under a separate Digital Asset Stockpile. Treasury can release those assets only for things like repaying crime victims, law enforcement operations, or legal requirements. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said forfeited Bitcoin is the foundation of the reserve.

Tuesday’s coins are a sliver of the government’s total pile. Arkham’s September research puts U.S. government holdings at about 325,000 BTC, worth roughly $27 billion, or about 1.6% of Bitcoin’s supply. That makes Washington the largest government holder in Arkham’s ranking, ahead of the U.K. at 61,245 BTC and El Salvador at 7,200 BTC.

Almost all of the U.K.’s stash came from a fraud that hit more than 120,000 Chinese pensioners, while El Salvador got its Bitcoin through direct purchases and mining.

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October 8, 2026
Disney Cruise Ship Believe to Debut ‘Encanto’ Musical, ‘Frozen’ Family Feast and More

Disney has unveiled its latest cruise ship, Believe. The ship will embark on its maiden voyage on Dec. 18, 2027 from its homeport of Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Among the brand-new experiences is the first stage adaptation of “Disney Encanto,” which will premiere on board and is being developed exclusively for the Disney Believe.

“Oaken’s Table: A Frozen Family Feast,” a brand-new, untold chapter in the “Frozen” story featuring Oaken, Anna and Kristoff, will also be unveiled. Set in a courtyard deep within the forest, Oaken and his family will invite guests to dine together while enjoying the musical stylings of his cousins.

Guests can also experience The Grand Hall, a living theater where characters from across the Disney universe take center stage, designed to evoke the vibrant world where the sky meets the sea from Disney Animation’s “Moana” films.

Among the other entertainment experiences based on Disney IP, the Wishing Well is a gathering space themed to the iconic settings and locales featured in the Disney animated classic “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” Gazelle will be a “Zootopia”-inspired entertainment hub offering a variety of live shows designed for families to laugh, sing and compete together (plus adult-exclusive options at night). Inside Out: Joyful Sweets offers confectionery inspired by the Pixar series’ expanded cast of emotions from “Inside Out 2.” And there will be new cafes themed to “Big Hero 6″ and “Moana.”

Disney Believe joins its sister ships Disney Wish, Disney Treasure and Disney Destiny. It is part of the growth plan for Disney Cruise Line which will see the fleet expand to 13 ships in late 2030.

October 8, 2026
Questlove Reflects on the Power of Vulnerability and Being a Trailblazer: ‘I Gotta Be the Change I Want to Be’

More than 30 years into his career, Questlove is still open to change.

The Roots frontman and multi-hyphenate has performed in Jimmy Fallon’s in-house band for over a decade, was a producer on the “Hamilton” cast album, is an adjunct professor at NYU, hosts a podcast and has written eight books.

Since 2020, Questlove has also directed four documentaries. It was that endeavor that he was initially most opposed to: “I had to do a lot of work to realize that — I know it’s cliché — I gotta be the change I want to be.”

Questlove sat down with Variety‘s Jem Aswad to discuss embracing vulnerability and being a changemaker at the Variety Experience and Culture Summit: The IRL Advantage presented by OUTFRONT.

Questlove said he would have called Prince his North Star when he first entered the industry. Now, with the “residue” of his Earth, Wind & Fire documentary still lingering, he said he feels like a new artist. “I’m still learning what the Questlove brand is,” he said. “I joke that this is Questlove 3.0 happening right now.”

“Earth, Wind & Fire (To Be Celestial vs That’s the Weight of the World)” was released in June. Directed and produced by Questlove, the documentary explores the band’s career and that of its founder, Maurice White. While creating the documentary, he read many of the books White read during the band’s genesis, which inspired his current approach to creativity.

Questlove recalled the “too cool for school” attitude he saw in artists like Miles Davis and his own mindset on his records as protecting vulnerability. “We see it in our politics. We see it in our creativity,” he said. “We’re going to implode as a world if we don’t learn what emotions are and how we can use our vulnerability.”

Questlove’s first documentary project, “Summer of Soul (…or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised),” about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, came out in 2021. “You can’t discount the timing of everything,” he said of the film’s arrival after the initial lockdown and protests following the murder of George Floyd. He said people saw the film because they were curious, but “they didn’t realize how important it was to celebrate joy.”

His next project, “Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius),” focused more on the tendency he noticed in Black creatives to self-sabotage after becoming successful. Then came the Earth, Wind & Fire documentary, which he made because he “wanted to make a film that lets us focus on our dreams.”

Still, Questlove didn’t think he was the right person for the job of documentarian prior to “Summer of Soul.” “I didn’t know I was a storyteller,” he said. “I’m out there like, ‘Well, search for a real storyteller,’ and they’re like, ‘Dude, you’re that storyteller.’ Once I realized it, it became a passion.” He described himself as someone who will use history to attract audiences, but will put things in his films to make the audience reckon with their present.

While he has ventured into filmmaking, Questlove has not left music behind. The Roots Picnic held its 18th iteration this May, headlined by Jay-Z. The festival has grown, but “we’re not just rubber-stamping,” he said. “We are curating the festival. We’re playing with some of the acts, and people really feel like a community.”

On “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” The Roots serve as — among other things — the live walk-up music for guests. Some celebrities send requests for their entrance song, but Questlove said, “the magic of the show is what I choose your walk-on song.”

The best thing about “The Tonight Show,” Questlove said, is that it allows the band members to be present with their families. “The Beatles broke up after seven years, and we’re going on year 35 and we’re still like the best of friends,” he said. “We’re still as silly as we were in high school, and still fun. If you’re not friends with your partners, then all this is for naught.”

October 8, 2026
Ottawa to indefinitely extend MAID exclusion for people solely suffering from mental illness

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The federal government will introduce legislation this fall that will indefinitely extend the ban on access to a medically assisted death for people who are solely suffering from mental illness, Justice Minister Sean Fraser said on Wednesday.

“Canada has made a decision not to move forward with the expansion that is scheduled in the Criminal Code of medical assistance in dying in circumstances where mental illness is the sole basis,” he said in the foyer of the House of Commons.

Fraser said the government’s decision reflects the position expressed by a special parliamentary committee report released in June along with his own department’s probing of the issue.

“While there is not a perfect consensus on this issue, we believe this is the correct approach at this particular time,” he said.

WATCH | Justice minister on forthcoming MAID changes:

Ottawa ‘landed in the right place’ with changes to MAID: justice minister

Minister of Justice Sean Fraser says his perspective on the new legislation on medical assistance in dying (MAID) that will be tabled this fall comes from the experiences and conversations he’s had with people he knows. ‘These are not easy conversations, but my experience is not unique,’ he says, adding that he understands the reticence some people may have about the legislation.

Fraser said the promised legislation will also “open the door” for people to give advance consent for their own medically assisted death in circumstances where the illness they are suffering from will eventually eliminate their capacity to make that decision.

The minister explained that while the details of advance consent will be worked out in House of Commons committees, it will require a person’s illness to be incurable and result in intolerable suffering.

2 key reasons for MAID exclusion

Fraser said there are two significant points motivating his government to indefinitely extend the current prohibition on receiving MAID for people who only have a mental illness.

He said there are “very real concerns about people who live in communities with inadequate access to mental health services.”

The second reason was the lack of consensus over when a mental illness is incurable, along with other issues raised in the June report.

WATCH | Review urges indefinite exclusion for mental illness:

MAID should ‘indefinitely exclude’ people with mental illness, review urges

A newly tabled parliamentary report urges the Canadian government to amend the criminal code to indefinitely exclude people whose sole underlying condition is mental illness from Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID). The decision now lies with Justice Minister Sean Fraser.

The government passed MAID legislation in 2016. But the Superior Court of Quebec struck the law down in 2019 because it was limited to those whose deaths were “reasonably foreseeable.”

Bill C-7, which passed Parliament in March 2021, removed that requirement, in line with the court’s ruling. The legislation also temporarily pushed back the expansion of MAID to cases involving only mental illness to March 2023.

That was further delayed to 2024 and again to March 2027.

Fraser says Conservative bill isn’t enough

Fraser said that he was announcing the legislation before it was ready, in part, to explain why his government will not be voting for a Conservative private member’s bill, C-218, which is up for a vote in the House later in the day.

Fraser thanked Conservative MP Tamara Jansen for introducing the bill but said it fell short in two areas. The first area was the bill’s use of the term “mental disorders,” which the minister said could be interpreted to include neurologically degenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s.

Under existing MAID legislation, people with neurologically degenerative diseases can recieve a medically assisted death.

He also pointed to the fact that C-218 does not address advance consent.

“This second issue is extremely important to communities of people who’ve been diagnosed with very, very serious illnesses [that] may cause them to lose capacity subsequently,” he said.

Accusations of political games

After Fraser’s announcement, Jansen accused the minister of playing games “hours before” the House of Commons was set to vote on her bill.

“We have no idea what his bill’s going to say. He’s telling us all sorts of things, he hasn’t even seen the bill himself,” she said. “I find it incredibly negligent. He had the entire summer to put this together.”

Jansen asked Liberal MPs to consider voting for her bill regardless, “because people’s lives are at risk, very vulnerable Canadians,” and said Fraser was attempting to sink C-218 based on a promised “phantom bill.”

She said the Conservatives have been clear that they are open to changing the bill’s wording in order to get it passed.

Jansen’s bill was defeated 187 to 141 on Wednesday afternoon, with the Conservatives, NDP and the Green Party’s Elizabeth May voting for the bill and Bloc Québécois and most Liberals voting against.

Two Liberal MPs — Marilyn Gladu, who left the Conservatives earlier this year, and Kent MacDonald — voted in favour.

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October 8, 2026
Should kids living with obesity be on GLP-1s? New global guidance says yes — in some cases

The first-ever international guidelines on managing childhood obesity from the World Health Organization (WHO) are raising the profile of GLP-1 treatments for kids and teens — but with strict criteria and a high degree of caution.

The new global guidance, released on Wednesday, recommends a broad range of interventions to manage diet, boost physical activity and change behaviours for the rising number of global youth living with obesity. And in certain cases, for some older children and teenagers, that could also mean medication or bariatric surgery.

The WHO doesn’t recommend medical treatment, surgery or weight-loss devices for children up to the age of nine, the organization notes.

For older youth from the age of 10 to 19, medical treatments may be considered only when a supervised lifestyle program hasn’t achieved results, the guidance states, while bariatric surgery should only be an option under strict conditions for youth living with severe obesity.

“The foundation of obesity care for children and adolescents is not medicine or surgery, but access to comprehensive support that enables healthy eating, physical activity and sustainable behaviour change,” said Dr. Luz María De Regil, the WHO’s director of the department of nutrition and food safety.

WATCH | Cheaper GLP-1 drugs arrive in Canada:

Cheaper GLP-1s arrive in Canada: Are they safe?

A generic version of semaglutide, more commonly known by the brand name Ozempic, is now available in Canada as patent protections expire. For The National, CBC’s Christine Birak breaks down the key details about the drug’s safety, production and cost. [CORRECTION (June 4, 2026): The world map at 1:38 in this story shows a demarcation between Morocco and Western Sahara. In fact, the boundaries between the two are disputed.]

London, Ont.-based pediatric endocrinologist Dr. Marina Ybarra welcomed the organization’s cautious acknowledgement of medications as one avenue to tackle obesity.

Here in Canada, two GLP-1s are approved for weight management for youth aged 12 and up, but young patients typically have to pay for the drugs through their parents’ insurance or out of pocket, said Ybarra, who works with Western University and leads the London Health Sciences Centre Children’s Hospital pediatric weight management clinic.

“The news about WHO encouraging GLP-1 as a possible treatment for children living with obesity — I think it’s very good news,” she said.

“Because maybe that will help us to get funding through the public system in Canada for children living with obesity. That’s my biggest hope.”

170 million youth living with obesity

The WHO’s new guidance is meant to tackle skyrocketing rates of obesity among global youth.

Roughly 170 million children and teens around the world between the ages of five to 19 were living with obesity in 2024, the WHO noted. Obesity prevalence in this age group has also quadrupled since 1990, rising from two to eight per cent.

The global recommendations echo recent Canadian guidance to manage obesity in children. That long-awaited 2025 update also called for behavioural and psychological support and, in some cases, additional medical or surgical interventions.

But Canadian physicians recommend only using GLP-1s to manage obesity in children after the age of 12, two years above the WHO’s cutoff due, and don’t stipulate that medical intervention should only be tried after lifestyle changes.

“There is no evidence to support a stepwise approach whereby pharmacologic and surgical interventions should be offered only if behavioural and psychological interventions prove ineffective,” reads the guidance published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

“Using shared decision-making with families, health care providers should consider all intervention options.”

The WHO, in contrast, focused on the “practicality and universality” of diet, physical activity and behavioural changes as the pillars of obesity management, and it stressed the need for “structured long-term follow-up” in cases where patients use medication alongside other lifestyle interventions.

WATCH | Weight comes back quickly after stopping GLP-1s, study shows:

Weight comes back quickly after quitting GLP-1 drugs: study

People who abandon popular GLP-1 weight loss medications like Ozempic put weight back on quickly, researchers say. A new report found people who quit programs regained just under one pound per month, and were projected to return to their original weight within nearly two years.

Caution around GLP-1 use among children

GLP-1s and other similar medications — known by household brand names like Ozempic, Mounjaro, Rybelsus, Wegovy and Zepbound — have exploded in popularity among adults to treat obesity and diabetes, and for general weight loss, even without a clear medical need.

The drugs work by mimicking the body’s glucagon-like peptide-1 hormone, which helps manage appetite, slow digestion and regulate blood sugar.

Ybarra stressed the medications are now an effective tool for many young patients with obesity, helping to both reduce weight and improve quality of life.

While some children and teens face similar side effects to older patients, including nausea and other gastrointestinal issues, “we didn’t see many of the severe complications that were seen in the adult population,” Ybarra noted.

Younger and younger patients are also trying this growing class of drugs.

One U.S. study, published in the medical journal Pediatrics in September, revealed a 310-fold increase in GLP-1 prescriptions for children ages eight to 11, shooting up from 0.03 per cent to more than nine per cent between 2019 and 2026 — though overall use in this younger group remains rare.

Still, the WHO stressed the need for caution regarding GLP-1 use among children and teens, given limited research and the potential for misuse among certain groups, such as athletes or patients with eating disorders.

The WHO’s new guidelines note that overall evidence linked to various medication treatments for childhood obesity, including GLP-1s and other drugs such as metformin or sibutramine, was “generally of low quality due to short term follow-up and evaluation, and [due to] the small numbers of studies and participants.”

Ybarra agreed there’s a lack of long-term data for the use of GLP-1s among youth, given how new these drugs are for younger patients.

“The data we have though, it’s very reassuring and helpful — in terms of there’s more benefits than risks.”

WATCH | GLP-1s and cancer prevention:

GLP-1s and cancer prevention: What’s known and what isn’t

Early studies suggest GLP-1s, such as Ozempic, could help reduce the risk of some cancers, but scientists say there are still more questions than answers and more long-term studies are needed to really understand the potential.

Drug trials underway for younger kids

As for the line in the sand regarding children under 10 avoiding GLP-1s, the WHO’s María De Regil stressed in a Tuesday news conference that the agency “recommends prioritizing other interventions in this age group.”

“However, it is clear that the research is going in this area,” she said. “Some national pediatric associations may recommend it.”

Denmark’s Novo Nordisk and U.S.-based Eli Lilly are among the drug makers currently trialling pediatric obesity medications for kids as young as six, though María De Regil wouldn’t speculate on how any of those ongoing trials might change the WHO’s recommendations.

Major questions still remain about how children should safely use these types of drugs, and for how long, stressed María De Regil.

“We realize that this is a rapidly evolving field,” she said.

October 8, 2026
Coco Gauff says online racist abuse was ‘draining’ after China Open exit

Coco Gauff admits the racism she suffered during the China Open exhausted her after the US tennis star missed out on the quarterfinals.

Published On 7 Oct 2026

Coco Gauff says online racist abuse has left her feeling exhausted as she lost to Elise Mertens in the China Open.

The world number four, a Black American, turned in an uncharacteristically listless performance in Beijing on Wednesday, double-faulting eight times as she went down 6-3, 6-3 to her Belgian opponent.

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Gauff, 22, was playing a day after she called out the “insane” amount of abuse she had received on the internet following her win over Chinese teenager Sun Xinran in the previous round.

“It has been kind of draining. I’m not going to lie,” Gauff said of the impact of the online comments.

“But I just turn off my phone and move on. There’s nothing you can do.”

Asked about the match, she said: “I think I just didn’t play well. I think I wasn’t moving well.

“There were a lot of things I didn’t do well. I thought Elise played well on the bigger points.”

During her previous match in Beijing, against Sun, Gauff requested a video review over flickering LED lights on the stadium’s advertising hoardings.

The move prompted some boos from the crowd. The umpire agreed to have the point replayed, and Gauff went on to win 7-5, 6-1.

Early on Tuesday, Gauff wrote on X: “Hey everyone, you can dislike me or disagree about what happened without being racist.”

She was responding to a post that contained a racial slur.

“The amount of racist comments and messages I’ve received in the last few hours is insane,” she wrote.

Belgian Elise Mertens, right, shakes hands with American Coco Gauff after their singles match [Pedro Pardo/AFP]

Gauff also clarified that she challenged the point before Sun had returned the ball, when she noticed the lights flicker for a second time.

Asked about the incident, a spokesperson for the Women’s Tennis Association, the global governing body, said it was “appalled by the racial abuse directed at Coco Gauff” and that it was “in contact with her to offer our full support”.

It added in a statement to the AFP news agency that there was “no place for racism, discrimination, or abuse in tennis”, and that it was “seeking action” against the abusive content.

Gauff, who won the Beijing title in 2024 and made the semifinals last year, was popular among fans during the tournament.

A group of supporters in the largely empty stadium tried to encourage her into a comeback on Wednesday.

Mertens was undeterred as she punched her ticket for a quarterfinal clash against Iga Swiatek.

The world number 19 called Gauff an “incredible player”, adding: “I knew it was going to be a very tough match.”

She dedicated her win to her coach, who is also her boyfriend.

Earlier, Swiatek swept aside American teenager Iva Jovic 6-1, 6-3 in one hour and 35 minutes.

“I had it under control from the beginning,” said the Polish world number nine. “I feel like I’m improving every day.”

China’s Zheng Qinwen is due to face 118th-ranked Alina Charaeva later on Wednesday.

Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, the sixth seed, will play American Ann Li.

October 8, 2026
With RTX Spark and ‘Builder PCs,’ Microsoft and Nvidia Usher Personal Computing Into Its Agentic Era

The Microsoft Surface event of Oct. 7 was, indeed, a rare spotting: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang sharing the stage to unveil a joint vision for personal computing. Seeing the leaders of Microsoft and Nvidia together in one keynote is a singular event in itself, but what followed was even more notable: a commitment to tight co-engineering across hardware and software, spanning multiple brands and manufacturers, of a kind the PC industry hasn’t seen in years.

This event wasn’t just about a single laptop or an incremental operating system update. (That said, we did get info on the Oct. 16 availability, and pricing, of the first RTX Spark PCs.) It was a dual showcase split across two deeply intertwined pillars: Nvidia’s new RTX Spark hardware platform, and Microsoft’s re-engineered Windows features built for local AI models and autonomous agentic tools.

Windows, Surface and Nvidia Event Highlights: Everything Announced in 16 Minutes

The two go hand in hand. While Nvidia’s silicon provides the raw compute and unified memory needed to run heavy AI models on-device, Microsoft is providing the OS-level sandboxing, identity attribution, and security required to make those tools safe and manageable. Together, they are setting the stage for a long-term shift toward a future where personal computing and personal AI agents are inseparable.

30 Years in the Making: The Origins of Surface Laptop Ultra and RTX Spark

During the keynote, Nadella and Huang sat down to discuss the history of PCs and how it led us to this moment—tracing a direct line from Windows 3.1 influencing the creation of Nvidia in the early 1990s, to Nvidia developing DirectX 8 programmable shaders with Microsoft, to CUDA, and ultimately setting the stage for today’s AI revolution.

(Credit: Brian Westover)

That historical context is important because, as Huang noted, this is the start of a new era of computing. That might sound like marketing fluff, but he is genuinely right.

AI tools empower users to do things that previously required entire teams and sophisticated software suites. Now, a single local model can accomplish vastly more, and specialized tools can be stitched together in platforms like ComfyUI to build complex workflows that handle heavy multitasking automatically.

While AI agents haven’t hit the mainstream yet—remaining mostly confined to enthusiasts and developers—this event marks an important step toward bringing those capabilities to the broader market.

NPUs vs. GPUs vs. RTX Spark: The Three Tiers of AI Hardware Defined

To understand where RTX Spark fits, it helps to draw a sharp distinction between what we’ve been calling a standard “AI PC” with an NPU and the heavy-duty hardware being introduced today. The market is effectively splitting into three distinct hardware tiers:

Consumer AI PCs: Designed around PCs with 40-to-50-TOPS NPUs and 16GB to 32GB of system RAM. These provide just enough muscle for lightweight tasks—summarization, noise cancellation, webcam framing, and basic app-level content generation. However, the main system memory ceiling on these PCs imposes a hard limit on the size of models they can execute.

Traditional Workstations and Gaming Laptops: These bring dedicated GPUs into the mix, leveraging parallel-processing horsepower to crunch heavier AI workloads. However, they remain constrained by dedicated VRAM pools (typically 12GB to 24GB, or occasionally 32GB on ultra-high-end mobile GPUs), limiting how large a model or context window can be loaded directly onto the card.

(Credit: Brian Westover)

Big-Memory Local AI Systems (“Builder PCs”): A growing tier consisting of workstation dev boxes, Apple M-series Macs, and now RTX Spark PCs. By using large, high-bandwidth pools of unified memory (up to 128GB on the Surface Laptop Ultra, and some other RTX Spark models), these machines bypass traditional VRAM bottlenecks. This unified memory allows multi-billion-parameter models and massive context windows to run locally, eliminating the need to send data to a cloud data center.

Apple built an early lead in this third category by centering its Mac lineup around unified-memory-backed SoCs before the generative AI boom arrived, finding widespread adoption among developers eager to run local LLMs and coding agents. But RTX Spark brings that exact unified-memory capability into a mobile Windows form factor. It scales down server-grade architecture just enough to fit a portable laptop chassis at price points developers and enthusiasts can swallow. That’s a big deal today, to be sure. But it also serves as a vision of the future—one in which these capabilities trickle down to more typical consumer systems.

RTX Spark ‘Builder PCs’: Curing Token Burn With Unified Memory

Over a year and a half ago, after Nvidia first announced the DGX Spark developer desktop, I wrote:

“Using AI may be a rarified niche now, but it won’t stay that way. Today’s cutting edge becomes tomorrow’s baseline, and as powerful AI works its way into more devices and apps, the hardware that drives it all will go from niche to mainstream.”

Get ready for that prediction to come true. RTX Spark—Nvidia’s Windows-friendly silicon that combines the company’s “Blackwell” GPU architecture with high-performance CPU cores—is bringing server-class AI power to a new class of laptops. In my own writing, I previously dubbed this concept the “personal supercomputer,” but Microsoft is settling on a slightly less hyperbolic name: the “Builder PC.”

(Credit: Brian Westover)

Where traditional workstation laptops are built around raw graphics power and ISV-certified software compatibility, this new breed of system is engineered specifically for AI and the large, shared pools of unified memory needed to run local models. Microsoft outlined these as “high-performance PCs that bring local and cloud together.”

That is the crux of today’s announcement: a new tier of compute that allows local AI models to run entirely on-device, alleviating the “token anxiety” felt by companies getting walloped by out-of-control API bills.

Agents in particular burn dramatically more tokens than a simple back-and-forth chatbot conversation. A single task can require multiple reasoning steps, tool calls, and self-reflection loops as the model plans, executes, and checks its progress against parameters. Companies going all-in on agentic frameworks like OpenClaw have seen token usage explode—a concerning trend when you or your company is bound to a per-token pricing model.

The RTX Spark hardware launch aims to address this directly. With up to 128GB of unified memory and 1 petaflop of compute, these machines promise the ability to run local LLMs, chatbots, and image generation entirely on-device. While local performance might not quite match top-tier cloud models from OpenAI or Anthropic yet, it’s workable. Indeed, when an agent can run in the background or overnight at zero marginal cost, speed and parameter count take a back seat to token burn.

Windows 11 and Surface Laptop Ultra: Keeping Autonomous AI Agents on a Leash

Then there’s the question of trust and accessibility. As headlines warn of agents deleting codebases, making unauthorized purchases, or falling victim to prompt injections, user concern over unsupervised AI is valid. Microsoft is addressing these risks directly with new OS-level features built around containment, transparency, and attribution.

First among these is containment, as Microsoft adds built-in sandboxing specifically to keep agents on the leash, away from data and systems that need to be safeguarded. Coming to Windows 11, Microsoft Execution Containers (MXC) provide lightweight, runtime sandboxing that gives developers control over which local directories, network endpoints, or tools an agent can access. Windows will enforce these boundaries at the OS level.

(Credit: Brian Westover)

Next is OS-level agent attribution. As humans use agents to carry out specific tasks, it gets pretty blurry who is responsible for what if an operation goes off the rails. After all, an agent running on someone’s laptop looks a whole lot like a human user, even when things start to go wrong, whether due to user error, AI hallucinations, or a malicious prompt injection by a third party. To help parse these events in the future, Microsoft is creating separate human and agent identities, which makes it possible to isolate, restrict, or block an agent without blocking the human user or disrupting their work.

Beyond security, what users are waiting for is the “killer app” that brings agents into the mainstream. Frameworks like OpenClaw created the template, but setting them up remains complex—the average PC user doesn’t know a GitHub distribution from a Markdown file.

To bridge that gap, Microsoft introduced a new streamlined agent-onboarding experience in Windows, offering one-click setups and simplified management right out of the box. As these tools evolve, background execution and agent management will become as simple to toggle as any standard desktop application.

Can RTX Spark Power Big AI Workloads Without Tanking Battery Life?

The first wave of PCs that promise to power this revolution is, collectively, the RTX Spark platform, powered by Nvidia’s new N1X SoC and coming from all the usual OEM suspects, including Asus, Dell, HP, and Lenovo. The machine in the vanguard is the Surface Laptop Ultra, Microsoft’s flagship Spark laptop, first shown at Computex 2026. (See our initial hands-on.)

One of the boldest claims made for the Surface Laptop Ultra is that it can maintain more than 99% of its total performance while running on battery power. That is an audacious statement for a portable PC built to run heavy local AI models and continuous background agents.

Local AI execution is notoriously power-hungry. Achieving unthrottled output off the plug requires a delicate balance of silicon efficiency, aggressive thermal management, and smart fan design. (Indeed, Microsoft claims a 2.5x increase in thermal capacity for the Laptop Ultra chassis; our hands-on time illustrated a bit about the cooling scheme.) How that translates to real-world battery drain, fan noise, and surface temperatures under sustained agentic workloads remains to be seen—and it’s something we will be testing thoroughly in PC Labs once review units land.

Sparked: The Next Paradigm Shift in Personal Computing

All of this—the RTX Spark hardware, the Windows AI enhancements, and the increased control and visibility for agents—signals a fundamental shift in personal computing that I’ve been tracking for years. Once AI models and autonomous agents become accessible to non-technical users on everyday hardware, personal computing will look vastly different.

Much like the smartphone enabled app stores to flourish, and how high-speed mobile data created entirely new product categories (such as streaming and podcasts), agentic AI will shift how we interact with technology: evolving from a tool we use to do things, into a tool that acts on our behalf.

We are still in the early stages of that transition, but things are moving very fast. A primary reason Microsoft and Nvidia are pushing these tools so aggressively is to seed the developer ecosystem for what comes next. Armed with local agentic hardware, developers will build intuitive, task-focused tools with simpler implementations for everyday users. The systems sold today as “Builder PCs” for developers and creators are paving the way for increasingly accessible consumer devices—setting off hardware upgrade cycles for years to come.

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October 8, 2026
Billie Eilish debuts strawberry blonde hair in major makeover

Billie Eilish is entering a lighter era, and her latest hair transformation might be one of her most surprising yet. The 24-year-old singer returned to Instagram on Oct. 5 after roughly two months away from the platform and revealed a dramatic new look, featuring shoulder-length strawberry blonde hair.

Eilish showed off the transformation in a casual mirror selfie tucked into a photo dump, trading the long, dark hair fans have recently associated with her for a much warmer, brighter shade.

© Billie Eilish
Billie Eilish debuts strawberry blonde hair in major makeover

Her new hair falls around her shoulders in a layered bob, complete with a deep side part and tousled texture. Depending on the light, the shade lands somewhere between strawberry blonde, copper, and golden orange, making it an especially fitting color for fall.

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And in classic Billie fashion, she didn’t make a dramatic announcement about the makeover. Her caption consisted of one simple word: “hi.”

Billie Eilish’s Strawberry Blonde Hair Is Her Lightest Look in Years

The Billie Eilish strawberry blonde hair transformation stands out because the Grammy winner has spent much of the past several years embracing significantly darker shades.

In the new selfie, Eilish wears her strawberry blonde bob with choppy layers and a side part. She keeps the rest of her outfit relaxed, pairing the new hairstyle with a navy knit top, khaki pants, white socks, and black shoes. The understated styling puts most of the attention on her noticeably lighter hair.

The transformation also didn’t happen completely overnight.

© FilmMagic
Billie Eilish arrives at the Los Angeles Premiere Of Paramount Pictures’ “Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard And Soft – The Tour Live In 3D”

In May 2026, Eilish was photographed leaving a Los Angeles-area salon with noticeably warmer hair. Vogue described the color at the time as falling somewhere between cherry cola and deep bronde, marking a clear departure from the glossy brown-black shade she had been wearing.

By October, that progression had reached a much lighter strawberry blonde.

Fans React to Billie Eilish’s New Hair Color

Eilish’s return to Instagram quickly attracted attention, with fans focusing heavily on her new hairstyle. Some followers said they barely recognized her with the lighter color, while others pointed out that the strawberry blonde shade makes her resemblance to her older brother and longtime collaborator Finneas O’Connell particularly noticeable. Paramore singer Hayley Williams also joined the reaction to the transformation, commenting on Eilish’s move toward a more natural-looking shade.

That resemblance makes sense in the context of Eilish’s natural hair. The singer’s natural color is blonde, although years of bold dye jobs have made darker and more experimental colors an important part of her public image.

Billie Eilish Has a Long History of Dramatic Hair Transformations

For longtime fans, another Billie Eilish hair transformation isn’t exactly unexpected.

© Bruce Glikas/WireImage

© FilmMagic

© Getty Images

© FilmMagic

Hair has been a major part of the singer’s visual identity throughout her career. She has experimented with silver-white, vivid blue, lavender, jet black, and the instantly recognizable black-and-neon-green combination that became synonymous with her early superstar era.

Then came one of her biggest transformations.

In 2021, Eilish ditched her dark hair and neon roots for platinum blonde as she entered her Happier Than Ever era. The transformation represented a major aesthetic shift and coincided with a noticeably different approach to fashion and beauty.

© Getty Images for The Recording A
Billie Eilish debuts strawberry blonde hair in a major makeover

Her new strawberry blonde bob is her lightest hairstyle in years, bringing her closer to blonde again without recreating the icy platinum color of 2021.

October 8, 2026
Why Paramount-Warner merger has sparked fears about press freedom

Paramount Skydance has completed its takeover of Warner Bros Discovery, bringing CNN and CBS News under the same corporate ownership, in a deal that has raised concerns about editorial independence and freedom of speech.

The acquisition, worth about $110bn including debt, combines two of Hollywood’s biggest studios after months of legal challenges lodged by state attorneys general and unions.

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The new company, Skydance Corporation, brings together HBO, CBS, Nickelodeon, Showtime, Comedy Central, DC Studios and Food Network, alongside streaming services Paramount plus and HBO Max.

But its control of two major US news organisations has drawn particular scrutiny. David Ellison, Skydance’s chairman and chief executive, has promised to preserve their editorial independence, but his father, Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison is a major financial backer of the deal, and has previously donated funds to US President Donald Trump and Israel.

Asked about the takeover on Tuesday, Trump welcomed it. “They’re terrific people, and it’s going to be a great company,” he said.

Why was the merger challenged?

The takeover faced initial opposition from Hollywood workers, politicians and state prosecutors concerned about the mounting concentration of power in an industry already dominated by a handful of companies.

Netflix initially reached an agreement to buy part of Warner Bros Discovery. Paramount then launched a competing bid, prompting a bidding war before Netflix walked away.

A California-led coalition of 12 state attorneys general sued to block the deal, saying that it would reduce competition and raise prices. The Writers Guild of America brought a separate challenge.

Both cases were settled in September when Paramount agreed to commitments relating to film production, support for displaced workers and protections for the news networks, including the creation of a new editorial independence board.

But the settlement did not end opposition to the deal. “This merger will stifle creativity, weaken free speech and cost people their jobs,” actor and activist Mark Ruffalo has said.

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren linked the takeover to Trump’s efforts to restrict media access. “As Trump tries to ban CNN from the White House, it would be a massive mistake to cave on the Paramount merger,” she said, referring to the US president’s so-far thwarted attempt last month to bar reporters from several news organisations, including CNN, from accessing the White House.

Can an editorial independence board protect CNN and CBS?

One condition of the settlement requires Skydance to establish a “News Editorial Independence Board” within 180 days of completing the takeover.

The five-member body is to include active or retired journalists with at least 10 years of experience. It is intended to establish editorial principles and address disputes involving the news networks and corporate management.

However, its members will be appointed by, and will report to, Skydance’s board of directors, which Ellison chairs. Two members can belong to the same political party, and there is no requirement to publish its findings.

The condition has left critics with a multitude of questions, including: How can a member of an independent editorial board be a member of a political party? How can there be scrutiny if its findings are not public? How can it be independent if it is appointed by a board of directors, themselves appointed by the CEO of the company?

Seth Stern, chief of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, said, “A Paramount-appointed editorial independence board for CNN and CBS is worthless. The fish rots from the head, and this particular fish is headed by a compromised oligarch with a history of throwing journalists under the bus to advance his business interests.”

Stern also questioned whether government enforcement of the settlement could itself threaten press freedom. “The editorial board creates the same First Amendment problems it’s supposed to solve – the government meddling in the news.”

The First Amendment provides constitutional protection for freedom of speech and the press.

Ellison argues that the two networks will continue to operate independently. “We’re going to make sure that CNN and CBS News are completely editorially independent,” he said on Tuesday.

On Monday, Skydance announced that Mark Thompson would remain CNN’s chairman and editor-in-chief, while Bari Weiss will continue as CBS News’s editor-in-chief, easing previous fears that Weiss would immediately take charge of both networks.

Why are there fears for editorial independence?

The takeover gives the Ellison family control of CNN less than a month before the November 3 US midterm elections, and follows Trump’s repeated attacks on the network as it seeks to hold the US president to account.

Shortly after Paramount launched its bid in December, Trump accused CNN of spreading “poison and lies” and said it was “imperative” that it be sold, while the Trump administration has moved to bar CNN from reporting in certain areas of the White House.

Ellison donated roughly $45m to a political nonprofit group supporting Trump’s election efforts in 2024, while he donated $16.6m to Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, a charity supporting Israeli soldiers – its largest single donation at the time.

Earlier this year, the White House criticised CNN’s coverage of the US-Israeli war on Iran, while Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters that “the sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better.”

Sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates also hold indirect financial interests in the combined company. They have no voting stakes, although their involvement adds another layer of scrutiny over its funding.

Concerns about the future for editorial integrity, however, intensified after Skydance acquired Paramount in 2025, and layoffs followed, alongside the closure of CBS News Radio and changes to CBS News flagship investigative programme 60 Minutes.

High-profile firings enacted under CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss and Skydance Media CEO David Ellison included correspondents Sharyn Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega, as well as 60 Minutes executive producer Tanya Simon.

The programme’s September season premiere attracted about 21 percent fewer viewers than a year earlier.

In 2025, Paramount also agreed to pay Trump $16m to settle a lawsuit over the editing of a 60 Minutes interview with then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

In a June 2 letter, nine advocacy groups, including Reporters Without Borders, the Freedom of the Press Foundation and the Committee for the First Amendment, warned that CNN could face similar upheaval and firings.

“Bari Weiss’ shameless actions fulfil the Ellisons’ commitment to President Trump to remake CBS to his liking,” they alleged, referring to the firings and changes at 60 Minutes.

“Larry Ellison has reportedly promised to do the same at CNN if allowed to take control through the pending Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger. Not because it makes any business sense, but because they seek to control the public discourse.”

The groups described the proposed takeover as an “existential threat to the free press, independent media, and free speech in this country and beyond”.

October 8, 2026
Aesop, Tatcha and Nutrafol: 15 Rarely-Discounted October Prime Day Beauty Deals

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, The Hollywood Reporter may receive an affiliate commission.

Prime Big Deal Days, Prime Day‘s clunkily-named sibling, has entered its final hours. And just like in years past, Amazon’s premium beauty department houses the savings really worth your while.

The 48-hour shopping holiday, concluding on Wednesday, Oct. 7 at 11:59 p.m. PT, is Amazon’s second and final Prime member-exclusive savings event of the year — and for those not yet subscribed, the e-tailer offers a 30-day Prime free trial. (Students and young adults ages 18 to 24 can get a six-month free trial.) And while October Prime Day clearly has no shortage of savings, Amazon always has sales — So what’s actually worth scooping up over the next few hours?

With this question in mind, see below for 15 hand-selected beauty picks that rarely see a price drop.

Aesop Coriander Seed Body Cleanser, Gentle Body Wash

Nothing is more shocking than seeing Aesop on sale, especially a product as popular as the body wash.

Clinique Long Lasting Quickliner Lip Liner in Black Honey

Clinique Black Honey is famous for its universally flattering tint.

Pair this liner with the brand’s Almost Lipstick Tinted Lip Balm in Black Honey ($20 ~~$25~~). While it appears dark in the tube, the lightweight, hydrating formula glides on sheer and glossy.

Elemis Pro-Collagen Cleansing Balm, 3-in-1 Hydrating Facial Cleanser

Boasting its deepest discount to date, Elemis’ cult-favorite cleansing balm is available (and discounted) in all five varieties: Original, Rose, Black Cherry, Green Fig and Fragrance-Free.

Dyson Airwrap i.d. Multi-Styler

No better time to spring for the Dyson hair tool that’s been on your wish list.

Tatcha The Water Cream

No one does a water-based gel moisturizer quite like Tatcha.

Tatcha Kissu Lip Mask

One more Tatcha staple. Arguably the best lip mask on the market.

Dr. Barbara Sturm Discovery Kit

The perfect holiday gift doesn’t exi—.

The seven-piece skin-care set includes cleanser, facial scrub, a face mask, eye cream, face cream, body cream and hyaluronic acid.

Lancôme Lash Idôle Lash-Lifting & Volumizing Mascara

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: Lancôme Lash Idôle achieves unmatched length, lift and volume, while remaining entirely clump-free. Yes, Lancôme is no stranger to sales, but 35 percent off our all-time favorite mascara is steep.

Elemis Pro-Collagen Marine Cream SPF 30, Anti-Wrinkle Moisturizer

Another multipurpose workhorse from Elemis, serving as a daily moisturizer, sunblock and a radiant base layer for daily makeup.

Urban Decay All Nighter Waterproof Makeup Setting Spray

No one does setting spray better than Urban Decay. Your makeup will not budge.

Laura Mercier Translucent Loose Setting Powder

Pair with the setting powder of all setting powders. It keeps shine at bay while ensuring skin still looks like skin.

Nutrafol Women Hair Growth Supplements, Ages 18-44

Put the almost-never-on-sale social media phenomenon to the test. Also available for age 45+.

Related: 9 Sales Events Worth Shopping This Week Aside From Amazon’s October Prime Day

Grande Cosmetics GrandeLASH-MD Lash Enhancing Serum

This is the best lash serum we’ve tried, and it’s pretty much only on sale during Prime Day and Black Friday.

Amazon Prime Big Deal Days 2026 Dates

Amazon Prime Big Deal Days runs from Tuesday, Oct. 6 at 12:01 a.m. PT through Wednesday, Oct. 7 at 11:59 p.m. PT.

About the Author

Erin Lassner is THR’s E-Commerce Writer. She covers shopping content across beauty, fashion and lifestyle, and has nearly ten years of experience testing and reviewing the best of skin-care, makeup and wellness.

October 8, 2026