Just listen to it.

Amazon wants Prime Video to be the place you watch coverage of election night. The company announced today that it will be streaming a live election night special on Prime Video hosted by former NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams. The show will kick off on November 5th at 5PM ET. “Brian Williams will be joined live by guests including prominent contributors across news and traditional media, representing a range of backgrounds and perspectives, to share real-time poll results and commentary while also referencing third-party news sources across all political affiliations,” Amazon writes in a blog post. The company adds that it will be an “informative, accessible and non-partisan presentation.” Amazon will announce the guests in “the...

There's still no exact date for season eight other than "2025," but that portal gun's gonna be in use for years to come now.

Liam Payne died Wednesday in Buenos Aires, leaving fans around the globe mourning the former One Direction singer — and grappling with chaos, conspiracy theories, and controversy in the wake of the 31-year-old’s death. Argentine police confirmed that Payne, who came to Buenos Aires two weeks ago to attend a concert by his former bandmate Niall Horan, had died after falling from the third story of his hotel. The BBC obtained the transcript of two 911 calls that were made from the hotel with concerns for Payne’s safety shortly before his death. Authorities later clarified that Payne died as a result of injuries from the fall.  In a joint statement posted to Instagram, the former members of One Direction — Niall Horan, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, and Zayn Malik — said that they were “completely devastated” by “the loss of our brother, who we loved dearly. The memories we shared with him will be treasured forever.” As a member of the massively popular UK boy band, Payne achieved a very rare level of global fame, but faced addiction struggles that he spoke about publicly following the band’s breakup. His last single, “Teardrops,” released in March, left fans speculating about his mental health. Just days before his death, Payne had received a cease-and-desist order from his ex-fianceé Maya Henry. The premature death of any public figure is a collectively mourned tragedy, but when a large and devoted fandom faces this kind of loss, the ripple effects can be intense. Often, fans in this situation are met with what psychologists term disenfranchised loss — when there’s a lack of community support system for this grief because the “loss” of a celebrity or an intense parasocial relationship isn’t one that society tends to recognize as real or legitimate.  In such a context, fans look online for other fans to share their experience with, which can lead to plenty of confusion and chaos. The circumstances of Payne’s death contributed to the spread of misinformation about what happened, as did coverage by tabloid media.  Payne initially auditioned for the fifth season of The X Factor in 2008 with a rendition of Frank Sinatra’s “Fly Me to the Moon.” He was just 14. (Girls Aloud member Cheryl Cole, with whom he would go on to share a child, served as one of the judges at the time.) Payne was dismissed and brought back to the show twice before being cut by executive producer and judge Simon Cowell. However, Cowell encouraged him to come back in a couple of years.  At 16, Payne tried out again for the competition’s seventh season in 2010 where his Michael Bublé-inspired cover of “Cry Me a River” earned him a standing ovation from Cowell. He failed to advance as a solo act but received a fateful second chance when guest judge Nicole Scherzinger suggested that he and his future bandmates — Styles, Horan, Malik, and Tomlinson — compete as a boy band under Cowell’s mentorship. One Direction made it all the way to the finals before coming in third.  Throughout their time on the show, the group accumulated a fervent international following on social media, especially Tumblr. Soon after the competition, they signed with Cowell’s Syco Entertainment and released their single “What Makes You Beautiful” from the album Up All Night in 2011. The album was notably successful in the United States, debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. They became the first UK group to top the US charts with a debut album, marking a new British invasion. Throughout their time as a band, One Direction released five albums — their final record excluding Malik, who exited the group in 2015 — and two concert films, One Direction: This Is Us and One Direction: Where We Are. In 2015, they released their final album, Made In The A.M., before each remaining member embarked on a solo career.  A year after One Direction’s final album, Payne released his solo single, “Strip That Down” featuring Quavo, from his first and only album LP1. The R&B-tinged track was fairly successful, peaking at No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 3 on the UK Singles charts. However, LP1 received largely negative reviews.  Payne’s solo career and celebrity were met with less buzz than his bandmates, notably Styles. He largely garnered headlines for his relationships and personal life. In 2016, he started dating Cheryl Cole and had a son, Bear, with the singer in 2017 before they split a year later. In 2021, he opened up about the “severe” addiction issues he dealt with during his boyband days on The Diary of a CEO podcast. The singer revealed that he took a lot of “pills and booze” and experienced suicidal ideation. “The day the band ended, I was like, ‘Thank the Lord,’” he said on the podcast. “I know a lot of people are going to be mad at me for saying that, but I needed to stop, or it would kill me.” The following year, he sat down for an interview with YouTuber Logan Paul on his podcast Impaulsive which prompted his less-than-favorable reputation among One Direction fans in his final years. On the podcast, Payne made some questionable claims about his role in the band, stating that the idea for One Direction started with him and that his first solo single “outsold” the rest of the group’s debuts. He also discussed negative interactions with his ex-bandmates and discord within the group. On October 16, Payne had been in Argentina for two weeks, in part to attend a Niall Horan concert. Roughly an hour after posting photos and videos with his girlfriend, influencer Katie Cassidy, on his Snapchat, posts claiming that Payne had fallen from his hotel balcony began to circulate on X. TMZ confirmed his death with partially cropped photos of Payne’s dead body, which they later removed.  In a statement to the Associated Press, Buenos Aires police said that Payne fell from the third floor of the Casa Sur Hotel in the Palermo neighborhood of Argentina’s capital at 5:07 pm local time, resulting in extremely serious injuries. Police also found medication in his room.  The next day, Buenos Aires police shared a preliminary autopsy that pointed out “craniocerebral injuries were sufficient to cause death” as well as “internal and external hemorrhages in the skull, thorax, abdomen and limbs.” When the news first broke, many on social media refused to believe it, in part because Payne had continued to update his accounts throughout the day until shortly before his death. That changed abruptly when TMZ published a photograph of Payne, ostensibly under the guise of identifying him and “confirm[ing] early reports from witnesses.” The outlet quickly unpublished the photo due to public backlash, but retained a description of Payne’s body at the scene.   The treatment of the situation by TMZ was the beginning of a flood of sensationalized reporting surrounding Payne’s death. Readers of outlets ranging from tabloids to CNN quickly learned about the damage done to Payne’s hotel room, the 911 caller who reported that Payne was allegedly “trashing the room” and had taken “too many drugs and alcohol,” and the legal battles with ex-fiancée Maya Henry that reportedly “overwhelmed” Payne prior to his death. The tabloids also fed speculation about Payne’s mental health, referencing his past mention of suicidal thoughts and circulating reports of his “erratic” behavior in the lead-up to the incident.  Platforms like X were rife with misinformation, most notably unsourced videos and photos falsely purporting to be of Payne either falling or having fallen to his death, all of which were subsequently debunked.  Weeks before his death, Payne received criticism from One Direction fans online for displaying so-called attention-seeking behavior at Horan’s Bueno Aires show on October 2. On Snapchat, he said he announced that he was attending the show and had some things to “square up” with Horan. In videos, Payne can be seen eagerly engaging and taking photos with fans seated outside of his suite. After the show, Payne was spotted posing for more fans outside. After the concert, Payne posted a photo of himself and Horan, stating that he was “so proud” of his former bandmate.     Amid that discussion, clips of Payne’s comments from his interview with Paul began to recirculate on TikTok and X, as well as other ridiculed interactions he had on social media. He was also still dealing with criticism from fans that he was a controlling partner after a TikTok his current girlfriend Cassidy posted in August where Payne quips that she looks “nice and covered up for once.”  On October 14, his ex-fiancée Maya Henry — to whom he was engaged from 2020 to 2022 — made some troubling allegations on The Internet Is Dead podcast about her relationship with Payne, which she called “toxic.” In the most chilling moments of the interview, she accused him of “play[ing] with death” and threatening suicide as a “manipulation tactic.” She said she and her family offered to get him help in a rehab facility, which he ignored. She also stated that she sent him a cease-and-desist letter after he allegedly wouldn’t stop contacting her through her iCloud accounts.  She also claimed that Payne’s family had warned her against releasing her first novel, Looking Forward, this past May, which she says was “inspired by true events.” Given the book’s subject matter — a woman’s traumatizing experience with a famous man — fans speculated that it was based on her relationship with Payne. In the book, the main protagonist Mallory is coerced by her partner into receiving a painful at-home abortion. Mallory is then discouraged by her partner’s team from seeking medical treatment for hemorrhaging for fear of being spotted in public.  In the wake of Payne’s death, social media was flooded with entertainment industry tributes from Payne’s colleagues and friends, everyone from the Backstreet Boys to Paris Hilton. Dermot O’Leary, the host of X Factor, the British reality competition show where One Direction was famously created in 2010, posted to Instagram that Payne’s death was “the worst news.” “I remember him as a 14 year old turning up to audition on The X Factor, and blowing us away singing Sinatra. He just loved to sing.” Payne’s neighbors and close friends recounted moments of kindness and compassion, including the time he reportedly saved the life of a friend in a fire. “I’m devastated,” Rita Ora, who previously collaborated with Payne on the Fifty Shades Freed soundtrack, wrote on Instagram. “He had the kindest soul, I will never forget. I loved working with him so much — he was just such a joy to be around on and off stage.” Several relatives of Payne’s former bandmates reacted publicly, including Harry Styles’ mother, who shared a broken heart emoji on Instagram. The band itself issued a joint statement via Instagram. Additionally, former band member Louis Tomlinson updated Instagram with a lengthy tribute to Payne, saying he was “devastated to be writing this but yesterday I lost a brother.” In a statement, Payne’s family described themselves as “heartbroken” by the loss. “Liam will forever live in our hearts and we’ll remember him for his kind, funny and brave soul,” the family stated. “We are supporting each other the best we can as a family and ask for privacy and space at this awful time.” Because the early reports of an out-of-control man endangering himself were so out of sync with the upbeat, calm social media videos uploaded to his feed from earlier in the day, many fans initially refused to believe he’d died. People magazine reported that the videos shared on Payne’s feed the day of his death had actually been created four days earlier. Still, it was enough to jump-start a wave of wild speculation, including the false conspiracy theory that his death was somehow connected to the ongoing criminal case against Sean “Diddy” Combs. Internet trolls also flooded the hotel where he died with ironic and mocking reviews, while others reportedly turned to harassing Henry, flooding her Instagram comments following his death. Many of Payne’s fans, however, were left simply reeling from the shock. Local fans turned the location of Payne’s hotel into an impromptu memorial site after his death, leaving candles, flowers, and other tributes in his memory and singing his songs.  “I’ve always loved One Direction since I was little,” one of the fans gathered there told the Associated Press. “To see that he died and that there will never be another reunion of the boys is unbelievable.” Another fan told CNN that she’d been unable to see the group on their Argentine tour stop. Her visit to Payne’s memorial site, she noted, was “the only time I was able to clap for him.”

OpenAI is testing a ChatGPT app for Windows — but it’s only available to paid users for now. You can download an early version of the app from the Microsoft Store. Just like the Mac version of the app, ChatGPT on Windows lets you ask the AI-powered chatbot questions in a dedicated window that you can keep open alongside your apps. You can quickly access the app by using the Alt + Space shortcut. Today, ChatGPT Plus, Enterprise, Team, and Edu users can start testing an early version of the Windows desktop app.Get faster access to ChatGPT on your PC with the Alt + Space shortcut.https://t.co/mv4ACwIhzA https://t.co/Ww6QvBfMnB pic.twitter.com/tkyodezZhv It also lets you upload files and photos to...

New York Comic-Con kicked off today, and among the highlights was an HBO panel devoted to the platform's forthcoming new series, Dune: Prophecy—including the release of a two-and-a-half-minute trailer. As previously reported, the series was announced in 2019, with director Denis Villeneuve serving as an executive producer and Alison Schapker (Alias, Fringe, Altered Carbon) serving as showrunner. It's a prequel series inspired by the novel Sisterhood of Dune, written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, exploring the origins of the Bene Gesserit. The first season will have six episodes, and it's unclear how closely the series will adhere to the source material. Per the official premise: Set 10,000 years before the ascension of Paul Atreides, Dune: Prophecy follows two Harkonnen sisters as they combat forces that threaten the future of humankind, and establish the fabled sect that will become known as the Bene Gesserit. Emily Watson co-stars as Valya Harkonnen, leader of the Sisterhood, with Olivia Williams playing her sister, Tula Harkonnen. Mark Strong plays Emperor Javicco Corrino, while Jodhi May plays Empress Natalya, and Sarah-Sofie Boussnina plays Princess Ynez. Read full article

Even the makers of the Guardian Cap admit it looks silly. But for a sport facing an existential brain-injury crisis, once unthinkable solutions have now become almost normal.

Activision says it has “disabled a workaround to a detection system” in Modern Warfare III and Call of Duty: Warzone that led to legitimate players getting banned by the Ricochet anti-cheat system. The company says the problem “impacted a small number of legitimate player accounts,” and all accounts affected were restored. However, zebleer, who runs the Phantom Overlay store selling cheats, claims the problem is much bigger than Activision’s post makes it seem. In a detailed post on X, they write that when Ricochet scanned the memory of a player’s computer to find known cheat software, one of the signatures it scanned for was a plaintext string reading: 54 72 69 67 67 65 72 20 42 6f 74 (Trigger Bot) As a result, zebleer says that “for...

The ambitious identity-verification project Worldcoin, now called World, wants a future where humans are “orb-verified.”

Were you waiting for the right moment to get PIA VPN? The opportunity is here. Private Internet Access is slashing the prices of its subscriptions for the next few days.

The killing of Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas and architect of the October 7 attacks, could be a pivotal moment in the war in Gaza and the wider conflict in the Middle East. It might even be an opportunity to end the fighting — but only if both sides of the war treat it that way.  According to preliminary Israeli media reports, Sinwar, along with two other Hamas fighters, was killed on Wednesday in the southern Gaza city of Rafah when Israel Defense Forces (IDF) opened fire on a building where the three were holed up. The troops then ordered an airstrike against the building, collapsing it. When IDF troops entered what was left of the building on Thursday, they noticed that one of the killed Hamas members looked like Sinwar. The body’s identity was confirmed by DNA testing on Thursday.  While Sinwar has been described as a “dead man walking” by Israeli officials for months, he was reportedly not the target of the IDF operation and it’s very surprising that he was apparently above ground and accompanied by only a few fellow fighters. For months, US and Israeli officials have said Sinwar was likely deep underground in Hamas’s tunnel network, surrounded by hostages effectively acting as human shields. Israeli authorities say they believe Sinwar had been in a tunnel with six hostages who were executed by their captors in late August, though it’s not clear when exactly Sinwar left.  What will his death mean for Hamas? Jonathan Lord, director of the Middle East Security Program at the Center for a New American Security, said that with Hamas already severely degraded after a year of Israeli assaults, Sinwar’s death, alone, would likely result in “no change to Hamas’s military capabilities.” But, he added, “politically, Sinwar’s death leaves a gaping hole in the movement, at least in the near term.” Born in the Gaza city of Khan Younis in 1962, Sinwar had been a member of Hamas since its origination in 1987, and founded its internal security service, known as the Majd. He acquired a reputation for brutally enforcing loyalty to the movement by murdering and torturing suspected traitors and collaborators.  Sinwar was arrested for murder and kidnapping in 1988 and sentenced to four life terms in Israel. During his time in prison, he reportedly learned Hebrew and consumed Israeli media and books to learn more about his adversary. Sinwar was able to put those lessons to use after he became one of more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners released in 2011 in exchange for the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.  Six years after his release, he became Hamas’s leader in Gaza. Within the Hamas leadership, he was considered among the least willing to make political compromises with Israel and the closest to Iran. Sinwar was reportedly the main architect of the October 7 attacks and was the one who picked its official name, Operation al-Aqsa Flood. After Hamas’s global political leader Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in an Israeli bombing in Tehran in July, Sinwar took over that role as well. Over the past year, Israeli and American authorities have often described Sinwar as the main obstacle to a ceasefire.  Sinwar was committed to full Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza, and less willing to compromise than Hamas leaders based outside of Palestine. In early October, the New York Times reported that American intelligence assessed that Sinwar did not believe he would survive the conflict, wanted to see Israel embroiled in a larger war in the Middle East, and was not interested in reaching a compromise. All of which, it seems, has been proved correct. It’s not immediately clear who will take Sinwar’s place. Many of Hamas’s senior leaders and Sinwar’s top lieutenants have also been killed over the past years. In terms of global leaders, the most obvious candidate, if only because he’s the most prominent Hamas figure still alive, is Khaled Meshaal, a founding member of the group who was chair of Hamas’s political bureau from 1996 until 2017, when he was replaced by Haniyeh. Meshaal is currently based in Qatar. It’s also possible Hamas might choose a younger face from within its politburo — the main decision-making body.  For Israel, Sinwar’s death is a major political and strategic victory. “This is our bin Laden moment,” Nimrod Novik, former senior adviser to the late Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, told Vox. Novik described the killing as a tremendous opportunity for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “to declare victory” and push for a ceasefire deal and hostage release deal along the lines of the one Israel offered in late May, and which Hamas accepted — albeit with some key alterations — in early July. Talks over that deal eventually collapsed when Netanyahu added additional conditions.   “The guy that you, Bibi, kept saying is blocking the deal is gone,” said Novik, a fellow at the Israel Policy Forum. “Can you do something creative?” The message from Washington was similar. “This moment gives us an opportunity to finally end the war in Gaza,” ⁦Vice President and Democratic Presidential nominee Kamala Harris said in a brief statement.  For the moment, however, that doesn’t seem to be how Netanyahu sees it. “Today, evil took a heavy blow — the mission ahead of us is still unfinished,” the prime minister said on Thursday.  For now, attention turns to the remaining hostages held in Gaza, with many families fearful that more may be killed in retaliation for Sinwar’s death. Officially, Hamas is believed to be holding 101 of the 254 hostages abducted on October 7, though Israeli authorities believe as many as half of those may be dead.  Sinwar’s death comes at a time when Israel has increasingly been shifting its political attention and military resources toward its war with Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria as well as its escalating direct conflict with Iran, though strikes in Gaza — including a deadly one earlier this week on a hospital where displaced people were sheltering — have continued.   Netanyahu has also reportedly been considering a plan proposed by several former generals to turn northern Gaza into a closed military zone, evacuating its entire civilian population and starving out any who remain. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has denied that Israel is moving forward with this so-called starvation plan, which is opposed by the US.  On Monday, the US issued a statement telling Israel to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza — particularly by allowing in more aid shipments, which have reportedly slowed to a trickle, or risk the supply of US weapons. On the other hand, the statement came on the same day Israel received a new top-of-the-line missile defense system.  This wouldn’t be the first time the White House — and Netanyahu’s Israeli critics — have hoped the prime minister would “take the win” in Gaza. In a White House statement back in May, Biden assured Israelis that “Hamas no longer is capable of carrying out another October 7” and that the pursuit of “total victory” would not bring the hostages home or “bring Israel lasting security.” Perhaps Sinwar’s killing will change the calculus of the Israeli government. But it’s also possible that Netanyahu and his senior officials might see this as vindication — if they’d heeded Biden’s caution back in May, Sinwar would presumably still be alive. And of course, hopes of a ceasefire will dim further if hostages are killed by Hamas in retaliation.  One thing is for sure, the war in Gaza, which has killed more than 40,000 people, is back at the center of attention. The question is whether that means it will finally be brought to an end — or at least a pause — or if a more-or-less permanent reoccupation of the territory is in store.