The U.S. Justice Department intends to criminally charge Boeing for breaching a settlement connected to two deadly 737 Max jetliner crashes, according to reports from Bloomberg and Reuters. The federal government is reportedly seeking a guilty plea from Boeing, which may include a $243.6 million criminal fine and force the planemaker to bring on an independent compliance monitor.
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The Boeing-DOJ settlement followed a 2017 crash in Indonesia, which killed all 189 people on board; and a 2018 crash in Ethiopia, which killed all 157 people on board. Despite opposition from some lawmakers and relatives of those killed in the incidents, Boeing secured the $2.5 billion settlement in 2021, which temporarily protected it from criminal prosecution. The agreement required the planemaker to report evidence and allegations of fraud and “strengthen its compliance program,” the Justice Department said at the time.
Then a panel blew off an Alaska Airlines-operated Boeing plane in January, uncloaking continuing safety and compliance issues at the company. Four months later, the federal government said in a court filing that Boeing had breached its 2021 agreement by failing to “design, implement, and enforce a compliance and ethics program to prevent and detect violations of the U.S. fraud laws throughout its operations.”
The DOJ has now decided to bring criminal charges against Boeing and wants the planemaker to accept a plea deal, according to several reports. Such a deal would include about a quarter of a billion dollars in additional fines, per Bloomberg; it could also force Boeing to bring in an independent monitor to make sure the firm follows anti-fraud laws, per AP News.
The DOJ reportedly told the 737 Max crash victims’ families and lawyers about the plea deal on Sunday, and said it would give the planemaker a week to decide whether to accept the offer or argue its case in court. Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the reports.
Just months away from being banned in the U.S., the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) appears to be putting some salt in TikTok’s wound. The agency has issued a bizarre message about referring a complaint about the social media app to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
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The FTC issued a statement on Tuesday saying its investigations “uncovered reason to believe” that TikTok and its parent company ByteDance, are “violating or are about to violate the law.” The commission says the violations (or would-be violations) are of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) and the FTC Act but didn’t provide specifics. Also, the statement mentions how making this action public is something the FTC doesn’t normally do, but it determined that it was in the public’s interest to release the statement. So, we’re letting you know that they think you should know.
A DOJ spokesperson says they can’t comment on the substance of the referral, but the department did consult with the FTC in advance and is considering the claim.
In the statement, the FTC mentions how its investigation began in 2019 with Musical.ly, the predecessor of TikTok. Back then, the commission did find that the company was “aware that a significant percentage of users were younger than 13 and received thousands of complaints from parents” and issued a fine of $5.7 million. It’s unclear if this complaint against TikTok is related or if the investigation found other violations.
TikTok says it has been working with the FTC for more than a year to address concerns it may have.
“We’re disappointed the agency is pursuing litigation instead of continuing to work with us on a reasonable solution,” a TikTok spokesperson said in an emailed statement Tuesday. “We strongly disagree with the FTC’s allegations, many of which relate to past events and practices that are factually inaccurate or have been addressed. We’re proud of and remain deeply committed to the work we’ve done to protect children and we will continue to update and improve our product.”
TikTok is not in the best spot right now, although it’s still incredibly popular. In April, President Joe Biden signed a bill requiring the divestment of TikTok or else face a U.S. ban. The social app is on the 270-day clock to figure out something, or it could wait for the upcoming presidential election and hope Trump wins as he’s suddenly come around to support TikTok. Maybe he found a dance that he liked watching on the app.
A crop of Barbara Baranowska’s iconic Possession (1981) poster art.Image: Gaumont
Yes, io9 used a very similar headline back in 2017 regarding a remake of The Crow—and Hollywood clearly did not listen; that long-in-the-works project is arriving in theaters this August. How The Crow do-over fares is yet to be seen (maybe Bill Skarsgård’s Joker look will work magic?), but we must insist, yet again, that another much-loved genre classic be left the hell alone, no matter how much we enjoy the involved talent.
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According to the Hollywood Reporter, Andrzej Zulawski’s singularly unsettling 1981 film Possession is chugging down the remake track with writer-director Parker Finn (Smile) and producer Robert Pattinson—an obvious choice to also star, though THR notes “his acting involvement will be clarified down the road as the script and schedules develop.” The original film stars Sam Neill and Isabelle Adjani as a couple living in West Berlin whose marriage fractures amid surreal, supernatural circumstances. It’s haunting, and has since become a cult classic.
The trade also reports that multiple studios are currently battling over who will, uh, get possession of Possession, including “A24, Netflix, Paramount, Sony and Warner Bros,” and that “other companies may enter the fray.” Also of note: “the reception to the pitches has been extremely positive, with execs talking about the ‘batshit’ and ‘out there’ story but also its strong commercial potential. How to market the eventual movie is also part of the conversations.”
What do you think about remaking Possession—and for that matter, are you counting down to The Crow?
Can you believe it’s been 10 years since Netflix last made any big changes to its interface? A new TV app redesign will be rolling out to a subset of users on Thursday. It’s a new Netflix for a new streaming landscape that’s no longer just focused on movies and shows only but on live sports or even video games.
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The first thing you’ll probably notice is that the redesign of the TV app removes the left-most vertical menu. In its place is a smaller, horizontal menu along the top of the app with streamlined options including “Home,” “Shows,” “Movies,” and “My Netflix.” That latter tab was first added to the mobile app version, and now it’s on TV as well. If you hit the back button on your remote, you should immediately return to the top menu bar. Gone are tabs like “New and Popular” and “My List.” The “Categories” menu is still there, but you’ll now have to find it in the Search function.
Netflix’s New TV App in Full
New TV Home Sizzle_English
The bigger changes are evident once you hover over the individual tiles. Hang on each tile for a beat, and it will start playing a clip from the show or movie while offering users a text description along with more info, like the total runtime. Otherwise, Netflix will still push the algorithmically suggested “discover” content front-and-center on the Home tab. Shows and Movies will also offer that discover content based on what you or if Netflix knows what your friends like to watch.
Netflix’s senior director of product experience, Pat Flemming, told Gizmodo the streamer wants to make navigating around the app far easier and cleaner. He said that in Netflix’s product research, they found users were doing “gymnastics with their eyes,” where they had to look all around their screen for each show or movie’s description, trailer, ratings, and so on. That should all be far more contained in each tile.
“When you’re evaluating that particular movie, series, or game in the future, you’ve got all that information there in front of you,” he said.
The “New and Hot” tab will still appear in the mobile app, but Netflix hopes the new version will simplify things enough that it can cater to folks who have no idea what they’re about to watch each night. Face it, how often did you think you should check the “New and Popular” menu anyway?
It’s fair to say that quite a bit has changed since a decade ago when Netflix was still mainly distributing other companies’ movies and shows. Yes, it’s definitely more expensive than in years past, but that’s not all. Netflix is still working to grab hit movies like the recently added Godzilla: Minus One and 1917. Netflix has a lot more original content, like the slow-burn horror The Watchers and the sci-fi adaptation of 3 Body Problem. Original content now makes up more than half of the streamer’s total slate.
Image: Netflix
But it’s more than that now. Netflix is trying to go big into live sports with some pseudo-live sports events, WWE streaming, and the just-postponed big-name brawl between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul. And let’s not forget there are a few pretty good games on Netflix. While the number of TV titles in the ongoing beta program is currently limited, it makes up a growing section of Netflix’s current expansion plans. Will Netflix eventually add more tabs like “Sports” and “Games” to the top bar to go along with “Shows” and “Movies?” That’s “TBD,” Flemming said, though he said, “you’re thinking about it in a very intuitive way.”
The new app version is being tested by a select few subscribers who will offer feedback before Netflix thinks about pushing the update more broadly. As for whether this bodes more changes to the mobile or web versions, Flemming wasn’t ready to say yes or no. After all, first, we’ll need all the other streaming services to copy Netflix one more time before anybody starts trying to reinvent the wheel yet again.
Semaglutide, the active ingredient in popular diabetes and obesity drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, can also tweak people’s taste buds for the better, preliminary research suggests. Scientists found that women taking semaglutide improved their taste sensitivity, particularly to sweetness. The findings may illuminate another reason why it and similar drugs can so effectively help people lose weight, the authors say.
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The research was led by scientists from the University Medical Center in Ljubljana, Slovenia. They were intrigued by animal studies that appeared to show GLP-1, a hormone key to the body’s control of blood sugar and hunger, also plays an important role in influencing the perception of sweetness. In mice bred to no longer produce GLP-1, for instance, their sensitivity to sweetness seems dramatically reduced.
Semaglutide and other incretins are designed to mimic GLP-1, and some research has found that people on the drug tend to experience a decline in desire for sweet, savory and salty foods. The mechanisms behind this shift aren’t entirely clear, however, so the researchers wanted to see if a similar change in taste sensitivity can happen in humans as well as mice taking semaglutide.
It may sound unintuitive, but increasing taste sensitivity could actually help with weight loss by reducing the desire for excessively sweet, high-calorie foods. By perceiving sweetness more intensely, individuals might feel satisfied with smaller amounts of sugar, leading to a decrease in overall calorie intake.
The team conducted a 16-week-long trial with 30 women volunteers, with half receiving the drug and the other half a placebo. The volunteers had their taste sensitivity measured using strips containing all four basic tastes (sweet, salty, sour, and bitter) placed on their tongue. Additionally, some of their tongue cells were collected to examine gene expression, and they underwent an MRI scan before and after tasting something sweet following a standard meal.
“The present study demonstrated that semaglutide improved taste sensitivity in women with obesity, meaning that the detection threshold for different concentrations of four basic tastes were improved,” lead study author Mojca Jensterle Sever told Gizmodo.
The team also found that the tongue cells of those taking semaglutide experienced changes in the expression of genes linked to the perception of sweetness and the renewal of taste buds. And via the MRI scans, they found changes in how users’ brains responded to sweetness, particularly in the angular gyrus of the parietal cortex. The angular gyrus is thought to help integrate our different senses to better understand the world around us and solve problems, while the parietal cortex is known to have cells that carry GLP-1 receptors.
The team’s findings are being presented this weekend at ENDO 2024, so they haven’t yet undergone the typical peer-review process. Sever notes their research is only a proof-of-concept study, intended to show that there’s something more to explore, not to definitively confirm a phenomenon. Since taste perception can vary significantly between different people, it’s also possible that GLP-1 drugs would not affect everyone’s taste buds the same way.
But research has suggested that at least some people with obesity perceive sweetness less intensely than usual, which might then help drive their craving for even sweeter, often more calorie-filled foods. GLP-1 drugs are thought to help treat obesity in several ways, such as by prompting the sense of fullness earlier into a meal than before. And it’s certainly possible that enhancing people’s sensitivity to sweetness might be another, the authors say.
“Our study provides ‘food for thought’ on the additional mechanisms by which semaglutide and other incretin-based therapies facilitate changes in food preference and eating behavior that might potentially lead to reductions in body weight beyond appetite suppression and improved control of eating,” Sever said.
Future studies, hopefully addressing the limitations of this current research, “will clarify whether the efficacy of semaglutide in treating obesity is also a matter of taste,” she added.
Nearly 10 years ago, George Miller brought the Mad Max franchise blasting back to relevance with Fury Road. The film wasn’t just well-liked, it was basically a game changer for plenty of moviegoers and delivered them something they’d never really seen at the time. And of the many things to love about Fury Road, people fell greatly in love with Charlize Theron’s Imperator Furiosa, who is more of the film’s true protagonist than Tom Hardy’s Max.
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When Miller revealed he was following up Fury Road with a prequel focused on Furiosa, eyebrows were definitely raised, particularly when Anya Taylor-Joy was cast as a young version of the character. Then we got to see Furiosa’s first trailer, and it instantly became clear Miller was about to cook yet again. Now that it’s out, people have gotten to experience what’s been said in the weeks since its premiere at Cannes: Furiosa: A Mad Max Sagais the real deal, and a more than welcome return to mad, mad car-heavy wasteland.
While not quite the revelation that Fury Road was, or at least not in the same way, critics and audiences have been fairly high on Furiosa. Amid criticisms of the pacing and visuals, those who like it really like it, particularly its cast and 15-year scope that makes it feel like the post-apocalyptic epic it’s been marketed as. With the summer movie season in full swing, this film will probably end up as the highlight for many once all is said and done.
If you saw Furiosa, let us know what you thought about it. Did it live up to whatever expectations you had, and wht do you want out of Miller and Mad Max next? Tell us in the comments below.
The large webcam-like contraption that looks like the stargate from Stargate, and livestreams constantly between the cities of New York and Dublin has been captivating the hearts and minds of people across the transatlantic. Well, maybe “captivating” is a bit strong. “Mildly amusing” or “pleasantly diverting” might be more apt descriptors. The project, which was created by a Lithuanian artist, Benediktas Gylys, with help from a small team, has reportedly drawn tens of thousands of visitors since it went up about a week ago.
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Popular as it is, the digital-physical interface was briefly deactivated last week, after a number of incidents in which people got just a little too rowdy with the weird art installation. In one instance, an OnlyFans creator lifted up her shirt and flashed a gawking crowd of Dubliners last week. There have also apparently been instances of “mooning,” cursing, and people sharing garish content with onlookers via their phones—stuff like videos of 9/11 and porn.
Amidst all the shenanigans, the Dublin City Council announced last week that it would be temporarily shutting down the interface until a solution to the “inappropriate” behavior could be conjured.
Now, less than a week later, the portal is back, and New Yorkers and Dubliners are free, once again, to stare at each other endlessly through the goofy art installation’s futuristic surface. However, there are some new time limitations on when people can use the portal, the Dublin City Council has announced.
“The Portal will have specific hours of operation for the coming weeks with the livestream running daily from 6:00 AM to 4:00 PM in New York City and 11:00 AM to 9:00 PM in Dublin,” the council said, in a newly published statement.
Portals.org, the organization behind the project, has also instituted new safeguards to make sure nobody steps on or obscures the camera attached to it. A newly implemented “proximity-based solution” will now blur the portal’s surface if anyone attempts to obscure the camera, the Dublin City Council said.
My guess? The shenanigans that got the portal deactivated will continue. It’s only human nature to want to take something like this and screw with it. The creators of the project should give up on trying to moderate what people do and just accept that some percentage of the people who happen across the project are going to use it to titillate, annoy, and/or otherwise fuck with the people standing on the other side of it. The “hall monitor” approach is doomed to fail. Embrace the debauchery and weirdness now.
Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI’s co-founder and chief scientist, announced he was leaving the company on Tuesday. OpenAI confirmed the departure in a press release. Sutskever’s official exit comes nearly six months after he helped lead an effort with other board members to fire CEO Sam Altman, the move backfired days later.
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“After almost a decade, I have made the decision to leave OpenAI,” said Sutskever via a tweet on Tuesday afternoon. “I am excited for what comes next — a project that is very personally meaningful to me about which I will share details in due time.”
“Ilya and OpenAI are going to part ways,” said Altman in a tweet shortly after. “This is very sad to me; Ilya is easily one of the greatest minds of our generation, a guiding light of our field, and a dear friend.”
Altman went on to say that Jakub Pachocki, a senior researcher on Sutskever’s team, would be replacing him as OpenAI’s Chief Scientist. Sutskever notes an undisclosed project that is very “meaningful” to him moving forward. It’s unclear at this time what that project is.
Jan Leike, another OpenAI executive who worked with Sutskever on safeguarding future AI, also resigned on Tuesday, according to The Information. Leike and Sutskever led OpenAI’s superalignment team, charged with the grandiose task of making sure the company’s super-powerful AI does not turn against humans.
For the last six months, Sutskever’s status has been unclear at OpenAI. When Altman returned to the company in late Nov. of 2023, he said this on Sutskever: “we hope to continue our working relationship and are discussing how he can continue his work at OpenAI.” Sutskever was the only member of OpenAI left in limbo at the time—neither fired nor rehired.
Since then, Altman has refused to answer questions about Sutskever’s status at the company in multiple interviews. We barely heard from Sutskever himself during this time period. This is Sutskever’s first tweet in over five months, and OpenAI’s chief scientist was missing from major announcements such as Sora and this week’s GPT-4 Omni.
Earlier this year, founding OpenAI member Andrej Karpathy left the company. In that case as well, Karpathy did not provide a particular reason for his exit, and later described that he would work on personal projects.
Sutskever posted a photo with OpenAI leaders Altman, Mira Murati, Greg Brockman, and Jakub Pachocki shortly after announcing his exit. Severa; featured in the photo posted kind messages about Sutskever’s tenure at OpenAI, praising the well-renowned scientist for his contributions to the artificial intelligence world.
Friday the 13thprequel series Crystal Lake hasn’t aired a single episode and it already has a body count. The series, set for streaming on Peacock through A24, will no longer have Bryan Fuller—the Hannibalcreator who’s no stranger to leaving projects early, including American Gods and Star Trek: Discovery—guiding the summer-camp slaughter.
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Fuller broke the news in a post shared to his Instagram and X accounts. “Adapting classic horror is something I have some experience with. These shows require a vision that elevates and transforms, as well as delivers what audiences have come to expect, which is an ambitious and risky endeavor. It requires people to take the leap with me,” he wrote. “When it works, as with Hannibal, the results can be powerful for the storytellers and the audience. I couldn’t be more proud of the work my co-showrunner Jim Danger Gray and I were able to accomplish with our brilliant writing staff despite the challenges we faced.”
Fuller continued, “For reasons beyond our control, A24 has elected to go a different way with the material. We hope the final product will be something Friday the 13th fans all over the world will enjoy.”
A report in Variety quotes Fuller’s social media post and characterizes the show’s writer, executive producer, and showrunner as having been “fired from the show due to creative differences.” However, the trade notes there’s still hope for the series itself, citing an unnamed source as confirming “the series order remains in place with hopes to line up a new showrunner as soon as possible.” Also, in contrast to a report last year that Fuller had cast original Friday the 13th star Adrienne King in the series, Variety writes that “production had not begun on the series, nor had any casting taken place.”
A Blueyepisode originally released in 2020 everywhere except the United States finally gets the green light to be seen—with a catch: it’s only online (for now).
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“Dad Baby” was among a number of banned or altered episodes of the hit Ludo Studio global phenomenon that never made it onto Disney+ or the Disney cable channels when it was acquired by the streamer. It’s curious as to why because the official description on Bluey’s official YouTube channel is pretty straightforward: “When Dad shows the kids how to use their old baby-harness, a new game is born: Dad Baby! But dad is unprepared for the harsh realities of giving birth to a baby Bingo.”
It can be suggested that perhaps Disney initially didn’t want to include a very lightly sex-ed centered episode on the show aimed at their kid demographic. io9 watched the now-available episode and it’s not as much of a big deal as the banning was made out to be. “Dad Baby” is a relatable, hilarious depiction of a pregnancy—particularly from the point of view of kids who remember their younger siblings being born. Even the comedic bits—like when Bluey’s dad Bandit carries her sister Bingo as a baby in the “womb” and recalls what he witnessed with his wife Chili—are silly and inoffensive. And yes, he does go through it all down to “pushing” Bingo out, which leans more into the kids’ playacting aspect of Bluey wanting to know how babies come into the world. It’s cute, endearing, and a good emotional episode from the show that’s proved that it knows what it’s doing. If you wanna see if for yourself watch it below!
Dad Baby | Full Episode | Bluey
Mostepisodes of Bluey are now streaming on Disney+.
