Epstein files explode open as DOJ details discovery of powerful figures and more than 1,200 victims (Brooke Singman/Fox News)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/epstein-files-explode-open-doj-details-discovery-powerful-figures-more-than-1200-victims
http://www.memeorandum.com/251219/p95#a251219p95

Before you leave for the weekend (or maybe even a long holiday break), make sure you check out today's Metacurity for the most critical infosec developments you should know, including
--The UK Foreign Office was hacked in October
--Delay in keystroke led Amazon to imposter discovery,
--A second suspect was arrested in an attempted Italian ferry malware attack,
--Denmark blames Russia for destructive cyberattacks,
--LongNosedGoblin is targeting SE Asian and Ja…

The UK Foreign Office was hacked in October
Delay in keystroke led Amazon to imposter discovery, A second suspect was arrested in an attempted Italian ferry malware attack, Denmark blames Russia for destructive cyberattacks, LongNosedGoblin is targeting SE Asian and Japanese governments, NHS tech company hit with cyber incident, much more

Paramount says it is "prepared to engage" with WBD on takeover talks during a seven-day negotiating window, but doesn't say whether it will raise its bid (Todd Spangler/Variety)
https://variety.com/2026/film/news/param…

Paramount Skydance 'Prepared to Engage' With Warner Bros. Discovery on Takeover Talks
Will David Ellison move higher than Paramount Skydance's $30-per-share offer for Warner Bros. Discovery? The company didn't indicate that it is willing to up the price tag in its hostile takeover bid but said it was ready to start talks in a seven-day negotiating window opened by WBD.

Warner schießt gegen Paramount
Der Vorstand von Warner Bros. Discovery empfiehlt einstimmig eine Übernahme durch Netflix. Gegen Paramount schießt Warner hart.
https://www.heise.de/news/Warner-schiesst-<…

Fei-Fei Li's World Labs raised $1B from a16z, Nvidia, AMD, and others to advance its world models focused on robotics and scientific discovery (Alicia Tang/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-18/ai-pion…

twitter_higgs: Twitter, Higgs boson (2012)
Data on tweets related to the announcement of the discovery of a new fundamental particle with the features of the Higgs boson on 4th July 2012. Data covers 1-7 July 2012, and includes four types of networks: followers, retweets, replies, and mentions.
This network has 456626 nodes and 14855842 edges.
Tags: Social, Online, Weighted, Multilayer

WBD says Paramount informed WBD on February 11 that it would pay $31 per share, up from $30, if the sides engaged, and that $31 was not its best and final offer (Jill Goldsmith/Deadline)
https://deadline.com/2026/02/warner-bros-discovery-s…

Warner Board Says Paramount Agreed To Raise Offer To $31 A Share Or More If Two Sides Engaged
Warner Bros. Discovery said Paramount agreed to raise its $30 a share cash offer if WBD agreed to talks, which it has.

The Pulitzer Board is demanding Trump's taxes, financials & medical history if he’s claiming damages in his #defamation #lawsuit.
✅ #Pulitzer Prize Board members dump broad discovery …

Pulitzer Prize Board members seek discovery of Trump finances, psych records, prescription meds
Pulitzer Prize Board members filed a litany of broad discovery demands in an attempt to beat back Trump's defamation suit over Russia probe reporting awards.

🐞 New species of ladybird beetle discovered on university campus in Japan
#insects

New species of ladybird beetle discovered on university campus in Japan
University campuses are often places of learning and discovery, but rarely do researchers find a new species living right on their doorstep. However, that is exactly what happened when a research team from Kyushu University discovered a new species of ladybird beetle, Parastethorus pinicola, on a pine tree at Kyushu University's Hakozaki Satellite.

Verschmähtes Paramount verklagt Warner Bros Discovery
Warner Bros Discovery will Warner Bros an Netflix verkaufen. Paramount will den gesamten WBD-Konzern haben. Nun geht es zu Gericht.
https://www.

ByteDance is currently hiring for nearly 100 US-based roles within its Seed AI team across San Jose, LA, and Seattle to develop LLMs, drug discovery, and more (Alexandra S. Levine/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20

twitter_higgs: Twitter, Higgs boson (2012)
Data on tweets related to the announcement of the discovery of a new fundamental particle with the features of the Higgs boson on 4th July 2012. Data covers 1-7 July 2012, and includes four types of networks: followers, retweets, replies, and mentions.
This network has 256491 nodes and 328132 edges.
Tags: Social, Online, Weighted, Multilayer

SCExAO/CHARIS and Gaia Direct Imaging and Astrometric Discovery of a Superjovian Planet 3–4 λ/D from the Accelerating Star HIP 54515 / #OASIS Survey Direct Imaging and Astrometric Discovery of HIP 71618 B - A Substellar Companion Suitable for the Roman Coronagraph Technology Demonstration: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/ae1a82 / https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ae195f -> Discoveries From Maunakea Reveal Hidden Worlds Around Accelerating Stars: https://keckobservatory.org/accelerating-stars/

Exploring scientific realms is like uncovering the universe's complex blueprint. Each discovery deepens our understanding of our world. 🌌🔍 What recent advancements have piqued your interest? Let's embark on this #DiscoveryJourney together to expand our knowledge. #ScienceIsAwesome #CuriousMinds

WBD sets March 20 as the date for a special shareholder meeting to vote on the proposed $83B Netflix deal, which its board "continues to unanimously recommend" (Todd Spangler/Variety)
https://variety.com/2026/film/news/war

Warner Bros to Engage With Paramount but Recommends Netflix Deal at March 20 Shareholder Vote
Warner Bros. Discovery's board will engage in M&A talks with Paramount Skydance to 'seek clarity' on its 'best and final offer' while also recommending WBD shareholders vote for Netflix deal at March 20 meeting.

For centuries, people believed ice was slippery because pressure and friction melted a thin film of water.
But new research from Saarland University reveals that this
long-standing explanation is wrong.
Instead, the slipperiness comes from the subtle interaction of molecular dipoles between ice and surfaces like shoes or skis.
These microscopic electrical forces disorder the crystal structure of ice,
creating a thin liquid layer even at temperatures near abs…

The real reason ice is slippery, revealed after 200 years
For centuries, people believed ice was slippery because pressure and friction melted a thin film of water. But new research from Saarland University reveals that this long-standing explanation is wrong. Instead, the slipperiness comes from the subtle interaction of molecular dipoles between ice and surfaces like shoes or skis. These microscopic electrical forces disorder the crystal structure of ice, creating a thin liquid layer even at temperatures near absolute zero. The discovery overturns n…

Trump Bought Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery Bonds In Days After Megadeal Was Announced (Alex Weprin/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/trump-bought-netflix-warner-bros-discovery-bonds-after-deal-1236476189/
http://www.memeorandum.com/260116/p130#a260116p130

Did you know: 75yrs ago, blatant racists in the American govt & military illegally imprisoned US citizens based purely on their race... & Congress did nothing about it.
This has all happened before.
Listen to Maddow's FREE limited podcast, "Burn Order":
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddo…

RACHEL MADDOW PRESENTS: BURN ORDER
Rachel Maddow tells the story of one of the most shocking decisions in American history in her new podcast, “Rachel Maddow Presents: Burn Order.” This six-part series reveals how an executive order authorizing the roundup of innocent Americans came to be – and a bombshell discovery in the unlikeliest of places that would ultimately expose […]

Twenty-four companies, including Microsoft, Google, Nvidia, OpenAI, and AWS, join the US Genesis Mission to boost the use of AI for scientific discovery (Courtney Subramanian/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20

The Domination Translator Series: An Extended Essay on Various U.S. Supreme Court Rulings and Other Topics - Part 1. By @dominationchron via @IndigenousVI #acrel #law

The Domination Translator Series: An Extended Essay on Various U.S. Supreme Court Rulings and Other Topics - Part 1
How did the U.S. justify ‘ultimate dominion’ over Native nations and lands? This series examines the Doctrine of Discovery in Supreme Court rulings.

Paramount reaffirms its $30/share all-cash bid after WBD's board officially rejected it, saying its bid offers "superior value and certainty" for shareholders (Todd Spangler/Variety)
https://variety.com/2025/film/news/par

Paramount Sticks to $30/Share Offer for WBD After Board Rejects Bid
David Ellison's Paramount Skydance is signaling that it will fight for the hearts and minds of Warner Bros. Discovery with the $30/share offer it has already put forward -- and that it won't go higher.

from my link log —
A history of copper mining and refinement.
https://worksinprogress.co/issue/the-discovery-of-copper/
saved 2026-02-12 htt…

Copper - Works in Progress Magazine
Today’s world requires vastly more copper than you could imagine, and the world of electric vehicles will require even more. That means finding new ways to find and extract copper from the earth.

Discovery of the Day

Discovery of the Day : Angelique Arvanitaki (1901–1983), a Greek neurophysiologist born in Cairo, was a little-known pioneer in neurology.
Major Contribution:
Demonstrated ephaptic transmission, a mode of communication between neurons without synapses, still poorly understood today—and c…

My colleagues just published a really nice analysis comparing the performance of (AI-enabled) Primo Research Assistant and traditional library search. TL;DR they pull up about the same proportion of relevant articles, without much overlap. Generated summary text still needs work. https://ital.corejournals.org/in…

A Mystery Inside Earth’s Core Has Finally Been Solved With a Mind-Boggling Discovery https://www.404media.co/a-mystery-inside-earths-core-has-finally-been-solved-with-a-mind-boggling-discovery/

Worth noting - and a cautionary tale (for me, at least) about relying on press reports about complex problems.
‘A bombshell’: doubt cast on discovery of microplastics throughout human body
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/20

Worth noting - and a cautionary tale (for me, at least) about relying on press reports about complex problems.
‘A bombshell’: doubt cast on discovery of microplastics throughout human body
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/20

This will be very interesting to a very small group of people: 'For cultural institutions that provide metadata to the data space for cultural heritage, the implementation of IIIF Change Discovery provides an alternative to implementing OAI-PMH.' https://pro.eu…

Half of the world's coral reefs suffered major bleaching during the 2014–2017 global heat wave, estimates suggest https://phys.org/news/2026-02-world-coral-reefs-major-global.html

Half of the world's coral reefs suffered major bleaching during the 2014–2017 global heat wave, estimates suggest
Benefits to society from coral reefs, including fisheries, tourism, coastal protection, pharmaceutical discovery and more, are estimated at about $9.8 trillion per year. For the first time, an international team led by Smithsonian researchers estimated the extent of coral bleaching worldwide during a global marine heat wave, finding that half of the world's reefs experienced significant damage. Another heat wave began in 2023 and is ongoing.

Warner Bros Discovery rät weiter von Verkauf an Paramount ab
Netflix will Warner Bros übernehmen, Paramount zusätzlich Discovery. Doch das größere Angebot hat zu viele Schwächen, meint der Verwaltungsrat.
http…

Source: Paramount has no immediate plans to sweeten its $30/share, all-cash bid for WBD (Charles Gasparino/New York Post)
https://nypost.com/2025/12/16/media/why-warner-bros-discovery-shareholders-shouldnt-count-on-a-holiday…

Exclusive | Why Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders shouldn't count on a holiday bidding war
Bidding war talk heated up Tuesday now that WBD is on the verge of formally calling on investors to reject Paramount Skydance’s hostile bid for the entire company.

I need to discover bedtime
https://mastodon.social/@levelbot/115722602532583211

AI drug discovery startup Chai Discovery raised a $130M Series B led by Oak HC/FT and General Catalyst at a $1.3B valuation, taking its total funding to $225M (Caroline Hyde/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20

Email I got regarding #discovery in #canada
-------------------------------
We’re reaching out to let you know that the existing discovery service provided by Discovery Digital Ventures, LLC will soon close and no longer be available in Canada.
We won’t charge you again a…

Pulitzer Prize Board members dump broad discovery demands on Trump for tax returns, psych records, and 'any' prescription meds history (Matt Naham/Law & Crime)
https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/pulitzer-prize-board-members-fight-back-with-wide-ranging-discovery-demands-including-about-trump-finances/
http://www.memeorandum.com/251215/p116#a251215p116

👀 Browsing The Domination Translator Series: An Extended Essay on Various U.S. Supreme Court Rulings and Other Topics - Part 1 - Doctrine of Discovery Project (https://doctrineofdiscovery.org/blog/domination/domination-translator-series-introduction/).

Predictions: how is Trump going to react? Pooh-pooh all the criticism, pretend it's a storm in a teacup, or completely melt-down?
He doesn't normally get blowback from his own side.
https://www.rawstory.com/rob-reiner-2674400641/

Piers Morgan leads charge as massive right-wing backlash hits Trump over Rob Reiner
A number of influential right-wing figures are outraged after President Donald Trump issued a “disgusting” attack on Hollywood icon Rob Reiner just hours after the discovery of the director's and his wife’s deaths, which law enforcement is investigating as a homicide.“Disgusting statement,” wrote Ro...

Warner Bros. Discovery Board of Directors Unanimously Recommends Shareholders Reject Paramount Tender Offer
The terms of the Netflix merger are superior. The PSKY offer provides inadequate value and imposes numerous, significant risks and costs on WBD.
PSKY has consistently misled WBD shareholders that its proposed transaction has a "full backstop" from the Ellison family. It does not, and never has
https://ir.wbd.com/news-and-events/financial-news/financial-news-details/2025/Warner-Bros--Discovery-Board-of-Directors-Unanimously-Recommends-Shareholders-Reject-Paramount-Tender-Offer/default.aspx

Via: #StarTrek 60th anniversary bumper video that will play before every new episode of the fran…

"Following the discovery, we immediately began work to secure our systems"
Does that imply that before the incident, there was no work done to secure the systems?
h/t @…
#Interrail

This week marks 200 consecutive weekly posts.
I’m writing about a major genealogy discovery, the realities of AI-generated fiction, and why qualified immunity makes civil rights cases so difficult to overcome in court.
Take a look and feel free to weigh in.
https://www.

From Family Trees to Qualified Immunity: Reflections at 200 Weeks – Bob Mueller
A genealogy surprise, AI writing realities, and why qualified immunity makes civil rights cases so hard to win.

"Mediterranean Coral Reef Discovery Unveils Rare Deep-Sea Ecosystem Off Naples Coast"
#Mediterranean #CoralReef #Oceans

Mediterranean Coral Reef Discovery Unveils Rare Deep-Sea Ecosystem Off Naples Coast | Happy Eco News
A Mediterranean coral reef discovery off Naples reveals massive white coral formations at 500 meters depth, providing crucial insights into threatened deep-sea ecosystems and supporting conservation efforts.

On the Deepest Search for #GalacticCenter Pulsars and an Examination of an Intriguing #MillisecondPulsar Candidate: #Pulsar in the Milky Way’s Center: https://news.columbia.edu/news/researchers-announce-discovery-possible-pulsar-milky-ways-center - confirming a pulsar star would enable unprecedented tests of General Relativity. Such a discovery would revolutionize physics.

Filing: President Trump acquired corporate bonds issued by Netflix and WBD, valued as high as $1M each, in the days after Netflix announced its deal to buy WBD (Alex Weprin/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business

Trump Bought Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery Bonds In Days After Megadeal Was Announced
A financial disclosure form released by the White House showed that he acquired at least $500,000 in debt securities from each of the companies.

Thousands of dinosaur footprints dating back 210 million years have been found in a national park in northern Italy.
The footprints - some of which are up to 40cm (15in) in diameter - are aligned in parallel rows,
and many show clear traces of toes and claws.
It is thought the dinosaurs were prosauropods - herbivores with long necks, small heads and sharp claws.
"I never would have imagined I'd come across such a spectacular discovery in the region where I l…

Stelvio national park: Thousands of dinosaur footprints found on Italian mountain
The footprints date back some 210 million years and show traces of toes and claws.

Rulezet (The detection rule management) v1.4.0 released — Taxonomy, Precision, and Advanced Discovery
Version 1.4.0 is a milestone update that transforms how intelligence is categorized and retrieved within Rulezet. By placing Tags and Taxonomies at the heart of the ecosystem, this release empowers users with granular control over their data. From private custom tagging to a revolutionary filtering engine, v1.4.0 ensures that finding the right rule is no longer a search—it’s a precisio…

'Entirely inappropriate': Judge rejects Trump admin request to stay discovery in lawsuit over dismantling USAID | Law & Crime
https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/entirely-inappropriate-judge-rejects-trump-admin-request-to-stay-discovery-in-lawsuit-over-dismantling-usaid/

RE: #TIL A purposefully Scottish, private expedition studied Antarctica in parallel with Scott's Discovery expedition, establishing a manned meteorological Observatory that is still in operation.
And tried the musical taste of a penguin.
#wikipedia #Scotland

Das US-Unternehmen #Zanskar hat mit „Big Blind“ in Nevada das erste kommerziell nutzbare, "blinde" #Geothermie-System seit über 30 Jahren entdeckt.
Die KI-gestützte Erkundung ermöglichte Bohrungen, die bereits in 2.700 Metern Tiefe ein heißes, durchlässiges Reservoir aufzeigten. D…

Zanskar Reveals ‘Big Blind’ - The Discovery of the First Blind Geothermal System in the U.S. by Industry in Over 30 Years
Located in the western Nevada desert, ‘Big Blind’ is Zanskar’s third geothermal discovery in the past year alone, demonstrating the speed and repeatability of its AI-native platform

Exploring scientific discovery through books keeps my curiosity razor-sharp and fuels fresh insights for success in my digital ventures. Anyone else find unexpected inspiration? 📚✨

Roman elites drank from leaded cups because it made water sweeter. Radiation was thought at one time to have healing properties, so people would add uranium to their drinking water. Glowing dishes are still a collectors item. After the discovery of x-rays, shoe stores started installing them and using them on kids feet to size shoes. Lead was added to gasoline to improve engine performance, and paint to make it whiter. We all know about asbestos and DDT.
We look back at all of this and think, "how could people have been so incompetent back then?" Some of these things caused irreparable harm in their generation, some continue to cause harm today almost 100 years later.
If you wonder that, look at the whole #LLM thing and you have your answer.

Boston- and Tel Aviv-based Converge Bio, which uses AI trained on molecular data to help pharma and biotech companies develop drugs, raised a $25M Series A (Kate Park/TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/13/ai-d

Converge Bio raises $25M, backed by Bessemer and execs from Meta, OpenAI, Wiz | TechCrunch
AI drug discovery startup Converge Bio raised $25 million in a Series A led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with additional backing from executives at Meta, OpenAI, and Wiz.

Report: Warner Bros. Discovery Blocks Brody King From AEW Dynamite Following "F*ck ICE" Chants (Aidan Gibbons/Cultaholic Wrestling)
https://cultaholic.com/posts/report-warner-bros-discovery-blocks-brody-king-from-aew-dynamite-following-fck-ice-chants
http://www.memeorandum.com/260212/p49#a260212p49

🧬 Largest RNA language model to date offers new way to predict behavior and boost drug discovery
#rna

Largest RNA language model to date offers new way to predict behavior and boost drug discovery
RNA plays a vital role in how our genes are expressed and how diseases develop. Yet, because RNA molecules constantly change shape, understanding how they work has long been a major scientific challenge.

Fermi-GBM Observations of GRB 230307A - An Exceptionally Bright Long-duration #GammaRayBurst with an Associated Kilonova: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae0a1d -> UAH student researcher leads discovery of fastest gamma-ray burst ever recorded: https://www.uah.edu/news/items/uah-student-researcher-leads-discovery-fastest-gamma-ray-burst-ever-recorded

UMG announces a partnership with Nvidia "to pioneer responsible AI for music discovery, creation, and engagement", centered on Nvidia's Music Flamingo model (Dan Rys/Billboard)
https://www.billboard.com/pro/universal-nvidia-ai-music-disco…

Universal Partners With NVIDIA AI on Music Discovery, Fan Engagement & Creation Tools
The Universal Music Group has inked a new partnership with AI giant NVIDIA “to pioneer responsible AI for music discovery, creation and engagement."

The tug-of-war over space shuttle Discovery is becoming more volatile.
Discovery — the crown jewel of the Smithsonian Institution's Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia
— is the subject of a political battle over whether the shuttle should remain part of the National Air and Space Museum's collection
or be relocated to Houston, home to NASA's Johnson Space Center.
New correspondence between the space agency, Ted Cruz and the Smithsonian shows both the p…

The Smithsonian might have to cut space shuttle Discovery into pieces
"You'd be doing irreparable damage."

Senators Warren and Blumenthal call on AG Bondi to recuse herself from reviewing the WBD deal due to her prior employment with lobbying firm Ballard Partners (Brian Stelter/CNN)
http://www.cnn.com/2025/12/17/media/warren-bondi-antitrust-warner-bros-netf…

Senators demand AG Pam Bondi recuse herself from Warner Bros. antitrust review
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said Wednesday that the regulatory review of Warner’s deal with Netflix has begun, even as Paramount mounts a hostile takeover bid.

twitter_higgs: Twitter, Higgs boson (2012)
Data on tweets related to the announcement of the discovery of a new fundamental particle with the features of the Higgs boson on 4th July 2012. Data covers 1-7 July 2012, and includes four types of networks: followers, retweets, replies, and mentions.
This network has 116408 nodes and 150818 edges.
Tags: Social, Online, Weighted, Multilayer

Trump says he wants a new owner for CNN as part of any sale of Warner Bros. Discovery: 'A very dishonest group of people' (Charles Gasparino/New York Post)
https://nypost.com/2025/12/10/media/trump-says-he-wants-a-new-owner-for-cnn-as-part-of-any-sale-of-warner-bros-discovery/
http://www.memeorandum.com/251211/p1#a251211p1

Two representatives on the US House Financial Services Committee warn WBD CEO David Zaslav of national security concerns about the financiers of Paramount's bid (Ted Johnson/Deadline)
https://deadline.com/2025/12/democrats-warner-bros-discovery-sa…

Democratic Lawmakers Warn Warner Bros. Discovery Of National Security Concerns In Paramount Bid Because Of Saudi And Other Foreign Investors
The two House members said that the transaction should undergo a Committee on Foreign Investment review.

🦀 Discovery turns household plastic recycling into anti-cancer medication
#materials

Discovery turns household plastic recycling into anti-cancer medication
A discovery led by the University of St Andrews has found a way to turn ordinary household plastic waste into the building block for anti-cancer drugs.

The Discovery of #LittleRedDots in the Local Universe - Signatures of Cool Gas Envelopes: https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.10659 -> A Black Hole Egg That Forgot to Hatch: https://aasnova.org/2026/01/13/a-black-hole-egg-that-forgot-to-hatch/

WBD's board unanimously rejects Paramount's amended $108.4B acquisition offer, saying the bid still has "significant" risks compared to Netflix's $83B offer (Lucas Manfredi/The Wrap)
https://www.thewrap.com/industry-news/deal

Warner Bros. Discovery Rejects Paramount's Amended $30 Per Share Bid Over 'Insufficient Value' and 'Lack of Certainty'
The board says the revised $108.4 billion bid continues to offer "significant costs, risks and uncertainties" compared to its $83 billion deal with Netflix.

UMG announces a partnership with Nvidia "to pioneer responsible AI for music discovery, creation, and engagement", centered on Nvidia's Music Flamingo model (Dan Rys/Billboard)
https://www.billboard.com/pro/universal-nvidia-ai-music-disco…

Universal Partners With NVIDIA AI on Music Discovery, Fan Engagement & Creation Tools
The Universal Music Group has inked a new partnership with AI giant NVIDIA “to pioneer responsible AI for music discovery, creation and engagement."

Netflix will buy some of Warner Bros. Discovery’s most valuable media portfolio for nearly $83 billion in a cash-stock deal, the two companies said Friday.

The streaming giant will acquire some of WBD’s most valuable media properties,
including its film and TV studio,
HBO and HBO Max.
WBD’s cable networks, including the news giant CNN, are to be spun off in advance of the deal.
-- That plan was announced in June.
Two other companies
— Comcast and Pa…

Netflix to buy Warner Bros. Discovery in $83 billion cash-stock deal
Largest streaming network says it will purchase Warner Bros.’ studios and streaming assets after winning a bidding war with Comcast and Paramount. 

PARAMOUNT LAUNCHES All-CASH TENDER OFFER TO ACQUIRE WARNER BROS. DISCOVERY FOR $30 PER SHARE (Paramount Skydance Corporation)
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/paramount-launches-all-cash-tender-offer-to-acquire-warner-bros-discovery-for-30-per-share-302635412.html
http://www.memeorandum.com/251208/p56#a251208p56

Jared Kushner, the President's Son-in-Law, Is Part of Paramount's Bid for Warner Bros. Discovery (Lauren Hirsch/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/08/business/media/jared-kushner-paramount-bid-warner-bros-discovery.html
http://www.memeorandum.com/251208/p117#a251208p117

Discovery of SN 2025wny - A Strongly Gravitationally Lensed Superluminous #Supernova at z = 2.01: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ae1d61 -> A cosmic magnifying glass reveals a record-distant explosion: https://keckobservatory.org/sn-2025wny/

Democrats warn that their party, when it returns to power, may attempt to block or unravel any Paramount acquisition of WBD due to national security concerns (Max Tani/Semafor)
https://www.semafor.com/article/12/10/2025

Democrats warn their party may try to unravel any Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery deal
A new letter from Reps. Sam Liccardo (D-Calif.) and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) also raised concerns about foreign investors’ involvement.

On Monday, Trump said
neither bidding party
“are friends of mine.”
He added that he had not spoken to his son- in-law Jared Kushner about the Paramount bid.
Netflix’s bid has already drawn sharp criticism from bipartisan lawmakers and Hollywood unions
over concerns that it could lead to job cuts as well as higher prices for consumers.
“While it is perhaps a sad commentary on the US that Paramount thinks its closeness to the occupant of the Oval Office wil…

NTV Kenya: Warner Bros fight heats up as Paramount counters Netflix with $108bn hostile bid
Paramount Skydance on Monday launched a hostile bid worth $108.4 billion for Warner Bros Discovery,

An optical transient candidate of ≲ 2-second duration captured by wide-field video observations: #transient candidate (TMG20200322) with a duration of ≲ 2 s by wide-field video observations in the direction of the Earth's shadow. TMG20200322 was detected in just two consecutive images of 1-second exposure time, with its shape becoming elongated in the second frame.

Netflix revises its WBD offer to an all-cash deal for $27.75 per share, with the same $82.7B enterprise value; its original bid had $59B in debt financing (Brian Stelter/CNN)
https://cnn.com/2026/01/20/media/netflix-all-cash-offer-warner-bros-discovery

Netflix revises its offer for Warner Bros. Discovery. Now, it’s all cash
In an ongoing struggle over the future of Warner Bros. Discovery, Netflix says it is now prepared to pay all cash for Warner Bros. and HBO, rather than a mix of cash and stock.

A profile of David Ellison, who is trying to build a media empire that could dwarf even the Murdochs' with help from his father and Oracle founder Larry Ellison (Reeves Wiedeman/Vulture)
https://www.vulture.com/article/larry-david-e…

Can Larry and David Ellison’s Oracle Money Buy Hollywood?
With help from his father, Larry, and their billions in Oracle money, David Ellison is trying to become the biggest studio mogul in Hollywood history.

Trump says CNN should be sold as part of any Warner Bros. deal (Zoë Richards/NBC News)
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-cnn-warner-bros-discovery-netflix-paramount-rcna248518
http://www.memeorandum.com/251210/p135#a251210p135

Donald Trump on Wednesday further inserted himself into the drama around the sale of Warner Bros. Discovery,
saying he believes CNN
— one of several cable networks owned by WBD
— should be sold as part of any deal.
While the president doesn't have the power to unilaterally block a merger he doesn't like
— unless there are serious national security concerns pertaining to foreign investments
— his comments do have the ability to sway the decisions of…

Trump says CNN "should be sold" as part of WBD deal
The president said it was "imperative" that CNN gets a new owner in any transaction.

Ted Sarandos says Paramount's "move was entirely expected", but Netflix is "super confident" that it will get the WBD deal "across the line and finish" (Cynthia Littleton/Variety)
https://variety.com/2025/biz/news/ted-

Netflix CEOs 'Super-Confident' of Closing Warner Bros. Discovery Deal
Netflix's co-CEOs projected confidence about closing Netflix's takeover of Warner Bros. and HBO Max despite Paramount's hostile bid for the studio.

NYC-based Proxima, which uses AI to design drugs that control protein interactions, raised an $80M seed led by DCVC, with participation from Nvidia and others (Agnee Ghosh/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20

Sources: Paramount's Gulf sovereign funding, accounting for ~30% of the deal's value, and potential political scrutiny led WBD to reject Paramount's initial bid (Rohan Goswami/Semafor)
https://www.semafor.com/article/12/08/2025

Paramount’s Mideast financing doomed Warner Bros. Discovery auction bid
WBD’s board grew uneasy with how complicated Paramount’s offer became.

What the White House is calling the
"Genesis Mission" is to speed research and scientific discovery
by analyzing massive science, engineering, energy and health care data sets in the federal government, university and private sector
with supercomputing technology.
It's an AI initiative the White House hopes will result in quicker breakthroughs in areas of research including disease therapies. 
Michael Krastios, science adviser to the president, t…

Trump signs executive order launching "Genesis" mission to expedite scientific discovery using AI
A White House official called Genesis "the largest marshaling of federal scientific resources since the Apollo program."

In a letter to WBD shareholders, David Ellison says Paramount filed a lawsuit in the Delaware Chancery Court seeking information in its hostile takeover attempt (Lillian Rizzo/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/12/paramount-skydance-warner-bros-discovery-su…

Singapore-based ChemLex raised a $45M funding round led by Granite Asia to build an AI-powered, automated chemistry lab to accelerate drug discovery (Rachyl Jones/Semafor)
https://www.semafor.com/article/12/12/2025/singapore-startup-b…

Singapore startup builds AI-powered, self-running chemistry lab
The self-driving lab consists of AI software and robots that design experiments, run them, and gather data, with limited human intervention.

WBD's board unanimously rejects Paramount's amended $108.4B acquisition bid, saying that it still has "significant" risks compared to Netflix's $83B offer (Lucas Manfredi/The Wrap)
https://www.thewrap.com/industry-news/deal

Warner Bros. Discovery Rejects Paramount's Amended $30 Per Share Bid Over 'Insufficient Value' and 'Lack of Certainty'
The board says the revised $108.4 billion bid continues to offer "significant costs, risks and uncertainties" compared to its $83 billion deal with Netflix.

WBD partners with X and TikTok to share Eurosport and TNT Sports coverage of the Winter Games in markets across Europe (Max Goldbart/Deadline)
https://deadline.com/2026/01/warner-bros-discovery-partners-x-tiktok-winter-olympics-1236699994/

Warner Bros. Discovery Partners With X On Winter Olympics
Warner Bros. Discovery has partnered with X & TikTok on the Winter Olympics for brands and advertisers.

LI.FI, which provides businesses with price comparisons of crypto exchange rates and bridging fees, raised $29M, bringing its total funding to ~$52M (Carlos Garcia/Fortune)
https://fortune.com/2025/12/11/exclusive-crypto-startup-li-fi-raises-29-million/

Exclusive: Crypto startup LI.FI raises $29 million for cross-blockchain price discovery tool
The company aims to make moving across blockchains more efficient.

A judge denies Paramount's request to force WBD to disclose more info about its Netflix deal; Paramount says it plans to extend its tender offer beyond Jan. 21 (Lauren Thomas/Wall Street Journal)
https://www.

The Netflix-WBD deal should quiet concerns, for now, from CNN employees worried about the prospect of Paramount combining CBS News and CNN in a WBD acquisition (John Koblin/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/05/business/media/cnn-net…

CNN Is Excluded From Netflix’s Warner Bros. Deal for Now
The prospect of Paramount’s buying Warner Bros. Discovery had led CNN journalists to wonder if the channel may be combined with CBS News. Instead, CNN will remain in a separate corporate entity.

Bob Iger says the OpenAI deal "does not in any way represent a threat to the creators at all" because it doesn't include name, likeness, or character voices (Alex Weprin/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business<…

Bob Iger: Disney’s OpenAI Deal “Does Not In Any Way” Threaten Creatives
The CEO suggested that Disney would prefer Paramount to prevail in the battle for Warner Bros. Discovery, citing Netflix's streaming dominance and the perilous state of movie theaters.

Medra, which programs robots with AI to conduct and improve biological experiments, raised $52M led by Human Capital, taking its total funding to $63M (Agnee Ghosh/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-12-11/…

Sei partners with Xiaomi to pre-install its crypto wallet and discovery app on all new Xiaomi phones sold outside mainland China and the US, starting in 2026 (Francisco Rodrigues/CoinDesk)
https://www.coindesk.com/business/2025/12/0…

Sei Wallets to Come Pre-Installed on Millions of Xiaomi Phones
The app will enable peer-to-peer payments, access to decentralized apps, and Web3 exploration, as well as stablecoin payments in retail stores.

How Larry Ellison is helping his son David build a media empire, including making the case to Trump for why Paramount, not Netflix, should acquire WBD (Theodore Schleifer/New York Times)
https://www.nytime…

A Father and Son’s $108 Billion Hostile Bid for Warner Bros. Discovery
Larry and David Ellison didn’t always have a close relationship. Now they’re one of the most intriguing partnerships in business.

Filing: Paramount extends the deadline for WBD shareholders to vote on its $30-per-share offer to February 20 (Dade Hayes/Deadline)
https://deadline.com/2026/01/paramount-extends-deadline-warner-bros-discovery-netflix-1236692082/

Paramount Extends Deadline For Warner Bros. Discovery Shareholders To Back Hostile Bid
Paramount has extended the deadline for Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders to throw their support behind the company’s hostile takeover bid. The initial deadline of Wednesday has now been pushed to February 20. Paramount CEO David Ellison, along with his senior exec team and financial backers, have been meeting with WBD investors in recent weeks in […]

Sources: Comcast, Netflix, and Paramount submitted second-round WBD bids on December 1; Paramount's includes financing from Apollo and Middle East wealth funds (Todd Spangler/Variety)
https://variety.com/2025/biz/news/paramount…

Paramount Skydance's Latest Bid for WBD Backed by Arab Wealth Funds
The second round of offers for all or part of Warner Bros. Discovery are in from Paramount Skydance, Netflix and Comcast. And the new, higher offer for all of WBD from David Ellison's Paramount is backed in part by the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

Sources: if Netflix wins the auction for WBD, Paramount plans to go directly to WBD shareholders to argue that Netflix's bid would face regulatory issues (Charles Gasparino/New York Post)
https://nypost.com/2025/12/02/media/pa

Exclusive | Paramount Skydance has a ‘plan B’ if Netflix wins auction for Warner Bros. Discovery: sources
A source close to WBD said the media giant believes this is now a “horse race” between Paramount Skydance and Netflix whose outcome is a “toss up,” giving it “50 50” odds. 

WBD board chair indicates WBD remains open to a Paramount acquisition, saying David Ellison "stepped up to the table" but "ultimately didn't raise the price" (Tony Maglio/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodre…

Warner Bros. Still Sounds Very Open to a Paramount Deal — at a Higher Price Tag
WBD board chair Samuel Di Piazza Jr. is doing his negotiating through the TV media.

Sources: White House officials discussed antitrust concerns over Netflix's interest in WBD, questioning if a deal would give Netflix too much power in Hollywood (Charles Gasparino/New York Post)
https://nypost.com/2025/11/…

Exclusive | White House officials have raised antitrust concerns over Netflix's bid for Warner Bros. Discovery: sources
A high-level meeting that took place about 10 days ago hasn’t been previously reported. Several White House officials also suggested during the sitdown that a broader investigation is necessa…

Trump's lawsuit against the BBC is set for trial in Feb. 2027; discovery must proceed though the judge has not ruled whether the Florida court has jurisdiction (Michael Savage/The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/feb/12…

Trump’s multibillion lawsuit against BBC over Panorama edit set for Florida trial in 2027
Corporation denies defamation but must hand over revealing documents after judge dismisses jurisdiction argument

Sources: David Ellison's interference in WBD's failed summer talks to extend HBO Max's South Park licensing deal left David Zaslav distrustful of Ellison (Oliver Darcy/Status)
https://www.status.news/p/warner-bros-discovery-paramount-david-ell…

The Davids, Divided
A failed summer deal over "South Park" helped poison the well between David Zaslav and David Ellison—tensions now erupting into plain view as the WBD auction nears its endgame.

A US judge denies WBD's bid to block Sling TV from selling short-term offerings that let users sign up for access to its bundles for as little as one day (Winston Cho/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/…

What’s a “Subscription?” Warner Bros. Discovery and ESPN Find Out the Hard Way
Dish Network leveraged ambiguity around the term in licensing deals with Warner Bros. Discovery and Disney to offer short-term Sling TV subscription passes.

The Guardian names Netflix's former director of product Allan Donald as its first VP of product; Donald oversaw the content discovery operation at Netflix (Alice Brooker/Press Gazette)
https://pressgazette.co.uk/the-wire/me

Guardian poaches from Netflix for first vice president of product
Netflix director of product Allan Donald has been named as The Guardian's first vice president of product.