“Project Hail Mary” is the hottest ticket in town, and it’s got the receipts to prove it.
The Ryan Gosling-led film about a middle school science teacher sent to outer space to save humanity is breaking records right and left. “Project Hail Mary” raked in $80.5 million domestically and more than $140 million worldwide during its opening weekend, making the biggest opening ever for Amazon MGM.
The incredible reviews and word of mouth recommendations helped the film, which is based on Andy Weir’s novel of the same name, outperform high expectations. Currently, the movie has a 95% critic’s rating and 96% audience score on review aggregator <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/project_hail_mary">Rotten Tomatoes</a>.
Fans are especially excited that the non-franchise film is heartwarming, family friendly, smart, non-woke, original, and reminiscent of how movies used to be.
Amazon MGM took a real gamble on this one, building physical sets and using a real rock-shaped puppet rather than relying on green screens and CGI to create the look and feel. This all meant spending a <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/drew-goddard-project-hail-mary-high-potential-1236540318/#:~:text=Project%20Hail%20Mary%20came%20with,down%20swinging%20with%20this%20movie.%E2%80%9D">reported</a> $248 million, the most on any of the studio’s films to date. But it was worth it and audiences are responding to that authenticity in a big way.
“Project Hail Mary” was the first live-action project in 12 years for directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who were famously fired from the “Star Wars” spinoff “Solo.”
“It did seem like a crazy idea to make a movie with the hunkiest actor of his generation and a rock puppet,” Lord <a href="https://www.audacy.com/kcbsradio/entertainment/ap-ent-film-project-hail-mary-1st-ld-writethru">said</a> in a joint interview with Miller. “I guess we’re interested in difficult things.”
Screenwriter Drew Goddard was nominated for an Oscar for his adaptation of Weir’s other sci-fi novel “The Martian” (2015).
Part of “Project Hail Mary” gaining so much traction so quickly comes from social media recommendations, which were going strong all weekend.
“Took the wife and kids to see Project Hail Mary. We all really enjoyed it,” Daily Wire podcast host Matt Walsh <a href="https://x.com/mattwalshblog/status/2035403288154120599?s=43">said</a> of the film. “Its greatest achievement is that it’s an actual family movie. Not too babyish for adults and not too grown up for the kids. Reminds me of the PG movies they used to make all the time in the 80s and 90s. Very much a spiritual descendent of ET. Maybe Hollywood will take the hint and start making real family films again.”

Project Hail Mary

Non-Woke ‘Project Hail Mary’ Blasts Off With Massive Opening Weekend

Amazon

Box Office

Entertainment

Movies

U.S.

A Super Bowl commercial that features Amazon’s Ring doorbell camera triggered tremendous backlash online, with many viewers worrying that it glorifies mass surveillance.
The &#8220;Be A Hero In Your Neighborhood&#8221; ad begins with a video of a young girl reunited with her dog before jumping to a fictionalized preview of when her family pet went missing. Ring founder Jamie Siminoff explains during the ad that 10 million dogs go missing every year. The clip then cuts into a montage featuring missing dog posters stapled to telephone poles.
The commercial then shows the family using &#8220;Search Party” from Ring, which “uses AI to help families find lost dogs.&#8221;
“Since launch, more than a dog a day has been reunited with their family,” Siminoff continues as a neighborhood of Ring doorbell cameras scans and analyzes the dogs wandering by. &#8220;Be a hero in your neighborhood with Search Party. Available to everyone, for free, right now.&#8221;
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Search Party from Ring | Be A Hero In Your Neighborhood" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OheUzrXsKrY?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Social media users quickly noted the possible downside of all doorbell cameras being used for surveillance. 
“This [Ring] camera commercial played at #SuperBowl is something out of a dystopian thriller. Who would ever install these cameras after this? CREEPY AF!” one person <a href="https://x.com/leovanstaden/status/2020932261399626205">replied</a>. 
&#8220;Y’all, this Ring Doorbell Camera commercial was creepy as can be. They are not even hiding it anymore,&#8221; another commenter <a href="https://x.com/SollyinTexas/status/2020726405164626421">wrote</a>.
A third commenter <a href="https://x.com/BridgetPhetasy/status/2020681374261264861">echoed</a>, &#8220;Ring search party is terrifying and what’s most terrifying is that we opted into this like f**king idiots.&#8221;
“This is a huge problem disguised as a solution,” one of the YouTube comments says.
Others pointed out how surveillance is already happening everywhere, and that users could easily opt out of the “Search Party” feature. Others dismissed the commercial as harmless.
“The ring doorbell commercial about finding lost dogs is by far the best part of this entire Super Bowl. Well done Ring and Amazon,” one person <a href="https://x.com/ErlingStu/status/2020682280771977578">wrote</a>. 
Super Bowl LX took place on Sunday, February 8, and resulted in the Seattle Seahawks dominating the New England Patriots 29-13. There was a lot of controversy over Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny being selected to headline the halftime show despite not having any songs in English. 
TPUSA announced an alternative musical performance, The All-American Halftime Show, which aired at the same time as Bad Bunny’s set. The event, headlined by Kid Rock, attracted <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/millions-tune-in-for-tpusa-all-american-halftime-show-during-super-bowl">millions of viewers</a> who watched it live on multiple streaming platforms.

Young girl hugs a dog while looking out the window

Ring’s ‘Lost Dog’ Super Bowl Commercial Sparks Mass Surveillance Fears

Ring Doorbell 'Lost Dog' Super Bowl Commercial Sparks Debate

Business

Super Bowl

Surveillance

Film critics <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/becoming_2020_2/reviews/top-critics">raved</a> over &#8220;Becoming,&#8221; the fawning 2020 documentary about former First Lady Michelle Obama, produced by Michelle Obama.
<blockquote>The Detroit News: It&#8217;s a warm latte, delivered to you in your favorite mug.
NPR: Even with its flaws, Becoming is a compelling documentary, offering a carefully revealing look at a whip smart, ferociously practical woman trying to understand how her historic time in the White House changed herself, her family and the nation. </blockquote>
Now, see if you can detect a <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/melania/reviews/top-critics">slight tonal shift</a> in reviews for “Melania,” the new documentary capturing First Lady Melania Trump, who also produced the film, as she moves back into 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW.
<blockquote>Globe and Mail: Ratner has accidentally delivered the ultimate chronicle of 21st-century excess and greed, a world of casual yet immense cruelty covered in flop sweat and gold glitter.
Variety: A documentary that never comes to life. It’s a “portrait” of the First Lady of the United States, but it’s so orchestrated and airbrushed and stage-managed that it barely rises to the level of a shameless infomercial.</blockquote>
Several reviews compared the film to Nazi propaganda. One critic gave “Melania” a “rotten” score at Rotten Tomatoes while admitting <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/melania-reviews-critic-didnt-watch/">he never actually saw the film</a>. (That review was quickly removed from the critical aggregator site)
<div id="attachment_1040041" style="width: 394px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1040041" class="size-large wp-image-1040041" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/Melania-poster-384x576.jpg" alt="Amazon MGM Studios. Muse Films. New Element Media. RatPac Entertainment." width="384" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/Melania-poster-384x576.jpg 384w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/Melania-poster-200x300.jpg 200w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/Melania-poster-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/Melania-poster.jpg 999w" sizes=" (max-width: 384px) 100vw, 384px" />Amazon MGM Studios.</div>
The Guardian’s review compared the movie to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jan/30/melania-review-trump-film-is-a-gilded-trash-remake-of-the-zone-of-interest">2024’s “The Zone of Interest.”</a> That well-received drama depicted a Nazi family living next door to a concentration camp.
The reviewer didn’t stop there, mocking FLOTUS’s face and voice, a no-no in critical circles. Review the film, not the physical attributes of the people on screen. When a Variety scribe suggested actress Carey Mulligan wasn’t pretty enough to play the femme fatale in 2020’s “Promising Young Woman,” the outlet <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/jan/28/variety-apology-carey-mulligan-film-critics">uttered an apology</a> directly to the actress.
For some reason, that unwritten rule didn’t apply to “Melania.” Nor should FLOTUS expect an apology any time soon.
The chasm between movie critics and general audiences over “Melania” may be the new, startling benchmark. Rotten Tomatoes lists the film as having a 7% “Rotten” score from movie scribes and <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/melania">a 99 percent “fresh”</a> rating from the public at large.
Those blistering critiques, delivered by a film body that leans overwhelmingly to the Left, were just part of the media’s war on “Melania.”
The said war began before “Melania” hit American theaters on January 30. Outlet after outlet preened over reports of <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/movies/articles/melania-trump-promotes-film-amid-210206431.html">poor pre-release ticket sales</a>. So did <a href="https://www.aol.com/lifestyle/stephen-colbert-roasts-melania-documentary-144531012.html">Stephen Colbert of “The Late Show” fame.</a>
Empty theaters, reporters cried, suggested “Melania” would underperform even modest expectations. It did the opposite, earning north of $7 million in its opening frame. Recent documentaries made far, far less.
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">“Mr. Nobody Against Putin” &#8211; $19K to date in U.S.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">“Orwell: 2+2=5” &#8211; $355K in U.S.</li>
</ul>
For context, most documentaries are lucky to earn $1 million in theaters. “Melania,” media voices argued, might not make it to the $3 million mark. And, with a gaudy $40 million price tag courtesy of Jeff Bezos’ Amazon, that’s a debacle.
Except “Melania” delivered the biggest <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/insight/melania-opens-with-decade-best-documentary-debut/gm-8AE15378FA?gemSnapshotKey=8AE15378FA-snapshot-4&amp;ocid=AARDHP">documentary debut in a decade</a>. The film <a href="https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2026/02/05/nolte-exclusive-melania-gains-more-box-office-steam-with-wednesdays-1-25-million-haul/">has kept earning since then</a>. 
<div id="attachment_1040047" style="width: 632px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1040047" class="size-large wp-image-1040047" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/The-Donald-and-Mel-622x576.jpg" alt="Amazon MGM Studios. Muse Films. New Element Media. RatPac Entertainment." width="622" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/The-Donald-and-Mel-622x576.jpg 622w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/The-Donald-and-Mel-300x278.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/The-Donald-and-Mel-768x712.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/The-Donald-and-Mel.jpg 1379w" sizes=" (max-width: 622px) 100vw, 622px" />Amazon MGM Studios.</div>
USA Today argued it’s <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2026/01/30/melania-movie-amazon-documentary-trump/88415378007/">“patriotic” to slam “Melania</a>.”
To be the subject of a documentary, one would think you’d have to accomplish something beyond being a complicit grifter in two of the most cruel, dishonest, and dangerous presidential terms in American history.
Indiewire said the film’s box office success <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/features/commentary/melania-box-office-documentary-filmmakers-worried-1235177403/">is terrible news for the documentary genre</a>.  Suddenly, a rising tide doesn’t lift all boats.
It’s a scary time for documentarians. Will they have to start working with the likes of Brett Ratner to make infomercials that please Donald Trump to pay the bills? The success of “Melania” suggests they might.
Meanwhile, a news media landscape that routinely decries review bombing – the practice of slagging a film or TV show sight unseen due to a variety of pre-release complaints, like overt wokeness – suddenly <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/01/melania-documentary-reviews-deleted-letterboxd/">cheered on review bombing of “Melania.”</a>
NPR needed something negative to share about the film. So it dug into the demographic breakdown of movie patrons and determined a large number of <a href="https://www.npr.org/2026/02/02/nx-s1-5693775/melania-documentary-box-office-audience">older white women</a> lined up to see “Melania.”
How often do media outlets report on the demographics of a given film? Hint: Not very often. NPR likely sought to portray the film’s fan base as overwhelmingly white (with a touch of supremacy?)
A few outlets have thrown all credibility to the wind to savage “Melania.” The far-Left Daily Beast took the crown here. The site has repeatedly called the film a “<a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-desperately-tries-to-juice-melania-doc-after-box-office-flop/">flop,”</a> although it’s on pace to pass 2024’s “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/videos/am-i-racist?elementPosition=1&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Shows+and+Movies&amp;rowType=Portrait+Show+Carousel">Am I Racist?</a>” as the most successful documentary of the last decade.
<div id="attachment_819849" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/videos/am-i-racist?elementPosition=1&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Shows+and+Movies&amp;rowType=Portrait+Show+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-819849" class="size-large wp-image-819849" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/10/00_AIR_16x9_Streaming_V02-1024x576.jpg" alt="Am I Racist?" width="1024" height="576" /></a>DailyWire+</div>
“Melania” expands its release pattern in its second weekend, upping the theatrical count to 2,000 screens. Even if the film underperforms from here, the theatrical release has done its job.
Amazon likely viewed the film all along as a Prime Video draw, first and foremost. The documentary will draw attention and eyeballs to the streaming service, giving it a competitive title in a cutthroat streaming landscape. The film’s theatrical bow is an extended promotion for its final, digital destination.
Why all the unprofessional hate? The <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/politics-news/melania-trump-brett-ratner-documentary-interview-1236489826/">First Lady may have said it best</a> at the premiere of her own movie.
“Superior storytelling drives culture and in turn moves markets.”
Legacy Media outlets fear a conservative encroachment on their turf most of all.
* * *
Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic, and editor of <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HollywoodInToto.com</a>. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News’ Big Hollywood. Follow him at <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HollywoodInToto.com</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Amazon MGM’s “Melania” World Premiere

The Left-Wing Media Is Losing Its Mind Over ‘Melania’

The Left-Wing Media Is Losing Its Mind Over 'Melania'

Documentaries

Film

Hollywood

Leftists

Legacy Media

Melania Trump

Michelle Obama

Rotten Tomatoes

Tragedy occurred in the Bezos universe yesterday when 16,000 people were cut from Amazon.
The first round of cuts in October led to roughly 14,000 white-collar employees receiving pink slips. People in the world of journalism were deeply affected. They were really upset that tens of thousands of people were about to lose their jobs at Amazon, one of the most successful companies in America and in the world.
Just kidding.
They didn&#8217;t care.
They barely covered that; it lasted in the news cycle for about five seconds.
What they are really, really upset about in the Bezos universe is that The Washington Post is going to lay off one-third of its staff. The Washington Post is cutting — wait for it — 300+ jobs.
I&#8217;m just going to point out where the sympathies lie. 30,000 people lose their jobs at Amazon because Amazon is cost-cutting and reevaluating thanks to AI, and journalists respond, “You know, those are people who work in Amazon. Those might be factory workers, those might be middle management. They&#8217;re not us.”
But at The Washington Post, they laid off the third-string journalist in Gaza, who may or may not be a contractor for Hamas; they laid off the race and ethnicity reporter, and it’s “My God, the American promise has been sullied and violated! No, this cannot be!”
The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/business/media/washington-post-layoffs-feburary-2026-c105b237?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=AWEtsqcaQNca6RrDYdMgDke2Qwu1pfAhNcuwCLeGw2gtfcyFA6ZnY6MoI_3SOtNXZjo%3D&amp;gaa_ts=6984dc53&amp;gaa_sig=APDqepx-qArXwdbgE1oFZKF_NO-7qs9L1QsLikbvbByoXzZcBaTeCL6ss9lDG47LXXcfxAiG6I1p2ATcf6q7Uw%3D%3D">reported</a>:
<blockquote>The Washington Post is cutting one-third of its staff, slashing hundreds of jobs across the newsroom and other departments in an effort to trim costs and reshape coverage.
The layoffs will affect journalists in nearly all news departments, including the sports, foreign, technology and breaking-news teams, as well as business and technology staff. 
“If we are to thrive, not just endure, we must reinvent our journalism and our business model with renewed ambition,” Executive Editor Matt Murray wrote in a note to newsroom staff Wednesday&#8230;. The Post is closing its sports department in its current form but will retain some roles in that coverage area. It is shrinking its international coverage, and will focus on national news and features, investigations and advice on health and wellness topics.
Murray said the Post will continue to have correspondents in about a dozen international locations, and will focus on issues related to national security. “That’s what our readers seem to respond to the most,” he said. &#8230; The Post lost $77 million in 2023 and <a href="https://www.wsj.com/business/media/washington-post-challenges-trump-second-term-61ea6ed9?mod=article_inline">$100 million in 2024</a>, The Wall Street Journal previously reported, as it contended with traffic declines from sources including Google and Facebook. &#8230; In recent weeks, Post journalists—including foreign correspondents, local-news reporters and members of the White House team—made public pleas asking the paper’s owner, Jeff Bezos, to maintain their jobs.</blockquote>
The Washington Post, like the Daily Wire, is not a nonprofit. If journalists wish to start their own nonprofit and get a bunch of left-wing funders to put millions of dollars behind their jobs, they are free to do that. There are organizations that operate as charitable organizations that do active journalism on occasion.
But the idea that Jeff Bezos owes it to the employees of The Washington Post to maintain their jobs when the paper is losing money is crazy and stupid.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2362-left-wing-journalists-panic-as-wa-po-fires-300?elementPosition=5&amp;row=6&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
Nonetheless, the response from the media ecosystem is absolute shock and horror. Emmanuel Felton, the race and ethnicity reporter at The Washington Post — the race and ethnicity reporter? Is there breaking news in the race and ethnicity area? Is evolution suddenly occurring that you need l a reporter on race and ethnicity? How is that a coverage area? If on the Right there was a race and ethnicity reporter, we would recognize just how racist that is — put out a statement:
<blockquote>I&#8217;m among the hundreds of people laid off by The Post. This comes six months after hearing in a national meeting that race coverage drives subscriptions. This wasn&#8217;t a financial decision, it was an ideological one. The other reporter on my team covering race was also laid off as well as the editor in charge of race coverage across national. The team covering America beyond DC is now 90% white.</blockquote>
Oh, no. You mean that people covering issues are going to do so without regard to the race of the reporter?
We can&#8217;t have that.
“Racism,” says the guy who gets paid to talk about racism all day long.
Brianna Tucker, national politics breaking news reporter and the National Association of Black Journalists political task force chair, put out a statement saying, “I&#8217;m affected by layoffs at the Washington Post today. There aren&#8217;t enough words to describe the immense privilege and profound responsibility I&#8217;ve felt since hired at 25 as an editor. As a Black woman covering politics, (a dwindling cohort) today, that feeling is magnified.”
If your first take about being fired by a paper that is bleeding money is that you were fired because of your race, perhaps that betrays the style of coverage that you were doing, which might be one of the reasons the paper was suffering.
If you see everything through a racial lens and the paper for which you are reporting keeps losing money, and then you get fired, and in your firing statement, you talk about your specific race, perhaps you are part of the problem, not part of the solution.
Peter Baker, the New York Times’ chief White House correspondent, put out a tweet listing Bezos’ wealth over the years:
<blockquote>Jeff Bezos wealth in 2024: $194 billion Jeff Bezos wealth in 2025: $215 billion Jeff Bezos wealth today: $249.4 billion Net increase in Bezos wealth since 2024: $55.4 billion Cost of Bezos’s 417-foot superyacht: $500 million Amazon investment in &#8220;Melania&#8221;: $75 million Original Bezos purchase price of the Washington Post in 2013: $250 million Bezos net worth in 2013: $25.2 billion Net increase in Bezos wealth since buying the Post: $224.2 billion Last reported annual losses of Post: $100 million Number of years Bezos could absorb those losses with what he makes in a single week: 5</blockquote>
The premise of this tweet is that The Post is a charity, and that Bezos bought it as a charity operation.
The only number that matters in the tweet is this: “Last reported annual losses of Post: $100 million.”
Perhaps one of the reasons Jeff Bezos is worth $250 billion is that he does not hold on to declining assets. He does not run his businesses like charities. Maybe that would be the reason.
Maybe that&#8217;s why he is extraordinarily wealthy, and most of the reporters working for him are not, because they think they&#8217;re in the charity business.
As someone who&#8217;s the co-founder of a major media organization in the same business as the Washington Post, let me just say this: When you lose money, and you can see where you&#8217;re losing money, you have to lay people off.
That is how business works.
And Jeff Bezos is not doing anything wrong by laying people off.
The idea that journalists are somehow owed their position because the person who hires them is rich is extraordinary, especially when many of these same journalists are asking that the federal government step in and make the owners of their own businesses not rich anymore.
They think that the people who hire them are simply supposed to absorb the losses.
Bernie Sanders, a complete leech on the ass of American society for the last eight decades, a useless human being in the extreme, put out a statement saying, “If Jeff Bezos could afford to spend $75 million on the Melania movie and $500 million for a yacht to sail off to his $55 million wedding to give his wife a $5 million ring, please don&#8217;t tell me he needed to fire one-third of the Washington Post staff. Democracy dies in oligarchy.”
What is this, “He doesn&#8217;t need to?”
It is not about what people need to do in America; it is about what they want to do and what they have the freedom to do. That&#8217;s why this country kicks ass.
And that&#8217;s why his version of the country sucks.
If Bernie Sanders wants to get together a bunch of his left-wing friends to put together a 501c3 and rehire all the race reporters in the Washington Post, he is free to do that. He could sell his lake house, and he could hire several of these journalists, and they could work for him, and they could gallivant into the utopian socialist sunset together and enjoy their time.
But he&#8217;s not going to do any of that, the man who spent over $550,000 in 2025 campaign funds on private jets. 
How many Washington Post salaries could that pay?

Guild Members Rally Outside The Washington Post After Layoffs

Left-Wing Journalists Panic As WaPo Fires Over 300 Employees

Ben Shapiro

Capitalism

Jeff Bezos

journalists

layoffs

Opinion

Washington Post

Actor Timothy Busfield has reportedly been edited out of the Amazon MGM Studios movie “You Deserve Each Other” following child sexual abuse charges being filed against him.
The move comes after NBC did the same with a new episode of “Law &amp; Order: SVU” featuring the actor. The episode with Busfield was pulled from the schedule after being slated to air January 22, per <a href="https://variety.com/2026/film/news/timothy-busfield-edited-out-you-deserve-each-other-1236634868/">Variety</a>.
Busfield stands accused of sexually assaulting twin boys beginning when they were 7 years old. The actor worked with the child actors, born in 2014, on the set of “The Cleaning Lady,” which aired on Fox from 2022 to 2025. Busfield directed some episodes and was named an executive producer. 
One of the boys identified in court documents as “SL” told Albuquerque Police Officer Marvin Brown that Busfield touched his “penis and buttocks, masking it as play” more than once. The alleged abuse is said to have started with the boys when they were 7 years old, The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/west-wing-actor-timothy-busfield-turns-himself-in-to-face-child-sex-abuse-charges?author=Amanda+Harding&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=7&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=%E2%80%98West+Wing%E2%80%99+Actor+Timothy+Busfield+Turns+Himself+In+To+Face+Child+Sex+Abuse+Charges">reported</a>.
An investigation began in November 2024 when a University of New Mexico Hospital doctor reported his suspicions of sexual abuse and grooming to authorities. Investigators initially didn’t press charges, but the case was reopened in September 2025 when one of the boys reported the alleged abuse to his doctor.
The actor faced two previous sexual assault allegations in 1994 and 2012, but was never charged. Busfield recorded a video of himself professing his innocence just before turning himself in to the police earlier this month.
“You Deserve Each Other” is a romantic comedy starring Meghann Fahy and Penn Badgley and is based on Sarah Hogle’s bestselling novel of the same name. The plot involves an engaged couple who have fallen out of love and try to sabotage each other into calling off their wedding, but then fall back in love instead.
Busfield played the role of Bernie, the father of the bride, per <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/timothy-busfield-edited-out-of-you-deserve-each-other-1236478036/">The Hollywood Reporter</a>. No release date was given for the project. As of Tuesday morning, Busfield’s name was removed from the <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt37498811/fullcredits/?ref_=tt_cst_sm">cast list</a> on IMDb.
Amazon MGM Studios did not immediately respond to The Daily Wire&#8217;s request for comment.

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Amazon Axes Timothy Busfield From Rom-Com After Child Sex Abuse Charges

Timothy Busfield Edited Out of Amazon Rom-Com Amid Child Sex Abuse Allegations

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iRobot, the American company that created the robotic vacuum Roomba, filed for bankruptcy on Sunday, sending the company into the arms of its Chinese manufacturer just three years after regulators blocked a proposed sale to Amazon.
Under the <a href="https://media.irobot.com/2025-12-14-iRobot-Announces-Strategic-Transaction-to-Drive-Long-Term-Growth-Plan?utm_source=chatgpt.com">bankruptcy plan</a>, iRobot’s manufacturer, Picea, will take 100% of the company’s equity, shifting ownership from American to Chinese hands. The filing comes after iRobot cited declining sales, increased competition from lower-priced alternatives, and rising supply chain and manufacturing costs. Initially, the company hoped to merge with Amazon to improve its scale and get more competitive pricing for parts and inventory.
While the Federal Trade Commission has not commented on iRobot’s bankruptcy, the commission welcomed the collapse of the Amazon deal in January 2024. “We are pleased that Amazon and iRobot have abandoned their proposed transaction,” the United States Federal Trade Commission <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/01/statement-regarding-termination-amazons-proposed-acquisition-irobot">said</a>. “The Federal Trade Commission will not hesitate to take action in enforcing the antitrust laws to ensure that competition remains robust.”
Three years later, iRobot’s bankruptcy leaves the United States without a major American-owned competitor in the home robotics industry.
With iRobot’s bankruptcy, shareholders are expected to see their equity wiped out &#8212; an outcome that contrasts sharply with the $61 per share cash payout investors would have received had the Amazon acquisition gone through. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who urged regulators to oppose the deal, said at the time that Amazon should not be allowed to use acquisitions to avoid competition.
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“I have serious concerns about Amazon’s deal to buy iRobot,” <a href="https://x.com/SenWarren/status/1575616208417980417">said</a> Warren. “We’re asking the FTC to oppose this proposed deal to protect competition and consumers. Amazon shouldn’t be allowed to just buy their way out of competing.”
After the deal collapsed, iRobot laid off roughly one-third of its workforce and its stock price plummeted. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy later described the company’s struggle as “a sad story.”
“This American company invented this product, invented the category and built a business that was almost $1 billion in revenue,” Jassy said. He argued that successful businesses naturally attract competition, including from Chinese manufacturers, and that iRobot needed scale to survive.
“They needed to scale because scale lets you buy components at the right price and invest in R&amp;D,” Jassy said.
Jassy also addressed privacy concerns, noting that robotic vacuums must map the inside of customers’ homes to avoid running into furniture.
“What Western regulators were saying is that they trust these two large Chinese companies with maps of the inside of U.S. consumers&#8217; homes more than they do Amazon,” he said. “That can’t be what we were going for. I think we&#8217;ve got to try and find a way to be reasonable with what we are doing.”
At the time the deal was blocked, the Federal Trade Commission was chaired by President Joe Biden appointee Lina Khan, who quickly became known for her aggressive approach to antitrust enforcement, particularly toward large technology companies. Khan now <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mamdanis-transition-team-a-reflection-of-his-leftism">serves</a> as New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s transition team chair.

In this photo illustration, the IRobot logo is seen

Regulators Blocked Amazon-iRobot Deal, Now Bankruptcy Sends Company Back To China

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(Reuters) — Amazon is planning to end its long-standing tie-up with the U.S. Postal Service as the e-commerce giant prepares to expand its nationwide delivery network, the Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing three people with knowledge of the matter.
The online retailer has long been the top customer for USPS, providing more than $6 billion in annual revenue in 2025, the report said. Losing its business would be a major blow to the independent government agency that has been hit by an 80% decline in first-class mail volume since 1997.
For Amazon, building out its delivery network would bolster its standing in a parcel industry where it is already a major player thanks to its sprawling warehouse network and a largely non-union workforce that has allowed it to control costs.
Last year, Amazon Logistics handled 6.3 billion parcels, just behind the 6.9 billion handled by USPS, according to Pitney Bowes&#8217; parcel shipping index. The company is expected to overtake USPS in parcels by 2028, the data showed, a milestone it could hit sooner if the tie-up ends.
The retailer plans to pull the billions of packages it sends through USPS by the end of 2026, although the plans are not final and could change, the Washington Post report said.
AMAZON&#8217;S DELIVERY NETWORK EXPANSION
The company has already pledged more than $4 billion in April to expand its U.S. rural delivery network by the end of next year.
&#8220;Amazon has been building its distribution capabilities for several years and now has minimal reliance on other logistics companies,&#8221; said D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria, adding that the company was in a position to be &#8220;almost entirely self-reliant.&#8221;
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Still, the expansion of the delivery network will require more resources at a time when Amazon is pouring tens of billions of dollars on data centers to stay competitive in the artificial intelligence race.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report. Amazon said it wants to reach an agreement with USPS, while the agency did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
TOUGH TALKS
The plans to end the tie-up follow talks between Amazon and USPS over &#8220;negotiated service agreements&#8221; — contracts that lock in rates and speed deliveries for the agency&#8217;s biggest customers — which largely ended without a new deal, the report said.
Those agreements have largely favored big companies over individual retailers and small businesses, but Postmaster General David Steiner, appointed earlier this year, has said he wants to democratize them by opening them up to smaller-scale customers, the report added.
He plans to run a reverse auction early next year, offering access to postal facilities to the highest bidder rather than directly to Amazon, a proposal that largely ended the talks that had been under way since February, the report said.
Steiner met virtually with Amazon CEO Andy Jassy on November 14, according to the report.
USPS, which posted a $9.5 billion loss last year as electronic communications erode mail volumes and private rivals expand their footprint, has also drawn the attention of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Trump said in February he was considering merging USPS — which he called &#8220;a tremendous loser for this country&#8221; — with the Commerce Department, a move Democrats said would violate federal law.
&#8220;USPS needs Amazon a lot more than Amazon needs USPS,&#8221; said New York-based ecommerce analyst Juozas Kaziukenas. &#8220;Amazon has all the cards in their hands in this case.&#8221;
(Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru, additional reporting by Arnav Mishra, Helen Reid and Ruchika Khanna; Editing by Shailesh Kuber and Leroy Leo)

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Daily Wire host Andrew Klavan’s latest installment in his Cameron Winter detective series is flying off the shelves, becoming the most popular new release among similar books on <a href="https://www.amazon.com/After-That-Dark-Cameron-Mysteries/dp/B0F95HQXQF/ref=zg_bsnr_g_7538398011_d_sccl_1/130-6421290-9842518?isALC=true">Amazon</a>. 
Klavan’s book “<a href="https://store.dailywire.com/products/after-that-the-dark-cameron-winter-mysteries-book-5?variant=43284484587580">After That, the Dark</a>,” was the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/new-releases/books/7538398011/ref=zg_b_hnr_7538398011_1">No. 1 book</a> on Amazon’s new releases in private investigator mysteries as of Friday afternoon. The book climbed to the top spot just days after its October 28 release. 
“After That, the Dark” is the fifth installment in Klavan’s USA Today bestselling Cameron Winter mystery series. This story begins with Cameron Winter falling in love, but it soon becomes a mystery cloaked in conspiracy and death. 
After finally working up the courage to contact the attractive therapist Gwendolyn Lord, he finds himself immersed in a passion that feels heaven-sent. When Gwendolyn tells him about a true-life “locked room mystery,” Winter feels compelled to investigate.
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In Tulsa, Oklahoma, a solid citizen named Owen McKay suddenly went mad and killed his wife and child. Locked in a padded cell and monitored on video, he was nonetheless discovered dead from a projectile fired into his head. As Winter begins to ask questions, he finds Tulsa officials have been intimidated into silence by a killer who once tried to attack Winter during his days as a government assassin. What’s more, another mysterious death, just like McKay’s, has taken place in Connecticut. And both murders seem linked to a sinister billionaire who once clashed with Winter’s old mentor, the Recruiter.
Winter’s past and present are coming together in a single dangerous conspiracy. And though Winter desperately wants to escape his career as an assassin, his love for Gwendolyn is deepening quickly and he will do anything―and kill anyone―to protect her.
“After That, the Dark” is available now at <a href="https://store.dailywire.com/products/after-that-the-dark-cameron-winter-mysteries-book-5?utm_campaign=after-that-the-dark&amp;utm_content=20251031&amp;utm_source=editorial">Daily Wire Shop</a>, where readers can also obtain a <a href="https://store.dailywire.com/products/after-that-the-dark-cameron-winter-mysteries-book-5?utm_campaign=after-that-the-dark&amp;utm_content=20251031&amp;utm_source=editorial">signed copy</a> of Klavan’s latest hair-raising mystery. 
Want to read more before you buy? Check out the prologue and first chapter of “After That, the Dark” for free at <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/excerpt-get-a-sneak-peek-of-andrew-klavans-forthcoming-book-after-that-the-dark">The Daily Wire</a>. 
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Amazon.com said on Monday that a cloud computing unit at its data center in northern Virginia had largely contained fallout from a widespread internet outage that caused global turmoil among thousands of sites, including some of the web&#8217;s most popular apps like Snapchat and Reddit.
Amazon said it had addressed the underlying issue and was close to a resolution, but some users were still complaining of lingering difficulties using services such as digital wallet Venmo and video calling site Zoom. The disruption knocked workers from London to Tokyo offline and halted others from conducting normal everyday tasks like paying hairdressers or changing their airline tickets.
It was the largest internet disruption since last year&#8217;s CrowdStrike malfunction hobbled technology systems in hospitals, banks and airports, highlighting the vulnerability of the world&#8217;s interconnected technologies. It was at least the third time in five years that AWS&#8217;s northern Virginia cluster, known as US-EAST-1, contributed to a major internet meltdown.
Amazon did not address a request for more clarity about why that particular data center keeps being impacted, instead pointing to an online statement that said the matter had been &#8220;fully mitigated.&#8221; The problems stemmed from what is known as the Domain Name System, or DNS, which prevented applications from finding the correct address for AWS&#8217;s DynamoDB API, a cloud database relied upon to store user information and other critical data.
After hours of disruptions, many applications were gradually coming back online in the afternoon in the U.S. But AWS acknowledged that elevated errors were still affecting several services.
There were &#8220;tons of broken internal services still now as individual resolution and repair occurring,&#8221; read language from an internal problem ticket describing the outage and reviewed by Reuters.
Lambda, one of AWS&#8217;s computing services, was experiencing errors due to issues with an internal subsystem, AWS had said earlier. &#8220;We are taking steps to recover this internal Lambda system,&#8221; it said.
Earlier, AWS said the root cause of the outage was an underlying subsystem that monitors the health of its network load balancers used to distribute traffic across several servers.
The issue, AWS said, originated from within the &#8220;EC2 internal network.&#8221;
EC2 refers to Amazon&#8217;s &#8220;Elastic Compute Cloud&#8221; service, which provides on-demand cloud capacity within AWS. Businesses use EC2 to run virtual servers to develop, launch and host applications.
AWS had said earlier in the day it was seeing signs of recovery for EC2 use at a few data centers.
It was taking similar measures at the remaining locations and expects the problems to subside, AWS added, without providing a specific timeline.
While some apps like Reddit and Roblox had largely stabilized, according to outage tracking website Downdetector, others, including Snapchat and Duolingo, were showing a resurgence in issues seen earlier in the day.
Ken Birman, a computer science professor at Cornell University, said software developers need to build better fault tolerance into their code. He said AWS provides tools developers can use to protect themselves in the event of a problem at one of any of its sprawling network of data centers, and developers can also create backups with other cloud providers.
&#8220;When people cut costs and cut corners to try to get an application up, and then forget that they skipped that last step and didn&#8217;t really protect against an outage, those companies are the ones who really ought to be scrutinized later,&#8221; Birman told Reuters.
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AWS provides computing power, data storage and other digital services to companies, governments and individuals and is the world&#8217;s largest cloud provider, followed by Microsoft&#8217;s Azure and Alphabet&#8217;s Google Cloud.
Disruptions to its servers can cause outages across websites and platforms &#8211; ranging from food delivery apps to gaming platforms and airline systems &#8211; that rely on its cloud infrastructure.
AWS said on its status page that Monday&#8217;s outage originated at its US-EAST-1 location in northern Virginia, its oldest and largest for web services. The site suffered outages in 2021 and 2020.
According to documentation on the AWS website, the US-EAST-1 site is often the default region for many AWS services.
The problem highlights how interconnected everyday digital services have become and their reliance on a small number of global cloud providers, with one glitch wreaking havoc on business and day-to-day life, experts and academics said.
&#8220;This outage once again highlights the dependency we have on relatively fragile infrastructures,&#8221; said Jake Moore, global cybersecurity advisor at European cybersecurity firm ESET.
In Britain, Lloyd Bank, Bank of Scotland, and telecom service providers Vodafone and BT were all hit, according to Downdetector&#8217;s UK website, as was UK tax, payments and customs authority HMRC&#8217;s website.
&#8220;The main reason for this issue is that all these big companies have relied on just one service,&#8221; said Nishanth Sastry, director of research at the University of Surrey&#8217;s Department of Computer Science.
Ookla, which owns Downdetector, said over 4 million users reported issues due to the incident.
&#8220;For major businesses, hours of cloud downtime translate to millions in lost productivity and revenue,&#8221; said Ryan Griffin, U.S. cyber practice leader at insurance broker McGill and Partners.
Wall Street was largely unfazed, sending Amazon shares 1.6% higher to $216.48.
Ookla said at least a thousand companies were affected by the outage.
Snapchat last had over 7,500 reports on Downdetector, lower than the peak of more than 22,000 but still higher than the 4,000 outage instances at around 7:00 a.m. ET.
Artificial intelligence startup Perplexity, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and trading app Robinhood all experienced platform disruptions and attributed them to AWS.
Amazon&#8217;s own services, including its shopping website, Prime Video and Alexa, were also hit, although Downdetector last showed a decrease in severity.
Fortnite, owned by Epic Games; Clash Royale and Clash of Clans were among the gaming platforms affected. Uber rival Lyft was also knocked down in the United States.
In a post on X, Signal President Meredith Whittaker confirmed the messaging app was hit by the outage as well, though billionaire Elon Musk, who owns X, said his platform continued to work.
(Reporting by Shubham Kalia, Devika Nair, Ananya Palyekar and Deborah Sophia in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by James Pearson, Jaspreet Singh and Arsheeya Bajwa; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty, Joe Bavier, Richard Chang and David Gregorio)

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Amazon Web Services Nears Recovery After Major Outage Disrupts Apps, Services Worldwide

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Canada ended a digital service tax that would have hit major American tech companies hard after President Donald Trump announced he was ending trade talks with the country over the levy.
Canada’s Department of Finance said Sunday that it would rescind its Digital Service Tax (DST) in “anticipation of a mutually beneficial comprehensive trade arrangement with the United States.” The reversal came after Trump said on Friday that he was “terminating” trade discussions. 
The tax, which was expected to take effect on Monday, was anticipated to have a significant impact on United States-based companies like Amazon, Google, Meta, and Apple. 
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“Canada’s new government is focused on building the strongest economy in the G7 and standing up for Canadian workers and businesses,” <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2025/06/canada-rescinds-digital-services-tax-to-advance-broader-trade-negotiations-with-the-united-states.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> Minister of Finance and National Revenue François-Philippe Champagne. “Rescinding the digital services tax will allow the negotiations of a new economic and security relationship with the United States to make vital progress and reinforce our work to create jobs and build prosperity for all Canadians.”
Earlier this month, Champagne said that the Digital Service Tax would be implemented despite opposition from the United States. He <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-digital-services-tax-1.7565966" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> on June 19 that the tax was “going ahead” as scheduled and would be applied. 
The digital service tax was <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/services/taxes/excise-taxes-duties-and-levies/digital-services-tax.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">enacted</a> to require “foreign and domestic large businesses to pay tax on certain revenue earned from engaging with online users in Canada,” according to the Canadian government. The tax would have cost American businesses up to $2.3 billion annually, <a href="https://ccianet.org/research/reports/impacts-canada-proposed-digital-service-tax-united-states/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to a study conducted by the Computer and Communications Industry Association. 
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Sunday that he and Trump had agreed to continue trade discussions with the hope of signing an agreement by July 21. 
The resumption of talks follows Trump&#8217;s social media berating of Canada on Friday. 
“We have just been informed that Canada, a very difficult Country to TRADE with, including the fact that they have charged our Farmers as much as 400% Tariffs, for years, on Dairy Products, has just announced that they are putting a Digital Services Tax on our American Technology Companies, which is a direct and blatant attack on our Country,” Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114756567645919781">posted</a> on Truth Social. “Based on this egregious Tax, we are hereby terminating ALL discussions on Trade with Canada, effective immediately. We will let Canada know the Tariff that they will be paying to do business with the United States of America within the next seven day period.”
Several other trade deadlines are looming, including a July 9 cutoff for the United States and the European Union to make a deal before 50% tariffs on European imports are imposed.

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White House Artificial Intelligence Czar David Sacks warned against sweeping AI regulations this week, as well as against a “fear-based” approach to AI.
“The directive that President Trump gave us in his first week in office was that the U.S. has to win the AI race,&#8221; Sacks said at the Amazon Web Services summit Tuesday, noting that “You can’t just regulate your way through the AI race.&#8221;
&#8220;We have to out-innovate the competition. We have to win on innovation,” Sacks said. “Our companies, our founders, they have to be more innovative than our counterparts.”
One of the first <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/removing-barriers-to-american-leadership-in-artificial-intelligence/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">executive orders</a> President Donald Trump signed this term was aimed at “Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence.&#8221; The order instructed government agencies to “solidify our position as the global leader in AI and secure a brighter future for all Americans.”
In the same pen stroke, Trump threw out a <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/11/01/2023-24283/safe-secure-and-trustworthy-development-and-use-of-artificial-intelligence" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Biden-era executive order</a> that detailed the administration’s approach to controlling AI’s use and creation.
Speaking at the AWS summit, Sacks agreed with Trump’s position that America must devote itself to succeeding in the AI race against other countries, namely China.
“If we were to lose the AI race, the repercussions would be significant,&#8221; he said.
Sacks argued that, since America’s innovative strength resides in the private sector, regulators should allow the private sector to freely build up AI infrastructure and technologies.
Recently, Amazon announced its <a href="https://apnews.com/article/amazon-data-center-nuclear-power-plant-pennsylvania-electricity-grid-31f705d035069279b70fa27a5dc71596" target="_blank" rel="noopener">plan to invest $20 billion</a> into building data centers in Pennsylvania, one of which would draw its power directly from a nuclear power plant. Many other companies are beginning to invest in the budding technology. But Sacks warns that extreme overregulation will deter them from further investment.
Sacks noted that the discrepancy between a regulator’s and businessman’s approach to technology will either make or break America’s dominance in the AI playing field.
“The mentality of Washington and regulators is to restrict and to control whereas the mentality of Silicon Valley is, again, to be a little bit more open and have people adopt your technology,” he said. “We need to, you know, have constructive regulation as opposed to regulation that hobbles our companies and creates a huge compliance load.”
“If we had taken this approach towards the internet, if we had basically had a fear based approach to regulation,&#8221; Sacks said, &#8220;I don’t think the U.S. would have become the dominant country in the internet.”
Furthermore, Sacks explained Trump’s approach to international partnership in order to secure AI supremacy.
Referring to Trump’s recent <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/deals-and-diplomacy-heres-everything-trump-accomplished-on-his-gulf-tour" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gulf tour</a>, in which he secured billions of dollars in investments in AI technologies and data centers, Sacks explained that, “We have to adopt a partner mentality or we’re going to push the rest of the world into the arms of our global competitor.”

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