Author: admin

  • Scooter Braun Exits CEO Role at HYBE, Settles With Justin Bieber

    Scooter Braun Exits CEO Role at HYBE, Settles With Justin Bieber

    Scooter Braun is transitioning his role at HYBE, the South Korean entertainment giant, moving from CEO of HYBE America to an advisory position which will have him joining the HYBE Board of Directors as a director and a senior advisor to chairman and CEO Bang Si-Hyuk. The move marks the end of a five-year run at HYBE, which is home to such K-pop acts as BTS and Katseye.

    The news was announced to HYBE staffers on Monday when Braun, dialing in from David Geffen’s yacht where he is vacationing, notified employees that the move was “in the works for quite some time,” according to a source who adds that the five-year plan was initiated with the sale of Braun’s Ithaca Holdings to HYBE in 2021. Braun will remain active in current HYBE projects, like the just-launched girl group Katseye. Braun intimated that he “isn’t going anywhere” and will “still help guide” the artists on the HYBE roster. During the call, Braun shared with the staff that, when he set out for a career in music 25 years ago, it was after reading the Geffen biography The Operator. Today, as he closes this chapter of his career, he reminded his colleagues of what he’s learned from Geffen: “Follow your dreams and anything can happen.”

    Braun built his business managing music artists like Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, J Balvin, Demi Lovato and The Kid LAROI under the SB Projects banner. In 2024, he stepped away from the management business, announcing his decision on social media, where he noted, “I have been blessed to have had a ‘Forrest Gump’-like life while witnessing and taking part in the journeys of some of the most extraordinarily talented people the world has ever seen. I’m constantly pinching myself and asking ‘how did I get here?’”

    The exit from management coincided with a split from Bieber which turned contemptuous, as THR reported in April, due to financial consequences triggered by the cancelation of Bieber’s Justice tour in 2022. In not fulfilling his contractual obligation to AEG (the tour’s promoter) and completing the concert dates, for which he received a $40 million advance, Bieber was left owing more than $20 million to AEG. Then-manager Braun, through his company, covered what was owed in the form of a loan at a highly favorable (to Bieber) rate. In addition, the two were partnered in a number of other businesses including a record label and film projects. Braun also helped secure a $200 million catalog deal for Bieber’s songwriting interests, possibly the largest nest egg in music history for an artist under 30. (Worth noting: Hailey Bieber, who married Justin in 2018, recently sold her Rhode Beauty skincare brand to e.l.f. Beauty for $1 billion; Braun was a seed investor.)

    THR has learned that a settlement between Braun and Bieber is now completed. “Scooter and Justin squashed their issues and are in a good place,” says a source who adds that Braun’s last act at HYBE was to close the book on the squabble and “leave the company, and Justin, in a good position.”

    Reps for Bieber declined to comment on the settlement.

    Stepping into the CEO position in Braun’s place and leading all day-to-day duties is Isaac Lee, who has been chairman of HYBE Latin America since November of 2023. Lee’s new title is chairman and CEO of HYBE Americas. In addition to running HYBE’s operations in Mexico, Miami, and Medellin, Lee will also have oversight of Nashville-based Big Machine Label Group (BMLG) and Quality Control Media Holdings, headquartered in Atlanta.

    While Braun’s next move is unclear, HYBE chief Bang Si-Hyuk commented, “Scooter has been an extraordinary partner, a visionary executive, and a true catalyst for cultural exchange. His contributions have been vital in establishing our ambitious presence in the U.S. market. I am deeply grateful for his leadership, his astute instincts and his unwavering passion for artists. We wish him immense success in his exciting next chapter and look forward to continuing our partnership in executing HYBE’s global vision.”

    Braun also remains one of HYBE’s largest individual shareholders. In announcing his new role, Braun said: “Being a part of HYBE and witnessing its remarkable growth has been one of the most inspiring chapters of my professional journey. Chairman Bang is a true visionary and a musical genius. What he has built with HYBE is unparalleled. I am incredibly proud of our collective accomplishments and look forward to supporting Chairman Bang and CEO Jason Jaesang Lee in their continued success as I step into what’s next.”

    Continue Reading

  • An inside look at Meta’s transition from C to Rust on mobile

    An inside look at Meta’s transition from C to Rust on mobile

    Have you ever worked is legacy code? Are you curious what it takes to modernize systems at a massive scale?

    Pascal Hartig is joined on the latest Meta Tech Podcast by Elaine and Buping, two software engineers working on a bold project to rewrite the decades-old C code in one of Meta’s core messaging libraries in Rust. It’s an ambitious effort that will transform a central messaging library that is shared across Messenger, Facebook, Instagram, and Meta’s AR/VR platforms.

    They discuss taking on a project of this scope – even without a background in Rust, how they’re approaching it, and what it means to optimize for ‘developer happiness.’

    Download or listen to the episode below:

    You can also find the episode wherever you get your podcasts, including:

    The Meta Tech Podcast is a podcast, brought to you by Meta, where we highlight the work Meta’s engineers are doing at every level – from low-level frameworks to end-user features.

    Send us feedback on Instagram, Threads, or X.

    And if you’re interested in learning more about career opportunities at Meta visit the Meta Careers page.


    Continue Reading

  • US set new record with 21 commercial launches in June, FAA says

    US set new record with 21 commercial launches in June, FAA says

    Private spaceflight continues its upward trajectory.

    American companies launched 21 commercial space missions in June 2025, which was a new record for a single month, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

    Continue Reading

  • Jennifer Aniston to Lead ‘I’m Glad My Mom Died’ Series at Apple TV

    Jennifer Aniston to Lead ‘I’m Glad My Mom Died’ Series at Apple TV

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

    Jennifer Aniston has lined up another series at Apple TV+.

    The star and executive producer of The Morning Show will lead a series inspired by Jennette McCurdy’s memoir I’m Glad My Mom Died at the streamer. McCurdy is adapting her book alongside Ari Katcher (Ramy, Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show), and the two will serve as co-showrunners. Aniston is also an executive producer.

    Former iCarly star McCurdy’s book, details the relationship she had with her abusive mother and the road to recovery she took following her mother’s death in 2013. I’m Glad My Mom Died became an instant bestseller after it was published in 2022.

    “I’ve been so touched by how much the emotional thrust of the story has connected with people, which I see as being my relationship with my mom,” McCurdy told The Hollywood Reporter soon after the book was released. “That’s an important and complicated relational dynamic to explore, and to see that people are responding to it has been amazing. And to see people responding to the humor of it and the aspect of exploring eating disorders and complicated grief, it’s really been incredible.”

    The series is described as a dramedy that will center on “the codependent relationship between an 18-year-old actress in a hit kids’ show, and her narcissistic mom who relishes in her identity as a starlet’s mother,” the show’s logline reads. Aniston will play the mother.

    Aniston also has the fourth season of The Morning Show on deck at Apple TV+. The series is set to return Sept. 17, with a two-year time jump following the events of season three in 2023.

    Apple Studios is producing the series based on I’m Glad My Mom Died. McCurdy and Katcher are co-showrunners and will executive produce with Aniston (via her Echo Films); Sharon Horgan and Stacy Greenberg of Merman Productions; Dani Gorin, Tom Ackerley and Josey McNamara of LuckyChap; and Jerrod Carmichael and Erica Kay.

    Aniston is repped by CAA, Lighthouse Management & Media and Hansen Jacobson; McCurdy,by CAA, Jill Fritzo PR and Hansen Jacobson; Horgan, by United Agents in the U.K. WME in the U.S. and Nelson Davis; LuckyChap, by Entertainment 360, CAA, Narrative and attorney Jeff Bernstein; Katcher, by WME, Entertainment 360, and Ziffren Brittenham; and Carmichael, by WME, Entertainment 360 and Johnson Shapiro.

    Continue Reading

  • Kazakhstan bans face coverings in public places – World

    Kazakhstan bans face coverings in public places – World

    Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed a law on Monday prohibiting individuals from wearing clothing in public places that covers their faces, joining a trend in several Central Asian countries to restrict forms of Islamic dress.

    The text of the law says clothing that “interferes with facial recognition” will be banned in public, with exemptions for medical purposes, in adverse weather conditions and at sporting and cultural events.

    The legislation, one in a series of wider amendments signed into law on Monday, does not explicitly mention religion or types of religious dress.

    Tokayev has previously praised the legislation as an opportunity to celebrate ethnic identity in Kazakhstan, a majority-Muslim country and former Soviet republic.

    “Rather than wearing face-concealing black robes, it’s much better to wear clothes in the national style,” he was quoted by Kazakh media as saying earlier this year.

    “Our national clothes vividly emphasise our ethnic identity, so we need to popularise them comprehensively.”

    Other Central Asian countries have introduced similar laws in recent years.

    Police in Kyrgyzstan have conducted street patrols to enforce their ban on the niqab face veil, according to local media reports. In Uzbekistan, violating the niqab statute carries a fine of over $250. Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon signed a ban on wearing clothing in public that is “alien to national culture”.

    Continue Reading

  • Threads launches its own DM inbox, as app moves further away from Instagram

    Threads launches its own DM inbox, as app moves further away from Instagram

    Instagram Threads is rolling out users’ most-requested feature to date: the ability to message people directly, without having to switch to another app, like Instagram. The company said direct messages (DMs) will begin rolling out to users globally beginning on Tuesday, alongside a new visual element called highlighter.

    The latter will emphasize interesting perspectives and conversations, Meta says, starting with Trending Topics.

    At launch, Threads DMs offer a basic set of features. They’ll support one-on-one chats, preset emoji reactions, the ability to report spam, and mute DMs (as on Instagram). Other features, like group messaging, inbox filters, and more advanced message controls, will arrive in a later release.

    That means today, you can’t block a follower or mutual from messaging you — you can only block them on Threads, which will also block them on Instagram. To control who can message you, you have to choose whether or not you follow the user.

    At launch, DMs will be available in most markets where Threads is available, except for Japan, Australia, the U.K., and the E.U.

    With the addition of DMs, Threads becomes more competitive with other text-first social apps like X and Bluesky, where users can engage with one another directly or even in group chats, as in X’s case.

    However, while X is working on encrypted direct messages within X Chat, Threads has no intention of tightly securing its private messaging feature.

    Image Credits:Meta/Threads

    “We’re not encrypting our DMs,” said Emily Dalton Smith, Threads VP of Product. “It’s really about just connecting directly and talking to people about whatever is happening now, which I think makes encryption less core to the experience.”

    Instead, she said that DMs are meant to build on the community people have created in the public space on Threads — a network that’s shaping up to be entirely different from its parent app, Instagram, Smith pointed out.

    Image Credits:Meta/Threads

    “One thing that’s been particularly exciting is that we have seen that people are building their own graphs on Threads,” she said. “They’re building up what we think of as an interest graph that is new and distinct from the social graph that underlies their account on Instagram.”

    Despite having been built on top of Instagram’s social graph, over a third of the people who come to Threads daily have less than a 50% overlap between their Instagram connections and Threads connections, Meta said.

    “Instagram is really for creativity and Threads is really for perspectives,” Smith noted.

    The company also found that users are following different sets of people across the two apps, Instagram and Threads, and are engaging in different interests and conversations.

    Because of this growing disconnect between the apps, Meta aims to test other ways for people to use Threads without an Instagram account.

    For instance, it’s testing the ability for users to log in with their Facebook account in Europe or create a Threads-only account. It’s also testing the ability to use Threads from the web while not logged in at all.

    Image Credits:Meta/Threads

    The Threads creator community is unique, too. Although it may include those who are popular creators on other platforms, some have become creators on Threads itself. One example is David Rushing, a passionate fan who built up the NBA Threads community.

    Smith said Threads would like to make it easier for its users to find communities like this and others, and this is an important part of the app’s upcoming roadmap.

    On this front, Threads initially introduced tags (like hashtags without the hash # symbol) to organize conversations. It then created topic feeds so you could see everything that was being discussed around that area of interest. Now, the focus will be on identifying the people who are active and top contributors within a community.

    Threads expects to show more suggested users to follow in search and recommendations over the next couple of months, Smith said.

    The new highlight feature could also help here.

    While today, the feature will highlight trending topics related to the content you are reading while scrolling your For You feed, over time, Threads could highlight perspectives from users or active conversations that you might want to jump into, including within various topic feeds.

    There are currently no other plans to monetize Threads beyond ads, Smith confirmed, even though Meta has an AI feature that could be integrated into the experience the way xAI’s AI chatbot, Grok, is used to sell X Premium subscriptions.

    Instead, Meta is first focused on getting ads right, while using AI to power things in the background, like trending topics’ headlines and summaries, for instance.

    That doesn’t mean the team will rule out AI features further down the road.

    “We consider, probably, all ideas,” Smith said, “but we’re really just building on what our community tells us and trying to prioritize such a small and growing app.”

    Threads is not small, to be clear; the app has 350 million monthly active users, far more than newcomers like Bluesky, which has 37 million registered users. But compared with Meta’s family of apps, where user bases are counted in billions, Threads still has much to prove to its corporate parent.

    Ahead of the global launch, DMs were tested earlier this month in a few markets, including Hong Kong, Thailand, Argentina, and Brazil.

    Continue Reading

  • Finance Minister urges global finance reform – RADIO PAKISTAN

    1. Finance Minister urges global finance reform  RADIO PAKISTAN
    2. Aurangzeb calls for equitable global financial reforms and scaled-up development support at FFD4 Conference  Ptv.com.pk
    3. UN chief seeks aid surge to check ‘climate chaos’  Dawn
    4. Invest in aid to build peace in troubled world: UN  Geo.tv
    5. ACG champions bold financial reform at the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development in Seville  ZAWYA

    Continue Reading

  • Winter sport athletes chasing Olympic medals at Milano Cortina 2026

    Winter sport athletes chasing Olympic medals at Milano Cortina 2026

    Steven Dubois – short track speed skater

    Where better to start than four-time world champion short track speed skater, Steven Dubois, who headed off to Japan at the end of last season for quite the trip.

    Diving in spectacular but frigid waters that left him trembling with cold, taking in the thrum of iconic cityscapes, and posting food photos, lots of food photos, Dubois enjoyed his well-earned break in April after… oh we’re sorry, did we forget to mention it, after winning all four of the titles at one world championships, and in the edition before the next Olympic Winter Games to boot.

    So yes, the lengthy break was clearly well-deserved after a mammoth 2024-25 season for the Quebec native, especially as he’ll likely feel a shift in focus toward him in Italy, after the retirement of compatriot and six-time Olympic medallist, including four gold, Charles Hamelin.

    Winning Olympic gold in the 5000m relay alongside Hamelin, Maxime Laoun, and Pascal Dion, Dubois also won individual silver in the men’s 1500m, and bronze in the 500m, so looks to have picked up the mantle for short track excitement for Canada with ease.

    But perhaps it’s no surprise Dubois has gone dark since his trip to the Far East, with no content posted on Instagram since April, as he goes into stealth mode with training ramping up.

    It’s possibly also unnerving for his fellow competitors as all of them target being at the Milano Ice Skating Arena for the start of the Olympic short-track speed skating event on 10 February.

    But qualification comes first.

    Based on the ISU Short Track World Tour competitions, which determine the Special Olympic Qualifying Classifications (SOQC) in 2025, the three best results out of four of the ISU Short Track World Tour competitions will decide the quotas for the SOQC over the respective distances.

    The first takes place in Montreal from 16 to 19 October, with many an eye likely trained on the favourite for mutliple events, Dubois.

    Continue Reading

  • Pakistan PM visits Iranian embassy, assures continued support following Israeli attacks

    Pakistan PM visits Iranian embassy, assures continued support following Israeli attacks

    Pakistan looking to sell excess LNG amid supply glut curbing local gas output — document


    KARACHI/SINGAPORE: Pakistan is exploring ways to sell excess liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes amid a gas supply glut that could cost domestic producers $378 million in annual losses, according to a presentation and a government official familiar with the matter.


    The country has at least three LNG cargoes in excess that it imported from top supplier Qatar and has no immediate use for, and is currently selling natural gas at steep discounts to local users, a second government official said.


    Power generation from gas-fired power plants, which has historically accounted for a lion’s share of LNG use in the country, has declined for three straight years ended 2024, with cheaper solar power use dramatically gaining at the expense of gas-fired generation, data from energy think-tank Ember showed.


    That has forced domestic producers of the fuel to curb production.


    Pakistan is currently exploring the possibility of transferring LNG cargoes to rented tankers for “offshore storage and onward sale,” state-owned oil and gas producer OGDCL said in a presentation to industry and government.


    “Excess LNG in the gas network has resulted in significant production operations impact for local exploration and production companies over last 18 months,” OGDCL said, adding that it had forced curtailment of domestic supply.


    The domestic industry could suffer $378 million in losses over the next 12 months at the current rate of curtailment, according to the presentation dated May 29 reviewed by Reuters.


    It is not immediately clear if Pakistan’s long-term LNG import contracts with QatarEnergy allows for a resale of cargoes. One of the government officials said the country was still exploring ways to do it.


    Qatar typically has a destination clause in long-term supply contracts with buyers that restrict where the cargoes can be sold.


    QatarEnergy did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment.


    Pakistan has already deferred five contracted LNG cargoes from Qatar without financial penalty, shifting delivery from 2025 to 2026, as the country grapples with surplus capacity.


    Pakistan’s petroleum minister Ali Pervaiz Malik declined to comment on the presentation, but said renegotiating contracts with Qatar was a “complex” process that could take at least a year, and a final decision on initiating it had yet to be made.


    “While the existing contract with Qatar allows Pakistan to decline vessels, doing so incurs penalties and other complications,” Malik told Reuters.


    The glut has stemmed from several gas-fired power plants, previously operating under must-run contracts, now being sidelined, Malik said.


    “It was expected that summer season will create extraordinary demand but the trend indicates the opposite,” OGDCL said in the presentation.

    Continue Reading

  • A High Stellar Multiplicity Rate Amongst TESS Planet Candidates In The Neptunian Desert Using Gaia DR3 Astrometry

    A High Stellar Multiplicity Rate Amongst TESS Planet Candidates In The Neptunian Desert Using Gaia DR3 Astrometry

    The colour-magnitude diagram of the CPM companion stars to host stars of confirmed exoplanets (left) and TOI PCs (right), corrected for G band extinction. The background consists of the primary and secondary stars in the El-Badry et al. (2021) binary catalog. The companion sources below the main sequence are discussed in Section 6.1. — astro-ph.EP

    We aim to discover whether the stellar multiplicity rate may provide information on the origin of recently discovered planets in the Neptunian Desert.

    Using Gaia DR3 astrometry, we search for common proper motion companions to 1779 known exoplanet hosts and 2927 exoplanet candidate hosts from the TESS mission, both within 650 pc.

    We find overall stellar multiplicity rates of 16.6±0.9% and 19.8±0.6% for confirmed and candidate exoplanets, respectively. We find stellar multiplicity rates of 16.7±5.8% and 27.5±2.6% for confirmed and candidate exoplanets in the Neptunian Desert, respectively. Hot Jupiter host stars were found to have rates of 25.8±2.1% and 22.9±1.3%.

    For the sample of candidate exoplanets, we find higher stellar multiplicity rates for stars hosting both Hot Jupiters and Neptunian Desert planets compared to control samples of similar stars not known to host planets. For the sample of confirmed exoplanets an increased multiplicity rate is seen for Hot Jupiter hosts, but cannot be significantly determined for Neptunian Desert planet hosts due to small sample sizes.

    If the candidates from TESS are indeed planets, the increased multiplicity rate observed could indicate that the Neptunian Desert and Hot Jupiter populations share similar formation mechanisms and environmental conditions. Alternatively, the TESS candidate high multiplicity rate could imply a prevalence of false positives related to binary and triple stars in this parameter space.

    Fintan Eeles-Nolle, David J. Armstrong

    Comments: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 14 pages, 9 figures, 6 tables
    Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP); Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)
    Cite as: arXiv:2506.22399 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:2506.22399v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)
    https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2506.22399
    Focus to learn more
    Submission history
    From: Fintan Eeles-Nolle
    [v1] Fri, 27 Jun 2025 17:15:41 UTC (862 KB)
    https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.22399

    Astrobiology,

    Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na’Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp veteran, (he/him) 🖖🏻

    Continue Reading