Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt and Benny Safdie unveiled the latter’s first solo directorial feature, The Smashing Machine, on Monday at the Venice Film Festival. The story of legendary MMA fighter Mark Kerr received a 15 1/12-minute ovation after its world premiere screening.
Johnson, in Venice for the first time, plays Kerr in the A24 wrestling drama that centers on an icon from the no-holds-barred era of the UFC as he struggles with addiction, winning, love and friendship at the peak of his career. Blunt plays Kerr’s girlfriend, Dawn Staples, with Ryan Bader, Bas Rutten and Oleksandr Usyk rounding out the cast.
In his review, Deadline’s Damon Wise wrote that “Johnson owns the whole thing with his truly remarkable work as fighter Mark Kerr, disappearing so fully underneath Kazu Hiru’s astonishing prosthetics that the opening of the film, presented as contemporary footage from an event in Sao Paulo 1997, looks genuinely like the real thing.”
He adds that the movie — “a biopic that’s light on the bio and resistant to being a pic” — “has all the right elements, but it plays them all in a very zen and really rather abstract way, much like the ambient free-jazz score by Nala Sinephro. … The result is a film that always seems to be a step or two ahead, which can be disorientating to say the least.”
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On why he decided to tackle mixed martial arts with a story set in the 1990s, Safdie told the crowd in Venice earlier today, “At that time period, there was something so experimental about what was going on. You had all of these different martial arts forms competing against one another, and it was just such a unique sport.”
He added, “It was also such a close-knit community, where everybody knew one another and everybody loved one another, and there was such a closeness amongst them, and to have that contradiction of this fighting world, but this love between them was something that was really beautiful to me, and I wanted to explore that.”
Johnson commented on how this film quenched his longtime desire to challenge himself as an actor. “When you’re in Hollywood, it becomes about box office. And you chase the box office. And the box office in our business can be very resounding, and it could push you into a category,” he said.
“I made those movies, and I liked them. They were fun. Some were really good and did well. And some not so much. But what I did realize is that I had this burning desire, and a voice in my head that said, ‘What if there is more?’”
Produced and financed by A24, The Smashing Machine is set to hit domestic theaters October 3. Producers include David Koplan, Johnson, Hiram Garcia, Dany Garcia, Safdie and Eli Bush.
Judging by the rapturous reaction to his performance as wrestler Mark Kerr in “The Smashing Machine” at the Venice Film Festival on Monday night, that seems to be the consensus out of Italy.
The 53-year-old actor sobbed uncontrollably as the audience on the Lido erupted into 15-minute standing ovation, one of the longest at this year’s festival so far.
Johnson, who once performed as the WWE wrestler known as the Rock, has been the star of such commercial fare as “The Mummy,” “Black Adam” and “Baywatch.” But he goes much deeper in his next project, which will be released by A24 in November, as a ’90s fighter with demons.
Johnson stars opposite Emily Blunt in the film, who plays Kerr’s girlfriend Dawn Staples. During the ovation, Benny Safdie — the film’s director — hugged both his stars and joined Johnson in shedding tears of joy as the clapping continued. Adding to the waterworks, Kerr also wept as the credits rolled.
As the hooting and cheering stretched on, “The Smashing Machine” proved to be the most emotional premiere on the Lido since Brendan Fraser collapsed into tears four years ago, launching his Oscar campaign for “The Whale.”
Before the screening started, one fan shouted Johnson’s signature WWE line, “Can you smell what the Rock is cooking?!” — prompting laughter from the man of the hour.
Johnson was in good spirits throughout the night. He worked one of Europe’s most glamorous red carpets, signing autographs for fans and snapping selfies. This year’s 82nd edition of Venice has been packed with stars — ranging from George Clooney to Julia Roberts to Emma Stone — and Johnson and Blunt added to the A-list wattage of the festival that’s now known as the official launch of awards season.
Johnson is nearly unrecognizable “The Smashing Machine,” undergoing pounds of prosthetics to portray the beefy two-time UFC Heavyweight champ. The actor previously told Variety that he was drawn to “The Smashing Machine” because Safdie is someone who “continues to push the envelope when it comes to stories that are raw and real; characters that are authentic and at times uncomfortable and arresting.”
“I’m at a point in my career where I want to push myself in ways that I’ve not pushed myself in the past,” said Johnson, best known for franchise fare like “Jumanji” and the “Fast and Furious” movies. “I want to make films that matter, that explore a humanity and explore struggle [and] pain.”
“The Smashing Machine” marks the solo feature directorial debut of Benny Safdie, who worked with his older brother, Josh, on indie favorites like “Good Time” and “Uncut Gems.” (Josh will also make his solo feature debut this year with A24’s “Marty Supreme,” a sports drama starring Timothee Chalamet.) “The Smashing Machine” reunites Benny Safdie and Blunt, who shared a memorable scene in Christopher Nolan’s historical epic “Oppenheimer,” as well as Johnson and Blunt, who co-starred in Disney’s action-adventure “Jungle Cruise.”
Google continues to refine its Quick Share feature, bringing smoother cross-device file transfers to Android and beyond. The service already supports fast sharing between Android devices, Chromebooks, and Windows PCs.
Sources suggest Google is preparing to extend Quick Share support to iOS and macOS, making it a true multi-platform tool. With this steady evolution, Quick Share is shaping up to be a universal solution for simple and reliable file sharing.
The latest update introduces a redesigned interface, now rolling out to selected users. The refreshed look mirrors Samsung’s One UI 8 design, focusing on clarity and accessibility. A new layout separates the Send and Receive modes, with a convenient toggle button at the bottom for quick switching.
By default, Quick Share now opens in Receive mode, highlighting the device name prominently. Incoming file requests are easier to spot, allowing users to accept transfers faster. Meanwhile, the Send mode has gained significant upgrades. It now includes a built-in file picker that supports multiple selections, even from different file types. A preview window also appears before sending, ensuring users share the right content with confidence.
With these enhancements, Google is not just redesigning Quick Share’s interface; it’s making the experience more intuitive, faster, and future-ready.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan batter Asif Ali retired from international cricket on Monday after 79 white-ball matches in a career often criticized for being too carefree.
The 33-year-old Asif represented Pakistan in 58 Twenty20s and 21 one-day internationals.
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His T20 highlight was 25 off seven balls during a win over Afghanistan at the 2021 T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates.
His last international was at the 2023 Asia Games.
The middle-order power-hitter scored 577 runs in T20s with a top score of 41 not out against Zimbabwe in 2018. In ODIs, he made 382 runs with 21 sixes and 22 fours. His last ODI was against Australia in 2022.
“Wearing the Pakistan jersey has been the greatest honour of my life and serving my country on the cricket field has been my proudest chapter,” Asif said on X.
“To my family and friends, who stood with me in moments of joy and in the deepest of trials, including the loss of my beloved daughter during the World Cup, your strength carried me forward.”
Researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) report that dietary fats found in common processed and animal-based foods can trigger asthma-like inflammation in the lungs. The findings, published in Science Translational Medicine, suggest that dietary modifications and repurposing of existing drugs may provide new strategies for managing a difficult-to-treat asthma subtype.1,2
The study focused on neutrophilic asthma, a nonallergic subtype characterized by immune cell–driven airway inflammation. This form of asthma is often severe, less responsive to conventional therapies, and more likely to result in hospitalizations compared with allergic asthma. Although previous evidence has linked obesity with neutrophilic asthma, the underlying mechanisms have remained unclear.
“Prior to this study, many suspected that childhood obesity was causing this form of asthma. However, we were observing neutrophilic asthma in children who weren’t obese, which is why we suspected there might be another mechanism,” said senior study author David A. Hill, MD, PhD, an attending physician with the Division of Allergy and Immunology at CHOP.
Mechanisms of dietary fat–driven inflammation
The research team investigated how specific dietary lipids influence the activity of lung macrophages, immune cells that coordinate inflammatory responses. Using a preclinical model, they showed that a high-fat diet increased levels of saturated long-chain fatty acids within lung macrophages. In particular, stearic acid, a fatty acid abundant in animal fat and processed foods, accumulated in these cells and amplified airway inflammation without contributing to obesity.
In contrast, oleic acid, a monounsaturated fatty acid, reduced inflammatory activity. These divergent effects highlight the role of lipid type rather than overall fat intake in shaping immune responses.
At the molecular level, the investigators found that dietary stearic acid promoted activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome, leading to elevated secretion of the cytokine IL-1β. Both IL-1β blockade and pharmacologic inhibition of the stress-response protein inositol-requiring enzyme 1α (IRE1α) attenuated inflammation in the model.
Evidence in children with asthma
To evaluate clinical relevance, the researchers examined samples from children with obesity and asthma. They identified macrophage populations with molecular features similar to those observed in the preclinical studies, reinforcing the link between dietary fatty acids and neutrophilic asthma.
“Asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases in children, and different treatments may be needed depending on the subtype of asthma,” said study coauthor Lisa Young, MD, chief of the Division of Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine at CHOP. “While there are many risk factors and triggers that are associated with asthma, this study provides evidence about how specific dietary components are linked to a particularly difficult-to-treat form of asthma. These findings are encouraging because they provide new treatment strategies and suggest that targeted dietary modifications may help prevent this asthma type.”
Implications for management
The findings suggest that neutrophilic asthma can be driven by dietary lipids independent of obesity, offering an explanation for cases observed in children with normal weight. By clarifying the role of saturated fats in lung immune activation, the study provides a biological basis for dietary interventions as well as potential pharmacologic approaches targeting IL-1β or IRE1α pathways.
These results contribute to a growing understanding of how nutrition intersects with immune-mediated disease. The authors emphasize that although lifestyle factors remain important in asthma management, targeted therapy directed at inflammation pathways may improve outcomes for children with this subtype.
References
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia researchers link dietary fats to more severe form of asthma. News release. Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. August 27, 2025. Accessed August 28, 2025. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1095986
McCright SJ, Harding O, Chini J, et al. Dietary saturated fatty acids promote lung myeloid cell inflammasome activation and IL-1β-mediated inflammation in mice and humans. Sci Transl Med. 2025;17(813):eadp5653. doi:10.1126/scitranslmed.adp5653
Islamabad police on Monday arrested a man for allegedly harassing and attempting to kidnap social media influencer Samiya Hijab.
A statement from the police spokesperson said the action was taken after her complaint and video statement.
A case was registered in the capital’s Shalimar Police Station at her complaint under Sections 354 (assault or criminal force to a woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 365 (Kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person), 392 (punishment for robbery), 500 (punishment for defamation), 509 and 511 of the Pakistan Penal Code.
The suspect had been stalking her for several days, the social media influencer said in the first information report.
She added that on Sunday at 6:30pm, an attempt was made to forcefully take her out of the house
“Today’s incident further escalated when he attempted to forcibly abduct me from my house while I was returning his gifts. This amounts to abduction, harassment, and assault under the law. For evidence, I have CCTV footage,” she was quoted as saying in the FIR.
Samiya thanked the Islamabad police in a subsequent video on her Instagram account and mentioned that the suspect had threatened her to take her complaint back.
Earlier in June, the Islamabad police said they had arrested the main suspect in the murder case of 17-year-old social media influencer Sana Yousaf, a day after she was shot dead in her house.
The Dead Sea, Earth’s lowest surface point and deepest hypersaline lake, is revealing remarkable salt structures known as “salt giants.” Driven by evaporation, density changes, and temperature-driven processes like double diffusion and “salt snow,” these vast salt deposits are forming in real time, something rarely observable elsewhere on the planet. Credit: Shutterstock
Salt giants and other striking formations in the Dead Sea reveal how evaporation and fluid dynamics shape Earth’s geological past and present.
The Dead Sea represents a unique convergence of conditions: it lies at the lowest point on Earth’s surface and contains one of the planet’s highest salt concentrations. This extreme salinity makes the water unusually dense, and its distinction as the deepest hypersaline lake produces remarkable, often temperature-driven processes beneath the surface that scientists are still working to understand.
Among the most intriguing features are the so-called salt giants — vast accumulations of salt within the Earth’s crust.
“These large deposits in the earth’s crust can be many, many kilometers horizontally, and they can be more than a kilometer thick in the vertical direction,” said UC Santa Barbara mechanical engineering professor Eckart Meiburg, lead author of a paper published in the Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics. “How were they generated? The Dead Sea is really the only place in the world where we can study the mechanism of these things today.”
Although massive salt deposits are also present in places such as the Mediterranean and Red seas, the Dead Sea is the only location where they are actively forming. This makes it an unparalleled site for investigating the physical processes that govern their development, including how their thickness varies across space and time.
Evaporation, precipitation, saturation
In their study, Meiburg and co-author Nadav Lensky of the Geological Survey of Israel describe the fluid dynamics and sediment transport processes currently shaping the Dead Sea. These processes are controlled by several factors, most notably the Dead Sea’s classification as a terminal salt lake — a body of water with no natural outflow. Evaporation is therefore the only means of water loss, a process that has been shrinking the lake for thousands of years while leaving behind extensive salt deposits. In recent decades, the damming of the Jordan River, its primary inflow, has intensified this decline, with the water level now dropping at an estimated rate of about 1 meter (3 feet) per year.
Temperature differences within the water column also play a key role in the formation of salt giants and related features such as salt domes and chimneys. For much of its history, the Dead Sea was “meromictic” (stably stratified), with a warmer, less dense surface layer resting above a cooler, saltier, denser layer at depth.
From meromictic to holomictic conditions
“It used to be such that even in the winter when things cooled off, the top layer was still less dense than the bottom layer,” Meiburg explained. “And so as a result, there was a stratification in the salt.”
This balance shifted in the early 1980s when partial diversion of the Jordan River reduced freshwater inflow, allowing evaporation to dominate. At that point, surface salinity reached levels comparable to the deep waters, enabling the two layers to mix. This change transformed the lake from meromictic to holomictic (a lake in which the water column overturns annually). Today, stratification still occurs, but it persists only for roughly eight months during the warmer part of the year.
In 2019, Meiburg and colleagues observed an unusual process in summer: the precipitation of halite crystals, or “salt snow,” typically associated with colder months. Halite (commonly known as rock salt) forms when salinity exceeds the amount water can dissolve, making the deeper, colder, denser layers the usual site of precipitation in winter. However, during summer, the researchers found that while evaporation raised the salinity of the upper layer, the warmth of the water allowed salts to keep dissolving there. This produced a condition called “double diffusion,” where patches of the warmer, saltier water near the surface cooled and sank, while portions of the deeper, cooler water warmed and rose. As the denser upper layer cooled further, salt began to precipitate, creating the unexpected “salt snow” phenomenon.
Salt snow and giant formations
The combination of evaporation, temperature fluctuations and density changes throughout the water column, in addition to other factors including internal currents and surface waves, conspire to create salt deposits of various shapes and sizes, assert the authors. In contrast to shallower hypersaline bodies in which precipitation and deposition occur during the dry season, in the Dead Sea, these processes were found to be most intense during the winter months. This year-round “snow” season at depth explains the emergence of the salt giants, found in other saline bodies such as the Mediterranean Sea, which once dried up during the Messinian Salinity Crisis, about 5.96 to 5.33 million years ago.
“There was always some inflow from the North Atlantic into the Mediterranean through the Strait of Gibraltar,” Meiburg said. “But when tectonic motion closed off the Strait of Gibraltar, there couldn’t be any water inflow from the North Atlantic.” The sea level dropped 3-5 km (2-3 miles) due to evaporation, creating the same conditions currently found in the Dead Sea and leaving behind the thickest of this salt crust that can still be found buried below the deep sections of the Mediterranean, he explained. “But then a few million years later the Strait of Gibraltar opened up again, and so you had inflow coming in from the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean filled up again.”
Meanwhile, salinity fluxes and the presence of springs on the sea floor contribute to the formation of other interesting salt structures, such as salt domes and salt chimneys, according to the researchers.
In addition to gaining a fundamental understanding of some of the idiosyncratic processes that can occur in evaporating, hypersaline lakes, research into the associated sediment transport processes occurring on the emerging beaches may also yield insight on the stability and erosion of arid coastlines under sea level change, as well as the potential for resource extraction, the authors state.
Reference: “Fluid Mechanics of the Dead Sea” by Eckart Meiburg and Nadav G. Lensky, 11 September 2024, Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics. DOI: 10.1146/annurev-fluid-031424-101119
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A big part of the appeal of Google’s affordable Pixel “A-Series” smartphones is that they have the same chipset – more or less – as the proper flagships. But, after rumblings early this year, a new piece of evidence suggests Pixel 10a will break that streak by forgoing the new Tensor G5 chip.
In a prior codename leak of Google’s 2026 smartphones, it was suggested that Google was still mulling over the decision to release Pixel 10a with either Tensor G5, the chip found in the rest of the Pixel 10 series, or the last-gen Tensor G4 chip which debuted in the Pixel 9 series. Price was the speculated reasoning at the time, but it also didn’t sound final back then.
Now, though, new evidence suggests Google is moving ahead with that decision.
Mystic Leaks on Telegram today posted a handful of specs from “stallion,” the codename that points to Pixel 10a. The device is listed with a display that can hit 2,000 nits, 128GB of storage (at UFS 3.1, of course), and Google’s Tensor G4 chipset. This breaks the pattern we’ve seen which started with Pixel 6a, where Google would recycle its same flagship Tensor chip in its midrange phone, albiet usually using a slightly slower version.
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It’s unclear what else Google may have in store for Pixel 10a, but it certainly sounds like a minimal update. The leaker also claims that the device won’t have a telephoto camera, meaning it likely has the same optics as the prior generation too.
What do you think of this potential change?
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This becomes Ann’s new family, and the dance sequences that follow are truly transcendent. Seyfried and her co-stars commit, body and soul, moving with a kind of possessed single-mindedness, ferocity, and abandon that seems to reach out of the screen, grab you by the scruff of your neck, and drag you along with them.
The music, too, is magical. For those allergic to the genre, let me clarify that this is not quite a sung-through musical, but rather a film with songs, and these tunes are, broadly, folksy, stilted, and haunting—traditional Shaker spirituals expertly reimagined by Blumberg. (Keep your eyes peeled for an extended cameo from the composer later on, as well.) One or two of the hymns, as sung by the angelic Seyfried, feel a little Disney-fied, certainly (some may get Mamma Mia!-slash-Les Misérables flashbacks), but these head-spinning set pieces are also, by and large, the movie’s strongest moments.
Soon, Ann meets her future husband, a tough-as-nails blacksmith (a brooding Christopher Abbott), just like her father, with whom she gives birth to a string of children. It all ends in heartbreak, and the montage that summarizes this chapter of her life is brutally economical, an excruciating and tonally masterful rollercoaster of false promise and unbelievable suffering. It lands Ann at her lowest point—but her faith eventually lifts her out of it, and she achieves a sort of sainthood.
This first hour flies by; the same is not true of the second. Ann and her acolytes journey to America to find more followers—a portion of the tale that feels more adrift but then finds its footing, largely thanks to another musical interlude. But once they reach the New World, what began as a breathless sprint turns into a bit of a slog.
Interesting questions are raised regarding Ann’s continued illiteracy, defections among her friends and family, and accusations of treason, given that she’s a British transplant spreading her own gospel at a time when the nation is fighting the colonial oppression of King George III. But The Testament of Ann Lee can’t seem to decide what to focus on. Instead, it falls into a by-the-numbers recounting of Ann’s story until we reach a confoundingly anti-climactic conclusion. What is this film trying to say, about Ann, this sect, and this moment in history? I have no idea, and I’m not fully convinced that Fastvold and Corbet know, either.
Nike is whipping up some crazy clean work right now. And on a sleeper Air Max sneaker no less? This is no shade to the new-ish Air Max SC, but in terms of Nike’s greatest Air Max hits, the recently released SC is comparatively slept on.
But obscurity does not a bad shoe make.
The Nike Air Max SC shoe in crisp all white has the same fresh and clean vibe associated with a new pair of Air Force 1 sneakers. That sneaker’s all-white upper and mesh paneling is understated. On purpose.
The Air Max universe has a lot of heavy-hitting shoes. From bold and beautiful pink 95s to quirky Air Max Sunders, the new-school Air Max lore is out of this world.
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Literally, there’s a few galaxy-coded Air Max sneakers out there. Nike even took it to the next level with its 3D printed Air Max sneaker.
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So when you have so much cross-genre innovation happening with just one sneaker, it’s hard to stand out as a slimmer, quieter silhouette.
But the Air Max SC doesn’t need to do the most to secure its spot as a reliable sneaker. In fact, keeping things simple and clean with this all-white colorway is a great way to establish some longevity.
It’s not time for the Air Max SC to do the most. That will come later, kind of like the Sunder’s expansive journey. For now, the best thing the Air Max SC can do is keep it lowkey. And at $90 on Nike’s website, it’s doing just that.
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