Punk duo Bob Vylan have been dropped from the line-up of a music festival in Manchester following their controversial appearance at Glastonbury.
The group had been due to headline the Radar Festival at Victoria Warehouse on Saturday, but organisers confirmed in a statement they would no longer appear.
In response, Bob Vylan posted a statement on Instagram, telling fans: “Manchester, we will be back.”
Bob Vylan had also been due to perform at French festival Kave Fest on Sunday, but organisers told the BBC their appearance there had been pulled too.
At Glastonbury, Bob Vylan’s lead singer led the crowd in chants of “death, death to the IDF [Israel Defence Forces]”, prompting criticism from across the political spectrum, including the prime minister who called it “appalling hate speech”.
Bob Vylan responded to the outcry in a post on Instagram on Tuesday, saying they had been “targeted for speaking up”.
“We are not for the death of Jews, Arabs or any other race or group of people. We are for the dismantling of a violent military machine,” they said.
They added that “we, like those in the spotlight before us, are not the story. We are a distraction from the story, and whatever sanctions we receive will be a distraction”.
On Wednesday, following the music festival cancellations, they reiterated their position, telling followers: “Silence is not an option. We will be fine, the people of Palestine are hurting.” The group added they would return to Manchester in the future.
Organisers of Kave Fest, which is held in the town of Gisors, said they would release a statement later explaining their decision to drop the band.
A German music venue has also confirmed that Bob Vylan will no longer open for US band Gogol Bordello at a concert in Cologne in September.
The BBC has been criticised for broadcasting the Glastonbury set via a live stream which was available on iPlayer.
The UK’s chief rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis strongly criticised “the airing of vile Jew-hate at Glastonbury” earlier this week.
The BBC previously said the “antisemitic sentiments expressed by Bob Vylan were utterly unacceptable and have no place on our airwaves”.
In a statement on Monday, the corporation said: “The team were dealing with a live situation but with hindsight we should have pulled the stream during the performance. We regret this did not happen.”
Broadcast regulator Ofcom also issued a statement, saying it was “very concerned” about the live stream, adding that “the BBC clearly has questions to answer”.
1. Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid (Ballantine Books: $30) A story of friendship, love and adversity during the 1980s Space Shuttle program.
2. James by Percival Everett (Doubleday: $28) An action-packed reimagining of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.”
3. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab (Tor Books: $30) A vampiric tale follows three women across the centuries.
4. The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong (Penguin Press: $30) An unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond.
5. So Far Gone by Jess Walter (Harper: $30) A reclusive journalist is forced back into the world to rescue his kidnapped grandchildren.
6. The Wedding People by Alison Espach (Henry Holt & Co.: $29) An unexpected wedding guest gets surprise help on her journey to starting anew.
7. My Friends by Fredrik Backman (Atria Books: $30) The bond between a group of teens 25 years earlier has a powerful effect on a budding artist.
8. Nightshade by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown & Co.: $30) A cop relentlessly follows his mission in the seemingly idyllic setting of Catalina Island.
9. Among Friends by Hal Ebbott (Riverhead Books: $28) What begins as a celebration at a New York country house gives way to betrayal, shattering the trust between two close families.
10. Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry (Berkley: $29) Two writers compete for the chance to tell the larger-than-life story of an heiress.
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Hardcover nonfiction
1. The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins (Hay House: $30) How to stop wasting energy on things you can’t control.
2. Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster: $30) A study of the political, economic and cultural barriers to progress in the U.S. and how to work toward a politics of abundance.
3. I Regret Almost Everything by Keith McNally (Gallery Books: $30) The restaurateur relates his gritty childhood and rise in the dining scene.
4. Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green (Crash Course Books: $28) The deeply human story of the fight against the world’s deadliest infectious disease.
5. How to Lose Your Mother by Molly Jong-Fast (Viking: $28) The author recalls her famed mother, writer Erica Jong.
6. Not My Type by E. Jean Carroll (St. Martin’s Press: $30) The journalist chronicles her legal battles with President Trump.
7. The Book of Alchemy by Suleika Jaouad (Random House: $30) A guide to the art of journaling, with contributions from Jon Batiste, Salman Rushdie, Gloria Steinem and others.
8. The Möbius Book by Catherine Lacey (Farrar, Straus & Giroux: $27) The novelist blends truth and fiction in an exploration of faith and love.
9. Original Sin by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson (Penguin Press: $32) Inside President Biden’s doomed decision to run for reelection and the hiding of his serious decline.
10. Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane (W. W. Norton & Co.: $32) The naturalist explores rivers as living beings.
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Paperback fiction
1. All Fours by Miranda July (Riverhead Books: $19)
2. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (Ecco: $20)
3. Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar (Vintage: $18)
4. One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune (Berkley: $19)
5. Problematic Summer Romance by Ali Hazelwood (Berkley: $20)
6. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (Harper Perennial: $22)
7. The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster: $19)
8. I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman (Transit Books: $17)
9. Sandwich by Catherine Newman (Harper Perennial: $19)
10. Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove (Bindery Books: $19)
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Paperback nonfiction
1. The Friday Afternoon Club by Griffin Dunne (Penguin: $21)
2. On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder (Crown: $12)
3. The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron (TarcherPerigee: $20)
4. All About Love by bell hooks (Morrow: $17)
5. The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi (Metropolitan Books: $20)
6. The Art Thief by Michael Finkel (Vintage: $18)
7. The Wide Wide Sea by Hampton Sides (Vintage: $19)
8. The White Album by Joan Didion (Farrar, Straus & Giroux: $18)
9. Sociopath by Patric Gagne (Simon & Schuster: $20)
Even by the exacting standards of France’s gastronomes, it sounds like a meal that is truly out of this world. When the French astronaut Sophie Adenot travels to the International Space Station next year, she will dine on French classics such as lobster bisque, foie gras and onion soup prepared specially for her by a chef with 10 Michelin stars.
Parsnip and haddock velouté, chicken with tonka beans and creamy polenta, and a chocolate cream with hazelnut cazette flower will also be on the menu, the European Space Agency said on Wednesday.
Food delivered to the ISS must meet strict specifications. It cannot be crumbly or too heavy and must be able to be stored for two years, the agency said.
Fresh fruit and vegetables are available only when a new spacecraft arrives with supplies. So most meals in space are canned, vacuum-packed or freeze-dried from a set of options provided by space agencies.
To spice things up, one out of every 10 meals is prepared for specific crew members according to their personal tastes.
Adenot said: “During a mission, sharing our respective dishes is a way of inviting crewmates to learn more about our culture. It’s a very powerful bonding experience.”
Her menu was developed by the French chef Anne-Sophie Pic, who holds 10 Michelin stars and was named best female chef by The World’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2011.
Pic said it was an “exhilarating challenge” to develop the menu, which includes four starters, two mains and two desserts.
Adenot, 42, a former helicopter test pilot, is scheduled to arrive for her first tour on the ISS in 2026.
A pair of Nasa astronauts returned to Earth in March after being unexpectedly stuck on the ISS for more than nine months because of problems with Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft.
The Princess of Wales has spoken candidly about the life-changing long-term challenges of recovering after chemotherapy, as she visited a hospital in Essex.
Catherine said during treatment “you put on a sort of brave face” but afterwards it can still feel “really difficult”.
She told patients at the hospital about life after cancer treatment: “You’re not able to function normally at home as you perhaps once used to.”
It was Catherine’s first public engagement since pulling out of an appearance at Royal Ascot, when it was said she needed to find the right balance in her return to work.
In January, Catherine announced she was in remission from cancer, which had been diagnosed last year. But her latest comments are a reminder how this is a gradual path to recovery.
She said: “You put on a sort of brave face, stoicism through treatment, treatment’s done – then it’s like ‘I can crack on, get back to normal’.
“But actually the phase afterwards is really difficult, you’re not necessarily under the clinical team any longer, but you’re not able to function normally at home as you perhaps once used to,” said the princess.
“But it’s life-changing for anyone, through first diagnosis or post treatment and things like that, it is life-changing experience both for the patient but also for the families as well.
“And actually it sometimes goes unrecognised, you don’t necessarily, particularly when it’s the first time, appreciate how much impact it is going to have.
“You have to find your new normal and that takes time… and it’s a rollercoaster it’s not one smooth plane, which you expect it to be. But the reality is it’s not, you go through hard times,” said Catherine.
The princess was in a conversation with a group of patients – and one told her: “It can be very discombobulating, in that time when you’ve finished active treatment.”
“Your reality has completely changed,” the patient told the princess.
Catherine talked of the need for recovery time: “There is this whole phase when you finish your treatment that you, yourself, everybody, expects you, right you’ve finished your time, go, you’re better, and that’s not the case at all.”
There had been much attention paid when the princess did not take part in an engagement at the Ascot racecourse.
But royal sources say that her comments on Tuesday will send an important message of support for other former cancer patients who are facing challenges in their own journey of recovery.
She made the comments as she visited a “well-being garden” at Colchester, which helps to use nature to support patients in their recovery from illness.
Catherine has spoken of the healing power of the natural world and how it has been a source of strength for her during her return from illness. She has described nature as her “sanctuary”.
In May, the Royal Horticultural Society launched a “Catherine’s rose”, which was sold to raise funds for the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, at a hospital where the princess had been treated.
There are 50 of this variety of rose that have been donated to Colchester Hospital, with the princess helping to plant the roses during her visit.
The well-being garden at the hospital is intended to provide a place to relax and recuperate for patients, recognising how nature can help people to feel better, both in their physical and mental health.
Irreverent, bouncy and as suitable at 4am in a club as it is at 4pm in a field, the music of Fatboy Slim dovetails perfectly with Glastonbury. And the man himself, Norman Cook, seems to know it.
This year’s festival marked a big milestone: Cook has now played 100 Glasto sets – or thereabouts – over the years, popping up everywhere from vast stages to tiny tents. To document the occasion, Guardian photographer David Levene bedded in with the DJ for the weekend, while Cook explained why it holds such a special significance for him.
Bumping into Chris Moyles, and right, having his photo taken with Charley and her son Remi, 7 months, from Somerset
“We’re not doing a kind of 100th show extravaganza on the grounds that we don’t actually really know which would be the 100th. It’s not an exact science, it’s a guesstimate. Thing is, I play so many shows, and so many of them are just like impromptu that we really don’t know. So I think it’d be a bit much to really get the bells and whistles out. We think it’s the Block9 show in the afternoon tomorrow – we think! But no candles, sadly.
“I’m very, very proud of my relationship with Glastonbury and my history with it and I’m lucky, because as a DJ, you can play multiple sets. Obviously, there’s probably people who’ve been to more Glastonburys, but they’ve only played one show per festival – that’s not going to get you into big high figures.”
“My first Glasto show was on the Pyramid stage in 1986 with the Housemartins, and we didn’t know anything really about Glastonbury or festivals. We’d never played in daylight before – we only ever played in clubs – and also we thought that Glastonbury was full of bearded hippies who would probably throw mud and bottles of piss out at us. So we went on quite nervous and quite agitated, but that was quite good in the Housemartins, channelling that aggression – we had the nice tunes, but there was a lot of aggression. We made an awful lot of friends, and it changed our view about Glastonbury. The only weird thing was me and Paul [Heaton] have both had fairly successful careers, but neither of us had managed to get back on the Pyramid stage for 38 years. Last year, Paul played the Pyramid stage and he phoned me up and said, ‘Will you come on and do a song with us, just to celebrate?’”
“My favourite Glastonbury moment was playing for [Rob da Bank’s label] Sunday Best. I was four days in at that point, my mind had been expanded, altered and distorted, as was everybody’s around me. So I decided if I played a record backwards, would people dance backwards? And it was a good theory. Obviously with CDJs, you can press reverse, but with the record, you have to physically rewind it. So I played Block Rockin’ Beats, by the Chemical Brothers, pretty much at the right speed but backwards. And it worked. Everybody got the joke. It was just after Twin Peaks too, so everybody was like, dancing backwards to the music. What I forgot was that Ed from the Chemical Brothers was in the DJ booth with me, and he went, ‘What are you doing?’ I’m like, ‘I want to see if they can dance backwards.’ He’s like, ‘Oh, great!’ That’s probably the most out there I’ve ever been.”
“I loved the Rabbit Hole. It was never the same [after it closed]. Absolutely anything could happen, and sometimes it did. I much prefer the smaller stages to the big ones, but having said that, when we did the Park the other year, that felt pretty much like the perfect gig. We brought Rita Ora on – I don’t normally do showbiz-y things like that. It’s probably my favourite set.”
“My son Woody is playing here this year, and it’s just fabulous. My daughter’s here, my ex wife [Zoe Ball] is here. We’re all hanging out. It’s beautiful. Woody came to Glastonbury when he was about eight, and it didn’t go well for him or for me and Zoe. But when he started coming under his own steam, it’s weird, because we didn’t teach him anything, he just assimilated himself into the fabric of it and made all these friends the first year he went. He was built for Glastonbury: he’s just got that energy, he wants to talk to everybody, he wants to change the world. Everybody keeps telling me how cool my son is or how mental my son is, sometimes both.”
“As a festival, Glastonbury never sold out to the man. The Eavis family have kept it independent, which means they’re in charge of the way it feels and the way it looks, and people respect that. There’s nothing corporate that interferes and dictates, you know, and it’s not about making money. The music business, especially when money comes in, it distorts your creative ideas and the feel of it and it becomes a money-making machine. But the Eavis family never sold out. They don’t do it for money. They do it because they love watching this going on on their farm every year.”
“I genuinely love this place so much. I feel proud if I’m promoting the Glastonbury brand, or just being part of the furniture or just wandering around saying hello to everyone. Michael Eavis can’t get around so much any more, but I was always so impressed about the fact that he would just spend the whole festival wandering, saying hello to everyone.”
SALT LAKE CITY, July 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — On Sunday, July 13, The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square’s signature program, Music & the Spoken Word will reach a historic milestone as it airs its 5,000th episode from the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Music & the Spoken Word has aired weekly since July 15, 1929 and is enjoyed by more than six million people in more than 50 countries throughout the world on radio, television, and online streaming.
“The 5,000th episode of Music & the Spoken Word represents more than longevity and international reach,” said Perry Sook, Joint-Board Chairman of the National Association of Broadcasters. “It represents unwavering excellence, a commitment to public service and the enduring power of faith and music to unite us all.”
Choir President Michael O. Leavitt said, “The Choir’s mission is to perform music that inspires people throughout the world and to feel God’s love for His children. We are grateful that Music & the Spoken Word has brought hope and peace to millions around the world each week and look forward to continuing that legacy for many years to come.”
Music & the Spoken Word began in 1929, shortly before the Great Depression and has aired each subsequent week for nearly a century. The music and inspirational messages have endured through times of struggle; including through the duration of World War II, following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion, 9/11 and during the COVID pandemic, and through times of celebration; including the end of World War II.
“Music & the Spoken Word is a gift to the people of the world, to any who are looking for peace and solace in a world that is growing increasingly busy. It allows for a moment of peace and stillness that we all need,” said Derrick Porter, executive producer, principal writer and presenter of Music & the Spoken Word.
About The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square
The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square is a world-renowned, 360-member choir credited with over 4,900 episodes of its weekly live performance of Music & the Spoken Word. The program is the longest continuing live network broadcast in history, now in its 96th year. The Choir has traveled around the world performing in acclaimed concert halls, for the inaugurations of seven U.S. presidents beginning with its first for President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965, at World’s Fairs and expositions, in acclaimed concert halls, on television and radio broadcasts and now internet streams, and numerous other prestigious events and occasions. The Choir has won four Emmy Awards, one Grammy Award and multiple Grammy nominations, was awarded the National Medal of the Arts in 2003 and inducted into the Classical Music Hall of Fame in 2015.
Music & the Spoken Word has been awarded a Peabody Award in 1943, was inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2004, and into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2010. The Choir has released over 200 recordings which have earned two platinum and five gold albums and hit #1 on Billboard’s classical music charts 15 times.
The Orchestra at Temple Square is a 200-member, all-volunteer symphony orchestra organized in 1999 to perform and accompany the musical ensembles of The Tabernacle Choir organization. The Choir and Orchestra, with their incomparable medley of voices and instruments and their shared faith in God, are a significant, recognizable presence in the world of music, giving service through song. More info at https://www.thetabernaclechoir.org or by following the Choir on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
Lawyers often tell their clients that everyone should have a will that clearly states who should inherit their assets after they die. But even having a will is not necessarily enough to avoid a costly and contentious legal dispute.
Consider what happened after Jimmy Buffett died of skin cancer at the age of 76 in 2023. The singer and entrepreneurial founder of the Margaritaville brand ordered in his will that his fortune be placed in a trust after his death. To manage the trust, Buffett named two co-trustees: his widow, Jane Slagsvol, and Richard Mozenter, an accountant who had served as the singer’s financial adviser for more than three decades.
In dueling petitions filed in Los Angeles and Palm Beach, Florida, in June 2025, however, Slagsvol – identified as Jane Buffett in her legal filing – and Mozenter are both seeking to remove each other as a trustee.
The outcome of this litigation will determine who gets to administer Buffett’s US$275 million estate.
As law professors who specialize in trusts and estates, we teach graduate courses about the transfer of property during life and at death. We believe that the Buffett dispute offers a valuable lesson for anyone with an estate, large or small. And choosing the right person to manage the assets you leave behind can be just as important as selecting who will inherit your property.
Buffett’s business empire
Buffett’s estate includes valuable intellectual property from his hit songs, including “It’s 5 O’Clock Somewhere,” “Oldest Surfer on the Beach” and “Cheeseburger in Paradise.” Buffett’s albums have sold more than 20 million copies worldwide and continue to generate some $20 million annually in royalties. Buffett also owned a yacht, real estate, airplanes, fancy watches and valuable securities.
In addition, he owned a 20% stake in Margaritaville Holdings LLC, a brand management company he and Slagsvol founded in the 1990s. Margaritaville owns 30 restaurants and 20 hotels, along with vacation clubs, casinos and cruise ships. It also sells branded merchandise.
According to Slagsvol’s petition, Buffett’s trust was set up to benefit his widow. Slagsvol, who married Buffett in 1977, is one of two trustees of that trust, which is required to have at least one “independent trustee” in addition to her “at all times.” That requirement is stated expressly in Buffett’s trust declaration.
Slagsvol receives all income earned by the trust – an estate-planning technique for giving away property managed by a trustee on behalf of the trust beneficiaries – for the rest of her life. She can also receive additional trust funds for her health care, living expenses and “any other purpose” that the independent trustee – Mozenter, as of July 2025 – deems to be in Slagsvol’s best interests.
The estate plan also created separate trusts for their three children: Savannah, Sarah “Delaney” and Cameron Buffett, who are in their 30s and 40s. Each child reportedly received $2 million upon Jimmy’s death. When Slagsvol dies, she can decide who will receive any remaining assets from among Buffett’s descendants and charities.
The structure of Buffett’s plan is popular among wealthy married couples. It provides lifelong support for the surviving spouse while ensuring that their kids and grandchildren can inherit the remainder of their estate – even if that spouse remarries. This type of trust typically cannot be changed by the surviving spouse without court approval.
If you’re fortunate enough to reach your golden years with a sizable nest egg, it helps your loved ones if you can draft a detailed will. You might also want to consider establishing a trust. Maskot/Getty Images
Dueling trustee removal petitions
Slagsvol is trying to remove Mozenter as the trust’s independent trustee.
She claims he refused to comply with her requests for financial information, failed to cooperate with her as her co-trustee, and hired a trust attorney who pressured her to resign as trustee. Slagsvol also raised numerous questions about the trust’s income projections and compensation paid to Mozenter for his services.
Mozenter’s petition, filed in Florida, is not available to the public. According to media coverage of this dispute, he seeks to remove Slagsvol as trustee. He claims that, during his decades-long role as Buffett’s financial adviser, the musician “expressed concerns about his wife’s ability to manage and control his assets after his death.”
That led Buffett to establish a trust, Mozenter asserted, “in a manner that precluded Jane from having actual control” over it.
Estate planning lessons
We believe that the public can learn two important estate planning lessons from this dispute.
First, anyone planning to leave an estate, whether modest or vast, needs to choose the right people to manage the transfer of their property after their death.
That might mean picking a professional executor or trustee who is not related to you. A professional may be more likely to remain neutral should any disputes arise within the family, but hiring one can saddle the estate with costly fees.
An alternative is to choose a relative or trusted friend who is willing to do this for free. About 56% of wills name an adult child or grandchild as executor, according to a recent study. Some estates, like Buffett’s trust, name both a professional and a family member. An important consideration is whether the people asked to manage the estate will get along with each other – and with anyone else who is slated to inherit from the estate.
The second lesson is, whether you choose a professional, a loved one or a friend to manage your estate, make clear what circumstances would warrant their removal. Courts are reluctant to remove a handpicked trustee without proof of negligence, fraud or disloyalty. But trustees can be removed when a breakdown in cooperation interferes with their ability to administer the estate or trust.
Some trusts anticipate such conflicts by allowing beneficiaries to replace a professional trustee with another professional trustee. That can resolve some disputes while avoiding the cost of seeking court approval.
Preventing disputes from erupting in the first place can help people avert the costly and embarrassing kind of litigation now ensnaring Jimmy Buffett’s estate.
Every time I read about another advance in AI technology, I feel like another figment of science fiction moves closer to reality.
Lately, I’ve been noticing eerie parallels to Neal Stephenson’s 1995 novel “The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer.”
“The Diamond Age” depicted a post-cyberpunk sectarian future, in which society is fragmented into tribes, called phyles. In this future world, sophisticated nanotechnology is ubiquitous, and a new type of AI is introduced.
Though inspired by MIT nanotech pioneer Eric Drexler and Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynman, the advanced nanotechnology depicted in the novel still remains out of reach. However, the AI that’s portrayed, particularly a teaching device called the Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer, isn’t only right in front of us; it also raises serious issues about the role of AI in labor, learning and human behavior.
In Stephenson’s novel, the Primer looks like a hardcover book, but each of its “pages” is really a screen display that can show animations and text, and it responds to its user in real time via AI. The book also has an audio component, which voices the characters and narrates stories being told by the device.
It was originally created for the young daughter of an aristocrat, but it accidentally falls into the hands of a girl named Nell who’s living on the streets of a futuristic Shanghai. The Primer provides Nell personalized emotional, social and intellectual support during her journey to adulthood, serving alternatively as an AI companion, a storyteller, a teacher and a surrogate parent.
The AI is able to weave fairy tales that help a younger Nell cope with past traumas, such as her abusive home and life on the streets. It educates her on everything from math to cryptography to martial arts. In a techno-futuristic homage to George Bernard Shaw’s 1913 play “Pygmalion,” the Primer goes so far as to teach Nell the proper social etiquette to be able to blend into neo-Victorian society, one of the prominent tribes in Stephenson’s balkanized world.
No need for ‘ractors’
Three recent developments in AI – in video games, wearable technology and education – reveal that building something like the Primer should no longer be considered the purview of science fiction.
In May 2025, the hit video game “Fortnite” introduced an AI version of Darth Vader, who speaks with the voice of the late James Earl Jones.
The estate of James Earl Jones gave Epic Games permission to use the late actor’s voice for an AI Darth Vader. Jim Spellman/WireImage via Getty Images
While it was popular among fans of the game, the Screen Actors Guild lodged a labor complaint with Epic Games, the creator of “Fortnite.” Even though Epic had received permission from the late actor’s estate, the Screen Actors Guild pointed out that actors could have been hired to voice the character, and the company – in refusing to alert the union and negotiate terms – violated existing labor agreements.
In “The Diamond Age,” while the Primer uses AI to generate the fairy tales that train Nell, for the voices of these archetypal characters, Stephenson concocted a low-tech solution: The characters are played by a network of what he termed “ractors” – real actors working in a studio who are contracted to perform and interact in real time with users.
The Darth Vader “Fortnite” character shows that a Primer built today wouldn’t need to use actors at all. It could rely almost entirely on AI voice generation and have real-time conversations, showing that today’s technology already exceeds Stephenson’s normally far-sighted vision.
Recording and guiding in real time
Synthesizing James Earl Jones’ voice in “Fortnite” wasn’t the only recent AI development heralding the arrival of Primer-like technology.
I recently witnessed a demonstration of wearable AI that records all of the wearer’s conversations. Their words are then sent to a server so they can be analyzed by AI, providing both summaries and suggestions to the user about future behavior.
Several startups are making these “always on” AI wearables. In an April 29, 2025, essay titled “I Recorded Everything I Said for Three Months. AI Has Replaced My Memory,” Wall Street Journal technology columnist Joanna Stern describes the experience of using this technology. She concedes that the assistants created useful summaries of her conversations and meetings, along with helpful to-do lists. However, they also recalled “every dumb, private and cringeworthy thing that came out of my mouth.”
AI wearable devices that continuously record the conversations of their users have recently hit the market.
These devices also create privacy issues. The people whom the user interacts with don’t always know they are being recorded, even as their words are also sent to a server for the AI to process them. To Stern, the technology’s potential for mass surveillance becomes readily apparent, presenting a “slightly terrifying glimpse of the future.”
Relying on AI engines such as ChatGPT, Claude and Google’s Gemini, the wearables work only with words, not images. Behavioral suggestions occur only after the fact. However, a key function of the Primer – coaching users in real time in the middle of any situation or social interaction – is the next logical step as the technology advances.
Education or social engineering?
In “The Diamond Age,” the Primer doesn’t simply weave interactive fairy tales for Nell. It also assumes the responsibility of educating her on everything from her ABCs when younger to the intricacies of cryptography and politics as she gets older.
It’s no secret that AI tools, such as ChatGPT, are now being widely used by both teachers and students.
Several recent studies have shown that AI may be more effective than humans at teaching computer science. One survey found that 85% of students said ChatGPT was more effective than a human tutor. And at least one college, Morehouse College in Atlanta, is introducing an AI teaching assistant for professors.
There are certainly advantages to AI tutors: Tutoring and college tuition can be exorbitantly expensive, and the technology can offer better access to education to people of all income levels.
Pulling together these latest AI advances – interactive avatars, behavioral guides, tutors – it’s easy to envision how an AI device like the Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer could be created in the near future. A young person might have a personalized AI character that accompanies them at all times. It can teach them about the world and offer up suggestions for how to act in certain situations. The AI could be tailored to a child’s personality, concocting stories that include AI versions of their favorite TV and movie characters.
But “The Diamond Age” offers a warning, too.
Toward the end of the novel, a version of the Primer is handed out to hundreds of thousands of young Chinese girls who, like Nell, didn’t have access to education or mentors. This leads to the education of the masses. But it also opens the door to large-scale social engineering, creating an army of Primer-raised martial arts experts, whom the AI then directs to act on behalf of “Princess Nell,” Nell’s fairy tale name.
It’s easy to see how this sort of large-scale social engineering could be used to target certain ideologies, crush dissent or build loyalty to a particular regime. The AI’s behavior could also be subject to the whims of the companies or individuals that created it. A ubiquitous, always-on, friendly AI could become the ultimate monitoring and reporting device. Think of a kinder, gentler face for Big Brother that people have trusted since childhood.
While large-scale deployment of a Primer-like AI could certainly make young people smarter and more efficient, it could also hamper one of the most important parts of education: teaching people to think for themselves.
Millions of children in more than 150 countries have watched a 7-year-old Latina with her trademark purple backpack take friends on fun television adventures.
Now, Nickelodeon’s animated series “Dora the Explorer” is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a live-action movie, premiering on Nickelodeon and Paramount+ on Wednesday, ahead of the July 4 holiday weekend.
“Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado” tells the story of 16-year-old Dora (played by Samantha Lorraine) who is budding into a skilled treasure hunter.
The movie follows Dora and her friend Diego (Jacob Rodriguez) as they trek through a jungle to find an ancient treasure that could grant a magical wish.
This teenage version of Dora, Mexican director Alberto Belli says, is like Indiana Jones and Lara Croft, but with a spunky “lo hicimos” (“We did it”) attitude that makes her uniquely Latina.
Dora played by Samantha Lorainne and Diego played by Jacob Rodriguez in “Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado.”Pablo Arellano Spataro / Nickelodeon/Paramount+
But according to Belli, Dora is more interested in the adventure because it can help her figure out who she is and what other people are like.
Developing this larger sense of finding her place became a guiding theme for the movie.
“When you’re taking a cartoon character into a live action, you need to go a little bit deeper. So we tried to create some more problems,” Belli said in an interview, accompanied by actress Samantha Lorraine. “She (Dora) loses her bag, which is a spoiler, but it’s also in the trailer. So now she needs to find who she really is. And I think right now, more than ever, people feel a little lost.”
Dora’s backpack typically contains specific items, including a map, which she will need on her adventures. And Belli says that when “you don’t know exactly where you need to go,” you have to look inside yourself to figure it out.
Lorraine says that “Sol Dorado” (“Golden Sun”) is more about finding an internal space — “who you are as a person.”
“When she (Dora) finds Sol Dorado, to me, it was this full circle moment that we had finally finished this character arc,” the young actress said.
Many iconic action-adventure characters “usually go and explore someone else’s culture. They never explore their own culture,” Belli said. “What’s really exciting about Dora is she loves history. She’s exploring her own culture.”
Dora played by Samantha Lorraine and Boots voiced by Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias in “Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado.”Pablo Arellano Spataro / Nickelodeon/Paramount+
The movie incorporates Indigenous Latino traditions that influence Dora’s identity.
One such tradition was based on “ayllu,” which is the Andean way of organizing communities to support each other through shared land, resources and responsibilities.
“When it comes to ayllu, friendship and connection is so important, and I think Dora is the epitome of that. She’s the connection through most cultures of the world,” Lorraine said, adding that “Dora the Explorer” has been translated into more than 30 languages.
Belli said that they had an expert on set to guide them through different Indigenous traditions, including quipus, which are knotted cords that were used by the Incas to record information.
They also had two consultants to work on pronunciation for when Dora had to speak in Quechua, which is an Indigenous language spoken by people in parts of Perú, Bolivia and Ecuador.
Lorraine, who identifies as Cuban American, says that playing Dora was a privilege because she offers many Latino children visibility.
“I kept thinking to myself, what do I want my little cousins to see when they watch this movie?,” she said.
Lorraine wants “Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado” to help viewers — regardless of their age — keep their sense of adventure and curiosity alive.
Dora has “always been part of pop culture,” Belli said, adding that he has a 5-year-old who’s a big fan.
“When I got the job, he got more excited than I did,” the director said with a laugh. “What I love about Dora is she’s a positive influence in people; she teaches you how to be positive, energetic and adventurous — and at the same time she teaches Spanish in a fun way, which I think is very cool.”
