Riley returns with new emotions and new concepts. Does it have the same impact as the first film? Is it an accurate portrayal of adolescence? And where’s Bing Bong?
• This article contains spoilers for Inside Out and Inside Out 2
Inside Out 2 has far exceeded expectations at the box office over the weekend, shattering records and massively boosting morale across the film industry. So, we know a lot of people went to see it, and that a lot of them in the US liked it (it got an A grade from CinemaScore, which tracks exiting punters’ reactions).
The elephant in the room is that the original Inside Out was a masterpiece. A best-part-of-a-decade-in-the-making masterpiece: immaculately structured, insightful, tight, funny and very moving. Matching that is an almost impossible task – right? We want your thoughts on how the new movie measures up to the old, and stands on its own terms.
The sequel to the 2015 hit opened with $155m at the US box office, the best of the year so far, and $140m internationally – the biggest overseas animated opening of all time
Inside Out 2, Pixar’s belated sequel to the 2015 animation about the emotions controlling an 11-year-old girl, has far exceeded ticket sale predictions for its opening weekend. The film, which opened across the world on Friday, had been optimistically tracking to hit $90m (£71m) at the US box office; in fact it hit $155m (£122m).
This makes it not only the highest-performing film of the year so far (leaving Dune: Part Two’s $82.5m (£65m) in the dust) but the first movie since last year’s Barbie ($162m/£127m) to make over $100m on its opening weekend.
The latest play from the writing duo focuses on the landmark 1997 climate conference in Kyoto, Japan. During rehearsals, they talk about the importance of consensus, and the challenges of turning negotiations into drama
The rehearsal room in London’s Bethnal Green has a concentrated, businesslike and anticipatory atmosphere. It is filled with people sitting at tables with microphones in front of them, as though a conference were about to begin, which, in a sense, it is. On the stage’s periphery are directors Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin and the playwrights Joe Robertson and Joe Murphy, co-founders of the Good Chance company, and I can see, even from a distance, how purposeful they all are. This is the same team that was responsible for The Jungle, the internationally celebrated show about the theatre the two Joes set up in Calais’s refugee camp. Now, they are halfway through rehearsals of a fascinating, meticulously researched and high-risk new project, Kyoto, about the UN’s climate conference of 1997.
The conference’s stated aim was to cut global greenhouse gases by 5% by 2012 and was the first building block in the introduction of climate legislation across the world, starting the process that led to the adoption of the Paris agreement in 2015, which included emissions pledges for all. The Kyoto protocol was signed, against seemingly impossible odds, by 84 countries and more than 100 more have since joined. Its effectiveness has been limited - the developed nations all met their targets (some with some judicious offsetting with other countries’ reductions), but global emissions have since soared. However, as the first summit at which the world’s nations started to come together, it has become an historic environmental landmark.
As Julia Louis-Dreyfus tackles the death of her on-screen daughter in recent fantastical drama Tuesday, Guardian writers look back at the death scenes that ruined them
Major spoilers ahead
“Have you seen death in your bed?” bellows Julianne Moore’s unfaithful gold digger, wracked with guilt and hurtling toward a full breakdown as the husband she’s never appreciated draws his final breaths. The cold, horrifying fact of mortality covers Paul Thomas Anderson’s skyscraping Magnolia, the first film he made after watching his own father succumb to cancer, an experience he channeled into the plot strand concerning Jason Robards’ ailing Earl. As he withers away in his Los Angeles mansion, sifting through a lifetime of regret, his mistakes return to him in the form of the virulent misogynist son stunted by his dad’s neglect. Tom Cruise delivers the best acting of his entire life as the long-estranged Frank in their confrontation, his open-wound emotionality a leveling gesture of naked vulnerability from Anderson, but Robards matches him with crumbling-statue Shakespearean gravitas that gives way to a cowed, fearful smallness in the face of eternity. Infirm during the shoot, he’d pass away one year after the film came to theaters – along with Philip Baker Hall, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ricky Jay, another one of the ghosts haunting this heaving outpouring of grief. Charles Bramesco
Globe Life disclosed a recent cybersecurity incident that may have resulted in unauthorized access to its consumer and policyholder information.
Globe Life is a Texas-based insurance holding company. It offers life, health, and worksite insurance products and services to consumers nationwide through its subsidiaries. The company has over 3,600 employees and also owns several insurance providers like Liberty National, United American and Family Heritage Life.
The company had also been accused of shady financial tactics and business operations by short sellers Fuzzy Panda Research and Viceroy Research, allegations the company has denied.
Globe Life Breach Discovery and Containment
According to Globe Life's filing with the SEC, the company had conducted a security review on one of its web portals to discover potential vulnerabilities that may have affected its access permissions and user identity management. The investigation was prompted by a legal inquiry from a state insurance regulator on June 13, 2024.
The review revealed that an unauthorized party may have accessed the company's web portal, compromising sensitive customer and policyholder data. The company stated that it had immediately revoked external access to the affected portal upon breach discovery.
Globe Life said that at this stage, it believes the security issue is isolated to the one web portal. All other company systems remain fully operational. Globe Life added that it expected minimal impact to its business operations after the take down of the affected web portal. The company has activated its cybersecurity incident response plan and engaged external forensics experts to investigate the breach's scope.
In its SEC filing, Globe Life disclosed that the investigation remains ongoing. The full impact and nature of the incident are unclear at the moment.
Incident Comes After Scrutiny Over Business Tactics
The company said it has yet to determine if the breach qualifies as a reportable cybersecurity incident under the SEC's disclosure rules. The disclosure comes amidst increasing scrutiny and financial setbacks suffered by the company. The Texas-based insurer has faced allegations of fraudulent sales tactics and other business and workplace improprieties.
The short sellers Fuzzy Panda Research and Viceroy Research had made these allegations public in April 2024. While the company has continued to deny these claims, its share price has dropped by 24% since the publication of the Fuzzy Panda report.
The reports claimed that Globe Life and its biggest subsidiary, American Income Life (AIL), had engaged in insurance fraud, framing of policies for dead and fictitious individuals, withdrawal of consumer funds without approval, unfair dismissal, misleading sales tactics and illegal kickbacks. They also alleged that some of AIL's most profitable agents had faced accusations of kidnapping, assault and child grooming from defendants, witnesses and plaintiffs.
It remains unclear if the state insurance regulator contact that led to the breach discovery is related to these allegations. Insurers like Globe Life are regulated at the state level rather than federal level.
Media Disclaimer: This report is based on internal and external research obtained through various means. The information provided is for reference purposes only, and users bear full responsibility for their reliance on it. The Cyber Express assumes no liability for the accuracy or consequences of using this information.
She’s the voice of Joy in Pixar’s Inside Out 2 – but Poehler has more complicated emotions on her mind. The SNL star talks teen angst and clueless grownups in a non-binary world
Britain is ruled by three emotions, says Amy Poehler: “Sadness, anger, fear.” Plus some disgust, too. She’s kidding! She’s also not kidding. But we can take it, right?
“Frankly, I think the UK is excellent at gentle teasing that I really love,” she says. “It feels very familiar. You have to give it to each other in a good way. That’s how you respect each other. You don’t poke fun at people you don’t think can take it.”
Royal Shakespeare theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon Blanche McIntyre’s Midas-touched production is set in the present day and finds delirious comedy in its class divisions
This lesser-staged Shakespearean revenge comedy has had its fair share of detractors over time, some arguing that it brings the rambunctious figure of Sir John Falstaff back from the Henriad as a paler incarnation of himself, others suggesting its battle of the sexes comedy is less than razor sharp.
So it is all the more surprising that director Blanche McIntyre’s production, Midas-touched and magnificent, makes the story of the two conniving wives of Windsor so fresh that it seems like these characters belong in our world and speak to it too. A line could be traced from the play to TV sitcoms and high quality, modern-day farce. The convolutions of Shakespeare’s plot are smoothed out so the deceptions and sub-deceptions are crystal clear.
Steamboat Willie, the first Mickey cartoon, has fallen out of copyright. Enter Screamboat: a slasher flick set on a New York ferry. Will gory versions of Bugs Bunny, Popeye and Betty Boop be next?
This year, the legendary Disney short film Steamboat Willie, the first film to feature Mickey Mouse, entered the public domain. In theory, that means this version of Mickey Mouse now belongs to the people, who are free to share, reuse, sample, repurpose or perform works featuring him however they see fit, without fear of reprisal from Disney. Theoretically this could spark an entire organic folk revival of a character who played a part in all our childhoods.
In reality, though, things are a little different. Because in reality someone is going to make a cheap horror film about him. Variety has announced the existence of Screamboat, a film about some New Yorkers who go on a late-night ferry trip and end up being terrorised by an evil mouse. “The unlikely crew must band together to thwart the murderous menace before their relaxing commute turns into a nightmare,” reads the description.
Company performing Shakespeare classic formed of 12 members who moved to small Uzhhorod town during war
Vyacheslav Yehorov was working at a film school creating art therapy for children when Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, forcing millions of Ukrainians to flee their homes.
Many took refuge in the small western town of Uzhhorod, which borders four EU countries. It was here that Yehorov – a student of directing within the performing arts – decided to realise his long-held dream of staging King Lear.
King Lear, directed by Viacheslav Yehorov, will be staged at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, on 14 and 15 June.
The ConnectWise IT Nation Secure Event was an electrifying gathering of cybersecurity leaders, experts, and enthusiasts. With a focus on innovation and collaboration..
The launch marks a long-delayed win for the aerospace giant, and the next step in NASA’s reliance on the private sector for its human spaceflight program.
Since Google overhauled its search engine, publishers have tried to assess the danger to their brittle business models while calling for government intervention.
At an industry presentation about dangerous “forever chemicals,” lawyers predicted a wave of lawsuits that could dwarf asbestos litigation, audio from the event revealed.
European car manufacturers are currently tripping over themselves to figure out how personal transport and "last mile" solutions will look in the years to come. The solutions are always electric, and they're also tiny. What most companies (bar Citroen, Renault, and Fiat) seem to have forgotten is that we've had an answer to this problem all along: the microcar.
The microcar is a singular little thing—its job is to frugally take one person (or maybe two people) where they need to go while taking up as little space as possible. A few have broken their way into the public consciousness—Top Gear made a global megastar of Peel's cars, BMW's Isetta remains a design icon, and the Messerschmitt KR200 is just plain cool—but where did these tiny wonders come from? And do they have a future?
Well, without the microcar's predecessors, we may not have the modern motorcar as we know it. Sort of.
For decades, we’ve accessed the internet much like how we, so long ago, accessed water—by traveling to it. We connected (quite literally), we logged on, and we zipped to addresses and sites to read, learn, shop, and scroll.
Over the years, the internet was accessible from increasingly more devices, like smartphones, smartwatches, and even smart fridges. But still, it had to be accessed, like a well dug into the ground to pull up the water below.
Moving forward, that could all change.
This year, several companies debuted their vision of a future that incorporates Artificial Intelligence to deliver the internet directly to you, with less searching, less typing, and less decision fatigue.
For the startup Humane, that vision includes the use of the company’s AI-powered, voice-operated wearable pin that clips to your clothes. By simply speaking to the AI pin, users can text a friend, discover the nutritional facts about food that sits directly in front of them, and even compare the prices of an item found in stores with the price online.
For a separate startup, Rabbit, that vision similarly relies on a small, attractive smart-concierge gadget, the R1. With the bright-orange slab designed in coordination by the company Teenage Engineering, users can hail an Uber to take them to the airport, play an album on Spotify, and put in a delivery order for dinner.
Away from physical devices, The Browser Company of New York is also experimenting with AI in its own web browser, Arc. In February, the company debuted its endeavor to create a “browser that browses for you” with a snazzy video that showed off Arc’s AI capabilities to create unique, individualized web pages in response to questions about recipes, dinner reservations, and more.
But all these small-scale projects, announced in the first month or so of 2024, had to make room a few months later for big-money interest from the first ever internet conglomerate of the world—Google. At the company’s annual Google I/O conference on May 14, VP and Head of Google Search Liz Reid pitched the audience on an AI-powered version of search in which “Google will do the Googling for you.”
Now, Reid said, even complex, multi-part questions can be answered directly within Google, with no need to click a website, evaluate its accuracy, or flip through its many pages to find the relevant information within.
This, it appears, could be the next phase of the internet… and our host David Ruiz has a lot to say about it.
Today, on the Lock and Code podcast, we bring back Director of Content Anna Brading and Cybersecurity Evangelist Mark Stockley to discuss AI-powered concierges, the value of human choice when so many small decisions could be taken away by AI, and, as explained by Stockley, whether the appeal of AI is not in finding the “best” vacation, recipe, or dinner reservation, but rather the best of anything for its user.
“It’s not there to tell you what the best chocolate chip cookie in the world is for everyone. It’s there to help you figure out what the best chocolate chip cookie is for you, on a Monday evening, when the weather’s hot, and you’re hungry.”
The offering from Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery shows how rival companies are willing to work together to navigate an uncertain entertainment landscape.
Merle Meyers, who left Boeing last year after a 30-year career, said he was speaking publicly about his experience because he loved the company “fiercely.”