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No one knows how Vladimir Putin’s Army is hanging on in Ukraine, although it still doesn’t sound like it’s going well for Russia. The past several months have given Ukraine a lot of unplanned firepower after Russian troops simply abandoned artillery while fleeing for the horizon. And it’s no wonder, considering that half of Putin’s initial drop-ship of fighters quickly ended up dead or seriously injured by mid-summer.

Fast forward a few months, and Putin sent 300,000+ drafted troops to Ukraine. They were told to bring tampons to stuff into bullet wounds due to lack of legit medical supplies. From there, Ukraine’s been taking back territory and enjoying their new-old tanks, and the Daily Beast now relays word from the British defense ministry that Russian numbers are shockingly low.

The intelligence update notes that reservists came to fill in some blanks, but “this is from an extremely low level of manning.” Then come the grim details: “In September 2022, Russian officers described companies in the Kherson sector as consisting of between six and eight men each. Companies should deploy with around 100 personnel.”

It’s no wonder that we’ve heard leaked audio from a Russian frontlines soldier who called Putin as a “f*ck face.”

In response to shortages, Russia’s been shipping over more and more warm bodies while essentially sending them to die and abandon even more tanks and cannons, so yes, it’s not great. The soldiers aren’t even being treated humanely by Russia, and one fleeing draftee (according to The Atlantic) has referred to this as an “army of zombies.” Meanwhile, the private mercenaries hired by Russia have apparently been apparently accidentally shooting Putin’s actual draftees. One wonders how long this can carry on before Russia finally admits defeat, or before Putin ratchets up his nuclear threats.

(Via Daily Beast)

The two biggest questions following Elon Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter seem to be:

1) How do you delete Twitter?
2) Will Donald Trump be returning to Twitter?

You can find the answer to the first question here; as for the second, Musk fired the executive who played a key role in banning the former president from the social media platform. The world’s richest person has also said, “I do think it was not correct to ban Donald Trump, I think that was a mistake,” and that it would be “great to unwind permanent bans, except for spam accounts and those that explicitly advocate violence.” (Also, elf-like ex-girlfriends.) So, yeah, Trump is probably coming back, but he hasn’t returned yet — but some right-wing commenters, like “stupid” conspiracy theorist documentarian Dinesh D’Souza and Fox News contributor Leo Terrell, and a Russian-owned news agency fell for a hoax announcement about Trump’s ban being lifted.

A statement from former president Donald Trump hailing his imminent return to Twitter was roundly hailed by right-wing commentators and even Russian state media Thursday — until it turned out to be fake. The fake statement appeared shortly after Elon Musk sealed his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter. Musk has said previously that he intends to reinstate Trump’s account.

“Congratulations to Elon Musk on his purchase of Twitter. Many people are saying that change was needed, as the old management was too concerned with the woke agenda,” the bogus statement reads. “I have been told that my account will be back up and running on Monday — we will see. Happy to be able to engage with an African-American owned business.” You can tell it’s fake because he doesn’t say “haters” or “losers” even once, but that didn’t stop folks from both sides of the political spectrum (but mostly right-wingers) from falling for it.

(Via Business Insider)

This summer, Stranger Things actor Noah Schnapp found himself in the middle of an unexpected controversy involving DMs with Doja Cat. It turns out she’s not the only famous musician he’s gotten in touch with on social media, as he says he once “guilt-tripped” Shawn Mendes into following him back on Instagram.

Millie Bobby Brown was a guest on The Tonight Show yesterday (October 27), where she, Jimmy Fallon, and Schnapp played a game called “True Confessions.” In it, the three each shared a personal anecdote that may or may not be true, then the other two asked questions and try to guess if the person is lying. Schnapp’s story was, “I guilt-tripped Shawn Mendes into following me back on Instagram.”

Quickly, Brown said, “This is something he would do.” Schnapp eventually revealed it was true and during the interrogation preceding that, he said this happened “a year or two ago.” Schnapp noted Mendes followed “everyone else on the cast” of Stranger Things but not him, saying, “And I was like, ‘What the heck? Why does he follow everyone but me?’” He added with a smile, “He has beef with me.”

As for the confrontation, Schnapp explained, “I DM’d him and I was like, ‘I’m low-key offended. Why do you follow everyone [else]?’” Schnapp eventually continued, “He said, ‘Oh, what’s up, man?’ Like, ‘I love you so much.’” Schnapp also noted he called Mendes “the other day,” which made Fallon and Brown think we was lying.

Check out the full segment above.

If you spend many, many hours a day staring into the glowing light of a phone or computer screen, you’re not alone. Our world is increasingly dependent on technology, and our bodies are struggling to adjust.

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Spending so much time on screens can cause tired eyes, headaches, or blurred vision. Sometimes you might feel like closing your eyes or mashing the palms of your hands into your eye sockets, or lying on the floor underneath your desk and waiting for Friday to arrive. These symptoms are otherwise known as Digital Eye Strain – and research shows¹ that many Americans—including kids!—are suffering from this but don’t know how to alleviate it!

Think about how many hours per week you spend on digital devices. Chances are, it’s more than you’d like to admit! Don’t worry, you’re in good company. Research shows that people over the age of 18² are spending the majority of the day engaged with some form of media, and most are unaware that their headaches may actually be due to all that screen time, not the content on the screen itself.³

The increase in screen time is especially hard on our eyes because we’re blinking less, which can lead to eye dryness, and our eyes can start to show signs of strain after just 2 hours of looking at screens.⁴ This is where Biofinity Energys^® contact lenses come in: lenses that help address symptoms of digital eye strain like eye dryness and tiredness.

Whether you are a student, a working professional or simply a person who enjoys streaming shows, Biofinity Energys^® could help your eyes feel less tired at the end of the day.⁵ While Biofinity Energys^® is not a cure for the pile-up of emails or the headaches caused by the world events covered on the screen, it may help with eye tiredness and dryness associated with digital eye strain.

A study conducted by CooperVision revealed that a whopping 77% of patients fit with Biofinity Energys^® say the lenses help their eyes feel less strained at the end of the day, even after a long day of using digital devices.^6,7 Additionally, 8 out of 10 digital device users agreed that Biofinity Energys^® contact lenses made their eyes feel less tired.⁸ These unique lenses feature Aquaform^® Technology to lock in moisture and can help your eyes feel less dry. They also have a proprietary Digital Zone Optics^® lens design to help with eye tiredness. These contacts are also made to work for day-to-day non-digital activities, making it easier to shift from online to offline events.

It’s time to level up your contact lenses! Talk to your eye care professional today to see if Biofinity Energys^® contact lenses are right for you, or visit BiofinityEnergys.com to learn more and to download a free trial certificate.

References:

1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6020759/
2. https://www.nielsen.com/insights/2018/time-flies-us-adults-now-spend-nearly-half-a-day-interacting-with-media/
3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6020759/
4. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6020759/
5. https://www.reviewob.com/how-many-americans-experience-digital-eye-strain/
6. Prospective, multi-center cross-over dispensing study, with bilateral wear of both Biofinity® sphere and Biofinity Energys® lenses. Sites: CCLR, University of Waterloo; CORL, Indiana University; CRC, UC Berkeley.
7. After one month of wear
8. Among patients who use digital devices at least 4 hours per day at least 5 days per week and self-report symptoms of eye fatigue at least once per week.

The thing I like most about the trailer for Plane — the movie where Gerard Butler flies a plane — is that it packs more into about 150 seconds than most movies can fit into two hours. There is honestly so much going on here. Too much, probably, which is in no way a complaint. This sucker opens with Gerard Butler sipping coffee as passengers board the commercial flight he is in charge of flying safely from one airport to another and ends with him running through the jungle with a possibly wrongly convicted murderer at his side and both of them are carrying automatic weapons and/or sledgehammers. More movie trailers should do this. Like, exactly this. Just use this as the trailer for every movie whether it is about Gerard Butler flying a plane or not. I don’t know if I’ll ever see this movie from beginning to end — I have a strong suspicion I’ll catch chunks of it on basic cable at various points over the next five years — but I do know this: I have watched this trailer at least 10 times since it premiered less than 24 hours ago. I recommend you do the same. I mean…

Look at this.

LOOK AT IT.

Here’s what we’re going to do. You’re going to watch that trailer two or three more times to really soak in all the wild junk that’s happening here and then you are going to meet me below for a discussion of the wild junk we all just saw. I’m going to rank it from least to most wild. It’s going to be really dumb. I’m pretty excited.

Okay… here we go.

5. The entire opening 30 seconds

The first 30 seconds of this trailer feature:

• Gerard Butler as the pilot of a commercial airplane
• Mike Colter as a convicted murderer who is being escorted onto the flight by government-types who are transporting him to a new location
• Gerard Butler saying things like “let’s not scare the passengers” and “let’s have a good flight,” which is pretty much a guarantee that these passengers are going to be terrified and have a bad flight
• The plane flying through a bunch of scary-looking clouds just before the screenshot at the top of this section

This is an incredible start to a trailer. We’ve already got like six or seven things happening, most of which could be their own entire movie. And none of them are the point of this movie. They’re all just setting up the point of this movie. Again, incredible.

4. BODIES FLINGING ABOUT WILLY-NILLY

Let’s keep going with the bullet points:

• A stewardess tells everyone to fasten their seatbelts to prepare for turbulence
• Everyone fastens their seatbelt except for the stewardess
• WHO LAUNCHES INTO THE ROOF OF THE CABIN AS THE PLANE STARTS JOSTLING
• CHAOS
• SHOUTING
• A LADY GRIPPING THE WALL AND SCREAMING

Best part: We still have not reached the actual point of the movie, even though “mid-air chaos in an airplane flown by Gerard Butler that is carrying a murderer who makes lots of evil-type faces” is more than enough for an action movie. I know I’m repeating myself but this is too important to say just once. I’m so proud of everyone who had any part in making this happen.

3. The truly outrageous “well guess what, there are armed separatists now” twist

I’m just going to keep doing this in note form because I don’t think any paragraph can truly articulate what’s happening:

• The plane crashes in a jungle somewhere in Asia known as the “Jojo Cluster,” which would also be a great fake name if you’re looking for one
• It turns out the jungle is in some sort of ungovernable territory run by various separatists and armed militias
• Tony Goldwyn from Scandal and Ghost pops up to explain all of this through a chunk of helpful exposition delivered to a group of people in a boardroom
• The passengers are taken hostage and their only hope at survival is a rescue led by Gerard Butler (who appears to kick one dude in the face so hard the dude dies) and the convicted murdered played by Mike Colter (who Gerard uncuffs and might have been wrongly imprisoned and has a sledgehammer now)

That is what the movie is actually about. Which is… amazing. It’s like someone watched Air Force One and said “but what if we added a possible murderer and a bunch of guerrilla warfare”? Which is… I mean, good. Why do anything less than everything you can all at once, you know? I hope they get halfway through the movie and then there’s a surprise reveal that the island is also Jurassic Park. Let Gerard Butler kill a dinosaur. Or ride one to kill some militia guys. I can be flexible here.

2. This magical little bit of caption work

I don’t really have anything important to add to this bit of storytelling wizardry. Maybe just to remind you to always watch everything with the captions on. There’s so much gold in there to be mined and I can’t stand the thought of you missing any of it.

Moving on…

1. The thing where all of that is happening and the movie is just called Plane

One final collection of notes:

• It is deeply funny to me that all of this — murderers, plane crashes, armed separatists, jungle rescues — happens in a movie that is just called Plane
• It would be kind of like if Speed had been called Bus or if Titanic has been called Boat
• This would’ve been a great movie to slip in Dennis Hopper as like an evil senator who set the whole thing in motion for reasons that he explains in a long monologue at the beginning of the third act
• It’s even better because it appears from the trailer that less than half the movie takes place on the actual plane
• This movie could just as easily be called Jojo Cluster, which is an objectively better title
• I feel like you should know that Gerard Butler’s character is named Captain Brodie Torrance

This is all thrilling to me. I hope they make a dozen of them and each one starts with Gerard Butler crashing an airplane in a new lawless area of the word. Or even the moon. I need you to understand that I am serious about this. Please do it. For the people. For the world. But mostly for me.

Snoop Dogg is one of the most fun musicians of all time, but one of the most delightful bits of Snoop trivia to emerge lately is the fact that he has a personal blunt roller on his payroll. They even got a raise last year! The person currently fulfilling these duties is Renagade PerRana, and now she’s revealed the wild amount of work she’s put in for Snoop.

In a recent interview on Australian radio program The Kyle And Jackie O Show (as The Huffington Post notes), when asked how many joints she’s rolled for Snoop since working for him, she responded, “I calculate it at over 450,000. I do about half a pound a day, which is 75 to 150 joints.”

That lines up with Snoop’s own previous estimation of his consumption: In a 2012 Reddit AMA, Snoop noted he smokes about 81 blunts a day.

In another recent interview, PerRana spoke about how she landed the job, saying, “They told me to come back the next night and I had a roll-off with a sound engineer that works with Snoop that, I guess, Snoop recommended and a Venezuelan cigar roller who rolls big boy stogies at parties. And I smoked them, to say the least, in that competition. So from that day forward, I was the premier blunt roller of the planet.”

Oh, what a day. What a lovely day: Furiosa has wrapped.

“What. A. Rideeeee. Thank you to those of the wasteland- the crazies who have run amok with me up and down this country. The most fun, the most resilient, the most talented,” actress Anya Taylor-Joy, who is playing the younger version of Imperator Furiosa in the Mad Max: Fury Road prequel, wrote on Instagram. “It has been an honour and a privilege to create with you all… thank you for making me tougher than I ever thought I could be.” She signed the message, “Fire, blood and guzzoline, Furianya.”

I will exclusively be calling her “Furianya” from now on.

The Instagram post also includes on-set photos, one of which shows director George Miller wearing a fun coat while standing next to an airplane, as one does.

Charlize Theron, the Furiosa of Fury Road, admitted that not being in the prequel is “is a little heartbreaking.” She said that she “really love[s] that character, and I’m so grateful that I had a small part in creating her. She will forever be someone I think of and reflect on fondly.” But Theron trusts Miller and respects him, “if not more so in the aftermath of making that film with him. He’s a master, and I wish him nothing but the best.”

Furiosa is scheduled to come out on May 24, 2024.

(Via Anya Taylor-Joy/Instagram)

Charli XCX’s latest album, Crash from earlier this year, saw the artist breaking new ground: It was her first top-10 album in the US and her first No. 1 in the UK. Charli has said this pop breakthrough has come thanks to a concentrated effort to enter that realm, and now she has expanded on that in a new interview.

Speaking with NME, Charli said:

“To be famous – a stratospheric level of famous – you have to f*cking want that sh*t to happen to you, and you have to do the deal with the devil. You have to f*cking go there and run people over. I’m not saying it’s a negative thing, it’s not, but I think with Crash I definitely wanted to play that game. But I think because of who I am, and the artist that I am and the reference points that I have and the world that I come from, it’s like… there’s just this part of my brain that doesn’t want to function like that.”

She added, “I don’t think I was ever like, ‘I’m going to sell out the mainstream, but I’m going to do it my way,’ I was like, ‘I want to sell out and be mainstream.’”

Check out the full interview here.

What a good day it is to be a member of BTS‘ Army.

Just released at midnight on Friday, Jin’s long-awaited solo single “The Astronaut” finally landed across all streaming platforms. The music video which has already surpassed 2 million in an hour, features a dapper Jin wandering freely as he goes out to find a mystery beam in the sky, bursting out of a crash-landed spacecraft. As the BTS member explores space, and gets sucked into the dreamy visuals of the outer world, the song’s lyrics pair perfectly as he professes his love and admiration.

Jin’s latest solo release was co-penned by him and British rock band Coldplay. “The Astronaut” also credits Max Martin as the executive producer and Kygo and Bill Rahko as producers.

Later today, the Korean superstar will take the stage in performing “The Astronaut” live for the first time at Coldplay’s concert in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The concert will be live broadcasted in selected theaters, and fans are able to buy tickets to online right now.

But before Jin makes his solo debut performance in Latin America, and while “The Astronaut” is already making waves around the globe, we gathered some of the most heartwarming and wholesome reactions from Twitter. Check them out below.

Just a couple of weeks out until her first full-length album makes its debut, BIBI continues to tease Lowlife Princess: Noir.

Dropping on Friday midnight, the Korean R&B princess channels her inner speed racer for her latest pre-release single “Motospeed 24.” Compared to “Sweet Sorrow of Mother” released earlier this week (October 24), the latest single takes on 808s with an addictive finger-plucking progression from an electric guitar sprinkled in between. The visuals, on the other hand, takes place in a modern, cyber world (similar to Tron) where a biker babe BIBI is seen seducing a motocyclist in an elevator and eventually hopping on a ride with him.

“Motospeed 24” is the third pre-single the Korean artist has released in the past month. The new single follows “Sweet Sorrow Mother” (October 24) and the bloody, alternative R&B track “Animal Farm” (released on BIBI’s birthday, September 27).

BIBI’s debut studio album, Lowlife Princess: Noir, is expected to release at midnight on November. More info on the album, tracklist and lead single have yet to be confirmed.

As fans wait for the album, the Feel Ghood Music artist is set to perform at 88Rising’s Head In The Clouds in Jakarta, Indonesia on December 3rd and 4th.

BIBI is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.