Netflix has recently announced a plan to acquire Warner Bros. for approximately 82.7 billion dollars, with the agreement contingent on regulatory and shareholder approval. The acquisition will only proceed after Warner Bros. concludes a previously declared de-merger that separates its cable and Discovery businesses, which is expected to finish in the third quarter of 2026.

The deal would include not only Warner Bros.’ owned IPs like Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings, but also its entire video game division and HBO Max, its streaming platform. Regulatory scrutiny may become a major obstacle, as authorities in several countries may challenge the acquisition over concerns that Netflix would gain excessive market power, given its position as the leading global streaming platform and HBO Max as a close competitor. If a single key regulator blocks the deal, it cannot proceed. Meanwhile, Paramount and Skydance contest Netflix’s offer, saying their own bid was higher and covered the entire company. Paramount argues its proposal would face fewer regulatory issues and is considering appealing directly to Warner Bros. shareholders in a potential hostile takeover, adding further uncertainty to the process.

Netflix has stated it intends to maintain Warner Bros.’ theatrical releases and day to day operations without immediate changes. The long term future of HBO Max as a standalone service remains uncertain, since Netflix is expected to fold much of Warner Bros.’ catalog, including HBO and DC Studios, into its own library. For now, users are told that nothing will change and that HBO Max will stay online until all approvals are completed. Personally, I wouldn’t hold my breath that things will remain the same after that, especially given the steady price hikes and general shitification Netflix has gone through in recent years.

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The brief Mexican-American War (1846-1848) was one of the US’s five constitutional wars, that is, it is one of the only five ever declared by Congress. A brief history of the conflict can be reviewed in this 3-minute history video, as well as in Patrick Newman’s Cronyism. Of course, longer treatments of the war are also available. Following the Republic of Texas’s declaration of independence—an act of secession from Mexico—on March 2, 1836, which was unrecognized by the Mexican government, Texas was later annexed into the United States on December 29, 1845. Of course, the Mexican government

Core Devices has fully open-sourced the entire Pebble software stack and confirmed the first Pebble Time 2 shipments will start in January. "This is the clearest sign yet that the platform is shifting from a company-led product to a community-backed project that can survive independently," reports Gadgets & Wearables. From the report: The announcement follows weeks of tension between Core Devices and parts of the Pebble community. By moving from 95 to 100 percent open source, the company has essentially removed itself as a bottleneck. Users can now build, run, and maintain every piece of software needed to operate a Pebble watch. That includes firmware for the watch and mobile apps for Android and iOS. This puts the entire software stack into public hands. According to the announcement, Core Devices has released the mobile app source code, enabled decentralized app distribution, and made hardware more repairable with replaceable batteries and published design files.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

“Data walks” reveal how residents feel about digital privacy

When someone we think is bad dies, we usually don’t seem happy about it. As the old adage says, de mortuis non nisi bounum. But as an eminent classical scholar reminds us, the Latin adage is a mistranslation of a Greek adage which means “do not malign the dead.” It would be difficult indeed to malign Cheney, because the truth is bad enough: he was a monster of evil. He was a power-mad warmonger. As Paul Dragu reminds us, Cheney was the architect of both Iraq wars, not only the war to oust Sadam Hussein after 9-11, but also the initial invasion under the first President Bush: As vice president

In celebrating 1 trillion web pages archived, the Internet Archive is proud to honor the visionary who made it all possible. As announced in The New Yorker, the 2025 Internet Archive Hero Award was presented to Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web. Sir Tim’s groundbreaking work opened the door to a connected world and laid the foundation for our shared digital history.

Sir Tim was presented the award during a discussion at the Commonwealth Club of California on October 9. The conversation, “Building and Preserving the Web: A Conversation with Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Brewster Kahle,” was guided by Lauren Goode (Wired), and is now available for listening & download as an episode of the Future Knowledge podcast.

Listen to Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Brewster Kahle:

Sir Tim’s invention transformed how humanity shares knowledge, and his ongoing advocacy for an open and accessible web that empowers individuals continues to inspire us. We’re thrilled to recognize his enduring contributions as we mark this historic achievement for the web.

Watch the video from our celebration on October 22:

The Internet Archive Hero Award is an annual award that recognizes those who have exhibited leadership in making information available for digital learners all over the world. Previous recipients have included the island nation of Aruba, public information advocate Carl Malamud, copyright expert Michelle Wu, and the Grateful Dead.