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A Texas man has been convicted of federal charges after he defrauded 1,000 investors out of $14 million with a cryptocurrency scam.

Robert Dunlap, 54, was convicted Monday by a Chicago jury on two counts of mail fraud. He faces a maximum term of 40 years in federal prison when he’s sentenced Feb. 17.

He used the “Meta-1 Coin” through a “Meta-1 Coin Trust” causing 1,000 investors to lose at least $14 million, prosecutors said.

Dunlap said the coin was backed by $44 billion in gold — which he said had been audited and certified by an accounting firm — and a $1 billion art collection that he told investors included works by artists including Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali and Vincent Van Gogh, according to prosecutors.

They said he forged legal and insurance documents to show he had the assets, then used bots to inflate the coin’s value in the “Meta Marketplace.”

As consumers gear up for Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday, experts warn that the number of sophisticated scams is growing due to artificial intelligence.

Scammers are using AI to create fake retailer websites, phishing emails and deepfake videos that impersonate trusted brands or influencers, Larry Zelvin, head of security advisory at BMO bank, said.

“These tactics are not new per se, but AI has significantly accelerated their frequency and sophistication. The real shift is in how rapidly and broadly they’re now being deployed,” Zelvin said. “It allows bad actors to mimic human language, replicate trusted branding and personalize messages at speed and scale.”

Kathy Stokes, director of fraud prevention programs at AARP Fraud Watch Network, said, “Criminals are relentless during the holidays, exploiting the many opportunities that come with a busy season — from shopping and traveling to charitable giving.”

Scams swell during the holiday season when 96% of US adults plan to shop online, according to a survey from McAfee, the antivirus software company. Some 38% of those surveyed believe they can spot scams, yet 22% have fallen for one, said McAfee’s 2025 holiday shopping research.

“Scammers know that when people are rushing to buy gifts and click ‘checkout,’ they’re also less likely to slow down and verify what they’re seeing,” Brooke Seipel, McAfee’s content editor-in-chief, wrote in a blog post.

To look authentic, scams copy major brand websites down to the logo, product photography and even checkout cart and customer service pages, McAfee said. One telltale clue might be the website address. For example, a fraudulent website could be target-sale.com instead of the real target.com.

AARP Fraud Watch Network said scammers are using fake shipping alerts, bogus charities and gift card schemes to steal money and personal information.

About 89% of US adults have experienced at least one scam, from fake toll payment texts and phony charity appeals to misleading digital ads, according to AARP’s holiday shopping and scams report released last week. More than half of adults received a fake shipping notice this year, while nearly 4 in 10 encountered deceptive ads on social media.

“If a deal looks too good to be true, it probably is,” Zelvin said. “Slow down, verify the source and don’t let urgency override caution.”

Here are some tips to keep in mind, according to BMO and McAfee.

• Don’t click on links in emails or texts. Go directly to a retailer’s website.
• Verify URLs and look for HTTPS security indicators.
• Use credit cards, which offer stronger fraud protection than debit or payment apps.
• Be skeptical of urgency. “Limited time offers” are a common scam tactic.
• Research unfamiliar sellers before buying, especially on social media platforms.
• Be cautious of QR codes. Fraudsters can embed malicious links in the codes, often found in ads, emails or packaging.
• TikTok Shop scams use fake influencer accounts and counterfeit products to lure shoppers into phishing traps.
• Digital pickpocketing: Criminals use contactless payment devices to skim data from phones or wallets without physical contact.
• Beware of fake delivery notifications. Real shipping companies rarely send texts with clickable payment links. Visit the company’s official website or app to verify any delivery problems.
• Fake messages may claim your PayPal or Amazon account is locked and request you to confirm details. These scams pressure you to “verify” your account or make an urgent payment. Always log in to your account directly, never through a link sent via message.
• Avoid public Wi-Fi while shopping. Public networks are easy for hackers to monitor. Use a secure, or mobile, connection instead.

These “are not ordinary times at the Everett McKinley Dirksen United States Courthouse” in Chicago’s Loop.

US Magistrate Judge Gabriel Fuentes made that point Thursday, as he closed the book on the last of five now-dismissed prosecutions tied to September protests outside a federal immigration holding facility in the western suburbs.

Fuentes used a nine-page opinion not only to dismiss, with prejudice, a misdemeanor charge against Dana Briggs, but to highlight how each of those five cases, all tied to Operation Midway Blitz, “were highly unusual in this district for several reasons.”

“The court cannot help but note just how unusual and possibly unprecedented it is for the US attorney’s office in this district to charge so hastily that it either could not obtain the indictment in the grand jury or was forced to dismiss upon a conclusion that the case is not provable, in repeated cases of a similar nature,” Fuentes wrote.

The five people charged in connection with the Sept. 27 protests were Briggs, Ray Collins, Jocelyne Robledo, Paul Ivery and Luci Mazur. Prosecutors wound up dropping charges that had been brought against all five, for various reasons.

Fuentes pointed out that, in the case of Collins and Robledo, a grand jury refused to hand up an indictment, a result known as a “no bill.” Not only that, but a prosecutor acknowledged the same thing happened in an additional case, which he did not identify.

“A ‘no bill’ vote by a grand jury was virtually unheard of in this district until Operation Midway Blitz,” Fuentes wrote Thursday. “The last and only one the court can remember was from the early part of this century. Then, in the past two months, at least three have occurred.”

In each of the five cases, Fuentes pointed out, he obtained sworn statements that “not only were the affidavit allegations true, but that video evidence of the encounters existed, that the affiants had reviewed the video evidence, and that the video evidence corroborated the version of events set forth in the affidavits.”

He pointed to the ruling last month by US District Judge April Perry, questioning federal agents’ “ability to accurately assess the facts.” He noted that Briggs had US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino on his witness list — and that US District Judge Sara Ellis found he “lied multiple times about the events that occurred in Little Village.”

Fuentes called these “extraordinary judicial determinations.”

And, he made clear that “being charged with a federal felony, even if it is later reduced to a misdemeanor, is no walk in the park.”

“Any responsible federal prosecutor knows this,” Fuentes wrote. “Any responsible federal prosecutor knows that federal charges, or any actions by the United States attorney directed at the citizenry, must be undertaken with the utmost care.”

Joseph Fitzpatrick, a spokesperson for US Attorney Andrew Boutros, said Thursday that “the US attorney’s office is constantly evaluating new facts and information relating to cases and investigations arising out of Operation Midway Blitz … This continuous review process applies to all matters — whether charged or under investigation.”

Fuentes has been a magistrate judge for more than six years, following a 20-year career at Jenner & Block. He also once worked as a federal prosecutor and a Chicago news reporter. He noted that, “these are not ordinary times at the Everett McKinley Dirksen United States Courthouse.”

The judge wrote that nothing in his Thursday order “should be construed as scolding the government for dismissing in these cases. Dismissing appears to be the responsible thing for the government to have done.”

“Today the court stops short of concluding that the government struck any foul blows,” Fuentes wrote. “But in charging Briggs, it sought to strike hard blows. It swung and missed — multiple times.”

Fuentes concluded by noting that “doing the right thing has been a mantra of the Chicago US Attorney’s Office for generations.”

“Let it remain so.”

It’s rare for a top-ranked preseason team to talk about practice a lot. For several decades, the Sun-Times’ No. 1 team was stacked with star players and featured a superstar. The mood was more Allen Iverson than Tom Kleinschmidt.

“We are all about stacking good practices,” Kleinschmidt, DePaul Prep’s coach, said. “Our goal is to have nine good practices out of ten. The practices are hard, they are tough. It makes the game a little bit easy. We are trying to make them comfortable in uncomfortable situations. It’s been the recipe for us.”

The area’s overall talent decline ended the superstar team era. Welcome to the new world, where practice habits receive their moment in the spotlight as we wait for the next generation of high-major college stars.

“(DePaul Prep’s success) comes from how we carry ourselves and our practices,” DePaul Prep guard Rykan Woo said. “We are going really hard. I’ve watched a lot of college practices and ours are pretty similar. We talk a lot, everyone has energy. That just carries over to the games.”

The Rams’ combination of college-bound players and practice habits made them an easy choice for the top spot. Woo is heading to Brown, guard AJ Chambers to Michigan Tech and 6-7 Rashaun Porter is a Toledo recruit.

1. DePaul Prep

Porter will be a load for oppenents to handle with this season. He’s a Player of the Year candidate and still hasn’t reached his ceiling.

“I’m still progressing,” Porter said. “Now I’m working on guard skills. My shooting and ball-handling. Just developing myself to be an all-around player and prepare for the next level.”

Talented sophomore Blake Choice, 6-8 junior Gus Johnson and Zion Lee, an athletic 6-5 transfer from Sacred Heart-Griffin, give Kleinschmidt a talented, tall rotation in the Rams’ quest for a fourth consecutive state title. Read more on DePaul Prep.

2. Benet

Kirsten Stickney/For the Sun-Times

The defending Class 4A state champions nearly earned the preseason No. 1 ranking. The Redwings, led by senior guard Jayden Wright (EIU) and 7-0 Colin Stack (North Dakota State), also return Ryan Walsh and 6-7 Edward Stasys. Stasys has blossomed into one of the top prospects in the junior class. Ethan MacDermot, a transfer from Australia, and 6-4 junior Perry Tchiegne will also make major contributions. Read more on Benet.

3. Warren

Kirsten Stickney/For the Sun-Times

Jaxson Davis is the state’s biggest star. The junior guard rejected prep school offers and is back in Gurnee to play with his best friend, talented senior guard Braylon Walker, for another season. The Blue Devils had a chance to win the 4A title on the last possession of the championship game last season and are hungry to return to Champaign. Avonn King, shooter Joel Paaasch and junior Tayte Cordova step into key roles. Read more on Warren.

4. Marist

Allen Cunningham/For the Sun-Times

The RedHawks may be the deepest team in the area. Guards Adoni Vassilakis, Karson Thomas and TJ Tate pair nicely wth 6-7 Stephen Brown, 6-5 Kendall Myers and 6-4 Ryan Lawlor. Charles Barnes, a 6-6 standout, joined from De La Salle. Read more on Marist.

5. Kankakee

Allen Cunningham/For the Sun-Times

A Class 3A championship is the goal. Senior guard Lincoln Williams is one of the most talented players in the state and 6-7 senior EJ Hazelett (Indiana State) was the area’s most impactful offseason addition. The Kays have experience and ability surrounding the stars in Myair Thompson, Kenaz Jackson, Phillip Turner and Cedric Terrell. Read more on Kankakee.

6. Bolingbrook

Brady Pettigrew established himself as one of the best sophomores in the country over the summer. Point guard Trey Brost (Michigan Tech) and 6-7 Jayden Madden return and talented senior guard TJ Williams transferred from Glenbard West.

7. Waukegan

The Bulldogs nearly ended Warren’s season in the sectional final last season and the core of that group is back. Senior guard Carter Newsome is one of the state’s best point guards. If 6-7 Jaali Rico Love and 6-4 Simeron Carter find consistency as seniors, state hardware is possible.

8. New Trier

One of the most talented teams in school history with size, shooters and a strong, deep bench. Senior guard Christopher Kirkpatrick (Princeton) developed into a dominant high school force last season. Starters Danny Houlihan (High Point) and Max Vogel return. Juniors Elton Jaegerskog and Matthew Logue will have larger roles this season and 6-7 freshman Denym Wallace is already turning heads.

9. Curie

The Condors won’t take anyone by surprise this season. Senior Justin Oliver emerged as one of the area’s best guards in the city tournament. Senior guards Mike Oliver Jr. and Saquan Commings are back along with 6-4 Kendall Holliday.

10. Simeon

A strong core of experienced players returns for the Wolverines, bolstered by dynamic scorer Kaydin Benford-Williams, a Lincoln Park transfer.

11. Fremd

Size and experience. A trio of 6-6 seniors, Jordan Williams (ISU), Tommy Moffett and Rafeal Pinto return from a 27-4 team that reached the sectional final.

12. Loyola

Starters Trey Williams (Cornell), Sam Golden and Luke Alvarez are back. Brody Munsey-Johnson and Danny Lee will have expanded roles.

13. Evanston

Junior Vito Rocca is the only starter returning from last season’s squad which finished third in Class 4A, but sophomore Ben Ojala is a talented guard who opened eyes and coach Mike Ellis has five others back who played 17 games or more.

14. Lincoln Park

Senior guard Ahmad Lee is one of the city’s most talented players and senior forward Larry Harris is a rugged, athletic, difference-maker. Jaylen Dickerson also returns and Ashton Flowers transferred from DePaul Prep. Big things are expected of 6-3 sophomore Alvin Robinson.

15. Neuqua Valley

Cole Kelly, a 6-5 sophomore, lived up to all the hype and had the best statistical season in school history last year. Junior Mason Martin developed into a future college player. Unknown 6-10 senior Darlin Aghomi is expected to make a major impact.

16. Kenwood

Mohammad Cookbey takes over as coach. Junior Damari Stephens was a breakout star in February. Prince McCord, a 6-7 senior, also returns and senior Jumi Aguda-Batie impressed in a limited role last season.

17. Barrington

Oliver Gray is one of the most exciting players and dynamic scorers in the senior class. Junior Jackson Roberts and senior Evan Shechtman also return. Sophomores Tommy Hills and Luke Loughlin will contribute.

18. Young

Tennessee recruit Marquis Clark is one of the few high-level, dependable scorers in the area. The Dolphins should improve throughout the season as a talented group of young players gains experience.

19. Oswego East

Mason Lockett is healthy and ready to put on a show. The DePaul recruit is joined by three-year starter Michael Rembert and 6-5 junior Dshaun Bolden, who had a breakout summer.

20. Kaneland

Senior guard Marshawn Cocroft is a proven leader and winner and 6-9 junior Jeffrey Hassan has one of the highest ceilings in the junior class.

21. Glenbard East

Senior-dominated with eight players returning from a 22-win team, led by senior sharpshooter Michael Nee (South Dakota).

22. St. Ignatius

Yale recruit Chris Bolte, a 6-6 senior, leads a deep group with a lot of returners in expanded roles, including Napoleon Harris, Amir Tucker, Grant Poorman, Chris Chittaro and Duke Ross.

23. St. Laurence

Very young but very talented. The core group of juniors and sophomores should develop into a contender throughout the season. Markese Peoples, Reggie Stevens, Logan Brown, Noah Corro and Jeremiah Toney are the top returners.

24. Geneva

Senior guards Gabe Jensen and Dane Turner are three-year starters. Junior Ben Peterson returns to anchor the inside and keep an eye on freshman Cody Rader.

25. Deerfield

Leading scorers Jake Pollack (Dartmouth) and Evan Nagler return from a 24-8 team that advanced to the sectional finals.

For more on Severancesign up for Severance Club, our subscriber-exclusive newsletter obsessing over, dissecting, and debating everything about season two.

“Seven Severance Questions“ is a weekly attempt to digest the events of one of television’s twistiest shows by highlighting the weirdest, most confusing, and most important unresolved issues after this week’s season-two finale, “Cold Harbor.” There will be theories. Many will be unhinged.

Severance has a way of giving out answers loaded with another bucket of questions. The season-two finale did just that across multiple levels of the Lumon building. Want to know how Mark’s innie and outie handle the Helly-Gemma situation? Sure, the show will tell you. Want to know what Cold Harbor was all about? Got you there, too. Want to know what the deal is with the goats? Coming right up. But none of it will be clean. None of it will settle anything. Sometimes, the answers can take you deeper down the rabbit hole than any of the questions ever did.

They can also make you shout a little. Were you shouting? At the end? In the hallway? I was. I’m not sure I even knew what I wanted Mark to do or whom to choose. I just keep shouting “NO!” and “YES!” and “WHAT ARE YOU DOING??” Arguments can be made that this choice was as tough on me as on him. The arguments aren’t particularly good, but they are definitely arguments. This show can twist you into a pretzel. And sometimes a marching band shows up. You just have to accept all that.

Below, please find our final round of questions about this season. I’m sure you have more. So I would, if I’m being honest. But these feel like a good place to start…

I guess the answer to this one depends on the lens you’re using to view the show. Are you rooting for the outies to find the happiness that was so elusive to them that they sought refuge through brain surgery that could segment off an entire chunk of their life? Are you rooting for the innies to experience something like a full life instead of just being drones created in a fit of hopeless desperation? Do you want to see thought-lost love rekindled or new love continue to blossom? Those are the things we all were trying to process as Mark’s innie was standing in that hallway between Gemma and Helly. It’s kind of what he was processing too.

You can see why he made the choice he did, even beyond the selfish reasons, even beyond “I love the redhead and don’t even really know that other woman.” There are issues of trust at play here that were planted at the beginning of the episode, when Mark’s innie and outie were having that conversation via camcorder that went sideways almost immediately. Mark’s innie did not appreciate how dismissive his outie was of the life the innies built inside Lumon. He got very prickly when his outie mispronounced Helly’s name as “Heleny” in a tone that scanned as Aw, it’s cute you think you have a little girlfriend, buddy. He didn’t particularly love how his outie just kind of expected him to be onboard with this plan that would essentially kill his friends and rest his own existence on a promise from the guy who put him there in the first place. Mark’s innie has been through a tear. He has reason to be skeptical. I’m not sure Cobel’s being there helped a lot.

There’s also the issue of … I mean, why would his innie think his outie deserves any of this? His outie is a depressed mess with no friends who has now subjected their body to two experimental brain procedures in the hope of digging out of a rut. Yes, getting Gemma back might solve some of that, but Mark’s innie has no real knowledge of what their life was like before. All he knows is that he has friends and a purpose and is in love, and this guy who has gone years without any of that is asking him to give it all up for something uncertain at best. So yes, he freed Gemma, and yes, he went through with most of the plan, but in that final moment, looking at his two potential futures, he went with the one he wants to fight for. Hard to blame a guy for that.

Right, there’s the sticky part. Mark’s and Helly’s innies got their Butch & Sundance moment, running down the hallways as the alarm blared, ending on a freeze-frame that, if we didn’t know better, would read as a final-finale and not just the final moments of this season. But things are still complicated. If Mark’s innie leaves the severed floor even for a second, his outie is never going back. Drummond is dead in a large Icelandic lump outside the elevator. (If you know anyone who went to law school, please don’t ask them whether Mark’s innie or outie is responsible for the murder. They will never stop talking.) The Cold Harbor project was working until it didn’t. The goat lady has gone rogue. The vending machine is broken. It’s messy on the severed floor in a number of ways.

Here’s where it’s interesting, though. Jame just straight-up admitted he likes Helly R. more than his own daughter, Helena. He likes her fire and spirit and sees Kier in her, whatever that means. We could be looking at a world where he tries to keep her severed full time, which would in theory save the severed floor, corpses and all, and could keep Mark’s innie down there too. The only guarantee is that things are going to get weird. Gemma will have a lot to unpack. Devon will flip out. Lumon will have to somehow keep all or most of it quiet. It’ll be a mess. I’m ready whenever they are.

I think we can. My theory earlier in the season was that it was after some sort of immortality hack, a way to save memories and move them from vessel to vessel in perpetuity. I thought this for a bunch of reasons, some having to do with Miss Huang (clones????), some with the goats (clones????), and some with the thing where rich weirdos always seem to be after immortality (Jame Eagan is nothing if not a rich weirdo).

But then we learned Miss Huang was just a regular kid who had been part of Lumon’s long-standing tradition of child labor. And then we learned the goats are just being raised as sacrifices to be buried with dead test subjects and guide their souls to the afterlife. Then we heard about Kier’s “eternal war against pain” and saw that Gemma’s final test in Cold Harbor involved taking apart the same baby crib from back when she and Mark were struggling to conceive. And crack I remembered that the only thing rich weirdos love as much as immortality is the idea of ​​a technology-assisted utopia.

That’s where I’m at now. That’s why I think Mark and Gemma were so important to the project: This was a couple experiencing pain. If Lumon could separate them and sever the parts of their brain that remember that pain, they could — their theory here, not mine — be on the path to ending suffering. Mark saw Ms. Casey without triggering his Gemma trauma. Gemma was run through a series of stressful situations, culminating in one that would be downright cruel if it didn’t work, to see if they could sever the memories out individually. All of that could be pointing towards a world in which everyone gets a chip placed in their head at birth, and you go to the doctor every time you experience something unpleasant, and the doctor punches a few buttons and bloops the bad vibes out of existence forever — a society of pleasant zombies who feel nothing and never have to learn lessons.

Cold Harbor didn’t pass the ultimate test, though, which turns out to be “your blood-soaked husband rushes into the room and tells you to come with him.” Gotta refine a lot more macrodata to account for that one. It’s not necessarily back to square one on the whole plan now, but it’s probably back to a single-digit square somewhere.

Some preliminary notes:

— I did not foresee a scenario in which Dylan’s outie denied the resignation request. I thought he would have been thrilled. But it’s kind of sweet, in a way, that his loser outie is taking all of this as a wake-up call and motivation to become a better man. I’m rooting for him.

— This entire piece could easily have been questions about the marching band. What do they do on the severed floor all day when they’re not performing? Do their outies play instruments? Did their innies have to be trained from the start because they came in with no knowledge of music? Do you think one of them is a drummer on the outside but when he got down there they needed someone on the trumpet so he had to switch? You can see how this quickly spins out of hand. I’ll stop before it does.

Anyway, yes. It is my hope that next season begins with Dylan covered in war paint and the band marching behind him with its brass instruments sharpened into pointed weapons. You cannot take this away from me. Not yet.

I’ll be honest, I’m a little disappointed in how Milchick’s arc ended this season. I thought he was going to pop. I thought he was going to take Lumon down after a season of slights and long hours and the company taking him for granted. I really thought we were headed there after his little zinger about Kier’s height. (I also hope I’m not the only basketball-obsessed ’90s child who heard the opening notes of “Sirius,” by the Alan Parsons Project, and half-expected the Kier statue to say, “And now, your Chicago Bulls!”) And yet … nope. He played ball right up to the end, when the marching-band army had him surrounded.

At least he got to dance again. Maybe that’s how he works out his frustration. Maybe it’s in his contract: “Must let Seth dance once a month.” It seems to make him happy.

I was sad when Miss Huang got shipped off last week. She had just been humanized, and I was starting to like her, and I wanted to see her get to play her theremin a little bit more. Maybe a cover of a pop song from the ’80s. Something peppy. Hall & Oates would work fine.

After all of this, though, after the murder and the blaring alarms and the uprooting of everything she was working on, I’m glad she got out when she did. Miss Huang did not need to be part of this. And I didn’t need to spend the whole episode worrying about the safety of a child I just got attached to. It would have been very stressful for both of us.

You really shouldn’t.

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This is the latest edition of The Criticsour weekly roundup of critical reviews, essays, and conversations. Want to have it arrive in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here:

For better or worse, Wicked: For Good has hit theaters, bringing a definitive close to a sometimes confoundingsometimes surprisingand always emotional press tour. Director Jon M. Chu has spun an entire film out of the stage musical’s much shorter second act, beginning with Elphaba’s self-banishment from the Emerald City. For Good also adds two new original songs, one for each lead: Glinda’s heart-shattered ballad, “The Girl in the Bubble,” and Elphaba’s contemplative call to action, “No Place Like Home.” I sat down with theater critic Jackson McHenry and writer Rebecca Alter — also known as Vulture’s senior bucket critic — to go deep on the music in For Good. —Jasmine Vojdani, senior newsletter editor

Rebecca, you wrote about these two original songs when we had only 30-second or so clips of each. Did hearing them completely change your mind about how you felt initially?
Rebecca Alter: Even though the characters are having realizations over the course of the song, in both instances, they don’t sonically reflect that. They’re really boring. They didn’t change enough from those bits we heard — except that it felt like they both went on for quite a while.

Jackson McHenry: When they released the song list, I had questions about what they were supposed to add to the already convoluted plot of Wicked‘s second act. Elphaba’s song makes a little more narrative sense because you don’t hear a lot from her until later on in the show with “As Long You’re Mine” and “No Good Deed.” So you wonder about her emotional terrain as she switches from being at college to guerrilla warfare.

Glinda is already so much the focus of the second act of the show. “Thank goodness” has already done so much of the work there. It’s one of the more narratively effective songs in the show because it’s opening the second act, telling you what’s going on, allowing you to see her public performance and her private doubts simultaneously. But by the time we get to it “The Girl in the Bubble,” Stephen Schwartz hasn’t added much. Maybe a more well-crafted song that doesn’t just have lyrics about what a bubble is could do more.

Which vocal performance did you prefer in the new songs?
RA: Look, Ariana gets to do a couple of those high soprano notes in this, which are fun to hear in a it’s cool to watch someone do a backflip way. The hook that Cynthia does in “No Place Like Home” is a catchier hook.

JM: I personally have “girl in the bubble, the bright shining bubble” stuck in my head. That doesn’t mean it’s good, more that it’s so literal it’s funny.

RA: It’s another instance of this being Ariana’s movie thoroughly. Ariana singing to herself is more dynamic than watching Cynthia sing to the CGI animals.

Many of whom, as we’ve noticed, are Australian species.
RA: That’s the biggest bone I have to pick. Too many kangaroos. Is it because it’s Oz?

What felt like a missed opportunity musically?
JM: The character that would make the most sense to add a song for is Madame Morrible. She needs a diva moment even she’s summoning the tornado. She’s someone whose interiority doesn’t get filled out — she goes from being a teacher at the school to the press secretary for the king, or maybe she holds these jobs simultaneously? But anyway, it would be fun to have her let loose. The problem is Michelle Yeoh can’t sing, so you’d have to dub her or have cast someone who could really throw down. But the fact that there is more time spent on characters that are already filled out and not enough on the primary villain feels like a missed opportunity. Why does she want power? Maybe she, like Nessarose and Elphaba, was also an outcast and has made a choice about collaborating with the regime to get power, much like she wants Glinda to do. She can control the weather but still has decided to link up with the powerless wizard? There’s a story there!

RA: The thing about turning Wicked the musical into two entire movies is you could have had a bit more room to flesh out some stuff that doesn’t make sense onstage. You allow it onstage because things don’t have to make sense in the way they have to when you’re in close-up onscreen.

JM: It’s also a mistake that both the new songs are down-tempo.

RA: We needed another “Dancing Through Life.” “Wonderful” does not count.

Dare we go into the lyrics?
JM: I think we need to conduct a thorough investigation into the decision to use “unsee” in a song lyric in “Girl in the Bubble.” It feels simultaneously like an attempt to do an Oz-y word but also to sound current, which is a dangerous writing choice.

RA: No, because then it would be like “unsee-ify.”

JM: That would actually be better! “The Girl in the Bubble” is so committed to this one metaphor that it doesn’t really develop. “No Place Like Home” feels so prosaic. They’re both stuck in one idea. Neither one gets another step in its lyrical imagery.

RA: “A place that seems to be devolving and even wanting to” from “No Place Like Home” — that line sucks to be sung. But there’s something very Disneyish and warm to “if we just keep fighting for it, we will win back and restore it.”

Let’s talk about the original musical’s songs. Did you notice anything interesting about the movie’s approach to staging them?
JM: It’s crazy that they start with a megamix of the Act One songs. It’s sort of like doing an entr’acte with the orchestra doing the motifs, but instead it’s the characters doing it. It also sets the tone of “This is a silly movie,” which I appreciated. It’s so messy and beholden to the incentives of commercializing the product to be like, “We’ve got to remind these people of the first movie!”

RA: I like that they slow down early on to give Glinda her “Thank Goodness,” and she gets to be really intentional with how she phrases it.

JM: “Wonderful” is kind of an unsalvageable song, but the decision to include Glinda in it is interesting and gives an excuse for Ariana and Cynthia to be in the room together. But the movie devotes way too much time to that song. I also appreciated Cynthia’s riff on “Fiyerooooo” in “No Good Deed,” although the rest of that song tends to be more technically perfect than rawly head-banging and emotional. Also, that song is shot like it is set on an anti-gravity planet in a Guardians of the Galaxy movie. Ugly!

RA: Guardians of the Galaxy has musical numbers that are shot and staged better. “No Good Deed” is Cynthia’s time to truly shine, and the film puts her in her floating castle surrounded by these batlike monkeys flapping around her — I hate to see it. They also do this flashback thing where Elphaba’s walking through scenes from the first movie. The black-and-white footage of Fiyero getting beat up was some of the ugliest imagery I’ve seen in a movie in a while.

JM: If any song should be built around as few cuts as possible, it’s this one. Let her sell it in her face and her voice.

What musical moment landed the best for you?
JM: The reprise of “I’m Not That Girl,” by Glinda, which I think Ariana Grande sings heartbreakingly well. There’s so much attention paid to Grande imitating Kristin Chenoweth’s operatic soprano, which she’s good at, if not as bell-like and clear as Chenoweth can be with her signature high notes (hardly anyone is). But Grande has an underdiscussed rich lower register, and Glinda famously starts singing lower and lower through the show as she gets less fake and more real. It was fun to see Ariana go along that journey. And I love a reprise!

RA: I still get chills “For Good” where Glinda sings the lower harmony and Elphaba’s singing the upper one. They’ve been changed! And because it’s in close-up in the movie, you can focus on that. The first movie was at its best every time it was just Ariana as Glinda being in love — whatever type of love you choose to interpret it as — with Elphaba.

JM: Ariana has a great sad face. She flutters her eyelids really well.

RA: I judge male actors based on how they are look at a woman onscreen, how charged or deep it feels. How do they behold the girl? Ariana is randomly really good at pulling that off. She’s so good at looking at Cynthia.

How does she compare to Fiyero in that regard?
RA: (Laughs) I’ve never seen an “As Long As You’re Mine” like this. The chemistry is not there. It’s so fun and fabulous, but they’re not making eye contact. It reminded me of Twilightthis sort of failed intense fantastical eroticism. The intensity at which they’re trying to depict a romance with a lack of chemical reality is sublime in its own way.

What else did you want from the film musically?
RA: I would have liked Jonathan Bailey to sing more. And he doesn’t make a meal out of his lines that are supposed to be funny. This act of the stage show is messy, but some of these lines are still meant to be funny.

JM: Marissa Bode does a good job with “The Wicked Witch of the East.” Ethan Slater is good in that scene. People are mad that she doesn’t fully belt the climax online, but I’m fine with holding back there and letting Nessarose be more interior.

Jackson, you said you noticed something about Glinda’s apartment during “The Girl in the Bubble.”
JM: While disassociating from the lyrics of that song, I noticed her apartment looks like Padmé Amidala’s in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. I just want it on the record that the Emerald City looks a lot like Coruscant. Also, that movie is George Lucas playing with genre film and sword-and-sandals/noir/detective/high-melodrama romance and having funwith it. Wicked: For Good actually could have learned a lot from Attack of the Clones! This movie is too often humorless and dutiful. The stage musical does more winking at itself.

RA: While writing about Fiyero having his own little Passion of the Christ off to the side during “No Good Deed,” I was watching an old recording of Wicked onstage. There’s a lot of laugh moments in the whole scene leading up to it. And it’s just played so dead serious in the movie, and that’s a wider issue. People in our screening audience were not laughing at the joke moments.

JM: There’s a way to be swashbuckling with it, to be old Hollywood, as in “we’re doing this, we’re having fun withit, but we’re not making fun of it.” I think a lot of blockbuster movies have gotten either too irony-poisoned or just entirely afraid of irony. There is a zone that is not diminishing the thing you’re doing but embracing the fun of being on this adventure in a sort of Errol Flynn or Gene Kelly way. Jonathan Bailey could play well but is not asked to. Ariana and Cynthia are so earnest, God bless them, although Ariana does have a lot more of a knack for humor. The genre can be silly and deeply emotional, not either/or, and those things can fuse into and fuel each other. I wish there were more of a sense of “Isn’t it fun that we got away with this?”

BANGKOK – Excited families greeted relatives released from Myanmar’s Insein Prison on Thursday as part of a mass amnesty granted by the country’s military rulers ahead of next month’s election.

At least eight buses carrying prisoners were welcomed outside the gate of the Yangon prison at 11:30 am by relatives and friends who had been waiting since early morning.

The military administration granted amnesty to more than 3,000 people locked up for opposing army rule and dropped charges against more than 5,500 others, state-run broadcaster MRTV reported Wednesday. The amnesty was intended to ensure eligible voters could participate in the Dec. 28 electionsit said.

An official from Insein Prison, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to release information, confirmed prisoners would be released starting Thursday but did not say how many or who they were. In past amnesties, releases have taken several days.

There was no sign that the prisoner release would include former leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who led the National League for Democracy government ousted in the military takeover in 2021 and who has been held virtually incommunicado since then.

Among those freed were Kyi Toe, a member of NLD’s central information committee, and freelance journalist Zaw Lin Htut, also known as Phoe Thar. Both were arrested in 2021.

“I am determined to work with Aunty until I am 90 years old,” Kyi Toe told journalists as he arrived outside the prison gate. Aunty is a common expression of respect for Suu Kyi among senior NLD members.

He added that other senior NLD members still remain in prison.

Critics have asserted Myanmar’s election will be neither free nor fair because there is no free media and most of the leaders of the dissolved NLD have been arrested.

MRTV said the National Defense and Security Council, a constitutional administrative government body controlled by the military, granted amnesties covering 3,085 prisoners convicted under the part of the penal code known as the incitement law, which makes it a crime to spread comments that create public unrest or fear, or spread false news. It has been widely used to arrest critics of the government or military and is punishable by up to three years in prison.

Conditional release was granted to 724 prisoners, who would have to serve the rest of their old sentence if they commit a new offense, and 5,580 people who are either being prosecuted or are in hiding, will receive amnesty and have their incitement cases closed.

Some 22,708 political detainees, including Suu Kyi, were in detention as of Wednesday, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, an independent organization that keeps detailed tallies of arrests.

The 80-year-old Suu Kyi is serving a 27-year sentence after being convicted in what supporters have called politically tinged prosecutions.

The army takeover in 2021 was met with massive nonviolent resistance, which has since become a widespread armed struggle.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with David Hugo Barrett, 82, who works as a substitute teacher in Maryland. Barrett still works despite two disabilities that affect his mobility, nor would he be able to comfortably pay his bills without the extra income. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

Aging isn’t something that can be taken lightly. People say that age is nothing but a number. That’s just simply not true.

Anyone who says that has probably not seen their mom or dad age.

I spent my career in the teaching and engineering fields

I started my career as a classroom teacher in Newark, New Jersey, teaching secondary mathematics. Six months into that job, I was recruited by an electric company in Massachusetts as a computer programmer and mathematician, working on the missile guidance system aboard the US nuclear submarine fleet.

I left after three years and went to work for an aerospace company back in New Jersey. I then had the opportunity to work with a manufacturer as a systems engineer, as well as with a smaller company as the vice president of a small division. At my final company, I served as vice president, and we had contracts with the Department of Defense.

I started substitute teaching, which I did from 2001 to 2005. I became a certified teacher and did that for the next 12 years, retiring in 2018.

After I stopped teaching, I finished and published a book I’d been working on for some time, titled “A Newark Childhood.” The book started as a tribute poem to my mother. I took the liberty of editorializing and thinking about the decisions I made, and commenting on some of the social and environmental issues that I was affected by. It became not just a memoir but also a form of self-criticism.

I underfunded my 401(k) because I underestimated how long I’d live

I wish I had waited longer to take advantage of Social Security, because I’ve lived beyond what I expected. Based on the statistical life expectancy of African American males, I made the calculation that I probably wouldn’t make it to 80. Now, I have a smaller monthly payment.

I’m in a situation where working isn’t optional. Since November of last year, I’ve been substitute teaching two or three days a week. The money that I’m getting from substitute teaching is partially replacing my exhausted 401(k).

My wife, who’s 74, used to be a professional trainer for companies, but now she also works as a substitute teacher. She made the same mistake that I made regarding Social Security. We both need to work in order to maintain this quality of life.

I’m still reasonably mobile, but I’ve got two limiting disabilities

I have a condition called lymphedema, which is a malfunction of the lymphatic system caused by trauma to my right leg. What happens is that the fluid that’s usually drained by the lymphatic system tends to settle in the legs and feet, which causes swelling.

The other one is more serious. It’s called peripheral neuropathy, which is a disorder of the nerves in the legs, so I’m not able to feel most of my feet. I have some home therapy that was prescribed for me after I went through physical therapy. I walk four to five times a week, for one hour each time.

I have two sons and six grandchildren, and my wife and I would go to California about every two years, where one of my sons lives with his wife and two children. Now, even getting to the kitchen is more challenging. I fear that my mobility will get worse and prevent me from traveling at all on an airplane.

I’d like to see my two youngest granddaughters finish high school, but that’s not likely. If I’m still around, who knows what condition I’ll be in, cognitively?

I recently stepped down as chairman of the board of the Howard County Poetry and Literature Society and as chairman of the Alpha Foundation to make room for younger people to step in and innovate.

Teaching allows me to stay in touch with young people

I need to have some way of communicating with my grandchildren and learn the vocabulary that they’re exposed to.

The financial part of teaching is not insignificant, and I look forward to getting those checks every two weeks. Equally as important, though, is the opportunity.

When you’re a substitute teacher, you don’t actually do any teaching because you don’t have access to their assignment platforms. My job is to keep order, and I answer questions when I can.

I tell the kids that I’m old enough to be their grandparent, and let them guess my age. That gets their attention. They ask me what year I graduated from high school or college; I want their guesses to be scientific. Eventually, somebody gets it.

Once I’m done, I tell them life stories. I tell them that when I was 13 years old, my mother told me that I was going to be judged by the company of friends I kept. One of the guys I was hanging out with was willing to do anything on a dare, including things that would get me in trouble, so I decided to bail on him.

Thirteen years later, when I was a volunteer teacher at a state prison, I heard somebody call my name as I entered. Guess who it was? I tell the students about the choices he made to end up in prison and the choices I made to be standing before them, telling my story.

The last thing I do is write a fictitious name and two dates — one a birth year and the other a death year — on the board. I tell them we have no control over the first part, some control over the middle, and no control over the last part. The dash in the middle represents when you’re alive, the choices you’re going to make, and what you’re going to do with that dash.

I’m 82 years into my dash, I tell them, but they have a whole number of years before them. So if they ever recognize me in the mall or at Walmart, I ask them to say, “Mr. Barrett, how’s your dash going?”

What gives Michael Burry his rizz?

Short-sellers have long been despised by the retail investing crowd, who have often taken bullish positions on the stocks short-sellers are betting will fall.

“The Big Short” investor, though, seems to be an exception.

The founder of Scion Asset Management skyrocketed to fame after successfully predicting the 2008 market crash. His ability to beat Wall Street banks at their own game is a source of inspiration for a lot of retail investors. It earned him enduring celebrity status, even after he stuck his neck out to bet against some of the market’s most popular stocks, like Palantir and Nvidia.

But, while other short-sellers — Andrew Left and Gabe Plotkin come to mind — have drawn online hate, Burry’s bets have seemingly never made him more popular. Global search interest in his name soared 769% to a new peak this month, according to data obtained from the Google Trends analytics tool Glimpse.

Burry deregistered his hedge fund this week, fueling excited speculation among retail investors about what the iconic market bear will do next.

“He’s speaking the language of the retail investor, which is to go against the prevailing wind in the market,” Michael Brown, senior researcher at Pepperstone, said.

A few things might explain why Burry gets a pass from a crowd that normally shuns short-sellers.

He stuck it to the man

Burry made $700 million for his clients and took in around $100 million himself as the subprime mortgage crisis kicked off the Great Recession.

But it’s not just that Burry was right. It’s also that his now-legendary call that the housing market would unravel came at the expense of Wall Street.

The big banks are among the cast of villains in retail trader forums, and Burry’s David vs. Goliath backstory is also how many envision their fight against other short sellers who bet against their favorite meme stocks, like Andrew Left and Gabe Plotkin.

Plotkin’s hedge fund became the primary target of retail traders in 2021 as they pumped GameStop shares to record highs. His losses mounted to the billions in days, leading his firm to close its doors about a year later.

“I’m glad this piss bag is broken. I hope he’s not the only one either,” one user wrote in a thread about Plotkin on Reddit.

Burry’s online persona is also more offbeat compared to other investors. Since his return to X, the Scion founder has posted Star Wars memes and batted away rumors that he was 5’6″.

Speaking to Vanity Fair in 2010, Burry said he believes he sees the world differently, in part because he has one glass eye after a childhood cancer diagnosis. He has also spoken about being diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome.

He goes against the consensus

In the post-crisis years, Burry’s mystique has grown, largely due to his sporadic appearances and disappearances on social media, where he drops breadcrumbs regarding his thinking that often run counter to prevailing market narratives.

This is important for retail investors, who often feel they have an inside story or theory about why a particular stock is misunderstood. Recent surges in Opendoor and Beyond Meat are examples of this phenomenon.

For the most part, Burry is calling more bubbles, and his prognostications have fueled theories and discussions on retail trader forums. However, it’s unclear if investors are necessarily following Burry’s advice. On r/Burryology, his stock calls are received with a mix of enthusiasm and trepidation.

“Maybe because his shorts are not working as expected?” one user wrote in a thread discussing a recent social media post of Burry’s that said he believed the AI ​​hyperscalers would eventually overstate their earnings by as much as 26%.

“Michael burry? Ah yes the guy who has predicted a market crash every year since the stock market began,” another user wrote on a separate r/investing thread.

There are likely a good number of retail investors who will continue to view Burry as a “godlike” figure, Brown said.

“But yeah, they’re probably not going to be in those positions for very long if past performance is anything to go by,” he added.

Burry, who has repeatedly warned of a stock crash in recent years, is now more closely aligned with the market zeitgeist as fears of a stock market bubble grow louder on Wall Street.

“People say I didn’t warn last time,” heh wrote in a now-deleted post from 2021. “I did, but no one listened. So I warn this time. And still, no one listens. But I will have proof I warned.”

Burry also recently updated his profile name to “Cassandra Unchained,” an allusion to the Greek mythological figure who was cursed to make accurate prophecies but never to be believed.

“This all plays into existing concerns around the size of investment in AI, doubts over whether there will ever be a decent return, along with the circular nature of these investments. I’ve no doubt his retail followers take this very seriously,” David Morrison, a senior market analyst at Trade Nation, told Business Insider.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Darshan Patel, a 28-year-old film and marketing professional based in Brooklyn, New York. It’s been edited for length and clarity.

In my second-to-last semester of college, I started actively searching for postgraduate work in the film or entertainment industries. I had studied advertising with a minor in film studies, and I was applying to any opportunity I could find online, including cold emailing studios and direct messaging producers and directors on Instagram.

As graduation approached, I still couldn’t seem to get in contact with any studios. I randomly came up with the idea of ​​Venmoing a director to get their attention.

I felt regret the moment I sent the message, but it ultimately launched my film career. It taught me that you have to do something unique to get attention in this job market.

The Venmo idea was a huge risk

I really admired the director Oscar Boyson, so I DM’d him a few times on Instagram about working for him. Honestly, I bothered that man a lot. I even emailed other directors in his company, but I never got a response.

One day, I had the idea to see if he was on Venmo. Given his unique name, I found his Venmo account straight away. I decided to send him 50 cents as a joke, with the caption “something to sweeten the deal,” alongside a link to an Instagram DM I had sent him that included my résumé.

The second I felt it, I thought, “What am I doing?” It really could’ve gone either way. Either he’d find it funny, or I could be blacklisted forever.

A month went by, and I followed up with a more professional email, mentioning the Venmo transaction. He called me for an interview. We had a conversation about the Venmo transaction when we first started working together, and we made it into a joke.

I ended up working with him for six months

I moved from Florida to New York City to intern with him as a studio assistant, where I handled various hands-on production tasks. It was unpaid, but all my travel, food, and miscellaneous work expenses were covered. I didn’t mind not getting paid because the experience itself was worth it.

I learned a lot from him, from budgeting to scriptwriting, which really helped me shape a better understanding of how the film industry worked. I feel like I learned more in those six months than I did in college.

He also introduced me to new directors and producers he knew, which gave me the opportunity to work as a PA or assistant on other projects, such as an ASAP Mob shoot for Yams Day.

I think what really helped was having Oscar Boyson’s name on my résumé. When I was trying to make my first short film, I felt like it gave me more credibility.

Since the internship finished in late 2020, I’ve continued to work in film

I’m working a day job at an in-house marketing agency, but I spend a lot of my spare time working on my own film projects.

My second short film, “Lou and Jane,” recently premiered at the Chelsea Film Festivalwhich created a lot more opportunities for me in the industry. I filmed three additional projects in the summer, and I’m currently working on a feature-length film.

My overall goal is to become a full-time film director and producer. In a dream, I’d win an Oscar, but really, I’d just like to have an independent studio where I can develop my own projects and help other underrepresented or POC filmmakers.

My advice is not to be afraid to bother people

Imagine being a director who is constantly approached by film students for work or advice. In any industry, but especially the film industry, you have to stand out.

My little brother just graduated from film school, and I’ve been telling him that sometimes you have to bother people. It sounds bad, but they might not see you if you don’t.

Many industry experts are eager to help, and if they can sense your passion and recognize that you have something of value, they might say yes or even pass you on to someone else. You never know what could happen.