Month: September 2026

Star Wars: Unlimited’s Ashes of the Empire is out now: Emperor Palpatine arrives as a leader card

Emperor Palpatine is back, just not through a new movie, a Disney+ series, or some out-of-nowhere canon reveal. He’s returning in card form instead. Fantasy Flight Games launched Star Wars: Unlimited’s eighth expansion, Ashes of the Empire, on July 17, 2026.

Fantasy Flight says Ashes of the Empire adds more than 260 cards and drops players into the stretch after Endor, when the Empire is falling apart and the New Republic is taking shape. The set also brings in Advantage tokens, Support, and Mandalorian token units, a change of pace after the faster A Lawless Time meta.

Palpatine, in Fantasy Flight’s own rundown, headlines a pre-built 50-card Cunning and Villainy Spotlight Deck built around battlefield control. The deck pays you for going wide with Imperial units, then cashing in exhausted bodies for big temporary swings through Advantage tokens, though Palpatine looks a lot less threatening if your board stays small. The list includes Darth Vader, Moff Gideon, Rukh, the Executor, and Moff Jerjerrod. Luke Skywalker’s other Spotlight Deck goes in a different direction, leaning on healing and on keeping units on the table.

The early chatter is already circling Emperor Palpatine, Ahsoka Tano, Moff Gideon, Cad Bane, and Ezra Bridger as cards that could matter in the meta, and if you play Star Wars: Unlimited on a regular basis, this set feels like an easy pickup.

Fantasy Flight says you can get Ashes of the Empire now in 16-card boosters, six-pack Prerelease Boxes, Spotlight Decks, and Carbonite Edition boosters through Fantasy Flight Games and retail stores. Prerelease events also gave players early access ahead of launch.

Red Dead Redemption 2 gets Beecher’s Hope Reunion mod: Arthur, Sadie and more return

Beecher’s Hope Reunion, a new free Red Dead Redemption 2 mod for PC, is out now on Nexus Mods. It expands John Marston’s ranch after the main story wraps up.

Vortex: mod manager Download

The mod turns Beecher’s Hope into a livelier, non-canon “what if” hangout. Arthur Morgan, Sadie Adler, Charles Smith, Lenny Summers, Sean MacGuire, and Mary Linton can show up there, talk to each other, move through daily routines, join in camp-style activities, play music around the fire, head out on their own little adventures, and, in everyone’s case except Mary’s, be recruited to follow John and fight at your side.

Push your luck too much, though, and some of them will react badly. Antagonize them often enough and they can turn hostile, stop interacting with you, or disappear as companions for a while.

If you’ve been wishing for the single-player expansion Rockstar never made while the studio moves over to Grand Theft Auto VI, this is the kind of update that makes a strong case for PC modding. It’s a reminder of why that scene still matters, whether you care about bug fixes, roleplay tools, visual upgrades, combat tweaks, or now just a more sentimental way to spend time with characters you might’ve missed. Early player response and coverage from outlets has been warm too, even if the public download numbers on Nexus Mods still don’t capture its full reach nearly six years later.

You can download Beecher’s Hope Reunion for Red Dead Redemption 2 on PC right now from Nexus Mods.

Huawei criminal trial is under way in Brooklyn: it could last 3 months

Huawei’s criminal trial opened today in federal court in Brooklyn, kicking off what’s expected to be a three-month courtroom fight over allegations the US has been pressing since 2018. Prosecutors say Huawei ran a long-term criminal operation built on trade-secret theft, fraud, and sanctions violations. Huawei’s answer is blunt: the government is taking ordinary business conduct and treating it like crime, while going after a rival under the guise of conspiracy.

HiSuite Download

The government wants jurors to look at the case as a two-decade pattern, not a handful of separate incidents. A 12-count indictment charges Huawei with racketeering conspiracy, trade-secret theft, wire fraud, bank fraud, and IEEPA sanctions violations. Prosecutors say the company took technology from five US businesses, among them Cisco router code and T-Mobile’s phone-testing robotic arm. They’re also expected to show video evidence.

Prosecutors further argue that Huawei used Skycom to do business in Iran and misled banks, allowing millions of dollars to pass through the US financial system. After a judge’s ruling, they may also use Meng Wanzhou’s 2021 admissions about false statements as evidence.

For people who follow the US-China tech fight closely, this trial has a lot riding on it. Huawei says prosecutors are turning normal business behavior into criminal conduct, that the company grew because it spent on R&D, not because it stole, and that the real issue here is competition, not conspiracy.

The Brooklyn proceedings are unfolding against a much bigger backdrop: US restrictions on Huawei equipment, export controls, Chinese officials accusing Washington of political suppression, and the possibility of spillover into the smartphone and 5G markets. The outcome could also shape future trade-secret and sanctions cases across Western markets.

Apple’s A20 Pro rumor: faster neural tasks, but not games yet

People are paying attention to Apple’s rumored A20 Pro right now. It’s still just an unconfirmed chip said to be headed for a future iPhone, but the current talk around it centers on a dual 16-core Neural Engine that, on paper, could outpace the chip’s 7-core GPU in peak compute.

If you play games, that headline comes with an asterisk. Apple’s Neural Engine is built for narrow, low-precision AI work. The GPU is still the part that deals with shaders, lighting, textures, geometry, and the real-time work of drawing each frame.

So a bigger Neural Engine number doesn’t mean weaker graphics. These throughput figures aren’t a straight comparison, and what Apple seems to be doing here lines up with the broader shift toward adding more specialized silicon for specific jobs.

If you use your iPhone for gaming on a regular basis, this A20 Pro rumor is worth keeping an eye on. Still, core counts by themselves usually don’t tell you much. Architecture, clock speeds memory bandwidth, and thermals are still what decide frame rates, visual quality, and how well performance holds up over time. The Neural Engine, meanwhile, would more likely help with side features during play, things like image enhancement, motion analysis, voice features, and other on-device tasks.

There’s nothing to download yet, and the Apple A20 Pro is still only an unconfirmed chip rumor tied to a future iPhone.

Daybreak launches for US utilities: hardening the power grid

Sam Altman has launched Daybreak, a software-led program for U.S. utilities meant to shore up grid defenses against cyberattacks, severe weather, and steadily rising demand.

Wireshark Download

The focus is on electric-grid operators and other critical-infrastructure teams. Daybreak is supposed to help them sift through huge volumes of operational data, spot weak points across networks and substations, model cyber or physical disruptions, and catch anomalies sooner, so operators can act before a small software problem turns into an outage in dispatch, transmission, or field operations.

The timing makes sense. Utilities are already dealing with ransomware, warnings about foreign intrusions, more complicated digital control systems, storm and wildfire risk, electrification, power-hungry data centers, more renewable connections, cost pressure, and information scattered across legacy equipment, newer platforms, and outside contractors.

If you work in utility cybersecurity, grid planning, or emergency response, this is something to keep an eye on. Even then, utilities and regulators are still going to want answers on data handling, compliance, procurement, liability, long pilot programs, detailed security reviews, and tight limits on automation before they put real trust in Daybreak.

The pitch to U.S. power companies is pretty clear: Daybreak is being sold as an extra layer of resilience, not a replacement for the security systems they already have.

GlassWire Download

OpenAI launches ChatGPT for finance: S&P, LSEG, Moody’s and PitchBook data

OpenAI rolled out ChatGPT for Financial Services today, saying the product gives eligible finance teams access to GPT-6 Astra, licensed market data, and workflow tools built for banking work.

ChatGPT Download

The company developed it with Morgan Stanley and Evercore, and it’s positioning the product for the kind of document-heavy work finance teams deal with all day: valuations, leveraged buyout models, buyer screening, earnings analysis, pitchbooks, and client materials. The data stack is broad. OpenAI says it pulls from Daloopa, PitchBook, S&P Capital IQ, LSEG, MSCI, Moody’s, Factiva, Preqin, Intapp, Datasite, and Box, plus Reuters through LSEG, either directly inside the product or through shared logins tied to subscriptions your team already has.

OpenAI says performance on finance documents climbs to 69.9% on OfficeQA Pro, up from 60.2%. That’s better, but it still means roughly 3 in 10 answers are wrong. For anyone working in banking or research, that makes this look usable only if a human is still checking the work. On security, OpenAI says the product includes single sign-on, provisioning, role-based access, encryption, retention controls, audit logs, no training on business data, and information barriers.

Eligible banks, investment firms, and finance teams can get ChatGPT for Financial Services through OpenAI, though the company didn’t give Europe-specific detail on EU data residency, hosting, or DORA. OpenAI is going after a finance automation market that some forecasts size at $39.5 billion in 2025 and $216.9 billion by 2033, with specialist competitors like BloombergGPT already in the mix.

TikTok now faces Pennsylvania lawsuit over teen overuse claims

Pennsylvania sued TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court on Aug. 11, 2026. According to the state’s complaint, the lawsuit accuses TikTok of violating state consumer protection laws and harming young users.

TikTok Download

The complaint says TikTok gave users and parents a misleading picture of harmful content and the safeguards available to younger users. It also alleges the company may have labeled some material as “infrequent” or “mild” to help secure a 12+ or 13+ rating, while using endless scroll, autoplay, and notifications on the For You feed to push reward-based, compulsive use.

Pennsylvania links that design to teen anxiety, depression, and body-image issues. The complaint points to teenTALK, a 2025 review that tied problematic use to higher anxiety and depression in users under 24, along with a study that, the filing says, found symptoms can rise after 20 minutes. It also cites figures in the complaint showing daily use climbing from 27.4 minutes in 2019 to 55.8 minutes in 2023.

If you follow policy, this case deserves a close look. TikTok called the claims “misleading and inaccurate” and pointed to screen-time limits and privacy settings for users under 16. Pennsylvania now joins more than a dozen states, Washington, D.C., California, and New York in a fight over infinite scroll, autoplay, feeds, and late-night alerts, not only the content itself. Researchers are still arguing over clinical addiction versus craving, tolerance, and withdrawal-like patterns of use. You can track the filing in Pennsylvania court records.

‘Now You See Me’ won’t stay only in theaters: now, what’s more, it will have a Broadway version

One might think that sooner or later the Four Horsemen’s magic would run out, but the truth is that after almost 9 years of silence, the third theatrical installment of Now You See Me was successful enough to secure a fourth one at some point. Yes, the franchise has been slipping at the box office with each new sequel, but we all like Jesse Eisenberg and his co-stars doing a few little sleight-of-hand tricks on us and leaving us speechless. And now, the time has come to bring it to the stage.

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Hocus pocus

So, although we still haven’t heard whether the original cast is returning, on November 11 all of New York will be able to experience a magic trick with the stage version of Now You See Me, which will initially run for eight weeks during which the Four Horsemen will take over Broadway. No, that doesn’t mean we’re going to see Matthew McConaughey, Dave Franco, Isla Fisher and Mark Ruffalo onstage. Even franchises have their limits.

In this show, an “explosive mix of high-tech illusions, solo acts and mind-blowing spectacles” (I’m not saying it, of course, that’s what they’re trying to sell) will feature Gabriella Lester as the escape artist, James Moore and Darcy Oake as illusionists, and Matthew Pomeroy as the mentalist. They’re handsome, they’re young, and they don’t mind taking their name from a franchise.

Mind you, this Broadway run isn’t exactly new: the show has already played in Australia, Singapore and London, and it will even play in Las Vegas for a month first. Because if you’re going to pull off a heist, you do it in style.

‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ is finally going to lose its top spot at the box office. Its replacement has used magic tricks

July 31 seems like it was several decades ago, because an awful lot has happened since then. Among other things, there’s a new movie among the top three highest-grossing films in history: Spider-man Brand New Day, the latest from Marvel Studios, which has held on for a month and a half at number 1, with no one able to touch it, racking up (so far) more than $2.4 billion worldwide. But of course, everything comes to an end.

The spider has fallen

According to predictions (though personally I think they’re low), Practical Magic 2 will make between $30 million and $40 million at the box office in the more than 4,000 theaters where it will open in the United States, plus its international gross. Considering it cost $75 million and that the first film was a flop, we can already start talking about a third film as soon as possible. Sandra, Nicole, get warmed up, you’re going in.

IMDb Download

It hasn’t mattered at all that the critical response hasn’t been the best, because after all, it’s a cult film, and that’s how fans have embraced it, wanting to recreate the atmosphere of the first installment however they can. Spoiler: if you want exactly the same thing, you’re in luck, because they haven’t changed it one bit.

These figures are (and will be) a clear improvement for Warner: this year, not even one of its films has grossed more than $100 million. Practical Magic 2, really, will only be keeping the top spot warm until Resident Evil arrives and the rest of the blockbusters that will rotate through the No. 1 spot from now until December. Only one thing is clear: the spider has fallen. Long live the spider!

What could be the prototype of the RPG that would give shape to Banjo-Kazooie has leaked

Before Banjo-Kazooie, Rare was working on an RPG for the Super Nintendo: Project Dream. After development began around 1995, they considered it too ambitious for the console and ended up developing a version for the Nintendo 64. In the end, though, they also scrapped that version. But from the ashes of this game came both Banjo-Kazooie and Conker’s Bad Fur Day; the former thanks to Banjo being a supporting character in the game, the latter by taking elements from the game and turning it into a platformer.

Snes9x Download

A lost game, found

Now, thirty years later, it seems that a playable version of this video game, which was considered lost, has finally been found. A user identified as FVCKPhil&Asha has uploaded videos of the game running on original hardware, a Super Nintendo, while also uploading a fully functional ROM to Internet Archive. And while its legitimacy still can’t yet be confirmed with total certainty, since they won’t say how they got the game, it seems to be real.

FVCKPhil&Asha has stated that they have strong reasons for making this game public now and not before. “With the current state of the industry and Microsoft’s current soulless dismantling and mismanagement of Rare and other companies it controls, and given how much time has passed, I feel it’s more important to make sure this is properly preserved, and that the ROM is analyzed by people with much more knowledge of how to do this kind of thing”. They also wanted to make a political statement by releasing this game that was thought to be lost

Available for download, as mentioned, on Internet Archive, this is great news for video game preservation. However, we’ll still have to wait for experts to confirm the game’s authenticity and, more importantly, whether it’s playable enough to enjoy.