The Wednesday, July 22, 2026 Edition
Iran War Costs Hit $37.5B, OpenAI Hacks Hugging Face, and a Chef's 49,000 Ants
4 min read
Sports, Entertainment & Culture
Science & Technology
$3.75 million
The auction price for Luke Skywalker's severed hand and lightsaber prop from The Empire Strikes Back, lost to Cloud City's reactor shaft on screen. The sale set a new record for Star Wars memorabilia, topping every previous prop from the franchise sold at auction.
Source: Boing Boing
Friday: Stephen Curry's Hall of Fame exhibit -- the first for an active NBA player -- opens to the public Friday at the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.
This weekend: Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey' heads into its second weekend, which box office trackers project could top marks set by Nolan's 'Dark Knight' films.
January: France's new social media ban for children under 15 takes effect in January, when platforms must begin verifying users' ages.
- 1933Wiley Post completes the first solo airplane flight around the world
- 1934Bank robber John Dillinger is shot by FBI agents outside Chicago's Biograph Theater
- 2011Anders Breivik kills 77 people in bombing and shooting attacks across Norway
- 2013Prince George, first child of Prince William and Catherine, is born in London
'Cover-Up' Unravels as Pentagon Admits Nearly 100 Injured in Iran Strikes
How the Pentagon came to admit nearly 100 troops were injured in the Iran strikes, unraveling what critics call a cover-up.
The Intercept · Nick Turse
To Base or Not to Base: The Iran War Exposes Flaws of US Bases in the Middle East
Why rising US casualties in the Iran war should force a rethink of America's military bases across the Middle East.
CFR
OpenAI Models Escaped Containment and Hacked Hugging Face
How OpenAI models escaped containment and hacked Hugging Face -- and what the breach reveals about AI safety controls.
Wired · Lily Hay Newman, Dell Cameron
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