Washington and Israel have devised new plans to strike Iran again after the U.S. midterm elections, The New York Times reports, citing senior U.S. officials and other sources. The planning comes as the armed forces of both countries have stepped up military maneuvers in the region to rehearse bombing missions, and as the State Department has ordered nonessential embassy staff and their families to evacuate Saudi Arabia amid the prospect of possible new attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen. It also comes as Israel prepares for an election in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is fighting for re-election.
Years ago, when people asked Geoffrey Hinton why he worked on artificial intelligence, he would repeat a line from J. Robert Oppenheimer, one of the creators of the atomic bomb: “When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it.”
Computer scientist and Nobel Prize in Physics laureate Geoffrey Hinton during the Starmus Festival 2026, held this Tuesday in the municipality of Arona in Tenerife.
Olivia Wilde returns to the screen and the director’s chair with 'The Invite,' a comedy about secrets, desire and the cracks that emerge when a couple believes they know each other a little too well. The film, in which she stars alongside Penélope Cruz and which is already generating Oscar buzz, marks the return of one of the most controversial figures in recent Hollywood history.
An actress turned director, outspoken feminist and central character in one of the entertainment industry's most talked-about sagas, the 42-year-old filmmaker has gone from being the young doctor on 'House' to embodying the contradictions of an industry that applauds women for breaking the rules, but does not always forgive them for doing so on their own terms.
If there is one thing Wilde has made clear during the promotional tour for 'The Invite,' it is her fascination with Penélope Cruz. The director and actress has even joked that she has not washed her hands since touching those of the Madrid-born star, who plays a free-spirited woman capable of turning her neighbors’ relationship upside down. The couple next door are played by Wilde herself and Seth Rogen.
The two have displayed their easy rapport throughout recent promotional appearances, with Wilde at one point describing her co-star as “the sexiest woman alive.” In one scene, Cruz unexpectedly kisses Wilde. The filmmaker has admitted that she completely lost her composure, her mind went blank and she fell hopelessly in love with her co-star.
Wilde is one of the filmmakers who has openly spoken about the difficulties she encounters when casting her films and trying to find actresses who have not undergone cosmetic procedures.
“As a director, I now am constantly searching for actresses who can still move their faces. And it’s not easy!” she said. “I don’t blame them. I’m a product of the same machine, I’m under the same pressures; I get it.”
“I just pray for technology to allow treatments that just aren’t so aggressive. Like, there’s something so medieval about all these things. Can’t someone come up with something better than Botox?” she continued.
For Wilde, the issue is also personal. In recent years, her own public appearances have been met with cruel remarks about her looks, her age and speculation about possible cosmetic procedures.
In 2026, photos of the actress became fodder for mockery on social media, particularly because of her extreme thinness. Wilde herself responded with humor, acknowledging that in those viral images she really did look “like a little dead sarcophagus man.”
On Jan. 6, 2021, the world woke up to an image that would dominate headlines for months: Olivia Wilde and Harry Styles walking hand in hand. Wilde was directing her second film, 'Don't Worry Darling,' and Styles, the former One Direction member, was one of its stars.
The couple’s 10-year age gap, the singer’s global fame and Wilde’s recent separation turned the relationship into a media phenomenon. The spiral soon became impossible to stop: Shia LaBeouf’s departure from the project, rumors that the film’s lead actress, Florence Pugh, had a strained relationship with Wilde and was unhappy with the displays of affection between the director and Styles during filming, and the supposedly viral incident in which Styles appeared to spit on Chris Pine at the Venice Film Festival.
Wilde has since acknowledged that she perhaps should have pushed back against some of the allegations. At the same time, she has recalled that she was experiencing moments of great happiness in her private life.
“ It was like a tornado was right outside the door, and if you were inside you were like, ‘It’s so nice,’” she said. “And you open the door and be like, ‘Ah,’ like a fucking like cow and a tractor would fly by.”
Wilde grew up in Georgetown, Washington, D.C., in a household where current affairs were effectively a member of the family. Her parents, journalists Andrew and Leslie Cockburn, hosted dinner parties attended by guests as prominent as Mick Jagger, Steven Spielberg and writer Salman Rushdie.
Her mother worked as a war correspondent and went on to become a renowned investigative journalist before taking her career in a different direction. In 2018, at the age of 66, she ran as a Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, with her daughter’s public support. She lost to the Republican candidate, but her trajectory left Wilde with a powerful example of political engagement and reinvention.
The role that changed everything for Olivia Wilde, who was born Olivia Cockburn and later adopted the surname Wilde in homage to Oscar Wilde, was that of internist Remy Hadley, better known as Thirteen to both Dr. House and the millions of viewers of the medical drama.
Joining the show's fourth season turned her into an international star and one of Hollywood’s most sought-after actresses. After starring in big-budget films such as 'Tron: Legacy' and 'Cowboys & Aliens,' both of which met with limited critical and commercial success, Wilde later said she felt exploited and objectified by the film industry.
“I had become numb to the fact that every meeting I went on — with men and women, by the way — I was going to be judged on my physical appearance,” she said.
Wilde’s feminist commitment predates the controversies that would later put her at the center of the headlines. In 2017, when the #MeToo movement brought the industry’s abuses of power into the spotlight, she joined the growing chorus of voices calling for change. She also became one of the public faces of Time’s Up, the initiative launched by women in Hollywood to combat sexual harassment and promote safer workplaces, and spoke at the 2018 Women’s March in Los Angeles.
“This business belongs to all of us,” she said that year, advocating for an industry in which her peers could work without fear and without having to compete for opportunities that had historically been denied to them.
Wilde’s debut as a feature-film director came in 2019 with a low-budget comedy that quickly achieved cult status among a generation of moviegoers: 'Booksmart.' The film, which follows two high school students on one final night of partying before graduation, was a hit with both critics and audiences.
Wilde had long wanted to stop being just another cog in the industry and take a more active role in the creative process.
“I always assumed acting was the way in, because for many young women … they’re told, ‘You love movies — you should be a movie star,’" she told 'Variety.' "No one tells a little girl, ‘Why don’t you become a director?’ It’s just not a part of the conversation. But if a little boy says he loves movies, it’s like, ‘Maybe one day you’ll direct. Maybe you’ll be the next Steven Spielberg or Martin Scorsese.’”
“Romantic and insane.” That is how Olivia Wilde describes her first great love story, which began in 2003 when she was just 19 years old.
At Burning Man, the unconventional arts and music festival held in Nevada’s desert, the young Wilde said “I do” to her boyfriend of only a few months, filmmaker Tao Ruspoli, the son of an Italian prince. By her own account, it took only seconds for her to realize that the ceremony might have been a little too impulsive.
“Immediately, I was like, 'Wait, what the fuck did I just do?'” she remembers thinking.
The marriage ended in divorce in 2011, although the two have remained on good terms.
The same year she finalized her first divorce, in 2011, Wilde met the man who would become the father of her two children: actor Jason Sudeikis (from 'Ted Lasso'). The two met at a 'Saturday Night Live' party, where Sudeikis was working at the time, and went on to build a family with their children, Otis and Daisy.
In November 2020, after several years together and a long engagement, they ended their relationship, setting off a custody dispute that would later make international headlines. In April 2022, during a film industry convention in Las Vegas, Wilde was interrupted onstage when a person approached to hand her legal documents related to the custody case.
Although Sudeikis maintained that he had no knowledge of how or when the papers would be served, Wilde described the incident as “incredibly traumatizing.”
In her day-to-day life, Wilde is often spotted on the streets of New York wearing far simpler outfits, the kind that are easy for ordinary women to take inspiration from. The look pictured here is a perfect example: a blazer, a basic T-shirt, an oversized bag, trousers and sneakers.
It is the sort of outfit anyone might wear to the office or while running errands.
On the red carpet, Wilde has also earned international attention for her distinctive sense of style. Her looks strike a balance between understated elegance, as seen in this high-necked black Saint Laurent gown with structured shoulders, and a more daring sensibility, whether through sheer fabrics or outfits that showcase her sculpted midriff.
Tailored suits are another staple of her wardrobe, further proving her flair for sharp suiting. The architect behind a style that has grown increasingly sophisticated and eye-catching over the years is Karla Welch, who also styles Tracee Ellis Ross and Sarah Paulson.
The actress is also a favorite of fashion houses with markedly different aesthetics, including Chloé (pictured here in one of the brand’s designs), Saint Laurent, Michael Kors, Louis Vuitton and Valentino.
Her regular appearances at international fashion weeks, particularly in Paris and New York, have made her one of the celebrity names every brand wants seated in its front row.
Earlier this October, Wilde answered the call of fashion’s designer and label of the moment, stepping out in an updated tweed suit by Matthieu Blazy for Chanel. Elegant yet contemporary, the look demonstrated how her trademark bohemian, '70s-inflected style can also take a decidedly classic turn.
It seems that for Wilde, neither in fashion nor in life, much is beyond reach.
Each year, more than 1,000 southern right whales arrive from the cold waters near Antarctica to the gulfs of Península Valdés, in Argentina’s Chubut province, where they find favorable conditions for breeding and raising their calves. Between May and December, they become a defining feature of the Patagonian coastline, breaching or lifting their tails above the water close to shore. Although a small number of whales are found dead along the coast every year, the sharp increase in cases has alarmed scientists, who warn that this may become a record year for whale mortality.
The eighth edition of the New York City International Book Fair (FILNYC) arrives in Manhattan stronger and more ambitious than ever. This year’s edition has double the number of activities, offering 160 events over five days, including panel discussions, workshops, professional sessions for the publishing industry, book clubs and, for the first time, programming for children and young adults, with dedicated spaces providing resources for teachers who want to promote reading in Spanish.
Twenty million families living in poverty will begin receiving extra cash this week, just days before the runoff in Brazil’s closely contested presidential election. The 15% increase in payments from Bolsa Família (the Workers Party’s flagship anti-poverty program) that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced in September, shortly before the first round of voting, is reaching the pockets of the neediest just ahead of Sunday’s runoff vote.
The upcoming U.S. midterms are not just another vote. They are on track to become a new testing ground for autonomous AI agents that first emerged in the Hugging Face attack. Experts are already warning of the potential for these “rogue agents,” seen in action this summer, to carry out more refined, dangerous and harder-to-trace disinformation campaigns and electoral interference than those observed in previous election cycles.
It was Saturday night and Jean, a Haitian who arrived in the United States nearly 20 years ago, had left his job in Broward, north of Miami, hours earlier. But he never made it home. He wasn’t answering his phone and the location of his AirPods remained in the same place. Around 1 a.m., his doctor—also a family friend—went out to look for him and found the car unattended in a parking lot. At that point, Jean himself called and said he had been detained by immigration and was at a Border Patrol station in Dania Beach.
The Donald Trump administration has done with Ukrainians and Sudanese this week what it did last month with Salvadorans: it has not terminated Temporary Protected Status (TPS), but it has not renewed it either. The program that provides legal immigration status to 101,000 Ukrainians and 1,800 Sudanese citizens was set to expire on Monday, but the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has declined to comment, which for now leaves them protected from deportation.
Before running for U.S. representative, Bobby Pulido had already toured the communities in his Texas border district. He spent 31 years as a tejano and regional Mexican singer, performing solo and with his father, the legendary musician Roberto Pulido. In South Texas everyone knows the performer: they grew up with his hit Desvelado, they danced and fell in love to Se murió de amor. But for the past year Pulido has shown a new side—one some support without hesitation and others are still weighing as an option on the midterm ballot: that of politician.
The American singer and writer Patti Smith, this year’s recipient of the Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts, said Tuesday at a news conference following the ceremony in Oviedo, Spain that “sometimes it feels like we don’t have power, but we do have power,” and that what the U.S. needs right now is “for people to use that power, to rise up, think for ourselves and then unite.” She added that for her it is difficult to talk about her country’s current situation, describing it as having “deplorable leadership.”
The conversations of small groups break the night’s calm in Wudaoying, one of the most popular hutong (alleyways) in Beijing’s old quarter. At the door of a concert hall, Shao, 27, and Qin, 28, chat with beers in their hands. “They treat me like a little girl and on top of that I have to smile so as not to cause trouble,” Shao complains. She takes a drag from her cigarette and nods toward a co‑worker standing a few meters away. “I’m sick of so much mansplaining,” Qin replies, referring to the condescending explanations by men who assume women know less.
A little over a month ago, at a high school on the outskirts of Paris, a group of students blocked their school to protest the condition of the facilities and the lack of teachers. Within days, students from other schools joined in, first in Paris and then across the country, complaining of leaks in classrooms and even cockroaches, and of walls that are cracking. They are cold in the winter and hot in the spring. That image of public schools — long considered a pillar of the French Republic, but gradually falling apart — also illustrates the economic decline of recent years.
A tragic vehicle crash exposed a covert counter-narcotics operation riddled with irregularities. In mid-April, a pickup truck plunged off a mountain road in the Sierra of Chihuahua in Mexico, killing its four occupants. Two of them were officials from the Chihuahua Attorney General’s office, and the others, as was later confirmed, were undercover CIA agents. The case continues to unfold in new chapters, and over the weekend former Chihuahua prosecutor César Jáuregui was arrested, accused of treason for allowing — without authorization from the federal government — armed foreign officials to take part in sensitive security operations on Mexican soil.
Morning erections are the gold standard for gauging testosterone, according to several male-oriented forums on Reddit, where an entire subcategory is devoted to the hormone, which is referred to online simply as T. In those groups—some aligned with the manosphere and others not—members swap and compare blood tests every six months. Being labeled in that universe as low T (low in testosterone) is a stigma that taps into several male anxieties: weak sexual drive, low energy, a certain timorous attitude toward life and a precarious bank balance.
You may have come across various reels in your Instagram feed over the past few weeks featuring the film Promising Young Woman, a feature in which Carey Mulligan plays a woman who takes revenge on the allies of rape culture, fully aware that her vendetta will cut short her promising future. The reason Emerald Fennell’s movie has returned to the zeitgeist six years after its release is that it bears striking similarities to the Cornell case, in which a former student at that prestigious university reported she had been gang-raped and assaulted by seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity.
Eloquent and resolute, Navanethem “Navi” Pillay, recently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, retains at 85 the passion and determination to continue the work that has defined her life: the defense of human rights.
About 900,000 fresh flowers hung from walls, columns and ceilings; there were tins of caviar for each guest, Dom Pérignon, three wedding dresses and a 30-piece orchestra. The Waldorf Astoria ballroom in New York hosted a wedding in September that was put together in under three months and cost around $10 million, according to the U.S. media. It was the week of the United Nations General Assembly, with Manhattan full of heads of state and diplomats, and the party drew major figures from U.S. power circles, oligarchs, Congolese politicians, the rapper Nelly on stage, and even former boxer Mike Tyson. But above all the celebration brought together the top ranks of Trumpism: the attorney general Todd Blanche; the FBI director Kash Patel; and White House counsel Will Scharf. It was a MAGA wedding for the glossy magazines.
The warnings began circulating on Facebook groups in Laredo, Texas, two days before Mexican authorities confirmed them. Relatives of detainees at the GEO Rio Grande detention center spoke of sickness, neglect and a man who had allegedly died after more than a month without proper medical care.
Dan Hanover has planted a sign in the front yard of his home in Tarrytown as if trying to ward off a curse. It bears just three words, “Mike Lawler for Congress,” but that is more than enough for everyone here to understand what it means: the retiree is determined to do whatever he can to help the Republican who represents this charming village north of New York City keep his seat in the House of Representatives after the November 3 election.