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The Rock Sobs as ‘The Smashing Machine’ Gets 15-Minute Venice Ovation

Is Dwayne Johnson headed for the Oscars?
Judging by the rapturous reaction to his performance as wrestler Mark Kerr in “The Smashing Machine” at the Venice Film Festival on Monday night, that seems to be the consensus out of Italy.
The 53-year-old actor sobbed uncontrollably as the audience on the Lido erupted into 15-minute standing ovation, one of the longest at this year’s festival so far.
Johnson, who once performed as the WWE wrestler known as the Rock, has been the star of such commercial fare as “The Mummy,” “Black Adam” and “Baywatch.” But he goes much deeper in his next project, which will be released by A24 in November, as a ’90s fighter with demons.
Johnson stars opposite Emily Blunt in the film, who plays Kerr’s girlfriend Dawn Staples. During the ovation, Benny Safdie — the film’s director — hugged both his stars and joined Johnson in shedding tears of joy as the clapping continued. Adding to the waterworks, Kerr also wept as the credits rolled.
As the hooting and cheering stretched on, “The Smashing Machine” proved to be the most emotional premiere on the Lido since Brendan Fraser collapsed into tears four years ago, launching his Oscar campaign for “The Whale.”
Before the screening started, one fan shouted Johnson’s signature WWE line, “Can you smell what the Rock is cooking?!” — prompting laughter from the man of the hour.
Johnson was in good spirits throughout the night. He worked one of Europe’s most glamorous red carpets, signing autographs for fans and snapping selfies. This year’s 82nd edition of Venice has been packed with stars — ranging from George Clooney to Julia Roberts to Emma Stone — and Johnson and Blunt added to the A-list wattage of the festival that’s now known as the official launch of awards season.
Johnson is nearly unrecognizable “The Smashing Machine,” undergoing pounds of prosthetics to portray the beefy two-time UFC Heavyweight champ. The actor previously told Variety that he was drawn to “The Smashing Machine” because Safdie is someone who “continues to push the envelope when it comes to stories that are raw and real; characters that are authentic and at times uncomfortable and arresting.”
“I’m at a point in my career where I want to push myself in ways that I’ve not pushed myself in the past,” said Johnson, best known for franchise fare like “Jumanji” and the “Fast and Furious” movies. “I want to make films that matter, that explore a humanity and explore struggle [and] pain.”
“The Smashing Machine” marks the solo feature directorial debut of Benny Safdie, who worked with his older brother, Josh, on indie favorites like “Good Time” and “Uncut Gems.” (Josh will also make his solo feature debut this year with A24’s “Marty Supreme,” a sports drama starring Timothee Chalamet.) “The Smashing Machine” reunites Benny Safdie and Blunt, who shared a memorable scene in Christopher Nolan’s historical epic “Oppenheimer,” as well as Johnson and Blunt, who co-starred in Disney’s action-adventure “Jungle Cruise.”
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Trump National Guard California Newsom

The National Guard, police and protesters stand off outside of a downtown jail in Los Angeles following two days of clashes with police during a series of immigration raids on June 08, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
A federal judge on Tuesday barred President Donald Trump from deploying National Guard and other military troops in California to execute law-enforcement actions there, including making arrests, searching locations, and crowd control.
The ruling came in connection with a lawsuit filed in early June by the state of California challenging Trump’s and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s deployment of the Guard to deal with protests in Los Angeles over the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies.
Judge Charles Breyer said that Trump’s deployment of thousands of National Guard troops and 700 Marines to L.A. violated the federal Posse Comitatus Act, which bars U.S. Military forces from enforcing the law domestically.
Breyer’s ruling in U.S. District Court in San Francisco is limited to California, and the judge stayed the decision until Sept. 12 to give the Trump administration time to appeal it.
But it comes as Trump has considered deploying National Guard troops to other U.S. cities to deal with crime, including Oakland and San Francisco.
Breyer warned that it would create “a national police force with the President as its chief.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom gloated about the ruling in a social media post.
“DONALD TRUMP LOSES AGAIN,” Newsom wrote on X.
“The courts agree — his militarization of our streets and use of the military against US citizens is ILLEGAL.”
Breyer, in his ruling,g wrote, “Congress spoke clearly in 1878 when it passed the Posse Comitatus Act, prohibiting the use of the U.S. military to execute domestic law.”
“Nearly 140 years later, Defendants — President Trump, Secretary of Defense Hegseth, and the Department of Defense — deployed the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles, ostensibly to quell a rebellion and ensure that federal immigration law was enforced,” the judge wrote.
“There were indeed protests in Los Angeles, and some individuals engaged in violence,” Breyer wrote.
“Yet there was no rebellion, nor was civilian law enforcement unable to respond to the protests and enforce the law.”
Breyer said that evidence introduced during a trial for the lawsuit shows that the defendants had “systematically used armed soldiers (whose identity was often obscured by protective armor) and military vehicles to set up protective perimeters and traffic blockades, engage in crowd control, and otherwise demonstrate a military presence in and around Los Angeles.”
CNBC has requested comment on the ruling from the Justice Department, which represented the Trump administration in the lawsuit.
This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates.
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Wake Up Babe, Dolby Vision 2 Just Dropped After 10 Years—Yes, It’s Powered by AI

After more than 10 years, Dolby is ready to bring its game-changing Dolby Vision tech into the future with (drum roll) Dolby Vision 2. As a part of IFA 2025, Dolby took the wraps off its sequel to Vision, which brings an array of new capabilities to the company’s proprietary HDR format.
Powering Dolby Vision 2 is an all-new engine that enables tools like “Content Intelligence.” Content Intelligence, as you may have guessed, uses AI to better adapt your TV’s picture to content that you’re watching, fine-tuning aspects based on not only what you’re watching but also where you’re watching it. Within content intelligence, there are several more specific tools, including precision blacks that adjust dark scenes on the fly, which, if it works, is great for anyone who loves OLED panels but has gripes with their performance on darker content.
There’s also—and this one is pretty cool—a light-sensing technology that, according to Dolby, monitors ambient lighting in your room and can automatically optimize your TV based on the lighting in your specific environment. As someone with an unusually dark apartment, I’m all for that, though I’m curious whether tech like this would drastically turn the brightness on my TV way down. I wouldn’t be mad about that, but maybe other people will? Lastly, there are tweaks to Dolby Vision’s handling of fast-paced content like gaming and live sports that are meant to better adjust motion control and white point, which controls the color temperature of whites on your screen.
Dolby is splitting Vision 2 into two tiers—Dolby Vision 2 and Dolby Vision 2 Max—and it says the latter will be available on the “highest performance TVs” and come with “additional premium features.” Gizmodo reached out to Dolby to clarify exactly what the difference is between those two tiers. Here’s what it said:
“Dolby Vision 2 Max includes capabilities designed to unlock the full capabilities and best picture quality on the highest-performing TVs. This includes capabilities such as bi-directional tone mapping, Authentic Motion, and more advanced tools tailored for enthusiasts.”
That tells us a little more, I guess, but from the sounds of it, Dolby Vision 2 Max will be designed to take advantage of the higher fidelity of expensive TVs, while Dolby Vision 2 is geared more toward “mainstream” TVs, in the company’s words. To start, Dolby says it will focus on the “mainstream” side of things, since it will begin rolling out Vision 2 on Hisense panels, though there’s no word on timing and availability quite yet. It says those Hisense TVs will be powered by the MediaTek Pentonic 800 chipset, though.
It’s been 10 years since the release of Dolby Vision back in the day, which allowed TVs to adjust and optimize content on your screen from scene to scene or even frame to frame and bridge the gap between cinema and at-home viewing. It’s been a long time in the works, but it’s no surprise to me that Dolby Vision 2 would be released now, given advancements in AI and their ability to understand context. More than that, though, Dolby Vision 2 should help better optimize current and future generations of TVs, which have obviously changed quite a bit since 2014. As always, though, seeing is believing, so we’ll be the judge of that when we can lay eyes on Dolby Vision 2-assisted content for ourselves.
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Kraft Heinz is splitting up, separating hot dogs from ketchup : NPR

Kraft Foods and Heinz merged into one company in 2015.
Gene J. Puskar/AP
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Gene J. Puskar/AP
Hot dogs go to the left; ketchup to the right. That’s Kraft Heinz, one of the world’s largest food conglomerates, splitting into two companies.
The breakup comes a decade after its messy mega-merger, orchestrated by billionaire investor Warren Buffett and considered one of his notable missteps. In recent weeks, both Kraft Heinz and Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway took multibillion-dollar impairment charges reflecting the declining value of the food giant.
Kraft Heinz spent years slicing its costs while rivals invested in new ideas to keep up with changing consumer tastes. Budget-conscious shoppers have been buying more store-brand packaged foods, while people willing to spend extra often reach for fresher alternatives to processed products.
Now, Kraft Heinz executives hope the sum of two separate companies will be greater than the firm’s current value.
The first will focus on shelf-stable foods and include brands Heinz, Philadelphia and Kraft Mac & Cheese. The second will include more of what the company describes as groceries, with brands such as Oscar Mayer, Maxwell House, Capri Sun and Lunchables. The latter will be run by Kraft Heinz’ current CEO, Carlos Abrams-Rivera.
The merger went sour
Kraft Foods and H.J. Heinz merged in 2015 in a mega-deal led by the firms that controlled Heinz: Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and Brazilian private-equity firm 3G Capital.
3G was famous for its cost-cutting approach to consumer companies, having reinvigorated Burger King and beverage giant Anheuser-Busch. But the strategy failed to feed much growth at Kraft Heinz.
In 2019, after massive layoffs and lost sales, the company shocked Wall Street by writing down the value of marquee brands Oscar Mayer and Kraft by $15 billion. It faced shareholder lawsuits and an investigation by U.S. financial regulators.
In July, Kraft Heinz once again reported a drop in sales and a net loss of nearly $8 billion, largely thanks to a $9.3 billion impairment charge attributed to the declining share price. Soon after, Berkshire Hathaway also wrote down the value of its investment in Kraft Heinz with its own $3.8 billion impairment charge.
Buffett had maintained his financial stake even as 3G Capital completed its quiet exit from Kraft Heinz last year. In a rare admission, Buffett did acknowledge he “was wrong in a couple of ways on Kraft Heinz” and had overpaid in the deal, but praised the historic strength of the brands.
History is a who’s-who of food brands
Pittsburgh-based Heinz began in 1869 with grated horseradish that Henry J. Heinz packaged in a clear jar to show off its quality. But of course it was his ketchup – or “catsup” as it was known for a while – that brought Heinz fame, followed by baked beans.
Illinois-based Kraft brothers started their business selling cheese by horse and wagon in the early 1900s. During World War I, they supplied the U.S. Army with cheese processed to resist spoilage.
The Great Depression saw Kraft introducing the mayo-like Miracle Whip and the iconic mac and cheese mix, one of the first pre-packaged, shelf-stable dinners. The Kraft brothers also acquired Philadelphia – the cream cheese – and Velveeta. And in 1935, hot liquid cheese poured onto cold stainless steel and cut into squares set the stage for Kraft Singles cheese slices.
In the 1980s, Kraft was bought by tobacco giant Philip Morris during a food-company buying spree. That’s when Kraft ballooned to include Nabisco, Jell-O, Maxwell House and hot-dog maker Oscar Mayer.
In the early 2000s, Kraft again became its own publicly traded company. Later it spun off a separate snacking company, Mondelez, which makes Oreo cookies and Ritz crackers.
The big food meltdown
After its 2015 merger, Kraft Heinz wanted to jump-start growth by buying rival Unilever, maker of Hellmann’s mayonnaise and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. But the European conglomerate rejected the deal.
Kraft Heinz tried to refresh its food offerings and address families’ growing health concerns. It cut the sugar level in its Capri Sun juices. It launched cheese-stuffed hot dogs, hot honey and plant-based cheese and mayo. It began making mac and cheese with natural food coloring. Last year, after reports about Lunchables’ sodium and heavy metals content, the company stopped offering the snack packs for school-lunch programs. It is now removing artificial food dyes from all U.S. products.
But years of high inflation have shoppers at Walmart, Costco and supermarket chains increasingly choosing private-label packaged foods, including in categories where brand names had long enjoyed high loyalty. And smaller startups continue to pose fierce competition with new takes on familiar snacks and meals.
In February, CEO Abrams-Rivera said Kraft Heinz was focusing its resources on faster-growing and more profitable products “to become a sauces and meals powerhouse.”
By mid-2025, the company’s shares lost two-thirds of their value from the post-merger peak. The company’s stock rose Tuesday on the news of the breakup.
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