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New week, new you, Future Party. How many of you made it out to the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix? And for you budget fans, how many of you just rode the escalators at Spring Mountain and Las Vegas Blvd? Apparently, they offered some of the best views of the race — and no one could stop you from watching as long as you kept moving. Honestly, it sounds like the best free way to enjoy the event. We salute the ingenuity of whoever discovered that hack first.

DAILY TOP TRENDS

The Battle For Warner Bros. Is On

WBD Melee // Illustration by Kate Walker

Comcast, Netflix, and Paramount — for what looks like the third time — have all submitted nonbinding bids for part or all of Warner Bros. Discovery.

The Big Picture: The WBD bidding war is the biggest Hollywood M&A showdown since… well… the last Warner Bros. transaction (the studio has changed hands four times in the past decade) or Disney’s 2018 absorption of 20th Century Fox. But this time, streaming scale will likely be the deciding factor in who emerges victorious.

Behind The Scenes: So, how does each bidder stack up in the fight?

  • Paramount is the only suitor that wants all of WBD, reportedly offering over $60 billion. With a much smaller streaming subscriber base than HBO Max, its bid is a pure scale play — and it plans to run the studios separately to boost theatrical output.

  • Comcast is only interested in WBD’s movie and TV studio plus its streaming business, which means it would need to sell off WBD’s TV assets separately. Adding HBO Max would instantly turn Peacock into a global streaming player. Comcast hasn’t commented on its film strategy yet.

  • Netflix is also only after the movie and TV studio and streaming business, which would bolster its IP library and expand its production operations. The company says it would honor Warner Bros.’ theatrical commitments... though few expect that to last forever.

Final Pitch: Of course, any deal of this magnitude involves major political scrutiny, complicated by personal relationships with POTUS himself. For example, Netflix, the largest global streamer, would likely face antitrust issues. And the Ellisons’ cozy relationship with Donald Trump could tip the scales in Paramount’s favor. Meanwhile, Trump’s disdain for Comcast CEO Brian Roberts could be an obstacle to its M&A quest.

And that’s before factoring in European regulators and potential Middle Eastern sovereign-wealth participation (potentially with Paramount and Comcast), which would spark further foreign-investment investigations.

Yet, somehow, WBD expects to pick a winner sometime next month.

Future Owner: Considering the regulatory hurdles, we’re not sure how anyone but Paramount succeeds here… unless WBD sticks with its original plan and splits the company in two instead.

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Meta Wants You To Hang Out In Your Living Room… In VR

Courtesy of Meta

Meta announced that users of its “Hyperscape” room-capture platform will soon be able to invite others to join them inside their spaces in VR.

Why It Hits: A few years ago, Meta hoped its metaverse ambitions with Horizon would take off — but it turns out not many people enjoyed being immersed in fully digital worlds. Hyperscape is an attempt to balance the digital-avatar side of the metaverse with realistic renderings of physical spaces people actually feel connected to. And now that you can invite friends over, maybe the metaverse isn’t quite dead yet.

Behind The Code: Hyperscape — which uses the Meta Quest 3 or Quest 3S to scan and enter digital versions of real spaces — doesn’t want you hanging out alone anymore.

  • Meta announced that users will be able to host up to eight people in their spaces at a time.

  • It will add on-device rendering and audio capabilities to Hyperscape, so you can actually talk to your friends… instead of just shifting awkwardly on the couch.

  • The feature is rolling out slowly to users, and people will need to rescan their spaces to make them shareable.

Final Render: Letting people host others inside their virtual rooms gives Meta’s broader metaverse ambitions a small boost. And if Meta adds the ability to play games or watch movies within your VR space, maybe long-distance friendships will get an update, too.

The Future: We know Meta loves its influencers, so Hyperscape may be the beginning of “roomfluencers” — creators who augment their physical spaces with digital elements. It looks like life could mirror The Sims rather than the other way around.

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DEEP DIVES

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50.3% of you voted 🌿 Natural & Everyday — denim, linen, cotton in Friday’s poll: If you had to choose, which fabric texture do you like the most?

“Cotton breathes! Always buy 100% — no blends!”

“Rarely do I bother with denim anymore, but I adore a good soft linen or cotton. So comfortable any season of the year.”

“Velvet is so luxurious! But I do go around feeling all the clothes while I’m shopping. Sometimes you get a surprise texture.”

“Actually, I like them ALL! :)”

Let’s keep the conversation going. Join our Poll Of The Day newsletter, so your opinions can shine. Discover how your views line up with your peers’, check out cool insights, and have some fun. It’s data with personality.

QUICK HITS

→ Technology

✈️ The Pentagon is looking to quantum sensors as a secure alternative to GPS.

🦾 AI companies are flexing their revenue gains to score in-demand talent.

✏️ OpenAI is rolling out a version of ChatGPT specifically for teachers.

→ Fashion / E-commerce

💉 Eli Lilly has become the first pharmaceutical company to surpass a $1 trillion market cap, fueled by the popularity of its GLP-1 drugs.

₿ Bitcoin lost a third of its value last week, as the broad crypto market tanked.

💰 Prediction market Kalshi raised $1 billion in a funding round led by Sequoia and CapitalG.

→ Creator Economy

👀 A new Pew study found that 26% of Americans now use Reddit, making it the big growth story of 2025.

📣 WhatsApp is getting status updates in case you wanted more early-Facebook vibes.

😂 X’s new “About This Account” feature is revealing the origin of the platform’s biggest trolls.

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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Polled and Copy-edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.

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