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South Park, Slow Horses, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and a Lego-fied Mandalorian are just a few of the things you should be watching right now.

The agency that oversees prediction markets has investigated Polymarket trades on Biden pardons and the Iran war—and even more potential insider trading at Google, documents obtained by WIRED show.

The proposed class action alleges Meta illegally harvested people’s Facebook and Instagram photos to train its AI image-generation models and to build its unreleased “NameTag” face recognition feature.

This is Behind the Blog, where we share our behind-the-scenes thoughts about how a few of our top stories of the week came together. This week, we discuss AI doomers, 9/11 posting, and Barbie.

JOSEPH: I do always get emotional on 9/11 because it’s the moment everything changed. Rather than repeat those feelings that I’m sure you’ve heard a million times from various people, I’ll point to a couple of reporting projects that I think capture the day really well.

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Less than 48 hours after announcing he was forcibly placed on a leave of absence by the Automattic board on Wednesday, Automattic’s Matt Mullenweg posted in a company-wide Slack channel claiming that he’s back “in control” of the company. 

According to Slack screenshots viewed by 404 Media, late Thursday evening Mullenweg posted “Don’t call it a comeback” and linked to LL Cool J’s music video for “Mama Said Knock You Out.” Mullenweg’s Slack profile picture currently shows him wearing a pirate hat and eyepatch.

TechCrunch first reported Mullenweg’s comments about being back in control. 

“Happy to announce the board is back in agreement, and I'm in control of Automattic,” Mullenweg wrote in the company-wide Announcements channel on Slack. “A lot happened in the past 48 hours that we need to sort out, and I hope much of it was a misunderstanding, because I have huge respect and regard for those involved.”

Mark Davies, Automattic’s CFO who was set to act as interim CEO according to a statement from Automattic, had his Slack account deactivated as of at least Friday, sources told 404 Media and TechCrunch similarly reported. Davies, Mullenweg, and Automattic did not respond to 404 Media’s requests for comment for this story. Techcrunch reported that Mullenweg told them a blog post is forthcoming.

On Friday morning, Mullenweg published a blog post on his personal website, titled “Major Life Announcement.” In it he announced he’s buying a tugboat. “Anybody who’s founded a company and had to find good stewards knows that no one will love a thing quite like the original owner, but sometimes you can find the perfect person to carry the torch.” he wrote in the blog. He did not address the confusion surrounding his status at Automattic. 

In the last two years, workers at the company have described chaotic, destabilizing leadership from Mullenweg, including layoffs, cultish loyalty checks, rage-quitting of community projects, petty trolling, and watermarking messages to try to track people leaking information to the press. 

The Automattic board hasn’t communicated anything to employees beyond what they posted in Slack on Wednesday, sources told 404 Media. 

Mullenweg wrote on Wednesday that the Automattic board “conspired” against him to vote him out behind his back. 

Save on Petlibro essentials, including automatic feeders, water fountains, and accessories to keep cats and dogs fed, hydrated, and comfortable every day.

Frank Shaw is leaving Microsoft after 17 years as chief communications officer. In an internal note to his team, Shaw says he's "decided it is time for me to move on and try new things," after supporting Microsoft's communications for 29 years - nearly 20 years as a Microsoft employee plus time at the Waggener Edstrom agency (now We. Communications) before that.

Shaw has been at the heart of Microsoft's communications since 1997, helping the company navigate multiple Windows and Office releases, CEO transitions, the all-important bet on cloud, and huge acquisitions like the $26.2 billion LinkedIn purchase in 2016 and the $69 billion acquisi …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Just a couple of weeks before Meta Connect starts on September 23rd, UploadVR posted images seemingly revealing the design for Meta's "Project Phoenix" headset. The images, which UploadVR says were "found in the HorizonOS Prescription Lens firmware package," suggest Meta may be looking to compete with devices like those from Xreal or Viture. These companies' mixed reality glasses are a bit bulkier than something like Meta's Ray-Ban AI smart glasses, but a step down from a full VR headset like Meta's Quest 3.

This leak shows something that's almost in between larger headsets and smart glasses, with lenses set into a slim, glasses-style fram …

Read the full story at The Verge.

The Apple AirPods 5 are bringing active noise cancellation to the masses, and they're now available for preorder at a variety of retailers. They'll officially launch on September 18th, the same day as the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4, as well as the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max.

There are two versions this time around, just like with the last-gen model. The standard $129 model adds active noise cancelation, which was previously only found on the more expensive $179 AirPods 4 with ANC models. They're available from Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, and Apple. The upgraded $149 model features a wireless charging case, longer battery life, and touc …

Read the full story at The Verge.

On September 6th, YouTuber Nicholas Light posted a video to one of his channels that made it seem like all of his content was about to be removed from the platform. In the video - ominously titled "My Channel will be Deleted Today" - Light alleges that he was on the receiving end of some of the "thousands upon thousands of false copyright strikes" recently initiated by a company called Remove Your Media. Light spends much of the 13-minute video accusing Remove Your Media CEO Eric Green of being a troll who systematically targets creators whose content mentions or features clips of popular anime series like Bleach and One Piece.

It's not cl …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Timnit Gebru argues that AI companies are stoking fears of extinction to avoid discussing actual harms, like autonomous weapons.

Anker’s Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro came out swinging in May with incredible call quality, something that competing ear buds have struggled to get right. They’ve become part of our reviewer John Higgins’ rotation of earbuds for more than just taking calls; The Liberty 5 Pro have fantastic audio once you make some tweaks in their app, and they stand out thanks to an IP55 rating and LDAC high-res audio codec support on Android.

What’s more, they’re typically cheaper than the competition at $169.99, but you can snag them for $149.99 at Amazon, Best Buy, and at Anker. They come in four colors (black, blue, white, pink), and include a screen-equipped charging case that lets you make adjustments to active noise cancellation, sound profiles, speak-to-chat and enabling Dolby Atmos head tracking. Your mileage may vary with the usefulness of the case, but it’s nice not to have to use the app for quick tweaks.

I’ve been eagerly awaiting any sort of deal on the Liberty 5 Pro since John’s review dropped. Clearly, Anker caught wind of its success and kept them locked at $170 for months (not even a small price drop during June’s Prime Day sale). What could have lead to the price drop? Likely the debut of the AirPods 5 that start at $129 but have a more feature-rich version that’s $20 more — the same current price as Anker’s Liberty 5 Pro. Read our review.

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Here are three more great deals

• Those shopping for a battery-powered video doorbell may want to consider the second-gen Ring Battery Doorbell Pro, which is steeply discounted at Wellbots thanks to an exclusive offer code for Verge readers. Currently $249.99 at Amazon, the 4K-enabled doorbell with 10x digital zoom is $149.99 with code 100VERGERING used at checkout. This price, frankly, spanks the previous lowest price of $179.99 at Amazon we saw in late August. You can read more about Ring’s latest generation of battery doorbells in our coverage. But put simply, they’re sleeker, more capable, and still come with a removable, rechargeable battery.
• I’m hyped for Control Resonant, the follow-up to Remedy’s brilliant Control. It launches on September 24th, and you can get $12 off Steam preorders at Newegg. The game will debut for $59.99, but the code CNTRLXV used at checkout knocks it down to $47.99, which is the best price I’ve seen. It’s not tough to find the game at other key sellers for around $50, though. While it’s a direct sequel, it’s also the latest addition to Remedy’s connected universe that canonically includes Alan Wake titles. Here’s our hands-on from Summer Game Fest.
• While we’re on the topic of games, we recently covered that Walmart was discounting preorders for the physical version of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake for Switch 2. Well, that also extends to Amazon, which is selling it for $59.99, a discount you’ll see at checkout. The cartridge version typically costs $10 more than digital — a change that Nintendo made earlier this year — but both retailers have a reputation for eating the price hike during the preorder phase for Nintendo Switch 2 titles.

Meta says it's making changes to the prompts suggested by its AI chatbot after a viral video showed it digging for personal information about a woman's young daughters, as reported earlier by Futurism. In a statement to The Verge, Meta spokesperson Dina El-Kassaby says the company "missed the mark," adding that "the feature never should have prompted the individual with questions like that."

Last week, Instagram user Kalie Robins posted a video explaining how Meta AI presented her with an invasive suggestion after cross-posting a clip to Facebook. The AI prompt, "Who is the child passenger?" appeared beneath a video of her and her child sin …

Read the full story at The Verge.