Now Sony really won’t want you to pirate those new episodes of Pluribus. On Monday, the Supreme Court heard arguments in a billion-dollar digital piracy case that will decide whether internet service providers (ISPs) can be held responsible for customers’ illegal downloads.

It all stems from a high-stakes legal battle between Cox Communications, which is one of the largest ISPs in the US, and Sony that goes back years:

Why wouldn’t Cox want the $1 billion tossed? Well, the ISP argued that it engaged in “willful contributory infringement” and said it shouldn’t be liable for actions its customers take. Cox also warned SCOTUS that a retrial could lead to an even larger penalty.

That leads us to today (and the internet issue): Sony and a group of other music labels argue that Cox should be liable for repeat copyright violations by its users, while Cox says that such a ruling could force ISPs to cut off internet access for millions of Americans.

Almost all internet service providers are part of a voluntary alert system to crack down on piracy, but Cox, the US’s third-largest broadband provider, is not. However, that’s not the main reason Sony is going after Cox:

Cox’s response? Cox argued that courts have typically said contributory infringement only applies when companies knowingly push for illegal activity, something it says it never did.

Piracy is a big deal: In 2023, pirated movies and TV shows were downloaded nearly 19 billion times, costing the US economy over $29 billion, while music piracy sites drew more than 17 billion visits.

But, if you still want to pirate your favorite songs… don’t worry, because SCOTUS isn’t expected to decide on the case until this summer.

The incident is the deadliest fire in Hong Kong in decades. Hong Kong officials are forming an independent investigative committee to investigate last week’s apartment complex fire that left over a hundred people dead.

Last Wednesday, a massive fire broke out at the Wang Fuk Court residential complex in Hong Kong, engulfing scaffolding and rapidly spreading through seven of its eight towers (see map, photos, and videos).

Authorities say the fire spread extremely quickly due to the use of substandard materials during a renovation project, including exterior scaffolding, protective netting, and flammable external foam panels.

Safety checks were ignored. Investigators say several netting samples didn’t meet safety standards, leading officials to claim contractors misled inspectors to save money. The labor department had conducted 16 inspections since July 2024, including one just a week before the fire, and assured residents who reported hazards that the risk of a fire was unlikely.

The blaze has pushed tens of thousands of Hong Kong residents to demand transparency and question fire-safety rules after earlier concerns from civilians were largely ignored, or worse:

Rising demands for accountability among residents were met with two separate warnings from Chinese national security authorities, claiming “anti-China” forces are using the fire to sow division.

What happens now? City officials have vowed to conduct a judge-led independent review of building-safety regulations and enforcement practices across Hong Kong’s construction industry. Additionally, more than a dozen people tied to the building’s renovation have been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter.

Altman just hit the panic button. Earlier this week, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman issued an internal “code red” order directing staff to urgently improve ChatGPT as the company’s rivals increasingly catch up in the AI race.

The directive, delivered in a memo to staff, instructs the company to prioritize enhancements to ChatGPT’s speed, reliability, personalization, and total capability. The memo also called to expand the chatbot’s global audience, which is already used by 800 million people each week.

As part of the code-red effort, OpenAI is effectively pausing work on several of its other planned projects:

In addition, employees who are working on ChatGPT are now expected to attend a special daily call in an effort to coordinate collaboration and resources.

The push comes in response to mounting competition from Google’s new AI model, Gemini 3, which recently outperformed ChatGPT on key industry benchmarks and garnered a whole lot of attention:

Industry sources say Google’s recent rise represents one of the most decisive signs yet that OpenAI’s early lead in generative AI has finally begun to narrow.

And it’s not just Google OpenAI has to worry about: AI startup Anthropic has also seen rapid growth, expanding from under 1,000 enterprise users just two years ago to over 300,000 in September, and is expecting to bring in $70 billion in revenue by 2028… all while OpenAI is yet to be profitable.

Over the next year, Roku predicts that 100% of the streaming audience will see ads. For growth marketers in 2026, CTV will remain an important “safe space” as AI creates widespread disruption in the search and social channels. Plus, easier access to self-serve CTV ad buying tools and targeting options will lead to a surge in locally-targeted streaming campaigns.

Read our guide to find out why growth marketers should make sure CTV is part of their 2026 media mix.

Learn more.

About time Boeing found a successor. Airbus recently reported a slew of issues across its A320-family aircraft, sending its stock into a nosedive and instantly making the manufacturer the latest poster child for aviation woes.

Boeing has been the face of plane problems for the vast majority of recent years (think two fatal 737 crashes, the door plug incident, and ongoing production flaws), but Airbus might take the cake, at least for now:

Then, on Tuesday, Airbus said that it will inspect hundreds of its A320 planes after discovering some of them might have a faulty fuselage panel due to a “supplier-quality issue.”

Airbus’s A320s have recently dethroned Boeing’s 737s as the world’s bestselling aircraft, so last weekend’s recall had widespread effects at airports worldwide:

Looking ahead: Airbus lowered its 2025 delivery target from 820 aircraft to roughly 790 amid the fuselage panel problem on Wednesday, though the planemaker hasn’t changed its financial forecast for the year.

This thing will turn into an existential threat before we know it. Scientists have found a dark fungus thriving in the ruins of Chernobyl’s reactors that feeds on lingering radiation. What could possibly go wrong?

In 1986, Chernobyl’s nuclear plant exploded in one of history’s worst disasters, turning the city into a ghost town… except for a newly discovered fungus.

Unlike nearly all organisms that die under intense radiation, these fungi not only survive in its presence, but prefer it:

How is this possible? Researchers hypothesize that these fungi could use a process called “radiosynthesis,” where melanin in their cell walls absorbs ionizing radiation and converts it to energy.

If the hypothesis is confirmed, the adaptation would challenge assumptions about how life can survive in extreme radiation and give scientists an example of biological resilience that was long thought impossible.

However, beyond biology, the fungus has some exciting potential real‑world applications:

Despite all of the excitement, there’s still a big caveat: Scientists don’t actually know whether melanized fungi can turn radiation into energy. While experiments show they grow faster and survive better when exposed to radiation, researchers haven’t yet proven that they use it to power real metabolic processes, like how plants do using photosynthesis.

> Zootopia 2 brought in $556 million internationally over Thanksgiving weekend, setting a new record for the biggest global opening for an animated film and marking the highest opening for any movie this year.

> The House Oversight Committee has released never-before-seen photos and videos from Epstein’s two private islands, showing bedrooms, bathrooms, a pool, a dental-style room with hanging masks, and more.

> According to a new study that used data from over 10,000 children, kids who got their first smartphone by age 12 had a 31% higher risk of depression, 40% higher risk of obesity, and 62% higher risk of not getting enough sleep.

> The average price of a large cheese pizza in the US has soared to $17, according to the online ordering platform Slice, mainly due to a rise in ingredient, labor, and delivery costs.

> A record 202.9 million Americans shopped from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday this year, the largest number ever recorded by the NRF.