Anthropic let its Claude AI run a vending machine in the Wall Street Journal newsroom for three weeks as part of an internal stress test called Project Vend, and the experiment ended in financial ruin after journalists systematically manipulated the bot into giving away its entire inventory for free. The AI, nicknamed Claudius, was programmed to order inventory, set prices, and respond to customer requests via Slack. It had a $1,000 starting balance and autonomy to make individual purchases up to $80. Within days, WSJ reporters had convinced it to declare an "Ultra-Capitalist Free-for-All" that dropped all prices to zero. The bot also approved purchases of a PlayStation 5, a live betta fish, and bottles of Manischewitz wine -- all subsequently given away. The business ended more than $1,000 in the red. Anthropic introduced a second version featuring a separate "CEO" bot named Seymour Cash to supervise Claudius. Reporters staged a fake boardroom coup using fabricated PDF documents, and both AI agents accepted the forged corporate governance materials as legitimate. Logan Graham, head of Anthropic's Frontier Red Team, said the chaos represented a road map for improvement rather than failure.

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Welp.

One of Kentucky’s largest bourbon producers apparently is pausing whiskey production at the end of the year. Jim Beam, which is one of the largest makers of American whiskey in the world, is planning to shut down production in Happy Hollow in Clermont on Jan. 1 through 2026. The visitors center on site will remain open for Kentucky Bourbon Trail visitors. “We are always assessing production levels to best meet consumer demand and recently met with our team to discuss our volumes for 2026,” according to a statement from the company. “We’ve shared with our teams that while we will continue to distill at our (Freddie Booker Noe) craft distillery in Clermont and at our larger Booker Noe distillery in Boston, we plan to pause distillation at our main distillery on the James B. Beam campus for 2026 while we take the opportunity to invest in site enhancements. Our visitor center at the James B. Beam campus remains open so visitors can have the full James B. Beam experience and join us for a meal at The Kitchen Table.”

Possibly good for your liver! Not good for Kentucky.

If Jim Beam is feeling pain there’s a lot of damage under the waterline. I suspect that some bourbon is going to get lost and a lot of bourbon is going to be destroyed as smaller distilleries with significant barrelhouse reserves go under.

The post This is Fine appeared first on Lawyers, Guns & Money.

Prime Video dropped an extended teaser for the fifth and final season of The Boys—based on the comic book series of the same name by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson—during CCXP in Sao Paulo, Brazil. And it looks like we’re getting nothing less than a full-on Supe-ocalypse as an all-powerful Homelander seeks revenge on The Boys.

(Spoilers for prior seasons of The Boys and S2 of Gen V below.)

Things were not looking good for our antiheroes after the S4 finale. They managed to thwart the assassination of newly elected US President Robert Singer, but new Vought CEO/evil supe Sister Sage (Susan Heyward) essentially overthrew the election and installed Senator Steve Calhoun (David Andrews) as president. Calhoun declared martial law, and naturally, Homelander (Antony “Give Him an Emmy Already” Starr) swore loyalty as his chief enforcer. Butcher (Karl Urban) and Annie (Erin Moriarty) escaped, but the rest of The Boys were rounded up and placed in re-education—er, “Freedom”—camps.

The second season of spinoff series Gen V was set after those events, and the finale concluded with Annie recruiting the main cast members to join the fight against Homelander and the Supes. Season 5 of The Boys picks up where the Gen V finale left off. Per the official premise:

In the fifth and final season, it’s Homelander’s world, completely subject to his erratic, egomaniacal whims. Hughie, Mother’s Milk, and Frenchie are imprisoned in a “Freedom Camp.” Annie struggles to mount a resistance against the overwhelming Supe force. Kimiko is nowhere to be found. But when Butcher reappears, ready and willing to use a virus that will wipe all Supes off the map, he sets in motion a chain of events that will forever change the world and everyone in it. It’s the climax, people. Big stuff’s gonna happen.

Most of the main cast is returning for the final season (although RIP Claudia Doumit’s Victoria Neuman), and we’ll also see the return of Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles), aka Homelander’s daddy, revealed in the S4 finale mid-credits scene to be alive and chilling out in cryostorage. Showrunner Eric Kripke has said that he wanted to delve a little deeper into that father/son relationship, particularly since Soldier Boy has switched sides and aligned with the supes after Butcher tried to kill him in S3.

Kripke has also been pretty open about the fact that all bets are off when it comes to character deaths, since this is the final season. And we can probably expect some of the same disturbing real-world parallels that made S4 so polarizing among fans (although, as Kripke has said, the show has never been subtle about Homelander being evil).

In addition, Jared Padalecki—who co-starred with Ackles in the Kripke series Supernatural—will join the cast in an as-yet-undisclosed role, so it will be a reunion of sorts. This season will also feature several characters from Gen V: Jordan (London Thor), Marie (Jaz Sinclair), Emma/Little Cricket (Lizze Broadway), Cate (Maddie Phillips), Sam (Asa Germann), and Annabeth (Keeya King).

The first two episodes of The Boys’ fifth and final season premiere on April 8, 2026, on Prime Video, with new episodes airing each week through May 20, 2026. But it won’t be the end of the franchise. We don’t know yet if Gen V is getting a third season—it likely depends on who survives the showdown with Homelander and the Supes—but there is a prequel series, Vought Rising, in the works—starring Ackles and Aya Cash reprising their Soldier Boy and Liberty/Stormfront roles, respectively—as well as The Boys: Mexico.

Credit: Prime Video

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Netflix won the bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery’s (WBD’s) streaming and movie studio businesses last week. But Paramount Skydance isn’t relenting on its dreams of owning WBD and is pushing forward with a hostile takeover bid.

On Friday, Netflix announced that it had agreed to pay an equity value of $72 billion, or an approximate total enterprise value of $82.7 billion, for WBD’s streaming and film businesses, as well as its film and TV libraries. The deal includes HBO and the HBO Max streaming service but not WBD’s cable channels, which are to be split off ahead of the acquisition into a separate company called Discovery Global. Netflix said WBD’s split should conclude in Q3 2026.

Paramount has different plans, though.

After previously questioning the “fairness and adequacy” of WBD’s bidding process, Paramount announced today that it’s still trying to buy all of WBD, including what is set to become Discovery Global. Its announcement said:

Despite Paramount submitting six proposals over the course of 12 weeks, WBD never engaged meaningfully with these proposals which we believe deliver the best outcome for WBD shareholders. Paramount has now taken its offer directly to WBD shareholders and its Board of Directors to ensure they have the opportunity to pursue this clearly superior alternative.

Paramount said it wants to pay $108.4 billion for WBD, or $30 per share, “which represents a 139 percent premium to the undisturbed WBD stock price of $12.54 as of September 10, 2025.”

It has been reported that WBD rejected Paramount’s bid because WBD thinks it could see more long-term value from separating into two companies than from allowing Paramount to buy all of WBD.

David Ellison, Paramount’s CEO and chairman, in a statement argued that the Netflix deal could hurt WBD’s current shareholders partially due to the “uncertain future trading value of the Global Networks linear cable business. …”

In response, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said today that Paramount’s takeover bid “was entirely expected.”

“We have a deal done, and we are really happy with the deal for shareholders [and] for consumers. It’s a great way to create protect jobs in the entertainment industry,” he added while speaking at a UBS conference, per The Hollywood Reporter.

Paramount thinks it could get a merger approved

One of the biggest questions for any WBD deal is whether antitrust regulations will allow it to go through.

Paramount’s declaration of an attempted hostile takeover today heavily emphasized the regulatory hurdles that Netflix’s acquisition could face in the US and abroad:

In many European Union countries the Netflix transaction would combine the dominant SVOD [subscription video on demand] player with the number two or strong number three competitor. The Netflix transaction creates a clear risk of higher prices for consumers, lower pay for content creators and talent and the destruction of American and international theatrical exhibitors. Netflix has never undertaken large-scale acquisitions, resulting in increased execution risk which WBD shareholders would have to endure.

In the US, HBO Max could be considered the fourth-biggest video streaming service if you rank the companies based on subscriber count. Netflix had 301.63 million subscribers as of January. WBD has 128 million streaming subscribers in total, with most of them being HBO Max users. Paramount+ had 79.1 million subscribers as of November.

However, Paramount’s announcement notably overlooks the regulatory hurdles expected to come from trying to combine two of the biggest Hollywood film studios as well as two large news corporations, CNN and CBS News.

Paramount has already successfully navigated the current regulatory landscape under US President Donald Trump and merged with rival studio Skydance in August. Some lawmakers have questioned whether Paramount paid Trump a $16 million settlement over a CBS News report in order to help get the merger approved. Larry Ellison, David Ellison’s father and co-founder and CTO of Oracle, is also friends with Trump.

In today’s announcement, Paramount seemed assured that it could get a merger with WBD approved, saying, “Paramount is highly confident in achieving expeditious regulatory clearance for its proposed offer.”

Although the US Department of Justice (DOJ) holds the power to block mergers that it deems to go against antitrust laws, Trump’s influence over the DOJ can’t be overlooked. While Paramount previously seemed to establish a good relationship with the president, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos may have done the same recently.

Sarandos “spoke with the president in the last couple of weeks in a confab that lasted about two hours,” The Hollywood Reporter reported on Sunday, citing “multiple” anonymous sources. A White House official told the publication that they can’t comment on “private meetings that may or may not have occurred,” and Netflix didn’t respond to the publication’s requests for comment.

Meanwhile, Trump’s relationship with the Ellisons and Paramount may have taken a turn recently. Today, the president lashed out at Paramount over an interview with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) that aired on the news program 60 Minutes. As he said on Truth Social, per The Hollywood Reporter: “My real problem with the show, however, wasn’t the low IQ traitor, it was that the new ownership of 60 Minutes, Paramount, would allow a show like this to air. THEY ARE NO BETTER THAN THE OLD OWNERSHIP, who just paid me millions of Dollars for FAKE REPORTING about your favorite President, ME! Since they bought it, 60 Minutes has actually gotten WORSE.”

Appealing to the movie theater industry

The movie theater industry is one of the biggest critics of Netflix’s WB acquisition due to fear that the streaming leader won’t release as many movies to theaters for as long and may drive down licensing fees. Paramount is leaning into this trepidation.

As one of the oldest film studios (Paramount was founded as Famous Players Film Company in 1912), Paramount has much deeper ties to the theater business. Ellison claimed that if Paramount and WBD merge, there will be “a greater number of movies in theaters.”

Sarandos said last week that Netflix plans to maintain WBD’s current theater release schedule, which reportedly goes through 2029.

In terms of streaming, Paramount’s announcement pointed to a “combination of Paramount+ and HBO Max,” lending credence to a November report that Paramount would fold HBO Max into its own flagship streaming service if it buys WBD.

With numerous industries, big names, billions of dollars, and politics all at play, the saga of the WBD split and/or merger is only just beginning.

This article was updated on December 8 at 2:31 p.m. ET with comment from Sarandos. 

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With House of the Dragon now entering its third season, HBO is ready to debut a new spinoff series set in Game of Thrones’ Westeros: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, based on George R.R. Martin’s Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas. HBO clearly has a lot of confidence in this series; it’s already been renewed for a second season. And judging by the final trailer, that optimism is warranted.

As we’ve previously reported, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms adapts the first novella in the series, The Hedge Knight, and is set 50 years after the events of House of the Dragon. Per the official premise:

A century before the events of Game of Thrones, two unlikely heroes wandered Westeros: a young, naïve but courageous knight, Ser Duncan the Tall, and his diminutive squire, Egg. Set in an age when the Targaryen line still holds the Iron Throne and the last dragon has not yet passed from living memory, great destinies, powerful foes, and dangerous exploits all await these improbable and incomparable friends.

Peter Claffey co-stars as Ser Duncan the Tall, aka a hedge knight named “Dunk,” along with Dexter Sol Ansell as Prince Aegon Targaryen, aka “Egg,” a child prince and Dunk’s squire. The main cast also includes Finn Bennett as Egg’s older brother, Prince Aerion “Brightflame” Targaryen; Bertie Carvel as Egg’s uncle, Prince Baelor “Breakspear” Targaryen, heir to the Iron Throne; Tanzyn Crawford as a Dornish puppeteer named Tanselle; Daniel Ings as Ser Lyonel “Laughing Storm” Baratheon, heir to House Baratheon; and Sam Spruell as Prince Maekar Targaryen, Egg’s father.

There’s also an extensive supporting cast. Ross Anderson plays Ser Humfrey Hardyng; Edward Ashley plays Ser Steffon Fossoway; Henry Ashton as Egg’s older brother, Prince Daeron “The Drunken” Targaryen; Youssef Kerkour as a blacksmith named Steely Pate; Daniel Monks as Ser Manfred Dondarrion; Shaun Thomas as Raymun Fossoway; Tom Vaughan-Lawlor as Plummer, a steward; Steve Wall as Lord Leo “Longthorn” Tyrell, Lord of Highgarden; and Danny Webb as Dunk’s mentor, Ser Arlan of Pennytree.

The final trailer opens ominously with knights lined up for battle, and we see the perspective of one nervous knight in particular through the chink in his helmet. Cut to Baelon Targaryen asking Ser Duncan the Tall—newly knighted by his recently deceased mentor—just how good a knight he really is. “You’ll see,” Duncan replies—and promptly gets confused about exiting.

That little scene nicely encapsulates the overall tone of the series: it’s still Westeros and there are still high stakes, but there is also plenty of levity. It’s also a different focus from prior GoT shows in that it focuses on a lowly hedge knight trying to make a name for himself rather than ruthless highborns vying for the Iron Throne. Duncan isn’t quite ready for prime time; a hedge knight, it seems, is “like a knight, only sadder.” Fortunately Egg befriends him and becomes his squire: “Every knight needs a squire, and you look like you need one more than most.”

Duncan’s short-term goal is to win a major tournament in hopes that a great house—like House Targaryen—”might take me into its service.” But Duncan soon runs afoul of Prince Aerion Targaryen, who is out for Duncan’s head. Duncan is advised to run, since he’s likely to be killed either way. Instead, he stands his ground. “Has honor deserted the noble houses of Westeros?” we see him ask the assembled onlookers at the tournament. “Are there no true knights among you?” He’s met with silence.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms debuts on HBO on January 18, 2026, with the first of six episodes.

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