Say what you will about the first and second couples at the heart of “The Diplomat” – and by now they’ve generated plenty of gossip fodder – but nobody would question the resilience of their unions. Kate Wyler (Keri Russell) and her husband, Hal (Rufus Sewell), have certainly had their ups and downs; the series begins with them contemplating divorce just as Kate is thrust into an ambassadorship to Britain.

The more politically seasoned Hal manipulates Kate into staying with him, kicking off a multi-season barrage of wheedling and scheming that culminates in President Grace Hagen Penn (Allison Janney) picking him as her vice president.

Over four seasons of Debora Cahn’s transatlantic political drama, Kate has been instrumental in keeping the highly tenuous special relationship between Britain and America from crumbling, even as her boss and husband insist on taking jackhammers to it.

Grace is indubitably corrupt, and yet her devotion to her husband Todd (Bradley Whitford) is nevertheless true. Sure, occasionally Todd must scream underwater to keep his head from exploding. And yes, a fourth-season subplot finds the first gentleman hightailing to London to find some purpose beyond perusing wallpaper swatches. Well, that and placing some distance between him and his wife’s unnerving autocratic behavior.

Even so, during their daily check-ins, Grace and Todd still call each other babe and exchange declarations of love. When Grace finally sets all of America’s alliances aflame, Todd remains standing by her side.

It’s a miserable political and marital state of affairs when a Netflix hit’s radioactive relationships make a person nostalgic for eras when first and second Ladies were intellectual forces respected by their husbands. Neither Dr. Jill Biden nor Michelle Obama dimmed their light to appease right-wing sexists bent on characterizing their professional achievements and eloquence as emasculating.

In that respect, Hillary Clinton showed them and us the way: When her husband Bill won office, the first lady chaired a task force that delivered a massive health reform proposal doomed from the jump. We will never know if we’d have universal healthcare by now if a man had run the task force, but Republicans taught voters to distrust any first lady who aspired to do more for Americans than bake cookies and tend the roses in the White House garden.

( Clifton Prescod/Netflix © 2026)

Contrast those misty memories with Monday’s connubial proof-of-life photo-op featuring Donald Trump and his oft-absentee wife, Melania, signing an executive order creating a task force on women’s health. This was a rare appearance for the first lady, who many assume can’t stand her husband. One can’t imagine why.

“Look at her. You think she’s easy? She’s not so easy, but she’s very smart,” the president assured assembled reporters before signing the order and remarking, “I don’t know if her signature means anything,” while handing the pen to his wife.

When he tried to seal the moment with a kiss, the first lady turned her head, leaving him to lip-lock her hair instead. He then patted her hand, mumbling, “Good job.”

And Kate? All she does is clean up her husband’s messes. Following his advice to blackmail a loose-cannon Prime Minister into resigning causes her reflux to erupt with a vengeance. Hal’s part in a secret plot to purloin a Russian doomsday weapon from a sunken sub and her efforts to keep the enemy from finding out trap her in a perpetual cycle of dashing to bathrooms. America’s president named Kate to be her sin eater, and occasionally she has to barf up her guilt to keep her prevarications straight.

Working for the Penn administration is an ambassador’s nightmare and hell on the esophagus. Without a partner, it would be untenable. Without Kate, Hal and the stalwart staff surrounding them, our international relations may very well be in tatters.

The Penn administration will never be confused for Kennedy’s Camelot, and nobody in their right mind would characterize the Clintons’ or the Wylers’ marriages as ideal.  

Like Bill and Hillary, Kate and Hal are working on their relationship despite Kate’s extramarital flings and Hal’s penchant for skullduggery. Their marriage is on thin ice. But their shared devotion is more plausible than whatever deal the Trumps have struck.

To watch these real and fictional partnerships play out without doubting their credibility is… I don’t know, is uplifting the word? Soothing, maybe.

It makes us fondly recall a past when first ladies competently delivered coherent speeches from podiums and made strong policy advocates. When presidents reached for their wives’ hands and their spouses responded in kind. It was a nicer, smarter time.

(Netflix © 2026)

Yet Kate and Hal’s working partnership earns them few points with Grace and Todd. The thing is, Todd isn’t stupid. He’s malleable and clueless about a lot of things, including whether it’s appropriate to interpret a female colleague’s nervous vomiting as an indicator that she’s pregnant. But when Grace survives an assassination attempt, Todd is genuinely shaken. When the president requires an emotional backstop and perhaps a bit of reining in, the first gentleman exercises his own version of diplomacy. When it suits him.

Hal’s mastery of persuasive dark arts makes him a perfect partner for a president who surreptitiously and proudly moves to upend the international power structure. Still, Todd doesn’t like the way Hal and Grace giggle together in secret.  

We’re attracted to “The Diplomat” for many of the same reasons Aaron Sorkin’s “The West Wing” kept liberal viewers rapt during the George W. Bush years. The Penn administration has none of the idealism or conscience that drove Martin Sheen’s Jed Bartlet, whose vision Janney’s press secretary, C.J. Cregg, and Whitford’s deputy chief of staff, Josh Lyman, worked to preserve as best as they could.

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It’s both entertaining and frightening to see the same actors portray an effective marital alliance devoted to trashing norms and weaponizing American exceptionalism.

But that’s also why this show works. In real life, the political class favors men like Hal much more than women like Kate, although (and because) Kate is truly Hal’s better half, morally speaking. In Britain, the charismatic Todd embraces his special envoy status with verve even as he suspects he’s out of his depth.

As America watches the president’s wife treat him with the same disdain he shows the rest of the world, a competent political union, however strained, is somehow reassuring. If the Wylers can survive the nightmare of American politics, maybe we have a chance too.

“The Diplomat” is streaming on Netflix.

The post “The Diplomat” reminds us that political couples used to be smart appeared first on Salon.com.

50 Cent has lots of wild stories from his career. One he recently recalled involves the late DMX and a terrifying car ride.

During an October 2026 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, 50 reflected on a time he and DMX worked together. The pair had been in a New York City recording studio when DMX got a little restless.

“And we found the track, and he was like, ‘Yo, come on, let’s just go get our head right.’ And I was like, ‘Okay, let’s just go,’” 50 remembered. Notably, 50 didn’t specify a time period. However, he and DMX did collab on the 2003 song “Shot Down,” which also featured Styles P.

50 Cent recalled DMX driving him the wrong direction down a one-way street

After DMX suggested getting out of the studio, the pair went down to DMX’s vehicle. 50 Cent believed they were just gonna sit and listen to some tracks. However, the Ruff Ryders rapper had different plans.

“And he started driving. He drove me down a one-way. Downtown Manhattan, he went down a one-way, the wrong way,” 50 Cent shared. “I said, ‘We gonna die in this mother.’ He continued, “You said, ‘Get my head right.’ We was in the car; he was wild. He would just do the craziest stuff.”

The two eventually returned to the studio in one piece. Only now, 50 Cent had some demands that did not involve dangerous activities. “When we got back there,” he said, “I was like, ‘Yo, I’m not doing nothing but rap, all right? No one ask me for nothing, I don’t want nothing. Let’s just rap.’”

50 Cent is producing a podcast about the life of DMX

DMX died in April 2021. He was 50 years old. After his passing, the medical examiner ruled his death due to a cocaine-induced heart attack, which led to brain failure.

Coincidentally, 50 Cent is producing a podcast series about the life of DMX. Dubbed Look Thru My Eyes: Becoming DMX, the iHeartPodcasts/G-Unit Audio series is hosted by Jadakiss. It will follow the early years of DMX—real name Earl Simmons—as he was a young Yonkers rapper on the rise.

Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

The post 50 Cent Recalls Terrifying Car Ride With DMX That Left Him Fearing for His Life appeared first on VICE.

One of the many changes arriving at Xbox this year is a new approach to cloud gaming and it looks like the team is ready to test out the first paid tier access to the the service for users who don’t have a Game Pass subscription.

All Xbox Cloud Gaming Introductory Price Tiers

A new update for Xbox Insiders offers the first look at how expensive access to Xbox Cloud Gaming hours is going to be for users who are not Game Pass subscribers. This preview gives XBOX Insiders who do not have an active Game Pass subscription an early look at the new option before it rolls out more broadly in November.

During the preview, Xbox Insiders can purchase cloud playtime, stream games on supported devices, and share feedback to help us continue improving the experience.

Cloud playtime is available to Insiders at introductory launch pricing:

• 10hrs for $3.99
• 25hrs for $7.99
• 50hrs for $11.99

According to the announcement, Cloud playtime packs provide an ad-free cloud gaming experience, including shorter wait times, high-quality streaming, and playtime that remains available until it’s used.

This new options adds on to the previous test that allowed Xbox Insiders can also try cloud gaming for free with ads, giving players another option for accessing cloud gaming without a Game Pass subscription.

Gamers should definitely take note that these pricing tiers are described as “introductory launch pricing.” That seems to suggest that the final prices may be higher once the feature becomes available now widely outside of the Xbox Insiders community of testers.

Additionally, many Game Pass subscribers are still waiting to find out when unlimited Cloud Gaming access is going to be removed from the Game Pass Ultimate subscription tier. The announcement about this change explained that the update would impact a very small number of gamers, but there was still some negative reactions to the change on social media.

Be sure to check back soon for lots more Xbox news and updates.

The post Xbox Reveals Cloud Gaming Launch Pricing Tiers appeared first on VICE.

ROME — Former paratrooper General Roberto Vannacci portrays himself on social media as a Roman legionary and charioteer. He has declared he prefers women “without skirts” and posted an AI-generated image of a female junior minister with exaggerated cleavage.

None of these projections of masculinity and anti-woke culture are clumsy gaffes. The insurgent far-right star of Italian politics is making a deliberate play to the so-called manosphere to transform himself from an internet provocateur into a heavyweight political force.

For Italy’s first female prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, Vannacci now poses a serious problem as she needs to decide whether he is an asset or a liability. With elections expected next spring, his National Future party is polling at about 8%, making him a potentially crucial factor in building a right-wing coalition.

“It is disgusting to think you can manipulate the image of a woman for such deplorable propaganda,” the center-right junior minister in Meloni’s coalition whose image was manipulated, Matilde Siracusano, told POLITICO.  “I don’t think we have ever sunk this low, especially from someone aspiring to be a national political leader.”

Vannacci’s provocations may look like familiar trolling from a politician who has built his reputation on saying the unsayable. But behind them lies a broader political project, tapping into the grievances of young men who feel alienated by feminism and progressive culture.

Emanuele Pozzolo, a National Future parliamentarian who defected from Meloni’s Brothers of Italy, believes young men have become increasingly constrained in their relationships with women.

“I think young Western men are very often almost castrated in their instinct for dealing with women,” he said, arguing that even legitimate romantic approaches risk being treated as aggression. 

“The cultural problem is that sometimes everything seems to be harassment, everything abuse, everything violence,” he added, while stressing that genuine abuse must be punished.

Mediterranean patriarchy

Vannacci combines inflammatory online messaging and an alpha-male persona with a political program that promises to restore traditional roles for men and women. National Future even has a name for its preferred social order: “Mediterranean patriarchy.”

Its political program calls for the formation of “strong men” capable of controlling their emotions and passions, protecting women and sacrificing themselves for society. It opposes the recently introduced crime of femicide, condemns feminism, and declares the defense of life “from conception to natural death” and the “natural family” among its non-negotiable values.

The architect of this vision and principal author of the program is Lorenzo Gasperini, a conservative Catholic philosophy teacher from Tuscany, who has opposed vaccines and abortion rights on social media and blamed feminism for violence against women.

The result is a political offering that combines different traditions: conservative Catholic ideas about family and sexuality, older Italian ideas of virility and the much newer online politics of male grievance.

The manifesto seeks to put traditional family values into practice with proposals to pay parents who leave work to raise children, and reward parents of large families with tax exemption and public sector jobs.  

Some proposals echo Benito Mussolini’s fascist-era “Battle for Births,” which offered similar incentives while promoting motherhood as a patriotic duty.

Luca Sforzini, a former Vannacci ideologue who has since broken with him, said the Mediterranean label was a clever piece of marketing.

“It’s like talking about the Mediterranean diet,” he told POLITICO. “You think of Italian food, mozzarella, tomatoes, olive oil.” The result, he said, was to conceal a patriarchal model with men above women behind “bucolic, positive images. It’s monstrous,” he said.

Pozzolo rejected the suggestion that the program advocates for male supremacy.

“It is exactly the opposite,” he said. “When we talk about Mediterranean patriarchy, the main idea is to recover, preserve and pass on the responsibilities of being a man within the family and society.” Men, he argued, had a duty to show women respect, love and protection, while rejecting violence or coercive control.

He defended the “without skirts” remark as “extremely funny” — picking up on a reference to Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani advocating long skirts — and not remotely offensive, comparing Vannacci’s ability to connect with ordinary Italians to Silvio Berlusconi’s. 

At a recent rally in the Umbrian city of Orvieto, Vannacci defended the Mediterranean patriarchy concept as not “oppression and possession” but “duty, fidelity, sacrifice,” and said it was the family model that had allowed “us to prevail over the last 2,000 years.”

Elisa Ercoli, president of the women’s rights organization Differenza Donna, condemned the program as “a return to the supremacy of the white, cisgender alpha male, and the woman as his handmaiden.”

Appealing to alphas

Vannacci, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, became a media sensation in 2023 with the self-published book “The World Upside Down,” a broadside against immigration, feminism and homosexuality. In it, he told gay people: “You are not normal, get over it.”

Lionized by fans as a defender of common sense against progressive politics, he received more than half a million votes as a candidate for the anti-immigration League in the 2024 European elections, before founding National Future in February.

Polling analysis suggests that about 62% of National Future’s prospective voters are male, including strong support among manual workers and the unemployed.

Pozzolo denied National Future was deliberately targeting male voters, insisting the party’s ambition was to reach Italians of all backgrounds who felt unrepresented.

Federica Formato, a lecturer at Brighton University in the U.K., who studies gender and the far right, said Vannacci was “testing the waters” to see whether he can reach a younger male audience, tapping into what she described as the “aggrieved entitlement” of young men.

A career soldier, he has repeatedly portrayed himself through images of physical strength, competition and military prowess. On social media, AI-generated versions proliferate of Vannacci as an ancient Roman in scenes recalling the Ridley Scott epic Gladiator.

For Formato, the Roman imagery projects “virility and hyper-masculinity,” while Vannacci’s army background itself helps construct the image of an “alpha male.”

Humor, memes and deliberate provocation are particularly effective with a younger online audience, Formato said, allowing relatively complex ideological messages to be reduced to instantly comprehensible images. “He is not naive,” she said. “He says things to provoke and get more attention.”

That presents Meloni with a headache. Vannacci’s party is drawing voters from her Brothers of Italy and Matteo Salvini’s League, while offering a more uncompromising platform on immigration, social issues and foreign policy.

Yet Vannacci has opened the door to an alliance with Meloni if she needs his votes. He has described National Future as a natural partner for the center-right, while insisting that any deal must respect his party’s principles. With Italy’s new electoral law offering a parliamentary majority bonus to coalitions winning at least 42 percent of the vote, those votes could matter.

That presents Meloni with an uncomfortable choice: Keep Vannacci outside the coalition, or bring into her government a movement whose appeal rests partly on the grievances of men who believe feminism has gone too far.

For Formato, Vannacci is exploiting a space in Italian politics that has so far lacked a figure capable of turning those grievances into an organized political constituency.

Vannacci, with his promises to restore traditional masculinity, appears determined to occupy it.

“There is an empty chair,” she said.

It remains to be seen if people really want to watch vertical content on horizontal TV screens, but many filmmakers and creators were confident that their latest projects would play well at Alza - New York City's first microdrama film festival. Founded by former Tribeca Festival chief operating officer Pete Torres, Alza, which took place October 16th through 18th, was billed as a showcase for the "the creativity, innovation, and growing cultural impact of stories made for the vertical screen." The festival featured a selection of microdrama and film premieres as well as industry-focused panels with executives who all seemed to genuinely beli …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Cyberpunk 2077 is getting a big new 2.5 update that, among other features, brings cross-platform mod support to consoles and content inspired by the new season of the Cyberpunk: Edgerunners anime on Netflix. There's a lot to unpack in the full patch notes.

The Edgerunners-specific content includes a new side quest, a gear set based on the character Weak Kingsley, and a new radio station that plays Cyberpunk: Edgerunners music.

Even if you haven't seen the show, the update also adds a Double Trouble perk option that allows dual-wielding of pistols and revolvers, plus a Richard Night-guided tour of the city side quest, and access to a …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Microsoft asked its employees to return to the office three days per week last year, and it's now upping this requirement to four days a week for most Xbox employees. An internal memo, seen by The Verge, describes the change as a "need to create more opportunities for people to work together" after feedback from Xbox employees.

"Starting February 1st, 2027, Xbox employees in Puget Sound who live within 50 commuting miles of Studio D are required to work from the office a minimum of four days a week," says Jacinda Chislum Pearson, Xbox chief people officer, in the internal memo. "We have thousands of Xbox employees within commuting distance …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Microsoft announced last month that it will let anyone access Xbox Cloud Gaming in November, without the need to subscribe to Xbox Game Pass. The new pay-as-you-go model will require players to purchase bundles of cloud hours, and now Microsoft is revealing today that bundles will start at $3.99 for 10 hours of cloud playtime.

Xbox Insiders who don't have a Game Pass subscription will be able to start purchasing cloud playtime today, ahead of a broader rollout next month. Insiders can access "introductory" launch pricing bundles:

• 10 hours for $3.99
• 25 hours for $7.99
• 50 hours for $11.99

All of these cloud hours will include ad-fre …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Final Fantasy Resonance launches on October 22, but some North American players can start playing tonight. Here is when the HD-2D RPG unlocks on consoles and PC, including a breakdown of launch times in each major region.

When Does Final Fantasy Resonance Release?

The Final Fantasy Resonance release date is Thursday, October 22, 2026. However, North American console players can start playing on Wednesday, October 21, at 9:00 PM PT / October 22 at 12:00 AM ET.

That means players on the West Coast can jump into Square Enix’s latest RPG tonight, even though its official release date is tomorrow. However, when you can start playing depends on your platform and region.

PS5 and Xbox release schedules point to a midnight regional launch, with North America unlocking at midnight Eastern. However, the Steam version has a separate worldwide unlock scheduled for October 22 at 9:00 AM PT / 12:00 PM ET. Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 players should check their eShop countdown, as their exact unlock times have not been verified here.

Final Fantasy Resonance Console Launch Times

For North American PS5 and Xbox Series X|S players, Final Fantasy Resonance launches at 9:00 PM PT tonight, October 21. Other regions follow a midnight regional release on October 22, according to the console launch schedule reported by Prima Games.

To make this easier to track, here is when players can start playing on PS5 and Xbox in each major region:

Region	Local date	Launch time
United States (PT)	October 21	9:00 PM PDT
United States / Canada (ET)	October 22	12:00 AM EDT
United Kingdom	October 22	12:00 AM BST
Germany	October 22	12:00 AM CEST
Finland	October 22	12:00 AM EEST
United Arab Emirates	October 22	12:00 AM GST
Singapore	October 22	12:00 AM SGT
Japan / South Korea	October 22	12:00 AM JST / KST
Australia (Sydney)	October 22	12:00 AM AEDT
New Zealand (Auckland)	October 22	12:00 AM NZDT

Unlike a simultaneous worldwide launch, these midnight regional unlocks happen at different moments. Your console’s store countdown is the best way to check the exact release time for your copy.

Final Fantasy Resonance PC Release Times

The Final Fantasy Resonance PC release time is Thursday, October 22, at 9:00 AM PT / 12:00 PM ET on Steam. Unfortunately, that means North American PC players will have to wait another 12 hours after the console version unlocks.

Steam has a simultaneous worldwide launch. As a result, the local date will already be October 23 in some regions, including Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.

Here is the Steam launch schedule converted into local times for every major region:

Region	Local date	Launch time
United States (PT)	October 22	9:00 AM PDT
United States / Canada (ET)	October 22	12:00 PM EDT
Brazil (São Paulo)	October 22	1:00 PM BRT
United Kingdom	October 22	5:00 PM BST
Germany	October 22	6:00 PM CEST
Finland	October 22	7:00 PM EEST
United Arab Emirates	October 22	8:00 PM GST
India	October 22	9:30 PM IST
China / Singapore	October 23	12:00 AM CST / SGT
Japan / South Korea	October 23	1:00 AM JST / KST
Australia (Sydney)	October 23	3:00 AM AEDT
New Zealand (Auckland)	October 23	5:00 AM NZDT

Can You Play Final Fantasy Resonance Early?

Some North American console players can play Final Fantasy Resonance on October 21 because of time zones. The 9:00 PM PT unlock is the same moment as midnight Eastern on October 22, so you do not need a special edition to get that three-hour head start on the calendar.

However, that timing does not apply to Steam. If you are playing on PC, you will need to wait until the separate worldwide launch at 9:00 AM PT on October 22.

Does the New Zealand Trick Work for Final Fantasy Resonance?

The New Zealand trick will not unlock the Steam version of Final Fantasy Resonance sooner. Its worldwide release happens at the same moment regardless of your region.

If you are sticking with your North American console copy, the time to watch is 9:00 PM PT tonight / 12:00 AM ET on October 22. If you are still on the fence about it, check out our Final Fantasy Resonance review.

The post Final Fantasy Resonance Release Date and Launch Times appeared first on VICE.

Nvidia is rolling out a new GPU driver today (621.01) that enables Microsoft's new Advanced Shader Delivery technology to speed up game launches. The technology also removes mid-game "just-in-time" shader compilation, reducing stuttering and CPU spikes.

Microsoft's Advanced Shader Delivery works by offloading shader compilation for different hardware combinations to the cloud. "Using DirectX 12, Windows 11, and the Microsoft Agility SDK, developers capture shaders into a State Object Database (SODB), allowing Microsoft's cloud network to precompile shaders for hundreds of thousands of hardware and driver combinations," explains Nvidia's And …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Getting ghosted used to be the worst thing that could happen after a decent first date. The bar has dropped since then.

And dating wasn’t exactly going great to begin with. A 2023 Pew Research Center report found that 46% of Americans who had used dating apps or websites described their experiences as negative. Between people disappearing without explanation and others keeping you interested with absolutely no intention of dating you, it’s easy to see why. Here are six dating behaviors you might recognize, even if you’ve never heard their ridiculous names.

1. Breadcrumbing

A breadcrumber gives you just enough attention to keep you interested, usually a random “hey stranger” or an Instagram like at a questionable hour, without ever making actual plans.

In a study of 626 adults, researchers found that people who’d been breadcrumbed reported greater loneliness and lower life satisfaction. Ghosting, meanwhile, had no statistically significant association with those outcomes. At least when someone disappears, you eventually stop expecting a text.

2. Monkey Branching

Monkey branching is when someone starts pursuing their next relationship before ending the one they’re already in. They want another person lined up before breaking things off, presumably because spending a few Friday nights by themselves is simply too much to ask.

Dyllan Watkins, a Neuroscience BSc holder, in collaboration with poly dating platform Sister Wives, told Body+Soul that this behavior “could stem from an insecurity around trust or fear of abandonment.” Unfortunately, the person they’re currently dating gets to deal with the consequences.

3. Phubbing

Phubbing is short for phone snubbing, and it’s when someone scrolls through their phone while you’re attempting to have a conversation.

Baylor University researcher James Roberts found that people who experienced more phubbing from their partners reported greater conflict and lower relationship satisfaction. It’s hard to feel appreciated when you’re competing with someone’s Instagram feed or fantasy football league.

4. Floodlighting

Floodlighting is when someone unloads deeply personal information before you’ve had hardly any time to get to know each other. You’re 20 minutes into a first date and already know all about their childhood trauma and the ex who ruined their life.

Brené Brown has described this behavior as a way of protecting yourself from vulnerability. If the other person backs away, the floodlighter can convince themselves that opening up was a mistake.

5. Orbiting

Orbiting is when someone stops texting you but continues watching everything you post on social media. They might even like a photo once in a while. You haven’t had an actual conversation in weeks, but they’re still keeping up with your life on Instagram.

6. Cloaking

Cloaking takes ghosting a step further. Someone you’ve been talking to or dating disappears and blocks you everywhere, including the dating app where you originally matched. They’ve cut off every possible way to contact them, leaving you with no explanation and no opportunity to even ask what happened.

It’s pretty incredible how much effort some people will put into avoiding a conversation that could be over in two minutes.

The post 6 Dating Trends That Could Be Secretly Ruining Your Love Life appeared first on VICE.

The neck doesn’t get much credit as a sexy body part. It probably should.

Men on Reddit have been discussing this for years. In an r/AskMen thread, guys admitted there’s something incredibly attractive about a woman putting her hair up or sweeping it over one shoulder to expose her neck. One called the move “so f***ing attractive,” while another described the neck as “a really intimate spot on the body.” A third guy said he liked it because it’s “right above the boobs.” Okay, Beavis.

There’s some research to back up the neck’s reputation as an erogenous zone. Bangor University neuroscientist Oliver Turnbull and his colleagues asked nearly 800 people to rate 41 body areas according to how sexually stimulating they found them. The neck ranked near the top, with women rating it slightly higher than men. Feet didn’t get much love.

Men Say This Overlooked Female Body Part Is Incredibly Attractive

Turnbull was interested in why certain places feel good when touched sexually, while others…not so much. After all, your neck and forehead both contain sensory receptors, but most people would probably prefer a kiss on the neck.

There’s also something intimate about letting another person get that close. “Letting someone touch the neck is a major act of trust, so, understandably, some people hate it,” sex and relationship therapist Cate Campbell told Metro. Some people love having their neck kissed, while others would prefer their partner keep their mouth elsewhere.

And there’s an important difference between kissing someone’s neck and putting pressure on it. Sexual choking has become increasingly common, especially among younger adults, and Indiana University sex researcher Debby Herbenick has spent years studying the risks.

“There is truly no safe way to choke someone,” she told Savage Love. Even relatively light pressure can restrict blood flow to the brain, with potentially serious consequences. Her research has also raised concerns about people experiencing choking during otherwise consensual sex without being asked first.

If you happen to find someone’s neck incredibly attractive, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to give it some attention. Just make sure they’re interested in that attention, too. And keep your hands away from their throat.

The post This Is the Most Underrated Body Part on a Woman, According to Men appeared first on VICE.

True crime fans know all about the love letters Ted Bundy received while sitting in prison. It’s a bizarre piece of history, especially considering the man was responsible for murdering numerous young women. And somehow, he still had women lining up to date him.

Bundy even married Carole Ann Boone during his murder trial. But forensic psychologist Katherine Ramsland told HuffPost that these women aren’t necessarily attracted to the crimes themselves. For some, a man serving a life sentence can be “the perfect boyfriend”—after all, you know exactly where he is at all times. 

The fascination with Bundy got University of São Paulo researcher Katharina da Silva wondering what draws people to partners with less-than-lovely personalities. Is there something about certain people that makes narcissism or manipulation attractive, even when everyone else can see the warning signs? To investigate, she and her colleagues surveyed 400 Brazilian adults for a study examining personality traits and romantic preferences.

Scientists Found Something Interesting About People Who Date Manipulative Partners

Participants answered questions about their own levels of narcissism, manipulation, and psychopathy, collectively known as the Dark Triad. They also rated how attractive they found those qualities in a potential partner. According to PsyPost, people who scored higher in these traits were generally more interested in dating someone similar. Narcissists preferred narcissists, and manipulators were drawn to other manipulators.

The researchers also asked participants to rate hypothetical partners on a scale of 1 to 7, and the difference was quite substantial. A kind, considerate person scored nearly 6, while someone described as calculating and willing to do whatever it takes scored about 2.4. Add a history of physical assault, and that number dropped to 1.5.

And money couldn’t save them either. Neither could fame or being ridiculously good-looking. Even when researchers gave the violent hypothetical partner a fortune, celebrity status or an attractive appearance, people still weren’t interested. Da Silva suspects the assault was enough to put people off, regardless of the other qualities.

“Prosociality still remains a far more desirable trait in the context of mate choice,” she told PsyPost.

There are limitations, of course. The partners were fictional descriptions without photos, and the participants were mostly educated adults recruited online. Since every hypothetical partner with appealing qualities also had a history of violence, the researchers couldn’t determine how people might respond to a wealthy, attractive manipulator without an assault charge.

So if a friend’s exes all seem cut from the same cloth, the common thread might be the friend.

The post The Surprising Reason Some People Keep Dating Narcissists, According to Science appeared first on VICE.

BRUSSELS — Center-right lawmakers in the European Parliament are intensifying efforts to weaken two EU climate laws, a campaign that could undermine the bloc’s push to cut planet-warming emissions.

The European People’s Party, the largest group in Parliament, will this week push for a three-year delay to rules on emissions of the climate pollutant methane, a change the fossil fuel sector and the U.S. government have lobbied hard for.

A growing number of EPP lawmakers now also want to delay — or scrap altogether — a new carbon price on transport and heating, known as ETS2, according to a document obtained by POLITICO. That puts them in line with several EU member countries, including Italy and Poland, which pushed for a delay to the new carbon price at a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels last week.

Both policies are central pillars in the EU’s effort to reduce its planet-warming emissions. A successful repeal of ETS2 in particular would be a blow to EU climate goals, as it covers around 40% of the bloc’s greenhouse gas emissions.

But it would also be a major victory for conservative and pro-business lawmakers and national governments that have been campaigning for less stringent EU climate laws in the name of industrial competitiveness.

Ax the tax

The EU Emissions Trading System, launched in 2005, requires power plants and factories in sectors like steel, chemicals and cement to acquire carbon allowances for every ton of carbon they emit. The total number of allowances is reduced each year, eventually reaching zero.

ETS2 applies the same idea to suppliers of fuel for transport and heating from 2028.

The cap-and-trade scheme will be a powerful tool for reducing emissions from these highly polluting activities. But many policymakers worry it will raise the cost of gasoline, diesel and natural gas and add to voters’ cost-of-living pressures.

Nine national delegations of the EPP — the Polish, Spanish, Italian, French, Romanian, Croatian, Slovenian, Slovak and Estonian — are now calling for ETS2 to be repealed, according to draft amendments obtained by POLITICO. “ETS2 should be deleted,” the amendment, sponsored by Polish EPP lawmaker Adam Jarubas, argues.

Another amendment in the same draft, backed by 10 national delegations, takes a softer approach and asks for ETS2 to be “postponed until 2031.”

EU legislators are already reviewing a proposed reform of the EU’s original Emissions Trading System, which makes amending ETS2 — which is contained in the same legislation as the first ETS — much simpler.

No majority in Parliament or among member countries currently supports delaying or repealing ETS2, but a string of elections next year raises the likelihood that more right-wing governments will be in power before ETS2 comes into force, adding momentum to the push to scrap or delay it.

Methane delay

Last week, the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, proposed a year-long delay to rules that will require oil and gas importers to monitor, report, and eventually reduce emissions of the potent greenhouse gas.

The delay — which affects monitoring requirements and later obligations on methane intensity — followed months of lobbying from industry and member countries, which claimed the Commission provided insufficient clarity on how to comply. The U.S. government also pushed to delay the rules, which are currently due to come into force on Jan. 1, 2027.

But the proposed delay requires support from both governments and lawmakers, some of whom want to go well beyond the Commission’s revised timeline.

On Tuesday, European lawmakers voted to fast-track parliamentary discussions around the Commission’s proposed delay, laying the groundwork for a fresh vote Thursday. At that vote, the EPP is expected to campaign for a three-year delay of the rules, as well as possible further adjustments, according to one lawmaker familiar with the matter.

Dimitris Tsiodras, a European lawmaker, echoed industry concerns that compliance risks could deter cargoes from Europe if left unaddressed. “We cannot afford to put our energy supplies at further risk,” he told lawmakers.

Right-wingers against the rules will still face opposition from left-leaning lawmakers. Jutta Paulus, a German Greens lawmaker who steered the parliament’s position on the legislation in 2024, announced on Tuesday that her party would table an amendment to reject the delay altogether.

However, the EPP could reach an outright majority if it joined with right-wing and far-right groups.

The party is already exploring a deal with those groups if the Socialists and Democrats — the Parliament’s second-largest group — don’t cooperate with its push for a longer postponement, according to two people familiar with the matter. S&D lawmakers opposed extending the delay earlier this month, but a group spokesperson said the party has yet to adopt a formal position in negotiations.

A parliamentary push for a three-year delay could also invigorate member countries’ efforts to delay the rules further.

Member countries are currently divided, though many, including heavyweight France, support the one-year delay proposed by Brussels, according to two diplomats briefed on the matter.

Poland, Slovakia and Czechia, meanwhile, would prefer a three-year delay, but their luck in campaigning for an extension may depend on where Germany lands, the people said. Berlin is currently split between its socialist-controlled environment ministry and its center-right-controlled energy ministry, leaving countries uncertain whether they can formulate a joint position tomorrow, they added.

Italy is also trying to decide whether to opt for one year or more, two diplomats familiar with the matter said.

Elon Musk likes the idea but says he is not on either committee, which is made up of independent directors.

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Musk, who serves as CEO of both companies, said the special committees were formed at the request of shareholders and consist of independent directors (though he did not name them). He also noted that he is not a member of either committee, nor involved in any of the discussions.

"Because I'm a conflicted party, I can't actually be in the discussions of the special committees," Musk said. "So it's an odd kabuki dance where two groups of people are talking and I can't be in the conversation. …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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"This is a profound technology milestone in the history of civilization consciousness," he said during the company's third quarter earnings report Tuesday.

But he also allowed for the possibility of a failure. "Success is not guaranteed on these first flights, but I'd say it's more likely than not that this succeeds next flight," Musk sa …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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The streaming giant doesn't say exactly how it plans to improve its monetization, but the company notes that these goals will help Netflix "create member value that lets us occasionally raise prices, and increase advertiser demand." Netflix also highlighted plans to push further into original titles, live events, and third-party programming as …

Read the full story at The Verge.

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