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VENICE, Italy (AP) — The 82nd Venice Film Festival is coming to a close Saturday as its juries make final choices for the awards. The prizes, including nods for acting, directing and best picture, called the Golden Lion, will be handed out during an evening ceremony.This year’s competition lineup included many possible Oscar heavyweights. Kathryn Bigelow set off a warning shot about nuclear weapons and the apparatus of decision-making with her urgent, and distressingly realistic, thriller “A House of Dynamite.”Guillermo del Toro unveiled his “Frankenstein,” a sumptuously gothic interpretation of the Mary Shelley classic, with Oscar Isaac portraying Victor Frankenstein…

Investors are clearly bullish about former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor’s AI agent startup Sierra. Sierra, which helps enterprises build customer service AI agents, announced it raised a $350 million funding round on Thursday. The round, led by earlier investor Greenoaks Capital, values the startup at $10 billion, according to a company blog post that confirmed an earlier report from Axios on Wednesday. Sierra was founded in early 2024 by Taylor and longtime Google alum Clay Bavor. The company claims to have landed hundreds of customers, including SoFi, Ramp, and Brex, among others, in its 18 months of operation. Sierra has…

Tesla has proposed a new 10-year compensation plan for CEO Elon Musk that could be worth as much as $1 trillion even as the EV maker’s car business stumbles and it sets its sights on humanoid robotics and AI. The company has tied the compensation to a number of benchmarks, one of which involves increasing Tesla’s overall valuation from around $1 trillion to more than $8 trillion. The plan would grant Musk more than 423 million additional shares in the company, boosting his level of control to around 25%. Musk has previously threatened to leave Tesla if he didn’t receive…

Snapchat is launching a new Lens that lets users create and edit images using a text-to-image AI generator, the company told TechCrunch exclusively. The new “Imagine Lens” is available to Snapchat+ Platinum and Lens+ subscribers. Imagine Lens allows users to create, edit, and re-create Snaps by entering their own prompts. They can then share the image with their friends, post it to their Story, or share it outside of Snapchat. While Snapchat already has numerous generative AI Lenses, the company notes that Imagine Lens is its first open prompt image-generation Lens. Users can generate images using custom prompts, like “create…

by Paul Heney Last updated: 7:00 AM ET, Fri September 5, 2025 It’s easy to categorize areas of the country as being unfriendly to LGBTQ citizens, but focusing on entire states can mean that queer travelers might miss out on some incredibly welcoming and diverse cities. San Antonio is certainly a place that the queer community should visit and celebrate, as the locals here are among the friendliest that my husband and I have encountered. There’s a palpable civic pride amongst locals, always wanting to assist travelers and recommend their favorite things. Here’s a rundown of some of what makes…

If you’re a founder who planned to wait until the last minute … this is it. Today is the final day to secure your exhibit table at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025. If you want to get in front of more than 10,000 startup and VC leaders, connect with media, and generate a nonstop pipeline this October, you need to act now. There are only a few tables left. Once they’re gone, they’re gone. Don’t let your competitor take the last table with your startup’s name on it. Book yours now. Image Credits:Halo Creative Here’s what you get when you exhibit at Disrupt…

Tesla shareholders will soon vote whether to let the electric vehicle maker invest in Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI, a proposal pitched as a way to strengthen Tesla’s ambitions in AI, robotics, and energy.  Listed in Tesla’s proxy statement alongside a company-backed push to raise Musk’s 10-year pay package to $1 trillion, the proposal comes from Stephen Hawk, a Florida shareholder with a $2,000 stake of common stock. His supporting statement reads: Tesla’s integration of Grok into its vehicles demonstrates the tangible benefits of collaboration with xAI. As Tesla pivots toward AI-driven technologies, including Full Self-Driving and robotics, a strategic…

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A judge on Friday sided with Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey and blocked a policy that prevented school voucher recipients from playing on sports teams this fall.Montgomery Circuit Judge J.R. Gaines issued a temporary restraining order barring the Alabama High School Athletic Association from enforcing a policy that says the voucher recipients are ineligible to play sports during their first year at a new school.Ivey and Alabama House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter had asked for the restraining order after filing a lawsuit challenging the association’s decision over student eligibility. “Today’s order is a victory for common sense,” Ivey…

TORONTO (AP) — Sydney Sweeney came to the Toronto International Film Festival wanting to talk about her new film “Christy,” not her American Eagle ad campaign. After a rapturous response to the movie, she’s getting her wish.The 27-year-old, Emmy-nominated actor landed immediate Oscar buzz for her performance in David Michôd’s biopic of the boxer Christy Salters Martin. For the role, Sweeney transforms into the female boxing trailblazer who emerged out of West Virginia as the “Coal Miner’s Daughter” to rise to the top of her then-nascent sport.Following a rousing reception from the TIFF audience Friday, Sweeney stood beside Martin on…

Travelers based on the West Coast will have a new flight option to visit the Land of Fire and Ice next summer. Alaska Airlines is launching a nonstop route from its hub at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) to Reykjavik, Iceland. The carrier first announced the route in early August, but has just released more details about the upcoming service.  The daily summer flights to Keflavík International Airport (KEF) will begin on May 28, 2026, and operate through mid-September. The airline also launched fares on the new route, and tickets are available to book now.The airline will use its newly upgraded long-range…