Anthropic is reportedly nearing a roughly $1.5 billion joint venture with Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, Hellman & Friedman, and other Wall Street firms to sell AI tools to private-equity-backed companies. "The investors aim to create a company that acts as a consulting arm for Anthropic and helps teach businesses -- including the private-equity firms' portfolio companies -- how to incorporate AI across their operations," reports the Wall Street Journal. Anthropic, Blackstone, and Hellman & Friedman would each invest about $300 million, while Goldman would contribute around $150 million.
GameStop has made an unsolicited $56 billion cash-and-stock offer to buy eBay (paywalled; alternative source), with CEO Ryan Cohen arguing he can turn the marketplace into a far larger Amazon competitor. "EBay should be worth -- and will be worth -- a lot more money," Cohen said in an interview. "I'm thinking about turning eBay into something worth hundreds of billions of dollars." The Wall Street Journal reports: Cohen said GameStop has a commitment letter from TD Bank to provide up to $20 billion in debt financing to help make a deal possible. GameStop delivered an offer letter to eBay on Sunday and released a copy of it following the Journal's report on the details of the bid. Cohen wrote in the letter to eBay Chairman Paul Pressler that GameStop started building its eBay position on Feb. 4. It said its offer consists of 50% cash and 50% GameStop shares.
EBay said Monday morning its board and financial advisers would review GameStop's unsolicited proposal. It said there were no discussions with or outreach from GameStop before receiving the offer. Ebay added that it will review the offer "with a focus on the value to be delivered to eBay shareholders, including the value of the GameStop stock consideration and the ability of GameStop to deliver a binding, actionable proposal."
If eBay isn't receptive, Cohen said he was prepared to run a proxy fight and take the offer directly to its shareholders. The window for shareholders to nominate director candidates at eBay ahead of an annual meeting scheduled for this June has already closed, according to the company's proxy materials. Cohen told the Journal that putting his videogame retailer and eBay under one roof could create opportunities to cut costs and improve earnings. The two companies have some overlap already, including a focus on selling collectibles such as trading cards. "There is nobody who is more qualified, based on my experience, to run the eBay business," Cohen said, referencing his time at GameStop and previously Chewy, the online pet-products marketplace he co-founded.
Astronomers have identified 27 potential new circumbinary planets -- worlds that orbit two stars, like Star Wars' Tatooine. "To date, only about 18 circumbinary planets ... had been identified in the universe," reports the Guardian. "More than 6,000 planets have been discovered that orbit single stars, like Earth does around the sun." The Guardian reports: In a timely publication for May 4, also known as Star Wars Day, scientists have identified nearly 30 more candidate planets, whose distances range from 650 to 18,000 light years away from Earth. [...] More than half of the stars in the universe exist in binary or multiple star systems. The researchers instead used a method known as "apsidal precession," searching for a wobble between stars that orbit around and eclipse each other.
"If we monitor the exact timing of these eclipses ... that can tell us that there's something else going on in the system," said Margo Thornton, the study's lead author and a PhD candidate at UNSW. After eliminating other factors such as the rotation and gravitational pull of the two stars, the team identified 36 star systems out of 1,590 whose behavior could only be explained by a third body. For "27 of those objects, it is possible that they are planet mass," Thornton said.
More research into their spectra -- the light they emit -- was needed to formally confirm them as circumbinary planets, she said. "It's just a matter of: what is the mass of it? Is it a planet? Is it a brown dwarf? Is it a star?" The team discovered the potential planets -- which likely range from Neptune-sized to ten times heavier than Jupiter -- using data from Nasa's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, a planet-hunting space telescope that launched in 2018. The research was published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
A muscular Englishman in a khaki kilt and black beret hops atop the edge of an old well clad in traditional Spanish tile, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows in what can only be called an act of bravery. High winds and rain pelt a group of visitors from all directions, and yet, this charismatic performer stands tall above the cobblestone to announce that he’s been living on this vacant island for nearly two centuries. He’s here to give us a tour.
“This has been my home for 174 years,” the man says, introducing himself as Captain Horacio Hollynwood. “I arrived in command of a well-known British merchant ship, responsible for transporting goods of every sort. But alongside grain, wool, and oil, there travelled with us certain rather unwelcome companions—terrible diseases. We stopped here for a sanitary inspection. And from here, I never left.”
Photo by Christopher Jobson
As our group endures the Balearic Islands’ mercurial spring weather and shivers among towering stone walls and outbuildings, this exuberant actor introduces us to the Lazaretto of Mahón, an 18th-century fortress and infirmary that once housed merchants, shipping crews, and any travelers seeking entry to Spain. His ability to rouse a group of studio artists into the turbulent outdoors is a fitting introduction to the activities of the week ahead. Alongside nearly 80 others from Slovakia to Argentina, Washington D.C. to Melbourne, we’re here on this small, uninhabited island for Quarantine, a residency-style program conceived by artist Carles Gomila, who is determined to help artists break free from creative blocks while giving them permission to fail, discover, iterate, and hopefully, discover something new about themselves.
For seven days, participants follow a rigorous schedule, arriving by boat on the island by 8:30 a.m. and leaving no earlier than 9:30 p.m. Their days are filled with talks, workshops, and meetings with invited artists who serve as mentors, the schedule of which isn’t shared in advance. Phones, laptops, and any device with an internet connection are banned, and there’s no option to retreat to a hotel bed or wander off for an afternoon. Such a demanding and purposefully opaque schedule invites artists to settle into discomfort, abandon expectations, and confront the insecurities and anxieties capable of stifling their best work. The theme of this edition is Tears in Rain, which takes its name from the iconic monologue at the end of Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner.
“What I wish now is to share with you the story of the people who lived here over the past centuries,” the actor continues. “Your quarantine, unlike theirs, is not compulsory. You have chosen to be here, to experience something meaningful in the way you live your lives and understand your creative process. This is a space and a time for transformation. Some passed here from life into death. Yours is a passage from blockage into freedom. Follow me.”
Getting to the island is no small feat—our journey from Chicago took two days and required three flights, a car trip, a 15-minute walk, and a short boat ride—and there’s no open, public access to the lazaretto. Given its remote location and secret programming, Quarantine asks interested artists to apply on a true leap of faith, one that many describe as the first moment they had to relinquish control and believe the bold claims the program boasts. Testimonials include lofty statements about the organizers “minting a legion for the revolution” and how participants feel “like my insides have been blown out.” Some people even get the program’s tally logo tattooed, and many have returned for multiple visits.
Photo by Christopher Jobson
If you’re thinking this sounds like a cult, you’re not alone. When Quarantine’s organizers invited us to observe the April 2026 edition, we were skeptical, and so were the friends and colleagues with whom we shared our plans. As it turns out, many of the participants had similar reservations, which we learned when we landed in Menorca and met an artist at baggage claim. (In keeping with the spirit of Quarantine and the idea that what happens on the island stays on the island, we’re only sharing information about participants anonymously.) He was coming from Los Angeles and first encountered the program through one of the session’s mentors, Yuko Shimizu, whom he’d long admired and previously collaborated with. Lured by the opportunity to untether from daily life and connect with professional artists, he hoped to reinvigorate his practice and figure out how to take the next step, something former Quarantine participants lauded and that he hoped he could access, too. Was it a cult, though? None of us was sure.
From the 18th to 20th century, the Spanish government required all travelers, no matter their origin, to sequester on the island for 40 days or if they fell ill, longer. These groups were cordoned off by their presumed and actual illnesses, and about five percent died during their stay, succumbing to infectious diseases like the Bubonic Plague and Yellow Fever. Today, the double-walled sanatorium is mid-restoration as the local government repairs crumbling limestone halls and terracotta walkways and trims back an abundance of thistles. Along with a handful of loquacious peacocks whose eerie calls echoed across the island, just a skeleton grounds crew and the occasional tour group occupy the island with any regularity.
Quarantine is one of two recurring events held on the lazaretto, with weeklong editions each April and October that are supported by the local government and local tourism organization, Fundació Foment del Turisme de Menorca. Nearly everything needed for the program must be loaded onto boats and carried to the island for every edition, and a local caterer packs food for 80 and traverses the harbor each lunch and dinner. Enormous musical instruments like the bilas—a rare, standing contraption of flat bells conceived by Russian Alexander Zhikharev—even make their way over for live, outdoor performances.
A sort of mystical bootcamp for artists, Quarantine is both intensely communal and unabashedly introspective. Gomila designs the workshop sessions, known as the “Art Lab,” to tap into as many emotions and responses as possible, often frustration, confusion, and eventually, clarity. Many incorporate music, and almost all center on life drawing, whether through self-portraiture or enthusiastic models who embrace the spirit of the project as much as the participants. They don costumes, hold sabres as props, and accessorize to an outlandish extent. Models are invited to share in the creative process, too, and as one tells us one evening over glasses of Cava, the program allows her to reconnect with the self she doesn’t always encounter in her life as an architect.
Photo by Christopher Jobson
Everyone we meet at Quarantine echoes this sentiment, whether they’re full-time artists or not. There’s a young father whose work at a video game design studio is forcing him to rely more and more on A.I. A fine art educator laments the corporatization of her position as a faculty member at a for-profit university. And countless others who work in tech, finance, government, design, and illustration have ventured to the Mediterranean to reclaim focus, hone their voice, and if they’re lucky, make something that excites them.
The accomplished group of mentors doesn’t hurt either. April’s edition included Shimizu, Martin Wittfooth, Mu Pan, Phil Hale, Yulia Bas, Sean Layh, and Adam Miller, while past sessions featured Miles Johnston, Jeremy Mann, and Nicolás Uribe, to name a few. Mentors each present a morning masterclass on a wide range of topics, from Wittfooth’s concept of art as a “spirit artifact” to Shimizu’s courage in changing careers after a decade in a corporate job. Layh shares his story of picking up his paintbrush for the first time in more than a decade to re-learn his abilities over two and a half years on a single canvas (last month he won an Archibald Prize). Participants also receive one-on-one sessions with three mentors, in which no topics are off limits. They can ask for guidance in developing a particular technique, although most choose to utilize their 45-minute sessions to chat about more personal problems they’ve both faced and connect about what it means to be an artist in today’s world.
This equalizing ethos is the foundation of Quarantine. When participants complete an exercise, all work is displayed on a central table, and if they’d like, they can share something with the group. There’s no critique, no comparison, and no need to explain why they made the decisions they did. The focus instead is on the process, on seizing moments of low-risk spontaneity. Experimentation and abandoning patterns that no longer serve their creativity are encouraged, along with developing practices to work through frustrations and insecurities. The wide range of skills is liberating: many artists have worked full-time for more than a decade, while others are painting with oils for the very first time.
“What happens here is so psychological,” shares one participant from Argentina who heard about Quarantine by following Layh. “Because it’s all so mysterious, I was worried it was going to be cheesy, but I’ve cried three times this week.”
Photo by Romas Tauras
On the final day, after participants have painted and sketched for dozens of hours, been subjected to creative exercises they hope to never encounter again and others they will gladly replicate at home, and let themselves be vulnerable in a way that rarely happens outside a therapist’s office, what seems to stand out is the camaraderie and an overwhelming sense of belonging. In comparison to the eager anxieties of the first day, the group has settled into a shared clarity, knowing not to fear mistakes and feeling a new sense of kinship among like-minded peers. They pair off to get coffee, encourage one another to try a strange technique, and make plans to meet up once they return home. We were told that WhatsApp group chats from previous editions continue to this day. A large contingent from a previous year also wants to return en masse.
The last evening under a star-studded sky, unusually visible to us city dwellers, a fire pit appeared adjacent to the well that the Englishman jumped atop on day one. All 80 of us gathered around, and one mentor, Bas, kicked us off. In her hands were an old letter that once held significant weight in her life and a work on paper. She walked over to the fire and tossed both in, then asked everyone else to do the same.
As the fire pit grew so full of paintings and drawings and sketches and notes that pieces spilled onto the cobblestone, the communal sense of catharsis and release was palpable. Artists danced hand in hand, cried, hugged, and stood solemnly watching their breakthroughs crumble into ash. The idea, of course, was that these material objects–these “spirit artifacts” in Wittfooth’s parlance–were just that: artifacts. Artworks made on the island were both irreplaceable and irrelevant, as the program had already built up a herd immunity to any sense of assuredness or control. What Quarantine offers instead is a shared pathology, one that focuses not on remedying the symptoms of creative blocks or failures but rather zeroes in on the underlying cause.
Photo by Christopher JobsonPhoto by Romas TaurasPhoto by Romas Tauras
Everything you need to build the PS-85 is available from its designer's website, even if you can't get to space
We've all been there: You're doing maintenance on a Weyland-Yutani hauler dragging mineral ore back toward Earth, and there’s no terminal handy to tap into the MU/TH/UR AI to check ship systems. Lucky for you, one enterprising maker has created just the machine for the job.…
I’m not a fan of the first part of this music video (reminds me too much of dipshits I had to endure at school), but the single-take choreography from ~4:18 is great.
Een Star Trek film uit de regio. Het klinkt als science fiction, maar voor Robin Hiert (regie) en Nicole van den Berg-Hiert (camera en edit) is het werkelijkheid. Na jaren werk gaat hun film Star Trek Batavia in première in bioscoop Kino.
In FC Rijnmond spreken we uitgebreid na over Feyenoords overwinning op Fortuna Sittard, waardoor deelname aan de Champions League volgend seizoen nagenoeg zeker is. Toch ging het na afloop veel over randzaken en het gedrag van enkele Feyenoord-spelers.
Labour leadership challenge in wake of disastrous local poll results could unleash chaos in party, MPs told
Cabinet ministers have warned mutinous Labour MPs that any attempt to oust Keir Starmer after a potentially disastrous set of election results this week would unleash chaos for the party that would not be easily overcome.
However, several told the Guardian that even with the prime minister’s determination to stay in Downing Street after Thursday’s vote, the mood on the backbenches was febrile and events could yet spiral out of control.
Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed a new gerrymandered congressional district map into law Monday which gives Republicans an electoral advantage in four additional races in November’s midterm elections.
“Signed, Sealed, and Delivered,” DeSantis said in a post on X, with a map of the new districts attached.
A fire broke out Monday in the Broadway theater that hosts the The Book of Mormon, forcing the long-running musical to close, at least temporarily, as the historic venue undergoes repairs.
The blaze, which began in an electrical room, caused “substantial damage” to the Eugene O’Neill Theatre, according to David Simms, New York fire department assistant chief. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
DEN HAAG (ANP) - Zo'n vijfhonderd mensen bezochten maandagavond de alternatieve dodenherdenking in Den Haag, die dit jaar op het Lange Voorhout werd gehouden. Dat zag een verslaggever van het ANP. Het is de tweede keer dat deze herdenking is georganiseerd, onder anderen oud-ambtenaren en diplomaten zitten achter het initiatief.
Vier mensen hielden toespraken, onder wie Jaap Hamburger van Een Ander Joods Geluid en journalist Ahmed Abu Artema, die vluchtte vanuit Gaza.
De doden van toen zijn verbonden met de doden van nu, zo legt Hamburger de link tussen de Tweede Wereldoorlog en onder meer de oorlog in Gaza nu. "We offeren niet langer mensen aan de goden, maar we offeren ze nu aan ideologieën en wanen. Nog steeds en niet anders dan onder de nazidictatuur."
Oorlogsgeweld
Artema kon na 690 dagen vanuit Gaza vluchten, maar wijst erop dat dat niet geldt voor 2 miljoen anderen. "Ik zag ziekenhuizen gevuld met lichamen van slachtoffers. Iedere dag hoorde ik moeders en kinderen huilen. Ik hoorde het gegil van de gewonden. Doktoren moesten gevaarlijke operaties uitvoeren zonder verdoving. Raketten vielen constant uit de lucht", zo blikte hij terug. Zijn eigen zoon, 13 jaar oud, kwam om waar Artema naast stond. Hijzelf raakte zwaargewond, maar overleefde. "Wat is het verschil tussen de misdaden van toen en misdaden van nu?"
De organisatie roept op stil te staan bij alle slachtoffers van oorlogsgeweld, van vroeger en van nu. Op de website wordt onder meer vermeld dat er geen verbod is op wapenhandel met Israël "dat genocide pleegt in Gaza". Vorig jaar kwamen er tussen de 3000 en 4000 mensen naar deze alternatieve herdenking.
AMSTERDAM (ANP) - Op veel plaatsen in Nederland waren mensen maandagavond om 20.00 uur twee minuten stil voor iedereen die tijdens of na de Tweede Wereldoorlog is omgekomen in oorlogssituaties of bij vredesoperaties. Bij de Nationale Herdenking op de Dam in Amsterdam blies een trompettist het taptoesignaal, waarna de duizenden aanwezigen stilte in acht namen. Om 20.02 uur klonk het Wilhelmus.
Voorafgaand aan het stiltemoment legden koning Willem-Alexander en koningin Máxima een krans bij het monument op de Dam. Het Nationaal Monument werd eerder op de dag met een rode vloeistof besmeurd en moest in allerijl worden schoongemaakt. Van de bekladding was niets meer te zien.
Op de Waalsdorpervlakte tussen Den Haag en Wassenaar werden op dezelfde tijd ook de oorlogsslachtoffers herdacht. In het duingebied zijn in de Tweede Wereldoorlog meer dan 250 verzetsmensen gefusilleerd. Op het Lange Voorhout in Den Haag werd een alternatieve herdenking gehouden. De inclusieve herdenking, zoals de organisatie deze omschrijft, kijkt niet alleen naar het verleden, maar herdenkt ook de slachtoffers van het oorlogsgeweld van tegenwoordig.
Nationale Militaire Dodenherdenking
De Nationale Militaire Dodenherdenking was zoals ieder jaar op het Militair Ereveld Grebbeberg in Rhenen. Ook in het voormalige concentratiekamp Kamp Amersfoort, waar ongeveer 47.000 mensen tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog gevangen zaten, was een herdenking.
Eerder maandag waren er op andere plekken in het land al herdenkingen. Zoals op de begraafplaats in het Gelderse Loenen, waar bijna 4000 Nederlandse oorlogsslachtoffers begraven liggen. Daar klonk onder meer muziek en werd een minuut stilte gehouden, waarna de aanwezigen het eerste couplet van het Wilhelmus zongen en kransen legden.
Zoals gebruikelijk stonden ook de treinen twee minuten stil. Ook op stations was het stil, laat een woordvoerder van de NS weten. "Hierdoor waren reizigers en collega's in staat om deel te nemen aan de dodenherdenking." Die verliep goed en zonder bijzonderheden, luidde de korte samenvatting.
ROTTERDAM (ANP) - De Nederlandse waterpolosters hebben bij de World Cup in de tweede groepsronde verloren van de Verenigde Staten. De ploeg van bondscoach Evangelos Doudesis verloor in Zwemcentrum Rotterdam met 12-10. Bij rust stond het 6-4 voor de Amerikanen.
Nederland plaatste zich in Rotterdam eerder als groepswinnaar voor de tweede groepsronde. Naast de Verenigde Staten treft Oranje daarin ook Italië (dinsdag) en Spanje (woensdag). Alle wedstrijden zijn om 18.30 uur.
De ploeg van Doudesis verzekerde zich afgelopen week al van een ticket voor de Super Final van de World Cup, die plaatsvindt in Sydney.
GILZE-RIJEN (ANP) - De zogenoemde bevrijdingsvluchten, waarbij helikopters van de luchtmacht langs de verschillende bevrijdingsfestivals gaan, gaan dinsdag gewoon door. Dat meldt een woordvoerster van de Luchtmacht. De vluchten vertrekken vanaf de vliegbasis Gilze-Rijen, die maandag enige tijd werd ontruimd door een verdachte situatie.
Er is inmiddels geen dreiging meer op de luchtmachtbasis, maar door het lange onderzoek in de middag lagen de voorbereidingen voor de helikoptervluchten een tijd stil. Het was daardoor niet zeker of het op Bevrijdingsdag kon doorgaan zoals gepland.
