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New York Post
25-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Comic-Con 2025 kicks off with new ‘Freddy's,' ‘Toxic Avenger' and thousands of cosplays
Tens of thousands of fans — many in costumes — descended Thursday on Comic-Con International, the four-day pop culture spectacle that will feature updates on the new 'Predator' movie, 'Alien' series, and a special appearance by George Lucas. Fans packed into the convention's famed Hall H for updates on the 'Five Nights at Freddy's' sequel and the 'Toxic Avenger' reboot, with a panel on 'South Park' coming later in the day. The convention won't have major news about any upcoming Marvel movies or what's next for the hit relaunch of DC's high-flying 'Superman' franchise. Both studios are sitting out Comic-Con 2025, as far as their film slates go. 10 Tens of thousands of fans — many in costumes — descended Thursday on Comic-Con International, the four-day pop culture spectacle. Getty Images 10 Attendees arrive at the San Diego Convention Center for Comic Con. Getty Images An estimated 135,000 people will attend the convention, which will greet Lucas on Sunday for his first Comic-Con appearance. The 'Star Wars' creator will discuss his new Lucas Museum of Narrative Art that will open next year in Los Angeles. Fans of the 'Alien' and 'Predator' franchises will have plenty to cheer. Elle Fanning, star of 'Predator: Badlands,' will discuss the film this week. FX will also bring the stars and creators of 'Alien: Earth,' a series that will unleash the Xenomorph species on Earth next month. 'Alien: Earth' will be one of the projects that brings a massive interactive experience to San Diego, with a replica of spacecraft from the series. The attraction will feature what's described as a terrifying mission at night. Marvel may not be presenting new movies, but it will have a 'Fantastic Four: First Steps' attraction near the convention, a tie-in to Friday's release of the latest attempt to successfully launch its 'first family' in theaters. 10 Cosplayers dressed as Taskmaster and Spider-Man 2099 attend 2025 Comic-Con International: San Diego. Getty Images 10 A cosplayer dressed as Iron Patriot at San Diego's Comic Con. Getty Images 10 People cosplayed as characters from 'Fantastic Four,' as the new movie released on July 25. ALLISON DINNER/EPA/Shutterstock A main feature of the convention is its 460,000-square-foot (42,700-square-meter) exhibitor section, which features exclusive merchandise, comic book art, and exhibits from brands like Star Wars, Lego, Nickelodeon, Paramount, and more. 'Five Nights at Freddy's 2′: More pizzerias and murderous bots No animatronics — or humans — were harmed when 'Five Nights at Freddy's 2' came to Comic-Con. That wasn't necessarily the case on the movie set for the robots. 10 No animatronics — or humans — were harmed when 'Five Nights at Freddy's 2' came to Comic-Con. ALLISON DINNER/EPA/Shutterstock 'They're there, you can actually hug them,' star Piper Rubio said. But she noted that the animatronics sometimes malfunctioned, whether it was odd facial expressions, 'fingers falling off or the occasional foxes catching on fire.' The movies are based on the popular Five Nights at Freddy's video game about a cursed pizza restaurant with possessed, murderous animatronic characters. The first film was Blumhouse's biggest opening when it dual-launched in theaters and on the Peacock streaming service in 2023, earning $130.6 million globally in its first weekend. 10 The cast of 'Five Night's at Freddy's 2' spoke on a panel during Comic Con. Getty Images for Universal Pictures Director Emma Tammi said the second movie has three times the number of animatronics as the first. Star Josh Hutcherson said the movie also features multiple Freddy Fazbear's Pizza franchises and new animatronic characters, like Mangle. Teo Briones, who's starred in 'Final Destination Bloodlines' and 'Chucky,' is a newcomer to the series and said he was immediately excited to be part of a movie based on a game he played as a child. 'It's really special to be a part of something that has been such an important cultural thing for my generation,' he said. 'Five Nights at Freddy's 2' will be released Dec. 5. From the wastes to Hall H for 'The Toxic Avenger' A year ago, 'Toxic Avenger' seemed lost in the waste. But on Thursday, the earnestly gory reboot of the classic 1984 B-movie from Troma Entertainment was in Comic-Con's vaunted Hall H like it was a regular blockbuster. The movie was shot in 2021 and had a festival premiere in 2023, but struggled to find a distributor. It had been deemed unreleaseable by some with its ultra-graphic, though weirdly warm comic violence, most of it incurred by the tutu-wearing title character's toxic mop. Cineverse is now giving it an unrated wide release on Aug. 29. 10 (L-R) Peter Dinklage, Taylour Paige, Lloyd Kaufman, Macon Blair, Elijah Wood and Jacob Tremblay attend the premiere of Cineverse's 'The Toxic Avenger' during 2025 Comic-Con in San Diego. FilmMagic Blair said he had a few non-negotiables that were gladly granted when he agreed to make the film. 'He had to have a tutu. He had to have a mop,' the director said, and he said. No CGI. 'I was pretty insistent that we had to have a performer in a suit,' Blair said. Peter Dinklage plays the hero in his pre-toxic form and provides the voice throughout the film, which also stars Elijah Wood, Taylour Paige, and Jacob Tremblay. All but Bacon were on the stage. 'There's other people up here!' Dinklage said after the first bunch of questions during the Q&A were all for him. 'Ever seen 'Lord of the Rings?!' I wasn't in that!' 10 Peter Dinklage plays the hero in his pre-toxic form and provides the voice throughout the film. WireImage Wood, the 'LOTR' star sitting next to him, laughed as much as anyone in the room. Comedy takes over Hall H Comedians Gabriel 'Fluffy' Iglesias and Jo Koy whipped Hall H into a frenzy during a mostly-packed session to promote their massive 2026 comedy show at Los Angeles' SoFi Stadium. The pair traded light — and mostly family-suitable — banter about their inspirations and heroes (Iglesias cited his mother, which led Koy to want to change his answer from Eddie Murphy) and their passionate fan bases. 10 Comedians Gabriel 'Fluffy' Iglesias and Jo Koy whipped Hall H into a frenzy during a mostly-packed session to promote their massive 2026 comedy show at Los Angeles' SoFi Stadium. Albert L. Ortega/Shutterstock They said their show would involve each doing at least 90-minute sets, special guests and befitting a show at a football stadium, probably some tailgating. They said fans should expect to be there all day. Koy joked that it was 'challenging to get back here' and that he was ignoring calls from family and friends to get them passes to the convention. They ended the session by handing out autographed Funko collective figures of their likenesses and taking a selfie with the crowd. They warned anyone who was there with someone they shouldn't be with to take cover. 'We're not Coldplay,' Iglesias joked, citing the viral kiss cam saga involving a tech company CEO captured embracing an employee at one of the band's concerts.
New York Post
28-06-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
Why it's time to Make America Think Again
The numbers tell a stark story. According to a new report by the Economic Innovation Group, foreign-born workers who arrived on student visas out-earn their American peers by nearly $30,000 annually. They're twice as likely to work in research and development. But this isn't a zero-sum game where one group's success diminishes another's potential. Instead, it's a mirror reflecting what America could achieve if it stopped settling for mediocrity and started demanding excellence from its own educational system. Walk across any American university campus today, and the contrast becomes painfully clear. While international students pack engineering labs and computer science departments, too many American students have drifted toward paths of least resistance — degrees in Critical Race Studies, Queer Theory and Gender Analysis. Advertisement 6 America's higher education system is doing a masterful job of training future leaders. ALLISON DINNER/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock One group is building the future; the other is deconstructing the past. These fields offer little beyond debt and limited career prospects. Yet they proliferate while hard sciences struggle for enrollment. The real revelation isn't that international students are outperforming Americans. It's that they're succeeding within systems America built, but has allowed them to decay. They're mastering curricula Americans designed, conducting research in labs Americans constructed, and launching careers from universities Americans funded. The infrastructure for greatness already exists. America has simply forgotten how to use it. Advertisement Consider the typical trajectory of today's international STEM student. They arrive focused, disciplined, and pragmatic. They pursue electrical engineering, computer science, and biotechnology. Not because these fields are fashionable, but because they understand something fundamental: Education is a tool for building the future, not just exploring feelings about the present. They treat university as a launching pad, not a four-year therapy session. There's an opportunity hidden within this crisis. America doesn't need to choose between welcoming global talent and developing domestic potential. The country can do both, and doing both is precisely what made it a superpower in the first place. 6 Along with working to Make America Great Again, critics believe President Trump should strive to 'Make America Think Again.' REUTERS The solution begins with recognizing that excellence attracts excellence. The same rigorous programs that draw international students can inspire American ones — if we make them accessible and appealing. This means rebuilding pathways that connect high school students directly to high-impact fields, regardless of their background or ZIP code. Advertisement Imagine a system where every public university receiving federal funding must maintain world-class STEM programs with guaranteed spots for qualified American students. Picture apprenticeship programs that blend university research with practical training, giving students hands-on experience while they earn degrees, or partnerships between elite universities and community colleges that create seamless transitions from technical training to advanced research. 6 Higher education in the US must be retooled to make it both easier to access and more attractive to US students, who are falling far behind their global peers, according to critics. Wavebreak Media – 6 When classrooms contain students from around the world, all working at the highest level, everyone benefits from the elevated — and more, yes, diverse — standards. Getty Images Advertisement This isn't about lowering standards or creating separate tracks. It's about raising expectations across the board while removing the barriers that prevent talented Americans from reaching their potential. The farm kid in rural Iowa who builds robots in his garage should have access to the same opportunities as the international student with perfect test scores. The key is understanding that competition drives excellence. International students aren't just filling seats. They're setting benchmarks. Their success should inspire their American counterparts to rise up and meet them, not retreat into easier alternatives. When classrooms contain students from around the world, all working at the highest level, everyone benefits from the elevated — and more, yes, diverse — standards. 6 Students are mastering curricula Americans designed, conducting research in labs Americans constructed, and launching careers from universities Americans funded, according to reports. REUTERS America needs to rehabilitate the culture around education itself. Learning must be reframed as adventure, not obligation. Discovery should be celebrated more than comfort. The pursuit of knowledge needs to be understood as both personally fulfilling and nationally essential. This cultural shift requires leadership from academic institutions. Universities must stop marketing themselves as lifestyle brands and start functioning as intellectual boot camps. They should measure success not by graduation rates or student satisfaction surveys, but by the real-world impact of their graduates—the patents filed, the companies launched, the problems solved. President Trump's instinct to 'Make America Great Again' is correct, but greatness begins with thinking. To MAGA, we must MATA: Make America Think Again. 6 America doesn't need to choose between welcoming global talent and developing domestic potential, some believe. REUTERS Advertisement That doesn't mean closing the door to foreign talent. It means refusing to accept a future where American students are bystanders in their own country's labs and lecture halls. It means ensuring American students can stand shoulder to shoulder with foreign talent. Foreign students dominating scientific fields aren't the problem. They're the reminder of what happens when a system still believes in mastery and refuses to apologize for it. Now it's time to give American students that same shot. Not a head start, but a fair fight. Because if America intends to lead the world again, it'll need to outthink it first. Greatness isn't handed down. It's trained, tested, and taught.
New York Post
21-06-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
Why Trump's ‘Big Beautiful Bill' is failing the migrant crisis
The violent anti-ICE riots that erupted in Los Angeles last week were the inevitable result of years of Washington's failure to enforce immigration law. As masked mobs torched government property and assaulted officers tasked with upholding the rule of law, one thing became clear: the border crisis isn't just at the border. 4 The US needs upwards of 1,000 additional immigration judges to tackle the migrant crisis effectively. But the funding is currently lacking. Bloomberg via Getty Images President Trump vowed to restore order through mass deportations — and he can, but only if Congress does its part. That means recognizing the core problem that's too often ignored: without a functioning immigration court system, no one can actually be deported. Right now, more than 4 million migrant cases are languishing in limbo, inviting new waves of illegal immigration. The message this sends is to cross the border and work freely for up to 10 years while waiting for a hearing until it is inhumane to be deported. Advertisement Congress is starting to notice. Buried in the House's 'One Big Beautiful Bill' is $1.25 billion in funding to hire 250 immigration judges and their staff. Extra judges is welcome news, but the appropriation is insufficient. According to my estimates, we need 1,000 more immigration judges to eliminate the court backlog by the end of President Trump's term. Although the bill allocates over $100 billion for border security, it almost entirely ignores the greatest obstacle to deportations: the underfunded immigration court system. 4 President Trump has allocated $1.25 billion for new judges, but that number will barely dent the problem ALLISON DINNER/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock What would it really cost to get the immigration court system back on track? Hiring 250 judges annually carries a price tag of $4.7 billion over five years, about three dollars per American. This would give every immigrant due process and help send home the millions who are legally deportable. That is scarcely a rounding error in the federal budget, yet it is the difference between enforcing the law and surrendering to chaos. The OBBB as it stands offers only a quarter of what is required. Yet immigration courts are only half the story. US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is sitting on 1.4 million affirmative asylum applications — cases filed by people who arrive in the US on a visa. Because asylum-seekers pay no filing fee, the backlog is funded almost entirely by jacking up costs on high-skilled immigrants, who now shoulder a $600 surcharge every time their employers file paperwork. This is unfair and insufficient. Advertisement 4 The Department of Homeland Security has offered illegal migrants $1,000 to help them 'self-deport.' Ron Sachs – CNP On this issue, Congress is doing exactly what it should and is proposing a $1,000 asylum filing fee. Under current conditions, such a fee would raise $400 million in annual revenue — enough to hire hundreds of asylum officers. Legitimate asylees already spend thousands on legal assistance, so costs are not a new barrier. Rather, the costs ensure that those who benefit from asylum bear the burden of processing applications, instead of other legal immigrants. The Republican-proposed fee also ensures that fraudulent asylum applications are a less attractive path for illegal immigrants. To further dissuade fraudulent asylum, Trump's USCIS and Executive Office for Immigration Review should revive the last-in, first-out rule they implemented in his first term. This rule would process the most recent asylum filings before older ones. The policy proved effective since would-be border crossers and visa overstayers learned that bogus asylum claims would be denied quickly, thus shrinking the inflow. Reinstated alongside a surge of judges and asylum officers, last-in-first-out would end future illegal immigration while working through the backlog of current illegal immigrants. 4 Until sufficient resources are provided to adequately process both new and backlogged migrant cases, protests such as the anti-ICE riots will continue. Advertisement Critics scoff that nearly $5 billion is too much and argue for scrapping the deportation court process in favor of broader executive authority. Yet one court ruling after another proves that any rewrite of asylum law still needs 60 votes in the Senate. The quickest and most practical solution is to hire more immigration judges and deport those ordered to leave. The president and the Department of Homeland Security also wisely help migrants self-deport by paying for their flight home and giving them $1,000, saving the much larger cost of deportation. President Trump has promised mass deportations; his allies in Congress say they want that. The irony is that the price tag for making good on that pledge is shockingly small, but only if lawmakers write a bigger number into the bill currently on the floor. If Republicans are serious about restoring order at the border and in the cities the radical left is rioting, they should prove it by signing the check and hiring immigration judges. Daniel Di Martino is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a PhD candidate in Economics at Columbia University.
New York Post
15-05-2025
- Business
- New York Post
Walmart warns ‘unprecedented' price hikes are coming as tariffed goods start to hit shelves
Walmart said Thursday it plans to increase prices this month as tariffed goods start to hit shelves — warning that the size and speed of the price hikes could be 'unprecedented'. The Arkansas-based retail giant has already started raising markups on certain items as suppliers pass along the additional costs. Bananas, for example, jumped to 54 cents a pound, up from 50 cents, according to Walmart Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey. 'The magnitude and speed at which these prices are coming to us is somewhat unprecedented in history,' Rainey told the Wall Street Journal. Advertisement 3 Walmart said it plans to start hiking prices across its stores this month. ALLISON DINNER/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock Earlier this week, the US reached a temporary deal with China to lower their respective rates for 90 days and allow more time for negotiations. Trump slashed his tariff on China to 30% from 145%, which boosted markets. Advertisement While a 30% tariff is better, it's still 'too high,' and will lead to higher prices for the consumer 'towards the tail end of this month, and then certainly much more in June,' Rainey told CNBC. That's been a big fear for investors, who sent stock indexes on steep declines after Trump revealed his harsh tariffs on many nations in early April. At the same time, the company plans to absorb some tariff costs to 'play offense' and keep its prices lower than competitors', Rainey told CNBC. The world's largest retailer on Thursday maintained its full-year guidance, but withheld its profit forecast for the current quarter as it warned it's facing a dynamic environment. Advertisement 3 Walmart said it plans to absorb some of the tariff costs so it can keep prices low amid the trade war. ALLISON DINNER/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock While many other retailers reported disappointing earnings in the most recent quarter, Walmart saw a sales boom as shoppers – fearful that President Trump's trade war could reheat inflation or trigger a recession – flocked to the chain's discounts and speedy shipping. Consumer sentiment has plunged, and the nation's economy unexpectedly shrank in the first three months of 2025 as companies rushed to import goods ahead of the tariffs. Retailers suspended their annual forecasts and disclosed dismal earnings – but Walmart on Thursday reported strong sales. Advertisement Its US same-store sales jumped 4.5% for Walmart locations and 6.7% for Sam's Club in the three months ending May 2, above expectations. Walmart's e-commerce sales rose 21% in the US, its 12th double-digit gain in a row. Global online sales jumped 22% from the year before. 3 President Trump unveiled harsh tariff rates on many nations during a press conference in the Rose Garden in early April. REUTERS Net income fell to $4.49 billion, or 56 cents a share, down from $5.10 billion, or 63 cents per share, in the same period last year. Revenue rose about 2.5% from $161.5 billion, including a 1% headwind since Leap Day took place last year. However, it missed expectations of $165.84 billion – its first quarterly revenue miss since February 2020. Yet the retailer expects to come out on top amid the trade war, saying more high-income households chose Walmart for groceries in the previous quarter and customers shopped the chain's affordable brand and temporary deals. 'History tells us that when we lean into these periods of uncertainty, Walmart emerges on the other side with greater share and a stronger business,' Rainey said last month after the company announced it would stick to its full-year forecasts. Walmart has not canceled any orders, but it has cut back on the size of some purchases, buying less of items that it expects customers to pull back on due to the tariffs.
