Hollywood Giants, Jim Bakker, & Best Dog Photos

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Adam Rogers
October 07, 2026

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Paramount completed its $81 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery Tuesday to form a combined company called Skydance.
The merger combines two of Hollywood’s five major studios alongside HBO Max and Paramount+ and networks including CBS and CNN. Together, the companies accounted for about 31% of U.S. television production revenue and 28% of film production revenue in 2025, according to UC San Diego research.
To settle a lawsuit from 12 states trying to block the merger, the company pledged to release at least 30 films a year and spend an additional $1.5 billion on U.S. film production over five years. It also committed $47.5 million to help workers displaced by the merger train for new jobs.

President Trump approved execution by firing squad for former Army major Nidal Hasan over the 2009 Fort Hood mass shooting, per a Pentagon announcement.
Hasan was an Army psychiatrist who opened fire inside a medical building where soldiers were preparing to deploy. He killed 13 people and wounded 32. A military jury sentenced him to death in 2013, and the Army secretary will now decide when and where the execution takes place.
Hasan is one of four men on military death row at Fort Leavenworth but can still challenge his execution in federal court. If carried out, it would be the first U.S. military execution since 1961.

Television preacher Jim Bakker died Monday at 86, according to his wife Lori. No cause of death was announced.
Bakker and his first wife Tammy Faye became fixtures of Christian television through “The PTL Club.” At its peak in the 1980s, the show drew 13 million nightly viewers. Their ministry grew to include Heritage USA — a Christian theme park and hotel in South Carolina — before a sex scandal forced him to resign in 1987.
He was convicted of fraud in 1989 for selling followers promises of annual vacations at Heritage USA that his ministry could not deliver. Bakker spent about four and a half years in prison and returned to television in 2003 through “The Jim Bakker Show” alongside Lori.

A federal judge blocked fines of up to $1.8 million for migrants who fail to leave after final deportation orders because the administration imposed the penalties unlawfully. (More)

More than 35 million Californians are under heat alerts through Thursday as Los Angeles recorded its first four-day stretch in October above 100 degrees. (More)

The FBI blamed last month’s jobs-portal hack on a contractor’s failure to install a security update and said it had removed the contractor. (More)

Cuba will allow travelers and shipment recipients to bring in eligible goods for resale by paying import taxes instead of having excess goods confiscated. (More)

Zambia plans to sign a five-year $3.6 billion health agreement with the U.S. after removing requirements to share individual patient data and biological samples. (More)

Germany arrested former foreign intelligence chief August Hanning on suspicion of buying classified documents and using them to prepare an analysis for a foreign intelligence service. (More)

U.S. stock markets closed higher on Tuesday (S&P +0.58%, Nasdaq +0.45%, Dow +0.49%), boosted by tech gains and a decline in Treasury yields. (More)

The U.S. trade deficit widened to $105.6 billion in August as imports grew faster than exports despite new tariffs — reaching its highest level since March 2025. (More)

Trump temporarily allowed farm diesel in highway vehicles and delayed federal fuel taxes through December 31 in an effort to lower costs for farmers and truckers. (More)

Yoshinobu Yamamoto matched his career high with 10 strikeouts as the Dodgers beat Atlanta 3–1 to take a 2–1 NL Division Series lead and move within one win of advancing. (More)

Lionel Messi ended his international career with a goal and two assists in Argentina’s 3–0 win over Benin in Buenos Aires. (More)

The Emmy Awards will move to Prime Video in 2027 under a six-year deal offering live viewing worldwide without a subscription. (More)

Francis Halzen won the Nobel Prize in physics for helping build an Antarctic detector that catches flashes from tiny particles called neutrinos arriving from distant cosmic events. (More)

New York declared a measles emergency, allowing more health professionals to vaccinate and order testing as neighboring Pennsylvania surpassed 1,000 cases. (More)

A global review of 423 studies found ecosystems have less backup than assumed when species disappear — threatening benefits people rely on such as pollination and clean water. (More)

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