EXCLUSIVE: Angel Studios has said its upcoming animated musical, David, has recorded close to $6 million in domestic theatrical pre-sales, outpacing any prior Angel theatrical release.

Alongside the record pre-sale figure, Angel Studios today also confirmed the film has been set for a wide international rollout across 43 markets.

“This is our most ambitious international release schedule yet, driven by tremendous exhibitor confidence and a story that transcends borders,” Jared Geesey, EVP and Head of International at Angel, said in a statement. “From Europe to Latin America, audiences are leaning in because DAVID speaks to something universal—courage, faith, and hope. We’re honored to bring this animated musical to families everywhere.”

The first international markets include:

2025

● Portugal (NOS Lusomundo Adiovisuais)- December 17, 2025

● Australia (Rialto Distribution) – December 18, 2025

● New Zealand (Rialto Distribution) – December 18, 2025

● South Africa (Empire Entertainment) – December 19, 2025

● Lebanon (Front Row Filmed Entertainment) – December 18, 2025

● Singapore (Shaw) – December 25, 2025

● Nigeria (Filmone Entertainment) – December 28, 2025

● Ghana (Filmone Entertainment) – December 28, 2025

2026

● Brazil (Paris Filmes) – January 15, 2026

● Sri Lanka (Skyline Entertainment) – January 23, 2026

● Israel (Tulip Entertainment) – February 28, 2026

● Poland (Galapagos Films) – March 5, 2026

● Croatia (Blitz) – March 19, 2026

● Serbia (Blitz) – March 19, 2026

● Slovenia (Blitz) – March 19, 2026

● Bulgaria (Blitz) – March 19, 2026

● North Macedonia (Blitz) – March 19, 2026

● Montenegro (Blitz) – March 19, 2026

● Bosnia & Herzegovina (Blitz) – March 19, 2026

● France (Saje Distribution) – March 22, 2026

● Mexico (ROLA) – March 26, 2026

● Guatemala (ROLA) – March 26, 2026

● El Salvador (ROLA) – March 26, 2026

● Honduras (ROLA) – March 26, 2026

● Nicaragua (ROLA) – March 26, 2026

● Costa Rica (ROLA) – March 26, 2026

● Panama (ROLA) – March 26, 2026

● Ecuador (ROLA) – March 26, 2026

● Peru (ROLA) – March 26, 2026

● Bolivia (ROLA) – March 26, 2026

● Paraguay (ROLA) – March 26, 2026

● Uruguay (ROLA) – March 26, 2026

● Chile (ROLA) – March 26, 2026

● Argentina (ROLA) – March 26, 2026

● Colombia (ROLA) – March 26, 2026

● Belgium (Neema / WW Entertainment) – March 26. 2026

● Germany (Kinostar) – March 26, 2026

● Austria (Kinostar) – March 26, 2026

● Switzerland (Kinostar) – March 26, 2026

● Hungary (ADS Service) – April 2, 2026

● Netherlands (Neema / WW Entertainment) – April 2, 2026

● Spain (Selectavision) – April 2, 2026

2027

● Japan (Hark & ​​Company) – January 1, 2027

David will be released in the US on December 19. The film stars Phil Wickham, Brandon Engman (Bull Run), Brian Stivale (The Garden), and Miri Mesika (Meorav Yerushalmi).

Phil Cunningham (Jungle Beat) and Brent Dawes (Jungle Beat) direct from a screenplay by Dawes, Kyle Portbury (Young DAVID), and Sam Wilson (Jungle Beat), with music by Joseph Trapanese (The Greatest Showman).

The official synopsis reads: From the songs of his mother’s heart to the whispers of a faithful God, David’s story begins in quiet devotion. When the giant Goliath rises to terrorize a nation, a young shepherd armed with only a sling, a few stones, and unshakable faith steps forward. Pursued by power and driven by purpose, his journey tests the limits of loyalty, love, and courage—culminating in a battle not just for a crown, but for the soul of a kingdom.

“Rialto Distribution is thrilled to be releasing David in Australia and New Zealand. Angel consistently delivers inspiring, high-quality films, and David continues their commitment to meaningful storytelling,” Kelly Rogers, CEO of Rialto Distribution, said in a statement to Deadline. “Having released several Angel titles, including Cabrini, The King of Kingsand Sketchwe’ve seen how powerfully audiences connect with these stories, and look forward to sharing this beautiful animated musical epic with families across our region.”

Angel partnered with 2521 Entertainment last month to acquire 100% of the David animated film and TV franchise from Slingshot USA. Studio sources tell us the film’s current organic search results are outperforming The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePantswhich also opens in the US on December 19. The David trailer screened in cinemas this past weekend ahead of Universal’s Wicked: For Good.

Other upcoming theatrical releases from the company, which recently went public through a SPAC merger, include I Was A Stranger, set against the backdrop of the Syrian Civil War; Solo Mioa romantic comedy starring Kevin James, Kim Coates, and Alyson Hannigan; and biopic Young Washington starring Kelsey Grammer, Mary-Louise Parker, and Ben Kingsley.

A Chicago police officer shot a man Tuesday after he discarded a gun in an alley in the Washington Park neighborhood and tried to go back for it, according to a preliminary investigation by Chicago police oversight officials.

Anthony Nelson, 25, was charged with aggravated assault of a peace officer and possessing a firearm as a repeat felon, Chicago police said.

In a statement Thursday, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability said two officers in an unmarked vehicle tried to stop a man leaving a liquor store when he ran into an alley and one officer chased him in the 5600 block of South Michigan Avenue.

The man then allegedly discarded a weapon in the alley and then went back for it, after which the officer shot him, according to COPA. A weapon was recovered at the scene, according to COPA.

The COPA investigation continues.

Chicago police said Tuesday that officers tried to stop a man believed to be armed with a handgun about 11:50 am when he ran, and they chased him. An officer who gave “verbal commands” that were “disregarded” shot the man, police said.

The suspect “is going to be OK,” said Chicago police spokesperson Tom Ahern, who was on the scene of the shooting Tuesday afternoon.

Chicago Fire Department spokesperson Larry Merritt confirmed the man who was shot was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where police said he was in good condition. Initially, the man’s condition was listed as critical. At least one officer, who was not injured, was taken to another hospital for precautionary measures, Merritt said.

The officers involved will be placed on routine administrative duties for 30 days, and COPA is investigating, police said Tuesday.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Michigan Avenue at 56th Street was cordoned off Tuesday by yellow and red crime scene tape as evidence technicians took pictures and several police officers and detectives guarded the scene of the shooting, which happened in an alley in a residential neighborhood.

A Chicago police command van was parked nearby.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Illinois residents may not have to pay as much at the grocery store for their Thanksgiving dinner, according to a new report from the Illinois Farm Bureau.

The national average price for a 16-pound frozen turkey dropped 16.3% from last year to $21.50, or $1.34 per pound. In Illinois, the average price for the same turkey is $18.03, the farm bureau said this week.

The American Farm Bureau Federation, which also released its annual cost of Thanksgiving dinner report this week, predicted in October higher prices for wholesale turkeys — what retailers pay — because farms were battling diseases such as the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, which impacted inventory.

But lower consumer demand for turkey paired with fewer farms affected by diseases such as bird flu may have fueled the lower prices.

“A lot of grocers and retailers have the opportunity to put specials and reduce the price of that retail product in order to help drive people into their store,” said Tasha Bunting, director of commodity programs and food systems at the Illinois Farm Bureau. “Retailers use items, in this case the turkey, as a loss leader to drive shoppers into their stores, where they fill their baskets with other items that will have a higher return to the retail market.”

Cold storage also plays a factor, Bunting said.

“There are a lot of frozen turkeys that have been able to kind of move through the system. That’s helped to keep those prices down,” she said.

Shoppers may have the best luck on a deal at larger grocers, who have more negotiating power because they’re buying in bulk.

“Larger retailers can take advantage of the opportunity to get larger quantities and be able to really make those price points something that families can take advantage of,” Bunting said.

Turkeys are typically the priciest part of a Thanksgiving dinner, but because they’re cheaper this year, the Illinois Farm Bureau said that helped drive down the overall cost of the holiday meal.

It said volunteer shoppers participating in the national farm bureau survey found a statewide average price of $49.20 for a 10-person meal. The shopping list included turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, rolls, peas, cranberries, a veggie tray and pumpkin pie with whipped cream.

Nationally, the average price for a Thanksgiving meal was $55.18, a 5% decline from 2024. While the average cost has fallen since 2023, the American Farm Bureau said it doesn’t “fully erase dramatic increases that led to a record-high cost of $64.05 in 2022.”

“It’s encouraging to see some relief in the price of turkeys, as it is typically the most expensive part of the meal,” Faith Parum, an American Farm Bureau Federation economist, said in a news release. “Farmers are still working to rebuild turkey flocks that were devastated by avian influenza, but overall demand has also fallen. The combination will help ensure turkey will remain an affordable option for families celebrating Thanksgiving.”

The lower retail price for a turkey may be a warm welcome to Chicago shoppers, who have seen consistently higher grocery prices over the last year.

However, some side dishes may cost more than in previous years, according to the American Farm Bureau. Sweet potatoes rose by 37%, and veggie trays jumped 61%. Hurricane damage likely contributed to the cost of sweet potatoes, the organization said, and vegetable prices tend to be “highly volatile” and impacted by factors like supply chain disruptions and labor shortages.

“It is refreshing to see that overall, the cost of a Thanksgiving dinner for 10 has continued to trend downward, which is definitely not making up for the huge spikes we saw a few years ago but getting back to a more reasonable level for consumers and those of us that are trying to stretch every penny that we have,” Bunting said.

Here’s the individual prices of a Thanksgiving meal, according to the American Farm Bureau:

• 16-pound turkey: $21.50, or $1.34 per pound (down 16.3% from 2024)
• 14-ounces of cubed stuffing mix: $3.71 (down 9%)
• Two frozen pie crusts: $3.37 (down 0.8%)
• Half pint of whipping cream: $1.87 (up 3.2%)
• One pound of frozen peas: $2.03 (up 17.2%)
• A dozen dinner rolls: $3.56 (down 14.6%)
• Miscellaneous ingredients to prepare the meal: $3.61 (down 4.7%)
• 30-ounce can of pumpkin pie mix: $4.16 (up 0.1%)
• One gallon of whole milk: $3.73 (up 16.3%)
• Three pounds of sweet potatoes: $4 (up 37%)
• One-pound veggie tray of carrots and celery: $1.36 (up 61.3%)
• 12-ounce bag of fresh cranberries: $2.28 (down 2.8%)

Chicago’s federal appeals court put a short-term hold on a judge’s order that aimed to release as many as 615 people detained by immigration authorities this year, with certain conditions, scheduling arguments on the matter for Dec. 2.

The ruling from the 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals, known as an administrative stay, means the release of potentially hundreds of people, expected Friday, will be delayed. However, the court has yet to grant the longer-term stay pending appeal sought by the Justice Department.

The move sets the stage for the first appeals court argument to result from the aggressive deportation campaign known as “Operation Midway Blitz.”

Mark Fleming, associate director of federal litigation with the National Immigrant Justice Center, said, “We’re obviously disappointed in the stay, given the urgency for the relief needed for class members.

“But we appreciate the importance and care with which the 7th Circuit seems to be addressing this request for a stay and the opportunity that we will have on Dec.. 2 to explain the myriad pieces of this case and why the relief that the district court has granted is so urgent and appropriate.”

While handing down the order in question last week, US District Judge Jeffrey Cummings said it wasn’t clear how many of the 615 people he sought to free remained in the country. He also said he didn’t want anyone released who posed a public safety risk.

Cummings has said he would not “second guess” the feds’ criteria for identifying people who would pose a public safety risk. He noted in a separate order this week that the feds had flagged 57 of the 615 as posing such a risk.

Between those individuals and people who have either already been released or deported, that would leave about 442 people eligible for release, Cummings noted Tuesday. However, the feds have since identified seven more allegedly high-risk people.

Cummings said he’d sought with his order to restore a status quo that existed before the Trump administration changed its interpretation of immigration law. That policy shift subjected people across the country to mandatory detention who previously would have been given a chance for a bond hearing.

Immigration advocates have said the law in question only applies to “noncitizens who recently arrived at a border or port of entry,” not to people who have lived in the country for an extended period of time. And more than 100 judges across the country have apparently agreed with them.

But Cummings noted in a hearing last month, “I do not think the government has appealed,” meaning no higher court has had a chance to weigh in.

The 600 or so detainees come from a list of roughly 1,800 arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the Chicago area between June 11 and Oct. 7. Only about 750 of them remain in the country, and about 135 had final orders of removal or criminal convictions, according to Fleming.

More people could be released upon a review of all people arrested by ICE and Customs and Border Protection between June and November.

Cummings’ order came in the case involving the so-called Castañon Nava settlement agreement. It restricts the ability of ICE agents, and anyone working with them, to make warrantless arrests in Illinois and nearby states.

Cummings last month extended the agreement into February, although that has also been challenged by the Justice Department and subject to the new stay.

The judge said last week that staff attorneys at the courthouse reviewed a mountain of petitions recently filed by people challenging the Trump administration’s reading of the immigration law.

Cummings said that 54 of those people were arrested at work, including 20 landscapers and four ride-share or taxi drivers. Twenty were arrested commuting to or from work, he added, and nine were arrested at a Home Depot or Menards, “presumably either seeking work or to pick up supplies.”

Seven were also arrested at an “immigration-related hearing,” Cummings said, while 11 were arrested in public places like a park, gas station or even a Dunkin’ Donuts drive-thru.

“It seems highly likely to me that at least some of those individuals are among the 615 detainees who are not subject to mandatory detention,” Cummings said. He also found them unlikely to be members of gangs, “assorted other ne’er-do-wells” or the “worst of the worst.”

Even with only one returning starter and a younger roster, Kenwood’s goal is the same.

”Win city and state,” senior guard Danielle Brooks said Monday.

The Broncos graduated seven seniors from their Class 4A championship team last season, so this will largely be a new group. Senior guard Amillya Henigan will likely step into a larger role, and Kenwood picked up transfer forward Darryelle Smith from Fenwick.

“Me and Danielle have played against each other, played with each other, so she knows my style and I know her style,” Smith said.

Coach Andre Lewis said it has been interesting and exciting to embrace the challenge of building something new. The Broncos benefitted from continuity last season. The players more or less had a sense of how everyone liked to play, which isn’t the case right now.

“We’ve got a lot of talented kids,” Lewis said. ”We’re a deeper team. We don’t know from a standpoint of who’s going to do what besides our backcourt.”

Brooks will be a big part of what Kenwood does. Last season, she drew attention as one of the best scorers in the area. Now, however, she’ll be relied upon as a veteran who has experienced winning a state championship.

Brooks has committed to UIC because of her bond with coach Ashleen Bracey. With that taken care of, she can now focus solely on her final high school season.

”I know everybody is expecting what I’m going to do,” Brooks said. “Everybody’s going to come at me (because) I was one of the starters last year.”

Brooks is the one known quantity for the Broncos. After her, the team is filled with talented players who haven’t proven themselves on the varsity level.

Lewis said freshman forward Zaire Lester will start. She’ll bring an imposing interior presence as a shot-blocker but also can provide some offensive punch as a shooter. Freshman center Janiah Daniel will bring a similar pick-and-pop element and is also able to handle the ball.

Having frontcourt players who can play in space is a luxury at the high school level, but it’s necessary for the Broncos, who like to space out defenses and attack the basket.

Kenwood will open the season Tuesday against St. Ignatius, which finished as the Class 3A runner-up last season. It’ll be a good early-season test for the Broncos to see how they match up against a formidable foe.

Lewis regularly packs Kenwood’s schedule with stiff competition. The Broncos will also face Loyola, Phillips, Benet, Batavia, Naperville Central and Homewood-Flossmoor in their first nine games.

“I’m looking forward to seeing how we play and if we can execute against an opponent in a hostile environment,” Lewis said. ”How do we manage that? Can we stay focused? Can we stay disciplined? Can we execute what we want to do and play how we want to play? Can we impose our will?”

Brooks’ leadership will be key in that regard. She is reserved by nature but will be thrust into a more vocal role this season.

“She’s talking with everybody,” Lewis said. ”She talks more with the coaching staff, as well. So just that communication thing, she’s doing much more than she ever has.”

The Pitt

6:00 p.m

Season 1

Episode 12

Editor’s Rating

5 stars

*****

Photo: John Johnson/Max

How many ways can one person say The Pitt rules? It rulesokay? Just when you think the medical drama can’t possibly have any additional tricks to show off or there’s no way it could one-up the previous hour, it goes and delivers an episode like this. As Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center is turned into what basically amounts to a war triage unit when there’s an active shooter situation with mass casualties at PittFest, “6:00 PM” sees both sides of what makes this show so great working in perfect tandem.

The craftsmanship here — this episode was directed by Amanda Marsalis and written by Joe Sachs and R. Scott Gemmill — is unmatched. The way Marsalis keeps the camera moving, giving us eyes on every element of this effort, from triage out in the ambulance bay to each of the allocated medical-care stations to the cafeteria where family members await news, feels relentless and chaotic and so seamless. When night-shift attending Dr. Shen says “Jesus, when is this gonna end?” at the end of the hour, you felt that. We are in it with these doctors from minute one. The amount of work this takes to pull off is staggering to think about — the preceding episodes feel almost like dry runs to prove something as complicated as this could actually be pulled off. And babes, do they pull it off.

The other half of what makes The Pitt work is its roster of compelling characters and the fact that over the past 12 hours, even though their specificities have only come in bits and pieces, we feel like we’ve gotten to know them. We care about them. While this episode is fast-moving and overflowing with patients, The Pitt has put in the character work already so that even a completely procedure-focused scene with all medical-jargon dialogue still reveals character. In a crisis like this, people either rise to the occasion or crumble, and we get to watch all of these characters face that choice. While the moments we get with these people may be briefer than usual before the episode moves on to the next thing, each makes an impact. Like, did I fist-pump when Dr. Mel King went from being unsure she could lead the yellow-tag section (injuries to extremities but otherwise good vitals) to basically forcing Robby to let her donate her own blood to her patient? Yeah, of course I did, dude. What are we doing here if you aren’t fist-pumping moments like that? But “6.00 PM” shows off The Pitt‘s deft characterwork in other ways too. Not to be all Dr. Shen all the time here, but we spend all of, what, five minutes with that guy, and still, from the casual way he’s just sipping an iced coffee and barely paying attention while Robby gets him situated running triage, to then revealing that he very much knows what he’s doing, we know everything we need to about him. Hon The Pitttime crunches never seem to be a hindrance, and it continues to be a model of efficiency in storytelling.

That whole time-is-of-the-essence thing is a central part of The Pitt in a very meta way, but it’s also a central part of the show in a very real, visceral, oh my God can you believe how many patients are pouring into the hospital right now way. So let’s get into a few of the biggest moments from the episode. Things kick off with an unsettling, eye-of-the-storm type of quiet. The “code triage” has been called, and Robby and Dana know that, as the closest trauma center to the event, they’ll be inundated in no time, and yet Robby still calmly goes about gathering the troops. Gloria Pink Blazer is down in the ER and even Robby seems a little surprised at just how prepared and helpful she’s being to make sure he has all the supplies, medicine, personnel, and room he needs to do this work. Every patient currently in the ER will either need to be discharged, moved upstairs, or taken to family medicine. In short: They can’t stay here. Gloria is all over it. Robby still manages to get in a quick jab about not having enough nurses, and I commend his commitment to that bit.

Supplies are at the ready, even though Robby knows they’ll be out of so many things in almost no time. More doctors and nurses are being called in and Robby is truly kicking himself for letting Collins go home and explicitly telling her to turn off her phone. Dr. Abbott even reappears after hearing about the shooting on his police scanner (how’s that for a character detail), and as someone who watched The Faculty more than three times in my adolescence, I was really rooting for this return. The whole setup for incoming victims, down to the color-coded slap bracelets at the ready, is so smooth and organized that my first thought was, Of course, look at how good these people are at their jobs. That quickly led to much more stomach churning thoughts: How fucked up is it that we live in a world where hospital staff know exactly how to prepare for a mass-casualty shooting event? That they know what to do because for many, this isn’t their first? That there are multiple “mass-casualty faculty meetings”? The Pitt doesn’t have time to be preachy about this country’s gun-violence problems, instead electing to simply show us the horror that we inflict on each other, and that is more than enough. It’s all there in the screams, the crying, the bloody handprints on ambulances because people are desperate for EMTs to stop and help. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I need to see what a gunshot wound through someone’s jaw looks like ever again, thanks.

There’s not much time to get overly emotional (until the credits roll), since each new scene is just a shock to the system, but I will admit I was in tears as Robby gathers his team to tell them what’s happening and go over the plan: who is in charge of what, protocols to follow, the fact that there are no tests to be run, no labs, doctors are just checking pulses and awareness and going with their gut. It’s a scene full of very straightforward dialogue as Robby and Abbott quickly give out orders to everyone on staff, and there I am, in tears. The quiet, nervous energy, the fear in some of these characters’ faces is so real, if these professionals are this worried about what’s coming through those doors, uh, what are us plebes in for?

King is the most vocal about her nerves as she, Santos, and Whitaker man the yellow-slap-band area, but once she gets to work, she’s laser-focused on her patients. One is a woman named Sylvia, who arrived in the back of a van with her son, Omar, who was shot in the chest. She was hit by a car in the mêlée, but is only thinking about getting her son, who is deaf, proper care. Omar is taken up to an OR almost immediately, although Garcia later reports back that he’ll be just fine, but Sylvia’s broken leg belies a bigger injury. King and Whitaker find her unconscious, and through Abbott’s handy travel ultrasound machine realize she has a liver laceration and is bleeding internally. It’s a major catch, that, yes, leads to King demanding that she be allowed to donate blood to save her patient’s life as they wait for an OR. I mean, it’s no “Jack Abbott tapes a blood bag to his leg so he can donate while still working” move (I know I shouldn’t be turned on right now, but the heart wants what the heart wants, and also remember that whole thing about The Faculty?), but it is closed. The moment is only made better for King thanks to the arrival of her favorite senior resident, Frank Langdon. Robby is in no way happy to see him, but it’s not the time to turn away doctors and they both know it.

Santos isn’t exactly thrilled by Langdon’s reappearance either, but she has enough going on to mostly ignore him. The look on her face during the big meeting at the top of the hour, maybe more than anyone’s, projected enough fear that I was waiting for tough-talking Santos to crash and burn here, but I was happy to be proven wrong. Instead, she gets a great little story in which she realizes one of her patients is faking an injury in order to get inside the hospital, and she finds him filming what’s going on, realizing he’s a reporter. She calls for security and then watches as the guy runs off but slips in a puddle of blood. She has him admitted for his head injury and makes sure to include the order to have him in restraints for the next few hours. Then she takes his phone and chucks it into a mop bucket full of now-bloody water. Way to make us all very pro-Santos, show!

Hey, I guess almost all of our newbies in the ER get some time to show how well they handle a crisis (Sorry, Whitaker, maybe you’ll shine in the next hour.) Javadi winds up side by side with her mother, who continues to smother her even in the middle of this horror show. It doesn’t take long for Javadi to hiss at her to “read the fucking room,” to let her work and go help someone who needs it; McKay gives her an approving smile. Then, when they’ve run out of chest tubes and thora-seals, it’s Javadi, in a real MacGyver move, who directs her mother to use an ET tube and a urine output bag instead. You know who is impressed with her then? Not every mom; that’s so cute you’d think that. No, it’s Mateo, who calls the idea “genius.” Utah is alive and well, it seems!

Every doctor save in this episode is pretty incredible, from Mohan’s blowhole incisions to save her patient with the subcutaneous emphysema to Robby’s bubble intubation. But one of the smartest moves The Pitt makes in this episode does not involve a medical save. That would be having Chad — yes, that Chad — walk onto the floor. Chad remains, nor ever, or dope. He walks off that elevator into the ER, after having been moved upstairs, with such arrogance. He doesn’t care what the security guard says, his ex-wife is a doctor, he’s allowed to be here, his son is in the break room. He has such a smug look on his dumb face as she lets him go, and then he turns the corner and is smacked with a dose of reality. The chaos, the violence, the carnage of it all rattles him completely. When McKay yells at him to go find Harrison, he has no smart-ass reply, he just does it. Chad finds Harrison innocently watching a movie in the break room waiting for his mom and you can see it all over his face: All Chad wants to do is protect his son from the scene just outside the door, to keep him safe. Allowing us to watch this play out with a character like Chad only amps up the gravity of an already very grave situation.

A situation, unfortunately, that is nowhere near over according to Robby as the episode comes to a close. He’s been overseeing every aspect of the hospital’s response, moving from room to room, from patient to patient this entire time. He’s also one of the few people aware that the police, and soon the FBI, are talking to Theresa about her son, David — after Robby alerted them to the situation when the police first arrived, they pinged David’s phone and he was at the shooting location. But on top of everything, Robby still can’t get hold of Jake. So, if anyone wishes this nightmare would just end already, it’s Dr. Rabinovitch. And yet, all he can do is press on.

It’s a movie business.
Photo: Getty Images

Guess who’s coming to dinner? If you’re David Zaslav, the answer is “most of Hollywood.” The Warner Bros. Discovery CEO feted LuckyChap champions Margot Robbie and Tom Ackerley among a consortium of media moguls including Oprah Winfrey, filmmaker Nancy Meyers, CAA head Bryan Lourd, and Saturday Night Live boss Lorne Michaels in LA on November 19. Al Pacino, Sandra Bullock, Jonah Hill, Bette Midler, and Kristen Wiig were also in attendance. The next day, Zaslav received the first round of offers to purchase WBD, per Variety. He reportedly told the crowd his plan was to get on a red-eye flight and head to New York to consider the offers. Sources added that the conversation during the evening was not focused on the sale but the projects they were all respectively working on. No need to talk about the sword of Damocles if it’s just hanging over everyone’s heads anyway.

Paramount, Comcast, and Netflix all submitted bids, per The Hollywood Reporter. If Paramount wins out, it would be the second major studio purchased by David Ellison, the son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. Comcast already owns Universal but could use WBD’s HBO Max to take its domestic streaming service, Peacock, worldwide. The only reported buyer that doesn’t already have a theatrical studio is Netflix, because the company refuses to put its movies in wide release. However, CEO Ted Sarandos told WB its films would be in theaters if the offer goes through, per Bloomberg. Earlier this year, Netflix missed out on LuckyChap’s Wuthering Heights them Bros. because the company refused to commit to a wide theatrical release. Next, there will likely be more rounds of bidding, for THRand once a buyer is chosen, the deal will have to be approved by President Trump’s FCC. What will Trump’s Special Envoy to Hollywood Jon Voight think about this?

CONCORD, NH – No one wants a weasel on them Thanksgiving tablebut swapping turkeys for other animals was once surprisingly common.

Trading turkeys – for wildlife management, not dinner – was a key part of one of North America’s biggest conservation success stories. After dwindling to a few thousand birds in the late 1880s, the wild turkey population has grown to about 7 million birds in 49 states, plus more in Canada and Mexico, according to the National Wild Turkey Federation.

In many cases, restoration relied on trades. The exchange rates varied, but Oklahoma once swapped walleye and prairie chickens for turkeys from Arkansas and Missouri. Colorado traded mountain goats for turkeys from Idaho. The Canadian province of Ontario ended up with 274 turkeys from New York, New Jersey, Vermont, Michigan, Missouri and Iowa in exchange for moose, river otters, and partridge.

“Wildlife biologists don’t suffer from a lack of creativity,” said Pat Dorsey, director of conservation for the National Wild Turkey Federation’s western region.

West Virginia in particular appears to have had an abundance of turkeys to share. In 1969, it sent 26 turkeys to New Hampshire in exchange for 25 fishermen, a member of the weasel family once prized for its pelt. Later trades involved otters and bobwhite quail.

“They were like our currency for all our wildlife that we restored,” said Holly Morris, furbearer and small game project leader at the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources. “It’s just a way to help out other agencies. We’re all in the same mission.”

Wild turkeys were abundant across the US until the mid-1800s, when the clearing of forestland and unregulated hunting led the population to plummet. Early restoration efforts in the 1940s and 50s involved raising turkeys on farms, but that didn’t work well, Dorsey said.

“Turkeys that had been raised in a pen didn’t do very well in the wild,” she said. “That’s when we started capturing them out of the wild and moving them around to other places to restore their population, and they really took off.”

In New Hampshire, wild turkeys hadn’t been seen for more than 100 years when the state got the West Virginia flock. Although those birds quickly succumbed to a harsh winter, another flock sent from New York in 1975 fared better. With careful management that included moving birds around the state dozens of times over the ensuing decades, the population has grown to roughly 40,000 birds, said Dan Ellingwood, a biologist with the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department. That’s likely well beyond the expectations at the time of reintroduction, he said.

“Turkeys are incredibly adaptive,” he said. “Winter severity has changed, the landscape has changed, and yet the population really took off.”

Turkeys play an important role in a healthy ecosystem as both predator and prey, he said, and are a popular draw for hunters. But the restoration effort is also important just for the sake of ensuring native species continue to persist, he said.

Dorsey, at the National Wild Turkey Federation agreed, noting that turkey restoration projects also helped states revive their populations of other species.

“A lot of good work gets done on the back of the wild turkey,” she said.

President Donald Trump wants to send $2,000 checks to some Americans. He can’t do it on his own.

He needs Congress to sign off on it.

To actually get checks into mailboxes, both the House and the Senate would need to sign off on the plan. Since Congress controls the power of the purse, the president can’t spend money that hasn’t been approved by the legislature.

Getting anything through Congress is difficult these days, even when the party in power is largely on the same page. Just look at how long it took the GOP to pass the “Big Beautiful Bill” earlier this year.

Stimulus checks, in particular, would be even more difficult: Several Republicans have already said they’re opposed to the idea.

“It’s the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard,” Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky told BI over the summer.

“I would oppose it,” Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin told BI.

“It’ll never pass,” Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio told reporters months ago. “We have a $37 trillion debt.”

Across the board, Republicans have said that they would prefer to see any revenue raised by tariffs be used to pay down the national debt.

Even if Congress did approve tariff checks, there are other issues.

The Supreme Court may strike down many of Trump’s tariffs, cutting off the revenue that would fund the checks. And sending $2,000 to some Americans could end up driving up inflation in the long run.

“President Trump’s tariffs are resetting global commerce, securing manufacturing investments, and safeguarding our national and economic security — and they’re also raising billions in revenue for the federal government,” a White House official told BI in response to questions about the tariff plan. “The Administration is committed to putting this money to good use for the American people.”

Here’s what would have to happen to get tariff checks out the door

The government has sent out checks to Americans before: It happened three times during the COVID-19 pandemic under both Trump and President Joe Biden.

Each time, Congress signed off on it, either via a government funding bill or an economic stimulus bill like the CARES Act or the American Rescue Plan.

Trump’s proposal is relatively light on details. He has said that it will go to “low and middle income” Americans, but has not laid out particular brackets. He has also said that there will still be significant revenue left over for paying down the debt.

Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri has introduced a version of Trump’s proposal, which would provide at least $600 to Americans making less than a certain income amount per year.

That amount would begin phasing out for individuals making more than $75,000, joint filers making more than $150,000, and household heads making more than $112,500.

When high-powered Democratic attorney Kathryn Ruemmler — now the top lawyer at Goldman Sachs — needed to vent about Donald Trump’s rise in politics, she turned to their mutual acquaintance, Jeffrey Epstein.

“Trump is living proof of the adage that it is better to be lucky than smart,” she told Epstein in an email in August 2015, while planning a visit to his Manhattan mansion.

Later, Ruemmler expressed alarm about Trump’s climb in the polls.

“The Trump success is seriously scary,” she wrote in February 2016.

The two chatted frequently about the 2016 presidential election and transition. (In one email, Ruemmler seemed to criticize Trump’s Cabinet picks as “moronic.”) They shared gripes well into Trump’s first term, as well as news articles on everything from Trump’s approach to Big Tech to the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

“Trump is truly stupid,” Ruemmler wrote in one 2017 email. “Trump is so gross,” she said a few months earlier.

The emails, released by the House Oversight Committee this week, were exchanged during Trump’s first term in office and before Ruemmler joined Goldman Sachs five years ago.

Ruemmler has previously said she regrets her association with Epstein.

“​​The personal emails exclusively occurred before Kathy worked at Goldman Sachs, when Ms. Ruemmler was the global head of the White Collar Defense practice at Latham and Watkins,” Goldman Sachs spokesperson Tony Fratto told Business Insider Thursday. “As we’ve said before, and has been repeatedly reported, Ms. Ruemmler had a professional relationship with Mr. Epstein when she was at Latham & Watkins.”

The newly released emails suggest a deeper relationship between Ruemmler and Epstein than was previously known.

Ruemmler confided in Epstein when a rival law firm tried to poach her, when looking for a New York City apartment, and when she was being vetted for consideration as attorney general of the United States. She also turned to him for minor issues, like what it’s like to fly Emirates, the airline.

“When I go to Dubai on Emirates, do I need to go first or is business class good enough given that I only care about sleeping?” Ruemmler asked Epstein after telling him Apple had hired her for a patent lawsuit.

Epstein said “biz is ok,” but offered her a ride on a friend’s private jet. Ruemmler said she’d stick with the commercial airline.

A legal star feted by Epstein

The exchanges span from 2014, shortly after Ruemmler left her job as White House Counsel under President Barack Obama, until June 2019, a month before Epstein was arrested on sex-trafficking charges. Nothing in the emails, which the House Oversight Committee obtained from Epstein’s estate, suggests Ruemmler had knowledge of the alleged conduct.

At the time, Ruemmler worked at the Big Law firm Latham & Watkins, which had previously said Epstein was never a client of the firm; it did not respond to requests for comment about the latest emails.

Ruemmler was widely viewed as a legal star in the Democratic Party. CEO was floated as a possible Supreme Court pick and had served as a lawyer in Bill Clinton’s White House.

Ruemmler moved to Goldman Sachs in 2020 and now serves as the investment bank’s chief legal officer and general counsel. She serves on Goldman Sachs’ Firmwide Reputational Risk Committee, according to the bank’s website.

Epstein — a financier with connections to titans of finance, science, and global politics — killed himself in his Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial in 2019. He had previously pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting an underage girl for sex.

It is unclear from the emails whether Epstein ever hired Ruemmler as a lawyer. At least three emails from Ruemmler to Epstein were redacted for what was described as “privilege.” A lawyer for the executors of Epstein’s estate, which provided the emails to the House Oversight Committee, did not respond to a request for comment about the redactions.

On several occasions, Epstein looped Ruemmler into email discussions with other prominent attorneys he had personally hired, including Alan Dershowitz, Ken Starr, Martin Weinberg, and Darren Indyke.

Epstein and Ruemmler often emailed each other asking to speak on the phone. He included her in emails with other attorneys about responding to press inquiries about his relationship with Trump and Clinton. Epstein also forwarded to her a plan that the writer Michael Wolff presented to him in 2016 about countering the impending negative press from the James Patterson book “Filthy Rich,” which is about Epstein.

In a January 2019 draft of his will, Epstein named Ruemmler as the backup executor to his estate, according to a copy released by the House Oversight Committee earlier this year. The final edition of the will, completed while Epstein was incarcerated and shortly before his death, replaced her with Boris Nikolic, a former scientific advisor to Bill Gates. Epstein’s estate was ultimately co-executed by his first choice: Indyke and accountant Richard Kahn.

To be or not to be Attorney General

In October 2014, news publications reported that Ruemmler turned down an offer from then-President Barack Obama to serve as the head of the Justice Department, replacing Eric Holder.

Some of the most intense discussions between Epstein and Ruemmler took place in the weeks leading up to it the public announcement that Holder would step downeven Ruemmler considered whether to take his job. Epstein compared the indecision to Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.”

Ruemmler said she had recently found a high-rent apartment in New York. And she was unsure she would secure enough votes to be confirmed in the US Senate.

“I signed the lease in my name for a year, so I think I’m pretty stuck,” she told Epstein. “It is $11,000 a month and Latham reimburses $8,000 a month.”

Days before The White House’s public announcement about Holder stepping down, Ruemmler confided in Epstein that she wanted to lead the nation’s most powerful law enforcement agency.

“I think I should do it,” she wrote.

At another point in the discussion, Epstein advised Ruemmler to “talk to the boss” about taking the job.

“Agreed, but I need to be prepared to say yes before I talk to him,” Ruemmler responded.

In the same conversation, Epstein offered to introduce her to powerful people in his network, including Leon Black, Woody Allen, Peter Thiel, Larry Summers, and Nikolic.

Earlier, in 2016, Ruemmler had sought other career advice from Epstein. She forwarded emails from a recruiter with Hogan Lovells, another big law firm, seeking to hire her.

Epstein suggested she push for more details about compensation.

“ask him for a financial proposal,” he wrote. “Subject to mutually acceptable conditions.”

Some of the emails are cryptic. On one occasion, Epstein asked, “how did Musk call go?”

“Well, I think, but not because of me,” Ruemmler responded. “The existential crisis thing is not a PMS or menopausal pose.”

In a July 2018 email, Ruemmler sent a context-free message to Epstein about Trump.

“Your boy should distance himself from Trump. Quick,” she wrote.