Heading into the final season of Stranger Things, fans are well and fully prepped for a certain level of brutality. Just think back on some of the biggest traumatic moments from over the years — the death of Sean Astin’s Bob, for one, and the fresh tragedy of meeting and losing Eddie Munson (Joseph Quinn) all in one season. But there was very nearly a worse death in season four: Sadie Sink’s skateboarding hero, Max, briefly killed at the whims of Lord Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower), only to return to life thanks to a little help from her friend Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown).

Spotify is readying a price hike in the U.S. as soon as the first quarter of next year, according to a report from the Financial Times.

The move would mark the first time Spotify has raised prices in the U.S. since 2024, when subscriptions went up by $1 to $11.99. It’s unclear how much Spotify would raise prices this time, though price raises in the past several years have been $1. Spotify previously raised its price from $9.99 to $10.99 in 2023.

Something very strange is happening to the Apple Podcasts app. Over the last several months, I’ve found both the iOS and Mac versions of the Podcasts app will open religion, spirituality, and education podcasts with no apparent rhyme or reason. Sometimes, I unlock my machine and the podcast app has launched itself and presented one of the bizarre podcasts to me. On top of that, at least one of the podcast pages in the app includes a link to a potentially malicious website.

The Trump administration has halted all asylum decisions and paused issuing visas for people traveling on Afghan passports days after a shooting near the White House that left one National Guard member dead and another in critical condition.

Only roughly 15 percent of Hollow Knight: Silksong players have earned the 100 percent completion achievement, according to SteamDB. For the remaining percentage, there may still be plenty of time to finish the game before Team Cherry announces new content for the hit side-scrolling game. As first revealed by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, the development team confirmed that it’s working on a content update that could be similar in scale to the Hollow Knight: Godmaster DLC.

Northwestern University has agreed to pay $75 million to the U.S. government in a deal with the Trump administration to end a series of investigations and restore hundreds of millions of dollars in federal research funding.

President Donald Trump’s administration had cut off $790 million in grants in a standoff that contributed to university layoffs and the resignation in September of Northwestern president Michael Schill. The administration argued the school had not done enough to fight antisemitism.