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It wasn't too long ago that Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson was the biggest and highest-paid star in Hollywood. 

A 12-time Oscar-nominated Tinseltown actor and a Scouse stand-up veteran most famous on this side of the pond might seem an unlikely combination.

A potential tragedy was narrowly averted at a Wikipedia conference in Manhattan when two volunteer editors tackled an armed man who stormed the stage and threatened to kill himself during a keynote speech (source paywalled; alternative source). The gunman, who claimed he was protesting Wikipedia's policy banning self-identified pedophiles, was disarmed and taken into custody after community members swiftly intervened. The New York Times reports: The armed man came striding up the aisle at a conference for Wikipedia editors Friday morning in Manhattan, several witnesses said. The man, draped in a multicolored flag, walked onto the stage and stood next to Maryana Iskander, the chief of the nonprofit group that runs Wikipedia, interrupting her speech. He announced that he was going to kill himself. He held a gun near his head and pointed it toward the ceiling. The audience of well over a hundred people panicked. "People started yelling, 'Get down, get down!' and people started ducking behind their chairs," said Bill Adair, a journalism professor who was there and is writing a book on Wikipedia. A man in an orange sweatshirt rushed the stage. He was not in law enforcement, but a Wikipedia contributor on the conference's "trust and safety team": Richard Knipel, the City University of New York's "Wikimedian-in-residence." He grabbed the gunman from behind. Another Wikipedian on the trust and safety team, Andrew Lih, had been standing watch in the aisle and charged forward, too. "I saw the gun he's holding go from pointing up at the ceiling to sweeping down toward the room, and as it swept across me I said 'Oh, my god,' and I ducked down, but I still kept moving" said Mr. Lih, a digital strategist who works with museums and libraries. "I grabbed his arm," he continued. "He was still clutching his gun pretty hard. I pried his fingers away from it, removed it from his hands and put it down." The gun was loaded, according to a senior law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a pending investigation. In seconds, a potential scene of bloodshed had been averted, a life may have been saved, and two volunteer editors of an online encyclopedia had become unlikely heroes.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The legendary guitarist died in Morristown, New Jersey after suffering a devastating brain bleed that left him on life support.

Amazon is investing hundreds of millions into the Cascade Advanced Energy Facility, a next-generation small modular reactor project in Richland, Washington, developed with X-energy and Energy Northwest. "The question now is will it be enough to kick off a new wave of U.S. nuclear energy innovation -- a field that America largely soured on by the 1980s?" writes GeekWire. From the report: The facility will be located near Richland, Wash., near Energy Northwest's Columbia Generating Station nuclear plant. The initial goal is to install a cluster of four small modular reactors (SMRs) that can produce up to 320 megawatts of power, but the overall vision is to construct 12 reactors total, with a capacity of nearly one gigawatt. If all the funding, permitting and public support come together, construction should start within the next five years, with the plant coming online in the 2030s. [...] For Amazon, its support of the Cascade Advanced Energy Facility is part of a much bigger initiative. The company has set a goal of deploying 5 gigawatts of nuclear power in the U.S. by 2039. "One thing that Amazon does well is scale technology," said Brandon Oyer, Amazon Web Services' head of power and water for North and South America. "We've done this over and over again ... We'll go and make an investment and then learn how to scale that up, drive out cost, make it more readily available." Targeting SMRs for amplification was a "natural fit," Oyer added. The company believes nuclear aligns with its climate ambitions. Amazon matches all of its electricity use with clean power and is the largest corporate purchaser of wind, solar and other renewable sources. That said, it is struggling to cut its carbon footprint to reach a goal of net-zero emissions by 2040 as the AI-boom stokes energy use. Amazon reported that its carbon footprint grew by 6% last year. Amazon has dibs on half of the 320 megawatts of electricity that will be generated by the first four reactors at the Washington site, but will take all of it if the power prices are too high for local utilities to afford. Cullen said that if everything goes well with the initial phase, it would be straightforward to build the other eight reactors as the permits will encompass the complete build out. The added reactors would produce enough electricity for about one million homes and should come at a lower cost. "Amazon recognizes the role they can -- and are willing -- to play," Cullen said. The company can take some of the early risk and bring that catalytic capital, he said, which is "every, very difficult for utilities to do."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The disappearance of Cédric Jubillar's wife, Delphine, gripped France during the  Covid lockdown .

Filming for the new wizarding TV series began earlier this summer, but fears have been sparked after a recent alleged break-in by intruders to the show's set in Leavesden Studios last week.

Chloe Byrne decided to visit her doctor in March for a routine check after one of her friends was diagnosed with skin cancer.

As a child, David Beckham's tiny garden was merely a place to kick a ball in. There wasn't much green space in Chingford, the east London suburb in which he grew up.

The Spice Girl, 51, proved she still lives up to her sporty nickname as she showed off her impressive abs in a slew of snaps released on Friday.

The fashion designer, 51, shot to fame as part of the pop phenomenon in 1994 alongside Mel B, Mel C, Geri Halliwell-Horner, and Emma Bunton.

The plans, submitted by Berkeley Homes, would see 867 homes built on the site of the Aylesham shopping centre and market.

As news broke of Ian Watkins' murder in prison last weekend it reached, among others, the two women who stood trial back in 2013 alongside the twisted Lostprophets frontman.

BBC bosses are reportedly preparing to offer Celebrity Traitors star Alan Carr his own chat show, nearly a decade after his hit Channel 4 series Chatty Man ended.

'[Turner-Smith and Jackson] are in the process of negotiating a custody judgment,' he lawyer stated. 'The parties will return to the [a private judge they hired] to resolve any impasses.'

Alexander Isak turned his back on the tutelage that helped make him so great. And he was great. Call it disrespectful, maybe, but what it feels more like now is career vandalism.

shoppers loved how smart, comfortable and chic the coat is

The acclaimed Hollywood star was best known for her performances in The Collector and The Brood.

With fresh revelations about his closeness to Jeffrey Epstein and friendship with a Chinese 'spymaster', the sleaze surrounding this most tainted of royals had reached a critical mass.

As usual, the whole of the outdoor venue was a riot of stars and stripes. American flags fluttered from the rafters and waved from the middle of each table.