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The Late Show with Stephen Colbert won the Emmy for Outstanding Variety Series on Monday, honouring the cancelled late night talk show for the final time. Accepting the award, host Stephen Colbert took the opportunity to try securing his staff new jobs.

"If you like the comedy tonight, my old writers wrote it tonight," said Colbert. "Ariel Dumas, my head writer, is the head writer of tonight's Emmys."

CBS cancelled The Late Show earlier this year, abruptly ending it after over three decades on air. The unexpected decision forced hundreds of people who worked on the show back onto the job market, with The Late Show's final episode airing in May. 

"The thing about these late shows is that — besides being a really good steady job — is that they require so many people that they're a fantastic incubator for young people to come in to learn to work professionally, on a deadline, in cooperation, in collaboration, and that is the future of our business that we have to look after," Colbert said in his Emmys acceptance speech.

"I got some great news: They are all tech avail. Hire them. They will make your show better and they will make your day easier."

Colbert also thanked The Late Show's audience and the many guests he's interviewed over the years, then in a sweet moment singled out his "favourite guest:" his wife Evie.

"Thank you for being my only crew and my only guest during COVID, my only audience and the only audience I really care about," said Colbert. "Yours is the laugh that I want for the rest of my life. I love you."

At the time of The Late Show's cancellation, CBS executives stated that it was "purely a financial decision" and was "not related in any way to… other matters happening at [parent company] Paramount." Days earlier, Colbert had accused Paramount of paying a "big fat bribe" to President Donald Trump, noting that it needed the administration to approve its merger with Skydance Media. Trump reacted to The Late Show's cancellation with glee, having been vocal about wanting talk show hosts who criticise him to be taken off air.

Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Buy a vehicle through Amazon Autos From Sept. 15 through Oct. 7, eligible Prime members who buy a new car through Amazon Autos will get a $1,500 Amazon.com gift card. Shop Now

We've officially reached the point where you can buy literally anything on Amazon, including a whole ass car.

Personally, I'd never buy a vehicle online like this. The anxiety of checking out an SUV next to paper towels is just too much for me to process. But Amazon's trying to normalize it ahead of Prime Big Deal Days (the fall version of Prime Day and the precursor to Black Friday), and they're using digital cash to do it.

SEE ALSO: Here's how to milk Amazon's 'Young Adult' Prime membership for all it's worth

From Sept. 15 through Oct. 7, eligible Prime members who buy a new car through Amazon Autos will get a $1,500 Amazon.com gift card. If you're somehow brave enough to buy a car on the internet, that's a pretty good chunk of change to blow when the October deal event kicks off.

Wait, what's Amazon Autos?

In case you haven't stumbled across it yet, Amazon Autos is the retailer's online car shopping marketplace. It lets you browse cars, trucks, SUVs, hybrids, and EVs, compare features, and set up your financing or lease terms directly on the site.

Amazon then connects you with a local participating dealership to handle the test drive, sign the final paperwork, and get the keys.

Here's how the $1,500 Amazon Autos promo works

You don't need a special code or anything like that; Amazon will auto-apply the promotion to qualifying purchases at checkout.

The offer is available nationwide, but you'll need to be a Prime member purchasing a new vehicle. Once you pick up your new ride, Amazon will email you the gift card redemption code within two weeks, which you can add to your Amazon account and use for anything else you need. (Might I recommend some Chemical Guys supplies? It's what I use to clean my truck.)

The gift card doesn't expire and has no limitations once redeemed, so you could easily save it for December holiday gifts or a spring clean haul next year.

The Moon is finally becoming visible again. Its crescent is growing a little more each night, so we're beginning to see more of its features once again.

What is today’s Moon phase?

As of Tuesday, Sept. 15 NASA's Daily Moon Guide tracker tells us the Moon is in the Waxing Crescent phase, with 18% of its surface visible.

After nights of no visibility, tonight you can finally spot some lunar features again. Without any visual aids, you'll be able to see the Mare Crisium and the Mare Fecunditatis. Add binoculars or a telescope to also see the Endymion Crater.

When is the next Full Moon?

The next Full Moon will take place on September 26.

What are Moon phases?

The Moon doesn't look the same from night to night. As it travels around Earth, which takes about 29.5 days, we see different portions of its illuminated side. This is what creates the lunar phases, with the Moon gradually progressing from a thin crescent to a half Moon and then a Full Moon before the cycle starts over. According to NASA, the phase we see is determined by the Moon's position relative to both Earth and the Sun.

The eight phases are:

New Moon - The Moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it's invisible to the eye).

Waxing Crescent - A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).

First Quarter - Half of the Moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-Moon.

Waxing Gibbous - More than half is lit up, but it’s not quite full yet.

Full Moon - The whole face of the Moon is illuminated and fully visible.

Waning Gibbous - The Moon starts losing light on the right side. (Northern Hemisphere)

Third Quarter (or Last Quarter) - Another half-Moon, but now the left side is lit.

Waning Crescent - A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again.

Television took center stage on Monday night at the 2026 Primetime Emmys. Widow's Bay, The Pitt, and DTF St. Louis walked home with the night's biggest awards, while Beef disappointed.

The 78th Primetime Emmy Awards was held on Monday night, honouring some of television's biggest stars and most talked-about shows from the past year.

SEE ALSO: 'South Park' creators troll Trump after Emmys win

Going into the night, The Pitt had plenty of chances to add to its trophy collection with an impressive 25 nominations across both tonight's ceremony and the Creative Arts Emmy awards presented earlier this month. Though the medical drama had enough supporting cast nominations to keep the hospital busy, it ultimately took home two Emmys on Monday. The Pitt's sole acting Emmy went to Noah Wyle for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, while it also won the award for Outstanding Drama Series, beating stiff competition from other contenders such as Pluribus, The Gilded Age, and Slow Horses.

Close behind The Pitt in the nominations was Hacks, whose 24 nods set a new single-year record for a comedy. Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder were both back in contention, with the series also competing for Outstanding Comedy Series, writing, and directing. Even so, Smart's trophy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy was Hacks' only Emmy win for the night.

Rather, it was newcomer Widow's Bay that beat out Hacks for Outstanding Comedy Series, coming out on top of a lineup that also included The Bear and Shrinking. Widow's Bay ultimately swept the ceremony, snagging the most Emmys of the night with six. These included the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for Matthew Rhys, and both Outstanding Supporting Actress and Actor awards for Kate O'Flynn and Stephen Root respectively.

The limited or anthology series race was another one to watch. Though All Her Fault, The Beast in Me, Beef, and Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette were all in competition for the trophy, it was DTF St. Louis, that took home the prize.

Below are all the nominees in the categories presented tonight. Winners are bolded.

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Wonder Man

Steve Carell, Rooster

Matthew Rhys, Widow's Bay [WINNER]

Jason Segel, Shrinking

Martin Short, Only Murders in the Building

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series

Quinta Brunson, Abbott Elementary

Ayo Edebiri, The Bear

Elle Fanning, Margo's Got Money Troubles

Lisa Kudrow, The Comeback

Jean Smart, Hacks [WINNER]

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series

Taylor Dearden, The Pitt

Fiona Dourif, The Pitt

Allison Janney, The Diplomat [WINNER]

Katherine LaNasa, The Pitt

Sepideh Moafi, The Pitt

Julianne Nicholson, Paradise

Karolina Wydra, Pluribus

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series

Patrick Ball, The Pitt

Billy Crudup, The Morning Show

Shawn Hatosy, The Pitt

Gerran Howell, The Pitt

Jack Lowden, Slow Horses

Tom Pelphrey, Task [WINNER]

Carlos-Manuel Vesga, Pluribus

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series

Carrie Coon, The Gilded Age

Chase Infiniti, The Testaments

Keri Russell, The Diplomat

Rhea Seehorn, Pluribus [WINNER]

Zendaya, Euphoria

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series

Dale Dickey, Widow’s Bay

Hannah Einbinder, Hacks

Janelle James, Abbott Elementary

Kate O'Flynn, Widow's Bay [WINNER]

Michelle Pfeiffer, Margo’s Got Money Troubles

Megan Stalter, Hacks

Jessica Williams, Shrinking

Outstanding Reality Competition Program

Dancing With the Stars

RuPaul's Drag Race

Survivor

Top Chef

The Traitors [WINNER]

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series

Colman Domingo, The Four Seasons

Paul W. Downs, Hacks

Harrison Ford, Shrinking

Nick Offerman, Margo's Got Money Troubles

Stephen Root, Widow's Bay [WINNER]

Michael Urie, Shrinking

Tyler James Williams, Abbott Elementary

Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series

Randall Einhorn, Abbott Elementary

Christopher Storer, The Bear

Andrew DeYoung, The Chair Company

Lucia Aniello, Hacks

Mary Lou Belli, The Ms. Pat Show

Hiro Murai, Widow's Bay [WINNER]

Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series

Salli Richardson-Whitfield, The Gilded Age

Hanelle M. Culpepper, Paradise

Noah Wyle, The Pitt

Vince Gilligan, Pluribus

Saul Metzstein, Slow Horses [WINNER]

Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Task

Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series

Peter Ackerman and Debora Cahn, The Diplomat, “Amagansett”

Kirsten Pierre-Geyfman and R. Scott Gemmill, The Pitt, “1:00 P.M.”

Valerie Chu, The Pitt, “12:00 P.M.”

Vince Gilligan, Pluribus, “We Is Us” [WINNER]

Will Smith, Slow Horses, “Scars”

Brad Ingelsby, Task, “A Still Small Voice”

Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series

Quinta Brunson, Abbott Elementary

Tim Robinson and Zach Kanin, The Chair Company

Michael Patrick King and Lisa Kudrow, The Comeback

Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, and Jen Statsky, Hacks

Anthony King, Jury Duty Presents Company Retreat

Katie Dippold, Widow's Bay [WINNER]

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie

Claire Danes, The Beast in Me

Sally Field, Remarkably Bright Creatures [WINNER]

Carey Mulligan, Beef

Sarah Pidgeon, Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette

Sarah Snook, All Her Fault

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie

Riz Ahmed, Bait

Jason Bateman, Black Rabbit

Charlie Hunnam, Monster: The Ed Gein Story

Oscar Isaac, Beef

Matthew Rhys, The Beast in Me [WINNER]

Outstanding Variety Series

The Daily Show

Jimmy Kimmel Live!

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert [WINNER]

Saturday Night Live

Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series

All Her Fault

The Beast in Me

Beef

DTF St. Louis [WINNER]

Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette

Outstanding Comedy Series

Abbott Elementary

The Bear

Hacks

Margo's Got Money Troubles

Nobody Wants This

Only Murders in the Building

Shrinking

Widow's Bay [WINNER]

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series

Sterling K. Brown, Paradise

Gary Oldman, Slow Horses

Mark Ruffalo, Task

Rufus Sewell, The Diplomat

Noah Wyle, The Pitt [WINNER]

Outstanding Drama Series

The Diplomat

The Gilded Age

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

Paradise

The Pitt [WINNER]

Pluribus

Slow Horses

Your Friends & Neighbors

Your laptop had a full charge at the start of the day, but by noon, you're reaching for the outlet to refill the battery. The battery percentage kept dropping even though you didn’t stream anything or run a demanding task. That’s because Windows 11 isn’t sitting idle while you work. In the background, a quiet parade of apps, services, and sync routines run constantly in the background — none of which you ever asked for. The good news is that you can stop most of them.

Knowing where you actually are can sometimes be a problem when you're traveling. But that drawer phone gathering dust can outperform a purpose-built GPS unit, for the price of an app and a little setup time.

With so much music on streaming services, and more and more being added daily, it's not always easy to find music I really love among the millions of tracks. I use a cheap ESP32 board to make the process much easier.

A quick look at the Paramount+ top 10 rankings tells you everything you need to know about what movie lovers hold as a priority when it comes to choosing something to watch. The supernatural horror Passenger is still sitting at the top of the list, and Joe Dirt (which we covered last week) is in the top 5—two movies that have nothing in common other than the fact that they both have appalling Rotten Tomatoes scores. People like what they like.

Switching to Ethernet was simultaneously the best and the cheapest network upgrade I've ever gotten. Simply ditching Wi-Fi for a cable is fantastic, and in most cases, it improves your connection tremendously.

Linux has changed dramatically since the early days of the kernel. Desktops have gone from X11 environments with primitive window managers to polished graphical shells. Containers, cloud computing, virtualization, and immutable operating systems have transformed how people deploy Linux. Even the hardware running Linux today would have seemed extraordinary to many of its earliest users.

The unstoppable rise of foldables has slowed the homogenization of smartphones with new form factors and designs, but early in the foldable era, dual-screen smartphones (two separate displays connected by a hinge) seemed like an alternative to traditional slabs.

Among my most anticipated movies of the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival was Theo Rhys' feature directorial debut, Stuffed. Many might be intrigued by the cast, which pairs Killing Eve's Jodie Comer with Pillion's Harry Melling. Some might be curious about its logline: An isolated taxidermist seeks a willing volunteer to be her greatest piece yet, and finds a lonely man desperate to be remembered. 

For me, Rhys hooked me back in 2021 with his short film, also titled "Stuffed," which he expands here. Five years ago, I was a jury member for the Midnight shorts section of SXSW and was absolutely enchanted by Rhys' 19-minute film, which not only blended romance and horror but was also a musical. I am proud to be part of the committee that awarded it a special honor at the festival, and I squealed with excitement to see he'd finally built it out into a feature. But how did this expanded version go over? Divisively. 

At the press and marketing screening, folks walked out throughout Stuffed, which is not uncommon at a festival, where attendees have many different reasons to give a film a go. But the pronounced flock who fled after a close-up of a dead poodle being flayed suggested that Rhys' musical was too much for some. I experienced this spectrum firsthand: On my left, a fellow critic howled with laughter throughout the darkly funny film, while on my right, a stranger frequently covered his eyes, letting out low groans. 

As for me, I was elated to see Rhys' vision come to life, even if the results were at times more scrappy than sensational. 

SEE ALSO: How It Hits: Are horror musicals the future? Stuffed is a tale of strange love. 

Blessed is the Harry Melling, who between Pillion, Please Baby Please, and Stuffed, has become an icon of offbeat (and sexy) love stories. In each of these stories, he plays a submissive man, eager to be loved by a domineering partner, on whatever terms they demand. Pillion explored this through BDSM sex in a leather-daddy biker subculture; Please Baby Please did it through genderplay. Stuffed is less tied to kink and sex play, and more to the stuff of Sweeney Todd, minus the murder. 

With a nest of untamed dark curls and a penchant for goth fashion, Comer's Araminta recalls Helena Bonham Carter's Mrs. Lovett from Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd. Likewise, her high, birdlike singing voice echoes the choices in Angela Lansbury's filmed performance of the same role ("The worst pies in London!") However, Araminta is no killer or co-conspirator. And she’s not played as broadly comedic. 

Instead, Rhys gives Comer the space to make Araminta into a passionate, grubby misfit. The nearby townsfolk  spread malicious rumors about her, and hate the "meat" debris she pitches into the trash bins, as its stench attracts rats. But inside her home, Araminta has made a creepy-cozy sanctuary, dappled with shadows but populated by her taxidermied critters. In her sitting room stand a full-sized doe, a stuffed pig, a cat, ducklings, and on and on. Through song, she soulfully explains how reconstructing these creatures means they are not gone, but "remain…still." 

By contrast, Bernie (Melling) lives a life where no one notices him, no matter how hard he might try. Rhys smartly establishes this factory worker in a warehouse so bland and absurd that a huge, rusted metal vat reads "Mayonnaise." A conveyor belt is lined with bored workers assembling sandwiches without a word of conversation. And Bernie tries desperately to make a connection. His only friend is his mother, who is fading away in a retirement home, her memories ravaged by dementia.

An opening song features a spirited chorus of elderly residents facing their approaching deaths, singing about how they're certain to be remembered, either for their work or their families. Then a chorus sings in a hilarious round about being remembered because, "I ran a marathon." 

It's the collision of theatrical musical boldness with winking absurdity that makes Stuffed a marvel. Rhys — and co-writer Joss Holden-Rhea — expertly use the form to give a big voice to introverts and misfits who share their inner lives with no one (or no one living). So each song that Bernie and Araminta sing is an exploration of yearning, vulnerability, and ultimately intimacy. As they move from singing solos to singing together, their bond blossoms. And that's their problem. 

They get together so that Bernie can die and become Araminta's taxidermied masterpiece. But as they fall in love, he wants to live with her, not die for her. He also wants to give her what she wants: his corpse. So what can love look like for them? In this exploration, Rhys refuses to judge his oddball lovers and creates a film that is grisly, funny, and uniquely romantic. 

Stuffed struggles in spectacle. 

Melling and Comer are terrific in Stuffed, bringing sincerity and texture to these roles of ghastly yet lovable losers. Early on, their songs feel held close to their chests, like a breath that could crack open their ribs. But as love blossoms, Bernie embraces a "bold" new self  through Araminta's encouragement. Like in Pillion, he gets a makeover that rejects blending in with the so-called normal folk. And ultimately, he'll find his voice in a comedically beguiling sequence. 

For her part, Comer blossoms in love as her posture shifts from a protective hunch to an open-chested stride. Their performances beautifully encapsulate the transformative power of love without ever rejecting Rhys' determinedly bizarre world. 

Where Stuffed underwhelms is in its production value. While the singing is big, distinctive, and beautiful, the film yearns for choreography and cinematography that can match it. The production design and costumes deftly create a compelling realm for this romance, reflecting the rot and wonder of death and life. But you can feel the low budget in the dearth of dancing or wide shots that might explore the potential physicality of these numbers. The close-ups, while effective, become a bit one-note visually. Still, for as weird and macabre as this musical gets, Stuffed feels like a miracle for existing at all.

It won't be the next horror musical to break box office records. (Hello, Sinners.) But this gnarly wonder is certain to find a cult following that will love it, warts and all. And I can't think of a more fitting fate for a film that sings that true love means exactly that. 

Stuffed was reviewed out of the Toronto International Film Festival. 

Apple officially released macOS 27 Golden Gate on Sept. 14, and the operating system update finally brings the new Siri AI experience to Mac devices.

Apple announced macOS 27 Golden Gate at WWDC in June, and the developer beta has been available for months. So, while the new OS doesn't come with any huge surprises, it does bring users upgrades both large and small.

If you have a Mac device that supports the new macOS and Siri AI, then here are the top features we'd recommend trying after you update.

Siri AI Credit: Apple

We have to start with the headline news: You can finally try the new and improved Siri AI, powered by Google Gemini. Apple explained how the new Siri will work at WWDC, and the company has emphasized that its new cloud-based private cloud compute platform will provide high levels of privacy.

Siri now comes in a standalone app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac users, and the smart assistant will be integrated across the user experience.

The new Siri can:

• Generate text, make writing and editing suggestions, and write and send emails

• Analyze what your camera sees to identify objects or provide context using visual intelligence

• Answer questions or take action based on the user’s screen using on-screen awareness

• Access a wide range of apps to find information, take action, and answer user questions

• Remember your conversations and prompts in the new dedicated Siri app

Users can also customize Siri's voice to be more expressive and can change the pitch, tone, and pacing of the assistant's voice.

Change the Siri voice's pitch, speed, tone, and accent. Credit: Apple Siri can now take actions across a wide range of apps Credit: Apple New photo editing tools, including Spatial Reframing

Spatial Reframing is one of the cooler new AI tools revealed at WWDC. This tool allows users to adjust the angle of photos after they've been taken. It's just one of the new AI photo editing capabilities that arrive with macOS 27.

In the Photos app, users can also clean up and extend photos in new ways.

Credit: Apple New child safety and parental controls

Do any kids or teenagers in your house use a Mac, or maybe a MacBook Neo? Apple has added new parental controls to macOS 27 Golden Gate.

Credit: Apple

For example, by going to "Family" in the "Settings" menu, parents can now set a screen-time schedule. And to help make informed decisions, parents can also access a quick view of their kids’ average device usage and the top apps they use.

Parents can also get automatic messages when their kids want to access a new website via a new tool called Ask to Browse.

Learn more at Apple's parent safety website.

Group tabs in Safari Credit: Apple

Are you the type of person who always has about 30 different tabs going at once? Now, there's a better way to organize all those tabs.

You can now organize your tabs into groups such as "Vacation planning" or "Work stuff."

Describe a Shortcut

Shortcuts is probably one of the most underappreciated Apple software tools. Using a Shortcut, you can automate certain workflows and actions. For example, you can set up a shortcut that automatically edits and resizes photos once they're added to a specific folder.

The reason Shortcuts are underutilized? They're tricky to set up if you're not a tech person. However, now you can let Siri AI and macOS set up the shortcut for you with Describe a Shortcut. Simply describe the kind of Shortcut you have in mind, and let the OS do the rest.

An improved Maps experience

According to Apple, you'll be able to see even more details and information in Maps. For example, "Flyover now uses aerial imagery combined with Visual Intelligence models to render everything from architectural fixtures to the shapes of individual trees in stunning, sharp detail."

General system improvements Visual Intelligence with Siri AI in macOS 27 Golden Gate Credit: Apple

This one's a bit tricky to appreciate right away, but all new operating systems bring little refinements and improvements to the overall user experience — at least, in theory. Apple promises that macOS 27 Golden Gate will provide users with faster AirDrop transfers, faster file browsing, and faster loading times for apps and websites.

Refinements to Liquid Glass should also fix some of the visibility problems that sometimes occurred in iOS 26 and macOS 26.

Future updates coming to macOS 27

Apple has also announced some features that will be released in later versions of the OS, such as:

• Suggestions: Messages and Mail will soon offer suggestions to take quick actions based on context clues, such as attaching a photo or pulling in flight information.

• Fix passwords with a click: "The Passwords app alerts you to weak or compromised passwords and can update them on your behalf without the hassle."

What devices support macOS 27?

Apple says macOS 27 Golden Gate is available for the following devices:

• MacBook Neo (2026)

• MacBook Air with Apple silicon (2020 and later)

• MacBook Pro with Apple silicon (2020 and later)

• iMac with Apple silicon (2021 and later)

• Mac mini with Apple silicon (2020 and later)

• Mac Studio (2022 and later)

• Mac Pro with Apple silicon (2023)

Preorder the new Apple products

Along with iOS 27, Apple also released new AirPods, Apple Watches, and iPhones. Except for the iPhone Duo, all of these devices are available for preorder now.

Apple AirPods 5 earbuds $124.99 at Amazon
  See It at Amazon See It at Apple.com See It at Walmart Apple Watch Series 12 (GPS, 42mm) $399 at Amazon
  See It at Amazon See It at Best Buy See It at Walmart Apple iPhone 18 Pro, 256GB Save up to $1,200 at T-Mobile
  See It at T-Mobile See It at AT&T Wireless See It at Walmart iPhone 18 Pro Max, 256GB Save up to $1,200 at T-Mobile
  See It at T-Mobile See It at Walmart See It at Apple.com

Linux on desktop systems is in a great place right now. Whatever desktop system you have, you can probably slap a Linux distro of your choice on it right now, and have few if any issues.

It's no secret that Milwaukee makes some of the best power tools, but buying into Team Red isn't as straightforward as it appears. The initial sticker price is only part of the story, and everything that comes after will inevitably cost a lot more.

Meta's $17 billion settlement is a fence around a mile-deep hole at a playground. Fewer kids fall in on the way to the swings, but the hole is still there.

Full wins are rare in the fight for online child safety. What families mostly get are half-wins like a settlement instead of a verdict, a design mandate not turned on by default, or a check that is a rounding error relative to a company's annual revenue. Half-wins are still worth having. But they carry a cost that clean victories don't: because a half-win is contestable, advocates don't get to just win it. They have to keep re-arguing that it counts, in public, indefinitely, using the same personal cost that got them into the fight in the first place.

I watched that cost get paid in real-time outside the federal courthouse in Oakland when survivor parents — Lori Schott, Shannon Heacock, Erin Popolo, Julianna Arnold, Mary Rodee, Victoria Hinks, Paul Hinks — stood in front of a wall of cameras and talked about the worst moment of their lives, again, for an audience that will mostly remember a 10-second clip and a dollar figure. Joining them were young people who didn't have to be there, standing beside them in solidarity.

SEE ALSO: Is Meta finally backing a federal kids safety bill, or is it all PR?

None of that shows up in a settlement figure. It's not a line item. It's not even really visible in most coverage of the case, because the story is "Meta settles," not "here is what it takes to make Meta settle."

I grew up in front of cameras, and I know the instinct they train into you: get small, get careful, hand over the version of yourself that's easiest to broadcast. What that experience taught me is that visibility is not a neutral cost. Every time a parent goes back on camera to describe how their kid died, or a young survivor stands in a plaza holding a photo instead of being anywhere else, they're paying something the settlement itself will never account for.

Meta's $17 billion figure has line items for age-assurance systems and independent auditors. It has no line item for what it costs a parent to relive their child's death on a stranger's studio couch, but they do it anyway because that's what it takes to get airtime.

It's why these types of wins are exhausting. A settlement requires the people who fought for it to keep proving, publicly, that it was worth fighting for. If we're serious about accountability, the fix isn't asking survivor parents to keep showing up to press conferences until Meta gets embarrassed enough to throw better-looking Band-Aids at the problem. It's changing the business model in the first place to ensure these companies are required to fix what took these kids too soon: a business structure that relies on addictive features.

SEE ALSO: Lawsuits allege ChatGPT use led to suicide, psychosis

In California, AB 1709, authored by Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal and signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom on Sept. 10, does that by making these companies stop deploying addictive features to users under 16. Not a content ban, but a design restriction. A platform can keep operating exactly as it does now for everyone else, but it doesn't get to hand a 12-year-old the same engagement-optimized product it hands an adult.

AB 2, also authored by Lowenthal, makes large platforms liable for real money — up to $1 million per child, or three times actual damages — when ordinary negligence in the design of the product injures a minor. That's not a number Meta can negotiate down to a lump sum once and move on from, the way it did with this settlement. It scales with every child harmed, case by case, indefinitely — which is exactly the kind of exposure a company can't absorb as a cost of doing business, because there's no ceiling on it to absorb.

Together, these bills do what a $17 billion settlement can't: they change the incentive before the harm happens, instead of paying for it after the fact.

That's the difference between managing a story and fixing a product. A settlement is Meta agreeing, after years of litigation, to adjust some defaults under supervision it can eventually age out of — a 10-year consent decree that ends, after which Meta negotiates the next one from scratch. AB 1709 doesn't ask Meta to behave better under supervision that expires. It removes the option to keep operating the way it currently does and call it compliance, permanently, the same way any other law stays on the books after the fight to pass it is over. The parents testifying in Sacramento are doing the same kind of labor they did outside that courthouse, but they're doing it once, for a law that outlives the news cycle, instead of doing it every time a consent decree comes up for renewal.

SEE ALSO: 5 of the biggest changes coming to Instagram, Facebook

While those parents were in Sacramento testifying about their kids, Meta's lobbyists were in a different room asking for a way out. Politico reported that Meta approached Senate Judiciary Chair Tom Umberg with draft language that would let platforms apply for an exemption from AB 2 entirely. Meta spent $4.6 million lobbying Sacramento last year, more than any year since it started lobbying the state in 2010, and launched a new political committee to back candidates who favor lighter tech regulation. So the next time you see Meta's PR machine discussing how much they want to show up for parents, remember: they spent a lot trying to shut those same parents up in state legislatures.

The fence is up. The hole is still there. And the people who keep pointing at the hole, publicly, at their own expense, deserve better than another way for Meta to fool the masses while it keeps deploying the same business model that brought these parents to their child's gravesite instead of their high school graduation.

This article represents the opinions of its author.

Lennon Torres is a former Dance Moms performer now fighting for young people’s safety online. A trans activist and University of Southern California alum, she uses her pop‑culture fluency and lived experience to power her work at the Heat Initiative, taking on tech giants and demanding platforms to protect and empower the next generation.

No matter where you park or how many precautions you take, cars get incredibly hot, especially when left in direct sunlight. Sometimes, you have no choice but to leave your phone baking in the car, but what happens to its battery while you're gone might make you think twice.

Are you sick of having Wi-Fi problems? Yeah, so was I. And the internet is full of hacks that supposedly help so much, but most of the time, you'll be changing some settings and then scratching your head, trying to determine what exactly is now so much better.

Everyone is always so focused on new, new, new. But Netflix's back catalog of movies has legs, too. A week after I pointed you toward Straight Outta Compton and Alien, both are still holding strong on the U.S. charts. This week, Angelina Jolie joins them with her thriller Those Who Want Me Dead, which I get into below.