Emmy Awards Hit With Brutal Ratings Slump

Monday’s divisive Emmy Awards shed almost one million viewers compared to ratings figures from last year. Around 6.7 million viewers watched the television industry awards on NBC, according to figures released by the network and reported by the Associated Press. Last year’s Emmys telecast on CBS attracted around 7.42 million viewers, while 6.87 million tuned in when it aired on ABC in 2024. Networks rotate who airs the awards each year. The record lowest ratings for the Emmys were the January 2024 telecast on Fox, which was seen by just 4.3 million people, after Hollywood’s writers and actors strikes had delayed the event by months. Monday’s awards also clashed with the first Monday Night Football game of the season airing on ESPN, between the Kansas City Chiefs and Denver Broncos. Law & Order Special Victims Unit star Mariska Hargitay hosted Monday’s awards, which saw Apple TV comedy Widow’s Bay win 14 Emmys, while The Pitt was named best drama for the second year running. The Emmys traditionally achieve lower ratings than other award shows. The Oscars drew just under 18 million viewers across ABC and Hulu this year, while the Golden Globes drew around 8.8 million viewers on CBS.

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Developers behind a new Trump Tower in Eastern Europe have paid $85 million to a group linked to a billionaire pro-Kremlin oligarch sanctioned by the U.S. The 70-story skyscraper is planned for Tbilisi, Georgia, as part of an international licensing blitz led by Eric and Donald Trump Jr. A Georgian consortium bought the land in Tbilisi from the Cartu Foundation, a charitable fund owned by billionaire former prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili’s family. A spokesperson confirmed to the Wall Street Journal that the final payment has been made. The Joe Biden administration sanctioned Ivanishvili in 2024 for pushing Kremlin influence and undermining Georgia’s democracy. Ivanishvili is not officially involved with Cartu, and his family members who run it are not under sanctions. The Daily Beast revealed in May that Ivanishvili also has ties to Archi Group, a firm in the consortium buying the land. PunchUp, the Beast’s sister Substack, revealed in August that another company involved, Biograpi Living, is part-owned by a separate oligarch with ties to Moscow. Licensing deals on the Trump name brought in $59 million last year, according to the watchdog CREW.

Tom Latchem exposes the secrets, scandals, and stories that powerful people and institutions want to keep under wraps. Follow all of his reporting at PunchUp on Substack.

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From red light therapy caps to topical serums, there’s no shortage of over-the-counter products promising to support thicker, fuller-looking hair. Of course, if you’re experiencing sudden or significant shedding, it’s always best to consult your doctor or dermatologist to rule out an underlying cause. But for those looking to support healthy hair growth from the inside out, supplements have become an increasingly popular addition to the at-home arsenal. After all, nutrition plays an important role in both the hair growth cycle and overall scalp and follicle health.

O Positiv has built a loyal following around its female-focused supplements, including its popular URO vaginal probiotics and FLO PMS vitamins, and now the women-owned brand is bringing that same approach to hair care. Its latest launch, URO Hair Growth Capsules, is a clinically backed daily supplement designed to help support hair growth and volume while reducing the appearance of thinning in as little as 90 days.

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The formula combines familiar hair-supporting nutrients like biotin, iron, folate, and vitamin B12 with Serevelle, the brand’s proprietary botanical complex designed to help address DHT, a hormone linked with certain types of hair loss, and support a longer hair-growth phase. Rather than focusing on just one potential contributor to thinning, URO Hair Growth takes a more multifaceted approach.

Unlike other hair growth ingestibles, the daily capsules stand out because it also contains holy basil, an adaptogenic herb traditionally used to support the body’s response to stress. Prolonged physical or emotional stress can disrupt the normal hair-growth cycle and contribute to increased shedding, making them a great addition. For those who want a more inside-out approach to thinning (or to complement serums, scalp treatments, and high-tech devices), URO Hair Growth Capsules offer another option to add to your lineup.

A Democratically controlled city on the shores of Lake Erie is trolling Donald Trump by renaming its territorial waters “the Gulf of Cleveland.” Ohio’s largest city’s council members voted 13 to one for the new name, which will affect 18.5 miles of waters off the smallest of the Great Lakes. The city council made the move in a jab at Trump’s own efforts to rename geographical features across the country. On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico and Denali as the “Gulf of America” and “Mount McKinley.” In August, he moved to rename Lake Ontario “Lake America,” to which tech giants Apple and Google bowed. Earlier this month, the president also floated the idea of rebranding New Mexico as “New America”, then drifted offshore by demanding a rebrand of the Strait of Hormuz. Cleveland will now formally refer to the lake as the Gulf of Cleveland in all official communications. Councilmember Kris Harsh, who introduced the resolution, said, “I do expect Google and Apple to recognize our sovereignty and show it as the Gulf of Cleveland on all maps.”

Netflix’s Romantics Anonymous star Yuri Nakamura has died after over a decade-long battle with rectal cancer. Nakamura’s agency on Monday confirmed she died on Sept. 1. “We express our heartfelt gratitude once again to all the fans who have warmly supported her, the staff who have helped her, and her fellow performers,” Alpha Agency said. Nakamura played psychologist Irene in the Japanese series based on a French-Belgian film of the same name, about an extremely shy chocolatier who takes a job at a small chocolate store. Nakamura also appeared in another Netflix movie, The 8-Year Engagement (2017), as well as in projects with other companies like Love Letter From Heaven (2007) and Like Father, Like Son (2013). She had to drop her upcoming project, Dangerous, due to her cancer, according to Japan Daily. The actress was first diagnosed in 2013, but kept the illness under wraps. She went into remission after treatment until January 2025, when she was told the cancer had metastasized. By August, doctors told her she had little time left, but representatives said she “remained calm, maintaining a beautiful and gentle smile throughout her final moments.”

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Dramatic footage has emerged of a helicopter in a tailspin and crashing at an airport in Utah. The clip, released by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) shows an incident in which a flight instructor lost control of a helicopter while teaching a lesson at Cedar City Regional Airport on May 23. The surveillance video shows the red Bell 206-L4 helicopter lifting off into the air before hitting the runway and wildly bouncing around before careening off the asphalt. Luckily, both the flight instructor and the student they were training only suffered minor injuries during the incident. The NTSB ruled that the instructor’s failure to maintain control of the helicopter while adjusting its engine governor led to the crash. The helicopter was left severely damaged, as the tailboom and main rotor system eventually separated from the aircraft. Investigators also found no pre-accident mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have prevented the incident. Neither the flight instructor nor the student involved in the crash were identified by the NTSB. There was also no wider damage reported to the Cedar City airport following the incident with the helicopter.

A National Hockey League star appeared in a campaign ad for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party ahead of this week’s parliamentary elections. Alex Ovechkin, the Washington Capitals’ captain and the NHL’s all-time regular-season goals leader, has supported Putin for years. But he has been quiet since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Ovechkin has played for the Capitals his entire career, and the 40-year-old made hockey history last year when he scored a record-breaking 895th regular-season goal. When the invasion started, the NHL star said Putin remained his president, but he hoped the war would end. Ovechkin signed a one-year contract extension in July, so he is busy preparing for the upcoming season with the Capitals while filming this ad. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is the leading candidate in the United Russia party, so he’s the only one speaking in the ad. In it, he warned that “those who come at us with a sword” should “expect no mercy,” and those who stand with Russia will be met with “agreement.” Standing alongside Ovechkin behind Lavrov is Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of the government-controlled RT network. Fans took to X to express their disappointment, saying Ovechkin is a “tool for Russian propaganda.”

A 51-year-old man from Colorado died on Saturday while competing in the Ironman 70.3 Wisconsin competition. The man, who has not been named publicly, was pulled from the water after having a medical emergency and had no pulse by the time emergency responders reached the scene. Madison Fire Department spokesperson Cynthia Schuster said she wasn’t sure what caused the emergency. “At the time, they had a patient who did not have a pulse and wasn’t breathing, so life-saving measures began,” she said. “But we don’t know why he went unresponsive or why he didn’t have a pulse.” The organizers of the race posted to Facebook: “We are deeply saddened to confirm that an athlete passed away during today’s IRONMAN 70.3 Wisconsin event after experiencing a medical emergency. We extend our heartfelt condolences to the athlete’s family, friends, and loved ones during this difficult time.” The popular Wisconsin Ironman 70.3 consists of a 1.2-mile swim in Lake Monona, a 56-mile bike ride through Dane County and a 13.1-mile run ending near the State Capitol.

A “computer glitch” at a New Jersey data center has sent roughly 5,000 gallons of diesel pouring into the state’s wetlands. Michael Gonnelli, mayor of nearby Secaucus, has said the leak came from a storage tank at the site, run by digital infrastructure group Equinix. He blamed the glitch, though the firm said it’s still reviewing the cause. A spokesperson for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection said crews used vacuum trucks and barriers to remove the fuel from a creek before it reached the Hackensack River. Data centers have become a hot political topic during the Trump administration’s push to expand facilities across the country, often amid pushback from local residents. Mayor Gonnelli acknowledged the current controversy surrounding the boom in digital infrastructure, but noted that “this data center’s been here since 2001, over 25 years,” and that “we’ve never had a problem before this time.” Local environmental activist Ben Dziobek was not convinced. “This is what happens when the data center industry is allowed to operate without any rules, and new ones are popping up all over New Jersey,” he said.

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You don’t have to have a backyard villa to elevate your backyard space with Hanso Home’s new-and-improved pergola. Although the pergola does not come assembled (you can also hire their team to assemble it for you for an additional fee), it is easy to self-assemble with two people in two to four hours, which is one of the reasons that it’s a top choice for U.S. renovation contractors—along with the fact that adding a premium pergola to your yard can increase your home’s value by an average of $27,000, according to the brand. Best of all, the Fifth-Generation Hanso Horizon Smart Pergola is built to last for at least 30 years and is backed by a ten-year warranty.

A passenger became so sick on a cruise ship that emergency services were forced to send out a specialized helicopter crew to airlift them off the boat and take them to a Canadian hospital. The person, who has not been identified, was vacationing aboard the Celebrity Solstice vessel, operated by Celebrity Cruises, a subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Group, when they fell ill off the coast of British Columbia, Canada, last week. The Royal Canadian Air Force dispatched the helicopter after receiving a call about the person’s condition not long before 4 a.m. on Saturday. The crew arrived on the boat just before 7.30 a.m., then evacuated the passenger and their companion to Comox, on Vancouver Island, where the tourist was hospitalized in critical condition. The ship returned to port on Monday and has since set out on another cruise.

The penny is one step closer to disappearing after the House unanimously approved legislation to permanently end its production. The bipartisan Common Cents Act would bar the Treasury from minting the one-cent coin for general circulation, although the existing ones would remain legal tender and collector pennies could still be produced. The measure also creates a framework allowing cash purchases to be rounded to the nearest five cents when exact change is unavailable. Other payments would not be affected, while cash wages would be rounded up. The U.S. Mint stopped producing pennies in November 2025 after 232 years, after a sharp rise in production costs. Each penny was costing nearly four cents to make, thanks to a surge in the market value of copper and zinc. The Treasury estimates ending production would save $56 million annually. The bill also allows testing cheaper materials for nickels which, like the penny, has been the subject of rising production costs for nearly 20 years.