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Blue Origin's three previous crewed flights had taken familiar faces and people known in their fields to space. Those include William Shatner, aviation pioneer Wally Funk, Good Morning America host Michael Strahan and even company founder Jeff Bezos For its fourth mission with humans on board — and its 20th overall — one of the passengers was supposed to be Pete Davidson, SNL star and, well, the person who's recently been on the receiving end of Kanye West's ire. Turns out that won't be happening.

On Twitter, the aerospace company has announced that Davidson will no longer join the mission as a crew member. Blue Origin didn't reveal the reason why he's no longer flying with the rest of the crew to the edge of space and only said that the mission will launch on March 29th instead of on March 23rd as planned. Davidson was recently seen shooting scenes for horror movie The Home, but it's unclear if conflict of schedule was the reason why Blue Origin changed its lineup. It's also unknown at this point if Davidson will join another Blue Origin flight later on. 

The other passengers for the NS-20 mission are SpaceKids Global founder Sharon Hagle and husband Marc Hagle, University of North Carolina professor Jim Kitchen, President of Commercial Space Technologies Dr. George C. Nield and Marty Allen, a former CEO of Party America. Blue Origin said it will announce Davidson's replacement in the coming days.

Amazon is facing a lawsuit filed by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which is seeking the reinstatement of an employee it believes was filed in retaliation. Gerald Bryson, who worked at the e-commerce giant's JFK8 facility on Staten Island, was fired in the early days of the pandemic after he helped lead protests over safety concerns involving the company's COVID-19 protocols. 

Bryson fired an unfair labor practice suit back in 2020, but the case has been stuck in the agency's administrative court process. Now, according to The New York Times, the NLRB is asking a federal judge to make immediate changes before the facility holds a union election by the end of March and considering Bryson's involvement in organizing. 

Amazon denied that Bryson's firing was retaliatory back in 2020, explaining that he was fired for violating its policy against vulgar and harassing language. The company said Bryson bullied and intimidated a female associate "in a racially and sexually charged way" in a confrontation during the protest. However, a video recording cited by the NLRB in a recent filing (PDF) shows that while Bryson did indeed use foul language during the confrontation, the female employee also used foul language and a racial slur against him. Bryson, a Black man who helped lead the protest, was fired, while the white female employee who told him to stop protesting and go home, got a first warning.

The NLRB has accused Amazon of applying its policies against him in retaliation for the role he played in the protest. It argued that if the judge doesn't reinstate Bryson, workers "will inevitably conclude that the board cannot effectively protect their rights." NLRB director Kathy Drew King said in a statement:

"No matter how large the employer, it is important for workers to know their rights — particularly during a union election — and that the N.L.R.B. will vociferously defend them."

The JFK8 facility will hold a union vote in person between March 25th and March 30th. It's been a long journey just to get there, with the Amazon Labor Union failing to gather enough signatures to proceed with an election the first time around. The group reached union vote threshold in its second attempt, and although Amazon was skeptical that there were a "sufficient number of legitimate signatures," the election will take place as the NLRB had decided.

In addition to seeking Bryson's reinstatement, the NLRB also wants Amazon to post notices of workers' rights at the facility and to read those rights out loud at mandatory employee meetings.

Paypal will now allow peer-to-peer payments to and from Ukraine. The company announced today that it was significantly expanding its services in Ukraine in the wake of Russia’s invasion. Prior to this, Ukrainian Paypal customers could only use the payment platform to send money outside of the country. Earlier this month, the company announced it was exiting Russia, citing the country’s “violent aggression” against Ukraine.

Paypal users in Ukraine will now be able to send money to and receive money from outside the country, as well as domestically. It’s a move that likely will make life easier for Ukrainians receiving financial support from family and loved ones who live abroad. Ukrainians will also be able to send funds directly to their bank account by linking their Visa or Mastercard debit or credit card.

Perhaps most significantly, Paypal is waiving its own fees (until June 30th) for both sending and receiving funds in Ukraine. The payment platform traditionally charges a fee for international transactions that starts at 5%, and increases depending on your payment method and the region where your recipient resides. 

A new payment option is likely to have a significant impact in Ukraine, where only a few options exist to send or receive money abroad. Sending money to individuals in Ukraine (or virtually anywhere abroad) can be costly. Every payment platform that serves a global customer base in Ukraine (including WesterUnion, MoneyGram, Remitly) charges an international transaction fee or commission, and exchange rates can often be unfavorable. Hopefully, this temporary grace period from Paypal will make a significant impact for those seeking to send money to loved ones in Ukraine. 

Hogwarts Legacy will arrive on PC, PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series consoles in holiday 2022. And that's not all — during today's State of Play livestream dedicated to the open-world RPG, WB Games Avalanche dropped a trailer offering the first real look at how this sucker will look and play.

Hogwarts Legacy is a spinoff of the Harry Potter universe, but it takes place long before the events of the books. It's set in the 1800s, and places players in their fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where they'll learn spells, brew potions, grow magical plants, tame wild beasts and attend classes. Players have a unique ability to manipulate ancient magic, and with that, they hold the key to saving the wizarding world from dark forces. 

As familiar as that sounds, this is a game filled with original storylines and Harry Potter author JK Rowling (She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named) isn't directly involved in its development. Hogwarts Legacy features fresh professors, students, villains, mentors and creatures, plus some familiar ghosts. Players will be able to fly on broomsticks, gain friends who will join them on quests and upgrade their abilities based on how they like to play. It's not all contained to Hogwarts, either. The shops at Hogsmeade are also available to explore.

Hogwarts Legacy was announced in late 2020 and it was originally due to come out in 2021, but it was later delayed to 2022. 

"Creating the best possible experience for all of the Wizarding World and gaming fans is paramount to us, so we are giving the game the time it needs," Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment said at the time.

The podcast deal Prince Harry and Meghan Markle signed with Spotify is finally close to bearing (significant) fruit. As The Vergereports, Markle is releasing a podcast series on Spotify this summer through the couple's Archewell Audio production company. Details weren't available, but the show is premiering after Harry and Meghan were "encouraged" by discussions over Spotify's efforts to fight misinformation. The news is a "result of those meetings," Archewell said.

Harry and Meghan haven't been thrilled with Spotify's approach so far. The duo said they had been expressing concerns about misinformation since April 2021. Their worries became all the more pressing when Neil Young, Brené Brown and other creatives began pulling or withholding content from Spotify in protest over the company's seeming tolerance of COVID-19 misinformation from Joe Rogan's podcast. Archewell spokesperson Toya Holness said the company was partnering with Spotify to develop "policies, practices, and strategies" to curb misinformation and improve transparency.

The news may be welcome for Spotify. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle struck their podcast deal with Spotify in December 2020, but haven't produced anything apart from a holiday special. Markle's podcast series could both help Spotify recoup some of its investment and address concerns it was fighting its own podcast partners.

The challenge, of course, is persuading other Spotify-exclusive podcast hosts and networks to follow suit. Spotify has signed a number of high-profile exclusives, but not all of them have been successful — filmmaker Ava DuVernay exited her first-look deal just a year after announcing it. Markle's podcast may show that some creators are willing to stick around, but there are no guarantees others will be quite so confident.

The British defense secretary has ordered an inquiry into a video call he received on Thursday from an imposter pretending to be Denys Shmyhal, Ukraine’s prime minister. In a series of tweets, the Right Honorable Ben Wallace disclosed that the man asked “several misleading questions” and he eventually ended the call after becoming suspicious. The official described the hoax as a “desperate attempt”, and pinned the blame on Russia. 

“No amount of Russian disinformation, distortion and dirty tricks can distract from Russia’s human rights abuses and illegal invasion of Ukriane. A desperate attempt,” wrote the Conservative politician in the tweet. Wallace did not reveal any evidence backing his claim that Russia was responsible for the fake call, nor name any individuals involved.

Deborah Haynes of Sky News noted that the perpetrators went to “great lengths” to stage the video call, including placing a Ukrainian flag behind the so-called “Ukrainian prime minister” and using fake details from the Ukraine embassy. At one point, the culprit asked Wallace if he received “the substance” they sent. A few more minutes of similarly absurd questioning finally raised enough alarm bells for Wallace to abort the call.

A pair of Russian comedians known as Lexus and Vovan are infamous for regularly pranking world leaders. As Irish Times notes, the pair once called former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko, posing as the president of Kyrgyzstan. The same pair also pretended — in a call to the actual Poroshenko— to be Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. They also duped British Prime Minister Boris Johnson into taking an 18-minute video call with an actor who was impersonating the prime minister of Armenia. During the call, Johnson talked about the UK’s plans for Russian President Vladimir Putin and the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal. While the Kremlin denies employing the pair, Russian state media often congratulates their actions.

While a security snafu at this level is no doubt embarrassing to the British defense ministry, disclosing that such a call happened is also important to national security. As Haynes notes, raising awareness of the call could thwart any attempts to doctor the footage and release it in order to mislead the public.

The producers of Until Dawn are returning to their roots after years of Dark Pictures Anthology games. Supermassive Games and 2K have unveiledThe Quarry, a teen horror title that has you once again deciding the fates of frightened youth. You control nine camp counselors as a night of celebrating the end of summer camp quickly goes sideways — the trailer below hints at a Most Dangerous Game tale where someone appears to be hunting the counselors for sport.

Supermassive is leaning on star power as much as it is familiar narrative-driven game mechanics. The Quarry stars David Arquette (appropriately from Scream), Ariel Winter (Modern Family) and Lance Henriksen (Aliens), not to mention actors from productions like A Nightmare on Elm Street, Dollface and Jurassic World. And yes, any character can die. As with Until Dawn and similar games, you'll have to work hard if you want as many people as possible to survive.

Multiplayer is important, as well. You can have "couch co-op" where people control individual counselors, but you can also have as many as seven people voting on your decisions. While it won't be quite as pressure-filled as having a Twitch audience decide, it will help you share the thrill ride with friends. And don't worry if it's too nerve-wracking. On top of adjustable difficulty levels, there's a "Movie Mode" that removes the gameplay entirely and even lets you choose how the story plays out.

The Quarry arrives June 10th for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and Windows PCs. The gameplay and premise will be more than a little familiar (how many horror movies have summer camps?), but that may be part of the appeal. It's giving you a chance to "fix" well-worn genre tropes, if just by keeping everyone alive.

Snap is taking more action against bullying and harassment on Snapchat. It will no longer allow anonymous messaging from third-party apps that hook into its platform. The company said that while most people used these features in "fun, engaging, and entirely appropriate ways," it acknowledged others might take advantage of anonymity "to engage in harmful behavior."

From now on, third-party apps that want to let folks communicate through a Snapchat integration will need to have registered users with visible usernames and identities.

Last May, Snap locked two third-party apps that allowed for anonymous messages out of its developer platform and began a review of Snap Kit standards and policies. The decision came soon after the filing of a lawsuit related to the death of a teenager who was allegedly bullied through the apps, Yolo and LMK. The teen's mother sought to hold the makers of all three apps liable.

Of the more than 1,500 developers with access to Snap Kit, two percent will be affected by this policy, according to The Verge. Another rule change will impact three percent of Snap Kit developers: friend-finding apps will be restricted to those aged 18 and older. Snap is enacting that change to protect younger users and make things “more consistent with Snapchat’s use case — communications between close friends who already know each other.”

Fans of Resident Evil and the zombie apocalypse genre writ large can look forward to Netflix’s live-action reboot this summer. The streamer announced that the series — which takes place 14 years after a virus causes the apocalypse — will premiere on July 14th. The new show is not to be confused with Resident Evil:Infinite Darkness, an anime adaptation of the survival horror video game that debuted on the platform last summer. 

The live-action series will star Lance Reddick (The Wire, Lost) as Albert Wesker, who fans will remember as the police captain who turns out to be a villain set to destroy humanity. Oh, and he’s a family man! Ella Balinska (Charlie’s Angels) has also been cast in the series, as well as Tamara Smart (The Worst Witch, Artemis Fowl). Also starring in the show is Siena Agudong (No Good Nick), Adeline Rudolph (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Riverdale) and Paola Nuñez (Bad Boys for Life).

We still don’t know many details about the plot, but here’s what Deadline has gathered so far. The show takes place in 2036, nearly 14 years after a virus has turned most of the world into blood-sucking zombies. Jade Wesker, the show’s protagonist, has yet to find out her dad is an evil genius who works for the Umbrella Corporation, the Big Pharma company from the video game that develops bioweapons for militaries around the world. 

The show is set in New Racoon City, the new city built over Raccoon City, which was nuked due to a T-virus outbreak. T-virus (also known as Tyrant Virus) is the highly infectious virus that turns humans into blood-thirsty zombies and is featured in promo stills for the live-action series. The show follows the Wesker daughter as she pieces together the awful truth behind what her father actually does for a living. We’ll likely find out even more about what’s in store for New Racoon City once Netflix releases a teaser trailer.

Samsung has opened up pre-orders for many of its 2022 TVs and revealed when you'll be able to lock in an order for some of its other upcoming displays. The company is refreshing its Neo QLED sets this year with features such as refresh rates of up to 144Hz, 14-bit processing for enhanced brightness accuracy and AI-driven upscaling via the Neural Quantum Processor 8K.

Neo QLED QN800B 8K TVs are available to pre-order now at $3,500 for the 65-inch model, $4,700 for the 75-inch TV and $6,500 for the 85-inch version. Pre-orders for the QN900B-series TVs (which have thinner bezels and 144Hz output) will open on March 21st. Pricing hasn't been announced.

Like the 8K models, the Neo QLED 4K QN95B uses Mini-LEDs. It has a Neural Quantum Processor 4K and 144Hz refresh rate. Top-channel speakers are integrated with Object Tracking Sound with the aim of making whatever you're watching feel more immersive. Pre-orders will open on May 23rd. 

Samsung

Depending on your preferred screen size, you won't have to wait quite as long as that to get your hands on a 2022 version of The Frame. It also has new top speakers and comes with Samsung's solar-powered remote. There's also a matte finish that's said to give the appearance of texture to art that you display on the Frame while minimizing glare.

The 43”, 50”, 65” and 75” models are available to pre-order now, starting at $1,000. Samsung will open pre-orders for the 32-inch, 55-inch and 85-inch sizes soon.

Samsung

In addition, Samsung announced the S95B OLED TV. Features include the Tizen platform, Neural Quantum Processor 4K, Object Tracking Sound and QSymphony- with Dolby Atmos. Samsung says it includes an OLED brightness booster and perceptional color mapping as well. It's available to pre-order now in 55-inch and 65" formats, starting at $2,400.

Access to cloud gaming services such as Google Stadia and NVIDIA GeForce Now will be available on some of Samsung's 2022 TVs. You'll just need a compatible controller to play games on supported TVs.