In case you'd forgotten, a real-life Squid Game is coming to Netflix. The death game

Watch the Rybka Twins unleash their twisty art on NBC's 'America's Got Talent' Season 18 as they showcase their flexibility

Comedian turned commentator Russell Brand has weighed in on the ongoing wildfires in Maui, Hawaii, flouting conspiracy theories in his usual fast-paced, flamboyant style which are so outlandish, that he’s being compared to GB News anti-vaxxer Neil Oliver. Brand, who’s switched appearances on comedy films such as Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Him to the Greek for his Stay Free podcast in recent years, uploaded a video to his six million subscriber strong YouTube channel on Thursday with the title, “Something Doesn’t Seem Right”. As the baseless conspiracy theory that the devastating crisis on the US island was not aided by climate change but rather a ‘space laser’ continue to spread online, Brand jumped in and dismissed those rightly questioning such a nonsensical argument. “Now, some people would say, ‘Oh, that’s dangerous misinformation – that should be shut down.’ I think the opposite. “Discuss it, look at it, investigate it. Either it’s true or it’s not true, we can decide for ourselves, let’s not get excited,” he says. We have, Russell – that’s kind of what journalists do for a job… Towards the end of the almost 23-minute-long video, Brand turns to the conspiracy that the fires in Hawaii were “started deliberately to benefit rich elites” such as the investment management company and financial services provider BlackRock. He continues: “Now look at the Ukraine war. Ukraine have already done a deal with BlackRock to rebuild their nation using BlackRock investment. “If you apply that mentality to this situation, if BlackRock end up benefitting from the fires in Hawaii, then the conspiracy is almost a redundant detail. Did they start it? Didn’t they start it? “Is it inevitable that the suffering of ordinary people leads to the benefit of rich elites and massive organisations like BlackRock and billionaires across the globe and why is Bill Gates buying all this agricultural land when he’s not a farmer?” Yes, that’s one whole sentence. “Doesn’t it all feel like a kind of macro-conspiracy that’s so diffuse, institutional, oddly abstracted and bureaucratically opaque, that sometimes you just want to simplify it into ‘they started this fire! They started it with a laser from space!’ “And whether it’s true or not, it not only feels true, in terms of its results it is kind of true. There is a conspiracy to keep you poor and benefit rich elites,” he vented, adding that the “next time there’s a pandemic” the elite are “gonna control you more”. In other news, thesauruses are in short supply around the world. And it’s Brand’s ranting about a shadowy elite and government control during a pandemic which has likely led to social media users on Twitter/X branding Brand (ha) a “frappucino Neil Oliver”, the GB News host who has long peddled conspiracy theories about vaccines and an impending “one-world government”. Back in August 2021 he said he’d happily catch Covid – y’know, an actually deadly virus – “for the sake of freedom”, just so you know the kind of dangerous nonsense we’re dealing with here. Others, however, have pointed out to user Matthew Dimitri – who shared a clip of Brand on X – that Brand was actually making an argument about elites and organisations benefitting from natural disasters like the one in Hawaii, and that Dimitri has “misrepresented” Brand: Except instead of rejecting the laser conspiracy theory outright, remember, Brand said he ‘thinks the opposite’ and that instead we should “discuss it, look at it [and] investigate it”, which isn’t a complete dismissal of the idea. He doesn’t really give a definitive answer on whether the claim is true or not, but rather suggests that the result of the whole ‘is it or isn’t it’ debate is more important, as if it’s part of a broader conspiracy or distraction “to keep you poor and benefit rich elites”. Perhaps a far more compelling argument around all this is that Brand should learn to keep things succinct, for the benefit of everyone... Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

HGTV star Jonathan Scott says he's working on 'open dialogue' with girlfried Zooey Deschanel's children

In his latest breakdown video, Demetrious Johnson analyzed a fight between Andrew Tate and Laszlo Szabo, praising the influencer on his fighting tactics

Sir Paul McCartney said artificial intelligence has been used to create “the last Beatles record”, which is set to be released later this year. The 80-year-old former Beatle said technology was used to extract late bandmate John Lennon’s voice from an old demo and “get it pure” for what he said will be the final song from the Liverpool band. He told Martha Kearney on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that AI is an “interesting thing” and “something that we’re all sort of tackling at the moment” and trying to deal with. “When Peter Jackson did the film (The Beatles) Get Back, where it was us making the Let It Be album, he was able to extricate John’s voice from a ropey little bit of cassette and a piano. He could separate them with AI, he’d tell the machine ‘That’s a voice, this is a guitar, lose the guitar’. “So when we came to make what will be the last Beatles record, it was a demo that John had that we worked on and we just finished it up. It will be released this year. “We were able to take John’s voice and get it pure through this AI so then we could mix the record as you would do. It gives you some sort of leeway.” Sir Paul said there is a “good side” to AI but also a “scary side”. “We will just have to see where that leads,” he said. The singer-songwriter also spoke about his forthcoming exhibition to mark the reopening of the National Portrait Gallery, titled Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes Of The Storm, which incorporates unseen photographs taken by Sir Paul during the early days of The Beatles. The archive features more than 250 images taken between November 1963 and February 1964, which capture the emergence of Beatlemania through the personal lens of Sir Paul’s Pentax camera. The exhibition will run from June 28 to October 1 at the gallery, which has undergone three years of major refurbishment. It features portraits of Sir Ringo Starr as well as late bandmates George Harrison and Lennon, and manager Brian Epstein. Sir Paul said: “It is very poignant, it’s great because, whenever you lose someone, I think your natural thing is ‘Well, we’ve got beautiful memories’, and you hold fast those memories of the good times. “I don’t tend to dwell on the fact that you’ve lost someone. After a while – it’ll maybe take a year or two – and then you can look back and you just remember where you met them, things you did… “And when it came to The Beatles, and you have this overwhelming stuff happening to you, you knew each other so well that you could lean on each other – that’s what I see in these pictures.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Put ‘public good’ at heart of AI and new tech, Starmer to say Ukrainian schoolboy to buy home for his mother after selling Minecraft server Legislation needed to protect data from AI ‘ghostbots’, say researchers

“Barbie” is cruising atop the box office

'I want to apologize to the Jewish community and everyone who was offended by my post,' wrote Jamie Foxx

'I am challenging everything I thought I knew about menopause,' said Halle Berry on Instagram Live

One fan could not help but ask, 'What on earth has happened to your face?'

This black comedy-drama charts Catherine the Great's rise from being the 'outsider bride' to Russia's longest-reigning female ruler

Ellen Pompeo said, 'In the scene, I'm crying. But I’m really crying because I have to beg a man on television'