Today, The Pokémon Company International announced that Hatsune Miku, a popular virtual pop idol from Japan, and her partner Pokémon, Meloetta, will make their debut as a Project VOLTAGE figure created in collaboration with Kotobukiya. This figure is the first time merchandise from the Project VOLTAGE collaboration is available outside of Japan. Fans in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. can head over to PokemonCenter.com starting today to pre-order their very own Hatsune Miku and Meloetta Kotobukiya Figure, expected to ship in 2027. Virtual pop idol Hatsune Miku takes center stage with the Mythical Pokémon Meloetta in this masterfully sculpted figure from Kotobukiya. Project VOLTAGE is a musical collaboration project that originally launched only in Japan in 2023, with 18 original songs and music videos by 18 unique Vocaloid producers. You can listen to these songs and tunes on the official Japanese Pokémon YouTube channel. The Kotobukiya Hatsune Miku (Psychic) & Meloetta Figure is priced at $300 and you can pre-order yours through the Pokemon Center website. Today, The Pokémon Company International announced that Hatsune Miku, a popular virtual pop idol from Japan, and her partner Pokémon, Meloetta, will make their debut as a Project VOLTAGE figure created in collaboration with Kotobukiya. This figure is the first time merchandise from the Project VOLTAGE collaboration is available outside of Japan. Virtual pop idol Hatsune Miku takes center stage with the Mythical Pokémon Meloetta in this masterfully sculpted figure from Kotobukiya. Project VOLTAGE is a musical collaboration project that originally launched only in Japan in 2023, with 18 original songs and music videos by 18 unique Vocaloid producers. You can listen to these songs and tunes on the official Japanese Pokémon YouTube channel. The Kotobukiya Hatsune Miku (Psychic) & Meloetta Figure is priced at $300 and you can pre-order yours through the Pokemon Center website.

Supernatural needs to come back as an animated series. Fans aren't ready to move on from Sam and Dean yet, but only an animated show presents the opportunity to spend more time with the Winchester brothers as fans know and love them. The new Supernatural comic series from author Greg Pak and publisher Dynamite Entertainment is set during Season One of the show. Which, in turn, makes the solution that much more obvious. This is one huge benefit of continuing the franchise in the comic medium: Sam and Dean can be young again. The Supernatural comic has had its exciting moments so far. Most of all, author Greg Pak has nailed the dialogue and dynamic between Sam and Dean from the start. It leans into the campier side of Supernatural, but not necessarily in a bad way. Where the comic's initial issues have faltered has been a matter of pacing. As a network TV show, Supernatural episodes methodically clock in at around the 42-44 minute mark. Dynamite's Supernatural comic is in the 22-25 page range. Resurrecting Supernatural on television isn't as easy as bringing Sam or Dean back from the dead...Which brings us to the one "have your cake and eat it too" scenario: an animated series. It does, however, highlight the fact that Supernatural stories need room to breathe. And it's one point in favor of the argument that Supernatural needs to be a TV franchise first and foremost. Which brings us to the one "have your cake and eat it too" scenario: an animated series. A big sticking point when it comes to a future Supernatural series is the involvement of stars Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki. At the same time, if Ackles and Padalecki were to reprise the roles, it would have to be a sequel series. An anime version of Supernatural was produced in Japan during the show's run. Unless, of course, they returned as voice actors. An animated show could take a cue from Dynamite's Supernatural comic and take place early in the live-action show's run, while still maintaining Sam and Dean's signature voices. This would satisfy fans' desire for Ackles and Padalecki's involvement, and the Winchesters' return, while hewing closer to the OG show's pacing. Even a half-hour animated TV episode would be closer to the structure of a classic Supernatural episode than Dynamite's comic has been able to replicate. Part of what makes the show a classic is that its best moments tend to happen in between an episode's plot beats. Author Greg Pak has quickly proven that he knows how to write Sam and Dean. Plus, Pak has a keen sense of the franchise's fictional world. It certainly isn't him failing Supernatural, but rather the comic medium is proving to be a less-than-perfect fit for the franchise. Pak's vision would be better suited for the screen, in animated form. The Supernatural prequel series The Winchesters only survived one season, and it remains to be determined how long Dynamite Entertainment's comic series will run for. An animated show is ultimately the only path forward for a version of Supernatural that brings back Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, and more of the show's familiar faces, or voices, while avoiding the pitfalls of a sequel. It could be the salvation of Supernatural that diehard fans are begging for. Share your opinions in the thread below and remember to keep it respectful.

Coming off the heels of Attorney General Pam Bondi's demand for access to Minnesota voter rolls and the state's decisive refusal to comply with that demand, President Trump is now spreading conspiracy theories about the state and is again threatening to try to exert control over the nation's election systems. Last month, Bondi attempted to tie the Trump administration's months-long campaign to seize sensitive voter information from various states across the country, with the recent killing of a U.S. citizen Alex Pretti by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. Tim Walz following Pretti's death, Bondi asked Walz for the state's voter data in exchange for an end to the “chaos” in Minnesota. Both Walz and Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon refused to comply and slammed Bondi for her demands. Simon called the letter “an apparent ransom to pay for our state's peace and security.” Against this backdrop, Trump's fixation with Minnesota's residents and the state's election administration has continued. In a recent podcast with MAGA conspiracy theorist and former deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino, Trump raised bizarre conspiracy theories about the Somali community in Minneapolis, a group he has long demonized. These are people who don't work,” Trump told Bongino on a Monday podcast episode. And at a later point during the same podcast episode, Trump put out a call for Republicans to “nationalize voting,” and take over election administration from the states. “The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over,'” he told Bongino. Trump's call to “nationalize the voting,” like his administration's ongoing crusade to seize states' voter rolls to, it seems, create some sort of national voter file, is yet another way in which he is attempting to exert control over the election system — a system managed by the states and not the federal government. Trump also issued an executive order trying to enact nationwide election administration changes, like mandating documentary proof of citizenship and calling for all mail-in ballots to be received by Election Day. Those orders have been mostly shot down by the courts. This data, which includes things like social security numbers and driver's licenses, is not information the federal government is entitled to.

This week in stories we're tracking at The Debrief… scientists warn that solving the mystery of consciousness could reshape our existence, as Tim McMillan details. Meanwhile, reporters Leslie Kean and Ralph Blumenthal report from Washington on a controversial UAP incident from Brazil that recently made its way to Capitol Hill. And finally, scientists have bombarded an ancient document with X-rays to reveal a “lost” portion of a 2000-year-old star map. Here's a look at all the recent stories we're covering at The Debrief:

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Get the world's most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for the latest discoveries, groundbreaking research and fascinating breakthroughs that impact you and the wider world direct to your inbox. Feed your curiosity with an exclusive mystery every week, solved with science and delivered direct to your inbox before it's seen anywhere else. Sign up to our free science & technology newsletter for your weekly fix of fascinating articles, quick quizzes, amazing images, and more Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more! Sign up to our monthly entertainment newsletter to keep up with all our coverage of the latest sci-fi and space movies, tv shows, games and books. Discover this week's must-see night sky events, moon phases, and stunning astrophotos. Sign up for our skywatching newsletter and explore the universe with us! Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards. Physicists have put thousands of atoms into a "Schrödinger's cat" state — smashing the record for the most macroscopic object to be observed in a quantum state. In a new study, researchers observed nanoparticles of 7,000 sodium atoms acting as a cohesive wave, pushing the strange world of quantum mechanics to new limits. Building on this research, future experiments could finally put biological molecules into a quantum state, opening up new ways to investigate their physical properties. These sodium nanoparticles have now collectively set the record for the most macroscopic objects to be observed in a quantum superposition. "Usually when people think of quantum mechanics, they associate it with small, tiny things, maybe photons, maybe electrons," lead study author Sebastian Pedalino, a physicist at the University of Vienna, told Live Science. "But quantum mechanics itself doesn't state any limits. In the quantum realm, particles can be both here and there. This strange phenomenon is known as quantum superposition. The quantum physicist Erwin Schrödinger likened this to placing a cat in a sealed box with a vial of poison that is set to be released when a radioactive source decays, meaning the cat could be killed at any moment after the box has been sealed. This puts the cat into a superposition of being both dead and alive. Incredibly, this is how particles behave at the quantum scale; they are in multiple places at once and act as both a particle and a wave until they are observed. Get the world's most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox. The reason we don't see quantum superposition all around us is because of a process called decoherence. If something in a quantum superposition interacts with its environment, it will decohere and no longer be both here and there; instead, it will be forced into one place. Larger objects are constantly interacting with their environment, so they can't maintain a quantum superposition. So the real challenge when trying to observe larger particles acting as a wave is to isolate them so they can stay in a coherent quantum superposition. If the sodium nanoparticle was in a quantum superposition, this would mean that it spread out like a wave after passing through the slit. "For two years, I was looking at flat lines," Pedalino said. —'The universe has thrown us a curveball': Largest-ever map of space reveals we might have gotten dark energy totally wrong —Cosmic voids may explain the universe's acceleration without dark energy "It was already late in the night, and I called my professor. And he came back to the lab, and we took measurements until 3 a.m., when we ran out of the sodium." This discovery opens the door for future experiments where scientists could feasibly observe biological materials, such as a virus or proteins, in a quantum superposition. Decades of experiments show that tiny particles follow one set of rules (quantum mechanics), while larger structures, such as stars, galaxies and — yes — house cats, follow another (Einstein's relativity). Scientists have long sought to reconcile these two rule sets into a "theory of everything," but they have so far come up short. He holds a Master's degree in Physics from the University of Manchester and an MSc in Science Communication from Imperial College London. You must confirm your public display name before commenting Live Science is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher.

His latest film, "Send Help," is a wicked and fun horror comedy about office workers trapped on a deserted island, and it possesses all of the goop and violence that Raimi has become known for. Raimi, however, is perfectly capable of more adult material and proved his directorial chops with his first grown-up drama, "A Simple Plan," released in 1998. In 2000, Raimi made what might be his most underrated film, a Southern noir with a supernatural twist called "The Gift." In "The Gift," Cate Blanchett plays a woman named Annie who is possessed of mild clairvoyant powers. The film's impressive cast also included Hilary Swank, Keanu Reeves, Katie Holmes, Greg Kinnear, Giovanni Ribisi, and J.K. Simmons. On Thornton's official website (handily archived in its early 2000s form), it is noted that Thornton wrote "The Gift" to be based on his mother's own psychic experiences. Billy Bob Thornton's mother, born Virginia Faulkner, was a self-proclaimed psychic, something he discussed in his episode of the interview show "Inside the Actor's Studio" (handily archived online). The show's host, James Lipton, asked Thornton quite directly about his mother's "gift," and Thornton was frank in response, saying: People can believe what they want, but I've seen it in action. [...] My mom was called a witch and everything. I was raised with no electricity or running water. And we ate what my grandfather killed until I was six or seven." Thornton's father died in 1974, and Thornton has noted that he never really talked with him, so his mother took up the job of raising Billy and his brothers. It's not stated if Annie's personality closely matches Thornton's mother, but the parallels are clear, given that she's a widow who is also raising three children and making a living on the side as a professional psychic. Specifically, she said that Billy would grow up and star on screen with Burt Reynolds. This prediction astonishingly came true when Thornton, way back in 1990, had a bit part as a flower deliveryman on the sitcom "Evening Shade." It should be noted that Billy Bob Thornton wrote "The Gift," and several other screenplays, with his longtime writing partner, Tom Epperson. Epperson and Thornton penned the scripts for "One False Move" (which starred Thornton's "A Simple Plan" so-star Bill Paxton), as well as "A Family Thing," the TV movie "Don't Look Back," "Camouflage," and "Jayne Mansfield's Car," which Thornton also directed. They have had a long and lucrative career together. "The Gift," meanwhile, is almost a forgotten film in Sam Raimi's filmography. Perhaps because, like "A Simple Plan," it is devoid of the type of wild, stylish camerawork that is more typically Raimi's trademark. "The Gift" is a downbeat character drama about Annie and her trials, while also being a sweaty airport-style potboiler about murder and corruption in small-town Georgia. I will remain vague on plot details, as the script is twisty and the film deserves to be discovered through its thick Southern atmosphere. Critics weren't super-kind to "The Gift," as it currently only holds a middling 57% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes (based on 123 reviews). Roger Ebert gave the film three stars, admiring that Annie took her psychic duties with a pragmatic air, presenting them as very matter-of-fact. He also noted, however, that the characters all live in a "swamp of melodrama," presenting a lot of Southern Gothic archetypes without much variation from the clichés he was used to. Curt Fields, meanwhile, writing for the Washington Post, wrote in his quote negative review that "The Gift" had no originality at all.

Some UFOS move at incredibly fast speeds(Image: Jam Press/Charlotte Helyer) A former submarine worker claims he was made aware of the horrifying logbooks the US Navy kept of chilling fast moving unidentified objects moving across oceans. A Reddit user named Dabier claims to have worked with a retired Cold War submariner, and asked him about the “fast movers”. A fast mover is an unidentified aerial or submerged object (UASO) that travels at incredibly high speeds that military systems pick up on. One Redditer claimed to have met a man who tracked UFOs(Image: Jam Press) He said that they would put all ‘unidentified' contacts (as in clearly not biological - there's a lot of unidentified biological noise) in the unidentified section of this logbook style thing they had. “It was like a file with all the navy's info on how other ships sound. He said there were some entries they made which were really weird, either very fast with nothing in the area that could've made that noise or just weird as in strange noises like buzzing or something that's clearly not natural but sounds like no ship they've ever heard. Other concerns which were flagged included multicoloured jellyfish and a 6ft rocket. AARO said: "It is important to underscore that, to date, AARO has discovered no evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity, or technology." They added: "None of these resolved cases substantiated advanced foreign adversarial capabilities or breakthrough aerospace technologies." Regarding the unresolved cases, they added: "AARO is working closely with its IC (Intelligence Community) and S&T (Science and Technology) partners to understand and attribute the 21 cases received this reporting period that merit further analysis based on reported anomalous characteristics and/or behaviours. AARO will provide immediate notification to Congress should AARO identify any cases that indicate or involve a breakthrough in foreign adversarial aerospace capability." He called for NASA to take action and says the agency could map the flights of potential UFOs to track down their origins, reports Forbes.