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'Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical' review: How Netflix's West End adaptation compares to the beloved 1996 movie

Tim Minchin's smash hit  Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical has grown up — or rather, grown into a movie musical of the same name, featuring revolting children, a certain forbidden chocolate cake, and fiction's most formidable headmaster. Describing the new movie musical is almost as wordy as Minchin's spectacularly smart lyrics. Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical is a Netflix film adapted from his Olivier-winning West End musical, which was based on Roald Dahl's 1988 children's book. That book inspired Danny DeVito's beloved 1996 film, and that movie clearly inspired some of the characterisation and aesthetics of the new movie musical. (More on that in a bit!) Netflix's adaptation was in knowledgeable hands, with the show's writer Dennis Kelly and director Matthew Warchus taking on the screen version of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production. SEE ALSO: 15 catchiest, most dazzling musicals on Netflix How does the stage musical compare to Netfli...

A man was arrested after his female colleague said he was suffocating her at a National Science Foundation base in Antarctica. Assault and harassment on the bases are considered a problem per a report.

MARK RALSTON/AFP via Getty Images A man at a National Science Foundation base in Antarctica was charged with assaulting a female colleague.  The female employee said Stephen Tyler Bieneman was suffocating her with his leg. Bieneman was arrested in Antarctica and transported to Hawaii. A man on a search and rescue team at the US National Science Foundation base in Antarctica was arrested and transported to Hawaii after being accused of assaulting a female colleague, according to court documents filed in the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii.  Officials charged Stephen Tyler Bieneman with assault within the maritime and territorial jurisdiction, according to a criminal complaint filed on December 12. The incident occurred at the McMurdo Station, one of three research stations managed by the National Science Foundation under the US Antarctic Program, according to a federal affidavit filed by Deputy US Marshal Marc E. Tunstall, a federal agent sta...

Wordle today: Here's the answer, hints for December 25

Merry Christmas! Our gift? Of course, it’s a Wordle ! (We may not be that creative here at Mashable’s Wordle Central, but we’re consistent!) Also, you get the tips and hints you love. So it’s a big win today. If you want to bypass the struggle, you can jump to the bottom of this article to get December 25's Wordle solution straight up. But if you prefer to work it out yourself, keep reading for a few clues, tips, and strategies to help you get there. Where did Wordle come from? While engineer Josh Wardle originally created Wordle for his partner, the word guessing game has since become a daily habit for thousands of players across the globe. In fact, Wordle became so popular that it was eventually purchased by the New York Times .  Wordle has also inspired numerous fanmade clones and alternate iterations , such as battle royale Squabble , music identification game Heardle , and variations like Dordle and Quordle that have you trying to guess multiple words at once . It...

'Quordle' today: Here are the answers and hints for December 25

If Quordle is a little too challenging today, you've come to the right place for hints. There aren't just hints here, but the whole Quordle solution. Scroll to the bottom of this page, and there it is. But are you sure you need all four answers? Maybe you just need a strategy guide. Either way, scroll down, and you'll get what you need. What is Quordle ? Quordle is a five-letter word guessing game similar to Wordle , except each guess applies letters to four words at the same time. You get nine guesses instead of six to correctly guess all four words. It looks like playing four Wordle games at the same time, and that is essentially what it is. But it's not nearly as intimidating as it sounds. Is Quordle harder than Wordle? Yes, though not diabolically so. Where did Quordle come from? Amid the Wordle boom of late 2021 and early 2022, when everyone was learning to love free, in-browser, once-a-day word guessing games, creator Freddie Meyer says he took inspi...

A lifetime subscription to Degoo Premium is on sale for 94% off

TL;DR : A lifetime subscription to a Degoo Premium Lifetime 10TB Backup Plan is on sale for £163.58, saving you 94% on list price. Your Christmas memories may last forever, but you might want to make sure your photos and videos do, too. Keeping all your photos on your phone may be convenient, but it’s not exactly safe. Make sure your memories last forever and get a digital backup for all of your devices. Degoo Premium has a lifetime 10TB backup plan, and you can get it for £163.58. Whether it’s a child’s first gift or that perfect dinner table full of food, there are a lot of photo opportunities. Unless you actively ask for photos, you might never see all those precious moments. Degoo lets you pair an unlimited number of devices, so you can create one file hub that everyone can upload to. 10TB is more storage space than Dropbox, OneDrive, and Google Drive combined, so there’s going to be room for everyone to share.  Files aren’t removed from your device once they’re uploaded...

FTC orders Mastercard to open debit transactions to competing payment networks

The Federal Trade Commission has ordered Mastercard to start providing competing payment networks with the information they need to process debit card payments. In a proposed enforcement action announced on Friday , the FTC said Mastercard had allegedly violated a provision of the Dodd-Frank act known as the Durbin Amendment by prohibiting merchants from routing transactions over alternative networks. The action targets “tokenization,” the technology that underpins mobile payment applications like Apple Pay , Google Pay and Samsung Pay. When you go to make a debit or credit card purchase with your phone’s mobile wallet, the software substitutes sensitive information, including the primary number associated with your account, with a separate set of single-use “tokens.” Mastercard and Visa say the practice prevents fraud since tokens contain no exploitable information when they’re in transit. It’s only when they arrive at Mastercard or Visa’s servers, and they’re mapped back to their ...

A delivery driver's car was stolen with her kids inside — and it reveals the complicated reality of juggling gig work and childcare

Thiago Prudencio/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images A DoorDash delivery driver had her car stolen with her infant twins inside. DoorDash allows children to be in the car while deliveries are made.  Gig workers often bring their children on jobs because childcare costs are prohibitive.  A DoorDash delivery worker had her car stolen with her twin babies inside earlier this week in Ohio. The children were eventually found, but the frightening incident highlighted a reality for many gig workers — their kids come with them on deliveries. The flexibility of delivery work for companies like DoorDash, Uber Eats, or Instacart can be appealing to parents. But the unpredictable income from gig work can make paying for childcare while out on deliveries uneconomical. "Most independent workers who are doing this work are at the low end of the pay spectrum, which makes childcare so expensive," Lindsey Cameron, a professor of management at Wharton business school who studi...

Daily Crunch: Meta to pay $725M settlement in Cambridge Analytica data access case

To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here . Today we celebrate a bit of oversight over an industry that has been allowed to prey on those less fortunate for way too long — Devin reports that the FCC is taking a more firm hand in overseeing the prison phone system in a simple bill, giving the regulatory body the power “to ensure just and reasonable charges for telephone and advanced communications services in correctional and detention facilities.” In other captivating news, the Daily Crunch will be back next week in a slightly diminished form, as both Christine and Haje disappear for the holidays. The full newsletter will be back soon, and the two of us wish you a very happy Christmas if you celebrate, a very peaceful holiday if you do not, and a magnificently prosperous 2023, in either case. Much love, Christine and Haje The TechCrunch Top 4 Meta settles : After years of pushing back aga...

Cheapest electric cars: 7 electric cars cheaper than the least expensive Tesla

Tesla once proudly boasted about a $35,000 fully electric sedan . Those days are long gone. Now the cheapest Tesla is the standard range Model 3, which starts at $43,990. Last weekend, most Tesla models bumped up in price by $2,000 . (The Model 3 standard range used to be $41,990.) And, on Wednesday, Tesla prices also went up in Germany and China . That doesn't mean affordable EVs are out of reach. Beyond Tesla, EVs from Chevy to Nissan can be had for under $40,000, and they offer plenty of range, power, and other features — even if there's no Dog or Sentry Mode available. Here are the EVs a more budget-friendly driver might consider. 1. The Nissan Leaf is among the cheapest electric cars The OG EV Credit: NISSAN Range : 150 or 226 miles Starting price : $27,400 The OG electric sedan, the Leaf is a solid EV choice. Plus, it still qualifies for the federal tax credit , which Tesla lost access to even before the pandemic. (At the time of publication, all cars list...

Congress passes bill to ensure no vice president could unilaterally decide an election 2 years after Trump pressured Pence to reverse his loss

Then-US President Donald Trump greets the crowd at the "Stop The Steal" Rally on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images After months of debate, lawmakers are poised to pass major changes to the Electoral Count Act. The reforms are included in a sweeping government funding bill that is expected to pass this week Among the changes would be a clarification that no vice president could unilaterally change a state's results. Congress passed its most sweeping post-January 6 actions on Friday, a host of steps that would rule out a future rogue vice president unilaterally casting aside election results, among other reforms. After months of debate, lawmakers are expected to pass changes to the nearly 135-year-old Electoral Count Act and much more recent provisions governing presidential transitions. The reforms, written by Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, and Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Republican, have broad bipartisan support.  La...