iWorld
Digital premiere of Sylester Stallone’s Expend4bles exclusively on Lionsgate Play
Mumbai: “I Now Pronounce You Man And Knife.” With eye-catching explosions, iconic lines and more, the celebrated Expendables promise raw, unfiltered and violent action wherever they go. The action franchise returns with Expend4bles (Expendables 4) and a newly expanded cast of Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson, Megan Fox, Tony Jaa, Iko Uwais, Jacob Scipio, Levy Tran, and Andy Garcia. With new faces come some old ones in Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham as the group of mercenaries band together and fight for each other, and money (of course!). Bringing back the memorable action sequences, budding camaraderie and ‘never say die’ attitude, Expend4bles is all set to exclusively premiere on Lionsgate Play this 5 January.
Talking about his character Gunner, actor Dolph Lundgren said, “With Gunner, I think he’s a bit of a comedic relief because he’s the only one or one of the few characters who doesn’t care, doesn’t try to be tough. He doesn’t really care much. He has these idiosyncrasies and he always has problems, a little bit of substance abuse, a little bit of concentration issues. In this film, he’s on the wagon. So, he’s been sober for six months. He’s doing the AA program and he’s dating some girl on the Internet that he’s in love with. It clouds his perception a little bit. Also, age has caught up with him, so he’s wearing glasses and he’s got a bifocal scope on his sniper rifle. But things don’t work out that well initially for him.”
Further elaborating about his character, Lundgren said, “So, those things put together is kind of fun to play with as an actor and it gives me somewhere to go. Like in each scene I can always try to massage it so that it’s a bit entertaining for the audience and that they can follow the guy and follow the arc of the character and catch the payouts and all of these different weaknesses and obstacles that he has to accomplish his goal.”
iWorld
Meta plans 8,000 layoffs in new AI-led restructuring wave
First phase from May 20 may cut 10 per cent workforce amid AI pivot.
MUMBAI: At Meta, the future may be artificial but the cuts are very real. The social media giant is reportedly preparing a fresh round of layoffs, with an initial wave expected to impact around 8,000 employees as it doubles down on its artificial intelligence ambitions. According to a Reuters report, the first phase of job cuts is slated to begin on May 20, targeting roughly 10 per cent of Meta’s global workforce. With nearly 79,000 employees on its rolls as of December 31, the move marks one of the company’s most significant workforce reductions in recent years.
And this may only be the beginning. Sources indicate that additional layoffs are being planned for the second half of the year, although the scale and timing remain fluid, likely to be shaped by how Meta’s AI capabilities evolve in the coming months. Earlier reports had suggested that total cuts in 2026 could reach 20 per cent or more of its workforce.
The restructuring comes as chief executive Mark Zuckerberg continues to steer the company towards an AI-first operating model, committing hundreds of billions of dollars to the transition. Internally, this shift is already visible: teams within Reality Labs have been reorganised, engineers have been moved into a newly formed Applied AI unit, and a Meta Small Business division has been created to align with broader structural changes.
The trend is hardly isolated. Across the tech sector, companies are trimming headcount while investing aggressively in automation. Amazon, for instance, has reportedly cut around 30,000 corporate roles nearly 10 per cent of its white-collar workforce citing efficiency gains driven by AI. Data from Layoffs.fyi shows over 73,000 tech employees have already lost jobs this year, compared with 153,000 in all of 2024.
For Meta, the move echoes its earlier “year of efficiency” in 2022–23, when about 21,000 roles were eliminated amid slowing growth and market pressures. This time, however, the backdrop is different. The company is financially stronger, generating over $200 billion in revenue and $60 billion in profit last year, with shares up 3.68 per cent year-to-date though still below last summer’s peak.
That contrast underlines the shift underway. These layoffs are less about survival and more about reinvention. As Meta restructures itself around AI from autonomous coding agents to advanced machine learning systems, the question is no longer whether the company will change, but how many roles will be left unchanged when it does.
