TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / December 9, 2024 / Toggle3D.ai (the "Company") (OTCQB:TGGLF)(CSE:TGGL)(FSE:Q0C), a Nextech3d.ai (OTCQB:NEXCF)(CSE:NTAR) spinout is an innovative AI 3D platform harnessing the power of generative AI to convert CAD files, apply stunning 4K texturing, and seamlessly publish superior 4K 3D models announces the departure of Board member Belinda Tyldesley for personal reasons. We thank her for her service! Toggle3d.ai also announced the appointment of Peter Bloch, a successful entrepreneur as new BOD member replacing Mrs. Tyldesley. Bio: Peter Bloch was the Chief Executive Officer of BresoTEC Inc. Mr. Bloch was also the CEO & Chairman of Bionik Laboratories from 2012 to 2018. Mr. Bloch is a CPA, CA, with a track record of building both public and private technology companies, mainly in the life sciences industry. In these roles, Mr. Bloch has secured significant funding for both private and public companies, gained experience with initial public offerings and led a number of acquisitions and partnership transactions. His past 25 years of executive management experience includes serving as Chief Financial Officer and joint interim CEO of Sanofi Canada Inc., the Canadian affiliate of Sanofi -Aventis, a global healthcare leader; Chief Financial Officer of Intellivax Inc., a biotechnology company which was sold to GlaxoSmithKline for $1.75 billion; founder of Tribute Pharmaceuticals, a specialty pharmaceutical company; the Chief Financial Officer of Gennum Corporation, a public semiconductor company focused on the TV and medical device market and Chief Financial Officer of Just Energy, a large public electricity and gas company . These companies have ranged in size from start-ups to companies with revenues of over $2 billion. Mr. Bloch also has substantial experience serving on the Board of Directors of both public and private companies. Mr. Bloch also serves as an advisor to Mars Discovery District, a large Canadian incubator for technology companies. About Toggle3D.ai Toggle3D.AI is a leading provider of innovative 3D rendering solutions, dedicated to transforming the way businesses visualize and present their products. Our platform harnesses the power of artificial intelligence to deliver high-quality, customizable images quickly and efficiently, helping e-commerce businesses thrive in a competitive market. Toggle3D.ai Investor Relations Visit the Toggle3D Investor Relations website and sign up for the investor mailing list to receive the latest news, press releases, investor presentations, CEO interviews, financial information and more. Sign up for the investor mailing list - click here Follow Toggle3D.ai on Social Media Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Toggle3D Insta: https://www.instagram.com/toggle3d.ai/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Toggle3D LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/toggle3d-ai/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Toggle3Dai For further information, please contact: Toggle3D.ai Evan Gappelberg Director 866-ARITIZE (274-8493) Forward-looking Statements The CSE has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Certain information contained herein may constitute "forward-looking information" under Canadian securities legislation. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as, "will be" or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "will" occur. Forward-looking statements regarding the completion of the transaction are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. Nextech will not update any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information that are incorporated by reference herein, except as required by applicable securities laws. SOURCE: Toggle3D.AI Inc. View the original on accesswire.com
Honda and Nissan have reportedly held exploratory talks about a potential merger to help them compete against electric vehicle (EV) makers, particularly in China. In March, the two Japanese car makers agreed to explore a strategic partnership for EVs. Both firms responded to the BBC with identical statements, which said: "As announced in March of this year, Honda and Nissan are exploring various possibilities for future collaboration, leveraging each other's strengths." It comes as many car brands grapple with growing competition as the industry shifts from petrol and diesel vehicles to electric, with production in China booming. Honda and Nissan, Japan's number two and number three car manufacturers behind Toyota, have been losing market share in China, which accounted for almost 70% of global EV sales in November. The two brands had combined global sales of 7.4 million vehicles in 2023, but are struggling to compete with cheaper EV makers such as BYD, which has seen its quarterly revenues soar, beating Tesla's for the first time in October. Honda and Nissan have not denied the story, which was first reported by Japanese business newspaper The Nikkei, but said it was "not something that has been announced by either company". "If there are any updates, we will inform our stakeholders at the appropriate time." The two companies agreed in March to cooperate in their EV businesses, and in August deepened their ties, agreeing to work together on batteries and other technology. In August, the two companies also announced an agreement with Mitsubishi to discuss intelligence and electrification. "The thought that some of these smaller players can survive and thrive is getting more challenging, especially when you add on the complexity of all the additional Chinese manufacturers who have come in and are competing quite strongly," said Edmunds analyst Jessica Caldwell. "It's just sort of necessary to survive, not only to survive, but also just to afford the future."
It’s been a wild week for investors clawing their way into Databricks’ record-breaking $10 billion fundraising, one of the VCs leading the deal told TechCrunch. “There were calls that went well late into the night, and that’s okay, that’s how good opportunities emerge,” George Mathew, managing director at Insight Partners, described with a grin. Along with new investor Thrive, Joshua Kushner’s firm, Insight was one of the six firms that led the deal. All but Thrive were existing investors. “We worked to make sure that we could be a co-lead, despite being already an investor on the cap table,” Mathew said. Insight first invested in Databricks in 2021. But to get into this enormous deal, Insight had to tap into the Insight Partners Public Equities fund, which was set up to buy public stocks, under managing director John Wolff. There was so much rabid interest that the allocation — and valuation — rose fast. In mid-November, the deal was on track to be around $8 billion, Reuters reported at the time. A few days later, it was $9.5 billion at a $60 billion valuation, and by Tuesday, it had closed at $10 billion with a $62 billion valuation. For perspective, this is bigger than OpenAI’s $6.6 billion raise in October , the largest venture round of all time, “There was so much institutional demand and interest for a generational company,” Mathew said. “I’ve been an investor at Insight for the last four years on all things related to data, AI, ML. This is the thing I live for.” The investment involved a large secondary tender offer, where Databricks employees or other existing investors can sell shares. New preferred shares were issued to the new investor. Databricks didn’t specify how much of the raise was secondary, except to call the $10 billion “non dilutive,” which implies a good chunk. Interestingly, Databricks, founded in 2013, could have been a tragic tale. A decade ago its founders created a technology, Spark, that was key to yesteryear’s “big data” trend. Spark helped enterprises analyze their in-house big data super fast. With the rise of data hosted in the cloud, the company was processing data then handing it over to other players. It could have found itself slowly relegated to an irrelevant big data feature. Databricks cofounder and CEO Ali Ghodsi (pictured) sought out advice from Mathew, who had run big data company Alteryx as COO before becoming a VC. The two had been friends since Databricks’ early days. “Ali called me a few years ago and said, ‘Hey, I’m thinking about going into the data warehousing market.’ And I just said, ‘That’s the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard’. And I could not have been more wrong,” Mathew laughs, adding he’s glad Ghodsi didn’t listen to him, nor hold his bad advice against him. At the time, traditional data warehouse vendors – which store vast amounts of enterprise data used for analytics – were also struggling against the likes of rising cloud stars like Snowflake and products owned by the cloud vendors, like AWS’s Redshift. But, in late 2020 Databricks launched its data warehouse product anyway – Databricks SQL – and quickly became a big Snowflake competitor. Then came LLMs, which are continuously thirsty for high-quality enterprise data. “Where is this high quality data coming from? For the enterprise, it’s going to come from a place like Databricks,” Mathew said. Flash forward to the end of 2024, with an IPO market still locked and investors dying to get a piece of AI infrastructure products, like data warehouses that can serve LLMs. Databricks says that by the end of its fiscal fourth quarter, it will be on a $3 billion revenue run rate, with a $600 million revenue run rate for Databricks SQL, up 150% for the year.
Factbox-Corporate America pledges donations for Trump inaugurationGREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Green Bay Packers wide receiver Romeo Doubs left his team’s game against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday because of a concussion. Doubs’ injury came on a third-quarter play in the end zone that resulted in a pass interference penalty against San Francisco’s Renardo Green. Doubs stayed down briefly after the play, then got up slowly before heading to the sideline. He went into the injury tent before walking to the locker room. The Packers then announced Doubs was out for the rest of the game because of a concussion. He had three catches for 54 yards before leaving. San Francisco defensive tackle Jordan Elliott left in the first half of the game to get evaluated for a concussion and was ruled out at halftime. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL
By Mark Gurman Apple Inc. is racing to develop a more conversational version of its Siri digital assistant , aiming to catch up with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other voice services, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The new Siri, details of which haven’t been reported, uses more advanced large language models, or LLMs, to allow for back-and-forth conversations, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the effort hasn’t been announced. The system also can handle more sophisticated requests in a quicker fashion, they said. MORE: Apple unveils iPhone 16, watch with bigger screen and sleep apnea feature Revamping the 13-year-old Siri service is part of Apple’s efforts to become a force in artificial intelligence. The company debuted its much-ballyhooed Apple Intelligence platform last month, but it still lacks many of the features offered by other tech giants. The new voice assistant, which will eventually be added to Apple Intelligence, is dubbed “LLM Siri” by those working on it. LLMs — a building block of generative AI — gorge on massive amounts of data in order to identify patterns and answer questions. Apple has been testing the upgraded software on iPhones, iPads and Macs as a separate app, but the technology will ultimately replace the Siri interface that users rely on today. The company is planning to announce the overhaul as soon as 2025 as part of the upcoming iOS 19 and macOS 16 software updates, which are internally named Luck and Cheer, the people said. Like Apple Intelligence this fall, the new features won’t immediately be included in next year’s crop of hardware devices. Instead, Apple is currently planning to release the new Siri to consumers as early as spring 2026, about a year and a half from now. Given that Apple is still several months away from announcing the plan, the timing and features could still shift. A spokesperson for Cupertino, California-based Apple declined to comment. The revamped Siri will rely on new Apple AI models to interact more like a human and handle tasks in a way that’s closer to ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. It also will make expanded use of App Intents, which allow for more precise control of third-party apps. And the software will be able to tap into features from Apple Intelligence, such as the ability to write and summarize text. Though Apple heralded “the start of a new era” for Siri when it first unveiled its AI platform in June, the company has yet to truly overhaul the software. The upgrades that accompanied Apple Intelligence were mostly cosmetic, including a new glowing interface that shows users when they’ve triggered the assistant. There’s also an option to type commands — rather than speaking them — and the ability to better understand users. Siri will get additional tweaks in the coming months as part of iOS 18, the iPhone’s current operating system. The software will be able to draw on customer data to provide context for commands and take action using the information on a user’s screen. The iOS 18 version relies on a first-generation Apple LLM to determine if requests should use the existing Siri infrastructure or be routed to a second LLM that can handle more complex queries and tap into third-party apps. The next-generation LLM planned for iOS 19 will be a new, end-to-end system that provides more advanced, ChatGPT-like capabilities. While the company works on that new technology, it will add ChatGPT to Apple Intelligence next month. Later, Apple plans to offer additional chatbot options, such as Gemini. The idea behind the new Siri is to bring these kinds of capabilities in-house, while emphasizing user privacy. But the company could still continue to offer access to third-party AI systems that provide specialized abilities or information. More Apple iPhone news In recent weeks, Apple has posted job listings that hint at its plan for a more conversational Siri. “You will join a team that is redefining computing, creating groundbreaking conversational assistant technologies for both large-scale systems and new client devices, and with the people who built the intelligent assistants,” one listing reads. Others ask for candidates with knowledge in conversational AI interfaces and underlying technologies. Apple has been looking to give Siri more conversational abilities for several years but struggled to find the right technology. Over a year ago, Apple moved the team responsible for the way Siri interacts with users from the company’s AI division to its group responsible for software interfaces. The team is now led by Alan Dye, the company’s vice president of human interface design. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com ©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
Christina Haack’s Ex Ant Anstead Will Make an Appearance on Her New HGTV ShowTHE outcome of the recent United States elections has raised several questions for the Philippines. While the incoming Trump administration's commitment to increased tariffs has created uncertainty for many countries, the Philippines may find itself in a favorable position. Current indications suggest that the tariff hikes will most likely be targeted first at China, Canada and Mexico. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is right to remain confident that the Philippines will continue to maintain a strong and positive relationship with the United States. This approach is particularly significant in both the geopolitical and economic contexts for the Philippines. President Marcos is committed to strengthening the US' oldest partnership in the Indo-Pacific region. Because of the Trump administration's favorable stance toward bilateral trade, this presents the Philippines with more opportunities to negotiate detailed trade terms across various industries. Additionally, the Philippines Generalized System of Preferences arrangement with the United States, where the program allows products from the Philippines to enter the US duty-free, would permit Philippine industries such as those in manufacturing, electrical machinery, and even apparel, to flourish. Register to read this story and more for free . Signing up for an account helps us improve your browsing experience. OR See our subscription options.Best TV of 2024: A modestly better lineup than usual, but why didn’t it feel that way?WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump’s allies on Capitol Hill rallied around Pete Hegseth , Trump’s Pentagon pick, on Thursday even as new details surfaced about allegations that he had sexually assaulted a woman in 2017. The GOP embrace of Hegseth came as another controversial Trump nominee, Matt Gaetz, withdrew from consideration for attorney general. Gaetz said it was clear he had become a “distraction" amid pressure on the House to release an ethics report about allegations of his own sexual misconduct. An attorney for two women has said that his clients told House Ethics Committee investigators that Gaetz paid them for sex on multiple occasions beginning in 2017, when Gaetz was a Florida congressman. Fresh questions over the two nominees' pasts, and their treatment of women, arose with Republicans under pressure from Trump and his allies to quickly confirm his Cabinet. At the same time, his transition has so far balked at the vetting and background checks that have traditionally been required. While few Republican senators have publicly criticized any of Trump's nominees, it became clear after Gaetz's withdrawal that many had been harboring private concerns about him. Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin, who served with Gaetz in the House, said it was a “positive move.” Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker said it was a “positive development.” Maine Sen. Susan Collins said Gaetz “put country first and I am pleased with his decision.” After meeting with Hegseth, though, Republicans rallied around him. “I think he’s going to be in pretty good shape,” said Wicker, who is expected to chair the Senate Armed Services Committee in the next Congress. Republican senators' careful words, and their early reluctance to publicly question Trump's picks, illustrated not only their fear of retribution from the incoming president but also some of their hopes that the confirmation process can proceed normally, with proper vetting and background checks that could potentially disqualify problematic nominees earlier. Gaetz withdrew after meeting with senators on Wednesday. Sen. Thom Tillis said Gaetz was “in a pressure cooker” when he decided to withdraw, but suggested that it would have little bearing on Trump’s other nominees. “Transactions — one at a time,” he said. As the Hegseth nomination proceeds, Republicans also appear to be betting that they won't face much backlash for publicly setting aside the allegations of sexual misconduct — especially after Trump won election after being found liable for sexual abuse last year. Hegseth held a round of private meetings alongside incoming Vice President JD Vance on Thursday in an attempt to shore up support and told reporters afterward: “The matter was fully investigated and I was completely cleared, and that’s where I’m gonna leave it.” A 22-page police report report made public late Wednesday offered the first detailed account of the allegations against him. A woman told police that she was sexually assaulted in 2017 by Hegseth after he took her phone, blocked the door to a California hotel room and refused to let her leave. The report cited police interviews with the alleged victim, a nurse who treated her, a hotel staffer, another woman at the event and Hegseth. Hegseth’s lawyer, Timothy Palatore, said the incident was “fully investigated and police found the allegations to be false.” Hegseth paid the woman in 2023 as part of a confidential settlement to head off the threat of what he described as a baseless lawsuit, Palatore has said. Wicker played down the allegations against Hegseth, a former Fox News host, saying that “since no charges were brought from the authorities, we only have press reports.” Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., said after his meeting with Hegseth that he "shared with him the fact that I was saddened by the attacks that are coming his way.” Hagerty dismissed the allegations as “a he-said, she-said thing” and called it a “shame” that they were being raised at all. The senator said attention should instead be focused on the Defense Department that Hegseth would head. It's one of the most complex parts of the federal government with more than 3 million employees, including military service members and civilians. Sexual assault has been a persistent problem in the military, though Pentagon officials have been cautiously optimistic they are seeing a decline in reported sexual assaults among active-duty service members and the military academies. Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, who will be the No. 2 Republican in the Senate next year, said after his meeting with Hegseth that the nominee is a strong candidate who “pledged that the Pentagon will focus on strength and hard power – not the current administration’s woke political agenda.” Senate Republicans are under pressure to hold hearings once they take office in January and confirm nominees as soon as Trump is inaugurated, despite questions about whether Trump’s choices will be properly screened or if some, like Hegseth, have enough experience for the job. Senate Armed Services Chairman Jack Reed, who will be the top Democrat on the panel next year, said the reports on Hegseth “emphasized the need for a thorough investigation by the FBI on the background of all the nominees.” It takes a simple majority to approve Cabinet nominations, meaning that if Democrats all opposed a nominee, four Republican senators would also have to defect for any Trump choice to be defeated. Trump has made clear he’s willing to put maximum pressure on Senate Republicans to give him the nominees he wants – even suggesting at one point that they allow him to just appoint his nominees with no Senate votes. But senators insist, for now, that they are not giving up their constitutional power to have a say. “The president has the right to make the nominations that he sees fit, but the Senate also has a responsibility for advice and consent,” said Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota. In the case of Gaetz, he said, “I think there was advice offered rather than consent.” Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Get local news delivered to your inbox!
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The chief technology officer at Foot Locker, Butler brings more than 25 years of leadership experience across all areas of technology to the Board NORFOLK, Va. , Dec. 17, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- PRA Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: PRAA), a global leader in acquiring and collecting nonperforming loans, announced today that Adrian Butler has been elected as an independent director of the company, effective January 1, 2025 . Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.
Should the U.S. increase immigration levels for highly skilled workers?One of my top shows of 2024 actually premiered in 2021. That’s because it took a couple of years for the Australian series “The Newsreader” to make its way Stateside. Alas, it was only legal to stream in the U.S. for a handful of weeks in September and then — pffft! — it was gone before most people had even heard of it. Well, I have great news. The show will be available once again, this time via Sundance Now (accessible through the AMC+ streaming platform), which has licensed the first season. Premiering Dec. 19, it stars Anna Torv (“Fringe”) and Sam Reid (“Interview with the Vampire”) as TV reporters in Melbourne, circa 1986. At the outset, Reid’s character exudes big loser energy, which is such an amusing contrast to his work as Lestat. The show is unexpectedly funny and terrifically Machiavellian in its portrayal of small-time office politics, and I’m thrilled audiences in the U.S. will get another shot at watching it. Overall, 2024 offered a modestly better lineup than usual, but I’m not sure it felt that way. Too often the good stuff got drowned out by Hollywood’s pointless and endless pursuit of rebooting intellectual property (no thank you, Apple’s “Presumed Innocent” ) and tendency to stretch a perfectly fine two-hour movie premise into a saggy multi-part series (“Presumed Innocent” again!). There were plenty of shows I liked that didn’t make this year’s list, including ABC’s “Abbott Elementary” and CBS’ “Ghosts” (it’s heartening to see the network sitcom format still thriving in the streaming era), as well as Netflix’s “A Man on the Inside” (Ted Danson’s charisma selling an unlikely premise) and Hulu’s “Interior Chinatown” (a high-concept parody of racial stereotypes and cop show tropes, even if it couldn’t sustain the idea over 10 episodes). Maybe it just felt like we were having more fun this year, with Netflix’s “The Perfect Couple” (Nicole Kidman leading a traditional manor house mystery reinterpreted with an American sensibility) and Hulu’s “Rivals” (the horniest show of 2024, delivered with a wink in the English countryside). I liked what I saw of Showtime’s espionage thriller “The Agency” (although the bulk of episodes were unavailable as of this writing). The deluge of remakes tends to make me cringe, but this year also saw a redo of Patricia Highsmith’s “The Talented Mr. Ripley” on Netflix that was far classier than most of what’s available on the streamer. Starring Andrew Scott, I found it cool to the touch, but the imagery stayed with me. Shot in black and white, it has an indelible visual language courtesy of director of photography Robert Elswit, whether capturing a crisp white business card against the worn grain wood of a bar top, or winding stairways that alternately suggest a yawning void or a trap. As always, if you missed any of these shows when they originally premiered — the aforementioned titles or the Top 10 listed below — they are all available to stream. Top 10 streaming and TV shows of 2024, in alphabetical order: The least cynical reality show on television remains as absorbing as ever in Season 4, thanks to the probing questions and insights from the show’s resident therapist, Dr. Orna Guralnik. Everything is so charged. And yet the show has a soothing effect, predicated on the idea that human behavior (and misery) isn’t mysterious or unchangeable. There’s something so optimistic in that outlook. Whether or not you relate to the people featured on “Couples Therapy” — or even like them as individuals — doesn’t matter as much as Guralnik’s reassuring presence. Created by and starring Diarra Kilpatrick, the eight-episode series defies categorization in all the right ways. Part missing-person mystery, part comedy about a school teacher coming to grips with her impending divorce, and part drama about long-buried secrets, it has tremendous style right from the start — sardonic, knowing and self-deprecating. The answers to the central mystery may not pack a satisfying punch by the end, but the road there is as entertaining and absorbing as they come. We need more shows like this. A comedy created by and starring Brian Jordan Alvarez (of the antic YouTube series “The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo”), the show has a sensibility all its own, despite a handful of misinformed people on social media calling it a ripoff of “Abbott Elementary.” There’s room enough in the TV landscape for more than one sitcom with a school setting and “English Teacher” has a wonderfully gimlet-eyed point of view of modern high school life. I’m amused that so much of its musical score is Gen-X coded, because that neither applies to Alvarez (a millennial) nor the fictional students he teaches. So why does the show feature everything from Laura Branigan’s “Gloria” to Exposé’s “Point of No Return”? The ’80s were awash in teen stories and maybe the show is using music from that era to invoke all those tropes in order to better subvert them. It’s a compelling idea! It’s streaming on Hulu and worth checking out if you haven’t already. A one-time tennis phenom accuses her former coach of coercing her into a sexual relationship in this British thriller. The intimacy between a coach and athlete often goes unexplored, in real-life or fictional contexts and that’s what the show interrogates: When does it go over the line? It’s smart, endlessly watchable and the kind of series that would likely find a larger audience were it available on a more popular streamer. There’s real tenderness in this show. Real cruelty, too. It’s a potent combination and the show’s third and strongest season won it an Emmy for best comedy. Jean Smart’s aging comic still looking for industry validation and Hannah Einbinder’s needy Gen-Z writer are trapped in an endless cycle of building trust that inevitably gives way to betrayal. Hollywood in a nutshell! “Hacks” is doing variations on this theme every season, but doing it in interesting ways. Nobody self-sabotages their way to success like these two. I was skeptical about the show when it premiered in 2022 . Vampire stories don’t interest me. And the 1994 movie adaptation starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt wasn’t a persuasive argument to the contrary. But great television is great television and nothing at the moment is better than this show. It was ignored by Emmy voters in its initial outing but let’s hope Season 2 gets the recognition it deserves. Under showrunner Rolin Jones, the adaptation of Anne Rice’s novels is richly written, thrillingly inhabited by its cast and so effortlessly funny with a framing device — the interview of the title — that is thick with intrigue and sly comedy. I wouldn’t categorize the series as horror. It’s not scary. But it is tonally self-assured and richly made, rarely focused on the hunt for dinner but on something far more interesting: The melodrama of vampire existence, with its combination of boredom and lust and tragedy and zingers. Already renewed for Season 3, it has an incredible cast (a thrilling late-career boost for Eric Bogosian) and is well worth catching up with if you haven’t already. It’s been too long since the pleasures of banter fueled a romantic comedy in the spirit of “When Harry Met Sally.” But it’s all over the place in “Nobody Wants This,” one of the best shows on Netflix in recent memory. Renewed for a second season, it stars Kristen Bell as a humorously caustic podcaster and Adam Brody as the cute and emotionally intelligent rabbi she falls for. On the downside, the show has some terrible notions about Jewish women that play into controlling and emasculating stereotypes. You hate to see it in such an otherwise sparkling comedy, because overall Bell and Brody have an easy touch that gives the comedy real buoyancy. I suspect few people saw this three-part series on PBS Masterpiece, but it features a terrific performance by Helena Bonham Carter playing the real-life, longtime British soap star Noele “Nolly” Gordon, who was unceremoniously sacked in 1981. She’s the kind of larger-than-life showbiz figure who is a bit ridiculous, a bit imperious, but also so much fun. The final stretch of her career is brought to life by Carter and this homage — to both the soap she starred in and the way she carried it on her back — is from Russell T. Davies (best known for the “Doctor Who” revival). For U.S. viewers unfamiliar with the show or Gordon, Carter’s performance has the benefit of not competing with a memory as it reanimates a slice of British pop culture history from the analog era. The year is 1600 and a stubborn British seaman piloting a Dutch ship washes ashore in Japan. That’s our entry point to this gorgeously shot story of power games and political maneuvering among feudal enemies. Adapted from James Clavell’s 1975 novel by the married team of Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks, it is filled with Emmy-winning performances (for Anna Sawai and Hiroyuki Sanada; the series itself also won best drama) and unlike something like HBO’s far clunkier “House of the Dragon,” which tackles similar themes, this feels like the rare show created by, and for, adults. The misfits and losers of Britain’s MI5 counterintelligence agency — collectively known as the slow horses, a sneering nickname that speaks to their perceived uselessness — remain as restless as ever in this adaptation of Mick Herron’s Slough House spy novels. As a series, “Slow Horses” doesn’t offer tightly plotted clockwork spy stories; think too deeply about any of the details and the whole thing threatens to fall apart. But on a scene-by-scene basis, the writing is a winning combination of wry and tension-filled, and the cumulative effect is wonderfully entertaining. Spies have to deal with petty office politics like everyone else! It’s also one of the few shows that has avoided the dreaded one- or two-year delay between seasons, which has become standard on streaming. Instead, it provides the kind of reliability — of its characters but also its storytelling intent — that has become increasingly rare. Nina Metz is a Tribune critic.