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Vice President JD Vance speaks at the Munich Leaders Meeting, Wednesday, May 7, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)2025-05-07T17:45:13Z WASHINGTON (AP) Vice President JD Vance said Wednesday that Russia was asking for too much in its initial peace offer as the United States looks to bring about an end to the war in Ukraine.The vice president, speaking at a Washington meeting hosted by the Munich Security Conference, did not elaborate on Moscows terms, but said he was not pessimistic about the possibility of a peace deal. That is a more sanguine assessment than President Donald Trumps recent skepticism that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to end the war that begin in February 2022 when Russia invaded.I wouldnt say that the Russians are uninterested in bringing this thing to a resolution, Vance said. What I would say is right now: the Russians are asking for a certain set of requirements, a certain set of concessions in order to end the conflict. We think theyre asking for too much, he said. Vance did not repeat any of the criticisms of Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Vance had aired during an Oval Office blowup in February with the Ukrainian leader, and he made a point of saying the U.S. appreciated Ukraines willingness to have a 30-day ceasefire. But the Republican vice president, citing Russias unwillingness on that point, said the U.S. would like to move past that and have the Russian and Ukrainian leaders sit down directly to negotiate a long-term settlement that would end the fighting. What the Russians have said is, A 30-day ceasefire is not in our strategic interests. So weve tried to move beyond the obsession with the 30-day ceasefire and more on the, what would a long-term settlement look like, Vance said. Vances talk at the conference event followed his appearance at the organizations February summit in Germany, where he ruffled feathers for his comments that free speech is in retreat across Europe. Vance addressed that Wednesday and said his comments applied to the U.S. under Democratic President Joe Bidens administration, just as they did to Europe. Its not Europe bad, America good. Its that I think that both Europe and the United States, we got a little bit off track, and I encourage us all to get back on track together, he said. On the Middle East, Vance did not shed light on the timing of planned talks between the U.S. and Iran over Irans nuclear program. He said the Trump administration felt the inspection and enforcement provisions in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal negotiated under Democratic President Barack Obama were incredibly weak and allowed Iran to sort of stay on this glide path toward a nuclear weapon if they flip the switch and press go.We think that there is a deal here that would reintegrate Iran into the global economy, that would be really good for the Iranian people, but would result in the complete cessation of any chance that they can get a nuclear weapon. And thats what were negotiating toward, Vance said. MICHELLE L. PRICE Price covers the White House. She previously covered the 2024 presidential campaign and politics, government and other news in New York, Nevada, Utah and Arizona. She is based in Washington. twitter mailto

In this July 31, 2019, file photo, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell speaks during a news conference following a two-day Federal Open Market Committee meeting in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)2025-05-07T04:01:06Z WASHINGTON (AP) The Federal Reserve could keep its key rate unchanged for several more months as it evaluates the impact of President Donald Trumps widespread tariffs on hiring and inflation, some economists say, even as the White House pushes for a rate cut. The Fed is nearly certain to keep its rate unchanged when it concludes its latest policy meeting Wednesday. Chair Jerome Powell and other Fed officials have signaled that they want to see how the duties including 145% on all imports from China impact consumer prices and the economy. The central banks caution could lead to more conflict between the Fed and the Trump administration. On Sunday, Trump again urged the Fed to cut rates in a television interview and said Powell just doesnt like me because I think hes a total stiff. With inflation not far from the Feds 2% target for now, Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent argue that the Fed could reduce its rate. The Fed pushed it higher in 2022 and 2023 to fight inflation. If the Fed were to cut, it could lower other borrowing costs, such as for mortgages, auto loans, and credit cards, though that is not guaranteed. Trump also said Sunday he wouldnt fire Powell because the chairs term ends next May and he will be able to appoint a new chair then. Yet if the economy stumbles in the coming months, Trump could renew his threats to remove Powell. A big issue facing the Fed is how tariffs will impact inflation. Nearly all economists and Fed officials expect the import taxes will lift prices, but its not clear by how much or for how long. Tariffs typically cause a one-time increase in prices, but not necessarily ongoing inflation. Yet if Trump announces further tariffs as he has threatened to do on pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, and copper or if Americans worry that inflation will get worse, that could send prices higher in a more persistent way. Kathy Bostjancic, chief economist at Nationwide, said this could keep the Fed on the sidelines until September. Its hard for them to cut sooner because theyve got to weigh, whats the inflation impact? Bostjancic said. Is this going to be somewhat persistent and add to inflation expectations?Economists and the Fed are closely watching inflation expectations, which are essentially a measure of how much consumers are concerned that inflation will worsen. Higher inflation expectations can be self-fulfilling, because it Americans think prices will rise, they can take steps that push up costs, such as asking for higher wages. For now, the U.S. economy is mostly in solid shape, and inflation has cooled considerably from its peak in 2022. Consumers are spending at a healthy pace, though some of that may reflect buying things like cars ahead of tariffs. Businesses are still adding workers at a steady pace, and unemployment is low. Still, there are signs inflation will worsen in the coming months. Surveys of both manufacturing and services firms show that they are seeing higher prices from their suppliers. And a survey by the Federal Reserves Dallas branch found that nearly 55% of manufacturing firms expect to pass on the impact of tariff increases to their customers. The bottom line is that inflation will be rising significantly over the next six months, Torsten Slok, chief economist at the Apollo Group, said in an email. Yet the tariffs could also weigh heavily on the economy, particularly because of the uncertainty they have created. Huge tariffs on about 60 other nations, announced April 2, were then postponed until July 9, but could be reimposed. Business surveys show that firms are postponing investment decisions until they have greater clarity.Ryan Sweet, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, said the uncertainty surrounding trade policy gives him night terrors. The economics of uncertainty are absolutely suffocating, Sweet said. Businesses that dont know the rules of the road, their knee-jerk reaction is to sit on their hands. And thats what theyre doing. But if the uncertainty delays hiring, slows the economy and pushes up the unemployment rate, the Fed could quickly shift toward interest rate cuts. A sharp economic slowdown could eventually cool inflation by itself, economists say. If you felt like the economy was really slowing down, then I think that would probably take precedence (over inflation), because usually the way the committee thinks is that will also drag inflation somewhat with it, said Jim Bullard, former president of the Federal Reserves St. Louis branch, and currently dean of Purdue Universitys business school. In March, the Fed signaled that it could cut rates twice this year. But since then, the Trump administration imposed duties that Powell said last month were larger and broader than the Fed expected. The duties, Powell acknowledged, could both slow growth and lift prices, which puts the Fed in a tough spot. It would usually cut rates to boost growth and hiring, while it would raise them to cool spending and inflation. The Fed could reduce rates preemptively to help forestall a slowdown. But with such large tariffs in place, Powell has signaled that the Fed wants to see how they affect inflation before making any moves. Without price stability, we cannot achieve the long periods of strong labor market conditions that benefit all Americans, Powell said. CHRISTOPHER RUGABER Rugaber has covered the Federal Reserve and the U.S. economy for the AP for 16 years. He is a two-time finalist for the Gerald Loeb award for business reporting. twitter mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30), left, gestures after making a 3-point shot as Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch, right, reacts during the first half of Game 1 of an NBA basketball second-round playoff series, Tuesday, May 6, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)2025-05-07T17:50:09Z MINNEAPOLIS (AP) The Golden State Warriors are planning to play without Stephen Curry for at least the next three games of their second-round series against Minnesota, after an MRI exam on Wednesday confirmed a mild strain of the star guards left hamstring.The Warriors said Curry would be sidelined at least a week after the injury Tuesday night forced him out early in second quarter of Game 1, which they went on to win 99-88. He had 13 points in 13 minutes to help Golden State build a comfortable lead and take home-court advantage away from the Timberwolves.Game 2 is in Minneapolis on Thursday, before the series moves west to San Francisco for Game 3 on Saturday and Game 4 on Monday. The earliest return for Curry appears to be Game 5 on May 14, which is conveniently followed by three straight off days before Game 6 on May 18. Curry missed multiple games because of injuries during the 2016 and 2018 playoffs, absences the Warriors endured on their way to the NBA Finals. They lost to Cleveland in seven games for the 2016 championship, and they swept the Cavaliers in 2018 for a third title in four years. This Golden State roster hardly stacks up to those predecessors, however, when Curry and Draymond Green were much younger and other standouts like Klay Thompson and Andre Iguodala were integral to their success. In 2018, they had Kevin Durant, too.For now, the Warriors were feeling good about the all-hands-on-deck effort led by Jimmy Butler, Buddy Hield and Green in Game 1, in which coach Steve Kerr played 12 different players.___AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA DAVE CAMPBELL Campbell is a sports reporter for The Associated Press, based in Minneapolis. He has covered all of the major teams in Minnesota as well as stories of national interest for the AP since 2000. twitter

President Donald Trump, left, poses for a photo with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, June 29, 2019. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)2025-05-07T17:01:00Z WASHINGTON (AP) The more President Donald Trump talks about his efforts to reach deals with Americas trading partners, the more confusing the tariff picture gets. His team seems good with that, saying Trump is using strategic uncertainty to his advantage.Trump says the United States does not have to sign any agreements, and that it could sign 25 of them right now. He says he is looking for fair deals on all sides, and that he does not care about other countries markets. He says his team can sit down to negotiate the terms of a deal, and that he might just impose a set of tariffs on his own.I am struggling to make sense of it, Chad Bown, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, wrote in an email.Although Trumps team holds up his best-selling book The Art of the Deal as proof that he has a master plan, much of the world is on tenterhooks. That has meant a volatile stock market, hiring freezes and all kinds of uncertainty even as Trump continues to promise that new factories and jobs are on the horizon.A look at how the trade talks may play out: Trump still wants tariffsAs part of any deal, Trump wants to keep some of his tariffs in place. He believes the import taxes can generate massive revenues for a heavily indebted federal government even though other countries see the whole point of striking a deal as getting rid of tariffs.Theyre a beautiful thing for us, Trump said recently about tariffs. If you can use them, if you can get away with using them, its going to make us very rich. And well be paying off debt, well be lowering your taxes very substantially because so much money will be taken in that well be able to lower your taxes even beyond the tax cut that youre going to be getting. So far this year, the U.S. government has collected $45.9 billion from tariffs, about $14.5 billion more than last year, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center. Those revenues could escalate sharply given the 10% baseline tariffs, the 145% rate being charged on Chinese goods and rates as high as 25% on steel, aluminum, auto and Mexican and Canadian imports.To reach Trumps stated goals of repaying the $36 trillion debt and reducing income taxes, his tariffs would need to raise at least $2 trillion annually without causing the economy to crash in ways that lead to lower overall tax revenues. That would be close to impossible mathematically. How do negotiations work?The Republican administration has said 17 of its major 18 trading partners have essentially presented them with term sheets, which list the possible compromises that they are prepared to make. Agreeing to a mutual understanding of the terms would be only the start of any trade talks.But foreign leaders have said it is unclear exactly what Trump wants or how deals could be codified into a durable agreement. They also know Trump approved the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement in 2020, only to charge new tariffs on those same two trading partners this year.While meeting with Trump on Tuesday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney suggested the next version of that agreement would need to be strengthened to prevent a repeat of the fentanyl-related tariffs imposed this year by Trump that Canada saw as arbitrary. Some things about it are going to have to change, Carney said. Can the US reach a deal with China?The 145% tariffs on China and the 125% tariffs on the U.S. that Beijing imposed in response hang over the entire negotiating process. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent acknowledges that those tariffs are not sustainable. The first talks between the U.S. and China are set to begin this weekend in Switzerland, but they will likely be limited to finding ways to de-escalate tensions enough for meaningful negotiations to take place.The key issue is that China is the worlds dominant manufacturer, which makes also makes it a leading exporter in ways that can supplant domestic industries. Because China suppresses domestic consumption and focuses on production, the rest of the world buys what it makes because there is not enough internal demand. The U.S. wants to rebalance trade, but it has done so also through tariffs on countries that could be its natural allies in defending their auto and tech industries against China. Obviously in this trade puzzle, China is the biggest piece, Bessent said this week. Where do we end up with China?Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian has suggested that a meaningful way for the Trump administration to jump-start talks would be to pull back on its rhetoric and punitive import taxes.If the U.S. truly wants to resolve the issue through dialogue and negotiation, it should stop threatening and pressuring and engage in dialogue with China on the basis of equality, respect and mutual benefit, Lin said Tuesday.Would Congress need to approve any deals?Not necessarily.Trump unilaterally imposed his universal tariffs without Congress, using the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act to do so, which has led to multiple lawsuits. The administration also maintains that any agreements to change the rates would not need congressional approval. Previously, presidents, including Trump in his first term with his Phase One China deal, could negotiate only more limited agreements that have focused on select bilateral trade and tariff issues, according to a Congressional Research Service report updated this April. Other examples of limited deals include a 2023 agreement on critical minerals and a 2020 deal on digital trade with Japan.The challenge is that Trump has also made nontariff barriers such as safety regulations for autos and the value added taxes charged in Europe part of his talks. He wants other countries to change their nontariff policies in exchange for the U.S. reducing the new tariffs he introduced. Other countries, in return, might object to U.S. subsidies to its companies.In theory, it would take House and Senate approval to complete a deal that would address non-tariff barriers and require changes to U.S. law, the Congressional Research Service report said.Is it really a deal if Trump just imposes it?If other countries fail to satisfy him, Trump has suggested he will just do some kind of internal deals and set a tariff rate, although he technically already did that with his April 2 Liberation Day tariffs. The import taxes announced by Trump then led to a financial market sell-off that caused him to pause some of his new tariffs for 90 days and charge the lower 10% baseline rate while negotiations take place.It appears Trump will agree not to impose the originally threatened tariffs if he thinks other countries are making adequate concessions, essentially meaning that the U.S. gives up nothing because the tariffs are new. But Trump might also pull back his tariffs without necessarily getting much in return.Trump is notorious for making maximalist demands and then retreating as negotiations go on, so well see how long he sticks with his formula, said William Reinsch, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. But so far it is pretty clear that countries coming in and wanting a normal trade negotiation with both sides making substantive concessions are being rebuffed. JOSH BOAK Boak covers the White House and economic policy for The Associated Press. He joined the AP in 2013. twitter mailto

Nature, Published online: 07 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08947-7A synthetic biology approach was used to engineer Vibrio natriegens into a strain capable of bioremediating complex organic pollutants in saline wastewater and soils, thereby addressing notable threats to marine biosecurity.

Nature, Published online: 07 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08907-1Climate models, impact models and demographic data are used to estimate the number of people projected to experience unprecedented lifetime exposure to extreme climate events across multiple dimensions, including birth year, warming scenario and vulnerability.

Nature, Published online: 07 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08959-3The superconductivity in Bernal bilayer graphene that emerges from the spinorbit coupling induced by proximal tungsten diselenide can be tuned by modulating the twist angle between the two materials.

Nature, Published online: 07 May 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-01433-0Removal of experienced fish results in younger members not knowing migration routes plus, how AI companion apps may affect our mental health.

Nature, Published online: 07 May 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-01417-0Young people will be exposed to a number of heatwaves that no one would have experienced in pre-industrial times.

The PGA of America is giving away free tickets to the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black to unsuspecting golf fans.

The Atlantic Coast Conference is reducing its 20-game men's basketball schedule to 18, allowing teams more schedule opportunities for nonconference games in an effort to boost the league's chances at NCAA tournament bids, according to multiple reports.

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Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks during a news conference at the Capitol, Tuesday, May 6, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)2025-05-07T18:50:48Z WASHINGTON (AP) House Republicans appear to be backing off some, but not all, of the steep reductions to the Medicaid program as part of their big tax breaks bill, as they run into resistance from more centrist GOP lawmakers opposed to ending nearly-free health care coverage for their constituents back home.This is as a new report out Wednesday from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that millions of Americans would lose Medicaid coverage under the various proposals being circulated by Republicans as cost-saving measures. House Republicans are scrounging to come up with as much as $1.5 trillion in cuts across federal government health, food stamp and other programs, to offset the revenue lost for some $4.5 trillion in tax breaks. Under each of those options, Medicaid enrollment would decrease and the number of people without health insurance would increase, the CBO report said. The findings touched off fresh uncertainty over House Speaker Mike Johnsons ability to pass what President Donald Trump calls his big, beautiful bill by a self-made Memorial Day deadline. Lawmakers are increasingly uneasy, particularly amid growing economic anxiety over Trumps own policies, including the trade war that is sparking risks of higher prices, empty shelves and job losses in communities nationwide. Central to the package is the GOP priority of extending tax breaks, first enacted in 2017, that are expiring later this year. But they want to impose program cuts elsewhere to help pay for them and limit the continued climb in the nations debt and deficits. Johnson has been huddling privately all week in the speakers office at the Capitol with groups of Republicans, particularly the more moderate GOP lawmakers in some of the most contested seats in the nation, who are warning off steep cuts that would slash through their districts. Democrats, who had requested the CBO report, pounced on the findings.This non-partisan Congressional Budget Office analysis confirms what weve been saying all along: Republicans Medicaid proposals result in millions of people losing their health care, said Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., who sought the review with Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. House Republican lawmakers exiting a meeting late Tuesday evening indicated that Johnson and the GOP leadership were walking away from some of the most debated Medicaid changes to the federal matching fund rates provided to the states.Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., said those Medicaid changes are dead.Republican Rep. Nick LaLota of New York, reminded that Trump himself has said he would oppose Medicaid cuts. Instead, he said the growing consensus within the Republican ranks is to focus the Medicaid cuts on other provisions.Among the other ideas, LaLota said, are imposing work requirements for those receiving Medicaid coverage, requiring recipients to verify their eligibility twice a year instead of just once and ensuring no immigrants who are in the U.S. without legal standing are receiving aid. But the more conservative Republicans, including members of the House Freedom Caucus, are insisting on steeper cuts as they fight to prevent skyrocketing deficits from the tax breaks.Medicaid is a joint program run by states and the federal government, covering 71 million adults. Republicans are considering a menu of options to cut federal spending on the program, including reducing the share that the federal government pays for enrollees health care in some cases it is as much as 90%.They are also considering and setting a cap on how much the federal government spends on each person enrolled in Medicaid, though that idea also appears to be losing support among lawmakers.While those changes would bring in billions of dollars in cost savings, they would also result in roughly 10 million people losing Medicaid coverage, the CBO said. They appear to be off the table.But other proposed Medicaid changes are still in the mix for Republicans, including imposing new limits on a states tax on health care providers that generate larger payments from the federal government. That would bring in billions in savings, but could also result in some 8 million people losing coverage, the report said. ___ AMANDA SEITZ Seitz is an Associated Press reporter covering federal health care policy. She is based in Washington, D.C. twitter mailto

Nature, Published online: 07 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08867-6To increase the efficiency, brightness and stability of next-generation light-emitting diodes (LEDs), the microstructure of CsPbI3-xBrx metal-halide perovskite, a good pure-red emitter, was altered to fix hole leakage, which was identified as decreasing efficiencies in overworked LEDs.

Nature, Published online: 07 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08985-1A technique called LICONN (light-microscopy-based connectomics) allows mapping of brain tissue at synapse level and simultaneous measurement of molecular information, thus enabling quantification of cellular properties and multimodal analysis of brain tissue.

Nature, Published online: 07 May 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-01368-6Lipid recycling in organelles called lysosomes depends on the lipid BMP, which was thought to be resistant to degradation by lysosomal enzymes. It emerges that the enzyme PLA2G15 breaks down BMP, and inhibiting PLA2G15 extends lifespan in a mouse model of NiemannPick type C1, a neurodegenerative disorder marked by impaired lysosomal lipid metabolism.

Nature, Published online: 07 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08973-5A large-scale multi-omics analysis reports oncogenic alterations that drive medulloblastoma progression, rather than initiation, and the findings show how single-cell technologies can be used for early detection and diagnosis of medulloblastoma.

Nature, Published online: 07 May 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-01432-1Sample-enlarging trick helps researchers to untangle brain connectivity using readily available equipment.

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Police carried out an overnight raid at a Buenos Aires health clinic to seize Diego Maradona's complete medical records following a court order during the trial of seven health care professionals accused of negligence in the former soccer star's death.

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President Donald Trump is directing the reopening and expansion of Alcatraz, the notorious former prison on a hard-to-reach California island off San Francisco that has been closed for more than 60 years. What do you think?Theres something so romantic about being a political prisoner by the water.Isabel Hassan, Sausage SpicerIll support any order that shuts down a museum.Zack McNeil, Snake BreederBut hed be squandering its potential as an evil lair!Thomas Asciutto, Piata StufferThe post Trump Orders Reopening Of Alcatraz appeared first on The Onion.

A portrait of Tyre Nichols is displayed at a memorial service for him on Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2023 in Memphis, Tenn. Nichols was killed during a traffic stop with Memphis Police on Jan. 7. (AP Photo/Adrian Sainz, File2025-05-07T15:44:03Z MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) Three former Memphis officers were acquitted Wednesday of state charges, including second-degree murder, in the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols after he ran away from a traffic stop in 2023.A jury took about 8 1/2 hours over two days to find Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith not guilty on all charges after a nine-day trial in state court in Memphis. After the jurys verdict was read, the defendants hugged their lawyers as relatives of the former officers cried. One relative yelled, Thank you, Jesus!The three defendants still face the prospect of years in prison after they were convicted of federal charges last year.Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, fled a traffic stop after he was yanked out of his car, pepper-sprayed and hit with a Taser. Five officers who are also Black caught up with him and punched, kicked and hit Nichols with a police baton, struggling to handcuff him as he called out for his mother just steps from his home. Nichols died Jan. 10, 2023, three days after the beating. Footage of the beating captured by a police pole camera also showed the officers milling about, talking and laughing as Nichols struggled. His death led to nationwide protests, raised the volume on calls for police reforms in the U.S. and directed intense scrutiny of police in Memphis, a majority-Black city. Former Memphis officer Desmond Mills Jr., who was also charged in Nichols death, testified as a prosecution witness. Mills and another officer involved in the beating, Emmitt Martin, have agreed to plead guilty to the state charges and did not stand trial under deals with prosecutors. They also pleaded guilty in federal court, where sentencing for all five officers is pending.The officers had been charged with second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression. The officers were accused of using unnecessary force during the arrest of Nichols. They were frustrated, angry and full of adrenaline after Nichols fled the traffic stop, prosecutor Paul Hagerman said in opening statements.They were overcome by the moment, the prosecutor said.Nobody is going to call them monsters, Hagerman said. It doesnt take monsters to kill a man.Prosecutors argued that the officers used excessive, deadly force in trying to handcuff Nichols and were criminally responsible for each others actions. They also said the officers had a duty to intervene and stop the beating and tell medical personnel that Nichols had been hit repeatedly in the head, but they failed to do so. Defense attorneys said Martin was responsible for the most violenceDefense attorneys attempted to refute accusations that the officers used excessive force to subdue Nichols and followed police policies and standards. Defense attorneys have said the officer who acted with the most violence was Martin, who kicked and punched Nichols several times in the head but is not standing trial.Mills testified that he regrets his failure to stop the beating, which led to Nichols death from blunt force trauma. Nichols suffered tears and bleeding in the brain, Dr. Marco Ross, the medical examiner who performed the autopsy, said in court testimony. As Nichols struggled with Bean and Smith, who were holding him on the ground, Mills tried to pepper-spray Nichols, but he ended up spraying himself, he said.After stepping away to try to recover, Mills then walked up to Nichols and hit his arm three times with a police baton. Mills told prosecutor Paul Hagerman that he hit Nichols with the baton because he was angry over the pepper spray.Mills acknowledged on the stand that he had a duty to intervene to stop the beating, but didnt.But Mills also said Nichols was actively resisting arrest and not complying with orders to present his hands to be cuffed. During the trial, defense attorney John Keith Perry asked Mills if he would have struck Nichols with the baton if Nichols had just put his hands behind his back. Mills said no.Martin Zummach, Smiths attorney, asked Mills if an officer is safe if a suspect is not handcuffed and searched for a weapon. Mills said they were not safe in that circumstance. Nichols was not searched before he ran from the traffic stop. Mills acknowledged that the officers were afraid and exhausted, but said some of the methods used on Nichols complied with police department policies, including using wrist locks and hitting with a baton. Zummach noted in closing arguments that credit and debit cards that did not belong to Nichols were found in his car when it was searched after the beating and said it was likely why Nichols ran from the traffic stop. Defense lawyers have argued that the fatal beating would not have taken place if Nichols would have just allowed himself to be handcuffed.This is Emmitt Martins and Tyre Nichols doing, Zummach said.The defense also has suggested Nichols was on drugs, giving him the strength to fight off five strong officers. Some mushrooms containing the hallucinogenic psilocybin were also found in his car, a TBI agent testified. However, a toxicology report showed Nichols only had alcohol and a small amount of marijuana in his system. Mills admitted Nichols never punched or kicked any of the officers.Defense lawyers also claimed Bean and Smith could not see the strikes to Nichols head because they were blinded by pepper spray and they had tunnel vision as they tried to restrain Nichols.But prosecutors sowed doubt on that claim by pointing to comments the defendants made after the beating. According to footage from the scene, Bean said Nichols was eating the blows and Smith said they hit Nichols with so many pieces, or punches. Smith also said hit him and Haley said beat that man, prosecutor Tanisha Johnson said.In December, the U.S. Justice Department said a 17-month investigation showed the Memphis Police Department uses excessive force and discriminates against Black people.

An AI avatar made to look and sound like the likeness of a man who was killed in a road rage incident addressed the court and the man who killed him: To Gabriel Horcasitas, the man who shot me, it is a shame we encountered each other that day in those circumstances, the AI avatar of Christopher Pelkey said. In another life we probably could have been friends. I believe in forgiveness and a God who forgives. I still do.It was the first time the AI avatar of a victimin this case, a dead manhas ever addressed a court, and it raises many questions about the use of this type of technology in future court proceedings.The avatar was made by Pelkeys sister, Stacey Wales. Wales tells 404 Media that her husband, Pelkeys brother-in-law, recoiled when she told him about the idea. He told me, Stacey, youre asking a lot.Gabriel Horcasitas killed Christopher Pelkey in 2021 during a road rage incident. Horcasitas was found guilty in March and faced a sentencing hearing earlier this month. As part of the sentencing, Pelkeys friends and family filed statements about how his death affected them. In a first, the Arizona court accepted an AI-generated video statement in which an avatar made to look and sound like Pelkey spoke.Hello, just to be clear for everyone seeing this, I am a version of Chris Pelkey recreated through AI that uses my picture and my voice profile, the stilted avatar says. I was able to be digitally regenerated to share with you today. Here is insight into who I actually was in real life.The video then changes to a real video of Pelkey filmed while he was alive, where he talks about his time in the Army and his belief in God. The video goes back to the AI avatar. I would like to make my own impact statement, the avatar says. I cant tell you how humbled I am for those that spoke up for me, everyone who flew in, took off from work, and for everyone who has supported me and my loved ones through three-and-a-half years and two trials, I wish I could be with you all today. Thats when the AI avatar directly addressed Horcasitas.To Gabriel Horcasitas, the man who shot me, it is a shame we encountered each other that day in those circumstances, the AI Pelkey says. In another life we probably could have been friends. I believe in forgiveness, in God who forgives, I always have. And I still do.Notably, the judge in the case, Todd Lang, said he was moved by the video.I loved that AI, and thank you for that. As angry as you are, and as justifiably angry as the family is, I heard the forgiveness, and I know Mr. Horcasitas could appreciate it, but so did I, Lang said immediately before sentencing Horcasitas. I love the beauty in what Christopher, and I call him ChristopherI always call people by their last names, its a formality of the courtbut I feel like calling him Christopher as weve gotten to know him today. I feel that that was genuine, because obviously the forgiveness of Mr. Horcasitas reflects the character I heard about today. But it also says something about the family, because you told me how angry you were, and you demanded the maximum sentence. And even though thats what you wanted, you allowed Chris to speak from his heart as you saw it. I didnt hear him asking for the maximum sentence.Horcasitass lawyer also referenced the avatar when asking Lang for mercy: As you heard the likeness of Mr. Pelkey say, they could have been friends, the lawyer said. And I will tell you, having known Mr. Horcasitas for about three and a half years and reviewing various content of Mr. Pelkeys phone, I think they had a lot of similar interests, and I think Mr. Pelkey was right, they could have been friends.Wales told 404 Media that she struggled writing her own victim impact statement for months before landing on the idea of using AI to have him give his own. She and her husbandTim Walesboth work in tech and Tim has used AI tools before.We talked about it and he says, You know you have to be careful with this stuff. In the wrong hands it can send the wrong message, Stacey told 404 Media. He says, Because without the right script, this will fall short. It will be flat and hokey and Im not going to let it go out if its not authentic.Stacey said she believes she knew what Christopher would say. Iknow the power of something like this. It needs to be a blanket statement of love, because thats what Chris would stand for, she said. I can't use it selfishly, and I'm already aware of that.According to Stacey, Tim used Stable Diffusion fine-tuned with a Low-Rank Adaptation (LoRA) to craft the video. And then we used a generative AI and deep learning processes to create a voice clone from his original voice, she said.Using an AI generated video to have a dead victim deliver their own impact statement is unprecedented. AI avatars are obviously not the real person, and what they say must either be scripted by a different person, or generated using an LLM that is not the person. In this case, the video was used to help determine the prison sentence of a living person. The video that Pelkeys family played contained several minutes of video of Pelkey from when he was alive, but everything the AI avatar said was scripted by his sister.There were videos shown during the trial that Stacey said were deeply difficult to sit through. Videos of Chris literally being blown away with a bullet through his chest, going in the street, falling backward. We saw these items over and over and over, she said. And we were instructed: dont you gasp and dont you cry and do not make a scene, because that can cause a mistrial.Stacey said the sentencing hearing was the first time she and her family were able to talk to the court about how his death affected them. This is the first time we had control, that we could speak up and that we could gasp aloud and let our tears flow and feel emotion in this courtroom. And we controlled the narrative, she told 404 Media.Jessica Gattuso, the victims right attorney that worked with Pelkeys family, told 404 Media that Arizonas laws made the AI testimony possible. We have a victims bill of rights, she said. [Victims] have the discretion to pick what format theyd like to give the statement. So I didnt see any issues with the AI and there was no objection. I dont believe anyone thought there was an issue with it.AI in the courtroom is a controversial topic and one that both lawyers and judges have gotten frustrated with in the past. In January, a judge in Wyoming chastised a lawyer for citing non-existent cases that AI had hallucinated as part of a lawsuit. In March, a different group of attorneys were caught citing AI hallucinated cases and ordered to pay $15,000.Gattuso said she understood the concerns, but felt that Pelkeys AI avatar was handled deftly. Stacey was up front and the video itselfsaid it was AI generated. We were very careful to make sure it was clear that these were the words that the family believed Christopher would have to say, she said. At no point did anyone try to pass it off as Chris own words.The prosecution against Horcasitas was only seeking nine years for the killing. The maximum was 10 and a half years. Stacey had asked the judge for the full sentence during her own impact statement. The judge granted her request, something Stacey creditsin partto the AI video.Our goal was to make the judge cry. Our goal was to bring Chris to life and to humanize him, she said.

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