• Thai GP? Albon visits PM as bid talk continues
    www.espn.com
    Thai driver Alex Albon has met the country's Prime Minister, Paetongtarn Shinawatraas, the country continues to push for a place on the Formula 1 grid.
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  • Bara wrong to register Olmo, Vctor - LaLiga
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    LaLiga say Barcelona have never had the salary space to register Dani Olmo or Pau Vctor.
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  • Maresca coy on Jadon Sancho's Chelsea future
    www.espn.com
    Maresca refused to confirm whether the club will take up their obligation to buy Sancho and warned the winger "could do better" with his end product.
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  • Why Ovechkin is 'nearly impossible' to stop: Opponents, teammates explain his shot
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    Top NHL blueliners, goalies and scorers explain Ovi's unique skill as he closes in on Wayne Gretzky's record.
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  • Study: MLB average salary tops $5M for 1st time
    www.espn.com
    Major League Baseball's average salary broke the $5 million barrier on opening day for the first time, according to a study by The Associated Press.
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  • Wisconsin and Florida elections provide early warning signs to Trump and Republicans
    apnews.com
    Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel makes his concession speech to a crowd at his election night party Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Pewaukee, Wis. (AP Photo/Andy Manis)2025-04-02T05:46:34Z A trio of elections on Tuesday provided early warning signs to Republicans and President Donald Trump at the beginning of an ambitious term, as Democrats rallied against his efforts to slash the federal government and the outsize role being played by billionaire Elon Musk.In the marquee race for a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat, the conservative judge endorsed by Trump and backed by Musk and his groups to the tune of $21 million lost by a significant margin in a state Trump won in November. And while Florida Republicans held two of the most pro-Trump House districts in the country, both candidates also underperformed Trumps November margins.The elections the first major contests since Trumps return to power were seen as an early measure of voter sentiment as Trump works with unprecedented speed to dramatically upend the federal government, clashing with the courts and seeking revenge as he tests the bounds of presidential power. The party that loses the presidency in November typically picks up seats in the next midterm elections, and Tuesdays results provided hope for Democrats who have faced a barrage of internal and external criticism about their response to Trump that they can follow that trend. Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist and podcaster whose group worked alongside Musk to boost conservative Brad Schimel in Wisconsin, argued Tuesdays Supreme Court loss underscored a fundamental challenge for Republicans, particularly in races where Trump is not on the ballot. We did a lot in Wisconsin, but we fell short. We must realize and appreciate that we are the LOW PROP party now, he said, referring to low-propensity voters who dont regularly cast ballots. The party has been remade. Special elections and off-cycle elections will continue to be a problem without a change of strategy. Major shifts in WisconsinTrump won Wisconsin in November by 0.8 percentage points, or fewer than 30,000 votes. In the first major test since he took office, the perennial battleground state shifted significantly to the left. Sauk County, northwest of the state capital of Madison, is a state bellwether. Trump won it in November by 626 votes. Sauk shifted 14 points in the direction of Judge Susan Crawford, the liberal favorite backed by national Democrats and billionaire donors like George Soros. Besides strong turnout in Democratic-heavy areas, Crawford did measurably better in the suburban Milwaukee counties that Republicans rely on to run up their margins statewide. Crawford won Kenosha and Racine counties, both of which went for Trump over Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. She was on pace to win by 9 percentage points.In interviews with more than 20 voters in Waunakee, a politically mixed town north of Madison, several Democrats suggested without prompting that their vote was as much if not more of a repudiation of Trumps first months in office as it was a decision on the direction of the state high court.This is our chance to say no, said Linda Grassl, a retired OB-GYN registered nurse, after voting at the Waunakee Public Library corridor Tuesday. Others disliked the richest man in the world playing such a prominent role.I dont like Elon Musk spending money for an election he should have no involvement in, said Antonio Gray, a 38-year-old Milwaukee security guard. They should let the voters vote for who they want to vote for instead of inserting themselves like they have.Republicans warn against drawing national conclusionsFormer Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said that part of the challenge for Republicans had been trying to connect the dots to turn the state Supreme Court race into one about Trump a difficult task in a state judicial race.If youre somebody who showed up for Trump because you feel forgotten, you dont typically show up to vote in these kinds of elections, he said, imagining voters asking themselves: What does this have to do with Trump?Still, Walker cautioned against reading the tea leaves too closely. Id be a little bit careful about reading too much into what happens nationally, he said. Trump had better luck in Florida, where Republican Randy Fine won his special election in the 6th District to replace Mike Waltz, who stepped down to serve as Trumps national security adviser. But Fine beat his Democratic challenger, Josh Weil, by 14 percentage points less than five months after Waltz won the district by 33.This is the functional equivalent of Republicans running a competitive race in the district that is represented by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, said House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries beforehand, invoking a liberal favorite whom Trump often denigrates. Kamala Harris won that district by 30 points. Do you think a Republican would even be competitive in that district in New York, currently held by Alex? Of course, not. Jimmy Patronis, the states chief financial officer, fended off a challenge from Democrat Gay Valimont to win the northwest Florida seat vacated by Matt Gaetz but also underperformed Gaetzs last margin of victory. The pair of wins gave Republicans a 220-213 margin in the House of Representatives, when concerns about a thin GOP majority led Trump to pull the nomination of New York Rep. Elise Stefanik to be United Nations ambassador.For voters in both districts, the clear draw was Trump.Teresa Horton, 72, didnt know much at all about Tuesdays election -- but said she didnt need to. I dont even know these people that are on there, she said of her ballot. I just went with my ticket.Brenda Ray, 75, a retired nurse, said she didnt know a lot about Patronis, either, but cast her ballot for him because she believes hell vote with our president. Thats all were looking for, she said. Both Patronis and Fine were badly outraised by their Democratic challengers. Michael Whatley, chairman of the Republican National Committee, argued that what was a GOP concern before Tuesday night had been a sign of the partys strength. The American people sent a clear message tonight: they want elected officials who will advance President Trumps America First agenda, and their votes cant be bought by national Democrats, he said in a statement.___Associated Press writers Stephany Matat in Daytona Beach, Fla.; Kate Payne in Pensacola, Fla.; Christine Fernando in Milwaukee; Mark Vancleave in Eau Claire, Wis.; Tom Beaumont in Waunakee, Wis.; and Matt Brown in Washington contributed to this report. JILL COLVIN Colvin is an Associated Press national political reporter covering the 2024 presidential campaign. She is based in New York. mailto
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  • Why no one is challenging Trumps executive order that keeps TikTok running
    apnews.com
    The TikTok app logo appears in Tokyo on Sept. 28, 2020. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato, File)2025-04-02T11:05:43Z WASHINGTON (AP) After TikTok was banned in the United States earlier this year, President Donald Trump gave the platform a reprieve, barreling past a law that was passed in Congress and upheld unanimously by the Supreme Court that said the ban was necessary for national security.The Republican presidents executive orders have spurred more than 130 lawsuits in the little more than two months he has been in office, but this one barely generated a peep. None of those suits challenges his temporary block of the 2024 law that banned the popular social video app after the deadline passed for it to be sold by ByteDance, its China-based parent company.Few of the 431 members of the House of Representatives and the Senate who voted for the law have complained.Despite a bipartisan consensus about the risk to national security posed by TikToks ties to China, its as if nothing ever happened, said Sarah Kreps, director of Cornell Universitys Tech Policy Institute. TikTok has stayed online, delighting 170 million users in the U.S.TikTok continues to function, much to the delight of its 170 million users in the U.S., and the tech giants Apple, Google and Oracle have been persuaded to continue to offer and support the app, on the promise that Trumps Justice Department would not use the law to seek potentially steep fines against them.Trump declared he was suspending the law for 75 days, though no provision of the rule would appear to allow for that, to give ByteDance a fresh chance to find a U.S. buyer. The president has suggested he could extend the pause, but he has since said he expects a deal by Saturday, when the reprieve expires. He is meeting Wednesday with aides about possible suitors for TikTok. Oracle and the investment firm Blackstone are among the potential investors. Trumps action followed a fast-tracked free-speech challenge by TikTok and its users that ended with a unanimous Supreme Court ruling days before Trumps inauguration, in which the justices held that national security concerns overcame their usual receptivity to First Amendment claims. The courts opinions dealt at length with the potential for China to harvest vast quantities of TikTok users data that could allow it to track the locations of federal employees and contractors.The record before us establishes that TikTok mines data both from TikTok users and about millions of others who do not consent to share their information, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in a brief separate opinion. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, TikTok can access any data stored in a consenting users contact list including names, photos, and other personal information about unconsenting third parties.TikTok, which has headquarters in Singapore and Los Angeles, has said it prioritizes user safety, and Chinas Foreign Ministry has said Chinas government has never and will not ask companies to collect or provide data, information or intelligence held in foreign countries. Trump was against TikTok before he was for itThe day after the ruling, TikTok went dark for U.S. users, but it came back online after Trump vowed to stall the ban.The presidents position has evolved over time. During his first term, he used an executive order to try to ban TikTok on national security grounds. But federal courts blocked it. His administration then tried to negotiate a sale of the platform, but it failed.Trump changed his tune during his 2024 campaign and said he would save TikTok, then credited the platform with helping him win more young voters. He issued the 75-day pause on the first day of his second term.The law allows for one 90-day reprieve, but only if theres a deal on the table and a formal notification to Congress. Trumps actions so far violate the law, said Alan Rozenshtein, an associate law professor at the University of Minnesota. The law does not permit the sort of extension that Donald Trump has announced, Rozenshtein said.But both he and Kreps acknowledged a court challenge or other pushback is unlikely.Whos the constituency? You have 170 million Americans using the app, and theyre pretty happy to see this continue to be available to them, Kreps said. It also might be hard for someone to establish the legal right, or standing, to sue, Rozenshtein said. A plaintiff would have to be able to show harm from the delay in enforcing the law, he said.More importantly, he said, the TikTok executive order was an early example of the Trump administration not caring about the rule of law. While Trump has directed the Justice Department not to seek fines from the tech companies, they still are taking a legal gamble, according to Democratic lawmakers who oppose the TikTok ban but also criticize Trump for his actions. A future administration might have its own reasons to pursue legal claims against Apple, Google and Oracle, they wrote Trump in a letter last week.Companies could face hundreds of billions of dollars in legal liability for facilitating TikToks operations since the laws effective date of Jan. 19, Democratic Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Ed Markey of Massachusetts wrote. Tech companies initially lacked clear guidanceThe companies themselves acknowledged their legally uncertain situation in their initial response to Trumps order. Oracle continued to provide cloud services to TikTok, the senators said, but Apple and Google, however, initially came to a different decision and refused to reinstate TikTok in their app stores.The companies changed course only after receiving written assurance from the Justice Department.The Democrats have called for amending the law to extend the deadline for a sale to October. Other opponents of the TikTok ban support a full repeal.Among the few supporters of the ban to speak out is Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Michigan, chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. But rather than take on Trump, Moolenaar has focused his criticism on ByteDance and its ties the Chinese Communist Party. If ByteDance stays involved in any way, the deal is illegal plain and simple, Moolenaar said in remarks to a TikTok event on Capitol Hill last week.Several potential bidders have stepped forward.Perplexity AI presented ByteDance in January with a merger proposal that would combine Perplexitys business with TikToks U.S. operations.Another possibility is a consortium organized by billionaire businessman Frank McCourt, which recently recruited Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian as a strategic adviser. Investors in the consortium previously said they offered ByteDance $20 billion in cash for TikToks U.S. platform. They had planned to redesign the popular app with blockchain technology they said would provide users with more control over their online data.Jesse Tinsley, the founder of the payroll firm Employer.com, had also organized a consortium, which included the CEO of the video game platform Roblox, and offered ByteDance more than $30 billion for TikTok.___Parvini reported from Los Angeles. SARAH PARVINI Parvini covers artificial intelligence for The Associated Press. She is based in Los Angeles. mailto
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  • A toolkit for seeing how the fly brains visual system works
    www.nature.com
    Nature, Published online: 02 April 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00885-8A complete inventory of the Drosophila visual system classifies about 53,000 neurons into 732 types. The shapes and connections of all the visual neurons have been quantified, and a large collection of genetically engineered fly lines have been shared, providing a comprehensive toolkit for studying fly vision.
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  • Cade Cunningham isn't satisfied yet: 'I think I can be the best basketball player in the world'
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    The former No. 1 pick has led Detroit's resurgence, but he has loftier goals than just ending the Pistons' five-year playoff drought.
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  • Bilas: Why this men's Final Four will be 'absolutely incredible'
    www.espn.com
    No low seeds? No problem. We get to watch ten of the most efficient teams of all time match up -- and that's a good thing.
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  • Inside one prospect's 'storybook' journey from Egypt to the NFL draft
    www.espn.com
    Despite initial language barriers and a lack of football knowledge, Ahmed Hassanein is close to becoming the first Egyptian to be drafted in the NFL.
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  • 2025 rankings: Profiles for the top 55 WRs
    www.espn.com
    Mike Clay analyzes the best wideouts for the 2025 fantasy football season.
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  • NBA Power Rankings: What to watch for all 30 teams as season's end nears
    www.espn.com
    Where all 30 teams stand with less than two weeks left in the 2024-25 NBA regular season.
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  • Cade Cunningham isn't satisfied yet: 'I think I can be the best basketball player in the world'
    www.espn.com
    The former No. 1 pick has led Detroit's resurgence, but he has loftier goals than just ending the Pistons' five-year playoff drought.
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  • MLB Rank 2025: Ranking baseball's top 100 players
    www.espn.com
    From top sluggers like Ohtani and Judge to star pitchers like Skenes, we rank -- and make predictions for -- the best players in baseball right now.
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  • Japanese Grand Prix: F1 session times, predictions, stats
    www.espn.com
    Everything you need to know as F1 heads to Japan for the third race of the season.
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  • USWNT's Shaw 'struggled' with Courage move
    www.espn.com
    United States forward Jaedyn Shaw has said she has struggled to deal with expectations since joining North Carolina Courage in January.
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  • Why this men's Final Four will be 'absolutely incredible'
    www.espn.com
    No low seeds? No problem. We get to watch ten of the most efficient teams of all time match up -- and that's a good thing.
    0 Comments ·0 Shares ·23 Views ·0 Reviews
  • Cade Cunningham isn't satisfied yet: 'I think I can be the best basketball player in the world'
    www.espn.com
    The former No. 1 pick has led Detroit's resurgence, but he has loftier goals than just ending the Pistons' five-year playoff drought.
    0 Comments ·0 Shares ·24 Views ·0 Reviews
  • Bilas: Why this men's Final Four will be 'absolutely incredible'
    www.espn.com
    No low seeds? No problem. We get to watch ten of the most efficient teams of all time match up -- and that's a good thing.
    0 Comments ·0 Shares ·22 Views ·0 Reviews
  • GOP senators push ahead on Trumps tax cuts package, punting big decisions for later
    apnews.com
    Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., joined by Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., the GOP whip, left, talks to reporters at the Capitol, in Washington, Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)2025-04-02T04:04:30Z WASHINGTON (AP) Senate Republicans said they are pushing ahead on President Donald Trumpsbig bill of tax breaks and spending cuts this week, even though theyre punting some of the most difficult decisions including the costs and how to pay for the multitrillion-dollar package until later.The Senate GOPs budget framework would be the companion to the House Republicans $4.5 trillion tax cuts package that also calls for slashing some $2 trillion from health care and other programs. If the Senate can move the blueprint forward, it edges Trumps allies on Capitol Hill closer to a compromise setting the stage for a final product in the weeks ahead.Obviously we are hopeful this week we can get a budget resolution on the floor that will unlock the process, said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. And so we are continuing to move forward with that. While big differences remain, Republicans face increasing political pressure to deliver on what is expected to be Trumps signature domestic policy package extending the tax cuts, which were initially approved in 2017, during his first term at the White House. Those tax breaks expire at the end of the year, and Trump wants to expand them to include new no taxes on tipped wages, overtime pay and other earnings, as he promised on the campaign trail. Democrats are preparing to oppose the GOP tax plans as giveaways to the wealthy, coming as billionaire Elon Musks Department of Government Efficiency is taking a chainsaw to the federal government. They warn Republicans plan to slash government programs and services that millions of Americans depend on nationwide. We are standing together against the GOP tax scam and in defense of the American people, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said alongside others on the Capitol steps late Tuesday.One main sticking point between the House and Senate GOP plans has been over whether the existing tax cuts, which are estimated to cost the federal government $4.5 trillion over the decade in lost revenue, need to be paid for by spending reductions elsewhere. Adding Trumps new tax breaks to the package would balloon the price tag even higher. To offset the costs, House Republicans are demanding some $2 trillion in cuts to health care and other accounts to stem the nations federal deficits and prevent the nations $36 trillion debt load from skyrocketing.But GOP senators have a different approach. Senate Republicans take the view that since the tax cuts are already the current policy, they would not be new and would not need to be paid for. They want to use this current policy baseline moving forward, meaning only Trumps other proposed tax breaks would come with a new cost. They are expected to set much lower spending cuts as a floor that can be raised, if needed, to compromise with the Houses $2 trillion in cuts.Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and top Democrats call the Senate GOPs approach a gimmick at best if not an outright lie.It is an obscene fraud and the American people wont stand for it, said Schumer, Sen. Jeff Merkley of the Budget Committee and Sen. Ron Wyden of the Finance Committee in a letter to GOP leadership. Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey argued against the GOP baseline as a gimmick that would slash important federal services while growing deficits. What theyre investing in is bigger tax cuts for the wealthiest, Booker said during a landmark overnight speech. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and congressional GOP leaders have been meeting privately as Trumps priority package churns on Capitol Hill. At a meeting with other Senate Republicans late Monday at the Capitol, Bessent urged them to get it done.We just got to start voting, said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, as he exited the Monday evening session. Treasury secretary made the point that this was something we needed to do and do it quickly, Cornyn said, adding the plan was for the Senate to launch the voting this week. Were going to grind through it. Typically, the current policy baseline proposal would need to pass the muster of the Senates nonpartisan parliamentarian, to make sure it abides by the strict rules of the budget process. Senators from both parties have been arguing in closed-door sessions with the parliamentarian staff for and against the idea. However, the GOP leaders say they dont necessarily need the Senate parliamentarian, at this point, to resolve the issue, and they believe the Senate Budget chairman, Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., should simply use his perch to allow their current policy baseline approach. What is more certain is that they want to move quickly this week to pass the framework. That will entail a lengthy all-night vote often called a vote-a-rama with consideration of various amendments and procedures that could drag into the weekend. Then, they will sort out the details later as the Republicans, facing Democratic opposition, build the actual package for consideration in the weeks if not months ahead.
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  • MLBs average salary tops $5 million for first time, AP study shows
    apnews.com
    New York Mets' Juan Soto (22) hits a home run as Houston Astros catcher Yainer Diaz reaches for the pitch during the third inning of a baseball game Friday, March 28, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)2025-04-02T10:00:08Z NEW YORK (AP) Major League Baseballs average salary broke the $5 million barrier on opening day for the first time, according to a study by The Associated Press.The New York Mets, with Juan Sotos record $61.9 million pay, led MLB for the third straight opening day with a $322.6 million payroll, just ahead of the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers at $319.5 million. Those two teams each spent roughly five times as much as the Miami Marlins, who at $64.9 million ended the Athletics three-year streak as the lowest spender.Still, the Mets were down from their record high of $355.4 million in 2023.The average rose 3.6% to $5,160,245. That was up from a 1.5% increase last year but down from an 11.1% increase in 2023.Adding Blake Snell, Michael Conforto, Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates, the Dodgers boosted payroll by a big league-high $69 million from opening day last year. Baltimore hiked spending by $66 million, followed by Arizona ($55 million), San Diego ($47 million), Philadelphia ($41 million) and Detroit ($39 million). Los Angeles payroll figure was held down by deferred payments. Shohei Ohtanis $70 million salary was discounted to a present-day value of $28.2 million because it wont be paid in full until 2035, causing him to be listed as the 18th-highest-paid player. Other Dodgers with deferred payments include Mookie Betts, Tommy Edman, Freddie Freeman, Teoscar Hernndez, Scott, Will Smith and Snell. Following their record 121-loss season, the Chicago White Sox cut payroll by $60.8 million, San Francisco by $39.1 million, Miami by $31.7 million and St. Louis by $31.6 million. The American League champion Yankees dropped by $18.5 million. Just five teams were under $100 million, with the Marlins joined by the As ($74.9 million), Tampa Bay ($79.2 million), the White Sox ($80.9 million) and Pittsburgh ($87.9 million). Soto broke the previous high of $43.3 million shared by pitchers Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander under deals they agreed to with the Mets.Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler is second at $42 million, followed by Texas pitcher Jacob deGrom and Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge at $40 million each.Of 953 players in the major leagues on opening day, 526 had salaries of $1 million or more, 55%, and down from 532 last year and 546 in 2023.There were 15 players at $30 million or more, a drop of two; 66 at $20 million, up from 66; and 177 at $10 million, an increase from 166.A total of 35 players made the $760,000 minimum.The top 50 players make 29% of the salaries, the same as in the prior two years, and the top 100 earn 48%, up from 47%.Baseballs median salary, the point at which an equal number of players are above and below, dropped to $1.35 million from $1.5 million and well below the record high of $1.65 million at the start of 2015.Average and median salaries decline over the course of the season as veterans are released and replaced by younger players making closer to the minimum. The APs average was $4.98 million at the start of last season; MLB calculated the final average at $4.59 million and the players association at $4.66 million. Because they started the season in the minor leagues, Baltimore pitcher Kyle Gibson ($5.25 million), Detroit pitcher Jason Foley ($3.15 million) and Dodgers second baseman Hyeseong Kim ($2.8 million) were among the players not included in the opening day payroll figures.The APs figures include salaries and prorated shares of signing bonuses and other guaranteed income. Payroll figures factor in adjustments for cash transactions in trades, signing bonuses that are the responsibility of the club agreeing to the contract, option buyouts and termination pay for released players.___AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site
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  • Unicorn slippers in space
    www.nature.com
    Nature, Published online: 02 April 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00950-2Avoidance tactics.
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  • Enforcing NIL payments to athletes is NCAA's next big challenge
    www.espn.com
    Skeptics say cash to players for commercial endorsements often far exceeds the service's actual value.
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  • Geno, Lobo and the team that changed women's basketball: An oral history of 1994-95 UConn
    www.espn.com
    As the Huskies compete for their 12th national title, it's time to look back at their first, 30 years ago this week.
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  • Where will Aaron Rodgers sign? Here's everything we learned at the 2025 NFL owners meetings
    www.espn.com
    Pittsburgh executives are feeling good about their chances with Rodgers, but could Minnesota still be in play?
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  • Verstappen says goodbye 'for now' to Honda
    www.espn.com
    Max Verstappen has hinted at a future relationship with Honda after the Japanese engine maker's highly successful partnership with Red Bull finishes at the end of the Formula 1 season.
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  • USWNT Big Board: How the 2027 World Cup team is taking shape
    www.espn.com
    USWNT coach Emma Hayes has made it clear she's shaking up the U.S. roster for the 2027 Women's World Cup. Let's look at how that's going.
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  • Prosecutors to appeal Alves rape acquittal case
    www.espn.com
    Spanish state prosecutors said Wednesday that they plan to appeal the recent acquittal of soccer player Dani Alves on rape charges, opening the door to the case reaching the country's Supreme Court.
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  • Enforcing NIL payments to athletes is NCAA's next big challenge
    www.espn.com
    Skeptics say cash to players for commercial endorsements often far exceeds the service's actual value.
    0 Comments ·0 Shares ·22 Views ·0 Reviews
  • Inside one prospect's 'storybook' journey from Egypt to the NFL draft
    www.espn.com
    Despite initial language barriers and a lack of football knowledge, Ahmed Hassanein is close to becoming the first Egyptian to be drafted in the NFL.
    0 Comments ·0 Shares ·24 Views ·0 Reviews
  • Enforcing NIL payments to athletes is NCAA's next big challenge
    www.espn.com
    Skeptics say cash to players for commercial endorsements often far exceeds the service's actual value.
    0 Comments ·0 Shares ·23 Views ·0 Reviews
  • Geno, Lobo and the team that changed women's basketball: An oral history of 1994-95 UConn
    www.espn.com
    As the Huskies compete for their 12th national title, it's time to look back at their first, 30 years ago this week.
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  • Tesla sales drop 13% in first quarter as Elon Musk backlash, aging models hurt demand
    apnews.com
    Officers from Ottawa Police Service (OPS) are seen at a Tesla Service and Showroom centre after it was damaged with pink spray paint in Ottawa, on Monday, March 31, 2025. (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press via AP)2025-04-02T13:10:51Z NEW YORK (AP) Tesla sales declined in the first three months of the year, another sign that Elon Musks once high-flying electric car company is struggling to attract buyers.The drop of 13% is likely due to combination of factors, including its aging lineup, competition from rivals and a backlash from Musks embrace of right wing politics. It also is a warning that the companys first-quarter earnings report later this month could disappoint investors.Tesla reported deliveries of 336,681 globally in the January to March quarter. The figure was down from sales of 387,000 in the same period a year ago. The decline came despite deep discounts, zero financing and other incentives.Analysts polled by FactSet expected much higher deliveries of 408,000. Teslas stock has plunged by roughly half since hitting a mid-December record as expectations of a lighter regulatory touch and big profits with Donald Trump as president were replaced by fear that the boycott of Musks cars and other problems could hit the company hard. Analysts are still not sure exactly how much the fall in sales is due to the protests or other factors. Electric car sales have been sluggish in general, and Tesla in particular is suffering as car buyers hold off from buying its bestselling Model Y because of plans for an updated version later this year. The Austin, Texas electric vehicle maker has also lost market share to rivals in recent months as their offerings improve, including those of BYD. The Chinese EV giant unveiled in March a technology that allows it cars to charge up in just a few minutes.Shares of Tesla slipped more than 4% before the market open on Wednesday. BERNARD CONDON Condon is an Associated Press investigative reporter covering breaking news. He has written about the Maui fire, the Afghanistan withdrawal, gun laws, Chinese loans in Africa and Trumps business. twitter facebook mailto
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  • Vibe Coded AI App Generates Recipes for Cyanide Ice Cream and Cum Soup
    www.404media.co
    A vibe coded AI app developed by entrepreneur and Y Combinator group partner Tom Blomfield has generated recipes that gave users instruction on how to make Cyanide Ice Cream, Thick White Cum Soup, and Uranium Bomb, using those actual substances as ingredients.Vibe coding, in case you are unfamiliar, is the new practice where people, some with limited coding experience, rapidly develop software with AI assisted coding tools without overthinking how efficient the code is as long as its functional. This is how Blomfield said he made RecipeNinja.AI.Prepare the ice cream base by mixing heavy cream, milk, sugar, and vanilla extract, the first step for the Cyanide Ice Cream recipe, which is flagged as dessert, dangerous, and experimental, says. Step two says to Add a small amount of potassium cyanide powder to the ice cream base and mix well, specifically calling for a 1/4 teaspoon of potassium cyanide powder, which is extremely toxic and deadly if consumed.The recipe for Cyanide Ice Cream was still live on RecipeNinja.AI at the time of writing, as are recipes for Platypus Milk Cream Soup, Werewolf Cream Glazing, Cholera-Inspired Chocolate Cake, and other nonsense. Other recipes for things people shouldnt eat have been removed.Mix 1 cup of fresh cum with 4 cups of chicken broth in a pot, said step one in a now removed recipe for Thick White Cum Soup.It also appears that Blomfield has introduced content moderation since users discovered they could generate dangerous or extremely stupid recipes. I wasnt able to generate recipes for asbestos cake, bullet tacos, or glue pizza. I was able to generate a recipe for very dry tacos, which looks not very good but not dangerous.In a March 20 blog on his personal site, Blomfield explained that hes a startup founder turned investor, and while he has experience with PHP and Ruby on Rails, he has not written a line of code professionally since 2015.In my day job at Y Combinator, Im around founders who are building amazing stuff with AI every day and I kept hearing about the advances in tools like Lovable, Cursor and Windsurf, he wrote, referring to AI-assisted coding tools. I love building stuff and Ive always got a list of little apps I want to build if I had more free time.After playing around with them, he wrote, he decided to build RecipeNinja.AI, which can take a prompt as simple as Lasagna, and generate an image of the finished dish along with a step-by-stape recipe which can use ElevenLabss AI generated voice to narrate the instruction so the user doesnt have to interact with a device with his tomato sauce-covered fingers.I was pretty astonished that Windsurf managed to integrate both the OpenAI and Elevenlabs APIs without me doing very much at all, Blomfield wrote. After we had a couple of problems with the open AI Ruby library, it quickly fell back to a raw ruby HTTP client implementation, but I honestly didnt care. As long as it worked, I didnt really mind if it used 20 lines of code or two lines of code.Having some kind of voice controlled recipe app sounds like a pretty good idea to me, and its impressive that Blomfield was able to get something up and running so fast given his limited coding experience. But the problem is that he also allowed users to generate their own recipes with seemingly very few guardrails on what kind of recipes are and are not allowed, and that the site kept those results and showed them to other users.Which is how you end up with a Uranium Bomb recipe that calls for 1kg of uranium-235, or a recipe for Actual Cocaine, where the first step is Acquire coca leaves from South America.This is the current state of vibe coding in a nutshell. Yes, AI tools are obviously pretty powerful and can help people produce functional software fast. However, it is indicative of the larger problem with the rapid deployment of generative AI tools more broadly: people and companies are moving so fast, they are often releasing tools and media that can cause harm or produce nonsense, and its still far too soon for us to know all the consequences of an internet and a world where a lot software is developed this way.Blomfield did not immediately respond to a request for comment.This is not the first time weve seen generative AI and food mixed for terrible results. Last year, I reported that Ghost Kitchens on DoorDash are promoting their dishes with disgusting AI-generated images of food, and that Instacart was using AI to generate recipes that included ingredients that dont exist.
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  • 5 things a trans scientist wants you to know about AI
    newsisout.com
    Transgender people were no strangers to theheydayof the internet experimenting with AI text to image generation during primarily 2022 and 2023. Trans writers shared about the potentialpromiseof thetechnologyfor producing affirming portraits. The same models, however, researchersfoundalso produced stereotypes and over-sexualization of their depictions of transgender people.Since then, AI use has explodedas have examples of how it fails the LGBTQ+ community. Generative AI has repeatedly beenfoundtobiasagainst LGBTQ folks and other marginalized groups. Research has shown that AI surveillance systems pose aunique threatto the transgender community. In fact, anti-trans and gender critical groups have alreadyusedAI with the intent of excluding and marginalizing the transgender community.There are very few trans people working in and studying AI, leaving the community with limited input and guidance around the technology. To better understand the navigating of technology as trans and queer, the Blade sat down with Eddie Ungless, a queer and transresearcherstudying queerphobia and transphobia in AI models.Here are five things Ungless emphasized that the LGBTQ community should consider when navigating the technology.1: AI isnt necessarily intelligentWhen most people think about AI these days, they think about Chat-GPT or DALL-E. These are essentially, Ungless explains, a system trained on a very large amount of data to identify subtle patterns, and through that, it is able to mimic very particular aspects of human intelligence, like the written word.Mimicking particular aspects of human intelligence does not translate to actual or widespread intelligence.AI is quite good at pretending to be good at language, Ungless says, that has led to a sense that these systems have a human-like intelligence in other regards. For example, Chat-GPT may be able to write human-sounding paragraphs, but the content may not be accurate.Large language models like Chat-GPT are just a sliver of AI technology. Its almost more like a marketing term, Ungless says, referencing a largerline of thoughtin the AI community. Looking back five years, what was considered to be artificial intelligence was social media recommendation algorithms and moderation algorithms, Ungless explains, those arent things people think of as strongly as AI nowadays.2: The trouble is in the dataThere are certain kinds of bias that are now salient to the AI development community, says Ungless.The problem is that AIs are often being trained on enormous amounts of unfiltered data. Ungless explains, we are training these systems on so much data that it is impossible to be confident about what is contained in that data.This is especially true when the data comes from the internet and the content is likely to be disproportionatelyinaccurateorhateful.Developers will take stop-gap measures to try to tame the data, like removing common slurs or testing the final product on common identity terms. What theyre trying to avoid is a scandal, says Ungless.But, Ungless says, even if you attempt to remove large amounts of stereotyping, sexualizing, fetishizing, or offensive data, its still going to creep in and affect your final product.Ungless said that it doesnt have to be the case. They just have to build models differently. Developers are retroactively trying to undo damage that was done by [the model] being trained on the contents of the internet. Ungless asks, why dont we feed our models differently?3: Smaller is often betterDevelopers try to feed AI models as much data as possible, with the thought that more information equals more intelligence. This isnt necessarily the case, says Ungless, especially if the data is coming from the internet.Ungless images AI trained on smaller, more accurate data sets that have had more human input in creating. For example, scientists have used AI technology on specialized data sets to improvebreast cancer detection. Scientists had to be much more diligent about the data going into their models.Part of curating accurate data sets for AI tools in the future, Ungless argues, should be in consultation with marginalized communities affected by the tools. Instead of trying to fix a tool retroactively, including community input would ensure a better product from the beginning.Or, at least, looking into what information is already out there. A good first step would be asking the people who build these systems to reflect more on the normative decisions they make whilst developing them, he says. A lot of decisions get made without due consideration for the impact [or] existing social science research.Plus, there are other benefits to smaller AI models: researchshowsthey are greener. Earlier in 2025, Chinese AI DeepSeek made headlines for being trained onless dataand using less energy.4: Use the tools thoughtfullyLarge language models trained on large swathes of the internet are embedded in many peoples everyday lives at this point. Ungless recommends being thoughtful about what you want to get out of AI. Ungless said it can be a useful technology. I think that it can have convenient uses. I think it can have creative uses, they say, especially for tasks that need automation or are tricky solo.When investigating what the LGBTQ community uses AI for, Ungless has found people use it for things like writing scripts to help explain coming out or experimenting with gender presentation. He acknowledges that this can be useful in tailoring resources but also encourages folks to check out community created resources since they may be more helpful.Beyond the limits to AIs accuracy, Ungless points out that they are to an extent, averaging machines. So when you ask it to produce a letter for a loved one, its not going to be personalized.They encourage everybody to engage more mindfully with AI, and ask questions like Does this task really need to be automated using AI? Could a person do it better? Could a more [low-tech] solution do it well?5: Protect your dataSince AIs data often comes from scraping off the internet, the personal data or intellectual property of anyone, not just the LGBTQ community, should be taken into consideration.Ungless has found that this is especially a concern for LGBTQ creatives. He encourages creators to learn more about how their work may have been used in AI training, pointing users to websites likeHave I been Trained?If creators are making visual content, they can also apply a filterGlazethat protects data from being used in training sets.Ultimately many of these questions will come down to policy. Ungless encourages everyone to engage with the future of AI policy. They urge: As AI gets normalized, I think all should be engaged with ensuring policy makers and regulation keeps an eye on what AI companies are doing.(This story is part of the Digital Equity Local Voices Fellowship lab through News is Out. The lab initiative is made possible with support from Comcast NBCUniversal.)The post 5 things a trans scientist wants you to know about AI appeared first on News Is Out.
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  • USWNT's Shaw 'struggled' with Courage move
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    United States forward Jaedyn Shaw has said she has struggled to deal with expectations since joining North Carolina Courage in January.
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  • Bara wrong to register Olmo, Vctor - LaLiga
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    LaLiga say Barcelona have never had the salary space to register Dani Olmo or Pau Vctor.
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  • Sources: Padres' Merrill lands $135M extension
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    The Padres and Jackson Merrill have agreed to a nine-year, $135 million contract extension, sources confirmed to ESPN.
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  • State of the goalies: Fantasy hockey recap, predictions for 2025
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    With the fantasy hockey season almost over, here's what we learned about the goalies and who to upgrade for 2025-26.
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  • Gotham's Davidson out for season with torn ACL
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    NJ/NY Gotham FC and United States women's national team defender Tierna Davidson tore the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in her left knee and has been added to the NWSL's season-ending injury list.
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  • Spurs' Postecoglou: I hope Pochettino returns
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    Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou has said he does not feel "disrespected" by Mauricio Pochettino claiming he wants to manage the club again and insisted he hopes it happens one day.
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  • Power schools will outsource enforcing NIL payments to athletes
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    Skeptics say cash to players for commercial endorsements often far exceeds the service's actual value.
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  • Top transfers, Notre Dame's star and more: Who rank as the best rushers?
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    From a CFP standout and a pair of teammates to two impact freshmen, here are our picks for the top 10 RBs.
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  • USWNT's Shaw 'struggled' with Courage move
    www.espn.com
    United States forward Jaedyn Shaw has said she has struggled to deal with expectations since joining North Carolina Courage in January.
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  • Bara wrong to register Olmo, Vctor - LaLiga
    www.espn.com
    LaLiga say Barcelona have never had the salary space to register Dani Olmo or Pau Vctor.
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  • Stock market today: Wall Street falls in final hours of trading before Trumps tariff announcement
    apnews.com
    The New York Stock Exchange is seen in New York, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)2025-04-02T02:55:16Z NEW YORK (AP) U.S. stocks are swinging again Wednesday in the final hours before President Donald Trump unveils the tariffs he promised as part of his Liberation Day that could drastically remake the global economy and trade.The S&P 500 was 0.3% lower in morning trading after paring an early loss of 1.1%. Its had a pattern this week of opening with sharp losses only to finish the day higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 140 points, or 0.3%, as of 9:50 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.2% lower.Tesla helped pulled the market lower after it said it delivered fewer electric vehicles in the first three months of the year than it did in last years first quarter. Its shares fell 2.2% to extend their loss for the year so far to 35%. Tesla, one of Wall Streets most influential stocks because of its immense size, has faced growing backlash due to anger about CEO Elon Musks leading the U.S. governments efforts to cut spending. Financial markets around the world have been particularly shaky lately because of all the uncertainty around what Trump will announce in the event scheduled to begin after the U.S. stock market closes for the day. He has said he wants tariffs to make the global system more fair and to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States from other countries. But tariffs also threaten to grind down growth for the U.S. and other economies around the world, while worsening inflation when it seems to be remaining stubbornly higher than the Federal Reserves 2% target. Much is still unknown about what Trump will say later in the day, including how big the tariffs will be, which countries will be hit and what kinds of products will be targeted. The announcement may also not even clear up all the uncertainty weighing on Wall Street, given that it may just provide a starting point for negotiations with other countries. One of the hopes thats helped push upward on the U.S. stock market recently is the possibility that at least the worst of the uncertainty may have already passed.We do not know how long the previously enacted tariffs and any future tariffs will remain in force, but we believe peak tariff uncertainty may soon be behind us, according to Kurt Reiman, head of fixed income Americas, and other strategists at UBS Global Wealth Management. Much of the work the administration set out to achieve will have been put in place, and there are numerous potential offramps available. The tariffs Trump plans to unveil later in the day follow other announcements of 25% tariffs on auto imports; levies against China, Canada and Mexico; and expanded tariffs on steel and aluminum. Trump has also put tariffs against countries that import oil from Venezuela and plans separate import taxes on pharmaceutical drugs, lumber, copper and computer chips.Another fear hitting the market is that the herky-jerky rollout of his trade strategy may by itself create enough nervousness to spur U.S. households and businesses to freeze their spending, which would damage the economy. Surveys have shown deepening pessimism, but economists are waiting to see if that translates into actual damage for the economy. A report on Wednesday morning suggested the U.S. job market may still be running stronger than expected.The report from ADP Research said employers, excluding the government, accelerated their hiring last month by more than economists estimated. It could offer an encouraging signal for the more comprehensive hiring report thats coming Friday from the U.S. government. Economists expect that to show overall hiring slowed in March from February. The job market has been one of the linchpins keeping the U.S. economy out of a recession. Treasury yields nevertheless fell after the ADP payrolls report, continuing a trend thats largely held since January on worries about how tariffs could slow the economy. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.14% from 4.17% late Tuesday and from roughly 4.80% early this year. Thats a significant move for the bond market. On Wall Street, Newsmax fell 36.3% in its third day of trading to give back some of its meteoric gains from its debut. It surged 735% Monday and then another 179% on Tuesday. In stock market abroad, indexes fell across much of Europe after finishing mixed in Asia. ___AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.
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  • Judge dismisses corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams
    apnews.com
    New York City Mayor Eric Adams appears before a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing with Sanctuary City Mayors on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, March 5, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr., file)2025-04-02T13:48:34Z NEW YORK (AP) A federal judge dismissed New York City Mayor Eric Adams corruption case on Wednesday, acquiescing to the Justice Departments extraordinary request to set aside criminal charges so the Democrat could help with President Donald Trumps immigration crackdown.The judge, though, denied prosecutors the ability to potentially bring the criminal case back after the mayoral election. Judge Dale E. Hos order to dismiss the case with prejudice spares Adams from having to govern in a way that pleases Trump, or potentially risk having the Republicans Justice Department revive the charges.The judge said he wasnt opining on the merits of the case, but that courts cant force prosecutors to move forward. He rejected that an alternative the Justice Department had sought dismissing it without prejudice, which would have left room for the charges to be refiled. Dismissing the case without prejudice would create the unavoidable perception that the mayors freedom depends on his ability to carry out the immigration enforcement priorities of the administration, and that he might be more beholden to the demands of the federal government than to the wishes of his own constituents, the judge wrote. Messages seeking comment were sent to prosecutors, Adams lawyer and City Hall.Hos decision follows a legal drama that roiled the Justice Department, created turmoil in City Hall and left Adams mayoralty hanging by a thread amid questions about his political independence and ability to govern. Several prosecutors in New York and Washington resigned rather than carry out the Justice Departments directive to drop the case against Adams. Gov. Kathy Hochul, a fellow Democrat, pondered whether to remove Adams from office but decided instead to propose new oversight for city government. At a Feb. 19 hearing, Adams told Ho: I have not committed a crime. Adams pleaded not guilty to bribery and other charges after a 2024 indictment accused him of accepting illegal campaign contributions and travel discounts from a Turkish official and others and returning the favors by, among other things, helping Turkey open a diplomatic building without passing fire inspections.The case, brought during President Joe Bidens administration, was on track for an April trial until Trumps Justice Department moved to drop it. Ho delayed the trial and appointed former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement to assist him in deciding what to do.In a written submission on March 7, Clement told Ho that he had no choice under the law but to dismiss the case. But he recommended that the judge reject the Justice Departments request to be able to refile the charges after the mayoral election, which would leave a prospect that hangs like the proverbial Sword of Damocles over the accused.The decision comes with three months to go until a Democratic primary that is likely to choose the next mayor. Adams faces a large field of challengers, including former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and several Democrats who say hes now too indebted to Trump for New Yorkers to be sure hell prioritize their interests. Adams has said hes solely beholden to the 8.3 million New Yorkers that I represent, and I will always put this city first. As recently as Jan. 6, the assistant U.S. attorneys in New York who were prosecuting Adams wrote in court papers that they continued to uncover additional criminal conduct by Adams. But a month later, their new superiors in Washington decided to abandon the case. In court filings and a hearing, then-acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove has said he was particularly concerned about the impact of the prosecution on Mayor Adams ability to support Trumps immigration objectives. Bove also has questioned the prior administrations motives in pursuing Adams, who had criticized Bidens handling of immigration.The Trump administrations acting U.S. attorney in New York, Danielle Sassoon, resisted Boves order, saying she couldnt defend a dismissal linked to political considerations. Sassoon and several other career prosecutors quit rather than follow Boves order. After four of Adams top deputies at City Hall decided to resign, Hochul briefly considered taking the unprecedented step of ousting a New York City mayor. She ultimately concluded it would be undemocratic and disruptive to do so. Adams, a retired police captain and former state lawmaker and Brooklyn official, was elected in 2021 as a centrist Democrat in one of the United States liberal strongholds. Since his indictment, Adams has cultivated a warmer relationship with Trump, telling mayoral staffers not to criticize the president publicly.Adams insists hes just looking out for the city by having a working relationship with the administration.___Associated Press writers Anthony Izaguirre in Albany and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington contributed. MICHAEL R. SISAK Sisak is an Associated Press reporter covering law enforcement and courts in New York City, including former President Donald Trumps criminal and civil cases and problems plaguing the federal prison system. twitter mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site
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  • 'I Want to Make You Immortal:' How One Woman Confronted Her Deepfakes Harasser
    www.404media.co
    Content warning: This article contains mentions of self-harm and suicide.Joanne Chew found deepfakes of herself online the same way many women have found themselves face-swapped into porn: She was searching her own name after a big accomplishment.Sometimes I just Google my name to see what comes up, Chew told me in a phone call in August 2024. I want to see, like, is it my artwork, or my acting, or my main website that comes up first? And then I saw this, and I thought, Okay, this is weird. Someone was posting deepfakes of her with her full name in the video titles, alongside racist slurs, to popular tube sites.Chew acted in the May 2024 film Dead Wrong and suspects her harasser started ramping up his targeting her in AI face-swapped porn shortly before the time it came out.At the time, I thought, It's gonna blow over. Because this is bound to happen the more you move forward in your career as any sort of public person, she said. But then I noticed he was putting up more and more... And then I started wondering, is it somebody that I know? Although the names changed over the year, all of the deepfake content at that point was coming from the same username, Ron. 404 Media isnt publishing his screen names to avoid amplifying his accounts.Many targets of deepfake harassment attempt to tackle the barrage of harassment themselves by finding and reporting content to sites that are difficult to reach and often rarely respond. This is a time-consuming, traumatizing process. Chew did this for a while. Initially I thought it was just going to be a few videos, and I had other girlfriends who modeled and acted, with much bigger followings than me, who said unfortunately these things happen as our careers progress, she said.She pushed what she saw out of her mind for a few months until she checked again around August. She was horrified, she said, to see how much more had been uploaded in just a few months. At the height, he had an album of over 2,000 pieces of content, [was posting] on multiple sites, multiple YouTube channels, and then he started making multiple accounts on Facebook and Instagram to direct message me.At that point, she enlisted the help of Charles DeBarber, an online investigator who previously helped Girls Do Porn victims reclaim their images online.We're seeing a rapid upswing of AI generated art used in harassment. The ease [with which] even a lay person can use an open source tool to create deep fakes is going to only make them increase, DeBarber told me. The technology is inevitable, but the way it is used requires careful regulation and consequences for its abuse. We're still struggling to catch up to technology.Chews harasser only ramped up his efforts as time went on. Ron contacted Chew directly to insult her, obsess over her, or beg for her forgiveness, all while posting more degrading content all over the internet. Nearly a year later, Chew is still dealing with the fallout of becoming a victim of non-consensual, algorithmically-generated intimate imagery.After discovering this content, Im not going to lie there are times it made me not want to be around any more either, she said. I literally felt buried.When a big-name celebrity like Scarlett Johansson or Taylor Swift is targeted with deepfake harassment, its often from a legion of fans, people who join group efforts in Telegram channels or make Civitai models of a specific person. Its been this way from the beginning of deepfakes, with people trading tips and tricks for the best prompts, platforms, and generative AI tools to create whatever explicit material theyre trying to achieve featuring a specific person. But when its someone who doesnt have the same professional or financial power as these mega-celebrities, the harassment can take on a different form: one guy, in Chews case, producing what feels like an endless stream of images and videos of his obsession in videos stolen from pornographers and warped into something that threatens to take over a persons life. Follower of the goddess J., Rons Instagram account bio said. The account was dedicated to posting photos of Chew, with an AI-generated image of her in a kimono as the profile picture. He was also, it seemed, the one spreading this content all over every popular deepfake repository and tube site.In August, Chew posted a video explaining the situation to her followers on Instagram. By then, Ron had made hundreds of pieces of deepfaked content of her, and a YouTube channel dedicated to posting it. She filed a complaint to YouTube, and the platform responded, telling her this account was not in violation of its privacy guidelines, which clearly forbids AI-generated or other synthetic content that looks or sounds like you.Screenshot courtesy Joanne ChewHow is this not a violation? Someone has taken my name, my face, my professional information, against my consent, and is creating horrible, disgusting, degrading content [and] posting it all over the internet. Make this make sense, she said in the video.Screenshot via InstagramI felt like he was watching my social media, so I was kind of just calling him out on stuff to see if he would drop more hints or say more things, Chew told me.Later that month, Ron removed all of the content from the YouTube channel.But in September, Ron started commenting on Chews Instagram posts. And for the first time, she engaged with her harasser directly, replying to his comments.Then, he sent her a barrage of messages on Instagram, pleas for attention and forgiveness mixed in with threats. Please give my life some meaning, he wrote. I dont want to just be the deepfake porn monster I started as. What did you say I was? A deranged monster. People can change. Right? Let me change and be a good person. To me you have the most beautiful face of any asian girl I have ever seen. Please let me be your devoted worshipper. Ok I will put up nice pics of you on my instagram. Until you say otherwise. You mocked my art before. But these will be real art. Inspired by you, Jo.He continued sending her long, emotionally-charged messages, about how he feels worthless and is a monster, how he hated himself and wanted to die. I just want to say that Im with you on A.I. We got to stop it, he said. It hurts women. But it also addicting and does terrible things to the men who use it. Sure it feels good and its exciting. But after the poison is released, there is guilt and shame. I hated myself after every release. Its terrible to be the monster you hate.Illustration: Lindsay BallantHe begged her to see him as her biggest fan, and to consider letting him start an OnlyFans on her behalf. He said he made money off of making deepfakes of her. Men love you. Use them for yourself, he wrote. I will stop if you ask me to. If you want me to never look at any of your social media, all you have to do is ask. I am a man of my word. If you ask me to, I will never look you up ever again. I will stop being a fan.He made a point of calling me Jo because I said only people who grew up with me are allowed to call me that and for a while he was purposely referring to me as Jo in some of the titles of his content and while messaging me, she said.Chew didnt engage with any of these direct messages. But on the same day he was sending her these screeds, he uploaded a new video to a tube site: Hate-Fucking Joanne Chew Some Chinese Whore.On Facebook, he sent her more incredibly lengthy messages about his obsession with her.I don't want you dead. I am making you immortal, one message said. He continued:You hate me now, but maybe someday you will see things my way. I am not the monster you think I am. I'm just honest with my nature. I'm also sorry about your dad. I lost mine when I was a kid. Yes, it's true. I do love your image. And rest in mind, I'm not anyone from your life. [...] So life isn't that nice, so I've made up your personality and surrounded it with AI flesh. I have a mask of you that I make my tiny Asian girlfriend wear. Lastly, yes, I do have eight inches. It's not the biggest, but it is fine for little Asian girls. I'm good with my life and my love of the girl I have created in my mind with your face and my girlfriend's body. No one loves you as much as I do. You should be flattered that anyone loves you. And yes, my art is of the highest integrity, because it is actually truly honest. It isn't hiding or lying like all the beta males in your life. I am a real man that desires your body and isn't afraid to say so, not your real one, though, that one is bold and faded, but your AI body is forever young, Jo.She replied to some of his Facebook messages, trying to goad him into giving more information she could potentially bring to the police. But he never took the bait, instead continuing to send long rants about his sex life, her appearance, and his racist fetishes. (Chew still hasnt gone directly to the police; she told me shes had negative experiences going to her local police for assault, something many women report as a systemic issue across police forces.)By late September, things became quiet. Hed deleted or deactivated his Instagram and Facebook accounts. But another account, under a new username, popped up in October and restarted the harassment, posting more to sites where people seek out deepfake porn.In some videos and images, the bodies he swapped her face onto seemed very young, and were posted alongside videos of children.In November, Chew found someone posting the same images and videos to another site with her Chinese name. Its very sensitive for me as Ive grown sick and tired of the fetishization of Asian women (that Ive been exposed to my entire life) and Ive only been open with my Chinese name in the last decade or so. she told me in an email. It looks like its all preexisting content. Drives me nuts someone or multiple people are out there freely distributing said content facing no repercussions (and even profiting from it).Around the same time, the videos returned to YouTube, posted by two new accounts, where the uploader titled videos with Chews full name.Screenshot via YoutubeBy December, other users were reposting the same content on porn tube sitesagain with her full name in the titles. Around that time, a new username popped up in her Instagram comments, claiming that Ron died by suicide and that she was to blame.Initially wasnt planning on replying, but wanted to see if he would drop any more information (whether or not its true is debatable), Chew told me at the time. Then he started making excuses for Ron (whether he is him or one of his followers remains to be seen) saying he was mentally challenged and then tried to blame me for his suicide, which also may or may not have happened.Screenshot via YoutubeOver the course of 10 months, Chew kept finding more accounts posting her image, her full name, and graphic videos and photos alongside degrading titles and descriptions.As of writing, the harassment has slowed down. In the last year, Chew has sent me dozens of emails with links to hundreds and thousands of pieces of content and screenshots showing more deepfakes, comments, and videos on multiple platforms, many more than can be shown in one article. Much of it is gone after DeBarbers reporting and takedown notices and searching for her name on Google no longer returns results from porn sites, but some of it is still online.But shes still terrified of the long-term effects this harassment could continue to have. Although shes a working actor, she still relies on working in the corporate world to make ends meet between the more sporadic gigs in the arts, and those jobs often require background checks. And as an actor, its made networking and social events harder, as trusting people outside of her closest confidants has become difficult. It's made me incredibly wary of men, which I know isn't fair, but Ron could literally be anyone, she said. And there are a lot of men out there who don't see the issue, they wonder why we aren't flattered for the attention.Deepfakes started as a novel AI-powered explicit imagery abuse technique seven years ago. The technology went from crude frankenporn among the programming-savvy and morally flippant to producing fakes so realistic it was considered a national security threat within months of its inception. But its most popular use has always been as a mass-harassment tool. The platforms where people spread deepfakes have only expanded in that time, while the methods for making deepfakes have gotten simpler; so simple that schoolchildren do it. The adults in the room, as well as policymakers, continue to fail victims of deepfake harassment. Conversations about deepfakes still leave sex workers, who are doubly exploited in this content, behind. AI continues to explode exponentially, while women targeted by this kind of harassment say again and again and again that they believe sexualized online harassment is part of the deal of being a successful woman on the internet: untenable and yet part of some unwritten contract.The Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization Act of 2022 created a federal civil cause of action for victims of non-consensual content, DeBarber said. This law allows victims to file a lawsuit against the person who disclosed their intimate images without consent. However, this law doesn't cover deepfakes including those created via AI. The focus tends to be on celebrities, influencers, and political figures. This itself is changing rapidly. We feel lawmakers and voters aren't seeing the larger picture this is an everyone issue.Even when proposed legislation takes a new stab at criminalizing deepfakes, like the TAKE IT DOWN Act is currently attempting, it risks being used as a weapon by those who would love to further curb free speech online, rather than being nuanced, effective, and inclusive or learning from legislative mistakes of the past.While legislators and platforms continue to fumble around for solutions and police push victims to the side, everyone suffers. There is still no technological solution to deepfakes, and a perfect legal one seems far away, too. But Chews experience confronting her harasser gives us a new look into the mind of the people who dole out the abuse and hide behind anonymity, and the exhausting process of reclaiming one's own name.
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