Conor McGregor must pay $250K to woman who says he raped her, civil jury rulesConor McGregor must pay $250K to woman who says he raped her, civil jury rules
Four members of Congress unveiled a bipartisan bill Friday that would spark changes at the U.S. Center for SafeSport, placing a time limit on resolving cases that can sometimes take years and improving communication between the center and abuse survivors. The Safer Sports for Athletes Act looks to address some of the bigger concerns that have opened the center to criticism since it was established in 2017 to handle sex-abuse cases in Olympic sports and their grassroots cousins. Recommended Videos The bill would quadruple an existing grant to the center to $10 million a year. But that wouldn't solve all the problems. As before, that grant can only be used for training and education , not investigations and enforcement, which are the focus of complaints about the center. The center operates on a budget of around $21 million a year, most of which comes from the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and its sports affiliates, known as national governing bodies, or NGBs. CEO Ju'Riese Colon said the center currently receives about 155 reports a week, which comes to more than 8,000 a year. “We’re hoping the combination of appropriations for other activities will free up money for investigations, as well as the streamlining,” said Rep. Deborah Ross, D-North Carolina. The other bill sponsors were Reps. Dave Joyce, R-Ohio; Don Bacon, R-Nebraska; and Kathy Castor, D-Florida. The center's critics are skeptical about giving more resources to an agency they feel is missing the mark. Colon said even if the center receives the additional money in the form of the grant, tamping down problems addressed in the legislation won't be as simple as shifting funds around. “We have a lot of questions,” she said. “Because some it, we just don't know how it works, practically.” The law would mandate that investigations be concluded within 180 days after a report is made, with possibilities to extend them. Some of the most egregious complaints about the center have come from people who say it has taken years for their cases to be resolved. “Too many other survivors have also been left waiting for years for SafeSport to investigate or have their cases closed without action,” said soccer player Mana Shim, who helped lawmakers draft the bill. Shim's own case, involving sexual harassment and coercion by her coach, took more than two years for the center to resolve and led to investigations and reforms across American soccer. Other reforms include a requirement for the center to provide victim advocates at no cost for those needing them — a move already underway as part of a menu of changes the center announced earlier this year — and to assign case managers who can give timely updates to victims and the accused. “I have questions around, if the center were to hire and staff the advocates, there might be some conflict of interest with us doing this internally," Colon said. The lawmakers positioned the bill as one that will help the Denver-based center, while making clear they are not satisfied with the results so far. “We're going to make sure the center has the resources it needs to effectively respond to thousands of reports it handles annually,” Castor said. “It has unfortunately fallen short." Ross conceded this bill will probably get pushed to the next Congress, which convenes Jan. 3, “but we needed to set the stage as soon as possible.” ___ AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-gamesAlmost every industry is being slayed by Artificial Intelligence (AI), and it’s no different for filmmaking. AI video generators are now redefining the production process and dramatically increasing the creative potential of films. By 2024, these tools will be stronger than they can be imagined and possess amazing capabilities that were not even possible. In this article, let us see how the future of filmmaking is undergoing a change by AI video generators and the best 10 tools being used in the industry. LTX Studio For filmmakers looking for cinematic quality visuals, is a next-generation AI video generator. Users can generate detailed scenes, change environments, and automate editing. If you are a professional who wants to save time and resources, yet retain control, this is the tool for you. : Creating complex visual scenes and a written prompt. : Set up customized pallets and worlds for one-of-a-kind storytelling. : Automatically edit boring processes with exactitude. : Create videos in cinematic quality. LTX Studio helps filmmakers create professional-grade visual content with a small team and minimal equipment costs. Vyond An animation tool as powerful as Vyond makes it easy to create professional-looking animated videos. It’s ideal for corporate training, marketing, or explainer videos. It has more versatile features than you can imagine to engage in stories. Beginner and Advanced creators alike can access it. : Create unique, funny animated characters. : Make them lively and move from beginning to end. : You can add audio narrations in no time. : Get access to pre-built styles for different purposes. Vyond makes it easy to make video animations, and professional animated videos are no longer something only capable of being created by the technically minded. Runway ML Runway ML is an AI-powered tool that allows indie creators and professionals an AI driven video creation, storyboard creation, video editing, and video effects through a beautiful user interface. With a user-friendly interface combined with powerful capabilities, it is widely used as a leading choice for filmmakers looking for a high-quality visual — and it’s even favored by those working within a budget. : Do backgrounds seamlessly without a green screen. : Write a script from recorded video. : The videos are instantly applied with artistic effects. : Work well with other editing software. Indie filmmakers will appreciate that Runway ML gives creators the awesome power to produce professional quality results without taking up too much of somebody else’s time. Movavi Video Editor Using traditional editing tools in combination with AI-based improvements, Movavi Video Editor offers the perfect solution for making colorful videos. This is perfect for content creators, marketers, and filmmakers looking for an easy to use platform. It covers quick edits to detailed projects. : Use advanced tools to improve audio clarity. : Use improved shaky footage to get smooth results. : Get access to an array of transitions and filters. : Can easily control and refine video sequences. This allows you to have simplicity when editing for beginners, meanwhile having the ample tools for professionals, all of these work together to produce polished videos with ease. Pictory AI Pictory AI turns long-form scripts and articles into interactive video for marketers, educators, and pro cinematographers. Its simple workflow allows users to create great looking videos in just minutes, which is perfect for promoting ideas visually. : It generates videos from written content. : Automatically add in real-life narrations. : Get access to high-quality visuals and audio. : Captions enable accessibility. Pictory saves time and energy allowing users to quickly create professional-looking videos. Synthesia AI-generated avatars and multilingual videos are what Synthesia specializes in and are perfect for global content creation. Its characters and processes are realistic, so the video production is smoothed out. This is perfect for company brand, branding, corporate, and educational purposes. : Creating design avatars for tailored video presentations. : Effortless videos in multiple languages.. : Figure out how to get natural speech synchronization. : Quick production with ready-made styles. By reducing production costs and time, Synthesia makes creating globalized content with professional quality visuals easy. InVideo An AI-driven platform to create promotional, marketing, and storytelling videos fast and easy. They have plenty of extensive templates and automation tools that will suit almost every industry, so it’s beneficial for Businesses and Creators who are aiming for efficiency. : There are numerous customizable options to choose from. : Automatically recommend enhancements to videos. : Get access to a huge library of stock graphics and music. : Work with teams in real time. Messages with video in InVideo are generally the most visually appealing, and it makes creating them so convenient, they are perfect for promotion and storytelling. Veed.io Veed.io is a browser-based online video editor with artificial intelligence features to help create very polished videos through a quick and simple editor. If you need to create content for a social media, a campaign or a project you would be better off using this tool. Designed for mobile creators. : Automatically generate captions. : Eliminate background noise from videos. : Video Resizing for many of the Social Media platforms available. : Make video assembly and effects easier. Veed.io simplifies the editing process and gives creators access to the production of professional-quality videos without any effort. DeepBrain AI DeepBrain AI utilizes lifelike avatars and AI created visuals for professional storytelling and presentations. This is a tool that is perfect for educational, corporate and documentary-styled videos as a tool for creating human-like content. : This will help create professional-looking virtual hosts. : Learn how to express your own avatars as they slide onto the screen. : Generate videos in minutes. : It is easy to create content in different languages. DeepBrain AI enhances the efficiency during the production for the professional presentation or storytelling, yet preserves some of the humanity. Elai.io Helping creators generate videos from text inputs, Elai.io is a flexible AI video generator. With their specialized tools geared for personalization and multilingual content, it makes it fit for use in many industries. It’s perfect for engagement at a global level. : Turn input from writing into graphics. : Bring avatars to life via custom branding. : Availability of multiple language support. : Make it more automatable to give you a polished finish. With Elai.io, you can bring professional-grade video production at a low cost of no technical knowledge. These AI video generators are disrupting the filmmaking industry by making everything seem much simpler and more creative. They help in script writing, editing & special effects and save time as well as money automatically. Using AI, filmmakers can essentially replace a background and fake the lighting in it, as well as fake it out with a virtual actor that seems realistic — and then play it back anywhere, any time you’d like. Also, these tools support multilingual dubbing and for the global audience, give real-time editing. . These advancements are making filmmaking easier, faster, and possibly more imaginative than ever before. Finally, AI video generators are fundamentally changing filmmaking by reducing the time spent on shooting video and making it cheaper and better accessible. Whether you’re a filmmaker, an educator, marketer, these tools have amazing features such as text-to-video conversion, AI avatar customizations, and templates. These easy-to-use options like LTX Studio, Vyond, and Synthesia help creators to bring their ideas into existence. With AI technology better and better, we can expect even more creative solutions to come out in video creation.
Chinese entrepreneur sued for fraud invests $30 million in Trump crypto ventureBUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Romanian lawmakers on Monday voted narrowly in favor of a new pro-European coalition government led by incumbent Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu. The move could usher in an end to a protracted political crisis in the European Union country following the annulment of a presidential election by a top court. Parliament approved the new administration in a 240-143 vote in Romania's 466-seat legislature. The new coalition is made up of the leftist Social Democratic Party, or PSD, the center-right National Liberal Party, PNL, the small ethnic Hungarian UDMR party and national minorities. It caps a month-long period of turmoil in which far-right nationalists made significant gains in a Dec. 1 parliamentary election , a week after a first-round presidential race saw the far-right outsider Calin Georgescu emerge as the front-runner. “It will not be an easy mandate for the future government,” Ciolacu, whose PSD party topped the polls in the parliamentary election, said in a statement Monday. “We are aware that we are in the midst of a deep political crisis," he said. "It is also a crisis of trust, and this coalition aims to regain the trust of citizens, the trust of the people.” Romani's 16 ministerial positions will be shared among the parties, which will hold a slim majority in the legislature. It's widely seen as a tactical partnership to shut out far-right nationalists whose voices found fertile ground amid high living costs and a sluggish economy. President Klaus Iohannis was expected to swear in the new government later Monday. Ciolacu, who came third in the first-round presidential ballot despite polls indicating he would win the most votes, has served as prime minister since June 2023. Romania was plunged into turmoil after Georgescu’s surprise success in the presidential race, after allegations of electoral violations and Russian interference emerged. Days before the Dec. 8 runoff, the Constitutional Court made the unprecedented move to annul the presidential race . “We go through complicated times, but I think we all learned from mistakes of the past,” Ciolacu said. “I hope that together with my colleagues in the coalition, we’ll find the best solutions to get past the challenges we have in front of us.” Ciolacu said that the new government would aim to quickly organize the rerun of the presidential election in which the new coalition has agreed to put forward an agreed common pro-European candidate. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians, which came second in the parliamentary election, said that all lawmakers from his party on Monday would vote against the Ciolacu government. In 2021, the PSD and the PNL also formed an unlikely but increasingly strained coalition together with UDMR, which exited the Cabinet last year after a power-sharing dispute. Stephen McGrath reported from Warwick, England.Microsoft is giving Copilot a new taskbar UI and keyboard shortcut on Windows
NEW YORK — Juan Soto put on a New York Mets jersey and cap for the first time Thursday after his record $765 million, 15-year contract was finalized and talked about what made the difference in his decision. “They showed me a lot of love. ... How they're going to make it comfortable for me,” he said. "That's one of the things I was looking for." Soto was introduced at Citi Field a day after his deal was finalized. Speaking in the Piazza 31 Club, he was flanked by Mets owner Steve Cohen, president of baseball operations David Stearns and his agent, Scott Boras. “They always talk about family. They always talk about stick(ing) together,” Soto said. “That's one of the things that opened my eyes.” Security men in gray suits wearing earpieces were off to the side. People are also reading... Soto walked in led by Boras, wearing a dark suit, black turtle neck shirt and gold chain with his No. 22. “I’m excited by the Mets future,” Cohen said. “I think this accelerates our goal of winning championships.” Soto chose the Mets' offer on Sunday, deciding to leave the Yankees after helping them reach the World Series in his only season in the Bronx. Adames plans to play every day for Giants SAN FRANCISCO — Willy Adames wasted little time making one thing clear: He wants to play all 162 games for the San Francisco Giants. So when introduced as their new shortstop Thursday, Adames looked to his left and gently put a hand on manager Bob Melvin's right shoulder, smiled and said, “if he lets me.” Melvin might not need much convincing, thrilled to suddenly have stability at a position that lacked continuity this year in his first season as skipper. Adames didn't hesitate to also offer a thought to new boss Buster Posey: He plans to win a few championships with the Giants just like the catcher-turned-executive did here. Surrounded by his parents and other family and friends, Adames was formally introduced and welcomed at Oracle Park after signing a $182 million, seven-year contract — the first big, splashy move made by Posey since he became President of Baseball Operations in late September. “There’s no words to describe my feeling right now to be here in this beautiful city, I’m just so happy to be here,” Adames said. "... This is a dream come true for me. I’m thrilled to be here, I’m so excited. Hopefully we can win a few championships like you did, and that’s one of the main reasons I’m here.” Rangers, Eovaldi finalize 3-year deal DALLAS — Nathan Eovaldi and the Texas Rangers finalized a $75 million, three-year contract Thursday that keeps him in their starting rotation. The right-hander was the winning pitcher for Texas in its 2023 World Series clincher, and the Rangers said one of their primary goals this offseason was to re-sign Eovaldi. The sides agreed to financial terms Tuesday, pending a successful physical. To open a roster spot for Eovaldi, right-hander Roansy Contreras was designated for assignment. Eovaldi became a free agent Nov. 4 after declining a vested $20 million player option for the 2025 season. The Rangers had expected that move, but said they wanted to bring back the Texas native who will turn 35 in February. The two-time All-Star got a $2 million buyout from that option, which was earned by throwing more than 300 innings over his two years with the Rangers after joining them in free agency. Franco trial delayed five months PUERTO PLATA, Dominican Republic — The trial against Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Wander Franco, who has been charged with sexually abusing a minor, sexual and commercial exploitation against a minor, and human trafficking, was postponed on Thursday and scheduled to resume June 2, 2025. Dominican judge Yacaira Veras postponed the hearing at the request of prosecutors because of the absence of several key witnesses in the case. Only three out of 31 witnesses arrived to the hearing on Thursday. Franco’s lawyers asked the court to reconsider the postponement, arguing Franco must report to spring training in mid-February. “There is no case against Wander, for as many witnesses as they present, there is no case now,” Franco's lead lawyer Teodosio Jáquez told The Associated Press after the hearing. The judge replied that Franco is obligated to continue with the trial schedule and his conditional release from detainment. BRIEFLY RAYS: Tampa Bay and catcher Danny Jansen finalized a one-year contract. The deal includes a mutual option for 2026. Jansen, who turns 30 in April, hit .205 with nine homers and 24 RBIs last season for Toronto and Boston, which acquired him from the Blue Jays on July 27. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox!Unfortunately, airlines continue to struggle to locate misplaced suitcases despite the overabundance of tracking devices. When it happens, it’s often to the chagrin of the person losing their luggage and having to deal with the airline gaslighting them out of its existence. Apple added a new feature to Find My last month to help with these it-sucks-when-it-happens situations. Share Item Location allows you to share the location of an AirTag with a third party, which will be immensely helpful when trying to prove that an airline lost your bag. United Airlines is the first major airline conglomerate to implement Apple’s Share Item Location feature for the AirTag in its mobile app. To use it, you’ll need the latest iOS 18.2 update, available for the iPhone Xs and above. The feature lets you generate a shareable link through the Find My app and add it to a delayed baggage report. You can also cease sharing that data before your item is found. The Share Item Location link automatically expires after seven days. Apple has said the location sharing is end-to-end encrypted, so only you, the user, and the third party can access the link. If you’re flying United, once your bag doesn’t show up on the conveyor belt, you can file a delayed baggage report and link the Share Item Location. The link can be generated via iPhone, iPad, or a Mac. After you submit the report, United will use that link to see where your bag is and, hopefully, pluck it out of whatever vortex it is whirling in. United promises to disable the shared location when you’re reunited with your bag. I’m curious what the airlines are thinking as they laud the support of a new feature that effectively snitches if they don’t follow protocol to return a bag. United’s press release hones in on the idea that they’re one of the first major airlines to log on to this newfangled way of tracking bags, but not without cheekily mentioning that Apple’s new Share Item Location will “drive a much-improved customer service experience for the fewer than 1% of customers whose bags arrive on a later flight.” That’s from a statistic last year that claimed only a tiny percentage of people ever have to deal with lost bags. Anyway, that number is still too much. Airlines make keeping your bag on you challenging and charge for the privilege of keeping it near. How dare they pass it off as a minuscule thing that only affects a sprinkling of people here and there. On most of my flights this year, I’ve seen folks who get on the airplane last be forced to check their bags because of a lack of overhead bin space. The bins would probably be sufficient were it not for how much it costs to check the bag from the get-go. It’s a constant lose-lose situation for the customer, so Apple is proud to let its users know it’s introduced a way to help get around the politics of checking a bag. Over a dozen airlines will start implementing this tracking feature, including most of United Airlines’ partners, such as Air Canada, Lufthansa, and Turkish Airlines. Apple says more airlines will be added over time. Android users who are wondering how to play this game will have to choose a player. All Android users have access to Find My Device . If you’re using a Samsung device, the company has its own tracking network for the ecosystem. Third-party companies like Tile also let you share a device’s location with another party.Jon Ossoff first ran for office seven years ago with a promise to get under Donald Trump’s skin. As he seeks another U.S. Senate term, and the president-elect prepares a return to office, the Georgia Democrat is stressing his ability to work across party lines. Ossoff told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Wednesday that he is “actively seeking opportunities” to find common ground with Trump and other Republicans. But he said he won’t hesitate to oppose Trump if he flouts Georgia’s interests. “I sincerely hope that for Georgia the incoming administration can deliver and succeed for our state’s benefit,” Ossoff said. “And I’ll actively look for opportunities to continue the bipartisan work that I’ve done for the last four years.” Ossoff is sticking to a playbook he embraced after his 2021 runoff defeat of Republican David Perdue, one of a pair of Democratic runoff victories in Georgia that flipped control of the Senate. He’s voted reliably with President Joe Biden and other Democrats on major policies since taking office, but he’s also emphasized bipartisanship and consensus-building when possible, such as over infrastructure spending and immigration policy debates. His approach echoes that of many other Democrats grappling with how to counter the returning president after he recaptured Georgia and scored a decisive national victory. Many emphasize a willingness to compromise on key issues rather than all-out defiance. But Ossoff is waging a reelection campaign in a remade political landscape. Four years after Biden flipped Georgia for the first time in decades — and voters elected Ossoff and Raphael Warnock to the Senate — the GOP is again ascendant after Trump’s decisive win. Georgia GOP Chair Josh McKoon said Ossoff’s “almost unanimous lockstep voting” with Biden, and recent support for failed measures to block U.S. sales of ammunition to Israel, will come back to haunt Democrats. (Ossoff said he hoped the vote pressures Israel to take more steps to save civilian lives.) “His stated bipartisanship is a costume,” McKoon said. “And the mask has now slipped off for all Georgians to see.” ‘A political problem’ McKoon’s line of attack is a preview of the incoming fire against Ossoff in 2026, when he is certain to be a top GOP target. National Republicans are working already to recruit Gov. Brian Kemp or another formidable contender to join the race. Ossoff said he’s unafraid to punch back, particularly over Trump’s vow to repeal Democratic-backed green energy incentives that helped fuel Georgia’s growing electric-vehicle industry. It passed despite staunch GOP opposition, including complaints from Kemp it created an unequal playing field. “There are risks to Georgia’s economic development,” Ossoff said, framing the debate as a choice “between the president-elect’s promises to repeal manufacturing incentives that have supercharged Georgia’s economic development on the one hand and our state’s interests on the other.” He added, “Congress will have to conduct vigorous oversight and guard against potential overreach, misconduct or abuse.” But he also acknowledged Democratic shortfalls. Even as Ossoff criticized Trump for working to scuttle a bipartisan border security measure this year, he said there was a “substantive policy failure” by the Biden administration to address illegal immigration. “The Biden administration’s administrative failures at the southern border were both a substantive failure and also, clearly, a political problem,” he said. Ossoff’s approach hardly resembles his stance on Trump in 2017, when he ran unsuccessfully for a GOP-held U.S. House seat with a “ make Trump furious ” mantra that he ultimately abandoned in favor of more robust outreach to swing voters and Republicans. That coalition helped him oust Perdue in a close 2021 runoff. But that tenuous alliance unraveled in November when a resurgent Trump cut into Democratic strongholds across Georgia and turned GOP bastions a brighter shade of red. Now Trump is set to reenter the White House with a firm grip on the GOP and a unified Congress, while Democrats struggle over how to oppose the returning president. Ossoff has said little about the soul-searching over the party’s direction — when asked about ongoing internal debate, he said he’s “looking for opportunities to get things done in Georgia” — while working behind the scenes to assert control of the state Democratic infrastructure. And analysts say Ossoff’s shrewd to follow a strategy of targeted bipartisanship instead of outright opposition ahead of a midterm race in 2026 that could again hinge on swing voters. “He has no choice but to work with who the public has elected if he is going to be an effective senator for the state of Georgia,” University of Georgia political scientist Audrey Haynes said. “I don’t know what other path he has to reelection victory,” said Jeff Auerbach, a political scientist at Oxford College of Emory University. “He’ll have to win the same swing voters that helped elect him four years ago. He’s threading a needle, but that’s the only option he has.” Here are excerpts from the interview: On his strategy of working with the returning president: “I sincerely hope that for Georgia the incoming administration can deliver and succeed for our state’s benefit. And I’ll actively look for opportunities to continue the bipartisan work that I’ve done for the last four years in my constituents’ interest ... “I’ve been one of the most bipartisan members of the Senate. I’ve built deep and productive partnerships with Republican colleagues. I’ve led vigorous bipartisan oversight investigations. ... I’m going to continue that approach with Congress in the new administration.” On lessons learned from the election results: “You’ve reported for years that I’ve criticized the Democratic Party on immigration policy. And you reported I thought it was a craven capitulation to election-year politics for Republicans in Congress not to pass a bipartisan border security measure last year. The outgoing administration’s failures at the border weighed heavily on the outcome of the election, and more importantly, were a substantive policy failure.” On whether he is optimistic about working with Trump: “I am actively seeking opportunities to work together in Georgia’s interest. My obligation is to the state, no matter who is in the White House, no matter who has power in Congress, and I’ll actively seek those opportunities to find common ground and get things done for Georgia.” ©2024 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Visit at ajc.com . Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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