Trump again calls to buy Greenland after eyeing Canada and the Panama CanalMissouri aims to cap perfect nonconference home slate vs. Alabama State
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Grows Position in Copart, Inc. (NASDAQ:CPRT)
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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — If the Giants' franchise-record 10th straight loss proved anything, it's that New York could use a young franchise quarterback. Rookie Michael Penix Jr. showed what a young QB can do on Sunday against the Giants, who need to learn from it. The No. 8 overall pick in the draft, Penix played a nearly flawless game in his first career start to help the Falcons thrash the woeful Giants 34-7 in their best performance in weeks. The Giants gambled in 2019 that Daniel Jones would be their franchise QB and it really never panned out. The one exception was the 2022 season, when the No. 6 overall pick had a career year and led New York to a 9-7-1 record and a playoff berth in the first season after Joe Schoen was hired as general manager and Brian Daboll was named coach. The Giants even won a playoff game. With the release of Jones last month, the Giants (2-13) are now a team without a quarterback who can perform at the level required of an NFL starter. Tommy DeVito and Drew Lock have split the last four starts but neither has provided much of a spark for the league's worst offense. Lock handed the Falcons the game with two interceptions that were returned for touchdowns. To turn things around next season, the Giants must find a quarterback. “I’d say it’s very important,” Daboll said Monday. New York is going to have a high pick in the draft in Green Bay, Wisconsin, in late April. It could even be the No. 1 overall selection. Choosing the right quarterback is going to be hard. There isn't a can't-miss choice in 2025 draft and forcing one early would be a mistake. Unless the Giants are convinced that Cam Ward, Shedeur Sanders, Jalen Milroe or someone else is the next franchise player, they have have so many needs that it would be better to wheel and deal and fill as many holes as possible. Even if the Giants take a quarterback in the second round, there's bound to be someone available who has a chance to be better than what they have now. The calendar. The season ends in less than two weeks. The franchise is in disarray, and a shakeup appears likely. Daboll's future as the coach is not bright, considering the current skid and two straight losing seasons. Schoen has to share the blame and so do co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch, who hired the GM and coach. LB Darius Muasau. The sixth-round draft pick out of UCLA has started the last three games since Bobby Okereke (back) was hurt and eventually put on injured reserve last week. Muasau had 11 tackles Sunday along with a quarterback hit and a tackle for a loss. He made the defensive calls after LB Micah McFadden left with a neck injury. Lock. In his starts, Lock has had three interceptions returned for touchdowns. He also lost a fumble on a strip-sack at Atlanta. Lock sustained a shoulder injury during the game and had an MRI on Monday. Besides Lock and McFadden, S Jason Pinnock (eye) also left the game. C John Michael Schmitz and RB Tyrone Tracy were evaluated for ankle injuries on Monday. 1 — Thanks to the Raiders' victory over the Jaguars, the Giants will have the No. 1 overall pick in the draft with two more losses. For the ninth and final time, the Giants will try to find a way to win at MetLife Stadium. New York is 0-8 heading into Sunday's game against the Indianapolis Colts. Its only other winless season at home was in 1974 when New York played at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Connecticut, while Giants Stadium was being built. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
Jet crash disaster in South Korea marks another setback for BoeingDoctored images have been around for decades. The term "Photoshopped" is part of everyday language. But in recent years, it has seemingly been replaced by a new word: deepfake. It's almost everywhere online, but you likely won't find it in your dictionary at home. What exactly is a deepfake, and how does the technology work? RELATED STORY | Scripps News Reports: Sex, Lies, and Deepfakes A deepfake is an image or video that has been generated by artificial intelligence to look real. Most deepfakes use a type of AI called a "diffusion model." In a nutshell, a diffusion model creates content by stripping away noise. "With diffusion models, they found a very clever way of taking an image and then constructing that procedure to go from here to there," said Lucas Hansen said. He and Siddharth Hiregowdara are cofounders of CivAI, a nonprofit educating the public on the potential — and dangers — of AI. How diffusion models work It can get complicated, so imagine the AI – or diffusion model – as a detective trying to catch a suspect. Like a detective, it relies on its experience and training. It recalls a previous case -– a sneaky cat on the run. Every day it added more and more disguises. On Monday, no disguise. Tuesday, it put on a little wig. Wednesday, it added some jewelry. By Sunday, it's unrecognizable and wearing a cheeseburger mask. The detective learned these changes can tell you what it wore and on what day. AI diffusion models do something similar with noise, learning what something looks like at each step. "The job of the diffusion model is to remove noise," Hiregowdara said. "You would give the model this picture, and then it will give you a slightly de-noised version of this picture." RELATED STORY | Scripps News got deepfaked to see how AI could impact elections When it's time to solve the case and generate a suspect, we give it a clue: the prompts we give when we create an AI-generated image. "We have been given the hint that this is supposed to look like a cat. So what catlike things can we see in here? Okay, we see this curve, maybe that's an ear," Hiregowdara said. The "detective" works backward, recalling its training. It sees a noisy image. Thanks to the clue, it is looking for a suspect — a cat. It subtracts disguises (noise) until it finds the new suspect. Case closed. Now imagine the "detective" living and solving crimes for years and years. It learns and studies everything — landscapes, objects, animals, people, anything at all. So when it needs to generate a suspect or an image, it remembers its training and creates an image. Deepfakes and faceswaps Many deepfake images and videos employ some type of face swapping technology. You've probably experienced this kind of technology already — faceswapping filters like on Snapchat, Instagram or Tiktok use technology similar to diffusion models, recognizing faces and replacing things in real time. "It will find the face in the image and then cut that out kind of, then take the face and convert it to its internal representation," Hansen said. The results are refined then repeated frame by frame. The future and becoming our own detectives As deepfakes become more and more realistic and tougher to detect, understanding how the technology works at a basic level can help us prepare for any dangers or misuse. Deepfakes have already been used to spread election disinformation, create fake explicit images of a teenager, even frame a principal with AI-created racist audio. "All the netizens on social media also have a role to play," Siwei Lyu said. Lyu is a SUNY Empire Innovation Professor at the University of Buffalo's Department of Computer Science and Engineering, and the director of the Media Forensics Lab. His team has created a tool to help spot deepfakes called "DeepFake-o-meter." "We do not know how to handle, how to deal, with these kinds of problems. It's very new. And also requires technical knowledge to understand some of the subtleties there," Lyu said. "The media, the government, can play a very active role to improve user awareness and education. Especially for vulnerable groups like seniors, the kids, who will start to understand the social media world and start to become exposed to AI technologies. They can easily fall for AI magic or start using AI without knowing the limits." RELATED STORY | AI voice cloning: How programs are learning to pick up on pitch and tone Both Lyu and CivAI believe in exposure and education to help combat any potential misuse of deepfake technology. "Our overall goal is that we think AI is going t impact pretty much everyone in a lot of different ways," Hansen said. "And we think that everyone should be aware of the ways that it's going to change them because it's going to impact everyone." "More than just general education — just knowing the facts and having heard what's going to happen," he added. "We want to give people a really intuitive experience of what's going on." Hansen goes on to explain CivAI's role in educating the public. "We try and make all of our demonstrations personalized as much as possible. What we're working on is making it so people can see it themselves. So they know it's real, and they feel that it's real," Hansen said. "And they can have a deep gut level feel for tthe impact that it's going to have." "A big part of the solution is essentially just going to be education and sort of cultural changes," he added. "A lot of this synthetic content is sort of like a new virus that is attacking society right now, and people need to become immune to it in some ways. They need to be more suspicious about what's real and what's not, and I think that will help a lot as well."AP News Summary at 5:12 p.m. EST
OKLAHOMA STATE 80, MIAMI (FL) 74
LAS VEGAS — Bet this: That following a 19-14 win by the Las Vegas Raiders over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday at Allegiant Stadium, after the home team had snapped its 10-game losing streak, a certain amount of fans was disappointed in the outcome. Maybe a whole lot of them. They are the ones hoping for the highest draft pick possible for the Raiders. The ones who are sure a franchise quarterback exists within the top few selections. The ones who believe a Shedeur Sanders or Cam Ward can make all the difference in turning the fortunes of this team around. That either can be the reason all this losing stops. Do you know who couldn’t care less about any of that? Players and coaches. Nor should they. Tanking has never been part of their vocabulary. The Raiders are 3-12 after turning away Jacksonville, and for it, would hold the No. 6 pick in the draft should it commence today. Prior to kickoff Sunday, they owned a top-two pick. Yeah. Big difference. They’re now behind the Giants, Browns and Titans — all three of which will likely also be looking to upgrade at quarterback. “It has been a minute since we (won),” wide receiver Jakobi Meyers said. “Forgot for a second what it feels like. But guys are never going to quit. We hear about (draft picks) and all that, but we’re professionals. You always hear it when you’re having a bad season — you hear it across the league. But we do our best to win every play every day. And wherever the ball falls, it falls.” ‘We want to win’ It fell in their side of the ledger Sunday, the Raiders proving the better of two bad football teams. You know things are a little slow when one of the biggest end-zone celebrations occurred when the cheer team announced winners of Dancer of the Year, Rookie of the Year and Raiderette of the Year. Congrats to all. It’s too hard a game to give anything but your maximum effort. Too violent an existence to care about anything other than beating the guy opposite of you. There’s too much on the line. “For us, we work hard every single day,” running back Alexander Mattison said. “The outcome is always going to be that we want to win and make plays on that field and come out victorious. “We don’t think about the politics of it, even though everybody else out there does. It’s not what we care about. We want to win every game and dominate. Glad we were able to do that today — especially when you haven’t won in so long.” Fans might not want to hear it. There is a faction that might term Sunday’s victory one of the worst in team history given how much it moved the Raiders down the draft order. And who knows what they might think should the team win one or both of its last two games. Which is altogether possible. The Saints are 5-9 and without starting quarterback Derek Carr, and the Chargers, by the time they visit to close out the regular season here, could have a playoff seed wrapped up. Who knows if quarterback Justin Herbert will even play against the Raiders. Hard to win “It is so hard to win in this league,” Mattison said. “When you’re this close so many times ... We were hungry for it. We just want to finish the season strong. If we can do that, we’ll feel good about the spot we’re in. “We try and be where our feet are. We can’t change the past, but we can continue to work every single day like we’ve been doing.” That’s all they know. That’s all they care about. Fans can worry about draft picks, and, well, that’s not to say they’re wrong. This franchise needs a future at the game’s most important position. Nothing bad for thinking that way. But it’s not how players and coaches go about their business. Not how professionals act. Tanking isn’t part of their DNA. Too hard a game. Too much on the line. ©2024 Las Vegas Review-Journal. Visit reviewjournal.com. . Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.CLEVELAND (AP) — Two days before recording another milestone, resume-building sack on Sunday at Cincinnati, Myles Garrett delivered a jarring hit — on the Browns. In this case, any roughness could be deemed necessary. Garrett piled on to what has been a painful and puzzling season in Cleveland by saying he doesn't have any interest in going through another rebuild and wants to know exactly what the organization's offseason plans are to fix things. If that wasn't enough, Garrett indicated for the first time that he would consider leaving the Browns if his vision doesn't mesh with the team's ambitions. “It’s a possibility,” he said of playing elsewhere. "But I want to be a Cleveland Brown. I want to play my career here.” It's unclear how Garrett's comments were received by owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam, who have plenty to consider as the Browns (3-12) head into the final two weeks of a season that began with playoff expectations and could be followed by upheaval. The Browns haven't been this bad since going 0-16 in 2017. Garrett, who reached 100 career sacks by taking down Cincinnati's Joe Burrow late in the first half of Sunday's 24-6 loss , may have either added to the Haslams' long list of concerns — the Deshaun Watson contract situation is a priority — or brought them clarity. There's no denying that Garrett's remarks carry substantial weight, which is partly why he spoke up. He's the Browns' best player, a franchise cornerstone, a future Hall of Famer and arguably the most disruptive defensive force in the game today. He's also leading with actions. Garrett showed extraordinary effort in chasing down and tackling Burrow before tumbling out of bounds and crashing into Cleveland's bench and some portable heaters. He might be frustrated, but he's not giving up. “A testament of who he is as a player and who he is as a person,” linebacker Jordan Hicks said. What the reigning Defensive Player of the Year says matters. It will be interesting to see if the Haslams listen. At this point, there are indications the Browns intend to stick with coach Kevin Stefanski and general manager Andrew Berry, whose major misses in recent drafts have become more magnified with each loss. There will be changes; it's just a matter of how drastic and if they'll be enough to satisfy Garrett's wishes. He turns 29 on Dec. 29 and has two years left on a $125 million contract extension. The All-Pro is in his prime and doesn't want to waste another season in a pointless pursuit of a Super Bowl title. His goal is to win a championship with Cleveland — or someone. Garrett's serious. He's asking the Browns to show him they are, too. Cleveland's defense is doing its part. For the second week in a row, the Browns contained one of the NFL's most talented offenses, holding the Bengals and their top-ranked passing game below most of their season averages. Burrow did throw three TD passes — for the seventh game in a row — but Cincinnati scored fewer than 27 points for the first time in seven games. The Browns continue to beat themselves with costly turnovers, some more costly than others. They drove to the Cincinnati 1-yard line in the opening minutes only to have D'Onta Foreman fumble as he neared the goal line. The Bengals capitalized by driving 99 yards to take a 7-0 lead that could have been Cleveland's. Running back Jerome Ford is making the most of a heavier workload and finishing strong. He ripped off a 66-yard run on the game's first play and finished with 131 all-purpose yards, including 92 on 11 carries and scored Cleveland's only TD. Ford's emergence as a potential No. 1 back — Nick Chubb's injuries have clouded his future — gives the team one less thing to worry about as it retools the roster. Kicker Dustin Hopkins hasn't shaken a startling slump. After being benched for a week to work through his struggles, Hopkins missed his only kick, pushing an extra point to the right. Hopkins felt confident going in, but he's back to trying to identify issues that could be equally mechanical and mental. He's just 16 of 25 on field goals, 16 of 19 on PATs and the Browns' decision to sign him to a three-year, $15.9 million extension this summer looks worse every week. QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson injured his calf early in Sunday's game, leaving his status in doubt for a second straight start this week. If Thompson-Robinson can't go, the Browns could go back to Jameis Winston, but he's dealing with a sore right shoulder. ... Tight end David Njoku is dealing with yet another injury after hurting his knee. The team is awaiting results on an MRI, perhaps a sign of the severity. Njoku has missed time with injuries all season. He finished with eight catches for 66 yards. 20 — Interceptions for the Browns this season. Thompson-Robinson's two picks on Sunday gave the team 10 in the last four games. Probably a half-empty stadium for a final home game on Sunday against the Miami Dolphins, who are still in the hunt for a wild-card spot. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
Former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner has filed to run for a seat on the New York City Council, launching a potential political comeback after his once-promising career was destroyed by sexting scandals and later a criminal conviction for having illicit online contact with a child. Campaign finance records list a campaign committee that was set up on Friday for Weiner called Weiner 25, in addition to listing him as a candidate for a council seat in lower Manhattan. In a phone conversation Tuesday with The Associated Press, Weiner, a Democrat, said he is “still exploring” whether to actually campaign for the office. He said he opened the committee late last week so he could participate in a forum held by the Downtown Independent Democrats later this week. He referred additional questions to recent statements he made on his weekly radio show, “The Middle with Anthony Weiner,” where he said: “I haven't decided if I want to do this yet" while considering the personal dynamics of a return to politics. Weiner represented a congressional district in New York City for about 12 years before he resigned in 2011 after sending lewd photos to several women. He tried to make a comeback in 2013 to run for mayor but was damaged by new revelations of explicit photos Weiner had sent under the online alias “Carlos Danger.” Weiner pleaded guilty in 2017 to having illicit online contact with a 15-year-old girl and was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison. He was released in 2019 and was ordered to register as a sex offender . Izaguirre reported from Albany, N.Y. Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Get local news delivered to your inbox!
's time in office was marked by significant achievements, including the Camp David peace accords, but also by controversies that led many US voters to view him as ineffective, resulting in his loss after a single term. However, Carter’s most enduring legacy was shaped after his presidency, as he went on to become the longest-retired president in US history. Below are some key moments in his life, as Carter passed away at the age of 100 on Sunday. In his first year as president, Carter made the controversial decision to fulfill a campaign promise by returning control of the Panama Canal, which had been under US military oversight since the early 1900s. "Fairness, and not force, should lie at the heart of our dealings with the nations of the world," Carter stated when signing the canal treaties with Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos on September 7, 1977. While Carter faced criticism for this move, which allowed Panama to take control of the vital waterway in 1999, history has largely praised it as a diplomatic success. The agreement helped ease tensions in Latin America, ending the US's image as an imperialist power. Upon Carter's death, Panamanian President José Mulino remarked that Carter's efforts played a crucial role in Panama achieving "full sovereignty." Upon assuming office, Carter sought to move away from the realpolitik that dominated previous administrations during the Cold War. He placed human rights at the core of his policy agenda. "Our principal goal is to help shape a world which is more responsive to the desire of people everywhere for economic well-being, social justice, political self-determination and basic human rights," he declared in a 1978 speech at the U.S. Naval Academy. This vision led to significant actions, including Carter signing the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1977, which the U.S. would ratify in 1992, after years of Senate opposition. A major diplomatic achievement came in September 1978 when Carter invited Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to Camp David. After 13 days of intensive negotiations, Carter successfully mediated a peace agreement between the two nations, which led to the historic peace treaty the following year. For this achievement, Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In the summer of 1979, as inflation soared and his approval ratings plummeted, Carter made a televised address on July 15 to the American public. The half-hour speech sought to address accusations of weak leadership and shift the blame onto what he called a national "crisis of confidence." "The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America," he said. The speech was not well received, and it marked a low point in his presidency. Within days, five cabinet members resigned, highlighting the internal turmoil of his administration. The Iran hostage crisis, in which more than 50 Americans were held captive at the U.S. embassy in Tehran for 444 days (from November 1979 to January 1981), proved to be the final blow to Carter’s presidency. A failed military mission to rescue the hostages in April 1980 -- Operation Eagle Claw -- ended in disaster due to mechanical failures and sandstorms, leading to the death of eight American servicemen when two aircraft collided during the retreat. The failure of the mission and the prolonged crisis overshadowed Carter's efforts to resolve the situation, leading to the resignation of Secretary of State Cyrus Vance. The hostages were finally released on January 20, 1981, the same day Ronald Reagan took office, after defeating Carter in the 1980 election. Carter remained remarkably active well into his 90s, despite his retirement from politics. In 1982, he founded the Carter Center, a non-profit organization focused on conflict resolution, promoting democracy and human rights, and addressing global health issues. Carter earned widespread recognition as one of the most successful former U.S. presidents, traveling the world to monitor elections in places like Haiti and East Timor and acting as a mediator in global disputes. Carter also became a member of The Elders, a group of former world leaders established by Nelson Mandela in 2007. The group’s mission was to promote peace and human rights globally. Carter worked alongside other Nobel Peace laureates such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former Liberian President Ellen Sirleaf Johnson, and the late UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to further the group's humanitarian causes. Through his tireless work after leaving office, Carter’s legacy grew beyond the challenges of his presidency, securing his place in history as a devoted advocate for peace, democracy, and human dignity. Agency
Horror injury forces Houston Texans to turn to receiver who ‘quit on his team’
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