Minnesota State Sen. Nicole Mitchell burgled stepmother's home to get father's ashes, sentimental items, charges say

Matthew Perry’s Death Under Criminal Investigation Months After ‘Friends’ Star Died From Effects Of Ketamine

Perry died in October 2023 from the "acute effects of ketamine."

13 m

nypost.com

Missing Women Found in Oklahoma Freezer

Veronica Butler, 27, and Jilian Kelley, 39, were found dead after they went missing near Highway 59.

14 m

newsweek.com

What went wrong for Pacers on fateful play in Game 1 loss to Celtics

The Pacers had a chance to steal Game 1 on Monday in Boston, but disaster struck.

14 m

nypost.com

Hysterics as Dog Tries To Avoid Eye Contact With Unattended Roast Chicken

Social media users were impressed by the dog's reaction in the viral clip, with one saying "I'm so blown away."

15 m

newsweek.com

Why ‘diva’ Kelly Rowland allegedly scolded Cannes Film Festival security guard on red carpet: report

Kelly Rowland "doesn’t care if she comes across like a diva" in the incident at the Cannes Film Festival, an insider reportedly claimed.

15 m

nypost.com

Washingtonians want Commanders to return to D.C., Post-Schar School poll finds

Support for a new stadium in Washington is higher among Commanders fans and District residents.

15 m

washingtonpost.com

Biden is forgiving $7.7 billion in student debt. Here's who qualifies.

The Biden administration says it has now wiped away $167 billion of student loans for 4.75 million people, or 1 in every 10 borrowers.

19 m

cbsnews.com

RNC headquarters in DC on lockdown after ‘vials of blood’ reportedly sent in package

The headquarters of the Republican National Committee were put on lockdown Wednesday morning. It was unclear exactly what caused the security alert, but one source told The Post: “It sounds like vials of blood were sent in a package and something broke open.” There were no immediate reports of any injuries. The RNC headquarters (shown here), is...

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nypost.com

The Trust Economy and Why It Matters More Than Ever in Business

No matter who we are, we have to manage the optics of whether and why people should trust us.

21 m

newsweek.com

Fans convinced Stassi Schroeder shaded Brittany Cartwright and Jax Taylor with son’s passport reveal

The "Valley" co-stars infamously missed Schroeder and Beau Clark's Italy wedding, partially blaming their absence on son Cruz's passport delay.

22 m

nypost.com

Rory McIlroy-Amanda Balionis romance rumors are ‘talk of the links’ after golfer’s divorce

Rory McIlroy and CBS reporter Amanda Balionis are stirring buzz on the PGA Tour just over a week after news broke that he filed for divorce from Erica Stoll, his wife of seven years, on May 13.

22 m

nypost.com

Israel Responds to Move to Recognize a Palestinian State by Withholding Funds

The finance minister’s office signaled that the decision, which could worsen the Palestinians’ dire economic crisis, was a response to Spain, Norway and Ireland recognizing Palestinian statehood.

25 m

nytimes.com

Death of Iran's president temporarily halts UN nuclear talks, official says

Talks between Tehran and the UN nuclear watchdog have been temporarily halted following a helicopter crash that claimed the lives of Iran's president and foreign minister.

27 m

foxnews.com

Senate set to confirm 200th Biden judge as Democrats tout "major milestone"

The milestone comes with the confirmation of two judges to the federal district court in Arizona.

28 m

cbsnews.com

New Owners Pick Calmest Puppy in the Litter—Plan Backfires

When they picked her up Junie looked like a perfectly serene puppy, but once she got home, she showed her new parents her true self.

29 m

newsweek.com

Ben Affleck spotted wearing wedding ring as he skips Jennifer Lopez’s second ‘Atlas’ premiere

The Oscar winner dined at Santa Monica, Calif., hotspot Giorgio Baldi on Tuesday while the pop star promoted "Atlas" in Mexico City.

30 m

nypost.com

Carlos Vives es elegido Persona del Año 2024 de La Academia Latina de la Grabación

El artista que será galardonado en Miami, se convierte en el tercer colombiano en recibir esta distinción que reconoce a los músicos y sus logros artísticos, así como sus esfuerzos humanitarios

30 m

latimes.com

Elite university journalism professor exposed for monthslong campaign justifying Hamas

A Northwestern journalism professor is coming under fire from members of Congress for "hateful antisemitic canards" ahead of a congressional hearing on campus antisemitism.

31 m

foxnews.com

Why Is Charlie Kirk Selling Me Food Rations?

Charlie Kirk is worked up. “The world is in flames, and Bidenomics is a complete and total disaster,” the conservative influencer said during a recent episode of his podcast The Charlie Kirk Show. “But it can’t and won’t ruin my day,” he continued. “Why? ’Cause I start my day with a hot America First cup of Blackout Coffee.” Liberals have brought a

31 m

theatlantic.com

Charlie Kirk is worked up. “The world is in flames, and Bidenomics is a complete and total disaster,” the conservative influencer said during a recent episode of his podcast The Charlie Kirk Show. “But it can’t and won’t ruin my day,” he continued. “Why? ’Cause I start my day with a hot America First cup of Blackout Coffee.” Liberals have brought about economic Armageddon, but first, coffee.Listening to Kirk’s show—which is among the most popular podcasts on the right—can be unsettling, even if you are a conservative. In the past year, the founder of Turning Point USA has uploaded episodes with titles such as “The Great Replacement Isn’t Theory, It’s Reality” and “The Doctors Plotting to Mutilate Your Kids.” He has also conducted friendly interviews with a blogger who once described slavery as “a natural human relationship,” and discussed crime stats with the white supremacist Steve Sailer in a way that veered toward race science. (Andrew Kolvet, a spokesperson for Kirk, declined to comment for this story.)But the advertisements Kirk reads are sometimes more dire and polemical than what he and his guests talk about during the show. “Rest assured knowing that you’re ready for whatever the globalists throw at us next,” Kirk said at the end of one ad for medical-emergency kits. These ads espouse conservative values and talking points, mostly in service of promoting brands such as Blackout Coffee, which sells a “2nd Amendment” medium-roast blend and “Covert Op Cold Brew.” The commercial breaks sounded like something from an alternate universe. The more I listened to them, the more I came to understand that that was the point.Some brands, of course, speak the language of Democrats, touting their climate commitments and diversity efforts. But when I listened to left-of-center podcasts including Pod Save America, Michelle Obama: The Light Podcast, and MSNBC’s Prosecuting Donald Trump, I mostly heard ads from an assortment of nonpartisan brands such as Ford, Jefferson’s Ocean Aged at Sea Bourbon, eHarmony, and SimpliSafe. The closest equivalent I found was Cariuma, a sustainable shoe brand that sponsors Pod Save America.The right, meanwhile, has long hawked products that you don’t typically see advertised on mainstream outlets and shows. In 2007, the historian Rick Perlstein chronicled a far-fetched investment opportunity involving stem cells and placentas advertised in the far-right website Newsmax. Supplements and gold have become part of conservative-advertising canon, as the writer Sam Kriss summed up in his recent essay on the ads that appear in National Review’s print magazine: “The same apocalyptic note [ran] through all these ads. The hospitals will shut down, the planet will freeze over, you personally are getting old and dying—and now your money might be worthless if you haven’t put it all in gold.”Some of Kirk’s ads hit the same beats. At times, they sound a little jarring: “You are nine meals away from anarchy,” he said in one ad for buckets of food rations, from a website called MyPatriotSupply.com. Yet as the world of right-wing-coded products has expanded, so has the weirdness of ads for them. “For 10 years, Patriot Mobile has been America’s only Christian-conservative wireless provider,” started another ad. Switching to Patriot Mobile, Kirk explained, would mean that “you’re sending the message that you support free speech, religious liberty, the sanctity of life, the Second Amendment, our military veterans and first-responder heroes” while getting “the same coverage you’ve been accustomed to without funding the left.” How? By renting access to “all three major networks” via a business deal with T-Mobile, a company that has positioned itself as at least nominally left of center on some issues.If listeners are feeling charitable, Kirk has options for them too. “Hey, everybody, exciting news. Very, very important. Uh, we are saving babies with PreBorn,” Kirk opened up a dollar-matching promo for a group raising money for ultrasounds, apparently having managed to quantify the precise dollar amount it would take to stop a woman from having an abortion. “For a one-time, $15,000 gift, you’ll provide not just one ultrasound machine, but two, saving thousands of babies for years to come; $280 saves 10 babies; $28 a month saves a baby a month, for less than a dollar a day.”Conservative podcasts have become mega popular in recent years, and are some of the most trusted sources of news on the right: Kirk’s show ranks as the 12th-most-popular “news” podcast on Spotify right now. The show is also syndicated on radio stations across the country and posted on YouTube, where Kirk has 1.7 million subscribers. And although conservative influencers including Candace Owens, Matt Walsh, and Jack Posobiec also promote gold or supplements (or both) on their own shows, Kirk ads were the most varied of the conservative-podcast ads I listened to. Some conservatives, however, want no part of these kinds of ads. Earlier this month, the right-wing YouTuber Steven Crowder made fun of his contemporaries for hawking “shitty supplements.” Most of it is “selling you crap you don’t need from people who don’t care about you!” Crowder yelled at the end of a four-minute rant on the matter.The ads reflect the new paradigm of advertising. In previous decades, ads had to appeal to whole segments of the population—and products were made with that in mind. That some readers of Vanity Fair might want a Givenchy handbag, and some readers of Sports Illustrated might want Callaway golf clubs, was as targeted as ads could get. Now the country has fractured into partisan subgroups, and companies have access to reams of analytics that enable them to target ever more precise demographics. Through shows like Kirk’s, brands such as Blackout Coffee and Patriot Mobile can reach their relatively niche audiences more easily than ever. (Blackout Coffee and Patriot Mobile did not respond to my requests for comment.)But something else is happening too. Kirk and the rest of the conservative-podcast ecosystem aren’t just selling wares. The ads, with some exceptions, are not like ads for beer or pickup trucks that detract from the action while one watches, say, a football game. Rather, conservative ads are constitutive. They enhance and reinforce the arguments that Kirk and others are already making on their podcasts—that Black people are prone to crime, whiteness is getting excised, abortion is murder, and the United States is unstable and on the verge of collapse. The commercial breaks are the final screws needed to construct a self-contained conservative chamber. Kirk has ensconced himself in a world in which he’ll likely never face external pressures to self-moderate in the way that, say, Rush Limbaugh occasionally did when he went too far beyond the tastes of mainstream advertisers.[Read: Don’t read this if you were a Rush Limbaugh fan]When you’re listening to Kirk talk about Blackout Coffee, you can also look down and see the steam coming off your own cup of Blackout Coffee, and relax while its caffeine helps you “be awake not woke.” You can open a new browser tab and check in on your portfolio, whose wealth managers are endorsed by Kirk, and then look at the price of gold and think about your own supply procured from a company that Kirk himself vetted “from top to bottom.” You can even stop listening to Kirk, go out to your backyard, and make a call, knowing that you’re doing so as a freedom-loving conservative with your Patriot Mobile phone plan.On The Charlie Kirk Show, there is no longer a gap between the real world and what is playing inside listeners’ headphones. Kirk’s fans can make fewer and fewer compromises on their views and burrow themselves more deeply in the womb of reactionary politics. And with the coupon code “Charlie,” listeners can get a discount to buy something else that will allow them to further immerse themselves inside of it.

18 Pieces of Advice to New Founders From Experienced Entrepreneurs

The best lessons for starting a new business often come from those who have been in your shoes before.

31 m

newsweek.com

Dwyane Wade partners with Bob Marley’s family to celebrate 40th anniversary of ‘Legend’ album

Along with Wade's partner Jeeter, the three-time NBA champ's event was a star-studded celebration of cannabis enthusiasts and friends.

31 m

nypost.com

‘Outer Range’ Season 2 Ending Explained: What Is the Hole, and Does Josh Brolin Survive?

Frustrated incorporated.

31 m

nypost.com

Dmitriy Salita breaking barriers as Orthodox Jewish promoter taking over boxing

Dmitriy Salita’s unlikely rise in boxing has certainly not been ordinary. But Salita believes his story is an encapsulation of the American dream.

31 m

nypost.com

The double sexism of ChatGPT’s flirty “Her” voice

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 28: Scarlett Johansson attends the Clooney Foundation for Justice's 2023 Albie Awards at New York Public Library on September 28, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Taylor Hill/WireImage) If a guy told you his favorite sci-fi movie is Her, then released an AI chatbot with a voice that sounds uncannily like the voi

31 m

vox.com

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 28: Scarlett Johansson attends the Clooney Foundation for Justice's 2023 Albie Awards at New York Public Library on September 28, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Taylor Hill/WireImage) If a guy told you his favorite sci-fi movie is Her, then released an AI chatbot with a voice that sounds uncannily like the voice from Her, then tweeted the single word “her” moments after the release… what would you conclude? It’s reasonable to conclude that the AI’s voice is heavily inspired by Her. Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, did all of the things mentioned, and his company recently released a new version of ChatGPT that talked to users in a flirty female voice — a voice that distinctly resembles that of Scarlett Johansson, the actress who voiced the AI girlfriend in the 2013 Spike Jonze movie Her. Now, Johansson has come forward to object, writing in a statement that the chatbot’s voice sounds “so eerily similar to mine that my closest friends and news outlets could not tell the difference.” Altman’s response? He claims the voice “is not Scarlett Johansson’s and was never intended to resemble hers.” That is, at first blush, an absurd claim. While the voice may not literally be trained on or copied from Johansson’s — OpenAI says it hired another actress — there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that it might have been intended to resemble hers. In addition to Altman’s professed love of Her and his “her” tweet, there are the new revelations from Johansson: Altman, she says, reached out to her agent on two separate occasions asking for her to voice the chatbot. When the first request came in last September, Johansson said no. A second request came in two days before the new chatbot’s demo, asking her to reconsider. “Before we could connect, the system was out there,” Johansson stated, adding that she had hired a lawyer to demand an explanation from Altman. OpenAI published a blog post saying that it went through a months-long process to find voice actors last year — including the voice for “Sky,” the one many people find similar to Johansson’s — before introducing some voice capabilities for ChatGPT last September. According to Altman, “We cast the voice actor behind Sky’s voice before any outreach to Ms. Johansson.” September, mind you, is the month that Johansson says Altman first requested to license her voice. If OpenAI did indeed cast the actor behind Sky before any outreach to Johansson, it still does not necessarily follow that Sky’s voice was never intended to resemble Johansson’s. Nor does it necessarily follow that the AI model behind Sky was only ever fed the hired actor’s voice, with no use whatsoever being made of Johansson’s voice. I raised these questions to the company. OpenAI did not reply to a request for comment in time for publication. OpenAI took down Sky’s voice “out of respect for Ms. Johansson,” as Altman put it, adding, “We are sorry to Ms. Johansson that we didn’t communicate better.” But if OpenAI didn’t do anything wrong, why would it take down the voice? And how much “respect” does this apology really convey, when Altman insists in the same breath that the voice has nothing to do with Johansson? “He felt that my voice would be comforting to people” From Apple’s Siri to Amazon’s Alexa to Microsoft’s Cortana, there’s a reason why tech companies have been giving their digital assistants friendly female voices for years. From a business perspective, it’s smart to give your AI that voice. It likely improves your company’s bottom line. That’s because research shows that when people need help, they prefer to hear it delivered in a female voice, which they perceive as non-threatening. (They prefer a male voice when it comes to authoritative statements.) And companies design the assistants to be unfailingly upbeat and polite in part because that sort of behavior maximizes a user’s desire to keep engaging with the device. But the design choice is worrying on an ethical level. Researchers say it reinforces sexist stereotypes of women as servile beings who exist only to do someone else’s bidding — to help them, comfort them, and plump up their ego. According to Johansson, conveying a sense of comfort was exactly Altman’s goal in trying to license her voice nine months ago. “He told me that he felt that by my voicing the system, I could bridge the gap between tech companies and creatives and help consumers to feel comfortable with the seismic shift concerning humans and AI,” Johansson wrote. “He said he felt that my voice would be comforting to people.” It’s not just that Johansson’s breathy, flirty voice is soothing in itself. Johansson voiced Samantha, the AI girlfriend in the romance Her, a story that’s all about how an AI could connect with, comfort, and enliven a lonely human. Notably, Samantha was also far more advanced than anything modern AI companies have put out — so advanced, in fact, it evolves beyond its human user — so associating the new ChatGPT with the film probably helps as well. There’s a second layer here, one that has to do with a woman’s consent. Despite Johansson’s clear “no” to Altman’s request last year, he used a Johansson-like voice and then, when she complained, told the world that the actress is wrong about the voice being intended to resemble hers. I wasn’t sure what to call that, so I asked ChatGPT about this type of scenario more generally. Here’s how the chatbot replied: This is part of a pattern at OpenAI. Can the company be trusted? The Johansson controversy is the latest in a string of events causing people to lose trust in OpenAI — and specifically in its CEO Altman. Last year, artists and authors began suing OpenAI for allegedly stealing their copyrighted material to train its AI models. Meanwhile, experts raised the alarm about deepfakes, which are becoming more worrisome by the day as the world approaches major elections. Then, last November, OpenAI’s board tried to fire Altman because, as they put it then, he was “not consistently candid in his communications.” Former colleagues then came forward to describe him as a manipulator who speaks out of both sides of his mouth — someone who claims that he wants to prioritize deploying AI safely, but contradicts that in his behaviors. Since then, employees have been increasingly coming to the same conclusion, to the point that some are leaving the company. “I gradually lost trust in OpenAI leadership,” ex-employee Daniel Kokotajlo told me, explaining why he quit his job last month. “It’s a process of trust collapsing bit by bit, like dominoes falling one by one,” another person with inside knowledge of the company told me last week, speaking on condition of anonymity. Some employees have avoided speaking out publicly because they signed offboarding agreements with nondisparagement provisions upon leaving. After Vox reported on these agreements, Altman said the company has been in the process of changing them. But the public might well ask: Why would OpenAI have had such restrictive provisions if it wasn’t doing anything that it was keen to keep out of the public eye? And at a time when several of OpenAI’s most safety-conscious employees are jumping ship because they don’t trust the company’s leaders, why should the public trust them? In fact, according to a new poll from the Artificial Intelligence Policy Institute, nearly 6 in 10 Americans say the release of the souped-up ChatGPT makes them more worried about AI’s growth, while just 24 percent say it makes them excited. What’s more, 52 percent of Americans now hold an unfavorable opinion of OpenAI. At this point, the burden of proof is on OpenAI to convince the public that it’s worthy of trust.

Serial killer Robert Pickton savagely attacked in prison, not expected to survive

The Canadian serial killer who lured over two dozen female victims to his pig farm is clinging to life after he was viciously attacked in prison, officials said. Robert Pickton, 74, was in a segregated intervention unit at the maximum-security Port-Cartier Institution when he was speared in the head with a broken broom handle on...

34 m

nypost.com

Prince Harry Needs New 'Minimalist' Approach to Lawsuits

"Stop going for the biggest guns you can find and start actually crunching them down to their strongest elements," Harry has been advised.

40 m

newsweek.com

Russia's Kremlin urges 'in-depth dialogue' to ease rising nuclear tensions with the West

The Kremlin has voiced the importance of "in-depth dialogue" to alleviate escalating tensions between Russia and the West when it comes to nuclear matters.

40 m

foxnews.com

The Jets who could start carving out a bigger role this spring — or slide down the depth chart

I only included skill players because there is not much to glean from line play in the spring when there are no pads.

40 m

nypost.com

Golden Retriever Discovers His Reflection in Most Unexpected Place

Nacho's bewilderment has left social media in hysterics, as one person commented: "How he get up there?"

43 m

newsweek.com

Donald Trump 'Unified Reich' Video Flags Joe Biden Problem: ex-Trump Aide

Alyssa Farah Griffin suggests millions of voters "know where voters fall" with regards to issue of tackling antisemitism.

47 m

newsweek.com

Nathan Wade spotted at Fani Willis' victory party 'all smiles': report

Former special prosecutor Nathan Wade reportedly attended the campaign party for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis after her primary victory Tuesday night.

47 m

foxnews.com

The trippiest photos from Dead & Company’s Sphere residency in Las Vegas

The Grateful Dead offshoot ran through classic songs including "Fire on the Mountain" and "Truckin'" in front of a 160,000-square-foot wraparound screen.

51 m

nypost.com

Federal regulator says expect crack down on "buy now, pay later" plans

The popularity of "buy now, pay later" plans have skyrocketed in recent years, but so have consumer complaints about disputed transactions and unclear refund policies. Now, a federal regulator says the plans may not always be fair, and starting today, they're cracking down.

51 m

cbsnews.com

Red state AG pushes back against Biden immigration lawsuit: ‘We’re happy to fight you’

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond told Fox News Digital he is ready to fight the Biden administration over a lawsuit over its anti-illegal immigration law.

52 m

foxnews.com

Astrophysicists May Have Cracked Mystery of Vanishing Stars

"The collapse is so complete that no explosion occurs, nothing escapes and one wouldn't see any bright supernova," said researcher Alejandro Vigna-Gómez.

53 m

newsweek.com

Night of intense fighting marks Israeli advance deeper into Rafah

Israeli forces pushed deeper into Rafah during one of the most intense nights of battle since Israel launched its offensive there this month in its pursuit of Hamas' remaining fighters.

56 m

foxnews.com

‘Utter chaos’ in search for Maine gunman, included drunk cops: report

The Portland Police Department report describes how officers rushed to secure the scene where the gunman abandoned his car after killing 18 people in the state’s deadliest shooting.

60 m

nypost.com

Charles Schwab Challenge odds, predictions: Three picks to win at Colonial Country Club

Golfers who are good on approach, around the green and putting on bentgrass should find their way to the top of the leaderboard this week.

60 m

nypost.com

‘Bridgerton’ Star Victor Alli Hasn’t Shared John Stirling’s Book Fate With His Family and Friends: “They Might Laugh At Me”

Francesca's crush also knows all about a certain book character: "I can't wait for my cousin to come!"

1 h

nypost.com

Rangers carry torch for New York teams who fell just short in famished sports city

The Rangers will hear the pleas of a famished sporting city, one that’s been wandering since 2012, searching for a champ in one of the four major sports.

1 h

nypost.com

What the Giants can learn from the Knicks’ stirring run to win back their fans

The Knicks found a formula that was in sync with the mindset and attitude of the city they represent, and that is indeed a rarity.

1 h

nypost.com

The bodies of 4 men, 2 women found strangled, piled up at Acapulco resort in Mexico

The bodies of four men and two women were found strangled and dumped in a pile in Mexico’s Pacific coast resort of Acapulco, prosecutors in the southern state of Guerrero said Tuesday.

1 h

nypost.com

Woman Falls Asleep on Train, Can't Believe Where Her Phone Says She Is

"I thought it would say I was still in Germany, but seeing it say Ukraine had me completely shocked!" she told Newsweek.

1 h

newsweek.com

Russia launched an anti-satellite space weapon, US claims

The Soyuz rocket was launched from Plesetsk on May 16 with a low-Earth orbit on at least nine satellites, official said.

1 h

nypost.com

Scientists Find Way To Make Chocolate Healthier

There are ingredients in the cocoa fruit that go unused and are forgotten about, many of which have additional fiber and less fat.

1 h

newsweek.com

When Will ‘Young Sheldon’ Season 7 Be on Netflix? What We Know

The Big Bang Theory prequel wrapped its seventh and final season last week.

1 h

nypost.com

Russian State TV Calls To 'Teach Sweden a Lesson'

Threats are regularly made against members of the NATO military alliance on state TV.

1 h

newsweek.com

South Korea urges global cooperation for AI development at Seoul summit

South Korea's science and technology minister has voiced the necessity of global cooperation for the responsible advancement of AI as a summit on the topic concluded in Seoul.

1 h

foxnews.com