Alphabet and Microsoft help Wall Street clinch its best week in nearly six months

Critics reminded President Biden about his past support for school segregation after he praised the Brown v. Board of Education ruling Friday.

Reparations proposals continue to sweep across the country as cities and states debate whether to give Black Americans

It is nighttime in Paris. We are more than a year into Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, and tonight, her fans are once again trying to figure out what her clothes mean.The star is in a glittering yellow-and-red two-piece set, a possible reference to the colors of the Kansas City Chiefs, the football team Swift’s boyfriend, Travis Kelce, plays on. This is also the 87th performance in the tour, and—aha!—Kelce wears jersey number 87. The hundreds of thousands of fans watching along through bootlegged livestreams on TikTok and YouTube have solved another mystery.This is the beginning of the European leg of Eras, which will stretch on and on until Swift returns to North America this fall and plays the final show of the tour on December 8 (that is, assuming she doesn’t extend it, as she has multiple times already). You’d think people would have lost interest by now. But Taylor Swift has kept fans’ attention by tapping into an algorithmic machine unlike anyone has before her.Swift is savvy, and leverages social-media culture to her advantage. Over her 18-year career, she has trained her fandom to inspect everything she does for Easter eggs; she knows that even a small reveal can send people into a frenzy. She likes to leave clues about upcoming music in her outfits, in music videos, even in commercials she films with brands. She knows people are interested in her personal life—her romances, her feuds—and capitalizes on that, leaving them hints in her liner notes or in song titles.In response, fans analyze dates and look for numbers that add up to 13, her favorite number. They create spreadsheets of every single outfit she’s worn on tour, methodically tracking each surprise song she’s played. They chat nonstop across platforms, swapping elaborate theories to try to decode when the next album is coming or whom each song is about. For more than half a decade, they’ve been convinced that there’s a lost album called Karma, which was shelved in the mid-2010s amid Swift’s feud with Kanye West (now known as Ye) and Kim Kardashian. According to one theory, the orange outfits she’s been wearing in Paris are a sign that she’ll release music from Karma. It’s like QAnon, if QAnon involved a lot of DIY rhinestone boots.[Read: The real Taylor Swift would never]Swifties don’t storm the Capitol, but they will flood Kardashian’s Instagram with snake emoji in response to Swift talking about the pain their fight brought her, just as they will fight Ticketmaster when the company botches her concert-ticket rollout. Their thinking is often conspiratorial. In one recent TikTok, a fan argued that Swift would be releasing something on May 3, according to this logic: A recent screenshot of a music-video still posted to Swift’s team’s Instagram included the letter-and-number combination 14.3V—Swift’s latest music video was for “Fortnight,” and a fortnight is two weeks; two weeks is 14 days. One plus four equals five. The three rounds it out: Something’s happening on the 3rd. The V is actually the Roman numeral for five. (May 3 came and went without a release.)Extreme cliques might be one side effect of our digital culture. “Our algorithms and media are designed to produce fandoms around consumption goods,” Petter Törnberg, a professor of computational social science at the University of Amsterdam, told me over email. “There is hence a fundamental similarity between Swifties, Apple-fans and MAGA Republicans: our current era has the tendency of turning our preferences into identities, and shaping a form of postmodern tribes around both consumption goods and political leaders.” (See also: fans of Beyoncé and BTS.)In other words: Social platforms can have a radicalizing effect on fandoms. When we study algorithmic radicalization, we tend to do so in the context of politics, but the same systems might also calcify our beliefs about cultural products. Yet we still have a fairly limited understanding of how all of this works. “The very best studies we have are still really struggling to detect effects, because there’s so many challenges when you try to study this stuff,” Chris Bail, the founding director of the Polarization Lab at Duke University, told me.No one single algorithm powers this fandom. It operates across platforms; in a single day, a Swift fan might stream her music on Spotify, watch her music videos on YouTube, and consume posts about her on TikTok. All of these sites have distinct recommendation systems. Companies also tend to keep these systems a secret, making them hard to research.But we can say this: Algorithms tend to reinforce what’s already popular, because attention attracts more attention. Growth begets growth, as Törnberg put it. In this way, Swift also demonstrates how platforms that supposedly target content based on an individual’s interests can, in fact, end up clustering around one monolithic force. “It just seems like, Oh, that’s sort of weird, I thought everybody was supposed to have their own algorithmic niche now,” Nick Seaver, the author of Computing Taste: Algorithms and the Makers of Music Recommendation, told me. “And instead—I mean, maybe in addition to that—we also all have Taylor Swift.”[Read: Nobody knows what’s happening online anymore]Our modern Swiftocracy is a reminder that we are still subject to strange algorithmic forces, even as the web is supposedly fractured. Yet the consequences of this can be as hard to decode as an Easter egg dropped by Swift. On her final show in Paris, she opted for a “berry”-red dress for the Folklore section of her set. It may be a sign of something to come. Or not.

Netflix knows how to dial up the drama—and the agony.

Angela Alsobrooks beat David Trone in Maryland's Senate primary despite liquor tycoon's $60 million campaign.

The “Colder Weather” artist is seeking emergency injunctive relief in the shape of a temporary restraining order that will force her to remove the post.

The beginning of the work brings increasing sunshine and warmth.

Americans may be breathing in cancer-causing chemicals while they're driving, recent research suggested. Environmental experts offered input on the potential risk.

"Viva Las Vegas," starring Ann-Margret and Elvis Presley, is celebrating its 60th anniversary. Here is a look at stories from the set, including a romance, a jealous star and a deleted scene.

Los invictos Tyson Fury y Oleksandr Usyk van por la historia en un combate unificatorio de pesos pesados, algo que no ha ocurrido en esa división.

This week's top Lifestyle headlines included tasty recipes, an eyebrow-raising trend regarding the top baby names seen in the U.S., stories about wild nature, odd news and more.

As they prepare to debate next month, President Biden and Donald Trump are exhibiting signs of weakness in their 2024 election rematch - as they both struggle to lock up their base voters.

Someone’s plans to harvest dozens of apparent marijuana plants grown on the Wisconsin state Capitol grounds have gone up in smoke.

Donte DiVincenzo and Miles McBride netted 15 points apiece through the first two quarters, but both struggled the rest of the way in the Knicks' loss.

At least one Taiwanese lawmaker had to be taken to the hospital with a head injury.

Rick Carlisle’s directive had been as powerful as it was profane. Go rebound the [expletive] ball.

OG Anunoby, who missed his fourth straight game with a hamstring strain, is already ruled out for Game 7, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Después de manejar varias millas para apoyar al LAFC o LA Galaxy, finalmente los aficionados del Antelope Valley tendrán un conjunto a la vuelta de la esquina al que apoyar: el AV Alta FC, el nuevo club de la tercera división del fútbol estadounidense en la USL

Dear Abby weighs in on a woman struggling with taking care of her sick mother and a family grappling with the relationship of their father's lovechild from a one-night stand.

Highlights from the Knicks' 116-103 Game 6 loss to the Pacers on Friday night:

“He always said he never knew when or where I might strike. I am full of mischief.”

This is why Indiana traded for Pascal Siakam: for nights like Friday’s Game 6 that he won for the Pacers and the Game 7 the 116-103 win earned them.

Giuliani was the last of the 18 defendants in the case to be served, Arizona officials said.

"I hope that whoever did this act will come forward. And man up to what's happened here, because it's just an awful tragedy."

Hart defeated Moorpark 7-6 on Friday night in the Division 2 championship game, completing a remarkable playoff run for the Indians.

The Knicks’ season is in peril, their ambitions never more vulnerable than right now, in the wake of the Pacers throttling them, 116-103, on Friday night.

Zach Neto y Taylor Ward batearon cuadrangular, Tyler Anderson lanzó pelota de dos imparables en poco más de siete entradas y los Angelinos de Los Ángeles vencieron el viernes 9-3 a los Rangers, lo que representó el primer triunfo del manager Ron Washington como visitante en Texas.

Rick Carlisle, entrenador de los Pacers, retó a su equipo a jugar con más determinación y tenacidad el viernes.

The Carson girls track and field team won its 11th overall City Section championship, while the Granada Hills boys won their third straight title.

El puertorriqueño Javier Báez salió del bache en que se ha estancado durante toda la temporada con cinco carreras producidas, Tarik Skubal lanzó seis entradas dominantes y los Tigres de Detroit apalearon el viernes 13-0 a los Diamondbacks de Arizona.

That's one expensive free meal.

"I don’t want him coming in like the State of the Union. He was high as a kite,” Trump said during a speech in Minnesota.

Carlos Guillermo Alonso, 78, was seen leaving his Coral Gables home on May 11 on his 42-foot Boston Whaler a little after 3 p.m., according to video obtained by NBC6.

James Paxton delivered his second consecutive six-inning, zero-walk game, helping the Dodgers earn a 7-3 win over the Reds at Dodger Stadium on Friday.

The Mets are going to make the playoffs. You heard it here first. 

The University of Pennsylvania police department made several arrests after hundreds of protesters descended into a campus building and attempted to occupy it.

Brynne Nally threw a shutout in Garden Grove Pacifica's win over Orange Lutheran in the Southern Section Division 1 softball championship game.

The Knicks' Game 7 home history is mostly successful... mostly.

LeMahieu, out all season with a non-displaced foot fracture, played three innings at third base for Double-A Somerset, but didn’t have any balls hit to him.

El restaurantero señaló que su nuevo restaurante familiar, The Famous Taco, debería abrir en dos o tres meses.

Stephen A. Smith doesn't want them to miss their shot.

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After Nestor Cortes was called for an illegal pitch, the rest of his pitches just could be called nasty.