Tag: IFTTT

• Harvey Weinstein had his first court appearance since New York's highest court overturned his conviction.
• Prosecutors want to have a retrial in September.
• Weinstein's separate 16-year sentence in Los Angeles is also being appealed.

Harvey Weinstein appeared in court Wednesday for the first time since last week's explosive ruling overturning his New York rape conviction.

At the hearing Wednesday afternoon, trial judge Curtis Farber set a new trial date for "after Labor Day" of this year. Prosecutors said they would be ready for a retrial as soon as September.

New York state's highest court overturned the former film mogul's 2020 conviction. In a 4-3 decision, it ruled the trial judge, New York Supreme Court Justice James Burke, made an error by allowing testimony from other women who alleged Weinstein sexually abused them, even though he wasn't charged with the conduct. Burke has since left his post, leaving the case in Farber's hands.

While prosecutors sought to show jurors that Weinstein had repeatedly abused women, the New York Court of Appeals said such testimony was "highly prejudicial" and served to "diminish defendant's character before the jury."

"The remedy for these egregious errors is a new trial," the judges wrote.

At the 2020 trial, jurors found Weinstein guilty of raping one woman and a first-degree criminal sex act with another woman. The Manhattan district attorney's office has said it wants to bring him to trial again, which would require those two women to take the witness stand and submit to cross-examination from his lawyers a second time.

Weinstein, sitting in a wheelchair, was brought into the chilly courtroom — two floors down from where former President Donald Trump is sitting trial in the Manhattan criminal courthouse — where he was photographed next to his lawyers.

One of his attorneys, Arthur Aidala, objected to allowing press photographers, saying there were "a million pictures" of Weinstein from his two criminal trials and life as a celebrated film producer.

Burke said the objection was "noted." Earlier, he clicked on the angular Tiffany-style lamp on his bench, offering more illumination for the photographers.

Manhattan district attorney prosecutor Nicole Blumberg said they would be ready to take the case to trial again as soon as September. After conferring with the attorneys, Burke said the trial would begin "Sometime after Labor Day, the exact date to be determined," after additional court hearings.

Jessica Mann, one of Weinstein's accusers, was in the courtroom for the hearing. Blumberg said Mann was "committed to seeing justice served again."

"We have every belief the defendant will be convicted again after the trial," Blumberg said.

Weinstein "has very, very serious health issues" — including reported diabetes and cardiac problems — but was under good care in Manhattan's Bellevue hospital, Aidala told the judge.

"He's sharp as a tack, he's smart as he ever was, he's read hundreds of hundreds of books," Aidala said.

Weinstein has been serving his now-overturned 23-year-sentence in New York's Mohawk Correctional Facility, but he still won't walk free.

Burke said Weinstein would be remanded in the care of the New York City Department of Corrections "on consent" of his legal team.

And in Los Angeles, Weinstein was found guilty of rape in a separate trial and sentenced to 16 additional years in prison.

His legal team is also appealing that conviction. Jennifer Bonjean, the attorney representing him in that appeal, observed the Manhattan courtroom proceedings in the front row.

Aidala said the Los Angeles conviction was also in question, since jurors were informed about the New York conviction — which has now been overturned.

As he was being wheeled out of court at the end of the hearing, Weinstein low-fived members of his legal team from his wheelchair.

from All Content from Business Insider https://ift.tt/m4RT8W0
via IFTTT

• USS Boxer, an amphibious assault ship, is undergoing repairs, causing disruptions to Marine Corps operations.
• The ship's issues began in 2022 and have continued, delaying deployment.
• Naval Surface Force has stated that the USS Boxer may deploy this summer.

USS Boxer, a namphibious assault ship, is undergoing repairs, and a top general says that the hang-ups are affecting Marine Corps operations and depriving the force of key capabilities.

"When you lose your big-deck, you lose most of your aviation assets and you lose your crisis response force," Marine Corps commandant Gen. Eric M. Smith told members of the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday.

Smith also said that Marines cannot train the same with the USS Boxer, a large flattop that resembles a medium-sized aircraft carrier, currently out of action.

Amphibious assault ships, or LHDs, typically have flight and hangar decks that helicopters and aircraft like the Harrier jump jet or newer F-35Bs can operate from.

USS Boxer has experienced ongoing technical issues since 2022, when two of the ship's forced draft fans repeatedly failed. The following year, there were two additional incidents. The ship's main gearbox was spun without proper lubrication. The details of the other incident remain unclear.

Some of the ship's engineers were found to have been negligent in past command investigations into some of the Boxer's problems.

More recently, the ship's rudder is in need of repairs and its roller bearing system is under evaluation after failing.

"We are evaluating the different procedures that will be done to repair her. It's about a four- to six-week repair," Adm. Lisa M. Franchetti, the Chief of Naval Operations, told the House committee. "We're still investigating the cause of the bearing, but it was either potentially installed improperly or the bearing itself had some type of defect."

The warship has been pierside in San Diego since early April, and its deployment has been delayed since January. Naval Surface Force told USNI News in a recent statement that the Boxer may be deployed "as soon as this summer."

USS Boxer received seven Navy-wide awards in March, including the Battle Effectiveness Award and Maritime Warfare Excellence Award for its "sustained superior performance."

from All Content from Business Insider https://ift.tt/Uw8ifHo
via IFTTT

• Donald Trump's social media stock collapsed a month ago, and people were happy to tell you why.
• But those weren't very good answers — which is why they didn't explain why the stock rallied again.
• Now Trump Media is down again. Don't bother trying to understand: Meme stocks don't respond to reason.

Remember when Trump Media & Technology Group Corp, the company that operates Truth Social, Donald Trump's social network, turned into a publicly traded stock? Which then tanked?

OK. I'll remind you: That was a month ago. And at the time, confident headlines explained that the stock's collapse was because of new disclosures, which explained that Truth Social was a bad, money-losing business.

Those explanations made no sense: Earlier public filings had already made it abundantly clear that Truth Social is a bad business.

But that story did set up a useful pattern over the next few weeks: Trump Media shares would plummet again, and then explainers would explain that there was a new reason for the fall. The company was offering more shares for sale. Or Trump's hush money payment trial had begun.

So how do we explain that over the course of the past two weeks, Trump Media shares had doubled again? Or that after that bull run, the shares are collapsing again on Wednesday?

People get paid to explain this stuff, even if they don't really know, so they're trying: Maybe Trump's criminal trial is good for Truth Social since it draws attention to the fact that he posts on it a lot? Or maybe the shares went up because of the company's cynical campaign to blame the stock drop on evil stock manipulators who are shorting the stock — even though Trump Media shares are difficult and expensive to short?

It's kind of exhausting, really. Which is why people are barely trying to explain the most recent collapse: CNBC notes that the company just disclosed that Trump himself will get more Trump shares, but … eh. That doesn't even count as a half-hearted explanation.

OK. My turn. Here is the reason that Trump shares collapse, or rally, or collapse again: There is no underlying reason.

By any objective measure, Trump Media is barely a company, and would be worth at best a tiny fraction of the billions the market assigns it on any given day. But Trump Media is a meme stock, and as such it can gyrate wildly based on … vibes? Or mojo? Or, in some cases, the misplaced faith that some of its retail investors have in Donald Trump, the person?

We do know that over the long haul, meme stocks seem to de-memeify themselves, and their frothy shares eventually end up reflecting something closer to reality. (See, for instance, the multi-year performance of pandemic favorites like GameStop, Bed Bath and Beyond, and AMC.)

But in the near term, on any given day, you'd be very hard-pressed to find a rational reason for their market moves. It's like Jon Stewart trying to explain how the Knicks blew game five against the Sixers.

So go ahead and bet on, or against Trump Media — on any given day, you could be right? But don't delude yourself that you're doing anything other than putting your money on a roulette wheel.

from All Content from Business Insider https://ift.tt/aWsk6oI
via IFTTT

The US claims China stole American tech to make a copycat of the F-22 Raptor, known as the J-20 Mighty Dragon. We compare the stealth, accuracy, and radar technology of the two fighter jets.

from All Content from Business Insider https://ift.tt/tOvlnVg
via IFTTT

• Facebook and Instagram now have Llama 3 integrated into their search fields.
• This is confusing. We're used to using the search bar for looking up people, groups, or tags.
• And the suggestions for searches are oddly chipper and G-rated.

Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram have integrated Meta AI into the search fields of their mobile apps. And it's getting weird.

The search bar in the Facebook and Instagram apps is one place you probably know very well. You've searched plenty of things there —the names of people you went to high school with, a local business whose page you want to find, a celebrity whose latest controversial post everyone is talking about.

We all know what to expect in the search bar of Facebook and Instagram: You find things — people, pages, groups, tags, locations — that already exist on Facebook and Instagram.

What you are not expecting is an artificial-intelligence chatbot interface that can do any number of things completely unrelated to Instagram or Facebook: generate an image for you, answer questions, give advice about things, etc.

This creates a really odd situation. You come to the Facebook search bar to type in the name of your local Buy Nothing group, but instead, you see an animated blue circle with "Ask Meta AI anything."

Huh???

This intrusion into the sacred space of the search bar isn't the only thing Meta is doing with AI that feels a little off.

Fast Company describes how it feels like AI has made Meta's apps "unusable," with the proliferation of clickbait-y AI images like shrimp Jesus or a creepy comment in a parents' group from the Meta AI bot saying it had a gifted and disabled child.

What makes the "Ask Meta AI anything" prompt in the search tab even stranger is the list of suggestions it gives you for searches. Meta wisely realized that most humans would be somewhat baffled by an AI chatbot — most people have never even knowingly interacted with AI. Pew reported that as of March, only 23% of US adults had tried ChatGPT, and 34% had never even heard of it.

So there are a ton of suggestions for what to search or ask for. And these suggestions are, I guess, fine? But they make me feel like I've been living in some saccharine alternate-reality bubble where everyone is focused on their unproblematic hobbies. Here are a few of my top suggestions:

• 🏡 Landscaping 101.

• 🐕 Dog breed recs for me.

• 🌱 Eco DIY home decor ideas.

• 🏙️ Tips to roam a new city.

• 📺 Top ocean docs.

• 🚀 Can you sleep in space?

These are all fine. Pleasant. A mix of helpful, curious facts and fun things. (There are a few suggestions, like "Imagine a 70s living room," that lead to image generation.)

But, like … Facebook. You know me. Come on, it's me, Katie! We've been together for, what, 15 years? I've given you so much data. You know I don't want to roam new cities or learn about eco-DIY home decor. I'm a garbage gremlin who logged onto Facebook eight times today to do the same gremlin stuff I've been doing for years. I'm not suddenly interested in improving myself! I don't want to know about space! I want to know what people are complaining about in my neighborhood group, and I want to shop for used furniture on Marketplace, and I want to feel bad when I'm done.

This arrangement has satisfied and nourished my spirit for years — and I've been a loyal user. Now you think I want to do landscaping??? I'm hurt.

A representative for Meta told me that these suggestions could change based on popular searches. That might explain at least one surprising search suggestion I got: "Rick Lax net worth." (Rick Lax is a magician behind a lot of Facebook viral content and largely popular only ON Facebook.)

On Instagram, the search suggestions are slightly more Instagram-y, like "5 tips for glowing skin," "Cheerleading reels," and "Write a spring fashion guide." The request for cheerleading reels does lead to a suggestion of a bunch of other reels.

I asked the Meta AI whether there was a difference between the AI used for Facebook and Instagram, and it told me, "While the core LLaMA 3 model remains the same, its applications and fine-tuning differ on Instagram and Facebook to cater to each platform's unique requirements and user experiences." A representative for Meta told me that this wasn't exactly true — a standard case of an AI hallucination.

For me, what feels strangest isn't whether Llama 3 is "good" at answering these queries — or noticeably better or worse than any competing AI. It works, but the best things going for it are that it's fast with its output, it's free, and it's right there in an app I already use a lot.

And if Meta's goal here is to get people's feet wet with the idea of using generative AI — without having to download a different app or think up ideas of what to ask it — well, mission accomplished.

It's part of Meta's push into an AI arms race, and one where it's well equipped with more compute power. Meta also has an edge when it comes to getting its large language model into the hands of as many users as possible to try it out: It has a lot of humans who open its apps every day and search stuff in the search bar.

So, yes, jamming Meta AI into the search bar feels really weird and confusing, but Meta isn't shy about muscling new features on users — even if they complain — to get the new feature adopted by a critical mass of users (cough reels cough).

But for we gremlins who are used to searching for old flames, new acquaintances, celebrities, and embarrassing other things in the Instagram search bar, this is certainly a strange new world.

Update: May 1, 2024 — This story has been updated with a comment from Meta.

from All Content from Business Insider https://ift.tt/ZrA50yO
via IFTTT

• "Shark Tank" star Kevin O'Leary sees zero rate cuts this year, he told Fox Business.
• "I'm investing under the premise that we're going to be living with this rate cycle staying the same."
• Cuts are unlikely as the Fed can't seem to reach its mandate of 2% inflation anytime soon, he said.

Investors need to stifle any hope for interest rate cuts this year, as the Federal Reserve will not be able to reach its inflation mandate anytime soon, Kevin O'Leary said.

The "Shark Tank" star told Fox Business Network that monetary policy will instead remain unchanged, and that anyone still betting on a dovish pivot is mistaken. 

Backing him up on Wednesday was the Fed itself, which announced at the conclusion of its latest policy meeting that it would leave the federal funds rate at its current target range of 525-550 basis points. 

"They keep pushing out their optimism month after month. But there'll be no rate cuts this year," O'Leary said Tuesday. "I'm investing under the premise that we're going to be living with this rate cycle staying the same for the rest of the year. I'm sorry, it's just reality."

His take adds to a growing chorus of commentators that have grown convinced in a zero-cut scenario, as a string of hot economic data keeps spoiling market forecasts: where once cuts were expected as soon as March, strong labor, economic, and inflation readings have progressively moved this outlook to the end of the year.

And in late April, the Fed's ability to cut at all came into question by a wider swath of analysts, as first-quarter GDP slowed considerably from previous readings. With inflation still rising, that brought up concern of stagflation, a scenario smothered only by rate hikes. 

"The Fed's mandate is 2% inflation — not two, not three, not 3.2 — It's two, and so inflation is not going down anywhere near two for a bunch of reasons, and, therefore, they will not cut rates," O'Leary said.

For its part, the Fed has projected three rate cuts in 2024, though officials have repeatedly asserted that this depends on future inflation and economic data.

Meanwhile, some on Wall Street have also pointed out that the Fed may feel disinclined from pursuing rate cuts, as the impact of higher borrowing costs hasn't yet broken much in the economy.

Still, shifting forecasts have weighed heavily on stocks, with April becoming 2024's first losing month for the market. 

from All Content from Business Insider https://ift.tt/ESgsrZH
via IFTTT

• Mike Johnson is almost certain to survive MTG's effort oust him due to the support of Democrats.
• But progressives are unsure how to handle the vote, with some citing Johnson's own hard-right views.
• Some indicated that they wanted Democrats to ask for more in exchange for their votes.

Next week, Democrats will be siding with a Republican that they've derided as being slavishly loyal to Donald Trump, wedded to evangelical Christian nationalist beliefs, opposed to LGBTQ+ rights, and a danger to American democracy.

Some of them haven't decided whether that person is Speaker Mike Johnson or Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

The Georgia congresswoman remains poised to trigger a vote on ousting Johnson sometime next week. Democratic leaders have said that they will vote to table Greene's motion, indicating that the vast majority of rank-and-file House Democrats will follow, and that Johnson's job is essentially safe.

But for progressives in particular — many of whom are weary of being seen as helping to prop up a Republican speaker — it's likely to be a tough vote. After all, House Democrats voted unanimously with Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida to oust then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy in October.

"I'll likely vote present," said Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, pointing to Johnson's record of opposition to LGBTQ+ rights as the key reason for his break from party leadership.

"I'm not going to support MTG's silliness, but I don't want to support the most homophobic speaker in American history," said Pocan. "This is their problem. I'll just eat popcorn and vote present."

Three other prominent progressives — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, and Greg Casar of Texas — also indicated in interviews this week that they remained undecided on how they would vote. The Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) has yet to meet to discuss the topic.

"Mike Johnson shouldn't be speaker," said Casar, the CPC whip, saying that he wished Democrats had produced a "list" of concessions in exchange for their votes.

"I'm not inclined to to save him, I don't think we do these things for free," said Ocasio-Cortez.

The New York congresswoman said on CNN in March that she was "not inclined to vote for an individual for speaker who doesn't believe in women's rights, doesn't believe in bodily autonomy, who has supported overturning a presidential election."

There's a procedural distinction here that may make the difference for some lawmakers. When Greene calls up her "motion to vacate" against Speaker Mike Johnson, the first vote will not be on the actual vote to oust Johnson, but on a motion to table the vote.

While voting to table Greene's motion — which most Democrats and Republicans are expected to do — can be explained as a mere procedural step, it's also the case that doing so would, in effect, protect Johnson from an ouster.

"Here's the thing — you're not even being on record for Johnson," Ocasio-Cortez said of the tabling vote. "You're just being on record as to whether holding this vote right now is the most productive use of our time."

"I think tabling could just mean that we get back to doing the work of the people," said Omar, who also said that she "probably would vote to vacate" if the motion to table somehow failed, and lawmakers had to vote directly on Greene's motion.

Meanwhile, Rep. Ro Khanna of California — like other mainstream Democrats — has argued that Johnson deserves to keep his job as a result of not just passing Ukraine aid, but because he essentially split the Senate-passed foreign aid bill into individual votes on Israel aid and Ukraine aid, something progressives had long supported.

"I'm a progressive Democrat, and I think you would have a few progressive Democrats doing that," Khanna said on ABC's "This Week" in April, referring to tabling the motion to vacate. "I disagree with Speaker Johnson on many issues and have been very critical of him, but he did the right thing here, and he deserves to keep his job until the end of his term."

from All Content from Business Insider https://ift.tt/A6OVsd7
via IFTTT

• The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady in its latest decision on Wednesday.
• Powell has maintained that the Fed needs more data before it can cut interest rates.
• That means that relief likely will not come until the second half of the year.

The nation's central bank offered no surprises in its latest interest rate decision.

On Wednesday, the Federal Open Market Committee announced that it would be holding interest rates steady, continuing the pause on rates that began in September. It's further proof that the Federal Reserve is waiting for more economic data to ensure confidence that the economy is moving in the right direction before implementing any rate cuts.

While the FOMC projected three interest rate cuts for 2024, inflation is not quite where the Fed needs it to be. The Consumer Price Index, which measures inflation, rose 3.5% year-over-year in March, a slight increase from the 3.2% year-over-year reading in February.

Even with a strong labor market, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the Fed has more work to do to get closer to its 2% inflation target — meaning rates could stay higher for longer than Americans might have hoped.

"The recent data have clearly not given us greater confidence and instead indicate that it's likely to take longer than expected to achieve that confidence," Powell said during a panel discussion in Washington in April.

This means that rate cuts could likely pushed back to the second half of the year, potentially coinciding with the presidential election in November. This timing has sparked criticism from former President Donald Trump, who accused Powell in a February interview with Fox News that rate cut timing would "help the Democrats."

"It looks to me like he's trying to lower interest rates for the sake of maybe getting people elected," Trump said. The Wall Street Journal also recently reported that some members of Trump's team are crafting a plan that would give Trump a say in interest rate decisions, along with the authority to oust Powell from his position.

Powell maintained that the Fed is not political and makes decisions based solely on economic data.

"Our analysis is free from any personal or political bias, in service to the public," Powell said during an April discussion. "We will not always get it right — no one does. But our decisions will always reflect our painstaking assessment of what is best for our economy in the medium and longer term — and nothing else."

Regardless of whether rate cuts coincide with the election, data will be key going forward — and while predictions could change in the coming months, the central bank will likely move slowly on any interest rate relief this year.

"Inflation has continued to run hot and there is no compelling need for the Fed to cut interest rates until they're comfortable with where inflation is headed," Greg McBride, chief financial analyst for Bankrate, said in a statement.

from All Content from Business Insider https://ift.tt/kDvX6cV
via IFTTT

• US border officers have interrogated more than 30 ByteDance and TikTok employees, according to Forbes.
• They're being asked about ties to the CCP, and the security of American user data.
• TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew faced similar questions during a hearing in January.

US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers have interrogated more than 30 ByteDance and TikTok employees traveling to the US from China, according to a report by Forbes.

Employees are being asked a list of dedicated questions, including whether they have ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and what access ByteDance and TikTok have to American user data, Forbes reported, citing anonymous sources close to the matter.

Employees from various teams — many of whom are Chinese — are also being asked by officers with CBP's Office of Field Operations about Project Texas, per Forbes, which is TikTok's overarching security plan to wall off American data from China.

They're also being asked about their educations and political connections, according to the outlet.

"CBP is tasked with protecting our nation's borders as well as enforcing numerous laws at our nation's ports of entry on behalf of a variety of other government agencies, including state and local law enforcement," a spokesperson for the agency told Business Insider. "All international travelers attempting to enter the United States, including all US citizens, are subject to examination."

President Biden signed a bill into law last week requiring Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores unless ByteDance divests its US operations within 270 days. TikTok has vowed to fight the legislation in court, citing First Amendment violations.

Forbes noted that the inquiries by border officers are similar to a line of questioning Sen. Tom Cotton posed to TikTok's CEO Shou Zi Chew during a congressional hearing in January.

At the time, Chew reminded Cotton multiple times that he is Singaporean.

TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Correction: May 1, 2024: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated which type of Customs and Border Patrol worker was questioning TikTok employees. The CBP staff were Office of Field Operations officers, not border patrol agents.

from All Content from Business Insider https://ift.tt/Z7X9tn4
via IFTTT

• Elon Musk may not be as  "hardcore" about layoffs as he said he would be in an email Monday night. 
• The Tesla CEO may be rehiring some of the laid off staff, according to a Bloomberg report. 
• Musk confirmed a slower growth rate for Tesla, which could impact other EV carmakers.

Elon Musk sent a late-night email on Monday saying the company is being "absolutely hardcore" about layoffs, according to a report from The Information.

Now, the billionaire may be walking back what he said.

The email announced the departure of two senior executives and said both of their teams would be eliminated, with a small number of employees reassigned, The Information reported. One of the dissolved divisions, the supercharging team, would mean 500 jobs being cut, according to the report.

But now, there are already discussions about rehiring some of the impacted workers, Bloomberg reported. Bringing back laid-off staff would allow Tesla to continue operating the supercharger network and grow it at a slower rate, according to insiders who spoke to Bloomberg.

Tesla didn't respond to Business Insider's questions about the reported rehiring.

Musk confirmed plans to grow at a slower pace in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday.

"Tesla still plans to grow the Supercharger network, just at a slower pace for new locations and more focus on 100% uptime and expansion of existing locations," Musk said in the post.

Still, the job cuts concerned EV executives at companies like Rivian, Ford, and General Motors, according to the Bloomberg report. The three carmakers use Tesla's charging connectors for EVs and are preparing for a busy summer, the report said.

The departure of the senior director for charging infrastructure, Rebecca Tinucci, meant these brands lost a main point of communication, the Bloomberg report said.

But some workers in the EV industry think the layoffs could be a way for Musk to restructure the supercharger team — and make it better.

Andres Pinter, co-CEO of Bullet EV Charging Solutions, an EV chargepoint installer that works on Tesla's network, told Reuters that "there's no way Musk would walk away from effectively free money."

"It may be possible Mr. Musk will reconstitute the EV charger team in a bigger, badder, more Muskian way," Pinter said.

Do you have a tip about Tesla? Contact the reporter at aaltchek@insider.com.

from All Content from Business Insider https://ift.tt/nWUeK7L
via IFTTT