Edmonton man gets bail with murder conviction overturned after 36 years behind bars
Roy Sobotiak was convicted of second-degree murder in the 1987 killing of Edmonton mother Susan Kaminsky. But after the federal justice minister ordered a new trial this year, a judge granted Sobotiak's release on Friday, saying he is now considered legally innocent.
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Entrepreneur
an hour ago
- Entrepreneur
Shaquille O'Neal to Pay Nearly $2M to Settle FTX Lawsuit
NBA Hall of Famer Shaq is settling a class action lawsuit brought by FTX investors who claim they were misled. NBA Hall of Famer (and prolific franchise owner) Shaquille O'Neal will pay $1.8 million to settle claims from investors that he misled them into investing in FTX, the bankrupt and infamous crypto exchange formerly led by Sam Bankman-Fried. The settlement will cost Shaq around $1 million more than he got paid for the FTX commercial in the first place, which was reportedly around $750,000. RELATED: From Tom Brady to Kevin O'Leary – See Who Lost Big in the Wake of the FTX Crypto Collapse After being named in a class-action lawsuit in December 2022 alongside other celebrities who starred in FTX promotions, including Tom Brady and Larry David, O'Neal told CNBC that he was just acting in a commercial, not giving financial advice. "A lot of people think I'm involved, but I was just a paid spokesperson for a commercial," O'Neal said at the time. O'Neal allegedly dodged process servers for months but was served with legal documents in April 2023. If approved by the judge overseeing the case, the settlement would officially end the class action lawsuit, which was filed by FTX investors who deposited money between May 2019 and late 2022, and release him from future liability in this matter, fully resolving all claims without O'Neal having to admit any wrongdoing. It also bans him from seeking reimbursement from the FTX estate, per CNBC. RELATED: Sam Bankman-Fried Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison for Multibillion-Dollar Crypto Fraud Bankman-Fried is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence for seven counts of fraud and conspiracy related to the FTX collapse. Business Insider reports he may be released four years early for good behavior.
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
A curious major-league fib, plus: Alcantara starting to round into form
The Windup Newsletter ⚾ | This is The Athletic's MLB newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Windup directly in your inbox. New developments in the Tyler Skaggs case bring a former teammate's name into the proceedings. Plus: The curious case of the missing career, a Q&A with our player poll editor, and Ken says Sandy Alcantara is getting closer to being, well, Sandy Alcantara. I'm Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal. Welcome to The Windup! When Tyler Skaggs died in 2019, it shook the entire league. Every new detail in the nearly six years since has made the story a little more tragic, a little more shocking. Former Angels PR director Eric Kay is serving a 22-year prison sentence for his role in providing Skaggs with the opioids that led to his overdose. Advertisement Now there's a civil lawsuit between Skaggs' family and the Angels organization, in which the family insists the team holds some responsibility in the matter. Today, new information has come to light, further muddying the waters, and bringing another known name into the conversation: current Reds pitcher Wade Miley. From that story, by Sam Blum: 'On May 30, the Angels filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing that the Skaggs's claims should be dismissed. It contained a deposition from the former agent for Skaggs, in which he testified Skaggs had told him he sometimes received prescription drugs from pitcher Wade Miley. Skaggs and Miley were teammates on the Arizona Diamondbacks at the time.' It's a complicated case, made more so by the fact that 'hundreds of pages of testimony, including portions of confidential depositions from key witnesses, were also posted publicly to the court's online portal last week, apparently in error.' Blum's piece has a lot more details. It's messy, it's sad and this much is sure: There's no happy ending to this story. From my most recent column, with Eno Sarris: The temptation is not to get carried away with Miami Marlins right-hander Sandy Alcantara producing back-to-back quality starts for the first time this season. His opponents were the Colorado Rockies and Pittsburgh Pirates, the teams with the two worst offenses in the major leagues. Marlins manager Clayton McCullough, however, saw a difference in what he called 'the quality of Sandy's throws.' So did a rival official who witnessed Alcantara's start in Pittsburgh on Tuesday night. The official, granted anonymity for his candor, said, 'I walked away saying he is about three or four starts away from being the Sandy of old.' If Alcantara continues pitching on five days' rest, as he has for the majority of the season coming off Tommy John surgery, he would make eight starts before the trade deadline on July 31. By that time, a reemergence as the Sandy of old could make him what many at the start of the season expected him to become — the best starting pitcher available. 'For him, the walk rate (early in the season) was so uncharacteristic. The ability to execute at a high level, which he was terrific at pre-injury, was not the same,' McCullough said. 'So while the stuff was very good — the velo was good, the shapes of his pitches were fine — his spray was just a lot larger, especially to left. I think it was just the finish to the throws. Advertisement 'A couple of bullpens ago, he really focused on being glove-side with his work and being intentional there. Which I think in turn has got him driving the ball through the mitt and finishing his pitches.' Examining the shapes and velocities of Alcantara's pitches, his stuff has indeed mostly recovered since his surgery in October 2023. His changeup doesn't have quite as much drop, and neither does his curve, but his fastballs are mostly back, and overall his stuff is there. Stuff+ is a stat that sums up the physical qualities of his pitches, and most of his pitches are back to pre-surgery quality. More here. It's been a big week for 25-year-old Red Sox rookie pitcher Hunter Dobbins. Here's the timeline: June 8: Dobbins tells Gabrielle Starr of the Boston Globe, 'If the Yankees were the last team to give me a contract, I'd retire.' But in that same story, he also says: 'Andy Pettitte and my dad were really good friends. … He was actually drafted twice by the Yankees. Signed with them his last year and then he got traded over to the Diamondbacks.' That night, Dobbins picked up the win over the Yankees. Score one for the kid. June 10 (Tuesday): Joel Sherman of the New York Post writes this article, in which he says, more or less, 'Nuh-uh.' He contacted members of the Yankees and D-Backs front offices from those days and found nothing on Lance Dobbins. There was also this: 'Pettitte, reached by phone, said neither he nor anyone he asked in his family remembers Lance Dobbins.' Baseball Reference shows (the elder) Dobbins playing for three teams in 1996-97, but all of three were independent teams. The Diamondbacks did have minor-league teams in those years, ahead of the big-league team's inaugural season (1998). But I checked all of those rosters; Dobbins isn't on any of them. Yesterday (the younger) Dobbins was given a chance to address the situation. His answer? 'I don't go and fact-check my dad.' Advertisement In summary: This was the story he had been told; why would anyone think their dad wasn't telling them the truth? But — with the caveat that there might be some explanation yet to come to light — it sure doesn't seem like Lance Dobbins was drafted by the Yankees, nor that he played in the Diamondbacks org. Stay tuned, I guess? In the meantime, Dobbins' next start is scheduled for Saturday. Against whom? The Yankees, of course. Yesterday's Windup was all about our five anonymous player poll stories. Today, we have a Q&A with editor Kaci Borowski, who handles all the heavy lifting of making these things shine. What has been the biggest challenge in making these successful? One is that baseball players are, unlike their basketball counterparts, generally less inclined to speak on more controversial topics, so you really have to think about what types of questions they'd be likely to answer and shape those in a way that would get a good response. The second is that it takes a lot of coordination to make this work. We have a large staff of national and local writers, and keeping the information organized takes some planning. There's just so much data. Truly mind-numbing amounts of data. Do you have a favorite question we've ever asked? Least-favorite? In 2019, we asked pitchers who they would least like to see charging the mound and vice versa for the hitters. The answers we got were really amusing and surprisingly honest. My least favorite questions are, unfortunately, often the ones our readers ask for the most. We've tried to do the 'most overrated player' question a few times and the players don't really take to that one — we end up with a small sample size and a lot of names without a lot of justification. It can be a little awkward, and it doesn't always provide an enlightening outcome. What's the question you can't ask, but wish you could? I can't just be giving out free story ideas on main here, Levi. But out of respect and appreciation for the kind players who take the time and answer our poll honestly, I will give a response and go with one I think they'd never answer anyway: Which of your fellow baseball players pisses you off the most? They'd need to give specifics, though. I'd need quotes for sure. How have you seen these evolve over the years we've been doing them? One thing we've made a priority in these more recent polls is making sure we're talking to a wide range of voters with different backgrounds, years of league experience and primary languages so we can (attempt to!) better reflect the attitudes and perspectives of those who currently make up the sport. It's not a perfect exercise, but I think we've made some good strides. Britt Ghiroli has an insightful one today: What do baseball families do to juggle school while parenting on a baseball schedule? One day after the Giants placed third baseman Matt Chapman on the IL, catcher Patrick Bailey joined him. That hasn't stopped San Francisco from consecutive late-innings comebacks. The Red Sox and Twins pulled off a trade, with Boston acquiring reliever Jorge Alcala for a minor-leaguer. Tigers starter Jackson Jobe is having Tommy John surgery. The epidemic continues. Hot birds vs. hot birds: The blue ones emerged victorious, sweeping the red ones. Keith Law's Mock Draft 2.0 is here, with a new No. 1 pick. There had been some suspicion that Jesús Luzardo was tipping his pitches. He made some adjustments, and held the Cubs to one run, striking out 10 in six innings yesterday. Speaking of which … On the pods: On 'Rates & Barrels,' Eno, Jed and DVR discussed what info hitters might want from external sources when preparing for opposing pitchers. Prefer video? Here you go! Most-clicked in our last newsletter: The first Player Poll story, where we learned which teams and managers players do and don't like to play for. *against the Rockies, though. 📫 Love The Windup? Check out The Athletic's other newsletters.
CNN
an hour ago
- CNN
Meta sues maker of explicit deepfake app for dodging its rules to advertise AI ‘nudifying' tech
Meta is suing the Hong Kong-based maker of the app CrushAI, a platform capable of creating sexually explicit deepfakes, claiming that it repeatedly circumvented the social media company's rules to purchase ads. The suit is part of what Meta (META) described as a wider effort to crack down on so-called 'nudifying' apps — which allow users to create nude or sexualized images from a photo of someone's face, even without their consent — following claims that the social media giant was failing to adequately address ads for those services on its platforms. As of February, the maker of CrushAI, also known as Crushmate and by several other names, had run more than 87,000 ads on Meta platforms that violated its rules, according to the complaint Meta filed in Hong Kong district court Thursday. Meta alleges the app maker, Joy Timeline HK Limited, violated its rules by creating a network of at least 170 business accounts on Facebook or Instagram to buy the ads. The app maker also allegedly had more than 55 active users managing over 135 Facebook pages where the ads were displayed. The ads primarily targeted users in the United States, Canada, Australia, Germany and the United Kingdom. 'Everyone who creates an account on Facebook or uses Facebook must agree to the Meta Terms of Service,' the complaint states. Some of those ads included sexualized or nude images generated by artificial intelligence and were captioned with phrases like 'upload a photo to strip for a minute' and 'erase any clothes on girls,' according to the lawsuit. CNN has reached out to Joy Timeline HK Limited for comment on the lawsuit. Tech platforms face growing pressure to do more to address non-consensual, explicit deepfakes, as AI makes it easier than ever to create such images. Targets of such deepfakes have included prominent figures such as Taylor Swift and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as well as high school girls across the United States. The Take It Down Act, which makes it illegal for individuals to share non-consensual, explicit deepfakes online and requires tech platforms to quickly remove them, was signed into law last month. But a series of media reports in recent months suggest that these nudifying AI services have found an audience by advertising on Meta's platforms. In January, reports from tech newsletter Faked Up and outlet 404Media found that CrushAI had published thousands of ads on Instagram and Facebook and that 90% of the app's traffic was coming from Meta's platforms. That's despite the fact that Meta prohibits ads that contain adult nudity and sexual activity, and forbids sharing non-consensual intimate images and content that promotes sexual exploitation, bullying and harassment. Following those reports, Sen. Dick Durbin, Democrat and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg asking 'how Meta allowed this to happen and what Meta is doing to address this dangerous trend.' Earlier this month, CBS News reported that it had identified hundreds of advertisements promoting nudifying apps across Meta's platforms, including ads that featured sexualized images of celebrities. Other ads on the platforms pointed to websites claiming to animate deepfake images of real people to make them appear to perform sex acts, the report stated. In response to that report, Meta said it had 'removed these ads, deleted the Pages responsible for running them and permanently blocked the URLs associated with these apps.' Meta says it reviews ads before they run on its platforms, but its complaint indicates that it has struggled to enforce its rules. According to the complaint, some of the CrushAI ads blatantly advertised its nudifying capabilities with captions such as 'Ever wish you could erase someone's clothes? Introducing our revolutionary technology' and 'Amazing! This software can erase any clothes.' Now, Meta said its lawsuit against the CrushAI maker aims to prevent it from further circumventing its rules to place ads on its platforms. Meta alleges it has lost $289,000 because of the costs of the investigation, responding to regulators and enforcing its rules against the app maker. When it announced the lawsuit Thursday, the company also said it had developed new technology to identify these types of ads, even if the ads themselves didn't contain nudity. Meta's 'specialist teams' partnered with external experts to train its automated content moderation systems to detect the terms, phrases and emojis often present in such ads. 'This is an adversarial space in which the people behind it — who are primarily financially motivated — continue to evolve their tactics to avoid detection,' the company said in a statement. 'Some use benign imagery in their ads to avoid being caught by our nudity detection technology, while others quickly create new domain names to replace the websites we block.' Meta said it had begun sharing information about nudifying apps attempting to advertise on its sites with other tech platforms through a program called Lantern, run by industry group the Tech Coalition. Tech giants created Lantern in 2023 to share data that could help them fight child sexual exploitation online. The push to crack down on deepfake apps comes after Meta dialed back some of its automated content removal systems — prompting some backlash from online safety experts. Zuckerberg announced earlier this year that those systems would be focused on checking only for illegal and 'high-severity' violations such as those related to terrorism, child sexual exploitation, drugs, fraud and scams. Other concerns must be reported by users before the company evaluates them.
