A Contentious Media Merger, and the F.B.I.'s Epstein Scramble
Produced by Will Jarvis and Ian Stewart
Edited by Ian StewartJessica Metzger and Tracy Mumford
Featuring Alan Rappeport
F.C.C. Approves Skydance's $8 Billion Merger With Paramount, by Benjamin Mullin
Trump Spars With Powell Over Fed's Costly Renovations in Rare Visit, by Colby Smith
How a Frantic Scouring of the Epstein Files Consumed the Justice Dept., by Adam Goldman and Alan Feuer
Gazans Are Dying of Starvation, by Rawan Sheikh Ahmad, Isabel Kershner and Abu Bakr Bashir
France Will Recognize Palestinian Statehood, Macron Says, by Roger Cohen
Israel and the U.S. Pull Back From Talks With Hamas, by David E. Sanger and Johnatan Reiss
Hulk Hogan, Shirt-Shredding Superstar of Pro Wrestling, Dies at 71, by Victor Mather
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Yahoo
5 minutes ago
- Yahoo
"Forgive Me Nebraska, I Wasn't Familiar With Y'alls Game": Over 2 Million People Have Watched This Video Of A Republican Lawmaker Being Passionately Booed And Heckled At A Town Hall
Republican lawmaker Mike Flood was recently booed and heckled at a town hall in Nebraska, and the video is GLORIOUS. Over two million people have watched this TikTok that began with Mike asking, "Do you think people who are 28 years old, who can work and refuse to work, should get free healthcare?" As the crowd screamed a resounding "YESSSS," Mike looked like he was thinking, "Oh no." Related: The face of someone who did not receive the answer they expected: "I don't think that the majority of Nebraskans agree with you," he finally said. When he asked for the next slide of the presentation, people began chanting, "Tax the rich!" Related: Visibly frustrated, Mike tried again: "If you choose not to work. You. Do. Not. Get. Free. Healthcare." But the crowd wasn't having it and screamed, "BOOOOOO!" Mike continued, "Money does not fall out of the sky. It does not grow on trees. It comes from all of you. I wish there was a world we could live in where everything came from the government, and it was free. But that will never, ever, ever happen." Notably, he did not offer the obvious solution of, IDK, making the ultra-wealthy pay their fair share??? Throughout the town hall, people also shouted things like "vote him out!" and "liar!" The only time in the video that Mike received applause was when he supported the release of the Epstein files. Naturally, folks in the comments had a lot to say. This person pointed out, "even if you work healthcare isn't free!!!!" Related: Many people said what we're all thinking: "Healthcare should be a basic human right." "i love that you can hear the whole crowd say 'YES' it restored my faith in American society." "'Should people in the richest society in history have access to life saving care' isn't the gotcha he thinks it is." "Forgive me Nebraska, I wasn't familiar with yalls game DAMN." Related: "*the majority screams yes* 'the majority doesn't agree with you.'" And finally, "'it comes from all of you' SIR YOU FORGOT TO TAX THE BILLIONAIRES." What do you think about all this? LMK in the comments below! Also in In the News: Also in In the News: Also in In the News:
Gizmodo
4 hours ago
- Gizmodo
Grok's ‘Spicy' Mode Makes NSFW Celebrity Deepfakes of Women (But Not Men)
This week, Elon Musk officially launched Grok Imagine, xAI's image and video generator for iOS, for people who subscribe to SuperGrok and Premium+ X. The app allows users to create NSFW content with its 'Spicy' mode, and The Verge reported on Tuesday that users are able to create topless videos of Taylor Swift easily—without even asking for it. But it's not just Swift who should be concerned about Musk's new AI-generated softcore porn tool. Gizmodo created about two dozen videos of politicians, celebrities, and tech figures using the Grok Spicy mode, though some were blurred out or came back with a message reading 'video moderated.' When Grok did make scandalous images, it would only make the ones depicting women truly not-safe-for-work. Videos of men were the kind of thing that wouldn't really raise many eyebrows. X has been swamped over the past two days with AI-generated images of naked women and tips on how to achieve the most nudity. But users, who've created tens of millions of Grok Imagine images according to Musk, don't even need to go to some great effort to get deepfakes of naked celebrities. Gizmodo didn't explicitly ask for nudity in the examples we cite in this article, but we still got plenty of it. All we did was click on the Spicy button, which is one of four options, along with Custom, Fun, and Normal. Gizmodo tested Grok Imagine by generating videos of not just Taylor Swift, but other prominent women like Melania Trump and historical figures like Martha Washington. Melania Trump has been a vocal supporter of the Take It Down Act, which makes it illegal to publish non-consensual 'intimate imagery,' including deepfakes. Grok also created a not-safe-for-work video of the late feminist writer Valerie Solanas, author of 1967's S.C.U.M Manifesto. Almost all of the videos depicted the women that we tested as shedding clothes to make them naked from the waist up, though the video of Solanas was unique in that it did show her completely naked. What happens when you try to generate Spicy videos of men? The AI will have the male figure take off his shirt, but there's nothing more scandalous than that. When Gizmodo figured out that it would only remove a man's shirt, we prompted the AI to create a shirtless image of Elon Musk and see what it might do with that. The result was the extremely ridiculous (and safe-for-work) video you see below. Attempts to make videos of Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Joaquin Phoenix, and Charlie Chaplin, as well as Presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and George Washington, ran into the same limitation. The AI-generated videos will have the men take their shirts off most of the time, but there's nothing beyond that. And if there is anything more, it's usually so cringe that we'd worry about users dying from secondhand embarrassment. Making a Spicy video of Errol Musk, Elon's father, produced the same thing. He just took off his shirt. When we made a generic man to see if Spicy mode would be more loose with its sexual content since it wasn't a known public figure, it still just made a bizarre, awkward video of a man tugging at his pants. The pants, it should be noted, seem to be a combination of shorts for one leg and long jeans for the other before transforming into just shorts. The audio for each video was also auto-generated without any further instruction. Trying the same thing with a generic woman rendered much more revealing images of a woman in a swimsuit who pulls down the top to reveal her naked breasts. Most mainstream AI video generators, like OpenAI's Sora and Google's Veo, have guardrails to protect against the creation of things like revenge porn and images of celebrities. And it seems like xAI does in some ways, at least for men. But most people would probably object to their image being used to create an AI avatar in various states of undress. Gizmodo reached out to Musk through xAI to ask about safeguards and whether it's acceptable for users to create topless videos of celebrities. We haven't heard back. One of the most striking things about Grok's AI image generator is that it's often terrible at making convincing celebrity fakes. For example, the images below were generated when asking for Vice President JD Vance and actress Sydney Sweeney. And unless we completely forgot how those two people look, it's not even close. That could turn out to be Musk's saving grace, given the fact that a tool like this is bound to attract lawsuits. There were other glitches, like when we created an AI-generated image of President Harry Truman that looked very little like him, and the man's nipples appeared to be on the outside of his dress shirt. Truman, in Spicy mode, did take off his shirt to reveal his bare chest, which had identical nipples. When Gizmodo created images using the prompt 'Gizmodo writer Matt Novak,' the result was similar to what we saw with videos for Elon Musk and generic men. The figure (who, we should note, is in much better shape than the real Matt Novak) took off his shirt with a simple click of the Spicy button. As The Verge notes, there is an age verification window when a user first tries to create a video with Grok Imagine, but there doesn't appear to be any kind of check by the company to confirm the year a given user was actually born. Thankfully, Gizmodo's generation of a cartoon Mickey Mouse in Spicy mode didn't render anything scandalous, just the animated character jumping harmlessly. An AI image of Batman yielded a 'Spicy' result not unlike other male figures, where he only stripped his top off. Gizmodo did not attempt to create any images of children, though The Verge did try that in Spicy mode and reports nothing inappropriate was rendered. The 'Spicy' mode was still an option that was listed, however. 'You can still select it, but in all my tests, it just added generic movement,' The Verge notes. Elon Musk very infamously reinstated an account on X that posted child sexual abuse material in 2023, according to the Washington Post. It's perhaps not surprising that Elon Musk's new NSFW video creator has different standards for men and women. The billionaire recently retweeted a far-right figure who claimed that women are 'anti-white' because they're 'weak.' The Tesla CEO, who suggested in 2024 that he wanted to impregnate Taylor Swift, isn't exactly known for being a champion of women's rights. Gizmodo signed up for the $30 per month SuperGrok subscription and only got to test it for about 1.5 hours before we were told we'd reached our image creation limit. Strangely enough, users can still create a single still image for a prompt after getting the warning and generate NSFW videos using that lone image, but it's much more limited than what was previously available. We were told to upgrade to SuperGrok Heavy for $300 per month if we wanted to continue using the tool with all its features. But given the fact that we didn't need any more shitty images of naked celebrities to write this article, we declined. We got the answers we were looking for, unfortunately.
The Hill
6 hours ago
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Why Netanyahu and Hamas both want to keep the Gaza war going
I wrote three months ago that 'Netanyahu and Sinwar have common interests in prolonging the war.' Incredibly, but for the details, the analysis remains the same. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu'.'s stated goals since Oct. 7, 2023, have been incoherent, but his catchphrases have evolved. It started with the nebulous 'wiping out Hamas' and the undefined 'total victory.' Only after prodding was 'the return of the hostages' added. After 22 months, Netanyahu no longer considers the return of the hostages a war goal — even though 74 percent of the Israeli population supports a hostage deal and the end of the war. Netanyahu has failed to delineate a 'day after' plan or create the conditions that would enable a credible 'day after' plan. After the ill-conceived Trump plan was announced in March, which called for the evacuation of all Gazans while a Trump Gaza 'riviera' was built, Netanyahu adopted the removal of all Gazans as an additional war goal. Trump has moved away from his own concept, but Netanyahu and his ultra-nationalist coalition clings to the vision of a Palestinian-free Gaza. As a result, Netanyahu has continued a war, despite the Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff, Eyal Zamir, telling the Cabinet in June that further operations would endanger the hostages and serve no military purpose. More recently, Zamir implored the Cabinet to devise a political strategy. Netanyahu and the Cabinet have nothing to offer other than to float the annexation of Gaza. In the meantime, Israel's status as a pariah nation is being solidified daily. Netanyahu believes he is the state and has no regard for the consequences of his actions. He persists in a war with no further purpose — in which Israeli casualties increase and Hamas is strengthened every day — for three purely personal reasons. First, Netanyahu's coalition is dependent on far-right ultra-nationalist parties, who threaten to bolt the coalition if there is a hostage deal and an end to the war. Second, Netanyahu knows that he will lose the next election and will be out of power. Third, if he loses power, he will no longer be able to put off his corruption trial on charges that predate the war. He could go to jail. So his best hope to continue the war and hope he can blame Oct. 7 on everyone else. Less than 40 percent of Israelis now trust Netanyahu. But let's not forget Hamas. Like Netanyahu, Hamas has its own interests in prolonging the conflict. With pressure on Netanyahu from Trump, Hamas could end the conflict by agreeing to return the Israeli hostages and self-exiling a nominal set of leaders. Hamas's first instinct, however, is survival as a political force. Most of the original Hamas leadership from the start of the war — Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Dief, Marwan Issa and Mohammed Sinwar — have been killed. The second string, however, appears to have done a good job in recruitment, by means of cash payments and intimidation. On Oct. 7, Hamas had roughly 30,000 fighters divided into five brigades, 24 battalions and multiple specialized forces — including air, maritime and special operations. It was estimated to have 30,000 rockets (not missiles), which made Hamas larger than some European militaries. By August 2024, Israel claimed to have destroyed 21 of Hamas's 24 battalions, and killed about 20,000 fighters (which are subsumed in the reported Palestinian death totals). But recent reports indicate that Hamas has recruited an equal number since Israel broke the ceasefire in March 2025. The majority of Gazans are under 30. With no economy amidst the rubble, most are looking for ways to support their families and obtain food. Hamas has an easy recruitment base. Hamas also recognizes that Israel's international situation is being degraded daily by viral images of the suffering and starvation of the populace — a situation created by Netanyahu's unilateral cut-off of most humanitarian aid into Gaza in March. Regardless of any role Hamas may play in hijacking aid, the humanitarian travesty is harmful to Gazans and is a self-inflicted injury on Israel by Netanyahu that Hamas is happy exploit. Further, France, the U.K. and Canada have announced that they will recognize the State of Palestine in September without an end to the war, though that recognition will go the Palestinian Authority, not Hamas. The Hamas massacres of Oct. 7 — which Sinwar knew would lead to massive Israeli retaliation — has led to devastation and destruction in Gaza beyond anyone's imagination. Netanyahu, knowing his political career could be over, clings to power and is willing to sacrifice Israel's international standing and the lives of Israeli soldiers to remain in power. Hamas brought calamity on the people of Gaza and knows that it too would lose a free election, and thus similarly seeks to prolong the conflict. In the meantime, Gazans and Israelis suffer.
