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Yahoo
4 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Spelling bee champ wins by visualizing words typed on keyboard
(NewsNation) — Faizan Zaki, a seventh-grader from Allen, Texas, won the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee. He shared that he visualizes typing words on a keyboard to help him spell them. Zaki said his dream of becoming a spelling bee champion began back in first grade. He ousted eight other accomplished spellers to win the title on Thursday night, including two whom he let back into the competition after his own careless flub. Parents need to be at the table for children's education: Writer Told to take a deep breath before his final word, 'éclaircissement,' he didn't ask a single question before spelling it correctly. He pumped his fists and collapsed to the stage after saying the final letter. Zaki told 'Morning in America' Friday that he visualizes typing words on a keyboard to help him spell them. 'When I'm up there and I'm spelling the word, those hand movements that I'm doing … I'm pretending to type out the word on a keyboard,' he explained. 'For éclaircissement, you were able to see me typing out each letter as I said them.' The 13-year-old from Allen, Texas, was runner-up last year after he lost in a lightning-round tiebreaker. While he was frustrated, he didn't give up and underwent an extensive routine to train for the spelling bee. 'Every day when I get home from school, I open a dictionary and I open a Google Doc and I just write down words that I haven't seen before or words that I don't recognize,' he said. 'I do this for five to six hours on weekdays and seven to eight hours on weekends.' Teachers bring back blue books to curb AI cheating in classrooms Zaki said his dream of becoming a spelling bee champion began back in first grade after he saw Karthik Nemmani win the spelling bee in 2018. 'I got really interested. So the next year, when I was in first grade, I participated in the spelling bee and I instantly got hooked,' he said. 'I knew it was something that I could pursue and now I'm here, I won.' The Associated Press contributed to this report. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
The Video of Rumeysa Ozturk Being Detained by ICE Was Publicized By a Community Defense Network
Anadolu/Getty Images Stay up-to-date with the politics team. Sign up for the Teen Vogue Take On March 25, masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested Rumeysa Ozturk as she walked down the street in the Boston suburb of Somerville. Ozturk is in the United States legally on a student visa and is by most accounts model citizen — a Fulbright scholar, PhD student at Tufts University, and, as argued by her lawyers, guilty of nothing. Her crime, according to the Trump administration, seems to be supporting Palestine. Ozturk's arrest is sensational in the literal sense, and the video is in many ways traumatic to watch. The masked agents appear out of nowhere, encircle the academic, and put her in handcuffs as she asks what's happening. Although it echoes the tactics we're seeing and hearing about ICE arrests all over the country, these stories are usually shared by word of mouth in rumors or whispers among neighbors. But Ozturk's situation stands out because we can watch it. That's because, as her detention was happening, another student called a community watch hotline that had started operating that week. 'He said, 'Someone's being kidnapped, someone's being kidnapped,'' recalled Danny Timpona, the LUCE Hotline operator who took the call. The hotline team dispatched 'verifiers' in Somerville — people trained to verify hotline calls and social media rumors of ICE's presence in a given area — who arrived within five minutes. They met with the caller, who was unsure who had taken Ozturk. The volunteers began knocking on doors and talking to neighbors, trying to find out if anyone might have information on what had happened, and also to calm any panic by giving out information about the hotline. A neighbor turned over the video, reportedly captured by a home security camera, that has now been seen by millions. Those volunteers are some of the more than 750 who have been trained in the last six weeks at 'community hubs' in over a dozen cities across the state, where 50 hotline operators with member groups of the LUCE Immigrant Justice Network of Massachusetts are now answering calls in five languages. ('LUCE' connotes 'shining a light,' in Latin, a language familiar to the region's large Catholic immigrant population.) And they're providing other resources as well. Later in the week, the group gave know-your-rights training to more than 100 Tufts students and community members. Timpona credits a 40-page Google Doc that was published just Donald Trump was inaugurated. LUCE is connecting immigrant community groups, prison abolition organizations, legal services, parent groups, and faith-based organizations. 'Our coalition is rooted in the idea that we refuse to leave anyone behind because of their marginalized identity,' shares Jaya Savita, director of the Asian Pacific Islanders Civic Action Network and a member of the LUCE Network. 'The hotline and ICE Watch resource is one of many ways we are empowering allies and impacted community members. We recognize that in order to build people power, we need to train, empower, and equip our communities and allies.' Most of the group's tactics, from the hotline dispatch system to neighborhood-based rights workshops, are modeled on those our team at Siembra NC used to organize immigrant workers and community members in North Carolina during Trump's first term. And they're not the only ones coming together to create new defense networks. Before his reelection, Trump made clear what he was going to do: demonize Latinos and all immigrants and use the threats of raids and deportation to destroy families and communities, keeping us all scared, demoralized, and hidden. He and his billionaire friends would continue stripping away our rights, gutting public services, and harming working people. We knew the playbook he'd run since 2016, so we wrote our own. Siembra NC's Defend and Recruit playbook outlines the tools we developed during the first Trump presidency and the ways we defended immigrants in our community and built a powerful movement in North Carolina. Since February, over 6,000 people have downloaded it, and hundreds of people around the country have joined in-person and online trainings. Among them were LUCE Hotline's coordination team, who say they spent hours consulting with our organizing coaches before they set up their systems. 'It was harder than we had expected getting people to set a vision and follow through,' Timpona said. 'Even after being trained, volunteers needed a lot of coaching to do things like go up and ask questions of federal agents making arrests.' ICE says they arrested nearly 400 people in Massachusetts in the two weeks the hotline started receiving calls. 'It has been so helpful to get support from other groups just starting.' The Defend & Recruit Network includes groups along the East Coast all the way to Florida, Texas, across Michigan and Wisconsin, and into Washington and California. We're experimenting with new strategies that engage people to defend those targeted, while also building a practice of recruitment into our organizing. We just published a toolkit for students resisting detentions like Ozturk's. Although there are extreme differences in our approaches and risks depending on local factors and our personal and group identities, there's still so much we can strategize about. Building these connections helps the work feel less isolating, less impossible, as some groups in red states like Ohio and Tennessee have shared on peer learning calls. By sharing these resources, we've received dozens more in return. We're collating these community-provided resources alongside our own tools and training. We've also built customizable resources, logos, toolkits, and produced how-to videos and other materials so you can do this work in your community. It is more important than ever: ICE is escalating its raids and targeting more people — immigration activists, Palestine supporters, parents, workers, and students. Many in our communities are looking for ways to defend our rights, even if it feels like those rights are eroding in real time. Defend & Recruit organizers have talked to people all over the country who are leading this work. Some are brand new, wanting to step up and do something in today's political chaos to support neighbors and families, while others have decades of wisdom to share from their lifetime in the fight. When we asked at a recent online training how many new local groups were forming solely because of immigration defense, dozens of people put their hands up. We've created spaces to troubleshoot common problems and share what we've learned, alongside receiving individual support. Groups in St. Louis; Ulster, New York; and Austin, Texas have met together and with our organizing coaches to build their own hotlines and ICE Watch programs. In North Carolina, we're building new ways for allies to join our fight and defend communities. After hearing from employers who wanted to respond to federal agents' warrantless arrests, we're now inviting them to become Fourth Amendment Workplaces that stand up for the Constitution. We know that the far right thrives when we are scared and alone. And we know that none of us are experts in exactly what will work in today's political landscape as Trump continues to shift his tactics. The administration is employing raids at workplaces, enabling abusive employers to exploit their workers further, and targeting immigrants at schools and places of worship. They're going after green card holders and temporary visa holders, and even using an 18th-century law to deport people to an El Salvadoran prison. Their actions are unprecedented, so the way we defend our people must change, too. We have legal rights in these situations and ways we can respond — if we're ready. Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue Want more Teen Vogue immigration coverage? The School Shooting That History Forgot I Was Kidnapped After Coming to the U.S. Seeking Asylum Ronald Reagan Sucked, Actually The White Supremacist 'Great Replacement Theory' Has Deep Roots
Irish Independent
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Baffling Irish mystery subject of new show set to be staged at Listowel Writer's Week
For those unfamiliar with the story of 'Peter Bergmann', it is the name given to the man whose body was discovered on Rosses Point beach on June 16, 2009. The man, thought to be in his 50's or 60's, had been staying at the Sligo City Hotel in Sligo Town. He checked in there for three days under the name of Peter Bergmann and gave an address in Vienna, Austria. Both of these proved to be false. The grey-haired man disposed of his belongings in a plastic purple bag, all while avoiding CCTV around the town. On his second day in the town, he purchased eight stamps and airmail stickers from a post office, but it was never established to whom these letters were sent. On the day before the discovery of his body, he asked a taxi driver to take him to the quietest beach in Sligo for a swim. This was Rosses Point. Here, Bergmann got out of the car and stared for a short time before he returned to the taxi. He checked out of the hotel on Monday, June 15, and at around 2.20pm that day, he boarded a bus to Rosses Point. It's estimated that he was seen by up to 16 people on the beach that day over the course of an eight-hour period. He was last seen walking along the beach, alone, near midnight. A man and his son who were out training for a triathlon discovered the body at approximately 8am on the morning of June 16. All the labels on the clothes the man was wearing had been carefully removed and despite extensive investigations by Gardaí, the man's true name and place of origin remain unknown. He was buried in an unmarked grave in Sligo cemetery with just six people in attendance in September of 2009; a postmortem found that he had advanced prostate cancer and bone tumours and had suffered previous heart attacks. The show on Friday in Listowel, which is called Mr Bergmann of Deadman's Point, is written by and stars Dublin actor and playwright Ronan Dempsey, and he spoke to The Kerryman about the upcoming show and his inspiration for writing it. 'I think I first read the story about Peter Bergmann back in 2019 which would have been the 10-year anniversary and I remember that I was just fascinated by it. I said to myself that there must be something in this I could write about and so what I did was I opened up a Google Doc and I wrote the title 'Peter Bergmann' at the top of it and I closed it straight away,' he laughed, adding 'I knew I'd come back to it someday.' What really inspired Ronan to return to the story though was the news that a really close friend of his had been diagnosed with terminal Brain cancer and that it was the juxtaposition between how he, Ronan's friend was handling the news and how the mysterious Peter Bergmann chose to handle it that planted the seed that would grow to become the play. ADVERTISEMENT Learn more "I remember chatting to him quite candidly and he was talking about end of life, what sort of mindset it puts you in, and what happens to you. What really struck me though was what he was saying about legacy and tidying everything up for the end and the panic that got into him and how it changed him,' said Ronan. "So much stuff that wouldn't have mattered to him before in terms of legacy and how he was going to be remembered, it now suddenly really mattered to him. I was quite struck by all this and I thought of Peter Bergmann and he was this fella that rocked over for three days to Sligo and he did absolutely everything in his power to delete himself and to leave absolutely nothing,' he continued. "Then I looked at my friend who was in the complete opposite boat in that he wanted to write his history and write his legacy. He crossed every t and dotted every I. The two completely different trains of thought between these two men just grabbed hold of me and I thought that I would have loved to see these two people in a room and see what happens,' he added. The show Ronan said is told through a fictional embalmer who is preparing Mr. Bergmann for his final journey while two men (both played by Ronan) watch on. He described it as a comic and mysterious tale of redemption, legacy, and what it is to live so close to death. 'What we experience is the juxtaposition between watching how these two guys move. It's like you have this sand timer and both of these men just have a few grains left in their life and you're just there watching how both of them navigate these last few grains,' he said. The show will be staged at 8pm on Friday May 30 in St John's Theatre in Listowel. Tickets will cost €20 and are available to buy at or by calling the booking office on 068 22566
Irish Independent
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Unsolved mystery of ‘Peter Bergmann' to be explored in new show at Listowel Writer's Week
For those unfamiliar with the story of 'Peter Bergmann', it is the name given to the man whose body was discovered on Rosses Point beach on June 16, 2009. The man, thought to be in his 50's or 60's, had been staying at the Sligo City Hotel in Sligo Town. He checked in there for three days under the name of Peter Bergmann and gave an address in Vienna, Austria. Both of these proved to be false. The grey-haired man disposed of his belongings in a plastic purple bag, all while avoiding CCTV around the town. On his second day in the town, he purchased eight stamps and airmail stickers from a post office, but it was never established to whom these letters were sent. On the day before the discovery of his body, he asked a taxi driver to take him to the quietest beach in Sligo for a swim. This was Rosses Point. Here, Bergmann got out of the car and stared for a short time before he returned to the taxi. He checked out of the hotel on Monday, June 15, and at around 2.20pm that day, he boarded a bus to Rosses Point. It's estimated that he was seen by up to 16 people on the beach that day over the course of an eight-hour period. He was last seen walking along the beach, alone, near midnight. A man and his son who were out training for a triathlon discovered the body at approximately 8am on the morning of June 16. All the labels on the clothes the man was wearing had been carefully removed and despite extensive investigations by Gardaí, the man's true name and place of origin remain unknown. He was buried in an unmarked grave in Sligo cemetery with just six people in attendance in September of 2009; a postmortem found that he had advanced prostate cancer and bone tumours and had suffered previous heart attacks. The show on Friday in Listowel, which is called Mr Bergmann of Deadman's Point, is written by and stars Dublin actor and playwright Ronan Dempsey, and he spoke to The Kerryman about the upcoming show and his inspiration for writing it. 'I think I first read the story about Peter Bergmann back in 2019 which would have been the 10-year anniversary and I remember that I was just fascinated by it. I said to myself that there must be something in this I could write about and so what I did was I opened up a Google Doc and I wrote the title 'Peter Bergmann' at the top of it and I closed it straight away,' he laughed, adding 'I knew I'd come back to it someday.' What really inspired Ronan to return to the story though was the news that a really close friend of his had been diagnosed with terminal Brain cancer and that it was the juxtaposition between how he, Ronan's friend was handling the news and how the mysterious Peter Bergmann chose to handle it that planted the seed that would grow to become the play. ADVERTISEMENT Learn more "I remember chatting to him quite candidly and he was talking about end of life, what sort of mindset it puts you in, and what happens to you. What really struck me though was what he was saying about legacy and tidying everything up for the end and the panic that got into him and how it changed him,' said Ronan. "So much stuff that wouldn't have mattered to him before in terms of legacy and how he was going to be remembered, it now suddenly really mattered to him. I was quite struck by all this and I thought of Peter Bergmann and he was this fella that rocked over for three days to Sligo and he did absolutely everything in his power to delete himself and to leave absolutely nothing,' he continued. "Then I looked at my friend who was in the complete opposite boat in that he wanted to write his history and write his legacy. He crossed every t and dotted every. The two completely different trains of thought between these two men just grabbed hold of me and I thought that I would have loved to see these two people in a room and see what happens,' he added. The show Ronan said is told through a fictional embalmer who is preparing Mr. Bergmann for his final journey while two men (both played by Ronan) watch on. He described it as a comic and mysterious tale of redemption, legacy, and what it is to live so close to death. 'What we experience is the juxtaposition between watching how these two guys move. It's like you have this sand timer and both of these men just have a few grains left in their life and you're just there watching how both of them navigate these last few grains,' he said. The show will be staged at 8pm on Friday May 30 in St John's Theatre in Listowel. Tickets will cost €20 and are available to buy at or by calling the booking office on 068 22566
Hindustan Times
23-05-2025
- Hindustan Times
You can now generate AI images in Google Docs with Gemini, here's how
Creating visuals to support your documents just got easier. Google Docs now lets users generate AI images directly inside their documents through a new feature powered by Gemini, Google's AI image generation tool. This means you no longer have to jump between different apps or websites to create custom images or add custom visuals to reports, presentations, resumes, and marketing content. Google Docs has integrated this tool so users can focus on their work without interrupting their creative process. The Gemini AI can transform simple text descriptions into four distinct images, giving users options to pick what best fits their needs. This integration builds on Google's existing AI capabilities and marks a step toward combining content creation and design tools into one seamless experience. Also read: This airline's new rule on portable chargers may affect your flight experience If you want to try generating images in Google Docs using Gemini, here's an easy-to-follow guide to help you get started. Open your Google Doc, whether it's a new file or one you have already started. Place your cursor where you want to insert an image. From the top menu, click Insert, then hover over Image, and select Generate image from the dropdown. This action opens the Gemini image generation panel on the side. In the prompt box that appears, type a clear and detailed description of the image you want. The more precise you are with details like subject, colours, lighting, and style, the better the generated images will match your vision. For example, instead of just typing 'beach,' try 'a sunny tropical beach with palm trees and turquoise water at sunset.' Also read: Google to let users test Android 16 desktop mode on phones with external display support, here's how Before generating images, you can select different artistic styles by clicking the dropdown next to Add a style. Options include watercolour, photorealistic, or cartoon, among others. You can also pick the image format: square, wide (landscape), or tall (portrait), depending on where you want to place the image in your document. Also read: Google I/O 2025: AI Mode rolls out in Search, know how it will benefit users Click Create to start generating images. Gemini will produce four variations based on your description. Review these options carefully. If none meet your needs, click View more to see additional variations until you find a suitable image. Once you select an image, click on it to insert it into your Google Doc at the cursor's position. After insertion, you can resize or move the image to fit your document's layout perfectly. Also read: How to quietly limit someone on Instagram without blocking, unfollowing, or causing drama In short, this feature makes it easier to add personalised visuals to your work without having to leave Google Docs. It will also help you to maintain your focus and boost your creativity, all in one place.
