Latest news with #Herons
Miami Herald
3 days ago
- Sport
- Miami Herald
Greg Cote's Hot Button Top 10: Panthers-Oilers 2.0, Thunder-Pacers, well-timed hot Messi, dire Fins
GREG COTE'S HOT BUTTON TOP 10 (JUNE 1): WHAT IN SPORTS HAS GRABBED US THIS WEEK: Our Sunday Hot Button Top 10 notes column -- back after one week off -- brings you what's on our minds, locally and nationally but from a Miami perspective and accentuating stuff that's big, weird, damnable, funny or otherwise worth needling as the sports week just past pivots to the week ahead. Happy new month, all! Welcome to the 105th edition of your HB10: 1. PANTHERS: Delicioso! It's Edmonton, McDavid in Stanley Cup rematch!: Maybe it was inevitable? It was the way Florida and Edmonton dominated their conference finals with 4-1 advances. Now its a Stanley Cup Final rematch as Panthers try for a repeat championship and Oilers try to avenge last year's Game 7 loss. Game 1 is Wednesday in Edmonton as -- for the fourth straight playoff series -- the other team has home-ice advantage, not the Cats. Will McDavid be 'McOverrated' again? Who'll win? Answers here in our Cup preview column. 2. NBA: It's an OKC-Indy Finals as Knicks fans denied (again): Oklahoma City Thunder own home-court advantage and open as big betting favorites at -700 over Indiana Pacers in the NBA Finals, with Game 1 Thursday in OKC. Thunder wait after bouncing Minnesota 4-1 as Indy dispatched the New York Knicks on Saturday to win 4-2. Our prediction: League MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander leads a comfy Finals win over Tyrese Haliburton's Dad. 3. INTER MIAMI: Messi, Herons heat up in prep for Club World Cup: Inter Miami had been on a skid with only one win and two ties across eight matches before getting hot at just the right time. Team has now won consecutive MLS matches, 4-2 over Montreal and 5-1 over Columbus Saturday -- with Lionel Messi scoring twice in each game. Miami is now 8-3-5 and third in the MLS East. Herons are now off until the June 14 start of the FIFA Club World Cup with their opening match at Hard Rock stadium vs. Egyptian club Al Ahly. Meantime Messi and Luis Suarez have started Deportivo LSM, a soccer club in Uruguay that enters in fourth division. 4. SOCCER: Oui! Oui! PSG wins first-ever Champions League: French power Paris Saint-Germain on Saturday won its first UEFA Champions League crown in the event's 70-year history, routing Inter Milan, 5-0, in Munich. It was the biggest victory margin in the history of what many regard as the sport's biggest soccer tournament after the World Cup. Inter Milan had won thrice (in 1964, 1995 and 2010) and been runnerup in 2023 but was overwhelmed, no embarrassed on Saturday. Real Madrid holds a record 15 UCL trophies and had been defending champion. 5. TENNIS: Fritz fast-exit at French Open extends woes for U.S. men: No. 4-ranked Taylor Fritz's first-round exit at the French Open is the latest disappointment in the now more than 20-year downturn of U.S. men's tennis. No American man has won a major since Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick both did in 2003. Four U.S. women have won a major since Serena Williams' last in 2017 including No. 2 seed Cocoa Gauff, who remains alive at the midpoint in Paris along with fellow Americans Jessica Pegula and Madison Keys. The favorites are still alive as well: Aryna Sabalenka is women's No. 1 seed and betting favorite. On men's side, the money backs Carlos Alcaraz but top seed is Cheatin' Jannik Sinner. 6. DOLPHINS: First FPI model offers glum '25 outlook for Miami: Good news first? Fins should be better than Patriots and Jets in the division this coming NFL season. Bad news? Miami is ranked 19th overall with a negative -0.9 rating in ESPN's first 2025 Football Power Index model. Top-five are Eagles, Chiefs, Ravens, Lions and AFC East-nemesis Bills. Broken down, Dolphins are projected to win 8.2 (of 17) games and given a 37.6 percent shot at the playoffs and 1.1% to win Super Bowl. Ouch. And the pressure on coach Mike McDaniel and GM Chris Grier is further underlined as Fins' offseason work ramps up with mandatory minicamp June 10-12. 7. MLB: Meet 'The Team Put on Earth to Make Marlins Seem Less Awful': As the Dodgers and Yankees and Ohtani and Judge play at the top of baseball this weekend, a nod of sympathy please for the dregs. The Colorado Rockies enter Sunday with a 9-49 (.155) record, after the worst 50-game start (8-42) in MLB history. They are on pace to lose 137 games. The all-time mark is 134 by the 1899 Cleveland Spiders, whose players included Highball Wilson, Crazy Schmit and Cupid Childs. (Where'd all the great nicknames go?) Meantime the low-rent Miami Marlins -- rallying cry: 'Were better than the Rockies!' -- flounder along at 22-33 entering Sunday. 8. SOFTBALL: New women's pro league has ex-Marlins exec at helm: The women's pro sports boom has a new facet led by Kim Ng, Miami Marlins groundbreaking executive from 2020-23 and now new commissioner of Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL), whose inaugural season opens June 7 with MLB a partner and 'strategic investor.' That will include joint sales, marketing and promotion/broadcasts on MLB Network and Ng in Miami became first female general manager of a major American men's pro team. AUSL's first season will see four teams barnstorming across 10 U.S. cities, South Florida unfortunately not among them. 9. HORSES: Belmont Stakes nears with two after for 'Double Crown': The 157th running of the Belmont Stakes is this coming Saturday at Saratoga in New York. Can someone win the 'Double Crown?' Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty was an 8-5 favorite at last check, with Preakness champ Journalism a nose behind at 9-5. 10. WNBA: Enough with hand-wringing over Caitlin injury!: Headlines seen since Indiana's Caitlin Clark suffered a quad strain that will sideline her a couple of weeks: 'Can WNBA momentum survive Clark absence?' and 'Will Fever avoid spiraling without Caitlin?' People, please! She's expected t miss four games, five tops. She last missed a game in 2017 as a high-school sophomore. If team and league quake due to her brief absence, the league's Renaissance stands on balsa-wood stilts. UPDATE THE LIST: PEDIGREES OF HOOPS 'N HOCKEY FINALISTS: The championships series are set: Edmonton Oilers vs. Florida Panthers in Stanley Cup Final and Indiana Pacers vs. Oklahoma City Thunder in NBA Finals. How each franchise has fared at winning it all, ranked in order of championships won: Team Seasons Playoffs Finals (Championships) Edmonton Oilers 45th 27 8th 5 (1984-85, 1987-88, 1990) Florida Panthers 31st 11 4th 1 (2024) Indiana Pacers 49th 29 2nd 0 Oklahoma City 17th 12 2nd 0 Note: Pacers played nine seasons in ABA prior to merger, reached five Finals and won three championships. Oklahoma City entered NBA in 2008 when the Seattle SuperSonics relocated. Other select most recent stuff from me: Stanley Cup preview: On Connor 'McOverrated,' dream Cup rematch, Panthers as face of changed NHL // Florida Panthers oust Carolina in five, reach 3rd straight Stanley Cup Final // Major news on future of Dan Le Batard Show, Meadowlark Media, DraftKings // Game 7 magic as Panthers rout Toronto 6-2, reach 3rd straight East finals // Previous HB10 // Poll: Pete Rse and Shoeless Joe // Panthers' 4-1 ouster of Tampa declares intent, and ability, to repeat as champs // Giannis? Durant? Embarrassed Heat need major help after 55-point loss and playoff sweep // NFL Draft Live! Pick-by-pick analysis, Cote vs. Kiper mock results // Our 34th annual Official Herald NFL Mock Draft // Miami Dolphins should be fed up with Tyreek Hill, but team is too desperate to trade him // LeBron vs. Michael, now Ovechkin-Gretzky. Our obsession with ranking greatness // NCAAs crescendo with exciting Final Fours, but college basketball is broken. Let's fix it // To owner Bruce Sherman of low-hope Marlins: Spend more on payroll, or sell team // Dolphins' 18-month decline, quiet offseason heap pressure on Tua, coach, GM in '25 // A tribute to Miami sports legend Jimmy Johnson as he retires from Fox TV // Must-win MLS season for Messi, Inter Miami a tough climb, as opening 2-2 home draw shows // 15 years later, Dolphins Cancer Challenge is the life-saving legacy of Jim Mandich // Unprofessional Jimmy Butler quit on Heat, ruined his legacy in Miami // Our Top 10 biggest Miami/South Florida sports stories of 2024 // And my latest podcast:
Fox Sports
25-05-2025
- Sport
- Fox Sports
Lionel Messi's late free kick, assist steal a point for reeling Inter Miami
Lionel Messi Lionel Messi's late free kick, assist steal a point for reeling Inter Miami Published May. 24, 2025 11:45 p.m. ET share facebook x reddit link Lionel Messi and Inter Miami were on the brink of losing yet another game on Saturday night, this time against the Philadelphia Union. The Herons, who set an MLS record for points last year and were on pace to claim another Supporters' Shield as regular-season champions after going unbeaten in eight league matches to start the 2025 campaign, have been dreadful lately, winning just two of their last nine games across all competitions. Miami's sixth loss since April 27 seemed inevitable on Saturday in Chester, Pennsylvania, when the Union made it 3-1 on Tai Baribo's second goal of the contest with about a quarter-hour to go. But Messi flipped the script with just three minutes of regular time remaining. First, the GOAT pulled Miami back within one with a blistering free-kick that beat home Philly's teenage goalkeeper Andrew Rick. ADVERTISEMENT The 2022 World Cup winner then set up the Herons' last-gasp equalizer deep in second half stoppage time, with substitute Telasco Segovia taking Messi's pass at the top of the box and firing the ball past a helpless Rick. It was the proverbial tie that felt like a win for the guests, but the single point was a vital one for Javier Mascherano's side — even if Miami's first-year coach has to be concerned that his team conceded three times at Subaru Park. Inter's defense has been porous all season and especially lately: just four of MLS's 30 franchises have allowed more goals than Miami's 24 so far. Messi & Co. won't have to wait long for their next chance to put those defensive issues right and earn a much-needed win, though. Miami returns to league play on Wednesday, when the Herons host Eastern Conference cellar-dwellers CF Montreal at Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Montreal has just one win in 2025. After that match, the Herons have just one more MLS game before taking a mid-season break to participate in FIFA's expanded Club World Cup. Miami kicks off that competition on June 14 against Egypt's Al Ahly at Hard Rock Stadium, home of the NFL's Miami Dolphins. Doug McIntyre is a soccer reporter for FOX Sports who has covered United States men's and women's national teams at FIFA World Cups on five continents. Follow him @ ByDougMcIntyre . share Get more from Lionel Messi Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more
Economic Times
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Economic Times
AI warfare is here: How intelligent drones Harop and Heron fronted India's Operation Sindoor
Agencies Representative image As we enter the age of artificial intelligence (AI), even wars seem to be becoming AI-first. India's Operation Sindoor onslaught was fronted by intelligent drones, with high-tech Harops and Herons having the ability to loiter, manoeuvre and choose their targets intelligently. Ukraine has managed to stay in the game against powerful conventional Russian forces through jerryrigged autonomous and AI-guided drones, with small, first-personview (FPV) attack drones, guided by algorithms, destroying more Russian armour than any other weapon category. Meanwhile, in Gaza, the Israelis have used advanced algorithms, code-named The Gospel and Lavender, to sift intelligence and suggest targets in real time. In 2020, a Turkish-made Kargu-2 attack drone may have autonomously hunted down fighters in Libya without human orders— possibly the first lethal strike by a truly autonomous weapon. In our imagination, AI warfare is about ar mies of futuristic Terminator robots marching in tandem as they go to war; in reality, the age of AI warfare has already begun. As with everything with war and AI, this kind of warfare using lethal autonomous weapons (LAWs) poses disconcerting questions. LAWs are machines that can identify, select and kill targets without human intervention. Unlike nuclear weapons, these systems are relatively cheap, scalable and hard to control once unleashed. The level of human control can vary, from 'human-in-the-loop' systems requiring authorisation for engagement , to 'human-on-the-loop' where a human can override autonomous actions, and finally 'humanout-of-the-loop' systems operating without any human involvement post-activation. This possibility of a new kind of war, where a machine makes lifeand-death decisions, has spurred further calls at the UN to ban such weapons. There are fears among ethicists and human rights bodies of accidental escalation, loss of accountability, or full-scale 'drone wars' with no human restraint. Clearly, nations are not on the same page, as furious development continues among major powers that see military gains in letting AI take the reins. AI warfare has gone beyond tactical advantages to established policy, with the Chinese military doctrine explicitly mentioning 'intelligentised warfare' as its future. While the notion of LAWs and AI warfare is horrific, this article deliberately steps beyond the familiar 'ban or regulate' discourse to explore a few contrarian and counterintuitive views that argue AI could perhaps make war more humane. One counterintuitive argument is that outsourcing war to machines could save human lives. If robots can shoulder the most dangerous tasks, human soldiers stay out of harm's way. Maybe it is better to send a disposable machine into a kill-zone to fight another machine, than a young soldier trying to kill another? Recent conflicts hint at this lifesaving potential: Azerbaijan's victory over Armenia in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, for example, was achieved largely through superior drones, greatly reducing its own casualties. This could potentially usher in an era of 'boutique wars' or persistent, low-intensity conflicts waged primarily by AI systems, flying below the threshold that typically triggers major international intervention. This sounds tempting but has the downside of making war 'risk-free' for the side that has more of these killer machines, making leaders grow more willing to launch military adventures. A second contrarian idea is that AI might make warfare more ethical by improving precision. Most militaries already try to minimise collateral damage, as India has been trying to do in Operation Sindoor. AI tools could make 'surgical' strikes even sharper. Human soldiers, despite their valour, are prone to error, fatigue and emotion. AI systems, theoretically, can be trained to avoid civilian zones, assess threats more accurately and stop operations when rules of engagement are violated. Theoretically, an autonomous AI system can be programmed to never fire at a school or a hospital, and it will emotionlessly obey this every single time. Imagine an AI drone that aborts a strike mid-flight because an ambulance enters the frame, something a human pilot might miss in the fog of war. Even the Red Cross has acknowledged that AI-enabled decision support systems 'may enable better decisions by humans… minimising risks for civilians'. The notion of a 'clean war' enabled by AI precision can be a doubleedged sword. The same Israeli AI system that identified militants in Gaza also churned out algorithmic killlists with minimal human review. If flawed data or biased algorithms mislabel a civilian as a threat, an AI could kill innocents with ruthless efficiency. AI can enhance compliance with the laws of war, but it cannot substitute for human judgment. Operation Sindoor has highlighted the danger of misinformation and deepfakes being peddled by mainstream media. AI could change this. Autonomous systems log everything—location data, video footage, target decisions—opening up the possibility of 'algorithmic accountability', with every strike audited, and every action justified, or condemned. Perhaps the most novel contrarian view is expressed in a recent paper 'Superintelligence Strategy: Expert Version' by Eric Schmidt and others, where they borrowed from the Cold War nuclear deterrent of MAD or Mutually Assured Destruction, to propose the concept of MAIM or Mutual Assured AI Malfunction. The idea is that as AI becomes core to military systems, nations may hesitate to strike each other, because attacking one AI system could cause unpredictable ripple effects across both sides. The inherent vulnerability of complex AI systems to sabotage—through cyberattacks, degradation of training data, or even kinetic strikes on critical infrastructure like data centres—creates a de facto state of mutual restraint among AI superpowers. MAIM flips the script on dystopia: instead of AI dooming us, the mutual fear of runaway AI could keep rival powers' aggressive instincts in check. It does seem surreal to discuss how AI could actually make war more humane, if there is such a thing, rather than making it even more horrific than ever. The contrarian perspectives above challenge our instincts, and many would recoil at the idea of killer robots marching in. However, with so much of it becoming reality, we can no longer avoid these questions. We can choose to look at this with horrific pessimism or take a glass half-full approach that technology guided by human values might make future wars less inhuman. Everything, they say, is fair in love and war, and that everything might soon include artificial intelligence.
Time of India
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
AI warfare is here: How intelligent drones Harop and Heron fronted India's Operation Sindoor
As we enter the age of artificial intelligence (AI), even wars seem to be becoming AI-first. India's Operation Sindoor onslaught was fronted by intelligent drones, with high-tech Harops and Herons having the ability to loiter, manoeuvre and choose their targets intelligently. Ukraine has managed to stay in the game against powerful conventional Russian forces through jerryrigged autonomous and AI-guided drones, with small, first-personview (FPV) attack drones, guided by algorithms, destroying more Russian armour than any other weapon category. Meanwhile, in Gaza, the Israelis have used advanced algorithms, code-named The Gospel and Lavender, to sift intelligence and suggest targets in real time. In 2020, a Turkish-made Kargu-2 attack drone may have autonomously hunted down fighters in Libya without human orders— possibly the first lethal strike by a truly autonomous weapon. In our imagination, AI warfare is about ar mies of futuristic Terminator robots marching in tandem as they go to war; in reality, the age of AI warfare has already begun. As with everything with war and AI, this kind of warfare using lethal autonomous weapons (LAWs) poses disconcerting questions. LAWs are machines that can identify, select and kill targets without human intervention. Unlike nuclear weapons, these systems are relatively cheap, scalable and hard to control once unleashed. The level of human control can vary, from 'human-in-the-loop' systems requiring authorisation for engagement , to 'human-on-the-loop' where a human can override autonomous actions, and finally 'humanout-of-the-loop' systems operating without any human involvement post-activation. This possibility of a new kind of war, where a machine makes lifeand-death decisions, has spurred further calls at the UN to ban such weapons. Live Events There are fears among ethicists and human rights bodies of accidental escalation, loss of accountability, or full-scale 'drone wars' with no human restraint. Clearly, nations are not on the same page, as furious development continues among major powers that see military gains in letting AI take the reins. AI warfare has gone beyond tactical advantages to established policy, with the Chinese military doctrine explicitly mentioning 'intelligentised warfare' as its future. While the notion of LAWs and AI warfare is horrific, this article deliberately steps beyond the familiar 'ban or regulate' discourse to explore a few contrarian and counterintuitive views that argue AI could perhaps make war more humane. Can it save human lives? One counterintuitive argument is that outsourcing war to machines could save human lives. If robots can shoulder the most dangerous tasks, human soldiers stay out of harm's way. Maybe it is better to send a disposable machine into a kill-zone to fight another machine, than a young soldier trying to kill another? Recent conflicts hint at this lifesaving potential: Azerbaijan's victory over Armenia in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, for example, was achieved largely through superior drones, greatly reducing its own casualties. This could potentially usher in an era of 'boutique wars' or persistent, low-intensity conflicts waged primarily by AI systems, flying below the threshold that typically triggers major international intervention. This sounds tempting but has the downside of making war 'risk-free' for the side that has more of these killer machines, making leaders grow more willing to launch military adventures. Can it make warfare more ethical & precise? A second contrarian idea is that AI might make warfare more ethical by improving precision. Most militaries already try to minimise collateral damage, as India has been trying to do in Operation Sindoor. AI tools could make 'surgical' strikes even sharper. Human soldiers, despite their valour, are prone to error, fatigue and emotion. AI systems, theoretically, can be trained to avoid civilian zones, assess threats more accurately and stop operations when rules of engagement are violated. Theoretically, an autonomous AI system can be programmed to never fire at a school or a hospital, and it will emotionlessly obey this every single time. Imagine an AI drone that aborts a strike mid-flight because an ambulance enters the frame, something a human pilot might miss in the fog of war. Even the Red Cross has acknowledged that AI-enabled decision support systems 'may enable better decisions by humans… minimising risks for civilians'. The notion of a 'clean war' enabled by AI precision can be a doubleedged sword. The same Israeli AI system that identified militants in Gaza also churned out algorithmic killlists with minimal human review. If flawed data or biased algorithms mislabel a civilian as a threat, an AI could kill innocents with ruthless efficiency. AI can enhance compliance with the laws of war, but it cannot substitute for human judgment. Can it make war transparent? Operation Sindoor has highlighted the danger of misinformation and deepfakes being peddled by mainstream media. AI could change this. Autonomous systems log everything—location data, video footage, target decisions—opening up the possibility of 'algorithmic accountability', with every strike audited, and every action justified, or condemned. Can it be a new deterrent? Perhaps the most novel contrarian view is expressed in a recent paper 'Superintelligence Strategy: Expert Version' by Eric Schmidt and others, where they borrowed from the Cold War nuclear deterrent of MAD or Mutually Assured Destruction, to propose the concept of MAIM or Mutual Assured AI Malfunction. The idea is that as AI becomes core to military systems, nations may hesitate to strike each other, because attacking one AI system could cause unpredictable ripple effects across both sides. The inherent vulnerability of complex AI systems to sabotage—through cyberattacks, degradation of training data, or even kinetic strikes on critical infrastructure like data centres—creates a de facto state of mutual restraint among AI superpowers. MAIM flips the script on dystopia: instead of AI dooming us, the mutual fear of runaway AI could keep rival powers' aggressive instincts in check. It does seem surreal to discuss how AI could actually make war more humane, if there is such a thing, rather than making it even more horrific than ever. The contrarian perspectives above challenge our instincts, and many would recoil at the idea of killer robots marching in. However, with so much of it becoming reality, we can no longer avoid these questions. We can choose to look at this with horrific pessimism or take a glass half-full approach that technology guided by human values might make future wars less inhuman. Everything, they say, is fair in love and war, and that everything might soon include artificial intelligence.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Lionel Messi Suffers Worst Loss of Inter Miami Career
For a few minutes in the second half of Inter Miami CF's MLS match against Minnesota United FC on Saturday, there was hope. Trailing 2-0 at halftime, Inter Miami captain Lionel Messi combined with one of his trusted teammates Jordi Alba for a goal that cut the deficit to 2-1 in the 48th minute. Advertisement From there, it all came crashing down. In the 68th minute, Marcelo Weigandt's inexplicable own goal put the writing on the wall for the Herons. Minnesota's Robin Lod landed the final blow two minutes later, putting the Loons up 4-1. It was hard to imagine things getting worse for Inter Miami after a crushing CONCACAF Champions Cup semifinal defeat to Vancouver Whitecaps, but the loss in Minnesota proved it was possible. When the 90 minutes was up, Messi's goal could not save his team from the lopsided 4-1 defeat that went down as the worst scoreline of any game he has played since joining the club in July 2023. Advertisement It was only the eighth loss in Messi's 53 appearances for IMCF across all competitions. Previously, the worst scorelines with the Argentinian World Cup winner on the pitch were 3-1 defeats to Vancouver in 2025 (Champions Cup), Monterrey in 2024 (Champions Cup) and Atlanta United in 2024 (MLS regular season). Inter Miami forward Lionel Messi (10) looks on during the first half against Minnesota United at Allianz Hemmelgarn-Imagn Images In those 53 games, Messi has tallied 43 goals and 21 assists. He has lifted the 2023 Leagues Cup, the 2024 MLS Supporters' Shield and the 2024 MLS MVP award along the way. One can imagine how much a rare three-goal loss stings for Messi, considering he sulked off the field after a 4-1 win last weekend against New York Red Bulls — a frustration head coach Javier Mascherano attributed to "his level of demand, not only with himself but with all around him.' The result against Minnesota made it two losses in the last three league games — and four out of five in all competitions — for Inter Miami after an undefeated start through eight matches. Advertisement The Herons are fourth in the Eastern Conference standings with 21 points. It is a quick turnaround before another MLS away match on Wednesday night against the San Jose Earthquakes. Related: Lionel Messi's Issue With Inter Miami Teammates Revealed Related: Lionel Messi's Behavior Toward Inter Miami Fan Draws Strong Reaction
