Latest news with #Raines'
Perth Now
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
Beloved YouTube star dies after relentless bullying, aged 29
YouTube star Mikayla Raines has died by suicide, aged 29, amid 'relentless' online bullying, her family said. Raines, who had 2.4 million followers on YouTube, rose to fame with her non-profit organisation, Save A Fox, which seeks to rescue foxes and exotic wildlife. The popular social media star's family announcement her death on Facebook, with her husband, Ethan, saying she was relentlessly bullied prior to her tragic death. 'They spread false rumours and, being the sensitive person she was, it deeply affected her,' he wrote. 'She tried for years to push through the pain, but this time it was too much.' Raines' husband slammed people's 'rude words, accusations and name-calling', claiming 'all of this stems from jealousy and envy'. YouTube star Mikayla Raines has died, aged 29, following relentless bullying online. Credit: Instagram He said his wife was suffering from severe mental health challenges, including depression, autism and borderline personality disorder. 'As many of you know, she was on the autism spectrum and, while that made her life very difficult, it allowed her to hyperfocus on one thing and that one thing was, obviously, animals,' he said. 'From a young age she dedicated every waking hour of her life to helping them, whether it was helping a snapping turtle cross the road or saving 500 foxes from a terrible fur farm. 'She was never in it for the fame or money.' Raines' husband vowed to continue her legacy. Raines' devastated husband Ethan paid tribute to her. Credit: Instagram Save A Fox has become one of the biggest fox rescue organisations in America. 'Mikayla's light was obviously too bright for this world,' one follower wrote. 'She was a remarkable inspiration to myself and so many others. Save A Fox will always have my unwavering love, support and respect. For those that dimmed her light may you have the day you all deserve!' Yet another wrote their condolences: 'Oh Mikayla. You were such a special person. My heart is hurting.' If you need help in a crisis, call Lifeline on 13 11 14. For further information about depression contact Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636 or talk to your GP, local health professional or someone you trust. Kids Helpline can also be contacted on 1800 55 1800 for support for young people aged 5 to 25.
Express Tribune
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Overwatch 2 fans mourn SaveAFox's Mikayla Raines after tragic death
The Overwatch 2 community is mourning the death of Mikayla Raines, the founder of SaveAFox Rescue, following confirmation that she died by suicide in June after experiencing prolonged online harassment. Raines' husband, Ethan Raines, shared the news in an emotional video posted to their YouTube channel, explaining how years of online bullying took a toll on her mental health. 'She pushed through for so long, but this time, it went too far,' he said. Mikayla Raines founded SaveAFox in 2017 at age 20. Based in Minnesota, the organization has rescued over 150 foxes from fur farms, giving them a second chance at life. Following her passing, Overwatch 2 fans rediscovered a 2024 Facebook post from SaveAFox, revealing that Blizzard Entertainment had recorded the vocalizations of Raines' foxes for the character Kiriko's fox spirit. 'Blizzard brought a sound crew and recorded our foxes overnight,' the post read. The team also made a charitable donation to the rescue. Mikayla Raines has passed away 🕊️ With a deep commitment to rescued foxes, Mikayla created @SaveAFox_rescue, where their sounds were used for Kiriko's spirit fox in Overwatch 2. Rest in peace, Mikayla 🖤 — Overwatch Cavalry (@OWCavalry) June 25, 2025 We lost a true hero, a beacon of hope, an inspiration, and a beloved person. She helped save thousands of animals, especially foxes. What happened to her was cruel and truly heartbreaking, and she will be missed Rest in peace Mikayla Raines#saveafox — KamiKitsune VA (@Prussian_Kami) June 23, 2025 The revelation brought renewed attention to Raines' work, with fans calling for Blizzard to create a tribute in-game—suggestions range from a Kiriko charm to a memorial monument. Blizzard has not yet publicly addressed Raines' death or potential tributes. Meanwhile, players continue to share tributes and express grief over the loss of a beloved figure whose animals helped bring a key game character to life. If you or someone you know is struggling, contact mental health support services in your region.
7NEWS
a day ago
- 7NEWS
YouTube star Mikayla Raines dies after relentless bullying, aged 29
YouTube star Mikayla Raines has died by suicide, aged 29, amid 'relentless' online bullying, her family said. Raines, who had 2.4 million followers on YouTube, rose to fame with her non-profit organisation, Save A Fox, which seeks to rescue foxes and exotic wildlife. The popular social media star's family announcement her death on Facebook, with her husband, Ethan, saying she was relentlessly bullied prior to her tragic death. 'They spread false rumours and, being the sensitive person she was, it deeply affected her,' he wrote. 'She tried for years to push through the pain, but this time it was too much.' Raines' husband slammed people's 'rude words, accusations and name-calling', claiming 'all of this stems from jealousy and envy'. He said his wife was suffering from severe mental health challenges, including depression, autism and borderline personality disorder. 'As many of you know, she was on the autism spectrum and, while that made her life very difficult, it allowed her to hyperfocus on one thing and that one thing was, obviously, animals,' he said. 'From a young age she dedicated every waking hour of her life to helping them, whether it was helping a snapping turtle cross the road or saving 500 foxes from a terrible fur farm. 'She was never in it for the fame or money.' Raines' husband vowed to continue her legacy. Save A Fox has become one of the biggest fox rescue organisations in America. 'Mikayla's light was obviously too bright for this world,' one follower wrote. 'She was a remarkable inspiration to myself and so many others. Save A Fox will always have my unwavering love, support and respect. For those that dimmed her light may you have the day you all deserve!' Yet another wrote their condolences: 'Oh Mikayla. You were such a special person. My heart is hurting.' If you need help in a crisis, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
WIRED
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- WIRED
Dating Apps Are Using Roleplaying Games to Fix Your Rizz
Apr 30, 2025 5:14 PM Tinder, Hinge, Bumble, and Grindr are rolling out scenario-based training, AI, and other tools to address their users' lack of romantic experience. Photo-Illustration:In September 2023, Adam Raines made a Reddit post revealing what feels like a near-universal problem for singles: his dating app conversations are painfully boring. Attached to the post, titled 'Sometimes, texting on dating apps feelings (sic) like hitting your head against a brick wall,' is a screenshot of a bone-dry Tinder conversation between himself and one of his matches, in which Raines' curiosity is met with short, dead-ended answers. 'The vast majority of my online dating interactions have been like that,' says Raines, 25, a gay man living in the UK who asked to use a pseudonym to protect his privacy. Many users in the thread echoed his sentiment and offered explanations or theories as to why conversations on dating apps are often unsatisfying. 'I see I'm not the only one getting that type of energy lol,' one wrote, as another noted, 'It sucks, and if people swiped more mindfully this wouldn't happen, but a lot of guys are so beaten down by the dating app experience they feel like they don't have any other choice and want whatever validation they can get.' People are sick of dating apps; chatting feels like a chore, most conversations lead nowhere, and the novelty of swiping has worn off. Attempts to identify the apps' critical flaws and theorize about how the profit incentive has run the user experience into the ground have proliferated over the past few years: desirable potential matches are locked behind paywalls, matches and likes are limited. But some of the most ubiquitous dating apps seem to be suggesting the problem may not be solved with better UX, algorithms, or paywalls—but by users learning how to actually talk to people. Tinder, Hinge, Bumble, and Grindr are all rolling out features aimed at helping people court romantic partners and banter more successfully, suggesting an industry-wide reckoning with young users' lack of dating experience. 'We can't solve for the fact that human interactions can be stressful or people may be apprehensive about them at times, but we can help make it more fun and we can help you prepare,' Hillary Paine, Tinder's VP of product growth and revenue, tells WIRED. A study from The Survey Center on American Life found that only 56 percent of Gen Z adults said they were involved in a romantic relationship as teenagers, compared to 78 percent of baby boomers and 76 percent of gen Xers. In a 2024 report, Hinge found that its Gen Z users in particular struggle in dating, and many of them attribute their unease in dating to the pandemic: they were 47 percent more likely than millennial users to say the pandemic made them nervous talking to new people, and 25 percent more likely to say it lowered their confidence on a first date. In March, Tinder partnered with OpenAI to launch 'The Game Game,' which drops users into hyperspecific scenarios that have the potential to become flirtatious. An AI-generated voice begins flirting with you and you—the user—are prompted to respond back via your own voice. I'm given the following scenario: I'm at a friend's housewarming party and accidentally break a vase that turns out was a gift for the host brought by 35-year-old Caleb, a financial analyst from Annapolis, Maryland. 'How will you handle this?' the screen reads. After responding to Caleb—a very eager robot with a deep voice who called me 'hon' in nearly every sentence—with one-word answers that indicated my discomfort with seducing a computer, Tinder suggests that I 'engage more in shared interests,' 'provide more details about your hobbies,' and 'show enthusiasm in the conversation.' Announcement of the game was met with scorn by some social media users. 'This is the saddest thing I've ever seen,' one person posted on X, while another said, 'I already know I don't have game. I don't need ai to confirm it for me.' 'This was really meant to be sort of fun and campy,' says Paine, describing the prompts presented as 'intentionally over the top rom-com scenarios.' According to Paine, internal research that informed this new feature indicated that one in four young daters said they lacked confidence in their flirting skills. 'We built it as a way to give users a fun, safe playground to practice flirting so that they could go into real life connections and scenarios with more confidence.' The Game Game is targeting daters between the ages of 18 and 22, not only because of their shortcomings in dating, but because they expressed a willingness to allow AI into their dating experience, she says. Raines says he's 'not hopeful' that a bot's language models 'are robust and realistic enough to properly simulate, or 'teach', online flirting.' While flirtations between humans and chatbots are becoming increasingly controversial, Tinder is framing its use of interactive AI as an aid to, rather than a force in conflict with, real-life dating. Tinder will analyze how its members use the feature to determine the future of voice-to-voice interactions on the app. AI is 'a really big part of Tinder's roadmap,' Paine says. Tinder is not alone in that. Grindr has been testing a beta version of an AI wingman that can craft witty messages for users; the app is partnering with Amazon and Anthropic to for wingman's A-list features, which will be able to prioritize past connections and summarize conversations, Bloomberg reported Wednesday. Real life dating experts are also addressing their clients' lack of rizz—and anxieties around talking to strangers. 'Men really hate the apps right now and they're wanting to do a more in-person approach, but it's really scary because people don't know what to say,' says Emyli Lovz, who runs a dating and relationship coaching business. Her company offers not only human-to-human conversation practice, but full-fledged mock dates to help improve clients' skills in conversation, flirting, and sexual escalation. She attributes the phenomenon to the fallout of COVID-related social isolation but says some of her male clients also express a fear of coming off as 'creepy.' 'I know the guys in my community love being able to practice their conversation skills in a judgment free environment where someone's just going to give them feedback.' Flirting via the apps, on the other hand, poses an entirely new challenge: making your pickup line stand out among a sea of generic introductions. 'Everybody wants to say 'Hi, hey, what's up, cutie?' It becomes totally meaningless, even though that's what you could say in person easily,' Lovz tells WIRED. 'It doesn't work on the apps because there are so many people on them that if you get that message a million times as a woman, you're like, 'Please don't ever send me that message again.' So there's a lot of coaching that could happen around the messages.' According to Hinge, part of Gen Z's hesitancy in flirting with new people comes from a fear of coming off as 'cringey' or 'overeager.' But the app's Love and Connections expert Ari Brown recommends younger users 'embrace Cringe Mode' by 'doing something that requires vulnerability or risking rejection.' In March, as part of its 'One More Hour' campaign which encourages members of Gen Z to engage in more in-person interactions, Hinge released its guide to building connections, a step-by-step guide to starting and escalating both romantic and nonromantic relationships, which includes fill-in-the-blank suggestions to help users build momentum after meeting someone in person: 'Hey friend! It was great meeting you at (social group). You mentioned that you like (insert activity). I love that too. Want to go together this weekend?,' reads one prompt. Bumble's Instant Match, meanwhile, claims it eliminates the need for 'awkward exchanges,' by allowing users to match with one another by scanning users' QR codes out in the wild. The feature, which the app says is primarily intended to serve attendees of Bumble's 'IRL' events, lets users skip the banter typical of a meet-cute by providing the two participants with a list of their shared interests, theoretically helping them more efficiently determine their compatibility. While Instant Match seems to tacitly acknowledge that Bumble's users struggle with small talk, it's not clear how it would help them improve on that front. As apps like Tinder, Hinge, Bumble, and Grindr realize that a userbase of socially inept daters is making them look bad, a larger push to catch younger daters up on basic conversational skills (or eliminate the need for them) might be inevitable. But whether the tools on offer are actually useful remains to be seen. In the two years since his Reddit post seeking advice, Raines says he hasn't met up with anyone from the apps. Though he still struggles to converse with potential mates online, he's not convinced AI-based features in particular offer a long-term solution. 'There is perhaps a benefit in helping people who are unsuccessful feel less alone, maybe? Boosting their confidence? But in improving the dating app experience in any marked way? No.'
Miami Herald
06-03-2025
- Miami Herald
Executive stole $6.7M meant for injured babies, ‘lived lavishly' in Virginia, feds say
A Virginia man, the former executive of a program providing millions in state child benefits to families, stole more than $6.7 million meant to help babies injured during birth, federal prosecutors said. John Hunter Raines 'lived lavishly' with the money he embezzled from the Virginia Birth-Related Neurological Injury Compensation Program's bank account, according to prosecutors. As the program's chief financial officer and deputy director, Raines wired the program's funds to himself in at least 59 transactions from January 2022 through October 2023, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. The Birth-Injury Program helps families care for children with birth-related neurological injuries, including by compensating them for their children's medical and rehabilitation expenses. Raines 'used his sensitive position of trust to steal millions of dollars designated for physically and intellectually disabled children — all so that Raines could fund an extravagant, private-jet-setting lifestyle for roughly 21 months,' prosecutors wrote in court filings ahead of Raines' March 5 sentencing hearing. With the money, Raines spent more than $125,000 on private jet travels with his wife and friends, spent over $9,000 on private limousine services, used more than $100,000 for gambling and paid off various loan debts, according to prosecutors. He also spent thousands on vehicles, luxury golf carts and cryptocurrency and paid 'at least $29,000 to an intimate partner' as well as tens of thousands of dollars to his wife's bank account, prosecutors said. A federal judge sentenced Raines, 38, of Providence Forge, to nine years in prison on March 5 on mail fraud and money laundering charges, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a news release. He pleaded guilty to the offenses in October, according to prosecutors, McClatchy News previously reported. Raines' defense attorney, William Benjamin Mann, didn't immediately return McClatchy News' request for comment March 6. Mann previously told McClatchy News that Raines 'takes full responsibility for his actions and will continue to seek treatment for the addictions that contributed to his offenses.' As an executive of the Birth-Injury Program, Raines was responsible for the program's finances and about $650 million in investments in 2023, prosecutors said. 'It is easy to cast Raines' crimes off as a fraud on an abstract program while losing sight of what the money he stole represents,' prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum. 'The $6.7 million Mr. Raines stole would have been invested and paid out for claims in the future.' 'Selfish greed' In the sentencing memorandum, prosecutors mentioned a few ways the money could've been used to support families. The money could've paid for about 79 wheelchair-accessible medical vans, which cost an estimated $85,000 each, according to prosecutors. It also could've covered expenses to outside caregivers for more than 270,000 hours of child care, prosecutors said. While stealing from the program, Raines intentionally delayed audits, according to prosecutors. Under state law, an independent certified accountant was supposed to conduct an audit of the program's accounts every fiscal year, prosecutors said. He stole the money 'for his own selfish greed,' prosecutors wrote in the sentencing memorandum. Raines 'made direct cash payments to his own brokerage accounts as well as to the accounts of his wife and his mistress' and 'squandered the Birth-Injury Program's money at Rivers Casino, Virginia Lottery, and Colonial Downs Racetrack,' prosecutors said. Raines also spent more than $19,000 on eight gold coins and a 100-oz silver bar, according to prosecutors. 'A heinous crime' In the courtroom on March 5, Raines apologized to families who attended the hearing and said he struggled with gambling and alcohol addiction, WTVR-TV reported. The father of a 4-year-old son who's a beneficiary of the Birth-Injury Program told the TV station: 'It's a heinous crime and I was shocked.' The program didn't immediately respond to McClatchy News' request for comment March 6. Ahead of sentencing, prosecutors credited Raines for pleading guilty as part of a pre-indictment resolution, the sentencing memorandum shows. However, they also noted that Raines has his own children who've experienced health struggles. 'Raines' own experiences raising children with health challenges should have given him empathy for the plight of sick and injured children,' they wrote in the sentencing memorandum. 'Instead, Raines made the deliberate choice time and time again, over the course of at least 21 months, to steal from other peoples' sick and injured kids.' Providence Forge is about a 25-mile drive southeast from Richmond.
