Traitors Maya Jama exit ‘sealed’ at hands of EastEnders legend Ross Kemp

Maya Jama could be about to exit The Celebrity Traitors after making a plan for the latest murder game and viewers of the BBC show think she has been ‘too obvious’ with her tactics

Maya Jama could be about to exit The Celebrity Traitors after being “too obvious” in front of a Faithful.

The Love Island host, 30, is currently taking part in the hit BBC game show as a Traitor fronted by Claudia Winkleman and in Friday night’s episode, she had to join in with a yawning game. The challenge, which left all three of the Traitors feeling the pressure, was to get either of Faithfuls, Jerry Hall or Ross Kemp, to yawn in a specific room after spraying some “deadly sleeping powder” from a perfume bottle, which would be breathed in.

Reading out the instructions in disbelief, comedian James Acaster said: “To seal the murder you must then say, ’Am I boring you?’ – followed by the victim’s name. I can’t believe this.”

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Viewers will have to wait until next Thursday to find out who will be leaving the castle for good, but fans think that Maya could be up for the chop after making the apparent mistake of inviting EastEnders legend Ross into the mix, having decided that the only way to instigate the murder was to start up some contagious yawning.

But many viewers think this strategy will backfire on Maya, as her pretend yawning was deemed “too obvious” and think she could be rumbled as a Traitor immediately if not careful.

One person wrote on X: “Ross Kemp was the last person the Traitors should have encouraged into the room. He will be all over this ‘murder in plain sight’. Captain’s hat anyone?” A third wrote: “Ross clocking Maya’s GCSE drama yawning.” A fourth said: “So you’re telling me Ross was freaking out about every possible evidence of murder at the beginning and now he’s sitting in a room full of yawning traitors, possibly not suspecting a thing.”

A fifth added: “This yawning task is too obvious in front of Ross Kemp.” Another wrote: “Maya Jama’s yawning was more obvious than Richard E Grant saying he was a traitor.”

Meanwhile, Clare Balding, who competed on the first series, said she thinks the best thing for the Traitors is if Ross yawns. Believe me, if Jerry yawns and Jerry goes, Ross will notice,” she said on Uncloaked.

However, other fans had just taken umbrage with the fact they will now have to wait to find out what happens next. One fan said: “NOOOOOOOOOOOO You cant leave on that cliffhanger, the producers are just geniuses. I think the Traitors FAILED to Get them to yawn in the Time…. AND they will be punished in some way IMO!!”

Another wrote: “10 million people are now going to have a tense wait of 6 days to find out whether Ross Kemp or Jerry Hall yawn first. Now thats a TV cliffhanger.”

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Can Yemen’s government forces sustain their offensive against the Houthis? | Conflict News

Sanaa, Yemen – A missile fired by Yemen’s Houthi group, also known as Ansar Allah, streaks across the sky over Sanaa at midday, leaving a trail of smoke behind it.

Its intended target is unclear. It could have been a site in Saudi Arabia or territory to the south and east held by Yemen’s internationally recognised government. For people in northern Yemen, missile launches have become a familiar sight.

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On Thursday, at least five people were killed near the al-Maashiq presidential palace in Aden after Houthi missile strikes. Yemeni Prime Minister Shaya al-Zindani was present at the palace at the time of the attack, but was unharmed.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the attack targeted an operational headquarters, part of its campaign against Saudi-backed fighters and equipment supporting the internationally recognised government in Aden.

Frequent Houthi missile attacks – combined with the Iranian-backed group’s territorial gains around the city of Taiz in southwestern Yemen – have severed key supply routes and threatened other roads, ports, and airports that government forces rely on for supplies.

The disruptions could undermine the government’s Dawn of Yemen operation, which aims to recapture territory held by the Houthi group. This includes the capital, Sanaa, which the Houthis seized at the start of the war in 2014.

Government officials, however, say supply issues will not halt the offensive, emphasising that their forces can overcome logistical challenges.

“The Houthi group consistently attempts to sever supply lines to government forces, but they have been unable to halt these supplies. So, military operations against the Houthis will continue,” Colonel Wadah al-Dubaish, spokesperson for the government-aligned Joint Forces on Yemen’s West Coast, told Al Jazeera.

But losses to the Houthis over the past few months have been damaging to the government.

A rapid Houthi advance south along the Red Sea coast in early September captured Mocha, a port on the Red Sea coast and a key supply hub for pro-government forces in western Taiz governorate.

A government counter-offensive reclaimed some of the territory lost in the southern Red Sea coast region, but not Mocha itself, which continues to be in Houthi hands.

Houthi attacks and ground advances, al-Dubaish said, may delay the delivery of supplies to government military forces or increase the cost of delivering supplies to certain fronts.

“However, they cannot stop the flow of supplies because the air, land and sea routes are still available, allowing supplies to continue reaching the front lines,” he said.

But the situation in the city of Taiz illustrates the limits of that logistical flexibility. Houthi forces have cut the main road connecting the city to Aden, the seat of the internationally recognised government. Alternative routes through the surrounding mountains have also been disrupted, leaving Taiz effectively besieged.

The consequences are already being felt. Fuel shortages and soaring prices have affected Taiz since the latest Houthi advances, with the cost of petrol tripling last week.

The loss of vital supply routes also threatens the government’s ability to deliver ammunition, reinforcements and other essential supplies to its troops, even as they face heavy and sustained Houthi attacks.

Al-Dubaish argued, however, that there are always advances and retreats in war, and that losing one battle does not mean losing the conflict as a whole.

“The war is still ongoing and will not cease until the Houthis are defeated,” he said.

‘Logistical flexibility’

Yemeni government forces are currently fighting the Houthis on several fronts in Yemen, including the southern Red Sea coast, around Taiz city, and in Marib and al-Jawf east of Sanaa.

Faisal al-Majidi, Yemen’s deputy minister of justice, told Al Jazeera that government forces rely on “logistical flexibility and decentralisation” to secure supply lines across the country.

“This approach involves dividing supply routes into semi-autonomous sectors, supported by nearby access points and key supply hubs – such as Shabwa, Marib, Houthi-free areas in Taiz, the Red Sea coast, and the southern governorates,” al-Majidi said.

Such an approach, he noted, mitigates the difficulties of moving between widely separated front lines.

“Furthermore, government forces have been fighting for the control of high points overlooking major roads to help protect vital supply arteries from bombardment,” al-Majidi added.

Among the areas pro-government forces have focused on is the strategic mountainous district of al-Waziiya in Taiz governorate, which overlooks the Red Sea coast and could also be a launching pad to relieve the siege on Taiz city from its western approaches. Fighting with the Houthis in al-Waziiya continues.

The Saudi role

Saudi Arabia has stepped up its support for the Yemeni government and allied forces since the launch of Dawn of Yemen, acknowledging airstrikes against Houthi forces in the country for the first time since a 2022 truce. Riyadh first intervened in the conflict in Yemen in 2015 in an effort to restore the Yemeni government to Sanaa.

Al-Dubaish said the Saudi military role is a pivotal and indispensable source of support for Yemeni government forces.

“Saudi support is a decisive factor in the conflict. Without Saudi Arabia, it would be a huge challenge for the Yemeni government to confront the Houthis, who possess advanced military capabilities – such as ballistic and cruise missiles supplied by Iran – along with a large pool of fighters,” said al-Dubaish.

The Saudi-led coalition has said airstrikes have destroyed hundreds of high-value targets since early October.

Al-Majidi described the Saudi air support as a “strategic balancer” and a vital pillar of the Dawn of Yemen operation.

“The Saudi role centres on providing direct cover for ground forces and, more importantly, neutralising the reinforcements of the [Houthis], as well as targeting missile and drone launch platforms – thereby mitigating their destructive impact,” he said.

The Saudi-led coalition has previously airdropped weapons and ammunition to pro-government fighters in Taiz when it was besieged in the early years of the war, but there have been no reports of similar operations since the latest siege began this month.

Coordination: The litmus test

Saudi Arabia is also vital for what may be an even more important task: uniting an anti-Houthi side that remains divided with disjointed command structures.

Al-Dubaish said that poor coordination among military units remains a significant challenge.

“The coordination problem stems from the presence of multiple military units operating under different command structures,” he added. “This fragmentation is not in the best interest of the forces fighting the Houthis.”

The government’s loss of the Red Sea coast in September was partly the result of faulty coordination among anti-Houthi forces, who appeared unable to respond quickly to the Houthi advance.

That was despite messaging from the Yemeni government since the start of the year that anti-Houthi forces were operating under a unified command structure, after the defeat of separatist Southern Transitional Council forces – who had been backed by the United Arab Emirates – at the start of the year.

“The coordination among various field forces … remains the true litmus test for the success of the Dawn of Yemen operation,” said al-Majidi.

Adnan al-Jabarni, a Yemeni researcher specialising in military affairs, told Al Jazeera that the level of coordination among government forces is improving.

“These forces are currently testing their coordination, given that they only began to operate under a unified structure – following the withdrawal of the UAE from Yemen and the formation of the Supreme Military Committee (SMC), which incorporated all the various branches and units,” al-Jabarni said.

In January, the Presidential Leadership Council, Yemen’s United Nations-recognised authority led by President Rashad al-Alimi, established the SMC, with the goal of overseeing all anti-Houthi military units and integrating them into the official Yemeni military under one command.

However, establishing the committee has not eliminated longstanding divisions between the different forces. Their command structures and sources of funding have historically differed, and the losses on the Red Sea coast have highlighted the continuing difficulties of coordinating their battlefield operations.

That coordination is vital for Taiz, where holding off the Houthis will depend on recapturing roads for use as supply routes.

Al-Jabarni argued that friction among pro-government forces is diminishing and the supply lines for government forces remain intact despite the Houthi attacks.

“The Houthis are attempting to exert pressure on Saudi Arabia and the Yemeni government by targeting civilian facilities and supply lines – specifically focusing on vital infrastructure – but I believe this is likely to intensify the pace of anti-Houthi operations rather than slowing them down,” al-Jabarni said.

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F-22 Pilot Controls FQ-44 Fighter Drone From The Cockpit For The First Time

A pilot flying an F-22 Raptor fighter has issued commands to a YFQ-44A Fury Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) drone in a first-of-its-kind test. This is an important development for the U.S. Air Force’s CCA program, as its F-22s are set to be the first aerial ‘quarterbacks’ for these uncrewed aircraft once they enter operational service.

The Air Force and Anduril, Fury’s prime contractor, announced the “airborne tactical-control demonstration” today, but it occurred sometime earlier this month. An Anduril spokesperson confirmed directly to TWZ that this was a first for an F-22 and a pre-production YFQ-44A. Last month, the company disclosed tests involving Fury flying in formation with F-35 fighters, but stressed that the latter were not yet issuing commands to the former in mid-air. A Fury drone also launched an AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) for the first time earlier this year.

A stock picture of a pre-production YFQ-44A Fury CCA drone. USAF

The Air Force has orders in now for production of FQ-44As, as well as General Atomics’ FQ-42A Vengeance drones, under the first phase, or Increment 1, of its CCA program. The service is still planning to acquire additional CCAs, which could be of entirely different types, through a follow-on Increment 2. The goal now is to have a fleet of at least 500 Increment 1 CCAs by 2032. The recent test is part of efforts to lay the groundwork for an initial tranche of CCAs to start entering operational service around the end of the decade.

“During the demonstration, an F-22 pilot served as an airborne ‘quarterback,’ issuing high-level tactical directives to a single YFQ-44A,” according to a press release from the Air Force. “The aircraft’s onboard autonomy software interpreted and executed those directives in real time, conducting dynamic flight maneuvers and simulated combat tasks.”

A stock picture of an F-22 Raptor test jet. USAF

“The event brought together personnel from the 412th Test Wing, 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron, 309th Software Engineering Group, Experimental Operations Unit, F-22 System Program Office and the CCA Software Autonomy and Teaming Branch,” according to the Air Force release.

The Experimental Operations Unit (EOU) mentioned here is based at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada and has been leading efforts to pave the way for future Air Force CCA operations.

The “Fury and an F-22 both took off [from] Edwards AFB [Air Force Base in California] and joined up midair,” according to a separate release from Anduril. “While in flight, the Raptor pilot sent an updated mission plan to Fury using a tactical data link, commanding Fury through operationally-relevant maneuvers from the cockpit of the crewed quarterback.”

Neither the Air Force nor Anduril provided further details on how the F-22 was configured for this test. Past Air Force budget documents have mentioned the need to integrate “tablets, cables, and associated materials” onto the Raptor for this purpose. A single Raptor is also expected to be able to manage multiple CCA drones simultaneously.

The Raptor’s prime contractor, Lockheed Martin, has certainly been working with the Air Force to develop the relevant control architectures and user interfaces for that fighter, as well as the F-35. In terms of in-cockpit user interfaces for controlling drones, known work to date has centered largely on the use of touchscreen tablet-like devices, but this is understood to just be a starting point. Though tablet-based interfaces are a workable option, questions and criticisms about increased workload, especially for pilots in single-seat fighters, have been raised in the past.

A view of a “battle manager” in the back seat of an L-39 light jet using a tablet-like device during a past test of capabilities to control drones in mid-air conducted by Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works. Lockheed Martin

It is also worth noting here that General Atomics announced a similar demonstration involving a Raptor and an MQ-20 Avenger back in November 2025. General Atomics has been using the MQ-20 as a CCA surrogate in various types of testing. What the plan might be now to demonstrate the F-22’s ability to control an FQ-42A in flight is unclear. General Atomics has previously released a picture of a Vengeance drone flying in formation with, though not being directly controlled by, Air Force fighters.

A General Atomics Vengeance drone, at right, in flight together with an F-35A Joint Strike Fighter and an F-15E Strike Eagle. General Atomics

In addition, Fury and Vengeance are set to make their debut in a large-scale exercise before the end of the year. Bringing the CCAs to the next iteration of Exercise Emerald Flag will give the Air Force further opportunity to test them in a more operationally relevant context alongside crewed fighters.

“We have not yet done a LFE [large-force employment exercise] with these [CCAs], for real. The first one is going to be Emerald Flag. That’s in December,” Lt. Col. Lyndon “OTTO” Bartlett, the EOU’s Director of Operations, said during a panel at the Air & Space Forces Association’s (AFA) 2026 Air, Space & Cyber Conference in September, at which TWZ was in attendance. “That’ll be our first tip [sic] dip of the toe in an actual force integration.”

The EOU, working together with other Air Force elements and industry partners, still has to answer a host of other outstanding questions unrelated to tactical operations. CCAs will be deployed, launched, recovered, supported, and otherwise operated in ways that are distinct from their crewed counterparts, and for which new policies and procedures will need to be developed. Just making sure human pilots have trust in their uncrewed wingmen operating as expected will be critical, underscoring the specific importance of the demonstration disclosed today. All of this applies equally to the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Navy CCA programs, which are being run in very close coordination with the Air Force’s efforts.

When it comes to the recent test involving the F-22 and the YFQ-44A, “this achievement demonstrates what is possible when we are aligned with industry on a shared imperative: delivering capability to the warfighter at unprecedented speed,” Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink said in a statement today. “We are driving urgency into every part of acquisition from rapid integration and flight learning to disciplined assessment, so we can turn promising technology into combat capability at the pace the threat demands.”

A graphic showing the FQ-42 and FQ-44 designs together. USAF

“This flight shows the power of crewed-uncrewed teaming and the advantage it provides our warfighters,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ken Wilsbach also said. “We must test often, learn fast, and give commanders what they need, when they need it.”

“The U.S. Air Force’s CCA program is the fastest moving, most mature CCA program anywhere in the world, and will be the first to field operational aircraft,” Mark Shushnar, Anduril’s Vice President of Autonomous Airpower, said as well. “Getting there demands that Anduril and the U.S. Air Force work together to prove out the capability, define the operational procedures, and build trust between operators and their semi-autonomous wingmen.”

With all this in mind, an F-22 issuing orders to a YFQ-44A in mid-air is an important new sign of what is on the horizon for the U.S. Air Force, though there is still work to be done.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

Joseph is TWZ’s Deputy Editor, helping to oversee the site’s highly experienced and dedicated team, while also writing informative and impactful defense and national security content. He lives right in the thick of it in the Washington, D.C. area.


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In ‘Cupertino,’ real-life tech issues drive the show’s legal cases

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The biggest tech battles many people face are things like frequent two-factor authentication, a time suck that makes you want to hurl a device across the room, and sigh-inducing texts to parents letting them know that the video of a cat cooking eggs they 100% believe is real is actually AI slop.

But in “Cupertino,” the legal minds at the center of the show are taking on more consequential tech disputes in the courtroom.

The series joins a wave of recent films and TV shows exploring and confronting the rapidly evolving tech sector. Created by Robert and Michelle King, veterans of the legal drama genre with shows like “The Good Wife” and its spinoff “The Good Fight,” the Silicon Valley-set courtroom drama is interested in David vs. Goliath tension. It follows Michael Price (Mike Colter), an attorney fired by his tech startup employer S-Talk, as he teams up with fellow ousted lawyer Olivia Siffre (Rachel Keller) to launch their own ad-hoc law firm to take on cases — including their own — for everyday people against tech giants.

“There are big companies that have a lot of money, deep pockets — they could suffocate you, they can bog you down in litigation to the point where you can’t financially match them,” Colter said. “They’re planning on people just rolling over because they don’t want to deal with it. That’s where Michael and Olivia come in. We get the justice for people who otherwise won’t see any. I’m just excited and intrigued by the stories they [the Kings] want to tell here.”

The Kings’ exploration of tech’s litigation underbelly arrives at at a critical moment. High-stakes conflicts over artificial intelligence, data privacy, workplace culture, antitrust laws and other issues are dominating the news and defining our modern era. “The headlines, the way that it lines up is crazy,” Keller said. “It’s really important some of the cases they’re bringing to the show — real things that are happening to real people.”

But the show’s origins are grounded in personal history — Robert grew up in San José; his father worked on mainframes for IBM and the now-defunct Control Data Corp. before personal computers took over — and a desire to bring a fresh backdrop to the Kings’ signature legal drama style.

“When you go back and visit family, you started to see how Silicon Valley — we just call it the Bay Area — was changing,” Robert said. “Not only in the make of cars that everyone was buying, but in these massive offices that were taking over suburban streets; homes were just being plowed under and house values were going up. There was good and bad. It started with that — how much it was changing the world.”

They were also inspired to explore a new legal angle: “It felt like other shows weren’t really looking at the way tech was impacting the law,” he said.

“We were less interested in looking at the tech titans than the Davids of this world — the people that were fighting them,” Michelle added. But she stresses the show is not anti-tech or meant to be a soapbox, even while showing the power everyday people can and do wield: “It wasn’t created to be vegetables. It’s created to be crème brûlée — it’s meant to be funny, or tasty. If it isn’t delicious to people, I really feel as though we’ve wasted our time.”

Fans of “The Good Wife” or “The Good Fight” are familiar with how the Kings turned emerging tech issues — particularly ones involving Google, Amazon or Facebook — into narrative catalysts for cases. It was often through the lens of a fictional tech giant known as ChumHum, a Google-like search engine created by a guy named Neil Gross (John Benjamin Hickey), that got embroiled in a variety of cases, including ones about secrecy and search result modifications. “Cupertino” blends real and fictitious companies.

The second episode of the CBS drama aired Thursday. We spoke with the Kings to unpack some of the cases they chose to kick off the season.

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Palisades defeats Hamilton in Western League showdown

Jameson Della Bella ran for 86 yards and two touchdowns while Robert Holohan ran for a touchdown and threw for one more as Palisades dominated Hamilton 35-18 Friday night in a Western League showdown.

The Dolphins’ defense was up to the task against Hamilton’s highly touted quarterback Thaddeus Breaux, intercepting two of his passes and sacking him four times.

“It was fourth down, we had to make something happen, I saw him throw and I just ran full speed and dove for it,” said safety Aidan Wilson-Turner, who picked off a pass over the middle at Palisades’ 18-yard line to keep the Yankees off the scoreboard late in the first half.

Breaux, a sophomore who has received a scholarship offer from UCLA, threw for 382 yards and three touchdowns in last year’s 46-30 loss to Palisades but was 27–of-44 passing for 217 yards Friday — most of that yardage in the fourth quarter with the outcome long decided. He threw scoring passes of eight, 11 and four yards.

“The defensive line did a great job putting pressure on him,” Wilson-Turner added. “Our job in the secondary was to stay deep, playoff off them and stay true to our zones.”

Palisades (4-3, 3-0) took a major step toward defending the league title with only games at fifth-place Fairfax and at home versus last-place Westchester remaining.

Thaddeus Breaux threw for three touchdowns in Friday’s loss at Palisades.

Thaddeus Breaux threw for three touchdowns in Friday’s loss at Palisades.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

Hamilton, which fell to 3-5, 2-1, last won the league in 2014.

Della Bella’s six-yard run gave Palisades a 21-0 lead midway through the second quarter and the Dolphins increased their advantage to 35-0 early in the third quarter on Holohan’s 13-yard pass to Go Moriya and his four-yard quarterback keeper.

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Foreign Office changes Thailand travel advice for Brits

Need to know

The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has issued new ‘limited to two’ guidance for Thailand

Beautiful crystal clear water at Pileh bay at Phi Phi island in Krabi near Phuket

More than a million Brits head to Thailand each year(Image: Chadchai Ra-ngubpai via Getty Images)

Thailand Foreign Office travel advice change – what UK holidaymakers need to know:

  • The Foreign Office has issued updated travel advice for British tourists heading to Thailand – here’s what you need to know.
  • Thailand attracts over a million British holidaymakers annually, with tens of thousands living and working in popular destinations like Bangkok, Phuket and Chiang Mai.
  • Your passport must have at least six months’ validity from arrival date and one blank page. The FCDO warns: “You will be denied entry if you do not have a valid travel document or try to use a passport that has been reported lost or stolen.”
  • British tourists can stay up to 30 days under the visa exemption scheme for tourism only. Business travellers need appropriate visas before departure.
  • New restrictions limit visa-exempt land border entries to twice per calendar year. Air arrivals aren’t generally affected by this rule.
  • All travellers must complete a digital arrival card online up to three days before arrival.
  • Overstaying carries hefty penalties of 500 Thai baht (around £11) per day, rising to a maximum of of 20,000 baht (around £449). You also risk potential detention, deportation and 10-year bans.

READ THE FULL STORY: New Foreign Office Thailand alert to UK holidaymakers

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The chatbot murder guide: AI’s struggle between privacy, reporting violence | Crime News

For months before carrying out Canada’s deadliest school shooting in almost four decades, Jesse Van Rootselaar was consulting an unlikely adviser on how to perpetrate mass murder.

“In a hallway, indoors, or a crowded classroom, the 870 [Remington shotgun] is brutal … Close quarters is its playground,” OpenAI’s ChatGPT guided the 18-year-old, according to reports.

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On February 10, 2026, Van Rootselaar shot his mother and half-brother at home before going to a school in the small British Columbia town of Tumbler Ridge, where he killed another six people – including five students – before taking his own life.

Earlier this week, on October 14, US authorities charged a Washington State man with allegedly conspiring with Van Rootselaar to plan the attack. But the mass shooting incident has raised questions that go beyond the traditional legal understanding of culpability.

The British Columbia government in September filed a civil lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, accusing them of failing to prevent the incident and claiming they were aware of the conversations that turned deadly. Families of the victims also filed separate lawsuits. OpenAI’s leadership issued a public apology for their failure to notify authorities.

The company has not responded to requests from Al Jazeera for its comments on the lawsuits.

But as the case against OpenAI progresses, it has spurred a familiar debate: Where should a line be drawn between reporting potentially dangerous behaviour and protecting an individual’s privacy?

“The question of whether companies should be required to turn such information over to law enforcement is extraordinarily difficult, particularly if they don’t already screen chats for indications of such types of threats,” United States-based civil liberties lawyer Jenin Younes told Al Jazeera.

“Forcing companies to implement a surveillance system implicates very serious civil liberties concerns, and that’s probably a bridge too far for me,” Younes added.

“On the other hand, AI gives individuals access to types and quantities of information they didn’t have previously that may facilitate the commission of mass casualty events, a concern it’s not easy to dismiss.”

AI’s ability to distinguish thoughts from threats

One of the biggest challenges facing AI companies is determining whether a user expressing violent thoughts actually intends to act on them.

In August, Anthropic, the company behind AI chatbot Claude, flagged a user to San Francisco police after discovering conversations allegedly threatening its CEO, Dario Amodei.

According to the San Francisco Standard, citing a police report, the user had claimed to possess an AR-15 gun and suggested he had Amodei “in his sights”.

However, when contacted by the newspaper, the man said he was joking and had no intention of carrying out any form of violence. The person was neither charged nor detained, the Standard said.

Fazl Barez, a senior researcher at the University of Oxford specialising in AI safety and governance, said current AI models cannot “reliably” determine whether an interaction with an AI chatbot “is purely hypothetical or is likely to lead to harmful behaviour”.

“Suppose you are a creative writer working on a fictional story and want to explore how a murder plot might unfold. From the context, it may be clear that this is simply a fictional narrative. If the threshold for flagging potentially harmful content is too low, such a writer could be wrongly flagged,” he told Al Jazeera.

“Similarly, consider a graduate student in biology or chemistry studying pathogens that, if misused, could have serious consequences. They might be trying to understand the risks associated with these pathogens and how to mitigate them. Such discussions may be necessary for legitimate research and education. Even when the subject matter is sensitive, they should not automatically be flagged without considering the broader context.”

The researcher said identifying a credible threat may require examining a user’s interactions across multiple conversations, rather than relying on isolated statements.

Barez said someone experiencing intrusive violent thoughts might turn to a chatbot for support, while another person planning an attack may reveal their intentions gradually across several conversations.

“Distinguishing between the two requires careful consideration of context, intent and patterns of behaviour, rather than relying on individual statements alone,” he added.

Chinmayi Sharma, a law professor at Fordham University, said the debate has parallels with the duty imposed on mental health professionals to warn identifiable third parties about credible threats.

However, she said there was a key difference – therapists have professional training, knowledge of their patients and enforceable standards governing their conduct. AI companies do not necessarily have comparable safeguards.

“My concern with AI companies is that right now there’s not a concerted effort to hire mental health professionals, sociologists, individuals that would have the unique expertise on what the indicators of threat are here,” Sharma told Al Jazeera.

“Secondly, licensed professionals are accountable to concrete, legally enforceable standards in their discipline. We don’t have something like that for AI companies.”

The privacy dilemma

The privacy implications extend beyond whether AI companies can accurately identify threats. Millions of people use chatbots to discuss relationships, emotional distress, mental health concerns and deeply personal experiences.

Civil liberties lawyer Younes said many users may not realise how vulnerable those conversations could be to disclosure.

“They often reflect a person’s innermost thoughts, questions, and desires. The majority of people assume that these dialogues will never be viewed by another person,” Younes, president and legal director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said.

Younes warned that the consequences of greater monitoring could extend well beyond those planning violence.

“If people fear their chats can be turned over to law enforcement simply because they express disturbing thoughts/violent fantasies etc, many will be dissuaded from using them,” she told Al Jazeera.

Younes argued that forcing companies to establish systems for monitoring users and reporting conversations could raise serious constitutional concerns in the US, including protections against unreasonable searches.

Meanwhile, Fordham’s Sharma also raised an issue about who could be disproportionately affected by heavy monitoring by AI chatbots.

“The concern is always there about either intentional or unintentional targeting, because if you have models trained on what we consider dangerous speech, they’re almost always going to reflect biases,” she said. “Certain minorities’ speech is over‑flagged as a threat, while other comparable speech is not.

“Even in a world in which everyone is benevolent, we should still be concerned about disparate outcomes,” she said, warning that machines could reproduce such disparities at scale.

‘Not a licensed therapist’ – When do AI companies become liable to report?

While AI companies may face moral pressure to prevent violence, their legal obligations are less clear, legal experts say.

Bryan Choi, a professor of law at the University of Colorado Boulder, said US law recognises a duty to warn in certain circumstances, including when mental health professionals become aware of imminent threats or when a special relationship exists between parties.

But those principles do not necessarily apply to AI companies.

“Under present case law, it seems unlikely that a company such as OpenAI would be held to have such duties to warn,” Choi told Al Jazeera. “The chatbot is not a licensed therapist. There is no special relationship between the company and the victims.”

Choi said existing negligence and product liability laws could potentially be applied to AI companies, but proving responsibility would present significant challenges.

Finding a balance

Fordham’s Sharma suggested that independent institutions could help establish reporting standards rather than leaving decisions entirely to private companies or requiring immediate disclosure to police.

Such bodies she said could develop procedures for assessing threats and explore ways of sharing only relevant information while protecting users’ identities and other personal details.

Meanwhile, Younes argued that users should, at a minimum, be clearly informed about whether their conversations are monitored and what circumstances could lead to information being shared with law enforcement.

“This is almost certainly an issue that will be wrestled with over the coming years, and I’m not sure anyone knows the solution at this particular point in time,” she said.

“Events that have not yet occurred will likely influence how these policies are shaped.”

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Timothy Busfield child sex abuse charges thrown out, judge orders

A New Mexico judge on Friday ruled in favor of Emmy winner Timothy Busfield, tossing out multiple child sex abuse charges against the actor.

During a hearing, Judge Joseph A. Montano granted Busfield’s motion to dismiss his indictment, citing prosecutorial misconduct and errors that undermined the grand jury process. According to the order, “the prosecuting attorney failed to act in a fair and impartial manner” and proceedings thus far “were conducted in a manner that violated grand jury statutes designed to protect the structural integrity of our grand jury system.”

State prosecutors had indicted Busfield in February and charged him with four counts of criminal sexual contact of a child. The since-dismissed charges stemmed from his alleged behavior with two actors, who are brothers, on the set of the Fox crime drama “The Cleaning Lady.” The actor, known for “The West Wing” and “Thirtysomething,” has pleaded not guilty to those charges.

While a legal representative for Busfield did not immediately respond Friday to The Times’ request for comment, a spokesperson for the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office said prosecutors are “evaluating our options to determine how we will proceed.”

A New Mexico judge issued a warrant for Busfield’s arrest in January, citing two counts of criminal sexual contact with a minor and a single count of child abuse. Busfield was accused of inappropriately touching the child actors during his time as an actor, director and producer on “The Cleaning Lady,” according to an affidavit filed by New Mexico officials.

One child actor alleged Busfield first touched his “private areas” multiple times on set when he was 7 years old, according to the complaint. He said that Busfield touched him inappropriately again several times when he was 8. The affidavit also detailed a police interview with Busfield in which he suggested that the boys’ mother might have sought “revenge” on the director for “not bringing her kids back for the final season.”

Busfield filed his motion to quash the indictment in June, alleging the court refused to provide members of the grand jury with additional information and that prosecutors refused to allow jury members to hear from other witnesses, among other claims, according to court documents.

“The State treated the grand jury not as an independent body, but as the arm of the prosecution our courts have forbidden,” the motion says. “The resulting indictment must be dismissed.” Prosecutors rebutted Busfield’s allegations in a response to the dismissal and asked the court to deny his motion.

Before Friday’s order, a jury trial was scheduled to begin May 10, 2027.

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A Greece for all seasons: my autumn roadtrip through the Peloponnese | Greece holidays

As I drove across the causeway which links the tiny fortress island of Monemvasia to the south-eastern coast of the Peloponnese, the Aegean sparkling on all sides, I recalled a line by Yiannis Ritsos, one of Greece’s greatest 20th-century poets. Ritsos lived in Monemvasia, in a house that is today a museum on a cobble-stretch by the tawny castle walls. A favourite passage goes: “The voyage is neither a leave-taking nor a home-coming – an ethereal bridge …”

The excuse for my trip to the Peloponnese’s deep south – Messinia, the Mani, and Laconia – fell between those two ideas. My mother has roots in the Peloponnese – a sort-of homecoming that I’ve long wanted to explore – and with the summer over and greedy for an adventure to myself, I set out by car, leaving Kalamata, the leafy port city and gateway to the area, on a coastal road circuit.

Autumn in the Peloponnese is another Greece. Forget the Cycladic white and blue; mountain valleys are carpeted in pine forests and wildflowers, a great stretch of green studded with rustic limestone houses. These villages, relieved by the end of a scorching summer, celebrate boisterous harvest festivals for wines, oranges and chestnuts in Laconia, figs in Messinia, and olives near Kalamata. This is the Greece the diaspora yearns for: the chorio – a word that snaps us back to our relatives and Greek rural life, villages where the air is healthy, eating depends on what is grown metres away, and tavernas are alive with locals rather than tourists. In the shoulder season, the weather is cool enough for long walks along the region’s spectacular trails but, at about 25C, is also still good for swimming.

The two-hour drive to Monemvasia began with the Taygetus pass, winding through villages and cliffside tunnels as golden eagles soared above the firs. On the far side of the Taygetus, the road opened to Mystras, an archaeological Byzantine site stacked up its hillside. I climbed to the Paleologian Palace and its chapels, then descended, hungry, to the village of Parori, where Taverna Ores was serving syglino, the local cured pork, and an okra stew. I practised my flimsy Greek with the waitress and her mother, who kept one eye on a television gameshow while stirring the stew pots.

The Byzantine Greek architecture of Monemvasia. Photograph: Kisa_Markiza/Getty Images/iStockphoto

After lunch I stopped at Sparta – site of the ancient city state and modern metropolis. Beneath the Taygetus, in the spectral hush of the olive groves, there is an acropolis, an agora and little else. Yet the air carries something over the ruins, and it’s a short but necessary stop. A statue of Leonidas, hero of Thermopylae, stands facing the new city with the ruins at his back.

This is still the Greece of the Spartans: locals remain fiercely attached to their ancient ancestry. Monemvasia has a thrilling connection: in AD600, a bishop is said to have led the Spartan population to the rock to fortify themselves against invading tribes. Set on to a slope inside the castle walls is a town of tight passages and medieval Orthodox churches. It is a vivid encounter with Byzantine Greek architecture, as well as traces of Venetian trade: the sweet, fortified wine malvasia was once a prized export. Even my guesthouse, Kelia (rooms from €70), began as a monks’ residence on the sea-facing Chryssafitissa Square.

Leaving Monemvasia, I took a detour south for the golden sand dune beaches in Elafonisos. Reaching this island requires taking a 10-minute ferry ride from Pounta. The turquoise waters of Simos beach are deserted in the off-season – a necessary respite before my hour drive north-west to spend a night in Gythio. This working harbour town has neoclassical pastel mansions and waterfront restaurants provisioned by local fishers. Here the Mani begins.

Simos beach is reached by ferry from Pounta. Photograph: Constantinos Iliopoulos/Alamy

“Victory or death” reads the Maniot banner, above the Spartan motto “With the shield, or on the shield”. The region has a reputation for a conservative way of life that might seem unfashionable in modern Greece, but I find it seductive. The Mani’s beauty comes partly from its insularity. Driving an hour to Vathia, rugged mountains are crowned by labyrinthine stone tower villages that Maniot clans built to protect themselves during periods of vendetta or skirmishes with the Ottomans. Some are now ghost towns. Others have been converted into guesthouses.

But it was in Gerolimenas that a Greek friend suggested I stay for a few nights. The seaside village is an easy base for touring both western and eastern coasts. Along the latter, I hiked to mainland Greece’s southernmost point, Cape Tainaron lighthouse and went for an impromptu dip. The Mani’s water is so gin-clear the boats appear to hover above the surface.

The Akroyiali hotel (doubles from €80 B&B) opened in the 1970s, before most of the region’s roads. It is built on Gerolimenas’s shore, so I dozed to the pulse of waves and chatter from the hotel’s taverna below, where owner Mr Theodorakakis and his family entertained guests.

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Kardamyli, a popular village on the Mani that quietens in autumn. Photograph: Stephen Hughes/Alamy

“The Mani is changing at its own rhythm,” Theodorakakis told me. “This is a special place. We can’t keep hiding from the world.” Most Greeks prefer to visit off-season, he said. “You can actually explore the region without burning. But be careful of the north-eastern wind. It cuts through!”

Leaving Gerolimenas, I drove 30 minutes up the western coastal route, entering the busy town of Areopoli, where I shopped for hand-harvested sea salt and wild oregano. Pretty Limeni and Kardamyli – the home of British writer Patrick Leigh Fermor (who popularised the region) – get the Mani day-trip overspill from Kalamata. Regardless, it’s quieter in autumn. Every hairpin bend opens on to sea views, flowers and limestone.

I was lunching over one such view of a grassy cape when the taverna owner mentioned a woman in the village who knew miralogia. These are wailing Maniot lamentations sung at funerals, which are heard rarely these days. After two days of asking around, I found Kaiti Braimi in a small chapel where she agreed to sing. “In a way, they’re less necessary,” the octogenarian told me. “No more vendettas.”

The Polylimnio waterfalls in Messinia. Photograph: PitK/Alamy

The haunting rhythms of the miralogia were in mind as I left the Mani to enter Messinia – cutting through Kalamata again, but this time heading west. Here, the villagers were celebrating. Clarinets hummed in taverna gardens at Sunday family parties and relatives joined hands in circles to dance the kalamatianos. Passersby stood and clapped before being dragged in.

On the hour drive from Kalamata to Pylos – which would be my base – the Maniot mountains flattened into lush forests. Wildflowers bloomed on the roadside. Yet in Messinia’s expansive green are traces of ancient civilisations, including the bronze age palace of Nestor, north of Pylos.

My route sidetracked to the Polylimnio waterfalls. You can sidetrack easily in Messinia; there are unspoiled beaches (like Tsapi on the south coast, where mountains tumble into the sea), as well as areas for canyoning, cycling and kayaking. After a small hike, I bathed in clear pools surrounded by pines, alone mostly, apart from an Athenian couple. “We’re here for my birthday,” the man said. “Messinia is the best place in Greece for outdoor activities.” They pointed me to a canyoning trail north of the Bay of Navarino – a tip for my next visit.

That evening in Pylos’s port, only an hour from where I began my voyage in Kalamata, I paused for an ouzo at a kafenion. A group of lads were watching Greece play Germany at football on the television. They wailed their own miralogia with every missed shot, but when the game ended in a win the cafes along the harbour roared.

I thought back on my drive through the Peloponnese’s deep south, a journey that revealed a rural Greece I’d grown up romanticising from family, and believed was slowly disappearing. But not here. In the mountains and shores of Messinia, the Mani and Laconia, I found a Greece for all seasons.

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Santa Margarita shuts down St. John Bosco in Trinity League showdown

“Touchdown Trent Mosley.”

It’s understandable that the P.A. announcer at St. John Bosco High on Friday night misspoke after seeing Mosley’s brother, Grant, catch a 49-yard touchdown pass for Santa Margarita and run like Trent in a showdown game between the No. 1 Eagles and No. 2 Braves.

“Pretty good,” Trent, USC’s star freshman receiver, said on the sideline when asked about Grant’s touchdown. “He’s healthy.”

As if unbeaten Santa Margarita (8-0) didn’t have enough weapons, the return of Grant Mosley after two seasons of dealing with a shoulder injury means it’s time for opponents to start feeling very uncomfortable.

“I’m back,” Grant announced afterward.

Santa Margarita won its 15th consecutive game in defeating St. John Bosco 21-7.

“He looked great,” coach Carson Palmer said.

“We knew when as he got healthier, he was going to be a threat,” St. john Bosco coach Jason Negro said. “He’s a dynamic player like his brother.”

Santa Margarita High sophomore Rayshawn Brandon returns an interception 51 yards for a touchdown against St. John Bosco.

Santa Margarita High sophomore Rayshawn Brandon returns an interception 51 yards for a touchdown Friday night against St. John Bosco.

(Craig Weston)

The touchdown pass happened during a trick play, in which quarterback Fletch Palmer handed the ball to Adrian Petero, who lateraled the ball back to Palmer, who threw a perfect spiral down the middle to Mosley. That play was Santa Margarita royalty at its best — a Mosley catching a touchdown pass from a Palmer, the son of the head coach.

It gave Santa Margarita a 21-7 lead in the third quarter.

“What a pass,” Carson Palmer said. “What execution. What protection.”

Santa Margarita came up with two interceptions in the first half leading to two touchdowns and a 14-7 halftime lead.

After St. John Bosco (6-2) had taken a 7-0 lead on a 28-yard touchdown catch by Kuika Moaalii, sophomore Rayshawn Brandon picked off a pass by quarterback Koa Malau’ulu, who was rolling to his left under pressure, and returned it 51 yards for a touchdown. Then Ca’ron Williams came up with another interception deep in Braves territory, leading to a one-yard touchdown run by Petero.

At the end of the half, Jaion Smith of Santa Margarita deflected a possible third-down touchdown pass in the end zone and Jake Martin followed by blocking a St. John Bosco field-goal attempt.

If anything was learned about Santa Margarita last season in its first year under Palmer, it’s that the Eagles have one of the best coaching staffs in the state and keep improving each week. By the end of the 2025 season, Santa Margarita was 35 points better than its closest opponent.

Could a similar situation be occurring now?

“I just feel we have the best staff in the nation,” Grant Mosley said. “So every week, we’re just developing. And we’re still not at our highest state. Once we get to the playoffs, that’s when we’ll be at our best.”

With Trinity League wins over St. John Bosco and Mater Dei, the Eagles have moved into the driver’s seat to win the league title.

Before the game, Carson Palmer was walking around the field feeling excited and confident.

“We’re ready,” he said.

He wasn’t kidding.

As for his brother getting initial credit for the touchdown, Grant said, “Oh well.”

“I’m still not even at my full state yet,” Grant said.

That’s scary coming from a brother with the Mosley genes.



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Trump waives Russia sanctions as rift with Zelenskyy widens | Russia-Ukraine war News

US President Donald Trump has waived more sanctions on Russia in a bid to ease energy prices, leading to a chorus of condemnation from Ukraine and EU allies. The executive order comes as the rift between Trump and Ukraine’s Zelenskyy widens.

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Trump puts on hold new Russia sanctions he signed into law | Donald Trump News

US president’s executive order comes two days before sanctions deadline and a week after diesel deal with Putin.

US President Donald Trump has put on hold a sweeping package of sanctions on Russia that he signed into law last month, telling Congress the pause is in the national interest.

Trump signed an executive order on Friday, two days before a deadline in the law that would put the sanctions into effect.

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The law – named after Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator who died unexpectedly in July after returning from Ukraine – had passed in the House of Representatives and the Senate by large margins. The bipartisan legislation was drafted by Graham and Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal.

It sought to starve Moscow of money for the war by sanctioning Russian officials, banks and a shadow fleet of tankers carrying its energy.

It also directed Trump to impose tariffs of up to 100 percent on the five biggest importers of Russian oil or gas, with an exception for countries that import less than 15 percent of Russia’s natural gas exports and are taking steps to cut them.

Diesel deal and criticism

The decision to suspend the sanctions comes a week after Trump said the US had signed a deal to buy diesel from Russia to try to lower global fuel prices.

Both Republicans and Democrats, criticising the deal, said it would help Russia’s war effort without affecting fuel prices.

Democratic Representative Don Beyer said he and others had “warned” that Trump might do this, in reference to Trump’s deal with Moscow.

Beyer called on Congress to “fix this flawed law to stop Trump from capitulating to Putin and ensure that it truly supports Ukraine”.

Trump has also increasingly criticised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy lately for failing to reach a deal with Russia.

As Republicans try to keep control of Congress in the November 3 midterm elections, an AP-NORC poll released on October 1 found Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of the Iran war and blame him for higher prices among several other domestic policy issues.

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As Hollywood warms to AI, Culver City fills with AI studios

The heart of Screenland is cozying up to artificial intelligence.

The open space in Culver Steps typically hosts community events and movie nights. But on Wednesday, it turned into a job fair for companies looking to hire talent for AI studios.

Companies showed off their life-like AI videos, urging emerging talent — and out-of-work creatives — to join them as they worked to reinvent traditional filmmaking.

“It’s a great breeding ground for this new filmmaking,” Dave Clark, cofounder of AI film production studio Promise, said about Culver City. “To the independent filmmakers here, it’s time to take back power.”

The event was part of LA Tech Week, a citywide event organized by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.

Culver City is already home to big names in Hollywood and technology like Amazon MGM Studios, TikTok, Apple, and Sony Pictures Entertainment. Recently, a growing cluster of AI studios, including Promise, TrueShort, Native Foreign, and PhantomX, are expanding in the neighborhood.

Luma AI, a $4-billion Palo Alto startup that makes generative AI video software, opened a facility in Culver City last year. The company’s Dream Lab occupies a 7,000 square feet space and employs a team of 13.

“Culver City is the future of AI and filmmaking,” Caroline Ingeborn, Luma AI’s chief operating officer, said in a statement.

The companies said they are drawn by the legacy studios they hope to rival. The fact that space is available and affordable thanks to the general decline of the entertainment business in L.A. also helps.

Proponents of AI see it as an antidote to high production costs and say it allows creatives to make films that otherwise would never be made. However, many in Hollywood, its unions, and the public at large are suspicious of the surge in AI use, worried it is stealing the work of human creatives and taking people’s jobs.

The new wave of AI filmmakers have accepted the rise of AI as inevitable, and are forging ahead, increasingly in Culver City.

The city is not opposed to it.

“We’re a hub for the creative economy that is continuing to evolve,” said Adam Troy, Culver City assistant city manager, in a statement. “We look forward to what’s next in the space and what businesses see their future here in Culver City.”

TrueShort moved into Culver City last month, taking over most of a 5,000-square-foot office space near Amazon’s studio. The AI studio has raised $17 million and employs about 45 people. Around 75% of them are creatives: filmmakers, editors, sound designers and composers.

Its streaming app hosts short-form true crime audio and video shows that are fully AI-generated. On average, a 10-minute episode costs about $10,000 to make and takes about 10 days to go from idea to release.

“The next Netflix or the next Disney is going to come out of AI this time,” said Nate Tepper, cofounder of TrueShort. “And, in a way, it kind of needs to be a startup because the big incumbents are not going to move as fast. They’re going to be afraid of backlash.”

The company outgrew its Santa Monica office and is now located near Culver Theater.

“It is cool being next to the other bigger lots like Sony and Amazon, only because it’s inspiring,” Tepper said. “We want the lot. We want to become the big studio.”

Culver City-based creative studio Native Foreign makes AI commercials for brands that are more open than Hollywood about AI use. It has done ads for Virgin and Toys R Us.

It made one of the first AI-animated shorts, “Critterz,” using OpenAI’s software and planned to help make a movie based on it, but OpenAI pulled out of the project and canceled its video-making AI model.

“We don’t have the kind of opportunities that maybe some huge huge studios and companies have, so we are able to bag above our weight with these tools,” Nik Kleverov, co-founder of the company, said on a panel at LA Tech Week.

Google-backed Promise is another Culver City-adjacent AI studio that’s a proponent of hybrid productions, where human actors work with AI specialists. The company uses AI to generate backgrounds, visual effects, and synthetic humans for its slate of films, but a lot of the performances are shot on soundstages across L.A. using actors.

In late 2024, the studio acquired Curious Refuge, an online AI school that teaches traditional artists and newbies to use generative AI tools for filmmaking. Promise moved close to Culver from Venice in June.

Excitement about AI grows even as the industry puts up guardrails to contain it. The actors’ guild SAG-AFTRA has secured special protection against fully synthetic performers in the union contract signed this year.

However, some Hollywood veterans point out that the industry has fought over technology before. Alex Cancado, who spent years in visual effects and has worked on over 80 movies, now works in the AI Studios division of Amazon MGM Studios.

Pitching the crowd of creatives on Wednesday, he said the transition from practical effects to computer graphics was equally fraught.

“It was a challenge getting CG to be accepted by directors and producers,” Cancado said.

Much of the buzz around AI use for big productions started with a conference in Culver City called “AI on the Lot,” which started in 2023. It has since grown to thousands of attendees.

The organization also sponsored the job fair on Culver Steps and a networking happy hour for media AI companies in Culver City. It estimates that AI media companies with $2 billion in backing have converged on the city.

Mike Gioia, a founder of AI on the Lot, attends City Hall meetings and is trying to build momentum around the concept of a “Culver cluster” — bringing more companies and individuals working in AI to the neighborhood.

“We want to make Culver City the capital of AI media,” said Gioia.

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High school girls’ volleyball: Southern Section playoff pairings

HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS VOLLEYBALL

SOUTHERN SECTION PLAYOFFS

(Games at 6 p.m. unless noted)

TUESDAY’S SCHEDULE

First Round

DIVISION 2

Los Osos at Newport Harbor

Redondo Union at Crean Lutheran

San Juan Hills at Mayfield

Corona Centennial at Bishop Montgomery

Eastvale Roosevelt at Orange Lutheran

Palos Verdes at Murrieta Valley

Sherman Oaks Notre Dame at West Ranch

Campbell Hall at Long Beach Poly

DIVISION 4

Trabuco Hills at Portola

Summit at Burbank Burroughs

North Torrance at El Dorado

Whitney at Yorba Linda

Santa Monica at Arcadia

San Marino at Notre Dame Academy

Ventura at Oak Hills

Tesoro at Vista Murrieta

Village Christian at Ayala

Ontario Christian at Santa Barbara

Laguna Beach at Rancho Cucamonga

San Dimas at Hemet

La Palma Kennedy at Glendora

Xavier Prep at Royal

Chadwick at Bonita

Linfield Christian at Chino Hills

DIVISION 6

Laguna Hills at Alta Loma

Granite Hills at Villa Park

Torrance at Dos Pueblos

Bishop Diego at Temescal Canyon

Le Lycee at Temecula Prep

Woodbridge at St. Bonaventure

Rowland at Capistrano Valley Christian

Loma Linda Academy at Ridgecrest Burroughs

Oxford Academy at Castaic

Santa Fe at Rancho Christian

Palm Springs at Santa Ana Calvary Chapel

Norte Vista at Rim of the World

Schurr at Holy Martyrs

Mayfair at Norwalk

Oxnard at Yucaipa

Covina at Lakewood

DIVISION 8

Montclair at Samueli Academy

Bellflower at Bolsa Grande

San Gorgonio at Oxnard Pacifica

El Rancho at San Gabriel Academy

Western at San Jacinto Valley

St. Pius X-St. Matthias Academy at Fairmont Prep

Colony at Burbank

University Prep at Riverside Prep

Lancaster Desert Christian at Garden Grove Pacifica

Westminster La Quinta at Lighthouse Christian

Jurupa Valley at Kaiser

Orange Vista at Rio Mesa

Ramona at Big Bear

Geffen Academy at Pomona Catholic

Artesia at Century

West Valley at Bell Gardens

DIVISION 10

Perris at Leuzinger

Glendale at California School for the Deaf Riverside

Orange at Beacon Hill

Avalon at Canyon Springs

Orange County Classical Academy at Indian Springs

Compton at Adelanto

Anza Hamilton at Chaffey

Bassett at New Roads

Westmark at La Quinta

Miller at Glendale Adventist

Loara at Montebello

Rosemead at Redlands Adventist

Cathedral City at Lancaster

Dominguez at Ganesha

River Springs at Cornerstone Christian

Santa Ana Valley at St. Mary’s Academy

Note: Second Round (Divisions 4, 6, 8, 10) Thurs., Oct. 22; Quarterfinals (Divisions 2, 4, 6, 8 10) Tues., Oct. 27 at higher seeds; Semifinals (all divisions) Sat., Oct. 31 at higher seeds; Finals Nov. 6 or 7 at TBA.

WEDNESDAY’S SCHEDULE

(Games at 6 p.m. unless noted)

First Round

DIVISION 1

Pool A

#8 Harvard-Westlake at #1 Mater Dei

#5 Santa Margarita at #4 Oaks Christian

Pool B

#7 Marymount at #2 Sierra Canyon

#6 Los Alamitos at #3 Mira Costa

Note: Open Division second round pool play Tues., Oct. 27; Third round pool play Sat., Oct. 31. Finals Sat., Nov. 7 at Cerritos College.

DIVISION 3

Cerritos at Sunny Hills

Oak Park at Santa Ana Foothill

Chaminade at Cerritos Valley Christian

Alemany at Beckman

Corona Santiago at Newbury Park

Redlands at Rosary

Murrieta Mesa at Etiwanda

Saugus at Thousand Oaks

Claremont at Corona del Mar

Flintridge Prep at Millikan

Bishop Amat at St. Margaret’s

La Salle at Huntington Beach

Chaparral at Crescenta Valley

Crossroads at La Canada

Lakewood St. Joseph at Marina

Aliso Niguel at Windward

DIVISION 5

West Torrance at Marlborough

Liberty at Academy of Academic Excellence

Hesperia Christian at Peninsula

Moorpark at Canyon Country Canyon

Troy at El Toro

Western Christian at Valencia

Culver City at San Jacinto

Santa Monica Pacifica Christian at St. Anthony

Southlands Christian at Viewpoint

Westridge at Arrowhead Christian

Irvine at Beaumont

Gahr at Paraclete

Maranatha at Sultana

Burbank Providence at La Serna

Quartz Hill at Temple City

Palm Desert at Capistrano Valley

DIVISION 7

CAMS at Pasadena

Immaculate Heart at Tustin

Brea Olinda at Laguna Blanca

Chino at Sacred Heart Los Angeles

South Hills at Placentia Valencia

Trinity Classical Academy at Nordhoff

Highland at Barstow

Webb at Mary Star of the Sea

Eisenhower at Pasadena Marshall

Whittier at Beverly Hills

Rialto at Vistamar

Northview at Calvary Baptist

Indio at Fullerton

Tahquitz at Buckley

Rio Hondo Prep at Arlington

St. Genevieve at Foothill Tech

DIVISION 9

Santa Paula at Rancho Mirage

Canoga Park AGBU at Saddleback

Cobalt at San Jacinto Valley Academy

Anaheim at St. Monica Academy

Carter at Nogales

Carpinteria at Santa Rosa Academy

Vasquez at Westminster

Azusa at Moreno Valley

St. Jeane de Lestonnac at Santa Clarita Christian

Jurupa Hills at Sierra Vista

Victor Valley at Desert Christian Academy

Wildwood at Hillcrest

Excelsior Charter at Buena Park

Milken Community at Eastside

California at Garden Grove

Twentynine Palms at Shadow Hills

DIVISION 11

Grove at Compton Early College

Ambassador Christian at El Monte Arroyo

Rubidoux at Mesrobian

Animo Leadership at Ramona

Long Beach First Baptist at La Sierra Academy

Thacher at Pacific Lutheran

Grace at Shalhevet

New Covenant at Newport Christian

Oak Grove at Tarbut V’ Torah

Cal Lutheran at Workman

EF Academy at Santa Clara

Desert Chapel at Lynwood

Norton Science Academy at Newbury Park Adventist

Liberty Christian at Joshua Springs

River Springs at Downey Calvary Chapel

Riverside Bethel Christian at Silver Valley

Note: Second round (Divisions 3, 5, 7, 9, 11) Sat., Oct. 24; Quarterfinals (Divisions 3, 5, 7, 9) Wed., Oct. 28; Semifinals (all divisions) Oct. 31; Finals (all divisions) Sat., Nov. 7 at TBA.

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Southern California wildfire engulfs homes, prompts evacuation orders | Climate Crisis News

The fast-spreading Norte Fire in Orange County is fuelled by intense warm winds and unseasonably high temperatures.

A fast-spreading wildfire in Orange County, in Southern California, has engulfed several coastal properties and prompted widespread evacuation orders.

The Orange County Fire Authority said on Friday that the Norte Fire had scorched about 188 hectares (465 acres), with the state’s Cal Fire agency putting it at about 231 hectares (570 acres) by the evening, and that at least six homes had been damaged or destroyed in the San Juan Capistrano area.

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The fire authority said firefighters were “aggressively attacking the fire from the ground and air” and issued pleas for people to stay clear of the area.

Unseasonably high temperatures and low humidity are fuelling the rapid growth of the fire, the AFP news agency reported.

The Norte Fire started in the coastal city of San Clemente on Friday and moved to the city of San Juan Capistrano, with some 6,000 homes and 16,000 residents under evacuation orders by the evening. An evacuation shelter has opened in each city while helicopters attempt to douse the flames.

Intense warm winds

The Norte Fire is one of several in the region driven by Santa Ana winds, intense warm gusts that blow from the southwest US interior towards the California coast.

The Santa Ana winds typically arrive in the autumn, right when Southern California’s vegetation is at its driest after a long, rainless summer, according to The Weather Channel.

Forecasters said winds blew at between 55km/h and 90km/h (35mph and 55mph) within coastal areas.

The strongest winds were expected through Friday, but the high heat and low humidity conditions that contribute to the growth of the fire are expected to last through Saturday night.

Tens of thousands of people in Los Angeles County were left without power as authorities attempted to lessen the possibility of electrical sparks that the heavy wind gusts could carry.

Other ongoing fires

California firefighters were also busy battling the Bryson Fire, which broke out on the outskirts of the Malibu beach community in Los Angeles County on Thursday. As of Friday, the fire had burned about 59 hectares (147 acres) and was 17 percent contained, according to Cal Fire.

The Henderson Fire was 20 percent contained and had burned 842 hectares (2,080 acres) in San Diego County by Friday, Cal Fire said. The blaze impacted Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton and prompted freeway closures.

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Celebrity Traitors trio are looking wobbly and their punishment would be swift

There is now a six day wait to find out if Ross Kemp or Jerry Hall has been murdered – or if the Traitors failed.

Celebrity Traitors fans now have a tense wait to discover whether Ross Kemp or Jerry Hall will seal their own fate by yawning in the castle – or if the turret trio will fail their challenge to kill in plain sight.

In the UK game, the Traitors have never faltered at this before, but it has happened in international versions including in Denmark and Canada, when it was felt too many people were present to carry out the task – set by producers – without being caught.

If Maya Jama, James Acaster and Kenny Ojuederie do fail, their punishment would come in the form of a missed murder, meaning everyone arrives at breakfast the following morning and wonders what happened.

Jerry, 70, did say she was feeling tired during last night’s programme but did not respond to the many yawns made by Maya and James, which normally prompt a copycat response.

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If Ross succumbs, it could be seen as a fitting end to his time in the castle after he spent the whole of the first day convinced he’d been murdered in plain sight by first Bella Ramsey and then Leigh-Anne Pinnock.

Jerry – voted as the player whose head was most in the clouds during the latest mission – would be greatly missed for her eccentric ways, while Ross’s huge contribution to the missions would also be a sad loss for the whole team.

In last night’s show the ex-EastEnder, 62, said he felt angry with the Traitors for repeatedly setting him up and making the other Faithful feel suspicious of him.

But this time he and Jerry have been selected entirely at random, in the same way that Paloma Faith became Alan Carr’s first kill last year, even though she was one of his best pals.

The challenge, which left all three of the Traitors feeling the pressure, was to get any of the Faithful to yawn in a specific room after spraying some “deadly sleeping powder” from a perfume bottle, which would be breathed in.

Reading out the instructions in disbelief, comedian James said: “To seal the murder you must then say, ’Am I boring you?’ – followed by the victim’s name. I can’t believe this.” Viewers won’t discover the outcome until next Thursday’s episode at 8pm on BBC1.

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ALCS Game 4 between Rays and Guardians postponed by rain

Game 4 of the American League Championship Series between the Tampa Bay Rays and Cleveland Guardians was postponed because of rain Friday night.

Major League Baseball was hoping there would be a three-hour window of dry weather to get the game in, but the showers never let up.

“It never cleared out the way they were hoping. It started to get later in the hour, and MLB and I think both clubs did everything they could to try to get it in,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “Made the most sense, like, at this point and this hour, with no guarantee that there wasn’t another band coming.”

The teams will resume their playoff series Saturday at 5 p.m. PT, with Game 5 also at Progressive Field on Sunday at 2 p.m., and Game 6, if necessary, on Monday at 5 p.m. in St. Petersburg, Fla.

“We knew how many days ago that today was going to be a challenge. Numerous weather calls, numerous back and forths, and ultimately MLB decided we needed to wait it out,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “Obviously it’s an important game, and we need to make sure we’re doing everything we can to play the games when they’re scheduled. But MLB ultimately decided to wait this one out.”

It is the first time an ALCS game has been postponed since 2019, when the New York Yankees were hosting the Houston Astros.

The Guardians have a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series after Petey Halpin’s two-run homer propelled them to a 3-2 victory in Game 3 on Thursday afternoon.

Both teams will stick with their scheduled Game 4 starters from Friday. Cleveland will go with a bullpen game, with Shawn Armstrong being the opener. Nick Martinez will pitch for Tampa Bay.

It will be Armstrong’s fifth appearance this postseason. The right-hander has allowed only one hit in 5⅓ innings with five strikeouts.

Armstrong thought his season was done in late July when he strained a calf muscle, but he returned during the final week of the regular season.

Armstrong was drafted by Cleveland in the 18th round in 2011 and made his big league debut four years later. He was traded to Seattle in 2017 and spent time with four other organizations, including Tampa Bay, before signing with the Guardians this season.

“I think I said it to [Erik] Sabrowski, whenever we were standing in the outfield in Game 2 in Tampa — obviously I played here, I got drafted here, coming back here and being able to be in this situation is — words can’t describe it,” Armstrong said before Game 3 on Thursday.

Martinez started Game 3 of the division series against the New York Yankees. He went 3⅔ innings, allowing two runs on five hits with a walk and three strikeouts. The right-hander was 15-6 during the regular season and ranked sixth in the AL with a 3.10 ERA. He was third in the AL with 26 starts in which he allowed three runs or fewer.

“It’s just like my starts throughout the year; it’s going to be a dogfight going in, just to see how many outs I can get for this team. It’s important,” he said Thursday.

The teams might have to play the final four games of the series without a day off, culminating in a potential Game 7 on Tuesday. That could be welcome news for the Milwaukee Brewers, who have a week off before they open the World Series at home on Oct. 23 against the Cleveland-Tampa Bay winner.

Milwaukee is in the Fall Classic for the first time since 1982 after completing a four-game sweep of the two-time defending World Series champion Dodgers in the NL Championship Series on Thursday night.

“We’ve got four games in a row. We have an opportunity to win some games and move on. And that’s all we’re focused on,” Vogt said.

Reedy writes for the Associated Press.

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Brazil’s Amazon deforestation hits lowest level on record | Climate News

Data show a 42 percent drop in forest clearance from a year earlier, giving Lula a boost before the election run-off.

Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest has fallen to its lowest level since records began in 1988, according to official figures that give a boost to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva days before a presidential run-off.

Brazil’s space research agency, Inpe, said on Friday that 3,335 square kilometres (1,288 square miles) of forest were cleared in the 12 months through July, about 42 percent less than the year before.

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The previous record low was 4,571 sq km (1,765 sq miles) in 2011-12, while annual losses peaked at nearly 30,000 sq km (nearly 11,600 sq miles) in the mid-1990s, according to Inpe’s Prodes satellite programme, which measures from August to July because cloud cover is lower in mid-year.

“It’s an absolutely stratospheric drop…it’s like a dream,” Environment Minister Joao Paulo Capobianco said at a news conference in Brasilia.

Marcio Astrini of the climate advocacy group Observatorio do Clima called the figures “a historic achievement” and said they show that “with political will, it is possible to curb deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions”.

President Lula wrote on X: “Our goal is to achieve zero illegal deforestation by 2030.”

Lula took office in 2023 pledging to end illegal deforestation by 2030, after clearing soared to a 15-year high under his far-right predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro. The Amazon lost about 11,600 sq km (about 4,480 sq miles) a year on average during Bolsonaro’s 2019-2022 term, almost 60 percent more than in the previous four years.

Deforestation has fallen every year since 2022 and is down 71.2 percent over four years. The AFP news agency attributes the drop to greater monitoring and stiffer penalties for illegal logging.

Lula faces Bolsonaro’s eldest son, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, in the election run-off on October 25, with polls showing them neck and neck.

Flavio pledged in his manifesto to strengthen environmental oversight in the Amazon, focus enforcement on organised crime rather than extractive workers and small farmers, and end “illegal deforestation” by 2029.

He has also praised his father, who is serving a 27-year sentence under house arrest for coup plotting, for opposing what he calls a “radical environmental agenda”.

Deforestation in the Cerrado savanna, south of the Amazon, also fell by about 24 percent, to 5,517 sq km (2,130 sq miles), the lowest since records began in 2001.

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