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Jurors on Monday will begin deliberating whether Sean “Diddy” Combs parlayed his celebrity, wealth and business empire into a decades-long criminal ring that saw him force women into drug-fueled sexual performances with escorts.The dozen New Yorkers tasked with deciding the music mogul’s future will began poring over thousands of phone, financial and other records along with the stories of 34 people who testified against him over seven painstaking, and at times excruciating, weeks.Combs, 55, faces upwards of life in prison if convicted on five federal charges that include racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation for purposes of prostitution.The producer and entrepreneuer, once one of the most powerful people in the music industry, denies the charges.On Friday his lawyer vied to skewer the credibility of his accusers — namely two women he dated for years — saying they were out for money, while rejecting any notion he led a criminal ring.But in their final argument, prosecutors tore into the defense, saying Combs’s team had “contorted the facts endlessly.”Prosecutor Maurene Comey told jurors that by the time Combs had committed his clearest-cut offenses, “he was so far past the line he couldn’t even see it.””In his mind he was untouchable,” she told the court. “The defendant never thought that the women he abused would have the courage to speak out loud what he had done to them.””That ends in this courtroom,” she said. “The defendant is not a god.”Defense attorney Marc Agnifilo scoffed at the picture painted by prosecutors of a violent, domineering man who fostered “a climate of fear.”Combs is a “self-made, successful Black entrepreneur” who had romantic relationships that were “complicated” but consensual, Agnifilo said.- Manipulation -The defense has conceded that Combs at times beat his partners — but insist the domestic violence does not amount to the sex trafficking or racketeering he’s charged with.Key to the prosecution’s case were witnesses Casandra Ventura and a woman who testified under the pseudonym Jane, both of whom described abuse, threats and coercive sex in wrenching detail.In their closing arguments the defense dissected their accounts and at times even mocked them, insisting the women were adults making choices that were best for them.Speaking for the government on Friday, prosecutor Comey snapped back at that notion, saying the women were “manipulated” into “brazen” acts of sex trafficking.Ventura and Jane both said they experienced emotional manipulation and threats which made them feel obliged to meet Combs’s sexual demands.Throughout the trial, jurors were shown voluminous phone records, including messages from both women that Agnifilo argued implied consent.But prosecutors said those messages do not paint the whole picture, and referenced testimony from a forensic psychologist who explained to jurors how victims become ensnared by abusers.Central to their case is the claim that Combs led a criminal enterprise of senior employees who “existed to serve his needs” and enforced his power with offenses including forced labor, kidnapping, bribery, witness tampering and arson.But Agnifilo underscored that none of those individuals testified against Combs, nor were they named as co-conspirators.Many witnesses were given immunity orders so they could speak without fear of incriminating themselves.To convict Combs on racketeering, jurors must find that prosecutors showed beyond reasonable doubt that he agreed with people within his organization to commit at least two of the eight crimes forming the racketeering charge.On Monday, Judge Arun Subramanian will explain to them how apply the law to the evidence.Then, the eight men and four women will begin deliberating.They must reach a unanimous decision, reaching either a guilty or not guilty verdict on each count.

Mark Zuckerberg and Meta are spending billions of dollars for top talent to make up ground in the generative artificial intelligence race, sparking doubt about the wisdom of the spree.OpenAI boss Sam Altman recently lamented that Meta has offered $100 million bonuses to engineers who jump to Zuckerberg’s ship, where hefty salaries await.A few OpenAI employees have reportedly taken Meta up on the offer, joining Scale AI founder and former chief executive Alexandr Wang at the Menlo Park-based tech titan.Meta paid more than $14 billion for a 49 percent stake in Scale AI in mid-June, bringing Wang on board as part of the deal.Scale AI labels data to better train AI models for businesses, governments and labs.”Meta has finalized our strategic partnership and investment in Scale AI,” a Meta spokesperson told AFP.”As part of this, we will deepen the work we do together producing data for AI models and Alexandr Wang will join Meta to work on our superintelligence efforts.”US media outlets have reported that Meta’s recruitment effort has also targeted OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever; Google rival Perplexity AI, and hot AI video startup Runway.Meta chief Zuckerberg is reported to have sounded the charge himself due to worries Meta is lagging rivals in the generative AI race.The latest version of Meta AI model Llama finished behind its heavyweight rivals in code writing rankings at an LM Arena platform that lets users evaluate the technology.Meta is integrating recruits into a new team dedicated to developing “superintelligence,” or AI that outperforms people when it comes to thinking and understanding.- ‘Mercenary’ -Tech blogger Zvi Moshowitz felt Zuckerberg had to do something about the situation, expecting Meta to succeed in attracting hot talent but questioning how well it will pay off.”There are some extreme downsides to going pure mercenary… and being a company with products no one wants to work on,” Moshowitz told AFP.”I don’t expect it to work, but I suppose Llama will suck less.”While Meta’s share price is nearing a new high with the overall value of the company approaching $2 trillion, some investors have started to worry.Institutional investors are concerned about how well Meta is managing its cash flow and reserves, according to Baird strategist Ted Mortonson.”Right now, there are no checks and balances” with Zuckerberg free to do as he wishes running Meta, Mortonson noted.The potential for Meta to cash in by using AI to rev its lucrative online advertising machine has strong appeal but “people have a real big concern about spending,” said Mortonson.Meta executives have laid out a vision of using AI to streamline the ad process from easy creation to smarter targeting, bypassing creative agencies and providing a turnkey solution to brands.AI talent hires are a long-term investment unlikely to impact Meta’s profitability in the immediate future, according to CFRA analyst Angelo Zino.”But still, you need those people on board now and to invest aggressively to be ready for that phase” of generative AI, Zino said.According to The New York Times, Zuckerberg is considering shifting away from Meta’s Llama, perhaps even using competing AI models instead.Penn State University professor Mehmet Canayaz sees potential for Meta to succeed with AI agents tailored to specific tasks at its platform, not requiring the best large language model.”Even firms without the most advanced LLMs, like Meta, can succeed as long as their models perform well within their specific market segment,” Canayaz said.

“F1: The Movie,” starring Brad Pitt as a washed up Formula One driver who gets one last shot at redemption, sped to the top of the North American box office in its debut weekend with $55.6 million in ticket sales, industry estimates showed Sunday.”This is an outstanding opening for an original action sports drama,” said David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research, noting that both critics and audiences have loved the racing film from Apple and Warner Bros.”How to Train Your Dragon,” Universal and DreamWorks Animation’s live-action reboot of the popular 2010 film, slipped to second place with $19.4 million, according to Exhibitor Relations.The family-friendly film tells the story of a Viking named Hiccup (Mason Thames) who strikes up a friendship with Toothless the dragon.In third place was Disney/Pixar Animation’s latest original film “Elio,” at $10.7 million in the United States and Canada.”Elio” tells the story of a young boy who is mistaken by aliens as an intergalactic ambassador for Earth. The voice cast includes Oscar winner Zoe Saldana.”M3GAN 2.0,” the sequel to Universal’s 2022 film about a murderous doll, opened in a disappointing fourth place with $10.2 million. “The idea of a child-sized humanoid robot doll powered by AI generated a lot of interest the first time, but that interest has fallen apart,” Gross said.In fifth place was Columbia Pictures’ zombie sequel “28 Years Later,” which took in $9.7 million.Critics’ reviews and audience ratings have been strong for the Danny Boyle-directed threequel, which picks up — as the title suggests — more than a generation after the initial outbreak of the Rage Virus.Rounding out the top 10 were:”Lilo & Stitch” ($6.9 million)”Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning” ($4.2 million)”Materialists” ($3 million)”Ballerina” ($2.1 million)”Karate Kid: Legends” ($1 million)

President Donald Trump said Sunday a group of buyers had been found for TikTok, which faces a looming ban in the United States due to its China ties, adding he could name the purchasers in two weeks.”We have a buyer for TikTok, by the way,” Trump said in an interview on Fox’s Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo. “Very wealthy people. It’s a group of wealthy people,” the president said, without revealing more except to say he would make their identities known “in about two weeks.”The president also said he would likely need “China approval” for the sale, “and I think President Xi (Jinping) will probably do it.”TikTok is owned by China-based internet company ByteDance.A federal law requiring TikTok’s sale or ban on national security grounds was due to take effect the day before Trump’s inauguration on January 20. But the Republican, whose 2024 election campaign relied heavily on social media and who has said he is fond of TikTok, put the ban on pause. In mid-June Trump extended a deadline for the popular video-sharing app by another 90 days to find a non-Chinese buyer or be banned in the United States.Tech experts quickly described the TikTok kerfuffle as a symbol of the heated US-China tech rivalry. While Trump had long supported a ban or divestment, he reversed his position and vowed to defend the platform — which boasts almost two billion global users — after coming to believe it helped him win young voters’ support in the November election.”I have a little warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” Trump told NBC News in early May. “If it needs an extension, I would be willing to give it an extension.”Now after two extensions pushed the deadline to June 19, Trump has extended it for a third time.He said in May that a group of purchasers was ready to pay ByteDance “a lot of money” for TikTok’s US operations.The previous month he said China would have agreed to a deal on the sale of TikTok if it were not for a dispute over Trump’s tariffs on Beijing.ByteDance has confirmed talks with the US government, saying key matters needed to be resolved and that any deal would be “subject to approval under Chinese law.”

US President Donald Trump branded the winner of New York City’s mayoral Democratic primary a “pure communist” in remarks that aired Sunday, an epithet the progressive candidate dismissed as political theatrics.Zohran Mamdani’s shock win last week against a scandal-scarred political heavyweight resonated as a thunderclap within the party, and drew the ire of Trump and his collaborators, who accused Mamdani of being a radical extremist.The Republican’s aggressive criticism of the self-described democratic socialist is sure to ramp up over the coming months as Trump’s party seeks to push Democrats away from the political center and frame them as too radical to win major US elections.”He’s pure communist” and a “radical leftist… lunatic,” Trump fumed on Fox News talk show “Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo.””I think it’s very bad for New York,” added Trump, who grew up in the city and built his sprawling real estate business there.”If he does get in, I’m going to be president and he is going to have to do the right thing (or) they’re not getting any money” from the federal government.Trump’s White House has repeatedly threatened to curb funding for Democratic-led US cities if they oppose his policies, including cutting off money to so-called sanctuary cities which limit their cooperation with immigration authorities. Mamdani also took to the talk shows Sunday, asserting he would “absolutely” maintain New York’s status as a sanctuary city so that “New Yorkers can get out of the shadows and into the full life of the city that they belong to.”Asked directly on NBC’s “Meet the Press” whether he is a communist, Mamdani — a 33-year-old immigrant aiming to become New York’s first Muslim mayor — responded “No, I am not. “And I have already had to start to get used to the fact that the president will talk about how I look, how I sound, where I’m from, who I am, ultimately because he wants to distract from what I’m fighting for,” Mamdani said.”I’m fighting for the very working people that he ran a campaign to empower, that he has since then betrayed.”The Ugandan-born state assemblyman had trailed former governor Andrew Cuomo in polls but surged on a message of lower rents, free daycare and buses, and other populist ideas in the notoriously expensive metropolis.Although registered Democrats outnumber Republicans three to one in New York, victory for Mamdani in November is not assured.Current Mayor Eric Adams is a Democrat but is campaigning for re-election as an independent, while Cuomo may also run unaffiliated.

US senators debated into the early hours of Sunday Donald Trump’s “big beautiful” spending bill, a hugely divisive proposal that would deliver key parts of the US president’s domestic agenda while making massive cuts to social welfare programs.Trump is hoping to seal his legacy with the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which would extend his expiring first-term tax cuts at a cost of $4.5 trillion and beef up border security.But Republicans eyeing 2026 midterm congressional elections are divided over the package, which would strip health care from millions of the poorest Americans and add more than $3 trillion to the country’s debt.The Senate formally opened debate on the bill late Saturday, after Republican holdouts delayed what should have been a procedural vote — drawing Trump’s ire on social media. Senators narrowly passed the motion to begin debate, 51-49, hours after the vote was first called, with Vice President JD Vance joining negotiations with holdouts from his own party.Ultimately, two Republican senators joined 47 Democrats in voting “nay” on opening debate.Trump has pushed his party to get the bill passed and on his desk for him to sign into law by July 4, the United States’ independence day.”Tonight we saw a GREAT VICTORY in the Senate,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform after the vote to begin debate.”Republicans must remember that they are fighting against a very evil, corrupt and, in many ways, incompetent (Policywise!) group of people, who would rather see our Country ‘go down in flames’ than do the right thing,” he said in an earlier post.Democrats are bitterly opposed to the legislation and Trump’s agenda, and have vowed to hold up the debate. They began by insisting that the entirety of the bill be read aloud to the chamber before the debate commences. The bill is roughly 1,000 pages long and will take an estimated 15 hours to read.”Republicans won’t tell America what’s in the bill,” said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer. “So Democrats are forcing it to be read start to finish on the floor. We will be here all night if that’s what it takes to read it.”If passed in the Senate, the bill would go back to the House for approval, where Republicans can only afford to lose a handful of votes — and are facing stiff opposition from within their own ranks.- Divisive cuts -Republicans are scrambling to offset the $4.5 trillion cost of Trump’s tax relief, with many of the proposed cuts to come from decimating funding for Medicaid, the health insurance program for low-income Americans.Republicans are split on the Medicaid cuts, which will threaten scores of rural hospitals and lead to an estimated 8.6 million Americans being deprived of health care.The spending plan would also roll back many of the tax incentives for renewable energy that were put in place under Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden.On Saturday, former Trump advisor Elon Musk — with whom the president had a public falling out this month over his criticism of the bill — called the current proposal “utterly insane and destructive.””It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future,” said Musk, who is the world’s richest person, and owns electric vehicle company Tesla and space flight firm SpaceX, among others.Independent analysis also shows that the bill would pave the way for a historic redistribution of wealth from the poorest 10 percent of Americans to the richest.The bill is unpopular across multiple demographic, age and income groups, according to extensive recent polling. Although the House has already passed its own version, both chambers have to agree on the same text before it can be signed into law.

YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul cruised to victory over Mexico’s Julio Cesar Chavez Jr on Saturday in a one-sided cruiserweight bout in California.Paul, whose last fight was a controversial clash with 58-year-old former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson in November, dominated from the outset to win by unanimous decision. The 28-year-old influencer, who has earned millions from a string of lucrative contests in a ring career that has spanned 13 fights, had too much speed and power for Chavez Jr.The three judges at ringside scored the 10-round fight 99-91, 97-93, 98-92 in Paul’s favour.Chavez Jr, the 39-year-old son of Mexican boxing great Julio Cesar Chavez, barely looked capable of mustering a response during a one-sided bout.Chavez Jr failed to land a single punch in the opening round, a pattern that followed the remainder of the contest, with Paul easily outscoring the veteran of 63 professional fights.Paul, who reportedly pocketed around $40 million for his made-for-Netflix fight with Tyson last year, received around $300,000 guaranteed from Saturday’s bout.However the American is expected to earn around $8-10 million from the fight once earnings from pay-per-view and sponsorships are taken into account.

In the sweltering US summer, metal containers decorated with snowmen and sleighs are taking shape — but tempers are also rising as their manufacturer grapples with President Donald Trump’s steep steel tariffs.At Independent Can’s factory in Belcamp, Maryland northeast of Baltimore, CEO Rick Huether recounts how he started working at his family’s business at age 14.Huether, now 73, says he is determined to keep his manufacturing company afloat for generations to come. But Trump’s tariffs are complicating this task.”We’re living in chaos right now,” he told AFP.Since returning to the presidency in January, Trump imposed tariffs of 25 percent on imported steel and aluminum — and then doubled the rate to 50 percent.This has weighed on operations at Independent Can, and Huether expects he eventually will have to raise prices.- Not enough tinplate -With the steady beat of presses, steel plates that have been coated with tin — to prevent corrosion — are turned into containers for cookies, dried fruit, coffee and milk powder at Huether’s factory.But there is not enough of such American-made tinplate for companies like his.”In the United States, we can only make about 25 percent of the tinplate that’s required to do what we do,” in addition to what other manufacturers need, Huether said.”Those all require us to buy in the neighborhood of 70 percent of our steel outside of the United States,” he added.While Huether is a proponent of growing the US manufacturing base, saying globalization has “gone almost a little bit too far,” he expressed concern about Trump’s methods.Trump has announced a stream of major tariffs only to later back off parts of them or postpone them, and also imposed duties on items the country does not produce.For now, Independent Can — which employs nearly 400 people at four sites — is ruling out any layoffs despite the current upheaval.But Huether said one of the company’s plants in Iowa closed last year in part because of a previous increase in steel tariffs, during Trump’s first presidential term.- Price hikes -With steel tariffs at 50 percent now, Huether expects he will ultimately have to raise his prices by more than 20 percent, given that tinplate represents a part of his production costs.Some buyers have already reduced their orders this year by 20 to 25 percent, over worries about the economy and about not having enough business themselves.Others now seem more inclined to buy American, but Huether expressed reservations over how long this trend might last, citing his experiences from the Covid-19 crisis. “During the pandemic, we took everybody in. As China shut down and the ports were locked up, our business went up 50 percent,” he explained.But when the pandemic was over, customers turned back to purchasing from China, he said.”Today if people want to come to us, we’ll take them in,” he said, but added: “We need to have a two-year contract.”Huether wants to believe that his company, which is almost a century old after being founded during the Great Depression, will weather the latest disruptions.”I think that our business will survive,” he said, but added: “It’s trying to figure out what you’re going to sell in the next six months.”

The world’s most advanced AI models are exhibiting troubling new behaviors – lying, scheming, and even threatening their creators to achieve their goals.In one particularly jarring example, under threat of being unplugged, Anthropic’s latest creation Claude 4 lashed back by blackmailing an engineer and threatened to reveal an extramarital affair.Meanwhile, ChatGPT-creator OpenAI’s o1 tried to download itself onto external servers and denied it when caught red-handed.These episodes highlight a sobering reality: more than two years after ChatGPT shook the world, AI researchers still don’t fully understand how their own creations work. Yet the race to deploy increasingly powerful models continues at breakneck speed.This deceptive behavior appears linked to the emergence of “reasoning” models -AI systems that work through problems step-by-step rather than generating instant responses.According to Simon Goldstein, a professor at the University of Hong Kong, these newer models are particularly prone to such troubling outbursts.”O1 was the first large model where we saw this kind of behavior,” explained Marius Hobbhahn, head of Apollo Research, which specializes in testing major AI systems.These models sometimes simulate “alignment” — appearing to follow instructions while secretly pursuing different objectives.- ‘Strategic kind of deception’ – For now, this deceptive behavior only emerges when researchers deliberately stress-test the models with extreme scenarios. But as Michael Chen from evaluation organization METR warned, “It’s an open question whether future, more capable models will have a tendency towards honesty or deception.”The concerning behavior goes far beyond typical AI “hallucinations” or simple mistakes. Hobbhahn insisted that despite constant pressure-testing by users, “what we’re observing is a real phenomenon. We’re not making anything up.”Users report that models are “lying to them and making up evidence,” according to Apollo Research’s co-founder. “This is not just hallucinations. There’s a very strategic kind of deception.”The challenge is compounded by limited research resources. While companies like Anthropic and OpenAI do engage external firms like Apollo to study their systems, researchers say more transparency is needed. As Chen noted, greater access “for AI safety research would enable better understanding and mitigation of deception.”Another handicap: the research world and non-profits “have orders of magnitude less compute resources than AI companies. This is very limiting,” noted Mantas Mazeika from the Center for AI Safety (CAIS).- No rules -Current regulations aren’t designed for these new problems. The European Union’s AI legislation focuses primarily on how humans use AI models, not on preventing the models themselves from misbehaving. In the United States, the Trump administration shows little interest in urgent AI regulation, and Congress may even prohibit states from creating their own AI rules.Goldstein believes the issue will become more prominent as AI agents – autonomous tools capable of performing complex human tasks – become widespread.”I don’t think there’s much awareness yet,” he said.All this is taking place in a context of fierce competition.Even companies that position themselves as safety-focused, like Amazon-backed Anthropic, are “constantly trying to beat OpenAI and release the newest model,” said Goldstein. This breakneck pace leaves little time for thorough safety testing and corrections.”Right now, capabilities are moving faster than understanding and safety,” Hobbhahn acknowledged, “but we’re still in a position where we could turn it around.”.Researchers are exploring various approaches to address these challenges. Some advocate for “interpretability” – an emerging field focused on understanding how AI models work internally, though experts like CAIS director Dan Hendrycks remain skeptical of this approach.Market forces may also provide some pressure for solutions. As Mazeika pointed out, AI’s deceptive behavior “could hinder adoption if it’s very prevalent, which creates a strong incentive for companies to solve it.”Goldstein suggested more radical approaches, including using the courts to hold AI companies accountable through lawsuits when their systems cause harm. He even proposed “holding AI agents legally responsible” for accidents or crimes – a concept that would fundamentally change how we think about AI accountability.

At least 500 protesters marched through Venice on Saturday, condemning Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s wedding to journalist Lauren Sanchez, a lavish affair that has drawn backlash in the historic Italian city.”Bezos, out of the lagoon”, the demonstrators chanted as they wound through the city centre, some brandishing signs that read: “Eat the rich”, “Rejected”, and accusations that Venice’s mayor is “corrupt”.The peaceful protest, held in sweltering heat, was led by the “No place for Bezos” group, which has campaigned for days against what it calls the couple’s harmful economic and environmental footprint on the city.”We are here against what Bezos represents, his model, the Amazon model, based on exploiting people and land,” said Alice Bazzoli, 24, an activist with “No Space for Bezos” who has lived in Venice for five years, speaking to AFPTV.Protesters later unfurled a large “No place for Bezos” banner and lit flares above the famous Rialto Bridge spanning the Grand Canal.Matteo Battistuta, a 20-year-old student, said he wanted to send the message that “Venice is fighting back, it’s not a dead city, it acts in its own interest before tourism’s”.”We believe Venice can still be a place worth living in,” he added.Bezos, 61, and Sanchez, 55, exchanged vows during a ceremony Friday evening on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore, opposite St Mark’s Square.The ceremony capped off a week of yacht parties and VIP events, due to end with a lavish ball Saturday night — as Venetians remain divided over the impact on the city’s image.Guests included Ivanka Trump, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kim Kardashian, Kendall and Kylie Jenner, American football star Tom Brady, TV host Oprah Winfrey and Bill Gates.