• Police seek suspects in deadly birthday party shooting
  • Lawmakers launch inquires into U.S. boat strike
  • Nov. 29, 2025, 10:07 PM EST / Updated Nov. 30, 2025,…
  • Mark Kelly says troops ‘can tell’ what orders…

Be that!

contact@bethat.ne.com

 

Be That ! Menu   ≡ ╳
  • Home
  • Travel
  • Culture
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport
  • Contact Us
  • Politics Politics
☰

Be that!

White House holds press briefing

admin - Latest News - September 22, 2025
admin
39 views 9 secs 0 Comments



Watch live coverage as White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt holds a press briefing.



Source link

TAGS:
PREVIOUS
First open swim event held in Chicago River in 98 years
NEXT
Sept. 22, 2025, 11:20 AM EDTBy Edwin Flores, Morgan Radford and Aaron FrancoYou’ve heard of pickleball, the wildly popular sport that’s gone mainstream. But now there’s padel — another racket sport that’s surging in popularity and one that has strong Latino roots.“It’s a sport that always keeps you on your toes,” said Roy Tabet, a professional padel player and a coach at Reserve Padel, one of the biggest luxury padel brands in the U.S., with clubs in Miami and New York. Tabet said he had played tennis his whole life but started finding it repetitive.“I started playing padel and I immediately felt the passion. The hype for the game was real,” he said in an interview with the “TODAY” show’s Morgan Radford.Morgan Radford and Santiago Gomez at Padel Haus in the Dumbo neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y.NBC NewsPadel got its start in Acapulco, Mexico, in 1969 when Enrique Corcuera, a Mexican businessman, was trying to build a makeshift tennis court in his backyard. He didn’t have enough space and chose to make a smaller version — the very first padel court — with a distinguishing feature: It was surrounded by an almost 10-foot wall.The sport would eventually grow and spread internationally. It’s now described as the fastest-growing sport worldwide. The International Padel Federation says padel is played in more than 140 countries around the world with about 30 million amateur players.Currently in the U.S., there are over 100,000 amateur players, according to PadelUSA, an online marketplace for padel equipment, but the number of padel courts has been increasing.The sport’s growing popularity has even captured the attention of athletes and celebrities like Eva Longoria, Derek Jeter, Jimmy Butler and Adam Levine.“It’s like pickleball but kind of a little cooler,” Levine told Jimmy Fallon in April on “The Tonight Show.” “It’s super fun,” the singer added, explaining he was first introduced to the sport by Michael Bublé, his fellow coach on “The Voice,” when they were vacationing together in Mexico.Padel differs from other racket sports in that the court is about one-third the size of a tennis court and is typically surrounded by a glass or mesh wall. The ball can be hit off the walls and even from outside the court, as players can exit the court through a door to return the ball. Players must have a teammate, as the sport can only be played in doubles.A big draw, fans say, is the community it fosters as well as the game’s fast pace.“What got me hooked is the community. I feel like I met a lot of my best friends here, so coming to see them specifically turned into my love for playing padel,” Rachel Kuan, who’s now a customer experiences employee at Reserve Padel, told “TODAY.” Santiago Gomez, who fell in love with the game while growing up in Acapulco, founded Padel Haus, a sprawling padel social and cultural hub located in New York City — and among the first dedicated padel courts in the U.S. Padel Haus has since opened more courts across the New York City area as well as in Atlanta, Nashville and Denver.“A lot of Latinos were first — they were the first ones to come because they play the sport at home,” Gomez said.“Americans didn’t know about the sport when we first opened in 2022,” he said. “And then after that, a lot of tennis players, former tennis players, former squash players — Americans — came and tried it for the first time and they fully converted to padel.”Gomez estimates that about 70% of Padel Haus’ members are from the U.S. while the remaining 30% hail from other countries. The growth has increased so significantly that there’s now a waitlist for people looking to sign up.Fast pace ‘keeps you hooked’In addition to the social aspect of the game, Gomez said it’s addictive because of how fast-paced it can get compared to other racket sports.“[In tennis], a ball passes you, your mind is wired to think that the point is over. But here, given the wall’s in the back, you can still save the point. So you feel like a hero when you’re catching a ball that you couldn’t catch in tennis,” Gomez said.“You’re still in the game, and that gives you [a] big dopamine rush and that’s what keeps you hooked.”Mexican tennis player Yola Ramirez competing in the women’s singles tournament at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, on July 1,1959.Evening Standard / Hulton Archive/Getty Images fileThe International Padel Federation is working on getting the sport included in the 2032 Olympics. But for some like Marnie Perez-Ochoa, whose grandmother Yola Ramirez was a former professional tennis player from Mexico and grandfather built Padel courts for professional tournaments in Acapulco, the game has also become a point of cultural pride.“The power of sport is so prevalent — it’s just now getting started in the States. You see it in Mexico. It already boomed in Europe — Spain in particular. So I’m really excited to see where it’s going to go in the States. And I think it’s really beautiful that it started in Mexico,” Perez-Ochoa said.Edwin FloresEdwin Flores was a former reporter and video producer based in Anaheim, California. Morgan RadfordAaron Franco
Related Post
October 10, 2025
Savewith a NBCUniversal ProfileCreate your free profile or log in to save this articleOct. 10, 2025, 4:45 PM EDTBy Tim Stelloh and David KetterlingThe legal saga surrounding the killing of a California art dealer nearly 17 years ago finally came to a close this year, when two men convicted in an elaborate grift and murder plot were sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.The case was derailed for years by allegations of bias — allegations that emerged after a judge was secretly recorded making derogatory comments about two defendants described by prosecutors as the con artists who orchestrated the plot to take Cliff Lambert’s money, identity and life.All six people charged in Lambert’s 2008 killing in Palm Springs, the desert city in California’s Coachella Valley, were either convicted or pleaded guilty more than a decade ago. But the secret recordings — which were made illegally by one of the defendants during his 2012 trial — prompted a series of overturned convictions and new trials for four of the accused. For more on the case, tune in to “The Prince, The Whiz Kid & The Millionaire” on “Dateline” at 9 ET/8 ET tonight. DATELINE SNEAK PEEK: The Prince, The Whiz Kid & The Millionaire01:59One of those defendants was fatally assaulted awaiting retrial. The three others were convicted again after a new round of trials that ended two years ago. All are appealing their convictions.Even after those verdicts, sentencing for two of the defendants stalled for months — and in one case, more than two years — amid claims of ineffective lawyering and health problems. In April and July, Daniel Garcia, 43, and David Replogle, 76, finally received their punishment.“I should be happier than I am, but I am just so frustrated,” the prosecutor who handled the first set of trials said after Garcia’s sentencing. “I am so angry that it took this long.”The murderLambert, 74, was killed at his home on Dec. 5, 2008, during what he believed was a meeting with a lawyer acting on behalf of a deceased art collector, an appeals decision in the case shows.Cliff Lambert.Courtesy Tom FitzmauriceAccording to former Riverside County Deputy District Attorney Rob Hightower, the man posing as a lawyer was actually Kaushal Niroula — a San Francisco grifter who previously claimed to be an exiled prince from Nepal who was one of the architects of the plan to defraud and murder Lambert.During one of the trials, Hightower said the other architect was Daniel Garcia, described by a onetime close friend as knowledgeable, charming and well-traveled — someone who could enamor everyone he met.Garcia had also captured media attention in San Francisco a few years earlier when he sued a prominent local financier, Thomas White, over allegations of sexual abuse. White, who died in 2013, settled with Garcia and a second plaintiff for roughly $500,000 but said the claims were false, court filings show.DATELINE EXCLUSIVE: Tyson Wrensch says detectives dismissed his fraud allegations before Cliff Lambert’s murder01:23According to the former friend, Tyson Wrensch, Garcia and Niroula would show up at bars in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood and shower patrons with free drinks.“Everyone knew that the prince was at the bar,” he said. “Everything was over the top.”Hightower described Garcia as the link to Lambert, who met Garcia through an online dating site in the spring of 2008 and flew him to Palm Springs.Daniel Garcia at his second trial.DatelineDuring the meeting with Lambert, Niroula secretly let in two accomplices who fatally stabbed the art dealer and buried him in a shallow grave north of Los Angeles, Hightower said. Two other accomplices, including Replogle, a San Francisco lawyer who’d represented Garcia in the sex abuse suit, also participated in the plot, Hightower said.After the killing, the group fabricated powers of attorney in Lambert’s name, drained hundreds of thousands of dollars from his bank account and tried to sell his home, Hightower said.Within months, all six had been arrested in connection with the killing. Four of them, including Garcia, Niroula and Replogle, were charged with murder, conspiracy, grand theft and other crimes. The four pleaded not guilty and were convicted of murder at separate trials in 2011 and 2012. They were sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.A fifth suspect confessed, cooperated with authorities and pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter. A sixth suspect pleaded guilty to fraud.Convictions overturnedIn 2016, Niroula filed a petition seeking a new trial that accused the judge who oversaw the case of bias. The petition included a series of bombshell claims: In off-the-record comments, Riverside County Superior Court Judge David Downing was recorded on Garcia’s courtroom laptop talking with his clerk about Niroula’s HIV-positive status.Kaushal Niroula.Courtesy Mark EvansAccording to the petition, when the clerk said the defendant “likes licking envelopes,” Downing responded: “Ewww lord knows where his tongue has been and for that very reason I don’t like to touch or read anything he gives me and I deny everything as I don’t read it. It’s a tough world folks.”The petition notes another comment in which Downing used an expletive to describe the defendants and said they “can file anything they want, but I won’t grant any important motions.”During a private meeting, Garcia confronted Downing about the recordings, according to the appeals decision. Downing responded that he was protected by the First Amendment and treated everyone in the case appropriately, the decision shows.Downing, whose law license has been listed as inactive since 2013, hasn’t commented publicly on the case or responded to messages left at a phone number listed under his name.DATELINE EXCLUSIVE: Prosecutor Lisa DiMaria says investigation into murder of Cliff Lambert was ‘like Alice in Wonderland, falling into a rabbit hole01:20In 2020, after the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office said it didn’t oppose new trials for the four defendants who denied the murder charges, a judge overturned the convictions and ordered the cases to be retried.“I felt probably the way Lambert did when he had the knife shoved into his back,” Lisa DiMaria, the Riverside County prosecutor who tried the case, told “Dateline.” “All of those years that I dedicated to getting justice for Lambert out the window. One of the most upsetting days of my life, the absolute most upsetting day of my career.”A jailhouse death and more convictionsOn Aug. 11, 2022, the first of the defendants to be retried — Replogle — was convicted of all charges. Weeks later, while awaiting retrial, another inmate killed Niroula at the Riverside County jail, according to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Niroula’s family. Defendant and former San Francisco Bay Area lawyer David Replogle.DatelineThe suit, filed in federal court, accuses the county sheriff’s office of failing to protect Niroula, 41, from harm.According to the suit, Niroula identified as a transgender woman at the time and was beaten and strangled to death by a person described in the complaint as a violent predator who “posed an immediate threat of violence and harm to all other inmates in his immediate vicinity and especially inmates like Kaushal Niroula.”The sheriff’s office has denied the allegations, which are set for trial in February.In 2023, two more convictions followed. But only one of the defendants — a former San Francisco bartender whom prosecutors said Niroula let into Lambert’s house — was sentenced. That November, he was ordered to serve life without the possibility of parole. Sentencing for Replogle and Garcia was delayed for months, however. In a court filing, Garcia said he hadn’t been provided with accommodations compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Garcia has a rare genetic disorder that causes extreme sensitivity to sunlight, the filing says.Garcia and Replogle also raised issues about their legal representation. At one point last October, as Replogle sought to have a newly appointed attorney thrown off the case, the judge denied the request and said, “There’s going to be no more playing games.”Finally sentenced — againSix months later, on April 25, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Anthony Villalobos denied a motion from Garcia seeking a new trial and sentenced him to life without the possibility of parole. In July, Villalobos denied a request from Replogle for a new trial and sentenced him to the same punishment.After Garcia’s hearing, DiMaria, the prosecutor, acknowledged the frustration that she felt after having watched the case drag on for years. She described Downing’s comments as “flippant” and said the reversal had nothing to do with the quality of the evidence prosecutors assembled.“There was never a question about innocence,” she said. “There was never a question about whether or not he did it.”“The most aggravating part is that he conned and manipulated the system, just like he did with his victims,” DiMaria said of Garcia. “The criminal justice system was played just like all of the victims were.”Garcia continues to maintain his innocence. In an interview with “Dateline,” he denied playing a role in the killing and blamed Niroula and the other defendants for the murder.Tim StellohTim Stelloh is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.David KetterlingDavid Ketterling is a producer for “Dateline.” 
November 30, 2025
Nov. 30, 2025, 10:04 AM ESTBy Jasmine Cui and Jared PerloSurveying the state of America’s artificial intelligence landscape earlier this year, Misha Laskin was concerned.Laskin, a theoretical physicist and machine learning engineer who helped create some of Google’s most powerful AI models, saw a growing embrace among American AI companies of free, customizable and increasingly powerful “open” AI models.But most of these models were being made in China, and these systems were quickly gaining ground on their U.S. competitors.“These models were not that far behind the frontier. In fact, they were surprisingly close to the frontier. The ones that are coming now,” Laskin said, pausing slightly, “well they’re palpably close to the frontier.”Laskin founded a startup called Reflection AI, recently valued at $8 billion, to provide an open-source American alternative to these increasingly capable Chinese models that have gained traction in Silicon Valley.“You’re starting to see glimpses of open-model companies actually driving the frontier of intelligence in China, and overall, the frontier of intelligence,” Laskin said.Over the past year, a growing share of America’s hottest AI startups have turned to open Chinese AI models that increasingly rival, and sometimes replace, expensive U.S. systems as the foundation for American AI products.NBC News spoke to over 15 AI startup founders, machine-learning engineers, industry experts and investors, who said that while models from American companies continue to set the pace of progress at the frontier of AI capabilities, many Chinese systems are cheaper to access, more customizable and have become sufficiently capable for many uses over the past year.The growing embrace could pose a problem for the U.S. AI industry. Investors have staked tens of billions on OpenAI and Anthropic, wagering that leading American artificial intelligence companies will dominate the world’s AI market. But the increasing use of free Chinese models by American companies raises questions about how exceptional those models actually are — and whether America’s pursuit of closed models might be misguided altogether.Michael Fine, head machine learning at Exa, an AI-focused search company valued at $700 million and supported by Silicon Valley mainstays like Lightspeed Venture Partners and Nvidia, said running Chinese models on Exa’s own hardware has proved to be significantly faster and less expensive than using bigger models, like OpenAI’s GPT-5 or Google’s Gemini, in many cases.“What often happens is we’ll get a feature working with a closed model and realize it’s too expensive or too slow, and we ask, ‘What levers do we have to make this faster and cheaper?’”“That usually means replacing the closed model with the equivalent open model and then running it on our own infrastructure,” Fine said.Chinese models, like DeepSeek’s R1 and Alibaba’s Qwen, are free to use and considered “open-source” or “open-weight” because anyone can download, copy, modify and operate them. They differ from leading American systems like Anthropic’s Claude or OpenAI’s most popular GPT models, which are “closed,” or proprietary, and accessed through data centers and pipelines controlled by the big tech giants. For years, American closed-source models from OpenAI and Anthropic vastly outperformed both American and Chinese open alternatives. Even well-resourced in-house efforts to use open-source models struggled: Bloomberg tried to create an internal tool, BloombergGPT, using open-source models trained on its expansive collection of financial news and documents, only to see it trail OpenAI’s closed models on financial knowledge.Yet in the past year, Chinese companies like DeepSeek and Alibaba have made huge technological advancements. Their open-source products now closely approach or even match the performance of leading closed American models in many domains, according to metrics tracked by Artificial Analysis, an independent AI benchmarking company.“The gap is really shrinking,” Lin Qiao, CEO of Fireworks AI and co-creator of PyTorch, the dominant framework for training AI models, said of the capability differences between American closed-source and Chinese open-source models.
September 21, 2025
Arrest made after shots fired at ABC-affiliate station
September 22, 2025
Tiger handler fatally mauled at Oklahoma preserve
Comments are closed.
Scroll To Top
  • Home
  • Travel
  • Culture
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport
  • Contact Us
  • Politics
© Copyright 2025 - Be That ! . All Rights Reserved