• Palestinians Begin Return Home As Ceasefire Takes Effect
  • Oct. 11, 2025, 8:48 AM EDT / Updated Oct. 11, 2025,…
  • Inside the scramble to save lives as deadly…
  • Trump says he will impose a 100% tariff…

Be that!

contact@bethat.ne.com

 

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

Be that!

New TikTok deal to secure and retrain algorithm

admin - Latest News - September 22, 2025
admin
17 views 33 secs 0 Comments



The White House says TikTok’s algorithm “will be secured, retrained, and operated in the United States” as part of the Trump administration’s new TikTok deal. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt also says user data will be stored in the U.S. and not by TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, and President Donald Trump plans to sign the deal later this week.



Source link

TAGS:
PREVIOUS
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
NEXT
Karoline Leavitt on recognizing a Palestinian state
Related Post
October 10, 2025
Oct. 10, 2025, 1:45 AM EDTBy Kayla SteinbergThousands of U.S.-bound packages shipped by UPS are trapped at hubs across the country, unable to clear the maze of new customs requirements imposed by the Trump administration.As packages flagged for customs issues pile up in UPS warehouses, the company told NBC News it has begun “disposing of” some shipments.Frustrated UPS customers describe waiting for weeks and trying to make sense of scores of conflicting tracking updates from the world’s largest courier.“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Matthew Wasserbach, brokerage manager of Express Customs Clearance, said of the UPS backlog. “It’s totally unprecedented.”Wasserbach’s New York City-based shipping services firm helps clients move shipments through customs. He said the company has seen a spike in inquiries for help with UPS customs clearance.A Boeing 747 operated by UPS on the tarmac at Louisville International Airport in Kentucky during a winter storm on Feb. 3, 2022.Luke Sharrett / Bloomberg via Getty Images fileMore than two dozen people who are waiting for their UPS packages explained the circumstances of their shipments to NBC News.They described shipments of tea, telescopes, luxury glassware, musical instruments and more — some worth tens of thousands of dollars — all in limbo or perhaps gone. Others have deep sentimental value: notebooks, diplomas and even engagement rings.The frustration has exploded online, with customers sharing horror stories on Reddit of missing skin care products, art and collectibles.They are confused and angry, and they want answers.Packages destroyed? “It’s almost impossible to get through to anybody to figure out what is happening,” said Ashley Freberg, who said she is missing several boxes she shipped via UPS from England in September. “Are my packages actually being destroyed or not?”Freberg’s boxes of journals, records and books were shipped on Sept. 18, according to tracking documents she shared with NBC News. Over the next two weeks, she received two separate notifications from UPS that her personal mementos had not cleared customs and as a result had been “disposed of” by UPS.Then, on Oct. 1, a UPS tracking update appeared for her packages, saying they were on the way. The tracking updates Freberg showed NBC News for that shipment revealed it was the most recent update she had received. UPS transport jets wait to be loaded with packages at UPS Worldport in Louisville, Ky., on April 27, 2021.Timothy D. Easley / AP fileWhile sentimental value is impossible to measure, other customers fear they will not be able to recover financially if their goods were destroyed.Tea importer Lauren Purvis of Portland, Oregon, said five shipments from Japan, mostly containing matcha green tea and collectively worth more than $127,000, were all sent via UPS over the last few weeks and arrived at UPS’ international package processing hub in Louisville, Kentucky. Purvis has yet to receive any of the shipments, only a flurry of conflicting tracking updates from UPS.A series of notifications for one shipment, which she shared with NBC News, said that the shipment had not cleared customs and that UPS had disposed of it. But a subsequent tracking update said the shipment had cleared customs and was on the way.“We know how to properly document and pay for our packages,” Purvis said. “There should be zero reason that a properly documented and paid-for package would be set to be disposed of.”At least a half-dozen people described an emotional seesaw they were put through by weeks of contradictory UPS tracking updates about their shipments. The updates, they said, compounded the stress of not knowing what had really happened to their possessions.A UPS Boeing 767 aircraft taxis at San Diego International Airport, in San Diego, Calif., August 15, 2025.Kevin Carter / Getty Images fileAJ, a Boston man who asked that NBC News use only his initials to protect his privacy, said he shipped a package from Japan via UPS on Sept. 12 including Japanese language books, a pillow and a backpack. After it sat in Louisville for nearly two weeks, AJ got a tracking update on Sept. 26, one of several that he shared with NBC News. “We’re sorry, your package did not clear customs and has been removed from the UPS network. Per customs guidelines, it has been destroyed. Please contact the sender for more information,” it read.UPS tracking updates for a package shipped from Japan to the United States.Obtained by NBC NewsThree days later, on Sept. 29, he received another, and this one read: “On the Way. Import Scan, Louisville, KY, United States.” For a moment, it appeared as though AJ’s shipment might have been found. But less than 24 hours after his hopes were raised, another tracking update arrived: “We’re sorry,” it began. It was the same notice that his package had “been destroyed” that he had received on the 26th. Two minutes later, he got his final update: “Unable to Deliver. Package cannot clear due to customs delay or missing info. Attempt to contact sender made. Package has been disposed of.” A mess for customs International shipping was thrown into chaos after the long-standing “de minimis” tariff exemption for low-value packages ended on Aug. 29. Packages with values of $800 or less, which were previously allowed to enter the United States duty-free, are now subject to a range of tariffs and fees.They include hundreds of country-specific rates, or President Donald Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs, as well as new levies on certain products and materials. President Donald Trump holds a chart as he speaks about reciprocal tariffs at a “Make America Wealthy Again” event at the White House on April 2.Brendan Smialowski / AFP – Getty Images fileThe result is that international shipping to the United States today is far more complex and costly than it was even two months ago. The sweeping changes have caught private individuals and veteran exporters alike in a customs conundrum.It is difficult to know the exact number of the packages that are stuck in UPS customs purgatory. Shipping companies guard their delivery data closely. UPS reported to investors that in 2023, its international service delivered around 3.2 million packages per day.This week, the company told NBC News that it is clearing more than 90% of the packages it handles through customs on the first day. The rest of the packages, or less than 10%, require more time to clear customs and need to be held until they do. That could easily mean that thousands of UPS packages every day are not clearing customs on their first try.No easy fixIn a statement to NBC News, UPS said it is doing its best to get all packages to their destinations while abiding by the new customs requirements.“Because of changes to U.S. import regulations, we are seeing many packages that are unable to clear customs due to missing or incomplete information about the shipment required for customs clearance,” it said. UPS said it makes several attempts to get any missing information and clear delayed shipments, contacting shippers three times.“In cases where we cannot obtain the necessary information to clear the package, there are two options,” it said. “First, the package can be returned to the original shipper at their expense. Second, if the customer does not respond and the package cannot be cleared for delivery, disposing of the shipment is in compliance with U.S. customs regulations. We continue to work to bridge the gap of understanding tied to the new requirements and, as always, remain committed to serving our customers.”A conveyor belt carries envelopes and small packages past UPS workers to their destinations at Worldport on Nov. 20, 2015.Patrick Semansky / AP, fileNBC News asked UPS precisely what it does with packages when it tells customers their shipments have been unable to clear customs and have been “disposed of.” It would not say. On Sept. 27, a shipper in Stockholm received a formal notification from UPS that two packages her glassware company sent to the United States — which failed to clear customs — would be destroyed.“We are sorry, but due to these circumstances and the perishable nature of the contents, we are now required to proceed with destruction of the shipment in accordance with regulatory guidelines,” UPS told Anni Cernea in an email she shared with NBC News.The email continued, “There is no need to contact our call center for further information or to attempt to clear this shipment.”Cernea said, “It’s just outrageous that they can dispose of products like this without approval from either the sender or recipient.”From now on, Cernea said, she plans to ship her products via UPS rival FedEx.Trouble aheadCernea’s decision to switch carriers hints at the worst-case scenario for UPS, which is that people could abandon the company. It is a potential crisis for the roughly $70 billion company. The company’s stock price is already down more than 30% this year, which analysts attribute to a mix of tariffs, competition and shifting shopping habits.As she awaits her missing journals and diplomas from England, Freberg is looking ahead to the biggest shipping months of the year.“I can’t even imagine how bad the holidays are going to be, because that’s a time where loads of people are shipping stuff overseas,” she said.“If it doesn’t get solved soon, I can only see it becoming an even bigger issue.”Kayla SteinbergKayla Steinberg is a producer at NBC News covering business and the economy.
October 3, 2025
First female Archbishop of Canterbury appointed
October 2, 2025
Warrant issued for actor Tyrese Gibson
September 28, 2025
Sept. 28, 2025, 7:00 PM EDT / Updated Sept. 28, 2025, 7:11 PM EDTBy Yamiche Alcindor and Alexandra MarquezPresident Donald Trump, in an exclusive interview Sunday with NBC News, accused former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray of “inappropriate” behavior during his tenure and said that he “would think” that the Justice Department is investigating him.“I would imagine. I would certainly imagine. I would think they are doing that,” Trump said during a phone call when asked whether the Justice Department should investigate Wray.Trump accused the former director of wrongdoing in the interview, telling NBC News that Wray, who resigned at the end of the Biden administration, “did a terrible job and we just found out about it.”“I think it’s very inappropriate what he, what he did. And, I think a lot of his service was very inappropriate. But, we haven’t gone beyond that. Don’t forget, we just found out about all of these FBI agents being there,” he said. The comment about FBI agents “being there” was an apparent reference to an unfounded accusation Trump posted on Truth Social on Saturday, alleging the FBI “secretly placed, against all Rules, Regulations, Protocols, and Standards, 274 FBI Agents into the Crowd just prior to, and during, the January 6th Hoax.”Trump has repeated that unfounded claim multiple times in the past. Last week, Blaze Media, a conservative media outlet, wrote that “FBI had 274 plainclothes agents embedded in Jan. 6 crowds, congressional source says.” NBC News has not independently confirmed the story.In the Truth Social post on Saturday, the president also alleged that the agents were “probably acting as Agitators and Insurrectionists,” and certainly not as “Law Enforcement Officials.” Trump’s post also directly called out Wray, saying he “has some major explaining to do.”Wray has not publicly commented on the recent allegations.There is no evidence that undercover FBI officers were at protests at or near the Capitol on Jan. 6. A report by the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General in December 2024 concluded the same.On Saturday evening, FBI Director Kash Patel gave a different description of the agency’s role on Jan. 6, 2021. Patel also criticized the FBI’s action on that day. In a post on X and in an interview with Fox News, Patel said that agents were only at the Capitol after the riot began to try and control the unruly crowd.“274 FBI agents were thrown into crowd control on Jan 6 against FBI standards. That failure was on corrupt leadership. Thanks to agents stepping up, the truth is coming out,” Patel wrote on X, in a post that has apparently been taken down.“Agents were sent into a crowd control mission after the riot was declared by Metro Police — something that goes against FBI standards,” Patel told Fox News.A senior former FBI official with knowledge of the bureau’s actions that day said the Blaze post was “completely and utterly untrue.”“I know of no agents who were authorized to be in the crowds observing the constitutionally protected rights of citizens on January 6th,” said the official who requested anonymity, citing fear of retaliation.Trump’s remarks about Wray come just days after another former FBI Director, James Comey, was indicted last week on two counts: making a false statement and obstruction of a congressional proceeding. The indictment relates to testimony Comey gave at a 2020 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing where he denied authorizing leaks of certain information to the media.Comey has denied any wrongdoing and his indictment came after Trump publicly encouraged the Justice Department to pursue investigations against Comey and other political foes, like New York Attorney General Letitia James and Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.Other Trump administration officials in recent weeks and months have hinted at other Justice Department investigations happening behind the scenes.On Sunday, Vice President JD Vance told Fox News that, there are “certainly going to be more indictments coming over the next three and a half years of the Trump administration.”Plans for PortlandTrump also spoke about directing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to send troops to Oregon and that he was “authorizing Full Force, if necessary” to protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities in “War ravaged Portland.”“They are literally attacking and there are fires all over the place. … It looks, like, terrible,” Trump said. “Can’t have that in an American city. But this has been going on for a long time. This has been going on for years, actually.”On Saturday, Democratic Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek said she told Trump in a phone call that the state did not need federal troops to be sent there. “Our city is a far cry from the war ravaged community that he has posted about on social media and I conveyed that directly to him,” Kotek said at a press conference. “The president will not find lawlessness or violence here.” On Sunday, Oregon officials filed a preliminary injunction to stop the deployment.Though on Sunday the president stopped short of committing to send in troops, telling NBC News that “we’ll make a decision on that pretty soon.”He also promised federal operations in Chicago, something he’s been floating for weeks.“Chicago is a mess. It’s a crime-ridden mess,” the president said, adding later, “Any place where there is big trouble, we want to go and help out.”Trump also referenced what he called a “successful” operation in Washington, D.C., where the federal government surged federal law enforcement officers and National Guard troops in August.“Look at Washington, D.C., it’s doing so beautifully now. Everybody is so happy. This was a crime-ridden mess, absolute crime-ridden mess, and look at it now, it’s so successful,” he said.The National Guard was also deployed to Los Angeles this year, where thousands of troops and hundreds of Marines arrived in the city on federal orders to quell anti-ICE protests in June.The president has threatened to send troops and a surge of federal law enforcement officers to other cities run by Democratic mayors as well, including Baltimore and New Orleans.Earlier this month, the president created a task force to mobilize resources to Memphis, too, a move welcomed by Tennessee GOP Gov. Bill Lee.Impending government shutdownTrump and congressional leaders are also facing a looming deadline to avoid a government shutdown on Wednesday, if Democrats and Republicans don’t agree on a continuing resolution.On Sunday, Trump said that a shutdown is “a possibility.”The president is slated to meet with congressional leaders from both parties at the White House on Monday.Last week, the Trump administration laid the groundwork to permanently lay off mass numbers of federal workers that would normally be temporarily furloughed for the length of a government shutdown.“We are going to cut a lot of the people that, you know, we’re able to cut, if there is [a shutdown],” the president said Sunday. “We’re able to cut on a permanent basis and we will be doing that. I’d rather not do that.”He also blamed Democrats for causing a potential shutdown, accusing them of wanting to fund healthcare for immigrants living in the U.S. illegally. Senate Democrats earlier this month sought to pass their own version of a stopgap spending bill that would have restored cuts to Medicaid that Republicans implemented earlier this year.Neither that measure, nor a measure that the House passed to keep funding at current levels through Nov. 21, received enough votes to pass in the Senate earlier this month “The problem we have with the shutdown is that Democrats want to do all healthcare for illegal immigrants,” Trump said. “We’re not going to do that.”On Sunday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., echoed Trump, telling NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that it was “totally up to the Democrats” whether a shutdown would occur.“What the Democrats have done here is take the federal government as a hostage — and for that matter, by extension, the American people — to try and get a whole laundry list of things that they want that special interest groups on the far left are pushing them to accomplish,” he added.In an interview afterwards, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called for “a serious negotiation“ with Republicans.“We need the meeting. It’s a first step, but only a first step. We need a serious negotiation,” he told “Meet the Press.”Previewing Netanyahu meeting The president also spoke about an upcoming meeting he has planned on Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, telling NBC News that he’s optimistic a deal can be reached to end the war in Gaza.“We’re doing very well. It looks like there is a really good chance for peace in the Middle East. Everybody is on board. Everybody,” Trump said.His remarks come as Trump last week said he would not allow Israel to annex the West Bank.“It’s not going to happen,” he told reporters in a press gaggle.So far, no one has revealed the details of a potential peace deal between Hamas and Israel, but Vice President JD Vance on Sunday told Fox News that he was “cautiously hopeful” that both sides could reach a deal. “But I think the President’s optimism is warranted here. I feel more optimistic about where we are right now than where we have been at any point in the last few months, but let’s be realistic, these things can get derailed at the very last minute. So while I remain very hopeful, I am cautiously hopeful,” Vance said.Yamiche AlcindorYamiche Alcindor is a White House correspondent for NBC News.Alexandra MarquezAlexandra Marquez is a politics reporter for NBC News.Michael Kosnar contributed.
Comments are closed.
Scroll To Top
  • Home
  • Travel
  • Culture
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport
  • Contact Us
  • Politics
© Copyright 2025 - Be That ! . All Rights Reserved