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Exclusive-Power failed at SpaceX mission control before September spacewalk by NASA nomineeRALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The North Carolina Democratic Party sued on Friday to block the potential removal of tens of thousands of ballots tallied in an extremely close state Supreme Court race, saying state election officials would be violating federal law if they sided with protests initiated by the trailing Republican candidate. The lawsuit filed in Raleigh federal court comes as attorneys for Court of Appeals Judge Jefferson Griffin also went to state courts on Friday to attempt to force the State Board of Elections to act more quickly on accusations contained in the protests. The board tentatively planned to hold a public hearing on the protests next Wednesday, according to a board email provided with Griffin's motion. Griffin wants a final decision from the board earlier. Democratic Associate Justice Allison Riggs leads Griffin by 734 votes following a machine recount of over 5.5 million ballots cast in their Nov. 5 election. A partial hand recount began this week and is nearly complete. People are also reading... But Griffin, joined by three other GOP state legislative candidates, contend that well over 60,000 ballots shouldn't have counted, casting doubt on election results. Among their complaints: voter registration records of some voters casting ballots lack driver’s license or partial Social Security numbers, and overseas voters never living in North Carolina have run afoul of state residency requirements. The Democratic Party's lawsuit said that some of the protests represent “systematic challenges to voter eligibility” that counter a federal law's prohibition of what's essentially removing people from voter registration lists retroactively after an election. The lawsuit wants a judge to declare federal law and the Constitution prevents the votes from being discarded and to order the election board — a majority of its members Democrats — to comply. “No North Carolinian deserves to have their vote thrown out in a callous power grab,” state party Chair Anderson Clayton said in a written statement. According to state law, a board considering an election protest could correct a ballot tally, direct another recount or order a new election. Griffin's attorneys filed requests Friday for judges to demand that the board issue final rulings by late Tuesday afternoon. They were filed in Wake County Superior Court and at the Court of Appeals — the same court where Griffin serves. Usually three members on the 15-judge court — second only to the Supreme Court in state's jurisprudence — hear such motions. “Public trust in our electoral processes depends on both fair and efficient procedures to determine the outcome of our elections. By failing to give a timely decision, the State Board continues to undermine the public interest,” Griffin attorney Troy Shelton wrote. Attorneys for Riggs separately on Friday also responded to Griffin's actual protests before the board, saying they should all be denied. Griffin led Riggs — one of two Democrats on the seven-member court — by about 10,000 votes on election night, but that lead dwindled and flipped to Riggs as tens of thousands of qualifying provisional and absentee ballots were added to the totals through the canvass. Riggs has declared victory. The three Republican legislative candidates joining Griffin's protests all trailed Democratic rivals after the machine recounts. One is GOP Rep. Frank Sossamon, who trails Democratic challenger Bryan Cohn by about 230 votes. Should Cohn win, Republicans would fall one seat short of retaining its current veto-proof majority in both chambers. That would give more leverage to Democratic Gov.-elect Josh Stein in 2025. The Associated Press has not called the Supreme Court race and two of the three legislative races highlighted in the protests. Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Get local news delivered to your inbox!

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Two years ago, Colorado athletic director Rick George hired Deion Sanders in an effort to bring life back to the football program. So far, it’s been an unquestioned success, to the point that national pundits often talk about Sanders being a great fit for jobs at other schools, or even the NFL. George, however, is confident Sanders will be in Boulder for a while. Two years removed from a 1-11 season, CU (9-3, 7-2 Big 12) is ranked No. 23 in the College Football Playoff Top 25, No. 20 in the Associated Press Top 25, and awaiting Sunday’s bowl selections to find out where they’ll play next. CU is 13-11 in Sanders’ two seasons. “Everybody talks about all these rumors and all these other things, and I kind of tune out that noise,” George said in an interview with BuffZone. “I know who Deion is, and I know what he represents and I believe he wants to be here for the long haul. We’ve supported all the initiatives that he’s embraced and we’ll continue to do that. My expectation is that he’ll be here and he can write some of our record books moving forward.” How long Sanders coaches in Boulder isn’t known, of course. He still has three years remaining on the five-year, $29.5-million contract he signed two years ago and there have been discussions about an extension. “Coach and I have talked about this three different times and we’ll continue to have discussions about it and that’s kind of where I’m at,” George said, while adding that Sanders doesn’t want to be distracted with contract talks until after the season. Sanders’ base and supplemental salary was $5.7 million this year and he will add $600,000 in bonuses for getting to nine regular season wins and a bowl game. Per the terms of his current deal, Sanders will receive $200,000 raises each season, which means he has $18.3 million left on his deal. Since being introduced as head coach on Dec. 4, 2022, Coach Prime has resuscitated the program. Considered the worst Power 5 conference program at the time, the Buffs improved to 4-8 a year ago (with five one-score losses) and vaulted to 9-3 this year. Led by Coach Prime’s son, Shedeur, at quarterback and dynamic cornerback/receiver Travis Hunter, the Buffs were in the race for the Big 12 title game until the final moments of the regular season last week. CU has been one of the most watched teams in the country, both on social media and on TV. And, of the 24 games CU has played under Coach Prime, 20 have been in sold-out stadiums, including 10 of 12 at Folsom Field. “I’m incredibly happy on where we are today,” George said. “We’ve got another game left, so we can still get to that 10th win, which was the high number that I thought this year that we could get to.” Adding to CU’s profile and Sanders’ coaching resume is that Hunter is the frontrunner for the Heisman Trophy, while Shedeur Sanders has a shot to be invited to New York as a finalist, as well. (Finalists will be announced Monday). Yet, even with Hunter and Shedeur heading off to the NFL, George said, “I think our best days are ahead of us. “I think what excites me is the recruiting class that he just had, and getting (five-star quarterback) JuJu Lewis is a really important factor in that. There’s a lot of people to build around that I think are going to be here for a while. I like his coaching staff a lot. I like his coordinators. ... And, coach has kind of proven over two years that he can reassemble a roster and get them working together and playing together to compete for a championship.” Coach Prime has often said 2023 was about instilling hope and 2024 was about expectations. George added to that, saying, “I’m sure the third year is going to be even higher expectations on where we think we can go. ... We gotta keep his coaching staff intact and if we do that, with his leadership, I think we’ll have a really good year.” George feels the future is so bright, in fact, that me might consider extending his own time at CU. In September of 2021, he signed a five-year deal that runs through June 30, 2026. In the summer of 2023, George, 64, told BuffZone he didn’t see himself working past then. That could change, however. “I’m contemplating that,” said George, who is in his 11th school year as the Buffs’ AD. “I’m not ready to say, ‘OK, I’ll definitely be done in two years. ... Talking with the family and all that, it’s fun to win again and I like what coach is doing. We have a good relationship and he’s great to work with, so that’s a factor for sure. I think coach and I from the start have had a really good relationship and it seems to get better and better as we go.”Love in the age of Instagram can be unpredictable, but this story from Punjab's Moga takes unpredictability to a whole new level! Deepak Kumar, a young man from Jalandhar, learned this the hard way when his wedding day turned into an unimaginable waiting game. According to Moga City South Police ASI Harjinder Singh, Deepak, the son of Prem Chand from Madiala village, met Manpreet Kaur on social media. Their online connection became so strong that they decided to get married. — PTI_News (@PTI_News) The grand baraat, complete with 100 guests, set off in high spirits to Moga, where the wedding was supposedly planned at the “Rose Garden Palace.” However, upon their arrival, there was no sign of any such palace. Confused, Deepak called Manpreet, who casually told him to wait as she would send someone to fetch them. The baraat waited at Lohara Chowk, hungry and thirsty. Web Development Advanced Java Mastery: Object-Oriented Programming Techniques By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Web Development Master RESTful APIs with Python and Django REST Framework: Web API Development By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) Generative AI for Dynamic Java Web Applications with ChatGPT By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Astrology Vastu Shastra Course By - Sachenkumar Rai, Vastu Shashtri View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) Java Programming with ChatGPT: Learn using Generative AI By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Entrepreneurship Startup Fundraising: Essential Tactics for Securing Capital By - Dr. Anu Khanchandani, Startup Coach with more than 25 years of experience View Program Office Productivity Mastering Google Sheets: Unleash the Power of Excel and Advance Analysis By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Finance A2Z Of Money By - elearnmarkets, Financial Education by StockEdge View Program Leadership Business Storytelling Masterclass By - Ameen Haque, Founder of Storywallahs View Program Office Productivity Zero to Hero in Microsoft Excel: Complete Excel guide 2024 By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Legal Complete Guide to AI Governance and Compliance By - Prince Patni, Software Developer (BI, Data Science) View Program Data Analysis Learn Power BI with Microsoft Fabric: Complete Course By - Prince Patni, Software Developer (BI, Data Science) View Program Strategy ESG and Business Sustainability Strategy By - Vipul Arora, Partner, ESG & Climate Solutions at Sattva Consulting Author I Speaker I Thought Leader View Program Data Science SQL for Data Science along with Data Analytics and Data Visualization By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Marketing Digital Marketing Masterclass by Neil Patel By - Neil Patel, Co-Founder and Author at Neil Patel Digital Digital Marketing Guru View Program Web Development Django & PostgreSQL Mastery: Build Professional Web Applications By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Finance Financial Literacy for Non-Finance Executives By - CA Raja, Chartered Accountant | Financial Management Educator | Former AVP - Credit, SBI View Program Office Productivity Advanced Excel Course - Financial Calculations & Excel Made Easy By - Anirudh Saraf, Founder- Saraf A & Associates, Chartered Accountant View Program Entrepreneurship Marketing & Sales Strategies for Startups: From Concept to Conversion By - Dr. Anu Khanchandani, Startup Coach with more than 25 years of experience View Program From midday until 6 PM, the baraatis waited and waited. Six hours later, Deepak realised that his big day would not end with a “happily ever after.” He eventually headed to the Moga City South Police Station, where he filed a complaint. Love can make fools of us all, but this story? It’s on another level. If you’re planning to swipe right forever, maybe double-check that the wedding venue actually exists! (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel )

OpenAI says it has no plans to release an API for Sora , its AI model that can generate reasonably realistic videos when provided with a text description or reference image. During an AMA with members of OpenAI’s dev team, Romain Huet, head of developer experience at OpenAI, said that a Sora API isn’t in the cards at the moment. “We don’t have plans for a Sora API yet,” he wrote . The reason could be capacity issues. OpenAI was forced to close applications for its Sora-powered video creation and editing suite shortly after its launch due to heavier-than-anticipated traffic. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman apologized on X. Sora, one prompt, cinematic AF pic.twitter.com/X8gzdes20M — Alex Patrascu (@maxescu) December 14, 2024 “We significantly underestimated demand for Sora,” he wrote . “It’s going to take a while to get everyone access. Trying to figure out how to do it as fast as possible!” OpenAI resumed sign-ups for Sora several days ago. Choosing not to prioritize an API for Sora threatens to put OpenAI at a disadvantage compared to one of its chief rivals, Google, which launched an API in limited access for its video-generation model, Veo , in early December. Google said this week that Veo’s successor, Veo 2 , which went viral for its impressively high-quality outputs, will get an API sometime in 2025. AWS has an API for its recently launched Nova Reel video model. And a number of startups focused on generative video offer APIs for their models. One firm, Runway, claims that its API has been used by “the world’s largest consumer technology companies to reliably generate millions of videos for their users.”Friend of Quebec man killed in Florida boat explosion says his sister also injured

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At the Kissik song launch event in Chennai, Allu Arjun, Rashmika and Sreeleela were present. The makers and the cast teased the grand scale of the sequel. Pushpa 2 The Rule: The highly-anticipated Kissik song featuring Sreeleela and Allu Arjun was released by the makers on November 24. Expected to be the "biggest item song of the year" the DSP-composed track quickly drew comparisons with Oo Anatava in Pushpa: The Rule, which became a rage and featured Samantha Ruth Prabhu. On social media, many shared their positive reactions to the new Pushpa 2 song while others were quick to dismiss it in comparison to Oo Antava. Not even 1% of Oo Antava: Netizens say about Kissik As Kissik song released, Oo Antava started to trend on social media. Many said that Kissik does not compare with the song headlined by Samantha Ruth Prabhu back in 2021. Not just the dance moves, but the track itself did not attract praise from netizens. Kissik is upbeat and a party number but fans did not like how the chemistry between Sreeleela and Allu Arjun plays out. While only certain portions of the video have been released, the wait for the full version still lingers on. In the Kissik song video, BTS moments featuring choreographer Ganesh Acharya, director Sukumar, Allu Arjun and Sreeleela are also shown. "Sreeleela can't match Sam," commented a social media user. Another one wrote, "No way. They should redo the song." Pushpa 2 shoot incomplete Certain portions of the climax of Pushpa 2 and other segments of the Kissik song are reportedly still left to be shot. According to reports, the filming of Pushpa 2 will be completed on November 27, a week before the film's worldwide release. On Sunday, at the Kissik song launch event in Chennai, Allu Arjun, Rashmika Mandanna and Sreeleela were present. The makers and the cast teased the grand scale of the Pushpa sequel and promised fireworks at the box office come December 5. Get Current Updates on India News , Entertainment News along with Latest News and Top Headlines from India and around the world. Published 21:25 IST, November 24th 2024He has your nudes. She got the message by text from a girl she barely knew: Your friend, he has your photos on his phone. How could that be, the 16-year-old Toronto high school student remembers thinking. The boy with the photos was a close friend, someone she trusted. And besides, she thought, she had never sent a nude to anyone. “I was like, ‘What? That’s not possible,’” the girl said. Her mind drifted to the worst-case scenario — “Has someone taken photos of me while I was asleep?” In late January of this year, a group of teens between the ages of 15 and 17 went to Toronto police to report what they thought was a crime. They said a boy they knew had made naked pictures of all of them — his classmates, friends and girls he only knew through social media. Using artificial intelligence tools, he put their faces onto someone else’s naked body, creating explicit “deepfake” porn of them without their consent, essentially out of thin air. To the girls and their parents, the act should have been illegal. However, in a move that illustrates a growing dilemma facing investigators and lawmakers tasked with handling the exploding world of AI technology, Toronto police disagreed. The girls gave statements at the station. Nearly a month later, investigators called them back to explain the situation in a PowerPoint presentation, saying there were gaps in legislation to address the deepfake images and insufficient evidence to prove the photos had been distributed. There would be no charges. The legalities surrounding AI-generated deepfakes are murky in Canadian law, particularly in Ontario. Are deepfakes illegal to possess? Are they child pornography if depicting a minor? Is your image legally yours if it’s been attached to someone else’s body? What’s known as deepfake porn involves superimposing a person’s face on someone else’s naked body in a realistic way. In the past, creating fakes would require the use of Photoshop and a relatively high degree of skill — but developments in AI have made it so anyone can generate convincing nude photos with just a few clicks. “Nowadays, you don’t need any tech skills at all,” said Kaitlynn Mendes, a sociologist at Western University who researches “technology-facilitated gender-based violence,” which includes deepfakes. Modern AI tools are so good that users can even create convincing videos without much effort. You can put Tom Cruise’s face over yours to watch him go about your mundane tasks. You can insert yourself in a rapper’s shoes as he walks out to his adoring fans. Or, you can create realistic porn featuring Taylor Swift . Deepfake porn involving minors falls into a “grey area” of Canada’s laws around consent, revenge porn and child exploitation, said Suzie Dunn, an assistant law professor at Dalhousie University whose research centres on deepfakes. Although deepfake porn isn’t clearly defined as illegal in the Criminal Code, the provision for child pornography could apply, Dunn said. It considers material child pornography, “whether or not it was made by electronic or mechanical means.” There is also a provision that makes it an offence to share explicit images of another person without their consent. However, on a plain reading of the law, Dunn said that only includes authentic nude images of someone. Regulations often lag behind technological advances, Toronto police spokesperson Stephanie Sayer said in a statement. In the girls’ situation, investigators from the Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) unit worked closely with a specialized ICE Crown attorney, Sayer said, “dedicating extensive time to the investigation and to explaining the legal challenges that can arise in prosecuting such cases.” The Star interviewed five female high school students who were portrayed in explicit deepfakes and has agreed not to name them — nor their parents — because they are minors, as is the boy they accuse of creating the images. As they tell it, the girls learned about the photos one weekend in late January. During a co-ed slumber party, a separate group of teens came across the nude pictures while scrolling on the boy’s cellphone. They were looking for the selfies they had previously taken on his device. One of them video-recorded the photos as evidence and, with help from her friends, managed to identify every girl depicted in the images. They contacted each one immediately. I didn’t know how to tell my mom. What was I supposed to say? As the girls’ phones blew up with texts and calls, gossip about their faked nudes spread like wildfire, and the boy accused of making them started shifting the blame. “I just started panicking,” said one girl, who was 15 and halfway through her Grade 10 year at the time. “I didn’t know how to tell my mom. What was I supposed to say?” Unlike the others, who were either friends or acquaintances of the boy, this teen had never spoken to him. “I had zero connection,” she said. Another girl said a bikini picture she posted to Instagram was turned into a nude that looked “disgustingly real.” After, she wished she never saw it. “Looking at the picture makes me uncomfortable.” For the 16-year-old who confronted the boy, her former friend, the most upsetting realization was that he manipulated selfies of her face that she had sent him when she was as young as 13. “The images he got were from the girls’ Instagrams. But then the images he used for me were (non-explicit) images I had sent him on Snapchat,” she said. The day she learned about the images, she asked two male friends to accompany her to the boy’s house to confront him. When they arrived, a police car was out front, and an officer was inside — “Someone else had already called the police,” the girl said. The boy’s father let her in, but not her friends. She said the officer and the boy’s parents had no idea multiple girls were involved. The parents made their son apologize despite the boy denying he was responsible. The cop told the girl: “You don’t need to worry, the pictures have been wiped,” she recalled. The experience was “super surreal,” she said. “I was crying in his living room on his couch, begging him to tell me the truth.” That weekend, she and about 12 other girls went to police. They feared the boy shared the doctored photos or posted them online. “Are these everywhere?” the 16-year-old remembers thinking. “Do people have these?” The ordeal left some girls feeling humiliated and violated, causing their mental health and school work to suffer at a time when most were writing exams. “It was hard to focus because of all the chatter,” one said. Are these everywhere? ... Do people have these? Another, the boy’s former friend, stayed in her room for days after learning about the pictures and skipped out on dance class. “I didn’t want to be surrounded by mirrors after seeing ‘myself’ like that,” she said. There were various layers to the girls’ case that made it unclear if deepfake images would be considered illegal. According to them and their parents who listened to the police presentation, a key question was: Did the boy share the deepfakes with anyone else? When the investigator told them there was no proof of distribution and the boy made the photos for “private use,” some of the girls said the accused had shown the pictures to a few other boys they knew. (It’s unclear if police interviewed the boys. According to the girls, investigators told them the boys came forward only after they were asked to, and that they could have been pressured into saying what the girls wanted police to hear.) Dunn suggested that police would have wrestled with whether or not the so-called private use exception would apply. In general, the law protects minors who create explicit photos of themselves or their partner for private use, but do not share them with anyone else. I didn’t want to be surrounded by mirrors after seeing ‘myself’ like that In the context of deepfakes, Dunn said an analogy would be if a teen boy cut out a picture of a young girl and placed it onto the face of a Playboy magazine photograph. Whether the private use exception to deepfake porn would hold up in court, to Dunn’s knowledge, it “has never been tested.” Using AI models to produce sexual material is a “very different” scenario, she added, noting companies that own the AI applications could store images in their databases. Would that be captured under “private use,” Dunn questioned, even if the person who made the photos didn’t show them to anyone? To one parent, the girls’ situation felt like a “test case” — an opportunity for investigators to apply the Criminal Code and set an example for other police jurisdictions dealing with similar matters. Toronto criminal defence lawyer William Jaksa has represented two clients who were subject to police investigations into AI-generated child pornography, one of whom had his charges dropped because there was no reasonable prospect of conviction. After learning from the Star about the case involving the girls, Jaksa commended Toronto police for what sounded like a thorough investigation, saying they took the extra step of consulting a Crown attorney before making a decision. “They could have very easily just laid the charges and let the Crown sort it out later,” he said. “But the reputational damage will have already been done to the kid, and that will always appear somewhere on his Toronto police record.” Mendes, the sociologist at Western, noted that not everyone wants charges laid in situations like this, especially if the accused is a classmate or peer. “Often, people just want the images taken down.” She also said many victims wouldn’t necessarily end up using the law as a resource because it’s expensive, time-consuming and complicated. Regardless, she and Dunn agreed criminal law should cover deepfakes to establish what is and isn’t acceptable. “It’s people understanding their rights, even if they don’t pursue a criminal or a civil case,” said Mendes, who is also Canada’s research chair in inequality and gender. “That sets an important message to society that, ‘Hey, this isn’t cool.’” A week or two after the girls went to police, they returned to the station individually to give full statements. Then, in mid-February, they were called back for a presentation on why police would not lay charges. The outcome left the girls feeling dismissed, disappointed and angry. One mother said it was yet another reminder of why women and girls often don’t report when they’re sexually assaulted, abused, or, in this case, the subject of non-consensual explicit material. “These girls are thinking, ‘We’ve done the right thing in reporting it, and nothing is going to happen,’” she said. Another parent felt as though police “minimized” the harm caused to her daughter when being interviewed by police. She said the detective told the teen that the images were not actually of her — to which her daughter replied: “Yeah, but everyone thinks they are me,” she said. Later, during the presentation, the parent said the general attitude from police in the room was “easy, breezy, casual. ‘You guys will move on from this.’” While Sayer said she couldn’t speak to specifics about the case, she emphasized the care investigators put into ensuring victims feel safe and supported — such as by offering the support of a victim services worker. “While gaps in the law can make it difficult to lay charges in some circumstances, this in no way diminishes the trauma experienced by victims,” she said. The five female students who spoke to the Star attended two high schools under the Toronto District School Board (TDSB). At one school, the girls said they were grateful for the swift support, including exemptions from exams and access to counselling services. At the other school, where the accused also attended, the students and their parents expressed disappointment with the response, suggesting administration prioritized the school’s reputation and legal concerns over their safety. During a meeting with the principal about the incident, one girl said she felt as if she was being told: “Why don’t you think of his feelings instead?” The boy was suspended, the teens and parents said, but only after mounting pressure, and the school was going to allow him to return. In the end, they said the boy chose not to come back and later transferred to a new school. In a statement, TDSB spokesperson Ryan Bird said the school “took immediate steps to address the very serious allegations” on the day officials became aware of them. He declined to elaborate on what those steps were, citing “privacy reasons.” “Understanding how difficult this must be for the impacted students, the administration checked in with them and their families on a number of occasions and offered a number of supports,” the statement said. Bird said the school board initially opened an investigation into the matter but halted its inquiry at the request of Toronto police while they carried out their own probe. When police closed their investigation, the board followed suit. The only positive outcome the students and their families said they saw from the school was new language added to its student code of conduct: that students must not possess or be responsible for “the creation or distribution of inappropriate or illegal images,” including pornographic images generated by AI. Nationally, experts and observers have sounded the alarm that Canada needs to better protect victims of deepfakes, especially as the issue is expected to worsen. When Taylor Swift , the world’s biggest pop star, became a deepfake victim , there was outrage and legal threats. The pictures were removed from X, and lawmakers everywhere started paying attention. The Toronto case is a far less public example. Ontario and the territories are the only regions in Canada without intimate image laws that either address deepfakes explicitly or provide protections against “altered” or “fake” photos — which experts said could be applied to deepfakes. (Quebec was the latest province to introduce protections .) Other legislation, such as the recently introduced Online Harms Act, takes aim at social media companies for sharing and amplifying harmful content on their platforms. The federal bill requires them to remove material that sexually victimizes a child if intimate content is posted without their consent, including deepfakes. There are additional civil options to address deepfakes, too, including laws related to defamation, privacy and copyright. Though pursuing criminal charges isn’t as promising of an avenue for victims, there have been at least two known cases in Canada where a person was convicted of child pornography for making deepfakes. In April 2023, a Quebec judge sentenced a 61-year-old man to more than three years in prison for using AI to make synthetic videos of child pornography. Earlier this year, a youth pastor in British Columbia was convicted of creating and possessing child porn, including an image of a teen girl that he manipulated into a deepfake nude. Police seized 150 photos of children that they suspected the pastor planned to run through the “nudify” application. In both cases, the photos had been shared with the girls themselves or distributed on a larger network — elements that couldn’t be proven in the Toronto incident. In interviews with the five girls, a recurring theme emerged: They don’t want other young women to experience what they did. While the gossip at school has subsided, the emotional and psychological toll lingers. Some have turned to therapy to help them cope. “Until recently, I would think about it constantly,” said the teen who described her deepfake as hyper-realistic. She previously loved posting on social media but no longer feels she can enjoy it as much. It can “make you so vulnerable to anybody on the internet.” At school, she said students are taught to be careful online because of adults with nefarious intentions. But, the teen asked, how come no one ever talks about people their own age? “People following your account already can be the predator. Not some grown man on a fake account.”

PARIS — Hell hath no fury like a driver scorned. Take the traffic-choked French capital as an example, where an attempt to reduce vehicle collisions, gridlock, emissions and noise on a highway encircling Paris has provoked a head-on political crash. The long-simmering dispute over what many see as Paris’s crusade against cars has come to a boil over a controversial decision to slash speed limits on a 35-kilometre highway known as . In some ways, it is the European equivalent of the fight between Toronto, , and the car-friendly Ontario government, which wants to and to ease gridlock. In one lane is Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo. In a measure intended to cut noise, pollution, traffic jams and accidents on the Paris ring road she recently ordered speed limits reduced to 50 km/h from 70 km/h. It’s one step along the path to a more extreme transformation that reimagines the cars-and-concrete highway as a boulevard shared by buses, bikes and bipeds. In the opposite lane is a convoy of irate suburban commuters, motorcyclists, professional drivers like cabbies and truckers, and opposition politicians. They are now charting lawsuits, legislation and political campaigns, arguing that Hidalgo’s anti-car policies have now swerved recklessly across the median line. “What is very different with the 50 km/h (speed limit) compared to the other anti-car measures in Paris is that this affects many more people who did not vote for her, who did not choose her as their representative and who are deeply opposed,” said Alexandra Legendre, a spokesperson with the Drivers’ Defence League, a group that lobbies for the interests of motorists in France. The Paris ring road was built on the site of fortifications erected around the French capital in 1844 and torn down in 1919 at the end of the First World War. More than three decades later, work began on the circular highway intended to liberate drivers from the evils of traffic jams, letting them reach their destinations without having to negotiate the hustle and bustle of central Paris. “In a few days, getting around Paris without meeting a single red light will no longer be a dream,” ahead of the completion of the final section of the loop in 1973. Yet the work had barely been completed when began. Other, more serious problems soon appeared. Noise from the fast-moving cars has long been a nuisance for the 500,000 residents who live next to the highway and is believed to be linked to health problems, such as sleep loss, cardiovascular problems and stress, . And the 1.3 million cars that use it each day are , according to , an agency that tracks air quality in the greater Paris region. Naturally, there are also accidents, albeit very few fatalities, perhaps owing to the highway’s congestion, which keeps daytime speeds to a little over 30 km/h. To tackle these issues, officials have, over the years, installed sound barriers to cut the noise levels. In 2014, reduced the maximum speed on the highway to 70 km/h from 80 — a measure that had positive effects on emissions entering the atmosphere as well as the fluidity of traffic. This was the same year that Hidalgo, a member of France’s Socialist Party, was chosen as mayor and launched what her opponents say has been a frontal attack against cars and drivers. Over a decade in power, she has shut down express lanes on the banks of the Seine River, reduced the number of downtown parking spaces, converted car lanes to bike lanes and pedestrianized city streets. Just recently, her administration designated the central core of downtown a limited traffic zone — barring through traffic by drivers seeking to quickly cut from one end of the city to the other. without an express purpose such as a medical appointment, tickets to a show, or getting to work. Residents have long grumbled about the inconveniences caused by Hidalgo’s car wars. However, when dissipated and she announced that the city would be moving forward with a long-planned cut to the speed limit on the city’s ring road, many saw it as a step too far. This photograph taken on November 11, 2024 shows a sign near the Louvre museum, indicating the limited traffic zone (ZTL), an aera in the central core of the French capital banning vehicles from transiting through it, in Paris. “They’ve put in place a policy where cars are excluded, but there has been nothing to compensate for the absence of cars,” said Séverine Manna, a Paris lawyer . She said city officials haven’t done the necessary studies to back up the new limits. She added that the restrictions have not been accompanied by a more robust public transport system to give people alternative ways to get to and from Paris in a timely manner. “They’re telling people: ‘There are no more cars — get used to it,’ ” Manna said. “We are all ecologists in our souls but there are times when there are realities that are not being heard.” Others have complained that Paris failed to consult with neighbouring municipalities before taking a decision that has a great impact on commuters from the suburbs. A regional elected official, Valérie Pécresse, has deemed the new speed limits “anti-social and ineffective” and urged Hidalgo to instead install sound barriers along the ring road or turn over responsibility for the road to the region. In addition to the war of words, a statistical battle has broken out. The city has started releasing a weekly bulletin showing drops in nighttime noise, traffic jams and accidents — though no significant reduction in emissions. In response, Pécresse ordered her own officials to begin tracking noise, pollution and traffic indicators along the route. The show reductions in every category, including pollution. Paris is hardly alone in wanting to transform its infrastructure to make it safer, greener or more amenable to the people who live and work in its vicinity. New York, Barcelona, Helsinki, Vancouver and many other cities around the world have all questioned the sustainability and uses of highways built for an era when the car was king and the environment was an afterthought. Before opting to the Gardiner Expressway Toronto, too, flirted with the idea of dismantling or burying its main east-to-west highway as a way to reconnect the city with its waterfront. The evangelists of highway transformation see no alternatives. “The question is: can we imagine that our highways remain as they are? We’re in a very deep climate crisis,” said Paul Lecroart, a senior urban planner for the Paris Metropolitan Region. “The question is how can we do things faster.” Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo swims in the Seine, in Paris on July 17, 2024, to demonstrate the river’s cleanliness in advance of hosting Olympic swimming events later that month. Lecroart acknowledges that fear and the inconvenience of adopting new habits plays a big role in the public resistance to such large-scale change. The key to success is to provide ready-made alternatives and demonstrate their benefits. The main one, in Lecroart’s estimation, is “traffic evaporation.” “People give up on movements that are less useful,” he said. The shining example is South Korea, where 80 per cent of automobile traffic disappeared after the mayor of Seoul decided to demolish the six-kilometre , reclaiming and rehabilitating the stream that ran beneath the highway as a public space. In other cities, Lecroart said, traffic dropped between 20 and 25 per cent due to people opting instead for public transport. “They are never forced. We’re in a liberal system where everyone can do what they want. People can take their car downtown, but either we encourage it, (or) we discourage it,” he said. Paris hasn’t completely laid out its long-term vision for , perhaps for fear of raising the ire of its four-wheeled adversaries. But the French capital also has like-minded allies too. In the eastern suburbs, officials have drawn up a rather extreme that ushers motorists into and out of central Paris. It’s a slow-motion transformation that starts with the installation of dedicated public-transit lanes in 2026, continues with lowered speed limits in 2032 and cutting the space for cars by half in 2040. The project concludes in 2050 with a road — one lane moving at 30 km/h in either direction — in something resembling a nature park, surrounded by reclaimed and reforested land, bike paths, and picnic tables. Gaylord Le Chequer, a city councillor in Montreuil, said the initial reaction of residents was surprise and, for some, hostility — the sense that they were being deprived of something or punished. “For us, it’s important not to be seen as punishing people but to demonstrate, going step by step, that the transformations are useful — notably from an environmental perspective — and that they are possible,” he said. “Whether you are right or left ... there is a movement that is growing to say on behalf of the residents who live in proximity to this infrastructure, that we have real problems and so it’s time to act.”Inside Liam Payne's poignant funeral - Cheryl's large role, Bear's tribute and Kate Cassidy meeting his parents