Aurelia Butler

The “best bromance in tech” has had a reality check as OpenAI has tried to change its deal with Microsoft and the software maker has tried to hedge its bet on the start-up.Last fall, Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive, asked his counterpart at Microsoft, Satya Nadella, if the tech giant would invest billions of dollars in the start-up.Microsoft had already pumped $13 billion into OpenAI, and Mr. Nadella was initially willing to keep the cash spigot flowing. But after OpenAI’s board of directors briefly ousted Mr. Altman last November, Mr. Nadella and Microsoft reconsidered, according to four people familiar with the talks who spoke on the condition of anonymity.Over the next few months, Microsoft wouldn’t budge as OpenAI, which expects to lose $5 billion this year, continued to ask for more money and more computing power to build and run its A.I. systems.Mr. Altman once called OpenAI’s partnership with Microsoft “the best bromance in tech,” but ties between the companies have started to fray. Financial pressure on OpenAI, concern about its stability and disagreements between employees of the two companies have strained their five-year partnership, according to interviews with 19 people familiar with the relationship between the companies.That tension demonstrates a key challenge for A.I. start-ups: They are dependent on the world’s tech giants for money and computing power because those big companies control the massive cloud computing systems the small outfits need to develop A.I.No pairing displays this dynamic better than Microsoft and OpenAI, the maker of the ChatGPT chatbot. When OpenAI got its giant investment from Microsoft, it agreed to an exclusive deal to buy computing power from Microsoft and work closely with the tech giant on new A.I.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Although Yahya Sinwar was a major target of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, the soldiers who killed the militant chief had not expected to run across him, Israeli officials said.Yahya Sinwar has been the No. 1 target for Israel since the beginning of the war in Gaza.Samar Abu Elouf for The New York TimesIt was a routine patrol for a unit of Israeli soldiers in the southern Gaza Strip. Then a firefight erupted and the Israelis, backed by drones, destroyed part of a building where several militants had taken cover, Israeli officials said.When the dust cleared and they began searching the building, the soldiers found a body that bore a striking resemblance to someone they had not expected to find, a man their country had been hunting for since Oct. 7, 2023: Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas.For more than a year, as tens of thousands of Gazans were killed, Mr. Sinwar had eluded the full force of Israel’s military and security establishment, which had dedicated every means at its disposal to finding and killing him. Many believed he was hiding underground in Gaza and had surrounded himself with hostages taken from Israel.In the end, the Israeli officials said, he was killed above ground on Wednesday, alongside two other militants, with no sign of hostages nearby. The Israeli authorities said they had confirmed his death on Thursday, using dental records and fingerprints. His DNA was also tested for confirmation, according to one Israeli official and the White House.Mr. Sinwar’s death was the most severe blow to Hamas’s leadership after more than a year of escalating violence in the Middle East, and it immediately plunged the war in Gaza into a new and uncertain phase. It came less than three weeks after Israeli forces killed the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, in an airstrike south of Beirut, the Lebanese capital. More

The billionaire is spending a fortune to support former President Donald J. Trump. But at a town hall event in Pennsylvania, he looked an awful lot like a politician himself.Is Elon Musk running for president?Of course not. A South African-born billionaire, Mr. Musk cannot legally run and, anyway, he has invested over $75 million in trying to get Donald J. Trump elected.Somehow that mission brought Mr. Musk, the world’s richest person, to a high school auditorium in suburban Philadelphia on a surreal Thursday evening where, if you blinked, you might have forgotten momentarily that he was not the candidate himself.There was a military-grade security apparatus that protected his every movement. There was a crowded press riser, crummy Wi-Fi (at least for those who couldn’t procure the secret Starlink password), and a well-organized advance staff on headsets and production aides wielding professional video cameras. There was a giant American flag in the middle of a stage and a country and rock playlist straight out of a town hall in Iowa or New Hampshire during the Republican nominating season.Mr. Musk walked onto the stage to Brooks & Dunn’s “Only in America,” a staple of Trump campaign rallies. “I haven’t been politically active before,” he said to a rapturous and sometimes rowdy crowd. “I’m politically active now because I think the future of America, the future of civilization is at stake.”Mr. Musk was there to encourage Pennsylvanians to “go hog wild” on voter registration and to convince their friends to sign up before the state’s deadline, on Monday. But, still, much of the event ended up being about himself.Never known for his humility, Mr. Musk is betting on his own persuasive powers to help Mr. Trump win, just as he has bet on himself during existential crises at his companies, like X, SpaceX and Tesla. Mr. Musk has described Pennsylvania as the “linchpin” to Mr. Trump’s hopes of returning to the White House.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Ryan Wedding, 43, was indicted with 15 others on charges of trafficking drugs into Canada and the U.S., the authorities said. He is believed to be living in Mexico.A Canadian snowboarder who competed at the 2002 Winter Olympics is wanted by the F.B.I. on charges of conspiring to ship hundreds of kilograms of cocaine into Canada and the United States and on suspicion of orchestrating multiple murders, the U.S. attorney’s office for the Central District of California announced in a statement on Thursday.The snowboarder, Ryan James Wedding, 43, born in Thunder Bay, Ontario, was indicted along with 15 others on charges of running a transnational drug trafficking operation that shipped bulk quantities of cocaine from California to Canada from about January to April 2024, the U.S. attorney’s office said in its statement. Mr. Wedding, a fugitive who was believed to be living in Mexico, was charged with eight felonies including one count of conspiracy to export cocaine and three counts of murder in connection with a drug crime.“An Olympic athlete-turned-drug lord is now charged with leading a transnational organized crime group that engaged in cocaine trafficking and murder, including of innocent civilians,” Martin Estrada, the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, said.Last year, Mr. Wedding and another defendant, Andrew Clark, 34, directed the “murders of two members of a family in Ontario, Canada,” in retaliation “for a stolen drug shipment,” the U.S. attorney’s office said. Mr. Clark was arrested earlier this month, the statement said. The duo also “ordered the murder of another victim” over a drug debt in May, according to the statement.Mr. Wedding, who had aliases including El Jefe, Giant and Public Enemy, was the leader of the criminal network, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said. The Canadian police said methamphetamines had also been trafficked by the network. Mr. Wedding “is wanted by the United States and Canada on separate charges,” the Canadian police said.There is no lawyer listed as a representative for Mr. Wedding. In 2010, Mr. Wedding was sentenced by a U.S. judge to four years in prison for conspiracy to distribute cocaine, according to court records.In 2006, Ryan Wedding was named in a search warrant in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, in an investigation concerning large quantities of marijuana, but he was never charged, according to his athlete profile on Olympics.com.The F.B.I. is offering a reward of up to $50,000 for any information leading to Mr. Wedding’s arrest.A majority of the 16 people named in the indictment were captured by the authorities in the United States and Canada as part of an operation led by the F.B.I. called Operation Giant Slalom, the Canadian police said. Slalom is an Olympic event in which competitors are timed as they ski or snowboard down a slope while weaving through a flagged obstacle course.Mr. Wedding placed 24th in the parallel giant slalom snowboarding event in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.Sheelagh McNeill More

Jesse Cohn introduces six lively entries to the New York Times Crossword.Jump to: Tricky CluesFRIDAY PUZZLE — Maybe it’s just me, but I love finding debut entries in my puzzles. It shows me that the constructor has made an effort to salt the grid with words and phrases that feel fresh to the solver, as opposed to leaning on the autofill function in crossword-building software. I find it particularly entertaining to see new words that young people are using, although I draw the line firmly at “skibidi.” And maybe I just don’t get out enough, but discovering a debut entry is a bit like watching a baby being born. The word or phrase is appearing for the first time in the Times Crossword, and it may even be new to the lexicon.“It feels especially exciting,” said Ian Livengood, a veteran constructor who joined the puzzle-editing team in September. “Often, the entry may feel topical and hypercurrent, so it can be cool to see a new name or phrase enter the lexicon.”Jesse Cohn made his debut as a Times Crossword constructor in May, and he sprinkled five debuts in his first puzzle. In his sophomore outing, Mr. Cohn packed six new entries into his grid, including two that cross in the center.Are debuts or entries that feel fresh something you notice in puzzles?Tricky Clues1A. The [Juice provider] in this puzzle is not Tropicana or any other brand; it’s a CHARGER for an electronic device.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Lisa Schiff acknowledges stealing millions from major collectors who trusted her to buy them fashionable art.A leading art adviser whose clients have included Leonardo DiCaprio, and who was accused by the government of bilking her clients of millions, pleaded guilty on Thursday in federal court in Manhattan to one count of wire fraud, for stealing $6.5 million from people who trusted her to buy art for them.The adviser, Lisa Schiff, 54, whose eye for contemporary art launched a lucrative career acquiring blue-chip pieces for a host of major collectors, was accused by federal prosecutors of stealing money that clients had entrusted to her for the purchase of approximately 55 artworks. As part of the plea agreement, Ms. Schiff will forfeit about $6.4 million. The felony fraud charge also carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. “For years, Lisa Schiff breached the trust of her art advisory clients by lying to them and diverting millions of dollars her clients had entrusted to her,” Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement. “Instead of using client funds as promised, Schiff used the stolen money to fund a lavish lifestyle.”Her lawyer, Randy Zelin, said the plea agreement had been in the works for several months. “Lisa has been anxious to have the opportunity to accept responsibility, she has been anxious to set out on a path of righting the wrongs and making amends,” he said in an interview on Thursday.Ms. Schiff, who is based in Manhattan, will be sentenced on Jan. 17 by J. Paul Oetken, a judge for the U.S. District Court in Manhattan.“The specter of standing in front of a judge and acknowledging criminal wrongdoing, and acknowledging the prospect of a prison sentence, is an extraordinarily daunting thing,” Mr. Zelin added. “But that is a fire that Lisa ran to, not away from.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

The man, Daqua Lameek Ritter, was the first person in the country to be convicted of a federal hate crime based on gender identity.A South Carolina man who was the first person in the United States to be convicted of a federal hate crime based on gender identity was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday for the killing of a transgender woman in 2019, the authorities said.According to the government, the man, Daqua Lameek Ritter, fatally shot the woman, Dime Doe, after word spread in Allendale, S.C., that the two were in a sexual relationship. Mr. Ritter had pleaded not guilty but was convicted of a hate crime in the murder of Ms. Doe by a jury in February 2024.Adair Ford Boroughs, the U.S. attorney for the District of South Carolina, said in a statement on Thursday that “from the smallest of communities, like Allendale, to anywhere in South Carolina where hate and injustice occur,” civil rights must be protected.“We will continue to fight for the rights of those targeted because of their race, their religion, their gender identity or sexual orientation, or their ability,” Ms. Boroughs said.In a sentencing memo, lawyers for Mr. Ritter requested that he not spend life in prison. The Associated Press reported that prosecutors had asked for a life sentence without parole, based on federal sentencing guidelines.Lawyers listed in court documents for Mr. Ritter did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday evening.According to prosecutors, Mr. Ritter, who is from New York City, spent time in Allendale while visiting his grandmother and became close with Ms. Doe, who grew up in the town and worked as a hairdresser. Mr. Ritter sought to keep their relationship secret, court documents said. He did not want his girlfriend or the community to know about it and became “irate” after Ms. Doe publicized it, according to the documents.Many of his friends mocked him, and witnesses said that Mr. Ritter threatened to harm Ms. Doe as a result, according to court documents. Mr. Ritter eventually lured Ms. Doe to a remote area in Allendale and shot her three times in the head, prosecutors said. Afterward, he burned the clothes he had worn during the crime, disposed of the murder weapon and repeatedly lied to investigators, according to federal prosecutors.Mr. Ritter’s lawyers argued that there were inconsistencies in the government’s case. But after several hours of deliberation, a jury found Mr. Ritter guilty of Ms. Doe’s murder. He was also convicted of obstructing justice and using a firearm in connection with the killing.Transgender people are four times as likely to experience violence, including rape and sexual assault, according to a 2021 study by the Williams Institute at the U.C.L.A. School of Law.Federal officials have previously prosecuted hate crimes based on gender identity, but Mr. Ritter’s case was the first in the country to make it to trial in which someone was charged with a hate crime based on gender identity, officials said. More

The United States and Canada have worked together to investigate what they say is the Indian government’s campaign against Sikh separatists.Federal prosecutors have charged a man they identified as an Indian intelligence officer with trying to orchestrate from abroad an assassination on U.S. soil — part of an escalating response from the U.S. and Canada to what those governments see as brazenly illegal conduct by a longtime partner.An indictment unsealed in Manhattan on Thursday said that the man, Vikash Yadav, “directed the assassination plot from India” that targeted a New York-based critic of the Indian government, a Sikh lawyer and political activist who has urged the Punjab region of India to secede.The target of the New York plot has been identified by American officials as Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the general counsel of Sikhs for Justice.In a statement, Mr. Pannun called the plot to kill him a “blatant case of India’s transnational terrorism which has become a challenge to America’s sovereignty and threat to freedom of speech and democracy.”The indictment said that Mr. Yadav called himself a “senior field officer” in the part of the Indian government that includes its foreign intelligence service, known as the Research and Analysis Wing, or RAW.Authorities say Mr. Yadav recruited an associate to find a U.S.-based criminal to arrange the murder of the Sikh activist. Last year, U.S. prosecutors charged the man accused of being Mr. Yadav’s henchman, Nikhil Gupta, and said Mr. Gupta had acted under instructions from an unidentified employee of the Indian government. Now, prosecutors have charged Mr. Yadav with orchestrating the plot.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More