California
Musk says he plans to sue Apple for not featuring X or Grok among its top apps
Billionaire SpaceX, Tesla and X owner Elon Musk says he plans to sue Apple for not featuring X and its Grok artificial intelligence chatbot app in its top recommended apps in its App Store.
Musk posted the comments on X late Monday, saying, “Hey @Apple App Store, why do you refuse to put either X or Grok in your ‘Must Have’ section when X is the #1 news app in the world and Grok is #5 among all apps? Are you playing politics? What gives? Inquiring minds want to know.”
Grok is owned by Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI.
Musk went on to say that “Apple is behaving in a manner that makes it impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach #1 in the App Store, which is an unequivocal antitrust violation. xAI will take immediate legal action.”
He gave no further details.
There was no immediate comment from Apple, which has faced various allegations of antitrust violations in recent years.
A federal judge recently found that Apple violated a court injunction in an antitrust case filed by Fortnite maker Epic Games.
Regulators of the 27-nation European Union fined Apple 500 million euros in April for breaking competition rules by preventing app makers from pointing users to cheaper options outside its App Store.
Last year, the EU fined the U.S. tech giant nearly $2 billion for unfairly favoring its own music streaming service by forbidding rivals like Spotify from telling users how they could pay for cheaper subscriptions outside of iPhone apps.
As of early Tuesday, the top app in Apple’s App Store was TikTok, followed by Tinder, Duolingo, YouTube and Bumble. Open AI’s ChatGPT was ranked 7th.
Nevada
Court apparently clears way for former Raiders coach Jon Gruden to sue NFL over emails
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Nevada court apparently cleared the way Monday for a 2021 lawsuit filed by former Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden to proceed against the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell, alleging that a “malicious and orchestrated campaign” was used to destroy Gruden’s career by leaking old emails he had sent that included racist, misogynistic and homophobic comments.
In 2022, the NFL appealed to Nevada’s high court after a judge in Las Vegas rejected league bids to dismiss Gruden’s claim outright or to order out-of-court talks through an arbitration process that could be overseen by Goodell.
The Nevada Supreme Court, in a 5-2 ruling, said that “the arbitration clause in the NFL Constitution is unconscionable and does not apply to Gruden as a former employee.”
Gruden’s lawsuit alleged that Goodell and the league pressured the Raiders to fire Gruden by leaking emails containing racist, sexist and homophobic comments that Gruden sent, when he was an on-air analyst at ESPN from 2011 to 2018. Gruden resigned from the Raiders in October 2021 and sued the league a month later.
The NFL declined to comment on the ruling.
Gruden’s attorney did not return a phone message seeking comment.
Gruden was Raiders head coach when the team moved in 2020 to Las Vegas from Oakland, California. He’s seeking monetary damages, alleging that selective disclosure of the emails and their publication by the Wall Street Journal and New York Times ruined his career and endorsement contracts.
Gruden coached the Raiders in Oakland from 1998 to 2001, then led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for seven years, winning a Super Bowl title in 2003. He spent several years as a TV analyst for ESPN before being hired by the Raiders again in 2018.
He later consulted for the New Orleans Saints in 2023. He is now a part-owner and consultant for the Nashville Kats, a team in the Arena Football One league.
New York
Man who fired a shotgun outside a synagogue sentenced to 10 years in prison
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A man who fired a shotgun outside an upstate New York synagogue with dozens of children inside shortly after the start of the Israel-Hamas war was sentenced in federal court Tuesday to 10 years in prison.
Mufid Alkhader, 29, was arrested in December 2023 after firing two shots in the air and shouting “Free Palestine!” outside Temple Israel of Albany. No one was injured, but the incident terrified many of the 61 children attending preschool and the adult staffers who had to shelter in place.
“My daughter was in Hebrew class with her teacher, whose own child was on the other side of the building,” Rachel Mandel told the court. “Her amazing teacher held, hid and comforted my child. She prepared herself and the children in her care to die as victims of hate.”
The shots were fired hours before the first night of Hanukkah and two months after the surprise incursion by Hamas triggered the war. Federal prosecutors say Alkhader, whose gun jammed after the second shot, complained about events in the Middle East after his arrest.
Under a deal with prosecutors, Alkhader in February pleaded guilty to obstructing the free exercise of religious beliefs by threat of force, brandishing a firearm during the commission of that offense and conspiring to purchase a firearm unlawfully.
Alkhader, wearing an orange jail shirt, told the court Tuesday he felt terrible about what he did and for scaring people.
“I know I was not in my right mind,” Alkhader said, asking for forgiveness.
Alkhader’s public defender had argued for a more lenient sentence, citing his client’s severe mental illness.
But Judge Anne Nardacci sided with prosecutors, who said Alkhader should face 10 years in prison after traumatizing the children and adults in the synagogue.
Prosecutor Richard Belliss said Alkhader wanted to scare the people in the building, “and scare them he did.”
Alkhader was born in a Palestinian refugee community near Baghdad and his family came to the U.S. as refugees in 2012, when he was 16. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen two years later and lived in nearby Schenectady at the time of the shooting.
Another man was sentenced last fall to 14 months in prison for making a “straw” purchase of the shotgun for Alkhader.
Musk says he plans to sue Apple for not featuring X or Grok among its top apps
Billionaire SpaceX, Tesla and X owner Elon Musk says he plans to sue Apple for not featuring X and its Grok artificial intelligence chatbot app in its top recommended apps in its App Store.
Musk posted the comments on X late Monday, saying, “Hey @Apple App Store, why do you refuse to put either X or Grok in your ‘Must Have’ section when X is the #1 news app in the world and Grok is #5 among all apps? Are you playing politics? What gives? Inquiring minds want to know.”
Grok is owned by Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI.
Musk went on to say that “Apple is behaving in a manner that makes it impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach #1 in the App Store, which is an unequivocal antitrust violation. xAI will take immediate legal action.”
He gave no further details.
There was no immediate comment from Apple, which has faced various allegations of antitrust violations in recent years.
A federal judge recently found that Apple violated a court injunction in an antitrust case filed by Fortnite maker Epic Games.
Regulators of the 27-nation European Union fined Apple 500 million euros in April for breaking competition rules by preventing app makers from pointing users to cheaper options outside its App Store.
Last year, the EU fined the U.S. tech giant nearly $2 billion for unfairly favoring its own music streaming service by forbidding rivals like Spotify from telling users how they could pay for cheaper subscriptions outside of iPhone apps.
As of early Tuesday, the top app in Apple’s App Store was TikTok, followed by Tinder, Duolingo, YouTube and Bumble. Open AI’s ChatGPT was ranked 7th.
Nevada
Court apparently clears way for former Raiders coach Jon Gruden to sue NFL over emails
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Nevada court apparently cleared the way Monday for a 2021 lawsuit filed by former Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden to proceed against the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell, alleging that a “malicious and orchestrated campaign” was used to destroy Gruden’s career by leaking old emails he had sent that included racist, misogynistic and homophobic comments.
In 2022, the NFL appealed to Nevada’s high court after a judge in Las Vegas rejected league bids to dismiss Gruden’s claim outright or to order out-of-court talks through an arbitration process that could be overseen by Goodell.
The Nevada Supreme Court, in a 5-2 ruling, said that “the arbitration clause in the NFL Constitution is unconscionable and does not apply to Gruden as a former employee.”
Gruden’s lawsuit alleged that Goodell and the league pressured the Raiders to fire Gruden by leaking emails containing racist, sexist and homophobic comments that Gruden sent, when he was an on-air analyst at ESPN from 2011 to 2018. Gruden resigned from the Raiders in October 2021 and sued the league a month later.
The NFL declined to comment on the ruling.
Gruden’s attorney did not return a phone message seeking comment.
Gruden was Raiders head coach when the team moved in 2020 to Las Vegas from Oakland, California. He’s seeking monetary damages, alleging that selective disclosure of the emails and their publication by the Wall Street Journal and New York Times ruined his career and endorsement contracts.
Gruden coached the Raiders in Oakland from 1998 to 2001, then led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for seven years, winning a Super Bowl title in 2003. He spent several years as a TV analyst for ESPN before being hired by the Raiders again in 2018.
He later consulted for the New Orleans Saints in 2023. He is now a part-owner and consultant for the Nashville Kats, a team in the Arena Football One league.
New York
Man who fired a shotgun outside a synagogue sentenced to 10 years in prison
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A man who fired a shotgun outside an upstate New York synagogue with dozens of children inside shortly after the start of the Israel-Hamas war was sentenced in federal court Tuesday to 10 years in prison.
Mufid Alkhader, 29, was arrested in December 2023 after firing two shots in the air and shouting “Free Palestine!” outside Temple Israel of Albany. No one was injured, but the incident terrified many of the 61 children attending preschool and the adult staffers who had to shelter in place.
“My daughter was in Hebrew class with her teacher, whose own child was on the other side of the building,” Rachel Mandel told the court. “Her amazing teacher held, hid and comforted my child. She prepared herself and the children in her care to die as victims of hate.”
The shots were fired hours before the first night of Hanukkah and two months after the surprise incursion by Hamas triggered the war. Federal prosecutors say Alkhader, whose gun jammed after the second shot, complained about events in the Middle East after his arrest.
Under a deal with prosecutors, Alkhader in February pleaded guilty to obstructing the free exercise of religious beliefs by threat of force, brandishing a firearm during the commission of that offense and conspiring to purchase a firearm unlawfully.
Alkhader, wearing an orange jail shirt, told the court Tuesday he felt terrible about what he did and for scaring people.
“I know I was not in my right mind,” Alkhader said, asking for forgiveness.
Alkhader’s public defender had argued for a more lenient sentence, citing his client’s severe mental illness.
But Judge Anne Nardacci sided with prosecutors, who said Alkhader should face 10 years in prison after traumatizing the children and adults in the synagogue.
Prosecutor Richard Belliss said Alkhader wanted to scare the people in the building, “and scare them he did.”
Alkhader was born in a Palestinian refugee community near Baghdad and his family came to the U.S. as refugees in 2012, when he was 16. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen two years later and lived in nearby Schenectady at the time of the shooting.
Another man was sentenced last fall to 14 months in prison for making a “straw” purchase of the shotgun for Alkhader.
