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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson will not appear at former President Donald Trump ’s rally on Saturday in the battleground state following a CNN report about Robinson’s alleged disturbing online posts, an absence that illustrates the liability the gubernatorial candidate poses for Trump and downballot GOP candidates. Robinson is not expected to attend the event in Wilmington, according to a person on the Trump campaign and a second person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning. Robinson has been a frequent presence at Trump's North Carolina campaign stops. The Republican nominee has referred to Robinson, who is Black, as “Martin Luther King on steroids" and long praised him. But in the wake of Thursday's CNN report , the Trump campaign issued a statement that didn't mention Robinson and instead spoke generally about how North Carolina was key to the campaign's efforts. Robinson's campaign didn't respond to a text Friday seeking confirmation on his Saturday plans. The deadline in state law for Robinson to withdraw as the Republican candidate for governor passed late Thursday. State Republican leaders could have picked a replacement had a withdrawal occurred. Robinson has denied writing the posts, which include racial and sexual comments. He said he wouldn't be forced out of the race by “salacious tabloid lies.” While Robinson won his GOP gubernatorial primary in March, he's been trailing in several recent polls to Democratic nominee Josh Stein , the state's attorney general. “Let me reassure you the things that you will see in that story — those are not the words of Mark Robinson,” he told supporters in a video released Thursday by his campaign. “You know my words. You know my character.” State law says a gubernatorial nominee had until the day before the first absentee ballots requested by military and overseas voters are distributed to withdraw. They were distributed starting Friday. Robinson has a history of inflammatory comments that Stein has said made him too extreme to lead North Carolina. They already have contributed to the prospect that campaign struggles for Robinson could help Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris win the state’s 16 electoral votes. Democrats jumped on Robinson and other Republicans after the report aired, showing on social media photos of Robinson with Trump or with other GOP candidates, attempting to tarnish them by association. Losing swing district races for a congressional seat and the General Assembly would endanger the GOP’s control of the U.S. House and retaining veto-proof majorities at the legislature. “The fallout is going to be huge,” Chris Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University, said Friday. “The Democrats are counting on this ... having a big effect.” But Cooper said Republicans could limit problems to the governor's race only if upward ticket-splitting trends among voters continue. Harris' campaign rolled out a new ad Friday it calls the first to link Trump to a down-ballot candidate. The commercial alternates between Trump’s praise for Robinson and the lieutenant governor’s comments which his critics have argued show his support for a statewide abortion ban without exceptions. Robinson's campaign have said that's not true. The Democratic National Committee is also running billboards in three major North Carolina cities showing a photo of Robinson and Trump and comments Trump has said about him. And a fundraising appeal Friday by Jeff Jackson, Democratic attorney general candidate, also includes a past video showing Republican opponent Dan Bishop saying he endorsed Robinson. “Every North Carolinian when they go to vote ought to look at whether a candidate has done that, because that sends a strong message about who you are as a candidate,” Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, a top Harris surrogate, said at a Friday news conference. CNN's story, which describes a series of comments that it said Robinson posted on the message board more than a decade ago, sent tremors through the state’s political class, particularly Republicans. While the state Republican Party came to Robinson’s defense late Thursday pointing out he's “categorically denied the allegations,” party Chairman Jason Simmons put out his own statement Friday calling them “deeply troubling” and that Robinson "needs to explain them to the people of North Carolina.” U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis , R-N.C., who endorsed a Robinson rival in the primary, said on X that Thursday “was a tough day, but we must stay focused on the races we can win.” He didn't mention the governor's race. U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina, chairman of House Republicans' campaign arm, discounted Robinson’s impact in North Carolina congressional races. CNN reported that Robinson, who would be North Carolina’s first Black governor, attacked on the message board civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in searing terms and once referred to himself as a “black NAZI.” CNN also reported that Robinson wrote of being aroused by a memory of “peeping” women in gym showers when he was 14 along with an appreciation of transgender pornography. Robinson at one point referred to himself as a “perv,” according to CNN. The Associated Press has not independently confirmed that Robinson wrote and posted the messages. CNN said it matched details of the account on the pornographic website forum to other online accounts held by Robinson by comparing usernames, a known email address and his full name. CNN reported that details discussed by the account holder matched Robinson’s age, length of marriage and other biographical information. It also compared figures of speech that were used in his public Facebook profile and that appeared in discussions by the account on the pornographic website. This story was first published on Sep. 20, 2024. It was updated on Nov. 22, 2024 to correct which of Robinson’s social media accounts CNN cited in a comparison to language in messages from a pornographic website message board. CNN cited his public Facebook account, not his Twitter account. Price reported from New York. Associated Press writers Kevin Freking in Washington, Meg Kinnard in Chapin, South Carolina and Makiya Seminera in Raleigh contributed to this report.royal casino slots 。

Mexico's president discussed migration and drug trafficking with US President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday -- two issues he had raised as justification for raising import tariffs on America's southern neighbor. Claudia Sheinbaum said she had had "an excellent conversation" with Trump, just hours after her economy minister warned that the cost to US companies of Trump's tariffs would be "huge." "We discussed Mexico's strategy regarding the phenomenon of migration," Sheinbaum said on X, adding she had told Trump that caravans of migrants "are not arriving at the northern border because they are being attended to in Mexico." They also discussed "strengthening collaboration on security issues" as well as "the campaign we are conducting in the country to prevent the consumption of fentanyl," the president said. Trump on Monday said he would impose tariffs of 25 percent on Mexican and Canadian imports and 10 percent on goods from China. "This Tariff will remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!" Trump wrote on his Truth Social page. The Republican, who won an election in which illegal migration was a top issue, has vowed to declare a national emergency on border security and use the US military to carry out a mass deportation of undocumented migrants. Mexican Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard said Wednesday some "400,000 jobs will be lost" in the United States if Trump followed through on his threat. He cited a study based on figures from US carmakers that manufacture in Mexico. - 'A shot in the foot' - Ebrard said the tariffs would also hit US consumers hard, citing the US market for pickup trucks -- most of which are manufactured in Mexico. The tariffs, the minister said, would add $3,000 to the cost of a new vehicle. "The impact of this measure will chiefly be felt by consumers in the United States... That is why we say that it would be a shot in the foot," Ebrard told reporters, speaking alongside Sheinbaum at her regular morning conference. Mexico and China have been particularly vociferous in their opposition to Trump's threats of a trade war from day one of his second presidential term, which begins on January 20. Sheinbaum has declared the threats "unacceptable" and pointed out that Mexico's drug cartels exist mainly to serve drug use in the United States. China has warned that "no one will win a trade war." During his first term as president, Trump launched full-blown trade hostilities with Beijing, imposing significant tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese goods. China responded with retaliatory tariffs on American products, particularly affecting US farmers. The United States, Mexico and Canada are tied to a three-decade-old largely duty-free trade agreement, called the USMCA, that was renegotiated under Trump after he complained that US businesses, especially automakers, were losing out. jla/cb/mlr/bjt

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Lisa Simpson once said during an episode of “The Simpsons:” What could be more exciting than the savage ballet that is pro football? On Monday night, the entire Simpsons universe gets to experience it in a way not many could have imagined. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings. Get updates and player profiles ahead of Friday's high school games, plus a recap Saturday with stories, photos, video Frequency: Seasonal Twice a week

NoneWhen it returns to the township in December, the Esquimalt Celebration of Lights is sure to brighten the nights of Greater Victoria residents. On Sunday, Dec. 1, the festival will feature live music, food, a visit from Santa, and a parade to help South Island residents kick off the holiday season. The celebration will start at 3 p.m. with musical performances at the Archie Browning Sports Centre, and at 5 p.m. the parade will begin at Canteen Road. At 5:30 p.m. there will also be Christmas carols from Vancouver Island's very own Maureen Washington and Rockheights Middle School. "It is a community event where people can come together to celebrate the holiday season with lights and festivities," noted the Celebration of Lights website. Though the event is free, bringing a non-perishable food item for the Esquimalt-based Rainbow Kitchen is recommended.

MUNICH (AP) — Harry Kane is the quickest player to score 50 goals in the Bundesliga after scoring a hat trick on his 43rd appearance on Friday. Kane’s three goals – including two penalties – gave Bayern a 3-0 win over Augsburg , stretching the Bavarian powerhouse’s lead to eight points ahead of the rest of the 11th round. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings. Get any of our free email newsletters — news headlines, obituaries, sports, and more.GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — Pjay Smith Jr. scored 23 points as Furman beat Princeton 69-63 on Saturday. Smith also added eight rebounds and four steals for the Paladins (9-1). Garrett Hien scored 10 points while going 5 of 10 and 0 of 4 from the free-throw line and added seven rebounds. Nick Anderson shot 3 for 9 from beyond the arc to finish with nine points. The Tigers (7-4) were led by Xaivian Lee, who posted 16 points, seven rebounds and five assists. Princeton also got 13 points and four assists from Dalen Davis. Caden Pierce also had 11 points and four steals. NEXT UP Up next for Furman is a Saturday matchup with South Carolina State at home, and Princeton hosts Monmouth on Tuesday. The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) — Javon Small scored five of his 31 points in overtime and Tucker DeVries added key free throws late in regulation and finished with 16 points as West Virginia beat No. 3 Gonzaga 86-78 in the Battle 4 Atlantis on Wednesday. Small's layup with under 2 minutes left in OT gave West Virginia a 79-75 lead. After a Gonzaga miss, Sencire Harris hit two free throws to make it a six-point lead. With 27.1 seconds left, Harris made a steal and scored on a dunk for an eight-point lead, putting the game out of reach. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More In a world where efficiency is king and disruption creates billion-dollar markets overnight, it’s inevitable that businesses are eyeing generative AI as a powerful ally. From OpenAI’s ChatGPT generating human-like text, to DALL-E producing art when prompted, we’ve seen glimpses of a future where machines create alongside us — or even lead the charge. Why not extend this into research and development (R&D)? After all, AI could turbocharge idea generation, iterate faster than human researchers and potentially discover the “next big thing” with breathtaking ease, right? Hold on. This all sounds great in theory, but let’s get real: Betting on gen AI to take over your R&D will likely backfire in significant, maybe even catastrophic, ways. Whether you’re an early-stage startup chasing growth or an established player defending your turf, outsourcing generative tasks in your innovation pipeline is a dangerous game. In the rush to embrace new technologies, there’s a looming risk of losing the very essence of what makes truly breakthrough innovations — and, worse yet, sending your entire industry into a death spiral of homogenized, uninspired products. Let me break down why over-reliance on gen AI in R&D could be innovation’s Achilles’ heel. 1. The unoriginal genius of AI: Prediction ≠ imagination Gen AI is essentially a supercharged prediction machine. It creates by predicting what words, images, designs or code snippets fit best based on a vast history of precedents. As sleek and sophisticated as this may seem, let’s be clear: AI is only as good as its dataset. It’s not genuinely creative in the human sense of the word; it doesn’t “think” in radical, disruptive ways. It’s backward-looking — always relying on what’s already been created. In R&D, this becomes a fundamental flaw, not a feature. To truly break new ground, you need more than just incremental improvements extrapolated from historical data. Great innovations often arise from leaps, pivots, and re-imaginings, not from a slight variation on an existing theme. Consider how companies like Apple with the iPhone or Tesla in the electric vehicle space didn’t just improve on existing products — they flipped paradigms on their heads. Gen AI might iterate design sketches of the next smartphone, but it won’t conceptually liberate us from the smartphone itself. The bold, world-changing moments — the ones that redefine markets, behaviors, even industries — come from human imagination, not from probabilities calculated by an algorithm. When AI is driving your R&D, you end up with better iterations of existing ideas, not the next category-defining breakthrough. 2. Gen AI is a homogenizing force by nature One of the biggest dangers in letting AI take the reins of your product ideation process is that AI processes content — be it designs, solutions or technical configurations — in ways that lead to convergence rather than divergence. Given the overlapping bases of training data, AI-driven R&D will result in homogenized products across the market. Yes, different flavors of the same concept, but still the same concept. Imagine this: Four of your competitors implement gen AI systems to design their phones’ user interfaces (UIs). Each system is trained on more or less the same corpus of information — data scraped from the web about consumer preferences, existing designs, bestseller products and so on. What do all those AI systems produce? Variations of a similar result. What you’ll see develop over time is a disturbing visual and conceptual cohesion where rival products start mirroring one another. Sure, the icons might be slightly different, or the product features will differ at the margins, but substance, identity and uniqueness? Pretty soon, they evaporate. We’ve already seen early signs of this phenomenon in AI-generated art. In platforms like ArtStation, many artists have raised concerns regarding the influx of AI-produced content that, instead of showing unique human creativity, feels like recycled aesthetics remixing popular cultural references, broad visual tropes and styles. This is not the cutting-edge innovation you want powering your R&D engine. If every company runs gen AI as its de facto innovation strategy, then your industry won’t get five or ten disruptive new products each year — it’ll get five or ten dressed-up clones. 3. The magic of human mischief: How accidents and ambiguity propel innovation We’ve all read the history books: Penicillin was discovered by accident after Alexander Fleming left some bacteria cultures uncovered. The microwave oven was born when engineer Percy Spencer accidentally melted a chocolate bar by standing too close to a radar device. Oh, and the Post-it note? Another happy accident — a failed attempt at creating a super-strong adhesive. In fact, failure and accidental discoveries are intrinsic components of R&D. Human researchers, uniquely attuned to the value hidden in failure, are often able to see the unexpected as opportunity. Serendipity, intuition, gut feeling — these are as pivotal to successful innovation as any carefully laid-out roadmap. But here’s the crux of the problem with gen AI : It has no concept of ambiguity, let alone the flexibility to interpret failure as an asset. The AI’s programming teaches it to avoid mistakes, optimize for accuracy and resolve data ambiguities. That’s great if you’re streamlining logistics or increasing factory throughput, but it’s terrible for breakthrough exploration. By eliminating the possibility of productive ambiguity — interpreting accidents, pushing against flawed designs — AI flattens potential pathways toward innovation. Humans embrace complexity and know how to let things breathe when an unexpected output presents itself. AI, meanwhile, will double down on certainty, mainstreaming the middle-of-road ideas and sidelining anything that looks irregular or untested. 4. AI lacks empathy and vision — two intangibles that make products revolutionary Here’s the thing: Innovation is not just a product of logic; it’s a product of empathy, intuition, desire, and vision. Humans innovate because they care, not just about logical efficiency or bottom lines, but about responding to nuanced human needs and emotions. We dream of making things faster, safer, more delightful, because at a fundamental level, we understand the human experience. Think about the genius behind the first iPod or the minimalist interface design of Google Search. It wasn’t purely technical merit that made these game-changers successful — it was the empathy to understand user frustration with complex MP3 players or cluttered search engines. Gen AI cannot replicate this. It doesn’t know what it feels like to wrestle with a buggy app, to marvel at a sleek design, or to experience frustration from an unmet need. When AI “innovates,” it does so without emotional context. This lack of vision reduces its ability to craft points of view that resonate with actual human beings. Even worse, without empathy, AI may generate products that are technically impressive but feel soulless, sterile and transactional — devoid of humanity. In R&D, that’s an innovation killer. 5. Too much dependence on AI risks de-skilling human talent Here’s a final, chilling thought for our shiny AI-future fanatics. What happens when you let AI do too much ? In any field where automation erodes human engagement, skills degrade over time. Just look at industries where early automation was introduced: Employees lose touch with the “why” of things because they aren’t flexing their problem-solving muscles regularly. In an R&D-heavy environment, this creates a genuine threat to the human capital that shapes long-term innovation culture. If research teams become mere overseers to AI-generated work, they may lose the capability to challenge, out-think or transcend the AI’s output. The less you practice innovation, the less you become capable of innovation on your own. By the time you realize you’ve overshot the balance, it may be too late. This erosion of human skill is dangerous when markets shift dramatically, and no amount of AI can lead you through the fog of uncertainty. Disruptive times require humans to break outside conventional frames — something AI will never be good at. The way forward: AI as a supplement, not a substitute To be clear, I’m not saying gen AI has no place in R&D — it absolutely does. As a complementary tool, AI can empower researchers and designers to test hypotheses quickly, iterate through creative ideas, and refine details faster than ever before. Used properly, it can enhance productivity without squashing creativity. The trick is this: We must ensure that AI acts as a supplement, not a substitute, to human creativity. Human researchers need to stay at the center of the innovation process, using AI tools to enrich their efforts — but never abdicating control of creativity, vision or strategic direction to an algorithm. Gen AI has arrived, but so too has the continued need for that rare, powerful spark of human curiosity and audacity — the kind that can never be reduced to a machine-learning model. Let’s not lose sight of that. Ashish Pawar is a software engineer . DataDecisionMakers Welcome to the VentureBeat community! DataDecisionMakers is where experts, including the technical people doing data work, can share data-related insights and innovation. If you want to read about cutting-edge ideas and up-to-date information, best practices, and the future of data and data tech, join us at DataDecisionMakers. You might even consider contributing an article of your own! Read More From DataDecisionMakers

What happens when 'The Simpsons' join 'Monday Night Football'? Find out during Bengals-CowboysMcClain added six assists for the Tigers (2-5). Grayson Carter scored 13 points, shooting 6 of 7 from the field. Kenny Hunter and Alex Anderson both added 12. The Javelinas were led by Isaiah Payne, who recorded 18 points and four assists. Texas A&M-Kingsville also got 16 points from Allen Singleton. Nate Lacewell also had 13 points and seven rebounds. The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .