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Romney scolds Santos: ‘He shouldn’t have been there’

(NewsNation) — Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, told embattled Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., he shouldn’t have attended the State of the Union address, much less positioned himself near the center of the House aisle to shake hands, slamming the New York Republican as “an embarrassment.”

Romney appeared to have a heated encounter with the disgraced first-term lawmaker as he walked down the aisle to take his seat for Biden’s address.

“I don’t know the exact words I said. He shouldn’t have been there. Look, he’s a sick puppy. He shouldn’t have been there,” Romney told reporters after the speech.

“I don’t think he ought to be in Congress, and he certainly shouldn’t be in the aisle trying to shake the hand of the president of the United States and dignitaries coming in. It’s an embarrassment,” he added.

“He says that he embellished his record. Look, ’embellishing’ is saying you get an A when you get an A-minus. Lying is saying you graduated from a college you didn’t even attend,” Romney said, knocking down Santos’ attempt to characterize his conduct. 

“He shouldn’t be in Congress, and they’re going to go through the process and hopefully get him out,” he added. “If he had any shame at all, he wouldn’t be there.”

Santos claimed he graduated from Baruch College and described himself as a star on the school’s volleyball team, but school officials have no record of his attending the institution and former team members don’t remember ever playing with him.  

The congressman later told the New York Post he was guilty of “embellishing” his resume. 

Romney said he didn’t hear Santos’ reply during their exchange, but Santos later punched back on Twitter.

“Hey @MittRomney just a reminder that you will NEVER be PRESIDENT!” he tweeted. 

Romney said he didn’t intend to confront Santos, but couldn’t avoid him. 

“He was standing right there in the aisle shaking hands with everybody,” he said. 

Asked if he was disappointed that Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., has yet to call on Santos to resign, Romney responded, “Yes.”

All of this comes as Santos is facing ethics complaints from fellow members of Congress, but the House Ethics Committee has not yet been organized for the next two years and thus cannot launch any potential investigation, an aide to McCarthy said on Tuesday.

“There’s no investigation, as the Ethics Committee hasn’t organized yet. But it has received complaints,” the spokesman said of the situation surrounding Santos, who has admitted he fabricated much of his resume.

Santos apologized for “embellishing” his resume but has rebuffed calls for his resignation from constituents and fellow New York state Republicans, saying he would vacate his seat only if he loses the next election, in 2024.

Last week, McCarthy said Santos had asked if he could recuse himself from his committee assignments while he works to clear up an ethics cloud.

Among other claims, Santos said he had degrees from New York University and Baruch College, despite neither institution having any record of his attending. He claimed to have worked at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, which was also untrue.

Reuters contributed to this report

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2 listen or not 2 listen? ADL chief launches new podcast with Nick Cannon

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Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt has unveiled a new podcast with an unlikely co-host: Nick Cannon. The podcast is called 2 Hate Or Not 2 Hate.

Cannon, best known for acting in movies such as Drumline and hosting America’s Got Talent and The Masked Singer, infamously unleashed a torrent of antisemitic remarks on an episode of his podcast Cannon’s Class in 2020. Among the statements were praise for Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, promotion of conspiracy theories around the Rothschild family and saying that Black people are “the true Hebrews.” When he made the comments, Cannon was speaking to Professor Griff, the rapper famously fired from pioneering hip-hop group Public Enemy for making antisemitic statements in 1989. 

Cannon quickly apologized for the episode and met with a representative for the Simon Wiesenthal Center.  

In the inaugural episode of 2 Hate Or Not 2 Hate, Cannon said the idea for the podcast came from his having built a relationship with Greenblatt in the years since his remarks. In tweets promoting the podcast, Greenblatt repeatedly referred to Cannon as his “good friend.”

I’m excited to co-host the #2HateOrNot2Hate podcast with my good friend @NickCannon. We will have difficult but necessary dialogues about hate in each episode, joined by guests. Be sure to check it out & subscribe on your preferred podcast platform: https://t.co/iVixhsHCF3

— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) February 5, 2023

The pair said the goal of the podcast is not to police speech or engage in cancel culture, but to help guide people through thorny issues. 

“I think we’re in this moment now where our conversations are so charged, everything is so politicized. Issues of race, issues of faith, issues of gender, issues of identity. These are fissures and it seems like there’s a fuse that’s ready to explode,” said Greenblatt, adding he hopes the podcast will be a place to discuss those issues in a calm, constructive way. 

It’s unclear how much traction the podcast has gotten with listeners since its January launch. Podcast platforms such as Spotify do not release download or subscriber data for podcasts. On YouTube, the first episode has had fewer than 700 views in the three weeks since it was released. The most recent episode, released on Sunday, has only 191 views as of Wednesday morning. 

The ADL did not immediately reply to an email requesting comment.

The post 2 listen or not 2 listen? ADL chief launches new podcast with Nick Cannon appeared first on The Forward.

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What CISOs Should Know About Hacking in 2023

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The art of cyber crime is in a constant state of flux and evolution. Simply staying on pace with these trends is a significant part of the CISO’s job.

Today’s modern CISO must ensure they are always prepared for the next big trend and remain ahead of adversaries.

As we begin to navigate 2023, the security landscape has transformed from a year ago, let alone a decade ago. The Russian invasion of Ukraine, emerging technologies like Web3 and AI, and new, post-pandemic ways of organizing the workforce have all led to significant shifts in the world of hacking.

In this article, we’ll look at how hacking is different in 2023, some of the key threats CISOs must contend with and some of the best defenses available.

What Does Modern Hacking Look Like? 

Before we start, it’s worth noting that even the term “hacker” has undergone some evolution over the years. Once largely associated with hostile actors, many security professionals now refer to themselves as hackers. The term “white hat hacker” also exists; this refers to hackers using the same methods as cyber criminals to carry out ethical tasks like pressure-testing security systems.

So what are the concrete ways hacking has changed today compared to five, ten and even twenty years ago? There are several significant trends to highlight that look set to dominate the cybersecurity conversation in 2023.

A Lower Barrier to Entry

In the past, threat actors needed highly developed skill sets honed over many years. Hacking, especially targeting high-level organizations with valuable assets, wasn’t something just anyone could do — the bar was set high.

Today, with the emergence and growth of DIY hacking kits and services — available in places like the dark web — even fairly low-skilled cyber criminals can inflict damage and successfully commit crimes. This is concerning news because it means the pool of potential attackers is soaring.

Taking Advantage of the Shift to Remote Work

Although the COVID-19 pandemic is now receding, many effects still linger. One of the most notable is the sustained shift to remote working patterns. While more remote work options come with great employee benefits such as work-life balance and productivity, this style of working also carries inherent security risks.

With millions of companies now operating either partially or fully remote, along with escalating levels of cloud adoption, security teams have the challenging task of defending sensitive information and assets. Employees access all this data from a wide range of locations — including unsafe wireless networks and even public places.

Emerging Technologies Will Play a Greater Role

Emerging technologies like blockchain, the internet of things and artificial intelligence are expected to play a more prominent role in our lives in 2023, making them a more attractive target for attackers.

We’ve already seen a number of high-profile attacks on Web3 infrastructures, like the 2022 hacking of the Binance exchange for $570 million. Threat actors can also turn new technologies to their own advantage; for example, by harnessing AI tools to automate their attacks and quickly identify easy targets.

Bigger Targets and Heavyweight Players

The invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 sparked a new era of geopolitics, shifting the cybersecurity landscape. Russia has been targeting critical infrastructure in Ukraine with cyberattacks. As tensions between the West and its adversaries reach the highest point in decades, it’s realistic to expect more such attacks against Western targets.

CISOs at all levels must prepare for attacks by nation-state actors, which could even target assets like regional power grids.

What Will Be the Most Popular Hacking Methods of 2023?

Which techniques will malicious actors use to achieve their goals in 2023? While it’s difficult to predict, we’ll likely see a continuation of recent trends. 

  • Phishing. Despite  — or perhaps because of — its simplicity, phishing remains an extremely effective method for threat actors of all types. Tricking victims into sharing sensitive data, including company information, is a tried-and-tested attack vector that organizations must prepare for with widespread employee education and more robust password policies.

  • DDoS attacks. Distributed Denial of Service attacks work by overwhelming the target’s servers with traffic, causing them to crash. In many cases, attackers are using cloud infrastructure to bolster their DDoS attacks.

  • Ransomware. This method has been skyrocketing year over year and will probably trend upward in 2023. During an attack, malicious actors seize an organization or individual’s data, encrypt it and demand a ransom for its return. Ransomware can be devastating, leading to enormous financial losses and irreparable reputation damage.

  • Targeting missing patches. Many threat actors are actively searching for security patches that organizations have failed to keep up to date. Then, they take advantage of those vulnerabilities. 

What Does Defense Against Hacking Look Like in 2023?

As hacking continues to evolve, so do the methods cybersecurity teams are deploying to combat those threats. 

Here are some of the key trends in defense against hacking to be aware of in 2023:

Automation and AI

AI is being harnessed by cyber criminals more and more, but when used correctly, it can also be a powerful tool for defense. AI algorithms are excellent at analyzing huge datasets and making accurate predictions about when and where attacks will take place, giving security teams a valuable advantage. 

According to research by IBM, companies that use AI and automation to defend against data breaches save an average of $3.05 million compared to those that don’t — a difference of 65.2%.

Secure Cloud Assets

As cloud assets and infrastructure become increasingly popular targets, companies will focus on defending in this area. Stricter security controls, greater enforcement of access requirements and better education and coordination between teams are all excellent places to start.

Make Cybersecurity a Priority

The past few years have seen a growing trend of organizations taking a much more focused approach to cybersecurity with company-wide education policies and growing cyber spending

As we enter 2023 and beyond, companies look certain to continue along this path, emphasizing security responsibility for everyone in the organization, not just security teams.

The post What CISOs Should Know About Hacking in 2023 appeared first on Security Intelligence.

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Ex-Twitter employee tells AOC the platform changed its content moderation policy to accommodate Trump’s racist ‘go back’ tweets

Alexandria Ocasio-CortezRep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.

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  • A former top Twitter official said the social network bent its rules for Trump’s 2019 racist tweet.
  • At the time, Trump told four Democratic lawmakers of color to “go back” to the countries they came from.
  • Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the targets of the tweet, was clearly animated by what she learned.

Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Wednesday lit into complaints about anti-conservative bias on Twitter after a former Twitter employee testified that the social network changed its policies in 2019 to accommodate President Donald Trump’s racist tweets that told four Democratic congresswomen of color to “go back” to where they came from.

“My team made the recommendation that for the first time, we find Donald Trump in violation of Twitter’s policies and use the public interest interstitial,” former Twitter employee Anika Navaroli, who worked on the company’s content moderation team, testified to lawmakers. 

Ocasio-Cortez, who was one of the four congresswomen Trump was attacking, was clearly outraged over how the social network later decided to bend its policies to allow the president’s message. Navaroli testified that her team’s finding was overruled by Twitter’s vice president of trust and safety Del Harvey. 

“So much for bias against right-wing on Twitter,” Ocasio-Cortez said, concluding the line of questioning. 

—CSPAN (@cspan) February 8, 2023

 

Democrats and some Republicans criticized Trump for the 2019 tweet, which targeted “the Squad,” a group of progressive Democratic lawmakers composed of Reps. Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar, and Ocasio-Cortez. What was particularly galling about Trump’s message is that he said the congresswomen “originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe.”

Navaroli also said that at the time Twitter included an example of using the phrase “go back to your country” in a list of banned language against immigrants. She said that this content moderation guidance was suddenly changed in the days after Trump’s tweet was allowed to stand unchanged. The recommendation had been for Trump’s tweets to be labeled but allowed to remain on the platform since he was a public figure.

Trump was mostly mistaken; three of the lawmakers were born in the US. While Omar fled Somalia as a child before becoming a naturalized citizen as a teenager. Regardless, there is a long and ugly history behind telling people of color to go back to another country.

House Republicans, who now hold a slight majority in the chamber, summoned Navaroli and other top former Twitter officials to testify before the House Oversight Committee about the social network’s handling of The New York Post’s initial report about Hunter Biden’s laptop. 

Twitter was repeatedly criticized for allowing Trump’s tweets to stand. Following the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot, the social network banned the president “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.” Elon Musk allowed Trump back on the platform after the Tesla CEO paid $44 billion to take over the company and make it private.

The now-former president has yet to use his account. Current Twitter representatives did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.

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Over 16 million taxpayers from states like California should hold off on filing their taxes because of extra stimulus checks, the IRS says

stimulus check eligibility

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  • In 2022, some states opted to give residents checks or tax rebates to offset the cost of inflation.
  • Now, the IRS is looking into those payments and their taxability, and advising taxpayers who received them to wait on filing their federal returns.
  • Waiting on guidance might mean taxpayers get refunds later, since they had to wait to file.

Last year, to offset rising costs, many states stepped in to give residents some extra money in their pockets. Now, it’s unclear whether those checks might lead to a surprise tax burden, and even the IRS isn’t sure.

In a statement on February 3, the agency said it was “aware of questions involving special tax refunds or payments made by states in 2022,” and said it was “working with state tax officials as quickly as possible to provide additional information and clarity for taxpayers.”

In the meantime, the filers who received checks should hit pause and wait to file their federal returns. The IRS said that, for filers who aren’t sure whether their state payments will be taxed, they recommend waiting until there’s more guidance.

“For taxpayers and tax preparers with questions, the best course of action is to wait for additional clarification on state payments rather than calling the IRS,” the IRS said in its statement. It also does not recommend submitting an amended return for 2022.

Insider reached out to the IRS to ask if it had any additional guidance; they did not immediately respond.

As the Wall Street Journal reports, that question of checks being taxable will particularly fall on the shoulders of Californians. By the state’s accounting, its Middle Class Tax Refund — which ranged from $350 to $1,050reached over 31 million taxpayers and dependents. The state distributed around 9.5 million debit cards, and made just under 7.2 million direct deposits; that adds up to over 16 million payments that could be affected by the IRS’ new guidance in California alone.

Per the Wall Street Journal, some confusion abounded after Californians who got over $600 received 1099-MISC tax reporting forms, which are typically used to report income from things like royalties or prizes. But, even so and despite the IRS’ guidance, H&R Block and TurboTax are still filing for taxpayers who received the payments, holding the belief that the checks from the state are not taxable, according to the Journal.

California isn’t alone in issuing one-off payments. At least 18 states sent out checks or offered rebates to some residents, with many citing high inflation and robust state coffers as reasons to distribute more.  

Now, though, that assistance might mean filers have to wait before they finish their taxes. For many, waiting to file is more than just putting off a burdensome task. It will also keep filers from their refund checks for longer, which, while likely to be smaller this year, are still an important economic lifeline for many. With the IRS still struggling against a backlog of returns, many filers in recent years found their checks delayed by months, leaving them scrambling to cover essential bills. And, with many states targeting their checks by income, that could mean lower-income residents will have to wait even longer before receiving a refund. 

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Demetrius Haley didn’t tell Tyre Nichols why he’d been pulled over. The Memphis cop was talking on the phone during the stop, documents show.

Former Memphis officers officers Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, bottom row, from left, Desmond Mills, Jr. and Justin Smith.Demetrius Haley is one of five former Memphis police officers charged with murder in Tyre Nichols’ death.

Memphis Police Department via AP

  • Former Memphis officer Demetrius Haley never told Tyre Nichols why he was pulled over.
  • Department records say Haley approached Nichols while talking on the phone in a black hoodie.
  • He yelled profanities, despite no evidence that Nichols ever swore at or threatened officers.

When Tyre Nichols was pulled over at E. Raines and Ross roads in Memphis on January 7, a Memphis officer wearing a black hoodie jumped out of his unmarked car and approached him yelling profanities while talking on the phone, according to a police decertification record provided to Insider.

Then-officer Demetrius Haley, who has since been fired and charged with Nichols’ murder, never told the 29-year-old driver why he stopped his car, according to the records, which were provided to Insider in response to a public records request.

“You exited your unmarked vehicle stopped in an opposing traffic lane and you forced the driver out of his vehicle while using loud profanity and wearing a black sweatshirt hoodie over your head,” a statement of charges sent to Haley on January 14 reads. “You never told the driver the purpose of the vehicle stop or that he was under arrest.”

A day after Nichols’ beating, the department released a statement describing a “confrontation” with an alleged reckless driver, later identified as Tyre Nichols. Police Chief CJ Davis later said there was no evidence that Nichols ever drove recklessly.

Haley — who joined the department in August 2020 and was a member of the now-disbanded SCORPION unit — is one of the five officers charged with the murder of Nichols.

Haley, along with Tadarrius Bean, Justin Smith, Emmitt Martin III, and Desmond Mills Jr., pulled Nichols over less than 100 yards from his mother’s home on Jan. 7 and beat him so severely he died in the hospital three days later.

Nichols’ death and the release of the video of his brutal beating prompted national protests against police brutality and led to the disbandment of the SCORPION unit.

Within 20 days, the five officers were charged with murder. Two other officers have been on paid administrative leave, and seven remain under investigation by the department on internal charges

The Memphis police department’s internal charges against Haley, which resulted in his termination, said that Haley and the other officers were caught on body-worn camera making unprofessional comments, including “that muthafucka made me spray myself,” as they laughed and bragged about their involvement. 

“Your conversation and lack of concern for the injured subject was witnessed by a civilian who took photographs and cell phone video,” the report said.

There was no audio on the body camera that indicated Nichols ever used profanity or any violent threats toward the officers, according to the report.

“You also were on an active cell phone call where the person overheard the police encounter,” the record said. 

By the time of Nichols’ beating, Haley had already racked up a short list of departmental violations, including a failure to write up a use of force report after his colleague ripped a woman out of her car in 2021 just for laughing inside with her aunt. 

Video from the scene of Nichols’ killing showed the group of officers kicking, punching, and pepper spraying Nichols as he told them he was trying to get home and called out for his mom. 

An attorney for Martin had previously said that none of the officers intended for Nichols to die, but an attorney for Nichols’ family told Insider in Memphis that their “actions were designed to kill.” 

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ChatGPT’s founder blasts Google as a ‘lethargic search monopoly’ as the tech giant’s AI war with Microsoft heats up

Sam Altman took at dig at Google's search engine in a recent interview.Sam Altman took at dig at Google’s search engine in a recent interview.

Ramin Talaie/Getty Images and Kimberly White/Getty Images for GLAAD

  • OpenAI CEO Sam Altman called Google a “lethargic search monopoly” in an interview on Tuesday.
  • Altman said he sees tremendous potential for his company’s AI technology to change the way people find information online.
  • Google has said it’s own ChatGPT rival, Bard, will be coming to the public in a matter of weeks.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman took a subtle dig at Google, which he called a “lethargic search monopoly,” during an interview on Tuesday.

Altman said he sees tremendous upside to Microsoft’s decision to incorporate OpenAI’s technology into its search engine. Microsoft announced the integration of an AI language model into its “new Bing” search engine on Tuesday. It said the AI tool is “more powerful than ChatGPT.”

ChatGPT, which has generated headlines for its ability to do anything from write an essay to provide coding advice, is an AI chatbot that can answer questions in a clear, conversational manner.

“We’re going to discover what these new [search engine business] models can do, but if I were sitting on a lethargic search monopoly and had to think about a world where there was going to be a real challenge to the way that monetization of this works and new ad units, and maybe even a temporary downward pressure, I would not feel great about that,” Altman said in an interview with Ben Thompson in his newsletter Stratechery.

Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott told Stratechery he thinks the company is well positioned to sell the new technology to the masses, adding that the “search business that you have now is very different from the search business that we had twenty years ago,” when Google was just starting out.

“There’s so much value here, it’s inconceivable to me that we can’t figure out how to ring the cash register on it,” Altman said.

Though, the OpenAI CEO added it’s hard to say how Google will adapt to the technology.

A spokesperson for Google did not respond to a request for comment ahead of publication.

Google appears to be equally as concerned about maintaining its search dominance. Google’s search engine represented over 91% of the global search market in the past 12 months, while Bing accounted for about 3%, according to data from SimilarWeb

The company is sounding the alarm on ChatGPT. In December, Google reportedly issued a “code red” over the chatbot. Since the latest version of ChatGPT was released on November 30, Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google and its parent company, Alphabet, has participated in several meetings around Google’s AI strategy in response to the threat the chatbot represents to the company’s search engine, The New York Times reported.

The company also called in Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin to help address the issue, the Times reported in January. Last week, Gmail creator Paul Buchheit warned that Google’s search business was only one to two years away from “total disruption” due to AI chatbots like ChatGPT.

Most recently, Google announced its plans on Monday to unveil its ChatGPT rival, Bard. Pichai said Bard was open to “trusted testers” and would open to the public in the coming weeks. Though, the chatbot took an early stumble out of the gate. On Wednesday, Google shares slumped more than 8% after Bard made a factual error in its first demo video.

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Super Bowl has rare matchup of top 2 regular-season teams

This year’s Super Bowl features a rare matchup of the NFL’s top two teams from the regular season.

The Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs were the league’s only 14-game winners, marking just the sixth time since the 1970 merger that the squads with sole possession of the two best records in the regular season met for the championship.

The last time it happened came after the 2013 season when Seattle beat Denver 43-8 in a matchup of 13-win teams.

That blowout was relatively typical of these meetings, with the average margin of victory in the previous five powerhouse matchups being 21 points.

The closest game was Washington’s 37-24 win over Buffalo following the 1991 season. The three others featured San Francisco beating Miami 38-16 after the 1984 season, Dallas topping Denver 27-10 to cap the 1977 season and Oakland beating Minnesota 32-14 the previous year.

Since seeding began in 1975, this is the 15th time the top team in each conference made it to the Super Bowl. The previous time came after the 2017 season when the Eagles won their first Super Bowl championship by beating New England 41-33.

This is also the third time both Super Bowl teams won at least 14 games in the regular season, although both Kansas City and Philadelphia needed wins in the added 17th game to get there. Atlanta and Denver did it in 16-game seasons in 1998, and Miami and San Francisco in 1984.

The Chiefs and Eagles also have been in control all postseason, with neither team trailing in the playoffs. The only other times both Super Bowl teams did that came in the 2004 season (Patriots vs. Eagles), 1991 season (Bills vs. Washington) and 1966 season (Packers vs. Chiefs).

AIR IT OUT

Patrick Mahomes will try to do something that has never been done before in the NFL by following up a regular season when he led the league in yards passing with a Super Bowl title.

Mahomes threw for 5,250 yards during the regular season — 511 more than second-place Justin Herbert for the largest gap between first and second place since Kurt Warner beat out Peyton Manning by 699 yards in 2001.

The only player to reach the Super Bowl after throwing for more yards in the regular season than Mahomes was Manning, with a record 5,477 in 2013. His Broncos lost 43-8 to Seattle in the Super Bowl.

That was one of six times before Mahomes that the player who led the league in yards passing made it to the Super Bowl, with all of them losing. The others were Tom Brady (2017 season), Brady (2007), Rich Gannon (2002), Warner (2001) and Dan Marino (1984).

COACHING REUNION

Chiefs coach Andy Reid joins Dan Reeves as the only coaches to face a franchise in the Super Bowl that they previously took to the big game.

Reid coached the Eagles to their second Super Bowl following the 2004 season before getting fired after the 2012 season. He quickly built Kansas City into a power and now is ready for his fourth Super Bowl appearance as a head coach — the ninth coach to reach that mark.

Reid will hope for better luck in his rematch than Reeves had after the 1998 season against a Denver organization he had guided to the Super Bowl in the 1986, ’87 and ’89 seasons before losing all three. The Broncos beat Reeves and the Atlanta Falcons 34-19 in the Super Bowl.

Two other coaches faced their former teams in the Super Bowl and ended up on the winning side: Jon Gruden led Tampa Bay past the Raiders after the 2002 season and Weeb Ewbank coached the Jets to a huge upset over the Colts following the 1968 season.

The Eagles will be the sixth franchise to reach the Super Bowl under four coaches, with Nick Sirianni joining Doug Pederson, Reid and Dick Vermeil.

The Raiders, 49ers, Colts and Rams all got there with four coaches, and the Broncos did it with a record five.

TERRIFIC TIGHT END

Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce has put together a playoff career topped perhaps only by the greatest receiver ever in Jerry Rice.

Kelce has 127 catches in 17 career playoff games for 1,467 yards and 15 touchdowns. The only player to top any of those numbers was Rice, with 151 catches for 2,245 yards and 22 TDs in 29 playoff games.

The Mahomes-Kelce connection also is one of the best, with their 13 TD passes in the playoffs trailing only the 15 Tom Brady threw to Rob Gronkowski.

___

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Page 2

This year’s Super Bowl features a rare matchup of the NFL’s top two teams from the regular season.

The Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs were the league’s only 14-game winners, marking just the sixth time since the 1970 merger that the squads with sole possession of the two best records in the regular season met for the championship.

The last time it happened came after the 2013 season when Seattle beat Denver 43-8 in a matchup of 13-win teams.

That blowout was relatively typical of these meetings, with the average margin of victory in the previous five powerhouse matchups being 21 points.

The closest game was Washington’s 37-24 win over Buffalo following the 1991 season. The three others featured San Francisco beating Miami 38-16 after the 1984 season, Dallas topping Denver 27-10 to cap the 1977 season and Oakland beating Minnesota 32-14 the previous year.

Since seeding began in 1975, this is the 15th time the top team in each conference made it to the Super Bowl. The previous time came after the 2017 season when the Eagles won their first Super Bowl championship by beating New England 41-33.

This is also the third time both Super Bowl teams won at least 14 games in the regular season, although both Kansas City and Philadelphia needed wins in the added 17th game to get there. Atlanta and Denver did it in 16-game seasons in 1998, and Miami and San Francisco in 1984.

The Chiefs and Eagles also have been in control all postseason, with neither team trailing in the playoffs. The only other times both Super Bowl teams did that came in the 2004 season (Patriots vs. Eagles), 1991 season (Bills vs. Washington) and 1966 season (Packers vs. Chiefs).

AIR IT OUT

Patrick Mahomes will try to do something that has never been done before in the NFL by following up a regular season when he led the league in yards passing with a Super Bowl title.

Mahomes threw for 5,250 yards during the regular season — 511 more than second-place Justin Herbert for the largest gap between first and second place since Kurt Warner beat out Peyton Manning by 699 yards in 2001.

The only player to reach the Super Bowl after throwing for more yards in the regular season than Mahomes was Manning, with a record 5,477 in 2013. His Broncos lost 43-8 to Seattle in the Super Bowl.

That was one of six times before Mahomes that the player who led the league in yards passing made it to the Super Bowl, with all of them losing. The others were Tom Brady (2017 season), Brady (2007), Rich Gannon (2002), Warner (2001) and Dan Marino (1984).

COACHING REUNION

Chiefs coach Andy Reid joins Dan Reeves as the only coaches to face a franchise in the Super Bowl that they previously took to the big game.

Reid coached the Eagles to their second Super Bowl following the 2004 season before getting fired after the 2012 season. He quickly built Kansas City into a power and now is ready for his fourth Super Bowl appearance as a head coach — the ninth coach to reach that mark.

Reid will hope for better luck in his rematch than Reeves had after the 1998 season against a Denver organization he had guided to the Super Bowl in the 1986, ’87 and ’89 seasons before losing all three. The Broncos beat Reeves and the Atlanta Falcons 34-19 in the Super Bowl.

Two other coaches faced their former teams in the Super Bowl and ended up on the winning side: Jon Gruden led Tampa Bay past the Raiders after the 2002 season and Weeb Ewbank coached the Jets to a huge upset over the Colts following the 1968 season.

The Eagles will be the sixth franchise to reach the Super Bowl under four coaches, with Nick Sirianni joining Doug Pederson, Reid and Dick Vermeil.

The Raiders, 49ers, Colts and Rams all got there with four coaches, and the Broncos did it with a record five.

TERRIFIC TIGHT END

Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce has put together a playoff career topped perhaps only by the greatest receiver ever in Jerry Rice.

Kelce has 127 catches in 17 career playoff games for 1,467 yards and 15 touchdowns. The only player to top any of those numbers was Rice, with 151 catches for 2,245 yards and 22 TDs in 29 playoff games.

The Mahomes-Kelce connection also is one of the best, with their 13 TD passes in the playoffs trailing only the 15 Tom Brady threw to Rob Gronkowski.

___

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Trump’s White House asked Twitter to remove Chrissy Teigen’s expletive-filled tweet insulting the former president, ex-employee testifies

Donald Trump, Chrissy TeigenFormer President Donald Trump; Chrissy Teigen

Drew Angerer/Getty Images; Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

  • An ex-Twitter employee said Trump’s White House asked the company to take down a tweet.
  • The expletive-filled tweet, written by Chrissy Teigen, insulted Trump.
  • “They wanted it to come down because it was a derogatory statement,” the ex-official said.

President Donald Trump’s White House asked Twitter to take down a 2019 tweet posted by celebrity Chrissy Teigen that insulted him, a former employee at the social media company testified before a congressional committee on Wednesday.

“I do remember hearing that we had received a request from the White House to make sure that we evaluated this tweet, and that they wanted it to come down because it was a derogatory statement directed towards the president,” Anika Collier Navaroli, previously a senior expert on Twitter’s US Safety Policy Team, told lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee.

In the September 9, 2019 tweet, Teigen called Trump “a pussy ass bitch” — an apparent response to a Trump tweet roughly an hour before deriding Teigen’s husband, musician John Legend, as “boring” and her as his “filthy mouthed wife.”

Navaroli confirmed on Wednesday that Teigen’s expletive-filled tweet was what the White House asked to be removed, though Twitter declined the request.

The revelation came as the committee’s Republicans led a hearing titled, “Protecting Speech from Government Interference and Social Media Bias,” featuring testimony from Navaroli along with three former Twitter executives.

The hearing focused on how Twitter blocked the distribution of a 2020 New York Post story about emails claimed to be retrieved from a laptop belonging to Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. Twitter executives had limited the story’s reach over concerns of a foreign disinformation campaign a month before the 2020 election, but later allowed the story to be shared and said the company mishandled the situation. Other news outlets, including The Washington Post and The New York Times, confirmed the New York Post’s reporting months later.

Conservatives have long claimed that social media platforms like Twitter are biased against them, censor their speech and favor liberals. At the start of Wednesday’s hearing, Chairman James Comer praised Twitter’s new CEO, Elon Musk, saying he brought to light the platform’s alleged suppression of conservative voices. 

—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 9, 2019

—chrissy teigen (@chrissyteigen) September 9, 2019

Yet the GOP’s push to discuss alleged social media bias against conservatives seemingly backfired during Navaroli’s testimony about the Trump White House seeking to remove Teigen’s tweet.

“My, my, my, what happens when you hold a hearing and you can’t prove your point,” said Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia, who led the line of questioning toward Navaroli. 

Three of the four former Twitter officials also testified they had no evidence that Biden’s White House had ever asked the company to remove content. 

“But there’s plenty of evidence Donald J. Trump tried to do that,” Connolly said. “And if we’re gonna have a hearing about the misuse of social media and the intrusion of government in the content on social media, we’ve got an environment-rich target but it’s not Joe Biden. It’s Donald J. Trump.”

Teigen quickly reacted to the testimony on Wednesday, tweeting: “oh my god” with a laughing emoji. Trump’s office did not immediately return Insider’s request for comment. 

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Jennifer Lopez’s $42.5 million mansion has a movie theater lined with posters from her hits and Ben Affleck’s movies. Take a look inside.

The front door of Jennifer Lopez's Bel Air estate with a stone facade and a large wooden door

Courtesy of Carolwood Estates

  • Jennifer Lopez is selling her 9-bedroom, 13-bathroom Bel Air estate for $42.5 million.
  • The home sits on more than 7 acres and is one of the largest lots in the exclusive neighborhood. 
  • The property includes a private beach, a 100-person amphitheater, and an organic vegetable garden.
Jennifer Lopez has left her “Jenny from the Block” days behind, and is ready to do the same with her 14,000-square-foot Bel Air home that has 9 bedrooms and 13 bathrooms.An aerial view of Jennifer Lopez's Bel Air estate with a circular driveway and several trees surrounding the 12,000 square foot home

Courtesy of Carolwood Estates

The home was designed by architect Samuel Marx and built in 1940.One of the outdoor patios at Jennifer Lopez's house includes a view of palm trees and a fire pit

Courtesy of Carolwood Estates

It has undergone a renovation in the French Country style, according to the listing, and features Provençal touches like a stone facade and wood accents.

The estate sits on more than 7 acres, a massive property for Los Angeles’s Bel Air neighborhood. 

If it sells for the $42.5 million asking price, it will be one of the pricier transactions in Bel Air in recent years. Data from Zillow shows that there have been six homes in the neighborhood that sold for at least $40 million since 2020. 

A nearby 105,000-square-foot megamansion known as The One sold at auction for $141 million, including fees and commission, in 2022.

Lopez’s estate includes a guest house, a gym, a large kitchen with a built-in breakfast bar, and a 30-seat movie theater, according to the listing agent, Brett Lawyer of Carolwood Estates.Jennifer Lopez's kitchen includes a built-in breakfast bar, vaulted ceilings, and a stone facade

Courtesy of Carolwood Estates

The entertainer bought the home from actress Sela Ward in 2016 for just over $28 million, Mansion Global reported.Jennifer Lopez's living room includes a large chandelier

Courtesy of Carolwood Estates

Lopez has earned a reputation as a savvy real estate investor since her star-making turn on the silver screen playing Selena Quintanilla in the singer’s 1997 biopic, Selena.

In 2000, Lopez bought her first luxury property, a 7-bedroom home in a community called The Summit that overlooks Beverly Hills and Studio City. 

Lopez put the property on the market after owning it for just four years and earned about $8 million in profit from the sale, according to Love Property.

The main level of the Bel Air home includes high ceilings, a steel fireplace, and extensive views of the surrounding natural landscape.Jennifer Lopez's living room includes large bay windows that look out at the private garden

Courtesy of Carolwood Estates

Upstairs are a gym, a large library, a massage parlor, and a guest room.Jennifer Lopez's gym includes several modern machines including a power rack and a smith machine

Courtesy of Carolwood Estates

The lower level of the home includes a 30-person theater adorned with posters of Jennifer Lopez and her husband Ben Affleck from films they’ve starred in including “Monster In Law” and “Hollywoodland.”Jennifer Lopez's theatre has purple walls and includes some posters from her features such as Monster In Law

Courtesy of Carolwood Estates

Lopez has more than 125 film credits as an actress and has starred in movies such as “Hustlers,” “Ice Age,” and “Jersey Girl,” according to IMDB.

She has also appeared in well-known television series including “How I Met Your Mother” and “In Living Color.”

The home’s primary suite includes dual dressing rooms and opens onto private landscaped terraces.The primary suite of Jennifer Lopez's estate includes a canopy bed and a private terrace that looks out at the garden

Courtesy of Carolwood Estates

Outside, the property includes a 100-person amphitheater, an entertaining kitchen, a private lake, and a sandy beach with an outdoor shower.A view of the private beach at Jennifer Lopez's estate

Courtesy of Carolwood Estates

Unlike many homes in Bel Air, Lopez’s estate is surrounded by a huge lawn, an organic vegetable garden, and tall trees that give it a little more privacy than most nearby mansions.The exterior of Jennifer Lopez's Bel Air estate includes an infinity-edge pool and a well-manicured landscape

Courtesy of Carolwood Estates

The listing notes that the property’s future owner could reasonably add more rooms to the home, or another structure to the property if desired.An aerial view of Jennifer Lopez's estate

Courtesy of Carolwood Estates

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