Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

CINCINNATI (AP) — Los Angeles Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani had another first in his MLB career.Ohtani struck out in his first four plate appearances Tuesday night against the Cincinnati Reds, the first time he has done that in his eight seasons and 981 games in the majors.Against the Seattle Mariners on July 17, 2021, while playing for the Los Angeles Angels, Ohtani popped up to the shortstop in his first at-bat and then struck out in his next four times at the plate.Despite Ohtani’s tough night at the plate, the Dodgers rallied for a 5-4 victory on an RBI…

AI chip startup Groq is in talks to raise a fresh $600 million at a near $6 billion valuation, sources tell Bloomberg, although the deal isn’t yet final and terms could change.  Groq raised $640 million at a $2.8 billion valuation in August 2024, making this double the valuation in about a year. Groq previously raised about $1 billion. The new round is led by Austin-based firm Disruptive, Bloomberg reports. The November round was led by BlackRock, with participation from Neuberger Berman, Type One Ventures, Cisco, KDDI, and Samsung Catalyst Fund. Groq was founded by Jonathan Ross, who previously worked…

The California judge for Elon Musk’s racketeering lawsuit against Sam Altman granted the Tesla CEO a small legal victory Tuesday, but not before dinging both sides for trying to waste her time with “excessive” court filings.”The court will not waste precious judicial resources on the parties’ gamesmanship,” US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers wrote.”Here, the parties to this action have repeatedly over-litigated this case,” she wrote.The judge’s terse, two-page decision grants Musk’s request that she trim Altman’s bulky response to the bulky, 2024 lawsuit, which accuses OpenAI and Microsoft of civil racketeering, fraud, breach of contract, and violating antitrust laws.Altman’s…

The humanitarian crisis in Gaza has reached catastrophic levels, with health care workers now succumbing to hunger alongside their patients, according to the humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders.”It’s catastrophic, and the famine conditions have been in the works for many, many months,” Avril Benoît, executive director of Doctors Without Borders USA, told ABC News. “People are starving, even our own aid workers in hospitals are fainting, are feeling weak. They’re not sure when they will see their next meal.”The dire situation affecting medical staff further compromises their ability to care for patients, creating a compounding crisis in healthcare delivery, says…

The Tea app saga continues to brew — and has taken a legal turn.On Monday, the viral app, which lets women post anonymous reviews of men, was hit with two class-action lawsuits.Both lawsuits were filed in response to the data breach Tea experienced last week, which exposed about 72,000 images — including selfies and IDs used for verification — and private messages.A Tea spokesperson declined to comment.The two lawsuits, filed in the Northern District of California, allege negligence, breach of implied contract, and other claims.One lawsuit, filed on behalf of Griselda Reyes, says that she submitted a photo while signing up…

The gunman who opened fire in midtown Manhattan on Monday, killing four people before turning the gun on himself, left a note mentioning “CTE” several times, officials familiar with the investigation told NBC News.CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, is a brain condition caused by repeated injuries to the head, typically over many years.The shooter was targeting the headquarters of the NFL, which is in the Park Avenue building where the shooting took place, authorities said.While CTE can’t be formally diagnosed without an autopsy, one-third of former NFL players suspect they have the disease, according to a 2024 report. The NFL…

CINCINNATI (AP) — Trey Hendrickson is ending his holdout and will report to the Cincinnati Bengals on Wednesday, a person familiar with the matter said Tuesday night.The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the move had not been announced.The All-Pro defensive end missed the first five days of training camp and accumulated $250,000 in fines. Hendrickson left Cincinnati before the start of camp and was working out in Jacksonville, Florida. The Bengals held position meetings on Tuesday but did not practice.Hendrickson is seeking a long-term extension with guaranteed money that matches what the league’s top…

Anthropic is nearing a deal to raise between $3 billion and $5 billion in funding, valuing the large language model developer at $170 billion, Bloomberg reported. Iconiq Capital is leading this funding round, but there’s a possibility of a second lead investor joining the deal. The company has also been in talks with Qatar Investment Authority and GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, according to the report. If finalized, the deal would nearly triple Anthropic’s valuation, which was $61.5 billion after a $3.5 billion funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners announced in March. Other participants in the startup’s last round…

The University of California, Los Angeles, reached a $6 million settlement with three Jewish students and a Jewish professor whose suit against the university argued it violated their civil rights by allowing pro-Palestinian protesters in 2024 to block their access to classes and other areas on campus.The settlement comes nearly a year after a preliminary injunction was issued, marking the first time a U.S. judge had ruled against a university over their handling of on-campus demonstrations against Israel’s war in Gaza.UCLA had argued that it had no legal responsibility over the issue because protesters, not the university, blocked Jewish students’…

BOSTON (AP) — The degenerative brain disease that has besieged the National Football League for two decades with a billion-dollar lawsuit, congressional hearings, an A-list movie and an unrelenting cortege of ex-players’ obituaries has now intruded on America’s favorite sport in the most violent manner yet. The Las Vegas casino worker who killed four people in a New York City skyscraper that is home to the NFL’s headquarters carried a note blaming the league for his mental health problems.Shane Tamura, 27, who played football in high school, said in a three-page note found in his wallet that he had chronic…