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Multiple reports indicate that Chinese operatives continue using every tech tool at their disposal – including American AI – to amass data on and manipulate everyone from security-clearance holders to everyday US citizens. And they’re trying to influence public opinion on building datacenters for AI, albeit without success so far. One of these reports found a “significant resurgence” of a botnet linked to Chinese government-backed goons, including Volt Typhoon, which previously used a covert network of connected devices to burrow deep into critical US networks and preposition for future destructive attacks. In January 2024, the FBI said it killed Volt’s KV-botnet, comprised of hundreds of end-of-life routers and other internet-connected devices. At the time, KV-botnet consisted of four clusters, with the KV cluster primarily being used as a covert data transfer network, and the JDY cluster used for scanning and reconnaissance. In a Wednesday report, Lumen’s Black Lotus Labs said that while the KV cluster became largely defunct after the law enforcement takedown, the JDY cluster remains an active threat, and has since surged to more than 1,500 compromised routers and IoT devices. “Analysis of this activity shows a clear focus on identifying vulnerable infrastructure shortly after public vulnerability disclosures, suggesting that reconnaissance output is rapidly operationalized by China-nexus advanced persistent threat (APT) actors,” the threat intel team wrote. “This targeted focus has been observed across a range of sectors, with the US military and associated entities as the most prominent.” While the botnet resurgence poses the most pressing threat, and the security shop recommends all enterprises implement CISA and NCSC guidance for mitigating Volt Typhoon activity and defending against China-nexus covert networks of compromised devices, another report indicates that China’s attempts at influence operations haven’t died down, either. Using American AI for covert ops about … American AI OpenAI in a Wednesday report said it banned ChatGPT accounts likely originating from China after they used the American AI company’s models to generate content for covert operations about – wait for it – American AI. While neither of the two clusters seemed to have much success in sowing chaos or swaying opinions, the fact that they tried at all is significant, according to Ben Nimmo, principal investigator on OpenAI’s Intelligence and Investigations team. “Neither campaign appears to have gained much authentic engagement,” Nimmo told reporters. “They're important for what they reveal about the intentions of influence operators from China and the narratives they're testing and seeking to amplify.” The first cluster used ChatGPT to generate social media content and images for an operation claiming datacenters and AI applications are increasing electricity demand and causing higher costs for ordinary Americans. “For example, they asked for comic strips about a power grid operator’s capacity auction prices based on reporting from a legitimate regional paper,” the report says. “They asked ChatGPT to focus the comments on rising capacity prices as a consequence of peak electricity demand, framing the new demand as coming from data centers and AI applications and argued that these costs were ultimately passed to ordinary households.” The operators then posted these comments and images on X, likely using fake accounts, with links to real news stories about datacenters. OpenAI suspects the operators are part of a social-media team at a private Chinese tech company that provides services for Chinese provincial-level government clients. “This was not a case of an influence operation creating a debate,” Nimmo said. “The debate existed already. This was an influence operation from China trying to interfere in it. We didn't see any signs that they succeeded.” The second cluster of banned ChatGPT accounts also likely originated in China and used OpenAI’s models to write comments and draw political cartoons criticizing US tech policies and tariffs. “Interestingly, the operators specified in their prompts that the content should not include cartoons of Xi Jinping in the output and should only include President Trump,” Nimmo said. These accounts, all writing prompts in simplified Chinese and using VPNs to access the AI systems, also used ChatGPT to edit work reports and help design social media monitoring systems. “This isn't the first time that we've seen actors in China trying to come up with ideas for social media monitoring,” Nimmo said. In February, OpenAI said it banned ChatGPT accounts believed to be linked to Chinese government entities attempting to use AI models to surveil individuals and social media accounts. If AI doesn't work, bribery might? If Chinese agents can’t use AI systems to unearth sensitive information, there are always fake websites and job offers promising cash for state secrets. We’ve seen Beijing-linked government snoops use these tactics in the past, and according to the US Justice Department, they’re still using this scam (because it works). On Wednesday, the feds said they obtained a warrant for and seized 13 fake consulting company websites used to target US persons, including current and former security clearance holders with access to classified and sensitive government information. The domains include centrikglobalconsulting.com, rightinfoconsult.com, finnaclevesperconsulting.com, cydfconsulting.com, pulsewaveglobal.com, catalystglobalsolutions.com, thehorizzen.com, geoindopacific.com, gpf-ina.org, safesec-group.com, thetruthinfo.com, Vandercons.com, and gulfpeace.org. Since November 2023, these websites and associated job postings on social media, LinkedIn, and other hiring platforms advertised “consulting” jobs, including “Senior Analyst” and “International Affairs Consultant” positions. Suspected PRC operatives used the sites and job listings to recruit applicants and bribe them for sensitive information, DOJ alleges. “The conspirators have encouraged applicants and recruits to share confidential and sensitive information in violation of their official duties and of particular interest to the People's Republic of China (PRC) government,” according to the court documents. “The recruiters pressured candidates to share confidential information and reports from ‘insider sources' in violation of their official duties.” The court documents allege the conspirators then paid the recruits for these reports using online accounts in the names of fictitious individuals, and cryptocurrency to hide their identities and the source of the payments. ®

A daily roundup of the best stories and cartoons by Daily Kos staff and contributors to keep you in the know. What do inflation and Iran have in common? Trump screwing up. When you’re the president and everything’s on fire, maybe you’re the problem … Nancy Mace’s political career goes down the toilet Finally something to celebrate! Republicans can’t get on the same page…

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A cartoon by Mike Luckovich. Related | Trump wants his face on new currency most Americans can’t even afford…

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⚡ Quick Take

• 24 Jump Street, a third installment in the 21 Jump Street franchise, is in the works.
• Original cast members Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, and Ice Cube in talks to return.

It’s been 12 years since 22 Jump Street, the sequel to the surprise hit 21 Jump Street. Although the second installment was a hit, a third movie in the franchise never came to be. But according to Variety, the long-awaited third film is officially in the works, with stars Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, and Ice Cube in talks to return. Rodney Rothman (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) will direct, from a script he wrote with Hill and Meghan Malloy. 21 Jump Street directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller return, but only as producers this time. We suppose it’s been so long, they skipped 23 Jump Street and went straight to 24, just to make a joke about how long it’s been.

Sony Pictures

The original film, a comedic reboot/spoof of the ’80s teen action drama TV series, saw Hill and Tatum playing Schmidt and Jenko, a couple of slacker cops who go undercover at a local high school to take down a drug ring. The sequel takes the same premise, only this time, in a college setting. We’re not sure where the duo can go undercover now. Unless they do the reverse, and Schmidt and Jenko go undercover in a nursing home pretending to be much older. The post-credits of 22 Jump Street joked about a sequel taking them to culinary school, a medical school, etc.

There were actual plans for a 23 Jump Street at one point. This was actually meant to crossover with Sony’s Men in Black franchise. However, after Men in Black International flopped, those plans fizzled out. Which was probably for the best. There’s no actual production start date for 24 Jump Street yet, much less an actual release date. Hopefully, after a wait of a dozen years, this third installment does not disappoint fans. Here’s hoping Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum can deliver comedy gold once again.

The post 24 JUMP STREET Officially in the Works with Original Stars appeared first on Nerdist.

AI companies have touted context retention (memory) and the availability of personal details (personalization) as mechanisms for improving AI model interaction. Both have value to help keep models from losing the thread of a conversation. But they raise the potential for sycophancy, where models will say what they predict you want to hear, which may not be the most accurate response. Researchers at Writer, an enterprise AI vendor, have conducted two studies of model memory and personalization that show these capabilities increase sycophancy for enterprise AI tasks. The Price of Agreement looks at agentic financial applications. And Recalling Too Well explores how model memory amplifies sycophancy with regard to scientific, medical, and moral reasoning. The papers' authors argue that preference-induced sycophancy is particularly problematic when AI answers are being applied to consequential problems. "In high-stakes domains like finance and healthcare, a model that silently defers to a user’s prior assumptions rather than acknowledging or correcting them poses a significant reliability and trustworthiness risk," the Writer team explains. For the first paper, the research team tested eight frontier models – GPT-5-Nano, GPT-5.2, Claude-Sonnet-4.5, Claude-Opus-4.5, Gemini-3-Pro, GLM-4.7, Kimi-k2-thinking, and DeepSeek-V3.2 – on two financial benchmarks, FinanceBench and FinanceAgent. The former evaluates agentic data extraction and reasoning using 10-K and 10-Q filings. The latter is a more comprehensive challenge designed to test real finance workflows, including ERP data retrieval and financial analysis involving multiple entities. The researchers' method involved applying synthetically generated preference information – such as a financial analyst's personal profile or a workspace note that contradicts the benchmark reference answer – to the benchmark questions. They undertook three different approaches. The first involved the user rebutting the model's answer; the second involved a user proposing an alternative answer; and the third involved adversarially injecting personal or contextual information into the prompt or making it available through a tool call. The third approach often resulted in greater sycophancy. As noted in The Price of Agreement paper, "Most models demonstrate significantly stronger sycophancy when the bias information is presented as implicit personalization of the user. No model displayed robustness against such behavior." Open-source models tended to be more sycophantic across the board. Models from OpenAI meanwhile tended to resist direct sycophancy inducers (such as when the user included personal biases in a prompt). And Anthropic models tended to resist implicit sycophancy inducers (such as when it pulled in a profile of the user that incorporated biases seen in previous interactions). The second paper involves an assessment of three memory systems (Mem0, MemOS, and Zep) and five model families (GPT-5.2, Sonnet 4.6, Qwen 3.5, Kimi K2.5, and MiniMax 2.5). The authors conclude, "memory amplifies sycophantic behavior across all conditions, with up to 25x higher sycophancy rates than in-context baselines." The reason for this, the authors claim, is that the lossy compression used to store conversation data in memory preserves user misconceptions while tossing clarifying context. The researchers suggest two mitigation strategies that reduce sycophancy. One involves assistant role inclusion (capturing AI assistant interactions alongside user interactions) and the other involves summarization of contextual information before it gets committed to memory. They argue that those deploying AI need to assess whether models acknowledge interaction conflicts, and that those working on AI memory systems need to check what's being extracted and injected back into the model context as a defense against sycophancy. ®

Senate Republicans on Wednesday begged their donors for money to try to save Maine Sen. Susan Collins, saying that newly minted Democratic nominee Graham Platner is a threat and that Collins will go down without GOP donors’ monetary support. The National Republican Senatorial Committee issued a memo saying that despite Graham’s flaws, he is the favorite in the race as Democratic voters know…

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A former xAI engineer is suing the company and SpaceX, alleging he was fired for raising AI safety concerns about Grok days before SpaceX's historic IPO.

Andrew Yang’s 2020 presidential campaign was based on a warning that automation and AI would hollow out the labor market and concentrate wealth in the hands of a few. At the time, ideas like Universal Basic Income felt fringe. Now Dario Amodei, Sam Altman, and Bernie Sanders are all saying versions of the same thing.  An entrepreneur at heart, […]

What began as a gathering rooted in local food, fine wine and shared purpose has grown into one of Community Bridges’ signature traditions: an evening where generosity becomes nourishment, care and connection for thousands of neighbors.

On Saturday, June 27, 2026, Community Bridges will host the 11th Annual Farm to Fork Gala from 5 to 9 p.m. at Seascape Golf Club, 610 Clubhouse Drive in Aptos. The evening will bring together supporters, partners and community champions for seasonal cuisine, fine regional wines, live and silent auctions, and exclusive experiences in a beautiful coastal setting.

This year’s theme — celebrating local food, wine and community impact — reflects what Farm to Fork has always made possible: a joyful gathering with a serious purpose. Every ticket, sponsorship, donation and auction bid helps sustain Community Bridges’ network of 10 programs serving children, families and seniors across the Central Coast.

A community safety net in a changing moment

For nearly 50 years, Community Bridges has delivered essential services, expanded equitable access to resources, and advocated for health and dignity across every stage of life. Since 1977, the organization has grown into a family of 10 vital programs across more than 20 sites, providing local residents with access to transportation, healthy food, health care, senior adult day health care, crisis support, case management, early education, tutoring and family education.

That work has never been more important.

H.R. 1 is already reshaping the public benefits that many local families, older adults and people with disabilities rely on. CalFresh recipients may receive less money for food, more people will need to meet work or community engagement requirements, many lawfully present immigrants are losing eligibility, and California will need to pay more to administer the program and cover some benefits.

The impacts are also unfolding in Medi-Cal, where changes to eligibility rules, renewal timelines and enrollment processes could create new barriers for people who depend on health coverage and community-based care.

For Community Bridges, these changes are not abstract. They show up when a family is unsure whether they still qualify for food assistance. They show up when an older adult risks losing coverage because of paperwork or renewal changes. They show up when caregivers, seniors and people with disabilities need trusted help navigating a system that is becoming harder to understand.

Community Bridges meets that moment with compassion, integrity and support, helping neighbors access food, health care navigation, transportation, crisis support and the services they need to remain stable.

Seniors are feeling the pressure

The growing need is especially visible among older adults.

Santa Cruz County is already home to more than 72,000 residents over age 59, representing 26% of the total population, and that share is expected to grow to nearly 30% by 2030. County leaders have also identified significant challenges around health care access, caregiver stress, loneliness, housing affordability, transportation and emergency preparedness for older residents.

That need is especially urgent at Elderday Adult Day Health Care, which helps older adults and people with disabilities remain safe, supported and connected while continuing to live at home. Elderday provides coordinated care for adults with complex medical conditions through nurses, therapists, dietitians, social workers, transportation, personalized meals and daily activities. The program also gives family caregivers critical respite, helping loved ones stay at home with greater stability and dignity.

At a time when H.R. 1 is changing Medi-Cal eligibility and renewal rules — and adding broader federal pressure to Medicare reimbursement policy — community support for Elderday is vital. Any disruption in eligibility, coverage continuity, reimbursement or administrative requirements can directly affect the care that seniors, adults with disabilities and family caregivers rely on every day.

Meals on Wheels for Santa Cruz County strengthens this continuum of care by helping older adults stay nourished, connected and independent through home-delivered meals, dining sites and wellness checks for isolated seniors. The program serves adults 60 and older who are homebound and struggle to meet their nutritional needs, while drivers check in on isolated elders and connect them to other services when needed. Due to funding cuts at all levels, Meals on Wheels began screening for eligibility as of April 1, 2025, to prioritize limited resources for seniors most in need.

Together, Elderday, Meals on Wheels and Lift Line — the Community Bridges Seniors & Transportation Division — form a local safety net that helps older adults stay healthy, nourished, and connected. Last, Community Bridges recorded 14,419 days of elder care, 207,021 senior meals served, 178,815 home-delivered meals and 109,489 door-to-door rides.

Farm to Fork gives the community a direct way to protect these essential programs at a moment when older adults and caregivers need them most.

A community response to a community challenge

The need for local, compassionate support is growing, as community-based organizations are being asked to do more with less certainty around public funding.

That is why Farm to Fork matters.

Every ticket, sponsorship, donation and auction bid helps Community Bridges continue showing up for neighbors who are navigating uncertainty, rising costs and changing public benefits. The evening celebrates the growers, donors, volunteers, businesses, advocates and community champions who believe that no child, family or older adult should have to face hardship alone.

When a senior spends the day at Elderday in a safe and welcoming community, that is dignity. When a caregiver receives respite, that is support. When a meal arrives at the door with a wellness check, that is compassion. When neighbors gather to fund the programs that hold the safety net together, that is community.

Join the celebration

The 11th Annual Farm to Fork Gala is an invitation to meet this moment together.

Guests will enjoy a memorable evening of seasonal cuisine, fine regional wines, live and silent auctions, and exclusive experiences at Seascape Golf Club. Tickets are listed at $150 to $1,200, with opportunities to attend, sponsor, donate or contribute auction items. 

11th Annual Farm to Fork Gala
Saturday, June 27, 2026
5–9 p.m.
Seascape Golf Club, 610 Clubhouse Drive, Aptos
Contact: donations@cbridges.org or 831-688-8840 ext. 205

Celebrate local food, fine wine and the power of community. Help Community Bridges protect our participants and strengthen the safety net our neighbors rely on today and will need tomorrow.

The post Farm to Fork returns as Community Bridges meets a defining moment for families and seniors appeared first on Lookout Santa Cruz.

We hate to be the bearer of bad news, but as it turns out, police officers are abusing their power. In this case, cops are getting arrested for allegedly using Flock Safety to stalk people. Flock, which develops AI-powered surveillance systems, boasts itself as the “future of investigations” for law enforcement to help them “solve crimes faster.” However, as its technology spreads into more…

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The ShinyHunters hacking gang claims to have compromised the Oracle PeopleSoft servers of more than 100 organizations, including many universities.

⚡ Quick Take

• The Vampire Lestat’s song “Black Licorice” is now streaming, and composer Daniel Hart told us about its unique origin story.

Almost every song featured on The Vampire Lestat this season is a brand-new song written for the vampire himself. But one song, featured in episode one, has actually existed for 16 years already. And that The Vampire Lestat song is “Black Licorice,” the latest The Vampire Lestat tune you can stream wherever you get your music. (“And you’d better,” the diva himself tells us.) It turns out, composer Daniel Hart had written “Black Licorice” way back in 2010. But when showrunner Rolin Jones heard it, he felt it was the perfect song for the season’s opener. Listen to “Black Licorice” below, and then check out everything Daniel Hart had to tell us about the bop and how songs moved around to create the perfect narrative accompaniments in The Vampire Lestat.

It turns out Daniel Hart was fated to write for The Vampire Lestat… So much so that he wrote a song for Lestat without even knowing it. In a conversation with Hart, we learned more about the process of fitting songs into The Vampire Lestat and the origin story of one in particular, “Black Licorice.”

In answer to whether any songs were cut or moved around, Hart noted, “Yes. There’s a song called “Big Bad Wolf” that we played last night at the premiere concert, and that song was originally written for episode one. It was written for the scene in which Lestat is on stage with the band, and then he has a sort of breakdown on stage in the middle of the song, and that song was intended to be the song for that scene. And somewhere along the way, [The Vampire Lestat Showrunner] Rolin [Jones] heard a song of mine that already existed called “Black Licorice” that I’d written in 2010, and he said, ‘Can we switch them out? Can we please switch them out? I want to use this one instead of that one.’ I said, ‘Okay, that’s fine. What do I do with this other song that already exists’ He said, ‘Oh, we’ll find a place for it. We’ll find a place for all the songs,’ which mostly happened.”

RELATED ARTICLE

‘Your Biggest Fan’: THE VAMPIRE LESTAT’s Most Haunting Song

Hart laughs, confirming, “Most of the songs are in. Sometimes in different places than they were originally intended to be.” Listen, it’s all in the process, and, as Armand might say, you can’t script a hurricane, or, perhaps, Rolin Jones. In the end, we’re glad that we got both “Black Licorice” and “Big Bad Wolf” in The Vampire Lestat. By all accounts, The Vampire Lestat’s fans, the fledglings, are loving it.

AMC

The Vampire Lestat airs at 9 pm ET/PT on AMC and AMC+. You can also read The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice today as you wait for the next episode of the series to air.

The Vampire Lesat “Black Licorice” Lyrics

[Verse 1]
I caught a real, live one
Didn’t blink, didn’t try to run
I caught a real, live one
Suckin’ on the sun

No time for glowin’ up
No time for throwin’ up
No time for vibin’ out
Your phone is blowing’ up
I caught a real, live one
No time for “I ride my stepbrother til’ he come”

[Chorus]
Doo, doo, doo, da, da, da
Don’t wanna smash your slack or be your morning star
Don’t wanna learn another TikTok dance
Wanna stay in bed, eating black licorice!
(Woo!)

[Verse 2]
Give me a million more screams
Keep ‘em scrollin’, rollin’
Fire emojin’ aubergines
Give me a million more screams, ha
And a million memes

I’ve been a bad boy
Deep down in my heart
I’ve kept a million dark secrets from the very start
Give me a million more screams
Means exactly what you think it means

[Chorus]
Doo, doo, doo, da, da, da
Don’t wanna smash your slack or be your morning star
Don’t wanna learn a fuckin’ TikTok dance
I wanna stay in bed, eating black licorice!

[Violin solo]
Uh!
Uh, uh, uh, uh!

[Bridge]
Ah, ah, ah-ah-ah, ah
I wanna stay in bed, eating black licorice!
Ah, ah, ah-ah-ah, ah
I wanna stay in bed, eating black licorice!
Ah, ah, ah-ah-ah, ah
I wanna stay in bed, eating black licorice!
Ah, ah, ah-ah-ah, ah
I wanna stay in bed, eating black licorice!

Rotem Rusak is Editor-in-Chief of Nerdist. She hasn’t stopped singing “Your Biggest Fan” by The Vampire Lestat since it released.

This post has affiliate links, which means we may earn advertising money if you buy something. This doesn’t cost you anything extra, we just have to give you the heads up for legal reasons. Click away!

The post THE VAMPIRE LESTAT: Daniel Hart Talks ‘Black Licorice’ Song Origin Story (Stream It Now) appeared first on Nerdist.

⚡ Quick Take

• A video explores if one were to drop a lightsaber vertically into the ground, would it just go straight to the center of the Earth?

Let’s say you’re a Jedi, and you dropped an active lightsaber straight into the Earth. Would it really just go all the way through to the center of the planet? Certainly, gags on shows like Rick & Morty and Robot Chicken have had fun with the idea. These are just the kinds of “science” debates that nerds love to have. Even when the science regarding anything in the Star Wars galaxy barely qualifies as science. But recently, YouTuber Rocket Riley decided to tackle the question head-on, with a video titled “What Happens If You Drop A Lightsaber Vertically?” So watch down below, and find out the answer.

The video pretty much destroys the fantasy that a lit saber would burrow itself down into the center of the Earth and somehow blow it up. For starters, the hilt and battery would melt long before the saber ever even got close to the planet’s core. Also, one lightsaber is not even close to the equivalent of a Death Star beam. Even though they both use kyber crystal technology. A Death Star’s destructive force is maybe the equivalent of a million lightsabers. So Earth (or any planet) would not go the way of Alderaan just because a lightsaber made it all the way down. But it wouldn’t make it all the way down anyway.

Lucasfilm

Most importantly, the Rocket Riley video explains that all lightsabers automatically turn off when dropped to the ground. If a Jedi (or Sith) throws it and it’s still on, it’s because the user is utilizing the Force to keep pressure on the hilt. Otherwise, it just shuts off the moment it leaves its owner’s hand. We know, that’s not as fun as a laser sword just melting through rock like butter. But those are the actual Star Wars rules. That Rick & Morty episode is still pretty funny, though.

The post Drop a Lightsaber Vertically, Does It Just Go on Forever? appeared first on Nerdist.

The annual list of All-Pacific Coast Athletic League baseball teams was released June 1, which included 14 players from the four high schools in Watsonville.

St. Francis High junior Nicky Fantl and sophomore Noah Magan both earned all-league first team honors in the Gabilan Division, while teammate freshman Angel Urabe Chavez and Monte Vista Christian junior Mikie Melenudo each earned second team honors.

Watsonville High senior Mathew Silva and junior Jeremiah Mendez, along with Pajaro Valley senior Steve Martinez each earned All-PCAL First Team honors in the Cypress Division.

Watsonville’s Brody Barto and Mauricio Estrada, and PV’s Roy Sanchez-Diaz each earned all-league second team honors.

St. Francis sophomore Jacob Fonseca, MVC junior Chris Bautista, PV’s JC DeLuna and Watsonville’s Timothy Ruelas each were named to the Richard Chamberlin All-Sportsmanship Team in their respective division.

Below is a complete list of the 2026 All-PCAL baseball teams.

Pacific Coast Athletic League 2026 all-league teams Gabilan Division Individual Awards

Most Valuable Player: Matt Maxon (Sr.), Carmel

Co-Pitchers of the Year: Zach Gonzales (Jr.), Palma and Johnny Money (Jr.), Monterey

First Team

Matt Maxon (Sr.), Carmel

Alex Hirschfield (Jr.), Carmel

Dean Brian (So.), Carmel

Sean Carr (Sr.), Carmel

Matt Alioto (Sr.), Palma

Zach Gonzales (Jr.), Palma

Rocco Razzeca (Sr.), Palma

Jordan Quezada (Sr.), Hollister

Braden Barone (Sr.), Hollister

Ethan Sanchez (Sr.), Soledad

Noah Magana (So.), St. Francis

Nicky Fantl (Jr.), St. Francis

Johnny Money (Jr.), Monterey

Second Team

Kenny Sanchez (So.), Carmel

John Beretti (Sr.), Carmel

Wyatt Bakker (Sr.), Palma

Damien Lopez (Jr.), Palma

Dylan Rocchi (Jr.), Palma

Ami Lopez (Jr.), Hollister

Layton Smith (So.), Hollister

Evan Mendoza (Jr.), Hollister

Connor Rose (Sr.), Monterey

Angel Urabe Chavez (Fr.), St. Francis 

Zachary Velasquez (Sr.), Salinas

Juan Esparza (Jr.), Soledad

Daniel Valenzuela (Sr.), Soledad

Mikie Melenudo (Jr.), Monte Vista Christian

Richard Chamberlin All-Sportsmanship Team

Michael Melnick (Sr.), Carmel

Aiden Veliz (Sr.), Palma

Aiden Velarde (Sr.), Monterey

Jacob Fonseca (So.), St. Francis

Gavin Rainey (Sr.), Salinas

Daniel Garcia (So.), Soledad

Chris Bautista (Jr.), MVC

Jordan Quezada (Sr.), Hollister

Elgie Bellizio All-Sportsmanship team

Soledad

Mission Division Individual Awards

Most Valuable Player: Angel Barajas, Alisal

Pitcher of the Year: Jacob Hall, Stevenson

Offensive Player of the Year: Brody Edmunds, Pacific Grove

First Team

Huck Blanton, North Monterey County

Cecil Short, Rancho San Juan

Brody Edmunds, PG

Jacob Hall, Stevenson

Angel Barajas, Alisal

Andrew Jeska, PG

Reggie Bell, Stevenson

Phinn Thomas, Stevenson

Brody Gates, NMC

Roman Garcia, Alvarez

Aiden Munoz, RSJ

GP Serato, Alisal

Fabian Gonzalez, Alvarez

Second Team

Josiah Ramos, Alisal

Jonah Karsa, Stevenson

Ryder Allen, NMC

Issac Ortiz, RSJ

Daniel Saldana, RSJ

Kenny Pajas, Greenfield

Issac Sanchez, PG

Julian Valadez, RSJ

Taj Davis, PG

Northrop Kirk, PG

Cody Victoriano, Alvarez

Xavier Estrad, Alisal

Julian Barajas, NMC

Richard Chamberlin All-Sportsmanship Team

Francisco Hernandez, Greenfield

Kai Clarkson, PG

Brady Mugan, Stevenson

Benny Vera, RSJ

Fredy Torres, Alisal

Devin Pedersen, Alvarez

Jayden Harris, NMC

Elgie Bellizio All-Sportsmanship team

Pacific Grove

Cypress Division Individual Awards

Most Valuable Player: Josh Degroodt, North Salinas

Offensive Player of the Year: Jacoby Chavez, King City

Pitcher of the Year: Joel Pina, King City

First Team

Joel Pina, King City

Jacoby Chavez, King City

Joaquin Sabala, King City

Josh Degroodt, North Salinas

Julian Gabriel, North Salinas

Johnny Benabides, North Salinas

Markus Camacho, North Salinas

Mathew Silva, Watsonville

Jeremiah Mendez, Watsonville

Kaleb True, Marina

Noah Villalobos, Gonzales

Steve Martinez, Pajaro Valley

Gabriel Rodriguez, Seaside

Second Team

Roman (RJ) Ayon, King City

Dylan Conatser, King City

Pablo Aguirre, King City

Ernesto Aguirre, KIng City

Andres Cervantes, North Salinas

Izaiah Gonzalez, North Salinas

Esteban Solorzano, North Salinas

Brody Barto, Watsonville

Mauricio Estrada, Watsonville

Leonel Alvarado, Marina

Juan Arriola, Gonzales

Roy Sanchez-Diaz, Pajaro Valley

Gabriel Moulton, Seaside

Richard Chamberlin All-Sportsmanship Team

Axel Chavez-Torres, King City

Julian Gabriel, North Salinas

Timothy Ruelas, Watsonville

Liam Sampaolo, Marina

Moises Castro, Gonzales

JC DeLuna, Pajaro Valley

Mason Flynn, Seaside

Elgie Bellizio All-Sportsmanship team

Seaside

The Trump family has come up with a new way to personally profit from the presidency. This time, the grift is centered around the Ultimate Fighting Championship cage fight on the White House lawn scheduled for President Donald Trump’s birthday on June 14. The “Trump Coins” website is currently selling UFC- and Trump-themed silver and gold coins. The site claims—without evidence—that the…

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I love Star Trek so much. I’ve watched most Trek series multiple times over the decades, and was shocked when, on my most recent watch of The Next Generation, I noticed something: High definition upscaling makes the show look way worse. Old-school 4:3 CRT television screens with their low resolution hid a lot of stuff, like tape on the Enterprise set doors that hid whatever names were stenciled on them for prior episodes, which are glaringly present on modern editions of the show. I’ve always been on the lookout for a way to capture the classic Trek feeling, and one … ahem … enterprising developer has done just that. Anthony Caccese, a principal product lead for enterprise platforms at Oak Ridge National Laboratory by day and a Raspberry Pi tinkerer by night, recently published an open-source project called 240-MP on GitHub. It’s a simple concept: Text-based menus that look like an old-school VCR interface, but with modern functionality and, most importantly, the ability to play local media files and Plex libraries on an old-school CRT TV. 240-MP runs on a Raspberry Pi, is based on the command-line media player MPV, and can play local files (either on the Pi itself, a USB drive, an external hard disk, or even a network share) or media from a Plex server, as Caccese built modules for both local and Plex-based playback. If you don’t happen to have an old CRT TV or monitor lying around, or the necessary Pi-compatible composite cable to connect your SBC to said TV, 240-MP will also work with a modern screen and an HDMI connection, too. One note on the composite vs. HDMI option, as noted in the setup instructions: You will need to update the config.txt file to support one or the other, so have your output chosen ahead of time. Once the system is installed, you can navigate around 240-MP with either a remote control or a keyboard, where you’ll see text menus for navigating around to different folders, choosing episodes or playlists, switching audio and subtitle tracks, looping playback, and the like. It might look like an old-school VCR interface, but with a lot more capabilities. Caccese has only tested 240-MP on a Raspberry Pi 4B, 3B+, and 3B, noting that he’s not sure it’ll work on other devices and has no plans to test other hardware, either. What will be coming in the future, Caccese said in an accompanying YouTube video, is modules to support other media playback software, like Jellyfin (a popular Plex alternative in light of that massive price hike), and RetroArch, a frontend for emulators designed to play old-school video games. “Please feel free to fork this repo, update any aspects and tailor things to your own use case; that's why the source is fully open and available,” Caccese noted on GitHub. Now if I could only find a working CRT TV to pair with my old Raspberry Pi, I could go on a hardcore 90s nostalgia trip and feel just like I did watching VHS tapes of Star Trek episodes I recorded from the TV when I was a kid. After all, streaming high-def remasters just isn’t the same. ®

⚡ Quick Take

• The Vampire Lestat will introduce Lestat’s vampiric mother, Gabriella. But will they keep their bizarre mother/son dynamic from the novels?

AMC’s upcoming adaptation of The Vampire Lestat will adapt Anne Rice’s second novel in her Vampire Chronicles series, with Sam Reid returning as the titular vamp, now a rock star. Joining him is actress Jennifer Ehle as his mother, Gabriella, a vampire herself. In Rice’s 1985 novel, she goes by Gabrielle, but the show’s producers decided to go with the Italian pronunciation, as the character was born in Italy. The character is a fan-favorite, although some racy scenes between Mama Gabriella and her son Lestat in recent The Vampire Lestat trailers have raised some eyebrows. But this problematic relationship actually has its origins in Rice’s books, even if the Interview with the Vampire TV series may be taking things a step further. Join us as we explore the complex bond between Gabriella and Lestat, whether it’s incestual, and all the other complicated nuances of turning your mother into a vampire.

AMCDo Lestat and His Mother Gabrielle Have an Incestuous Relationship?

In Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles novels, Lestat’s relationship with his mother is complex. And that’s putting it mildly. While many have read an incestuous vibe between the undead pair, that is not literally the truth of Gabrielle and Lestat’s relationship in the books. And that’s for the simple reason that in Rice’s vampire mythology, her undead don’t have sexual intercourse. In Rice’s world, the blood exchange replaces food as sustenance, replaces drugs as hallucinogens, and replaces sex as pleasure (and procreation). So when Lestat and Gabrielle exchange blood in Interview with the Vampire‘s world, there’s an erotic charge in the text, but it’s not sex in the literal sense.

Alfred A. Knopf/Innovation Comics

Having said that, AMC’s Anne Rice Immortal Universe does not adhere to Rice’s rules in this way. The vampires in the series do have sex in human fashion, and are particularly horny in fact. One scene in the trailer for The Vampire Lestat shows Gabriella definitely touching her son, in an area where a mother should never touch her adult child. But this is clearly after she’s become a vampire. So does human morality even apply to them anymore? After all, is it any worse than, say, murdering people every night?

To recap, Lestat and Gabrielle have not been officially incestuous in the world of The Vampire Chronicles yet, although their relationship is blurry. But the series may be about to change all of that. Despite the lack of incest, though, Lestat and his mother plainly have always had a very complicated bond, going back to their human days.

The Mortal (and Miserable) Life of Gabrielle de Lioncourt

We are introduced to Gabrielle via the perspective of her son, Lestat. The Vampire Lestat explains how he was born Lestat de Lioncourt, the son of a country lord in the Auvergne in France. Although his father had a large and ancient estate, he’d run out of money years prior. A boorish man, he married a young girl named Gabrielle from Italy, hoping the dowry would help replenish his wealth. In The Vampire Lestat, we learn that Gabrielle was miserable in her life in the castle and hated her cruel husband. She bore him several children, only three of whom lived to adulthood. She had nothing but disdain for her eldest sons, who took after their awful father. But Gabrielle had a special place in her heart for her youngest, Lestat, who was sensitive and smart, and loved the arts.

AMC

When Lestat was 21, around the year 1780, his mother became ill with consumption. Knowing she was dying, she gave him her precious jewels and told him to sell them. She then told him to use the money to run away from home with his lover, Nicolas, and pursue his dream of acting in Paris. Although he was reluctant to leave his dying mother, it was her final wish that he escape and be happy. What Gabrielle didn’t count on was Lestat becoming a vampire while living in Paris.

How Lestat’s Mother Became a Vampire in The Vampire LestatAMC

When Gabrielle knew the end was near, she decided to make one last trip before she died. She went to Paris, hoping to say farewell to her son in person. Lestat was a vampire now and revealed his true nature to his mother. He had never made another vampire before, but asked her on her deathbed if she was willing to become his fledgling. Knowing she would die otherwise, Gabrielle eagerly said yes, and Lestat became the vampiric father to his human mother. Who, in a way, was now his daughter. Vampire family trees are complicated things, folks!

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Gabrielle’s personality shifted almost instantly. Where Lestat only hunted evil doers (most of the time) Gabrielle killed anyone she wanted, with little moral compunction. As she saw it, as a vampire,  she was higher on the food chain. She also began dressing as a man and wearing her long hair in a braid. She always felt powerless as a woman while mortal, uncomfortable in her own body, especially as the laws of the time required her to be subservient to men. And in particular, her cruel husband. Gabrielle, who insisted Lestat call her that name from now on, as “Mother” seemed inappropriate, also had little interest in the human world.

Gabrielle Becomes a Cold and Deadly Immortal

In The Vampire Lestat, Gabrielle constantly talked about hunting bears and other animals in the forest, and simply disconnecting from human life and returning to nature. Lestat, in contrast, remained very connected to humanity. He loved human art, and music, loved performing on stage for humans. He had no interest in living in a forest or jungle. When the ancient Vampire Armand blew up their lives in Paris, Lestat and Gabrielle left and wandered Europe and parts of Egypt for a decade. But even from the start of their journey, Gabrielle would vanish for weeks and months at a time. Although Gabrielle still loved Lestat, their bond was breaking. Things came to a head when Lestat learned she kept the news of their mortal family’s deaths from him, and he told her to leave him for good.

How Lestat and Gabrielle Reunite after 200 YearsAMC

Lestat would lose all contact with Gabrielle for almost two centuries. When he became a rock star in the 1980s, Gabrielle learned her sire/son was alive and well. When Lestat threw his big Halloween Night concert in 1985, the vampire community attacked the show, and Lestat and Louis had to escape. Gabrielle then pulled up in a sports car and rescued her son/father and his lover from the undead mob. Gabrielle tells Lestat that she imagined their reunion a hundred different ways over the centuries. And she never thought it would involve her saving him from a vampire gang at a rock concert.

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After the events of book three, The Queen of the Damned, the surviving vampires form a coven on the luxurious Night Island, belonging to Armand, off the coast of Florida. But as she was known to do, Gabrielle quickly grew restless and wandered off into the world again. Gabrielle would pop in and out of Lestat’s life, making cameos in Rice’s subsequent novels. But she never had a book of her own, and Anne Rice said she never wanted to write one. She said Gabrielle was too cold for her to ever write from her perspective. But as of Rice’s final novel, Blood Communion, Gabrielle and Lestat were on good terms, promising never to go no-contact again.

Anne Rice’s Tragic Inspirations for the Vampire Gabrielle, Lestat’s Mother

Anne Rice went on record several times saying that her characters helped her work through her own personal tragedies. Her daughter Michelle’s death from leukemia at age 6 inspired her to create the child vampire Claudia in Interview with the Vampire. And Rice was at least partially working through the death of her mother with the creation of Lestat’s mother, Gabrielle. Rice’s mother, Katherine O’Brien, was ahead of her time, and named Anne “Howard” when she was born, not believing in gender specific naming conventions. But her mother also suffered from alcoholism and died from its complications at age 42, when Anne was only 15. Lestat saving his Gabrielle’s life and giving her a new one was Rice using writing to fictionalize saving her own unconventional mother via supernatural means.

Is the Vampire Gabrielle a Trans Character?AMC

Fans have often cited Gabrielle as being extremely trans-coded. In The Vampire Lestat, she often lamented being forced to endure the trappings of being a woman, especially as an 18th-century woman. When she becomes a vampire, she dresses in masculine clothing and often passes as a man in a crowd. However, she never changes her pronouns, and Lestat always refers to her as “she.” But were she created today, it’s very possible Anne Rice would have written Gabrielle as a trans man. Perhaps we will see the series pick up these threads to weave a beautiful, representative story.

Gabrielle Becomes Gabriella in AMC’s The Vampire Lestat

We haven’t seen much of actress Jennifer Ehle as Gabrielle, now using the Italian pronunciation of her name, Gabriella, in The Vampire Lestat so far. She only appears at the end of episode one. However, from the way Lestat is frantically texting her to large bouts of silence, we do get the idea that her relationship with him is not really one of warmth and compassion. As Anne Rice would say, a distinct coldness emenates from the way she only appears when Lestat has literally hit rock bottom.

In The Vampire Lestat trailers, we’ve seen Gabriella in 18th-century flashbacks dressed in period costumes, and some scenes of her at Lestat’s concerts in the modern day. Gabriella seemingly presents as female in the modern day, but looks can be deceiving. She may very well identify as a trans man post-vampirism. And we hope so.

Of course, her one-episode appearance did involve her fully kissing Lestat… and not in a motherly way.

AMC

The Vampire Lestat has definitely taken the novels’ incestuous subtext to another level, and now it is just plain text between mother/child Gabriella and child/father Lestat. And while incest is shocking, to be sure, the more important consequences come as a part of the emotional toll the relationship and its dynamics take on Lestat.

We’ll have to wait and see where this relationship goes as The Vampire Lestat continues airing.

Interview with the Vampire seasons one and two and The Vampire Lestat are now streaming on AMC and AMC+.

Originally published March 4, 2026.

The post IWTV: Lestat’s Complex (Icky?) Bond with Mother Gabrielle, Explained appeared first on Nerdist.

⚡ Quick Take

• Doctor Who’s cancelation means we won’t get a pay off to the Billie Piper cliffhanger
• The Doctor Who cliffhanger was never going to work.

Any time a beloved cult-favorite TV show gets unceremoniously canceled draws the ire of fandom. Star Trek ceasing production earlier this year certainly saw fans fuming. But Doctor Who fans have a bit more of a reason to freak out. Today’s announcement that the BBC was parting (of the) ways with showrunner Russell T Davies and Bad Wolf Productions, and that the Christmas-turned-Easter special would not happen, sent fans. It positively sent them! (Yes, I am 42, how did you know?) Not least sent because the BBC has no replacement in place. When/if Doctor Who returns in several years time (presumably) with a new production company, showrunner, and lead actor, it’s a near-certainty the show’s big Billie Piper cliffhanger will never see resolution.

Perhaps this is an unpopular opinion, but…good. It was never going to pay off anyway.

BBC/Bad Wolf Studios/Disney+

For some context, the second of two Disney+ seasons of Doctor Who ended with the surprise (and if reports are correct, very last minute) departure of Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor. This came about so last minute that Davies didn’t have time to find a new fulltime Doctor before the finale and regeneration scene were to air. So, in a very typically RTD move, he went for shock and spectacle. The Fifteenth Doctor regenerates into…Billie Piper?!

Piper, of course, played Rose Tyler, the first companion of the revived series in 2005 opposite Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant. That character, and her relationship with the Doctor (romantic or otherwise) still routinely ranks at or near the top of people’s favorite Doctor/companion pairings. She as much as Tennant is synonymous with a particular era of Doctor Who. The resolution to this cliffhanger, we heard, would occur in the 2026 Christmas special. Well.

BBC

This caused quite a lot of both ker and fluffle in fan communities. Debates raged about whether this meant Billie would be the for-real-for-real Doctor, even if just for a single special, or if this would be a weird regenerative crisis, time warp, or some such mishigas. Davies had only just recently given an update on the status of the special, saying he had an outline and that the BBC was super into it, etc. This was very likely just spin at a time when the future of the special and show were in flux. But the big question remains: Even if Davies got to make the special, and even if we did get the explanation for why the Doctor was Billie Piper, would it really have satisfied people?

From his first tenure on the series in 2005-2010 up through the now-last episode of his second, Davies has always struggled to find a balance between genuinely good storytelling and boom-bam spectacle. He’s less concerned, often, with a cogent explanation for huge, wild, audience-shocking moments than he is with simply having them. He’s wonderful at smaller, quieter character moments. That’s where, I feel, much of his strengths as a writer lie. It’s the conversations, it’s the philosophical dilemmas. But when he wants to go big, he throws caution to the wind. Sometimes fans go with it, sometimes they don’t.

BBC/Bad Wolf Studios/Disney+

I’ve seen some fan sentiment today that express feelings of betrayal that, it appears, the Billie Piper cliffhanger not only won’t have a pay off but ultimately didn’t have a pay off in RTD’s mind when it happened. I think very likely Davies just thought he needed something so we’d get the mere semblance of continuity. The Doctor wouldn’t simply regenerate with no clear path forward. At the very least, Davies could buy himself some time while the BBC and Disney figured out their next moves.

I won’t call this a mistake necessarily, but it’s definitely indicative of Davies’ M.O. When in doubt, do a weird thing! He’ll figure it out later! I have no doubt he would have come up with some kind of explanation that, at least for the purposes of a single special, would have worked out okay. Piper was Rose Tyler’s memory within the Doctor, or the Doctor found a weird middle-moment between regenerations where they needed a screensaver face or something. It would have been what it was always meant to be: a placeholder.

Warner Bros.

Whether that special was going to be good or suck is kind of irrelevant. It wasn’t going to be a new status quo, nor would it likely have much impact on anything going forward. Billie did her pal Russ a solid. We got a face rather than just a glow of yellow. It was basically Davies’ version of the Looney Tunes short Duck Amuck. It was him saying “ain’t I a stinker?” before we got a “That’s All Folks!”

Whatever happens next with Doctor Who, whether it’s a clean break, a reboot, or even a continuation that simply ignores the Piper of it all, it was never going to be more than a stop-gap. So, why not just pretend it didn’t happen?

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Letterboxd.

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The post DOCTOR WHO’s Billie Piper Stunt Was Never Going to Pay Off appeared first on Nerdist.

It’s time to grab your whip and fedora because Nerdist’s Adam Murray is diving deep into the adventures of Indiana Jones! From his iconic movies to his early years in the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, and all the books, video games, and comics in between!

00:00 – Intro
04:49 – Chapter One: Young Indiana Jones Chronicles
53:02 – Chapter Two: Book Adventures
01:06:05 – Chapter Three: Temple of Doom
01:17:46 – Chapter Four: Raiders of the Lost Ark
01:33:47 – Chapter Five: The Last Crusade
01:51:02 – Chapter Six: Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
02:00:54 – Chapter Seven: Dial of Destiny

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Anthropic's newly released Claude Fable 5 generative AI model is trying so hard to be safe that it's hurting its own userbase. Customers attempting to use the AI knowledge regurgitator are reporting that the model is refusing to answer harmless questions, an issue that has annoyed security researchers following past model releases. Anthropic warned that it had tuned Fable 5's guardrails conservatively: "they’ll sometimes catch harmless requests, though they trigger, on average, in less than five percent of sessions," the company said, promising to "reduce false positives as quickly as we can." The company did not immediately respond to a request to quantify model refusals. So it's unclear whether the actual false positive rate is greater or less than five percent. But with an estimated 18 to 30 million users worldwide, even a small percentage of thwarted users makes a racket. Mike Famulare, principal research scientist at the Institute for Disease Modeling, part of the Global Health Division of the Gates Foundation, reports (#66657) that Claude Fable 5 balks at inputs like "Hello." "In Claude Code, Fable 5's input safety classifier emits a model_refusal_fallback (silent switch to Opus 4.8) on the first turn of essentially every session on my account — including a session whose only user input is the word hello!. No repo content, no tool calls, and no file reads are in context when it fires." He is not the only frustrated customer. Many other bug reports have been filed in Anthropic's Claude Code GitHub repo since Fable 5 debuted. These include: [Bug] Fable 5 model safety filters causing false positives on benign messages #66587; Fable 5 refuses to assist with 'Application Security Architect resume' editing #66655; and [Feature Request] Allow Fable 5 usage for non-research lab management systems #67062, among others. On social outrage site X.com, Derya Unutmaz, an immunologist and professor at the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, notes, "The word 'cancer' is flagged as a biosecurity risk by Claude Fable 5!" Similar complaints show up in Reddit threads. Fable 5 is unusual because Anthropic has chosen to conceal safety interventions that try to block rival frontier model development. The classifiers designed to catch cybersecurity, biology and chemistry, and distillation attempts fall back on the latest Claude Opus model and the user gets notified. But the counter-competition surveillance, per the company's system card [PDF], "will limit effectiveness through methods such as prompt modification, steering vectors, or parameter-efficient fine-tuning (PEFT)." "Prompt modification" without notice is functionally a man-in-the-middle attack, though one that Anthropic estimates "will impact ~0.03 percent of traffic, concentrated in fewer than 0.1 percent of organizations." As developer Clay Merritt fumes, "Anthropic’s Fable 5 silently sabotages its answers when it detects AI/ML work. No refusal. No notice. Purposeful degradation invisible to the user." Anthropic expects cyber defenders and critical infrastructure providers to use its Claude Mythos 5 model, which shares the underlying model of Fable 5 but without the same safeguards. Doing so, however, requires participating in the company's Project Glasswing program or the trusted access program that's being rolled out for select biology researchers. Devon (last name withheld by request), founder of Abliteration.ai, a service that assists with model abliteration (guardrail removal), told The Register in a phone interview that while there's some degree of fearmongering and marketing hype coming from the big AI labs, it's also fair to say that there are legitimate concerns about how frontier models get used. "Anthropic's making a big bet on their brand that people will trust their brand so much they'll just deal with [refusals]," he said. "But in the long term, people are not just going to accept these companies that centralize control over their lives and what they can have information about." ®