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  • What to know about Apple’s $95 million settlement of the snooping Siri case

    What to know about Apple’s $95 million settlement of the snooping Siri case

    Apple has agreed to pay $95 million to settle a lawsuit that accused the company of turning its virtual assistant Siri into a snoop that eavesdropped on the users of iPhones and other trendy devices in a betrayal to its long-standing commitment to personal privacy.

    The proposed settlement filed in federal court earlier this week still needs to be approved by a judge, but here are a few things to know about the case and the privacy issues that it raised.

    WHAT WAS THE LAWSUIT ABOUT?

    The Wood Law Firm, which specializes in class-action lawsuits, filed the complaint against Apple in August 2019, shortly after The Guardian newspaper published an article alleging that Siri’s microphone had been surreptitiously turned on to record conversations occurring without the users’ knowledge.

    Apple issued a September 2014 software update that was supposed to activate the virtual assistant only with the triggering words “Hey, Siri,” but The Guardian story alleged Siri was listening and recording conversations at other times to help improve the company’s technology.

    The story led to the lawsuit, which later raised allegations that Apple shared some of the conversations that Siri secretly recorded with advertisers looking to connect with consumers who were more likely to buy their products and services.

    HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE COVERED BY THE SETTLEMENT?

    Tens of millions of U.S consumers who owned or purchased iPhones and other devices equipped with Siri from September 17, 2014, through the end of last year will be eligible to file claims.

    HOW MUCH MONEY WILL EACH ELIGIBLE CONSUMER RECEIVE?

    It’s far too early to tell for certain, but the settlement currently envisions paying out up to $20 per Siri-enabled device, with each consumer limited to a maximum. The final amount could be affected by two factors: the number of claims and how much of the settlement fund is reduced to cover legal fees and costs.

    A claims administrator estimates only 3% to 5% of eligible consumers will file claims. The lawyers in the case currently are seeking nearly $30 million in fees and expenses, but that figure could still be lowered by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White, who is overseeing the case in Oakland, California. A proposed Feb. 14 court hearing has been proposed to review the settlement terms.

    DID APPLE BREAK ANY LAWS?

    If the allegations were true, Apple may have violated federal wiretapping laws and other statutes designed to protect people’s privacy. But Apple adamantly denied any wrongdoing and maintained that it would have been cleared of any misconduct had the case gone to trial. Lawyers representing the consumers asserted that Apple’s misbehavior was so egregious that the company could have been liable for $1.5 billion in damages if it lost the case.

    Although Apple hasn’t explained the reasons for making the settlement, major companies often decide it makes more sense to resolve class-action cases rather than to continue to run up legal costs and risk the chance of potentially bad publicity. The lawsuit also targeted one of Apple’s core values framing privacy as a “fundamental human right.”

    Although $95 million sounds like a lot of money, it’s a pittance for Apple. Since September 2014, the company’s total profits have exceeded $700 billion — a streak of prosperity that has helped propel the company’s market value to about $3.7 trillion.

    DO I NEED TO BE WORRIED ABOUT THE MICROPHONES ON OTHER DEVICES SPYING ON ME?

    Perhaps. A case similar to the one filed against Siri is still active in a San Jose, California, federal court against Google and the virtual assistant in its Android software, which has been widely used in smartphones for years.

    JUST IN CASE, HOW DO I DISABLE SIRI?

    You can turn Apple’s virtual assistant off by following these simple steps:

    1. Navigate to Settings Siri & Search.

    2. Toggle off Listen for ‘Hey Siri’ and press the Side button for Siri.

    3. Tap Turn Off Siri when a pop-up window appears.

    You can also disable individual apps’ access to your iPhone’s mic by doing the following: Navigate to Settings (select the app) then toggle off Microphone.

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  • Former TV host Carlos Watson gets nearly 10 years in prison in case about failed startup Ozy Media

    Former TV host Carlos Watson gets nearly 10 years in prison in case about failed startup Ozy Media

    NEW YORK — Former talk show host Carlos Watson was sentenced Monday to nearly 10 years in prison in a federal financial conspiracy case that cast his once-buzzy Ozy Media as an extreme of fake-it-’til-you-make-it startup culture.

    So extreme that another Ozy executive impersonated a YouTube executive to hype Ozy to investment bankers — while Watson coached him, prosecutors said.

    Watson, 55, and the now-defunct company were found guilty last summer of charges including wire fraud conspiracy. He has denied the allegations.

    Watson, who has been free on $3 million bond, faced a mandatory minimum sentence of two years in prison and potentially as much as 37 years.

    Prosecutors accused the former cable news commentator and host of playing a leading role in a scheme to deceive Ozy investors and lenders by inflating revenue numbers, touting deals and offers that were nonexistent or not finalized, and flashing other false indications of Ozy’s success.

    Watson even listened in and texted talking points while his co-founder posed as a YouTube executive to praise Ozy on a phone call with potential investors, prosecutors said.

    “The quantum of dishonesty in this case is exceptional,” U.S. District Judge Eric Komitee said, later telling Watson: “Your internal apparatus for separating truth from fiction became badly miscalibrated.”

    Watson blamed any misrepresentations on others, and he said he was a target of “selective prosecution” as a Black entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, where African American executives have been disproportionately few.

    “I loved what we built with Ozy,” he said in court Monday, initially addressing supporters in the audience before the judge suggested he turn around. He portrayed himself as a founder who put everything he had into his company, saying that he took an average salary around $51,000 from Ozy in its final years, has triple-mortgaged his home and drives a 15-year-old car.

    The co-founder, Samir Rao, and former Ozy chief of staff Suzee Han pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing. Both testified against Watson.

    Ozy, founded in 2012, was styled as a hub of news and culture for millennials with a global outlook.

    Watson boasted an impressive resume: degrees from Harvard University and Stanford Law School, a stint on Wall Street, on-air gigs at CNN and MSNBC, and entrepreneurial chops. Ozy Media was his second startup, coming a decade after he sold a test-prep company that he had founded while in his 20s.

    Mountain View, California-based Ozy produced TV shows, newsletters, podcasts, and a music-and-ideas festival. Watson hosted several of the TV programs, including the Emmy-winning “Black Women OWN the Conversation,” which appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Network.

    Ozy snagged big advertisers, clients and grants. But beneath the outward signs of success was an overextended company that struggled — and dissembled — to stay afloat after 2017, according to insiders’ testimony.

    The company strained to make payroll, ran late on rent and took out pricey cash advances to pay bills, former finance vice president Janeen Poutre told jurors. Meanwhile, Ozy gave prospective investors much bigger revenue numbers than those it reported to accountants, according to testimony and documents.

    On the witness stand in July, Watson said the company’s cash squeezes were just a startup norm and its investors knew they were getting unaudited numbers that could change.

    Ozy disintegrated in 2021, after a New York Times column disclosed the phone-call impersonation gambit and raised questions about the true size of the startup’s audience.

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  • Alabama snubbed? The Crimson Tide’s case for Playoff inclusion was better than some admit

    Alabama snubbed? The Crimson Tide’s case for Playoff inclusion was better than some admit

    Taking up the cause for Alabama and the SEC feels like going to bat for Apple or Amazon. It’s fighting for a tax break for Elon Musk or Warren Buffet. It’s rushing to the defense of the biggest bully on the block the one time somebody gets in a shot that knocks him to his knees.

    Yet here I am, making the case for the Crimson Tide as the team the College Football Playoff selection snubbed from the first 12-team field.

    I do like having an ally in the greatest coach of all time. ESPN’s Nick Saban, dressed in a crimson jacket on the selection show, tried to avoid sounding like a shill for the program he spent 17 years running, but his stance came through loud and clear.

    “All wins are not the same as other wins,” Saban said during ESPN’s excruciatingly long lead-in to revealing the bracket Sunday. “In other words, what we’ve always done publicly in college is look at record. We don’t look at strength of schedule. We don’t look at all those types of things.”

    This is a left-brain (analytical thinking), right-brain (emotional processing) deal.

    If the committee truly had looked at “those types of things,” if this was more of a data-driven process, Alabama would be in the Playoff instead of SMU.

    go-deeper

    GO DEEPER

    College Football Playoff 12-team debut season verdict: The football is good, my friends

    Strength of schedule metrics vary, but most come to a similar conclusion about Alabama and SMU. The Crimson Tide’s schedule was more rigorous. ESPN’s FPI has Alabama playing the 18th toughest schedule and SMU the 57th toughest.

    Most power rankings, which are forward-looking analytics, have Alabama ahead of SMU. The Athletic’s own modeler, Austin Mock, would have Alabama as a six-point favorite on a neutral field against SMU.

    Years of recruiting rankings will tell you Alabama has one of the most talented rosters in the country and that the SEC is where the most good football players can be found. The SEC got three teams (Georgia, Texas, Tennessee) in the bracket, one fewer than the Big Ten and one more than the ACC.

    “As someone with access to college tape and staff of 11 former NFL scouts that logged hundreds of hours evaluating this CFB season, it’s easy to see why SEC coaches are upset with the final playoff bracket,” Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy posted on X. “Based strictly off future NFL talent, Alabama, South Carolina, & Ole Miss (and you can even throw in Florida, Texas A&M, and LSU for that matter) are all easily in Top-12.”

    I get it. Alabama always seems to get the nod from the selection committee. When in doubt, go with the team that made the CFP eight times in 10 years when it was a four-team format — and won it three times.

    Even last year, the committee bypassed unbeaten Florida State — because it lost star quarterback Jordan Travis to a season-ending injury — in favor of one-loss Alabama.

    Do we really need to give the benefit of the doubt to the worst Alabama team in almost two decades, one that lost games to Oklahoma and Vanderbilt, both of which would not have been bowl-eligible if they hadn’t beaten the Tide? Most Alabama fans don’t even think their team had a good year.

    Left brain or right brain?

    How much did rallying around SMU have to do with the Mustangs’ story — a four-decade climb back from the NCAA death penalty — more than their resume? It sure would have felt awful to keep them out of the Playoff after they lost the ACC Championship Game on what will go down as one of the greatest, clutchest kicks in the history of college football by Clemson’s Nolan Hauser.

    “When the announcement happened, honestly, I got emotional, just because I’m so happy for our kids,” SMU coach Rhett Lashlee said on ESPN. “They’ve worked so hard. They’ve won 22 games in the last two years. They laid it all on the line last night. We lost heartbreaking at the end to a great opponent.”

    The Mustangs put the committee in a difficult position and exposed a glaring flaw in the system, adding to the reasons the CFP needs to do away with its weekly in-season rankings during the season’s final month.

    So much talk heading into conference championship weekend was about how much a team should be penalized for losing a title game. The committee’s answer was resounding: not much. Texas, Penn State and SMU all lost their conference title games. All were very competitive. None dropped more than two spots from last week’s rankings.

    The rankings show is just that: a show. Content that helps get people talking about the Playoff in November. There is value to that. It is understandable that the conference commissioners who run the CFP would want to control the process instead of letting fans use the AP Top 25 to speculate about what the Playoff race looks like down the stretch.

    “I do believe it’s good for us to release our ranking, because our ranking is out there and competes with two others, the AP and the coaches,” committee chairman Warde Manuel said. “So I think it’s important, since they release a weekly ranking, that at the appropriate time in the season … that we release how we’re thinking so people are not surprised in analyzing and trying to figure out how the committee is thinking about things.”

    The chairman has a talking point that the committee starts each week with a blank sheet of paper when it begins ranking teams.

    But Manuel also said last week that teams not playing on championship weekend were done being evaluated. They could move around based on the movement of other teams that were playing for league titles, but the order of teams such as Alabama, Miami, South Carolina, etc., was set.

    Saban pointed out the problem with SMU and Alabama was SMU entering the weekend ahead in the first place, and maybe he’s right. SMU should have been playing its way into the field instead of playing its way out in the ACC Championship Game, he said.

    “Playing in (the SEC), and I played in this conference for over 20 years, and when you have to go play Tennessee, then you have to go play LSU, then that team that you play next, now you might be more vulnerable to,” Saban said.

    Saban, Greg Sankey, the SEC and Alabama don’t make for the most sympathetic victims, nor should they be viewed that way.

    Defending them all feels like demanding that the spoiled kid who seems to have all the toys also gets a pony — or in this case, the Ponies’ spot in the Playoff.

    But it’s hard not to admit that when you crunch the numbers, they have a point.

    (Photo: Todd Kirkland / Getty Images)

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  • Alabama snubbed? The Crimson Tide’s case for Playoff inclusion was better than some admit

    Alabama snubbed? The Crimson Tide’s case for Playoff inclusion was better than some admit

    Taking up the cause for Alabama and the SEC feels like going to bat for Apple or Amazon. It’s fighting for a tax break for Elon Musk or Warren Buffet. It’s rushing to the defense of the biggest bully on the block the one time somebody gets in a shot that knocks him to his knees.

    Yet here I am, making the case for the Crimson Tide as the team the College Football Playoff selection snubbed from the first 12-team field.

    I do like having an ally in the greatest coach of all time. ESPN’s Nick Saban, dressed in a crimson jacket on the selection show, tried to avoid sounding like a shill for the program he spent 17 years running, but his stance came through loud and clear.

    “All wins are not the same as other wins,” Saban said during ESPN’s excruciatingly long lead-in to revealing the bracket Sunday. “In other words, what we’ve always done publicly in college is look at record. We don’t look at strength of schedule. We don’t look at all those types of things.”

    This is a left-brain (analytical thinking), right-brain (emotional processing) deal.

    If the committee truly had looked at “those types of things,” if this was more of a data-driven process, Alabama would be in the Playoff instead of SMU.

    go-deeper

    GO DEEPER

    College Football Playoff 12-team debut season verdict: The football is good, my friends

    Strength of schedule metrics vary, but most come to a similar conclusion about Alabama and SMU. The Crimson Tide’s schedule was more rigorous. ESPN’s FPI has Alabama playing the 18th toughest schedule and SMU the 57th toughest.

    Most power rankings, which are forward-looking analytics, have Alabama ahead of SMU. The Athletic’s own modeler, Austin Mock, would have Alabama as a six-point favorite on a neutral field against SMU.

    Years of recruiting rankings will tell you Alabama has one of the most talented rosters in the country and that the SEC is where the most good football players can be found. The SEC got three teams (Georgia, Texas, Tennessee) in the bracket, one fewer than the Big Ten and one more than the ACC.

    “As someone with access to college tape and staff of 11 former NFL scouts that logged hundreds of hours evaluating this CFB season, it’s easy to see why SEC coaches are upset with the final playoff bracket,” Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy posted on X. “Based strictly off future NFL talent, Alabama, South Carolina, & Ole Miss (and you can even throw in Florida, Texas A&M, and LSU for that matter) are all easily in Top-12.”

    I get it. Alabama always seems to get the nod from the selection committee. When in doubt, go with the team that made the CFP eight times in 10 years when it was a four-team format — and won it three times.

    Even last year, the committee bypassed unbeaten Florida State — because it lost star quarterback Jordan Travis to a season-ending injury — in favor of one-loss Alabama.

    Do we really need to give the benefit of the doubt to the worst Alabama team in almost two decades, one that lost games to Oklahoma and Vanderbilt, both of which would not have been bowl-eligible if they hadn’t beaten the Tide? Most Alabama fans don’t even think their team had a good year.

    Left brain or right brain?

    How much did rallying around SMU have to do with the Mustangs’ story — a four-decade climb back from the NCAA death penalty — more than their resume? It sure would have felt awful to keep them out of the Playoff after they lost the ACC Championship Game on what will go down as one of the greatest, clutchest kicks in the history of college football by Clemson’s Nolan Hauser.

    “When the announcement happened, honestly, I got emotional, just because I’m so happy for our kids,” SMU coach Rhett Lashlee said on ESPN. “They’ve worked so hard. They’ve won 22 games in the last two years. They laid it all on the line last night. We lost heartbreaking at the end to a great opponent.”

    The Mustangs put the committee in a difficult position and exposed a glaring flaw in the system, adding to the reasons the CFP needs to do away with its weekly in-season rankings during the season’s final month.

    So much talk heading into conference championship weekend was about how much a team should be penalized for losing a title game. The committee’s answer was resounding: not much. Texas, Penn State and SMU all lost their conference title games. All were very competitive. None dropped more than two spots from last week’s rankings.

    The rankings show is just that: a show. Content that helps get people talking about the Playoff in November. There is value to that. It is understandable that the conference commissioners who run the CFP would want to control the process instead of letting fans use the AP Top 25 to speculate about what the Playoff race looks like down the stretch.

    “I do believe it’s good for us to release our ranking, because our ranking is out there and competes with two others, the AP and the coaches,” committee chairman Warde Manuel said. “So I think it’s important, since they release a weekly ranking, that at the appropriate time in the season … that we release how we’re thinking so people are not surprised in analyzing and trying to figure out how the committee is thinking about things.”

    The chairman has a talking point that the committee starts each week with a blank sheet of paper when it begins ranking teams.

    But Manuel also said last week that teams not playing on championship weekend were done being evaluated. They could move around based on the movement of other teams that were playing for league titles, but the order of teams such as Alabama, Miami, South Carolina, etc., was set.

    Saban pointed out the problem with SMU and Alabama was SMU entering the weekend ahead in the first place, and maybe he’s right. SMU should have been playing its way into the field instead of playing its way out in the ACC Championship Game, he said.

    “Playing in (the SEC), and I played in this conference for over 20 years, and when you have to go play Tennessee, then you have to go play LSU, then that team that you play next, now you might be more vulnerable to,” Saban said.

    Saban, Greg Sankey, the SEC and Alabama don’t make for the most sympathetic victims, nor should they be viewed that way.

    Defending them all feels like demanding that the spoiled kid who seems to have all the toys also gets a pony — or in this case, the Ponies’ spot in the Playoff.

    But it’s hard not to admit that when you crunch the numbers, they have a point.

    (Photo: Todd Kirkland / Getty Images)

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  • Fox News loses bid for Smartmatic voting-tech company’s records about Philippines bribery case

    Fox News loses bid for Smartmatic voting-tech company’s records about Philippines bribery case

    Smartmatic won’t be required to give Fox News a trove of information about U.S. federal charges against the voting machine company’s co-founder over alleged bribery in the Philippines, a judge ruled Thursday.

    Fox News and parent Fox Corp. sought the information to help fight Smartmatic’s $2.7 billion defamation suit over broadcasts about the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Smartmatic says its business was gutted when Fox aired false claims that the election-tech company helped rig the voting.

    Fox says it was simply reporting on newsworthy allegations made by then-President Donald Trump and his allies.

    The Aug. 8 indictment of Smartmatic co-founder Roger Piñate and two other executives concerns a geographically distant matter: Smartmatic’s efforts to get work in the Philippines between 2015 and 2018.

    But Fox maintains the criminal case is pertinent to Smartmatic’s business prospects, and therefore to the election-tech company’s claims about what it lost and stands to lose because of Fox’s 2020 coverage.

    “As of Aug 8, governments will have to take into account the risks of doing business with a company (where some executives have been) accused of serious corruption by the U.S. Department of Justice,” Fox lawyer Brad Masters told a New York court Thursday.

    He asked the court to order Smartmatic to provide any documents that it has given to the DOJ for the bribery investigation; any customer inquiries about the criminal charges; and any staff communications about the matter and its impact on the company.

    The indictment accuses Piñate and two other Smartmatic executives of scheming to pay over $1 million in bribes to a Filipino election official to deploy the company’s machines and pay promptly for them. Federal prosecutors say the payments were made through sham loan agreements and via a slush fund created by overcharging for the machines.

    Piñate, who has served as Smartmatic’s president, has pleaded not guilty to conspiring to violate the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and to money laundering. It’s unclear from court records whether the other two executives have entered pleas.

    Boca Raton, Florida-based Smartmatic itself isn’t charged in the criminal case. The company put the executives on leave and sought to reassure voters that elections are “conducted with the utmost integrity and transparency.”

    Smartmatic’s lawyers contend the indictment is irrelevant to the defamation suit, which is about election-fraud allegations made by Trump’s attorneys.

    “There’s merely an allegation, which is probative of nothing,” Smartmatic attorney Caitlin Kovacs argued Thursday. She suggested Fox wanted to “stand up here and play prosecutor to the jury” and “accuse Smartmatic of a crime that they didn’t commit.”

    Judge David B. Cohen denied two similar requests from Fox while the federal investigation was ongoing, and said Thursday that the indictment didn’t change his mind.

    “It’s a mere accusation. It raises no presumption of guilt,” he said.

    Smartmatic is suing Fox and multiple current or former on-air hosts over shows in which Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell portrayed the company as part of a broad conspiracy to steal the 2020 vote from Trump, a Republican and the winner of this year’s election.

    Federal and state election officials, exhaustive reviews in battleground states and Trump’s own then-attorney general found no widespread fraud that could have changed the outcome of the 2020 election. Nor did they uncover any credible evidence that the vote was tainted. Dozens of courts, including some presided over by judges whom Trump appointed, rejected his fraud claims.

    Fox News ultimately aired an interview with an election technology expert who refuted the allegations against Smartmatic.

    Fox is countersuing Smartmatic, claiming the defamation case violates a New York law against baseless suits aimed at squelching reporting or criticism on public issues.

    Smartmatic recently settled defamation suits against One America News Network and Newsmax. Fox News settled for $787 million last year with another voting-technology company, Dominion Voting Systems.

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  • Hungary Coach Ivan Petrov Suspended 3 Months for Misleading AQUA in Sporting Citizenship Case

    Hungary Coach Ivan Petrov Suspended 3 Months for Misleading AQUA in Sporting Citizenship Case

    The Aquatics Integrity Unit (AQIU), the investigative and disciplinary arm of World Aquatics, has given Hungarian swim coach Ivan Petrov a three-month suspension for violations of the World Aquatics Integrity Code.

    Petrov, who has dual Romanian and Hungarian citizenship, is the head swim coach of Győri Úszó SE swimming in Hungary, and a four-time Olympic coach.

    While she is not named in the disciplinary documents, the case pertains to Henrietta Fangli, who was granted a change of sporting citizenship from Romania to Hungary earlier this year.

    The Hungarian Swimming Association submitted a request of change of sports nationality on May 13, 2024, and an email sent to World Aquatics by Petrov through a lawyer asserted that Fangli resided with him in Hungary, which according to the AQIU was done “in order to convince World Aquatics that the third requisite of Part One – Article 3.3.1 of the Competition Regulations was met and that the change of sporting nationality should be approved.”

    But Fangli, who is currently living and training at the University of Houston in the United States, contradicted that claim to the AQIU.

    According to the decision document:

    On 18 June 2024, World Aquatics inquired about the Athlete’s current
    residence, as publicly available information indicated that she had currently been studying and living in the United States for the past few years. This information appeared to directly contradict the Respondent’s Official Statement.

    On the same day, the Athlete confirmed that she lives and studies in the
    United States and she only returns to Hungary to train during the holidays (Christmas or New Year) and the summer break.

    The relevant article of the change of sporting citizenship rules reads as follows:

    The Athlete shall have uninterrupted residence in the country or Sport Country of the New World Aquatics Member for at least three years prior to his/her first International Competitions or shall be able to demonstrate by the end of the waiting period at the latest, that he/she has a genuine, close and established link to the country or Sport Country he/she will represent.

    In spite of having that information, World Aquatics approved the request in June 2024 given the athlete’s “genuine, close and established link to Hungary considering…that both she and her relatives have held Hungarian citizenship for 11 years.”

    Fangli was one of 300,000 ethnic Hungarians located outside of the country’s borders that were granted Hungarian citizenship in 2013. That included about 280,000 who lived in Romania, and especially Transylvania where Fangli is from and much of which was part of Hungary prior to the 1920 Treaty of Trianon.

    But that approval did not absolve Petrov’s offense in the eyes of AQIU, which initiated an investigation on July 10, 2024. Petrov responded to the notice of investigation a day later saying that he is not a native English speaker and signed the statement in good faith. He reiterated that the athlete resides at his home when she is in Hungary, and said that the language barrier led to an unintentional agreement to the word “resides” versus “living.”

    On review of the evidence, the AQIU gave Petrov a five-month suspension on basis of violations of sections 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, and 10.2 of the organization’s Integrity Code that deal with honesty and ethical standards.

    Petrov took advantage of the option to deny the allegations against him (his right under Article 23.3 c), saying that like many other international athletes training in the United States, she maintained a residence in Hungary.

    From the report:

    The Respondent also emphasized that the Official Statement did not suggest that the Athlete lived permanently with him and that Hungarian law allows for an official residence that does not align with day-to-day living arrangements

    The Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer (CECO) of the AQIU referred the matter to the Adjudicatory Body on October 3, and a day later that group informed Petrov of his rights and a hearing via a single-member panel.

    The panel member decided that AQIU was justified in its finding of ethics violations, and disputed Petrov’s claim that he misunderstood the term “residence” by calling it “highly improbable.”

    ” It is particularly telling that the only alleged confusion involves a term that is central to the decision-making process and directly impacts the eligibility requirements. This undermines the credibility of the Respondent’s explanation and suggests a self-serving motive,” the panel-member writes. “If the Respondent genuinely misunderstood the term ‘Residence,’ it was incumbent upon them to seek clarification before proceeding. The failure to do so further indicates that the misunderstanding claim is not credible and likely serves as an ex post facto justification for non-compliance.

    The single-member panel applied the following sanctions:

    • A warning as to future conduct;
    • A reprimand;
    • A fine in an amount proportionate to the seriousness of the violation (amount not disclosed);
    • An order of reimbursement or restitution;
    • A suspension from carrying out specific activities on behalf of World Aquatics and/or Continental Organisation and/or World Aquatics Member for a specified period
    • A period of ineligibility (3 months)

    The panel said that because the statement was officially submitted, it did not consider the fact that the athlete’s change of citizenship was approved anyway as a mitigating factor. It did credit Petrov for having a “clean record up to this point,” and ultimately reduced the suspension to three months.

    Among other things, that suspension prevents him from participating or attending, in any capacity, in any aquatic competition. It also applied a fine, though it did not disclose the amount of that fine.

    Fangli swam 1:07.50 in the 100 breaststroke at the 2024 Hungarian National Championships to win the title, adding a 31.31 to win the 50. She is the Hungarian Record holder in the 100 breaststroke in long course (1:07.08) and also holds five Hungarian Records. She finished 4th at last year’s Big 12 Championships in the United States in the 100 yard breaststroke.

    Others representing the club include 35-year-old Zsu Jakabos, who represented Hungary at the 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020 Olympic Games. Jakabos and Petrov are married.



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  • Volleyball case ruling reveals farce of transgender hysteria

    At least one judge has seen the transphobic hysteria for what it is.

    In denying a request to upend this week’s Mountain West volleyball tournament and/or force San Jose State to leave one of its players home, a federal judge called out the disingenuousness of the lawsuit. And in doing so, revealed the farce behind this sudden groundswell of opposition to transgender women athletes.

    “The Court finds their delay in filing this action and seeking emergency relief related to the MWC Tournament weakens their arguments,” U.S. District Judge S. Kato Crews wrote in his ruling issued Monday.

    “The movants could have sought injunctive relief much earlier if the exigencies of the circumstances required mandatory court intervention.”

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  • Volleyball case ruling reveals farce of transgender hysteria

    At least one judge has seen the transphobic hysteria for what it is.

    In denying a request to upend this week’s Mountain West volleyball tournament and/or force San Jose State to leave one of its players home, a federal judge called out the disingenuousness of the lawsuit. And in doing so, revealed the farce behind this sudden groundswell of opposition to transgender women athletes.

    “The Court finds their delay in filing this action and seeking emergency relief related to the MWC Tournament weakens their arguments,” U.S. District Judge S. Kato Crews wrote in his ruling issued Monday.

    “The movants could have sought injunctive relief much earlier if the exigencies of the circumstances required mandatory court intervention.”

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  • College football winners, losers in Week 12: Travis Hunter’s Heisman case, LSU slipping under Brian Kelly

    College football winners, losers in Week 12: Travis Hunter’s Heisman case, LSU slipping under Brian Kelly

    By Week 12 of the college football season, almost every game is consequential. Nowhere is that more clear than the ACC. Conference leader No. 14 SMU needed every last second to survive Boston College, while No. 20 Clemson and Pittsburgh played an elimination game. No. 19 Louisville dropped a stunner to Stanford that could have playoff implications and Miami fans were thankful for a Hurricanes bye. 

    Across the sport, highly-ranked teams found themselves in trouble. No. 22 LSU lost in the afternoon window. No. 3 Texas played an inconsistent game against Arkansas. At this point of the season, survival is at the top of everyone’s mind, even if it doesn’t come with style points. 

    Additionally, conference championship game races are slowly starting to come into focus. The AAC became the first league to formally set its title game as Army and Tulane both clinched. Several more teams can clinch in prime time, including BYU, Boise State and Oregon. 

    Here are the biggest winners and losers of Week 12. 

    Winner: ATH Travis Hunter, Colorado

    Colorado athlete Travis Hunter has slowly put together a robust Heisman Trophy case, but he showed off the whole package in a 49-24 win over Utah. Hunter posted 55 yards rushing, an interception and rushed for a touchdown in the win as Colorado scored the most points on Utah’s elite defense since 2014 Oregon. 

    Hunter continues to build up an elite two-way resume. After 10 games, he has cleared 900 all-purpose yards, 10 total touchdowns and three interceptions. He rates as one of the top cover corners in college football and has a game-winning forced fumble against Baylor. 

    The case for a defensive back to win the Heisman will never be easy, but Hunter is hitting all the benchmarks he needs to if he wants to become the first to do it in nearly 25 years. 

    Loser: LSU

    After a disappointing loss in their opener Tigers fought back their way back into the SEC Championship Game race with a resume that includes an overtime win over No. 9 Ole Miss. After the last three weeks, it looks like that victory was the exception and not the rule. LSU dropped an embarrassing 27-16 game to Florida, knocking the Tigers down to 6-4 and out of a realistic shot at an SEC title. Florida was 0-4 against ranked teams heading into the game, but the Tigers lost by double digits. 

    Had LSU won, the Tigers would have been in favorable tiebreaker possession to reach the SEC Championship Game. Instead, LSU’s season is over. Making matters worse, the Tigers offense struggled to reach the end zone against a defense that ranks among the worst in the SEC. There are no real answers in this program. The Tigers under Brian Kelly are miles away from real contention. 

    Winner: Hot seat coaches

    Coming into the 2024 season, few coaches sat on on hotter seats than Baylor’s Dave Aranda and Florida’s Billy Napier. After the performances this weekend, both have essentially locked up their returns to their programs in 2025. 

    Aranda faced a tough road after falling to 2-4 in the middle of October. Since the bye week, the Bears have revved their engines. Baylor shocked West Virginia 49-35 to pick up their first-ever win in Morgantown and return to bowl eligibility. The Bears are suddenly on a four-game winning streak and should be favored in their final two contests. Suddenly, the Bears’ first winning record since 2021 is on the table. 

    Napier previously earned a vote of confidence from athletic director Scott Stricklin but pushed his luck with a lopsided 49-17 loss to No. 3 Texas. Beating LSU is the first win over a ranked opponent in 14 months and gives the Gators a chance to make a bowl game with a win over a hapless Florida State squad on Nov. 30. Napier just needed one positive moment, and he has it. 

    Loser: Pittsburgh

    Pitt had a massive opportunity to pick up a rare win against Clemson and stay in the ACC Championship Game picture. Despite outplaying them for much of the game and finishing with nearly 100 more yards, a few serious mental errors cost them in a 24-20 loss. 

    The worst came at the beginning of the first quarter when Pitt charged all the way to the 1-yard line. The Panthers committed an illegal formation, delay of game and false start to astonishingly turn it into a third-and-goal at the 16-yard line. Four more points would have been incredibly valuable in a 4-point loss. 

    Clemson got the ball back with 96 seconds remaining. On the third play of the drive, quarterback Cade Klubnik flummoxed the Pitt defense for a 50-yard touchdown. They had eight yards rushing on 26 carries before the breakaway. 

    Pittsburgh’s loss drops it to 7-3 and essentially knocks them the Panthers of the ACC title game race. With a win, they would have been in a tie for third place with a tiebreaker over Clemson. The Panthers are still having a great year, but are now on a three-game losing streak. SMU broke them. 

    Winner: Tulane

    Maintaining success through coaching changes is one of the hardest things to do in college football, especially at the Group of Five level. Prior to Will Fritz’s departure, the last time a Tulane coach finished with a winning record was 1998. The Green Wave dropped from 12-0 to 3-8 the next season. In his first year at Tulane Jon Sumrall is again establishing himself as a rising superstar in the sport. 

    With a 35-0 win over Navy, No. 25 Tulane clinched a spot in the AAC Championship Game for the second straight season. The Green Wave have won eight straight games and their only losses were fourth quarter games against Kansas State and on the road against Oklahoma. Tulane has won only two conference championships since last winning the SEC in 1949. Sumrall can add a second in three years. 

    Loser: Western Michigan

    Western Michigan got off to a blazing 4-0 start to MAC play, but the Broncos have fallen back to earth and out of the conference title race in recent weeks.  Western Michigan fell 31-13 to fellow MAC contender Bowling Green, as the Falcolns bottled up the Broncos’ productive offense. Star running back Jaden Nixon was held to only 22 yards on seven carries and quarterback Hayden Wolff turned it over twice. The MAC title race is now likely down to Miami-Ohio, Bowling Green and Ohio. 

    Winner: Mississippi Valley State

    One of the biggest upsets in college football came at the FCS HBCU level this weekend. Mississippi Valley State entered the matchup against reigning Celebration Bowl champs Florida A&M as 31-point underdogs and on a 15-game losing streak. FAMU was on a 23-game home winning streak. MVSU quarterback Ty’Jarian Williams led the Delta Devils with 251 yards and two touchdowns and the defense forced three fumbles in a 24-21 win. 



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  • Charlton Athletic’s best and worst case transfer scenarios in January

    Charlton Athletic’s best and worst case transfer scenarios in January

    The outcome of the January transfer window could be vitally important if Charlton Athletic are going to mount a successful promotion push this season.




    The Addicks currently find themselves 12th in the League One table, four points adrift of the play-off places. Nathan Jones’ side have only won one of their last seven fixtures, although they are also unbeaten in four ahead of an important run of games against Exeter City, Peterborough United and Huddersfield Town.

    Charlton will have faith that they can still make a success of this season, especially considering that their latest league victory came against title-favourites Birmingham City, and the three consecutive draws that followed came against sides that will also be hoping to be in and around the top-six at the end of the 2024/25 campaign.

    There is no doubt that the January transfer window could be decisive in terms of Charlton’s final position in League One, with a couple of key players currently due to be out of contract next summer, which could potentially attract the interest of other clubs.


    Let’s take a look at a few best and worst case scenarios ahead of the January transfer window.


    Worst case: Miles Leaburn leaves

    Miles Leaburn

    Arguably the worst case scenario for Charlton in January would be Miles Leaburn leaving the club with less than a year remaining on his current deal.

    The 20-year-old has recently returned from a long-term hamstring injury which had kept him out since last year, but his physicality and goalscoring ability could be crucial if the Addicks are going to be a threat to the rest of the teams vying for a play-off place during the remainder of the season.

    He scored twice against Chelsea Under-21s in midweek as Charlton booked their place in the quarter-finals of the Bristol Street Motors Trophy.


    Miles Leaburn’s League One stats for Charlton (Transfermarkt)

    Appearances

    Goals

    Assists

    52

    15

    3

    The striker has previously attracted transfer interest from Premier League clubs including Chelsea and Brentford, so it would be no surprise to see a top-flight club make an offer to sign him if he does not sign a new contract before the January transfer window opens.

    Best case: Lloyd Jones signs a new contract

    Lloyd Jones

    A best case scenario for the Addicks would be if centre-back Lloyd Jones signs a new contract ahead of the January transfer window.


    The 29-year-old, who is currently sidelined with an injury but should return before the end of the year, recently spoke about his desire to extend his stay at The Valley in an interview with London News Online.

    “I’ve got to keep putting in performances – that is my main focus,” said Jones.

    “Hopefully if I keep putting in good performances and focus on my football then a new contract will be here. I’ll have to wait and see.

    “Football changes so quickly but Charlton is a big club with a great fanbase, a great stadium and a top manager. Everything seems to be falling in place.”

    Best case: Tayo Edun leaves and Thierry Small pens a new deal

    Tayo Edun reacts to being sent off for Blackburn Rovers

    Another best case scenario for the Addicks would be Tayo Edun leaving the club in January.


    If Charlton are going to strengthen their squad, it is highly likely that one or two players will need to move on, and the left-back could be one of them.

    Jones already has Josh Edwards and Thierry Small to choose from in that area of the pitch, and Edun has yet to feature in the league so far this season.

    Small is another player who is out of contract at the end of the season, and he has plenty of potential at the age of just 20, so him signing a new deal alongside Edun departing would probably be the best case scenario for Charlton.

    Nathan Jones

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    Charlton Athletic signed a player during the summer transfer window who will not be well known by other managers in League One.

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