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Actor Danny Masterson was convicted of two counts of rape Wednesday after his second trial on charges that he sexually assaulted several women he met through the Church of Scientology in the early 2000s.

Jurors hung on a third count after deliberating for a little more than a week. They contacted Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Charlaine Olmedo around 11 a.m. Wednesday to say that they had reached a verdict on two of the three rape counts against Masterson but that were hopelessly deadlocked on a third.

Jurors previously hung on all counts against Masterson during a trial in late 2022.

The courtroom was packed with a mix of Masterson's relatives and supporters and other observers. The actor's wife, Bijou Phillips, let out a pained cry shortly after the verdict was read and began sobbing.


Aaron Levin Smith who is an outspoken Scientology critic did a live stream after the convictions and he was real close to 3 victims. Many tears from A-Aron in this video

The scale of “Diablo IV” often works against its goals.

In an interview with The Guardian more than a decade ago, Warren Spector, the director and producer of Deus Ex, said his dream game would take place in one city block. “There are people who are trying to simulate massive worlds at a level of an inch per mile,” Spector told journalist Keith Stuart. “I don’t get it. I really want deep worlds that you can interact with.”

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about those comments while playing Diablo IV. Blizzard’s latest is easily one of the best games the studio has released in about a decade, but I can’t help imagining what Diablo IV could have been if it were a smaller, more focused experience.

The story of Diablo IV opens decades after the end of Diablo III: Reaper of Souls, with the world of Sanctuary still reeling from the events of that game. Structurally, the narrative that unfolds is similar to Diablo II. Following a visit to a remote village, your character sets off after the demon Lilith – who is the daughter of Mephisto, one of the Prime Evils you defeated in Diablo II. More often than not, your character finds they’re one step behind Lilith, leading to predictably dire results.

I won’t say much more about Diablo IV’s story other than to note Blizzard smartly grounded it in the tragedy of its human characters. When the narrative calls on elements from past games, it does so in ways that feel natural and earned. Lilith is also a great antagonist. Every time she appeared on-screen, I felt a sense of unease waiting to see what kind of calculated cruelty she’d inflict on those unlucky enough to cross her path. If you only end up playing Diablo IV for its story, I think you will enjoy the experience, but if you decide to veer off its critical path, be prepared to play through a lot of uninspired content.



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Let the Hype Begin!

CHICAGO -- Two 2-year-olds were wounded in separate shootings hours apart Sunday evening on the North and South Sides.

Shortly after 6 p.m., a 2-year-old girl found a gun in the 1500-block of West Jonquil Terrace in Rogers Park and accidentally discharged it, striking herself in the right hand, police said.

She was taken to Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston, where she was listed in good condition, police said.

About 10:30 p.m., a 2-year-old boy was playing in a bedroom with a known male in the 7900-block of South Hermitage Avenue in Gresham when a gun was discharged, police said.

Hundreds of years after a group of men and women were tried and convicted of witchcraft, Connecticut lawmakers have formally exonerated them for their “crimes.”

The Senate approved the resolution Thursday, according to a news release from Sen. Saud Anwar, who introduced the bill. The resolution passed with a 33-1-2 vote, the release said.

Anwar’s office said “the resolution seeks to bring relief to the descendants of those who were maligned and acknowledge that they were treated wrongly.”

“We cannot go back in time and prevent the banishment, tarnishing or execution of the innocent women and men who were accused of witchcraft, but we can acknowledge the wronghoods they faced and the pain they felt, pain still recognized by their survivors today,” said Anwar. “Today, the Senate took an important step to own our state’s history and provide relief to the memories of the deceased and their descendants who still struggle with their ancestors’ wrongful treatment.”

The text of the resolution stipulates “the General Assembly recognizes that residents of colonial Connecticut were falsely accused of practicing witchcraft in the seventeenth century and that such persons were tried, convicted and sometimes sentenced to death for such offense, and declares that, although these accusations, prosecutions, trials and executions cannot be undone or changed, no disgrace or cause for distress should attach to the heirs of those persons.”

The resolution passed the Connecticut House of Representatives May 10, according to Anwar’s release. The resolution will now head to Gov. Ned Lamont’s desk for his signature.

“I’m very, very glad that we can finally put the government under oath to explain why they decided to do what they did, violating our constitutional rights,” Professor Xiaoxing Xi said in an exclusive interview with NBC News.


Xiaoxing Xi, a Temple University professor who was falsely accused of spying for China, will be able to bring a lawsuit against the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

A judge at a federal appeals court ruled in favor of Xi on Wednesday, allowing the physicist to move forward with his case against the U.S. government for wrongful prosecution and violating his family’s constitutional rights by engaging in unlawful search, seizure and surveillance.

The decision comes after FBI agents swarmed Xi’s Philadelphia home in 2015, rounded up his family at gunpoint, and arrested him on fraud charges related to economic espionage, before abruptly dropping the charges months afterward.

“I’m very, very glad that we can finally put the government under oath to explain why they decided to do what they did, violating our constitutional rights,” Xi said in an exclusive interview with NBC News. “We finally have an opportunity to hold them accountable.”

A verbal confrontation at a gas station has left one man in critical condition with life-threatening injuries after an assailant poured gasoline over him and lit him on fire, police say.

The incident occurred on Sunday afternoon at approximately 4:32 p.m. at a Mobile gas station on North 22nd Street in Tampa, Florida, when two men entered into a verbal confrontation, according to a statement published by the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office on Monday.

“Earl Hargrove, Jr., 34, bought a small amount of gasoline from the gas station,” authorities said in their statement. “Hargrove then proceeded to pour the gasoline on the victim and lit … him on fire.”

The victim – who currently remains unnamed -- was taken to Tampa General Hospital where he was listed in critical condition with life-threatening injuries, police said.


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Freaking Brutal! Like something out of Grand Theft Auto.

AVON, Conn. (AP) — A hungry black bear barged into the garage of a Connecticut bakery, scared several employees and helped itself to 60 cupcakes before ambling away.

Workers at Taste by Spellbound in the town of Avon were loading cakes into a van for delivery on Wednesday when the bear showed up. There are between 1,000 and 1,200 black bears living in Connecticut, the state environmental agency says, with sightings last year in 158 of the state’s 169 towns and cities.

Bakery owner Miriam Stephens wrote in an Instagram post that she heard employee Maureen Williams “screaming bloody murder” and yelling that there was a bear in the garage.

Williams told TV station WTNH that she shouted to scare the bear off but it retreated and came back three times.

A Chinese content creator died last week after livestreaming himself consuming an excessive amount of exceptionally strong alcohol.

The 34-year-old influencer, who goes by “Sanqiange,” was found dead 12 hours after the May 16 livestream on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, according to CNN.

During the stream, he reportedly drank at least seven bottles of Baijiu, a Chinese liquor with an alcohol content of 30% to 60%.

Sanqiange was allegedly involved in an online challenge, called a “PK,” against another creator on the platform.

Sticking an electrode inside a person’s brain can do more than treat a disease. Take the case of Rita Leggett, an Australian woman whose experimental brain implant changed her sense of agency and self. She told researchers that she “became one” with her device.

She was devastated when, two years later, she was told she had to remove the implant because the company that made it had gone bust.

The removal of this implant, and others like it, might represent a breach of human rights, ethicists say in a paper published earlier this month. The issue will only become more pressing as the brain implant market grows in the coming years and more people receive devices like Leggett’s. “There might be some forms of human rights violations that we haven’t understood yet,” says ethicist Marcello Ienca at the Technical University of Munich, a coauthor of the paper.

“Being forced to endure removal of the [device] … robbed her of the new person she had become with the technology,” Ienca and his colleagues wrote. “The company was responsible for the creation of a new person … as soon as the device was explanted, that person was terminated.”

Ten lighthouses that for generations have stood like sentinels along America’s shorelines protecting mariners from peril and guiding them to safety are being given away at no cost or sold at auction by the federal government.

The aim of the program run by the General Services Administration is to preserve the properties, most of which are more than a century old.

The development of modern technology, including GPS, means lighthouses are no longer essential for navigation, said John Kelly of the GSA’s office of real property disposition. And while the Coast Guard often maintains aids to navigation at or near lighthouses, the structures themselves are often no longer mission critical.

Yet the public remains fascinated by the evocative beacons, which are popular tourist attractions, beloved local landmarks and the subject of countless photographers and artists, standing lonely but strong against tides and storms, day and night and flashing life-saving beams of light whatever the weather.

The door of an Asiana Airlines jet opened as it was coming in to land in Daegu, South Korea, on Friday afternoon, leaving wind whipping through the plane’s cabin as terrified passengers gripped their armrests, video of the incident shows.

An airline official said a man in his 30s who was sitting at the emergency seat seemed to have opened the door when the aircraft was about 700 feet (213 meters) above the ground and about two to three minutes from landing in the city 150 miles (240 kilometers) south of Seoul.

However, company officials told CNN the plane had landed safely.

Local police said a man had been arrested. They said he confessed to opening the door, but would not say why he did it.

South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said in a statement Friday that police and the ministry were investigating an individual over violation of aviation law.

Scientists have used artificial intelligence (AI) to discover a new antibiotic that can kill a deadly species of superbug.

The AI helped narrow down thousands of potential chemicals to a handful that could be tested in the laboratory.

The result was a potent, experimental antibiotic called abaucin, which will need further tests before being used.

The researchers in Canada and the US say AI has the power to massively accelerate the discovery of new drugs.

It is the latest example of how the tools of artificial intelligence can be a revolutionary force in science and medicine.

A high school in Marlin, Texas, postponed its graduation ceremony until June to allow students more time to reach graduation requirements.

According to CBS affiliate KWTX, 28 of 33 seniors at Marlin High School did not meet graduation requirements, and their attendance records and grades are to blame.

"The district has affirmed its commitment to providing necessary resources and support to students, and the new graduation date is seen as a testament to this commitment," The Marlin Independent School District said in a press release.


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That is just sad that this is happening in my great state of TX. Guaranteed a bunch of backwards ass country F's those seniors are let me tell you Marlin TX is total BFE Country.