 |
|
|
|||||
The brothers operated in the glitz and glamour of the Hamptons and South Beach. Two were high-end real estate brokers dubbed “The A Team.” The third went to law school and ran their family’s private security firm, which caters to heads of state and the rich and famous.They frequented nightclubs, cruised on yachts and flew on private jets. One lived alongside celebrities and corporate titans on Manhattan’s Billionaires’ Row. The others had multimillion-dollar waterfront mansions in Miami.But behind their posh, peripatetic facade, prosecutors say, Tal, Oren and Alon Alexander known collectively as the Alexander Brothers were predators who sexually assaulted, trafficked and raped dozens of women from 2008 to 2021, often after incapacitating them with drugs and sometimes recording their crimes on video.The brothers met victims at nightclubs, parties and on dating apps, and recruited others for trips to ritzy locales, paying for their flights and lodging at high-end hotels or luxe vacation rentals before drugging and raping them, prosecutors said. In all, dozens of women have accused them of wrongdoing.Now, the brothers Tal, 39, and twins Alon and Oren, 38 face a reckoning that prosecutors say was more than a decade in the making: a sex-trafficking trial that could put them in prison for the rest of their lives.Opening statements are slated for Tuesday in the brothers’ trial in federal court in Manhattan, after they were delayed a day because of heavy snowfall over the weekend in New York.Oren and Tal Alexander, the real estate dealers who specialized in high-end properties in Miami, New York and Los Angeles, have pleaded not guilty, along with their brother Alon, who graduated from New York Law School before taking his position with the security firm.All three have been held without bail since their December 2024 arrests. They were indicted months after several women filed lawsuits alleging sexual misconduct.A spokesperson for the Alexander Brothers said they “categorically deny that anyone was drugged, assaulted, or coerced, and the government has presented no physical evidence, medical records, contemporaneous complaints, or objective proof to establish those claims.”“This case highlights a broader concern about how the federal sex-trafficking statute is being applied,” said the spokesperson, Juda Engelmayer. “Congress enacted that law to address force, coercion, and exploitation; not to retroactively criminalize consensual adult relationships through inference or narrative.”“As the defense has consistently said, allegations are not evidence,” Engelmayer added.The brothers’ attorneys have promised to show the jury of six men and six women that prosecutors have taken innocent romantic and sexual encounters and converted them into criminal activity through clever lawyering.Oren Alexander’s attorney, Marc Agnifilo, has said the defense plans to prove that witnesses have lied to the government and that their testimony can’t be trusted.Judge Valerie E. Caproni, who will preside over the trial, has rejected defense requests to toss out the charges or send the case to state court. The Alexanders’ lawyers have said the allegations against them resemble “date rape” crimes more commonly prosecuted in state courts, but Caproni disagreed.“That badly misrepresents the nature of the charges,” the judge wrote.Agnifilo has said the jury will hear evidence of group sex, threesomes and promiscuity. During jury selection last week, prospective jurors were asked questions related to sexual activity and sex crimes.“The case is about sex and sexuality,” said Agnifilo, who represented Sean “Diddy” Combs last year as the hip-hop mogul was acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges but convicted on lesser prostitution-related counts.In court papers, the Alexander Brothers’ lawyers wrote that among the accusers they expect to testify at trial, they had located evidence “that undermines nearly every aspect of the alleged victims’ narratives.”Prosecutors have said their evidence will show that the brothers “have acted with apparent impunity forcibly raping women whenever they wanted to do so.” Michael R. Sisak and Larry Neumeister, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
The European Union opened a formal investigation into Elon Musk’s social media platform X on Monday after his artificial intelligence chatbot Grok spewed nonconsensual sexualized deepfake images on the platform.European regulators also widened a separate, ongoing investigation into X’s recommendation systems after the platform said it would switch to Grok’s AI system to choose which posts users see.The scrutiny from Brussels comes after Grok sparked a global backlash by allowing users through its AI image generation and editing capabilities to undress people, putting females in transparent bikinis or revealing clothing. Researchers said some images appeared to include children. Some governments banned the service or issued warnings.The 27-nation EU’s executive said it was looking into whether X has done enough as required by the bloc’s digital regulations to contain the risks of spreading illegal content such as “manipulated sexually explicit images.”That includes content that “may amount to child sexual abuse material,” the European Commission said. These risks have now “materialized,” the commission said, exposing the bloc’s citizens to “serious harm.”Regulators will examine whether Grok is living up to its obligations under the Digital Services Act, the bloc’s wide-ranging rule book for keeping internet users safe from harmful content and products.In response to a request for comment, an X spokeswoman directed The Associated Press to an earlier statement that the company remains “committed to making X a safe platform for everyone” and that it has “zero tolerance” for child sexual exploitation, nonconsensual nudity, and unwanted sexual content.The X statement from Jan. 14 also said it would stop allowing users to depict people in “bikinis, underwear or other revealing attire,” but only in places where it has been deemed illegal.“Non-consensual sexual deepfakes of women and children are a violent, unacceptable form of degradation,” Henna Virkkunen, an executive vice president at the commission, said in a statement.“With this investigation, we will determine whether X has met its legal obligations under the DSA, or whether it treated rights of European citizens including those of women and children – as collateral damage of its service,” said Virkkunen, who oversees tech sovereignty, security and democracy.Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI launched Grok’s image tool last summer. But the problem began snowballing only late last month when Grok seemingly granted a large number of user requests to modify images posted by others. The problem was amplified both because Musk pitches his chatbot as an edgier alternative with fewer safeguards than rivals, and because Grok’s responses on X are publicly visible, and can therefore be easily spread.The EU investigation covers only Grok’s service on X, and not Grok’s website and standalone app. That’s because the DSA applies only to the biggest online platforms.There’s no deadline for the bloc to resolve the case, which could end in either X pledging to change its behavior or a hefty fine.In December Brussels issued X with a 120-million euro (then-$140 million) fine as part of the earlier ongoing DSA investigation, for shortcomings including blue checkmarks that broke the rules on “deceptive design practices” that risked exposing users to scams and manipulation.The bloc has also been scrutinizing X over allegations that Grok generated antisemitic material and has asked the site for more information.Malaysia and Indonesia blocked access to Grok earlier this month in response to the controversy, becoming the first countries to do so.On Friday, Malaysian authorities said they lifted the temporary restriction after the company implemented additional security and preventive measures, without giving further details. Malaysian regulators said they met last week with X’s representatives and would continue to monitor the situation.__AP writer Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report Kelvin Chan, AP Business Writer
Category:
E-Commerce
On Sunday, the price of gold hit a major milestone: it surpassed the $5,000-per-ounce mark for the first time in history. But while golds price rise is a good thing for investors in the precious metal, it may also signal broader investor anxiety about the marketsand the world. Heres what you need to know about golds surge. Gold trades above $5,000 for the first time ever On Sunday, gold surpassed $5,000 per troy ouncethe first time it has ever done so. The precious yellow metal climbed to $5,107 on Monday morning before paring back slightly to its current price of $5,082 per ounce, as of this writing. Golds most recent milestone is just the latest example of the good run the precious metal has had since 2025. During that calendar year, golds price surged 64%its highest single-year gain since 1979. And 2026 is, so far, shaping up to be another stellar year for gold. Already this month, the precious metal has hit milestone after milestone, surpassing its 2025 all-time high on January 6, 2026, when it reached $4,497.20 per ounce. Less than a week later, gold crossed the $4,600 mark. And on January 20, gold crossed the $4,800 barrier for the first time. It then took gold just five days to cross the $5,000 threshold for the first time in history. Whats behind golds recent rise? The short answer is Trump. But the more nuanced answer is uncertainty. Gold is a safe-haven assetan asset that offers relative stability in times of economic uncertainty or geopolitical upheaval. During these times, traditional assets like stocks and digital assets like cryptocurrencies can be, and often are, highly volatile. When investors are uncertain about the world or the economy, they tend to pull their money out of these types of assets to lock in any gains they have made, and then put the proceeds of those sales into a more stable asset like gold. 2026 has begun with massive geopolitical and economic uncertainty, primarily due to the decisions of President Donald Trump. The year kicked off with the U.S. attack on Venezuela, which Trump ordered to capture the countrys president. Almost immediately after that, Trump set his sights on acquiring Greenland. At the same time, Trump also threatened tariffs on eight European countries that publicly spoke against the presidents desire to acquire Greenland, which would potentially trigger a trade war. It was only last week that Trump finally backed down from his threats to acquire Greenland. Domestically, things have been just as chaotic in America. This month alone, ICE officers have shot and killed two American citizens in Minnesota, igniting fierce protests and condemnation from Americans across the country. But in news that has investors specifically worried, Trumps Justice Department has also opened a criminal investigation into Fed chair Jerome Powell, which many believe is politically motivated due to Powell not lowering interest rates as fast as the president wants him to. All these events have created significant uncertainty about the world and the economy, prompting investors to seek assets they can park their money in that are historically less volatile than stocks. Silver rising, too The price of gold isnt the only precious metal rising due to all this uncertainty. Silver is also up significantly since 2026 began. As of the time of this writing, the price of silver is currently trading at around $108.50 per ounce after hitting an earlier all-time high of above $109. It was only last Tuesday that silver hit a then all-time high price of $95 per ounce. Over the past 12 months, silver has surged nearly 250%, and since 2026 began, the precious metal has risen a staggering 40% in the first 26 days of the year.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||