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The WNBA is still struggling with a string of sex-toy disturbances.In the past week and a half, sex toys have been thrown on court during games in Atlanta on July 29, Chicago on Aug. 1, Los Angeles on Aug. 5 and Chicago again on Thursday night, with the most recent object hitting the court in the closing seconds of the Atlanta Dream’s victory over the Sky.The sex toy that landed on the court in Los Angeles nearly hit Fever guard Sophie Cunningham during Indiana’s game against the Sparks. Sex toys were also thrown at games in New York and Phoenix last Tuesday but didn’t reach the court. Police say another toy was thrown at a game in Atlanta on Aug. 1, although it’s unclear if that one reached the court.The distractions have created unexpected challenges for the league, the teams and the players, but also for arena security. Here’s what to know. Are arrests being made? A man was arrested Saturday in College Park, Georgia, after he was accused of throwing a sex toy onto the court during the Atlanta Dream’s July 29 matchup with the Golden State Valkyries, according to a police report. The report said he threw another sex toy during the Dream’s Aug. 1 game against the Phoenix Mercury, but that instance did not seem to result in a delay of play.He is charged with disorderly conduct, criminal trespassing, public indecency and indecent exposure. All four charges are misdemeanors in the state of Georgia, meaning that if he is convicted, the punishment for each can be a fine of up to $1,000 or jail time of up to 12 months. A misdemeanor for public indecency and indecent exposure may also require registration on the state’s sex offender list.The report said the man told police “this was supposed to be a joke and the joke (was) supposed to go viral.”Another man in Phoenix was arrested after police say he threw a sex toy in the crowd at a Mercury game on Tuesday. Police say the 18-year-old pulled the sex toy from his sweater pocket and threw it toward seats in front of him, striking a spectator in the back.The man later told police it was a prank that had been trending on social media and that he bought the toy a day earlier to take to the game. He was later tackled by a volunteer at the arena who had witnessed the incident and began following him as the man tried to leave the arena.Police say the man was arrested on suspicion of assault, disorderly conduct and publicly displaying explicit sexual material.The New York Liberty told The Associated Press on Thursday night that there is an ongoing investigation into the throwing in New York and the team is cooperating with law enforcement. What difficulties do arena security face in stopping this? The types of sex toys being thrown onto the court generally do not include metal elements, meaning that arena metal detectors are not able to sense them. When carried on a spectator’s body, they become even more difficult to detect.Arena security teams face challenges in catching these items, according to Ty Richmond, the president of the event services division at Allied Universal Security, a company that provides security services to certain NBA, WNBA, NFL, MLB and MLS arenas across the country.“Not all stadiums are using a screening process that’s consistent and can detect (the sex toys) because of what it would require pat down searches, opening the bags, prohibiting bags,” he said. “The conflict of expediency, of getting fans into the arena and into the venue, which is an important issue, and security and safety.”The limits of arena security make legal action one of the strongest deterrents for this kind of behavior, Richmond said.“The decision to prosecute and show examples of how people are being handled is very important,” he said. “Without a doubt, I think it will make a difference. The application of it is important, and publicizing that is important.”There have not been any arrests made yet for the in Los Angeles and Chicago. In a statement to the AP, the Sparks said they are “working with arena personnel to identify the individual responsible and ensure appropriate action is taken.”The WNBA has said that any spectators throwing objects onto the court will face a minimum one-year ban and prosecution from law enforcement. How is it affecting players? As the disturbances pile up, those on the court have become increasingly frustrated.“Everyone is trying to make sure the W is not a joke and it’s taken seriously, and then that happens,” Cunningham said on her podcast after nearly being hit by one of the sex toys on Tuesday. “I’m like, ‘How are we ever going to get taken seriously?'”No other professional sports leagues have faced sex toy disturbances like this. It has started a conversation online about the perpetrators’ choices to throw them during games in a women’s league and a league with a high-profile amount of lesbian and queer players.“This has been going on for centuries, the sexualization of women. This is the latest version of that. It’s not funny. It should not be the butt of jokes,” said Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve Thursday. “The sexualization of women is what’s used to hold women down, and this is no different.”Despite the criminal behavior leading to arrests, at least one crypto-based predictions market is offering trades essentially allowing users to wager on whether sex toys will be thrown at future WNBA games.Players have also been sounding off on social media, echoing concerns about arena security protocols.Liberty forward Isabelle Harrison posted on X last week, saying “ARENA SECURITY?! Hello??! Please do better. It’s not funny. Never was funny. Throwing ANYTHING on the court is so dangerous.” AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/wnba Alyce Brown, AP Sports Writer
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E-Commerce
Pinterest reported its second-quarter earnings on Thursday, August 7, and, in many ways, it was good newsthough you wouldnt know it from how much its shares have dropped. Here’s what to know: What did Pinterest report? The social media companys global revenue rose to $998.2 million from $853.6 million year-over-year (YOY). The 17% jump beat Wall Streets expectations of $975 million, according to consensus estimates cited by CNBC. Its net income also increased by 336% YOY, to $38.8 million from $8.9 million. Moreover, Pinterest also projected a better-than-expected third quarter, with revenue between $1.03 billion and $1.05 billion. Plus, its doing well when it comes to actual users, particularly younger ones. Pinterest reports an 11% increase YOY, coming in at 578 million global monthly active users. According to Pinterest CEO Bill Ready, over 50% of those users are Gen Z. What has the CEO said about the earnings? Three years into our business transformation, Ive never been more confident in Pinterests ability to deliver for our users and advertisers, Ready said in a statement. Weve found our best product market fit ever by becoming a personalized shopping destination for users and an AI-powered performance platform for advertisers. With this focus, we believe were well-positioned to further capture market share. Ready further called Pinterest an AI winner in an earnings call, stating that the technology is deeply integrated throughout almost every aspect of the company. This quarter, it launched a new proprietary generative retrieval model for search, built in-house. Due to the sophistication of this model and the breadth of content and activity [it] is trained on, it can recommend more relevant and deeply personalized content for our users while also balancing the distribution of fresh content, Ready said. How is the stock performing after the earnings? Not well. Alongside all of Pinterest’s great news was lower-than-expected earnings per share. The company reported adjusted EPS of 33 cents, rather than the 35 cents that Wall Street expected. Pinterests stock (NYSE: PINS) was down more than 13% in premarket trading on Friday as of this writing. Julia Brau Donnelly, Pinterests CFO, added that advertisers are also worried about tariffs and market uncertainty. “As we talk to advertisers about Q3, we do hear that some of that tariff-related and broader market uncertainty has continued into how they’re thinking about spend for Q3, though this varies by advertiser,” she said during the call. “Again, it’s definitely a relatively more constructive environment than feared.
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E-Commerce
New Delhi has put on hold its plans to procure new U.S. weapons and aircraft, according to three Indian officials familiar with the matter, in India’s first concrete sign of discontent after tariffs imposed on its exports by President Donald Trump dragged ties to their lowest level in decades. India had been planning to send Defense Minister Rajnath Singh to Washington in the coming weeks for an announcement on some of the purchases, but that trip has been cancelled, two of the people said. Trump on August 6 imposed an additional 25% tariff on Indian goods as punishment for Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil, which he said meant the country was funding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. That raised the total duty on Indian exports to 50%among the highest of any U.S. trading partner. The president has a history of rapidly reversing himself on tariffs and India has said it remains actively engaged in discussions with Washington. One of the people said the defense purchases could go ahead once India had clarity on tariffs and the direction of bilateral ties, but “just not as soon as they were expected to.” Written instructions had not been given to pause the purchases, another official said, indicating that Delhi had the option to quickly reverse course, though there was “no forward movement at least for now.” India’s defence ministry and the Pentagon did not respond to Reuters’ questions. Delhi, which has forged a close partnership with America in recent years, has said it is being unfairly targeted and that Washington and its European allies continue to trade with Moscow when it is in their interest. Reuters is reporting for the first time that discussions on India’s purchases of Stryker combat vehicles made by General Dynamics Land Systems and Javelin anti-tank missiles developed by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin have been paused due to the tariffs. Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in February announced plans to pursue procurement and joint production of those items. Singh had also been planning to announce the purchase of six Boeing P8I reconnaissance aircraft and support systems for the Indian Navy during his now-cancelled trip, two of the people said. Talks over procuring the aircraft in a proposed $3.6 billion deal were at an advanced stage, according to the officials. Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and General Dynamics referred queries to the Indian and U.S. governments. Raytheon did not return a request for comment. RUSSIAN RELATIONS India’s deepening security relationship with the U.S., which is fuelled by their shared strategic rivalry with China, was heralded by many U.S. analysts as one of the key areas of foreign-policy progress in the first Trump administration. Delhi is the world’s second-largest arms importer and Russia has traditionally been its top supplier. India has in recent years however, shifted to importing from Western powers like France, Israel, and the U.S., according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute think tank. The shift in suppliers was driven partly by constraints on Russia’s ability to export arms, which it is utilizing heavily in its invasion of Ukraine. Some Russian weapons have also performed poorly in the battlefield, according to Western analysts. The broader U.S.-India defence partnership, which includes intelligence sharing and joint military exercises, continues without hiccups, one of the Indian officials said. India also remains open to scaling back on oil imports from Russia and is open to making deals elsewhere, including the U.S., if it can get similar prices, according to two other Indian sources. Trump’s threats and rising anti-U.S. nationalism in India have “made it politically difficult for Modi to make the shift from Russia to the U.S.,” one of the people said. Nonetheless, discounts on the landing cost of Russian oil have shrunk to the lowest since 2022. India’s petroleum ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. While the rupture in U.S.-India ties was abrupt, there have been strains in the relationship. Delhi has repeatedly rebutted Trump’s claim that the U.S. brokered a ceasefire between India and Pakistan after four days of fighting between the nuclear-armed neighbors in May. Trump also hosted Pakistan’s army chief at the White House in the weeks following the conflict. In recent months, Moscow has been actively pitching Delhi on buying new defence technologies like its S-500 surface-to-air missile system, according to one of the Indian officials, as well as a Russian source familiar with the talks. India currently does not see a need for new arms purchases from Moscow, two Indian officials said. But Delhi is unlikely to wean itself off Russian weapons entirely as the decades-long partnership between the two powers means Indian military systems will continue to require Moscow’s support, one of the officials said. The Russian embassy in Delhi did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Shivam Patel and Aftab Ahmed, Reuters
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E-Commerce
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