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Lawmakers running for reelection loathe tough votes. And for senators up in purple states in two years, those tough votes are coming early.President-elect Donald Trump is moving at a lightning pace to stock up his administration, mixing in conventional picks like Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for secretary of state with controversial moves like putting up Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz as attorney general and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for health and human services secretary. For frontline senators who hold the key to the next Senate majority, navigating their confirmations will be a minefield.Republicans will be defending the seats of North Carolina…

NEW YORK — Jon Jones had just knocked the breath out of the heavyweight challenger he pummeled into retirement when UFC’s greatest fighter broke out a herky-jerky dance inside the cage and dedicated the groove to President-elect Donald Trump.As a defeated Stipe Miocic gamely tried to recover on all fours, Jones posed and played to the packed crowd on top of the cage, and even had a gift for his favorite fan in the front row — Trump for a few moments clutched the UFC heavyweight title.Jones and Trump shook hands and capped a fight night charged with politics as…

Welcome to Research Focus, a series of blog posts that highlights notable publications, events, code/datasets, new hires and other milestones from across the research community at Microsoft. NEW RESEARCH Look Ma, no markers: holistic performance capture without the hassle Motion-capture technologies used in film and game production typically focus solely on face, body, or hand capture, requiring complex and expensive hardware and lots of manual intervention from skilled operators. While machine-learning-based approaches can overcome these challenges, they usually only support a single camera, often operate on a single part of the body, do not produce precise world-space results, and rarely…

WASHINGTON — A computer expert who stole bitcoin worth billions of dollars at current prices — and then spent years laundering some of the hacked cryptocurrency with help from his wife — was sentenced on Thursday to five years in prison.Ilya Lichtenstein masterminded one of the largest-ever thefts from a virtual currency exchange before he and his wife, Heather Rhiannon Morgan, carried out an elaborate scheme to liquidate the stolen funds, according to federal prosecutors.U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly told Lichtenstein that his theft was “meticulously planned” and not an impulsive act.“It’s important to send a message that you can’t…

SL vs NZ Live Streaming, 2nd ODI: When And Where To Watch Live Telecast© AFP Sri Lanka vs New Zealand 2nd ODI Live Streaming: Sri Lanka will be squaring off against New Zealand in the second ODI of the three-match series on Sunday in Pallekele. The hosts have taken 1-0 lead in the series after clinching a 45-run victory against the Kiwis in the first match on Wednesday. New Zealand will now aim to put their best, in order to level the series. Kusal Mendis struck a career-best 143 and Avishka Fernano hit 100 as Sri Lanka posted…

With the recent pick of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, the environmental attorney’s views on vaccines have been thrust back into the spotlight.Kennedy has been a prominent vaccine skeptic, arguing that more research of vaccines is needed, although he has claimed in interviews that he has “never been anti-vaccine.”Vaccine researchers tell ABC News that his recent comments don’t align with his past campaigns and that, if confirmed, he could convince vaccine-hesitant parents to not vaccinate their children.”He’s really not a vaccine skeptic; I’m a vaccine skeptic,” Dr. Paul Offit, director of the…

TBILISI, Georgia — The head of Georgia’s Central Electoral Commission was doused with black paint Saturday at a meeting to confirm the results of the country’s divisive Oct. 26 parliamentary elections.Protesters gathered outside the commission’s building in Tbilisi, where officials announced that the ruling Georgian Dream party had won 53.93% of the vote.Opposition supporters have rejected the results amid allegations that the vote was rigged, an accusation that Georgian Dream denies.The Saturday session was interrupted when David Kirtadze, a commission member from the opposition United National Movement party, threw black paint at commission chairman Giorgi Kalandarishvili.Before the incident, Kirtadze told…

Baku: Almost everyone in India is now vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, former chief scientist of the World Health Organisation Dr Soumya Swaminathan has said, underscoring the urgent need for cross-ministerial and international collaboration to address its effects on health, gender and economic stability in the country. Swaminathan pointed to women and children as especially vulnerable to these climate-driven health risks. In an interview with PTI on the sidelines of global climate talks COP29 here in Azerbaijan’s capital, Swaminathan called for a concerted approach, saying, “practically everyone in India is now vulnerable to climate change impacts, from extreme…

Mike Tyson and Jake Paul in action© AFP The highly anticipated fight between the boxing legend Mike Tyson and the popular YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul, ended with the latter clinching the win. Paul rose to the occasion and beat the 58-year-old in the bout, which lasted eight rounds at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Paul was clearly the better of the two fighters as Mike Tyson was slow in his reflex. A few hours before this blockbuster fight, the fans were taken aback after a fake script of the match surfaced on social media. As per the viral…

President-elect Donald Trump has ambitious plans to utilize U.S. federal lands for the extraction of natural resources.But Trump – who promised at the Republican National Convention in July to “drill, baby, drill” if he were to be reelected – may not be able to accomplish the vast majority of his plans due to existing protections and the way federal lands are defined, environmental law experts told ABC News.Trump won’t be able to “just turn on the spigot” for new oil and gas drilling on day one of his administration, Athan Manuel, director of the Sierra Club’s Lands Protection Program, told…