Pirates vs. Diamondbacks betting preview targets the under as both offenses go cold in series Former LSU coach Brian Kelly uses AI to prepare for job interviews, proving he's just like the rest of us Newsom office source responds to planned protest against trans athlete at state playoff girls' track meet Framber Valdez gets what he deserves for punk move, suspended six games after drilling Boston's Trevor Story MLB's new automated strike zone has a hidden feature helping umpires become more accurate than ever FIFA's World Cup ticket defense falls apart when compared to college football and NFL playoff prices WHO doesn't expect large Hantavirus outbreak US blockade keeps stranglehold on Iran's economy Pratt issues SHOCKING WARNING to socialist opponent: 'Stabbed in the NECK!' 'Fox & Friends' explores wearable technology's role in health and wellness OutKick President Trump on $1,000 World Cup ticket prices: 'I wouldn't pay it either, to be honest' Trump told the New York Post he'wouldn't pay it either' despite wanting to attend the tournament With the 2026 World Cup right around the corner, excitement among soccer fans in the United States is reaching a fever pitch. The tournament, which is being held, at least partially, on U.S. soil for the first time in over three decades, will feature some of the best players in the world competing for global soccer supremacy. If you want to get out and see a match taking place in America this summer, though, you may want to think about taking out a second mortgage on the house, because these tickets are rather steep in price. The get-in price for the United States' opening-round game against Paraguay in Southern California on June 12 is around $1,000, and in this economy, a lot of the middle-class fans are feeling priced out. U.S. FIFA fans celebrate at a watch party in Washington, D.C.'s Dupont Circle.

Game Theory: Who gets to go to the 2026 World Cup? Who actually gets to go to the World Cup? With US President Donald Trump's strict immigration policies, some fans may never make it past the American border. Because while teams qualify on merit, passports don't. Al Jazeera's Samantha Johnson explains. The Masters: Golf's segregated past Are Iran's athletes political pawns?

The launch of "Xoli" adds to the technological efforts promoted by the federal government to turn the 2026 World Cup into an engine of development for the entire country. Xoli, the new chatbot, is named after the axolotl, a salamander with external gills. The Government of Mexico City has launched Xoli, a chatbot that will provide information on services, tourism, and cultural offerings. The platform was designed to meet the demand of the millions of visitors expected to arrive during the 2026 FIFA World Cup . However, the authorities assure that the tool will remain active once the sporting event is over, with the aim of promoting economic activities and facilitating access to public services in the capital.

Bill Gates pulls out of India's AI summit amid Epstein files controversy Bill Gates will not deliver his keynote address at the India AI Impact Summit in Delhi, his philanthropic organisation said hours before the Microsoft co-founder was due to speak. The Gates Foundation said the decision was made after careful consideration and to ensure the focus remains on the [summit's] key priorities, but did not elaborate. Gates's withdrawal comes amid a controversy over his ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein after he was named in new files released by the US Department of Justice in January. Gates's spokesperson has called the claims in the files absolutely absurd and completely false, and the billionaire has said he regretted spending time with Epstein . Gates has not been accused of wrongdoing by any of Epstein's victims and the appearance of his name in the files does not imply criminal activity of any kind.

The Mexican city of Guadalupe, which will host portions of the 2026 World Cup, recently showed off four new robot dogs that will help provide security during matches at BBVA Stadium. The K9-X "robodogs" will help officers patrol during the 2026 World Cup this summer. Authorities in Mexico's Guadalupe, Nuevo León, this week unveiled four robot dogs that will be part of the security devices at BBVA Stadium, one of the three Mexican venues of the 2026 World Cup . The robot dogs are not armed, but each unit incorporates video cameras, night vision, and communication systems that are used to issue warnings or instructions. Its function is to deter illegal activity, detect unusual behavior, identify suspicious objects, control crowds, and immediately alert law enforcement when the system deems necessary. Robot dogs operate semi-autonomously: They do not make decisions or execute movements on their own.

In this paper, we study the problem of learning the skill distribution of a population of agents from observations of pairwise games in a tournament. These games are played among randomly drawn agents from the population. The agents in our model can be individuals, sports teams, or Wall Street fund managers. Formally, we postulate that the likelihoods of outcomes of games are governed by the parametric Bradley-Terry-Luce (or multinomial logit) model, where the probability of an agent beating another is the ratio between its skill level and the pairwise sum of skill levels, and the skill parameters are drawn from an unknown, non-parametric skill density of interest. The problem is, in essence, to learn a distribution from noisy, quantized observations.

Ruby survives on affection, not utility. My little theory is that the concept of "imprinting" in psychology can just as easily be applied to programming: Much as a baby goose decides that the first moving life-form it encounters is its parent, embryonic programmers form ineradicable attachments to the patterns and quiddities of their first formative language. Because if/when the machines take over, we should at least speak their language. For many people, that language is Ruby. It's often credited with making programming "click"; imprintees speak of it with a certain indebtedness and affection.

Mexico's consumer protection agency and FIFA are working on a "ticket relocation system" that will allow those with extra World Cup tickets to sell them safely and at appropriate prices. The Mexican government has presented its strategy to turn this summer's World Cup soccer tournament into an engine to strengthen trade, sports, tourism, and culture in the country where most of the games will be hosted. The Mexico 2026 Social World Cup project includes cultural events like soccer matches between robots, a public transit plan, and a new app where fans can sell securely sell any tickets they can't use. During a conference last week, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum stated that the intention is "to leave a sporting legacy in our country that goes beyond the competition itself." "[In this World Cup ] the eyes of the world will be here," Sheinbaum said, "and what they will see is a great country with an enormous cultural heritage. They will see that we are building a nation that is fairer, freer, and more democratic."

In the face of heavy travel restrictions imposed by the Trump administration, the United States announced that World Cup ticket holders will get expedited processing for their visas. Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, visited the White House this week to announce with an initiative with Donald Trump that would give priority to World Cup ticket holders next year to process a US visa. This initiative is called "FIFA Pass." "FIFA Pass is a prioritized appointment scheduling system," Infantino said from the Oval Office. "So if you have a ticket for the World Cup, you can have a prioritized appointment to get your visa. Because, you said it the first time we met, Mr. President, America welcomes the world."

President Donald Trump has announced US embassies will give visa appointment priority to travellers with tickets to the 2026 World Cup. The Fifa Prioritised Appointment Scheduling System (Pass) will allow World Cup ticket-holders with long wait times to opt with Fifa for a prioritised interview, Trump said at the White House on Monday. Ticket-holders for the tournament - set for next June and July in the US, Canada and Mexico - will not be automatically granted a tourist visa, said Secretary of State Marco Rubio. But foreign nationals with tickets to World Cup football matches could get an interview at an embassy or consulate within six to eight weeks of applying, Rubio said. Your ticket is not a visa; it doesn't guarantee admission to the US, Rubio said, also at the White House on Monday.