“I’ve been flying for 30 years. I’ve got almost 18,000 hours in United airplanes -- jets, and I’ve lost communication one time,” Morgan said. “It really ended up not being that big of a deal. I just went to the emergency frequency, got a different channel, and contacted a different facility to get back into communication.”
“We’re not going to talk about the process by which we’re identifying it because obviously we’re looking for more people,” he told reporters late Thursday during the return flight fromIn a one-sentence statement, the Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE, said the immigration agency is not “working with” Betar, nor has it received any hotline tips from the group. But DHS declined to answer specific questions from The Associated Press about how it was treating reports from outside groups or the usage of facial recognition.
Betar spokesman Daniel Levy said that some people on its list were identified using the facial-recognition tool called NesherAI created by Hawila’s company, Stellar Technologies, which was launched from his Brooklyn apartment. The software takes its name from the Hebrew word for “eagle.”Demonstrating the software for a reporter recently, Hawila paused repeatedly to tweak computer code to account for what he said was the just-completed ingestion of thousands of additional photos scraped from social media accounts.After some delay, the software matched a screenshot of a fully masked protester — seen on video confronting Hawila at a recent march — with publicity photos of a woman who described herself online as a New York artist. He said he would report her to the police for assault.
Hawila, a native of Lebanon, is no stranger to controversy. He was the subject of news stories in 2021 when, after marrying an ultra-orthodox woman in New York, he was confronted with accusations that he lied about being Jewish. Religious authorities have since confirmed that his mother was Jewish and certified his faith, he said.Hawila said he no longer works directly with Betar but continues to share protesters’ names with it and other pro-Israel groups and said he has discussed licensing his software to some of them. He showed an email exchange with one group that appeared to confirm such contact.
“Technology, when used in good ways, makes the world a better place,” he said.
As a candidate, Trump campaigned on a promise to crack down on campus antisemitism and threatened to deport activists with student visas that he called violent radicals.“Everyone was doing it. I felt like it was the only way I could fit in,” says Mia. She started following beauty influencers like Katie Fang and Gianna Christine, who have millions of young followers on TikTok. Some influencers are paid by brands to promote their products, but they don’t always mention that.
Mia got hooked on “Get Ready With Me” videos, where influencers film themselves getting ready — for school, for a night out with friends, packing for a trip. The hashtag #GRWM has over 150 billion views on TikTok.“It’s like a trance. You can’t stop watching it,” Mia says. “So when they tell me, ‘Go buy this product’ or, ‘I use this and it’s amazing,’ it feels very personal. Getting what they have makes me feel connected to them.”
Mia started saving her $20 weekly allowance for trips with friends to Sephora. Her daily routine included a face wash, a facial mist, a hydrating serum, a pore-tightening toner, a moisturizer and sunscreen. Most were luxury brands like Glow Recipe, Drunk Elephant or Caudalie, whose moisturizers can run $70.“I get really jealous and insecure a lot when I see other girls my age who look very pretty or have an amazing life,” she says.