8/21 – A federal jury in Alabama found The New York Times liable for defaming former University of Alabama basketball player Kai Spears by falsely reporting that he was present at the scene of a 2023 fatal shooting. Spears was not there, and the Times later corrected the story, which had relied on an anonymous source. The jury awarded Spears $9.25 million in damages, reportedly the Times’s first U.S. defamation loss over one of its articles in more than 50 years. The Times maintains that the identification was an honest mistake and says the verdict and damages are unsupported by the evidence, setting up likely post-trial motions and an appeal.