When still a cardinal, the new pope led discussions on key issues facing the church during which every voice had equal value, whether an archbishop or an unordained believer.

The pope grew up in a Catholic enclave on Chicagos South Side. That community is gone now.

Russias president used the celebration of victory in World War II to highlight the resources he has to keep fighting in Ukraine.

At 83, the mogul looks back on his sprawling, complicated life and surveys Trumps America.

Five years ago at Pornhub, executives were removing the most obvious videos of children. But one employee said obvious meant a 3-year-old.

Kosmos-482, a spacecraft bound for Venus in 1972, was a time capsule from the Cold War when superpowers had broad ambitions for exploring the solar system.

His super PAC, which is said to have amassed $400 million alongside its nonprofit arm, has grown even more influential. And powerful groups for congressional Republicans are being stocked with Trump allies.

The horror movie from Ryan Coogler is on a pace to collect at least $330 million in worldwide ticket sales, a level reached by few original films in the genre.

2025-05-10T11:41:31Z VATICAN CITY (AP) Pope Leo XIV laid out the vision of his papacy Saturday, identifying artificial intelligence as one of the most critical matters facing humanity.In his first formal audience, Leo made clear he will follow in the modernizing reforms of Pope Francis to make the Catholic Church inclusive, attentive to the faithful and a church that looks out for the least and rejected.Citing Francis repeatedly, he told the cardinals who elected him that he was fully committed to the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, the 1960s meetings that modernized the church. He identified AI as one of the main issues facing humanity, saying it poses challenges to defending human dignity, justice and labor.Leo referred to AI in explaining the choice of his name: His namesake, Pope Leo XIII, was pope from 1878 to 1903 and laid the foundation for modern Catholic social thought. He did so most famously with his 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, which addressed workers rights and capitalism at the dawn of the industrial age. The late pope criticized both laissez-faire capitalism and state-centric socialism, giving shape to a distinctly Catholic vein of economic teaching. In his remarks, Leo said he identified with his predecessor, who addressed the great social question of the day in the encyclical. In our own day, the church offers everyone the treasury of its social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defence of human dignity, justice and labour, he said. NICOLE WINFIELD Winfield has been on the Vatican beat since 2001, covering the papacies of St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI and the Francis pontificate and traveling the world with them. RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Women and girls look on as President Donald Trump speaks before signing an executive order barring transgender female athletes from competing in women's or girls' sporting events, in the East Room of the White House, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025, in Washington.(AP Photo/ Evan Vucci, File)2025-05-10T11:33:29Z WASHINGTON (AP) About half of U.S. adults approve of how President Donald Trump is handling transgender issues, according to a new poll a relative high point for a president who has the approval overall of about 4 in 10 Americans.But support for his individual policies on transgender people is not uniformly strong, with a clearer consensus against policies that affect youth.The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey conducted this month found theres more support than opposition on allowing transgender troops in the military, while most dont want to allow transgender students to use the public school bathrooms that align with their gender identity and oppose using government programs to pay for gender-affirming health care for transgender youth.Schuyler Fricchione, a 40-year-old stay-at-home mother from northern Virginia, is one of those who opposes the government paying for gender-affirming care, especially for young people. She said she doesnt want people to make major changes that they might later regret. But she said that because of her Catholic faith, she doesnt want to exclude transgender people from public life. Its very important to me that everyone understands their dignity and importance as a person.It is something I am kind of working through myself, she said. I am still learning. Most adults agree with Trump that sex is determined at birthAbout two-thirds of U.S. adults agree with President Donald Trump that whether a person is a man or woman is determined by their biological characteristics at birth.The poll found that Republicans overwhelmingly believe gender identity is defined by sex at birth, but Democrats are divided, with about half saying gender identity can differ from biological characteristics at birth. The view that gender identity cant be separated from sex at birth view contradicts what the American Medical Association and other mainstream medical groups say: that extensive scientific research suggests sex and gender are better understood as a spectrum than as an either-or definition. A push against the recognition and rights of transgender people, who make up about 1% of the nations population, has been a major part of Trumps return to the White House and was a big part of his campaign.He has signed executive orders calling for the government to classify people by unchangeable sex rather than gender, oust transgender service members and kick transgender women and girls out of sports competitions for females. Those actions and others are being challenged in court, and judges have put many of his efforts on hold.The public is divided on some issues and many are neutralDespite being a hot-button issue overall, a big portion of the population is neutral or undecided on several key policies.About 4 in 10 people supported requiring public schoolteachers to report to parents if their children are identifying at school as transgender or nonbinary. About 3 in 10 opposed it and a similar number was neutral.About the same portion of people just under 4 in 10 favored allowing transgender troops in the military as were neutral about it. About one-quarter opposed it. Tim Phares, 59, a registered Democrat in Kansas who says he most often votes for Republicans, is among those in the middle on that issue.One on hand, he said, Either you can do the job or you cant do the job. But on the other, he added, Im not a military person, so Im not qualified to judge how it affects military readiness.This month, a divided U.S. Supreme Court allowed Trumps administration to enforce a ban on transgender people in the military while legal challenges proceed, a reversal of what lower courts have said.Most object to government coverage of gender-affirming care for youthAbout half oppose allowing government insurance programs such as Medicare and Medicaid to cover gender-affirming medical care, such as hormone therapy and surgery, for transgender people 19 or older. About two-thirds oppose it for those under 19.And on each of those questions, a roughly equal portion of the populations support the coverage or is neutral about it.One of Trumps executive orders keeps federal insurance plans from paying for gender-affirming care for those under 19. A court has ruled that funding cant be dropped from institutions that provide the care, at least for now. Meanwhile, Trumps administration this month released a report calling for therapy alone and not broader gender-affirming health care for transgender youth. Twenty-seven states have bans on the care for minors, and the Supreme Court is expected to rule in coming months over whether the bans can hold. Forming a stance is easy for someWhile Democrats are divided on many policies related to transgender issues, theyre more supportive than the population overall. There is no anguish over the issue or other transgender policy questions for Isabel Skinner, a 32-year-old politics professor in Illinois.She has liberal views on transgender people, shaped partly by her being a member of the LGBTQ+ community as a bisexual and pansexual person, and also by knowing transgender people.She was in the minority who supported allowing transgender students to use the public-school bathrooms that match their gender identity something that at least 14 states have passed laws to ban in the last five years.I dont understand where the fear comes from, Skinner said, because there really doesnt seem to be any basis of reality for the fear of transgender people.___Mulvihill reported from New Jersey.___The AP-NORC poll of 1,175 adults was conducted May 1-5, using a sample drawn from NORCs probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 4 percentage points. GEOFF MULVIHILL Mulvihill covers topics on the agendas of state governments across the country. He has focused on abortion, gender issues and opioid litigation. twitter mailto LINLEY SANDERS Sanders is a polls and surveys reporter for The Associated Press. She develops and writes about polls conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, and works on AP VoteCast. twitter RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Max Goodman, left, and Ross Brubeck walk on a trail near Princeton, N.J., as part of a Quaker march from New York City to Washington D.C. to protest President Donald Trump's crackdown on immigrants on Wednesday May 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Luis Andres Henao)2025-05-10T11:34:48Z PRINCETON, N.J. (AP) A group of Quakers are marching more than 300 miles from New York City to Washington, D.C., to demonstrate against the Trump administrations crackdown on immigrants.The march extends a long tradition of Quaker activism. Historically, Quakers have been involved in peaceful protests to end wars and slavery, and support womens voting rights in line with their commitment to justice and peace. Far more recently, Quakers sued the federal government earlier this year over immigration gents ability to make arrests at houses of worship. Organizers of the march say their protest seeks to show solidarity with migrants and other groups that are being targeted by President Donald Trumps administration.It feels really daunting to be up against such critical and large and in some ways existential threats, said Jess Hobbs Pifer, a 25-year-old Quaker and march organizer, who said she felt a connection to the faiths long history of activism. I just have to put one foot in front of the other to move towards something better, something more true to what Quakers before us saw for this country and what people saw for the American Experiment, the American dream, she said. Their goal is to walk south from the Flushing Quaker Meeting House across New York, New Jersey, Maryland and Pennsylvania to the U.S. Capitol to deliver a copy of the Flushing Remonstrance a 17th century document that called for religious freedom and opposed a ban on Quaker worship. Quakers say it remains relevant in 2025 as a reminder to uphold the guiding principle that all are welcome. We really saw a common thread between the ways that the administration is sort of flying against the norms and ideals of constitutional law and equality before the law, said Max Goodman, 28, a Quaker, who joined the march.Even when they arent breaking rules explicitly, theyre really engaging in bad faith with the spirit of pluralism, tolerance and respect for human dignity that undergirds our founding documents as Americans and also shows up in this document thats really important in New York Quaker history. A Quaker history of resistance The Religious Society of Friends best known as the Quakers originated in 17th century England.The Christian group was founded by George Fox, an Englishman who objected to Anglican emphasis on ceremony. In the 1640s, he said he heard a voice that led him to develop a personal relationship with Christ, described as the Inner Light.Fox taught that the Inner Light emancipates a person from adherence to any creed, ecclesiastical authority or ritual forms.Brought to court for opposing the established church, Fox tangled with a judge who derided him as a quaker in reference to his agitation over religious matters.Following the faiths core beliefs in nonviolence and justice, Quakers have demonstrated for the abolition of slavery, in favor of the suffrage movement, against both World Wars, and the U.S. role in the wars in Vietnam and Afghanistan, said Ross Brubeck, 38, one of the Quaker march organizers. They also joined protests against the World Trade Organization in Seattle and the Black Lives Matter protests after the 2020 killing of George Floyd.Within the DNA of Quakerism is actions speaking out against authority, said Brubeck, who was marching along a trail in New Jersey with companions waving an upside-down American flag intended to serve as a signal of distress.Quakers have had a central role in opposition to repression within the United States since its founding, Brubeck said.The basic unit of Quaker organization is the weekly meeting, which corresponds to the congregation in other churches. Quakers gather for silent worship in meeting houses, where they wait for a message from God to move through them until they speak.When Brubeck and his group reached downtown Princeton, they were met by members of the local Quaker group, who praised them for their effort and guided them to their meeting house. After taking their shoes off their blistery feet, some rested on wooden pews and later prayed in silence, holding hands in a circle in preparation for another long walk. I felt humbled by their presence knowing what a long way theyve been walking, said Casey Oware, a member of the Princeton Friends Meeting. And also a sense of connection knowing that were fighting for the same thing. Her friend, Marae McGhee, a retired teacher and member of the local Quaker group, agreed: Its such a disturbing time and I think a lot of people feel that theres little they can do. But these folks are doing it theyre giving their feet and their energy. Quaker beliefs and a lawsuit challenge to Trump Quaker practices and beliefs vary from a more Bible-centered Christianity, with pastors as worship leaders, to a more liberal approach with less structured worship and a wide range of teachings.One the most well-known Quakers was William Penn, who founded Pennsylvania following the faiths emphasis on religious tolerance; the group became influential in cities like Philadelphia.But members of the group have also faced scorn for refusing to join wars due to their belief in pacifism and nonviolence. Some were persecuted and even killed for trying to spread their religious beliefs.Earlier this year, five Quaker congregations filed a lawsuit challenging a Trump administration move giving immigration agents more leeway to make arrests at houses of worship.The Quaker groups were later joined by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and a Sikh temple. Following that, more than two-dozen Christian and Jewish groups representing millions of Americans ranging from the Episcopal Church and the Union for Reform Judaism to the Mennonites filed a similar lawsuit, but a federal judge ruled against them last month.During the presidential campaign, Donald Trump insisted that immigrants were an existential threat to America. Immigration into the U.S., both legal and illegal, surged during President Joe Bidens administration, and Trump assailed that influx in ways that proved powerful with voters. Since returning to the White House, Trump has launched a campaign of immigration enforcement that has pushed the limits of executive power and clashed with federal judges trying to restrain him. Immigrants are the ones experiencing the most acute persecution in the United States, Brubeck said. The message to Trump is that the power is not his to make.__Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the APs collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. LUIS ANDRES HENAO Henao is a multimedia reporter on the APs Global Religion team. He focuses on features and has reported for the AP from Alaska, Antarctica and the Amazon. twitter instagram mailto

This photo provided by researcher Jane Greaves shows the planet Venus, seen from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Akatsuki probe in May 2016. (J. Greaves/Cardiff University/JAXA via AP)2025-05-10T10:52:50Z A Soviet-era spacecraft plunged to Earth on Saturday, more than a half-century after its failed launch to Venus. The European Union Space Surveillance and Tracking confirmed its uncontrolled reentry, based on analysis and no-shows of the spacecraft on subsequent orbits. The European Space Agencys space debris office also indicated that the spacecraft had reentered after it failed to appear over a German radar station.It was not immediately known where the spacecraft came in or how much, if any, of the half-ton spacecraft survived the fiery descent from orbit. Experts said ahead of time that some if not all of it might come crashing down, given it was built to withstand a landing on Venus, the solar systems hottest planet.The chances of anyone getting clobbered by spacecraft debris were exceedingly low, scientists said. Launched in 1972 by the Soviet Union, the spacecraft known as Kosmos 482 was part of a series of missions bound for Venus. But this one never made it out of orbit around Earth, stranded there by a rocket malfunction. Much of the spacecraft came tumbling back to Earth within a decade of the failed launch. No longer able to resist gravitys tug as its orbit dwindled, the spherical lander an estimated 3 feet (1 meter) across was the last part of the spacecraft to come down. The lander was encased in titanium, according to experts, and weighed more than 1,000 pounds (495 kilograms). After following the spacecrafts downward spiral, scientists, military experts and others could not pinpoint in advance precisely when or where the spacecraft might come down. Solar activity added to the uncertainty as well as the spacecrafts deteriorating condition after so long in space. As of Saturday morning, the U.S. Space Command had yet to confirm the spacecrafts demise as it collected and analyzed data from orbit.The U.S. Space Command routinely monitors dozens of reentries each month. What set Kosmos 482 apart and earned it extra attention from government and private space trackers was that it was more likely to survive reentry, according to officials. It was also coming in uncontrolled, without any intervention by flight controllers who normally target the Pacific and other vast expanses of water for old satellites and other space debris. ___The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Michelle and Richard Beck, right, stand outside their Atlanta-area home Thursday, May 1, 2025. They are Gen Xers who speak with southern accents while their Gen Z sons, Dylan and Richard, left, do not. (AP Photo/ Sharon Johnson)2025-05-10T04:07:44Z Growing up in Atlanta in the 1940s and 1950s, Susan Levines visits to New York City relatives included being the star of an impromptu novelty show: Her cousin invited over friends and charged 25 cents a pop for them to listen to Levines Southern accent. Even though they too grew up in Atlanta, Levines two sons, born more than a quarter century after her, never spoke with the accent that is perhaps the most famous regional dialect in the United States, with its elongated vowels and soft r sounds.My accent is nonexistent, said Ira Levine, her oldest son. People I work with, and even in school, people didnt believe I was from Atlanta.The Southern accent, which has many variations, is fading in some areas of the South as people migrate to the region from other parts of the U.S. and around the world. A series of research papers published in December documented the diminishment of the regional accent among Black residents of the Atlanta area, white working-class people in the New Orleans area and people who grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. More than 5.8 million people have moved into the U.S. South so far in the 2020s, more than four times the combined total of the nations three other regions. Linguists dont believe mass media has played a significant role in the language change, which tends to start in urban areas and radiate out to more rural places. Late 20th century migration surge affects accentsThe classical white Southern accent in the Atlanta area and other parts of the urban South peaked with baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964 and then dropped off with Gen Xers born between 1965 and 1980 and subsequent generations, in large part because of the tremendous in-migration of people in the second half of the 20th century. It has been replaced among the youngest speakers in the 21st century with a dialect that was first noticed in California in the late 1980s, according to recent research from linguists at the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech and Brigham Young University. That dialect, which also was detected in Canada, has become a pan-regional accent as it has spread to other parts of the U.S., including Boston, New York and Michigan, contributing to the diminishment of their regional accents. In Raleigh, North Carolina, the trigger point in the decline of the Southern accent was the opening in 1959 of the Research Triangle Park, a sprawling complex of research and technology firms that attracted tens of thousands of highly educated workers from outside the South. White residents born after 1979, a generation after the Research Triangles establishment, typically dont talk with a Southern accent, linguist Sean Lundergan wrote in a paper published in December.Often, outsiders wrongly associate a Southern accent with a lack of education, and some younger people may be trying to distance themselves from that stereotype.Young people today, especially the educated young people, they dont want to sound too much like they are from a specific hometown, said Georgia Tech linguist Lelia Glass, who co-wrote the Atlanta study. They want to sound more kind of, nonlocal and geographically mobile. Accents change for younger peopleThe Southern dialect among Black people in Atlanta has dropped off in recent decades mainly because of an influx of African Americans from northern U.S. cities in what has been described as the Reverse Great Migration.During the Great Migration, from roughly 1910 to 1970, African Americans from the South moved to cities in the North like New York, Detroit and Chicago. Their grandchildren and great-grandchildren have moved back South in large numbers to places like Atlanta during the late 20th and early 21st centuries and are more likely to be college-educated.Researchers found Southern accents among African Americans dropped off with Gen Z, or those born between 1997 and 2012, according to a study published in December. The same researchers previously studied Southern accents among white people in Atlanta.Michelle and Richard Beck, Gen Xers living in the Atlanta area, have Southern accents, but its missing in their two sons born in 1998 and 2001. I think they speak clearer than I do, Richard Beck, a law enforcement officer, said of his sons. They dont sound as country as I do when it comes to the Southern drawl. New Orleans yat accent diminishedUnlike other accents that have changed because of an influx of new residents, the distinctive, white working-class yat accent of New Orleans has declined as many locals left following the devastating Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The accent is distinct from other regional accents in the South and often described as sounding as much like Brooklynese as Southern. The hurricane was a catastrophic language change event for New Orleans since it displaced around a quarter million residents in the first year after the storm and brought in tens of thousands of outsiders in the following decade. The diminishment of the yat accent is most noticeable in millennials, who were adolescents when Katrina hit, since they were exposed to other ways of speaking during a key time for linguistic development, Virginia Tech sociolinguist Katie Carmichael said in a paper published in December.Cheryl Wilson Lanier, a 64-year-old who grew up in Chalmette, Louisiana, one of the New Orleans suburbs where the accent was most prevalent, worries that part of the regions uniqueness will be lost if the accent disappears.Its kind of like were losing our distinct personality, she said.Southern identity changingWhile it is diminishing in many urban areas, the Southern accent is unlikely to disappear completely because accents are an incredibly straightforward way of showing other people something about ourselves, said University of Georgia linguist Margaret Renwick, one of the authors of the Atlanta studies.It may instead reflect a change in how younger speakers view Southern identity, with a regional accent not as closely associated with what is considered Southern as in previous generations, and linguistic boundaries less important than other factors, she said.So young people in the Atlanta area or Raleigh area have a different vision of what life is in the South, Renwick said. And its not the same as the one that their parents or grandparents grew up with.___Follow Mike Schneider on the social platform Bluesky: @mikeysid.bsky.social. MIKE SCHNEIDER Schneider covers census, demographics and Florida for The Associated Press. Author of 2023 book, Mickey and the Teamsters. twitter mailto

The Oilers are up 2-0, with Game 3 at home. Plus, previewing Canes-Capitals, and Friday's recaps, Three Stars.

They renewed the push for an unconditional 30-day cease-fire that Russia has rebuffed.

The Tesla billionaire is using his social media site X to rant and accuse. The politics of rage rarely worked out well for earlier moguls.

Regulators are looking into whether several cannabis companies are making illegal products for sale in New York. The products may be worth more than $10 million.

Once in a year, in May or June, parents get a window, or a fun-house mirror, into how their children feel theyre doing.

The episode, from 1983, was found in storage by accident. It was restored and made available for viewing for the first time on Friday.

Welcome back to the Abstract!First, a quick housekeeping note.Weve been getting really positive feedback on The Abstract, so we are spinning it up as its own newsletter that well continue to send every Saturday.If you are reading this, we hope you continue to want to receive The Abstract! But if you dont want to get The Abstract email for whatever reason, go to 404media.co and log in via the sign in button in the top right corner. Once you are logged in, click the green account button in the top right corner, click Manage under the Emails category, and youll see a toggle you can switch to stop receiving The Abstract newsletter. The idea here is just to give our readers more granular control over what newsletters they receive, especially as we think about other cool things to do around The Abstract.Obviously we hope youll stick around as we continue to cover the most exciting, mind-blowing studies we find every week.Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming:Last weekend, I led with a story about a beat-keeping sea lion. This weekend, I will kick off with some poetic porpoises. Based on this emerging pattern, I hereby declare May to be Inspirational Aquatic Mammals Month. Sorry, Zombie Awareness Month, May isnt big enough for both of us and in any case, you should be in October with all the other scary stuff.With that important business settled, lets move on to a visit to Tiny Town. Population: 16 kindergarteners. Theres nowhere to sleep or gas up, but ice cream is abundant. Next, every photo is technically a picture of atoms, but new images released this week take it to the next level. Last, Tyrannosaurus rex goes on TyrAncestry.com.Happy Inspirational Aquatic Mammals Month to all who observe. \(^o^)/A Porpoise Corpus with PurposeZhang, Yaoyao et al. Range contraction of the Yangtze finless porpoise inferred from classic Chinese poems. Current Biology.For centuries, people have been enchanted by the Yangtze finless porpoise, the only freshwater porpoise known in the world. Spectators across the ages have marveled at its elusive beauty, chronicling sightings of the porpoise in Chinas rich poetic tradition.Now, scientists have mined this vast porpoise corpus for insights into the historic range and population of the iconic animal. This is a neat thing to do on its own merits, but its also part of a broader effort to save the species from extinctionwith only about 1,250 individuals left in the wild, the porpoise is considered critically endangered.As regular readers of the Abstract will know, nothing delights me more than scientific conclusions based on historical documents (see: milky seas and Transylvanian weather). Call it science from the stacks, where the library is the laboratory. All the better if it is for a worthy conservation cause.To that end, the studys authors identified 724 ancient poems that reference the Yangtze finless porpoise over the past 1,400 years, since the Tang Dynasty. Roughly half of the poems included location details, allowing the team to roughly track its population distribution with a chronology of geospatial grids.Grids of population distribution across 1,400 years. Image: Zhang, Yaoyao et al.Our study provides the first evidence from historical literature sources of major and rapid contractions in the range of the Yangtze finless porpoise, said researchers led by Yaoyao Zhang of the Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. We used the occurrence sites in poems to map the historical distribution of the Yangtze finless porpoise. The number of grids with occurrences declined from 169 in the Tang Dynasty to just 59 in modern times, implying a contraction of 65 percent of the historical ranges of the Yangtze finless porpoise.Importantly, there was a sharp decrease from 142 grids during the Qing Dynasty to 59 in modern times, suggesting a relatively rapid shrinkage of range over the past century, the team continued. Our study demonstrates that historical art forms provide valuable information that can be used to track wildlife range changes over time. Chinese poets, many of whom were well-educated intellectuals, sometimes portrayed animals with a high degree of accuracy.The rapid decline of the Yangtze finless porpoise, driven by intense human activity, has been confirmed by all kinds of empirical evidencefield studies, genomic analysis, population models, and more. In that sense, the teams poetic sources corroborate what is already a well-documented phenomenon.But as with past studies in this genre, the real novelty of this work is hidden in the supplemental information: In this case, two Excel spreadsheets that painstakingly record all 724 poetic references to the captivating creatures. For instance, the authors highlighted this evocative line from Emperor Qinglong, who lived in the 18th century: Porpoises chased moonlight on silvered tides.A Ming Dynasty woodblock-printed illustration that documents the Yangtze finless porpoise. Image: "Sancai Tuhui," compiled by Wang Qi (15731620)As I am woefully monolingual (unless you count Dovahzul), I had to rely on Google Translate to comb through a sampling of the other collected verses. But even through this leaky linguistic bucket, you can catch fleeting glimpses of the river porpoises through the eyes of bygone poets. My favorite is a verse written from Climbing the Yellow Crane Tower by Jun Lin, who lived 500 years ago, which is listed in row 112 on the spreadsheet labeled mmc3.Green smoke and fragrant trees in Hanyang City, on a sunny day, porpoises worship the waves. The egrets turn around the painted tower sails past the shadows, and the cranes return to the sound of immortal pipes and flutes. Cui Lang's verses are the only ones left in ancient and modern times, and Fan Lao's feelings are hung in the halls and temples. Drunk, I strike coral and stroke my long sword, leaning against the sky and whistling alone at a peak.In a few sentences, this poet brings us into the smells, sights, and sensations of this moment in time. While there is clear scientific value in these historical texts, as evidenced by the new study, they should also be appreciated as threads of cultural continuity. Its one thing to simply be told that we should conserve species like the Yangtze finless porpoise, but it hits on a different level to realize that future generations may never share these experiences of reverence and rumination from the past.Tiny Town, Where Memories Are Made (and then Magnetically Imaged)Junga, Yaelan and Dilks, Daniel. Early development of navigationally relevant location information in the retrosplenial complex. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.Speaking of future generations, heres a story about how a bunch of kindergarteners played a video gamefor science! Researchers designed a simple virtual world, called Tiny Town, to probe when, and how, humans start to develop a mental map of landmarks for navigation.A scene from Tiny Town. Image: Dilks LabThe triangular town included a lake corner, a trees corner, and a mountain corner, with several landmarks: a lion statue at the town square, two ice cream stores, two playgrounds, and two fire stations. What is Tiny Towns energy source? How does it manage its wastewater? Why are there no residential areas? None of these questions matter. This is a municipality made for five-year-olds where an average day consists of: ice cream for breakfast, swings, ice cream for lunch, slide, ice cream for dinner, FIRE TRUCK WEE-OOO WEE-OOO.During the experiment, a group of 16 five-year-olds explored Tiny Town with navigation arrows, and were then tested on location and category details in an fMRI machine. The brain activity recorded in the sessions revealed that the retrosplenial complex (RSC), a brain region critical for map-based navigation, is already tracking landmarks in early childhood.A participant being introduced to Tiny Town. Image: Dilks LabThe current study demonstrates that by at least 5-y of age, RSC represents location information within a large-scale virtual town, said authors Yaelan Junga and Daniel Dilks of Emory University. This finding suggests that despite the protracted development of map-based navigational skills, the neural system supporting navigation in large-scale spaces develops remarkably early in childhood.In addition to this interesting finding, the study also includes some adorable insights into working with child subjects: One child (70 mo old, female) did not complete the fMRI session due to fear of the scanner while two children (ages of 65 mo old and 71 mo old, both male) were excluded due to excessive motion. Sounds about right.Time for an Extreme Close-upNo, Like Really Really ExtremeYao, Ruixiao et al. Measuring Pair Correlations in Bose and Fermi gases via atom-resolved microscopy. Physical Review Letters.A great candid shot will always beat out a staged photo, but it can be tough if your subjects are atoms. No zoom-in lens is ever going to resolve the quantum realm; thats a job for lattices, lasers, and other instruments of unfathomable calibrative accuracy.Scientists have devised ways to get particles to sit still and say cheese, but a new study reports the first directly imaged particles in the continuum, meaning they were freely interacting with each other right up until the photoshoot. Behold: portraits of free-range bosons and fermions.The three bottom microscope images show (left to right) sodium bosons forming a Bose-Einstein condensate, lithium fermions weakly interacting, and lithium fermions forming pairs. Image: Yao, RuixiaoHere we demonstrate real-space, atom-resolved microscopy of quantum gases in the continuum, said researchers led by Ruixiao Yao of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Imaging quantum gases in situ at the resolution of single atoms realizes the ultimate depth of information one may obtain in real spaceWith atom-resolved imaging, one comes close to having complete information about correlations in continuum quantum gases.In addition to this atomic photo album, the same journal published two other studies this week with very similar resultsXiang et al and de Jongh et alproving that great minds think alike (especially if those minds are preoccupied with single-atom imagery).Life Finds a Way (Across the Bering Land Bridge, in this Case)Morrison, Cassius et al. Rise of the king: Gondwanan origins and evolution of megaraptoran dinosaurs. Royal Society Open ScienceTyrannosaurus rex needs no introduction, and you probably wouldnt want a formal meeting with one anyway. This fantastic tyrant has captured our imaginations and haunted our nightmares since we first started piecing together its massive remains.But while we know how the T. rex story endsbig rock in sky went boomthe evolutionary roots of this animal have long generated debate. The genus T. rex rose to dominance in late Cretaceous North America, but its unclear whether its earlier ancestorslets call them Tyrannogrannies or Tygranny-saurscame from the same continent, or perhaps hailed from Asia.Now, scientists have pieced together the deep origins of tyrannosaurids and megaraptorians, a related lineage of giant carnivorous dinosaurs, with biogeographic models that analyzed the age and distribution of fossils around the world. Their results support the hypothesis that the T. rex line leads back to Asia.Megaraptorian dispersal routes (the study did not have an analogous map for tyrannosauroids). Image: Morrison, Cassius et al.This biogeographical modelindicates the ancestor of the clade Tarbosaurus and Tyrannosaurus was present in both Asia and Laramidia, and therefore the ancestor of Tyrannosaurus came from Asia, said researchers led by Cassius Morrison of University College London. "Our analysis supportsa western Eurasian dispersal into Africa, and then the rest of the southern continents for megaraptorans, and multiple dispersal events across the Bering Land Bridge between Asia and North America in pantyrannosaurians.Just more evidence that we all have tangled ancestries, even if only some of us get to become 15,000-pound apex predators that dominated continents for millions of years.Thanks for reading! See you next week.

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Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., left, following a tour of the Texas A&M AgriLife Phenotyping Greenhouse in College Station, Texas on Tuesday, April 29, 2025.(Meredith Seaver /College Station Eagle via AP)2025-05-10T13:08:06Z WASHINGTON (AP) For many experts, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. s promise for pulling back the curtain to find autisms causes in a few months is jarring and unrealistic.Thats because it appears to ignore decades of science linking about 200 genes that play a role and the quest to understand differences inside the brain that can be present at birth.Virtually all the evidence in the field suggests whatever the causes of autism and theres going to be multiple causes, its not going to be a single cause they all affect how the fetal brain develops, said longtime autism researcher David Amaral of the UC Davis MIND Institute.Even though we may not see the behaviors associated with autism until a child is 2 or 3 years old, the biological changes have already taken place, he said.Kennedy on Wednesday announced the National Institutes of Health would create a new database to uncover the root causes of autism and other chronic diseases by merging Medicaid and Medicare insurance claims with electronic medical records and other data. He has cited rising autism rates as evidence of an epidemic of a preventable disease caused by some sort of environmental exposure and has promised some of the answers by September. What is autism?Autism isnt considered a disease. Its a complex brain disorder better known as autism spectrum disorder, to reflect that it affects different people in different ways. Symptoms vary widely. For some people, profound autism means being nonverbal and having significant intellectual disabilities. Others have far milder effects, such as difficulty with social and emotional skills.Autism rates are rising not among profound cases but milder ones, said autism expert Helen Tager-Flusberg of Boston University. Thats because doctors gradually learned that milder symptoms were part of autisms spectrum, leading to changes in the late 1990s and early 2000s in diagnosis guidelines and qualifications for educational services, she said. Whats the state of autism research?The link between genes and autism dates back to studies of twins decades ago. Some are rare genetic variants passed from parent to child, even if the parent shows no signs of autism.But thats not the only kind. As the brain develops, rapidly dividing cells make mistakes that can lead to mutations in only one type of cell or one part of the brain, Amaral explained.Noninvasive testing can spot differences in brain activity patterns in babies who wont be diagnosed with autism until far later, when symptoms become apparent, he said.Those kinds of changes stem from alterations in brain structure or its neural circuitry and understanding them requires studying brain tissue thats available only after death, said Amaral, whos the scientific director of a brain banking collaborative called Autism BrainNet. The bank, funded by the nonprofit Simons Foundation, has collected more than 400 donated brains, about half from people with autism and the rest for comparison.What about environmental effects?Researchers have identified other factors that can interact with genetic vulnerability to increase the risk of autism. They include the age of a childs father, whether the mother had certain health problems during pregnancy including diabetes, use of certain medications during pregnancy, and preterm birth.Any concern that measles vaccinations could be linked to autism has been long debunked, stressed Tager-Flusberg, who leads a new Coalition of Autism Scientists pushing back on administration misstatements about the condition. What about Kennedys database plan?The U.S., with its fragmented health care system, will never have the kind of detailed medical tracking available in countries like Denmark and Norway places with national health systems where research shows similar rises in autism diagnoses and no environmental smoking gun.Experts say Kennedys planned database isnt appropriate to uncover autisms causes in part because theres no information about genetics. But researchers have long used insurance claims and similar data to study other important questions, such as access to autism services. And the NIH described the upcoming database as useful for studies focusing on access to care, treatment effectiveness and other trends. ___The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. LAURAN NEERGAARD Neergaard is an Associated Press medical writer who covers research on brain health, infectious diseases, organ transplantation and more. She is based in Washington, D.C. mailto

The quake on Saturday morning had a preliminary magnitude of 4.1, with an epicenter about 30 miles southwest of Knoxville, Tenn. Residents in Atlanta reported feeling it.

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Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., joined from left by House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., talks to reporters about his push for a House-Senate compromise budget resolution to advance President Donald Trump's agenda, even with opposition from hard-line conservative Republicans, at the Capitol in Washington, April 8, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)2025-05-10T14:19:38Z WASHINGTON (AP) What, exactly, the Republican Party stands for in terms of economic policy in the second Trump administration is a question reaching an inflection point.Is it the party that promotes free-market prosperity or a 21st-century populism?Does it stick with the No new taxes pledge that has been GOP political orthodoxy for decades or do Republicans tax the rich, as President Donald Trump suggests?Roll back the Obama-eras health care expansion and the President Joe Bidens green energy investments or protect the federal flow of investment dollars generating jobs in the states?Slash deficit spending or spike the nations now $36 trillion debt load?Free trade or Trumps tariffs?As House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Republicans race to draft Trumps big, beautiful bill of $4.5 trillion in tax breaks and $1.5 trillion in spending cuts, the final product will set the party on a defining path. Its still a work in progress.This idea of the American dream where we are the best country in the world which I believe we are will be gone and itll be our fault, so we have to do something right now to address it, said Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga. And everybody wants to say, Oh, yeah, we should do something, but nobodys willing to say what that hard choice is.The GOP is shape-shifting its economic policy priorities in real time, transforming from a party that once put a premium on lower taxes and smaller government into something more reflective of the interests of the working-class coalition that depends on the federal safety net and put Trump in the White House. On the one side, theres the old-school Republican stalwarts who have guided policy thinking for years. Among them are former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist, who says tax increases would be stupid, destructive and the influential Club for Growth, which pours millions into political campaigns. But a rising neo-populist power center with proximity to Trump carries clout, with Steve Banon and others who reject the traditional trickle-down economic policies and propose a new direction that more benefits Americans.Divisions run strong within the Republican Party, which holds the majority on Capitol Hill, and is bulldozing past Democratic objections to push its package forward on its own. GOP lawmakers are under mounting pressure to set aside their differences by Johnsons Memorial Day deadline, especially as Trumps tariffs stoke unease, and they are eager to signal that the economy is under control on their watch.This is a once in a generation bill, said Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, chairman of the Republican Study Committee, a large group of House conservatives. He said not only would the emerging package extend the tax breaks and cut spending, it also gives us a mentality just to settle the markets, to give some predictability, to give everybody in our country the ability to go, hey, our economy is going to be strong.This weekend, Republican leaders are working to finish the 11 separate sections that will make up that big package before potential public hearings in the coming week. But the final three on tax policy, Medicaid and green energy programs, and food stamp assistance have proved to be the most difficult, posing the biggest political risks.Moderate conservative Republicans in the House have signed on to letters opposing steep cuts to Medicaid, which provides health care to more than 70 million Americans.The Medicaid program has expanded in the 15 years since the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, became law, as more states signed up for federal cost-sharing allotments, and people benefited from enhanced federal credits to pay their insurance premiums. Republicans who pledged to repeal and replace the health law during Trumps first term are now insisting they only want to target what they say is waste, fraud and abuse in Medicaid, as many fight to save its more popular parts.Many of those same moderate GOP lawmakers also oppose rolling back the green energy tax breaks that Democrats approved under Biden as companies invest in wind, solar and other renewable energy development. At the same time, the more conservative Republicans are roaring back, insisting on deep cuts.Some 30 Republicans said the party must hold to the original GOP budget framework of up to $2 trillion in spending cuts, which they argue are needed to prevent the tax cuts from piling on annual deficits that are fueling the nations debt load. The cost of the tax cuts, first approved by Republicans in 2017, during Trumps first term, is expected to grow if Republicans add other priorities, including no taxes on tipped wages or Social Security income. Estimates put the final costs beyond $7 trillion. We must hold that line on fiscal discipline to put the country back on a sustainable path, wrote Rep. Lloyd Smucker, R-Pa., and colleagues. Meanwhile, Johnson is negotiating with a core group of five Republicans from the highest tax regions in New York, New Jersey and California who claim they will not vote for any plan unless it reinstates a bigger state and local tax deduction, called SALT, for their constituents.They called the latest proposal to triple the cap on state and local tax deductions, which is now $10,000 a year, to $30,000 insulting.Trump himself has waded into the debate in uneven ways. The president told Johnson this past week that he wanted to see a higher tax rate on incomes of $2.5 million for single filers, or $5 million for couples, only to sort of back off the idea Friday.Republicans should probably not do it, but Im OK if they do!!! Trump wrote on social media.With Republicans going it alone, over the objections of Democrats in the House and Senate critical of the tax package as a giveaway to the rich that will hurt Americans who depend on federal services, leaders will need almost every Republican on board.One Republican, Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, implored his colleagues not to worry about the politics of the next midterm election and to stick to party principles. How about we do the job we got elected 5 months ago to do and see where the chips fall, he posted on social media. Cut Spending. Shrink the Deficit. Cut Taxes. Lead.__Associated Press writers Kevin Freking and Leah Askarinam contributed to this report.

Palestinian children scrape a pot for leftover food after all meals were distributed at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on Friday, May 9, 2025.2025-05-10T14:07:05Z DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza City (AP) Israeli airstrikes overnight and into Saturday killed at least 23 Palestinians in Gaza, including three children and their parents whose tent was bombed in Gaza City, health officials said.The bombardment continued as international warnings grow over Israeli plans to control aid distribution in Gaza as Israels blockade on the territory of over 2 million people is in its third month.The U.N. and aid groups have rejected Israels aid distribution moves, including a plan from a group of American security contractors, ex-military officers and humanitarian aid officials calling itself the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Among the 23 bodies brought to hospitals over the past 24 hours were those of the family of five whose tent was struck in Gaza Citys Sabra district, Gazas Health Ministry said.Another Israeli strike late Friday hit a warehouse belonging to UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, in the northern area of Jabaliya. Four people were killed, according to the Indonesian Hospital, where bodies were taken. AP video showed fires burning in the shattered building. The warehouse was empty after being hit and raided multiple times during Israeli ground offensives against Hamas fighters over the past year, said residents including Hamza Mohamed. Israels military said nine soldiers were lightly wounded Friday night by an explosive device while searching Gaza Citys Shijaiyah neighborhood. It said they were evacuated to a hospital in Israel. Israel resumed its bombardment in Gaza on March 18, shattering a two-month ceasefire with Hamas. Ground troops have seized more than half the territory and have been conducting raids and searching parts of northern Gaza and the southernmost city of Rafah. Large parts of both areas have been flattened by months of Israeli operations.Under Israels blockade, charity kitchens are virtually the only source of food left in Gaza, but dozens have shut down in recent days as food supplies run out. Aid groups say more closures are imminent. Israel has said the blockade is meant to pressure Hamas to release remaining hostages and disarm. Rights groups have called the blockade a starvation tactic and a potential war crime. Israel accuses Hamas and other militants of siphoning off aid in Gaza, though it hasnt presented evidence for its claims. The U.N. denies significant diversion takes place, saying it monitors distribution.The 19-month-old war in Gaza is the most devastating ever fought between Israel and Hamas. It has killed more than 52,800 people there, more than half of them women and children, and wounded more than 119,000, according to the Health Ministry. The ministrys count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. Israel says it has killed thousands of militants, without giving evidence.Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel in which militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped over 250 others. Hamas still holds about 59 hostages, with around a third believed to still be alive.___Follow APs war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

2025-05-10T13:54:33Z ATLANTA (AP) An earthquake of 4.1 preliminary magnitude was reported Saturday morning in Tennessee and was felt in Atlanta, Georgia, and western North Carolina, according to the U.S. Geological Survey and local news reports.The website for USGS said the earthquake originated shortly after 9 a.m. EDT about 12 miles (20 kilometers) from Greenback, Tennessee, which is about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Knoxville.Meteorologists at television news stations serving Georgia and North Carolina reported feeling the tremors as well.

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New Orleans Saints quarterback Derek Carr (4) looks to pass the ball during an NFL football game against the New York Giants, Dec. 8, 2024, in East Rutherford, N.J. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger, File)2025-05-10T15:12:27Z NEW ORLEANS (AP) New Orleans Saints veteran starting quarterback Derek Carr has decided to retire because of a labral tear in his right shoulder and significant degenerative changes to his rotator cuff, the team announced Saturday.Carr, 34, has played for 11 pro seasons since being selected out of Fresno State by the then-Oakland Raiders in the second round of the 2014 NFL draft.He was acquired by the Saints as a free agent in 2023 but had mixed results in New Orleans, going 14-13 as a starter while struggling through oblique, hand and head injuries that caused him to miss seven games last season.Carr, who was entering the third year of a four-year, $150 million contract, experienced unexpected pain in his throwing shoulder when he began to ramp up training this offseason, which led to his diagnosis that now has cut short his career. Surgery was an option, jeopardizing the entire 2025 season, yet there was no guarantee Derek would return to the level of strength, function and performance of play to which he was accustomed, the Saints said in a written announcement.The Saints did not acknowledge Carrs injury until the day before the draft. Carr did not speak publicly about the injury until a few days later, when he delivered a guest sermon at a Las Vegas church. In that sermon, Carr said his critics were lying about him when they questioned the unusual timing of the injury, as well as both the teams and Carrs initial reticence to address it openly or answer questions about it. Carr has career passing totals of 41,245 yards, 257 touchdowns and 112 interceptions. He retires with a 77-92 regular-season record as a starter and without having won a playoff game. Carr said he made the decision in consultation with his wife, Heather, and upon reflection of prayer.For more than 11 years, we have been incredibly blessed, and we are forever grateful and humbled by this experience, Carr said. Its difficult to find the right words to express our thanks to all the teammates, coaches, management, ownership, team officials and especially the fans who made this journey so special. The decision also comes after New Orleans used a high second-round draft choice to select Louisvilles Tyler Shough as a potential future starting quarterback although it remains to be seen how quickly he can be ready for that role.Other QBs on the Saints roster include second-year pro Spencer Rattler and third-year player Jake Haener, who did post a victory between them in seven games last season, six of which Rattler started.___AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

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