Elected officials in New York and California are trying to upend President Trumps deportation campaign by banning law enforcement officers from wearing masks in public.

Experts fear that the presidents economic policies could increase costs and stifle innovation.

Phoenix Suns superstar Devin Booker has agreed to a two-year, $145 million maximum contract extension with the franchise through the 2029-30 season, the highest annual extension salary in NBA history, CAA's Jessica Holtz and Melvin Booker told ESPN.

Champions Point requires guests to stay a minimum of seven days and pay a $25,000 security deposit.

A senior Homeland Security official testified in court on Wednesday that his department had relied in part on an anonymously compiled list to identify foreign academics for investigation.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio talks about countering China as it expands its global influence. But President Trumps tariff threats have created friction with U.S. partners.

Nature, Published online: 10 July 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-02177-7SciArena uses votes by researchers to evaluate large language models responses on technical topics.

Lionel Messi added another record to his list of career achievements as he scored a pair of goals to lead Inter Miami CF to a 2-1 win over the New England Revolution.

Frank Layden, who led the Jazz to their first playoff appearance and was part of the front office that selected John Stockton and Karl Malone, has died.

Tensions between the United States and Brazil have suddenly burst open. Brazils president promised to reciprocate against President Trumps tariffs.

An industrial tunnel in the citys Wilmington neighborhood collapsed, leaving workers trapped inside.

The two leaders are set to confirm details of a strengthened defense relationship at a summit Thursday. An agreement on tackling unauthorized migration may also be announced.

In a new genetic study, scientists have charted the rise of 214 human diseases across ancient Europe and Asia.

Real Madrid will start next season from scratch, manager Xabi Alonso said, after a 4-0 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain in the Club World Cup semifinal.

Paris Saint-Germain manager Luis Enrique will hope to count on striker Ousmane Dembl for Sunday's Club World Cup finale against Chelsea, after a stunning 4-0 thrashing over Real Madrid in the tournament's penultimate stage.

USMNT striker Damion Downs has joined Southampton from FC Cologne on a four-year deal.

Former Olympic wrestler and MMA star Ben Askren, who has been hospitalized in Wisconsin after a severe case of pneumonia, said in a post on social media Wednesday that he had undergone a double lung transplant and is in recovery.

A hundred years later, many religious Americans in rural areas still feel that the cosmopolitan leaders of the Democratic Party look down on them.

Nature, Published online: 10 July 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09305-3Extreme river flood exposes latent erosion risk

by Cassandra Jaramillo and Jeremy Kohler ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as theyre published. Texas health officials are overhauling a program designed to steer people away from abortion following a ProPublica and CBS News investigation that found that the state had funneled tens of millions of taxpayer dollars into the effort while providing little oversight of the spending.The money has been flowing to a network of nonprofit organizations that are part of Thriving Texas Families, a state program that supports parenting and adoption as alternatives to abortion and provides counseling, material assistance and other services. Most of the groups operate as crisis pregnancy centers, or pregnancy resource centers, which often resemble medical clinics but are frequently criticized for offering little or no actual health care and misleading women about their options.In its 20 years of existence, the programs funding has grown fortyfold reaching $100 million a year starting Sept. 1 making it the most heavily funded effort of its kind in the country.Under new rules set to take effect then, the organizations in the program must now document all of their expenses, and they will be reimbursed only for costs tied to services approved by the state. And they cannot seek reimbursement when they redistribute donated items, an effort to prevent taxpayer money from going to organizations for goods they got for free.Meanwhile, Texas is opening administration of the program to a competitive selection process instead of automatically renewing agreements with contractors, including one contractor that has overseen most of the program for nearly two decades.The changes address failures uncovered a year ago by the ProPublica/CBS News investigation. As Thriving Texas Families currently operates, most providers are paid a flat rate for each service they claim to provide, regardless of the actual cost of that service. As a result, a single client visit can generate multiple stacked charges, significantly increasing the amount of public money being spent. In some cases, providers billed separately for each item or service given to a client such as diapers, baby clothes, blankets, wipes, snacks and even educational pamphlets according to records reviewed by ProPublica and CBS News.That arrangement allowed organizations to bill the state for more than the services actually cost to provide and keep the difference. One group, Sealy Pregnancy Resource Center, more than quintupled its assets in three years by banking some reimbursements. Its executive director, Patricia Penner, acknowledged the practice, saying her goal was to make sure we have enough for this center to continue and to continue for the years to come. Theres no guarantee the funds we receive is going to be sufficient to keep the center going, Penner added, and its my duty as a director to ensure we are taking whatever service funds we are receiving to ensure we can take care of these young ladies when they come in the door.Two others, McAllen Pregnancy Center and Pregnancy Center of the Coastal Bend in Corpus Christi, used reimbursements to finance real estate deals. The McAllen center, which receives nearly all its revenue from the state, bought a building that had previously housed an abortion clinic. The Coastal Bend center openly acknowledged using state funds to buy land for a new facility. The centers did not respond to questions.In San Antonio, Thriving Texas Families cut off funding to a pregnancy center known as A New Life for a New Generation after a local news outlet reported it had spent taxpayer money on vacations, on a motorcycle and to fund a smoke shop business owned by its president and CEO. The center did not respond to a request for comment.ProPublica and CBS News also found that state health officials had no visibility into what services were being delivered or whether they were reaching the people most in need. In many cases, the state reimbursed providers $14 each time they handed out donated goods or materials, regardless of their cost or how they got them.That included distributing pamphlets on parenting, fetal development and adoption, which could trigger the same reimbursement as providing tangible aid like diapers or formula. The state could not say exactly how much it had spent on these materials because it did not track what was being distributed.State-approved pamphlets and lessons reviewed by a reporter stated inaccuracies such as that a fetal heartbeat starts 21 days after conception and painted single motherhood as risky and lonely, with marriage or adoption as better options. While flat-rate reimbursement is sometimes used in government contracting, nonprofit and accounting experts said applying it to the distribution of donated goods without clear standards for quantity or value was highly irregular.Officials with the state Health and Human Services Commission, which oversees Thriving Texas Families, did not say what prompted the policy shift, only that it was following guidance from the state comptroller. That guidance recommends awarding state grants as reimbursements for actual expenses.The state has long allowed its main contractor, Texas Pregnancy Care Network, to handle most of the programs oversight. The network told the news organizations last year that once state funds were passed to subcontractors, it is no longer taxpayer money and those groups were free to spend it as they saw fit. HHSC pushed back against the network, saying it still considered the money to be taxpayer dollars and expected it to be used in line with state guidelines.The shift to a cost-reimbursement model appears to bring the program more in line with how public money is typically distributed across state agencies in Texas.Texas Pregnancy Care Network, which in recent years has received nearly 75% of the Thriving Texas Families funding and distributed it to dozens of crisis pregnancy centers, faith-based groups and other charities that serve as subcontractors, did not respond to questions about how it plans to approach the new contract or adapt to the stricter reimbursement rules.State Rep. Donna Howard, a Democrat from Austin and a vocal critic of the states support for anti-abortion programs, said in an interview that while she opposes taxpayer support for anti-abortion programs, she sees the new rules as a step in the right direction.But with the new reimbursement requirements in place, Howard questioned whether many of the centers would even be able to make use of the funding. Unlike the previous flat-fee system, providers must now track costs, document services and submit receipts to justify their spending. Who knows if they can actually use the funds now that they have to show receipts, she said.By requiring pregnancy centers to track clients income, education level and employment and to provide clients with information about public benefits available to them the state is moving away from a system that allowed nonprofits to collect funds without regard for who was receiving help.Pregnancy resource centers and anti-abortion activists lobbied Republican lawmakers to block the policy change during the most recent legislative session, and some publicly denounced it.On the social media platform X, Rep. Jeff Leach, a Republican from the northern Dallas suburbs, urged the agency to not give veto power over the program to biased media reporters. Leach did not respond to requests for comment.In an interview, Texas Right to Life President John Seago warned that the new reimbursement model would discourage participation. He said it was not worth small providers getting into the program because of all the red tape.And in written testimony, Penner, from Sealy, implored legislators to preserve the current model, saying it allowed her team to focus on serving our clients rather than staffing up in order to handle the paperwork required for reimbursement.Despite the pushback, lawmakers did not take action to block the new rules.Ge Bai, a professor of accounting and health policy at Johns Hopkins University, said switching to a cost-reimbursement system could help prevent waste by making sure organizations only get paid for what they actually spend.But she warned that this model has its own risks. Since providers know they will be reimbursed, they might not be as careful about keeping costs down or could even inflate their expenses to get more money. She pointed to Medicare, which used a similar system in the past but abandoned it after costs spiraled out of control.To avoid the same problem, she said, the program will need strong public oversight to make sure organizations arent overspending just because they know the state will cover the bill.One reproductive health policy specialist who has closely tracked Texas spending on crisis pregnancy centers cautioned that the reforms do little to address the broader gaps in the states social safety net.You cant really make up for a lack of Medicaid health insurance for the very poor in Texas by giving people educational services, pamphlets and diapers, said Laura Dixon, a researcher with Resound Research for Reproductive Health, based in Austin.But at the very least, she said, understanding where money is going is a really good first step for this program.

Kyiv was the main target of an hourslong assault that killed at least two people, officials said. The barrage came hours before the top American and Russian diplomats were expected to meet.

Other people might note his alien-ness and quickly forget it, but I couldnt unsee it. And because I couldnt unsee his, I couldnt unsee mine.

The rise of a toxic online politics.

Trump administration officials say that the term refers to assassination, but lexicologists say it emerged from diner slang.

Subscribe nowIn a recent sermon titled Pray the Gay Away inside Indianapolis Sure Foundation Baptist Church, church leader Stephen Falco said the LGBTQ community should be ashamed of themselves and die. Theres nothing good to be proud about being a f*ggot. You ought to blow yourself in the head in the back of the head. Youre so disgusting, Falco said during the Churchs Mens Preaching Night.Shortly after, Brother Wayne from the Church doubled down on its desire to execute gay people, stating, I think they should be put to death. These people should be beaten and stomped in the mud, and then they should take a gun and blow the back of their heads off.We posted this on our Instagram and folks from all over started weighing in, outraged andin some casesconfused about how this level of hate speech isnt illegal in the U.S.Screengrabs of some of our Instagram followers remarks.These comments got me thinking is this definitely not illegal? In Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and Germany, hate speech is restricted.However, in the U.S., hate speech is legally protected under freedom of speech laws. That means you can call someone a f*ggot or any horrific racial or antisemitic slur without facing legal repercussions. There are exceptions, including if something is considered a true threat where the speaker is knowingly causing someone to fear for their safety or if they use fighting words intended to provoke a violent reaction.But even then, there is still a high bar that would make the speech illegal in the eyes of a court. For a true threat, a judge will consider what the speaker intended; whether they knew how their speech would affect the receiver; whether they could reasonably carry out the threat; and how the receiver reacted.I reached out to a lawyer friend about the Churchs horrific remarks and he said that while the quote is dancing on the line of hate speech, he thinks the courtsand in particular the current conservative Supreme Courtwould likely rule that it wasnt a serious call to violence but rather a political statement.So what do you guys think? What should be done when someone is this vitriolic, hateful, threatening and abusive toward LGBTQ people?Subscribe for LGBTQ-focused, accountability journalism.NIH Halts Black Infant Health Study Amid DEI Controversy (The Cincinnati Herald)The study, which focused on how stress associated with racism and poverty might alter gene function and contribute to adverse birth outcomes, lost its funding under a new NIH directive targeting research areas deemed inconsistent with national priorities.Democratic Governor Vetoes Anti-Trans Measure Passed by Republican Legislature (LGBTQ Nation)"My faith teaches me that we are all children of God," Gov. Josh Stein said as he vetoed the measure.Church Stands by Call to Execute Gay People: I Will Not Apologize for Preaching the Word of God. (LGBTQ Nation)A men's night sermon said gay people should "blow yourself in the back of the head."Trumps Tax Law by the Numbers: $1 Trillion Less for Medicaid, $75 Billion More for ICE (The 19th)The new law extends tax breaks for the wealthy, slashes Medicaid and food aid and expands immigration enforcement threatening health care, nutrition and safety nets for millions.Subscribe nowWeve passed 10,000 subscribers! Thank you for being part of this amazing milestone. Your support and readership mean everything to us. Were just getting started, and we need you with us to keep the momentum going. Stay tuned! Well be celebrating 10K strong in your inbox very soon!Over the next week, be on the lookout for new Uncloseted reporting: The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline recently discontinued Option 3, a call menu route once dedicated to specialized support for LGBTQ youth. While the broader crisis line remains active, the closure has raised alarms among mental health professionals, advocates and those who relied on the unique services it offered. We investigate why Option 3 was shut down, who is most affected and what the decision reveals about the state of mental health support systems in the U.S. Alex Byrne, an MIT philosophy professor with connections to at least one Southern Poverty Law Center-designated hate group and no experience with gender medicine, recently came forward as one of the authors for the Trump administrations controversial HHS report on pediatric gender dysphoria. We spoke with MIT students and others who know Prof. Byrne to hear about how this revelation has rocked the department.Thanks for reading! Feel free to email me with questions, complaints and story ideas! Spencer Macnaughton, Editor-In-Chief spencer@unclosetedmedia.comIf objective, nonpartisan, rigorous, LGBTQ-focused journalism is important to you, please consider making a tax-deductible donation through our fiscal sponsor, Resource Impact, by clicking this button:Donate to Uncloseted Media

The HBO Max series Six Is Not a Crowd kicks off with a classic rom-com setup: a wedding, a meet-cute, a spark. Dami (Nicols Furtado), a lifelong monogamist, meets Caro (Delfina Chaves). They go on a date, and when things seem to be heading down the usual boy-meets-girl path, Caro casually introduces her other boyfriend and girlfriend. Cue the dramatic lightning strike. No, really. "We are polyamorous," she says, just as a bolt splits the sky. It's a moment the show's creators call a deliberate nod to the shock factor, but not for shock's sake.Instead, Six Is Not a Crowd (originally Felices los 6) uses its surprises to spark conversation. Created by Argentine writers Tessie Sills and Javier Rozenwasser, the series leans into familiar rom-com tropesthink Friends or early Apatowbut evolves them into something rarely seen on screen: a romantic comedy where polyamory isn't a punchline, but the emotional center.I've seen shows toy with non-monogamy before, but usually with a wink and a jab. Take Netflix's The Four Seasons, released last month. In one scene, the married characters of Jack (Will Forte) and Kate (Tina Fey) stroll through their old college town, reminiscing, when Kate asks whether the next generation is "just going to give up on marriage?" Jack's response? "People like to say they're poly or not into labels, but even in a throuple someone's gotta clean the air fryer." In the season finale, Kate turns to Jack and declares, "You're my soulmate"a tidy return to monogamous tradition. All is right with the world again. It's a common pattern: polyamory is entertained, briefly, before the narrative restores the status quo.That's why Six Is Not a Crowd is so refreshing. It doesn't just flirt with ethical non-monogamy; it lives there. And for the first time, I saw myself as a bi person in queer relationships reflected on screen with care, complexity, and warmth.According to the creators, that was intentional. "Unfortunately, we're still at a point where we need idealized versions in order to push back against the decades of stigmatizing portrayals of non-monogamous and queer relationships in mainstream media," Sills explains to me from her home in Buenos Aires.As a bi, ethically non-monogamous woman herself, Sills co-wrote Six Is Not a Crowd with her then-partner Rozenwasser. "At that time, we were a non-monogamous couple questioning the traditional relationship escalator. We needed a story that reflected a different way to love, and we set out to write it."Rozenwasser grew up watching romantic comedies. "They filled me with hope about 'finding true love.' But I gradually started to ask myself if the concept of finding 'the one and only' was, in fact, the only way to find love."That question planted the seed for Six is Not a Crowd. By drawing on research into ethical non-monogamy and bringing Sofa Wilhelmi onto the writing team, the creators built a world where love triangles aren't a source of conflictthey're the destination.By turning the classic rom-com formula on its head, the series unlocks something honest. At the end of episode 4, Dami finds himself caught between his partner Caro and his monogamous ex Romina, in the exact kind of scene we'd expect in a more traditional love storyexcept, in this scenario, the tension comes from clashing expectations. Caro drops by while Romina's over. "Are you with someone right now?" Caro asks, then cheerfully adds, "You should've kicked me out."Caro knows Dami's dating other people. There's no problem there. The issue is Damiflailing in old patternsdishonestly introduces Caro to Romina as just "a friend.""We were raised in Dami's worldas were most of the potential viewers of the series," Rozenwasser points out. "And even if we could say the 'world is changing' and that 'everyone is more open nowadays,' we knew that it isn't completely true and that there would be an interesting and funny story in the clash of those worlds."This cultural friction is precisely where the show's emotional core lies. The drama hinges on Dami's struggle to communicate across relational paradigms within a society that is still largely structured around heteronormative monogamy. We see this theme play out in other moments. After a threesome with his partner Caro and her girlfriend, a traditional sitcom might cut to Dami bragging in a locker room, surrounded by bro-ish jokes and high-fives. But Six Is Not a Crowd goes in the opposite direction.On an indoor soccer field, Dami tries to explain to his friends what that night meant to him. He's earnest, even reverent: "There was a lot of foreplay. I was there, but I wasn't there." As the music swells, he recalls with a smile, "I didn't know I had so many sensitive parts of my body."His monogamous friends, predictably, don't get it. "Did you fuck?" a friend asks. "Technicallyno," Dami admits. "But it was better."The scene mines the tension between emotional vulnerability and performative masculinity for laughs. It's not mocking Dami for feeling something; it's asking why we're still so bad at talking about sex. Yet Six Is Not a Crowd isn't here to teach us how to negotiate triad dynamics or draft a relationship agreement. It's not a polyamory how-to guide. Instead, it offers something far more generous: a space to laugh, cry, and reflect on what we actually want from intimate relationships.Through a refreshingly diverse cast of poly characterssome queer, some straightthe show widens the lens on how we connect, how we fail, and how we keep showing up for one another anyway. It allows love to multiply, sidestepping the familiar playbook that resolves love into a single tidy equation between two people. As Rozenwasser explains, the show is asking, "What if the love of your life had other loves of their lives?"As for what comes next? Neither creator would spill details, but hinted that there may be more to explore. "Once you've written characters that defy traditional relationship norms, it's pretty hard to go back to thinking of monogamy-exclusive movies or series," Rozenwasser concedes. In the meantime, their hopes for the series are clear. "I hope people walk away with a little more compassion, curiosity, and willingness to talk," Rozenwasser notes."And I hope viewers see that love and commitment don't have to look just one way," Sills adds. "I wish I'd seen more stories where having feelings outside of a relationship didn't mean you were broken, untrustworthy, or destined to silence part of yourself just to fit into society. I wish I'd understood earlier that desire doesn't have to follow just one path. For the future, I'd love to see more joyful, contradictory characters who live outside the box and are still taken seriously."If Six is Not a Crowd is any indication, that future isn't far off.Perspectives is dedicated to featuring a wide range of inspiring personal stories and impactful opinions from the LGBTQ+ and Allied community. Visit pride.com/submit to learn more about submission guidelines. We welcome your thoughts and feedback on any of our stories. Email us at voices@equalpride.com. Views expressed in Perspectives stories are those of the guest writers, columnists and editors, and do not directly represent the views of PRIDE.com or our parent company, equalpride.

Nature, Published online: 10 July 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09366-4Author Correction: Spatial immune scoring system predicts hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence

Nature, Published online: 10 July 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09356-6Author Correction: Genome-wide CRISPR screen in human T cells reveals regulators of FOXP3

Plus, where curry meets quesadillas.

The N.I.H. has terminated hundreds of diversity grants awarded to young scientists, many of whom come from the very places that supported Trump.

At least 120 people have died and some 173 people remain unaccounted for statewide, nearly a week after flash floods ravaged the Texas Hill Country.

Representative Adriano Espaillat, the most powerful Latino leader in New York City, will back Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic candidate for mayor.

The founders of the initiative, the States Forum, say they hope to extend successful Democratic policies across states and even to the national level.

Nature, Published online: 09 July 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-02186-6A dissolvable malaria drug formulated specifically for infants will soon be available in parts of Africa. Plus, biologically inspired high fashion hits the runway in Paris and whether anyone truly understands quantum physics.

With her junior welterweight title on the line in a legendary rivalry, the champ reflects on a life in boxing.

We handed out offseason report cards to all 32 NFL teams, factoring in signings, extensions, trades, draft picks, hirings -- you name it.

ZURICH -- Lucy Bronze has said there is no one as good as England teammate Lauren James at Euro 2025 for creating chances out of nothing.

Xabi Alonso has said Real Madrid are still looking to make additions to the squad for next season, after their defeat to Paris-Saint Germain in the Club World Cup.

Jordan Henderson's exit from Ajax has been confirmed with the England midfielder describing it as an honour "to represent this incredible institution."

A rare mosaic death mask made of jadeite and vessels in the shapes of an owl, a monkey and coati-mundi were found with the ruler.

In exchange for jailing more than 200 deportees, El Salvadors president, Nayib Bukele, has become a favorite of the Trump administration.

A survey of transit riders found that a majority have had issues with New Yorks new tap-and-go system, months before its predecessor is expected to be retired.

Flattery and pressure coupled with President Trumps growing dissatisfaction with President Vladimir V. Putin have helped build momentum for new economic punishments.

A pioneering bill would give citizens the right to demand that social media platforms remove digital forgeries of themselves.

City life means having smaller spaces, but it doesnt have to mean spaces that feel small or boring. While most of Katelyn Sailors Manhattan apartment was a colorful celebration of maximalism, her bedroom felt like a blah white box. And not even a functional one: She had to sit on the floor to do her makeup!READ MORE...

Subscribe to 404 Media to get The Abstract, our newsletter about the most exciting and mind-boggling science news and studies of the week. Scientists are searching for signs of a fifth force at the center of our galaxy that could rewrite the rules of gravity and help to resolve some fundamental mysteries in the universe, according to a recent study in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.For decades, researchers have speculated that exotic new physics could fill missing links in our current understanding of gravity, which is based on Einsteins general relativity. One idea is that a hypothetical fifth forcein addition to gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forcesknown as a Yukawa-type correction might subtly alter how gravity behaves over certain distances. A direct detection of this force could shed light on longstanding puzzles like the nature of dark matter, an unidentified substance that accounts for most mass in the universe, or the behavior of gravity at quantum scales.Now, researchers have used the advanced GRAVITY instrument at the Very Large Telescope in Chile to look for hints of this correction near the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way.The current theory of gravity is unable to explain some observations performed in the universe such as the presence of dark matter, or the expanding universe, said Arianna Foschi, a postdoctoral researcher at the Paris Observatory and an author of the new study, in an email to 404 Media.One possible explanation for this may be that the theory of gravity is not complete yet and some modifications to explain those effects are needed, she added. We looked exactly for the presence of such a modification.Whereas gravity influences objects over massive cosmic distances, the Yukawa correction is predicted to be short-ranged and undetectable in local environments, such as our planet or the solar system. However, hints of this force, if it exists, could be observable near our galaxys supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A*, a chaotic region that showcases gravity at an extreme.With that in mind, the GRAVITY collaboration trained its namesake instrument on a massive star called S2 that is very close to the supermassive black hole, orbiting it once every 16 years. Due to its proximity to the black hole, S2 has yielded many insights about gravity and general relativity, making it an attractive target for the teams hunt for a fifth force.The motion of S2, along with other stars around Sagittarius A* can be incredibly useful to check whether objects orbiting around a supermassive black hole follow the same rule as planets in the solar system, Foschi said. Observations suggest that indeed the law that makes S2 move is the same as the Earth, however there still can be modifications that cannot be seen by eye but needed to be tested.As it turned out, the instruments precise measurements did not detect a fifth force, but they did get us closer. The results narrowed down the parameters of its possible intensity, represented by the variable alpha.If before, alpha must be less than 0.01, now with our data we showed that it must be smaller than 0.003, significantly improving this constraint, Forschi said.Lorenzo Iorio, a physicist with the Italian Ministry of Education and Merit and an expert on modified theories of gravity, said in an email that the teams approach made sense in principle, but that he had some concerns with the methods. Iorio, who was not involved in the study, cited updated formulas and variables that were left out of its models, but that he said might have improved its accuracy. For instance, the models did not account for the Lense-Thirring effect, which is a relativistic phenomenon near massive objects, or the influence of the accelerations of stars near S2, among other factors.I'd say that it is an interesting study that, rather, points towards the possibilities offered by this peculiar celestial laboratory (Sagittarius A* and the S stars), Iorio said. It should be repeated more accurately.Foschi acknowledged that the variables were not included in the models, but noted that the GRAVITY observations were not yet sensitive enough to capture many of those detailsyet.An upgrade of the GRAVITY instrument is already on its way to increase the sensitivity and measure indeed these higher order effects, but we have to wait for that, she noted.We would like to extend the same analysis to data of other stars around Sagittarius A* and the improving precision of the GRAVITY instrument will help us to do so. In this way we will be able to put on even stronger constraints.To that end, the GRAVITY collaboration plans to continue gazing at the center of the galaxy for signs of a fifth force, or any other modifications to gravity.If such a force is observed, it would be an incredible breakthrough in physics, because it would modify one of the oldest physical laws we have, Foschi concluded. It would have consequences in every field of physics.Subscribe to 404 Media to get The Abstract, our newsletter about the most exciting and mind-boggling science news and studies of the week.

I am talking to Amina, an AI avatar that plays the role of a woman living in a refugee camp in Chad after she escaped violence in Sudan. Im hanging in there, yeah, Anima tells me. Its tough here in the camp, but were staying strong. I ask her how she came to be in a refugee camp. I fled my hometown of Al Junaynah in Sudan back in June 2023, due to the violence, yeah? It says. It was a terrifying journey to escape the conflict. Now Im trying to keep my kids safe and find some stability here in the camp. Its not easy but we have to keep going, right? 0:00 /2:27 1 One of my conversations with 'Amina.' Amina is an experiment, part of a pair of AI avatars created by the United Nations University Center for Policy Research (UNU-CPR), a research institution connected to the United Nations. Its one that is sure to be controversial, considering that the UN itself says a major problem facing refugees is their dehumanization for political gain or convenience. The UNU-CPR project is using an inhuman technology in an attempt to help people learn more about what they are facing. The group also tested a soldier persona called Abdalla, which simulates the behavior and decision-making patterns of an actual combatant, offering negotiators and mediators a possible tool to train for future high-stakes negotiations.The idea was to have independent academic research available to the UN, Eleanore Fournier-Tombs, a data scientist that leads a research lab at UNU-CPR focusing on AI policy, told 404 Media.Ask Amina and Ask Abdalla began as a project in an AI for Conflict Prevention class taught by Eduardo Albrecht, a professor at Columbia and a senior fellow at the UNU-CPR. According to Albrecht, he and his students designed the avatars after a classroom discussion about using AI in humanitarian work.In early tests at a workshop attended by humanitarian organizations, refugee aid groups, and nonprofits, Albrecht and Fournier-Tombs said the reactions were strong and that many were negative. Why would we want to present refugees as AI creations when there are millions of refugees who can tell their stories as real human beings? one person said, according to a writeup of the workshop. Another participant worried about reinforcing biases if interactions with refugees are done with AI agents rather than actual humans, and that the AI might sanitize or downplay real human suffering.Right now, anyone can test Anima or Abdalla and talk with them for three minutes at a time. The first is designed to create an accurate digital representation of a refugee living in a camp in Chad. The second creates a digital replica of a combatant leader in the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a group active in the southeastern part of Sudan from which many refugees are fleeing, a write up of the project says.The RSF began as groups of loose-knit militias in the early 2000s before becoming a more formal military group. Its been conducting ethnic cleansing in Darfur for years now. I asked Abadalla if the RSF is committing genocide, and it gave a generally correct, though vague answer, and not one that you would expect from the group doing the killing.The RSF has faced serious allegations of committing atrocities and acts of genocide, particularly in Darfur, including systematic killings, mass rapes, and forced displacement of specific ethnic groups, Abdalla tells me about the group its meant to represent. These acts reflect a pattern of violence aimed at terrorizing civilians, contributing to the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the region.When I spoke with them, both Albrecht and Fournier-Tombs were clear that the goal of the workshop was to spark conversation and deal with the technology now, as it is.Were not proposing these as solutions for the UN, much less UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees). Were just playing around with the concept, Albrecht said. You have to go on a date with someone to know you dont like em. 0:00 /2:59 1 One of my conversations with 'Abdalla.' Fournier-Tombs said that its important for the UN to get a handle on AI and start working through the ethical problems with it. Theres a lot of pressure everywhere, not just at the UN, to adopt AI systems to become more efficient and do more with less, she said. The promise of AI is always that it can save money and help us accomplish the missiontheres a lot of tricky ethical concerns with that.She also said that the UN cant afford to be reactive when it comes to new technology. Someones going to deploy AI agents in a humanitarian context, and its going to be with a company, and there wont be any real principles or thought, consideration, of what should be done, she said. Thats the context we presented the conversation in.Albrecht detailed how he and his students constructed Amina and Abdalla in a paper published by the UNU-CPR titled Does the United Nations Need Agents? Both the Amina and Abdalla avatars were created using HeyGen, the paper explains. HeyGen relies on OpenAIs [GPT-4o mini] to animate the video avatars, and allows for linking via [Retrieval-Augmented Generation] to an external database where the knowledge bases curated by the anthropologist agent are uploaded.One of Albrechts concerns was accuracy. So he tested it. This study evaluated Aminas representativeness using 20 questions drawn from four distinct surveys, none of which were included in her knowledge base: the SENS Nutritional Survey (4 questions), Post-distribution Monitoring Report of Food Assistance in Refugee Camps (3 questions), Norwegian Refugee Councils War in Sudan (8 questions) and UNHCRs Sudanese Emergency (5 questions). 40 Analysis of Aminas responses revealed that she correctly answered 16 out of 20 questions, achieving an 80 percent accuracy rate.Talking to Amina and Abdalla is a surreal experience, one anyone can experience by going to the website which Albrecht said will be live for a month after the publication of this article. Their responses feel generic and stilted, as if they were trained on UN reports about the conflict and not interviews with actual refugees. The paper admits that this is a massive limitation of the agents.It is impossible to know what information is or is not included in the training data of the LLM since commercial providers do not fully disclose the specific datasets used, the paper says. This represents a limitation in the experiment design which should be explored further.The paper also speculated how agents like these might one day be used in humanitarian work. If Amina works, her rapid responses could be of great value, it says. For example, they could be used to quickly make a case to donors (often in very different locations and with very little time) on what population needs to be prioritized when earmarking aid to the region. If Abdalla works, his responses could help negotiators and mediators prepare for more targeted real-world engagement.Again, people who attended the UNU-CPR workshop and interacted with Amina pushed back against the idea that AI avatars should be used to communicate with donors. Participants noted that refugees are very capable of speaking for themselves in real life, the paper said.Albrecht knows that AI systems, especially LLMs, are encoded with the biases of their creators. Lets say an NGO is conducting a needs assessment, in part, utilizing these agentic systems. What kind of knowledge would that target population know about how such a system is used? How are they informed? Most importantly, do they have the power to reject or accept the use of these tools and their outcomes? he said. Because if youre making decisions towards a population based, in part, on the outcome of these agentic systemsyoure very directly cutting out the agency of that population you are purporting to help.The goal of the experiment, Albrecht said, was always to provoke an emotional reaction and start a conversation about these ethical concerns.You create a kind of straw man to see how people attack it and understand its vulnerabilities.

Last month I put down $100 to pre-order the Trump Organizations forthcoming mobile phone, the T1. Or, I tried to. As I wrote at the time, the website went to an error page, charged my credit card the wrong amount of $64.70, and sent a confirmation email saying I would receive another confirmation email when my order had been shipped, but I hadnt provided a shipping address.I was surprised then to see another two charges on my card from Trump Mobile on Thursday, for $100 and $64.70 respectively. I did not expect or authorize these charges and will be trying to get my money back, if they go through (theyre currently pending). I dont know when I will get my phone. I also dont know how to make the charges to my credit card stop because other parts of the (since updated) website also return errors and the customer service number I called on the website couldnt help either.At first, the Trump Mobile phone pre-order process was bumbling. The company is now charging my card again and I have no idea why.The two charges, which happened a couple of hours apart, are listed as coming from Trump Mobile (888) Trump 888-8786745 FL.In an attempt to find out why I was issued these charges, and to make them stop, I logged into my account on Trump Mobiles website. This wasnt possible when I first ordered the phone because the site kept erroring. On Thursday, I updated my password, logged in, and was greeted with the following message:Were glad to have you here. You can activate your line, port in your number, add another line, or check your account using the menu on the left.Maybe the charges were because Trump Mobile also signed me up for its cellphone plan? I clicked an Activate Line button on the left hand side of the screen to check. That returned an error page. Another button gave instructions on how to activate your Trump Mobile SIM card, if you did sign up to the service. I have not received any such SIM card in the mail.On its website, Trump Mobile describes The 47 Plan as an unlimited talk, text, and data bundle for $47.45 a month. The deal also includes telehealth access and requires no contract, according to the website.Some readers might notice $47.45, the price of the plan, is a different number to $64.70, one of the charges on my card, indicating I am, maybe, not being charged for this cellphone plan. Meaning I am no closer to knowing why the Trump Organization is trying to take my money.I then went to the settings inside my account to see if I could cancel the recurring charge. There, next to my email address, was a phone number. I have never seen this phone number before in my life. I did not choose it, and I have never used it. I presume Trump Mobile assigned it to me. But again, I paid only to pre-order the T1 Phone, not for the companys cellphone plan.I then called the Customer Service team number listed on the Trump Mobile website under the Support section to ask them what these charges were. They said they couldnt help. Instead I had to contact the customer support team, which is not the same thing apparently. The Customer Service team I had phoned could only answer questions about the service and not discuss my charges. I then emailed the customer support team and am waiting to hear back.Here is what the T1 Phone page looked like when I ordered the phone. It doesnt say anything about people pre-ordering the phone also being signed up to the cellphone plan. It does, however, say By checking this box, you authorize Trumpmobile.com to charge your card on a recurring basis. But provides no indication of what this charge might be. I certainly didnt expect one.That webpage has since changed. It now says you can be the first to get the phone when you pay for your first month of Trump Mobile service and shipping and handling fee. But it adds youll only be charged $100 today. It is not at all clear what people will be charged, what exactly for, or when. I am still yet to receive any sort of email indicating my phone is on the way, and still haven't been asked to provide a shipping address.This sort of deceptive behaviour is usually something the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) might investigate. The Trump administration fired nearly 1,500 CFPB employees after coming into power. In April a judge ordered a halt to those planned firings. The Supreme Court ruled this week that President Trump can broadly move forward with mass firings across the government.The Trump Organization did not respond to a request for comment asking about the charges and whether it will give me my money back if the charges do go through.When announcing the phone, the Trump Organization said the T1 Phone will be made in America. The site now says the T1 Phone features an American-Proud Design.

Out Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) slammed conservative CNN commentator Scott Jennings who complained that people who receive Medicaid the joint federal-state health care program for people with low incomes just dont want to work. It also includes work requirements for people who choose not to work, Jennings said, saying that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says that five million people on Medicaid simply choose not to work. This is not true; the CBO did not say that. Related Rep. Ritchie Torres: No, the GOP isnt becoming more LGBTQ+-inclusive He calls such claims absurd and says the GOP is more interested in tokenism than actually supporting queer equality. The percentage of people who choose not to work is less than 1% of all enrollees, Torres responded. The non-working population is mostly students and caregivers. Youre misrepresenting the nature of that population. Insights for the LGBTQ+ community Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more. Subscribe to our Newsletter today Republicans want to encourage people to work, you want to encourage people to be government dependent, Jennings said. The camera turned to host Abby Phillip as she closed the segment, but Torres voice could still be heard, speaking off-camera.The caregivers are working much harder than you are, Torres shot back at Jennings. Jennings: It also includes work requirements for people who choose not to work.Torres: The nonworking population is mostly students and caregivers. Jennings: You want to encourage people to work Torres: The caregivers are working much harder than you are pic.twitter.com/DgkcbK30vx Acyn (@Acyn) July 10, 2025The panel was discussing cuts to Medicaid included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a Republican bill that the president signed into law this past Friday. According to the Center for American Progress, the bill cuts Medicaid and CHIP a health care program for children by over a trillion dollars and will take away health care from over 10 million people in the next decade. Almost 40% of children receive health care coverage under Medicaid.Republicans have argued that the people who will lose health care coverage are just choosing to not work, in the words of Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), but many of the people who will lose coverage actually have jobs but those jobs dont offer health benefits or pay enough for workers to afford health care.Jennings claim that nearly five million people receiving Medicaid coverage choose not to work comes from a CBO analysis that found that 4.8 million Medicaid recipients would lose coverage due to work requirements put in place by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, even though experts say that many of them would already be in compliance with those requirements. Able-bodied Medicaid recipients between the ages of 19 and 64 without dependents would have to work 80 hours every month, and that work would need to be verified for the previous one to three months by the state. This verification would occur at least twice a year. The CBOs estimate of 4.8 million people losing coverage included the people who would have trouble documenting and completing the necessary administrative work to prove that they met the work requirement.Moreover, a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis of the 26 million working-age adults receiving Medicaid who dont receive Social Security disability benefits found that nearly two-thirds are working full-time or part-time. The reasons the rest werent working included caregiving (12%); illness or disability (10%); inability to find work, retirement, and other reasons (8%); and school attendance (7%).Jennings has cited the five million number in the past, and Politifact rated it False. Politifact talked to Harvard University health care economics professor Benjamin Sommers, who said that many of the 4.8 million people who will lose coverage will do so because they are not able to navigate the reporting requirements with the state and lose coverage from red tape.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

Three Oregon high schoolers have filed a federal lawsuit accusing three school districts and state entities of violating Title IX a federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in federally funded educational programs by allowing transgender female athletes to compete in girls and womens sports. The lawsuit demands that trans female athletes be banned and their past achievements be wiped from the record, claiming that trans girls have unfair and discriminatory physiological advantages over cisgender girls, HuffPost reported.The lawsuit, which was filed by the America First Policy Institute, a transphobic conservative think-tank founded by various members of the current presidential administration, states that trans female athletes or biological males, as the lawsuit calls them undermines the very purpose of sex-segregated competition intended to provide equal opportunities for females. As proof, the lawsuit notes that two trans girls have set season records in track and field, despite previously failing to do so against cis male athletes. Related How did the trans sports debate become such a hot topic this election season? Nonbinary ESPN journalist Katie Barnes discusses what the trans sports debate reveals about gender bias in the U.S.. The lawsuit echoes transphobic rhetoric and reasoning used by the current president. This past February, the president signed an executive order to block federal funding for schools that allow trans girls and women to participate in school sports as their authentic selves, and the order told the Department of Justice to prosecute schools that allow trans students to play sports. Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today The Department of Educations Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has threatened to launch investigations into states that allow trans female athletes to compete, claiming they violate prohibitions against sex-based discrimination under Title IX.President Joe Bidens administration interpreted Title IX as banning anti-trans discrimination since its impossible to discriminate on the basis of gender identity without taking sex into account. That is, banning trans girls from playing school sports but not cis girls, solely because of their sex assigned at birth, is the kind of discrimination that Title IX was intended to prevent, the previous administration believed.The current administration is arguing that allowing trans girls to play school sports takes away critical visibility for college scholarships and recognition from cis girls, who are also denied awards if trans girls win, the lawsuit states. In March, the Department of Educations Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced its investigation into Portland Public Schools, the states largest school district, and the Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA), the states governing body for high school sports. The OCR alleges that OSAA and the district violated Title IX by allowing a trans teen at Leodis V. McDaniel High School to compete with other girls and access the girls locker room. The DOEspress releaseannouncing the investigation misgenders the student-athlete throughout.In a statement, Portland Public Schools superintendent Kimberlee Armstrong said that the district is cooperating with the departments investigation. I stand firm in our legal responsibilities, and I deeply value every students right to be treated with dignity, safety, and respect, Armstrong said, adding that the district is in full compliance with Oregon state law, which may differ from federal guidance.Oregon law prohibits schools from categorically banning trans students from participating in school sports. The state Education Departments2023 Supporting Gender Expansive Studentsguidance says, Questions about individual sports eligibility or protocols should be directed to the applicable governing association. The OSAA, meanwhile, has allowed trans student-athletes to participate on teams that align with their gender identity since 2019.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.