Student Audreanna Johnson views her cell phone near a cell phone locker at Ronald McNair Sr. High School, Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)2025-08-21T03:45:42Z Jamel Bishop is seeing a big change in his classrooms as he begins his senior year at Doss High School in Louisville, Kentucky, where cellphones are now banned during instructional time.In previous years, students often werent paying attention and wasted class time by repeating questions, the teenager said. Now, teachers can provide more one-on-one time for the students who actually need it.Kentucky is one of 17 states and the District of Columbia starting this school year with new restrictions, bringing the total to 35 states with laws or rules limiting phones and other electronic devices in school. This change has come remarkably quickly: Florida became the first state to pass such a law in 2023.Both Democrats and Republicans have taken up the cause, reflecting a growing consensus that phones are bad for kids mental health and take their focus away from learning, even as some researchers say the issue is less clear-cut. Anytime you have a bill thats passed in California and Florida, you know youre probably onto something thats pretty popular, Georgia state Rep. Scott Hilton, a Republican, told a forum on cellphone use last week in Atlanta. Phones are banned throughout the school day in 18 of the states and the District of Columbia, although Georgia and Florida impose such bell-to-bell bans only from kindergarten through eighth grade. Another seven states ban them during class time, but not between classes or during lunch. Still others, particularly those with traditions of local school control, mandate only a cellphone policy, believing districts will take the hint and sharply restrict phone access. Students see pros and consFor students, the rules add new school-day rituals, like putting phones in magnetic pouches or special lockers. Students have been locking up their phones during class at McNair High School in suburban Atlanta since last year. Audreanna Johnson, a junior, said most of them did not want to turn in their phones at first, because students would use them to gossip, texting their other friends in other classes to see whats the tea and whats going on around the building. That resentment is starting to ease down now, she said. More students are willing to give up their phones and not get distracted.But there are drawbacks like not being able to listen to music when working independently in class. Im kind of 50-50 on the situation because me, I use headphones to do my schoolwork. I listen to music to help focus, she said.Some parents want constant contactIn a survey of 125 Georgia school districts by Emory University researchers, parental resistance was cited as the top obstacle to regulating student use of social and digital media.Johnsons mother, Audrena Johnson, said she worries most about knowing her children are safe from violence at school. School messages about threats can be delayed and incomplete, she said, like when someone who wasnt a McNair student got into a fight on school property, which she learned about when her daughter texted her during the school day. My child having her phone is very important to me, because if something were to happen, I know instantly, Johnson said.Many parents echo this generally supporting restrictions but wanting a say in the policymaking and better communication, particularly about safety and they have a real need to coordinate schedules with their children and to know about any problems their children may encounter, said Jason Allen, the national director of partnerships for the National Parents Union.We just changed the cellphone policy, but arent meeting the parents needs in regards to safety and really training teachers to work with students on social emotional development, Allen said. Research remains in an early stageSome researchers say its not yet clear what types of social media may cause harm, and whether restrictions have benefits, but teachers love the policy, according to Julie Gazmararian, a professor of public health at Emory University who does surveys and focus groups to research the effects of a phone ban in middle school grades in the Marietta school district near Atlanta.They could focus more on teaching, Gazmararian said. There were just not the disruptions.Another benefit: More positive interactions among students. They were saying that kids are talking to each other in the hallways and in the cafeteria, she said. And in the classroom, there is a noticeably lower amount of discipline referrals.Gazmararian is still compiling numbers on grades and discipline, and cautioned that her work may not be able to answer whether bullying has been reduced or mental health improved.Social media use clearly correlates with poor mental health, but research cant yet prove it causes it, according to Munmun De Choudhury, a Georgia Tech professor who studies this issue.We need to be able to quantify what types of social media use are causing harm, what types of social media use can be beneficial, De Choudhury said. A few states reject rulesSome state legislatures are bucking the momentum. Wyomings Senate in January rejected requiring districts to create some kind of a cellphone policy after opponents argued that teachers and parents need to be responsible.And in the Michigan House in July, a Republican-sponsored bill directing schools to ban phones bell-to-bell in grades K-8 and during high school instruction time was defeated in July after Democrats insisted on upholding local control. Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, among multiple governors who made restricting phones in schools a priority this year, is still calling for a bill to come to her desk.___Associated Press writers Isabella Volmert in Lansing, Michigan, and Dylan Lovan in Louisville, Kentucky, contributed. JEFF AMY Amy covers Georgia politics and state government for The Associated Press. He began work with the AP in 2011 and covered Mississippi for eight years before transferring to the Atlanta bureau in 2019. twitter

Nature, Published online: 21 August 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-02686-5Study challenges the textbook idea that the brain region that processes body sensations reorganizes itself after limb amputation.

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The presidential administration has quietly ended federal employees insurance coverage for gender-affirming care. An LGBTQ+ legal advocacy organization called the policy not only cruel, [but] illegal.A letter sent last Friday from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management Healthcare and Insurance to insurance companies said that the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) and Postal Service Health Benefits (PSHB) Programs will no longer cover gender transition services for people of all ages starting in 2026. The letter says that insurance companies can develop an exemption process for patients currently receiving gender-affirming care on a case-by-case basis, though it doesnt specify how. Related DOJ demands private info on trans youth patients from 20 gender-affirming medical providers However, the programs will still cover counseling services for possible or diagnosed gender dysphoria, including faith-based counseling, which might be a euphemism for conversion therapy, a widely debunked pseudoscientific practice that purports to change a persons gender identity or sexual orientation.The letter also directs insurance companies not to list or otherwise recognize providers of gender-affirming care in directories of medical professionals and clinics covered by insurance, Them reported. Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today In a statement condemning the letter, the LGBTQ+ legal advocacy group Lambda Legal wrote that the policy violates constitutional protections and multiple federal anti-discrimination laws.This discriminatory policy is not only cruelit is illegal, wrote Lambda Legal Counsel and Health Care Strategist Omar Gonzalez-Pagan.The federal government cannot simply strip away essential healthcare coverage from transgender employees while providing comprehensive medical care to all other federal workers, Gonzalez-Pagan added. Beyond the fundamental equal protection guarantees enshrined in our Constitution, which prohibit such animus-laden actions, multiple federal laws also prohibit this type of discrimination. Lambda Legal pledged to explore all options to respond to the discriminatory policy and asked federal employees harmed by the policy to contact their organization.While the current presidential administration has sought to eradicate gender-affirming care for trans youth, something the administration calls chemical or surgical mutilation,this policy change is one of many that show the administrations interest in ending gender-affirming care for trans people of all ages.In January, the president issued anexecutive order(that has since beenblocked by several courts) instructing the Department of Justice to use laws against false advertising to prosecute any entity that may be misleading the public about the long-term effects of gender-affirming care. On February 7, the Department of Defense issued a memo halting gender-affirming medical procedures for adult military service members. In June, the administration finalized a rule modifying the Affordable Care Act to remove requirements that insurance providers cover gender-affirming care as an essential health benefit.Gender-affirming care is supported by all major medical associations in the U.S., including the American Medical Association, the Endocrine Society, and the American Academy of Pediatrics, as safe and life-saving for young people with gender dysphoria.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

For the longest time, Democrats have been acting as if the extraordinary, anti-democracy efforts of the Trump administration are just an extreme form of politics as usual. The thinking seems to be that Democrats will be the grown-ups in the room, while the toddler-in-chief rampages. After all, someone has to uphold the norms. But its slowly dawning on some Democrats that this isnt your usual political disagreement. Donald Trump is trying to beat his opponents into submission by intimidation, bogus investigations, and unlawful actions. He is trying to reshape the nation so that only his supporters succeed and only his viewpoint is allowed. Anythingand everyoneelse will have to bend to his will. Related The Democrats debate about trans issues is a dodge for a much deeper problem Up to now, Democrats have brought a press release to this knife fight. At last, some party members recognize that they have to engage in the same way. There are three examples that are a sign that at least some in the party are willing to go head-to-head with Republicans in a fight, The first is over redistricting. Texas Republicans, at Trumps urging, are preparing to rework the states Congressional maps outside of the normal cycle to give the GOP a boost in the midterms. (The new map would not-so-surprisingly put out lesbian Rep. Julie Johnsons seat at risk.) Democratic governors have responded to this raw power play by saying that they will respond in kind.If the other side is going to pursue this, regardless of the obvious unconstitutionality of it, then I dont think we have any other choice but to go there. You just dont go to the front lines without your bullets, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly said. Dive deeper every day Join our newsletter for thought-provoking commentary that goes beyond the surface of LGBTQ+ issues Subscribe to our Newsletter today California alone could counter Texas gerrymandering. The effort has a tight deadline and requires voter approval, but a poll taken for California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) found broad support for redrawing the maps.Newsom, who has presidential ambitions, has also opened up a second front against Trump: ridicule. He has taken to copying Trumps trademarked all-caps meandering social media posts to mock the president. It is driving the right nuts. (Newsoms act doesnt make up for his anti-trans pandering earlier this year.) Finally, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, is breaking away from other Democrats in the Senate by recognizing that bipartisanship is a fools game. As the Senate starts putting together the next budget, Murphy is refusing to participate in drafting discussions because, in his words, Trump doesnt give a f**k what we write.Murphy is right. Trump has illegally withheld money approved by Congress, and Republicans have done nothing to stop him. Why would anyone believe that reaching an agreement with the GOP majority would ever be honored? Indeed, Russell Vought, the architect of Project 2025 and head of the Office of Management and Budget, has said that he wouldnt rule out withholding more money that has already been appropriated by Congress. In other words, Congress can pass anything it wants, but Vought knows that the servile GOP will gladly renege on any agreements if Trump asks for it.Getting more aggressive is the right thing to do. Needless to say, not everyone is happy. Murphys colleagues are clearly giving him a wide berth for fear of not looking bipartisan. Weve been demanding a bipartisan process, Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) told Politico. So when theres a step in that direction, I think its our obligation to try to be constructive. For others, the issue is not copying bad tactics that harm government. The answer to rigging elections for Republicans is not rigging elections for Democrats, Nebraska state Sen. Megan Hunt (I) wrote on X. She proposes banning all gerrymandering. (Hunt, mother of a trans son, famously filibustered an anti-trans bill in 2023.)Yes, gerrymandering bad. Bipartisanship good. Unfortunately, bipartisanship is a fiction when one party wants to annihilate the other. Were in a battle about the future of democracy, and the other side isnt fighting fair. The Democrats weak response up until now has already ceded far more ground to Trump than it should have. We dont want Democrats to adopt the worst of MAGAthreatening to overturn elections or arrest political opponents. But they do have to fight to win, and that means pushing back on the right as hard as they possibly can.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

Nature, Published online: 21 August 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-02640-5Persuasive physician who brought research evidence to the heart of global policy decisions.

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Making a new house feel homey is a process: A spaces lived-in feel comes from, well, living in it. But there are little ways you can start creating cozier vibes ASAP. Individually, they might not sound like much, but together, theyll help you fall in love with your new home faster.T-Mobile 5G Home Internet can help too, with a simple 15-minute installation that keeps you seamlessly connected from day one.READ MORE...

The mother of Mohammed Al-Sukni, center, who was killed while trying to reach aid trucks, is comforted by relatives outside Shifa Hospital, before his funeral in Gaza City, Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)2025-08-21T13:06:52Z DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) Widespread opposition from within Israel and international condemnation have not deterred Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from his plan to expand the Israeli militarys operation in Gaza City. The Israeli military began calling medical officials and international organizations in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday to encourage them to evacuate the area ahead of the expanded operation. It comes the day after the military announced the call-up of 60,000 reservists and the extension of 20,000 reservists currently serving to support the expanded operation. Netanyahu is expected to give his final approval for the operation during a security cabinet meeting Thursday night, according to an official who was not authorized to speak to the media.The approval comes as at least 36 Palestinians were killed in strikes in central and southern Gaza Strip on Thursday, according to local hospitals, and people protested in Israel and Gaza. Operation in Gaza City could begin in daysAlthough Israel has targeted and killed much of Hamas senior leadership, parts of Hamas are actively regrouping and carrying out attacks, including launching rockets towards Israel, the official said.Israeli troops are already operating in the citys Zeitoun neighborhood and in Jabaliya, a refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, to prepare the groundwork for the expanded operation, which could begin within days. The planned offensive, announced earlier this month, comes during heightened international condemnation of Israels restrictions on food and medicine reaching Gaza and fears that many Palestinians will be forced to flee.United Nations chief Antonio Guterres repeated his call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Thursday as Israel prepared to launch a new assault in Gaza City and other populated areas.I must reiterate that it is vital to reach immediately a ceasefire in Gaza, and the unconditional release of all hostages to avoid the massive death and destruction that a military operation against Gaza City would inevitably cause, Guterres told a news conference on the sidelines of the 9th Tokyo International Conference on African Development hosted by Japan. Protests in Israel and GazaPeople protested against the expansion of the war in Israel and Gaza on Thursday. In Gaza City, hundreds of people gathered, waving flags and posters among destroyed buildings, rubble and tents for the displaced in a rare show of opposition against the war and forced migration. Women and children joined the protest, holding placards reading Save Gaza and Stop the war, stop the savage attack, save us, as Palestinian music played in the background.We want the war on Gaza to stop. We dont want to migrate. Twenty-two months its enough. Enough death. Enough destruction, said Bisan Ghazal, a woman displaced from the eastern part of Gaza City.We have lost more than 10% of our residents, 85% of our buildings and infrastructure and much of our cultural and historic heritage, said Amjad Al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGO Network. All of Gaza is threatened with destruction. In Israel, families of some of the 50 hostages still being held in Gaza gathered in Tel Aviv to condemn the expanded operation. Israel believes around 20 hostages are still alive.Forty-two hostages were kidnapped alive and murdered in captivity due to military pressure and delay in signing a deal, said Dalia Cusnir, whose brother-in-law, Eitan Horn, is still being held captive. Eitans brother, Iair Horn, was released during the last ceasefire. Enough to sacrifice the hostages. Enough to sacrifice the soldiers, both regular and reservists. Enough to sacrifice the evacuees. Enough to sacrifice the younger generation in the country, said Bar Goddard, the daughter of Meni Goddard, whose body is being held by Hamas. Additional protests are planned for Thursday night in Tel Aviv. Death toll in Gaza risesAt least 36 people were killed on Thursday in Gaza and the death toll from deadly strikes Wednesday in northern Gaza rose by another 39 people, Shifa hospital reported. Airstrikes killed 19 people in central Gaza, including five people attempting to get aid and eight people sheltering at schools for displaced people, according to Al Awda Hospital.Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza said at least nine people were killed attempting to access aid and eight people were killed in an airstrike near Khan Younis. The Israeli military did not have immediate comment on the strikes but has frequently accused Hamas of hiding military infrastructure in civilian areas.In the central city of Deir-al Balah, airstrikes destroyed at least 100 tents of people displaced by the fighting, according to Al Aqsa hospital, which is located nearby.Witnesses said smoke rose from the targeted area and fires spread quickly through the makeshift shelters. Civil defense teams rushed to the site, working to extinguish the flames. Families, many of them with children, were left sifting through the ashes of what little they had managed to bring with them during earlier evacuations. Mohammad Kahlout, displaced from northern Gaza, voiced anger and despair at the repeated attacks on civilians. We came to the safe zone, which they call safe. (We were given) only five minutes to gather our belongings, and then they bombed the camp, he said. We are civilians, not terrorists. What is our fault, and what is the fault of our children, to be displaced again? This is a camp for civilians, refugees. There is no resistance or anyone.The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said Thursday the death toll from the Israel-Hamas war has reached 62,192.Additionally, two more people have died from starvation and malnutrition, bringing the total number of such deaths to 271, including 112 children, the Health Ministry said.The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The ministry does not say how many of the dead were civilians or combatants, but it said women and children make up around half of them. The U.N. and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties. Israel disputes its toll but has not provided its own.Hamas-led militants started the war when they attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. Most of the hostages have been released in ceasefires or other deals. Hamas says it will only free the rest in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal.___Abou Aljoud reported from Beirut and Lidman reported from Jerusalem. Mari Yamaguchi contributed from Tokyo. MELANIE LIDMAN Lidman is an Associated Press reporter based in Tel Aviv, Israel. RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

A strikingly beautiful young man was forcefully castrated and made to live in an emperors palace as his queen draped in veils. The story is so dark, fantastical, and profoundly queer it seems ripped directly from a Ryan Murphy series, but it isaccording to ancient and modern historians, anywaytruth far stranger than fiction.Emperor Nero was, if you recall high school history, the infamous ruler of Rome during the 1st century AD. A student of the great philosopher Seneca and adopted son of beloved Caesar Claudius, Nero displayed none of the emotional maturity or political savvy his mentors did. He ascended the throne as a teenager after his ambitious mother poisoned his step-daddy Claudius. Related 7 of historys greatest queer couples By most accounts, Nero cared more about starring in plays, writing mediocre poetry, and cheating at chariot races than he did statesmanship, leaning heavily on murder as the key to complex interpersonal problems. He even had his mother and first wife killed, both for interfering in his entanglement with the already-married woman who became his second wife, a stunning, scarlet-haired Pompeiian named Poppaea Sabina.Despite going to deadly lengths to make Poppaea Sabina his second Empress, Nero appears to have killed her in a rage during a marital spat one night, kicking Poppea in the stomach while pregnant. The resulting miscarriage removed Neros true love and unborn child from his life entirely, leaving him alone and grief-stricken.Which is how poor Sporus enters the story.If ancient historians Tacitus and Suetonius are correctand there are questions about their trustworthiness as narratorsSporus was a freedman of around 16 when the bereft Emperor Nero laid eyes on him. Feminine and smooth-faced, Sporus allegedly bore an uncanny resemblance to Poppaea Sabina.And so Nero decided toying with the teenager was an ideal distraction from his self-inflicted suffering. As were reminded constantly today, sexual norms flow in and out of fashion as arbitrarily as over-tweezed eyebrows or high-waisted pants. Though Ancient Greece is widely remembered for its acceptance of homosexuality (specifically bear-on-twink dynamics between erastes-eromenos lovers), Rome, at the time of Neros rule, derided gay sex even while its armies used it liberally. Fixated on Sporus, Nero took three terrible steps to normalize their relationship in his own unhinged way.First, he commanded Sporus to be castrated, offering obscene wealth to any wizard or surgeon who could transform him fully into a woman. (Since it was 67AD, no one did.) Next, he dressed Sporus in his dead wifes clothes and jewelry, assigning maids and servants to style him like a queen.Finally, he married Sporus, commanding everyone to refer to him as Empress. This wedding was not a small or secret affair, either. Suetonius wrote:He married him with all the usual ceremonies, including a dowry and a bridal veil, took him to his house attended by a great throng, and treated him as his wife.Nero went so far as to call this newest bride by his dead wifes name, Poppaea Sabina.Sporus was not thrilled by any of this. He appears to have been attempting to live his best life, moisturized and unbothered when the Emperor decided to use him in every way like a wife, as Cassius Dio puts it. Though described as effeminate and graceful, theres no evidence he suffered from gender dysphoria. His castration was technically a crime since it was illegal then to perform the act on Romanseunuchs existed but were imported to the city like exotic animals.Sporus was also not the poor young mans real name. Its translation means seed or semen and seems to have been a debauched nickname that stuck for 2000 years.Some historians suggest because he didnt flee the city and Neros psychosexual games, Sporus consented to be mutilated and used as a sociopaths prop. This is a pretty pedantic take, especially given Neros history of killing family and Sporus limited resources as a lowborn resident of Rome.We also know Sporus threw heavy shade at his husband at the start of 68AD, gifting Nero a bejeweled ring adorned with scenes of the Lord of the Underworld raping an innocent virgin in Hell. Consenting lovers dont typically drop by Kay Jewelers to get a commemorative rape ring for people theyre happily partnered with, so it seems plausible Sporus was just trying not to be murdered by the same guy whod already castrated him.Fortunately for Sporus, Neros reign lasted only a few months beyond their disturbing jewelry exchange. A revolt broke out, with the senate and Praetorian Guard treating Nero as an enemy of the state. The emperor fled the city, bringing only a freedman and Sporus with him to a countryside hideout. There, Nero begged Sporus to pray and help him commit suicide, but his last empress declined. The disgraced king stabbed himself in the neck with the other freedmans assistance and died in a pool of his own blood. Being famously castrated and put on such public display radically shaped the rest of Sporus short life. Before Neros body had even been burned, he was taken as a consort and called Poppaea by one of the men whod overthrown Nero. When that guy was killed in a power grab, Sporus was given to the new emperor, Otho, who had intimacy with Sporus before dying. (Because Ancient Rome was just a telenovela with togas, Otho was the real Poppaea Sabinas ex-husband.)Sporus painful tale of gender-bending survival ends in 69AD, when Romes new new caesar, Vitellius, ordered he star in a gladiatorial reenactment of The Rape of Proserpinathe same tragedy depicted on the ring Sporus gave Nero. Vitellius cast the traumatized former empress as the titular Proserpina, possibly as punishment for Sporus closeness to the now-reviled dead caesar. This was, understandably, the last straw for Sporus. Rather than be sexually assaulted and humiliated in front of a literal stadium of onlookers, Sporus took his own life.Its important to note weve no idea how much of Neros legendarily bad behavior really happened. Curators at The British Museum assert that much of what the layperson learned in school about Emperor Nero is untruehe did not fiddle maniacally as Rome burned around him, for example, because violins hadnt been invented yet. That said, theres no denying Nero was a murderous little prat with some bizarre fetishes, one emboldened by absolute power and weirdly bound by roleplay to Sporus during the last years of his life.As a result, Rome briefly feted a man as its empress, regarding him as the slave who rose to the side of not one but two different kings.

Nature, Published online: 21 August 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-02547-1Preprint examines how citations can influence the review process.

Nature, Published online: 21 August 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09550-6Author Correction: Macrophages excite muscle spindles with glutamate to bolster locomotion

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Despite a slight mix-up with the readings, the happy couple were pronounced man and wife after a recitation of Judges 19-21, the rape of the Levites concubine.The post Marissa Green and Henry Right appeared first on The Onion.

NEW YORKIn a landmark move to address longstanding gender inequities in professional basketball, league officials announced this week that the WNBA would now fine players just as much as their male counterparts in the NBA. For too long, women have received financial penalties that are only a fraction of those received by men who break the very same rules, said commissioner Cathy Engelbert, calling the new equal-opportunity fee structure a long overdue victory for the players, who despite being maligned and grossly under-compensated had brought enormous growth to the womens game in recent years. Effectively immediately, WNBA players will be given the exact same fines, whether its $50,000 for wearing a shirt emblazoned with profane language or $25,000 for retweeting a post criticizing referees. This is a huge step forward for fairness in the sport. From now on, it doesnt matter if youre LeBron James or an Indiana Fever rookie making $66,000 a year, because everyone will be treated as equals when their league is seeking punitive damages. These women were not being shown the respect they deserved when they were receiving a mere $200 in fines for a uniform infraction, but Im proud theyll finally be recognized as the world-class athletes they are. Reached for comment, WNBA players said they did not have time to talk because they were in the middle of a shift waiting tables.The post WNBA Agrees To End Disparity Between Mens, Womens Fines appeared first on The Onion.

WASHINGTONIn a move designed to help minors in the entertainment industry hold on to their hard-earned substances, Congress passed a new law Thursday that requires 15% of all cocaine received by child actors to be set aside for their future. The sad truth is that a lot of the coke given to children who work in Hollywood can end up being totally gone by the time they reach adulthood, said Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA), telling reporters there were far too many cases of former child stars who had accumulated thousands of pounds of blow during their peak earning years but were now living bump to bump. For decades, child actors have been vulnerable to predatoryagents hoovering up their precious nose candy without leaving the kids so much as a mirror or a rolled-up $50 bill. In some cases, its their own parents who do every last bit of the blow. This law ensures that a few uncut bricks will be held in reserve until these young performers reach the age of 18. Acknowledging that additional protections were required, Padilla stated that he hoped 15% would at least be enough to get former child stars through college.The post New Law Requires 15% Of Cocaine Received By Child Actors Be Set Aside For Future appeared first on The Onion.

IOWA CITY, IAShedding light on the age-old mystery surrounding the monolithic statues, a new study published Thursday in the Journal Of Archaeological Science found evidence suggesting that the Easter Island heads were gifts from an overbearing mother-in-law. By deciphering glyphs on wooden tablets, we discovered an inhabitant of the island once made an offhand remark about liking stone monoliths one time back in 1250, and his mother-in-law took this as an invitation to bring one over every time she dropped by for a visit, said the studys author, Professor Mallory Jacobs of the University of Iowa, explaining that the mother-in-law continued making gifts of the 30-foot-tall, 90-ton creations even after her daughter and son-in-law explained that they had no room. At first the family stored the heads in a closet, but they got tired of lugging out the massive monoliths every time the mother-in-law came over. Eventually they just left the statues outside along the islands perimeter year-round. During her visits, the mother-in-law expressed that she felt good knowing her family would be forced to think of her each time they looked at the statues looming over them. The study concludes that the civilization on Easter Island collapsed after the mother-in-law announced plans to move in.The post Evidence Suggests Easter Island Heads Were Gifts From Overbearing Mother-In-Law appeared first on The Onion.

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A family of five claiming to be from Guatemala and a man stating he was from Peru, in pink shirt, walk through the desert after crossing the border wall in the Tucson Sector of the U.S.-Mexico border, Aug. 29, 2023, in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument near Lukeville, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York, File)2025-08-21T14:09:15Z The number of people in the United States illegally surged to an all-time high of 14 million in 2023, a research group said Thursday, a major increase that still falls well short of estimates from President Donald Trump and some critics of immigration.The Pew Research Centers closely watched gauge rose from 11.8 million a year earlier and surpassed the previous high of 12.2 million in 2007. The increase was driven by some 6 million who were in the country with some form of legal protection. Trump has stripped many of those protections since taking office in January. Pew, whose estimates date back to 1990, said that, while 2023 is its latest full analysis, preliminary findings show the number rose in 2024, though at a slower rate after then-President Joe Biden severely restricted asylum at the border in June of that year. The number dropped this year under Trump, but is still likely above 14 million. While the findings are unlikely to settle debate, Pews report is one of the most complete attempts to measure illegal immigration. Nearly all the increase came from countries other than Mexico. Guatemala, El Salvador and India accounted for the largest numbers after Mexico. Totals from Venezuela, Cuba, Colombia, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Ukraine and Peru each more than doubled in two years. Trump said in an address to Congress in March that 21 million people poured into the United States during the previous four years, far exceeding estimates from Pew and what figures on border arrests suggest. The Federation for American Immigration Reform, a group largely aligned with his policies, estimated 18.6 million in March. Stay up to date with the latest U.S. news by signing up to our WhatsApp channel. The Center for Immigration Studies, a group that favors immigration restrictions, reported that there were 14.2 million people in the U.S. illegally last month, down from a peak of 15.8 million in January. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem touted the reported drop of 1.6 million in six months. This is massive, she said in a press release last week. Noems own department, through its Office of Homeland Security Statistics, estimates there were 11 million people in the U.S. illegally in 2022, its most recent count. The Center for Migration Studies, author of another closely watched survey, most recently pegged the number at 12.2 million in 2022, topping its previous high of 12 million in 2008. Pews findings, based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau survey and Department of Homeland Security, reflect an increase in people crossing the border illegally to exercise rights to seek asylum and Biden-era policies to grant temporary legal status. Those policies included a border appointment system called CBP One and permits for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans.Trump has ended those policies and also sought to reverse Bidens expansion of Temporary Protected Status for people already in the United States whose countries are deemed unsafe to return to. Mexicans were the largest nationality among people in the country illegally, a number that grew slightly to 4.3 million in 2023. The increase came almost entirely from other countries, totaling 9.7 million, up from 6.4 million two years earlier. States with the largest numbers of people in the country illegally were, in order, California, Texas, Florida, New York, New Jersey and Illinois, though Texas sharply narrowed its gap with California. Even with the increases in recent years, six states had smaller numbers in 2023 than in the previous peak in 2007: Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, New York and Oregon.Pew estimated that a record 9.7 million people without legal status were in the workforce, or about 5.6% of the U.S. labor force in 2023, with Nevada, Florida, New Jersey and Texas having the largest shares.The overall U.S. immigrant population, regardless of legal status, reached an all-time high of more than 53 million in January 2025, accounting for a record 15.8% of the U.S. population. The number has since dropped, which Pew said would be the first time it has shrunk since the 1960s.___Associated Press writer Elliot Spagat contributed. Follow 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

In a Tuesday, March 11, 2008 photo, Christian evangelical leader and founder of "Focus on the Family", James Dobson, listens to President Bush, not pictured, address the National Religious Broadcasters 2008 Convention at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, file)2025-08-21T13:49:53Z COLORADO SPRINGS, Co. (AP) Dr. James Dobson, a politically influential child psychologist who started a radio show counseling Christians on how to be good parents, founded the conservative ministry Focus on the Family and was long a campaigner against abortion and gay rights, died on Thursday. He was 89.His death was confirmed by the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute.Dobson founded Focus on the Family in 1977, which had more than 1,000 employees at its peak and gave Dobson a platform to weigh in on legislation, advise White House panels and advocate against laws to ban conversion therapy to cure gay people.He served on President Donald Trump s Evangelical Executive Advisory Board.Dobson left Focus on the Family in 2010 and founded the institute that bears his name and continued with the Family Talk radio show, which is nationally syndicated and is carried by 1,500 radio outlets with more than half a million listeners weekly, according to the institute. Dr. Dobsons impact endures through the many lives he touched, the families he strengthened, and the unshakable faith he proclaimed, his family said in a statement announcing his death. Born in 1936 in Shreveport, Louisiana, Dobson is survived by his wife of 64 years, Shirley, as well as their children, Danae and Ryan, daughter-in-law Laura, and two grandchildren, his familys statement said.

Ingrid Lewis-Martin is escorted into Manhattan criminal court on Dec. 19, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)2025-08-21T14:09:08Z NEW YORK (AP) A former top aide to New York City Mayor Eric Adams is among seven people facing new charges in the corruption investigation that has swirled around City Hall for two years, prosecutors in Manhattan announced Thursday.Adams himself has not been charged, but the case will thrust the corruption allegations that have dogged the Democrat back into focus as he seeks to regain voters trust ahead of a contested election in November.Among those facing new charges is Adams former chief of staff and closest confidant, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, her son Glenn D. Martin, former state Sen. Jesse Hamilton and two of Adams political donors, siblings Tony and Gina Argento.Lewis-Martin and the other defendants were expected to appear in court on Thursday.Lewis-Martin resigned in December ahead of her indictment in a separate case in which she and her son are accused of taking bribes in exchange for her speeding approvals for construction projects. That case is still pending. Lewis-Martin has continued to volunteer for the Adams campaign while she awaits trial. On Thursday, Lewis-Martin was charged with four additional counts of conspiracy and bribe receiving in a series of indictments that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg described as classic bribery conspiracies that had a deep and wide-ranging impact on city government. As alleged, Lewis-Martin consistently overrode the expertise of public servants so she could line her own pockets. While she allegedly received more than $75,000 in bribes and an appearance on a TV show, every other New Yorker lost out, Bragg said in a statement.She will plead not guilty to any additional charges, Lewis-Martins attorney, Arthur Aidala, said in a statement, adding that she has broken no laws, and she is not guilty. JAKE OFFENHARTZ Offenhartz is a general assignment reporter in the New York City bureau of The Associated Press. twitter mailto MICHAEL R. SISAK Sisak is an Associated Press reporter covering law enforcement, courts and prisons. He is based in New York. twitter mailto

Trader Chris Lagana works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, Aug. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)2025-08-21T04:57:09Z NEW YORK (AP) U.S. stocks are slipping again on Thursday, this time after the countrys largest retailer delivered a profit that came up short of Wall Streets expectations.The S&P 500 dipped 0.3% and was on track for a fifth straight modest loss since setting an all-time high last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 236 points, or 0.5%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was down 0.1%.Walmart weighed on the market and sank 4% after reporting a weaker profit for the spring than analysts expected. It delivered encouraging growth in revenue and raised its forecast for profit over its full fiscal year, but analysts said the markets expectations were high coming into the report. The Bentonville, Arkansas, companys stock came into the day with a gain of 13.5% for the year so far, well above the rest of the market. Big Tech stocks are under even more pressure to deliver stronger profits amid criticism that their stock prices ran too high, too fast and have become too expensive because of the frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology.Several AI superstar stocks have swung sharply this week, taking some shine off their meteoric surges for the year, because of such criticism. But they were holding a bit steadier on Thursday. Palantir Technologies, which at one point on Wednesday was on track to fall more than 9% for a second straight day before paring its loss, slipped 0.2%. Nvidia, the chip company thats become the poster child of the AI boom, rose 0.6%. Coty tumbled 20.6% after the beauty products company reported a loss for the latest quarter, when analysts expected a slight profit. The company, whose brands include CoverGirl and Joop!, said uncertainty about tariffs and the economy are making retailers cautious in their orders. On the winning side of Wall Street was Nordson, which makes products and systems used for precision dispensing and other things. It delivered profit and revenue for the latest quarter that topped analysts expectations, and its stock rose 7.4%. In the bond market, Treasury yields swiveled a bit but ultimately inched higher following weaker-than-expected reports on the U.S. economy. One said that more U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week. The number is still relatively low compared with history, but the increase could indicate a rise in layoffs across the country.A second report, meanwhile, said manufacturing activity in the mid-Atlantic region is unexpectedly contracting. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.30% from 4.29%. The two-year Treasury, which moves more on expectations for what the Federal Reserve will do with short-term interest rates, also edged up. It rose to 3.75% from 3.74%. Expectations are high among Wall Street traders that the Fed will cut its main interest rate at its next meeting in September. That would be the first such cut this year, and it would give investment prices and the economy a boost by making it cheaper to borrow to buy houses, cars or equipment. But it could also risk worsening inflation. Fed Chair Jerome Powell is set to give a speech on Friday that could back up such hopes or dash them. Hell be speaking in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, at an annual conference of central bankers thats been home to big policy announcements in the past. In stock markets abroad, indexes dipped across much of Europe after a mixed finish in Asia.Germany, Europes largest economy, saw its DAX lose 0.3% after the U.S. and European Union officials offered a framework for their trade deal. Japans Nikkei 225 fell 0.6% after a survey showed Japans factory activity contracted again in August. ___AP Writers Teresa Cerojano and Matt Ott contributed.

Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, thinks the internets default encyclopedia and one of the worlds biggest repositories of information could benefit from some applications of AI. The volunteer editors who keep Wikipedia functioning strongly disagree with him.The ongoing debate about incorporating AI into Wikipedia in various forms bubbled up again in July, when Wales posted an idea to his Wikipedia User Talk Page about how the platform could use a large language model as part of its article creation process.Any Wikipedia user can create a draft of an article. That article is then reviewed by experienced Wikipedia editors who can accept the draft and move it to Wikipedias mainspace, which makes up the bulk of Wikipedia and the articles youll find when youre searching for information. Reviewers can also reject articles for a variety of reasons, but because hundreds of draft articles are submitted to Wikipedia every day, volunteer reviewers often use a tool called articles for creation/helper script (ACFH), which creates templates for common reasons articles are declined.This is where Wales thinks AI could help. He wrote that he was asked to look at a specific draft article and give notes that might help the article get published.I was eager to do so because I'm always interested in taking a fresh look at our policies and procedures to look for ways they might be improved, he wrote. The person asking me felt frustrated at the minimal level of guidance being given (this is my interpretation, not necessarily theirs) and having reviewed it, I can see why.Wales explains that the article was originally rejected several years ago, then someone tried to improve it, resubmitted it, and got the same exact template rejection again.It's a form letter response that might as well be Computer says no (that article's worth a read if you don't know the expression), Wales said. It wasn't a computer who says no, but a human using AFCH, a helper script [...] In order to try to help, I personally felt at a loss. I am not sure what the rejection referred to specifically. So I fed the page to ChatGPT to ask for advice. And I got what seems to me to be pretty good. And so I'm wondering if we might start to think about how a tool like AFCH might be improved so that instead of a generic template, a new editor gets actual advice. It would be better, obviously, if we had lovingly crafted human responses to every situation like this, but we all know that the volunteers who are dealing with a high volume of various situations can't reasonably have time to do it. The templates are helpful - an AI-written note could be even more helpful.Wales then shared the output he got from ChatGPT. It included more details than a template rejection, but editors replying to Wales noted that it was also filled with errors.For example, the response suggested the article cite a source that isnt included in the draft article, and rely on Harvard Business School press releases for other citations, despite Wikipedia policies explicitly defining press releases as non-independent sources that cannot help prove notability, a basic requirement for Wikipedia articles.Editors also found that the ChatGPT-generated response Wales shared has no idea what the difference between some of these basic Wikipedia policies, like notability (WP:N), verifiability (WP:V), and properly representing minority and more widely held views on subjects in an article (WP:WEIGHT).Something to take into consideration is how newcomers will interpret those answers. If they believe the LLM advice accurately reflects our policies, and it is wrong/inaccurate even 5% of the time, they will learn a skewed version of our policies and might reproduce the unhelpful advice on other pages, one editor said.Wales and editors proceeded to get into it in the replies to his article. The basic disagreement is that Wales thinks that LLMs can be useful to Wikipedia, even if they are sometimes wrong, while editors think an automated system that is sometimes wrong is fundamentally at odds with the human labor and cooperation that makes Wikipedia so valuable to begin with.As one editor writes:The reputational risk to adding in AI-generated slop feedback can not be overstated. The idea that we will feed drafts into a large language model - with all the editorial and climate implications and without oversight or accountability - is insane. What are we gaining in return? Verbose, emoji-laden boilerplate slop, often wrong in substance or tone, and certainly lacking in the care and contextual sensitivity that actual human editors bring to review work. Worse it creates a dangerous illusion of helpfulness, where the appearance of tailored advice masks the lack of genuine editorial engagement. We would be feeding and legitimising a system that replaces mentoring, discourages human learning, and cheapens the standards we claim to uphold. That's the antithesis of Wikipedia, no?It is definitely not the antithesis of Wikipedia to use technology in appropriate ways to make the encyclopedia better, Wales responded. We have a clearly identifiable problem, and you've elaborated on it well: the volume of submissions submits templated responses, and we shouldn't ask reviewers to do more. But we should look for ways to support and help them.Wikipedia Prepares for Increase in Threats to US Editors From Musk and His AlliesThe Wikimedia Foundation says it will likely roll out features previously used to protect editors in authoritarian countries more widely.404 MediaJason KoeblerThis isnt the first time the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit that manages Wikipedia, and Wikipedia editors have clashed about AI. In June, the Wikimedia Foundation paused an experiment to use AI-generated summaries at the top of Wikipedia articles after a backlash from editors.A group of Wikipedia editors have also started WikiProject AI Cleanup, an organized effort to protect the platform from what they say is growing number of AI-generated articles and images submitted to Wikipedia that are misleading or include errors. In early August, Wikipedia editors also adopted a new policy that will make it easier for them to delete articles that are clearly AI-generated.Wikipedias strength has been and always will be its human-centered, volunteer-driven model one where knowledge is created and reviewed by people, volunteers from different countries, perspectives, and backgrounds. Research shows that this process of human debate, discussion, and consensus makes for higher-quality articles on Wikipedia, a Wikimedia Foundation spokesperson told me in an email. Nevertheless, machine-generated content is exploding across the internet, and it will inevitably make its way to Wikipedia. Wikipedia volunteers have showcased admirable resilience in maintaining the reliability of information on Wikipedia based on existing community-led policies and processes, sometimes leveraging AI/machine learning tools in this work.The spokesperson said that Wikipedia already uses AI productively, like with bots that revert vandalism and machine translation tools, and that these tools always have a human in the loop to validate automated work.As the founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy regularly engages with volunteers on his talk page to share ideas, test assumptions, and respond to questions, the spokesperson said. His recent comments about how AI could improve the draft review process are an example of this and a prompt for further community conversation."