A man holds an orange and white device in his hand, about the size of his palm, with an antenna sticking out. He enters some commands with the built-in buttons, then walks over to a nearby car. At first, its doors are locked, and the man tugs on one of them unsuccessfully. He then pushes a button on the gadget in his hand, and the door now unlocks.The tech used here is the popular Flipper Zero, an ethical hackers swiss army knife, capable of all sorts of things such as WiFi attacks or emulating NFC tags. Now, 404 Media has found an underground trade where much shadier hackers sell extra software and patches for the Flipper Zero to unlock all manner of cars, including models popular in the U.S. The hackers say the tool can be used against Ford, Audi, Volkswagen, Subaru, Hyundai, Kia, and several other brands, including sometimes dozens of specific vehicle models, with no easy fix from car manufacturers.These tools are primarily sold for a fee, keeping their distribution somewhat limited to those willing to pay. But, there is the looming threat that this software may soon reach a wider audience of thieves. Straight Arrow News (SAN) previously covered the same tech in July, and the outlet said it successfully tested the tool on a vehicle. Now people are cracking the software, meaning it can be used for free. Discord servers with hundreds of members are seeing more people join, with current members trolling the newbies with fake patches and download links. If the tech gets out, it threatens to supercharge car thefts across the country, especially those part of the social media phenomenon known as Kia Boys in which young men, often in Milwaukee, steal and joyride Kia and Hyundai cars specifically because of the vehicles notoriously poor security. Apply that brazeness to all of the other car models the Flipper Zero patches can target, and members of the car hacking community expect thieves to start using the easy to source gadget.Kia Boys will be Flipper Boys by 2026, Cody Kociemba, a reverse engineer who goes by the handle Trikk and who has cracked some of the software, told 404 Media.Do you know anything else about people using the Flipper Zero to break into cars? I would love to hear from you. Using a non-work device, you can message me securely on Signal at joseph.404 or send me an email at joseph@404media.co.The Flipper Zero was first announced on Kickstarter in 2020 and raised nearly $5 million. Since then, hackers and hobbyists have made their own Flipper Zero firmware to make the tool even more powerful. There is Unleashed which opens up the device to perform more RFID or USB attacks, for example. A hacker called Daniel told 404 Media he is the original creator of the Unleashed firmware.Daniel also sells his car-unlocking Flipper Zero patches for either $600 or $1,000, paid in cryptocurrency. With the former, you just get the latest version. With the latter, you receive future upgrades and support. Daniel claimed to 404 Media he has sold tech to around 150 people over the past two years.Maybe someone is using it to steal from cars or steal cars, Daniel said. They also said it is in demand from locksmiths or car shop owners.On YouTube, Daniel shows the device being used on a Ford vehicle; another targets a Volkswagen; some show Kias; and another is a Solaris KRX. Just a few days ago, Daniel uploaded a new video demonstrating what he described as a big upgrade for the software, and its capabilities against more vehicles. Daniel has a partner who goes by the name Derrow and also sells the tech. They have their own website that includes a list of recent updates: in July the team added support for Citroen and Peugeot. This month, they added more Ford models.A screenshot of Daniel's YouTube channel's recent videos.Some of those videos show road signs in Russian, including for an airport in Moscow; Daniel told 404 Media he was based in Russia.For years police have highlighted the prevalence of another type of attack, called a relay attack, which essentially extends the range of a victims keyfob. With that, a thief can unlock a car, say, in a driveway, while the keyfob is still inside a targets home. I previously spoke to someone who sells this sort of tech to target luxury vehicles.One countermeasure to techy-car thieves is the use of rolling codes. Modern vehicles use a different code each time to unlock a vehicle, which is supposed to stop thieves who clone the fob from being able to break into a car. But with this Flipper Zero attack, the tool intercepts a targets keyfob code, then calculates what the next code will be, unlocking the vehicle. Daniel described it as a shadow copy of the original key. (A side effect is that the attack can desynchronize the real keyfob, meaning the actual owner wont be able to open their car until it is reset. A comment on one of Daniels YouTube videos from someone with locksmith in their username says I'm going to make a fortune fixing desynced fobs.)To build this capability, Daniel said he has bought various pieces of source code from other people. That includes code related to grabbing details transmitted by the keyfob; code concerning spare keys; and other specific hardware. Daniel and Derrow then created this new capability and configured it to work with a Flipper Zero and Raspberry Pi respectively, Daniel said.Derrow told 404 Media in an email that Some cars like Kia are not using any protection at all, which makes it easy to open them. For other vendors you must know the source code, then you can open them too.Screenshots of the PDF provided by Daniel.Daniel shared a PDF which lays out the vehicles the patches allegedly work against. It names nearly 200 specific models of vehicles, including many 2025 versions. As well as Subaru, Fiat, Ford, Mitsubishi, Suzuki, Peugeot, Citron, Volkswagen, Skoda, and Audi, the document also says Honda is in development.There isn't really anything people can do to defend against it, other than not using their key fob, and the vehicles affected is a pretty huge list, Trikk, the reverse engineer, said.404 Media contacted all of the vehicle manufacturers mentioned in the document. Most did not provide a statement on whether they were aware of the attack or what they were doing to mitigate it. Ford declined to comment.Hyundai is aware of recent media reports of custom firmware for the Flipper Zero tool that targets certain key fobs for vehicles made by several automakers. We are evaluating this issue and, to date, have not identified any confirmed cases of this method being used in thefts of Hyundai or Genesis vehicles, a Hyundai spokesperson told 404 Media.Flipper Devices, the company that makes the Flipper Zero, told 404 Media in an email that we are not aware of any officially confirmed cases of theft using a Flipper Zero. It stressed that the Flipper Zero is a multipurpose tool intended for security researchers to test and demonstrate vulnerabilities in a responsible manner.We have seen reports from researchers who have used Flipper Zero with third-party software and hardware to exploit brazen vulnerabilities in certain cars. We hope car manufacturers will take the security of their products more seriously and patch them up immediately, as carjackers have access to extremely sophisticated black market tools, the statement added. Ultimately, the real issue lies in how some car manufacturers continue to ship systems with outdated security models. Until companies take security more seriously and roll out regular updates, these vulnerabilities will persist regardless of the tool used. 0:00 /0:13 1 The site that new visitors asking for the tool are directed to. When customers buy his patch, Daniel says he requires photos from the Flipper Zeros box showing the devices serial number, and a photo of a specific part of the gadgets settings. This is to lock the purchased patch to a customers device, so as to prevent stealing, unauthorised distribution, reverse-engineering and any other unwanted manipulations, Daniel said.His partner Derrow distributes the patches similarly. Their website reads All Firmwares are personalized and it is strictly forbidden to pass it to any third party! Violating this rule disqualifies you for any further support, and your Firmware and account will be blacklisted for further use!With a cracked version, anyone with a Flipper Zero and some basic tech knowledge could use the gadget to break into cars without having to pay the original developers. Daniel acknowledged that some people had cracked his software, but claimed that the newest versions were still secure.Trikk said cracked versions of the software are being guarded by people who have it in an attempt to stop abuse. When new people join Discord servers that discuss the tech, they often ask for a free version of the tool. In response, members of one reply with the https://private.unleashedv2.dev/, which redirects to a flashy webpage that says fuck you and you dont belong here. Trikk said people who ask are also given the Firmware Curious Discord role as a mark of shame. Trikk also sent 404 Media a video which showed a person being trolled with a fake version of the tool which claims to have found a Rolls-Royce Ghost nearby; the person pans their camera seemingly looking for the vehicle but doesnt find one.Its more so a litmus test to get rid of the skids easily, Trikk said, referring to script kiddies, or skids, which are hackers with a lower technical ability.But cracked versions are starting to trickle out from the community. A source sent 404 Media a copy of the cracked tool, including scripts for Kia and Suzuki vehicles.I think there will be a lot of noobs that want to play around with it because it's cool, and end up bricking their key fobs, and others will likely try to use it to break into/steal cars, Trikk said. Unfortunately with the original author selling it to anyone who has the money, it's going to be available very soon, and open sourced shortly thereafter.Derrow, one of the developers, told 404 Media the sale is currently going through the roof.

For transmasculine nonbinary journalist, photographer, and filmmaker Alyza Enriquez, transitioning wasnt a linear journey from point A to point B. In their 2019 Vice essay about their experience microdosing testosterone, they described resisting the typical understanding of gender transition which tacitly prioritizes passing as either male or female and coming into their own identity as a nonbinary person instead.Im non-binary, and Im not interested in presenting to the world as a man based on whatever antiquated physical criteria that might invite that assumption, Enriquez wrote. Microdosing testosterone, they explained, rejects the notion that there should be an end goal to a persons transition, and allows them the freedom to embody their gender on their own terms, slowly inching my way to a soft, forgiving space where I can be gentle, hard, bold, and understated. Related Toxic masculinity has warped our culture. Trans men are showing the path forward. I wrote that article as a way to ensure that people knew [microdosing testosterone] was an option for them, Enriquez told Them recently. I dont think its in any way a new phenomenon. It just has a name now, where I imagine that our trancestors have been doing this for a very long time.Enriquezs 2019 piece went viral, and the following year they published a beginners guide to microdosing testosterone. In that follow-up guide, Enriquez noted the hundreds of messages theyd received from nonbinary people assigned female at birth interested in this underexplored version of transitioning. As they told Them, those messages got them thinking about making a documentary about the transmasculine nonbinary experience. Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today That film, Neither/Both, which Enriquez is co-directing with producer Regina Dolza, aims to both spotlights Enriquezs own transition journey and pass the mic to other nonbinary people, giving them a platform to tell their stories in much the same way that high profile transgender people like Laverne Cox and Elliot Page have in recent years.But as Enriquez told them, the doc will also explore the unique relationship many transmasculine nonbinary people have to masculinity.Alyza Enriquez | YouTube creenshot Part of what also feels really important to me about the doc is at this current moment in time, where we are with masculinity more generally feels really terrifying and bad the Manosphere, Andrew Tate, that kind of thing, Enriquez explained. Sometimes it can feel like, I dont want to be in proximity to that. How do we create a new blueprint of masculinity that feels like its tenderness, its the good parts? It takes into account all of the experiences I had as a woman before and being around a lot of women?Sometimes, when youre transmasculine, its easy to inherit the toxic bits of masculinity, which is not being able to talk about your feelings or feeling like you cant talk about your feelings, they said, adding that this was something they had experienced themself. We have all these really specific issues and experiences. Lets talk about them. Lets have an open dialogue and lets create a space for ourselves to be able to gather and not feel ashamed or scared of being in relationship to masculinity, they added.In Neither/Both, Enriquez explained, that will be explored through conversations with transmasculine people about their own relationships to cis men in their life, and possibly even through interviews with cisgender men.I think ultimately its about having conversations and showing what people engage with when they are interacting in the world and what theyre up against, they said.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

The Buccaneers plan to activate Chris Godwin and Tristan Wirfs off the active/PUP list and have the two stars on their 53-man roster to start the season.

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Ms. Lewis-Martin, the former chief adviser to Mayor Eric Adams, is accused of taking bribes in exchange for favorable treatment, including speeding city permits for a karaoke bar and residential renovations.

An analysis of census data by the Pew Research Center found that between January and June, the foreign-born population declined by nearly 1.5 million.

The founder of the evangelical group Focus on the Family, he spent decades denouncing what he saw as the unraveling of the social order.

German authorities said a Ukrainian man suspected of coordinating the attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines in 2022 had been taken into custody by the Italian police.

MSNBC will rebrand as MS NOW, an acronym for My Source News Opinion World, later this year, dropping the NBC name and peacock logo to establish a distinct identity following its spin-off from Comcasts NBCUniversal. What do you think?How am I supposed to explain to my kids that MSNBC is no longer owned by the NBCUniversal News Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast?Jill Meerdink, Trophy DusterNo amount of rebranding will trick me into watching the news.Todd Holda, Boomerang CarverAh man, now Ive gotta edit my tattoo.Logan Sapien, Textbook ShredderThe post MSNBC Renamed MS NOW appeared first on The Onion.

DENVERIn an effort to make sure the young leukemia patients night at Coors Field was a special one, Colorado Rockies pitcher Kyle Freeland pledged Saturday to give up a home run for a sick child, ballpark sources confirmed. Hey buddy, when I go out there tonight and serve up a meatball for the Diamondbacks to nuke into the bleachers, I just want you to know its all for you, Burke said to the 7-year-old fan before the game, adding that hed make sure the home run ball found its way back to the child so he could always remember how badly the Rockies lost. This is your night tonight, and Im gonna go out on that mound and put a nice, fat pitch right over home plate for someone to knock out of the park. Thats a promise. And the rest of the team knows youre watching, too, so keep your eyes peeled for some dropped fly balls and half-assed base running from them to you. After giving up the pledged home run at the top of the third inning, Burke reportedly led the entire stadium in a round of boos for the sick child.The post Rockies Pitcher Pledges To Give Up Home Run For Sick Child appeared first on The Onion.

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This photo provided by the National Park Service shows a sign marking the north entrance of Yellowstone National Park, May 7, 2018. (Jacob W. Frank/National Park Service via AP, File)2025-08-21T14:57:51Z CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) A Wyoming man who allegedly hit a wolf with a snowmobile, taped the wounded animals mouth shut and showed it off in a rural bar before killing it has been indicted on an animal cruelty charge by a grand jury nearly a year and a half after the incident.Cody Roberts last year paid a $250 fine for illegal possession of wildlife but avoided more serious charges as investigators struggled to find cooperative witnesses. Wyoming law gives wide leeway for people to kill wolves and other predators by a variety of means in the vast majority of the state.Even so, the 12-person grand jury found enough evidence over the past two weeks to support the charge of felony animal cruelty, Sublette County Attorney Clayton Melinkovich said in a statement Wednesday.Melinkovich had no further comment on the case. Roberts has not commented on the case and did not have a listed working number, nor an attorney on file in state District Court who might comment on his behalf. If convicted, Roberts faces up to two years in prison and a $5,000 fine.Widely circulated photos showed a man identified as Roberts posing with the wolf, its mouth bound with tape, on Feb. 29, 2024, in a bar near Daniel, a town of about 150 people about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Jackson. Video clips showed the same animal lying on a floor, alive but barely moving. Stay up to date with the latest U.S. news by signing up to our WhatsApp channel. The light punishment against Roberts led to calls for a Wyoming tourism boycott, to little apparent effect. Yellowstone National Park had its second-busiest year on record in 2024, up more than 5% from 2023. Grand juries in Wyoming are rare. The last one to get significant attention, in 2019, found that a sheriffs deputy did not commit involuntary manslaughter by killing an unarmed man after a traffic stop.Government-sponsored poisoning, trapping and bounty hunting all but wiped out wolves in the lower 48 states in the 19th and 20th centuries. Starting in the 1990s, a reintroduction program brought them back to Yellowstone and central Idaho, and their numbers have rebounded. Though wolves remain listed as a federally endangered or threatened species in most of the country, they have no such protection in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, where they can be hunted and trapped.Exceptions include Yellowstone and neighboring Grand Teton National Park, where hunting is prohibited and the wild canines are a major attraction for millions of tourists. In 85% percent of Wyoming, wolves are classified as predators and can be freely killed by virtually any means.The so-called predator zone includes Sublette County, where the wolf was killed. Groups including the Humane Society argued that Wyomings animal cruelty law could nonetheless apply there.

Former President Donald Trump sits in the courtroom before the start of closing arguments in his civil business fraud trial at New York Supreme Court, Jan. 11, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, Pool, File)2025-08-21T14:43:05Z NEW YORK (AP) An appeals court has thrown out the massive civil fraud penalty against President Donald Trump, ruling Thursday in New York states lawsuit accusing him of exaggerating his wealth. The decision came seven months after the Republican returned to the White House. A panel of five judges in New Yorks mid-level Appellate Division said the verdict, which stood to cost Trump more than $515 million and rock his real estate empire, was excessive.After finding that Trump engaged in fraud by flagrantly padding financial statements that went to lenders and insurers, Judge Arthur Engoron ordered him last year to pay $355 million in penalties. With interest, the sum has topped $515 million. The total combined with penalties levied on some other Trump Organization executives, including Trumps sons Eric and Donald Jr. now exceeds $527 million, with interest. While the injunctive relief ordered by the court is well crafted to curb defendants business culture, the courts disgorgement order, which directs that defendants pay nearly half a billion dollars to the State of New York, is an excessive fine that violates the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution, Judges Dianne T. Renwick and Peter H. Moulton wrote in one of several opinions shaping the appeals courts ruling. Engoron also imposed other punishments, such as banning Trump and his two eldest sons from serving in corporate leadership for a few years. Those provisions have been on pause during Trumps appeal, and he was able to hold off collection of the money by posting a $175 million bond. Stay up to date with the latest U.S. news by signing up to our WhatsApp channel. The court, which was split on the merits of the lawsuit and the lower courts fraud finding, dismissed the penalty Engoron imposed in its entirety while also leaving a pathway for further appeals to the states highest court, the Court of Appeals. The appeals court, the Appellate Division of the states trial court, took an unusually long time to rule, weighing Trumps appeal for nearly 11 months after oral arguments last fall. Normally, appeals are decided in a matter of weeks or a few months. New York Attorney General Letitia James, who brought the suit on the states behalf, has said the businessman-turned-politician engaged in lying, cheating, and staggering fraud. Trump and his co-defendants denied wrongdoing. In a six-minute summation of sorts after a monthslong trial, Trump proclaimed in January 2024 that he was an innocent man and the case was a fraud on me. He has repeatedly maintained that the case and verdict were political moves by James and Engoron, who are both Democrats. Trumps Justice Department has subpoenaed James for records related to the lawsuit, among other documents, as part of an investigation into whether she violated the presidents civil rights. James personal attorney, Abbe D. Lowell, has said that investigating the fraud case is the most blatant and desperate example of this administration carrying out the presidents political retribution campaign.Trump and his lawyers said his financial statements werent deceptive, since they came with disclaimers noting they werent audited. The defense also noted that bankers and insurers independently evaluated the numbers, and the loans were repaid. Despite such discrepancies as tripling the size of his Trump Tower penthouse, he said the financial statements were, if anything, lowball estimates of his fortune.During an appellate court hearing in September, Trumps lawyers argued that many of the cases allegations were too old, an assertion they made unsuccessfully before trial. The defense also contends that James misused a consumer-protection law to sue Trump and improperly policed private business transactions that were satisfactory to those involved. State attorneys said the law in question applies to fraudulent or illegal business conduct, whether it targets everyday consumers or big corporations. Though Trump insists no one was harmed by the financial statements, the state contends that the numbers led lenders to make riskier loans than they knew, and that honest borrowers lose out when others game their net-worth numbers. The state has argued that the verdict rests on ample evidence and that the scale of the penalty comports with Trumps gains, including his profits on properties financed with the loans and the interest he saved by getting favorable terms offered to wealthy borrowers.The civil fraud case was just one of several legal obstacles for Trump as he campaigned, won and segued to a second term as president.On Jan. 10, he was sentenced in his criminal hush money case to whats known as an unconditional discharge, leaving his conviction on the books but sparing him jail, probation, a fine or other punishment. He is appealing the conviction.And in December, a federal appeals court upheld a jurys finding that Trump sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll in the mid-1990s and later defamed her, affirming a $5 million judgment against him. The appeals court declined in June to reconsider; he still can try to get the Supreme Court to hear his appeal. Hes also appealing a subsequent verdict that requires him to pay Carroll $83.3 million for additional defamation claims.___Follow the APs coverage of President Donald Trump at https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump. MICHAEL R. SISAK Sisak is an Associated Press reporter covering law enforcement, courts and prisons. He is based in New York. twitter mailto

Former Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday officiated the swearing-in ceremony of out Rep. Robert Garcia (D) as he took the oath to become the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.I am very proud to be here this evening to administer this oath, she said, praising the impact he has made since taking office. Related There are finally signs that some Democrats are growing a spine against Trump 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 When Robert Garcia walks the halls of Congress, people pay attention. If not, try to catch up. What an incredible mark of a leader that their peers recognize their leadership and ask them to lead even more. According to the Long Beach Post, he is the first sophomore elected to a ranking role in over one hundred years.Kamala Harris: When Robert Garcia walks the halls of congress, people pay attention if not try to catch up pic.twitter.com/zbs1WyJZie Acyn (@Acyn) August 21, 2025 Garcia had already taken on his role in the committee, but the ceremony was a formality that allowed him to celebrate locally. It was a full-circle moment for the pair, as Harris also swore Garcia into office when he became mayor of Long Beach, California, in 2014.Former Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster also spoke at the event, the Post reported, and he praised Garcia for having taken on an important role, being the critic of this administration and in the defense of people with little or no power. Im proud of his energy, Foster said. Im proud of his zeal. Im proud of his courage to stand up to the kind of bullying tactics that take place every day in this country.His commitment to standing up against the current administration makes him apt for a leadership role in the House Oversight Committee, which is one of the most powerful committees in the House and focuses on holding federal agencies accountable for following the law.Kamala Harris swears in Robert Garcia as Ranking Member of Oversight pic.twitter.com/VrNPtd3YlF Acyn (@Acyn) August 21, 2025At the ceremony, Garcia reportedly said his role is about more than just opposing the president. Its going to also be about delivering for the American public. That means building a government created in truth, driven by public service not by special interests and powered by strong, respected work that honors all of our union workers and hard-working people that are laboring every single day.But he also vowed to resist the presidents agenda and called him the most corrupt person ever to serve as president of the United States. We need to work together to stop him, he said, before its too late. An immigrant himself, Garcia also called out the administrations immigration raids, saying masked men are in many instances kidnapping people and sending them away with no due process. Immigrants are some of the most patriotic people in this country because we fought for citizenship, he declared. Patriotism is not screaming and yelling America First. Real patriotism is loving your country so much that you actually want to help the people in your country. Garcia: Patriotism is not screaming and yelling America first. Real patriotism is loving your country so much that you actually want to help the people in your country. That is real patriotism pic.twitter.com/VSFKJcX4X6 Acyn (@Acyn) August 21, 2025In 2022, Garcia became the first out LGBTQ+ immigrant elected to Congress. Garcia immigrated to the United States from Peru at age five and holds an M.A. from the University of Southern California and an Ed.D. in Higher Education from California State University Long Beach, where he also earned his B.A. in Communications.My mom brought me to this country when I was 5. She risked everything so that I could succeed, Garcia said in a tweet when he announced his Congressional campaign. Every single kid deserves the same shot that this country has given me. Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

Duolingo, the language-learning app, apologized for an exercise in the app calling anti-trans author J.K. Rowling mean. At issue is one of the sentences generated by the app in a German lesson: Do you like books with Harry Potter as a character? Users are supposed to pick a response that works from the choices presented, and the correct choice translated to English was: Yes, but in my opinion, the author is mean. Related Duolingo removes LGBTQ+ content for Russian users BBC producer Gaby Koppel, who has a history of anti-trans statements and who regularly shares anti-trans messages on X, shared a screenshot of the exercise on social media and admonished Duolingo. Shame on you @duolingo: learning German and I came across the sentence Yes I like Harry Potter but the author is mean. How woke do you have to be to let #trans ideology infect a language lesson? she wrote, even though its not clear if a human wrote that exercise or whether it was intended as a reference to Rowlings hatred of trans people. Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today And here it is: pic.twitter.com/XCPF2qLMxv Gaby Koppel (@Gabykoppel) August 19, 2025We apologise for any offence caused and will remove this content from the app, Duolingo responded on X. Duolingo uses AI to generate exercises, which explains why it often uses silly but grammatically correct sentences to teach languages. The company hasnt said whether the question that offended Koppels sensibilities was generated by AI. Rowling has used her vast wealth, mostly accumulated through the success of herHarry Potterfranchise and its many multimedia spinoffs, to personally fund legal cases aimed at diminishing rights and protections for transgender women in the U.K. and Ireland. She regularly depicts trans people as a threat to girls and womens safety.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

Humpy Wheeler, a pioneering motorsports promoter and former president and general manager of Charlotte Motor Speedway, has died, NASCAR said. He was 86.

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In this undated photo provided by Tel Aviv University, lead researcher Israel Hershkovitz holds the skull of a child from Skhul Cave, in Tel Aviv, Israel. (Tel Aviv University via AP)2025-08-21T15:45:41Z TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) Modern humans and Neanderthals were interacting 100,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to researchers who used CT scans and 3D mapping to study the bones of a child they believe was the result of interbreeding between the two distinct groups.The child, described in a recent study published in the peer-reviewed journal LAnthropologie, was buried in a cave in Israel some 140,000 years ago. Because no ancient DNA was extracted from the fossilized remains, its impossible to confirm the childs origins, but scientists say microscopic details in the bones indicate the child had traits of both groups.When the bones were first excavated from Skhul Cave in northern Israel in 1931, archaeologists recognized that the child belonged to neither Homo sapiens, who had arrived in the region from Africa, nor Neanderthals, who arrived from Europe. They concluded it was a separate species indigenous to the area. But the new 3D mapping allowed researchers to study small details of the skull that had previously been difficult to see or decipher. Researchers were able to examine distinctive traits such as the construction of the inner ear and the imprint of blood vessels that supplied the brain. By comparing known characteristics of both Homo sapiens and Neanderthals, the researchers concluded the child was the result of interbreeding.Previously, the earliest known example of interbreeding between the groups was around 40,000 years ago in central Europe, explained Israel Hershkovitz, the lead researcher of the study and a professor of archaeology and human evolution at Tel Aviv University. A new glimpse into ancient relationsThe new research helps shed light on when the two groups began interacting and offers clues about their relationships.What were saying now is that there was an extensive relationship between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals that started around 140,000 years ago, and the two groups managed to live side by side with no evidence for hostile encounters, Hershkovitz said.The interbreeding and shared cultural practices, including burials and tool construction, challenge the notion of Homo sapiens as intolerant to other human groups due to their eventual dominance, Hershkovitz said.Without DNA, it will be impossible to prove that the child was a hybrid human, said Pascal Gagneux, an evolutionary biologist studying human origins at the University of California San Diego who was not involved in the research. Still, he said, the details revealed by the mapping, including the internal structure of some bones and several features, support the hybrid hypothesis.Peering inside an ancient skullResearchers took thousands of isolated scans of the skull and jaw of the child and then created a virtual 3D model of the fossil.The model allowed them to analyze tiny details that are impossible to see on the fossilized bones, including delicate parts inside the skull. Blood vessels, for example, make a small imprint on the inside of a skull.While some of the grooves are visible to the naked eye, the 3D scans allowed researchers to see the blood vessels like tributaries of a river, Hershkovitz said. The patterns are distinct between the two groups, because Neanderthals and Homo sapiens have different brain shapes that require different blood delivery.The virtual mapping created a more accurate reconstruction of the childs skull than could be built from the bones and plaster when the remains were originally excavated. The new reconstruction is much more elongated, which is more typical for Neanderthals, Gagneux said.However, the detailed reconstruction does not answer many of the questions surrounding the discovery, Gagneux said. Were the parents of the child also interbred? Or was one Neanderthal and the other Homo sapien? Why was the child, or anyone else, buried in the cave?Thomas Levy, a professor in cyber-archaeology also at the University of California San Diego, said he was impressed by the studys use of 3D models. The advances in scientific visualization allow more accurate measurements and comparisons of specimens, said Levy, who was not involved in the research.The technology also offers archaeologists a fresh opportunity to review conclusions from objects excavated many years ago. Living in harmonySkhul Cave is one of three caves in the region that represent some of the oldest known intentional burials in the world, dating to more than 100,000 years ago, in the middle of the Paleolithic era. Multiple sets of remains were found at each site, and some are still being painstakingly excavated with tiny drills, which could provide more clues in the future.In ancient times, Israel was a land bridge and point of interaction between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens.Because Homo sapiens eventually replaced Neanderthals in the region and across the world, many people speculate that their interactions were violent and hostile, with Homo sapiens eventually responsible for the total elimination of Neanderthals, Hershkovitz said. What Skhul is telling us is that Homo sapiens are not a vicious, aggressive creature, but one that managed to live in peace with other groups, he said. Our aggressive behavior, which continues today in our long history, is a recent phenomenon that has cultural roots and not biological roots. MELANIE LIDMAN Lidman is an Associated Press reporter based in Tel Aviv, Israel.

TikTok is full of AI slop videos about the National Guards deployment in Washington, D.C., some of which use Googles new VEO AI video generator. Unlike previous efforts to flood the zone with AI slop in the aftermath of a disaster or major news event, some of the videos blend real footage with AI footage, making it harder than ever to tell whats real and whats not, which has the effect of distorting peoples understanding of the military occupation of DC.At the start of last week, the Trump administration announced that all homeless people should immediately move out of Washington DC. This was followed by an order to Federal agents to occupy the city and remove tents where homeless people had been living. These events were reported on by many news outlets, for example, this footage from NBC shows the reality of at least one part of the exercise. On TikTok, though, this is just another popular trending topic, where slop creators and influencers can work together to create and propagate misinformation.404 Media has previously covered how perceptions of real-life events can be quickly manipulated with AI images and footage; this is more of the same; with the release of new, better AI video creation tools like Googles VEO, the footage is more convincing than ever.Some of the slop is obvious fantasy-driven engagement farming and gives itself away aesthetically or through content. This video and this very similar one show tents being pulled from a vast field into the back of a moving garbage truck, with the Capitol building in the background, on the Washington Mall. Theyre not tagged as AI, but at least a few people in the comments are able to identify them as such; both videos still have over 100,000 views. This somehow more harrowing one feat. Hunger Games song has 41,000. @biggiesmellscoach Washington DC cleanup organized by Trump. Homeless are now given secure shelters, rehab, therapy, and help. #washingtondc #fyp #satire #trending #viral origineel geluid - nina.editss With something like this video, made with VEO, the slop begins to feel more like a traditional news report. It has 146,000 views and its made of several short clips with news-anchorish voiceover. I had to scroll down past a lot of Thank you president Trump and good job officers comments to find any that pointed out that it was fake, even though the watermark for Googles VEO generator is in the corner.The voiceover also reports semi-accurately on what happened in DC, but without any specifics: Police moved in today, to clear out a homeless camp in the city. City crews tore down tents, packed up belongings, and swept the park clean. Some protested, some begged for more time. But the cleanup went on. What was once a community is now just an empty field. I found the same video posted to X, with commenters on both platforms taking offence at the use of the term community.Comments on the original and X postings of this video which is clearly made with VEO I also found several examples of shorter slop clips like this one, which has almost 1 million views, and this one, with almost half a million, which both exaggerate the scale and disarray of the encampments. In one of the videos, the entirety of an area that looks like the National Mall (but isnt) has been taken over by tents. Quickly scrolling these videos gives the viewer an incorrect understanding of what the DC camps and cleanup looked like.These shorter clips have almost 1.5 million views between themThe account that posted these videos was called Hush Documentary when I first encountered it, but had changed its name to viralsayings by Monday evening. The profile also has a five-second AI-generated footage of ATF officers patrolling a neighborhood; marked as AI, with 89,000 views.Whats happening also is that real footage and fake footage are being mixed together in a popular greenscreen TikTok format where a person gives commentary (basically, reporting or commenting on the news) while footage plays in the background. That is happening in this clip, which features that same AI footage of ATF officers.The viralsayings version of the footage is marked as AI. The remixed version, combined with real footage, is not. I ended up finding a ton of instances where accounts mixed slop clips of the camp clearings, with seemingly real footagenotably many of them included this viral original footage of police clearing a homeless encampment in Georgetown. But a lot of them are ripping each other off. For example, many accounts have ripped off the voiceover of this viral clip from @Alfredito_mx (which features real footage) and have put it over top of AI footage. This clone from omivzfrru2 has nearly 200,000 and features both real and AI clips; I found at least thirty other copies, all with between ~2000 and 5000 views.The scraping-and-recreating robot went extra hard with this one - the editing is super glitchy, the videos overlay each other, the host flickers around the screen, and random legs walk by in the background. @mgxrdtsi 75 homeless camps in DC cleared by US Park Police since Trump's 'Safe and Beautiful' executive order #alfredomx #washington #homeless #safeandbeautiful #trump original sound - mgxrdtsi So, one viral video from a popular creator has spawned thousands of mirrors in the hope of chipping off a small amount of the engagement of the original; those copies need footage, go looking for content in the tags, encounter the slop, and cant tell / dont care if its real. Then more thousands of people see the slop copies and end up getting a totally incorrect view of an actual unfolding news situation.In these videos, its only totally clear to me that the content is fake because I found the original sources. Lots of this footage is obviously fake if youre familiar with the actual situation in DC or familiar with the geography and streets in DC. But most people are not. If you told me some of these shots are AI, I dont think I could identify all of those shots confidently. Is the flicker or blurring onscreen from the footage, from a bad camera, from a time-lapse or being sped up, from endless replication online, or from the bad green screen of a host? Now, scrolling social media means encountering a mix of real and fake video, and the AI fakes are getting good enough that deciphering whats actually happening requires a level of attention to detail that most people dont have the knowledge or time for.

The following is an adapted excerpt from Be Gay, Do Crime: Everyday Acts of Queer Rebellion, edited by Riley Clare Valentine, Blu Buchanan, and LGBTQ Nation contributor Zane McNeill.These days, one often sees the slogan Protect Trans Kids emblazoned on T-shirts, painted across banners, or chanted on the streets during a demonstration. Radicals have added a twist, interspersing illustrations of a rose and a dagger between those three simple words, giving them a more edgy feel. Yet a fifteen-year-old queer anarchist friend of mine recently shared their critique of this popular phrase, adamantly declaring, We can defend ourselves!Their assertion points to the superpowers of many young folks today, at least as witnessed from my vantage point as an older queer anarchist on Turtle Island. They already know, at an early age, that they dont fit into heteronormative boxes. They already seem openly comfortable in who they are, in so many fabulous gender-nonconforming and even gender abolition ways. And as teenagers and even preteens, they are already both bashing back and striving to create their own queer utopias. Related Trans darts player vows not to let new anti-trans ban ruin her love of the sport Yet these youths are frequently unaware that their fighting spirit isnt so different from that of their ancestors, nor is their dedication to community self-defense. Take just one quote from this wide-ranging sampler of everyday acts of queer resistance and rebellion, proclaimed by gay antifascist Willem Arondeus as he faced execution for militant direct actions against Nazism Homosexuals are not cowards. In fact, many of us adults dont know our own histories-from-below either. Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today History, as the truism goes, is written by those in power, intentionally scheming to solidify their coercive and violent hold by erasing all that doesnt conform to their narrative. The victorious hegemonswhether colonialism and capitalism; states, police, and prisons; or homophobes, transphobes, and fascistsin essence put our grassroots histories into a closet and lock the door.Or so they think. Be Gay, Do Crime, with its abundance of calendrical offerings, acts like a bolt cutter. Each entry snaps open another padlock, allowing us to steal back what is ours. To reappropriate the many scraps of our bottom-up legacies of good troublemaking that otherwise would be lost to top-down histories, and use those glorious remnants, those f*g ends, to figuratively craft our own amulets of mutualistic protection. And to share those talismans of remembrance freely with accomplices, coconspirators, and other visionary heretics as the material that sustains our unsanctioned, unabashedly magical world-building.[T]his book is indeed a form of communal protectiona theme that threads its way throughout these pages. Its the kind of protection that comes from learning about radical history and revolutionary predecessors, thereby drawing strength from knowing that weve done this before, and not just one or two times. For centuries, weve resisted and rioted, made strides, grieved beloveds, experimented and sometimes failed, carved out autonomous spaces, graffitied walls and blockaded buildings, chosen our own kinship, lent our hearts and solidarity, lived dangerously and danced illegally, acted up and come out, fought back, defied borders and smashed binaries, remained illegibly subversive, and so much more.As piece after piece reminds us, when push comes to shove, we defend each other, and wisdom doesnt disappear, even if the powers that be connive to bury our stories. Were here, were queer, we wont disappear (Norway, June 25, 2022). And whether were young, old, or anywhere in between, as this book underscores, we persist in everyday acts of reciprocity that reduce harm and alleviate suffering, within and outside our circles.Or as poet Federico Garca Lorca put it I will always be on the side of those who have nothing and who are not even allowed to enjoy the nothing they have in peace.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) said that she would threaten to defund Clemson University over its pro-trans equality policies if she wins the race for South Carolina governor, bringing up a form on the public universitys website that had multiple gender options, something she criticized this past April and is no longer on the universitys website.What I would like to do, Alex, is defund colleges and universities that allow mentally ill men into womens bathrooms and womens spaces, she said on Alex Steins podcast. Stein is also an extreme transphobe who testified in the Texas legislature earlier this month that the government should allow trans people in the military so that they can die in battle. Related Gavin Newsom misgenders gay MAGA activist, calling him Nancy Mace Stein appeared to get upset at the suggestion that Clemson and the University of South Carolina could get their funding cut, but Mace responded: Clemson had a form on their website with 15 genders and male and female werent two of them.Mace was referring to a drop menu on the student information form on Clemsons website that she was outraged by back in April, so outraged that she recorded herself leaving a voicemail expressing her discontent with the president of Clemson. 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 The drop menu, though, didnt have 15 genders. In reality, it had 15 choices of phrases people could use to describe their gender, many of which werent mutually exclusive with other options. Cis-female and cis-male were both options on the list, as well as trans man and trans woman, which meant that there were plenty of options for male and female people to choose from.Stein brought up football funding, and Mace pushed back, saying that threatening the universities funding is also about protecting men.I wanna make sure everybody is following the rules and were keeping women safe and men too because its a liability for women to be in mens spaces, Mace said. There is no evidence that trans women are a threat to cis women in restrooms, and there is no evidence that trans men are a threat to cis men in restrooms either.I want to protect men just as much as I want to protect women. Nancy Mace said she would defund USC and Clemson as governor if they allow trans women to choose their preferred restroom pic.twitter.com/yhYYjASLF8 PatriotTakes (@patriottakes) August 20, 2025Mace announced her gubernatorial campaign earlier this month and has centered her campaign around rolling back rights for transgender people. Her video announcing her campaign mentioned no policy issue other than trans rights, which it brought up in multiple ways. At a campaign event soon after she announced her campaign, she repeated anti-trans slurs and got mad when called out. She also asked the president to put her name on a womens bathroom at his presidential library to honor her for her opposition to trans rights. Mace got a lot of media attention last year for her opposition to trans rights, more than she had received in the past. She introduced two resolutions concerning bathroom issues last November, both to ban trans women from using the womens facilities. One of the resolutions was for the restrooms at the Capitol and was introduced in response to the election of Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE), the first transgender person elected to Congress.In the months since McBrides win, Mace has posted several messages a day to her social media accounts opposing trans peoples rights. She has referred to McBride as it,used anti-trans slurs in committee hearings, andthreatened to fight Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX)for calling out her transphobia.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

During New York Fashion Week next month, the lab coat a symbol of medical authority will be reimagined as a work of couture.On Sept. 13 at the Nexus Club New York, HIV Unwrapped presented by +Life, will make its U.S. debut, bringing together emerging designers from Parsons School of Design and leading HIV scientists in a collaboration that fuses fashion, science and storytelling. The initiative asks these emerging designers to create a custom garment inspired by their partnered scientist, transforming a clinical garment into a canvas for resilience, gratitude and activism.The runway show will be staged as an immersive, choreographed experience, drawing on the lived experiences of people impacted by HIV and those working to end the epidemic. Original garments, inspired by molecular science and the communities most affected by the virus, will share the spotlight with the personal narratives behind them.Im thrilled to bring HIV Unwrapped to life during New York Fashion Week, because lets be honest, HIV deserves better PR, and what better way to do that than with fabulous fashion? said Karl Schmid, Plus alum of The Switch and HIV Unwrapped executive producer. This isnt just a runway show; its a bold statement to smash stigma, spark conversation, and remind the world that HIV is only part of our story. Im proud to be part of a team turning science into style and compassion into couture and you wont want to miss a single stitch.The event will be filmed as a +Life original broadcast special premiering in conjunction with World AIDS Day on Dec. 1. Viewers will see exclusive behind-the-scenes footage, from sketching and fittings to interviews with designers and groundbreaking scientists. The special will also revisit HIV Unwrappeds earlier editions in Australia, Rwanda and the United Kingdom.Following its international iterations, the U.S. edition is sponsored by Gilead Sciences and presented in partnership with equalpride, GLAAD, and ASHM, with additional support from the Council of Fashion Designers of America and design mentorship from New York label Tanner Fletcher.GLAAD is proud to support HIV Unwrapped at New York Fashion Week, said Anthony Ramos, GLAAD vice president of communications and talent. By merging fashion, storytelling, and science, this initiative opens new doors for HIV awareness and visibility, especially for younger generations who may not realize the ongoing impact of this epidemic. Its a powerful reminder that ending HIV stigma requires creativity, collaboration, and unapologetic visibility.+Life, the multimedia platform behind the project, produces social and streaming content, including its flagship roundtable talk show +Talk, focusing on love, relationships, health and stigma reduction.For the emerging designers, designing a lab coat or garment is more than an assignment its a way to honor the professionals who help them navigate life with HIV. For the doctors, its a reminder that science and humanity are always intertwined.More information, including red carpet details, broadcast dates, featured participants and a guest list, will be announced in the weeks ahead.

As hospitals across the country scale back gender-affirming services for minors, Boston Childrens Hospital is taking the opposite approach: doubling down on its commitment to trans youth.The move stands in stark contrast to several major providers that have rolled back care in the wake of political threats and recent court rulings. Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, Phoenix Childrens Hospital, and Stanford Medicine are among the institutions that have announced restrictions in recent weeks.A Statement of DefianceEarlier this month, Boston Childrens Gender Multispecialty Service (GeMS) program published a public statement rejecting calls to halt care.Boston Childrens Hospital has always been and always will be committed to providing the best care for ALL of our patients, regardless of their gender identity, the statement read. We believe in a gender-affirmative model of care, which supports transgender and gender diverse youth in the gender in which they identify.The hospital noted GeMS was the nations first pediatric and adolescent trans health program and reaffirmed that its practices are backed by medical evidence.Pushback and ThreatsRight-wing commentators quickly targeted the hospital. Chaya Raichik, who runs Libs of TikTok, called for it to be defunded and investigated. Former college swimmer Riley Gaines also condemned the institution, repeating long-debunked claims about trans healthcare for minors.This isnt the first time Boston Childrens has been caught in a political firestorm. In 2022, the hospital endured bomb threats after false claims spread online suggesting doctors performed hysterectomies on minors. The program has never offered such procedures to patients under 18. At the time, staff faced harassment so severe the hospital hired extra security.A Shifting Legal LandscapeThe pressure on providers follows the Supreme Courts Skrmetti ruling, which upheld Tennessees ban on gender-affirming care for minors. That decision has emboldened policymakers and activists seeking to expand restrictions nationwide. Hospitals now face not only state-level bans but also the threat of losing federal funding under executive orders targeting facilities that provide such care.Despite this, Boston Childrens shows no signs of retreating. The hospital says it stands with its patients, families, and trans staff and backs federal protections like the Equality Act.Holding the LineWhile many institutions weigh political risks against patient care, Boston Childrens is signaling that it wont abandon trans youth. The hospital has framed its decision as both a medical obligation and a moral one, describing gender-affirming care as essential for young people to live, grow and thrive with love and support.For families facing dwindling options nationwide, that commitment offers a rare sense of security at a time when trans health care remains under attack.Source

Nature, Published online: 21 August 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-02431-yMany author-identifier profiles are empty, making it difficult to track whos publishing what.

Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson didn't practice Thursday, which was one day after he left practice early.

Northwestern and former football coach Pat Fitzgerald have settled a $130 million lawsuit, which was filed by Fitzgerald after his dismissal two years ago amid allegations of hazing in the program,

Nick Kyrgios withdrew from the US Open on Thursday, the third straight year the Australian has missed the last Grand Slam tournament of the season.

Buffalo Bills quarterback will not play in the preseason for the first time in his career.

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Workers say the executive was volatile and retaliated when they cooperated with an investigation. Apple denies the claims.

Fifteen years after a combat photographer lost his legs to a land mine, he returned to the place in Afghanistan where it happened.

Join us each month this school year to discuss a teen-friendly topic with a New York Times journalist who covers it. Post your thoughts, ask questions or suggest ideas, and the reporters will reply!

Across 35 years and five films, Spike Lee and Denzel Washington redefined Black male filmmaking and cemented an indestructible personal bond.

Alien: Earth, the latest entry in the Alien franchise, is now streaming. The Onion shares everything you need to know about the sci-fi series.Q: Where is it streaming?A: Looks like the guy sitting next to you on the bus has it playing pretty loudly.Q: Is it appropriate for children?A: No, but neither is Euphoria and you let them watch that.Q: Who is the protagonist?A: Probably not the guy who just got torn in half.Q: How much goo is there?A: The show was rated a 7.6 on the Holtz Goo Scale.Q: What did the shows $250 million budget go towards?A: Trimming Sydney Chandlers micro bob every 20 minutes.Q: How much mouth impregnation we talking here?A: Regular amount.Q: When does Season 2 come out?A: They released Alien in 1979.The post What To Know About Alien: Earth appeared first on The Onion.

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Between a now empty pickup truck and what's left of his work crew at right, Martin Romero, 41, of Glen Burnie, Md., talks to his boss on the phone after his work crew was stopped by Park Police during a traffic stop near Rock Creek Park, and two of the workers in their truck were taken away by ICE, Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025, in Washington. "I feel desperate for my co-workers, for their families," says Romero, who also said he saw five workers taken at the stop. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)2025-08-21T16:57:58Z WASHINGTON (AP) Federal authorities have used checkpoints around the nations capital to screen vehicles, sometimes asking people for their immigration status after stopping them, as President Donald Trumps crackdown reaches the two-week mark in Washington. The use of checkpoints, which can be legally controversial, is the latest indication that the White Houses mass deportation agenda is central to its assertion of federal power in Washington. Federal agents and hundreds of National Guard troops have surged into Washington this month, putting some residents on edge and creating tense confrontations in the streets. The citys immigrant population, in particular, is rattled. A daycare was partially closed on Thursday when staff became afraid to go to work because they heard about federal agents nearby. An administrator asked parents to keep their children at home if possible. Other day cares have stopped taking kids on daily walks because of fears about encountering law enforcement.D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser acknowledged Thursday that the proliferation of traffic checkpoints are an inevitable aspect of the federal law enforcement operations. The surge of federal officers is allowing for different types of deployments, more frequent types of deployments, like checkpoints, Bowser said.Since Aug. 7, when Trump began surging federal agents into the city, there have been 630 arrests, including 251 people who are in the country illegally, according to the White House. Trump has been ratcheting up the pressure since then, seizing control of the D.C. police department on Aug. 11 and deploying more National Guard troops, mostly from Republican-led states. Soldiers have been largely stationed in downtown areas, such as monuments on the National Mall and transit stations. However, federal agents are operating more widely through the city and some may soon get a visit from the president himself. Trump is expected to join a patrol in D.C. on Thursday night. He told his plans to Todd Starnes, a conservative commentator. Not a normal traffic stopOn Thursday morning, as Martin Romero rode through Washingtons Rock Creek Park on his way to a construction job in Virginia, he saw police on the road up ahead. He figured it was a normal traffic stop, but it wasnt.Romero, 41, said that U.S. Park Police were telling pickup trucks with company logos to pull over, reminding them that commercial vehicles werent allowed on park roads. They checked for licenses and insurance information, and then U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents came over.Romero said there were two agents on one side of his truck and three on the other. He started to get nervous as the agents asked where they were from and whether they were in the country illegally.We just came here to work, Romero said afterwards. We arent doing anything bad.Two people in his truck were detained and the agents didnt give a reason, he said. He also saw three other people taken from other vehicles.I feel really worried because they took two of our guys, he said. They wouldnt say where theyre taking them or if theyll be able to come back. Romero said he called his boss, who told him to just head home. They wouldnt be working today.Enrique Martinez, a supervisor at the construction company, came to the scene afterwards. He pondered whether to call families of the detained men. This has never happened to our company before, Martinez said. Im not really sure what to do.Checkpoints are legal, to a pointThe Supreme Court has upheld the use of law enforcement and government checkpoints for specific purposes, such as for policing the border and for identifying suspected drunk drivers.But there are restrictions on that authority, especially when it comes to general crime control. Jeffrey Bellin, a former prosecutor in Washington and professor at Vanderbilt Law School who specializes in criminal law and procedures, said the Constitution doesnt allow the government to be constantly checking us and stopping to see if were up to any criminal activity. He said checkpoints for a legally justifiable purpose like checking for drivers licenses and registrations cannot be used as subterfuge or a pretext for stops that would otherwise not be allowed. And though the court has affirmed the use of checkpoints at the border, and even some distance away from it, to ask drivers about immigration status, Bellin said it was unlikely the authority would extend to Washington.Anthony Michael Kreis, a professor at Georgia State College of Law, said the seemingly arbitrary and intrusive nature of the checkpoints in the capital could leave residents feeling aggrieved.Some of the things could be entirely constitutional and fine, but at the same time, the way that things are unfolding, people are suspicious and I think for good reason, he said. From Los Angeles to D.C.There are few places in the country that have been unaffected by Trumps deportation drive, but his push into D.C. is shaping into something more sustained, similar to what has unfolded in the Los Angeles area since early June.In Los Angeles, immigration officers working with the Border Patrol and other federal agencies have been a near-daily presence at Home Depots, car washes and other highly visible locations. In a demonstration of how enforcement has affected routines, the bishop of San Bernardino, California, formally excused parishioners of their weekly obligation to attend Mass after immigration agents detained people on two parish properties.Immigration officials have been an unusually public presence, sending horse patrols to the citys famed MacArthur Park and appearing outside California Gov. Gavin Newsoms news conference last week on congressional redistricting. Authorities said an agent fired at a moving vehicle last week after the driver refused to roll down his window during an immigration stop.The National Guard and Marines were previously in the city for weeks on an assignment to maintain order amid protests.A federal judge blocked the administration from conducting indiscriminate immigration stops in Southern California but authorities have vowed to keep the pressure on. ____Associated Press writers Eric Tucker and Ashraf Khalil in Washington and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed reporting. CHRIS MEGERIAN Megerian covers the White House for The Associated Press. He previously wrote about the Russia investigation, climate change, law enforcement and politics in California and New Jersey. twitter mailto JACQUELYN MARTIN Martin photographs politics at the White House and Congress and has circumnavigated the globe as a pool photographer covering every Secretary of State since 2010. She is known for her multidisciplinary enterprise feature packages and is fluent in Spanish. twitter instagram

James Dobson, the founder of the Christian anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups Focus on the Family (FOF) and the Family Research Council (FRC), has died at the age of 89. Hailed as one of the most influential evangelical leader[s] in America, he considered same-sex marriage worse than terrorism and encouraged men to murder trans women.Born in 1936 to a fundamentalist minister father in Shreveport, Louisiana, Dobson graduated with a doctoral degree in psychology from the University of Southern California in 1967, and gained notoriety in 1970 by writing Dare to Discipline, a book that urged parents to use corporeal punishment to break the will of their children; his book also encouraged parents to hit their kids more if they cried for longer than five minutes after their initial beating. Related I was once an architect of the Christian nationalist agenda. I regret it all. He founded FOF in 1977 and the FRC in 1981, two groups that specifically targeted feminists and gay people. FRC successfully championed the 1992 passage of Colorados Amendment 2, a ballot measure that forbade municipalities from passing anti-discrimination measures to protect gay and bi people.Dobson also co-founded the Christian Nationalist legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom in 1993 the group has successfully overturned the national right to an abortion and opposes any expansion of LGBTQ+ civil rights. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Dobson and his network of evangelical conservative activists helped pass numerous state-level bans on same-sex marriage. 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 By November 2004, Slate.com called Dobson Americas most influential evangelical leader, comparing him with the massively powerful anti-LGBTQ+ pastors Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. In 2010, Dobson launched Family Talk Radio, which aired on over 1,500 stations worldwide. Dobson also served as an adviser to five Republican presidents, includingDonald Trump.Dobson said women are hormonally predisposed to stay at home and raise children. He said women should use sex to gain the protection of men and use romance to civilize mens destructive and lustful impulses. He also said feminists threaten society because they question mens natural leadership. Dobson and his groups promoted conversion therapy, the widely debunked, pseudoscientific practice that purports to change peoples sexual orientation and gender identity.Dobson opposed pro-trans public accommodation laws because, he said, every woman and little girl will have to fear that a predator, bisexual, cross-dresser, or even a homosexual or heterosexual male might walk in and relieve himself in their presence. He compared proponents of same-sex marriage to Nazis who want the utter destruction of the family. He also said same-sex marriage would destroy the Earth.In 2005, Dobson said that tolerance and diversity are buzzwords used in a hidden agenda to promote homosexual propaganda to children.In 2015, Dobson said that the B in LGBTQ+ stands for orgies because bisexual people want to have sex with everybody. Dobson warned that legalizing same-sex marriage would result in civil war, fathers marrying their daughters, and men marrying donkeys. In 2016, he said that men should murder trans women who use womens restrooms.In 2017, he signed the Nashville Statement, an evangelical statement on sexuality and gender that called it sinful and anti-Christian to approve of homosexual immorality or transgenderism.In 2019, Dobson incited fear around the Equality Act, a federal bill to prohibit anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination. Dobson said the act represents one of the most egregious assaults on religious liberty ever foisted on the people of this great nation, and claimed that LGBTQ+ people and Democrats would enslave Christians if the act became law. That same year, he claimed that mass shootings at schools and businesses occur because the LGBTQ movement is closing in on the God-inspired and established institution of the family.In June 2020, Dobson declared the Supreme Court ruling that protected people from discrimination in employment due to gender and sexualityan affront against Godand a historical attack against the founding framework that governs our nation.Dobsons group, FOF, has called the LGBTQ+ rights movement a particularly evil lie of Satan. FOF said the homosexual movements goals include universal acceptance of the gay lifestyle, the discrediting of Scriptures that condemn homosexuality, muzzling of the clergy and Christian media, granting special privileges and rights in the law, overturning laws prohibiting pedophilia, indoctrination of children and future generations through public education, and securing all the legal benefits of marriage for any two or more people who claim to have homosexual tendencies.The FRC has gone on to say that same-sex sexuality should be legislated and declared illegal and that criminal sanctions against homosexual behavior should be enforced. The group has argued that repealing the militarys Dont Ask, Dont Tell policy encourages the molestation of heterosexual service members.The FRC has also dishonestly argued that homosexual men are more likely to abuse children than straight men, rhetoric that encourages violence against LGBTQ+ people and their allies. FRC leaders have said thatthe Bible commands Christians to kill gay peopleand that Christians shouldpray against any expansion of LGBTQ civil rights. Evangelical groups and leaders associated with Dobson, FRC, and FOF have gone on to advocate for anti-LGBTQ+ laws in Africa, Europe, and East Asia.In his 1997 book James Dobsons War on America, former FoF executive Gil Alexander-Moegerle wrote, James Dobson believes that he has been entirely sanctified, morally perfected, that he does not and cannot sin. Now you know why he and moralists like him make a life of condemning what he believes to be the sins of others. He is perfect.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.