BALTIMOREIdentifying a disturbing behavioral trend likely to have profound health consequences, a study published Wednesday by researchers at Johns Hopkins University found that ultra-processed foods made up over 50% of Americans thoughts. We surveyed more than 20,000 participants across the country, and the data showed they primarily think about sausages, spicy chicken nuggets, and cream-filled snack cakes, said study co-author Maya Beatty, adding that participants rarely contemplated healthy nuts and seeds and instead focused on white bread and a wide variety of toaster pastries. In the United States, these high-sugar, low-nutritional-content foods appear essentially any time someone closes their eyes. Parents may try to trick their kids into thinking about little pieces of carrots in their macaroni, but these children have already become accustomed to daydreaming about sweeteners, emulsifiers, and dyes. Additionally, many participants reported that it has gotten too expensive to think about nutritious foods like eggs and fresh vegetables. The study also reported that those surveyed obsessively worried about the planet eventually running out of high-fructose corn syrup.The post Study Finds Ultra-Processed Foods Make Up Over 50% Of Americans Thoughts appeared first on The Onion.

LEAWOOD, KSLighting up as he outlined his vision for their special day, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce reportedly asked fiance Taylor Swift on Wednesday if their upcoming wedding could be shark themed. Come on, babe, you love animals, said Kelce, who gestured enthusiastically as he threw out ideas, including tables named after different shark species and a life-size ice sculpture of a mad angry great white shark baring its teeth. They already sell so much shark-themed party stuff, so it would make planning super easy. What if the invitations were, like, these scary shark mouths that you open? Babe, please? Have you ever heard of megalodons? They were huge, babe. As big as my love for you. According to reports, Kelce later moved on to suggesting the wedding should be space themed after he learned about the moon landing.The post Travis Kelce Asks If Wedding Can Be Shark Themed appeared first on The Onion.

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A national flag of Iran waves in front of the building of the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, in Vienna, Austria, Friday, Dec. 17, 2021. (AP Photo/Michael Gruber, File)2025-09-03T15:10:21Z VIENNA (AP) A confidential report by the United Nations nuclear watchdog circulated to member states and seen by The Associated Press said Wednesday that Iran and the IAEA have not reached an agreement on resuming inspections of sites affected by Israeli and U.S. bombing in June. The director general of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, said that technical modalities to enable the full resumption of Agency inspection should be concluded without delay, the report stated.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. APs earlier story follows below.VIENNA (AP) Iran further increased its stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels before Israel launched its military attack on June 13, a confidential report by the United Nations nuclear watchdog seen by The Associated Press said Wednesday.The report by the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency said that as of June 13, Iran had 440.9 kilograms of uranium enriched up to 60%, an increase of 32.3 kilograms since the IAEAs last report in May. The report stated that this figure is based on the information provide by Iran, agency verification activities between 17 May 2025 and 12 June 2025 (the day preceding the start of the military attacks), and estimates based on the past operation of the relevant facilities. That material is a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. The confidential report also stated that as of June 13, Irans total enriched uranium stockpile was 9874.9 kilograms, which represents an increase of 627.3 kilograms since the last repot in May.The U.N. nuclear watchdog said that since June 13, it has not been able to conduct the in-field activities required to collect and verify Irans declarations used to estimate the changes to the previously reported stockpile.According to the IAEA, approximately 42 kilograms of 60% enriched uranium is theoretically enough to produce one atomic bomb, if enriched further to 90%.

This Dec. 6, 2018 image made available by NASA shows the InSight lander. (NASA via AP)2025-09-03T15:02:53Z CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) Scientists revealed Wednesday that Mars innermost core appears to be a solid hunk of metal just like Earths.The Chinese-led research team based their findings on seismic readings from NASAs InSight lander on Mars, which recorded more than 1,300 marsquakes before shutting down in 2022. The spacecraft landed on a broad plain near Mars equator in 2018.Previous studies pointed to liquid at the heart of the red planet. The latest findings indicate the inner core, while small, is indeed solid and surrounded by molten metal a liquid outer core.The Martian inner core extends from the planets center out to a radius of approximately 380 miles (613 kilometers), according to the scientists whose findings appeared in the journal Nature.Its likely composed of iron and nickel, the same ingredients as Earths core, but quite possibly also enriched with lighter elements like oxygen. Mars liquid outer core is bigger, stretching from 380 miles (613 kilometers) to as much as 1,100 miles (1,800 kilometers) from the planets center.Crystallization of Mars inner core may have occurred in the past and still be occurring today, one of the lead investigators, Daoyuan Sun of the University of Science and Technology of China, said in an email. Mars core initially would have been entirely liquid. Its unclear whether the liquid outer core contains any solid material like droplets or whether there might be a mushy zone near the boundary between the inner and outer cores, he added. Stay up to date with similar stories by signing up to our WhatsApp channel. For their study, Sun and his team relied primarily on 23 marsquakes recorded by InSight, all of them relatively weak. The epicenters were 740 miles to 1,465 miles (1,200 kilometers to 2,360 kilometers) away from the lander. Our results suggest that Mars has a solid inner core making up about one-fifth of the planets radius roughly the same proportion as Earths inner core. However, this similarity may be just coincidental, Sun said. While praising the results, the University of Marylands Nicholas Schmerr, who was not involved in the study, said questions regarding Mars core are far from settled. With InSight out of action, there will be no new recordings of marsquakes to further reveal the red planets insides, he noted.There are a lot of details about the exact shape of the inner core and composition of the inner and outer core of Mars that will require a network of InSight like seismometer stations to resolve, Schmerr said in an email.More detailed modeling is necessary to develop a clearer picture of how the inner core formed and what it reveals about the history of Mars magnetic field, said Sun. At present, Mars lacks a magnetic field, possibly because of the slow crystallization of the planets solid core, Schmerr added.___The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

LGBTQ+ advocate Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) has slammed U.K. police for arresting an anti-trans comedian over a series of threatening posts on X.Khanna called the arrest of Graham Linehan an offense to anyone who supports free speech. Related Sitting Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene is now just calling trans people Satan I guess UK has not learned from the time prosecutors read passages of The Picture of Dorian Gray to convict Oscar Wilde, he added. Linehan was arrested as he stepped off a plane in London on Monday on suspicion of inciting anti-trans violence via social media. Among three messages posted to X was one encouraging people to punch trans women in the balls. 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 In a piece for The Spectator wrought with wildly anti-trans insults, Linehan detailed the experience: I was arrested at an airport like a terrorist, locked in a cell like a criminal, taken to hospital because the stress nearly killed me, and banned from speaking onlineall because I made jokes that upset some psychotic crossdressers, he wrote. To me, this proves one thing beyond doubt: the UK has become a country that is hostile to freedom of speech, hostile to women, and far too accommodating to the demands of violent, entitled, abusive men who have turned the police into their personal goon squad. Despite Linehans claims about trans women being violent, entitled, [and] abusive, the vast number of attacks on trans and non-trans people are carried out by cisgender men.In 2023, Khanna spoke with LGBTQ Nation about his staunch LGBTQ+ allyship, including his spearheading of a 2020 bill to add a third gender to U.S. passports.I think when you have someone who is straight or cisgender talk about these things and say, Look, this is about recognizing peoples identity and respecting that. This is about making sure that people can have dignity and self-worth in who they are, then people say, yeah, thats just common sense. You know, thats being a kind human being. Thats why its crucial to have a lot of allies making these points. Khanna has also been a vocal defender of trans Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE), once telling anti-trans Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), on the issue of transgender rights, we just have a profound disagreement I think Rep. McBride deserves dignity.Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said the officers who arrested Linehan had reasonable grounds to believe an offence had been committed and that reasonable people would agree that genuine threats of physical violence against an identified person or group should be acted upon by officers.Such actions can and do have serious and violent real-world implications, he said.But when it comes to lesser cases, where there is ambiguity in terms of intent and harm, policing has been left between a rock and a hard place by successive governments, who have given officers no choice but to record such incidents as crimes when theyre reported. Then they are obliged to follow all lines of inquiry and take action as appropriate.I dont believe we should be policing toxic culture wars debates and officers are currently in an impossible position.In his post detailing the arrest, Linehan called the baiting post a serious point made with a joke.The punch was a bit about the height difference between men and women, Linehan said, while admitting the joke fell flat. Linehan produced widely popular work for decades in the U.K. before taking up the mantle of anti-trans activism and suffering the backlash.Linehans anti-trans views first came to light ina screed in his BritcomThe IT Crowdin 2008. More public pronouncements earned bans on Twitter and a public alliance with Rowling as her own anti-trans activism obscured her once-favorable reputation for writing the belovedHarry Potterbook series.Linehans comedy career in the U.K. dried up in the ensuing years, and hes admitted his activism became an obsession, overtaking his professional and personal life. His wife divorced him in 2020.In December 2024, Linehan announced plans tomove to Arizonato work on a sitcom and create a production companywith fellow anti-trans activist and comedian Rob Schneider and gay Irish Brexiter activist Andrew Doyle. Linehan was on his way back from Phoenix when he was detained at Londons Heathrow airport.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

Gavin Newsom had the last laugh after MAGA Fox host Jesse Watters tried to mock the Democratic California governors new and wildly successful social media strategy.Newsoms press office account has been trolling the president by mimicking his over-the-top style, writing boastful and insulting messages in all-caps, many of which intentionally make little sense. While Democrats are eating it up, Fox hosts have been freaking out, with many not seeming to fully grasp what Newsom is doing. Related Out Attorney General issues stark warning to cowardly hospital eliminating trans health care Most recently, Watters wondered on air why Newsom is imitating the presidents posting style but not his policies. Newsoms satirical style required only four words to explain: Because they are trash. because they are trash https://t.co/bWkcoZUvnS Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) September 3, 2025Newsoms posts have been captivating folks across the country. CNN analyst Harry Enten says the strategy is working and has resulted in a whopping 40-point rise in California voters who want to see him run for president from 35% in 2023 to 75% today.Enten said the polling is significant despite the election being over three years away.Its one of those benchmarks, the home-state polling for presidential candidates. If they cant win the primary in their home state, they aint going to win anywhere, Enten wrote.Enten said Newsoms numbers have also risen nationally, from 11% of Democratic voters who wanted him to run for president on June 1 to 27% now.

Nature, Published online: 03 September 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09425-wIn a case of obligate cross-species cloning, female ants of Messor ibericus need to clone males of Messor structor to obtain sperm for producing the worker caste, resulting in males from the same mother having distinct genomes and morphologies.

Nature, Published online: 03 September 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09460-7The cortex fuels essential physiological processes with glucose-derived carbon, while gliomas fuel their aggressiveness by rerouting glucose carbon pathways and scavenging alternative carbon sources such as environmental amino acids, providing a potential therapeutic target.

Nature, Published online: 03 September 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-02530-wAn analysis of seismic waves propagating through Mars finds evidence that the planet has a small, solid inner core, which challenges existing planetary models.

Nature, Published online: 03 September 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09472-3A new method enables comprehensive screening and identification of low-affinity DNA binding sites for transcription factors, and reveals that nucleotides flanking high-affinity binding sites create overlapping low-affinity binding sites that modulate transcription factor binding in vivo.

Nature, Published online: 03 September 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-02531-9Glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer, depends on the amino acid serine as a fuel source. A serine-deficient diet has been shown to slow tumour growth in mice.

After a 2020 breach thought to be Russias work, the courts told Congress that they would harden a system storing sealed documents. Five years later, the system was hacked again.

The Met, which has withdrawn $120 million from its endowment since the pandemic, reached a lucrative deal to perform in Saudi Arabia for three weeks each winter.

The former senator has been out of office for more than 15 years, but his last name is synonymous with Republican politics in a state where party leaders see a chance to flip a seat.

The defense secretary and President Trump said a small boat was carrying drugs but offered little evidence and few details.

As ICE ramps up for more deportations under President Trump, Nicholas Nehamas, a Washington correspondent for The New York Times, talks with applicants at an ICE recruitment fair in Texas.

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President Donald Trump and Polish President Karol Nawrocki watch a military aircraft flyover at the White House, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025, in Washington. The Washington Monument stands in the distance. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)2025-09-03T04:05:19Z WASHINGTON (AP) Polands new president, Karol Nawrocki, arrived at the White House on Wednesday, looking to strengthen his relationship with President Donald Trump and make the case that the United States needs to maintain its robust military presence in his country.Trump gave the Polish leader a hearty slap on the shoulder, and the presidents then stood side by side watching as U.S. military jets soared over on the White House South Lawn. A group of F-16s flew in a missing man formation as a tribute to a Polish Air Force F-16 pilot, Maj. Maciej Slab Krakowian, who died in a crash in Poland on Aug. 28.The visit to Washington is Nawrockis first overseas trip since taking office last month. It comes after Trump took the unusual step of involving himself in the elections of longtime ally Poland, endorsing Nawrocki, who was backed by the conservative Law and Justice party. Now in office, the former amateur boxer and historian is hoping to deepen his relationship with Trump at a fraught moment for Warsaw.Trump is increasingly frustrated by his inability to get Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to sit down for direct talks aimed at ending the war between Polands neighbors. Trump last month met with Putin in Alaska and then with Zelenskyy and several European leaders at the White House. The Republican president emerged from those engagements confident that he would be able to quickly arrange direct talks between Putin and Zelenskyy and perhaps three-way talks in which he would participate. But his optimism in hatching an agreement to end the war has dimmed as Putin has yet to signal an interest in sitting down with Zelenskyy.Maybe they have to fight a little longer, Trump said in an interview with the conservative Daily Caller published over the weekend. You know, just keep fighting stupidly, keep fighting. There is also heightened anxiety in Poland, and across Europe, about Trumps long-term commitment to a strong U.S. force posture on the continent an essential deterrent to Russia. Some key advisers in his administration have advocated for shifting U.S. troops and military from Europe to the Indo-Pacific with Chinas lock as the United States most significant strategic and economic competitor. Currently, there are about 8,200 American troops stationed in Poland, but the force level regularly fluctuates, according to the Pentagon.The stakes are very high for President Nawrockis visit, said Peter Doran, an analyst at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. Trump will have an opportunity to size up Polands new president, and Nawrocki also will have the chance to do the same. Failure in this meeting would mean a pullback of American force posture in Poland, and success would mean a clear endorsement of Poland as one of Americas most important allies on the front line.Trump made clear before Polands election this spring he wanted Nawrocki to win, dangling the prospect of closer military ties if the Poles elected Nawrocki. Trump even hosted him at the White House before the vote. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem also traveled to Poland shortly before Polands May election to tell Poles if they elected Nawrocki and other conservatives they would have a strong ally in Trump who would ensure that you will be able to fight off enemies that do not share your values.Ultimately, Polish voters went with Nawrocki in a tight election over liberal Warsaw Mayor Rafa Trzaskowski.Most of the power in Polands parliamentary system rests with an elected parliament and a government chosen by the parliament. The president can veto legislation and represents the country abroad. Nawrocki has tense relations with the government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, an ally of Trzaskowski.Nawrocki has echoed some of Trumps language on Ukraine. He promises to continue Polands support for Ukraine but has been critical of Zelenskyy, accusing him of taking advantage of allies. Nawrocki has accused Ukrainian refugees of taking advantage of Polish generosity and vowed to prioritize Poles for social services such as health care and schooling. At the same time, Nawrocki will be looking to stress to Trump that Russia aggression in Ukraine underscores that Putin cant be trusted and that a strong U.S. presence in Poland remains an essential deterrent, said Heather Conley, a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where she focuses on trans-Atlantic security and geopolitics.Russia and its ally Belarus are set to hold joint military exercises this month in Belarus, unnerving Poland as well as fellow NATO members Latvia and Lithuania.The message Nawrocki ultimately wants to give President Trump is how dangerous Putins revisionism is, and that it does not necessarily end with Ukraine, Conley said. Associated Press writers Geir Moulson in Berlin and Michelle L. Price and Konstantin Toropin contributed to this report. AAMER MADHANI Madhani covers the White House for The Associated Press. He is based in Washington. twitter mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

The Federal Trade Commission announced Wednesday that Pornhub and its parent company Aylo settled a lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission and the state of Utah.The FTC and Utahs attorney general claimed that Pornhub and its affiliates deceived users by doing little to block tens of thousands of videos and photos featuring child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and nonconsensual material (NCM) despite claiming that this content was strictly prohibited, the FTC wrote in a press release.As part of a proposed order settling the allegations, Pornhubs operators, Aylo and its affiliated companies (collectively Aylo), will be required to establish a program to prevent the distribution of CSAM and NCM on its websites and pay a $5 million penalty to the state of Utah, it said.This settlement reaffirms and enhances Aylos efforts to prevent the publication of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and non-consensual material (NCM) on its platforms, a spokesperson for Aylo told 404 Media said in a statement. Aylo is committed to maintaining the highest standards of safety and compliance on its platforms. While the FTC and Utah DCP [Division of Consumer Protection] have raised serious concerns and allege that some of Aylos user generated content websites made available videos and photos containing CSAM and NCM, this agreement strengthens the comprehensive safeguards that have been in place for years on Aylo platforms. These measures reflect Aylos ongoing commitment to constantly evolving compliance efforts. Importantly, this settlement resolves the matter with no admission of wrongdoing while reaffirming Aylos commitment to the highest standards of platform safety and compliance.In addition to the penalty fee, according to the proposed settlement, Aylo would have to implement a program to prevent CSAM and non-consensual imagery from being disseminated on its sites, establish a system to verify that people who appear in videos or photos on its websites are adults and have provided consent to the sexual conduct as well as its production and publication, remove content uploaded before those programs until Aylo verifies that the individuals participating in those videos were at least 18 at the time the content was created and consented to the sexual conduct and its production and publication, post a notice on its website about the FTC and Utahs allegations, and implement a comprehensive privacy and information security program to address the privacy and security issues detailed in the complaint.Pornhub Is Now Blocked In Almost All of the U.S. SouthAs of today, three more states join the list of 17 that cant access Pornhub because of age verification laws.404 MediaSamantha ColeAylo already does much of this. Pornhub overhauled its content and moderation practices starting in 2020, after Visa, Mastercard and Discover stopped servicing the site and its network following allegations of CSAM and sex trafficking. It purged hundreds of thousands of videos from its sites in early 2020 and registered with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).In 2024, Pornhub started requiring proof of consent from every single person who appeared in content on the platform.The resolution reached involved enhancements to existing measures but did not introduce anynew substantive requirements that were not either already in place or in progress, Aylos spokesperson said. This settlement resolves the investigation and underscores Aylo's commitment to robust safety protocols that should be applied broadly across all websites publishing user generated content. Aylo supports vigorous enforcement against CSAM and NCM, and encourages the FTC and Utah DCP to extend their initiative to protect the public across the broader internet, adult and mainstream, fostering a safer online environment for everyone. Throughout the investigation, Aylo worked to cooperatively resolve the concerns raised by the FTC and Utah DCP.The complaint from Utah and the FTC focuses largely on content that appeared on Pornhub prior to 2020, and includes allegations against several of the 100 different websites owned by Alyothen Mindgeek, prior to the companys 2023 acquisition by Ethical Capital Partnersand its affiliates. For example, the complaint claims the website operators identified CSAM on the sites KeezMovies, SpankWire, and ExtremeTube with titles such as Brunette Girl was Raped, Drunken passed out young niece gets a creampie, Amateur teen after party and fun passed out sex realty [sic] submissive, Girl getting gangraped, and Giving her a mouthful while shes passed out drunk.Rather than remove the videos, Defendants merely edited their titles to remove any suggestion that they contained CSAM or NCM. As a result, consumers continued to view and download these videos, the complaint states. The FTC and Utah dont specify in the complaint whether the people performing in those videos, or any of the videos mentioned, were actually adults participating in consensual roleplay scenarios or if the titles and tags were literal.The discussions between then-Mindgeek compliance staff outlined in the complaint show some of the conversations moderators were allegedly having around 2020 about how to purge the site of unverified content. A senior member of Defendants Compliance team stated in an internal email that none of it is enough, this is just a start, and we need to block millions more because the site is FULL of non-compliant content, the complaint states. Another senior employee responded: its over and were fucked.The complaint also mentions the Girls Do Porn sex-trafficking ring, which Pornhub hosted content for and acted as a Pornhub Premium partner until the ring was indicted on federal trafficking charges in 2019. In 2023, Pornhub reached a settlement with the US Attorney Generals office after an FBI investigation, and said it deeply regrets hosting that content.

As I do most nights, I was listening to YouTube videos to fall asleep the other night. Sometime around 3 a.m., I woke up because the video YouTube was autoplaying started going FEEEEEEEE. The video was called Boring History for Sleep | How Medieval PEASANTS Survived the Coldest Nights and more. It is two hours long, has 2.3 million views, and, an hour and 15 minutes into the video, the AI-generated voice glitched.In the end, Anne Boleyn won a kind of immortality. Not through her survival, but through her indelible impact on history. FEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, the narrator says in a fake British accent. By the early 1770s, the American colonies simmered like a pot left too long over a roaring fire, it continued. 0:00 /0:15 1 The video was from a channel I hadnt seen before, called Sleepless Historian. I took my headphones out, didnt think much of it at the time, rolled over, and fell back asleep.The next night, when I went to pick a new video to fall asleep to, my YouTube homepage was full of videos from Sleepless Historian and several similar-sounding channels like Boring History Bites, History Before Sleep, The Snoozetorian, Historian Sleepy, and Dreamoria. Lots of these videos nominally check the boxes for what I want from something to fall asleep to. Almost all of them are more than three hours long, and they are about things I dont know much about. Some video titles include Unusual Medieval Cures for Common Illnesses, The Entire History of the American Frontier, What It Was Like to Visit a BR0THEL in Pompeii, and What GETTING WASTED Was Like in Medieval Times.One of the channels has even been livestreaming this "history" 24/7 for weeks.In the daytime, when I was not groggy and half asleep, it quickly became obvious to me that all of these videos are AI generated, and that they are part of a sophisticated and growing AI slop content ecosystem that is flooding YouTube, is drowning out human-made content created by real anthropologists and historians who spend weeks or months researching, fact-checking, scripting, recording, and editing their videos, and are quite literally rewriting history with surface-level, automated drek that the YouTube algorithm delivers to people. YouTube has said it will demonetize or otherwise crack down on mass produced videos, but it is not clear whether that has had any sort of impact on the proliferation of AI-generated videos on the platform, and none of the people I spoke to for this article have noticed any change.Its completely shocking to me, Pete Kelly, who runs the popular History Time YouTube channel, told me in a phone interview. It used to be enough to spend your entire life researching, writing, narrating, editing, doing all these things to make a video, but now someone can come along and they can do the same thing in a day instead of it taking six months, and the videos are not accurate. The visuals they use are completely inaccurate often. And Im fearful because this is everywhere.I absolutely hate it, primarily the fact that theyre historically inaccurate, Kelly added. So it worries me because its just the same things being regurgitated over and over again. When Im researching something, I go straight to the academic journals and books and places that are offline, basically. But these AI videos are just sort of repeating things that are on the internet and just because its on the internet doesnt mean its accurate. You end up with a very simplified version of the past, and we need to be looking at the past and it needs to be nuanced and we need to be aware of where the evidence or an argument comes from.Kelly has been making history videos on YouTube since 2017 and has amassed 1.2 million YouTube subscribers because of the incredibly in-depth research he does for his feature-length videos. He said for an average long-form video, he will read 20 books, lots of journal articles, and will often travel to archaeological sites. Its impossible to say for sure, but he has considered the possibility that some of these AI videos are modeled on his videos, and that the AI tools being used to create them could have been trained on his work. The soothing British accent used in many of the AI-generated videos Ive seen is similar to Kellys actual voice. A lot of AI basically scraped YouTube in order to develop all of the ways people make videos now, he said. So I mean, maybe it scraped my voice.He said that he has begun to get comments accusing his videos of being AI-generated, and his channel now says no AI is used in this channel. He has also set up a separate channel where he speaks directly to camera rather than narrating over other footage.People listen to the third-person, disembodied narration voice and assume that its AI now, and thats disheartening, he said. I get quite a lot of comments from people thinking that Im AI, so Im like, if you think Im AI Im going to have to just put myself in the videos a little more. Pretty much everyone I know is doing something as a result of this AI situation, which is crazy in itself. Weve all had to react. The thing Im doing is Im appearing more in videos. Im speaking to the camera because I think people are going to be more interested in an actual human voice.Kelly said the number of views he gets on an average video has plateaued or dropped alongside the rise of AI-generated content that competes with his, which is something I heard from other creators, too. As a viewer, I have noticed that I now have to wade through tons of AI-generated spam in order to find high-quality videos.I have seen, and my fellow history creatorstheres quite a few of us, we all talk to each otherweve all seen quite a noticeable drop in views that seems to coincide exactly with this swarm of AI-generated, three-hour, four-hour videos where theyre making videos about the exact same things we make videos about, and for the average person, I dont think they really care that much whether its AI or not, he said.Kelly has started putting himself in his videos to show he's a real personA few months ago, in our Behind the Blog segment, I wrote about a YouTube channel called Ancient Americas, run by an amateur anthropologist named Pete. In that blog, I worried about whether AI slop creators would try to emulate creators like Pete, who clearly take great pride in researching and filming their videos. Ancient Americas releases about one 45-minute video per month about indigenous cultures from the Western Hemisphere. Each of his videos features a substantive bibliography and works cited document, which explains the books, scientific papers, documentaries, museums, and experts he sources his research from. Every image and visual he uses is credited with both where it came from and what license hes using. Through his videos, I have learned an incredible amount about cultures I didnt know existed, like the Wari, the Zapotecs, the Calusa, and many more. Pete told me in an email that he has noticed the AI history video trend on YouTube as well, but I cant say much about how accurate these videos are as a whole because I tend to steer clear of them. Life is far too short for AI.Of the few I've watched, I would say that the information tends to be vague and surface level and the generated AI images of indigenous history that they show range from uncanny to cringe. Not surprisingly, I'm not a fan of such content but thankfully, these videos don't seem to get many views, he said. The average YouTube viewer is much more discerning than they get credit for. Most of them see the slop for what it is. On the other hand, will that always be the case? That remains to be seen. AI is only going to get better. Ultimately, whether creators like me sink or swim is up to the viewing public and the YouTube algorithm.Pete is correct in that a lot of the AI-generated videos dont have a lot of views, but thats quickly changing. Sleepless Historian has 614,000 subscribers, posts a multi-hour video every single day, and has published three videos that have more than a million views. I found several other AI-generated history channels that have more than 100,000 subscribers. Many of them are reposting the same videos that Sleepless Historian publishes, but many of them are clearly generating their own content.Every night before I go to sleep, I open YouTube and I see multiple AI-generated history videos being served to me, and some YouTube commenters have noticed that they are increasingly being fed AI-generated history videos. People on Reddit have noticed that the comments under these videos are a mix of what appear to be real people saying they are grateful for the content and a mix of bots posting fake sob stories. For example, a recent Sleepless Historian video has comments from History-Snooze, The_HumbleHistory RealSleepyHistorianOfficial, SleeplessOrren, SleepyHistory-n9k, Drizzle and Dreamy History of the Past, TheSleepyNavigator-d6b5c, Historyforsleepy168, and a handful of other channels that post the exact same type of content (and often repost the exact same videos).In one video, an account called Sleepymore (which posts AI-generated history videos) posted Its 1 a.m. in Kyiv. Im a Ukrainian soldier on night watch. Tonight is quietno sirens, just silence. I just wanted to say: your videos make me feel a little less alone, a little less afraid. Thank you. An account called SleeplessHistorian2 responded to say great comment. Both of these accounts do nothing but post AI-generated history videos and spam comments on other AI-generated history videos. The email address associated with Sleepless Historian did not respond to a request for comment from 404 Media.The French Whisperer, a human ASMRtist who makes very high quality science and history videos that I have been falling asleep to for years, told me that he has also noticed that hes competing with AI-generated videos, and that the videos are hard to miss.It is always hard to precisely determine what factors make a YouTube channel grow or shrink, but mine has seen its number of views drop dramatically in the past 6-12 months (like -60%) and for the first time in years I barely get discovered at all by new viewers, he said. I used to gain maybe 100-200 subscribers per day until 2024, now it is flat. I think only my older viewers still come to my videos, but for others my channel is now hidden under a pile of AI slop that all people who are into history/science + sleep or relaxation content see in their search results.I noticed this trend of slop content in my niche starting around 2 years ago, he said. Viewers warned me that there were channels that were either AI-assisted (like a real person reading AI scripts), or traditional slop (a real person paraphrasing wikipedia or existing articles), basically replicating the kind of content I make, but publishing 1 or 2 hours of content per day. Then it became full AI a few months ago, it went from a handful of channels to dozens (maybe hundreds? I have no idea), and since then this type of content has flooded YouTube.Another channel I sometimes listen to has purposefully disabled the captions on their videos to make it harder for AI bots to steal from: Captions have unfortunately been disabled due to AI bots copying (plagiarizing) my scripts, a notice on YouTube reads.All of this is annoying and threatening on a few different levels. To some extent, when Im looking for something to fall asleep to, the actual content sometimes feels like it doesnt matter. But Ive noticed that, over time, as I fall asleep listening to history podcasts, I do retain a lot of what I learn, and if I hear something interesting as Im dozing off, I will often go research that thing more when Im awake and alert. I personally would prefer to listen to videos made by real people who know what they are talking about, and are benefiting from my consumption of their work. There is also the somewhat dystopian fact that, because of these videos, there are millions of people being unwittingly lulled to sleep by robots.Historians who have studied the AI summaries of historical events have found that they flatten history: Prose expression is not some barrier to the communication of historical knowledge, to be cleared by any means, but rather an integral aspect of that communication, Mack Penner, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of History at the University of Calgary, argued last year. Outsourcing the finding, the synthesizing, and the communicating to AI is to cede just about the whole craft to the machines.As YouTube and other platforms are spammed with endless AI-generated videos, they threaten not just to drown out the types of high-quality videos that The French Whisperer, Ancient Americas, and other historians, anthropologists, and well-meaning humans are making. They also threaten to literally rewrite historyor peoples understanding of itwith all of the biases imbued into AI by its training material and, increasingly, by the willful manipulation of the companies that own these tools.All of the creators I spoke to said that, ultimately, they think the quality of their videos isgoing to win out, and that people will hopefully continue to seek out their videos, whether thats on YouTube or elsewhere. They each have Patreons, and The French Whisperer said that he has purposefully diversified away from YouTube because of forced ads, settings that distort the sound of softly spoken videos, and the 30 percent cut YouTube takes from its membership program.But Kelly said he believes that it has become much harder to break into this world, because "when I started, I was just competing against other humans. I don't really know how you can compete against computers."The French Whisperer still posts his videos on YouTube, but said that it is increasingly not a reliable platform for him: I concluded some time ago that I would better vote with my feet and disengage from YouTube, which I could afford to do because by chance my content is very audio oriented. I bet everything I could on podcasts and music apps like Spotify and Apple, on Patreon, and on various apps I sell licenses to, he said. I have launched different podcasts derived from my original channel, and even begun to transform my YouTube channel into a podcast showyou probably noticed that I promote these other outlets at the beginning of almost every single video. As a result of my growth elsewhere and the drop on YouTube, the bulk of my audience (like 80-90%) is now on other sites than YouTube, and these ones have not been contaminated by AI slop so far. In a nutshell, I already had reasons to treat YouTube as a secondary platform before, and the fact that it became trashier with the AI content is just one more.An entire niche can be threatened overnight by AI, or YouTube's policies, or your access to monetization, and this only reinforces my belief that this is not a reasonable career choice. Unless you have millions of followers and can look at it as an athlete wouldearn as much as you can, pay your taxes, and live on your investments for the rest of your life when your career inevitably ends.Pete from Ancient Americas, meanwhile, said hes just going to keep making videos and hope for the best.It does me no good to fret and obsess over something I have no control over. AI may be polluting the river but I still have to swim in it or sink. Second, I have a lot of faith in what I do and I love doing it, he said. At the moment, I don't think AI can create a video the way that I can. I take the research very seriously and try to get as much information as possible. I try to include details that the viewer would have a very difficult time finding on their own; things that are beyond the Wikipedia article or a cursory Google search. I also use ancient artifacts and artworks from a culture to show the viewer how the culture expressed itself and I believe that this is VERY important when you want your audience to connect with ancient people. I've never seen AI do this. It's always a slideshow of crappy AI images. The only thing I can do in an AI world is to keep the ship sailing forward.Kelly, who runs History Time, says he sees it as a real problem. Its worrying to me just for humanity, he said. Not to get too high brow, but its not good for the state of knowledge in the world. It makes me worry for the future.

When Kay Garnellen, age 47, first visited a gay bathhouse in San Francisco in 2008, he had not yet begun his transition, and the experience felt daunting especially since he had never had sex with a cis man before. He had heard about the Eros bathhouse in San Francisco, where trans men were not only among the patrons but also worked on staff, and despite his fears he decided to go. When he finally did, a chance encounter changed everything: He met the owner of the bathhouse, and they eventually became lovers. Related American Ninja & runner explain how being trans helps them undercut their competitors machismo That was my first time having sex with a guy, and it was amazing because he had obviously been with a lot of trans guys before me. I felt completely comfortable and safe with him, Garnellen said.The experience was transformative for Garnellen. But when he returned to Paris, where he lived at the time, he found a very different landscape. Trans men were entirely invisible in gay bathhouses, and there was no space where he felt safe or welcome. As a result, he turned to darkrooms instead. Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today I first started going to darkrooms because they were dimly lit, and I could keep my clothes on and give blowjobs without anyone noticing that I was trans, he said.Eventually, Garnellen began a relationship with a nonbinary person who was assigned male at birth, and together they started going to gay bathhouses. Garnellen visited these spaces not only to enjoy time with his partner but also to increase visibility for trans men, who were still a rare presence in Parisian bathhouses. Looking back, he feels that he didnt experience explicit transphobia, in the sense of hostile intent or violence, but rather a pervasive ignorance and lack of awareness.When you constantly hear things like, Oh, you dont have a d**k, youre not a real man, or Im not interested in you, it can feel aggressive, even if its not meant that way, he said. I always tried to keep that in mind, but that doesnt mean I didnt get angry sometimes. It was just too much, one comment after another.Most gay men he encountered had little or no understanding of what it meant to be trans, and he often found himself having to explain himself. Even after undergoing top surgery and achieving what he describes as a complete passing, finding sexual partners in the bathhouse remained a significant challenge. He describes the overall experience in one word: frustrating.A sign for a mens only bathhouse in New York. | Shutterstock Bathhouses have been a cornerstone of modern gay culture since at least the Ariston Bathhouse raid in New York in 1903. In times of persecution, they offered a relatively safe space for discreet encounters between men, a rare refuge in a hostile world. After the Stonewall riots, bathhouses evolved into sites of liberation, places where gay sexuality could be openly celebrated. Yet that freedom has also brought criticism, with some pointing to the objectification of men and the perceived emptiness of anonymous sex within certain corners of bathhouse culture.Despite these contradictions, gay bathhouses have endured. They remain both popular and significant, often serving as places of sexual initiation and self-discovery for new generations of gay men. Increasingly, this also includes trans men whether gay, bisexual, pansexual, or otherwise queer-identified. But inclusion has not always been a given. For a long time, trans men were either absent or made to feel unwelcome in those spaces.I asked Kay out loud, Wait, is it really okay to touch people without asking first? I was surprised by his answer. He said, Yes, its okay. If you dont want it, you just slap the hand away.Spangle Durac, a 46-year-old trans manWhen Garnellen moved to Berlin in 2010, nearly nine years passed before he set foot in a gay bathhouse again. This time, he appeared in one for an event called Faeries & Friends, during which the venue opened its doors free of charge to the citys Radical Faerie community. He was pleasantly surprised by how much the scene had changed in the meantime. By then, most patrons were familiar with trans men, and there were far fewer intrusive questions. Finding sexual partners had also become noticeably easier. Returning to the bathhouse and witnessing this shift helped him feel more at home.Now I feel part of the gay community, the queer gay community, not the mainstream, he said.Encouraged by this change, Garnellen even began bringing other trans men to gay bathhouses, acting as a kind of guide and source of support. This is how Spangle Durac, age 46, found himself at a gay bathhouse for the first time, in 2024. At the time, he had tried to restart work as a sex worker, and a client expressed interest in his profile. The client suggested they meet at a gay bathhouse in a town in Eastern France, not far from where Durac still lives. He agreed, partly because Garnellen offered to accompany him.They chose a day when the bathhouse was open to all genders and sexualities, although it was still predominantly frequented by gay men. Durac recalls feeling a mix of nervousness and curiosity about stepping into such an unfamiliar space for the first time. In the end, the client never showed up, but Durac and Garnellen stayed anyway.My sexuality is primarily gay, so I do feel a sense of belonging to that culture, but because of my background, there are still some challenges at times.Axel, a 34-year-old trans manComing mostly from the sex-positive scene, where consent is always verbally negotiated, Durac was taken aback by how physical contact was handled in the bathhouse setting.Someone touched me without asking, and I didnt think that was okay. I asked Kay out loud, Wait, is it really okay to touch people without asking first? I was surprised by his answer. He said, Yes, its okay. If you dont want it, you just slap the hand away, Durac said.While Durac understands that gay bathhouses operate by a different code, where touch is often assumed unless actively refused, he admits its not really his thing. His only sexual encounter during that visit left him with mixed memories. The man he engaged with seemed unaware of the specific hygiene needs of his genitalia and ignored basic boundaries, such as not using the same finger to play with different orifices. Given the lack of verbal negotiation of consent in bathhouse culture, Durac isnt particularly eager to return any time soon. However, if sex work requires him to meet a client there, he now feels confident enough to go on his own. | Shutterstock Axel, age 34 who prefers to go by his first name only had a very different, and much more positive, experience than Durac. Originally from Denmark, he moved to Berlin in 2018 to work as a somatic therapist. In 2019, he decided to visit the same gay bathhouse that Garnellen had patronized. Before going, Axel did his research and confirmed that the bathhouse had an explicitly trans-friendly policy. For him, the motivation was simple: He just wanted to enjoy the space the way his gay friends did.I was curious, and I had heard many of my gay cis friends talk about it as a regular part of their lives. My sexuality is primarily gay, so I do feel a sense of belonging to that culture, but because of my background, there are still some challenges at times, Axel said.When he finally visited the bathhouse, Axel says that he lowered his bar and went in simply hoping to have a good time, without necessarily expecting a sexual encounter. As it happened, he did meet someone. Before things progressed, Axel disclosed that he was trans.Encounters with trans men, however, helped cis gay men reframe how they thought about genitalia and eased their own sense of inadequacy.He got really excited. He said something like, Oh, Ive been hoping for this to happen for years. He had even watched gay trans porn before. Then we went to one of the cabins, and I had a really good experience. And honestly, thats how most of my experiences have been, he said.Axel feels that, although there is still work to be done, the changes in places like Berlin have been remarkable. In the not-so-distant past, he says, welcoming trans men was seen as something the community did for them, but nowadays, its different.What I often hear is that gay cis men, at least the ones whove stayed rather than moving on to less inclusive spaces, say the presence of trans and non-binary people has actually changed the scene in ways they were looking forward to, Axel said. Its something that helps them break out of old patterns, think more creatively, and expand how they express themselves and understand their identity. Its really an expansion of whats possible, not just for trans and non-binary people, but for gay cis men as well. As an example, Axel recalls cis gay men who struggled with feelings of inferiority about their penis size. Encounters with trans men, however, helped them reframe how they thought about genitalia and eased their own sense of inadequacy.The stories of Kay, Spangle, and Axel illuminate the complex and ongoing journey toward inclusion within gay bathhouse culture. From invisibility and frustration to cautious acceptance and celebration, the evolution reflects broader shifts in how gender and sexuality are understood and embraced.While challenges remain, the growing presence and recognition of trans men in these spaces enrich not only their own sense of identity and community but also expand the possibilities for all who gather there.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

Nature, Published online: 03 September 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09423-yA risk-based, spatially explicit analysis of carbon storage in sedimentary basins establishes a prudent planetary limit of around 1,460 Gt of geological carbon storage, which requires making explicit decisions on priorities for storage use.

Nature, Published online: 03 September 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-02529-3Bridges made from connected steel frameworks can sometimes survive unexpected damage by activating hidden structural responses.

Nature, Published online: 03 September 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09300-8Experimental tests and computational simulations of a scaled-down specimen of a real steel truss bridge identify and characterize the latent resistance mechanisms following critical failures, demonstrating how loads supported by failed components can be redistributed and enable structure resilience.

Nature, Published online: 03 September 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09470-5DNA2 suppresses recombination-restarted replication and checkpoint activation at stalled forks, and its loss triggers recombination-dependent synthesis, checkpoint signalling and cell-cycle exit, highlighting its essential role in proliferation and growth failure in primordial dwarfism.

Nature, Published online: 03 September 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-02834-xTwo brother ants defy species borders, by sharing the same mother despite being genetically different species.

Mavericks forward P.J. Washington has agreed to a four-year, $90 million contract extension, per his agent, Kevin Bradbury of Lift Sports Management. The deal keeps Washington, 27, in Dallas through 2029-30.

The Clippers reportedly have been accused of circumventing the NBA's salary cap by paying $28 million to Kawhi Leonard for a "no-show job."

How the Bears' offense will look, TreVeyon Henderson's role and Travis Hunter's snap count are among the curiosities.

The effort involves several agencies that typically have little to do with wind power, including the Health and Human Services Department.

The Trump administration says Venezuela is sending vast amounts of cocaine to the United States. Venezuelas role in the drug trade is overstated, experts say.

Ahn Hak-sop was captured during the Korean War by the South and imprisoned for more than 40 years. Now 95, he wants to return to the North to die.

I think social media is great, but I often see different iterations of the same home over and over on there (and lots of white and beige!), and I wanted my space to stand out, writes Amanda Mactas. READ MORE...

Its so wicked.READ MORE...

See how interior designers would shop for fall decor at the Swedish superstore with just under $50.READ MORE...

My favorite home stores have already transitioned into an autumnal display of nubby-textured sherpa furniture, cozy festive throw blankets, and, of course, pumpkin-themed offerings. I must have overlooked the fall memo, though, because I seemed to have missed the coolest fall offering so far from Aldi a pumpkin-shaped coffee table centerpiece that will make your home smell like fall.For just $12.READ MORE...

Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo gestures as speaks to supporters and members of the media before a bill signing by Gov. Ron DeSantis, Nov. 18, 2021, in Brandon, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara, File)2025-09-03T16:46:42Z ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) Florida will work to phase out all childhood vaccine mandates in the state, building on the effort by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to curb vaccine requirements and other health mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic.DeSantis also announced on Wednesday the creation of a state-level Make America Healthy Again commission modeled after similar initiatives pushed at the federal level by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.On the vaccines, state Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo cast current requirements in schools and elsewhere as an immoral intrusion on peoples rights bordering on slavery, and hampers parents ability to make health decisions for their children.People have a right to make their own decisions, informed decisions, said Ladapo, who has frequently clashed with the medical establishment, at a news conference in Valrico, Florida, in the Tampa area. They dont have the right to tell you what to put in your body. Take it away from them. The state Health Department, Ladapo said, can scrap its own rules for some vaccine mandates, but others would require action by the Florida Legislature. He did not specify any particular vaccines but repeated several times the effort would end all of them. Every last one of them. Florida would be the first state to eliminate so many vaccine mandates, Ladapo added. Stay up to date with the latest U.S. news by signing up to our WhatsApp channel. Democratic state Rep. Anna Eskamani, who is running for Orlando mayor, said in a social media post that scrapping vaccines is reckless and dangerous and could cause outbreaks of preventable disease. This is a public health disaster in the making for the Sunshine State, she said on the social platform X.Meanwhile, the Democratic governors of Washington, Oregon and California announced Wednesday that they created an alliance to safeguard health policies, contending that the administration of President Donald Trump is politicizing public health decisions. The partnership plans to coordinate health guidelines by aligning immunization plans based on recommendations from respected national medical organizations, according to a joint statement from Gov. Bob Ferguson of Washington, Gov. Tina Kotek of Oregon and Gov. Gavin Newsom of California.In Florida, vaccine mandates for child day care facilities and public schools include shots for measles, chickenpox, hepatitis B, Diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis (DTaP), polio and other diseases, according to the state Health Departments website.Under DeSantis, Florida resisted imposing COVID vaccines on schoolchildren, requiring passports for places that draw crowds, school closures and mandates that workers get the shots to keep their jobs.I dont think theres another state thats done as much as Florida. We want to stay ahead of the curve, the governor said.The state MAHA commission would look into such things as allowing informed consent in medical matters, promoting safe and nutritious food, boosting parental rights regarding medical decisions about their children, and eliminating medical orthodoxy that is not supported by the data, DeSantis said. The commission will be chaired by Lt. Gov. Jay Collins and Florida first lady Casey DeSantis. Were getting government out of the way, getting government out of your lives, Collins said.The commissions work will help inform a large medical freedom package to be introduced in the Legislature next session, which would address the vaccine mandates required by state law and make permanent the recent state COVID decisions relaxing restrictions, DeSantis said.There will be a broad package, the governor said.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent visits Martin's Tavern, Monday, Sept. 1, 2025, in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, during an area restaurant tour about no taxes on tips and overtime. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)2025-09-03T16:57:28Z WASHINGTON (AP) Golf caddies, blackjack dealers and house painters are among the jobs covered under the Trump administrations preliminary list of occupations not required to pay income tax on their tips under Republicans new tax cuts and spending bill.A bit more unexpected? Podcasters and social media influencers will also be excluded from forking over a portion of their tips, according to the list released Tuesday by the Treasury Department.The provision in the law signed by President Donald Trump in July eliminates federal income taxes on tips for people working in jobs that have traditionally received them. Its temporary and runs from 2025 until 2028. It applies to people who make less than $160,000 in 2025.The Yale Budget Lab estimates that there were roughly 4 million workers in tipped occupations in 2023, which amounts to roughly 2.5% of all jobs. The administration was required to publish a list of qualifying occupations within 90 days of the bills signing. The full list of occupations is located on the Treasury Department website. They are broken down into eight categories, including beverage and food service; entertainment and events; hospitality and guest services; home services; personal services; personal appearance and wellness; recreation and instruction; and transportation and delivery. Among other jobs exempted from tax on tips are sommeliers, cocktail waiters, pastry chefs, cake bakers, bingo workers, club dancers, DJs, clowns, streamers, online video creators, ushers, maids, gardeners, electricians, house cleaners, tow truck drivers, wedding planners, personal care aides, tutors, au pairs, massage therapists, yoga instructors, cobblers, skydiving pilots, ski instructors, parking garage attendants, delivery drivers and movers. A report from the Budget Lab shows that the effects of the law would be small, given that tipped workers tend to be lower income. More than 37% of tipped workers, or over one third, earned income low enough that they faced no federal income tax in 2022. The larger and far more uncertain effect would stem from behavioral changes incentivized by the bill, such as substitution into tipped employment and tipped income, which would increase the bills overall cost, states the report, which was written by Ernie Tedeschi, the director of economics at the Budget Lab.Congressional budget analysts project the No Tax on Tips provision would increase the deficit by $40 billion through 2028. The nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation estimated in June that the tips deduction will cost $32 billion over 10 years.Only tips reported to the employer and noted on a workers W-2, their end-of-year tax summary, will qualify. Payroll taxes, which pay for Social Security and Medicare, would still be collected along with state and local taxes.Polling shows Americans have panned the big bill. Half U.S. adults expect the new tax law will help the rich, according to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Most about 6 in 10 think it will do more to hurt than help low-income people. FATIMA HUSSEIN Hussein reports on the U.S. Treasury Department for The Associated Press. She covers tax policy, sanctions and any issue that relates to money. twitter mailto

Actor Matthew Perry arrives at the 64th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles on Sept. 23, 2012. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)2025-09-03T04:06:47Z LOS ANGELES (AP) A woman branded as the Ketamine Queen pleaded guilty Wednesday to selling Matthew Perry the drug that killed the Friends star.Jasveen Sangha pleaded guilty to five federal charges, including providing the ketamine that led to Perrys death. Her trial had been planned to start later this month. She is the fifth and final defendant charged in Perrys overdose death to admit guilt.Perrys mother, Suzanne Perry, and his stepfather, Dateline reporter Keith Morrison, sat in the audience.Prosecutors had cast Sangha, a 42-year-old citizen of the U.S. and the U.K., as a prolific drug dealer who was known to her customers as the Ketamine Queen, using the term often in press releases and court documents. Making good on a deal she signed on Aug. 18, Sangha pleaded guilty to one count of maintaining a drug-involved premises, three counts of distribution of ketamine, and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death. Prosecutors agreed to drop three other counts related to the distribution of ketamine, and one count of distribution of methamphetamine that was unrelated to the Perry case. The final plea deal came a year after federal prosecutors announced that five people had been charged in Perrys Oct. 28, 2023 death after a sweeping investigation.Sangha is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 10. She could get up to 65 years in prison. The judge is not bound to follow any terms of the plea agreement, but prosecutors said in the document that they will ask for less than the maximum. None of the co-defendants have been sentenced yet. Sangha and Dr. Salvador Plasencia, who pleaded guilty in July, had been the primary targets of the investigation. Three other defendants Dr. Mark Chavez, Kenneth Iwamasa and Erik Fleming pleaded guilty in exchange for their cooperation, which included statements implicating Sangha and Plasencia. Perry was found dead in his Los Angeles home by Iwamasa, his assistant. The medical examiner ruled that ketamine, typically used as a surgical anesthetic, was the primary cause of death.Sangha presented a posh lifestyle on Instagram, with photos of herself with the rich and famous in cities around the globe. Prosecutors said she privately presented herself as a dealer who sold to the same kind of high-class customers.Perry had been using ketamine through his regular doctor as a legal, but off-label, treatment for depression, which has become increasingly common. Perry, 54, sought more ketamine than his doctor would give him, and his search for more led him to Sangha through his friend Fleming about two weeks before his death, prosecutors said.Fleming messaged Perrys assistant saying her ketamine was amazing and that she deals only with high end and celebs.Perry bought large amounts of ketamine from Sangha, including 25 vials for $6,000 in cash four days before his death, prosecutors said. On the day of Perrys death, Sangha told Fleming they should delete all the messages they had sent each other, according to her indictment. Sangha has been in federal custody for about a year.Perry struggled with addiction for many years, dating back to his time on Friends, when he became one of the biggest stars of his generation as Chandler Bing. He starred alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer for 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004 on NBCs megahit series. ANDREW DALTON Dalton covers entertainment for The Associated Press, with an emphasis on crime, courts and obituaries. He has worked for the AP for 20 years and is based in Los Angeles. mailto ITZEL LUNA Luna is an intern for The APs entertainment team. She is based in Los Angeles. twitter mailto

In a clear sign Pope Leo XIV intends to continue his predecessors engagement with the LGBTQ+ community, the new pontiff on Monday met with Jesuit Father James Martin, founder of the Catholic LGBTQ+ ministry Outreach.I was honored and grateful to meet with the Holy Father this morning in an audience in the Apostolic Palace and heard the same message I heard from Pope Francis on LGBTQ people, which is one of openness and welcome, Martin told the Catholic News Agency. I found the pope serene, joyful, and encouraging. Related Pope Leo will bless people in same-sex unions despite having once decried the homosexual lifestyle It was wonderful. It was very consoling and very encouraging and, frankly, a lot of fun, Martin told the Associated Press.Dear friends: I was profoundly grateful for my audience at the Apostolic Palace with the Holy Father @Pontifex this morning. The message I received was that Pope Leo will be continuing with the same openness and that Francis showed to LGBTQ Catholics. I found Leo to be joyful, pic.twitter.com/igrY6kSjGF James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) September 1, 2025 Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today The Jesuit priest met with Leos predecessor, Pope Francis, on several occasions over the course of his papacy.In a post to his Outreach website, Martin said the message he received from Leo loud and clear was that he wanted to continue with the same approach that Pope Francis had advanced.It was very much a hopeful message of continuity, he said.This is, in Pope Leos mind, naturally tied to synodality, the idea that the church must listen to people from all walks of life (including LGBTQ people) to become more open, more listening, more welcoming and more inclusive. Again, this is very much in line with Pope Franciss desires and hisfamous words, todos, todos, todos to describe the church.Martin acknowledged that as head of the worlds largest church, Leo has a great many issues on his plate, including the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.He sees peace and unity as paramount in his ministry, Martin wrote. So while LGBTQ issues are on his radar, other things may be more pressing for the time being. And even when addressing LGBTQ issues, he may not move as fast as some might like. By the same token, he may move far too fast for others. (In this, he would be like Francis as well.) But my overall sense is that he gets it and that he is ready to continue Franciss legacy of openness, and that is surely good news.I found Pope Leo to be tremendously at ease, even jovial, during our meeting, Martin recounted. It reminds me of something a friend said shortly after the popes election, when he spoke to the College of Cardinals, It seems like he was born for this!'Pope Francis appointed Martin as a consultant to the Secretariat for Communications at the Vatican in 2017, following the publication of Martins book Building a Bridge, based on a series of lectures the priest gave after his disappointment with Catholic leadership in the aftermath of the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando. I know that not everyone can meet with the pope (Im still amazed I have), or receive a blessing from Pope Leo, but I tried to bring in as many concerns of LGBTQ people before him as I could, Martin recounted.Overall, though, I hope that hearing about his desire to continue Pope Franciss legacy of openness will itself be a blessing to all LGBTQ Catholics and to their families and friends.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

A lot has changed over the last few decades for LGBTQ+ people: Media visibility like wed never seen before both positive and negative. Marriage rights that seemed impossible only a few decades ago. The HIV/AIDS crisis and then the powerful medications that keep it at bay. And a broader culture that is at times begrudgingly developing a more nuanced and human understanding of sexuality and gender.ForLGBTQ Nations September Issue which will address LGBTQ+ people aging with dignity we want to hear from you, our readers who have lived through these changes and who have helped create the world we live in now: Whats something that changed in your lifetime for LGBTQ+ people? How has it affected you personally?The goal is to help lift up voices in the community and bridge the gap between generations. What do you want to convey to younger LGBTQ+ people? What do they need to know as they age, or what do they need to know to help you remain a vital part of the queer community?Throughout the month of September, well be publishing your stories. How it works Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today Sharing your story is simple! All you need to do isfill out the form below. The only requirement is that your story capture the essence of how times have changed for LGBTQ+ people from several decades ago to today. Submit your storyFirst Name*Last Name*Email*What is something that changed for LGBTQ+ people in your lifetime?* How did this affect you personally? What do you want younger LGBTQ+ people to know about this? Submit a photo to go with your story (optional)Who took this picture?When was this photo taken?Submit your storySubscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.

Brandi Carlile knows what shes doing.The Story singer has been teasing her sapphic fans with pictures of her sexy hands before announcing the release of the music video for her new song Returning to Myself today.The black and white close-up photos of her hands seem custom-made to appeal to lesbians across the country, who already cant get enough of the queer icon and her music.See on InstagramWe all know hands are hot. Katy OBrians wife proved that last year when she pointed out just how sexy the Love Lies Bleeding stars hands are.And now Carlile is flooding our timeline with steamy, artistic shots of her endlessly sexy hands that we all know are oh so good at playing the guitar.Carlile may be teasing her new music and upcoming album, but the sapphics in the comments section were focused on her hands. "Its the nails for me," one person wrote, while someone else commented, "Yall. @brandicarlile is starting an onlyfans?"The title song was dropped today, ahead of the release of her next album, Returning to Myself, on October 24. Although this will be Carliles first album since she released Who Believes in Angels? with Elton John back in April and her first solo album since In These Silent Days back in 2021, she says this is not a solo album because shes always alone and never alone at the same time, she wrote in an Instagram post announcing the release date for the new album.See on InstagramIts just that it comes at a time where Im reflecting and realizing that learning to stand alone is something that people are supposed to do when theyre young, she captioned the album cover that features Carliles face surrounded by three hands fixing her hair and clothing. "Like skiing or chickenpox. That if we miss our chance when the pain tolerance is at its highest, we may never do it.She continued, Fine with me. Id rather fight off aloneness forever. Why is it heroic to untether when the tense work of togetherness is so much more interesting?because I dont want to do it. Because I dont want to return to myself. And thats why I will.And then Carlile concluded the post with a reference to the album name, Returning to myself is just returning me to you.You can listen to the title track and watch the music video today, and preorder the album before its release on October 24, 2025. See the full music video below.

Nature, Published online: 03 September 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09361-9An analysis of seismic data acquired by the InSight mission demonstrates that Mars has a 600-km solid inner core.

Nature, Published online: 03 September 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09373-5The enzyme ABHD18 is shown to have a key role in cardiolipin metabolism in mitochondria, offering a potential route for a small-molecule treatment of the rare genetic disease Barth syndrome.

Nature, Published online: 03 September 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09449-2Spatial transcriptomic studies and lineage tracing reveal that, after brain injury, transient profibrotic fibroblasts develop from existing brain fibroblasts, infiltrate lesions, regulate the local immune response and lead to beneficial scar tissue formation.

Nature, Published online: 03 September 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-02532-8The role of tissue that forms between the head and trunk of a fly embryo has been unclear. It turns out that it absorbs forces when nearby cells move and divide.