Locklear was a guest on the Hollywood & Devine talk show and discussed how she had no hesitation going on the show, even though Dru Hammer and John Luciano only launched it a month ago.

“You’re a friend. You’re not a Hollywood friend,” Luciano said, and Locklear replied, “Oh no. I would do anything.”

Hammer, mother of actor Armie Hammer, said it was a “big deal” for Locklear to still show up and not give an excuse on why she couldn’t be on the show, like other members in Hollywood might have.

Locklear didn’t find her appearance on the show to be “rare,” and shared that she must surround herself with people that are like her.

“Well, I do think that you hang out with people that are like you,” Hammer said. “Yeah, probably,” Locklear replied.

“And you would only hang out with Hollywood people who are nice and kind,” Hammer continued.

“I don’t really hang out with Hollywood people,” Locklear stated.

“I live so far away. Yeah. Like for many, many years. 40 years and stuff like that.”

Although Locklear, known for her roles in “Melrose Place” and “Dynasty,” walked away from Hollywood stars, she has entered a relationship that dominated headlines in recent months.

In April, a representative for Lorenzo Lamas confirmed to E! News that he and Locklear were seeing each other.

Locklear and Lamas made their first appearance as a couple at the Chiller Theatre Expo on April 26. Lamas was Locklear’s plus one to her daughter’s wedding in May.

Locklear and Richie Sambora’s 28-year-old daughter, Ava, married Tyler Farrar at the Rosewood Miramar in Montecito, California.

The post Heather Locklear says she lives ‘far away’ from Hollywood and stays out of the social scene appeared first on Page Six.

Psychologist Mark Travers, writing in Psychology Today, calls this intuition alignment—a trainable skill rooted in how the brain actually processes experience. The starting point is Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman’s dual process theory, from his 2011 book Thinking, Fast and Slow, which describes two modes of thinking: System 1, fast and pattern-driven, and System 2, slow and deliberate.

Culturally, System 2 is the one we’ve been taught to trust. Kahneman spent decades making the case that System 1 earns more credit than it gets. It runs on emotional memory and pattern recognition that analytical thinking can’t access at speed.

The three-part framework

Research out of the European Journal of Psychology in 2022 tracked something it called self-connection—staying aware of your internal states, accepting them, and letting them actually drive your decisions. People who did all three reported better self-esteem, more energy, and higher well-being overall.

Getting awareness without acceptance, or acceptance without action, doesn’t close the loop. A feeling you acknowledge and then override is still a feeling you ignored. That distinction is what separates the advice from the habit.

The body’s role

Damasio’s studies in the 1990s found that patients with damage to the brain’s decision-making centers kept making bad choices even when they consciously knew better—because the body’s warning signals weren’t getting through. His somatic marker hypothesis argued that physical sensations associated with past experiences quietly steer decisions, usually before the thinking brain has even registered a question.

A 2020 Frontiers in Psychology study found that those physiological signals shape choices faster than deliberate reasoning can. The brain’s ability to read and use them is called interoception. It can be trained, and research shows it actually doesn’t take very long—a few days of focused mindfulness practice produced measurable improvement in participants.

3 ways to start Trusting your gut

1. The pre-decision body check. Before any meaningful choice, pause 30 seconds and scan your body. Notice tightness, ease, heaviness, warmth. Don’t interpret anything yet—just observe.
2. The alignment journal. Once a day, note one decision you made and whether you followed your gut or overrode it, and what happened. Over time, this builds the feedback loop that sharpens intuitive accuracy.
3. The morning window. Ten to fifteen minutes before the day starts, no phone, no agenda. Research found that even brief body-focused mindfulness practice measurably improved participants’ ability to read internal signals.

Most people aren’t bad at making decisions. They’re just better at talking themselves out of the right ones.

The post Psychologists Say This Simple Habit Can Make You a Much Happier Person appeared first on VICE.

Only four people were considered missing on official records in the southern provinces near where the 7.8 magnitude quake struck Monday morning, but the Office of Civil Defense acknowledged several collapsed and heavily damaged buildings must be thoroughly inspected for possible survivors or casualties.

The earthquake centered off Mindanao, the second most populous Philippine island, injured nearly 500 people and displaced more than 20,000, most of whom fled to emergency shelters.

Many people who left their homes feared a tsunami. Waves up to 4.6-foot above tide level were measured in the Philippines, but the only tsunami damage reported was to six shanties on stilts in a coastal village. Smaller waves washed ashore in Indonesia and Palau and as far away as southern Japan.

Landslides and building collapses caused several deaths

The earthquake left a trail of destruction, including in General Santos, a lively coastal city of more than 700,000 people known as the country’s tuna capital, where at least 13 people were killed in collapsed buildings and due to falling debris.

At least 18 died in Sarangani province mostly in a landslide that buried houses in the mountainside town of Glan, according to Rafaelito Alejandro of the Office of Civil Defense.

The other deaths were reported in the southern provinces of South Cotabato and Davao Occidental, and on Balut Island, disaster-response officials said.

About 2,000 houses and 117 government buildings and facilities were damaged in several provinces, according to an initial government damage assessment. The international airport in General Santos remained shut, forcing the cancellation of 63 domestic flights except for those on humanitarian mission.

About 6,000 public school buildings in quake-hit provinces must be assessed before classes can resume. The quake struck on the first day of classes nationwide after a two-month summer break and many who sustained injuries were young students who had gathered with excitement for morning flag-raising ceremonies.

Authorities have warned that buildings that sustained cracks could collapse due to aftershocks, some of them dangerously powerful.

“We cannot force the immediate reopening of schools because we have to ensure the integrity of the buildings,” Alejandro said.

It was the strongest Philippine quake since 1976

Monday’s earthquake was centered at sea at a depth of 20 miles, about 20 miles southwest of Maasim town in Sarangani province.

It was set off by movement in the Cotabato Trench and was the strongest since the same undersea depression triggered an 8.1-magnitude quake that whipped up tsunami waves on Aug. 17, 1976, said Teresito Bacolcol, the director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.

About 8,000 people died from that quake and tsunami waves of up to 26 to 33 feet that engulfed several towns and provinces, Bacolcol said.

The Philippine seismological institute was scheduled to commemorate the anniversary of the 1976 quake and tsunami in August by installing markers to remind vulnerable towns and cities of the need for constant vigilance, Bacolcol told The Associated Press.

A 1990 earthquake that also had a magnitude of 7.8 left more than 1,000 people dead, injured thousands and caused extensive damages in northern provinces and cities.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. deployed top defense-mitigation officials from Manila to help oversee search and rescue, the distribution of tens of thousands of food packs and construction materials to quake victims and assess damage to bridges, roads and other infrastructure.

The United States, a treaty ally of the Philippines, said it was coordinating with Manila and was ready to support Philippine response efforts. France, Japan and New Zealand also expressed support.

The Philippines is often hit by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions due to its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of seismic faults around the ocean.

The archipelago is also battered by about 20 typhoons and tropical storms each year, making it one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries.

The post 20,000 people displaced by Philippine earthquake that killed at least 37 appeared first on New York Post.

The company has not yet decided when it will go public, it said in a statement to The New York Times.

“It may be a while because there are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company,” the statement said. “But it’s a complicated set of trade-offs, and this gives us the option to go public sooner if that ends up being best.”

An OpenAI public offering would join what is expected to be a wave of blockbuster I.P.O.s, with Elon Musk’s rocket company, SpaceX, and the A.I. start-up Anthropic also preparing to go public this year.

OpenAI, which is based in San Francisco, was valued at $730 billion in private markets after a funding round this year. That does not include its latest investment round, which totaled $122 billion.

The company is a long way from being profitable, even after raising more than $180 billion since it was started in 2015. It pulled in more than $13 billion in revenue last year, but expects to spend $115 billion over the next four years. Revenue is rising from the sale of ads inside the consumer version of ChatGPT and the sale of various A.I. technologies to businesses and independent software developers.

SpaceX, which will be valued at $1.77 trillion, filed for an I.P.O. at the end of last month, saying its revenue soared to $18.7 billion in 2025, up 33 percent from a year earlier. It could list on Wall Street as early as this week.

Anthropic confidentially filed for an I.P.O. last week. The start-up recently passed OpenAI as the world’s highest-flying A.I. start-up, with $65 billion in new financing that valued it at $900 billion before the inclusion of the new capital. A public offering could happen as soon as this fall.

I.P.O.s from the three companies could unleash an avalanche of wealth and create the world’s first trillionaire in Mr. Musk, who owns about 50 percent of SpaceX. And they could unlock millions of dollars for employees of the A.I. companies, potentially setting off a real estate and investment boom in tech-centric cities like San Francisco.

But the I.P.O.s, which have been widely anticipated by investors eager to get a piece of the tech industry’s A.I. craze, come with risks. None of the three companies is believed to be profitable, and all are saddled with enormous costs as they build huge data centers to power their A.I. systems. Many local communities are also pushing back against the construction of the giant complexes while white-collar workers are increasingly concerned they’re going to lose their jobs to the new technology.

As OpenAI considers when it will go public, it is also working toward a tender offer that would allow employees to sell their shares to private investors, according to a person familiar with the company’s plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The company has made similar tender offers in the past.

OpenAI started the A.I. boom in late 2022 with the release of ChatGPT. The company’s chief executive, Sam Altman, became the public face of this new technology as the number of people using the chatbot each month grew to more than 900 million. OpenAI now has more than 5,000 employees, up from 300 when it released ChatGPT.

(The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft in 2023, claiming copyright infringement of news content related to A.I. systems. The two companies have denied those claims.)

Anthropic, which was founded by former OpenAI employees, is one of OpenAI’s fiercest rivals, along with Google. Anthropic and Google offer technology that is arguably on a par with the GPT technology that underpins OpenAI’s consumer chatbot and its other products.

Anthropic has homed in on business customers and said it had planned to increase its revenues by 10 times this year. That turned out to be an underestimate; now the company says its revenue could increase by 80 times this year. Much of that growth is driven by Claude Code, which can generate computer code and help developers build complex software programs.

On the consumer business side, Google said last month that its chatbot, Gemini, had reached 900 million monthly users. The tech giant also has a built-in advantage: its widely used search engine, which now has A.I. technology built into it.

SpaceX also has ambitions in A.I. after merging with Mr. Musk’s start-up xAI. Anthropic recently said it had reached an agreement to use all the computing power at the rocket company’s Colossus 1 data center in Memphis. The move gives Anthropic access to more than 220,000 A.I. chips and opens the door to working with SpaceX to create A.I. data centers in space.

Last year, OpenAI began building its own computer data centers along with the cloud computing company Oracle and the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank. But when that effort slowed, OpenAI signed big deals to use data centers operated by Amazon and other companies.

Cade Metz is a Times reporter who writes about artificial intelligence, driverless cars, robotics, virtual reality and other emerging areas of technology.

The post OpenAI Files to Go Public as A.I. Companies Rush to Wall St. appeared first on New York Times.

At one drink a day, the researchers found, there was an increased risk of premature death from an illness or injury directly attributable to alcohol, though it was small — one in 1,000 people. But the risk of premature death jumped to one in 25 for those who had two drinks a day, a level long considered safe for men, according to the study, which was published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

The Alcohol Intake and Health Study was one of two reports commissioned during the Biden administration to inform an update to the U.S. dietary guidelines.

The second report, from a panel appointed by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, or NASEM, came to very different conclusions. It suggested that moderate drinking (up to two drinks a day for men and one for women) was healthier than not drinking at all, although it noted that moderate drinking was also linked to a higher breast cancer risk. Some of the panelists behind that report had financial ties to the alcohol industry.

The second report’s finding was more palatable to the alcohol industry, which had called the Alcohol Intake and Health Study ideologically driven and scientifically flawed, and said it had communicated its concerns repeatedly to government officials over a period of several years.

When the Trump administration finally issued the new dietary guidelines in January, they advised Americans to drink less for better health but omitted any recommendation for daily limits, in a departure from previous years.

“The new dietary guidelines say that consuming less is better for your health, but don’t say what consuming less means,” said Priscilla Martinez-Matyszczyk, one of the authors of the new paper and the deputy scientific director of the alcohol research group at the nonprofit Public Health Institute. “This paper does, and it says that having no more than one drink a day is best for health, and that drinking above that comes with significant risks.”

A standard drink is defined as 12 fluid ounces of regular beer, 5 ounces of wine or 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits.

In an editorial accompanying the new paper, Robert M. Vincent, the former government official who commissioned the study, said he believed he was fired because the report produced evidence “at odds with commercial interests.” Mr. Vincent lost his job as associate administrator for alcohol prevention and treatment policy at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration during a reduction in force last year.

“It was going to cost the alcohol industry money,” Mr. Vincent said. “They didn’t like going from two to one for men, and they didn’t like the mention of cancer.”

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to a request for comment about Mr. Vincent’s statement.

The new study, which relied exclusively on U.S. health data, assessed relationships between average alcohol consumption and the risk of disease or death from causes that were directly attributed to drinking.

Women who had one drink a day were more likely to die of liver cancer or breast cancer than women who did not drink. And at one drink a day, both men and women were at increased riskof dying from liver cirrhosis, oral and esophageal cancers and injuries, the paper found. The risks continued to climb with higher levels of consumption.

Consuming more than one drink per occasion was associated with progressively higher risks of breast cancer, cardiovascular disease and injury.

The report did find that one drink a day was associated with a lower risk of diabetes for women and a lowered risk of stroke for both men and women. However, occasional heavy drinking nullified the protective effects against stroke.

One reason the studies reached such different conclusions is that while the new study examined deaths from causes directly attributable to alcohol, the NASEM report commissioned by Congress looked at overall death rates of moderate drinkers, including deaths not causally related to alcohol.

Critics of the NASEM report say that people who drink in moderation often have other healthy lifestyle habits that contribute to their longevity. The moderate drinking group also included many people who consumed less than two drinks a day. Both of these factors could make the health effects of moderate drinking look less significant than they might be.

Dr. Ned Calonge, an epidemiologist at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus who led the NASEM study, said he stood by its conclusions.

“Alcohol research is complex and I am not surprised by different methods producing different results,” Dr. Calonge said, adding that modeling studies like the Alcohol Intake and Health Study, which use data to estimate the lifetime risk of diseases and deaths caused by alcohol, also come with potential biases.

At the same time, he added “I don’t believe anyone should start drinking for health reasons.”

Roni Caryn Rabin is a Times health reporter focused on maternal and child health, racial and economic disparities in health care, and the influence of money on medicine.

The post Health Risks of Alcohol Accelerate After One Drink a Day, Study Finds appeared first on New York Times.

As reported by The Guardian, police and hunters in Fukushima are searching for what Mayor Yuki Baba called an “extremely intelligent” bear after it injured four people and escaped from an electronics factory by apparently unlatching and opening a locked window.

The Bear’s Talents Don’t End at Unlatching Windows

The one-meter-long bear was first caught on CCTV chasing and mauling a worker in a company parking lot. A bystander scared it off with a car, but the beast ran into an office building and attacked again. After injuring two more people, it wandered into a nearby factory. Workers watched it stand at a sink, use its paws to turn on a faucet, and drink from the tap, like maybe it had spent a little bit too much time around us, learning our ways, maybe hoping to one day hide amongst us.

Authorities set traps baited with fruit and honey and handed out tranquilizer guns. When the bear popped up again, it was shot with the dart… That did absolutely nothing. The sedative didn’t do its job, and the bear just kept on truckin’. Local police received authorization to use firearms thanks to an amended gun law, but flammable materials in the factory made that too risky.

The escape triggered school closures and had a fleet of drones called in to help in the search. So far, no dice. The bear remains at large.

The post An Unusually Clever Bear Is Currently Winning a Battle Against Humans in Japan appeared first on VICE.

The San Antonio Spurs won by just four points in the heated matchup at Madison Square Garden, shattering the Knicks’ historic 13-game winning streak.

But New York fans are optimistic, holding out hope for a “Knicks in six” run.

“I’ve been a fan all my life. Knicks in six. We are going to bring it back home with the final paycheck at the Garden,” John Murray, 50, told The Post outside MSG.

“I’m confident and I’m sure the Knicks are going to win the championship,” said Binicius Santos, 29, of Brazil, who watched the game at a nearby bar.

“I think in five but I’m hoping six because New York deserves to celebrate the championship in the Garden.”

Another said a loss in the finals was just realistic.

“We gotta win the next one. The Spurs are a good team, so you gotta expect they’ll win one game,” Greg Armstrong, a 62-year-old New Yorker, said. “I’m not worried. This team has been resilient.”

A pair of friends from Harlem said they don’t mind the loss so much since now they’ll have more games to watch.

“It’s another game,” said Lorenz Gray, a 31-year-old building manager. “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

“We love basketball,” his pal Avery Banks, 32, added. “We don’t mind another game.”

But one disappointed spectator plainly stated, “F–k this. That is my reaction” and pivoted to a  “Knicks in six” chant.

Some more gumptious fans were chanting “Knicks in five!” outside the Garden after the Spurs’ win.

Several of the fans had attended watch parties, which popped up in practically every corner of the five boroughs – including official city-approved viewing events inside Central Park, Bryant Park and Brooklyn Bowl.

The sites were a substitute after the city shot down a proposed bash outside the Garden over security concerns while President Trump attended Game 3. Law enforcement established a five-block security perimeter around the arena ahead of the president’s attendance.

Anil Datwani, a 48-year-old man from New Jersey, has been confident the Knicks would emerge victorious, but was “worried about the bad luck from Donald Trump.”

“We gotta channel that out,” Datwani told The Post ahead of the game.

David Chough, a 32-year-old Manhattanite, was one of the few people who didn’t particularly care about the president’s attendance.

“All that matters is the success of the team. They’re blocking out all distractions. All that matters is we try to get the W tonight,” he said.

Not everyone was focused on the game, though.

Rowdy fans outside the Bryant Park watch party created chaos, vaulting onto parked cars, taking down street signs and hurling bottles at officers who responded in riot gear.

One daredevil set fire to a Spurs t-shirt, while a mob chased a Spurs fan across the street.

Police had to deploy pepper spray to quell the crowd. At least six people were arrested for disorderly conduct and one for assaulting a police officer.

The post Diehard Knicks fans unfazed by Game 3 loss, remain confident team will win NBA Finals: ‘Knicks in six’ appeared first on New York Post.

The idea that your birth month connects you to a specific animal isn’t far removed from the logic of astrology. Each month carries the energy of the zodiac signs it contains, and certain animals reflect those qualities more closely than others.

According to astrologer Sarah Potter, writing for Parade, here’s the spirit animal associated with your birth month—and what it says about you.

January: Snow Leopard

Patient, strategic, and unbothered by what the pack is doing. January’s animal walks its own path and doesn’t need your validation. Capricorn’s determination and Aquarius’s independence both live here—self-sufficient, wise, and guided by instinct over outside opinion.

February: Dolphin

Intelligent, intuitive, and unusually attuned to the people around them. Dolphins are guides and connectors, which mirrors February’s Aquarius-Pisces energy—innovative on one end, deeply empathetic on the other. February people tend to make everyone feel like they belong.

March: Swan

The swan doesn’t try to be seen—it just is, and nobody looks away. March bridges Pisces’s creativity and Aries’s confidence, producing people who are striking without trying and assured without being loud about it. Sensitivity and self-assurance, it turns out, were never opposites.

April: Falcon

Focused, fast, and almost annoyingly good at execution. The falcon knows exactly when to move and exactly where to aim. April’s Aries-Taurus combination gives it both the fire to act and the patience to wait for the right moment.

May: Stag

The stag is at home in its environment but always paying attention to what lies beyond it. May carries Taurus’s groundedness and Gemini’s curiosity in equal measure, which makes for people who know where they stand and still want to understand everything around them.

June: Butterfly

Transformation is the whole point. June people aren’t the same person they were a few years ago, and they’re fine with that. Gemini brings the curiosity, Cancer brings the emotional attunement, and together they make someone who’s always evolving.

July: Moon Jellyfish

Effortless presence without effort. Moon jellyfish don’t force their way anywhere—they move with the current and still command attention. Cancer’s intuition and Leo’s magnetism make July one of the more quietly powerful birth months in this lineup.

August: Lion

Confident, protective, fiercely loyal, and fully aware of the room. August covers Leo and Virgo, which means the lion here has substance behind the presence—paying close attention to everyone in the pride and making sure they’re taken care of.

September: Honeybee

The honeybee doesn’t clock out. It works hard, keeps the peace, and understands instinctively that individual effort means nothing without the hive. September’s Virgo-Libra energy produces people built the same way—diligent, fair-minded, and most satisfied when everyone around them is thriving.

October: Raven

Perceptive, magnetic, and comfortable in the spaces other people find unsettling. Ravens see what’s underneath, which suits Libra’s ability to hold multiple perspectives and Scorpio’s pull toward depth and transformation.

November: Wolf

Wolves will fight for their pack and disappear into the wilderness in the same afternoon. November sits at the Scorpio-Sagittarius crossroads, producing people who love deeply and still need room to move—devoted without being caged, free without being cold.

December: Wild Horse

Powerful, free, and impossible to fully contain. December’s Sagittarius-Capricorn axis produces people with both the wanderlust to explore and the endurance to follow through on wherever they’re headed.

The post What’s Your Spirit Animal? Here’s What Your Birth Month Reveals. appeared first on VICE.

In new documents obtained and viewed by TheWrap, Reiner, who is awaiting trial as the main suspect in the double homicide of his parents, claimed he is owed a mandatory payout, given the trust was supposed to be given to him on his 30th birthday. Yet, Reiner alleged the trustee did not (and still has not) released the funds.

“The terms of Nick’s Trust are not complicated, and they are not subject to reasonable dispute,” the document stated. “Nick’s parents left unambiguous instructions about when the funds in the Trust were to be released to him. One-half of the Trust was required to be distributed to Nick outright when he turned 30. They further instructed that when he turned 35, he would receive the rest of the funds in his Trust. These distributions are mandatory and unconditional.”

In the 136-page filing, Reiner explained that he intended to use the money for his legal fees, noting he had “no other means” to do so. In fact, the petition claimed Jackson departed Reiner’s case after “funding did not materialize.”

“Nick was initially represented by Alan Jackson – one of the country’s most sought-after criminal defense attorneys – who was retained by Nick’s family the day after his arrest to defend him through trial,” the document summarized. “On January 7, 2026, Nick learned that Jackson and his firm were forced to withdraw because the anticipated funding did not materialize, and the Public Defender was appointed to take over Nick’s defense.”

Per the document, Reiner has “repeatedly asked that Jackson’s firm resume its representation if funds become available.”

“He has made clear to the Trustee that he wants – and needs – the funds in his own Trust to be released so that he can pay for his criminal defense,” the document went on. “These are not estate assets, and Nick does not seek them from his parents’ estate. They are his own funds. Nick has no other means – to pay for his legal expenses, or for his basic support needs while incarcerated.”

Reiner’s filing noted that Jackson was “ready, willing and able” to resume representing him.

“The stakes for Nick could not be higher,” the petition added. “While the Trustee unjustifiably continues to withhold funds that are rightfully Nick’s (and which must be released in their entirety no later than when he turns 35), Nick has been unable to obtain even the small sums he needs for basic necessities while incarcerated – or to pay for criminal counsel.”

As we previously reported, Rob and Michele Reiner died on Dec. 14 in a double homicide from “multiple sharp force injuries,” according to the L.A. Medical Examiner. Their 32-year-old son Nick — who has battled mental health and addiction issues in the past — was later arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances. He pleaded not guilty to the charges back in February.

Following his arrest, Reiner retained Jackson, a high-profile defense attorney, who abruptly withdrew from the case on Jan. 7, turning it over to the Public Defenders’ Office. Jackson still remained vehement after his exit that his former client was not guilty of murdering his parents.

“In fact, we know, we’re not just convinced, we know that the legal process will reveal the true facts of the circumstances surrounding Nick’s case,” he said at the time. “What we’ve learned, and you can take this to the bank, is that, pursuant to the law in California, Nick Reiner is not guilty of murder.”

Reiner is set to appear in court next on Sept. 15.

The post Nick Reiner Files Petition for Trust Money to Bring Back Defense Attorney Alan Jackson appeared first on TheWrap.

• Astha Chaturvedi and her husband lived in the US for over 15 years.
• They were both in the green-card backlog when they decided to move with their daughter and dog to Bengaluru, India.
• It’s taking time to adjust, but she says that India feels more vibrant than the US.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Astha Chaturvedi, 38, the founder of Mouri Living. Her words have been edited for length and clarity.

After a decade in Big Tech and at McKinsey, I was working at Ripple in San Francisco when I decided to build my own startup.

I traveled to India in 2024 to hire a CTO. While I was there, a cousin suggested I open an office in India, pointing out that the startup ecosystem was booming. That sent my husband and me down a rabbit hole of exploring a move.

We’d spent about 15 years building our lives in the US, but there was still no clear path to permanence. My husband and I were both waiting for green cards, and the backlog felt endless. His place in line dated back to 2015, while mine was from 2020.

I had always wanted to start my own company, but I couldn’t do so while on an H-1B visa because my work authorization was tied to a sponsoring employer.

To pursue that dream, I switched to an H-4 dependent visa through my husband. Once I became eligible for an H-4 EAD, which gave me work authorization, I finally had the flexibility to launch my business.

We’ve always been risk-takers

Planning a change that drastic wasn’t too hard. Fifteen years earlier, when we had bought a house in Austin and were married, people thought we were settled.

But three years later, in 2016, we sold it and moved into a one-bedroom apartment in Chicago so I could pursue an MBA. Our thinking was similar back then; we would rely on our savings. It kept us afloat for nearly two years.

I’m from Jaipur, in northwestern India, and my husband is from Vishakhapatnam, a coastal city in the south. We met in the US.

Having grown up largely in the US, we were initially apprehensive about work culture and corporate life in Bengaluru. After several discussions with people, it became clear that when you are the boss, you get to have a lot under your control.

Divide and conquer

I traveled to Bengaluru at the beginning of the year to visit schools and go apartment hunting — leaning on alumni connections.

My husband, Karthik, handled logistics and insurance.

I took care of the house sale in San Francisco, decluttering, and setting up our home in India.

The transition was fast. Between February and April, we had moved out.

We had transformed a single-family home near downtown into our three-bedroom, two-bathroom dream home. We sold it for about $2.3 million.

Recently, when our Bengaluru landlord decided to sell the four-bedroom apartment we had rented, it shook us a little because we loved the neighborhood and community. So, we bought it for about $1 million.

It’s tricky to compare the cost of living. India isn’t cheap if you want a premium lifestyle. In fact, quality goods like furniture and electronics can be more expensive than in the US.

But healthcare and household help are much cheaper, so I’ve found that it balances out. Bengaluru is a costly city, but that’s because we budget for a top-end lifestyle.

Everyday realities

Parenting is different here. People in our circle rely more on nannies, though we’ve chosen to stay hands-on with our daughter. I also find that the parenting style is more relaxed here, especially in the early years.

Professionally, everything has aligned well for me. I started off with an AI-led home marketplace but realized the ecosystem wasn’t ready. So I pivoted to building the infrastructure. That led me to manufacturers, and I realized many global brands are made in India. Now I’m building a global luxury home brand.

It’s not all smooth sailing, though. Opening bank accounts and setting up companies has been slow and paperwork-heavy. Managing labor is challenging. I miss the proximity to parks, beaches, and the freeway drives.

Traffic in Bengaluru is a pain, so we’ve chosen to hire a full-time driver to get around. What I don’t miss are chores. Bottom line: We’ve made up for the chaos by investing in support systems.

Moving from San Francisco to Bengaluru began to feel like the right decision when my daughter settled into school and started thriving. At the same time, US immigration uncertainties reinforced our choice.

We left on our own terms

What can really make or break your life is community. For us, that’s been incredible. Our building and school gave us an instant network— we have a social circle of similar families in similar life stages. That’s led to friendships, playdates, and even professional opportunities.

We were concerned about whether our dog — a mini goldendoodle named Mojo — would adjust. In fact, one of the decision factors was that if we couldn’t take him to India, we wouldn’t come. Thankfully, he’s also happy here.

Culturally, I don’t feel a gap at all. India feels more vibrant than the US.

Read the original article on Business Insider

The post My husband and I spent years waiting for green cards. We left the US and built the life we wanted in India. appeared first on Business Insider.

Joy Group, the parent company behind C-beauty brands Judydoll and Joocyee, will open a store in Malaysia by the end of the year, after debuting its first overseas boutiques in Singapore last year.

“Southeast Asia has a huge consumer market, and people are generally very accepting of Chinese products,” Fanqi Kong, Joy Group’s general manager of international business, tells Fortune. Joy Group opened its Singapore office in 2024, which it designated as a regional hub to tap other Southeast Asian markets.

In 2025, the group’s retail sales exceeded $730 million, of which $87 million came from overseas sales. Vietnam is now Joy Group’s top overseas market.

Joy is part of a broader push by Chinese consumer brands to go global, a decision so common it’s even spawned a business buzzword, chuhai. Brutal competition at home has pushed Chinese brands like BYD, Geely, Huawei and Xiaomi to venture into overseas markets. 

Chinese companies initially focused on Western markets like the U.S. and Europe in their global push. But many are now pivoting to Southeast Asia, where Chinese brands have found greater success, due to geographical proximity, cultural similarities, and generally young populations.

Between 2019 and 2024, Chinese color cosmetics and skincare brands in Southeast Asia reported compound annual growth rates of 70% and 115% respectively, according to data analytics firm Euromonitor.

“There was a perception among Chinese businesses that exporting their products to the most established markets is the best way to promote their brand,” says Dianna Chang, an associate professor at the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS). “But now, they’re finding a lot of relevance in Southeast Asia—it’s closer to home and encompasses many emerging economies with young populations.”

How Chinese brands got ahead

Consumers previously wrote off Chinese goods as inferior, as Chinese manufacturers prioritized quick market entry over original designs. “There were jokes going around about how Chery QQ cars wouldn’t pass the crash test,” says Lewis Lim, an associate professor from Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU). “And when Xiaomi entered the smartphone market in 2014, it was seen as a functional, affordable option—you couldn’t expect too much from it, but it worked.”

Yet over time, Chinese workers picked up technical know-how by working for foreign multinationals. “Some of the most advanced cosmetics were manufactured in China in the past, so workers learned how to make them,” says Chang. “Skincare is built a lot on chemistry, so the foundational understanding of material science also matters.”

China has also poured large sums of money into research and development. In 2024, China invested $1.03 trillion into R&D, ahead of the U.S.’s $1.01 trillion, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 

“The one big difference between the Chinese expansion and previous efforts from Japanese and Korean brands is that they are backed by a government eager to increase its soft, cultural power across the world, especially starting with its Asian neighborhood,” says Seshan Ramaswami, a marketing expert from the Singapore Management University (SMU).

Chinese firms have also learned to better market their products internationally. “They’re learning from foreign brands about the importance of branding, storytelling and packaging,” says Chang. “For instance, some C-beauty brands have opted to focus more on Chinese heritage, and weave in elements of traditional Chinese medicine.”

The growing popularity of Chinese pop culture—including minute-long microdramas and TikTok reels of ‘cyberpunk’ cities like Chongqing—is also boosting the popularity of C-beauty brands. “After drinking boba tea and watching Chinese dramas, it’s natural for people to begin to accept and purchase C-beauty products,” Lim says.

C-beauty firms are broadening their product offerings to cater to a wider array of customers. Joy Group has expanded its shade ranges to include deeper skin tone options, and is rolling out sunscreen cushions and waterproof lip ink designed for Southeast Asia’s hot and humid climate. 

“Within Southeast Asia, we’re experimenting with a self-operating model, and building our own local entities and teams,” says Kong. Apart from its few boutiques in Singapore, Joy Group sells its goods through e-commerce platforms like Shopee, Lazada and Tiktok Shop and in omnichannel retail stores like Sephora, Lazada, and Watsons.

Going beyond Southeast Asia

C-beauty giants haven’t abandoned lucrative Western markets. Flower Knows, the viral fairy-themed C-beauty brand, entered the U.S. in 2024 via retail partnerships with Ulta Beauty and Urban Outfitters; Joy Group pushed into the European market last year, after acquiring Italian dermatological hair care brand Foltène. Many newer C-beauty brands, like Florasis, Perfect Diary and Catkin, also debuted with English names to boost their international appeal.

Yet whether C-beauty brands can effectively break into more culturally distinct markets, like the West and the Middle East, remains to be seen. 

“It would be easier for ‘hard’ products like EVs, since the competitive advantage mainly lies in the strength of the technology,” Lim concludes, pointing to how BYD cars are already selling well globally. “But products like cosmetics have to be adapted to the biological needs of your skin, so it might be hard for C-beauty brands to break into other markets as easily.”

The post Chinese beauty brands flock to Southeast Asia as their first step in going global appeared first on Fortune.

• OpenAI’s top leadership said it doesn’t want a future where everything is automated.
• Sam Altman and Jakub Pachocki said AI is making the role of applying human judgment more important.
• This comes as agentic AI is the biggest buzz phrase in the tech and business spheres.

OpenAI said a world where everything is automated would be dangerous.

In a blog post on Monday, CEO Sam Altman and OpenAI’s chief scientist, Jakub Pachocki, said they were “clear-eyed about the risks” of AI, despite the productivity benefits it brings.

“Entirely automating everything is not the future we want,” the duo wrote in the post. “It would be unfulfilling, and it would be dangerous.”

They said that AI systems must remain safe and subject to human control. And as AI systems become more capable, the human roles of “setting directions, making tradeoffs, applying judgment, and bringing values, taste, care, and responsibility to the work” will become more important.

Agentic AI — AI systems that perform tasks and workflows with minimal human intervention — is the biggest buzzword in the tech and business spheres at the moment.

Anthropic and OpenAI are vying to get companies hooked on enterprise accounts for their Claude Code and Codex coding platforms, ahead of both of the companies’ looming IPOs.

OpenAI’s post comes less than a week after Anthropic put out a similar blog post warning about the risks of rapid AI development. An Anthropic employee said in the post that they were not able to keep up with automation, and were at a loss on how to fix problems when the AI systems produced errors.

In the blog post, Anthropic called for a slowdown in AI development to “enable societal structures and alignment research to keep up.”

Other company executives have spoken about human roles that AI can’t automate or replace, such as Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn saying his top designers produce much better work than AI, and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff saying the company won’t slow down hiring in its sales department.

“For some things, AI is quite ready to do high-quality work. For some things, it’s just not,” von Ahn said in a May podcast interview. “We’re not going to decrease quality just for the sake of using AI.”

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The Assembly Appropriations Committee approved the measure along party lines, clearing the way for a potential full vote in the Legislature later this week before reaching Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill for her signature.

If enacted, the measure would make New Jersey the first state in the nation to explicitly criminalize such interference.

First introduced in the summer of 2024, the legislation would establish a new criminal offense for “interference with reproductive health services,” including abortion procedures.

The New Jersey Monitor indicated that the measure would also protect access to transgender healthcare for minors, including puberty blockers, hormone therapy and related mental health treatments.

Protections would extend to individuals who travel to New Jersey from jurisdictions where abortion is restricted or illegal. Health care providers and facilities would also be shielded under the proposal, which includes legal penalties for alleged interference originating from outside the state.

“This bill is to protect healthcare. Not a political debate. Not a culture war talking point. Healthcare,” bill sponsor Sen. Teresa Ruiz, D-Essex, previously said, according to the New Jersey Monitor. “Our law enforcement will not carry out another state’s agenda.”

According to the outlet, Republican lawmakers and opponents argued Monday that the bill could infringe on free speech rights, further erode parental rights and effectively make New Jersey a “sanctuary state” for certain providers.

Gregory Quinlan, founder and leader of the conservative advocacy group Center for Garden State Families, said anti-abortion activists could face arrest simply for praying outside clinics or engaging in what he described as “sidewalk counseling” sessions, the outlet reported.

Despite the criticism, Ruiz has previously said the bill “is not a violation of First Amendment rights,” according to the New Jersey Monitor. 

According to the bill, medical entities and public officials will be barred from disclosing patient information without explicit consent, further strengthening privacy protections.

The measure would also make it a fourth-degree crime to harass, harm or block individuals from accessing or providing such services, while extending protections to providers against extradition to states that have criminalized reproductive or transgender treatments.

Violators who inflict significant bodily injury on individuals who receive such services could face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $150,000.

Beyond criminal penalties, the proposal would also allow for civil litigation and authorize the state attorney general to seek injunctions and financial penalties against alleged violators.

The post State advances first-of-its-kind bill targeting interfering with abortion, trans healthcare appeared first on New York Post.

Read your horoscope for the week, and see what the stars have in store for your sign today.

Aries: March 21 – April 19

You’ve been keeping score, and you know it. Not against anyone who’d admit it’s a competition — just privately tallying wins and losses against people who have no idea they’re playing. Mars in Taurus is slowing your usual pace way down, Aries. The real question isn’t whether you’re ahead. It’s whether the race you’re running is even one you chose.

Aries monthly horoscope

Taurus: April 20 – May 20

Venus conjunct Jupiter today is basically the universe sliding you a blank check and telling you to go wild. The catch? You, Taurus, will absolutely try to spend it all at once. This aspect rewards pleasure, not panic-buying. Let yourself enjoy the feeling without immediately converting it into a plan, a purchase, or a permanent life decision. Sit in it. Just for today.

Taurus monthly horoscope

Gemini: May 21 – June 20

You could talk your way out of a speeding ticket, a situationship, and probably a minor felony, and honestly, that’s impressive. But Mercury squaring Makemake today is specifically targeting the story you’ve been telling about that one thing you keep reframing instead of fixing. The spin is good, Gemini. It’s really good. It’s just not working on the one person who actually matters — you.

Gemini monthly horoscope

Cancer: June 21 – July 22

Your read on people today is sharper than usual — the Moon conjuncting Neptune has your instincts dialed all the way up. The part you’re going to resist is what comes next. The Moon moving into Aries isn’t interested in letting you sit with what you know, Cancer. It wants you to act on it. You already have everything you need. Stop waiting for more proof.

Cancer monthly horoscope

Leo: July 23 – August 22

You’re so good at making everything look effortless that people forget to ask if you’re okay. And you prefer it that way — until you don’t. The Sun in Gemini is keeping things surface-level and social, but there’s something underneath all that charm you haven’t said out loud yet, Leo. You’re allowed to need something. That’s not a weakness. It’s just the truth.

Leo monthly horoscope

Virgo: August 23 – September 22

You’ve helped everyone in your orbit navigate something hard lately. Your own stuff? Still in a pile. Mercury squaring Makemake today is pointing directly at it, Virgo — the thing you keep deprioritizing because someone else always needs you more. Being useful is your comfort zone, not your whole identity. Your problems deserve the same energy you throw at everyone else’s.

Virgo monthly horoscope

Libra: September 23 – October 22

Venus conjunct Jupiter is one of the more indulgent days of the month, and you’re going to spend a significant portion of it making sure everyone around you is having a good time. That’s very on-brand, Libra, and also exhausting to watch. The abundance today is meant for you, too. Try — actually try — to do one thing today purely because you want to. No audience required.

Libra monthly horoscope

Scorpio: October 23 – November 21

You’ve been sitting with something heavy and telling exactly nobody about it — classic you, and also not sustainable. The Moon sextiling Pluto retrograde today creates an opening where saying the hard thing out loud doesn’t feel like handing someone a weapon. Someone in your life is ready, Scorpio. The question is whether you trust them enough to find out.

Scorpio monthly horoscope

Sagittarius: November 22 – December 21

You’ll book a last-minute flight without blinking, but ask you to sit still and let someone love you properly, and suddenly it’s complicated. Venus conjunct Jupiter today is pushing on exactly that, Sagittarius. The biggest thing available to you right now isn’t a new destination or a fresh start. It’s the person already in front of you. Don’t run from it.

Sagittarius monthly horoscope

Capricorn: December 22 – January 19

You’ve worked harder than anyone in the room, and you’d never say that out loud, which is very you and also a little self-defeating. Saturn in Aries is pushing you to advocate for yourself with the same aggression you apply to everything else, Capricorn. Waiting to be noticed is a strategy that has never once worked as well as just saying the thing directly. Try it.

Capricorn monthly horoscope

Aquarius: January 20 – February 18

You have had this idea — you know the one — sitting in the back of your head for longer than you’d like to admit. The Moon sextiling Uranus today is basically a direct current running from your brain to the real world, Aquarius. The conditions are good. The timing is right. The only thing standing between you and actually doing it is the part where you have to start.

Aquarius monthly horoscope

Pisces: February 19 – March 20

Your intuition is electric today, and it’s going to feel like a green light on everything. The Moon conjuncting Neptune means your read on people is genuinely sharp right now, Pisces — but the Aries fire underneath it wants you to act before you’ve thought it through. A feeling this strong deserves more than thirty seconds before you blow up your life on it.

Pisces monthly horoscope

The post Daily Horoscope: June 9, 2026 appeared first on VICE.

It was not immediately clear whether the Apache was shot down by Iranian fire, experienced mechanical failure or encountered some other problem, said one of the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity and said the incident was under investigation.

The incident occurred after days in which hostilities in the region escalated and then ebbed, as Israel and Iran exchanged military strikes before stepping back, the latest example of the tenuous nature of the cease-fire.

The Trump administration had not disclosed news of the downed helicopter by the time The New York Times reached out to the White House press office for comment on Monday night.

A spokesman for President Trump did not immediately provide a statement about the incident. The military’s Central Command did not respond to a request for comment.

The U.S. military has used Apaches, as well as armed MQ-9 Reaper drones and F/A-18 and F-35 attack planes, as part of an aggressive effort by Central Command to challenge Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz to most commercial traffic.

Iran has shot down about 30 unmanned Reaper drones, and a handful of U.S. fighter jets have been lost to hostile and friendly fire since the war started on Feb. 28. But this would be the first Apache lost in the conflict.

Last month, Central Command posted imagery on social media of Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of the command, flying over waters in or near the strait on the eve of an effort by the U.S. Navy to help guide commercial ships through the strait, a short-lived operation called Project Freedom.

The AH-64 Apache gunship, which is armed with Hellfire missiles, is one of the most fearsome types of aircraft operating in the region. They patrol the strategic waterway in part to deter small-boat attacks and to shoot down drones.

But the helicopters have been pushing closer to Iranian territory — including islands the Iranians control in the strait and the Persian Gulf — as part of the aggressive posture Central Command has maintained even as the United States and Iran have engaged in fitful negotiations to reopen the strait.

In response to Iran’s blockade, the United States imposed a blockade of its own on April 13, barring commercial vessels from entering or leaving an Iranian port. Since then, U.S. military ships have turned away 134 vessels.

The Navy has disabled seven other vessels that ignored American warnings to turn back, including a Palau-flagged oil tanker as it steamed through international waters in the Gulf of Oman toward Iran on Monday, Central Command said in a statement.

In April, two crew members of an F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet shot down by Iran were rescued after ejecting from their stricken aircraft and landing deep in hostile territory.

Eric Schmitt is a national security correspondent for The Times. He has reported on U.S. military affairs and counterterrorism for more than three decades. Contact him securely on Signal: ericschmitt.36.

The post Crew Rescued After U.S. Helicopter Goes Down Near Strait of Hormuz appeared first on New York Times.

Researchers from the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology’s Infectious Disease Research Center used female mouse models to investigate why sepsis outcomes can vary so dramatically.

The study, published in the journal Nature, looked at genetically similar mice with different gut microbiomes. The mice were infected with Acinetobacter baumannii — a highly resilient bacterium that can lead to sepsis.

The researchers compared groups of mice with higher and lower survival rates, examining differences in their gut microbiomes, the amount of bacteria in their blood and organs, and other cellular markers, according to the study press release.

Measures of risk

Although some mice were genetically similar, the more vulnerable mice had a higher concentration of Muribaculaceae bacteria in the gut. In one comparison, these bacteria made up about 28% of the microbiome in poor surviving mice, but only 0.15% in better surviving mice.

Mice with worse survival showed an early and strong inflammatory response, which later led to more bacteria in the blood, lungs and spleen. This suggests that the microbiome causes the immune system to be more reactive, according to the researchers.

In the microbiome of mice with worse survival, the researchers also noticed that one strain of bacteria — Sangeribacter muris KT1-3 — was most prominent. The mice that typically survived at high rates fared much worse when housed with KTI-3 mice, with their survival falling to 10%.

This bacterial strain also appeared to worsen inflammation during certain infections, making sepsis more severe.

These findings suggest that the gut microbiome can signal how the immune system will react before an infection begins.

The microbiome’s surprising influence

Andrew Fleming, MD, section chief of Infectious Diseases & Immunology at NYU Langone Hospital, Brooklyn, said it has been “known for years” that gut bacteria and bacterial toxins can be released into the bloodstream during sepsis.

This worsens the inflammatory response to the initial infection, according to Fleming, who was not involved in the study.

“This process is particularly important in septic shock, where the intestinal wall becomes more permeable to translocation (or leaking) of bacterial products,” Fleming said.

Interactions between the gut microbiome and the immune system are “complex and variable from person to person,” the doctor described.

“But there is mounting evidence that a diverse and healthy gut microbiome – the community of bacteria that lives in a person’s gut – is protective in some ways against severe sepsis,” he went on. “And a dysregulated microbiome – for example, one severely altered by antibiotics – can impair or worsen the immune system’s response during sepsis.”

Scientists are starting to think of the gut microbiome “almost as a living organ,” according to Fleming, much like the heart, kidneys or liver, all serving “multiple functions” to keep the body healthy.

An unhealthy microbiome can have “detrimental effects across a range of health issues,” he added – including how the body responds to infections.

“Compared to our other organs, we currently have fewer readily available tests in the doctor’s office to measure the health of our microbiome,” Fleming said. “However, this should not prevent us from thinking about our gut microbiome and how to keep it healthy.”

The role of antibiotics

The use of antibiotics has “major and long-lasting effects” on the microbiome, Fleming noted. Up to 80% of adults in the US are prescribed an antibiotic every year, while 30% are estimated to be unnecessary, according to the CDC.

“Antibiotics deplete the diversity of the microbiome and create a void in the gut microbial community that can be filled by harmful bacteria from the environment,” the doctor told Fox News Digital.

“We must begin to think much more critically about our antibiotic use and overuse, both to maintain our gut health and to reduce the spread of antibiotic resistance.”

The study findings are an “intriguing starting point to further research,” Fleming said, although there were some key limitations.

“Sangeribacter muris is not typically found in humans, so the exact mechanism of this bacterial strain worsening sepsis that is demonstrated in this study cannot be directly extrapolated to people,” he said. “Well-designed clinical trials should be conducted to explore how similar gut microbiome effects may play out in sepsis in humans.”

Despite these limitations, the doctor said he supports the hypothesis that maintaining a healthy gut microbiome can help keep the immune system well-regulated while reducing the risk of developing severe sepsis.

The post Why do some people get sepsis while others don’t? Scientists point to the gut appeared first on New York Post.

David Rothkopf, a columnist for The Daily Beast, said on a new episode of “The Daily Beast Podcast” on Monday that insiders he’s spoken with were shocked when Trump appointed Bill Pulte, the administration’s former mortgage chief, as the next Director of National Intelligence. Rothkopf said his sources were outraged by Pulte’s willingness to do what Trump tells him and his lack of experience in the role, which is defined by federal law.

“When I talk to people in the national security community or when you see the petitions that have been circulated, there is a consensus that Bill [Pulte] is the worst appointment Trump has ever made because he has absolutely zero experience in intelligence, something even Marco Rubio, the butt-kisser of all time, acknowledged he has no intelligence experience,” Rothkopf said.

Trump appointed Pulte to replace former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who resigned from the administration over her husband’s health. Pulte, the former director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, was a homebuilder before joining the Trump administration and has never held an intelligence job.

Federal law requires anyone appointed to the Director of National Intelligence role to have “extensive” intelligence experience.

“He is purely being picked because he will do exactly what Trump says,” Rothkopf added, noting Pulte’s willingness to cook up investigations against Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook for mortgage fraud. “Trump wants him there because he thinks that the intel community can help him invalidate upcoming elections, which is his main job. And he also thinks he can help him go after his adversaries, possibly even help him shred information that might be incriminating to Trump.”

“But when I talk to people at the CIA, when I talk to people who are formerly national intelligence people, I spoke to somebody from the [Defense Intelligence Agency] over the weekend — they are outraged,” he continued.

The post Insiders outraged after Trump makes his ‘worst appointment’ ever: expert appeared first on Raw Story.

The rapper and singer, who performed at the New York Knicks versus San Antonio Spurs Game 3 of the NBA Finals Monday, showed off a $7,000 Chanel purse as she Instagrammed from celebrity row.

This was despite the strict no-bag rule in place due to security measures around President Trump’s planned appearance at the game.

And she wasn’t the only spectator with fashion in full bloom at The Garden. 

Court-side couture is causing almost as much commotion as the New York Knicks. And the stop-and-stare wear at Game 3 was no exception — from super fan Spike Lee donning a Knicks jersey signed by Pope Leo, to Jay-Z decked out in an $1,110 all-black designer jacket by Bode.

Super fan Timothée Chalamet sat court-side in head to toe Knicks orange, and Cardi B sported a curve-clinging gray corset and skin-tight leggings for her half-time performance, after posting photos of her purse to Instagram Stories.

Jordyn Woods, 28, the fiancé of NYK center Karl Anthony Towns known for sporting her “good luck charm” custom purse to matchups, was forced to leave her bougie bag at home,

But she still turned up the haute in a custom-made top, stitched together from vintage Knicks T-shirts and jerseys, paired with jeans.

The voguish visionary transformed her lucky, albeit banned pocketbook into a pair of shoes — heels she named the “Stunt sandals in limited edition ‘Summer Citrus.’”

Chalamet, 30, threw a fashionable fit in a head-to-toe orange number by luxe label Chrome Hearts, finishing the look with a pair of Timberland boots.    

The who’s who on the scene included DJ Khaled, rapper Fat Joe, dripped in diamonds, “Law and Order: SVU” legends Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni sat shoulder-to-shoulder in causal Knicks gear, as did comedians Tracy Morgan and Chris Rock.

Major League Baseball paragon Derek Jeter, John McEnroe of tennis fame, acting couple Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor, and more were at the nail-biting big show. 

Danielle Becker, the Gotham-based artist behind the viral, hand-painted leather jacket worn by Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson’s wife, Ali Brunson, told The Post that celebrity row at Madison Square Garden has become NYC hottest runway. 

“The celebrity fashion is partly the reason so many people, including who aren’t necessarily into sports, are watching the Knicks right now,” said Becker, founder of Lefty’s Right Mind, a creative marketing studio. “Everyone wants to be a part of this incredible episode in Knicks history.” 

“New York City is electric right now,” she continued. “Nobody who loves fashion is going to hold back at Game 4.”

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The post Cardi B flouts MSG’s no-bag rule with $7K Chanel purse — as celebs hit court-side catwalk appeared first on New York Post.

As the “WAP” rapper performed “Bodak Yellow” in a grey bustier for the sold out-crowd at Madison Square Garden, one sports commentator noted that the analysts were stuck competing with Cardi B for the fans’ attention. Barkley quickly chimed in, noting, “I don’t know if those [are] B’s. That might be Cardi D’s,” prompting laughter from his peers.

The internet responded strongly to the comment as well, with the moment being snipped and shared a number of times on X. In fact, Barstool Sports posted the moment to their account, garnering over 700,000 views in less than an hour.

“We have lost Charles Barkley tonight folks,” the sports media company commented.

The commentary didn’t stop there, as countless fans chimed in on the now-viral remark. “Never change Charles, never change,” one fan commented. Another responded with, “I’d pay an unreasonable amount of money to see the B roll of Shaq when that was said.”

A third fan noted, “Chuck just casually upgraded her to Cardi D’s mid broadcast. Man said the quiet part loud as hell. Legend.”

“I don’t know if those B’s. Those might be Cardi D’s” We have lost Charles Barkley tonight folks https://t.co/ZzStZF5VRL

— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) June 9, 2026

However, plenty of people were offended by Barkley’s behavior, with one vocal critic calling it out as sexist.

“The man is a grown adult on national television reducing a performer to her body like it’s 1995,” the X user stated. “It’s not funny, it’s not clever, it’s just sad.”

A Cardi B fan expressed a similar sentiment, writing on X, “What exactly were they laughing about, Cardi is a queen. She’s one not to be joked with.”

However, Cardi B appeared unbothered by Barkley’s quip, as the Grammy winner reposted an upload from a fan account that highlighted how “Cardi D” was trending at No. 7 Monday evening.

Looks like it will take a lot more than that to rattle Cardi B.

The post Charles Barkley Goes Viral Over Comment on Cardi B’s Appearance at NBA Finals: ‘Man Said the Quiet Part Loud as Hell’ appeared first on TheWrap.

In a notice to be published in the Federal Register this week, the department will unveil a pilot program that will allow visa applicants to pay the $750 to schedule an appointment for an interview within 10 days of the payment at select U.S. embassies and consulates.

The pilot program will run from July 1 to Dec. 31, according to internal documents obtained by the Associated Press and a State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the program has not yet been announced.

The move is a potential effort to ease conditions caused by the Trump administration’s push to make entering the United States more difficult. The administration has cracked down on most forms of migration for foreigners — demanding that bonds of up to $15,000 be paid for visa processing in some, mainly African, countries and requiring years of personal history, including social media accounts, to be vetted.

The new requirements have caused delays in visa processing around the world, prompting complaints.

Wait times for visa interviews for citizens of countries that are not part of the Visa Waiver Program can be several months if not longer. But paying the fee for the “optional premium add-on service” does not guarantee that a visa will be issued.

The embassies and consulates at which the expedited service will be available are to be announced before the program takes effect July 1. The pilot program will run through the end of the year but could be extended depending on demand.

Lee writes for the Associated Press.

The post Trump administration will offer expedited visa interviews at select embassies for $750 appeared first on Los Angeles Times.

Ms. Raman, 44, a City Council member and former Bass ally, was behind in the initial vote count but came back in later returns to edge out Spencer Pratt, a Republican reality TV star who lost his home in the 2025 wildfires that devastated Pacific Palisades, a wealthy coastal enclave.

Mr. Pratt had jumped out to an early lead in a field of more than a dozen contenders, in part because Republicans, who make up about 15 percent of the city’s electorate, had coalesced behind him. But his margin shrank as ballots from thousands of liberals who voted closer to Election Day were processed.

Because Californians vote by mail in large numbers, counts are often slow, and it can take days or weeks to determine winners.

“Spencer Pratt had an exciting campaign that captured national attention,” said Paul Mitchell, a political data expert.

He added that Mr. Pratt was “undone by the voters who were holding their ballots, waiting for the last shoe to drop on the Democratic side of the governor’s race.”

After Los Angeles County updated its vote totals on Monday, Ms. Bass led overall with 34.3 percent of the vote, while Ms. Raman had 28.5 percent. Mr. Pratt, who had slipped to third place on Sunday, fell further back to 25.8 percent.

Ms. Bass could have won outright in this nonpartisan election had she received a majority of the vote. Instead, the November runoff will be the first for an incumbent Los Angeles mayor since 2005, a stinging rebuke for Ms. Bass, a former Democratic congresswoman who was on the vice-presidential short list in 2020.

The race between Ms. Raman and Ms. Bass, 72, sets up a generational contest between the center-left Democratic establishment that has shaped the city for years, and the young, restive progressives who have charged that baby boomers’ housing policies have systematically priced them out of Los Angeles.

Political experts pointed out that the general election turnout will be significantly larger and more progressive compared with the primary electorate, an advantage for Ms. Raman. Polls show that she has captured the imagination of a younger and more progressive generation of constituents, and that she will pose a formidable challenge to Ms. Bass in a one-on-one matchup.

“Bass will have to hold on to the liberal part of her base, and she must attract moderates and even conservatives, who did not vote for her last Tuesday,” said Zev Yaroslavsky, a longtime civic leader who directs the Los Angeles Initiative at the Luskin School of Public Affairs at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“It’ll be a challenging race for both candidates,” he added, “and one that will answer the question of how progressive Los Angeles really is.”

Mr. Pratt, 42, declared his candidacy on the anniversary of the fire in the Pacific Palisades, channeling the rage of his neighbors. The race quickly took on national overtones as he launched bombastic, social media-fueled broadsides against California’s Democratic leadership.

Mr. Pratt had generated a surge of social media attention and millions of dollars in campaign contributions, but paid a price for his Republican registration in an overwhelmingly liberal city. Among other mixed political blessings that he received, he was publicly praised by President Trump.

As Mr. Pratt’s early lead disappeared, he suggested without evidence on social media that homeless people might have cast fraudulent votes for Ms. Raman, and the president made baseless assertions that the California vote count was “crooked.”

On Monday, before the race was called, Mr. Trump inaccurately declared on his social media site that it was “not possible” for Mr. Pratt to have lost the lead that election officials reported before hundreds of thousands of outstanding ballots were counted. “Rigged Elections!” a Truth Social post said.

By then, Mr. Pratt had changed course, reminding his followers on social media that Ms. Raman’s lead was narrow and that the certified results were not due for three weeks, adding: “Let’s git-r-dun!”

In the 2022 primary, Ms. Bass dominated a large field with 43 percent of the vote and then decisively beat a billionaire developer in the general election. Voters that year were focused on rampant homelessness and crime that had metastasized since the pandemic started.

Since that election, unsheltered homelessness has steadily receded and homicide rates have fallen to levels not recorded since the 1960s, but fresh anxieties have since consumed Los Angeles.

Survivors of the Palisades fire are still struggling to rebuild after the loss of 12 lives and thousands of houses. Many still have not forgiven Ms. Bass for having been out of the country on Jan. 7, 2025, when the fire began.

Federal immigration crackdowns have continued to traumatize foreign-born residents, who make up more than a third of the population. About 4,000 federalized National Guard troops were deployed to the city last June after protests over immigration raids, though the Trump administration was forced to withdraw the last of them in December.

Show business, the city’s signature industry, is contracting. Municipal lawsuits over potholed streets and root-mangled sidewalks have sapped the budget. Millions of visitors are incoming for major sporting events, World Cup matches in neighboring Inglewood this year and the Summer Olympics in 2028.

A politically hostile White House also has painted Los Angeles as a corrupt and crime-ridden landscape, even as the city has celebrated dazzling new art institutions and subway lines.

Ms. Bass, a grandmother and former physician assistant who has been a fixture of Los Angeles politics since the crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s, asked voters for a second four-year term to continue rebuilding Pacific Palisades, shrinking the homeless population and restoring the local economy. Most of the established business and labor organizations have backed her, including a police union that supported her opponent last time.

But her approval ratings tanked after the fire, particularly among white voters in West Los Angeles. Not even a face-off last summer with the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement that Democrats cheered restored her support completely.

Opponents calling for generational change framed her as an establishment politician in a political moment that has not been kind to incumbents. As of late last month, her support stood at about 30 percent in polls.

Ms. Raman, who has an undergraduate degree in political theory from Harvard and a master’s degree in urban planning from M.I.T., has campaigned on the argument that the city’s recovery has lagged and that City Hall has failed to perform basic functions despite the mayor’s best efforts.

In particular, she has emphasized the city’s crushing shortage of affordable housing and the backlog of requests for core services, like the repair of broken streetlights. She also has questioned the city’s spending on police salaries and the mayor’s signature homelessness program.

A mother of young twins and the wife of a screenwriter, Ms. Raman has served on the City Council since 2020, when she upset an incumbent with the support of the Democratic Socialists of America, which helped elect Mr. Mamdani. At City Hall, she backed Ms. Bass’s proposals and even endorsed her re-election. Only after it appeared that Mr. Pratt would be Ms. Bass’s most significant opposition did Ms. Raman jump into the race, hours before the filing deadline.

“If you’re as frustrated by the broken status quo as I am, I hope you’ll join our movement to build a city that works for everyone,” Ms. Raman said in a statement on Monday.

Detractors have argued that Ms. Raman is politically unseasoned and ideologically too far to the left to lead the city. But in recent months she has shifted some of her positions on housing more to the center.

As Ms. Raman gained ground over the weekend, Ms. Bass’s campaign highlighted the mayor’s support of the police, advocacy for Hollywood tax credits and defense of immigrants during last year’s federal crackdowns. The Bass campaign also criticized Ms. Raman’s opposition to no-camping zones as a deterrent to homeless encampments.

“A campaign against Nithya Raman, who allows encampments near schools and cuts the police force, is one Mayor Bass looks forward to winning,” the mayor’s campaign strategist, Douglas Herman, said on Monday.

Shawn Hubler is The Times’s Los Angeles bureau chief, reporting on the news, trends and personalities of Southern California.

The post Democrat Secures Second L.A. Mayor Spot and Ends Spencer Pratt’s Run appeared first on New York Times.

Welker traveled to Wisconsin to interview President Donald Trump for her Sunday show, “Meet the Press.” The interview became combative after Welker challenged Trump to provide evidence for his claim that the 2020 general election was stolen from him. Trump abruptly ended the interview after that, and made some disturbing comments about Welker as he stormed off set.

Trump called Welker stupid and crooked, and questioned her integrity, attacks he’s levied against other female journalists like CNN’s Kaitlan Collins who have asked him tough questions.

“You’re a one-sided crooked network,” Trump said to Welker as he stormed off. “Let’s call it quits because I’ve had enough. Thank you, darling. Have a good time.”

Navarro argued on CNN’s “NewsNight” with host Abby Phillip that Trump’s comments were part of a “horrible” pattern of behavior toward women. Caroline Sunshine, former deputy communications director for Trump’s 2024 campaign, attempted to rebut those claims by arguing that she never witnessed Trump mistreat women while she worked with him.

Sunshine also told Navarro to “give [her] a break,” which sent Navarro over the edge.

“Have you no shame as a woman that we hear him call [women] ugly and piggy and crooked and liars and stupid and bad journalists?” Navarro seethed. “Have you absolutely no solidarity with women? Oh my god, I can’t believe you sit here and tell me to give you a break. When in this network, we hear him tell our journalist that she’s not fit to be a journalist because she doesn’t smile. How dare you tell me to give you a break? Have some shame.”

The post Ana Navarro snaps at ex-Trump official over attacks on women: ‘Have you no shame?’ appeared first on Raw Story.

Welker traveled to Wisconsin to interview President Donald Trump for her Sunday show, “Meet the Press.” The interview became combative after Welker challenged Trump to provide evidence for his claim that the 2020 general election was stolen from him. Trump abruptly ended the interview after that, and made some disturbing comments about Welker as he stormed off set.

Trump called Welker stupid and crooked, and questioned her integrity, attacks he’s levied against other female journalists like CNN’s Kaitlan Collins who have asked him tough questions.

“You’re a one-sided crooked network,” Trump said to Welker as he stormed off. “Let’s call it quits because I’ve had enough. Thank you, darling. Have a good time.”

Navarro argued on CNN’s “NewsNight” with host Abby Phillip that Trump’s comments were part of a “horrible” pattern of behavior toward women. Caroline Sunshine, former deputy communications director for Trump’s 2024 campaign, attempted to rebut those claims by arguing that she never witnessed Trump mistreat women while she worked with him.

Sunshine also told Navarro to “give [her] a break,” which sent Navarro over the edge.

“Have you no shame as a woman that we hear him call [women] ugly and piggy and crooked and liars and stupid and bad journalists?” Navarro seethed. “Have you absolutely no solidarity with women? Oh my god, I can’t believe you sit here and tell me to give you a break. When in this network, we hear him tell our journalist that she’s not fit to be a journalist because she doesn’t smile. How dare you tell me to give you a break? Have some shame.”

The post Ana Navarro snaps at ex-Trump official over attacks on women: ‘Have you no shame?’ appeared first on Raw Story.

The couple made their red carpet debut in New York City at the world premiere of “Katy Perry: The Lifetimes Tour – Live from Paris” concert documentary Monday as part of the 2026 Tribeca Film Festival.

Perry wore a white vintage Lanvin gown while Trudeau donned a tuxedo for their date night.

While the pair struck the usual poses couples give on a red carpet, they were also snapped sharing affectionate and smile-filled glances at each other and in candid shots.

In one sweet moment, Perry and Trudeau leaned in and touched their foreheads together as they shared a laugh.

The “Firework” singer, 41, and the former Canadian Prime Minister first sparked romance rumors in July 2025.

That month, they were were spotted out and about in Montreal together and Trudeau, 54, even brought his teenage daughter, Ella-Grace, to Perry’s “Lifetimes” tour stop in the Canadian city.

Despite their relationship hitting a cooling-off period early on, the couple roared back and were photographed holding hands at Perry’s birthday outing in Paris in October.

Later that month, fans were convinced Trudeau’s shark Halloween costume was a nod to the pop star and a callback to the “Left Shark” viral dancer from Perry’s Super Bowl halftime show in 2015.

Perry and Trudeau went Instagram-official with intimate photos from their Tokyo trip in December.

After celebrating the holidays and ringing in the new year together, the couple were seen jamming out to Justin Bieber’s 2026 Coachella set together in April.

A source told Us Weekly earlier this month that Perry introduced her 5-year-old daughter, whom she shares with ex-fiancé Orlando Bloom, to Trudeau’s three children with estranged wife Sophie Grégoire Trudeau.

As the couple nears their one-year anniversary, a source told Page Six Monday that Perry made an unexpected move after her first date with Trudeau last summer.

“Katy ended up back at Justin’s place in Montreal after their first date and they have been inseparable ever since,” the source revealed.

The source added that they “make it a point to take time out for each other” despite their busy schedules.

The post Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau make their relationship red-carpet official appeared first on Page Six.

The co-founder of the Grossman Burn Foundation and the ex-major leaguer have already been found liable in the deaths of two young boys. Now the jury is considering financial penalties on top of the $176 million that’s been awarded.

On Monday, Grossman’s husband, Dr. Peter Grossman, took the witness stand for a second day. The renowned plastic surgeon was questioned for hours by an attorney for the family of Mark and Jacob Iskander, 11 and 8, who were struck and killed by Rebecca Grossman in 2020 in a Westlake Village crosswalk.

Brian Panish questioned him about the family’s wealth and his wife’s responsibility in the boys’ deaths, then the surgeon offered an apology, saying that “the pain the Iskanders have had is enormous and there’s no words that are enough. All I can say is that I am very, very sorry.”

But Panish was having none of it.

He hammered Grossman with questions about whether his wife had been drinking and racing with Erickson the night that she struck the boys with her Mercedes SUV at what experts testified was nearly 73 mph. Rebecca Grossman, 62, is currently serving 15 years to life for second-degree murder.

Panish replied: “You never once said you were sorry before you came just now after the jury awarded the money against your wife, did you, sir?”

“That is not true,” responded the doctor.

Panish countered: “Do you admit your wife killed the two kids? Do you admit it? Yes or no?”

“I admit that Rebecca was involved accidentally in the death of these children,” Grossman replied.

Panish then challenged him to “look that jury straight in the eye and admit that your wife killed those two boys traveling at an excessive rate of speed under the influence of alcohol. Can you?”

During an eight-week wrongful death trial, jurors heard that Grossman was speeding when she struck the boys as she closely followed the AMG Mercedes SUV driven by her then-lover, Erickson, after they had drinks at a nearby cantina.

The jury concluded that Rebecca Grossman and Erickson, 58, were both negligent, had acted with malice and that the pair “acted in concert with each other in the course of their activities, leading to the fatal collision.” They awarded $176 million to the boys’ parents, Nancy and Karim Iskander, and a surviving brother. The compensatory and emotional distress damages were split between Rebecca Grossman and Erickson.

On Monday, Panish asked the surgeon: “You have no apology whatsoever for your wife’s drinking and driving? Do you, sir?”

Grossman: “Sir, I have an apology for the Iskanders for everything that they’ve gone through.”

But Grossman described characterizations of his wife driving drunk, racing and hitting the boys after going as fast as 82 mph in a 45-mph zone as inaccurate. Grossman, who was tested several hours after the collision, registered a blood alcohol level of 0.08, the legal limit in California.

Panish asked the doctor if it was inconvenient for him to testify because his wife had killed two kids.

Grossman called out that comment as “very disrespectful.”

But Panish pushed again. “Can you tell the jury right now you’re totally sorry for your wife’s speeding, drinking and killing the kids? Yes or no?”

The judge directed the surgeon to answer yes or no.

“Yes,” Grossman replied.

Panish seized on the admission: “So you get it she was driving under the influence, killed the kids and tried to flee?” — a reference to Rebecca Grossman’s car stopping a third of a mile away from the crash site because the Mercedes’ safety system turned off the badly damaged vehicle.

“That’s not what you just said,” piped up the doctor in a furious tone.

In addition to the two counts of second-degree murder, Rebecca Grossman was convicted in 2024 of two counts of gross vehicular manslaughter and one count of hit-and-run driving resulting in death. A California Court of Appeals upheld her conviction, and she has appealed to the state Supreme Court. Although she and Peter Grossman were separated at the time, the vehicle she drove belonged to him.

According to witness testimony at the criminal and civil trials, Erickson and Grossman had been drinking at a Westlake Village restaurant and were heading to Grossman’s home on the night of the crash. Mark and Jacob were with their mother and younger sibling in a crosswalk at Triunfo Canyon Road when witnesses said two cars sped toward them. Erickson, during the civil trial, testified he avoided hitting the brothers, but Grossman did not.

Panish told jurors in Van Nuys that they needed to award punitive damages not only to punish Grossman and Erickson but also to send a message about their conduct. He questioned whether Erickson, a former World Series winner, and Grossman were hiding assets.

The punitive phase of the civil trial began Thursday, after jurors determined that Grossman had acted with malice and oppression and Erickson with malice, oppression or fraud.

On Monday, Panish, for a second day, questioned Peter Grossman about a series of property transfers involving homes in Texas and Georgia and liens on the couple’s 14,000-square-foot Hidden Hills mansion. Panish played prison phone recordings that suggested they were seeking to shift assets to their son and daughter and shelter them from the Iskanders. He also questioned a $1-million loan from the trust of Peter Grossman’s special needs brother and other transfers, including nearly $200,000 to a lawyer friend.

Panish and Grossman frequently clashed during the doctor’s testimony, and the judge repeatedly reminded him to answer only what he knew, not what he believed.

Asked if his wife acted reprehensibly, the doctor said she acted “negligently and was responsible for the accidental death of at least one of those children.”

At one point, Peter Grossman said he could not recall a derogatory comment he had made about Nancy Iskander to his wife. Panish played a recording of a prison call between the couple. The doctor glanced down as he was heard saying: “ She is full of s— .”

The judge said he expected the jury to begin punitive phase deliberations on Tuesday.

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