James' World 2

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Dear GEP,

My 8-year-old has been begging me for a puppy, and I worry I am losing my resolve. Part of me thinks it could be sweet and give him some good company; part of me thinks it will ruin our lives. Are pets really worth it? Could we just get goldfish or what?

I have a photographic memory of the Christmas morning when a 10-year-old me was given the gift she’d been begging for — a Chinese box turtle we named Ping — carried down to the living room in his then-squeaky-clean glass enclosure like a little prince on parade. Despite Ping later being set free by the well-meaning people who had graciously inherited him (and likely killed within five minutes of freedom), Ping had a good life. He ate his lettuce pieces and chicken bits, swam in his plastic pool, occasionally scuttled across our kitchen floor. But, looking back, it’s not like my life was necessarily greatly enhanced by Ping — or by Dandelion the rabbit, or the pair of newts who lived in our bathroom, or Mei Li, the cat who hated people. Which is probably why, as an adult, I have never thought of pets as more than a nuisance.

Given my early cat trauma, I have often cited some combination of landlord restrictions and vague allergies whenever my kids brought up pets. But when we moved out of our two-bedroom apartment into a larger house last fall, I began to run out of excuses. I also began to wonder if I was missing out on something. We had been a little family, not stable by any means but at least consistent, for years now. Couldn’t we stand growing a bit? Around Christmas, I indulged myself in looking at the available cats at the local animal shelter. I imagined something simpler than my kids but more rewarding than my Peloton. In January, we brought home a 6-month-old tuxedo cat we named Midnight. (Sorry, shelter volunteers, but “Jerry” is not a cat name.) I am almost embarrassed to tell you how much I love this cat.

And when I asked my son, who gets easily anxious and dysregulated easily, why he was seeming so chill lately, he answered immediately: “Midnight.” Far from ruining our lives, our kitty does provide the company you are speculating a dog might — he snuggles with the kids when they are upset, provides me with the maternal adoration my children are slowly losing, and regularly serves as a peace offering when we hurt each other. I don’t know that the leopard gecko we tried to talk our kids down to would have achieved all this. With all due respect to goldfish, my experience tells me that they mostly just swim in circles.

But every family is different, and our experience is just our own. I surveyed a few dozen parents, with and without pets, to see what was going on in their households. Plenty of parents are ambivalent about family pets or fully against getting them. Angela, a mom of two, put it like this: “the last thing I need is another dependent!” Other parents who have said no to pets cited being at the limits of caretaking already (“Aren’t kids enough unpaid labor??”), as well as space issues, the expense and logistics of caring for them when traveling, and for one mom, the smell. (After 30 years, I can still perform olfactory teleportation and conjure the rankness of Ping’s cage.) One mother, Kate, admitted that she regrets adopting a cat for her kids: Like Mei Li, the cat’s love language is attacking humans, and Kate’s kids are now begging for a dog instead.

More of the parents I spoke to, however, believed that their animals, and what their animals meant to their children, were well worth it.

When Margaret and Brent, parents to 5-year-old Tycho, first started dating, a central component of their courtship was texting each other pictures of pit bull puppies. But after they had their son, Margaret felt overwhelmed by the idea of taking on another responsibility. “What if we end up with a dog who has medical complications or serious behavioral issues?” she wondered. When she pushed through her worries and adopted Phoebe, a sweet brown pit bull mix, they gained an essential family member. Tycho, who is autistic, took to Phoebe instantly, running alongside her at the beach and adding her name as one of his first spoken words. Phoebe is not only like a sibling to Tycho, whose older half-brothers are out of the house, but she helps him through transitions, something that can often cause him great distress. “If he gets to hold the leash,” Margaret admits, “he’ll kind of go anywhere.”

Several of the parents I surveyed used the terms “sibling” or “best friend” to describe their kids’ relationship with their pets (usually dogs or cats), in all the good and challenging ways, the latter often leading to growth, especially for only children. As one parent of a 19-month-old put it: “Sometimes she wants to smother [the dog] in love, other times she is frustrated by his presence. But he is teaching her to tolerate the existence of another being in our family that requires attention, care, and love.” Another parent referred to their dog as “screen-free entertainment.”

As far as having another dependent, for us, a cat feels like a good balance. Do the kids actually help? Studies are inconclusive, but my anecdotal experience is don’t count on it. While I was surprised to hear from my mom that I was actually a dutiful cleaner of Ping’s cage and attender of his vet appointments, my kids have been a real disappointment in terms of practical help with Midnight. Despite having had a democratic chore-picking session when we first got him, they have pretty much done zero daily feeding or cleaning. But they do care for him on their own unhelpful but sweet timelines, brushing him when they’re in the mood or clearing out his litter box when it feels like a game.

But other kids, it seems, are better than mine! Kim, father to Oscar, 7, and dog-father to Zazzie, claims that Oscar completes dog-related chores each morning. Darina’s 8-year-old actually walks one of their dogs! And Joy’s 9-year-old daughter not only feeds the dogs twice a day (“90% of the time, and only complains/drags her feet some of the time”) but also feeds and cleans the cage of her bearded dragon.

Of course, we couldn’t have had Midnight in our old apartment (there’s the space thing), and he’s already set us back a few hundred bucks. (Margaret told me, unapologetically, that she’s spent at least $10,000 on Phoebe’s medical bills.) But we were gifted a feeder by my sister, we bought some very cheap secondhand toys, and we are hoping keeping him inside will help.

Did my cat solve all my problems as a parent? Definitely not. (As if any one parenting move would!) But the family pet did accelerate progress on some of my parenting goals: to engage my kids in the practice of care (notice I say “practice” in a way that is divorced from any actual outcome), to have some mutual interests, and to build play into our daily life as a way to offset some of the nagging, fighting, and yes, screens.

It’s good that you’re thinking, my friend, about whether to get a pet. I have seen too many impulsive puppy decisions go awry! And you’re right: It might be a pain in the butt, or completely neglected, or a total psycho that corners you and then jumps up at your face, clawing away (sorry, I really should work through that). But you might be satisfied or find a kind of joy that sits right next to your parenting joy, but has a slightly different character. Like all things parenting, it might be a bust, but I bet something interesting will happen along the way. I can’t imagine my life without these 10 pounds of feline flesh.

I’ll admit, though, we do all smell a bit like cat now, but like most people in love, we hardly notice.

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Romper

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President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he will impose a 100% tariff on computer chips, raising the specter of higher prices for electronics, autos, household appliances, and other essential products dependent on the processors powering the digital age.

“We’ll be putting a tariff of approximately 100% on chips and semiconductors,” Trump said in the Oval Office while meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook. “But if you’re building in the United States of America, there’s no charge.”

The announcement came more than three months after Trump temporarily exempted most electronics from his administration’s most onerous tariffs.

The Republican president said companies that make computer chips in the U.S. would be spared the import tax. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a shortage of computer chips increased the price of autos and contributed to higher inflation.

Investors seemed to interpret the potential tariff exemptions as a positive for Apple and other major tech companies that have been making huge financial commitments to manufacture more chips and other components in the U.S..

Big Tech already has made collective commitments to invest about $1.5 trillion in the U.S. since Trump moved back into the White House in January. That figure includes a $600 billion promise from Apple after the iPhone maker boosted its commitment by tacking another $100 billion on to a previous commitment made in February.

Now the question is whether the deal brokered between Cook and Trump will be enough to insulate the millions of iPhones made in China and India from the tariffs that the administration has already imposed and reduce the pressure on the company to raise prices on the new models expected to be unveiled next month.

Wall Street certainly seems to think so. After Apple’s stock price gained 5% in Wednesday regular trading sessions, the shares rose by another 3% in extended trading after Trump announced some tech companies won’t be hit with the latest tariffs while Cook stood alongside him.

The shares of AI chipmaker Nvidia, which also has recently made big commitments to the U.S., rose slightly in extended trading to add to the $1 trillion gain in market value the Silicon Valley company has made since the start of Trump’s second administration.

The stock price of computer chip pioneer Intel, which has fallen on hard times, also climbed in extended trading.

Inquiries sent to chip makers Nvidia and Intel were not immediately answered. The chip industry’s main trade group, the Semiconductor Industry Association, declined to comment on Trump’s latest tariffs.

Demand for computer chips has been climbing worldwide, with sales increasing 19.6% in the year-ended in June, according to the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics organization.

Trump’s tariff threats mark a significant break from existing plans to revive computer chip production in the U.S. that were drawn up during the administration of President Joe Biden.

Since taking over from Biden, Trump has been deploying tariffs to incentivize more domestic production. Essentially, the president is betting that the threat of dramatically higher chip costs would force most companies to open factories domestically, despite the risk that tariffs could squeeze corporate profits and push up prices for mobile phones, TVs, and refrigerators.

By contrast, the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act that Biden signed into law in 2022 provided more than $50 billion to support new computer chip plants, fund research, and train workers for the industry. The mix of funding support, tax credits, and other financial incentives were meant to draw in private investment, a strategy that Trump has vocally opposed.

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President Donald Trump makes an announcement about Apple in the Oval Office, Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) © The Associated Press

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A little-known illness called Legionnaires’ disease has infected at least 58 people in New York City’s Central Harlem neighborhood in the past two weeks. Two people have died during the outbreak, which has been tied to cooling towers that tested positive for the disease-causing bacterium Legionella pneumophila, according to a statement from city health officials on August 4.

The disease is a severe pneumonia and one of two infections caused by bacteria in the genus Legionella, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (The bacteria can also cause a milder illness called Pontiac fever, which can manifest with fever, muscle aches, and headaches.) When diagnosed early, Legionnaires’ can be treated successfully with antibiotics.

Health care providers report about 6,000 cases of Legionnaires’ disease annually in the U.S., although some cases are likely mistaken as other types of pneumonia. In addition, the infection often does not cause symptoms in healthy people. Individuals who are aged 50 or older, as well as current or former smokers and people with underlying lung or immune issues, are most vulnerable to Legionnaires’. The disease became five times more prevalent between 2000 and 2018 for reasons experts have struggled to identify.

Legionnaires’ does not typically spread between people directly; instead, people catch the infection by inhaling mist that contains the pathogen. The bacterium particularly thrives in stagnant water between 77 and 113 degrees Fahrenheit (25 and 45 degrees Celsius). Water systems such as cooling towers, large air-conditioning systems, spas, and hot tubs can then aerosolize the microbe, making bacterial control in these types of structures a vital prevention measure.

When the current outbreak was first identified, New York City health officials directed an investigation into all cooling towers in the affected neighborhood. These towers evaporate water to dispel heat, and they are a common feature in large buildings in the city. But such structures have long been known to cause some of the largest Legionnaires’ outbreaks on record. New York City laws require cooling towers to be registered, tested, and disinfected regularly to reduce the presence of Legionella bacteria.

Legionnaires’ was first identified at a convention of the American Legion’s Department of Pennsylvania (hence the name) that was held in late July 1976. Scientists who helped identified the Legionella bacterium that caused an outbreak among at least 221 people at the convention called the detective work “one of the largest and most complex investigations of an epidemic ever undertaken” in an article published in the October 1979 issue of Scientific American.

Scientists had to rule out potential causes, including foodborne pathogens and metal poisoning, among other challenges, before managing to identify the previously unknown bacterium. Simultaneously, investigators pored through reports of other then recent, mysterious outbreaks of pneumonialike diseases, piecing together an image of an infection that “has turned out to be not very rare after all,” the researchers wrote in their 1979 article.

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Fluctuations in shape are an inevitable part of being alive, and while few have access to the resources of Rihanna—including super-stylist Jahleel Weaver—anyone navigating a changing body (bear with me) could take a cue from her latest maternity look: a spring summer 2001 Issey Miyake dress made from semi-sheer pleats in a gradient of sorbet tones with a shoulder-engulfing neckline. She paired the dress with neon green and silver Ottolinger X Puma Mostro sneakers, a blossoming pink rose ring, and silver floral earrings.

Originally worn by a straight-sized model in Miyake’s September 2000 show—staged in collaboration with Japanese electronic duo Silent Poets, and inspired by a futuristic tribe—the look reinforces the late designer’s interest in seeing the body as something fluid, rather than fixed. It’s why his designs—in particular his Pleats Please line—are that rare thing in luxury fashion: accommodating of bigger bodies. “Few brands have done what Issey Miyake has in the luxury designer space,” writer Tracy Achonwa wrote British Vogue in March. “Catering to women who want the best plus-size, high-end clothing, [the brand] boasts a cleverly designed textile that expands with accordion-like pleats.”

Not everyone will get it. “Rihanna steps out in odd attire,” read one tabloid headline. Her own fans weren’t much kinder: “What is up with what she’s wearing?” But tell me, what is the point of being one of the world’s most famous billionaires if you can’t step outside the margins of what’s considered normal, and wear things others wouldn’t? Now pregnant with her third child, Rihanna is leaning full tilt into these sorts of bizarro-chic silhouettes—like the so-called “condom dress” from Pieter Mulier’s fall 2025 collection for Alaïa, which she recently wore to dinner at her favorite restaurant of all time, Giorgio Baldi—as her own form shifts. Good for her. To quote Miyake himself: “The space created between the clothes and the body is what interests me and communicates the most.”

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Walmart, Apple, and Amazon, the most successful companies in the U.S., base their corporate strategies on data: consumer behavior data, market research, financial, product, and competitive analysis data.

Any CEO who deliberately relied on falsified data, or who demanded cooked books, would be fired immediately — and likely sued by the Board of Directors.

Any CEO of any company who tried to manipulate the appearance of short-term success for his own personal gain, at the expense of long-term viability for the company, would also be fired and likely sued for malfeasance, and worse.

A successful CEO knows that falsifying economic or financial data can lead to charges of securities fraud, wire fraud, and other financial crimes, because false data can ruin investors, corporations, and markets overnight.

Enter Donald Trump, whose self-proclaimed governing philosophy is “running the country like it’s a business.” Debunking the lie of his own manufactured image as a “successful businessman,” last Friday, Trump angrily fired the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Commissioner because he didn’t like her data, even as he wears 34 felony convictions for falsifying records.

Dr. Erika McEntarfer, a widely respected statistician, enjoyed bipartisan support, including confirmation votes from Marco Rubio and JD Vance. Appointed commissioner under the Biden administration, she holds a Ph.D. in economics from Virginia Tech, and served at the Census Bureau for two decades under both parties prior to her BLS appointment.

By federal law, McEntarfer’s appointment ends in 2028. Trump fired her anyway because he was embarrassed by jobs data that didn’t match his own hype. In May, the White House said that April’s jobs report “proved” that Trump was “revitalizing” the economy. In June, Trump posted, “GREAT JOBS NUMBERS.” After the Labor Department released revised jobs figures for those months — a common practice because jobs reports are sample projections that get adjusted when actual employer data come in — Trump fired the messenger.

Trump’s penchant for hiding and falsifying data has put American corporations and the economy in more danger. Just as he scrubbed government websites of climate data to bolster his fossil fuel donors, just as he ordered the Smithsonian to remove an exhibit accurately reflecting his own impeachments, Trump thinks reality is whatever he says it is.

As he fantasizes about returning America to the Gilded Age, where robber barons extracted the earth’s resources for unimaginable profit while laborers worked for starvation wages, he’s forgetting that his oligarch donors need accurate economic data too. At least oligarchs creating real products and delivering real services—as opposed to merely speculating- in Trump’s image—need real, reliable, and uncooked data.

McEntarfer should sue

When Trump fired McEntarfer in a social media post, he declared that her numbers were “phony.” He wrote on Friday, “In my opinion, today’s Jobs Numbers were RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad,” adding: “But, the good news is, our Country is doing GREAT!”

He said the numbers had been manipulated for political purposes and announced he fired McEntarfer as a result.

Trump also baselessly accused McEntarfer of manipulating jobs numbers before the November election to advantage Kamala Harris. Trump said to reporters, “I believe the numbers were phony, just like they were before the election, and there were other times. So you know what I did? I fired her, and you know what? I did the right thing.”

When asked what his source was, he said, “my opinion,” confirming that there was no evidence to back up his reckless claims, claims that permanently tanked the reputation of a celebrated career professional.

Presidents are not immune from civil prosecution

No doubt Trump slurred McEntarfer based on his own “opinion” to avoid defamation liability, but an opinion that implies a false fact is still defamatory, it is still actionable, and presidents are not immune from civil lawsuits for defamation.

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NASA could soon go nuclear on the moon.

The space agency’s acting administrator, Sean Duffy, has issued a directive to expedite building a nuclear reactor on the lunar surface. Duffy, a former Fox News host, is also head of the U.S. Department of Transportation, and he took over leadership of NASA in July after the Trump administration pulled its nomination of private astronaut and businessperson Jared Isaacman.

The directive, first reported by Politico, would accelerate NASA’s long-simmering—and, to date, largely fruitless—efforts to develop nuclear reactors to support space science and exploration.

The space agency has pursued various projects over the years, most recently in 2022, when it awarded three $5-million contracts to companies to craft designs for small space-ready reactors meant for lunar operations in the mid-2030s. Inspired in part by a space policy directive issued by President Donald Trump during his first term, those reactors were intended to produce 40 kilowatts of power—enough to sustain a small office building—and to weigh less than six metric tons. Duffy’s directive is more ambitious: it calls for NASA to solicit proposals for reactors that would yield at least 100 kilowatts of power and be ready for launch by late 2029. The space agency is tasked with appointing an official to oversee the effort within 30 days and to issue its solicitation within 60 days.

Lunar nights are very long—two Earth weeks—and perilously cold, making nuclear power desirable for surface operations. But according to the directive, the greater impetus for the fast-tracked plan is a burgeoning partnership between China and Russia to build a nuclear-powered outpost near the moon’s south pole by the mid-2030s. The sun never crests high above the horizon there, leaving some craters in permanent shadow—and valuable deposits of water ice lacing their eternally dark floors. Despite its cryogenic chill, this lunar region is hotly contested, with NASA’s Artemis program also targeting crewed landings there as early as 2027 as part of the Artemis III mission.

Besides providing abundant electricity for surface operations, a nuclear reactor on the moon could also allow for a strategic lunar land grab. Ownership of otherworldly territory is prohibited, according to the United Nations Outer Space Treaty, but the treaty also obliges spacefaring powers to exercise “due regard” in their activities, meaning that they should not encroach on or interfere with sensitive infrastructure built by others. A nuclear reactor placed on the lunar surface, therefore, could allow the declaration of what Duffy’s directive calls a “keep-out zone.”

Although the Trump administration’s acceleration of NASA’s nuclear-power efforts may be welcomed by many space-exploration advocates, it comes alongside other proposals from the White House that seek to radically reshape the space agency and that could be at cross-purposes with the new directive. These include plans for extraordinarily deep cuts to NASA’s science programs, as well as an active and ongoing culling of the space agency’s workforce. The president’s budget request for fiscal year 2026 notably zeroes out funding for a joint program between NASA and the Department of Defense to develop nuclear rocketry. It would also wind down the space agency’s ability to build and deploy radioisotope power sources, which offer nuclear-derived heat and electricity sans complex and heavy reactors for robotic missions to the outer planets and other sunlight-sparse parts of the solar system.

The biggest question facing NASA’s latest nuclear foray, however, may be what these notional new reactors would actually power. Many experts say a 2027 launch for Artemis III is unlikely and citing factors such as the ongoing difficulties of developing a requisite lunar lander based on SpaceX’s Starship rocket. With each logistical misstep or schedule delay, additional Artemis missions that would put more meaningful and power-hungry infrastructure on the moon slip further over the horizon, potentially making the entire program more vulnerable to additional rounds of budget cuts—or even outright cancellation by future administrations.

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On Thursday, Florida put Edward Zakrzewski to death for the 1994 murder of his wife and children. He was the ninth person executed so far this year in the Sunshine State, surpassing its previous single-year high of eight executions in 2014.

Florida used lethal injection to execute Zakrzewski, one of two methods that, until recently, were the only ones allowed under state law. The other was electrocution, which an inmate could choose as an alternative to lethal injection.

There was nothing unusual about that law, as many other death penalty states specify more than one possible execution method. For example, Alabama law states that in death penalty cases, “lethal injection will be administered, unless the prisoner affirmatively chooses nitrogen hypoxia or electrocution.” There’s a similar law in South Carolina.

But Florida’s new law is the first of its kind. It gives the people in charge of carrying out executions, as the journalist Olivia Burke explains, “free rein to put prisoners who were given the ultimate punishment to death however they see fit.”

“The only condition,” Burke notes, “is that the technique is ‘not deemed unconstitutional’—which opens the floodgates to a host of barbaric ideas.”

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Actress Loni Anderson, who starred as receptionist Jennifer Marlowe on WKRP in Cincinnati, died on Sunday at the age of 79.

Her cause of death is from “an acute prolonged illness,” Anderson’s publicist Cheryl J. Kagan said, per The Hollywood Reporter.

Newsweek reached out to Anderson’s representative via email for comment on Monday.

Why It Matters

Anderson’s role on CBS’ WKRP in Cincinnati catapulted her to stardom. The sitcom, which aired from 1978 until 1982, earned her two Emmy nominations and three Golden Globe nominations.

The actress went on to star in films like A Night at the Roxbury, All Dogs Go to Heaven, and Stroker Ace, where she fell in love with her co-star Burt Reynolds. The pair later married in 1988 and divorced in 1994.

What To Know

Anderson died on August 3 at a Los Angeles hospital just days before her 80th birthday.

“We are heartbroken to announce the passing of our dear wife, mother, and grandmother,” Anderson’s family said in a statement, The Associated Press reported.

In an interview with Fox News in 2021, Anderson addressed her sex symbol status on WKRP in Cincinnati.

“I remember we all did posters back then. Everybody always asks me, ‘What made you do a poster?'” she recalled. “I would say, ‘Because someday my grandchildren will look at this. And I’ll be able to tell them that I really looked like that.’ What you saw is what you got.”The Minnesota native added, “I never thought I would be Loni Anderson, sex symbol. But I embrace it. I think I was lucky enough to have been able to play so many different things and sex symbol was a part of it. I took whatever my career threw at me.”

What People Are Saying

Steve Sauer, president and CEO of Media Four and Anderson’s manager for three decades, said in a statement, per The Hollywood Reporter: “Loni was a class act. Beautiful. Talented. Witty. ALWAYS a joy to be around. She was the ultimate working mother. Family first … and maintained a great balance with her career. She and I had wonderful adventures together that I shall forever cherish. I will especially miss that infectious chuckle of hers.”

I Dream of Jeannie star Barbara Eden penned a sweet tribute to her “dear friend” on X: “The news just came through that my dear friend Loni Anderson has passed. Like many, I am absolutely stunned and heartbroken. Our friendship has spanned many years, and news like this is never easy to hear or accept.”

“What can I say about Loni that everyone doesn’t already know? She was a real talent, with razor smart wit and a glowing sense of humor… but, even more than that, she had an impeccable work ethic. Even beyond that, Loni was a darling lady and a genuinely good person … I am truly at a loss for words.”

“My condolences to her family, her husband Bob, and her children, Deidra and Quinton. Loni, you were one in a trillion, my friend, and even a trillion more.”

Morgan Fairchild, who starred alongside Anderson in the 2023 Lifetime movie Ladies of the ’80s: A Divas Christmas, wrote via X: “I am heartbroken to hear of the passing of the wonderful Loni Anderson! We did Bob Hope specials together & a Christmas movie 2 years ago. The sweetest, most gracious lady! I’m just devastated to hear this. Love & condolences to Bob (who was on set every day w her) & her kids and grandkids, who she adored. #RIPLoniAnderson”

Airplane! actor Robert Hays posted to X: “Today, my dear friend Loni Anderson passed away. She was an absolutely wonderful woman and friend, a wife, mother, and grandmother. Love and condolences to Bob, Deidra, Quintin, and all the grandkids. Loni is singing with the angels now. God bless her.”

Comedian Loni Love said on X: “Very sad to hear about the passing of Loni Anderson.. I grew up watching this Queen and was so thrilled to meet her. Condolences to her family and fans.”

What Happens Next?

Anderson’s funeral plans have not been publicly announced.

She is survived by her husband, Bob Flick, daughter Deidra, son Quinton Anderson Reynolds, stepson Adam Flick, her two granddaughters, and two step-grandchildren.

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Actress Loni Anderson poses in a photo shoot on September 17,1986 in Los Angeles, California. Actress Loni Anderson poses in a photo shoot on September 17,1986, in Los Angeles, California.

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Devin Nunes, the former GOP lawmaker who now serves as chief executive for Donald Trump’s media company, has lost his defamation lawsuit against NBCUniversal over comments MSNBC star Rachel Maddow made about his interaction with a pro-Russian operative.

In dismissing the lawsuit, which centered on remarks Maddow made during a March 2021 broadcast, U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel concluded that “no reasonable jury could find” that Maddow engaged in “constitutionally-defined actual malice” against Nunes in the segment, which focused on a package he received from Ukrainian businessman Andrii Derkach.

When Nunes was still in Congress and served as the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee in 2019, Derkach – who intelligence agencies described as a Russian agent – addressed a package to Nunes. According to Nunes, the package was promptly handed over the the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

In July 2020, however, Politico published a piece with the headline “Democrats: Packets sent to Trump allies are part of foreign plot to damage Biden.” The outlet reported that Nunes “declined repeated requests for comment” but that “one person familiar with the matter said the information was not turned over to the FBI.”

Eight months later, Maddow and her show’s executive producer, Cory Gnazzo, relied upon that Politico article for a segment that covered an ODNI report and Nunes’ conduct with the Derkach package.

Furthermore, in a separate appearance on MSNBC the day before the Maddow segment, then-Rep. Sean Maloney (D-NY) remarked about Nunes: “And the fact is that [the Russians] were so comfortable using people like Devin Nunes that Andrii Derkach, a known Russian asset, sent information to Devin Nunes at the Intelligence Committee. We literally had the package receipt.”

Meanwhile, in the Maddow segment, the MSNBC host claimed that Nunes “has refused to hand it over to the FBI, which is what you should do if you get something from somebody who is sanctioned by the U.S. as a Russian agent.”

In the lawsuit, Nunes said that both Maddow and Gnazzo knew that he had handed the package over to the FBI right away, but they both asserted that they were unaware of other reporting that contradicted their segment. Maddow and Gnazzo were not named defendants in the case, as the complaint was instead directed at NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast. MSNBC will soon be spun off from NBCU into a separate company called Versant.

Nunes, who left Congress in 2022 and is now the CEO of Trump Media & Technology Group, contended in his complaint that Maddow and the network harbored “an institutional hostility, hatred, extreme bias, spite and ill-will” towards him.

However, Castel said that there was no clear evidence that the “defendant’s admitted political bias caused defendant to act with a reckless disregard of the truth” or that Maddow was aware of “probable falsity” as it related to a separate Politico article that reported the FBI received the package from Nunes.

The Independent has reached out to Nunes and Trump Media. MSNBC declined to comment.

Unlike his boss, Nunes hasn’t been quite so lucky when it comes to his many defamation lawsuits against media organizations and personalities. Between 2019 and 2021, judges tossed out three other complaints that Nunes filed against CNN, the Washington Post, and two parody social media accounts that mocked him online.

Derkach, meanwhile, was sanctioned by the Treasury Department in September 2020 for attempting to interfere on Trump’s behalf in that year’s presidential election. He was later indicted for sanctions violations by federal prosecutors in 2022.

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Relationships are messy, whether you are an adult with lots of experience or a kid navigating tough times with a best friend, boyfriend or girlfriend. You can’t predict moods, interests or desires. For teens learning the ins and outs of relationships for the first time, disagreements, fights, and breakups can be crushing. 

But what if your teen’s best friend wasn’t actually human? It may seem far-fetched, but it’s not. A new report from Common Sense Media says that 72 percent of teens surveyed have used AI companions, and 33 percent have relationships or friendships with these chatbots.  

The language that AI companions use, the responses they make, and the empathy they exude can make a user feel as though they truly understand and sympathize. These chatbots can make someone feel liked or even loved. They are programmed to help users feel like they’ve made a real connection. And as adolescents have a naturally developing fascination with romance and sexuality, if you feel ignored by the girls in your high school, well, now, on the nearest screen is a hot girlfriend who is constantly fascinated by you and your video games, or a super cute boyfriend whom you never had to engage in small talk with to form a bond. 

This may be perplexing to some parents, but if your child is navigating the complex worlds of technology, social media, and artificial intelligence, the likelihood they will be curious about an AI companion is pretty high. Here’s what you need to know to help them.  

Chatbots have been around for a long time. In 1966, an MIT professor named Joseph Weizenbaum created the first chatbot, named ELIZA. Today AI and natural language processing have sprinted far past ELIZA. You probably have heard of ChatGPT. But some of the common companion AI platforms are ones you might not be familiar with: Replika, Character.AI, and My AI are just a few. In 2024, Mozilla counted more than 100 million downloads of a group of chatbot apps. Some apps set 18 as a minimum age requirement, but it’s easy for a younger teen to get around that. 

You might think your kid won’t get attached, that they will know this chatbot is an algorithm designed to give responses based on the text inputs they receive; that it’s not “real.” But a fascinating Stanford University study of students who use the app Replika found that 81 percent considered their AI companion to have “intelligence,” and 90 percent thought it “human-like.” 

On the plus side, these companions are sometimes touted for their supportiveness and promotion of mental health; the Stanford study even found that 3 percent of users felt their Replika had directly helped them avoid suicide. If you’re a teenager who is marginalized, isolated or struggling to make friends, an AI companion can provide much-needed companionship. They may offer practice when it comes to building conversational and social skills. Chatbots can offer helpful information and tips.  

But are they safe? 

A Florida mother has sued the company that owns Character.AI, alleging the chatbot formed an obsessive relationship with her 14-year-old son, Sewell Setzer III, and ultimately encouraged him to attempt suicide (which he tragically completed). Another suit filed in 2024 alleges that the same chatbot encourages self-harm in teens and violence towards parents who try to set limits on how often kids use the app.  

Then there’s privacy: Wired, drawing on Mozilla’s research, labeled AI companions a “privacy nightmare,” many crawling with data trackers that might manipulate users into thinking a chatbot is their soulmate, encouraging negative or harmful behaviors. 

Given what we know about teens, screens and mental health, online influences are sometimes powerful, largely unavoidable, and potentially life-changing for children and families. 

So what do you do?  

Remind kids that human friends offer so much that AI companions don’t. IRL friendships are challenging, and this is a good thing. Remind them that in their younger years, play is how they learned new skills; if they didn’t know how to put LEGOs together, they learned with a new friend. If they struggled with collaboration and cooperation, play taught them how to take turns, and how to adjust based on their playmates’ responses. 

Friends give children practice with the ins and outs of relationships. A friend can be tired, crabby, or overexcited. They might be lots of fun, but also easily frustrated; or maybe they’re sometimes boring, but very loyal. Growing up, a child has to learn how to take into account their friend’s personality and quirks, and they have to learn how to keep the friendship going. Maybe most poignantly, they learn how incredibly valuable friends are when things get tough. In cases of social stress, like bullying, the support of a friend who sticks by you is priceless. In my study of more than 1,000 teenagers in 2020, keeping close to a friend was by far the most helpful strategy for kids who said they were the targets of bullies. Another study of more than 1,000 teens found that IRL friends can lessen the effects of problematic social media use. 

 If they are curious about AI companions, educate them. This can increase their skepticism and awareness about these programs and why they exist (and why they’re often free). It’s important to acknowledge the pluses as well as the minuses of digital companionship. AI companions can be very supportive; they’re never fuming on the school bus because their mother made them wear

a sweater on a cold morning, they’re never jealous when you have a new girlfriend, and they never accuse you of ignoring their needs. But they won’t teach you how to handle things when they drop you for a new best friend, or when they develop an interest that you just can’t share. Discussing profit motives, personal security risks, and social or emotional risks doesn’t guarantee that a teenager won’t go online and get an AI girlfriend, but it will at least plant the seeds of a healthy doubt.  

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