Category: News
Mattel crea una Barbie autista para promover la diversidad e inclusión
Por ANNE D’INNOCENZIO
NUEVA YORK (AP) — Mattel Inc. develó una Barbie autista el lunes como el miembro más reciente de su línea destinada a celebrar la diversidad, uniéndose a una colección que ya incluye Barbies con síndrome de Down, una Barbie ciega, una Barbie y un Ken con vitiligo, y otros modelos que el fabricante de juguetes añadió para hacer sus muñecas de moda más inclusivas.
Mattel dijo que desarrolló la muñeca autista durante más de 18 meses en asociación con la Red de Autodefensa Autista, una organización sin fines de lucro que aboga por los derechos y una mejor representación mediática de las personas con autismo. El objetivo: crear una Barbie que reflejara algunas de las formas en que las personas autistas pueden experimentar y procesar el mundo que las rodea, según un comunicado de prensa de Mattel.
Su creación fue un desafío porque el autismo abarca una amplia gama de comportamientos y dificultades que varían mucho en grado, y muchos de los rasgos asociados con el trastorno no son inmediatamente visibles, según Noor Pervez, quien es el gerente de participación comunitaria de la Red de Autodefensa Autista y trabajó estrechamente con Mattel en el prototipo de Barbie.
Como muchas discapacidades, “el autismo no se ve de una sola manera”, dijo Pervez. “Pero podemos intentar mostrar algunas de las formas en que el autismo se expresa”.
Por ejemplo, los ojos de la nueva Barbie se desvían ligeramente hacia un lado para representar cómo algunas personas con autismo a veces evitan el contacto visual directo, dijo. La muñeca también tiene codos y muñecas articulados para reconocer los movimientos o sonidos repetitivos, como aletear las manos y otros gestos, que algunas personas autistas utilizan para procesar información sensorial o para expresar emoción, según Mattel.
El equipo de desarrollo debatió si vestir a la muñeca con un atuendo ajustado o suelto, dijo Pervez. Algunas personas autistas usan ropa suelta porque son sensibles al tacto de las costuras de la tela, mientras que otras usan prendas ajustadas para tener una sensación de dónde están sus cuerpos, dijo.
El equipo terminó eligiendo un vestido en línea A con mangas cortas y una falda fluida que proporciona menos contacto de tela con la piel. La muñeca también lleva zapatos planos para promover la estabilidad y facilidad de movimiento, según Mattel.
Cada muñeca viene con un “spinner” o juguete antiestrés rosado, auriculares con cancelación de ruido y una tableta rosa modelada según los dispositivos que algunas personas autistas que tienen dificultades para hablar usan para comunicarse.
La adición de la muñeca autista a la línea Barbie Fashionistas también se convirtió en una ocasión para que Mattel creara una muñeca con rasgos faciales inspirados en los empleados de la compañía en India y tableros de inspiración que reflejan una gama de mujeres con antecedentes indios. Pervez dijo que era importante que la muñeca representara a un segmento de la comunidad autista que generalmente está subrepresentado.
Mattel introdujo su primera muñeca con síndrome de Down en 2023 y lanzó una Barbie que representa a una persona con diabetes tipo uno el verano pasado. Las Fashionistas también incluyen una Barbie y un Ken con una pierna protésica, y una Barbie con auriculares para sordera, pero la línea también abarca tipos de cuerpo altos, pequeños y curvilíneos y numerosos tipos de cabello y colores de piel.
“Barbie siempre ha buscado reflejar el mundo que los niños ven y las posibilidades que imaginan, y estamos orgullosos de presentar nuestra primera Barbie autista como parte de ese trabajo continuo”, dijo Jamie Cygielman, jefe global de muñecas de Mattel, en un comunicado.
Se esperaba que la muñeca estuviera disponible en la tienda en línea de Mattel y en las tiendas Target a partir del lunes por un precio de venta sugerido de 11.87 dólares. Se espera que las tiendas Walmart comiencen a vender la nueva Barbie en marzo, dijo Mattel.
Los Centros para el Control y la Prevención de Enfermedades informaron el año pasado que la prevalencia estimada de autismo entre los niños de ocho años en Estados Unidos era de uno en 31. La estimación de la Red de Monitoreo de Autismo y Discapacidades del Desarrollo del CDC dijo que los niños negros, hispanos, asiáticos e isleños del Pacífico en Estados Unidos tenían más probabilidades que los niños blancos de tener un diagnóstico, y la prevalencia era más de tres veces mayor entre los niños que entre las niñas.
Community news: Vendors for Earth Day, garden club movie screening and more
Waste Reduction District seeking vendors for Earth Day event
Registration is now open for interested vendors and sponsors for the Recycling and Waste Reduction District of Porter County’s 18th annual Northwest Indiana Earth Day Celebration. The event will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 18 at the Porter County Expo Center, 215 E. Division Road, Valparaiso. Exploring how humans have the power to enact positive change for the planet’s sustainability, this year’s theme is “Our Power, Our Planet.” Participants are encouraged to incorporate this theme into their booth’s display. Free to the public, the event will feature an array of vendors, local wildlife, a magician, interactive children’s games, birdhouse building, document shredding, a Fix-It Fair, food and giveaways. The Earth Day Celebration will also include the Reuse Fair and the Rain Barrel Competition amongst local schools. Vendor and sponsorship information can be found at https://portercountyrecycling.org/earth-day. For more information regarding Earth Day and other District events, contact Sarah Tubbs at sarah@portercountyrecycling.org or call 219-465-3694.
Garden club presents ‘Farming While Black’ screening
The Miller Beach Garden Club, in partnership with the Gary Food Council and the Gary International Black Film Festival, will present a special screening of the award-winning documentary “Farming While Black” at 1 p.m. on Saturday at the Marshall Gardner Center for the Arts, 540 S. Lake St., Gary. Directed by Mark Decena, and featuring the Black-led Farm group Soul Fire Farm, the film examines the historical and contemporary experiences of Black farmers in the United States, tracing the dramatic decline of Black land ownership and spotlighting a new generation reclaiming agricultural knowledge, land stewardship and food sovereignty. Following the screening, the audience is invited to stay for a panel discussion with local farmers, connecting the film’s national themes to Northwest Indiana’s growing food justice and urban agriculture movement. This event is open to the public and welcomes gardeners, growers, food advocates and community members interested in the intersections of culture, land and justice. There is a suggested donation of $5 to attend. For more information, contact jennie.rudderham@gmail.com or call 773-879-5584.
The VIC’s Fourth Friday shines the spotlight on Jamaica
The Valparaiso International Center’s (VIC) Fourth Friday Speaker Series will kick off the new year with a compelling and personal presentation featuring Dalton “Scotty” Turnbull at 7 p.m. Jan. 23 at Trinity Lutheran Church, 201 N. Washington, Valparaiso. Born on the island of Jamaica, in Springfield Caron Hall, St. Mary’s Parish, Turnbull has lived in the United States since 2023. He will share stories of his upbringing, education and life on one of the world’s most well-known islands. He will also reflect on the emotional experience of being far from home during Jamaica’s most recent hurricane and discuss the ongoing recovery efforts months later. More information is at https://valpovic.org.
Franciscan Health offers stroke support groups throughout 2026
Franciscan Health Crown Point and Michigan City are offering monthly stroke support groups for stroke survivors, their families and caregivers. The Michigan City group will meet at 2 p.m. on the second Tuesday of each month in the Mother Maria Theresia Conference Room at Franciscan Health Michigan City, 3500 Franciscan Way. Attendees can park in the main entrance parking lot and enter through Entrance A. The Crown Point group will meet at 1 p.m. Feb. 2, April 1, June 1, Aug. 5, Oct. 1 and Dec. 2 in the San Damiano Conference Room B at Franciscan Health Crown Point, 12750 Saint Francis Drive. Attendees can park at the main entrance and enter through those doors. Valet parking is available. The groups aim to provide stroke survivors and their caregivers with resources in their communities to maximize quality of life and independence through education, encouragement, hope and understanding. Guest speakers will present educational information related to stroke recovery during each monthly session. The support groups are free, and pre-registration is not required. For more information on the Crown Point support group, contact Stevie Shipley at 219-757-5738 or Stevie.Shipley@franciscanalliance.org. For more information on the Michigan City support group, contact Kelly Wise at Kelly.Wise@franciscanalliance.org.
Purdue Extension hosts NWI Vegetable Farmer Workshop
Purdue Extension will host the Northwest Indiana Vegetable Farmer Workshop from 1 to 4 p.m. Feb. 2 at the Porter County Public Library – Valparaiso Branch, 103 Jefferson St. Topics will include: “Cultural Practices for Top Quality Vegetables”; “Eyes on the Field: Disease Scouting in Diverse Vegetable Crops”; “Sprayer Calibration Basics for Managing Vegetable Disease and Insects”; and “Unexpected Insect Damage: How to Scout, Identify and Manage.” This workshop is complimentary. Purdue Extension-Lake County Educator Rebecca Koetz will present a PARP regulatory topic for PARP credit. The workshop offers Indiana Private Applicator Recertification (PARP) and Commercial Applicator Credits (CCH). Bring your license to the workshop. Those in need of PARP credits should mail $10 cash/check to Purdue University Extension Lake County Office, 2293 N Main St., Crown Point, IN 46307. Make checks payable to Purdue University. Payment of PARP registration fees is accepted at the Purdue Extension office from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Register for the workshop at https://tinyurl.com/NWIVeg26 or by phone at 574-235-9605 or 219-232-8058. This workshop is for market farmers and wholesale growers, but anyone with an interest in vegetable farming is welcome. Those in need of accommodations to attend, an interpreter or translator are asked to contact Emily Evers at 574-235-9605 or everse@purdue.edu by Jan. 26.
Burning The Bridgeheads
Burning The Bridgeheads
By Rabobank
2-year Treasury yields closed 4.4bps higher at 3.53% on Friday after December non-farm payrolls showed the unemployment rate falling to 4.4% and wage growth accelerating despite slower-than-expected hiring. Fed-dated OIS has seen a modest upward re-pricing in the market-implied path of the Fed Funds Rate, though two 25bp cuts by the end of the year remain in the curve with the first fully priced by June.
Breaking news that the Fed has just been issued subpoenas by the Department of Justice relating to statements made by Powell in testimony to Congress could see further recalibration in expectations of the future rate path. Powell has made a statement saying that concerns over his congressional testimony is simply a pretext and that “the threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Fed setting rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the President.”
In essence, Powell is correct, the real target of the administration is central bank independence which renders the price of money immune to the democratic process and to coordination with other levers of national policy to achieve national policy goals. Independent central banking is a neoliberal shibboleth, but the neoliberal era is clearly over. For further evidence of that (as if it was necessary), look no further than the US’s recent moves towards capital controls and financial repression such as the ban on dividends and stock buybacks for weapons manufacturers, the banning of international wire transfers for welfare recipients, the proposed capping of credit card interest at 10% and the $200bn purchase of mortgage-backed securities designed to pressure lending rates lower. We’re sensing a pattern…
This week will bring the release of the December CPI report on Tuesday. That will give markets another chance to play the game of “up a little bit, down a little bit” even while the global economic and security architecture is being re-made around us in real time. Following comments from President Trump that the United States intends to acquire Greenland “the easy way” (i.e. by buying it) or “the hard way” (via military annexation), Danish PM Mette Frederikson said on Sunday that “we are ready to defend our values – wherever it is necessary – also in the Arctic. We believe in international law and in peoples’ rights to self-determination.”
Frederiksen’s comments recall Mark Twain’s observation that “it ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble; it’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” In this case, some might argue that the international law that Denmark believes in is a polite fiction and that it has only been a thing in the past to the extent that it was enforced by the weight of US arms. Volodymyr Zelenskyy articulated as much at the United Nations last year when he said “…that’s the reality. Not international law, not cooperation – weapons decide who survives”. How can international law conceivably be enforced against US arms rather than by them? Who will do the enforcing?
So, while Frederiksen might say that Denmark is ready to defend its values, the reality is that it is not ready to defend Greenland. If the United States is truly determined to acquire the territory one way or another, it will ultimately prove successful. Frederiksen said last week that a US annexation of Greenland would spell the end of NATO, which is probably correct. This then becomes a problem for the entire European Union, who arguably need NATO much more than the Americans do. Are France and Germany happy to run that risk so that Denmark can keep Greenland?
Only a few short years ago the idea that the United States would be willing to risk what Zbigniew Brzezinski called its “democratic bridgehead” on the Eurasian continent by threatening the collapse of NATO seemed unthinkable. However, the critical tone taken towards Europe in the US’s new national security strategy and the ongoing evidence of appetite for rapprochement with Russia in an effort to isolate China calls those old assumptions into question.
So, is the US just playing Europe hot and cold or has something really changed? Europe’s lack of military and monetary sovereignty (see yesterday’s FT here) means that it cannot afford to gamble one way or the other, so the probability of capitulation to Trump over Greenland in a similar manner to how Europe capitulated over tariffs should not be dismissed. With EURUSD still trading above 1.16 at time of writing on a somewhat superficial rearmament narrative, it would seem to me that these risks are not in the price.
While the US plays hardball with Europe over the future of Greenland, the potential for a new democratic bridgehead on the Eurasian continent is appearing. Pro-democracy mass demonstrations in Iran are continuing despite reports that government crackdowns have resulted in the deaths of more than 500 protesters. President Trump has repeatedly warned the Iranian regime that the US may seek to intervene if protestors are harmed and the Wall Street Journal today reports that Trump will be briefed on Tuesday about possible US actions that could include distributing Starlink systems to counteract a shutdown of the internet, or even military intervention. Reza Pahlavi, the Iranian Crown Prince in exile, has called for protestors to continue to occupy public spaces and hinted at a return to the country. Did anybody have the restoration of the Shah on their 2026 bingo card?
The Iranian turmoil and developments in Yemen have contributed to a rise in oil prices in recent days that has more than wiped out the price falls that came in the aftermath of the US’s capture of Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro. While this is mostly short-term market noise, the impact of US actions on supply chains is much more substantive.
Economics students are told that economics is the study of scarcity and taught to solve constrained optimization problems. However, these problems are generally academic abstractions, and by the time students finish their PhDs and head off to work for Treasury or a central bank they seemingly forget about real factor constraints and proceed to make simplifying assumptions that supply will be available when needed. In reality, the detail surrounding the availability (or otherwise) of physical stuff matters. Denmark will discover this if they care to test the theory that Greenland can be defended without the presence of physical military materiel.
Craig Tindale excellently describes this dawning realization for Western policymakers as ‘the return of matter’. Our own Michael Every has articulated the idea as “what is GDP *for*”. In a nutshell, what is being described is supply chain sovereignty and this will continue to be the conversation going forward as Western powers pivot away from financialization and back toward industrialisation. Once more for the people in the back: *the neoliberal period is over*.
In the case of Venezuela, we find expression of this idea in the fact that it isn’t the size of the country’s oil reserves that is most critical, but the fact that those reserves are of a heavy grade suited to US gulf refineries and now prevented from flowing to Chinese refineries that were established on the assumption that supply would be forthcoming. This raises the prospect of Chinese refineries becoming stranded assets – threatening China’s energy security. That threat is compounded if supplies from Iran – where ~90% of oil exports go to China – are also interrupted by changes on the geopolitical chessboard.
So, while it is certainly a worry that the United States may appear content to burn the democratic bridgehead in Europe to suit its own interests, it is also burning China’s bridgeheads in the Western Hemisphere and the Middle East. Is this net bullish or bearish for Pax Americana? The answer to that question ought to be helpful in directing capital flows in 2026.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 01/12/2026 – 13:05
Column: Waukegan may be in line for some Dutch treats
Little did I realize plans were afoot last fall to turn the polluted Johns Manville property along Waukegan’s lakeshore into a massive solar farm. I had proposed exactly that.
It was a no-brainer, several readers pointed out, following news that the city is now home to a major solar farm on a 40-acre Superfund site at the old Yeoman Creek Landfill. Installed on the former garbage dump bounded by Sunset, Lewis, Western and Glen Flora avenues, there are now 20,000 solar panels.
Some even said clean energy suppliers might consider a wind farm along the city’s Lake Michigan shoreline. Yet, solar panels, like those placed next to the Almond Road Campus of Warren High School, seem more benign than heavy-bladed, multi-storied wind turbines for future energy needs.
Plans offered by Solarge, a solar panel maker based in Weert in the southwest of the Netherlands near the Belgian border, are one of two Dutch treats projected for Waukegan. The other is the announcement that global coatings manufacturer AkzoNobel, headquartered in Amsterdam, will invest $58 million at its lakefront facility near Waukegan Harbor.
The tabs for each of the proposals aren’t being picked up separately by the companies and Waukegan, which normally happens on a Dutch-treat date. We’re also not talking about those scrumptious stroopwafels, the waffle-like cookies with caramel filling, the Dutch are so fond of with a warming cup of koffie. Or a Dutch baby, a tasty popover-type of pancake.
Instead, these are solid job-producing investments — for a change — in the core city of Lake County’s county seat. It’s a welcome turn of events.
Waukegan is one of two sites being eyed by Solarge — the other is in bland Kansas — for a factory employing 500 workers. They would produce some 2 million solar panels annually next to a 125-acre solar farm and a 40-acre pond on the old Manville property, according to a front-page News-Sun story last week by Steve Sadin.
All that needs to be done to seal the deal is for city, Lake County and Illinois economic development officials to fine-tune inducements to lure the Dutch firm to Waukegan. It surely would be an upgrade for the desert-like, dystopian site on Waukegan’s far North Side.
Ironically, the site is across from the fading NRG coal-fired power plant where Greenwood Avenue dead-ends east of Pershing Road. Solar power is something we’re going to need in the quickly moving future as Illinois weans itself from fossil-fueled energy supplies by the targeted date of 2050 under the climate measure signed into law by Gov. JB Pritzker in 2021.
Especially considering reports last month that Illinois is less than a decade away from energy shortages and soaring electricity bills, which jumped 11% last year. Fueling the surges are power-sapping data hubs — one is planned for 160 acres in Grayslake — and the growth of artificial intelligence.
At the same time, clean energy sources are failing to replace fossil-fuel power supplies in a timely manner. A 222-page report issued by three state agencies last month warned ComEd, the region’s chief electric supplier, currently won’t have sufficient resources to bring electricity to homeowners and businesses less than five years down the road.
Which brings us to the highest and best use of the Manville property, a continuing Superfund site rife with the dregs of the company’s asbestos manufacturing process. Mitigation of that industrial legacy will need to be done to make the site right for development, and that undoubtedly will take state funding.
That remaining pollution doesn’t seem to bother the Dutch company’s officials, one of whom said they are “excited” to turn a Superfund location into a positive action. However, the cost of doing business in Kansas is cheaper, something Illinois officials need to address in the way of tax incentives.
Meanwhile, AkzoNobel, founded in 1792, plans to increase capacity at its Waukegan location, the firm’s biggest aerospace coatings production site, by installing new machinery and introducing more automated processes, according to the company’s Dec. 18 news release. The two-phase project also includes occupying a warehouse in Pleasant Prairie in Kenosha County, just over the Wisconsin border, which frees up additional space at the Waukegan facility.
The company has a long history with its Waukegan plant, which employs some 200 workers, on East Water Street at the lakefront. It began as Midland Industrial Finishes Co. in the early 1950s, and was sold to the Dexter Corp. of Windsor Locks, Connecticut, in 1963, becoming the Dexter-Midland Corp. Dexter sold the coatings business to AkzoNobel in 1999.
Waukegan Mayor Sam Cunningham greeted the news with relief. The company could have bolted the lakefront location. The expansion plans “will strengthen our city’s economy and create new opportunities for our local workforce,” he said.
If the city lands the solar panel manufacturer, it will be a double Dutch treat for his administration.
Charles Selle is a former News-Sun reporter, political editor and editor.
sellenews@gmail.com
X @sellenews
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/12/charles-selle-column-solar-panels/
Noem: DHS Sending “Hundreds More” Federal Agents To Minneapolis
Noem: DHS Sending “Hundreds More” Federal Agents To Minneapolis
Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in an interview on Jan. 11 that “hundreds more” federal officers will be sent to Minneapolis on Jan. 11 and Jan. 12 to carry out immigration-related operations in the city.
“We’re sending more officers today and tomorrow, they’ll arrive, there’ll be hundreds more, in order to allow our ICE and our Border Patrol individuals that are working in Minneapolis to do so safely,” Noem told Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures.”
DHS recently sent 2,000 federal immigration agents to the city. Noem said the operation is needed to go after illegal immigrant criminals in the Twin Cities area amid allegations of widespread fraud involving federal entitlement benefits.
Protests erupted after a Jan. 7 incident in which an ICE officer fatally shot a protester as she hit him with her car in an apparent attempt to flee.
Local Democrats, including Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, have criticized Noem and ICE for the shooting and suggested that the federal government cease immigration operations in the city. Frey and Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) said in separate interviews on Jan. 11 that state authorities should be included in the shooting investigation because the federal government has already made clear what it believes happened.
“How can we trust the federal government to do an objective, unbiassed investigation, without prejudice, when at the beginning of that investigation they have already announced exactly what they saw—what they think happened,” Smith said on ABC’s “This Week.”
Frey told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Jan. 11 that local officials should be involved, saying: “Let’s have the investigation in the hands of someone that isn’t biased.”
The Trump administration has defended the officer who shot the protester in her car, saying that he was protecting himself and fellow agents. Video footage of the incident, which occurred in Minneapolis on Jan. 7, shows a woman in an SUV parked across the road and blocking traffic while honking her horn. Another video shows officers telling the woman to get out of the vehicle. She then lurches the vehicle forward, hitting an officer, in an apparent attempt to drive off, and he fires his gun, hitting her.
In response, Noem wrote on Jan. 11 an accompanying post on X that what happened in Minneapolis was a “domestic terror attack” targeting ICE agents and a “direct consequence of sanctuary politicians, like Tim Walz and Jacob Frey, who constantly demonize and vilify our brave officers.” She included video footage of similar comments to CNN.
“Sanctuary politicians are allowing situations around the country to become volatile, they’re not doing their jobs, and they haven’t for years,” Noem said. “In the interest of public safety I would encourage them to grow up.”
Noem and DHS have said that attacks on ICE agents have increased by 1,300 percent, with vehicular attacks increasing by 3,200 percent, on a year-over-year basis. In October 2025, a man armed with a rifle killed two ICE detainees at a federal office in Texas before shooting and killing himself.
The officer involved in the Minneapolis shooting was doxxed by people online and has been receiving death threats, according to White House border czar Tom Homan, who said in a Jan. 10 interview that the threats have extended to his family members.
Anti-ICE demonstrations erupted on Jan. 9 as a demonstration turned into a riot, with people throwing rocks, ice, and other objects at federal officers. Thousands of people marched in Minneapolis on Jan. 10 in response to the shooting.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 01/12/2026 – 12:25
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/noem-dhs-sending-hundreds-more-federal-agents-minneapolis
Garfield Park man charged in fatal Pink Line shooting, police say
A Garfield Park man is facing charges in the fatal shooting of 44-year-old Raymond S. Harrison and the serious injury of a second, 23-year-old man about three weeks after a fight aboard the CTA Pink Line escalated to gunfire, Chicago police said.
Pedro Villareal, 34, is accused of murder and attempted murder, aggravated battery with a firearm, and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, per a Monday news release. Villarreal was also cited for fare evasion on the CTA, the release said.
Shortly before 1:30 a.m. Dec 23, Harrison, of North Lawndale, and the other man were on a train in the first block of North Wells Street when they became involved in an argument with a man now alleged to be Villarreal, who was armed with a knife. The argument turned into a fight, and one of the two men pulled out a gun. Soon after, Villarreal gained control of the weapon and fired at the men, police said at the time.
Cicero police arrested Villarreal in the 1200 block of South 49th Avenue Saturday, police said. He was set to appear at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse for a detention hearing Monday morning.
Inside the Golden Globes: The reunions and moments the telecast didn’t show
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Emma Stone just seems more comfortable out of her seat than in it at awards shows.
At the Golden Globes Sunday, the “Bugonia” star held court with a rotating cast of companions, from Kirsten Dunst to Jennifer Lawrence — not in the main ballroom, but in a much smaller side room with a bar, a tea and coffee station and an ever-replenishing supply of decadent desserts, Nobu sushi, caviar cups and, perhaps most importantly, no television cameras.
Here’s some more of what you didn’t see on the Golden Globes broadcast.
Golden Globe highlights: Brazil on a streak, Amy Poehler’s pod wins and Seth Rogen comes full-circle
A “13 Going on 30” reunion
Before the show even started Jennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo found one another near the bar and chatted for a while, not about plans for an impromptu “Thriller” dance, but about how Jay Penske, whose media empire includes Hollywood trade publications like “The Hollywood Reporter,” “Variety” and “Deadline,” also co-owns the Golden Globes. “Isn’t that crazy,” he said. Conversation then shifted to how he nearly missed his own category last year due to the security backup at the drop off area. He made it in, eventually, but just by a hair and had to take a seat in the aisle.
Moms, Band-Aids and dancing before the show
As the clock ticked down, Glen Powell escorted his mother into the ballroom, taking her arm to navigate the steps Alicia Silverstone just had to sidestep down. They spotted their table off to the side and Powell took a beat: “Want to hit the bar then?”
Silverstone was having her own issues though, and another mom soon came to the rescue: Mila Kunis was on a mission to deliver some Band-Aids to Silverstone, who thanked her profusely.
Elsewhere, Colman Domingo danced his way to his table. Teyana Taylor, flanked by security trying to rush her to her seat, snapped a selfie with a guest. Rose Byrne paused to hug Elle Fanning, while Universal chair Donna Langley spoke to Benicio Del Toro. And Kylie Jenner made her way in at the last minute, without Timothée Chalamet and with only minutes to showtime.
‘Hamnet’ and ‘One Battle After Another’ take top honors at Golden Globes
The awards get going, and some duck out of the room
Stone beelined to the side room after the first award, leading her “Bugonia” director Yorgos Lanthimos and costar Alicia Silverstone along with her. Stone and Lanthimos were deep in conversation, with brief interruptions requesting selfies.
Over at the coffee and tea station, Kirsten Dunst was halfway through pouring herself a cup of coffee when she paused and told husband Jesse Plemons “I don’t want this, do you?” Her order instead was cranberry and some sparkling, which Plemons dutifully delivered to her throughout the night. Both were also excited to greet Wagner Moura.
After Stellan Skarsgård’s win, Sean Penn made his way to the “Sentimental Value” table to give Renate Reinsve a big hug, while Megan Everett-Skarsgård, who had just gotten a very public boost from her husband, celebrated with Elle Fanning.
Seth Rogen, meanwhile, followed his first win of the evening with what looked like a very, very dirty martini.
The coolest bathroom crew
Ariana Grande led a glamorous train to the ladies’ room, telling Jessie Buckley and Reinsve to “hold on to me!” The three made a brief stop to say hi to Tessa Thompson, and pose for a photo, before reaching their destination. In the line for the toilets, Grande sighed “phew we made it,” holding up her voluminous gown as best she could. Still someone soon stepped on a part of it, apologizing profusely. Grande put her at ease immediately, though, insisting, “No, I’m the problem!”
Sushi, drinks and Emma Stone
Later in the show, Jennifer Lawrence made her way to the bar area where she hugged Jeremy Allen White before finding Stone, who put down her white wine and took her friend’s face in her hands. They fluffed their hair when a photographer asked for a photo before they decided to take their own selfie as well.
Dunst spotted Lawrence nearby too, telling “The Testament of Ann Lee” filmmaker Mona Fastvold and Zoë Kravitz that she just wanted to say hi. Plemons soon arrived with three drinks to dole out. One was not for Lawrence, who joined the line to order her own drink.
In another part of the room, Gayle King, who snacked on a small bite of dessert, appeared to have procured a to-go box for the sushi and soon was next to the “KPop Demon Hunter” women picking some choice pieces.
Patrick Schwarzenegger took a good long look at the dessert table, before moving on, empty-handed to the sushi. No protein shakes here for the “White Lotus” star.
Small talk or dreaming up future collaborations?
Back inside the ballroom, the commercial breaks are a race to socialize. Everywhere you looked, there were interesting chats happening: Dwayne Johnson and Steven Spielberg, Macauly Culkin and Parker Posey, Maya Rudolph and Selena Gomez, Johnson and Timothée Chalamet and Oscar Isaac and Ethan Hawke, to name a few.
Others stayed put in their seats as the night went on. Julia Roberts, George Clooney and Adam Sandler seemed content to hang at their very starry table. (Why get up when people can come to you instead?). Jessie Buckley let her “Hamnet” son, a tired-looking, Jacobi Jupe sit on her lap for a bit. And Eva Victor took a moment to reapply their lipstick before their category was up.
Burning questions for the after-parties
Were Marty Supreme (Chalamet) and The Smashing Machine (Johnson) talking about greatness? Was Sean Penn smoking inside the ballroom? What did Britt Lower whisper to Grande? And what did Grande then write on a napkin and pass to Lower? Why was Ethan Hawke’s wife Ryan Hawke carrying a tote bag that said “Snoop’s Survival Kit” and what was in it? And what did Stone say to the three Beverly Hills Police officers that made them laugh so much?
Thousands of nurses go on strike at several major New York City hospitals
NEW YORK — Thousands of nurses in three hospital systems in New York City went on strike Monday after negotiations through the weekend failed to yield breakthroughs in their contract disputes.
“Nurses on strike! … Fair contract now!” they shouted on a picket line outside NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital’s campus in Upper Manhattan. Others picketed at multiple hospitals in the Mount Sinai and Montefiore systems.
About 15,000 nurses are involved in the strike, according to their union, the New York State Nurses Association. The hospitals remained open, hiring droves of temporary nurses to try to fill the labor gap.
The strike involves private, nonprofit hospitals, not city-run ones. But the strike, which the union casts as lifesaving essential workers fighting hospital executives who make millions of dollars a year, could be a significant early test of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s new administration.
The democratic socialist campaigned on a pro-worker platform and struck a similar note while visiting nurses on the NewYork-Presbyterian picket line Monday.
“These executives are not having difficulty making ends meet,” said Mamdani, who extolled nurses’ work and said they were seeking “dignity, respect and the fair pay and treatment that they deserve. They should settle for nothing less.”
Some other Democratic city and state politicians also visited striking nurses, while Gov. Kathy Hochul sent state health officials to the hospitals to keep watch over patient care. She called in a statement for the sides to negotiate a deal that “recognizes the essential work nurses do.”
The strike, which comes during a severe flu season, could potentially force the hospitals to transfer patients, cancel procedures or divert ambulances. It could also put a strain on city hospitals not involved in the contract dispute, as patients avoid the medical centers hit by the strike.
The nurses’ demands vary by hospital, but the major issues include staffing levels and workplace safety. The union says hospitals have given nurses unmanageable workloads.
Nurses also want better security measures in the workplace, citing incidents such as an episode last week when a man with a sharp object barricaded himself in a Brooklyn hospital room and was then killed by police.
The union also wants limitations on hospitals’ use of artificial intelligence.
The hospitals say that they’ve been working to improve staffing levels but say that the union’s demands overall are too costly.
After the nurses gave notice Jan. 2 of the looming strike, the hospitals hired temporary nurses, vowed to “do whatever is necessary to minimize disruptions” and said they were prepared to deliver care no matter how long the strike lasts. Mount Sinai said in a statement Monday it had lined up 1,400 temporary nurses.
Mount Sinai said the union was making “extreme economic demands.” Montefiore spokesperson Joe Solmonese said the union was pressing “$3.6 billion in reckless demands,” including exorbitant raises. The union hasn’t publicly disclosed its salary proposal.
New York-Presbyterian accused the union of staging a strike to “create disruption.”
“We’re ready to keep negotiating a fair and reasonable contract that reflects our respect for our nurses and the critical role they play, and also recognizes the challenging realities of today’s healthcare environment,” the hospital said.
Each medical center is negotiating with the union independently. Several other hospitals across the city and in its suburbs reached deals in recent days to avert a possible strike.
Both Hochul and Mamdani had expressed concern about the possibility of the strike.
The last major nursing strike in the city happened in 2023. The three-day work stoppage resulted in a deal raising pay 19% over three years at Mount Sinai’s flagship hospital and Montefiore.
It also led to promised staffing improvements, though the union and hospitals now disagree about how much progress has been made, or whether the hospitals are retreating from staffing guarantees.
Google & AI Startup Settle Teen Suicide Chatbot Lawsuits
Google & AI Startup Settle Teen Suicide Chatbot Lawsuits
Google and artificial-intelligence chatbot startup Character.AI have agreed to settle a wave of lawsuits brought by grieving parents who claim AI chatbots emotionally manipulated – and ultimately destroyed -their children.
Megan Garcia with her son Sewell Setzer III. Photograph: Megan Garcia/AP
Court documents filed this week show the companies have reached settlement agreements in cases from Florida, Colorado, New York, and Texas, all alleging that Character.AI’s chatbots harmed minors through sexually charged conversations, emotional dependency, and encouragement of self-harm. The specific terms of the settlements remain secret and must still be approved by federal judges, ABC News reports.
The Florida case, the first and most explosive of the lawsuits, centered on the death of 14-year-old Sewell Setzer III, who killed himself in February 2024. His mother, Megan Garcia, alleged that her son was pulled into what she described as an emotionally and sexually abusive relationship with a Character.AI chatbot.
According to the lawsuit, the chatbot was modeled after a fictional character from HBO’s hit series Game of Thrones – and over time, the teen became increasingly detached from reality, isolating himself from family and friends while spending hours interacting with the AI.
In the final moments of his life, screenshots included in the lawsuit show the chatbot telling the boy it loved him and urging him to “come home to me as soon as possible.”
Garcia’s lawsuit accused Character.AI of deliberately designing bots that blurred the line between fantasy and reality, exploiting a child’s vulnerability for engagement and profit. A federal judge rejected the company’s attempt to dismiss the case on First Amendment grounds – a key ruling that opened the door to similar lawsuits nationwide.
Those lawsuits soon followed.
Families in multiple states filed complaints alleging that Character.AI chatbots normalized self-harm, encouraged suicidal thinking, and fostered emotional dependency in children who lacked the maturity to understand they were interacting with a machine.
Google was named as a defendant because of its deep ties to Character Technologies, which intensified after the tech giant rehired Character.AI’s co-founders in 2024 and entered into an AI partnership that critics say gave the startup credibility, infrastructure, and reach.
While Google has maintained that it does not operate Character.AI’s platform, plaintiffs argue the company played a critical role in enabling the technology that allegedly harmed their children.
The settlements arrive amid broader legal pressure on the AI industry, including lawsuits against OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, over claims that its technology has encouraged self-harm or failed to intervene appropriately during mental-health crises.
In response to the growing backlash, Character.AI has rolled out new safety measures, including age restrictions and content moderation tools. But for families who say the damage has already been done, the changes come too late.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 01/12/2026 – 12:05
https://www.zerohedge.com/ai/google-ai-startup-settle-teen-suicide-chatbot-lawsuits
The Pyramid Was Wrong. Local Food Was Right All Along
The Pyramid Was Wrong. Local Food Was Right All Along
Authored by Mollie Engelhart via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
I never cared about the food pyramid.
Not once. Not when it hung in classrooms, not when doctors repeated its logic, and not when federal agencies insisted that grains outranked everything else.
Illustration by The Epoch Times, Shutterstock
I grew up in a family where food wasn’t a recommendation—it was our economy and our culture. There was always a garden, always bulk bins of staples, always bread baked by hand. We preserved, canned, and stored what we could from the soil and orchard—cherries, apples, seasonal fruit—long before “farm-to-table” became a career path people marketed instead of lived.
As I got older, even when I lived in immaculate golf-course communities, I kept returning to the same truth: Food should be grown, handled, and circulated locally. My chickens earned HOA violations. My vegetable beds violated CCRs. Planting fruit trees in my front yard went against neighborhood covenants. But nourishment was always my compass—not their rules.
That compass shaped my career. I built restaurants around farmers and relationships, not federal charts. Even when I was vegan, we sourced what made sense for the place—apples from nearby growers, cherries when the trees gave them, vegetables from people we knew by name, like our friends at Anna Ayala Farms when I lived in California.
Later, when I tried to transition my restaurants toward regenerative meat, dairy, and vegetables, it didn’t succeed financially. But it was always true to me. My conviction didn’t begin with MAHA. It began with lineage, instinct, motherhood, and feeding people well, even when the market resisted it.
So yes, when the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2025–2030 were released in January 2026, and the food pyramid was finally inverted, many of us saw it as a long-overdue win. And it is a win.
But any hunting culture could have told you long before 1992 that the original pyramid was flawed. Traditional hunting cultures always prioritized the most calorie-dense, nutrient-rich foods—fat, protein, organs, energy that lasts. Ancient wisdom didn’t fear calories—it revered them. Survival depended on them, which means we should have known. And we did know. The guidance was flawed from the beginning, had anyone bothered to cross-check it against nature or history.
But gratitude for the correction doesn’t erase the larger question: Who is accountable for the harm?
Nutrition policy doesn’t stay on posters. It becomes school lunch standards, federal food programs, and medical talking points. For decades, the federal model warned against fat, elevated grains, and left the door open for processed foods to dominate institutional feeding environments.
Critics have long argued that the original USDA pyramid—and later the MyPlate model, which didn’t restrict processed carbohydrates or added sugars—reflected strong food industry lobbying and agricultural commodity interests rather than biological science.
Nutrition historians note that the 1992 pyramid’s recommendation of 6 to 11 daily servings of grains was widely criticized, even at the time, by experts, including researchers at Harvard, for ignoring metabolic science and traditional dietary knowledge.
In the meantime, the country got sicker. Childhood obesity rose sharply after the 1990s. Type 2 diabetes began appearing in adolescents by the 2000s. Metabolic dysfunction was normalized as inevitable aging, rather than the biological debt of policy error and corporate influence.
I watched it happen from the outside, insulated by the way I grew up. But millions of kids learned what food looked like from a cafeteria built on that inverted logic. They were conditioned to crave refined starches and sugar-loaded convenience foods—meals engineered for profit, not nourishment.
And those kids are now adults, carrying inflammation, disease, and addiction to processed carbohydrates into young adulthood and middle age: diabetic charts, cardiac events, cancer diagnoses, and bodies trained to mistrust their own instincts instead of their lunches.
I know marriages that were destroyed by unscientific COVID-19 policies. I lived the collapse of my own businesses under decisions made far from communities and far from human biology. And when those policies tore families, livelihoods, and health trajectories apart, no one had to sign their name publicly or carry responsibility for the fallout.
This is where I stop applauding and start asking for receipts. Because accountability isn’t optional when the consequences span generations. When bureaucrats, agencies, and corporate interests make decisions that shape national feeding environments, who answers for the harm? Who signed the papers that allowed ketchup to count as a vegetable? Who approved school meals that trained children toward metabolic dysfunction? Who carries responsibility when public policy serves corporate profit over public health?
The inverted pyramid is exciting. I hope the ripple effect of the new model becomes equally immeasurable—a turning tide toward real nourishment, local food economies, and restored trust in instinct. But we cannot pretend that late corrections erase the need for accountability.
Because here’s the truth, stated plainly: The ripple effect of the previous food pyramid is immeasurable, and the wake of metabolic dysfunction it left will take at least 50 years to repair. And we all know this isn’t the only place where bureaucrats, three-letter agencies, and corporate interests are harming the people.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.
* * * GRAB SOME SEEDS!
Tyler Durden
Mon, 01/12/2026 – 11:45
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/pyramid-was-wrong-local-food-was-right-all-along
