Several major international airlines have canceled flights to Middle East destinations including Israel amid escalating tensions linked to Iran, according to i24NEWS. On Saturday, carriers such as Lufthansa, Air France, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, and Swiss scrapped scheduled flights to destinations including Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia, as shown in flight information […]

Last year thousands of anti-abortion activists descended on Washington for their annual March for Life, eagerly hoping that President Trump's second term would accelerate aggressive actions to end remaining abortion access in the United States. This year, they arrived on the National Mall with their usual upbeat signs and prayers — but many were also carrying a gnawing sense of frustration. Even as abortion opponents have gained ground and put allies in key policymaking positions, Mr. Trump has at times also infuriated them, exposing fractures among a group whose support has been critical to his success for the past decade...

As tens of thousands gathered on the National Mall for the annual March for Life, praise for President Donald Trump ran alongside quiet disagreements about what his second term should ultimately deliver on the issue of abortion. The rally marked the first March for Life held a full year into Trump's second term, a point at which many activists say celebration is giving way to pressure for concrete federal action...

Vice President JD Vance told anti-abortion activists Friday that the Trump administration was on their side, while acknowledging there were disagreements over how to use the "political system to advance life." Vance told the crowd at the 53rd annual March for Life rally about several anti-abortion policies the Trump administration has championed, but he understood some thought it was not enough. "Now I must address an elephant in the room … a fear that some of you have, that not enough progress has been made, that not enough has happened in the political arena, that we're not going fast enough, that our politics have failed to answer the clarion call to life that this march represents and that all of us, I believe, hold in our hearts," Vance said during his roughly 21-minute speech to the audience...

Naming a baby is a difficult decision, and it doesn't get any easier when the names you might like are "off limits" for any number of reasons. The names we give to our children can be very personal. They can reflect religious beliefs, family heritage, or have a special meaning, as in Grace, which means "divine favor," or Eli, which means "ascended." In the United States, people are protected by the Constitution's First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech, allowing us to name our babies whatever we like.However, there have been cases in which the courts ruled that a particular name is illegal, and although it is infrequent, it has happened at least 10 times in the country's history. The most notable banned names are Misteri N-Word, King, Queen, Jesus Christ, III, Santa Claus, Majesty, Adolf Hitler, @, and 1069. A judge reading a verdict.via Canva/PhotosWhy are these 10 names banned in the United States?III (Roman numerals pronounced “three”)Thomas Boyd Ritchie III was known by many of his friends simply as III. So, he petitioned the court to have his name changed to Roman numerals in 1984. Sadly, a California court rejected the name change because it was a symbol and a number. It’s illegal for people to have numbers in their names because they can’t be entered into state name databases.Misteri (N-word)In the California Superior Court case Lee v. Superior Court (1992), Russell Lawrence Lee wanted to change his name to Misteri (N-word). Lee believed that the name could be used to conquer racial hatred. Unfortunately for Lee, the court denied his request, saying the name constituted “fighting words.”@ (pronounced “at”)The address symbol, or @, has been banned in multiple jurisdictions because, like a numeral, it cannot be input into state database records. Jurisdictions have also said that the symbol may be confusing to some people. While it may be fun to have a name that's rather different, using the @ symbol, it won't be fun when you can't pull up a birth certificate or a Social Security number because the computers can't find the @ sign. An "at" symbol. via Canva/PhotosJesus ChristThe name of the Christian lord and savior has been banned in several U.S. states based on claims of blasphemy and the possibility of confusion.1069In 1976, the North Dakota Supreme Court ruled that high school teacher Michael Herbert Dengler could not change his name to “1069.” “The only way [my] identity can be expressed is 1069. The first character, 1, stands for my concept of nature which manifests itself as one individual among the various forms of life,” he noted. “I stand as a single entity amongst millions of other entities, animate and inanimate. But yet even though I am an entity unto myself, I am part of the whole of life which is one. I am one; life is one; and together we are one.”He later moved to Minnesota and tried to change his name, but he was rejected again. Neither state allowed people to have numbers as their names.Santa ClausIn December 1999, Robert William Handley of Ohio filed a petition to change his name to Santa Rob Claus, because he had played the Christmas character for the past 40 years, and was known as “Santa Rob” year-round. The court rejected his petition, saying it was “misleading to the children of the community.” Two years later, the Supreme Court of Utah allowed the name change. That had to be a lie when he did jobs in the mall and asked for the checks to be sent to "Santa Claus." Santa Claus looking at his list.via Canva/PhotosMajesty, King, QueenIn several states, naming your child after a royal title is illegal to avoid confusion with actual royalty. Does Queen Latifah know this?Adolf HitlerIf you want to name your child Adolf Hitler, you can’t do it in Texas. After the atrocities he committed in the 1930s and ‘40s, his name has no place in the Lone Star State. However, you can be named Adolf Hitler in New Jersey. Back in 2009, there was a big hubbub when the father of Adolf Hitler Campbell wanted his child’s name written on a birthday cake, and the proprietor of the business refused.This article originally appeared last year. It has been updated.

Dogs come in a wide variety of breeds, along with their own unique personalities and needs. They can be guardians, helpful workers, loyal friends, snuggly companions, but there's one thing almost all dogs have in common: Licking.Sure, some dogs lick way more than others, but it's rare to find a dog who never licks anyone or anything. Many dogs communicate and show affection by licking, which is sweet—if a little gross—depending on how slobbery they are. There's a common saying that dogs' mouths are cleaner than humans', which is a bit hard to believe when you see what some dogs put in their mouths, but it is true?What does science say about dog tongues and saliva? Is a dog licking our face something we should worry about? A man being licked by a golden retreiver. Photo credit: CanvaIt turns out, the answer to whether a dog's mouth is cleaner than ours isn't super straightforward.An 8th grader named Abby tackled this question in a science experiment that won her a Young Naturalists Award from the American Museum of Natural History in 2011. Her family had gotten a dog and her mom kept telling her not to let the dog lick her face because dog mouths are full of bacteria. Instead of arguing, Abby decided to find out herself if this was true."I hypothesized that human tongues would be cleaner than dog tongues," she wrote. "I thought this because humans brush their teeth at least once a day. I hypothesized that dogs' tongues would be dirty because they were always licking dirty things like garbage."After diving into the research about bacteria that live in and on humans and dogs, Abby decided she had a testable hypothesis. But this wasn't any old middle school science experiment. She applied for and got a grant to the State Hygienic Lab at the University of Iowa, where she was assigned a mentor to work with her.You can read the nitty-gritty details of her experiment here, but it involved a lab, swabs, agar plates, and more. Here was the conclusion: A dog's tongue close-up. Photo credit: Canva"I concluded that dog and human mouth flora are very different. (Flora means the bacteria found in a mouth or anywhere else.) The bacteria found in human mouths are more similar to another human's oral bacteria than the bacteria found in a dog's mouth."I also concluded that dogs' mouths are cleaner than humans' in some ways, and dirtier in other ways. Humans have more bacteria in their mouths than dogs do, based on the total number of bacteria. Most of the humans had a 'moderate' number of bacteria, and most of the dogs had 'few' bacteria. A possible explanation of this might be that dogs pant a lot, and maybe while panting, bacteria falls off their tongues along with their saliva. But dogs had more types of bacteria. The average number of different bacterial colonies in a dog's mouth was about 5.7. The average number of different bacterial colonies in a human's mouth was about 4.1. I think this is so because dogs sniff and lick a variety of things, like carpets, floors, chairs, grass, etc., so they pick up bacteria from many places."But what about the licking of our faces? That's a bit of a subjective call, but Abby's results gave her some peace of mind:"In conclusion, will I let my dog continue to lick me? The answer to the question is yes!" she wrote. "I will feel guiltless about letting my dog lick me because I found out that human and dog oral bacteria are different, so my dog's oral bacteria present no harm to me."What do the experts say?According to Colin Harvey, professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine and executive secretary at the American Veterinary Dental College, comparing dogs' mouths to humans' mouth is "like comparing apples to oranges." As Abby found, the microbes in a dog's mouth are very different than those in a human's.The American Kennel Club elaborates:"Most of the bacteria in your dog’s mouth aren’t zoonotic, which means you probably won’t get a disease from a big old doggy kiss. There are exceptions to this. Dogs that eat a raw diet are at an increased risk of contracting salmonella, which can be spread to humans. You also probably shouldn’t share kisses with a dog that regularly raids the litter box.In other words, kissing your dog is less risky than kissing another human, but that doesn’t mean that your dog’s mouth is necessarily cleaner than a human’s—they just have a mostly incompatible set of germs."Keeping your dog's mouth healthy through regular teeth cleaning and dental check-ups can also help prevent issues that could potentially come from dog licks. A golden retreiver getting their teeth brushed. Photo credit: CanvaSo there you have it. If your dog doesn't eat a raw diet and doesn't go snacking in the cat box (or some other equally fecal-bacteria-ridden place), their kisses are probably not going to hurt you. Guilt-free pooch smooches for the win!This article originally appeared last year.

Have you ever wondered why text shows up backwards in a mirror? It's confusing to our brains because it doesn't seem like anything else is flipped like that. If we turn our head, it doesn't move the opposite direction in the mirror. Or does it? After all, right-handed you is actually left-handed you in the mirror. Right? (Wait, is that right?)Mirrors can be confusing despite not being very complicated. A mirror image is simply a reflection of what's in front of it. But when someone else is looking at us head on, they don't see text in reverse, so why don't we see what other people see when we see ourselves in a mirror? Woman smiling in a mirror.Canva Photos.(If you think this is a super stupid question with a super obvious answer, congratulations. Pat yourself on the back and scootch along so the folks who don't fully grasp the physics of mirrors can enjoy a demonstration that makes it a little easier to understand.)"Why do mirrors reverse text?" asks the creator behind @humanteneleven on YouTube. "You might think it's just a property of mirrors—they flip things from left to right—but that's not true." He then picks up a metal arrow to show that it points the same direction in the mirror as it does in real life. So why is the text flipped when the arrow isn't? - YouTube youtu.be He then holds up a book to show how the text on the book cover appears backwards, just like the shirt. But when he holds up a Ziploc bag with the word "HELLO" written on it, the word shows up properly.Why? How?It's because he had to flip the book over to see the cover text in the mirror. The baggy, on the other hand, he could just hold up and see the letters through the transparent plastic, just as we see them in real life. If he flips the baggy over like he did the book, the text shows up backwards in the mirror, just like it does in real life."So it's actually not the mirror that's flipping anything from left to right," he says. "It's the human."People appreciated the simple, straightforward explanation and demonstrations."One of the most insightful demonstrations I've seen. It's simple and explains the phenomenon. Well done!" — (@) "While I've heard this explanation many times before, I've only recently seen it demonstrated with text-on-transparency, which is what really makes it click. Great video!""Love these sorts of demonstrations. It’s a bit of a complicated one, but I love seeing how different people's minds work when explaining simple things like this. My kid explains it with “left is on the left, right is on the right, things aren’t flipped, they are mirrored” but it’s true that you are the one who flips things and I’ve never thought of it that way before.""Oh my God, I haven't understood explanations from physics videos about why mirrors flip but this, gosh this helps."Mirrors have been hilariously befuddling people in other videos as they try to figure out how the mirror "knows" what's behind a barrier placed in front of objects. @sarahcoome this is kinda creepy ? #mirror #relatable #creepy Is this something all of us should probably have learned in high school? Yes. Do all of us remember everything we learned in high school? No. Does the scientific explanation make perfect sense to everyone even if it's explained in detail? Um, no.Like the reversed text question, having a simplified explanation that doesn't fully get into the nitty gritty physics and geometry of how mirrors work is helpful for some folks. - YouTube youtu.be For those who want a bit more scientific substance to their explanations, this next video does a good job of giving a bit more detail while still keeping the explanation simple. It even uses a visual diagram to explain: - YouTube youtu.be And for those who say, "This is so basic! How do people not understand this?" here's a video that really does get into the nitty gritty physics and geometry of how mirrors work, diving into ray and wave optics, photons, wave functions, probability, and quantum mechanics. It's only 12 minutes, and it manages to entertain while explaining, but it certainly blows the notion that understanding mirrors is super simple. - YouTube youtu.be As one commenter wrote, "I thought I understood mirrors. I understand mirrors even less now. And that's a compliment."Isn't science fun?This article originally appeared last year.