Trump's instinct — to slam the brakes after the horrific National Guard shooting by an Afghan migrant — is understandable. Any leader with a conscience wants to shield his people. The country is rattled, grieving, and wondering how a young man welcomed into America's care ended up turning his weapon on Americans. Trump sensed that fear and moved swiftly, promising a halt to migration from all "third-world countries." It's blunt, straightforward, and politically explosive. But good instinct isn't the same as good judgment, and this is where his approach deserves scrutiny...

Donovan Dunn, Raheem Jones, Tyrod Jackson, Ahmad Compton, Bernard Mickens, James Williams, and Tahjay Wilson were all charged in the case. Police have said that three teenage girls who went missing in Connecticut but were later rescued by their family members were forced into prostitution by men who they met online. The girls went missing during a sleepover that took place earlier this year. The 14-year-olds gathered for a sleepover in Bristol, but what took place next, one of the victims said was a "joy ride gone bad." There were a total of seven men charged in the case who were identified as Donovan Dunn, Raheem Jones, Tyrod Jackson, Ahmad Compton, Bernard Mickens, James Williams, and Tahjay Wilson...

The wholesale giant filed a recent lawsuit seeking a full refund if the Supreme Court strikes down the bulk of President Trump's tariffs. Costco joined dozens of companies that have lined up for refunds in recent weeks as the high court's decision looms. Like the others, Costco said it needed to file its own case because it is "not guaranteed a refund for those unlawfully collected tariffs in the absence of their own judgment and judicial relief." The company is represented by law firm Crowell & Moring, which has brought roughly 50 near-identical lawsuits on behalf of separate companies...

Whether you like him, his politics or not, most commentators can agree that mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has charisma. With his Gen Z wife, artist Rama Duwaji, the pair present a breezy, youthful image that feels to some more like a brand campaign than a political movement. Their loved-up wedding photos—shot on film during New York's subway rush hour—has ignited discussion about whether we are seeing a new kind of politician: "aesthetically literate," culturally fluent, and effortlessly cool...

A redacted and unclassified version of the Defense Department's review of the use of private messaging apps to discuss military operations will be released Thursday, according to multiple sources. Why it matters: The internal review of the Trump administration's "Signalgate" controversy comes at a time when top military officials are under intense scrutiny over boat strikes off the coast of Venezuela...

President Donald Trump's special envoy tasked with negotiating an end to Russia's war in Ukraine, as well as his son-in-law, faced a daunting task in Moscow on Tuesday. Nearly four years after Russian President Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of his smaller neighbor, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are grappling with an empowered Russia, plus Ukraine on the back foot both on and off the battlefield. Kyiv's troops, facing a dire manpower crisis, cling onto strategic hubs, and a major corruption scandal has shaken President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's government and seen his top negotiator removed...

Christmas shopping is the main event of the holiday season, and for Gen Xers (those born between 1965-1980), hitting the local mall to get gifts was the ultimate experience.Back in the 1980s, malls were filled with people hustling and bustling at the holidays, and during Christmastime, malls were decorated to the nines with over-the-top holiday decor to welcome shoppers.On Reddit, Gen Xers got nostalgic about Christmas shopping at the mall during the '80s. One Gen Xer noted, "I’m sorry for those of you who never got to experience the joy of a mall during Christmas in the 1980s. It was a magical time." @nostalgiapostss Everybody just seems so relaxed. #80 #80saesthetic #80sthrowback #nostalgia #nostalgic #nostalgiacore #era #christmas #shoppingspree #christmashopping #1980s #1980 #mall #80small Gen Xers described the overall ambiance and how malls today can't compare. "Every store in the mall was open. The center hall was stuffed with kiosks and the occasional new car. Every square inch was fully decked out for Christmas. Now our mall looks like a setting for a horror movie," one commented.A fellow Gen Xer added, "I remember Christmas shopping all afternoon, grabbing dinner, and then waiting in line to see Rocky IV, all at the mall. Malls were so alive back then. It didn’t even feel like Christmas until you had seen the beautifully decorated, bustling shopping mall."Gen Xers agreed that department stores really went all-out. "Marshall Field's and Carson Pirie Scott (Carson's) in Chicago had Christmas window displays and the decorations inside FELT like Christmas. Trees, garlands, ornaments covered the store. They also sold hot chocolate inside. We went nearly every year when I was a kid. Streets were crowded and if a window was really good, it almost had a line," one shared. - YouTube www.youtube.com Stores themselves were also different. "I just miss being able to buy stuff and they would put it in a gift box with tissue paper. I'm not even talking about the gift wrap counter. Just any store if you said it was a gift, would box it for you," another Gen Xer noted.Others discussed what it was like to battle the crowds. "I remember early to mid 80s, the mall was packed shoulder-to-shoulder with shoppers during the holidays - especially after 5pm to when the mall closed at 9pm," one Gen Xer wrote. See on Instagram Another noted, "I remember not even being able to get in the mall because every parking space was full and the traffic at every red light was backed up for half a mile. Then you get to the Food Court and everything is packed. You’re standing in a 15 person deep line for a piece of pizza, if you’re lucky. Most of the time my parents were like, 'we’ll just eat when we get out of here'."Although some Gen Xers prefer online shopping these days, many still miss Christmas at the mall. "I love being able to shop via the internet... But I will be damned if I don't miss the Christmas decors and all the people walking around just enjoying their consumerism being on full display. It was super fun as a kid to run in between all the shops," one shared.

Christmas as a kid was the absolute best: crafting your wish list with care; the anticipation as presents began to appear under the tree; the lights, the cookies. It was pure magic. Though the holidays are still special in their own way once you're grown, most of us would love a chance to feel like a little kid again on Christmas morning.One small way adults are recapturing that nostalgia is by remembering the most in-demand, highly anticipated toys and games from their childhood—the ones every kid wanted for Christmas. The ones that had Mom and Dad standing outside Toys R Us at 5 a.m. The ones that prompted panicked reports on the evening news about toy shortages and checkout line mayhem.Here are 11 of the hottest toys of all time that topped Christmas lists in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and even early 2000s.1. Baby All GoneThis doll, released in 1991, was pure witchcraft for kids who saw the commercials on TV. You could make it drink milk or eat cherries which would then just...disappear."It is sweet how a simple toy like Baby All Gone can bring back warm memories, because those disappearing milk and cherries remind us of a time when childhood felt magical and full of small joys," one user wrote on X."I never understood where the cherries went. Did they go in the mouth or the spoon? Perplexed," added another.All we know is that we wanted it. — (@) 2. Easy-Bake OvenIn 1963, the toy company Kenner changed the game when they released the Easy-Bake Oven and allowed kids to cook their own brownies and cakes with a small lightbulb. The original design came in turquoise and yellow, and sold out during its first holiday season. The demand was so high that the company tripled production for the next year.Simply put, everyone wanted one."I remember the way the pastries tasted. Even to this day. And how disappointed I became when it took so long to bake. But the smell....I'm pretty sure I still remember how it smells," one user wrote on Reddit. - YouTube www.youtube.com 3. Tickle Me ElmoPerhaps the wildest Christmas toy craze of all time, Tickle Me Elmo was actually released in the summer of 1996. It didn't became a phenomenon until shortly after Thanksgiving, when a feature on Rosie O'Donnell and news reports of low stock prompted panicked parents to risk life and limb to get their hands on one.By the end of Christmas that year, and after many injuries and in-store brawls, Tyco had sold over a million Tickle Me Elmos."That year only one kid in my class got one and they brought it to school to show everyone. Apparently they were extremely hard to find and their parents waited outside a store before they opened just to get one," a user wrote on Reddit. Tickle Me Elmo changed Christmas as we know it in the 90s.Kevin Labianco/Flickr4. Chatty CathyLong before Tickle Me Elmo hit the scene, and way before the term "Chatty Cathy" was used to refer to someone who couldn't stop talking, kids in the '50s and '60s were falling all over themselves to get a hold of this talking doll. Chatty Cathy was the original pull-string doll, coming pre-programmed with seven different talking phrases. This was big news at the time.One Reddit user reports never giving up on her dream of owning a Chatty Cathy, and finally finding one at an antique mall many years later: from Dolls 5. A rock tumblerRock tumblers, which could magically transform rocks you found in your backyard into shiny gems or egg-smooth pearls, became hugely popular in the 1960s. They were a staple of every toy catalog for decades, but parents were often wary because they could be expensive and loud (especially in the early days). A kid could dream, though."I never did get that dang rock tumbler. I circled it so many times in the JCPenney Christmas catalog (it was the 80s), that I remember the paper nearly being torn through," a Redditor wrote.6. Barbie Dreamhouse / Malibu Barbie Beach HouseBarbie was released in the late 1950s, but the craze really went to the next level in 1962 when the first Barbie Dreamhouse came out. The Museum of Arts and Design writes that Barbie's pad was different from anything else on the market at that time:"While other dollhouses of the time featured baby rooms and kitchens, Barbie’s house was in a league of its own. It looked like a modern studio apartment in NYC—complete with sleek modernist furniture, a TV console, a record player, and even a bookshelf stocked with fiction and Encyclopedia Britannica, showcasing Barbie’s love for learning! Barbie’s walls proudly displayed college pennants, proving she was educated and ambitious. She even had a fabulous dressing area and closet—because we know Barbie is all about fashion."It wasn't until decades later that Barbie decided to move to the beach in Malibu, getting a whole new playset as a result. One Redditor writes that the Beach House was their dream house, but sadly, it was not meant to be:"[I always wanted] a Malibu Barbie Beach House. We were a military family and it wouldn't have made all the moves" - YouTube www.youtube.com 7. Moon ShoesThere's not much to say about Moon Shoes. If you came of age at a time where you saw the commercial on TV, you know all you need to know about them. "Kid-powered anti-gravity" shoes? Sold! What kid wouldn't be obsessed?Most of us were not lucky enough to get our hands on a pair of Moon Shoes, sadly. Whether it was the price tag or the high likelihood of injury, a lot of parents had to say No."Moon shoes. [Dang] did I want some moon shoes. Growing up we were really tight in money. Only necessary items with a few wants if we could afford it," one user writes. - YouTube www.youtube.com 8. Power WheelsPower Wheels are the ultimate "everyone wanted it, nobody got it," Christmas present. If you grew up in the '80s or '90s, you knew precisely one kid who had one, and they were the envy of everyone at school.Released in 1984, the early models cost between $129 and $150 to start. That would be a whopping $375 in today's money—definitely steep for most families. But all '80s and '90s kids dreamed of cruising down the street in their very own mini Jeep. from The1980s 9. FurbiesOne of the few toy crazes that lived up to the Tickle Me Elmo madness of 1996, Furbies took the world by storm in 1998.Where Tickle Me Elmo seemed to be mostly driven by news and product scarcity, a lot of kids really, genuinely wanted a Furbie—they could talk to you, after all, gradually transitioning from speaking their own gibberish language to speaking English. They could even communicate with each other.There were even rumors that China and other countries were using Furbies to spy on Americans, and the NSA actually banned Furbies from its properties. Sadly, those stories kept a lot of eager kids from realizing their holiday dreams:"I wanted one but I wasn't allowed one, my Mom believed the 'OMG DEY R SPYING DEVICES!!!!' stories that the news was pushing at the time," wrote on Redditor. - YouTube www.youtube.com 10. Joe Namath Electric Football GameBefore there was Playstation and Xbox and John Madden football, there was Joe Namath. The vibrating, magnetic foosball-like game may not look like much by today's standards, but kids in the '60s got hours and hours of joy out of it."OK, old timer here," one Redditor wrote. "The must get present was the old 'electronic' football game where the big metal field vibrated the little players chaotically around the field.""My parents bought one of these for me for Christmas in the early 70s. I was in 2nd grade at the time. By the time I hit junior high school, my friends and I played this all the time," a YouTube commenter added. - YouTube www.youtube.com 11. Hi Heidi dollAnother hit from the '60s, Heidi's selling point was that she could wave and came in her own little pocketbook. Ah, simpler times!One Redditor shares a harrowing story behind never getting her own Hi Heidi in the '60s:"I wanted one soooo bad. My dad's company had a Christmas party when I was a kid, and they had a show in an auditorium with a glass display case. At the end of the show, they called up the kids in the order of their dads' importance (president, vp, management, workers) and we got to choose a gift from the case. When it was my turn, the only Hi Heidi dolls that were left were black ones, and they wouldn't let me, a little blonde girl, have one. I was so upset, and ended up with a hula hoop, instead. Never did get a Hi Heidi." - YouTube www.youtube.com We've barely scratched the surface of the hottest "must-have" Christmas gifts in history. Adults all over social media continue to go gaga over erector sets, tether race cars, Polly Pocket, Tamogatchi, Teddy Ruxpin, and more.It's amazing how the commercials, catalog spreads, or TV jingles for these toys can take you right back to Christmas morning. It's fun to remember a time when our biggest dreams were to play, bake, or jump high in the sky with anti-gravity boots. Celebrating with our own kids or the children in our lives is one small way we can recapture a little bit of that magic year after year.

When you’re a kid, time passes a lot more slowly than when you’re an adult. At the age of seven, summer seems to go on forever, and the wait from New Year’s Day to Christmas feels like a decade. As an adult, time seems to go faster and faster until one weekend you’re putting up your Christmas lights though you swear you just took ‘em down a month ago.Why does time seem to speed up as we get older? Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson recently explained the phenomenon in a video posted to Instagram. He also offered tips on how to slow the passage of time as you age. DeGrasse Tyson is one of the most popular science communicators in the world and the host of 2014's Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey and 2020’s Cosmos: Possible Worlds.Why does time appear to speed up as we get older? View this post on Instagram A post shared by Cosmic Clues (@cosmic_clues1)“When you're young, everything is new. Your brain is constantly recording fresh memories, and the more memory your brain stores, the longer the experience feels. But then something changes. As you get older, routines take over. Your brain stops saving so much detail. It switches to autopilot because everything feels familiar and predictable,” deGrasse Tyson explains. “And when your brain stores fewer new memories, your perception of time compresses. That's why childhood feels long, and adulthood feels like a blur.”Steve Taylor, PhD, author of many best-selling books including Time Expansion Experience, The Leap, and Spiritual ScienceThe Leap, and Spiritual Science, agrees with deGrasse Tyson. “This is mainly because, as children, we have so many new experiences, and so process a massive amount of perceptual information,” Taylor writes at Psychology Today. “Children also have an unfiltered and intense perception of the world, which makes their surroundings appear more vivid. However, as we get older, we have progressively fewer new experiences. Equally importantly, our perception of the world becomes more automatic. We grow progressively desensitized to our surroundings. As a result, we gradually absorb less information, which means time passes more quickly. Time is less stretched with information.”How do we make time slow down?There’s something a little depressing about the idea that time speeds up as we age because we have fallen into predictable routines. The good news is that we can break this cycle by changing our habits and having new experiences. The more novel information we can process and the less routine our lives become, the slower time will move.DeGrasse Tyson believes that with some change in our behaviors, we can get back to longer summers and Christmases that aren’t perpetually around the corner. “You can actually slow time down again. Do something unfamiliar,” deGrasse Tysons says. "Travel somewhere new. Break a routine you've repeated for years. Learn a skill your brain hasn't mapped yet. Because the more new memories your brain forms, the slower time feels as it passes. So if life feels like it's accelerating, it's not your age. It's your brain, and you can reboot it.”

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