President Donald Trump on Monday falsely denied making a comment he had made on camera just five days prior. Then he launched a personal attack against the reporter who had accurately repeated his previous remark. Trump has a long history of falsely denying he ever said things he had said in public.

In 2025, there were more U.S. jobs in raw numbers than ever before, although the number of Americans employed as a percentage of working-age adults was well below record highs.AllSides highlights content from Gigafact, a network of newsrooms that respond to online claims. View the full fact brief on Econofact.

Like his mom, grandma and great-grandma before him, Alex was born with a condition called osteogenesis imperfecta, otherwise known as “brittle bone disease.” For every family member before him, the condition meant a lifetime of broken bones, hospital visits, and constant worry — but that story is now changing. With the support from Shriners Children’s™, Alex is experiencing a level of freedom and quality of life that former generations had only hoped for. A family affairAlex’s family’s story began in 1934, when his great-grandmother June started fracturing her bones at the age of 10. June would be nearly a teenager before she received a diagnosis of osteogenesis imperfecta — and, with that, she became one of the first patients with the condition to be treated at Shriners Children’s. June’s daughter, Wanda, was diagnosed with the same condition at Shriners Children’s shortly before she was born in 1955. Like her mother, Wanda spent a significant part of her childhood in the hospital, often watching her siblings line up outside the hospital window to wave and wish her luck between surgeries. When Wanda’s daughter was born, Chandra spent years undergoing treatment at Shriners Children’s for osteogenesis imperfecta, like her mother and grandmother before her. Experiencing more than 200 fractures in her early years, she was unable to walk before age 22 — but no less determined to make life better for others with her condition. Chandra donated her bone marrow to be used in a study, and the results contributed to the OI protocols and treatment that are now the standard of care all over the world. Best of all, this study would go on to benefit her own son, Alex.Care that feels like familyWhile her treatment journey was challenging, Chandra also cherished her experience at Shriners Children’s. “The staff was like family to me,” she said. Shriners Children’s has been providing that same level of professional care for families across the country. Founded in 1922 — just two years before June was born — Shriners Children’s has been providing specialty care to children with a wide variety of complex conditions, such as orthopedics, burn injuries, cleft lip and palate, and others. But Shriners Children’s doesn’t provide this care alone. All services are made possible by generous donors. Through their giving, patients are able to access specialty care as well as adaptive equipment, long-term rehab, surgeries, and more. In one year alone, Shriners Children’s performed more than 24,000 life-changing surgeries, as well as 446,000 procedures. On top of that, they delivered tens of thousands of prosthetic and orthotic devices for patients in need and welcomed an additional 62,000 patients on top of that. Hope for a new generationWith Chandra’s bone marrow donation, along with the compassionate care he was able to receive through Shriners Children’s, Alex is now able to live a life his family only dreamt of. To treat his condition, Alex receives infusions that regulate calcium levels in his blood and slow bone breakdown. “When Alex started walking between one and two years old, I was shocked,” Chandra said. “The fact that he was able to walk, even run, and knowing I had a part to do with that, makes my heart happy.” Without consistent treatment, Alex’s family believes he might still be spending most of his time in the hospital, facing broken bones and countless fractures. Instead, the compassionate care he receives has given him a bright future — and has made Chandra eternally grateful. “Shriners [Children’s] is amazing with him,” she said. “I love Shriners [Children’s] so much.” Shriners Children’s helps children heal and thrive so they can chase their dreams. Learn more about how they’re making it possible and share this article to inspire others to join you. Shriners Children’s relies on generous donors to make a difference.Donate today during the 3X Match Challenge to make 3X the life-changing impact for patients.

Abortion is not a black-and-white issue, no matter how some folks want to make it one. Despite being viewed as one of the most polarizing issues in America, most of us sit somewhere in the messy middle of the abortion debate, with our personal moral convictions and what we want our laws to be not necessarily aligning perfectly.People have big feelings about abortion, which is understandable. On the one hand, some people feel that abortion is a fundamental women's rights issue, that our bodily autonomy is not up for debate, and that those who oppose abortion rights are trying to control women through oppressive legislation. On the other hand, some believe that a fetus is a human individual first and foremost, that no one has the right to terminate a human life, period, and that those who support abortion rights are heartless murderers. Pro-choice and pro-life aren't mutually exclusive.Photo credit: CanvaAnd then there's the rest of us, who have personal, moral, and/or religious objections to abortion under many circumstances, but who choose to vote to keep abortion legal with few if any restrictions attached. According to a 2024 Pew Research report, there appear to be a whole lot of us. Most Americans (63%) want abortion to be legal with few or no restrictions, and most white non-evangelical Protestants (64%), most Black Protestants (71%), and most Catholics (59%) support abortion being legal in all or most cases. White evangelical Protestants were the only religious affiliation shared by Pew that believed abortion should be illegal in all or most cases. Some people don't understand being personally anti-abortion but politically pro-choice, citing the moral conflict seemingly inherent in that equation. But I don't feel conflicted about it at all. Here's why:There are too many unknowns and far too much gray area to legislate abortion.No matter what you personally believe, when exactly life begins and when “a clump of cells" should be considered an individual, autonomous human being with the same rights as a person who is not dependent on a woman's body for life is a completely debatable question with no clear scientific answers.I believe life begins at conception, but that's my own religious belief about when the soul becomes associated with the body, not a proven scientific fact. As Arthur Caplan, award-winning professor of bioethics at New York University, told Slate, “Many scientists would say they don't know when life begins. There are a series of landmark moments. The first is conception, the second is the development of the spine, the third the development of the brain, consciousness, and so on." There are many unanswerable questions about when life officially begins.Photo credit: CanvaBut let's say, for the sake of argument, that a human life unquestionably begins at conception. Even with that point of view, there are too many issues that make a black-and-white approach to abortion too problematic to ban it. The biggest issue I see is that medicine is complex, and obstetrical medicine is particularly so. It's simply not as simple as "abortion is wrong." Every single pregnancy is personally and medically unique throughout the entire process—how can we effectively legislate something with so many individual variables that are always in flux? Abortion bans hurt women, even those who desperately want their babies to live.One reason I don't support banning abortion is that I've seen too many families deeply harmed by restrictive abortion laws.I've heard too many stories of families who desperately wanted a baby, who ended up having to make the rock-and-a-hard-place choice to abort because the alternative would have been a short, pain-filled life for their child.I've heard too many stories of mothers having to endure long, drawn out, potentially dangerous miscarriages and being forced to carry a dead baby inside of them because abortion restrictions gave them no other choice.A midwife friend shared a story of a client with a super rare pregnancy condition that necessitated an abortion. She sent the client to her previous OB, who practiced in a state with strict abortion restrictions. Despite the mother's health declining quickly and zero chance of the fetus surviving, the OB couldn't help her without risking legal action because there was still a fetal heartbeat and the mother's life was not yet in enough danger to qualify for the "to save the mother's life" exception. The mother, going downhill with a deteriorating baby she very much wanted, had to be driven two hours to a hospital in another state to get the care she needed. — (@) I've heard too many stories of abortion laws doing real harm to mothers and babies, and too many stories of families who were staunchly anti-abortion until they found themselves in circumstances they never could have imagined, to believe that abortion is always wrong and should be banned at any particular stage.I refuse to serve as judge and jury on someone's medical decisions, and I don't think the government should, either.Most people's anti-abortion views—mine included—are based on their religious beliefs, and I don't believe that anyone's religion should be the basis for the laws in our country. The Constitution makes that quite clear. I also don't want politicians sticking their noses into my very personal medical choices. There are just too many circumstances (seriously, please read the stories linked in the previous section) that make abortion a choice I hope I'd never have to make but wouldn't want banned. I don't understand why the same people who decry government overreach think the government should be involved in these extremely personal medical decisions. Abortion is a medical decision.Photo credit: CanvaAnd yes, ultimately, abortion is a personal medical decision. Even if I believe that a fetus is a human being at every stage, that human being's creation is inextricably linked to and dependent upon its mother's body. And while I don't think that means women should abort inconvenient pregnancies, I also acknowledge that trying to force a woman to grow and deliver a baby that she may not have chosen to conceive isn't something the government should be in the business of doing. As a person of faith, my role is not to judge or vilify, but to love and support women who are facing difficult choices. The hard questions, the unclear rights and wrongs, the spiritual lives of those babies, I comfortably leave in God's hands, not the government's.Research shows that if the goal is to prevent abortion, there are more effective ways than abortion bans.The last big reason I vote the way I do is that, based on my research, pro-choice platforms actually provide the best chance of reducing abortion rates.Just after Roe vs. Wade was passed, abortion rates skyrocketed, peaked around 1990, and then plummeted steadily for nearly two decades. Abortion was legal during that time, so clearly, keeping abortion legal and available did not result in increased abortion rates in the long run. And in the three years since the Dobbs decision overturned Roe vs. Wade, abortion rates in the U.S. have actually risen. So stricter laws don't seem to be lowering rates, either.And the statistics globally seem to follow this pattern as well. Switzerland has one of the lowest abortion rates on Earth, and rates there have fallen and largely stabilized since 2002, when abortion became largely unrestricted. Abortion laws don't stop abortion.Photo credit: CanvaOutlawing abortion doesn't stop abortion, it just pushes it underground and makes it more dangerous. And if a woman dies in a botched abortion, so does her baby. Banning abortion and imposing strict restrictions on it are a recipe for more lives being lost, not fewer.Our laws should be based on the best data we have available. At this point, the only things consistently proven to reduce abortion rates on a societal scale are comprehensive sex education and easy, affordable access to birth control. The problem is, anti-abortion activists also tend to be the same people pushing for abstinence-only education and making birth control harder to obtain. But those goals can't co-exist with lowering abortion rates in the real world.The polarization of politics has made it seem like the only choices are on the extreme ends of the spectrum, but it doesn't have to be that way. We can separate our own personal beliefs and convictions from what we believe the role of government should be. We can look at the data and recognize when bans may not actually be the most effective means of reducing something we want to see less of. We can listen to people's individual stories and acknowledge that things are not as black-and-white as they're made out to be.We can want to see fewer abortions and still vote to keep abortion legal without feeling morally conflicted about it.This article originally appeared six years ago and has been updated.

Celebrities: they're just like us! Well, not always. Take Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher, for example. Their wealth and fame aren't the only things about them that have some people struggling to relate.Here's why: The water bill at the Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis residence appears to be pretty low after revelations the couple made about their family's bathing habits.In a 2021 appearance on Dax Shepard's "Armchair Expert" podcast, they admitted they're not that into bathing themselves or their two children, Dimitri Portwood, 9, and Wyatt Isabelle, 11. The conversation started when Shepard explained his ongoing disagreement with co-host Monica Padman. The two have dissenting views over whether people should use soap. "You should not be getting rid of all the natural oil on your skin with a bar of soap every day," he said. "It's insane." The secret to getting Mila Kunis' hair? Don't wash it!By Gage Skidmore - Wikimedia CommonsKunis agreed with Shepard and was very candid about her bathing ritual. "I don't wash my body with soap every day," she shared. "But I wash pits and tits and holes and soles.""I can't believe I'm in the minority here of washing my whole body in the shower," Padman replied. "Who taught you to not wash?"The origin behind Kunis' practice was not woo-woo new-ageism after all, but was rooted in her childhood."I didn't have hot water growing up as a child," Kunis recalled, "so I didn't shower very much anyway." Kunis was born in the then-Soviet controlled Ukrainian city of Chernivtsi in 1983. Her family migrated to America when she was 7.Kutcher added that he regularly uses soap and water on just his "armpits and crotch" and "nothing else."Kunis has passed her lax attitude towards bathing on to her children."When I had children," she said, "I also didn't wash them every day. I wasn't the parent that bathed my newborns—ever." Shepard agreed, saying that he and wife Kristen Bell only bathe their children as part of a nighttime routine and don't pay much attention to their cleanliness."That's how we feel about our children. We're like, 'Oof, something smells,'" Kunis added. Kutcher has a simple rule when it comes to his children and their cleanliness. "Here's the thing — if you can see the dirt on 'em, clean 'em," he says. "Otherwise, there's no point." — (@) While the Kutcher-Kunis clan's approach towards hygiene may not be typical of the average American family, they may not be wrong according to science. Research suggests that children benefit from being exposed to germs early in life."This line of thinking, called the 'hygiene hypothesis,' holds that when exposure to parasites, bacteria, and viruses is limited early in life, children face a greater chance of having allergies, asthma, and other autoimmune diseases during adulthood," WebMD says.Basically, the more your body is exposed to the more it can fight off."Just as a baby's brain needs stimulation, input, and interaction to develop normally, the young immune system is strengthened by exposure to everyday germs so that it can learn, adapt, and regulate itself," notes Thom McDade, PhD, associate professor and director of the Laboratory for Human Biology Research at Northwestern University.Shepherd, Kunis, and Kutcher might be onto something about our skin's natural chemicals and bacteria. Particularly if you're not using the right products, that much washing can dry out or damage skin.However, a whole slew of TikTok videos in 2025 have taken the unscrubbed masses to task with elaborate shower routines that include not only soap, but multiple steps of exfoliating and cleansing on a daily basis. It's a powerful counterpoint to the Kutcher-Kunis approach. But is it really about cleanliness or is the ritual more about relaxing and self-care? @pickleflipflops my in-depth shower / smell-good routine! yall taking notes? #pickleflipflops - #showerroutine #bodycare #hygienetips#vanillagirl #vanillaperfume #signaturescent #showertok #everythingshower #cleangirl #smellgood #hygieneroutine #blackgirl Some people are swearing by these routines after trying them, so maybe there's something to them. On the other hand, some say this much cleansing and scrubbing would cause problems with eczema and other dry skin conditions, so maybe it's all individual need and preference.Dr. Mikhail Varshavski, better known on YouTube as Doctor Mike, actually sides a little closer to the Kutcher-Kunises, saying that people don't necessarily have to shower every day and the decision of how frequently to wash should be "holistic" and based on your preferences and lifestyle."If you just had a normal day, it's not absolutely mandatory that you shower," but adding that washing with soap after the gym, for example, is a must. - YouTube www.youtube.com As for Kutcher and Kunis, they've both clearly put a lot of thought into how they want to raise their kids; baths be damned. In a recent interview she explained that she and her husband never work at the same time, and she only makes one movie per year to ensure she's there for her kids. She doesn't want them raised by a Hollywood nanny.As for their bathing philosophies, they both share the same attitude when it comes to hygiene so nobody in the relationship has the right to complain if the other is a little funky. If it works for them, who are we to judge?This article originally appeared four years ago. It has been updated.

If you're of the mind that kids today are being coddled and not properly prepared for the real world, well, you might want to buckle up for this one. The story out of a public school in Florida has parents and teachers alike up in arms.A Florida teacher was fired for giving her students zeros for missing assignments. Diane Tirado has been a teacher for years. Most recently, she was an eighth-grade history teacher at Westgate K-8 School in Port St. Lucie, Florida. Diane recently gave her students two weeks to complete an Explorer notebook project, but several students simply didn't hand it in. Since there was zero work done, Diane gave them zeros.She got fired for it.The elementary school has a rule called the 'no zero policy'The lowest possible grade that teachers can give students is a 50, even if they don't turn anything in. That means that an extremely poorly completed assignment is worth the same number of points as no assignment at all.Hardly seems fair, right? Westgate is far from the only school that has such a policy, however. It's a rule that Diane, unsurprisingly, does not agree with. After she was fired for disobeying, she left her students a charming goodbye message on the whiteboard."Bye kids. Mrs. Tirado loves you and wishes you the best in life. I have been fired for refusing to give you a 50 percent for not handing anything in. Love, Mrs. Tirado"The scale, as outlined by the school, reads as follows:A = 90 to 100B = 80 to 89C = 70-79D = 60-69F = 50-59Diane later shared the story on Facebook, hoping to spread awareness about the school's policy.“A grade in Mrs. Tirado's class is earned," she said.“I'm so upset because we have a nation of kids that are expecting to get paid and live their life just for showing up and it's not real."Diane's post has gone viral, and most commenters agree with her position – it's not fair to hand out grades for work that doesn'texist.Why do some schools have 'no zero' policies?No zero policies are common in many schools, and teachers notoriously hate them. But it's at least worth considering why they exist. Some educators say it's because when a student earns a zero, it's very difficult for them ever to recover their grade in that class. In other words, it may be too harsh. Others argue that, if you don't want a zero, don't turn in nothing! Getting an earned zero is a great way to learn to at least try."[Zeros] ruin a student’s overall grade in a system that averages scores over time," Tyler Rablin writes for Edutopia. "If I receive a zero on my first assignment in a term, I have to score an 85 on the next 13 assignments just to get back to a B. My failure outweighs my success, and for many students, having to claw their way out of a hole that deep just isn’t worth the effort."A follow up statement from the school stated: "Ms. Tirado was released from her duties as an instructor because her performance was deemed sub-standard and her interactions with students, staff, and parents lacked professionalism and created a toxic culture on the school’s campus. ... During her brief time of employment at West Gate, the school fielded numerous student and parent complaints as well as concerns from colleagues. Based on new information shared with school administrators, an investigation of possible physical abuse is underway.""I am not that surprised I got fired because I spoke up and I bucked the system," Tirado told Inside Edition. - YouTube www.youtube.com However, school representatives did not deny the existence of the no-zero policy, and Tirado claims the school engaged in a smear campaign after she became a "whistleblower" on their policies. She's currently considering legal action against the district.Still, the debate over the grading policy rages on.“The reason I took on this fight was because it was ridiculous. Teaching should not be this hard," Diane said.This article originally appeared 6 years ago.

Despite controversial-but-compelling evidence that homework takes time away from families with little to no appreciable benefit for students, kids continue to slog through hours of school work outside the time they spend in the classroom. And despite evidence that small acts of kindness can infect a community like a positive virus, far too many kids are on either the giving or receiving end of unkind bullying on a regular basis.Perhaps that's why an elementary school in Ireland decided to do something radical: ditch all homework for the month of December and assign kids "acts of kindness" instead.In the weeks leading up to the holidays in 2019, kids at Gaelscoil Mhíchíl Uí Choileáin, Clonakilty were given a kindness task for each weekday. It broke down like this:Monday- reach out to and communicate with an elderly person Young girl hugging her smiling grandfather indoors.Photo credit: CanvaTuesday- make a family member's life easier by taking over a chore or helping out without being asked Two boys clean a table while a woman watches, with breakfast and juice nearby.Photo credit: CanvaWednesday- random acts of kindness of any kind Child cuddling a gray kitten lovingly in their arms.Photo credit: CanvaThursday - do something kind for your own mental and emotional well-being Smiling girl in a wheelchair hugging herself, wearing a yellow sweater, pink background.Photo credit: CanvaStudents were asked to keep track of their kind deeds in a Kindness Diary. The school also created a Kindness Bucket, where students could write down and deposit positive observations and affirmations to boost the self-esteem of their schoolmates. On Friday mornings, random selections of the notes were read aloud for everyone to hear.In addition, each class cooperated in a collective act of kindness for the community based on the students' own brainstorming as a team. How lovely.It's easy to see why so many adults were on board with the idea. "I LOVE this! Children learn from our example and how we treat them. Kindness is powerful for the giver as well as the receiver! We adults, parents and leaders of our future generation should also be displaying care, kindness and thoughtful acts of kindness as a living example! The world is changed by each doing a small kind act each day!!" one person wrote. "What a wonderful, thoughtful and just brilliant idea! If this could only go worldwide and be practiced, I would like to believe there would be more tolerance and patience on this ball of gas," added another. According to a Facebook post from the school, the students have been doing similar programs in December for years. In 2018, the focus was on Gratitude, which resulted in "overwhelming success and positivity."Vice Principal Íde Ní Mhuirí was quoted in the post:"We are encouraging our pupils to think of the real spirit of Christmas, the spirit of kindness and giving.With such an emphasis on the materialistic and commercial aspect of Christmas, we often tend to overlook what it's really all about…. Good will!Unfortunately not everyone is in a position to be able to enjoy Christmas, some are lonely, some are sad, some might yearn for what they do not have and some might simply not enjoy the festivities. But there is nobody in this world who wouldn't benefit from an act of kindness, and the joy of kindness is that it costs nothing.What if schools everywhere did things like this, and not just during the holidays? What if we focused just as much on good character and citizenship as we do on test prep? What if each school took it upon itself to say, "Being kind is more important than being smart," not just for a month, but always?The most pressing issues our world faces are not so much due to a lack of intelligence or knowledge, but rather a lack of shared values that compel us to care about one another. Without a foundation of basic human decency and kindness, knowledge and skill-building will only lead to more problems, while focusing more energy on kindness can only help build a better world for all of us.As the school noted on Facebook:In this world, consumed by social media, where our young people are constantly experiencing pressure, there is no better way to show them the way forward in the world than by practicing kindness. We all know that helping others makes us feel good about ourselves…. What's not to love about that?!? That feel good factor we experience form helping others cannot be quantified. Our message to the children is very simple: they can be the reason somebody smiles today and they can definitely help make this world a better place for others and for themselves.In 2024, the school looked outside of its own community to see where it might help kids elsewhere. The staff asked that, in lieu of buying them Christmas gifts, families donate to the UNICEF Children of Gaza Appeal instead. They were able to raise €7501.00 in donations.And in 2025, the project is still going strong. The order has switched up a bit (Mondays are for family kindness, Tuesdays are for helping the environment, Wednesdays are for reaching out to the elderly), but the overall spirit is still very much the same as when it started. What a wonderful way to encourage well-rounded learning in ways that truly make a difference. Less homework and more kindness all around, please and thank you.This article originally appeared six years ago.

All too often, people leave a date with no idea how the other person feels about them. And if you're not into the other person, it can be stressful trying to gauge how they feel about the situation and ultimately what you should do moving forward.Should you go ahead and have another date to see if something blossoms? Will it come across as presumptuous to let them down? If they're not into you either, will they make you feel stupid for laying out the reasons you don't want to go out again? Or is it leading someone on to stay mum about the lack of connection? Is the lack of connection mutual?Canva Photos.While there's no easy way to navigate letting a date down, avoiding these awkward conversations oftentimes results in the awful trend of ghosting, which leaves one person completely in the emotional lurch.Ghosting may sound harmless at first, but it's actually a harmful (and totally lame) way to treat another person. It's especially gross when you consider that this other person is someone you invested time in and who invested time in you. Even if there was no spark or connection on one end, ghosting is essentially like throwing the other person away and acting like they don't matter. There are many reasons why someone might ghost, but when you poke at them enough, they really don't hold any water. In an article for Psychology Today, Janneke M. Schokkenbroek, Ph.D., gives several reasons for why people ghost. Number one? Convenience. No, you didn't. Giphy Sure, it may be "convenient" to walk away from a situation and pretend it no longer exists, but this bit of convenience can be extremely damaging for the person on the receiving end. In fact, a lot of research has come out in the last several years outlining the harmful affects of ghosting on the mental health of both parties. Some psychologists note that ghosting is a symptom of avoidant attachment, and stress that learning attachment theory can keep heartbroken hopefuls who've been ghosted from internalizing their experience. Still, ghosting hurts no matter how you slice it, and it's just not a healthy thing to do to someone.Unfortunately, ghosting remains extremely common. It's so common that it's rare to see healthy emotional rejection modeled online. But in 2019, Reddit user karmabandido's shared a breakup text he sent to his date that quickly went viral for its honest clarity. A masterclass is classy dating.Via Reddit This is an ideal example of how to let someone down easy. He was polite, respectful, and transparent about his feelings, wants, and needs. He didn't ghost her—but he also didn't mince words about the lack of connection.In return, she was able to reveal that she felt the same way and they were able to avoid further awkward interactions without negging or having to resort to ghosting. Woman looking at smartphone.Canva Photos.Bottom line: ghosting isn't nice and it isn't cool. Instead, be honest, open, and respectful because it treats other people with the dignity they deserve. It may be uncomfortable, but kindly and clearly saying how you feel is the right thing to do, people appreciate it, and it goes a long way.This article was originally published six years ago. It has been updated.

The Boss reflects on his early inspiration. The post The one “father” of American music, according to Bruce Springsteen first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

Surprisingly, his selection is not by Van Halen. The post The one song Sammy Hagar calls his “masterpiece” first appeared on Far Out Magazine.