New footage appears to show the minutes leading up to the arrest of Columbia University graduate and Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil. The video, first obtained by CNN was secured by Khalil’s legal team through a subpoena of Columbia University and shows an interaction between Khalil, his wife and immigration officers. Khalil has been in custody since March. He played a prominent role in helping organize protests against the Israel-Hamas war on the Columbia campus last year. Secretary of...

CLAIM: In a May 16, 2025, article, NBC News claimed, “Machine guns have been illegal in the United States since 1986.” VERDICT: False. Machine guns are bought and sold regularly in states where the possession of machine guns is legal. When NBC News references “1986,” they are referencing the year when the Firearm Owners Protection Act was signed into law. One aspect of FOPA banned the sale of machine guns manufactured after the law’s effective date, which was May 19, 1986. However,...

In the fall of 2023, young mother Sage Pasch’s unique family situation attracted a ton of online attention after the 20-something shared a six-second video on TikTok. The video has now been viewed over 48 million times and rests pinned at the top of Pasch's page because it shows how hard it can be for young moms to be taken seriously.In the video, the young-looking Pasch (young-looking because she is indeed in her early twenties) took her teenaged son Nick to the ER after he injured his leg at school. But when the family got to the hospital, the doctor couldn’t believe Pasch was his mother. “POV, we’re at the ER, and the doctor didn’t believe I was the parent,” she captioned the post.Pasch and her fiancé, Luke Faircloth, adopted the teen in 2022 after his parents tragically died two years apart. “Nick was already spending so much time with us, so it made sense that we would continue raising him,” Pasch told Today.At the time the video was posted, the couple had Nick and 17-month-old baby Laith, who they lovingly call Bub. @coffee4lifesage He really thought i was lying? They now have their third child, a baby boy named Luca, making them a big happy family of five. @coffee4lifesage Mother’s Day fit check #momof3 #momsoftiktok #boymom #momlife #sunday #mothersday #boys #ootdinspo #family After experiencing the ER doctor's confusion, Pasch said that people are often taken aback by her family when they are out in public. "Everybody gets a little confused because my fiancé and I are definitely younger to have a teenager," she said. "It can be very frustrating."It may be hard for the young parents to be taken seriously, but their story has made a lot of people in a similar situation feel seen. "Omg, I feel this. I took my son to the ER, and they asked for the guardian. Yes, hi, that's me," one mom wrote in the comments. "Meee with my teenager at a parent-teacher conference. They think I’m her older sister and say we need to talk with your parents," another added.Though the confusion is frustrating, it's not slowing Pasch and her family down. In a recent post, Pasch shared that she and her family had welcomed a fourth baby and were taking their followers on a trip to shop for the nursery. @coffee4lifesage Meet mousey #momof3 #momsoftiktok #boymom #momlife #funny #hubby #parents #pet #family After a couple seconds, Pasch admits the new baby they're shopping for is actually their new hamster named Mousey. Judging by some of Pasch's other videos, though, they're trying for a fourth human baby and Pasch is hoping for a girl! @coffee4lifesage Happy ? day #momof3 #momsoftiktok #boymom #momlife #parent #lifestyle #routine #wednesday #vlog #school This article originally appeared last year. It has been updated.

In a 2023 TEDx Talk at Laguna Blanca School, Dino Ambrosi made a startling revelation that perfectly underlines the big question of the smartphone era: What is my time worth? Ambrosi is the founder of Project Reboot and an expert at guiding teens and young adults to develop more empowering relationships with technology.Assuming the average person now lives to 90, after calculating the average time they spend sleeping, going to school, working, cooking, eating, doing chores, sleeping, and taking care of personal hygiene, today’s 18-year-olds have only 334 months of their adult lives to themselves."How you spend this time will determine the quality of your life,” Ambrosi says. However, given the tech habits of today’s young people, most of those months will be spent staring at screens, leaving them with just 32 months to leave their mark on the world. "Today, the average 18-year-old in the United States is on pace to spend 93% of their remaining free time looking at a screen,” Ambrosi says. An 18-year-olds remaining time, in months.via TEDx The idea that an entire generation will spend most of their free time in front of screens is chilling. However, the message has a silver lining. Sharing this information with young people can immediately impact how they spend their time.How to get teens to reduce their screentimeAmbrosi says his work with Project Reboot through on-campus initiatives, school assemblies, and parent workshops has taught him that teens are more concerned about time wasted on their phones than the damage it may do to their mental health. Knowing the topic that resonates can open the door for an effective dialogue about a topic that’s hard for many young people to discuss. When teens realize they are giving their entire lives away for free, they are more apt to reconsider their relationship with smartphones.“I actually don't get through to a lot of teens, as well as when I help them realize the value of their time and then highlight the fact that that time is being stolen from them,” Ambrosi told Upworthy.A Common Sense Media study shows that the average 13 to 18-year-old, as of 2021, spent an average of 8 hours and 39 minutes a day on entertainment screentime.“It’s important to get them to view time as their most valuable resource that they can use to invest in themselves or enjoy life and tick the boxes on their bucket list. I really want them to see that that's something they should take control of and prioritize because we're all under the impression that social media is free, but it's actually not free. We just pay for it with our time.” Dino Ambrosi speaks at a school assembly.via Dino Ambrosi (used with permission) Ambrosi believes that young people are less likely to hand their time to tech companies for free when they understand its value. “I find that kids really respond to that message because nobody wants to feel manipulated, right? And giving them that sense of being wronged, which I think they have been, by tech companies that are off operating on business models that are not aligned with their well-being, is important.”His approach to getting teens to rethink their smartphone use is similar to that of the Truth Initiative in that it educates young people about the nefarious tactics big tobacco companies used to lure and addict young people. In a way, big tech companies are doing the same thing by luring young people to their products by connecting them to their friends and influencers while providing a product that rearranges their brain chemistry. He also believes parents should be sympathetic and nonjudgmental when talking to young people about screentime because it’s a struggle that just about everyone faces and feels shame about. A little understanding will prevent them from shutting down the conversation altogether. - YouTube www.youtube.com How to reduce my screentimeAmbrosi has some suggestions to help people reduce their screentime.The ClearSpace appClearSpace forces you to take a breathing delay before using a distracting app. It also asks you to set a time limit and allows you to set a number of visits to the site per day. If you eclipse the number of visits, it sends a text to a friend saying you exceeded your budget. This can help people be accountable for one another’s screentime goals.Don’t sleep with your phoneAmbrosi says to charge your phone far away from your bedside stand when you sleep and use an alarm clock to wake up. If you do have an alarm clock on your phone, set up an automation so that as soon as you turn off the alarm, it opens up an app like Flora or Forest and starts an hour-long timer that incentivizes you to be off your phone for the first hour of the day.“In my experience, if you can stay off screens for the last hour and the first hour of the day, the other 22 hours get a lot easier because you get the quality rest and sleep that you need to wake up fully charged, and now you're more capable of being intentional because you are at your best," Ambrosi told Upworty. A teen boy looks at his phone in bed.via Canva/photosKeep apps in one placeAmbrosi says to keep all of your social apps and logins on one device. “I try to designate a specific use for each device as much as possible,” he told Upworthy. “I try to keep all my social media time and all my entertainment on my phone as opposed to my computer because I want my computer to be a tool for work.”Even though there are significant challenges ahead for young people as they try to navigate a screen-based world while keeping them at a healthy distance, Ambrosi is optimistic about the future.“I'm really optimistic because I have seen in the last year, in particular, that the receptiveness of student audiences has increased by almost an order of magnitude. Kids are waking up to the fact that this is the problem. They want to have this conversation,” he told Upworthy. “Some clubs are starting to address this problem at several schools right now; from the talks I've given this semester alone, kids want to be involved in this conversation. They're creating phone-free spaces on college and high school campuses by their own accord. I just think we have a huge potential to leverage this moment to move things in the right direction.”For more information on Ambrosi’s programs, visit ProjectReboot.School.This article originally appeared last year.

Having twins is unarguably a wild ride straight from the get go, but having identical twins is a whole other layer of fun. Two babies at once who look exactly alike right down to their little DNA strands and who share a bond like no other on Earth? It's an adventure for sure. People like to joke about mixing up identical twins, and twins themselves will often play practical jokes swapping identities on people who can't tell them apart. But what happens if a parent literally loses track and doesn't know which baby is which? Does that actually happen? And what do they do if it does? A video from @thetwinniesmom shows her twin babies dressed in identical "BEST BUDS" shirts with the text, "They don't know it yet but in 30 minutes I will be taking them to the hospital because I mixed them up." It got nearly 9 million views and thousands of comments. @thetwinniesmom #identical #twins #babies #brothers #parenting #hospital #birth #birthstories #pregnant #delivering #funny #comedy #silly #satire #baby #mom The post was hash tagged as satire and comedy, but judging by the comments that poured in, mixing up identical twin babies is a real thing that can happen, and more easily than you might think. As one commenter wrote, "Do I have twins? Nope! Did this unlock a new fear? Yep!"People's personal stories of twin baby mix-ups show how it happens: "My identical twins bracelets fell off beside one another at about a week old...I made a good guess...lol. Twin A may now be twin B.""My mother left my father home alone with my twin sister and I once when we were infants. He took off our bracelets to bath us. My mother came home during the bathing process, took one look at the bracelets and asked if he knew which twin was which. Look of horror, and then a stab in the dark. So, I might not have the name I was given at birth." Newborn babies have bracelets with their identity on them, but once those come off parents are on their own.Photo credit: Canva"My father's baby book says that he was born first, and that he was the heavier twin. He and his twin brother were looking at it one day and my grandmother remarked that that couldn't be right -- she remembered the doctor being surprised because the heavier one was second. Those two have been mixed up since day 1.""This actually happened to a pair of twins I know, they only found out around age 17 because of an invisible physical variation (I cannot remember what it was, but it occurred to the second twin during birth, torn something or other) that supposedly belonged to X that belonged to Y. The names switched between the hospital and home.""I have a friend with identicals. She kept nail polish on one's big toes to tell them apart. To her dismay, at 2 months old, the nail polish wore off before she could reapply. They are older now and have extremely different personalities. But she took a leap of faith and called one A and the other B though she wasn't sure. Still not sure, lol.""I once fed the same twin twice.? They were a few days old. ??" Feeding the same newborn twin twice? It happens.Photo credit: CanvaSome twins shared that they may have been switched without knowing."I'm a twin who was supposedly born having seizures for days. I am now 'fine,' while my sister gets seizures, severe migraines and has two autoimmune disorders. Forever wondering if we got switched. Our drs insist I just grew out of it ? They SWEAR our bloodwork matches up.""Identical twins here ? I always liked my sisters name better. Maybe it was mine first. ?""My twin and I were raised by hippies. I’m pretty sure they have no clue to this day who’s who.""My mom used to say that only my older sister could definitively tell my brother & I apart as babies when both she and my dad struggled. My sister is only 18 months older than us, so I suspect the validity of this, and that she may have just been randomly picking and may parents took her judgement as truth." baby twins GIF Giphy It's actually totally understandable that parents would mix up twins. Parental instincts can only go so far, and when you're trying to manage life with two infants at once, phew. But people did share methods for trying to keep them straight:"I always wonder if I mixed up my twins they look different now, but when they were little, they looked identical I didn’t take their hospital bracelets off for like a month because I was so scared, I was gonna mix them up.""I painted one of my twins’ big toenail green because his name is Seth and i could remind myself Seth Green, like the actor. This worked until they both ended up being transported to the hospital in an ambulance without me and by the time I got there, the polish was removed for a pulse ox monitor. I worried for months that they had been mixed up, but finally spotted the tiniest fleck of green on Seth’s toenail as it grew out. ?""My mirror image identical twins were 6 ounces apart, I had to weigh them to see which was who lol." It's not easy to tell identical twins apart if they don't have any distinct natural markings.Photo credit: Canva"I saw someone say they put temporary tattoos on one baby.""My husband is a twin. His mother put a dot of nail polish on his twin’s big toe nail until they were like 4. lol""Simple trick : get a fingerprint reader, could be an old iPhone for example. Register the fingerprints of only one of the twins. In case of doubt, scan both of them, the one who unlocks the iPhone is the good one (the other one is the evil twin of course)."""If I had twins they’d definitely wear specific color wristbands until I could finally figure out which is which."""I’d mix them up and just start using their names interchangeably until they were old enough to tell me." Identical sneezes Giphy by America's Funniest Home Videos And really, at the end of the day. does it really matter if they get switched around as infants? Barring any known health issues, it's really just a name. "I'm an identical twin. If our parents ever mixed us up and we've lived our whole life as the wrong one, it's no big deal. ?""I’m a twin and this is what I’ve always said! ? It doesn’t change who you are if you were mixed up at some point, just your name lol.""I asked a friend of mine how she could tell her twins apart when they were a few weeks old. She said she couldn’t a lot of the time and just figured whatever name they had when she could tell them apart would stick. I strive for that level of laid back."Seriously, having twins is such a wild ride.

In a world where so many of us disagree on everything—from politics to parenting to pizza toppings—one thing might just be the bridge that binds us: the belief that boogers are grosser than earwax. As with all topics, we can't say this definitively, as some obviously might disagree.On Quora, someone posted the age-old question, "Why is picking my nose gross, but scratching my ear is not?"In one helpful answer, a person writes in part, "I believe it’s because picking one’s nose is a form of elimination, the technical term learned in school biology class for the physical expulsion of waste products from the body. Hardly anyone wants to watch that, is my point, outside of certain specific contexts."However, they add, "The poet Sylvia Plath, in her journal, wrote a wonderful and rapturous description of the pleasure of extracting a giant and complex booger from her nose. Scratching one’s ear, by contrast, is trivial, compared to the queasy spectacle of a truly dedicated nose-picker. At least, that’s my take on the matter." See on Instagram Another commenter shockingly weighs in with what seems to be empirical evidence: "The actual reason is that boogers taste good, while earwax tastes terrible. That means you don’t have to dissuade kids from sticking their fingers into their ears, but you do have to teach them not to stick their fingers in their nose. The bad taste means people only scratch their ears because they actually itch, not because they enjoy eating the earwax."There are countless threads/questions relating to the matter. Queries like, "Was picking your nose always considered gross and embarrassing?" and "Why is it okay to pick your ears as opposed to picking your nose?" One person pushes back: "Picking your nose is actually comparable to picking wax out of your ear. Both are gross."Another person adds a little scientific context: "Frankly, it could be harmful to pick either your ears or your nose. Traumatizing the skin of the ear canal may lead to an infection called otitis externa, which can be painful and especially dangerous in diabetics. Picking your nose can cause inflammation and possibly infection of the hair follicles of the nasal vestibule. This is a problem because inflammation in this area can become a chronically painful nuisance. So… don’t pick either your nose OR your ear!" A woman picks her nose. Giphy, GIF by MaggieRAPT Let's turn to some experts for more insight. First, let's break down the distinction between snot (AKA mucus) and earwax. According to audiologists on the podcast Let's Dive In, snot and earwax serve a similar purpose. Pete Duncan says both are "a protective way of stopping bacteria, and other things you don’t want, helping move it out. It acts as a filter."How are they different? On the YouTube channel Cosmos Science Magazine News, the distinction is explained (throwing in "eye goop" for good measure). Earwax, they share, is "a goopy yellow secretion called cerumen [that] protects the skin and lubricates the ear." Snot, however, is a "watery secretion high in protein and protective enzymes." Also, mucus "catches dust particles and microorganisms before they can enter the body." - YouTube www.youtube.com Could protein be the answer? Some might assume it answers the contentious question of why people are even drawn to picking their nose in the first place. Sadly, in Business Insider,, they emphatically state, "Sorry to say, there's zero scientific evidence to support any health benefits from eating your boogers."Lauren Gelman', a writer for The Healthy, a Reader's Digest Brand, writes in her piece, "Guess Which of These Gross Habits Are Really Healthy," that doctors conclude, "Earwax is healthy and necessary; it protects your ears and has antibacterial properties, and too little earwax can leave your ears dry and itchy, according to the American Academy of Otolaryngology." (She urges people to throw out their Q-tips.) A lady uses a q-tip in her ear. Giphy GIF by James Curran But when it comes to snot, while it also serves a purpose, she says the jury is still out in terms of "eating it." "It’s high on the ick factor, but a Canadian professor of biochemistry has wondered whether his young daughters’ habits of picking their nose and eating what comes out could be good for them." She cites a professor who "posits that consuming your boogers can prime your immune system to detect germs." Though, she clarifies, "Vanderbilt University infectious disease specialist William Schaffner, MD, told ABC News that 'it’s not likely that eating boogers would offer much additional immune system support, because people already unconsciously swallow nasal mucus.'"At the end of the day, what's considered "gross" is pretty subjective. But experts do agree: picking at any part of your body does more harm than good, no matter how delicious some might find it.

Big brothers are like heroes to little brothers. Everything they do and say, they look up to. For Instagrammer Nicole F (@nickyf511), her son Sebastian showed exactly why he deserves the title in his little brother Lucas' eyes.In a sweet video shared on social media, Nicole captured a heartwarming moment between the two brothers while out shopping. Nicole shares that it is Sebastian's birthday, and he's received a few gift cards to the sports store they are shopping at. But instead of buying himself something for his big day, he chooses to do something selfless and generous. Sebastian decides to spend his birthday gift cards on Lucas for a baseball bat that he has been dreaming of getting for a long time."Using his birthday gift cards ON his own bday to buy his brother the bat he has wanted for a long time," she captioned the post. See on Instagram In the video, Sebastian walks towards Lucas, who is holding a baseball bat that has a cool wooden pencil design, to reveal his surprise. "Yo Lucas! I'm buying it for you," he tells his little brother, who replies, "Are you for real?" And Sebastian absolutely is. "Yeah, pinky promise!" he says to Lucas as the brothers link pinkies.Lucas is ecstatic and hugs his brother. Sebastian has got jokes, and ribs his brother with, "You better hit though! You strike out, you're paying me back," he says with a big smile. Lucas is totally overjoyed, and says, "Thank you so much!" to which Sebastian responds, "No problem, buddy." See on Instagram In another clip, Lucas is talking to his mom and can't contain his excitement. He tells her, "I'm so happy! I'll do anything to get him something if he wants something," he says, acknowledging Sebastian's generosity. Nicole is an extremely proud parents and turns the camera to Sebastian to say, "You're a good brother, buddy." Lucas continues to freak out over his new baseball bat, saying, "It's so beautiful! I can't wait to go to practice. Final decision. It's so beautiful."In the next clip, they go up to the store's register where Sebastian starts to pay for the baseball bat using a few different gift cards. When he's finished, Lucas gives him another big hug and thanks him once again. Wheelingu GIF by WU Cardinals Giphy The brothers, who both share a love for baseball, clearly have a special bond. Viewers on social media are touched by Sebastian's sweet gesture:"I’m crying. ? the look in big bro’s eyes says it all. He’ll be his number one fan for life.? good job mom + dad ??." "Big bro standing a little taller after that move. ??" "Good job young man.. Good job... Little brother will remember that moment for the rest of his life!!! And I bet even hits a couple dingers!!!" "? this is more beautiful than the bat!!! What kind hearted little dudes. My mom heart is bursting over here."

Some days, you feel like you shouldn’t even get out of bed. They happen to everyone, but no matter how bad things get, we can’t let them ruin the rest of the day. Eliza Lieberman, a therapist from North Carolina, was having a challenging day recently, and her openness to letting everything go paved the way for a magical experience.“I cannot believe what just happened. I was having a pretty shi**y day, and I just, like, needed a win,” she said in a TikTok video with over 300,000 views. “And I'm driving to my workout class, this guy pulls up next to me, and I have this bumper sticker,” she says before cutting to a photo of her car with a "I STOP FOR GOATS" bumper sticker. Katherine cared for goats on a farm as a teenager, so she has a special place in her heart for them.“So this guy pulls up next to me, and he's like, ‘I saw your bumper sticker. And I actually have baby goats in the back of my truck right now. And I'm taking them to my office to let my co-workers meet them if you wanna come see them,” she recalled. @elizalieberman the universe is looking out for me fr !!!! I got his contact info so I can go play with them :,) ???? #goats #goat #goatsoftiktok #kismet #storytime #fate At this point, Lieberman had a conundrum: Should she follow a random stranger who promises her he has baby goats or turn down the offer? His offer sounded a lot like the adult version of a predator asking a child to come with him to find a lost puppy. However, Lieberman felt she had nothing to lose and followed his truck to his office.“Goats randomly became a big part of my personality,” she told People. “I asked if I could follow him, and he said yes. My partner stayed on the phone the whole time, joking, ‘Don’t get kidnapped!’ But honestly, baby goats seemed like a pretty extreme kidnapping tactic.” Two baby goats eating. via Jonathan Mast/Unsplash When they arrived at the man’s office, his co-workers were waiting to meet the baby goats. “And I watch him open his trunk and baby goats come out,” she says in the video. “I feel like this is the kind of story that no one would believe if I didn't have evidence.”"The universe is looking out for me!" she captioned her video. Folks in the comments agreed that the promise of seeing baby goats seemed more than a little bit sketchy, but they supported Lieberman’s decision to follow her bliss. “A man telling me he has baby goats in the back of his truck is how I’d be kidnapped,” one viewer wrote. “I mean, parents always warned us about strangers with candy, not goats, so fair game,” Another added. Two goats relaxing.via Neil Daftary/UnsplashThe story is a great reminder that a day that starts as terrible, no-good, and horrible could turn on a dime into something extraordinary. For Lieberman, the story is a wonderful reminder to keep yourself open to joy because it could happen at any minute.“There were so many reasons why I could’ve said no or stayed cautious, but letting go of control and being open to unplanned events led to one of the best things that’s happened to me,” she told People. “It’s proof that good things can come when you least expect them.”