Donald Trump’s near assassination presents the biggest crisis for the Secret Service in decades. At the heart of what will be a torrent of investigations: How was a 20-year-old lone shooter able to take up an exposed firing position on an open rooftop not much more than a football field away from the former president? Scrutiny is likely to focus heavily on the Secret Service’s advance work to secure buildings near the Butler, Pa., rally, including one belonging to American...

The Republican National Convention kicks off on Monday, just two days after former President Donald Trump, the GOP's standard-bearer, survived an assassination attempt. And the Saturday shooting at Trump's rally in western Pennsylvania - where one spectator was killed and two more critically injured, and the former president visibly bloodied after a bullet grazed his ear - has altered the tone and raised the stakes of the convention. U.S. Secret Service and other...

Jon Stewart and the team from “The Daily Show” will be staying close to home during the Republican National Convention. After planning to cover the event with a satirical lens in host city Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the Comedy Central mainstay canceled its plans Sunday and noted the show would hold forth instead from its usual base in New York City. Monday’s broadcast of the show, typically hosted by Stewart, will not air, and the late-night series will pick up Tuesday through...

MSNBC denied CNN’s reporting that Morning Joe was pulled in response to Trump’s assassination attempt after the network instead aired special report coverage via its streaming service, NBC News Now. The normal show, which features several panelists, is routinely critical of the former president, but the show posted on X that it would return on Tuesday. The report from rival CNN alleged the network pulled the show Monday due to concerns about an...

The top political adviser to Democratic mega-donor Reid Hoffman suggested that the attack on Donald Trump could have been “staged,” even as Hoffman was criticized for joking before Saturday’s attack about Trump becoming a “martyr.” The adviser, Dmitri Mehlhorn, apologized for his remarks after Semafor published this story, and said his email laying out his claims was “drafted without consultation from team members or allies.” Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, whose net worth is ...

Actress Julia Roberts was late to the game when it came to joining social media, so she was blown away when she finally saw first-hand how toxic it could be. She started an Instagram account in June of 2018 and, shortly after, was the target of trolls mocking her appearance in a post by her niece.Roberts was upset about the negative comments people made about her looks and then was gutted when she considered social media's effect on young women. In a 2018 interview with Oprah Winfrey for Harper’s Bazaar, Julia recounted the story.“Although something did happen recently on my niece Emma’s Instagram that I think taught me a lot about what it’s like being a young person in today’s society. One weekend morning Emma slept over, and we got up and were having tea and playing cards and having this beautiful morning, and then a couple of days later, she posted a picture of us,” Roberts recalled.“And the number of people who felt absolutely required to talk about how terrible I looked in the picture—that I’m not aging well, that I look like a man, why would she even post a picture like this when I look that terrible!” she continued. “And I was amazed at how that made me feel. I’m a 50-year-old woman and I know who I am, and still my feelings got hurt. I was sad that people couldn’t see the point of it, the sweetness of it, the absolute shining joy of that photo. I thought, ‘What if I was 15?’”Beauty influencer Samantha Marika combined the audio of Julia telling the story, added it to the candid photo of her and Emma, and posted it to Instagram, and it went viral. See on Instagram Julia’s concerns about teenage mental health aren’t unfounded.A 2022 report by Pew Research shows that online bullying is pervasive among teenagers and looks are a common target. “Nearly half of U.S. teens have been bullied or harassed online, with physical appearance being seen as a relatively common reason why,” the report said. “Older teen girls are especially likely to report being targeted by online abuse overall and because of their appearance.”Even though online bullying is common, those who watched Marika’s video were disturbed by what happened to Roberts and her young niece.“Before I listened to the whole thing I thought to myself how wholesome this photo was that the two of them are playing cards and look so happy! People are really sad and depressed that they wanna judge on how someone should look it’s the saddest thing about humans. We can’t even see joy anymore,” ChantsBoomBoom wrote in the comments.Even though Roberts was disturbed by the comments she saw on Instagram, she’s glad that it helped her grasp what’s happening to young people online.“I was so happy that happened because I had this whole new glimpse into a way of living that I didn’t get at all,” she told Winfrey. “You have to go through things to understand them, and this was just a little paper cut of what can really go on with social media.”This article originally appeared on 2.16.24

Kids, man. I'm not sure of the scientific way audacity is distributed, but kids have a lot of it and somehow make it cute. That audacity overload is especially interesting when you're the default parent—you know, the parent kids go to for literally everything as if there's not another fully capable adult in the house. Chances are if your children haven't sought you out while you were taking a shower so you could open up a pack of fruit snacks, then you're not the default parental unit. One parent captured exactly what it's like to be the default parent and shared it to TikTok, where the video has over 4 million views. Toniann Marchese went on a quick grocery run and *gasp* did not inform her children. Don't you fret, they're modern kids who know how to use modern means to get much-needed answers when mom is nowhere to be found. They went outside and rang the doorbell.Back when we were children, this would've done nothing but make the dogs bark, but for Marchese's kids, who are 3 and 6 years old, it's as good as a phone call. You may be questioning why this mom left her two young children home alone. She didn't. Their father was home, likely wondering why the children were playing so quietly. But. He. Was. Right. There. And the kids still bypassed him to talk to their mom through the Ring doorbell camera. It was pressing business, after all. "My tablet is dead," the 3-year-old said.The kids ignored Marchese's questions about where their dad was and continued to complain about their tablets. The entire situation is enough to make any default parent chuckle and maybe sob a little. Watch the urgent doorbell call below: @tinyann22 Moms can never get a minute of peace lol #momsoftiktok #momlife #ring #camera #kidsoftiktok And if you're skeptical that dad was within shouting distance, the mom of two uploaded a part two where dad comes into the frame. @tinyann22 Replying to @iustmerlp part 2… daddy was found! Lol #kidsoftiktok #momsoftiktok #parentsoftiktok #fyp #ring #prioritiesfirst This article originally appeared on 3.22.23

Airbnb defines its notorious cleaning fee as a “one-time charge” set by the host that helps them arrange anything from carpet shampoo to replenishing supplies to hiring an outside cleaning service—all in the name of ensuring guests have a “clean and tidy space.” But as many frustrated Airbnb customers will tell you, this feature is viewed as more of a nuisance than a convenience. According to NerdWallet, the general price for a cleaning fee is around $75, but can vary greatly between listings, with some units having cleaning fees that are higher than the nightly rate (all while sometimes still being asked to do certain chores before checking out). And often none of these fees show up in the total price until right before the booking confirmation, leaving many travelers feeling confused and taken advantage of.However, some hosts are opting to build cleaning fees into the overall price of their listings, mimicking the strategy of traditional hotels.Rachel Boice runs two Airbnb properties in Georgia with her husband Parker—one being this fancy glass plane tiny house (seen below) that promises a perfect glamping experience. @rachelrboice Welcome to The Tiny Glass House ? #airbnbfinds #exploregeorgia #travelbucketlist #tinyhouse #glampingnotcamping #atlantageorgia #fyp ♬ Aesthetic - Tollan Kim Like most Airbnb hosts, the Boice’s listing showed a nightly rate and separate cleaning fee. According to her interview with Insider, the original prices broke down to $89 nightly, and $40 for the cleaning fee. But after noticing the negative response the separate fee got from potential customers, Rachel told Insider that she began charging a nightly rate that included the cleaning fee, totaling to $129 a night.It’s a marketing strategy that more and more hosts are attempting in order to generate more bookings (people do love feeling like they’re getting a great deal) but Boice argued that the trend will also become more mainstream since the current Airbnb model “doesn’t feel honest.” "We stay in Airbnbs a lot. I pretty much always pay a cleaning fee," Boice told Insider. "You're like: 'Why am I paying all of this money? This should just be built in for the cost.'" Since combining costs, Rachel began noticing another unexpected perk beyond customer satisfaction: guests actually left her property cleaner than before they were charged a cleaning fee. Her hypothesis was that they assumed she would be handling the cleaning herself."I guess they're thinking, 'I'm not paying someone to clean this, so I'll leave it clean,'" she said.This discovery echoes a similar anecdote given by another Airbnb host, who told NerdWallet guests who knew they were paying a cleaning fee would “sometimes leave the place looking like it’s been lived in and uncleaned for months.” So, it appears to be that being more transparent and lumping all fees into one overall price makes for a happier (and more considerate) customer.These days, it’s hard to not be embittered by deceptive junk fees, which can seem to appear anywhere without warning—surprise overdraft charges, surcharges on credit cards, the never convenience “convenience charge” when purchasing event tickets. Junk fees are so rampant that certain measures are being taken to try to eliminate them outright in favor of more honest business approaches.Speaking of a more honest approach—as of December 2022, AirBnb began updating its app and website so that guests can see a full price breakdown that shows a nightly rate, a cleaning fee, Airbnb service fee, discounts, and taxes before confirming their booking.Guests can also activate a toggle function before searching for a destination, so that full prices will appear in search results—avoiding unwanted financial surprises.This article originally appeared on 11.08.23

Humans may not always recognize greatness right away, but sometimes it's so clear it simply can't be denied.You don't have to be a dancer yourself to see when someone's got moves, and a viral video from choreographer Phil Wright spotlights a kid who's got moves. Like, wow.Mariandrea Villegas may be tiny, but she packs a mighty amount of energy, skill, coordination and x-factor into her dancing. Oh and joy. Did I mention joy?Villegas, 13, danced alongside choreographer Phil Wright at The Dance Awards and holy moly. She snatched the stage right out from under him."I think I got smoked," he wrote when he shared the video on his Instagram page. "I need to stop dancing with these kids. ? They’re low-key superheroes." If Villegas is any evidence, he's right. Watch: See on Instagram Upworthy shared the video on Instagram as well, and people loved it. "When you find your passion at a young age, it’s a beautiful thing to see," wrote one commenter. "And all with a smile on her face," wrote another."This kid is an absolute star ?" shared another, echoing the sentiment of the copious fire emojis in the comments.Keep on dancing with joy and passion, Mariandrea! We can't wait to see more from you. (You can follow her on Instagram if you want to see what she's done up to now. It's impressive.)This article originally appeared on 2.20.23

Broad scope of influence. The post “Thrash it out”: The Prince album that was inspired by Van Halen first appeared on Far Out Magazine.