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  • Autoworkers learn sign language hoping connection with deaf colleagues improves work and lives

    Autoworkers learn sign language hoping connection with deaf colleagues improves work and lives

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    LONDON (AP) — One doesn’t need to know sign language to understand what Michael Connolly feels about his colleagues’ efforts to break down the barriers posed by his deafness.

    When asked what he thought of his teammates’ decision to learn British Sign Language, the 45-year-old autoworker at the Nissan plant in Sunderland, England, grinned and flashed a universal symbol: Two thumbs up.

    Connolly loves having the chance to banter with his workmates, to talk about everyday things — the kids, vacation plans, a TV program. And now he can, because the entire 25-member bumper-paint team at Sunderland started learning BSL at the beginning of the year.

    “I’m glad they have all learned sign language for us because I can talk and I lipread the hearing person, but I have my limits,” Connolly signed in an interview with The Associated Press. “If you reverse the situation and the hearing person can sign and speak, they have no limits.’’

    The initiative grew out of a broader effort to improve efficiency at the Sunderland plant, which makes Qashqai and Juke sport utility vehicles. While Nissan took steps to overhaul training and increase the use of visual aids during briefings, the bumper-paint team decided to go a step further and learn sign language, said supervisor John Johnson.

    Connolly is one of four hearing-impaired people assigned to the team, which works in less bustling area of the plant where it is safer for workers who can’t hear the sound of an approaching vehicle.

    Johnson said the thought of mastering the combination of gestures, facial expressions and body language that comprise BSL was daunting. But it helped him understand what life was like for Connolly and the other deaf workers as they tried to learn their jobs and fit into a team without having the ability to share the personal tidbits that build friendships.

    “So as a team, we thought how can we knock that barrier down? And obviously sign language was the solution, or at least the start of an opportunity,’’ Johnson said.

    The team’s decision is very unusual, said Teri Devine, the associate director for inclusion and employment at The Royal National Institute for Deaf People. While many employers make an effort to reach out and engage with deaf workers, few go as far as learning sign language, she said.

    Research shows that many deaf people, particularly BSL users, feel isolated at work, Devine said.

    Having more hearing people who understand sign language is important because even the most proficient lip readers will only pick up 30% to 40% of a conversation, she added.

    “It’s absolutely crucial that deaf people are included in everyday conversations, and it’s very easy to include them in those conversations,’’ Devine said. “The fact that (workers at) Nissan have gone and learned some BSL to support their colleague is actually fantastic. I take my hat off to them.’’

    There are mountains of research showing that kindness in the workplace improves productivity as well as being good for the people with their noses to the grindstone, said Cary Cooper, a professor of organizational psychology and health at the Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester.

    You can see that at work on the bumper-paint team, where workers had limited ability to communicate before they learned sign language, Cooper said. But now they’ve created the opportunity for dialogue.

    “You can find out: What did you do this weekend? What about the football results,” he said. “In other words, you’re cementing the relationship — the team building. And that’s important. It goes far beyond, you know, ‘you haven’t painted that bit of the bumper.’”

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  • LL Flooring, formerly Lumber Liquidators, is going out of business and closing all of its stores

    LL Flooring, formerly Lumber Liquidators, is going out of business and closing all of its stores

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    NEW YORK (AP) — LL Flooring, the hardwood flooring retailer formerly known as Lumber Liquidators, is going out of business.

    Less than a month after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the Virginia-based company says it is now “winding down operations” after failing to find a buyer in recent negotiations with prospective bidders. That means all of its remaining stores will soon close their doors.

    LL Flooring expected to begin to begin the process this week, with closing sales at hundreds of stores slated to start Friday. The retailer says store closures should be completed over the next 12 weeks, with timing varying by location.

    “This is not the outcome that any of us had hoped for,” LL Flooring CEO Charles Tyson wrote in a letter to customers. “As we begin to wind down operations and close our stores, we are committed to doing so as smoothly as possible to minimize the impact on you, our associates and the communities we serve.”

    LL Flooring touted more than 400 stores earlier this year. By the time of its Chapter 11 petition, the company said it would be continuing forward with closer to 300 locations, with closing sales already beginning at 94 stores. But now, the closings will effect all remaining stores.

    Scores of workers are set to lose their jobs as a result. The company had about 1,970 employees as of its August 11 bankruptcy petition, according to court documents, 99% of whom were working full time in the U.S. across retail, corporate and distribution roles.

    LL Flooring’s history dates back more than 30 years. The brick-and-mortar retailer, founded by Tom Sullivan, got its start in 1993 as a modest operation in Massachusetts, later expanding operations nationwide.

    Known for decades as Lumber Liquidators, the company officially changed its name to LL Flooring at the start of 2022 — in a move following years of turmoil. The retailer faced expansive litigation after a 2015 segment of “60 Minutes” reported that laminate flooring it was selling had illegal and dangerous levels of formaldehyde. Lumber Liquidators later said it would stop selling the product, which was manufactured in China, and agreed to pay $36 million to settle two class-action lawsuits in 2017.

    LL Flooring saw difficulty turning a profit over more recent years, with the company reporting loss after loss. Net sales fell 18.5% in 2023, according to a recent earnings report, amid declines in foot traffic and weak demand. In its Chapter 11 filing, LL Flooring disclosed that total debts amounted to more than $416 million as of July 31, compared to assets of just over $501 million.

    Ahead of filing for bankruptcy, LL Flooring also saw a proxy battle earlier in the summer — centered around attempts to keep Sullivan off the board. In June, company leadership wrote a letter urging shareholders to vote for other nominees, accusing Sullivan of “pushing a personal agenda.” But LL Flooring later confirmed that the founder and his proposed nominees were elected at its annual shareholder meeting in July.

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  • Veterans’ fundraiser draws Bruce Springsteen, Jerry Seinfeld, Questlove and Norah Jones

    Veterans’ fundraiser draws Bruce Springsteen, Jerry Seinfeld, Questlove and Norah Jones

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    NEW YORK (AP) — Jerry Seinfeld, Bruce Springsteen, Jim Gaffigan, Norah Jones, Questlove and the ever-present Jon Stewart will stand up later this year at the annual Stand Up for Heroes fundraiser.

    The fundraiser, which benefits injured veterans and their families, will also feature comedian Mark Normand and musician Patti Scialfa, who is married to Springsteen. Stewart has been a steady presence at the annual event.

    This year’s event will take place Nov. 11 at David Geffen Hall at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. Since its inception, Stand Up for Heroes has raised $84 million to help veterans and military families.

    Stand Up for Heroes was first held in 2007 and is produced by the New York Comedy Festival and the Bob Woodruff Foundation. Woodruff was nearly killed during a 2006 attack in Iraq while embedded with U.S. troops for ABC News.

    “Our 18th Stand Up for Heroes promises to be another great evening of laughter, music, and entertainment, as well as a time to recognize our veterans, service members, and their families,” Suni Harford, board chair of the Bob Woodruff Foundation, said in a statement. “With our event falling on Veterans Day, it’s a perfect time to share our veterans’ stories and collectively honor them.”

    Tickets for Stand Up for Heroes go on sale Thursday through bobwoodrufffoundation.org and the Lincoln Center box office.

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    Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

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  • Fashion is slowly embracing the needs of disabled people. It’s happening for some Paralympians, too

    Fashion is slowly embracing the needs of disabled people. It’s happening for some Paralympians, too

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    Three years ago, when Team Canada appeared at the opening ceremonies of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, the athletes were dressed in sleek white jeans. They may have looked good, but for some Paralympians on the team, they were a challenge.

    For Alison Levine, for example. The para athlete, who competes in the sport of boccia, couldn’t wear jeans because in a wheelchair, they dug into her skin. They lacked an elastic waistband, and were difficult to take on and off.

    “There was no way I was getting those on,” says Levine, who had to go find something else herself that would work, and not look too different. “You don’t want to look different because of your disability,” Levine says. “You don’t want it to be, ‘Team Canada plus you guys.’”

    Things are different this year. At the Paralympics opening ceremony in Paris, Levine and teammates wore bright red jackets with features like magnetic closures that make it easier for everyone, disabled or not. And there was an option of a seated carpenter pant that was designed with Levine in mind — even called the “Alison pant.”

    Levine sees the design process, in which apparel company Lululemon started interviewing her and others for guidance three years ago, as a meaningful advance not only in Olympics attire but in the broader area of what’s known as adaptive or inclusive fashion, in which fashion labels are starting — albeit slowly — to respond to the needs of disabled people, and recognize that they’re an important economic force.

    “Listen, people want to look good,” says Levine, 34, who has a degenerative neuromuscular disorder. “It doesn’t matter if you’re disabled or not. A lot of the time when you’re disabled, you have to sacrifice your looks for what works for you, or for comfort. But the disability movement is getting bolder and stronger and saying that we’re not going to accept these things anymore.”

    Levine recognizes that she and her Canadian teammates are among the luckier ones, and that most athletes don’t have the luxury of a major apparel company designing their kits and reaching out for guidance. Lululemon, which has a four-Games deal with Team Canada, designed all outfits for Olympians and Paralympians outside the field of play: for opening and closing ceremonies, village wear, medal ceremonies, media appearances and travel.

    Audrey Reilly, creative director for Team Canada at Lululemon, says she was shocked to find out that Levine mostly wore medical scrubs, for ease and comfort, when training or competing. That led to new designs for both sitting and standing athletes. “All the athletes want to look the same,” says Reilly. “They want to feel the same.”

    The garment she called the “Alison pant” has pockets at the shins, so an athlete in a wheelchair can easily access them. Levine says it was “insane” to hear that a garment was named after her, but mostly she was happy that she could wear what others were wearing: “You feel like you’re really part of the team.”

    Alison Brown, a podcaster who has been covering Olympics for years, says this Olympic cycle is the first where she has seen signs of adaptive fashion taking hold. She was struck by both the Lululemon kit reveal in the spring and the Nike reveal for Team USA, in which there were models in wheelchairs or with prosthetics.

    “It’s so simple, yet so impactful,” says Brown – who also points out that most teams don’t have the resources or the institutional setup, like Team USA and Team Canada, where Olympians and Paralympians are part of the same structure.

    To Mindy Scheier, who’s been advocating for better clothing options for the disabled for more than a decade, it’s no surprise that 2024 is the year the issue became visible at the Olympics – not to mention in Paris, a world capital of fashion.

    “The paradigm has shifted, and brands are really starting to see this as a business opportunity,” Scheier says. “The momentum has absolutely trickled down to the Olympics and Paralympics, because there has been such a breakthrough in the industry.”

    Scheier began her advocacy work a decade ago when her 8-year-old son, born with muscular dystrophy, wanted to wear jeans to school rather than sweatpants. She couldn’t find any options. A fashion designer herself, Scheier formed a foundation and consulting agency and works with design labels and retailers to embrace adaptive fashion.

    Ten years ago she had no partners; she now has many, from a high-end label like Tommy Hilfiger, which has its own adaptive line, Tommy Adaptive, to Target, Victoria’s Secret and others. Scheier’s foundation, Runway of Dreams, will be mounting a show this month at New York Fashion Week featuring some 60 models with varying disabilities.

    “This is a vocal population, and it wants to be considered a consumer,” says Scheier.

    Jessica Long counts herself a fashion fan. A long-dominant para swimmer for Team USA, Long, 32, is now competing in her sixth Paralympics — she began winning gold medals at age 12. As a double amputee, one of the hardest things for her growing up, she says, was finding shoes that would work for her prosthetics.

    “There’s not many things in my life that make me feel very disabled, but shoe shopping, and clothes shopping in general, has always been the hardest,” she says.

    It got easier as she grew older and more confident. But she says finding shoes is still the biggest challenge: “What people might not think about is that shoes can completely throw off my walking … if they’re too heavy.”

    She’s grateful that the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and sponsor Ralph Lauren, which designed opening and closing ceremony wear, surveyed the para athletes a year ago, asking what works best.

    “I’ve seen so much improvement in the mobility for us,” Long said in an interview ahead of the Paralympics. “It’s those little pieces that mean the most, I think, to the para athletes. I think it’s going to be really exciting when we all dress up.”

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    AP Paralympics: https://apnews.com/hub/paralympic-games

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  • US government orders big US airlines to explain their frequent-flyer programs

    US government orders big US airlines to explain their frequent-flyer programs

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    The Biden administration is examining the four largest U.S. airline frequent-flyer programs and how they devalue points that consumers have earned and frequently change the number of points or miles needed to book flights.

    Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg wrote to the CEOs of American, Delta, Southwest and United on Thursday, asking each for a report on policies, fees and other features of their loyalty program.

    Consumers often complain that airlines raise the number of points needed to earn a free flight and limit the number of seats that can be purchased with points.

    Buttigieg said loyalty programs bring value to consumers, and people count on them to pay for vacations and trips to visit family.

    “But unlike a traditional savings account, these rewards are controlled by a company that can unilaterally change their value,” he said in a statement issued by the Transportation Department. “Our goal is to ensure consumers are getting the value that was promised to them, which means validating that these programs are transparent and fair.”

    Delta said loyalty of members in its frequent-flyer program “means everything to us, and providing a meaningful rewards experience is the top priority within Delta’s SkyMiles Program.” Southwest highlighted that its points never expire, and said it books more seats with points than other airlines.

    Airlines for America, a trade group that represents all four carriers targeted by Buttigieg, said millions of people enjoy participating in the loyalty programs.

    “U.S. carriers are transparent about these programs, and policymakers should ensure that consumers can continue to be offered these important benefits,” a spokesperson for the group said.

    Frequent-flyer programs were once based on the number of flights taken or miles flown. In recent years, however, they have been fueled by spending that consumers conduct using airline-branded credit cards. Income from the credit-card issuers has become an important source of airline revenue.

    The Transportation Department and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau held a hearing in May on the airline programs, at which they raised many of the issued covered in Buttigieg’s letter to airline CEOs. Witnesses included consumer advocates and officials from three smaller airlines, but no representatives of the big four airlines that are covered by the new inquiry.

    One of the advocates who testified, Erin Witte of the Consumer Federation of America, said frequent-flyer programs started as a reward for consumers who were loyal to one airline.

    “It’s ironic that many of them have morphed into programs that are anything but loyal to their customers and instead make people feel like they need an insurance policy to keep the points they have earned,” Witte said Thursday. She said she was glad the Transportation Department is examining the programs.

    The consumer-protection board said in a report for the hearing that it received more than 1,200 complaints about credit card rewards last year, an increase of more than 70% from pre-pandemic levels. Many hotels, retailers and other businesses also offer loyalty programs with credit cards.

    Buttigieg ordered the airlines to report within 90 days on matters including how point values are determined, any fees that consumers must pay, and details of deals with banks that buy miles from airlines and use them to encourage people to shop with their credit cards.

    The order asks airlines to list any changes in their programs since July 31, 2018, including how each change affected the dollar value of reward points.

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  • Teen vaping hits 10-year low in the US

    Teen vaping hits 10-year low in the US

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — Fewer adolescents are vaping this year than at any point in the last decade, government officials reported Thursday, pointing to a shrinking number of high school students who are using Elf Bar and other fruity, unauthorized e-cigarettes.

    The latest survey numbers show the teen vaping rate fell to under 6% this year, down from 7.7% in 2023. More than 1.6 million students reported vaping in the previous month — about one-third the number in 2019, when underage vaping peaked with the use of discrete, high-nicotine e-cigarettes like Juul.

    This year’s decline was mainly driven by a half-million fewer high school students who reported using e-cigarettes in the past month, officials said. Vaping was unchanged among middle schoolers, but remains less common in that group, at 3.5% of students.

    “This is a monumental public health win,” FDA’s tobacco director Brian King told reporters. “But we can’t rest on our laurels. There’s clearly more work to do to further reduce youth use.”

    King and other officials noted that the drop in vaping didn’t coincide with a rise in other tobacco industry products, such as nicotine pouches.

    Sales of small, flavored pouches like Zyn have surged among adults. The subject of viral videos on social media platforms, the pouches come in flavors like mint and cinnamon and slowly release nicotine when placed along the gumline. This year’s U.S. survey shows 1.8% of teens are using them, largely unchanged from last year.

    “Our guard is up,” King said. “We’re aware of the reported growing sales trends and we’re closely monitoring the evolving tobacco product landscape.”

    The federal survey involved more than 29,000 students in grades 6 through 12 who filled out an online questionnaire in the spring. Health officials consider the survey to be their best measure of youth tobacco and nicotine trends. Thursday’s update focused on vaping products and nicotine pouches, but the full publication will eventually include rates of cigarette and cigar smoking, which have also hit historic lows in recent years.

    Officials from the FDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention attributed the big drop in vaping to recent age restrictions and more aggressive enforcement against retailers and manufacturers, including Chinese vaping companies who have sold their e-cigarettes illegally in the U.S. for years.

    Use of the most popular e-cigarette among teens, Elf Bar, fell 36% in the wake of FDA warning letters to stores and distributors selling the brightly colored vapes, which come in flavors like watermelon ice and peach mango. The brand is part of a wave of cheap, disposable e-cigarettes from China that have taken over a large portion of the U.S. vaping market. The FDA has tried to block such imports, although Elf Bar and other brands have tried to find workarounds by changing their names, addresses and logos.

    Teen use of major American e-cigarettes like Vuse and Juul remained significant, with about 12% of teens who vape reporting use of those those brands.

    In 2020, FDA regulators banned fruit and candy flavors from reusable e-cigarettes like Juul, which are now only sold in menthol and tobacco. But the flavor restriction didn’t apply to disposable products, and companies like Elf Bar stepped in to fill the gap.

    Other key findings in the report:

    — Among students who current use e-cigarettes, about 26% said they vape daily.

    — Nearly 90% of the students who vape used flavored products, with fruit flavors as the overwhelming favorite.

    — Zyn is the most common nicotine pouch among teens who use the products.

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    The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Freshman classes provide glimpse of affirmative action ruling’s impact on colleges

    Freshman classes provide glimpse of affirmative action ruling’s impact on colleges

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    Some selective colleges are reporting drops in the number of Black students in their incoming classes, the first admitted since a Supreme Court ruling struck down affirmative action in higher education. At other colleges, including Princeton University and Yale University, the share of Black students changed little.

    Several schools also have seen swings in their numbers of Asian, Hispanic and Native American students, but trends are still murky. Experts and colleges say it will take years to measure the full impact of last year’s ruling that barred consideration of race in admissions.

    The end of affirmative action isn’t the only factor affecting the makeup of freshman classes. Some colleges are changing standardized test requirements, heightening their importance. And the federal government’s botched rollout of a new financial aid form complicated decisions of students nationwide on where and whether to attend college.

    “It’s really hard to pull out what one policy shift is affecting all of these enrollment shifts,” said Katharine Meyer, a fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank. “The unsatisfying answer is that it’s hard to know which one is having the bigger impact.”

    On Thursday, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill reported drops in enrollment among Black, Hispanic and Native American students in its incoming class. Its approach to admissions has been closely watched because it was one of two colleges, along with Harvard University, that were at the center of the Supreme Court case.

    The population of Black students dropped nearly 3 percentage points, to 7.8%, compared with the UNC class before it. Hispanic student enrollment fell from 10.8% to 10.1%, while the incoming Native American population slid half a percentage point to 1.1%, according to the university. The incoming Asian student population rose 1 percentage point to 25.8%. The share of white students, at 63.8%, barely changed.

    It is “too soon to see trends” from the affirmative action decision, said Rachelle Feldman, UNC’s vice provost for enrollment. She cited the delays in the Free Application for Federal Student Aid application process as another possible influence on the makeup of the incoming class.

    “We are committed to following the new law. We are also committed to making sure students in all 100 counties from every population in our growing state feel encouraged to apply, have confidence in our affordability and know this is a place they feel welcome and can succeed,” Feldman said.

    Some colleges reported sharp declines in the percentages of Black students in their incoming class, including drops from 15% to 5% at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and from 11% to 3% at Amherst College. At Tufts University, the drop in the share of Black students was more moderate, from 7.3% to 4.7%. At Yale, the University of Virginia and Princeton, the change year-over-year was less than a percentage point.

    Many colleges did not share the demographics of applicants, making it impossible to know whether fewer students of color applied, or were admitted but chose not to attend.

    Changes in other demographic groups also did not follow a clear pattern. At MIT, for example, the percentage of Asian students increased from 40% to 47% and Hispanic and Latino students from 16% to 11%, while the percentage of white students was relatively unchanged. But at Yale, the percentage of Asian students declined from 30% to 24%. White students at Yale went from 42% of the class to 46%, and Hispanic and Latino students saw an increase of 1 percentage point.

    Colleges have been pursuing other strategies to preserve the diversity they say is essential to campus life.

    JT Duck, dean of admissions at Tufts, emphasized the school would work on expanding outreach and partnerships with community organizations to reach underrepresented, low-income and first-generation students. He cautioned against reading too much into year-to-year changes in enrollment.

    “The results show that we have more work to do to ensure that talented students from all backgrounds, including those most historically underrepresented at selective universities, have access to a Tufts education. And we are committed to doing that work, while adhering to the new legal constraints,” he said in an email. “We’ve already done a lot of work toward these ends and look forward to doing even more.”

    At UNC, Feldman said it is a priority to offer substantial financial aid to low-income families, along with retaining students through investments in undergraduate advising and other initiatives. She said there are no plans for dramatic changes in light of the new enrollment data.

    The university wants to make sure “anyone from any background knows they can earn their way here,” she said at a news conference.

    Sharp declines in the number of students of color can impact how prospective students view schools, leading some to choose other colleges where they might feel a stronger sense of community, said Mitchell Chang, a professor of higher education at the University of California, Los Angeles.

    “If we’re below a certain threshold, people who see themselves as having a more difficult time developing a sense of belonging will choose elsewhere,” he said. That’s especially true at selective colleges, where admitted students may be choosing between multiple top-tier schools.

    So far, the drops in underrepresented minority students are smaller in scope than when states like Michigan and California passed bans on affirmative action decades earlier, Meyer said. But since those bans, colleges have developed more best practices for effective, non-race-based ways of recruiting and enrolling a diverse class, Meyer said.

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    The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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  • Italy approves new rules to put beach concessions up for bidding by 2027

    Italy approves new rules to put beach concessions up for bidding by 2027

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    ROME (AP) — Italy approved new rules late Wednesday to put lucrative concessions for beach clubs up for bidding by June 2027, responding to pressing demands from the EU to open up the sector to new players.

    Under the new legislation by the right-wing government led by Giorgia Meloni, existing beach licenses would remain valid until September 2027.

    The deadline could be further postponed to March 2028 if there are “objective reasons” to delay the tender process, the government said.

    The compromise seeks to address complaints by existing operators who risk losing their concessions and would be entitled to compensation paid by the new holders.

    For almost two decades, the European Commission has been locked in a legal battle with Italy over its beach concession practices, accusing the country of lacking transparency and breaching competition rules.

    Previous Italian governments, from left to right, have staunchly resisted EU directives requiring competitive tendering, persistently renewing the existing beach concessions without open procedures.

    For years, many of these beach spots have been controlled by the same operators, often resulting in a lack of innovation and high prices.

    Economists believe that opening the sector could bring in fresh players, potentially improving service quality and reducing costs for beachgoers.

    Currently, they can pay from 25 euros to rent two chaise lounges and an umbrella for the day in the most basic establishments, to several hundred euros in fancy resorts such as Capri or Puglia’s Salento.

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  • Resources are out there for LGBTQ+ travelers looking to stay safe

    Resources are out there for LGBTQ+ travelers looking to stay safe

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    NEW YORK (AP) — Do LGBTQ+ tourists have a green book-like system for staying safe while traveling in these politically precarious times? They don’t have one. They have many.

    In recent years, there’s been an outpouring of specialized blogs, cruise and tour operators, and booking sites for accommodations. There are organizations that certify the support of transport operators, destinations and special events. And there are watchdog groups with eyes on the laws and customs of the world.

    “People are concerned because we realize that our rights are under attack in some cases,” said Mark Chesnut, a New York-based travel writer and speaker with 30 years of experience in the industry. “People aren’t going to stop traveling. They’re just more careful and taking precautions. They’re choosing destinations wisely.”

    Read reviews. Network with locals. Know the laws and customs of a destination, Chesnut and other seasoned LGBTQ+ travelers and their allies suggest. Is it illegal there to be gay? Is it a taboo that can get you killed? Is it safe to embrace or hold hands in public? What are the ramifications for HIV-positive travelers? How about misaligned documents and security scans for trans people?

    The potential pitfalls are many for LGBTQ+ travelers, especially couples looking to express their authentic selves, advocates said. But the possible dangers should be weighed against the joys of discovering new places, said Stefan Arestis and Sebastien Chaneac, the globetrotting couple behind the travel blog the Nomadic Boys.

    “We as gay people have to do that extra layer of research compared to my straight friends. They can hop on a plane and go,” said Arestis, a Greek Cypriot.

    He and Chaneac, who is French, left their London jobs (the former a lawyer and the latter in tech) to make Cyprus their base. They turned more than a decade of extended travel into a detail-rich website and, this year, a handbook for LGBTQ+ travelers, “Out in the World: The Gay Guide to Travelling with Pride.”

    Granular due diligence will help

    Arestis said it was clear in 2014, when they began blogging about their year-long sabbatical in Asia for friends and family, that LGBTQ+ travelers were hungry for information.

    “After about a year, we started getting random people coming to our site. We thought who are these people? Basically, they were googling things like where are the gay bars in Bali? Are there gay hotels in Shanghai? Is it safe to go to Taiwan? They were finding our content,” he said, because at the time there was little else about the subject online.

    Arestis has visited 97 countries of all sorts. Chaneac doesn’t count but does have places he wouldn’t go out of safety concerns, including Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

    On their site and in their book, the Nomadic Boys tell it like they see it, with practical tips and a feel for political and cultural landscapes.

    They had a scare in Lebanon, for instance, when they were told they were blacklisted while trying to leave the country. And among their book’s listings are these warnings about Peru: It “lags behind its more progressive neighbors” in terms of LGBTQ+ rights but introduced anti-discrimination laws in 2017.

    “We advise caution over PDAs unless you’re in a gay-friendly environment. Having said that, Peru relies heavily on tourism so gay travelers will feel comfortable and welcome,” they advise.

    The couple went on to note they had no problems getting a double bed in any of the hotels they used in the Peruvian towns of Barranco, Miraflores, Cusco, Arequipa and Lake Titicaca.

    That level of detail and practicality is what drew Black travelers to green books during the Jim Crow era.

    Friendly locales only or venture out?

    Some other LGBTQ+ travelers prefer to stick with safer and more accepting locales, for comfort and as a boycott of sorts against hostile destinations. Others travel out of their comfort zones for adventure and to support local and often suppressed gay communities.

    “It’s a really robust debate,” Chesnut said. “It’s a personal judgment and a personal decision that travelers need to make.”

    Traveling can be particularly fraught for trans people.

    Gabrielle Claiborne in Atlanta is co-founder and CEO of Transformation Journeys Worldwide, a training and consulting firm that works with Fortune 100 companies on creating cultures of belonging for trans and gender-diverse people. She’s also the chair of the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association Foundation’s Transgender Advisory Group.

    Claiborne is a trans woman who frequently travels globally. At 6-foot-2, and taller in heels, she often draws stares in security lines.

    “I get a lot of people whispering and gawking, just by being present and being visible in that space,” she said. “The security checkpoint is triggering for trans people because of the experiences with TSA agents, from other people in the line.”

    Some trans people have documents with photos and gender markers that don’t align. Going through security scanners can be troubling, Claiborne said. Agents must press a button designating male or female.

    “If they pressed the wrong button and an area of our bodies is flagged, we have to go through a very triggering pat down,” she said.

    Claiborne doesn’t support boycotts of unfriendly destinations.

    “We have a long way to go, yet I’m optimistic about the progress that is being made,” she said. “The reality is we make progress when people are willing to stand up and be visible. Until we’re visible in a space where we might be the only one like us in the room or in that space, people are not going to know what they don’t know.”

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  • Ralph Lauren draws the fashion crowd to the horsey Hamptons for a diverse show of Americana

    Ralph Lauren draws the fashion crowd to the horsey Hamptons for a diverse show of Americana

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    BRIDGEHAMPTON, N.Y. (AP) — Ralph Lauren took to Hamptons horse country for a rollout of his signature Americana featuring first lady Jill Biden, Usher and Colman Domingo on his front row and Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington and a bevy of adorable kids on his runway.

    Horses and riders meandered Thursday night in a nearby field behind a white picket fence at a tony equestrian complex in Bridgehampton as Lauren showed bright tennis whites, baby blue dresses and jackets, and bright orange, green and yellow looks for men, women and the aforementioned tots.

    The sun faded as the open-air show came to a close and Lauren’s guests made their way to dinner in an on-site pop-up of his iconic Polo Bar restaurant.

    Lauren, taking his bow with Biden at his side, has fond memories of the Hamptons, where he maintains a home and visited as a child. For his spring 2025 show, a day ahead of the official start of New York Fashion Week, he chose Khalily Stables, a state-of-the-art, 19-acre equestrian compound of stalls, barns, riding arenas and grassy paddocks.

    Lauren mixed his Ralph Lauren Collection, Purple Label, Polo Ralph Lauren and children’s wear for an extra-long show that stressed wearability on a weather-perfect evening as summer turns to fall.

    There were picnic looks in soft blue dresses, and white trousers and shorts paired with stripes and jackets. There were evening looks, including a stunning long blush pearled skirt worn by Campbell with a knotted white T-shirt.

    For the men, Lauren offered skinny cuffed trousers, blue floral dinner jackets and splashes of color blocking in orange pants paired with navy nautical jackets and wide multicolored ties over pinstripe shirts.

    Whites and blues dominated, with a sprinkling of crochet and khaki. He threw in some sparkle in slinky sequined evening gowns, backless white cocktail dresses and blue blouses, adding a bit of his fairy dust to a pair of torn khaki trousers and other looks.

    Lauren’s young ones, from preschoolers to tweens and teens, were ready for anything.

    One wore white shorts and a green slicker worthy of the U.S. Open the company just sponsored in looks for the ball crews and on-court officials. Others wore high riding boots with blue polos and matching pants. Still more were tiny prepsters in pinstripe button downs, navy jackets and cropped white pants.

    The show, Usher mused afterwards, was “American life. That’s American love. That’s family.”

    Another of Lauren’s guests, Tom Hiddleston, agreed. “It’s an extremely precise and intelligent vision because you sort of think, I’d like to be a part of that. I’d like to live that,” he said. “Very inspiring.”

    Domingo added: “You saw literally all different colors and shapes and sizes of people and people feeling like they belong and go together.”

    Fellow guest Jude Law summed it up this way: “Aspiration for a better place.”

    Naomi Watts, Kasey Musgraves, Demi Singleton and Justin Theroux were also among Lauren’s guests. So was Kim Min-jeong, known as Winter, from the K-pop girl group Aespa.

    In his show notes, Lauren said the Hamptons is “more than a place. It’s a natural world of endless blue skies, the ocean, green fields, and white fences, rusticity and elegance with a quality of light that drew artists here decades ago.”

    He called the summer haven for New Yorkers like himself his home away from home, “my refuge and always an inspiration.” Perhaps Lauren has better luck with the travel gods overseeing New York traffic. Some of his city guests without access to helicopters for hire spent four hours fighting traffic on the way to his show.

    The company has had a big year. In addition to the U.S. Open, Lauren dressed Team USA for the Paris Games.

    ___

    Associated Press video producer Brooke Lefferts contributed to this story.

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  • Family of West Virginia governor, running for Senate, has deal to avoid Greenbrier hotel foreclosure

    Family of West Virginia governor, running for Senate, has deal to avoid Greenbrier hotel foreclosure

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    CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The family of West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice has reached an agreement with a credit collection company to avoid the foreclosure of their historic hotel as he runs for U.S. Senate, the resort announced Thursday.

    The Republican governor’s family had been set to appear in court Friday to ask a judge to halt the auction of The Greenbrier resort’s hotel, which had been scheduled for Tuesday. That hearing has been canceled.

    “It’s taken care of, and we move forward, and The Greenbrier is as whole as it can possibly be,” Justice said at a news briefing. “The Greenbrier is going to be in our family forevermore.”

    The 710-room hotel has hosted U.S. presidents, royalty and congressional retreats. The resort held a PGA Tour golf tournament from 2010 until 2019 and has welcomed NFL teams for training camp and practices. A once-secret 112,000-square-foot (10,080-square-meter) underground bunker built for Congress at the Greenbrier in case of nuclear attack during the Cold War now hosts tours.

    The hotel came under threat of auction after JPMorgan Chase sold a longstanding loan taken out by the governor to a credit collection company, McCormick 101 — a subsidiary of Beltway Capital — which declared it to be in default. In a statement, the Justice family said it had reached an agreement with Beltway Capital to “receive a specific amount to be paid in full by October 24, 2024.”

    The family said it had already secured the money, although the Justices did not specify the amount.

    “Beltway reserves its rights if the Justice family fails to perform,” the statement reads.

    A message left with Beltway Capital wasn’t immediately returned Thursday.

    Justice defended his family’s business practices at Thursday’s briefing and repeated past claims that JPMorgan Chase’s sale of The Greenbrier loan was a politically motivated effort to hurt his U.S. Senate campaign.

    “We had a 14-year working relationship with JPMorgan, and then shortly after the primary where I was the winner — hands down, you’re going to the U.S. Senate, no matter what anybody says under the sun — it makes, it made, total no sense other than political, it made no sense at all,” he said.

    Justice said that his family had made payments on the JPMorgan loan as recently as June and that it was notified the loan had been sold in July without prior warning. JPMorgan Chase did not respond to an email seeking comment.

    If the hotel had been sold, Justice said, “there would have been carnage and devastation like you can’t imagine to the great people of The Greenbrier,” referring to jobs that could have been lost.

    The auction, which had been set to occur at a courthouse Tuesday in the small city of Lewisburg, involved 60.5 acres, including the hotel and parking lot.

    Justice family attorneys filed a motion this week for a preliminary injunction to try to halt the auction of The Greenbrier. They claimed that a 2014 deed of trust approved by the governor was defective because JPMorgan didn’t obtain consent from the Greenbrier Hotel Corp.’s directors or owners, and that auctioning the property violates the company’s obligation to act in “good faith and deal fairly” with the corporation.

    They also argued, in part, that the auction would harm the economy and threaten hundreds of jobs.

    About 400 employees at The Greenbrier hotel received notice this week from an attorney for the health care provider Amalgamated National Health Fund saying they would lose coverage Tuesday, the scheduled date of the auction, unless the Justice family paid $2.4 million in missing contributions.

    Peter Bostic, a union official with the Workers United Mid-Atlantic Regional Joint Board, said that the Justice family hasn’t contributed to employees’ health fund in four months, and that an additional $1.2 million in contributions will soon be due, according to the letter the board received from Ronald Richman, an attorney with Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP, the firm representing the fund.

    The letter also said some contributions were taken out of employees’ paychecks but never transferred to the fund, concerning union officials.

    Justice dismissed concerns about the claims Thursday, telling reporters that “insurance payments were made and were being made on a regular basis.”

    “There is no way that the great union employees at The Greenbrier are going to go without insurance,” he said. “There is no possible way.”

    Justice is running for U.S. Senate against Democrat Glenn Elliott, a former mayor of Wheeling. Justice, who owns dozens of companies and had a net worth estimated at $513 million by Forbes Magazine in 2021, has been accused in court cases of being late in paying millions for family business debts and fines for unsafe working conditions at his coal mines.

    He began serving the first of his two terms as governor in 2017, after buying The Greenbrier out of bankruptcy in 2009.

    Justice’s family also owns The Greenbrier Sporting Club, a private luxury community with a members-only “resort within a resort.” That property was scheduled to be auctioned off this year in an attempt by Carter Bank & Trust of Martinsville, Virginia, to recover more than $300 million in business loans defaulted by the governor’s family, but a court battle delayed that process.

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  • There’s no X in Brazil. Celebrity fandom worldwide is in disarray

    There’s no X in Brazil. Celebrity fandom worldwide is in disarray

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    It was a rapture and a revelation all at the same time.

    En masse, celebrity stan accounts posted tearful farewells over the weekend as X was suspended in Brazil amid a showdown between Elon Musk and a Supreme Court justice. Many of their hundreds of thousands of followers learned only then that their favorite celebrity’s most dedicated English-language fan accounts had actually been run by Brazilians.

    It shouldn’t have necessarily been a surprise — “Come to Brazil” is a stalwart meme. Brazil’s CCXP bills itself as the Americas’ largest comic-con, drawing A-list Hollywood talent. The stars of the long-ended show “Everybody Hates Chris” are beloved. Brazil does fandom like no other, the avalanche of goodbyes unearthing a wide array of accounts for Taylor Swift, C-list celebrities and the long-dead alike.

    “I came to realize how strong our digital power is in this last minute, because we tweet in English so people don’t know that we are Brazilians. But we are a lot, we are everywhere,” said Aianne Amado, a University of Sao Paulo doctoral candidate who studies Brazilian fandoms. “I think that we will be missed and it’s not going to be the same network.”

    Meet the fans

    Paola Strabelli didn’t care much for reading. A few years ago, though, she saw “Vita and Virginia” and became entranced — not with its lead actors, but with Virginia Woolf herself.

    She started to read Woolf voraciously, and created @botvirginia to share Woolf’s quotes, amassing 115,000 followers.

    Strabelli, 26, told The Associated Press that, growing up, she didn’t have many friends. In some ways, she said, her life began with online fandom — first, through Katy Perry and the show “Once Upon A Time,” and then Woolf. Online friendships translated into real life, and, for a year, she dated a girl she met through their shared passion.

    The law student behind @agron_updates, dedicated to “Glee” actor Dianna Agron, never reckoned on disclosing her nationality. The 32-year-old from Brazil’s center-west region requested anonymity for privacy, as she pursues government jobs. She was drawn to Agron because she thought the actor seemed “so kind.” By 2016, annoyed with how Agron’s fan accounts operated — cropping out boyfriends, for example — she co-founded an X account that grew to more than 7,600 followers.

    All along, she’s been careful to maintain a separation between her own feelings and the account’s.

    “Sometimes I will watch a movie and I think it’s terrible, but I’ll go on the account and say, ‘Guys, it’s amazing,’” she said. “I wasn’t hoping to have to come out as a Brazilian.”

    Then there’s @21metgala, run by two 18-year-old college students, Maria and Tamara. In three years, it’s gained more than 175,000 followers and, unlike many stan accounts, covers general celebrity news (though they have a soft spot for Rihanna). Maria, who cited privacy in not wanting to publish her surname, said via WhatsApp that she was taken aback by the response to their departure.

    “Most of our followers didn’t know we were Brazilian, so it was a huge shock when we announced it,” she wrote. Even Cardi B responded with distraught emojis.

    Amado attributed Brazil’s fervor for foreign entertainment to both its colonial history and the country’s sheer diversity, noting its high consumption of Japanese otaku culture and its large population of Japanese descent.

    Fandom is hard work

    Fandom can often be derided with a condescension that belies the sheer amount of work that goes into maintaining these accounts.

    “At first, I thought that fans were crazy. And, like, psychologically, I don’t know, sick? … And now, I’ve come to see that it’s all about passion and effect and it’s a very human behavior. Everybody’s interested in something,” be it cooking or canines, Amado said. “But for some reason, when you’re interested in something in pop culture, people tend to think that is less than.”

    An academic from Belo Horizonte, Samira Spolidorio has studied fansubbing — where devoted viewers come together to subtitle. She has a simple theory for why Brazilians are such engines of fandom, using a word that came up in interview after interview: Brazilians are just “passionate.” They’re also looking for a sense of belonging, she said.

    Despite being grassroots efforts that drew no profit, fansubbing groups had “very strict rules” requiring volunteers to work overnight, Spolidorio said. A 40-minute episode required at least four people to subtitle and two to review — there were style guides, too.

    That commitment can exact a price. Before X’s suspension, @agron_updates had an expiration date of Dec. 31. Running it was affecting its administrator’s entire life, even leading to a breakup.

    “One of the reasons was I was always on the phone, always checking for content,” she told the AP. “It’s kind of like a drug, it seizes something in your brain. You want to be first to post it.”

    “I’ve been unemployed for the past two years, and I have to study, I have to do something with my life,” she added. “There’s no way I can keep my life revolving around keeping a Twitter account for someone who — I love Dianna, but she doesn’t work.”

    What’s next

    In the past week, X alternative Bluesky has boosted its base by one-third, adding 2 million users, CEO Jay Graber told the AP. Around 90% are Brazilian and most activity is in Portuguese, she said Monday.

    Brazilians using virtual private networks to bypass the suspension face steep fines, but @21metgala has been able to continue posting sporadically.

    “Some Wi-Fi providers haven’t fully blocked access yet, but it’s very unstable,” Maria wrote Monday. While they are on other platforms, @21metgala will certainly be back if X is unsuspended.

    “Twitter was faster for posting photos, and Bluesky doesn’t allow video posts yet, which is a bit of a challenge. We’re not huge fans of Instagram because accounts can be easily taken down due to copyright issues,” she wrote. (Video is coming to Bluesky, Graber says, “definitely sooner than months.”)

    For CCXP, the suspension doesn’t pose much of a threat to the convention’s success. In a statement, vice president for content Beto Fabri said they’d already “focused on valuing and building relationships with the geek community” on WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook and their own platforms.

    Not everyone plans to pivot. Despite having nearly 16,000 followers at @GALITZINEFOX, 23-year-old Alana Souza is relatively new to stanning actor Nicholas Galitzine. The advertising student from Recife became devoted after watching “Red, White & Royal Blue” last year. Given the amount of time she’s spent on X, she’s doesn’t want to start over.

    “If X doesn’t get unsuspended in Brazil then that’s gonna be the end of it,” she wrote in an email, later adding that her absence “gives me the feeling of being disconnected from what’s going on in the world.”

    Since Musk bought X, Strabelli has found it less fun. But it still had a cachet that, for her, can’t be replicated. While she appreciates Instagram for letting her start over — she can reuse quotes instead of scouring the internet for lesser-known scraps of Woolf’s writing — she finds it impersonal. There are many things she will miss about X, including her “gringo friends that are tweeting.”

    “I felt famous and wanted,” she said. “And when I saw the replies, I don’t know, I’m not going to lie, this ego bump was really nice.”

    ___

    Sen reported from New York. Associated Press journalist David Biller contributed reporting from Rio de Janeiro.

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  • She made ‘very demure’ go viral. Now she wants to trademark its use

    She made ‘very demure’ go viral. Now she wants to trademark its use

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    NEW YORK (AP) — “Very demure, very mindful” has become the latest vocabulary defining the internet’s summer. And TikTok creator Jools Lebron is working to trademark uses of her now-viral words.

    Lebron filed to trademark “very demure very mindful” for various entertainment and advertising services, including the promotion of beauty products, last week with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Two filings dated Thursday are under her legal name, a representative for Lebron confirmed to The Associated Press.

    Social media’s love for “very demure” content started in early August, when Lebron took to TikTok to describe the hair and makeup she was wearing to work. Her delivery took off and she kept going, with “mindful” and “cutesy” flooding the internet as scores of fans, including big name celebrities, shared their own playful takes to describe just about any detail of day-to-day life.

    Content creators can make meaningful income after gaining social media fame through avenues like direct brand sponsorships and viewer donations. And for Lebron, who is a transgender woman, her viral moment allowed her to finance the rest of her transition.

    Trademarks, on the other hand, can help secure rights to maintain certain business down the road. Lebron’s own trademark filings are still pending, and it could be a while before there’s a final determination. But the move is particularly notable after several other individuals with no known connection to Lebron separately tried to register demure-related trademarks in an apparent effort to capitalize on the success of those phrases, much to the dismay of Lebron’s fans.

    The saga, while unfinished, has spotlighted the complex process of filing trademarks that capture a viral moment — and the battle that social media content creators face to both get credit and find protections to monetize off the trends they popularize.

    Here’s what you should know.

    Can you trademark a viral phrase?

    Yes. But in the U.S., there needs to be an attached commercial use.

    “It’s not just coming up with a phrase … (or) using it on social media and making it go viral,” said Alexandra J. Roberts, a professor of law and media at Northeastern University, explaining that there must be a connection to the sale of concrete goods or services. She calls trademarks a “source indicator,” as they help consumers understand who is producing what they’re buying now, but not necessarily who came up with a name in the first place.

    The law is complicated, and trademarks are often determined on a case-by-case basis. Applications are specific to certain uses, allowing multiple brands to operate under similar names — like Dove chocolate and Dove soap, or Delta Faucet and Delta Airlines. Courts greenlight this when it’s assumed that consumers will easily be able to distinguish between such different products or services.

    But a phrase or name that’s strongly associated with a particular individual can sometimes supersede that.

    “Simplistically, the entire reason the trademark exists is to prevent consumer confusion,” said Casey Fiesler, an associate professor of information science at the University of Colorado Boulder. “And if (someone else) created a social media marketing service and called it ‘very demure, very mindful social media marketing,’ that would confuse consumers because they’re gonna think it’s associated with (Jools Lebron).”

    Trademarks should not be mixed up with copyright. Anyone who has ever made a unique TikTok, for example, owns the copyright to that video, Fiesler explains. But there are still limitations to what’s copyrightable, and short phrases themselves almost never apply.

    What options do content creators have to protect their work?

    In today’s ever-digitized world of online trends, creators are increasingly expressing concerns about getting credited for their work. And for something like trademark rights, experts stress it’s a battle of both getting there first and having resources to see it through.

    It’s not uncommon to see a handful of trademark applications bubble up in the midst of a viral moment. Earlier this year, for example, a handful of trademark applications were filed after Hailey Welch, also now known as “Hawk Tuah Girl,” became famous for using the phrase in a street interview.

    Still, some phrases have been determined to be used too pervasively, making it harder for consumers to recognize it as a brand indicator. It can also be difficult when credit isn’t given to the creator who starts a trend in the first place — and experts note the consequences of that haven’t been felt equally in the past.

    Historically, young women of color who start a viral trend or put a new phrase on the map have often seen their work get appropriated online — and potentially “get scooped” on trademark rights from someone with more resources, like connections to a lawyer, Roberts explained.

    “There are a lot of stories of members of minoritized groups, and particularly women, coming up with new slang … and then seeing that get co-opted by somebody else — often a white guy, but not always … (who) gets out there as the first to register and really make money off it,” Roberts said.

    Beyond trademark-specific disputes, Fiesler added that creators seeing their work stolen and reposted in other platforms for monetization continues to be a “huge problem” today, but she hopes the tide is starting to turn. That includes with Lebron, who has been so widely-credited for the “very demure” trend.

    “I hope to continue to see there being very strong social norms that are enforcing this,” Fiesler said.

    What’s the status of other demure-related trademark filings?

    Three applications that were submitted before Lebron’s Thursday filings are still listed as live in the USPTO’s records — which would essentially make her “fourth in line” in consideration, Roberts said.

    But it’s possible that others might later suspend their filings. And one of the applicants told NBC said that she filed in efforts to help Lebron hold on to trademark until she could transfer it.

    What options does Lebron have?

    Lebron’s legal team could potentially fight off rival filings or strengthen her own by negotiating with other applicants and updating her filing to reduce any overlap. She could also oppose a rival application down the road on the grounds of false association.

    The trademark process could outlast the trend itself, taking anywhere between six to nine months, and sometimes closer to a year. And that can drag out even further with a legal battle or requested extensions.

    Still, Roberts stresses that Lebron can currently “do whatever she wants in terms of use” and start selling merchandise.

    There’s also nothing stopping someone from putting “very demure, very mindful” on the front of a t-shirt — as that technically qualifies as ornamental use, not trademark.

    But getting those words as a brand, seen on something like an attached clothing tag, is when trademark rights would kick in.

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  • Claw machine games are Rio de Janeiro’s new public enemy

    Claw machine games are Rio de Janeiro’s new public enemy

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    RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Rio de Janeiro — already notorious for street muggings, corrupt politicians, ruthless militias and Kalashnikov-toting drug traffickers — has a new public enemy: plushies. Or, more specifically, the joystick-controlled claw machines that dispense them.

    On Wednesday, Rio police carried out 16 search warrants targeting the machines that elicit exhilaration among children and adults alike. But police said the claw machines defraud users who believe scoring stuffed animals to be a test of skill. In fact, they are games of chance — just like slot machines — and therefore illegal, according to their press office.

    Officers seized claw machines, laptops, tablets, cell phones, a firearm and — yes — furry friends. They are investigating whether organized crime groups may be the invisible hand behind the claw because they already run slot machines and a popular lottery known as “Animal Game” across the city. Police in Brazil’s southern Santa Catarina state carried out an additional three search warrants Wednesday as part of the same operation.

    A claw machine sits inside a metro station in Rio de Janeiro, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. The Rio police press office said they were carrying out search warrants targeting claw machines because they are considered games of chance and therefore illegal. (AP Photo/Hannah-Kathryn Valles)

    It marked the second such police crackdown, following another in May during which officers apprehended 80 machines. Not only were those machines stocked with counterfeit plushies, but subsequent analysis of their programming found winning pulls were permitted only after a set number of attempts, police said in their statement Wednesday. Facilitating such sporadic, successful snags is an electrical current to the otherwise enfeebled claw so it holds fast to its prize, the statement said.

    That programming isn’t disclosed to naive users, including children liable to blow their pocket money on what’s effectively a crap shoot. Claw machines can be found in Rio’s shopping malls, subway stations, supermarkets, arcades and toy stores.

    Among Rio’s claw aficionados is Alessandra Libonatti, 41, who has played for nearly three decades. She remembers the machines causing a stir when they first appeared in the city; she had only seen them before in movies. These days she tends to play once a week, whether alone or at the mall with friends who share her “peculiar” hobby.

    She likes the low-investment adrenaline rush and, by her own account, she’s a talented clawmaster who has honed her techniques to maximize success, from scouting the stuffed animal landscape to precise positioning of the claw. She treasures a manatee with jaguar spots that she pulled in on a trip to the nation’s capital with friends.

    “When I pass by a machine, I give it a look to see if there’s a stuffed animal that makes it worth it to play,” she told The Associated Press. “Because it’s not always worth it; sometimes it’s clearly a waste of money.”

    Image

    A claw machine stands at a toy store in Rio de Janeiro, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Hannah-Kathryn Valles)

    Claw machines may have been feats of skill in decades past, but most modern machines have built-in programming allowing operators to predetermine their profitability, said Jeremy Hambly, a claw game aficionado from the Milwaukee area. His ClawStruck YouTube channel shows how many different models work, he previously told the AP. He said odds should be posted prominently on machines for users to review.

    Most U.S. states consider claw machines games of chance and specifically exempt them from gambling statutes, as long as they comply with certain rules specific to those states. According to industry officials, it’s in arcades’ best interests to have customers win so they’ll keep playing.

    But lately it’s tough going for Rio’s claw connoisseurs, Libonatti said. And she chalks that up to changes made to the machines that didn’t escape her exacting eye.

    “The current machines are crap. The claws are weaker,” she wrote in a text message to a friend in April, reviewed by the AP.

    “Amiga, yessssss!” her friend replied. “I went back to the machines where I always got (stuffed animals) in recent weeks and they’re soooooo weak!”

    Local online media outlet G1 dubbed the phenomenon the “weak claw scam.”

    The nearly 13,000 stuffed animals police detained in May were initially destined for destruction, but a request from state lawmakers found favor with a judge who spared them. Instead, police donated the plushies to families who lost their homes in the massive floods of southern Rio Grande do Sul state, particularly children in shelters.

    The fate of the stuffed animals seized Wednesday was still unclear.

    ___

    Associated Press writer Bruce Shipkowski contributed from Trenton, New Jersey.

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  • Got pruning remorse? How to fill in those bare spaces

    Got pruning remorse? How to fill in those bare spaces

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    After 20 years of growth, some of the ever-widening, 40-foot-tall Leyland cypress trees running along my backyard property line are blocking the walkway.

    A simple trim is not an option because only the outermost foot or two of each branch is needled, and more than that would have to be removed to allow unencumbered foot traffic. That would expose bare branches, which would be an eyesore, both figuratively and potentially literally, as the remaining sticklike appendages would pose an ocular hazard to passersby.

    So, the only remaining option is to completely remove the branches from the bottom 6 feet of each tree, revealing the trees’ trunks and the fence they were planted to hide.

    I accept responsibility for the debacle because it should have occurred to my younger, less-experienced self that the behemoth trees would create an obstacle after a couple of decades. Alas, it did not. So now I’m left to mutilate them and contemplate what to plant to hide their unsightly, naked trunks and the fence behind them.

    Fall’s a good time to plant an understory

    When the innermost needles of evergreen trees and shrubs drop, there’s usually no need to panic. It’s a normal part of aging due to insufficient sunlight and diminished nutrient circulation. However, care should be taken never to prune into that bare area, as the baldness is permanent, and those bare branches will never sprout new growth.

    In addition, pruning should always aim to retain a pyramidical shape, wider at the bottom than at the top, to ensure all plant parts receive sunlight for continued growth and vigor.

    If you are currently experiencing pruning remorse or are reluctantly tasked with an amputation, as I am, the only way to hide the resulting atrocity would be to add an understory layer of plants. Fortunately, early fall is the ideal time to plant many of them.

    Choose species that will thrive in the dappled shade cast by the evergreens towering above them, and confirm they will thrive in your horticultural zone, and with your garden’s soil pH and moisture levels.

    What plants to choose

    Filling the gap can be as simple as placing large containers of vining annuals (or tender perennials) on the soil under and between the trees.

    Climbing nasturtiums (Tropaeolum majus), purple bell vine (Rhodochiton atrosanguineus) and black-eyed Susan vine (Thunbergia alata; avoid in Southern states, where it is considered invasive) will quickly fill the void and grow up the tree’s trunk, providing lush, almost instant, gratification for one growing season. The temporary nature of annuals will allow you to easily and economically swap them out for others in subsequent years as your whim dictates.

    I’m considering something more permanent, however. And although many exotic shrubs, such as Rhododendron and Japanese plum yew, would serve the purpose, I’m focusing my search on native plants, which will require less water, fertilizer and attention, and provide food and habitat for birds, essential pollinators and other beneficial insects.

    Maybe a trio of showy pink muhly grasses (Muhlenbergia capillaris), native from Massachusetts to Florida and west to Kansas through Texas and into Mexico. Or, perhaps the North American native smooth or oakleaf hydrangea.

    Then there’s ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius), an eye-catching shrub native to Eastern and Central North America that boasts pink or white flowers in early summer and colorful foliage from spring through fall.

    Western gardeners seeking a native option can rely on the beloved manzanita ‘Panchito’ (Arctostaphylos x coloradoensis) to fill smaller areas.

    There may even be a silver lining: Understory plants could be just what my boring tree line needs.

    ___

    Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter. You can sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice.

    ___

    For more AP gardening stories, go to https://apnews.com/hub/gardening.

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  • Global players’ union builds on FIFA regulations with a guide for expectant mothers

    Global players’ union builds on FIFA regulations with a guide for expectant mothers

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    When Cheyna Matthews got pregnant with her first child back in 2018, she had a lot of questions.

    In addition to concerns about her legal rights as a professional soccer player, how would she manage pregnancy and the birth? And, importantly, when could she safely play again?

    “We play a lot of times because we love it. But now it’s also providing the financial security. So when you’re thinking of having children it’s like, `OK, I also have to figure out how I can get back to work.’ And when you’re working with your body, it’s one of the most important things,” Matthews said.

    In an effort to give players and teams alike a guide for best practices surrounding maternity, global players’ union FIFPRO released a guide on Tuesday that covers how to manage pregnancy, what to expect in childbirth and how to prepare for a return to soccer.

    Matthews, who retired from pro soccer in 2023, along with United States left back Crystal Dunn, Germany goalkeeper Almuth Schult and Iceland midfielder Sara Bjork Gunnarsdottir, helped devise FIFPRO’s “Postpartum Return to Play Guide.”

    The protocol builds on FIFA’s groundbreaking regulations concerning maternity and parental rights that were first enacted in 2021 and expanded earlier this year.

    Dr. Alex Culvin, FIFPRO director of policy and strategic relations for women’s soccer, said FIFA’s new regulations and the protections that were put in place increased the likelihood that more players would feel comfortable starting families during their playing careers, but there was very little guidance about what pregnancy, childbirth and recovery looked like.

    “There is this perceived incompatibility, not just in football, in sport more generally, that you can’t have a child and be an athlete. And actually there are players out there who have disproven this on a daily basis,” Culvin said. “So we wanted to kind of bring all of this together, and elevate and listen to the player voice, centralize their experiences alongside experts on the scientific literature, and create something that hadn’t been produced before, with the FIFPRO stamp on it.”

    The medical professionals who contributed to the guide were Dr. Pippa Bennett of the U.K. Sports Institute, Dr. Rita Tomas, the team physician for the Portuguese women’s national team, professor Kirsty Elliott-Sale with the Manchester Metropolitan University’s Institute of Sport, and FIFPRO Chief Medial Officer Dr. Vincent Gouttebarge.

    Matthews, who played in the 2019 and 2023 Women’s World Cup for Jamaica, has three sons with husband Jordan Matthews, a tight end for the NFL’s Carolina Panthers.

    She had her first child when she was with the Washington Spirit in the National Women’s Soccer League. She was among the league’s first players to have a child at what would be considered the peak of her playing career. Nine months after she gave birth, she played for Jamacia at the Women’s World Cup.

    Matthews said she was lucky to have both a national team and club team that supported her before the FIFA regulations and the NWSL’s collective bargaining agreement were adopted.

    “We are seeing more pregnancies, and I’ve had a lot of players coming to me asking questions, and I’ve been able to kind of help just from my experiences,” Matthews said. “But to have this guideline just from the initial finding out that you’re pregnant — even that experience itself, you have so many thoughts, so many ideas. What do I do? But having a guideline for the players, it does ease the stress.”

    ___

    AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

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  • Town officials shut down a boy’s ice cream stand. Fundraisers and death threats followed

    Town officials shut down a boy’s ice cream stand. Fundraisers and death threats followed

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    NORWOOD, Mass. (AP) — Bored and looking for something to do this summer, Danny Doherty hatched a plan to raise money for his brother’s hockey team by selling homemade ice cream.

    But a few days after setting up a stand and serving up vanilla, shaved chocolate and fluffernutter to about 20 people, Danny’s family received a letter from the Norwood Board of Health ordering it shut down. Town officials had received a complaint and said that the 12-year-old’s scheme violated the Massachusetts Food Code, a state regulation.

    In this Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024 photo provided by Nancy Doherty, Ben Doherty, of Braintree, Mass., left, and his cousin Danny Doherty, 12, of Norwood, Mass., right, sit at a homemade ice cream stand near Danny’s home in Norwood. (Nancy Doherty via AP)

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    Danny Doherty, 12, of Norwood, Mass., stands for a photograph Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024, in front of his home in Norwood, while holding a letter from the Town of Norwood Board of Health advising his family that they may not sell homemade ice cream at an ice cream stand near their home. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

    “I was surprised and upset,” he said of the letter that came Aug. 5. “I don’t understand because there are so many lemonade stands and they don’t get shut down.”

    Danny’s mom, Nancy Doherty, who had encouraged her son to start the stand as long as he donated half of the proceeds to charity, also was taken aback.

    “Somebody complained. That was the most disappointing part for us was that somebody thought it necessary to complain about a child’s stand,” she said. “It seemed a little, you know, crazy if you ask me.”

    Rather than give up, Danny decided to give away the ice cream and accept donations for the Boston Bear Cubs, a team featuring players with physical and developmental disabilities — including his brother, who is autistic.

    That’s when the neighborhood fundraiser blew up and became the talk of Norwood, a suburban town about an hour from Boston.

    The first day they gave away the ice cream, supplies ran out in 10 minutes and $1,000 was raised. Then, word began to spread about the fundraiser and Danny’s clash with the town. Local media ran stories about the stand, prompting scores of local businesses to hold their own fundraisers for the hockey team.

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    In this Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024 photo provided by Meghan Doherty, Ben Doherty, 12, of Braintree, Mass., left, stands with his cousin Danny Doherty, 12, of Norwood, Mass., right, near a table for donations to the Boston Bear Cubs hockey team, in Norwood. (Meghan Doherty via AP)

    Among them was Furlong’s Candies, which teamed up with Boston radio station WWBX-FM to hold a fundraiser in their parking lot. They raised $3,600 on a day when lines stretched out the door.

    “Danny was trying to do a good thing for his brother’s team — and it’s not just a regular hockey team,” Nancy Thrasher, the store’s co-owner said. “They need a lot more equipment … We were like this is a perfect situation for us to get involved in.”

    Thrasher said she understood why the stand had to be shut down but she still felt bad.

    “My heart broke for the kid. He was just trying to do good for his brother’s team,” she said.

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    Nancy Thrasher, co-owner of Furlong’s Candies & Ice Cream, stands near ice cream and toppings at the store, Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024, in Norwood, Mass. (AP Photo/Michael Casey)

    Town officials, meanwhile, said they received hate mail and death threats over the dispute, which they suggested has been badly mischaracterized in the media.

    They argued the family had sold their homemade ice cream before and even promoted it on social media. The letter, officials said, was only sent after the town received several complaints and unsuccessfully tried to contact the family — something the Doherty’s dispute.

    “We had to deal with staff who were upset that they were being threatened. People had gone online and found their addresses simply for sending a letter after having reached out to somebody and said, look, there’s a violation here,” said Tony Mazzucco, Norwood’s town manager. It’s the “first time in recent memory” that the town has shut down an ice cream stand, he said, adding that Massachusetts law allows for things like lemonade stands and bakes sales but not homemade ice cream.

    Mazzucco also said there was a “legitimate health concern” since homemade ice cream can be contaminated with listeria monocytogenes or other bacteria.

    Danny’s situation is not altogether unusual. Youth elsewhere have also seen their lemonade stands or pop-up bake sales shuttered — often for failing to have a business or health permit. Several states have responded by moving to lessen restrictions on such ventures.

    Nancy Doherty said it was “distressing” to hear the town employees had received threats. She said the family had never sold ice cream before but acknowledged that Danny created an Instagram account to promote the stand.

    “I’m not upset with the town for responding to a complaint,” she said. “I’m shocked someone complained. This was a tiny operation. Us serving 20 friends, family and neighbors isn’t a public health action. That is someone complaining to be a complainer.”

    For Danny, all the attention has been a little unnerving. “There were so many people and then they started chanting my name,” he said of the fundraiser at Furlong’s. “I didn’t like it, so I ran away. All the attention was on me and I didn’t like it.”

    In the end, about $20,000 was raised for the hockey team — more than the amount the club spends in an entire year. The infusion of funds should ensure the club will be on “sound financial footing” for the next decade or more.

    Image

    Lori Talanian, right, director of corporate partnerships at Ira Cars, hugs John Quill, center, director and coach of the Boston Bear Cubs hockey team, Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024, after her company presented the team with a donation of $3,900, at the Doherty family home, in Norwood, Mass. (AP Photo/Rodrique Ngowi)

    “The community response has overwhelmed us,” said John Quill, the director and coach of the Boston Bear Cubs, as he accepted a check from an auto group at the Dohertys’ house.

    “There are a lot of good people out there,” Quill added. “Danny inspired a whole lot of people to do good and to be kind and to help us out.”

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  • Having a family is expensive. Here’s what Harris and Trump have said about easing costs

    Having a family is expensive. Here’s what Harris and Trump have said about easing costs

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — The high cost of caring for children and the elderly has forced women out of the workforce, devastated family finances and left professional caretakers in low-wage jobs — all while slowing economic growth.

    That families are suffering is not up for debate. As the economy emerges as a theme in this presidential election, the Democratic and Republican candidates have sketched out ideas for easing costs that reveal their divergent views about family.

    On this topic, the two tickets have one main commonality: Both of the presidential candidates — and their running mates — have, at one point or another, backed an expanded child tax credit.

    Vice President Kamala Harris, who accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination last week, has signaled that she plans to build on the ambitions of outgoing President Joe Biden’s administration, which sought to pour billions in taxpayer dollars into making child care and home care for elderly and disabled adults more affordable. She has not etched any of those plans into a formal policy platform. But in a speech earlier this month, she said her vision included raising the child tax credit.

    Delaney Griffin, center, plays with toddlers at the child care center where she works, March 13, 2024, in Lexington, Ky. (AP Photo/Dylan Lovan, File)

    Former President Donald Trump, the Republican, has declined to answer questions about how he would make child care more affordable, even though it was an issue he tackled during his own administration. His running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, has a long history of pushing policies that would encourage Americans to have families, floating ideas like giving parents votes for their children. Just this month, Vance said he wants to raise the child tax credit to $5,000. But Vance has opposed government spending on child care, arguing that many children benefit from having one parent at home as caretaker.

    The candidates’ care agendas could figure prominently into their appeal to suburban women in swing states, a coveted demographic seen as key to victory in November. Women provide two-thirds of unpaid care work — valued at $1 trillion annually — and are disproportionately impacted when families can’t find affordable care for their children or aging parents. And the cost of care is an urgent problem: Child care prices are rising faster than inflation.

    Kamala Harris: Increase the child tax credit

    When Harris addressed the Democratic National Convention, she talked first about her own experience with child care. She was raised mostly by a single mother, Shyamala Gopalan, who worked long hours as a breast cancer researcher. Among the people who formed her family’s support network was “Mrs. Shelton, who ran the day care below us and became a second mother.”

    As vice president, Harris worked behind the scenes in Congress on Biden’s proposals to establish national paid family leave, make prekindergarten universal and invest billions in child care so families wouldn’t pay more than 7% of their income. She announced, too, the administration’s actions to lower copays for families using federal child care vouchers, and to raise wages for Medicaid-funded home health aides. Before that, her track record as a senator included pressing for greater labor rights for domestic workers, including nannies and home health aides who may be vulnerable to exploitation.

    What to know about the 2024 Election

    This month at a community college in North Carolina, Harris outlined her campaign’s economic agenda, which includes raising the child tax credit to as much as $3,600 and giving families of newborns even more — $6,000 for the child’s first year.

    Image

    This combination photo shows Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at an event, Aug. 15, 2024, in Bedminster, N.J., left, and Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris at a campaign event in Raleigh, N.C., Aug. 16, 2024. (AP Photo)

    “That is a vital — vital year of critical development of a child, and the costs can really add up, especially for young parents who need to buy diapers and clothes and a car seat and so much else,” she told the audience. Her running mate selection of Tim Walz, who established paid leave and a child tax credit as governor of Minnesota, has also buoyed optimism among supporters.

    Donald Trump: Few specifics, but some past support

    For voters grappling with the high cost of child care, Trump has offered little in the way of solutions. During the June presidential debate, CNN moderator Jake Tapper twice asked Trump what he would do to lower child care costs. Both times, he failed to answer, instead pivoting to other topics. His campaign platform is similarly silent. It does tackle the cost of long-term care for the elderly, writing that Republicans would “support unpaid Family Caregivers through Tax Credits and reduced red tape.”

    The silence marks a shift from his first campaign, when he pitched paid parental leave, though it was panned by critics because his proposal excluded fathers. When he reached the White House, the former president sought $1 billion for child care, plus a parental leave policy at the urging of his daughter and policy adviser, Ivanka Trump. Congress rejected both proposals, but Trump succeeded in doubling the child tax credit and establishing paid leave for federal employees.

    In his 2019 State of the Union address, Trump said he was “proud to be the first president to include in my budget a plan for nationwide paid family leave, so that every new parent has the chance to bond with their newborn child.”

    This year, there are signs that his administration might not pursue the same agenda, including his selection of Vance as a running mate. In 2021, before he joined the Senate, Vance co-authored an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal opposing a proposal to invest billions in child care to make it more affordable for families. He and his co-author said expanding child care subsidies would lead to “unhappier, unhealthier children” and that having fewer mothers contributing to the economy might be a worthwhile trade-off.

    Vance has floated policies that would make it easier for a family to live off of a single income, making it possible for some parents to stay home while their partners work. Along with his embrace of policies he calls pro-family, he has tagged people who do not have or want children as “sociopaths.” He once derided Harris and other rising Democratic stars as “childless cat ladies,” even though Harris has two stepchildren — they call her “Momala” — and no cats.

    Even without details about new care policies, Trump believes that families would ultimately get a better deal under his administration.

    The Trump-Vance campaign has attacked Harris’ record on the economy and said the Biden administration’s policies have only made things tougher for families, pointing to recent inflation.

    “Harris … has proudly and repeatedly celebrated her role as Joe Biden’s co-pilot on Bidenomics,” said Karoline Leavitt, a campaign spokeswoman. “The basic necessities of food, gas and housing are less affordable, unemployment is rising, and Kamala doesn’t seem to care.”

    ___

    The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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  • Deal reached with Norfolk Southern to expand rail service in parts of Virginia

    Deal reached with Norfolk Southern to expand rail service in parts of Virginia

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    RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — State officials approved a deal Tuesday with Norfolk Southern to expand commuter and passenger rail services in southwestern and northern Virginia.

    The Virginia Passenger Rail Authority announced that the agreement would extend a passenger rail into the New River Valley, allowing state officials to run passenger trains between Roanoke and Christiansburg on the private rail company’s main rail line, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

    With access to the line, state officials said, they could add passenger services to Norfolk Southern’s Cambria Yard station in Christiansburg, which served as a passenger terminal from 1904 to 1979.

    Officials with the state authority said they also purchased Norfolk Southern-owned rails in Northern Virginia, which could bolster efforts to increase commuter rail stops between Prince William County and Washington, D.C. Officials said they plan to add train service during the evenings and over weekends.

    “We are excited to deliver these benefits as we continue to accelerate results not only in these two regions, but across the entire Commonwealth,” Governor Glenn Youngkin said in a statement.

    In a news release, Rail Authority Executive Director DJ Stadtler thanked Norfolk Southern for partnering with the state. “We look forward to finalizing this agreement, which will make passenger rail a viable option for even more Virginians,” Stadtler said.

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  • Ultraprocessed foods are everywhere. How bad are they?

    Ultraprocessed foods are everywhere. How bad are they?

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    Whether they know it or not, most Americans don’t go a day — or often a single meal — without eating ultraprocessed foods.

    From sugary cereals at breakfast to frozen pizzas at dinner, plus in-between snacks of potato chips, sodas and ice cream, ultraprocessed foods make up about 60% of the U.S. diet. For kids and teens, it’s even higher – about two-thirds of what they eat.

    That’s concerning because ultraprocessed foods have been linked to a host of negative health effects, from obesity and diabetes to heart disease, depression, dementia and more. One recent study suggested that eating these foods may raise the risk of early death.

    Nutrition science is tricky, though, and most research so far has found connections, not proof, regarding the health consequences of these foods.

    Food manufacturers argue that processing boosts food safety and supplies and offers a cheap, convenient way to provide a diverse and nutritious diet.

    Even if the science were clear, it’s hard to know what practical advice to give when ultraprocessed foods account for what one study estimates is 73% of the U.S. food supply.

    The Associated Press asked several nutrition experts and here’s what they said:

    What are ultraprocessed foods?

    Most foods are processed, whether it’s by freezing, grinding, fermentation, pasteurization or other means. In 2009, Brazilian epidemiologist Carlos Monteiro and colleagues first proposed a system that classifies foods according to the amount of processing they undergo, not by nutrient content.

    This article is part of AP’s Be Well coverage, focusing on wellness, fitness, diet and mental health. Read more Be Well.

    At the top of the four-tier scale are foods created through industrial processes and with ingredients such as additives, colors and preservatives that you couldn’t duplicate in a home kitchen, said Kevin Hall, a researcher who focuses on metabolism and diet at the National Institutes of Health.

    “These are most, but not all, of the packaged foods you see,” Hall said.

    Such foods are often made to be both cheap and irresistibly delicious, said Dr. Neena Prasad, director of the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Food Policy Program.

    “They have just the right combination of sugar, salt and fat and you just can’t stop eating them,” Prasad said

    However, the level of processing alone doesn’t determine whether a food is unhealthy or not, Hall noted. Whole-grain bread, yogurt, tofu and infant formula are all highly processed, for instance, but they’re also nutritious.

    Are ultraprocessed foods harmful?

    Here’s the tricky part. Many studies suggest that diets high in such foods are linked to negative health outcomes. But these kinds of studies can’t say whether the foods are the cause of the negative effects — or whether there’s something else about the people who eat these foods that might be responsible.

    At the same time, ultraprocessed foods, as a group, tend to have higher amounts of sodium, saturated fat and sugar, and tend to be lower in fiber and protein. It’s not clear whether it’s just these nutrients that are driving the effects.

    Hall and his colleagues were the first to conduct a small but influential experiment that directly compared the results of eating similar diets made of ultraprocessed versus unprocessed foods.

    Published in 2019, the research included 20 adults who went to live at an NIH center for a month. They received diets of ultraprocessed and unprocessed foods matched for calories, sugar, fat, fiber and macronutrients for two weeks each and were told to eat as much as they liked.

    When participants ate the diet of ultraprocessed foods, they consumed about 500 calories per day more than when they ate unprocessed foods, researchers found — and they gained an average of about 2 pounds (1 kilogram) during the study period. When they ate only unprocessed foods for the same amount of time, they lost about 2 pounds (1 kilogram).

    Hall is conducting a more detailed study now, but the process is slow and costly and results aren’t expected until late next year. He and others argue that such definitive research is needed to determine exactly how ultraprocessed foods affect consumption.

    “It’s better to understand the mechanisms by which they drive the deleterious health consequences, if they’re driving them,” he said.

    Should ultraprocessed foods be regulated?

    Some advocates, like Prasad, argue that the large body of research linking ultraprocessed foods to poor health should be more than enough to spur government and industry to change policies. She calls for actions such as increased taxes on sugary drinks, stricter sodium restrictions for manufacturers and cracking down on marketing of such foods to children, the same way tobacco marketing is curtailed.

    “Do we want to risk our kids getting sicker while we wait for this perfect evidence to emerge?” Prasad said. Earlier this year, FDA Commissioner Robert Califf broached the subject, telling a conference of food policy experts that ultraprocessed foods are “one of the most complex things I’ve ever dealt with.”

    But, he concluded, “We’ve got to have the scientific basis and then we’ve got to follow through.”

    How should consumers manage ultraprocessed foods at home?

    In countries like the U.S., it’s hard to avoid highly processed foods — and not clear which ones should be targeted, said Aviva Musicus, science director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which advocates for food policies.

    “The range of ultraprocessed foods is just so wide,” she said.

    Instead, it’s better to be mindful of the ingredients in foods. Check the labels and make choices that align with the current U.S. Dietary Guidelines, she suggested.

    “We have really good evidence that added sugar is not great for us. We have evidence that high-sodium foods are not great for us,” she said. “We have great evidence that fruits and vegetables which are minimally processed are really good for us.”

    It’s important not to vilify certain foods, she added. Many consumers don’t have the time or money to cook most meals from scratch.

    “I think foods should be joyous and delicious and shouldn’t involve moral judgment,” Musicus said.

    ___

    The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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