The Supreme Court’s conservative majority on Tuesday signaled support for the religious rights of parents in Maryland who want to remove their children from elementary school classes using storybooks with LGBTQ characters.
The court seemed likely to find that the Montgomery County school system, in suburban Washington, could not require elementary school children to sit through lessons involving the books if parents expressed religious objections to the material.
The case is the latest dispute involving religion to come before the court. The justices have repeatedly endorsed claims of religious discrimination in recent years.
I’m surprised this is the hill to die on in terms of not respecting religious liberty, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said, citing the county’s diverse population and Maryland’s history as a haven for Catholics.
The county school board introduced the storybooks as part of an effort to better reflect the district’s diversity.
Parents sued after the school system stopped allowing them to pull their kids from lessons that included the books. The parents argue that public schools cannot force kids to participate in instruction that violates their faith, and they pointed to the opt-out provisions in sex education classes.
The schools said allowing children to opt out of the lessons had become disruptive. Lower courts backed the schools, prompting the parents’ appeal to the Supreme Court.
Five books are at issue in the high court case, touching on the same themes found in classic stories that include Snow White, Cinderella and Peter Pan, the school system’s lawyers wrote.
In Prince and Knight, two men fall in love after they rescue the kingdom, and each other. In Uncle Bobbys Wedding, a niece worries that her uncle will not have as much time for her after he gets married. His partner is a man.
Love, Violet deals with a girls anxiety about giving a valentine to another girl. Born Ready is the story of a transgender boys decision to share his gender identity with his family and the world. Intersection Allies describes nine characters of varying backgrounds, including one who is gender-fluid.
Billy Moges, a board member of the Kids First parents’ group that sued over the books, said the content is sexual, confusing and inappropriate for young schoolchildren.
The writers’ group Pen America said in a court filing what the parents want is a constitutionally suspect book ban by another name. Pen America reported more than 10,000 books were banned in the last school year.
A decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor is expected by early summer.
Mark Sherman, Associated Press
Few moments in Pope Francis‘ papacy better exemplify his understanding of climate change and the need to address it than the rain-soaked Mass he celebrated in Tacloban, Philippines, in 2015.
Wearing one of the cheap plastic yellow ponchos that were handed out to the faithful, Francis experienced first-hand the type of freak, extreme storms that scientists blame on global warming and are increasingly striking vulnerable, low-lying islands.
He had traveled to Tacloban, on the island of Leyte, to comfort survivors of one of the strongest recorded tropical cyclones, Typhoon Haiyan. The 2013 storm killed more than 7,300 people, flattened villages and displaced about 5 million residents.
But with another storm approaching Tacloban two years later, Francis had to cut short his visit to get off the island.
So many of you have lost everything. I dont know what to tell you, Francis told the crowd in Taclobans muddy airport field as the wind nearly toppled candlesticks on the altar.
Francis, who died Monday at 88, was moved to silence that day by the survivors pain and the devastation he saw. But he would channel it a few months later when he published his landmark encyclical, Praised Be, which cast care for the planet as an urgent and existential moral concern.
The first ecological encyclical
The document, written to inspire global negotiators at the 2015 Paris climate talks, accused the structurally perverse, profit-driven economy of the global north of ravaging Earth and turning it into a pile of filth. The poor, Indigenous peoples and islanders like those in Tacloban suffered the most, he argued, bearing the brunt of increasing droughts, extreme storms, deforestation and pollution.
It was the first ecological encyclical, and it affirmed the Argentine Jesuit, who in his youth studied to be a chemist, as an authoritative voice in the environmental movement. Later cited by presidents and scientists, the document inspired a global faith-based coalition to try to save Gods creation before it was too late.
I think he understood from the beginning that there are three relationships that had to be regenerated: Our relationship with God, our relationship with the created world and our relationship with our fellow creatures, said papal biographer Austen Ivereigh.
It wasnt always so.
A conversion in 2007 in Brazil
Francis had a steep learning curve on the environment, just as he did with clergy sexual abuse, which he initially dismissed as overblown. He himself pointed to a 2007 meeting of Latin American and Caribbean bishops in Aparecida, Brazil, as the moment of his ecological awakening.
There, the then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio had been elected to draft the conferences final document, and was under pressure to include calls from Brazilian bishops to highlight the plight of the Amazon.
Bergoglio, the dour-faced archbishop of urbane Buenos Aires, didnt get what all the fuss was about.
At first I was a bit annoyed, Francis wrote in the 2020 book Let Us Dream. It struck me as excessive.
By the end of the meeting, Bergoglio was converted and convinced.
The final Aparecida document devoted several sections to the environment: It denounced multinational extraction companies that plundered the regions resources at the expense of the poor. It warned of melting glaciers and the effects of lost biodiversity. It cast the ravaging of the planet as an assault on Gods divine plan that violated the biblical imperative to cultivate and care for creation.
Those same issues would later find prominence in Praised Be, which took its name from the repeated first line of the Canticle of the Creatures, one of the best-known poetic songs of the pontiffs nature-loving namesake, St. Francis of Assisi.
They also would be highlighted in the Amazon Synod that Francis called at the Vatican in 2019, a meeting of bishops and Indigenous peoples specifically to address how the Catholic Church could and should respond to the plight of the Amazon and its impoverished people.
I think the popes most important contribution was to insist on the ethical aspect of the debate about climate justice, said Giuseppe Onofrio, head of Greenpeace Italy, that the poor were those who contributed the least to pollution and the climate crisis, but were paying the highest price.
How the environment affects all other ills
In many ways, those same issues would also come to define much of Francis papacy. He came to view the environmental cause as encapsulating nearly all the other ills afflicting humanity in the 21st century: poverty, social and economic injustice, migration and what he called the throwaway culture a melting pot of problems that he was convinced could only be addressed holistically.
Some of Francis’ strongest calls to protect the environment would come on or around Earth Day, celebrated April 22.
For some time now, we have been becoming more aware that nature deserves to be protected, even if only because human interaction with Gods biodiversity must take care with utmost care and respect, Francis said in a video message released on Earth Day in 2021.
Cardinal Michael Czerny, the Canadian Jesuit whom Francis would later entrust with the ecological dossier, said the 2007 meeting in Brazil had a big impact on Francis.
In Aparecida, listening to so many different bishops talking about what was deteriorating, but also what the people were suffering, I think really impressed him, said Czerny.
Czernys mandate encapsulated Francis vision of integral ecology, covering the environment, the Vaticans response to the COVID-19 pandemic, its charitable Caritas federation, migration advocacy, economic development and its antinuclear campaign.
The multifaceted approach was intentional, Czerny said, to establish new thinking about ecology that went beyond the politicized concept of green advocacy to something bigger and nonnegotiable: humanitys relationship with God and creation.
Everything is connected, Francis liked to say.
A legacy from Pope Paul VI
He was by no means the first pope to embrace the ecological cause. According to the book The Popes and Ecology, Pope Paul VI was the first pontiff to refer to an ecological catastrophe in a 1970 speech to a U.N. food agency.
St. John Paul II largely ignored the environment, though he did write the first truly ecological manifesto: his 1990 World Day of Peace message, which linked consumer lifestylewith environmental decay.
Pope Benedict XVI was known as the green pope, primarily for having installed solar panels on the Vatican auditorium and starting a tree-planting campaign to offset the greenhouse gas emissions of Vatican City.
Francis issued an update to Praised Be in 2023, just before the U.N. climate conference in Dubai. While consistent with the original text, the update was even more dire and showed Francis had grown more urgent in his alarm.
He became even more willing to point fingers at the worlds biggest emitters of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, especially the U.S. And he called out those, including in the church, who denied the human causes of global warming.
He showed that he had an understanding of what was happening in the world, and he saw the world from the point of view, as he was like to say, of the peripheries, of the margins, said Ivereigh, the papal biographer. He brought the margins into the center.
Nicole Winfield, Associated Press
The Trump administration might be in the process of dismantling the Department of Education, but it still wants a say in what students learn in school. The Washington Post reports that Trump has drafted (but not yet signed) an executive order that would make artificial intelligence part of the school process for children as young as five years old.
The EO, titled Advancing artificial intelligence education for American youth” and reportedly seen by the paper, instructs federal agencies to help train K-12 students in the use of AI and make it part of teaching-related tasks. Private sector AI companies, which are not named but could include Elon Musk’s xAI as well as OpenAI, would also be asked to be part of the program, helping to develop programs to run in schools.
Trump could decide to change or simply not sign the EO but in his three months in office, he has shown a strong backing for the technology. The White House did not immediately respond to Fast Companys request for comment about the report.
Since the start of his administration, Trump has done away with regulations put in place during the Biden administration to create guardrails for AI companies. He also has championed a private sector investment to build AI data centers, worth as much as $500 billion.
The order, as it stands now, reportedly calls for several actions that would benefit AI companies and adjust the educational process for children in all grades of kindergarten, elementary, middle, and high school. Here’s a look at some of the changes mentioned.
Grant adjustments
The task force overseeing the AI integration plans would reportedly be instructed to look at existing federal funding, including grants for AI, which can be prioritized for AI educational spending. Across all areas of the government, federal investment in research and development to support advances in AI has increased by $2.8 billion since 2021, with a budget of $11.2 billion this year (excluding classified programs).
AI partnerships
Public-private partnerships with AI companies are a critical part of the drafted EO. Federal agencies would be told to seek these out in order to teach students foundational AI literacy and critical-thinking skills, the Post reports. Many AI companies already have government contracts with the Department of Defense testing use cases for AI models from Meta, Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Mistral, among others. The Treasury Department, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the National Science Foundation also all have contracts with AI companies.
Teacher training
While the DOE is being eliminated, the draft of the EO reportedly calls for Education Secretary Linda McMahon to adjust federal grant funding, with a new emphasis on training teachers to use AI for everything from teacher training to evaluations. Professional development classes with AI integration are also part of the order, for teachers in all subject areas.
Apprenticeships
Also reportedly in the draft of the order, Trump instructs Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer to put together a collection of registered apprenticeships in occupations in the AI field, presumably for students in higher grades.
“Presidential AI Challenge”
To motivate students, the order reportedly calls for the formation of a “Presidential AI Challenge,” which will be a competition for both students and educators to showcase their AI skills.
Whether the executive order is signed or not, AI is increasingly becoming a part of the educational process. California recently passed a law requiring AI literacy to be incorporated into K-12 curricula starting in the fall of 2025.
The European Unions AI Act, meanwhile, went into effect on February 5, requiring organizations that use AI in their products to implement AI literacy programs and train applicable staff to have the skills, knowledge, and understanding that allow providers, deployers, and affected persons . . . to make an informed deployment of AI systems, as well as to gain awareness about the opportunities and risks of AI and possible harm it can cause.
Stalking, but with a side of Dr Pepper?
A number of streamers in Japan have recently had run-ins with a mysterious stream sniper known only as the Dr Pepper Guy. As Dexerto first reported, after tracking down streamers in random locations, the unknown figure silently cracks open a can of cold Dr Pepper, hands it over, and disappears without a word.
Stream snipingwhere viewers deliberately join or disrupt a live streamhas become increasingly common as IRL live streaming grows in popularity on Twitch. While it sometimes raises safety concerns, resulting in unwelcome stalking and harassment, other times its a bizarre example of the internet at its weird and wonderful best.
In a clip posted two days ago by Twitch streamer Mizkif, the group is seen enjoying sushi in a private restaurant booth when the door slides open and a hand holding a Dr Pepper appears. Silently, the man places the can on the table and retreats without a word.
I would love to know how he found us, Mizkif says to the camera, confused. We just drove 30 minutes in an Uber away from where we were, at a random omakase on the fourth floor of this building.
That doesnt stop Mizkif from cracking open the can and taking a swig.
While stream sniping is typically discouraged, fans seem more forgiving when refreshing beverages are involved. Youre being stalked, but your stalker drops off a can of Dr Pepper, so its okay, wrote one Redditor.
Once again perfect example of what a snipe should be, respectful, short, and ambiguous, another viewer commented.
Mizkif isnt the only recent target. Streamers Vangard, T10Nat, and Tokyo Sims have all been Dr Peppered in the past couple weeks, with videos of their encounters following a similar format. Some viewers suspect the streamers may be in on the joke, given how easily Dr Pepper Guy seems to find their locationseven at private events.
Others wonder if its all just a clever marketing stunt. I rarely fall for marketing, but man this guy actually got me wanting Dr Pepper, a Redditor commented.
If Dr Pepper hasnt already, they might want to get this guy on payroll.
Stores selling secondhand clothes, shoes and accessories are poised to benefit from President Donald Trump’s trade war even as businesses the world over race to avert potential damage, according to industry experts.
American styles carry international influence, but nearly all of the clothing sold domestically is made elsewhere. The Yale University Budget Lab last week estimated short-term consumer price increases of 65% for clothes and 87% for leather goods, noting U.S. tariffs “disproportionately affect those goods.
Such price hikes may drive cost-conscious shoppers to online resale sites, consignment boutiques and thrift stores in search of bargains or a way to turn their wardrobes into cash. Used items cost less than their new equivalents and only would be subject to tariffs if they come from outside the country.
I think resale is going to grow in a market that is declining, said Kristen Classi-Zummo, an apparel industry analyst at market research firm Circana. What I think is going to continue to win in this chaotic environment are channels that bring value.
The outlook for pre-owned fashion nevertheless comes with unknowns, including whether the president’s tariffs will stay long enough to pinch consumers and change their behavior. It’s also unclear whether secondhand purveyors will increase their own prices, either to mirror the overall market or in response to shopper demand.
A new audience courtesy of sticker shock
Jan Genovese, a retired fashion executive, sells her unwanted designer clothes through customer-to-customer marketplaces like Mercari. If tariffs cause retail prices to rise, she would consider high-end secondhand sites.
Until I see it and really have that sticker shock, I cant say exclusively that Ill be pushed into another direction, Genovese, 75, said. I think that the tariff part of it is that you definitely rethink things. And maybe I will start looking at alternative venues.
The secondhand clothing market already was flourishing before the specter of tariffs bedeviled the U.S. fashion industry. Management consulting firm McKinsey and Co. predicted after the COVID-19 pandemic that global revenue from pre-owned fashion would grow 11 times faster than retail apparel sales by this year as shoppers looked to save money or spend it in a more environmentally conscious way.
While millennials and members of Generation Z were known as the primary buyers of used clothing, data from market research firm Sensor Tower shows the audience may be expanding.
The number of mobile app downloads for nine resale marketplaces the firm tracks eBay, OfferUp, Poshmark, Mercari, Craigslist, Depop, ThredUp, TheRealReal and Vinted increased by 3% between January and the end of March, the first quarterly gain in three years, Sensor Tower said.
The firm estimates downloads of the apps for eBay, Depop, ThredUp and The RealReal also surged compared to a year earlier for the week of March 31, which was when Trump unveiled since-paused punitive tariffs on dozens of countries.
Circanas Classi-Zummo said that while customers used to seek out collectible or unusual vintage pieces to supplement their wardrobes, she has noticed more shoppers turning to secondhand sites to replace regular fashion items.
“It’s still a cheaper option than buying new, even though retailers offer discounts, she said.
A tariff-free gold mine lurking in closets and warehouses
Poshmark, a digital platform where users buy and sell pre-owned clothing, has yet to see sales pick up under the tariff schedule Trump unveiled but is prepared to capitalize on the moment, CEO Manish Chandra said.
Companies operating e-commerce marketplaces upgrade their technology to make it easier to find items. A visual search tool and other improvements to the Poshmark experience will pay long dividends in terms of disruption that happens in the market from the tariffs, Chandra said.
Archive, a San Francisco-based technology company that builds and manages online and in-store resale programs for brands including Dr. Martens, The North Face and Lululemon, has noticed clothing labels expressing more urgency to team up, CEO Emily Gittins said.
“Tapping into all of the inventory that is already sitting in the U.S., either in peoples closets or in warehouses not being used, offers a revenue source while brands limit or suspend orders from foreign manufacturers, she said.
Theres a huge amount of uncertainty, Gittins said. Everyone believes that this is going to be hugely damaging to consumer goods brands that sell in the U.S. So resale is basically where everyones head is going.”
Stock analysts have predicted off-price retailers like TJ Maxx and Burlington Stores will weather tariffs more easily than regular apparel chains and department stores because they carry leftover merchandise in the U.S.
Priced out of the previously owned market
Still, resale vendors aren’t immune from tariff-induced upheavals, said Rachel Kibbe, founder and CEO of Circular Services Group, a firm that advises brands and retailers on reducing the fashion industry’s environmental impact.
U.S. sellers that import secondhand inventory from European Union countries would have to pay a 20% duty if Trump moves forward with instituting reciprocal tariffs on most trading partners and eliminates an import tax exception for parcels worth less than $800, Kibbe said.
A circular fashion coalition she leads is seeking a tariff exemption for used and recycled goods that will be offered for resale, Kibbe said. Trump already ended the duty-free provision for low-value parcels from China, a move that may benefit sellers of secondhand clothing by making low-priced Chinese fashions pricier, she said.
James Reinhart, co-founder and CEO of the online consignment marketplace ThredUp, said the removal of the de minimis provision and the 145% tariff Trump put on products made in China would benefit businesses like his. He doubts creating resale channels would make a big difference for individual brands.
Brands will explore this and they may do more, but I dont see them massively changing their operations, Reinhart said. I think theyre going to be figuring out how to survive. And I dont think resale helps you survive.
Rebag, an online marketplace and retail chain that sells used designer handbags priced from $500 to tens of thousands of dollars, expects tariffs to help drive new customers and plans to open more physical stores, CEO Charles Gorra said.
Gorra said the company would analyze prices for new luxury goods and adjust what Rebag charges accordingly. The two historically rose in tandem, but Rebag could not match Chanel’s 10% price increase last year because of lower resale demand, Gorra said.
That has nothing to do with the tariffs, he said. Consumers are feeling priced out.
Norah Brotman, 22, a senior at the University of Minnesota, buys most of her own clothes on eBay. She also thrifts fashions from the 1990s and early 2000s at Goodwill stores and resells them on Depop.
If tariffs upend the economics of fast fashion and discourage mindless consumption, Brotman would count that as a plus.
I would love if this would steer people in a different direction, she said.
Anne D’Innocenzio, AP retail writer
As any investor will tell you, the past month has been absolutely brutal when it comes to the markets. In the past 30 days alone, the Nasdaq is down 9.5%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 7.8%, and the S&P 500 is down 7.8%.
But in the same period, one asset has surged: gold.
As of the time of this writing, the price of an ounce of gold has surged over the past 30 days by a remarkable 14.4%. And gold isnt just surgingits hitting all-time highs.
This morning, gold peaked above $3,506 per ouncea record for the precious metal. As of the time of this writing, the commodity has pulled back slightly to around $3,453 an ounce, according to Yahoo Finance data.
However, even that price is still striking. Thats nearly $800 an ounce higher than gold was at the beginning of 2025. Since then, the metal has surged 32%.
Gold’s biggest jump has happened in the past five days alone. During that period, it has surged 7.78% But why?
Gold is a historic safe haven during chaotic economic times
When the economy is in turmoil or investors fear an economic downturn is coming, they tend to park their money in what are known as economic safe havensassets that have historically been less likely to decrease in value during greater economic downturns.
As Investopedia notes, historic safe havens include cash; some currencies like the Swiss franc, the U.S. dollar and Japanese yen; U.S. Treasury bills; and precious metals, most notably, gold.
However, investors of late seem to feel that some of these historic safe havensthe U.S. dollar in particulararent as reliable now as in past times. Instead, they seem to be throwing their money into gold, hence the recent rapid surge in price.
As for why investors are turning to safe havensand sending gold surging in recent weeksit mainly comes down to two President Trump-related reasons, notes the Wall Street Journal.
Trumps chaotic tariffs
The first reason is no surprise. Ever since Trump announced his new chaotic Liberation Day tariff policies on April 2, investor confidence has plummeted as the tariffsand their implementationhave spread uncertainty throughout the economy and business world.
While many of the tariffs are now paused for 90 days, the ones Trump levied against China are still active, as are Chinas retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. These tariffs mean that Americans are paying more for many common goods, and they are impacting the volume of goods that American businesses export to customers in China.
And given the Trump administration’s chaotic implementation of the tariffs, its mixed messaging surrounding them, and the lingering uncertainty of whether deals can actually be reached with other nations before the 90-day pause expires, people are beginning to lose faith in the U.S. economy, and recession fears are rising.
If a full-blown recession does hit, it’s likely stocks and other assets may continue to fall, which is why many investors are now seeking safe havens like gold.
Trumps attacks on Fed Chairman Jerome Powell
But maybe even worse than Trumps chaotic tariffs is his recent and increasing attacks on Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. Trump wants Powell, who oversees Americas independent central bank, the Federal Reserve, to lower interest rates.
The reason Trump wants power to do this is that Trumps tariffs have pummeled the stock markets and consumer confidence. When the Federal Reserve chooses to lower interest rates, the stock markets generally rise and consumer spending increases, as MSNBC points out. That’s because its cheaper to borrow money for things like homes and cars. It can also lower credit-card interest rates, further boosting spending.
But Powell has so far refused to acquiesce to Trumps demandsand for good reason. While lower rates can help the economy in the short term, they can have a negative impact in the long term by giving it a temporary artificial boost. As MSNBC notes, if rates are already lowered, and things do get worse with the economy in the future, the Federal Reserve will have one less tool in its arsenal to help fight the economic downturn because it has already lowered rates.
But Trump seems to care more about the short term. Thats likely why he has increased his attacks on Powell, whom he has threatened to fire, which most legal experts agree the president cant do anyway.
As a matter of fact, the central banks of most countries, including the United States, are set up to be independent of the government precisely so that leaders cant pressure the banks to do something that is beneficial for political reasons instead of being rational for economic ones.
Still, Trumps very public beef with Powell is enough to make some investors leery that Trump may indeed be willing to undermine what is seen as a critical pillar of the U.S.s economic credibility. That beef is leading to uncertainty, which is leading to some investors now looking for more stable, safe-haven assets like gold.
A commercial airliner was on final approach to San Franciscos international airport in November when the crew spotted a drone outside the cockpit window. By then it was too late to take evasive action, the pilots reported, and the quadcopter passed by their windshield, not 300 feet away.
A month earlier, a jetliner was flying at an altitude of 4,000 feet near Miamis international airport when its pilots reported a close encounter with a drone. In August, a drone came within 50 feet of clipping the left wing of a passenger jet as it departed Newark International Airport.
The incidents were all classified as near midair collisions any one of which could have had catastrophic consequences, according to aviation safety experts. They were also not isolated encounters.
An Associated Press analysis of an aviation safety database reveals that drones last year accounted for nearly two-thirds of reported near midair collisions involving commercial passenger planes taking off and landing at the country’s top 30 busiest airports. That was the highest percentage of such near misses since 2020, when air traffic dropped during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The first reports of near misses involving drones were logged in 2014, the AP found. The number of such encounters spiked the following year. Over the last decade, drones accounted for 51% 122 of 240 of reported near misses, according to AP’s analysis.
Passenger jets have long been subject to risks around airports whether from bird strikes or congested airspace as was made clear by the January collision between a military helicopter and commercial jet near Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people.
The threat has become more dire
The threat from drones has become more acute in the last decade as the use of quadcopters and remote-controlled planes has exploded in popularity. The FAA estimates that Americans are operating more than a million drones for recreational and commercial purposes.
If you have the money, you can go on the internet and buy a pretty sophisticated drone that can reach altitudes they really have no business being at, said William Waldock, a professor of safety science at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
The risk is most acute near airports because that is where the flight paths of drones and airplanes most overlap, experts said.
The incidents represent only a portion of such close calls because the database NASAs Aviation Safety Reporting System relies on voluntary submissions from pilots and other aviation workers. A separate FAA program, which includes reports from the public, tallied at least 160 sightings last month of drones flying near airports.
The FAA recognizes that urgency, and we all know additional changes need to be made to allow the airports to go out and detect and mitigate where necessary, said Hannah Thach, executive director of the partnership, known as Alliance for System Safety of UAS through Research Excellence.
FAA says it is taking steps to improve safety
The FAA said it has taken steps to mitigate the risks of drones. It has prohibited nearly all drones from flying near airports without prior authorization, though such rules are difficult to enforce, and recreational users may not be aware of restrictions.
The agency requires registrations for drones weighing more than 250 grams (0.55 pounds), and such drones are required to carry a radio transponder that identifies the drones owner and broadcasts its position to help avert collisions. Additional rules govern commercial drone use.
The agency has also been testing systems to detect and counter drones near airports. Among the methods being examined: Using radio signals to jam drones or force them to land. Authorities are also weighing whether to deploy high-powered microwaves or laser beams to disable the machines.
Experts said the FAA and other authorities could do more. They suggested creating a system similar to speed cameras on roadways that could capture a drones transponder code and send its pilots a ticket in the mail.
They also said the FAA should consider regulations that require all manufacturers to program a drones GPS unit to prevent it from flying near airports and other sensitive areas, a method called geofencing.
Drone manufacturer ends mandatory “geofencing”
DJI, a leading drone maker, used such geofencing restrictions for years. However, it eliminated the feature in January, replacing it with an alert to drone pilots when they approach restricted areas.
Adam Welsh, head of global policy at DJI, said managing requests from authorized users to temporarily disable the geofencing became an increasingly time-consuming task. More than one million such requests were processed last year.
We had around-the-clock service, but the number of applications coming in were becoming really hard to handle, Welsh said. They all had to be reviewed individually.
With no other manufacturers enabling geofencing, and without government rules requiring it, DJI decided to end the practice, he said.
The FAA declined to say if it is considering whether to mandate geofencing.
Drone users can face consequences
Experts said authorities should take more aggressive action to hold drone users accountable for violating restricted airspace to highlight the problem and deter others from breaking the rules, pointing to recent arrests that they hoped might send such a message.
In December, for example, Boston police arrested two men who operated a drone that flew dangerously close to Logan International Airport. Police reported that they were able to find the drone flyers, in part, by tracking the aircraft thanks to its FAA-mandated transponder signal.
A month later, a small drone collided with a Super Scooper plane that was fighting wildfires raging through Southern California. The drone punched a hole in the plane’s left wing, causing enough damage that officials grounded the aircraft for several days to make repairs.
Authorities tracked down the 56-year-old drone operator, who pleaded guilty to a federal charge of recklessly flying his aircraft. The man, who has yet to be sentenced, admitted he launched his DJI quadcopter to observe fire damage over the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, despite the FAA having restricted drone flying i the area, according to court records. The operator lost sight of the drone after it flew about 1.5 miles from where he had launched it. And that’s when it struck the Super Scooper.”
Aaron Kessler and Michael Biesecker, Associated Press
Arborists are turning vacant land on Detroit’s eastside into a small urban forest, not of elms, oaks and red maples indigenous to the city but giant sequoias, the world’s largest trees that can live for thousands of years.
The project on four lots will not only replace long-standing blight with majestic trees, but could also improve air quality and help preserve the trees that are native to Californias Sierra Nevada, where they are threatened by ever-hotter wildfires.
Detroit is the pilot city for the Giant Sequoia Filter Forest. The nonprofit Archangel Ancient Tree Archive is donating dozens of sequoia saplings that will be planted by staff and volunteers from Arboretum Detroit, another nonprofit, to mark Earth Day on April 22.
Co-founder David Milarch says Archangel also plans to plant sequoias in Los Angeles, Oakland, California, and London.
What are giant sequoias?
The massive conifers can grow to more than 300 feet (90 meters) tall with a more than 30-foot (9-meter) circumference at the base. They can live for more than 3,000 years.
Heres a tree that is bigger than your house when its mature, taller than your buildings, and lives longer than you can comprehend, said Andrew Birch Kemp, Arboretum Detroit’s executive director.
The sequoias will eventually provide a full canopy that protects everything beneath, he said.
It may be sad to call these .5- and 1-acre treescapes forests, Kemp said. We are expanding on this and shading our neighborhood in the only way possible, planting lots of trees.
Giant sequoias are resilient against disease and insects, and are usually well-adapted to fire. Thick bark protects their trunks and their canopies tend to be too high for flames to reach. But climate change is making the big trees more vulnerable to wildfires out West, Kemp said.
The fires are getting so hot that its even threatening them, he said.
Descendants of Stagg and Waterfall
Archangel, based in Copemish, Michigan, preserves the genetics of old-growth trees for research and reforestation.
The sequoia saplings destined for Detroit are clones of two giants known as Stagg the world’s fifth-largest tree and Waterfall, of the Alder Creek grove, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) north of Los Angeles.
In 2010, Archangel began gathering cones and climbers scaled high into the trees to gather new-growth clippings from which they were able to develop and grow saplings.
A decade later, a wildfire burned through the grove. Waterfall was destroyed but Stagg survived. They will both live on in the Motor City.
Why Detroit?
Sequoias need space, and metropolitan Detroit has plenty of it.
In the 1950s, 1.8 million people called Detroit home, but the city’s population has since shrunk to about one-third of that number. Tens of thousands of homes were left empty and neglected.
While the city has demolished at least 24,000 vacant structures since it emerged from bankruptcy in 2014, thousands of empty lots remain. Kemp estimates that only about 10-15% of the original houses remain in the neighborhood where the sequoias will grow.
Theres not another urban area I know of that has the kind of potential that we do to reforest,” he said. We could all live in shady, fresh air beauty. It’s like no reason we cant be the greenest city in the world.
Within the last decade, 11 sequoias were planted on vacant lots owned by Arboretum Detroit and nine others were planted on private properties around the neighborhood. Each now reaches 12 to 15 feet (3.6 to 4.5 meters) tall. Arboretum Detroit has another 200 in its nursery. Kemp believes the trees will thrive in Detroit.
Theyre safer here … we dont have wildfires like (California). The soil stays pretty moist, even in the summer, he said. They like to have that winter irrigation, so when the snow melts they can get a good drink.
How will the sequoias impact Detroit?
Caring for the sequoias will fall to future generations, so Milarch has instigated what he calls tree school to teach Detroits youth how and why to look after the new trees.
We empower our kids to teach them how to do this and give them the materials and the way to do this themselves, Milarch said. They take ownership. They grow them in the classrooms and plant them around the schools. They know were in environmental trouble.
Some of them may never have even walked in a forest, Kemp said.
How can we expect children who have never seen a forest to care about deforestation on the other side of the world?” Kemp said. “It is our responsibility to offer them their birthright.
City residents are exposed to extreme air pollution and have high rates of asthma. The Detroit sequoias will grow near a heavily industrial area, a former incinerator and two interstates, he said.
Kemps nonprofit has already planted about 650 trees comprising around 80 species in some 40 lots in the area. But he believes the sequoias will have the greatest impact.
Because these trees grow so fast, so large and theyre evergreen theyll do amazing work filtering the air here, Kemp said. We live in pretty much a pollution hot spot. Were trying to combat that. Were trying to breathe clean air. Were trying to create shade. Were trying to soak up the stormwater, and I think sequoias among all the trees we plant may be the strongest, best candidates for that.
Corey Williams, Associated Press
Tesla investors are anxious to know if plans to roll out a cheaper car and a robotaxi service this year are on track, and whether CEO Elon Musk is ready to ditch his role in the Trump administration soon and get back to managing the company more closely.
The electric vehicle maker is scheduled after market close on Tuesday to provide what is likely to be its most important update on operations since the launch of its Model 3 vehicle in 2017. Tesla said earlier this month that it would “hold a live company update” along with its results and the question and answer webcast, sparking speculation on social media that it might make a major announcement.
Analysts are expecting a bad first quarter, based on recent indicators. Deliveries in the January-March period slid 13%, as the company lost ground to Chinese rivals, and Musk’s political actions as a close adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump have damaged the brand.
Tesla has faced protests, vandalism, and consumer calls for boycotts in several markets, and sales in China and California its largest U.S. market have fallen sharply as well.
Some investors have taken a more sour view of the one-time Wall Street darling. The company’s stock, which closed at $227.42 on Monday, has nearly halved from its December peak.
Tesla’s key automotive gross margin, excluding regulatory credits, likely fell to 11.8% in the period, according to 21 analysts polled by Visible Alpha, down from 13.6% in the fourth quarter. Analysts expect the downward trend to continue if Tesla continues to prioritize volume growth over profitability.
Tesla comes into results as arguably the most scrutinized company in the world,” said Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown. “Thats not really a position investors want to be in, and therell be a lot of focus on whether Elon Musk gives any indication of when he might be stepping back from DOGE,” said Britzman, who personally holds Tesla stock. DOGE is short for the Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency.
The EV maker scrapped plans for a brand-new, low-cost model last year, opting instead to produce cheaper variants using existing platforms and assembly lines. Reuters reported exclusively on Friday that Tesla delayed plans to start production of a more affordable Model Y crossover by at least a few months.
Musk promised driverless ride-hailing services to the public in Texas by June, and in California for later this year. To that end, Tesla has been seeking regulatory approvals, but there are serious concerns about safety and related litigation risks that could come with deploying unproven driverless technology on public streets.
Analysts expect a second straight annual decline in Tesla deliveries in 2025, despite efforts to boost sales through incentives like free charging and Full Self-Driving features.
Revenue was likely flat from a year ago at $21.35 billion, supported by gains in regulatory credits and growth in Teslas energy storage business.
Tesla also recalled all Cybertrucks delivered since late 2023 and launched a lower-priced $70,000 version of the vehicle. It has been discounting unsold inventory of the electric pickup truck in recent weeks.
Tariff tensions add further uncertainty. Tesla has paused some China-sourced component imports after U.S. tariffs on the Asian country rose to 145%, Reuters reported. China has responded with tariffs of its own, leading Tesla to suspend new Model S and X orders in the country.
Akash Sriram and Abhirup Roy, Reuters
Bottles and bags, food wrappers and straws. Piping, packaging, toys and trays. Plastic is everywhere and yet some people may be surprised at how much they actually wear.A typical closet is loaded with plastic, woven into polyester activewear, acrylic sweaters, nylon swimsuits and stretchy socks and it’s shedding into the environment nonstop.When garments are worn, washed and put through the dryer, they shed plastic fiber fragments. A single load of laundry can release millions that are so tiny wastewater treatment plants can’t capture them all. They wind up in local waterways that connect to the ocean. Marine animals eat them, and that can pass plastic to larger animals and humans.Even natural fabrics shed fibers and have chemicals that can leach into the environment. But polyester is the most widely used fiber on Earth, and along with other synthetic fibers accounts for about two-thirds of production worldwide.Tuesday is Earth Day, when people worldwide contemplate ways to reduce their impact on the planet.“Everyone who wears and launders clothing is part of this problem but everyone who wears and launders clothing can be part of the solutions,” said Rachael Z. Miller, founder of Vermont-based Rozalia Project for a Clean Ocean.Simple changes like washing clothes less and using cold water instead of hot can help reduce the shedding of fibers. More challenging is that textiles need to be produced and used in a more sustainable way, said Elisa Tonda at the UN Environment Programme. For example, designing clothes that shed fewer microfibers and are high-quality to last longer, said Tonda, who leads the resources and markets branch.
What to do? Start by changing habits
The easiest solution is to wash clothes less often, making for less of the friction that breaks fibers apart, said Anja Brandon, director of plastics policy at Ocean Conservancy.“They get tumbled and tossed around with a bunch of soaps, really designed to shake things up to get out dirt and stains,” Brandon said.Miller uses a stain stick to spot-clean. Both say that when clothes are washed, they shed less when put in cold water in full loads to reduce friction, on a shorter cycle, then hung to dry.Inspired by the way coral filters the ocean, Miller invented the Cora Ball, a laundry ball that can be tossed into the washer to cut down on clothes banging into each other. It also catches microfibers. (A portion of the proceeds goes to the Rozalia Project.) Another option is to put synthetic fabrics in a washing bag that captures fibers.Which clothes shed the most? To find out, press a strip of clear packing tape to a garment, then stick it to white paper to check for fibers, Miller said. Garments that are loosely knit or woven tend to shed more, such as fleece.Miller said people don’t need to rush to throw out clothing that’s more likely to shed. She owns fleece jackets herself. Instead, she suggested such clothing can be worn indoors only or outside with a layer on top, and it’s worth thinking twice about acquiring more garments like that.“I try not to guilt or panic people because a lot of this information is very new,” Miller said. “And so we might as well just say, ‘OK, I got it. How can I be strategic about what I’ve got?'”
A push to require filters
Filters can be added to washers to capture microfibers. Samsung Electronics collaborated with Patagonia and the global conservation organization Ocean Wise to launch one in 2023. It’s now sold in more than 20 countries for front-load washers. Bosch recently launched a microfiber filter in Europe for washers.France was first to adopt a law to mandate that new washing machines sold in the country have a microfiber filter, though implementation has been delayed.In the U.S., efforts to mandate filters in states have failed. California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill in 2023, saying he was concerned about the cost to consumers and he wants to incentivize, not mandate, technologies to remove microfibers in wastewater. In Oregon, state Sen. Deb Patterson proposed a bill this year requiring microfiber filters on new washers sold in that state after she came across the technology in Canada. Patterson said the bill doesn’t have enough support yet but she’ll keep trying.The Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers opposes the proposals, saying it’s concerned about consumer costs and filter effectiveness.
Changing textiles
Some big brands are testing their fabrics to help researchers understand fiber fragmentation, including Adidas, Nike, Patagonia and Under Armour.They’re among more than 90 brands, retailers and manufacturers to partner with The Microfibre Consortium in the United Kingdom, founded in 2018 to do research and offer solutions to transform textile production including reducing fiber breakup.Nearly 1,500 fabrics have been tested. None are the same, making it a tough problem to solve, consortium CEO Kelly Sheridan said.Patagonia has been a leader in trying to stop the spread of synthetic fiber waste into air and water, saying it’s up to garment brands to prevent it at the source since cleaning up microplastics in the environment is not yet possible.It paid for its own research starting a decade ago on the implication of its clothes. The company worked with suppliers to choose fabrics and dyes and to finish their clothing in ways that reduce shedding. They collaborated on new filtration technologies for washers, textile mills and municipal systems.One of their best-known styles is something called the “better sweater” that shifts from virgin polyester to recycled polyester to cut shedding by about 40%, said Matt Dwyer, vice president of global product footprint. And at textile mills, there’s a prewash at the factory that can capture that first big shed, he added.Dwyer is optimistic about progress.“There’s a whole lot of smart people, not just understanding the problem and the scope of the problem, but also looking for solutions all the way through the manufacturing cycle and use phase,” he said. “Compared to 10 years ago, it’s a whole new world.”
Jennifer McDermott, Associated Press
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