CNN is in flux. It has a new owner, and a new boss, who promises to remake the news channel and has told employees to be prepared for “a time of change.” Most of those changes have yet to manifest. But one of the first ones — canceling its long-running Reliable Sources show and pushing out anchor Brian Stelter — has already unsettled some CNN employees and viewers. But the bigger question floating over one of the world’s largest and most important news organizations is why it’s changing. Is it because the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, its new owner, wants an overhaul? Or is it at the behest of a conservative billionaire investor in the company who sits on its board? That billionaire is John Malone, a legend in the cable TV business and one who has deep and longstanding ties with David Zaslav, the CEO of WBD. People close to both men insist that Zaslav is remaking CNN because he wants to for both business and editorial reasons, and not because Malone has told him to. But complicating that narrative is the fact that Malone has repeatedly wished, in public, for CNN to remake itself. And his prescription happens to sync with the new CNN agenda: a plan to steer the channel away from what Malone and others call a liberal bias they say muddles opinion and news. And to shift it toward a supposedly centrist, just-the-facts bent. “I would like to see CNN evolve back to the kind of journalism that it started with, and actually have journalists, which would be unique and refreshing,” he said. Then he suggested a model: “Fox News, in my opinion, has followed an interesting trajectory of trying to have ‘news’ news, I mean some actual journalism, embedded in a program schedule of all opinions.”

“Hosts Rally in Support of Affordable Housing” was at the top of Mayor Eric Adams’ schedule for Tuesday, located at the site of a highly controversial Bruckner Boulevard rezoning proposal in the Throggs Neck section of the Bronx. By Tuesday morning, his appearance was quietly canceled, but he still declared support for the redevelopment, which would bring four new buildings with 349 apartment units, of which 168 would be designated affordable, including 99 units for seniors. An additional 22 units would be designated for veterans and privately subsidized, according to the development team. But Bronx residents of Community District 10 have responded with uproar against the project, branding it as a harmful upzoning that will overload their previously designated low-density community. But local opposition has been vast, with all but one member of the local Community Board 10 striking down the project and local Councilmember Marjorie Velázquez also stating she is against the project — although the City Planning Commission greenlighted the project to continue onto the City Council for consideration. Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson lent her support to the project with conditions that have not been fulfilled. “They make us seem like we’re against affordable housing and the types of people that come in, and the homeless,” said lifetime local resident Carmine Bonanno. “We’re not against that. We’re against the upzoning change, not just for here but for every block throughout the neighborhood.” He also shares concerns about affordability in the neighborhood, saying that even though his kids have good jobs he doesn’t think they’ll be able to afford to stay in the neighborhood. Fellow longtime resident Carol Brumley-McManus said she’s not convinced the proposed apartments will actually be affordable. Yet when Brendan Cheney, of NY Housing Conference, said that Throggs Neck isn’t doing its part, and every neighborhood needs affordable housing, a woman came up to the barricades and said: “No we don’t. No we don’t. I pay my taxes.”

Children’s hospitals across the U.S. are facing growing threats of violence, driven by an online anti-LGBTQ campaign attacking the facilities for providing care to transgender kids and teens. Twitter has left up the account inspiring the attacks, despite employees voicing concerns in internal Slack channels that it’s “only a matter of time” before the posts lead to someone getting killed. The campaign is led by Libs of TikTok, a Twitter account with more than 1.3 million followers run by a former Brooklyn real estate agent named Chaya Raichik, whose posts are frequently cited by Fox News’s Tucker Carlson and other right-wing media figures. After gaining a large Twitter following in the spring as she baselessly accused LGBTQ teachers of being pedophiles and “groomers,” Raichik began criticizing children’s health facilities earlier this summer, targeting a hospital in Omaha in June and another in Pittsburgh in August. The attacks resulted in a flood of online harassment and phoned-in threats at both hospitals. Next came threats against children’s hospitals in Boston and Washington, D.C., after Raichik posted tweets targeting them.

The state auditor says $70 million in federal welfare funds went to Favre, a volleyball complex and a former pro wrestler in a scandal that has rocked Mississippi.

'The Ink Black Heart' is a crime thriller about a YouTuber who is harassed by her critics, inviting parallels with Rowling's experiences on Twitter.

This has been a banner week for people getting mad about Quiet Quitting, a subject that I have spoken to at least 15 people about at this point. It is one of the worst workplace mantra debates I’ve seen because it naturally antagonizes the internal narrative of people’s lives. Anyone that has achieved any level of success wants to believe they did so based on noble terms and tells their story in a way that makes them seem both like a moral paragon and someone that’s “earned” their place.

Gary Allen pleaded guilty to manslaughter charges for punching and killing a man during a bar fight in 2019.

The bee attack took place Aug. 27 at a home in Union Township, about 50 miles southeast of Cincinnati.

A Japanese adult video actor determined to become “the most hugged woman in the world” held a 24-hour event where she hugged over 3,000 fans. Fukada Eimi, 24, held the event in Shibuya, Tokyo, at 6 p.m. on Saturday. The event ended at 6 p.m. on Sunday after Fukada had hugged a total of 3,163 fans.

The suit, which was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleges that Haddish and Spears coerced two siblings on separate occasions to take part in the skits, including one named "Through a Pedophiles Eyes."

President Joe Biden accused Donald Trump and Republicans who back him of endangering US democracy and urged Americans to reject any candidate backed by his predecessor in the November midterm election.

Last month, police arrested the 'Scrubs' and 'Californication' writer-producer on 20 charges of sexual assault, including rape. Speaking publicly for the first time, his alleged victims share their stories and reveal how they came together to seek justice: "He’s taken everything he’s allowed to take from me."

The headline looked promising for Doug Mastriano’s gubernatorial campaign, and the Republican state senator promptly shared it Thursday morning with his nearly 200,000 followers on Twitter and Facebook. “Rabbi Endorses Mastriano as Shapiro Calls Him Antisemitic in Pennsylvania Gov. Race,” the far-right Epoch Times proclaimed, referring to the Democratic nominee, Josh Shapiro. Mastriano, a retired Army colonel from south central Pennsylvania, has been dogged by accusations of antisemitism this summer after he paid $5,000 to Gab, a social media site frequented by extremists and antisemites, in an effort to reach new voters. The site’s founder, Andrew Torba, has described Mastriano’s campaign as part of an “explicitly Christian” nationalist movement that should exclude followers of other faiths. Jewish groups, both Democratic and Republican, reacted angrily to news reports about the GOP candidate’s strategy and Mastriano eventually cut ties with Torba and Gab. He said he “rejects antisemitism in any form.” On Thursday, Mastriano touted the endorsement of Rabbi Joseph Kolakowsi by sharing the article from the Epoch Times, a conservative publication affiliated with members of the controversial Chinese spiritual movement Falun Gong. What the Epoch Times story did not mention is hundreds of internet posts and videos in which the 38-year-old rabbi shares unfounded claims of fraud in the 2020 election, expresses sympathy for Jan. 6 insurrectionists, and speaks favorably of the Qanon movement — a conspiracy theory that holds that President Donald Trump and his allies are engaged in a secret war with pedophilic, blood-drinking satanists. “Whether they are right or wrong about their theories, the whole point of Qanon is to fight child abuse,” Kolakowski wrote earlier this year. “Why does the left hate a group that fights child abuse?” On YouTube, Kolakowski has espoused more outlandish ideas, including a theory that Adolf Hitler and other malevolent world leaders are part lizard.

A federal judge is blocking the Wisconsin Elections Commission from enforcing a ruling that would have required voters living with disabilities to cast their ballots without assistance. In his opinion issued Wednesday, U.S. District Judge James Peterson stated that the Voting Rights Act is clear in allowing voters with disabilities the right to receive help from a person of their choosing when casting a ballot. "Voters shouldn't have to choose between exercising their federal rights and complying with state law," Peterson wrote. "But that is the position that plaintiffs find themselves in, and that is in part because defendants have refused to provide needed clarification. If defendants cannot or will not give plaintiffs assurances that their right to vote is protected, this court must do so." Last month, Law Forward, a nonprofit law firm, filed a lawsuit on behalf of four voters living with disabilities against the WEC and its administrator, Meagan Wolfe. It alleged the ruling essentially revoked the plaintiffs' ability to vote. All four voters live with disabilities that make them physically incapable of voting in person and require them to have someone else send in their ballot.

Crews in Oakland have removed over 1,200 pounds of dead fish from the lake, which has been hard-hit by a massive algae bloom.

A Christian group that discriminates against LGBTQ+ people must be reinstated as an official student organization at a high school in San Jose, Calif., while a lawsuit against it proceeds, a federal appeals court ruled Monday. The San Jose Unified School District had withdrawn recognition of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes after a controversy over the club at Pioneer High School, the Los Angeles Times reports. In 2019, a teacher had questioned its “Sexual Purity” statement, which said heterosexual marriage was the only proper setting for sexual relationships. The teacher said he was “deeply saddened” by this and asked students for their opinions. After complaints and protests, the district ended up rescinding recognition of the club, saying it was in violation of San Jose Unified’s nondiscrimination policy. The group and its parent organization then sued, claiming this amounted to discrimination on the basis of religion. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit agreed. The judges ruled 2-1 that the fellowship was likely to win its discrimination case and ordered that it be reinstated while the case is hear. Judge Kenneth Kiyul Lee, who was appointed to the court by Donald Trump, wrote that the district did not apply the nondiscrimination policy neutrally but focused it on a religious group. For instance, the district recognizes secular clubs that limit participation to one gender, he said. He not only wrote the majority opinion but a concurring one in which he asserted that “a stench of animus against the students’ religious beliefs pervades the Pioneer High School campus.”

The Indiana Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that religious freedom rights protect the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis from being sued by a teacher who was fired from his job at a Catholic high school for being in a same-sex marriage. Joshua Payne-Elliott argued in his lawsuit that archdiocese leaders wrongfully forced his firing in 2019 from his job of 13 years as a world language and social studies teacher at Cathedral High School in Indianapolis by mandating that all Catholic schools under its purview enforce a morality clause barring employees from entering into same-sex marriages. The state Supreme Court decision said religious institutions had the First Amendment right to decide matters of church governance for themselves. "The archdiocese's decision whether a school maintains its Catholic identity is an internal matter that concerns both church policy and administration," the decision said. Payne-Elliott married Layton Payne-Elliott, a teacher at Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School of Indianapolis, in 2017. The archdiocese directed the schools to fire both men. Brebeuf did not comply with the directive, after which Archbishop Charles Thompson responded by attempting to strip Brebeuf of its status as a Catholic school. That action was suspended by Vatican officials after Brebeuf appealed. Joshua Payne-Elliott's lawsuit claimed that the archdiocese illegally interfered with his contractual and employment relationship with Cathedral High School by causing the school to terminate him. He sued the archdiocese after reaching a settlement with Cathedral.

A former middle school math teacher has won a settlement with the district after a dispute over the Christian teacher's treatment of LGBT students. Pamela Ricard won $95,000 in damages and legal fees in the settlement with Geary County USD 475, her attorneys announced Wednesday. The lawsuit was subsequently dismissed. Ricard was represented by attorneys at the Kansas-based Kriegshauser Ney Law Group and the national Alliance Defending Freedom.

Sometimes when Charlie Chasen or Michael Malone would be out and about on their own in Atlanta, people would mistake one for the other. The long-time friends who live in Atlanta are not related. Their ancestors don't even come from the same part of the world. Malone's family came from the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic. Chasen's family came from Scotland and Lithuania. They aren't the result of some deep dark family secret, either. Yet they look strikingly similar. It's not just their brown hair, beards and glasses. It's also the structure of their nose, their cheekbones, and the shape of their lips.

It turns out we have a whole sensory system dedicated to carrying messages from our fat tissues (adipose) to our brains.