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For those looking for a heartwarming comedy, "Lost in Russia" is a must-see. Directed by Xu Zheng, this film tells the story of a mother and son who embark on a journey of self-discovery as they travel through Russia together. Filled with humor, emotion, and touching moments, "Lost in Russia" is a film that is sure to warm the hearts of audiences during the cold winter months.
Title: Trump Insists on Expelling Millions of Illegal Immigrants, Reasserting Tough Immigration PolicyI was probably about 9 or 10 years old when, on a summer night in a friend’s basement, a pal suggested we log onto a website called Omegle. I’d never heard of it before. But we all crowded around one of our parents’ laptops, our pre-pubescent faces crowding the screen as the website shuffled us through random video chat feeds with complete strangers around the globe. Some people were kind. Others told us to get off there — something I desperately wanted to do as I cowered out of the frame. One of my friends asked a teen boy with an accent where he was from, and he named a country we’d never heard of before. But we were also served up images of people cutting, adult men in dimly lit rooms telling us we were “cute” (we quickly hung up on them), and — a first for all of us — a guy masturbating. That’s when we closed the laptop for good, unsure of what we had just seen. And so we were vulgarly inducted into growing up online . As a member of Gen Z, I don’t know a single female friend who hadn’t been on the receiving end of unwanted sexual messages, photos, and/or harassment online before their 18th birthday, both from strangers and/or men and boys they know in some way. That’s because, no matter how many parental controls and blockers you apply, filters are always porous enough to let the dark underbelly of the internet in through a laptop or cellphone screen. While the media often reports on the worst of the worst stories from social media — sex trafficking , blackmailing that ends in suicide , tweens eloping with strangers online — every single normal, well-adjusted young woman I know has confronted the dark side of being a girl online. In fact, my Omegle anecdote isn’t at all unique. Sophia Englesberg, a 23-year-old actress living in New York City, remembers being on the now-defunct website with a group of her 8th-grade friends in Pennsylvania when they came across a veteran and thanked him for his service. “Then he took his c–k out and showed us, and then he put it in a vacuum nozzle,” she recalled. “‘[Omegle] is just like men waiting for girls.” Englesberg, who has had a cell phone since she was 11, was only in 5th grade when she downloaded what she thought was a pet video game. It was actually an anonymous messaging app where you chat as pet avatars, which led to her accidentally stumbling into a confusing sexual conversation. “It slowly became a sex thing,” Englesberg, who didn’t know who was on the other side of the conversation, said. “They would describe very explicitly all the sexual things that they wanted to do to me ... I was like, what does that mean, and then they would explain, but I’m in the fifth grade. “I definitely learned a lot of sexual language through that, and it was crazy because I was totally in my own little world.” Taylor Vahey, 24, has been on social media since she was 11 — and immediately she started swatting down “men with beards or grays” hitting on her or making comments about her appearance. She was able to manage unwanted attention by blocking unsavory characters but says some of her friends got swept away by attention from older men they met on Instagram or playing video games online. “By late middle school there were times where my friends would kind of be flattered or think it was cool, like, ‘Oh I’m Snapchatting with this guy, he’s in his twenties,’” Vahey, now a consultant for startups and living in Cape Cod, recalled. Some of those friends traded explicit photos with adult men, she said. I spoke to more than a dozen young women for this piece. Every one of them signed up for social media as a minor and reported receiving unwanted sexual attention online before turning 18 — and everyone shrugged that off as a given. I’ve been on Instagram since I was 11, beginning with a private account. When I briefly made my Instagram profile public in high school, my posts were flooded with flirtatious and sometimes gross comments from adult men — strangers complimenting my looks or describing their unsolicited sexual fantasies — most of which I deleted. The direct messages were more direct, including one about “naughty things” from a middle-aged dad whose account featured photos of him with his kids. Like all the other young women I interviewed for this story, I blocked those users. In addition to receiving suggestive messages, Sofia Figueroa-Cruz, 21, a Miami college student says she has been exposed to vitriolic, sexist hate since she signed up for Twitter at age 15. “That’s really the first time that I was exposed to misogyny ... ,” she said. “I think that was my first glimpse into just sort of being mistreated.” She sent me a tweet in which an anonymous stranger called her a “pig faced Jew” and said “you deserve to get raped so much.” Many other similar messages were sent to her by middle-aged males while she was still under 18. “My DMs would be full of it, even with just a small following. There was no reason I would be targeted like this,” she said. And it’s not just strangers lurking online — many girls report being exploited by perpetrators closer to home. Charlotte Brenner, a 21-year-old from Austin, Texas, working in the service industry, says girls are regularly getting exploited by their classmates. As crazy as it may sound to anyone who came of age before Snapchat exploded in popularity, teens — both boys and girls — regularly swap nudes on the app, where photos disappear after a couple of seconds. But there are also stealthy apps that allow users to download and save images sneakily. “All the boys in our sophomore year of high school apparently had a group chat where they traded girls’ nudes like baseball cards,” Brenner said. “They say, ‘Hey, I’ll give you four of Jade’s for one of Natalie’s.’” Brenner said she has never sent nude photos herself, but added that she’s “one of the few people I know who has never sent a photo.” Some young women I spoke with recalled unwittingly being groomed by adults as they came of age on the internet. One 21-year-old college student from Florida — who asked to withhold her name out of fear she could be targeted online — told me she was “sexualized” on the internet from the age of 11 when she started to engage on Tumblr and message boards dedicated to online fandoms for YouTube celebrities. “Getting into group chats, everybody’s allegedly your age, but you never actually know. And, of course, being a naive kid, you just believe them,” she said. She recalled that self-professed adults online corralled conversations about sexual topics and pressured her to describe her sexual encounters as she wrestled with questions about her sexuality. “I would be told, like, ‘Oh, well, if you’re trying to figure [your sexuality] out, why don’t you just go and kiss your friend, and tell us about it,’” she said. “Some of them were adults at the time while I was still in high school.” The experience caused the young woman, who now identifies as straight, to question her gender and sexuality and to isolate herself from her friends and family. “The internet feels very disconnected from reality,” she said. “You are surrounded by people that are inevitably going to sexualize you.” Zoomer girls are the first generation to have unknowingly participated in a mass experiment : What happens when you hand tween girls a palm-sized portal to all the darkest potential humanity has to offer? We are the first adults emerging with stories of what it’s really like to grow up online. While they might enjoy using technology and social media, every young woman I spoke to for this story expressed some regret for having grown up in the digital age. As Brenner told me, “I wish I grew up in the 1970s when my mother grew up.”
BELLEVUE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 21, 2024-- T-Mobile US, Inc. (NASDAQ: TMUS) (“T-Mobile” or “the Company”) announced today that the Company’s Board of Directors has declared a cash dividend of $0.88 per share on its issued and outstanding shares of common stock. The dividend is payable on March 13, 2025 to stockholders of record as of the close of business on February 28, 2025. About T-Mobile US, Inc. T-Mobile US, Inc. (NASDAQ: TMUS) is America’s supercharged Un-carrier, delivering an advanced 4G LTE and transformative nationwide 5G network that will offer reliable connectivity for all. T-Mobile’s customers benefit from its unmatched combination of value and quality, unwavering obsession with offering them the best possible service experience and undisputable drive for disruption that creates competition and innovation in wireless and beyond. Based in Bellevue, Wash., T-Mobile provides services through its subsidiaries and operates its flagship brands, T-Mobile, Metro by T-Mobile and Mint Mobile. For more information please visit: http://www.t-mobile.com . View source version on businesswire.com : https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241120434837/en/ CONTACT: Media Contact T-Mobile US, Inc. Media Relations MediaRelations@t-mobile.comInvestor Relations Contact T-Mobile US, Inc. investor.relations@t-mobile.com KEYWORD: WASHINGTON UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA INDUSTRY KEYWORD: INTERNET MOBILE/WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY CARRIERS AND SERVICES TELECOMMUNICATIONS SOURCE: T-Mobile US, Inc. Copyright Business Wire 2024. PUB: 11/21/2024 05:15 PM/DISC: 11/21/2024 05:17 PM http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241120434837/enIn recent years, with the aging population and the increasing awareness of retirement planning, personal pension products have become a popular choice for individuals to secure their financial future. Recognizing this trend, commercial banks have been actively expanding and strengthening their individual pension business marketing efforts.
With its recent IPO, NCI is well-positioned to capitalize on new opportunities in the insurance market. The company's strong financial performance and solid business fundamentals have attracted the attention of investors, who see NCI as a promising investment opportunity. As NCI continues to expand its operations and enhance its product offerings, the company is poised for continued growth and success in the years to come.
Unlike scores of people who scrambled for the blockbuster drugs Ozempic and Wegovy to lose weight in recent years, Danielle Griffin had no trouble getting them. The 38-year-old information technology worker from New Mexico had a prescription. Her pharmacy had the drugs in stock. And her health insurance covered all but $25 to $50 of the monthly cost. For Griffin, the hardest part of using the new drugs wasn’t access. It was finding out that the much-hyped medications didn’t really work for her. “I have been on Wegovy for a year and a half and have only lost 13 pounds,” said Griffin, who watches her diet, drinks plenty of water and exercises regularly. “I’ve done everything right with no success. It’s discouraging.” In clinical trials, most participants taking Wegovy or Mounjaro to treat obesity lost an average of 15% to 22% of their body weight — up to 50 pounds or more in many cases. But roughly 10% to 15% of patients in those trials were “nonresponders” who lost less than 5% of their body weight. Now that millions of people have used the drugs, several obesity experts told The Associated Press that perhaps 20% of patients — as many as 1 in 5 — may not respond well to the medications. It's a little-known consequence of the obesity drug boom, according to doctors who caution eager patients not to expect one-size-fits-all results. “It's all about explaining that different people have different responses,” said Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, an obesity expert at Massachusetts General Hospital The drugs are known as GLP-1 receptor agonists because they mimic a hormone in the body known as glucagon-like peptide 1. Genetics, hormones and variability in how the brain regulates energy can all influence weight — and a person's response to the drugs, Stanford said. Medical conditions such as sleep apnea can prevent weight loss, as can certain common medications, such as antidepressants, steroids and contraceptives. “This is a disease that stems from the brain,” said Stanford. “The dysfunction may not be the same” from patient to patient. Despite such cautions, patients are often upset when they start getting the weekly injections but the numbers on the scale barely budge. “It can be devastating,” said Dr. Katherine Saunders, an obesity expert at Weill Cornell Medicine and co-founder of the obesity treatment company FlyteHealth. “With such high expectations, there’s so much room for disappointment.” That was the case for Griffin, who has battled obesity since childhood and hoped to shed 70 pounds using Wegovy. The drug helped reduce her appetite and lowered her risk of diabetes, but she saw little change in weight. “It’s an emotional roller coaster,” she said. “You want it to work like it does for everybody else.” The medications are typically prescribed along with eating behavior and lifestyle changes. It’s usually clear within weeks whether someone will respond to the drugs, said Dr. Jody Dushay, an endocrine specialist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Weight loss typically begins right away and continues as the dosage increases. For some patients, that just doesn't happen. For others, side effects such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhea force them to halt the medications, Dushay said. In such situations, patients who were counting on the new drugs to pare pounds may think they’re out of options. “I tell them: It's not game over,” Dushay said. Trying a different version of the new class of drugs may help. Griffin, who didn't respond well to Wegovy, has started using Zepbound, which targets an additional hormone pathway in the body. After three months of using the drug, she has lost 7 pounds. “I'm hoping it's slow and steady,” she said. Other people respond well to older drugs, the experts said. Changing diet, exercise, sleep and stress habits can also have profound effects. Figuring out what works typically requires a doctor trained to treat obesity, Saunders noted. “Obesity is such a complex disease that really needs to be treated very comprehensively,” she said. “If what we’re prescribing doesn’t work, we always have a backup plan.” 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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The people that president-elect Donald Trump has selected to lead federal health agencies in his second administration include a retired congressman, a surgeon and a former talk-show host. All of them could play pivotal roles in fulfilling a new political agenda that could change how the government goes about safeguarding Americans' health — from health care and medicines to food safety and science research. And if Congress approves, at the helm of the team as Department of Health and Human Services secretary will be prominent environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine organizer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. By and large, the nominees don't have experience running large bureaucratic agencies, but they know how to talk about health on TV. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid pick Dr. Mehmet Oz hosted a talk show for 13 years and is a well-known wellness and lifestyle influencer. The pick for the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Marty Makary, and for surgeon general, Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, are frequent Fox News contributors. Many on the list were critical of COVID-19 measures like masking and booster vaccinations for young people. Some of them have ties to Florida like many of Trump's other Cabinet nominees: CDC pick Dr. Dave Weldon represented the state in Congress for 14 years and is affiliated with a medical group on the state's Atlantic coast. Nesheiwat's brother-in-law is Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., tapped by Trump as national security adviser. Here's a look at the nominees' potential role in carrying out what Kennedy says is the task to “reorganize” agencies, which have an overall $1.7 billion budget; employ 80,000 scientists, researchers, doctors and other officials; and affect the lives of all Americans. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention The Atlanta-based CDC, with a $9.2 billion core budget, is charged with protecting Americans from disease outbreaks and other public health threats. Kennedy has long attacked vaccines and criticized the CDC, repeatedly alleging corruption at the agency. He said on a 2023 podcast that there is "no vaccine that is safe and effective,” and urged people to resist the CDC's guidelines on if and when kids should get vaccinated. Decades ago, Kennedy found common ground with Weldon, the 71-year-old nominee to run the CDC who served in the Army and worked as an internal medicine doctor before he represented a central Florida congressional district from 1995 to 2009. Starting in the early 2000s, Weldon had a prominent part in a debate about whether there was a relationship between a vaccine preservative called thimerosal and autism. He was a founding member of the Congressional Autism Caucus and tried to ban thimerosal from all vaccines. Kennedy, then a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, believed there was a tie between thimerosal and autism and also charged that the government hid documents showing the danger. Since 2001, all vaccines manufactured for the U.S. market and routinely recommended for children 6 years or younger have contained no thimerosal or only trace amounts, with the exception of inactivated influenza vaccine. Meanwhile, study after study after study found no evidence that thimerosal caused autism. Weldon's congressional voting record suggests he may go along with Republican efforts to downsize the CDC, including to eliminate the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, which works on topics like drownings, drug overdoses and shooting deaths. Weldon also voted to ban federal funding for needle-exchange programs as an approach to reduce overdoses, and the National Rifle Association gave him an “A” rating for his pro-gun rights voting record. Food and Drug Administration Kennedy is extremely critical of the FDA, which has 18,000 employees and is responsible for the safety and effectiveness of prescription drugs, vaccines and other medical products — as well as overseeing cosmetics, electronic cigarettes and most foods. Makary, Trump’s pick to run the FDA, is closely aligned with Kennedy on several topics. The professor at Johns Hopkins University who is a trained surgeon and cancer specialist has decried the overprescribing of drugs, the use of pesticides on foods and the undue influence of pharmaceutical and insurance companies over doctors and government regulators. Kennedy has suggested he'll clear our “entire” FDA departments and also recently threatened to fire FDA employees for “aggressive suppression” of a host of unsubstantiated products and therapies, including stem cells, raw milk, psychedelics and discredited COVID-era treatments like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. Makary's contrarian views during the COVID-19 pandemic including the need for masking and giving young kids COVID vaccine boosters. But anything Makary and Kennedy might want to do when it comes to unwinding FDA regulations or revoking long-standing vaccine and drug approvals would be challenging. The agency has lengthy requirements for removing medicines from the market, which are based on federal laws passed by Congress. Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services The agency provides health care coverage for more than 160 million people through Medicaid, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act, and also sets Medicare payment rates for hospitals, doctors and other providers. With a $1.1 trillion budget and more than 6,000 employees, Oz has a massive agency to run if confirmed — and an agency that Kennedy hasn't talked about much when it comes to his plans. While Trump tried to scrap the Affordable Care Act in his first term, Kennedy has not taken aim at it yet. But he has been critical of Medicaid and Medicare for covering expensive weight-loss drugs — though they're not widely covered by either. Trump said during his campaign that he would protect Medicare, which provides insurance for older Americans. Oz has endorsed expanding Medicare Advantage — a privately run version of Medicare that is popular but also a source of widespread fraud — in an AARP questionnaire during his failed 2022 bid for a U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania and in a 2020 Forbes op-ed with a former Kaiser Permanente CEO. Oz also said in a Washington Examiner op-ed with three co-writers that aging healthier and living longer could help fix the U.S. budget deficit because people would work longer and add more to the gross domestic product. Neither Trump nor Kennedy have said much about Medicaid, the insurance program for low-income Americans. Trump's first administration reshaped the program by allowing states to introduce work requirements for recipients. Surgeon general Kennedy doesn't appear to have said much publicly about what he'd like to see from surgeon general position, which is the nation's top doctor and oversees 6,000 U.S. Public Health Service Corps members. The surgeon general has little administrative power, but can be an influential government spokesperson on what counts as a public health danger and what to do about it — suggesting things like warning labels for products and issuing advisories. The current surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, declared gun violence as a public health crisis in June. Trump's pick, Nesheiwat, is employed as a New York City medical director with CityMD, a group of urgent care facilities in the New York and New Jersey area, and has been at City MD for 12 years. She also has appeared on Fox News and other TV shows, authored a book on the “transformative power of prayer” in her medical career and endorses a brand of vitamin supplements. She encouraged COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic, calling them “a gift from God” in a February 2021 Fox News op-ed, as well as anti-viral pills like Paxlovid. In a 2019 Q&A with the Women in Medicine Legacy Foundation, Nesheiwat said she is a “firm believer in preventive medicine” and “can give a dissertation on hand-washing alone.” National Institutes of Health As of Saturday, Trump had not yet named his choice to lead the National Institutes of Health, which funds medical research through grants to researchers across the nation and conducts its own research. It has a $48 billion budget. Kennedy has said he'd pause drug development and infectious disease research to shift the focus to chronic diseases. He'd like to keep NIH funding from researchers with conflicts of interest, and criticized the agency in 2017 for what he said was not doing enough research into the role of vaccines in autism — an idea that has long been debunked. ___ Associated Press writers Amanda Seitz and Matt Perrone and AP editor Erica Hunzinger contributed to this report. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.Buccaneers are back to .500 and in position to control their playoff hopes down the stretch