Author: Human

Major album releases by some of the world’s biggest music stars are linked to an increase in fatal traffic crashes in the United States, according to a Harvard University study examining road deaths between 2017 and 2022.

Researchers analyzed 233,809 traffic fatalities during the six-year period and found that the rate of fatal crashes increased by 15.1% on days when major albums were released on streaming platforms. That translated into an additional 18 deaths on each such day.

"The number of traffic deaths was significantly higher on major music album release days than during the 10 days before and after," the study found.

The researchers examined 10 prominent albums released in the United States between 2017 and 2022, including Taylor Swift’s Midnights, Harry Styles’s Harry’s House, and Drake’s Certified Lover Boy.

The musicians themselves are not to blame, of course. Rather, the findings provide further evidence of the effect that mobile phone use and listening to music can have in distracting drivers from the road.

Dr. Vishal Patel, one of the study's authors, said the release of a new album could distract drivers because accessing music involves a search process rather than simply pressing a single button.

"You open your phone, open the app, find the song, read a song list, tap the right song. That's several seconds of looking at the screen."

Another surprising finding was that the increase in crashes was recorded, among other places, in cars equipped with Apple CarPlay connectivity. The system entered the market as early as 2016, ahead of Android Auto, and connects a mobile phone to a vehicle’s audio system. Such applications are generally considered tools that reduce risk by limiting the need to use a phone screen directly.

According to Patel, unfamiliar music may itself demand more attention from drivers. New songs are also often played at higher volume, he said, which can further weaken a driver’s connection to what is happening on the road.

The researchers' recommendation is straightforward: If there is a passenger in the vehicle, let that person handle the music.

The advice, however, does not solve the problem for people driving alone, who may still be tempted to search for, select, or switch tracks while behind the wheel.

US CIA Director John Ratcliffe held talks with Russian intelligence officials during his visit to Moscow on Tuesday but did not meet President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Putin had been briefed on the outcome of Ratcliffe's talks, but declined to provide further details.

Peskov said it was also too early to say whether such contacts between the two countries' intelligence agencies could help pull US-Russia relations out of what he described as a "deep crisis."

Reports first emerged on Tuesday that Ratcliffe traveled to Russia aboard a US military C-17 transport plane for meetings in Moscow and left that evening.

The visit was the first known visit to the Russian capital by a US spy chief since Ratcliffe’s predecessor, William Burns, held talks with Vladimir Putin in November 2021. About three months after that meeting, the Russian president launched Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The last direct flight of a US-registered jet to Russia from Europe took place in January this year, carrying special envoys Steven Witkoff and Jared Kushner for peace talks with Vladimir Putin on Ukraine.

A source familiar with the details of Ratcliffe’s trip told The Jerusalem Post that Trump administration officials asked Ukraine several days ago to pause any strikes against Moscow and other cities from Monday through Wednesday.

SpaceX unveiled plans on Tuesday to build its largest rocket launch complex yet in southern Louisiana, a $100 billion effort to transform coastal wetlands into a critical base for the company's Starship and AI satellite launch ambitions.

The 125,000-acre (50,585-hectare) site on Pecan Island, which SpaceX named Starbase Louisiana, is an expansion of the company’s Starship launch operations beyond South Texas and those planned for Florida as its next-generation rocket remains in late-stage development.

The company's second Starbase campus will eventually launch thousands of Starship flights a year, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said, reiterating its goals for an ambitious cadence contingent on solving steep engineering challenges and regulatory hurdles.

Construction will begin next year with the first Starship launch in 2029, SpaceX said. Shotwell detailed the plans near the proposed site in Louisiana’s Vermilion Parish at an event with Governor Jeff Landry and other senior state officials.

The "self-sustaining" spaceport envisioned by SpaceX will include its own methane production for propellant, power generation, deep-water shipping capabilities to transport Starships from Texas, vehicle processing facilities, and probably an airport, Shotwell said.

The marshland site is more than eight times the size of Manhattan. Shotwell said "very large portions" of the land will remain natural wetlands with no infrastructure, while an animated SpaceX video showed the area dotted with several launch pads surrounded by greenery.

The site had been at the center of a decade-long lawsuit against ExxonMobil brought by local parishes alleging the oil major’s coastal drilling and canal dredging contributed to the state’s wetland loss. The state reached an agreement with Exxon to settle the lawsuit in June, prompting its dismissal the following month, a court order shows.

That cleared the way for SpaceX's launch plans for the 18-mile (29-km) coastal strip, which the company had been discussing with the state since February, Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Susan Bourgeois said.

SpaceX has significantly expanded its southern US footprint in recent years, having built Colossus AI data centers in Tennessee and Mississippi and Starlink facilities in Austin, Texas. It is planning a chip plant in central Texas.

"This project means more than just steel, technology, and capital," Landry said. "It represents jobs for our families. It represents momentum for our communities, and it represents protection for our coast."

SpaceX said the Louisiana site will add more than 3,000 jobs to the region. The governor's office said those jobs are expected to pay an average salary of $92,600, or 192% higher than the average wage in Vermilion Parish.

The launch site, which will be SpaceX's fourth in the US, appears to replicate, at a larger scale, its widening footprint in South Texas, the site of its first Starbase rocket campus. However, the Louisiana site will not have rocket production facilities.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk sees Starship as central to the company’s goals of expanding its Starlink constellation and eventually deploying up to 1 million AI data-processing satellites in orbit. The rocket also plays a key role in NASA’s Artemis moon program. 

Pecan Island is situated in a geographically convenient location for Musk's satellite ambitions. It allows a rocket to launch south over the Gulf waters and into a sun-synchronous orbit that offers plenty of sunlight for solar-powered AI satellites.

Starbase Texas is Starship's only active launch site as the rocket remains in development, while SpaceX builds two Starship pads in Florida next to its flagship Falcon 9 launch pads. The company also has Falcon 9 launch facilities at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

As SpaceX developed Boca Chica, Texas, into the company town of Starbase with support from local government officials, it has faced resistance from residents concerned about water, environmental, and noise pollution and pressure to sell their land.

Shotwell highlighted environmental plans and outlined efforts to restore Pecan Island's receding marshlands and coastline, which act as a natural buffer to protect inland areas from flooding during heavy rainfall.

Pecan Island is a protected hub for dozens of migratory bird species seasonally traveling throughout the Western Hemisphere. At Starbase Texas, Starship launches have blasted shorebirds and their nests with gravel and debris, according to environmental groups.

"The birds might fly away during a launch, but I guarantee they come back," Shotwell said, prompting applause from state officials. "As soon as the rocket's gone, the birds come back. It's not like months later."

She said SpaceX will help fund environmental "protection, restoration, and stewardship" while the launch site is constructed.

A Nicaraguan immigrant taken into custody by US Border Patrol agents while his son, a US Navy sailor, was deployed at sea aboard an aircraft carrier during the US-Israeli war on Iran was freed from detention, his family said on Tuesday.

The family's announcement on Facebook that Luis Manuel Aviles Roa had been released came three days after Joshua Aviles went public about his father's arrest, lamenting the heartbreak he felt serving his country while his father was locked away.

In his Facebook post on Saturday, Joshua Aviles said his father was picked up by immigration authorities despite having a driver's license, Social Security card, and work permit, and had been waiting to obtain a "green card" granting him permanent legal US residency.

“I’ve been deployed for over nine months, out at sea in the Middle East aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, fighting for a country that has given me everything,” the sailor wrote. “I don’t know how I can mentally continue working 12+ hour days knowing that my dad is somewhere, possibly being treated like a criminal.”

Border Patrol agents arrested the sailor’s father after conducting a vehicle stop in Key West, Florida, according to the US Department of Homeland Security.

The DHS, parent agency of the Border Patrol, said Luis Manuel Aviles Roa had entered the US illegally and would remain in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention pending removal proceedings.

"Having a family member in the military is not a free pass to violate our nation's laws," the DHS said in its statement on Sunday.

But an update posted on Tuesday to the son's Facebook account said: "Luis has been released back to his family," adding, "We are grateful for all of the support for both Luis and Josh throughout this situation." No explanation was offered for the change in the father's status.

Neither the DHS nor ICE immediately responded to a Reuters request for comment.

The Abraham Lincoln, which left the Middle East on Saturday, made recent headlines in separate news reports about challenges the crew faced during the ship’s lengthy deployment for the Iran war, having not made a port of call in more than 200 days.

Democratic lawmakers have said the aircraft carrier set a modern-day record for consecutive days at sea, an issue that gained national attention after sailors' families raised concerns about worsening conditions on the warship.

The top executive at Instagram said few teenagers used a key safety feature to limit their use before it was turned on by default, at a trial over whether Meta Platforms designed Instagram and Facebook to addict children.

Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram since 2018, denied any suggestion by US states suing Meta that Instagram stalled by not making the "Take a Break" feature the default setting for teenagers until September 2024, nearly three years after its launch.

Under questioning from Jason Slothouber, an attorney for Colorado, Mosseri acknowledged that the percentage of teenagers using Take a Break was in the low single digits before Instagram made it the default.

Mosseri estimated in a December 2021 blog post, when Take a Break launched, that in early tests more than 90% of teenage users who turned the feature on kept it on. The feature encourages users to close Instagram after set periods.

“Most teens didn’t want it,” Mosseri said on the fourth day of a trial in Oakland, California, federal court. “We decided to push forward with it anyway.”

Mosseri is a central witness in the lawsuit by 29 US states, in what experts call the biggest legal test yet of social media’s effects on young users.

Four of the states, California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey, have accused Meta of designing the platforms to hook young users, fueling anxiety, depression and even suicide, while misleading consumers about their safety.

All 29 states say Meta violated federal law by improperly collecting and using personal data of children under 13 while they used its platforms.

The states have indicated they could seek nearly $200 billion in civil penalties.

Meta has rejected accusations that it sought to addict children, and said its research showed no clear link between adolescents' social media use and a lack of well-being.

Under questioning by Slothouber, Mosseri rejected the idea that he knew of an alleged Meta policy allowing lawyers to review internal presentations to scrub information or shield him from problems.

Mosseri said it was important that any information Instagram released about children's safety be high-quality and backed by experts.

"I am not trying to encourage my team to hide anything," Mosseri said. "I want to understand how things work. I can't think of any time that I've encouraged people to bring less information to me."

Mosseri also said Instagram centralized people working on sensitive research about teenagers to a single team and reduced access to the information across the company following the 2021 leak of the so-called Facebook Files.

That leak came from whistleblower Frances Haugen, a former Facebook product manager who said Meta knew its products were unsafe for children but did nothing to pursue higher profit.

The trial is expected to resume with more testimony from Mosseri on Wednesday.

DESIGN CHIEF ACKNOWLEDGES SAFETY DATA REMOVAL

Prior to Mosseri's testimony, Instagram director of product design Francesco Fogu testified about a presentation on teenagers' safety that his team prepared in 2023 for Instagram leadership.

Under questioning from Slothouber, Fogu acknowledged the removal of data from a presentation slide showing that teenage Instagram users saw 1.5 times more bullying, suicide, hate, nudity and violent content than adult users.

Later, when questioned by a Meta attorney, Fogu said the figure appeared on a different slide.

Fogu also said Instagram knew that fewer people would use "Take a Break" by not making it the default setting.

The trial could last six weeks.

Jurors are expected to issue an advisory verdict. US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers will decide whether Meta is liable and, if so, determine any civil penalties and changes to Facebook and Instagram.

Mosseri also testified in February in a Los Angeles trial that Instagram cared about children's safety, defending its design choices against allegations by company insiders that its features were harmful.

Jurors in that case found Meta ​and Alphabet's GOOGL.O Google negligent in designing their platforms, and ordered them to pay $6 million to a 20-year-old woman who said she became addicted to Instagram and YouTube as a child.

Earlier this month, a New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $567 million to address teenagers' mental health after that state's attorney general called its platforms a public nuisance.

Tennessee is also suing Meta, raising similar claims about Instagram, in a case on trial in Nashville.

Dolly Parton, one of the last century’s most iconic and enduring contemporary music superstars, died on Tuesday at age 80.

The singer, songwriter, and actress whose charisma, heartfelt lyrics, and business and philanthropic endeavors won the hearts of her fans for nearly six decades had been in declining health in recent months.

Flamboyant and radiant, Parton possessed the talent to complement her ample public persona. She could enthrall an audience with a full-on Las Vegas revue or alone on a stage with an acoustic guitar and her unmistakable voice.

Parton rose from poverty in rural Tennessee to become one of the most successful and recognizable performers in country and popular American music, with a dazzling career that stretched across six decades and extended far beyond Nashville into film, television, business, and philanthropy.

The writer of classic songs like “Jolene,” “Islands in the Stream,” and “I Will Always Love You” (a huge hit by Whitney Houston), Parton was named to the list of the New York Times 30 greatest living American songwriters earlier this year.

She won 11 Grammy Awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award.

In addition to her groundbreaking work as a singer-songwriter, Parton also starred in movies like 9 to 5 and Steel Magnolias.

Her husband of nearly 60 years, Carl Thomas Dean, died in March 2025.

Born in 1946 in Locust Ridge, Tennessee, Parton grew up in a large, poor family in the Great Smoky Mountains. She performed as a child and appeared at the Grand Ole Opry when she was about 10 years old before eventually moving to Nashville to pursue a professional career. She became a member of the Opry in 1969.

Parton first gained national attention in the US as a singer on Porter Wagoner’s television program before establishing herself as a solo star. Her songwriting combined wit, vulnerability, and sharp observations about poverty, love, ambition, and women’s lives, helping her cross repeatedly from country into mainstream pop culture.

Parton built Dollywood, the Tennessee theme park that became a major regional employer and tourist attraction, and created the Imagination Library, a literacy program that distributes free books to children around the world.

Speaking to People magazine last week, Parton disclosed that she was “dealing with some health issues that I just didn’t pay attention to when I was watching over Carl.”

“Even though I’m still healin’, I’m still workin’,” she added, saying that she was working with companies to create “avatar performances,” and they are still in the “early stages of development.”

Reuters contributed to this report. 

Before attacking Iran, US President Donald Trump was warned by US intelligence that killing Iran’s former supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, could result in him being replaced by a more radical regime with greater interest in acquiring nuclear weapons, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.

In the lead-up to the February attack that started the US-Israel war with Iran, Trump reportedly called his intelligence chief at that time, Tulsi Gabbard, to the Oval Office to discuss the advisability of a full-scale military assault. 

According to sources familiar with the meeting who spoke to WSJ, Gabbard cautioned Trump that killing Iran’s supreme leader could bring about a hard-line government that would be more inclined to pursue nuclear arms. 

She also warned that Iran might swiftly close the Strait of Hormuz, jeopardizing the global energy market. Additionally, she argued that targeting Iran could lead to attacks on US forces and allies in the Middle East, which would raise questions about American reliability and resolve among its partners.

Several of Trump’s senior national security officials similarly advised against launching an attack, expressing concerns about potential mass casualties, a limited weapons stockpile, and readiness issues for an overstretched military.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, and Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of US Central Command, reportedly briefed Trump several times on plans to strike Iranian targets with the expressed goal of ultimately weakening the Islamic Republic and incapacitating its military forces while allowing Israel to focus on targeting Iran's top leadership.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also reportedly informed Trump that the potential attack would provide him with a rare opportunity to dismantle Iran’s nuclear program and enhance his legacy as a peacemaker, WSJ noted.

Hegseth and Caine allegedly repeatedly claimed that they could manage any complications that might arise during the operation, according to officials who attended the meetings.

Despite receiving warnings from Gabbard and other senior national security officials during this timeframe, Trump ultimately dismissed their concerns. Instead, he echoed Hegseth and Caine’s confidence, suggesting the military could address any issues as they arose.

Another voice of caution came from Vice President JD Vance.

US officials told WSJ that Vance advocated for a more cautious approach during meetings leading up to Operation Epic Fury. 

He reportedly suggested that Iran might be swayed to dismantle its nuclear program through negotiations. Vance pointed out that while pursuing a deal carried some risk, it would be less costly than the potential consequences of war.

He emphasized that Iran’s economy was already suffering due to heavy US sanctions. If negotiations failed, he argued, Trump would then have greater legitimacy to execute a swift and overwhelming military operation against Iran.

Although Trump reportedly considered Vance’s perspective, US officials told WSJ that he was ultimately persuaded by Pentagon presentations outlining more “decisive” options.

Six months after the attack that kicked off the war, military clashes between Iran and the US have paused, but disagreements over the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s nuclear assets, and US sanctions have persisted.

Trump’s latest statement regarding the war came on Tuesday as he claimed that the US is closely watching the strait and nuclear sites from space.

In a post on Truth Social, he also asserted that all mines placed by Iran have been removed from Hormuz and that any attempt by Tehran to place new ones would be stopped.

Meanwhile, Iran has made its own demands regarding the state clear by sending messages to Washington through Pakistani mediators as recently as Tuesday.

A US military transport plane landed at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport on Tuesday, data from the flight tracking service Flightradar24 showed.

The large Boeing C-17 Globemaster, with the US-registered tail number 07-7181, flew direct from Riga, Latvia, and landed in Moscow around 9:00 a.m. local time.

Unverified footage posted on X/Twitter appears to show the aircraft on approach over a Russian town near the airport.

Reuters could not verify whether it carried any cargo or passengers.

The Kremlin said it had no information on the plane.

The aircraft arrived in Riga on August 23 from the US Camp Springs airbase near Washington, DC, Flightradar24 data showed.

The last direct flight of a US-registered jet to Russia from Europe took place in January this year, carrying special envoys Steven Witkoff and Jared Kushner for peace talks with Vladimir Putin on Ukraine.

The Kremlin said last week it had no information yet about another visit to Moscow by Kushner and Witkoff, as talks between the US and Russia on Ukraine have largely stalled.

Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.

A US judge rejected Ghislaine Maxwell's bid to throw out her conviction and 20-year prison sentence for helping the late financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls.

In a decision made public on Tuesday, US District Judge Paul Engelmayer said Maxwell's claims were all meritless, and all or almost all were frivolous.

Maxwell, 64, who represented herself, challenged her December 2021 conviction and sentence in Manhattan federal court, and sought a writ of habeas corpus declaring her punishment unlawful.

Prosecutors said her latest claims were baseless or filed too late.

Maxwell said many documents disclosed earlier this year through the Epstein Files Transparency Act show that her due process rights were violated because lawyers representing Epstein's accusers served as "de facto prosecutors and agents of the government."

But the judge said this supposedly "new" evidence was largely irrelevant to Maxwell's case.

This is a developing story.

Two additional US senators demanded answers from the Pentagon regarding the living conditions aboard three naval ships involved in the war against Iran.

The letter, shared on Monday by CNN and signed by US Appropriations Committee Vice Chair Patty Murray (Dem. Washington) and Subcommittee on Defense Ranking Member Christopher A. Coons (Dem. Delaware), was addressed to US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Acting US Navy Secretary Hung Cao.

Because of the US Department of Defense’s “inability, or refusal, to provide the congressional defense committees with full and accurate information,” Murray and Coons called on the US Navy to initiate an independent review of the extended deployments and the issues reported onboard the USS Gerald R. Ford, USS Abraham Lincoln, and the USS Benfold.

Senior civilian executives and former military officers should spearhead the investigation, the two said, adding that the review should also "provide recommendations in these areas to improve future extended deployments."

Ford was sent to the Middle East in February 2026, about eight months into her deployment. In March, a laundry fire broke out on the ship, took about 30 hours to extinguish, and injured two service members. She docked in Crete for repairs and returned to the US in May 2026, after more than 300 days at sea. 

Benfold, a Flight I Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, went several days without power while deployed in the South China Sea, a US naval spokesperson told CBS News last week, affecting the ship’s plumbing, meals, and air conditioning. US officials told CBS that Benfold was being protected by other assets in the region. 

Controversy onboard the Lincoln reached its peak two weeks ago, when US military news outlets Navy Times and Stars and Stripes reported deteriorating living conditions and worsening mental health among service members. Since then, several letters have been sent to Hegeth and Cao, demanding answers about the reports.

Lincoln is now on her way back to the US after 250 days at sea without making a port call since departing San Diego in November 2025. 

The pair note the reports of mental health and morale concerns aboard the warships, as well as supply issues for basic necessities, long mess hall lines, and disrupted and lost mail service.

"After working long shifts on duty during combat operations, our sailors and Marines should not have to worry about basic day-to-day functions, whether they’ll have a full meal or be able to communicate with their family members," the letter states.

Further, Murray and Coons argue that the US Navy was "inadequately prepared for predictable risks" in the war with Iran, including the availability of relief aircraft carrier groups and disruptions to the naval supply chain in the Middle East.

“We are also concerned about the future unbudgeted maintenance costs for the Ford and Lincoln and the length of time required to complete these repairs,” they said, “which have not yet been outlined to Congress despite our requests.”

Murray and Coons also request to know whether the Lincoln will make a port call during its journey home, what resources will be available to sailors upon their return home, when the final investigation report on Ford’s laundry fire will be submitted, and what steps the US Navy is taking to prevent similar issues from happening on the USS George H.W.
Bush, USS George Washington, and other ships deployed to the region. 

Additionally, the two demand to know what the US Navy’s contingency plans were for Ford’s extended deployment, supply chain disruptions, and military force requirements in the ongoing conflict as Ford and Lincoln undergo repairs. 

Murray and Coons granted Hegseth and Cao until September 1 to provide answers and open an independent strategic review into the warships.