NEW YORK (AP) – Removing books from library shelves is no longer just a story of objections from a local community or an individual parent, the American Library Association (ALA) said.
In its new State of American Libraries Report released on Monday, the ALA found more than 70 per cent of attempted bans of a given title or titles come from organised groups and elected officials, and just 16 per cent originated with a parent.
The most commonly criticised books, including the late Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, can be found on such websites as www.ratedbooks.org and through lists compiled by Moms for Liberty and other conservative activists.
“We can trace many of the challenges to lists of books that have been distributed by Moms for Liberty and other groups,” said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, who directs the association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom.
As part of its annual report, the ALA unveiled its list of the 10 most “challenged books” of 2024, starting with George M Johnson’s All Boys Aren’t Blue, Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower and John Green’s Looking for Alaska.
The ALA defines a challenge as a “formal, written complaint filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness.”
The association, which compiles censorship data through media accounts and reports from librarians, has long believed the actual number of challenges is far higher than the numbers cited in its annual studies.
The report comes at an especially perilous time for libraries. The Trump administration is implementing drastic cuts at the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which already is cancelling grants to state libraries.
Bans have surged in recent years and several states, from Texas and Florida to Iowa and Utah, have passed laws restricting what school libraries can acquire.
While the ALA is reporting a sharp drop in challenges in 2024, down to 821 attempts compared to 1,247 the year before, the number remains far higher than before 2021.
Banned books are stacked at an exhibit at the American Library Association’s annual conference at McCormick Place in Chicago. PHOTO: AP
NEW DELHI (AFP) – Indian police arrested a man yesterday accused of impersonating a respected London-based cardiologist, days after a probe into the deaths of seven patients.
The alleged scammer, who practised at the private Mission Hospital in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, has been charged with cheating and forgery, police superintendent Shrutkirti Somvanshi told reporters.
“His documents have been found to be fake… The accused doctor has been arrested by our team,” Somvanshi said. The detained man gave his name as ‘Narendra John Camm’, the same as listed on the hospital’s website, written in Hindi. A mugshot published in local media showed him with bleached yellow hair.
The arrest came days after the National Human Rights Commission launched a probe into the deaths of seven patients at Mission Hospital this year.
All seven people had undergone angioplasty surgeries by the arrested man.
Local media said he had impersonated a real cardiologist in Britain called John Camm, an emeritus professor of clinical cardiology at St George’s University of London.
There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by the British-based Camm, who told AFP that the case had been “very disconcerting”.
SEOUL (AP) – South Korea’s military fired warning shots after North Korean soldiers crossed the rivals’ tense border yesterday, South Korean officials said.
South Korea’s military said in a statement that about 10 North Korean soldiers returned to the North after South Korea made warning broadcasts and fired warning shots.
It said the North Korean soldiers violated the military demarcation line at the eastern section of the border at 5pm. South Korea’s military said it is closely monitoring North Korean activities. Bloodshed and violent confrontations have occasionally occurred at the Koreas’ heavily fortified border, called the Demilitarised Zone.
But when North Korean troops briefly violated the border in June last year and prompted South Korea to fire warning shots, it didn’t escalate into a major source of tensions.
South Korean officials assessed that the soldiers didn’t deliberately commit the border intrusion and the site was a wooded area and military demarcation line signs there weren’t clearly visible.
AFP – Kahlil Gibran once wrote, “Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart”. But the Lebanese-American poet likely never encountered the reality of “beauty privilege” – a powerful, if unspoken, advantage in the workplace.
A recent American study reveals a strong link between physical attractiveness and professional success, particularly among young graduates. Published in Information Systems Research, the study found that being perceived as attractive can significantly impact a person’s career trajectory.
Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Southern California analysed data from over 43,000 MBA graduates, tracking the connection between appearance and success over a 15-year period using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.
Their findings: graduates considered attractive earn, on average, 2.4 per cent more annually – about USD2,500 – compared to their less-attractive peers. For the top 10 per cent, that figure jumps to over USD5,500 a year, a “beauty premium” that compounds into a substantial income gap over time.
Beyond salary, the impact of appearance also influences career opportunities. Fifteen years after graduation, individuals perceived as attractive are 52 per cent more likely to hold prestigious positions.
However, this advantage varies from sector to sector. Professions involving a great deal of social interaction, such as consulting or management, place greater value on physical appearance, while its impact in technical fields, such as IT or engineering, are much less pronounced.
“This study shows how appearance shapes not just the start of a career, but its trajectory over decades. The findings reveal a persistent and compounding effect of beauty in professional settings,” explained lead author of the study Nikhil Malik in a press release.
AN ADVANTAGE WITH A DOUBLING IMPACT
So what’s at the root of this “beauty premium”? Psychologists attribute it to a phenomenon known as the “halo effect”. Theorised by American psychologist Edward Thorndike, this effect describes a cognitive bias that influences our perception of a person on the basis of a single characteristic, whether positive or negative. So, when a person is judged physically attractive, we tend to spontaneously attribute other positive qualities to them, such as intelligence or kindness, even in the absence of concrete evidence.
This mechanism can act like a self-fulfilling prophecy: a person who is considered beautiful attracts more positive attention, which in turn favors self-confidence, leadership skills and extroverted behaviour. All traits particularly valued in the professional sphere.
“It’s a stark reminder that success is influenced not just by skills and qualifications, but also by societal perceptions of beauty,” stressed study co-author Kannan Srinivasan in the same press release.
This “beauty premium” raises major ethical questions. While attractiveness may seem to offer advantages, it should not overshadow the importance of competence. Especially as the benefits of beauty vary according to gender and age.
For example, men perceived as attractive often see their salaries rise rapidly, whereas for women, this effect manifests itself more gradually, as economist Eva Sierminska explained in a scientific article entitled “Does it pay to be beautiful?”
Furthermore, the appearance of individuals who are extremely beautiful is not always perceived positively in the professional sphere. This kind of physical appearance can raise concerns and provoke negative emotions in those who are less physically privileged, which can then become an obstacle to being hired and to career progression.
There is also a danger of beauty being conceived of in cliché terms, such as associating beauty with a lack of intelligence.
In other words, even people considered very beautiful can be penalised by their appearance in the world of work. This underscores the importance of companies reviewing their recruitment and talent management practices to ensure that looks never determine an employee’s value.
GAZA STRIP (AP) – Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip yesterday has killed at least 25 people, including eight children and five women, according to Palestinian medics.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Supreme Court is hearing a group of eight cases challenging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial move to dismiss the head of the country’s internal security agency.
Israel ended a ceasefire with Hamas in March and has cut off all food, fuel and humanitarian aid to Gaza – a tactic that rights groups say is a war crime – while issuing new displacement orders that have forced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to flee Israeli bombardments and ground operations. The war in Gaza, now in its 18th month, has killed over 50,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Israel’s Supreme Court hearing sets the stage for what will be the latest showdown between Netanyahu and the judiciary.
Any decision it makes is likely to deepen a rift in Israel over the power of the courts over elected lawmakers.
Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip yesterday that killed at least 25 people was a strike on a home in the central town of Deir al-Balah and it killed 11 people, including five children as young as two, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which received the bodies.
Another four people were killed in a separate strike that hit a house in Deir al-Balah, it said.
Another strike in the northern town of Beit Lahiya flattened a home and killed a family of seven, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
A separate strike hit a group of people in an open area northwest of Gaza City, killing four people, including one who was planning to get married next week, the ministry said.
Smoke rises following a bombardment in the Gaza Strip. PHOTO: AP
AP – In the corners of social media dominated by wellness content, influencers recommend an assortment of treatments and products to support weight loss, fight exhaustion or promote other desired health outcomes.
Some of the endorsed approaches may be helpful. Many play into fads with scant evidence to back up enthusiasts’ claims, medical experts said.
Some influencers encourage their followers to avoid specific food items, such as seed oils, while others advocate going all in on certain foods, such as the meat-heavy carnivore diet.
There are video pitches for berberine, a chemical compound that’s been touted online as “nature’s Ozempic”, and for non-medical IV vitamin therapy, which businesses popularly known as drip bars market as cures for fatigue.
To be sure, alternative health practices and cures that lacked the medical establishment’s backing were a part of popular culture long before the Internet age. But the plethora of advice shared online has both prompted calls for safeguards and found a measure of mainstream acceptance.
The new United States (US) Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, had his Instagram account suspended in 2021 for posting misinformation about vaccine safety and COVID-19, but many of the ideas he champions have a widespread following. Critics of Dr Mehmet Oz accused him of sometimes making misleading assertions on the talk show he used to host; Oz now is President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services.
A Netflix series released last month explored the story of Belle Gibson, a popular Australian wellness influencer who amassed a following talking about curing her terminal brain cancer with a healthy lifestyle and alternative medicine.
In 2015, Gibson admitted to lying about having a cancer diagnosis. Australia’s federal court later fined her for failing to donate money she said would go to charity through sales of her cookbook and app.
With personal wellness remaining a hot topic, here are some tips health experts have for evaluating the material you see online:
PHOTO: ENVATOPHOTO: ENVATO
BE CAUTIOUS WHEN AN INFLUENCER PROMOTES PRODUCTS
Most influencers have or want business relationships with companies that allow them to earn income by promoting products. The arrangements don’t necessarily mean content creators don’t believe in what they’re marketing, but they do have a vested interest in publicising products that may or may not work.
Creators can get paid for pictures or videos that hype up a product and also earn commissions on sales through features such as affiliate links.
Experts note it’s therefore better to proceed with caution when someone inspires you to hit the “buy” button, whether it’s for natural supplements, teas with purported weight loss benefits or any other wellness products that show up in your social media feed.
Research published last month in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed a sizable amount of Instagram and TikTok posts that discussed five popular medical tests mostly came from account holders with “some form of financial interest” in promoting the screenings.
After analysing roughly 980 posts on the two platforms, researchers said most of the posts they found were misleading and failed to “mention important harms, including overdiagnosis” resulting from health people having full-body MRIs or tests to detect early signs of cancer, evaluate microorganisms in the gut or measure hormone levels.
Promoting dietary supplements has been a particularly lucrative exercise for many influencers, said health policy and law professor Timothy Caulfield at the University of Alberta.
He views the supplements industry as “the backbone” of health misinformation aimed at consumers and designed to fuel billions of dollars in revenue.
“It’s gotten to the point where if someone is selling a supplement, it’s a red flag,” he said.
“I don’t think it was always like that, but it certainly is now.”
CHECK FOR EXPERTISE
In general, consumers should take all bold claims with a degree of scepticism, said Chief Executive Officer Cedric Bryant at the non-profit American Council on Exercise.
The goal of creators is to increase engagement with their content, and some influencers may be tempted to make unproven assertions to draw in more viewers.
“If it’s too good to be true, it probably is,” Bryant said.
Some health and wellness influencers have medical training, but many do not. Before taking health tips from someone on social media, it’s a good idea to make sure they have the proper expertise or at least able to share the data that led them to recommend certain products or lifestyle choices.
In the fitness area, Bryant recommends checking to see if a creator holds certification from an accreditation organisation and then confirming the information through the US Registry of Exercise Professionals database.
The American Medical Association and The American Board of Medical Specialties maintain searchable databases for medical doctors, which may help verify the qualifications of creators who share their legal names and general locations.
US also operate databases that allow users to check if someone is licensed to practice medicine or has been disciplined for misconduct.
If an influencer holding the appropriate credentials pushes certain products, consumers still may want to consider if a brand partnership or other factors are shaping their recommendations. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines that reflected the agency’s interpretation of federal law directed influencers featuring specific products or services to prominently disclose any endorsements.
Yet sponsorships and potential conflicts of interest are not always revealed.
In 2023, the year the guidelines were issued, the FTC issued warnings to a dozen online influencers for failing to adequately disclose paid social media posts that promoted “sugar-containing products” and aspartame, a sweetener found in diet soda, ice cream and other foods. Some of the influencers were registered dieticians.
COMPARE TO THE PREVAILING MEDICAL CONSENSUS
If a creator cites studies to support health and diet claims, it’s best to check and see if what they’re saying aligns with the latest evidence-based medical consensus.
“Just because somebody has an ‘MD’ after their name doesn’t make them entirely trustworthy,” said psychiatrist and Stanford University professor Elias Aboujaoude who studies the intersection of psychology and technology.
Aboujaoude suggests double-checking health claims with traditionally reputable sources, such as major academic institutions or government health agencies.
He also advised looking at studies cited by creators and assessing whether they’ve been published in reputable journals and subjected to peer review.
In some cases, it might be too soon to know if promising results should be trusted or not, said registered dietitian with the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota Katherine Zeratsky.
For example, a study might show the benefits of a specific type of herb. But that doesn’t necessarily mean the findings have been replicated in other research, a requirement for treatment methods to be considered proven effective, she said. – Haleluya Hadero
ATHENS (AP) – A medical charity working in Greece says it has diagnosed six young children living in a migrant facility on the eastern Aegean island of Samos as suffering from malnutrition, the first time its doctors have made such a diagnosis since the facility opened in 2021.
The Greek section of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said its staff had diagnosed the children, who are aged between six months and six years old with moderate to severe acute malnutrition and in need of immediate medical intervention.
“Children make up about 25 per cent of the (camp’s) population, yet pediatric care remains insufficient, not only within the center but on the entire island of Samos,” MSF Greece’s Director General Christina Psarra said in a news release.
The six children, who hailed from Afghanistan and Syria, all arrived in the camp with their families within the last two to three months, and it was not possible to determine whether they had already been suffering from malnutrition before they arrived, Psarra told The Associated Press. However, “definitely the conditions in the camp have made things more difficult and have had an aggravating effect,” she said.
The situation was exacerbated by the severance nine months ago of a stipend provided to asylum seekers in Greece, which had allowed them to purchase fresh food and other basic necessities, she added. Officially designated as a “closed controlled access center,” the European Union-funded migrant camp in Samos, built on a hillside about eight kilometres from the island’s main port of Vathy, was opened in 2021 to replace a massively overcrowded camp that had developed on the town’s fringes.
AP – Having it all means different things to everyone, but a rent-controlled apartment in Manhattan is probably pretty close to a universal dream – even for non-New Yorkers. It’s easy enough, then, to understand the profound conundrum facing Iris (Naomi Watts), a writer and professor who suddenly finds herself with a 150-pound Great Dane ward after an unexpected death in The Friend.
Not only is her place a mere 500 square feet, but it’s also one of those pesky buildings in which dogs are not welcome. Not even the cute, well-behaved ones.
Dog lovers may find the choice simple (perhaps it should be) and the apartment rules cruelly restrictive, but this is a single woman living a writer’s life in one of the most expensive cities in the world. And now she’s grappling with the idea of saying goodbye to a major part of her identity because her dear friend and mentor Walter (Bill Murray) died without leaving behind a plan for his beloved dog Apollo (Bing). Or perhaps that’s not entirely true: Iris was the plan. Walter just didn’t tell her that before he killed himself.
She’s not even a self-proclaimed dog person.
The film is an adaptation of Sigrid Nunez’s National Book Award-winning novel of the same name, made by filmmaking duo Scott McGehee and David Siegel (What Maisie Knew). Its appeal isn’t mysterious – it’s a classic New York movie about the most romantic New York profession, writing, with actors like Murray and Watts (and Bing) leading the charge.
These are characters who’ve lived lives, too. Walter died a celebrated but problematic author, known for his womanising and multiple marriages. He left behind not just Apollo but three ex-wives (Carla Gugino, Constance Wu and Noma Dumezweni), a grown daughter (Sarah Pidgeon) and a misconduct accusation. Iris and Walter also had a dalliance at one point, but settled into a friendship – his deepest, we’re told.
This is perhaps the most mysterious element of the story – partially on purpose, since Walter is dead for most of the movie. We see him only in limited flashbacks and Murray wears the part well: a freewheeling, egotistical genius whose ways have skipped out of sync with the times but whose charisma keeps him surrounded by throngs of admirers. And afterward, Iris is questioning what it all meant and perhaps how well she really did know this man: It’s a kind of grief, that of a friend, that isn’t regularly explored in films.
Iris is the most radical of female characters, even, depressingly in 2025: a single woman of a certain age and no ambition to be anything else. Watts plays her with grace and dignity, as she struggles with her own writing. Even Apollo has a past: Walter found him alone in Central Park one day and took him in as his own. When Walter’s gone, Apollo is perhaps the most outwardly depressed about the loss. His days are spent either sitting sadly on Iris’ bed with literal hangdog eyes or acting out and destroying things in her apartment.
It’s no spoiler to say that they’ll both have to go on a journey to realising that perhaps they can find solace in one another in the devastating absence of their larger-than-life friend.
McGehee and Siegel avoid hokey dog movie cliches and easy jokes about ownership learning curves and instead present a rather straightforward portrait of what it’s like to suddenly inherit a very large living creature.
The Friend stretches on a bit too long, but it’s done with such care and a kind heart that it’s not hard to give it two hours of your time. It’s also one of those movies people complain they don’t make anymore, although its existence is a reminder that they do still make “them”, meaning smart, emotionally authentic stories about people who seem real. They just might require a little more effort to find than they used to. – Lindsey Bahr
Bill Murray and Naomi Watts in a scene from ‘The Friend’. PHOTO: APABOVE & BELOW: Photos show scenes from the movie. PHOTO: APPHOTO: APPHOTO: AP
SEOUL (AFP) – Samsung Electronics yesterday announced a record first quarter sales forecast and said it saw a better-than-expected performance for profits, even as analysts warned United States (US) tariffs could soon impact the South Korean tech giant.
The announcement came a day after a stock market rout in Asia and Europe sparked by China’s retaliation against steep US tariffs and President Donald Trump’s refusal to back down despite the turmoil.
In a regulatory filing, Samsung predicted its January-March operating profits to rise to KRW6.6 trillion (USD4.5 billion), down 0.15 per cent from a year earlier but up nearly two per cent on the previous quarter.
This was almost 34 per cent higher than the average estimate, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, which cited its own financial data firm.
The firm is the flagship subsidiary of South Korean giant Samsung Group, by far the largest of the family-controlled conglomerates that dominate business in Asia’s fourth-largest economy.
It is a chip powerhouse, and one of the world’s largest makers of mobile phones.
Samsung said sales were also seen increasing to KRW79 trillion, a near 10 per cent jump from a year earlier, marking the highest first-quarter figure on record and the second-highest quarterly revenue ever.
A man walks past a logo of Samsung Electronics displayed outside the company’s Seocho building in Seoul. PHOTO: AFP
The company did not disclose its net income or the detailed earnings of its business divisions.
However, experts warn Trump’s tariffs could heavily impact Samsung as more than half of its smartphones are made in Vietnam, which now faces a 46 per cent US duty.
“Samsung’s consensus-beating first-quarter operating profit implies its popular product offerings, such as Galaxy smartphones, could weather a tough business environment, when combined with strong cost control capabilities,” Bloomberg Intelligence analysts said.
“Yet the pace of profit growth might slow in the second quarter given most of its smartphones are made in Vietnam, which subjects them to US import tariffs.”
The high figures forecast were partly down to record sales of the new Galaxy S25 series phone, which was released in February, experts said.
The gadget became the fastest ever Galaxy device to reach one million units sold in the shortest time – within 21 days.
Samsung also benefited from strong demand for server DRAM – mostly used in data centres – which offset slowing prices for more conventional high-end chips, TrendForce analyst Tom Hsu told AFP.
There was “strong purchase momentum” from some US and Chinese cloud service providers, who were investing in their data centres, he said.
But “with the US government imposing substantial tariffs, leading to a potential for economic uncertainties”, demand is likely to fall, which could hit prices, he added.
Because of US rules limiting the export of artificial intelligence chips to China, and Beijing’s push to use more local suppliers, fewer orders are going to companies like Samsung, TrendForce analyst Joanne Chiao told AFP.
“Because of this, Samsung Foundry’s sales are expected to go down in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the previous quarter,” said Chiao.
Looking ahead, “geopolitical factors” are making it harder for some of Samsung’s Chinese customers to use advanced technology.
AP – After holding relatively stable during last week’s global market turmoil, cryptocurrencies have joined the sell-off.
Bitcoin, the world’s most popular cryptocurrency dipped below USD75,000 on Monday morning before seeing a slight rebound.
Bitcoin’s prices haven’t been this low since just after President Donald Trump’s Election Day victory last year launched a bull run in crypto prices. Trump, whose tariff announcements led to massive stock sell offs, has been a major promoter of the crypto industry and previously took credit when bitcoin’s price broke USD100,000 in December. Bitcoin has been on a relatively steady slide in price since Trump took office earlier this year.
Bitcoin’s backers say it is a type of digital gold that can act as a hedge against volatility.
But Garrick Hileman, an independent cryptocurrency analyst, said bitcoin’s price slide shows that thesis still hasn’t proven to be true.
“It’s just not there today,” he said. “(Bitcoin) trades like a risky tech stock.”
Other major digital assets saw even bigger one-day percentage drops on Monday morning.
Ether, the second most popular crypto token, was trading at about USD1,500 on Monday morning. It’s lost about half of its value since Trump’s son, Eric Trump, encouraged his followers on social media to buy ether in early February.
President Trump’s own meme coin, which he launched just before taking office and once hit a high of more than USD70, dipped below USD8 on Monday morning. Stock prices of crypto-focused companies also saw declines in early trading on Monday.
President Donald Trump speaks at the Bitcoin 2024 Conference. PHOTO: AP
