President Donald Trump on Sunday night fired off a series of messages on social media attacking Senate Democrats, demanding that the Baseball Hall of Fame admit retired pitcher Roger Clemens, and mocking ABC reporter Jonathan Karl’s hair.
And in one of his wilder posts, Trump delivered a not-so-veiled threat to one-time pal Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor who had criticised him earlier in the day.
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“Can anyone believe anything that Sloppy Chris says?” Trump wrote.
Trump seemed to make Christie’s case for him as he hinted that the former governor could soon find himself on the wrong end of a new investigation into the “Bridgegate” scandal from his time as governor.
“Do you remember the way he lied about the dangerous and deadly closure of the George Washington Bridge in order to stay out of prison,” Trump wrote. “For the sake of JUSTICE, perhaps we should start looking at that very serious situation again? NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW!”
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Trump was referring to a 2013 scandal in which members of Christie’s administration closed the lanes in Fort Lee leading to the George Washington Bridge to create a traffic jam, reportedly as revenge against a mayor who did not back Christie’s reelection bid.
When Christie held a press conference denying that his office had been involved, one of his own aides texted to another that he “just flat out lied,” according to court documents released later.
He stayed within Trump’s orbit throughout the campaign and during his first term in office, and was a White House regular:
WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 29: U.S. President Donald Trump (L) shakes hands with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at a panel discussion on an opioid and drug abuse in the Roosevelt Room of the White House March 29, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Shawn Thew-Pool/Getty Images)
Pool via Getty Images
Christie helped Trump prepare for the presidential debates in both 2016 and 2020. He spent a week in the intensive care unit with COVID-19 that he developed while helping Trump in 2020, later saying it was “inexcusable” that he wasn’t told that Trump had tested positive for the infection and “undeniable” that he got the infection from him.
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Trump called him while in the hospital, Christie said, but not entirely to check on his prognosis.
For many people, AI has become a tool for work, trip planning and more, and while it has certain productivity and creativity benefits, it also comes with negatives such as its environmental impact and the fact that it can replace jobs (and, in turn, cause layoffs).
Beyond this, more and more news has come out about the dangerous impact it can have on emotional and mental health, including a relatively new phenomenon known as AI psychosis.
Psychosis can be triggered by lots of things, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and severe depression, along with certain medications, sleep deprivation, drugs and alcohol, Garry noted.
In the case of AI psychosis, “it’s defined as cases where people have increasing delusional thoughts that are either amplified by AI and possibly induced by AI,” said Dr. Marlynn Wei, a psychiatrist, AI and mental health consultant, and founder of The Psychology of AI.
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AI psychosis is not a clinical diagnosis, but is instead a phenomenon that’s been reported anecdotally, explained Wei. Like AI technology, AI psychosis is a new condition that experts are learning every day.
“It’s not yet clear if AI use alone can cause this, but it can be a component that contributes to delusional thoughts and amplifies them,” she said.
It also doesn’t look the same in every person. “There’s different categories of delusions — hyper-religious or spiritual delusions when people believe the AI chatbot is a God … there’s grandiose delusions where people believe … they have special knowledge. And then there’s also romantic delusions,” which is when someone believes they’re in a relationship with AI, Wei explained.
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No matter what kind of psychosis someone is dealing with, AI is based on user-engagement and is taught to validate inputs, explained Wei.
“People are using these general purpose [large language models], like ChatGPT, initially, to validate their views, but then it spins off and amplifies [and] it kind of validates and amplifies their delusion,” Wei added.
AI can feed the delusions that accompany psychosis, added Garry. Since AI is meant to agree with you, if you want to get a certain answer out of AI, you can pose questions that easily make that happen, noted Garry.
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So, AI can seemingly back up delusional thoughts, making them seem even more real.
Oscar Wong via Getty Images
It’s important to have guard rails around when and how you use AI.
There are certain groups who are more vulnerable when it comes to AI use.
The use of AI chatbots is not inherently dangerous, and not everyone is at risk of AI-induced psychosis. While some people will be able to use AI safely, whether for work, weekly meal planning or vacation planning, others won’t be able to do so.
Research is ongoing to determine who is at higher risk of AI psychosis, but those who are more vulnerable seem to include folks with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, severe depression and bipolar disorders, said Wei.
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Although, it can also occur in folks with no known mental health history, Wei added. Certain medications can also put someone at higher risk of psychosis, Garry said.
“In terms of what might be risk factors, I don’t think we know, but just from understanding, I think the risk factors are people who are more socially isolated, don’t have social support, maybe lonely or in a more vulnerable position … over-reliance [on AI] and creating a dependence on it, an emotional dependence,” Wei said. “There’s no research, so we don’t know. These are just hypotheses,” noted Wei.
If you’re worried about a loved one’s AI use (or your own), Garry said there are some things you should look out for.
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“Are they feeling like someone is out to harm them? … Are they sleeping? Are they isolating from others? Are they staying up all night to talk to chat? Are they not going out and having real conversations with real people?” Garry said.
These are all red flags. If someone struggles to stop using AI for a period of time — like taking a break from AI when they go on vacation or out for the work day — or has a bad reaction when asked to limit their use, you should take notice.
If you or a loved one exhibits these behaviours you should seek help from a mental health professional, Garry said.
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You should create rules around your AI use to keep you (and your kids) safe.
To safely use AI, it’s important to have boundaries with it, Garry said. Those could be guard rails regarding when you use it or how you use it.
First, not using an AI chatbot when you’re in a vulnerable state is one important boundary. “When you’re feeling really low, call a friend. Don’t talk to chat,” Garry said.
“And then at night, especially when no one else is awake around you and you’re feeling lonely, don’t talk to chat either because that’s going to create that reliability [of] ‘Well, when no one’s here to talk to, I can talk to this,’” she said.
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This is also important for your children, Garry said. Teach them not to use AI when they’re feeling down or for emotional needs, she noted.
“Start educating your kids on the risk of [AI] and that [it]is not a professional,” Garry said.
If they do start relying on AI for support, ask them what led them to this so you can understand what they’re going through and help them find a better solution, Garry said.
On a larger scale, “advocating for changes in AI legislation, regulations, all of those things to make sure that they’re not just putting out AI without these safeguards there,” Garry said.
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AI should not be a replacement for therapy.
“These general purpose AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude, they were not designed to be people’s therapists, or to detect this kind of behaviour or how to manage this [kind of behaviour],” Wei said.
The companies behind these tools are working on improvements, but being someone’s therapist still isn’t the main task of AI chatbots, she noted, despite the fact that’s increasingly why people use them.
“One of the top uses right now of generative AI is as your therapist or companion, for emotional support,” Wei noted. And this is dangerous.
Regular, in-person therapy and online therapy can come with hurdles such as costs, insurance coverage and simply making the time to actually go to therapy.
It’s no wonder people are turning to AI for emotional support, especially as the country faces a loneliness epidemic. But this isn’t what a traditional AI chatbot is meant for.
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AI can create a “false sense of connectedness,” said Garry. For true connection, reach out to loved ones or seek new connections. While that is certainly easier said than done for everyone, and especially people who are more isolated from others, it’s crucial.
“I’m going to push you to get out of your comfort zone a little bit. So that’s going to those work events, maybe talking with someone in your classroom that you haven’t talked to before. It’s reaching out to someone who you haven’t talked to in 20 years … you never know what that could build or rebuild,” Garry said. “And going out as much as you can, even to just the gym, the mall, walking around in those places you never know who you’re going to run into.”
If you aren’t up for leaving your house and meeting people, “even joining social media groups — at least you know that is a real person on the other end of that,” said Garry.
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Once again, if you are struggling with your mental health, AI isn’t the answer.
Help and support:
Mind, open Monday to Friday, 9am-6pm on 0300 123 3393.
Samaritans offers a listening service which is open 24 hours a day, on 116 123 (UK and ROI – this number is FREE to call and will not appear on your phone bill).
CALM (the Campaign Against Living Miserably) offer a helpline open 5pm-midnight, 365 days a year, on 0800 58 58 58, and a webchat service.
The Mix is a free support service for people under 25. Call 0808 808 4994 or email help@themix.org.uk
Rethink Mental Illness offers practical help through its advice line which can be reached on 0808 801 0525 (Monday to Friday 10am-4pm). More info can be found on rethink.org.
Kemi Badenoch has launched a fresh foul-mouthed blast at Nigel Farage as the pair’s feud exploded once again.
The Tory leader described the Reform UK boss as a “bullshit artist” and even claimed that his friendship with Donald Trump is fake.
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In an interview with the Sunday Times, Badenoch said she “used to really respect” Farage, but that her view of him changed after details of a private conversation between them ended up in the Telegraph.
“I thought, this is bullshit,” she said. “And that was the moment that it changed for me, that this is a bullshit artist, so that is how I treat him.”
Farage is reportedly heading to America this week to give evidence to a US Congress inquiry into free speech in Britain.
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According to the Telegraph, he will tell allies of Donald Trump about Lucy Connolly, the Tory councillor’s wife who was released from prison last week after serving more than a year for a tweet she posted during the Southport riots calling for asylum seekers’ hotels to be burned down.
But Badenoch insisted that Farage’s well-publicised friendship with the US president is fake.
She said: “I’ve been told by many people that it’s all puff.”
The Tory leader’s comments come as her party continues to trail well behin Reform UK in the opinion polls.
Her attack also echoed similar comments she made about Farage at the Local Government Association’s annual conference last month.
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According to The Spectator, she said: “Nigel Farage is a bullshitter, a bullshitter. The difference between liars and bullshit is that bullshitters don’t care whether what they’re saying is true or false. They just say whatever. We are not liars and we don’t do bullshit. We tell the truth. That is what my leadership is about.”
“And people were laughing at it, whenever I said he was never going to concede power,” the comedian and political pundit said Friday. “They would say, ‘Oh, you smoke too much pot.’ Well, turned out I was smoking just the right amount of pot.”
Maher went on to argue that these people are actually the ones in a trance.
He said Trump “does this magic trick” by flooding the discourse with humorous trivialities, and handing out pizza to law enforcement or highlighting the assault of an ex-government staffer nicknamed “Big Balls” so “we’re all laughing about what’s going on in D.C.”
“If there was a slow-moving coup, let me just describe some of the steps and you tell me if I’m being paranoid,” said Maher. “First, create a masked police force — get people used to looking at that. Normalise snatching people off the street — get them used to that.”
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He continued, “Normalise seeing the National Guard and the military on the street. Then, start talking about crime in the capital, which is basically, you know, has always been a fairly crime-ridden city, [but] this is our nation’s capital — where elections are decided.”
Maher noted that six states have already sent their own National Guard troops to D.C., which “Trump can then federalise,” and warned this “permanent police presence” controlled by a power-hungry administration forebodes potentially historic turmoil.
“So when an election dispute might come up, just hypothetically …” he said half-jokingly.
Trump had staffers hand out pizza Thursday to D.C.’s federalized law enforcement.
“I’m going to pretend for the rest of the duration that the Democrats do have a chance of winning, and they might win the next election,” Maher said Friday. “I just don’t think they’re ever going to take power, because this is what’s going to happen.
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“I think this coup is going to go off a lot smoother than the last one,” he warned.
US President Donald Trump spoke about heaven for a second time this week, this time fretting over the type of “report card” one might need to gain entry through the Pearly Gates.
“People of faith, there’s a feeling, they wanna be good, y’know? They get punished if they’re not good, right?” he told radio host Todd Starnes.
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He also said – falsely – that non-religious people have no reason to “be good” since they won’t be punished in an afterlife.
“If you’re not a believer, and you believe you go nowhere, what’s the reason to be good, really?” he said. “There has to be some kind of a report card up there someplace, y’know, like ‘let’s go to heaven, let’s get into heaven.’ It’s sort of a beautiful thing.”
Trump also spoke about getting into heaven earlier in the week – and didn’t seem optimistic about his chances.
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“I want to try and get to heaven if possible,” Trump confessed during a Fox News interview. “I’m hearing I’m not doing well. I hear I’m really at the bottom of the totem pole.”
Trump said brokering a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine might seal the deal for him.
“If I can get to heaven, this will be one of the reasons,” he said.
But so far, Trump – who last year said he could end the war in 24 hours – hasn’t had much success.
In the new interview, Trump also claimed religion is “coming back” under his administration.
“Religion’s coming back, and religion brings our country together,” he said. “All religions. A lot of religions. I mean, some I could question, I guess, to be honest with you, a little rough philosophy there. But religion brings our country together and it’s a great thing.”
Family Beef is our family advice column at HuffPost Family. Have a beef you want us to weigh in on? Submit it here.
Dear Family Beef,
I (F/33) am single and have been since the end of my long-term college relationship. We were together for 5 years before calling it off in my mid-twenties and I’ve been on the apps, trying to meet people through friends and events ever since. I’ve had a few short-term relationships and maybe a handful of okay dates that went nowhere — but I haven’t had someone I’d bring home to meet my family.
My mom has made no secret that she doesn’t love this (and that she wishes I got married to my ex, despite our amicable mutual split). She and my father got together when they were in their early twenties. They met through mutual friends at work, had me and my brother within three years and are still happily married. She knows that I want a partner in life and frequently tells me I “waited too long” and that I wasn’t “really trying” with all the different dating apps available. It hurt when she said that but I was never going to sit down and explain the depressing reality of getting a “wyd” message from a 30-something on tinder to my 63-year-old mother. But now I feel like I don’t have a choice.
I found out recently that she actually made a profile for me on Bumble! The profile itself isn’t that bad— the photos are maybe a little old and not really what I would pick for myself and the other info is a little boring/bland. But I still feel really weird that she signed up for the service (a paid version too?!) without talking to me, that she dropped her own dating profile version of me in front of me and said “see, it’s not that hard” and that she seems so sure that I am the reason I am single still. It all turned into a bigger fight and now I have my brother and dad texting me and asking me when I’m going to make up with her.
We haven’t spoken in a few days, while I figure out how to respond. She didn’t try to hide the profile or anything or swipe or talk to anyone (thankfully!), but I feel like my mom doesn’t understand my situation at all or how bad the apps can be and it makes me feel pathetic that she’s trying to take my love life into her own hands.
I don’t want to fight with her but I want her to know this isn’t okay either and I’d really like her to be nicer to me about all of this because I’ve put a lot of time and therapy into learning to be happy with myself as a single person even as a I look for love. How do I put an end to this fight without letting her think this is okay?
— Mother Knows Best
Whether she meant well or not, your mom made a call that seriously overstepped (and, unsurprisingly, stepped in some shit in the process).
Parents meddling in their adult children’s love life is a tale as old as time, but that doesn’t make the situation any less maddening when it happens to you — and the feelings under the more basic beef seem like they run deeper than an off-brand profile of you making its way to an app.
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The profile itself (and whatever made her think making it was a good idea) is one problem to address, but the seemingly frantic and overly-critical attitude toward your singleness, the way you’re moving through our current dating environment and how that makes you feel is another.
From Critic To Accomplice
The first one is more cut-and-dry: It was wholly inappropriate for her to make a profile for you (functionally impersonating you?) without talking to you. It’s weird and catfish-adjacent at best while also disrespecting your own dating efforts.
I can imagine that this could easily become a goofy story you tell at family functions in the future, if you can address the hurt feelings with love head-on. You can tell her that she took things a step too far and left you feeling disrespected, embarrassed and that you’ve been uncomfortable with the way she’s been speaking about your love life.
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If she is not able to understand your point of view and agree to a more respectful, observing-only distance from your dating life, you may need to set some loving boundaries around her access to that part of your life. Maybe it’s describing the impact and hurt feelings of the “you waited too long” or “you’re not even trying” comments and being clear that those are not helpful.
“Setting boundaries means being clear about what support looks like and what just isn’t helping,” Saba Harouni Lurie, marriage and family therapist and founder of Take Root Therapy, tells HuffPost. “You can let them know that you appreciate them asking about how you’re doing and managing in general, and let them know that you are doing your best to find a partner who is a good fit.”
And, it will also help to let her know the impact of her previous, unhelpful behavior. “You can also explain that when they ask specifically about dating, it causes undue pressure,” Harouni Lurie says, “because you are doing your best to navigate what is, in fact, really difficult.”
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“The best support you can give is rooted in encouragement, humor, and sincere interest without any judgment.”
– Julie Nguyen, dating coach, matchmaker and dating expert at Hily.
Naming your needs and being explicit about how your loved ones can be your allies and accomplices is also helpful.
“You can let them know what actually helps you, which is their encouragement to enjoy the present moment, their trust that you know what’s best for yourself right now, and the patience that the right things take time,” Julie Nguyen, dating coach, matchmaker and dating expert at Hily, said. “That way, you honour their concern but remind them that your path is yours to walk.”
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Harouni Lurie added, “Explicit details about what you need and want, as well as what isn’t working for you, will probably be helpful for everyone involved.”
And, if you want, you can offer an olive branch: If she wants to pay for a more premium app account of your choosing, take her up on the offer (with the caveat that she backs off with the judgmental talk). If she wants to set you up on a date or connect you with someone (and you’re cool with that), tell her she just has to run it by you in a specific way first.
Nguyen adds that relatives can focus their energy on being more encouraging of their single loved one and help relieve the pressure. “The best support you can give is rooted in encouragement, humour, and sincere interest without any judgment,” Nguyen said. “Avoid pressuring them to match out of desperation or because time is running out. Instead, offer lightness by laughing with them about the absurdities, listening when they share, and reminding them of their worth regardless of any relationship status.”
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Help Her Understand How Dating Has Changed
Not trying to make more homework for you here, but your mom really might just not know what she doesn’t know about modern dating.
(Quick note: Though we’re talking about it at length, online dating is, of course, not the only way to date. There’s an encouraging growth in daters seeking out more classic offline dating strategies like approaching people in public, going to events that are designed to get single people talking to one another and asking friends for an intentional, thoughtful fix-up.)
I have friends who, despite being in the online dating generation, still struggle to comprehend the ways the apps (among other things) have wholly disrupted dating because they’re with someone they met in school or through work. I met my own partner on an app, and I write about relationships for a living — yet I still remain in awe at how the user experiences on many of those apps have become less pleasant to use, and the users become less pleasant to speak to.
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So it could help to walk her through the basics of the apps, show her a few of the eye-roll-inducing screenshots you send your friends, or even share bits of this response with her if it might help illustrate it more clearly.
“Understanding this context can help when explaining the situation to concerned family members,” Harouni Lurie said. “For older generations who met through mutual friends, work or shared activities, this environment can seem completely foreign and frankly, quite harsh. They’re used to getting to know someone’s personality, humour, and character before physical attraction became the primary filter.”
We all know the classic issues: There’s an overabundance of shallow choices made based on fairly quick aesthetic judgments. Real, whole people are distilled to a handful of photos and prompts. Some people are appallingly bad at flirting (or holding compelling conversations) over text and don’t feel like it’s worth the same effort as an IRL hang. Some people aren’t so great at representing themselves or their needs accurately. Dating can feel like another boring thing you do on your phone to kill time instead of a sexy or fun opportunity to connect with another person.
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“Online dating has seemingly become more difficult despite appearing more accessible than ever,” Harouni Lurie said. “The core issue may be that we are overloaded with choices, and when you’re presented with thousands of potential matches, the human brain actually becomes less satisfied with any single choice because there’s always the nagging feeling that someone ‘better’ is just one swipe away.”
Harouni Lurie adds that this “creates a throwaway culture around dating.” Where smaller-scale imperfections might be grounds for a knee-jerk dismissal or a “swipe left” just because there’s plenty of other profiles out there.
“It’s like being at a buffet where you can’t enjoy your plate because you’re constantly eyeing what else is available,” she said.
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And it also doesn’t help that the apps are businesses built, to some extent, to retain customers. “The apps themselves have also evolved to prioritise engagement over meaningful connections. They’re designed to keep you swiping,” Harouni Lurie said. “The algorithms often show you your most attractive matches first to get you hooked, and then show you less compatible profiles, with the hope of getting you to pay for premium features.”
Reaffirm Your Goals (In Romance And Self-Love)
Although the apps can feel discouraging, it helps to remember that there are still people at the end of those profiles earnestly looking for connection, too.
“Everyone who puts themselves out there on a dating app is looking for love and connection,” Nguyen said. “When you view it from that function, the app becomes less about superficiality and more about shared human longing. This perspective can help add humanity back into dating apps.”
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I’m not saying sink all your time into swiping — but consider it another option in your arsenal. My rule of thumb, as someone who had a positive app experience, is to only open them when you are feeling chatty, curious and engaged, and to avoid the more passive, dead-eye “toilet-swiping” behaviour. That helps keep the apps as a specific place you go to try and initiate connections instead of a glorified Candy Crush swipe-a-thon. If you notice that you’ve swiped on 12-15 people and remember negligible details about any of them, maybe give it a break.
And despite the frantic nature of folks like your mom, there is no rush here. It’s never a bad time to take a pause, check in with yourself and recommit to what you want: If that’s pursuing partnership, you can take the time to figure out which methods of meeting people and connecting feel best for you. If you’re feeling fatigued with dating, you can honour that too.
“Family members should remember that being in a relationship isn’t inherently better than being single, and their loved one’s worth isn’t determined by their relationship status.”
– Saba Harouni Lurie, founder of Take Root Therapy
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It also may help your mom understand your situation more if you share your philosophy on being single — and continue doing that work of self-love for yourself. Let her know that while you want to find love, you never want that to eclipse loving yourself, or prioritizing finding “anyone” over finding the right one. You’re not in a game of musical chairs where you need to settle down when the music stops. The music isn’t even stopping.
She may imagine that not “ending up with someone” is an outcome that would be more devastating to you than it really would be — and the generational differences, the expectations she might’ve been raised with, may be the source of a lot of her anxiety on that end. It can help to remind her (and yourself) of all the things you love about your single life: your friends, the time you have with her and the rest of your family, your career or hobbies or adventures.
You may both agree and share the hope that you’ll meet your future partner sooner than later (I’m rooting for you, too!), but you should never lose that grounded part of you that knows that you’ll be OK with or without a plus one.
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“Family members should remember that being in a relationship isn’t inherently better than being single, and their loved one’s worth isn’t determined by their relationship status,” Harouni Lurie said. “The goal should be supporting them in finding genuine happiness and connection, whatever that looks like for them.”
A parent has shared the unusual trick she used to calm her toddler’s tantrum on a flight in under a minute – and the internet is hooked.
Taking to Instagram, content creator and photographer Shante Hutton recommended a “nervous system reset hack” for toddlers who are in “meltdown mode” – and it might be particularly useful while travelling.
“Take a small comb and gently brush their feet, hands, and tummy – slow, light strokes,” said Hutton. “It interrupts the overwhelm, gives their brain a new sensory input, and calms them down fast.”
The parent added that when she tried the trick, “we went from red-faced screaming to comatose in under a minute”.
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She then urged families to add a comb to their carry-on luggage the next time they take a flight with young kids.
Does it work?
The post, uploaded a week ago, had almost 43,000 likes at the time of writing.
“My daughter[’s] OT [occupational therapy] recommend we brush her daily,” said one commenter. “Sounds like I own a horse, but it works.”
A grandparent added: “Interesting! I draw circles on their palms (or feet) with my finger and they almost go into a trance.”
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One parent admitted they started “skin brushing” when their baby was a newborn and they “swear it helps with the milestones too”.
There were even some who joked: “Giving my husband a comb for my meltdown later.”
Obviously this isn’t a hack that works for everyone – we’re all different, and some kids might love the sensory experience while others… well, not so much. You know your child and whether they’d respond well to this or not.
Any other meltdown hacks?
Prevention is key. Take lots of snacks and toys to keep them occupied. Tablets can be useful if your child is of an age where they can be distracted by TV shows and films for periods of time.
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One parent swears by painter’s tape to keep her child occupied on a plane – it’s cheap, easy to rip (and remove from surfaces, once stuck), and colourful. Just make sure you clean it all up before you disembark.
If your child is in the thick of a tantrum and the comb trick isn’t working, you could try asking them a “tiny, non-threatening question”, according to Jo Walker, a hypnotherapist at Walker’s Therapy.
The question should have nothing to do with the tantrum. So, Walker gave an example of, “hey, I just noticed your shoes. Where did you get those from?” or “what is the animal on your T-shirt?”.
On Thursday night, the Stranger Things star told her Instagram followers that she and Jake had adopted a baby earlier in the summer.
“This summer, we welcomed our sweet baby girl through adoption,” the couple announced in a joint statement. “We are beyond excited to embark on this beautiful next chapter of parenthood in both peace and privacy.”
The 21-year-old has previously made no secret of her hopes to start a family in the near future, telling the Smartless podcast earlier this year: “For me, my home is full of love for anyone and anything.
“So that’s kind of where we’re at. We’re wanting to start a family and it doesn’t matter in what way or when, but it will happen for sure.”
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Pointing out that both herself and her husband have three siblings each, she continued: “I really want a big family. I’m one of four, he’s one of four, so it is in our future.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Millie shared that she has been focussed on becoming a mother since a young age, pointing out that her own mum was 21 when she was born.
“Since I was a baby, I told my mom, like ‘Baby dolls [are what I want]’,” she explained. “I wanted to be a mum just like the way my mum was to me.
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“Jake knows how important it is to me. Like, of course I want to focus on really establishing myself as an actor and as a producer but I also find it’s so important to start a family for me personally.”
Millie shot to fame around a decade ago as a child actor in the Netflix series Stranger Things, which is coming to an end later this year.
Since then, she’s made a name for herself as both an actor and producer, most notably in Netflix’s Enola Holmes movies and the films Damsel and The Electric State, both made in connection with the streaming giant.
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Jake, meanwhile, is a model and actor, whose father is the musician Jon Bon Jovi.
My son, who starts second grade soon, is autistic and largely nonverbal.
We don’t live in a world that’s made for neurodiverse folks. And while there’s so much out there that tries to push kids like mine to conform into neurotypical spaces, it’s really on us to bend the world for them.
That’s why I talk to our neighbours, the folks running nearby stores, members of our community, about his autism. As a result, he has a favourite corner deli, where the owners know him. A thrift store where, when we walk in, an employee turns the music down, smiling at me from across the aisles. A bookshop where the booksellers don’t mind him sitting at the little kid’s table for half an hour, even when he unpacks a bag of Lego.
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As a father, I will pry the world apart with my bare hands if I have to, if it means he can find a way through. But outside of these specific situations, I’ve never liked talking about my son’s autism with other people.
Growing up as a marginalised person, particularly as an adopted person of colour who didn’t really fit into any one space, a lot of irritating questions regularly came my way. “Where are you from, from?” perhaps being the favourite.
And while I had plenty of canned responses, none were ever satisfying, and I was always tired. No one likes to continuously explain their existence.
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It wasn’t until I was an adult that I learned the concept of “it’s not your job to educate everyone”. It quickly became a core part of how I walk through the world. I was frustrated. I didn’t want to keep justifying myself to people who didn’t understand.
They could just go Google. It’s not that hard to learn about adoption, or what being a transracial adoptee means. Why waste my time, why make me cut myself open for you?
When our son was first diagnosed, there were a lot of questions from family and friends. Most of them were genuinely well-meaning, but as he grew older, some of them started to feel more and more ignorant and intrusive. I got angry. I snapped on phone calls, out at dinner. And that shield went up once again.
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It wasn’t my job to educate everyone.
But in the last two years, something has changed. My child started going to school, then started wanting to go to the park, to playgrounds. He was trying to be social, even without the words. And in that world that tries to make neurodiverse folks bend and change, he deserved every opportunity, every run on a slide, every jump in a splash pad. A classroom, a summer camp. A childhood.
Then the questions started to happen again.
But they weren’t coming from the adults. The other parents mostly looked at us silently, from the corner of their eyes, as I showed up with my kiddo in a wagon while the rest of their children walked; or when he jumped around as their kids sat still; or when he got wildly upset over someone touching his backpack and had to unpack the entire thing so he could make sure everything was just the way he needed it to be.
The side eyes and furrowed brows are seared in my brain. Even if they don’t recognise me at the local grocery store, I sure remember them. I’m a father first and a Scorpio second.
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So no, the questions didn’t come from those adults. They came from their kids.
“Hi, are you his Dad?”
“Why do you take him everywhere in that wagon?”
“What’s wrong with him?”
“Why doesn’t he talk?”
“He won’t play with me, why not?”
“Why does he keep spinning around like that?
“How can I help?”
At 6 or 7 years old, they were full of questions, but they were also full of empathy. Between drop off and pick up at school, at neighbourhood block parties, and at this year’s summer camp, little kids frequently asked these gentle questions, sometimes while a nearby parent tried to shoo them away or tell them what they were asking was inappropriate.
Maybe Past Me would have felt the same. The part of me that insisted “it’s not my job to educate everyone”. But I think that changes when the person you’re trying to educate people about can’t do it for themselves. When you have a chance to alter the world for your child, even a little bit.
So, I started to answer the questions. Just a quick sentence here or there.
“Oh, well he’s autistic. He experiences the world in another way.”
“Sometimes he gets overstimulated, and moving around helps. It’s called stimming.”
“It’s called being nonverbal. Words are hard, but he does communicate.”
“He experiences sensory things differently. So touching is sometimes very uncomfortable.”
And so on. My responses were always met with a thoughtful look, a smile. An “I want to try that!” and a kid spinning around themselves, arms stretched out in the morning sun.
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I’m hopeful, staring down second grade. He’s got great teachers and a great community. And there are kids with empathy everywhere, even if some of the adults have lost it over the years.
Where I once thought it wasn’t my job to educate everyone, now I wish that more people would ask these questions in the gentle, well-meaning way kids do. That instead of the stares and the whispers, they would be curious and brave, like children who only want to understand.
There’s apparently a bromance brewing in the Capitol, and it involves JD Vance.
“I mean, I have a lot of good friends,” Vance said. “The weird thing is, you say it’s one person and then fundamentally that’s an insult to other people.”
After beating around the bush, Vance named Secretary of State Marco Rubio as someone he’s “very close” to, adding that Rubio is a “great friend” of his. He continued to say that Rubio is doing a “great job” in his current position.
Vance didn’t stop there. He then named Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, whom Vance also says is “doing a great job” in his role. Unlike Rubio, Vance and Hegseth’s friendship recently shared a pivotal experience: the two were among those who were booed and heckled during their walk through Union Station, where Vance thanked the National Guard for their service.
“The DC swamp tried to destroy Pete Hegseth, unlike anybody in the administration,” Vance claimed regarding the former Fox News host. “Whenever I see the worst people in the world try to tear a guy down, that makes me think he’s on our side.”
