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Kenza Bennani, a Moroccan fashion designer, has made it her mission to modernize the traditional caftan. The garment recently made it onto the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage. A variety of modern caftans are displayed in the New Tangier boutique, each with its own unique color, fabric, and cut, inspired by Moroccan heritage but designed for everyday wear, not only for special occasions. "We design modern Moroccan clothes with a focus on different origins, as we are a crossroad of different civilizations historically. And so we try to reinterpret these different cuts and different heritages in a way that is contemporary," says Bennani. The work is done in her grandmother's house. It's here where she sits and sketches new designs, carefully selecting the right color and texture from fabric swatches. The result is a little different from the caftans her ancestors would have worn. “We're focusing on the form and the function of traditional Moroccan clothes and not focusing on the ornamental aspect, which is generally what is expected of Moroccan clothing, and that way that allows us to really kind of highlight the beauty of the cut and the modernity of the cuts, and the fact that they're extremely body-friendly, they're unisex, they're the same shapes for men and women, and we try to just really don't invent anything new. We're just really kind of digging into the history of Moroccan clothing,” she says. Her work has won the praise of Hicham Bouzid, creative director of the cultural agency “Think Tanger.” For him, the Moroccan caftan is a symbol of national identity, passed down from mother to daughter, and from master to apprentice, for over eight centuries. Artisans bring her designs to life in the basement of the house, tracing the pattern on fabric, sewing the cloth together, and carefully cutting each piece. Their skill is just as important as the designer's. The process of creating a single garment takes between 18 and 35 hours. Bennani is very strict about what materials are used. This article was provided by The Associated Press.

In a sparse shack on the rural roadside in Kiambu, at the edge of metropolitan Nairobi, Safari Martins uses unconventional techniques to cut hair. On the shack’s wooden walls hang a shovel, an iron, agricultural shears, and a wrench. “I just use unconventional tools,” Martins says, smiling, moments before sliding a razor-sharp shovel edge across his client Ian Njenga’s head, lopping off a swath of hair in the first of a series of moves that yields a surprisingly clean haircut. Unconventional tools are a hallmark for Martins, who is one of Kenya’s most recognizable barbers with around 1 million followers on each of his Instagram and TikTok accounts, where he is known as Chief Safro. As he makes precision cuts across Njenga’s head, a helper stands to the side, capturing every moment from different angles on a smartphone camera. Influencer barbers are a new trend in Kenya, where social media usage has exploded in recent years and platforms like TikTok are being used both for entertainment and as a lucrative side hustle. Born in Rwanda and now based in Nairobi, Martins started barbering in high school in 2018. Using borrowed clippers, he began offering trims outside classrooms and in cramped dormitories. Five years later, he added a camera and dropped a conventional trimmer—and never turned back. Martins went viral for zany barbering methods, but he has increasingly incorporated traditional African folk tales into voiceovers on his videos. “I’m motivated by African culture, by African stories,” he says, adding that one of his tools, a sharpened iron box, was blessed by village elders. The barber’s staying power has come from the haircuts themselves, which his customers say they love—and the chance to be featured on one of Kenya’s most magnetic social media accounts. “If I compare him with other barbers, his talent is next level,” says Njenga, who first visited Martins last year. “When I get shaved here, I get very comfortable, while walking in the streets, I get very confident.” The draw of a unique barbering experience and five minutes of social media fame is enough for customers to push past the price. This article was provided by The Associated Press.  

It turns out, love may benefit from a little less labor. Couples who spend money on time-saving services—like getting takeout, hiring a house cleaner, or calling a dog walker—report greater relationship satisfaction, especially during stressful periods, says Ashley Whillans, a behavioral scientist and professor at Harvard Business School. Whillans studies the "tradeoffs people make between time and money." "When you spend money to save time—hiring an accountant, a babysitter, a cleaner—you feel more control over your life," she said. "That sense of autonomy boosts well-being." Not everyone can afford to outsource bigger household chores. But Whillans says even a little bit can help. She advises couples to take a "time audit"—examining how they spend their hours and what small changes could reclaim even a few moments. "People underestimate how much these choices matter," she said. "It's not about luxury—it's about freeing up time to connect." Whillans' team tracked busy, dual-income couples—partners working full-time who often report feeling time-starved—and found consistent patterns. In one six-week diary study, couples who made "time-saving purchases" on a given day were happier and more satisfied with their relationships. Simply outsourcing chores isn't a magic fix, however. "It's about being intentional with the time you get back—using it to spend quality time together, to reconnect," Whillans said. "Think of that half hour not as an opportunity to send more emails, but as a chance to spend time with your partner." Targol Hasankhani, a Chicago-based marriage and family therapist, stressed that while outsourcing domestic labor can ease daily stress, it doesn't replace communication. Juggling careers and kids takes a toll on families, and housework is often freighted with resentments over who is doing it. "If conflict around chores is rooted in something deeper—like inequity or not feeling heard—hiring a cleaner won't solve that," she said. This article was provided by The Associated Press.

Many consumers feel pride in avoiding the glazed pastries in the supermarket and instead opting for “all-natural” granola that comes packed with extra protein. The same goes for low-fat yogurts “made with real fruit,” organic plant-based milks, and bottled “superfood” smoothies. However, buyers should be aware that healthy grocery buzzwords like those often cover up an unhealthy amount of sugar. Added sugars are difficult to quickly spot because many companies use clever marketing to distract consumers, said Nicole Avena, a professor of neuroscience and psychiatry at Mount Sinai Medical School and Princeton University who has studied added sugars. Avena said while some health-forward brands know people are starting to become aware of the hazards of added sugars, "a lot of the bigger brands don’t worry so much about people’s health.” Along with saturated fat and salt, eating excess sugar is linked to heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and other health risks. The average American consumes 17 teaspoons of added sugar a day, which adds up to 57 pounds (26 kilograms) per year, according to the American Heart Association. About half of that comes from beverages, but much of the rest is sneaked into cereal, salsa, prepared sandwiches, dairy products, bottled sauces, and baked goods, including many brands of whole-grain bread. To help control sugar intake, start by checking the nutrition label. Since 2021, food companies have been required to list the quantity of added sugars separately from total sugar content. But the plan backfired, Avena said. Companies reduced common sweeteners like refined beet sugar and high-fructose corn syrup but added alternatives, such as monk fruit and the sugar alcohol erythritol, which aren’t considered “added sugars” under FDA regulations. “Now our foods are even more sweet than they were back in 2020,” Avena said. According to Collin Popp, a dietitian and professor at NYU Langone Health, the key is to be mindful of what you’re eating, even if the product seems healthy or if the package is labeled organic. Roasted nuts, plant-based milks, and wasabi peas, for example, can include a surprising amount of added sugars. So can English muffins and Greek yogurt. This article was provided by The Associated Press.

When the MetroCard replaced the New York City subway token in 1994, the swipeable plastic card infused much-needed modernity into one of the world's oldest and largest transit systems. Now, more than three decades later, the gold-hued fare card and its notoriously finicky magnetic strip are following the token into retirement. The last day to buy or refill a MetroCard was December 31, 2025, as the transit system fully transitions to OMNY, a contactless payment system that allows riders to tap their credit card, phone, or other smart device to pay fares, much like they do for other everyday purchases. Transit officials say more than 90% of subway and bus trips are now paid using the tap-and-go system, introduced in 2019. Major cities around the world, including London and Singapore, have long used similar contactless systems. In the U.S., San Francisco launched a pay-go system earlier this year, joining Chicago and others. The humble MetroCard may have outlasted its useful life, but in its day it was revolutionary, says Jodi Shapiro, curator at the New York Transit Museum in Brooklyn, which opened an exhibit last December reflecting on the MetroCard's legacy. Before MetroCards, bus and subway riders relied on tokens, the brass-colored coins introduced in 1953 that were purchased from station booths. When the subway opened in 1904, paper tickets cost just a nickel, or about $1.82 in today's dollars. "There was a resistance to change from tokens to something else because tokens work," Shapiro said on a visit to the museum, housed underground in a decommissioned subway station. "MetroCards introduced a whole other level of thinking for New Yorkers." The Metropolitan Transportation Authority launched public campaigns to teach commuters how to swipe the originally blue-colored cards correctly, hoping to avoid the dreaded error message or lost fares. Officials even briefly toyed with the idea of a quirky mascot, the Cardvaark, before coming to their senses. This article was provided by The Associated Press.

The Trump administration said on December 23 that it will begin garnishing the wages of student loan borrowers who are in default this year. The department said it will send notices to approximately 1,000 borrowers the week of January 7, with more notices to come at an increasing scale each month. Millions of borrowers are considered in default, meaning they are 270 days past due on their payments. The department must give borrowers 30 days' notice before their wages can be garnished. The department said it will begin collection activities "only after student and parent borrowers have been provided sufficient notice and opportunity to repay their loans." In May 2025, the Trump administration ended the pandemic-era pause on student loan payments, beginning to collect on defaulted debt through withholding tax refunds and other federal payments to borrowers. The move ended a period of leniency for student loan borrowers. Payments restarted in October of 2023, but the Biden administration extended a grace period of one year. Since March 2020, no federal student loans had been referred for collection, including those in default, until the Trump administration's changes earlier this year. The Biden administration tried multiple times to give broad forgiveness to student loans, but those efforts were eventually stopped by courts. Persis Yu, deputy executive director for the Student Borrower Protection Center, criticized the decision to begin garnishing wages and said the department had failed to sufficiently help borrowers find affordable payment options. "At a time when families across the country are struggling with stagnant wages and an affordability crisis, this administration's decision to garnish wages from defaulted student loan borrowers is cruel, unnecessary, and irresponsible," Yu said in a statement. "As millions of borrowers sit on the precipice of default, this Administration is using its self-inflicted limited resources to seize borrowers' wages instead of defending borrowers' right to affordable payments." This article was provided by The Associated Press.

Climate change, worsened by human behavior, made 2025 one of the three hottest years on record, scientists said. It was also the first time that the three-year temperature average broke through the threshold set in the 2015 Paris Agreement of limiting warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times. Experts say that keeping the Earth below that limit could save lives and prevent catastrophic environmental destruction around the globe. The analysis from World Weather Attribution (WWA) researchers, released in Europe, came after a year when people around the world were slammed by the dangerous extremes brought on by a warming planet. Temperatures remained high despite the presence of a La Niña, the occasional natural cooling of Pacific Ocean waters that influences weather worldwide. Researchers cited the continued burning of fossil fuels—oil, gas, and coal—that send planet-warming greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. “If we don’t stop burning fossil fuels very, very, quickly, very soon, it will be very hard to keep that goal (of warming)," Friederike Otto, co-founder of World Weather Attribution and an Imperial College London climate scientist, told The Associated Press. “The science is increasingly clear.” Extreme weather events kill thousands of people and cost billions of dollars in damage annually. WWA scientists identified 157 extreme weather events as the most severe in 2025, meaning they met criteria such as causing more than 100 deaths, affecting more than half an area’s population, or having a state of emergency declared. Of those, they closely analyzed 22. That included dangerous heat waves, which the WWA said were the world's deadliest extreme weather events in 2025. The researchers said some of the heat waves they studied in 2025 were 10 times more likely than they would have been a decade ago due to climate change. “The heat waves we have observed this year are quite common events in our climate today, but they would have been almost impossible to occur without human-induced climate change,” Otto said. “It makes a huge difference.” This article was provided by The Associated Press.

In December, record floodwaters began slowly receding in Washington state after triggering evacuations, inundating communities, and prompting dramatic rescues from rooftops and vehicles. But authorities warned that waters would still be high for days and that danger from potential levee failures remained. “This is not just a one- or two-day crisis,” Gov. Bob Ferguson said at a news briefing. “These water levels have been historic, and they’re going to remain very high for an extended period of time.” President Donald Trump has signed the state’s request for an emergency declaration, Ferguson said. An unusually strong atmospheric river dumped a foot (30 cm) or more of rain in parts of western Washington over several days and swelled rivers. No deaths have been reported, Ferguson said. Authorities have yet to estimate the total costs, but photos and videos show widespread damage, with entire communities or neighborhoods flooded around western and central Washington. Officials have conducted dozens of water rescues, debris and mudslides have closed highways, and raging torrents have washed out roads or bridges. Officials issued “go now” orders last December 10 to tens of thousands of residents in the Skagit River flood plain north of Seattle, including the farming city of Burlington, home to nearly 10,000 people. By December 12, muddy water overflowed a slough and rushed into homes, prompting more urgent warnings for Burlington. National Guard members knocked on hundreds of doors in Burlington early morning to tell residents about the evacuation notice and help transport them to a shelter if needed. By late morning, the evacuation order was lifted for part of the city, and the waters were slowly receding. But the river remained high, and flash flooding remained a risk due to prolonged pressure on the levees. The Skagit River drains a wide swath of the rugged Cascade Range before winding west across broad, low-lying farmlands and tulip fields on its way to Puget Sound. Cities like Burlington sit on that delta, leaving them especially vulnerable to floods. This article was provided by The Associated Press.

Robots have long been seen as a bad bet for Silicon Valley investors—too complicated, capital-intensive, and “boring, honestly,” says venture capitalist Modar Alaoui. But the commercial boom in artificial intelligence has lit a spark under long-simmering visions to build humanoid robots that can move their mechanical bodies like humans and do things that people do. Alaoui, founder of the Humanoids Summit, gathered more than 2,000 people, including top robotics engineers from Disney, Google, and dozens of startups, to showcase their technology and debate what it will take to accelerate a nascent industry. Alaoui says many researchers now believe humanoids or some other kind of physical embodiment of AI are “going to become the norm.” "The combination of AI and robotics has given robotics a brand new life," Alaoui said. "Humanoids are here to stay. Embodied AI in general is gonna just be here to stay. Robotics will change every single industry as we know it,” he added. Disney's contribution to the field, a walking robotic version of “Frozen” character Olaf, will be roaming on its own through Disneyland theme parks in Hong Kong and Paris this year. Entertaining and highly complex robots that resemble a human—or a snowman—are already here, but the timeline for “general purpose” robots that are a productive member of a workplace or household is farther away. Even at a conference designed to build enthusiasm for the technology, held at a Computer History Museum that's a temple to Silicon Valley's previous breakthroughs, skepticism remained high that truly humanlike robots will take root anytime soon. Researchers at the consultancy McKinsey & Company have counted about 50 companies around the world that have raised at least $100 million to develop humanoids, led by about 20 in China and 15 in North America. China is leading in part due to government incentives for component production and robot adoption and a mandate in 2024 “to have a humanoid ecosystem established by 2025,” said McKinsey partner Ani Kelkar. Displays by Chinese firms dominated the expo section of the summit. This article was provided by The Associated Press.

When a measles outbreak hit West Texas last year, school absences surged to levels far beyond the number of children who likely became sick, according to a study, as students were excluded or kept home by their families to minimize the spread of the disease. Absences in Seminole Independent School District, a school system that served students at the heart of the outbreak, climbed 41% across all grade levels compared with the same period in the two previous years, according to the Stanford University study. The preliminary study, which has not been published or finished a formal peer review, offers a glimpse at the toll on student learning from the spread of measles, a highly contagious disease that has crept up in communities around the U.S. with low vaccination rates. In Texas and nationally, about two-thirds of measles cases have been among unvaccinated children. When measles is spreading, public health officials respond by excluding unvaccinated students from schools. "The costs of that absenteeism are just not among the sick kids, but all the kids who are kept out of school as a precaution," said Thomas Dee, a Stanford economist and education professor who co-authored the study. Measles is airborne and poses a severe risk for young children. In 2000, the illness was declared eradicated in the U.S., thanks to the widespread usage of the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine. In recent years, more parents have sought exemptions to school requirements for the shots, and most states are below the 95% kindergarten vaccination rate that experts say is needed to prevent outbreaks. In Seminole Independent School District, only 77% of kindergartners were vaccinated against measles in the 2024–2025 school year, according to state health department data. The measles upsurge there launched the United States' worst measles year in more than three decades, sickening 762 people across Texas in seven months. That number could have been even higher. The Texas Department of State Health Services says there were an additional 182 potential measles cases reported in March 2025 among children in surrounding Gaines County that the state excluded from its count due to a lack of information. This article was provided by The Associated Press.

Delivery company Instacart will pay $60 million in customer refunds under a settlement reached with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over alleged deceptive practices. The FTC said that Instacart has been falsely advertising free deliveries. The San Francisco-based company isn’t clearly disclosing service fees, which add as much as 15% to an order and must be paid for customers to receive their groceries, the FTC said. Instacart has also failed to clearly disclose that customers who enroll in a free trial for its Instacart+ program will be charged membership fees at the end of the trial. The FTC said hundreds of thousands of customers have been charged but have received no benefits from memberships or refunds. Instacart+ offers members free deliveries on most orders for $99 per year. The FTC said Instacart also advertises a “100% satisfaction guarantee,” but customers who experience late deliveries or unprofessional service are typically only offered a small credit that can be used toward a future order and not a refund. “The FTC is focused on monitoring online delivery services to ensure that competitors are transparently competing on price and delivery terms,” said Christopher Mufarrige, the director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. Instacart denied the FTC’s allegations of wrongdoing but said it reached a settlement in order to move forward and focus on its business. “Instacart is proud to offer a transparent, affordable, and consumer-friendly service. We provide straightforward marketing, transparent pricing and fees, clear terms, easy cancellation, and generous refund policies—all in full compliance with the law and exceeding industry norms,” the company said in a statement. The settlement comes as Instacart is facing separate questions about its pricing practices. In December, a report by Consumer Reports and two progressive advocacy groups—Groundwork Collaborative and More Perfect Union—found that Instacart charged different prices for the same grocery items even though online shoppers were filling their Instacart baskets at the same time and at the same stores. The report suggested that Instacart may be using artificial intelligence tools to drive up costs for consumers. This article was provided by The Associated Press.

Americans are disconnected from each other at historic levels, buffeted by what a former surgeon general calls an “epidemic of loneliness.” “Loneliness is one of the most pressing challenges that’s facing our country, the United States, but also the world,” said Vivek Murthy, the former Surgeon General, and founder of the Together Project. Recent polling shows that membership rates in religious faiths are at their lowest in nearly a century. And Americans have fewer close friends than they used to, according to the Survey Center on American Life. They trust each other less. A Community Health Deputy and peer specialist for the Neighborhood Resilience Project, whose goal is to restore and build community at the local level, visited a client struggling with depression, anxiety, and loneliness. “We talk about things and our common interests, as well as her helping me get beyond my loneliness and conquer my fear,” said Tricia Berger, a client of the Neighborhood Resilience Project. “That’s my main thing, to leave my clients just a little bit better than they were,” said Kim Lowe, a Community Health Deputy with the Neighborhood Resilience Project, while sitting with Berger. About one in six adults feels lonely all or most of the time. It’s about one in four young adults, according to the Pew Research Center. But in cities and towns around the U.S., some groups are working to reconnect their communities. Murthy depicts these groups as part of a growing movement centered around connection. “One of the things I came to realize is if we want to address the challenge of loneliness, we need to build a movement centered around connection. And the good news is that that movement is already starting to build. But what we have to do now is accelerate that movement,” said Murthy. “The Neighborhood Resilience Project is a ministry of the Orthodox Church dedicated to the pursuit of resilient, healing, and healthy community,” said Rev. Paul Abernathy, founder. “There are examples of this where, certainly, you will see the food and clothing pantries we have for people.” This article was provided by The Associated Press.

A bipartisan group in Congress is urging the Education Department to add nursing to a list of college programs that are considered "professional," adding to public outcry after nurses were omitted from a new agency definition. The Trump administration's list of professional programs includes medicine, law, and theology, but leaves out nursing and some other fields that industry groups had asked to be included. The "professional" label would allow students to borrow larger amounts of federal loans to pursue graduate degrees in those fields. Under new rules proposed by the Trump administration, students in graduate programs deemed professional could borrow up to $200,000 for their degrees in total, and up to $50,000 a year. Loans for other graduate programs would be capped at $100,000 in total and $20,500 per year. In the past, graduate students had been able to borrow federal loans up to the full cost of their programs. In a letter, lawmakers argue that a $100,000 cap on nursing graduate programs would make it harder for students to pay for expensive but high-demand programs, like those for nurse anesthetists. The annual cap would also pinch students in year-round nurse practitioner programs, which charge for three terms a year rather than just two and often cost more than $20,500 a year, they wrote. Asked for comment, the Education Department referred to a previous statement saying that 95% of nursing students are studying in programs that won't be affected by the new caps. Programs for certified nurse anesthetists can cost more than $200,000, lawmakers said, but the programs typically pay off and supply a workforce that "overwhelmingly provides anesthesia to rural and underserved communities where higher cost physicians do not practice." Another Democrat, Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York, sent a similar letter. Excluding nurses would require students to take out riskier private loans or put tuition out of reach entirely, said Torres, who represents the South Bronx. The Trump administration has said new loan caps are needed to pressure colleges to reduce tuition prices. This article was provided by The Associated Press.

Spain's government has fined Airbnb 64 million euros ($75 million) for advertising unlicensed tourist rentals, officials said. The move is the latest government action in Spain against short-term rental companies such as Airbnb and Booking.com as the country grapples with a housing affordability problem, particularly in city centers. The consumer rights ministry said the rentals didn’t include license numbers—a requirement in many regions in Spain—or listed license numbers that didn’t match what authorities had. Others had incorrect information about hosts, it said. Airbnb said that it plans to challenge the fine in court. The company said it was working with Spanish authorities to comply with a new national registration system for short-term rentals, and that more than 70,000 listings on the platform had added a registration number since January 2025. Spain's leftist government and many Spaniards across the political spectrum see short-term rental companies as bearing responsibility for driving up housing costs. The nation on the Iberian Peninsula is one of the world's most visited countries, and short-term holiday rentals have cut into many cities' stretched supply. “There are thousands of families living on the edge because of the housing crisis, while a few enrich themselves with business models that evict people from their homes,” Spain’s consumer rights minister, Pablo Bustinduy, said in a statement. In May 2025, the consumer rights ministry ordered Airbnb to take down around 65,000 listings because of rule violations. In 2024, Spain's anti-trust watchdog fined Booking.com 413 million euros ($448 million), saying the online travel company had abused its dominant market position in the country over the previous five years. Local authorities in Barcelona have said they plan to phase out all of the 10,000 apartments licensed in the city as short-term rentals by 2028 to safeguard the housing supply for residents. This article was provided by The Associated Press.

Geneva is a hotspot for luxury shopping. From precision watches to caviar, it's a paradise for those hunting for expensive Christmas gifts. At the Blancpain store, watchmakers craft precision timepieces for customers who expect the very best. At the world's oldest registered watch brand, a single misplaced screw can mean the difference between a masterpiece and mediocrity. This is one of the results: the Blancpain Villeret Traditional Chinese Calendar 2025. A limited edition of just 50 pieces, retailing for 80,000 Swiss francs. It marries the Gregorian calendar with ancient Chinese lunar cycles, featuring a green Grand Feu enamel dial and the representative of the Year of the Snake appearing through an aperture at twelve o'clock. This is, of course, Geneva—the cradle of watchmaking and a place where luxury has been refined into an exact science. And this city extends across many brands. A few doors down from Blancpain sits Gübelin, another family dynasty. Founded in 1854 as a watchmaker's shop in Lucerne, Gübelin established its renowned gemmological laboratory over a century ago in 1923, setting the gold standard for authenticating precious stones worldwide. Inside the boutique, the marriage of history and innovation continues, and its wares are never more in demand than in December. “Christmas time is one of the biggest periods in Geneva. We have about 20 to 30% of the turnover made during that month,” says the boutique's manager, Clement Mercier. The clientele arrives from every continent, drawn by Switzerland's reputation for discretion and quality. Mercier outlines the demographics. “First would be Americans, we have USA. We have also South Americans, Brazil. And then we have, of course, more during the summer season, Middle East. And Asia throughout the year,” he explains. Exclusivity is not just about the objects you can buy—it's about experiences. This article was provided by The Associated Press.