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We have a curated list of the most noteworthy news from all across the globe. With any subscription plan, you get access to exclusive articles that let you stay ahead of the curve.
We have a curated list of the most noteworthy news from all across the globe. With any subscription plan, you get access to exclusive articles that let you stay ahead of the curve.
We have a curated list of the most noteworthy news from all across the globe. With any subscription plan, you get access to exclusive articles that let you stay ahead of the curve.
On April 4, 2026, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, made headlines after reconnecting with her former Suits co-star, Patrick J. Adams, following a playful oversight.
Adams, who shared the screen with Meghan as her on-screen romantic partner, humorously pointed out that he had been left out of receiving her well-known “As Ever” jam. During an appearance on the “Not Skinny But Not Fat” podcast, Adams, now 44, lightheartedly speculated that the snub might be due to his relatively modest Instagram following.
Duchess Meghan reaches out to Suits co-star
“I didn’t get a jam. I didn’t get anything,” Adams admitted with a chuckle. “I don’t have enough followers, I don’t think,” he added, poking fun at the situation.
Interestingly, podcast host Amanda Hirsch shared that she had indeed received the coveted jam from Meghan but had yet to try it, leaving listeners curious about the Duchess’s culinary creation.
Podcast host Amanda Hirsch revealed that she had received the jam but had yet to open it.
Patrick, 44, said: “You’re treating it like a champagne? It’s gonna go bad. How long do preserves last? It’s going to go bad.”
After finding out about the podcast conversation, Meghan – who was known as Meghan Markle before marrying Britain’s Prince Harry, 41 – commented on Instagram that she was sending jam to Patrick immediately.
She went on to send her well-wishes to his actress wife Troian Bellisario – who attended Meghan and Harry’s wedding with Patrick – their children and his mother.
Meghan wrote: “Jams en route for you @patrickjadams @sleepinthegardn. Hugs to those beautiful babies. Send my love to your mom.”
Adams played Mike Ross in Suits from 2011 to 2018, alongside Meghan as his colleague and love interest Rachel Zane.
They both left Suits after the show’s seventh season.
Patrick and Troian have three daughters Aurora, seven, Elliot, four, and Imogen, two months, together, while Meghan and Harry have Prince Archie, six, and Princess Lilibet, four.
Meghan invited Patrick and their Suits co-stars Sarah Rafferty (Donna Paulsen), Rick Hoffman (Louis Litt), Gina Torres (Jessica Pearson), Gabriel Macht (Harvey Specter), Abigail Spencer (Dana Scott), and Jacinda Barrett (Zoe Lawford) to the royal wedding in 2018.
And, Patrick admitted he had been protective of Meghan amid the huge public interest in her that came with dating Prince Harry.
He said: “What she’s gone through is insane.”
He also referenced his Instagram bio, which reads, “The other guy from that show that you’re watching on that app because that girl married that prince.”
He said: “I’ve got to change that. It’s the sort of thing that wherever Meghan is, if she’s ever read that, she’s going, ‘Patrick, give me a break’.
“I got a lot of eye rolls – that was a constant with Meghan.”
Pope Leo XIV delivered his inaugural Easter blessing as the head of the Catholic Church on Sunday, emphasizing the need for global peace and cautioning against becoming desensitized to the widespread loss of life caused by ongoing violence worldwide.
Addressing over 50,000 attendees, as estimated by Vatican media, Pope Leo extended the traditional Urbi et Orbi blessing from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, overlooking the bustling St. Peter’s Square.
In his address, Pope Leo highlighted the necessity for hope and harmony in a world scarred by conflict and cruelty. He implored people not to grow accustomed to violence or indifferent to the suffering and deaths of countless individuals.
“On this joyous day, let us cast aside any desire for conflict, domination, and power. Instead, let us beseech the Lord to bestow His peace upon a world devastated by war and marked by hatred and indifference, which often leaves us feeling powerless in the face of evil,” the pope declared.
Pope Leo XIV delivered the Urbi et Orbi blessing—Latin for “to the city of Rome and to the world”—from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, following the Easter Mass he led in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, on Sunday, April 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Leo reminded the faithful that “the power with which Christ rose is entirely nonviolent.”
“In the light of Easter, let us allow ourselves to be amazed by Christ,” he said. “Let us allow our hearts transformed by his immense love for us. Let those with weapons lay them down. Let those who have the power to unleash wars choose peace. Not a peace imposed by force, but through dialogue. Not through a desire to dominate others, but to encounter them.”
Faithful wait for Pope Leo XIV to deliver the traditional Urbi et Orbi blessing at the end of the Easter Mass in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Sunday, April 5, 2026.(AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Leo also invoked what he said were the final words that Pope Francis issued to the world from the same balcony one year ago, during which the late pontiff warned of a “globalization of indifference.”
“What a great thirst for death, for killing we witness each day in the many conflicts raging in different parts of the world,” Leo said, quoting Francis.
Pope Leo XIV addresses the faithful before delivering the Urbi et Orbi blessing from the central loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica at the end of Easter Mass he presided over in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Sunday, April 5, 2026.(AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Leo concluded the blessing by wishing everyone a happy Easter in 10 different languages and singing the Regina Ceoli.
Leo earlier held his first Easter Mass as pope, in which he called for the faithful to exercise hope against “the violence of war that kills and destroys,’’ adding that in the face of conflicts spreading around the world, “we need this song of hope today.”
Leo has repeatedly called for a halt in hostilities as the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran enters its second month and Russia continues its violent campaign in Ukraine.
Researchers are raising concerns about a widely used digital tool, warning that it may lead users into harmful cycles of misguided thinking.
A duo of studies conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Stanford University have uncovered that AI assistants, including ChatGPT, Claude, and Google’s Gemini, tend to offer excessively agreeable responses, potentially causing more harm than benefit.
The studies found that when users posed questions or recounted scenarios involving incorrect, harmful, deceptive, or unethical beliefs or actions, AI responses were 49 percent more likely to affirm the users’ viewpoints than human responses. This tendency encourages users to hold on to incorrect beliefs.
MIT researchers cautioned that the agreeable nature of AI chatbots could lead users, who depend on these platforms for guidance and opinions, into a phenomenon known as ‘delusional spiraling.’ This condition is characterized by a growing confidence in unfounded beliefs.
In essence, when individuals consulted AI tools like ChatGPT about unconventional ideas, such as unverified or debunked conspiracy theories, the chatbots frequently replied with affirmations such as “You’re totally right!”
They also gave feedback which sounded like ‘evidence’ to support the user’s delusion, with each agreement making the person feel smarter and more certain they were right and everyone else was wrong.
Over time, those mild suspicions turned into rock-solid beliefs, even though the idea is completely wrong.
Researchers at Stanford said that this self-destructive cycle led chatbot users to become less willing to apologize or take responsibility for harmful behavior and feel less motivated to repair or fix their relationships with people they disagreed with.
Studies have found that AI chatbots are giving people answers that agree too often with the user’s questions, even when they are looking to confirm debunked conspiracies (Stock Image)
ChatGPT was found to agree 49 percent more often with users than the average human respondent
Both the MIT and Stanford studies focused on a growing problem with AI chatbots known as sycophancy, the act of flattering someone or their opinions to the point where it is almost considered insincere or done simply to ‘suck up’ to the person.
The MIT researchers wanted to test whether overly agreeable, or ‘yes-man,’ AI chatbots could push people into believing false ideas more and more strongly over time.
Instead of using real people, they built a computer simulation of a perfectly logical person chatting with an AI that always tried to agree with whatever the person said.
They ran 10,000 fake conversations and watched how the person’s confidence changed after each reply from the chatbot.
The results, published on the preprint server Arxiv in February, showed that even a small amount of agreement from AI caused the simulated person to display ‘delusional spiraling’ – becoming extremely confident that a wrong idea was actually true.
‘Even a very slight increase in the rate of catastrophic delusional spiraling can be quite dangerous,’ the MIT team wrote in their report.
They even quoted OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, whose company developed ChatGPT, who once said that ‘0.1 percent of a billion users is still a million people.’
Researchers warned that the research showed even completely reasonable and logical people were vulnerable to entering a delusional spiral if AI companies did not tone down the amount of agreeable responses coming from chatbots.
Delusional spiraling caused people to refuse to apologize or fix broken relationships with those they disagreed with after receiving positive feedback from AI (Stock Image)
The Stanford study, which was peer-reviewed and published in the journal Science in March, focused on finding out what real AI chatbots were doing to the public’s mental health when they constantly supplied sycophantic answers.
They tested 11 popular AI models, including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek, Mistral, Qwen and multiple versions of Meta’s Llama.
Researchers used almost 12,000 real-life questions and stories where the person was clearly in the wrong.
Many of the questions posed to AI came from the popular Reddit channel called ‘Am I the A******,’ a forum where people post their controversial actions or opinions to see if the public thinks they were in the wrong or if their behavior was justified.
The Stanford team ran experiments with over 2,400 real people who read or chatted about their own personal conflicts and received either overly agreeable AI replies or normal ones.
The results showed every single AI model agreed with users about 49 percent more often than real humans would, even when the user was describing something harmful or unfair.
After getting these flattering answers, the real people felt more confident they were right, became less willing to apologize and were less motivated to fix their relationships with anyone they disagreed with in the real world.
Tech mogul Elon Musk, the CEO of X and its AI chatbot Grok, commented on the findings, simply calling it a ‘major problem.’
The two studies did not test whether Grok was also too agreeable and triggered delusional spiraling.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States announced on Sunday that it successfully retrieved a service member who had been stranded in enemy territory since Iran shot down a fighter jet. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump increased diplomatic pressure on Tehran by setting a new deadline to reopen the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
Despite international tensions, Iran remained defiant, launching attacks on fresh economic and infrastructure targets in Gulf Arab nations.
The operation to rescue the airman ensued after the F-15E Strike Eagle crash on Friday triggered a frantic search-and-rescue mission by U.S. forces. Iran had also offered a reward for anyone who captured an “enemy pilot.” President Trump stated that the airman sustained injuries but was in stable condition.
“This courageous Warrior was stuck in the perilous Iranian mountains, pursued relentlessly by adversaries who were closing in by the hour,” Trump shared on social media.
Earlier, another crew member had already been safely recovered.
The fighter jet was the first American aircraft to have crashed in Iranian territory since the U.S. and Israel launched the war, striking Iran on Feb. 28. It has since killed thousands, shaken global markets, cut off key shipping routes and spiked fuel prices. Both sides have threatened and hit civilian targets, bringing warnings of possible war crimes.
Trump said last week that the U.S. had “decimated” Iran and would finish the war “very fast.” Two days later, Iran shot down two U.S. military planes, showing the ongoing perils of the bombing campaign and the ability of a degraded Iranian military to continue to hit back.
As Iran continues to exert control over the Strait of Hormuz, Trump, in a weekend social media post, threatened to unleash “all Hell” if it isn’t opened by Monday. He has issued such threats before and extended them when mediators have claimed progress toward ending the war on agreeable terms.
The other jet to go down was a U.S. A-10 attack aircraft. Neither the status of the crew nor exactly where it crashed was immediately known.
On Sunday, Iran’s state TV aired a video showing thick black smoke rising into the air, claiming that they had shot down an American transport plane and two helicopters that were part of the rescue operation. However, a regional intelligence official briefed on the mission told The Associated Press that the U.S. military blew up two transport planes due to a technical malfunction, forcing it to bring in additional aircraft to complete the rescue.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the covert mission.
Drones hit Gulf energy infrastructure
In Kuwait, an Iranian drone attack caused significant damage to two power plants and put a water desalination station out of service, according to the Ministry of Electricity. No injuries were reported from the attack, the ministry said.
In Bahrain, the national oil company said that a drone attack caused a fire at one of its storage facilities, which was extinguished. It said the damage was still being assessed and no injuries had been reported.
In the United Arab Emirates, authorities responded to multiple fires at the Borouge petrochemicals plant, a joint venture of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. and Borealis of Austria. They say the fires were caused by falling debris following successful interceptions by air defense systems, but production at the plant in Ruwais, near the UAE’s western border with Saudi Arabia, has halted.
The strike came a day after Israel struck a petrochemical plant in Iran that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said generated revenue that it had used to fund the war.
Trump renews threat
Trump renewed his threats for Iran to open up the Strait of Hormuz by Monday or face devastating consequences, writing Saturday in a social media post: “Remember when I gave Iran ten days to MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT. Time is running out — 48 hours before all Hell will reign down on them.”
The waterway is a critical chokepoint for global energy shipments, especially oil and gas moving from the Persian Gulf to Europe and Asia. Disruptions there have injected volatility into the market and pushed oil and gas-importing countries to seek alternative sources.
“The doors of hell will be opened to you” if Iran’s infrastructure is attacked, Gen. Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi with the country’s joint military command said late Saturday in response to Trump’s renewed threat, state media reported. In turn, the general threatened all infrastructure used by the U.S. military in the region.
But Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Tahir Andrabi, told the AP that his government’s efforts to broker a ceasefire are “right on track” after Islamabad last week said that it would soon host talks between the U.S. and Iran.
Mediators from Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt were working to bring the U.S. and Iran to the negotiating table, according to two regional officials.
The proposed compromise includes a cessation of hostilities to allow a diplomatic settlement, according to a regional official involved in the efforts and a Gulf diplomat briefed on the matter. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door diplomacy.
Iran threatens to disrupt traffic in a second key strait
Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, issued a veiled threat late Friday to disrupt traffic through a second strategic waterway in the region, the Bab el-Mandeb.
The strait, 32 kilometers (20 miles) wide, links the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. More than a tenth of seaborne global oil and a quarter of container ships pass through it.
“Which countries and companies account for the highest transit volumes through the strait?” Qalibaf wrote.
More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began.
In Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, more than two dozen people have died, while 19 have been reported dead in Israel and 13 U.S. service members have been killed. In Lebanon, more than 1,400 people have been killed and more than 1 million people have been displaced. Ten Israeli soldiers have died there.
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This report has been corrected to show that Borealis is an Austrian company and not Australian.
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Metz reported from Jerusalem and Magdy from Cairo. Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this report.
Today Show host Savannah Guthrie is set to make a courageous return to daytime television for the first time since the unsettling disappearance of her mother, Nancy Guthrie.
Savannah has been absent from The Today Show since January 30, a few days prior to her mother’s mysterious vanishing from her Tucson, Arizona residence. Despite the unresolved investigation, Savannah has chosen to remain in the public sphere.
In an exclusive interview with her friend and colleague Hoda Kotb, Savannah discussed her decision to return to The Today Show, describing it as “this beautiful place that we call home.”
“It’s difficult to envision rejoining because it’s such a space filled with joy and light, and I cannot pretend to be someone I’m not,” Savannah expressed. “Yet, I can’t stay away either, because it’s my family. I feel it’s part of my calling right now.”
As the conversation continued in the three-part interview, she shared, “In challenging times, you seek your family. I want to be with mine. I don’t know if I can do it or if I’ll fit in anymore, but I’d like to try. I’d like to try.”
This was not the first time Savannah reunited with her colleagues. She reportedly visited the studio in March but did not appear on-camera. Her colleagues praised her decision at the time, noting it was “a step” in the right direction.
Now, Savannah will be returning to The Today Show in a regular capacity.
When will Savannah Guthrie return to The Today Show?
Photo: Nathan Congleton/NBC
Kotb shared on The Today Show after Savannah’s tell-all interview that she will be returning to the NBC talk show beginning Monday, April 6.
Viewers can tune in beginning Monday morning to see Savannah reprise her seat at Craig Melvin‘s side in the first two hours of Today.
“A lot of people are wondering, ‘Is she coming back?’” Kotb announced on March 27. “Well, she is coming back to this job that she loves here at Today. We’re glad to say that she will start here, sitting next to this wonderful human being, Craig, Monday, April 6.”
There are many ways to tune in. Viewers can tune in via your local NBC affiliate beginning at 7 a.m. ET.
Viewers can also tune in on Peacock, which also offers a broadcast option for subscribers, or watch on NBC.com and the Today Show YouTube channel.
It remains to be seen how The Today Show will handle having Savannah return to the show. But her colleagues will be welcoming her back with open arms.
(The Hill) — A legal battle over President Trump’s intention to construct a grand ballroom on the former East Wing site of the White House has unexpectedly highlighted a previously discreet venture: the renovation of a deep-seated military bunker.
“There’s a significant military facility being developed beneath the ballroom, which recently came to light due to an unnecessary lawsuit,” Trump remarked to reporters one Sunday in late March while aboard Air Force One.
The ongoing work involves excavating a new Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) beneath Trump’s envisioned 90,000-square-foot ballroom. Although typically shrouded in secrecy, details of this project are gradually emerging through court documents and the president’s remarks.
When Trump announced plans last October to dismantle the current East Wing, it drew immediate opposition from Democratic legislators, historians, and preservation advocates.
In response, the National Trust for Historic Preservation filed a lawsuit against the White House in December. The organization aims to stop the $400 million ballroom project, arguing the public was not given a chance to voice their opinions on the plans.
While the expansive aboveground complex has drawn most of the attention, Trump revealed during a recent Cabinet meeting that there was another motivation for the construction.
He told Cabinet members there was a national security component to the project that was “supposed to be secret” and the military “wanted it more than anybody.”
“It was supposed to be secret, but it became unsecret because of people that are really unpatriotic saying things,” he said.
Shuffling through renderings of the project, Trump described the underground facility as having bulletproof glass and “drone-proof” roofs and ceilings.
The bunker dates back to World War II, when a shelter was built beneath the newly constructed East Wing to protect former President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the event of an air raid, according to the White House Historical Association.
The organization described the original secretive space as having “thick concrete walls and steel-sheathed ceilings with a small presidential bedroom and bath inside,” as well as nearby rooms with ventilation masks, food storage and communications equipment.
The facility, which later became known as the PEOC, has been modernized over the years and can serve as a command center for the president if needed. It was used by President George W. Bush and his team following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Former First Lady Laura Bush recalled in her 2010 memoir being “hustled inside and downstairs through a pair of big steel doors that closed behind me with a loud hiss, forming an airtight seal” as she was escorted by Secret Service agents through the underground hallways.
Questions about the PEOC reemerged after CNN reported earlier this year that the ballroom could feature a “top-secret project,” including the rebuild of a “secret bunker under the West Wing.”
Trump has often pointed to the ballroom as a needed addition so that future administrations can hold large state events indoors, rather than continuing to use outdoor tents as is done now. But the administration has also argued that delaying construction would imperil national security and expose the White House to potential damage.
The Secret Service has taken a central role in the dispute. In a sworn declaration in December, Deputy Director Matthew Quinn warned that stopping the unfinished project would interfere with the agency’s protective mission.
“While the contractor has completed most of these temporary security measures, improvements to the site are still needed before the Secret Service’s safety and security requirements can be met,” Quinn wrote.
“Accordingly, any pause in construction, even temporarily, would leave the contractor’s obligation unfulfilled in this regard and consequently hamper the Secret Service’s ability to meet its statutory obligations and protective mission.”
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon halted construction on the White House grounds this week, finding that Trump did not have the constitutional authority to move forward without congressional approval.
He excluded “construction necessary to ensure the safety and security of the White House,” however.
Trump announced plans to appeal in the Oval Office later that day, running through a list of security upgrades that coincided with the ballroom project.
“We have bio-defense all over. We have secure telecommunications and communications all over. We have bomb shelters that we’re building. We have a hospital and very major medical facilities that we’re building,” he said.
“So on that, we’re okay,” Trump added, referring to the aforementioned section of Leon’s order.
Despite legal uncertainty, the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) voted 8-1 to approve the ballroom’s design, which includes planned seating for up to 1,000 guests.
PHOENIX – The journey from observer to contender has been significant for the UCLA women’s basketball team.
This remarkable shift was greatly influenced by South Carolina’s example.
UCLA strategically scheduled games against the Gamecocks a few years back to gauge their progress. Dawn Staley, South Carolina’s esteemed coach, set a benchmark that UCLA’s coach, Cori Close, aspired to reach.
“Dawn is exceptional,” Close remarked. “She’s a benchmark in women’s basketball.”
Advancement demanded perseverance. Although UCLA fell to South Carolina twice in the 2022-23 season—marking the debut year for seniors Kiki Rice and Gabriela Jaquez—the Bruins turned the tables with a decisive win at Pauley Pavilion early last season. This victory was a prelude to their inaugural Final Four appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
Now the teams will meet Sunday afternoon in the national championship game.
“It’s kind of full circle,” Jaquez said of facing a team that’s appearing in the title game for a third consecutive year and the fourth time in the last five years.
For the Bruins, this is a chance at a first NCAA title, allowing them to become the envy of everyone else in the sport.
Here are five things to watch in the title game inside the Mortgage Matchup Center:
A tall order
South Carolina is one of the few teams that has the size to challenge UCLA center Lauren Betts.
The Gamecocks’ starting lineup features Madina Okot, a 6-foot-6 center, alongside 6-3 forward Joyce Edwards. They also bring 6-4 forward Maryam Dauda off the bench.
“I thought UConn could struggle with South Carolina’s length, the way in which they can keep you from playing north and south,” Close said, referring to the problems the Gamecocks caused in their semifinal victory. “They really made them go side to side, didn’t get a lot of paint productivity, didn’t let them get three-point shots off because they’re so long, versatile, they can switch so many screens.
“I think that’s the key, is how do you move the angles, how do you use screening actions, how do you make it so that it’s not just a one-on-one long athletic battle because they are that. They are so good on so many fronts.”
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Then again …
Staley said the 6-7 Betts’ development into a complete player makes her a unique matchup challenge.
“A couple years ago you could kind of be real physical with her, she would kind of back down a little bit,” Staley said. “Now she embraces it, right? Now she welcomes it. She can play off of it so well. You have to make a decision whether you’re going to double her, single cover her, whether you’re going to triple her, then figure out how you’re going to scramble out of that and prioritize who because they can shoot the basketball.
“Lauren can see it all and is patient enough to read the defenses and pass the ball where it’s supposed to go or bet on herself.”
A repeat of history?
Close said the factor that determined the recent meetings between the Bruins and Gamecocks was which team rebounded the best and dictated play with its defense.
“I’ve been on both sides of that,” Close said. “I don’t think it’s probably going to be that different.”
Pressure check
After committing a season-worst 23 turnovers against Texas, UCLA should expect a similarly disruptive style from a team that likes to impose its physical presence.
“If I’m South Carolina,” Close said, “I would imagine we’re going to see a lot of pressure.”
Close said there were only three possessions in the semifinal when her team got clean shots in rhythm. That number needs to increase exponentially for the Bruins to beat the Gamecocks.
Prediction
The boogeying Bruins have come too far to make a misstep in their last dance.
A team for the ages further solidifies its legacy, UCLA holding on for a 69-65 victory over the Gamecocks.
A Las Vegas teenager has been charged as an adult in connection with an alleged gang rape during a school trip to Costa Rica, becoming the second student from a prestigious private school to face such charges.
Prosecutors revealed that 15-year-old Dominic Kim was among at least four students from the Alexander Dawson School implicated in the sexual assault of a fellow student during their class trip last year.
Kim allegedly displayed a graphic video of the assault to other students at an event hosted by the Meadows School, according to legal statements.
Furthermore, Kim is accused of threatening to harm those who viewed the video if they reported the incident, a claim made in a civil lawsuit filed by the victim’s family.
Clark County Chief Deputy District Attorney Stacy Kollins informed the court that Kim continued to torment the victim with the videos long after the initial incident occurred.
Kim was indicted on Friday for possession of child sexual abuse material and child abuse, neglect or endangerment, reported the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Defense Attorney Josh Tomsheck argued against charging his client as an adult in court on Friday.
‘I’m not disputing he did dumb stuff by showing videos, but his intent behind it wasn’t what the state is trying to proclaim,’ he said.
Kim was a student at The Alexander Dawson School (pictured) in Summerlin, Nevada when the alleged incident occurred
Vaughn Griffith (pictured) was the first student accused of filming three classmates hold down another student and rape him with a flute on a class trip to Costa Rica
Vaughn Griffith, 15, was also certified as an adult in January in connection with the incident.
He was charged with possessing a visual presentation depicting the sexual conduct of a child, a category B felony punishable by one to six years in prison.
It is unclear which of the group of teens is believed to have performed the sexual assaults.
The teens cannot be charged in the US for any sexual assault allegations because the alleged incident occurred out of the country, officials say.
According to police, Griffith, Kim and at least two other eighth graders mercilessly bullied an anonymous classmate on the trip in April 2025.
They allegedly stripped the victim naked and threw his clothes on the balcony at Hotel Manuel Antonio.
Two days later, the boys ‘pinned him down and pulled his pants and underwear [down]’ on a bed and sexually assaulted him, police said.
According to charging documents, the boys threatened to cut off the victim’s penis if he resisted.
The victim told police that he had been bullied by the group in the past and did not consent to the interaction, reported KTNV.
Griffith’s indictment painfully detailed the ‘graphic and violent sexual assault’ as seen in a two-minute and 16-second video he allegedly posted on Snapchat and saved in his ‘Memories’ section.
Kim allegedly showed other children videos of the assault while at an event at the Meadows School (pictured)
The horrific assault is said to have taken place during a private school trip to Costa Rica (pictured)
The teen was shown being held down on the bed and clearly under stress as the boys held him in place.
He was then allegedly sexually assaulted with a flute, a Chapstick tube and toothpaste as he cried and screamed in pain and his attackers laughed.
The victim eventually told his stepmother about the alleged rape, who reported it to school principal Roxanne Stansbury.
The Alexander Dawson School’s lawyers said in January that they were aware of the ‘serious allegations involving male middle school students’ during the Costa Rica trip.
‘We take any such allegations incredibly seriously and promptly reported them to law enforcement once brought to our attention,’ they said.
‘Because the alleged misconduct occurred among middle school students, we cannot comment any further at this time.’
The elite preschool through eighth grade private school charges $32,500 per year. It advertises itself as a community that ‘exhibits empathy, integrity, humility and kindness,’ per their website.
Griffith (left), 15, was the first teen involved in the case to be charged as an adult
The boys were staying at the Hotel Manuel Antonio (pictured) in Costa Rica last April when their bullying allegedly escalated to sexual assault
Police have said that at least two others have not been charged for their alleged involvement in the incident due to jurisdictional issues.
As of April 4, Delegación Policial Quepos in Costa Rica was unaware of any sexual assault accusations.
Evidence in the case has been sealed. The FBI confirmed that its Las Vegas Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force was involved in the investigation, reported NewsNation.
Kim posted a $30,000 bail before being transferred to District Court. The conditions of his release included high-level monitoring, the surrender of his passport and no contact with the victim or minors.
Both Kim and Griffith are due back in court for arraignment on April 14. Griffith has pleaded not guilty and Kim has yet to enter a plea.
The Daily Mail contacted Kim’s attorney, the Clark County District Attorney’s Office, the Meadows School and the Alexander Dawson School for comment
Two years back, Kirk Morison mulled over purchasing an electric vehicle (EV) but ultimately chose against it due to worries about driving range and the availability of charging stations.
Recently, his perspective has shifted. Now, he joins a growing number of Australians opting for EVs as the cost of petrol and diesel climbs steeply.
“About a month or two ago, we started to realize that choosing an EV might have been the better route,” Morison shares with SBS News.
Living in Sydney and currently involved in building a new house, Morison began to revisit the idea of EVs after observing the significant battery and solar requirements for modern constructions.
The surge in petrol and diesel prices, largely driven by the conflict in the Middle East, has hastened this transition.
Morison says he placed an order for a BYD Sealion this week — but it’s unclear when he’ll get his new car. Demand is so great that some dealerships have stopped offering test drives.
His current Ford Ranger ute runs on diesel, which is now costing the father-of-three around $200 a week.
“Even if [petrol and diesel prices] came back to original levels, there’s still an incredibly strong financial case to move to an EV,” he says.
Changing perceptions around EVs
Morison’s initial concerns about access to EV charging stations and driving range have eased in the two years since he bought the ute.
Coming out of the COVID pandemic, he says his family had planned to do lots of camping and outdoor leisure activities, but ultimately found they didn’t have the time.
Reflecting on his driving habits, he also realised the ute was mainly being used for trips to and from work, and to take his three kids to activities.
While it’s occasionally useful for transporting surfboards or construction materials related to their renovation, Morison says he feels they could achieve the same result with a different vehicle.
When you start sitting down and actually being more conscious of what you’re using the vehicle for, then we realised this actually makes a lot of sense.
Morison drives around 50-60km a day on average and can easily recharge overnight at home.
For the one or two longer trips a year the family may want to take, Morison says there are apps available to help figure out where to stop for charging.
EV charging blackspots
While access to charging stations may be a concern for some, at-home charging is the most common way to refuel.
Swinburne University professor of transport technology Hussein Dia says those who can plug in their EV at home will also save the most money because residential electricity rates are usually cheaper, especially if you’re charging during the day or other off-peak periods, and even more so if you have solar panels.
“The better the charging at home, the higher the benefits,” Dia says.
Charging your EV at home is the cheapest way to refuel. Some councils are trying to make it easier for people to run cables safely over footpaths so people can plug in their cars. Source: AAP / Joel Carrett
Most EVs can travel 400 to 500km on a single charge, which would enable them to drive around 30km per day for a week before needing to recharge.
“This means … people don’t need to charge every day,” Dia says.
Most EV owners only need access to public chargers if they can’t charge at home, or when travelling longer distances — for example, from Brisbane to Sydney or Melbourne.
These chargers are generally run by private operators but can be a lot faster than refuelling at home, taking as little as 15 minutes for a top-up.
In densely populated urban areas, Dia says there is usually a public charger within two to five kilometres of someone’s home, but in regional areas, it might be hundreds of kilometres away.
“On these longer routes, yes, you need to plan ahead, and you need to see where the chargers are,” he says.
Coverage along routes up and down the east and west coasts is quite good, but chargers in inland areas can be harder to find.
“This is where the charging deserts are.”
South Australian resident and Australian Electric Vehicle Association (AEVA) national president James Pickering says charging can be difficult in rural and remote areas, for example, north of Coober Pedy in South Australia, up into the Northern Territory.
There are no fast chargers along the Barkly Highway between the Northern Territory and northern Queensland, and parts of inner northern Queensland.
Better infrastructure is currently being built along the Great Western Highway in Western Australia, where there is also a shortage.
Dia believes governments need to do more to provide incentives or create partnerships with charging companies to improve coverage.
You need to have infrastructure everywhere, and Australia is quite a large place.
He says WA has the best coverage because the government identified priority routes for “electric highways”.
He says governments in the United Kingdom, the United States and New Zealand have introduced policies aiming to install EV chargers every 60 to 80km.
But AEVA vice president Jo Oddie notes that you can still find a way to charge an EV in most places.
“The reality is there’s always a power point — [there’s] more power points than service stations.”
Finding where to charge
The most comprehensive resource for finding charging stations is the crowd-sourced PlugShare online map.
Some states, such as NSW, offer their own maps, but these are not exhaustive.
Chargers offered by businesses, homeowners or community groups are also available but not always included on maps. Organisations such as ivygo allow for details of community EV chargers to be shared with motorists.
Chargers are also increasingly being installed by accommodation providers so guests can charge their EVs at night. Airbnb and Booking.com provide the option to filter venues to find those with EV charging.
Chargers offered by businesses, homeowners or community groups are available for EV drivers —but not always included on maps. Source: AAP / Dean Lewins
Pickering says there’s been significant investment in charging infrastructure across Australia over the past 18 months.
Fast and ultra-fast charging, in particular, has been prioritised along highways.
He adds: “There’s slower destination charging that you might find somewhere you dwell for a number of hours.”
In major cities, some suburbs still don’t have access to a large number of public chargers and this will likely be needed to help those who can’t charge at home — such as apartment dwellers — to switch to EVs.
But chargers are increasingly being installed in shopping centre carparks, on street poles and around workplaces — supported by businesses and all levels of government.
Kai Li Lim, who researches EV usage and charging patterns at the University of Queensland, says people also need to be aware of what he calls the “charging curve”.
Fast chargers will charge a battery very quickly in the first few minutes, but then slow down. This means a battery can go from 0 to 80 per cent charge in the same amount of time it takes to go from 80 to 100 per cent.
That’s why as EV drivers accumulate experience … they start to realise that [they] don’t actually need to charge all the way to 100 per cent at a public charger because that’s going to take more time.
A mistake people often make when they first buy an EV, Lim says, is treating it like a mobile phone and charging it every night.
“[Later] they realise this charging curve does exist, they get into a trend where they’re charging the EV once or twice every week.
“Twice a week is usually the average.”
He also notes that not every EV supports ultra-fast charging, which means a driver could be paying more and not reaching the charging speeds they want.
Range anxiety replaced by queue anxiety
Even when chargers are available, Dia says they may not always work, leading to “queue anxiety” about longer waiting periods.
He says the reliability of chargers is important.
“Otherwise, people lose confidence and you cannot plan ahead.”
Under the National Electric Vehicle Strategy, EV charging plugs in Australia must have at least 98 per cent annual uptime — meaning the amount of time they are operational and available for use.
“That’s actually quite lax — they’re saying that for every year, you have about one week of downtime,” Lim says.
In the UK, 99 per cent uptime is required, while the US stipulates 97 per cent uptime.
Despite these guidelines, Lim says the actual functionality is likely a lot lower.
He explains that if a charger can connect to the internet, it is assumed to be working, but this is not always the case.
Sometimes people can be physically blocked from using one by vegetation, another vehicle, or because it’s been vandalised.
A 2024 study by the University of California, which sent students out to test chargers across California, found that just over 70 per cent of charge attempts succeeded.
Issues included traffic congestion at charging stations, damaged or offline chargers, difficulty using apps to find locations, and malfunctioning chargers.
Lim says it would likely be a similar situation in Australia.
More accountability needed
Lim says grants are often given to providers for the construction of charging stations, with little or no consideration for the chargers’ maintenance and lifespan.
He believes companies should be held accountable, whether through penalties or licensing, and supports stronger regulation, potentially in the form of an ombudsman or independent body to monitor operators and investigate service issues.
Lim says some products, such as Charge@Large, an app created by the Electric Vehicle Council to show real-time availability of charging points, are trying to address this problem, but rely on operators opting in to share their data, which they can be reluctant to do.
Often, the functionality of a charger isn’t tested until someone tries to use it.
Lim says other technologies, such as cameras, or improved crowdsourcing may need to be considered, although there are issues around privacy and data sensitivity to consider.
We are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on chargers using taxpayer money … but there’s quite little consideration given to the lifespan and longevity of electric chargers, and to make the operators of the chargers be accountable for their own infrastructure.
“I think that’s the gap right now we have to address.”
While there are still issues to resolve, Pickering notes EV drivers are overwhelmingly satisfied with their purchase.
“We find that only about 3 per cent of people [in Australia], once they’ve driven an EV for a while, would consider changing back to a petrol or diesel car,” Pickering says.
“And the global average for that — with our peers around the world — is less than 10 per cent.
In the ongoing investigation of the Nancy Guthrie case, numerous agencies are collecting tips, and a significant $100,000 reward has been offered to encourage witnesses to come forward. The individual behind this reward, however, advises that Crime Stoppers, instead of the sheriff’s office, is the best avenue for providing information safely. This approach allows those with credible tips to receive compensation without revealing their identities.
“I am convinced that anonymity paired with a reward will motivate people to share what they know,” stated Michael Hupy, a Wisconsin attorney and the president of Crime Stoppers Milwaukee.
In Arizona’s Pima County, the Crime Stoppers program operates under the name 88-CRIME, and they can be reached at 520-882-7463.
Hupy has already dispensed $75,000 in rewards and has pledged an additional $200,000 to aid in solving crimes in his community. He disclosed to Fox News Digital this week that he committed six figures to the Guthrie case due to the disturbing nature of her disappearance.
Meanwhile, Savannah Guthrie is set to make her return to the “Today” show on Monday, following a two-month hiatus since her mother, Nancy, vanished on February 1.
She is believed to have been taken from her bedroom in northern Tucson around 2 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 1. Responding officers found a thin trail of blood droplets from her front door to the edge of her driveway. Her back doors were propped open. Her Nest doorbell camera was missing. And the trail seemingly ended there, until the FBI and Google recovered home security video showing a masked man on her doorstep — who is still unidentified.
“I was very sad that an 84-year-old woman in poor health was taken from her home, without her medication, her heart pacemaker stopped [synching], there’s blood at the crime scene, and I thought something had to be done quickly,” he told Fox News Digital. “And I thought this is a place I could step in, as I have in Milwaukee.”
He also criticized the early handling of the investigation, saying the sheriff released the crime scene too quickly and made other missteps.
Annie Guthrie, her husband Tommaso Cioni, and Savannah Guthrie at their missing mother Nancy Guthrie’s home on Monday, March 2, in Tucson, Arizona.(Fox News)
“I don’t think they secured the scene long enough to process it,” he said. “They went in, looked, opened it up, then they had to come back later.”
Hupy said he believes that the anonymity guaranteed by Crime Stoppers can’t be matched by the county sheriff’s tip line or even the FBI, whose tip line the Guthrie family has promoted publicly.
Tipsters can avoid being labeled “snitches” or facing retaliation, he said.
“That’s the point of it,” he added. “They get a reward anonymously, and they help society by getting criminals off the street.”
A source familiar tells Fox News Digital that two photos of the suspect in the Nancy Guthrie doorbell video were taken on different days.(FBI)
And with the investigation entering its third month this week, Hupy said the chance that someone who knows something about Guthrie’s suspected abduction told someone else has only increased.
“Somebody will learn something,” he said. “An ex-girlfriend will get mad and tell the authorities or Crime Stoppers that her boyfriend confessed to her. A bartender will say a drunk came in and spilled the beans on himself or someone else. So the longer it goes on, the more likely we are to get the criminal.”
Tipsters who use Crime Stoppers can also avoid getting in the middle as both the PCSD and FBI vie for information on the case independently, Hupy said.
Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos gives an update on the investigation after the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of U.S. journalist and television host Savannah Guthrie, who went missing from her home in Tucson, Arizona, U.S. February 5, 2026.(Rebecca Noble/Reuters)
“Avoid the bickering and avoid the nonsense and call Crime Stoppers,” Hupy said. “We know how to handle this. We have solved thousands of cases, and we’re not in the middle of something.“
And because Crime Stoppers is not a government agency, Hupy said it is not subject to freedom of information laws and does not keep identifying records of the informants it pays.
Tipsters are not asked for their names and receive a unique code number when they give information instead, he said. If there’s an arrest based on that information, they can collect by giving the code, not their name.
In an aerial view, law enforcement and news broadcasters are stationed outside of Nancy Guthrie’s residence on Feb. 10, 2026 in Tucson, Arizona. Searches continue for Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of U.S. journalist and television host Savannah Guthrie, after she went missing from her home on the morning of Feb. 1. Guthrie’s possible abductors had set a deadline of 5 p.m. on Feb. 9 for a $6 million payment.(Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
“If your tip results in an arrest, you get a reward,” he said. “We don’t even know your name or your address or your phone number.”
And there are no records kept of those details either, he added.
The national crime fighting organization has given out tens of millions of dollars in reward money over the years, he said.
The Crime Stoppers reward is $102,500 for information that leads to an arrest. The FBI is separately offering a $100,000 reward for information that leads to either Guthrie’s recovery or an arrest and conviction. And “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie is offering $1 million for information that brings her mother home.
“Come forward, you’ll be anonymous…and if you have the right information, you’ll get a reward,” Hupy said. “It’s that simple.”
