A 15-year-old boy, Mahmoud Sahweil, was killed when Israel struck a Gaza police station. His aunt says he was out selling bread to support his 15-member family. Israel has killed at least 830 Palestinians in Gaza since the October 2025 “ceasefire”.
Published On 5 May 2026
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Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday unveiled a new initiative targeting what he described as the “overuse” of psychiatric medications, part of a broader push to confront the nation’s mental health crisis.
Speaking Monday at a Make America Healthy Again Institute summit, Kennedy said the effort will emphasize the appropriate deprescribing of psychiatric drugs while shifting care toward prevention and more holistic treatment approaches.
“Today, we take clear and decisive action to confront our nation’s mental health crisis by addressing the overuse of psychiatric medications — especially among children,” Kennedy said in a statement.
“We will support patient autonomy, require informed consent and shared decision-making, and shift the standard of care toward prevention, transparency, and a more holistic approach to mental health.”
RFK JR UNVEILS $100M EFFORT TO TACKLE ADDICTION, HOMELESSNESS AND MENTAL ILLNESS
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday unveiled a new initiative targeting what he calls the “overuse” of psychiatric medications. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Antidepressants rank among the most commonly prescribed drugs in the United States, with a 2025 survey of over 30,000 adults showing that 16.6% were using them, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Kennedy stressed the effort is not about forcing patients off medication, the outlet reported.
“Let me be clear: If you are taking psychiatric medication, we are not telling you to stop,” Kennedy said. “We are making sure you — and your clinician — have the information and support to make the right decision for you.”
TRUMP TURNS OBAMA-ERA YOUTH HEALTH POLICY ON ITS HEAD AS SCHOOL FITNESS BENCHMARK RETURNS
The Health and Human Services seal is displayed before Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s news conference at the Hubert Humphrey Building Auditorium in Washington on April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
In a letter released Monday, HHS urged providers to prioritize informed consent and shared decision-making, and to routinely reassess the risks and benefits of psychiatric medications with patients.
The department also highlighted other ways to treat mental health issues, including therapy, family support, better nutrition and exercise, when appropriate.
At the same time, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced new guidance allowing physicians to be reimbursed for helping patients safely taper off psychiatric medications and monitor withdrawal.
The plan also includes a new report on prescribing trends, more training for doctors, and a panel of experts to guide future decisions on medication use.
TRUMP SURGEON GENERAL PICK SPARKS BACKLASH, SPLITS MAHA MOVEMENT
A man holds a plastic bottle containing white antidepressant pills in Warsaw, Poland, on April 25, 2024. (Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto)
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An HHS spokesperson pointed to rising prescription rates among children, including increases in ADHD diagnoses and antidepressant use, arguing the trend reflects “overmedicalization” and a need to expand non-drug, evidence-based treatment options.
“HHS is committed to elevating the role of nonmedication treatments and scalable, evidence-based solutions to improve mental health and prevent the unnecessary initiation of psychiatric medications,” an HHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
A LinkedIn feature the average non-paying user likely only glances past could end up setting a legal precedent in the EU regarding how companies treat customer data that they’ve processed.
Take a look at your LinkedIn profile, if you have one, and you’ll see a space where you can look at profile viewers. For premium LinkedIn users, the list of people who visit one’s profile goes back 365 days and includes names, job title and employer, and an easy link to the person’s profile, unless they’ve toggled their visibility off for privacy reasons.
What a premium LinkedIn user sees when they look at their profile viewers – Click to enlarge
Non-premium LinkedIn users, on the other hand, don’t get nearly the same level of visibility on their profiles. If you don’t fork over cash to LinkedIn owner Microsoft each month for the privilege, you’ll just see things like “12 people found you though the homepage,” or that someone with a certain job title from a certain company was scoping out your LinkedIn page.
What you’ll see on the profile viewers screen if you don’t have a paid-for LinkedIn account – Click to enlarge
Clicking anything on the free user list redirects you to a LinkedIn premium signup page or search results for employees at one of the aforementioned companies.
One unnamed LinkedIn user refused to accept this lesser status, and approached Microsoft to exercise their GDPR Article 15 right to a copy of their personal data processed by LinkedIn. “Processed” can mean a variety of things, including something as broad as simply hosting a particular type of information.
LinkedIn rejected the request on the grounds that protecting that data took precedence. Now the data protection warriors at EU privacy outfit Noyb (“none of your business”) are getting involved.
“Selling data to its own users is a popular practice among companies,” Noyb data protection lawyer Martin Baumann said of the case. “In reality, however, people have the right to receive their own data free of charge.”
Take a look at the language of Article 15, and it’s pretty clear: data subjects (i.e., users) have the right to a copy of any and all data concerning them that’s been processed by the provider. A full list of profile visitors seemingly should fall under Article 15 data – even if it’s normally reserved for paying users and presented to them in a nicer way, it should still be accessible to free users who actually request it.
LinkedIn didn’t appear to believe that it was doing anything wrong at all. In a clear denial of facts that are obviously apparent to any non-paying LinkedIn user, including the writer and both editors who worked on this story, a LinkedIn spokesperson told us, “Not only is it incorrect that only Premium members can see who has viewed their profile, but we also satisfy GDPR Article 15 by disclosing the information at issue via our Privacy Policy.” The first part of that statement is false, as you can see from the screenshot above. Given the obvious untrustworthiness of that half of the statement, we didn’t bother wasting any time trying to evaluate the second part.
Noyb acknowledges there’s a clear bit of legal fuzz stuck in this corner of the GDPR when it comes to premium service offerings.
“If any business processes a person’s personal data, this information is generally covered by their right of access under the GDPR,” Baumann told The Register. “It does not matter that the business would prefer to sell the data to the data subject or that it would be harmful for their business model if they would.”
There’s only one exception in Article 15 that would give LinkedIn an out, Baumann told us, and that’s the last paragraph, which says a person’s right to their data can’t adversely affect the rights and freedoms of others. Were LinkedIn to argue that it had to protect the identities of people who visited a data subject’s profile, they could have an excuse. But not a good one, in Baumann’s opinion.
“Since LinkedIn does provide information about profile visits to paying Premium members, it cannot consider that disclosing the data would adversely affect the rights of the visitors whose data is disclosed,” the Noyb lawyer explained. “Otherwise, providing this information to Premium users would be unlawful too.”
What seems to be the sticking point here is where right of access begins and a company’s right to make money off data they hold (data that was, ahem, supplied by users) ends. Baumann said he hopes this case can clear the legal air.
“We expect a clarification concerning the fact that personal data that can be accessed when a user pays for it is also covered by their right of access,” he explained.
Think of it like this: LinkedIn has every right under the GDPR to take data it has about profile visitors, package it up, add analytics, and present it in its most useful form to those willing to pay the platform for such a premium service. But a masochistic user who wants to rawdog a CSV file of the same data should have the right to do that, too – and GDPR Article 15 gives it to them.
It’s not just LinkedIn, either. Baumann said there are numerous other cases where similar legal clarification would be appreciated, citing the example of a bank that is unwilling to provide access to account statements in response to a GDPR request, but is happy to hand over similar data for a fee.
“A precedent would be welcomed,” Baumann said. ®
Iran has attacked a UAE petroleum site in Fujairah, just days after the United Arab Emirates announced it was leaving OPEC. As the Strait of Hormuz crisis deepens and oil prices keep rising, could this accelerate the shift to renewables, or are we heading into an era of energy volatility?
In this episode:
Episode credits:
This episode was produced by David Enders and Sarí el-Khalili with Chloe K. Li, Catherine Nouhan, Tuleen Barakat, and our guest host, Kevin Hirten. It was edited by Tamara Khandaker.
Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our video editors are Hisham Abu Salah and Mohannad al-Melhem. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer.
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Published On 5 May 2026
Happy Tuesday, you fine people. I have just returned from a girls’ trip to Savannah, Georgia.
A real girls’ trip — not the kind Dianna Russini takes, where there are no girls but there is a married NFL head coach. It was a great time celebrating one of my high school best friends, who never got to have a bachelorette party because her original one was canceled (thanks, COVID rules) in 2020.
Except now we’re all old and married so instead of a bachelorette, we called it a “wives party.”
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On Saturday, we signed up for a walking history tour. Unfortunately, it poured down rain the entire time. But like the U.S. Postal Service, we persisted. And I’m glad we did.
In all seriousness, if you like to nerd out a little bit, you need to check out Genteel & Bard’s Savannah History Walking Tour and ask for David. We learned so much about the city, the houses, murder most foul, all sorts of stuff I never knew before. I cannot recommend it enough.
I cannot say the same about the rooftop slide at Electric Moon.
My athleticism — even after multiple vodka sodas — is unmatched.
Anyway, are you ready for some Nightcaps? Pour yourself a culturally appropriating Cinco de Mayo margarita, and let’s dive in.
The Met Gala never disappoints
Last night was the Met Gala. You know, the annual douche parade where celebrities deck themselves out in the most ridiculous costumes imaginable and circle jerk over how rich they are.
I love it.
The theme of the 2026 Met Gala was “Costume Art” with a dress code of “Fashion Is Art.” Which feels pretty open-ended, if we’re being honest.
Now, I don’t pretend to know anything about high fashion. But it seems pretty clear to me that no matter what the theme of the night is, the celebrities are just going to wear whatever the heck they want anyway with absolutely no discernible cohesion. Or maybe I’m too much of a simple-minded peasant to understand.
Anyway, let’s take a look at some of this year’s show-stoppers, complete with my expert commentary.
Listen, this might be an unpopular opinion in OutKick-land, but I actually really like Angel Reese. I think she’s beautiful, very savvy at marketing and branding, and when I interviewed her at All-Star Weekend in Indianapolis, she could not have been more kind.
That said, this dress looks like she just pulled the duvet off her hotel bed and tied it around her waist. Hair and makeup are on point, though.
Madonna rolled up with a whole model ship on her head.
I will give her credit, though, for actually taking the theme seriously. This look was supposed to emulate a 1945 painting by Leonora Carrington called “The Temptation of St. Anthony. Fragment II.” And she pretty much nailed it.
However, Met Gala tickets reportedly cost $100,000 each this year. And I need to know whether Madonna was required to purchase one for each of the seven women she brought to hold her veil.
Rachel Zegler, what are you doing with your face?
No matter the theme, no matter the occasion. The Kardashian-Jenners do not miss an opportunity to wear a corset that squeezes their internal organs to their absolute limits.
I do love that Kylie probably told her team “Fashion is art? Find me an artwork that’s naked!” RIP to her eyebrows, though.
A 6-year-old version of me would have lost her mind over a dress that blows bubbles.
Someone on Instagram said Cardi B’s dress looked like hemorrhoids, and I can’t unsee it.
Sabrina Carpenter attends the 2026 Met Gala celebrating “Costume Art” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City on May 4, 2026. (Stephanie Augello/MG26/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue)
OK this one was actually really cool! And I love that Sabrina didn’t go full-on clown makeup like she usually does. (Yes, this is still a lot of makeup, but it’s nowhere close to what she wears for shows.)
Anyway, here’s some more.
And let’s wrap this up with the queen of costumes, Heidi Klum. And yes, she took the theme seriously.
Haley Cavinder puts Jake Ferguson through Pilates hell
The Cavinder twins are athletes and Sports Illustrated swimsuit models. They have to keep their bodies in tip-top shape. And according to their social media, they do so through a combination of strength training, cardio and Pilates.
Hanna Cavinder and Haley Cavinder of the Miami Hurricanes watch the North Carolina Tar Heels during the fourth quarter at Watsco Center in Coral Gables, Fla., on Dec. 29, 2024. (Megan Briggs/Getty Images)
Speaking of Pilates, Haley Cavinder decided she was sick of her NFL fiancé, Jake Ferguson, not taking her workouts seriously. So she made him try Reformer Pilates. And he… struggled.
I’ve done plenty of Pilates in my life. And I can tell you that a Pilates studio would never allow someone to stand on the Reformer in their very first class. Major liability.
Still, 244-pound, 6-foot-5 Jake Ferguson might be able to run a 4.81-second 40-yard dash and jump 31.5 inches. But he clearly needs to work on his balance and flexibility.
And now maybe he’ll stop giving Haley a hard time.
Skydiver suffers wardrobe malfunction
Before I went hang gliding for the first time last weekend, I asked my husband, “What do you think I’m supposed to wear for something like this?” He had no advice except that I should probably wear something with long sleeves because a) I’m always cold and b) it’s probably a little chilly soaring through the air at 1,500 feet.
Turns out, this was great advice. I was shivering the whole time.
All of that to say there really is no specific hang gliding attire. There is, however, a suggested dress code for skydiving. And if you’re a well-endowed woman, that includes one very important garment: a sports bra.
A 26-year-old woman named Chanell ‘t Zand learned that lesson the hard way.
Channell deployed the parachute AND the air bags.
I’ll see myself out.
Mother’s Day is upon us
Yes, ladies and gents, Mother’s Day is this Sunday, May 10. So if you haven’t already figured out what you’re going to do to celebrate the special moms in your life, you’d best hop to it.
In case you missed it, last week I dropped my annual Womansplaining Mother’s Day Gift Guide. It’s a public service I offer every year.
Especially if you’re a dad, this is your foolproof guide on how to make sure your wife has the perfect Mother’s Day and to ensure you earn infinite brownie points.
THE ULTIMATE MOTHER’S DAY GAME PLAN FOR DADS WHO WANT TO KNOCK IT OUT OF THE PARK THIS YEAR
Just trust me, guys.
Do you share a bed with your dog?
I came across an interesting discussion on the Post Moves podcast (hosted by WNBA legend Candace Parker and Indiana Fever star Aliyah Boston) about whether dogs should be allowed to sleep with you in the bed. Candace and Aliyah both have dachshunds (although Candace mentioned she has two more dogs as well), and they answered with a resounding YES.
Now, I am a dog person through and through. If you’ve been reading my work for longer than five minutes, you know this about me. You probably also know I’m obsessed with my 2-year-old German shepherd, Rocky. So it might surprise you to find out that… no, my husband and I do not allow him on the bed.
My previous dog, a 45-pound mutt, was allowed on the bed. But an 80-pound heavy-shedding, can-barely-sit-still fur missile is a different story. Even with a king-size bed, that’s a tight squeeze. We would get no sleep.
He is allowed on all other furniture, though, and he pretty much owns our sectional. So there’s no need to cue up the sad Sarah McLachlan music for the poor guy.
Rocky man-spreading on the couch. (Amber Harding Snyder)
Time to poll the community!
What’s your call — is the dog allowed in the bed? Why or why not? Email me and let me know. I’ll share some responses in next Tuesday’s Nightcaps.
📩 Email: amber.harding@outkick.com (Send your thoughts, stories, tips, rants and photos of your dog.)
🐦 Twitter/X: @TheAmberHarding
📸 Instagram: @amberharding
Let’s open the mailbag.
We are sending all the prayers and good vibes to Gus
CL in CT Writes: I know you are a huge dog person and wanted to share a few pics of my 5-year-old Golden Retriever Gus. He was diagnosed with osteosarcoma back in October. The prognosis for that cancer is pretty bleak. So we did what the doctors recommended and had the leg amputated and rounds of chemo. He had to have a second surgery as another cancer spot was found after the rear leg amputation.
He was also accepted into a trial program with Yale University for cancer therapy. He has had 2 rounds and has not missed a beat! Thought you might like to see a few pics of my cancer fighter!
What a handsome boy. (Photo Courtesy of reader CL in CT)
We are rooting for you, Gus! (Photo Courtesy of reader CL in CT.)
Gus won’t let a little chemo keep him down. (Photo Courtesy of reader CL in CT)
Amber:
I certainly understand how tough it is to watch your pup battle cancer. They are such perfect souls — they don’t deserve that awful disease. Especially at just 5-years-old.
Gus is lucky to have you, CL, and we are all rooting for him to come out of this like a champ!
‘One truly cool canine’
Reader Gene in the Rock introduced me to Sapper, who was named USO K9 Volunteer of the Year for his outstanding dedication, loyalty and service to our military community.
“From comforting troops during long days to lifting spirits when it’s needed most, 8-year-old, Sapper, embodies everything the USO Canine Program stands for — connection, resilience, and unwavering support for those who serve,” Fort Bragg posted on social media.
“Thank you, Sapper, for the joy you bring to our Soldiers, families, and the entire military community. Well‑deserved recognition for a four‑legged hero who makes a real difference every day.”
Drew in Katy, Texas, has thoughts about last Tuesday’s Nightcaps
Drew Writes: Enjoyed the Outkick article tonight… well maybe except for the sick Rocky episode. Wishing him a speedy recovery regardless.
There’s an easy answer to “But an even better question: Who took these photos and held onto them for six years?!” The answer is someone who (1) might need some cash from a tabloid someday, or (2) might want some leverage on the people in the photo in the future.
A Sevierville vacation was the a favorite for our family. We rented a cabin on the lake nearby. Yes, the zip lines were the highlight. Convincing myself to flip upside down for a long zip line run was a fun thrill at 56 years old.
As to witches, listen to the famous Catholic Priest and exorcist, Fr. Chad Ripperger: Levels of Spiritual Warfare & Our Lady – January 25th 2024. He explains three levels of people involved in the occult and mentions those in the public versus the really serious ones. Start with the section from the 55 to 57 minute mark. If you want to have your mind blown, listen to the entire 1 hour 20 minutes someday.
Healthy huskies lay off the bad cholesterol
Elliott C. Writes: I’m thinking about bacon. I once forgot to pull bacon out of the freezer and only had 3 pieces or bacon for breakfast 1 Saturday. Flipping bacon often and cooking on a medium heat helps keep the bacon flat. I hate when you buy a 4 lb pack of bacon at Costco and 1 pack is a really bad cut.
These guys never get bacon or any other table food:
Freddie Bear and Savanna (Photo Courtesy of reader Elliott C.)
Rescue beagle is living the good life
Rob R. Writes: I love your column on OutKick! I attached two photos of our Beagle, Mason. He was a rescue, but not just any rescue. He was from Envigo -a medical testing lab, which only used Beagles. I attached a story so you can hopefully pass on in one of columns about how these dogs were treated and how so many wonderful people did everything they could to rescue and find wonderful homes for them. Our Mason is doing well and although he’s still not a big fan of people, it was one of the best decisions to get him!
Mason was rescued from a medical testing lab. (Photo Courtesy of reader Rob R.)
Mason appears to have made himself right at home. (Photo Courtesy of reader Rob R.)
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Amber:
Well, I think it’s pretty clear where Mason stands on the dogs-in-the-bed debate.
Stuff I Liked
OutKick Nightcaps is a daily column set to run Monday through Friday at 4 p.m.
Donald Trump has issued another verbal attack against Pope Leo, accusing the pontiff of “endangering a lot of Catholics” because “he thinks it’s fine for Iran to have a nuclear weapon”.
The remarks come two days before Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, meets Leo at the Vatican in an effort to ease the tensions sparked by Trump’s previous broadside against the Chicago-born pontiff over his condemnation of the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Speaking to Hugh Hewitt, a prominent conservative radio talkshow host on the US-based Salem News network, Trump said the pope “would rather talk about the fact that it’s OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon, and I don’t think that’s very good”.
“I think he’s endangering a lot of Catholics and a lot of people,” the president added. “But I guess if it’s up to the pope, he thinks it’s just fine for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”
Leo has never said that Iran should have nuclear weapons, but has repeatedly opposed the war on the country and the subsequent escalation of the conflict in Lebanon and the wider Middle East, calling for ceasefires and dialogue.
Brian Burch, the US ambassador to the Holy See, said on Tuesday that he expected a “frank” meeting between Rubio, a Catholic, and Leo at the Apostolic Palace on Thursday morning.
“Nations have disagreements, and I think one of the ways that you work through those is … through fraternity and authentic dialogue,” Burch told reporters, adding that he thought Rubio was coming to the Vatican “in that spirit, to have a frank conversation about US policy, to engage in dialogue”.
Burch said he did not accept the idea that there was “some deep rift” between the US and the Vatican, saying that Rubio was coming so that each side could “better understand each other, and to work through, if there are differences, certainly to talk through that”.
The trip, which coincides with the first anniversary of Leo’s papacy, was organised after Trump lashed out at the pope in April, calling him weak and saying he was not doing a very good job as pontiff. Trump also shared an AI-generated image depicting himself as a Jesus-like figure, before deleting it and saying it had actually been a portrayal of him as a doctor.
Rubio later denied his trip to the Vatican was designed to “smooth things over” between Pope Leo and Trump, and tried to downplay the rift.
“It’s a trip we had planned from before, and obviously we had some stuff that happened and no, look, there’s a lot to talk about with the Vatican,” he said.
The US secretary of state will also endeavour to patch things up with the Italian government after Trump berated its prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, previously one of his closest allies in Europe,. She had called out his remarks against Leo, rebuking her government for not supporting the strikes on Iran and threatening to withdraw US troops from Italy as a result.
Rubio will also meet the Vatican’s secretary of state, Pietro Parolin, before meeting Meloni and the Italian foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, on Friday morning.
The US vice-president, JD Vance – a Catholic convert – has also criticised the pope, saying the Vatican should “stick to matters of morality” and that Leo should be careful when it came to talking about theology and war.
Rubio and Vance attended the pope’s inauguration in May last year and had a private audience with him the day after, during which they handed him an invitation from Trump to the White House that Leo has not yet taken up.
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A Chicago alderman, incensed by the upcoming closure of a Walgreens store amid safety concerns, stated that the corporate retailer should be charged with “first-degree corporate abandonment.”
Ald. William Hall, along with several community members, held a news conference Monday to voice their anger over the company’s decision to close the location in Chicago’s 6th Ward in the Chatham neighborhood.
“Walgreens should be charged with first-degree corporate abandonment,” Hall said. “It should be a crime, the way they’re treating our elders. It should be a crime, the way they’re treating our families.”
The store is slated to close on June 4. Fox News Digital has reached out to both Hall’s office and Walgreens for further comment.
DEMOCRAT DA IN HOT SEAT AFTER RETAIL THEFT SURGES IN MAJOR AMERICAN CITIES
Chicago Ald. William Hall decried a move by Walgreens to close a store in the city after it cited theft and safety concerns. Hall said the retail chain should be charged with “first-degree corporate abandonment.” (WFLD; Getty Images)
In a statement to the Chicago Sun-Times, the Chicago-area-based pharmacy store chain cited theft and violent incidents as the primary factors behind its decision to close the store on S. Cottage Grove Ave.
“Despite a range of efforts, including previous operating adjustments, these ongoing safety challenges have made it increasingly difficult to maintain a secure environment for our team members and customers,” the company said. “While this was not an easy decision, safety must remain our top priority.”
Walgreens confirmed that employees at the location will be eligible to transfer to other stores.
Walgreens is closing a store in Chicago that has prompted anger from community members and city leaders. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Hall emphasized that the community isn’t “begging” Walgreens to stay, but argued the company is in the wrong for leaving residents without a place to fill medical prescriptions. He warned that the closure would create a “medicine drought” for seniors and residents managing chronic health conditions.
“We’re not here to beg Walgreens to stay. We are saying that their decision is the wrong decision,” Hall said. “In my opinion, it should be considered a first-degree corporate crime… the number of elders who will not have access to healthcare is evil.”
He further noted that Walgreens “ran out” all the small, local businesses in the area when it originally opened.
Ald. Raymond Lopez, a Democrat, said he understands the community’s frustration but questioned the timing of the outrage.
“Where was that anger when the stores in our communities were under years and years of assault by criminals allowed to shoplift, vandalize, and destroy neighborhood institutions?” Lopez asked. “Many leaders say it is simply an insurance matter. They are wrong. There are real-world consequences for crime running rampant. This closure is the perfect example of that effect.”
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Walgreens has closed stores in other cities because of rampant theft.
In 2021, the chain closed several stores in the San Francisco area, citing organized retail crime.
Mauritania’s plan to shut most private primary schools and move students into free public schools is sparking backlash from private educators, even as authorities say it will reduce inequality and improve education rankings. Al Jazeera’s Shola Lawal reports from a school in Nouakchott.
Published On 5 May 2026
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Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is facing backlash for her response to mayoral candidate and former reality television star, Spencer Pratt, who has been attacking L.A. leaders over alleged mismanagement during the deadly Palisades fire.
Bass accused Pratt of “exploiting” the tragedy, which he faced personally, to score political points. Pratt, however, pushed back and said he won community awards for his support of the Palisades community during the tragedy that resulted in both his and his families’ homes being burnt down. He said he also knew people who burned alive across the street from his childhood home.
“Honestly, before this, I had never heard of Spencer Pratt,” Bass told MeidasTouch as the former reality star’s anti-Bass ads about her mismanagement during the Palisades began gaining traction online. “The thing I am concerned and feel about him is that I feel like he’s exploiting the grief of people in the Palisades and I just think that’s just reprehensible. That’s the main thing and I think he is about his own celebrity — he’s famous now again.”
The questioner during the interview agreed with Bass throughout the talk, but did concede that the fires were something “top of mind” for California voters. Still, Bass was lauded by the questioner for her experience working in public office during such a major disaster, a tenure Pratt is targeting.
Hotels in Los Angeles, California are struggling, a new report from industry researchers claimed in a report published April 8. (Getty )
“For a longtime politician, I am godsmacked by Karen Bass’ absolute tone deafness in attacking a survivor of the Palisades fire in this way,” Roxanne Hoge, Chairwoman of the L.A. Republican Party, told Fox News Digital.
“All of Los Angeles is grieving the loss of our once-beautiful and prosperous City under Karen Bass’s and Nithya Raman’s leadership the last 4 years. To accuse Spencer Pratt — who lives in his burned out lot in a trailer — of ‘exploiting grief’ is a new low,” Elizabeth Barcohana, an attorney and political strategist in Los Angeles, added. “It is only thanks to Pratt that we know why Bass was unprepared for the Palisades fire, why Newsom chose to save plants instead of the people who burned alive that day, how the FireAid money disappeared into local NGO coffers instead of going to victims, and what our taxpayer funding that is supposed to be used to reduce homelessness is actually being spent on.”
“Mayor Bass calling Spencer Pratt’s campaign ‘reprehensible’ is the kind of tone-deaf political malpractice that explains exactly why Los Angeles is in crisis. Spencer Pratt lost his home. His parents lost their home. He watched his city burn while his mayor was on a plane to Ghana. That’s not exploitation, that’s lived experience, and it’s the most legitimate credential anyone could bring to this race,” former Trump campaign adviser Janiyah Thomas also told Fox News Digital. “Mayor Bass had the audacity to say she’d never heard of Spencer Pratt, but Angelenos have never forgotten that she cut the fire department’s budget and was absent when their homes were turning to ash.”
Meanwhile, Bass said during the MeidasTouch interview that her experience leading the city’s response during the deadly Palisades fire, in addition to her experience at the federal level in Congress, was exactly why she was a better candidate than Pratt, adding he could use a civics class to understand how government works.
But Bass faced heavy criticism during the fire for being absent, including taking a trip to Ghana as a historic windstorm swept the area ahead of the blaze, for not deploying proper pre-fire resources and enacting around $17.6 million cuts to the city’s fire department ahead of the tragedy.
Bass appeared to blame the fires and their destruction on climate change during the interview, while arguing her experience serving in public office during the disaster is why she should be reelected. Bass said Pratt would benefit from taking a civics class to understand government better.
DEMS BLAME LA FIRE ON ‘CLIMATE CHANGE’ DESPITE CITY CUTTING FIRE DEPARTMENT BUDGET
“These fires, it was the worst natural disaster that we experienced in our city — at the root of it, you know, we have to get adjusted to — just like everybody else in the nation — to different weather experiences that we’re not used to because of climate change,” Bass added during the discussion about Pratt and his attacks on her record. “We don’t know hurricanes — I’m born and raised in Los Angeles — to have hurricane-strength winds and actually no rain is odd anywhere but especially Los Angeles.”
Bass’ office referred Fox News Digital to the mayor’s campaign team, but they did not provide any response in time for publication.
A firefighter battles the Palisades Fire while it burns homes at Pacific Coast Highway amid a powerful windstorm on January 8, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Apu Gomes/Getty Images)
“I’m not sure if Karen Bass forgot she let my house burn down and my parents house burn down and I had actual neighbors burn alive across the street from my childhood home,” Pratt responded on Fox News’ “The Will Cain Show” when asked about Bass’ criticism of him. “The only grief is my grief, my community’s grief that I initially started this fight on behalf of.”
“It’s the most insane, psycho, diabolical thing I’ve heard in a minute – but it’s not shocking,” Pratt added.
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“How the hell is Spencer Pratt ‘exploiting grief’?” Meghan McCain, daughter of the late John McCain, questioned in a post on X about Bass’ response. “He, his wife, children and parents lost their homes and everything in it in a fire because of Karen Bass and her failed policies.”
“Mayor Bass is in damage control. Bass calling this ‘exploitation’ tells you that she wants sympathy for herself and silence from the actual victims of the fires,” Corrin Rankin, California Republican Party Chairwoman, told Fox News Digital. “Californians are tired of Democratic politicians who lack accountability and attack critics. When people lose everything, they have every right to demand answers from the people in charge that failed them.”
Astera Labs unveiled an alternative to Nvidia’s NVSwitch for building rack-scale AI systems on Tuesday, claiming it will work with nearly any accelerator.
The AI fabric switch, codenamed Scorpio X, crams 320 lanes of PCIe 6.0 connectivity into a single ASIC with 5.12 TB/s of bidirectional bandwidth.
Historically, PCIe switches have been used in a variety of applications including scale-out compute fabrics. CPUs alone either didn’t offer enough or fast enough lanes for all the GPUs, NICs, and storage required. So, rather than hanging everything off the CPU, a PCIe switch, often built into the NIC, was used to connect everything together.
Astera contends that with a big enough switch, PCIe is a viable alternative to interconnects like NVLink, in the scale-up fabrics used to make dozens or more GPUs behave more like a single large one without needing to redesign their accelerators.
However, Astera hasn’t just built a bigger PCIe switch. Scorpio is equipped with many of the same in-network compute capabilities as Nvidia’s NVSwitch, which help to accelerate collective communications.
These communications are especially important for generative AI inference. Large language models have become rather chatty from a network standpoint as mixture-of-experts (MoE) architectures have caught on.
MoE models are composed of multiple sub-models called experts. For each token generated, a different selection of experts, potentially running on different GPUs, may be used.
By moving collective communications to the switch, the GPUs spend less time waiting for the network to catch up and more time churning out tokens.
Astera has gone so far as to develop a multicast operation optimized for MoE inference that it calls Hypercast.
“One of the limitations of the standard multicast is the number of groups you can actually support, as well as the dynamic nature of needing to change those groups on the fly for mixture-of-experts models,” Ahmad Danesh, AVP of product management at Astera, told El Reg.
While there are clear benefits to using PCIe as a chip-to-chip interconnect, Scorpio isn’t exactly a replacement for Nvidia’s NVSwitch chips. NVSwitch 6, announced at CES in January, offers nearly 3x the bandwidth at 14.4 TB/s.
However, Astera doesn’t need to compete with NVSwitch directly. In fact, Astera announced plans to extend support for NVLink Fusion, Nvidia’s attempt to open its high-speed interconnect to the broader ecosystem, last spring.
Instead, Scorpio is being positioned more as a vendor agnostic alternative. Technologies like NVLink Fusion or the emerging UALink protocol are gaining traction, but chips need to be designed around them.
PCIe works with just about anything because it’s already used to get data in and out of the accelerators. For example, if you wanted to stitch together 32 or more Nvidia RTX Pro 6000 Server cards, you’d need a PCIe switch, since those GPUs don’t support NVLink at all.
PCIe also makes it easier to mix and match chips for disaggregated inference architectures, like we’ve seen with Nvidia and Groq, AWS and Cerebras, or Intel and SambaNova.
These architectures involve using one accelerator for compute heavy prefill operations and another for bandwidth intensive decode operations. For this to work, the chips have to be connected to one another. Many AI chip builders are doing this over Ethernet, but PCIe would be more direct.
Alongside its Scorpio X family of chips, Astera is also expanding its Scorpio P-series switches with models ranging from 32 to 320 lanes of PCIe connectivity.
All of these switches work with its COSMOS management suite, a hardware monitoring platform designed to help track down and resolve issues across the network fabric.
Astera’s refreshed Scorpio switches are currently sampling with production expected to ramp in the second half of 2026. ®