Latest Lifestyle News

As TikTok bill steams forward, online influencers put on their lobbying hats to visit Washington

Dec. 23, 2024 17:53 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers, meet your latest lobbyists: online influencers from TikTok. The platform is once again bringing influencers to Washington, this time to lobby members of Congress to reject a fast-moving bill that would force TikTok's Beijing-based parent company to sell...

AP PHOTOS: The iconic and unconventional sides of Christmas in New York

Dec. 23, 2024 17:46 PM EST

NEW YORK (AP) — The challenge of photographing Christmastime in New York is that there is so much of it. The big tree in Rockefeller Center. Ice skating in Central Park. The Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall. All those lavish, holiday-themed department store window displays. ...

Elaborate holiday light displays are making spirits bright in a big way

Dec. 23, 2024 17:32 PM EST

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Tiny tots with their eyes all aglow might be enough to brighten some homes this holiday season. But others are adorned with thousands of blinking lights synched to blasting music, drawing crowds and bolstering both holiday and community spirit. In a cul-de-sac...

How faith communities can be welcoming of believers with disabilities this holiday season and beyond

Dec. 23, 2024 11:45 AM EST

The Rev. Shannon Blosser sees how his son loves church — the music, the singing, the communion. But the United Methodist pastor said his family hasn’t always felt like 11-year-old Noah, who is autistic, has been welcome. At one point, Blosser’s wife and the couple’s two sons...

She's here for 'a kitchen pep talk' during the holiday whirlwind

Dec. 23, 2024 10:41 AM EST

To get a sense of Margaret Eby’s new book, “You Gotta Eat: Real-Life Strategies for Feeding Yourself When Cooking Feels Impossible,” flip to the section called “Anything’s a sandwich if you’re not a coward.” The only requirement, she writes, is “some kind of bread or...

FDA says decongestant in many cold medicines doesn't work. So what does?

Dec. 23, 2024 10:33 AM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — Changes are coming to the cold and cough aisle of your local pharmacy: U.S. officials are moving to phase out the leading decongestant found in hundreds of over-the-counter medicines, concluding that it doesn’t actually relieve nasal congestion. Phenylephrine is...

This Italian flourless chocolate torta is rich and dense yet remarkably light

Dec. 23, 2024 08:49 AM EST

Pasticceria Gollini in Vignola, Italy, not far from Modena, is home to the sumptuous flourless chocolate cake known as torta Barozzi. Created in 1886 by pastry chef Eugenio Gollini and named for Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola, a 16th-century architect, the much-loved sweet continues today...

The internet is rife with fake reviews. Will AI make it worse?

Dec. 23, 2024 07:16 AM EST

The emergence of generative artificial intelligence tools that allow people to efficiently produce novel and detailed online reviews with almost no work has put merchants, service providers and consumers in uncharted territory, watchdog groups and researchers say. Phony reviews have...

What to stream: 'Squid Game' returns, the movie 'Bird' and Mariah Carey teams up with the NFL

Dec. 23, 2024 00:06 AM EST

The long-awaited second season of “Squid Game” on Netflix and singing superstar Andrea Bocelli’s Christmas TV special are some of the new television, films and music headed to a device near you. Also among the streaming offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated...

A board game born in Mexican prisons is bringing together people from all walks of life

Dec. 22, 2024 23:16 PM EST

MEXICO CITY (AP) — On a Sunday afternoon in Mexico City’s Roma neighborhood, Rosa María Espinosa joins nearly 80 men under a park pavilion to play poleana, a board game requiring mental dexterity that was born in the city's prisons nearly a century ago. Espinosa blows smoke...