 |
|
|
|||||
Girl with a Pearl Earring has taken on a new meaning on social media. TikTok loves a theory, especially ones that attempt to explain dating struggles. The “pearl earring theory” is the latest to go viral, claiming that the classic freshwater gemstone could be the reason you are chronically single. Why? According to TikTok, pearl jewelry gives off the impression of being expensive and, as a result, high maintenance. “Woke up and found out there’s a ‘pearl earring theory,'” one creator posted alongside a selfie where she is wearing giant pearl earrings. The next slide reads: “So you’re telling me the ‘pearl earrings theory’ is actually about how if someone wears them, they’d be single for a long time and not because you’d look expensive and attract potential lovers?” Of course, theres no scientific backing to this theory. In fact, many in the comments have pushed back with their own love of pearls and successful dating lives. But, given the state of dating in 2025, others are running with it. “No because recently I’ve been realizing that I’m chronically single. You would think by having a big following I would have a gluttonous amount of guys DMing me,” one TikTok creator complained. “No wonder I’m single all the time,” she says, gesturing to her pearl drop earrings, pearl necklace, and pearl bracelets. “I’m decked out in pearls. Truly it is everywhere on everything.” @morganmcguirept2 Or maybe they just think Im annoying #pearl #earring #dating #theory original sound – merp Others are offering the TikTok-viral-theory version of mixed signals. When you wear pearl earrings but have red nails and realize why men must be so confused, one TikTok user posted. The red-nail theory, by contrast, suggests you’re more likely to attract suitors if your nails are painted red. @anasofiagmza pear earring theory X red nail theory #pearlearringtheory #rednailtheory #love stargirl – ADTurnUp The pearl earring theory has even made it to the subreddit r/dating_advice, where someone asked for mens takes. The last thing I look at is a women’s earrings!, one Reddit user wrote. I’ve seen women with the goofiest earrings lock down the best guys, another suggested. So, ladies, if you want to wear pearls, wear your pearls. Or, on the flip side, some are embracing the theory and using pearls as a way to deliberately ward off romantic interests. One creator posted: If pearl earrings theory is real, then Ill wear it even more. @algwen_ah only pearl earring suits me original sound – editsbylil9 – editsbylil9
Category:
E-Commerce
Senate Republicans hauled President Donald Trumps big tax breaks and spending cuts bill to passage Tuesday on the narrowest of margins, pushing past opposition from Democrats and their own GOP ranks after a turbulent overnight session. The outcome capped an unusually tense weekend of work at the Capitol, the presidents signature legislative priority teetering on the edge of approval or collapse. In the end that tally was 50-50, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote. Three Republican senatorsThom Tillis of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentuckyjoined all Democrats in voting against it. “The big not so beautiful bill has passed, Paul said after the vote. The difficulty it took for Republicans, who have the majority hold in Congress, to wrestle the bill to this point is not expected to let up. The package now goes back to the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson had warned senators not to deviate too far from what his chamber had already approved. But the Senate did make changes, particularly to Medicaid, risking more problems as they race to finish by Trumps Fourth of July deadline. The outcome is a pivotal moment for president and his party, which have been consumed by the 940-page One Big Beautiful Bill Act, as its formally titled, and invested their political capital in delivering on the GOP’s sweep of power in Washington. Trump acknowledged its very complicated stuff, as he departed the White House for Florida. I dont want to go too crazy with cuts,” he said. “I dont like cuts. What started as a routine but laborious day of amendment voting, in a process called vote-a-rama, spiraled into a round-the-clock slog as Republican leaders were buying time to shore up support. The droning roll calls in the chamber belied the frenzied action to steady the bill. Grim-faced scenes played out on and off the Senate floor, amid exhaustion. Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota was desperately reaching for last-minute agreements between those in his party worried the bill’s reductions to Medicaid will leave millions without care, and his most conservative flank, which wants even steeper cuts to hold down deficits ballooning with the tax cuts. The GOP leaders have no room to spare, with narrow majorities. Thune could lose no more than three Republican senators, and twoTillis, who warned that millions of people will lose access to Medicaid health care, and Paul, who opposes raising the debt limit by $5 trillionhad already indicated opposition. Attention quickly turned to two other key senators, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Collins, who also raised concerns about health care cuts, as well as a loose coalition of four conservative GOP senators pushing for even steeper reductions. Murkowski in particular became the subject of the GOP leaderships attention, as they sat beside her for talks. She was huddled intensely for more than an hour in the back of the chamber with others, scribbling notes on papers. Then all eyes were on Paul after he returned from a visit to Thunes office with a stunning offer that could win his vote. He had suggested substantially lowering the bill’s increase in the debt ceiling, according to two people familiar with the private meeting and granted anonymity to discuss it. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said Republicans are in shambles because they know the bill is so unpopular.” An analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found 11.8 million more Americans would become uninsured by 2034 if the bill became law. The CBO said the package would increase the deficit by nearly $3.3 trillion over the decade. And on social media, billionaire Elon Musk was again lashing out at Republicans as the PORKY PIG PARTY!! for including the $5 trillion debt ceiling in the package, which is needed to allow continued borrowing to pay the bills. Senators insist on changes Few Republicans appeared fully satisfied as the final package emerged, in either the House or the Senate. Collins had proposed bolstering the $25 billion proposed rural hospital fund to $50 billion, offset with a higher tax rate on those earning more than $25 million a year, but her amendment failed. And Murkowski was trying to secure provisions to spare people in her state from some food stamp cuts, which appeared to be accepted, while she was also working to beef up federal reimbursements to hospitals in Alaska and others states, that did not comply with parliamentary rules. What’s in the big bill All told, the Senate bill includes $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, according to the latest CBO analysis, making permanent Trump’s 2017 rates, which would expire at the end of the year if Congress fails to act, while adding the new ones he campaigned on, including no taxes on tips. The Senate package would roll back billions of dollars in green energy tax credits, which Democrats warn will wipe out wind and solar investments nationwide. It would impose $1.2 trillion in cuts, largely to Medicaid and food stamps, by imposing work requirements on able-bodied people, including some parents and older Americans, making sign-up eligibility more stringent and changing federal reimbursements to states. Additionally, the bill would provide a $350 billion infusion for border and national security, including for deportations, some of it paid for with new fees charged to immigrants. Democrats fighting all day and night Unable to stop the march toward passage, the Democrats tried to drag out the process, including with a weekend reading of the full bill. A few of the Democratic amendments won support from a few Republicans, though almost none passed. More were considered in one of the longer such sessions in modern times. One amendment overwhelmingly approved stripped a provision barring states from regulating artificial intelligence if they receive certain federal funding. Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, raised particular concern about the accounting method being used by the Republicans, which says the tax breaks from Trump’s first term are now current policy and the cost of extending them should not be counted toward deficits. She said that kind of magic math won’t fly with Americans trying to balance their own household books. Lisa Mascaro, Mary Clare Jalonick, and Matt Brown, Associated Press Associated Press writers Joey Cappelletti, Darelene Superville, and Kevin Freking contributed to this report.
Category:
E-Commerce
Over the past 20 months, as Palestinians have suffered under Israel’s increased military presence, crowdfunding websites have become one way for monetary relief to reach those in need. However, a recent Al Jazeera report claims that a number of GoFundMe pages with funds meant for Palestinians have had funds frozen or even refunded, the organizers say, without proper cause. Frozen funds Hala Sabbah, the founder of The Sameer Project, told Al Jazeera that GoFundMe refunded more than $250,000 for Palestinians that was meant for things like tents, aid, and clothing, calling the occurrence a “disaster” for the group’s organizers. Sabbah explained, per the outlet, that the page had all the necessary components and was shut down without cause. “Our GoFundMe page had daily updates with complete cost breakdowns of every single initiative we dideverything was well-documented, with receipts, Sabbah said. We spent weeks fighting back, and they completely ignored us, even denying us access to our donor lists. Fast Company spoke with Lena Dajani, The Sameer Project’s cofounder, who said that, additionally, while their page was under review, GoFundMe left the fundraiser open to donations, which isn’t the typical practice, and took an unreasonable amount of time to return the funds. That amplified the organization’s challenges further when taking their cause to another platform. “It took them six months to return all donations, preventing us from recuperating what we lost by asking donors to re-give to our new fundraiser [on chuffed.org],” Dajani said. The cofounder added that when the page was taken down, it was completely unexpected, yet the platform refused to answer questions or respond about why it was removed. GoFundMe responds to allegations Fast Company reached out to GoFundMe about the incident. A representative would not speak to The Sameer Project’s specific case for privacy reasons, or say how much money to Palestinian causes has been frozen to date, but adamantly denied that the site is withholding funds meant for Palestinians, calling those allegations “categorically false.” The representative said, in a written statement, “At GoFundMe, our top priority is being a trusted platform where people can help each other. Since October 2023, hundreds of millions of dollars have been raised on our platform and distributed to individuals and organizations to help people impacted by the conflict, and our Trust & Safety team continues to carefully review fundraisers and work closely with fundraiser organizers to ensure funds are delivered as safely and quickly as possible. GoFundMe has been extraordinarily busy in recent years as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has grown more desperate, and with that, comes an uptick in scammers. Fundraising organizations have to be extra mindful that funds are being raised for the parties the fundraisers claim and that it can get to the recipient. If they don’t do due diligence, they could face legal action, or an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). In the wake of the Trump era, when even free speech in reference to Palestine has been penalized, the platform may be exercising extra caution around potential scammers, which, sadly, are often plentiful in times of crisis. According to GoFundMe’s “Giving Guarantee,” which ensures refunds for fraudulent campaigns, it has to refund campaigns that don’t meet its criteria. According to GoFundMes representative, fundraising sites have to comply with international laws and global financial regulations, plus the site’s own Terms of Service, as well as the requirements of its payment processor. Apart from relevant consumer protections, we are bound by global sanctions regulations, as well as requirements from the financial services industry to verify the identities of our ultimate beneficiaries, the representative explained. Failure to uphold our high standard of diligence and adequately protect our platform and customers could result in investigations and regulatory enforcement, and interruption of services by our financial partners. Last year, as complaints about frozen funds for Palestine emerged on social mediawith some using the hashtag #releasethefunds and claiming a double standard when funds were meant for Gazathe platform addressed the uproar with a question-and-answer page, where the site laid out the grounds for fundraiser removal. That criteria included: “Any support for armed conflict, regardless of the country, which includes funding weapons, any supplies to soldiers, territorial defense forces” or “Travel to any location to support military or territorial defense, except as required by a national government,” as well as pages that violate GoFundMe’s terms of service or its processing partners terms of service. Technical difficulties Not everyone is convinced that the double standard exists. Janet Miller is a tech writer who has successfully helped a number of people with frozen fundraising pages for Palestine to unfreeze them. She started helping in this way after connecting with a man and his family whose fundraiser had been picked for a program that matches Gaza fundraisers with influencers. “Mohammed’s was chosen by a writer named Sim Kern, and it quickly raised close to $100,000,” Miller told Fast Company in an email. The funds were meant to help Mohammed and his family flee the area. But then, the fundraiser was frozen by GoFundMe. Miller’s tech writing experience helped her to quickly understand the issue and once she sent in the proper documentation, the funds were released, but the pause had happened at a critical time. “They quickly unfroze the funds, but by that time the Rafah gate had closed. There was no longer a way to exit the country,” Miller explained. However, after helping one family, more people began to seek Miller out to help with their GoFundMe accounts. Each time she had access to the proper documentation, she was successful in ensuring the funds were released. “The main issue was that they didn’t think through how to get the funds to the beneficiaries, which is a major hurdle for Gaza,” Miller explained. “I think they have one ATM machine left in the country. PayPal charges something like 25% in fees, and now most U.S. banks won’t allow transfers to the Bank of Palestine. Many people in Gaza don’t even have bank accounts, so they have to depend on Western Union. A lot of people use foreign brokers, which means that GoundMe then has to email the beneficiaries to confirm that they really did receive the funds.” Miller added that the multistep process is complicated, especially as internet connectivity in Palestine is waning. “GoFundMe does include instructions on their website, but those are a little bit buried. And you have to gather a lot of information from the beneficiaries, who give hurried answers in the few minutes in the day that they have Wi-Fi.” Other fundraisers face similar challenges Still, Al Jazeera reported that other pages had been shuttered, too. And dozens of videos can be found on TikTok recounting similar occurrences of having funding pages unexpectedly frozen. User @MerryFets documented the experience of having funds for Gazans frozen and asked followers to apply pressure to GoFundMe. The users followers did just that, reaching out directly and tagging GoFundMe on social media, and in a follow up post, @MerryFets announced that the crowdfunding site had released the funds. We dont want to accuse GoFundMe of anything, the user says in her video, while also pointing out that the page in question was run by a Palestinian-American. They chose to freeze her funds, but not any of the fundraisers weve had run by white, blonde women, the user shared. But in some cases, even U.S. projects seeking to raise awareness about the situation in Gaza have been subjected to lengthy and frustrating review processes that the organizers feel is unique. Poppy Liu, an actor and activist, started a GoFundMe page in support of another project, which aimed to create truck billboards to raise awareness about the humanitarian crisis. The page quickly hit its goal, but then was unexpectedly frozen by GoFundMe. Lui said it felt “incredibly apparent that this is part of a national trend of censoring anything that talks about Palestine, when speaking to The Verge last year. It feels explicitly racist. It feels anti-Arab,” the activist said. In Lui’s case, the freeze was eventually lifted after complying with multiple requests for additional information, as well as demonstrating where the funds were going (to a U.S.-based project). However, Lui claimed that she’s used the platform many times before and has never run into anything like what happened with the billboard campaign. Ive never had an issue before and Ive fundraised for things that were not even registered 501(c)s, Liu said. Fast Company also spoke to Katherine Llewellyn, another GoFundMe user with a page devoted to Palestine, who said that while there were a ton of hoops to jump through, such as providing many verification documents, she hasn’t encountered any issues on the platform. “The harder thing for me has been getting funds raised into Gaza after they make it to my account,” she said. The user had to switch methods multiple times due to roadblocks as the destruction mounted. At present, the fundraiser uses cryptocurrency, which she says “in Gaza converts into cash via a broker who takes approximately 30% off the top.” PayPal also under fire GoFundMe is not the only site that has been accused of blocking funds to Palestine. PayPal has been met with harsh criticism because the financial site actually does clearly disallow their services to Palestinians, while Israelis living in the same areas have access, and Apple Pay, PayPals biggest competitor, serves Palestinians. In 2023, 7amleh, The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media, along with members of Congress, sent a letter to PayPal, urging the company to open services to Palestinians, calling the blocking of services “discriminatory.” 7amleh explained, “Denying Palestinians access to PayPal’s services affects the Palestinians rights to access livelihood and work opportunities and participate in the development of their economy.” It continued, “Furthermore, Mastercard, Visa, Swift, and Apple Pay have all entered the Palestinian market with no problems, so there does not seem to be any foreseeable barriers to entry for PayPal.” The group also launched a petition on the matter, which was signed by nearly 283,000 people, including actor and activist Mark Ruffalo. Fast Company reached out to PayPal for comment but did not hear back by the time of publication. Alternative platforms ease the burden Although GoFundMe asserts that it is not discriminating against Palestinian causes, other fundraising sites appear to be managing donations for the area without issue. Dajani said that the fundraising platform Chuffed.org, the site The Sameer Project moved to, has been a better experience. It’s hard to say why the site isn’t running into the same issues as GoFundMe, and Chuffed didn’t respond to a Fast Company inquiry. However, the site is based in Australia, which makes it less of a target for American lawmakers. The site frequently features Gaza fundraisers on its main page. At present, it is highlighting fundraising for activists Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk, aid funds for Palestine, and more. In its list of featured causes, also visible on the main page, Palestine is listed first. Like many American institutions, GoFundMe doesn’t advertise support for Palestinian causes on its main page, perhaps in an effort to remain neutral. GoFundMe maintains that its policies are applied fairly and with the intent to keep users safe, although the experiences of some organizers raising money for Palestinian causes highlight the complexities of online fundraising during international crises. As the situation in Gaza continues to deteriorate, ensuring that legitimate humanitarian campaigns can operate smoothly remains a challenge for platforms, donors, and aid organizations alike.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||