Four in 10 college students believe people should face criminal prosecution for expressing opinions they find offensive, according to a new poll that raises questions about the next generation's attitudes toward free speech and the First Amendment.
"Four in ten (40%) agree that offensive speech should be subject to criminal prosecution, while 52% disagree. Agreement is up seven points from last year and is the highest in the three years this question has been asked," a recent survey from the Buckley Institute found.
The survey also found that 45% of students believe violence is acceptable to stop offensive speech.
"Forty-five percent (45%) agree that physical violence can be justified to prevent a person from using hate speech or making racially charged comments, while 50% disagree," the survey states. "Agreement is up six points from last year and ties the all-time high of 45% set in 2023. In 2017, the first year this question was asked, agreement was 30%."
The survey also found that 42% agree that political comments they disagree with can be harmful to their mental health, while 53% disagree, up four points from last year and is the highest reading in the five years this question has been asked.
The survey polled 803 undergrads at four-year colleges across the country in mid-September.
The survey included full-time undergraduate students under the age of 25 attending four-year public or private colleges and universities. It excluded part-time students, those 25 and older, and students enrolled in community colleges, technical schools or trade schools.
Lauren Noble, the executive director of the Buckley Institute, told Fox News Digital in a statement Tuesday that the support among undergraduates for prosecuting free speech is a red flag for the country.
"The high levels of undergraduate support for censorship should serve as a warning to America," Noble said. "The 40% of undergraduates who support criminalizing offensive speech will bring that perspective into their communities and workplaces after they graduate. Two hundred fifty years after America’s founding, defenders of the First Amendment should be worried about what the future holds when these censorious students assume positions of leadership."
She added that institutions of higher learning have dropped the ball when it comes to educating students on why the First Amendment is a crucial right.
"The survey data shows that America’s colleges and universities are clearly not doing enough to impress upon their students why free speech is so critical to a free society," Noble added. "When significant numbers of college students accept violence and shout downs as appropriate responses to speech they disagree with, alarm bells should be ringing for Americans across the political spectrum."
Cada vez que alguien abre un grifo de agua, la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS) está detrás de ese gesto: establece las normas que garantizan su calidad. “También está detrás de la definición de qué tiene que llevar una crema para protegerte de los rayos ultravioletas”, asegura María Neira (La Felguera, Asturias, 64 años), la española que aspira a dirigir la OMS, para explicar el impacto en la vida cotidiana de una institución que pasa por horas bajas después de la retirada de la financiación de Estados Unidos y el desplome de su autoridad.
The founder of Christian human rights organization ChinaAid is raising concerns over the health of an imprisoned Chinese pastor who may be suffering from advanced liver cancer, and his family continues to face restrictions on visitation and access to medical information.
Rev. Dr. Bob Fu, founder and president of ChinaAid, told Fox News in an interview that reports concerning Pastor Wang Yi's health are "very worrying," citing information received from multiple sources inside China.
Wang, the founding pastor of Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, has been imprisoned since December 2018 and is serving a nine-year sentence on charges of inciting subversion of state power and illegal business operations.
Although Fu believes that reports of advanced liver cancer are credible, he acknowledged that his organization has not been able to independently confirm the diagnosis.
Fu said ChinaAid was "not able to really independently verify" the reports, citing restrictions on access to Wang and the absence of an independent medical examination.
The organization first publicly raised concerns about Wang's condition on Sept. 28, calling on Chinese authorities to provide his family with access to him and disclose information about his medical treatment.
During the interview, Fu revealed that authorities reportedly provided information by telephone about medical examination they claimed had been conducted on Oct. 1.
According to Fu, prison officials cited medical information indicating Wang was in good health. However, his family has not been permitted a new in-person visit to independently assess his condition.
Fu said that, despite repeated letters from Wang's wife and relatives requesting access, "no meeting had been granted at all" since the latest health concerns emerged.
The pastor's church has also expressed uncertainty about his condition.
In an Oct. 3 open letter, Early Rain Covenant Church acknowledged the reports but said it could not determine whether Wang had fallen ill. The church called on prison authorities to permit regular family visits, correspondence and telephone calls, as well as provide information about any necessary medical care.
According to the church, Wang's family has been permitted fewer than five visits during nearly eight years of imprisonment.
Fu likewise described severely restricted visitation, saying meetings have been brief and closely monitored by authorities. He alleged that discussions concerning Wang's health or religious beliefs have resulted in visits being abruptly terminated.
"Two years, not a single letter for his wife," Fu said, describing the restrictions on communication.
"That's not acceptable. That's even a violation of its own law."
Wang was arrested Dec. 9, 2018, during a crackdown on Early Rain Covenant Church, an independent Protestant congregation operating outside China's state-regulated religious systems.
In December 2019, a Chinese court sentenced him to nine years in prison. The U.S. State Department condemned the conviction at the time, describing the prosecution as connected to Wang's peaceful advocacy for religious freedom and calling for his release.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom lists Wang as a religious prisoner of conscience and has documented reports of medical neglect.
Fu also raised concerns about the treatment of Wang's wife, Jiang Rong, who was detained during the initial crackdown.
He said Jiang had previously been subjected to residential surveillance at a police-arranged location rather than being allowed to remain in her own home and described the lasting emotional consequences of her treatment.
Fu said he believes the severity of the reports warrants immediate action, particularly given the limited access to Wang.
He called on the Chinese authorities to permit Wang's wife, son and elderly parents to meet with him privately, allow an independent medical examination in the presence of legal counsel and release his medical records, including information concerning medications administered during his imprisonment.
Fu also expressed concern about reports of mistreatment of other prisoners of conscience, including allegations of forced medication and serious physical and psychological harm. Those allegations were discussed as part of his broader concerns about the treatment of detainees in China, rather than as established evidence of what has happened to Wang.
The ChinaAid president urged the Trump administration to raise Wang's case directly with Chinese officials during upcoming diplomatic engagements.
"I really want to see the Trump administration to continue to speak up forcefully," Fu told Fox News, calling for the names of individual prisoners of conscience to be included in high-level discussions.
He pointed to the July release of Pastor Ezra Jin Mingri, who was reunited with his family after President Donald Trump raised his case with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a May visit to Beijing.
Fu believes that example demonstrates the potential importance of direct diplomatic intervention, although the circumstances of Jin's release do not establish that such pressure would produce the same result in Wang's case.
Trump and Xi are expected to attend upcoming international summits, including the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leader's meeting in Shenzhen, China, in November and the G20 summit in Miami in December.
Fu urged U.S. leaders not to allow trade and security negotiations to overshadow concerns about religious freedom, human rights and the treatment of prisoners.
"I think it's time to hold them accountable," Fu said.
In a statement to Fox News, Chinese Embassy spokesperson Liu Chang said the embassy had no information to provide regarding Wang's specific case.
The spokesperson defended China's religious policies, saying the government protects freedom of religious belief under Chinese law and does not interfere in religious groups' internal affairs.
Liu added that China prohibits illegal activities carried out under the guise of religion and opposes foreign interference in its domestic affairs.
The embassy did not directly address questions about Wang's reported medical condition, family visitation or the possibility of an independent medical examination.
The U.S. State Department did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment by publication time.
After 20 years of balancing her corporate leadership roles with motherhood, Trisha Daab was ready for a break.
"Life had felt like sprinting a marathon for as long as I could remember," Daab, 47, told Business Insider. "I had no idea how tired I was until I stopped working."
In her year off, she tap danced, volunteered at a food bank, traveled to Disneyland and Alaska, and spent more time with her kids. By the end, she had decided she couldn't go back to her old life.
"My job often demanded that it came first — never-ending to-do lists, urgent emails, travel, and always chasing the next promotion," Daab, who's now a travel writer and substitute teacher, said. "Stepping away helped me realize my priorities had shifted."
Trisha Daab took a year off from her corporate role, then pivoted to jobs that allow for more work-life balance.
Courtesy of Trisha Daab
Now in their 30s and 40s, many millennial women are skeptical of corporate and instead becoming business owners, content creators, and mothers, prioritizing more flexible work schedules. Instead of striving to get to the top, they're inverting Sheryl Sandberg's mantra of the 2010s — and leaning out.
Sandberg, Meta's former COO, told Business Insider that the corporate exodus is due to women feeling undervalued at work.
"This is not the women who are saying, 'I don't want to do it,'" Sandberg, 57, said. "It's the women saying, 'I don't want to do it because I'm not wanted, I'm not getting the same opportunities and the same support, and I face an unfair burden at home.'"
Even Lean In, the organization founded by Sandberg and named after her 2013 bestselling book, is noticing a recent shift in women's ambitions in the workforce.
Sheryl Sandberg coined the phrase "lean in" in 2013, encouraging women to pursue more leadership roles.
Bloomberg/Getty Images
According to the organization's 2025 Women in the Workplace report, published in December 2025, which surveyed 9,500 US employees across 124 organizations, women were less likely to say they wanted a promotion compared to men. This was true when filtered to include only millennials, who made up roughly one-third of participants.
When asked why, over 28% of millennial women said "personal obligations" made it hard for them to take on more — compared to 17% of millennial men.
Annie Wright, a licensed psychotherapist who works with Silicon Valley leaders, has also observed more of her millennial female patients shifting their ideas about what constitutes a fulfilling career.
"I'm watching them make more person-centered choices than necessarily career-only-driven choices," she told Business Insider. "I don't think many millennial women are becoming less ambitious. I think they're just becoming less willing to confuse ambition with self-erasure."
The rise and fall of the have-it-all girlboss
The Wing cofounder Audrey Gelman and Jennifer Lawrence speak at an event at The Wing in 2018.
Monica Schipper/Getty Images for The Wing
Let's, for a moment, remember what is now referred to as the "girlboss era" of the 2010s.
It was a time of She-E-O-led startups, of crushed velvet sofas and the words "I Want It All" aglow in cursive neon lettering. Of earnest enjoyment of "Fight Song" and T-shirts with earnest phrases like "feminist" and "woman up."
Of a future that was female, tinged millennial pink — until a series of public reckonings punctured the fantasy. Leaders of several companies stepped down amid allegations of toxic workplace cultures, exposing the facade of the girlboss promise.
Then came the remote work culture of 2020. Suddenly, many women had time to breathe, whether that meant not rushing to day care pickup, having more time to work out or see friends, or simply not being "on" all the time.
For some, the slowly creeping requirement to return to the office dealt the final blow.
Misty Heggeness, a professor at the University of Kansas specializing in gender economics, described the influx of new RTO policies by some companies as having a "chilling effect."
"That does disproportionately disadvantage women in general," Heggeness told Business Insider, "just because women are more likely to carry an invisible load of work within families."
The working mom paradox
Kendra Rothermel, 34, started her own business to have more flexibility as a working mom of three.
Courtesy of Kendra Rothermel
After the birth of her first child, Kendra Rothermel switched from full-time to part-time work as an office manager while her husband remained at his full-time job. "As we grew our family, it made sense for me to have a more flexible schedule," Rothermel, 34, told Business Insider.
When she had her third baby, his clubfoot diagnosis meant frequent orthopedic appointments. Even part-time work wasn't flexible enough, so she eventually started her own venture helping small businesses with operations and marketing.
Rothermel said she was partly inspired by watching other working moms do the same.
A recent analysis of job-market data by Matthew Nestler, a senior economist at KPMG, found that labor force participation between December 2023 and May 2026 decreased among college-educated women with children under 5. Meanwhile, participation increased for women without children and most groups of men, including fathers.
Because millennials are generally having kids later than previous generations did, Heggeness said parents, moms in particular, are more likely to be parenting young children just as their work responsibilities are ramping up.
"If they were going to lean out, now would be the time," she said, whether it's to save on childcare costs or introduce more flexibility.
Working moms want more flexibility, right as more companies have been instituting RTO mandates.
Natalia Lebedinskaia/Getty Images
Add to the list aging parents. The costs of childcare and eldercare, sometimes unaffordable even with the intense work commitments required to afford them, have prompted some women to leave their full-time jobs for more flexible or minimum-wage work.
To Sandberg, it's a sign that companies are not adequately adjusting to meet women where they are, whether that's offering more flexible hours, longer parental or bereavement leave options, or better healthcare coverage.
"We're at a critical moment in time for women, because what a lot of women are seeing is that commitment to them in leadership pulling back," Sandberg said. "Then what's happening to them is their ambition is pulling back. And that's a loss. It's a loss for our economy. It's a loss for our companies. It's a loss for our children."
The allure of going at it alone
Heigi Jeong left her full-time tech role to pursue content creation and write a book.
Courtesy of Heigi Jeong
Not all women who are leaning out are doing so because they are overworked. Some, like Heigi Jeong, 30, have dreams beyond corporate America.
"While I wouldn't say I loved the work, I liked it," Jeong, who made $173,000 working in product design, told Business Insider. "It was my dream job as an immigrant, and it was sustainable."
Still, Jeong was pulled toward her other ambitions: writing a book and being a content creator. She was also intrigued by the idea of being her own boss.
"When I'm working for myself, I entirely choose the role I will play," Jeong said. "I wanted to experience it myself and have my own take rather than constantly wondering 'What if I quit?'"
Three months after quitting, she enjoys not feeling as rushed as she used to, even if the price is an inconsistent income.
Both Heggeness and Wright have noted a growing interest in entrepreneurship and self-employment among women. A 2024 Census working paper found that the share of women business owners under 45 rose between 2012 and 2020, with the biggest increase among women ages 25 to 34. It also found that newer women-owned employer businesses were disproportionately owned by women under 35.
Some women are pursuing full-time content creation due to more flexible hours and, sometimes, better pay.
Luis Alvarez/Getty Images
The creator economy opened another path. More than 200 million people worldwide now identify as content creators, though that broad figure includes far more than full-time influencers. Some Gen Z and millennial consultants are even leaving MBB and Big Four firms to build audiences and businesses online — trading the girlboss crown for a bubble headband.
In a 2023 Vogue article, writer Daisy Jones wrote that the newest iteration of girlboss swaps grind culture with the similarly perfectionistic "soft life" defined by travel and lucrative brand deals. Pantsuits were exchanged for sweatpants; speaking engagements and spread-thin multitasking gave way to self-care and supplement stacks.
"In some ways, the career woman appears to have been replaced by the health-conscious woman," Jones wrote, "the one who prioritizes her vitamin intake, hydration, and sleep cycle over endless meetings and salary increases."
Content creation doesn't come without its own costs. Plenty of influencers report feeling financially insecure or overworked, unable to take a day off without losing money.
Still, if they're going to burn out or worry about their job security, some figure they might as well enjoy their autonomy to create their own schedules.
"For some women, there's been a paradigm shift in values," Wright said. "Promotion or success now looks like more availability, presence, and freedom."
When everyone leans out
If women keep leaving corporate leadership roles, it leaves fewer women in charge to fight for those corporate roles to be more flexible.
Petri Oeschger/Getty Images
Sandberg, who herself stepped down as Meta's COO in 2022 to pursue philanthropy and early-stage investing ventures, said she supports women's career choices, whatever they may be.
"I think being at home with your children is great," she said. "Going back to school, great. Starting a company, great. Going part-time, great. Anything you want to do is great."
Part of the issue, she said, is that without female leaders, there are simply fewer people to advocate for the very policies that make other women more excited to move up in a company, be it egg-freezing coverage, lactation rooms, or more competitive maternity leave options.
It's why she feels companies need to do more work to assess why women are leaning out enough to jump ship entirely. "It's easy to overly characterize the words 'lean in,'" she said. "What I mean by them is very clear: I think women should make decisions based on believing in their own abilities, based on believing that they should and can have the same opportunities as men."
It's just a shame, she continued, if the decision stems from not feeling valued enough in the corporate world.
"I just hope that enough women want those senior leadership roles," she said, "that we get the environment for women that they deserve."
India’s largest initial public offering (IPO) opens October 21, and investors in Tokyo, Singapore and Hong Kong are being asked a simple question: What is a Jio customer’s monthly bill worth? Jio Platforms, the Reliance-owned mobile carrier with some 524 million India-based customers, is selling 270 million new shares at 1,065 to 1,119 rupees each […]
The agreement will allow CNN to receive compensation for the use of its intellectual property.
On Thursday, U.S. television network CNN announced an agreement with technology company Google to integrate generative artificial intelligence technologies into its news platforms.
“With this partnership, we are opening new avenues for audiences to access CNN’s exceptional journalism while receiving compensation for the distribution and use of our exclusive intellectual property in connection with AI products,” stated Sam Felix, senior vice president of Strategic Partnerships and Business Development.
The agreement will allow the use of experimental features designed to analyze and enhance audience engagement by exploring new ways to consume and distribute journalistic content.
“Google’s innovation in generative AI has transformed the way people discover information and content, and these tools will now help us explore new ways to be discovered and connect with audiences,” Felix added.
Of course, The Jakarta Globe asked me how I see AI tools influencing newsrooms — both in terms of opportunities and risks.
The U.S. network explained that its partnership with Google is part of the company’s AI strategy, “which ensures the protection of its intellectual property.”
The agreement is also part of a broader pilot program by the technology company to incorporate its AI technology to drive traffic to media outlets.
“CNN’s deal comes months after it sued Perplexity AI for copyright infringement after both companies failed to reach a licensing deal, its first legal case against an AI company over the unauthorized use of its journalism. At the time, a CNN spokesperson said the network ‘actively embraces the opportunities AI creates,’” Variety recalled.
“It also reflects the impact Google’s AI summaries in its search engine have had on news organizations, many of which have highlighted how the responses have eaten into their web traffic. Penske Media Corporation, the parent company of Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Rolling Stone and more, sued Google last year over the decline, though a federal judge dismissed the case earlier this month,” it added.
from 21st Century Wire: “Muslims will not relinquish Jerusalem.” The sentence appeared in a Saudi schoolbook’s Arabic language exercise, then disappeared from later editions. An Israeli organisation monitoring the books described the removal as deleting a “politically charged reference.” In Jordan, the same organisation recorded another disappearance. Maps bearing the name “Palestine” were replaced with […]
When Eric Leas, a public-health scientist, discovered packages of “magic mushroom” gummies for sale in a smoke shop, he wondered: Were these candies even legal? Had they been properly tested, and did anyone actually know what constituted a safe dose? This Aeon piece follows Leas down a rabbit hole as he investigates whether the Amanita muscaria products currently on store shelves are as safe as their candy-like packaging suggests.
I found a product with a very high reported amount of muscimol. It was a gummy product, one in a benign-looking package that did not have childproofing or clear warnings. I began doing the calculation no one wants to do. If a young child ate the entire package, mistaking it for candy, could they die? I took the reported amount of muscimol, the toxicology estimates (the LD50), a conversion used to translate dosing between species, and the average weight of a small child. The result looked bad. Bad enough that I did not quite trust myself. So, I called a friend, Matthieu Rouffet, a medicinal chemist and the dean of science at a local college, who does toxicology calculations more often than I do. I wanted him to tell me I had made an error. Instead, he was alarmed too.
The European Parliament has approved a major overhaul of the EU’s customs system, tightening requirements on e-commerce platforms, introducing a new handling fee for goods ordered from outside the bloc and creating a central EU customs authority.
“This is the biggest reform of European customs since 1968, supporting trade and the enforcement of EU rules,” said MEP Dirk Gotink, (EPP, Netherlands) who steered the legislation through Parliament. Gotink said European customs authorities had been overwhelmed by a “tsunami of Chinese parcels” and that the reform would give customs officers stronger tools to enforce EU standards.
Under the new rules, e-commerce platforms and sellers shipping goods directly from non-EU countries to European consumers will be treated as importers. That will make them responsible for providing customs data, handling applicable charges and ensuring products comply with EU law.
The reform also introduces an EU-wide handling fee on goods ordered directly from non-EU countries, with member states required to begin collecting it no later than 1 November, 2026. The European Commission will determine the amount and review it every two years.
Companies that repeatedly breach EU customs rules could face fines ranging from at least 1% to as much as 6% of the value of goods they imported into the EU during the previous 12 months.
The overhaul will also establish an EU Customs Data Hub, designed to replace at least 111 existing customs IT systems. A new EU Customs Authority, based in Lille, France, will manage the hub and coordinate customs cooperation and risk management across the EU.
The Council has already given the reform its final formal approval, making Parliament’s vote the final step in the legislative procedure.
Discover the new available training paths for taxation and for customs officers on the EU Learning Potal.
Two curricula modules for taxation and for customs officers from candidate and potential candidate countries have been released on the DG TAXUD Customs, Tax & CBAM EU Learning Portal. These modules are gateways that guide and provide direct access to targeted training resources designed for taxation officers or customs officers in candidate and potential candidate countries.
The modules feature links to selected courses of the training catalogue of the portal, displayed in a pre-determined order, to provide an extensive knowledge on the EU customs and taxation acquis and its implementation. Taxation and customs officers can also select a specific course according to their competence and/or need.
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