New Changes to How Tech Companies Can Track Your Kids

The proposed update to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) in 2023 brings additional protections for children using online platforms. Businesses will now need parental consent to disclose information to third parties for behavioral advertising, and push notifications that encourage kids to use services excessively will be restricted. The update also sets standards on holding children's personal information only as long as necessary, strengthening privacy measures overall.

Read More

MacKenzie Scott Donates $7.17 Billion to 225 Organizations in 2025

MacKenzie Scott gave away $7.17 billion this year. That’s the headline, at least. But if you ask her, that number barely scratches the surface of what really matters. In a personal blog post published Tuesday, the billionaire philanthropist shared her 2025 donation total — gifts to about 225 organizations — and used the announcement to spotlight the everyday acts of generosity happening across the country, far from the headlines. “This dollar total will likely be reported in the news,” she wrote, “but any dollar amount is a vanishingly tiny fraction of the personal expressions of care being shared into communities this year.” The latest round of donations brings her total giving since 2019 to $26.3 billion, making her one of the most prolific living philanthropists, behind only Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, according to Forbes. The publication currently estimates Scott’s net worth at $29.9 billion. She became one of the world’s richest women following her 2019 divorce from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. This year’s donations include funding for historically Black colleges and universities, and organizations working on poverty, racial injustice, and climate change. But true to her approach, Scott didn’t release a full list or breakdown of the recipients. That, too, is deliberate. Since she began giving away her fortune, Scott has consistently avoided the top-down, high-profile playbook used by many wealthy philanthropists. Her donations are typically unrestricted — meaning nonprofits can use the money however they want — and often come as a surprise. In a 2021 post, she explained why: “People struggling against inequities deserve center stage in stories about change they are creating. This is equally — perhaps especially — true when their work is funded by wealth.” She reiterated that philosophy again this week, writing that her role is not to make herself the center of the story, but to “cede focus to others.” Following her divorce, Scott signed the Giving Pledge, a public promise by some of the world’s richest people to give away the majority of their wealth during their lifetimes. She has since assembled a team of advisors to help identify high-impact organizations, particularly those “operating in communities facing high projected food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates and low access to philanthropic capital.” In her latest blog post, Scott pointed to data from Giving USA, which reported more than $590 billion in total charitable giving across the United States in 2024. She emphasized that most of it came from ordinary people, not billionaires. “Over 70% of Americans reported giving both labor and money to people they know, and half reported doing the same for strangers,” she wrote. “It’s easy to focus on the methods of civic participation that make news, and hard to imagine the importance of the things we do each day with our own minds and hearts.” Scott also reflected on the support she received before she became wealthy, including a college roommate at Princeton who once lent her $1,000 so she wouldn’t have to drop out. That roommate, Jeannie Ringo Tarkenton, later went on to found Funding U, a student loan provider focused on helping low-income students who don’t have access to co-signers. There was also the dentist who fixed a broken tooth for free after noticing Scott trying to secure it with denture glue. “I never forgot those gestures,” Scott wrote. Rather than focus solely on financial contributions, she urged readers to consider civic participation in its broader forms — empathy, understanding, and forgiveness. “All of these are meaningful contributions to others,” she said. Scott didn’t disclose how she selected this year’s recipients. But the core message of her post had little to do with dollars and more to do with values. Her philanthropy, she suggested, is just one part of a much larger, less visible story — one written every day by people helping each other in quiet, unrecognized ways.

Read More

Santas Sprint Through Streets In Charity Fun Run

More than 900 people dressed as Santa Claus ran through Gloucester on Saturday, turning the city’s streets red and white and setting a record for the annual Christmas fun run. Organisers offered two distances, a 1km route and a 5km route, with runners taking part to raise money for local groups and charities. The event brought in more than £7,000, the biggest total since the Rotary Club of Gloucester launched the run in 2017. Matt Cass, who founded Gloucester’s Fun Run as part of the Rotary Club, said the turnout and fundraising showed what the city can do when it pulls together. “This is Gloucester community, helping Gloucester community,” Cass said. He also pointed to the costumes as part of the appeal, with participants going beyond the standard Santa suit. “How can you not like dressing up like this? There’s a woman round here dressed as an inflatable turkey – how brilliant is that?” he said. All profits from the run go to the Rotary Club of Gloucester’s Charities and the Community Awards, which support local causes. Among the runners was Lauren Drury, from Gloucester, who arrived in an inflatable turkey costume for her first fun run. She told the BBC she bought the outfit for a hen do and decided to use it again. Her children joined in too, dressed as the Grinch and Santa. For some participants, the event was also a chance to raise money tied to personal struggles. Anthony Cox, from Abbeydale, told the BBC he and his running group were fundraising for the Motor Neurone Disease (MND) Association. Cox said his wife has MND and he cares for her “on a 24/7 basis”. “[I am] raising money for all the fabulous work they do for myself and my wife who has MND, that I care for on a 24/7 basis,” he said. “They do so much for us emotionally – a shoulder just to listen and talk things through. That you don’t feel on your own,” Cox added. Jamie Campbell, who ran in an inflatable elf costume, said he was persuaded into joining by friends, and he expected at least one more costume surprise before the day was done. “I was peer-pressured into this, to tell you the truth,” Campbell said. “I’m just waiting for him to turn up in his outfit – gingerbread man,” he added. The Rotary Club’s Cass said the run was built around keeping the money in the community and supporting local organisations through the club’s charitable work and award programmes. This year’s record turnout and fundraising total will boost that pot, as Gloucester heads deeper into the Christmas season with a new high point for the run’s short history.

Read More

Comedy Icon Dick Van Dyke Celebrates Turning 100: "I Still Try To Dance"

Dick Van Dyke turned 100 on Saturday, marking a milestone for one of the most recognisable performers in American entertainment, a comic actor and dancer whose career has stretched across nearly eight decades. The celebrations come with a new documentary, “Dick Van Dyke: 100th Celebration,” which is set to screen in theatres across the United States this weekend, offering a fresh look back at a life that has moved between television, film and stage, and across multiple generations of audiences. Van Dyke became a household name in the early 1960s as the star of “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” the CBS sitcom that ran for five years and helped shape the rhythm of modern TV comedy. The series, built around his character Rob Petrie, mixed physical comedy with sharp timing, and it paired him with Mary Tyler Moore in a dynamic that became one of television’s defining partnerships. That early success opened the door to the kind of family-friendly film career Van Dyke once said he wanted. “Early in his career, Van Dyke was quoted as saying he wanted to make films his children could watch,” the source material notes, and one of the biggest turns of his life came when Walt Disney cast him in “Mary Poppins,” opposite Julie Andrews. The film’s songs and choreography turned Van Dyke’s chimney sweep character, Bert, into a cultural fixture, even as his cockney accent became a frequent punchline, including from Van Dyke himself. He later appeared in another child-focused musical hit, “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.” Van Dyke has always seemed comfortable poking fun at his own legend. In a 2023 interview, he told CBS Sunday Morning that he once received an unexpected offer to step into one of cinema’s most famous roles, and he said he shut it down with a joke at his own expense. “Yeah, I could have been James Bond. When Sean Connery left, the producer said, 'Would you like to be the next Bond?' I said, 'Have you heard my British accent?' Click! That's a true story!” Van Dyke told CBS Sunday Morning in 2023. The achievements on his resume stack up in a way that is rare even for Hollywood’s most durable stars. During his career, Van Dyke won four Primetime Emmy Awards, a Tony Award and a Grammy Award. He also entered the Television Hall of Fame in 1995. In the past year, he added another first to his record. The source material says Van Dyke became the oldest winner of a Daytime Emmy in 2024, taking the award for a guest role on the long-running soap “Days of Our Lives.” Speaking to Entertainment Tonight before the win, he framed the moment with the same mix of pride and self-deprecation that has followed him for decades. “I'll be darned. I think I'm the last of my generation. I'm 98. I have — almost — all my marbles. I can't remember what I had for breakfast,” he told Entertainment Tonight before his win. Even at 100, Van Dyke still sits just short of another Hollywood benchmark. The source material describes him as “just an Oscar shy of the elusive EGOT title,” and it says he would still like a shot at the Academy Award. He joked about it, too, leaning into the fact that time, not talent, is the obstacle. “I hope it's not posthumous,” he joked. Behind the public success, Van Dyke has also spoken openly about personal struggle. The source material notes that in the 1970s, he found sobriety after battling alcoholism, a chapter he now describes as part of a longer life that has kept expanding in ways he did not expect. In that same 2023 CBS Sunday Morning interview, Van Dyke talked about the strange experience of being rediscovered again and again by new audiences, including children who were not born until decades after his biggest film roles. “I'm on my third generation,” he told CBS Sunday Morning in 2023. “I'm getting letters from little kids, and that is what I love, that they watch the movies over and over. I'm getting so much more mail today than I did during the heyday of my career.” With the 100th birthday approaching, Van Dyke has also tried to puncture the gloom that people sometimes project onto extreme old age. He told ABC News he had gained perspective after years of playing older men on screen, often leaning into the stereotype of bitterness. “You know, I played old men a lot, and I always played them as angry and cantankerous,” he told ABC News ahead of his milestone birthday. “It's not really that way. I don't know any other 100-year-olds, but I can speak for myself.” He has long credited his wife, Arlene Silver, a makeup artist and producer, with keeping him active. The source material notes their age difference, calling her “54-year-old,” and it says Van Dyke points to her as a reason he still keeps a schedule that many younger people would struggle to maintain. “As I've said, if I had known I was gonna live this long, I would've taken better care of myself!” Van Dyke told CBS Sunday Morning. “Yeah, 'cause I went through that whole period of alcoholism. But my wife, God bless her, makes sure that I go to the gym three days a week and do a full workout.” Van Dyke was born in West Plains, Missouri, in 1925, and grew up in Danville, Illinois, where he was known as “the class clown,” admiring and imitating silent film comedians. That early obsession with physical comedy never left him, and it became part of his signature, from TV pratfalls to big musical numbers on film. Five years ago, while celebrating receiving a Kennedy Center Honor, Van Dyke told CBS Mornings he had his eyes on this birthday, and he name-checked another performer who made it to 100 as a kind of target. “George Burns made it, and I'm gonna do it too,” he said. Now that he has reached 100, he has also been frank about the limits that come with it. In the same ABC News interview, he said he still feels lucky to be here, while acknowledging that his body does not always cooperate with the spirit that made him famous. “I miss movement,” he told the outlet. “I've got one game leg from I don't know what.” “I still try to dance,” he said with a laugh.

Read More

Lack of Loo No More: This Historic Church Installed Their First Toilet After 1,000 Years

After standing for over a millennium, a Saxon church in the English village of Daglingworth is finally getting its first toilet. Holy Rood Church, which dates back to the 11th century and features rare Saxon carvings and a 15th-century tower, has received a £35,000 grant from the National Churches Trust and a further £5,000 from the Headley Foundation to install an accessible toilet and kitchen servery. The new facilities will be built into the base of the church’s bell tower and north aisle. The move comes after dwindling attendance raised concerns about the church’s accessibility — especially for older parishioners, families with young children, and those with mobility issues. “The lack of a toilet had made the church inaccessible for many people and had deterred attendance,” the church said. With modern plumbing finally on the way, church leaders hope to breathe new life into the historic building by making it more welcoming for community events, including plans for a mother and toddler group and safe refreshment services after Sunday worship. Steve Brady, churchwarden at Holy Rood, called the improvements a “community-wide effort” to keep the church “at the very centre of village life.” “These two incredibly generous grants ensure that we can make vital changes, and necessary restoration works to the church,” he said. “Creating and preserving the church as a space for all members of the parish to benefit from and enjoy — from the youngest to the oldest — is at the centre of our mission and work here.” The upgrades mark a new chapter for a building that has already withstood centuries of history, including plagues, wars, and the Reformation. Claire Walker, chief executive of the National Churches Trust, said the group was “delighted” to support the effort. “Not only will this protect this important heritage, but it will help to keep the church building open and serving local people.” Construction of the new facilities is expected to begin soon, bringing Holy Rood Church into the modern age — and, at long last, giving its congregation some much-needed relief.

Read More

Fedex Delivers 325K Free Christmas Trees To Military Families In Annual 'Trees For Troops' Program

Every December for the past 21 years, thousands of military families across the United States have received a simple but powerful gift: a fresh Christmas tree delivered right to their base. It’s all thanks to a nonprofit initiative called Trees for Troops, run by the Christmas Spirit Foundation. Since launching in 2005, the program has delivered more than 326,000 free Christmas trees to active-duty service members and their families. “That first year, we were able to do 4,300 trees to five different bases,” executive director Rick Dungey told Fox Weather. “I remember at the time, people thought it was just a crazy idea that wouldn’t catch on, but it did. And now we’re doing our 21st consecutive year.” What started as a modest idea has become a massive, coordinated effort involving over 340 farms in 28 states. In 2025 alone, Dungey estimates the group will donate more than 19,000 trees to 94 bases across the country — all within a tight 10-day window. “Those [trees] have to be gathered together in 56 locations — farms and garden centers — and FedEx picks them up,” Dungey explained. FedEx has supported the project from day one. “For 21 years, FedEx Freight has been honored to carry more than just cargo alongside the Christmas Spirit Foundation — we carry a piece of home to the doorsteps of our nation’s military families,” spokesperson Shannon Davis told Military.com. The effort is personal and deeply local. At every step, community members help make the experience special — from harvesting the trees to hand-writing cards and crafting homemade ornaments. At New York’s Ellms Family Farm, which has supported the program since its beginning, local National Guard members helped load trees this year. “Most of them say the same thing, how this reminded them of home and family,” said farm owner Garth Ellms. “To help our troops enjoy that moment or memory is why we continue to do this.” And at Richardson Farms in Illinois, Wendy Richardson says the program’s impact never gets old. “Nothing says ‘Merry Christmas’ or starts the holidays more than a real tree,” she said. “The smell, the memories of getting a tree — whether it’s at a tree farm or when it’s delivered to the base — it’s a very warm feeling for us to see people appreciating that tree.” The trees are especially meaningful this year, as many military families continue to feel the pinch from rising living costs. According to the Military Family Advisory Network, one in four active-duty military families in the U.S. faces food insecurity — a far higher rate than the national average. For many families, removing the cost of a Christmas tree from their budget means being able to celebrate the holidays more fully. And while the trees themselves are temporary, the memories — and the message — last a lot longer.

Read More

A Cold Could Have Killed Her — Until Gene Therapy Rewrote the Rules

Cora Oakley was born with no immune system. A simple infection, even the common cold, could have ended her life. Diagnosed with severe combined immunodeficiency, or SCID — sometimes called “bubble boy disease” — Cora was among roughly 100 babies in the U.S. each year born with this rare and often fatal genetic condition. Without treatment, most infants with SCID don’t survive past their first birthday. Cora had ADA-SCID, one of the few subtypes for which a promising new gene therapy was being tested. Her mother, Chelsea Ferrier, calls her a “miracle” child — her firstborn after years of miscarriages. When a clinical trial opened in 2017, Cora got the last spot. “I would have sold my organs to get into that trial,” Ferrier said. A Quiet Revolution in Treatment Until recently, the only real option for children with SCID was a bone-marrow transplant — a complex procedure that often requires a perfectly matched sibling donor. For those without a match, the risks are far greater: chemotherapy, immunosuppression, and complications like graft-versus-host disease. “You’re suppressing their immunity when you want their immune system to grow,” said Dr. Donald Kohn, a pediatric immunologist at UCLA Health and lead author of a recent gene therapy study. Gene therapy offers a different path. Doctors collect a child’s own stem cells, correct the faulty gene using a harmless version of HIV as a delivery tool, and then reintroduce the repaired cells. Because the cells are the child’s own, there’s no risk of rejection and only a minimal dose of chemotherapy is needed. In a study of 62 babies with ADA-SCID, every single one is still alive nearly eight years later. About 95% — including Cora — had fully restored immune systems. “This was a fairy tale 20 years ago,” said Dr. Frank Staal, a stem cell researcher in the Netherlands. “Now it’s a reality.” Two Daughters, Two Very Different Journeys Hailey Barlow, from Utah, knows that reality firsthand. Her eldest daughter, Jaylee, received a traditional bone-marrow transplant in 2010 and spent nearly a year in the hospital battling complications. Her younger daughter, Hazel, received gene therapy in 2023 and was home in just over a month. “You really couldn’t even tell Hazel had been sick,” Barlow said. “The difference between the two treatments was honestly mind-boggling.” Still, even with gene therapy, life with SCID is a constant exercise in caution. Families often live in isolation for months to avoid germs while their child’s immune system recovers. “Parents of SCID patients are permanently anxious,” Kohn said. “One infection can take their child from them.” Nicole Haggard, whose family has lost multiple children to SCID, said her son Dezar’s successful gene therapy changed everything — but didn’t erase the fear. Visitors had to change clothes before entering the house. Playgrounds were off-limits. Even now, a simple fever brings panic. “Normal people say, ‘My kid’s sick,’” she said. “We’re always anticipating it to be something bigger.” Hope With Caveats Gene therapy has already changed lives, but it still faces major hurdles. Unlike bone-marrow transplants, which are widely available, gene therapy is only accessible through clinical trials — expensive, complex, and often limited to certain states or hospitals. And while early results are overwhelmingly positive, researchers can’t yet say how the repaired immune systems will hold up decades from now. “There’s no pharmaceutical company behind it yet,” said Dr. Susan Prockop, a pediatric oncologist at Boston Children’s Hospital. “These trials won’t last forever.” Still, for families like the Oakleys, the impact is undeniable. Cora is now a healthy, energetic 8-year-old who loves animals and wants to help others. She volunteers with kittens and insists on stopping to meet every dog she sees. “I don’t ever want to think about what it would’ve meant,” her mother said, “if Cora didn’t have this opportunity.”

Read More

‘I Feel So Empowered’: How a Running Club Changed the Game for a Partially Sighted Runner

For Alison Smith, running used to mean sticking to the same quiet, familiar routes, relying more on her hearing than her limited peripheral vision to stay safe. But all that changed when she joined the Shifnal Striders. “It’s been a game changer,” said the Shropshire runner, who is partially sighted. “I used to run on my own, but they would be the same boring, tedious routes. The group has allowed me to run new routes and further distances safely. I feel so empowered.” The Shifnal Striders formed in April as a way to bring runners in the small town of Shifnal together. Smith joined that same month and quickly found herself not just running farther, but enjoying it more. “When I was running on my own, I was always conscious about the routes — what kind of roads would I have to cross, is it busy with pedestrians?” she said. “Now I’m always crossing with someone, and it’s fantastic.” The group meets twice a week, on Saturdays and Wednesdays, drawing an average of 20 runners. Most runs are 5km loops around town, and while there’s a social and casual vibe, the support it provides runs deeper — especially for runners like Smith. “With safety and the different routes comes confidence and happiness,” she said. “I’m not bothered about times. I just do it for the run — and for the great chats with great friends along the way.” Beyond the roads and trails, the club has become a community. The group recently gathered for a Christmas celebration, and members keep in touch via a group chat that’s as much about emotional support as it is about running plans. “If someone’s feeling down in the dumps or just needs a chat — or maybe a glass of wine — we’re all here to support each other,” Smith said. Alex Dent, one of the club’s earliest members, said the group thrives on being social and supportive. “We’re quite social, especially on Wednesdays when we congregate in the King’s Yard for a cheese board and a drink,” he said. Other members say running in a group has changed the way they approach the sport — and how they feel while doing it. “It’s great, especially in winter,” Dent added. “We’re safer, more visible, and it’s great to meet like-minded people.” Jo Hughes, another founding member, said the group has been especially important as a woman running at night. “I wouldn’t be running at this time of night by myself,” she said. “And I wouldn’t be running the same routes — I’d always have to change them up. When I’m with the group, I don’t even think about it.” For Smith, there’s still one hurdle she hasn’t yet crossed: running at night. “I just think I don’t have enough vision to run independently and I wouldn’t put the pressure on another runner to be my eyes,” she said. But she hasn’t ruled it out. With the right support, perhaps even a guide runner, it’s something she might consider in the future. For now, she’s focused on enjoying the distance, the variety — and the people who’ve helped her fall in love with running again.

Read More

A Solar Stormis Sparking a Spectacular Northern Lights Show Across U.S. This Weekend

The northern lights may return for another round of sky shows this weekend, thanks to a burst of solar activity that could reach Earth as early as Friday night. A pair of moderate solar flares erupted from the sun on Friday morning, Dec. 12, triggering coronal mass ejections — massive clouds of charged particles that can spark vivid auroras when they collide with Earth’s magnetic field. Now, forecasters at NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center say conditions could align for another chance to see the aurora borealis across parts of the northern U.S. Friday night offers the best window for viewing, with geomagnetic activity expected to peak between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. local time. NOAA projects the Kp index, which measures geomagnetic storms, will hit around 4 — strong enough for auroras to be visible in northern-tier states if skies are clear. That means people in parts of Alaska, Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Wyoming, and Maine might get a glimpse. The farther north and the darker your location, the better your chances. “Activity is expected to reduce as the weekend progresses,” NOAA said, noting a drop in the Kp index to 3 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. That means the farther into the weekend, the slimmer the odds for a strong light show. The upcoming auroras follow a surprise G1-class geomagnetic storm Thursday night that briefly lit up skies in some areas. Friday’s solar flares — one classified as M2.0 and another as M1.1 — were more powerful, and scientists are still tracking whether the resulting particle clouds will make a direct hit. For now, the advice is simple: find a dark spot, avoid light pollution, and look up. Let your eyes adjust for at least 30 minutes, and be patient — auroras can shift quickly and unpredictably. Want to snap a photo? Most smartphones can capture auroras using Night Mode or Pro Mode. Turn off the flash, steady your hand (or use a tripod), and shoot toward the northern sky. If you're using a DSLR, try a wide-angle lens and a longer exposure to pick up more color and movement. Whether or not the lights appear, one thing is certain: space weather season is heating up. And with solar activity expected to peak in 2025, there may be plenty more chances to catch nature’s light show.

Read More

A Historic Museum Begins Its First Major Clear-Out in 150 Years

For the first time in its 150-year history, Jersey Heritage is conducting a major clean-up of its museum collections — an effort to make space, remove damaged items, and focus on preserving the island’s most meaningful cultural stories. The charity, which manages Jersey’s heritage sites and artifacts, says the project will involve carefully deaccessioning items that are either duplicates or too damaged to repair. The collections, originally started in 1873 by the Société Jersiaise, now hold more than 300,000 items — including, somewhat surprisingly, 199 chairs and 10 bathtubs. Helena Kergozou, senior registrar at Jersey Heritage, said the process is being handled with caution and collaboration. “We are being extremely careful and following a strict set of checks and balances before making any final decisions about what stays and what goes,” she said. That process includes involving conservation specialists and consulting with partners like the Société Jersiaise, who own some of the collection items. “The pieces that we are deaccessioning are being offered to other heritage organisations or charities to use, or they will be recycled,” Kergozou explained. “Only as a last resort will a piece be scrapped altogether — for example, a wooden chair riddled with woodworm.” The goal, she said, is to free up space for future acquisitions and to better protect the items that truly tell the story of Jersey’s heritage. “It’s vital to create room for future pieces and to preserve the island’s incredible story,” she added. Stuart Fell, president of the Société Jersiaise, said the review is long overdue. “Many of the items have been accumulated by the Société since the late 19th century. Some of these are now in very poor condition or have no significant value as museum pieces.” “It makes good sense that such objects should be withdrawn from the collections and disposed of in an appropriate manner,” he said. The clean-out marks a major shift in how the island’s cultural institutions manage heritage — aiming not just to preserve the past, but to make space for the future.

Read More

New England Aquarium Saves 35 Endangered Turtles After Cold-Stunning Event

Thirty-five critically endangered sea turtles are getting a second chance at life after being rescued from dangerously cold waters and transported across the country for care. In November, a sharp drop in ocean temperatures in New England left dozens of Kemp’s ridley sea turtles cold-stunned — a condition that renders the reptiles lethargic and immobile. The turtles, unable to swim or dive, floated to the surface and were pushed ashore by waves and wind. Kemp’s ridleys are the world’s most endangered sea turtle species. When they’re exposed to water temperatures below 10°C, they lose their ability to regulate body heat and often suffer from dehydration, pneumonia, and other complications. The 35 turtles were first stabilized at the New England Aquarium’s rescue facility. Once strong enough to travel, they were flown by charter to the Audubon Aquarium Rescue in New Orleans, thanks to support from Greater Good Charities. “Some of these turtles arrived in rough shape; they will need more extensive rehabilitation than others,” said Gabriella Harlamert, the aquarium’s stranding and rehab coordinator. “We are monitoring each of them constantly and are hopeful all 35 of these turtles will heal and return to the Gulf in the spring.” The goal is to release the turtles back into the wild in spring 2026, once Gulf waters warm to a safe level. Each turtle at the aquarium has been named after a rock or mineral — including one dubbed “Opalite,” a nod to Taylor Swift’s favorite gemstone. To keep things festive, the rescue team also created “naughty” and “nice” lists for the season. Jade made the nice list this week after beginning to eat on their own following two weeks of refusing food. Mica, on the other hand, landed on the naughty list for still refusing to eat and resisting help from caregivers. Despite the light-hearted touches, the work is serious. Kemp’s ridley sea turtles are among the rarest sea turtles on Earth, and even a single animal's survival matters. The Audubon Aquarium Rescue is the only facility in Louisiana authorized by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to rehabilitate sea turtles. The team provides round-the-clock care and tracks each turtle’s progress in hopes of eventually reintroducing them to their home waters.

Read More