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‘She wanted to pursue a career in medicine’

Sudiksha’s father, Subbarayudu Konanki, confirmed to CNN that his daughter went to Punta Cana for spring break ahead of pre-med studies at Pittsburgh. “My daughter is a very nice girl. She’s ambitious. She wanted to pursue a career in medicine,” he said.

Subbarayudu said that before she went missing, Sudiksha had told her friends that she was heading to a party at the resort. “She went to the beach on March 6 early morning around 4 a.m. with friends and some other guys they met at the resort. After that, her friends came back after some time and my daughter did not come back, did not show up from the beach,” the father said.

When Sudiksha’s friends did not find her in her room the next morning, they contacted the cops. A land and sea search was subsequently launched.

“So far, the authorities, multiple authorities here in the Dominican Republic have searched in the waters. They searched using helicopters and other tools. They also searched in the near bay, bushes, trees. They went multiple times around the same areas,” said Subbarayudu.

The Dominican Civil Defense, local firefighters, the Dominican Navy, the National Police, and Politur, the country’s tourist police, are participating in the search, The Mirror reported. The Indian embassy is also working with officials from Loudoun County, Virginia, and multiple Dominican Republic agencies.

Sudiksha was staying at the Riu República hotel before she disappeared. The hotel chain said in a statement to Dominican Today that they have been “working closely with local authorities, including the Police and Navy” to help “carry out a thorough search.”

(ZENIT News / Rome, 03.08.2025).- Many are familiar with Will Smith’s performance in the Aladdin movie. However, on Broadway, the musical of the same name has been running for several years with a young actor and singer as the star of the show.

During Christmas 2024, one of the musical lead singers participated in a special program on the public broadcasting service. During the broadcast, he spoke about the importance of his Catholic upbringing in his life. The production combined classic Christmas songs—from Joy to the World to It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas—with a story inspired by the famous writer Victor Hugo, author of classics such as Les Misérables.

Who is Michael Maliakel?

Michael Maliakel is an Indian descent actor. His parents emigrated from India to the United States at the end of the last century, and both he and his siblings were born in North America. Although he grew up in a family with Indian roots, his parents always encouraged him to participate in activities that would help him integrate into American culture, such as playing the piano and singing.

His parents come from a Christian community in southern India. Since Christianity is a minority in that country, Michael felt from a young age that he was part of a small community within an even smaller one: that of Indian Christians in the United States. Additionally, after moving to New Jersey due to his father’s job, they had no close family in the area despite belonging to a large extended family.

Like other children his age, he had to adapt to American culture and find his own path. His parents supported him during this process, even choosing a Christian name, Michael, as a reflection of their Catholic faith.

Unlike other Indian families, the Maliakels did not celebrate traditional festivities from their country of origin, which made Michael feel even more connected to American culture.

From a young age, his family was consistent in attending Sunday Mass, and it was in the parish choir that Michael began singing and discovering his passion for music. He also took piano lessons there, which became an outlet for expressing his energy and creativity.

From then on, he became increasingly involved in the world of theater and music, participating in different choirs until he finally auditioned for plays. After a couple of years in college, he decided to take a risk and pursue a career in the entertainment industry, despite the uncertainty of whether he would be able to achieve his dream.

Today, as a musical theater star, Michael reflects on the decision he made: “I think I owe a lot to the Catholic Church for what I do today… I grew up singing in the church choir, and thanks to that, I fell in love with music,” he said on the program. “When I was eight years old, my mom signed me up for the choir, and I’ve never looked back since… I don’t think at the time she imagined that decision would lead us down this path. But in many ways, those moments were crucial for me to be doing what I do today.”

As a Christmas message, Michael added: “I think we simply need to have compassion for those who don’t look like us, for those who have less, for those who are struggling… I believe the message of Christmas, and of this program in particular, is to show compassion towards these people and to be as generous as possible—not just at this time of year, but throughout the whole year.”

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Children from wealthier homes tend to score higher on academic achievement tests than kids from poorer homes. This isn’t all that shocking — greater access to quality education, for one, is going to pull those scores way up.

What is surprising is that researchers have pinpointed language development in early childhood as one of the best predictors of later school success and one of the biggest sources of educational inequality.

Why? It all has to do with exposure to words. The right words. 

RELATED: 4 Things Parents Who Raise Kids That Grow Up To Be Highly Successful Never Do When They’re Young, According To A Parenting Expert

According to research, the language trick wealthy parents use to raise high-achieving kids is all about the conversations you have with your child.

Yuri A / Shutterstock

Research shows the kinds of conversations that parents and kids have — dialogue that they found differs depending on socioeconomic standing — change the course of a child’s academic career.

Here’s what those high-achieving conversations look like.  For a long time, experts believed it was the sheer quantity of words children were exposed to that dictated linguistic skills and later, academic achievements.

In the early 1990s, a small study spawned the now-infamous ’30-million-word gap’ theory, which claimed that, compared to middle-class kids, children growing up in poor households heard 30 million fewer words by age three.  Therefore, by being exposed to so many fewer words, it was theorized, that these kids’ vocabulary would be limited, which could hinder their performance in school. This is not the case.

According to a large body of research, the kind of language a child is exposed to during their first few years of life when vital brain structures are forming and cognitive functions are developing, influences the words they learn.

By evaluating larger groups of children and eliminating racial bias (two common knocks against the 30-million-word gap study), researchers have learned that the types of conversations that parents have with kids can be neatly divided along socioeconomic groups.

According to a 2017 study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, parents making less tend to have fewer back-and-forth conversations with their kids than higher earners (incomes in this study ranged from $6,000 to $250,000 per year). This, in turn, may stymie their language development, which the researchers demonstrated with MRI scans taken of four, five, and six-year-olds brains as they were being read a story. The more interactive story time was, with a two-way conversation between the child and reader, the more activity there was in the kids’ brain regions that process and develop language.

Based on their findings, the MIT scientists stressed the importance of not just talking to small children, but talking with them — something all parents can do, regardless of socioeconomic status.

They say these interactive conversations, in turn, will do more for a child’s language skills and possibly their later success in school than just dumping a bunch of fancy words on them. 

RELATED: 3 Major Do’s And Don’ts For Raising Emotionally Intelligent Kids

Other researchers have found more ways by which the frequency and context of parents’ interactions with children impact their cognitive and language development.

Katelyn Kurkul, Ed.D., a child development professor at Merrimack College, began investigating this topic while a graduate student at Boston University. Specifically, she and her team analyzed how parents from different socioeconomic groups answered their preschoolers’ questions and how those explanations may affect their children’s ability to learn.

In their latest study, which is still working through the publication process, the researchers had three to five-year-olds from low and mid-socioeconomic homes, alongside their parents, play with a kid-friendly circuit set aimed at inspiring curiosity and nurturing problem-solving skills. By connecting all the pieces, a lightbulb would turn on.

Naturally, the children had many questions for their parents about this strange new object. “We evaluated the parents’ answers to questions like, ‘How does a switch work?’ which a three-year-old could plausibly ask,” Kurkul says.

As for the kinds of questions the kids asked, there wasn’t much difference between the two socioeconomic groups. “They were very similar: information seeking and causal questions,” Kurkul says. “The differences came down to how the parents responded.”

Specifically, parents in wealthier households used what the researchers call mechanistic language while parents in poorer homes did not. Mechanistic language offers detail and explanation, helping the child gain understanding.

For example, a mechanistic answer to “How does a switch work?” could be “The switch connects the circuit. Right now, the switch is open, and when you close it, you’re switching it to turn and it closes the circuit and powers it all the way through.” A non-mechanistic explanation, on the other hand, might simply be “You turn it on and off.”

The mechanistic language used in the first response — the type used more frequently by the wealthier parents in the study — gives children more information. Importantly, it also may spark more questions from kids, fostering the type of back-and-forth conversations that benefit their brain development.

Along with using more mechanistic language, the parents in wealthier households were also more likely to provide non-circular responses to their kids’ questions, whereas the parents of poorer households tended to give circular answers. Circular responses simply reiterate information from the original question without adding any new info.

RELATED: Your Parents Did A Great Job Raising You If You Were Taught These 11 Old-Fashioned Life Lessons

For instance, if a child asks where daddy went, a circular response might be, “Daddy went out” — nothing new or informative there. However, a non-circular explanation would be “Daddy is going grocery shopping so we can have milk to drink and food to eat” — much more informative for the child and much more likely to encourage ongoing dialogue.

fizkes / Shutterstock

Another example: for the question, “Why are you crying?” a circular response might be, “Parents cry sometimes.” While just as short, “I’m crying because I’m sad,” is an example of more mechanistic language. Parents’ ability to provide non-circular responses and use mechanistic language may depend on their own knowledge and education levels.

“Those two factors very much influence a parent’s vocabulary and their exposure to vocabulary,” she says. Thus, they could explain why parents in low-socioeconomic households relied more heavily on circular responses — they may not have possessed the vocabulary to provide more non-circular answers.

“Also, parents with [mid- and high-socioeconomic] backgrounds are more likely to take their children to museums and expose them to other language-rich environments that kids in low-socioeconomic households may not have access to,” Kurkul adds.

Past research has shown that, regardless of which socioeconomic group parents belong to, some shortchange their kids on information sheerly because they assume their little ones aren’t ready for it.

“They may be less likely to provide sophisticated responses because they think it doesn’t matter what they say — they believe their child doesn’t need to know or won’t understand at this point,” Kurkul says. “Our research shows that development readiness aside, by and large, kids crave high-quality explanations, even if they don’t necessarily understand all of the content.”

In other words, while they might not get what you tell them, they’ll likely pick up key pieces and connect some dots, making your detailed explanations worthwhile.

For instance, if your child asks you how a circuit works and you explain it to them as best you can, “They may not grasp the entire concept, but they may understand that if the pieces all connect, the light bulb goes on,” says Kurkul. “But if you did not use mechanistic language, they probably wouldn’t even know that much.”

The biggest takeaway from all of this research is that no matter what level of education you’ve reached, to best help your child learn language, the quality of your engagement and conversations with them matters most.

“It’s about quality, not quantity,” she says. “Focus not just on what you are saying, but also how you are saying it. When your child asks a question, take two or three seconds to form an explanation in your brain before spitting something out. And don’t say ‘because I said so,’ as that does not help the child learn or see you as a credible informant.”

Also, if you don’t know the answer to a question, try not to say “I don’t know”, because you’d risk killing your kid’s curiosity. “In this age of on-demand information, parents can say ‘I don’t know … but let’s look this up,’” Kurkul says. “Then you and your child can learn together.”

RELATED: 10 Ways To Raise A Strong-Willed, Highly Intelligent Kid Who Will Grow Up Smarter Than You

Melaina Juntti is a freelance journalist and editor whose work has appeared in a wide range of consumer-facing and industry print and digital publications including Fatherly, Men’s Journal, and MSN.

Gisele Bundchen spotted for the first time since giving birth to her third child.

The 44-year-old model was photographed flaunting her post-baby body during a seaside outing with Fiancé Joaquim Valnetine and her 12-year-old daughter Vivian Lake, in Miami on Saturday, per DailyMail.

It is pertinent to mention that Bundchen shares daughter Vivien and 15-year-old son Benjamin with her ex-husband Tom Brady.

During the outing, Bundchen wore a cheetah printed swimsuit paired with a black sarong tied around her waist. She and her family also went on a boating excursion.

Bundchen and Valentine welcomed their first child together, a baby boy with the middle name River, per People, 

However, the baby boy was not seen during the boating outing.

Although it is not confirmed when exactly the couple welcomed their son, the news was first broken by TMZ.

Valentine and Bundchen were first romantically linked in 2023, one year after she git divorced from the NFL star after 13 years of marriage.

Brady is also father to son Jack, 17, whom he shares with ex Bridget Moynahan.

Besides his obvious songwriting genius, Neil Young‘s cultural greatness is steeped in his defiant stubbornness and, at times, controversy. In fact, you can mark the brilliance of most artists by not just how many people love them but how many people hate them all the same. Greatness was never achieved in the shallow waters of diplomacy.

While his cultural footprint might be smaller, the same can generally be said for Father John Misty. Hated and loved in equal measures, his work has garnered critical acclaim for its sensitive storytelling and meticulous melodic composition. The strength of his work has largely fended off question marks over his divisive personality.

Amidst the micro-dosing on acid, frequent use of Tumblr, and general love for trolling is someone unperturbed by confronting politics, love, substances and sex with a sense of frustration and irreverence. It’s the sort of unwavering authenticity Young has made a career reputation on.

So it’s no surprise the defiantly stubborn Young is heralded as one of his key influences. But suitably for Father John Misty, his appetite for Young’s greatness comes not from the heavy-hitting, widely revered Harvest but rather from his 1974 record On The Beach.

And it was the title track in particular that piqued the warped interest of Father John Misty: “This song is about isolation, but ironically, it’s one of the great love songs of my life. ‘The world is turning/ I hope it don’t turn away’ — I really identify with that. The whole B-side of this album, you can just put it on and get lost,” a point that Misty had to suitably curtail with, “You can get stoned and go inside this little universe. And when the song ends, go back to the beginning.”

While many now consider the album a classic, its initial release was marred by controversy and disappointment. Once past the moment, Young recounts his meeting with Charles Manson in ‘Revolution Blues’, and the departure to a more brooding production style introduced a darker Neil Young to the world.

“I don’t like to be labelled, to be anything. I’ve made the mistake before myself of labelling my music, but it’s counter-productive,” Young once said in a quote that typifies his everchanging approach to music. It’s the sort of mission statement that individual artists like Misty have been allowed to follow fearlessly, pursuing ideas based on their own satisfaction rather than that of the gallery.

“The thing about my music is, there really is no point,” he added nonchalantly. “I just do what I do. I like to make music.” The album’s vinyl sold out and remains one of Young’s rarest LPs. Equally, the record wasn’t released on CD until 2003, when 5000 people signed a petition for it – of which you can put your money on was Misty, clutching the necessary cash in one hand and some form of hallucinogen in the other.

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A local fire station awarded a certificate of appreciation Sunday to a third-grader who helped resuscitated his mother in January.

The mother of 9-year-old Jeong Tae-un collapsed due to heart problems at their home in Buncheong, Gyeonggi Province, at around 10:20 p.m. on Jan. 8, according to Bucheon Fire Station. The boy immediately made the call to the 119 emergency operators and performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on his mother.

The woman’s condition had been nearly critical, showing signs of agonal rhythm by the time rescue workers arrived, but the officials used the defibrillator to revive her pulse and breathing before she was taken to a nearby hospital. She was treated for his heart issues and was discharged on Jan. 14.

“(When she collapsed) I immediately thought about what I learned in school (about CPR) … I’m glad she recovered, and I’m sure my friends could do it too if they stay calm and do as we learned,” the boy said.

Ji Jun-ho, the chief of the Bucheon Fire Station, appreciated the boy’s quick and effective response, and vowed to place more efforts on CPR training for ordinary citizens.

minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com

It is just like the darkness residing right below the light. Last year, the 2024 Canterbury Sport and Recreation Awards had 53 finalists. The names were collected from a staggering 138 nominations from several sporting codes. The award was, however, to celebrate the contributions of the respective individuals in the concerned sports in New Zealand. You can guess that the nomination list had some of the iconic names from the country’s sporting fraternity. The problem is that the same list had a gymnastics coach as the finalist who had serious allegations against her. Surprisingly, the key authorities knew of the allegations against her. Yet she found a place in the final. Why? The questions are still on the way. 

Elena Mesheryakova, the gymnastics coach of Christchurch United Gymnastics Club, was handed a suspension by Gymnastics New Zealand last year. She had to spend six weeks away from the gymnastics facility. She had grave charges against her. As per the report published by The New Zealand Herald, the coach used “physically and verbally abusive coaching methods.” Such a coaching method impacted the students physically and mentally. The parents of the students had complained about something serious. 

According to the budding gymnasts’ parents, Elena’s coaching methods seriously impacted their kids. The kids actually faced disordered eating habits and their body image had also changed. Such a grave situation indeed!

Now, parents think that the coach didn’t face a penalty appropriate for what she did. Also, she will return to the job very soon. Watching such an irresponsible handling of the matter by the authorities, a parent told The New Zealand Herald, “I am deeply dissatisfied with the punishment given to the coach involved, serious misconduct regarding the poor treatment of children is not something to be ignored.”

Stay tuned. This report is developing…

Lele Pons and her husband Guaynaa are going to be parents!

On Sunday, March 9, the Venezuelan influencer-turned-musician, 28, and the Puerto Rican rapper, 32, announced via a joint Instagram post that they have a baby on the way.

In a series of photos, the couple can be seen posing together in several locations, including a field full of sunflowers, an all-white bedroom and a garden full of greenery.

“We’re PREGNANT!!!!! 🤰🏼❤️🥹,” the couple captioned the post.

Pons wore a lacy white bralette top with a matching, flowy skirt, leaving her pregnant belly exposed, while Guaynaa (real name Jean Carlos Santiago Pérez) sported a casual white T-shirt and jeans as he posed with his hands on his wife’s stomach.

“Can’t wait to meet you! We love you – Mom & Dad,” the parents-to-be added, signing off the heartfelt post.

Several celebrities, friends and fans left comments congratulating the happy couple, including Paris Hilton. Fellow musician Luis Fonsi wrote, “Congrats, los quiero mucho!”

In an Instagram Stories post, Pons joked about the pregnancy reveal, writing: “Secret is out!!! We are pregnant.”

A video shared by Pons’ longtime friend and collaborator Hannah Stocking shows the moment that the star found out she was expecting while on a trip to Las Vegas.

“The fact that Hannah and Johann were there when I found out in Vegas!” Pons wrote, referring to their friend Johann Vera, who also appeared in the video.

Pons and Guaynaa first met as collaborators when they worked together on the track and flirty music video for “Se Te Nota” in September 2020. Rumors of a romance began to swirl soon after, especially as Pons and Guaynaa continued to post photos with each other on their respective social media accounts.

After several months of dating speculation, the couple confirmed that they were in a relationship by going Instagram official in December 2020. The pair shared loved-up photos from a ski trip, featuring them kissing and hugging in the snow. “MINE ❤️ (it’s official),” the Venezuelan star captioned the post.

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The couple married in March 2023, nearly three years after taking their relationship public. As seen in photos shared by PEOPLE at the time, Pons and Guaynaa said “I do” at a star-studded, “modern luxury affair with a whimsical garden vibe” in Miami to celebrate their love.

Hilton was among the many celebrity guests at the wedding, and even served as one of Pons’ bridesmaids. Other attendees included Camila Cabello, Steve Aoki, Diplo, Winnie Harlow, Becky G, Danny Ocean, Juanpa Zurita, Natalia Jiménez, Chayanne and Natti Natasha.