I’m a big lover of animals. I’m also a firm believer in chosen families—those special souls you’ve invited into your life and heart, even if you’re not related by blood. Families come in all shapes and sizes. And for a majority of Americans, family includes their pets.

Most Americans—over 63%—now own a pet, including about a third (35%) who have more than one. And nearly all U.S. pet owners (97%) say their pets are part of their family, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. About half of pet owners not only consider their pets to be a part of their family but say they are as much a part of their family as a human member. I would be one of those people, too.

And like actual children, they’re expensive. It seems like no matter the pet, there’s always something coming up that the good boy or girl needs, right? That’s why one in five pet owners now carry at least $2,000 in pet debt, according to a June survey of 1,000 American pet owners commissioned by MetLife Pet Insurance. One in seven experience “pet poverty,” struggling to meet their own basic needs while also caring for a pet.

This is why there’s a growing conversation about claiming your pet as a dependent on your taxes. You pay all of their bills and ensure their well-being, but the Internal Revenue Service has thus-far said Fido and Fluffy aren’t deductible … they’re seen as property. But that might change. One woman (and her golden retriever) are suing the IRS in hopes of to let pet owners declare their dogs, cats, and other household animals as legal dependents, which would carry some tax benefits. Calling them property, the case argues, does not accurately reflect their role in a household. But time will tell. The IRS is expected to file a motion to dismiss the case.

President Donald Trump sued the BBC on Monday, seeking $10 billion in damages for alleging defamation over how a documentary aired shortly before the 2024 election edited a speech he delivered on Jan. 6, 2021. It marks the third lawsuit the American president has waged against a media company while in office, but this is the first from a foreign nation.

Deadline points out that Trump swore he was going to sue the UK public broadcaster over its self-admitted “error of judgement” displayed in edits for the documentary. The Chair of the BBC has apologized to Trump and explained that the decision was made by BBC News to edit the speech to help its audience “better understand” how Trump’s January 6th speech was “received by his own supporters.”

The lawsuit was filed in Florida. Perhaps because deadlines to bring the case in British courts expired more than a year ago. Legal experts have brought up potential challenges to a case in the U.S. given that the documentary was not shown in the country. Last year, you might recall that Trump sued the Des Moines Register, ABC and CBS. The latter two organizations both agreed to multimillion-dollar settlements.

In the late ’90s, less than 1% of the world’s population was online. Fast forward to today and we’re constantly breaking records with how much time we’re plugged into the internet. As of earlier this year 2025, there are 5.53 billion active internet users globally, representing nearly 70% of the world population. And most of us now spend a little more than 6 hours and 39 minutes online daily—slightly up from last year’s average.

As Mashable points out, as more and more of us spend more and more time online than ever before, we're starting to see some cracks in the digital divide. This was the year that AOL dial-up internet officially died (RIP), but also a year in which satellite companies like Starlink brought the internet to some of the most remote corners of Earth.

Cloudflare’s Year in Review offered up some interesting statistics, as well. For instance, Google may be currently sparring with OpenAI on the future of AI, but in terms of internet users, it remains unmatched. It’s, of course, the most popular internet service in the world, followed by Facebook, Apple and Microsoft. ChatGPT didn't even make the top 10. They also discovered that Android devices account for 65% of online traffic, while iOS traffic makes up the remainder.