Protests have taken place around the world calling for action to avert environmental catastrophe.
From London to Sydney, here's a look at some of the millions of people joining the global youth climate strike.
People shared some of their favorite signs on Twitter as well:
A vast majority of these so-called "TikTok refugees" anticipating a possible shutdown of TikTok landed on RedNote. The alternative e-commerce and social networking platform surged to the top of the "free apps" chart in Apple's app store as well as on the Google Play store.
After TikTokers sought Duolingo's services to learn Mandarin for optimal use on RedNote, Duolingo ribbed frantic content creators by telling them:
"Oh so NOW you're learning mandarin."
The language app cheekily added in the comments, "ni hao I guess?"
The Mandarin phrase, "你好" or "Ni hao"–pronounced nee haow–means "Hello" in English.
Duolingo just gave us our first free lesson.
@duolingo/Instagram
Duolingo also took to X (formerly Twitter) to delve deeper into the phenomenon, writing:
"Learning Mandarin out of spite? You're not alone."
"We’ve seen a ~216% growth in new Chinese (Mandarin) learners in the US compared to this time last year."
An accompanying graphic highlighted the sudden interest spike, with January 13 indicating the number of "New learners in the US studying Chinese on Duolingo" going off the charts.
@duolingo/X
Users got a kick out of Duolingo's snark.
Without context, many X users were left in the dark as to why Mandarin suddenly became so popular, which is understandable.
Now we're getting somewhere.
Roughly 170 million U.S.-based TikTok users have looked elsewhere to post their content after Democratic President Joe Biden signed a law that could lead to a potential nationwide ban of TikTok unless China-based owner ByteDance sells it to a new owner by January 19.
Many deemed Biden's law "unconstitutional" because it infringed on American free speech and they claimed it “would devastate" millions of the platform’s users who rely on the app to promote their businesses.
However, the Justice Department is expected to make the argument in an emergency hearing in front of the Supreme Court on Friday warning that TikTok could allow the Chinese government to gather and manipulate data of American users.
The social media shake-up came to light after users also abandoned Facebook and Instagram following Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's announcement that he would do away with fact-checkers on his social media platforms.
The move parallels X users' migration to BlueSky following X Corp. owner Elon Musk's controversial policies and term changes and his recent allegiance to incoming President-elect Donald Trump.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Coca-Cola said:
“The Coca-Cola Company has a tradition of creating commemorative Coca-Cola bottles in celebration of U.S. presidential inaugurations, dating back to 2005."
"James Quincey, CEO of The Coca-Cola Company, met with President Elect Donald Trump to present a commemorative bottle of Diet Coke and to highlight Coca-Cola’s contributions to the U.S. economy.”
Trump campaign spokesperson Margo Martin shared photos on social media of Trump with Quincey and of the bottle itself, writing that Trump received “the first ever Presidential Commemorative Inaugural Diet Coke bottle.”
You can see her post and the photographs below.
@margomartin/X
@margomartin/X
Many were outraged and criticized Coca-Cola for its PR stunt commemorating the president-elect, who has made clear his efforts to further undermine and gut our nation's democratic institutions.
Coca-Cola is the latest company to align itself with Trump's inauguration.
Already, companies—a list that includes Meta, Google, Microsoft, and Boeing—have come forward and reportedly donated to the inauguration fund.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has reportedly contributed $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund. Recent changes at Meta include the replacement of fact-checking features, the removal of tampons from men’s restrooms in its offices, and the discontinuation of its primary DEI initiatives, a sign of its alignment with GOP and the current political climate.
Similarly, Google, led by CEO Sundar Pichai and currently embroiled in antitrust litigation in the United States, has also reportedly donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund.
Boeing, known for its contributions to previous presidential inaugurations—including Trump’s in 2017—has donated $1 million as well. Notably, Sean Duffy, Trump’s nominee for Transportation Secretary, recently stated the administration’s focus on ensuring the safety of Boeing’s aircraft production.
That's what usually drives the plot.
A Disney Princess making bad or dumb choices is what keeps us all glued to the screen.
But sometimes you can't help but watch and wonder... "Girl, what are you thinking?"
Many a time I have yelled at the screen trying to give sage advice. Of course, they never listen.
I suppose that could be what also makes them endearing.
A deleted Redditor wanted to compare notes on which Disney Princesses really should have re-thought their actions, by asking:
"Which Disney princess has done the most stupid thing, but we ignore it?"
"Ariel signed a contract without reading it."
- admiralholdo
"And never attempts to use writing to communicate with Prince Eric."
- LaMaupindAubigny
The Little Mermaid GIF by Walt Disney StudiosGiphy
"If Mother Golem had just changed Rapunzel's bday, none of that movie would have been necessary."
- SAHMsays
"Literally, all she had to do was say, 'Oh, those lanterns are for the lost princess. She was stolen as a baby! People steal babies, and you were a baby, so you must stay here!'"
- MapleGoesInEverythin
"If she had kept her magic flower in a greenhouse, the king would not have been able to steal it to feed to his baby in the first place."
- lemons_of_doubt
"Alice drank a random bottle she found in the woods."
- flyingcircusdog
"It was all very well to say 'Drink me,' but the wise little Alice was not going to do that in a hurry. 'No, I’ll look first,' she said, 'and see whether it’s marked ‘poison’ or not;' for she had read several nice little histories about children who had got burnt, and eaten up by wild beasts and other unpleasant things, all because they would not remember the simple rules their friends had taught them: such as, that a red-hot poker will burn you if you hold it too long; and that if you cut your finger very deeply with a knife, it usually bleeds; and she had never forgotten that, if you drink much from a bottle marked 'poison,' it is almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or later."
"However, this bottle was not marked 'poison,' so Alice ventured to taste it, and found it very nice, (it had, in fact, a sort of mixed flavor of cherry tart, custard, pineapple, roast turkey, toffee, and hot buttered toast,) she very soon finished it off. - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"
- Von_Moistus
"Not the princess herself, but the Three Fairies from Sleeping Beauty are the dumb ones."
"1. Why didn't they just wait one more day to bring Aurora back so they'd avoid Maleficent's curse?"
"2. Their fighting is how Maleficent found them."
"3. They raised Aurora for 16 years then go, 'Surprise! Your whole life is a lie, and you're actually a princess with parents engaged to a prince... and we're magical fairies!'"
"4. Why does nobody ever point out that if Merryweather had kept her big mouth shut, maybe Maleficent could have been talked down to not cursing a baby, i.e. 'Let me check the list because yep, there you are. Oh, I'm so sorry, your invitation must have gotten lost in the mail/our cowardly peasant didn't deliver your invitation.'"
"But Merryweather just had to insult her and so cursing time."
"5. If they know Maleficent is out there, why are they totally okay with her going off alone into the woods?"
- Chumlee1917
"Anna’s making stupid decisions the entire movie meanwhile Elsa is having quiet panic attacks in almost every scene."
- Ilovebroadway06
"I'm not arguing Anna is a genius, but I question the critical thinking skills of people who say the dumbest thing she does is instantly agree to marry Hans. Anna has essentially been imprisoned in her castle from a young age, and the coronation might be her one and only chance to escape. A lot of her decision-making comes down to this."
- Foxhound199
"Merida fed her own mother a magic cake bought from a mysterious witch to 'change' her."
- frejawolf
I dunno... I have a complicated relationship with my mom and I'd still consider giving her a magic cake some forest which promised would change her."
- cactusjude
Tired Fuck Me GIFGiphy
"Vanellope von Schweetz almost glitches herself out of existence taking unnecessary risks."
- abarua01
"I love her character, but I was puzzled after the first movie painted 'going Turbo' permanently as selfish and destructive to your home game, in the second movie she goes ahead and does the exact same thing, not to mention abandoning her subjects, because she's bored and unchallenged, and yet it's portrayed as noble character growth."
- Blue-Golem-57
"The 'but we ignore it' part is doing some heavy limiting here. People absolutely do not ignore Ariel not reading her contract, and especially not Anna saying she'd marry Han (something that was even brought up as unwise by another character)."
"So probably my favorite Disney Princess of all time, Kuzco, trying to betray Pacha on that first bridge. It's talked about how scummy a move it was ('WE SHOOK HANDS ON IT!'), but not well enough talked about how Kuzco would've gotten away with it if he hadn't gotten back on the rickety-a** bridge for one final verbal jab."
- nWo1997
"Moana, because she saved the whole God**m world, and honestly it’s been stressful ever since."
- CaptainBrinkmanship
"My issue with Moana is that she decides to put a shell on top of the pile of stones at the end of the first movie. To her, it was more important to make sure everyone knew she was an individual rather than putting another flat stone to allow those who follow after her to, symbolically, build on what she built as chief."
"They took a great character and made her thoughtless and selfish in a single 3-second scene."
- Pharmboy_Andy
"Jasmine didn’t perform a background check on the made-up prince who showed up out of nowhere."
- PorgCT
"I'd blame the Sultan and Jafar for this to be honest. Not many 16-year-olds are going to think of background checks."
- eddyathome
"Jasmine was not in a position to do anything, she's basically the sultan's property."
"You could argue that the sultan didn't do a background check, but in that day and age, I think it would be easy to see an abundance of evidence that this guy is indeed a very rich prince from a faraway land and simply think 'perhaps the archives are incomplete.'"
- Artess
"Cinderella. Girl, buy shoes that fit."
- Cayman4Life
"Girl, she didn't even buy those shoes. They literally got magicked onto her feet, and she didn't have enough time to get better ones."
- Aggravating-Week481
glass slipper shoes GIFGiphy
"I was gonna say Mulan because as much as I love her, there is no way she could expect to survive the war as a woman. Even if she is never caught and executed for it (which was a very real possibility and the movie makes it clear she knows that), this was an era when battles were fought by hand and sword, and she had no previous training. Realistically, she could not have expected to overpower a man in physical combat."
"But then I got depressed because I realized she didn't expect to survive. Her whole life she was conditioned to believe that the only way to appease her parents was to get married off, and then the matchmaker tells her that will never happen. So she does the one thing she is able to: save her father's life by laying down her own."
- pohlarbearpants
"Belle... she agrees to live with the Beast in his dark enchanted castle even though he’s initially hostile and locks her in a tower. While her actions are driven by love for her father she doesn’t have a clear plan for handling the situation... staying with the beast despite his temper could be seen ignoring red flags that in real life might be concerning."
- HushOfHoney
"I mean she literally thought she'd be sitting in the cell instead of her father when she agreed to the exchange. So she's kind of lucky that the beast gives her a nice room."
"He's still a problematic issue in many ways but Belle's decision was one made out of love for her father. She's not weak. She was negotiating a prisoner exchange!"
- carlotta4th
"Tiana, shown to be intelligent and devoted throughout the entire movie, suddenly gets emotional and stupid when seeing the fake prince with Charlotte on the parade float. Ray, a fairly accurate swamp Cajun stereotype, points out why it's dumb, but she's already run off to the graveyard. Talk about picking up the idiot ball."
- tricksterloki
"I know Tinkerbell isn't a princess, but no one ever talks about how she sold out Peter because she was jealous of Wendy. That's gotta be the most heinous thing we've seen in Disney."
- halfway_23
Flying Peter Pan GIF by DisneyGiphy
"Rapunzel didn’t immediately realize she was the lost princess after seeing a mural or mosaic or whatever of a newborn baby with three-foot-long golden hair and gigantic green eyes being held by the king and queen. No, she realized it because the space between her paintings was shaped like the kingdom’s sun symbol."
- jamboreejubilee
That's a lot of mistakes and A LOT of drama.
Oh girls, get it together, or not, because without the drama, there is no story.
It's funny how we can all watch and judge.
If these situations occurred in real life... do we think we'd react differently?
I tend to sign things without reading all of the fine print.
And I ignore red flags all of the time, especially when it comes to love... well, lust.
Maybe deep down, we're all Disney Princesses?
Truth be told, I'd rather be the villain.
They can be more level-headed. ;)
