By Lester Black, Stephen Council

Sam Nelson asked ChatGPT in November 2023 how much kratom he could take without overdosing. The bot refused to help. Eighteen months later, after hundreds of conversations, the same chatbot was coaching him through hallucinogenic cough syrup trips with curated playlists, telling him to "go full trippy mode" with double doses, and signing off messages with "love you too, pookie!" followed by blue heart emojis. Hours after ChatGPT advised the nineteen-year-old that small amounts of Xanax could alleviate kratom nausea, his mother found him dead in his San Jose bedroom, lips blue from asphyxiation. Sam's case joins at least seven lawsuits filed against OpenAI in a single day last November, four involving suicides. His mother spent forty hours excavating his chat logs, discovering her son withdrew from human contact while developing dependency on an AI that kept him engaged through doting encouragement and granular dosing instructions, all while his mental health deteriorated.

By Rosa Lyster

Adam Carruthers and Daniel Graham cut down England's Sycamore Gap tree in September 2023 during a midnight storm, sawing through the century-old landmark in three minutes while filming the collapse. The public response resembled national mourning. People compared the loss to Princess Diana's death, called it murder, wept on radio broadcasts. Alastair Campbell wrote about "a scar in the hearts" of witnesses to the tree's majesty. The trial proceeded with High Court judge Christina Lambert presiding, an appointment typically reserved for grave crimes including child murder cases she'd recently handled. Evidence was overwhelming: CCTV footage, phone tracking, voice notes where Graham exulted the tree was "on fucking Sky News," chainsaws photographed in the Range Rover trunk. Carruthers lied politely throughout testimony; Graham radiated contempt, insisting strangers could have borrowed his car since he left keys inside for anyone passing by. Neither offered plausible motive. They received four years three months imprisonment for what Lambert called an act of vandalism both mindless and premeditated, driven by "sheer bravado."

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By Elizabeth Weil

Anna found her fourteen-year-old son Owen in a locked bathroom with his three-year-old sister Addie, diaper removed. Nanny cam footage confirmed the abuse. David moved into their basement with Owen for nearly a year while Anna solo-parented four children upstairs, alarms on every door. Owen's porn addiction started at eleven. Therapists couldn't reach him.

Across the country, fifteen-year-old Piper disclosed her brother Conor had been raping her since she was twelve. Lynn, herself abused by her half-brother at fourteen, walked Conor into the police station within days. He got nine years. Elizabeth Weil's investigation exposes what researchers call the hidden epidemic: sibling sexual abuse may affect 1.6% of children but remains largely unspoken. Families face an impossible moral trap: You love both children, but protecting one requires abandoning the other.

By Barbara Speed

Philippa Barnes was six when her family joined the Jesus Fellowship, a Northamptonshire Christian community founded by charismatic pastor Noel Stanton. She surrendered her red-striped dungarees and strawberry patch for communal living where possessions were shared, families were renounced for "spiritual family," and children as young as two were beaten with sticks called "rodding." Stanton banned makeup, restaurants, Christmas, swimming for pleasure, even crisps. At seventeen, Philippa testified in court after witnessing her friend's abuse. The fellowship filled the courtroom to support the perpetrator. He received three months, then was welcomed back. Stanton died in 2009, but the culture he built endured.

When Philippa created a Facebook group for former members in 2017, over 100 joined within a week, sharing stories of widespread abuse. The survivors formed an association that ultimately forced the fellowship to shut down in 2019. A redress scheme launched in 2022 received 601 applications. The final report revealed 264 alleged abusers—half of them leaders. One in six children who lived in community was abused between 1969 and 2019. Thirty allegations named Stanton himself. Barbara Speed documents how a cult hid in plain sight for decades, sending colorful buses to Glastonbury and appearing on Jon Ronson's talk show while systematically abusing children.

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