The American Culture Quiz is a weekly quiz of our unique national traits, trends, history, and people, including current events and the sights and sounds of the United States.
This week’s quiz highlights hometown harvests, incredible marathons — and more.
Can you get all 8 questions right?
For more lifestyle articles, visit www.foxnews.com/lifestyle
To try more Fox News Digital quizzes, Click here.
Plus, to take our latest news quiz – published every Friday – Click here.
American Culture Quiz! How well do you know this week’s hot topics? (iStock)
Khloe Quill is a lifestyle production assistant at Fox News Digital. She and the lifestyle team cover a range of story topics including food and drink, travel and health.
Julia Roberts may be an Oscar-winning actress, but early in her career she struggled to overcome harsh criticism.
“I don’t think I went into my career with a lot of confidence,” Roberts told People Magazine in a recent interview.
Roberts, who made her name as an actress in films such as “Steel Magnolias” and “Pretty Woman,” said that in her early 20s she encountered “some judgmental people who were really cruel.”
“Being insecure can be paralyzing. So if someone embarrassed me, it stopped me,” she recalls. “I was apoplectic, so I learned to navigate it – because this is not an industry to be in if you can’t handle criticism, harshness or being embarrassed.”
Instead of becoming discouraged, Roberts chose to view these situations as an “interesting challenge for me to decide what kind of person I wanted to strive to be,” she told People.
She describes her experience as a young actress as “more obstacles than smooth sailing,” but today she sees past obstacles as opportunities for growth.
“I would think, ‘Okay, there’s a reason why it has to be so hard.’ I now see this as one of the lessons I am most grateful for, because they proved my resilience to myself,” she said.
“I had a lot of things I needed to overcome on my own,” Roberts continued.
Dealing with criticism in the workplace
Building resilience is “particularly important for young women starting their careers” regardless of industry, according to career and leadership coach Phoebe Gavin.
“We receive a lot of cultural conditioning that makes us very critical of ourselves and very worried about being watched and judged,” says Gavin. “All of these things can bring a lot of insecurity when we enter the workplace.”
No matter how self-confident you are, harsh criticism can feel overwhelming, she says.
If abrasive feedback is affecting your confidence, the most important thing to remember is to “put distance between yourself and the criticism,” says Gavin.
“When you hear people say critical, mean, or cruel things, remember that it’s about them, that it’s a reflection of who they are. It’s not necessarily a reflection of who you are,” she says.
Instead of internalizing the unkind words of others, “think out loud in your mind about the things that make you valuable and what you are bringing to the table,” says Gavin.
There can be a “kernel of truth” in some criticism, according to Gavin: “Sometimes helpful feedback can come in really ugly packaging,” she says.
If this is the case, Gavin recommends taking some time to reflect on your actions and what you can change in the future.
“Instead of internalizing it as something that is permanently true about you forever, find the places where you have agency to make positive changes in yourself or the way you work,” she says.
Still, if your workplace is harming your mental health, “it’s okay if you decide for yourself that being in that kind of environment isn’t right for you,” says Gavin.
More, Sign up for the CNBC Make It’s newsletter for tips and tricks to succeed at work, with money, and in life, and request to join our exclusive LinkedIn community to connect with experts and peers.
Intense clashes broke out along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border on Saturday night after an Afghan Taliban attack on Pakistani military posts led to a heavy exchange of fire and reportedly left dozens of soldiers dead.
According to officials, Afghan troops opened fire on Pakistani army posts along the northwest border with Pakistan on Saturday night and captured several Pakistani army posts. The attacks came after the Taliban regime in Afghanistan accused Pakistan of carrying out airstrikes on Afghan territory, including in the capital Kabul, earlier this week.
On Sunday, Pakistan responded with retaliatory strikes, gunfire and ground attacks on Afghan Taliban posts along the border.
In a statement, the media wing of the Pakistani armed forces said that 23 soldiers were killed and another 29 injured in the attacks. They claimed that 200 “Taliban and affiliated terrorists” on the Afghan side were killed in their retaliatory attacks and that terrorist training camps were dismantled.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid had previously stated that Taliban forces killed 58 Pakistani soldiers in the attacks, while only nine on the Taliban side were killed.
The clashes mark a further decline in relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan, which have become increasingly hostile over allegations that Afghanistan is providing a safe haven for Islamist militants carrying out a growing number of deadly attacks on Pakistani soil.
On Sunday morning, the Taliban government’s Ministry of Defense said its forces had conducted “successful and retaliatory operations” along the border. “If the opposing side violates Afghanistan’s territorial integrity again, our armed forces are fully prepared to defend the country’s borders and will provide a strong response,” the ministry said.
Pakistan’s media wing accused the Afghan Taliban of launching attacks to “facilitate terrorism”.
“Exercising the right of self-defense, the alert Pakistan Armed Forces repelled the attack decisively along the entire border and inflicted heavy casualties on the Taliban Forces,” the statement said.
“We will not tolerate the treacherous use of Afghan soil for terrorism against Pakistan… the state of Pakistan will not rest until the threat of terrorism emanating from Afghanistan is completely eliminated.”
The cross-border attacks came after two explosions were reported in the Afghan capital and another in southeastern Afghanistan on Thursday. The Taliban-run Ministry of Defense later accused Pakistan of “violating its sovereignty” in connection with the attacks. Pakistan neither denied nor confirmed the attack in Kabul, saying only that it carried out “a series of retaliatory operations”.
Analysts said recent days showed how volatile the situation along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border has become. The two countries share a rugged and mountainous border of almost 2,600 km (1,600 miles), known as the Durand Line, which still remains contested by Afghanistan.
Since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021, the Pakistani government has accused the Afghan Taliban of harboring the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an Islamic militant group that is behind a deadly wave of insurgent attacks in Pakistan’s border region. from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Thousands of attacks by TTP militants – most targeting Pakistani police, paramilitaries and army – have been carried out over the past four years, leaving more than 2,500 people dead. Islambad has become increasingly impatient with Kabul, publicly calling on the Afghan Taliban to stop harboring TTP militants, accusing them of turning a blind eye to training camps and providing funding and weapons to TTP fighters carrying out attacks on Pakistani soil, allegations supported by UN findings.
Imtiaz Gul, an Islamabad-based security analyst, said “Pakistan’s patience with Kabul was running out” as TTP attacks continued to increase. Earlier this week, at least three senior army officers, including 20 soldiers, were killed in attacks by the Pakistani Taliban. According to armed conflict location and event data, there have been more than 600 TTP attacks so far this year, the highest number in a decade.
Gul described the clashes as a “logical conclusion to the tensions that had been growing between the two countries, especially following the Afghan regime’s continued refusal to take demonstrable conclusive action against the TTP, which is leading terrorist attacks in Pakistan.”
Speaking at a press conference in Delhi, where he was on an official visit to India this week, Afghan Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi denied that Afghanistan was harboring TTP fighters. “There is no safe haven for the TTP in Afghanistan,” he said.
Muttaqi said the situation along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border was now “under control” and that allies Qatar and Saudi Arabia had been in touch to “express that the war should stop.”
“Afghanistan has the right to keep its territory and borders secure and therefore retaliated for the violation,” he said. “We achieved the objective of our retaliation mission… so, on our side, we stopped.”
Michael Kugelman, a South Asia analyst based in Washington DC, described the border situation as “precarious”. He emphasized that while the cash-strapped Taliban in Afghanistan “do not have the capacity to combat the Pakistani military head-on,” he warned that the attacks could further fuel the cross-border militant insurgency in Pakistan.
“The risk is that its recent attacks in Afghanistan will galvanize the TTP to carry out reprisals, which could provoke new and perhaps more intense Pakistani operations in Afghanistan,” Kugelman said. “And then the cycle can start again. There are no winners or easy long-term solutions here.”
Israel anxiously awaits the return of the remaining hostages captured by Hamas 735 days ago. Thousands of people gathered in Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square for what they hope will be the last time. Among them, President Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, spoke to the crowd. Débora Patta has more.
Hamas is ready to release Israeli hostages from Gaza “at any time,” US Vice President JD Vance announced on Sunday morning.
The news comes after President Donald Trump’s administration brokered a ceasefire in Gaza on Friday, ending a two-year war between Palestine and Israel.
A temporary truce began on Friday, with the remaining 48 Israeli hostages expected to be released on Monday after a 72-hour deadline.
But on Sunday, Vance said the hostages could be released sooner than expected.
‘It really should be any day now,’ the vice president told NBC News’ ‘Meet the press.’
“The President of the United States is planning to travel to the Middle East to greet the hostages on Monday morning Middle Eastern time,” Vance continued.
Trump is expected to fly to Tel Aviv and Egypt around 3pm EST today.
“Which would be late, you know, Sunday night, or really early on a Monday morning here in the United States.”
Although he said the release will occur soon, Vance said it is still unclear “exactly” when they will be released, but there is an “expectation.”
He added that “it is not possible to say exactly when they will be released, but we have every expectation – that is why the president will – that he will greet the hostages early next week.”
This is breaking news. Updates to follow.
The Israeli hostages will be released “at any moment,” US Vice President JD Vance said on Sunday morning. (Photo: Ivanka Trump at a rally in Tel Aviv on Saturday)
President Donald Trump’s administration brokered a ceasefire in Gaza on Friday
Share or comment on this article: Hamas will release hostages ‘at any time’
WINNIPEG — Governments and nonprofit groups are taking some time to review this year’s wildfire season and the unprecedented challenges posed by the evacuation of tens of thousands of people across vast swaths of the country.
The Canadian Red Cross registered 52,000 people in the Prairies, Ontario and Atlantic Canada, making it the agency’s largest domestic operation in recent memory.
Several hundred flights were carried out to evacuate people from remote communities, some inaccessible by road.
Two people have died after being trapped in a fire near Lac Du Bonnet, Man.
The length of the wildfire season also contrasted sharply with recent years. In some parts of the country, a dry spring meant the forest floor didn’t “turn green,” so the ground cover provided fuel for fires to grow and spread quickly.
In Manitoba, where about 32,000 people fled their homes, fires began in early spring and continued to erupt throughout most of the summer. Snow Lake, a town of 1,000 people, was evacuated twice.
Story continues below the ad
For Flin Flon Mayor George Fontaine, whose community of 5,000 was evacuated for four weeks starting in late May, a key takeaway is that wildfire crews must be prepared to tackle fires earlier than normal.
“We can no longer wait, for example, until the long weekend in May to equip (wildfire crews). Nature is not waiting and we cannot,” Fontaine said in an interview.
More fires also require more water bombers, Fontaine said. When the flames broke out near Flin Flon in the northwest of the province, water bombers were already battling fires in Whiteshell Provincial Park in the southeast.
Related Videos
New Brunswick considers extending wildfire season
Previous video
Next video
Fontaine praised the response of the Manitoba government and neighboring communities, including the Opaskwayak Cree Nation, which accepted busloads of evacuees who were unable to leave.
Receive the latest national news
For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up to receive breaking news alerts delivered directly to you as it happens.
“We had to requisition school buses and find volunteers to drive them,” he said.
Story continues below the ad
The buses were able to make the 90-minute trip, drop off people waiting for travel further south and return to Flin Flon for more.
Things were more complicated in the Pimicikamak Cree Nation, where several thousand people from the community and surrounding areas were airlifted on flights 500 kilometers south to Winnipeg.
Heavy smoke closed the local airport, so people were sent 25 miles away to Norway House. The trip included a bottleneck at a ferry crossing.
“It took 12 hours to get people to Norway House,” said Pimicikamak head David Monias.
It took a week to get everyone out of the area and the evacuation lasted about a month, starting in early July.
Evacuees had to register twice – once for transportation and once for accommodation, Monias said. Elderly people and people with health problems faced long waits in hallways, and dealing with the federal and provincial governments, as well as the Red Cross, meant there was duplication, he added.
In Winnipeg, Brandon and other communities, efforts were made to accommodate evacuees.
Trending now
Say goodbye to longer days: when daylight saving time ends in Canada
Diane Keaton, Oscar-Winning Star of ‘Annie Hall’ and ‘The Godfather,’ Dies at 79
There were mass shelters, including those set up at an indoor soccer complex and Winnipeg’s main convention center.
Authorities tried to find hotel rooms for as many evacuees as possible.
Story continues below the ad
But with up to 21,000 people out of their homes at one time and about 15,000 hotel rooms across the province — many of them occupied during the summer tourist season — it was an uphill battle. Some people were sent to Niagara Falls, Ont.
Monias said large open areas with cribs are not good for families, seniors or people with health problems. He would like governments to use their authority to cancel large events and free up hotel rooms.
“There needs to be some kind of understanding with some of the cities where we are sending our people to, to ensure that if events occur… to prioritize evacuees to remain there,” Monias said.
Prime Minister Wab Kinew expressed frustration at one point in the summer with a small number of hotel owners who he said were not offering their rooms.
He said he is considering using the Manitoba Development Center in Portage la Prairie — a former institution for people with intellectual disabilities that closed last year — as a ready housing option for evacuees.
Professor Shirley Thompson of the University of Manitoba’s Natural Resources Institute said with the frequency of wildfires increasing, having facilities dedicated to evacuees could mean better cultural supports and other services.
“Not everyone speaks English… but also because they are so far from home, having someone who sees their perspective is really important.”
Story continues below the ad
Thompson also said northern First Nations lack extensive air quality monitoring to keep an eye on the effects of wildfires, as well as public facilities with filtered air, such as libraries.
The Manitoba government and the Canadian Red Cross have said they will conduct full reviews of their operations during the wildfire season.
“This takes time,” the Red Cross said in a prepared statement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 12, 2025.
The floods killed five people in the eastern state of Veracruz and one in the central Mexican state of Querétaro, authorities said.
“We are deploying members and teams from the Mexican government to open roads and help communities,” wrote President Claudia Sheinbaum on X, formerly Twitter.
She added that thousands of soldiers, as well as boats, planes and helicopters were mobilized to help with rescue efforts.
The military will help distribute aid to affected areas, with more than 10,000 soldiers deployed, along with rescue equipment and vehicles.
Shelters were opened for those displaced from their homes.
The main disaster area was the Sierra Madre Oriental, a mountain range parallel to the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.
It is dotted with small communities, many of which were locked down on Friday (local time).
An AFP team in Tulancingo, a city in Hidalgo state, saw roads leading to the mountains closed due to landslides and landslides.
Next cold front
Mexico was hit by particularly heavy rain throughout 2025, with a rainfall record set in the capital, Mexico City.
Meteorologist Isidro Cano told AFP that the heavy rain since Thursday (local time) was caused by a seasonal change and the formation of clouds as warm, humid air from the Gulf of Mexico rises to the top of the mountains.
A cold front moving in from the north also increased rainfall across much of the country, the expert added.
Authorities in areas off the Pacific coast are keeping an eye on Tropical Depression Raymond and the remnants of Priscilla, which was once a hurricane.
Both storms dropped heavy rains in western Mexico, causing damage in the states of Chiapas, Guerrero, Oaxaca and Michoacan.
Raymond is expected to make landfall in southern Baja California over the weekend, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.
The Taliban government confirmed that it attacked Pakistani troops in several mountainous locations on the northern border.
A Taliban spokesman said 58 Pakistani military personnel were killed in what he called “an act of retaliation.” It alleged that Pakistan violated Afghan airspace and bombed a market within its border on Thursday.
Pakistan disputed that figure, saying that 23 members of its armed forces had died and claiming that “200 Taliban and affiliated terrorists had been neutralized.”
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said the Afghan attacks were “unprovoked” and that civilians were targeted, warning that his country’s forces would respond “with a stone for every brick.”
Islamabad has accused Kabul of harboring terrorists targeting Pakistan on its soil, an allegation the Taliban government has rejected.
Both the Afghan and Pakistani sides are said to have used small arms and artillery in the Kunar-Kurram region, the BBC has learned.
At a press conference on Sunday, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said that in addition to the 58 Pakistani military deaths, around 30 others were injured.
He added that nine Taliban fighters were killed and between 16 and 18 people were injured.
Pakistan’s military said 29 of its soldiers were injured and that the number of injured Taliban and “affiliated” fighters was in the hundreds.
Afghanistan’s foreign minister said at a press conference in New Delhi that “we have no problems” with the people of Pakistan and its leadership, but added that “there are some groups in Pakistan who are trying to spoil the situation. Afghanistan has the right to keep its territory and borders safe, and so it retaliated for the violation.”
Pakistan’s interior minister said he “strongly condemns” the Taliban attacks: “Afghan forces’ firing on civilian populations is a flagrant violation of international laws.
“Afghanistan is playing a game of fire and blood,” he said in an X post.
The two main crossings between Pakistan and Afghanistan – Torkham, in the north, and Chaman, in the south – were closed, leaving hundreds of trucks carrying goods stranded on both sides.
A Pakistani military spokesman said they would take necessary measures to safeguard the lives and properties of Pakistanis.
Pakistan’s military has not officially commented, but a security source speaking to the BBC said the firing took place in several locations along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, including Angoor Adda, Bajaur, Kurram, Dir, Chitral and Baramcha.
A police officer stationed near Ground Zero in Kurram district told the BBC that heavy weapons fire began on the Afghan side at around 10pm local time (5pm GMT).
He said he had received reports of intense gunfire in several locations along the border.
Last week, Afghanistan’s Taliban government accused Pakistan of violating the “sovereign territory” of Kabul when two loud explosions were heard in the city on Thursday night.
Pakistan bombed a civilian market in Afghanistan’s southeastern border province of Paktika, the Taliban’s Defense Ministry said on Friday. Local residents told the BBC’s Afghan service that several shops were destroyed.
A top Pakistani general alleged that Afghanistan was being used as a “base of operation for terrorism against Pakistan”.
Pakistan has long accused the Afghan Taliban of allowing the Pakistani Taliban, known as the TTP, to operate from its lands and fight the government in Islamabad in an attempt to impose a strict Islamist-led system of governance.
The Afghan Taliban government has always denied this.
The latest escalation coincided with a historic week-long trip to India by Afghan Taliban foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, the first since the Taliban’s return to power.
In a diplomatic thaw, Delhi said it would reopen the embassy in Kabul, which was closed four years ago when the Taliban returned to power.
“Afghanistan will also receive a befitting response like India so that it does not dare to look at Pakistan with a malicious eye,” warned Naqvi.
In a statement, Saudi Arabia, which signed a mutual defense pact with Pakistan last month, called for self-restraint and to avoid escalation between Islamabad and Kabul.
Qatar also expressed concern over border tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan, calling on both sides to “prioritize dialogue, diplomacy and restraint.”
Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Suresh Gopi has responded to critics of his ‘Kalungu Souhruda Samvadam’, saying he will not be silenced or intimidated by threats.
Speaking at the MP’s inauguration. At C. Sadanandan’s office in Kannur on Sunday (October 12, 2025), Mr. Gopi asserted that his public interactions embody the “purity of democracy” and likened them to a surgical strike aimed at truth and transparency.
“This benefits everyone who participates in such discussions. Political purity and purity of spirit are essential for both the speaker and the listener,” he said, adding that critics are “afraid because something genuine has started to happen.”
Responding to the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] leaders M. V. Jayarajan and P. Jayarajan, who criticized Mr. Sadanandan’s nomination to the Rajya Sabha, Mr. Gopi said that Mr.
“This moment, given Kannur’s political background, was only possible thanks to Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” he noted.
Attacking the CPI(M) leaders, he said, “The Jayarajan brothers were upset and feared that Mr. Sadanandan would bring development to Kannur.”
“This is not jealousy, but anxiety,” he noted.
Criticisms from CPI(M) leaders
CPI(M) leaders had earlier criticized Mr. Sadanandan’s appointment, with Mr. MV Jayarajan comparing him to Pragya Singh Thakur, while Mr. Responding to this, Gopi said the decision was taken to bring the skills and spirit of the Modi government to Kerala, describing Mr. Sadanandan as an “excellent example of Karma”.
He also expressed hope that Mr. Sadnandan’s deputy office would soon become a Union Minister’s office, even stating, “I would be happy if Mr. Sadnandan was appointed as Union Minister instead of me.”
Regarding his film career, the minister said he intends to continue acting.
‘Words being distorted’
Reiterating that his words were being deliberately distorted, Mr. Gopi said, “Now, everything that is said is distorted. Everyone gets upset when we say ‘Praja’ (people). What is wrong with saying ‘Praja’? They should first learn what Prajatantra (democracy) really means.”
He added that there would soon be a “surgical strike” against misinterpretations of his previous comments. “Don’t try to scare me. I can’t be a politician who hides his pain and his anger. I want to live as a human being, not just as a politician,” he said.
