内容摘要：If confirmed as surgeon general, Means would be tasked with helping promote

If confirmed as surgeon general, Means would be tasked with helping promote

, pups have become precious relatives.“It’s harder to access loans or own a home; there’s no longer a set way to form a family,” said Dr. Marcos Díaz Videla, a psychologist specialized in human-canine relationships. “Animals are becoming part of the family. With humans, they’re shaping the dynamics, rituals and routines inside the home.”

The tendency for pet owners to treat their dogs like kids is changing the cityscape as pet hotels, boutiques, cafes and even cemeteries spring up in Buenos Aires to cash in on the craze.Carolina Morales holds her four-month-old son Benjamin as her husband Alejandro Tirachini holds the family pet Thay, whom they consider their first son, while they pose for a photo backdropped by a painting of Thay by artist Lisandro Guma, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, April 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)Carolina Morales holds her four-month-old son Benjamin as her husband Alejandro Tirachini holds the family pet Thay, whom they consider their first son, while they pose for a photo backdropped by a painting of Thay by artist Lisandro Guma, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, April 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Pet beauty salons now pull out all the stops, providing not only baths and trims but pedicures and poolside spas. The Guau Experience parlor, for instance, charges up to $120 — roughly a quarter of the average Argentine monthly salary — for washing, cleaning, shining, conditioning, trimming and perfuming.“They’re living beings who don’t stay around long. During that time, you have to give them the best,” said Nicole Verdier, owner of Argentina’s first-ever dog bakery, Chumbis, which makes cookies, cakes, croissants, burgers and canapés from gourmet meat, chicken and pork.

This humanizing of dogs has even inspired a new noun — “perrhijo” — a fusion of the Spanish word for “dog” and “child.”

In Buenos Aires, where leash-pullers outnumber stroller-pushers in many neighborhoods, lawmakers have proposed a range of pet-friendlyand to investigations into the failures surrounding the Oct. 7 attack.

A broader resolution to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict appears more distant than ever.The Palestinians are weak and divided, and Israel’s current government — the most nationalist and religious in its history — is opposed to Palestinian demands for a state in Gaza, the

and east Jerusalem, territories Israel occupied in the 1967 Mideast war.The last serious peace talks broke down more than 15 years ago.