By Laura Sharman, CNN

(CNN) — “Will you marry me?” William Maneja asked, locking eyes with the stranger in a white dress.

It was his fourth proposal in less than 60 minutes.

Instead of rings, the pair pulled out their Tamagotchis and wed their virtual pets – in pixelated matrimony.

Maneja, 29, and his partner were among 200 enthusiasts at the Cecil Community Centre in Toronto in August, vowing to remain united “through dead batteries and scratched screens” in what the group said could be the world’s largest tamagotchi wedding.

“There was an air of giddiness in the room, with many guests in wedding attire and some flying from as far away as Los Angeles and Texas,” Toronto Tamagotchi Club founder Twoey Gray, 30, said of the event, which resulted in 162 unions in a single hour.

Launched by Japanese toy company Bandai in 1996, Tamagotchis – effectively portable digital pets – quickly became a global craze that took the world by storm.

Within two-and-a-half years, more than 40 million units were shipped worldwide. In late July, the figure surpassed 100 million, putting the tiny handheld device in the orbit of Japan’s star gaming consoles Nintendo Switch and Sony’s PlayStation.

In 2026, Tamagotchi will celebrate its 30th anniversary with various events, including an exhibition that will open at Tokyo’s Roppongi Museum this month and tour other cities in Japan. Uniqlo has also collaborated with Bandai on newly released merchandise.

Designed to be loved

The idea of a virtual companion came to creator Akihiro Yokoi as he watched a TV commercial of a boy longing to take his pet turtle on a trip. But the eventual design would far exceed previous iterations of digital pets including Neko, a virtual cat released in 1989 that was confined to chasing mouse cursors on the screen.

With Bandai onboard, the pocket pet was launched as an egg-shaped, three-button toy on a keychain. Initially pitched as a toy for boys, the design pivoted after market research revealed greater potential for the product among high school girls.

An instant sellout, Tamagotchis became a 1990s pop culture icon alongside Furby, Tommy Hilfiger and the Spice Girls. It’s still remembered by millennials on Facebook as the “digital best friend” before smartphones, kept alive through feeding, cleaning and play. Failure to tend to them led to disastrous outcomes. “Only ’90s kids remember the heartbreak of your Tamagotchi dying,” one fan wrote.

Tamagotchis were “one of the first to show us that design can cultivate emotional bonds with machines,” explains Paola Antonelli, a senior curator and director of research and development at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).

According to Antonelli, who featured the device in a 2011 MoMA exhibition, its “DNA” has influenced every interactive device that “tiptoes between utility and companionship” from Siri to smart health trackers that “talk back, remind us, scold us, reward us.”

“The Tamagotchi was capricious and demanding – hungry and hangry, sleepy, poopy. It forced its users to engage in cycles of care and neglect, obligation and reward,” she added.

“Its brilliance was that the emotional weight came not from graphics or narrative, but from behavior. This is why people still remember it decades later.”

This was the case for Maneja, from the Tamagotchi mass wedding in Toronto, who said rediscovering his childhood collection guided him through his lowest point following the death of his grandmother during the pandemic.

“They became a very important tool that kept me grounded during a very dark period of my life” he said. “Taking care of my Tamagotchi helped me to take care of myself.”

Tamagotchi stood out as a handful of pixels on a tiny screen amid the more sophisticated 3D animations of its era, such a

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By Aleena Fayaz, CNN

(CNN) — A top staffer for longtime DC Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton announced Wednesday he plans to run for her non-voting seat in Congress.

Former senior legislative counsel Trent Holbrook’s plan to challenge Norton comes as the 88-year-old Democrat has faced growing concerns about her age and fitness for office.

“I don’t see myself as running against Congresswoman Norton,” Holbrook told CNN in an interview Wednesday. “I just don’t think that that she is going to run again, at least not an effective way.”

Holbrook, who left Norton’s office after more than eight years on Monday, said he is best positioned to take on the role in part because of his work in Norton’s office.

“As the District of Columbia is looking to a new era in the fight for D.C. statehood and protecting home rule, I feel that I am best positioned to take on this incredibly important role. I have already been the leader in Congress at the staff-level for eight years on these important issues, and I have a strong, historic record of success to run on,” Holbrook said in a news release earlier Wednesday.

CNN has reached out to Norton’s office for comment. Holbrook filed official paperwork with the Federal Election Commission launching a fundraising committee on Monday.

The Washington Post first reported on his bid for office Tuesday.

Holbrook’s and Norton’s paths converged during his time at Georgetown Law School, when the former top aide took a yearlong class taught by Norton. After joining her office in 2017, Holbrook rose in the ranks from legislative assistant to senior legislative counsel.

“Congresswoman Norton is one of the greatest lawmakers in American history. She has trained me for this position unlike anybody else. I am grateful for the opportunities she afforded me. Because of them, I am ready to lead,” Holbrook said in the release.

Holbrook told CNN he had a good conversation with Norton about his plans to run shortly before the holiday, and he expressed excitement about his campaign and goals if elected, including key policy ideas on DC statehood, federal employee protections and DC home rule.

Norton, a born Washingtonian, has placed civil rights work at the center of her career. Prior to her 18 terms in Congress, Norton was appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1977 to serve as the first woman to chair the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. While Norton cannot vote in Congress as a delegate, her commitment to DC statehood and equal rights can be traced throughout her nearly three decades on Capitol Hill.

In recent months, Norton’s older age and infrequent public appearances have prompted questions about her current suitability for office. Norton, the oldest sitting House member, is part of a growing group of politicians whose ages have sparked debates over term limits in Congress.

Last September, former Democratic National Committee chair and the delegate’s former chief of staff, Donna Brazile, published an op-ed in the Washington Post in which she discouraged her close friend from seeking reelection, stating that Norton is “no longer the dynamo she once was.”

“It’s in her best interest, and the interest of D.C., for her to serve her current term but then end her extraordi

CNN

By Holmes Lybrand, CNN

(CNN) — In the aftermath of an ICE officer shooting and killing a woman in Minneapolis on Wednesday, President Donald Trump claimed in a post online that video from the incident showed the woman “violently, willfully, and viciously ran over” the officer.

The Department of Homeland Security, in the initial wake of the shooting, also said in a statement that the woman was attempting to run over officers with her car “to kill them.”

US Sen. Tina Smith, a Minnesota Democrat, later identified the woman as 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a news conference in Texas on Wednesday that “a woman attacked” officers and “attempted to run them over and ram them with her vehicle” after the officers got stuck in the snow.

Three videos taken of the scene and reviewed by CNN, however, show nuance. What took place prior to the shooting remains unclear.

What the videos show

In one video posted online of the shooting, the woman can first be seen in her car, which is still and perpendicular in the middle of a street.

The officer who would soon shoot the woman can be seen walking behind her vehicle, toward the front of the car. Another person, who is not wearing a uniform, can be seen following that officer and appears to have been filming on their phone.

Two federal officers in a truck then pull up to the car as the woman was waving her hand out the window. The officers exit their truck and approach the woman’s car.

“Get out of the car,” the officers approaching the woman’s driver-side door can be heard repeatedly saying. “Get out of the f**king car.”

One of the two officers can be seen pulling on the woman’s driver-side door as the other officer reaches the front of the car from the other side. The car then starts to move in reverse as one officer continues pulling on the car door, and the other officer is in front of part of the vehicle.

The vehicle begins to move forward and, at the same time, the third officer who approached the car pulls out his pistol and points it at the woman while moving away from the front of the car.

A video from a different angle, obtained and reviewed by CNN, seems to show the car making contact with the officer before he fired his gun the first time.

The first video doesn’t capture the car making contact with the officer, but his body is seen moving out from the front of the vehicle and to the driver’s side of the car.

The officer, who was out of the vehicle’s path, then fired two more shots.

Video then shows the officer holster his pistol as the car drives forward before it accelerates and crashes into a car and a pole on the side of the street.

The firing officer and the person who appeared to be filming him can be seen moving toward the woman and her car. The video shows the officer later walking away from the car and telling others to call 911.

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CAMARILLO, Calif. (KEYT) A Santa Barbara County family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Casa Pacifica in the wake of their loved one's death.

John and Cindy Bratt of Northern Santa Barbara County said they don't want their heartbreak to happen to other families.

The Bratts had grown children when they opened their hearts and home to 5 foster children including 2-year-old Pipper and her three older sisters.

"Pipper, when she hit about 13, she started showing signs of a mental issue and so we got in contact with doctors and put her in therapy and learned a lot from psychiatrists," said Cindy Bratt.

When Pipper was hospitalized in Bakersfield for depression and anxiety she accused John Bratt of sexual abuse, something she later recanted. 

The teen ended up in foster care, a group home and youth shelter before the Bratts' heard about Casa Pacifica off Lewis Road in Camarillo.

"It looked like a great place to be, the mental health, the school, she needed on sight," said Cindy Bratt.

But the licensed facility is open, meaning, the teens are free to come and go. Pipper would often leave the facility.

In September, the Bratts received a call about an accident on Lewis Road involving Pipper.

"Dr. Bennett, a psychiatrist, proceeded to tell us as he has some bad news for us, she had been hit by a car," said Cindy Bratt.

She was brain dead. They donated her organs on September 23rd, just shy of her 15th birthday.

Then, 16 and 17 year old Casa Pacific residents came forward and told the Bratts Pipper had been  drugged, sexually abused and trafficked by a Santa Barbara County man just days before her death.

The two teens said they were victims, too.

The suspect Benito Najera is now facing charges including child porn in Santa Barbara County.

And with the help of their attorney Wyatt Vespermann, the Bratts have filed a wrongful death lawsuit.

"The evidence speaks for themselves it is common sense the the child that has gone through what Pipper the trauma she need intensive therapies she might need hospitalization she need one on one supervision she got none of that. She was allowed to walk out of that facility and now she is no longer with us," said Vespermann.

Casa Pacifica chose not to comment yet on the pending civil lawsuit, but sent its "sincere condolences."

"It is really frustrating because they painted Casa Pacfica as the answer to what was happening to Pipper:" said John Bratt, "it is a horrible breakdown of the system and there are more children as risk."

"We love our daughter, we miss out daughter, our kids miss our daughter and cry," said Cindy Bratt, " Just because she had mental illness she wasn't a bad kid, I don't want other families going through this it needs to stop,"

The lawsuits filed in Ventura County seeks damages and demands a jury trial  

Your News Channel will follow the case tonight on the news.

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