By CATHY BUSSEWITZ

NEW YORK (AP) — “Being bald is sexy. It’s an attitude. It’s a luxury. It’s a lifestyle.”

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That’s how Brennan Nevada Johnson, who shaved her head voluntarily 14 years ago, opens the video podcast she launched last November to celebrate the advantages of choosing a bald look.

Sensuous, self-assured and glamorous are not the adjectives typically assigned to women with shorn hair. For centuries, many cultures have viewed long hair as a symbol of femininity, health and fertility. But more women are defying that traditional beauty standard and finding empowerment by baring their heads.

“Once you do it, it brings all this confidence into your life,” Johnson, 34, said. “Whenever you see someone who’s bald and not wearing a wig, just know that they have fully embraced themselves, and I think that’s something that’s really challenging to do.”

Her initial decision to go baldheaded was practical. Johnson played competitive volleyball in college and found the sweating she did on the court affected the expensive hair relaxing treatments she often had done. Once she started shaving off her hair, though, she was hooked. She was relieved to save money on salon trips.

Johnson now owns a New York public relations firm. “Bald and Buzzed with Brennan,” the video podcast she posts on YouTube, was an attempt to fill a void in social media content that affirmed bald people, especially women. She says she always thought baldness was sexy.

“It’s such a fashion statement, and it’s a really powerful look,” Johnson said.

Other women without hair, whether voluntarily or due to medical conditions, also have sought ways to support each other, attending conferences, joining “baldie” groups and swapping grooming and scalp care tips.

“There’s a whole community of us out there,” said Dash Lopez, a content creator who posts a weekly video series of her shaving routine called “Fresh Cut Friday.” “We need to talk about it because we do find comfort and empowerment and beauty in what some people think is weird.”

Redefining beauty

Lopez said members of her family praised the long curly hair she had growing up. Some of her friends played with different hair colors and styles, but Lopez said she didn’t have the same freedom. And she didn’t enjoy detangling her hair or spending long afternoons at the salon.

As soon as she turned 18 and could get a haircut without permission, she chopped her locks into a pixie cut. Then she shaved it all off during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It makes me feel powerful in the sense that I’m able to detach from the things that people place so much emphasis on,” Lopez, 29, said. “I’m not sitting here planning, ‘Oh my gosh, when am I going to get my next color appointment done? That’s gonna cost me $300. Oh my gosh. I’ve got to get my hair done before I go to this event.’”

Lopez signed a contract with a modeling agency in 2020, a time when brands wanted to showcase diversity, she said. Back then, being bald worked for her professionally.

“There was an appreciation for quirks and if you had a gap in your tooth, if you had a bald head, if you had a face full of freckles, that’s what casting directors were looking for,” Lopez said.

She noticed the tide shifting last year, when her bookings for modeling jobs decreased. “Let’s be honest, the odds were stacked against me in the modeling world,” Lopez said. “I was 5′ 4″, 5′ 5″ on paper, no hair.”

A client suggested she wear wigs to land more work. Lopez did not want to do that or grow out her hair. Her modeling contract ended. Since then, she has shared glimpses of her life as a bald woman on Instagram and TikTok, where some of her videos have been watched millions of times.

“I feel powerful in the sense that I’m making my own choices,” Lopez said. “I’m doing it for my own self-empowerment, I am doing it from my own self-clarity, for a deeper understanding of what it is that I value, a deeper understanding of what beauty means to me.”

Creating community

Many women are confronted with how they define beauty when they lose hair due to health conditions such as alopecia or during chemotherapy treatment for cancer.

Felicia Flores, a flight attendant who lives in Atlanta, was diagnosed in 2001 with alopecia, an autoimmune disorder that causes hair to fall out. Six years later, all her hair was gone. Initially, she wore wigs.

Then she came across a group called The Baldie Movement on Facebook. “The ladies just really inspired me,” Flores, 47, said. “They really did help to encourage me and give me strength, … and they were just so confident.”

She eventually decided to stop wearing wigs and embrace being bald in 2015, after a romantic breakup. “I was tired of lying. I felt like I was hiding something. I felt like I wasn’t myself,” she said.

To help uplift and inspire other women, Flores founded an annual conference called Baldie Con. The fourth one drew drew more than 200 attendees to Atlanta last month for a fashion show, guest speakers, a jazz brunch and a black tie gala, she said.

Managing reactions

Aicha Soumaoro, who works in Philadelphia as a nurse on weekdays and as a mechanic on weekends, said some of her patients call her “sir” instead of “ma’am,” but she doesn’t let it bother her. “It’s new to them, girls that are bald.”

Aicha Soumaoro poses in West Chester, Pa., Friday, Oct. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Soumaoro, 27, said that after she shaved her head, her mother told her that most men wouldn’t want to marry a woman with no hair. She focuses instead on the compliments she’s received while out in public, including “You wear it with confidence” and “Your face is gorgeous.”

“Being bald, it’s like a boost of confidence out of nowhere,” said Soumaoro, who cuts her hair every Sunday. “It’s like a new skin, a new layer, a new personality. I just feel fresh. Like I was born again.”

She also hikes on Sundays, savoring the feeling of cold breezes on her scalp. “Having that connection with Earth, it feels amazing,” Soumaoro said. “I feel like I can hear everything more clearly. It’s like I have a clear mindset when my head is bald.”

Tiffany Michael Thomas, an Atlanta-based performer who goes by the stage name Amor Lauren, shaved her head in a show of support when her mother was undergoing treatment for pancreatic cancer.

After her mother died, Thomas continued receiving compliments from other women. She decided to keep the bald look.

“Once I began to really embrace it, it just made me feel like I was unstoppable,” Thomas, 37, said. “There’s nothing that I have to hide behind anymore. … It forced me to deal with all of my insecurities.”

If you’re thinking about shaving your head, don’t hesitate, Thomas advises. Women tell her they’re concerned that their head isn’t the right shape, or they have a lump or a scar. “Do it without thought,” she said. “Do it scared. Everything in life, just do it scared. The best way to get through that fear is to actually do it.”

Send your wellness questions and story ideas to cbussewitz@ap.org. Follow AP’s Be Well coverage, focusing on wellness, fitness, diet and mental health at https://apnews.com/hub/be-well.

By MARY CLARE JALONICK, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — As the government shutdown enters its fourth week, Senate Republicans are headed to the White House on Tuesday — not for urgent talks on how to end it but for a display of unity with President Donald Trump as they refuse to negotiate on any Democratic demands.

Senate Democrats, too, are confident in their strategy to keep voting against a House-passed bill that would reopen the government until Republicans, including Trump, engage them on extending health care subsidies that expire at the end of the year.

With both sides showing no signs of movement, it’s unclear how long the stalemate will last — even as hundreds of thousands of federal workers will miss another paycheck in the coming days and states are sounding warnings that key federal programs will soon lapse completely. And the lunch meeting in the White House Rose Garden appears unlikely, for now, to lead to a bipartisan resolution as Senate Republicans are dug in and Trump has followed their lead.

Asked about the message at lunch, Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, second in Senate GOP leadership, told Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends” on Tuesday that it will be, “Republicans are united, and I expect the president to say, ‘Stand strong.’”

Senate Republican leader John Thune, of South Dakota said on Monday that he thinks Trump is ready to “get involved on having the discussion” about extending the subsidies. “But I don’t think they are prepared to do that until (Democrats) open up the government,” he said.

Missed paychecks and programs running out of money

While Capitol Hill remains at a standstill, the effects of the shutdown are worsening.

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Federal workers are set to miss additional paychecks amid total uncertainty about when they might eventually get paid. Government services like the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, known as WIC, and Head Start preschool programs that serve needy families are facing potential cutoffs in funding. On Monday, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the National Nuclear Security Administration is furloughing 1,400 federal workers. The Federal Aviation Administration has reported air controller shortages and flight delays in cities across the United States.

And as the shutdown keeps future health costs in limbo for millions of Americans, most U.S. adults are worried about health care becoming more expensive, according to a new Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll, as they make decisions about next year’s health coverage.

Still, there has been little urgency in Washington as each side believes the other will eventually cave.

“Our position remains the same: We want to end the shutdown as soon as we can and fix the ACA premium crisis that looms over 20 million hardworking Americans,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on Monday, referring to the expanded Affordable Care Act subsidies that expire in December.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., left, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speak to reporters outside the Senate chamber as they charge President Donald Trump and the Republicans with the government shutdown, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Schumer called the White House meeting a “pep rally” and said it was “shameful” that House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has kept the House out of town during the shutdown.

November deadlines

Members of both parties acknowledge that as the shutdown drags on, it is becoming less likely every day that Congress will be able to either extend the subsidies or fund the government through the regular appropriations process. The House GOP bill that Senate Democrats have now rejected 11 times would only keep the government open through Nov. 21.

Thune on Monday hinted that Republicans may propose a longer extension of current funding instead of passing individual spending bills if the shutdown doesn’t end soon. Congress would need to pass an extension beyond Nov. 21, he said, “if not something on a much longer-term basis.”

Democrats are focused on Nov. 1, when next year’s enrollment period for the ACA coverage begins and millions of people will sign up for their coverage without the expanded subsidy help that began during the COVID-19 pandemic. Once those sign-ups begin, they say, it would be much harder to restore the subsidies even if they did have a bipartisan compromise.

“Very soon Americans are going to have to make some really difficult choices about which health care plan they choose for next year,” Schumer said.

What about Trump?

Tuesday’s White House meeting will be a chance for Republican senators to engage with the president on the shutdown after he has been more involved in foreign policy and other issues.

The president last week dismissed Democratic demands as “crazy,” adding, “We’re just not going to do it.”

North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven said that Republican senators will talk strategy with the president at Tuesday’s lunch. “Obviously, we’ll talk to him about it, and he’ll give us his ideas, and we’ll talk about ours,” Hoeven said. “Anything we can do to try to get Democrats to join us” and pass the Republican bill to reopen the government, Hoeven said.

Still, GOP lawmakers expect Trump to stay in line with their current posture to reject negotiations until the government is open.

“Until they put something reasonable on the table to talk about, I don’t think there’s anything to talk about,” said Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy.

Democrats say Trump has to be more involved for the government to reopen.

“He needs to get off the sidelines, get off the golf course,” said House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. “We know that House and Senate Republicans don’t do anything without getting permission from their boss, Donald J. Trump.”

Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Stephen Groves and Matt Brown contributed to this report.

By MATT BROWN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans are preparing to release a report on the findings of their investigation into former President Joe Biden and what they allege is potential misuse of the presidential autopen during his term.

The report, which is likely to be released in the coming weeks, centers on contested and thus far unsubstantiated claims that Biden not only visibly aged while in office, but that his mental state declined to a degree that allowed White House officials to enact policies without his knowledge.

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“The House Oversight Committee has uncovered how the Biden Autopen Presidency ranks among the greatest scandals in U.S. history,” Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said in a statement. “As President Biden declined, his staff abused the autopen to carry out unauthorized executive actions. We have concluded interviews with key Biden aides and will soon report our findings to the American people.”

The Republican-led committee declined to offer instances where investigators may have heard testimony or otherwise found instances when the autopen — a mechanical device that is used to replicate a person’s authentic signature — was abused. A spokesperson for the Republican majority on the committee said the cases would be detailed in the report but offered no further details.

The committee has interviewed more than a dozen former senior Biden administration officials as part of the investigation, pressing them for information on Biden’s mental fitness while in office. Oversight Democrats have dismissed the investigation as a distraction and say the committee is turning a blind eye to wrongdoing by the Trump administration.

Biden has strenuously denied that he was unaware of his administration’s actions. He has also dismissed claims that he had mentally declined to a degree that inhibited his ability to lead as president while in office.

“Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency. I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations,” Biden said in a statement over the summer. “Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false.”

What the committee heard in testimony

Some Biden officials who were subpoenaed cited their Fifth Amendment rights and declined to answer questions, including Biden’s former physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor; Anthony Bernal, former chief of staff to first lady Jill Biden; and Annie Tomasini, a former senior adviser to Biden. Other aides spoke to the committee.

Several aides admitted that the pace of Biden’s schedule slowed over the course of his term, according to a person familiar with the private testimony who was granted anonymity to discuss it. Jeff Zients, who was chief of staff, said Biden’s decision-making slowed during the administration. Decisions that once required three meetings eventually required a fourth, he said.

Zients also discussed how to confirm the president’s mental fitness to the public. Senior officials, including O’Connor, discussed whether Biden should undergo a cognitive exam, which O’Connor said he would take into consideration.

But even as they described signs of Biden’s advancing age — he was 82 when he left office — some Biden officials also strongly pushed back on the central premise of the Republican investigation — namely that staff effectively usurped the powers of the presidency for themselves.

“There was no nefarious conspiracy of any kind among the president’s senior staff, and there was certainly no conspiracy to hide the president’s mental condition from the American people,” Steve Ricchetti, a longtime close adviser to Biden, told the committee.

Why the autopen questions matter

Biden’s age, apparent frailty in office and meandering public speeches were central to President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans’ messaging during last year’s election cycle. The Trump White House has continued to mock Biden on the issue, going so far as to post an image of the presidential autopen in place of Biden’s official portrait in a recently installed West Wing presidential portrait gallery.

But Republicans’ fixation on the presidential autopen may have broader legal implications.

Trump and Republican lawmakers have argued that improper use of the autopen would raise the possibility that scores of Biden-era executive actions, pardons and laws may be ruled invalid in court. Trump has already ordered the Justice Department to investigate.

A Trump White House memo to Attorney General Pam Bondi argued that any cases where the autopen was used without Biden’s knowledge would be an “unconstitutional wielding of the power of the presidency” that “would have implications for the legality and validity of numerous executive actions undertaken in Biden’s name.”

The argument is legally untested and may raise difficult questions for Trump’s own use of the autopen. Republican lawmakers insist that the Biden White House example was an exceptional situation.

Republicans have also argued that any former staffers found to have misused the autopen should be criminally prosecuted.

Legal experts and Democrats have called the arguments preposterous and warned that such precedents would imperil many of Trump’s own policies from both of his terms in office.

By CHRIS MEGERIAN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is expected to leave for Asia at the end of the week, betting that an around-the-world journey will help him untangle big issues that he can’t afford to get wrong.

At stake is nothing less than the future of the global economy, which could hinge on whether he’s able to calm trade tensions during an expected meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. A misstep could send shock waves through American industries that have already been rattled by Trump’s aggressive tariffs, government layoffs and political brinkmanship.

FILE – President Donald Trump, left, shakes hands with China’s President Xi Jinping during a meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, June 29, 2019. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

Trump’s strategy of improvisation has had both hits and misses since he returned to office in January. Hamas returned hostages to Israel but the ceasefire in the Middle East remains fragile; a trade war with China has ebbed and flowed this year; and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine hasn’t slowed down despite Trump’s efforts to resolve the conflict.

There’s been some mystery around Trump’s trip, with no official announcements from the White House about much of his itinerary. The president said Monday that he plans to go to Malaysia, which is hosting a regional summit, then Japan, where he’s trying to nail down foreign investment.

He’ll also visit South Korea, where he’s working on more trade issues and expects to sit down with Xi. Beijing has yet to confirm that they’ll meet, and the two leaders have recently exchanged threats of tariffs and export restrictions.

“I have a very good relationship with President Xi of China,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday. He offered to lower tariffs but “they have to give us some things too,” including buying U.S. soybeans, reducing the flow of fentanyl ingredients and ending limits on rare earth minerals that are critical for high-tech manufacturing.

Trump expressed even more confidence on Monday, saying, “I think we’re going to end up having a fantastic deal with China” and “it’s going to be fantastic for the entire world.”

This will be Trump’s first trip to Asia in his second term

With just days to go before Trump leaves, there’s an unusual level of ambiguity even for a president who loves to keep people guessing about his next move.

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“The whole trip has seemed so uncertain from the beginning,” said Bonnie Glaser, a managing director at the German Marshall Fund, a Washington-based think tank.

It’s Trump’s first trip to Asia since returning to office. Although he’s hosted leaders from the region at the White House, he hasn’t forged the kind of foundational relationships that he has on other continents.

Anna Kelly, a spokesperson for the president, responded to a list of questions about Trump’s plans by saying he “will participate in meetings and events in Asia that will result in many great deals for our country.” She added, “Stay tuned!”

Trump’s approach to Asia has focused on using tariffs to realign what he describes as unfair trade practices, unnerving countries that depend on the United States as the world’s largest market for exports. There’s also anxiety about Trump’s meeting with Xi, and the potential that a feud between the two leaders could send the international economy into a tailspin.

“There will be some appreciation for the fact that he’s there, but I don’t think it will go far enough to quell the doubts that are pervasive in the region,” Glaser predicted.

The Republican president has downsized his foreign policy team since his first term, eschewing the typical array of advisers at the National Security Council in favor of a core group of loyalists.

“There’s not very many White House staff to do this kind of work,” said Rush Doshi, who worked on China policy under President Joe Biden. “All of this puts us in uncharted waters.”

Michael Green, who worked on President George W. Bush’s National Security Council and now leads the United States Studies Centre in Sydney, Australia, said there’s been no clear Asia strategy from Trump.

“Everyone is waiting to see where he’s going to come down on all of this,” he said.

Others say Trump’s approach is paying off. Anthony Kim, a research fellow in international economic affairs at the Heritage Foundation, said Japan and South Korea are eager to work with the administration to solidify partnerships.

The message from them has been “let’s sit down, talk about relevant details to make a deal,” Kim said.

Trump’s plans remain in flux as the trip approaches

Malaysia is hosting the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, an annual summit that Trump attended only once during his first term, even skipping it when it was held virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, this year the summit offers an opportunity to highlight Trump’s peacemaking efforts, which he’s made central to his foreign policy agenda.

Thailand and Cambodia skirmished along their disputed border over the summer, and Trump threatened to withhold trade deals with each country if they didn’t stop fighting.

“They were willing to come together and talk to avoid more economic pain,” said Ja Ian Chong, a political science professor at the National University of Singapore.

Malaysia and the U.S. have been working toward securing an expanded ceasefire. The Malaysian foreign minister said Trump “looks forward” to the signing of an agreement at the summit.

Trump’s next stop is Japan. Washington and Tokyo reached a trade agreement earlier this year, which included the promise of $550 billion of investments in U.S. projects.

Japan is in a moment of political transition, with Sanae Takaichi elected Tuesday to be the country’s first female prime minister.

Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party President Sanae Takaichi, right, and leader of Japan Innovation Party, or Ishin no Kai, Hirofumi Yoshimura shake hands after signing an agreement to form a coalition government in Tokyo, Monday, Oct. 20, 2025. (Kyodo News via AP)

Takaichi is a protégé of Shinzo Abe, a former prime minister who was assassinated after leaving office. Trump was close with Abe during his first term, and Green said Takaichi “has the potential to also play that role.”

Working with Trump and keeping him committed to U.S. alliances “requires a level of interaction and trust that none of the Asian leaders have,” Green said.

South Korea is Trump’s final stop on his trip

The climax of the president’s journey will likely be South Korea, which is hosting this year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. Trump has said he’ll sit down with Xi while he’s there.

Tensions have increased in recent weeks, particularly with China’s announcement of restrictions on exports of rare earth minerals. Trump threatened to retaliate with tariffs so high that he admits they would be unsustainable.

Doshi, the former Biden adviser, said there are three potential outcomes from Trump’s meeting with Xi — “deal, no deal or disaster.” He said China is emboldened after Trump backed down on an earlier tariff announcement when Beijing restricted the export of rare earth magnets.

“The Chinese feel they have President Trump’s number,” Doshi said. “They feel that if they push on this, he’ll fold.”

Trump said Monday that China has “treated us with great respect” since he’s been in office. He said “I could threaten them with many other things,” but “I want to be good to China.”

Another open question will be Trump’s trade negotiations with South Korea, which is facing U.S. tariffs that could undermine its auto industry. However, Seoul has balked at Trump’s demand for a $350 billion investment fund similar to the one in Japan.

“There’s some momentum to the talks,” said Wendy Cutler, who spent more than two decades as a U.S. trade negotiator and is now senior vice president at the Asia Society. “But I don’t want to overstate it, because there are some fundamental differences about this fund that need to be sorted out.”

She said it’s not unusual for talks to go down to the wire, but this time “there are so many balls in the air.”

Associated Press writer Josh Boak contributed to this report.