In an explosive interview with Oprah, former Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle inspired millions of young girls around the world with the very important message that no matter how rich, famous, and powerful they are, they will always be oppressed.

"Oppression is inescapable," said Markle, who is married to a prince and worth approximately $50 million. "If you are a woman -- especially a woman of color, oppression will follow you all the days of your life and you will never really be happy."

Young girls around the world stood up and cheered at the inspiring message, many of them feeling hope for the first time.

"Thanks to Meghan Markle, I feel like I too can grow up to be a famous, rich, beautiful oppressed person," said Mikayla White, a 5th-grade girl from Southern California. "It's so encouraging to be reminded that I can grow up to be in the top 1% while never losing my resentment and high sensitivity to microaggressions."

Markle has promised to continue taking her message of hope to girls everywhere until no one is happy or thankful anymore.

"It's my true calling," she said.

Things have changed quite a bit in the world of Dr. Seuss, as six of his works have been pulled from publication, banned from sale on eBay, and eliminated from people's minds using lobotomies to help fight the threat of racism. To get with the times, though, a new Dr. Seuss book has been released, called The Cat in the Hat (He/Him).

"In this new book, using reworked art from Dr. Seuss," said a letter from Dr. Seuss's estate, "the Cat in the Hat once again finds the two children home alone and bored. This time he diagnoses their malaise as gender dysphoria and proceeds to give the children puberty blockers."

An excerpt from the book reads:

"I have some new drugs,"
said the cat in the hat.
"A lot of good drugs!
I'll inject them in you.
Your mother will not mind at all if I do."

The children learn a lesson in intolerance, too, as their goldfish ignorantly tries to stop them from taking the drugs, warning them of permanent side effects. The goldfish is then killed and flushed down a toilet.

Numerous drag queens will be deployed to libraries across the country to perform free readings of the book to children.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congressional Republicans struck a deal today, declaring that Democrats will get everything they want, but Mr. Potato Head will stay a male.

The deal means that Democrats' entire radical leftist agenda will proceed as planned, as long as the Hasbro toy is canonically male.

"This is a major victory for conservatives," said Mitch McConnell over the deal that will give Democrats $2 trillion in spending to do whatever they want with, major changes to our national electoral process that will seal Democrats' majority forever, and the Equality Act that will erase women from existence. But, as McConnell was quick to point out, Mr. Potato Head is now biologically male forever.

There's a light at the end of the tunnel for the pandemic as vaccine distribution continues to increase, and soon the whole ordeal will be over. While most people are celebrating this development, it has filled others with worry -- especially those who have taken it upon themselves to yell at people who aren't wearing masks. They have a sinking feeling they're never going to feel important ever again.

"I've never felt so alive as when I've gotten in people's faces, saying, 'Where's your mask?! Where's your mask?!'" said Karen Hughes. "I'm basically stopping murderers. And, let's face it, with my lack of skills and annoying personality, this is the highlight of my life."

"This has given me purpose and meaning," agreed Karen Boyd. "Usually, I'm looked at as some sort of witch when I scream at kids, but now I have a reason backed by the CDC. I'm a hero. But when the pandemic is over, I'll go back to being a crazy lady."

"I don't think I have the ability to do anything else," said Bob "Karen" Shelton. "What else can I yell at people about? 'Wear sunscreen?!' I dunno. And I was just getting so good at mask policing. I was yelling at people for only wearing one mask. 'Why don't you have two?!' I'd shout. But those days are ending."

The mask-yellers do have some hope that masks will become a habit during flu season, which at least gives them an annual reason to harass random passersby.

This year's Ocean Art Underwater Photo Competition managed to produce some amazing underwater photos that showcase the perseverance of underwater artistry amidst the adversity of the times.

Two winning photos told particularly compelling stories. The Best of Show by Gaetano Dario Gargiulo is a once-in-a-life-time moment where a curious octopus took a selfie of itself with the photographer's family.

"On the day of the photo, I remained in the tide pool as the tide was too low to venture outside of its boundaries. In one of the shallowest parts of the pool I noticed an octopus. I placed my camera near its den and the octopus started interacting with it. It came completely out of the den and to our amazement it started shooting pictures! My son (3 y.o. in the background) was very curious about the octopus." — Gaetano Dario Gargiulo

Jill Studholme edits SCUBA News (ISSN 1476-8011), the monthly newsletter with articles on diving and marine science. She tweets as @SCUBANews. A scuba diver with a biology degree, Jill has an special intererest in marine biology, coral reef conservation and the underwater environment.

Activists are fighting racism by demanding that people of color be removed from all media, brands, logos, mascots, and anywhere else they might pop up.

"Anywhere we see a person of color, we see racism. So we must end racism by making sure people of color are not depicted anywhere," said white liberal activist Petunia Faucett. "We will not rest until all pop culture icons of color are eliminated. Then, racism will be over."

Activists across the country cheered as another pop culture icon of color was removed this morning. "We worked hard to achieve this goal, and the day is finally here," Faucett said. "But our work is not done. We must be vigilant to hunt down people of color on butter tubs, syrup bottles, cartoons, and bags of rice, and take them out of the public consciousness."

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's political career is in freefall after new allegations of sexual misconduct from several women. In a desperate attempt to divert attention from the embarrassing sex scandal, Cuomo took to the airwaves today to remind everyone of the time he killed a bunch of seniors in nursing homes.

"Listen people-- I know there are some accusations against me out there, but can we focus on the real issues?" said Cuomo to a roomful of reporters who had recently received a memo telling them it was time to stop protecting the governor.

Governor Greg Abbott of Texas has just lifted the mask mandate and is allowing business to return to 100% capacity. The Governor explains that in these trying times, extreme measures must be taken to stop the spread of Californians into Texas and to scare them off from ever wanting to return.

"The last thing we need is a bunch of sissies from California moving to our beautiful state of Texas and screwing everything up and turning the state blue!" said Governor Abbott during a Lubbock Chamber of Commerce event. "Too many Californians have entered our state. Too many ridiculous liberal ideas have already been proposed. This must end. It's time to open Texas 100%."

Governor Abbott continued, "We believe that by removing the mask requirement that all of the Californians will flee in terror, restoring our state to its former glory. As soon as they see the joy and hear the laughter of our citizens returning to normal life, they'll be sure to pack up and leave at once."

The Governor has strategically placed "No Masks Required" stickers on all Texas state signs warning all who enter of what lies beyond. He has expressed hope that this will send any namby-pamby who reads it back around to where they came from. "We tried buying and carrying more guns around, but somehow that didn't work. Then we tried driving around in big, lifted, gas-guzzling trucks, but they still kept coming. But now by removing our masks for good Texas can finally start to heal."

After seeing immediate results by reversing the mask mandate, Governor Abbott has been looking for more ways to scare off the cry-baby cowards. He has now removed all social distancing guidelines and even encouraged citizens to stop washing their hands.

In a move that puts into ink what most Americans have known for decades now, Governor Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday that the State of California has voted to officially secede from reality.

"This is just a formality, really. We've been in our own little world for some time now, as everybody knows," he said at an afternoon press conference announcing the decision. "I mean, we're fighting to jail restaurant workers who give customers plastic straws, for crying out loud! Hahahaahahoooo boy!"

"In any event, let it be known henceforth that the State of California categorically renounces all ties to so-called 'reality,' and will continue governing our people without any regard for objective facts, morality, or sanity."

At publishing time, rumors were swirling of a new motion to rename California "La La Land."

During an intense round of questioning from senators on Capitol Hill, Assistant HHS Secretary Nominee Rachel Levine refused to answer Rand Paul's intense line of questioning as to whether young children should be allowed to stick a knife in a toaster while it's plugged in.

"Listen, it's a simple question," said Senator Paul. "Should we, or should we not allow 3-year-old kids to electrocute themselves by sticking a giant knife into a plugged-in toaster?"

"That is a very interesting question about a complicated issue," answered Levine.