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Two Gilbert police officers saw possible signs of life multiple times, but the child was still taken to the hospital’s “cold room” after being treated by staff, according to the documents.

“Please do your thing and let me do my thing,” Dr Aryan Toosi told an officer at one point, according to the report. “I went to medical school for a reason.”

First responders were dispatched to the home at about 5.30pm on 8 February in response to a reported drowning. They performed life-saving measures on the child before taking him to a hospital where the boy was pronounced dead about an hour later.

About five hours later, police were notified that the child was indeed breathing, and he was flown to another hospital. The boy ultimately survived and has been released.

Gilbert police are recommending negligence charges against the parents. Investigators said there was a strong odor of marijuana at the home and open doors that could have allowed unsupervised access to the pool. The Maricopa county attorney’s office said it was reviewing the case and declined further comment on Monday.

In 911 calls, two relatives frantically reported that the child had been pulled from the pool as people at the scene could be heard shrieking. One caller reported the toddler was unconscious.

Mercy Gilbert medical center, where the 18-month-old was taken, said in a statement that the hospital conducted “a thorough review of all aspects of the care provided to learn what happened and to make meaningful changes to strengthen our care”.

The hospital called it “a heartbreaking situation” and declined to release further details.

When a team from the local medical examiner’s office arrived in the so-called cold room, they found the boy breathing and rushed him to another hospital, police said.

Scott Holden, an attorney for Toosi, told the AP that he wouldn’t make a full statement on behalf of the doctor “other than to assure you that there is much more to this case, both factually and medically, than has been reported thus far”.

A GoFundMe page, which was created in February to help the boy’s family with medical bills, said the toddler would need extensive therapy.

“Thank you for your prayers, your kindness, and your support for baby Vincent – our miracle fighter,” the page says.

An ABC affiliate in Phoenix, KNXV-TV, was the first to report the story. %!s()

Workers were expected to begin stabilizing the building on Tuesday evening. According to New York mayor Zohran Mamdani’s office, a team went through each floor and did not detect any additional movement of the support columns, allowing the on-site contractors to begin the emergency repair work.

The temporary measures are meant to stabilize the building and are expected to stretch into the coming days, impacting a busy corridor of Midtown near the famed Grand Central Terminal, which is a hub for metro area commuters and residents as well as tourists.

Officials said they received reports of a “structural issue at an active construction site” on East 42nd Street, between Second and Third avenues, before 8am.

The fire department also posted a photo of a dramatically bent beam on its X account.

“It’s a very serious situation because the box beams – the steel beams – have started to bend and deflect from the weight,” said John Esposito, the fire department chief. “We evacuated the building and started evacuations of surrounding buildings.”

Fire department drones have been deployed to provide “technical information and visuals” while officials continue assessing the building.

Authorities said efforts to stabilize the site will extend “into the night”, ABC 7 reported.

“The building remains unstable,” Mamdani said on Tuesday afternoon, according to ABC 7. “This is an extremely serious situation.”

Esposito, the fire chief, said at a press conference that if the building fell, such a collapse would “not be a total collapse, it would be more of a localized collapse”, per ABC 7. He said it was because this building was made of steel, NBC News reported.

People who work nearby are unsure when they will be able to return to their offices, with estimates ranging from several days to two weeks, CNN said.

MetroLoft, which is one of the two companies helming the construction, thanked city officials for their “quick response”.

“The safety of everyone at and surrounding the building is our number one priority,” MetroLoft said in a statement, according to Pix 11. “We’re thankful there were no injuries, and as the DOB clarified, no debris fell from the building. We want to confirm that the affected area is a small section of one of the two buildings on this site. As the FDNY spokesperson noted, the entire building itself is not at risk of collapse.”

The Associated Press contributed reporting %!s()

In the study, researchers provide evidence of a structural paradox: When social networks concentrate around a small number of well-connected community members, focusing on those individuals alone does not effectively influence others' behavior. The paper is published in the journal American Sociological Review.

"People look to leaders to spread change. But we show that change is not dependent on leaders alone, it also depends on the structure of the social circles around them," said Yuan Hsiao, assistant professor of sociology and statistics and data science (secondary) in Yale's Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the study's lead author. "It matters how people connected to leaders connect to each other. When network ties are concentrated around a few well-connected leaders, it undermines the leaders' ability to effect large-scale change in behaviors, especially those behaviors that require social reinforcement from many people."

Since individuals in these factions are so drawn to leaders, there is little interconnection among them, he added.

"These social barriers restrict the diffusion of new information and behaviors," he said. "In contrast, we find that behaviors spread better if ties in the network structure are less concentrated around highly connected actors."

Nicholas Christakis, Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science in Yale's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, is the study's co-author.

The study has three parts. In the first, the researchers revisited a classic 1999 study that showed that focusing on well-connected people in a network influences behavior more effectively than targeting random individuals. But this time, the researchers adjusted the network structure on which that study rested, which generated different outcomes. Specifically, they showed that the more network ties are concentrated around a few individuals, the less new behaviors spread across the whole network.

For the second component, the researchers analyzed empirical data from a 2015 study, which used a randomized trial to test how to enhance adoption of two public health interventions in rural villages in Honduras. (One urged people to use chlorine to purify their drinking water, and the other encouraged them to take multivitamins to treat nutrient deficiencies.)

For each intervention, the authors of the 2015 study examined the effectiveness of targeting well-connected individuals versus random targeting in nine villages. In an analysis, Hsiao and Christakis found that the data from that study support the hypothesis that when social ties are concentrated around a few individuals, adoption of the new behaviors across the networks decreases.

For the third component of the new study, the researchers used computer simulations to explore why the paradox occurs. This revealed that when the social circles of highly connected people are not connected to each other, it reduces reinforcement of new behaviors throughout the social network.

"This work has a range of real-world applications," said Hsiao, who is also a faculty affiliate at Yale's Institution for Social and Policy Studies. "It can affect how companies market their products, how nonprofit organizations strategize advocacy campaigns, or how public officials initiate policy interventions.

"In short, efforts to change behaviors should look beyond simply targeting leaders to consider the structure of the social circles around the leader, which ultimately determines their influence."

Publication details

Yuan Hsiao et al, The Influence "Paradox": When More Network Ties Lead to Less Change, American Sociological Review (2026). DOI: 10.1177/00031224261438845

Who's behind this story?

Stephanie Baum

Master's in TESOL from The New School. Passionate about language learning and editing science news on biology and space exploration. Full profile →

Andrew Zinin

Master's in physics with research experience. Long-time science news enthusiast. Plays key role in Science X's editorial success. Full profile →

Citation: Weak connection: Why influencers sometimes fail to influence (2026, July 7) retrieved 14 July 2026 from https://phys.org/news/2026-07-weak.html

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When Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce tied the knot at Madison Square Garden on July 3, 2026, the guest list read like a who’s who of, well, everything in the world. From athletes to actors, dignitaries to divas, it was a celebrity-filled smorgasbord. Among the attendees were a handful of country music stars who made the trek from Nashville (and beyond) to celebrate their genre’s onetime princess — who may be making a return to her roots. Rumor has it her next album will follow in the footsteps of her Toy Story single, “I Knew It, I Knew You,” which has a decidedly country slant.

So was Swift just pandering to the twangy side of the spectrum with those invites, to reingratiate herself to Nashville? To learn the answer, we must turn to the history books. Here’s what ties some of Nashville’s most notable names from Taylor and Travis’ RSVP list to the happy couple. 

Confirmed Attendees

Maren Morris
The “My Church” singer made her entrée into the Swiftie-verse in 2018 when she joined Taylor onstage to perform her own hit, “The Middle,” during the Arlington, Texas, stop of The Reputation Stadium Tour. Later, Morris would appear as a feature on “You All Over Me,” one of the unreleased vault tracks on Fearless (Taylor’s Version) in 2021.

Kelsea Ballerini
Country crossover star Ballerini has never made a secret of her Swiftie fandom. In early interviews, the singer and The Voice coach credited Swift as one of her biggest influences. When the superstar posted on social media that she was listening to Ballerini’s 2015 debut album, The First Time,shortly after its release, the “Peter Pan” singer replied, “You are one of the main reasons I started writing songs and being fearless (ay?) enough to do this. That just made my year.” Ballerini would later make an appearance onstage with Swift at the Nashville stop of her 1989 World Tour.

Little Big Town
All four members of the award-winning country group (Karen Fairchild, Kimberly Schlapman, Phillip Sweet, and Jimi Westbrook) were in attendance at the Madison Square nuptials and for good reason. Swift wrote one of the band’s most awarded songs, the 2016 release “Better Man.” Originally written for her own 2012 album Red, Taylor pitched the song to LBT (her first time taking one of her songs to another artist) for their 2017 album The Breaker. It became a Number One hit across both the Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts, won Song of the Year at the 51st Annual Country Music Association Awards in 2017, received the award for Best Country Duo/Group Performance at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards in 2018, and earned Swift a nomination for Best Country Song that same night. In 2021, Swift released the song as a vault track on Red (Taylor’s Version).

Editor’s picks

Kristian Bush and Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland 
One of country music’s most beloved duos, Sugarland made a splash (as a then-trio) with their 2002 hit “Baby Girl.” It was around that time that Swift became a fan. According to Nettles in a 2018 Billboard interview, “When she was first getting started we had just had our first little EP out, called Premium Quality Tunes. She still has a copy of it that we signed for her whenever we played a couple of shows together.” In 2018, Sugarand released their sixth studio album, Bigger, with the Swift-penned track “Babe” (co-written with Train’s Pat Monahan in 2012) as the second single, complete with a music video featuring the superstar. (The song marked the first time Bush and Nettles had released a song written by someone else.) In 2021, Swift included her own performance of “Babe” as a vault track on Red (Taylor’s Version). Like Morris, Sugarland joined Swift onstage in Arlington during the Reputation Stadium Tour in 2018.

Brad Paisley 
Paisley and his wife, actress Kimberly Williams-Paisley, posted several photos ahead of the Madison Square Garden party, including one with celeb pals Seth Meyers and his wife, human rights attorney Alexi Ashe. In 2008, Paisley asked Swift to join his Bonfires & Amplifiers Tour as one of three opening acts. Still unknown to many (her debut single “Tim McGraw” came out in June of 2006), Swift performed a short opening set, which occasionally included Sugarland’s “Baby Girl,” and kicked off with Eminem’s “Lose Yourself.” (It was a different time.) She also made a cameo in the music video for Paisley’s 2007 hit “Online.” The two remained friendly over the years, and the day before Swift’s wedding, Paisley and Williams-Paisley posted a video to Instagram thanking Swift and Kelce for their $2 million donation to the Store, the couple’s Nashville nonprofit with a mission to “nourish communities and cultivate hope by providing nutritious food choices and access to supportive services in a dignified, loving environment.” 

Related Content

Miranda Lambert
The “Crisco” singer and her husband, [former] hot cop Brendan McLoughlin, joined their Nashville pals on the party bus to MSG. And while we haven’t seen much interaction between Lambert and Swift over the years, we do know that the two singers came up in Nashville around the same time, with Lambert dropping her first album Kerosene in 2005, just a year before Taylor made her own debut. In 2015, Swift brought Lambert onstage with her during a Greensboro, North Carolina, stop of the 1989 World Tour to perform her hit song “Little Red Wagon.” While seemingly the least connected to Swift, Lambert provided the world with a lot of pre-wedding content, sharing a series of behind-the-scenes shots of Morris, Ballerini, Bush, and Little Big Town on Instagram. 

Joe Don Rooney
At least one-third of Rascal Flatts was in attendance for the Tayvis nuptials: Lead guitarist Joe Don Rooney posted a photo of himself with girlfriend Jenny Hecht (in addition to a limo selfie) prior to the event. Rascal Flatts were the first big act to extend a tour-opening spot to Swift … but only after their first choice, Eric Church, was fired for playing past his allotted timeframe. In 2006, Swift joined the Me and My Gang tour, with Church later sharing that she called him to make sure the two had no, ahem, bad blood. Church assured Swift that he wasn’t upset with her, but told her that she owed him a copy of her first gold record when she made it big. Seven days later, Swift reached the milestone and a few weeks later she surprised the “Springsteen” singer with a copy on his bus. Oh, and Church’s last show with the Flatts? Well, that took place at Madison Square Garden, of course. 

The Chicks
Natalie Maines, Martie Maguire, and Emily Strayer, a.k.a. the Chicks, were all in attendance for the wedding festivities. The trio posted photos in their finery with captions including, “we woke up like this” and “What?!” Their appearance was not a surprise to longtime Swift fans, who recall that the group was one of her earliest inspirations. The singer has not only said that the Chicks’ 1999 smash “Cowboy Take Me Away” was the first song she learned to play on guitar, but she also told Billboard that the band’s honesty and activism paved the way for her. “Early in my life, these three women showed me that female artists can play their own instruments while also putting on a flamboyant spectacle of a live show,” Swift said in a 2020 interview with the magazine. “They taught me that creativity, eccentricity, unapologetic boldness, and kitsch can all go together authentically. Most importantly, they showed an entire generation of girls that female rage can be a bonding experience between us all the very second we first heard Natalie Maines bellow ‘that Earl had to DIE.’” Inspired and empowered, Swift would go on to collab with the Chicks multiple times. In 2015, she invited Maines onstage during the Los Angeles stop of the 1989 World Tour to perform “Goodbye Earl”, and in 2019 the Chicks appeared on the Lover song “Soon You’ll Get Better,” an emotional ode to Swift’s mother Andrea, who was undergoing a cancer battle. 

Rumored Guests

Kenny Chesney
Eagle-eyed Swifties noticed that Chesney cancelled his early July shows in April, possibly hinting that the “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy” singer had somewhere else to be. An appearance at Taylor’s wedding would make sense: In 2007, she was slated to open for Chesney on his Flip FlopTour, but the beer company that was sponsoring the tour told Chesney that he couldn’t have a minor on the bill. Chesney called Swift personally to break the news and sent her a check to cover her losses. Swift later told Time: “It was for more money than I’d ever seen in my life. I was able to pay my band bonuses. I was able to pay for my tour buses. I was able to fuel my dreams.” 

Trending Stories

Tim McGraw
Taylor’s relationship with the “Live Like You Were Dying” singer goes far beyond her debut single’s title (“Tim McGraw”). In fact, young Swift impressed her muse so much that he invited her to be an opening act on the Soul2Soul Tour, on which he shared top billing with his wife, Faith Hill. The couple mentored young Taylor for years, and she often collaborated with them. McGraw included her as a feature on his hit “Highway Don’t Care” along with Keith Urban, and Swift invited McGraw (and Hill) to join her onstage many times throughout the years. So it’s not a surprise that McGraw was rumored to have performed at the wedding, along with iconic names like Paul McCartney and Stevie Nicks. Not to mention, June was the 20-year anniversary of the release of “Tim McGraw.”

Eric Church 
While there have been no reported sightings of the Chief at MSG, Swifties are speculating that Church was indeed in attendance at the wedding. Given his history with the star (see above) and his continued support of her career, we wouldn’t be surprised to learn if he’d been there, Ray-Bans and all. %!s()

She says the station lit up before everything went dark. "In front of us there were injured people, blood, burnt cars, and smashed cars."

We have withheld the student's real name for her safety in a city that is the latest flash-point in the three-year war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Sarah told the BBC by phone that she was fortunate to survive the attack, but had sustained injuries.

"I got shrapnel in my leg and hand because I was outside the car when the second missile struck."

Currently under army control, el-Obeid - the capital of North Kordofan state with a population of around 500,000 - has one of the largest military bases in central Sudan.

But the army has been unable to repel the drone strikes, with 27 hitting the city in June, the highest monthly total since the conflict began, according to violence monitoring group Acled.

UN human rights chief Volker Turk said at least 45 people were killed and 41 injured in 15 drone strikes between 6 and 28 June.

He added that the city has been under siege-like conditions for 18 months, with summary executions, abductions, torture and sexual violence taking place along routes used by people fleeing the conflict.

"The signs from el-Obeid are clear and unmistakable: Another human rights catastrophe is unfolding in Sudan," Turk said last week in an address to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Nathaniel Raymond, the executive director of US-based Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab, told the BBC that el-Obeid was strategically significant for the warring sides, lying between the RSF-controlled west of the country, with the east mostly in the hands of the army.

"If you control el-Obeid, you control the road to the capital, Khartoum and [its twin city] Omdurman, and so the army has to defend el-Obeid," he said.

A doctor at a hospital in the city told the BBC they were struggling to cope with the influx of casualties.

"We receive injured patients after almost every drone attack. Most of the injuries involve limbs while some patients suffer from head injuries," she said.

One of the most distressing cases the doctor has treated was a seven-month old baby.

"Her hand had to be amputated because of the severity of the injury, but sadly she did not survive.

"The situation is frightening. You leave your house as if you will never return," the doctor said, trying to hold back tears. "We are really suffering from the drones - no-one knows how and when they will die."

Amnesty International secretary-general Agnès Callamard has warned that al-Obeid could face violence on a scale similar to that seen in el-Fasher when the RSF captured it after laying siege to it, also for 18 months.

"What happened in el-Fasher is not an oddity. It is not a moment of madness. It is a playbook," she said.

The UN said early last year that the conflict in el-Fasher bore the "hallmarks of genocide," with more than 6,000 people killed in just three days, with the mostly Arab RSF fighters accused of slaughtering non-Arab groups.

The RSF has repeatedly denied these accusations. In a statement responding to warnings of an impending massacre in el-Obeid, the paramilitary group said it would "work diligently" to ensure the full protection of the city's residents, and that it was operating in full compliance with international law.

Raymond said satellite imagery showed that at least eight fuel stations had suffered damage consistent with bombardment between late May and late June.

As a result, fuel is starting to run short in the city leading to huge price rises.

El-Obeid's main electrical substation, as well as residential neighbourhoods and markets, also came under attack in an apparent attempt to cripple daily life, he added.

"Without fuel and electricity, the water pumps in the city will stop working and civilians, including internally displaced people, will start drinking water that could be contaminated and cause waterborne disease," Raymond told the BBC.

El-Obeid's population includes about 100,000 people who have fled violence in other other areas, hoping the city would be safe.

Raymond said that in a single month, about 700 temporary structures had been built in camps for displaced people around el-Obeid.

Among those who moved to the city is a humanitarian worker whom we have named Ahmed.

He first fled Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan, then Khartoum, and now fears he will have to leave el-Obeid as drone strikes intensify.

"People are always in shock and fear. They are unable to sleep," he told the BBC.

"Many of us sleep outside because of the heat. When the drones are flying overhead, making that noise, every night becomes a sleepless night."

Sarah said many people were scared to step out of their homes.

"People now leave their homes saying goodbye to their families because they don't know if they will return or not." %!s()