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A new study claims that songs have become less complex. But the magic of these short, sharp tunes can't be so easily distilled

I'm not weird you are!

As a Netherlands university found, female exclusion is seen as systemic - but if men have to wait their turn, it provokes angerAre radical measures a good idea to attract more women to your organisation? The technology university in the Dutch city of Eindhoven thinks so. In 2019 it decided to open all academic job vacancies exclusively to women. If, after half a year, no suitable female applicant was found, men could apply.The Netherlands lags seriously behind most EU countries when it comes to the percentage of female professors. And for a long time Eindhoven University of Technology lagged behind even other Dutch institutions. The figures were startling: 12% of full professors and 16% of associate professors were women in 2017.Renate van der Zee is a Dutch writer and journalistDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

In a video on X, the independent presidential candidate said he and his friends thought the prank in New York would be funnyIndependent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr released a bizarre video on Sunday in which he admitted that, a decade ago, he dumped a dead bear cub in New York's Central Park and staged the scene to make it look like a bicyclist had run over the animal.The video was apparently an effort to combat an upcoming New Yorker story that he predicted will be a bad story". Continue reading...

Firefighters make advances on wildfire that has burned 627 sq miles, but return of high temperatures may help it growFire crews battling California's largest wildfire this year have corralled a third of the blaze aided in part by cooler weather, but a return of triple-digit temperatures could allow it to grow, fire officials said Sunday.Cooler temperatures and increased humidity gave firefighters a great opportunity to make some good advances" on the fire in the Sierra Nevada foothills, said Chris Vestal, a spokesperson for the California department of forestry and fire protection. Continue reading...

American sprinter has been talking about this for so long, sketching out his legend in plain sight. It took 30 paces to make it realNoah Lyles always said he was a star. He told anyone who would listen, from coaches, to fellow athletes, to the population of the world via the high-rolling Netflix film Sprint. Well, now they really are going to have to believe him, as on a lovely soft powder blue night in Saint-Denis, Lyles produced one of the most startling Olympic sprint final finishes to claim the Paris 2024 men's 100m gold medal.Lyles, the US and world No 1, had been an extraordinary presence in the buildup to this race. He is almost overwhelmingly charming in the flesh, all superstar sheen and utterly disarming honesty about his own flaws, his own superhero strengths, always on, always capturing the main stage. By the time he reached the start line in Paris for the men's final - along with the women's race, the keynote of this entire two-week circus - there was a sense of a man right on the edge. But of what exactly? Continue reading...

Florida representative Byron Donalds spars with ABC host over Republicans' questioning of vice-president's heritageDonald Trump ally Byron Donalds and ABC host George Stephanopoulos sparred on Sunday over Republicans' attack line questioning Kamala Harris's racial identity.During an interview on ABC's This Week, the Republican Florida representative called the issue a phony controversy" and said I don't really care." He then proceeded to double down on the issues - which the former president brought up earlier this week at the NABJ conference - by saying: When Kamala Harris went into the United States Senate, it was AP that said she was the first Indian American United States senator ... Now she's running nationally, obviously the campaign has shifted. They're talking much more about her father's heritage and her Black identity." Continue reading...

Noah Lyles came from behind to pip Kishane Thompson by five thousandths of a second and take gold for USA in the men's 100mSome absolutely sensational shots in here that really capture all the emotion of day eight. Personally I can't go past this fantastic shot of Simone Biles, but I'd love to know what your favourites are? You can let me know via email - the link is at the top of the page.The track cycling will get underway on day 10 and hot off the presses, here is Kieran Pender's fantastic interview with Australian coach Tim Decker. From small town South Australia to the world stage, this is a truly fascinating story. Continue reading...

Supreme court justice says too much law' impairs liberties and talks about importance of an independent judiciaryUS supreme court justice Neil Gorsuch has said ordinary Americans are getting whacked" by too many laws and regulations in a new book that underscores his skepticism of federal agencies and the power they wield.Too little law and we're not safe, and our liberties aren't protected," Gorsuch told the Associated Press in an interview in his supreme court office. But too much law and you actually impair those same things."Guardian staff contributed. Continue reading...

Congressional race could head for recount as Yassamin Ansari leads Raquel Teran by 67 votes as of yesterdayThe Democratic primary in Arizona's third congressional district still remains too close to call and could be headed for a recount.Former Phoenix city council member Yassamin Ansari led former state lawmaker Raquel Teran by 67 votes with nearly 44,000 ballots counted as of Saturday evening. Continue reading...

Aide says US had tried to include Marc Fogel in prisoner swap and officials will do what they can' to bring him homeDeputy US national security adviser Jonathan Finer said Sunday that the White House worked hard to get Pennsylvania schoolteacher Marc Fogel included in the recent landmark prisoner swap involving Russia and western American allies - and though those efforts were unsuccessful, government officials continue doing what they can" to bring him home as soon as possible.Appearing on CBS News's Face The Nation, Finer declined to provide further details about Fogel's case and what his return to the US may entail. But he did assure the US is doing novel things" to ensure US nationals will not be detained in Russia - like Fogel - or elsewhere in the future. Continue reading...

Ex-president says members of United Auto Workers, which endorsed Harris, will vote for him despite Shawn FainThe United Auto Workers' decision to endorse Kamala Harris's presidential run has apparently gotten under the skin of Donald Trump, who has responded by insulting the union's leader as a stupid person".In a new interview with Fox News on Sunday, as reported by the Hill, the former president said of union chief Shawn Fain: Look, the United Auto Workers I know very well - they vote for me. They have a stupid person leading them, but they vote for me. They're going to love Donald Trump more than ever before." Continue reading...

Second child injured after bounce house went 15 to 20ft up in the air, causing children to fall before it landed on field'One child was killed and another was injured after a wind gust blew an inflatable bounce house into the air at a baseball game in Maryland on Friday night, local officials said.Local emergency personnel received a call in Waldorf, Maryland, at about 9.21pm Friday from the Regency Furniture Stadium reporting that a moon bounce house became airborne because of a wind gust while children were inside. Continue reading...

Rachel Scott's piercing interview at National Association of Black Journalists event left former president fumingABC News's senior congressional correspondent Rachel Scott has reportedly faced threats to her life after her piercing interview of Donald Trump at the National Association of Black Journalists convention left the former president fuming.The NABJ's executive director told members at a meeting on Saturday that Scott had received death threats following her work asking incisive questions of ... Trump at the group's national convention" three days earlier, Eric Deggans of National Public Radio wrote in an X post published Saturday. Continue reading...

Pennsylvania's Josh Shapiro is veepstakes frontrunner, but Andy Beshear is also considered a contenderAndy Beshear, the governor of Kentucky, canceled a planned appearance in the western part of his state on Friday with no official explanation, intensifying speculation over whether Kamala Harris might choose him as her running mate.Beshear's schedule change is far from a guarantee that Harris will select him considering that Pennsylvania's governor, Josh Shapiro, another name on the shortlist of potential running-mates, also canceled a fundraising trip planned for this weekend. Continue reading...

Most of us already have more than enough stuff. No wonder so many young people are turning their backs on the marketers and influencersI never want to own anything again," messaged my son, packing up after a year abroad. He was experiencing the self-loathing rite of passage that is confronting your acquisitive tendencies; next year, he vowed, he will live like a spartan".I know how he feels. I tell myself I don't buy much, but as I tidied for a houseguest recently, the bathroom told a different story. How many nail varnishes (I never varnish my nails), micellar waters (my face doesn't need watering) and oils promising sleep (lies) have I accumulated over the past decade, then dumped in a drawer? Most of us succumb to the unconscious - sometimes wilfully ignored - creep of stuff, only realising how grossly unnecessary it all is when forced to tackle it. Continue reading...

Judge Tanya Chutkan's ruling is first substantive order since supreme court conferred broad immunity for TrumpThe federal judge presiding over Donald Trump's election subversion case in Washington DC rejected on Saturday a defense effort to dismiss the indictment on claims that the former president was prosecuted for vindictive and political purposes.Judge Tanya Chutkan's ruling is the first substantive order since the case was returned to her Friday following a landmark US supreme court opinion in July that conferred broad immunity for former presidents and narrowed special counsel Jack Smith's case against Trump. Continue reading...

Eagle Pass residents watch as their city becomes an arena for convoys - and policies fail to address their real concernsJust a few blocks from a riverbank park in Eagle Pass that's been turned into a no-go militarized zone by Texas troops, local pastor Javier Leyva was attempting a normal Sunday.He was cultivating fellowship with congregants of his First United Methodist church and other residents downtown, on the US-Mexico border. But, as so often, events were to intrude. A fringe, rightwing group was headed to town. Continue reading...

Greg Livaudais alleges abuse by Lawrence Hecker in 1974 - and wonders why the retired priest, 92, isn't already in jailAs the retired Roman Catholic priest Lawrence Hecker awaits trial on rape and kidnapping charges in New Orleans, one of his many alleged victims wonders why Hecker isn't facing more arrests in jurisdictions across south Louisiana. For years, Greg Livaudais, 66, has seen news coverage of the church abuse scandal - and it has stirred up painful memories of sexual abuse he allegedly suffered at Hecker's hands in February 1974, when Livaudais was 16.Those triggers started in 2002, when national news about a widespread cover-up in the Boston archdiocese prompted Livaudais to file a complaint against Hecker with the archdiocese of New Orleans in April of that year, when he was 44. Continue reading...

Paris gold medalist Ryan Crouser consumes up to 6,000 calories a day and spends $1,000 a month on food. He's far from the exception among athletesAncient Greek athletes ate dried figs, moist cheese and wheat. The modern-day American who is the greatest shot putter in history sources his raw power from burritos and pizzas, measuring his success in calories as well as centimetres.Ryan Crouser is the only three-time Olympic gold medal shot putter, with his win in Paris following triumphs in Rio and Tokyo. Overcoming recent injury problems, on Saturday his best effort at a rainy Stade de France was 22.90m. Continue reading...

Led by a gen Z employee, weekly series shows skits like leaving ducks around the office to promote the businessA mysterious person leaving miniature ducks around the office. An employee who eats the food at a potluck lunch without making his own contribution. An award that goes to a worker's head. A throwback to paperwork when the computers go down. Or my favorite: a visit to another showroom in disguise" to check out the competition.It's The Dealership, a weekly TikTok series brought to you by Mohawk Chevrolet. It's filmed just like the popular TV show The Office. And it's a hit, gaining close to 6m views in just the past couple of months. Mohawk may be selling Chevrolets. But its marketing team is producing a Ferrari. Continue reading...

Far-right plan for a Republican presidency would undercut unions, strip child labor laws and boost corporate profitsDonald Trump proclaimed he was for all the forgotten men and women", in his acceptance speech at the Republican convention. His vice-presidential pick JD Vance consistently portrays himself as a pro-worker populist. But an analysis of the labor chapter of Project 2025 - an ambitious rightwing plan to guide the next Republican presidency - found it has little to offer them.Project 2025's labor section proposes hardly anything to improve workers' wages and working conditions. It is, however, chock full of recommendations that would boost corporate profits, undercut labor unions and advance the rightwing culture war. Continue reading...

Fred Trump III's portrayal of the Queens-born former president shows him as volatile, uncaring and racistAll in the Family: The Trumps and How We Got This Way is a 352-page portrait of Trumpian dysfunction. With an assist from Ellis Henican, Chris Christie's go-to co-author and a Fox News commentator, Fred Trump III delivers a well-paced and engrossing read.The author is the son of the late Fred Trump Jr and a nephew of Donald Trump. Trump III thinks his uncle is a jerk, vindictive and terrified of losing, but also someone who struggles with accepting responsibility. The buck always stops elsewhere.All in the Family: The Trumps and How We Got This Way is published in the US by Simon & Schuster Continue reading...

Mississippi's conservative government is waging a partisan war on its majority-Democratic capital cityJackson, Mississippi, knows the blues.There's the old men at sunset carting old amps through a full parking lot to the back of an otherwise nondescript bar, to deliver a fearless late-night symposium in the oldest school of blues. Continue reading...

The Ohio senator has endured gleeful jokes at his expense and scrutiny of past comments, prompting some to wonder if the former president might drop him as running mateIt all started with a tweet about a couch. Within hours of Donald Trump announcing the Ohio senator JD Vance as his running mate in the presidential race, a rather lurid accusation cropped up on social media.The user of a since-deleted X account wrote last month, can't say for sure but he might be the first vp pick to have admitted in a ny times bestseller to fucking an inside-out latex glove shoved between two couch cushions (vance, hillbilly elegy, pp. 179-181)." Continue reading...

Before attacking childless cat ladies', senator JD Vance would have done well to remember the old showbiz adage...The Ohio senator JD Vance has attacked childless cat ladies", going so far as to suggest infertile cat owners, or cat owners choosing life without children, should enjoy reduced voting rights. Donald Trump has already alienated Elvis Presley fans (Elvis didn't have 50,000 people and he had a guitar... I don't have a guitar") and the wind (I never understood wind ... I've studied it better than anybody"). Now Vance is politicising pets. The MP for Clacton, Nigel Farage, has called Vance a top man". Farage fuels violence, as we saw in the moving cocaine-and-cider vigil in Southport last week. Should Clacton cats, and Clacton cat ladies, fear the fist of Farage?Rightwingers aiming to weaponise pets should remember the old showbiz adage: Never work with animals and children." Especially if, as the American alt-right theorist Jack Psobiec suggests they should, the Republicans sign up the Trumpanzee rock star Ted Nugent. The blood sports enthusiast, and author of the song Jailbait, already has demonstrably poor history with both wildlife and the young. Continue reading...

The online version of idealised homemakers is flawed on so many levels, but that doesn't make it any less compellingThe problems with the rise of the tradwife" are dense and many, from their fascist undertones to their regressive gender politics, but the one that is most unnerving, most irritating, and most difficult to articulate, is that they make this life look so bloody delicious.Tradwives are women who live, online and sometimes in Utah, as idealised homemakers. They cook, clean, raise children, and then perform and document these tasks (tasks more often, of course, taken on by those living in poverty), gaining millions of followers and dollars along the way. Last weekend, the Sunday Times profiled Ballerina Farm, the brand name of Hannah Neeleman who is a Mormon dancer turned beauty pageant winner, homesteader, mother of eight and, with about 18m followers across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, the undisputed queen of tradwives. She's famous for baking pies, milking cows straight into her coffee cup and giving birth by candlelight before competing in the Mrs World" pageant 12 days later. Continue reading...

Kamala Harris's team think they've hit a nerve, but it's far too mild to describe their targetWeird? As contemporary insults go, it feels fairly survivable. In fact, when compared with boomer, bigot, karen, gammon and hag - key concepts in much progressive civic discourse - weird is practically, in ascribing individuality to the targeted person, a compliment. Which when applied to a tech prodigy, weird usually is.But vagueness about the exact offensiveness of weird is probably one reason this demi-slur is currently considered, by senior Democrats and a host of US commentators, to be the perfect, supremely effective response to the much cruder attacks on Kamala Harris now emanating from Donald Trump and his deputy. For years, Trump's opponents considered restraint the dignified response to his ugliest invective. Today, when Trump/Vance go low, experimenting with the impact of, for instance, she's a bum", Crazy Kamala", it is Democrat strategy smoothly to respond with, just plain weird", or variations like old and quite weird", strange and old". When Trump finally attempted an answer - They're the weird ones. Nobody's ever called me weird" - rewarding clips of his difficulty were promptly and inevitably classified as weird". Continue reading...

The ruling is the first substantive order after a landmark supreme court opinion last month that conferred broad immunity for former presidentsA federal judge presiding over the election subversion case against Donald Trump has rejected efforts from his legal team to dismiss the indictment on grounds that the former president was prosecuted for vindictive and political purposes.The ruling from US district judge Tanya Chutkan is the first substantive order since the case was returned to her on Friday, following a landmark supreme court opinion last month that conferred broad immunity for former presidents and narrowed special counsel Jack Smith's case against Trump. Continue reading...

Ex-president touched upon a range of topics from crime to immigration in his speech with mostly made-up statisticsDonald Trump addressed a fully-packed venue in downtown Atlanta on Saturday, with thousands of people waiting in the Georgia heat outside to enter, or to protest his appearance in a city he has condemned repeatedly.His remarks were consistent with the tenor and comportment of restraint and probity Atlantans are used to hearing at this point. Continue reading...

Named Debby, the storm system had maximum sustained wind speeds of 40mph and was moving toward the stateA tropical storm with near hurricane strength winds and life threatening storm surges is expected to crash into Florida's Big Bend area on the northern Gulf coast shoreline by Monday morning, the National Hurricane Center said.As of 5pm ET on Saturday, the storm, named Debby, had maximum sustained wind speeds of 40mph and was moving off the coast of Havana, Cuba, and towards Florida. The National Hurricane Center has designated Debby with an advisory 6. Continue reading...

St Lucia's Julien Alfred roared to a historic women's 100m gold, Simone Biles triumphed on the vault and Remco Evenepoel won the road raceFrance's male footballers are following suit and yesterday Thierry Henry's side reached the semi-finals at Argentina's expense in a bitter grudge match that spilled into violence at full-time.The song sung by several of Argentina's Copa America-winning side last month, singling out France's players of African heritage, sparked an international incident and justifiable hurt throughout a country whose diversity is a superpower. Its footballers knew the importance of defending their homeland, its predominant values and, not least, themselves.Afterwards Millot, who will be suspended for the semi-final against Egypt, said the game's grim context had given us a pep". France certainly began like a train and so did their support, who whistled through Argentina's national anthem and booed when the visitors' names were recited.He is France's most popular sports star, a smiling powerhouse known as the nation's teddy bear, who for years aced judo contests to crowds' shouts of Teddy Bam Bam!" in honour of his ability to swiftly throw and pin his opponents to the ground.All hopes were fulfilled when Teddy Riner displayed his ice-cold tactical calm and spectacular physical might in his home city of Paris on Friday - making history by taking his third Olympic individual gold medal in the +100kg category. Continue reading...

Ricky Alderete sentenced for three offenses before Kansas unveiling of new statue of baseball and civil rights pioneerA man who stole a bronze statue of Jackie Robinson that was cut off at the ankles and found days later on fire in a trash can in a Kansas park will spend about 15 years in prison, though most of that sentence is related to a burglary a few days after the January statue heist.A judge sentenced Ricky Alderete on Friday in three different cases he said in court stemmed from his addiction to fentanyl. Continue reading...

Doug Emhoff and Chasten Buttigieg's success spurred talk about transportation secretary's veepstakes chancesWhile Kamala Harris cleared her campaign diary this weekend to finalize her choice of running mate ahead of a swing-state presidential campaign blitz next week, political spouses were hard at work.The vice-president's husband, Doug Emhoff, and Chasten Buttigieg, husband of the US transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg - a potential running mate for Harris at the top of November's Democratic ticket whose candidacy has been strengthening in recent days - were on New York's Fire Island on Friday for a sold-out event that raised $321,000. Continue reading...

Rapper and Martha Stewart don uniforms and helmets to watch horses that dance' as Germany win team prizeSnoop Dogg made more headlines at the Paris Olympic Games on Saturday, attending the dressage competition in costume and in the company of Martha Stewart, despite confessing to being afraid of horses.The rapper, 52 and born Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr, is working for NBC at the Games, as he did during the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Continue reading...

Ex-president says he will only debate on Republican-friendly channel on 4 September, while Harris demands he stick to original networkDonald Trump says he would be willing to debate Kamala Harris on the friendly environs of Fox News in September - but the vice-president has not signed on to what would be a switch-up.Trump had previously agreed to appear on ABC News and debate Joe Biden a second time this year before the president ended his re-election campaign. Continue reading...

Two suspects were killed and a third was injured when police stormed the house to rescue a deputy trapped insideA Florida sheriff's deputy was killed and two other deputies were wounded while attempting to reach the first officer in what police called an ambush shooting inside a home.The three deputies were shot at a house in Eustis, Florida, on Friday night, Peyton Grinnell, the Lake county sheriff, said during a news conference at the scene. Continue reading...

American forced to quit in Japan progresses in Paris but says he is damaged goods in the eyes of every brand'The American pole vaulter Sam Kendricks said he was still broken" from the positive Covid-19 test that shattered his Olympic dreams in Tokyo three years ago, as he aims to write a new story at the Paris Games.The Olympics screwed me," he said. Continue reading...

Former president, in hospice care since last year, will turn 100 two weeks before the November electionNearing his 100th birthday and in hospice care since February 2023, the former president Jimmy Carter reportedly has one goal: voting for Kamala Harris against Donald Trump.I'm only trying to make it to vote for Kamala Harris," Carter told his son Chip this week, as his grandson Jason Carter recounted to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Continue reading...

American great edges compatriot Conner Prince to become just sixth individual athlete to win same event four timesThe American Vincent Hancock won his fourth Olympic shooting gold in men's skeet on Saturday, edging out his younger compatriot Conner Prince, who settled for silver on his Games debut. Lee Meng Yuan of Thailand took bronze.Hancock, 35, is only the sixth athlete to win the same Olympic individual event four times. He won gold in Beijing (2008), London (2012), Tokyo (2020) and Paris. He missed out in Rio in 2016, finishing just 15th. Continue reading...

Find out who is leading the way at the Olympics, and drill down to see which events each country has won medals forFollow all the latest action live | Support the GuardianAs is traditional, the table prioritises the number of gold medals won. On this basis at the 2020 Olympics, held in Tokyo in 2021, the United States led the field with 39 golds, with China second on 38 and Japan third with 27. If countries have the same number of gold medals, the order is then dictated by which has the most silvers, and finally bronze if the numbers are still identical. Continue reading...