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World No 1s Alcaraz and Swiatek are following in Djokovic's slick footsteps and taking sliding to the US Open and beyondAs the delirious battle between Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic moved closer towards its climax in Cincinnati last Sunday, Alcaraz desperately tried to hold on. Down a championship point at 3-5 in the third set, the 20-year-old pulled off a stroke of genius to stay alive. He dragged Djokovic to the net with a slick drop shot, then he rapidly chased down the Serb's own delicate drop shot before steering a forehand past him at the net. Djokovic described the point as unbelievable".The court coverage exhibited by the pair time and time again was just as significant as the breathless shotmaking that preceded it. The final four shots of that point, and so many others that night, were soundtracked by the burning of rubber beneath their feet as they slid to the ball, stopped and immediately changed direction with startling efficiency. Continue reading...

You don't have to be a big drinker to be worried by the declining number of bars in the republic. Luckily, we've still got six in our townA question for the times: is there anywhere in the world where you can't get a pint of Guinness in a joint draped with green, white and orange tricolours and belting out the hits of Christy Moore? Such desolate places must exist but they appear to be vanishingly rare.If the Irish pub is one of the country's most successful exports, there's worrying news about its fortunes at home. Since 2005, nearly 2,000 pubs have closed, and since 2019 - a period of lockdown and sharply rising costs - more than 450 have called time for good. Unsurprisingly, the perennially populous Dublin has been affected less than smaller towns and rural areas. Continue reading...

The sprint champion with three golds in Budapest believes more professional marketing could raise the sport's profileNoah Lyles is one of the most compelling figures in sport right now, and don't the suits at Netflix know it. Their cameras and boom mics have followed the US sprinter around like an eager puppy at these World Athletics Championships, watching his prophecies become realities and capturing every moment of Lyles' extraordinary three gold medals in Budapest.The closest thing to Usain Bolt's successor? Most people in track and field would say so. And next year, when Netflix's new show is broadcast before the Paris Olympics, the rest of the world will believe so too. They weren't talking about me at the beginning," Lyles jokes, when asked about the streaming service's intense interest in him. But as soon as I won in Paris in June they got buddy-buddy with me really quick." Continue reading...

The early morning is a part of the day few things can interrupt - and a period of quiet for making big decisions or having time to yourselfThe quibble between early birds and night owls is a long fought battle. Some say those who stay up late are at greater risk of death, while morning people are often teased for claiming they can wake up naturally at 6am.But being up when most people are asleep is like having a secret garden that you can visit each day. Continue reading...

Television personality had iconic career spanning 50 years in which he garnered 19 Daytime Emmy awardsBob Barker, the longtime television host of The Price Is Right, has died at the age of 99.It is with profound sadness that we announce that the World's Greatest MC who ever lived, Bob Barker, has left us," Barker's publicist Roger Neal said in a statement. Continue reading...

Hawaiian Electric Co wires were seen uncovered as company's own documents call its wooden poles a serious public hazard'In the first moments of the Maui fires, when high winds brought down power poles, slapping electrified wires to the dry grass below, there was a reason the flames erupted all at once in long, neat rows - those wires were bare, uninsulated metal that could spark on contact.Videos and images analyzed by the Associated Press confirmed those wires were among miles of line that Hawaiian Electric Co left naked to the weather and often-thick foliage, despite a recent push by utilities in other wildfire- and hurricane-prone areas to cover up their lines or bury them. Continue reading...

TV viewers adore dating shows. But their appeal is more complicated than it seems at first sightI'm partial to a television dating show but is it all getting out of hand? The routine proliferation of different formats is turning into a veritable infestation of the schedules. Soon, we won't be able to move for pushy, pouting desperadoes trying to find love or the best camera-hogging storyline" - whichever comes first and makes the heart beat faster. Beyond that, could it be true that the dating TV tsunami has a real-world effect on how ordinary British people romantically relate to each other?The Love Island franchise has a well documented dark side: not least the suicides of people connected to the show (presenter Caroline Flack and contestants Sophie Gradon and Mike Thalassitis). Still, generally, dating TV appears to be experiencing a gold rush featuring myriad shows. Love Is Blind (people bond unseen in pods). The Ultimatum (put bluntly: marry me or do one). Married at First Sight (the clue is in the title). Temptation Island (couples are tested"), Naked Attraction (starkers and ready for love), Sexy Beasts (icky flirting in bizarre masks), The Love Trap (evictees sent crashing through trap doors). And many more. This excludes formats I've decided are too lowbrow/depraved even for me - shows, usually with hot" in the titles, that make you want to weep for the human race while simultaneously spooning out your own eyeballs. Continue reading...

Republican candidate and biotech entrepreneur names Twitter CEO when asked about potential advisers should he win electionThe Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has said that he wants Elon Musk as an adviser if he becomes president.The billionaire biotech entrepreneur was in Newton, Iowa, campaigning at a town hall on Friday when he was asked about whom he would want as advisers for his potential presidency. Continue reading...

Joshua Davidson given sentence of 12 and a half years for attack while on duty as a Dallas county deputy sheriffA former Alabama deputy sheriff has been sentenced to 12 and a half years in prison for sexually assaulting a woman in his custody.On 30 January 2020, while on duty as a Dallas county deputy sheriff, 33-year-old Joshua Davidson placed a woman in custody following a traffic stop. He drove her down a dark road to a desolate location where he forced her to perform oral sex on him against her will, the justice department said in a statement. Continue reading...

Gunfire occurred during J'ouvert parade on Saturday morning and several arrests were made, police sayAt least seven people have been injured in a shooting during a Caribbean parade in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood, police said on Saturday.The victims were taken to local hospitals with non-life threatening injuries and several arrests were made and firearms recovered, according to Boston police Sgt Det John Boyle. Continue reading...

George Washington, Franklin D Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, eat your heart out Continue reading...

Two women say they were concerned for safety during encounters with Rex Heuermann as investigators seek more informationAs investigators continue to build their case against the accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann, two Long Island sex workers have described the suspect as violent" and aggressive" during encounters they had with him.The two women, who have not been identified, told members of an anti-human trafficking unit with the sheriff's office in Long Island's Suffolk county that they became concerned for their safety during encounters with the 6ft4in, 240lbs Manhattan architect. Continue reading...

For years the mayor in Newburn was appointed, not elected. When Patrick Braxton won the election, the outgoing mayor and his cronies refused to accept itIn November 2020, Patrick Braxton, a volunteer firefighter and contractor from Newbern, Alabama, was elected mayor of the 133-person town. He wanted to have a peaceful and timely transfer of power, so he repeatedly attempted to contact the town's previous mayor, Haywood Woody" Stokes III, but Stokes would not return his calls.Braxton, who is Black, decided to go to the town hall and talk to Stokes, who is white, in person. He told Stokes that he would need a key to the town hall to begin his duties. Stokes acquiesced and gave him a key, but when Braxton entered the building, he found that town hall had been stripped of its records, beyond a couple boxes of discarded items that looked like trash. He also said he noticed that Stokes had given keys to friends of his, people who were not council members and had no official business with the city, who were walking in and out of the building. Continue reading...

Farewell to London's Le Gavroche, India Club, Banner's and countless others that have hosted family celebrations down the decadesThe great American journalist Joseph Mitchell turned writing about the death of favourite restaurants into an artform. If the soul of his city, New York, existed anywhere, he argued, it was in the life of its waterfront and backstreet eating houses. In this spirit, in the 1940s and 1950s Mitchell created a new form of obituary: the long, heartfelt memorial to the passing of those places in which we gather to make memories or forget sorrows - most of them demolished in the name of development.Mitchell would have had plenty to say about the imminent erasure of several much-loved London institutions. Michel Roux Jr's decision to close Le Gavroche brings to an end a family-inspired taste for authentic (and expensive) French cooking that began 56 years ago; the fabulous, eccentric India Club along the Strand, has had an even longer run - it has been seven decades since the first lamb bhuna was dished up on its determinedly democratic refectory tables (its freeholder wants to make it another luxury hotel). Great restaurants have personal memories built in. And in this sense, the loss I will feel most keenly will be that of Banner's, the ultimate neighbourhood cafe in Crouch End, north of the city - which famously once entertained Bob Dylan - and which for 30 years has been the place where my family has celebrated birthdays and anniversaries. Continue reading...

American copyright legislation currently invokes a human involvement' criterion. But judging by the way smartphones have trivialised the craft' of photography, something has to giveEvelyn Waugh famously held that taking a keen interest in ecclesiastical matters was often a prelude to insanity". Much the same might be said about newspaper columnists taking an interest in intellectual property law. But let us take the risk. After all, you only live once - at least until Elon Musk creates an electronic clone of himself.On Friday 18 August, a federal judge in the US rejected an attempt to copyright an artwork that had been created by an AI. The work in question is, to the untrained eye at least, no great shakes. It is called A Recent Entrance into Paradise" and depicts a three-track railway heading into what appears to be a leafy, partly pixellated tunnel and had been autonomously created" by a computer algorithm called the Creativity Machine. Continue reading...

Kings will join expected crowd of tens of thousands of people on Saturday to commemorate 60 years since I have a dream' speechMartin Luther King III, along with his wife, Arndrea Waters King, and their 15-year-old daughter, Yolanda, have developed a set of traditions for this time of the year.Each August, they rewatch Martin Luther King Jr's rapturous address to the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Even if the civil rights icon's legacy is closer to the Kings than it is for most other families, they see march anniversaries as a teaching moment. Continue reading...

Royal Spanish Football Federation officials can stick their heads in the sand but that will not happen without consequenceWhen Hector Bellerin wrote: The narcissist never believes they have made a mistake, they are able to lie, manipulate the truth and make the victim guilty in order to retain their power," he wasn't writing a how to retain power" escape manual for Luis Rubiales. Except, you could be forgiven for thinking that's how it has been taken, on the basis of the tripling down by the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) in support of its deluded president in the form of an 808-word defence of Rubiales.The extraordinary RFEF statement - which dropped late on Friday night and is headlined Official Statement of the RFEF in response to Futpro", the Spanish players' union - genuinely reads like it is meant to be Rubiales's A-ha! Gotcha!" moment. Continue reading...

Participants and organisers look back on the critical role of women, Harry Belafonte and Martin Luther King's I have a dream' speechIf that had been us that attacked the Capitol a couple of years ago, they would have shot us," says Ted Dean, 85, from Flomaton, Alabama. Think about it. They would have shot us."Dean is contrasting the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which took place peacefully 60 years ago on Monday, with the deadly insurrection by a mob of Donald Trump supporters at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. Continue reading...

Inmate #P01135809 (also known as the ex-president) is using his mugshot as a marketing opportunity and seizing control of the narrativeShamelessness can be a superpower: Donald Trump (or inmate #P01135809, as he is described in his booking record) has proved that time and time and again. He's shattered norms, flouted rules, shrugged off scandals and generally got away with doing whatever the hell he feels like. Never has anyone tested the idea that there's no such thing as bad publicity quite as much as the former president. Continue reading...

Students at Bunnell elementary school pulled from class based on race and mandated to attend presentation on improving resultsA Florida elementary school has prompted outrage for singling out its Black students to attend a special assembly identifying them, as a group, as a problem" because of standardized test performances.Black fourth- and fifth-grade students at Bunnell elementary school in Flagler county, central Florida, were pulled from class last Friday and mandated to attend the presentation on improving test scores, the Washington Post reported. Continue reading...

Inquiry into 1976 disappearance in Oklahoma and 1990 murder in Missouri have led authorities to believe killer may be involvedKerri Rawson's father - the BTK serial killer - is serving 10 life terms in prison, but Rawson does not think authorities should give up investigating whether he killed more people than they already know.The clearest indication that authorities strongly suspect more victims of Dennis Rader may await discovery, came this week when police dug the ground near a Kansas home he lived in with Rawson. Continue reading...

From securing resources to destabilising western influence, the mercenary group's activities hang in the balanceThis week, before Yevgeny Prigozhin was reportedly killed, the founder of the mercenary group Wagner had appeared bullish in a self-styled publicity video, holding a rifle and dressed in desert camouflage. He was understood to be somewhere in Africa, and stated that he was proud to be making Russia even greater on all continents, and Africa more free".Just days later, Russian state media and Wagner itself would report Prigozhin's death in a plane crash which also apparently killed Dmitry Utkin, often described as a Wagner co-founder, and other senior figures from the organisation. The immediate questions in western capitals were whether Vladimir Putin was responsible, and what the death of Prigozhin means for Wagner and for politics in Russia now. Continue reading...

From the Akbelen forest in Turkey to northern India to Brazil, rural women are standing up against the power of the corporate chainsawThis summer, as Rhodes was ravaged by wildfires and the world witnessed the destruction of precious trees and fragile ecosystems, on the opposite shore in Turkey, only miles away, ancient forests were being felled for the sake of more coal, more profit. But what the energy company hadn't reckoned with was the resistance of local women.Akbelen, in the province of Mula, is a woodland of about 730 hectares (1,800 acres) that provides a natural habitat for a diverse range of flora and fauna. It is this beautiful place that YK Energy, a private energy company, has been aiming to occupy in order to expand an open-pit lignite mine to supply a thermal power plant. The combustion of lignite (brown coal) generates moreCO emissions than hard, black coal, making it the most health-harming variety. For the last four years, villagers and environmental campaigners have been holding vigils to protect the forest. But the company has carried on. Continue reading...

The 24-year-old went into Wimbledon with no expectations but she arrives at the US Open as a grand slam champion and must learn how to win with the pressure onIn the early days of the grass season this June, Marketa Vondrousova and her doubles partner for the week, her Czech compatriot Katerina Siniakova, navigated their way to the final in Berlin. At that point, Vondrousova's record in finals, across singles and doubles alike, was not exactly ideal. Their eventual three-set defeat marked her seventh straight loss when it matters most. In the aftermath, not even her mother, Jindriska, could hide her frustration.They came for the finals and she said, like: I don't want to be second all the time,'" says Vondrousova, laughing, as she recalls the conversation with her mother. I was like: OK, it's good even to be in a final. Come on, Mum!' And she's like: Yeah, but I don't want to be second all the time.'" Continue reading...

Rightwing justices claim to rule in the Founders' image. In reality, they disregard 250 years of constitutional law, simply to punish fellow Americans who do not share their valuesThe extreme religious right's mission to roll back civil rights from abortion to public accommodations is being fueled by false facts and false history. Recent articles in the New Republic have documented the shaky factual foundation behind 303 Creative LLC v Elenis, the case in which the supreme court held that a website design business owned by an evangelical Christian, Lorie Smith, could refuse service to same-sex couples. Even more troubling, the history undergirding the majority's reasoning is misleading and dangerous to the separation of church and state.Tragically, the religious right knows it has a friendly audience in the six conservative Catholic justices on the supreme court, who have been partners in shaking the foundations of fundamental rights. The justices' new standard is whether a constitutional right is grounded in history and tradition", the latest byword for the bogus doctrine of originalism". So they need some history, and apparently any history will do. Continue reading...

Within a day of officials releasing 388 names of people unaccounted for following Maui wildfires, dozens have said they are safeWithin a day of Hawaiian authorities releasing 388 names of people unaccounted for following the deadly wildfires on Maui, more than 100 of them or their relatives came forward to say they were safe, the FBI has said.The agency is reviewing the information provided and working to remove the names from the list. Continue reading...

Nearly 1,000 people in Merryville, in Beauregard parish close to Texas border, ordered to evacuate as Tiger Island fire burns nearbyA rare uncontrollable wildfire in Louisiana has forced nearly 1,000 residents to evacuate the town of Merryville in Beauregard parish, near the state's border with Texas.Get out now!" the Beauregard parish sheriff's office wrote on social media. Continue reading...

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Authorities and neighbors seek culprit after pet bird Pete the peacock found impaled by arrowA beloved Las Vegas neighborhood peacock has been killed with a hunter's bow and arrow, and authorities are trying to find who was behind it.Animal protection services officers are investigating the death of Pete the peacock, a pet that belonged to a resident in a gated neighborhood, the local news outlet KVVU reported on Thursday. Continue reading...

Oliver Anthony responds after politicians discuss his No 1 hit on stage: I wrote that song about those people'Oliver Anthony, the writer and singer of the mega-hit Rich Men North of Richmond, hit out at Republican candidates for president who discussed his song in the debate in Milwaukee on Wednesday.It was funny seeing my song at that presidential debate. Because I wrote that song about those people, you know, so for them to have to sit there and listen to that, that cracks me up. It was funny kind of seeing the response to it," the Virginian said in a statement on Friday. Continue reading...

Trump, listed as 6ft 3in and 215lb, vows to never surrender' as campaign bids to turn mugshot shame into political weaponDonald Trump's campaign sought to turn his public disgrace into a political weapon on Friday by raising funds and creating merchandise with his glowering prison mugshot.The mugshot, a historic first for a former US president, was made public after a 20-minute booking at the decrepit prison in Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday, over charges that Trump ran a criminal racket to overturn the 2020 election in the state. Continue reading...

Wall-to-wall coverage of ex-president is another example of his unique ability to suck up all media oxygen, even amid the Republican debateLess than 24 hours after the first primary debate of the 2024 election season concluded, viewers of America's cable news programs could be forgiven if they forgot the event had occurred at all.Rather than focusing on the post-debate coverage and analysis typically seen during past election cycles, CNN and MSNBC turned their attention on Thursday evening to Donald Trump's arrest in Fulton county, Georgia, for charges related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. News of Trump's surrender and the image of the first mugshot ever taken of a former US president also dominated the homepages of the New York Times and the Washington Post. Continue reading...

Users had fun after Republican frontrunner became the first former American president to sit for a mugshotFirst came the mugshot. Then came the mugs. Then the shot glasses.Following Donald Trump's surrender at the Fulton county jail on Thursday evening, the highly anticipated mugshot of the former president spread swiftly across the internet as both ends of the political spectrum raced to commodify and meme-ify the picture. Continue reading...

Fema teams with cadaver dogs scour rubble of the town as 46 victims so far identified of death toll of 115The names of 388 people unaccounted for in the wake of the devastating wildfire in Hawaii have been released by officials on the island of Maui.The list of known people thought to be missing following the fire has been compiled by the FBI, which said on Tuesday there were about 1,000 to 1,100 people on a more tentative list of those unaccounted for. Continue reading...

Creator of pioneering document sharing technology founded Adobe in 1982 with Charles GeschkeJohn Warnock, a co-founder of Adobe who invented the PDF, has died. He was 82.Widely known for creating the pioneering technology - in full, the portable document format - that changed the way documents are shared and printed, Warnock died on 19 August, Adobe said. Continue reading...

Simone Weil's life illustrates the capacity to give up the things we feel we're owed - such as a carbon-intensive consumer-driven lifestyleNero fiddled while Rome burned. The saying takes on new meaning after the hottest July ever, devastating wildfires in Greece and Canada, and the declaration by the UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, that we've left behind global warming" for global boiling".But this time our Neros - AKA governments - aren't the only ones shirking their responsibilities. What are the rest of us doing while the world burns? Continue reading...

Judge says near-total abortion ban signed by governor in September 2022 takes precedence over FDA approvalsWest Virginia can restrict the sale of the abortion pill despite federal regulators' approval of it as a safe and effective medication, a federal judge has ruled.The US district court judge, Robert C Chambers, determined on Thursday that the near-total abortion ban signed by the Republican governor, Jim Justice, in September 2022 takes precedence over approvals from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Continue reading...

For Trump and his minions, the coming election is more than a rematch. It is about revengeOn Wednesday night, Donald Trump won the Republican debate without showing up. One night later, he surrendered to law enforcement at the Fulton county, Georgia, jail. In the span of 24 hours, cameras captured the essence of the current presidential contest, namely the legal status of the prior occupant of the Oval Office. Whether Trump is a free man or a convict on election day 2024 will weigh heavily upon voters and the republic.At the debate, six of the eight contenders raised their hands when asked if they would back Trump if he were convicted. With the predictable exceptions of Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson, the rest of the pack fell into line.Lloyd Green is an attorney in New York and served in the US Department of Justice from 1990 to 1992 Continue reading...

GOP-led House committee convenes on Guam as officials say Beijing working to fill perceived voids in America's assistance'Countering China and bolstering national security dominated the conversation in a Hilton hotel on Guam, 15 hours before and oceans away from the Milwaukee arena hosting the first Republican primary debate.Nine members of the GOP-led House committee on natural resources convened in the US-governed Pacific island territory for a rare field hearing - during the summer recess - on countering China's influence in the region. Continue reading...

The Digital Services Act is finally bringing social media giants to heel after 20 years of laissez-faire. Yet Westminster still dithersYou might not immediately notice it, but the world changes today. You could be forgiven for missing it: the developments are buried deep in the decision trees of your social media app menus, tucked several clicks and taps away from easy access in a thicket of terms and conditions text.The Digital Services Act (DSA), Europe's sweeping attempt to regulate big tech that was passed in October 2022, comes into force for more than a dozen of the biggest tech companies today. The new laws set clear rules on content moderation, user privacy and transparency that online platforms must now follow.Chris Stokel-Walker is a UK journalist based in Newcastle. He is the author of TikTok Boom: China's Dynamite App and the Superpower Race for Social Media Continue reading...

Erik Duran suspended over death of Eric Duprey, who was driving motorcycle on Bronx sidewalk towards group including DuranA man fleeing New York City police officers on a motorcycle died after a sergeant hurled a plastic picnic cooler at his head from close range, causing a violent crash, authorities said.The sergeant, Erik Duran, was suspended without pay just hours after the death of Eric Duprey, 30, in the University Heights section of the Bronx, police said. Continue reading...