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The media mogul's new girlfriend, just like recent exes, falls within his favourite demographicDelightful photos of Rupert Murdoch and his latest girlfriend, Elena Zhukova, contribute so much to our understanding of human age-assortative mating that the couple will understand the enthusiasm for closer study of their courtship before it's too late. For a 92-year-old who recently embarked, he said, on the second half" of his life, Murdoch's romantic life looks unleisurely.An engagement to Ann Lesley Smith, for instance, was called off after two weeks, before anyone could figure out what led to this particular mate choice. Academics studying age-assortative pairing in migrating birds, such as the pied flycatcher, probably face the same sort of problem. Continue reading...

Evacuations ordered after wind-fueled blaze expands unchecked near eastern city of Spokane and shuts highwayA wind-driven wildfire in eastern Washington state has destroyed at least 185 structures, closed a major highway and left one person dead, authorities have said.The blaze began shortly after midday on Friday on the west side of Medical Lake, about 15 miles (24km) west of Spokane, and then expanded, state Department of Natural Resources spokesperson Isabelle Hoygaard said on Saturday. Continue reading...

Some analysts believe the dollar may go below US60c, bringing joy to exporters and tourists, but encouraging further interest rate rises

Irvin Cartagena sentenced after pleading guilty to providing The Wire actor with fentanyl-laced heroin, causing his deathA New York City drug dealer was sentenced on Friday to 10 years in prison for providing the actor Michael K Williams, best known for his role in the TV series The Wire, with fentanyl-laced heroin, causing his death.Irvin Cartagena, 40, of Aibonito, Puerto Rico, was sentenced by the US district judge Ronnie Abrams. Cartagena had pleaded guilty in April to conspiring to distribute drugs. Continue reading...

Lawsuit accuses website of deception as it allows travelers to book typically cheaper connecting flight and get off after first legAmerican Airlines has filed a lawsuit against Skiplagged, a travel website for cheap flights that shows hidden-city" ticketing trips.The lawsuit, which American filed this week in federal court in Fort Worth, Texas, accuses Skiplagged of deception, as the website allows travelers to book a connecting flight that is typically cheaper than a non-stop flight and not flying to the route's final destination. Continue reading...

State DMV asks for reduction after autonomous Cruise vehicle collided with unspecified emergency vehicleGeneral Motors' Cruise autonomous vehicle unit has agreed to cut its fleet of San Francisco robotaxis in half as authorities investigate two recent crashes in the city.The state department of motor vehicles asked for the reduction after a Cruise vehicle without a human driver collided with an unspecified emergency vehicle on Thursday. Continue reading...

Players and bosses have held themselves to higher standards than their male counterparts. Their goal must be to maintain those valuesWomen don't owe you pretty, as the feminist saying goes. The Lionesses have proved the footballing truth of that in this World Cup, from Lauren James's sending off for stepping on Nigeria's Michelle Alozie to their tactical fouls and time-wasting in Wednesday's semi-final against Australia. They have learned the dark arts of elite football, and it has got the job done. Which is why Alex Greenwood's cynical bringing down of Sam Kerr against Australia raised barely an eyebrow in the commentary box.Their progress through the tournament, ending in England's first appearance at a World Cup final since 1966, is testament to their commitment and professionalism as well as their talent. They've got their feet dirty when it mattered, and in James's case when it didn't. Continue reading...

The historic town was beloved by visitors and locals alike, who now wonder how and when the community can be rebuiltJust over a week since wildfires ripped through the western part of the Hawaiian island of Maui and killed at least 110 people, residents, historians and international tourists are still processing the near total destruction of Lahaina.Brad Shirakawa, 68, a photojournalist and multimedia producer from San Jose, California, has been travelling to Lahaina since 2003. Continue reading...

The former president takes to his broomstick for the 2024 election You can order your own copy of this cartoon Continue reading...

I long to believe the French eat better than everyone else. And, for one morning at least, it seemed to be trueA restaurant with rooms, somewhere in the south of France. At 9am, a perfectly simple breakfast is served: coffee, croissants, apricot jam. But what's this? On a side plate, sits a rectangular slab of primrose-coloured butter, its dimensions exactly the same as those of the croissants. I'm not big on Instagram, but at this point I can't resist. Placing a sugar cube beside it for scale, I photograph the butter and post it with the ecstatic (I may mean slightly hysterical) caption: BREAKFAST IN FRANCE. THIS IS HOW TO LIVE!Some part of me longs to believe that the French still live superior gustatory lives to our own. Their melons are sweeter, their lunches longer, and no one worries about how much fat is in anything - or so I tell myself. Over supper the night before, a friend and I had talked of the inexpensive set menus we both remember from long ago family holidays, the pair of us competing to reel off the predictable but delicious courses: carrot rappee to start, confit of duck with potatoes and frisee to follow, some cheese and then chocolate mousse or creme caramel to finish. We agreed that there's lately far too much burrata abroad in la France profonde, burrata being shorthand for the way the country's restaurant menus have become blurry and fussy. But now I begin to think there may be hope. In what other country would this quantity of butter be considered an essential component of a decent breakfast? Continue reading...

Nick and Steven got a rare opportunity to move into a brand new apartment in Seattle: I didn't believe it until it happened'Driving for the first time toward his first real home in years, Nick gazes at the landscape of West Seattle from the back seat of a van. He doesn't recognize his city.It feels like a completely alien place to me," he says to his partner, Steven, sitting beside him. Like, I forgot that neighborhoods exist. I forgot that people have yards." Continue reading...

You'll approach queues and cancellations with zen-like calm after learning of the difficulties faced by yesterday's touristsIf holidays are heaven, they're also hell. Cancelled planes, endless queues, scary weather - and then you come home to the washing and, in my case, a ruthless attack by Cydalima perspectalis, AKA box-tree moth caterpillars, on your carefully tended hedges.Think of the cheese, I tell myself, inhaling a bottle of Ambre Solaire for courage as I pack. But which of us hasn't wondered, as we stand in line for a hire car, if we wouldn't have been better off staying at home? Continue reading...

Much artificial intelligence' harvests original creative work by humans. Regulators must demand transparency about training dataThere's an old saying that no one would ever eat a sausage if they knew how sausages were made. This is no doubt unfair to the meat-processing industry, for not all sausages are, as some wag famously observed, cartridges containing the sweepings of the abattoir floor". But it's a useful cautionary principle when confronted by products whose manufacturers are - how shall we put it? - coy about the details of their production processes.Enter, stage left, the tech companies currently touting their generative AI marvels - particularly those large language models (LLMs) that fluently compose plausible English sentences in response to prompts by humans. When asked how this miracle is accomplished, the standard explanations highlight the brilliance of the technology involved. Continue reading...

The biggest name in US sports broadcasting has graduated from covering gambling to promoting it in an about-face for Bob Iger and a sign of turbulent timesDisney's dim view of betting changed little in the decades since the 1940 film of Pinocchio, when the puppet visits the cursed Pleasure Island and gambling is one of the vices seducing children who turn into donkeys.As recently as 2019, the CEO, Bob Iger, declared: I don't see The Walt Disney Company, certainly in the near term, getting involved in the business of gambling, in effect, by facilitating gambling in any way." Continue reading...

The world's top chess federation is banning trans women from competing until a review is made - and the defenses are sexist assumptions and shaky scienceAs anyone who has ever played the game knows, chess pieces are deceptively heavy. Enormous hand strength and lung capacity are required to move even a tiny pawn across a board. Shifting a rook or a queen? That can exhaust a delicate lady's fingers for weeks on end. And don't get me started on the spatial intelligence and mental acuity required for chess. Even thinking about the game makes my poor little woman brain hurt. Continue reading...

Tributes pour in for those who died as majority of the more than 100 people killed in Maui wildfires have yet to be identifiedWhile the vast majority of the more than 100 people killed during the Maui wildfires last week have yet to be identified, tributes and condolences to a handful of people who have been named as relatives continue to wait to learn if their friends or family are safe. Maui officials said 111 perished in the blaze that roared through the historic town of Lahaina. Many of the victims so far are adults over the age of 65, who face two times the risk of dying in a fire than younger people, according to the US fire administration.The deadliest blaze in recent US history has raged through the island causing millions of dollars in damage and an incalculable amount of pain and trauma as Maui locals begin to parse through charred structures to find what's salvageable, and what is not. Search crews continue to scour the ruins of Lahaina and ocean waters for the dead. Here are the stories of how some of those who died in the fire lived. Continue reading...

Law allows victims of abuse by clerics to file lawsuits for damages regardless of whether deadline had otherwise lapsedA Louisiana state appeals court has upheld the constitutionality of a law temporarily suspending filing deadlines for people seeking damages over long-ago sexual abuse claims, handing a victory to survivors and a setback to the Roman Catholic diocese opposing them in the case.The ruling, from a panel of judges with Louisiana's third circuit court of appeal in Lake Charles, is the first to uphold a 2021 law in the state which opened a three-year window for victims of childhood sexual abuse to file lawsuits for damages regardless of whether the deadline to do so had otherwise lapsed. Continue reading...

As the extremist group Moms for Liberty flourishes in Clay county, a campaign of outrage has books disappearing from school shelvesWhy do you need to know how to masturbate when you still got skid marks in your underwear?" asks Tia Bess, the newly appointed national director of outreach for the conservative advocacy group Moms for Liberty.Inside a squat Pentecostal church on a country road in Clay Hill, Florida, Bess flips through a large illustrated handbook titled It's Perfectly Normal, marketed to kids ages 10 and up, intended as a primer about the onset of puberty. Continue reading...

Kenneth Chesebro - low-profile, bright, seemingly decent - is not your average Trump guy. So how did he become the architect of the election subversion scandal?One individual stands out among the 18 Donald Trump acolytes who were indicted in Georgia this week over their participation in the former president's alleged racketeering enterprise to overturn the 2020 election.He is distinct not for his chutzpah and braggadocio - those qualities are trademarked by Trump. Instead he stands out for the opposite characteristics: his demure, scholarly demeanor that has left those who have known him utterly baffled by his eruption from a left-leaning attorney working in relative obscurity into a key figure in the glaring lights of a historic criminal prosecution. Continue reading...

Students trying to attend university in the US tell of their frustration after being rejected over the immigrant intent' testYalda Azamee blinked back tears as she stared down at the American consular officer.He did not even give me a chance to explain myself; he rejected me right away. He didn't even look at my documents," she said, rushing out of the US embassy building on to the streets of Islamabad to cry. Continue reading...

The candidate is emerging as a challenger - however slight - in a race still thoroughly dominated by the former presidentVivek Ramaswamy was at the Iowa state fair, a must-visit destination for any presidential candidate, when he decided to rap.Wearing a red cap and a baggy white polo shirt, the millennial founder of a biotech company launched into a spirited rendition of Eminem's Lose Yourself, as the governor of Iowa, Kim Reynolds, edged further and further towards the edge of their shared stage. Continue reading...

When I moved to LA, I discovered my house had been the scene of a notorious 1920s crime involving a leading lady, her vaudeville star husband and an actor with matinee idol looks ...Even as a novice crime writer, I probably ought to have discovered the killing that took place in my own front room sooner than I did. After all, the coroner declared it the most brutal murder that has ever come under my notice" and the Los Angeles Times labelled my home the Hollywood House of Death".Or perhaps I have that the wrong way round, and it was living here that turned me into a crime writer. Certainly, I had no such ambitions or qualifying expertise when I moved in: my previous book was a sci-fi comedy, and the protagonist of my crime novel is not a detective but an NHS junior doctor, the job I was doing when a screenplay I wrote first landed me some writing work in Los Angeles. Continue reading...

I grew up in South Africa, and vigorously refuted parallels with Israel. But in the Netanyahu era, the charge is becoming factIsrael 2023, South Africa 1948. I've lived through it before: power grabbing, fascism and racism - the destruction of democracy. Israel is going where South Africa was 75 years ago. It's like watching the replay of a horror movie.In 1948, as a teenager in Cape Town, I followed the results of the 26 May election on a giant board on a newspaper building. The winner-takes-all electoral system produced distorted results: the Afrikaner Nationalist party, with its smaller partner, won 79 parliamentary seats against 74 for the United party and its smaller partner. Continue reading...

Vote on party lines punished Katie Rinderle for reading book to her fifth-grade class in violation of vaguely worded policyA Georgia school board voted along party lines on Thursday to fire a teacher after officials said she improperly read a book on gender fluidity to her fifth-grade class.The Cobb county school board in suburban Atlanta voted 4-3 to fire Katie Rinderle, overriding the recommendation of a panel of three retired educators. The panel found after a two-day hearing that Rinderle had violated district policies but said she should not be fired. Continue reading...

US president, Yoon Suk Yeol and Fumio Kishida meet as they agree to take trilateral defence cooperation to unprecedented levels'A standalone summit bringing together the leaders of Japan and South Korea would have been almost unthinkable just over a year ago, when the north-east Asian neighbours were embroiled in disputes over their bitter wartime legacy.Bilateral ties were at a low point before the South Korean president, Yoon Suk Yeol, took office in May 2022, due to compensation claims by Koreans over Japan's use of forced labour during its 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean peninsula, and the longstanding controversy over Korean women who were coerced into working in Japanese military brothels.It is a historic event, and it sets the conditions for a more peaceful and prosperous Indo-Pacific, and a stronger and more secure United States of America. Continue reading...

Officials have said class will not count toward graduation credit but some schools offer course as local elective'The six Arkansas schools that planned to offer an Advanced Placement (AP) course on African American studies say they will continue to do so despite state officials saying the class will not count toward a student's graduation credit.The North Little Rock and Jacksonville North Pulaski school districts and eStem charter schools said on Thursday they would offer the course as a local elective" despite the Arkansas education department saying it is not considered a state-approved course. They join two other school districts that have said they will continue offering the class. Continue reading...

National security adviser Jake Sullivan makes comments as US, Japan and South Korea agree to new security pledgeThe United States is concerned" about the national security implications of North Korea and Russia reportedly cooperating on nuclear missile technology, the Biden administration said, as the US welcomed the leaders of Japan and South Korea to Camp David on Friday for an unprecedented trilateral summit.The US, Japan and South Korea agreed to a new security pledge committing the three countries to consult with each other in the event of a security crisis or threat in the Pacific, according to the Biden administration. Continue reading...

A Trump presidency is Giuliani's final hope - or failing that, some payment for all his legal work at leastMondayDonald Trump's legal woes grow in Georgia, as the former president faces new charges of election interference, bringing his total felony count to 91 and returning his co-defendant - former Time magazine Person of the Year (2001), Rudy Giuliani - to the headlines. Like a Jane Austen heroine who allies herself with a plainer girl to accentuate her own charms, Trump's proximity to Giuliani has the extraordinary effect of making him, temporarily at least, seem like not the worst or weirdest guy in the room. Continue reading...

Alex Crow was previously accused of acting inappropriately with students and remains under orders by archdiocese to return homeA Roman Catholic priest in Alabama who fled to Europe with a recent high school graduate whom he met through his work has drawn scrutiny from law enforcement and been told to stop presenting himself in public as a cleric.Alex Crow, an expert in the theological study of demons and exorcism, is suspected of having groomed [multiple] young girls" before going to Italy with an 18-year-old, according to an interview that local sheriff Paul Burch recently gave to Fox Nation's Nancy Grace. The teen's family has been trying to convince her to return home.In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453 or visit their website for more resources and to report child abuse or DM for help. For adult survivors of child abuse, help is available at ascasupport.org. In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800; adult survivors can seek help at Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International. Continue reading...

Request for Enrique Tarrio sentence comes as another convicted member of far-right group goes missing days before court dateThe US justice department is seeking 33 years in prison for Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys leader convicted of seditious conspiracy in one of the most serious cases to emerge from the attack on the US Capitol, according to court documents.The harsh sentence request came as it emerged that Christopher Worrell, another member of the extremist group, has disappeared, days before he was due to be sentenced on Friday Continue reading...

Australia and New Zealand have provided a tournament that has showcased the strength in depth of football across all continentsFour years ago, the 2019 Fifa Women's World Cup, won by the US, was hailed as a pinnacle moment for women's football. The accolade was deserved. But if 2019 was a pinnacle, what can be said about this year's even more remarkable contest? The 2023 World Cup reaches a peak in Sydney on Sunday, when England and Spain face each other in the final. Yet if the contest over the last month proves one big thing, it is that, in women's football, every pinnacle and peak still conceals another even higher one than the summit just reached.The achievements of 2023 go beyond even England's understandable delight and excitement at reaching - and hopefully winning - a first football World Cup final since the men's now long distant victory in 1966. The most important of these wider successes is this tournament's wonderful confirmation of real strength in depth in the women's game on every continent. Although two European sides will contest the final, the global attainment gap is everywhere narrowing. Australia, Colombia and Japan deservedly reached the last eight (and Australia went further). Jamaica and Nigeria came close to joining them. China, Morocco, the Philippines, South Africa and Zambia all won group stage games. It can only be a matter of time before an African, Asian, Caribbean or Oceanian team gets to the final. Continue reading...

Private information about members of grand jury that indicted former president has been published onlineLaw enforcement officials in the US state of Georgia were on Friday intensifying their investigations into threats targeting members of the grand jury that indicted former president Donald Trump and 18 of his allies earlier this month, after private information about jurors was published online.The Fulton county sheriff's office announced that it was aware that personal information of members of the Fulton county grand jury is being shared on various platforms" and was working to track down the origins of the threats in Fulton county, where Atlanta is located, and other jurisdictions.Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report Continue reading...

Ex-president's team seek to delay start date more than two years from date proposed by federal prosecutorsLawyers for Donald Trump asked the judge in Washington DC overseeing his federal election interference trial to push back the start date to April 2026, almost 18 months after the next presidential election and more than two years from the trial date proposed by the US government.The former president's legal team filed the request to the US district court judge Tanya Chutkan, after Trump was indicted earlier this month on charges that he conspired to defraud the United States, conspired to obstruct an official proceeding, obstructed an official proceeding and engaged in a conspiracy against rights. Continue reading...

The sooner you start talking to children about history and race, the better, Sisonke Msimang writes

One of UK's public faces of pandemic, JVT' was known for football-related metaphors in No 10 briefingsSir Jonathan Van-Tam, the UK's former deputy chief medical officer who became a household name during the pandemic, has become a senior medical consultant to the Covid-19 vaccine maker Moderna.Known by the initials JVT and remembered for the striking metaphors he used during Downing Street briefings on the progress of the virus, he took up the role as part-time clinical adviser to the American biotechnology company on 2 May. Continue reading...

It is right to hold an inquiry, but the hunt for lessons to be learned' and a system to blame can easily go too farThe agony of the death of a child is something most families these days will never suffer. Through illness, accident or even negligence, that loss, and the lifelong pain it causes, is every parent's greatest fear, but to know someone murdered a defenceless infant must be beyond endurance. How could she?We will never know what evil or insanity could have induced Lucy Letby to sweep away the lives of seven babies, and attempt the murder of another six. Everyone hearing the case of the worst serial killer of children in modern British history tries, and fails, to imagine the state of mind, the cause and how such a person grew up so apparently normal, her inner murderous impulses unobserved. Her responsibility for new lives inside the Countess of Chester hospital neonatal unit, which should be a sanctuary of the greatest safety, makes this feel like the deepest betrayal.Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnistDo 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...

At Index on Censorship, we don't buy into a global charm offensive that can't hide the fact that hundreds of activists and regime opponents are still being jailedIf you want proof Saudi Arabia is trying to improve its reputation, visit the website of the Saudi Tourism Authority. There you will find the Q&A section has recently been updated to state that LGBTQ visitors to the country are welcome. This from a country that executed five men for same-sex relationships just four years ago. The hubris is astonishing. And yet to directly challenge those contradictions isn't easy, something John Lubbock, Daisy Steinhardt and Max Colbert recently learned.As reported by the Guardian on Tuesday, the journalists had co-written an article for Vice World News, which looked at how LGBTQ Saudis face threats from their families and state authorities. It was commissioned before Vice declared bankruptcy and before part of it was bought by a Saudi-linked firm. The article's publication was first delayed and eventually spiked. The reason given? To protect staff at Vice's offices in Riyadh.Jemimah Steinfeld is editor-in-chief of Index on CensorshipDo 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...

While full list probably represent broader cross section of ages, deaths underscore risk for elderly people in fast-moving blazesAs the first victims of the fires that scorched Maui are identified by authorities and family members, an early pattern has emerged. Many who perished were over the age of 70.Scores more victims will be identified in the weeks and months to come. While the final list of fatalities will almost surely represent a broader cross-section of ages, the deaths underscore that elderly people are at greater risk in fast-moving blazes. Continue reading...

While the Fifa boss pontificates to all the women' that they just push the doors', we suggest he does his actual jobI regret to inform you that ahead of the women's World Cup final this weekend, Fifa president Gianni Infantino has made another one of his public statements. You may recall that at the start of the men's World Cup in Qatar last November, Infantino addressed the west" - a hilariously self-effacing gesture that puts me in mind of a video that the actor Richard Gere once released on the eve of some Palestinian elections. Hi, I'm Richard Gere," this began, and I'm speaking for the entire world." Infantino was also covering a lot of bases last year in Qatar, declaring: Today I have strong feelings. Today I feel Qatari, I feel Arab, I feel African, I feel gay, I feel disabled, I feel a migrant worker." Oh dear.Anyway, in the early hours of this morning, two days before England meet Spain in the final of a World Cup that has seen rapturous engagement, and record attendance and global viewing figures, Infantino announced he was addressing all the women". Continue reading...

It is important we stay level-headed as new subvariants emerge and mutate in the coming weeks and monthsCovid-19 is creeping back into the news cycle. As we head towards the autumn, disease rates are increasing in the community and a recent spike of interest in an Omicron subvariant, EG.5, which the World Health Organization has classified as a variant of interest, has caused concern among those whose memories of recent winters haven't faded. There is an undeniable feeling of deja vu. So how worried should we be?The WHO is tracking the spread of EG.5 globally, but notes that the risk posed to public health remains low. There is currently no indication of increased severity of infection or an increased hospitalisation rate with this new strain. For those who were asymptomatic or had a mild version of the disease, the continued talk of Covid may seem irrelevant or even scare-mongering. But for those who are suffering with long Covid, are immunocompromised or who lost a loved one during the pandemic, any news of increased prevalence of the disease must be worrying. These people know how devastating Covid can be.Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh Continue reading...

Sheriff's office says investigators are working to pinpoint origin of threats. Plus, the former Russian minister who is now a trucker in Michigan

Digital Public Public Library fights back against rightwing censorship with resource that works through geo-targetingMaia Kobabe's 2019 memoir Gender Queer is an after-dinner favorite in Jen Cousins' house. The family lives in Orange county, Florida, and all four children read the book when their mother first brought it home two years ago. She had to; she couldn't stop crying when she read the last page.For Saffy, her second oldest, who is now 14, Kobabe's memoir is more than an after-school read. It has become a lifeline. Saffy came out as non-binary two years ago and finished the book in just an afternoon. Looking up at their mom, they said they finally felt seen. Continue reading...

My country could be the first to limit fossil fuel extraction through direct democracy

The youngest Black woman to earn a Fifa referee badge, the Mississippi native, Jackson State alumna and proud Delta is breaking down barriers one assignment at a timeEarlier this year, Alyssa Nichols became the youngest Black woman, and the first from Mississippi, to earn a Fifa referee badge. She's not fazed by being the youngest - she is one of only two Black American women to hold the distinction - but she understands her achievement as a chance to encourage others.After Nichols started playing soccer at Murrah High School, in Jackson, Mississippi, one of her teammates, who worked as a youth officiator with Southwest Jackson Soccer League, a primarily Black club in the city, suggested that Nichols start officiating as a way to make money while balancing academics and athletics. Continue reading...