Category: World

When Elon Musk endorsed Donald Trump for president last month, the Tesla founder and chief executive backed a candidate who vows to “drill, baby, drill,” “end the electric vehicle mandate” and reduce subsidies of the sort that helped Tesla become the U.S.’s dominant EV manufacturer.
So instrumental have government loans, tax breaks and other EV policies been to Tesla’s fast growth that despite Musk’s gradual embrace of the former president and his Republican Party rhetoric in recent years, the company continues to lobby the U.S. and state governments for benefits championed by the Democratic Party.

TEAM USA ended the Paris Olympics on a high note by securing gold in the final event to top the medal table.

The last-gasp victory in the women’s basketball final on Sunday ensured that the Americans edged out China with 126 overall medals.

The nervy 67-66 win over France gave Team USA their 40th gold medal of the Olympics.

With China also securing 40 golds, USA topped the table based on their silver medal count.

Overall, Team USA finished with 40 golds, 44 silvers and 42 bronze medals.

Meanwhile, China collected 40 golds, 27 silvers and 24 bronzes.

Two of the helicopter’s propellers came off and one landed in the hotel pool, according to local media reports.

A pilot has died after the helicopter they were flying crashed into the roof of a hotel in a popular Australian tourist town.

Hundreds of guests at the Hilton’s DoubleTree hotel in the northern city of Cairns were evacuated after the incident at around 2am local time on Monday.

Alice da Silva Aguiar died along with six-year-old Bebe King and Elsie Dot Stancombe, aged seven, in an attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on 29 July.

The parents of the nine-year-old girl killed in a stabbing attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance workshop have released an image of her at the event on the day of the attack.

The image shows Alice da Silva Aguiar next to a cardboard cutout of Swift at the Hart Space community centre in Southport on the morning of Monday 29 July.

She was one of three girls who died after several children were injured in the attack.

Alice’s parents Sergio and Alexandra, originally from Madeira in Portugal, have released the photo as hundreds gathered for the girl’s funeral at St Patrick’s Catholic Church in Southport today.

Members of the public lined a street in the Merseyside town to honour Alice as the funeral procession arrived.

They were joined by around 30 uniformed police officers and Merseyside Police Chief Constable Serena Kennedy.

‘We loved cuddling you every night’

In a statement read out on their behalf at the service, Alice’s parents said: “You were our perfect dreamchild, everything was perfect from the moment you arrived. A good girl, with strong values and a kind nature, a lover of animals and an environmentalist in the making.

“You moved our world with your confidence and empathy. Playful, energetic, friendly and always so respectful… no shouting is a house rule you applied, a big task for a small girl, especially in a Portuguese household.

“Being around you was a privilege, we cherished every milestone, you completed us… we loved cuddling you every night for almost nine years, apart from sleepovers and nights away with your friends, we were never apart.”

The grieving parents added that their daughter was committed to her dancing and her schoolwork, and continued: “Your to-do list was extensive and we were sure that you would achieve it, if only you had the time.

“It hurts, we will never see you grow up.”

Sergio and Alexandra also said they have been asking themselves whether they could have done anything to prevent her death, adding: “We will never get over this pain.”

The parents released the last photo and statement along with other images of their daughter from throughout her short life.

Some show her as a much younger girl at ballet classes while another shows her outside school.

Former President Donald Trump has a long history of using popular songs at his campaign rallies without authorization — by the Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, Tom Petty, Linkin Park and even Celine Dion — many of which have titles or meanings that hardly seem to imply victory, like “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” and, in the current case in point, “My Heart Will Go On,” Celine Dion’s theme song from the 1997 film “Titanic,” in which thousands of people die on a sinking luxury liner.

While Trump has used the song at rallies in the past, in Montana on Friday night he used a video of Dion singing the song as well — which brings in a raft of legal issues beyond the standard use of a song at a rally. On Saturday, Dion disavowed any endorsement of his campaign and questioned the choice of the song, which for millions evokes the tragedy of the Titanic and, in the film, Leonardo DiCaprio’s dying character sinking to the bottom of the sea.

Turkey reinstated access to Instagram on Saturday night, after more than a week of being blocked nationwide.

The Information and Communication Technologies Authority barred access to Instagram on Aug. 2 without providing a specific reason. Government officials later said the ban was imposed because the social media platform failed to abide by Turkish laws.

“In our talks with Instagram officials, we were assured our requests would be met, especially those regarding criminal activity, and given a promise that we would work together on a means of censoring users,” Abdulkadir Uraloglu, Turkey’s transportation and infrastructure minister wrote on the social media platform X Saturday.

Uraloglu elaborated in a video also posted on X, saying that the platform “was to establish compliance with Turkish law and that in instances where the law was violated, there would be quick and effective intervention.”

Residents fled their homes on Sunday as a fast-moving wildfire outside Athens fuelled by hot, windy weather burned trees, houses and cars and sent smoke clouds over the Greek capital.
More than 400 firefighters backed by 16 waterbombing planes and 13 helicopters battled the blaze that broke out at 3 p.m. (midday GMT) and quickly reached the village of Varnavas 35 km (20 miles) north of Athens.
As night fell, firefighting aircraft ceased operations until morning. Flames turned the sky orange.

Hundreds of wildfires have broken out across Greece since May and scientists attribute their frequency and intensity to the increasingly hot and dry weather conditions linked to climate change.
After its warmest winter on record and long periods of little or no rainfall, Greece also registered its hottest June and July and is forecast to record its hottest-ever summer.

“We are expecting a very difficult week,” said Kostas Lagouvardos, research director of the Athens Observatory. “If the Varnavas blaze is not contained during the night, we will have a problem tomorrow,” he said.

Fires have also burned this summer amid extreme heat elsewhere in Europe, including in Spain and the Balkans.
‘DANGEROUS CONDITIONS’
Authorities sent evacuation alerts for nine areas near Varnavas. By early evening, thick brown smoke hung over much of Athens and had reached the island of Aegina to its south.
Another blaze in a forested area near the town of Megara, west of Athens, had been contained by Sunday afternoon, the fire brigade said.
Several other regions across Greece were on high alert for fire risk on Sunday and Monday.
On Saturday, Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias said he had called for emergency measures involving the army, police and volunteers to deal with forest fires until Aug. 15.
Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/firefighters-battle-contain-two-wildfires-near-athens-2024-08-11/

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russian forces of starting a huge fire at a nuclear power plant in the country’s south, describing it as a “provocation” by Russia

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has slammed Russian forces for allegedly igniting a massive blaze at a nuclear power plant in the nation’s south. The incident, which left black smoke billowing from Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, was branded a “provocation” from Moscow.

Officials in Ukraine have released horrifying footage showing a towering inferno issuing from a chimney stack at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, situated in a Russian-held area of southeast Ukraine. Videos circulating online show ominous black smoke pouring out of the nuclear site.

Following repeated warnings about the safety of the nuclear plant, and with the Chernobyl disaster burnt into the memory of many Ukrainians, the cause of the black clouds is macabre. Yevhen Yevtushenko, head of Nikopol’s military administration, claimed that Russian troops ignited car tyres in the cooling towers of Zaporizhzhia to simulate the appearance of a potentially catastrophic fire.

However, Russia has pointed the finger at Ukrainian forces. Yevhen Balytskyi, the Russia-appointed governor of the occupied Zaporizhzhia region, accused Ukrainian forces of shelling the plant and causing the fire, but failed to provide any evidence to support his claim.

Vladimir Rogov, a local official installed by Russia, claimed that the power plant was hit by a “kamikaze drone.” The plant is the largest nuclear facility in Ukraine and the whole of Europe.

This incident comes six days after Ukraine launched an unexpected military incursion into Russia’s Kursk border region. The incursion started on Tuesday, with up to 1,000 troops entering the Kursk region. This marks the largest attack since Moscow initiated its invasion in 2022.

Source: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/ukraines-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-plant-engulfed-33442411

Setting out to prove that topping Paris isn’t mission impossible, Los Angeles rolled out a skydiving Tom Cruise, Grammy winner Billie Eilish and other stars on Sunday as it took over Olympic hosting duties from the French capital, which closed out its 2024 Games just as they started — with joy and panache.

Capping two and a half extraordinary weeks of Olympic sports and emotion, Paris’ boisterous, star-studded closing ceremony in France’s national stadium mixed unbridled celebration with a somber call for peace from International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach.

Following in Paris’ footsteps in 2028 promises to be a challenge: It made spectacular use of its cityscape for its first Games in 100 years, with the Eiffel Tower and other iconic monuments becoming Olympic stars in their own right as they served as backdrops and venues for medal-winning feats.

But the City of Angels, like the City of Light, showed that it, too, holds some aces.

Cruise — in his Ethan Hunt persona — wowed by descending from the top of the stadium to electric guitar “Mission: Impossible” riffs. Once his feet were back on the ground — and after shaking hands with enthralled athletes — he took the Olympic flag from star gymnast Simone Biles, fixed it to the back of a motorcycle and roared out of the arena.

The appetite-whetting message was clear: Los Angeles 2028 promises to be an eye-opener, too.

Still, this was largely Paris’ night — its opportunity for one final party. And what a party it was. Thousands of athletes danced and sang the night away — reveling in the artistic show that celebrated Olympic themes and its firework flourishes.

Even Bach got the party bug, jokingly calling the Paris Games “Seine-sational” — a nod to the Seine River that, despite water quality concerns, staged Olympic triathlon and marathon swimming and the wacky and wonderful opening ceremony.

At what will be his last Games after announcing his intention to step down next year, Bach also made a somber appeal for ”a culture of peace” in a war-torn world.

Former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, who was also one of the most influential early Google employees, has died at the age of 56 according to posts shared online by her husband Dennis Troper and Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Friday night.

Wojicki led YouTube for nearly ten years and was one of the only women to hold the CEO role at a big tech company in Silicon Valley.

Wojcicki’s husband Dennis Troper wrote on Facebook early Friday night, “It is with profound sadness that I share the news of Susan Wojcicki passing. My beloved wife of 26 years and mother to our five children left us today after 2 years of living with non-small cell lung cancer.”

Pichai confirmed the death and cancer condition in a post on social media Friday, writing that he was “unbelievably saddened” by the loss.

In a note sent to employees, Pichai described Wojcicki as “one of the most active and vibrant people I have ever met. Her loss is devastating for all of us who know and love her, for the thousands of Googlers she led over the years, and for millions of people all over the world who looked up to her, benefited from her advocacy and leadership, and felt the impact of the incredible things she created at Google, YouTube, and beyond.

“Susan’s journey, from the garage she rented to Larry and Sergey … to leading teams across consumer products and building our Ads business … to becoming the CEO of YouTube, one of the world’s most significant platforms, is inspiring by any measure. But she didn’t stop there. As one of the earliest Googlers — and the first to take maternity leave — Susan used her position to build a better workplace for everyone. And in the years that followed, her advocacy around parental leave set a new standard for businesses everywhere. Susan was also deeply passionate about education. She realized early on that YouTube could be a learning platform for the world and championed ‘edutubers’ — especially those who extended the reach of STEM education to underserved communities.”

Wojcicki, 56, joined YouTube as CEO in 2014. She stepped down from her role in February 2023, saying she’d continue working with YouTube teams, coaching members and meeting with creators.

She helped to build Google from its earliest days into a tech titan, and is credited with shepherding some of its most successful products.

She let Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, work out of her Menlo Park, California, home upon founding Google. Page and Brin rented the garage space for $1,700 a month from her. Wojcicki was working in the marketing department at Intel at the time.

Upon joining Google in 1999 as the company’s 16th employee, Wojcicki oversaw the design and build of Google’s advertising and analytics products for 14 years. She played a crucial role in developing Google’s advertising business, including co-creating AdSense, one of the company’s most successful products.

In 2006, she advocated for Google’s then-$1.65 billion acquisition of YouTube.

“The founders trust Susan maybe more than anybody on the planet,” Patrick Keane, an early Google sales director, said in the 2022 book “Like, Comment, Subscribe: Inside YouTube’s Chaotic Rise to World Domination.” “You could never get Susan rattled, no matter how challenging the moment was.”

“When people couldn’t get him to see reason, she always could,” said former Google director and early Silicon Valley workplace influencer Kim Scott in the book as “a Larry whisperer,” referring to Google co-founder Larry Page.

During Wojcicki’s tenure as YouTube CEO, she oversaw the company’s rapid expansion, helping turn it into the largest video platform in the world. YouTube now has more than 2.5 billion monthly active users and more than 500 hours of content are uploaded to the platform every minute, according to the company.

The announcement of her death led to an outpouring of condolences from a wide range of tech and venture capital leaders on Friday night.

“I had the good fortune of meeting Susan 17 years ago when she was the architect of the DoubleClick acquisition,” wrote current YouTube CEO Neal Mohan in a social media post Friday night. “Her legacy lives on in everything she touched at Google and YouTube.”

“She taught me the business and helped me navigate a growing, fairly chaotic organization at the beginning of my career in tech,” said former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg in a social media post. “As one of the most important women leaders in tech — the first to lead a major company— she was committed to expanding opportunities for women throughout Silicon Valley. I don’t believe my career would be what it is today without her unwavering support.”

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/08/10/former-youtube-ceo-and-silicon-valley-trailblazer-susan-wojcicki-has-died-at-age-56.html

THE world’s loneliest house sits on a remote island in the middle of the Atlantic ocean with only the occasional passing ship for company.

Shrouded in mystery, many chilling theories about the property have emerged – including a rumour it was built for a zombie apocalypse.

The white building has stood strong on the side of a green hill on Eon island for nearly 100 years despite being pelted by the elements.

Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, the picturesque site – which is the most northeastern of the Vestmannaeyjar archipelago cluster was home to a handful of families.

But in the 1930s the few remaining residents upped sticks and moved from the rocky 4.5 square kilometre landscape to the mainland in search of a better life.

Since then, the remote island has been completely abandoned and the lonely house has sparked a number of theories – some wackier than others.

One rumour is that it was built by an eccentric billionaire who planned to retreat to Elliðaey in the event of a zombie apocalypse.

Others suggested it was the property of a fanatically religious hermit.

It was even speculated at one point that singing sensation Bjork owned the strange house and was even in negotiations with the government to buy the island.

Sadly, the reality is far less exciting.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/12163458/worlds-loneliest-house-remote-isolated-island-apocalypse

In its first formal acknowledgement of the issue, Embassy says efforts are on to discharge Indians from service

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has cancelled a planned holiday to focus on his government’s response to a series of racist riots that targeted Muslims and migrants, a Downing Street source said.
Thousands of police officers remained on duty over the weekend in case violence flared again although for a fourth day in a row on Saturday counter-protesters far outnumbered anti-migration demonstrators in several towns and cities.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Starmer would no longer be going on holiday next week.
His government has moved quickly to speed up the processing of people arrested and charged in relation to the riots.
On Friday, officials said 741 arrests had been made since the unrest broke out and 302 people had been charged.

Police have said arrests are likely to continue for months.
On Saturday, the National Police Chiefs’ Council, representing police leaders, said specialist officers had been ordered to pursue online offenders and influencers responsible for spreading hate and inciting violence on a large scale.

An Israeli airstrike on a Gaza City school compound housing displaced Palestinian families killed around 100 people, the Gaza Civil Emergency Service said on Saturday, while Israel said the toll was inflated and 19 militants were among the dead.
Video from the site showed body parts scattered among rubble and more bodies being carried away and covered by blankets. Empty food tins lay in a puddle of blood, and burned mattresses and a child’s doll lay in the debris.

Reiterating U.S. calls, Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate running for election in November, told reporters: “We need a hostage deal and a ceasefire.”

Gaza’s Civil Emergency Service, which has a credible record in stating casualty numbers, and the Hamas-run government media office said in separate statements that the complex had been attacked while its occupants were performing dawn prayers.

“So far, there are more than 93 martyrs, including 11 children and six women. There are unidentified remains,” Palestinian civil defence spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal told a televised press conference.

Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have sought shelter in Gaza’s schools, most of which have been closed since Israel’s war against Hamas began.

Around 350 families had been sheltering at the compound, Bassal said – some of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by Israel’s onslaught on Gaza.

The upper floor housing families and the lower floor, used as a mosque, were both hit, he said.

The Israeli military said the death toll was inflated.

“The strike was carried out using three precise munitions, which can not cause the amount of damage that is being reported,” the military said in a statement.

It added that no severe damage was caused to the compound, and provided aerial photos and videos which it said proved this.

The compound, and the mosque that was struck within it, served as an active Hamas and Islamic Jihad military facility,” Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said on X, without providing evidence.

An Israeli army official said the part of the mosque that was struck was reserved for men.

Israel says Palestinian militants embed themselves among Gaza’s civilians, operating from within schools, hospitals and designated humanitarian zones – which Hamas and its allies deny.

Hamas said the strike was a horrific crime and a serious escalation. Izzat El-Reshiq of Hamas’ political office said the dead did not include a single combatant.

A separate strike on Saturday killed three Palestinians in Al-Nuseirat in central Gaza and another killed one person in nearby Deir Al-Balah, medics said.

Later in the day an Israeli strike killed three Palestinians in Rafah, near the border with Egypt, medics said.

Separately, the Israeli military said the head of general security in Hamas’ military wing, Walid Alsousi, had been killed in southern Gaza. There was no immediate Hamas comment.

NEW ROUND OF CEASEFIRE TALKS

With regional tensions high after the July 31 assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, U.S. President Joe Biden urged Iran not to attack Israel. Iran, which supports Hamas, has blamed Israel and vowed to “punish” it. Israel has not confirmed or denied responsibility.

When a reporter asked on Saturday for his message to Iran, Biden mouthed the word “don’t”.

The Iranian-backed Hezbollah armed group in Lebanon said it launched a drone attack against military positions in northern Israel. Israel’s military said unspecified damage was reported but no casualties and that it struck several Hezbollah military structures in southern Lebanon.

The White House said it was “deeply concerned” about the Gaza school compound strike and asked Israeli officials for further details.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on X that he was horrified by the images from the school.

A spokesperson for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, urged Israel’s ally Washington to end “blind support that leads to the killing of thousands of innocent civilians, including children, women, and the elderly”.

A Hamas official told Reuters the group was studying a new ceasefire proposal for discussion but did not elaborate.

Speaking to Al-Jazeera television, Khalil Al-Hayya, the head of the Hamas team for the indirect ceasefire talks with Israel, said statements of condemnation were no longer sufficient.

“Dismiss (Israeli) ambassadors, close down embassies and sever ties with the occupation,” he said.

Egypt, the United States and Qatar have scheduled a new round of ceasefire negotiations for Thursday, as fears grow of a broader conflict involving Iran and Hezbollah.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has said he will not end the war until Hamas no longer poses a threat to Israelis, said he would send a delegation.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich pushed back against the White House’s accusation on Friday that he was “dead wrong” in asserting that the ceasefire deal on the table would be a surrender to Hamas.

In a post on X, Smotrich, one of Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners, thanked the U.S. for its support for Israel but insisted it “will not submit to any external pressure that would harm Israel’s security.”

Israel launched its assault on Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/more-than-100-palestinians-killed-israeli-strike-targeted-school-gaza-2024-08-10/

Donald Trump’s U.S. presidential campaign said on Saturday some of its internal communications were hacked and blamed the Iranian government, citing past hostilities between Trump and Iran without providing direct evidence.
The Republican’s campaign statement came shortly after news website Politico reported it had begun receiving emails in July from an anonymous source offering authentic documents from inside Trump’s operation, including a report about running mate JD Vance’s “potential vulnerabilities.”

“These documents were obtained illegally from foreign sources hostile to the United States, intended to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our Democratic process,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement.
Late on Saturday, Trump posted on his Truth Social app that Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab had just informed the campaign that Iran had hacked one of its websites. He cast blame on Iran, adding they were “only able to get publicly available information.” He did not elaborate further on the hack.

Reuters has not independently verified the identity of the alleged hackers or their motivation.
The Trump campaign referred to a Friday report from Microsoft researchers that said Iranian government-tied hackers tried breaking into the account of a “high-ranking official” on a U.S. presidential campaign in June. The hackers had taken over an account belonging to a former political advisor and then used it to target the official, the report said. That report did not provide further details on the targets’ identities.

Two ancient North American structures collapsed within just nine days of one another — with one native tribe warning the “bad omen” points to impending doom.

The Double Arch, a massive geological feature that draws thousands of tourists to Utah’s Glen Canyon National Recreation Area each year, spontaneously crumbled Wednesday, the National Parks Service said.

The arch, also known as the Hole in the Roof and the Toilet Bowl, was 190 million years old.

Less than two weeks earlier, a pyramid at the Ihuatzio Archaeological Zone in the Mexican state of Michoacán partially buckled under intense rain.

An 18-year-old Iraqi national was detained in Vienna in connection with investigations into an alleged plot to attack a Taylor Swift concert in the Austrian capital, Austria’s interior minister said on Friday.
The Iraqi comes from the same circle as the main suspect, a 19-year-old Austrian with North Macedonian roots, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said.
The Iraqi suspect swore allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group on Aug. 6, but it remains unclear whether he had a direct link to the planned attack, Karner said.

More suspects will be questioned and properties searched as investigators continue to look into the plot, he added.
The main suspect, who had also vowed loyalty to IS, was planning a lethal assault among the estimated 20,000 “Swiftie” fans set to gather outside Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium, prompting the cancellation of all three shows due to security concerns.
The 19-year-old, who quit his job less than two weeks before the planned attack, saying he “had big plans”, has made a full confession in custody, according to authorities.

Two other Austrian youths aged 17 and 15 were detained on Wednesday over the alleged plot.

The 17-year-old, who had been given a job with a company that was providing services at the stadium, has so far refused to give evidence, according to Karner.
The boy, who also appears to have been radicalised, was already known to authorities.
The 15-year-old continues to be questioned intensively by police, Karner added.

Long-time Bangladeshi leader Sheikh Hasina had not resigned as prime minister before fleeing this week to India as anti-government protesters marched on her official residence, her son and adviser told Reuters early on Saturday.
Hasina has been sheltering in New Delhi since Monday following an uprising that killed about 300 people, many of them students, ending her uninterrupted rule of 15 years in the country of 170 million people.

Justin Bieber scolded a group of eager teens Thursday when they wouldn’t leave him alone at a Los Angeles hotel.

A TikTok video recorded in the lobby of West Hollywood’s Waldorf Astoria shows the 30-year-old pop star asking the eight teenagers — who were there for a bar mitzvah, per TMZ — what they thought was so funny.

“Is this funny to you guys? This is funny to you guys?” he asked the giggling adolescents, who were all filming him.

He then told the unyielding kids to “get out of here” as hotel staff ushered them back to their party.

An eyewitness told TMZ that Bieber was much more calm, cool and collected when he first asked the teens to leave him alone but got frustrated when they continued to swarm him.

He was reportedly concerned for his heavily pregnant wife Hailey Bieber, who was about to arrive at the rizy hotel to meet him for lunch.

Reps for the “Baby” singer did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment.

Hailey, of course, is pregnant with their first child — the gender of which has not been revealed.

She and Justin announced their pregnancy in May via a carousel of photos and a video showing them renewing their vows in Hawaii.

During their ceremony, 27-year-old Hailey put her growing baby bump on display in a form-fitting, white lace dress.

While the model has remained fairly tight-lipped about her pregnancy (though she did reveal her unique pregnancy craving and painful symptom), she has not been shy about showing off her growing baby bump.

She has celebrated her changing belly over the last few months in a wide range of fun attire, from a bedazzled butterfly crop top to a flowy Isabel Marant babydoll dress for her recent shoot with W magazine.

During the cover shoot interview, she revealed she waited until she was six months along to announce the baby news because her bump “stayed small for a long time.”

Source: https://pagesix.com/2024/08/09/parents/justin-bieber-yells-at-teens-over-concern-for-safety-of-pregnant-wife-hailey/

The Biden administration released new priorities today for safeguarding clean energy infrastructure from possible cyberattacks.

Smart grids and EVs can have big benefits when it comes to saving energy and cutting down pollution. But as more pieces of our lives become electric and digital, new cybersecurity challenges arise. That’s why the Biden administration is releasing guidance today on how to keep new parts of our energy infrastructure safe from harm.

“We have a once in a generation opportunity to refresh our infrastructure — to get a bit of a mulligan on some parts of our infrastructure that were never designed for the level of digital / physical convergence that our world is hurtling towards,” Harry Krejsa, assistant national cyber director, says.

In a fact sheet shared exclusively with The Verge before being released publicly, the Biden administration homes in on five technologies it deems critical to the near-term success of a clean energy transition and that deserve extra attention when it comes to cybersecurity.

At the top of the list are batteries needed to store renewable energy and make sure it’s available even when sunshine fades and winds die down. Electric vehicles and charging equipment are also a priority, along with the batteries that power them. Then there are energy management systems for buildings — think smart thermostats, rooftop solar systems, and even smart lighting systems. So-called distributed control systems are another related priority. That encompasses controls for community microgrids and virtual power plants that harness the collective energy storage of fleets of EV or solar batteries. Inverters and power conversion equipment round out the list.

“Digitization cuts both ways,” Krejsa says. On the one hand, it gives home and business owners and grid operators more control. It’s easier to adjust EV charging to specific times when renewable energy is more abundant or to turn up thermostats to save energy and avoid power outages during heatwaves. But those tools can become weak points to exploit without robust protections in place.

President Joe Biden has already had to cope with criminal hackers targeting energy infrastructure during his term in office. A cyberattack in 2021 shut down the Colonial Pipeline, the largest pipeline system for refined oil products in the US. The ransomware attack took the pipeline offline for five days, leading to gasoline shortages, higher prices at the pump, and gridlocked traffic outside of gas stations.

The Biden administration is also worried about state-backed threats. The Department of Homeland Security named cyber threats posed by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) a top priority for protecting critical infrastructure through 2025 in a guidance document it published in June. PRC-sponsored cyber group Volt Typhoon has “compromised the IT environments of multiple critical infrastructure organizations” including energy and transportation systems, according to a Department of Homeland Security advisory issued in February.

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/9/24216329/cybersecurity-clean-energy-biden-administration-priorities

The King praises the community spirit “that had countered the aggression and criminality from a few with the compassion and resilience of the many”.

The King has spoken of how he has been “greatly encouraged by the many examples of community spirit that had countered the aggression and criminality from a few” – as he reflected on the recent violent disorder seen across the country.

On Friday evening, the monarch held a phone audience with the prime minister and leading police chiefs after the palace confirmed earlier in the week that he has been receiving daily updates on the situation.

A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said the King spoke to Sir Keir Starmer, along with holding a joint call with the chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, Chief Constable Gavin Stephens, and UK Gold Commander Ben Harrington, chief constable of Essex.

This was said to be in addition to private calls he had made throughout the week concerning the events and “in particular” the impact they had on affected communities.

“In these calls, His Majesty was updated on the current situation and expressed his heartfelt thanks to the police and emergency services for all they are doing to restore peace in those areas that have been affected by violent disorder,” the spokesperson continued.

At this time of year, due to summer holidays, there is not a regular weekly audience between the prime minister and the monarch, not least because by convention these would always happen in person, so this phone call specifically took place so they could discuss in detail the recent riots and the issues they have raised.

Sharing the King’s response to recent events, the spokesperson added: “The King shared how he had been greatly encouraged by the many examples of community spirit that had countered the aggression and criminality from a few with the compassion and resilience of the many.

“It remains His Majesty’s hope that shared values of mutual respect and understanding will continue to strengthen and unite the nation.”

Devon and Cornwall Police said it had been notified of a crowd surge at Boardmasters music festival, which it said “left a small number of attendees injured”.

Several people have been injured after a crowd surge at a music festival in Newquay, the police have said.

Devon and Cornwall Police said it had been notified of a crowd surge at Boardmasters music festival, which it said “left a small number of attendees injured”.

As Donald Trump adjusts to the reality of his new race against Kamala Harris, his campaign is counting on younger male voters to give him the edge in November in a presidential contest they insist is his to lose.

Trump and his Republican campaign now face a dramatically different race than the one just three weeks ago, before President Joe Biden abandoned his bid. While they acknowledge polls have tightened with Harris as the Democratic nominee, they maintain that the fundamentals of the race have not changed, with voters deeply sour over the direction of the country, and particularly the economy.

“What has happened is we are witnessing a kind of out-of-body experience where we have suspended reality for a couple of weeks,” Trump campaign pollster Tony Fabrizio told reporters during a briefing in West Palm Beach on Thursday of the current state of the race.

It was a message echoed by Trump during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago club.

“The honeymoon period’s gonna end,” he insisted while minimizing the size of the crowds Harris has been drawing and lashing out at his new opponent. “Let me tell you: We have the enthusiasm.”

Campaign officials acknowledge that Harris had energized the Democratic base and that her team has taken the lead on fundraising. But they insist they have more than enough to do what they need to win. Trump’s campaign and its affiliates reported raising $138.7 million in July — far less than the eye-popping $310 million sum reported by Harris. Her campaign began August with more cash on hand.

With less than three months to go, senior campaign officials are focused on a group of persuadable voters that they believe is key to victory. The targets, which they say comprise about 11% of the electorate in key battleground states, skew younger and are disproportionately male and moderate. While more than half are white, they include more nonwhites, especially Asians and Hispanics, than the broader electorate.

They are especially frustrated by the economy, including their personal finances, and are pessimistic things will improve.

“It’s a very narrow band of people that we are trying to move,” Fabrizio said of the efforts. Since these voters don’t engage with traditional news outlets and have traded cable for streaming services, the campaign has been working to reach them in novel ways.

“There is a reason why we’re doing podcasts. There is a reason why we’re doing Adin Ross,” Fabrizio said, referring to the controversial internet personality who ended his interview with the former president earlier this week by giving him a Tesla Cybertruck wrapped in images of Trump raising his fist after his assassination attempt.

“There is a reason why we are doing all of those things. You know what these people pay attention to? MMA, Adin Ross,” he said. “MMA” refers to mixed martial arts.

Trump campaign officials acknowledge the Democratic base is now motivated in a way it wasn’t when Biden was the nominee. Harris, they say, will likely do better than Biden would have with Black voters, especially women and older men.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/trump-harris-campaign-persuadable-voters-5c8717db7023ccaf793562fde90bb65a

On the face of it, the earthquake that struck southern Japan on Thursday was not a big deal.
The magnitude 7.1 quake did little damage and the tsunami warning was quickly scaled back.
But the earthquake was swiftly followed by a warning – one which had never been given before.
There was, Japan’s meteorological agency said, an increased risk of a “major earthquake”. Japan’s prime minister has cancelled a planned trip to a summit in Central Asia to be in the country for the next week.
For many in Japan, thoughts turned to the “big one” – a once-in-a-century quake that many had grown up being warned about.
Worst-case scenarios predict more than 300,000 dead, with a wall of water potentially 30m (100ft) striking along the East Asian nation’s Pacific coast.
Which sounds terrifying. And yet, the overwhelming feeling that Masayo Oshio was left with was confusion.
“I am baffled with the advisory and don’t know what to make of it,” she admitted to the BBC from her home in Yokohama, south of the capital, Tokyo.
“We know we cannot predict earthquakes and we have been told the big one is coming one day for so long, so I kept asking myself: is this it? But it does not seem real to me.”
So, what is the “big one”, can it be predicted – and is it likely to strike any time soon?

Japan is a country used to earthquakes. It sits on the Ring of Fire and, as a result, experiences about 1,500 earthquakes a year.

The vast majority do little damage, but there are some – like the one which struck in 2011 measuring magnitude 9.0, sending a tsunami into the north-east coast and killing more than 18,000 people.

But the one that authorities fear may strike in this more densely populated region to the south could – in the absolute worst-case scenario – be even more deadly.

Earthquakes along the Nankai Trough – an area of seismic activity which stretches along Japan’s Pacific coast – have been already been responsible for thousands of deaths.

In 1707, a rupture along its entire 600km length caused the second-biggest earthquake ever recorded in Japan and was followed by the eruption of Mount Fuji.

These so-called “megathrust” earthquakes tend to strike every hundred years or so, often in pairs: the last ones were in 1944 and 1946.

Experts say there is a 70% to 80% chance of a magnitude 8 or 9 quake striking somewhere along the trough in the next 30 years, with worst-case scenarios suggesting it would cause trillions in damage, and potentially kill hundreds of thousands.

And this long-anticipated event is, according to geologists Kyle Bradley and Judith A Hubbard, “the original definition of the ‘Big One’”.

“The history of great earthquakes at Nankai is convincingly scary” so as to be concerning, the pair acknowledged in their Earthquake Insights newsletter on Thursday.

But can they actually predict an earthquake?

Not according to Robert Geller, professor emeritus of seismology at the University of Tokyo.

“The issuance of the warning yesterday has almost nothing to do with science,” he told the BBC.

This, he argues, is because while earthquakes are known to be a “clustered phenomenon”, it is “not possible to tell in advance whether a quake is a foreshock or an aftershock”.

Indeed, only about 5% of earthquakes are “foreshocks”, say Bradley and Hubbard.

However, the 2011 earthquake was preceded by a 7.2 magnitude foreshock, they note – one which was largely ignored.

The warning system was drawn up after 2011 in an attempt to prevent a disaster of this scale again, and Thursday was the first time the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) used it.

But, crucially, while it told people to be prepared, it did not tell anyone to evacuate. Indeed, they were keen to play down any massive imminent risk.

“The likelihood of a new major earthquake is higher than normal, but this is not an indication that a major earthquake will definitely occur,” the JMA said.

Even so, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced he had cancelled his plans to travel out of Japan to “ensure our preparations and communications are in order”.

He added that he feared people would be “feeling anxious”, given it was the first time such an advisory had been issued.

Masayo Oshio does not seem to be, however.

“I feel that the government is overplaying it,” she said.

Prof Geller was more scathing, saying the advisory was “not a useful piece of information”.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2en927054o

Video shared on social media showed what appeared to be the ATR-made plane spinning out of control as it plunged down behind a cluster of trees near houses, followed by a large plume of black smoke.

A regional turboprop plane carrying 61 people crashed near Sao Paulo in Brazil on Friday, killing all on board, local officials near the crash site said.
Video shared on social media showed what appeared to be the ATR-made plane spinning out of control as it plunged down behind a cluster of trees near houses, followed by a large plume of black smoke.

City officials at Valinhos, near Vinhedo, said there were no survivors and only one home in the local condominium complex had been damaged while none of the residents were hurt.

“I have to be the bearer of really bad news,” said President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva speaking at an event shortly after the crash. He asked for a minute of silence for the victims of the crash.

Airline Voepass said the plane, which had taken off from Cascavel, in the state of Parana, bound for Sao Paulo’s main international airport, crashed in the town of Vinhedo, about 80 km (50 miles) northwest of Sao Paulo.

The unlisted airline said it could not provide further information on what caused the plane, which had a PS-VPB registration, to crash.

Source: https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/plane-with-62-on-board-crashes-in-brazil-6303315

The former glamour model was photographed on Thursday evening next to a police van with protective headwear around her surgery wounds. It is understood she had been in Turkey.

Katie Price has been arrested at Heathrow Airport after failing to attend a court hearing relating to her bankruptcies.

Price, 46, from Surrey, was arrested at the airport on her return to the UK.

The former glamour model has been remanded in custody at a west London police station to appear at the Royal Courts of Justice on Friday.

On Thursday evening, the mother of five was photographed next to a police van with protective headwear around her surgery wounds.

It is understood she had been in Turkey for surgery after photos emerged of her at a hotel swimming pool with bandages on her bloodied face.

In April, Price was also told she could be arrested if she kept missing hearings.

Insolvency and Companies Court Judge Catherine Burton issued an arrest warrant in July, saying that Price had been given “very clear warnings” that she must appear.

Price was due to face questions about her finances from barristers – she was declared bankrupt in November 2019 and again in March this year.

Last week, Price insisted she was “not running from matters” and posted a statement on Instagram saying she could not attend because she was filming abroad.

In a lengthy post online, Price claimed the media was trying to cause “continued humiliation to myself and family” but was “neither embarrassed or ashamed” adding that: “I have to continue in my work in order to satisfy these bankruptcy orders.”

Issuing the arrest warrant, Judge Burton said Price had not explained her absence and that “she has no real excuse”, adding: “The reason for her absence today is irrelevant.”

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/katie-price-arrested-at-heathrow-airport-after-failing-to-attend-court-13193696

The Los Angeles spa worker admits the charge in hopes of getting a lower sentence, according to her lawyer, but could face a decade-and-a-half in a penal colony.

A US-Russian woman who admitted giving around £40 to a charity supporting Ukraine could be jailed for up to 15 years, if prosecutors in Russia have their way, the country’s news agencies have said.

Ksenia Karelina was accused of treason for collecting money for Ukraine’s military when she was arrested in Yekaterinburg, in southwestern Russia, in February.

The 33-year-old admitted the charge at a closed trial in the city on Wednesday, news reports said.

News agency Interfax, quoting her lawyer Mikhail Mushalov, said prosecutors had called for a 15-year term in a penal colony, on Thursday.

Karelina, an amateur ballerina, was born in Russia but reportedly obtained US citizenship by marrying an American and moving to Los Angeles, where she worked in a spa.

Investigators brought the treason charge after discovering by searching her mobile phone that she made a $51 (£40) donation to Razom, a charity that provides aid to Ukraine, when Russia invaded its neighbour in February 2022.

She was visiting family in Russia when she was arrested, rights group The First Department said.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) claims she proactively collected money in the interests of one of the Ukrainian organisations.

It said the donation “was subsequently used to purchase tactical medical supplies, equipment, weapons, and ammunition for the Ukrainian armed forces”.

Vladimir Putin’s government has sharply cracked down on both dissent and criticism of the war since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Any perceived criticism of the Russian military is also banned, while it is felt by some that Moscow is targeting US nationals for arrest.

In the largest Russia-West prisoner exchange since the end of the Cold War, Russia last week released Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and American corporate security executive Paul Whelan, both of whom were imprisoned on espionage convictions.

They were joined by US-Russian dual national radio journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, who had been sentenced to six-and-a-half years for spreading “false information” about the Russian military.

Russia also released several prominent opposition figures who were imprisoned for criticising the Ukraine military operation.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/ksenia-karelina-ballerina-facing-up-to-15-years-in-russian-jail-for-donating-16340-to-ukraine-charity-13193404

The silhouette of a howling wolf was the latest in a series of animal images painted by anonymous artist Banksy across London this week.

A new Banksy animal artwork has been stolen by people wearing masks within hours of being unveiled.

The silhouette of a howling wolf, painted on to a satellite dish on the flat roof of a graffiti-covered shuttered building in Rye Lane, Peckham, southeast London, was revealed on Thursday – the fourth in a series of animal images that have popped up across London this week.

Photographs of the artwork, one taken in daylight and one in the evening, were shared on the official Banksy Instagram account.

But not long afterwards, people wearing balaclavas were seen approaching the building with a ladder, before climbing up and removing the dish.

Images taken at the scene show the individuals, one wearing denim shorts and the other dressed in tracksuit bottoms, then walking away with the artwork.

Metropolitan Police said the satellite dish had been reported stolen within hours of being unveiled.

“We were called to reports of a stolen satellite dish containing artwork at 1.52pm on Thursday, 8 August in Rye Lane, Peckham,” the force said. “There have been no arrests. Inquiries continue.”

Confirmed Banksy images have appeared in different locations across the capital every day so far this week.

The first was an ibex goat just above a CCTV camera, which appeared near Kew Green in west London on Monday, followed by a stencil image of two elephants greeting one another from bricked-up windows in Chelsea on Tuesday.

Yesterday, three monkeys appeared swinging from a train bridge over Brick Lane in the east of the city, not far from Shoreditch High Street.

The primates have been associated with the Japanese proverb “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” – although in Banksy’s work they are not covering their eyes, ears or mouths.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/banksy-reveals-howling-wolf-image-in-peckham-the-fourth-animal-artwork-in-four-days-13193290

Two teenagers, aged 19 and 17, were arrested over plans to carry out a terror attack at a Taylor Swift concert set to take place in Vienna this weekend.

The teenage suspects in a plot to carry out a terror attack at now-cancelled Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna were planning to use knives or homemade explosives to kill as many people as possible, according to officials.

A 19-year-old main suspect was aiming to “kill himself and a large crowd at the concert either today or tomorrow,” the head of the Directorate of State Security and Intelligence, Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, said.

The suspect, who is said to have North Macedonian roots, wanted to use the weapons outside the Ernst Happel Stadium to kill as many people as possible, Mr Haijawi-Pirchner said during a news conference on Thursday.

What security measures are in place for Wembley gigs?

He said the suspect was “clearly radicalised in the direction of the Islamic State (IS) and thinks it is right to kill infidels”.

A blurred image of the man brandishing two large knives was also shown at the news conference.

A second suspect, said to be a 17-year-old Austrian citizen with a Turkish and Croatian background, had started a job at the concert venue days before the Taylor Swift shows were cancelled over the terror threat, according to officials.

He was employed a few days ago by a facilities company providing services at the venue during the concerts, according to officials. He was arrested by special police forces near the stadium.

The main suspect was also arrested.

No other suspects are being sought, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said. However, a 15-year-old, who had been in contact with both suspects, was also questioned by police.

London ‘going to carry on’

Policing minister Diana Johnson said Scotland Yard would look at “all the intelligence” ahead of Swift returning to the UK for a series of concerts next week.

The Metropolitan Police said there was nothing to indicate the events in Vienna would have an impact on Swift’s upcoming show at London’s Wembley Stadium, due to take place over five nights starting on 15 August.

But a spokesperson added: “As always, we will continue to keep any new information under careful review.”

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said the city would “carry on” and host the events later this month.

When asked about the events in Austria, Mr Khan told Sky News: “We are a capital city, we are an international city, on a regular basis we host major events, whether it’s concerts – Bruce Springsteen was most recently at Wembley Stadium – we’re looking forward to welcoming Taylor Swift back.

“I’m currently at Stamford Bridge (Chelsea FC’s stadium). Every other week, there’s a game taking place. We have a huge amount of experience in policing these events, we’re never complacent, many lessons were learnt after the awful Manchester Arena attack.

“I’m sure Vienna has got its own reasons to cancel the Taylor Swift concerts, we’re going to carry on, working closely with police (and) ensuring that the Taylor Swift concerts can take place in London safely.”

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/teen-suspected-of-plotting-taylor-swift-concert-attack-carried-out-concrete-preparatory-actions-13193116

The carrier said affected customers who have already booked tickets to travel on the route will be offered a full refund.

British Airways (BA) has announced it is scrapping flights between London and Beijing.

The carrier said it was “pausing” its service from the end of October until at least November next year.

Flights to Shanghai and Hong Kong will continue, BA added.

It comes amid weaker demand and a ban on UK flights over Russian airspace, which has resulted in longer journey times on some routes.

Russia’s civil aviation authority introduced the restrictions in February 2022, in retaliation to a British ban on the country’s Aeroflot airline as part of sanctions related to the war in Ukraine.

Luis Gallego, the chief executive of BA’s parent company IAG, also warned earlier this month that the firm’s capacity in Asian markets was “very reduced”.

It is understood that the carrier could eventually resume flights to Beijing and will keep its current decision under review.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/british-airways-halts-flights-to-beijing-13193202

Earlier this week, Kristi Hovington and her family made the trip from their current home of Barcelona to celebrate their daughter’s 14th birthday with what promised to be an unforgettable night at one of Taylor Swift‘s “Eras Tour” shows in Vienna. Only, after a planned terrorist attack resulted in the arrest of two local teenagers and the subsequent cancellation of Swift’s three Austrian concerts, it ended in wasted airfare, sunk hotel costs and, of course, crushed dreams.

“Obviously, she was devastated when we heard the news last night,” Hovington tells Variety of her daughter, who’s an aspiring singer-songwriter. Hovington, an educator and a school librarian, was there with her partner, her daughter and her other two children. “There were a lot of tears shed in the hotel that we’re at. [Vienna] is almost entirely comprised of people from all over the world who came for the concert.”

Hovington, a native of Atlanta, Georgia, was one of the tens of thousands of attendees who descended upon the European city to witness the Eras tour, which has just five more dates slated for London next week before completing its overseas run. After news struck yesterday that the terrorist attack was thwarted and local promoter Barracuda Music canceled the performances, the streets of Vienna became something of a vigil for the Swifties who came together to mourn the loss — not just of the shows, but also the time and money spent to get there.

But the cancellations also had an unexpected effect, unifying those Swifties in a time of danger and uncertainty. Fans filled the streets in photos and videos posted on social media, and local churches and business came out in support of the Vienna Swifties.

On social media, attendees documented chalk drawings on the pavement outside of the stadium where Swift was slated to perform that referenced Swift lyrics: “Fuck the patriarchy (and terrorists),” “This is why we can’t have nice things.”

Photos and videos showed fans congregating on Vienna’s Corneliusgasse due to its similarity to “Cornelia Street,” Swift’s song that was included on 2019’s “Lover.” Throngs of people rallied together to sing “Cruel Summer,” an ironic nod to their current situation. One couple even got engaged on the streets while the crowd belted out “Love Story.”

“This [is] happening right now in Cornelia Street,” wrote one on X. “We create our own safe spaces you stupid spider boys can’t destroy.”

Local establishments came out in support of Swifties. “My daughter heard a Taylor Swift song playing in the street, and she just stopped,” says Hovington. “There was this sign outside of this building. We didn’t realize it was a church, but there was a sign that said, ‘Dear Swifties, we sympathize with you. You’re welcome to come and sing your sadness away.’”

From Car Throttle to Donut, countless YouTube creators are fleeing. But is this a new trend or a tale as old as venture capital?

Where people once got their car news, reviews, and opinions from a few recognizable media empires, today, that’s all changing. An explosion of YouTube channels has been seeing momentum as brands that aren’t just covering car culture but defining it.

This has caused no shortage of consternation for those older, established brands, but lately, even upstart car YouTube channels have had troubles. They’re suffering through a phenomenon playing out across countless “Why I Quit” videos that have collectively served up more beef than the combined discographies of Drake and Kendrick Lamar.

Many of the world’s most popular creators are fleeing the channels they helped make famous. They’re going solo, often not long after those former channels received high-dollar acquisitions. According to endless ponderings and pontifications from YouTubers, influencers, and commenters, profit-minded venture capitalists are sucking the life out of some of the internet’s most popular channels.

Private equity certainly has been blamed for destroying some of our most beloved things over the years, from RadioShack to Toys R Us, but is there something special afoot here in the world of automotive media? Or is this just a new chord added to a familiar and unpleasant tune?

Early momentum
Much of the talk lately has been about Donut Media, a YouTube channel launched by Matt Levin in 2015 that’s been shedding talent left and right. Boasting nearly 9 million subscribers, Donut has had numerous one-off viral videos over the years, but its ongoing series “Up to Speed,” hosted by James Pumphrey, has been a consistent hit. Donut Media was acquired by private equity firm Recurrent Ventures in 2021.

But this trend, such as it is, reaches far beyond that one channel. It’s a little tricky to say exactly when this all kicked off, but according to Tiernan A.I., former technical producer at Donut, the canary in the coal mine was Alex Kersten.

Kersten was a major contributor at Car Throttle, an automotive website that launched in 2009 and, since kicking off its YouTube channel in 2011, has grown to over 3 million subscribers.

But Kersten left the site back in 2022, after a decade there, to launch his own YouTube channel, Autoalex Cars. Two other popular hosts, Ethan Smale and Jack Joy, also left Car Throttle quite publicly in April of this year.

“I feel like that was kind of the first big one, where it was someone who not only left but is also publicly expressing some of the reasons why they left,” A.I. said.

Kersten’s departure came three years after Car Throttle was acquired by Dennis Publishing, which, at the time, also owned major British motoring publications Auto Express and Evo. In 2023, Car Throttle was acquired again, this time by Crash Media Group.

“Then there’s sort of like this slow percolation until you get the situation at Hoonigan,” A.I. said. Hoonigan, the brand made famous by Ken Block, was acquired by aftermarket wheel company Wheel Pros in 2021, itself backed by the private equity group Clearlake Capital. Two years later, after pruning away much of the enthusiast-minded content that formerly defined Hoonigan, Wheel Pros rebranded itself as Hoonigan.

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/7/24214600/car-youtube-quit-donut-car-throttle-hoonigan

ABC News has said it will host the first debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris on 10 September.
The network confirmed the showdown in a post on X, formerly Twitter, after Trump said on Thursday that he would be open to debating his Democratic rival multiple times before the November election.
“We think we should do three debates,” Trump said, suggesting two additional debates that he said would be hosted by Fox News and NBC, respectively.
Ms Harris confirmed that she will attend the ABC debate while at an event in Michigan on Thursday, and said later that she would be open to additional debates.

Officials said woman was found entangled in the conveyor belt system used to move baggage

An investigation is ongoing after a woman was killed in a freak accident involving a baggage carousel inside a restricted area of Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.

Around 7:45 a.m. Thursday, an airport employee was inspecting a baggage handling area in Terminal 5 when the dead woman was found, Fox 32 reported.

The woman, who investigators believe is 57, reportedly entered the restricted area just before 2:30 a.m. and was wearing flip-flops. She was found entangled in the conveyor belt system used to move baggage, according to the fire department.

Security footage only captured her walking into the area but did not show how she died, according to The Associated Press.

The woman was pronounced dead at the airport.

Police and fire crews responded and noted that while the area is not highly secured, passengers are not supposed to be there.

Chicago Police are investigating the incident.

The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office has not yet released the identity of the woman or her cause of death.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/us/woman-dies-chicagos-ohare-airport-after-getting-caught-baggage-carousel-restricted-area

Muhammad Yunus sworn in as head of Bangladesh’s interim government, forming a Cabinet of 16 members mainly from civil society and student leaders.

Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus was sworn in as the head of Bangladesh’s interim government on Thursday evening, following the ouster of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

President Mohammed Shahabuddin administered the oath at the presidential palace in Dhaka, in a ceremony attended by diplomats, civil society members, top business leaders, and members of the former opposition party. Notably, no representatives from Sheikh Hasina’s party were present.

Muhammad Yunus, now serving as chief adviser—a role equivalent to prime minister—leads an interim Cabinet of 16 members, mostly drawn from civil society, including two student protest leaders. The Cabinet was selected through discussions among student leaders, civil society, and the military earlier this week.

Bangladesh interim government: List of 16 chief adviser
• Syeda Rizwana Hasan – Supreme Court lawyer and the chief executive of the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA)

• Farida Akhtar – Women’s rights activist

• Adilur Rahman Khan – Supreme Court lawyer and human rights activist in Bangladesh

• AFM Khalid Hossain – Right-wing party Hefazat-e-Islam’s eputy chief

• Nurjahan Begum – Grameen Telecom trustee and one of the earliest associates of Muhammad Yunus.

• Sharmeen Murshid – Election expert and freedom fighter (Bangladesh Liberation War)

• Faruk-e-Azam – Recipient of the Bir Pratik honour, the fourth highest gallantry award in Bangladesh, for 1971 Liberation War.

• Nahid Islam – Dhaka University student and key organiser of the Anti-Discrimination Students’ Movement.

• Asif Mahmud – Dhaka University student and key organiser of the Anti-Discrimination Students’ Movement.

• Salehuddin Ahmed – Former governor of Bangladesh Bank.

Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/how-muhammad-yunus-led-bangladesh-interim-govt-looks-activists-protesters-and-101723168297966.html

In an interview with PTI, Sajeeb Wazed Joy said that although 76-year-old Sheikh Hasina would return to Bangladesh, it has not yet been decided whether she will be back as a “retired or active” politician.

Sheikh Hasina, who quit as prime minister and fled Bangladesh, will be back in the country as soon as democracy is restored, his son Sajeeb Wazed Joy said on Thursday and blamed Pakistan’s intelligence agency, ISI, for fuelling the ongoing unrest in the country.
In an interview with PTI, Mr Joy said that although 76-year-old Sheikh Hasina would return to Bangladesh, it has not yet been decided whether she will be back as a “retired or active” politician.

He also asserted that the members of the Sheikh Mujib (Sheikh Mujibur Rahman) family will neither abandon its people nor leave the beleaguered Awami League in the lurch.

He expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government for protecting his mother and appealed to India to help build international opinion and exert pressure to restore democracy in Bangladesh.

“Yes, it is true that I had said she wouldn’t return to Bangladesh. But a lot has changed in the last two days following continuous attacks on our leaders and party workers across the country. Now we are going to do whatever it takes to keep our people safe; we are not going to leave them alone.”

“Awami League is the largest and oldest political party in Bangladesh, so we cannot just walk away from our people. She will definitely return to Bangladesh once democracy is restored,” he told PTI over the phone.

Terming Awami League an “all-weather ally of India”, he said India must ensure the security of Awami League leaders in Bangladesh by building international pressure.

Mr Joy also urged the interim government, headed by Nobel laureate Mohammad Yunus, to restore law and order, noting that “the country is turning into a state of anarchy and becoming a second Afghanistan in the region.” He said he also expects the interim government to create a level playing field whenever democracy is restored and fresh elections are held.

“You cannot exclude the Awami League and have a representative democracy in Bangladesh ever. Whatever his (Mohammed Yunus) personal views are, he has said that he wants a government of unity and wants to move forward and not let the mistakes of the past cloud over the future. I hope he stays true to his word,” he asserted.

Prof Yunus took oath as the head of Bangladesh’s interim government on Thursday and was administered the oath of office by President Mohammed Shahabuddin at a ceremony in Dhaka.

Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country following violent protests against her government over a controversial quota system in jobs. She flew to the Hindon air base, near Delhi, in a Bangladesh military aircraft on Monday.

Mr Joy mentioned that once democracy is restored, either the Awami League or BNP will come to power, and the “Mujib family and Sheikh Hasina will be around.” “She has been in touch with all our party leaders for the last two days. My mother was going to retire anytime soon, so we thought now that she is gone, they (rioters) would leave our party people alone, but that did not happen. Instead, they started attacking,” he said.

Declining to comment directly on whether he and his sister Saima Wazed, who is currently the South East Asian regional director for the World Health Organization, would enter politics, Joy said he would do whatever it takes to protect Bangladesh from total anarchy.

“I can’t give a definite reply to this question. But I will do whatever it takes to save Bangladesh and protect the Awami League. The Mujib family would not leave them in a lurch,” said Joy, the former Information and Communication Technology Advisor to Hasina.

Blaming Pakistan for fueling the unrest in Bangladesh, Joy said there is circumstantial evidence suggesting foreign interference and alleged involvement of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency.

“I am quite certain given the circumstantial evidence; I suspect Pakistan ISI’s involvement. The attacks and protests were very coordinated, meticulously planned, and intentional efforts to keep inflaming the situation through social media. No matter what the government did to control the situation, they kept trying to worsen it,” he said.

He also pointed out that the rioters attacked police with guns which could only be provided by terror outfits and foreign powers.

On reports of involvement of a US intelligence agency like the CIA, Joy said he had no evidence but added, “maybe, they are”. He dismissed any Chinese involvement when asked about it.

Dismissing reports of Hasina seeking asylum in the UK or any other country as “rumours”, Joy said the reports of her US Visa being revoked are also untrue.

“Nothing of this sort has been planned (seeking asylum). Sooner or later, there has to be a restoration of democracy in Bangladesh and hopefully, that will be between the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Awami League. Then Sheikh Hasina will be back.” “At this point, she wants to go back to Bangladesh. It’s a question of when rather than if,” he said, hinting that the ousted Bangladesh PM will be staying at an undisclosed location in India for now.

Joy, who spent much of his childhood studying in India, appealed to the Indian government to ensure the quick restoration of democracy for stability in the region.

“I want to thank the Indian government for protecting my mother. I owe my heartfelt gratitude to Prime Minister Modi. If India wants stability in its eastern backyard, then they have to pressure the international community and take the lead to ensure the quick restoration of democracy,” he said.

Speaking on the ‘INDIA-out’ campaign in Bangladesh, he said, “the anti-India forces are already very active, and with Awami League out of power, the ISI is now free to supply as many weapons as it wants to the anti-India forces.” Joy said India must act fast before anti-India forces gain more ground.

Refuting claims that Ms Hasina ran away to save her own life, he said the family insisted on stopping the bloodshed.

“She was not willing to leave the country. The Prime Minister’s security was ready to protect her till the end. But that would have led to hundreds of deaths of protestors who were marching towards the PM’s residence. We convinced her for the sake of Bangladesh, we cannot let her get killed,” he said.

Source: https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/pak-spy-agency-isi-fuelling-unrest-in-bangladesh-claims-sheikh-hasinas-son-6295392#pfrom=home-ndtv_topstories

NASA officials said on Wednesday the two astronauts delivered to the International Space Station in June by Boeing’s (BA.N), opens new tab Starliner could return on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon in February 2025 if Starliner is still deemed unsafe to return to Earth.
The U.S. space agency has been discussing potential plans with SpaceX to leave two seats empty on an upcoming Crew Dragon launch for NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who became the first crew to fly Boeing’s Starliner capsule.

The astronauts’ test mission, initially expected to last about eight days on the station, has been drawn out by issues on Starliner’s propulsion system that have increasingly called into question the spacecraft’s ability to safely return them to Earth as planned.
A Boeing spokesperson said if NASA decides to change Starliner’s mission, the company “will take the actions necessary to configure Starliner for an uncrewed return.”

US officials familiar with the investigation say Austrian law enforcement are still looking for an additional individual, or individuals, who may have knowledge of the alleged plot, according to Sky News’ US partner, NBC News.

Three Taylor Swift concerts have been cancelled after two men were arrested over an alleged terror plot said to be targeting the events.

Swift was due to play at Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

But event organiser Barracuda Music said in an Instagram post on Wednesday that “we have no choice but to cancel the three scheduled shows for everyone’s safety” after “confirmation of [the] planned terrorist attack”.

The popstar’s website also appears to reflect the cancellation.

Under the “tour” tab, the shows in the Austrian capital now have a note which reads: “All tickets will be automatically refunded within the next 10 business days.”

Two men have been arrested in connection with the suspected terror plot which, police said, looked to target major events in Vienna, including the upcoming Swift concerts.

US officials familiar with the investigation have told Sky News’ US partner NBC News, that Austrian law enforcement were still looking for an additional individual, or individuals, who may have knowledge of the alleged plot.

The suspects had been under surveillance for some time and were well known to Austrian authorities, the officials added.

According to Vienna state police director Franz Ruf, one of the men arrested was a 19-year-old who allegedly pledged his allegiance to the terror group IS.

“During our investigations, we identified preparatory actions and noted that the 19-year-old suspect had a particular focus on the Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna,” Mr Ruf said.

His arrest took place in the early hours of Wednesday, with the second arrest taking place in Vienna later in the day.

Police said both men had become radicalised online.

They allegedly had specific and detailed plans to carry out the attacks on the concerts, which were expected to draw crowds of up to 65,000 each day.

During the arrest of the 19-year-old Austrian citizen, in Ternitz, Lower Austria, officers found chemical substances which are being investigated as possible components of a bomb.

It was said he would likely have not been able to get all the components needed for a bomb before the weekend’s events, but Austrian authorities decided to take them both into custody so they could not carry out an attack using other means.

According to NBC News, after officials announced a robust security plan for the concerts, Swift’s team said they would be cancelled.

The outlet also said there was no specific plot against Swift herself, but that the attack was focused on the wider event.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/taylor-swift-concerts-cancelled-after-two-men-arrested-in-austria-over-suspected-terror-plot-13192877

New findings about record heat in the Coral Sea around the Great Barrier Reef add fuel to the debate about whether the natural wonder should be classed as endangered. Large chunks of the reef have now lost their colourful display due to coral bleaching events driven by climate change.

Temperatures on the Great Barrier Reef have soared to their highest in 400 years, a new study has found.

It said the “unprecedented” heat on the sea surface around the natural wonder is driving increasingly frequent mass bleaching events that are putting it in danger.

Without stronger and faster action to tackle climate change, our generation will “likely be witness to the demise of one of Earth’s great natural wonders”, according to the paper, published today in the peer-reviewed journal Nature.

The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest coral reef system and gives life to diverse species, from whales and dolphins to 1,500 types of fish and endangered turtles and dugongs.

It was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981 and it helps attract major tourism to Australia.

But its health has been at the heart of tensions between Canberra and the world heritage body.

Waters have been so warm in recent years that stressed corals – which are the backbone of the reef – expelled the colourful, symbiotic algae that live inside them, hence the term “bleaching”.

The Australian government has fiercely resisted a feared downgrade of the reef by UNESCO to “in danger”, amid concerns about the impact on tourism and consequent pressure to take stronger climate action, and efforts to better protect it.

The researchers hope UNESCO will reconsider its recent decisions to keep the reef off the endangered list.

Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg from Queensland University said UNESCO’s assessment was “now beyond credibility”.

Lead author Dr Ben Henley, from Australia’s Wollongong University, said their study provides “new evidence” since UNESCO’s last determination that the reef isn’t yet in danger.

“We hope they look at that evidence and that that mechanism can be used to spur more action on climate change, and also local protection of the reef,” he said.

Professor Helen McGregor, also from Wollongong University, said a reassessment of the coral’s health “should potentially be extended to all World Heritage-listed reefs by UNESCO, because they are all in danger from global warming.”

She called it the “coral in the coal mine”.

“This is one of our early warnings that things are not right,” she added.

UNESCO was not immediately available to comment.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/the-coral-in-the-coalmine-seas-around-great-barrier-reef-hottest-in-400-years-13192411

CDC issues an alert for doctors to keep a watch on the signs and symptoms of a severe strain of mpox that is spreading in Africa. Mpox, also known as monkeypox is a viral disease that’s caused by the monkeypox virus. It is a zoonotic disease and hence it can spread from animal to humans. Read on to know the symptoms of the condition.

The mpox strain that has been spreading in Africa is different from the one that circulated globally in 2022. The strain that is spreading now is known as Clade I, which has a high fatality rate. CDC divides mpox virus into two categories, “Clade I and Clade II. The Clade I type of mpox virus has a fatality rate around 10%. Infections in the 2022–2023 outbreak are from Clade II, or more specifically, Clade IIb. Infections with Clade IIb are rarely fatal.”

Mpox, also known as monkeypox is a viral disease that’s caused by the monkeypox virus. It is a zoonotic disease and hence it can spread from animal to humans. It was first discovered in monkeys and hence, the name monkeypox.

Mpox usually causes painful rash, enlarged lymph nodes and fever. While most people recover from the condition, however, some people might get very sick. The virus spreads from person to person through touch, kissing or sex. However, from animals, it usually spreads when hunting, skinning, or cooking them. It can also spread from contaminated sheets, clothes or needles and from infected pregnant mothers to their unborn babies.

Source: https://www.timesnownews.com/health/cdc-issues-alert-on-the-spread-of-severe-mpox-strain-in-africa-signs-and-symptoms-to-keep-a-check-on-article-112360751

The meaning behind the new series of animal murals is unclear – with the Bristol artist yet to comment.

A third animal-inspired Banksy has appeared in London in the space of a few days.

The silhouette depicts three monkeys swinging from a train bridge over Brick Lane in the east of the city – not far from Shoreditch High Street.

Banksy posted an image of the artwork on Instagram.

On Tuesday, he also claimed a stencil of two elephants greeting one another from bricked-up windows in Chelsea, while a day earlier an ibex goat appeared near Kew Green in west London.

There’s been speculation about the meaning of the works as the enigmatic artist did not post any captions on the photos.

Banksy also made headlines in June when he released a migrant boat installation over the crowd at Glastonbury during performances by Idles and Little Simz.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/banksy-reveals-third-new-artwork-in-london-this-week-13192633

Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck are heading for a multi-million dollar “exercise in closure” — all because they couldn’t stop wondering about the “unfinished business” of their past, according to sources.

“They got caught up in the moment. Jennifer had wanted this wedding — the gowns, the friends, all the trappings and trimmings — for decades,” one friend told Page Six.

After calling off their first engagement in 2004, the two apparently always wondered “what if,” leading to a rekindled romance and wedding in 2022. The three-day affair at Affleck’s $8 million estate in Georgia, was a blow-out, with Lopez wearing not one but three gowns by Ralph Lauren.

Now, sources told Page Six, the couple is expected to announce their marriage is officially over by the end of the summer.

The friend said both Affleck and Lopez got caught up in nostalgia and the idea of finally living out their dream from two decades ago.

Now,”They’ve turned the page on all the unfinished business of 20 plus years ago. They’ve seen things through to the end — and they know for sure now that they are not built for the long haul,” the friend said. “No further unanswered questions. They’ve seen all they need to see, and it’s over.

“In the end, it’s gonna be the most elaborate and expensive exercise in closure ever.”

In May, a source told Page Six of Affleck: “If there was a way to divorce on grounds of temporary insanity, he would. He feels like the last two years was just a fever dream … “

The couple have listed their $68 million Beverly Hills house for sale, and Affleck has already bought a $20 million home in Brentwood, close to his three children and his ex-wife Jennifer Garner.

Source: https://pagesix.com/2024/08/07/celebrity-news/jennifer-lopez-amp-ben-afflecks-failed-romance-is-costly-closure/

Beijing is cracking down on “aggressive fans” who it says are affecting the performance of Chinese athletes at the Paris Olympics – the latest in its years-long war against celebrity worship.
In recent days, state media reports have called out “inappropriate” behaviour, such as fans booing during events or accusing referees of being unfair.
This “fan culture”, they said, reached a peak on 3 August when paddler Chen Meng defeated teammate Sun Yingsha to win gold in the table tennis women’s singles.
The Chinese internet exploded with support for Ms Sun despite her loss, with some denouncing Ms Chen’s victory, saying she won only because Ms Sun was exhausted from three earlier events.

Vice President Kamala Harris declared herself and her new running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, “joyful warriors” against Donald Trump on Wednesday as they spent their first full day campaigning together across the Midwest. They got an unusual glimpse of how hotly contested the region would be when they overlapped on a Wisconsin tarmac with Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance.

The Democrats visited Wisconsin and Michigan, hoping to shore up support among the younger, diverse, labor-friendly voters who were instrumental in helping President Joe Biden win the 2020 election.

Harris told the day’s first rally in Eau Claire, “As Tim Walz likes to point out, we are joyful warriors.” Contributing to that feeling, the Harris campaign said it had raised $36 million in the first 24 hours after she announced Walz as her running mate.

The vice president said the pair looks at the future with optimism, unlike Trump, the former president and Republican White House nominee, whom she accused of being stuck in the past and preferring a confrontational style of politics — even as she criticized her opponent herself.

“Someone who suggests we should terminate the Constitution of the United States should never again have the chance to sit behind the seal of the United States,” Harris said, her voice rising.

Dan Miller, from Pelican Lake, Wisconsin, who was among 12,000-plus Eau Claire rally attendees, said Biden “has been an incredible president, but he just isn’t the same messenger.”

“And sometimes you need a better messenger,” Miller said. “And that’s Kamala.”

Later, at an evening event in an airport hangar outside Detroit where the campaign announced a crowd of 15,000, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer — herself frequently mentioned as a future presidential candidate — declared, “We need a strong woman in the White House and it’s about damn time.”

“This election’s going to be a fight,” Harris told the same event. “We like a good fight.”

The swing was especially important for Harris since Biden’s winning coalition from four years ago has shown signs of fraying over the summer — particularly in Michigan, which has emerged as a focal point of Democratic divisions over Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

With the president now out of the race, leaders of the Arab American community and key unions say they are encouraged by Harris’ running mate choice. Walz’s addition to the ticket has soothed some tensions, signaling to some leaders that Harris had heard concerns about another leading contender for the vice presidential slot, Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, who they felt had gone too far in his support for Israel.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/arab-american-auto-workers-harris-walz-michigan-d66fad315f34ec68a50c81b118b18480#

Sajeeb Wazed Joy dismissed reports that claimed she had sought asylum in the United States or the United Kingdom.

Sajeeb Wazed Joy, the son of former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, said in an interview on Wednesday that his mother didn’t want to leave the country. He said their family had to convince her to flee Dhaka. He said he told his mother that the mob would kill her.

“I was worried not because she was leaving Bangladesh, but because she didn’t want to leave Bangladesh. We had to convince her. I said this is not a political movement anymore, this is a mob … they are going to kill you,” Joy told Deutsche Well.

Sajeeb Wazed Joy dismissed reports that she had sought asylum in the United States or the United Kingdom. He said Sheikh Hasina would stay in Delhi for a while.

Sheikh Hasina fled Dhaka in a military aircraft on Monday and reached Ghaziabad’s Hindon airport. She was whisked away to a safe location.

Hours after she left her country, a mob of students protesting against quotas in government jobs, ransacked her house.

He said the decision to resign had been taken a day before. However, she was forced to resign because thousands of protestors began marching towards her house.

“She had made the decision a day earlier. Only a few of us knew that she would announce she was resigning and that she planned to ensure a transition of power according to the Constitution. But when they (protesters) began marching towards Ganabhaban, we said out of fear, there was no more time. You have to leave now,” he said.

Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/they-will-kill-you-how-sheikh-hasinas-kin-convinced-her-to-leave-bangladesh-101723082347593.html

Liu Yi is among China’s 7 million ride-hailing drivers. A 36-year-old Wuhan resident, he started driving part-time this year when construction work slowed in the face of a nationwide glut of unsold apartments.
Now he predicts another crisis as he stands next to his car watching neighbours order driverless taxis.
“Everyone will go hungry,” he said of Wuhan drivers competing against robotaxis from Apollo Go, a subsidiary of technology giant Baidu (9888.HK), opens new tab.

At least 19 Chinese cities are running robotaxi and robobus tests, disclosure showed. Seven have approved tests without human-driver monitors by at least five industry leaders: Apollo Go, Pony.ai, WeRide, AutoX and SAIC Motor (600104.SS), opens new tab.
Apollo Go has said it plans to deploy 1,000 in Wuhan by year-end and operate in 100 cities by 2030.
Pony.ai, backed by Japan’s Toyota Motor (7203.T), opens new tab, operates 300 robotaxis and plans 1,000 more by 2026. Its vice president has said robotaxis could take five years to become sustainably profitable, at which point they will expand “exponentially”.

WeRide is known for autonomous taxis, vans, buses and street sweepers. AutoX, backed by e-commerce leader Alibaba Group (9988.HK), opens new tab, operates in cities including Beijing and Shanghai. SAIC has been operating robotaxis since the end of 2021.
“We’ve seen an acceleration in China. There’s certainly now a rapid pace of permits being issued,” said Boston Consulting Group managing director Augustin Wegscheider. “The U.S. has been a lot more gradual.”
Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O), opens new tab Waymo is the only U.S. firm operating uncrewed robotaxis that collect fares. It has over 1,000 cars in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix but could grow to “thousands”, said a person with knowledge of its operations.
Cruise, backed by General Motors (GM.N), opens new tab, restarted testing in April after one of its vehicles hit a pedestrian last year.
Cruise said it operates in three cities with safety its core mission. Waymo did not respond to a request for comment.
“There’s a clear contrast between U.S. and China” with robotaxi developers facing far more scrutiny and higher hurdles in the U.S., said former Waymo CEO John Krafcik.
Robotaxis spark safety concerns in China, too, but fleets proliferate as authorities approve testing to support economic goals. Last year, President Xi Jinping called for “new productive forces”, setting off regional competition.
Beijing announced testing in limited areas in June and Guangzhou said this month it would open roads citywide to self-driving trials.
Some Chinese firms have sought to test autonomous cars in the U.S. but the White House is set to ban vehicles with China-developed systems, said people briefed on the matter.

Boston Consulting’s Wegscheider compared China’s push to develop autonomous vehicles to its support of electric vehicles.

“Once they commit,” he said, “they move pretty fast”.

‘STUPID RADISHES’

China has 7 million registered ride-hailing drivers versus 4.4 million two years ago, official data showed. With ride-hailing providing last-resort jobs during economic slowdown, the side effects of robotaxis could prompt the government to tap the brakes, economists said.

In July, discussion of job loss from robotaxis soared to the top of social media searches with hashtags including, “Are driverless cars stealing taxi drivers’ livelihoods?”

In Wuhan, Liu and other ride-hailing drivers call Apollo Go vehicles “stupid radishes” – a pun on the brand’s name in local dialect – saying they cause traffic jams.

Liu worries, too, about the impending introduction of Tesla’s (TSLA.O), opens new tab “Full Self-Driving” system – which still requires human drivers – and the automaker’s robotaxi ambitions.

“I’m afraid that after the radishes come,” he said, “Tesla will come.”

Wuhan driver Wang Guoqiang, 63, sees a threat to workers who can least afford disruption.

“Ride-hailing is work for the lowest class,” he said, as he watched an Apollo Go vehicle park in front of his taxi. “If you kill off this industry, what is left for them to do?”

Baidu declined to comment on the drivers’ concerns and referred Reuters to comments in May by Chen Zhuo, Apollo Go’s general manager. Chen said the firm would become “the world’s first commercially profitable” autonomous-driving platform.

Apollo Go loses almost $11,000 a car annually in Wuhan, Haitong International Securities estimated. A lower-cost model could enable per-vehicle annual profit of nearly $16,000, the securities firm said. By contrast, a ride-hailing car earns about $15,000 total for the driver and platform.

‘ALREADY AT THE FOREFRONT’

Automating jobs could benefit China in the long run given a shrinking population, economists said.

“In the short run, there must be a balance in speed between the creation of new jobs and the destruction of old jobs,” said Tang Yao, associate professor of applied economics at Peking University. “We do not necessarily need to push at the fastest speed, as we are already at the forefront.”

Eastern Pioneer Driving School (603377.SS), opens new tab has more than halved its instructor number since 2019 to about 900. Instead, it has teachers at a Beijing control centre remotely monitoring students in 610 cars equipped with computer instruction tools.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/chinas-drivers-fret-robotaxis-pick-up-pace-passengers-2024-08-08/

Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, is drawing attention from U.S. Republicans – and within China – for his long history with a country seen as Washington’s greatest economic and military rival.
Attacks from supporters of the Republican presidential candidate, former President Donald Trump, started after Harris announced on Tuesday that Walz – who taught in China after college and has traveled there many times since – was her vice presidential pick.

Elon Musk’s social media platform X on Tuesday sued a global advertising alliance and several major companies, including Mars and CVS Health, accusing them of unlawfully conspiring to boycott the site and causing it to lose revenue.
X filed the lawsuit in federal court in Texas against the World Federation of Advertisers, Unilever (ULVR.L), opens new tab and Danish renewable energy company Orsted, in addition to Mars and CVS Health (CVS.N), opens new tab.

The lawsuit said, opens new tab advertisers, acting through a World Federation of Advertisers initiative called Global Alliance for Responsible Media, collectively withheld “billions of dollars in advertising revenue” from X, previously known as Twitter.
It said they acted against their own economic self-interests in a conspiracy against the platform that violated U.S. antitrust law.
The World Federation of Advertisers, Unilever, Mars, CVS Health and Orsted did not immediately respond to requests for comment.In a statement on Tuesday about the lawsuit, X’s chief executive Linda Yaccarino said “people are hurt when the marketplace of ideas is constricted. No small group of people should monopolize what gets monetized.”
Ad revenue at X slumped for months after Musk bought the company in 2022. Some advertisers had been wary of ad spending under Musk amid questions and fears that their brands would appear next to harmful content that under prior owners might have been removed.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/legal/musks-x-accuses-advertisers-illegal-boycott-new-lawsuit-2024-08-06/

The new Labour government says the NHS is broken and insists it’s trying to work with doctors to fix its problems. But many are still being tempted by new, easier roles abroad – with overseas firms alert to the possibility of luring British talent.

Dr Tom Petrie is packing up his stethoscope. It goes into his suitcase alongside the framed family photographs and other mementoes to remind him of the life he is leaving behind.

Dr Petrie is swapping Leicester for Darwin in Australia.

After just a year as a junior doctor, he’s had enough. He says he can’t work in a broken healthcare system anymore.

“I’d be dealing with a critically ill patient and having tasks coming through on my phone saying that a patient on the other side of the hospital needs me,” Dr Petrie explains.

“But I know deep down that I won’t get to them on that shift because they’re 43rd in my list and I’ve got patients that are in front of them because they’re more unwell.

“And you go home after your shift and although you’re exhausted, you can’t sleep.

“You’re thinking about every single decision you’ve made. You’re worried that you’ve made a mistake because you’re so tired and stressed.”

Dr Petrie says it’s not about the money. Instead, it’s the lack of respect and the poor training prospects.

But ultimately it is because he can’t care for his patients in the way that they deserve. His decision to walk out on the NHS and begin a new life on the other side of the world was not an easy one to take. He feels conflicted.

“But I can’t sacrifice my own happiness, my own mental health, my own physical health. Just because I’m working within a broken system.”

The prime minister warns that owners of social media companies have a responsibility to stop disinformation spreading as they are fuelling the violence on Britain’s streets.

Billionaire media baron Elon Musk is engaged in a war of words with Sir Keir Starmer over the role social media has played in riots around the UK.

The X owner began to retweet posts a few days after the Southport stabbings and after the prime minister fired a warning shot to social media companies “and those who run them” about allowing users to whip up violent disorder online.

Since Sunday, Sir Keir and Musk have clashed a number of times over the issue.

Here is a timeline of the row:

Thursday 1 August

Following riots that broke out after the Southport stabbings, the prime minister appeared to blame social media for the spreading of false claims that the suspect was a Syrian asylum seeker who arrived in the UK last year via a small boat.

He said: “Let me also say to large social media companies and those who run them: violent disorder was clearly whipped up online.

Sunday 4 August

Over the subsequent days, Musk began to engage with posts on X about the riots and the suspect in the stabbings.

This included one suggesting the suspect in Southport appearing in a BBC advert as a child was similar to the person who tried to assassinate Donald Trump being in an advert for BlackRock.

Then, on Sunday, the X owner responded to a video of riots to say “civil war is inevitable”.

And he responded to another post to say: “If incompatible cultures are brought together without assimilation, conflict is inevitable.”

Monday 5 August

Sir Keir’s spokesman responded to Musk’s comments, saying there is “no justification for comments like that” and “anyone who is whipping up violence online will face the full force of the law”.

Later, the prime minister posted on social media, saying “we will not tolerate attacks on mosques or on Muslim communities”, among other statements.

Musk replied: “Shouldn’t you be concerned about attacks on *all* communities?”

He also responded to someone saying Christian churches and Jewish synagogues would not get support as “rather one-sided”.

Support for these places of worship would be provided if asked for.

Meanwhile, Technology Secretary Peter Kyle met representatives from social media companies, including TikTok, Meta, Google and X, “to make clear their responsibility to continue to work with us to stop the spread of hateful misinformation and incitement”.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/elon-musk-v-sir-keir-starmer-what-have-they-accused-each-other-of-in-row-over-uk-riots-13191989

Dozens of people are appearing in court following nearly a week of riots sparked by the Southport stabbings.

A 15-year-old boy arrived at court with his mum to admit throwing a paving slab at a member of the public during riots in Liverpool on Saturday.

He was among dozens of people appearing today, accused of offences related to UK-wide riots over the past week.

The suspects have been appearing in cities including Middlesbrough, Sheffield, Liverpool, Bristol and Leeds.

The hearings are taking place after a first group appeared in court on Monday.

Meanwhile, a man from Leeds who posted Facebook messages about attacking a hotel where asylum seekers were staying has been convicted of stirring up racial hatred.

It’s the first conviction for online posts in relation to the riots.

The 15-year-old boy who turned up with his mother was involved in disorder in Liverpool on Saturday night.

He was identified from CCTV and a TikTok video sent to police by a member of the public.

Joshua Sanderson-Kirk, prosecuting at Liverpool Magistrates’ Court, said: “He picks up a paving slab which has been recently dislocated and throws it at a member of the public.”

The youngster, who cannot be named or pictured for legal reasons, had been on bail at the time – which banned him from entering the city centre.

He will be sentenced on 17 September.

The riots began in the wake of the stabbing that left three girls dead in Southport.

The first was in the Merseyside town last Tuesday after false information online suggested the suspect, who was born in Wales, was a Muslim asylum seeker who arrived in the UK by boat.

Man and woman blow kisses in court

A 26-year-old man also appeared at Liverpool Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday to admit his role in the Southport riot.

Dylan Carey, from Hindley in Greater Manchester, was arrested at Southport train station after video on social media showed him throwing a water bottle and kicking a police van.

Carey and a woman in the public gallery blew kisses to each other as he pleaded guilty to violent disorder.

Twenty-eight suspects were also scheduled to appear at Teesside Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, charged with violent disorder and other offences in relation to a riot in Middlesbrough on Sunday.

James Bullock, 20, pleaded not guilty to violent disorder after he was accused of being involved in an incident in which a burning wheelie bin was pushed at police.

John Garside, prosecuting, told the court Bullock had “visited the location wearing gloves and a balaclava”.

Meanwhile, a 33-year-old man denied violent disorder and possessing an offensive weapon at the same court after he was accused of damaging property with a 4ft wooden pole.

Ashley Ferguson was remanded in custody until 27 August when he will appear at a crown court.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/28-people-charged-after-riots-in-middlesbrough-13191812

Dave Hogbin was visiting a popular spot for tourists wanting to see large crocodiles with his wife Jane and three sons – aged two, five and seven – when he fell into the water.

Human remains have been found inside a large crocodile suspected of killing a man on a family holiday in Australia – after it emerged he probably saved his wife’s life with his “final act”.

Dave Hogbin, 40, fell into the Annan River, south of Cooktown in Queensland state, on Saturday after part of a riverbank path gave way, his family said.

The doctor from Newcastle in New South Wales was visiting what is known as Crocodile Bend, a popular spot for tourists to see large crocodiles, while travelling through Queensland with his wife Jane and three sons aged two, five and seven.

On Monday, wildlife rangers euthanised a 16ft crocodile, which had a recognisable scar on its snout, in a creek just over two miles from where Mr Hogbin disappeared.

Human remains found inside the crocodile during an examination in Cooktown are believed to be those of Mr Hogbin, a police statement said.

Further tests will be carried out to confirm the identity of the remains.

Final act likely saved wife’s life

Police initially reported that Mr Hogbin had been fishing at the time he fell, which his family later corrected.

He fell 16ft into the river after part of the bank gave way, and due to the terrain was unable to get out of the water, according to a statement issued by a friend, with his family’s permission.

“Dave’s final, decisive act was to let go of Jane’s arm when he realised she was falling in, despite knowing she was his only lifeline. Within moments, he was taken,” the statement added.

Mr Hogbin’s final act “likely saved” his wife’s life, the statement continued.

Acting police chief Shane Holmes said he believed Mr Hogbin fell by accident.

A GoFundMe has been set up by a friend of Mr Hogbin to support his wife and three children after the accident. It has so far raised over 30,000 Australian dollars.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/human-remains-found-inside-crocodile-as-it-emerges-husband-likely-saved-his-wife-with-final-act-13191761

A complete list of every Australian athlete and team who will compete at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Australia boast of a proud Olympic legacy, having secured medals at all 29 editions of the modern Summer Games to date.

The number of Australian athletes at the Summer Olympics has also steadily increased over the past few editions and so has the tally of Olympic medals won by Australia.

At Tokyo 2020, the Australian Olympic Team comprised 486 athletes, the second-largest for the country after the Sydney Olympics.

Elon Musk’s trans daughter, Vivian Jenna Wilson, is bringing up her father’s alleged sordid past in retaliation for attacks he made on her because of her gender identity.

“You are not a family man, you are a serial adulterer who won’t stop f–king lying about your own children,” the 20-year-old wrote via Threads Monday, referencing her dad’s many cheating scandals and kids.

Musk, 53, has 12 children with three different women, including Wilson’s twin, Griffin, with whom the X founder shares with first wife Justine Wilson.

He has also been accused of having affairs with Amber Heard and Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s ex-wife Nicole Shanahan — which he has denied.

Vivian then continued in the heated message to her dad, “You are not a christian, as far as I’m aware you’ve never stepped foot in a church. You are not some ‘bastion for equality/progress.’”

She then implied that Musk is a racist, alleging, “You called arabic the ‘language of the enemy’ when I was 6, have been sued for discrimation [sic] multiple times, and are from Apartheid South Africa.”

Vivian continued to blast the SpaceX founder, claiming he is not “saving the planet” because he allegedly does not “give a f–k about climate change.”

She concluded, “You single-handedly disillusioned me with how gullible we are as a species because somehow people keep believing you for reasons that continue to evade me.”

A rep for Musk did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment.

Vivian’s scathing post comes after Musk said she was “killed by the woke-mind virus” when she decided to pursue gender reassignment surgery.

“I was essentially tricked into signing documents for one of my older boys, Xavier,” the billionaire told psychologist Dr. Jordan Peterson in a Daily Wire interview in July.

“This is before I had any understanding of what was going on. COVID was going on, so there was a lot of confusion, and I was told Xavier might commit suicide if he doesn’t [make the change].”

Musk then said that he felt he had “lost” his child and said the concept of allowing kids to transition is “incredibly evil.”

Source: https://pagesix.com/2024/08/06/parents/elon-musks-trans-daughter-vivian-slams-father-as-serial-adulterer/

Counterpoint, a record store in Los Angeles’ Franklin Village, is probably not the first place one would expect to find Sabrina Carpenter on a sunny Monday afternoon — flipping through a stack of vintage Playboys, no less. The chart-dominating singer-songwriter is sipping a Yerba Mate while she oohs and ahhs at the blond bombshells of various yesteryears when a bright-blue cover featuring a pouty-faced model catches her eye.

“I love the faces of the ’60s and ’90s — old Hollywood, flirty and fun,” Carpenter says. “This is definitely the vibe of my album.”

Surely, she must know she has the face too, right? The instant-vintage portraits accompanying her two smash summer singles, “Espresso” and “Please Please Please,” have been ubiquitous since the former’s release in April, and she channels a similar Marilyn Monroe-inspired allure on the cover of her forthcoming album, “Short n’ Sweet,” due Aug. 23, as well as in the imagery for her first North American arena tour, which starts next month.

She’s just returned from a hectic promotional jaunt through Europe, but today Carpenter seems dead set on digging through every aisle of this vinyl emporium. After pausing on Charli XCX’s “Brat” (“Love it!”), Olivia Newton-John’s “Soul Kiss” and Beyoncé’s “Lemonade,” she spies Connie Francis’ 1958 album “Who’s Sorry Now?”

“Connie Francis is amazing and super underrated,” she says, admiring the cover photo. “Oh, my God, she’s beautiful. She’s really serving.” On July 2, 1960, a 21-year-old Francis became the first female artist to land a No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart with “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool.” Almost exactly 64 years later, on June 29, 2024, the 25-year-old Carpenter achieved her first No. 1 with “Please Please Please,” after reaching No. 3 the previous week with “Espresso” (which may have missed the top spot, but on Aug. 5 became the third-fastest song to reach a billion streams on Spotify). The hoped for but unexpectedly stratospheric chart success of the singles has built anticipation for her album to a near fever pitch.

“I’m so happy I finished this album before any of the songs came out,” Carpenter says. “Not that I think I would have let [the singles’ success] get in my head. But I really do think sometimes you can’t help but write from a different perspective after experiencing certain life events. I’m trying to avoid calling this ‘my dream album,’ because I don’t think I would have been able to dream up this set of songs a couple years ago.”

Researchers have uncovered what might be the world’s oldest solar calendar at Göbekli Tepe, a 12,000-year-old archaeological site in southern Turkey. This ancient timekeeping system, etched into stone pillars, could be more than just a way to track the seasons – it might also serve as a memorial to a catastrophic comet strike that changed the course of human history.

Göbekli Tepe, often called the world’s first temple, has long fascinated archaeologists with its massive stone pillars adorned with intricate carvings. The temple dates back to around 10,000 BCE, predating the invention of writing by thousands of years. Its builders were thought to be hunter-gatherers, yet they somehow managed to construct massive stone circles with pillars weighing up to 20 tons.

The site’s purpose has long puzzled archaeologists, but this fresh analysis of these mysterious symbols, published in the journal Time and Mind, suggests an unexpected purpose: a sophisticated calendar that tracked both lunar and solar cycles.

“It appears the inhabitants of Göbekli Tepe were keen observers of the sky, which is to be expected given their world had been devastated by a comet strike,” says Dr. Martin Sweatman from the University of Edinburgh’s School of Engineering, who led the research, in a media release.

So, what exactly did these ancient sky-watchers see, and how did they record it?

Elon Musk’s social media platform X has sued a group of advertisers, alleging that a “massive advertiser boycott” deprived the company of billions of dollars in revenue and violated antitrust laws.

The company formerly known as Twitter filed the lawsuit Tuesday in a federal court in Texas against the World Federation of Advertisers and member companies Unilever, Mars, CVS Health and Orsted.

It accused the advertising group’s brand safety initiative, called the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, of helping to coordinate a pause in advertising after Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in late 2022 and overhauled its staff and policies.

Musk posted about the lawsuit on X on Tuesday, saying “now it is war” after two years of being nice and “getting nothing but empty words.”

X CEO Linda Yaccarino said in a video announcement that the lawsuit stemmed in part from evidence uncovered by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee which she said showed a “group of companies organized a systematic illegal boycott” against X.

The lawsuit’s allegations center on the early days of Musk’s Twitter takeover and not a more recent dispute with advertisers that came a year later.

In November 2023, about a year after Musk bought the company, a number of advertisers began fleeing X over concerns about their ads showing up next to pro-Nazi content and hate speech on the site in general, with Musk inflaming tensions with his own posts endorsing an antisemitic conspiracy theory.

Musk later said those fleeing advertisers were engaging in “blackmail” and, using a profanity, essentially told them to go away.

The Belgium-based World Federation of Advertisers and representatives for CVS, Orsted, Mars and Unilever didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

A Pakistani man alleged to have ties to Iran has been charged in a plot to carry out political assassinations on U.S. soil, including potentially of former President Donald Trump.

The case disclosed by the Justice Department on Tuesday comes two years after officials disrupted a separate scheme that they said was aimed at former Trump administration national security adviser John Bolton.

Asif Merchant traveled to New York in June for the purpose of meeting with men he thought he was recruiting to carry out the killings, even paying a $5,000 advance to two would-be assassins who were actually undercover law enforcement officers, federal officials said. He was arrested in July as he prepared to leave the United States, after having told the men that he would provide further instructions, including the names of the intended targets, in August or September after he returned to Pakistan.

Court documents do not identify any of the potential targets. But U.S. officials acknowledged in July that a threat on Donald Trump’s life from Iran prompted additional security in the days before a Pennsylvania rally in which Trump was injured by a shooter’s bullet. That July 13 shooting, carried out by a 20-year-old Pennsylvania man, was unrelated to the Iran threat and Merchant’s arrest has no connection to the Trump assassination attempt, a law enforcement official said.

But an FBI agent’s affidavit suggests Merchant had current or former high-level officials like Trump in mind. He told an associate who was secretly cooperating with law enforcement that he wanted a “political person” to be killed, the complaint said, mapping out on a napkin the different scenarios in which the target could be assassinated and warning that there would be security “all around.”

U.S. officials have warned for years about Iran’s desire to avenge the 2020 killing of Qassem Soleimani, who led the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force. That strike was ordered by Trump when he was president. The U.S. government has since paid for security for multiple Trump administration officials, and in 2022, the Justice Department charged an Iranian operative in a foiled plot to kill Bolton.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/iran-pakistan-murderforhire-trump-justice-department-5a3abe0895ae7c2be14f89fc4e49bc53

Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus will head Bangladesh’s interim government after longtime Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country amid a mass uprising that left hundreds of people dead and pushed the South Asian nation to the brink of chaos.

The decision, announced early Wednesday by Joynal Abedin, the press secretary of the country’s figurehead President Mohammed Shahabuddin, came during a meeting that included military chiefs, organizers of the student protests that helped drive Hasina from power, prominent business leaders and civil society members.

A longtime political opponent of Hasina, Yunus is expected to return soon from Paris, where he is advising Olympic organizers, media reports said.

An economist and banker, he was awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for his work developing microcredit markets. Yunus has been hailed for bringing thousands out of poverty through Grameen Bank, which he founded in 1983, and which makes small loans to businesspeople who wouldn’t qualify for regular bank loans.

Other members of the new government would be decided soon, after discussions with political parties and other stakeholders, Abedin said. The president had dissolved Parliament on Tuesday, clearing the way for an interim administration and new elections.

Shahabuddin also ordered the release of opposition leader Khaleda Zia from house arrest, a longtime Hasina rival who was convicted on corruption charges in 2018.

The streets of Dhaka, the capital, were calm Tuesday, a day after violence swept parts of the country amid Hasina’s sudden departure. On Tuesday, jubilant protesters thronged the ousted leader’s residence, some posing for selfies with soldiers guarding the building after Monday’s wave of looting.

The Bangladesh Police Association went on strike after police stations and security officials were attacked across the country Monday. The association said “many” officers had been killed but gave no number. Officers would not return to work unless their safety is assured, the association said. It also apologized for police attacks on student protesters, saying officers were “forced to open fire.”

Yunus, who had called Hasina’s resignation the country’s “second liberation day,” had faced corruption charges during her rule that he derided as politically motivated. He could not immediately be reached for comment, but a key organizer of the protests, Nahid Islam, said he had agreed to head the interim administration.

Islam said protesters would propose more names for the Cabinet and suggested that it would be difficult for those in power to ignore their wishes.

Hasina fled to India by helicopter as protesters defied a military curfew to march on the capital, with thousands eventually storming her residence and other buildings associated with her party and family.

The unrest began in July with protests against a quota system for government jobs, which critics said favored people with connections to her party. But they soon grew into a broader challenge to Hasina’s 15-year rule, which was marked by human rights abuses, corruption, allegations of rigged elections and a brutal crackdown on her opponents.

The government’s violent response to the demonstrations, which killed about 300 people in just a few weeks, only fueled the protests more.

The quick move to choose Yunus came after Hasina’s resignation created a power vacuum and left the future unclear for Bangladesh, which has a history of military rule, messy politics and myriad crises. The military wields significant influence in a country that has seen more than 20 coups or coup attempts since its independence from Pakistan in 1971. Military chief Gen. Waker-uz-Zaman said Monday he had taken temporary control while a new government is formed.

Amid the celebrations, student Juairia Karim said it was a historic day. “Today we are getting what we deserve,” she said. “Everyone is happy, everyone is cheerful.”

But the country was still counting the toll of weeks of violence that produced some of its worst bloodshed since its war of independence. Many fear that Hasina’s departure could trigger even more instability in the densely populated nation of some 170 million people, which is already dealing with high unemployment, corruption and climate change.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/bangladesh-protests-interim-government-bca66e8251f86deb3fe28c913d0a1444

Romania’s Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said Tuesday that he will boycott the Paris Olympics ’ closing ceremony due to a “scandalous situation” that cost a Romanian gymnast a bronze medal.

Ana Barbosu had already begun celebrating her bronze for the floor event Monday when coaches for American Jordan Chiles entered an appeal to judges over Chiles’ score. The inquiry result in a 0.1 boost for Chiles, enough to overtake Barbosu for the last spot on the Olympic podium.

“I decided not to attend the closing ceremony of the Paris Olympics, following the scandalous situation in the gymnastics, where our athletes were treated in an absolutely dishonorable manner,” Ciolacu said in a Facebook post. “To withdraw a medal earned for honest work on the basis of an appeal … is totally unacceptable!”

Ciolacu promised Romania would honor Barbosu and fifth-place finisher Sabrina Maneca-Voinea, also Romanian, as Olympic medalists, “including in terms of the prizes.”

Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus has been appointed chief of the military-backed interim government of Bangladesh after student leaders met with Army Chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman and President Mohammed Shahabuddin late Tuesday evening.

Nahid Islam, one of the key coordinators of the student movement, said on Tuesday that Prof Yunus has agreed to take on the responsibility at the call of the student community to “save the country”, the Daily Star newspaper reported. “We took 24 hours to announce a framework for the interim government. However, considering the emergency situation, we are announcing it now,” Nahid said.

The Bangladesh’s Army also reshuffled several generals, demoting those close to Sheikh Hasina, and sacking Ziaul Ahsan, a commander of the feared Rapid Action Battalion paramilitary force. Former Prime Minister and BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia, 78, was also released from years of house arrest on Tuesday.

Yunus told a news channel that there was a critical need to restore law and order in Bangladesh, warning of potential spillover effects into neighbouring countries, including India. He stated, “If you destabilise Bangladesh, it will spill over all around, including Myanmar and the seven sisters in West Bengal.” He warned of a “volcanic eruption” that could impact the region, especially with a million Rohingyas already in the country.

Who is Muhammad Yunus?

Yunus is a distinguished social entrepreneur, banker, economist and civil society leader. He was born on June 28, 1940 in Chittagong in Bangladesh, and studied at Dhaka University. Later, he received a Fulbright scholarship to study economics at Vanderbilt University.

According to the website nobelprize.org, Yunus received his Ph.D. in economics from Vanderbilt in 1969, and in the next year he became an assistant professor of economics at Middle Tennessee State University. He rose to international fame when in 2006 he received Nobel Prize for his pioneer work in microcredit and microfinance.

The Grameen Bank, set up by Yunus in Bangladesh in 1983, provided small loans to underserved entrepreneurs, empowering them to achieve social and economic development despite limited access to traditional banking services.

His Accomplishments

From 1993 to 1995, Yunus was a member of the International Advisory Group for the Fourth World Conference on Women. He has served on the Global Commission of Women’s Health, the Advisory Council for Sustainable Economic Development, and the UN Expert Group on Women and Finance.

Imane Khelif, the boxer at the centre of a gender dispute, beat Thailand’s Janjaem Suwannapheng by unanimous decision in a welterweight semi-final fight at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday to progress to the women’s final at Roland Garros.
Khelif, a silver medallist at the 2022 worlds, and Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting have been in the spotlight at the Olympics as part of a storm that has dominated headlines and been the subject of much discussion on social media platforms.

Khelif and Lin are competing in the Olympics after the International Olympic Committee stripped the IBA of its status as the sport’s governing body in 2023 and took control of organising the boxing in Paris.

The IOC has rejected the results of the IBA-ordered tests as arbitrary and illegitimate, saying there was no reason to conduct them.

At these Games, the IOC is using boxing eligibility rules that were applied at the 2016 and 2021 Olympics which do not include gender testing.

FAN SUPPORT
Algerian fans flocked into a repurposed Court Philippe Chatrier, devoid of its iconic red clay, looking to support Khelif and screamed “Imane, Imane, Imane” ahead of the bout, while also booing Suwannapheng on entry.
In a cautious first round, both boxers attempted to keep their distance and engaged sparingly, but Khelif used her jab to better effect than her Thai opponent.

Suwannapheng connected with a big right hand in the second, but the rangy Algerian’s excellent technique allowed her to keep landing shots and sweep the judge’s scorecards.

Khelif threw caution to the wind and went after Suwannapheng in the final round, peppering her with jarring shots to claim the win by unanimous decision.

Both boxers touched gloves in a sign of respect after the fight, and when Khelif was announced as winner a deafening roar erupted from the fans in attendance.

“I just had the performance I was looking to deliver today to make the fans happy,” Khelif said.

Khelif waited until her opponent left the ring before celebrating, jogging on the spot with an enormous grin on her face before leaving and shadow-boxing her way to the doctor’s station for a quick medical check.

“I have not followed the controversy closely but all I know is that she is a woman and she is a strong fighter,” Suwannapheng said.

Khelif will face Yang Liu of China in the final on Friday.

Lin also reached the semi-finals in the featherweight category, where she will take on Turkey’s Esra Yildiz on Wednesday.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/sports/olympics/boxing-algerian-khelif-wins-semi-final-amid-gender-row-2024-08-06/

German drugstore chain Rossmann said on Tuesday it would no longer buy Tesla (TSLA.O), opens new tab cars for its corporate fleet due to CEO Elon Musk’s support for U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
The drugstore chain, which is among the largest in Europe, said its decision was with immediate effect and due to what it called an “incompatibility” between statements by Musk and the values that Tesla represents.

“Elon Musk makes no secret of his support for Donald Trump. Trump has repeatedly called climate change a hoax – this stance is in stark contrast to Tesla’s mission to contribute to environmental protection through the production of electric cars,” said Raoul Rossmann, the son of Rossmann’s founder.
Musk, Tesla and the Trump campaign had no immediate comment.
Musk’s stance on issues has in the past led companies to drop their advertising on his social media platform X, prompting a fierce rebuke from the billionaire.

Rossmann, with more than 62,000 employees and more than 4,700 stores in Germany and other European countries, said it would continue to use the Teslas it already owns “for reasons of sustainability and resource conservation”.
It did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the size of its corporate fleet, or the number of Teslas it uses. Bloomberg reported that the company has 34 Teslas among its 800 cars.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/german-drugstore-chain-shuns-teslas-over-musks-support-trump-2024-08-06/

Ireland’s Kellie Harrington said she was looking forward to an easy life without the pressures that come with being a boxer after winning her second Olympic gold medal at the Paris Games on Tuesday.
Harrington said she would be hanging up her gloves after beating Yang Wenlu of China by split decision in the final of the lightweight category.
The 34-year-old became the first Irish boxer to win back-to-back gold medals, adding to her victory from the Tokyo Olympics.”When you reach a mountain, find a bigger mountain. And that’s what I’ve done. It wasn’t easy to climb that mountain,” Harrington told reporters.
“It’s been three years of madness. It’s been hard. So I decided that (this medal) is for me. I’m doing it for me and me alone. And that’s what it is. I’m just so happy.”
Asked what would come next in her career, Harrington said: “(There are) no more mountains.

Alaska Airlines (ALK.N), opens new tab flight attendants feared passengers had been sucked out of the plane in the chaos following the Jan. 5 mid-air panel blowout on a Boeing (BA.N), opens new tab 737 MAX 9 jet, according to harrowing testimony released by safety experts on Tuesday.
The comments gathered from interviews with attendants – who were not named – were among thousands of pages of evidence made public ahead of a two-day hearing that began earlier on Tuesday by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board about the incident. They provide dramatic accounts of the cabin crew’s efforts to help passengers and communicate with pilots when the panel blew off the jet at 16,000 feet after taking off from Portland, Oregon.

CrowdStrike’s (CRWD.O), opens new tab legal troubles from last month’s massive global computer outage deepened on Monday, as the cybersecurity company was sued by air travelers whose flights were delayed or canceled.
In a proposed class action filed in the Austin, Texas, federal court, three fliers blamed CrowdStrike’s negligence in testing and deploying its software for the outage, which also disrupted banks, hospitals and emergency lines around the world.

The plaintiffs said that as fliers scrambled to get to their destinations, many spent hundreds of dollars on lodging, meals and alternative travel, while others missed work or suffered health problems from having to sleep on the airport floor.
They said CrowdStrike should pay compensatory and punitive damages to anyone whose flight was disrupted, after technology-related flight groundings for Southwest Airlines (LUV.N), opens new tab and other carriers in 2023 made the outage “entirely foreseeable.”

CrowdStrike said in a statement: “We believe this case lacks merit and we will vigorously defend the company.”
It provided an identical statement in response to a shareholder lawsuit filed on July 31, after the company’s stock price had fallen by about one-third.
The outage stemmed from a flawed software update that crashed more than 8 million computers.
Delta Air Lines (DAL.N), opens new tab has said it may take legal action against Austin-based CrowdStrike after canceling more than 6,000 flights, at a cost of about $500 million.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/legal/crowdstrike-is-sued-by-fliers-after-massive-outage-disrupts-air-travel-2024-08-05/

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has narrowed her search for a vice presidential running mate to two finalists, Governors Tim Walz of Minnesota and Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, three sources with knowledge of the matter said.
Harris, the U.S. vice president, is expected to announce her selection by Tuesday, ahead of her first scheduled public appearance with her running mate that evening at Temple University in Philadelphia.

The number of Chinese couples who got married in the first half of this year fell to its lowest level since 2013, official data showed, as more young people deferred nuptials amid a slowing economy and a rise in living costs.
The number of marriages in China is closely tied to the number of births, and the decline is likely to upset policymakers trying hard to boost the population which has been shrinking for years.

In December 2022, Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff suffered serious facial injuries and a number of broken ribs after a crash while filming Top Gear at Dunsfold Aerodrome.

Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff has said he struggled with anxieties, nightmares and flashbacks after the Top Gear crash that “changed my life forever”.

The TV presenter and former England cricket all-rounder sustained serious facial injuries and broken ribs after a crash while filming Top Gear at Dunsfold Aerodrome, Surrey, in December 2022.

The incident led to him stepping back from the show – which has since been suspended for the “foreseeable future” by the BBC.

Flintoff was not seen in public for a long time before he made a return to the cricket world as a coach.

Speaking at the beginning of the year as part of the second series of Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams, the cricket star opened up about his recovery.

“I thought I could just shake it off. I wanted to shake it off and say ‘everything’s all right’, but it’s not been the case,” Flintoff told the BBC.

He added: “It’s been a lot harder than I thought. As much as I wanted to go out and do things, I’ve just not been able to.

“I struggle with anxiety. I have nightmares, I have flashbacks. It’s been so hard to cope with.”

Previously, the BBC said it had agreed a financial settlement with Flintoff, which was reported to be worth £9m, according to The Sun.

A BBC Studios spokesperson said: “BBC Studios has reached an agreement with Freddie that we believe supports his continued rehabilitation, return to work and future plans.

“We have sincerely apologised to Freddie and will continue to support him with his recovery.”

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/freddie-flintoff-says-top-gear-crash-changed-my-life-forever-and-left-him-with-anxiety-nightmares-and-flashbacks-13191577

Street artist Banksy has revealed his latest piece of work. His last piece of art came under fire from the then Home Secretary James Cleverly after he had an imitation migrant boat crowd surf at Glastonbury.

Banksy has revealed a new piece of art in west London.

The famous street artist’s latest work features a silhouette of a goat, perched on top of a wall.

It is done in his signature stencil-style and a CCTV camera is nearby, at times pointed at the animal, as rocks fall down below it.

It is thought the artwork is based near Kew Bridge, in Richmond.

Banksy posted the art on his Instagram – which is how he has previously claimed his work.

This comes around a month after his last piece of art led to the then Home Secretary James Cleverly calling it “trivialising”.

The Bristol artist, whose identity is not known, had an imitation migrant boat crowd surf at Glastonbury in June during performances by indie punk band Idles and rapper Little Simz.

At the time, Mr Cleverly said it was “trivialising” the issue of small boats crossings and “vile”.

But the artist said the politician’s reaction was “a bit over the top”.

Banksy added that the real boat he funded being detained by Italian authorities after rescuing unaccompanied children at sea, was actually what was “vile and unacceptable”.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/banksy-reveals-new-artwork-featuring-goat-in-west-london-13191516

It’s believed to be the first time a big luxury brand has branched out into pet perfume, with the company offering to make “every walk a fragrant and fashionable affair”.

Luxury Italian brand Dolce & Gabbana has released a perfume for dogs named after the co-founder’s own pet.

Fefe is alcohol free and the firm says it has been safety-tested and approved by vets.

The €99 (£85) fragrance is described as an “olfactory masterpiece” featuring ylang ylang, musk and “creamy undertones” of sandalwood.

The bottle features a 24-carat gold-plated paw print and is said to be inspired by “the unwavering love for Domenico Dolce’s loyal companion, Fefe”.

The company’s marketing says it offers “a touch of opulence, making every walk a fragrant and fashionable affair”.

Domenico Dolce co-founded D&G with Stefano Gabbana in 1985, turning it into one of the world’s most famous luxury brands.

Other companies, such as pet grooming firms, also sell dog perfume at a much cheaper price but it’s believed to be the first time a big fashion house has released one.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/dolce-gabbana-launches-dog-perfume-named-after-founders-pet-13191433

The first pyramid built by ancient Egyptians may have been accomplished using an ingenious hydraulic system. An eye-opening study of the iconic Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara challenges long-held beliefs about pyramid construction techniques and sheds new light on this ancient civilization’s engineering prowess.

The research, published in the journal PLOS ONE, proposes that a complex network of dams, water treatment facilities, and a hydraulic lift mechanism were employed to move massive stone blocks during the pyramid’s construction around 2680 BC. This finding could revolutionize our understanding of how these monumental structures were built.

At the heart of this theory is the idea that the ancient Egyptians harnessed the power of water from nearby wadis – dry riverbeds that occasionally flood during rainy seasons. The researchers identified a previously undocumented watershed west of the Saqqara site, which they believe was crucial to the hydraulic system.

The study suggests that a massive structure called the Gisr el-Mudir, long considered an unfinished building or fortress, actually served as a check dam. This dam would have trapped sediment and regulated water flow from the wadis, creating a controlled water supply for the construction site.

But the most intriguing aspect of this hypothesis is the proposed hydraulic lift mechanism. The researchers suggest that the ancient builders created a system of shafts and chambers within the pyramid itself, which could be filled with water. A large wooden float placed in this shaft could then be used to lift heavy stone blocks as the water level rose.

This method would have allowed the ancient Egyptians to raise massive stones with relatively little manpower, potentially explaining how they were able to build such enormous structures in a relatively short time.

Source: https://studyfinds.org/ancient-egyptian-step-pyramid-hydraulic-system/?nab=0

What would happen if you stepped onto an elevator and there stood Kevin O’Leary, aka “Mr. Wonderful,” from the hit entrepreneurial show Shark Tank? Your palms are sweaty, your heart is racing, and you have just 60 seconds to convince this notoriously tough investor that your idea is worth his time and money. Do you lead with your passion for changing the world, or do you dive straight into the dollars and cents? According to new research, the answer might surprise you – and it could make all the difference between hearing “I’m out” or “You’ve got a deal.”

The study, published in the journal Innovation: Organization & Management, reveals that when it comes to pitching truly innovative ideas, even to seasoned investors like those on Shark Tank, concrete details trump lofty visions. But for more incremental improvements? That’s when it’s time to paint the big picture. This insight could revolutionize how entrepreneurs approach their make-or-break moments in the tank – and beyond.

Led by researchers from The George Washington University, New York University, and City, University of London, the study challenges conventional wisdom about how to pitch innovative concepts. While many entrepreneurs might instinctively focus on the grand vision behind their ideas, this approach could backfire for truly disruptive innovations.

“We wanted to identify the best way for entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas to get audiences’ attention and investment,” says Professor Simone Ferriani of Bayes Business School in London. “Could the way they pitch affect their success? What if they had great ideas but were pitching them in the wrong way?”

Sharks at the “Shark Tank” Season 8 Premiere in 2016 (Photo by Kathy Hutchins on Shutterstock)

In other words, when you’re pitching something truly new and potentially mind-bending, you need to help your audience envision how it would actually work in practice. This concrete framing helps bridge the gap between the unfamiliar concept and people’s existing mental models of the world.

Source: https://studyfinds.org/study-reveals-most-effective-way-for-entrepreneurs-to-pitch-ideas-to-investors/?nab=0

Jennifer Lopez is “furious” and “humiliated” over her split from Ben Affleck, says a source, who tells Page Six that the “Gone Girl” star is holding off on filing for divorce to spare her more embarrassment.

“She’s furious,” says the source. “He has humiliated her. He was the one who initiated getting back together.”

The “Jenny from the Block” chart-topper and Affleck rekindled their relationship in July 2021, following Lopez’s split from her former fiancé, Alex

Rodriguez, in April 2021.

Lopez, 55, and Affleck, 51, previously dated from 2002 to 2004 after infamously starring together in the movie “Gigli.”

“He’s humiliated her because she made a big deal that he’s the love of her life,” explains the source. “They just had two weddings two years ago. This is some kind of a record, they’re not young kids.”

The pair eloped in Las Vegas in July 2022, and had another wedding celebration at Affleck’s home in Riceboro, Georgia, the next month.

Lopez’s album, “This Is Me…Now,” and the accompanying Amazon Prime documentary, “The Greatest Love Story Never Told,” co-starring Affleck, was inspired by their relationship.

“She is a romantic,” says our source.

We hear that the “Hustlers” star is also upset because the couple’s respective children are involved.

“There are five kids involved in this,” says the source. “She knew they were going to blend families. She has not fully accepted it is over.”

Lopez has twins — Max and Emme, 16 — from her previous marriage to Marc Anthony, while Affleck shares Violet, 18, Fin, 17, and Samuel, 12, from his previous marriage to Jennifer Garner.

We hear Lopez is particularly close with Violet.

Source: https://pagesix.com/2024/08/05/celebrity-news/jennifer-lopez-humiliated-amid-ben-affleck-split/

Serena Williams slammed a Parisian hotel for denying her and her family access to its rooftop restaurant.

“Yikes @peninsulaparis,” she wrote on X Monday. “I’ve been denied access to rooftop to eat in a empty restaurant of nicer places 🫠 but never with my kids. Always a first. 🙄#Olympic2024. You’re Really Gonna Reject Me?!?!”

The tennis champ, 42, also included a photo of The Peninsula’s sign with the message.

Many fans subsequently accused the hotel of racism.

“You should claim racism and get someone fired,” one person wrote, while another noted, “It doesn’t matter how much money you have. Racism doesn’t care bro 🤣.”

However, not everyone was Williams’ side, with some accusing her of acting like an entitled “celebrity.”

“BREAKING NEWS: Celebrity told ‘no,’” one user commented, while another wrote, “I’m a celebrity, kick a regular person out so I can eat.”

Hours later, the hotel responded with a comment, explaining that they were indeed fully booked despite appearances.

“Dear Mrs. Williams,” they wrote in response. “Please accept our deepest apologies for the disappointment you encountered tonight. Unfortunately, our rooftop bar was indeed fully booked and the only unoccupied tables you saw belonged to our gourmet restaurant, L’Oiseau Blanc, which was fully reserved.”

Williams has been in the City of Light for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, along with her husband, Alexis Ohanian, and their daughters, Olympia, 6, and Adira, 1.

The former athlete participated in the opening ceremony’s torch relay.

The 23-time Grand Slam champion, who retired from professional tennis in 2022, made an appearance with other celebrated sports stars, including Rafael Nadal, Carl Lewis and Nadia Comaneci.

Source: https://pagesix.com/2024/08/05/entertainment/serena-williams-rips-paris-hotel-for-denying-her-family-entry-to-rooftop-restaurant/

Serena Williams criticized a luxury hotel in Paris on Monday evening for being “denied access” to the hotel’s rooftop restaurant along with her children. The retired tennis champion, who served as a torch bearer at the opening ceremony of this summer’s Olympics, shared an anecdote about her experience at the Peninsula Paris on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“Yikes @peninsulaparis I’ve been denied access to rooftop to eat in a empty restaurant of nicer places … but never with my kids,” Williams wrote. “Always a first.” She added on a hashtag for the Olympics.

A staffer at the Peninsula’s rooftop restaurant, Maxime Mannevy, told Variety that Williams showed up to the premises with another woman and a stroller and looked “unrecognizable.”

Over the past few days, global stock markets have been plummeting.
Trading screens across the US, Asia and, to a certain extent, Europe are awash with blinking red numbers heading south.
The sudden turn comes as fears grow that the US economy – the world’s biggest – is slowing down.
Experts say the main reason for this fear is that US jobs data for July, released on Friday, was much worse than expected.