Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh’s chemistry on the set of their new movie was so electric, they didn’t even hear their cue to cut while filming a steamy love scene. During an appearance at the 92nd Street Y on Friday to promote “We Live in Time,” Garfield colorfully recalled filming what he described as a “very intimate, passionate sex scene” with Pugh, during which they both failed to hear the director yell “cut,” leading to an awkward moment. According to footage posted to social media from the event, Garfield told the audience that this happened during the very first take of the love scene, which was filmed on a “closed set” with only himself, Pugh, the camera operator and the boom operator. “The scene becomes passionate, as we choreographed it,” Garfield said. “And we get into it, as it were, and we go a little further than we were meant to just because we never heard ‘cut.’” John Crowley, the director, was in a different room, next to where they were filming, Garfield said. As time went on, “I feel like we were both kind of telepathically saying to each other, ‘this definitely feels like a longer take,’” the actor recalled. According to Garfield, the pair only realized their error when they looked over to the crew members and saw them both facing the wall, in an attempt at politeness. While Garfield acknowledged that the scene went on just a bit too long, he and Pugh were both “feeling safe” enough in their filming environment to think, “we’ll let this progress and we’ll just carry on.” “We Live In Time” stars Garfield and Pugh, who in the film are “brought together in a surprise encounter that changes their lives,” according to an official synopsis. The film will premiere in US theaters on October 11.

Al Pacino has revealed that he nearly died of Covid-19 in 2020, and shared his view on what happens after death. In interviews with The New York Times and People magazine, the Oscar-winning actor recounted his experience contracting the virus and briefly having no pulse. Pacino, 84, told the Times in a wide-ranging interview that he began to feel “unusually not good” and then developed a fever and was dehydrated. “I was sitting there in my house, and I was gone,” he said. “I didn’t have a pulse.” “You’re here, you’re not. I thought: Wow, you don’t even have your memories. You have nothing. Strange porridge,” the “Scarface” actor said of his near-death experience. Within minutes, an ambulance showed up at Pacino’s home and he regained consciousness with six paramedics and two doctors in his living room, he said. “They had these outfits on that looked like they were from outer space or something,” he told the paper. “It was kind of shocking to open your eyes and see that. Everybody was around me, and they said: ‘He’s back. He’s here.’” In an interview with People, Pacino recounted coming back to consciousness with a sense of confusion. “I looked around and I thought, ‘What happened to me?’” The movie veteran said he questions whether he actually died, despite “everybody” thinking he was dead. “I thought I experienced death. I might not have. I don’t think I have, really. I know I made it,” he said. Pacino credited his “great assistant” for immediately contacting the paramedics when his nurse confirmed that he no longer had a pulse. “He got the people coming, because the nurse that was taking care of me said, ‘I don’t feel a pulse on this guy,’” Pacino recalled. Asked if the health scare changed the way he lives his life, Pacino told People: “Not at all.” But that isn’t to say the experience left the actor unchanged. Pacino, who is currently preparing for a movie adaptation of Shakespeare’s “King Lear,” confirmed to The New York Times that the experience had a metaphysical effect. “I didn’t see the white light or anything. There’s nothing there,” he explained. “As Hamlet says, ‘To be or not to be’; ‘The undiscovered country from whose bourn, no traveler returns.’ And he says two words: ‘no more.’ It was no more,” added Pacino. “You’re gone. I’d never thought about it in my life. But you know actors: It sounds good to say I died once. What is it when there’s no more?” Pacino’s experience is detailed in his autobiography, “Sonny Boy,” to be published Tuesday.

Emmanuel Salas heard the snake before he saw it. “There was that rattle,” Emmanuel, known as Manny, recalls to CNN Travel today. “Immediately, we jumped back.” Manny tried not to panic, but when the snake came writhing out of a bush and proceeded to unfurl and stand alert, Manny felt the fear kick in. “It looked like it was kind of aggressive, it was standing up,” he recalls. “We were all freaking out.” It was early 2019. Manny and two friends were hiking back from the Bridge to Nowhere, a remote structure built for an abandoned 1930s highway project in California’s San Gabriel Mountains. Twenty-something Manny was born in Mexico but grew up in California, and he was familiar with the state’s more hair-raising wildlife. But it was one thing reading about venomous rattlesnakes, and another thing coming face-to-face with one in the middle of nowhere. “I’m terrified of snakes,” says Manny. “And we were on this part of the trail where it’s very narrow. On one side you have a clearing, with a bit of a drop and a steep fall. And then on the other side, you just have a whole bunch of bushes, so we couldn’t really go around the snake.” Unsure what to do, Manny and his friends just stopped, silent and wide-eyed. “We were just standing there, figuring out what we could do, how to try and scare it, when another group came up behind us.” Manny turned to see three women, each with a backpack strapped to them, each looking confused. The trio was familiar – one of them in particular – and Manny realized they’d all been at the Bridge to Nowhere together earlier that day. “Under the bridge you can go and swim in these pools – there’s a river running underneath,” explains Manny. “We’d all stopped there and swam for a bit.” While bathing in the pools, Manny had been struck by one of the women. She’d been sitting on a rock, laughing with her friends in between snapping photos of the view. “I remember thinking, ‘Damn that girl looks pretty cute,’ ” says Manny. But Manny didn’t speak to her. And when Manny and his friends left the bridge, the women were still there. But now they’d all unexpectedly reconvened to face down a rattlesnake. Laura’s perspective While she was sitting on the rock at the Bridge to Nowhere, Laura Binder didn’t really pay Manny Salas much notice. And later, when Laura and her friends ran into Manny and his group on the trail, she didn’t recognize him right away. Laura’s first thought was simply: “Why are those guys just standing there?” Then she saw their expressions and realized something wasn’t right. “Be careful,” said one of Manny’s friends. “There’s a rattlesnake literally right there.” He indicated in front of them, where the snake was still standing to attention. Laura gasped. She was from Vienna, Austria, where there is no dangerous wildlife to speak of. California rattlesnakes were new territory. Fortunately, Laura’s two friends were a little calmer in the face of danger. And Manny and his party felt some safety in their numbers increasing. The two groups banded together to scare off the snake by stomping their feet, clapping and shouting. Eventually, the snake slinked off into the foliage, allowing the group to continue warily along the path. In part because of the snake encounter, and in part because it was getting dark, Laura’s group and Manny’s group made the decision to hike the rest of the trail together. As they put some distance between themselves and the snake, the hikers started to calm down, and the two groups introduced themselves as they meandered down the trail. The path was just wide enough for the hikers to walk two-by-two. By coincidence, Laura and Manny found themselves next to each other, and they chatted as they went. The two discussed their shared love of the outdoors, with Laura mentioning she was new to California. She’d moved there in early 2019 – leaving behind her home city of Vienna, where she’d grown up with an Austrian mother and a South Korean father. “Since I was a baby, we went to so many different places, and I also studied abroad in Japan and in (South) Korea,” Laura tells CNN Travel today. “I love to travel.” It was Laura’s desire to see the world that prompted her to move to California, to pursue a postgraduate degree at UCLA. When Laura encountered Manny and the rattlesnake, she was “still kind of new in the city.” She was in a relationship, but her partner didn’t live in Los Angeles. “I was a little lonely, and I wanted to meet more people,” Laura recalls. “I think as a foreigner, it’s also hard to make connections that are not just surface level.” At first, Laura and Manny’s conversation stayed pretty surface level. But soon they were talking about Laura’s life in Vienna and Manny’s experiences growing up in California. The conversation segued into rock climbing – and Manny and Laura realized they shared a favorite hobby. Manny, who was single, wondered if his connection with Laura might have romantic potential. Then Laura mentioned her boyfriend. “I was like, ‘OK, this isn’t going to go anywhere romantically, that’s fine. But I may have a new buddy to go with me to the climbing gym,’ ” recalls Manny. “And then, at the end of the hike, when we got to the parking lot, Laura asked for my number.” “I felt like we were vibing, but in a friendship way,” says Laura. “I didn’t know anyone who was a climber in LA. So it was just cool for me to meet someone who had the same hobby.” The two hikers exchanged details, promising to meet up and climb together some time soon Climbing together Manny and Laura at sunrise in Canyonlands National Park in Utah. Laura Binder and Emmanuel Salas Manny and Laura kept to their word and arranged to go

Tunisians voted Sunday in an election expected to grant President Kais Saied a second term, as his most prominent detractors, including one of the candidates challenging him, are in prison. The 66-year-old president faces few obstacles to winning reelection, five years after riding anti-establishment backlash to a first term, and three after suspending parliament and rewriting the constitution giving the presidency more power. The North African country’s election is its third since protests led to the 2011 ouster of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali — the first autocrat toppled in the Arab Spring uprisings that also overthrew leaders in Egypt, Libya and Yemen. International observers praised the previous two contests as meeting democratic norms. However, a raft of arrests and actions taken by a Saied-appointed election authority have raised questions about whether this year’s race is free and fair. And opposition parties have called for a boycott. What’s at stake? Not long ago, Tunisia was hailed as the Arab Spring’s only success story. As coups, counterrevolutions and civil wars convulsed the region, the North African nation enshrined a new democratic constitution and saw its leading civil society groups win the Nobel Peace Prize for brokering political compromise. But its new leaders were unable to buoy its struggling economy and were plagued by political infighting and episodes of violence and terrorism. Amid that backdrop, Saied, then 61 and a political outsider, won his first term in 2019. He advanced to a runoff promising to usher in a “New Tunisia” and hand more power to young people and local governments. Tunisian presidential candidate Zouhair Maghzaoui prepares to cast his vote at a polling station in the capital Tunis on Oct. 6, 2024. Ons Abid/AP This year’s election will offer a window into popular opinion about the trajectory that Tunisia’s fading democracy has taken since Saied took office. Saied’s supporters appear to have remained loyal to him and his promise to transform Tunisia. But he isn’t affiliated with any political party, and it’s unclear just how deep his support runs among Tunisians. It’s the first presidential race since Saied upended the country’s politics in July 2021, declaring a state of emergency, sacking his prime minister, suspending the parliament and rewriting Tunisia’s constitution consolidating his own power. Those actions outraged pro-democracy groups and leading opposition parties, who called them a coup. Yet despite anger from career politicians, voters approved Saied’s new constitution the following year in a low-turnout referendum. Authorities subsequently began arresting Saied’s critics including journalists, lawyers, politicians and civil society figures, charging them with endangering state security and violating a controversial anti-fake news law that observers argue stifles dissent. Fewer voters turned out to participate in parliamentary and local elections in 2022 and 2023 amid economic woes and widespread political apathy. Who’s running? Many wanted to challenge Saied, but few were able to. Seventeen potential candidates filed paperwork to run and Tunisia’s election authority approved only three: Saied, Zouhair Maghzaoui and Ayachi Zammel. Maghzaoui is a veteran politician who has campaigned against Saied’s economic program and recent political arrests. Still, he is loathed by opposition parties for backing Saied’s constitution and earlier moves to consolidate power. Zammel is a businessman supported by politicians not boycotting the race. During the campaign, he has been sentenced to prison time in four voter fraud cases related to signatures his team gathered to qualify for the ballot. Others had hoped to run but were prevented. The election authority, known as ISIE, last month dismissed a court ruling ordering it to reinstate three additional challengers. A woman walks past a poster depicting presidential candidate Ayachi Zammel, hanging on his party’s Azimoun headquarters in Tunis on October 1, 2024. Jihed Abidellaoui/Reuters With many arrested, detained or convicted on charges related to their political activities, Tunisia’s most well-known opposition figures are also not participating. That includes the 83-year-old leader of Tunisia’s most well organized political party Ennahda, which rose to power after the Arab Spring. Rached Ghannouchi, the Islamist party’s co-founder and Tunisia’s former house speaker, has been imprisoned since last year after criticizing Saied. The crackdown also includes one of Ghannouchi’s most vocal detractors: Abir Moussi, a right-wing lawmaker known for railing against Islamists and speaking nostalgically for pre-Arab Spring Tunisia. The 49-year-old president of the Free Destourian Party also was imprisoned last year after criticizing Saied. Other less known politicians who announced plans to run have also since been jailed or sentenced on similar charges. Opposition groups have called to boycott the race. The National Salvation Front — a coalition of secular and Islamist parties including Ennahda — has denounced the process as a sham and questioned the election’s legitimacy. What are the other issues? The country’s economy continues to face major challenges. Despite Saied’s promises to chart a new course for Tunisia, unemployment has steadily increased to one of the region’s highest at 16%, with young Tunisians hit particularly hard. Growth has been slow since the COVID-19 pandemic and Tunisia has remained reliant on multilateral lenders such as the World Bank and the European Union. Today, Tunisia owes them more than $9 billion. Apart from agricultural reform, Saied’s overarching economic strategy is unclear. Negotiations have long been stalled over a $1.9 billion bailout package offered by the International Monetary Fund in 2022. Saied has been unwilling to accept its conditions, which include restructuring indebted state-owned companies and cutting public wages. Some of the IMF’s stipulations — including lifting subsidies for electricity, flour and fuel — would likely be unpopular among Tunisians who rely on their low costs. People stand in line outside a polling station during the presidential election in the capital Tunis, Tunisia, on October 6, 2024. Zoubeir Souissi/Reuters Economic analysts say that foreign and local investors are reluctant to invest in Tunisia due to continued political risks and an absence of reassurances. The dire economic straits have had a two-pronged effect on one of Tunisia’s key political issues: migration. From 2019 to 2023, an increasing number of Tunisians attempted to migrate to Europe without authorization. Meanwhile, Saied’s administration has taken a harsh approach against migrants arriving from sub-Saharan Africa, many who have found themselves stuck in Tunisia while trying to reach Europe. Saied energized his supporters in early 2023 by accusing migrants of violence and

  It might have been a preseason game, but it proved to be a historic one on Sunday night. During the Los Angeles Lakers’ preseason game against the Phoenix Suns, LeBron and Bronny James became the first father/son duo to play together on an NBA team. The pair took the court together to start the second quarter — much to the delight of the crowd on hand at Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, California. Bronny, who celebrated his 20th birthday on Sunday, got the gift of cheering fans as he played for four minutes alongside his 39-year-old superstar father. LeBron, who got his first action of the preseason against his former USA basketball teammates Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, scored 19 points in the first half. He did not play in the second half. Bronny, whose jersey is emblazed with “James Jr.” across the back, was selected 55th overall by the Lakers in the 2024 NBA draft in June, joining his father at the franchise. He would finish with zero points and two rebounds in 13 minutes played. The Lakers would fall to the Suns 118-114. Asked about sharing this moment on his son’s birthday, LeBron said it “means everything.” “For someone who didn’t have a dad growing up, to be able to have that influence on your kids,” LeBron said. “Then ultimately, to be able to work with your son, I think it’s one of the greatest things that a father could ever hope for or wish for.” Bronny said he found out that he was going to play with his father earlier in the day. He added that while he was “psyched,” it also felt like a “normal game with my teammate.” “Just trying to live in the moment and do my job and find my role,” he added. Lakers head coach JJ Redick said he is “thrilled” to be part of a team with LeBron and Bronny. “I think it speaks to LeBron’s certainly longevity but also his competitive stamina, that he is able to still be doing this in year 22,” Redick said. “It speaks to the work that Bronny has put in to get to this point. And really just the fatherly care and love and certainly the motherly care from Savannah (James) as well. Bronny is such a great kid, and he’s a pleasure to be around.” The Lakers have four more preseason games, including the next one on the road against the Milwaukee Bucks. The team will open up the NBA regular season on October 22 against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

Calvin Buari parked the black Volkswagen Jetta outside the maximum-security prison he’d called home for years. He gazed up at the hulking concrete wall of the Green Haven Correctional Facility and inhaled deeply. Only weeks before, he’d been on the other side of those walls. But on this June 2017 visit, he wasn’t a prisoner. He was a budding entrepreneur, taking an elderly woman to visit her grandson behind bars. The previous month Buari had walked out of the prison in Stormville, New York, a free man after years of fighting to vacate a wrongful conviction for a double homicide. He launched Ryderz Van Service — a company he describes as the “Uber for prison visits”— as soon as he got his driver’s license. On that surreal day, his first trip back to the prison since his release, he mingled with the corrections officers and handed out business cards. “It was like an out-of-body experience, being on the other side of that wall,” he says now. “I wanted to do something to keep family ties because I know how important that is when you’re inside.” “That grandmother … she didn’t drive, she was elderly. And this was the only person that … (prisoner) had on the outside.” The modest VW was a far cry from the black BMW Buari drove as a drug dealer in the Bronx in the 1990s, before he was wrongly convicted of murder. His T-shirt, pants and black fedora were a stark contrast to the flowing mink coat and matching brown hat he wore to sell crack cocaine to his customers. But he was a free man. And he was busy trying to turn his life around. That visit to the prison — about 90 minutes’ drive north of New York City — was the first of many as Buari’s business grew. And each day he drove to the prison, he thought of how quickly one’s freedom can vanish. “Every time I pulled up at that prison that I just left, it was a reminder that I need to be on the righteous path,” he tells CNN. “Because if I did not, what was waiting for me was that very prison.” A hit podcast details Buari’s fight to clear his name Buari’s story is featured in the podcast, “The Burden: Empire on Blood,” which followed his years-long fight for justice and eventual release in May 2017 after 22 years behind bars. The podcast launched in 2018 and has been updated with new episodes and previously unheard recordings of his phone calls from prison. The latest episode, released this week, focuses on Buari, now 53, navigating life after incarceration. A second bonus episode will be released Wednesday. At the end of the podcast’s initial episodes, Buari had just been released and was sleeping in a van in his ex-girlfriend’s driveway as he tried to launch his rideshare business. Former journalist Steve Fishman, who hosts the podcast, said he decided to do more episodes because he frequently gets questions about Buari. “People still ask me, ‘What happened to Cal?’ We left him homeless and sleeping in the van and yet he was so determined (to better his life). And frankly, I was interested in what happened to Cal, too,” he says. Fishman says he’s been “obsessed” with Buari’s case since he received a frantic phone call from him while he was in prison. A fellow prisoner, who was also wrongfully convicted and later released from prison, had shared Fishman’s number with Buari because of his work shining a light on such cases. Buari then sent Fishman over 1,300 pages of his court transcripts and documents, and Fishman started recording their conversations with his consent in 2011. And he grew fascinated by this man who was campaigning for his freedom from a prison payphone. Calvin Buari with podcaster and former journalist Steve Fishman in a photo taken after Buari’s release. Courtesy Steve Fishman Since then, Fishman has been present for Buari’s biggest moments, including the ruling to vacate his conviction and his eventual release from prison. In 2017, the year Buari was released, the National Registry of Exonerations documented 139 prisoners who were freed after wrongful convictions, including 51 for homicide, it said. Statistics on exonerations offer further evidence of the significant challenges African Americans face in the criminal justice system. Of the 153 prisoners exonerated in the US last year, 93 — or almost 61% — were Black. “Judging from exonerations, innocent Black Americans are seven times more likely than white Americans to be falsely convicted of serious crimes,” the National Registry of Exonerations said in a 2022 report. He began selling drugs as a teenager so he could buy a pair of Air Jordans Buari was a savvy — and flashy — drug dealer. He strutted the streets in Rolex watches, gold chains and designer clothes. It was not unusual to see him decked out in Versace or Fila from head to toe, he says. His flamboyant role as a drug dealer made him unsympathetic and an easy target for a conviction, he says. The fact that he was plying neighborhoods with drugs as then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani was cracking down on crime didn’t help either. “At that time and that era, if police just heard drugs, they didn’t care. They felt like you belonged in prison. Sometimes I felt like I belonged in prison,” he says. “Even though I was in there for something that I didn’t do, I kind of put myself in that position because of what I did.” Buari describes himself as an avid entrepreneur who wasted his business acumen on the wrong ventures. Ever since he was old enough to work, he’s always been his own boss. Even after his release from prison, he never considered working for someone else, he says. Buari says he dropped out of school in 10th grade to make money after he saw his single mother struggling to pay her bills. He identifies one particular moment that sealed his decision to start selling drugs: He desperately wanted a pair of

The best minds in science will be thrust from academic obscurity into the spotlight next week when the Nobel Prizes in physics, chemistry, and physiology or medicine are announced. The accolades, established by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel more than a century ago, celebrate groundbreaking work that can take decades to complete. It’s notoriously tricky to predict who will win science’s top honors. The short list and nominators remain a secret, and documents revealing the details of the selection process are sealed from public view for 50 years. However, there is no shortage of Nobel-worthy discoveries: Here are five breakthroughs that haven’t resulted in a life-changing call from Stockholm — at least not yet. The first human genome The mapping of the human genome has had a huge impact on biology and other fields. The output from a DNA sequencer is shown in this undated image from the National Human Genome Research Institute.  NHGRI/AP/File One often discussed candidate for the Nobel Prize is the mapping of the human genome, an audacious project that launched in 1990 and was completed in 2003. Cracking the genetic code of human life involved an international consortium of thousands of researchers in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan and China. The endeavor has had a far-reaching impact on biology, medicine and many other fields. But one reason the project may not have earned a Nobel Prize is the sheer number of people involved in the feat. According to the rules laid down by Nobel in his 1895 will, the prizes can only honor up to three people per award — a growing challenge given the collaborative nature of much scientific research. A revolution in obesity treatment Novo Nordisk production facilities in Hillerød, Denmark, produce GLP-1 injection pens. Carsten Snejbjerg/Bloomberg/Getty Images/File The development of blockbuster weight-loss drugs that mimic a hormone called glucagon-like peptide 1, or GLP-1, has shaken up the world of health care in the past few years. One in eight people in the world live with obesity — a figure that has more than doubled since 1990 — and the medication, which lowers blood sugar and curbs appetite, has the potential to usher in a new era for obesity treatment and related conditions such as type 2 diabetes. Three scientists — Svetlana Mojsov, Dr. Joel Habener and Lotte Bjerre Knudsen — involved in the development of the drug, known as semaglutide, won the 2024 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award, often considered an indicator of whether a specific breakthrough or scientist will win a Nobel Prize. Mojsov, a biochemist and associate research professor at the Rockefeller University, and Habener, an endocrinologist and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, helped identify and synthesize GLP-1. Knudsen, chief scientific adviser in research and early development at Novo Nordisk, played a pivotal role in turning it into an effective drug promoting weight loss that millions of people take today. Transformative AI Demis Hassabis (left) and John Jumper accept awards during the 10th Breakthrough Prize ceremony in Los Angeles in April. Lester Cohen/Getty Images for Breakthrough Prize Artificial intelligence, or AI, is transforming people’s lives at an unprecedented pace. It’s a crowded field, but two names stand out, according to David Pendlebury, head of research analysis at Clarivate’s Institute for Scientific Information. Pendlebury identifies “Nobel-worthy” individuals by analyzing how often fellow scientists cite their key scientific papers throughout the years. The two key figures are Demis Hassabis and John Jumper, the Google DeepMind inventors of the AlphaFold Protein Structure Database — an AI program that decodes the 3D structures of proteins from amino acid sequences that at least 2 million researchers around the world have used. AlphaFold acts as a “Google search” for protein structures, providing instant access to predicted models of proteins, accelerating progress in fundamental biology and other related fields. Since the pair’s key paper was published in 2021, it has been cited more than 13,000 times, which Pendlebury described as an “exceptional number.” Out of a total of 61 million scientific papers, only around 500 have been cited more than 10,000 times, he said. Jumper and Hassabis have already won the 2023 Lasker and the Breakthrough prizes. A Nobel Prize for chemistry may be in their future, Pendlebury said, along with a third researcher, David Baker, director of the Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington School of Medicine, who laid the groundwork for AlphaFold. But it might be premature for the typically conservative Nobel committee to honor the field, Pendlebury said. “Some people have suggested it may be too early for such a prize, that the work is of too recent vintage, and that this is an entirely new area, the application of AI to scientific research,” he said. Understanding the gut microbiome The gut is teeming with microbes — bacteria, viruses and fungi — that influence human health. Boris Roessler/picture-alliance/dpa/AP We’re not alone in our bodies. Trillions of microbes — bacteria, viruses and fungi — live on and in the human body, collectively known as the human microbiome. With advances in genetic sequencing in the past two decades, scientists have been better able to understand what these microbes do, how they talk to one another and interact with human cells, particularly in the gut. The field is long overdue for Nobel recognition, Pendlebury said. Biologist Dr. Jeffrey Gordon, the Dr. Robert J. Glaser Distinguished University Professor at Washington University in St. Louis, is a pioneer in the field. Gordon strove to understand the human gut microbiome and how it shapes human health, starting with lab research in mice. He led work that found that the gut microbiome plays a role in the health effects of undernutrition, which affects almost 200 million children globally, and he is developing food interventions that target improved gut health. Cancer-causing genes Mary-Claire King of the University of Washington School of Medicine appears with President Barack Obama after receiving the National Medal of Science in a White House ceremony in May 2016. Drew Angerer/Getty Images/File In the 1970s, it was understood that cancer sometimes ran in families, but

After rushing to comfort Israel as it grieved the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust, President Joe Biden last year pledged America would stand with the country in its dark days and the good ones he insisted would come. At the time, no one knew the international and domestic political consequences of his promise. An ensuing war has proved the existential role the US plays in Israel’s survival but also severely strained the alliance. It has also exposed and widened some of America’s most profound political divides ahead of an already tumultuous election between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump next month. The October 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks, which killed 1,200 people, did not just transform the Middle East’s strategic balance as Israel confronted Hamas, then Hezbollah, and traded fire with their sponsor, its archenemy, Iran. Like the September 11 attacks in 2001, the Hamas horror set off a chain of events that affected countless lives, unleashing political disturbances thousands of miles away. Militarily, the United States and its allies have twice staged unprecedented operations to protect Israel from a barrage of missiles and drones from Iran. The US has also repeatedly bombed Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen who have launched attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea in the wake of October 7. Amid fears in Washington of a full-on Middle East war, the vulnerability of US troops in the region was tragically driven home in January when three US service personnel were killed in an attack on a base in Jordan. At home, the fallout of the Hamas attacks has coincided with the toxic politics of a presidential election year. Campus protests underscored the splits in the Democratic Party, which soon saw unprecedented political upheaval with Biden abandoning his reelection bid and backing Harris just months before the election. In the new race between Harris and Trump, events in the Middle East continue to set off reverberations that could influence the outcome of the election. A horrifying wave of antisemitism, meanwhile, has left many Jews wondering whether they are safe in America. A huge challenge to US foreign policy Israel’s onslaught on Hamas in Gaza, which has killed tens of thousands of civilians, may have finally shattered US hopes of a two-state solution. And it’s turned into the greatest foreign crisis of the Biden administration at a time when the US-led global system is splintering under challenges from Russia and rising China. Israel’s escalation of the war against Hezbollah in Lebanon threatens to embroil Washington and spark a direct clash with Iran, which has so far been avoided in a near half-century of antagonism since the Islamic revolution. Biden has been a staunch supporter of Israel for decades, but his record did not prevent growing suspicion and disagreements with the most right-wing Israeli government in history. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly spurned the US president’s attempt to mitigate the civilian cost of the war in Gaza and has disregarded Washington’s priorities when US and Israeli interests diverged. As a result, the Biden administration has suffered a significant erosion of its authority on the international stage and its foreign policy priorities have been threatened. Months of US shuttle diplomacy involving Secretary of State Antony Blinken, CIA Director William Burns and other senior officials has yielded only limited progress in freeing hostages in Gaza. And a deal that would forge a ceasefire with Hamas seems more distant than ever. Often, it’s appeared that the US wanted an agreement far more than Netanyahu or Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who embedded Hamas forces in civilian areas, adding to the war’s carnage. Biden’s personal credibility has also been damaged by the defiance of Netanyahu, who has not hesitated to intervene in US domestic politics amid an apparent preference for Republicans lined up behind Trump. Weeks after the October 7 attacks, it seemed Netanyahu was headed for political oblivion, with his image as Israel’s ultimate protector destroyed by the darkest day in the country’s history. But his tenacious endurance means it’s now almost certain he will outlast Biden, who leaves office in January. The widening war that the president will bequeath to either Trump or Harris will be a blot on the legacy of a statesman who regarded himself as a foreign policy expert. Deep domestic political aftershocks The Hamas terror attacks – and Israel’s response – have laid bare and widened splits in American society and domestic politics. Washington has been involved in mediating Middle East peace for several generations. But the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has never become such a treacherous domestic political issue as it did after October 7. Footage of Israel’s retaliation against Hamas in Gaza and harrowing scenes of Palestinian children and civilians killed caused an anti-Israel backlash on the left that created perilous political pressure for Biden and then Harris. Fury among progressives at Israel and the Biden administration’s failure to rein in Netanyahu divided the Democratic coalition. Thousands of Arab American voters and others refused to support Biden in the primaries, and the prospect of them sitting out next month’s election or voting third party, especially in a critical swing state like Michigan, could doom Harris’ White House hopes. While he was still running for president, Biden was repeatedly interrupted by pro-Palestinian protests and confronted by banners that read, “Genocide Joe,” referring to his failure to do more to spare Palestinian civilians. Harris is now struggling to perform the same treacherous balancing act that long thwarted Biden. She must prioritize US foreign policy priorities, a political imperative to stand with Israel, and seek to temper the unrest inside the Democratic Party over the war. In a sign of still-deep concern over the political blowback, Harris last week traveled to Michigan to meet Arab American leaders. But her struggle was evident in advance excerpts of an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” due to air Monday. “The work that we do diplomatically with the leadership of Israel is an ongoing pursuit around making clear our principles, which include the need for humanitarian aid, the need for this war to end, the

Tropical plants creep up vast structural columns and dangle from ledges, hundreds of feet above the ground. Guests lounge around a lagoon-like swimming pool nestled away from the scorching midday sun. A series of soaring terraces sit within the tower’s frame, like caverns carved into a mountainside. This is Singapore’s Pan Pacific Orchard, which has just been named the world’s best new tall building by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH). Announcing the award in a press release Wednesday, the industry group described the tower as a “hotel in nature” that demonstrated a “groundbreaking approach to high-density urbanism.” The lagoon-like swimming pool on the building’s fifth-floor beach terrace. Darren Soh Despite the lofty accolades, the lush open-air cavities of the 461-foot-high structure feel surprisingly intimate. “You experience the hotel not as a very big building, but at more of a neighborhood scale,” said architect Hong Wei Phua of WOHA, the Singaporean firm behind the design, as he toured CNN around the site on Thursday. The unique design comprises a series of L-shaped volumes that divide the tower into four distinct stacks, freeing up space for urban gardens and greenery. Each of the four terraces is based on a different motif relating to Singapore’s tropical environment: forests, beaches, gardens and clouds, in ascending order. The ground-level “Forest Terrace,” the only one accessible to passersby, features a cascading water feature and dozens of plant species, many of which are native to the island nation. Phua said it was designed as a public gesture that set the design apart from more conventional “podium and tower” high-rise hotels. “Instead of arriving at a podium — into an internalized space, or a labyrinth of rooms and passages — you enter into a forest space,” he said, describing it as an “oasis away from the hustle and bustle” of Orchard, Singapore’s famously busy shopping district. Moving up through the building, the elevated “Beach Terrace” contains a pool surrounded by palms; the “Garden Terrace” offers walking paths around a rectangular lawn; and the “Cloud Terrace,” in the building’s upper reaches, serves as a verdant event space overlooking the city. Video Ad Feedback Watch: Take a look inside Pan Pacific Orchard. 00:48 – Source: CNN Covered yet open-air (an essential quality in the country’s warm, humid and frequently stormy climate), each stratum acts as a giant sunshade, or rain shield, for the one below. Many of the hotel’s 347 rooms include balconies overlooking the landscaped areas. Owned and operated by Singaporean real estate giant UOL Group, the hotel also features a 400-seat ballroom, two restaurants and a “canopy” of rooftop solar panels. Singapore has developed a reputation for nature-inspired (or “biophilic”) architecture in recent years, and was famously dubbed the “garden city” by the country’s founding father and former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew in the 1960s. Greenery is often seen spilling out from skyscrapers, crawling over urban facades or integrated into public infrastructure, and the 6-million-person city-state is now home to Asia’s largest timber building. In some areas, Singapore’s strict building codes even require property developers to include large amounts of greenery when constructing new towers. In densely populated neighborhoods, like Orchard, these spaces — usually a combination of sky terraces, planter boxes, gardens and plant-covered walls — must be equivalent to the gross area of the entire site. Combined, the green spaces at Pan Pacific Orchard amount to around three times more than this legal minimum. The building’s architects, WOHA, also designed the hotel’s interiors. Marc Tan For WOHA, which has designed several other biophilic buildings in Singapore (as well as a housing complex for senior citizens named “World Building of the Year” in 2018), providing green space is not just about satisfying planning regulations. In a press release acknowledging the CTBUH award, the firm’s founding director Mun Summ Wong said he believes “skyscrapers can serve as green lungs within dense urban environments.” Founded in 2002, the CTBUH Awards recognize the best high-rise buildings and their architects. Other recent winners of the Best Tall Building Worldwide prize include One Vanderbilt Avenue, in New York City, and Australia’s Quay Quarter Tower, a building dubbed the world’s first “upcycled” skyscraper after architects 3XN retained more than two-thirds of the 1970s tower previously on the site. “Pan Pacific Orchard represents the best in responsible vertical urbanism today,” said CTBUH’s CEO, Javier Quintana de Uña, in a statement.

Fans eagerly awaiting the return of Coldplay to India were shocked to find tickets being resold online for as much as $11,000, prompting police to seek a statement from the CEO of the shows’ vendor over allegations of fraud. The British rock band is playing three shows in Mumbai in January as part of its hugely popular Music Of The Spheres tour, its first concerts in the country since 2016. Tickets were scheduled to go on sale by the official vendor, BookMyShow (BMS), at 12 p.m. local time on September 22. But for many users, the website and app crashed amid the demand. When fans were able to get into the virtual queue to buy tickets priced from 2,500 to 35,000 rupees ($30 to $417), they said they were behind hundreds of thousands of users. Within minutes, the tickets were sold out and reappeared on other platforms for as much as 960,000 rupees ($11,458), sparking anger over the purchase process and the suspected use of bots to scoop up seats. To put that into perspective, the World Bank says India’s current GDP per capita is $2,500 a year. Amit Vyas, a lawyer and founding partner of Mumbai law firm Vertices Partners, was among fans waiting for tickets on the vendor’s website when he was suddenly locked out. He filed a complaint with police, alleging the online ticketing platform made tickets available to scalpers and third-party websites for resale on the black market. “Not a single person that I know in Mumbai and outside Mumbai – I got so many calls from friends in Delhi – no one got a ticket,” Vyas told CNN, expressing frustration that more isn’t being done to protect fans against bots and other reseller practices. On Monday, the founder and CEO of BookMyShow, Ashish Hemjarani, was summoned by Mumbai police’s Economic Offences Wing for questioning over the alleged black marketing of tickets for the concerts, a Mumbai police official said. In a statement on X, BookMyShow said it had “no association” with any ticket selling or reselling platforms, as well as third party individuals “for the purpose of reselling” of the band’s shows in India, and that it had also filed a complaint with police. The complaint was in connection with the alleged sale of fake tickets for concerts on certain platforms, according to CNN affiliate News18.  “Scalping is strictly condemned and punishable by law in India. We have filed a complaint with the police authorities and will provide complete support to them in the investigation of this matter,” the vendor said. Coldplay fans told CNN their attempts to buy tickets to January’s shows at DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai left them frustrated and disappointed. Arkatapa Basu, a 26-year-old journalist based in the southern city of Bengaluru, said she was waiting behind 130,000 people to buy tickets when she learned a third show had been added. When she went to join the third show’s waitlist, she found there were 700,000 people waiting ahead of her. “That’s when I decided to give up,” she said. Ishaan Jhamb, a 22-year-old engineering student from Delhi, said the tickets being resold were so expensive, he and his friends decided to fly nearly four hours to go see the band in Abu Dhabi instead, because it would be more economical. The ticket-buying process for big concert events has often drawn angst from buyers globally. Last month, the British rock band Oasis announced a reunion tour, sparking a frenzy of criticism over Ticketmaster’s so-called dynamic pricing, where businesses adjust prices based on factors such as demand. A Ticketmaster spokesperson told CNN at the time the company does not set ticket prices. According to Ticketmaster’s website, promoters and artists set prices, which can either be fixed or based on demand. Ticketmaster also faced public scrutiny in November 2022 for its handling of the massively popular Taylor Swift Eras Tour, for which the company says there was “historically unprecedented demand.”

Barbra Streisand is paying tribute to her “A Star Is Born” costar Kris Kristofferson, who died over the weekend at age 88. In a post on Instagram, Streisand reflected on their creative time together. “The first time I saw Kris performing at the Troubadour club in L.A. I knew he was something special,” Streisand wrote. “Barefoot and strumming his guitar, he seemed like the perfect choice for a script I was developing, which eventually became ‘A Star Is Born.’” The 1976 adaptation about an up-and-coming singer who falls in love with a rock star was a hit with critics and at the box office. The film’s song “Evergreen,” performed by Streisand and Kristofferson, won the Academy Award for best original song. “For my latest concert in 2019 at London’s Hyde Park, I asked Kris to join me on-stage to sing our other ‘A Star Is Born’ duet, “Lost Inside Of You.” He was as charming as ever, and the audience showered him with applause,” Streisand wrote. “It was a joy seeing him receive the recognition and love he so richly deserved.” Kristofferson’s other music career collaborations include the 1982 double album “The Winning Hand” with Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton and Brenda Lee, as well as performing with Nelson, Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings as the Highwaymen. Streisand concluded her post with a message to Kristofferson’s family. “My thoughts go to Kris’ wife, Lisa who I know supported him in every way possible.”

The Russian government wants to earmark 32.5% of its spending for defense in 2025, a record amount and up from a reported 28.3% this year, as Moscow seeks to prevail in the war in Ukraine. The government’s draft budget released Monday proposes spending just under 13.5 trillion rubles (over $145 billion) on national defense. That is about three trillion rubles ($32 billion) more than was set aside for defense in 2024, which was the previous record. The Ukraine war is Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II and has drained the resources of both sides, with Ukraine getting billions of dollars in help from its Western allies. Russia’s forces are bigger and better-equipped than Ukraine’s. In recent months the Russian army has gradually been pushing Ukrainian troops backward in eastern areas. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the United States last week in pursuit of continuing financial and military support as the war approaches its three-year milestone next February. Russian President Vladimir Putin is also looking at how to sustain his war effort as military spending has placed a huge strain on the Russian economy. Earlier this month, Russia’s central bank raised its key interest rate by a full percentage point to 19% to combat high inflation. It held out the prospect of more rate increases to return inflation from the current 9.1% to the bank’s target of 4% in 2025. According to the draft budget, spending on defense should decline in 2026. The proposed budget could still change as it goes through three readings in the State Duma, Russia’s lower parliament house, and then goes to the Federation Council, the upper house, before the Russian president signs it into law. Meanwhile, on Monday Putin signed a call-up order for 133,000 conscripts in the autumn military draft, which is a routine number for seasonal conscription campaigns. In September, he ordered the military to increase the number of troops by 180,000 to a total of 1.5 million. Overall military personnel would be about 2.4 million. Overnight, Russia fired missiles and drones at 11 regions in Ukraine, the Ukrainian air force said Monday, in a 33rd consecutive night of aerial attacks behind the front line and setting a new monthly record in drone barrages. It was the first time Russians launched more than 1,000 Shahed drones in a month. It was also the first time the Iranian-made drones were used in every aerial attack on each day of the month. Drone attacks In Kyiv, multiple explosions and machine gun fire could be heard throughout the night as the Ukrainian capital’s air defenses fought off a drone attack for five hours. No casualties were reported in Kyiv or elsewhere, though a “critical infrastructure object” caught fire in the southern Mykolaiv region, Gov. Vitalii Kim said, without elaborating. Russia has increasingly deployed Shahed drones, rather than more expensive missiles, in its aerial bombardment of Ukrainian cities since its full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022. It launched more than 1,300 Shahed drones at Ukraine in September alone, the highest number of drone attacks in a single month since the war began. Ukraine, too, has developed a new generation of drones for the battlefield and for long-range strikes deep inside Russia. More than 100 Ukrainian drones were shot down over Russia on Sunday, Russian officials said. Also Monday, Putin released a video marking the second anniversary of the annexation of four Ukrainian territories and again accused the West of turning Ukraine into “a military base aimed at Russia.” Putin was speaking to mark the annexation of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine after a referendum held in 2022, which was denounced by the West as a sham. Russia also illegally annexed Crimea in 2014. Since 2022, Putin said, businesses in the occupied areas are being “actively restored” and hospitals and schools are being rebuilt. Thousands of Ukrainians have fled from the four regions as a result of Russia’s invasion, but Putin said Russia’s military operation in the country was to defend residents’ “well-being” and the “future for our children and grandchildren.”

Pete Rose, Major League Baseball’s all-time hit king and the Cincinnati Reds icon whose signature gritty hustle couldn’t outpace the gambling transgressions and obfuscation that kept him out of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, has died, according to a spokesperson for the Clark County Office of the Coroner/Medical Examiner in Nevada. He was 83. Rose was one of baseball’s greats – a winning-obsessed sparkplug who topped MLB’s all-time hit list with 4,256 over a 24-season career. He stood out for his all-in effort, sliding head-first and running even when a pitcher walked him – a style that earned him the nickname, first derisively, then admiringly, “Charlie Hustle.”He played for three World Series champion teams – the Reds’ stacked “Big Red Machine” roster in 1975 and 1976, and the Philadelphia Phillies in 1980 – was voted to the National League’s All-Star team 17 times, and won both the National League Rookie of the Year award (1963) and the Most Valuable Player award (1973). But his gambling on his own team – and his denials – ended his budding baseball managerial career and kept the sport’s most prolific hitter from enjoying its highest honor. MLB hired a lawyer to investigate Rose in early 1989 after it received reports he bet on MLB games. MLB’s Rule 21 says personnel who bet on games in which they have a “duty to perform” will be declared permanently ineligible. Lawyer John Dowd’s report concluded Rose bet on the sport, including Reds games – in 1985 and 1986, when he was both a Reds player and the team’s manager, and 1987, when he was just the manager. Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti banned Rose from baseball for life in August 1989, and said he could apply for reinstatement after one year after demonstrating a “redirected, reconfigured, rehabilitated life.” But Rose was in denial in more ways than one, for years saying he didn’t bet on baseball or the Reds. On the day he was banned, he said he thought he’d be “out of baseball for a very short period of time.” In 1991, the Baseball Hall of Fame passed a rule saying any player on the sport’s permanent ineligible list would not appear on its ballot. It wasn’t until 2004 that Rose publicly admitted betting on baseball and the Reds, though he denied ever betting against his own team. He wrote in his 2004 autobiography, “My Prison Without Bars,” that he turned to betting as a way “to recapture the high I got from winning batting titles and World Series.” “I had huge appetites, and I was always hungry. It wasn’t that I was bored with the challenges of managing the Reds – I just didn’t want the challenges to end,” he wrote in his book. He knew the penalty for gambling on games in which he was involved was a permanent ban, “so I denied the crime,” he wrote. The denials – and subsequent suggestions that Rose still wasn’t telling the whole truth – were damaging. Giamatti never got to consider a reinstatement, as he died eight days after banning Rose. In 2007, Rose told ESPN Radio that he bet on the Reds “every night” when he managed the team. But Dowd told ESPN2 the next day that Rose didn’t bet when certain Reds players pitched. That, New York Times baseball writer Murray Chass wrote, could improperly tip people that he wasn’t confident in winning those games. In 2015, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred turned down Rose’s request for reinstatement, saying Rose admitted only to having bet on baseball in 1987 while he was just managing the Reds, and that Rose claimed he couldn’t remember evidence in Dowd’s report pointing to him betting while he still was playing in 1985 and 1986. Rose’s comments “provide me with little confidence that he has a mature understanding of his wrongful conduct,” Manfred wrote. Later, Rose seemed to have given up on entering the Hall of Fame in his lifetime. Betting on baseball was one of the things he would take back if he could, he wrote in his 2019 autobiography, “Play Hungry.” “I’m not a man who goes around saying sorry, but on this one, I’m truly sorry,” he wrote. “I know that if I ever make the Hall of Fame in some way, it’s sure to be long after I’m gone from this world,” he wrote. “But I want you to know how I loved baseball, and that I lived a life dedicated to the sport, and played the game the way it should be played … always all out.”  ‘You make your own skill … by trying harder than anyone’ Peter Edward Rose was born in 1941 and raised in Cincinnati, son to LaVerne and Harry Francis “Pete” Rose, a bank clerk and semi-pro baseball and football player. He idolized his dad, watching him play football until the elder Rose stopped playing in his early 40s. He focused singularly on sports to make his father proud. “Everything I ever wanted out of life started and ended with loving my dad … and wanting to make him proud of me,” Rose wrote in “Play Hungry.” Rose said he became a great hitter not from natural skill, but through sheer will and practice; his father’s decision to have hit from either side of the plate when he was 9; his willingness as a pro to ask for tips from great hitters like Hank Aaron and Willie Mays; and doing homework on opposing pitchers. “I knew what every pitcher threw. I knew when he was going to throw it. … And the day of the game, I knew how I was going to approach (Sandy) Koufax or (Don) Drysdale or (Juan) Marichal or (Bob) Gibson,” Rose told “OutKick 360” in 2022. After high school his uncle – a Reds scout – got him a tryout with the Reds, who signed him to a minor league deal in summer 1960. By the end of first full season in the minors in 1961, the second baseman had turned heads with the second-best batting average in his league – .331 –

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has made his first public remarks since his release after he struck a deal with the United States, saying he is free because he pleaded “guilty to journalism.” The 53-year-old on Tuesday traveled to the French city of Strasbourg to appear before the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and provide evidence on his detention and conviction, and on their effects on human rights. “I want to be totally clear: I am not free today because the system worked,” Assange told lawmakers. “I am free today after years of incarceration because I pled guilty to journalism.” He continued, “I pled guilty to seeking information from a source, I pled guilty to obtaining information from a source, and I pled guilty to informing the public what that information was. I did not plead guilty to anything else. “I hope my testimony today can serve to highlight the weakness, the weaknesses of the existing safeguards, and to help those whose cases are less visible, but who are equally vulnerable,” he added. Assange also warned that “the criminalization of newsgathering activities is a threat to investigative journalism everywhere.” He explained, “I was formally convicted by a foreign power for asking, for receiving and publishing truthful information about that power while I was in Europe. The fundamental issue is simple: journalists should not be prosecuted for doing their jobs. Journalism is not a crime. It is a pillar of a free and informed society.” WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange waves after arriving at Canberra Airport in Canberra, Australia, on June 26. William West/AFP/Getty Images   In pictures: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange 1 of 28 PrevNext Assange was released in June after agreeing to plead guilty to a single felony charge in exchange for time served. The deal was finalized in a remote US court in the Pacific before he flew on to his native Australia. He had been locked up for five years in London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison, which he described on Tuesday as a “dungeon,” and sought refuge at the Ecuadorian embassy in the British capital for nearly seven years before that, in a bid to avoid potentially spending the rest of his life behind bars. Before his deal with the US Justice Department, the Australian had been facing 18 criminal charges related to his organization’s dissemination of classified material and diplomatic cables, and a 175-year jail sentence. Assange told lawmakers, “Justice, for me, is now precluded, as the US government insisted in writing into its plea agreement that I cannot file a case at the European Court of Human Rights or even a Freedom of Information Act request over what it did to me as a result of its extradition request.” Assange, accompanied by his wife Stella and WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson, was calm and softly spoken during his roughly 20-minute statement on Tuesday. However, he did stop a number of times to clear his throat, apologizing for his faltering address as the years of isolation had “taken its toll” and while he has been trying to unpack that since his release, he said “expressing myself in this setting is a challenge.” Assange said he was still coming to terms with his freedom, calling the sounds of electric cars “spooky” before going on to describe how adjusting to being a father and husband outside prison has been a positive but trying experience.

Claudia Sheinbaum will take the oath of office Tuesday as Mexico’s first female president in more than 200 years of independence, promising to protect an expanded social safety net and fight for the poor like her predecessor, but facing pressing problems. The 62-year-old scientist-turned-politician will receive a country with a number of immediate challenges, foremost among them stubbornly high levels of violence, a sluggish economy and hurricane-battered Acapulco. Sheinbaum romped to victory in June with nearly 60% of the vote, propelled largely by the sustained popularity of her political mentor, former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. He took office six years ago declaring “For the good of all, first the poor,” and promising historical change from the neoliberal economic policies of his predecessors. Sheinbaum promised continuity from his popular social policies to controversial constitutional reforms to the judiciary and National Guard rammed through during his final days in office. Despite her pledge of continuity, she is a very different personality. “López Obrador was a tremendously charismatic president and many times that charisma allowed him to cover up some political errors that Claudia Sheinbaum will not have that possibility of doing,” said Carlos Pérez Ricart, a political analyst at Mexico’s Center for Economic Research and Teaching. “So, where López Obrador was charismatic, Claudia Sheinbaum will have to be effective.” He is not leaving her an easy situation. Her first trip as president will be to the flood-stricken Pacific coast resort of Acapulco. Hurricane John, which struck as a Category 3 hurricane last week and then reemerged into the ocean and struck again as a tropical storm, caused four days of incredibly heavy rain that killed at least 17 people along the coast around Acapulco. Acapulco was devastated in October 2023 by Hurricane Otis, and had not recovered from that blow when John hit. Sheinbaum must also deal with raging violence in the cartel-dominated northern city of Culiacan, where factional fighting within the Sinaloa cartel broke out after drug lords Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and Joaquín Guzmán López were apprehended in the United States after they flew there in a small plane on July 25. López Obrador has long sought to avoid confronting Mexico’s drug cartels and has openly appealed to the gangs to keep the peace among themselves, but the limitations of that strategy have become glaringly apparent in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state, where gun battles have raged on the city’s streets. Local authorities and even the army — which López Obrador has relied on for everything — have essentially admitted that the fighting will only end when the cartel bosses decide to end it. But that’s only the latest hotspot. Drug-related violence is surging from Tijuana in the north to Chiapas in the south, displacing thousands. While Sheinbaum inherits a huge budget deficit, unfinished construction projects and a burgeoning bill for her party’s cash hand-out programs — all of which could send financial markets tumbling — perhaps her biggest looming concern is the possibility of a victory for Donald Trump in the Nov. 5 US presidential election. Trump has already vowed to slap 100% tariffs on vehicles made in Mexico. Though that would likely violate the current US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, there are other things Trump could do to make life difficult for Sheinbaum, including his pledge of massive deportations. Things with its northern neighbor were already tense after López Obrador said he was putting relations with the US embassy “on pause” after public criticism of the proposed judicial overhaul. First lady Jill Biden struck an optimistic tone for relations with the incoming Sheinbaum administration saying at a reception Monday that, “Under Dr. Sheinbaum’s presidency I know we will continue to build a more prosperous, safe and democratic region — and take the steps in our US-Mexico partnership.” There are areas where Sheinbaum could try to take Mexico in a new direction. For example, she has a Ph.D. in energy engineering and has spoken of the need to address climate change. López Obrador built a massive new oil refinery and poured money into the state-owned oil company. But his budget commitments do not leave her much room to maneuver. Jennifer Piscopo, professor of gender and politics at the Royal Holloway University of London who has studied Latin America for decades, said Mexico electing its first female leader is important because it will show girls they can do it too, but it can also create unrealistic expectations. “Woman firsts are powerful symbols, but they do not gain magic power,” she said. “Especially when the governance challenges are so large, expecting magic solutions overnight can also generate outsized disappointment.”

Part of the border between Italy and Switzerland is set to be redrawn as the glaciers that mark the boundary melt, in yet another sign of how much humans are changing the world by burning planet-heating fossil fuels.. The two countries have agreed to change the border under the iconic Matterhorn Peak, one of the highest summits in the Alps, which overlooks Zermatt, a popular skiing destination. While national boundaries are often thought of as fixed, large sections of the Swiss-Italian border are defined by glaciers and snow fields. “With the melting of the glaciers, these natural elements evolve and redefine the national border,” the Swiss government said in a statement Friday. The border changes were agreed back in 2023 and the Swiss government officially approved the adjustment on Friday. The process for approval is underway in Italy. As soon as both parties have signed, the agreement will be published and details of the new border made public, according to the Swiss government. Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent and the impact on its glaciers has been stark. In Switzerland, they are melting at an alarming rate. The country’s glaciers lost 4% of their volume last year, second only to the record-setting 6% lost in 2022. This downward trend shows no sign of ending, said Matthias Huss, a glaciologist at the Swiss university ETH Zürich and director of GLAMOS, the Swiss glacier monitoring network. “In 2024, glaciers continued to lose ice at a high speed despite much snow in winter that was expected to bring some relief,” he told CNN. “Some glaciers are literally falling apart, small glaciers are disappearing.” Even with the most ambitious climate action, up to half the world’s glaciers may be gone by 2100. It’s causing a cascade of impacts. It makes the landscape more unstable, prone to dangerous landslides and collapses. In 2022, 11 people lost their lives when a glacier collapsed in the Italian Alps. Shrinking glaciers are leading to grim discoveries. Last year, the remains of a mountain climber who had gone missing 37 years earlier while hiking near the Matterhorn were recovered. As they recede, glaciers are also losing their vital role in contributing freshwater, which could aggravate shortages during heat waves. The shifting of national borders “is one small side-effect” of glaciers melting, Huss said. But when people can see it “directly affects our world map,” he added, it makes the immense changes of a warming world much more visible.

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has controversially broken royal protocol and claimed in his upcoming memoir that Queen Elizabeth II was suffering from bone cancer before her death. In the book, which hits shelves on October 10 and has been serialized this week in the Daily Mail newspaper – which Johnson also writes for – he recalled the monarch’s final days at Balmoral, Scotland. Johnson formally stepped down just two days before Elizabeth II’s death in September 2022, and in the years since, there has been fierce speculation over exactly how she passed away. “I had known for a year or more that she had a form of bone cancer, and her doctors were worried that at any time she could enter a sharp decline,” he wrote in the excerpt. Johnson’s account is the first public indication by a former senior government official as to what the Queen’s cause of death might have been. It is listed as “old age” on her death certificate. Johnson isn’t the first prime minister to reminisce about his life, time in office and interactions with the late Queen in an autobiography. Former British leaders Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron all did so but only in generalities and without the same level of vivid detail as Johnson. Buckingham Palace has a policy not to comment on books released about the royal family and as such has not confirmed or denied Johnson’s assertions. GET OUR FREE ROYAL NEWSLETTER • Sign up to CNN’s Royal News, a weekly dispatch bringing you the inside track on the royal family, what they are up to in public and what’s happening behind palace walls. Johnson, who served as prime minister between 2019 and 2022, recalls traveling to the royal residence of Balmoral for the customary outgoing audience and resignation. Upon his arrival, he remembers being greeted by the Queen’s private secretary Edward Young, who suggested to him that she had deteriorated significantly over the summer. Thinking back on that last time the pair sat together in the Queen’s drawing room, Johnson said that he understood Young’s forewarning. “She seemed pale and more stooped, and she had dark bruising on her hands and wrists, probably from drips or injections,” he wrote. “But her mind – as Edward had also said – was completely ­unimpaired by her illness, and from time to time in our conversation she still flashed that great white smile in its sudden mood-lifting beauty.” Johnson described the weekly prime minster audiences with the monarch as “a privilege” and “a balm.” “She radiated such an ethic of ­service, patience and leadership that you really felt you would, if necessary, die for her,” he continued. “That may sound barmy to some people (and totally obvious to many more), but that loyalty, primitive as it may appear, is still at the heart of our system. “You need someone kind and wise, and above politics, to personify what is good about our country. She did that job brilliantly.” The late Queen never shared private medical details with the public. Aides within the royal household still maintain that family members have the same right to medical privacy as anyone else. King Charles III and Catherine, Princess of Wales have bucked the trend and been more open about their health. The two have shared details about their own cancer diagnoses and recoveries. However, in both instances, they chose not to divulge the specific form of cancer each has been battling. When pressed, aides said they wanted to share their experiences to raise awareness of the disease.

Jimmy Carter sets a new record on October 1, his birthday, when he will become the first American president to reach triple digits. It’s a milestone more and more Americans will reach in the years to come – and something the American social safety net is not prepared for. Carter’s post-presidency began in 1981 after he lost his bid for reelection and when he was 56, too young for Social Security and Medicare. A very long, incredible retirement Carter did not dedicate his post-presidential life to sitting on corporate boards and raking in speaking fees, as other recent presidents have done. Carter got his hands dirty building houses, took on peace missions to Cuba and the Middle East, negotiated the release of hostages, lived in his home town, taught Sunday school and college classes, wrote books, and won Grammys. His has been, indisputably, the longest, most righteous and most productive post-presidency in history, although John Quincy Adams’ post-presidential, anti-slavery efforts in Congress get honorable mention. In the nearly 44 years since he left office, Carter helped essentially eradicate Guinea worm, a parasite that infected around 3.5 million people in the mid-’80s and just 14 in 2023, according to The Carter Center. It’s been 22 years since he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, just as the US was preparing for war in Iraq. Carter also paid a landmark visit to Cuba that year. It’s been nine years since Carter announced at a news conference that he had been diagnosed with brain cancer and might not have long to live. CNN’s Stephen Collinson wrote at the time: “I have had a wonderful life,” Carter said with the same unsparing honesty and meticulous detail that marked his presidency. “I’m ready for anything and I’m looking forward to new adventure,” Carter said, in the 40-minute appearance before the cameras, in which he frequently beamed his huge smile and never fell prey to emotion. “It is in the hands of God, whom I worship.” Carter had more to do By December 2015, Carter announced that after treatment, the cancer was gone. A timeline of his life maintained by CNN’s research library has many more notable entries. It’s been nine years since Carter published an autobiography, “A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety.” He won a Grammy Award – his second – for the audiobook. He would win a third a few years later. It’s been seven years since he was hospitalized for dehydration in Winnipeg, Canada, where he was outdoors – still working! – for Habitat for Humanity, the organization with which he had a long association. It’s been five years since 2019, when he won that third Grammy, broke his hip and joked that there should be an age limit on the presidency since he couldn’t have done the job at 80. That was also the year he turned 95 and became the longest-living American president, surpassing George H.W. Bush. It’s been nearly two years since Carter entered hospice care and nearly one year since his wife, Rosalynn, died. They were married in 1946. Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States, speaks in Elk City, Oklahoma, in 1979. Bettmann Archive/Getty Images Jimmy Carter’s life in pictures 1 of 73 PrevNext More people will turn 100 As remarkable as Carter made his years since American voters retired him from the White House, there’s also something increasingly normal about people living to 100. Former presidents, all well-to-do and protected by a generous pension, aren’t a representative sample of society, but it’s notable that the four oldest former presidents – Carter, Bush, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan – all lived in the 21st century. Overall, US life expectancy dropped during the Covid-19 pandemic. It has not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels, and it lags behind other developed countries, according to an analysis by KFF. As of 2022, the life expectancy for US males was 74.8 and for US females was 80.2. But the population of 100-year-olds is expected to quadruple in the coming decades, according to Pew Research Center. It estimated in January that the current number of centenarians was around 101,000 and that the figure would increase to about 422,000 within 30 years, a small but growing portion of the US population as the average age increases and the birth rate declines. CNN’s Eva Rothenberg wrote a year ago about the challenges many Americans will face later in life as they live longer, with more than half of older Americans likely needing long-term care in the future – something that many will not be able to afford and that is not covered under Medicare, the federal health insurance program that primarily benefits older Americans. A major issue during Carter’s presidency and in 1980 Carter signed a law in 1977 that increased taxes to pay for Social Security and changed how benefits were calculated for younger people, which was supposed to help the program’s finances. Later, in 1980, Carter signed additional legislation to control the growth of disability benefits. In the 1980 presidential election, which Carter ultimately lost to Reagan, the long-term viability of Social Security and Medicare was a major campaign issue and featured prominently in debates. And with good reason: The long-term viability of the social safety net programs, despite the law Carter signed in 1977, was still in serious question. “There you go again,” Regan said dismissively to Carter in a presidential debate, denying that he opposed the very idea of Medicare. Reagan said he simply opposed the version that became law. Carter later accused Reagan of what we might today call “gaslighting” voters on the issue. “Governor Reagan has a right to change his mind. He does not have a right to rewrite history,” Carter said in a statement days before Election Day that year. Reagan-Carter Oct. 28, 1980 Debate – “There You Go Again” Reagan, despite his previous opposition to safety net programs, vowed during the campaign to tend to their finances. Carter, on the other hand, was talking about creating a new national health insurance plan, which remains a dream for many Democrats. More tough changes under Reagan As president, after first

Billing itself as the world’s “first holographic communications platform,” US startup Proto is beaming life-size, “3D” video into universities, hotels and medical centers. The company has developed a box — which weighs over 400 pounds and is taller than the average NBA player — that can show a video of a person, giving the illusion of three-dimensionality through some clever graphical smoke and mirrors. The boxes can reproduce pre-recorded video as well as a live feed, and any 4K camera, including an iPhone, can be used as the source. Although the images aren’t technically holograms, by adding shadows behind the body and reflections under the feet the box effectively tricks the brain into believing there could be someone inside it. “We just beamed William Shatner from Los Angeles to Orlando, Florida, to be at a convention that he couldn’t physically be at,” said David Nussbaum, the company’s founder and CEO, giving one example of how the technology can be used. Nussbaum, whose background is in radio and podcasting, started Proto in 2018. He says the company has 45 employees and has sold nearly 1,000 units. It has two full-size models — the Proto Epic and a newly launched, more economic redesign called the Proto Luma — which start at $29,000 and go up to $65,000. There is also the Proto M, a tabletop version that stands 30 inches tall and weighs just under 30 pounds, selling for $5,900. That’s an awful lot more than a standard Zoom call, although the company does offer a full-size model on a lease for $2,500 a month. Only one Proto is needed to set up a call, but Proto-to-Proto communication is currently not supported; while it is possible for two Proto users to chat, they still both need a second camera, such as a smartphone. In 2023, video of actor William Shatner was beamed from Los Angeles to the Advertising Week APAC event in Sydney, Australia. Proto Inc. Nussbaum describes Proto as “business to business company,” with clients including Amazon (AMZN), Verizon (VZ), Siemens, Accenture, Walmart (WMT), the NFL and major US TV networks. But he adds that he sees a future where a version of its smallest device is “in living rooms for under $1,000.” He said that by putting a 2D image in a life-size 3D space, Proto creates a more compelling experience than a standard video call. “You’re seeing me like I’m actually there. That means our conversation is more authentic. It’s more engaging,” he said. Proto boxes have been used at New York’s JFK airport and at the Beverly Wilshire hotel in Beverly Hills, California, offering a concierge service in suites and penthouses. A similar technology launched by Dutch company Holoconnects has been deployed at hotels in Scandinavia, and used for advertising by BMW. Google is collaborating with HP to commercialize its Project Starline, which promises to bring more depth and realism to video conferencing conversations, and Cisco is working on bringing “holograms” to Webex. Recently, Proto has started working with universities — including Central Florida, MIT, Vanderbilt, Stanford, and the University of Loughborough in the UK — beaming in guest lecturers from around the world. Gary Burnett, a professor of digital creativity at Loughborough University, who has experience with the Proto boxes, said: “In our initial mini-lecture tests, it was clear that students felt a strong sense of co-presence with the hologram speaker — believing them to be ‘in the room,’ sentient and behaving as an authentic lecturer.” “Most students were paying attention throughout the session and although this was not a formal part of their education, it was apparent that they were learning, as measured by a surprise quiz at the end of the lectures. Not surprisingly with such novel technology, we had some evidence of occasional distraction, usually in the form of students using their own phones to film the experience.” Immersive experience Earlier this year, Proto started a partnership with West Cancer Center, a clinic in a suburb of Memphis, Tennessee, allowing doctors there to be beam into clinics in remote areas. “For oncology and palliative care patients, non-verbal communication is critically important, because we are often conveying complex information and sometimes delivering difficult or challenging news,” said W. Clay Jackson, a physician at the clinic and a professor of family medicine and psychiatry at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine. “The patient experience with the Proto hologram is vastly superior to traditional, screen-based tele-health formats. The life-size, three-dimensional image truly immerses the patient in the visit, allowing them to give and receive communication as effectively as if I could reach out and touch them.” One of Dr. Jackson’s patients, Crystal Freeman, says the technology is a much more viable solution than standard virtual visits for rural patients. “I have (had) tele-health visits, which were ok, but service is sometimes spotty and you really didn’t have the feel like you were in an actual doctor visit,” she said. Nussbaum says he uses the technology at home to connect his children in Los Angeles with his parents in New Jersey — a scenario where he says even a video call doesn’t quite cut it. “Sure, you could communicate, but you can’t connect,” he said. “So I thought, what if I could beam them into each other’s house? Now we’re doing that. So for me, I’m seeing a little glimpse into the future by watching my parents and my kids have a relationship from 3,000 miles away. That, to me, is one of the greatest things that we’re doing.”

  Harley Quinn and the Penguin are no match for the ridiculous cuteness of one teeny tiny micro chihuahua named Pilaf. Demi Moore recently visited “The Graham Norton Show” to discuss her wild new film “The Substance” and was joined by her dog Pilaf, who she hilariously referred to as her “special significant other.” While Moore and Norton were chatting with fellow guests Lady Gaga and Colin Farrell – who both have new projects out as well, “Joker: Folie à Deux” and “The Penguin,” respectively – Moore revealed that the pooch was in the studio, since Pilaf naturally goes everywhere with her mommy (if in doubt, just check the dog’s Instagram bio). After Farrell said he wanted to “take a selfie with it,” the “G.I. Jane” star talked about how Pilaf recently had her very own cover shoot for Dogue (yes, that’s Vogue for dogs, folks) and said, “I knew that she had moved into a whole new category when my publicist got a call just for Pilaf.” Moore then brought the dog – full name Pilaf the Little Mouse – out on stage, where she immediately went up to host Norton for petting. Soon, Moore handed Pilaf off to Gaga, who observed that “she’s so little… and weird!” (but clearly meant it affectionately). After Moore talked about how the dog didn’t have a full set of teeth and had to lose some – “hence why the tongue does not stay in” – Gaga stated simply, “She’s perfect.” Truer words were never spoken.

“Your business is our pleasure. Your pleasure is our business.” This was the slogan hung outside a Harvard dorm room in 1965, marking the headquarters of the first computer matchmaking service in the US. Decades before Tinder and OK Cupid, there was Operation Match. Some of today’s dating apps keep us playing the field, but the first foray into computerized matchmaking developed from an earnest desire for men to meet members of the opposite sex. Bored of monotonous organised mixers with women’s colleges, and unable to meet many women on campus at Harvard, classmates Jeff Tarr and Vaughan Morrill were inspired, after an evening of drinking, to see whether a computer could find them a date. Although Tarr’s ambition may have been to meet women, the success of Operation Match ironically kept him too busy to date. He did find love some years later, through a different singles staple: a blind date. For Jeff’s 80th birthday earlier this year, his wife Patsy Tarr wrote a book about Operation Match as a party favor, an endeavor that snowballed into an official publication. Patsy Tarr, Jason Tarr’s wife, has kept mementos of her husband’s accomplishments. Courtesy Patsy Tarr “Dating was completely different,” said Patsy Tarr, reflecting on the 1960s love scene. Patsy had used Operation Match before meeting Jeff, but had no luck. “It felt very risqué and exciting to be able to meet someone through a computer, as opposed to going through the traditional route.” A questionnaire instead of swipes In the early days of working together, Tarr and Morrill recognised that their main clientele would be date-hungry college students like themselves. Operation Match was developed with their needs (and desires) in mind. At the heart of the project was a 75-point questionnaire, covering hobbies, education, physical appearance, race and — scandalously for 1965 — attitudes towards sex. Participants were asked to answer twice, once describing themselves, the other describing their ideal date. Operation Match’s questionnaire still catered to norms that feel old-fashioned now, by asking women whether they had found their “prince charming” and men whether they “would rather meet an obedient, sexy, not so smart college girl.” However, it was also a vehicle for social change. The availability of the contraceptive pill on one hand, combined with the persistence of traditional marital expectations on the other, meant that the mid-1960s was a complex time for young women looking to mingle. In their desire for exploration, women carved out new paths that have changed western dating practices in the long term. Many of us date differently now — marriage may not be top of mind, and we look for partners in places outside our immediate social circle — and our matchmaking methods reflect that. In fact, while Operation Match was a hugely influential moment in dating history, it wasn’t the first known online dating service. That honor goes to Joan Ball, a woman from the UK who started the St. James Computer Dating Service, later Com-Pat (get it?). Her program made its first match in 1964, a year before Operation Match went online. “There’s a perennial debate about whether dating apps reflected social change, or whether they drove social change, and I think the correct answer is that sort of both happened”, said Dr Luke Brunning, who, along with Dr Natasha McKeever, heads the Centre for Love, Sex and Relationships at the University of Leeds, along with Dr Natasha McKeever. “There’s been a prioritization of the idea that you should be able to find somebody who’s a perfect match for you, wanting to craft the best life and best relationships for ourselves. A hundred years ago, we’d have been happier to just go into a relationship and do our best to make it work,” McKeever told CNN. With the rise of computer dating, suddenly, there were plenty more fish in the sea. An ‘IBM machine’ instead of a phone Tarr and Morrill’s Operation Match was not based on an algorithm developed over years of data collection, and it definitely wasn’t operated on a smartphone. Tarr and Morrill raised funds to rent time on a computer, back then known as an IBM machine. In the mid-60s, this whirring mechanical device the size of an entire room was an object of profound mystery to the average American. Wrapped up in Operation Match’s modus operandi was the tantalizing question of whether a computer really could anticipate the compatibility between two people — could it predict ‘the spark’? Douglas Ginsburg (far left) and Jeff Tarr (second from left) go over calculations for Operation Match. Phillip Harrington/Alamy Stock Photo For cupid’s computerized arrows, a three-dollar fee was deemed appropriate, and within six months of launch approximately 90,000 questionnaires were completed. In return, participants were sent the names and phone numbers of five potential matches. The act of picking up the phone was left to them. Now, the technology is old news to online daters, but it has taken almost 60 years of developments to build the swipe based, gratification-led, multi-billion-dollar online dating industry of today. Operation Match was an inspiration for Dateline in the seventies and eighties, before big business computer dating began in 1995 with the birth of Match.com. The noughties witnessed the rise of more niche ventures like Grindr, Ashley Madison, and PrimeSingles.net. In 2009, Match Group formed a conglomerate that now owns Tinder and Hinge, two of the biggest dating apps in the market. Last year, statistics from the Pew Research Centre suggested three in ten Americans have used dating apps, but it’s hard to tell if finding love is still the main mission. “I think we’re all aware that there are these big companies that have financial incentives in keeping us glued to our phones. There are algorithms that are influencing our behaviour that we don’t know about, we simply don’t understand how they work”, said McKeever. Brunning added: “You might see people trying to take on the big players by leaning into values that they’re neglecting. We might see attempts to be very transparent about how algorithms work.”

  Tadej Pogačar completed his dominant, record-equaling year on Sunday as he won the men’s road race at the world championships, becoming the first male cyclist for 37 years to win the rainbow jersey, Tour de France and Giro d’Italia all in the same year. By completing cycling’s “Triple Crown” – as this trio of victories is known – Pogačar joins an exclusive club comprised of just Eddy Merckx, Stephen Roche and Annemiek van Vleuten. While van Vleuten achieved this feat in 2022, a male cyclist hasn’t won all three races in the same year since Roche in 1987 – a time when the sport looked markedly different to now. In the years since, it has become rarer for cyclists to target winning multiple races in the same season; no male cyclist had won even just the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia in the same year since 1998 until Pogačar did so this year. This season has confirmed the Slovenian’s status as a generational talent since, unusually for a cyclist, he can win races of almost any length and on different terrains. That includes one-day races like the world championships, which require an explosiveness normally sacrificed by Tour de France contenders in favor of the endurance needed to win a three-week stage race. “After many years fighting for the Tour de France and other races I never had the world championship as a clear goal, but this year everything went smoothly already,” Pogačar said afterward. “After the perfect season it was a really big goal to win the world championship and I can’t believe it happened.” Pogačar has won the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and the men’s road race at the world championships this year. Zac Williams/Pool/SWpix.com/AP And the 26-year-old has underlined his complete dominance with the way in which he has won all these races. On Sunday in Switzerland, he attacked with just over 100 kilometers to go, chased down the early breakaway, and rode away from France’s Pavel Sivakov – who had initially been the only rider able to match him – to complete the last 50 kilometers of the race solo. Attacking so early wasn’t planned, Pogačar added after the finish. “We had plans to keep the race under control but the race went quite early and I don’t know what I was thinking but I went with the flow and luckily I made it,” he said Eventually, Pogačar finished 34 seconds ahead of Australia’s Ben O’Connor, who took the silver medal, and the Netherlands’ Mathieu van der Poel, the defending champion who rounded out the podium and led in the chasing group.

John Ashton, the veteran character actor who memorably played the gruff but lovable police detective John Taggart in the “Beverly Hills Cop” films, has died. He was 76. Ashton died Thursday in Fort Collins, Colorado, his family announced in a statement released by Ashton’s manager, Alan Somers, on Sunday. No cause of death was immediately available. In a career that spanned more than 50 years, Ashton was a regular face across TV series and films, including “Midnight Run,” “Little Big League” and “Gone Baby Gone.” But in the “Beverly Hills Cop” films, Ashton played an essential part of an indelible trio. Though Eddie Murphy’s Axel Foley, a Detroit detective following a case in Los Angeles, was the lead, the two local detectives — Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) and Ashton’s Taggart — were Axel’s sometimes reluctant, sometimes eager collaborators. Of the three, Taggart — “Sarge” to Billy — was the more fearful, by-the-book detective. But he would regularly be coaxed into Axel’s plans. Ashton co-starred in all four of the films, beginning with the 1984 original and running through the Netflix reboot, “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F,” released earlier this year. Ashton played a more unscrupulous character in Martin Brest’s 1988 buddy comedy “Midnight Run.” He was the rival bounty hunter also pursuing Charles Grodin’s wanted accountant in “The Duke” while he’s in the custody of Robert De Niro’s Jack Walsh. Speaking in July to Collider, Ashton recalled auditioning with De Niro. “Bobby started handing me these matches, and I went to grab the matches, and he threw them on the floor and stared at me,” said Ashton. “I looked at the matches, and I looked up, and I said, ‘F—- you,’ and he said, ‘F—- you, too.’ I said, ‘Go —- yourself.’ I know every other actor picked those up and handed it to him, and I found out as soon as I left he went, ‘I want him,’ because he wanted somebody to stand up to him.” Ashton is survived by his wife, Robin Hoye, of 24 years, two children, three stepchildren, a grandson, two sisters and a brother.

Oprah Winfrey was the first Black woman Whitney Trotter saw on TV –– and the first television figure having conversations that affected young Black girls like her. But aside from those groundbreaking TV moments, interviews and pioneering successes, Trotter — now a registered dietitian — remembers that Winfrey was known for something else: the size and shape of her body. One moment in 1988 made a mark on so many people when Winfrey went on her nationally syndicated show pulling a little red wagon with 67 pounds of animal fat, the equivalent to the amount of weight she had lost at the time. Immediately people were watching to see when she gained it back, how she would lose it again, and — more recently — if she would use a medication such as GLP-1 to try to make her body smaller. While such public attention is specific to celebrities, the scrutiny Winfrey faced at every step of her body’s changes is something many people encounter, said Dr. Alexis Conason, a psychologist and certified eating disorder specialist in New York City. Such scrutiny is the product of diet culture, the influences and messages that affect how we eat, based on cultural pressure to attain an ideal body type, experts say. “That sense of wanting to tear people down, and especially reducing women to their appearance and pointing out their flaws as a way of like taking away power, I think have been a really long-standing tactic used in the media,” Conason said. “And I think it continues (to this day).” Criticism of Winfrey’s body shows just how much of a losing game diet culture is, even if you are one of the most influential people in the world, experts say. On her talk show in 1988, Winfrey brought out a red wagon full of 67 pounds of animal fat — the equivalent to the amount of weight she had lost at the time. Charles Bennet/AP Lose, gain or maintain ­­–– the scrutiny continues Many people have felt diet culture’s pressure to lose weight, but often the expectation is that the scrutiny will lift once that happens. And often, it just isn’t the case. Whether maintaining, gaining or losing weight, many clients come to New York City dietitian Kimmie Singh saying that they feel like their body is under surveillance, she said. “It’s something that’s so normalized — from the magazines but then also from talking about people at the dinner table,” Singh said, “or people congratulating the person that has lost weight.” Even if you reach the body size that society deems ideal, the goalposts move to pressure you to achieve the right body shape, said Trotter, who is also a doctor of nursing practice and psychiatric and mental health nurse practitioner in Austin, Texas. The myths of weight and size Attached to this focus on other people’s bodies are two harmful ideas: that weight is within a person’s control and that the size of a body is connected with moral value, Conason said. “There’s a cultural narrative that it is morally inferior to be in a larger body,” she said. “There’s all those associations with fatness of laziness, people not being as smart, people not being motivated, not caring about themselves, not being disciplined.” People feel more justified in discriminating and being cruel if they believe those associations are true — particularly if they think a person’s body size is in their control, Conason said. “It all comes back to the myth of personal responsibility around weight and body size, that if you just work hard enough, you can achieve this cultural ideal of thinness and be accepted,” she added. Such a view about weight and acceptance is not true, said Dr. Chika Anekwe, obesity medicine physician at Massachusetts General Hospital Weight Center and instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston. While a segment of the population is biologically “resistant” to obesity, others can make major changes to their lifestyles and still not be able to maintain weight loss, Anekwe said. And with increasing changes in access to food, exercise and health care, people’s weight is becoming more out of their individual control, she added. A 2019 meta-analysis showed that more than 80% of weight loss is regained after five years. “If people could just choose their body weight, size or shape,” Anekwe said, “we wouldn’t have such a booming diet culture industry.” ‘Moral’ ways to lose weight Even when people are perceived to be losing weight, they may still be losing the diet culture game. The popularization of GLP-1 medications, which were originally prescribed to treat type 2 diabetes but now are often used for weight loss, has popularized the idea that a smaller body is a matter of choice, Conason said. She noted that it also adds another way society can scrutinize how people lose weight. “There’s no other class of drugs where people want to violate HIPAA as much as they do the GLP-1, because it’s like, ‘Oh, I gotta know,’” Trotter said, referring to the federal law restricting the release of medical information. In the hierarchy of what society perceives as the most “moral” ways to lose weight, medication ranks toward the bottom, said Bri Campos, a body image coach based in Paramus, New Jersey. “Unless you are of the 5% of people who can go into a caloric deficit for a long period of time (more than five years), increase your movement and keep weight off, your weight loss doesn’t count,” she said. Such reactions happened with Lizzo, Kelly Clarkson and Winfrey –– their bodies looked smaller, and the speculation poured in about how they did it. “There’s so much like mistrust towards fat people in general,” Singh said. “People want a gotcha moment with fat people to say, ‘Oh, like, we caught you with your hand in the cookie jar.’” People want to catch and shame others for not following a lifestyle that denies them pleasure, Conason said. Some can also face criticism about using weight-loss methods that

Chandni Chowk was once the kind of neighborhood that people spoke about with awe. Built in the 17th century by Emperor Shah Jahan, it reflected the wealth of the once mighty Mughal empire, quickly becoming one of India’s most desirable districts, where the rich and powerful resided in fashionable mansions. Today, this corner of the historic walled city Old Delhi has a different vibe, attracting visitors to a lively street food scene. Architectural reminders of its former glory are still visible, but the swanky homes of the wealthy are no more, many converted to hotels or other businesses, their occupants long gone. Not Ajay Pershad, though. Aged 80 but still going strong, Pershad sits in the courtyard of his grand 120-room ancestral mansion, almost the last man standing of Chandni Chowk’s old guard, holding on to the splendor of a bygone age. “It is the only living mansion on the historic street of Chandni Chowk,” says Pershad, a descendant of Chunna Mal, a moneylender and businessman who built the home way back, according to an inscribed golden slab inside the building’s hallway, in 1864. Some 160 years later, although Pershad is clinging to his forebears’ legacy, much of the glamor of preceding centuries has vanished. Most of the mansion’s rooms are shuttered and unused. The antiques inside them are gathering dust. Ajay Pershad sits in the courtyard of his grand 120-room ancestral haveli (traditional house). Aishwarya S. Iyer/CNN And out of Chunna Mal’s 32 heirs, only Pershad and his family of 10 remain. And, he says, he’s alone in wanting to keep the place. “The family is planning to sell, but I am against it,” he says. “I have been trying to bring them on the same table.” Pershad says he’s hoping to ensure one of the only privately owned mansions in the area is not converted into a hotel. Speaking of the glory of the street, Khan says how there used to be an octagonal pool that would reflect the moon in its water and sparkle. Hence the name Chandni Chowk: ”Moonlit Crossing.” Back in the days of Mughal empire, which was founded in the 16th century and grew to control much of the Indian subcontinent before dwindling and being dissolved in 1857, India’s cultural and architectural heritage gained numerous iconic structures. In Delhi, these include the Humayun’s Tomb, Jama Masjid [mosque] and the Old Fort. The neighboring city of Agra got the Taj Mahal. Designated one of the seven wonders of the world, it draws in thousands of visitors each day. And then there was Chandni Chowk, built as a part of Emperor Shah Jahan’s new capital Shahjahanabad – or Old Delhi as it later became. Many parts of this street were destroyed when the people revolted against British occupation in 1857. The British crushed the rebellion, thereby ending Mughal rule in Delhi and marking the beginning of the British Raj. However, mansions like the one belonging to Chunna Mal’s family were untouched. “Chunna Mal was pro-British. We enjoyed a lot of privileges because of it,” Pershad explains. His ancestor, he says, was appointed the first municipal commissioner of Old Delhi. Today, Pershad’s home is symbolic of both the glory of the 17th century and how it is changing or being forgotten today. People come from miles away to pray at the Shri Digambar Jain Lal Temple (red) and the Hindu Gauri Shankar Temple (orange) at Chandni Chowk. Aishwarya S. Iyer/CNN The moonlit crossing The gloomy spaciousness inside the sprawling mansion also stands in stark contrast to the modern day Chandni Chowk Road outside. The district’s oldest street, right in the heart of Delhi begins at the entrance of the Mughal-era Red Fort, where the annual Independence Day flag hoisting is overseen by India’s prime minister, and stretches 1,400 yards to the 17th century Fatehpuri mosque. Bustling with businessmen, cycle rickshaws, and shoppers who’ve come in to buy clothes and jewelry or eat the mouth-watering food, it draws In thousands of tourists and visitors each day For Rameen Khan, the founder of the company City Tales which organizes heritage walks and tours in and outside Delhi, this road’s importance extends beyond its material offerings. “In its nooks and corners this street has preserved over three and a half centuries of India’s history. It hides in plain sight, unnoticed and unappreciated, but a testament to the unfolding of India’s past,” he says. According to Khan, an octagonal pool that would sparkle with reflections of the moon, once stood here. Hence the name Chandni Chowk, meaning ”Moonlit Crossing.” “Since it was the grandest part of the stretch, it is fitting that the entire stretch is named after it,” Khan adds. Knotting history and faith It isn’t only multiple eras of history that intertwine here in this sliver of Old Delhi. Several houses of worship co-exist in Chandni Chowk: a Jain temple, a Hindu temple, a mosque, a Sikh shrine, and a Baptist church. “This shows the ability of India to be able to peacefully cohabit as a secular country, despite its many challenges,” Khan says. Sheetal Saxena, 23, a housewife and local resident, says there continues to be good bonhomie between different communities here. “The fact that this place accommodates anyone is what makes it truly emblematic of India,” she says. These religious centers are also tourist attractions, notably the reddish-pink Digambar Jain Lal Temple. It is revered by those who follow the Indian religion Jainism, which emphasizes non-violence and a strict diet that eschews garlic and onions. Originally built in the 1600s, the temple was renovated with red sandstone in 1878, giving it the nickname the Red Temple. At a time when the Mughal empire was losing its grip on the country, a nobleman in its army built a Hindu temple dedicated to the god Shiva in the 1760s. “Other groups were becoming stronger now. You can see that in the construction of a temple so close to the Mughal throne,” Khan says. On the other side of the road is the Central

New Zealand has reclaimed the world record for the largest mass Haka, with thousands packing a major stadium on Sunday for a resounding performance of the traditional Māori routine. Historically a ceremonial Māori war dance, the Haka was intended as a challenge to opponents and a rallying cry before heading into battle, though today it is also used to celebrate Māori identity and culture and as a way of unifying people at times of grief. The sights and sounds of the Haka – feet stomping, fists pumping, vocal cords straining – are deeply entrenched within New Zealand culture and have been famously adopted by the country’s rugby teams as a pre-match ritual. Some 6,500 participants joined the record-breaking feat in Auckland on Sunday, according to officials at Eden Park, the iconic stadium where the national rugby team the All Blacks have remained undefeated since 1994. The attendance beat record holder France’s 4,028 in 2014. New Zealand band Six60 perform for participants gathered in a world record attempt for the largest mass Haka at Eden Park in Auckland on September 29, 2024. DJ Mills/AFP/Getty Images Nick Sautner, Chief Executive of Eden Park, said it’s “more than just numbers… It’s about honoring our cultural legacy on a global stage.” On Sunday night, participants filled the sports ground with thundering cheers. They huffed out their chests, stomped on the floors, and stuck their tongues out to make intimating facial expressions, according to a video posted on Haka Record’s official Instagram. “It’s time for [France’s record holder status] to change,” organizer Raukatauri Music Therapy Trust wrote on the official website ahead of the event, issuing a call to participants to “stand as a nation and bring haka home.” CNN affiliate Radio New Zealand (RNZ) reported that Guinness World Records adjudicator Brian Sobel confirmed the record, although the final number of attendees could still be adjusted. Speaking to the public broadcaster, Sobel recalled how he felt watching the Haka on stage. “It hit you like a force. It was very, very impressive to see,” he said. CNN has reached out to Guinness World Records for comment. New Zealand filmmaker-actor Taika Waititi, second from right, and US TV host Conan O’Brien, second from left, at Eden Park in Auckland on September 29, 2024. DJ Mills/AFP/getty Images Among the celebrities in the crowd were American TV host Conan O’Brien, New Zealand director Taika Waititi and former boxer David Tua, according to RNZ. The Haka had to be performed for one minute, so the crowd performed Ka Mate, the most well-known Haka routine, four times in a row to fulfil the requirement, RNZ reported. The dance was composed by Te Rauparaha, a great Māori leader from the 19th century. While the Haka has been embraced by New Zealanders from many walks of life, the Māori community – which accounts for nearly a fifth of the country’s more than 5 million person population – often faces discrimination that results in poorer health and education outcomes and higher rates of incarceration. Protests have broken out this year sparked by New Zealand’s right-wing government proposing to dissolve the country’s Māori Health Authority, roll back the use of the Māori language and end limits on tobacco sales – a requirement Māori leaders had sought in an effort to cut high rates of smoking in their community.

China has taken a step forward in its ambitious plan to land astronauts on the moon by 2030 – unveiling the specially designed spacesuit its crew will don for what’s expected to be a landmark mission in the country’s space program. The new red-and-white suit – revealed by the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) over the weekend – is made to withstand the moon’s extreme temperatures, as well as radiation and dust, while allowing astronauts physical flexibility to perform tasks on the lunar surface, according to state media. The moon-landing suit is equipped with a built-in long and short-range camera, an operations console, and a glare-proof helmet visor, according to a video shared by state broadcaster CCTV, which featured well-known Chinese astronauts Zhai Zhigang and Wang Yaping demonstrating how astronauts wearing the suit can bend and climb a ladder. The new technology has caught international attention. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk shared a post on the platform X featuring the CCTV video and his own caption. “Meanwhile, back in America, the [Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)] is smothering the national space program in kafkaesque paperwork!” he wrote, in an apparent reference to the perceived speed with which China has bolstered its space program relative to the US. CNN has reached out to FAA for comment. SpaceX’s fortunes – and Musk’s personal wealth – have been boosted in recent years by huge government contracts as NASA has sought to tap into the private sector on space exploration and logistics. An image of China’s new lunar spacesuit as it appeared in a video shared by state media. Xinhua Space leader China’s reveal of the moon-landing spacesuit comes as the country has mounted a significant effort to establish itself a major player in space – a domain that nations, including the United States, are increasingly looking to not only for scientific benefit, but also with an eye to resources and national security. The China National Space Administration has in recent years carried out a series of increasingly complex robotic lunar missions, including the first-ever return of lunar samples from the far side of the moon earlier this year. It has been angling to become the second country to land astronauts on the moon, saying its first crewed mission will take place “by 2030.” The US, which has not sent astronauts to the moon since 1972, is also planning to send a crew this decade, though it has delayed its initial timeline for its Artemis III mission. That mission will not take off until at least September 2026, NASA said earlier this year. The agency revealed a protoype of its Artemis III spacesuit prototype, the AxEMU, in 2023. China’s new spacesuit was hailed across state media as a major step forward in the country’s crewed mission timeline, with experts noting the need for specifically formulated suit for lunar conditions versus those used in spacewalks by astronauts at China’s Tiangong orbital space station. Thanks to its thin exosphere, the moon is an unforgiving place, exposed to both the sun’s rays and the cold of space. Temperatures near the Moon’s equator, for example, can spike to 250°F (121°C) in the day and then plunge at night to -208°F (-133°C), according to NASA. “Unlike low-Earth orbit missions, astronauts will be in a harsh natural lunar environment during lunar extravehicular activities. Complex environmental factors such as high vacuum and low gravity, lunar dust and lunar soil, complex lunar surface terrain, high and low temperatures, and strong radiation will have a significant impact on work and protection,” Wu Zhiqiang, deputy chief designer of astronaut systems at the China Astronaut Research and Training Center, told state broadcaster CCTV. Others also hailed the aesthetics of the suit, with state media describing the red stripes on its upper limbs are inspired by ribbons from the “flying apsaras,” or deities that appear in ancient art in western China’s Dunhuang city, while those on its lower limbs resembling “rocket launch flames.” Another designer, Wang Chunhui, told state media the suit’s proportions would make the astronauts “look more spirited and majestic” and “make us Chinese look strong and beautiful when we step on the moon.” Earlier this year, Chinese officials released the name of the spacecraft for the crewed lunar mission – with the spaceship dubbed Mengzhou, or Dream Vessel, the lander, Lanyue, or Embracing the Moon. The mission is designed as part of a broader set of lunar ambitions, which include China’s plans to establish an international lunar research station at the moon’s south pole by 2040.

For much of the past year since China reopened to the world following the Covid-19 pandemic, a pall has hung over large swathes of the country as its economy struggles to regain momentum. The country’s bright young minds are having a hard time landing a job; its white-collar professionals are hit by pay cuts and layoffs; its entrepreneurs struggle to finance their businesses and pay off debts; its middle-class families are seeing their wealth slashed by crumbling housing prices; and its rich race to move money out of the country. In the months leading up to the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic on Tuesday, the mood was encapsulated by a new buzz phrase: “the garbage time of history.” Like the final minutes of a basketball game with one team trailing so far behind that all efforts to win seem futile, some Chinese believe their country is trapped in a similarly bleak period with little hope for a turnaround. The pessimism was a far cry from the buoyant outlook just five years ago, during the last major National Day celebrations in 2019. Back then, economists were rushing to predict when China might overtake the United States to become the world’s largest economy. Those conversations aren’t happening much anymore. These days, the talk centers on how Beijing can avoid a repeat of Japan’s “lost decade” of economic stagnation following bursting of its housing bubble in the 1990s. Last week, after months of increasingly grim economic data, Chinese leader Xi Jinping finally gave the nod to a much-needed stimulus package in a bid to shore up faith in the world’s second largest economy. On Tuesday, the country’s central bank unveiled a raft of measures to counter falling prices, including freeing commercial banks to lend more money and making it cheaper for households and companies to borrow. Officials kept up the positive drumbeat the next day by announcing rare cash handouts to disadvantaged citizens and pledging subsidies for recent graduates struggling to find a job. And on Thursday, the ruling Communist Party’s 24-member Politburo continued the bullish messaging. In a break with tradition, Xi dedicated the group’s September meeting to economic affairs. The top officials acknowledged that “new situations and problems” have arisen in the economy and demanded urgent action, vowing to boost fiscal spending, arrest the decline of the property market and improve employment for fresh graduates and migrant workers. According to Xu Tianchen, senior economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit, the “rare, simultaneous rollout of so many measures underscored the urgency for policymakers to prop up the economy.” The policy blitz gave an adrenaline shot to the country’s dismal stock market days before the week-long national holiday, which starts on Tuesday. China’s blue-chips stocks soared more than 15% last week in its biggest single-week gain in nearly 16 years. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index surged 13%, notching its best week since 1998, according to Reuters. The frenzy continued on Monday, when the combined turnover on the Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses exceeded 1.8 trillion yuan ($228 billion), logging a record high, according to the Securities Times, a state-run financial newspaper. That’s despite a key measure of factory activity, the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI), shrinking for another month in September. Tourists visit an ancient city gate in Beijing, China ahead of National Day. Song Jiaru/VCG/Getty Images Remarkable turnaround Even some big-name investors are excited by the rally. David Tepper, the billionaire founder of American hedge fund Appaloosa Management, told CNBC in an interview Thursday that he was buying more of “everything” related to China. The stock market may be in the midst of one of its most remarkable turnarounds, but economists say reversing China’s economic downturn will require much more work. “Stimulating the stock market doesn’t really do much for the real economy in China. Very few people invest in the stock market compared to other major markets,” said Logan Wright, director of China markets research at Rhodium Group. Chinese households have suffered a massive loss of wealth from a slump in the housing market, amounting to an estimated $18 trillion, Barclays economists said in a research note earlier this month It’s as if each three-person household in China has lost around $60,000, an amount that is almost five times China’s per capita gross domestic product. Wright said the stimulus package “makes the leadership look more reactive, more responsive to the downturn in the economy. And that is what’s generated some of the more positive sentiment (last) week. But nothing really changes in terms of the structural outlook.” China’s decades-long investment-led growth has reached “a dead end,” and fundamental overhauls of its fiscal system — including a redistribution of income and greater transfers to households — are needed to rebalance the economy toward a more sustainable consumption-led growth model, Wright said. There has been little in the barrage of measures announced last week to address the underlying structural problems weighing down economic growth. China has long had one of the highest saving rates in the world. While one-off cash handouts and subsidies may boost short-term consumption, robust social welfare and healthcare are needed to make Chinese households feel comfortable to spend more in the long run, especially following the collapse of the property sector, where most Chinese invest their savings. Property woes The outlook for the real estate industry, which makes up about a quarter of the Chinese economy and 70% of household wealth, remains dim. “There’s not much Beijing can do,” Wright said. “In many ways, the adjustment in the property sector is almost complete, and policy hasn’t been very effective in stabilizing it.” After decades of boom, China’s real estate sector is now in its fourth year of contraction since falling into a deep crisis in 2020, when the government cracked down on excessive borrowing by developers to rein in their high debt. Beijing’s efforts to rescue the market have struggled to revive demand, with prices of new homes continuing their freefall. In a concerted push to prop up the embattled property

  In late 1965, at what’s now London Heathrow airport, a commercial flight coming from Paris made history by being the first to land automatically. The plane – A Trident 1C operated by BEA, which would later become British Airways – was equipped with a newly developed extension of the autopilot (a system to help guide the plane’s path without manual control) known as “autoland.” Today, automatic landing systems are installed on most commercial aircraft and improve the safety of landings in difficult weather or poor visibility. Now, nearly 60 years later, the world’s third largest aircraft manufacturer, Brazil’s Embraer, is introducing a similar technology, but for takeoffs. Called “E2 Enhanced Take Off System,” after the family of aircraft it’s designed for, the technology would not only improve safety by reducing pilot workload, but it would also improve range and takeoff weight, allowing the planes that use it to travel farther, according to Embraer. “The system is better than the pilots,” says Patrice London, principal performance engineer at Embraer, who has worked on the project for over a decade. ”That’s because it performs in the same way all the time. If you do 1,000 takeoffs, you will get 1,000 of exactly the same takeoff.” Embraer, London adds, has already started flight testing, with the aim to get it approved by aviation authorities in 2025, before introducing it from select airports. Free range The cockpit of an Embraer E195-E2. The automated takeoff procedure is largely the same as a regular one, with the exception that the pilot doesn’t pull back on the controls, as the plane does so automatically. Embraer Just like Airbus, Embraer has been taking advantage of Boeing’s recent troubles and has been gaining market share, and is now the leading manufacturer of commercial jets with up to 150 seats. It has delivered almost 1,700 aircraft from its popular E-Jet family, introduced in 2004. Earlier this year, American Airlines announced an order for 90 E175 planes – a regional jet with a capacity of about 80 passengers – with the intent to convert its entire regional fleet to Embraer aircraft by 2030. In 2018, Embraer revamped some of the models in the family with new engines, wings and avionics, calling them E2. Two variants are now in service, the E-190-E2 and the slightly larger E-195-E2, seating up to about 140 passengers, which puts them in direct competition with the Airbus A220. Just over 120 E2 aircraft have been delivered so far, with Canada’s Porter Airlines, Brazil’s Azul and The Netherland’s KLM Cityhopper currently the largest operators. Embraer has orders for about 200 more. It’s on these planes that the company is going to introduce its new automated takeoff system. “I had the pleasure of flying the system on the real airplane a week ago, and it’s amazing,” says Luís Carlos Affonso, senior vice president of engineering and technological development at Embraer. “We believe that the training for pilots will be very limited, because you don’t really change the procedure.” During an automated takeoff, Affonso says, there is only one key deviation from current procedures. “You do not rotate yourself. You have your hands on the yoke, and the airplane rotates itself,” he says, referring to the action of pulling back on the controls to make the plane’s nose go up. “In the auto landing, you also have to keep your hands on the controls, and the airplane lands itself. It’s the same here. All the rest remains identical and when the airplane crosses 200 feet in altitude, the system reverts to the normal autopilot and autothrottle, so life goes back to usual.” Before reaching that altitude, however, the system would have made it possible for the plane to take off earlier and use less of the runway. As a result, the takeoff distance – which is calculated from the release of the brakes until the plane reaches 35 feet of altitude – is reduced compared to a manual takeoff. An Embraer E195-E2 at London City Airport. The Brazilian plane maker plans to introduce a new automated takeoff system on this aircraft in 2025. Embraer No tail strikes Crucially, the system allows the plane to take off as early as possible and more steeply, but without ever incurring a tail strike — a dangerous situation in which the tail of the plane touches the runway or an obstacle as the aircraft lifts off, sometimes as a result of pilot error. “If you’re a pilot, you have to give some room for error,” says Affonso. “But because this system is so precise and consistent, you don’t need the same margins and you can operate closer to the optimum in the initial rotation, as if you were closer to touching with the tail. Except you will not.” Embraer says this optimization allows for an increase in takeoff weight, which means either more passengers or more range — up to 350 nautical miles. This opens up destinations that are precluded with the same combination of airport and aircraft, but without the automated takeoff system. For now, Embraer plans to introduce the system at three airports: London City in England, Florence in Italy and Santos Dumont in Brazil, but the company says it’s receiving interest for more. What happens in case of an emergency? The system reacts in the same way as the normal autopilot, sounding an alarm and giving controls back to the pilots. “I tested the system in failure cases, especially when you lose an engine,” Affonso says. “It is amazing how you get a workload reduction, especially during a failure. Whenever you reduce the workloads, you make for a safer operation.” However, Affonso adds, this is not a first step towards total automation, or even getting rid of one of the pilots. “We are just adding one phase, which is the takeoff phase, where you now can have the autopilot engaged,” he says, “but it’s far from from autonomous, because the pilot is there, and if there is a failure, the pilot is the one that will take control.” According to Gary Crichlow, an aviation

A new analysis of dozens of arrowheads is helping researchers piece together a clearer portrait of the warriors who clashed on Europe’s oldest known battlefield 3,250 years ago. The bronze and flint arrowheads were recovered from the Tollense Valley in northeast Germany. Researchers first uncovered the site in 1996 when an amateur archaeologist spotted a bone sticking out of a bank of the Tollense River. Since then, excavations have unearthed 300 metal finds and 12,500 bones belonging to about 150 individuals who fell in battle at the site in 1250 BC. Recovered weaponry has included swords, wooden clubs and the array of arrowheads — including some found still embedded in the bones of the fallen. No direct evidence of an earlier battle of this scale has ever been discovered, which is why Tollense Valley is considered the site of Europe’s oldest battle, according to researchers who have studied the area since 2007. Studies of the bones have yielded some insights into the men — all young, strong and able-bodied warriors, some with healed wounds from previous skirmishes. But details on who was involved in the violent conflict, and why they fought in such a bloody battle, has long eluded researchers. There are no written accounts describing the battle, so as teams of archaeologists have unearthed more finds from the valley, they have used the well-preserved remains and weapons to try to piece together the story behind the ancient battle scene. Now, a team of researchers studying arrowheads used in the battle has discovered evidence that it included local groups as well as an army from the south. These findings, published Sunday in the journal Antiquity, suggest the clash was the earliest example of interregional conflict in Europe — and raise questions about the state of organized, armed violence thousands of years ago. “The arrowheads are a kind of ‘smoking gun,’” said lead study author Leif Inselmann, researcher at the Berlin Graduate School of Ancient Studies within the Free University of Berlin, in a statement. “Just like the murder weapon in a mystery, they give us a clue about the culprit, the fighters of the Tollense Valley battle and where they came from.” An ancient skull recovered from the Tollense Valley site was found perforated with a bronze arrowhead. Volker Minkus/Minkusimages Evidence of invasion Previous discoveries of foreign artifacts, such as a Bohemian bronze ax and a sword from southeastern Central Europe, and analyses of the remains have suggested that outsiders fought in the Tollense Valley battle. But the researchers of the new study were curious to see what clues the arrowheads would yield. When Inselmann and his colleagues analyzed the arrowheads, they realized that no two were identical — not exactly shocking before the days of mass production. But the archaeologists could pick out key differences in the shapes and features that signified some of the arrowheads were not made within Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, a state in northeast Germany that’s home to the Tollense Valley. Inselmann collected literature, data and examples of more than 4,700 Bronze Age arrowheads from Central Europe and mapped out where they came from to compare them with the Tollense Valley arrowheads. Many matched the style of arrowheads from other sites in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, suggesting they were locally made and carried by men who called the region home, according to the study. Lead study author Leif Inselmann holds one of the arrowheads recovered from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, a state in northeast Germany that’s home to the Tollense Valley. Leif Inselmann But other arrowheads with straight or rhombus-shaped bases and side spurs and barbs matched those from a southern region that now includes modern Bavaria and Moravia, Inselmann said. “This suggests that at least a part of the fighters or even a complete battle faction involved in Tollense Valley derive from a very distant region,” Inselmann wrote in an email. Inselmann and his colleagues suspect it unlikely that the arrowheads were imported from another region to be used by local fighters. Otherwise, they would expect to find evidence of arrowheads within ceremonial burials in the region that were practiced during the Bronze Age. Researchers uncovered a variety of bronze and flint arrowheads at the Tollense Valley site. Leif Inselmann The spark of war A causeway that crossed the Tollense River, constructed about 500 years before the battle, is thought to have been the starting point of the conflict, said study coauthor Thomas Terberger. Terberger, a professor in the department of prehistoric and historical archaeology at Germany’s University of Göttingen, has studied the site, a 1.8-mile (3-kilometer) stretch of the river, since 2007. “The causeway was probably part of an important trade route,” he said. “Control of this bottleneck situation could well have been an important reason for the conflict.” However, the fact that researchers haven’t found any clear evidence in the area of sources of wealth, such as mines for metal or places to extract salt, makes the trade route theory less likely, said Barry Molloy, an associate professor in the school of archaeology at University College Dublin. Molloy was not involved in the study. “The causes of warfare were many, but it is likely in my view that this was about a group seeking to impose political control over another — an age old thing — in order to extract wealth systematically over time, not simply as plunder,” Molloy said in an email. The exact scale and cause of the battle remain unknown, but the remains and weaponry found so far suggest more than 2,000 people were involved, according to the study. And researchers believe that more human bones are preserved in the valley, which could represent hundreds of victims. The 13th century BC was a time of increased trade and cultural exchange, but the discovery of bronze arrowheads across Germany has suggested it was also when armed conflict arose. “This new information has considerably changed the image of the Bronze Age, which was not as peaceful as believed before,” Terberger said. “The 13th century BC saw changes of

Beijing says it’s investigating fashion retailer PVH Corp, the owner of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, for refusing to source cotton from the Xinjiang region, in a move that could lead to sanctions on an American company with major business interests in China. Tuesday’s announcement from the Commerce Ministry came a day after the Biden administration proposed a possible ban on the sale or import of smart vehicles in the United States that use specific Chinese or Russian technology because of national security concerns. The ministry said in a statement that New York-based PVH (PVH) is suspected of “violating normal market transaction principles” by boycotting cotton sourced from China’s far western region of Xinjiang. It could be sanctioned by being placed on the country’s so-called “unreliable entities list,” which would bar the firm from doing business in China. There are currently five American companies on the list, first announced in 2019, none of which do much business in China because they are largely defense manufacturers. Their presence on the list means they’re banned from importing, exporting and investing in China. In a statement sent to CNN on Wednesday, PVH said it “maintains strict compliance with all relevant laws and regulations in all countries and regions in which we operate. We are in communication with the Chinese Ministry of Commerce and will respond in accordance with the relevant regulations.” According to the retailer’s supply chain guidelines, it prohibits direct or indirect sourcing from Xinjiang. The US began banning all goods produced in the region in June 2022, following the enactment of a forced labor law signed by President Joe Biden the year before. According to a 2018 International Religious Freedom Report from the State Department, up to 2 million Uyghurs and members of other Muslim-majority ethnic groups have been detained since 2017 in “specially built or converted detention facilities in Xinjiang and subjected … to forced disappearance, torture, physical abuse, and prolonged detention without trial because of their religion and ethnicity.” China has described the facilities as “vocational training centers,” and claimed in 2019 such centers had been closed. Officials have consistently denied all allegations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang. Being banned by China would deal a big blow to PVH, which, like other global fashion firms, sources extensively in the country. Calvin Klein also has a physical presence in virtually every Chinese province. It said in its 2023 annual review that “China is an important growth engine, which grew over 20% in local currency for the year.” “We continue to focus on driving overall brand awareness, especially in China, where both Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger are underpenetrated,” it added. Western apparel brands have faced pressure in China over their position on Xinjiang cotton before. In March 2021, Swedish multinational H&M was pulled from major e-commerce stores in China and blocked by several major navigation, review and rating apps. But the backlash ended about a year later and its products were reinstated online.

For travelers, there’s a very specific image of Fiji that comes to mind: flawless white stretches of sand, overwater bungalows perfect for honeymooning couples and bright blue sea in every direction. For the people who live in Fiji, though, the picture is more complicated. Restaurateur TJ Patel is a native of the city of Nadi, home to Fiji’s international airport, and is used to meeting people from around the globe at his restaurant, Vasaqa. He says he’s painfully aware that outside of Fiji, few would be able to place his country on the map. “If you can’t find Australia, one of the largest continents on earth, on a map, fat chance finding a needle in a haystack of the Pacific Ocean,” he tells CNN Travel. “So you’re always saying, ‘north of New Zealand, east of Australia, southwest of Hawaii.’” That “needle in the haystack” is a South Pacific archipelago of 900,000 people, about half of whom live in the capital city of Suva. Formerly a British colony, Fiji has three official languages: English, Fijian and Fiji Hindi. It’s perhaps this geographical obscurity that leads many to make incorrect assumptions about what life is actually like in Fiji. “I think that perception is that (Fijian) people are always at the beach,” says Evlyn Mani, a local PR professional and lifestyle blogger. “They don’t really understand that there’s more to Fiji than just those sandy beaches and the cocktails with those cute umbrellas in it.” The coconut wireless The word that comes up the most when Fijians describe themselves is “community.” It’s a close-knit nation where “everybody knows everybody,” says Patel, and those who leave are still expected to return to their hometown for big holiday celebrations, no matter where they live now. Locals talk wryly about the “the coconut wireless” – a grapevine of local news and more personal gossip. “The main island, Viti Levu, where we’re on, you can drive around in five hours,” says Patel. “So by the time you come to your dating stage of your life, you’ve met everyone that you know. Because there have been enough weddings, funerals, Christmas parties.” Social media, he says, has only amplified the connectivity of the rumor mill. “It’s just storylines being shared. Something’s blue, by the time it’s shared with the third, fourth person, it’s red.” Many Indians were brought to Fiji during the days of British colonization as workers, and they have remained to form a sizeable community. Mani and Patel both have Indian heritage. Ben Hussain, a mixologist, describes Fiji as “a giant melting pot,” and says that it’s still common to show Bollywood films on TV and have big multigenerational get-togethers for Hindu holidays like Diwali. Cagi (pronounced “Tagi”) Ratudamu at the Fijian resort where he works. Courtesy Nanuku Resort The Fijian way of life Key among communal events in Fiji is the kava ceremony. Kava is a mildly narcotic root plant native to Fiji, which is ground into powder and mixed with water, then drunk out of a large bowl called a tanoa using a single coconut shell as a sort of spoon. Even international tourists are invited to take part in a kava ritual when they arrive at their hotel or travel to a village. Cagi Ratudamu grew up in a small village called Laselase, and as a native Fijian he takes such rituals seriously. For example, he says, anyone visiting the village will be greeted by a traditional Fijian welcome ceremony. There are also special ceremonies to celebrate marriages and new babies. “Let’s say I was visiting you in a Fijian village,” says Ratudamu. “You’re basically presenting your kava as a gift to the villages. And then we will welcome you. And then we’ll also present a kava. Some people present traditional whale’s tooth.” It’s also considered respectful for a man to visit his new girlfriend’s family’s village to announce his intentions to date her. Many native Fijians, Ratudamu included, wear a hibiscus or frangipani flower behind one of their ears – behind the left ear means someone is single, while behind the right ear is the opposite. According to data from the US State Department, about 57% of people in Fiji are Indigenous, and of that group the majority are Christian. Radutamu says that Fijians have their own way of blending Christian beliefs and local traditions. Christmas and Easter are important holidays, where whole villages and extended families gather together. “There’s a structure in the village. I think it all depends on birthright. The seating structure all depends on your traditional obligation in the village.” Radutamu works at a luxury hotel, the Nanuku Resort near the town of Pacific Harbour on the southern tip of Viti Levu. But most of the people in his village, known as “Fiji’s salad bowl,” are vegetable farmers. Most tourists he meets are eager to learn about Fiji and ask to visit his home village, says Radutamu. But misconceptions still abound. The worst one? “Cannibalism. They think we might eat humans.” Chantae Reden and her husband moved to Fiji in 2017. Courtesy Chantae Reden Chantae Reden, an American expat who moved to Suva with her German husband in 2017, says she loves many elements of the Fijian communal mindset, even if they took her some time to get used to. One of Reden’s favorite things to do in Fiji is the same as in the US: going to the movies. “Going to the movies is super fun. It’s like an experience,” she says. “Fijians love to yell at the screen, which… It’s annoying if one person does it, but if you’re watching a horror movie and the whole crowd is screaming like, ‘Turn around!’ it is not scary. It’s really fun.” Mani, the PR professional, grew up in Sigatoka, a town on the southwest side of Viti Levu’s “coral coast.” She relocated to Suva for college and has been based there ever since. With temperate weather, it’s not surprising that many Fijian hobbies involve fitness. Mani enjoys an

  On the northern edge of the Rub al-Khali, there are secrets buried in the sand. The vast 250,000 square miles (650,000 square kilometer) desert on the Arabian Peninsula is known as “The Empty Quarter.” And to most, aside from waves of ocher dunes, it does look empty. But not to artificial intelligence. Researchers at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi have developed a high-tech solution to searching huge, arid areas for potential archaeological sites. Traditionally, archaeologists use ground surveys to detect potential sites of interest, but that can be time-consuming and difficult in harsh terrains like the desert. In recent years, remote sensing using optical satellite images from places like Google Earth has gained popularity in searching large areas for unusual features — but in the desert, sand and dust storms often obscure the ground in these images, while dune patterns can make it difficult to detect potential sites. “We needed something to guide us and focus our research,” says Diana Francis, an atmospheric scientist and one of the lead researchers on the project. The team created a machine learning algorithm to analyze images collected by synthetic aperture radar (SAR), a satellite imagery technique that uses radio waves to detect objects hidden beneath surfaces including vegetation, sand, soil and ice. Neither technology is new: SAR imagery has been in use since the 1980s, and machine learning has been gaining traction in archaeology. But the use of the two together is a novel application, says Francis, and to her knowledge, is a first in archaeology. A satellite view of the Saruq al-Hadid site showing the western zone that was under excavation (right) and the eastern zone which is not excavated yet. Khalifa University/Ben Romdhane et al., 2023 She trained the algorithm using data from a site already known to archaeologists: Saruq Al-Hadid, a settlement with evidence of 5,000 years of activity that is still being uncovered in the desert outside of Dubai. “Once it was trained, it gave us an indication of other potential areas (nearby) that are still not excavated,” says Francis. She adds that the technology is precise to within 50 centimeters and can create 3D models of the expected structure that will give archaeologists a better idea of what’s buried below. In collaboration with Dubai Culture, the government organization that manages the site, Francis and her team conducted a ground survey using a ground-penetrating radar, which “replicated what the satellite measured from space,” she says. Now, Dubai Culture plans to excavate the newly identified areas — and Francis hopes the technique can uncover more buried archaeological treasures in the future. Expediting “tedious” work Using SAR imagery is not common in archaeology, due to its cost and complexity. But the use of it to identify buried sites is “really exciting,” says Amy Hatton, a PhD student at the Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology, who is researching deep learning models to detect archaeological structures in northwest Saudi Arabia. Hatton notes that, by using SAR imagery, which bypasses the problem of light scatter from dust particles, Francis and her team solved technical details that make remote sensing difficult in desert regions. Related articleThe world’s strongest material could be used to make clean drinking water Khalifa University isn’t alone in using artificial intelligence to detect potential sites. Amina Jambajanstsan, another PhD student at the Max Planck Institute, is using machine learning to speed up the “tedious job” of searching through high-resolution drone and satellite images for potential sites of interest. Her project, which focuses on medieval burial sites in Mongolia — a country of more than 1.56 million square kilometers, nearly the size of Alaska — has uncovered thousands of potential sites that Jambajanstsan says she and her team could never have found on the ground. Jambajanstsan says that while the cost and computational demandsof SAR imagery could be a barrier to usage for a lot of researchers, the method is valuable for desert regions where other technologies struggle — and is one she would consider for the Gobi Desert in Southern Mongolia, where her “normal optical imagery” is not yielding results. This annotated satellite image shows the previous and ongoing excavations (yellow circle), and the areas the AI predicted for potential buried structures (red circle). Khalifa University/Ben Romdhane et al., 2023 Man vs. machine Machine learning is finding more and more applications in archaeology, although not all researchers are excited about it. “There are two distinct belief systems,” says Hugh Thomas, an archaeology lecturer at the University of Sydney and co-director of the prehistoric AlUla and Khaybar excavation project in Saudi Arabia. On one side, people are pursuing technological solutions like AI to identify sites; on the other, those who believe you need a “trained archeological eye” to identify structures, he explains. While technology could help identify and monitor archaeological sites — particularly ones under threat from land use changes, climate change, and looting — Thomas is wary of over-reliance on it. “The way that I would like to use this kind of technology is on areas that perhaps have either no or a very low probability of archaeological sites, therefore allowing researchers to focus more on other areas where we expect there to be more found,” says Thomas. Related videoAI is shaping cancer treatment in the UAE Unearthing the past The real test — and hopefully, validation — of the technology will happen next month when excavations begin at the Saruq Al Hadid complex, of which only an estimated 10% has been uncovered across a 2.3-square-mile (6.2-square-kilometer) area, according to Dubai Culture. If archaeologists find the structures the algorithm has predicted, Dubai Culture plans to use the technology to unearth more sites. Francis and her team published a paper on their findings last year, and they are continuing to train the machine learning algorithm to improve its precision, before expanding its use. “The idea is to export (the technology) to other areas, especially Saudi Arabia, Egypt, maybe the deserts in Africa as well,” she says.

Finland will return two giant pandas to China in November, more than eight years ahead of time, as the zoo where they live can no longer afford their upkeep, the chair of the zoo’s board told Reuters on Tuesday. The pandas, named Lumi and Pyry, were brought to Finland in January 2018, months after Chinese leader Xi Jinping visited the Nordic country and signed a joint agreement on protecting the animals. Since its founding in 1949, the People’s Republic of China has sent pandas to foreign zoos to strengthen trading ties, cement foreign relations and boost its international image. The Finnish agreement was for a stay of 15 years, but instead the pandas will soon go into a month-long quarantine before they are shipped back to China, according to Ahtari Zoo, the pandas’ current home. The zoo, a private company, had invested over 8 million euros (about $9 million) in the facility where the animals live and faced annual costs of 1.5 million euros for their upkeep, including a preservation fee paid to China, Ahtari Chair Risto Sivonen said. The zoo had hoped the pandas would attract visitors to the central Finland location but last year said it had instead accumulated mounting debts as the pandemic curbed travel, and that it was discussing a return. The pandas will soon go into a month-long quarantine before they are shipped back to China. Lehtikuva/Roni Rekomaa/Reuters Rising inflation had added to the costs, the zoo said, and Finland’s government in 2023 rejected pleas for state funding. In all, negotiations to return the animals had lasted three years, Sivonen said. “Now we reached a point where the Chinese said it could be done,” Sivonen said. The return of the pandas was a business decision made by the zoo which did not involve Finland’s government and should not impact relations between the two countries, a spokesperson for Finland’s foreign ministry said. Despite efforts by China to aid the zoo, the two countries in the end jointly concluded after friendly consultations to return the pandas, the Chinese embassy in Helsinki said in a statement to Reuters.

Astronomers have observed a massive pair of jets releasing from a supermassive black hole 7.5 billion light-years from Earth. The megastructure spans 23 million light-years in length, making these black hole jets the largest ever seen, according to new research. Black holes are viewed as the garbage disposals of the universe, gobbling up nearly everything that comes close to them. But a fraction of material is ejected before an object falls in, forming a jet on either side of the black hole, said Martijn Oei, a postdoctoral scholar at the California Institute of Technology and the lead author of a new study describing the discovery. The findings were published September 18 in the journal Nature. Black hole jets can accelerate radiation and particles close to the speed of light, causing them to glow in wavelengths visible to radio telescopes. Such a glow drew the attention of astronomers behind the new study while they were surveying the sky using Europe’s LOFAR, or LOw Frequency ARray radio telescope, in 2018. The newly described jets have a power output equivalent to that of trillions of suns and are so massive that researchers have nicknamed the megastructure Porphyrion after a giant from Greek mythology. The discovery is causing astronomers to rethink their understanding of how massive black hole jets can be as well as how these giant features can affect their surroundings and the structure of the universe. “This pair is not just the size of a solar system, or a Milky Way; we are talking about 140 Milky Way diameters in total,” Oei said. “The Milky Way would be a little dot in these two giant eruptions.” Europe’s LOFAR, or LOw Frequency ARray radio telescope, enabled astronomers to spot the glow of the pair of giant black hole jets.  ASTRON Seeking the cosmic web Initially, the researchers were looking for something else using LOFAR: the wispy filaments of the cosmic web. The cosmic web is the large-scale structure of the universe, a network of matter that pervades all the space between galaxies, Oei said. But while seeking to observe the cosmic web, the team discovered large jets coming from galaxies. In total, the team spotted 10,000 new black hole jet pairs. A paper describing the pairs has been accepted for publication in another journal, Astronomy & Astrophysics. “When we first found the giant jets, we were quite surprised,” Oei said. “We had no idea that there were this many.” Supermassive black holes lie at the centers of large galaxies. The team’s observations highlighted that an increasing number of galaxies have black hole jets reaching far beyond their borders, Oei said. A researcher from a different field, study coauthor Aivin Gast, first spotted the most massive pair of jets. At the time, Gast was an undergraduate student studying classical archaeology and ancient history at the University of Oxford. But due to the pandemic, his main academic work was on hold, so he offered to help Oei with a visual inspection of the radio images captured by LOFAR. “After finding Porphyrion, we were both very excited, and after talking it over I felt the thrill of seeing and co-discovering something special that no one had appreciated before,” Oei said via email. Once the team confirmed the galaxy where the jets originated, “Aivin leveraged his classical background and proposed to give the system the beautiful name ‘Porphyrion,’ which it now bears,” Oei added. Before the LOFAR observations, large jet systems were thought to be rare and expected to be smaller in size. Before Porphyrion was spotted, the largest confirmed black hole jet system was Alcyoneus. Before the discovery of Porphyrion, the largest known jet system was Alcyoneus, shown in this image taken by LOFAR in 2022. LOFAR Collaboration/WISE/NASA/JPL-Caltech/Martijn Oei The same team found Alcyoneus, also named for a mythical Greek giant, in 2022, and this jet system equals about 100 Milky Way galaxies. The Milky Way galaxy is estimated to be 100,000 light-years in diameter. One light-year is the distance light travels in one year, which is 5.88 trillion miles (9.46 trillion kilometers). But the study authors took a broader approach and considered that the Milky Way is 163,078 light-years across to account for all the stars and invisible matter within the galaxy, Oei said. Thus, they decided that Porphyrion is equivalent to 140 Milky Way diameters. Now, the authors said they believe it’s possible to find jets larger than Porphyrion as radio telescope technology improves. An illustration of the Porphyrion black hole jets is compared with an inset showing the Milky Way galaxy. CNN/Caltech/NASA Tracing a galactic origin To uncover more details about the jets’ origins, the team conducted follow-up observations using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope in India and the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii. The observations pointed to a distant galaxy about 10 times more massive than the Milky Way. The data collected by the Keck Observatory also revealed that the structures came from a radiative-mode active black hole, rather than the type known to produce larger jets, which surprised the researchers. The central streaks in this image, taken by LOFAR, reveal the extreme length of the jets. LOFAR Collaboration/Martijn Oei/Caltech As supermassive black holes become active, their gravitational force heats up surrounding material, which releases energy in the form of radiation or jets. Radiative-mode black holes are more common in the distant universe, while jet-mode black holes are more common in the nearby universe, according to the researchers. “Our study suggests that radiative-mode active black holes might be as capable of generating giant jets as jet-mode active black holes are in the nearby universe,” Oei said in an email. “We are learning that giant jets might be an age-old phenomenon: we now know they have existed for most of the universe’s life. Our LOFAR survey only covered 15 percent of the sky. And most of these giant jets are likely difficult to spot, so we believe there are many more of these behemoths out there.” Understanding how long giant black hole jets

Three months after a historic election victory, it felt like the downpour at the Labour Party’s conference would never end. Lawmakers and officials in Britain’s new governing party have been trudging through a massive conference center in Liverpool, northwest England since Sunday in sodden suits, a rumbling River Mersey as their backdrop, for the group’s first set-piece event as a governing party in 15 years. It was supposed to feel like a celebration. Prime Minister Keir Starmer touted July’s gigantic electoral landslide in his keynote speech on Tuesday, telling his party: “People said we couldn’t do it, but we did.” But the gathering was dampened by more than the weather. Like Britain’s rather fickle summer, Starmer’s honeymoon is a distant memory. A string of negative stories – about ministers accepting gifts and handouts, and reported conflict within Starmer’s top team – has clashed uncomfortably with a set of joyless policy decisions aimed at stabilizing Britain’s strapped finances, many of which go further and deeper than some inside the party expected when they promised a platform of change during the summer election campaign. It means Britain’s new prime minister is already deeply unpopular with the public, according to a batch of unflattering opinion polls that landed with a thud as Labour’s conference began. Protesters demonstrate outside the Labour Party conference venue in Liverpool against the withdrawal of the winter fuel allowance, on September 23, 2024. Ian Forsyth/Getty Images And while his lawmakers are broadly behind his disciplined agenda, questions are percolating there too about his political judgment and ability to keep his government on message. “It has felt a bit blunt,” a Labour Member of Parliament admitted after Starmer’s speech Tuesday, summing up the sentiment across much of conference. “It should have been more exciting,” a longtime Labour activist complained. Starmer dangled a sliver of optimism in his speech Tuesday – promising the country “light at the end of this tunnel” – and in an effort to underline the rare display of cheer, the sun did finally emerge outside a short while later. The speech was an important hurdle for Starmer, who needed to reclaim the reputation for focus, diligence and honesty that he spent four years building, only to see seriously fractured in three months. But he nonetheless begins the unenviable mission of boosting Britain’s limp economic growth, and reviving its tired public services, with a fragile coalition of public support. Starmer has insisted the latter issue will need a decade to truly fix. Unfortunately, the realities of governing are beginning to bite the Labour Party – and it is likely he will need to show some returns far sooner. A ‘freebie’ row Labour’s conference was trailed by a series of stories that felt uncomfortably similar to the sleaze scandals that dogged previous Conservative administrations. Public records showed that Starmer had accepted tens of thousands of pounds in gifts from a key financial donor, including money for clothes and glasses. He had also watched his Arsenal soccer team from a hospitality box and accepted four tickets to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour concert at Wembley Stadium, worth £4,000 ($5,300). The donations are not unique for British leaders. But they were particularly surprising – and damaging – for a prime minister who spent four years painting himself as an antidote to the cronyism and coziness with donors displayed by consecutive Tory prime ministers. No rules have been broken by Starmer or his team, but little common sense has been displayed either, and his lawmakers have noticed. “I just think it’s indefensible,” Labour MP Rachael Maskell told CNN. “Politicians should pay their own way.” Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, pictured on September 24, has faced criticism for accepting gifts and hospitality. The donations were declared, as required by the rules. Peter Byrne/PA Maskell said the decision to take gifts and donations showed “poor political and personal judgment.” She is one of few Labour MPs to publicly criticize the front bench but said she is “not alone” among parliamentary colleagues – the group that can ultimately decide Starmer’s fate were a movement to emerge against him. The donations row was handled badly – Starmer naively fronted a reception celebrating London Fashion Week just hours after news emerged that a donor had bought his wife clothes – but it was especially harmful because it coincided awkwardly with a cut to the Winter Fuel Payment, an allowance given to retirees, to help with utilities bills. The move to limit that benefit to those already in receipt of state support was opposed by dozens of Labour MPs, and was controversial in a country still dragging itself through a lingering cost of living crisis. Maskell said she had been “sickened” by the timing. “People are hearing that (ministers) are getting donated clothes, and yet they haven’t got warmth themselves,” she said. The “one rule for them, another for everyone else” slogan that Starmer attached to Boris Johnson’s premiership became the sentiment that, above any other, caused that Conservative leader – himself fresh off a landslide election win – to be dumped from office two years ago. Starmer will be desperate to stop it from infecting his premiership too. He told conference attendees Tuesday that rebuilding the country would be “tough in the short-term,” but “we’re all in it together” – and that framing will likely be recycled in the coming weeks as he seeks to restore a reputation for integrity that was so valuable in July. Patience wears thin Far beyond the heavily secured gates of Labour’s conference, the country is casting its judgment as well. The combination of Labour’s miserabilist message on public finances with the costly scandal over its own donations has contributed to an astonishing collapse in Starmer’s popularity since his election win. An opinion poll published by Opinium on Sunday found his net approval rating had dropped to the same depths as Rishi Sunak, the former Tory prime minister that Starmer routed at the ballot box 12 weeks ago. “While the prime minister might have a world-beating

Hurricane John struck Mexico’s southern coast on Monday night as a Category 3 storm after rapidly strengthening in the Pacific, triggering warnings of “life-threatening” floods and mudslides. John hit the coast with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph (193 kph) as it made landfall south-southwest of the city of Marquelia in Guerrero state at around 9:15 p.m. local time, according to the National Hurricane Center. John has since weakened to a tropical storm and is slowing as it moves northwest of the coastal city of Acapulco in Oaxaca state. Its slow movement and interaction with nearby mountains will likely contribute to “catastrophic rainfall both along the coast and inland,” according to the National Hurricane Center. Just a day earlier, the storm had top-end winds of 35 mph (56 kph), but it underwent two rapid intensifications in a 24-hour period, ramping up its speed more than three-fold. The storm could re-emerge across the ocean and re-intensify as its center is “skirting the southern coast of Mexico.” Regardless of its erratic movement, John will continue to produce intense rainfall and life-threatening flash flooding along southern Mexico for the next few days. Fishermen return to shore ahead of the arrival of Hurricane John in Salina Cruz, Oaxaca State, Mexico, on September 23, 2024. Rusvel Rasgado/AFP/Getty Images Oaxaca’s governor said the state government had evacuated 3,000 people and set up 80 shelters, while authorities had suspended classes in several costal zones on Tuesday, the Associated Press reported. Businesses in Puerto Escondido, a tourist destination in the southern part of the state, have closed after authorities ordered the suspension of all work on the area’s main beaches, the news agency reported. Ana Aldai, who works for a restaurant there, told AP she was “a little bit distressed” because notice from authorities came quickly. The Salina Cruz Port is seen closed ahead of the arrival of Hurricane John in Salina Cruz, Oaxaca State, Mexico, on September 23, 2024. Rusvel Rasgado/AFP/Getty Images “There was no opportunity to make the necessary purchases,” she said. The government of Mexico has as changed the hurricane warning from east of Acapulco to Lagunas de Chacahua to a tropical storm warning. All hurricane warnings have been discontinued. Torrential, rainfall of 6 to 12 inches, with isolated totals around 15 inches are expected across coastal areas of Chiapas. In areas along and near the Oaxaca coast to southeast Guerrero, between 10 and 20 inches of rain with isolated totals near 30 inches can be expected through Thursday. The rainfall is likely to cause significant flash flooding and trigger mudslides along the rugged terrain.

The US is returning 297 history-spanning antiquities stolen or smuggled from India, many dating back centuries. Marking the handover, President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi posed for a photo in front of several of the artifacts, during a recent meeting between the two leaders. In July, the US and India signed an agreement to protect cultural property by preventing illegal trades and streamline the process to return stolen antiquities back to India. The relics — most of which are terracotta artifacts from Eastern India — are expected to be repatriated “shortly,” according to the Indian government in a statement on Saturday. The timing coincided with Modi’s visit to Biden’s hometown in Wilmington, Delaware, where the president held a Quad summit over the weekend, aimed at strengthening the close alliance between the US and India, Japan and Australia. “Prime Minister (Modi) thanked President Biden for his support in the return of these artifacts,” the India’s Ministry of External Affairs said. Modi also noted the relics “were not just part of India’s historical material culture but formed the inner core of its civilization and consciousness,” according to the statement. The artifacts, ranging from sculptures to vases, belong to a period spanning from 2000 BCE to 1900 CE. Some are made of stone, metal, wood and ivory. Among the exhibited objects was a sculpture of Apsara, a celestial performer in Hindu and Buddhist mythologies, made of sandstone from 10th to 11th century CE in Central India. Wearing ornamental headgear and a girdle with tassels, she strikes a posture found commonly in Indian classical dance. A fragment of a stone sculpture carved with a turbaned man alongside two women and an elephant rider was also showcased. India has faced an uphill battle in protecting its valuable cultural treasures from looters, though it has been making headway in recent years. In 2022, the US returned 307 stolen treasures to India as part of a 15-year investigation into international trafficking networks. More than three-quarters of those repatriated items, which have an estimated value of over $4 million, were linked to the disgraced New York art dealer Subhash Kapoor, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison by an Indian court over smuggling offenses. The US has returned 578 pieces of cultural artifacts to India since 2016, repatriations which in recent years have “become an important aspect of India-US cultural understanding and exchange,” according to the Indian Ministry of External Affairs. The US State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs has not immediately responded to CNN’s request for comment.

Oakland, California (AP) — Luis Armando Albino was 6 years old in 1951 when he was abducted while playing at an Oakland, California, park. Now, more than seven decades later, Albino has been found thanks to help from an online ancestry test, old photos and newspaper clippings. The Bay Area News Group reported Friday that Albino’s niece in Oakland — with assistance from police, the FBI and the Justice Department — located her uncle living on the East Coast. Albino, a father and grandfather, is a retired firefighter and Marine Corps veteran who served in Vietnam, according to his niece, 63-year-old Alida Alequin. She found Albino and reunited him with his California family in June. On February 21, 1951, a woman lured the 6-year-old Albino from the West Oakland park where he had been playing with his older brother and promised the Puerto Rico-born boy in Spanish that she would buy him candy. Instead, the woman kidnapped the child, flying him to the East Coast where he ended up with a couple who raised him as if he were their own son, the news group reported. Officials and family members didn’t say where on the East Coast he lives. For more than 70 years Albino remained missing, but he was always in the hearts of his family and his photo hung at relatives’ houses, his niece said. His mother died in 2005 but never gave up hope that her son was alive. Oakland police acknowledged that Alequin’s efforts “played an integral role in finding her uncle” and that “the outcome of this story is what we strive for.” In an interview with the news group, she said her uncle “hugged me and said, ‘Thank you for finding me’ and gave me a kiss on the cheek.” Oakland Tribune articles from the time reported police, soldiers from a local army base, the Coast Guard and other city employees joined a massive search for the missing boy. San Francisco Bay and other waterways were also searched, according to the articles. His brother, Roger Albino, was interrogated several times by investigators but stood by his story about a woman with a bandana around her head taking his brother. The first notion that her uncle might be still alive came in 2020 when, “just for fun,” Alequin said, she took an online DNA test. It showed a 22 percent match with a man who eventually turned out to be her uncle. A further search at the time yielded no answers or any response from him, she said. In early 2024, she and her daughters began searching again. On a visit to the Oakland Public Library, she looked at microfilm of Tribune articles — including one that had a picture of Luis and Roger — which convinced her that she was on the right track. She went to the Oakland police the same day. Investigators eventually agreed the new lead was substantial, and a new missing persons case was opened. Oakland police said last week that the missing persons case is closed, but they and the FBI consider the kidnapping a still-open investigation. Luis was located on the East Coast and provided a DNA sample, as did his sister, Alequin’s mom. On June 20, investigators went to her mother’s home, Alequin said, and told them both that her uncle had been found. “We didn’t start crying until after the investigators left,” Alequin said. “I grabbed my mom’s hands and said, ‘We found him.’ I was ecstatic.” On June 24, with the assistance of the FBI, Luis came to Oakland with members of his family and met with Alequin, her mother and other relatives. The next day Alequin drove her mother and her newfound uncle to Roger’s home in Stanislaus County, California. “They grabbed each other and had a really tight, long hug. They sat down and just talked,” she said, discussing the day of the kidnapping, their military service and more. Luis returned to the East Coast but came back again in July for a three-week visit. It was the last time he saw Roger, who died in August. Alequin said her uncle did not want to talk to the media. “I was always determined to find him, and who knows, with my story out there, it could help other families going through the same thing,” Alequin said. “I would say, don’t give up.”

On a different timeline, the New York Stock Exchange might have been housed inside an imposing, Mayan temple-shaped tower; Disney World would exit to an after-party companion park named Night World, and Paris’ Centre Pompidou could have risen tall as a 344-foot-tall alabaster egg. For every architectural project built, many others have been stalled or forgotten, only existing as might-have-beens in sketches or renderings. These unrealized feats — many by the world’s most famous architects — are shown together in the compendium “The Atlas of Never Built Architecture,” featuring some 350 projects cut down from a staggering 5,000 works. The book imagines landscapes and cityscapes where money is no object, bureaucratic hold-ups are quashed, and visionaries execute their most clarified concepts. Unbuilt designs are “pure, unadulterated visions,” write authors Sam Lubell and Greg Goldin in the introduction. “They have escaped the inevitable editing and slashes inflicted by the marketplace or politics, which, sadly, often smudge brilliant imagery into dulled-down reality.” Architect Henry Cobb imagined a towering version of the New York Stock Exchange in 1963. He claimed the NYSE was keen on the idea, but it never moved forward. Pei Cobb Freed & Partners MVRDV’s Peruri 88, planned for Jarkarta, Indonesia, was conceived in 2012 as a skyward neighborhood, featuring residential and office space, cinemas, a wedding chapel, mosque, and parks. Courtesy MVRDV Parishioners of Hatlehol Church in Norway raised money for decades but did not have enough to fund a new religious home. Courtesy Cornelius Vöge Many of those visions were too idealistic to ever leave the page, like the flourishing of 1970s-era utopian designs that pictured a highly futuristic world. The vicissitudes of the global financial market swallowed up plans for others, like British-Iraqi architect’s Zaha Hadid’s $100-million Dubai Opera House, which fell apart during the Great Recession of the aughts along with scores of other developments. Others simply couldn’t get the funding together, such as the sleek New Orleans National Jazz Center that was meant to be a new cultural icon in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, or an idyllic church in Ålesund, Norway, whose concrete structure mimicked the alpine landscape but ultimately wound up too costly for parishioners’ donations. Mundane financial hang-ups include a Las Vegas hotel called Xanadu that was meant to transform the strip in 1975, but was killed due to disagreements over who would foot the bill for its sewer lines. In some cases, an architect or developer’s untimely death meant their projects died with them. If the Polish architect Matthew Nowicki hadn’t been in a plane crash in 1950, he would have overseen the transformation of Chandigarh in northern India; instead, Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier is known for his decades-long work on the master-planned city. And in Kenya, a prehistoric-looking tribute to humanity’s history by Daniel Libeskind, called Ngaren: Museum of Humankind, would be under construction in the Great Rift Valley, if not for the project founder Richard Leakey’s death in 2022. (Since then, the building’s site has changed, according to the book, making Libeskind’s design incompatible) Zaha Hadid’s Stone Towers in Cairo, designed in 2009, were meant to consist of 18 residential buildings and a 5-star hotel, but developers quietly dropped the project. Courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects Seiichi Shirai’s Temple Of Atomic Catastrophes wasn’t taken seriously in 1954, but was lauded as part of the architect’s wider body of work late in his life. Seiichi Shirai/The Shoto Museum Some of the most striking projects have been rejected on the basis of their designs. Japanese architect Seiichi Shirai conceived of a tranquil but solemn design for the Temple of Atomic Catastrophes in 1954 that strove for a sense of “formal purity” and bore resemblance to a mushroom cloud, according to the authors. Published the same year that Kenzo Tange’s Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park was completed, the plans weren’t taken seriously, though Shirai was recognized for the design decades later when he won the Pritzker Prize posthumously. And though there have been many architectural projects that have been skewered online for their form (see: Vessel, the Walkie Talkie) or their name (see: PENN15) one ignited internet conspiracies the project couldn’t overcome. In 2011, Rotterdam studio MVRDV issued an apology over their plans for a luxury complex in South Korea called The Cloud. With two straight towers interrupted by floors shaped like a cotton-like cloud, critics claimed it looked like the World Trade Center engulfed in smoke plumes during the September 11 attacks, and it was ultimately abandoned.

Japan said its warplanes used flares to warn a Russian reconnaissance aircraft to leave northern Japanese airspace on Monday. Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara told reporters that the Russian Il-38 plane breached Japan’s airspace above Rebun Island, just off the coast of the country’s northernmost main island of Hokkaido, for up to a minute in three instances, during its five-hour flight in the area. It came a day after a joint fleet of Chinese and Russian warships sailed around Japanese northern coasts. Kihara said the airspace violation could be related to a joint military exercise that Russia and China announced earlier this month. Japan scrambled an undisclosed number of F-15 and F-35 fighter jets, which used flares for the first time after the Russian aircraft apparently ignored their warnings, Kihara said. “The airspace violation was extremely regrettable,” Kihara said. He said Japan “strongly protested” to Russia through diplomatic channels and demanded preventive measures. “We will carry out our warning and surveillance operations as we pay close attention to their military activities,” he said. Kihara said the use of flares was a legitimate response to airspace violation and “we plan to use it without hesitation.” Japanese defense officials are highly concerned about growing military cooperation between the China and Russia, and China’s increasingly assertive activity around Japanese waters and airspace. It led Tokyo to significantly reinforce defenses of southwestern Japan, including remote islands that are considered key to Japan’s defense strategy in the region. Earlier in September, Russian military aircraft flew around southern Japanese airspace. A Chinese Y-9 reconnaissance aircraft briefly violated Japan’s southern airspace in late August. The Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning, accompanied by two destroyers, sailed between Japan’s westernmost island of Yonaguni and nearby Iriomote, entering close to Japan’s waters. According to Japan’s military, it scrambled jets nearly 669 times between April 2023 and March 2024, about 70% of the time against Chinese military aircraft, though that did not include airspace violations. Japan and Russia are in a teritorial dispute over a group of Russian-held islands, which the former Soviet Union seized from Japan at the end of World War II. The feud has prevented the two countries from signing a peace treaty formally ending their war hostilities.

Tree-covered peaks soaring from sparkling azure seas. Hiking trails that stretch for miles over rugged, beautiful and underexplored terrain. And enough food on offer to feed an army. This is Turkey’s Muğla Province. Situated in the destination’s stunning southwest, it’s a region that, beyond a few hot spot destinations like Bodrum, is sometimes overlooked by international visitors. Nonetheless, Muğla Province is filled with all the charms that make Turkey such a popular place to visit: arresting vistas; ample opportunities for some proper rest and relaxation; and adventure and excitement if you crave it. Plus, it’s served by Bodrum’s international airport, which means its easier than ever to visit. An artist’s view The best place to start is the sunny seaside town of Göcek, located between Fethiye and Dalyan. Culture is front and center in Göcek, thanks in no small part to renowned sculptor Dilara Akay. Her gallery, set in a gorgeous garden, is a showcase for varied works charting the progress of her work throughout her life. “Many people know me for my large garden sculptures, but I also make installations. “You can see my evolution,” Akay says of her art. “I started, first finding out about existence and then being a woman. It turns out that I’m now more into nature, so it is a journey.” That journey continues at sea, with Akay steering ahead to a small vessel, all the better to see the striking coastline, which is what Muğla Province is all about. “We are in the bay of Göcek and Dalaman and Fethiye,” says Akay, excitedly waving her arms. This is the jewel, the mixing point of the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas. According to some, including one insistent local man on the jetty, the eponymous Queen of Egypt is buried at the submerged Cleopatra’s Baths, or Hammam Bay. The jury is still out on that one, but there’s no denying the fact that this is one of the most special corners of the Mediterranean. Being on a boat here allows you to dream. You can enter a fantasy world in which you spend your time serenely sailing the waters looked over by a sun filled sky. Walking along the Lycian coast The Lycian Way takes in some spectacular stretches of Turkey’s coastline. Kenan Olgun/E+/Getty Images Back on dry land, there are other wonders to explore. “No excuses,” exclaims The Lycian Way creator Kate Clow, leading the way along the iconic long distance footpath. Covering 760 kilometers and running from Fethiye to Antalya, the path takes 35 days to complete and follows the coastline of what was once known as Lycia, now a part of southern Turkey. It follows many of the routes the Lycians would have taken over thousands of years, during the times of the Persians, Alexander the Great and the Romans. Mapping and marking the route was a colossal task, taking in Roman roads and old mule trails, and one which Clow did not shirk at. “Turkey at that time, this is 35 years ago, didn’t have any walking routes at all. And I had been walking in the Pyrenees and in various other places in France and Spain,” says Clow, originally from the UK. “And I thought ‘Turkey deserves one too.’” Heading high into the mountains, Clow’s route delivers absolutely remarkable views out to sea and across the high hills, which seem to roll on forever in the distance. It is truly one of the finest long-distance walking routes in the world and a testament to her ability and skill to create something fresh, yet deeply historic. The beauty of it all is that it allows you to see the spectacular views, but from angles that you wouldn’t see from the road. ‘The good life’ Tourists flock to Dalyan’s mud baths to rejuvenate their skin. Murad Sezer/Reuters Turkey’s Yoruk community is often incorrectly referred to as nomadic. More accurately they practice transhumance – a word which describes people and livestock who move between summer and winter locations. To mark the move, the community always throws a special party, featuring music, dance and even horse riding. As with everywhere else in Turkey, the food obsession is real. With delicious soup and bread made over an open fire on offer, it appears feeding others is the driving force behind everything here, whether it’s a meal with Akay in her gallery or sharing locally made Turkish delight with the happy Yoruk. All this food of course means that there’s a need to take it easy in the hours and days afterward. And that’s where Dalyan’s mud baths come in. These famous, yet somewhat smelly, baths are where locals and visitors come to rejuvenate their skin. Sliding into the hot, gloopy water, the rising stench of sulfur hits the nostrils. But the feel of the mud on your body makes you want to linger, cover yourself some more and simply wallow. “The good life,” remarks a local woman sitting and drying in the sun, the sea gently lapping at the wall behind her. It’s impossible not to agree. And it’s made all the better by a quick dip in the water from the adjacent pontoon, washing off the mud so you can emerge reborn and ready for more. They even say it takes 20 years off you. Rivers and ruins Rock tombs of former kings are built into the high cliffs over the ruins of Ancient Kaunos, opposite Dalyan. Sergey Alimov/Moment RF/Getty Images Everything in Muğla has a story. The river here is said to have been created from the tears of Byblis, daughter of King Miletus. According to Greek myth, Byblis cried a river, turning into a spring upon her death, after her twin brother Caunus rejected her advances. That rather epic retelling brings extra meaning to a trip along the water to take in the stunning ruins of Ancient Kaunos, where the rock tombs of former kings are built into the high cliffs opposite Dalyan. Once an important port, yet now some eight kilometers

A year ago, Caroline Ellison was preparing to testify against her former boss and ex-boyfriend in one of the biggest fraud trials in US history. On Tuesday, she’ll learn whether her own gamble — cooperating with prosecutors in the hopes of staying out of prison — will pay off. A quick recap: FTX was a buzzy, celebrity-backed startup that allowed people to buy and sell digital assets. It collapsed in November 2022, when customers pulled their funds en masse amid rumors about FTX’s unusually close ties to its founder’s crypto hedge fund, Alameda Research. Ellison, who ran Alameda, pleaded guilty to seven federal counts of fraud and conspiracy shortly after FTX’s collapse. She was one of several company insiders to turn against Sam Bankman-Fried, who founded both firms, and pinpoint him as the leader of a scheme to defraud investors and steal $8 billion from FTX customer funds. Bankman-Fried, who pleaded not guilty, was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison. He filed his appeal last week. Ellison’s testimony at Bankman-Fried’s trial last fall was crucial. In a memo to Judge Lewis Kaplan last week, prosecutors praised Ellison’s candor and “substantial assistance” in the investigation — a fact that could help her duck jail time despite facing a similar list of charges as Bankman-Fried. A jury last year convicted former crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried on multiple counts of federal fraud and conspiracy. Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images/File From the start, Ellison was the prosecution’s star witness — someone who worked hand in glove with Bankman-Fried and who kept a contemporaneous diary chronicling the ups and downs of their business and their often-rocky romantic relationship. And in a trial that centered on technical, complex topics like digital assets and decentralized finance, Ellison’s testimony offered an emotional and relatable narrative. Over three days on the stand, Ellison, who is 29, repeatedly reinforced that throughout her years at Alameda, the buck stopped with Bankman-Fried. When asked who directed her to carry out various actions, criminal or otherwise, she frequently replied “Sam did.” Of course, some critics, including Bankman-Fried’s defense lawyers, have noted that Ellison might have been a compelling witness, but she was not a whistleblower. “There is no question she deserves leniency,” wrote Dennis Kelleher, president of the nonprofit organization Better Markets. But at the same time, he said, “she could have single-handedly stopped this fraud at any time, long before billions of dollars were lost, hundreds of investors were defrauded, and tens of thousands of customers were ripped off.” When FTX collapsed, customers were locked out from their trading accounts. But in a surprise outcome for a bankruptcy, FTX estate overseers said they had recovered enough assets to pay most of its creditors back in full, with interest, thanks to a surge in the value of its crypto holdings. While sentencing is entirely up to Judge Kaplan’s discretion, legal experts say it’s highly unlikely Ellison will end up in prison. In the Southern District of New York, where the case was tried, “the large majority of white-collar cooperators receive zero jail time,” said Jordan Estes, a former federal prosecutor who is now a partner at Kramer Levin. And that’s particularly true when they have otherwise led a law-abiding life, she added. Josh Naftalis, also a former federal prosecutor, noted that “a key issue that Kaplan will consider in sentencing Ellison is whether the size of the fraud — billions of dollars in losses — nonetheless requires some term of imprisonment.” Though Naftalis, now a white-collar defense attorney at New York law firm Pallas, added that prosecutors’ description of her cooperation as “extraordinary,” suggests prison is unlikely. Other FTX executives’ cases are still in progress. Ryan Salame, a former FTX executive, was sentenced to more than seven years in prison after pleading guilty to a campaign finance violation and running an unlicensed money transmission business. Two other former executives, Nishad Singh and Gary Wang, who took plea deals and testified against Bankman-Fried, are due to be sentenced this fall.