Rock band Jane’s Addiction has issued an apology and announced the cancellation of their next concert after band members Dave Navarro and Perry Farrell were seen in an on-stage altercation at a recent show. “We want to extend a heartfelt apology to our fans for the events that unfolded last night,” the statement posted to the band’s Instagram Story on Saturday read. The band’s show in Bridgeport, Connecticut that was previously scheduled for Sunday night was canceled “as a result” of the altercation, the statement continued. Refunds will be issued at the ticket holder’s point of purchase. Video footage posted on social media showed Farrell, Jane’s Addiction’s lead singer, confronting guitarist Navarro in the middle of a song during Friday’s concert in Boston. The two appear to exchange words while Farrell approaches the guitarist, who is seen trying to hold Farrell back. Farrell then attempts to jab Navarro until other band members and crew members intervene, holding Farrell back to separate him from Navarro. CNN has reached out to representatives for Jane’s Addiction, Navarro and Farrell for comment. Jane’s Addiction is currently on tour and is set to perform in Toronto on Wednesday. The tour is scheduled to conclude in Los Angeles in October.

It’s time to hang a lantern, share a mooncake and peel a pomelo – Mid-Autumn Festival is here. Falling on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, it’s celebrated primarily in East and Southeast Asia and is a time for families to gather to sample autumn harvests, light lanterns and admire what’s believed to be the fullest moon of the year. In 2024, the Mid-Autumn Festival, or the Moon Festival, falls on September 17. Here’s a bit of background and a few tips on how to join this massive full moon party. What is the Mid-Autumn Festival? Lanterns are an important part of all Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations. Bertha Wang/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock Mid-Autumn Festival became an official celebration in China during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE) but there isn’t one single answer to the question of when and how the annual event began. Many believe the fete was first mentioned in the “Book of Rites,” a Confucius classic on bureaucracy and rituals written more than 2,400 years ago. It was described as a day for emperors to celebrate the year’s harvest by giving offerings to the moon and hosting a great feast. Today, the Mid-Autumn Festival is an incredibly important family gathering – it’s when “people and the moon reunite to form a full circle,” as an old saying goes. Chang’e: The moon festival goddess The Mid-Authum Festival falls on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month.  Sipa USA Like many cultural celebrations, the Mid-Autumn Festival is shrouded in myth. One of the most beloved – and tragic – pieces of folklore tells the story of how a woman named Chang’e became the moon goddess. According to the legend, after mythological Chinese archer Hou Yi courageously shot down nine surplus suns – leaving only one, in effect protecting the world from being scorched completely – he was given an elixir from heaven as a reward. Hou Yi’s wife Chang’e drank the elixir while protecting it from a greedy apprentice, but became so light that she floated to the moon. Missing his wife, Hou Yi prepared a feast every year on the day when the moon was at its fullest, hoping to get a glimpse of his wife’s shadow. Just how well known is this story? China’s Chang’e lunar modules, part of the country’s ambitious space program, were named in honor of the moon goddess. Meanwhile, Yutu (Jade Rabbit) – China’s moon rover – was named after the legendary rabbit that was sent to accompany Chang’e to the moon. Mid-Autumn Festival customs and traditions People take a ride on boats at dusk to release paper lanterns for good luck during the Mid-Autumn Festival in Hoi An, Vietnam.  Manan Vatsyayana/AFP/Getty Images When it comes to celebrating the festival, customs vary throughout Asia. The Mid-Autumn Festival is considered “children’s day” in Vietnam and celebrations include paper lantern fairs and lion dance parades. Meanwhile, in southern China, most people will light a lantern and eat autumn fruits such as pomelo and starfruit. Some villages in Hong Kong still preserve the tradition of fire dragon dancing through a narrow alley. In South Korea, the mid-Autumn Festival (or Chuseok) is one of the nation’s most important holidays. Celebrated over three days, South Koreans will sweep ancestors’ tombs, wear traditional attire and eat songpyeon, crescent-shaped steamed rice cakes with sweet fillings. Japanese people, meanwhile, will eat grilled sticky rice balls called tsukimi dango (“moon viewing”) while admiring the astronomical body. Celebrations can also be found in Asian communities all over the world, from New York City to Vancouver. All about mooncakes Mooncakes are the most famous Mid-Autumn Festival treat.  Zhang Peng/LightRocket/Getty Images One of the biggest stars of the Mid-Autumn Festival is the mooncake – it’s as important to festivities as turkey is to Thanksgiving and latkes are to Hanukkah. In most places in China, the calorie-packed pastry is sliced up and shared like a cake between families and friends. The most well-known kind of mooncake is made of lotus seed paste, salted egg yolk and lard – Cantonese style – which explains why a palm-sized cake can contain about 1,000 calories. Nuts, red beans and custards are some other popular ingredients. In recent years, big brands and even public institutions have taken to creating specially designed mooncakes. China’s Shanghai Mental Health Center, for example, shared photos of their mooncakes in 2023 and went viral on social media in China. Bakery brands have also come up with modern variations – ice cream coated in chocolate, for example – that offer an alternative to those who aren’t fond of traditional mooncakes.

The three women sit huddled together, hands and arms intertwined, heads on each other’s shoulders. For too long, each felt utterly alone and it’s as if their physical closeness gives them a boost of strength. Each tells CNN they were sexually abused by their family doctor. An investigation following similar accounts by other women led to his medical license being revoked. Dozens of women have come forward saying they were molested, often repeatedly. Unfathomably to the survivors, a grand jury said it was not given enough evidence to indict so there were no criminal charges. Pleas to the state attorney general to intervene have not led to new charges. But the women have vowed to keep fighting. “Seeing these women’s faces (of other survivors) and hearing a little bit about their stories, it’s more fire to keep going,” says Katie Medley. The family doctor In the Oregon community where Nicole Snow grew up, Dr. David Farley was always there. His house was around the corner in Wilsonville, a city on the banks of the Willamette River, about a 30-minute drive south of Portland. His kids went to her high school, he ran in the same social circles as her parents, and their families had even vacationed together. Every Sunday, she saw him at their Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the center of town where he was a long-standing and respected member of the congregation. “I remember very specifically as a teenager, he would chase me down at church, me and other friends my age, and really pin us in a corner and massage our arms and shoulders and say, ‘Hey, you need to come see me,’” Snow says. “I would often try to leave early just to go hide in the car.” Nicole Snow knew David Farley from when she was a child.  CNN For years, Snow didn’t articulate the anxiety she felt around Farley, a Harvard-educated doctor. So, when she started experiencing stomach pain at the age of 15, it was only natural for her mother to take her to his office. Farley was a one-stop shop for generations of patients at the West Linn Family Health Center in the neighboring community. He did wellness checks and sports physicals for the children in the affluent suburbs, as well as prenatal care and delivering babies. His standing in the LDS Church attracted many fellow Mormons to his practice, but he was a fixture for the wider community too. Snow, who is now 32,  said, “From the very first visit, he was able to manipulate and place my mom in a specific place in the room where she had no idea what he was doing with his hands.” National Sexual Assault Hotline 1-800-656-4673 Available 24/7 and through online chat tool Provided by RAINN, (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) Over the next three years, during more than 40 visits, Snow says he subjected her to repeated sexual abuse, using scare tactics to conduct what she describes as uncomfortably long breast exams and repeated penetrative pelvic and rectal exams. “He told me and my mother that he had a young patient die of cervical cancer, and so he as a doctor wanted to check all his patients starting at a young age and frequently. That’s how he was able to start abusing me.” Snow says her upbringing in the LDS Church made her particularly vulnerable to an older male, as the church put men in an unquestioned position of authority with grounds to delve deeply into even the most personal aspects of one’s life. “At one point he asked my mom to leave the room so he could ask me about my sexual history, and that was something I was very familiar with, going into the room with a bishop alone, being asked sexual purity questions,” Snow says. In 2009, Snow turned 18 and went in for her first appointment without her mother. Despite knowing she was not yet sexually active, Farley suggested a procedure to “make sex more pleasurable” — what she would later learn was called a hymenotomy. “He just said he would want to ‘stretch me out’ a little bit,” she says. When she declined, he tried to convince her by listing the names of her friends he’d performed the procedure on. Then, he became aggressive. “It actually made me quite fearful,” she says. When she finally agreed, he broke her hymen with his bare hands, washing the blood off in the sink while she lay “terrified” in excruciating pain, she told CNN. Afterwards, it hurt to walk for days. At the time, she didn’t process these experiences as abuse. “I had no idea. I thought this was normal,” she says. She dropped out of high school over health problems she attributes in part to the abuse from Farley. It wasn’t until years later, after Snow moved away and saw another OB-GYN, that everything clicked. “She said, ‘We’re going to do a pap smear and this should be your first pap smear,’” Snow recalls. “When I replied, ‘Oh no, I’ve had over 10, maybe close to a dozen,’ the expression on her face let me know that that wasn’t normal and shouldn’t have happened.” When Snow told her family, they warned against going public. “They said it’s going to be me against the community, because he is such a prominent member. They were nervous for me to come forward and do this fight alone.” CNN has reached out repeatedly to Farley, who has not responded to any request for comment. His lawyer declined to comment to CNN. A sudden retirement Then, in the summer of 2020, her brother called with news: Farley was retiring, and Snow was not alone. The Oregon Medical Board (OMB) had suspended his license after receiving reports about his behavior and were investigating. “For so long, I felt like I was being silenced or I was the only one,” says Snow, who is now a stay-at-home mom of a preschooler in Utah. But the news of

Exercise doesn’t just help you lose fat. It could also promote healthier fat, according to a new study. “Living a physically active lifestyle, exercising regularly over time, makes our fat tissue a more accommodating place for extra energy under conditions when we do gain weight,” said senior study author Dr. Jeffrey Horowitz, professor of movement studies in the school of kinesiology at the University of Michigan. To see how exercise impacts fat tissue, researchers compared fat tissue just under the skin from two groups of 16 people with obesity: those who reported exercising at least four times a week for at least 2 years, and those who did not exercise regularly, according to the study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Metabolism. Those who had a history of regular exercise had fat cells that showed characteristics that increase how much fat they can store — the amount of blood vessels, protein composition and fewer inflammatory cells, Horowitz said. It is important that the fat tissue under the skin has a greater capacity so that if a person does gain weight, it can go there instead of more dangerous places, such as the heart or liver, he added. “Unfortunately, most of us, even regular exercisers, gain weight as we get older,” Horowitz said.  “If we have a greater capacity to store that in our fat tissue, less of it’ll go to our liver, less of it will go to our heart, less will go to all these other places that in excess can be really problematic.” This study shows that researchers need to learn more about fat tissue and how it is connected to metabolic health and lifestyle changes, said Dr. Andrew Freeman, director of cardiovascular prevention and wellness at National Jewish Health in Denver. Freeman was not involved in this study. “Just being overweight may not be the whole story,” he said. Exercise is important for many facets of health, and it may even impact how fat is stored, a new study showed.  Image Source/Digital Vision/Getty Images Better fat tissue Many people have an immediate negative reaction to the word “fat.” But that isn’t always helpful, Horowitz said. “Fat tissue itself is very, very important for health,” he said. “It’s actuallyan important reservoir of our extra energy.” The tissue used to be understood as only functioning to store energy, but researchers are just starting to learn it has many functions, Freeman said. “It makes sense to have some degree of fat so you have some reserve, but not to the point that the typical American has,” he said. The goal isn’t more fat tissue, but better capacity to store it, Horowitz said. Fat tissue is supposed to be stored under the skin, and if it can’t go there it’s going to go other places such as your liver, heart or pancreas, he added. More fat in those organs impede how well they function, Horowitz said. Exercise recommendations They key takeaway of the study is that healthier fat storage is just another good reason to live a physically active life, Horowitz said. “We’re not changing therecommendation, but we’re expanding the understanding of why it is helpful to exercise,” he said. If you want to start, Freeman recommends trying out exercise first thing in the morning. “It works as a natural stimulant, just as well as coffee in many cases,” he said. And you don’t need to worry about getting to or paying for a gym. “There are so many ways to exercise, and figuring out a way to make it part of the daily routine so it becomes a habit, is the most critical of all,” Freeman added. Getting 30 minutes daily of breathless activity where you are working really hard is the goal, but you can start even by walking around your block, he said. “Of course, you should check with your doctor first to make sure it’s safe,” Freeman said.

When actor Blake Lively wore a pair of $19,000 designer jeans to a screening of her latest movie, “It Ends with Us,” earlier this summer, the look — covered by several media outlets — attracted plenty of attention. And the price did not go unnoticed. Of course, there were the aghast social media comments, those are to be expected, but the moment also inspired a reasonable question: How much is too much to spend on jeans? Featuring thigh-to-heel cut-outs and hibiscus-shaped embroidery, the denim pants by Italian fashion house Valentino, were styled with a simple white tank, Christian Louboutin heels, hoop earrings and Lively’s signature long tousled hair. These jeans are something of an outlier, having been designed — undoubtedly — with celebrities and the 1% in mind. They are a conversation starter; they are about fantasy, they are not for the school drop-off. On fashion retail websites including Net-a-Porter and Ssense, the most expensive jeans listed are nowhere near as pricey, with top figures mostly in the $2,500 to $3,500 range for brands like Jean Paul Gaultier, Dolce & Gabbana and Ralph Lauren. On Valentino’s own site at the time, the next most expensive pair was priced at $2,700 (reduced from $4,500). Still, granted, a lot of money for most people. Cheaper options are plentiful across the market — from classic $100 Levi’s to newer denim brands, such as MUD Jeans or ELV Denim, emphasizing their sustainable or circular credentials (jeans in this category tend to be priced around $200 to $500.) So, perhaps the real question is: With such a range in prices, and so many options, how should you decide which jeans are right for you? And what are you really getting for your money? A brief buyer’s guide New York-based stylist and newsletter author Becky Malinsky wearing Auralee jeans. Courtesy Becky Malinsky Shopping for a new pair of jeans can be an overwhelming process and — from the style of cut to the wash of the denim — there are many considerations beyond price. For stylist Becky Malinsky, it’s important to know what you are using your jeans for: “are they for work, or for hanging out with your kids, or are they for going out to dinner,” she said during a phone interview. A simple Google search generates an overwhelming number of brands and styles to choose from. Malinsky, who also writes the popular “5 Things You Should Buy” newsletter, looks to a few “standout” denim brands to see what they are doing with shape, silhouette and color. From there, “think about where your body type fits within some of these trends,” she said. “I always look to brands like Citizens of Humanity — I think they do a really good job of fashion and fit. I’m a classic Levi’s wearer and I recommend it to clients all the time. I think the price is right. I also look at what the designers are doing…The Row is really prolific in denim now,” she said. When shopping, don’t just try the jeans on — stand, walk and sit in them. Comfort is essential if you plan to wear your new purchase in heavy rotation. Malinsky also emphasized understanding how to strike a balance between style and comfort. Typically, more stretch equates to higher levels of comfort, but too much stretch will compromise shape. “For someone who still wants a little bit of stretch in their jean I always say look for a straight leg jean or something that’s even a little bit wider. So you can get that comfort factor in your waist…but it’s not going to stretch out like a jegging.” You may also want to consider sizing up and getting the jeans altered to your specific body shape. Whether you are tall and slim, or short and curvy, finding a good tailor can be transformative when it comes to ensuring any item of clothing is the perfect fit for you. If you’re wondering how to judge the quality of a denim item, Malinsky said “hand feel” is very important. “Anything that’s too soft, that makes you feel like you’re practically touching a T-shirt is not going to hold up. You want to look for something that has a little resistance to your hand.” If you’re shopping for men’s jeans, Malinsky advised against the “fake worn” look, instead suggesting a clean, and classic cut in a darker wash. She pointed to Sid Marshall as a great option in the menswear category. Generally speaking, if you’re looking for a pair that will stand the test of time (as we should all be if we want to be more thoughtful, sustainably-minded consumers), avoid exaggerated stylings such as super-skinny or ultra-wide legs, rips and embellishments. A straight- or sightly tapered-leg, mid-to-high-rise jean in a mid- or slightly darker-toned wash will never go out of style. The case for spending (a little) more Featuring thigh-to-heel cut-outs and hibiscus-shaped embroidery, the denim pants by Italian fashion house Valentino, were styled with a simple white tank, Christian Louboutin heels, hoop earrings and Lively’s signature long tousled hair.  Eric Charbonneau/Getty Images While there’s no suggestion you should forgo a down payment on your first apartment for a pair of jeans, there is an argument for spending a little more. “It takes a lot of resources, and many hands, to produce a pair of jeans,” said Sandra Capponi, co-founder of the sustainable fashion site Good on You. “So if we’re buying denim at dirt-cheap prices, then someone or something is paying the price. “And when you take into account the cost per wear, spending money upfront on high-quality items you’ll wear again and again is often the best choice for your wallet, and for the planet,” she added. The Good on You website includes a directory of brands, categorized by price and ethical credentials. The site currently features 21 “Great” denim brands (the highest rank, which goes from “Great” down to “We avoid.”) “It’s incredible, the range for denim,” said Ani Wells, a spokesperson for denim industry

Two telescopes have spotted the closest pair of supermassive black holes to date. The duo, only about 300 light-years apart, were observed in different wavelengths of light using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope. While black holes are invisible against the dark void of space, these two blaze brightly as the gas and dust they feed on is accelerated and heated to high temperatures. Both celestial objects, which circle around one another, are known as active galactic nuclei. Active galactic nuclei are supermassive black holes that release bright jets of material and high winds that can shape the very galaxies where they are found. The black hole duo is the closest pair found through visible and X-ray light. While other black hole pairs have been observed before, they are usually much farther apart. Astronomers discovered these black holes dancing around one another at the center of a pair of colliding galaxies called MCG-03-34-64, which is 800 million light-years away. Astronomers serendipitously found the black holes when Hubble’s observations revealed three spikes of bright light within the glowing gas of a galaxy. They published their discovery Monday in The Astrophysical Journal. “We were not expecting to see something like this,” said lead study author Anna Trindade Falcão, a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in a statement. “This view is not a common occurrence in the nearby universe, and told us there’s something else going on inside the galaxy.” Zooming in on bright cosmic lights The team was intrigued when Hubble picked up on three optical diffraction spikes in a concentrated region of the MCG-03-34-64 galaxy. Diffraction spikes appear when light from a small cosmic region bends around the mirror inside telescopes. Hubble’s observations were made in optical light, which is visible to the human eye, but the astronomers weren’t sure what they were seeing. Falcão’s team took another look at the galactic region with Chandra in X-ray light. When the scientists observed the galaxy using Chandra, they were able to pinpoint two powerful sources of X-ray light that matched the optical light sources spotted by Hubble, Falcão said. “We put these pieces together and concluded that we were likely looking at two closely spaced supermassive black holes.” The team also consulted archival observation radio wave data collected by the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array of radio telescopes near Socorro, New Mexico. The black hole duo was also found to release energetic radio waves. “When you see bright light in optical, X-rays, and radio wavelengths, a lot of things can be ruled out, leaving the conclusion these can only be explained as close black holes. When you put all the pieces together it gives you the picture of the (active galactic nuclei) duo,” Falcão said. A Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy MCG-03-34-064 revealed three distinct bright spots embedded in a white ellipse at the galaxy’s center (expanded in an inset image). NASA/ESA/Anna Trindade Falcão (STScI) Meanwhile, the third diffraction spike observed by Hubble has an unknown origin, and the team requires more data to understand what it could be. The source of light might be from gas that was shocked by an energetic release of material from one of the black holes. “We wouldn’t be able to see all of these intricacies without Hubble’s amazing resolution,” Falcão said. Astronomers have observed pairs of black holes that are closer together than these two through radio telescopes, but those duos haven’t been observed in other wavelengths of light. Both supermassive black holes once served as the centers of their respective galaxies, but a galactic merger brought the two objects much closer together. Eventually, their close spiral will result in a merger in about 100 million years, according to NASA, causing an energetic release of gravitational waves, or ripples in the fabric of space and time. Such gravitational waves created by the collisions of supermassive black holes could be detected in the future by LISA, the European Space Agency-led Laser Interferometer Space Antenna mission that’s expected to launch in the mid-2030s.

No sooner have airports introduced new scanning machines so you don’t need to unpack your carry-on bags, than a trend emerges where you photograph all your loose items in your airport security tray. The “airport tray aesthetic” has taken off on TikTok, Instagram and Pinterest as people share artfully arranged shots of their sunglasses, shoes, toiletries and reading material inside the regulation polypropylene dishes. Don’t expect crumpled plastic bags stuffed with toothpaste and Pepto-Bismol. This is aspirational travel, where your 35mm film camera nestles between your vintage loafers and your first-edition copy of “On the Road.” It’s the latest in a line of trends where people curate their possessions for a public showcase, from bookshelves to bedside tables to even the insides of our refrigerators. (Yes, “fridgescaping,” which involves storing flowers and picture frames alongside your butter and eggs, is now a thing). However, the trend is ruffling more than a few feathers, due to the airport security line being one of the top places in the world where it’s imperative to avoid dilly-dallying. Think-pieces have naturally been spilling forth. The New York Post slammed the “time-consuming trend” as an influencer-led blight upon the nation’s TSA lines. The UK’s Metro newspaper said that “‘the anxiety-inducing trend’ risks you becoming the most hated person in the airport.” Comments on Shop Pursue’s TikTok video showing young women preparing for a “girls’ trip” by organizing their Adidas Gazelles and Louis Vuitton bags on a bench range from “ik the people behind yall were annoyed waiting” to “you would get tased in JFK for this.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Stackers Official (@mystackers) However, like many things happening online, all is not quite what it seems. In a TikTok video with 82,000 likes so far, New York-based influencer Chelsea as of Late gives a step-by-step tutorial on following the trend and not being a nuisance. The key, she says, is to do it after going through security: Find a quiet spot and “if you have time set up a few different trays, cause why not?” That, however, is still an area intended for travelers who need it for necessary repacking of items or for a more urgent rest stop. Let’s also not forget that with all those shoes passing through security trays, you may as well be laying your items straight out on the floor. In 2018, a European study found that airport trays are the least hygienic part of the airport, carrying more germs than toilets. So while hand sanitizer doesn’t typically feature in these airport tray photos and videos, it should probably play a key part in the aftercare. The trend has unsurprisingly been a huge hit with marketing teams around the world, with brands including clothing and homeware retailers Anthropologie and book publishers Faber all posting their stylized boxes. Storage solutions brand Stackers told CNN, “This trend specifically aligned perfectly for us, curating an aesthetic selection whilst focusing on our travel-friendly products.” A lot of the most delightfully organized boxes don’t involve a trip to the airport at all. In one of the most popular TikTok videos on the “airportaesthetic” hashtag, with 1.8 million views, Chicago-based content creator Piper Taich gives a tutorial explaining that her airport security tub was purchased on Amazon and her boarding pass was edited on Photoshop. She then curates her travel-themed selections to her heart’s content. “If you’re asking what the point of this is, the point is that it’s fun and that it’s art,” she says. “It’s a really fun way to express my love of fashion and thrifting and artistic direction. “As long as the staged glamor photos are not causing delays or issues with other passengers in the checkpoint, there are no issues,” says the TSA.  iiStockphoto/Getty Images The rise of social media and increasingly advanced and accessible filming and editing software means that individuals are able to put together home-created masterpieces like never before, from dance videos to comedy sketches to makeup tutorials. Against these pros, there are the cons. With rose-tinted snapshots of other people’s lives flooding our feeds 24/7, the social comparison is having a big impact on mental health, especially for younger people. As for the airport tray aesthetic, while people might be getting het up at the idea of Gen Z holding up the line for some navel-gazing, the US Transport Security Administration is sanguine about the risk. “The TSA has become aware of this trend recently,” a spokesperson told CNN. “As long as the staged glamor photos are not causing delays or issues with other passengers in the checkpoint, there are no issues. Travelers should take care to secure their IDs, passports and any light items on top that could be swept out of the bins when they go into the machines.” For a screen break during their flight, some virally minded travelers might consider “rawdogging” – what we used to call staring out the window. And when you reach your destination, you can always put your phone down and go for a swim or a hike – life has to be lived before we can document it.

  No more soup for the Campbell’s company. The 155-year-old Campbell Soup Company plans to drop “soup” from its corporate name, rebranding as The Campbell’s Company. More consumers are reaching for snacks and ditching ready-to-serve soups, and the company has bought up other food lines to grab them. In addition to its lineup of soups, Campbell now owns snack brands like Goldfish, Snyder’s of Hanover, Cape Cod, Pepperidge Farm and others. Campbell also recently bought Sovos Brands, maker of popular Italian food brands like Rao’s sauces. “This subtle yet important change retains the company’s iconic name recognition, reputation and equity built over 155 years while better reflecting the full breadth of the company’s portfolio,” Campbell CEO Mark Clouse said Tuesday in a statement. The name change is subject to shareholder approval at the company’s annual meeting in November. Although soup is an important part of Campbell’s business, it’s now a smaller portion of its sales. Last year, Campbell’s snack sales grew 13%, while its soups grew 3%. Legacy food companies like Campbell are pivoting to gain a larger share of the snack market, valued at more than $200 billion by market research firm Circana. Nearly half of Americans say they eat at least three snacks a day, according to Circana. In August, Mars, the maker of M&M’s, agreed to buy Kellanova, which owns Cheez-Its and Pringles, in a deal worth almost $29 billion. “Snacking is a large, attractive, and durable category that continues to grow in importance with consumers,” Kellanova said at the time.

When Tadej Pogačar surged ahead of great rival Jonas Vingegaard at the top of the Col de la Couillole, clapping his chest and stretching out his arms as he crossed the finish line, it all but confirmed his return to the pinnacle of cycling in thrilling fashion. Pogačar hadn’t needed to win the penultimate stage of this year’s Tour de France to secure a third yellow jersey, but the fact that he did – and the manner in which he did it – underlined his complete dominance over the past three weeks. And it wasn’t just at this year’s Tour that Pogačar was at his brutal best. Weeks prior, he was victorious in the Giro d’Italia for the first time in his career, becoming the first man to win both races in the same year since Marco Pantani in 1998. The rare double has been achieved by only eight riders in history, and Pogačar, a baby-faced 25-year-old from a small town in Slovenia, is the latest addition to that select club. Such success he never foresaw. “When I was younger, I was never thinking that I can win a stage in the Tour de France,” Pogačar tells CNN Sport. “After I won the first Tour de France – because that’s an ultimate goal in cycling – everything is more or less a bonus. “I’m just racing to have fun, not to feel that it’s obligatory or anything, and go with a free mind to races.” UAE Team Emirates riders celebrate Pogačar’s Tour de France victory. UAE Team Emirates riders celebrate Pogačar’s Tour de France victory. Marco Bertorello/AFP/Getty Images Pogačar became the youngest cyclist in the post-World War II era to win the Tour when he stunned Primož Roglič four years ago, surpassing his compatriot in the penultimate stage of the race. Another triumph, at times seeming more like a procession than a contest, came the following year, before Pogačar was twice beaten by Denmark’s Vingegaard, seemingly the only rider capable of challenging the Slovenian over a three-week-long race. The pair have gone on to forge a fierce rivalry, and the 2024 edition of cycling’s most prestigious race was Pogačar’s chance to enact his revenge. He was ruthless in doing so, winning six stages in total, five of them in the mountains. Vingegaard, who was hospitalized after a serious crash back in April, battled valiantly but in vain. The youngest rider to win the yellow jersey three times, Pogačar is fast closing in on the all-time record of five, jointly held by Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain. Lance Armstrong – who won seven consecutive Tours de France from 1999 to 2005 – received a lifetime ban from professional sport and was stripped of his titles in 2012 for doping offenses. “I don’t like to talk about what can be in the future, what records can be broken,” says Pogačar. “But three now, three Tours de France and maybe 10 more years of my career if I’m well. So the odds are pretty good still to have five Tours de France, but that’s not the goal I want.” Instead, Pogačar is plotting out his career one race at a time, carefully outlining which events he will target each year with his UAE Team Emirates outfit. Unusually for a cyclist, his talent is such that he can win races of almost any length and on different terrains. That includes one-day classics, which require an explosivity normally sacrificed by Tour de France contenders in favor of endurance. Pogačar wears the yellow jersey during this year’s Tour, trailing Vingegaard in the polka dot jersey. Pogačar wears the yellow jersey during this year’s Tour, trailing Vingegaard in the polka dot jersey. Jerome Delay/AP He says that he wants to win all five of cycling’s monuments – with only the Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix outstanding – and also to win all three Grand Tours by adding the Vuelta a España to his palmarès. Only one person, the legendary Belgian cyclist Eddy Merckx, has ever achieved this sweep and that was long before the modern era of cycling. For Pogačar, these lofty goals seem achievable rather than laughable. Winning the red jersey of the Vuelta would see him become the eighth male cyclist to win all three of the Grand Tours, another rare accolade well within his reach. As for this year, Pogačar admits that everything “fell into perfect place.” After winning the Tour, he decided to skip the Olympics due to fatigue, though later said that the Slovenian Olympic Committee’s surprising decision not to select his partner, Urška Žigart, also influenced the move. He was back on the bike for the Plume Strong Cycling Challenge in Switzerland at the start of September, a charity ride which aims to raise around $1.1 million (1 million euros) for humanitarian causes, including the development of 15 rural secondary schools in Sierra Leone. Pogačar took part in the first leg of the ride from the Swiss city of Zürich to Venice in Italy. “It fits into my nature, cycling and raising money,” he says. “So for me, these kinds of events are really nice … just taking a small part in the challenge.” The event was also a convenient way for Pogačar to prepare for the next big race in his calendar: the world road race championships, which begin in Zürich later this month. Finishing third last year, no Slovenian has ever won the road race at the world championships, which takes the form of a mass-start event across a single day and allows the winner to wear the famous rainbow jersey throughout the following season. A victory in Zürich would be further testament to the stunning breadth of Pogačar’s talent. It’s with good reason that he is so adored back home in Slovenia, where thousands of fans celebrated his return from the Tour de France by gathering in the streets of Ljubljana, the capital, and Komenda, his hometown of around 6,540 people. “Both were kind

European travelers visiting the UK without a visa will soon be required to pay a £10 (around $13) waiver fee. The new rules, which will come into effect over the next year, will see the UK’s electronic travel authorization (ETA) system, first introduced for Qatar nationals, expanded to include travelers from all other countries, including European Union citizens. The non-refundable fee will apply to all visitors to the UK, including babies and children, without a visa, or permission to live, work or study, according to plans announced by UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper. At present, citizens of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are required to apply for an ETA before entering the UK. This will be extended to include most other nationals, including those from the US but excluding Europeans, in November. By next spring, the program will be expanded again to incorporate European nationals. “Once fully rolled out, the ETA scheme will close the current gap in advance permissions and mean that for the first time, we will have a comprehensive understanding of those traveling to the UK,” Cooper said in a statement. Jordanian nationals can no longer apply for an ETA to enter the UK, according to the UK government website. Visa waiver schemes are certainly not a new thing. The United States’ electronic travel authorization ESTA, which now costs $21 and lasts two years, was first introduced back in 2009. Meanwhile, the roll out of the European Union’s ETIAS, valid for three years, which will cost travelers 7 euros (about $7.50,) has been postponed to 2025. The UK formally left the European Union in January 2020.

Two Delta Air Lines planes collided as both were taxiing for takeoff from Atlanta’s busy Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on Tuesday morning. The wingtip of a Delta Airbus A350 “came into contact” with a Delta CRJ 900 regional jet operated by Endeavor Airlines, Delta Air Lines spokesperson Anthony Black said. Nobody was injured in the collision and the passengers of the regional flight were taken back to the terminal by bus, Black said. The second aircraft taxied under its own power to an airport concourse, where passengers were able to deplane at their gate, a Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport spokesperson told CNN. Photos obtained by CNN and posted to social media show the vertical tail of the regional flight separated from the rest of the airplane flanked by airport rescue vehicles. “That whole tail of that CRJ [Delta CRJ 900] is off,” an air traffic controller could be heard saying. Passengers will be placed on alternate flights, Delta said in a statement. There were 221 passengers on the Airbus and 56 customers on the regional jet, the airline said. Publicly available information from the Federal Aviation Administration shows the impacted runway is closed and several taxiways nearby are also closed. “While Delta Air Lines Flight 295 was taxiing for departure at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, its wingtip struck the tail of Endeavor Air Flight 5526. The Delta Airbus A350 was headed to Tokyo. The Endeavor Bombardier CRJ900 was headed to Lafayette, Louisiana,” the FAA said in a statement. The FAA said it is investigating what happened and Delta said it is cooperating with the National Transportation Safety Board “and other authorities” over the incident. Delta TechOps teams worked to safely move both aircraft to maintenance hangars at the airport, the airline said. Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International was the No. 1 airport for passenger volume in 2023 and is expected to serve about 110 million passengers in 2024, according to Airports Council International’s preliminary rankings for 2023, released in April.

Singing about the perils of fame, being dragged out from beneath a fallen chandelier then bleeding to death in front of a roomful of celebrities: Lady Gaga was not shy about making her debut at the MTV Video Music Awards. The year was 2009 — many will remember it as the year rapper Ye (formerly Kanye West) stage-crashed 19-year-old Taylor Swift and suggested her award for Best Female Video should have gone to Beyoncé instead. But never one to be overshadowed, Lady Gaga, then 23, made some pop culture history of her own that night. Her rendition of “Paparazzi” — lamenting both unrequited love and the sinister effects of hounding tabloids — has gone down in the mists of Gaga legend; not least because a lack of high-quality footage means fans must resort to watching grainy screen-recorded versions circulated on social media. While singing “Paparazzi,” blood poured out from under the artists’ leotard. Christopher Polk/Getty Images Over the limited number of pixels, Gaga can be seen at the start of the performance in an all-white ensemble: a bejeweled, asymmetric lace bodysuit and matching cape, thigh-high boots, a feathered Keko Hainswheeler headpiece and strings of glinting pearls. As she staggered back from her piano at the song’s crescendo, however, an audible gasp swept the room as thick blood suddenly appeared to be pouring from her abdomen. “I’m your biggest fan, I’ll follow you until you love me,” Gaga wailed desperately, her once-pristine outfit now daubed in scarlet. She ended the number suspended above the stage, ‘dead,’ as more blood dripped from her eyes. “(It) gives me chills every time I watch it,” Olivia Rodrigo told MTV in 2021. “I think Lady Gaga is the best performer of our generation.” The “Drivers License” singer appeared to take notes. At this year’s Grammy Awards, she began to ‘bleed’ from clenched fists while performing her hit “vampire,” spreading fake blood across her arms and neck as the song progressed. Many artists since have been inspired by Gaga’s showmanship, such as Olivia Rodrigo who used fake blood in her performance at the 2024 Grammys. Kevin Mazur/Getty Images Rodrigo wasn’t the only young artist inspired by Gaga’s gore: TikTok sensation-turned pop star Addison Rae recreated the blood-soaked look for Halloween in 2022, while fellow singers Madison Beer and Reneé Rapp have cited “Paparazzi” as one of the VMAs’ most iconic moments. “That was the most impactful performance of my youth,” Beer told MTV in 2021. “It shifted culture forever,” Rapp agreed in a separate interview two years later. “Nothing was ever the same.” But not everyone was sold. In a piece published immediately after the VMAs, The Daily Mail accused Gaga of having “garnered column inches mainly for her fashion choices rather than her raunchy pop music,” describing Gaga herself as “outrageous,” “eccentric” and her outfits as “bizarre.” “She accepted her award for Best New Artist in a face-obscuring red get-up that would have made even Isabella Blow arch her eyebrows,” wrote a similarly skeptical Jon Caramanica, critic at the New York Times. Page Six was also not happy with Gaga “cramming crazy down our faces,” her “Catholicism art work” or her “lazy” singing which, combined, had the reviewer “reaching for the (fast forward) button.” A comment on fame But Gaga’s blood-soaked bodysuit was more than a gimmick — it was a statement of autonomy, and a critique of the very institution she was performing for. “When they wanted me to be sexy, or they wanted me to be pop, I always… put some absurd spin on it that made me feel like I was still in control,” she told studio musician Nick Movshon in “Gaga: Five Foot Two,” a 2017 documentary about the artist she also co-produced. “If I’m gonna be sexy on the VMAs and sing about the paparazzi, I’m gonna do it while I’m bleeding to death and reminding you of what fame did to Marilyn Monroe… and what it did to Anna Nicole Smith, and what it did to — yeah, you know who.” (The film’s director, Chris Moukarbel, later confirmed the ‘who’ was Amy Winehouse.) Gaga’s gory performance was a comment on the dangers of fame. Kevin Mazur/WireImage/Getty Images “Paparazzi” was Gaga’s rebuttal of the press and fans’ insidious demand to own — and inevitably dispose of — female stars. Chappell Roan — who has long been compared to Gaga for her own theatrical music and fashion — shot to meteoric stardom this summer after her songs “HOT TO GO!” and “Good Luck, Babe!” went viral. Since then, however, she too has called out the invasive nature of celebrity after fans began asking for photos with her in the street and finding out where her family members worked. “People have started to be freaks,” she said on TikTok star Drew Afaulo’s podcast “The Comment Section.” “I’ve pumped the brakes on, honestly, anything to make me more known.” She also took to her Instagram and TikTok accounts to reiterate her point, stating: “I’m allowed to say ‘no’ to creepy behavior.” Whether Roan — who is making her VMA debut this year after being nominated for Best New Artist and PUSH Performance of the Year — will choose to make her own sartorial statement remains to be seen. As well as taking home the Best New Artist trophy in 2009, Gaga went on to win another two, for Best Special Effects and Best Art Direction. In the 15 years since, she’s provoked countless more gasp-worthy moments, including the famous meat dress she wore the very next year. But that night at the VMAs, Gaga marked herself as a pop force to be reckoned with, and ironically gave the press all they had ever wanted: a moment to talk about for years to come.

During its glossy product announcement event on Tuesday, Apple unveiled a new role for its latest AirPods Pro model: medical device. The company said the wireless headphones will double as clinical-grade over-the-counter hearing aids for those who need them. “We’re adding this groundbreaking capability to help more than 1 billion people living with mild to moderate hearing loss,” said Sumbul Ahmad Desai, Apple’s vice president of health. Apple said its hearing aid feature will boost frequencies “so sounds are clearer and more vibrant to your ears.” The company also said the feature will use “machine learning to make real-time adjustments as you go about your day.” Prescription hearing aids can cost thousands of dollars. At $249, Apple’s AirPods Pro 2 may be significantly cheaper and more accessible for those who have suffered hearing loss — but they won’t work for everyone. Here’s what you need to know: Apple’s announcement follows FDA changes Close to 30 million US adults have some degree of hearing loss, but only about one-fifth of those people seek assistance for the issue, according to the US Food and Drug Administration. For people with untreated hearing loss, using hearing aids can reduce the rate of cognitive decline and may lower the risk of depression, according to the FDA. However, experts have said that the high cost of doctor visits and hearing aids kept some from seeking treatment. Apple’s announcement comes two years after the FDA greenlit the sale of over-the-counter hearing aids. Since then, adults with mild to moderate hearing loss have been able to buy hearing aids directly from stores or manufacturers online without the help of a doctor. To access the new hearing aid feature, AirPods Pro 2 users will have to take a test that will analyze their hearing loss by playing a series of tones. The hearing test feature screen is seen on an iPhone. Courtesy Apple “After you take a hearing test, your AirPods Pro are transformed into a personalized hearing aid, boosting specific sounds you need in real-time, like parts of speech or elements within your environment,” said Desai. But over-the-counter hearing aids like these aren’t always the solution for hearing loss. The FDA still requires people under 18 years old to purchase hearing aids by prescription. Over-the-counter hearing aids, such as Apple’s offering, also are not a treatment for “severe or profound” hearing loss, according to the FDA. Those with significant hearing loss should still consult a health care professional. Apple said it expects to receive FDA clearance “very soon,” meaning the AirPods Pro 2 would become a regulated medical device. This fall, the hearing assistance features will become available through a software update in over 100 countries, including the United States, Germany and Japan, the company said. This isn’t the first time Apple has dabbled in the health care space. Apple’s Watch can detect irregular heart rhythms associated with atrial fibrillation or AFib, which can lead to blood clots, stroke and heart failure, according to the American Heart Association. On Tuesday, Apple announced that its latest Apple Watch 10 can also alert users to sleep apnea, a condition in which breathing stops and starts repeatedly during sleep. High hopes for Apple’s new hearing aid feature Barbara Kelley, the executive director of Hearing Loss Association of America, said she had hoped for an announcement like Apple’s after the FDA opened up the market to over-the-counter offerings two years ago. “This is what we wanted in the market, to see technology innovation to really get people to pay attention to their hearing health,” Kelley said. Kelley said she hoped Apple’s new product would encourage more people to address hearing loss. “There’s still a stigma attached to hearing loss coming with aging,” Kelley said. “But my goodness, I see elementary school kids with these AirPods in their ears. If it can also serve as a hearing aid, I think that’s really exciting.” Apple’s announcement was applauded by some hearing aid users on social media, as well. But many noted one clear advantage traditional hearing aids have over AirPods: Hearing aids have battery life measured in days, not hours. “As someone who is hearing impaired, this was the most exciting thing from today’s event,” one Reddit user posted Tuesday. “I am hoping that they can make battery life better than 3-6 hours. It’d be nice to get 8 hours.”

Within weeks of Royal Caribbean’s nine-month-long world cruise setting sail in December 2023, the voyage unexpectedly became the center of a social media storm. The prospect of nine months on a two-decades-old ship, sailing to more than 60 destinations with hundreds of strangers, captured the public’s imagination as passengers began posting on TikTok. It sounded more like the premise for a reality show than the trip of a lifetime. For a moment it felt like everyone – even if they were previously oblivious to world cruises – was talking about the nine-month cruise and its “real life reality show” potential. Social media followers waited to see how this social-experiment-at-sea unfurled. Would there be romance, conflict, drama, twists and turns? “Anything can happen,” is how one social media user ND, who was following along from land, put it to CNN Travel back in January.  Nine months later, the voyage – dubbed the Ultimate World Cruise by Royal Caribbean – is finally wrapping up, reaching its last port, Miami, on September 10. To mark the voyage’s end, CNN Travel caught up with those on board to find out what it was like to spend nine months living at sea with the world watching along at home. Passengers’ perspective Some of the passengers on board the nine month cruise became TikTok celebrities. Pictured here on the far left is Angie Linderman. Next to Linderman is passenger Ale Kenney. Second from right is the passenger known as Little Rat Brain and furthest to the right is Shannon Marie Lake. Angie Linderman The passengers chronicling the nine-month cruise on TikTok ranged from a fiftysomething widowed solo traveler named Anthony McWilliams – who aimed to inspire followers to live life to its fullest, to a 26-year-old South African influencer called Amike Oosthuizen – who could always be relied on for a glamorous take on life at sea. Also in the mix was lovable boomer couple Joe and Audrey Martucci, new to social media and posting under the handle @spendingourkidsmoney (this is a joke, Joe Martucci stresses to CNN Travel, there’s still plenty of money left for the kids). Fortysomething sisters Brandee Lake and Shannon Marie Lake demonstrated how to live with an adult sibling and not go stir crazy, while a Gen Z traveler known as Little Rat Brain posted chaotic, wry dispatches from sea. @little_rat_brainI’m just surprised everything fit into their spaces so well tbh#ultimateworldcruise#uwc#worldcruise#worldcruise2023#royalcaribbeanworldcruise#royalcaribbeaninternationalcruise#seranadeoftheseas#royalcaribbean#royalcaribbeancruise#cruisetok#cruisecabin#cabindecor#cruisedecor#cruiseshipcabin#roomtour#roomtouraesthetic♬ original sound – Little Rat Brain Former NASA employee Bobbi Waterman and her partner Tam, posting @tam.and.bobbi, gained fans for candidly talking about traveling as an LGBTQ+ couple and Bobbi’s experiences as a trans woman. American traveler Angie Linderman garnered attention after she spoke movingly about her path to the Ultimate World Cruise, which included the untimely death of her parents and the discovery that Linderman lives with the BRCA gene, making her more susceptible to breast cancer and ovarian cancer. For those looking for a behind the scenes glimpse at life on board, Royal Caribbean crewmember Julian Mendoza AKA @cooljul1 produced “day in the life” videos on board, while performer Daniele Salvatore Arbisi once managed to get the ship’s captain to came on his account @singing.sailor. @spendingourkidsmoney#royalcaribbean#cruising#explore#WorldCruise#UltimateWorldCruise#UWC#Serenadeoftheseas#cruise#travel♬ original sound – Cruisemum&dad Each person offered a different perspective on the cruise. These multiple points of view perhaps partly explains the voyage’s virality – there was someone for everyone to relate to, and there was potential for clashing personalities. “You’re putting all of these people on a ship for nine months and when they’re on the ocean, when they’re sailing, there’s no escape,” says British social media user Beth Anne Fletcher, who chronicled the cruise – largely from land – on her own TikTok account, @livingmy_bethlife.  ‘What drama is going to happen?’ Fletcher wasn’t surprised by the viral appeal of the cruise. “If you’re interested in travel and you’re also interested in psychology and people, what more could you want?” Fletcher tells CNN Travel. “They’re all there together, but they’re going to see the world as well. It’s almost like (reality TV show) “Below Deck,” but a nine-month episode.” Still, for many of the passengers, the early social media furore was surreal and unexpected. Joe Martucci didn’t know how to spell TikTok before he posted his first video, spurred on by his kids. Even travelers like Oosthuizen, who had a pre-established TikTok presence, were shocked. “I honestly did not think it would explode as much,” Oosthuizen told CNN Travel back in January. @nchimadI’m staying on cruisetok for the next nine months😂 I want to see everything!!#royalcaribbeancruise#9monthcruise#whewchile#oceano#fyp#foryourpage♬ original sound – ✨ND✨ Over the first month at sea, the viral fame reverberated through the ship. “Soon, we had billions of people watching us and saying, ‘What drama is going to happen?’” recalls the passenger known as Little Rat Brain – or LRB for short – a 24-year-old American who has asked for her real name not to be included in this article for privacy reasons. LRB, speaking to CNN Travel on the eve of the cruise’s end, says she understands it seemed like the “perfect setup for a reality TV show.” “It’s a lot of people in a small area where pretty much everything is free,” she says. (Technically nothing was free – the nine month cruise cost anywhere from $59,999 to $117,599 per person – but unlimited onboard food and drinks was included in that sum) “Any food you want… All the alcohol you could possibly want… You really have no responsibilities…” LRB continues. We had billions of people watching us and saying, ‘What drama is going to happen?’ Little Rat Brain, passenger on board the nine-month cruise In the end, those at home waiting for shocking dispatches from the Ultimate World Cruise were largely left wanting. Headlines announced at least one on-board death, but elderly passengers passing away from natural causes is somewhat expected on a months-long voyage. The ship also rerouted from time to time due to world events, protests and extreme weather events – but it’s not unusual for itineraries planned years in advance to shift. While those on board were occasionally irritated by one another, the people who predicted, as LRB recalls,

When a star bursts into light, it is more often than not part of a multiple star system, gravitationally bound to its other counterparts, orbiting around the center of gravity between them, each one’s cosmic position utterly dependent on the other. For more than 20 years, men’s tennis has conformed to this pattern, too – its three biggest stars bound together; their legacies, achievements and careers entwined with their rivalries. During this time, the sport itself has sometimes seemed like a planet simply orbiting around the careers of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, as they hoovered up 66 of the 81 grand slam singles titles available between 2003 and 2023. But this year, men’s tennis has had a different complexion since none of Federer, Nadal or Djokovic has won a grand slam title for the first time since 2002. Though Djokovic is still able to challenge for the biggest titles – as evidenced by his Olympic gold medal in August – it is now possible to see the shape of men’s tennis without the Big Three, and the complete impact they have left on the sport. Whatever comes next is unlikely to mirror the previous era, leaving men’s tennis in an unfamiliar position, shorn of its three biggest icons who transcended the court. But they are leaving the sport in a healthy position, full of promising young players primed to occupy the space between sport and pop culture that remains. ‘The shift of power’ The era of the so-called Big Three has been waning for a while. Federer retired in 2022; Nadal’s brilliance has been sapped by recent injuries and he has said his own retirement date is close; Andy Murray, who consistently challenged the Big Three’s dominance and won three grand slam titles himself, retired last month as well. Roger Federer (left), Novak Djokovic (center) and Rafael Nadal (right) dominated men’s tennis. Getty Images But with Djokovic proving almost completely dominant in 2023 – winning three grand slams and only losing the final of the fourth in a five-set epic match – it seemed that the march of time would halt for at least one of them. Djokovic, however, last won an ATP title in November 2023, perhaps signaling the beginning of a new era in which the likes of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner will be headlining the sport. They split the grand slams between them this year – Sinner, 22, won his first two major titles at the Australian Open and US Open while Alcaraz, 21, added the French Open and Wimbledon to make his tally four. In two of those grand slam finals, Alcaraz defeated Djokovic while Sinner defeated the Serb on his way to the Australian Open crown in January. “The healthiest shift of power in sport is when the young guys are taking out the best of all time,” seven-time grand slam champion and Eurosport expert Mats Wilander tells CNN Sport, noting that Djokovic isn’t quite in his best form. “That’s where this shift differs from other generations, where you would have had a great generation and then there was a lull for a few years … Pete Sampras stopped at the top of his game. That’s not the case with the Big Three, they pushed it all the way to the end.” Such a shift has allowed for several “passing of the torch” moments, as the younger generation seeks to stamp its authority on the game. Already, new rivalries are emerging, most notably between Sinner and Alcaraz, whose five-and-a-quarter-hour-long clash in the 2022 US Open quarterfinal was “probably the best match of the decade so far on the men’s side,” according to tennis journalist Ben Rothenberg, even as they play without the contrasting styles that defined the Federer-Nadal rivalry. Carlos Alcaraz has already won four grand slam titles at the age of 21.  Matthew Stockman/Getty Images It is likely, too, that titles will be shared around more equally, providing more opportunities for the American contingent of Taylor Fritz, Frances Tiafoe and Ben Shelton to perhaps pick up a grand slam, as well as further opportunities for the likes of Holger Rune and 2021 US Open champion Daniil Medvedev. A great career, in this era, will look different to those of the Big Three since it is unlikely that the younger generation will win the 20, 22 or 24 grand slam titles won by Federer, Nadal and Djokovic, respectively. “There has to be a real recalibration … because I already see people talking, like, ‘Can Alcaraz catch Djokovic’s grand slam record?’” Rothenberg tells CNN Sport. “It’s a totally unfair measuring stick to use to quantify the current greats. Being in a generation where these three men plus Serena (Williams) all broke 20 really warped the perspective on what makes for a great career.” ‘Pushing the limits’ Even without the physical presence of the Big Three, their influence will still linger in this new era. So many of the players now challenging Djokovic grew up watching him compete against Nadal and Federer and, inevitably, they have influenced the way that the younger generations play. Almost no one plays like Federer, Wilander says, because “it’s so difficult to be that clean technically and that effortless … (though) they might play a slice backhand here and there, come to the net a little bit.” The newer generation plays much more like Djokovic, he adds, “because that’s a way more basic way of hitting the ball, and of course, the Rafa Nadal effect on the game is racket head speed, where if you are really strong and you’re very loose, you can generate an enormous amount of topspin.” And the Big Three’s dominance for such a long time has created a so-called “lost generation” of players unfortunate enough to be born in the 10 years after them, skewing the ages of those most successful on tour to be either at the end or beginning of their careers. Medvedev and Dominic Thiem, who is retiring at the end of this year, are still the only men born in the

British actress Gemma Arterton has revealed that a director once tried to put pressure on her to film a sex scene, despite the fact that it wasn’t included in the script. In an interview with British publication the Radio Times, released Tuesday, Arterton said that, whilst on set, the director – who hasn’t been named – instructed her and her co-star to film a sex scene on a bed. “I said, ‘No, this scene was written for us to be off screen, so you just hear the noises,’” Arterton told the Radio Times. “I’d never have accepted the role if it was going to be filmed.” The actress said that she was pressured by the director to film the scene, but that she “flat out” refused to take part in it. Had she been younger at the time, Arterton suggested that she might have been more concerned about being fired for refusing to film it. “I only felt like I could say that because I was older,” she said. “When I started acting, there was a lot of nudity – you were just expected to do it. When I was younger I played sexy characters, the girlfriend. As I’ve got older, that’s changed because I’m more successful and can choose the parts I want to play,” she said. She praised the use of intimacy coordinators in film and television since the #MeToo movement, telling the magazine that “it’s a totally different landscape” now. “Anything you’re not comfortable with is not going to happen. I’ve heard other actors that are like, ‘I loved it when there was no intimacy coordinator,’ but I definitely think it’s better,” she said. Arterton rose to fame following her role in the 2007 British comedy “St Trinian’s,” before acting in the 2008 James Bond film “Quantum of Solace” as MI6 agent Strawberry Fields. The actress is currently starring in the British drama series “Funny Woman,” which follows a beauty queen from the seaside town of Blackpool in her attempts to become a comedian in 1960s England.

Plain water is the only thing visitors are allowed to consume inside the huge cavern at Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico. Cheetos are a no-go, and the recent park visitor who dropped a bag full of them created a “huge impact” on the cave’s ecosystem, the park said Friday in a Facebook post. “At the scale of human perspective, a spilled snack bag may seem trivial, but to the life of the cave it can be world changing,” the park said in its post about the garbage found off-trail in the Big Room. “The processed corn, softened by the humidity of the cave, formed the perfect environment to host microbial life and fungi. Cave crickets, mites, spiders and flies soon organize into a temporary food web, dispersing the nutrients to the surrounding cave and formations. Molds spread higher up the nearby surfaces, fruit, die and stink. And the cycle continues.” The park said rangers spent 20 minutes carefully removing molds and foreign debris from surfaces inside the cave, noting that while some members of the ecosystem that rose from the snacks were cave-dwellers “many of the microbial life and molds are not.” The post called that particular impact on the cave “completely avoidable,” contrasting it with the hard-to-prevent fine trails of lint left by each visitor. “Great or small we all leave an impact wherever we go. Let us all leave the world a better place than we found it,” the post urged park goers. The park’s website says that eating and drinking anything other than plain water attracts animals into the cavern. Carlsbad Caverns followed up its post about the Cheetos bag with a post about the “leave no trace” principle of disposing of waste properly. “Contrary to popular belief, the cave is NOT a big trash can,” the post said, yet rangers pick up waste left behind every day. “Sometimes this can be a gum wrapper or a tissue, other times it can unfortunately mean human waste, spit, or chewing tobacco.” Visitors are asked to make sure they don’t leave trash in the cavern and to use designated restrooms. The Big Room at Carlsbad Caverns National Park is the largest single cave chamber by volume in North America. It is accessible via a relatively flat 1.25 mile (2 km) trail. The cavern was formed millions of years ago when sulfuric acid dissolved limestone, creating cave passages.

Australian breaker Rachael Gunn, the Olympian widely known as B-Girl Raygun who went viral after her performance at the Paris Games, is now ranked the No. 1 breaker in the world. The 37-year-old claimed the top spot in the latest women’s rankings released by the World DanceSport Federation (WDSF) – the governing body of breaking and other dancesports. Raygun’s performances failed to score any points across her Olympic battles against breakers from the United States, France and Lithuania in August, losing 18-0 in all three rounds. However, she won the gold medal at the 2023 WDSF Oceania Championships, securing her 1,000 ranking points and vaulting her up to No. 1 – level on points with world No. 2 B-Girl Riko of Japan – ahead of the breakers who defeated her in the French capital. Her victory at the Oceania Championships also secured her a spot in Paris. In an odd twist, none of the Olympic B-Girl medalists are ranked inside the top 10. Japan’s Ami, Lithuania’s Nicka and China’s 671 earned gold, silver and bronze respectively. In a statement, the WDSF on Tuesday clarified that its rankings are updated based on each athlete’s top four performances within the past 12 months. Points earned in these competitions remain valid for 52 weeks from the date of the event. The governing body also confirmed that the Olympic qualifying events in Shanghai and Budapest, as well as the Paris Games themselves, did not contribute to the ranking list due to limited athlete quotas. Additionally, WDSF said that events which traditionally give ranking points were not held to allow competitors to fully focus on preparation for the Games. “In alignment with the Olympic Qualification System, ranking events were intentionally not held between 31 December 2023 and the Olympic Games Paris 2024. This strategic scheduling allowed athletes to focus solely on the last part of their Olympic qualification without the added pressure of additional ranking events. “By the end of the Olympic Games, many of the competition results included in the ranking had expired, leading to the current situation where many athletes have only one competition result contributing to their ranking.” It added that the current rankings should be looked at “in conjunction” with more recent results and that the list will change when the next batch of 12-month points expire and the Breaking for Gold World Series is held in Shanghai in October. Raygun competes during the B-Girls Round Robin at the Olympics. Ezra Shaw/Getty Images Raygun shot to fame after her unique routine at the Olympics drew the world’s attention. Dressed in the green and gold tracksuit of Australia, she displayed some unorthodox moves, including a kangaroo hop, a backward roll and various contortions with her body while lying or crawling on the floor. She received criticism online for her performance, with one user on X, formerly known as Twitter, calling her routines “hilariously ridiculous,” and another questioning how she had made it this far. Celebrities took notice as well – singer Adele took time out of her concert in Munich to ask whether the whole thing was a “joke,” while actress Rachel Dratch imitated some of the moves on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.” Raygun – who is a university lecturer by day – recently apologized to the breaking community, saying that she was “very sorry for the backlash that the community has experienced” after her performance. She has been defended by some within the sport. “It’s all about originality and it’s all about bringing something new to the table and representing your country or region,” said Martin Gilian, the chief breaking judge at the Olympics, also known as MGbility. “She created some original moves which could be maybe funny or entertaining for others, but for us, she basically represented breaking and hip hop. She was trying to be original and bring something new to the table. From our perspective, that was nothing really shocking.” Raygun became one of the stories of the Paris Games after her performances at La Concorde Urban Park. Frank Franklin/AP Raygun described the online reaction as “devastating” but has remained upbeat about the entire experience. “I knew that I was going to get beaten, and I knew that people were not going to understand my style and what I was going to do,” she said in an interview with Australian current affairs show The Project. “The odds were against me, that’s for sure.” “I would much rather focus on the positives out of this, and the positive responses and the joy that I brought people,” she said. “It’s going out there and just having fun and going as hard as you can in the face of, you know, losing.” Breaking made its Olympic debut at the 2024 Paris Games but will not feature in Los Angeles in 2028.

Picture a clock ticking so steadily that it doesn’t lose a second, even after running for 1 billion years. Scientists are now closer than ever to realizing that level of timekeeping precision, new research has revealed. Such a device would greatly surpass the capabilities of atomic clocks, which define the span of a second through controlled energy jumps in atoms’ electrons and are currently the pinnacle of accuracy for measuring time. In atomic clocks, signals that excite the atoms oscillate at a frequency of billions of times per second. Researchers recently developed a technique that could elevate this accuracy by triggering and measuring oscillations in an even trickier target: an atom’s nucleus. For this nuclear clock, the scientists used ultraviolet light to excite nuclear particles in an atom of thorium-229 embedded in solid crystal. They then measured the frequency of the energy pulses affecting the nucleus — the equivalent of a pendulum in a regular clock — by counting the waves in the UV signal using a tool called an optical frequency comb. Causing energy jumps in a nucleus requires a much higher frequency signal than is required for atomic clocks. With more wave cycles per second, this approach is expected to provide more accurate time measurements. Scientists measure the frequency of energy pulses affecting an atom’s nucleus by counting the waves in the UV signal. Wavelengths that can induce a nucleus transition oscillate at higher frequencies, enabling more precise time measurements, the researchers say. National Institute of Standards and Technology While their nuclear clock is still a work in progress, once realized it could transform not only timekeeping but also the study of physics, even affecting how scientists investigate the fabric of the universe. The prototype is already as accurate as an atomic clock, and future versions are expected to be even more precise and stable, according to research published September 4 in the journal Nature. Now that the researchers have shown that it’s possible to produce and measure these signals, “there are a lot of things that we can push to further improve the accuracy,” said lead study author Chuankun Zhang, a graduate student at JILA — a joint research center funded by the University of Colorado Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. For example, Zhang told CNN, adjustments could include tweaking the alignment and frequency of the lasers pinging the nucleus. “This work truly marks the dawn of a nuclear clock,” said Dr. Olga Kocharovskaya, a distinguished professor of physics at Texas A&M University who was not involved in the research. In 2023, Kocharovskaya and other researchers tested nuclei of scandium-45 atoms as possible candidates for a nuclear clock. At the time, those atoms produced the most robust energy transition — and measurable pulse — ever seen in a nucleus, but the new results from thorium-229 generated a stronger signal and were more stable, Kocharovskaya told CNN in an email. “The broader significance is in the confidence this paper provides in the reality of the nuclear clock,” she said. “It leaves no doubts that such a clock is feasible and will be built soon.” Time after time In atomic clocks, an atom’s electrons are pinged with electromagnetic radiation at specific frequencies. Bursts of energy excite the electrons, pushing them into a higher orbit around the atom. Oscillations that trigger electrons’ transitions between states mark the passage of time, according to NASA. The reliability of atomic clocks is far greater than in everyday clocks that measure seconds in vibrations of quartz crystals, which are prone to dropping out of sync. For decades, atomic clocks have been used in GPS technologies, for space exploration and for keeping international time. However, atomic clocks are also vulnerable to sync loss. Electromagnetic disturbances can disrupt excited electrons and affect the precision of the timekeeping, Zhang said. Particles in an atom’s nucleus, on the other hand, are harder to agitate than electrons. Protons and neutrons are tightly bound together by the strong nuclear force — the most powerful of all the fundamental forces. Wavelengths that can induce a nucleus transition oscillate at higher frequencies, enabling more precise time measurements, the researchers reported. Before this study, there were several important breakthroughs for the development of nuclear clocks. The first, in 1976, was the discovery that the thorium nucleus was “uniquely low-energy” and could be pushed into an excited state by using vacuum ultraviolet, or VUV, laser light. By 2003, scientists were proposing that because thorium required less energy to excite its nucleus than most other types of atoms did, the isotope thorium-229 would be a good candidate for nuclear clocks, according to the study. In 2023, scientists pioneered a method of embedding thorium-229 into crystals; this solid state system suppressed signals from nuclear decay, making desired signals easier to track. Earlier this year, other researchers measured the wavelength of VUV light required to excite the nucleus in thorium-229. “Our work builds on top of that,” Zhang said. “With our frequency comb light source and this crystal, we were able to excite the nuclear transition and the various transition energies.” Their results were about 1 million times more precise than previous measurements, Zhang added. “This paper is a real tour de force,” said Dr. Shimon Kolkowitz, an associate professor and chair of physics at the University of California, Berkeley. “The quality of the data and the speed with which they achieved the remarkable results in this new manuscript is really amazing,” said Kolkowitz, who was not involved in the research. “It represents a major step forward in the development of nuclear clocks, which physicists have been working towards for decades.” Revolutionizing physics Atomic clocks’ accuracy and stability have already given scientists important tools for studying earthquakes, gravitational fields and space-time. These fields could experience “a major boost” from nuclear clocks, Kocharovskaya said. Nuclear clocks would be not only more precise but also simpler and more portable, because unlike atomic clocks they wouldn’t require high vacuum conditions, extreme cooling and powerful shielding from magnetic and electric disruption, she said. The study of physics itself could be revolutionized by using nuclear clocks alongside atomic clocks, according

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has called for “fundamental changes” to the way Israeli forces operate in the occupied West Bank after the killing of American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi at a protest last week. Blinken’s sharply worded rebuke came after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Tuesday that it was “highly likely” that Eygi was “hit indirectly and unintentionally by IDF fire.” In its initial inquiry into the incident, the IDF said that the shot was not aimed at the activist, but at “the key instigator” of a “violent riot” at the Beita Junction where it said Palestinians burned tires and hurled rocks at Israeli security forces. It didn’t name the alleged instigator. The International Solidarity Movement (ISM), with whom Eygi had been volunteering, said that its protest on September 6 was peaceful. At a news conference in London on Tuesday, Blinken said Eygi’s killing was “unprovoked and unjustified” and demanded changes to the rules of engagement of Israel forces operating in the West Bank. Smoke rises during an Israeli military raid in Jenin in the occupied West Bank on Thursday. Related article ‘All the streets were destroyed:’ Palestinians count the cost as Israel pulls back from Jenin “No one, no one should be shot and killed for attending a protest. No one should have to put their life at risk just for expressing their views,” he said. “Now we have the second American citizen killed at the hands of Israeli security forces. It’s not acceptable. It has to change. And we’ll be making that clear to the senior-most members of the Israeli government.” Blinken added that the United States had “long seen” reports of Israeli forces ignoring extremist settler violence against Palestinians and reports of excessive force by Israeli forces against Palestinians. Violence from the Israeli offensive in Gaza since the Hamas-led October 7 attacks has spilled into the occupied West Bank in recent months. In recent months, the US has unveiled a series of sanctions targeting Israel settler violence against Palestinians. The IDF began a major raid in multiple parts of the territory last month, bulldozing highways and razing buildings in the process. OIn Tuesday, at least two Palestinians – a man and a woman – were killed during an Israeli military incursion in the city of Tulkarem, according to the Ministry of Health in Ramallah. Israeli troops and settlers have killed 692 Palestinians, including 158 children, in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem since October, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah, whose figures do not distinguish between militants and civilians. Family says Israel’s inquiry is ‘wholly inadequate’ The family of the 26-year-old activist said they were “deeply offended by the suggestion that her killing by a trained sniper was in any way unintentional,” reiterating calls to US leaders for an independent investigation into her death. Eygi, who was born in Turkey, was shot while taking part in a weekly protest against an Israeli settlement near the Palestinian village of Beita. All Israeli settlements are considered illegal under international law. She was a recent graduate of the University of Washington, and had been volunteering with the same pro-Palestinian activist group as Rachel Corrie, a US citizen killed in 2003 while attempting to stop an Israeli bulldozer from demolishing Palestinian homes in Gaza. Eygi’s family, who have previously blamed Israel for her killing, said the findings of the Israeli inquiry were “wholly inadequate.” “This cannot be misconstrued as anything except a deliberate, targeted and precise attack by the military against an unarmed civilian,” the family said. The ISM also dismissed Israel’s “specious claim” that Eygi was unintentionally hit by IDF fire, describing the slain activist as “one of the hundreds of thousands of martyrs Israel has killed over decades of ethnic cleansing, displacement, and genocide.” “The military’s account of the events is blindly based on the accomplices’ version, which completely contradicts the testimonies of multiple eye witnesses, who the military did not even contact,” the group said in a statement on Tuesday. “All eyewitnesses said immediately following the killing that the scene where Aysenur was killed was completely quiet, and that there could have been no excuse to open fire, let alone directly hitting a woman peacefully standing in an olive grove.”

  Think of surfing and your mind might jump to the beaches of Hawaii, perhaps the Atlantic rollers of Portugal or more classic spots like California or Australia. Probably not Angola. But, it turns out, the southern African country, which has only recently begun establishing itself on the tourism map, can hold its own with the best of them when it comes to riding the oceans. So far, it’s only really attracting the more adventurous surfers, with little infrastructure on offer for those who make it there. That’s changing though, with at least one surf travel provider already helping board sports enthusiasts find that next big wave. AngolaWaves is run by Bizuka Barros, a Portuguese-Angolan and Oded Golan, who is originally from Israel but has resided in Angola for more than 15 years. Their business is dedicated to promoting Angola as a surf destination while supporting local communities and sustainable development in the surf tourism industry. While they do have repeat customers, some of their work, according to the pair, involves persuading the uninitiated that Angola is a viable surf destination -– fielding questions about visas, general safety, flights, malaria concerns and even shark attacks. Barros says Angola is indeed a safe destination, especially outside the bustling capital, Luanda. He advises that the threat of malaria is lower during the dry season (May-September), which also offers more consistent surf swells. And tourist visas are now easily obtainable. Surfers’ paradise Cab Ledo is one of Angola’s best surf spots.  Henrique Almeida/Reuters While there are numerous surf spots in Angola, much of the action centers around Cabo Ledo, a stunning, empty beach about 120 kilometers (75 miles) south of Luanda, where geological and meteorological conditions have created an almost perfect environment for novices and experts. The pristine sands and clear waters make it popular with ordinary beachgoers, especially those seeking a break from the capital. But it’s the prevailing winds, which bring long waves and easy surf, that make it a surfing paradise. The bay hosts a consistent, slow-rolling, very long left-hander point break, catering to surfers of all skill levels. In addition to this gem, two more advanced, faster waves materialize when the swell is big enough. It’s known locally as “Praia do Surfistas,” or Surfers’ Beach. “It’s a very long wave,” says Paulo Agusto, a local entrepreneur. “We are talking about 3, 4, 500-meter waves on a good day – and we got surf days all year. And no crowd here!” There’s a choice of accommodation, from campsites to more upscale options like Doçe Mar Resort, situated right on the shoreline. Temperatures typically hover around 30 C (86 F) all year round. “It’s very, very easy to learn because we can catch the wave here and to go to catch another one, we can go by foot just walking on the beach,” says Gillas Cros, a French expat enjoying a surfing session. “We can enter on the water and take the wave.” Keeping it special “Very good to learn and very good to spend some nice time in the sea… warm temperature, the water is great,” he says. “And the sea is not harsh and all the surroundings, you know. It’s… a very peaceful beach.” It’s not just surfers and grown-ups enjoying the waves at Cabo Ledo. Tchyina Matos, who runs the Kalemba Radical Association, a nonprofit offering sporting opportunities to youngsters, has brought a van load of kids to practice skimboarding – which involves smaller boards, launched by running in from the shallows and skidding over the water – some for the first time. “It started 11 years ago… as a project to take kids from the street,” says Matos of her organization. “We have a lot of boys that were trying… drugs or starting to rob people. And then I saw an opportunity to put the kids doing sports and not doing bad things.” Cabo Ledo plays a major part in this, she says. “The thing that’s special in here is that, beside the nature … people when (they) come here, they just change,” she adds, noting that the children are more communicative and more “human” when they visit. “Even if they don’t know each other, they help each other, so it’s totally different.” Agusto, the resort owner, says steps are taken to make sure that Cabo Ledo stays special. “We got a few rules on that beach,” he says. These include no lighting fires on the sand, no loud music, no generators or electric lights and take all garbage home. “It’s just simple rules,” he says. “And you see the beach is clean. Everybody respects, there’s no confusion on that beach, no noise… So everybody loves to come.” Martian landscapes AngolaWaves runs surfing safari itineraries in the area and further down the coast to wilder and even more remote spots, using a fleet of 4×4 vehicles to connect visitors with the best waves the country has to offer and take advantage of shifting weather conditions. Destinations include Catanas Point, a four-hour drive south from Cabo Ledo, which features an awe-inspiring A-frame wave breaking over a rock formation that produces beautiful left-hand waves and fast, hollow right-handers against the backdrop of a pristine bay. In front of the surf spot, Sergio Torres and his partner Cecilia run a campsite and a social project that offers educational support and surf-coaching to local children. Further south, passing over tropical savannah and rugged desert landscape, the safari also takes in the coastline of the Namibe Reserve, a protected natural area where huge sand dunes roll up against the water. Many of Angola’s surfing beaches, such as Namibe, get few visitors. SilvaPinto1985/iStockphoto/Getty Images Here, the surfers stay in temporary campsites, making sure they’re close to the action when the swell builds. The Angola Waves team provides them with cooked meals to keep energy levels up for huge ocean sessions. During quieter times, there are ukulele jam sessions around the campfire. Further south, the safari also takes in a legendary point break

The pandemic’s effects on teenagers were profound — numerous studies have documented reports of issues with their mental health, social lives and more. Now, a new study suggests those phenomena caused some adolescents’ brains to age much faster than they normally would — 4.2 years faster in girls and 1.4 years faster in boys on average, according to the study published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. By being the first to contribute details on aging differences by sex, the study adds to the existing body of knowledge provided by two previous studies on the Covid-19 pandemic and accelerated brain aging among adolescents. “The findings are an important wake-up call about the fragility of the teenage brain,” said senior study author Dr. Patricia K. Kuhl, the Bezos Family Foundation Endowed Chair in Early Childhood Learning and codirector of the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle, via email. “Teens need our support now more than ever.” Significant socioemotional development occurs during adolescence, along with substantial changes to brain structure and function. The thickness of the cerebral cortex naturally peaks during childhood, steadily decreases throughout adolescence and continues to decrease through one’s lifespan, the authors wrote. The researchers originally intended to track ordinary adolescent brain development over time, starting with MRIs the authors conducted on participants’ brains in 2018. They planned to follow up with them for another scan in 2020. The pandemic delayed the second MRI by three to four years — when the 130 participants based in Washington state were between ages 12 and 20. The authors excluded adolescents who had been diagnosed with a developmental or psychiatric disorder or who were taking psychotropic medications. The team used the pre-pandemic MRI data to create a “normative model” of how 68 regions of the brain would likely develop over typical adolescence, to which they could compare the post-pandemic MRI data and see if it deviated from expectations. This normative model is analogous to the normative growth charts used in pediatric offices to track height and weight in young children, the authors said. It has also been used by other researchers to study the effects of circumstances or conditions such as socioeconomic disadvantage, autism, depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or traumatic stress. The study revealed accelerated cortical thinning in the post-pandemic brains of teens — occurring in 30 brain regions across both hemispheres and all lobes for girls, and in only two regions for boys. The prevalence of the thinning amounted to 43% and 6% of the studied brain regions for girls and boys, respectively. The study “is not a major revelation, as the authors acknowledge,” but does add to our knowledge of the subject, said Dr. Max Wiznitzer, professor of pediatrics and neurology at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, via email. Wiznitzer wasn’t involved in the research. How adversity influences the brain The study has a few important limitations, including that senior author Kuhl contributed the study to the journal, meaning that she was also an editor of the study and able to choose, with restrictions, who peer-reviewed it. And since everyone was affected by the pandemic, the authors didn’t have a control group, which is why they had to use normative modeling to approximate what the normal controls would have been, Wiznitzer said — “which is not as good as true controls but likely the best they can do.” The authors also didn’t have data on participants’ families’ jobs, financial or food security or on participants’ exercise, sleep or dietary habits, they said. It’s also unknown whether the participants possibly having had Covid-19 could have contributed to the findings. “Theirs is a good study, but even then it probably doesn’t have a large enough sample to say that the sex difference in brain aging is a reliable finding,” said Dr. Ian Gotlib, author of a 2022 study on the subject and director of the Stanford Neurodevelopment, Affect, and Psychopathology Laboratory at Stanford University, via email. However, “after reading this paper we examined sex differences in the data we used in our study — same direction of sex differences as the authors reported, but not statistically significant with our slightly smaller sample,” added Gotlib, who wasn’t involved in the study. The regions with the most acceleration in thinning among girls have been linked to social cognitive functions, such as recognizing and processing faces and expressions; processing social and emotional experiences; the ability to have empathy and compassion; and language comprehension, according to the study. The regions affected in boys’ brains are involved in processing objects in the visual field as well as faces. Based on previous research, the authors think the findings may be due to a phenomenon known as the “stress acceleration hypothesis.” This hypothesis posits that in a high-stress environment, development may shift toward maturing earlier to protect the brain’s emotional circuits and regions involved in learning and memory — reducing the harm of adversity on structural development. There have also been reports of correlations between saliva cortisol levels and cortical thickness in the frontal lobe among human adults. Sex differences could be due to the varying effects of stressors on boys versus girls based on what’s important to each, the authors said. What you can do Another factor the researchers don’t yet know is whether these effects on the brain are permanent, Kuhl said. “The brain does not recover and get thicker, we know that, but one measure of whether the teens show recovery after the pandemic is over and social normalcy has completely returned, is whether their brains thin more slowly,” Kuhl added. “If that was the case, we could say that teens’ brains showed some recovery. That’s a study we can actually do in the future.” Ensuring young people are supported in their mental health is critical, Gotlib said. Encourage in-person quality time, limit social media use and watch for behavioral changes reflecting a shift in mental health or mood so you can intervene as early as possible, Wiznitzer said. It’s

The Washington Post is trying to fix one of its biggest problems: an outdated homepage loathed by its own staff. The facelift is a key facet of Post publisher and chief executive Will Lewis’s plan to turn around the publication’s fortunes on behalf of owner Jeff Bezos This year the Post is forecast to lose about $50 million, an improvement over last year’s $77 million loss, but still an unsatisfactory result. Lewis is under pressure to recapture paying subscribers and return the Post to profitability, a goal he says he is making progress on. In his weekly memo to Post staffers on Friday evening, Lewis called the updated homepage an “important step forward.” Reporters and editors at the news organization have long grumbled about the drab and dated nature of the Post’s digital front door. Among the frustrations: The homepage featured relatively few stories at any given time and lacked a sense of cohesion. Staffers envied the homepages of rivals like The New York Times. Lewis acknowledged as much in his memo. “Many of you have expressed your dislike of the previous version,” he wrote. “I agreed and encouraged you to improve it and you did just that.” The new iteration, which launched last week, “is the beginning of several planned enhancements,” newly installed executive editor Matt Murray wrote to the newsroom. The new homepage has double the amount of space for top stories — six slots instead of three — a muchwelcomed change. “Section editors had been fighting to get their stories into those three featured slots, leading to a lot of frustration,” a Post reporter explained. As part of the redesign, Opinion pieces have also been moved higher up on the page, while some sections like “Help Desk” and “Technology” have been dropped. Staffers said they expect further upgrades in the coming months. Lots of people find Post journalism through side doors, like social media accounts and email newsletters, but the front door has become more important as social networks shut off the traffic firehose and Google integrates A.I. into its search results. More urgently, at the Post, the homepage redesign is a sign that the new management regime is moving quickly to make significant changes. Earlier this summer, the paper also launched a new marketing campaign playing off its “Democracy Dies in Darkness” slogan with the catchphrase “Switch On,” in a bid to supercharge growth at the newspaper. Lewis was appointed publisher and chief executive in January and didn’t mince words about the beleaguered state of the Post. His turnaround strategy was welcomed by many staffers, but morale plummeted in the spring when allegations resurfaced about his involvement in a UK phone hacking scandal coverup. (He has denied wrongdoing.) While Lewis hasn’t entirely recovered, he has used his weekly memos to tout progress in rebuilding the Post’s subscriber rolls. On Friday, Lewis said “last week was our highest net growth week of the year for subscriptions and this ongoing growth is due to great teamwork across the company.” A Post spokeswoman declined to specify the newspaper’s current number of digital subscribers. The most recent publicized total was 2.7 million.

More than a month after the Olympic Games got underway in the pouring rain, it seemed fitting that the Paralympics came to a close in similar fashion at a wet closing ceremony in Paris. Thousands braved the soggy conditions inside the Stade de France on Sunday, with athletes from the 169 delegations parading and dancing through the venue to officially mark the end of the Games. There were performances from French electronic musician Jean-Michel Jarre and DJ Martin Solveig, among others, as well as elaborate light shows and a spectacular fireworks display. “Dear athletes,” Paris 2024 organizing chief Tony Estanguet said in his speech at the ceremony, “this has been incredible, undeniable, unforgettable, and it’s all thanks to you. Every time you competed, more people joined the party; every time you succeeded, the intensity grew. “With every wow, every cry, every heart you sent racing, you changed how people see sport and how they see disability.” Delegations parade through the Stade de France during the closing ceremony. Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images Meanwhile, Andrew Parsons, the president of the International Paralympic Committee, said that Paris had “set a benchmark” for future Paralympics, while also calling for wider social change towards people with disabilities. “Beyond 12 days of sport, we must break down the barriers that exist in society,” said Parsons. “We must enable and empower persons with disabilities to excel outside of the field of play, in education, in employment, in entertainment, in government, in civil society – everywhere. “Diversity and difference should not divide us. Diversity and difference should unite us, drive change and make this planet better for everyone.” Around 4,400 athletes competed in this year’s Paralympics across 549 medal events in 22 sports. Scores of records were broken, including more than 40 in para athletics and 30 in the swimming. China finished first in the medal table with 94 golds (220 total), way ahead of Great Britain in second on 49 golds and USA in third on 36. This is the sixth year in a row that China has topped the medal table, while Britain and the US were also second and third at the Tokyo Paralympics. The US ends the Games with 105 medals, one more than in Tokyo, and chose swimmer Ellie Marks and wheelchair basketball player Paul Schulte, veterans of the team making their third and fourth Paralympic appearances in Paris, as flagbearers at the closing ceremony. Attention now turns to Los Angeles, which will host the next edition of the Olympics and Paralympics in 2028. Actress and Broadway star Ali Stroker, the first Tony award-winner in a wheelchair, sang the US national anthem at the closing ceremony to mark the Paralympic flag being passed to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.

Tyreek Hill’s agent called the Miami Dolphins star’s detention on Sunday – just hours before the team’s season-opener – “heartbreaking, upsetting and uncalled for” in an interview with CNN on Monday as the local police union began to defend the officers involved in the incident. Speaking to CNN’s Sara Sidner, Drew Rosenhaus said he was “in disbelief” about what took place after he was pulled over for a moving violation. “Tyreek was just trying to get to work, trying to play a game, just trying to do his job,” Rosenhaus said on CNN News Central. “For police officers to detain him, to put him on the ground like that, to put their knee on him, to hit him – it’s just devastating.” Several videos on social media showed Hill being handcuffed and on the ground with four officers surrounding him before the team’s game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Dolphins said on social media that Hill had been “briefly detained” by police after a traffic incident one block away from Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium and was released shortly afterwards. It’s still unclear exactly what led to Hill being detained by police. The Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD) declined to provide further details about the incident to CNN, citing an ongoing investigation. MDPD Director Stephanie V. Daniels said on Sunday that an investigation has begun into the incident and that one of the officers involved is being placed on administrative duties. MDPD police confirmed to CNN that a second Dolphins player, Calais Campbell, was also handcuffed when trying to discuss the situation with officers at the scene. On Monday, the South Florida Police Benevolent Association defended the actions of the officers involved, highlighting that Hill was never placed under arrest. “Upon being stopped, Mr. Hill was not immediately cooperative with the officers on scene who, pursuant to policy and for their immediate safety, placed Mr. Hill in handcuffs,” Steadman Stahl, the organization’s president, said in a statement to CNN. “Mr. Hill, still uncooperative, refused to sit on the ground and was therefore redirected to the ground. Once the situation was sorted out within a few minutes, Mr. Hill was issued two traffic citations and was free to leave. “In this case, while we will wait for the investigation to run its course, based on what we know, we stand with the actions of our officers but look forward to further open communication moving forward,” Stahl added. Hill scored an 80-yard touchdown in Miami’s 20-17 victory against the Jaguars, celebrating by putting his arms behind his back with his wrists together – perhaps alluding to being in handcuffs earlier Sunday. Hill said after Miami’s game against the Jaguars that he was confused by his pregame encounter with police.  Don Juan Moore/Getty Images Rosenhaus said he believed the celebration was a way of Hill “coping” with the incident. “It’s just embarrassing for images where you’re in handcuffs and you’re on the ground with police (having) their knee on you, pushing you and treating you like the criminal,” he said. “Absolutely believe that celebration was his way of coping with something that was so upsetting.” Rosenhaus added: “To Tyreek’s credit, it was remarkable that he was able to compose himself. He was able to go and play the game, making a sensational play, an 80-yard touchdown to help the team win, come from behind. His performance was epic. “But what happened before the game was disgraceful, unacceptable and cannot happen in this society. Who would have thought after George Floyd that we would still see people treated like this unfairly and unnecessarily?” Hill said after Sunday’s game that he was still confused by his pregame encounter with police. “I wasn’t disrespectful because my mom didn’t raise me that way, didn’t cuss, didn’t do none of that. Like I said, I’m still trying to figure it out,” Hill said at his postgame press conference. Rosenhaus told CNN Monday that there is “no question” that there will be “ramifications” to come out of the incident involving Hill. “If Tyreek wasn’t a world-class athlete and in incredible shape, who knows how this could have impacted him,” he said. “He was sore. He was hurting. He was physically and mentally distraught – something where we’re seeking answers – and we will pursue this to the fullest extent of the law.” Campbell describes tense detention scene On Monday, Campbell recalled how he arrived at the scene of his teammate’s detention and attempted to diffuse the situation. Speaking on ESPN, the 17-year NFL veteran said he got out of his car with his hands up and approached the police officers, saying, “I’m a friend of his (Hill). I don’t know what’s going on here, but I think the situation is definitely unnecessary.” Campbell said he was told to leave, with an officer threatening to tow his car if he didn’t go away. “I told him I will stand where you want me to stand. You tell me how far I need to back up, and I’ll back up, but I’m not leaving the scene,” Campbell recounted. “This is my friend here. I’m here to support him. I’m not leaving.” After not vacating, Campbell, in his first season with the Dolphins, said the officer told him he was under arrest and put Campbell in handcuffs. The defensive tackle said Dolphins tight end Jonnu Smith was also at the scene as Hill pleaded with both teammates: “Don’t leave me. Don’t leave me.” Campbell told ESPN he was thankful he was there to support Hill. “These situations can escalate quickly. We see it so many times in America where these things go completely bad. This is a big opportunity for us to use this platform to combat police brutality that happens. This situation could have been a whole lot worse had we not been there.” After being released by police, Campbell said Hill was “frustrated and flustered” and told others he wouldn’t play against the Jaguars. The Dolphins are back in action on Thursday when they face

SpaceX is making another attempt to get Polaris Dawn — a risky mission that will send four civilians into the radiation belts and on a historic spacewalk — off the ground this week. The daring flight will aim to take off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida no earlier than 3:38 a.m. ET Tuesday, with additional launch opportunities at 5:23 a.m. ET and 7:09 a.m. ET Tuesday. A SpaceX webcast of the event is expected begin around midnight the morning of the liftoff. Additional launch opportunities are available in the early hours of Wednesday morning, according to SpaceX. Previous attempts in late August to launch the Polaris Dawn mission were thwarted by a ground system issue at the launch site and weather delays. And weather could again prevent the unprecedented journey from kicking off Tuesday. The latest forecast puts the odds of unfavorable launch conditions at 60%, according to a Sunday post made by SpaceX on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. Mission controllers are also closely watching the weather outlook off the coast of Florida, where the Polaris Dawn crew will splash down at one of several locations after its five-day trip to space. “(C)onditions at the possible splashdown sites for Dragon’s return to Earth remain a watch item,” according to SpaceX. Despite the forecasts, Jared Isaacman, the billionaire founder of payment platforms company Shift4, said Sunday on X, “This is a big improvement over the last two weeks. We are getting closer to getting this mission to orbit.” Isaacman, who is both funding this mission alongside SpaceX and a crew member serving as mission commander, previously made clear how crucial it is for Polaris Dawn to take flight with pristine weather conditions on the horizon for the crew’s return. Because the team will rely heavily on oxygen supplies during preparations for and while executing a spacewalk, the Polaris Dawn mission will have only about five or six days’ worth of oxygen supplies on board, necessitating an on-time return, according to Isaacman. The spacewalk, which is scheduled to kick off at the start of the Polaris Dawn crew’s third day of flight, will mark the first time that a private crew of civilians has carried out extravehicular activities, or EVA, in space. A perilous journey Joining Isaacman on this flight are close friend and former US Air Force pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet as well as SpaceX engineers Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis. Adding to the risk of the Polaris Dawn team, the crew cabin will travel out into the first band of Earth’s Van Allen radiation belts after the mission takes flight — the first human spaceflight mission to travel that far since NASA’s Apollo program ended in 1972. SpaceX is also juggling Polaris Dawn with other obligations at its launch site in Florida. The company is expected to help get NASA’s Europa Clipper — a notable robotic mission set to explore an icy moon orbiting Jupiter — on its way in October. But SpaceX’s launch site in Florida is currently set up for a crewed spaceflight — with the pad configured for a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, Crew Dragon and the special crew access arm that allows astronauts to board the vehicle before flight. Before Europa Clipper gets off the ground, SpaceX will have to convert the launchpad to accommodate a Falcon Heavy, a larger vehicle that has three times more power than a Falcon 9. NASA is expected to give an update on the Europa Clipper mission at 4 p.m. ET Mond

Think of surfing and your mind might jump to the beaches of Hawaii, perhaps the Atlantic rollers of Portugal or more classic spots like California or Australia. Probably not Angola. But, it turns out, the southern African country, which has only recently begun establishing itself on the tourism map, can hold its own with the best of them when it comes to riding the oceans. So far, it’s only really attracting the more adventurous surfers, with little infrastructure on offer for those who make it there. That’s changing though, with at least one surf travel provider already helping board sports enthusiasts find that next big wave. AngolaWaves is run by Bizuka Barros, a Portuguese-Angolan and Oded Golan, who is originally from Israel but has resided in Angola for more than 15 years. Their business is dedicated to promoting Angola as a surf destination while supporting local communities and sustainable development in the surf tourism industry. While they do have repeat customers, some of their work, according to the pair, involves persuading the uninitiated that Angola is a viable surf destination -– fielding questions about visas, general safety, flights, malaria concerns and even shark attacks. Barros says Angola is indeed a safe destination, especially outside the bustling capital, Luanda. He advises that the threat of malaria is lower during the dry season (May-September), which also offers more consistent surf swells. And tourist visas are now easily obtainable. Surfers’ paradise Cab Ledo is one of Angola’s best surf spots. Henrique Almeida/Reuters While there are numerous surf spots in Angola, much of the action centers around Cabo Ledo, a stunning, empty beach about 120 kilometers (75 miles) south of Luanda, where geological and meteorological conditions have created an almost perfect environment for novices and experts. The pristine sands and clear waters make it popular with ordinary beachgoers, especially those seeking a break from the capital. But it’s the prevailing winds, which bring long waves and easy surf, that make it a surfing paradise. The bay hosts a consistent, slow-rolling, very long left-hander point break, catering to surfers of all skill levels. In addition to this gem, two more advanced, faster waves materialize when the swell is big enough. It’s known locally as “Praia do Surfistas,” or Surfers’ Beach. “It’s a very long wave,” says Paulo Agusto, a local entrepreneur. “We are talking about 3, 4, 500-meter waves on a good day – and we got surf days all year. And no crowd here!” There’s a choice of accommodation, from campsites to more upscale options like Doçe Mar Resort, situated right on the shoreline. Temperatures typically hover around 30 C (86 F) all year round. “It’s very, very easy to learn because we can catch the wave here and to go to catch another one, we can go by foot just walking on the beach,” says Gillas Cros, a French expat enjoying a surfing session. “We can enter on the water and take the wave.” Keeping it special “Very good to learn and very good to spend some nice time in the sea… warm temperature, the water is great,” he says. “And the sea is not harsh and all the surroundings, you know. It’s… a very peaceful beach.” It’s not just surfers and grown-ups enjoying the waves at Cabo Ledo. Tchyina Matos, who runs the Kalemba Radical Association, a nonprofit offering sporting opportunities to youngsters, has brought a van load of kids to practice skimboarding – which involves smaller boards, launched by running in from the shallows and skidding over the water – some for the first time. “It started 11 years ago… as a project to take kids from the street,” says Matos of her organization. “We have a lot of boys that were trying… drugs or starting to rob people. And then I saw an opportunity to put the kids doing sports and not doing bad things.” Cabo Ledo plays a major part in this, she says. “The thing that’s special in here is that, beside the nature … people when (they) come here, they just change,” she adds, noting that the children are more communicative and more “human” when they visit. “Even if they don’t know each other, they help each other, so it’s totally different.” Agusto, the resort owner, says steps are taken to make sure that Cabo Ledo stays special. “We got a few rules on that beach,” he says. These include no lighting fires on the sand, no loud music, no generators or electric lights and take all garbage home. “It’s just simple rules,” he says. “And you see the beach is clean. Everybody respects, there’s no confusion on that beach, no noise… So everybody loves to come.” Martian landscapes AngolaWaves runs surfing safari itineraries in the area and further down the coast to wilder and even more remote spots, using a fleet of 4×4 vehicles to connect visitors with the best waves the country has to offer and take advantage of shifting weather conditions. Destinations include Catanas Point, a four-hour drive south from Cabo Ledo, which features an awe-inspiring A-frame wave breaking over a rock formation that produces beautiful left-hand waves and fast, hollow right-handers against the backdrop of a pristine bay. In front of the surf spot, Sergio Torres and his partner Cecilia run a campsite and a social project that offers educational support and surf-coaching to local children. Further south, passing over tropical savannah and rugged desert landscape, the safari also takes in the coastline of the Namibe Reserve, a protected natural area where huge sand dunes roll up against the water. Many of Angola’s surfing beaches, such as Namibe, get few visitors. SilvaPinto1985/iStockphoto/Getty Images Here, the surfers stay in temporary campsites, making sure they’re close to the action when the swell builds. The Angola Waves team provides them with cooked meals to keep energy levels up for huge ocean sessions. During quieter times, there are ukulele jam sessions around the campfire. Further south, the safari also takes in a legendary point break near

Hawaii’s most controversial nature spot has once again become a center of concern, with 14 people recently arrested for accessing the Haiku Stairs on the island of Oahu according to officials. They are beautiful but unexpected: 4,000 metal steps, built by the US Navy during World War II and abandoned not long after. Located in a remote area of Kaneohe, the only way to access the stairs is via a dangerous and unsanctioned hike. “It’s incredibly disrespectful and self-centered for anyone to be on the Haiku Stairs, or on the Middle Ridge Trail, when it’s been made abundantly clear that these areas are off-limits for safety and natural resource protection reasons,” Jason Redulla, chief of Hawaii’s Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement (DOCARE) said in a statement, which bore the ominous warning that “someone is going to get hurt or killed.” According to DOCARE, all the people arrested in the past week have been charged with criminal trespassing, a misdemeanor that can result in up to 30 days in jail. Eight of the 14 were arrested on September 3, although it’s not clear if they were hiking together. “It is dangerous for people to enter the construction zone and dangerous for them to try to descend the ridge. They need to think about the consequences if someone gets hurt, or worse, and needs rescue. It is a difficult place for first responders to reach, which could delay medical treatment,” said Redulla. The Haiku Stairs, sometimes called the “stairway to heaven,” were closed to the public in 1987. But social media has brought the unlikely destination a degree of fame, with intrepid YouTubers and Instagrammers raving about the gorgeous views from atop the 2,800-foot mountain trail, with the stairs sometimes appearing to disappear into the mist above. According to DOCARE, the hikers used climbing ropes to get to the staircase. The stairs’ fame has brought headaches for the local community, including trespassers, added security costs and risky rescues of hikers who have been injured in the remote area. In 2021, the Honolulu City Council voted to remove the Haiku Stairs. The work has been done in pieces, with one section of the stairs at a time detached from the side of the mountain and then removed by helicopter. A local group called Friends of the Haiku Stairs is pushing back against the stairs’ removal, arguing that the $2.5 million process is too expensive. Some of the deconstruction work had been completed when the Hawaii Court of Appeals issued a temporary injunction earlier this year.

  Pope Francis arrived in the tiny Southeast Asian nation of East Timor on Monday for the penultimate stop of the 87-year-old leader’s marathon trip through Asia and the South Pacific. Thousands of Timorese lined the streets of the capital Dili as Francis’ popemobile slowly drove past enthusiastic crowds waving flags. Francis is due to preside at an open-air Mass with authorities preparing for a crowd of 750,000 people, more than half the country’s population. But the issue of clerical sexual abuse is also hanging over this leg of the pope’s visit to the region as revelations of mistreatment concerning high profile East Timor clergy have emerged in recent years. During his speech to the country’s political authorities, the pope called on them to tackle “every kind of abuse” to “guarantee a healthy and peaceful childhood for all young people.” East Timor, also known as Timor Leste, is one of the world’s youngest countries and has deep ties to the Catholic Church, which was influential in its tumultuous and bloody fight for independence from Indonesia. The country of just 1.3 million people is the second-most Catholic country in the world, with 97% of the population identifying as Catholic, the highest share outside of the Vatican. The government of East Timor allocated $12 million for Francis’ first visit to the deeply devout country, an amount which has been criticized as an exorbitant burden given it remains a small economy and one of Asia’s poorest nations. The pontiff’s visit also puts fresh scrutiny on the scourge of sexual abuse in the church and on whether Francis will directly address the issue while he’s in East Timor, as he has done in other countries. Two years ago, the Vatican acknowledged that it had secretly disciplined East Timor bishop and Nobel Peace Prize winner Carlos Ximenes Belo, after he was accused of sexually abusing boys decades before. In past trips abroad, Francis has met with victims of abuse. Though not on the official program of his visit, some analysts have said if Pope Francis addresses the abuse while in East Timor, it would send a strong message to survivors and those who have not come forward, whether in the country or around the region. A regional bastion of Catholicism Pope Francis’ 12-day visit to Asia includes Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore – underscoring a significant shift inside the Catholic Church as it pivots to Asia. He is the second pope to visit East Timor, after Pope John Paul II in 1989, but it’s the first papal visit for the country since it gained independence in 2002. The visit comes less than a week after the country marked the 25th anniversary of its vote to secede from Indonesia. Located between northwestern Australia and Indonesia, the country occupies half of the island of Timor and was used by the Portuguese since the 17th century as a trading post for sandalwood. Four hundred years of ensuing Portuguese colonial rule led to the widespread spread of Catholicism in East Timor and other cultural differences from Muslim-majority Indonesia. Today, East Timor’s economy is heavily reliant on its oil and gas reserves, and still contends with high levels of poverty following decades of conflict. Christina Kheng, a theologian who teaches at the East Asian Pastoral Institute, told CNN that the young nation “is still struggling with post-war unity and nation building.” Pope Francis wears a scarf he was presented with when he arrived in Dili, East Timor, September 9, 2024. Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters Like other countries in the region, East Timor is in the middle of the United States and China’s push for influence in Asia, with US ally Australia at the forefront in providing assistance. East Timor is also on track to become the 11th member of the Southeast Asian bloc ASEAN, which could happen next year. Bishop Belo and sex abuse allegations A leading pro-democracy figure during the Indonesian occupation was Bishop Belo, the former head of the Catholic Church in East Timor, who won the Nobel Peace Prize alongside President Jose Ramos-Horta in 1996 for their work in bringing a peaceful end to the conflict. In 2022, the Vatican confirmed that it had sanctioned Belo two years prior, following allegations from two men who said the bishop raped them when they were teenagers and gave them money to buy their silence. The Vatican said that Belo, who is understood to be based in Portugal, had been placed under travel restrictions, “prohibition of voluntary contact with minors, of interviews and contacts with Timor Leste.” While the allegations against Belo date back to the 1980, the Vatican said it first became involved in the case in 2019. CNN has asked the Vatican if the case of Bishop Belo will be addressed during the Pope’s trip. Dutch newspaper De Groene Amsterdammer broke the news and said its investigation found that other boys were also allegedly victims of Belo’s abuse dating back to the 1980s. Belo has never been officially charged in East Timor and has never spoken publicly about the accusations. In a separate case, in 2021, a court in East Timor sentenced defrocked American priest Richard Daschbach to 12 years in prison for sexually abusing young, vulnerable girls in his care. Daschbach, a missionary who ran a shelter for orphaned children in a remote part of the country, admitted to sexually abusing girls in 2018. The Vatican expelled him from the church following his confession. Bishop Belo was a leading pro-democracy figure in East Timor but has faced historical sexual assault allegations Firdia Lisnawati/AP/File It was the first time that allegations of sexual abuse committed by a priest had gone to trial in East Timor. Many abuse victims in East Timor have been reluctant to come forward due to the church’s deep connection to the independence struggle, and because of the government’s treatment of the few who have been convicted. Since Pope Francis became the leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics in 2013, multiple reports detailing decades of sexual abuse, systemic

A prominent Chinese artist known for his scathing political critiques of Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution has been detained in China, according to his brother and artistic partner. Gao Zhen, 68, was detained last week in a police raid on his art studio on the outskirts of Beijing on suspicion of slandering China’s “heroes and martyrs,” his younger brother Gao Qiang told CNN Sunday in an email from New York. The criminal offense, introduced in 2021, is punishable by up to three years in prison. The public security bureau that Gao Qiang said had detained his brother, in Hebei province’s Sanhe city, declined to comment. At the height of their careers, the Gao Brothers created provocative sculptures of Mao in a country notoriously sensitive about its former ruler’s legacy. But that was well over a decade ago — during a relatively liberal era for artistic expression before China took an authoritarian turn under leader Xi Jinping. Now, some of those older works have been seized by police as evidence against Gao Zhen, his brother said. They include “Mao’s Guilt,” a life-size bronze cast created in 2009 that depicts the former Chinese Communist Party leader kneeling, hand on heart, in repentance; “The Execution of Christ,” created that same year, which features a firing squad of life-sized Chairman Maos pointing their bayoneted rifles at Jesus; and a collection of busts named “Miss Mao,” which come in various sizes and colors, sporting a Pinocchio-like nose and large, naked breasts. The avant-garde artists’ latest works had not been as politically sensitive or explicitly critical of Chinese leaders, their friends say. Gao Zhen had lived a quiet life in China and spent most days in his studio prior to moving to the US, Du Yinghong, a fellow artist who has known the brothers for nearly two decades, told CNN in a phone call. Due to the “deteriorating environment” in China, Gao Zhen relocated to New York two years ago when his son, an American citizen born in the US, reached school age, Gao Qiang said. The artist returned to China in June with his wife and son to visit family. “Before he set off, his friends and family — myself included — had all reminded him to consider whether it was safe to go,” Gao Qiang said. “He himself also thought he might encounter problems, but still, as if driven by fate, he went back.” Related articleChina’s military has become an untouchable nationalist symbol. Artists and comedians are finding out the hard way At first, everything seemed fine. Gao Zhen kept in touch during his trip and regularly posted on the Chinese social messaging app WeChat. In July, he organized a birthday party for his son who had turned 6 years old. But on August 26, just over a week before the family was scheduled to fly back to the US, about 30 police raided the Gao Brothers’ studio in Yanjiao, a town on the border of Beijing and neighboring Hebei province, to “search for evidence,” Gao Qiang said. Police demanded the artist hand over his phone. Gao Zhen refused and was forcibly handcuffed and taken away, according to his brother. Gao Zhen’s wife received his detention notice the following day from the public security bureau in Sanhe, Gao Qiang said, adding that she had been warned by police not to speak to the media about her husband’s detention. The police returned to the studio on August 27 to search for more evidence, according to Gao Qiang. “A few days before his arrest, Gao Zhen told me that he was organizing his Yanjiao studio and had destroyed some unfinished sculptures in stock, including those of ‘Miss Mao,’” Gao Qiang said in an email. “He is nearly 70 years old and naturally prone to melancholy. I am very concerned about his physical and mental health.” Chinese artists the Gao Brothers walk past some of their “Miss Mao” pieces in their Beijing studio in October 16, 2007. David Gray/Reuters ‘Retroactive punishment’ Under Xi, the ruling Communist Party has vowed to eradicate “historical nihilism” — or any views that question or challenge its official version of history, including glorified images of sanctified national heroes. China passed a law in 2018 banning any insult or slander of national “heroes and martyrs,” including military personnel. The offense was added to the country’s criminal code three years later. Since then, the law has been used to jail a popular blogger who doubted the official death toll of Chinese soldiers in a border clash with India, and a former investigative journalist who questioned China’s role in the Korean War, as depicted in a patriotic movie. And last year, a stand-up comedian was investigated by police for the same offense after making a joke that referenced a military slogan at a show in Beijing. It cost him his job and his employer more than $2 million in fines, though police later dropped the case and did not press charges. Around that time, another Chinese contemporary artist, Yue Minjun, faced the wrath of online nationalists for “uglifying” and “insulting” China’s military with his iconic grinning self-portraits, but the authorities did not act on those accusations. That makes Gao Zhen the first Chinese artist known to be detained under the law. His brother and friends wonder why authorities appear to be targeting the Gaos’ works retroactively, as they were created many years before the law came into force. “The artworks collected as evidence by the police were all created more than a decade ago as part of an artistic reflection on Mao’s Cultural Revolution,” Gao Qiang said. “Imposing retroactive punishment for actions taken before the new law took effect goes against the widely accepted legal principle of non-retroactivity.” The Gaos hail from a generation of Chinese artists who pushed the boundaries of creative expression by offering an unflinching glimpse into the dark chapters of their country’s past. The upheaval of the Cultural Revolution, which roiled China in the 1960s and 1970s, inflicted indelible pain on the Gao family. The brothers

Paralympic sprinter Alessandro Ossola had one of the best days of his life on Sunday – and it had nothing to do with his racing. Ossola may have failed to qualify for the final of the T63 100 meters, but the Italian secured a “yes” from his ecstatic girlfriend after proposing to her in the stands of the Stade de France after the race. “You’re crazy!” Ossola’s shocked partner Arianna said as he knelt and asked for her hand in marriage in front of a crowd of 40,000 people. “Our relationship is like a maelstrom because every athlete needs people around them to push them,” he told the official Olympic website. “Sometimes, she believed in me more than I believed in myself, and that’s something truly amazing. ‘You can do it, you can succeed, you can, you can,’ she would say. This is something everyone needs, and I hope that everyone finds someone like her. She is my partner … for life.” Ossola asked his girlfriend to marry him after competing in the men’s 100m T63 on Sunday. Christophe Ena/AP Ossola lost most of his left leg in a 2015 motorcycle accident, which also claimed the life of his first wife. He credits sport as providing him with a “way to take action and a way out of a very dark period,” adding: “After my accident, I lost a lot – everything but my smile – but sport pushed me to smile more and more.” He reflected on the race by saying: “Some might say today wasn’t an amazing day for me from a sporting perspective. I say it was. At 36 years old, I was competing with the best in the world, and I’m really proud of that.” Ossola, also the founder of the world’s first inclusive padel circuit and a non-profit association tasked with challenging people’s misconceptions about disabilities, hinted that this may be his last Paralympics, having also competed in Tokyo three years ago. “With what I’ve achieved in these last days at the Paris Paralympics, I feel like I’ve closed that circle. Now, I’m ready to start along a new path because my life isn’t over, and I have many things left to do,” he added. A summer of Olympic and Paralympic love With this year’s Games set in the City of Love, it’s no wonder there have been so many proposals among athletes and their significant others. During the Olympics, Argentine handball player Pablo Simonet proposed to hockey player and compatriot Pilar Campoy in the Olympic Village, while French athlete Alice Finot headed over to her boyfriend in the stands to propose to him in a heartwarming moment at the Stade de France after claiming fourth place and setting a new European record in the women’s 3000-meter steeplechase. After winning gold in the mixed doubles event, Chinese badminton player Huang Yaqiong’s was proposed to by her boyfriend and fellow badminton player Liu Yuchen. Meanwhile, over in Marseille, French skippers Charline Picon and Sarah Steyaert could celebrate winning bronze with both of their partners proposing to them. And at this year’s Paralympics, badminton player Rogerio Junior Xavier de Oliveira got down on one knee to propose to sitting volleyball player and fellow Brazilian Edwarda de Oliveira Dias during the men’s singles SL4 group play stage SL4, holding a sign reading ‘Edwarda Will You Marry Me?’ “What a most incredible moment. It was a beautiful surprise. I wasn’t expecting this. We have been through so much to get here and today, another great dream came true,” Oliveira said following the proposal. Her husband-to-be added: “I wanted to take this moment to ask her to marry me because she has been one of the most important people for me to be here today. “She motivated me, made me believe and showed me the right path here. I am so happy. To ask her to marry me at that moment was incredible for me.”

American Ezra Frech completed a remarkable golden double on Tuesday at the Paris Paralympics after he won the men’s high jump by clearing a height of 1.94 meters, setting a new Paralympic record that was just shy of his own world record. On Monday, the 19-year-old earned a dramatic gold in the men’s 100-meter T63 sprint – coming from behind to win in a photo finish to beat Denmark’s Daniel Wagner by just 0.02 seconds. Frech was born with congenital limb differences and ran on his first blades aged four. The future star was soon playing soccer, basketball and running track, according to Olympics.com. By age 11, after watching the Rio 2016 Paralympics, he vowed to his friends that he would make it to Tokyo 2020. “Everyone said I was crazy,” he told Sports Illustrated ahead of the Games. “It was statistically unlikely. I mean, an 11-year-old saying he’s gonna make the Games in four years is utterly ridiculous.” He made good on his promise, but didn’t place, finishing fifth in the T63 high jump and missing out on a medal. In the high jump, Frech cleared a Paralympic record height of 1.9 meters.  Thibault Camus/AP “That is undoubtedly one of the most devastating moments of my entire life,” Frech said to SI about his experience in Tokyo. “It’s easy to fail in private. It’s hard to fail on the world stage where everyone sees it.” After years of training, Frech surprised even himself by coming back from a slow start in the 100m to bag his first gold medal – especially as he “was treating this as a warm-up for the high jump, to get the blood flowing and have a good race.” “I’m still taking it in right now. I was definitely not expecting to go out there and win,” he said after the race. For the high jump, in which he holds the world record, he cleared a new Paralympic record height of 1.94 meters – 14 centimeters higher than his jump in Tokyo (1.8m) – and claimed his second gold medal of the Paris Paralympics. Still, Frech has his sights set on something more. “I would trade in every medal, every world record, every national championship title if it meant I could normalize disability in the process,” he said. “That’s what I’m about. I just know that those accolades are a step to reach that larger goal.”

Queen guitarist Brian May had a minor stroke last week that left him unable to control his left arm or play guitar, he said on Wednesday in a video posted on his Instagram feed and website. He explained that he had suffered a “health hiccup,” since diagnosed as a “minor stroke,” and went “blue lights flashing” to the hospital when he couldn’t use his arm last week, but he reassured fans that he had since recovered enough to play his guitar. May has faced a series of health problems in recent years.  Miikka Skaffari/Getty Images Although May is most famous as a founding member of Queen and for writing some of the legendary rock band’s biggest hits, including “We Will Rock You” and “Who Wants to Live Forever,” he has also enjoyed a career as an astrophysicist and animal rights activist. “Good news is that I can play guitar after the events of the last few days,” he said, adding that it “was a little scary” but that he “had the most fantastic care and attention from Frimley Hospital.” He said he was “okay” and “just doing what I’m told, which is basically nothing,” listing the things he can’t do at the moment like drive, get on a plane or raise his heart rate too high. As he spoke, a plane flew overhead and he joked that “I’m not allowed to have planes flying over, which will stress me.” Later in the video, May also spoke about his recently released documentary detailing his decade-long campaign to stop Britain’s controversial badger cull. The musician has suffered from a series of health issues in recent years. In May 2020, he had a heart attack, after which he had three stents – short, wire-mesh tubes that act like a scaffold to help keep an artery open – put in to alleviate the danger of blood supply being blocked from the heart. Afterward, May told the television show “Good Morning Britain” that he nearly died when he suffered a range of complications, including a stomach hemorrhage as a result of the medication he was taking for his heart. In March last year, he was knighted by King Charles III for his services to music and charity.

A series of smiling Instagram photos of diplomats wearing purple and enjoying cupcakes has caused a spat between Iran and Australia, with the Australian ambassador summoned to explain the “disrespectful” behavior. The Australian Embassy in Tehran posted photos on Monday to mark Wear It Purple Day, an annual celebration of LGBTQIA+ youth founded in Australia. “Today, and every day, we’re dedicated to creating a supportive environment, where everyone, especially LGBTQIA+ youth, can feel proud to be themselves,” the caption read. The post drew swift condemnation from Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which deemed it “disrespectful and contrary to Iranian and Islamic cultural norms,” according to state news agency IRNA. Homosexuality is illegal in Iran, which considers same-sex relations a breach of Islamic values, punishable under the country’s Sharia-based law. “The official Instagram page of the Australian Embassy in Tehran has promoted homosexuality in a derogatory post,” IRNA reported. Australian ambassador Ian McConville responded by saying the embassy “had no intention of offending the Iranian people,” according to IRNA. The bi-lingual post on the official Australia In Iran Instagram account has drawn thousands of likes and comments, including from the German Embassy Tehran which responded with three purple heart emojis. Asked about the diplomatic spat in an interview with Australia’s national broadcaster, the ABC, government minister Murray Watt said he was “concerned” about Iran’s reaction to a message he said was in keeping with his own country’s values. “We support all Australians, regardless of their sexual orientation, their gender, their race, and I am concerned to see this reaction from the Iranian government to the activities of the Australian embassy,” Watt told the ABC. “We’re very proud about the fact that our embassies promote Australian values internationally and I’m very concerned to see an overseas government seemingly take action against an Australian embassy that is upholding Australian values,” he said. According to Amesty International, LGBTQIA+ people suffer “systemic discrimination and violence in Iran,” where the punishment for consensual same-sex relations ranges from flogging to the death penalty. Iranian authorities have sentenced rights advocates to death over posts on social media. In 2021 prominent Iranian LGBTQIA+ campaigners Zahra Sedighi-Hamadani and Elham Chobdar were arrested and later sentenced to death for alleged crimes including “corruption on earth” and “promoting homosexuality” over social media, according to the US government and Amnesty International. Both advocates were released on bail in 2023, and Sedighi-Hamadani fled Iran for an “undisclosed country” the next year. Chobdar was re-arrested in 2024 and remains in detention, according to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.

A 61-year-old Austrian man was arrested last month for having sex in a shrine in Japan with a Japanese woman in her 40s, local police told CNN on Wednesday. The couple were caught having sex on August 22 while in the grounds of a shrine in Kesennuma –- a small coastal town about 500 kilometers (310 miles) north of Tokyo –- and faced charges of disrespecting a place of worship. Police told CNN that they arrested the man, fearing he could be a flight risk, but did not arrest the woman after concluding there was no risk of her fleeing. The man has since been released from custody, but the police said they could not disclose details of his punishment and did not clarify whether he was a tourist or a resident. These cases don’t always end in forced repatriation, the police added, and can result in a fine. Although such a case is rare, there have been other instances of people being arrested for disrespecting Japanese shrines. Last year, a 17-year-old Canadian was brought in for questioning for allegedly scratching the name “Julian” with his nail into a wooden pillar at a UNESCO-listed temple in the historic city of Nara, local police told CNN at the time. “The boy admitted his act and says it was done not with the intent of harming Japanese culture,” a police official said.  “He is now with his parents, who were with him when the incident occurred.” Meanwhile in 2010, famed photographer Kishin Shinoyama was charged with public indecency and disrespect for a religious site when he allegedly took nude photos at a public cemetery. Yumi Asada reported from Tokyo, Issy Ronald wrote in London. CNN’s Karla Cripps and Eru Ishikawa contributed reporting.

  Rachael Gunn, the Olympic breaker who went viral for her dance performance at the Paris Games last month, has apologized to the breaking community for the backlash she brought upon it. In an interview with Australian current affairs show “The Project” broadcast Wednesday, Gunn, widely known as Raygun, said she is “very sorry for the backlash that the community has experienced” as a result of her performance. The 37-year-old university lecturer did not register a single point across her Olympic battles against breakers from the United States, France and Lithuania in August, losing 18-0 in all three rounds. Gunn’s Paris Games performance included a kangaroo hop, which she said was inspired by Australia’s Olympic mascot, the Boxing Kangaroo. Ezra Shaw/Getty Images Her performance consisted of moves including a kangaroo hop, a backward roll and various contortions with her body while lying or crawling on the floor. In her interview with “The Project,” Gunn said her breaking style is “just a different approach” to the sport. Gunn’s breaking at the Olympics drew attention from across the globe. Singer Adele took time out of her concert in Munich to question whether the whole thing was a “joke,” while actress Rachel Dratch imitated her on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.” In Wednesday’s interview, Gunn said she hasn’t seen the Fallon sketch, but mentioned that she doesn’t know “whether to hug (Fallon) or yell at him, because what a platform he ended up giving me.” “It kind of feels like a really weird dream that I’ve been having that I’m going to wake up from at any moment,” she added. Gunn said she qualified for the Paris Olympics by winning the Oceania championships, but added that she was “super nervous” to compete in the 2024 Games. “I knew that I was going to get beaten, and I knew that people were not going to understand my style and what I was going to do,” she said. “The odds were against me, that’s for sure.” Gunn told “The Project” that she won’t be participating in any breaking competitions for a while, as she wants to avoid the spotlight. “I would much rather focus on the positives out of this, and the positive responses and the joy that I brought people,” she said. “It’s going out there and just having fun and going as hard as you can in the face of, you know, losing.” Breakdancing made its Olympic debut at the 2024 Paris Games but will not feature in Los Angeles in 2028.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba became the latest top official to tender his resignation on Wednesday, ahead of an expected major government reshuffle as yet another wave of Russian attacks overnight killed at least seven people, including a child. As Ukraine’s top diplomat, Kuleba has been a prominent fixture in Zelensky’s administration and one of the most public-facing, especially dealing with overseas officials. He was seen as a capable politician and a safe pair of hands, one of the strongest members of Zelensky’s cabinet. His offer to resign comes ahead of an expected visit by the president to the United States this month. Kuleba’s was the latest in a flurry of resignations. Two of Ukraine’s vice premiers, three ministers, the head of the State Property Fund and a top official in Zelensky’s Presidential Office have all quit within the last day or so. The parliament needs to approve the resignations for them to take effect. They are yet to vote on Kuleba’s exit, but have approved the resignations of the three other ministers and one of the vice premiers on Wednesday. They did not accept the resignation of the property fund head and the deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk, who will remain in their posts. The parliament is expected to vote on Kuleba’s resignation on Thursday. It will also vote on the two resignations it did not accept on Wednesday and consider the appointment of new ministers. Zelensky has not yet given any explanation for the reshuffle, but said in his nightly address on Tuesday that the coming fall will be “extremely important for Ukraine” and as such “our state institutions must be set up so that Ukraine achieves all the results we need.” Kuleba and others who tendered their resignations are widely expected to be appointed into other roles in the Zelensky administration. The reshuffle comes at a precarious time for Ukraine. Its troops are under increasing pressure on the eastern frontlines, especially around the strategic city of Pokrovsk that is on the brink of falling to Russia. It seems likely that Zelensky wants to have his new team in place for his trip to the US later this month, where he is expected to attend the United Nation General Assembly and meet the US President Joe Biden. Zelensky said last week that he intends to present Biden with a new four-part “victory plan” – without providing details. The last major change Zelensky made to the top echelon of Ukraine’s leadership came in February, when he replaced the former Commander in Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi with Oleksander Syrskyi. Ukrainian political scientist Mykola Davydiuk said there were no major disagreements within the government. Instead, Zelensky is likely trying to send a signal that he is injecting new energy into his government. “(The president’s office) wanted to do this last fall, then in December, then in May. They spoke about it so they need to do something, otherwise people will not believe them,” he said, adding that Zelensky likely sensed a window of opportunity for the reshuffle. “The West can’t criticize him now because they have a lot of domestic issues to deal with – the US election, election trouble in Germany and France,” he added. Ukraine’s parliament will consider the foreign minister’s resignation at one of its plenary meetings soon, Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk said on Telegram. Davyd Arakhamia, the majority leader of Ukraine’s parliament, said Tuesday that there would be major changes expected in the cabinet this week. “As promised, a major government reset can be expected this week. More than 50% of the Cabinet of Ministers’ staff will be changed,” Arakhamia said on Telegram, adding that new members would be appointed imminently. Among those who have resigned was the Minister for Strategic Industries Oleksandr Kamyshin, who was in charge of weapons production. He is expected to assume another defense role, Reuters reported. The resignations also include the justice, environment and reintegration ministers. “To do this, we need to strengthen some areas of the government… I am also counting on a slightly different weight for certain areas of our foreign and domestic policy,” he said. “Putin still has the same purpose to freeze people, to destroy our economy and this is his strategy. So I’m afraid he will continue with his barrage of missile and drone attacks over the course of the autumn,” he said. The attacks, Kuleba said, are “just another reason why delivery of air defense systems to Ukraine must be expedited.” Emergency workers carry the body of a person killed during a Russian drone and missile strike in Lviv, Ukraine on September 4, 2024. Roman Baluk/Reuters Missiles hit Lviv The expected reshuffle came as Russian missiles continued to rain down on Ukrainian cities. Just a day after two ballistic missiles hit an educational facility in Poltava in central Ukraine, a major attack struck Lviv, a city in western Ukraine that has long been considered a safe haven in the war-torn country. Lviv’s mayor Andriy Sadovyi said seven people, including a 14-year-old girl, were killed and 25 were injured in the attacks. A 15-month-old child suffered “moderate” injuries and four other children have minor injuries, according to the head of the city’s regional military administration Maksym Kozytskyi. Lviv, in Ukraine’s far west, is generally far away from Russian borders, which means missiles and drones take longer to reach it – giving the Ukrainian military more time to shoot them down. Many people from eastern regions relocated there to seek safety. Kozytskyi said that at least seven “architectural monuments of local importance,” including houses located in a historic part of the city and inside a UNESCO buffer zone, were also damaged in the attack. On Tuesday, a Russian strike against a military educational facility in central Ukraine killed 53 people and injured more than 270 others, according to the state emergency service of Ukraine. It was one of the deadliest single attacks since the start of Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. Ukraine’s Air Force said Wednesday it shot down 22 attack drones and seven

Nearly 2,400 allegations of sexual abuse across hundreds of Ireland’s religious-run schools have been documented in a new report, marking the latest grim revelations to emerge from the country’s historic Church-State entanglement. The report, released Tuesday, documented 2,395 allegations of historical child sexual abuse, involving 884 alleged abusers in 308 schools across the country. Most of the allegations were reported from the records of 42 religious orders that currently run or previously ran schools in Ireland. The scope of the allegations ranges from 1927-2013. More than half the men accused – which include teachers and priests – have died, it said. Ireland’s Minister for Education Norma Foley said Tuesday that the level of abuse detailed in the report was “truly shocking – and so is the number of alleged abusers.” She called the report a “harrowing document, containing some of the most appalling accounts of sexual abuse.” More than 140 survivors provided harrowing testimony for the report, describing being molested, stripped naked, raped and drugged in “an atmosphere of terror and silence.” Their abuse was often “accompanied by ferocious violence,” the 700-page report said. Most of the survivors interviewed for the report are men now in their 50s, 60s and 70s. Some said it was the first time they‘d spoken about the abuse and its impact on them, with many saying that their childhood “stopped the day the abuse started.” Some survivors said the abuse was “so pervasive” that it could not have gone unnoticed by senior leadership within the religious orders that were running the schools. They added that they believed some of those leaders not only ignored the abuse but facilitated and participated in it. Others said that they believed there had been a “cover-up” in the schools or by the religious order, and “collusion” between the State and Church. “Many participants said that they felt that the power of the Catholic Church permeated their lives in every way and, for the majority, they felt there was no one they could tell, including their parents,” the report said. The Catholic Church has been deeply entwined with the Irish state for much of its history. Although a referendum in the 1970s drastically reduced the Church’s political sway, it remained pervasive in many aspects of civil society. Today, nearly 90% of schools in Ireland remain Catholic, even though the percentage of the population that identifies as such is much lower. Lifelong impact As adults, survivors detailed a litany of difficulties stemming from the abuse, including failed relationships, mental and physical health problems and addiction issues. Some said that the abuse made them decide not to have children. Others who did said it impacted their parenting. Many survivors said that they had moved away from family and friends to avoid memories of childhood trauma and described feeling alienated from religious services. Some avoided attending a parent’s funeral or other family event because they said they could not enter a church as a result of the abuse. A government-mandated investigation into sexual abuse at religious-run boarding and day-schools was first launched after Ireland’s national broadcaster RTÉ aired a documentary in 2022 that highlighted systemic sexual abuse at Blackrock College, a prestigious private school in Dublin. The report found that the abuse was spread across public and private schools, including 17 special education schools – which recorded 590 allegations involving 190 alleged abusers. Foley said on Tuesday that the Irish government would begin a process of establishing a commission to further investigate the abuse and that a redress scheme would be established. She said that religious orders have a “moral obligation” to contribute to any future redress scheme. Meanwhile, those religious orders have not committed to contribute to the Mother and Baby Homes redress scheme, which opened for applications earlier this year. The 2021 Mother and Baby Homes report found that 9,000 babies and children died in 18 of Ireland’s mother and baby homes – church-run institutions where unmarried women were sent to deliver their babies in secret, often against their will – over eight decades. The religious congregations who ran Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries – workhouses where thousands of women and girls lived and worked without pay for years in “harsh and physically demanding” situations – have also declined to contribute to a State redress scheme set up in 2013 to compensate the survivors of those institutions.

With its announcement that militants guarding Israeli hostages in the buildings and tunnels of Gaza had “new instructions” to kill them if Israeli troops closed in, Hamas signaled the opening of a chilling new chapter in an already brutal war. Seizing on a spasm of public outrage in Israel at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s inability to bring home the remaining hostages, Hamas released a comic book-style image of a kneeling figure threatened with a gun, followed by a video of Eden Yerushalmi, 24, a bartender at the Nova music festival and one of six hostages who Israel says were shot at close range in Hamas captivity last week before Israeli forces could reach them. In a cruel twist of timing – the funerals of the slain hostages had taken place on Sunday and Monday – Hamas said it would drip-feed footage of what it described as the “final messages” of the remaining five. It released a second video on Tuesday, featuring Ori Danino, a 25-year-old who was abducted from the Nova music festival on October 7. Danino had helped other festival-goers escape the horror. It was not clear when any of the footage was filmed – nor whether it was intended that the videos would be used in this way. Hamas’ new tactics – which Yerushalmi’s family say amount to “psychological terror” – will further fan the fury in Israeli society. For the past three days, crowds have swelled in multiple Israeli cities, with protesters blaming Netanyahu for, in their view, sacrificing Israeli citizens to stay in power, as right-wing members of his coalition have threatened to bring down the government should he end the war. After a general strike that brought the country to a near halt on Monday, thousands of protesters took to the streets again on Tuesday, with demonstrations in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Hod HaSharon, Haifa, Herzliya and Ra’anana. In Tel Aviv, some of the largest crowds gathered outside the Begin Gate of the Kirya – the military headquarters – where a site had been set aside for demonstrators including families of hostages to gather. Video footage showed fires on the street, police attempting to extinguish the flames and protesters waving flags and demanding the release of the hostages held in Gaza. Police said later they had arrested three people suspected of rioting. Yet, it remains far from clear whether such public demonstrations of anger will compel Netanyahu to change Israel’s approach to the war in Gaza. Some analysts say that unlike earlier in the war, Hamas may no longer believe that keeping hostages gives it leverage over Israel. “Hamas has taken the hostage issue out of the equation. It knows that this current Israeli administration is not interested in any kind of hostage release deal,” Tahani Mustafa, a senior Palestine analyst at Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank, told CNN. “I don’t think they consider them as substantial playing cards any longer.” In a statement Monday evening, Hamas spokesperson Abu Obaida said the new instructions had come into place after an “incident” in Nuseirat, seeming to refer to an Israel Defense Forces operation in June that rescued four Israeli hostages from a refugee camp in central Gaza. The raid, which killed 274 Palestinians, occurred mid-morning when the streets were teeming with people shopping at a nearby market. Some of the captors were killed, and the IDF successfully retrieved the hostages unharmed, further weakening Hamas’ leverage in negotiations with Israel. Since then, the IDF has rescued one more hostage – Farhan Al-Qadi, 52, a Bedouin Israeli citizen who was retrieved from a tunnel in Gaza last week. When Hamas took some 250 people hostage from southern Israel on October 7, “they thought they could try to leverage them for a prisoner exchange deal,” Mustafa said. Although an exchange deal was struck as early as November, no further agreement has been reached 10 months later. A ‘watershed’ moment The successful rescues may have helped Netanyahu to argue that Israel’s twin war aims of destroying Hamas and returning the hostages can be pursued simultaneously, making the cries for a ceasefire-for-hostages deal less urgent. But, after the murder of the six hostages under Hamas’ new directive, hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets on Monday to demand Netanyahu’s government strike a deal to free the hostages, in one of the largest demonstrations since the war began. Many wondered if the nationwide outrage might be enough to force his hand. Instead, a defiant and bellicose Netanyahu used his first public comments since the discovery of the bodies to double down on his strategy in the strip. He said Israel will retaliate strongly against Hamas for the killing of the six hostages, hinting that the response would be akin to the strike against Hezbollah in July that killed the Iran-backed group’s top commander Fu’ad Shukr. He stressed again his commitment to fighting until Hamas is defeated and repeated his refusal to withdraw soldiers from the border between Gaza and Egypt – a new sticking point threatening once again to derail talks to reach a deal. Although Netanyahu has refused to cede ground under growing pressure, analysts say the killing of the six hostages by Hamas has been a turning point, leading many in the country to ask whether Israel is reaching the limits of what its military power can achieve, and whether its offensive may be endangering the more than 100 hostages from the country still being held in Gaza. “The penny that dropped for a lot of Israelis is that going after Hamas is not complementing the return of the hostages. It is hindering and hampering the return of the hostages,” Ori Goldberg, an Israeli political analyst and lecturer at Reichman University in Tel Aviv, told CNN. “It became very clear that the presence of the IDF played a direct part in the decision of their Hamas keepers to kill them,” he said. “The sense that the Netanyahu government is incompetent, that Netanyahu is doing all of this for his own reasons, is

She already has 17 Paralympic medals to her name across four Summer and Winter Games disciplines – more than most athletes could even dream of. Yet Team USA athlete Oksana Masters says she still has “so many things” motivating her ahead of the Paralympic Games – including defending the two para-cycling gold medals that she earned in Tokyo. Sport, she tells CNN Sport’s Coy Wire, sent her on a “journey of self-discovery and love.” Born in Ukraine with significant birth defects believed to be linked to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster – six toes, webbed fingers, no thumbs and legs that were missing weight-bearing bones – Masters spent the first seven years of her life between orphanages before her American mother, Gay Masters, adopted her. Oksana Masters competing in the Para Biathlon at Beijing 2022. Issei Kato/Reuters After moving to the US, Masters’ legs were amputated at the ages of nine and 14. Since winning her first Paralympic medal in rowing at London 2012, the talented multi-disciplined athlete has amassed a total of 17 medals – seven of them gold – in six different editions of the Games in rowing, cross-country skiing, biathlon and cycling. Immersing herself in these sporting disciplines slowly helped her accept herself. “That was the journey for me to love myself and accept myself and see my body as powerful and strong. It was not an overnight journey,” she tells CNN. “Sports really taught me how it was okay to take my legs off in front of people and to still be powerful and feel powerful and use my body in ways and see it in this unique way that I know I feel,” she said. “I want people to see how I feel about it and not [let] society – just because they don’t know it and are uncomfortable about it – determine how I feel.” Masters is as resilient as she is talented – after a back injury forced her to retire from rowing following the London Paralympics, she then tried her hand at cross-country skiing, bagging a silver and bronze at the Sochi 2014 Winter Games. Almost 10 years later, her cycling performance in Tokyo, where she won two gold medals, came less than a year after recovering from leg surgery. Masters, pictured at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, after winning gold.  Lisi Niesner/Reuters “I came to America with so many scars, and the story was written for me. And I let them define me. I let those memories be what those memories were. But that’s not what defines you,” she tells CNN Sport. She adds: “It’s not what you’ve been through. It’s what you choose to do and how you move forward and all the things you have done. And the scars are just there to remember how strong [you] are. Whether it’s a scar you got from climbing a tree, or whether it’s a scar that you didn’t ask for, it is – it’s a symbol of power and strength.” This year, Masters will participate in para cycling races. The 35-year-old athlete said she is always chasing that perfect race, “where it doesn’t matter where I finish on the podium, before I know the result. “I think a lot of athletes are chasing that perfect race. And, you know, it’s not about the gold medal [that is] what makes a perfect race,” she adds.

At least 12 people died when a migrant boat capsized off the coast of Cap Gris-Nez, in northern France, on Tuesday, according to French authorities. Nearly 70 people were on board the vessel, according to Boulogne-sur-Mer mayor, Frédéric Cuvillier. The exact number is unclear. Emergency crews rescued 65 people, the maritime prefecture said. Several of those were in critical condition and required urgent medical care. Three helicopters, two fishing vessels and two boats have been deployed in the search and rescue operation. French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin is scheduled to visit the scene on Tuesday afternoon. This is a developing story and will be updated.

The desire to fly in style weighs heavily on most of us – but for some first-class flyers it weighs the heaviest of all. Swiss – Switzerland’s flag carrier – is having to make alterations to some of its aircraft because new first class seats, due to be installed as a much needed revamp, are proving to be too heavy. The new jumbo seats on the Airbus A330s – which include six-foot walls and locking doors for each suite – are seated at the front of the plane, making the aircraft nose-heavy. Swiss will have to fit a massive “balancing plate” at the back of the plane to recenter the balance of the aircraft. The new seats, called “Swiss Senses,” were announced in 2023 for a debut of winter 2025-2026. The airline has promised a full made-in-Switzerland experience, with up to 37 square foot “suites” in first class with sliding doors and walls shielding passengers from their fellow mortals. In a statement, Swiss said that as industry trends mean that first and business class seats get heavier (to provide more privacy) and economy seats get lighter, “these two contrasting trends are changing the center of gravity of the aircraft in which such seats are installed.” It said that aircraft types that tend towards being nose-heavy anyway are particularly affected – and unfortunately the A330 is one of those. The airline will also be retrofitting Boeing 777s with the new seats – but without the same issue. Its Airbus A340s will not be getting the new seats. On the A330s, Swiss will therefore be adding a “balancing plate” to correct the center of gravity. It will be calculated once the new cabin interiors are installed and weighed precisely, and will “remain aboard these aircraft until other options can be developed,” the spokesperson said, adding that the airline will be scouting technology that could replace the plate. The plate – positioned at the back of the aircraft – will not be visible to passengers in economy. The airline cannot confirm its exact weight, said the spokesperson, as they will have to wait for the final weight of the seats in order to calculate the counterweight. Unusually for a European airline, Swiss offers a first-class cabin on all its longhaul flights. It was voted best European airline first class in the 2024 World Travel Awards. The new, weighty interiors were driven by customer feedback, said the spokesperson, who told the airline “in no uncertain terms that it is time we modernized the cabin interiors of our longhaul aircraft, and especially our Airbus A330-300s.” The aircraft currently operate routes from Switzerland to the Middle East, and US and Canada east coast. The airline has tried to reduce adding weight elsewhere, by not planning for sliding doors in business class seats, as other airlines have brought in, and by trimming the first class cabin from eight seats to four. The spokesperson said that adding more seats in economy to add weight at the back of the plane had been considered, but rejected to preserve comfort in the cheaper seats. Swiss denied it was a “planning error,” saying that while planning the cabin they used “rough estimates” of weight, which have now grown as manufacturing begins and will be confirmed once the new seats are installed. Its partner airline Lufthansa has also committed to the new seats for its revamped “Allegris” cabins, but a spokesperson for the German flag carrier confirmed that Lufthansa won’t be retrofitting any A330s, so won’t have the same issue. Flying first class is, of course, the most environmentally damaging way of flying commercial. The heavier seats and maximized space means that it is far less efficient than flying in a regular economy seat. The current first class seats on Swiss weigh 205 kilograms or 452 pounds. The final weight of the new seats “will not be known until [they are] installed,” said the spokesperson.

Mong Shuan was just 16 when she turned to an unconventional source of income: selling betel nuts from a little stall in northern Taiwan. The stimulant, a small, oblong fruit derived from areca palms, is chewed by millions of people across Asia. For the next three years, Mong would work six days a week for the equivalent of around $670 a month. A small bonus was tacked on for dressing provocatively to entice male customers. Her job was to slice the nuts open and add a pinch of slaked lime (or calcium hydroxide, which increases the body’s absorption of the stimulant they contain), before neatly wrapping each one in a leaf. To meet her sales targets, the betel nut “must be delicious.” she told CNN in an email. But hoping to attract more business, Mong would wear her dyed red hair long, a little makeup and a schoolgirl outfit in the style of Japanese anime character Sailor Moon. “The most important thing is your appearance,” she added. Vendors like Mong, who left the job in February, are known locally as “betel nut beauties.” The phenomenon emerged in the late 1960s, when the Shuangdong Betel Nut Stand, a stall in rural central Taiwan, successfully marketed their products with a campaign centered on its “Shuangdong Girls.” By the turn of the 21st century, tens of thousands of the neon-lit booths, which dot roadsides and industrial neighborhoods across the island, were staffed by young women. A betel nut stall in Taipei. Constanze Han Hoping to document the phenomenon, photographer Constanze Han spent a month in 2022 driving down the highway connecting the island’s capital, Taipei, to the southern city of Kaohsiung, meeting betel nut beauties along the way. Her fascination with the women dates back to the summer trips she used to make to her grandfather’s courtyard house on the outskirts of Taipei. “I loved driving there because there were the betel nut girls,” she recalled in a phone interview. “As a child, I didn’t really understand (who they were). My family had been to Amsterdam one time and we’d walked past the red-light district, so I thought it was a similar thing.” While the scenes of women, scantily clad in glass booths, might resemble brothels, selling betel nuts is not widely linked to prostitution in Taiwan. In fact, the women rarely leave their stalls except to approach drivers in their high heels. Nonetheless, the very existence of provocative betel nut beauties seemed strange in “a quiet, conservative culture” like Taiwan’s, said Han, who hoped her project could help dispel some of the stereotypes the women faced. A seller looks for customers while she prepares betel nuts. Constanze Han “(People with) engrained ideas of respectability, without really knowing or having interacted with these girls, might be like, ‘Oh those are girls from the wrong side of the tracks,’” she said. But in reality, Han added, “they all seemed quite level (headed) and responsible.” The photographer, who grew up between Hong Kong and New York with stints in Latin America, has always been interested in the jobs women take to survive regardless of the stigma associated with them. She was inspired by the work of Susan Meiselas, whose 1970s photo series “Carnival Strippers,” captured women working hard and long hours performing stripteases at carnivals in New England. “I always end up gravitating towards women,” said Han, who would spend time getting to know her subjects before asking to take their photos. “The conversation part, where there are no photographs, is such a big part of it. I end up having more honest conversations with women and I feel more curious about the nuances of their experiences.” Betel nuts are sometimes packaged in boxes featuring imagery of young women. Constanze Han Changing habits Han photographed 12 women, mostly in their late teens or early 20s, apart from one slightly older subject named Xiao Hong, who dresses more conservatively as she prepares the product wearing bright blue gloves at a betel nut stall in New Taipei City. The others appear drenched in the neon light of their booths or are shot gazing out of the windows; one woman’s face is distorted by the reflection of the busy streets outside. The photographer would spend hours capturing small, quiet moments that reveal the job’s mundane nature. Han’s experience as a former fashion editor comes through in the photos, which often look as if they were staged or taken from the pages of a glossy magazine. But it’s important that her images are “as honest as possible,” she said. The women would usually arrive for work in their normal clothes and get changed into more revealing garments in the booths, Han explained. Sometimes, owners would incentivize them to dress in a sexier way, though some of Han’s subjects said they would have done so anyway, because it helps them sell more products. One of Han’s subjects, Ju Ju, is pictured at a booth in the city of Taoyuan. Constanze Han One of the women Han photographed, Ju Ju, is pictured wearing red lingerie as she looks out of her strobe-lit booth in the city of Taoyuan. She began selling betel nuts to help make ends meet, the photographer said, adding that employment opportunities were limited for the young mom, who has no higher education. But Ju Ju has since grown to value the stability of the job. She has now been promoted to a manager position of two booths, and hopes to buy her own stall one day, Han added. Nonetheless, concerns that the women are victims of exploitation persist in Taiwan, and have prompted some regulation over the past two decades. In 2002, for example, the local government in Taoyuan county implemented a strict dress code that requires sellers to cover their breasts, butts and bellies. Although it is traditionally served by Taiwan’s indigenous communities at important gatherings, use of the addictive stimulant is also declining sharply. The island’s Ministry of Health and Welfare — which notes that users are 28 times more likely to

Before Matt Stutzman, an athlete with no arms competing in para archery seemed like an impossible feat. But the American archer has redefined the sport, showing that it’s possible to not only hold a bow with one leg, pull the bowstring back with one’s jaw, hold all the tension and potential energy and release an arrow, but to do so with an accuracy so unerring that it won him a gold medal with a Paralympic record score of 149 on Sunday. Almost as soon as Stutzman’s final arrow hit the target – scoring a 10, of course – he jumped up from his chair, rushed towards his teammate and hugged him, celebrating the achievement for which he has dedicated 12 years of his life. Elsewhere across the Paralympic archery venue too, there were living embodiments of his legacy in the form of other armless archers – two others in the men’s compound open and another, Sheetal Devi, in the women’s competition. “It’s kind of like my gold medal, as long as one of us armless archers medals,” Stutzman said before the Paralympics began. “I don’t care (who). How cool would that be? I tell them all my secrets. It’s about growing the sport.” Stutzman celebrates winning his gold medal.  Davidson/Getty Images Stutzman was born without arms and was adopted at four months old by a family of hunters in Iowa where he grew up wanted to be like his father and brother even though “they couldn’t hit nothing,” he said, according to the International Paralympic Committee. “But when you’re little, you want to act like your dad or mimic what he does, so he helped me purchase my first bow,” Stutzman added. “I was 16 at the time.” But that bow was stolen the following year and he did not buy another one until almost a decade later. From that point on, however, his archery only improved and he became a Paralympic silver medalist in 2012. In 2015, he set a new world record when he hit a target from a remarkable 283.47 meters (930.04 feet) away, breaking the previous mark that had been set by an able-bodied person. And, alongside his record-breaking exploits, Stutzman has opened up a whole new aspect of the sport, showing that an athlete who has no arms can compete and excel in para archery. Devi, who is one of his protégées, is just 17 years old but won bronze in the mixed team compound open competition, becoming the first female archer without arms to medal at the Paralympic Games. Sheetal Devi competed in her first Paralympics at 17 years old. Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile/Getty Images She too was born with a rare condition that meant her arms didn’t fully develop, and she took up archery at a youth event organized by the Indian Army in 2021. Her athleticism impressed the coaches there and, at first, they tried using prosthetics to allow her to hold a bow. When that didn’t work, they came across Stutzman, the ‘Armless Archer’ who had medaled at the 2012 Paralympics. Copying him, Devi rose through the sport, winning a world championship silver medal in 2023 and a gold medal at the Asian Para Games that same year. “Archery is everything for me,” Devi said after winning her Paralympic bronze medal. “From the time I started doing archery, my life has changed. If I wasn’t doing archery, I wouldn’t be here. Within such a short span of time, I have achieved so much.” Videos of her incredible performances at the Paris Paralympics have gone viral, making her one of the defining images of these Games. Sheetal Devi pictured training before the Paralympic Games. Jens B’ttner/dpa/AP Stutzman has already said that these Paralympic Games will be his last. Shooting with his leg for so long has taken a toll, creating “hip issues,” he said, and “after 13-and-a-half years or so of shooting every day, my hips are what the doctors say are ‘wearing out.’” But he leaves behind a changed sport, one that epitomizes much of the Paralympics’ spirit and has opened up new opportunities for the next generation of archers.