The Woman in the Wall: BBC drama about Ireland's Magdalene Laundries is essential viewing

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The Woman in the Wall: BBC drama about Ireland's Magdalene Laundries is essential viewing     “This isn’t a prison,” a nun in the new BBC drama The Woman in the Wall says. “You can leave anytime you want. But where would you go? Who would have you? No one wants you. You’re a sinner.”Set in the fictional town of Kilkinure in 20th-century Ireland, the show captures the story of Lorna Brady (Ruth Wilson), an unmarried mother who was formerly detained in a Magdalene Laundry. Established in the 18th century, the laundries catered for so-called “fallen women” who had engaged in sex work or had a child outside of wedlock. Ten of these institutions operated in post-independence Ireland between 1922 and 1996 and at least 10,000 women spent time in them. Continued here

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How AI Will Transform Project Management     Only 35% of projects today are completed successfully. One reason for this disappointing rate is the low level of maturity of technologies available for project management. This is about to change. Researchers, startups, and innovating organizations, are beginning to apply AI, machine learning, and other advanced technologies to project management, and by 2030 the field will undergo major shifts. Technology will soon improve project selection and prioritization, monitor progress, speed up reporting, and facilitate testing. Project managers, aided by virtual project assistants, will find their roles more focused on coaching and stakeholder management than on administration and manual tasks. The author show how organizations that want to reap the benefits of project management technologies should begin today by gathering and cleaning project data, preparing their people, and dedicating the resources necessary to drive this transformation. Continued here

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Why Conflicting Ideas Can Make Your Strategy Stronger     In a volatile, uncertain world, successful strategies are those conceived as portfolios of options rather than as roadmaps. But to successfully create and communicate such strategies, managers must embrace incompatible and misaligned ideas, communicate multiple and conflicting narratives, and share ideas as they think of them as opposed to the traditional sequence of thinking then sharing. To enable this, leaders need to foster a culture in which people can disagree without being punished for it. Continued here

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From Dumb Money to Saw X: 10 of the best films to watch in September     Denzel Washington's son, John David Washington, can be seen this month in The Creator, but Washington Sr hasn't given up on action movies himself. In The Equaliser 3, the 68-year-old returns as Robert McCall, the retired government agent who was played by Edward Woodward in the 1980s TV series, and by Queen Latifah in the recent CBS reboot. Washington's ultra-violent version of the character is now living quietly on Italy's idyllic Amalfi Coast, but his sojourn ends when the Mafia target some of his new friends. Dakota Fanning co-stars as a CIA agent, having appeared in another of Washington's action movies, Man on Fire, in 2004. "It was so beautiful to watch them together on the set, just talking, laughing," the film's director Antoine Fuqua, told James White in Empire. "She's like a daughter to him, he loves her. It was very easy with those two."A wildly acclaimed biopic from an Oscar-winning documentary maker, Roger Ross Williams, Cassandro stars Gael García Bernal as Saúl Armendáriz, a gay Mexican wrestler who is paid to lose all of his matches in humiliating style. But at the end of the 1980s, his trainer (Roberta Colindrez) encourages him to develop an empowered new persona, Cassandro, a character who is feminine, flamboyant, and willing to defeat his opponents. He changes both his own life and lucha libre (Mexican wrestling) in the process. Carlos Aguilar of IndieWire says García Bernal is "irresistible" in a "fabulous" film: "Glowing with García Bernal's magnetism, Cassandro balances the triumphant exaltation of Armendáriz's singular evolution as a trailblazer with the obvious, still not entirely eliminated bigotry that made his trajectory so significant and groundbreaking in the first place." Continued here

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And Just Like That Series 2 finale: How the Sex and the City sequel became the ultimate 'cringe-watch'     At the opening of the finale of And Just Like That series 2, for a mere 70 seconds, fans finally got what they had been waiting for: the long-awaited cameo from Samantha Jones, played by Kim Cattrall.Filmed as a phone conversation between Samantha and Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), the scene saw the inimitable Ms Jones call to say she wouldn't be able to make her surprise flight to New York after all. She wished Carrie well, and in another pleasing throw-back for avid Sex and the City viewers, made reference to the time she crashed Soho House New York pretending to be a British woman called Annabel Bronstein. Continued here

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Existential crisis: how long COVID patients helped us understand what it's like to lose your sense of identity and purpose in life     Lucy* used to be known fondly as the “iron lady” by colleagues at work. In her mid-50s and still the main breadwinner for her family, she had always thought of herself as strong, energetic, and indestructible – but not any more. Since contracting COVID in March 2020, Lucy told us she had been struggling with relentless fatigue, joint pain, breathlessness, brain fog and sensory dysfunction. But worse than any single symptom is how this leaves her feeling about her own identity. She said she found herself unrecognisable, a shadow of the person she used to be: Continued here

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Slower ageing, but slower economic growth: the Intergenerational Report in 7 charts     The Australian government has just released the latest iteration of its Intergenerational Report, the sixth since the first was published in 2002.Each provides a snapshot of the sort of Australia in which future generations will find themselves in 40 years’ time, should current government policies continue. Continued here

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For minorities, biased AI algorithms can damage almost every part of life     Bad data does not only produce bad outcomes. It can also help to suppress sections of society, for instance vulnerable women and minorities. This is the argument of my new book on the relationship between various forms of racism and sexism and artificial intelligence (AI). The problem is acute. Algorithms generally need to be exposed to data – often taken from the internet – in order to improve at whatever they do, such as screening job applications, or underwriting mortgages. Continued here

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The Lionesses had a terrific World Cup, but women's football in England is on shaky economic ground - new research     Dr Beth Clarkson is a leadership and workforce development consultant to the Premier League and holds academic positions at both the University of Portsmouth and University of Liverpool.Despite the disappointment of losing to Spain in the final, England’s women’s football team had a very good World Cup, on and off the pitch. Viewing figures were huge, media coverage was unprecedented and excitement about potential future achievements seems high. Continued here

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With fewer than 1,500 Catholics in Mongolia, Pope Francis' upcoming visit brings attention to the long and complex history of the minority religious group     Pope Francis is set to make the first-ever visit to Mongolia, a country with fewer than 1,500 Catholics, all of whom have come to the faith since 1992. But the pope’s visit is a reminder that the country has a long and complex history with Christianity, among many other faiths. Mongolia has only 3.4 million people, and at least 87.4% are Buddhists. The small Catholic community came into existence after this landlocked country, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, began to abandon its communist ideology and embraced different religions. At that time, it also restored diplomatic relations with the Vatican and welcomed Catholic missionaries. Continued here

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LGBTQ+ caregivers of people with dementia face unique stresses that lead to poorer physical and mental health     Caring for someone living with dementia can be a stressful experience that harms the physical and mental health of caregivers. Many caregivers experience depression and lower quality of life. LGBTQ+ caregivers face unique challenges that can magnify these strains.Around 8% of the estimated 50 million-plus caregivers of adults or children with special needs in the U.S. identify as LGBTQ+, with many caring for someone living with dementia. LGBTQ+ caregivers have experienced discrimination, isolation, stigma and other stressors related to their sexual orientation or gender identity and generally have poorer physical and mental health than non-LGBTQ+ caregivers. Yet existing programs and services, such as caregiver support groups and respite services, do not account for their unique needs. Continued here

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Slavery stole Africans' ideas as well as their bodies: reparations should reflect this     In a speech to mark Unesco’s campaign for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition, UN secretary-general António Guterres told the United Nations general assembly earlier this year that the inequalities created by 400 years of the transatlantic chattel trade persist to this day. “We can draw a straight line from the centuries of colonial exploitation to the social and economic inequalities of today,” he said.Guterres’ words were echoed by Judge Patrick Robinson of the international court of justice, who has called for the UK to recognise the need to pay reparations for its part in the slave trade, telling The Guardian on August 22 that: “Reparations have been paid for other wrongs and obviously far more quickly, far more speedily than reparations for what I consider the greatest atrocity and crime in the history of mankind: transatlantic chattel slavery.” Continued here

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Canines go to college in this class that seeks to give shelter dogs a fresh start     Uncommon Courses is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching. When I was growing up, my love for animals led me to volunteer at animal shelters. But it wasn’t until I started teaching psychology that I found another way to support the well-being of shelter animals. During my first year of teaching a psychology course about learning, I realized that the course’s content could be used to train shelter dogs. Continued here

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Insider trading - the legal kind -     Insider trading happens when a director or employee trades their company’s public stock or other security based on important or “material” information about that business. Insider trading isn’t illegal as long as the person reports the trade to the Securities and Exchange Commission and the information is already in the public domain. We wanted to know if multinational insiders stand to make more money because of the complexity of the information they could possess relative to outsiders. Continued here

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Waves of strikes rippling across the US seem big, but the total number of Americans walking off the job remains historically low     More than 323,000 workers – including nurses, actors, screenwriters, hotel cleaners and restaurant servers – walked off their jobs during the first eight months of 2023. Hundreds of thousands of the employees of delivery giant UPS would have gone on strike, too, had they not reached a last-minute agreement. And nearly 150,000 autoworkers may go on a strike of historic proportions in mid-September if the United Autoworkers Union and General Motors, Ford and Stellantis – the company that includes Chrysler – don’t agree on a new contract soon.This crescendo of labor actions follows a relative lull in U.S. strikes and a decline in union membership that began in the 1970s. Today’s strikes may seem unprecedented, especially if you’re under 50. While this wave constitutes a significant change following decades of unions’ losing ground, it’s far from unprecedented. Continued here

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Campus sexual assault prevention programs could do more to prevent violence, even after a decade-long federal mandate     Ten years after a federal law required colleges and universities to offer sexual assault prevention programming to students, only about half of them are doing it. Without a national database containing standardized measures of campus sexual assault over time, it is difficult to determine whether campus sexual assault has decreased since this prevention programming requirement went into effect. One review of campus climate surveys, designed to measure various forms of sexual misconduct at colleges and universities, revealed differences in the ways that schools measure assault. Continued here

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Many GCSE students still aren't taking modern foreign languages - how to motivate them to consider it     Figures for GCSEs taken in 2023 show that entries for GCSEs in languages have increased slightly from last year. Despite this, the number of pupils taking a modern foreign language stands at less than 60% of those that did in the peak year of 2001. The decline in the number of pupils taking modern foreign languages at GCSE dates back to the government’s decision to make the subject optional from 2004. At this point, the number of students taking an exam in the subject declined sharply and have never recovered. Continued here

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Sudan's future is being shaped by guns and money - like its past     Alex de Waal is the Executive Director of the World Peace Foundation, at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University.Like most contemporary wars, Sudan’s war cannot be reduced to a contest between two sides. It is many other things, among them a gun class of constantly shifting coalitions of specialists in violence and political trading that prey on civilians. Sudan’s peripheries have long been a lawless arena of brutal exploitation of people and natural resources by a military-commercial complex. Now the whole country is their canvas. Continued here

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World's beaches are changing because of climate change - green thinking is needed to save them     University of the Witwatersrand provides support as a hosting partner of The Conversation AFRICA.Coastlines – the interface between land and sea – lie at the frontline in the battle against climate change impacts. Continued here

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China's Africa strategy is shifting from extraction to investment - driven from the industry-rich Hunan region     China experienced a massive economic boom in the 1990s and 2000s which increased its demand for resource imports, like oil, from Africa. This led to a model of development finance in which China funded infrastructure in African countries in return for access to resources. This approach became known as the Angola model, because it all started with an infrastructure-for-petroleum partnership between China and Angola in 2004. Within a decade, however, a shift in China’s approach was needed, for a couple of reasons. Continued here

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New research reveals that      In 1991, hikers came across a body that was partially contained in ice high up in the Alpine province of South Tyrol, Italy. Initially thought to be from a recent death, the body was later discovered to be 5,300 years old – from a time known as the Copper Age.This amazing find would subsequently become known as Ötzi the Iceman. His body and belongings were extensively studied, prompting numerous questions: what was he doing here? Where was he from? How did he live – and die? Continued here

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How do coral reefs thrive in parts of the ocean that are low in nutrients? By eating their algal companions     Coral reefs thrive in parts of the world’s oceans that are low in nutrients. This mystery has puzzled scientists for centuries and has become known as the “Darwin paradox of coral reefs”.Our new study adds the missing piece of the puzzle. We found that many species of coral cultivate and feed on the microscopic algae that live inside their cells. This vegetarian diet allows the corals to tap into a large pool of nutrients that was previously considered unavailable to them. Continued here

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COVID boosters to be sold on the high street - here's what effect this may have on uptake     COVID boosters will be available to buy from high-street pharmacists and private healthcare providers across the UK in 2024. The news comes just weeks after the UK government announced that free boosters would only be available on the NHS for over-65s this autumn. Continued here

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'Worthless' forest carbon offsets risk exacerbating climate change     In early 2023, the Guardian published an article suggesting that more than 90% of rainforest carbon offsets are worthless. These credits are essentially a promise to protect forests and can be bought as a way to “offset” emissions elsewhere. Verra, the largest certifier of these offset credits, said the claims were “absolutely incorrect” but the story still shook confidence in the billion-dollar market. Soon after, Verra’s CEO stood down. REDD+ projects aim to slow deforestation (for example, by supporting farmers to change their practices). They quantify the carbon saved through reducing deforestation relative to what would have happened without the project, and sell these emission reductions as credits. Continued here

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Brics expansion: six more nations are set to join - what they're buying into     University of Johannesburg provides support as an endorsing partner of The Conversation AFRICA.One key outcome of the 15th Brics summit, hosted by South Africa, is the decision to invite six more countries to join the group with effect from January 2024. They are Argentina, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. All six had applied for membership. The enlargement will grow the association’s membership to 11, and increase its envisaged role as a geopolitical alternative to global institutions dominated by the west. Continued here

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Regardless of Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin's fate, Vladimir Putin benefits     On Aug. 23, Russian media reported that Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner Group, was listed among the passengers of a plane that crashed, leaving no survivors. Speculation has already begun about Putin’s potential involvement in the crash. This speculation is likely to continue unabated well into the future. Some have even argued that due to many individuals changing their names to Yevgeny Prigozhin in an attempt to thwart surveillance of the Wagner leader, it might not have been him on the flight. Continued here

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How bees can monitor pollution for us - everything from toxic metals to antimicrobial resistance     Our cities are complex places of work, industry and residential activities. This often makes it hard to pin down the spread of different contaminants throughout them.This can be a concern, especially given mounting evidence there is no “safe” limit of exposure for many of the chemicals we use in our daily lives. The connections between contamination, food, water and human health add to these concerns. Continued here

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Shop around, take lunch, catch the bus. It is possible to ease the squeeze on your budget     This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining Australia’s cost of living crisis. Read the other articles in the series here.It’s no secret that the cost of living has increased substantially over the last year, with rises of between 7.1 and 9.6 per cent for all households. So what can households do to manage these increases? Continued here

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Why do I crave sugar and carbs when I'm sick?     Your nose is running, your head hurts and you feel like you’re coming down with a cold. You’re settling in on the couch for a sick day. Then you reach for the snacks. When you’re sick, your appetite often decreases. So why, at other times, do you crave sugary treats and carbohydrate-loaded comfort foods? Continued here

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Friday essay: 'black bile', malaria therapy and insulin comas - a brief history of mental illness     Possibly the earliest account of a disturbed mind is recorded in a 3,500-year-old Hindu text that describes a man who is “gluttonous, filthy, walks naked, has lost his memory and moves about in an uneasy manner”.In the Bible’s Old Testament, in the first Book of Samuel, we read that King David simulated madness to gain safety: Continued here

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The five best films at this year's Melbourne International Film Festival     I’ve been talking to my film students lately about the way that viewing contexts affect how we receive a film – whether this means different hardware, locations, moods and modes of engaging. While many of these conversations have been around the value that can be found in any kind of viewing, the perceived ideal still seems to be the darkened theatre, with a fellow audience. The Melbourne International Film Festival gives such a fantastic opportunity for coming together like this for two weeks of really concentrated cinema experiences, a welcome retreat from winter. Continued here

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Vladimir Putin's suspected elimination of Yevgeny Prigozhin: The hunter to become the hunted?     Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner Group, is presumed dead. Russia’s Air Transport Agency has said he was on the passenger manifest of 10 people on board a private jet that came down in a fiery crash close to Moscow, killing everyone on board, while a Telegram channel associated with Wagner confirmed his passing.Plane crashes do happen, but in Russia, any unexpected events with political links are viewed with great suspicion. An incident of this magnitude will invariably cast suspicion on the Kremlin. Vladimir Putin’s regime is unlikely to be able to disown the crash — and there will most certainly be unforeseen and unintended consequences. Continued here

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India's Chandrayaan-3 landed on the south pole of the Moon - a space policy expert explains what this means for India and the global race to the Moon     India made history as the first country to land near the south pole of the Moon with its Chandrayaan-3 lander on Aug. 23, 2023. This also makes it the first country to land on the Moon since China in 2020. India is one of several countries — including the U.S. with its Artemis program — endeavoring to land on the Moon. The south pole of the Moon is of particular interest, as its surface, marked by craters, trenches and pockets of ancient ice, hasn’t been visited until now. Continued here

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Saudi Arabia's Pro League is taking advantage of football's greed and inequality     For Liverpool supporters like me, Jordan Henderson was one of football’s good guys. He was the club captain who fundraised for the UK’s National Health Service during the COVID-19 pandemic and vocally supported Liverpool’s LGBTQ+ community.However, in July 2023, after 12 years at Liverpool, Henderson left for Al-Ettifaq, a club from the Pro League in Saudi Arabia, where same-sex relationships are criminalized. Henderson’s weekly wage at Al-Ettifaq is reportedly US$900,000 — triple what he earned at Liverpool, the world’s fourth richest club. Continued here

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Crowd-sourced science sheds light on how new species form across space and time     Imagine a jungle. It’s probably a lush forest, filled with different bird songs and the hum of thousands of different kinds of insects. Now imagine a tundra: barren, windswept terrain with relatively few kinds of plants or animals. These two places highlight an interesting phenomenon — that some places on Earth have far more species than others. In fact, the distribution of species across the globe follows a curiously consistent pattern: generally, there are more species closer to the equator and fewer as you move towards the poles. This “latitudinal biodiversity gradient” can be observed across many different groups of organisms over time. Continued here

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Gender-based violence is a big concern in hospitality - and women bear the brunt of managing it     Gender-based violence, particularly sexual harassment, is a serious and persistent problem across the workforce.We interviewed 124 hospitality workers in Melbourne and Newcastle from a range of different bars, restaurants and cafes. Continued here

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More than a 'disability person'. What finishing school is like for youth with intellectual disability     Leaving school and figuring out what’s next is challenging for young people. For those with disability, it is even harder. It is often a time when supports are withdrawn as they leave the heavily structured school environment.After school, most participants longed to find a paid job, friends, and a life partner but felt they were missing out on these typical adult milestones. They told us it was difficult to find service providers to help them reach their goals. Many felt isolated and in a perpetual state of transition. Continued here

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Almost half of Moon missions fail. Why is space still so hard?     India’s success came just days after a spectacular Russian failure, when the Luna 25 mission tried to land nearby and “ceased to exist as a result of a collision with the lunar surface”. Read more: India's Chandrayaan-3 landed on the south pole of the Moon − a space policy expert explains what this means for India and the global race to the Moon Continued here

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An expert's top 5 reasons why dogs can be considered exceptional animals     Apart from being warm, soft and capable of inspiring our unconditional love, there are a number of unique characteristics that set dogs apart from other animals. We all know those golden retriever-type dogs that appear absurdly delighted to meet any new social being. It’s hard not to be taken in by their infectious friendliness. These furry, hypersocial creatures have some key genetic differences even to other domestic dogs. Continued here

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Rat poison is killing our beloved native owls and tawny frogmouths - and that's the tip of the iceberg     There’s nothing quite like having a rodent problem in your home. Most people will do anything to get rid of them. Australians usually reach for rat poison, without a second thought. Most of these poisons – sold at supermarkets and hardware stores – are “second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides” (SGARs) also known as single-dose anticoagulants. These extremely powerful poisons stay in the body for many months. It takes only a single feed to kill a rodent, usually within a week. Continued here

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Cape Town taxi strike exposes a deeply unequal city - and the legacy of apartheid     Cape Town in South Africa often tops international travel polls and was recently voted the best city in the world to travel to by readers of a UK newspaper. But the reality for many residents is a stark contrast.On 3 August 2023 the South African National Taxi Council announced strike action in the city as well the rest of the Western Cape province. Minibuses were recalled from service until 9 August in response to a new traffic by-law and other ongoing issues. Continued here

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Are big cats prowling the UK? What the science tells us     Rumours that there are big cats in Britain stubbornly keep cropping up. The thought of a large predator lurking in the rural landscapes of Britain is an exciting one. The most recent widely published claim of a big black cat in the UK does actually show a photo of a big cat species, which can be identified by the small ears relative to the size of the head. But this image turns out to have been photoshopped. The original image can be found on Getty Images, using the search term “big black cat sitting in grass”. Continued here

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Only Murders in the Building is a loving parody of the whodunit     Only Murders in the Building, starring Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez, has returned for a third season. The popular series follows the whodunit mystery formula, beginning with a murder in the apartment building the characters live in, the perpetrator of which the three sleuths must work out by the series’ end. Much of the innovation of Only Murders lies in its incorporation of the true crime podcast with the familiar whodunit formula. Continued here

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COVID: should we start wearing masks again?     One thing that can be guaranteed about COVID is that evolution will provide us with a more or less constant stream of new coronavirus variants, some of which will be more successful at infecting people. Talk of mutations sounds scary and it can lead to serious problems, but it would be a mistake to think that it’s always the case.BA.2.86 (nicknamed pirola) is one such new variant that has aroused concern from some doctors and scientists because of the high number of mutations in its spike protein, the molecule on the virus surface that acts like a key for it to unlock and enter our cells. It’s also the target for the vaccines, so changes in the spike might mean changes in the way the virus behaves, perhaps significantly. Continued here

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Abortion Opponents Are Targeting a Signature G.O.P. Public-Health Initiative     At a World AIDS Day event last year honoring George W. Bush, the former President, wearing a suit and tie and a red solidarity ribbon, settled into a chair onstage, microphone in hand. “It takes a lot to get me back to Washington,” he said, “and PEPFAR is it.” Formally known as the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, PEPFAR is easily one of the most successful foreign-policy initiatives in modern U.S. history. Created by Bush in 2003, at the height of the AIDS epidemic in Africa, the program is credited with saving as many as twenty-five million lives by investing in medicines and treatment networks. “I’m here to say as loud and clear as I can, Congress must fund PEPFAR,” Bush told his audience. “And you know what? It works, with verifiable results.”Funding PEPFAR has never been a problem for Congress, which approved spending nearly seven billion dollars on the project this year, and more than a hundred and ten billion dollars since its inception. The program works with the United Nations, national governments, and community organizations to provide antiretroviral drugs, train medical workers, and build health-care networks in more than fifty countries where H.I.V. remains a significant challenge. Its support in the United States is not only bipartisan but has historically cut across ideological and religious lines. Numerous Catholic and evangelical Christian institutions have joined liberal groups in praising the effort, even though it was established at a time when many social conservatives were demonizing patients who contracted H.I.V. from intravenous drug use or same-sex relationships. PEPFAR rose above such objections in an effort that Bush, who often talks about his Christian faith, called “a work of mercy.” Continued here

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A Chaotic Display of Conservatism at the First Republican Debate     An hour into Wednesday night’s Republican Presidential debate, which took place without the front-runner, Donald Trump, a simple, altogether predictable question unsettled the proceedings. “If former President Trump is convicted in a court of law,” Fox News’ Bret Baier asked the candidates, “would you still support him as your party’s choice? Please raise your hand if you would.”Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, looked left, then right, seeming unsure; Mike Pence, on whom the complications of Trump’s alleged crimes hang heaviest, hesitated, too. After a moment, both raised their hands, a grudging show of support for their President and rival. In the end, of the eight candidates who qualified for the debate stage, only Asa Hutchinson, the former governor of Arkansas, kept his hand down. Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, half raised an index finger, which he flicked in the air while shaking his head, a gesture, he later said, meant to ask the moderators for a chance to explain why he would not support Trump. For a generation, Republican politicians have appeared on Fox News and known what to say to their base. But, in last night’s debate, there was uncertainty on Ukraine, climate change, even abortion. The Presidential candidates no longer seemed so sure that they knew what their voters wanted them to say. Continued here

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Putin's Deadly Revenge on Prigozhin     Ever since late June, when Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner Group, carried out a mutiny against Russia's military leadership, he was thought to be a man on borrowed time. Even if Prigozhin hadn't intended it as such, Wagner's rebellion was an affront not merely to Russian generals but to Putin himself, who called the uprising "treason," "a subversion from within," and "a stab in the back." In the aftermath, Prigozhin was allowed to depart for Belarus but soon appeared in St. Petersburg, at a forum for African leaders. On Monday, he released a video from somewhere in Africa, he claimed, dressed in camouflage and holding an assault rifle. His posturing made Putin look weak, humiliated, and betrayed—and, for Putin, traitors are worse than foreign enemies, and should be dealt with demonstrably and mercilessly. Something would have to give: Putin would either try to reassert his authority or see it erode further. Earlier this month, Christo Grozev, the lead Russia investigator at Bellingcat, made a pithy wager in an interview with the Financial Times. "In six months," he said, "Prigozhin will either be dead or there will be a second coup."It didn't take that long. On August 23rd, an explosion brought down Prigozhin's private jet as it was flying from Moscow to St. Petersburg. Speculation and conspiracy theories immediately circulated about whether Prigozhin was in fact on board, but, a day later, it appears that he and nine others, including Dmitry Utkin, Wagner's top military commander, were indeed killed. Exactly two months had passed since Prigozhin launched his "march for justice," as he dubbed the mutiny in which Wagner units captured an important military headquarters in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and set off in an armored convoy toward Moscow. Now he was apparently dead, and the question of how Putin would treat his fit of impudence was answered. Even all of Prigozhin's service to the Kremlin and to Putin personally—in Syria, Africa, and most notably, Ukraine—was not enough to save him from the fate of those who challenge the primacy of Putin's authority. Continued here

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Waiting for Trump at the Fulton County Jail     By Wednesday morning, Sharon Anderson and Mike Boatman had staked out a shady spot of grass within eyeshot of the visitor entrance to the Fulton County Jail, a razor-fenced concrete structure in northwest Atlanta where at least twenty-two inmates have died since January of 2022. The two of them sat in lawn chairs. They were surrounded by members of the media and other curiosity-seekers, including a woman working on a coffee-table book about Atlanta who’d decided to add Donald Trump’s imminent jail booking to the “civil unrest” section of her otherwise mostly happy photographic narrative of the city.Anderson wore a “Keep America Great” visor and waved a “Trump 2024” flag. Boatman had a “Trump Did Nothing Wrong” hat sitting in his lap, another Trump hat on his head, and a huge flagpole with a furled Trump flag at his feet. “It’s sixteen by ten,” he said. “On a twenty-foot pole.” The two of them wore matching red-and-white baseball-style jerseys with the words “Front Row Joes.” They were indeed front row, and quite early, for the spectacle of Trump’s booking. The opening acts—John Eastman, Jeffrey Clark, Rudy Giuliani—were limping along. Continued here

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The Fantasy of Integration in Shaker Heights, Ohio     Can the good intentions of affluent liberals create integrated and equitable communities? This is the implied question that underlies so much of the current discourse on race and education. Over the years, we’ve seen dozens of experiments, from school busing to intentionally integrated housing developments, that tell us the answer is no: even the most progressive communities can’t seem to quarantine themselves from our country’s endemic inequalities.In “Dream Town: Shaker Heights and the Quest for Racial Equity,” the Washington Post education reporter Laura Meckler tells the story of a Cleveland suburb that appeared to be an exception. Meckler grew up in Shaker Heights and as a child felt “enormous pride” that she was in a place where Black and white people lived alongside each other. But the racial diversity that Meckler saw in Shaker’s neighborhoods and schools wasn’t a happy accident of the market: dozens of white and Black families worked together for decades to create what they hoped would be an integrated, progressive, upper-middle-class community—one where their children could attend school and prosper together. This, of course, was not a universally held goal in Shaker Heights, but the town did better than most. “We played together. We had sleepovers at each other’s homes,” Lynne Adrine, who was one of the first Black children to move to Shaker Heights, says in the book. “We sometimes had lunch at each other’s homes and it didn’t matter who it was.” Continued here

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The Harsh Glare of Justice     As much as anything, this week was the real start of the 2024 campaign, and the preview it offered suggested how much the next year will be dominated by variations on the tiresome theme of Trump, Trump, and Trump again. Even the former President’s absence from the first Republican debate, on Wednesday, did little to distract from the story line of the poll-dominating “elephant not in the room,” as the Fox News anchor Bret Baier put it. But, if the subject is by now a familiar one, the plot has taken a notable twist, summed up in the extraordinary spectacle that unfolded in Atlanta late on Thursday evening.In a highly public display manufactured for maximum prime-time impact by the world’s most famous criminal defendant, Trump flew into the city on his private jet ahead of a Friday deadline for his surrender, then motorcaded to the Fulton County Jail, where he was arrested, fingerprinted, and had his mug shot taken, before being released on a pre-negotiated two-hundred-thousand-dollar bail. There was no real news in this, of course, since he was indicted earlier this month. But that did not stop the breathless hours of coverage—the scenes of his plane slowly rolling down the tarmac, the extensive motorcade ride through Atlanta, his self-reported and highly suspect description of himself as six feet three and two hundred and fifteen pounds. The big reveal of the evening was his photo, in which he wore a navy suit and red tie. He glared straight into the camera for his big moment; the trademark Trump glower—eyebrows raised, vaguely menacing, closer to a scowl than a smile—is one he has cultivated for years. In the White House, his aides called it, simply, the Stare. He stands charged with illegally seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election, in Georgia and nationally. If the Fulton County district attorney, Fani Willis, has her way, he will go on trial as soon as October 23rd, alongside a rogue’s gallery of eighteen co-defendants in a scheme that Willis has likened to a criminal racketeering conspiracy. Continued here

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Other Scenes We'd Love to See Captured by the Trump Courtroom Sketch Artist     Follow @newyorkercartoons on Instagram and sign up for the Daily Humor newsletter for more funny stuff.By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Continued here

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Huyang? 'Ahsoka's Most Underused Character is More Important Than You Think     No Star Wars story is complete without an endearing droid sidekick. The original trilogy and the prequels had R2-D2 and C-3PO, Rogue One had K-2SO, and even The Mandalorian paired its droid-averse bounty hunter with the stone-cold IG-11. Ahsoka is carrying on the tradition with Professor Huyang (David Tennant), an ancient droid with an encyclopedic memory. While his role in the Star Wars saga was brief before the new Disney+ series, he’s a key figure in the history of the Jedi. He may even be older than the Order itself. Continued here

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You Need to Watch the Most Ridiculous Time-Travel Thriller on Max Before It Leaves Next Week     Everyone knows about the three seashells. That even includes people who’ve never seen the 1993 sci-fi action-comedy featuring Rob Schneider’s greatest line delivery, as he snickers over revived 1990s-era cop John Spartan (Sylvester Stallone) attempting to understand why the bathrooms of 2032 lack toilet paper. Everyone in the future knows what the three seashells are for... except John Spartan.The running joke is just one example of the inspired humor in Demolition Man, which brought middling critical and box office returns in 1993 but has since proved remarkably prescient. It’s also held up remarkably well as an entertaining, well-crafted piece of sci-fi, only descending into rote ’90s action beats in its finale. It features some of Stallone’s best work in both action and comedy, along with a delightfully unhinged performance from Wesley Snipes as villain Simon Phoenix and a breakout role for Sandra Bullock as Spartan’s future cop partner Lenina Huxley. Continued here

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24 Years Later, 'Ahsoka' Could Bring Back the Most Dangerous Villains in Star Wars History     The world of Star Wars may be getting a lot more dangerous with the reveal of a second galaxy far, far away.“A long time ago in a galaxy far far away...” is the calling card for Star Wars fans everywhere. However, according to Ahsoka Episode 2, that may not be entirely accurate. While the events of Star Wars may have happened a long time ago, they may not all take place in a single galaxy far far away, but two different galaxies. But just how could that happen, and what does it mean for the future of Star Wars? The answer may actually involve one of the most fearsome villains in the entire franchise’s history. Continued here

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Astronomers Capture an Unprecedented Look at Neptune's Mysterious Dark Spot     Astronomers using a powerful telescope in Chile have peered into blemishes on Neptune, and called it a first for ground-based astronomy. Since NASA’s Voyager 2 flew past Neptune in 1989, astronomers have pondered the temporary dark spots that appear in its atmosphere. Three decades after that historic rendezvous with the Solar System’s outermost planet, the Earth-orbiting Hubble Space Telescope saw a dark spot wider in size than Earth’s Atlantic Ocean. This inspired the team behind new research to take a closer look at Neptune with newer technology. Continued here

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Everything to Do in 'Baldur's Gate 3' Act 2, Before the Point of No Return     Baldur’s Gate 3 can be an overwhelming experience, especially when you spend over 50 hours on Act 1 and arrive in the second act only to find it’s just as large — if not even bigger. Act 2 takes you to the Shadow-Cursed Lands and drastically changes the story’s tone as you fight to take down the Cult of the Absolute and the seemingly immortal warlord Ketheric Thorm. While the main story in this section is fairly straightforward, there’s a wealth of secrets and sidequests to uncover. With that in mind, we’ve compiled a handy checklist to help guide you through the massive Act 2 of Baldur’s Gate 3. Continued here

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Eye of Sion Theory Reveals the Mysterious Ship's Distant Alien Origins     Move aside, star destroyers, there’s a new threat in town. Ahsoka introduced us to new characters and new threats, but the most exciting addition was a hyperspace ring called the Eye of Sion. That’s a reference to the Sith lord Darth Sion from the non-canonical Legends timeline, who happened to have a deformed eye. The Eye of Sion is supposedly the key to bringing Grand Admiral Thrawn back from the distant Unknown Regions. But could Thrawn’s species have contributed to the technology that’s supposed to save him? Continued here

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50 Years Later, The Creepiest Cult Thriller Classic is Getting a Big Update     It’s been a great year for home video collectors, especially horror fans. Wes Craven’s forgotten superhero flick, Swamp Thing, and Hulu’s acclaimed sci-fi horror, Prey, both secured physical releases on 4K UHD and Blu-Ray this month. Things are looking up for media longevity after a handful of streaming exclusives were culled from their respective platforms in early 2023, and this revitalized trend toward physical media isn’t showing any signs of slowing down.Now, Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man is getting a 4K UHD re-release ahead of its 50th anniversary. The 1973 folk horror is revolutionary, having influential horror films like The Shining and Poltergeist. Despite an infamously troubled production and a dismal box office return (it only made $180k against its $750k budget), The Wicker Man has since been embraced for the giddy, sun-streaked shockfest it is. Continued here

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'Immortals of Aveum's Biggest Flaw Proves We Need to Rethink the FPS Genre     With its world of battle mages and hands that fire magic instead of pull triggers, Immortals of Aveum seeks to be a different kind of first-person shooter — one that eschews the military obsession of franchises like Call of Duty and Battlefield. The gameplay loop is satisfying and feels distinct from the current FPS market, but the game’s world cannot say the same. Despite its fantasy setting, the main narrative here still centers on the military stories that dominate the FPS genre. Immortals of Aveum shows that the genre itself may never be able to escape its pro-military roots. Continued here

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10 Years Ago, Final Fantasy Launched Gaming's Biggest Comeback of All Time     When Final Fantasy XIV launched in 2010 expectations were high, as the newest online title from one of the most beloved RPG series around, and a successor to the wildly successful MMO Final Fantasy XI. Unfortunately, Final Fantasy XIV ended up being a catastrophic failure for Square Enix, easily one of the worst the company had ever seen. That’s what makes it so remarkable that all these years later, it’s the most successful MMO in the entire world. The original 1.0 version of FFXIV had a disastrous launch, and the game was clearly not ready for prime time. Major technical issues marred the experience, and entire systems were simply broken. All of this led to Square Enix issuing massive apologies and shutting the game down, while it worked on a completely new version that would relaunch FFXIV, with A Realm Reborn in 2013. Continued here

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'Riverdale' is the Best Comic Book Show Ever Made     Comic book fever gave us more than just the MCU and DCU. It also gave us the best cult classic comic book show of all time.What makes a good adaptation of a comic book character? Comic books, be they featuring Donald Duck, Iron Man, or Asterix the Gaul, are all about hyper-reality. The worlds shown in these comics are like ours, but altered in some way, be that big or small. Even the most “slice of life” comics are inherently altered from our world because of the comics medium itself. Continued here

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Samsung's Galaxy Watch 6 Is the Apple Watch's Only Real Competition     Attention Android users: the Galaxy Watch 6 and Watch 6 Classic are your smartwatch king and queen.Jimmy has had a Samsung Galaxy Watch on his wrist for as long as he's been cutting my hair. Continued here

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'Armored Core VI': How Long to Beat and New Game Plus, Explained     After a decade of defining the Souls-like genre, FromSoftware is finally returning to its gritty mech action franchise with Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon. This is by far the most complex and ambitious entry to date, with a focus on high-speed action and verticality. If you haven’t played an Armored Core game before, however, this will be a bit of a different experience, doled out through a mission structure rather than an explorable world. With that in mind, here’s exactly how long you can expect to spend with Armored Core VI, whether that’s a single playthrough or 100 percent completion. Continued here

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New Study Might Renew Hope for Alien Life in a Once-Promising Star System     A recent study suggests that a thin, mostly-oxygen atmosphere could still fit recent JWST observations.The discovery of the TRAPPIST-1 system stirred up excitement about a star system with three potentially habitable worlds, but recent observations of the innermost two planets have had discouraging results. Continued here

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58 Years Later, 'Dune's Most Enduring Trope Is Shaking Up The Year's Best Sci-Fi Show     In order to survive the perils of interstellar space travel, navigators need a certain kind of substance. No, it’s not the spice in Dune, but instead, a drug called “Opalesk” in Foundation. And, just like in Dune, Apple TV’s best science fiction series is aware that space travel, eventually, has to be free of any kind of stimulants, otherwise, the balance of power will always favor whoever is in control of whatever space stuff is needed to travel between the stars.With Season 2, Episode 7, “A Necessary Death,” Foundation teases a huge shift in galactic politics that both changes the Asimov books and deftly borrows from the endgame of the later Dune novels. Continued here

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What can archaeology tell us about the Druids' dark arts? | Aeon Essays     The Druids – Bringing in the Mistletoe (1890) by George Henry and E A Hornel. Courtesy Glasgow MuseumsThe Druids – Bringing in the Mistletoe (1890) by George Henry and E A Hornel. Courtesy Glasgow Museums Continued here

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The Science of Strong Business Writing     Brain scans are showing us in new detail exactly what entices readers. Scientists can see a group of midbrain neurons—the “reward circuit”—light up as people respond to everything from a simple metaphor to an unexpected story twist. The big takeaway? Whether you’re crafting an email to a colleague or an important report for the board, you can write in a way that delights readers on a primal level, releasing pleasure chemicals in their brains. Continued here

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Innovation in Data-Driven Health Care - SPONSORED CONTENT FROM ROCHE     Innovative uses of data in health care are helping solve the most challenging problems in patient health and operational efficiency. Today, many health care organizations understand that a data-driven approach can improve patient health outcomes, enable faster clinical decisions, and improve treatment and hospital workflows. Continued here

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Jim Fielding, Ex-Head of Disney Stores, on the Struggles of Making It as a Queer Executive     According to Yahoo Finance, there are only four openly gay CEOs atop Fortune 500 companies. That’s up from zero in 2014, when Apple’s Tim Cook came out. But it represents less than 1% of the cohort, well below the 7% rate of Americans in general who identity as gay, lesbian, or bisexual. Is there a glass ceiling for gay executives? And if so, are some queer bosses still opting to stay in the closet to avoid damaging their careers? To try to answer those questions, we invited Jim Fielding, an openly gay entertainment-industry executive, to be a guest on The New World of Work. Fielding has thought a lot about these questions and has decided to share his own story and perspective in a just-published book, All Pride No Ego: A Queer Executive’s Journey to Living and Leading Authentically. He was president of Disney Store Worldwide; president of consumer products and innovation at 20th Century Fox; global head for consumer products and retail development at Dreamworks Animation; and CEO of the Clare’s Stores chain. He currently serves as president of Archer Gray’s Co-Lab division, focusing on building businesses via venture investments. But despite that impressive resume, it hasn’t always been easy. In the interview, Jim talked about the bullying he endured as a young man, the years he spent living a closeted double life, and on how he ultimately developed the confidence he needed to be his authentic self at work.What does it feel like to live inauthentically at work? For his first professional job in the 1980s, in the fashion industry, Jim Fielding led what he calls a “double life.” With close friends and confidants, he was open about his relationship with another man. But at work, when discussing his partner he’d switch his pronouns and change stories to conform to expectations at the time. Continued here

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To Improve Your Work Performance, Get Some Exercise     Although the benefits of physical activity on general well-being are widely acknowledged, there has been a lack of research on how it impacts outcomes at work, including job performance and health. Approximately 200 employees from the UK and China participated in a 10-day study in which the authors captured self-reported and objective physical activity data (via a wearable smart band device), as well as self- and supervisor-reported work outcomes. They uncovered some noteworthy findings about daily physical activity that impact employees and organizations, as well as a few research-backed ways to reap the many benefits of increasing your physical activity. Continued here