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Picture it, a romantic restaurant, the perfect first date: the lights are low, the music soft, the food exquisite, and the flirting is moving from playful to saucy at just the right pace. And then, as you reach for the last chunk of focaccia … BAM! He licks every one of his fingers, grabs the bread and rips it in two – offering you the smallest half. Innocent mistake? Simple bad manners? Worse: it’s a red flag. Game over. Red flags started out with a serious mission: to alert women to signs of potential coercive control within their relationship – for example, being isolated from their friends, mani[CENSORED]ting their recollection of events, and limiting their freedom and autonomy. Now, it’s widened to include far pettier things marking out potential love matches as time-wasters, dimwits or shaggers. Instagram and TikTok froth with posts listing telltale signs you’re on to a loser, and the definition of a red flag is rather fluid, incorporating the ancient concept of a turn-off and the newer, more visceral and niche “ick”. It’s an instantly recognisable hazard warning – little red flag emojis alongside a screenshot of a pre-date message or social media post are enough to say stay away. The clueless romantics among us may struggle to identify ostensibly harmless behaviour as a sign of impending doom, but it all starts with the first date. Can you really tell from the way someone acts that dating them would be your biggest mistake since the night of the seven absinthes? Having observed more courting couples than I care to remember, these are the little red flags no self-respecting singleton can afford to ignore. First impressions Arrives late Even seconds late is bad. In fact, if you turn up bang on time, you’re late. Three minutes early is optimal. Your timekeeping is the biggest first impression you’ll ever make, unless you arrive with a balloon animal under each arm. That said, trains get delayed, traffic crawls, and bosses always ask to “borrow you for five minutes” just as you’re heading out the door, so if the date texts regular updates on the delay and their ETA, we can forgive. But show up half an hour late whistling Bennie and the Jets as if nothing happened? They have no respect for your precious time. They’d be better off getting someone to phone in dead on their behalf. Has resting disappointed face If they can’t conceal their dismay that perhaps you’re not quite what they had in mind, imagine that face in church, perspiring and impassive, grunting, “I do.” Or that face grimacing as you struggle to unload groceries from the car. That face creasing in disgust as they leave soup and paracetamol by your sickbed. That face lighting up as someone younger and hotter walks by. Looks very different from their profile photos Our digital mugshots benefit from a brightening filter or dab of the healing brush tool, true, but on a dating app, you must look like yourself, in photos taken within the last year. It’s like people (men) who lie about their height, with 6ft being the default, even for those who stand on a box to reach their bathroom sink. If they can create such an outrageous lie destined to be uncovered within seconds of meeting, what else might they feel comfortable lying about? Cancels the date at short notice Unless someone died, they’re an arsehole. Doesn’t turn up Chaotic evil. LINK

Liz Truss has sacrificed her finance minister and closest political ally just weeks into her premiership in order to save her own skin. On Friday morning, Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng, was summoned a day early back to London from the United States straight to Downing Street, where he was relieved of his duties. The move came three weeks after Kwarteng announced a controversial mini-budget full of unfunded tax-cutting measures that sent financial markets into meltdown. At one point, the pound sank to its lowest level against the dollar in decades. Markets have settled somewhat since, though only after major intervention from the Bank of England, leaked rumors that the mini-budget would be abandoned and reports that Kwarteng would be sacked. Kwarteng being gone, however, does not mean that Truss is out of the woods. The low-tax, free-market policies that Kwarteng announced were the exact ticket on which Truss ran to be prime minister. The pair had written about their shared view of a low-tax, high-growth Britain in a book authored by a group of Conservatives as far back as 2012. Kwarteng and Truss were in lockstep in their vision for Britain; removing him from office is a tacit acceptance that her economic plan has failed. “The problem with their budget was never the numbers, it was much more about the credibility of the plan,” a former Conservative cabinet minister told CNN shortly after Truss sacked Kwarteng. “You can reverse numbers and scrap policy. You can’t reverse credibility. She has removed her lightning rod, but now the lighting is going to hit her.” Truss ended a notably brief news conference at Downing Street on Friday afternoon in which she defended her economic vision, but declined to apologize to her party or the public over the turmoil unleashed by the mini-budget. “We recognize because of current market issues we have to deliver the mission in a different way,” Truss said. “And that’s what we are absolutely committed to do.”Asked whether she would say sorry to her party’s lawmakers, some of whom are publicly trashing her economic agenda, she replied: “I am determined to deliver on what I set out when I campaigned to be party leader. We need to have a high-growth economy but we have to recognize that we are facing very difficult issues as a country.” Truss swiftly replaced Kwarteng with Jeremy Hunt, a former cabinet minister of multiple briefs who has stood for the leadership twice. She described him as “one of the most experienced and widely respected government ministers and parliamentarians.” Views are mixed on whether the new Chancellor will be a stabilizing influence on either the party or Truss. Some Conservative MPs think that Hunt, who served as health secretary, foreign secretary and culture, media and sport secretary under previous governments, will bring unity to a party that is still recovering from the summer’s bruising leadership contest. He is respected by both the left and right of the party and has a calm, reassuring and familiar nature that appeals to a certain type of Conservative. However, he is also easy for the opposition Labour Party to attack. Hunt-skeptics point out that his record in government is patchy. Whether the accusations are true or not, it would be possible for opposition leaders to say that as health secretary, he failed to adequately prepare Britain’s health service for the coronavirus pandemic. And as a candidate in the summer’s leadership contest following Boris Johnson’s tumultuous premiership, Hunt had actually committed to bigger corporate tax cuts than Truss. When asked why they thought Truss selected Hunt, despite his obvious flaws, one influential Conservative MP told CNN that it was possible Downing Street looked at her leadership rivals from this summer’s contest and realized Hunt was the candidate from the left of the party who secured the fewest vote from MPs. Less of a threat than promoting other contenders who gave Truss more of a run for her money. Hunt will now address the nation on October 31, to deliver a fiscal policy to the country that will explain how the government plans to balance the books as it borrows money to help people pay energy bills over the next two years. The reversal in tax cuts will, Truss said, provide £18 billion. And it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that further savings will be made as Kwarteng’s budget becomes a distant memory. BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 02: Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng and British Prime Minister Liz Truss attend the annual Conservative Party conference on October 02, 2022 in Birmingham, England. This year the Conservative Party Conference will be looking at "Getting Britain Moving" with more jobs and higher salaries. However, delegates are arriving at the conference as the party lags 33 points behind Labour in the opinion polls. LINK

Investigators with the House select committee probing the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol have asked the United States Secret Service for information about contacts between its agents and members of the far-right Oath Keepers group. The inquiry comes after it was revealed during court testimony that members of the group, including leader Stewart Rhodes, claimed to be in contact with Secret Service agents prior to rallies for former President Donald Trump after the 2020 election. Members of the Oath Keepers are currently on trial for charges relating to the Capitol attack, including seditious conspiracy. Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi confirmed to CNN that the January 6 panel had reached out to the agency and “a verbal briefing was provided to the staff.” NBC News first reported the inquiry. Guglielmi told CNN the Secret Service would provide records of contact between the Oath Keepers and Secret Service agents. Members of the Oath Keepers occasionally reached out to the Secret Service prior to January 6, 2021, with questions about permissible items for rallies, an official with the agency told CNN earlier this week. Further, when agents learned the group planned to attend events, agents reached out and met with members. While it’s not uncommon for law enforcement agents to maintain contacts with groups that are of investigative interest, the relationship with the Oath Keepers has come under increased scrutiny during the trial. John Zimmerman, a former North Carolina leader of the Oath Keepers, testified earlier this month that to prepare for the rally, Rhodes said he was in contact with a member of the Secret Service who offered advice on what weapons were allowed near the rally. Rhodes also repeatedly represented he was in touch with an agent, said Zimmerman, who noted that he had not heard the entire conversation. CNN has asked the Secret Service for dates of contacts and names of Oath Keepers contacted, as well as whether the contacts were documented at the time. CNN’s Holmes Lybrand and Hannah Rabinowitz contributed to this report. Staff members of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot investigative committee have been briefed on multiple phone calls in 2020 between an agent in the Secret Service’s protective intelligence division and members of the Oath Keepers, a far-right militia group, NBC News reported Friday. The House select committee on Friday requested from the Secret Service all records related to communications between the agency and the Oath Keepers, including any contacts leading up to and after the violent Jan. 6, 2021, invasion of the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters, NBC reported. The briefing to committee staff and subsequent records request was spurred by recent testimony at the ongoing federal criminal trial of Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, who is accused with other defendants of seditious conspiracy. Rhodes and his co-defendants are accused of plotting to stop the lawful transfer of power from former President Donald Trump to President Joe Biden. Former North Carolina Oath Keepers leader John Zimmerman earlier this month testified about seeing Rhodes speaking on the telephone with a person Zimmerman believed to be a Secret Service agent about what weapons the group’s members could carry at an upcoming rally by Trump in September 2020. LINK

Nick Movie: State of Alabama vs. Brittany Smith | Official Trailer | Netflix Time: / Netflix / Amazon / HBO?: Netflix Duration of the movie: / Trailer:

Live Performance Title: Skaiwater “#miles” (Live Performance) | Open Mic Signer Name: Skaiwater Live Performance Location: / Official YouTube Link: Your Opinion About the Track (Music Video): 7/10

welcome to the community, have fun with us 🤗

Music Title: Kesariya (Lyrics) Full Song - Brahmastra | Arijit Singh | Kesariya Tera Ishq Hai Piya Signer: Kesariya Release Date: 13-10-2022 Official Youtube Link: Informations About The Signer: / Your Opinion About The Track (Music Video): 7/10

Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical sounds fantastic. And I'm not saying that in the metaphorical sense of "Oh, this seems like it will be really cool." No, as a musical adventure game with RPG elements, it literally sounds fantastic--the music for this game is incredible. After sitting down for two hour-long previews with narrative director David Gaider, managing director Liam Esler, and art director Benjamin Ee to discuss how this Greek mythology-inspired adventure game came to be, I'm blown away at what the team has already achieved and what they envision for the final product. During our conversation, I took the chance to ask Gaider about the world-building that went into Stray Gods' incredibly diverse modern-day Greek pantheon, and the team also walked me through Stray Gods' opening 30 minutes, showed off behind-the-scenes visuals of concept art, and revealed several never-before-discussed songs from throughout the game, including a touching soliloquy from Asterius to Hecate. Stray Gods is the debut title of developer Summerfall Studios. It sees you play as Grace (voiced by Laura Bailey), a college-dropout-turned-singer who finds herself becoming the latest and last Muse following the murder of Calliope. The surviving governing body of the Greek pantheon--known as the Chorus--condemns Grace for the crime, forcing her into a search to discover the identity of the true killer within a week's time or face punishment in their place. Choice is at the heart of Stray Gods' gameplay, and the game kicks off with a big one: What type of person is Grace? You can choose for Grace to be more kickass, charming, or clever, and this decision informs what options you'll have in certain conversations. "Kickass is aggressive and punk rock and powerful and in your face," Esler told me. "Clever is thoughtful and strategic and knowledgeable. Charming is empathic and caring and trying to do the right thing." In the demo I saw, creating a kickass Grace provides you with plenty of opportunities to be confrontational and more direct during conversations; opportunities you wouldn't have with a clever or charming Grace. For example, when Grace's best friend, Freddie, expresses concern for how distant and depressed Grace has seemed since dropping out of college, Grace can just play things off or even be a little flirtatious in response. But a kickass Grace can also be direct in that situation and just tell Freddie how it is: Freddie is always supporting Grace, and Grace feels inadequate in how too one-sided their dynamic is. Your choices in conversations can have small impacts, such as the direction of a conversation, or huge consequences, like which Greek gods become your allies. And as is the case in my favorite kinds of games, they can also influence who Grace ultimately gets to end up smooching by the game's end, as Stray Gods hosts four romance options: Freddie, Pan (god of fertility), Persephone (queen of the underworld), and Apollo (god of prophecy). And speaking of characters, Stray Gods builds on a concept most recently po[CENSORED]rized by Hades, a game that reimagined the Greek pantheon as a collection of individuals who surprisingly aren't actually all Greek and reinforced the notion that divine beauty could exist even in those who don't fit the conventional idea of what's attractive. Stray Gods goes a bit further than Hades does, however, portraying characters who are fat or have physical disabilities as attractive and desirable as well. It's a very diverse pantheon of sexy gods. This celebration of diversity feels most evident when Grace first meets the Chorus. She's brought to them by Hermes, an androgynous teenage-looking Asian kid dressed to the nines in Hypebeast-inspired clothing. The Chorus themselves are composed of Athena, Apollo, Aphrodite, and Persephone (as well as Calliope, prior to her death), and while Athena and Apollo more closely resemble the traditional idea of Greek gods, Aphrodite and Persephone are noticeably darker-skinned. And aside from all of them being hot, none of them look even remotely biologically related. This is because, within the world of Stray Gods, the Greek gods can be reborn over and over again. If a god dies near a living person, the essence of who they are, their eidolon, is passed into that person. That's how Grace becomes the new Muse--Calliope's eidolon enters her as Grace is holding her when she dies. "When I came up with [the lore] originally, having the eidolon be passed on to anyone, that created an opportunity to write that, over time, after many, many times that [the eidolons] have been passed on over many deaths, and now we have perhaps a little bit more diversity than there was originally," Gaider said. LINK

Apple has announced a new support package for developers that it hopes will help them adopt the company's latest technologies, such as the iPhone 14 Pro’s Dynamic Island. Less than a month after the launch of the latest iPhone 14 range, VP for Worldwide Developer Relations, Susan Prescott, explained that the company has seen “increased appetite for one-on-one support and conversation”. Called ‘Ask Apple(opens in new tab)’, the new service comprises interactive Q&As and one-on-one, office hour consultations, and joins a number of other programs like Tech Talks and Meet with App Store Experts. Apple says that app creators from its Developer Program and Developer Enterprise Program can ask about things like “testing on the latest seeds; implementing new and updated frameworks from Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC); adopting new features like the Dynamic Island; moving to Swift, SwiftUI, and accessibility; and preparing their apps for new OS and hardware releases.” Depending on the level of assistance developers need, they can connect with Apple experts on Slack to ask questions and share their learnings, or take advantage of personal consultations to discuss “code-level assistance, design guidance, input on implementing technologies and frameworks, advice on resolving issues, or help with App Review Guidelines and distribution tools.” According to MacRumours(opens in new tab), the one-on-one sessions are bookable in 25-minute slots. The company says Ask Apple will be an ongoing series. The first round of opportunities is set for the week of October 17, 2022, with no word on future dates. More importantly, Ask Apple is designed to be free of charge within the environment of a Developer account. If Swift isn’t your thing, check out the best Python online courses or the best JavaScript online courses Craig Hale : With several years’ experience freelancing in tech and automotive circles, Craig’s specific interests lie in technology that is designed to better our lives, including AI and ML, productivity aids, and smart fitness. He is also passionate about cars and the electrification of personal transportation. As an avid bargain-hunter, you can be sure that any deal Craig finds is top value! LINK

As a child, Wendy Schmidt didn’t think about how the ocean intersected with human life. It was a nice place to go swimming, but it was mostly a murky, unknowable realm that didn’t have much to do with her day-to-day life. That outlook changed 15 years ago when she started sailing and learned to scuba dive. Now the health of the world’s oceans looms large in Schmidt’s thinking about the planet’s future and in her giving. “People commonly encounter the ocean from the shore, the deck of a ferry boat, or from an airplane. It’s historically been a place of mythology, sea creatures, and scary stuff. In some ways, you could say it’s your worst nightmare, and yet, ironically, it’s also the source of all life. It’s 71% of the earth’s surface,” Schmidt says. “Suddenly you see that’s a different planet than you thought you lived in. It’s mostly ocean and the life in the ocean, and we’re just a small player here with a really outsized footprint.” Schmidt leads a collection of philanthropies through which she and her husband, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, work to help protect the planet. They give to support clean energy, marine science and ocean conservation, and efforts to address climate change, plastic pollution, and food insecurity. The couple have also built programs that support and connect young leaders, scientists, and others working to solve an array of global problems. The Schmidts have poured nearly $2.2 billion into their philanthropies since 2019 and during that time have pledged and given away more than $1.4 billion. Since 2009, the couple have given more than $360 million to the Schmidt Ocean Institute, which operates a research ship that it makes available free to scientists worldwide. It also helped develop SuBastian, an underwater robotic vehicle scientists use to conduct deep-sea research experiments. While they are not the largest contributors to ocean conservation and marine science, their insistence that the institute share its findings with scientists and the public is important, says Ashley Enrici, an assistant professor of philanthropic studies at Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, who studies philanthropy’s role in marine conservation. “That knowledge can be used for policy decisions by the government and to support public awareness and education campaigns,” Enrici says. “It has the potential to fill lots of different gaps.” LINK

well, V2 hv an amazing text i rly love it but the resize is rly bad, about V3 the blur the resize is perfect but I didn't like the text tht much .. so im gonna chose V3

Microsoft is preparing to retire or at least deemphasize its decades old Office brand(opens in new tab) in favor of Microsoft 365 branded cloud productivity tools. Users should expect to see the changes permeate throughout the Microsoft cloud ecosystem in the next few weeks. Meanwhile, PC stalwarts using offline standalone Office suites and applications will probably not notice any difference.The news was secreted within Microsoft’s announcement of a new Microsoft 365 app(opens in new tab) on Wednesday. On that page you will find a FAQ which helpfully spells out what is changing with regards to Microsoft 365 and Office brands, when changes will be pushed through and what it means to users of either branded products / suites. It also explains that “over the last couple years, Microsoft 365 has evolved into our flagship productivity suite,” and this is seemingly behind the decision to transition Office.com, the Office mobile app, and the Office app for Windows into Microsoft 365 branded products. The key thing for many users of Microsoft's flagship office productivity tools, is that they are not going away. Microsoft says that “as part of Microsoft 365 you will continue to get access to apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.” Also, Office 365 subscribers in business / enterprises will not be moved to Microsoft 365 plans. Importantly to many readers, those seeking the most recent offline / perpetual Office editions will still have the opportunity to buy apps as one-time purchases via Microsoft’s Office 2021 and Office LTSC plans, tooWhile the branding change is a pretty big deal, once you read all the small print, it isn’t very impactful. However, the same could be said of any branding or naming change. The most affected will be personal consumers, students, and small home offices which currently use the Microsoft 365 cloud-powered productivity platform via mobile and web-apps. Existing users of these cloud office tools won’t have to do anything; existing accounts, profiles, subscriptions, and files won’t be disrupted, even if you are accessing them from the new app with new branding and icon. In a way, the naming changes help emphasize the difference between the cloud-powered and the perpetual Office releases; with the online version highlighting collaborative tools like Teams and OneDrive being used alongside more traditional office productivity apps in the new hybrid working world. Expect to see many of the above changes arrive with the rebranding of the unified Office app to Microsoft 365 in November, with the whole rebranding effort expected to be completed by January 2023. Mark Tyson is a Freelance News Writer at Tom's Hardware US. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason. LINK

Name of the game: No Man's Sky Price: $29.99 US Link Store: HERE Offer ends up after X hours: SPECIAL PROMOTION! Offer ends 20 October Requirements: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows 10/11 (64-bit versions) Processor: Intel Core i3 Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: Nvidia GTX 1060 3GB, AMD RX 470 4GB, Intel UHD graphics 630 Storage: 15 GB available space

Bethesda Softworks executive producer Todd Howard shared more about the studio's upcoming outer space epic Starfield(opens in new tab) in a recent video chat, including a look at the game's persuasion system and whether or not he considers it "hard sci-fi." Hard science fiction, in a very broad sense, is sci-fi that commits heavily to scientific accuracy. The definition is unavoidably subjective to some extent, but Kim Stanley Robinson's Aurora(opens in new tab), for instance, takes great pains to think through stuff like soil composition, astrophysics, and chemistry in ways that impact the plot; Star Wars, on the other hand, doesn't go out of its way to explain lightsabers. In the case of Starfield, Howard said that "it is more 'hard' to us" but added that it's a videogame first and foremost, and so concessions have to be made. "We were really into fuel and how the gravity drive works," Howard says in the video. "And I'm reading papers on quantum physics and bending space in front of you—you don't actually warp, you bend the space, you bring the space toward you—and so we were playing that and it became very punitive to the player. Your ship would run out of fuel and the game would just stop."Because of that, developers recently changed the design so ships cannot run out of fuel—instead, ships will be limited to how far they can travel in a single run. Howard also said that Starfield has gone back to "a classic Bethesda-style dialog" system, albeit in a much larger scale than in previous games—more than 250,000 lines of dialog in total—and with a revamped persuasion system. Howard previously touched on the persuasion system back in May, saying it "feels like you're having a conversation where you're actually trying to persuade somebody of something," but this is the first time we've seen it in action. "It feels like it's part of the dialog, but you're spending points to persuade [NPCs]," Howard said. "Feels natural. Not like I've entered some other mode where we're not—I'm not doing regular dialog. I'm in this mode of persuading you to get what I want." Starfield had been set to come out on November 11 but following a delay in May is now expected out sometime in the first half of 2023.Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill. LINK

Larry, the Downing Street cat, stepped up from mouser duties this week to chase an urban fox off his patch. The burly tabby was caught on camera intently stalking the fox before launching into a fully fledged pursuit when the trespasser tried to take cover in a flowerbed. Larry emerges the victor, but the encounter has led some to wonder what gives cats the brazen confidence to take on larger animals such as foxes or dogs. Experts say cat behaviour is strongly shaped by instincts that date back to their wild ancestors. Domestic cats are far more similar, genetically and in behaviour, to wild relatives than dogs are to wolves. As solitary hunters, establishing and maintaining control of territory in which to hunt and mate is central to the cat lifestyle. “Cats will confront most other animals if threatened, even dogs,” said Nicky Trevorrow, a behaviour manager at the charity Cats Protection. “This is because they’re naturally territorial – it’s an ingrained instinct – so will often challenge any other animals on their territory.” Cats typically have favoured areas to sleep and eat and mark out their “home range” by spraying, rubbing their facial scent markers on objects and scratching around the area to warn off other cats. Cats patrol their territory along a network of paths, often on a regular schedule, allowing neighbouring cats to avoid encounters that could result in a standoff. A cat’s sex (unneutered males tend to be more confrontational), life experience and disposition play a role in how it will react to any encroachment on their territory. “There is a lot of individual variation in how strongly they will react to perceived intruders, and whether they will take on animals, such as foxes, that are larger than themselves,” said Prof James Serpell, an animal welfare expert at the University of Pennsylvania. “If a cat’s first encounter with a fox causes that fox to run away, it will likely embolden the cat in any subsequent encounters with foxes.” Foxes may be bigger with more powerful jaws, but evidence suggests other cats often prove more formidable adversaries. A 2013 analysis of VetCompass, a clinical database of vet visits, identified five confirmed and nine suspected fox fight injuries for each 10,000 vet visits by cats (there was no data to indicate how foxes fared in these scuffles). This compared with 541 in 10,000 for cats presented with cat bite injuries and 196 in 10,000 cats being presented after a road traffic accident. “So to put fox attacks into context, other cats (40 times greater risk) and cars (14 times) appear to present much greater dangers to cats than foxes,” concluded Pete Wedderburn, a vet and broadcaster, who carried out the fox risk assessment. “Cats and foxes usually pose no threat to one another and it’s unusual for any harm to be caused to either of them when in close proximity,” said Trevorrow. There may be some instinctive animosity between cats and foxes, as there is between cats and dogs, due to the species once competing for food. “Ancestrally, foxes competed directly with wildcats for food such as rodents and birds, and adult foxes probably posed a predation threat to young wildcats and kittens,” said Serpell. Dennis Turner, the director of the Institute for Applied Ethology and Animal Psychology near Zurich, said: “Larry obviously feels at home at No 10 and is a large male. Although males, even intact ones, are usually more tolerant of other males – they have other things on their minds – they can still chase intruders away from their core areas of activity. Those include cats unknown to them, dogs and even foxes as in this case. Obviously this fox was one of the urban foxes living in and around London – but I bet it won’t come back for a while after this.” LINK

One member of a GMC Hummer EV Facebook group announced they were quoted $4040 for a passenger-side taillight, not including the cost of labor. GM lists the price of a replacement taillight at $3045.48 for the part alone. Replacing a set including taxes and labor could be over $7000, depending on your state and dealership. GM confirmed the price to Car and Driver and explained that each taillight houses a microconductor to control animations and in turn, drives the price up. Expensive cars are expensive. We understand that. But that doesn't mean we aren't massively taken aback by astronomical repair bills. The GMC Hummer EV SUT, in all its oversize glory and with its bulked-up resale prices, became the most recent vehicle to leave us leaning against a wall with the world spinning around us. The issue? The cost of replacing even a single taillight. One rather unlucky owner in a Hummer EV Facebook group was quoted $4040 to purchase a single taillight—not including labor—as first reported by The Drive, which did the due diligence of finding GM's list price for the part. As they noted, each individual light is priced at $3045.48. Factor in taxes, labor, and any other miscellaneous fees, and you are well on your way past the $6100 cost of parts. GM confirmed the price of the taillight to Car and Driver and explained the reason: each light has a microconductor in the housing that allows the individual lights to perform their respective animations. We also confirmed that should something go wrong, the taillights are covered for defects under warranty. Unfortunately, backing into the side of your garage would not be included. GM recalled a tiny batch of 10 Hummer EVs in March for a software defect that specifically impacted the taillights of the truck, causing them to stay on or not work at all. Despite the nature of the recall being software, GM replaced the lamp assemblies. The 9640-pound behemoth of a truck may tower over everything short of an 18-wheeler, but should you find yourself in need of replacing a taillight, or worse two, that gets pricey. Maybe that doesn't sound like an obstacle if you can afford to own a Hummer EV pickup, which starts at $86,645, with the Edition 1 (the only model delivered thus far) starting at $110,000. Some examples have gone for double or triple that price in online auctions. Still, we've never met anyone who couldn't complain about the price of parts. Jack Fitzgerald's early obsession with cars lay dormant for years before he was reintroduced to Formula 1 at age 14. By hounding his college professors at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, he was able to travel Wisconsin seeking out stories in the auto world. He has managed to combine his loves of cars and writing by landing a job with Car and Driver. Jack loves anything with an accelerator and an engine but is partial to cars with three pedals. LINK

I am a mid-20s (mostly) hetero woman. I am a happily single, independent person, and take pride in having an adventurous life, being a good friend, travelling extensively and keeping a fulfilling job. I’ve had some amazing romances, exciting sex and short-term relationships, but as yet I’ve not had the kind to “write home about”. Generally speaking, I am happy with this. However, when I do have lonely periods or feel down, society’s pressure to conform makes these feelings worse. After a season of weddings, engagements, baby showers and such, I’m left wondering how I can affirm and celebrate my single lifestyle with family and friends. I wonder if having some customs or rituals I could participate in or look back on would be useful? I would also like ways to bring my family (all coupled and married, almost all from a young age) closer. At the moment I find it difficult to talk to them about my emotional and romantic life – the good and the bad. So, I wonder if you have any practical ideas or hypotheses on what single people can do to affirm their lives? Eleanor says: One of the great mysteries of marriage-and-babies pressure is that it seems at once to come from everyone and no one. Very few people would say their own choice to have children or get married indicates a belief that those who don’t are making a mistake. But in aggregate it’s hard to avoid that implication. Those choices take on the force of What We Do Around Here: all the conjoined couples at a dinner party, every first name tessellated with another. (This is Jill-and-Mark, Tony-and-Mary.) The challenge is resisting that implication. To find a way to avoid seeing the mass of other people’s choices as a behemoth that speaks on the worthiness of your own decisions, and to start seeing it as simply a sum of people you are not. Under that guise, it’s a lot easier to deflate its authority. So Tony’s getting married. And? Tony also drank four cartons of milk on school camp once (substitute whichever choices your own friends made that you’d be content not to follow). If you can see “society” as just a bunch of Tonys, it matters less what it thinks. I think you’re right that rituals can be a beautiful way to honour your own life. As you think about what those rituals might look like, you have a choice: do you want them to be rituals without the trappings of relationships, or rituals defined by their absence? Advertisement If what you want is to notice and celebrate the fact of being single, you could try to do that with someone else: pick a friend, a group, and set an interval to meet up and repeat an activity together, as sentimental as you like. It could be a cheerful hike with breakfast afterwards or a formal evening of narrating the joys that came with being single this year. By contrast, if what you really want is space undefined by marriage or children, you might find that celebrating their absence has the opposite effect. To be defined in opposition to something is still to be defined by it. If the goal is to shrink something – to dethrone it from dominance – the attention required to reject it can still be too much. If you just feel hungry to celebrate yourself as you are, perhaps you could cultivate some existing rituals. Go all in on your own birthday. Ask as many people as possible. Set a big elaborate table. Become the friend who throws dinner parties. Remember Virginia Woolf’s line about the importance of good food? “One cannot think well, love well, sleep well if one has not dined well. The lamp in the spine does not light on beef and prunes.” You could try to light the lamp in the spine for as many of your friends as you can. Even the coupled ones: lots of married parents are chafing for the chance to socialise as something other than a married parent. I bet if you could reliably give friends a break from their toddler or their marriage, these occasions might become truly special to them, too. Ask us a question Do you have a conflict, crossroads or dilemma you need help with? Eleanor Gordon-Smith will help you think through life’s questions and puzzles, big and small. Questions can be anonymous. LINK

The House select committee investigating January 6, 2021, is holding their last hearing before the midterm elections Thursday, giving the panel one more opportunity to hammer home its message that former President Donald Trump is still dangerous to democracy. The committee is scheduled to return to the public eye at 1 p.m. ET, amid a markedly changed investigative landscape. In the months since the last hearing, the FBI searched the former President’s Mar-a-Lago estate as part of its investigation into the apparent mishandling and retention of sensitive government documents. In a separate probe, the Justice Department has fired off subpoenas to dozens of individuals connected to Trump, as its investigation into efforts to subvert the 2020 election intensifies and expands. Still, sources tell CNN the committee plans to lay out its case at Thursday’s hearing that Trump remains a “clear and present danger” over his efforts to overturn the election in 2020 and what that means for a 2024 campaign where he’s a potential Republican frontrunner. And committee aides told reporters on Wednesday that the hearing will examine Trump’s “state of mind,” in addition to events leading up to and following January 6. Thursday’s hearing will “bring a particular focus on the former President’s state of mind and his involvement in these events as they unfolded,” committee aides said. No witnesses – but new evidence Committee aides indicated there won’t be any live witnesses at Thursday’s hearing, but said there would be video testimony and documentary evidence that hasn’t been seen before. Ad Feedback Sources say some of the new evidence will come from new witnesses who only spoke to the committee in recent months, which could include several of Trump’s former Cabinet secretaries: Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. Other portions of new testimony will come from witnesses the committee has presented in previous hearings, aides say. Sources also say the hearing is likely to feature testimony from former Trump officials who resigned after January 6. Since its last hearing in July, the committee has received more than a million communications from the Secret Service from the lead-up to the riot. Committee aides told reporters Wednesday that the upcoming hearing will feature some of that new material, including emails and video handed over by the service. “We will be presenting a great deal of new documentary evidence tomorrow as well,” a select committee aide told reporters. “And certainly among that evidence will include information from the hundreds of thousands of pages that the United States Secret Service has produced to the committee pursuant to the committee’s subpoena of July.” In addition, the aide shared that the hearing will feature “new video footage showing efforts to respond in real time to the violence of January 6 as that violence was unfolding.” Recapping the panel’s summer sessions It’s been nearly three months since the committee last held a public hearing, and committee members are likely to use Thursday’s session to recap to viewers what the panel unearthed in its series of summer hearings. The committee showed testimony from numerous former aides of Donald Trump to make its case that Trump was told he lost the election, was behind plans to try to overturn his loss to Joe Biden and was warned that January 6 could turn violent. Some of the most damning testimony came from young aides like Cassidy Hutchinson, the former top aide to Trump’s final White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Hutchinson testified that Trump was told his supporters were armed and argued with his Secret Service detail to take him to the Capitol after his speech on January 6 – to the point he grabbed at the steering wheel and his lead Secret Service agent while in the vehicle. The committee’s hearings included numerous live witnesses, including Hutchinson, but some of the most compelling evidence against Trump came from hundreds of video depositions. The committee showed testimony from Trump’s former Attorney General William Barr saying he told Trump his claims of election fraud were bulls***, and former Trump White House lawyer Eric Herschmann saying he warned that Trump’s scheme to toss out electors on January 6 was “going to cause riots in the streets.” Thursday’s hearing gives the committee one last chance before the midterms to remind potential voters about the case they’ve built against Trump’s attempts to overturn the election and the violence that ensued at the Capitol. A committee chorus One of the unique features of the committee’s series of summer hearings was that each was led by a different committee member or two – meaning a majority of panel members did not speak at any given hearing. It was a quite un-Congress-like posture for congressional hearings, where the January 6 committee’s choreographed presentations! LINK

NATO is set to deliver counter-drone equipment to Ukraine, the alliance's Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday following the meetings of NATO Defence Ministers in Brussels. It comes as Ukraine has asked its allies to supply it with more air defense systems and ammunition after Russia stepped up its use of “kamikaze drones” in its brutal assault against the country. NATO allies "are supplying advanced systems, including artillery, air defence, and armoured vehicles," Stoltenberg said. "I thank all Allies for their significant contributions and urge them to continue to step up. We are also providing fuel, winter clothing and medical supplies as part of NATO’s Comprehensive Assistance Package," he added. "Under this package, NATO will shortly deliver counter-drone equipment to Ukraine. With hundreds of drone jammers, which can help render ineffective Russian and Iranian-made drones. And to protect Ukrainian people and critical infrastructure," he continued. Stoltenberg also said that in the longer term, NATO will also "help Ukraine to transition from Soviet-era to modern NATO equipment." Ukraine’s Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov updated NATO on the situation on the battlefield, Stoltenberg said, adding that "Ukraine is making good progress, pushing back the invading Russian forces in the East and in the South." Ukrainian air force says it shot down 4 Russian missiles From CNN's Julia Kesaieva The Ukrainian air force said it shot down four Russian Kalibr cruise missiles on Wednesday. Ukraine's Air Command West said on Telegram that the Russians "continue to attack civilians, launch missile strikes on critical infrastructure." The Russians targeted "facilities in the western region from the Black Sea with Kalibr cruise missiles," it said. "Four cruise missiles were destroyed," it added. More Russian missile strikes reported in western Ukraine From CNN's Olga Voitovych and Julia Kesaieva There are reports of fresh Russian missile attacks in western Ukraine. "Lviv region: Air Defense Forces worked. Details later. Stay in shelters! The danger still continues," Maksym Kozytskyi, head of the Lviv Region Military Administration, said on Telegram. Residents of Ternopil region, also in the west, reported explosions in the town of Chortkiv and Ternopil city. It's unclear whether they were due to missiles or air defenses at work. There was no official word on the cause. Kozytskyi said that Russians "hit one of the military facilities in the Lviv region. This is a repeated hit on this facility. Military property was destroyed, there are no casualties...3 missiles, 2 hits. 1 missile was shot down by our air defense forces." A week of deadly strikes: Civilian targets across Ukraine have been under fire this week as Moscow retaliates for last weekend's massive explosion on the bridge connecting annexed Crimea to the Russian mainland. That's continued Thursday, including a “kamikaze” drone attack on the Kyiv region and shelling of residential buildings in the southern city of Mykolaiv. The head of the Russian-backed administration in the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson has appealed to the Kremlin to organize an evacuation of civilians in the face of a Ukrainian offensive. "Every day, the cities of the Kherson region are subjected to missile strikes: Kherson and Novaya Kakhovka, Golaya Pristan and Chernobaevka. These missile strikes cause serious damage, first of all, to the local residents. Because the targets hit by the missiles are hotels, residential buildings, markets, where there are many civilians," said Vladimir Saldo, head of one of four regions annexed by Russia last month. As a result, the Kherson leadership "decided to organize the possibility of Kherson families traveling to other regions of the Russian Federation," he said on his Telegram channel. "We suggested that all residents of the Kherson region, if there is such a wish, to protect themselves from the consequences of missile strikes, should go to other regions ... to take their children and leave," he said, adding an "appeal" to the Russian leadership to "help in organizing such work. We, residents of the Kherson region, of course, know that Russia does not abandon its own people." However, Kirill Stremousov, the deputy head of Kherson region military administration, said, "There is no evacuation in the Kherson region and there cannot be any." Saldo's request to "help organize the departure of residents of the Kherson region for temporary stay and rest in other regions of the Russian Federation is not a call for evacuation," Stremousov said. "We urge the residents of the Kherson region to remain calm and to not panic. Nobody is going to withdraw Russian troops from the Kherson region." Ukrainian forces have been making gradual advances through Kherson, as well as striking critical infrastructure such as bridges and railways. LINK