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Black bear apparently opened the vehicle by lifting door handle with its mouth, after breaking into same car last year After a string of vehicle break-ins in a north Canadian town, local residents have identified the culprit: a black bear with a taste for upholstery foam. Awoken by a noise near midnight on 11 June, Kayla Seward, who lives in the Ontario township of Larder Lake, went outside to investigate – and found the sleepy black bear locked inside her car. A photo Kayla Seward took of the damage. Photograph: Kayla Seward A video of the encounter showed a dozy-looking ursid visible behind condensation-misted windows, sitting in the front passenger seat. “He’s nodding off, baby look at him,” Seward said, before her husband opened the car door to release the creature off-camera. The bear had apparently opened the unlocked vehicle by lifting a door handle with its mouth. The same tagged bear had already broken into her vehicle last year, Seward believes. “This bear this time last year broke through my back window and was then transported by the ministry [of Natural Resources and Forestry] 200km away,” Seward told the Guardian. “Well, it walked all the way back to take revenge.” The bear returned last week and broke into three cars around her off grid-home, she said. “Apparently, the bears are attracted to foam, that’s why they eat four-wheeler seats and stuff I was told,” Seward said. Wildlife officers had tried to retrap the nuisance bear last week but were unsuccessful, a spokesperson for the ministry said. Parks Canada estimates that more than 380,000 of North America’s 600,000 black bear po[CENSORED]tion lives in Canada. Black bears are not normally aggressive towards humans, with most interactions occurring near what bears identify as food sources. Last year a federal judge fined a man for shooting a black bear in Jasper national park, rejecting his defence that he was afraid of the predator. In 2021, however, a 26-year-old woman working as a helicopter engineer in Alberta was killed in a rare black bear attack. Seward’s most recent wildlife encounter may prove to be costly, as the bear tore up the upholstery and door panels and defecated after somehow locking itself inside her car. “Nothing a little duct tape won’t fix,” Seward joked in another video as she inspected the interior of her Honda Civic. Seward received a rude shock when she contacted her insurance company who said her policy would not pay out as she did not choose comprehensive coverage, leaving her to repair the damage herself. https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/12/ontario-black-bear-car

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Declan Rice will be England’s midfield shield while Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden can spark the attack. Photograph: Nick Potts/PA All-out attack could be the way to go for England at the Euros considering the array of talent at Gareth Southgate’s disposal and the defensive uncertainty. Harry Kane, Phil Foden, Bukayo Saka and Jude Bellingham, to name a few, have all had incredible seasons at club level and if they can translate that to the international scene, it could make England one of the most feared sides in the competition. However, getting the balance right will not be easy. Southgate’s success with England has been built on strong foundations. He is a defensively minded manager and he cannot be criticised for that because it has taken England to a European Championship final and World Cup semi‑final but never before has he had such an exciting group of forwards to choose from. It is easier said than done when coming up against the continent’s best but it would make sense to change old habits and go for it. He may see it as a risk but it would be a calculated one. Everyone witnessed how Foden embraced the responsibilities that are involved with being a No 10 for a top club and I would love to see him play more centrally for his country where he can do the most damage. England need to harness the form Foden has shown in the Premier League and give him the freedom to hurt opponents. He was at the centre of everything within a fantastic Manchester City side, leading to a fourth consecutive title. Even if you had not seen what he had done all season, he managed to sum up his qualities on the final day as they won the title. These are pressure games and in the opening three minutes he had created a chance from nothing and thrashed a shot into the top corner to take City one step closer to the title. If he can have the same influence for England, it could be seismic. Kane is a guaranteed starter and is another peaking with 44 goals in all competitions in his first season at Bayern Munich. Moving to Germany has not derailed his prolific scoring record and a year at a club like Bayern can only help his growth. He will be excited by the players behind him creating chances. Saka had nine goal assists in the Premier League this season and scored 16 as he continues to flourish. This is the most exciting and attacking England squad we have ever seen. Bellingham has just won La Liga with Real Madrid. A lot of the season under Carlo Ancelotti he has been playing as a No 10 but also as a false 9 at times and is another attack-minded player in the mix. For all of his qualities going forward, Bellingham is not the best off the ball defensively but that is never going to be his strength, so trying to make him sit will not work. He has become one of the best in Europe thanks to his late runs that have brought him 19 La Liga goals this past season. Harry Kane hit 44 goals for Bayern in his first season with the club. Photograph: Eddie Keogh/The FA/Getty Images Any team with Kane, Saka, Foden and Bellingham would be exciting to watch. I would personally like to see Cole Palmer start because he, too, has been incredible this season after moving to Chelsea from Manchester City, enjoying 33 goal involvements in 34 Premier League appearances (22 goals and 11 assists). That would be with Bellingham dropping back to play with Declan Rice in a 4-2-3-1 but this might be too adventurous for Southgate. However I think when you have a group like this, playing those in the best form can make the difference. That front four exudes confidence. Southgate, however, often prefers putting out an experienced team in major tournaments, knowing that those who have accumulated a large number of caps can cope with the occasion. This will be a top-heavy team in terms of attacking players. That is where the highest quality is, leaving Southgate wondering how he can bring balance. He will need to be tactically astute to get the right answers and that is not straightforward when the squad is together for such a short period. The players are used to working in complex systems under Guardiola, Mikel Arteta and Thomas Tuchel, for example, but they will need to pick up their various responsibilities quickly. The potential issues in defence add to the complexity of what Southgate has to navigate. He will need to decide whether to be more gung-ho to counteract being susceptible at the back or to offer extra protection. Without a natural second defensive midfielder, there will be a lot of onus on Rice to provide the protection the defence needs, especially one that will begin without a recognised left-back and with a centre-back pairing who have not played together regularly. Southgate will need to be clever to ensure the liberation of his attackers does not make England excessively open at the back. One solution would be to play Trent Alexander-Arnold at right-back, although this would be a difficult choice to make because it would be tough to leave out Kyle Walker, or Stones at centre-back from where they can move into midfield next to Rice, giving Bellingham greater opportunity to push forward. Gareth Southgate has decisions to make over his first-choice XI. Photograph: Eddie Keogh/The FA/Getty Images There are difficult choices to make for the back-up on the bench too – an indication of how good English players have been this season. Ollie Watkins would be my choice as Kane’s understudy. He scored 19 for Aston Villa and assisted a further 13, the highest in the Premier League, to help secure Champions League football for his club. Watkins is likely to be one of a group of forward-thinkers desperate to make an impact off the bench. We will potentially see Anthony Gordon, Eberechi Eze and Palmer in that role. They can all be gamechangers. Every fan would love to see the England men’s team just go for it at a major tournament for the first time in a long time. It might make Southgate a little uncomfortable because it goes against what he has built in the past for England but it could offer the extra edge needed at major tournaments. https://www.theguardian.com/football/article/2024/jun/11/the-best-way-for-england-to-approach-euro-2024-all-out-attack

The Przewalski’s horses’ grazing will benefit pollinators, small mammals and ground-nesting birds, helping restore the steppes ecosystem. Photograph: D Rosengren/Global Rewilding Alliance A group of the world’s last wild horses have returned to their native Kazakhstan after an absence of about 200 years. The seven horses, four mares from Berlin and a stallion and two other mares from Prague, were flown to the central Asian country on a Czech air force transport plane. The wild horses, known as Przewalski’s horses, once roamed the vast steppe grasslands of central Asia, where horses are believed to have been first domesticated about 5,500 years ago. People are known to have been riding and milking horses in northern Kazakhstan nearly 2,000 years before the first records of domestication in Europe. Human activity, including hunting the animals for their meat, as well as road building, which fragmented their po[CENSORED]tion, drove the horses close to extinction in the 1960s. Filip Mašek, Prague zoo’s spokesperson, said: “These are the only remaining wild horses in the world. Mustangs are domesticated horses that went wild.” The horses reintroduced into Kazakhstan are descended from two groups that survived in Munich and Prague zoos. A Przewalski’s horse is released on the steppe after the six mares and a stallion were flown to Kazakhstan from Prague and Berlin zoos. Photograph: Daniel Rosengren/Global Rewilding Alliance Originally, eight horses had been scheduled to travel, said Mašek, but one horse sat down before the flight from Prague and had to be unloaded and returned to Prague zoo. “He was just a little dizzy returning, but he is fine now. These horses have to stand for the entire journey – they can’t sit down, mainly because their blood needs to circulate properly. It is a 30-hour journey in total, and the horses will only survive if they stand all the way,” he said. Returning the horses from Prague zoo would help increase biodiversity in the region, said Mašek. “The horses spread seeds in their dung and when they dig up plants, they help the water get down into the soil. They also fertilise the steppe with their dung. “For me”, he said, “the goal of a modern zoo is not just about protecting and breeding endangered species, it is about returning them to the wild where they belong.” Prague zoo’s director, Miroslav Bobek, said the horses’ arrival was “almost a miracle”, given the relatively short preparation for the relocation and unexpected floods in central Kazakhstan last month. “This is the beginning of a whole new chapter in the story of the last wild horse on the planet,” he said in a press release. A group of wild Przewalski stallions in Hustai national park, Mongolia. Mongolia dragged its wild horses back from extinction – can it save the rest of its wildlife? Read more In 2011, Prague zoo was involved in a reintroduction of Przewalski’s horses to Mongolia. The project, which involved nine flights of horses, continued until 2019 when the po[CENSORED]tion stabilised, said Mašek, adding that there were now about 1,500 of the wild horses in Mongolia. Mašek said the plan was to transport a total of 40 horses to central Kazakhstan over the next five years. This first stage of the horse reintroduction involved the Kazakh government’s forestry and wildlife committee, Prague zoo, Tierpark Berlin zoo, Frankfurt Zoological Society and the Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity of Kazakhstan. You're read 6 articles in the last year - thank you for supporting our climate coverage Article count on How worried should we be about the climate? We asked every expert we could Every day we interview the world’s leading climate scientists about the state of the world. These experts are increasingly alarmed, terrified about the future and furious their warnings continue to be ignored. For a one-of-a-kind reporting project, we set about trying to measure just how worried they are. Environment editor Damian Carrington contacted 843 senior authors of recent reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the UN’s expert body. The high number of responses we received – 380 – reflected the strength of their alarm. Close to half of the experts anticipate at least 3C of global heating, a cataclysmic prospect. We understand that reports such as this can lead to a feeling of despair. However, as some scientists pointed out, hope lies in ensuring we keep ourselves and the next generation well informed so that we can push those in power to make decisions that will benefit our planet. The Guardian’s environment team works tirelessly to expose the impact commercial and political greed is having on our planet. It can be difficult, but we believe it is the greatest priority of our time. With help from our readers this work can continue and grow. If you can, please consider supporting our journalism today. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jun/10/przewalskis-horses-only-wild-species-return-central-asian-steppes-kazakhstan

Far-right religious parties are backing the bill with a view to inserting changes and limiting conscription. Ultra-Orthodox Jews block a highway in Bnei Brak as they protest against their conscription into the Israeli armed forces on April 1, 2024 [Oren Ziv/AFP] The Israeli Knesset has voted to revive a bill that would end exemption on military conscription for some ultra-Orthodox religious students. The 63-57 vote in the parliament late on Monday means that the legislation will now head to committee review. The return of the bill from the previous parliament has provoked anger from opponents as well as those that say it does not extend conscription sufficiently, as Israel conducts the war in Gaza and deals with expanding conflict with Lebanon’s Hezbollah and other Iran-linked forces across the region. The legislation aims to slowly ramp up conscription among the ultra-Orthodox, whose members have for decades enjoyed exemptions to study the Torah. However, it would also lower the age of exemption from mandatory military service for ultra-Orthodox Jews from 26 to 21, thereby limiting the numbers that could be called up to serve. That saw far-right and religious factions support the vote, alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while it was opposed by more centrist and military-linked factions, who say it does not do enough to ensure conscription at a time when the country increasingly needs soldiers. Defence Minister Yoav Gallant voted against the bill, saying it signals an engagement in “petty politics at the expense” of the Israeli military. Opposition leader Yair Lapid wrote in a post on X that it was “one of the most despicable moments of humiliation of the Israeli Knesset ever” and characterised the legislation as a “law of evasion and insubordination”. The vote came one day after former general and war cabinet minister Benny Gantz and former army chief Gadi Eisenkot resigned from the emergency coalition government over major differences on managing the war and planning for the future of the Gaza Strip. The bill was originally put forward by Gantz in 2022 under the previous government, but he now opposes it, saying it is inadequate in responding to the current military needs of Israel. The far-right religious parties, who are the main backers of Netanyahu, strongly oppose a general expansion of conscription to include the ultra-Orthodox. However, they backed the legislation in order to include changes during the review stage. “We have a great opportunity that should not be missed. The ultra-Orthodox public must not be pushed into a corner,” far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who is leading the charge in expanding illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, said in a statement. He was confronted by angry members of some of the families of Israelis still held captive in Gaza on Tuesday, who demanded the government does more to bring them back. Some 120 captives, about 80 of whom are believed to be alive, remain in the Palestinian territory. The Israeli military killed at least 274 Palestinians and injured close to 700 others during attacks on the Nuseirat refugee camp last week that led to the rescue of four captives. Israeli attacks on Gaza since the start of the war have killed at least at least 37,124 people killed and wounded 84,712, with thousands more missing under the rubble and presumed dead. Israel launched its assault on the besieged territory after a Hamas-led attack in southern Israel killed about 1,140 people. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/6/11/israels-knesset-advances-contentious-ultra-orthodox-conscription-law

But there is one important difference between the two cases: The genocide in Gaza is not taking place in the dark. Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Friday, May 31, 2024 AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana] While our eyes were on Rafah’s “Block 2371” – the small area in south Gaza which the Israeli military designated as a “safe humanitarian zone” on May 22 but went on to bomb just four days later, massacring at least 45 civilians sheltering in tents – we were reminded of a 15-year-old confidential cable intercepted by WikiLeaks describing the plight of civilians in the final days of the Sri Lankan civil war. Dispatched in May 2009 from the United States embassy in Colombo to the US Department of State in Washington, DC, the cable recounts how the bishop of Mannar had called to ask the embassy to intervene on behalf of seven Catholic priests caught in a so-called “No Fire Zone” which had been set up as a safe space by the Sri Lankan military. The bishop estimated that there were still 60,000 to 75,000 civilians confined within that particular zone, located on a small sliver of coastal land about twice the size of Manhattan’s Central Park. Following the bishop’s phone call, the US ambassador spoke with Sri Lanka’s foreign minister, asking him to alert the military that most of the people remaining in the “No Fire Zone” were civilian. He was, it seems, afraid that due to intense artillery shelling the coastal strip had become a death trap. Not unlike the Israeli military’s efforts to push Palestinian civilians from across the Gaza Strip into the so-called “safe humanitarian zone” in Rafah, at one point, the Sri Lankan military had urged the civilian po[CENSORED]tion to gather in areas it designated as “No Fire Zones” by dropping leaflets from planes and making announcements on loudspeakers. As an estimated 330,000 internally displaced people assembled in these zones, the United Nations erected makeshift camps and, together with several humanitarian organisations, began to provide food and medical assistance to the desperate po[CENSORED]tion. The Tamil Tigers, the armed group fighting the Sri Lankan military, however, also appeared to have retreated into these “No Fire Zones”. The fighters had prepared in advance a complex network of bunkers and fortifications in these areas and went on to mount their final stand against the military there. While the Sri Lankan military claimed that it was engaged in “humanitarian operations” aimed at “liberating the civilians”, an analysis of satellite images as well as numerous testimonies reveal that the military continuously pounded the enclosed “No Fire Zones” with mortar and artillery fire, transforming these designated safe spaces into killing fields. Anywhere between 10,000 to 40,000 caged-in civilians perished in the so-called safe zones while thousands and thousands more were severely injured often laying for hours and days on the ground without receiving medical attention because virtually every hospital – whether permanent or makeshift – had been hit by artillery. The parallels between Sri Lanka 2009 and Gaza 2024 are uncanny. In both cases, the military displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians, instructing them to gather in “safe zones” where they would not be harmed. In both cases, the militaries proceeded to bomb the designated “safe zones,” indiscriminately killing and injuring a large number of civilians. In both cases, the militaries also bombed medical units responsible for saving the lives of the civilians. In both cases, military spokespeople justified the strikes, admitting that they had bombed the safe zones, but claiming that the Tamil Tigers and Hamas were responsible for the civilian deaths since they had hidden among the civilian po[CENSORED]tion, using them as shields. In both cases, Western countries criticised the killing of innocents, but continued supplying the militaries with weapons. In Sri Lanka’s case, Israel was among the main suppliers of weapons. In both cases, the UN claimed that the warring parties were carrying out war crimes and crimes against humanity. In both cases, the governments mobilised a cadre of experts who used legal acrobatics to justify the massacres. Their interpretation of the rules of engagement and of the application of fundamental concepts of international humanitarian law including distinction, proportionality, necessity and the very notions of safe zones and warnings were put in the service of eliminatory violence. But there is also one important difference between the two cases. The genocide in Gaza is not taking place in the dark. Whereas in Sri Lanka it took time to gather evidence of violations and carry out independent investigations, the global attention on Gaza – and the live-streamed images of beheaded babies and charcoaled bodies in “Block 2371” – can prevent the repetition of the Sri Lankan horror. Media outlets have already shown how the “safe area” south of Wadi Gaza has been pummelled by 2,000-pound bombs, killing thousands of Palestinians. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has collected evidence and is now seeking arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Galant for their alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has observed Israel’s deployment of relentless violence against civilians and ordered the government to “immediately halt” its offensive in Rafah, specifying that its actions have not been sufficient “to alleviate the immense risk [including the risk of not being protected by the Genocide Convention] to which the Palestinian po[CENSORED]tion is exposed as a result of the military offensive in Rafah”. Israel responded to the ruling of the highest court of the land by continuing its bombing of safe zones. The Block 2371 massacre came only 48 hours after the ICJ order. Less than a fortnight later, another Israeli air attack on a UN-run school in the Nuseirat camp, which had also been designated as a “safe zone”, killed at least 40 people, mainly women and children. On June 9, an Israeli operation to free four Israeli captives at the same camp claimed the lives of 274 Palestinians and injured hundreds of others. All eyes are on Rafah, and the rest of the devastated Gaza Strip, yet Israel is undeterred, carrying out its crimes under the limelight, while the US, the United Kingdom, France and Germany continue to supply it with weapons. The ICJ and ICC have had their say, as have South Africa, Spain, Ireland, Slovenia and Norway. The university encampments and the global solidarity movement are calling on their governments to apply an arms embargo and demand a ceasefire as they witness how Israel has transformed the safe zones it has created into killing fields. Like in other situations of extreme colonial violence, Israel’s acceleration of its extermination practices in Gaza and its clumsy attempt to portray it as abiding by the law are symptoms of the twilight of its dispossession project. Former colonial powers like the UK, France and Germany should know that. The US should know that. All eyes are on Gaza. All eyes are on them, too. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance. https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/6/11/like-sri-lanka-once-did-israel-has-turned-safe-zones-into-killing-fields

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You said about Renglus “someone tell renglus to stop yapping” And you want to be admin here? Above all, we want style and morals among the staff, and you treat the staff in a bad manner because they told the truth? This thing must improve, and you must respect everyone's opinions. If you want to be in the NewLifeZM team, your uniform must have a respectful manner with others, and then the other things like activity and respect the rules of the server so CONTRA.

With a willing twin-cam engine mounted amidships, the first generation Europa is the ancestor of the beloved Elise. It's also incredibly small and light, as are all the best Lotuses. A well-preserved California car recently mechanically refreshed, this Lotus is ready for its next driver. Nearly every exotic sports car these days is mid-engine, and for good reason. Locating the heaviest part of the car near its center allows for better handling and off-the-line traction—it's why the C8 Corvette adopted the layout to hunt down Porsches—and the results are even more evident in racing machines. In the 1960s, Lotus built several winning mid-engine F1 cars and the first mid-engine Indy 500 winner. The obvious thing to do was bring that race-proved technology to the street. Today's auction pick at Bring A Trailer (which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos) is a classic combination of Lotus simplicity and ingenuity, a 1973 Lotus Europa. Finished in blue with gold pinstripes with a black vinyl interior, it's smaller than one of Shaquille O'Neal's shoes, yet is hummingbird-quick on its feet and powered by a fizzy twin-cam engine. Although its looks may be more of an acquired taste than those of the lithe Elan, the Europa is pure elemental Lotus at its best. Originally, the Europa was intended only for the European market, as evidenced by its name. It was first powered by a 1.5-liter Renault engine with just 82 horsepower, but its combination of boxed steel backbone chassis and fiberglass construction kept the curb weight to under 1500 pounds. Simplify, and add lightness. Better yet, add a twin-cam 1.6-liter Ford four-cylinder engine. That's what powered later models, like this 1973 example. This engine is freshly rebuilt with twin Zenith-Stromberg carbs, an aftermarket header and exhaust, and slightly (0.030-inch) over-bored pistons. When new, in U.S. federalized form, this engine would have made just over 110 horsepower, and it might be making slightly more in this application. In a car this light, that's plenty. Despite skinny 185-series Kumho Solus tires out back, this little Lotus will really scoot. You a buy a Lotus for its handling, and there's more good news on that front, with a comprehensive overhaul of the front and rear suspension and fresh bushings for the steering rack. This car reportedly was stored from 1985 until 2021 in California, which kept the delicate chassis intact. It was then mechanically recommissioned to bring it back to former glory. There are a few cosmetic issues here and there, such as tears in the seats, but overall, someone has helpfully done all the work needed. This Europa just needs a driver. While the driving experience will be nothing like a modern mid-engine car, it'd be hard to touch this 43-inch high Lotus for pure delight. Hear the twin-carbs honking away behind your head, feed that manual steering into a corner, and murmur a silent prayer of thanks to Colin Chapman for his signature ethos. As for the mallard-ish looks, well, those will grow on you. A modern Emira weighs twice as much. It is not twice as good. In Lotus land, less is more. This no-reserve auction ends on June 11. https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a61008946/1973-lotus-europa-bring-a-trailer-auction/

‘I’ve fallen in love with a married straight guy 10 years my junior and I can’t stop the intensity of my feelings for him – it’s agony.’ Photograph: Daisy-Daisy/Getty Images/iStockphoto There may be unfinished business from your infancy or early childhood that you are trying to conclude by longing for something unobtainable The question I’m at my wit’s end. I’m a 50-year-old gay man and I’m in a happy, long-term relationship. But I’ve fallen in love with a married straight guy 10 years my junior. He’s a new colleague at work. We get on well and have struck up a companionable working relationship, but my feelings for him have become deeper – and it’s agony. I’m not an idiot. He’s married with young children and I know nothing is going to happen. I don’t think I’d even want it to, but I just can’t stop the intensity of my feelings for him. He’s a kind, thoughtful man, which somehow makes it worse. I couldn’t bear it if he found out I was secretly harbouring lustful or amorous feelings for him. This is not the first time I’ve done this. Over the years there have been others that I’ve secretly fallen for, so I guess it’s a bit of a pattern. The first time was when I was at school at 14. I fell in love with a friend and my feelings were so intense I couldn’t tell anyone, not even him. I couldn’t even admit I was gay at that age. This current crush feels as bad as that. I know this sounds pathetic, but I feel absolutely broken by this. I’d like us to be friends, but how do I stop feeling jealous when he talks and laughs with others? How can I stop feeling these intense feelings? Philippa’s answer One thing you might consider is to explore the underlying reasons for why you tend to develop these intense crushes on unavailable people. It sounds like this has been a pattern for you since childhood, so understanding the roots of this behaviour could help you gain insight into your psyche. And insight can lead to healing. I’m going to suggest a few reasons that might be the cause, in case any resonate with you. It could be that somewhere in your infancy and childhood you got confused between longing, which is agony, and love, which is bliss or at least comfortable. It sounds like you are a lifelong sufferer of intermittent limerence. Limerence is a term coined by Dorothy Tennov in 1979. It’s when otherwise healthy individuals find themselves in a monomania for another person, which they might not have expected to happen and when they recover from the experience their lives go back to normal… until the next time. The experience is distinct from simple sexual desire – it’s more obsessive. Remember, this isn’t real love. It is possible this is a hangover from how you learned to attach and bond to others when you were a baby or young child. As you have a good long-term relationship you must also have learned how to have healthy attachments, too. But it is as though there was someone you once wanted who you could not have, maybe a nanny or carer who left, or perhaps a neglectful parent. You might be projecting your own iridescence on to your “love” object as though he, and all the former objects that caused you to become obsessed, aren’t just people, but gods on pedestals, and they stand in for a person from your past. Essentially, there may be unfinished business from your infancy or early childhood that you are trying to conclude in the present by longing for something unobtainable. Perhaps your psyche is saying, maybe this time I’ll win – even though your logical self knows that would be disastrous. I noticed in my psychotherapy practice that we humans are vulnerable to obsessions and fixations when we want to distract ourselves from a deeper problem we can’t bear to think about. This could be not facing up to a bereavement in your life, or a loss likely to happen soon, or it could be that you need to feel a deeper connection with yourself and it just seems easier to ache for a deeper connection with an unobtainable other. If there is something you are not facing up to, name it and face it – it won’t be as bad as you think. When you are able to create a narrative, it will be easier for you to separate the essential you from your obsession. You do this by observing the obsessive thoughts and feelings, explaining them to yourself, but not being them. You sound very alone with these feelings. It is understandable if you don’t want to upset your partner or friends with them, but do consider consulting a therapist. Secrecy can encourage limerence to fester rather than fade, and I believe you need to talk about this. You are not an idiot, neither are you pathetic. Many people, men and women of every sexual orientation, suffer from limerence. It will probably fade, but more than that and with the right help, it can be managed so it loses its power over you. Recovering from limerence is a process I have been privileged to witness several times. Recommended reading: Living with Limerence by Dr L and How to Stay Sane by me, which has useful exercises to help you to train your mind and contain your feelings so that you can master them, rather than them mastering you. Every week Philippa Perry addresses a personal problem sent in by a reader. If you would like advice from Philippa, please send your problem to askphilippa@guardian.co.uk. Submissions are subject to our terms and conditions Craving something new? Meet Feast, the ultimate cooking app Shake up your mealtimes with inspiration from your favourite Guardian cooks including Yotam Ottolenghi, Nigel Slater, Meera Sodha and many others. Feast, our new recipe app, has something for everyone to discover. Think healthy, family-pleasing dinners, ideas for weekend brunches, vegan and vegetarian dishes, gluten-free recipes, and much more. Whether you know your flambé from your sauté or it’s your first time holding a sieve, Feast has recipes tailored to suit every cook, dinner guest, season and occasion. Enjoy smart features such as cook mode, which keeps your phone unlocked while you view easy-to-follow instructions, or search by ingredient, which helps you turn those vegetables you’re about to throw out into something vibrant. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/article/2024/jun/09/why-do-i-keep-falling-in-love-with-totally-unavailable-people

Australia's wicketkeeper Matthew Wade celebrates the dismissal of opener Phil Salt, after which England’s run chase stalled. Photograph: Ricardo Mazalán/AP It was supposed to be a game of relatively little consequence, the Ashes rivalry laid on for the sake of the broadcasters amid an expectation that England and Australia would sweep aside the associate teams in Group B. As the two seeds, they would swan into predetermined slots in the Super Eight stage. But by following Tuesday’s washout against Scotland with a heavy 36-run defeat to their oldest rivals in sweltering Bridgetown, Jos Buttler’s defending champions have been plunged into a world of net run-rate calculations and weather forecasts when they meet Oman and Namibia in Antigua over the next week. Even dispensing with those two by heavy margins may not be enough. Australia, already a victory over Oman to the good before this one, will be chuckling at the predicament that England now find themselves in. Making 201 for seven after being stuck in – the highest total of the tournament to date – Mitch Marsh and his side then slammed the brakes on England to restrict them to 165 for six. Pat Cummins, returning to the side, sent down a masterful two for 23 from four overs, while Adam Zampa spun his way to two for 28. It was a classic shutdown against an England side that, beyond Buttler (42 from 28) and Phil Salt (37 from 23) up top, looked short on time in the middle and feeling the pressure overall. Jonny Bairstow had a particularly poor game, a shoddy outing in the field followed by scratching out seven from 13 balls. Having arrived at 92 for two in the 10th over – thus needing the same 109 in 10 England claimed they could have chased against Scotland – this was an opportunity missed. Although in truth, England were always behind in this one after David Warner (39 from 16) and Travis Head (34 from 18) ransacked 70 runs inside the first five overs. This lively start certainly underlined the difficulty of bowling from the Malcolm Marshall End, with a short off-side boundary – around 60 metres – and a strong cross-wind blowing into it. Spectators in the Greenidge and Haynes Stand were very much in the game here. David Warner’s powerful hitting put England on the back foot early on. Photograph: Ash Allen/Reuters Those conditions also made it all the more baffling that, after a tight first over from Moeen Ali, Buttler asked the far less experienced off-spinner, Will Jacks, to share the new ball and defend that trickier end. His more loopy fare was utterly manhandled for 22 runs – solar panels on the roof of the stand smashed along the way – with this figure then repeated when Buttler instantly swapped him out for the pace of Mark Wood and saw three more sixes soar. Buttler claimed afterwards that Jacks was a call based on “gut feel” – not data – but it set the tone for a scrappy time in the field. The captain also spent so much time running from wicketkeeper to speak to his bowlers that he was penalised for slow play, Chris Jordan forced to bowl the 20th over with only three men outside the circle. Jofra Archer returning one for 28 from four overs – Head bowled by a slower ball after Moeen had castled Warner – felt a triumph in the circumstances. But Australia’s middle order had plenty of breathing room after that breakneck start, regular wickets scarcely proving to be setbacks as they crashed all but three of their 14 sixes with the wind. That said, Glenn Maxwell, who struggled for rhythm in a 25-ball 28, delivered one outrageous, deliberately sliced six into it. He always was a player to take things in a different direction. Zampa is another and after Salt and Buttler threw some early counterpunches at the seamers, the leg-spinner’s dual removal of both openers triggered the asphyxiation that followed. The first was a fine piece of bowling, Zampa firing in a quick, flat delivery first up to castle Salt. Buttler, slightly penned in, then perished attempting to reverse sweep him over backward point. Thereafter only Moeen managed to truly swing freely, his 15-ball 25 the only pushback as Cummins and Josh Hazlewood bowled smartly to the ground’s dimensions. When the latter had Bairstow caught trying to thrash his way out of the funk it was in effect over. England, desperate to change the tune after that bleak 50-over World Cup last winter, are once again in a bit of strife. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/jun/08/australia-england-t20-world-cup-match-report

Parakeets wait for snacks in St James's Park, London. Photograph: Vuk Valcic/SOPA Images/Shutterstock Yet another opinion poll was published last week, focusing on British people’s attitudes towards new arrivals on our shores. They didn’t get here on small boats, and they won’t feature in the TV election debates. They’re not human beings, but birds: ring-necked parakeets. Nevertheless, they are highly divisive, with the poll revealing that the colourful creatures prompt reactions from downright hostility, through grudging acceptance, to a warm welcome. Almost 4,000 UK residents were interviewed for the online survey, published in the open-access journal NeoBiota. Researchers from Imperial College London, the Universities of Exeter and Brighton and the British Trust for Ornithology discovered that 90% were aware of the gaudy birds, and just over half knew the name of the species, which is also known as the rose-ringed parakeet, after its pink and grey neck ring. The vast majority of people – roughly five out of six – consider parakeets aesthetically pleasing, yet at the same time almost half have negative opinions about them. In rural areas, this rises to almost two-thirds, with some suggesting that these noisy, screeching birds disturb the bucolic peace – hence the title of the research paper, Not in the countryside please! Age also makes a difference: older respondents are far more hostile to the birds than younger ones, who mostly accept their presence, especially in London, their main stronghold. Comments varied from “very colourful and interesting to see”, to “a pain in the backside – so intrusively noisy”, which can’t really be argued with. Newspaper columnist Hugo Rifkind once likened them to young men on a stag do. Others welcome them as a splash of colour in what they see as nature-depleted urban environments. I’ve been aware of these exotic birds for almost half a century. In the late 1970s, only a decade after they first began to colonise Britain, I caught sight of one near my childhood home, on the outskirts of west London. To say it stood out among the drab suburban birdlife would be an understatement. Ring-necked parakeets remained fairly scarce for decades, but from the late 1990s onwards numbers began to rise exponentially. Twenty years ago, when my youngest offspring were born, we lived in a small house in the London suburbs, with a tiny garden. The parakeets soon discovered our bird feeders, and would happily stay put even as the children played only feet away from them. Today I see – or more often hear – them almost anywhere I go in London. They are also found in cities elsewhere in the UK, but their preference for gathering each evening in large communal roosts has limited their spread – I’ve yet to see one in my adopted home of Somerset. Jimi Hendrix was not responsible for the arrival of parakeets. Photograph: Bruce Fleming/Rex Features Over the years, I’ve heard many myths about how they got here in the first place. “They were released by a stoned Jimi Hendrix, who let them out in London’s Carnaby Street…”; “They escaped from the film set of The African Queen…”; “They made a bid for freedom when their cage broke during the Great Storm of 1987…” But as Nick Hunt and Tim Mitchell point out in their entertaining and informative book The Parakeeting of London: An Adventure in Gonzo Ornithology, all these apparently convincing stories are urban myths. Hunt and Mitchell were actually the first to investigate people’s response to these exotic new arrivals, speaking to those who were surprised to come across them in their local neighbourhood. The truth about the parakeets’ presence here is rather a letdown: as po[CENSORED]r cagebirds, it was inevitable some would escape. And because they live in the foothills of the Himalayas, they are easily able to cope with the worst of the British winter, and not just survive, but thrive. There are genuine concerns about the birds’ ecological impact, including the devastation that a flock can wreak on fruit crops. They could also harm native species, by competing for nest-holes with jackdaws, stock doves and starlings. Conversely, London’s growing po[CENSORED]tion of peregrines are delighted by the arrival of the parakeets, whose slow, direct flight makes them far easier to catch than the faster and more manoeuvrable pigeons. Numbers are rising, too. The latest po[CENSORED]tion estimate, from the British Trust for Ornithology, suggests a UK breeding po[CENSORED]tion of 12,000 pairs, a 10-fold increase in the past 30 years. If this exponential rise continued, then by the end of this century parakeets would rival the wren as our commonest bird. Fortunately, perhaps, the signs are that their numbers have finally begun to level out. Nevertheless, conservationists are keeping a close eye on the expansion of the species. Although I appreciate the ecological arguments against these birds, and have some sympathy with the suggestion that they should be culled to avoid problems in the future, I also have a real soft spot for them. And on a winter’s evening, when a hundred-strong flock streaks across the darkening sky like a green meteor, I can’t help admiring their sheer chutzpah, and be thankful for the way they brighten up our dull city lives. Stephen Moss is an author and naturalist, based in Somerset. His latest book is Ten Birds that Changed the World (Guardian Faber, £16.99). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply. How worried should we be about the climate? We asked every expert we could Every day we interview the world’s leading climate scientists about the state of the world. These experts are increasingly alarmed, terrified about the future and furious their warnings continue to be ignored. For a one-of-a-kind reporting project, we set about trying to measure just how worried they are. Environment editor Damian Carrington contacted 843 senior authors of recent reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the UN’s expert body. The high number of responses we received – 380 – reflected the strength of their alarm. Close to half of the experts anticipate at least 3C of global heating, a cataclysmic prospect. We understand that reports such as this can lead to a feeling of despair. However, as some scientists pointed out, hope lies in ensuring we keep ourselves and the next generation well informed so that we can push those in power to make decisions that will benefit our planet. The Guardian’s environment team works tirelessly to expose the impact commercial and political greed is having on our planet. It can be difficult, but we believe it is the greatest priority of our time. With help from our readers this work can continue and grow. If you can, please consider supporting our journalism today. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jun/09/how-parakeets-escaped-and-made-britain-their-home