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OnePlus 15 is said to be in development as the successor to the current OnePlus 13 flagship model. It is expected to go official later this year. Ahead of its anticipated debut, possible colourways of the handset have been leaked by a tipster. The OnePlus 15 is said to be offered in three colour options, headlined by a Dune shade, which is also expected to feature in all of the marketing materials. Alongside, the tipster has also revealed the weight of each of the colour options of the OnePlus 15. OnePlus 15 Colour Options (Expected) This information comes from a Weibo post by tipster Digital Chat Station (translated from Chinese). The OnePlus 15 is said to be available in Absolute Black, Dune, and Mist Purple (translated from Chinese) colourways. The Dune option will be the one OnePlus is speculated to use in the handset's marketing materials, in anticipation of its launch. However, all the colourways of the OnePlus 15 will have a slight difference in terms of weight, according to the post by Digital Chat Station on Weibo. The Dune colour variant of the purported OnePlus 15 will might be the lightest at 211g. On the other hand, the Absolute Black and Mist Purple colour options are both expected to weigh 215g. Leaked renders suggest that the handset will come with a redesigned camera island, sporting a square module instead of the circular one on the OnePlus 13. In terms of specifications, the OnePlus 15 is speculated to sport a 6.78-inch flat LTPO OLED panel with 1.5K resolution and up to 165Hz refresh rate. For optics, the handset is rumoured to feature a triple camera setup, comprising a 50-megapixel primary camera, a 50-megapixel secondary camera, and a 50-megapixel telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom. OnePlus also recently confirmed that the brand is developing its proprietary image engine, called DetailMax. While it is still in the early prototype phase, the OnePlus 15 could become the first smartphone to ship with it. The purported handset is speculated to pack a 7,000mAh or higher-capacity battery. For reference, the OnePlus 13 was launched with a 6,000mAh battery pack. It is expected to be accompanied by support for 100W wired fast charging. https://www.gadgets360.com/mobiles/news/oneplus-15-colour-options-leak-weibo-digital-chat-station-9250313

Microsoft is changing the Copilot app in Windows 11 so that it presents the user with an experience more like the Start menu, rather than the current chat-based home page. Windows Latest reports that a new update for the Copilot app, which is currently being rolled out to all Windows 11 users via the Microsoft Store, applies a substantial makeover to the home page for the AI assistant (as seen in testing previously). Currently there's a chat-style interface where your typed query is central, much like the web version of Copilot (as shown in the image above), but the new app transforms the home page into something more akin to the Start menu (see the image below). As Windows Latest points out, you still get the greeting from Copilot, and the key query (chat) box, but there are now four new panels adorning the screen providing various extras. These include links to jump straight back into files you've recently used, as well as conversations with Copilot you've had in the past, that you can rekindle should you wish. A further panel offers the ability to 'Work on Copilot Pages' which allows for working on writing and coding projects (that require plentiful editing and revisions), and a fourth panel offers guided help with apps. The latter kicks off a Copilot Vision session with the app in question, giving you tips and advice on using the application. Windows Latest also uncovered references that suggest Copilot's ChatGPT-powered Agent is coming to the AI app in Windows 11. Agent offers the ability to carry out certain tasks for you, such as booking travel tickets, and the tech site believes it might arrive in the next update for the Copilot app (add seasoning appropriately). As noted, all this has previously been seen in testing, but is apparently now rolling out in full. That said, the rollout is an ongoing process, and not everyone will see the new home page for the Copilot app right now – it'll take a while to filter through to all Windows 11 PCs. The broad idea here is hooking the Copilot app's tentacles into more of Windows 11. In other words, Microsoft is going beyond simple AI queries with the app, and integrating more of what you might need to do in the operating system. So, for example, you can click on a document flagged in the recently-used files panel of the Copilot app, and it'll fire it up in Word on the desktop. Granted, the new app's home page isn't all that like the Start menu, but you can see it taking cues from that central part of the Windows 11 interface, and that raises an interesting prospect. Right now, we're looking at a Start menu-style design in the Copilot app; but in the future, will that idea be flipped around? By which I mean: will we be looking at a Start menu that's fully based on the Copilot AI? If we take the infusion of AI into Windows 11 – which is clearly happening – to its logical conclusion, Copilot is going to get everywhere, and the Start menu may end up looking something like this new take on the Copilot app. It'll center on queries (including local searches) driven by the AI, and offer not just quick access to your apps, but help with them – and doubtless we can expect Copilot to power recommendations, too. (Maybe that'll make the latter more helpful; or maybe not, and they'll continue to be a vehicle for Microsoft's nudges-bordering-on-ads). This feels like an obvious way forward for Microsoft, so perhaps with this Copilot app redesign we've just caught our first glimpse of the future of the Start menu in Windows 12 (or whatever the next-gen OS ends up being called). Or maybe this AI thing will all blow over (but you don't believe that any more than I do, do you?). https://www.techradar.com/computing/windows/microsoft-makes-major-change-to-copilot-app-and-im-wondering-if-this-is-a-glimpse-of-windows-12s-start-menu

Nvidia has announced its new Rubin CPX GPU today, a "purpose-built GPU designed to meet the demands of long-context AI workloads." The Rubin CPX GPU, not to be confused with a plain Rubin GPU, is an AI accelerator/GPU focused on maximizing the inference performance of the upcoming Vera Rubin NVL144 CPX rack. As AI workloads evolve, the computing architectures designed to power them are evolving in tandem. Nvidia's new strategy for boosting inference, termed disaggregated inference, relies on multiple distinct types of GPUs working in tandem to reach peak performance. Compute-focused GPUs will handle what it calls the "context phase," while different chips focused on memory bandwidth will handle the throughput-intensive "generation phase." The company explains that cutting-edge AI workloads involving multi-step reasoning and persistent memory, like AI video generation or agentic AI, benefit from the availability of huge amounts of context information. Inference for these large AI models has become the new frontier for AI hardware development, as opposed to training those models. To this end, Rubin CPX GPU is designed to be a workhorse for the compute-intensive context phase of disaggregated inference (more on that below), while the standard Rubin GPU can handle the more memory-bandwidth-limited generation phase. Rubin CPX is good for 30 petaFLOPs of raw compute performance on the company's new NVFP4 data type, and it has 128 GB of GDDR7 memory. For reference, the standard Rubin GPU will be able to reach 50 PFLOPs of FP4 compute and is paired with 288 GB of HBM4 memory. Early renders of the Rubin CPX GPU, such as the one above, appear to feature a single-die GPU design. The Rubin GPU will be a dual-die chiplet design, and as pointed out by ComputerBase, one-half of a standard Rubin would output 25 PFLOPs FP4; this leads some to speculate that Rubin CPX is a single, hyper-optimized slice of a full-fat Rubin GPU. The choice to include GDDR7 on the rather than HBM4 is also one of optimization. As mentioned, disaggregated inference workflows will split the inference process between the Rubin and Rubin CPX GPUs. Once the compute-optimized Rubin CPX has built the context for a task, for which the performance parameters of GDDR7 are sufficient, it will then pass the ball to a Rubin GPU for the generation phase, which benefits from the use of high-bandwidth memory. Rubin CPX will be available inside Nvidia's Vera Rubin NVL144 CPX rack, coming with Vera Rubin in 2026. The rack, which will contain 144 Rubin GPUs, 144 Rubin CPX GPUs, 36 Vera CPUs, 100 TB of high-speed memory, and 1.7 PB/s of memory bandwidth, is slated to produce 8 exaFLOPs NVFP4. This is 7.5x higher performance than the current-gen GB300 NVL72, and beats out the 3.6 exaFLOPs of the base Vera Rubin NVL144 without CPX. Nvidia claims that $100 million spent on AI systems with Rubin CPX could translate to $5 billion in revenue. For more about what all we know about the upcoming Vera Rubin AI platform, see our premium coverage of Nvidia's roadmap. We'll expect to see Rubin, Rubin CPX, and Vera Rubin altogether in person at Nvidia's presentation at GTC 2026 this March. https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/semiconductors/nvidia-rubin-cpx-forms-one-half-of-new-disaggregated-ai-inference-architecture-approach-splits-work-between-compute-and-bandwidth-optimized-chips-for-best-performance

A dozen sleek grey Yangtze finless porpoises glide inside a vast pool at the Institute of Hydrobiology in Wuhan as scientists find ways to protect and breed the rare mammals in China's longest river. The finless porpoise has become a barometer of the river's health. The po[CENSORED]tion of the critically endangered species plunged from over 2,500 in the 1990s to just 1,012 in 2017 due to pollution, boat traffic and illegal fishing that depleted food supplies, researchers said. The change alarmed the scientific community, including veteran researcher Wang Ding. He led an international team on a 2006 search for Baiji dolphins, another species that was nearing extinction. Despite a nine-day search, not a single dolphin was found and the Baiji was declared functionally extinct. The last captive Baiji dolphin hangs at a museum along with other rare aquatic species. "We feared that if this animal cannot survive in the Yangtze, the other species will, like dominoes, disappear one by one from the river," Wang said. Conservation efforts sprung into place. The Yangtze River Protection Law was enacted in 2021, banning fishing for 10 years, relocating factories and prohibiting sewage and chemical runoffs into the river. Today, the po[CENSORED]tion of Yangtze finless porpoises is edging upward at around 1,300. To protect the Chinese sturgeon, also a critically endangered species, scientists began artificially breeding and releasing thousands of the fish into the Yangtze with the hope of restoring the wild po[CENSORED]tion. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-photos-scientists-rare-endangered-animals.html

After pro-Palestinian protesters against Israel forced a premature end to yet another stage of the Vuelta a Espana on Tuesday, race director Javier Guillen said the intention is to finish the race in Madrid on Sunday as planned and called the disruptions illegal. Stage 16 ended 8 kilometers before the finish after a large protest blocked the road 3 kilometers from the scheduled stage end, similar to stage 11 when riders had to finish 3 kilometers from the line due to protesters causing disruption at the finish in Bilbao. “I’m here before you because, from La Vuelta, we want to clearly express our strongest rejection of what we experienced today,” Guillen told reporters. “Fortunately, the stage was completed in terms of timing and the stage winner but, obviously, the stage did not end where we had planned. “The main message I want to share with you today is that we are going to continue with La Vuelta, and tomorrow we will start the next stage.” The focus of the protests has been the presence of the Israel-Premier Tech team at the Vuelta, with the demonstrators opposed to Israel over its ongoing war in Gaza against Hamas. The first disruption came during stage five’s team time trial when the Israel-Premier Tech team were stopped on the road by protesters holding Palestinian flags. Since then, riders have crashed because of protesters’ actions and, while Israel-Premier Tech removed their name from the riders’ jerseys on Saturday, Tuesday’s events show that this has had no effect on the protesters. Videos on social media showed them attempting to block the road, with Spanish police trying to push them back and dragging some away. “Complicit… get out of here,” protestors chanted at police. “You cannot cut stages short, you cannot block the cyclists’ path,” Guillen said. “It’s illegal because it’s defined as such both in the Penal Code and in the Sports Law. We are a sport and sport is meant to unite, anything that doesn’t serve that purpose isn’t linked to sport. “We want to defend our sport, we want to defend our race, and that’s why we want to keep working.” No suspension There have been calls to suspend the Israel-Premier Tech team from the race, but Guillen reiterated the Vuelta’s stance that this is a decision which is out of the organizers’ hands. “Yesterday, there was a match between Italy and Israel. A football match was played, and a European Cup in which Israel participated has taken place,” Guillen said following Monday’s soccer World Cup qualifier played in Hungary. “The participation of these teams is not prohibited because no international federation has done so, none. And there hasn’t been any international body that has imposed sanctions requiring us, the world of sport, to act accordingly. “From now on, what we want is for the race to continue because all the teams participating in La Vuelta have legitimacy.” Guillen said the Vuelta is deploying every possible resource when it comes to security, but it is impossible to cover every area in a race of this size. The director was asked if a Plan B was in place for Sunday’s final stage. “No Plan B for reaching Madrid, no replacing the Madrid stage, absolutely not,” Guillen replied. Times of Israel staff contributed to this report. https://www.timesofisrael.com/vuelta-director-vows-cycling-race-to-go-ahead-after-latest-anti-israel-disruption/

Every chef longs to open their own restaurant so, when I did, it felt like a dream. I had been away working in some of the best restaurants in Europe. My business partner had a great spot for a restaurant in the centre of Dnipro, my home city in Ukraine, and we opened to rave reviews. My team and I were all a similar age and we had a shared vision: to create modern Ukrainian food. But by February 2022, just three months later, we knew war with Russia was likely. I was already in touch with friends in the army and, if Russia invaded, I knew I would fight. When the war started, all the team gathered in the restaurant and I said I would understand if anybody wanted to leave Dnipro and move west, where it was safer, which lots of people were doing. Nobody wanted to. We decided that anyone who wasn’t going to join the army would keep the restaurant going. The team started cooking for hospitals and the national guard, and making up food packs for people who needed them. The war was a massive shock for us, but it was also a time when everyone pulled together. Suppliers were helping – they would call and say: “We’ve got 10kg of sweet potato, do you want them?” You would put a message on the group chat with other restaurants and bars saying you’d had a request to feed 400 people. Other restaurants in the city would give or swap food. Everyone was sharing – it was a new way of operating. A few months later, when it was clear we would have to live with this new reality of war, the restaurant reopened to customers again. People still wanted this aspect of normality but they wanted it to be quick. Any time sirens would warn of missile attacks, staff invited people to the restaurant’s cellar, which we had turned into a shelter, and they would take their plates and a glass of wine downstairs. All this time, while I had been away in the army, my team was keeping me informed. I missed them and the restaurant, and I was glad they could keep it going, but I wasn’t focused on my business; I was focused on the war. I was sent to the Kyiv region to begin with. It was confusing – you would look at the sky and not know if the drone or plane flying over was yours or the Russians’. We were watching YouTube videos of how to operate the anti-tank missiles. We would do whatever needed doing on that particular day: reconnaissance, flying drones, holding a position, rescuing another unit. It was stressful and sometimes frightening. Everyone knew I was a chef and I started advising army cooks on what to put in dishes. When our unit was sent north to Kharkiv, we would stay in small groups in abandoned houses. I’d find tins of anchovies or bottles of wine, or pick edible flowers and herbs we found growing in gardens, such as rosemary and sorrel. Cooking together and sharing food became an important part of our days. In the downtime, I would think up recipes and keep notes, always thinking one day I would be back in a restaurant. In late 2023, I met Polina Sychova, who would become my new business partner; she was planning to open a Ukrainian restaurant in London, and she wanted me to be involved. I didn’t want to leave the men in my unit – for a year and a half, we had lived together, fought together, eaten together – but they encouraged me to follow my passion. The guys I had been living and fighting alongside joked that they were glad I was going, because they were sick of hearing me talk about food. My commander agreed that I should go, and helped get me all the authorisation documents I needed to leave. I’m still in touch with my unit every week. I opened a restaurant, Sino, in London in May this year, and the kitchen team is almost all Ukrainian. I had fought on the battlefield but I felt I could have a different mission. Cooking is a form of soft power – I also work with our embassy and with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ukraine, consulting on how to promote Ukrainian food culture and cuisine on an international level. Being in an army unit taught me a lot about the discipline of running a kitchen, and about life in general. Fighting and living through war means you have a good perspective on what real problems look like. It’s not a problem if we are running out of walnuts, or if we break one of the expensive plates – in the scheme of things, it doesn’t matter. Before, I could be angry or emotional, and a perfectionist, but war taught me to value what is really important in life. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/sep/10/a-moment-that-changed-me-eugene-korolev-chef-joined-the-ukrainian-army

Nepal's army has deployed patrols on the streets of the capital Kathmandu, as the Himalayan nation reels from its worst unrest in decades. Fierce protests against corruption and nepotism spiralled further on Tuesday into arson and violence. The prime minister resigned as politicians' homes were vandalised, government buildings were set ablaze and parliament was stormed and torched. But the "Gen Z" groups spearheading the protests have distanced themselves from the destruction, saying the movement has been "hijacked by "opportunist" infiltrators. On Wednesday the streets of Kathmandu appeared calm, but smoke was still rising from burning buildings and charred vehicles lay on roads. Nationwide curfews are in place until Thursday morning, the army has said, warning of punishment for anyone involved in violence and vandalism. Twenty seven people have been arrested for their involvement in violence and lootings and 31 firearms have been found, it added. The military is attempting to control a volatile situation, with PM KP Sharma Oli's resignation leaving a leadership vacuum. His government's abortive attempt to ban social media triggered the demonstrations that saw 19 protesters killed in clashes with police on Monday. Those deaths only fuelled the unrest on Tuesday. Scenes of violence and vandalism have come to illustrate the visceral intensity of the anti-government demonstrations. Thousands of inmates have escaped from prisons around Kathmandu in the chaos, local officials told BBC Nepali. Five young inmates were killed late on Tuesday when security forces opened fire at escapees from a juvenile correctional facility in Banke, in western Nepal. The overall toll has since risen to more than 20. The military has invited the Gen Z protesters to engage in peace talks. The student leaders are consolidating a fresh list of demands, one of their representatives told the BBC. But many protesters are worried that the movement has been co-opted by "infiltrators". Tuesday's protest "organised by Nepal's Generation Z, was conducted with a clear vision: to demand accountability, transparency, and an end to corruption," read a statement issued by protesters. "Our movement was and remains non-violent and rooted in the principles of peaceful civic engagement." The authors of the statement said they were actively volunteering on the ground to "responsibly manage" the situation, safeguard citizens and protect public property. They also said no further protests were scheduled from Wednesday onwards, and called on the military and police to implement curfews as necessary. "Our intent has never been to disrupt daily life or to allow others to misuse our peaceful initiative," the statement said. The army too has alleged that various "individuals and anarchist groups" had infiltrated the protests and were damaging private and public property. "We are mainly in the process of controlling elements who are taking advantage of the situation to loot, set fires and cause various incidents," military spokesman Rajaram Basnet told the BBC. What led to the protests? The demonstrations were ostensibly triggered by the government's decision last week to ban 26 social media platforms, including WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook - but they have since grown to embody much deeper discontent with Nepal's political elite. In the weeks before the ban, a "nepo kid" campaign, spotlighting the lavish lifestyles of politicians' children and allegations of corruption, had taken off on social media. And while the social media ban was hastily lifted on Monday night, the protests had by that stage gained unstoppable momentum, plunging the nation into chaos. On Tuesday, protests continued unabated. A crowd in Kathmandu torched the headquarters of the Nepali Congress Party, which is part of the governing coalition, and the house of its leader, Sher Bahadur Deuba, a former PM. In the capital Kathmandu, several locations have been targeted by anti-corruption protesters since Monday. Hundreds of protesters broke into and torched the country's parliament building, smashing windows and spray-painting graffiti and anti-corruption messages on the walls. The Singha Durbar, a large complex in the city that houses Nepal's government offices, was also stormed, and the Supreme Court on Wednesday announced that it had postponed all hearings of pending cases indefinitely due to severe damage. "Since the case files, servers, and the courtroom were severely damaged in the fire, the hearings scheduled for today have been postponed," said a notice issued by the Supreme Court's chief registrar. "The hearings scheduled for tomorrow are also postponed until further notice." On Tuesday afternoon, in a self-proclaimed bid to pave the way for a constitutional solution, Prime Minister Oli stepped down. "In view of the adverse situation in the country, I have resigned effective today to facilitate the solution to the problem and to help resolve it politically in accordance with the constitution," Oli wrote in his letter to President Ramchandra Paudel. But it's not clear who will replace him - or what happens next, with seemingly no-one in charge. "Looking ahead, we believe Nepal's future leadership must be free from entrenched political party affiliations, fully independent, and selected on the basis of competence, integrity, and qualifications," the Gen Z protesters said in their statement on Tuesday. "We demand a transparent and stable government that works in the interest of the people and not for the benefit of corrupt individuals or political elites," they added. "Our goal remains firm: a proper government with qualified, non-corrupt leaders." https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjd1ndmrej0o

Voted

Tomb Raider studio Crystal Dynamics has imposed another round of layoffs, putting an undisclosed number of people out of work in the face of "evolving business conditions." "Today we made the very difficult decision to part ways with a number of our talented colleagues as the result of evolving business conditions," the studio announced in a message posted on LinkedIn. "This decision was not made lightly. It was necessary, however, to ensure the long-term health of our studio and core creative priorities in a continually shifting market." This is the second round of layoffs for Crystal Dynamics, which put 17 people out of work in March, cuts that were also made to ensure "the studio's future success." Crystal Dynamics took another hit in July when Microsoft cancelled the Perfect Dark reboot as part of its layoff of roughly 9,000 employees across its company. That project was being led by The Initiative, which was closed following the cancellation, but Crystal Dynamics came on board as co-developer in 2021, and the cancellation appears to be at least partly responsible for these layoffs: Multiple employees who have been let go by the studio specified in their LinkedIn profiles that they were working on the Perfect Dark reboot, and one, narrative designer Leilan Nishi, said her layoff came "in the aftermath of Perfect Dark's cancellation." The Embracer-owned studio said people who no longer had jobs as a result of the cuts will be offered "the full extent of support and resources at our disposal," and thanked remaining employees and fans for their "continued support as we build a creative, sustainable, and resilient tomorrow together." It also confirmed that "the future of Tomb Raider" will not be impacted by the cuts. The future of Tomb Raider is also kind of unclear, however. The 'Unified Lara' art released in early 2024 seemed to suggest that something was in the works, and the new-look Lara has since appeared in Pinball FX and World of Tanks, but there's been no subsequent word of when to expect an actual new Tomb Raider game. The most recent, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, was released in 2018. The layoffs at Crystal Dynamics feel similar to recent cuts seen at Romero Games, which cancelled an in-development FPS and laid off employees after losing funding for the project: Not part of Microsoft, but still forced to let people go as a result of Microsoft's deep cuts. But that industry instability has also helped fuel a push for increased unionization: Just today, more than 450 people on the Diablo development team at Microsoft-owned Activision Blizzard voted to unionize, in part a response to the lack of job stability and near-constant threat of mass layoffs. The past few months have also seen Blizzard's World of Warcraft and Overwatch 2 teams form unions, as has Microsoft-owned Bethesda Game Studios. I've reached out to Crystal Dynamics parent company Embracer to ask how many people have been let go and will update if I receive a reply. https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/were-still-feeling-aftershocks-from-microsofts-destructive-july-layoffs-and-cancellations/

Flipkart Big Billion Days sale is now confirmed to begin on September 23. While the company has not revealed the devices that will carry big discounts, it has shared a new promotional photo hinting that Apple's last year's flagship, the iPhone 16 Pro Max, will be priced under Rs. 1,00,000. This would make it the first time this smartphone will be available for such a low price. We expect this to be a limited-period deal, and the prices can rise again as the sale progresses. So, if you are planning to buy the smartphone, you should aim to make the purchase as soon as the deal goes live. After confirming the starting date for the Flipkart Big Billion Days Sale on Thursday, the e-commerce giant has been slowly teasing the smartphones that are likely to get a discounted price during the sale event. Some of them include the iPhone 16, Samsung Galaxy S24, OnePlus Buds 3, and Motorola Edge 60 Pro. Apart from smartphones and TWS earbuds, individuals can also find deals on Intel PCs, 55-inch smart TVs, and front-loading washing machines.On Saturday, the e-commerce platform shared a new promotional photo, highlighting that the iPhone 16 Pro Max will be priced “from xx,xxx”. While the company did not reveal the exact price it will be selling for, by just showing five digits, it has confirmed that the smartphone will not be priced over Rs. 1 Lakh. To put it into perspective, at launch, the iPhone 16 Pro Max 256GB variant of the phone was priced at Rs. 1,44,900. The sale also presents a good opportunity for people wanting to buy last year's flagship iPhone. This is because, like every year, once the iPhone 17 series is launched (expected on September 9), Apple will discontinue the previous year's Pro models. Once discontinued, the phones will not be available on the Apple Store, and other vendors will not get fresh units in their stock. Gadgets 360 recently wrote a “re-review” of the iPhone 16 Pro Max to highlight how well the smartphone holds up after 365 days of usage. The reviewer found the battery health to be exceptional, staying at 100 percent even after 200 recharge cycles. Reliable performance and a performant camera were also the highlights. You can check the long-term review to know what to expect from the smartphone in the long run. https://www.gadgets360.com/mobiles/news/flipkart-big-billion-days-sale-iphone-16-pro-max-price-under-rs-1-lakh-9228333

Windows 11 has had its fair share of negatives in the past few months, many of which I've highlighted as a PC gamer, leading me to seek the best alternative operating systems available. However, one of Microsoft's utility applications is introducing an update that could be great for personalization. PowerToys' next update (0.95) will introduce an automatic switch feature, which will switch between light and dark themes based on Windows users' schedules, as reported by Windows Latest. The announcement comes alongside the release of update 0.94, which includes numerous improvements and bug fixes. This could go a long way in providing a better-personalized Windows experience, and is a feature that's likely viewed as long overdue by users; macOS has had this feature for years, and while it may seem like a minor addition, it goes a long way in contributing to eye strain prevention alongside Night Light. I've used PowerToys for a long time, and it's easily one of Windows' biggest highlights, with features that make life much easier for multitasking and work; the Always On Top feature simply pins a selected application to the front, allowing you to interact with other windows wit One might ask why Microsoft doesn't just integrate a majority of the features available in PowerToys into Windows 11 natively, but considering the bug and error-filled experience with Windows 11 24H2 recently, it's perhaps a better idea for Microsoft to keep these tools separate within PowerToys. Analysis: if Windows 11 had its 'full-screen experience' earlier alongside PowerToys, I'd be less critical I've not been a fan of Windows (specifically Windows 11) for a long while, and that's a shame, since it's been my one and only operating system for many years for work and gaming. Windows 11 24H2 has had plenty of bugs, many of which would either spoil multitasking or gaming, with game devs forced to push updates due to functionality issues. Specifically for gaming, this could all be avoided with a SteamOS-like interface with minimal background processes; the answer is the new 'full-screen experience' provided by the Xbox app, which is built for the new ROG Xbox Ally, and which will be exclusive to the device before rolling out to others next year. With the combination of PowerToys and a gaming-friendly mode, Windows 11 can thrive and put itself back in my good books – but as I've said, Linux and Valve's SteamOS has essentially got me in a chokehold, and I don't see myself reverting from my plans to switch to Bazzite as my main operating system on my desktop PC (once improvements are made). https://www.techradar.com/computing/windows/powertoys-continues-to-be-microsofts-best-kept-secret-by-adding-a-feature-to-windows-11-that-mac-users-have-had-for-years

A Reddit user found a discarded gaming PC while taking out the trash at their upscale apartment building and decided to give it a second life. According to u/Triggerhappy62, the computer appeared to be from around 2017 and contained almost everything needed to make it run, except for storage. It featured an Intel Core i7-7700 CPU, a Zotac GeForce GTX 1080 GPU, and 16GB (2x 8GB) of DDR4-3000 RAM, all installed on an MSI B250M Gaming Pro motherboard. The entire system is powered by a Corsair CX750 PSU and features an optical drive with a driver disc still inside, as well as a network card. The case itself is branded with Enermax, a custom PC builder known for its high-end builds. These specifications indicate that the PC, as found by u/Triggerhappy62, was a proper gaming rig, and it appears that its previous owner has finally decided to upgrade their system, as suggested by the missing drive. Despite its age, this system remains decent and an upgrade from the original poster’s existing computer, which features an Intel Core i5-4670K CPU, a Gigabyte Radeon RX 570 GPU, and 16 GB of DDR3-1866 RAM, all mounted on a Gigabyte GA-Z97N-WiFi mini-ITX motherboard from Free Geek. This nonprofit organization distributes old computers to the community at no cost or for a low fee. The Core i5-4670K was released in 2013, which means the finder’s current PC is now around 12 years old. So, the find is definitely an upgrade for them. And aside from the missing storage and the extensive dust in the system, the computer was otherwise in good working condition. They just put their 250GB SSD from their old PC into the “new” one, and it’s already running. Although it’s pretty old, the OP is considering some upgrades to make it more useful, such as transferring some of their old fans to their new computer and adding more storage. u/Triggerhappy62 was concerned that the PC they saved didn’t have another SSD slot, as the MSI B250M only has a single M.2 slot. However, the spec sheet says that it has six SATA ports, allowing them to buy one of the best SSDs to expand the storage on their new system. It also has two additional RAM slots, and users can easily find some of the best RAM kits at a low cost on Amazon to give the system more oomph. Sure, it won’t be able to play the latest AAA games at maximum quality, but that system is still good enough to play a considerable number of modern titles nonetheless. https://www.tomshardware.com/desktops/gaming-pcs/eight-year-old-gaming-pc-with-nvidia-gtx-1080-found-in-the-trash-room-gets-a-second-life-offered-a-substantial-upgrade-to-the-finder-despite-age

In late May, the Royal Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals CA suspended a Scottish farm from its animal welfare certification scheme after an environmental group released footage of alleged animal cruelty. The video shows workers leaving salmon out of water, crushing a fish’s head, and beating several fishes. Major retailers halted purchases of salmon from the farm while investigations are underway. This sort of treatment violates most people’s expectations for humane handling of farmed animals, including fish. Recent surveys show that an overwhelming share of residents in the United Kingdom, nine countries across the European Union, and the United States believe that farmed fishes should have strong welfare protections and want to buy fishes raised humanely. The stakes of meeting society’s expectations are high—on multiple fronts. Aquaculture raises a staggering number of individual animals for human consumption. Unlike farmed land animals, production of farmed aquatic animals is reported in tonnage, i.e., weight of the animals, rather than in number of individuals. Based on tonnage reported by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), recent estimates suggest that the world farmed between 250 and 408 billion individuals—including 59 to 129 billion vertebrates, like fishes—in 2018. By comparison, the world slaughtered 78 billion land animals that same year. In addition, the individuals raised in aquaculture represent a wide range of species that, in most cases, humans have only recently started to farm. According to the FAO, 530 animal species have been produced in aquaculture since 1950 as of 2022, spanning fishes, mollusks, crustaceans, marine invertebrates, frogs, and turtles. Industry brought most of these animals under human control only in the last few decades, an exponential rate of attempted domestication. In contrast, the roughly 20 species in terrestrial animal agriculture were domesticated thousands of years ago. Also, attempting to farm so many species so quickly has come at a high cost to the animals. Every species has unique and specialized welfare needs—specific conditions required for their biological, behavioral, and emotional well-being. Moreover, certain traits, like having involved parental care or courtship rituals, are particularly difficult to satisfy in farming systems. Recent work has shown that approximately one-third of the species in aquaculture have traits that place them at high welfare risk. Among these species are the red swamp crayfishes, who care for their young for a three to four months and actively search for them if separated, and the bumphead parrotfishes, who live for up to 40 years and gather in the hundreds under the full moon to spawn. It’s easy to see how restrictive farming systems, optimized for production, are inherently at odds with these animals’ basic needs and well-being. Exacerbating these welfare risks is the dearth of specific information about aquacultured animals’ welfare needs. Humans have had thousands of years to develop understanding of farmed land animals’ basic needs, but mere decades—or less—to do so with most aquatic species. A 2021 assessment of the scientific welfare literature for farmed aquatic animals revealed that species-specific information was available for only 84 species, about one-third of individuals farmed. For 231 farmed species—128-183 billion animals, nearly half of those raised in aquaculture—there were no welfare publications at all. This isn’t an animal welfare knowledge gap. It’s a Grand Canyon. Even when welfare harms are documented, they are seldom recognized as harms in the scientific literature. In a recent paper, we identified four types of harms driven by aquaculture, collectively termed “dewilding”: environmental degradation, harms to wildlife, captivity effects, and changes in humans’ perceptions of the nonhuman world. Across nearly 800 scientific papers documenting dewilding, harms to captive animals were most frequently documented. Yet they were also rarely acknowledged as harms. Some studies, for example, described disease prevalence on farms and infection characteristics—without noting their associated welfare impacts. This finding signals a deeper issue. It’s not just that aquaculture raises many species with welfare risks and without welfare information; the scientific literature and attendant discourse can fail to recognize animal suffering even when it’s visible. Aquaculture also changes the animals themselves. Animals like Atlantic salmon are selectively bred to maximize production, e.g. to grow larger and faster. One company even tried to genetically engineer salmon to achieve these goals. But those aren’t the only changes occurring. Animals adapt to their captive environments, and these changes can occur in just a few generations. Salmon farmers don’t necessarily want fishes to behave more aggressively than their wild counterparts, but crowded farms and predictable food set the stage for more aggressive fishes to eat more and be more successful. Both intentionally and inadvertently, aquaculture shapes animals to become optimized units of production, reflecting an increasingly human-centric world. Humanity certainly needs strategies to feed a growing global po[CENSORED]tion. Aquatic foods can offer numerous benefits, including food security, nutrition, employment, and environmental health. As we build this food system, however, we need to scrutinize the true value of those benefits—are certain aquaculture sectors, for example, exacerbating malnutrition in countries from which they source fish feed?—and weigh them against the expense to other animals. Before we stumble into creating systemic welfare harms and more incidents of animal cruelty, we can and should ask: how can we farm with an eye toward minimizing or altogether avoiding welfare harms? Building a sustainable, nutritious food system while minimizing risks to other animals isn’t a pipe dream. Aquatic plants like seaweed, which entail no farmed animal welfare risk, offer one possible nutritious, low-cost, and environmentally sustainable path. The decisions we make now about aquaculture will shape the future of our food system, planet, and our relationship with other animals. Will we make the right choice, for us and for them? https://foodtank.com/news/2025/09/op-ed-aquaculture-is-expanding-fast-our-understanding-of-the-animals-in-these-farms-isnt/

Ruben Dias played the full 90 minutes for Portugal as they defeated Armenia 5-0 in their opening World Cup qualifier. Bernardo Silva was also an unused sub for the Group F game played at Republican Stadium in Yerevan. Joao Felix and Cristiano Ronaldo both bagged braces while the other goal was scored by former City defender Joao Cancelo. The other two teams in Group F are Republic of Ireland and Hungary and they meet this evening at Aviva Stadium with a 19:45 (UK) kick-off. Roberto Martinez’s men are next in action on Tuesday in Budapest as they take on Hungary in the Puskas Arena with a 19:45 (UK) start. Meanwhile, James Trafford was an unused sub for England as the Three Lions defeated Andorra 2-0 in Group K. A first-half own goal from Christian Garcia and a header after the break from Declan Rice did the damage at Villa Park. Thomas Tuchel’s side, missing John Stones who had to pull out as a precaution earlier this week, now travel to Belgrade to take on Serbia on Tuesday. The game takes place at Stadion Rajko Mitic with a 19:45 (UK) kick-off. https://www.mancity.com/news/mens/ruben-dias-portugal-international-report-63892778

The best thing I did for my mornings this year wasn’t another cold plunge, a perfect journaling spread, or a twelve-step routine with a timer. My old mornings looked great on paper—hydrate, meditate, sunlight, gratitude list, inbox triage, macros dialed in. Most days I hit maybe three of those and then punished myself mentally for missing the rest. It felt like prepping a ten-course tasting menu on a Tuesday lunch. Too much mise en place for the moment. I wanted a single move I could do on five hours of sleep in a hotel room or ten hours at home. So I threw out the routine and kept one habit. The one small habit Before I look at a screen, I do a 20-minute “output-first sprint” on the one thing that matters most. That’s it. No apps. No dashboards. No “quick peek.” A timer, a pen, and whatever tool actually makes the thing real—notes app, doc, slide, script, sketch, spreadsheet. Some mornings it’s one paragraph of a draft. Other days it’s a single slide for a pitch, a recipe edit, or a call outline. Twenty minutes. Real progress. Then I can eat, train, or do whatever the day needs. But the day has already paid for itself. How it works (and why it sticks) I stole the principle from kitchens: cook before service gets chaotic. When the lunch rush hits, you don’t start making stock. You ladle from the pot you made earlier. The sprint does three things for me: First, it cuts decision fatigue. I pick my “one thing” the night before on a sticky note and put it on my keyboard. I don’t wake up and negotiate with myself. Second, it front-loads a win. Mornings used to start with consumption—email, messages, headlines. I’d soak up other people’s priorities and spend the rest of the day trying to crawl back to my own. Now I start by creating. Mood follows momentum. Third, it shrinks the barrier to entry. Twenty minutes is absurdly doable, even jet-lagged. Most days I go longer because I’m already moving. But the rule never changes: twenty is a win. What I actually do in the sprint I keep it boring and tactile on purpose. I drink water, set a 20-minute timer, and write one sentence that defines the next step: “Draft the intro,” “Outline the email,” “Price out ingredients,” “Refactor the logic for X.” If I’m stuck, I lower the bar until I’m embarrassed not to start: “Write a bad paragraph,” “Type a list of bullet points,” “Sketch the layout on paper.” No music with lyrics, no phone in reach, no tabs that can hijack me. If I need a fact, I leave a bracket like [CHECK THIS] and keep moving. Research is afternoon energy for me; morning is for building. After the timer, I stop. Even if I’m on a roll. Because the point isn’t heroics; it’s consistency. I want my morning success to be repeatable on any continent, in any season. What changed (and what didn’t) I won’t call it magic. I still have messy days. But here’s what shifted fast: I stopped “carrying” tasks across three calendars. The needle moves daily, even if it’s small. That built a quiet confidence I wasn’t expecting—like watching a bank account grow from regular deposits, not windfalls. My relationship with food in the morning softened. Instead of white-knuckling a perfect routine, I eat what helps me think. Most days that’s simple and plant-forward: oats with chia and berries, or leftover lentils over rice with a fried egg. Some days it’s coffee and fruit, and that’s fine. The sprint makes breakfast taste earned, which weirdly makes me choose better fuel. Workouts got easier to keep. Because my first win doesn’t depend on a run or a lift, I’m less likely to skip movement out of rebellion. A short strength session or a walk fits better when I’m not treating it like moral homework. What didn’t change? My calendar is still full. Life is still life. The difference is I get a little less rattled by it. The work that matters has already started before the world wakes up. The two-minute night setup that makes it effortless None of this works without the night-before. I make a tiny “prep list” like I would for a dinner service. It’s one sticky note with three lines: Outcome: the one thing that matters tomorrow (e.g., “Send draft to editor”). Next step: the minimum viable action (e.g., “Write rough intro”). Tool ready: open the doc, or stack the notebook and pen on the keyboard. I also put my phone to charge in the kitchen. If I need an alarm, I use a cheap analog one. It’s not about being anti-phone; it’s about protecting the first twenty minutes from a thousand tiny negotiations. What about journaling, reading, meditation? I still like all of those. I just stopped pretending I’m a better person if I do them first. Most mornings, I’ll read a few pages while coffee brews or take five slow breaths before I sit down. But I’ve accepted that my brain is sharpest after I’ve made something, not before. If journaling is your ignition key, do it. If not, you have permission to make and then reflect. I treat the nice-to-haves as optional condiments. The sprint is the meal. Food rules that support the sprint I promised one habit, and I’m keeping it. These are not rules, just the little choices that make the twenty minutes feel clean and strong: Delay caffeine 60–90 minutes. I hydrate first and let my brain wake naturally. Coffee tastes better when it’s not doing emergency work. Keep a two-minute breakfast on standby. A jar of overnight oats, a bowl of fruit and soy yogurt, or toast with tahini and honey. No decisions required. Prep a weekday sauce. Something punchy (tahini-miso, chili crisp, sesame-ginger) that can turn rice plus vegetables into a satisfying bowl post-sprint. Make your kitchen easy to enter. Clear the counter the night before. Visual calm makes starting frictionless. https://vegoutmag.com/lifestyle/n-i-replaced-my-morning-routine-with-this-one-small-habit-and-my-productivity-skyrocketed/

ISLAMABAD: Punjab Relief Commissioner Nabeel Javed on Sunday warned of an “extremely high level” of flooding in the rivers of Chenab, Ravi and Sutlej by Sept. 9 due to upcoming heavy rains, as the death toll from deadly deluges in the province climbed to 56. Heavy monsoon rains and excess water released by Indian dams have caused Punjab’s rivers to swell, triggering floods in the province since late August. At least 56 have been killed, over 4,100 villages impacted and over 4.1 million people have been affected, according to Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Director-General Irfan Ali Kathia. Punjab is also home to half of the country’s 240 million people and accounts for much of its wheat and rice production, creating food security concerns as initial estimates suggest 1.3 million acres of agricultural land have been inundated in the province amid the flooding of the three rivers. Nationwide, the NDMA said 907 people have been killed in rain and flood-related incidents since the monsoon began on Jun. 26. Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has warned a 10th spell of monsoon rains is likely to trigger heavy rains in Punjab and other parts of the country till Sept. 9. “By Sept.9, there is a risk of extremely high flooding in rivers Ravi, Sutlej, and Chenab,” Javed was quoted as saying in a report by the PDMA. “Due to rains in upper regions, there is a risk of unusual increases in river flows,” he added. He added that all relevant departments of the provincial government are on alert, and all available resources are being utilized to protect the lives and property of citizens. PUNJAB RIVERS SWELL The PDMA shared that flooding in Punjab’s rivers was still continuing, adding that river Sutlej at Ganda Singh Wala village is experiencing an “extremely high flood level” with a water flow of 311,000 cusecs. At Sulemanki, it said the Sutlej river is facing a high flood level with a water flow of 138,000 cusecs. At Marala, river Chenab has recorded a water level of 84,000 cusecs while at Trimmu Headworks, the water flow has reached 543,000 cusecs, which was categorized at a high flood level. The PDMA said that river Ravi at Jassar location was at a “low” flood level, with its water flow recorded at 56,000 cusecs. At Shahdara, the water was recorded at a high flood level of 93,000 cusecs. “At Balloki Headworks, river Ravi is at an extremely high flood level with a water flow of 148,000 cusecs,” the PDMA said. OVER 4.1 MILLION IMPACTED Giving a breakdown of the relief activities, Kathia said over 4.1 million people have been impacted by the floods since late August and authorities had set up over 400 temporary relief camps. Kathia said around 60,000-70,000 people are staying in these relief camps around the clock. The PDMA official said some of these relief camps were being dismantled as people were being rehabilitated to their homes. “Around 500 medical camps have served approximately 175,000 individuals,” Kathia said. “Rescue operations in Multan, Muzaffargarh and Rajanpur continue vigorously.” He said a total of over 20,73,048 people have been rescued, while 1,522,452 animals have been shifted to safer locations across Punjab. POWER OUTAGES Floods in Pakistan’s most populous province have triggered power outages and left many without electricity. As per a report shared by the Power Division, out of 513 feeders affected by the floods, 254 have been fully restored and 253 have been temporarily restored. The Power Division said that out of a total of 1,641,859 affected consumers, electricity has been restored for 1,361,641. “For the remaining 276,745 consumers, electricity restoration remains a priority,” the Power Division said. https://www.arabnews.com/node/2614440/pakistan

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This live-action adaptation of Bambi, a Life in the Woods, the original novel by Felix Salten, is not in the mould of Disney’s heavily augmented and even nightmarish CGI “live action”, but more like a nature documentary with a voiceover. It’s not dissimilar to those sentimental anthropomorphic shows that add narrative to footage of deer and rabbits. The story begins moments after Bambi’s birth, and he is adorable – all knock-kneed charm and massive eyes. The production wisely eschews the intricacies of dialogue, so the players express themselves much as silent actors. They get particular mileage out of a very knowing crow: its limited appearances recall the scene-stealing performances of a Judi Dench or Maggie Smith. A rabbit seems a little at sea in a key secondary role that requires more chemistry. Thumper’s shadow from the 1942 Disney cartoon is long. I suspect this rabbit was cast for looks, not acting chops. This live-action adaptation of Bambi, a Life in the Woods, the original novel by Felix Salten, is not in the mould of Disney’s heavily augmented and even nightmarish CGI “live action”, but more like a nature documentary with a voiceover. It’s not dissimilar to those sentimental anthropomorphic shows that add narrative to footage of deer and rabbits. The story begins moments after Bambi’s birth, and he is adorable – all knock-kneed charm and massive eyes. The production wisely eschews the intricacies of dialogue, so the players express themselves much as silent actors. They get particular mileage out of a very knowing crow: its limited appearances recall the scene-stealing performances of a Judi Dench or Maggie Smith. A rabbit seems a little at sea in a key secondary role that requires more chemistry. Thumper’s shadow from the 1942 Disney cartoon is long. I suspect this rabbit was cast for looks, not acting chops. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/aug/12/bambi-a-tale-of-life-in-the-woods-review-nature-wildlife

Metro Bank One-Day Cup, Group B, Clifton Park, York Yorkshire 295-3 (46.5 overs): Ul-Haq 117, Luxton 77; Shetty 1-35 Lancashire 294-7 (50.0 overs): Jones 102, Balderson 70; White 2-66 Yorkshire beat Lancashire by seven wickets Scorecard; Tables Group B leaders Yorkshire maintained their 100% start to this season's One-Day Cup as they confidently chased 295 to beat Lancashire by seven wickets thanks to a second successive century for in-form overseas opener Imam-ul-Haq. The White Rose won their third successive game, beating the previously unbeaten Red Rose, who had won one and had the other washed out. Lancashire posted 294-7 thanks largely to an entertaining opening 102 off 88 balls from Michael Jones in front of a sell-out 4,500 crowd at Clifton Park in York. But Ul-Haq was the cornerstone of Yorkshire's reply with 117 off 124 balls and he shared a defining 153 for the second wicket with Will Luxton, who hit 77 off 63, as the hosts won with 19 balls to spare. Pakistani left-hander Ul-Haq, who hit 10 fours and five sixes during Tuesday's innings, is now the leading run-scorer in this season's One-Day Cup with 331. He scored a career-best 159 in victory at Northamptonshire last Friday. https://www.bbc.com/sport/cricket/articles/czerwylpkgdo

“It is not always necessary to rip out everything and start again,” says Ella Malt, who runs the gardening company Soil and Soul Norfolk. “It is much more sustainable to work with what you have. You can make such a difference with a bit of cutting back, clearing up leaves, cutting an edge on a lawn. People notice edges: you could spend hours making a herbaceous border perfect but if the edge of that border isn’t crisp, it will automatically look untidy.” “Never underestimate how much a good tidy will help things,” agrees Glaswegian gardener Colin Stewart, who was at Great Dixter in East Sussex and now works with private clients. “Even just sweeping up dead leaves from paths makes a huge difference. Sharpen up fuzzy edges. Be brutal: if you’ve got plants that are going over, maybe sweet peas which have bolted and look a bit sad, rather than hanging on to them, it is probably best to be ruthless and pull those things out and put in something new – there is still a lot of time before the frosts are coming. Deadheading flowers will help to replenish plants so they can flower again.” Leave anything that could become a seedhead, like Digitalis lutea or verbascums, Stewart says. Think about boundaries Giving paving a good sweep and scrub can make an immediate impression. “Even sweeping up dead leaves from paths makes a huge difference,” says Stewart. “Neat paths always make any chaos feel instantly more intentional. If you have really cracked concrete or paving slabs, putting gravel down is a good idea. If you put a thick enough layer down, some plants will self sow into it. It is preferable to decking, which always rots and becomes a hideout for vermin.” And don’t forget to sort out any sad-looking fencing, which can be painted if not replaced: “I go into a lot of gardens that are really let down by boundaries,” says Stewart. “Painting all the fences and walls around the space in the same colour, in a uniform way, makes an astonishing difference and elevates the whole garden.” Planting “depends on whether you’re in sun or shade”, says Malt. “If you’ve got a sunny garden that gets dry in summer, obviously Mediterranean plants will do well; things like Artemesia, Eryngium, myrtle and Phlomis. For dry shade, ferns give lovely texture.” “It is important to think about where the light falls, not just in terms of plants, but also where you want to sit,” says Stewart. “You probably want your seating area to be in the sunniest spot where the light falls in winter, spring and autumn. But in the summer, you probably want it to be in the shadiest part of the garden. And maybe that ends up being almost the same place, because of the way the position of the sun changes and because of the things coming into leaf. The classic advice is always to wait a year and observe your garden before you commit to doing anything major: look at where the light falls at every point in the year.” Know your soil “You can do a soil test,” says garden designer and presenter Danny Clarke, which you can get from a garden centre, to find out whether it is sandy, clay or loam. “If you’ve got soil that is a bit challenging – for example it’s deficient in nutrients, has poor drainage, or is clay, which makes it hard to work with in dry or wet conditions – you can always put in a raised bed. Then you control the medium and can put the plants you want in your space.” Clarke adds: “I believe in gardening on the edge: give it a go and see what happens. If you are unsure as to where to put a plant, put it in the ground, and it will soon tell you if it is unhappy. When the leaves are drooping, it is going to need watering or feeding. If that doesn’t work, you have probably put it in the wrong place, so move it and see what happens. That’s what being green-fingered is all about.” Whatever kind of outdoor space you have, containers are a good idea, says Malt. “You can moderate the environment for the plants, so you can grow almost anything in a container. Normal rules don’t apply. Some people will say, ‘You can only put bedding plants in, or you can only do roses or certain types of small shrub’ – I think that is rubbish. Go to a nursery, see what you like, and just try it.” Containers are particularly good for edibles: “I’ve got cucumbers growing in pots up a trellis,” says Malt. “Strawberries are great in containers,” says Clarke. “They are very drought-tolerant and children love them, as do the birds.” Malt is always relocating her pots: “If they don’t thrive in one part of the patio, balcony, or whatever you’ve got, you can just move it over. If you’ve got full sun, it is better to choose things that thrive in full sun. But if you’ve got a patio that faces lots of different aspects, you can move things around a bit.” Malt uses old sinks, olive oil tins and chimney pipes as homes for cardoons, Althaea cannabina and salvias. “They are all pretty drought-tolerant plants that can take not being watered as much. Having said that, if you are growing in pots, they will always need a fair amount of water. If you’ve got the option of capturing rain with a water butt, that is really helpful. The other thing with pots is to make sure you feed them regularly. Some people think you have to change the soil all the time, but you don’t, you just keep them fed. Make sure you get a really good liquid seaweed, and if you feed that every week or fortnight, they are going to be fine.” “Use trailing plants for your balcony pots to cover the container,” says Clarke. “Use a cheap container, fill it with soil, put in flowers for height, which could be poppies or roses, then some trailing rosemary. There is a saying: ‘Thriller, filler, spiller.’ A thriller such as a canna lily would be a centrepiece; you might say it’s a show-off. A filler such as a geranium acts in a supporting role and fills out the space. The spillers, such as ivy, are planted at the edge of the container and trail downwards.” Garden for a heating climate “Concentrate watering on new plantings and pots,” says Stewart. “I would never water a lawn. Let your grass go brown and it will revive when the rain comes. I’ve got gardens I work on where the lawn is almost like a short meadow and is allowed to flower and get to a certain height, and it stays greener. If you have a very close-cropped, immaculately cut lawn, that will go brown much sooner.” If you go on holiday and come back to a dead-looking garden, don’t panic, says Stewart: “Just give it a consistent water for a couple of weeks, and it will probably start to show signs of life.” Unpredictable summer weather can be difficult to plan for but “fennel is brilliant”, says Malt, “because it is really tolerant of dry spells and seems to be quite happy when it is wet. Cistus are having a real moment; they have a very long season of interest and don’t mind dry.” “Be patient and buy smaller plants,” says Malt. “Bare root is best, but 9cm plants are good. They will take a bit longer to get going but they catch up quickly, and they’re much hardier and better for the planet in terms of plastic waste, and much cheaper.” Water them thoroughly when you plant, says Malt, to make sure they are well established. Plant in clumps “It is so much better, if you’re going to buy 15 plants, to buy three varieties – five of three different plants – because things look great in big clumps,” says Malt. “I generally buy in fives. That’s my number.” “Always plant in odd numbers because it doesn’t look contrived,” says Clarke. “It is almost like just throwing the plants up in the air, and you’re planting them where they land.” Think about lighting “Adding festoon lights into a garden makes it instantly feel really intimate and a nice place to sit out in the evening,” says Malt. “That is a tip from my own garden that I think has made such a difference. A mirror is brilliant in a small space too.” “I’m not a massive fan of outdoor lighting,” says Stewart. “Similarly to irrigation, you end up with wires through the soil, and it makes it much less comfortable to garden. Also it’s not good for wildlife: lights going on and off at night can be really disruptive for them. A few lanterns or candles on tables, to me, is much more romantic and inviting.” “It’s not just about your plants, it’s about everything else that may visit your space, whether that’s a fox or a pigeon,” says Clarke. “Some form of water is always good,” says Malt. “It doesn’t have to be a water feature. You can make tiny ponds out of any container. Just have something for birds to drink from.” “Ponds can attract all manner of wildlife,” says Clarke, “like insects, frogs and hedgehogs.” Malt also advises putting in pollinator-friendly plants: “Provide really good sources of nectar and look at winter-flowering plants, such as ivy.” Sweat, stingers and scratching: 14 expert, easy ways to treat and prevent insect bites Read more Don’t obsess over weeding “Look at weeds in a different light,” says Clarke. “Often, the weeds in our gardens are indigenous, and the bees tend to go for them more than they do the plants that we import. So I’m one for being a bit more relaxed: don’t trim your lawn to within an inch of its life; maybe let the shrubs get a bit shaggy. They don’t have to be neat and prim and proper. Let them do their own thing. The wildlife will thank you for it.” Consider a bulb lasagne “Gardens planted in autumn seem to be the happiest,” says Malt. It is the ideal time to plan for the year ahead and planting bulbs is a good starting point: “There isn’t a mega rush, but start thinking about planting in the autumn. Doing a bulb lasagne – layering bulbs in a container so there is a succession of flowers throughout the spring, with later flowering ones at the bottom, and earlier flowering ones at the top – is flipping brilliant. We do really outrageously clashing, distasteful pots of tulips, muscari and smaller daffodils.” “In terms of planting, you want a bit of a discordant, jarring note to it,” says Stewart, “like a pastel scheme with really bright orange dahlias in among it. That will give it more depth.” “If you’re just starting out, and you don’t know what to combine with another plant, ornamental grasses are great,” says Clarke. “If you have a rose in your garden that doesn’t quite go with a pittosporum, split it with a grass – that will bridge the gap between two plants.” Feather grass is his go-to. “Most hardy geraniums are brilliant,” says Malt, “such as Ann Folkard and Tiny Monster. They fill up a space really quickly, and they are gorgeous. Peonies and dahlias are pretty easy to grow, and you can do them in pots.” “One of my favourites is Erigeron, a little trailing daisy that is so useful in containers,” says Stewart. “It is one of those plants that if you repeat it, it will unite everything in a container scheme beautifully. But it becomes even more magical when it starts to self-sow, jumping into the cracks in paths and paving. It flowers all summer, and is one of those plants that makes a garden feel really established and lived in.” https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/aug/13/late-summer-garden-ideas-small-plants-bulb-lasagne

Yemen continues to be one of the world’s most food-insecure countries with 17 million going hungry, according to UN aid coordination office, OCHA. Despite a fragile but long-lasting ceasefire, regional turmoil continues to erode prospects for peace and stability. Without a political solution, “current cycles of violence – local and regional – along with economic devolution and endemic humanitarian need, will persist,” Ramesh Rajasingham, Director of OCHA’s Coordination Division, told ambassadors. However, hopes for a lasting peace deal remain: “Reaching a sustainable solution to the situation in Yemen is not only possible, it is essential,” said Special Envoy Grundberg.Although frontlines have barely shifted, July saw the Houthi’s fortify their positions, including around Hudaydah City, and launch a significant assault on Government forces in Sa’adah Governorate – developments Mr. Grundberg told the Security Council were “concerning.” Since October 2023, the Houthis have been targeting Israel as well as commercial ships in the Red Sea, in solidarity with the Palestinian cause in Gaza. In the past month, the Houthis have continued missile exchanges with Israel, further destabilising Yemen and commerce in the region. “For Yemen to have a real chance for peace, it must be protected from being further drawn into the ongoing regional turmoil emanating out of the war in Gaza,” Mr. Grundberg said, calling for and end to Houthi strikes against civilian ships in the Red Sea. In the conflict at home, “the parties need to take actions that build trust and good faith,” he said, as the UN aims to establish a path for further talks. “Unfortunately, we have seen the opposite in the last month with unilateral and escalatory decisions that risk deepening divisions within institutions and state structures,” said Mr. Grundberg. https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/08/1165634

A prominent Fortnite leaker has revealed that proximity chat could be coming to Epic Games' po[CENSORED]r battle royale in the near future, allowing players to hear their allies based on how close they are. Fortnite recently featured a live event that saw players face off against a large creature with a massive tentacle. While the players defeated that creature with the help of Superman, the tentacle remained on the island. Chapter 6 Season 4 of Fortnite is all about a massive bug invasion, which has seen the creatures run rampant on the island. As with every season, players can expect to see the loot pool significantly updated. Gamers will also be able to explore all new locations and even meet fresh characters. A new season also means players will be able to work through a fresh battle pass that features both free and paid rewards. Chapter 6 Season 4 launches on August 7 alongside Season 5 of the po[CENSORED]r game mode Fortnite OG, which is also receiving a new battle pass. Proximity Chat Could Be Coming to Fortnite In a recent post on Twitter, the po[CENSORED]r leaker Wensoing (with the help of Loolo_WRLD) revealed that proximity chat has been added to the game's files. Proximity chat is one of Fortnite's highly requested features, as some gamers enjoy the immersion it provides. Currently, it seems as if the files were added to Creative experiences, though the leaker stated proximity chat could also come to the game's main battle royale mode as well. According to Wensoing, this feature can be enabled and disabled, so players won't have to engage with it if they don't want to. It has also been rumored that Fortnite will be adding companions to the game. While leakers have been unable to share a firm timeline, it has been rumored that companions will be a new cosmetic type. According to various leaks, only the player and their teammates will be able to see the companions, as they will not be visible to everyone. A lot of players were happy to hear about the feature, as some people were worried that the presence of pets could create too much visual clutter on the battlefield. It seems as if Epic Games is preparing to release a wide variety of crossovers for fans to be excited about as well. At San Diego Comic Con, James Gunn announced that Peacemaker will be coming to Fortnite's Item Shop. A recent leak also revealed that players will soon be able to purchase cosmetics based on the po[CENSORED]r anime One Punch Man. With so much content to enjoy and even more just around the corner, many fans are feeling optimistic about the future of Fortnite. https://gamerant.com/marvel-rivals-reveals-season-3-twitch-drops-mantis-skin-free/

Every now and then one of my American friends will admit to me, with a slight sheepishness, that they don't really get Warhammer. They didn't grow up with it and now there's so much of it—a far-future science-fantasy setting, two fantasy settings (one of which has been re-released as a prequel to itself), and a football-themed parody of one of those fantasy settings—and they don't really understand its whole deal. The older generation of my British friends, the ones who grew up before Dungeons & Dragons became mainstream with its fifth edition in the 2010s, find D&D equally bewildering. Most have belatedly tried it out, but there's a barrier there. They got into tabletop gaming via Warhammer and Call of Cthulhu and Vampire: The Masquerade and etcetera, and D&D has a flavor that's different enough to be off-putting. While obviously Warhammer's roots are British and D&D's are American, the degree to which that defines them is maybe not apparent to everyone. For instance: American game developer Zach Barth, of videogame studios Zachtronics and Coincidence, once outlined a pitch for a Warhammer 40,000 game to Games Workshop. The creator of automation puzzle games like SpaceChem, Infinifactory, and Opus Magnum thought it might be fun to make a game about playing a junior tech-priest in the 41st millennium, but wanted it to be a "workplace comedy, except that it's set in a Warhammer 40K factory, where you're pumping out power armour and stuff." Barth had concerns about how this would be received. He asked a Games Workshop representative how the company would react to a pitch for a "funny" Warhammer 40,000 game. The response he got back was, "They're all funny, it's a funny setting." Barth was shocked by this. "I'm just like, I don't know if Americans see it that way!" he said. To understand why that sense of humor doesn't always translate, first we need to look at an example of just how American the assumptions behind D&D can be. A lot of Dungeons & Dragons games start in an inn. Even the ones that don't soon arrive at one. It makes sense: one of the first things the hobbits do after setting out in The Lord of the Rings is stop at the Inn of the Prancing Pony. And like the Prancing Pony, the default inn from a game of D&D comes with a hooded stranger in the corner as a standard part of the package. He's practically furniture. But everything else about the Prancing Pony is part of Tolkien's idyllic imagining of rural England threatened by oncoming darkness. Bree and the Shire are the land of Tolkien's youth, of village pubs and greens being put at risk by dark modernity and industrialization. This is where Dungeons & Dragons diverges: the average D&D tavern is a place where you open the door and everyone stares at you and the piano player stops mid-tune. There will be a brawl, probably within minutes. It's not the Prancing Pony. It's a saloon from an American western transplanted into a different genre, like the cantina from Star Wars. In 1987, White Dwarf magazine published an adventure for Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play set entirely in a tavern. It was so po[CENSORED]r it was reprinted several times and eventually became the basis for a whole series of adventures in the same format. Called A Rough Night at the Three Feathers, it's about multiple plots taking place in one building over the course of, as the title suggests, a single rough night. There's a scandalous affair, a dead body, mistaken identity, cheating at cards, and the whole thing's triggered by a noblewoman and her gigantic entourage being crammed in with a bunch of commoners for a night. It's not a scene from a cowboy movie transplanted into a fantasy world, it's a hotel farce transplanted into a fantasy world—an episode of Fawlty Towers where nobody can mention the warhammer. It's a type of humor that relies on an understanding of social class deeper than being able to tell he's the Emperor because he's the only one not covered in shit, and it applies to every faction in Warhammer.Paul Barnett, as general manager of Mythic Entertainment when it was creating Warhammer Online, had the job of explaining this to Americans at E3 in 2006, and handled it enthusiastically. Warhammer's orcs, he said, were "soccer hooligans" while its dwarfs "are like the northern working class of England," who are "very proud of their holes in the ground." Meanwhile, "The high elves are British posh people. Never done a day's work in their lives, don't understand about doing the washing." As well as the broad class satire, there are incredibly specific digs like the villainous Een McWrecker being based on Ian McGregor, who was head of the National Coal Board during the miner's strike of 1984-85, while Empress Magritta is based on Margaret Thatcher. It's not just British, it's extremely 1980s British, with a particular visual and topical debt owed to that era's New Wave of British Heavy Metal, a debt it repaid by licensing out Warhammer art for releases by Bolt Thrower and Saxon. With all these hyper-specific references, it's no wonder Americans don't always get Warhammer. If you're not familiar with Zulu, Bernard Cromwell's Sharpe books, and season four of BlackAdder, then the way 40K's Astra Militarum parodies military incompetence yet celebrates the ordinary man in the trenches yet laughs at their disposability—an entire wargame faction with the ethos of Jona Lewie's 1980 anti-war song Stop the Cavalry—must fly right past you. No wonder even a smart guy like Zach Barth doesn't get it. Before Warhammer fans wear out their arms patting themselves on the back for appreciating its complexities, there's a lot more to unpack in D&D as well. The game that would become Dungeons & Dragons was first run by Dave Arneson in the Twin Cities: Minneapolis–Saint Paul. He took it down to Lake Geneva, where Gary Gygax lived, and ran a demonstration. Arneson's game was set in and around a village called Blackmoor, and when Gygax started running his own version, he based it in and under a city called Greyhawk. The two plonked these locations down on a shared map of "the Great Kingdom" based on North America, with Blackmoor where the Twin Cities would be located, and Greyhawk positioned roughly where Lake Geneva or Gygax's home town of Chicago would be. It's been said that Americans think 100 years is a long time while Europeans think 100 miles is a long distance. Even when they're not recycling a map of the continental United States, distance in D&D's settings is based on an American understanding of scale. Everything is a long way from everything else, and connected by wide roads. This doesn't just affect the way the maps look, but gives D&D adventures one of their foundational cliches. When adventurers aren't delving dungeons their baseline job is working as caravan guards, which can seem mundane if you don't imbue it with the romance of its inspiration: wagon-train westerns. The tavern-as-saloon isn't the only place cowboy movies bleed over into D&D's version of fantasy. Fantasy is often about long-distance quests, and the western is another genre that treats overland travel as romantic and dangerous. Think about how many westerns involve cattle drives, stagecoach robberies, horseback posses chasing down their target, and railroads being built. When a typical D&D campaign first leaves the dungeon it becomes a wilderness adventure, and the frontier fantasy of adventures from Gygax's Keep on the Borderlands module back in 1979 to Lost Mine of Phandelver, the adventure that kicked off D&D's fifth edition, is an explicitly American one. (Image credit: Wizards of the Coast) Look at the maps of classic D&D villages like Hommlet from The Temple of Elemental Evil. It's got four broad roads leading into it, and no ditch or wall to defend it. It doesn't look like a medieval settlement at all. It looks like Hadleyville from High Noon. It's a place ready for adventurers to ride onto its main street while the locals peer out at them from behind shuttered windows, only instead of Stetsons the riders will be wearing pointy wizard hats. Gygax and Arneson weren't the only D&D designers whose take on fantasy comes off more American than European. The Dragonlance campaign, and the bestselling novels based on it by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis, co-star Riverwind and Goldmoon of the Que Shu tribe, whose culture is explicitly Native American. The setting's fire-and-brimstone take on religion, with gods who eagerly leap to Cataclysm to punish sinners, was inspired by Hickman's Mormon faith, with Dragonlance's religious texts the Disks of Mishakal an explicit reference to Mormonism's golden plates. They make for jarring blasts of USA-ness in what is otherwise a textbook Lord of the Rings knock-off. If the British don't quite get D&D, or Americans are confused by Warhammer, it's not because they're missing something obvious. These games, despite the global reach they now enjoy, are deeply rooted in their respective national cultures. Understanding their origins, from the wide open spaces and Wild West saloons of D&D to the combination of class satire and the rainy industrial grubbiness of Thatcher's Britain underpinning Warhammer, can help bridge that cultural divide. While D&D has broadened its scope (the cover art no longer features women who look quite so Californian), and Warhammer continues to change (the new army of Grand Cathay doesn't reference a brand of fizzy drink from Manchester) these differences remain a fascinating lens to view them through. https://www.pcgamer.com/games/d-and-d-is-quintessentially-american-and-warhammer-is-quintessentially-british/