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The Independent
Early blood sugar control for type 2 diabetes ‘can lead to fewer deaths’
Treating type 2 diabetes patients as early as possible by controlling blood sugar with insulin and drugs can prolong life and reduce the risk of future complications such as heart attacks, kidney failure and vision loss, according to long-running research.Scientists from the Universities of Oxford and Edinburgh analysed data spanning more than four decades from the UK Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS) – one of the longest type 2 diabetes clinical trials.The findings showed controlling blood glucose early, with either insulin injections or tablets that stimulate cells to make more insulin such as sulfonylureas, led to 10% fewer deaths, 17% fewer...
Malaysia minister says terror suspect who killed 2 police officers acted on his own
The young man who attacked a Malaysian police station and killed two officers was a recluse and believed to have acted on his own, despite suspected links to the Jemaah Islamiyah terror group, the country's home minister said Saturday.The man stormed a police station in southern Johor state near Singapore in the early hours of Friday with a machete. He hacked a police constable to death and then used the dead officer’s weapon to kill another. He injured a third officer before being shot dead. Police initially said the man could have been attempting to take firearms from the...
It was once a center of Islamic learning. Now Mali's historic city of Djenné mourns lack of visitors
Kola Bah used to earn a living as a tour guide in Mali's historic city of Djenné, once a center of Islamic learning known for the sprawling mud-brick mosque that has been on the UNESCO World Heritage in Danger list since 2016. The Grand Mosque of Djenné — the world’s largest mud-brick building — used to draw tens of thousands of tourists to central Mali every year. Now it's threatened by conflict between jihadi rebels, government forces and other groups.Bah says his income was enough to support his family, which now numbers nine children, and to pay for a...
At Memphis BBQ contest, pitmasters sweat through the smoke to be best in pork
Hundreds of dedicated pitmasters are sweating through the smoke as they compete to see who will be crowned “best in pork” at this year's World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest in Memphis, Tennessee. Considered one of the premiere cooking competitions in the U.S., the contest dates back to the 1970s. But as the so-called culinary sports expanded beyond local home cooks, the competition is fiercer than ever. This year's competition started on Wednesday and runs through Saturday, when an overall grand champion will be named. With over $150,000 in prize money to be awarded, 129 cooking teams from 22 states...
Rafe Spall: ‘Men’s bodies in film give an unrealistic idea of masculinity’
Rafe Spall is talking about love. “I’m lucky enough to know what love feels like,” he says, “because I’m a parent. There’s a line in Wuthering Heights – I’m paraphrasing, obviously – where Heathcliff says to Cathy, ‘Don’t you love me?’ And she says, ‘I don’t love you. You are me. I am you.’ When I think about my children, I think about that, a lot. It’s that sort of indescribable love.”He’s on video call today to discuss the fourth series of the Apple TV+ sitcom Trying, in which he stars as Jason, a laidback Londoner raising two adopted kids...
Is it a bird? Is it an SUV? No, it’s a supermini: Toyota Aygo X Exclusive
Though Toyota’s pugnacious little Aygo X looks all cutting-edge and funky, it is in fact, in conception, rather old school. Get past the zigzag styling and bold two-tone paint job, and what you have before you is a rather traditional city car or supermini, with the kind of spec you’d have got a generation or so ago. There’s the five-speed manual gearbox. Some painted steel interior panels. A window at the back that pops out. A rear hatch that is actually no more than an opening window, albeit smartly finished in opaque black. Under the bonnet we find a three-cylinder,...
How Anna Jones became the standard bearer for modern British vegetarian cooking
Some people can listen to a piece of music and immediately identify the chords, pick out the intricacies of the bassline, recite the relevant musical theory, perhaps remember the drummer’s name.Others, like cook and author Anna Jones, can taste a plate of food and pinpoint the ingredients, however slight they might be. They can discuss the techniques that went into the dish, compare it to this recipe they saw from that chef 20 years ago.“That’s not something that anyone taught me,” Jones tells me. “That’s not something that came from anywhere apart from, I guess, my own brain and my...
Doctor Who: Boom review – A bit of a damp squib only saved by brilliant performances
Warning: this review is also a recap, meaning it contains spoilers for the episodeDoctor Who is putting the band back together. Returning showrunner Russell T Davies was the driving force behind the Doctor’s rebirth in the 2005 Christopher Eccleston/Billie Piper era. Meanwhile, the writer of this third episode, Steven Moffat, made perhaps the most significant modern contribution to Whovian lore as the creator of the Weeping Angels. Scarier than the Daleks, weirder than the Zygons, and more aesthetically pleasing than the Cybermen, they are, hands down, the greatest Doctor Who monsters ever. How do you top that? Well, not with...
From Rebus to The Responder, it’s time to bury the defective detective
In the 1920s, during the so-called Golden Age of crime writing, a Catholic theologian and literary critic, Ronald Knox, published a list dubbed the “Ten rules of detective fiction”. This was an attempt at trope-busting in a genre that, all too frequently, slipped into hamminess and absurdity. Under Knox’s instruction, writers were restricted to “not more than one secret room” and banned from the use of “twin brothers” altogether. But perhaps the most obvious of Knox’s prohibitions was a simple one: “The detective must not himself commit the crime.”Yet within the first three minutes of the BBC’s new adaptation of...
Preventative Botox is on the rise – but it might do more harm than good
When I grew up in the Noughties, “Botox” felt like a catch-all term synonymous with a certain type of surgically enhanced face: frozen, puffy, unable to emote. But in the ensuing decades, the reputation of this wrinkle-smoothing injection has changed. The treatment is no longer solely associated with permanently startled eyebrows. Practitioners (the reputable ones at least) tend to lean towards a “less is more” approach. And it’s not something that’s whispered about or considered a dirty secret any more, either.A quick scroll through social media shows – for better or worse – just how normalised these jabs have become. But what is particularly...
Even with school choice, some Black families find options lacking decades after Brown v. Board
Since first grade, Julian Morris, 16, has changed schools six times, swinging between predominantly white and predominantly Black classrooms. None has met all his needs, his mother said. At predominantly white schools, he was challenged academically but felt less included. At predominately Black schools, he felt more supported as a Black student, but his mother, Denita Dorsey, said they didn't have the same resources and academic opportunities.Seventy years after the Supreme Court ruled separating children in schools on the basis of race was unconstitutional, Dorsey said the options available to her family in Michigan are disappointing.“Segregation is abolished, sure, but...
For decades, states have taken foster children's federal benefits. That's starting to change
By the time Jesse Fernandez turned 18, the federal government had paid out thousands of dollars in Social Security survivor's benefits because of the death of his mother. But Jesse's bank account was empty. The money had all been used by Missouri's foster care system or relatives responsible for his care. “I was shocked,” said Jason White, a foster parent to Fernandez.“Those dollars are a big deal," he continued. “Had they been saved, or a chunk of it saved, he’d have money for a car and a first-time apartment."For decades, states have routinely applied for Social Security survivor and...
Widespread power outages from deadly Houston storm raise new risk: hot weather
As the Houston area works to clean up and restore power to thousands after deadly storms, it will do so Saturday under a smog warning and as all of southern Texas starts to feel the heat.The National Weather Service in Houston warned that with temperatures hitting around 90 degrees (32.2 C) this weekend, people should know the symptoms of heat exhaustion. ”Don’t overdo yourself during the cleanup process," it said in a post on the social platform X.The balmy weather is a concern in a region where more than 555,000 homes and businesses remained without electricity Friday night —...
Landslide forces closure of iconic Southern California chapel designed by Frank Lloyd Wright's son
A decades-old landslide that’s rapidly accelerating has forced the dismantling of Wayfarers Chapel, an iconic Southern California church that was designed by one of famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright's sons and built among soaring redwoods and sweeping Pacific Ocean views.The earth beneath the chapel in Rancho Palos Verdes is moving an unprecedented 2 feet (61 centimeters) or more each month. Intended to celebrate the natural world, the chapel is instead being destroyed by it.“It’s actually dangerous to even walk on the grounds now because everything is breaking,” the Rev. Dan Burchett, the chapel’s executive director, told The Associated Press...
Protests in Peru after new insurance law deems transgender people mentally ill
Sexual diversity activists protested in Peru’s capital in front of the health ministry Friday to demand that the government repeal a decree that characterizes seven gender identities, including transgenderism, as “mental illnesses.”Protesters also gathered outside the Peruvian embassy in Ecuador's capital, Quito.The demonstrations coincided with the International Day Against Homophobia, celebrated since 2005 to mark May 17, 1990, when homosexuality – then considered a mental illness – was removed from the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases.In Lima, hundreds protested last week's decree by president Dina Boluarte’s administration. The Ministry of Health said the action would guarantee “comprehensive...
Xander Schauffele leads as Scottie Scheffler posts impressive round following arrest and release
Olympic champion Xander Schauffele took a one-shot lead into the third round of an extraordinarily eventful US PGA Championship at Valhalla.Schauffele added a second round of 68 to his record-equalling opening 62 to reach 12 under par, matching the championship scoring record in relation to par set by Brooks Koepka in 2019.Former champion Collin Morikawa was a shot off the lead following a superb 65, with Sahith Theegala another stroke back and Scottie Scheffler and Bryson DeChambeau part of a four-strong group on nine under.Scheffler amazingly returned a 66 hours after being arrested – and subsequently released from police custody...
Tiger Woods highlights impact of off-course commitments after missing cut
Tiger Woods highlighted the negative impact of his off-course commitments after missing the cut in the 106th US PGA Championship.Woods carded a second round of 77 at Valhalla to finish seven over par, with all of the damage done in a three-hole stretch on the front nine.The 15-time major winner ran up a triple bogey on the second, bogeyed the third and carded another triple bogey on the fourth to end his chances of making the weekend.Woods, who played the remaining 14 holes in one under and almost made a hole-in-one on the eighth, said on Tuesday that his time-consuming...
Robert MacIntyre’s chance to win first major suffers blow after delayed ruling
Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre was left to rue a delayed ruling as his chances of claiming a first major title suffered a significant blow in the US PGA Championship.MacIntyre was just three shots off the lead when he hit a wild second shot on the par-five seventh, his 16th hole, which ended up in a concessions area.The Ryder Cup star then had to get a second opinion about where he needed to drop his ball and, although he scrambled for an eventful par, dropped shots on the eighth and ninth left him five shots off Xander Schauffele’s lead.Robert MacIntyre made par...
Xander Schauffele holds one-shot lead at Valhalla
Olympic champion Xander Schauffele will take a one-shot lead into the third round of the 106th US PGA Championship at Valhalla.Schauffele added a second round of 68 to his record-equalling opening 62 to reach 12 under, matching the championship scoring record in relation to par set by Brooks Koepka in 2019.Former champion Collin Morikawa was a shot off the lead following a superb 65, with Sahith Theegala another stroke back and Scottie Scheffler and Bryson DeChambeau part of a four-strong group on nine under.Scheffler amazingly returned a 66 hours after being arrested – and subsequently released from police custody –...
Former Navy chief recalls surviving Nazi raid as he celebrates 100th birthday
A former head of the Royal Navy in Scotland has celebrated turning 100 – and recalled surviving a Nazi raid on the Arctic Convoy days before his 18th birthday.Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas Baird was born in Canterbury, Kent, on May 17, 1924, the youngest of five children in a military family, but he said he wanted to “live a separate life” and decided to go into the Navy, enrolling in Dartmouth College in Devon aged 13.He celebrated his 100th birthday on Friday with a family dinner party with his two children and their spouses, and attributed the secret to his longevity...
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