Victoria Fox's Blog, page 196

Twitter changes its official handle to @X

As part of the ongoing rebranding, Twitter has changed its official handle to @X. Other official handles related to the company have either let go of the “Twitter” moniker or replaced it with X.

TechCrunch previously reported that the social network hadn’t reached out to the original owner of the @X handle — Gene X Hwang of corporate photography and videography studio Orange Photography. However, earlier today Hwang tweeted “All well that ends well” from his new handle @x1234567998765. It’s not clear if he sold the handle to Twitter.

Twitter’s own handles such as @TwitterSupport, @TwitterDev — which is now inactive — and @TwitterAPI are now @Support, @Xdevelopers, and @API with the new X logo as the profile picture.

The company’s subscription service Twitter Blue is now @XBlue on the site. However, the About page of the paid plan still has Twitter Blue branding. According to an update on the Twitter Video page (first spotted by The Verge), verified users can now allow other Blue users to download the videos they post on the social network for offline viewing.

On Wednesday, the company briefly updated the new ‘X’ logo with bolder lines. But later, Elon Musk said that he is reverting the change as he didn’t “like the thicker bars” and the logo will “evolve over time.”

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Google says 2 billion logged in monthly users are watching YouTube Shorts

Google said today that more than 2 billion logged-in monthly users are watching YouTube Shorts, giving it an edge over competitors like TikTok and Instagram Reels. This number is up from 1.5 billion monthly logged-in users for YouTube Shorts announced last year.

During its Q2 2023 results, Google also said that YouTube brought in $7.67 billion through ads, beating analyst estimates and registering a growth of 4% year-on-year. The company is also bringing 30-second unskippable ads to its premium ad offering YouTube Select.

The company is focusing on multiple offerings through YouTube apart from ads. In April, it started offering pre-sales of the NFL Sunday Ticket subscription, which will stream in the Fall. YouTube has also reached an agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery to offer a Max-NFL Sunday TIcket bundle on YouTube TV.

Google said that it is reaching 150 million people on Connected TV screens in the U.S. with signs of global growth. Last year, the company announced it had 80 million paid users across YouTube Premium and Music, but didn’t provide an update on the number during the Q2 2023 earnings call. Last week, YouTube raised the prices of the individual premium plan by $2 and the Music plan by $1in the U.S.

Google had positive quarterly results with growth in ad and cloud revenues. The company brought in $74.6 billion for the quarter ending June — up from $69.7 billion it made in Q2 2022. Alphabet shares were up nearly 7% in after-hours trading.

Additionally, Alphabet elevated Ruth Porat from Chief Financial Officer to the president and chief investment officer role. With this promotion, Porat will oversee Aplhabet’s other divisions such as self-driving company Waymo, health-focused Verily, and Google Fiber.

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Greta Gerwig on a ‘Barbie’ Potential Sequel, Film’s Criticism

Following Barbie‘s massive debut weekend, Greta Gerwig is opening up about the film’s success, criticism and if she sees a sequel in her future.

During an interview with The New York Times, published online Tuesday, when asked if she sees the Margot Robbie-led film as the start of a franchise or a complete story, the director responded, “At this moment, it’s all I’ve got.”

“I feel like that at the end of every movie, like I’ll never have another idea and everything I’ve ever wanted to do, I did,” she explained. “I wouldn’t want to squash anybody else’s dream, but for me, at this moment, I’m at totally zero.”

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Gerwig’s comments come after a record-breaking debut weekend for the movie and director. Not only did Barbie score one of the top openings since the pandemic, with $162 million at the North American box office, but Gerwig also broke the opening weekend record for a female director.

The filmmaker was “at a loss for words” after seeing what a massive success the movie was. “It’s been amazing to walk around and see people in pink,” she added. “Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine something like this.”

At times, it’s even been difficult for her to grasp the response. “I think part of the reason I was so fixated on volume levels [in theaters] was because it was a thing I could concentrate on,” she said. “But mostly, it’s been running into people on the street who are excited and happy and exuberant, because so much of this movie was an attempt to create something that people would want to experience together. So, it’s the little things.”

Many viewers have taken to social media after watching the film to praise it and its inclusion of deeper issues such as sexism, female empowerment and self-determination. But some conservative pundits have gone on to bash the movie as being “woke” as well as reportedly burning their Barbies.

Gerwig noted that she absolutely did not anticipate that type of reaction. “Certainly, there’s a lot of passion,” she said in response to the criticism. “My hope for the movie is that it’s an invitation for everybody to be part of the party and let go of the things that aren’t necessarily serving us as either women or men. I hope that in all of that passion, if they see it or engage with it, it can give them some of the relief that it gave other people.”

The filmmaker also addressed some of the disagreements the film’s creative team had with Mattel throughout filming. It was previously reported that Richard Dickson, COO and president of Mattel, went to the London set at one point and argued with Gerwig and Robbie over a scene “he felt was off-brand,” according to Time magazine.

Gerwig said the whole interaction sounded more dramatic than it actually was. “They were coming anyway, so it wasn’t like, ‘Stop everything, we all have to go to London!’” she explained.

But in regard to the scene in question, where a teenage human calls Barbie dolls sexist and fascist, the director said, “My awareness of Barbie as a thing in the world completely corresponded with me knowing the arguments against Barbie. I didn’t think there was any way to do this without giving that real estate and having well-articulated, correct arguments from a really smart character given to Barbie against Barbie.”

Although she never got a full seal of approval from Mattel, she explained, she got them to accept it enough to proceed. “I had faith once it was in there, and they saw it that they would embrace it, not fight it,” the filmmaker said.

As Gerwig continues to relish in Barbie‘s triumph, she quipped that her 4-year-old son feels slightly different about all the Barbiemania.

“He made a cake for me that was pink and had a ‘B’ on it, and he said, ‘This is how we say goodbye to Barbie,’” Gerwig told The Times with a laugh. “I thought, ‘Oh, you’re done.’”

Barbie is currently playing in theaters.

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‘Happiness for Beginners’ Review: Ellie Kemper Finds Love and a Fresh Start in a Listless Netflix Rom-Com

The premise of Vicky Wight’s Happiness for Beginners sounds like a promising invitation to indulge in an offbeat romantic comedy. It’s a Netflix offering with Hallmark Channel roots: A 30something woman embarks on a journey through the woods to recover from her divorce. What will she find on her sojourn? A renewed sense of hope? Confidence? Romance?

If we stick to the rules of the genre, our heroine Helen (Ellie Kemper) will have it all. Peace lies in the towering trees of upstate New York, where her wilderness survival course takes place. Hope looks like the bonds she makes with her fellow campers. Love takes the shape of a familiar face who helps her remember a past self. In exchange for our attention, we will be rewarded with a couple worth rooting for and learn some truths about life. We might even consider checking out Katherine Center’s novel, on which the film is based.

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The Bottom Line Too stilted to be sweet.

Release date: Thursday, July 27
Cast: Ellie Kemper, Luke Grimes, Nico Santos, Blythe Danner, Benjamin Cook
Director: Vicky Wight
Screenwriters: Vicky Wight, Katherine Center (based on the novel by)
1 hour 44 minutes

But Happiness for Beginners doesn’t play by the rules. It tries to stretch the boundaries of the romantic comedy, contorting itself into a sitcom of the Community type and a drama of the Eat Pray Love variety. It doesn’t give either of these genres enough attention, though, so the resulting film ends up feeling stilted and uneven. The woman at its center remains opaque, her romance is listless and her journey to self-discovery becomes an endurance test.

Helen, played with an endearing self-protectiveness by Kemper, wants to reset her life. Divorcing Mike (Aaron Roman Weiner), to whom she was married for five years, has unmoored Helen from herself. A house party is an awkward place to consider the flaws of your marriage or reflect on the hopes for your hiking trip, but that doesn’t stop Helen, whom we meet sitting at the center of a rager. She’s waiting for her brother Duncan (Alexander Koch) and trying to hear her own thoughts over the loud music.

Just as she’s about to give up, she’s interrupted by her brother’s best friend Jake (Yellowstone‘s Luke Grimes), who asks about her well-being and invites her to stay for another drink. Helen refuses. She’s going on a hike tomorrow, she tells him, and she’s just here to give Duncan, who promised to housesit, the keys to her place. Jake responds with a cutting — what some might call rude — observation: “I remember you used to be so much fun.”

Who Helen used to be haunts Happiness for Beginners, and the screenplay, written by Wight, would have benefitted from fleshing this out. Helen sees Jake at the introductory meeting for the wilderness course the next day, though the film never resolves why he’s there. She scolds him for his presence and commands him to pretend he doesn’t know her. Helen wants to use this trip to become a different person, to step into roles other than the dutiful ones she’s been assigned in her life. Her determination to change only activates our curiosity about past versions of herself. Who is this schoolteacher caught between responsibility to herself and to everyone around her?

Instead of burrowing into Helen’s character and using it to anchor the disparate narrative threads, Happiness for Beginners splits its attention and tries to be too much at once. Once Helen, Jake and the rest of their crew set off on the trail, the film transforms into a pseudo-office-sitcom. Wight’s screenplay details the daily happenings of their nearly two-week hike, giving us a sense of the skills required to commune with nature. Appropriate attention is paid to the varying archetypes — the neurotic troop leader (Ben Cook), the gay best friend (Nico Santos), the perpetual optimist (Shayvawn Webster), the finance bro (Esteban Benito), the underestimated airhead (Gus Birney) and the outspoken camper (Julia Shiplett) — and the roles they play in helping to keep the troupe alive. Montages of the hikers trekking through the woods or laughing around a campfire add a sweet depth to the film.

But these brief explorations often come at the expense of developing Helen’s storyline, which never stops feeling jagged. Her relationship with Jake, whom she begins to see as more than just her younger brother’s friend, is littered with too many false starts and stops to make it worth the emotional investment. And their courtship — an awkward dance we’ve seen before — comes off stiffer and more courteous than necessary. As the two go from pretending to be strangers to acknowledging their shared history, the relationship doesn’t gain the life force it should. Hanging in the air, still, is the question of who Helen used to be and, additionally, who she wants to be now.

This is where the Eat, Pray, Love of it all comes in. Helen announces at the beginning of the trip, when the hikers share their reasons for embarking on this 30-mile journey with one another, that she’d like to stop breaking promises to herself. It’s a moment that sets the film up to dabble in more spiritual angles. And it does, sort of. Kemper’s Helen doesn’t indulge in the same self-discovery talk as Julia Roberts’ Liz Gilbert, but Happiness for Beginners finds other ways for its heroine to grow. It’s among the coniferous trees, fields of variegated shrubs and cliffs overlooking the glittering rivers that Helen stops trying to save her past selves and embraces the mystery and freedom of her future.

It’s not enough to redeem Happiness for Beginners, but it gives us a sense of what, with a little more focus, the film could have been.

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It’s time to start monitoring airline tickets for the best prices of the year

Experts say if you’re looking to travel for the 2023 holiday season, it’s best to start monitoring flight prices now.  

But that doesn’t mean you should necessarily book anything just yet. 

Airline prices for travel over the Christmas holiday are already tracking as high as last year, according to recent data from travel app Hopper. Prices are already 20% higher than what pre-pandemic holiday fares were at this time of the year, according to Hayley Berg, lead economist at Hopper.  

“Mid-summer may feel early to start thinking about holiday travel, but Christmas in July is the perfect time to start planning your trips home or a vacation over the holidays,” Berg said. 

Travelers should start tracking prices, but Berg said they shouldn’t book anything yet given that prices will be extremely volatile, rising and falling multiple times a day over the next two to three months.

Hopper data shows fares for holiday travel will remain high throughout the summer and drop slowly into September and October, which is known as “shoulder season.” 

The best time to book flights is during September and early October because prices are typically $100 cheaper than mid-summer prices, according to Hopper. 

Those looking to travel for the 2023 holiday season should start looking to book now. Getty Images

Clint Henderson, managing editor of travel website The Points Guy, agrees that holiday travelers need to start doing their research now. However, he said travelers eyeing domestic trips over the holidays should “be prepared to book if you see a deal.” 

He suggested travelers looking into international holiday trips should start to book or at least start tracking prices now through September. 

“Demand will continue to be absolutely bonkers for the holidays,” Henderson said. 

However, airlines, Henderson said, don’t have the pricing power they did a year ago. 

He noted that airlines have added capacity, which “means more seats for sale, which leads to slightly lower prices.” 

At the same time, Henderson said not to expect deep discounts for holiday fares as “peak holiday dates are always higher than normal.”

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RFK Jr. posts shirtless snap of ‘stud’ son Conor amid COVID comment backlash

This six-pack is a 10/10 distraction.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has shared a shirtless photo of his hunky son Conor amid ongoing backlash over his controversial COVID-19 comments.

The 69-year-old Democrat — whose bid for president has been blasted by members of his own family as an “embarrassment” — managed to divert attention away from his off-color remarks with the steamy snap, shared to Twitter on Monday.

“Happy birthday Conor,” RFK Jr. captioned the image of himself posing alongside his son, who turned 29.

In the pic, Conor — who briefly dated Taylor Swift in 2012 — is seen showing off his musclebound body with a wetsuit pulled down to his waist.

Camelot fans flew into a frenzy, describing the snatched scion as “sexy,” “a stud,” and “a handsome young man.”

Conor hit headlines last year for revealing that he secretly enlisted to fight in Ukraine’s war against Russia.

“Like many people, I was deeply moved by what I saw happening in Ukraine over the past year,” he wrote in an Instagram post penned Oct. 14. “I wanted to help. When I heard about Ukraine’s International Legion, I knew I was going, and I went to the embassy to enlist the next day.

“I told one person here where I was, and I told one person there my real name,” Conor continued. “I didn’t want my family or friends to worry, and I didn’t want to be treated differently there. Going in, I had no prior military experience and wasn’t a great shot, but I could carry heavy things and learned fast. I was also willing to die there.

“My time in Ukraine wasn’t long but I saw a lot and I felt a lot. I liked being a soldier, more than I had expected,” he concluded.

Conor is one of RFK Jr.’s six children, and he has seemingly inherited his dad’s love of health and fitness. @_cherylhines/Instagram

Conor made national news when he dated Taylor Swift in 2012. Getty Images

Conor is one of RFK Jr.’s six children, and he has seemingly inherited his dad’s love of health and fitness.

RFK Jr. attracted attention last month for his own gym-honed physique after he stripped down to do a series of push-ups.

“Getting in shape for my debates with President Biden!” the wannabe commander-in-chief teased.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, RFK Jr. again defended himself after controversially claiming COVID-19 could have ethnically targeted victims, but spared Ashkenazi Jews.

“I have never uttered a single antisemitic word in my life,” he stated during a meeting with former state Assemblyman Dov Hikind, founder of Americans Against Antisemitism.

RFK Jr., who has been accused of being a conspiracy theorist for panning the efficacy of vaccines, said he was merely explaining a National Institutes of Health grant.

He went on to claim that he was a “rock of Gibraltar” for Jews and the Jewish state, following the lead of his late uncles, President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Ted Kennedy; his late father, former Attorney General and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, and the late Presidents Harry Truman and Franklin Roosevelt.

Battle of the hunky Kennedy scions! While RFK Jr. still appears to have the support of son Conor, cousin Jack Schlossberg has spoken out against his bid for president. Instagram/@jackuno

While RFK Jr. still appears to have the support of son Conor, there’s another hunky Kennedy scion who has spoken out against his relative’s bid for president.

Jack Schlossberg — the son of RFK Jr.’s cousin, Caroline Kennedy — blasted the presidential hopeful in a recent video, tartly declaring: “He’s trading in on Camelot, celebrity, conspiracy theories and conflict for personal gain and fame.”

“I’ve listened to him. I know him. I have no idea why anyone thinks he should be president,” he savagely continued. “What I do know is, his candidacy is a vanity project.”

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Irina Shayk, Tom Brady’s compatibility equals gladiator sex: astrologer

Touchdown, slumber party.

There’s a new romance on the rise between Capricorn super fox Irina Shayk, 37, and pig skin king and full blown Leo, ladies and gentlemen, Tom Brady, 45.

The recently retired, freshly divorced seven-time Super Bowl champion was seen picking up the supermodel from the Hotel Bel-Air (problematically owned by the Sultan of Brunei) last Friday afternoon (in a Rolls-Royce Ghost because he is a rich bitch).

The two retired to Brady’s LA house/lion’s lair where they remained until the following morning when Shayk emerged looking fresh and merry in her all white, night before outfit.

The “casual romance” began in June when the two were introduced at the lavish wedding of billionaire art heir Joe Nahmad and model Madison Headrick in Sardinia, Italy.

Rich, rich, rich.

A source claims Shayk “threw herself” at Brady during the weekend wedding celebrations, tailing him for face time. Highly, highly unlikely as Capricorn’s are not prone to public displays of desperation and I have yet to see a single sea goat engaged in grovel.

Former flames casting shade

Tom Brady and Irina Shayk’s reported romance has Gisele Bündchen furious. Backgrid/Getty

The new couple comes complete with a respective roster of famous exes.

Shayk’s body count includes Italian businessman Valerio Morabito, Linkin Park drummer Rob Bourdon, Brazilian model Arthur Sales, soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, and Bradley Cooper who Shayk dated for four years and with whom she shares daughter Lea De Seine.

Post Cooper split and pre his antisemitic, off the rails tirades, Shayk briefly dated controversial Gemini Kanye West.

For his part, Brady is a top-tier modelizer whose dating history includes Playboy Playmate Layla Roberts, model/actress Bridget Moynahan (mother to Brady’s eldest son Jack) and ex-wife/Brazilian uber model/former Victoria’s Secret angel/environmentalist Gisele Bündchen.

Brady and Bündchen, who finalized their divorce in October 2022 after 13 years of marriage, share two children Benjamin Rein and Vivian Lake.

News of the burgeoning relationship betwixt Brady and Shayk reached Bündchen just a few days after her 43rd birthday and our Cancer queen was allegedly none too pleased by the development.

Exes aside what do the birth charts of these two beauties reveal about their chemistry and long term compatibility? Read on to learn more.

The lion and the sea goat

Irina Shayk birth chart has a dense concentration of Capricorn energy.Patrick McMullan via Getty Image

Born January 6, 1986 in Chelyabinsk, Russia Shayk has an industrious Capricorn stellium with her sun, Mercury, Venus and Neptune in the sign of the sea goat while her moon floats in the fixed emo waters of Scorpio.

Tom Brady meanwhile was delivered unto us on August 3, 1977 making our man a double dose of fire with a proud Leo sun and a war mongering Aries moon, balanced by a squishy marshmallow Venus in Cancer and a glad handing, people pleasing Libra rising.

As a result of the fixed, fiery nature of his sun and the initiating energy of his cardinal moon, Brady knows what he wants and will stand, bold and staunchly defiant in the face of compromise.

Great for field games, less so for romantic relationships

Tom Brady’s birth chart is brimming with fire.Getty Images

Brady’s sun in Leo forms a tight square with Shayk’s Mars in Scorpio. In astrology the sun is the self and Mars is our planet of drive and desire, high five-ing, drag racing, f—ing and fighting.

With this aspect there is a strong, athletic, chest bumping, almost gladiatorial energy between Brady and Shayk. I for one hope with all my heart that their slumber parties include some sort of Spartan inspired gold leaf wrestling role play situation. Let us pray.

This competitive square suggests a rivalry that can push both parties towards excellence, extremes, adventure and accomplishment… or end in a grudge match of showing off and walking out. Remains to be seen folks.

Moon dance

Shayk has the same moon sign as Brady’s ex wife Gisele Bündchen.Getty Images for The Met Museum/

Interestingly, both Shayk and Brady’s moon signs are ruled by Mars suggesting that for these two getting their emotional needs met is a fierce, and fiercely uncompromising pursuit.

Having a pair of Martian moons in a relationship correlates to flared fights, primal attraction and the potential for deep, trial by fire transformation.

Very hot, very alive. Lest we forget that Shayk’s Scorpio moon is a lunar placement shared by Brady’s ex Giselle Bündchen. Old habits and familiar territories for our boy.

Brady may prove to be too much of an all American golden doodle for a girl that naturally prefers a dark horse.

Capricorns like Shayk play the long game when it comes to love and arrive armed with a clear idea of what and who they want. Bolstered by the determined desire and psychic potential of a Scorpio moon this is an unstoppable person built for empires and underworlds.

This sun/moon combo is, in essence, looking for depth and distance my friends, status and substance, and so long as the ROI is high, the sea goat scorpion will stay.

Craving as she does success and intensity in equal measure, Brady may prove to be too much of an all American golden doodle for a girl that naturally prefers a dark horse.

Exes and aspects

Shayk shares a zodiac sign with her ex, Bradley Cooper. Getty Images for National Board

In terms of astrological aspects, Brady’s infernal Aries moon forms a harmonious trine with Shayk’s Saturn in Sagittarius.

As established, the moon represents our emotional interiority and Saturn both restriction and foundation. In cahoots, these luminaries and this aspect lend themselves to a certain stability.

Brady’s moon is offered security and flexibility by Shayk’s mutable Saturn while Shayk can trust that if things develop she will have a rock steady in Brady.

This sense of responsibility and restraint is enhanced by the fact that both parties are proud parents that by all accounts take their familial obligations very seriously.

Astrology 101: Your guide to the stars

Shayk outlined her relationship non-negotiables in 2015 explaining, “It’s very simple. You have to be faithful to your other half and not have secrets. That’s my rule.”

Technically that’s two rules my dude, but in any case, Brady, whose challenges lie more in balancing autonomy with emotional investment has proven himself capable of high fidelity and honesty. Indeed, neither were a factor in his split with Bündchen and it would seem that while he may play ball, by and large he keeps his own set on the home field.

Whatever is to come for this couple it bears repeating that the mark of a successful relationship is not how long it lasts but what lessons are learned, truth found and personal progress made. Here’s to your growth and the curative powers of gladiator sex games, shine on and get it on you two. We love to see it.

Astrologer Reda Wigle researches and irreverently reports back on planetary configurations and their effect on each zodiac sign. Her horoscopes integrate history, poetry, pop culture and personal experience. She is also an accomplished writer who has profiled a variety of artists and performers, as well as extensively chronicled her experiences while traveling. Among the many intriguing topics she has tackled are cemetery etiquette, her love for dive bars, Cuban Airbnbs, a “girls guide” to strip clubs and the “weirdest” foods available abroad.

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July heatwaves ‘virtually impossible’ without climate change

/ Climate change made heatwaves more likely and more brutal.

By Justine Calma, a science reporter covering the environment, climate, and energy with a decade of experience. She is also the host of the Hell or High Water podcast.a:hover]:text-gray-63 [&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-black dark:[&>a:hover]:text-gray-bd dark:[&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-gray [&>a]:shadow-underline-gray-63 dark:[&>a]:text-gray-bd dark:[&>a]:shadow-underline-gray”>Photo by Ronda Churchill / AFP via Getty Images

It’s been a viciously hot July for much of the planet thanks to heatwaves made worse by climate change. A new study breaks down how much of a role the climate crisis played in bringing on record-shattering temperatures this month.

Huge swathes of the Northern Hemisphere have been sweltering for weeks, with heat domes forming over North America, North Africa, the Mediterranean, and Asia this summer. The first week of July was likely the planet’s hottest week on record, according to preliminary data from the World Meteorological Organization. Temperatures breached 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) in North America’s Death Valley and parts of northwest China this month. All-time heat records were also broken in parts of Spain, France, Algeria, and Tunisia.

The study published today zooms in on heat spellsin the southwest United States, northern Mexico, southern Europe, and the lowlands of China when they were the most severe in July. Heatwaves affecting North America and Europe would have been “virtually impossible” without climate change, says the study conducted by World Weather Attribution (WWA), an international collaboration of researchers. The severe heat spell in China this month was also about 50 times more likely because of global warming. Climate change showed the most influence in Europe, where temperatures were 2.5 degrees Celsius hotter than they would have been without climate change.

It’s all come with disastrous consequences. Scorching temperatures have taken more than 100 lives in Mexico and killed more than 100 other people migrating across the US-Mexico border. Extreme heat is also a suspected cause in the death of a hiker in Death Valley last week. In the US, heat kills more people than any other weather-related disaster, including floods and tornados.

The study authors used peer-reviewed methods to compare real-world temperatures to what they likely would have been without the roughly 1.2 degrees of global warming humans have caused since the Industrial Revolution. Unless the world switches to clean energy, heatwaves are forecast to keep getting more frequent and intense with climate change. Heatwaves like what the world saw in July could take place as often as every couple of years if global warming climbs 2 degrees above the preindustrial era, the study says.

So while it’s clear that temperatures have reached new extremes this summer, the researchers warn that it’s quickly becoming the new norm. “It could well be that this is what will be a cool summer in the future if we don’t stop burning fossil fuels,” Friederike Otto, one of the authors of the study and a senior lecturer in climate science at Imperial College London, said in a press briefing yesterday.

That means it’s time to adapt to a warmer world, and each region the researchers studied is already starting to do this. That includes creating action plans for heat disasters, designing cities to stay cool, and shoring up power grids to avoid blackouts that can rob people of air conditioning when they need it the most. “Simple actions like checking in on your neighbours, drinking enough water, and finding a cool place to go during the hottest part of the day can save lives,” the report says.

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Prosus questions Byju’s governance, says Indian edtech ‘regularly disregarded advice’

A key Byju’s investor has gone on record to express its disappointment in the edtech giant’s reporting and governance issue, just weeks after all the independent members quit the startup’s board. Prosus said on Tuesday that Byju’s “reporting and governance structures did not evolve sufficiently for a company of that scale,” and it “disregarded advice and recommendations.”

Prosus, the largest external investor in Bengaluru-headquartered startup, said its director stepped down from Byju’s board after it became clear that “he was unable to fulfil his fiduciary duty to serve the long-term interests of the company and its stakeholders.”

Byju’s, which at $22 billion valuation is India’s most valuable startup, had earlier downplayed the reason why Sequoia India, Prosus and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative had quit its board, saying the directors “had to vacate” the board because their shareholding fell below the minimum threshold set in the shareholding agreement.

Full statement below from Prosus:

Prosus is a long-standing and committed supporter of Indian entrepreneurship, investing billions in India and collaborating with dozens of dynamic businesses and founders for nearly 20 years. While the companies and sectors we work with in India and across the globe are high-growth and rapidly evolving, our stakeholders rightly expect that we hold ourselves and our investee companies to the highest standards of corporate governance and reporting.

BYJU’S grew considerably since our first investment in 2018, but, over time, its reporting and governance structures did not evolve sufficiently for a company of that scale. Despite repeated efforts from our Director, executive leadership at BYJU’S regularly disregarded advice and recommendations relating to strategic, operational, legal, and corporate governance matters. The decision for our Director to step down from the BYJU’S Board was taken after it became clear that he was unable to fulfil his fiduciary duty to serve the long-term interests of the Company and its stakeholders.

BYJU’S sits at the intersection of India and Education, two very important and strategic areas of investment for Prosus. Although we no longer have a representative serving on the Board of the Company, we continue to believe in the potential of BYJU’S and its role in revolutionising access to quality education in India and around the world. As a shareholder, Prosus will continue to assert its rights, collaborating with other shareholders and government authorities to safeguard the long-term interests of the Company and its stakeholders.

More to follow.

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Bing Chat powered by OpenAI tech is rolling out to Chrome and Safari

Microsoft’s Bing Chat is no longer exclusive to the Edge browser, as it’s now rolling out to Chrome and Safari, The Verge reported. “We are flighting access to Bing Chat in Safari and Chrome to select users as part of our testing on other browsers,” a Microsoft spokesperson told The Verge. “We are excited to expand access to even more users once our standard testing procedures are complete.”

It seems to be more than a small test, as a number of users (including myself on Chrome but not Safari) have gained access. There are a few limitations, though. You have to be logged into your Microsoft account, and prompts are limited to 2,000 characters compared to 4,000 on Edge. Conversations reset after five queries rather than 30, and it constantly prompts you to download Edge (never change, Microsoft). 

Bing Chat is powered by OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4, giving users access to the latter’s features without the need to pay. There are some differences, though, as Bing Chat has access to Bing Search while ChatGPT-4 by itself doesn’t, so can provide more up-to-date information and sources for responses. However, OpenAI’s chat generally provides more detailed responses. Recently, a paper came out claiming that ChatGPT-4’s capabilities have declined, but some experts have downplayed the conclusions. 

On top of releasing it for other browsers, Microsoft also introduced a dark mode for Bing Chat. To use it, click on the hamburger menu at the top right and select “Appearance/Dark.” That function may not yet be available for all users. 

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