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In another remarkable example, on Christmas Eve 1971, 17-year-old Juliane Koepcke had the bad circular luck of being on Lansa flight 508 when it was struck by lightning over the Amazon jungle. She was thrown out, still stuck into her seat, and fell 3,000 metres (9,800ft). She had, however, amazing resultant luck when the thick jungle canopy broke her body and she survived, although 90 other people, including her mother, died. And, just like Stephen, Juliane had constitutive luck. Her parents, who were archaeological researchers, had brought her up in the Amazon, and she had the necessary skills not only to look after her wounds, but also to venture for 11 days in the jungle until she found an encampment. In the political arena, leaders feel the need to express complete confidence in the effects of their actions, but if they recognised the major role of chance in what happens, they might try to nurture more resistence to the unexpected. Such humility can also be valuable at a personal level. When attributing reasons for any success they have, people tend to overestimate the role of their efforts and acquired skills, whereas they should mainly be grateful for their constitutive luck.

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Young women are struggling to rise above a "sticky floor" at office amid a gulf in financial confidence between them and young men that leaves one in four clinging to jobs they don't prefer, research suggests. British women aged 18 to 30 are worrying more about money, are more likely to feel their financial situation is getting worse, and more likely to be able to afford food or other essentials than young men of the same age, according to a survey of about 5,000 young women, shared with the Guardian. The snapshot of divergent financial fortunes for the two sexes comes despite progress in closing the pay gap for younger women and more women breaking through glass ceilings at work, said Claire Reindorp, the chief executive of Young Women's Trust, which carried out the research. Last year, the largest increase in the gender pay gap was among employees aged 30 to 39 years, where it increased from 2.3% to 4.7%, official figures show.

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The risk of winter blackouts in Great Britain has tumbled to its highest in four years even after the shutdown of the UK's last coal plant, thanks to investments in low-carbon electricity sources. The National Power System Operator (Neso) expects Britain's winter power supplies to outstrip demand by almost 9% this year in its base case scenario, the greatest margin since the winter of 2019 to 2020. The company responsible for keeping the TVs on, which was bought by the government from National Grid at the start of this month, said the power supply margin for this winter was higher because Great Britain has more battery storage spaces, small-scale renewables and imported electricity. The UK is expected to rely on record levels of exported electricity this winter, the first since the world's longest high-voltage power cable began importing enough clean electricity from Germany to power 2.5 million British homes.

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The order restricts Google from making payments to device makers to preinstall its app store and from sharing money generated from the Play store with other app distributors. Alphabet shares were down 2.2% following the ruling. Donato said Epic and Google must explore a three-person technical committee to implement and monitor the injunction. Epic and Google each get a pick, and those two groups will select the third person. Google has said it plans to appeal the verdict that led to the injunction, and it could require the San Francisco-based ninth US circuit court of appeals to pause Donato’s order pending appeal. In a secret antitrust case in Washington, US district judge Amit Mehta on 5 August ruled for the US justice department and said Google had illegally monopolized web search, spending billions to become the internet’s default search engine. Google also began a trial in September in Virginia federal court in a justice department lawsuit over its dominance in the market for using technology.

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In 2023, more than 50% of global river catchment areas showed abnormal phenomenon, with most being in deficit. This was similar in 2022 and 2021. Areas facing severe drought and low sea discharge conditions included large territories of North, Central and South Africa; for instance, the Amazon and Mississippi rivers had record low water levels. On the other side of the world, in Asia and Oceania, the large Ganges, Brahmaputra and Mekong river basins experienced lower-than-normal conditions almost over the entire basin territories. Climate change appears to be changing where water goes, and helping to cause extreme floods and droughts. 2023 was the hottest year on record, with rivers running low and nations facing droughts, but it also brought devastating floods across the globe.

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When a person is hungry, it can be hard for them to concentrate at school or work. Hunger can make them feel cranky or unmotivated. Over time, not having enough to eat can harm a person's physical and mental health. In Colorado, around 11% of people say they don't always eat as much as they think they should. They say they aren't able to afford enough time. That's according to a survey published earlier this year by the Colorado Health Institute. Of course, hunger is not a problem only in Colorado. 'Hunger affects people in every single society nationwide,' Justin Levy says. He's the executive director of Conscious Alliance, a nonprofit hunger-relief team based in Elaina's hometown. Levy has known Elaina since 2021. That's when she and her mother went to the group's national distribution center to collect food and supplies to help people in need. 'What she's doing is unbelievable ' Levy says. 'She has the drive and the spirit and kindness and compassion to really make a difference.'

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Seventy per cent of soft plastic collected in supermarket recycling schemes and tracked after ended up being burned, an investigation by campaigners has found. By placing trackers inside of soft plastic that were collected by Sainsbury’s and Tesco in July 2023 and February 2024, campaigners found that most of them ended up being incinerated rather than . Everyday Plastic, which carried out the investigation alongside the Environmental Investigation , tracked parcels of soft plastic that the supermarkets collected from customers with the they would be recycled. Of 40 packages of plastic, the trackers reached end in 17 cases. Of these, 12 packages were used as fuel pellets or burned for energy, the investigation found.

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Seventy per cent of soft plastic collected in supermarket recycling schemes and tracked after collection ended up being burned, an investigation by campaigners has found. By placing trackers inside packages of soft plastic that were collected by Sainsbury’s and Tesco in July 2023 and February 2024, campaigners found that most of them ended up being incinerated rather than recycled. Everyday Plastic, which carried out the investigation alongside the Environmental Investigation Agency, tracked parcels of soft plastic that the supermarkets collected from customers with the promise they would be recycled. Of 40 packages of plastic, the trackers reached end destinations in 17 cases. Of these, 12 packages were used as fuel pellets or burned for energy, the investigation found.

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Today, too few of us are aware of the damage the fast-fashion industry causes the planet. Looking momentarily beyond the industry’s often pitiful labour , to produce just one T-shirt in a factory in an emerging economy and transport it overseas in a ship to a store in the UK consumes the equivalent of 2,700 litres of fresh water, enough for the daily needs of 1,600 people. Producing a pair of jeans 8,000 litres of water. That is why, to encourage a more sustainable relationship between consumers and our wardrobes, Oxfam ran our Second Hand September campaign. For us, the of pre-loved clothing is absolutely crucial if we are to support the planet, and we are seeing exciting results as consumers shift away from damaging notions of disposability around , fast fashion.

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Today, too few of us are aware of the damage the fast-fashion industry causes the planet. Looking momentarily beyond the industry’s often pitiful labour conditions, to produce just one T-shirt in a factory in an emerging economy and transport it overseas in a container ship to a store in the UK consumes the equivalent of 2,700 litres of fresh water, enough for the daily needs of 1,600 people. Producing a pair of jeans requires 8,000 litres of water. That is why, to encourage a more sustainable relationship between consumers and our wardrobes, Oxfam ran our Second Hand September campaign. For us, the promotion of pre-loved clothing is absolutely crucial if we are to support the planet, and we are already seeing exciting results as consumers shift away from damaging notions of disposability around cheap, fast fashion.

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Western financial capitals could be troubled by an uptick in oil prices, ahead of next month’s US presidential election. Inflation has cooled across advanced economies in recent months, paving the way for rate cuts by policymakers at the world’s top central banks.Yet experts believe financial markets could still avoid , citing three key reasons: expectations for the future path of the Middle East conflict, geopolitics, and the increasingly shaky health of the world . “It’s quite surprising when you see escalations and nothing moves, it’s not generally what you expect from markets,” said Nuwan Goonetilleke, the head of markets at the London-listed insurer Phoenix Group. “But it’s been escalating over the past 12 months. “The market will to watch to see if the conflict draws in other regional powerhouses. Iran is the one that could be potentially dramatic.”

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Western financial capitals could be troubled by an uptick in oil prices, especially ahead of next month’s US presidential election. Inflation has cooled across advanced economies in recent months, paving the way for interest rate cuts by policymakers at the world’s top central banks. Yet experts believe financial markets could still avoid panic, citing three key reasons: expectations for the future path of the Middle East conflict, geopolitics, and the increasingly shaky health of the world economy. “It’s quite surprising when you see escalations and nothing moves, it’s not generally what you expect from markets,” said Nuwan Goonetilleke, the head of capital markets at the London-listed insurer Phoenix Group. “But it’s been escalating over the past 12 months. “The market will continue to watch to see if the conflict draws in other regional powerhouses. Iran is the one that could be potentially dramatic.”

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The conversation was with Virtual Agronomist, a tool that uses artificial intelligence to provide fertiliser application using chat prompts. The chatbot asked some further questions before producing a report saying that Selim should target a yield of 7.9 tonnes and use three types of fertiliser in quantities to achieve that goal. “My God!” Selim said upon receipt of the report. He had planned to use much more fertiliser than Virtual Agronomist was recommending. “I could have money.” In Kericho and other parts of Kenya, AI-powered tools have become increasingly popular among small-scale farmers seeking to improve the quality and quantity of their . Pests, diseases and a lack of technical knowhow mean farmers have become accustomed to crop losses on a large scale. They used to rely on advice from agricultural extension officers – deployed by local governments to provide educational services to farmers – but their numbers have declined in recent years due to inadequate funding.

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The conversation was with Virtual Agronomist, a tool that uses artificial intelligence to provide fertiliser application advice using chat prompts. The chatbot asked some further questions before producing a report saying that Selim should target a yield of 7.9 tonnes and use three types of fertiliser in specific quantities to achieve that goal. “My God!” Selim said upon receipt of the report. He had planned to use much more fertiliser than Virtual Agronomist was recommending. “I could have wasted money.” In Kericho and other parts of Kenya, AI-powered tools have become increasingly popular among small-scale farmers seeking to improve the quality and quantity of their produce. Pests, diseases and a lack of technical knowhow mean farmers have become accustomed to suffering crop losses on a large scale. They used to rely on advice from agricultural extension officers – professionals deployed by local governments to provide educational services to farmers – but their numbers have declined in recent years due to inadequate funding.

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A painting that was found by a junk dealer while he was clearing out the cellar of a home in Capri, and was decried by his wife as “horrible”, is an original portrait by Pablo Picasso, Italian experts have claimed. After he stumbled across the in 1962, Luigi Lo Rosso took the rolled-up canvas home with him to Pompeii, where it hung in a cheap frame on the living room wall for the next few . The portrait, which is now believed by its owners to be a distorted image of Dora Maar, a French and painter who was Picasso’s mistress and muse, featured the famous artist’s distinctive in the top left-hand corner. But Lo Rosso didn’t know who he was. It was only much later, when his son Andrea started to ask questions after studying an encyclopedia of art given to him by his aunt, that suspicions were aroused.

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A painting that was found by a junk dealer while he was clearing out the cellar of a home in Capri, and was regularly decried by his wife as “horrible”, is an original portrait by Pablo Picasso, Italian experts have claimed. After he stumbled across the painting in 1962, Luigi Lo Rosso took the rolled-up canvas home with him to Pompeii, where it hung in a cheap frame on the living room wall for the next few decades. The portrait, which is now believed by its owners to be a distorted image of Dora Maar, a French photographer and painter who was Picasso’s mistress and muse, featured the famous artist’s distinctive signature in the top left-hand corner. But Lo Rosso didn’t know who he was. It was only much later, when his son Andrea started to ask questions after studying an encyclopedia of art history given to him by his aunt, that suspicions were aroused.

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Covid is on the rise in England, and experts have warned that more must be done to prevent and control after a “capitulation to the virus”. Prof Danny Altmann, an immunologist at Imperial College London, said those working in the field were perplexed by the current to the battle against Covid, as the latest figures showed an increase in hospital admissions. The latest data for England from the UK Health Agency (UKHSA) showed that hospital admissions increased to 3.71 per 100,000 population for the week between 16 and 22 September 2024, compared with 2.56 per 100,000 the week. The percentage of people with symptoms who have tested positive for Covid, based on tests at sentinel “spotter” laboratories, has also in the last week to 11.8% compared with 9.1% in the previous week. Altmann described the prevailing stance on the virus as a “capitulation”. “To those who work in this field, the current attitude of to losing this war of attrition against Covid is puzzling and a little desperate,” he said.

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Covid is on the rise in England, and experts have warned that more must be done to prevent and control infections after a “capitulation to the virus”. Prof Danny Altmann, an immunologist at Imperial College London, said those working in the field were perplexed by the current attitude to the battle against Covid, as the latest figures showed an increase in hospital admissions. The latest data for England from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) showed that hospital admissions increased to 3.71 per 100,000 population for the week between 16 and 22 September 2024, compared with 2.56 per 100,000 the previous week. The percentage of people with symptoms who have tested positive for Covid, based on tests at sentinel “spotter” laboratories, has also risen in the last week to 11.8% compared with 9.1% in the previous week. Altmann described the prevailing stance on the virus as a “capitulation”. “To those who work in this field, the current attitude of acceptance to losing this war of attrition against Covid is puzzling and a little desperate,” he said.

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More than 20 scientific experts have written to the UN’s food agency expressing shock at its failure to revise or withdraw a livestock emissions report that two of its cited have said contained “multiple and egregious errors”. The alleged inaccuracies are understood to have downplayed the potential of dietary change to reduce greenhouse gases, which make up about a quarter of total anthropogenic emissions and mostly derive from livestock. In the joint letter, which the Guardian has seen, the say they are dismayed that the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has failed to remedy “serious distortions” identified by the academics Paul Behrens and Matthew Hayek, which the Guardian reported on earlier this year. Behrens and Hayek say a separate has received short shrift. They say a “technical dialogue” promised by the FAO never materialised, beyond an to a muted webinar where they could type questions into a question and answer box.

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More than 20 scientific experts have written to the UN’s food agency expressing shock at its failure to revise or withdraw a livestock emissions report that two of its cited academics have said contained “multiple and egregious errors”. The alleged inaccuracies are understood to have downplayed the potential of dietary change to reduce agricultural greenhouse gases, which make up about a quarter of total anthropogenic emissions and mostly derive from livestock. In the joint letter, which the Guardian has seen, the scientists say they are dismayed that the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has failed to remedy “serious distortions” originally identified by the academics Paul Behrens and Matthew Hayek, which the Guardian reported on earlier this year. Behrens and Hayek say a separate complaint has received short shrift. They say a “technical dialogue” promised by the FAO never materialised, beyond an invitation to a muted webinar where they could type questions into a question and answer box.

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The US homeland security adviser, Liz Sherwood-Randall, said on Monday that there could be as many as 600 deaths, though the figure has not yet been . More than 1 million Americans were still without power in the Carolinas and Georgia as of Monday morning. Helene made landfall last Thursday night in Florida’s Big Bend as a category 4 hurricane. Even though it weakened to a tropical storm before moving through Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee, the storm’s winds, rainfall, storm surge and flooding destroyed entire in its path. On Sunday, North Carolina’s department of public safety said that supplies such as food, water and other needs were arriving in Asheville, a city in Buncombe county that has seen widespread . The state’s national guard was airlifting supplies into counties across western North Carolina, too, officials said: “This is an unprecedented tragedy that requires an unprecedented ,” Roy Cooper, North Carolina’s governor, said. Federal Emergency Management Agency officials said Monday that hundreds of roads had been closed across western North Carolina and that shelters were more than 1,000 people.

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The US homeland security adviser, Liz Sherwood-Randall, said on Monday that there could be as many as 600 deaths, though the figure has not yet been confirmed. More than 1 million Americans were still without power in the Carolinas and Georgia as of Monday morning. Helene made landfall last Thursday night in Florida’s Big Bend region as a category 4 hurricane. Even though it weakened to a tropical storm before moving through Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee, the storm’s winds, rainfall, storm surge and flooding destroyed entire communities in its path. On Sunday, North Carolina’s department of public safety said that supplies such as food, water and other needs were arriving in Asheville, a city in Buncombe county that has seen widespread destruction. The state’s national guard was airlifting supplies into counties across western North Carolina, too, officials said. “This is an unprecedented tragedy that requires an unprecedented response,” Roy Cooper, North Carolina’s governor, said. Federal Emergency Management Agency officials said Monday that hundreds of roads had been closed across western North Carolina and that shelters were housing more than 1,000 people.

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Apple has also improved the audio quality of the AirPods, producing more bass for a richer, more detailed all over. They have better separation of tones, greater depth and improved balance, with less accentuation of treble than predecessors. There is no way to customise the audio and they won’t please audiophiles or bass heads, but they are some of the best-sounding open-fit earbuds you can get. They also spatial audio for virtual surround with music or movies with Apple devices. More impressive is the noise cancelling in the pricier model. Most noise-cancelling require a good seal with your ear to be effective, and while they cannot match Bose or the AirPods Pro, the AirPods 4 manage to pull it off with the open fit far better than . It reduces the severity of most outside sounds by at least a third without accentuating higher tones, effectively silencing the sounds of air conditioning in an , although being overwhelmed by the screech of rails and the loudest of London’s tube lines.

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Apple has also improved the audio quality of the AirPods, producing more bass for a richer, more detailed sound all over. They have better separation of tones, greater depth and improved balance, with less accentuation of treble than their predecessors. There is no way to customise the audio and they won’t please audiophiles or bass heads, but they are some of the best-sounding open-fit earbuds you can get. They also support spatial audio for virtual surround with music or movies with Apple devices. More impressive is the noise cancelling in the pricier model. Most noise-cancelling systems require a good seal with your ear to be effective, and while they cannot match Bose or the AirPods Pro, the AirPods 4 manage to pull it off with the open fit far better than expected. It reduces the severity of most outside sounds by at least a third without accentuating higher tones, effectively silencing the sounds of air conditioning in an office, although being overwhelmed by the screech of rails and the loudest of London’s tube lines.

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Food companies should have to report how much they away as a first step towards reducing the vast amounts of edible food squandered in the UK, a group of prominent have said. About a third of the food produced every year is binned, much of it before it reaches the at a cost of almost £22bn annually to the UK economy. There is also a heavy toll: food waste globally contributes up to a 10th of greenhouse gases. More than 30 food businesses, including supermarkets and food producers, have written to the environment Steve Reed, calling for mandatory reporting of wasted food.

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Food companies should have to report how much they throw away as a first step towards reducing the vast amounts of edible food squandered in the UK, a group of prominent businesses have said. About a third of the food produced globally every year is binned, much of it before it reaches the consumer at a cost of almost £22bn annually to the UK economy. There is also a heavy environmental toll: food waste globally contributes up to a 10th of greenhouse gases. More than 30 food businesses, including supermarkets and food producers, have written to the environment secretary, Steve Reed, calling for mandatory reporting of wasted food.