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Arbery Video Was Leaked by a Lawyer Who Consulted With Suspects

For weeks after Ahmaud Arbery was killed while running down a road in coastal southern Georgia, there were few public developments in the case of a 25-year-old unarmed black man who was shot while being pursued by two white men with weapons in February.Then a graphic video of the shooting surfaced online, spurring widespread outrage.Within days, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation had taken over the case. The video was criticized by celebrities and politicians alike, including President Donald Trump, who called the footage "very, very disturbing," and former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, who said Arbery had essentially been "lynched before our very eyes."And in a major turn, the authorities announced Thursday night that they had arrested two suspects in the case and charged them with murder and aggravated assault.The video -- which by Friday officials had described as "a very important piece" of evidence in moving forward with criminal charges -- was first posted by WGIG, a radio station in Brunswick, Georgia, which said it had obtained the footage from an anonymous source.But in a twist emblematic of the small-town politics that have defined the case, that source turned out to be a criminal defense lawyer in town who had informally consulted with the suspects.The lawyer, Alan Tucker, said in an interview Friday that the video had come from the cellphone of a man who had filmed the episode and that he later gave the footage to the radio station. Tucker's role was confirmed by Scott Ryfun, who oversees the station's programming.Asked why he had leaked the video, Tucker said he had wanted to dispel rumors that he said had fueled tension in the community. "It wasn't two men with a Confederate flag in the back of a truck going down the road and shooting a jogger in the back," Tucker said."It got the truth out there as to what you could see," he added. "My purpose was not to exonerate them or convict them."The video, taken from inside a vehicle, shows Arbery running when he comes upon a white truck, with one man standing next to its open driver's-side door and another in the bed of the pickup. Arbery runs around the truck and disappears briefly from view. Then the man standing outside the truck tussles with him, and three gunshots are heard.The authorities identified Travis McMichael, 34, as the person who shot Arbery. His father, Gregory McMichael, 64, a retired investigator at the local district attorney's office, was also charged.Before the charges were filed this week, two prosecutors had recused themselves from handling the case, citing professional ties to Gregory McMichael. Tucker, too, said he had been an acquaintance of McMichael's from their work in legal circles.Reports suggest Tucker had consulted with the McMichael family in some capacity during the investigation, although it is not clear to what extent. Reached by The Washington Post before his arrest Thursday, Gregory McMichael referred questions to Tucker.Tucker declined to comment on his conversations with the McMichaels on Friday, citing attorney-client privilege."I'm not going to tell you what I told them or what they told me," he said, using profanity to say that any conversations -- had they occurred, he said -- were none of the public's business.At times during the interview, a woman could be heard in the background whispering suggested answers to Tucker.By Friday afternoon, Tucker said that it had been decided that he would not be retained as the lawyer for either of the McMichaels, and it was unclear who was representing them.Tucker said he would not be representing anyone else involved in the case, as the authorities announced Friday that they were pursuing a number of leads, including investigating the man who took the video.The man, Roddie Bryan, lives in the neighborhood. He had shared the video with the police before sharing it with Tucker and was cooperating with the authorities, his lawyer, Kevin Gough, said in an interview Friday evening."Mr. Bryan has never tried to hide anything from anybody," Gough said. "If anybody wanted a copy of the video, he would give it to them."But he said the added attention, including the scrutiny from the authorities, had come as a shock to his client, a mechanic who had since lost his job and received threats. "The atmosphere down here is very volatile," Gough said. "People are in fear. That's all a result of the last few days."The latest developments in the case on Friday fell on Arbery's birthday, when he would have turned 26. Thousands of people commemorated the occasion by running 2.23 miles, a nod to Feb. 23, the date he was killed.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company





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Algeria approves 2-7% increase in retirement pensions




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French president persuaded to give approval to resumption of racing

  • France Galop lobbied Emmanuel Macron for go-ahead
  • Longchamp one of three meetings to take place on Monday

France Galop, the ruling body of French racing, confirmed on Saturday it will resume with meetings at Longchamp, Toulouse and Compiegne on Monday, but only after what is believed to have been urgent behind-the-scenes lobbying by Edouard de Rothschild, FG’s president, late on Friday night that persuaded Emmanuel Macron, the French president, to finally give his approval to the resumption.

De Rothschild thanked Macron and Édouard Philippe, France’s prime minister, for their efforts in a tweet in the early hours of Saturday morning that confirmed racing had seen off last-minute objections to its return.

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UK coastguard urges people to stay home after increase in calls

Meanwhile police in London say they’re ‘losing the battle’ as people gather in parks despite coronavirus clockdown

The coastguard has urged the public not to ignore the government’s stay-at-home message after recording its highest number of distress calls in a single day since the lockdown began.

The rescue service said it dealt with 97 incidents on Friday, more than half the daily average over the previous month.

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Meghan Marvel: which superhero should the duchess play?

A princess seeking revenge after her royal privileges are revoked? A drifter trying to get away from her awful father? Or maybe a guardian of Captain Britain?

Now that Meghan Markle has had her royal purse strings cut, the time has come for her to prove that she is capable of making a living on her own merits. And, ever the everywoman, it has been reported that Markle’s first step is exactly the same one that we’d all make upon finding ourselves suddenly short of money – she has instructed her agent to find her a role in a superhero film.

At this point it’s best to assume that she’s looking for something more substantial than her pre-royal movie career offered; she won’t want a made-for-TV superhero movie, or to appear in a single scene of a larger film as a nameless woman whose only purpose in the universe is to give the middle-aged leading man something to absent-mindedly flirt at. So, who should she play? Luckily, as crowded as the superhero genre currently is, there is still plenty of untapped potential for her. Here are my suggestions.

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Max von Sydow: an aristocrat of cinema who made me weep | Peter Bradshaw

From his fateful game of chess to a moving turn in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Von Sydow was the last standard bearer of Bergman’s high-minded movie idiom

Max von Sydow dies aged 90
A life in pictures

The opening of the seventh seal in the Book of Revelation, disclosing the truth of God’s existence and the second coming, will result in a mysterious silence in the kingdom of heaven – then the sound of trumpets and the thunderous uproar of Earth’s apocalyptic ending. In the movies, no actor has ever represented these ideas more seriously, nor shown humanity’s anguish in the face of God’s implacable silence or unassuageable anger more clearly, than Max von Sydow. He was virtually a book of revelation in himself.

The passionate severity of Von Sydow – and his ability to impersonate the ascetic nobility of some impossibly remote priestly or knightly order but with very human flaws – formed the bedrock of Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal and the staggering series of films he was to make with Bergman in the 1950s and 1960s. Beyond that, he virtually epitomised an entire, distinctively high-minded attitude to cinematic art in Europe. His films for Bergman were composed in a movie idiom that drew on Ibsen and Strindberg, Sjöström and Dreyer – and of which, since Bergman’s death in 2007, Von Sydow could be said to be the final standard bearer.

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Tender and honest, Tigertail is a beacon of hope in today's tide of anti-Asian bigotry | Georgina Quach

Alan Yang’s film about the lack of understanding between generations strikes a chord, and is so relevant as coronavirus racism spreads

Inflamed by President Trump’s casual phrase “Chinese virus”, anti-Asian sentiment is erupting all over the world. As a British-Vietnamese person who has been spat on because of the colour of her skin, the film Tigertail is a glimmer of hope – a way of showing the truth, and connecting Asian communities at a time when panic and misinformation serve to break us apart. Alan Yang’s multi-generational love story Tigertail weaves in Yang’s cultural self-discovery and features memories of Taiwan, as experienced by the protagonist Pin-Jui. Weighted against the present tide of anti-Asian bigotry, this tender story about honesty and lost love is more relevant than ever.

“American culture has been negligent in portraying Asian-American people as fully realised human beings,” Yang told the Deadline podcast. Yang, who worked on Parks and Recreation before co-creating Master of None, recalled the trepidation he felt in the early days of his career, in a cultural landscape where east Asians were rarely represented, or stereotyped as hardworking automatons. Yang said he had felt restricted to using only white characters in his early pilots, fearing that all-Asian or Asian-American scripts would never be accepted. But this was before the film successes of Crazy Rich Asians, The Farewell and Parasite brought real Asian faces to mainstream culture.

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You, in your bedroom, with your laptop. That's not the future of film festivals | Peter Bradshaw

In the wake of Covid-19, We Are One: A Global Film Festival is taking the experience online. But cinema is a bigger encounter

Every year, at Cannes (and other festivals) there’s a plaintive argument about what Cannes (or other festivals) are really all “about”. Some Savonarola-type person will dash the glass of rosé out of your hand, throw your canape into the Med and tell you Cannes is not about red-carpet narcissism, not about stars preening in the flashbulb glare of celeb-worship, not about L’Oréal sponsorship, not about getting drunk at a million late-night parties. It’s about the movies, about cinema itself.

Of course. And that’s what the new Covid-19-related We Are One: A Global Film Festival appears to offer: the 10-day online festival, beginning 29 May, curated by Jane Rosenthal of the Tribeca film festival, featuring arthouse films (though not the big-ticket Hollywood items) from Cannes, Venice, Berlin and many more, streaming for free in return for an optional donation to the World Health Organization’s Covid-19 fund. So there you have it. A festival with all the frills and extras and flummeries stripped away. Just you, in your bedroom, with your laptop, communing with cinema. Isn’t that what it’s all about?

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Why are period dramas so white? - video

Have you ever noticed that in film and on TV, period dramas tend to have almost entirely white casts? It’s almost as if, at least in film and TV land, black people do not feature in British history at all. The Guardian’s Josh Toussaint-Strauss finds out how accurate costume dramas are in terms of racial diversity, and looks into the reasons why period dramas might get whitewashed

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Dangerous Lies review – diverting yet dopey Netflix thriller

A ridiculously titled film about a couple who stumble upon a stash of money is absurd and cliched but mostly entertaining

One of the most surprising reveals of last October’s unprecedented Netflix data dump was the astounding popularity of cheap psycho-thriller Secret Obsession. While the streamer proudly touted new films from Alfonso Cuarón, Paul Greengrass and the Coens in the same period, it was a no-star, dim-plotted slab of schlock that netted more viewers, with an estimated 40m households eager to find out just how secret that obsession really was. Modelled after a Lifetime TV movie (with a Lifetime TV director at the helm), it was an important victory for Netflix because it revealed a substantial audience for tiny-budgeted thrillers with generic titles, a bracket they could easily fill at little expense.

Related: The Half of It review – charming Netflix teen comedy takes on Cyrano

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UK cinemas lobbying government for June reopening

The UK Cinema Association aims to resume business before July release of Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster Tenet, as studios and distributors scramble to protect theatrical business model

The UK cinema industry is understood to be lobbying the government to approve a proposed reopening scheme that would see venues welcome customers by the end of June.

Phil Clapp, the chief executive of the UK Cinema Association said: “We’ve made representations to government on the safeguards which UK cinemas would look to have in place for audiences and staff alike upon re-opening, and have asked that consideration be given – with these in mind – to allow cinemas to open by the end of June.”

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'First petri dish': Sundance film festival may have been Covid-19 incubator

The Hollywood Reporter says numerous attendees returned from the late-January festival with coronavirus symptoms

A new report suggests that January’s Sundance film festival, the annual gathering of cinephiles in Park City, Utah, may have been a key early hub for coronavirus in the US. The article, in the Hollywood Reporter, cites numerous attendees who experienced Covid-19-like symptoms either during or immediately after the festival. None were believed to have been tested for the disease.

Sundance this year attracted about 120,000 people to the small mountain resort, to watch films and party in confined spaces. The snowy conditions that make Park City perfect for skiing mean that socialising indoors is common, as are some flu-like symptoms as a result of the low temperature and high altitude.

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Loss of beloved pet worst injury Beaulieu suffered in bone-breaking, pandemic-paused season

You know who you are. You know what you did. And to the driver who killed Nathan Beaulieu’s dog in a cowardly hit-and-run, the Winnipeg Jets defenceman wants you to ...




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Journeyman pilloried, superstar adored

Go ahead and applaud taking down a group of boorish hockey “bros” for their despicable behaviour. But you might want to hold off on a full-fledged victory lap. Brendan Leipsic said ...




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White House Misled Public, Buried CDC Reopening Guidelines and is Now Preparing for Second Coronavirus Wave

The White House is making "contingency plans" for a second wave of coronavirus after emails reportedly contradict their claims that Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines to safely reopen the economy were set aside because medical experts did not approve of them.




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When Will Vegas Reopen? Social Distancing Guidelines for Casinos, Drive-Ins, and Restaurants

Restaurants and drive-in movie theatres are allowed to reopen in Las Vegas today, with casinos hoping to reopen by Memorial Day.




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'Fortnite' Party Royale Event With Steve Aoki & Deadmau5 - Tracklist & What Happened

"Fortnite" Party Royale had another big show on May 8. Here's everything you need to know about the Dillion Francis, Steve Aoki and deadmau5 concert that just took place.




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Putin Says Russians are 'Invincible' in Speech During Coronavirus-Hit Victory Day Ceremony

The president appeared outside the Kremlin walls to praise the Soviet effort in what is known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War.




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Germany, On Cusp of Reopening, Scrambles to Contain Fresh Coronavirus Outbreaks

Out of 200 employees tested at a German meat processing plant, 151 tested positive Thursday for coronavirus, triggering an "emergency mechanism" to delay the easing of social distancing restrictions.




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Britney Spears Updates Glory Album Cover to Celebrate 2016 Record Hitting #1 on iTunes

Some fans think the new album art was released in anticipation of a rumored platinum edition of Glory.




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Facebook Is Taking on Zoom With a 50-Person Video Chat Feature

Messenger Rooms will be free for all users, with no time limit




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Deep, Perennial or Semi-Perennial Rivers Flowed on Early Mars

While the present-day Martian surface is generally dry and cold, its sedimentary rocks contain compelling evidence for the former presence of liquid water. According to a new analysis of orbital images of 3.7-billion-year-old sedimentary layers at Izola mensa, an outcrop in the northwestern rim of the Hellas impact crater on Mars, deep rivers were active [...]




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Study: Single Gene Causes ‘Virgin Births’ in Cape Honeybees

A protein-coding gene called GB45239 is responsible for thelytokous parthenogenesis — the ability to produce daughters asexually — in the Cape honeybee (Apis mellifera capensis), a subspecies of honeybee found in the two southern provinces of South Africa, according to a new paper published in the journal Current Biology. The female worker caste of the [...]




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Astronomers Crack Mystery of X-Shaped Radio Galaxies

Astronomers using the MeerKAT telescope at the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory in Cape Town, South Africa, have solved a longstanding mystery of X-shaped radio galaxies. Many galaxies far more active than the Milky Way have enormous twin jets of radio waves extending far into intergalactic space. Normally these go in opposite directions, coming from [...]




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Fortnite hosted a psychedelic Travis Scott concert and 12.3M people watched

The idea of an in-game Travis Scott concert might seem a little silly — particularly if, like me, you’re not really a Fortnite player. Yes, the popular multiplayer game has hosted other promotional events for movies and music. But even if all this COVID-19 imposed isolation has left you hungry for live performances, why not […]




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Guilded raises $7 million for its competitive gaming-focused chat app

Gaming platforms have earned serious clout with investors in recent years. Add in the VC excitement surrounding collaboration tools and it’s no surprised there’s interest in backing another gaming chat app. Guilded is creating a chat platform designed for competitive gaming and esports that focuses heavily on keeping gamers organized and connected with their teams. […]




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All product creators can learn something from Jackbox Games’ user experiences

While Jackbox clearly owes a great deal of its current popularity to the shelter-in-place policies, they've also been honing their craft for years. It's worth looking at what makes them work.





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Nintendo sells a lot more Switches, as people stay at home playing Animal Crossing

A couple of weeks ago, we noted some new NPD numbers pointing to a very good March for the Switch. Nintendo’s financials this week bear out the predicted surge in popularity for the three-year-old console. The company has sold 21 million Switch units in the past year, handily beating a 19.5 million forecast; 6.2 million […]




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Pence spokeswoman, married to top Trump adviser, diagnosed with coronavirus

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence's press secretary, the wife of one of President Donald Trump's senior advisers, has tested positive for the coronavirus, raising alarm about the virus' potential spread within the White House's inner most circle.




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Trump has not had contact with infected Pence staffer recently: official

U.S. President Donald Trump has not been in contact recently with a member of Vice President Mike Pence's staff who was found to be infected with the coronavirus, a senior administration official said on Friday.




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Skeptical judge could hold up Trump administration's bid to clear Flynn, legal experts say

The notoriously independent-minded federal judge who once said he was disgusted by the conduct of Michael Flynn could block the administration's bid to drop criminal charges against the former adviser to President Donald Trump, legal experts said.




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FDA commissioner in self-quarantine after exposure to person with COVID-19

U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn is in self-quarantine for a couple of weeks after coming into contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19, an FDA spokesman told Reuters late on Friday.




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NCAA president: Sports won't return until campuses reopen

College sports will not resume until all students are back on campus, NCAA president Mark Emmert said Friday.




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'Bois Locker Room': Experts Say Youngsters Need Rehabilitative Measures, Not Just Punitive Action

A dialogue on sex, consent, ownership over bodies must be introduced from a young age so that it becomes part of a dominant narrative, say experts.





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Vande Bharat Mission: TN people stranded in foreign nations return




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Vande Bharat Mission: TN people stranded in foreign nations return




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Gilgit to Guwahati: Why Doordarshan’s new weather forecast will up temperatures in Pakistan

New Delhi, May 08: From Gilgit to Guwahati, Doordarshan and All India Radio have started forecasting the weather from across the territory of India. These Weather reports cover every small detail from every nook and corner of the country while highlighting





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359 Indians Stranded in Dubai Brought Back in Special Flights to Tamil Nadu

The stranded people hail from Tamil Nadu and they were working in the United Arab Emirates.





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Vande Bharat Mission: TN people stranded in foreign nations return




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Has Rahul Gandhi given up hope of leading India? There are signs that appear to show he has

Rahul Gandhi seems to have descended into a spiral of far Left, subversive standpoint since Narendra Modi swept to power at the Centre and the Congress started losing state after state.





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TDP chief urges PM Modi to set up scientific experts' committee to probe Vizag gas leak incident




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COVID-19 Lockdown 3.0: Waiting for special trains to take them home, migrant workers in Hyderabad battle hunger and helplessness

Trapped in lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, over a thousand migrant workers staying in Hyderabad's Tolichowki took to the streets on Sunday demanding to be taken home.





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Coronavirus Lockdown 3.0: Suspension of labour laws by fiat can only be an immediate-term response to the current crisis

There has been talk for some time now about easing labour laws, already seen in industry circles as being too rigid and acting as a drag on growth, specifically to facilitate emerging from the lockdown. And it’s not just a question of emerging from it, there’s also the issue of surviving what looks like being a brutal and prolonged global economic downturn. It was reported on Friday that ordinances were being issued in some states.





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Indian Jawans Helped Save Europe in WWII. Can India Win COVID War?

“The rapid & global spread of coronavirus is a devastating reminder of the consequences of global disorder”: Tharoor





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First Air India Repatriation Flight From London To Mumbai Takes Off With 100 Percent Occupancy

Around 250 Indian students and tourists were seen queuing with their luggage at the airport as they prepared for the journey home.





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UK has enough intensive care units for coronavirus, expert predicts

Neil Ferguson, whose modelling has informed the UK's coronavirus strategy, says that the need for intensive care beds will come close to, but not exceed, national capacity




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UK science advisers expect coronavirus epidemic to peak within a month

The peak of the UK coronavirus epidemic now looks likely to arrive within the next month, according to analysis by the government’s science advisers




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The science of crispy: how to make perfect pork crackling

What is it that turns tough pork skin into amazing crackling? Sam Wong reveals the secret to that wonderful crispy crunch




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Diet and exercise will keep your brain young – depending on your genes

Following a healthy diet or exercising could impact how your brain ages, but the effects on cognitive skills later in life depend on specific gene variants that not everyone has