Many countries are hoping to use contact-tracing apps to leave lockdown and suppress further coronavirus outbreaks, but the use of such technology has many issues

Black paint usually absorbs heat, but a new two-layer polymer paint reflects infrared light and keeps objects 16°C cooler, which could help make buildings more energy efficient

Psychologist Pete Etchells explores what the scientific research has to say about game violence and addiction and busts some myths

Robots made of 3D-printed muscle and rat spines could help us understand conditions like motor neurone disease and the technique may eventually be used to build prosthetic devices

Can you really be addicted to your smartphone? Daria Kuss has shown that it is only a problem for a small number of people - and she knows how to help

Why? Because that’s our reality here in the year 2020.

Only the best images are used to create a mosaic of the entire planet, resulting in a super-crisp, high-definition view.

Adele posted a message to her social media channels this week thanking those on the front lines fighting COVID-19. In the process, the celebrated singer unveiled a thinner frame—and the internet had a lot of thoughts about it, almost all trash.

Enter Bill Maher, noted #MeToo skeptic, with perhaps the most garbage take of them all.

On Friday night, during the interview portion of his HBO show Real Time, the comedian began by placing the bulk of the blame for the high amount of COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. compared to other countries on America’s obesity problem—not, say, the fact that the Trump administration didn’t do a single thing during the month of February to contain the spread of the virus.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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For the past two months, Katie Holliday has been cooped up alone in her Brooklyn apartment thinking longingly about an unlikely erogenous zone: the lower half of a stranger’s face. 

“I remember joking to my friend before all of this started, ‘Imagine if someone’s face becomes their most coveted body part?’” Holliday, who is 31, told The Daily Beast. “‘When someone removes their mask, is it a sign of trust? Is it like letting someone see you naked?’ I was kidding back then, but now it’s reality.”

Holliday doesn’t know exactly when it will be safe to start seeing people like she did before the pandemic began, but she’ll return to a singles scene unlike any other in history. “I’m picturing walking into a bar where everyone’s wearing masks,” she said. “I’ll meet someone whose face is covered. Are they cute or not? I don’t know!” 

Read more at The Daily Beast.

On Tuesday the president took his first trip since the coronavirus grounded the country, to a Honeywell factory in battleground state Arizona. This particular Honeywell factory produces N95 masks. Pictures of the trip immediately surfaced on the internet, and they showed a president sporting his usual mango-tinted, ever-tan skin, his usual topiary-structured hair tinted a baffling yellowish, and a pair of clear safety goggles.

But what was missing? What we did not see on the president’s face was a mask. While the rest of us cover our faces as recommended by the CDC, the president does not. In fact, we have never seen a mask on the president, despite the president’s love of masking himself when it comes to his tax returns, his sexual assault allegations, and his financial dealings.   

On Wednesday, when pressed on his decision not to wear a mask at a mask factory, the president responded with the very fishy, “I had a mask on for a period of time, I had it on back, backstage. But they said you didn’t need it, so, I didn’t need it. And by the way, if you noticed, nobody else had it on that was in the group.” Okay. Whatever you say. 

Read more at The Daily Beast.

A 7-year-old boy from Westchester County is the second child in New York state to die from pediatric multi-symptom inflammatory syndrome tied to COVID-19 since the pandemic began. A 5-year-old boy died earlier in the week from the same syndrome at Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital in New York City.

The childhood ailment has affected at least 73 children in New York state and authorities are now looking for other potential cases across the country. Cases have also been reported in Washington, D.C., California, Delaware, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Washington state and New Jersey, where a 4-year-old died with symptoms last month.

It has been previously thought that children are less likely to suffer any serious complications from the coronavirus.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Saudi Aramco’s IPO saga has turned into “A Tale of Two Princes.” As Saudi Arabia’s day-to-day ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has guided the IPO far from public view, his half-brother Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman stepped onto center stage in Vienna last week, presiding over a crucial gathering of OPEC and its oil-producing allies […]

The UFC is set to return to return to action this weekend.

Premier League clubs are fearful that a significant number of first-team stars may refuse to return to action if the league's Project Restart plan gets the green light.

Einstein’s theory of relativity predicts that fast-spinning objects stretch space and time around them, and we’ve watched that effect make a pair of stars wobble

Proxima Centauri b, a planet orbiting our nearest stellar neighbour, is being blasted with cosmic rays and solar flares – which could make it warm enough to host life

We know that there is at least one planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to our solar system, and now astronomers may have taken the first picture of a second world

Earlier this week, a depressing economic prognosis linked on the Drudge Report concluded: "A whole lot more pain is on the way, and it is going to shake our nation to the core."

The overlooked epicenter of the Covid-19 pandemic is our nation's nursing homes, veterans' homes, and other long-term care facilities.

Roboticists share what they've learned so far from DARPA's Subterranean Challenge, and how they readied their bots for the next event—the Tunnel Circuit

Supporting long-range communications inside of a mine is extremely difficult, so DARPA SubT teams are trying out some creative approaches

Lucas Joppa, founder of Microsoft's AI for Earth program, is taking an engineering approach to environmental issues

Self-driving cars and medical robots need an infant’s understanding of physics to succeed

Call of Duty Modern Warfare and Warzone update patch notes have been shared by Infinity Ward to clarify whats changed to the game on May 7.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare players can today download a brand new update for Warzone and Modern Warfare multiplayer. Here are the patch notes for PS4, Xbox One and PCs.

Equines, epochs, set-top boxes, and hacking toddlers round out a really weird week. And as if April Fool’s wasn’t enough, Amazon announced a video game...

Chris bought spoiled avocados last night. I made him get up early to make pot roast for dinner tonight and then I went to make...

We’ve repelled the British! An England-free RPGCast sails straight to your ears with news of dragons, family drama, and lottery balls. Jonathan and Anna Marie...

We send some Fire Emblem info DIRECTLY to you. Then Alice gets Chris up to speed on the latest in Final Fantasy MMOs. Finally we...

Chris got kicked off his own show this week to make room for a panel full to bursting with #JRPGJuly updates! Some are playing new games, some are playing old games, but let’s face it - everyone will be playing Fire Emblem next week.

THE SCOTTISH Government is reviewing its Covid-19 testing strategy after the Deputy First Minster has been left “frustrated” by reports home care workers have been told to travel to the other side of Scotland for tests.

PEOPLE who are not positive for Covid-19 could be told to isolate from their families before test results are issued as a precaution, Scotland’s national clinical director has warned.

Paired with a T-shirt or even just a vest, the classic stripe returns for men this season. Take inspiration from these high-fashion looks riffing on the boardroom staple

• Read more from the spring/summer 2020 edition of The Fashion, our biannual style supplement

The ‘haunted doll’ look of Donald Trump’s son-in-law has attracted a lot of attention. When people comment on famous women and surgery there is often a backlash, but should the same apply here?

What has happened to Jared Kushner’s face?
Richard, by email

People get a little antsy about the subject of cosmetic surgery: they don’t like to be asked if they have had it, and public speculation over whether someone else has had it is generally considered to be de trop. I don’t really get this. Maybe it’s because I am 100% the world’s worst liar, but pretending to not see that someone’s face has completely changed is a form of magical thinking that is just beyond my capabilities.

C&A, Adidas/Reebok, Esprit and M&S round out top five as average scores increase year on year, but Max Mara, Pepe Jeans and Tom Ford fall flat

The H&M Group, C&A, Adidas/Reebok, Esprit, Marks & Spencer and Patagonia are the world’s most transparent major fashion brands, according to the 2020 fashion transparency index from the campaign group Fashion Revolution.

The annual report, now in its fifth year, ranks the amount of information companies disclose about social and environmental policies, processes and effects within their operations and supply chains.

Parents should not feel pressured to make their young children undertake structured learning or achieve specific tasks, particularly during lockdown. A new study of children under the age of two has found that parents who take a more flexible approach to their child's learning can - for children who were easy babies - minimize behavioral problems during toddlerhood.

The COVID-19 pandemic has placed unprecedented pressure on societies worldwide, given the pandemic's rapid, often deadly spread. In health care, the pandemic has raised the pressing question of how society should allocate scarce resources during a crisis.

A world-first study has demonstrated significant benefits to a premature baby's heart and brain function when held by the parent in skin-to-skin contact. Parent-infant skin-to-skin care (SSC) or kangaroo care, started in the late 1970s in Columbia when incubators to keep babies warm were not available. It is now widely recognized as a beneficial component of holistic care provided for pre-term infants.

JOHANNESBURG -- The dealer had a stash, but the young woman wasn't getting through the door without an introduction. That's where her friend, already a trusted customer, came in. And even then there were complications.The woman wanted Stuyvesants. The dealer had Courtleighs. But in a South Africa where the sale of cigarettes is newly illegal, quibblers risk nicotine fits.She took the Courtleighs and high-tailed it out of there."I feel like I'm buying cocaine," said the woman, 29, who asked not to be named for fear of being fined or arrested.In late March, in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak, the South African government banned the sale of tobacco and alcohol as part of a broad lockdown -- one of the strictest anywhere. But even as the government has begun rolling back the lockdown, the bans remain in effect.A government minister, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, cited "COVID-19 reasons" for maintaining the ban.Dlamini-Zuma, a doctor who served as health minister in the 1990s and is now cooperative governance minister, said that "besides the effects itself on the person's lungs," there were concerns that smoking could promote coronavirus infection."The way sometimes tobacco is shared does not allow for social distancing," she said, "but actually encourages the spread of the virus."Defending the ban of alcohol sales amid cries of protest from the liquor industry, President Cyril Ramaphosa said alcohol was "a hindrance to the fight against coronavirus.""There are proven links between the sale and consumption of alcohol and violent crime, motor vehicle accidents and other medical emergencies at a time when all public and private resources should be preparing to receive and treat vast numbers of COVID-19 patients," the president said in a statement.The government has also cited the risk of domestic violence in households where families are isolated at home.Perhaps not surprisingly, an underground market in both cigarettes and alcohol quickly sprung up.Like bootleg markets everywhere, it relies on word-of-mouth, as the 29-year-old woman who settled for the Courtleighs soon learned.She made her purchase in a suburb of Vereeniging, a city south of Johannesburg, where dealers are said to sell only to buyers referred by someone they know. And they sell only from their homes to avoid driving around with large quantities of cigarettes, since if they were to be caught at one of the dozens of police roadblocks set up around the country, they could be arrested on the spot.Instead, the smoker carries the risk -- and the cost. A pack of 20 cigarettes now goes for upward of 150 rand (about $8), three times the old legal price. Underground alcohol prices have also skyrocketed. A bottle of low-end vodka that usually sells for 120 rand ($6) now sells for at least 400 rand ($21).South Africa lifted its nationwide lockdown on May 1 but is continuing to implement strict social distancing and face mask rules. Already under siege from HIV, the country has around 8,200 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and has reported about 160 deaths.The country had implemented one of the world's most stringent lockdowns after recording its first coronavirus-related death in March. In addition to banning the sale of cigarettes and alcohol, the regulations banned jogging and dog-walking, and shuttered parks.Before the lockdown, with a ban looming, some smokers stocked up on cartons of cigarettes. But when the ban on cigarettes was extended beyond May 1, things for smokers began to grow tense.Now it's a matter of who you know. The cafe owner willing to slip a box under a container of milk, perhaps, or a supermarket cashier willing to steal and resell cigarettes languishing in the storeroom.In one Pretoria township where everyone knows everyone -- including the police -- few dare sell cigarettes from their homes. Instead, dealers hide among young men milling around on the neighborhood corner.A 23-year-old smoker said that when he saw a group of four men sharing a cigarette, he approached them to find out where they had found the contraband. They just so happened to be selling, they told him.Desperate after a failed attempt to quit smoking, he said, he paid 160 rand for his favorite brand and "ran home," where he took a photograph of the sealed pack, planning to share it on WhatsApp with envious fellow smokers.But when he opened the pack, a cloud of sawdust choked him. There was not a cigarette to be found.Smokers say they are finding fake cigarettes in sealed boxes that look exactly like legitimate brands. And those who are desperate enough are buying unknown brands that have appeared during the lockdown, with names like Pineapple and Chestel, and are notorious for inducing immediate coughing.The tobacco industry has not taken kindly to the government's new policy.The ban has fueled an underground cigarette trade that was thriving even before the lockdown. By some estimates, it made up more than 30% of the market, depriving the above-ground tobacco industry of profit and the government of tax revenue.Now both industry and government are losing even more.The country's largest cigarette manufacturer, British American Tobacco South Africa, at one point threatened legal action if the government did not drop its ban, but Wednesday changed course. "We have taken the decision not to pursue legal action at this stage," it said in a statement, "but, instead, to pursue further discussions with government."The company said, "We are convinced that by working together we can find a better solution that works for all South Africans and removes the threat of criminal sanction from 11 million tobacco consumers in the country."The ban on cigarettes and alcohol has set off a debate on civil liberties in a country with one of the world's most liberal constitutions. While South Africa was an early adopter of public smoking regulations, many see the bans as a symbol of government overreach.Though its coronavirus policies may have succeeded in keeping the outbreak in check, some are calling the government hypocritical. Junk food remains readily available. And officials strictly limited outdoor exercise during the lockdown.In a country increasingly struggling with diabetes and obesity, such inconsistencies undercut the government's argument that it is guarding the public's health, said one South African constitutional law expert, Pierre De Vos."In the long term, if the government overreaches and it wants to continue imposing these limits when the threat has subsided, I think the courts will invalidate this," he said.Still, the ban may have yielded at least one former smoker: the man who bought the box of sawdust."I cannot just go around losing money like that," he said. "I just said to myself, 'Nah, man, it's not worth it. I'll stay home and eat sweets, as that's what's legal now.'"This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company

Following a strikingly white and male list of Bafta nominees, this year’s Academy Awards shortlists are barely more diverse. It’s a chronic problem in an industry running out of excuses for its slow pace of change. Lanre Bakare examines why the Oscars are still so white. Plus: Joan E Greve on a hectic week of US politics

When the lists of nominees for the major film awards in 2020 were announced, there was, once again, a glaring anomaly. Not a single person of colour was nominated in the Bafta acting categories, while the Oscars managed only Cynthia Erivo for her part in Harriet.

It is an issue that the industry is well aware of: in 2015, the ceremony saw #OscarsSoWhite trending on Twitter, while actors such as Eddie Murphy were rebuking the academy from the stage back in the 1990s. So what explains the glacial pace of change? Guardian arts and culture correspondent Lanre Bakare tells Anushka Asthana that there have been plenty of false dawns over the years in the quest for greater diversity.

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

Ad-Rock and Mike D host a convivial trip down memory lane in this filmed record of a live show staged in tribute to third member Adam Yauch

The release of this documentary coincides with #MeAt20, a heart-twisting craze on social media for posting pictures of yourself at 20 years old. Middle-aged people’s timelines are speckled with funny, sweet and sometimes unbearably sad images of themselves in unlined, unformed youth, doing goofy things in milky analogue pictures from back when you had 12 or 24 exposures on your roll-film camera and getting them developed at Boots was a pricey business. That’s what I thought of while watching this engaging, oddly moving film from Spike Jonze: a record of the live stage show he devised at the Kings Theatre in Brooklyn, New York, in tribute to white hip-hop stars and tongue-in-cheek party-libertarian activists the Beastie Boys. It is presented by the two surviving members, Adam Horovitz and Michael Diamond, in tribute to the third member, Adam Yauch, who died of cancer in 2012. Jonze is reuniting with the band after having directed a string of their music videos, including the crime-TV spoof for their single Sabotage in 1994.

Horovitz and Diamond amble on stage, apparently dressed head-to-toe in Gap, and appear for all the world to be about to unveil the iPhone 4S, although actually their jokey anecdotalism makes the show in some ways like the regional tours once presented by George Best and Rodney Marsh. With amiably rehearsed back-and-forth banter, they introduce the embarrassing photos and excruciating TV clips that are shown on a big screen. And the effect of seeing them juxtaposed with the plump-faced frizzy-haired imps of 1986 is startling and bizarre. In the present day, the advancing years seem to have boiled away the badass attitude, leaving behind the quirky humour.

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

Bill Maher said Republicans "don't care" about Tara Reade's sexual assault allegations, saying such claims are simply used as a "unilateral weapon" against Democrats.