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Sources: MLB shortens draft from 40 rounds to 5

Team owners have long discussed shortening the draft from its usual 40 rounds, and it was expected to be a point of discussion heading into the winter 2021 expiration of the labor agreement between the league and players' union.




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Silver preps NBA players for challenges ahead

Adam Silver outlined a potentially grim future for the NBA in a call with players, calling the pandemic the "single greatest challenge of all our lives."




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Souza tests positive for virus, out of UFC 249

Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza, who was scheduled to fight Uriah Hall at UFC 249 on Saturday, has tested positive for the coronavirus.




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Inside Justin Gaethje's journey from a mining town to MMA stardom

Gaethje's family heritage was forged in Arizona copper mines, but a fighting spirit charted his path to a UFC title shot.




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The pandemic ‘unicorn’: Canadian startup dependent on travel joins $1-billion-plus club

Platform connects international students to universities, colleges and high schools with one application system




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Apple borrows on the cheap to fund buybacks, dividends

Apple capitalized on the Federal Reserve's emergency measures in response to the coronavirus outbreak to issue its cheapest bonds in year




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How Europe got caught up in crackpot 5G coronavirus conspiracy theories

At a time of crisis, people want answers — and 5G is a really simple answer




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Apple to hold virtual developer conference June 22, later than usual

Delay likely also pushes back Apple's software testing cycle, which could be another indicator of this year's iPhones launching later than usual




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Digital-friendly recession: How Big Tech got even bigger in the midst of a market meltdown

Many analysts expected the stocks to fall back to earth when the next downturn came




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Bitcoin is staging a comeback reminiscent of the 2017 bubble frenzy

In anticipation for a technical event that may be a new catalyst, Bitcoin has rallied to more than US$9,000 from around US$6,000 just a month ago




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Shopify becomes Canada’s most valuable company after quarter beats expectations on back of pandemic

Larger retailers like Heinz and Loblaw signing up with Shopify




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Sidewalk Labs pulls out of Toronto smart city project after 3 years, citing ‘unprecedented economic uncertainty’

'It has become too difficult to make the 12-acre project financially viable'




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As Shopify passes RBC to become No. 1, the Canada market curse gets put to the test

Those that leapfrogged the value of Canada's largest bank in the past have faltered — think Valeant, BlackBerry and Nortel




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Google, Facebook tell staff to plan to work from home for the rest of the year

The edicts from the internet giants come as states and corporations grapple with ways to reopen as the virus pandemic rages on




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Coronavirus: NHS doctor returning to help during pandemic cheers up colleagues by singing opera

Dr Alex Aldren has returned to the NHS after leaving to become an opera singer




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Coronavirus: NHS hospitals using Amazon Wish Lists to ask for donations of basic items

NHS hospitals are asking for basic items such as toothbrushes and sanitary products




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Dentists warn 'desperate' people will try 'DIY dentistry' if the government doesn't give access to emergency treatment

'It's inevitable many desperate patients will resort to 'DIY dentistry'




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Coronavirus: Increased alcohol consumption during lockdown could lead to 'second health crisis', warn researchers

It is feared that daily drinkers could be most at risk




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Coronavirus: Miss England who returned to work as NHS doctor 'concerned' about lack of PPE

'Nurses are constantly in contact and unwittingly the virus can be spread to other parts of the hospital due to this appalling lack of PPE'




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Adverts which claim IV drips can help fight coronavirus banned by watchdog

No treatments for the coronavirus have yet been approved, meaning companies cannot make medical claims about their products




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'We don't do apart': Elderly couple who fought coronavirus together in hospital heap praise on NHS staff

'We've never been apart for sixty plus years, we don't do apart,' says Sidney Moore




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Coronavirus: Half of health workers experiencing increased levels of stress and trauma

Less than a third say government is doing enough to help healthcare workers




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Coronavirus: Do I need to start taking vitamin D during lockdown?

Public Health England has updated its advice on vitamin D




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Coronavirus: Apple and Google update plans to let phones track whether people have been exposed

Without integrating into phones' operating systems, performance of contact-tracing apps is likely to be limited




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One in three nurses say mental health has become 'very bad' during pandemic

A lack of PPE is concern among nurses




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Teachers produce 200,000 pieces of PPE for frontline healthcare staff

'I'm in awe of the work that has taken place across our community over the last month, says Tony Ryan




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'Call your GP': Women displaying new gynae cancer symptoms during lockdown urged to seek medical advice

Some hospital trusts have seen a dramatic drop in cancer referrals from GPs in recent weeks




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Disabled people struggle to get food and essential items during lockdown

'I'm worried about running out of food,' says Charles Bloch




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Half of UK workers feeling more stressed or anxious during lockdown, study finds

The poll also found Britons are working 28 hours of overtime per month




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Wellbeing levels in UK at lowest since records began, new research suggests

UK population is suffering from 'high levels of psychological distress', according to the research




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Jodie Foster: ‘I make movies to figure out who I am’

Directing a new Black Mirror film gives Jodie Foster the chance to look back at her own upbringing. The Hollywood titan talks to Tim Adams

Last week Charlie Brooker was recalling for me the moment he learned Jodie Foster would direct an episode of Black Mirror, his inspired series of one-off dramas about the ways our gadgets are colonising the idea of “human”. Brooker had written a script for the new series in which a neurotic single mother uses technology to spy on her young daughter and keep her safe from the world. The Netflix people suggested they tried the script out on the two-time Oscar-winning actor.

Brooker has had considerable global success with Black Mirror but still, the thought of working with Foster, “an actual icon”, made him come over, he says, “all British and starstruck”. He turned to his co-showrunner for the series, Annabel Jones. “We were like: ‘You’re kidding, right? You are going to try Jodie bloody Foster? Yeah right, of course you are.’”

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Samantha Fox on fame at 16, stalkers and David Cassidy: ‘I kneed him and told him where to go’

One of the most photographed British women of the 1980s talks about feminism, her abusive father and how she battled her fears to come out as gay

In a small, unloved hotel, the receptionist greets me and Samantha Fox with pursed lips: “There will be no interview here,” she says. I feel as if I’ve wandered into the pages of Fox’s new autobiography, Forever, which is littered with bizarre anecdotes of best-laid plans going awry. From her ill-fated presenting partnership with a spaced-out Mick Fleetwood at the 1989 Brit awards, to a secret naked horseback photo shoot in Antigua – during which her steed galloped off with her to a busy tourist beach – not much has gone as expected in Fox’s life. Not least the day she worked with her childhood idol David Cassidy, who died earlier this month, which she says culminated in being sexually assaulted by him. Despite these, and many other setbacks, she says she is a “lucky girl”.

Fox was just 16 when her mother entered her for the Sunday People’s Face and Shape of 1983 competition – her wholesome, girl-next-door image made her the most popular Page 3 girl ever, and one of the most photographed women of the 1980s, alongside Princess Diana and Margaret Thatcher. By 21, she had made her first pop record and retired from modelling, going on to break the US and sell 30m records worldwide.

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Ethan Hawke: ‘The most romantic thing I’ve done is have sex’

The actor, 47, on being an optimist, avoiding marriage advice and why other people make him anxious

I have so many bad habits it’s impossible to measure the worst. My son would say I don’t take enough care with how I dress, my daughter might say I work too much, and my wife that I can’t seem to help in the kitchen at all. But in my opinion I have none.

As a former kid actor, I know how hard it is to turn that attention into anything but self-destruction. The heat of the spotlight makes ordinary temperatures real cold.

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Griff Rhys Jones: ‘My best kiss? I kissed all the Spice Girls once’

The actor and comedian on being lazy, losing his cool and public shaming

Born in Cardiff, Griff Rhys Jones, 64, began his career on the BBC’s Not The Nine O’Clock News, which ran from 1979-82. He went on to develop a comedy partnership with Mel Smith that lasted 20 years. He is also an Olivier award-winning stage actor. His UK tour, Where Was I?, starts on 18 January. He is married with two children and lives in Suffolk.

When were you happiest?
I’ll be at my happiest today, and probably my gloomiest at some point today, too.

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Is it worth hiking? Exercise review

The hit of fresh air in your nostrils? The beauty of the countryside? Hiking is amazing

What is it? Just a nice long walk.

How much does it cost? Probably an initial outlay of about £50 for some decent gear, and then free for ever.

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  • Health & wellbeing
  • Life and style
  • Fitness

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What I’m really thinking: the secret smoker

If I was ever going to ‘come out’, I should have done it when I was younger

If anyone ever offers me a cigarette, I always reply: “No thanks, I don’t smoke.” But I’m lying.

I started smoking at 16. I thought it made me look grown-up, but I was shy so I’d do it on my own. I would go into the woods near my home, or occasionally “bravely” have one in the house if nobody was else in.

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  • Health & wellbeing
  • Smoking
  • Life and style

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A letter to… the teacher who inspired my young son

‘I take comfort in the knowledge that, even though you are not here, your work continues to make children happy’

I was so worried about handing my little boy over during his first week of school, but you made it easier. You smiled at him like a mother would at her own child. You radiated warmth and your hugs were always on offer.

After a day in class with you, C would come home singing. Whenever I hear Do Your Ears Hang Low or see him stretching to the sky when singing about the days of the week, I will think of you. I didn’t tell you at the time, but I loved your morning song so much that I implemented it in my own class (I’m a teacher too). The first time we sang it after losing you was hard but, as time passes, I take comfort in the knowledge that, even though you are not here, your work continues to make children happy.

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Eco-chic and trouser suits: how Meghan Markle’s style reads the room

The future royal wore a trouser suit for her first official evening engagement with Prince Harry, ushering in a new kind of sartorial diplomacy

Last night, for her first official evening engagement with Prince Harry, Meghan Markle wore an Alexander McQueen trouser suit. It was slim-fitting, with cropped cigarette trousers, worn with very high stiletto heels and a cream dishabille blouse. The outfit was many things: very Saint Laurent’s Le Smoking, a bit Princess Diana, with a soupçon of Marlene Dietrich, even a hint of Carine Roitfeld (although Roitfeld probably wouldn’t have worn a blouse underneath the tux). What it was not was a Sandringham-appropriate boxy Catherine Walker skirt suit. It was notable because it didn’t feel like standard royal family dressing at all.

The royal family wrote the rule book on sartorial diplomacy. Usually, their approach is unambiguous. It is a gown embroidered with 2,091 shamrocks in Ireland; a Chanel tweed coat in Paris in the middle of Brexit; a dress by Polish designer Gosia Baczyńska at a garden party in Warsaw. It is the opposite of wearing a cult band T-shirt that only fellow devotees will recognise. The clothes are designed to speak of decency and propriety; the visual messages are clear enough to charm heads of state and reach the rest of us in the cheap seats as well.

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How Instagram changed our world

It started as a photo-sharing platform, but quickly rose to become the most influential app of our generation. Now, a forensic new book reveals the struggles and eccentricities of the men behind Instagram

One day in the autumn of 2015, a small but significant change was implemented at the Instagram offices in Menlo Park, California. Employees arrived at work to discover the rubbish bins under each desk had disappeared. The bins had allowed people to work efficiently – no one had to stand up to throw away a coconut water carton or wasabi pea wrapper after they’d enjoyed the company’s free food. But the bins weren’t really Instagram’s – they were installed by Facebook, which had purchased the photo-sharing app for $1bn in 2012.

Kevin Systrom, Instagram’s co-founder, didn’t like the bins. He didn’t like the cardboard boxes employees used to file papers and paraphernalia. He hated old, sagging birthday balloons. Instagram’s offices, he explained, after removing the bins, should represent its ethos. They should be beautiful, simple, pristine – much like the app itself.

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Artists find fans and creative outlet as they flock towards crowdfunding sites

Coronavirus crisis has forced musicians and others to adapt, says founder of platform

Musicians, artists and writers have turned to crowdfunding sites to make up for lost opportunities in lockdown, and their audiences have followed them, leading to a rise in contributions through platforms such as Patreon.

Since mid-March more than 70,000 extra creators have joined Patreon, which allows fans to give monthly payments to artists in exchange for exclusive content or simply out of a desire to support someone whose work they appreciate.

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20 apps to up your skills

Want something to show for the weeks you have spent in lockdown? These apps will help you achieve your aims

In early April, one bullish American consultant suggested on Twitter that if people didn’t emerge from coronavirus quarantine having learned a new skill, gained more knowledge or having started something they’d been putting off, then “you didn’t ever lack the time, you lacked the discipline”.

As the tweet was widely shared, it met mockery and anger in equal measure, as people noted that home schooling, financial worries, stress and/or illness are making this period anything but a delightful self-improvement holiday.

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Tom Hunt's recipe for tin-can curry: five-minute dal | Waste not

Tinned food is an invaluable back-up, and can be transformed into a nutritious meal at the drop of a hat

Tinned food has a best-before date of about three years, but is still likely to be good to eat decades later, making it an invaluable back-up. It also helps you prevent food waste by letting you be more sparing with perishable purchases – though, as with fresh food, it’s a good idea to rotate the cans in your cupboard, bringing short-date items to the fore, so you can build them into the week’s meals.

As well as helping to reduce food waste, tinned food is a good choice compared with other packaged food, because cans are made from a relatively low-impact material that actually gets recycled, unlike most plastics and Tetrapak. It’s also worth noting that, no matter how new it is, if a tin has a dent or is rusty, it is safest to compost the contents to avoid the deadly bacteria Clostridium botulinum.

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The Quarantine + Pandemic Survival Map: 'It's escapism, with a lot of humour'

No longer able to walk hundreds of miles to create his hand-drawn maps, the Beijing-based artist Fuller is charting his thoughts – and the global crisis – while stuck indoors

I’m interested in the psychology of a place and how it makes you feel. So I don’t really see myself as a map-maker – even though I draw maps. It’s about the process of travelling through a place to capture a sense of it. First, I walk for hundreds of miles and make all sorts of notes, and then take thousands of photos to use as triggers for my memory.

I walked more than 840 miles around Beijing when researching the map that became part of my Purposeful Wandering series. I circumnavigated the city and then walked around each ring road. Beijing (where I’ve lived for three years) is built on a Central Axis, and the map is, too. A lot of the drawing is literal, but I also built in personal experiences, references, visual puns and semiotics.

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My happy place: readers' travel tips

Memories of beaches – in the UK or further afield – as well as village bars, sunrise views and days out with tea and cake are sustaining readers during lockdown

A day out in Whitby. Morning tea and fruit cake with Wensleydale at Bothams. Walk to the sea, and out onto the pier. Walk up the beach, climb up the cliff and then back to the town past the whale’s jaw. Fresh crab sandwiches for lunch, then climb the 199 steps to the Priory. Back down, just enough time for afternoon tea and cake before crossing back over the river for a fish supper at the Magpie. Drive back over the beautiful North Yorkshire moors; the end of a perfect day, in perfect weather every time.
Nigel Goddard

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Songs that make me misty-eyed: Róisín Murphy’s Irish playlist

The singer-songwriter, formerly of Moloko, picks songs from folk to rock and electronica that will transport you to Ireland

This reminds me of home. I first heard about John McCormack through my grandma,” Murphy says. “It’s about Avoca, which is near Arklow in County Wicklow, where I’m from. I got a bit misty-eyed when I was listening to it this morning. It made me want to be out walking around Avoca and down to the water. Of course the pubs wouldn’t be open, which would be a tragedy.” McCormack, a renowned operatic tenor from Athlone, recorded the song in 1940, with lyrics from a poem by Irish poet Thomas Moore. “My da used to sing this song too. He has a lovely voice and knows hundreds of songs. He used to play a game with us: ‘Name anything and I bet you I know a song about it,’ he’d say.”

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Judi Dench becomes British Vogue's oldest cover star

85-year-old Oscar-winner appears in the magazine’s June issue

Judi Dench has become British Vogue’s oldest cover star, securing her first front page for the style arbiter at the age of 85.

The Oscar-winning actor was photographed just before lockdown for the magazine’s June issue, but the accompanying interview explores her experiences self-isolating at home in Surrey.

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‘It makes me feel human’: 11 women share their lockdown beauty regimens

We’re interacting less with the outside world – and the societal pressures that come with it. Are some women still wearing makeup every day?

The shutdown feels like a good opportunity to examine an age-old feminist question: when women put makeup on, can they ever truly be doing it for themselves?

We will probably never have an answer. The pressure imposed on women to look good is such a part of our existence that we might never get rid of it – even “dressing up for oneself” can be traced back to self-hatred fueled by a beauty-obsessed culture.

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Brooke Shields: ‘At Studio 54 I just wore whatever my friends were wearing’

The actor on walking the red carpet while having an allergic reaction, her controversial Calvin Klein campaign and dressing like Michael Jackson

I’m not known for wearing outfits that are as completely covered up as this. Often, you are uncomfortable on the red carpet, worried that something is going to pop out, unzip or break. There was something about this look that felt like protection and armour to me. I wore it to the 2018 CFDA fashion awards and I loved how extreme it felt: chic and strong, slightly androgynous but with a femininity to it. It came together nicely with no stress – until I was in the car, when I realised I was having some kind of allergic reaction to my makeup! One of my eyes swelled up right before I was stepping out on to the red carpet. I panicked and put on my reading glasses to camouflage the fact that one eye was almost completely shut!

As a teenager, my relationship with apparel was fraught because I never cultivated my own style. My mom and I bought everything from thrift shops – I would wear the same jeans all year and then cut them into shorts – but every time I would go on a set I would be decked out in designer clothes. There was a disconnect: clothes were just something belonging to other people that I would embody, and then shed.

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Why Normal People has the makings of a fashion classic

If Sally Rooney is the first great millennial novelist, then Marianne Sheridan is the first great millennial TV style icon

Would it make a person really shallow if their favourite thing about the TV adaptation of Normal People was Marianne’s wardrobe? Asking for a friend.

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Move over, Villanelle: Killing Eve's Dasha is the style hero we need now

With her clashing animal prints and penchant for comfort over taste, the drama’s new character is the perfect lockdown fashion icon

When Sam Perry was pulling together costumes for season three of Killing Eve last year, she wasn’t to know that, come April, tens of millions of us would have watched a show called Tiger King about the big cats and bigger characters of the US’s exotic wildlife scene. But, even before Villanelle returned to our screens last month, many of us were seeing spots thanks to the gun-toting and sometime libertarian candidate for governor of Oklahoma, Joe Exotic.

Yet Dasha, a new character to Killing Eve in season three who occupies a senior role within The Twelve, is the Tiger King-adjacent dresser whose wardrobe feels particularly of the moment.

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