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Technology

Game changed: Evil Geniuses signs former Dignitas women’s VALORANT roster

Game changed: Evil Geniuses signs former Dignitas women's VALORANT roster

Evil Geniuses is continuing to bolster its growing presence in the developing VALORANT scene following the acquisition of the former Dignitas women’s roster.

The female roster, going by the name EG VALORANT or EG Game Changers VALORANT, consists of captain Emmalee “EMUHLEET” Garrido, Amanda “rain” Smith, Juliana “Showliana” Maransaldi, Melisa “theia” Mundorff, and Stefanie Jones. David “Xp3” Garrido will also come over as coach, according to EG’s announcement tweet. But an exclusive interview with Washington Post says that main roster coach Christine “potter” Chi will “oversee both teams.”

in that Washington Post interview with EG CEO Nicole LaPointe Jameson, Jameson said that the EG Game Changers roster will relocate to the organization’s Los Angeles facility, where they will have access to “subsidized housing, physical fitness conditioning, nutrition and data-driven training.” The team’s debut is set for the Astral Clash event beginning on Aug. 6, an event that the players qualified for while still under the Dignitas Female banner.

The acquisition of the Game Changers roster is the latest step forward for a growing VALORANT division at EG. The organization entered the scene with the first mixed roster at the beginning of 2021 but eventually parted ways with all of those players except for Potter, who eventually took over as head coach. After a dismal 0-5 showing in Stage One of NA VCT this year, the team re-tooled and finished top six in Stage Two, qualifying for the LCQ. Famed NA CS:GO pro Stewie2K recently stepped back from the active EG CS:GO roster to focus on primarily streaming VALORANT.

EG is seeking to improve its stake in VALORANT with a partnered spot in VCT 2023. On July 23, Jameson tweeted out that EG is “still in the running” for a slot.

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US

Kentucky’s Floods Took Appalachian History With Them

Kentucky's Floods Took Appalachian History With Them

Appalshop has been a cornerstone of Whitesburg, Ky., since 1969, working to tell stories about Appalachian people through art, film, music and more with a focus on their voices. Its theater usually hums with actors portraying the experiences of the region; the community radio broadcasts music and local news; and its rich archive provides a huge repository of central Appalachian history.

But on Wednesday, as Alex Gibson, the organization’s executive director, stood inside the building that has housed Appalshop for four decades, all he could see was mud.

Water damage covered the walls of the radio station. Every chair in the newly renovated 150-seat theater was caked in sludge. Filing cabinets, tables, CDs and loose film strips were tangled together. And possibly worst of all, many of the contents of Appalshop’s archives were covered in mud and debris after devastating floods in the region last week left the building submerged in water.

Mr. Gibson said he was most struck by the “indiscriminate nature with which the water destroyed things.”

“I’m seeing things that shouldn’t be together,” Mr. Gibson said. “There’s a banjo constructed by a master banjo maker covered in mud next to one of our first LP releases in 1970.”

I added, “We used to have an organized archive.”

The floods killed more than three dozen people across Eastern Kentucky and displaced hundreds more. Many are still without power. Even amid the loss of life and property, members of the Appalachian community were also mourning the loss of the region’s cultural heritage.

“We’re going to try our best to save everything we can save,” Mr. Gibson said. “It’s obviously emotionally devastating to see such precious materials just sitting in water and whatever chemical combination is on my boots right now.”

Mr. Gibson and Caroline Rubens, Appalshop’s archivist, are working against the clock alongside some 50 volunteers. Their goal is to recover what Appalshop estimated to be hundreds of thousands of archival pieces from across mediums: film, photographs, artisan crafts, woodworking, musical instruments, magazines, newspapers, posters and personal family archives that have been donated to the group — all depicting life in the Appalachian Mountains.

Water tore through the first floor of Appalshop’s building, which it has occupied since 1982. That included the radio station, theater, climate-controlled vault for archives and some gallery space used for art shows.

When Appalshop first got word of potential flooding last week, the priority was making sure the staff was safe. Then they mobilized to use their resources — social media, their website and the radio station — to get information to the Whitesburg community.

Now the organization’s highest priority is making sure the archives are rescued quickly, before mold can be set in. It’s still too soon to tell how many of the items are salvageable, damaged or destroyed, but the rescue has been aided by visiting archivists from nearby colleges and universities in Kentucky, Tennessee, Pennsylvania and the greater Appalachia region.

A piece that is likely gone is “Sun Quilt,” a stained glass sculpture by a local artist, Dan Neil Barnes, made up of five interlocking squares that mimic the quilts common through the region. It stood outside the Appalshop building and was a popular gathering spot for visitors.

“That was a particular ache,” said Meredith Scalos, Appalshop’s communications director. “It became an iconic piece of the building. We’re not sure if there are pieces of it, but it was glass, so probably not.”

Ms. Scalos said that Appalshop has had a history of documenting floods and climate change, and that she could “see a future where we will be telling this story, too.”

In the aftermath of the floods, Appalshop wants to prioritize the community, Ms. Scalos said, and has raised tens of thousands of dollars for various mutual aid groups. The outpouring of support from archivists and volunteers is a true mark of the mountain community, she added. She said there was a similar sense of camaraderie after tornadoes killed 74 people in the region in December.

“Kentuckians show up for each other, we do,” she said.

Ms. Scalos, who grew up in rural Kentucky, said she joined the organization in part to “reconnect with my own heritage.” “Appalshop has always been more of an idea in making people feel it’s OK to be proud to be Appalachian,” she added.

But the building itself has become central to the work the group does throughout the community, hosting art openings, concerts and regular radio programming. Appalshop started as a film workshop in 1969 but expanded to include photography and literary programs, a theater company, recording studio and community organizer, all centered around the mission of documenting and celebrating Appalachian culture. Appalshop had just finished its annual summer documentary program for young people and was set to show their films the week of the floods.

Steve Ruth, a volunteer DJ on WMMT 88.7 FM, the Appalshop’s community radio station, was looking forward to hosting a bluegrass event on July 28, but the floodwaters had other ideas.

“Walking into the radio air room and seeing the situation will about bring you to your knees,” he said. “There was about five feet of water in that space, I’m sure it looked like an aquarium at one point.”

Mr. Ruth said the Whitesburg community was in shock but was “rising to the challenge.” He and Appalshop hope to have the radio station back up and running at a temporary location in town soon.

“It’s been a place where folks interested in mountain history and the region’s history have gathered,” he said. “It’s been a place that’s just not one little thing for one little group, folks from all walks of life can come in and feel good and safe.”

While a full recovery of Appalshop may take months and the fate of many of the building’s contents remains unknown, a sign of hope brought Mr. Gibson, the center’s director, some joy: despite floodwaters of more than 20 feet, a young apple tree remained standing with some 30 apples attached.

“This tree was clearly totally submerged in the rapids, and it still has so many apples and leaves on it,” he said. “I didn’t know an apple was that hard to pluck.”

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Technology

Improving RED algorithm congestion control by using the Markov decision process

The AQM algorithm

The default of AQM algorithm work is represent in RED algorithm. The RED Inception of the congestion depends on the average queue size (avg), two thresholds ((min_{th}) and (max_{th})) and maximum drop probability ((max_p)). Each packet arrives at the router queue; the algorithm calculates the avg by using exponential weight moving average (EWMA) as a low pass filter, which is shown in Eq. (1) as follows:

$$begin{aligned} avg = left( 1-w_qright) avg+w_qq end{aligned}$$

(1)

where (w_q) is the queue weight and q is the current queue size. If the avg value is (min_{th}, the algorithm starts marking the arrival packets to the router’s queue using the Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) available in TCP/IP. Therefore, to reduce the sending rate, the drop probability P can be calculated based on Eq. (2) as follows:

$$begin{aligned} P= max_p(avg-min_{th})/(max_{th}+min_{th}) end{aligned}$$

(two)

The RED algorithm starts dropping all incoming packets when avg exceeds (max_th) to manage the congestion in the queue. The drawbacks of RED have a slow response to congestion and a difficulty tuning the parameter. Thus, these drawbacks make the algorithm work incorrectly when different applications and services use different data rates. The GRED has three values ​​of thresholds ((min_th),(max_th) and double (max_th)) to reduce drop probability slop curve. The proposed algorithm used three thresholds as in GRED and the dynamic value of (w_q) selected based on the Markov process.

Markov Process

The MDP depends on the combination of ((s_t), (a_t), (r_t)t)17 with transitional probability to determine which action needs to be taken for a given state, which can be seen in Eq. (3) as follows:

$$begin{aligned} P(s_{t+1}vert s_t,a)=P(s_{t+1}=jvert s_t=i,a=k) end{aligned}$$

(3)

where (s_t) and (s_{t+1}) indicate the present state and the next state, respectively, while a indicates that an action needs to be taken. Yo and j can be 1,2,3, … that represent states, where j is the next state and Yo is the current state; and k can be 1,2,3, … to indicate which action is taken.

(r_t) is the reward (return) from the environment to the agent after an action is applied to the current state, as shown in Eq. (4), and this reward can be the maximum or minimum. In this work, the reward represents a minimum number of packets dropped as follows:

$$begin{aligned} R_t=sum​​i=t}^{infty } r_{i}=r_t+r_{t+1}+r_{t+2}+… end{aligned }$$

(4)

The MDP includes the discount factor (gamma ), which has a value between 0 and 1 to give a weight for future rewards. In this study, the value of (gamma )=0 includes only the immediate reward without involving future rewards, which is shown in Eq. (5) as follows:

$$begin{aligned} R_t=r_t+sum i=t+1}^{infty } gamma ^i r_i end{aligned}$$

(5)

To map MDP on the RED algorithm, there is a need to consider the average queue length, avg, as a state and the type of drop packets as an action. We assume four sets of states S=(s_1, s_2, s_3, s_4). Then we have the (4times 4) transition probability matrix shown in Eq. (6). (s_1) means the avg state TCP for a slow start below a minimum threshold ((0< avg < min_{th})), (s_2) indicates the avg state between (min_{th}) thresholds and halfway of the two thresholds ((min_{th}< avg < (min_{th} +max_{th})/2), s_3) indicates the state when the avg is between halfway of the two thresholds and below the (max_{th} ((min_{th} + max_{th})/2< avg < max_{th}))and (s_4) indicates the state when the avg is greater than (max_{th}) and less than double (max_{th}) ((max_th. We assume that there are three sets of action A=(a_1,a_2,a_3)where (a_1) represents the no-drop packet, while (a_2) and (a_3) indicate the unforced drop and the forced drop, respectively, as follows:

$$begin{aligned} P_{ij} = begin{bmatrix} P_{00} &{} P_{01} &{} P_{02} &{} P_{03} \ P_{10} &{ } P_{11} &{} P_{12} &{} P_{13} \ P_{20} &{} P_{21} &{} P_{22} &{} P_{23} \ P_{ 30} &{} P_{31} &{} P_{32} &{} P_{33} \ end{bmatrix} end{aligned}$$

(6)

Design and methodology

The Point-To-Point Dumbbell network topology built by NS3 with ON-OFF application was used in this study, as shown in Fig. 1. In the current study, the network has five nodes on each left and right side at beginning then increasing by 5 nodes in each simulation round up to 200 nodes, the source and the destination, respectively, and the two nodes in the middle that reflect the router in the core network create a bottleneck. Figure 1 shows that the sending nodes have not sent any packet, while in Fig. 2, the bottleneck link has been congested, and the drop packets procedure started.

Figure 1
figure 1

NS3 Point-To-Point Dumbbell topology before starting simulation.

Figure 2
figure 2

NS3 Point-To-Point Dumbbell topology after 10 sec of run time.

TCP slow start

The TCP protocol has a default congestion control with four phases: slow start, congestion avoidance, fast retransmit, and fast recovery18. The slow start phase allows the TCP to inform the capacity of links in the transition path; this occurs by duplicating the window size per RTT of each acknowledgment received. If no acknowledgment is received, the TCP indicates that congestion occurs, and the congestion avoidance phase starts; then, the window size increases by one for all successful acknowledgments. Therefore, the TCP slow starts increasing exponentially in each RTT, which means that congestion can occur within a short time.

Tuning algorithm parameters

The default values ​​in the RED algorithm parameters are (w_q)=0.002, (min_{th})=5, (max_{th})=15, (max_p)=1/50two. In the present study, the probability transition matrix (P_{ij}) in Eq. (6) is calculated based on queue weight (w_q). Equation (7) shows the relation between the load rate and (w_q)as well as their effect on the avg valuetwo as follows:

$$begin{aligned} avg=L+1+frac{(1-w_q)^{(L+1)}-1}{w_q} end{aligned}$$

(7)

where L represents the load rate of the sending packets. (w_q) works as a time constant in a low pass filter on the average queue value, which reflects the response time and queue weight of incoming packets, as shown in Fig. 3. Therefore, if (w_q) is too large, then the algorithm does not filter out the congestion that appeared in a short time, especially in the slow start of the TCP protocol, as mentioned in the previous subsection. If (w_q) is too small, then the algorithm response to congestion is too slow to reflect the change in queue size, and the small value of the queue weight is suitable for the slow start phase in the TCP. In this study the initial value of (w_q) set to zero and increment by 0.002 when the state of avg change to other state, these values ​​selected to manage the exponential increase of TCP Slow Startup flow. Table 1 shows the range of the (w_q) used in the suggested algorithm.

Figure 3
figure 3

The effect of the avg as a function of (w_q) and the load rate.

Table 1 The value of avg based on the queue length state.

By using the values ​​of the (w_q), the MDP probability transition matrix is ​​obtained, shown in Eq. (6) as follows:

$$begin{aligned} P_{ij} = begin{bmatrix} 0 &{} 0.002 &{} 0.002 &{} 0.002 \ 0.004 &{} 0 &{} 0.004 &{} 0.004 \ 0.006 &{ } 0.006 &{} 0 &{} 0.006 \ 0.008 &{} 0.008 &{} 0.008 &{} 0 \ end{bmatrix} end{aligned}$$

(8)

The diagonal matrix assigns a zero value, which means there is no change in the queue weight value if the state is the same. The parameters of the implemented network are shown in Table 2:

Table 2 The parameter values ​​of the implemented algorithm.
figure out
Categories
US

Jan. 6 committee and federal investigators have asked for Alex Jones’ phone records, Sandy Hook attorney says

Jan. 6 committee and federal investigators have asked for Alex Jones' phone records, Sandy Hook attorney says

“I am under request from various federal agencies and law enforcement to provide (the records),” Mark Bankston, the plaintiffs’ attorney, told Judge Maya Guerra Gamble. “Absent a ruling from you saying you cannot do that … I intend to do so immediately following this hearing.”

“I believe that there is absolutely nothing, nothing, that Mr. Reynal has done to fulfill his obligations to protect his client and prevent me from doing that,” he said, referring to Jones’ attorney, Andino Reynal.

Sandy Hook family attorney exposes Alex Jones' dishonesty during brutal cross-examination

“I’ve been asked by the January 6 committee to turn the documents over,” Bankston added later.

Bankston declined to specify to CNN which other investigators outside of the House committee expressed interest in obtaining Jones’ text records.

Bankston revealed in court on Wednesday that Reynal’s firm, in an apparent mishap, sent him two years of cell phone records that included every text message Jones had sent.
Jones was a central player on January 6. He was at the rally before the riot though he did not storm the Capitol. The Infowars founder testified virtually before the January 6 committee earlier this year, but he said he repeatedly asserted his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent during the interview.

The judge overseeing the case advised Reynal to take some time while they await a verdict to investigate a legal argument to stop Bankston from disclosing information to the January 6 committee and others.

The jury hearing the case is deliberating how much Jones will have to pay the parents of a victim of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School who sued him for defamation and infliction of emotional distress and won default judgments.

CNN’s Tierney Sneed contributed to this report.

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Categories
Business

Bondi, Melbourne, Brisbane: Australia destinations overseas visitors can’t pronounce properly

Bondi, Melbourne, Brisbane: Australia destinations overseas visitors can't pronounce properly

Tourists coming to Australia are often baffled by many of our place names and commonly mangle the pronunciation of some of the country’s most popular destinations, new research has found.

Sydney’s Bondi may be Australia’s most famous and busiest beach – with 1.7 million international visitors a year in 2018 according to Destination New South Wales – but a huge proportion of them are saying it wrong.

To Aussies it is of course pronounced “Bon-die” but many tourists, unfamiliar with the area, pronounce it phonetically as “Bon-dee”.

The pronunciation of Bondi is an example of a type of shibboleth, a word that can instantly distinguish whether someone is part of one group or another. In this case, saying “Bon-dee” would show the person wasn’t local or even resided in Australia.

The research was compiled by Preply, an online language learning platform that connects links up tutors with students.

The firm came to its conclusions by picking 68 major destinations where it’s known visitors can sometimes struggle over the correct pronunciation. It then analyzed Google search data to see how many instances there were of people inquiring about how to correctly say the places’ names and ranked them by the volume of searches.

In Australia, Brisbane and Melbourne were two other places where tourists found their tongues in a twist.

Melbourne sees three million international visitors a year. But you won’t make friends in Australia’s second biggest metropolis if you say “Mel-BOURNE” rather than “Mel-buhne”. Equally, it’s “BRIS-buhne” and definitely not “Bris-BAYNE” as some tourists will insist on saying.

“There’s nothing more embarrassing than arriving at a new holiday destination and mispronouncing its name in front of a local — especially if you butcher the regional accent,” said Preply learning success manager Amy Pritchett.

“When you learn to say these place names correctly, you’ll sound like a native — or at least a savvy tourist.”

Top five mangled global destinations

However, Australian place names were far down the global list of mispronounced metropolises, museums and other destinations.

It seems visitors find saying French place names are particularly mouthful with three of the five most butchered names in the land of the Gauls.

Topping the rankings was the beachside city of Cannes. And – just like most other visitors -Australians commonly get the pronunciation of this stylish French resort wrong.

It is definitely not pronounced “Carn” or “Cans” or “Cann-ess”. Rather, you drop the “es” at the end and simply say “Kan”. Short and sweet is a perfectly acceptable way to go. But if you want to sound really French you can do a distinctive semi linger at the end of the word by adding an “uh,” so “Kan-uh”.

One most Australians probably do better on, as so many have been to London, is the name of the river that runs through it.

Americans commonly think the Thames is pronounced as it looks and verbalizes a “Th” sound to produce the very oddly sounding River “Thaymez”. “Temz” is the way to go and will keep you in the good books of Londoners.

Third on the list is California’s Yosemite National Park. It’s not “Yoh-se-might” but “Yoh-seh-muh-tee” or “Yoh-she-muh-dee”.

The Louvre museum in Paris is definitely not the “Loop” or “Loo-ver” but “Loo-vruh” with a bit of a roll of the tongue on the second syllable.

Rounding out the top five of cringeworthy pronunciations is another French hotspot – the Place of Versailles where the French royals lived in pre-Revolution times.

Don’t say “Ver-sales,” do say “Vair-sigh”.

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Categories
Technology

Previewing Vantage, Apex Legends’ first sniper character

Previewing Vantage, Apex Legends' first sniper character

With Vantage, Apex Legends’ newest character, the development team at Respawn wanted to really push the unique feel of a sniper-focused Legend — someone who can down another player at an unbelievable range. To accomplish this, Respawn decided on giving her an ultra powerful rifle, not unlike the Kraber special weapon.

Bit of a problem with that though — Krabers are supposed to be ultra-rare in addition to being ultra-powerful. Krabers are so rare, it’s unlikely you’ll see more than one per match. If every Vantage had a Kraber, and every team had a Vantage, you’d see 20 Krabers floating around the map. The game would be unplayable unless you also played Vantage.

“One of the things the Kraber also has is potentially no warning,” Vantage lead designer Chris Winder said. “You could just be sitting somewhere, looking in a direction, and then be down. Or, if it’s a body shot, that’s quite a lot of damage. So we knew we had to do something about that.”

To facilitate some sense of fairness, the team experimented with a lot of different options. One attempt gave enemy players a voice line letting them know they were in a Vantage’s crosshairs. Another forced Vantage to require a lock-on before being able to fire.

“We tried a bunch of different mechanics around trying to communicate that ahead of time and give players a way to avoid that, or potentially mitigate that after the fact,” Winder explained. “Maybe it still does a lot of damage, but there’s a way to stop some of it after you’re hit in some way.”

Despite these attempts, nothing felt fair enough to non-Vantage players. So they decided to switch things up — what if Vantage’s sniper rifles could only debuff enemies with slows, stuns or snares?

“You could imagine the debuffs we have, like slows and silences, and things like that, that we could try,” Winder says. “It could just debuff those targets and do some minimal amount of damage, but really just be about the debuff, and that’s the purpose of the Ultimate. I think some of those things worked from a gameplay standpoint – there was a loop around using it, and you understood why and your team understood what to do when those shots happened. But the thing we weren’t hitting at that point was the sniper fantasy. It didn’t really feel like you were holding a sniper rifle – it felt like you were holding a debuff gun.”

Heading back to the drawing board, the team struck what they feel is gold. Vantage’s current kit features the Ultimate ability ‘Sniper’s Mark’, which allows her to pull out a custom-built Sentinel rifle, fitted with a 3x/5x scope. Instead of waiting for full charges while scoped in, Sniper’s Mark has an ammo counter that counts up from one to five, letting the player choose when to fire. There is also a visual indicator on the scope that accounts for bullet drop, helping players aim this ultra-powerful weapon.

Sniper’s Mark deals 50 damage for a body shot, but any follow-ups that connect deal 100 damage, regardless of where you hit. The weapon also can benefit from headshot multipliers and Rampart shields.

“The idea is that the first shot does some lower amount of damage – and we played around a lot with that number or what that initial damage should be – and that second shot is where you get that larger amount of damage,” Winder explains. “And again, we played around with that number.”

Practiced players will be able to capitalize on the first shot, but the way the damage works out allows players on the receiving end to respond, either via counter-attack or sliding out of danger. That may seem frustrating to people wanting to pick up Vantage, but don’t worry — Sniper’s Mark has a few tricks to it than just solid damage.

Anyone tagged by a shot from Sniper’s Mark will be, well, ‘marked.’ It’s not a visually obvious ping like Bloodhound’s scan, but it is apparent enough to let your teammates know who to focus fire. Any shots landed from your teammates on the tagged enemy will deal 15% more damage — encouraging pushing as a team.

Vantage as a whole seems designed for pushing and aggressive play when you examine the rest of her kit. Her de ella Tactical ability, ‘Echo Relocation’, allows her to position her bat friend anywhere on the battlefield. So long as she maintains line-of-sight to Echo, she can soar to their location of her. Vantage can also cancel the relocation or double jump off the end of it. This opens up lots of new possibilities for aggressive and guerilla tactics—hit and runs, flanks, and straight-up dogpiling onto opponents.

Her passive, Spotter’s Lens, allows her to view detailed data on enemy shields — rarity, team size and range. Vantage can then share that info with her teammates, allowing calculations on when exactly to push to be run a little more effectively.

“The original goal was really around encouraging long-range engagements,” Winder says. “Can we make a character who’s based purely around long-range? So the first versions of the kit didn’t have any movement, there was no Echo, there was no movement tactical. You can end up too far from your team, or getting to high ground to make those shots can be a chore.

“Catching up or closing on a team when you have done those first few shots of damage is really difficult if you don’t have a character on your team that can help you do that. So that created that need to solve this problem, and Echo was it.”

Season 14 is titled ‘Hunted’, and with Vantage and Ash, we can see why. With a built-in enemy scan passive alongside Ash’s passive letting them know where death boxes are, we predict that this is going to be a very aggressive season in Apex Legends. Combined with the whole host of changes to King’s Canyon making areas more tight fit and close-quarters, as well as laser sight attachments announced for several close to mid range weapons.

So who does the development team see working well with Vantage? They have some thoughts on team composition: “A Rampart setting up some shields for her to shoot through to amp that damage even further,” Winder says. “Ash is a good one, as you mentioned, or any other movement Legend – Octane with the jump pad or Pathfinder with his grapple and the zip line itself. As she is now, she doesn’t really need the mobility from other legends to get there. But the fact that those legends have the mobility to pounce on a team, those are going to be good combinations.”

With such aggressive kits, however, there will be a need to compensate. Shield-based and mobility-based Legends can also isolate and take out a Vantage easily, and we’ll definitely see a rise of shield Legends this season. In internal playtesting, the dev team already spotted some fantastic Vantage plays — taking out Octane while he’s soaring through the air, or popping enemies off of ziplines from a distance.

“I think that most impressive are the ones where they’re very deliberate in the flanking,” design director Evan Nikolich explains. “Like, you get suppressed, then you lose track of Echo, and then all of a sudden you’re getting shot. It’s like, ‘Oh no, I have to reposition.’ So it’s like learning that new skill of knowing where Vantage is on the field. Now I have to respect her, but also where Echo is – where she could possibly be coming from. So yeah, some high-skill plays there.”

Apex Legends Season 14 hits the field August 9 — check out our hub article for every detail.

Written by Junior Miyai on behalf of GLHF.

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Categories
Entertainment

David Beckham and Romeo ‘twin’ in matching Dior co-ords

awks! David Beckham and his son Romeo 'twinned' in matching Dior two-pieces in a new photo posted from the families' £5million superyacht Seven in Miami.

Victoria Beckham recently joked that her husband David had been copying her outfits as she shared snaps of their co-ordinated looks.

And David Beckham appeared to be at it again – this time with his son Romeo – as they ‘twinned’ in matching Dior two-pieces in a new photo.

The former footballer, 47, joked that his second eldest son, 19, had been raiding his wardrobe as they sported the same co-ord in different colours.

awks! David Beckham and his son Romeo 'twinned' in matching Dior two-pieces in a new photo posted from the families' £5million superyacht Seven in Miami.

awks! David Beckham and his son Romeo ‘twinned’ in matching Dior two-pieces in a new photo posted from the families’ £5million superyacht Seven in Miami.

Poking fun at their near-identical clothing Romeo wrote: 'Twinnin', and tagged his father as well as family friend Kim Jones, who is men's artistic director at the brand

Poking fun at their near-identical clothing Romeo wrote: ‘Twinnin’, and tagged his father as well as family friend Kim Jones, who is men’s artistic director at the brand

The father and son duo looked in high spirits as they posed for snaps together on the families’ £5million superyacht Seven in Miami.

David opted for a navy and white version of the outfit, which was a shirt and a pair of matching shorts in the same print.

Romeo’s was the same but in a dusty rose colour.

Poking fun at their near-identical clothing Romeo wrote: ‘Twinnin’, and tagged his father as well as family friend Kim Jones, who is men’s artistic director at the brand.

Dapper: David opted for a navy and white version of the outfit, which was a shirt and a pair of matching shorts in the same print

Dapper: David opted for a navy and white version of the outfit, which was a shirt and a pair of matching shorts in the same print

In the comments section, David joked: 'Someone has been in my wardrobe!'

In the comments section, David joked: ‘Someone has been in my wardrobe!’

In the comments section, David joked: ‘Someone has been in my wardrobe!’

Before his Miami trip David enjoyed another holiday last week on a £1.6million-a-week superyacht trip in St Tropez.

During the holiday, David and Victoria sporting matching outfits on more than one occasion as they enjoyed the speculator French sights.

Jet-setter: Before his Miami trip David enjoyed another holiday last week on a £1.6million-a-week superyacht trip in St Tropez

Jet-setter: Before his Miami trip David enjoyed another holiday last week on a £1.6million-a-week superyacht trip in St Tropez

The designer took to her Instagram grid to joke she had ‘inspired David again’ after the couple colour-coordinated in yellow just a few weeks ago.

Victoria looked stunning in a vibrant red polka-dotted dress which she teamed with a pair of oversized designer shades.

Opting for a natural palette of make-up the former pop star wore her dark tresses tied back from her beautiful face.

Matchy, matchy! During the holiday, David and Victoria sporting matching outfits on more than one occasion as they enjoyed the speculator French sights

Matchy, matchy! During the holiday, David and Victoria sporting matching outfits on more than one occasion as they enjoyed the speculator French sights

Victoria cosied up to her beau, with whom she shares sons Brooklyn, 23, Romeo, 19, Cruz, 17, and 11-year-old daughter Harper.

David also chose a red ensemble, sporting a rose polo shirt which he teamed with a pair of emerald shorts.

Beaming for the camera the couple sat on the incredible yacht with the amazing views of the crystal clear ocean behind them.

Victoria captioned the snap: Looks like I inspired @DavidBeckham again!!! matchy matchy x kisses’.

Cute: Before his Miami trip David enjoyed another holiday last week on a £1.6million-a-week superyacht trip in St Tropez where he shared a snap with Victoria in matching outfits

Cute: Before his Miami trip David enjoyed another holiday last week on a £1.6million-a-week superyacht trip in St Tropez where he shared a snap with Victoria in matching outfits

Earlier this month Victoria joked ‘who copied who’ when the couple showcased their bright canary yellow outfits as they celebrated their anniversary in Venice.

Victoria stunned in a dusty yellow maxi-dress with white straps and keyhole cutouts, which she teamed with a pair of white sandals.

The mother-of-four styled her chocolate tresses in a messy bun as she put on a loved-up display with her husband-of-23-years.

In a caption alongside the snap, Victoria commemorated their anniversary by writing: ‘Still matching 23 years later’.

She also shared an amusing video to her Stories where she jokingly asked fans to guess ‘who copied who’ with their coordinated outfits.

As she revealed their matching ensembles, a disgruntled David said: ‘I had it on first just for the record! This was not planned.’

‘You inspired me!’ Victoria said, before jokingly adding: ‘I’m a fashion inspiration to many, who copied who?’

Twins: It came after earlier this month Victoria joked 'who copied who' when the couple showcased their bright canary yellow outfits as they celebrated their anniversary in Venice

Twins: It came after earlier this month Victoria joked ‘who copied who’ when the couple showcased their bright canary yellow outfits as they celebrated their anniversary in Venice

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US

How 2022 midterms strategy could change after the Kansas abortion vote : NPR

How 2022 midterms strategy could change after the Kansas abortion vote : NPR

Alie Utley and Joe Moyer react to their county voting against the proposed constitutional amendment during the Kansas for Constitutional Freedom primary election watch party in Overland Park, Kansas on August 2.

DAVE KAUP/AFP via Getty Images


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Alie Utley and Joe Moyer react to their county voting against the proposed constitutional amendment during the Kansas for Constitutional Freedom primary election watch party in Overland Park, Kansas on August 2.

DAVE KAUP/AFP via Getty Images

On Tuesday, voters in Kansas overwhelmingly rejected a ballot initiative that would have opened the door to significant abortion restrictions in the state.

It was the first political test of voters’ appetite for state abortion restrictions since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June.

The decisive vote against curbing abortion rights in a deeply conservative state has political strategists in both parties recalibrating their views on the upcoming midterm elections.

“Well, [Tuesday] night was a slap in the face to me, personally, as a consultant who’s done this for 32 years,” said Chuck Rocha, a senior Democratic operative. “When this decision came down from the Supreme Court, I was one of those folks who said that if this is your issue, you’ve already picked a team — you’re already team red or you’re team blue, and this will have some effect, but not a major effect.”

But after seeing the staggering number of voters who turned out in a state that former President Trump won by 15 points in 2020, Rocha thinks abortion rights will end up playing a larger role in the November elections.

“This proved there is energy here around this issue, and I think [Tuesday] was historic,” he said.

Republican strategist John Feehery said the Kansas outcome should be a “wake-up call” for Republicans.

“Republicans in the pro-life movement need to get their act together on the abortion issue post-dobbs, because they’re all over the place,” he said. “The problem is that you have people wanting to be the most conservative candidate in the primary, but they take positions that are not that popular with most voters. So they need to tread carefully, they need to calibrate, they need to understand where most voters are — and most voters are in the middle. They are not on either extreme.”

He said GOP candidates need to be explicit that their views on abortion have “nothing to do with same-sex marriage, and certainly not contraception,” two issues that Democrats have forced votes on in Congress to get their Republican colleagues on record for supporting or opposing, amid concerns that the Supreme Court’s ruling could jeopardize other rights. Last month, 195 House Republicans voted against legislation aimed at protecting access to birth control.

Feehery said although Tuesday’s outcome boosts enthusiasm among Democrats nationally, the “saving grace” for Republicans is that abortion is not the number one issue facing the country.

“Inflation and the economy are much more important for most voters, and I think that’s what they’ll vote on,” Feehery said.

According to a recent NPR/PBS News Hour/Marist poll, inflation is the No. 1 issue for Republicans and Independent voters as they think about the midterm elections; registered Democrats rank abortion first.

Voter registration among women in Kansas post-Dobbs was huge

Although the result of Kansas’ vote came as a surprise, it was the scope of voters who turned out in droves that stunned Tom Bonier, CEO of TargetSmart, a Democratic data firm.

“When you analyze data, you tend to get excited when you see movements from the norm, maybe five or six points — that’s telling you that something meaningful happened, something outside of the norm. And in this case, we saw something outside of the norm by 20 points,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything to that extent in terms of that intensity.”

Over 900,000 people in Kansas cast a ballot on Tuesday, a level of participation that blows past primary turnouts out of the water and approaches the high turnout rate in the state in the 2018 general election.

Republicans have a substantial voter registration advantage in the state.

“[The results] prove that Democrats can probably peel off some of these moderate Republican women, who take this issue very personally,” Rocha said.

Bonier analyzed voter registration numbers before and after June 24, when the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion.

“What we saw there was remarkable,” Bonier said. “Seventy percent of the new voter registrants in Kansas were women. If you look at the same period of time in the previous election cycle, new voter registrants were almost exactly evenly split between men and women.”

Bonier also points to the number of young people who registered to vote in the wake of the Supreme Court decision — over half are under the age of 25.

“In the 2018 general election, much of that so-called blue wave was driven by just a massive, unprecedented increase in youth turnout. So the question we’re asking ourselves at this point is, is what we saw in Kansas this week the first indicator of something similar happening in 2022, and will we see a huge increase in women participating in this election that could produce surprising results?”

Rocha points out that demographic shifts will play a role in November as well.

“For the first time in American political history, voters of color will have a bigger impact on who controls Congress. This particular issue of choice over-indexes and impacts people with less income, mainly young women of color,” he said, pointing to key Senate races in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada.

“If [abortion] is a motivational factor, and that was proven on Tuesday, to motivate young Black and brown voters, especially young Black and brown women, it could be the sleeping giant of this year, and will be a story that will be told for a long time .”

A Democratic pollster sees what happened in Kansas as ‘a sea change’

This year, a record number of abortion measures are on state ballots and the issue will be a factor in other races in November up and down the ballot, including for governor, Senate, House, state supreme courts and state attorneys general.

Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster, said in the wake of the Supreme Court decision, anti-abortion rights voters “think they’ve won, so they’re not as energized.”

“We’re seeing the pro-choice voters and women in particular, younger women and baby boomer women who remember what it was like before Roe v. Wadegetting very energized and being 10 to 20 points more energized than the anti-choice voters,” she said. “That is a sea change.”

She’s heard in focus groups from voters who are concerned about a “slippery slope” — the idea that curtailing abortion rights could lead to other rights being rolled back.

“They worry about marriage equality, they worry about voting rights protections, they worry about birth control, they worry about abortion,” Lake described. “Voters in our focus groups ask, ‘What’s next?'”

Mallory Carroll, vice president of communications for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said the results from Kansas are a “devastating loss” to the anti-abortion rights movement.

“The question now is, what lesson will pro-life Republicans learn from this disappointing loss?”

She said Republican candidates should be “very explicit” about their stances, including whether there are instances in which they think abortion should be allowed, and not shy away from tackling the topic head on.

“Republicans need to quit what they’re doing right now, which in many cases is to pretend like this issue [of abortion] doesn’t exist and focus instead on inflation, gas prices, crime, etc., to carry them over the finish line,” she said. “There’s no doubt those are very salient issues that voters care about. But if pro-life Republicans fail to define themselves and what their policy positions are, then pro-abortion Democrats will do that for them.”

The White House responds — and credits ‘power of American women’

“The court practically dared women in this country to go to the ballot box and restore the right to choose,” President Biden said Wednesday as he met virtually with the White House’s Task Force on Reproductive Health Care.

Republicans and the high court “don’t have a clue about the power of American women,” Biden said. “Last night in Kansas, they found out.”

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas listens as President Biden delivers remarks virtually during the first meeting of the interagency Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access on August 3.

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Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas listens as President Biden delivers remarks virtually during the first meeting of the interagency Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access on August 3.

Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

During that meeting, Biden signed his second executive order aimed at preserving abortion access. The order directs the Department of Health and Human Services to “consider action to advance access to reproductive healthcare services, including through Medicaid for patients who travel out of state for reproductive healthcare services.”

The order directs HHS to “consider all appropriate actions” to ensure health care providers comply with non-discrimination laws in order for people to receive “medically necessary care without delay,” noting that providers may be “confused or unsure of their obligations in the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision.”

But Biden himself has acknowledged the limits of what he and his administration can to do fully protect abortion rights. He’s repeatedly issued the message of “vote, vote, vote” in November to increase Democrats’ numbers in Congress in order to codify abortion rights into federal law and bring the legislation to his desk for signature.

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Technology

“Impossible” Halo 2 No-Deaths LASO Challenge Finally Has Its Winner

"Impossible" Halo 2 No-Deaths LASO Challenge Finally Has Its Winner

A $20,000 Halo 2 challenge issued by streamer and YouTuber MoistCr1tikal has finally been completed, with streamer Jervalin claiming the bounty.

Earlier this summer, MoistCr1tikal offered $5,000 to anyone who could conquer what he called “the hardest challenge in all of gaming.” That challenge? Complete Halo 2 alone, on legendary difficulty, with all of the game’s difficulty-adding skulls turned on, without dying a single time. Though the feat surely has been accomplished by someone, somewhere, since the game’s 2004 launch, there is no video record of it having ever been done, which is why MoistCr1tikal’s challenge also stipulated the entire ordeal needed to be streamed live on YouTube or Twitch to qualify. When nobody stepped up to the plate for three weeks, MoistCr1tikal raised the bounty up to $20,000 for the first person to accomplish the deed.

Though it’s certainly up for debate whether or not a deathless Halo 2 “LASO” (legendary, all skulls on) run is the “hardest challenge in all of gaming,” it’s certainly up there. Halo 2 on legendary difficulty is already infamously difficult. There are more, high-rank enemies (and just more enemies in general), for starters. Enemies deal greatly increased damage, have better weapons, throw more grenades, and are far smarter. Melee attacks from Elites and certain Flood forms will kill in one hit. And that’s all without even mentioning the game’s notorious Jackal Snipers, which appear more often and are far more accurate and deadly on legendary difficulty.

All that’s before turning on the game’s difficulty modifying skulls. With various skulls turned on, Halo 2 on legendary becomes a whole different ballgame. The Assassins skull, for example, gives enemies permanent invisibility. Mythic gives enemies even more health and shields. Black Eye makes it so players’ shields don’t recharge automatically and can only be refilled by killing enemies with melee attacks. Famine makes it so all weapons dropped by enemies or allies have half ammo. Any mistake, no matter how small, almost certainly results in instant death. The only skull Jervalin didn’t have on was Envy, which gives the Master Chief the Arbiter’s active camo ability and actually makes the game easier, not harder.

It is, to put it lightly, absolutely brutal. Completing the challenge would have been hard enough even without the no-deaths stipulation. But Jervalin, who completed the run using an original Halo 2 disc and has made a name for himself accomplishing various Halo-related challenges over the years, took home the gold in style, completing his run in a little under six and a half hours. He wasn’t above using a few tricks to emerge victorious, either. For the game’s final boss fight against the Brute Chieftain Tartarus, Jervalin snuck a flying Banshee vehicle into the boss arena in order to make short work of the encounter. After his victory, his family ran in to give him a hug.

“You couldn’t script a more wholesome finale here,” MoistCr1tikal says in a video congratulating Jervalin. According to MoistCr1tikal, about 2,000 people actively tried to complete the challenge over the course of the last 40 days. Only 25 people ever made it past the first level, MoistCr1tikal says.

Jervalin himself said on stream that he once thought a deathless, Halo 2 LASO run was “impossible.” Now, he’s $20,000 richer, and his feat will go down in history.

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Sports

NRL 2022: Round 21 previews

NRL 2022: Round 21 previews

Sydney Roosters v Brisbane Broncos, 7.50pm Thursday, Sydney Cricket Ground
Fascinating clash to kick off the round – the Roosters are looking good for the finals but are by no means home and hosed with a rough draw, while the Broncos’ top-four hopes needed that upset loss to the Tigers like a hole in the head .

Nope Pat Carrigan for the Broncos ups Payne Haas’s workload, and I’m tipping Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and Matt Lodge will go hunting for him given both already play right on the edge of the aggro line and can well win themselves an advantage in the middle. There’s top quality match-ups all over the shop in this one – Sam Walker v Adam Reynolds, Kotoni Staggs v Joey Manuel and four frequent flying wingers just to name a few. Roosters by 6.
dan walsh

Melbourne Storm v Gold Coast Titans, 6pm Friday, AAMI Park
The Storm are back home and looking to make a statement about their intentions for the finals when the bottom-placed Gold Coast Titans arrive at AAMI Park. Melbourne have much to work on after losing their four previous games before last round’s win in New Zealand and losing fullback Nick Meaney to injury has dealt their embattled outside backs yet another blow although loan signing David Nofoaluma is listed to make his Storm debut on the wing. The Titans have talent despite their lowly record led by forwards Tino Fa’asuamaleaui and david fifita. If they can earn field position then the Storm’s inexperienced backs can be beaten as Canberra showed in their recent win in Melbourne. The Storm are strong favorites but if they lose, it would likely be the result that costs them a top-four finish with Brisbane and Parramatta close behind them. Storm by 10.
Roy Ward

Manly Sea Eagles v Parramatta Eels, 7.55pm Friday, 4 Pines Park
Manly’s season goes on the line in this one, and they know it. Expect the Sea Eagles to bounce back at home, especially with some of the players who stood down over the rainbow jersey drama to provide a point. Kieran Foran and Daly Cherry Evans continue to be Manly’s best assets, and face an Eels side without their own chief playmaker Mitchell Moses. The Eels were excellent in the first half against Penrith, but Moses played a big role. Who knows, maybe their second-half fadeout against the Panthers had something to do with Moses’ broken finger? Manly by 8.
Christian Nicolussi

South Sydney Rabbitohs v New Zealand Warriors, 3pm Saturday, Sunshine Coast Stadium
Didn’t the Bunnies blow it against Cronulla? That loss to the Sharks, along with the Wests Tigers defeat earlier in the year, could have had the Bunnies pushing for a top-four berth. Latrell Mitchell is a good enough reason to back the Bunnies with confidence. He slots back to fullback with the more-than-capable Taane Milne moving into the centres. They lose kodi nikorima but gain Blake Taffe who will be keen to make a point off the bench. The dry Sunshine Coast track also works in the Bunnies’ favour. The loss of Chanel Harris Tavita and jazzan underrated workhorse, will do the Warriors no favours. Souths by 14.
Christian Nicolussi

Payne Haas, David Nofoaluma, Blake Taaffe and Sean O'Sullivan.

Payne Haas, David Nofoaluma, Blake Taaffe and Sean O’Sullivan.Credit:Getty

Canberra Raiders v Penrith Panthers, 5.30pm Saturday, GIO Stadium
Wouldn’t the Raiders love to get one back over Penrith? As much as both sides will play down the mocking of the Viking Clap and Stephen Crichton getting in the face of jack wighton and last year Joe Tapine after a try, there’s a genuine dislike between these clubs. Nathan Cleary and Jarome Luay are huge outs, but Sean O’Sullivan will play behind a world-class pack that will give him plenty of time with the ball. Isaiah Yeo will also make sure he takes some of the pressure off O’Sullivan in attack. Canberra need this more than Penrith, which makes them dangerous. jordan rapana being back adds some attacking threat — and size — against the smaller Penrith backs. Panthers by 2.
Christian Nicolussi

Cronulla Sharks v St George Illawarra Dragons, 7.35pm Saturday, PointsBet Stadium
Last chance saloon for the Dragons, who need to beat their local rivals to have any chance of making the finals for the first time in four years. Even despite last week’s second-half capitulation against the Cowboys, coach Anthony Griffin has named the same 17 for the Red V. Cronulla coach Craig Fitzgibbon you have opted for debutant Kade Dykesa third generation Shark, to make his NRL debut in the No.1 after Will Kennedy’s injury. The Sharks can take a giant leap to sewing up a top four spot in the derby – and even pressure the Cowboys for a second spot. They have won six of their last seven against the Dragons and haven’t lost at home against St George Illawarra since 2018. Sharks by 14.
adam pengilly

Canterbury Bulldogs v North Queensland Cowboys, Salter Oval (Bundaberg), 2pm Sunday
Believe it or not, two of the form teams in the competition with the Bulldogs winning four of their last six and suddenly one of the more entertaining teams going around. Can’t see them getting past the Cowboys – who every week look more and more like Penrith’s main title threat – but fans will get their money’s worth in Bundaberg. Briefly Forgotten Man Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow gets a starting crack out wide in place of kyle feldt (hamstring) ace Todd Payten juggles an embarrassment of attacking riches. Fingers crossed for a foot race with Josh Addo-Carr. North Queensland’s defense sharpened up against the Dragons after leaking 26 points for four weeks straight – can see Canterbury asking a few more questions. Cowboys by 12.
dan walsh