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  • Ferrari front row at COTA

    Ferrari front row at COTA

    The Lone Star Le Mans, the sixth round of the 2025 FIA WEC, will see two Ferraris start from the front row thanks to the results achieved by the number 83 499P entered by AF Corse and the number 51 car, entrusted in Hyperpole to Robert Kubica and Antonio Giovinazzi respectively. Fifth place for the other crew of the official Ferrari team – AF Corse, the number 50.

    For the second consecutive time, the Prancing Horse takes Hyperpole at the Circuit of The Americas, after last year’s result signed by Giovinazzi. For Ferrari, this is the eighth pole position in the top class of the FIA WEC, and the fourth in the current season. Meanwhile, the AF Corse crew, formed by official Ferrari driver Yifei Ye, Phil Hanson and Kubica himself, celebrates its first ever Hyperpole at COTA.

    The race in Texas will kick off on Sunday, 7 September at 1.00 p.m. (local time).

    Qualifying. The session was contested with air and track temperatures around 25° and 31° C, with the 499Ps fitted with Medium dry tyres, despite some light rain.

    Kubica took second place with a time of 1’58.405, +0.250s off the leaders. Nielsen, setting a best lap time of 1’59.035, secured fourth place (+0.880s). Giovinazzi qualified the sister car in fifth position thanks to a best time of 1’59.261 (+1.106s).

    Hyperpole. The session reserved for the ten fastest cars took place in conditions similar to the previous one.

    With the 499P of the AF Corse team, the Polish driver improved his own time, stopping the clocks at 1’57.655. Second at the flag, just 96 thousandths of a second behind, was Giovinazzi – sharing the car with Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado – who completed a lap in 1’57.751. Third row for the number 50 499P (1’58.640) which Nielsen shares with Antonio Fuoco and Miguel Molina.

    Numbers. As anticipated, the eighth pole position for the 499P arrives in America. The result adds to the four Hyperpoles taken by the number 50 crew (Sebring and Le Mans in 2023, Imola in 2024, Spa in 2025), and the three by the number 51 car (COTA in 2024, Qatar and Imola in 2025).

    Furthermore, for the sixth time, Ferrari starts with two cars on the front row in the top class of the FIA WEC: this already happened at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2023 (Fuoco-Molina-Nielsen started ahead of Pier Guidi-Calado-Giovinazzi); in 2024 at Imola (the number 50 car ahead of number 83) and at COTA (first number 51, second number 83); and in 2025 both at Imola (Pier Guidi-Calado-Giovinazzi ahead of Ye-Kubica-Hanson) and at Spa, when Ferrari qualified its three crews in the top positions with the number 50, 83 and 51 cars respectively.

    The programme. The Lone Star Le Mans, the sixth round of the 2025 FIA WEC, will kick off tomorrow, Sunday, 7 September, at 1.00 p.m. (local time).

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  • Google To Make AI Mode Default Search Soon (Maybe Not…)

    Google To Make AI Mode Default Search Soon (Maybe Not…)

    Logan Kilpatrick, lead product manager for Google DeepMind, Gemini, and all AI products at Google, said Google AI Mode will be the default for Google Search “soon.” He said this after Google made google.com/ai go directly to AI Mode’s interface on Friday afternoon.

    UPDATE: On Sunday, Robby Stein, VP, Product at Google Search said he wouldn’t read too much into this. More details below.

    This was announced on X at around 7pm ET on Friday.

    Here are those posts:

    This was his original post announcing the google.com/ai shortcut URL:

    Before Logan shared that, Robby Stein VP, Product at Google Search, shared it about an hour before him:

    That being said, we knew AI Mode will be the future of Google Search. Sundar Pichai said AI Mode will be incorporated into main search a while ago. Liz Reid, the head of Google Search, said AI Mode is the future of Google Search.

    So this should be no surprise.

    I do question if AI Mode, as it is now, will be the “default” in Google Search. I suspect we will see a blend of AI Mode and Google Search together in some way.

    But I guess we will see.

    AI Mode may be the “default” for Google Search soon, but what does that really mean?

    Google AI Mode is now available in 180 countries, up from being available in the US, UK and India.

    Side note: I received like a dozen notifications about this tweet over the weekend, I was offline for Shabbat and only was able to cover it after Shabbat was over.

    Forum discussion at X.

    UPDATE: On Sunday, Robby Stein, VP, Product at Google Search said don’t read too much into the statement that Google AI Mode will be the default “soon” – I guess this is not happening soon but rather, Google is looking to make it easier to access AI Mode

    Update 2: Monday afternoon, Logan +1ed it:


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  • Study Finds Link Between Childhood Obesity and Increased Anxiety and Depression Rates – geneonline.com

    Study Finds Link Between Childhood Obesity and Increased Anxiety and Depression Rates – geneonline.com

    1. Study Finds Link Between Childhood Obesity and Increased Anxiety and Depression Rates  geneonline.com
    2. Study Finds Link Between Higher Aerobic Fitness, Lower Body Fat, and Reduced Anxiety and Depression in Children  geneonline.com
    3. Staying active as a teenager protects against depression, study finds  The Brighter Side of News
    4. Body composition and fitness linked to anxiety and depression in preadolescent children  Contemporary Pediatrics
    5. Fitness, Lean Mass Linked to Reduced Anxiety and Depression in Children  Pharmacy Times

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  • Aryna Sabalenka sweeps aside Amanda Anisimova to retain US Open title | US Open Tennis 2025

    Aryna Sabalenka sweeps aside Amanda Anisimova to retain US Open title | US Open Tennis 2025

    At the end of an excruciating season filled with near-misses and heartbreak at the final hurdle, Aryna Sabalenka began her third consecutive US Open final with one final chance to win the grand slam title she felt she was owed.

    This occasion could have been the source of more anxiety and stress, another reason for her to fall apart, but Sabalenka’s increasingly legendary career has been driven by her ability to recover and learn from her worst losses, no matter how painful they are. This time, the No 1’s nerves perfectly held up under pressure as she maintained her composure during a late surge from Amanda Anisimova before closing her US Open title defence with a 6-3, 7-6 (3) win.

    As the best player in the world at the peak of her powers, Sabalenka continues to establish herself as one of the greatest players of her generation. She has now won four grand slam titles, drawing level with Kim Clijsters, Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, Naomi Osaka and Hana Mandlikova. Sabalenka has established an era of dominance on hard courts, earning her four major titles with an equal share of victories at the Australian and US Open. She has now also reached six consecutive grand slam finals on hard courts.

    Eight weeks after being overpowered by Anisimova in their semi-final match at Wimbledon, Sabalenka played a smart match, maintaining pressure on Anisimova with her first strike tennis but also playing with greater margin than her opponent and making use of her more well-rounded game. Most importantly, she kept her cool even when the match became complicated at the end.

    “I think because of the finals earlier this season, this one felt different,” said Sabalenka. “This one felt like I had to overcome a lot of things to get this one. I knew that the hard work we put in, like, I deserved to have a grand slam title this season. So when I fell, it was like truly emotions, because it means a lot to defend this title and to bring such great tennis on court. And to bring the fight and be able to handle my emotions the way I did in this final, it means a lot. I’m super proud right now of myself.”

    From the beginning, both players made it clear that in a match between two of the most lethal shotmakers in the sport, nothing but the most fearless and clear-headed attacking tennis would be sufficient. After a nervous start, Anisimova worked her way into the match with the destructive ball striking off both wings that guided her through immense wins over Iga Swiatek and Naomi Osaka this week. However, under pressure on such a significant occasion and against an ultra-focused Sabalenka who pummeled her second serve, served well enough in key moments and offered few unforced errors, Anisimova was felled by her own mistakes.

    Aryna Sabalenka drops her racket in delight after winning the final. Photograph: Elsa/Getty Images

    Deep in the second set, Anisimova was finally granted a lifeline. With Sabalenka two points from victory on her serve at 6-3, 5-4, the Belarusian showed her nerves at 30-30 by completely misjudging a straightforward smash, slamming it into the net. Anisimova snatched the lead immediately, pounding a forehand winner to take the break before rolling through her subsequent service game.

    This could have been the moment she began to fall apart, all of her painful memories from this season rushing back. Instead, Sabalenka refused to let her emotions get the better of her and she closed out her fourth grand slam title with a faultless tie-break. Remarkably, Sabalenka has now won the last 19 tiebreaks she has played, a run that dates back to February.

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    Amanda Anisimova congratulates the US Open champion Aryna Sabalenka. Photograph: Yuki Iwamura/AP

    Of all the tight losses Sabalenka endured this year, no defeat was as painful as her three-set defeat to Coco Gauff in the French Open final. Sabalenka had entered the final convinced she was mentally and physically ready for any challenge that came her way. Instead, she fell apart mentally on the court and then lashed out afterwards in the press room, which became a source of shame as well as disappointment. Sabalenka also lost to Madison Keys in the Australian Open final.

    “After those two finals where I completely lost control over my emotions, I just didn’t want that to happen again,” said Sabalenka. “There were a few moments when I was this close to just let it go. I was like ‘C’mon now, you have to stay focused. Keep going, keep trying.’” It’s really helped me. I think I have to keep the same mindset every time – hopefully I’m going to make many more finals – so every time I’m in the final, I have to stick to the same plan.”

    On another enormous occasion against an American opponent, the New York crowd desperately cheering for her downfall all evening, Sabalenka put herself back together under some of the most challenging circumstances possible, pulling off a victory that may well guide her to even greater successes in the future.

    Having given herself another shot at a grand slam final at the next possible occasion after her 6-0, 6-0 defeat to Iga Swiatek at Wimbledon, this time Anisimova played a competitive match and fought hard at the end, but she was simply too erratic against the best player in the world. As Sabalenka entered her player box in the crowd to embrace her loved ones, a tearful Anisimova was comforted in her chair by the tournament director Stacey Allaster. “I think I didn’t fight enough for my dreams today,” Anisimova said.

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  • TSMC to see near-term ‘operational risk’ after US revokes China chip equipment waiver

    TSMC to see near-term ‘operational risk’ after US revokes China chip equipment waiver

    The US action, with effect from December 31, rescinded TSMC’s fast track export privilege known as Validated End User (VEU) status, which meant future shipments of US-origin semiconductor equipment to the Taiwanese firm’s Nanjing fabrication plant would require individual licences.

    Without the blanket VEU coverage, sourcing chipmaking gear would be more difficult for TSMC, according to a Macquarie Group research note on Tuesday.

    “If licence approvals are delayed, fabs may run into shortages that could disrupt operations within months,” the note said.

    An aerial picture shows the production base of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co in Nanjing, capital of eastern Jiangsu province, on August 6, 2025. Photo: AFP
    In the near term, TSMC may redirect equipment orders originally designated for its facility in Kumamoto, Japan, to Nanjing, and stock up spare parts ahead of the December 31 deadline, according to Phelix Lee, a senior equity analyst at Morningstar.

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  • Do probiotics really work for the gut? What studies and doctors say about the supplement craze

    Do probiotics really work for the gut? What studies and doctors say about the supplement craze

    Probiotics aren’t the magical fix like every wellness guru claims it to be.Dr. Trisha Pasricha, MD, MPH, a gastroenterologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, recently wrote in The Washington Post that she rarely advises her patients to take probiotics.Her approach often surprises them, but it’s backed by evidence: major medical guidelines don’t support probiotics for most digestive conditions. Instead, she stresses a simpler solution — a high-fiber diet.

    What the doctor says

    According to Dr. Pasricha, eating fiber is still one of the most effective ways to protect your gut. “Eat a fiber-rich diet,” she wrote, pointing out that low-fiber eating patterns can permanently wipe out some beneficial gut bacteria. Once those bacterial groups are gone, they may never return, even if fiber intake improves later.By contrast, a diverse diet full of plants, nuts, and fermented foods helps your microbiome thrive. The more varied the foods you eat, the more resilient and balanced your gut bacteria become, which supports overall health.

    2

    The research on probiotics

    Probiotics are defined as live microorganisms that can offer health benefits. But while the concept sounds straightforward, the research is anything but. More than 1,000 clinical trials have studied probiotics, but with different bacterial strains, doses, and outcomes. The result is a patchwork of findings, some positive, some inconclusive.Even large reviews of the data show mixed results. That’s partly because no two microbiomes are alike. Diet, genetics, and health history shape the bacteria inside each person, so a supplement that works for one individual may do little for another.

    3

    Clinical guidelines only support probiotics in a few adult cases: to reduce the risk of C. difficile infection during antibiotic use, and to treat pouchitis in patients with inflammatory bowel disease who have had bowel surgery.Regulation also lags behind marketing. The Food and Drug Administration does not treat probiotics as drugs, which means they bypass the rigorous clinical testing that prescription medications must undergo. That leaves plenty of room for overstated claims on packaging and in ads.Despite the shaky evidence, probiotics are booming. Marketed as catch-all cures, they’ve become staples of the wellness industry. Promotion outweighs science.Some patients do report real benefits, and Dr. Pasricha doesn’t dismiss that. If someone feels better after trying a reputable brand, she says that’s valid. But she cautions that probiotics aren’t for everyone and suggests talking to your doctors before buying straight off the shelf.


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  • Woman, four children die as rescue boat capsizes in Chenab River – RADIO PAKISTAN

    1. Woman, four children die as rescue boat capsizes in Chenab River  RADIO PAKISTAN
    2. Five people dead as rescue boat overturns in Pakistan floods  Al Jazeera
    3. Five drown as Rescue 1122 boat capsizes in Multan amid flood evacuation: officials  Dawn
    4. Five people killed as boat capsizes during evacuation in Multan  The Express Tribune
    5. PM Shehbaz grieves Jalalpur Pirwala boat tragedy  The Nation (Pakistan )

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  • I found this new Obsidian feature so good, I might uninstall all the other productivity apps

    I found this new Obsidian feature so good, I might uninstall all the other productivity apps

    Like many Obsidian users, I have spent countless hours trying to find the perfect system to manage my notes, projects, and ideas. While Obsidian’s core features are powerful, I have always felt there was a major gap when it came to structured data. The need to create databases, manage lists, and visualize information in a clean, organized way often forced me to rely on other applications.

    That all changed with the introduction of Obsidian Bases. This new core feature has reshaped my vault and allowed me to build robust, interactive databases directly on top of my existing notes. Although Bases is in the early stages, it is good enough to replace my databases in other apps.

    What is Obsidian Bases?

    Unlock databases

    I have always loved the flexibility of Obsidian, but my workflow felt incomplete. I would have all my thoughts and notes interconnected, yet as soon as I needed any kind of structure (a project list, a content calendar, or even a simple reading list), the system broke down.

    The community was quick to point me to plugins like Dataview, a powerful tool that could query my notes and display them in a table. It was incredible in theory, but in practice, I found it clunky.

    I spent a couple of hours trying to learn a new syntax just to get a basic list of my projects, and the process felt more like programming than note-taking.

    Then came Obsidian Bases. I can now simply use the command menu and insert a database with a single click. I can drag and drop columns, filter my notes with a few clicks, and even switch between different views like a table or list. Bases finally gave me the power of structured data without the painful learning curve.

    Obsidian Bases features

    Good enough for v1.0

    Obsidian Bases properties

    Since its launch, I have been exploring Obsidian Bases, and I have found it to be solid and exactly what I needed. Obsidian bases are quite different from Notion. When you create a new database on any page, it pulls up all the pages from your vault (even if there are thousands of them).

    From there, I can filter notes based on specific conditions and find my relevant notes in no time. I can even select Properties and start adding relevant columns to the Bases (more on that in a minute).

    The first thing I noticed was the speed. Navigating through thousands of notes in a base is incredibly fast, which is a major advantage over other community plugins and rival tools like Notion.

    I can’t tell you how many times I ran into loading indicators when dealing with large Notion databases.

    I can now create a table view for a quick overview of all my projects and then switch to a card view for a more visual, Kanban-style layout.

    Even though this is just the first version of Obsidian Bases, it feels robust and complete. It shows that a well-designed core feature can be far more effective than a collection of third-party plugins.

    Obsidian Bases in action

    Organize info like a pro

    Bases offers a practical, real-world solution to the organizational problems I have always had. Let me walk you through some of the databases I have created.

    My first and most impactful database is for project management. Before Bases, I had project notes everywhere in my vault. Now, I have a single base that pulls every note tagged with #project or #task. Each row in this table is a project note or a task.

    I can add a column with task status, priority, a simple number, and more. I have added another database where I display all my Obsidian templates.

    I have also built a simple Reading List base that I love. Every book note I create goes into this database. The properties (columns) I use are Author, Rating, Status, and Date Finished. I can quickly filter this database to see all the books I want to read next or sort by rating to see my all-time favorites. It’s a clean, simple, and powerful way to keep track of everything without ever leaving Obsidian.

    If you have given up on Obsidian because of the lack of databases, I highly recommend giving Bases a try. It’s not just limited to power users only. This tool can transform any workflow that needs a little bit of structure. It does require a learning curve, though. It is fundamentally different from other Notion databases.

    Obsidian Bases is a game-changer

    The introduction of Obsidian Bases didn’t just add another feature to my favorite note-taking app; it fundamentally changed how I work. Now, I no longer need to deal with another app or a spreadsheet for tackling a project or creating a database.

    Of course, it’s far from perfect. If you are used to Notion’s database types or automation, you may feel left wanting more. The good news is, Obsidian developers already have a solid plan for Bases, and I can’t wait to see how they take it to the next level with future updates (I would love to see more view types and properties for columns).

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  • Blind China orphan turned US aircraft engineer recalls being pushed into lake by grandpa

    Blind China orphan turned US aircraft engineer recalls being pushed into lake by grandpa

    Born blind and abandoned on the streets of China, Wei Min Patrick discovered a new life after being adopted by an American family.

    He later earned degrees in piano performance and engineering, eventually building a career as an aircraft engineer.

    Patrick, who now lives in Alabama, recently shared his story on mainland social media, revealing how his biological grandfather attempted to abandon him three times, including a final instance where he was pushed into a lake before being rescued and taken to an orphanage.

    In a video, Patrick explained that he was born with congenital retinal degeneration in a poor village in Guangxi province in southern China.

    Born with congenital retinal degeneration, Patrick’s adopted mother, above, knew he was the child she wanted to complete her family when she met him in the orphanage. Photo: RedNote

    His father passed away when he was five, and shortly thereafter, his mother disappeared, leaving him in the care of his grandparents and older sister.

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  • Winter of the Crow review – Lesley Manville commands cold war thriller | Toronto film festival 2025

    Winter of the Crow review – Lesley Manville commands cold war thriller | Toronto film festival 2025

    The specific brilliance of Lesley Manville had been on display for those who knew where to look long before her first Oscar nomination. She’d been part of the enviable Mike Leigh troupe (her first nomination should have been for Another Year) and a permanent small-screen fixture, even if the size of her roles hadn’t correlated to the size of her talent. But after Phantom Thread, Paul Thomas Anderson’s singular magnum opus, Manville has enjoyed a spectacular boom, a long-deserved reward for her and an even bigger one for those of us watching.

    The role came as she was entering her 60s, a period that can often leave female actors with grimly limited options, but she’s bucked the trend, not just through the sheer amount of work she’s found but also the unusual variety. She’s avoided the post-Book Club subgenre of mostly patronising comedies that squander older actors on pained pratfalls and found herself in far more interesting, and challenging, territory. She was a wife experiencing later stage sexual dissatisfaction in I Am Maria, a vicious Ma Barker type reigning over a North Dakota family of criminals in Let Him Go, a gun-toting ayahuasca-farming jungle doctor in Queer, the devious antagonist of the spy series Citadel, a cleaner turned fashionista in Mrs Harris Goes to Paris and an OnlyFans stripper in Ryan Murphy’s Grotesquerie. It’s hard to think of many post-Oscar recognition careers that have been quite so uniquely rewarding.

    She was last at the Toronto film festival with a cruelly small role in Patrick Marber’s cruelly underwhelming trifle The Critic but returns with a welcome lead, switching it up again with the tense cold war thriller Winter of the Crow. She plays Joan, a British professor of psychiatry heading to Poland to speak at a conference, hoping to share her provocative thoughts on treating mental illness. But while she was steeling herself for backlash from academia, she wasn’t expecting a student uprising, her big moment stolen by those wishing to speak out against the government. Her annoyance at both the protesters and her treatment (lost bag, no hotel, a night on the couch) soon dissipates when she starts to realise something bigger is going down around her. She’s landed near the end of 1981 as the country prepares to enter martial law …

    The unfolding awfulness of her situation, as a language disconnect and increasingly barbaric forces shrink her from slightly haughty academic to panicked woman on the run, makes for a nervy and immediately involving thriller. Director Kasia Adamik (daughter of Agnieszka Holland and storyboard artist for Catwoman and Battlefield Earth!) blurs the line between the stark reality of her predicament and the horror of a recurring nightmare, an inescapable maze of brutalist greyness, danger at every corner. It’s all very dank and murky but there’s a real jolt to the initial cat-and-mouse chase as we watch a woman of proud competence realise she’s unable to rely on her usual armory. Adamik’s decision to provide subtitles to characters she can’t understand is initially alienating, taking us out of our heroine’s head, but it’s a decision that grew on me, a smart way of increasing tension and reminding Joan of the narrowness of her world.

    Her journey is first physically exhausting and then morally challenging as she must figure out what she believes in and how far she’s willing to go for the greater good, an inner conflict that lands her at the feet of Tom Burke’s shady British ambassador. An earlier scene of her in England, letting down a frustrated student, is a little rushed and confusing but eventually feeds into a through-line of Joan realising she needs to respect and connect to the political desires of those younger than her. It doesn’t quite fall into place as I think the makers intended – the pace sags in the middle, there’s some limply mechanical delivery of backstory and there’s the use of a Polaroid camera to conveniently capture evidence that starts to stretch credulity – but it all builds to a quietly rousing plane set piece, a far more muted version of the Argo finale. Since 1981, the story of an intrepid rebellion fighting back against an authoritarian government hasn’t ever lacked relevancy but it’s obviously an easy story to get behind at this particular moment.

    Adamik, working from a short story by Olga Tokarczuk, isn’t always able to keep us in her grip, but Manville, driven and determined as ever, never lets us go.

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