NEW YORK (Reuters) -Investors are bracing for volatility as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell walks a fine line between curbing inflation and supporting the labor market, with thin August trading poised to magnify any market moves from his Jackson Hole speech on Friday.
Wall Street largely expects Powell will signal an imminent easing in monetary policy, but concerns that U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs could reignite price pressures may force him to tread carefully. Meanwhile, Powell faces relentless pressure from the Trump administration to cut interest rates, turning his final address as Fed boss at the Jackson Hole economic symposium into a test of Fed independence.
“There is a market tightrope here from a macroeconomic perspective between the inflation data and what’s happening in the employment market,” said Tony Rodriguez, head of fixed income strategy at Nuveen. “And now you combine that with the political tightrope that’s not usually there that he has to navigate. It makes for an incredibly difficult, tricky situation,” he said.
Adding to the drama, Trump on Wednesday urged Fed Governor Lisa Cook to resign over mortgage allegations raised by one of his political allies, intensifying his effort to gain influence over the U.S. central bank. Cook said she had “no intention of being bullied” out of her post.
“This (Jackson Hole) would be a good opportunity for Powell to speak about the importance of independence,” said Idanna Appio, portfolio manager at First Eagle Investments, noting that the pressure could eventually lead to a more dovish rate-setting Fed board.
A soft July jobs report and hefty downward revisions to earlier job figures fueled bets the U.S. central bank would cut interest rates from the current 4.25%-4.5% range later this year. But a surge in wholesale prices in July dimmed investor hopes for a half-point move at the Fed’s next rate-setting meeting in September, leaving markets braced for about two 25 basis point cuts for the rest of the year.
So far, consumers have been spared a sharp jump in prices despite Trump’s escalating import tariffs, but doubts linger over how much of those duties will filter through to households in the months ahead.
“I expect that Powell will signal a change in monetary policy that suggests that we’ll resume the rate-cutting cycle on September 17, and markets will welcome that news,” said Michael Arone, chief investment strategist at State Street Investment Management. “But I think he’ll be reluctant to give too much transparency on the future path of rate cuts, because he knows what he doesn’t know,” Arone said, referring to the inflationary impact of tariffs.
‘EXPECT VOLATILITY’
Investors see any pushback from Powell against an imminent shift to monetary policy easing as the biggest risk heading into the Jackson Hole, Wyoming, event, with poor liquidity in summer trading expected to exacerbate the market reaction.
“It’s next to the last week of August, it’s Friday, markets might be a little more susceptible to some volatility as a result of a little bit less liquidity … (this) might lead to something of an unexpected move,” said Rodriguez at Nuveen.
Powell’s speech comes amid market concerns of stagflation, a dreaded mix of sluggish growth and sticky inflation that could limit the Fed’s ability to ride to Wall Street’s rescue, just as a tech stock selloff this week highlighted long-standing worries over steep stock valuations.
“Stagflation is a risk,” said James Ragan, co-chief investment officer and director of investment management research at D.A. Davidson. “If Powell pulls back on the expectation for a rate cut in September, I think stocks would fall in that scenario and you obviously would see probably bond yields rise at least at the short end,” he said.
To be sure, Powell’s address may ultimately be underwhelming for markets. Hot producer prices data in July removed the possibility that the Fed could deliver a jumbo-sized cut in September, limiting the scope for resistance from an inflation-focused Powell against those expectations.
At the Jackson Hole conference in 2022, Powell echoed late Fed chair Paul Volcker with a hardline vow to crush inflation. This time, with inflation about 1 percentage point above the Fed’s 2% target and a softening but still healthy job market, a subtler balance could be in the cards.
Still, a balanced message could be perceived as hawkish, sparking price fluctuations in stocks and bonds over the next few weeks, said Shannon Saccocia, chief investment officer for wealth management at Neuberger Berman.
“Our advice to clients has been to expect volatility,” she said.
(Reporting by Davide Barbuscia; Additional reporting by Dhara Ranasinghe; Editing by Megan Davies and Andrea Ricci)
Nigeria’s 2023/2024 Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) reveals that 54% of unmarried women and 48% of unmarried men would not consider a relationship with a tuberculosis (TB) survivor. This indicates that disease survivors are likely to face marital rejection, with women more likely than men to reject a partner who has had TB.
This reflects a significant level of stigma; this stigma may be linked to TB’s classification as a communicable disease, capable of spreading through contact with infected individuals, according to the World Health Organisation.
Such attitudes reflect a deep social bias, and according to research published by the National Library of Medicine, they have the potential to undermine TB control efforts, damage the well-being of those affected, and contribute to further transmission and worsening of the disease.
The NDHS data also shows that more men reported experiencing common TB symptoms, suggesting they may be more likely to face heightened stigma compared to women.
Globally, TB impacts nearly 6 million men each year, including 1.3 million in the WHO African Region. By 2023, Nigeria ranked 20th in Africa, with an average of 219 cases per 100,000 population. WHO data shows Lesotho, the Central African Republic, and Gabon have the highest annual TB incidence rates per 100,000 population on the continent.
According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the risk of transmitting TB is temporary, meaning a person with active TB disease is contagious only for a limited period, primarily before and shortly after starting treatment. During this time, they are most likely to spread the disease to people with whom they spend time daily, such as family members, friends, and coworkers.
Gender Gaps in Disease Stigma
The stigma and discrimination are not limited to TB; they also extend to other communicable diseases, such as HIV. While the gender difference is small, data show that women tend to hold higher levels of stigma than men toward people with communicable diseases.
For instance, in 2018, the NDHS asked women and men two questions to assess discriminatory attitudes toward people living with HIV. The findings showed that 59% of women and 58% of men expressed such attitudes.
Compared to the 2023 NDHS data, women display more stigma toward TB survivors than toward people living with HIV, while men show higher discriminatory attitudes toward HIV than toward TB. This suggests that stigma and discrimination vary by gender, influenced by the type of disease and the perceived risk of transmission.
The BMJ Global Health notes that ending TB requires addressing the socially produced vulnerabilities that affect all genders. Its research shows TB affects more men than women, partly due to behaviours and practices, such as alcohol consumption and tobacco use, that increase the risk of exposure.
Stigma following a disease diagnosis can trigger a range of harmful consequences, including psychological distress, social isolation, and reduced access to healthcare and support systems. Its effects extend beyond individuals to families and entire communities, hindering recovery and increasing the risk of poor health outcomes.
In the case of tuberculosis, stigma fosters a culture of silence, fear, and shame, with the emotional and social toll often exceeding the harm caused by the disease itself.
Thanks for reading this edition of SenorRita. It was written by Kafilat Taiwo and Salako Emmanuel.
Robert Downey Jr. to portray antagonist ‘Doctor Doom’ in upcoming film
X2 actor Alan Cumming has spilled insights about the shooting of the upcoming film, Avengers: Doomsday.
The 60-year-old actor is all set to reprise his popular role as Nightcrawler in the new MCU movie.
While sharing inside details about the sets of the Russo brothers’ film, Alan revealed that he shot the entire film in “isolation”.
In conversation with GoldDerby, The Traitors actor opened, “I did the entire film in isolation. Lots of green screen, face replacement.”
He further disclosed that the makers gave “fake names” to the characters.
“They even gave characters fake names. I don’t know who I was acting with half the time. [laughs] I broke the internet by mentioning something once, but honestly, I might have got it wrong”, said Cumming.
The forthcoming Marvel film is going to reunite the team of Avengers including Chris Hemsworth, Benedict Cumberbatch, Anthony Mackie and others.
Meanwhile, Tom Hiddleston will also be returning as Loki.
It is pertinent to mention that the new action sci-fi movie will also feature Robert Downey Jr. but not as Iron Man this time. He will be playing the antagonist Doctor Doom.
Backed by Walt Disney, the upcoming project is slated to hit theatres globally on December 18, 2026.
LONDON — Fifty-five years after rock ’n’ roll’s most important and influential band split up, The Beatles are to release a new collection of unheard outtakes, as well as a remastered and expanded classic documentary series as part of a reboot of a 1990s “Anthology” project.
Paul McCartney, 83, one of the two surviving members of the band alongside Ringo Starr, 85, teased the announcement in an Instagram post on Tuesday, and the band’s official website confirmed on Thursday.
The “Anthology” series was a mid-’90s multimedia project that reunited McCartney, Starr and George Harrison and included three double CD albums, a TV documentary and two new songs, “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love.”
The TV series chronicled the band’s meteoric rise from the clubs of Liverpool, England, and Hamburg, Germany, to global fame — and the acrimonious split in 1970.
It has been restored by teams led by “Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson and will stream on Disney+ from Nov. 21. There will be a new episode, titled “Episode Nine,” that shows behind-the-scenes footage from the “Anthology” reunion in 1994-95.
The three “Anthology” albums are also to be remastered and re-released alongside a new fourth volume featuring unheard tracks from the ’94-95 sessions.
Beatles aficionados eagerly consumed the three “Anthology” albums’ studio outtakes and alternate versions in the 1990s, which captured the exuberant humor of the band in its early days and the creative mastery they showed later on. The band’s music inspired countless younger acts who were making their strides to stardom at the time, including Oasis.
“Free as a Bird” and “Real Love” were the first new songs from the band in more than 30 years, and both were made possible thanks to a shaky, low-quality demo tape recorded by John Lennon in his New York apartment in 1977.
After Lennon died in 1980, the tape was eventually passed to McCartney by Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, and some creative studio trickery from co-producer Jeff Lynne allowed the other Beatles to play along with the faint, ghostly vocals and piano, recorded on a simple four-track tape recorder.
The same tape formed the basis of the Grammy-winning “Now and Then,” the final track to feature all the Fab Four, released in 2023.
The 2020s have been a rich time for celebration of The Beatles’ legacy. Peter Jackson’s “Get Back” documentary showed the making of their final album; the “Beatles ’64” documentary, produced by Martin Scorsese, chronicled the effects of Beatlemania after their whirlwind first visit to the U.S., and McCartney continues to tour and play Beatles classics across the world. His U.S. tour kicks off in Palm Springs, California, on Sept. 27.
However, one question still unanswered for Beatles obsessives is whether the elusive “Carnival of Light” will ever be released. Made at the start of the “Sgt. Pepper” sessions in 1967, the 14-minute avant-garde oddity was made for an event in London. It was driven principally by McCartney but featured all the Beatles, who later reportedly vetoed its inclusion on “Anthology 2” in 1996.
The final Grand Slam event of the season is upon us. Main-draw action at the US Open starts on Sunday, Aug. 24 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York.
The top three seeds are also the last three players to win the tournament. Defending champion Aryna Sabalenka is No. 1, 2022 champion Iga Swiatek is No. 2 and 2023 champion Coco Gauff is No. 3.
The first U.S. Open women’s singles champion was crowned in 1887. This year marks the 139th edition, with the champion earning $5 million for winning seven matches.
Here are some key facts:
When does the tournament start?
Main-draw play at the US Open kicks off on Sunday, Aug. 24. The tournament ends on Sunday, Sept. 7.
The singles qualifying began on Monday, Aug. 18 and ended on Thursday, Aug. 21.
The US Open is on Eastern Daylight Time (GMT -4).
How big are the fields?
There are 128 players competing in the women’s singles main draw, with 104 receiving direct entry. Eight players received wild cards into the main draw and 16 more claimed the remaining spots by winning three qualifying matches. One lucky loser will also be in the main draw.
There are 32 seeded players in the singles draw and no byes. The women’s singles champion will have to navigate through seven rounds before hoisting the trophy.
The women’s doubles main draw will feature 64 teams — 49 duos with advance direct entry, eight with on-site entry (deadline Tuesday, Aug. 26, based on that week’s doubles rankings) and seven wild cards. There will be 16 seeded teams in the doubles draw and no byes. The champion team must make it through six rounds before clinching the women’s doubles title.
When are the finals?
The women’s singles final will take place on Arthur Ashe Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 6 at 4 p.m. local time.
The women’s doubles final is scheduled to take place on Friday, Sept. 5.
When are the draws?
The women’s singles draw was released on Thursday, Aug. 21 at 12 p.m. The projected fourth-round matches are as follows:
US Open draw: Rising stars Mboko and Eala face tough early competition
[1] Aryna Sabalenka vs. [14] Clara Tauson [9] Elena Rybakina vs. [7] Jasmine Paolini [4] Jessica Pegula vs. [16] Belinda Bencic [10] Emma Navarro vs. [5] Mirra Andreeva [6] Madison Keys vs. [11] Karolina Muchova [15] Daria Kasatkina vs. [3] Coco Gauff [8] Amanda Anisimova vs. [12] Elina Svitolina [13] Ekaterina Alexandrova vs. [2] Iga Swiatek
Notable first-round matches include:
Alexandra Eala vs. [14] Clara Tauson Barbora Krejcikova vs. [22] Victoria Mboko Alycia Parks vs. [5] Mirra Andreeva [SR] Petra Kvitova vs. Diane Parry [WC] Venus Williams vs. [11] Karolina Muchova Ajla Tomljanovic vs. [3] Coco Gauff Maria Sakkari vs. Tatjana Maria [13] Ekaterina Alexandrova vs. [SR] Anastasija Sevastova Laura Siegemund vs. [20] Diana Shnaider Emiliana Arango vs. [2] Iga Swiatek
Who are the defending champions?
Aryna Sabalenka won her third and most recent Grand Slam title at the 2024 US Open, defeating Jessica Pegula 7-5, 7-5 in last year’s singles final. It was Sabalenka’s first US Open crown after losing in the 2023 final and the 2021-22 semifinals.
Lyudmyla Kichenok and Jelena Ostapenko won their first Grand Slam doubles title as a team at the 2024 US Open, defeating Kristina Mladenovic and Zhang Shuai 6-4, 6-3 in the final. They will not be defending their title together this year: Kichenok will be partnering Ellen Perez, while Ostapenko has teamed up with Barbora Krejcikova.
Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori won their first Grand Slam mixed doubles title as a team at the 2024 US Open, defeating Taylor Townsend and Donald Young 7-6(0), 7-5 in the final. The Italian duo successfully defended their title in the competition’s new format, defeating Iga Swiatek and Casper Ruud 6-3, 5-7, [10-6] in the 2025 final on Wednesday, August 20.
What are the ranking points and prize money on offer in the singles main draw?
Venus Williams (2000, 2001) Naomi Osaka (2018, 2020) Emma Raducanu (2021) Iga Swiatek (2022) Coco Gauff (2023) Aryna Sabalenka (2024)
Williams, 45, received a wild card. She made her US Open debut in 1997, reaching the final and will be making her 25th appearance at the tournament.
The eight other Grand Slam champions in the main draw:
Petra Kvitova (Wimbledon 2011, 2014) Victoria Azarenka (Australian Open 2012, 2013) Jelena Ostapenko (Roland Garros 2017) Sofia Kenin (Australian Open 2020) Barbora Krejcikova (Roland Garros 2021, Wimbledon 2024) Elena Rybakina (Wimbledon 2022) Marketa Vondrousova (Wimbledon 2023) Madison Keys (Australian Open 2025)
The seven former Grand Slam finalists in the main draw:
Five teenagers have gained direct entry to the main draw:
Dubai and Indian Wells champion Mirra Andreeva, 18 Montreal champion Victoria Mboko, 18 Rabat and Eastbourne champion Maya Joint, 19 Ilkley WTA 125 champion Iva Jovic, 17 Grado WTA 125 and Porto WTA 125 champion Tereza Valentova, 18
They have been joined by wild cards Alyssa Ahn, 18, Valerie Glozman, 18, and Julieta Pareja, 16.
What are the scenarios for the World No. 1 ranking?
The PIF WTA World No. 1 ranking will be on the line in both singles and doubles at the US Open.
Singles World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka will remain in the top spot if she reaches the quarterfinals. If she loses before the quarterfinals, either Iga Swiatek or Coco Gauff would move to No. 1 if they win the title. Swiatek was last ranked No. 1 in October 2024. Gauff would become No. 1 for the first time.
Doubles World No. 1 Taylor Townsend owns a slim 140-point lead over No. 2 Katerina Siniakova, with whom she has entered the doubles competition. The players who could potentially take the top spot from Townsend after the US Open are:
Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini, who need to reach at least the semifinals (the Italians would be co-No. 1s)
Veronika Kudermetova, Jelena Ostapenko or Erin Routliffe, all of whom would need to win the title
Errani was ranked No. 1 for 87 weeks between September 2012 and April 2015, and Routliffe for eight weeks between July and September 2024. Paolini, Kudermetova and Ostapenko would be first-time No. 1s.
How has this summer’s hard-court swing played out so far?
Here are the champions and finalists from the hard-court events of July and August so far:
Washington, D.C. (WTA 500): Leylah Fernandez def. Anna Kalinskaya 6-1, 6-2 Prague (WTA 250): Marie Bouzkova def. Linda Noskova 2-6, 6-1, 6-3 Montreal (WTA 1000): Victoria Mboko def. Naomi Osaka 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 Cincinnati (WTA 1000): Iga Swiatek def. Jasmine Paolini 7-5, 6-4 Monterrey (WTA 500): TBD Cleveland (WTA 250): TBD
What are the key stats for the Top 16 seeds?
1. Aryna Sabalenka
Age: 27 Career high ranking: 1 Career singles titles: 20 (3 this year) Win-loss record in 2025: 50-10 Career main-draw win-loss record at US Open: 28-6 Best US Open result: Champion (2024) Last US Open result: Champion (2024)
2. Iga Swiatek
Age: 24 Career high ranking: 1 Career singles titles: 24 (2 this year) Win-loss record in 2025: 49-12 Career main-draw win-loss record at US Open: 20-5 Best US Open result: Champion (2022) Last US Open result: Quarterfinals (2024)
3. Coco Gauff
Age: 21 Career high ranking: 2 Career singles titles: 10 (1 this year) Win-loss record in 2025: 35-12 Career main-draw win-loss record at US Open: 17-5 Best US Open result: Champion (2023) Last US Open result: Fourth round (2024)
4. Jessica Pegula
Age: 31 Career high ranking: 3 Career singles titles: 9 (3 this year) Win-loss record in 2025: 37-16 Career main-draw win-loss record at US Open: 18-8 Best US Open result: Final (2024) Last US Open result: Final (2024)
5. Mirra Andreeva
Age: 18 Career high ranking: 5 Career singles titles: 3 (2 this year) Win-loss record in 2025: 36-12 Career main-draw win-loss record at US Open: 2-2 Best US Open result: Second round (2023-24) Last US Open result: Second round (2024)
6. Madison Keys
Age: 30 Career high ranking: 5 Career singles titles: 10 (2 this year) Win-loss record in 2025: 37-12 Career main-draw win-loss record at US Open: 33-13 Best US Open result: Final (2017) Last US Open result: Third round (2024)
7. Jasmine Paolini
Age: 29 Career high ranking: 4 Career singles titles: 3 (1 this year) Win-loss record in 2025: 33-14 Career main-draw win-loss record at US Open: 4-5 Best US Open result: Fourth round (2024) Last US Open result: Fourth round (2024)
8. Amanda Anisimova
Age: 23 Career high ranking: 7 Career singles titles: 3 (1 this year) Win-loss record in 2025: 34-15 (32-14 in tour-level main draws) Career main-draw win-loss record at US Open: 3-5 Best US Open result: Third round (2020) Last US Open result: First round (2024)
9. Elena Rybakina
Age: 26 Career high ranking: 3 Career singles titles: 9 (1 this year) Win-loss record in 2025: 41-16 (including Billie Jean King Cup) Career main-draw win-loss record at US Open: 5-5 Best US Open result: Third round (2021, 2023) Last US Open result: Second round (2024)
10. Emma Navarro
Age: 24 Career high ranking: 8 Career singles titles: 2 (1 this year) Win-loss record in 2025: 25-21 Career main-draw win-loss record at US Open: 5-3 Best US Open result: Semifinals (2024) Last US Open result: Semifinals (2024)
11. Karolina Muchova
Age: 29 Career high ranking: 8 Career singles titles: 1 (0 this year) Win-loss record in 2025: 16-12 Career main-draw win-loss record at US Open: 17-7 Best US Open result: Semifinals (2023, 2024) Last US Open result: Semifinals (2024)
12. Elina Svitolina
Age: 30 Career high ranking: 3 Career singles titles: 18 (1 this year) Win-loss record in 2025: 35-13 (including Billie Jean King Cup) Career main-draw win-loss record at US Open: 24-11 Best US Open result: Semifinals (2019) Last US Open result: Third round (2024)
13. Ekaterina Alexandrova
Age: 30 Career high ranking: 14 Career singles titles: 5 (1 this year) Win-loss record in 2025: 33-17 (as of the Monterrey quarterfinals this week) Career main-draw win-loss record at US Open: 9-8 Best US Open result: Third round (2023, 2024) Last US Open result: Third round (2024)
14. Clara Tauson
Age: 22 Career high ranking: 15 Career singles titles: 3 (1 this year) Win-loss record in 2025: 33-17 Career main-draw win-loss record at US Open: 3-4 Best US Open result: Second round (2021, 2023, 2024) Last US Open result: Second round (2024)
15. Daria Kasatkina
Age: 28 Career high ranking: 8 Career singles titles: 8 (0 this year) Win-loss record in 2025: 17-19 Career main-draw win-loss record at US Open: 12-10 Best US Open result: Fourth round (2017, 2023) Last US Open result: Second round (2024)
16. Belinda Bencic
Age: 28 Career high ranking: 4 Career singles titles: 9 (1 this year) Win-loss record in 2025: 27-13 (25-13 in tour-level main draws) Career main-draw win-loss record at US Open: 21-8 Best US Open result: Semifinals (2019) Last US Open result: Fourth round (2023)
Compared to the other redesigns, Material 3 Expressive for Phone by Google thoroughly updates how you use the app.
The Google Phone app now has three tabs, with Favorites and Recents merged into Home. Your starred contacts now appear in a bar/carousel at the top of the past calls list, with each conversation (which is also the case throughout the app) placed in a container.
Keypad is the middle tab and replaces the FAB (floating action button). The sheet containing the number pad is now rounded. Voicemail is unchanged save for the updated list style.
Google has moved Contacts into a new navigation drawer accessed from the search field alongside Settings (which benefits from a coat of M3 Expressive), Clear call history, and Help & feedback.
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Meanwhile, Google has updated the Incoming call screen with the ability to answer/decline via Horizontal swipe or Single tap. This can be set from the new “Incoming call gesture” menu in Settings. This is meant to reduce accidental declines and answers “while taking the phone out of one’s pocket.”
The in-call interface makes use of pill-shaped buttons that morph into rounded rectangles when selected. The end call button is also larger than before.
After testing got underway in June, this Material 3 Expressive redesign for the Google Phone app is widely rolling out with version 186 for stable users. It joins the Google Contacts update, while M3E is actively rolling out to the Messages app.
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NEW YORK — Ciara will deliver a new bundle of joy on Friday, but it’s not the fifth child her husband publicly flirts with her about.
“It’s time. Honestly, I’ve been working on this album for almost five years,” said the R&B-pop superstar. “I put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, as they would say, into this project … I literally gave birth to two babies while I was making this project, too. So, a lot has happened.”
Expanding her 2023 seven-track EP “CiCi,” it’s the Grammy winner’s first album since 2019’s “Beauty Marks,” her first as an independent artist.
“I was still actively putting out music on the project. So, it’s not like I was five years chillin’,” said the “Level Up” artist. “If I ever stop loving the process and experience, then I’ll stop. But I have so much passion for it and I just feel so fortunate that 21 years later, from my first album ‘Goodies’ to now, that I still have the same excitement I had as a little girl.”
Her eighth studio album, “CiCi” includes songs from the EP such as “How We Roll,” her 2023 Chris Brown collaboration which reached No. 1 on Billboard’s R&B digital song sales charts, “Forever” with Lil Baby and the sensual bop, “Low Key.” But the 14-track full-length record, with writing and production from Theron Thomas and J.R. Rotem, separates itself with appearances from Tyga, BossMan DLow and Busta Rhymes. Latto also joins her on “This Right Here,” an anticipated reunion with Jazze Pha who executive produced her 2004 debut, hitting No. 3 on the Billboard 200.
One of the preeminent stage performers in her class and lauded for her dancing, Ciara owns smashes like “Goodies” which topped the Billboard 100, “Oh” featuring Ludacris, “Body Party,” and “Promise.” Four albums reached the Billboard 200 top 10, including 2006’s “Ciara: The Evolution” which hit No. 1.
In an era where music is often released rapidly, Ciara’s leisurely pace has been questioned by fans and critics, wondering if she’s traded her love for music for a perceived socialite lifestyle with her Super Bowl-winning husband, Russell Wilson.
“I feel like I don’t have to explain anything to anybody,” said the “Ride” singer, who’s recently released collaborations with several Asian artists. “Not every year has been about music. And sometimes, it’s been about me just growing as a human. Sometimes, it’s been about me finding my way obviously as a mom, and then I have family now and my husband, being there for him. These are all real things.”
It’s a perception she aims at on “Run It Up” with BossMan Dlow, singing, “No matter how many points I put up on the board, you know they gon’ hate / I’m in a league of my own, I’m a wife and a mom / … You ain’t gotta worry, you know that we straight.”
“I go from the stage to the classroom. I go from the classroom to the football field to support my husband. Then, I got on my schedule we’re gonna go school shopping tomorrow,” said the 39-year-old who wrote on every song. “That’s how my life is, but I would not have it any other way.”
Other standout tracks include the previously released slow jam “Ecstasy” which she later remixed with Normani and Teyana Taylor, and the feel good “Drop Your Love,” sampling “Love Come Down” from Evelyn “Champagne” King. She continued her two-step groove on “This Right Here,” recreating the nostalgic magic with Pha and resurfacing his memorable “Ci-araaa!” ad-lib.
“It’s always been love with Jazze and I … there was behind-the-scenes type of stuff that was beyond he and I,” referring to the producer who crafted her megahit “1,2 Step” with Missy Elliott. “People want the classic him. They want me to be me, too, in that moment. And so, I feel like we accomplished that.”
Becoming one of the first celebrities to gain Benin citizenship as part of a recent law by the small West African nation granting rights to descendants of enslaved people, Ciara hopes to shed light on the country, as well as the continent which has exploded globally in the music market thanks to Afrobeats.
She’s also expanding her Why Not You Foundation, the nonprofit founded with Wilson in 2014 to help disadvantaged youth with educational and personal development resources. With Why Not You centers already in Atlanta and Pittsburgh, they plan to expand in the New York-New Jersey area. Wilson signed with the New York Giants during the offseason.
“Success to me is yes, putting out music. Being the best artist I can be, hopefully being known as one of the best to ever do it … But it’s not solely in that,” she said. “People lose themselves because they didn’t live. I don’t want to be that girl – I’m not going to be that girl.” ___
Follow Associated Press entertainment journalist Gary Gerard Hamilton at @GaryGHamilton on all his social media platforms.
No-one in the England squad has more World Cup experience than Emily Scarratt.
The 35-year-old centre, lining up for her fifth campaign, is the only survivor from the last time the tournament was in England.
“A home World Cup is massive,” she said earlier this month.
“I was part of the 2010 one. Times were very different then, but it was a small taste of what a home World Cup can be like.”
Back then, the pool stages were all staged at Surrey Sports Park. The final was staged at The Stoop, Harlequins’ home ground.
“At the time it was unbelievable,” added Scarratt. “We had increased media attention, increased everything. The country got behind us and we had never seen crowds like it.
“I will never forget getting off the bus for the World Cup final in 2010 and hearing the crowd. It was probably the first time that we had a crowd that was big enough to hear.
“I remember the bus door opened and we all just looked around at each other and said ‘this is actually mega’.”
The crowd for that 13-10 defeat by New Zealand was 13,253, a record for a women’s match at the time.
As Scarratt says: Fifteen years on, times are different.
Surrey Sports Park is now where Harlequins’ women’s side train, rather than where international tournaments are played.
The Stoop’s main role on World Cup final day this time will be for car parking and hospitality as 82,000 people flood across the Chertsey Road to Twickenham.
When England step off the bus outside the Stadium of Light on Friday, they will hear the volume of love and expectation around them. They will get a taste long before the doors open.
“I don’t think any of us will understand how supported we will be until we get going,” said Scarratt.
The game has changed. Now it is up to England to change the World Cup’s usual gut-punch ending.
While pandemics are extremely rare, spillover events — where viruses move between different host species — happen all the time, according to the research team. With so much viral transmission occurring, it’s nearly impossible for scientists to pinpoint which spillover events to pay attention to.
“We wanted to know if there is anything we can measure directly after a spillover event or if there are characteristics of a spillover event that would be predictive of whether the virus would or would not persist in a new population,” said Clara Shaw, lead author of the study. Shaw was a postdoctoral scholar in biology at Penn State at the time the research was conducted and is now assistant professor of biology at the University of Minnesota Duluth.
The researchers studied viral spillover in a worm model system, which allowed the team to examine disease transmission and emergence at a population level rather than within individual animals, Shaw said. They studied eight strains of worms that belong to seven species of the Caenorhabditis nematode, a model system for disease that shares a large number of genes with humans.
To induce a spillover event, the worms were exposed to Orsay virus, a nematode virus. The species of worms assessed in the study are at least partially susceptible to Orsay virus but vary in their ability to transmit it. The worm populations reproduced and grew for between five to 13 days. Then, the researchers transferred 20 adult worms to a new, virus-free Petri dish where the worms could reproduce and grow again. They repeated this process, transferring worms to new Petri dishes up to 10 times or until the virus was no longer detected in the worms.
The researchers then measured specific traits of the population of worms remaining on the initial plate — what fraction of the population is infected; how much virus is inside of each infected worm; how much virus do they shed; and how susceptible are they to the virus? Using mathematical models, the scientists looked at each trait individually and then together to determine if any of the characteristics were linked to virus emergence as the worms were transferred to new plates.
The researchers found that the dynamics of how the virus spreads during the few days after transmission are important for predicting long-term viral persist. For example, three factors were all positively correlated with whether a virus will take off in the new host population — infection prevalence or the fraction of the exposed population that’s infected; viral shedding or the ability to release copies of the virus into the environment; and infection susceptibility or how vulnerable the hosts are to the virus.
Infection prevalence and viral shedding were of particular significance, the researchers said. More than half of the differences seen in whether the virus persists in the worms can be linked to these characteristics that were detected in the initial plate.
“That means these early traits can actually tell us quite a bit about what’s going to happen way off in the future,” Kennedy said.
The researchers also found infection intensity, or the severity of the infection, did not predict virus persistence.
The researchers said they plan to build on this work. Next, they will explore how pathogens adapt to new hosts to understand the evolutionary changes that occur at the genetic level. For instance, Kennedy said they’re interested in understanding what genetic changes allowed the pathogen to persist and when those changes occurred.
Funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation supported this work.
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Globally, TB impacts nearly 6 million men each year, including 1.3 million in the WHO African Region. By 2023, Nigeria ranked 20th in Africa, with an average of 219 cases per 100,000 population. WHO data shows Lesotho, the Central African Republic, and Gabon have the highest annual TB incidence rates per 100,000 population on the continent.
According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the risk of transmitting TB is temporary, meaning a person with active TB disease is contagious only for a limited period, primarily before and shortly after starting treatment. During this time, they are most likely to spread the disease to people with whom they spend time daily, such as family members, friends, and coworkers.-and-hiv-(2018).png)
The BMJ Global Health notes that ending TB requires addressing the socially produced vulnerabilities that affect all genders. Its research shows TB affects more men than women, partly due to behaviours and practices, such as alcohol consumption and tobacco use, that increase the risk of exposure. 
