That dream demanded even more when she moved clubs to play in England for Reading, travelling a 300-mile round trip from Swansea three times a week after a full day’s work.
The sacrifices paid off when Reading won promotion to the top-tier Women’s Super League (WSL) in 2015 and offered her a life-changing professional deal.
Ten years on, the 32-year-old Southampton forward is set to play a pivotal role for Wales at their first major tournament. Her emotional arrival in Switzerland, seeing the team bus decked with Euro branding, brought tears she fought hard to hold back.
“It hasn’t been easy,” Rowe says. “But I carry all those experiences with me.”
Wales face the Netherlands in their opening Group D game on Saturday, 5 July, 2025 in Lucerne.
It is our understanding Arsenal came into the summer with two primary striker targets – RB Leipzig’s Benjamin Sesko and Sporting Lisbon’s Viktor Gyokeres.
Well, there was a third – but the chances of securing Alexander Isak from Newcastle were deemed largely unrealistic.
A move for Slovenia international Sesko has substantial backing from key figures at the Emirates – including Arteta.
BBC Sport has learned the player’s agent, Elvis Basanovic, was invited to Arsenal’s final home game of the season against Newcastle as a guest of the club.
But a deal to sign Sesko has proved difficult. Sources have indicated there is still no agreement between the 22-year-old and Arsenal, let alone the two clubs.
Of course, a breakthrough could come at any moment – but the suggestion is that striking a deal for Sesko has proved significantly harder than expected.
Part of that may be down to changes towards the top of the club in recent months.
With the Gunners’ interest in Sesko well established, Basanovic is understood to have developed a strong relationship with former sporting directors Edu and Jason Ayto.
But with both gone and Berta leading the negotiations, those nurtured relationships are no longer relevant.
And there have been indications in recent days that Arsenal have focused attention on other targets.
The impasse with Sesko could, of course, be a strategic ploy from the Gunners to see if he will accept what to them would be more favourable terms.
Either way, Arsenal are understood to have made headway with a potential move for Gyokeres in recent days.
Significantly, the signing of the Sweden international is understood to have Berta’s backing.
Gyokeres was not a strong target for Arsenal prior to Berta’s arrival earlier this year, but he believes the 27-year-old could make an instant impact.
And the striker, who is at odds with Sporting over his valuation, is understood to be very keen to join Arsenal.
Should Arsenal sign Sesko or Gyokeres, it is likely to cost them in excess of £70m.
Aston Villa forward Ollie Watkins, who Arsenal tried to sign in January, would be a cheaper option – allowing them to spend more elsewhere.
The 29-year-old is open to joining Arsenal – the club he supported as a boy – and it is understood that he and Gyokeres are the two players they have explored moves for in recent days.
A video about re-enacting a Stone Age voyage from Taiwan to the Ryukyu Islands of southern Japan, provided by the University of Tokyo.
Scientists re-enacted a 30,000-year-old sea voyage from Taiwan to southern Japan using a dugout canoe made with replica Stone Age tools.
The canoe crew paddled 140 miles in 45 hours, crossing a strong ocean current, navigating by the sun, stars and ocean swells.
Numerical simulations of the journey showed ancient seafarers likely had a deep knowledge of ocean conditions and effective travel strategies.
Stone Age seafarers braved rough waters from Taiwan to Japan
About 30,000 years ago, ancient seafarers traveled from Taiwan to the Ryukyu Islands of southern Japan. They navigated through rough conditions with no landmarks or maps and had to cross one of the most powerful ocean currents in the world. Indeed, they could only rely on the sun, stars, ocean swells and their instincts to find their bearings. On June 26, 2025, scientists from Taiwan and Japan said they re-enacted that ancient voyage using a canoe made from replica tools of the period. In addition, they also used numerical simulations to study different scenarios for successfully undertaking such a challenging journey.
Yousuke Kaifu of the University of Tokyo led the studies. He said:
We initiated this project with simple questions: How did Paleolithic [Stone Age] people arrive at such remote islands as Okinawa? How difficult was their journey? And what tools and strategies did they use?
Archaeological evidence, such as remains and artifacts, can’t paint a full picture because the nature of the sea is that it washes such things away. So, we turned to the idea of experimental archaeology, in a similar vein to the Kon-Tiki expedition of 1947 by Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl.
The researchers published two papers about their findings in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances on June 25, 2025. One paper described a re-enactment of the Paleolithic voyage. Another paper detailed numerical simulations to identify conditions needed for a successful voyage.
The crew of the dugout canoe, a few hours after leaving Taiwan for Yonaguni Island in southern Japan. They were re-enacting a journey by Stone Age seafarers, from 30,000 years ago. Image via Yousuke Kaifu/ University of Tokyo.
Humans settled in southern Japan about 30,000 years ago
Modern humans first appeared in southern Japan, specifically the Ryukyu islands, about 35,000 to 30,000 years ago. They were early seafarers, likely traveling from Taiwan. To make that journey, they had to cross a formidable barrier, the Kuroshio, one of the most powerful ocean currents in the world.
There was an additional challenge, however. The southern Ryukyu Islands are small and low. Therefore, they are not visible from Taiwan and could not be used as navigational landmarks.
This map shows Taiwan and the Ryuku Islands of southern Japan. The blue ribbon is the Kuroshio Current. The circles and dates indicate when humans settled those islands. At lower left is Wushibi in Taiwan and Yonaguni Island. Those are the departure and arrival locations of the canoe re-enactment. Image via Kaifu, Y., et. al/ Science Advances. (CC BY-NC 4.0).
What vessels did Stone Age seafarers use?
There are no remains of the vessels used 30,000 years ago. Therefore, scientists tested some likely candidates: reed-bundled rafts and bamboo rafts. However, those rafts, despite being well-designed and carefully constructed, could not withstand the rough waters of the Kuroshio Current. The researchers also ruled out a sailing vessel because sails appeared much later in history, about 5,000 years ago in Egypt.
Next, they tried dugout canoes, built from Japanese cedar trunks and carved using replica Paleolithic stone tools. To be sure, after some testing, the researchers came up with a canoe that could withstand the rough waters of the Kuroshio Current.
One of the researchers cuts down a Japanese cedar tree that will be used to create a dugout canoe. He is using a replica Paleolithic axe. Image via Yousuke Kaifu/ University of Tokyo.
Re-enacting an ancient voyage from 30,000 years ago
On July 7, 2019, five highly skilled canoe paddlers set out in a 25-foot dugout canoe from Wushibi in eastern Taiwan. They had no modern navigation aids, such as a GPS or compass. Instead, they depended on the sun, stars and swells to navigate in the open ocean. (For safety, they were monitored by a boat that also provided some food and water.)
Their destination was the small island of Yonaguni, a part of Japan’s Ryukyu Island group. The crew paddled 140 miles (225 km) from their starting point in Wushibi, Taiwan, to Yonaguni.
Later, about two hours into the trip, the water became choppy as they entered the Kuroshio Current. The crew had to constantly watch for large waves, because they had to steer directly toward them, to ride the waves and keep water from inundating the vessel. The crew exited the main Kuroshio Current about 17 hours after leaving Taiwan.
This photo shows the canoe and its crew about 4 hours after leaving Taiwan. Here, they are in the Kuroshio Current, surrounded by choppy surface ocean waters. Image via Yousuke Kaifu/ University of Tokyo.
At night, when the sky was clear, the crew used the stars to find their bearings. Likewise, in the morning and evening, they used the sun to navigate. A detailed timeline of their grueling journey is available in the paper about the expedition.
In all, they spent 45 hours paddling to Yonaguni Island, arriving there on July 9, 2019.
About 40 hours after leaving Taiwan, Yonaguni Island appears in the distance, about 12 miles (19 km) away. Image via Yousuke Kaifu/ University of Tokyo.
Numerical simulations reconstruct possible ancient voyages
The 2019 re-enactment was a one-time experiment under specific weather and ocean conditions. It’s not sufficient, however, to understand how Stone Age seafarers traveled from Taiwan to the Ryukyu Islands.
So, what circumstances allowed them to successfully complete their journey? The researchers used numerical simulations to explore various travel scenarios. Likewise, they tested different seasons, departure locations and paddling strategies using modern and Paleolithic ocean conditions.
Ultimately, the simulations revealed that these ancient humans had a deep knowledge of seafaring strategy. For instance, they might have departed from northern Taiwan because it provided the best chances for completing their journey. They also knew about the Kuroshio Current, perhaps from fishing expeditions. Therefore, they paddled slightly southeast in their canoes to counteract the powerful northward current.
A one-way journey
In addition, simulations showed that once they entered the powerful northward Kuroshio Current, they could not paddle back to Taiwan.
Kaifu remarked:
We now know that these canoes are fast and durable enough to make the crossing, but that’s only half the story. Those male and female pioneers must have all been experienced paddlers with effective strategies and a strong will to explore the unknown. We do not think a return journey was possible. If you have a map and know the flow pattern of the Kuroshio, you can plan a return journey, but such things probably did not take place until much later in history.
Bottom line: Scientists re-enacted a Stone Age voyage from Taiwan to the Ryuku Islands of southern Japan using a canoe made from replica tools of that period. In addition, they also ran numerical simulations to study the conditions for successfully completing the journey.
Source: Traversing the Kuroshio: Paleolithic migration across one of the world’s strongest ocean currents
Source: Palaeolithic seafaring in East Asia: an experimental test of the dugout canoe hypothesis
Via University of Tokyo
Watch: SUGIME – Documentary film of the “Holistic reenactment project of voyages 30,000 years ago” (in Japanese with English subtitles)
Read more: Prehistoric cave art suggests ancient use of complex astronomy
This representational image shows the sun setting over a beach. — Unsplash
It seems that time is literally speeding up as scientists have confirmed that the Earth is set to experience three remarkably shorter-than-average days in the coming weeks, as the planet’s rotation unexpectedly accelerates.
Normally, Earth’s daily rotation equates to approximately 86,400 seconds, or a precise 24 hours. However, according to a report from Popular Mechanics, three specific days this summer will see as much as 1.51 milliseconds shaved off the clock, the New York Post reported.
The International Rotation and Reference Systems Service has identified July 9, July 22, and August 5 as the dates for these “time-slicing” events. These days will rank among the shortest recorded since 2020.
Scientists attribute these particular dates to the moon being at its furthest point from the equator, which is understood to influence the Earth’s rotational speed.
Adding to the mystery, the shortest day since 2020 was already recorded on July 5, 2024, which was a full 1.66 milliseconds shorter than the average.
Experts have yet to pinpoint the exact reason for this overall increase in the Earth’s rotational acceleration.
“Nobody expected this,” remarked Leonid Zotov, an Earth rotation expert from Moscow State University, to TimeandDate regarding the quickening trend.
“The cause of this acceleration is not explained. Most scientists believe it is something inside the Earth. Ocean and atmospheric models don’t explain this huge acceleration.”
This ongoing acceleration may necessitate a drastic and unprecedented measure from Earth’s official timekeepers.
According to a study published in Nature last year, a “negative leap second” might need to be instated in 2029 to keep global time in sync with the Earth’s increasingly swift rotation.
“This is an unprecedented situation and a big deal,” said Duncan Agnew, lead author of the study and geophysicist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, at the time of the study’s release. “It’s not a huge change in the Earth’s rotation that’s going to lead to some catastrophe or anything, but it is something notable. It’s yet another indication that we’re in a very unusual time.”
It’s worth noting that days on Earth have not always been exactly 24 hours long.
During the Bronze Age, for example, daily rotations were approximately 23 hours. However, the current trend of unexpected acceleration marks a significant shift that continues to intrigue and challenge the scientific community.
A high combined intake of fruits, vegetables, legumes, and potatoes was associated with a reduced risk for Crohn’s disease — driven largely by specific foods such as apples or pears, bananas, mushrooms, and onions or garlic. Alternatively, a high intake of potatoes was associated with an increased risk for ulcerative colitis.
METHODOLOGY:
The International Organization for the Study of Inflammatory Bowel Disease recommends eating more fruits and vegetables for their fiber benefits, but current guidelines do not distinguish between subcategories despite their differing compositions and potential effects on inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) risk.
Researchers analyzed data of 341,519 participants without IBD (mean age, 52.1 years; 70% women) from a popular European cohort to evaluate how consumption of individual fruits, vegetables, legumes, and potatoes influenced the risk for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
At baseline, validated food frequency questionnaires were used to assess dietary intake of fruits, vegetables, legumes, and potatoes (including other tubers).
Participants in the lowest vs highest quartiles had median daily intakes of 291.6 vs 840.9 g/d of combined fruits, vegetables, legumes, and potatoes; 17.0 vs 100.3 g/d of apples/pears; 6.6 vs 14.0 g/d of bananas; 2.1 vs 6.2 g/d of mushrooms; 4.1 vs 11.9 g/d of onions or garlic; and 64.7 vs 82.1 g/d of potatoes.
TAKEAWAY:
The median follow-up period was 13.4 years, during which 149 participants developed Crohn’s disease and 379 developed ulcerative colitis.
A higher combined intake of fruits, vegetables, legumes, and potatoes was associated with a lower risk of developing Crohn’s disease (highest vs lowest quartile; adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 0.44; 95% CI, 0.26-0.76) but not ulcerative colitis (aHR, 1.07; 95% CI, 0.76-1.50).
A subsequent post hoc analysis showed that the pooled intake of apples or pears, bananas, mushrooms, and onions or garlic was linked to a comparable risk reduction for Crohn’s disease as total fruit, vegetable, legume, and potato intake (highest vs lowest quartile; pooled aHR, 0.58; 95% CI, 0.33-1.02).
However, a higher intake of potatoes was associated with a higher risk of developing ulcerative colitis (highest vs lowest quartile; aHR, 1.51; 95% CI, 1.05-2.17).
IN PRACTICE:
“In conclusion, we found that high combined intake of fruits, vegetables, legumes, and potatoes is associated with a lower risk of developing CD but not UC. This was particularly apparent for apple/pear, banana, mushrooms, and onion/garlic intakes. A higher risk of UC was observed for a higher intake of potatoes,” the authors of the study wrote.
SOURCE:
This study was led by Antoine Meyer, MD, PhD, Université Paris-Saclay, Villejuif, France. It was published online in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.
LIMITATIONS:
This study relied on food frequency questionnaires measured only at baseline, which may not have fully captured dietary changes over time. The mostly older, female population may not have represented the broader European or younger populations. As with all observational studies, residual confounding from unmeasured factors could not be ruled out.
DISCLOSURES:
The cohort was supported by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, and other sources. Some authors declared receiving speaker fees, grants, consulting fees, and travel support from various pharmaceutical companies.
This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.
Apple announced at its Worldwide Developers Conference on June 9 that the next version of the iPhone’s operating system will be called iOS 26. The tech giant said that update will bring a transparent glass design to icons and menus, a new Games app and much more to your iPhone this fall. But when Apple released iOS 18.4 in March, the update brought a handful of new controls to the iPhone Control Center, including one that brings Visual Intelligence to the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.
When Apple released iOS 18 in September, that update remodeled the Control Center to give you more control over how the feature functions. With iOS 18, you can resize controls, assign some controls to their own dedicated page and adjust the placement of controls to your liking. Apple also introduced more controls to the feature, making it a central hub for all your most-used iPhone features.
Read more:iOS 26 Lets Us Kill the 9-Minute Snooze Once and For All
With iOS 18.4, Apple continues to expand the number of controls you can add to the Control Center. If you have the update on your iPhone, you can add ambient music controls, and Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhones get a few AI controls in the menu, too. Here’s what you need to know about the new controls and how to add them to your Control Center.
Ambient Music controls
Apple gave everyone four new controls in the Control Center library under the Ambient Music category. These controls are Sleep, Chill, Productivity and Wellbeing. Each of these controls can activate a playlist filled with music that corresponds to the specific control. Sleep, for instance, plays ambient music to help lull you to bed.
Some studies suggest white noise could help adults learn words and improve learning in environments full of distractions. According to the mental health company Calm, certain kinds of music can help you fall asleep faster and improve the quality of your sleep. So these new controls can help you learn, fall asleep and more.
Here’s how to find these controls.
1. Swipe down from the top-right corner of your Home Screen to open your Control Center. 2. Tap the plus (+) sign in the top-left corner of your screen. 3. Tap Add a Control.
You’ll see a section of controls called Ambient Music. You can also search for “Ambient Music” in the search bar at the top of the control library. Under Ambient Music, you’ll see all four controls. Tap one (or all) of them to add them to your Control Center. Once you’ve added one or all the controls to your Control Center, go back to your Control Center and tap one to start playing music.
The new Ambient Music controls in Control Center play preloaded playlists on your iPhone when activated.
Apple/CNET
Here’s how to change the playlist for each control.
1. Swipe down from the top-right corner of your Home Screen to open your Control Center. 2. Tap the plus (+) sign in the top-left corner of your screen. 3. Tap the Ambient Music control you want to edit. 4. Tap the playlist to the right of Playlist.
A dropdown menu will appear with additional playlists for each control. If you’re in the Sleep control, you’ll see playlists like Restful Notes and Lo-Fi Snooze. If you have playlists in your Music app, then you’ll also see an option From Library, which pulls music from your library. Tap whichever playlist you want and it will be assigned to that control.
Ambient Music is similar to Background Sounds, but those are more static sounds, like white noise.
Jeff Carlson/CNET
Apple already lets you transform your iPhone into a white noise machine with Background Sounds, like ocean and rain. But Ambient Music is actual music as opposed to more static sounds like in that feature.
Both of these features feel like a way for Apple to present itself as the first option for whenever you want some background music to help you fall asleep or be productive. Other services, like Spotify and YouTube, already have ambient music playlists like these, so this could be Apple’s way of taking some of those service’s audience.
Apple Intelligence controls
Only people with an iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max or the iPhone 16 lineup can access Apple Intelligence features for now, and those people got three new dedicated Apple Intelligence controls with iOS 18.4. Those controls are Talk to Siri, Type to Siri and Visual Intelligence.
Here’s how to find these controls.
1. Swipe down from the top-right corner of your Home Screen to open your Control Center. 2. Tap the plus (+) sign in the top-left corner of your screen. 3. Tap Add a Control.
Then you can use the search bar near the top of the screen to search for “Apple Intelligence” or you can scroll through the menu to find the Apple Intelligence & Siri section. Tap any (or all) of these controls to add them to your Control Center. While Talk to Siri and Type to Siri controls can be helpful if you have trouble accessing the digital assistant, the Visual Intelligence control is important because it brings the Apple Intelligence feature to the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max.
Nice try Visual Intelligence, that’s a type of monstera.
Apple/CNET
Visual Intelligence was originally only accessible on the iPhone 16 lineup because those devices have the Camera Control button. With iOS 18.4, Visual Intelligence is now accessible on more devices and people thanks to the titular control in Control Center. But remember, Visual Intelligence is like any other AI tool so it won’t always be accurate. You should double check results and important information it shows you.
For more on iOS 18, here’s what you need to know about iOS 18.5 and iOS 18.4, as well as our iOS 18 cheat sheet. You can also check out what you should know about iOS 26.
Watch this: The Small but Mighty Features of iOS 26
Superman played by David Corenswet prepares a scene where he takes flight on Public Square during the filming of Superman movie in Cleveland.John Kuntz, cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Given the hype surrounding director James Gunn’s new “Superman” movie blockbuster, it’s easy to forget the Man of Steel’s humble origins in Depression-era Cleveland. Before he was “Truth, Justice and the American Way” — and a global media property worth billions of dollars — Superman was just a wild idea bouncing around the minds of two shy teenagers from Cleveland — kids who walked the same Glenville High School halls tread by thousands of everyday Clevelanders.
That’s where it started: a city knocked sideways by the Great Depression; two Jewish kids dreaming of something larger than their world could offer, and a yearning to rewrite the rules of power and justice.
If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
By Gary Shteyngart Random House: 256 pages, $28 If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.
Vera, the heroine of Gary Shteyngart’s sixth novel, “Vera, or Faith,” is a whip-smart 10-year-old Manhattanite, but she’s not quite smart enough to figure out her parents’ intentions. Why is dad so concerned about “status”? Why does her stepmom call some meals “WASP lunches”? How come every time they visit somebody’s house she’s assigned to see if they have a copy of “The Power Broker” on their shelves? She’s all but doomed to be bourgeois and neurotic, as if a juvenile court has sentenced her to live in a New Yorker cartoon.
Since his 2002 debut, “The Russian Debutante’s Handbook,” Shteyngart has proved adept at finding humor in the intersection of immigrant life, wealth and relationships, and “Vera” largely sticks to that mix. But the cynicism that has always thrummed underneath his high-concept comedies — the dehumanizing algorithms, the rapacious finance system — is more prominent in this slim, potent novel. Vera is witnessing both the slow erosion of her parents’ marriage along with the rapid decline of democracy in near-future America. Her precocity gives the novel its wit, but Shteyngart is also alert to the fact that a child, however bright, is fundamentally helpless.
Not to mention desperate for her parents’ affection, which is in short supply for Vera. Her father, the editor of a liberal intellectual magazine, seems constantly distracted by his efforts to court a billionaire to purchase it, while her stepmom is more focused on her son’s ADHD and the family’s rapidly dwindling bank account. Things are no better outside in the world, where a constitutional convention seems ready to pass an amendment awarding five-thirds voting rights for “exceptional Americans.” (Read: white people.) Vera, the daughter of a Russian father and Korean mother, may be banished to second-class citizenry.
Even worse, her school has assigned her to take the side of the “five-thirders” in an upcoming classroom debate. So it’s become urgent for her to understand the world just as it’s become inexplicable. Shteyngart is stellar at showing just how alienated she’s become: “She knew kids were supposed to have more posters on their walls to show off their inner life, but she liked her inner life to stay inside her.” And she seems to be handling the crisis with more maturity than her father, who’s drunk and clumsy in their home: “If anyone needed to see Mrs. S., the school counselor with the master’s in social work degree, it was Daddy.”
It’s a challenge to write from the perspective of a child without being arch or cutesy — stories about kids learning about the real world can degrade to plainspoken YA or cheap melodrama. Shteyngart is striving for something more supple, using Vera’s point of view to clarify how adults become victims of their own emotional shutoffs, the way they use language to at once appear smart while covering up their feelings. “Our country’s a supermarket where some people just get to carry out whatever they want. You and I sadly are not those people,” Dad tells her, forcing her to unpack a metaphor stuffed full of ideology, economics, self-loathing and more.
Every chapter in the book starts with the phrase “She had to,” explaining Vera’s various missions amid this dysfunction: “hold the family together,” “fall asleep,” “be cool,” “win the debate.” Kids like her have to be action-oriented; they don’t have the privilege of adults’ deflections. Small wonder, then, that her most reliable companion is an AI-powered chessboard, which offers direct answers to her most pressing questions. (One of Shteyngart’s most potent running jokes is that adults aren’t more clever than computers they command.) Once she falls into a mission to discover the truth about her birth mother, she becomes more alert to the world’s brutal simplicity: “The world was a razor cut … It would cut and cut and cut.”
Shteyngart’s grown-up kids’ story has two obvious inspirations: One, as the title suggests, is Vladimir Nabokov’s 1969 novel “Ada, or Ardor,” the other Henry James’ 1897 novel “What Maisie Knew.” Both are concerned with childhood traumas, and if Shteyngart isn’t explicitly borrowing their plots he borrows some of their gravitas, the sense that preteendom is a crucible for experiencing life’s various crises.
In its final chapters, the novel takes a turn that is designed to speak to our current moment, spotlighting the way that Trump-era nativist policies have brought needless harm to Americans. A country can abandon its principles, he means to say, just as a parent can abandon a child. But if “Vera” suggests a particular vision of our particular dystopian moment, it also suggests a more enduring predicament for children, who live with the consequences of others’ decisions but don’t get a vote in them.
“There were a lot of ‘statuses’ in the world and each year she was becoming aware of more of them,” Vera observes. Children will have to learn them faster now.
Athitakis is a writer in Phoenix and author of “The New Midwest.”
It’s been 50 years since “Jaws” ruined that summer, spawning a fleet of increasingly dreadful sequels and knockoffs, turning a simple fish into a movie monster, and a dozen since “Sharknado” turned the monster into a joke. Sharks had been swimming in the culture before that, to be sure, often with the prefix “man-eating” appended, though men eat sharks too, and way more often — so who’s the real apex predator? And even though they are not as naturally cute as our cousins the dolphins and whales — I have never heard of one balancing a ball on its nose — they have also been made adorable as plush toys and cartoon characters.
“All the Sharks,” premiering Friday on Netflix, is a competition show in which four teams of two vie to photograph the most, and the most different, species of sharks, across two eight-hour days, and are set loose in the waters off Japan, the Maldives, South Africa, Australia, the Bahamas and the Galapagos Islands. And, brother, are there a lot of varieties — hammerhead shark, walking shark, whale shark, tawny nurse shark, pajama shark, pelagic thresher, tiger shark, tasselled wobbegong shark, puffadder shy shark, baby shark, mommy shark and daddy shark, to name but a few. (There are 124 species of sharks in Japanese waters, we’re told, and 200 off South Africa.) Points are awarded according to the rarity or abundance of the species in each location. These sharks are neither monsters nor jokes, though at least one contestant finds the banded houndshark “freaking adorable … their little cat eyes, their subterminal mouth.”
As competitions go, it is friendly, like “The Great British Baking Show” or “MasterChef Junior.” There’s no way to sabotage your opponents, no strategy past guessing where the sharks might be running, eating or hanging out. The purse — $50,000 — goes to the winners’ chosen marine charity, though prizes are also awarded to the top-scoring team in each episode. (Cool gear, seaside vacations.) Winning is not so much the point as just staying in as long as possible — because it’s fun. Sometimes things don’t go a team’s way, but no one has a bad attitude.
“All the Sharks” is hosted by Tom “The Blowfish” Hird, far left. The competitors are Randy Thomas, Rosie Moore, Aliah Banchik, MJ Algarra, Dan Abbott, Sarah Roberts, Brendan Talwar and Chris Malinowski.
(Netflix)
Naturally they are good-looking, because this is television, and fit, because you need to be to do this; most have professional expertise in fishy, watery or wild things. (They certainly know their sharks.) Brendan (marine biologist) and Chris (fisheries ecologist) are a team called the Shark Docs. Aliah (marine biologist specializing in stingrays — which are closely related to sharks, did you know?) and MJ, identified as an avid spearfisher and shark diver, comprise Gills Gone Wild; they met at a “bikini beach cleanup” and have been besties ever since. British Bait Off are Sarah (environmental journalist) and Dan (underwater cameraman), who like a cup of tea. And finally, there are the Land Sharks, Randy and Rosie. Dreadlocked Randy, a wildlife biologist, says, “I was always one of the only Black guys in my classes … I got that all the time: ‘Oh, you’re doing that white boy stuff’ and it’s just like, ‘No, I’m doing stuff that I love.’” Rosie, an ecologist who specializes in apex predators, wants to show girls it’s “OK to be badass … work with these crazy animals, get down and dirty.” She can hold her breath for five minutes.
The show has been produced with the usual tics of the genre: comments presented in the present tense that could only have been taped later; dramatic music and editing; the “hey ho uh-oh” narrative framing of big, loud host Tom “The Blowfish” Hird, with his braided pirate’s beard, whose website identifies him as a “heavy metal marine biologist.” Footage of great white sharks — the variety “Jaws” made famous — is inserted for the thrill factor, but none are coming.
But whatever massaging has been applied, “All the Sharks” is real enough. The contestants deal with rough seas, strong currents, jellyfish and sundry venomous creatures, intruding fishermen, limited air, sinus crises, variable visibility and unexpected orcas. And the sharks — who do not seem particularly interested in the humans, as there is no lack of familiar lunch options — do sometimes arrive in great, unsettling profusion. (There’s a reason “shark-infested waters” became a phrase.) Meanwhile, the ocean itself plays its ungovernable part. In their enveloping blueness, dotted with colorful fish and coral reefs, the undersea scenes are, in fact, quite meditative. (Humans move slow down there.) Someone describes it as like being inside a screen saver.
In the bargain, we learn not a little bit about shark behavior and biology, and there is an implicit, sometimes explicit, conservation theme. Each encountered species gets a graphic describing not only its length, weight and lifespan but the degree to which it is or isn’t endangered — and, sad to say, many are.
