Saudi airline Flyadeal will launch four new direct flights between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan at the end of August, affirming its growing footprint in the region, Express News reported.
The weekly services from Riyadh to Islamabad, Peshawar, and Sialkot, as well as Dammam to Karachi, will commence between August 24 and 26, with each route operating two to three times per week using Airbus A320 aircraft.
flyadeal starting new flights to Pakistan from Riyadh and Dammam.
Riyadh-Islamabad two weekly from August 24 Riyadh-Peshawar two weekly from August 24 Riyadh-Sialkot three weekly from August 26
— Pakistan Aviation News 🇵🇰 (@avpak3) July 9, 2025
The Riyadh–Sialkot connection is particularly notable, as it reinstates direct service discontinued last year by PIA, making Flyadeal the sole provider on that route.
The expansion underscores Pakistan’s emergence as a fast-growing aviation market for Saudi carriers.
In 2024, an estimated 5.9 million passengers travelled between the two countries, with seat capacity climbing annually.
Flyadeal entered the Pakistani market in February 2025 with inaugural routes to Karachi from Jeddah and Riyadh. These new paths will effectively double its service level in Pakistan.
A flurry of AI startups are changing the way we search the web and in the process threatening Google’s search dominance in the biggest way since its meteoric rise in the late ‘90s.
This week, Perplexity, a San Francisco-based startup most recently valued at $14 billion, launched its own AI-enabled web browser for select subscribers. OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is also working on an AI web browser of its own, reported Reuters.
These AI web browsers directly aim at Google’s dominance over search, especially through its popular Google Chrome web browser, and have the potential to upend the industry as we know it by reimagining the search experience, said Steve Jang, the founder and managing partner at Kindred Ventures, which was an early investor in Perplexity.
“Every tech cycle, everyone questions whether or not a new startup can—how can they possibly defeat or even get significant market share away from these legacy platforms, and they always do,” he told Fortune.
Perplexity’s AI browser, Comet, for instance, comes with Perplexity’s AI chatbot pre-installed to replace searches. It also includes an AI agent called Comet Assistant, which the company claims can automatically book a meeting or send an email, buy something for you, and brief you on what you need to know for the day.
The entry of these AI products may also be timely and could take advantage of a “window of opportunity,” as Google faces an uncertain future thanks to the impending remedies resulting from its antitrust case, said Ari Paparo, a former director of product management of advertiser products at Google. One such remedy could include spinning off the Chrome web browser that the AI upstarts are trying to compete with.
Google didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Still, it’s unclear how the search market will ultimately pan out as a result of the new entrants. Google Chrome, for its part, still has an advantage because of its established reach of more than 3 billion users, about 68% of the market, and the massive amount of user data it collects—then there’s the friction involved with switching browsers, a challenge in itself.
But in terms of AI usage, OpenAI is already competing head-to-head with Google. Twenty-nine percent of consumers say they use OpenAI regularly, versus 30% who say they use Google’s Gemini, according to a recent survey by Wedbush.
Paparo said the technology from AI web browsers needs to be significantly better to convince consumers to switch products.
“What is it that a browser from Perplexity or a browser from OpenAI will do that’ll be 10 times better than what Google does? They already have search, they already have AI, they already have the browser. That’s a pretty tough hill to climb,” Paparo told Fortune.
What’s worse, the AI-enabled Comet, like most other AI platforms, is in some cases still prone to hallucinations, TechCrunch reported.
Still, Jang, the VC, said he is still confident the Perplexity team is set up to make major strides. Apart from Comet, the company has also previously launched a mobile app with voice capability and its own take on supercharged AI agents with Perplexity Labs.
While Google may be the giant in search, Perplexity is the eager upstart looking for an opening, he said.
“Monopolies in technology are great opportunities for startups, and by design they are meant to be attacked,” he added.
When the first Neanderthal bones were uncovered in 1856, they sparked a flood of questions about these mysterious ancient humans. Were they similar to us or fundamentally different? Did our ancestors cooperate with them, clash with them, or even form relationships? The discovery of the Denisovans, a group closely related to Neanderthals that once lived across parts of Asia and South Asia, added even more intrigue to the story.
Now, a group of researchers made up of geneticists and artificial intelligence specialists is uncovering new layers of that shared history. Led by Joshua Akey, a professor at Princeton’s Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, the team has found strong evidence of genetic exchange between early human groups, pointing to a much deeper and more complex relationship than previously understood.
“This is the first time that geneticists have identified multiple waves of modern human-Neanderthal admixture,” said Liming Li, a professor in the Department of Medical Genetics and Developmental Biology at Southeast University in Nanjing, China, who performed this work as an associate research scholar in Akey’s lab.
“We now know that for the vast majority of human history, we’ve had a history of contact between modern humans and Neanderthals,” said Akey. The hominins who are our most direct ancestors split from the Neanderthal family tree about 600,000 years ago, then evolved our modern physical characteristics about 250,000 years ago.
“From then until the Neanderthals disappeared — that is, for about 200,000 years — modern humans have been interacting with Neanderthal populations,” he said.
The results of their work were published the journal Science.
Rethinking the Ice Age Stereotype
Neanderthals, once stereotyped as slow-moving and dim-witted, are now seen as skilled hunters and tool makers who treated each other’s injuries with sophisticated techniques and were well adapted to thrive in the cold European weather.
(Note: All of these hominin groups are humans, but to avoid saying “Neanderthal humans,” “Denisovan humans,” and “ancient-versions-of-our-own-kind-of-humans,” most archaeologists and anthropologists use the shorthand Neanderthals, Denisovans, and modern humans.)
Using genomes from 2,000 living humans as well as three Neanderthals and one Denisovan, Akey and his team mapped the gene flow between the hominin groups over the past quarter-million years.
The researchers used a genetic tool they designed a few years ago called IBDmix, which uses machine learning techniques to decode the genome. Previous researchers depended on comparing human genomes against a “reference population” of modern humans believed to have little or no Neanderthal or Denisovan DNA.
Akey’s team has established that even those referenced groups, who live thousands of miles south of the Neanderthal caves, have trace amounts of Neanderthal DNA, probably carried south by voyagers (or their descendants).
With IBDmix, Akey’s team identified a first wave of contact about 200-250,000 years ago, another wave 100-120,000 years ago, and the largest one about 50-60,000 years ago.
Challenging the Out-of-Africa Model
That contrasts sharply with previous genetic data. “To date, most genetic data suggests that modern humans evolved in Africa 250,000 years ago, stayed put for the next 200,000 years, and then decided to disperse out of Africa 50,000 years ago and go on to people the rest of the world,” said Akey.
“Our models show that there wasn’t a long period of stasis, but that shortly after modern humans arose, we’ve been migrating out of Africa and coming back to Africa, too,” he said. “To me, this story is about dispersal, that modern humans have been moving around and encountering Neanderthals and Denisovans much more than we previously recognized.”
That vision of humanity on the move coincides with the archaeological and paleoanthropological research suggesting cultural and tool exchange between the hominin groups.
Li and Akey’s key insight was to look for modern-human DNA in the genomes of the Neanderthals, instead of the other way around. “The vast majority of genetic work over the last decade has really focused on how mating with Neanderthals impacted modern human phenotypes and our evolutionary history — but these questions are relevant and interesting in the reverse case, too,” said Akey.
They realized that the offspring of those first waves of Neanderthal-modern matings must have stayed with the Neanderthals, therefore leaving no record in living humans. “Because we can now incorporate the Neanderthal component into our genetic studies, we are seeing these earlier dispersals in ways that we weren’t able to before,” Akey said.
Shrinking Populations and Genetic Illusions
The final piece of the puzzle was discovering that Neanderthals had a smaller population than researchers previously thought.
Scientists often estimate population size by looking at genetic diversity. In general, more variation in the genome suggests a larger group. But when Akey’s team applied their tool, IBDmix, they found that much of the apparent diversity in Neanderthal DNA actually came from genes inherited from modern humans, who had far larger populations.
With this new insight, scientists lowered their estimate of the Neanderthal breeding population from about 3,400 individuals to roughly 2,400.
Taken together, these findings help explain how Neanderthals disappeared from the fossil and genetic record around 30,000 years ago.
“I don’t like to say ‘extinction,’ because I think Neanderthals were largely absorbed,” said Akey. His idea is that Neanderthal populations slowly shrank until the last survivors were folded into modern human communities.
This “assimilation model” was first articulated by Fred Smith, an anthropology professor at Illinois State University, in 1989. “Our results provide strong genetic data consistent with Fred’s hypothesis, and I think that’s really interesting,” said Akey.
“Neanderthals were teetering on the edge of extinction, probably for a very long time,” he said. “If you reduce their numbers by 10 or 20%, which our estimates do, that’s a substantial reduction to an already at-risk population.
“Modern humans were essentially like waves crashing on a beach, slowly but steadily eroding the beach away. Eventually we just demographically overwhelmed Neanderthals and incorporated them into modern human populations.”
This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (grant R01GM110068 to JMA).
Purely in football terms, the tournament could be considered a success.
The group stages were a slow burner, with mismatched games like Bayern Munich 10-0 Auckland City.
There have been plenty of dramatic games and surprising scorelines – and an average of more than three goals per game.
Manchester City were knocked out 4-3 in extra time by Al-Hilal. Benfica took Chelsea to extra time thanks to a 95th-minute penalty – after a two-hour weather delay – before the Blues won 4-1.
Chelsea scored a late winner in the quarter-final against Palmeiras, with Estevao Willian, who joins them after the competition, netting against his soon-to-be team-mates.
Lionel Messi scored a free-kick, amateur side Auckland City picked up a point against Boca Juniors, having lost their first two games by a total of 16-0, and there have been games with scorelines of 4-4, 4-3, 4-2 and 5-2.
PSG, who have been sensational at times, beat Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid and Inter Miami 4-0.
PSG beat Bayern 2-0 despite having nine men – and there were three stoppage-time goals and a red card as Real beat Borussia Dortmund 3-2.
“We saw a few games at the start of the tournament which were a bit of a mismatch, but after that all the games have been competitive,” said Brown.
“The mixture of cultures has been amazing. We’ve seen some different styles of play but a lot of quality everywhere.
“The Brazilian teams in particular contributed to that in a massive way. They set the standard in matches, put pressure on European teams and made them respond.
“What we do have to understand is that the European teams had not hit their stride when the tournament started because they’d had a bit of a rest first [after the end of their domestic seasons].”
Skin fades and sculpted bobs are out. Messy tops and longer locks are in. For fashion hawks, the move towards lengthier hair is hardly news, but it may not be fashion alone that is driving the shift. Rising costs and tightened belts are among the reasons some believe are behind the trend for longer hair.
The average cost of a haircut for men and women in the UK has soared by more than 30% since 2020, according to government data. As a result, many of us have adapted our hairstyles.
“We’re still in a cost of living crisis,” said Phil Smith. “Most people are struggling. Anything that’s going to give your hair a bit of a longer life is going to stay in fashion.”
For Smith, the owner of the salon Smith England in Salisbury, which caters to men and women, the move towards longer-lasting styles has hit business. “It’s been disastrous,” he said. “People are not coming in as often.”
The most common shift he has seen among men is a move away from skin fades, where hair on the sides is cut tightly and blended to created a faded look – a style that needs regular maintenance.
The English actor Tom Hardy has his hair textured on top and close-shaved at the sides. Photograph: Henry Nicholls/AFP/Getty Images
Instead, people have opted for taper fades, which provide a similar blended look but retain more length on the upper sides and top.
“Short hair is dying out and longer hairstyles are back in fashion,” he said. “When the taper fade is done properly, it lasts that little bit longer. The skin fade lasts two weeks and you’ve got to do it again. When the taper grows out, it looks a bit cooler and messier.”
Mullets are also back in fashion, but Smith has a note of caution for those wanting the in-demand do. “If it’s been cut badly, it’s just a throwback to Chris Waddle.”
A Sydney man sporting a sleek haircut known locally as a ‘Mullet’. Photograph: Brook Mitchell/Getty Images
The collision of the cost of living crisis with the salon is most keenly felt by women, who have traditionally paid more for their hair styling than men. Smith said here too, there have been cost-influenced fashion trends.
The treatment that has undergone the largest change is hair colouring. Dyed roots, which need to be redone every 10 to 12 weeks, are out. Balayage, where colour is applied directly to the hair, is all the rage. This treatment only requires a bi-yearly visit to the salon.
The actor Rose Byrne has distinctly sun-kissed looking hair. Photograph: Fred Hayes/Getty Images for SAGindie
“It looks like sun-kissed ends, lovely hair that’s being lifted by the sunshine,” he said.
In his own shop, Smith said he has had to raise his prices by about 15% to 20% as rising costs, including the recent national insurance rise and inflation on salon products, hit hard.
“I’ve been doing this for 41 years and this is by far the hardest I’ve ever seen it. The recession and 2008 banking crisis was a walk in the park compared with how things are now,” he said.
Bobby Gordon, the owner of the men’s barber Fella, which has branches in London and Kent, has found the climate similarly challenging.
“There’s a limit to what people will pay for certain things,” he said. “It’s the same with a haircut. I think the work has been cheapened for a very long time and we’re playing catch-up.”
“For a long time, people just assumed a men’s haircut was a tenner. But the quality of work that barbers are doing now is, on the whole, a lot better.”
He said the skin fade and shorter styles in general were on their way out. “Hair couldn’t get any shorter unless we started to take people’s scalps off,” he said.
He has been forced to raise his prices owing to rising costs, but time is also a factor.
“Clients are more demanding, they know what they’re after. They’re not bringing in a picture of a footballer like they did a long time ago. They’ve seen stuff on Instagram and the cuts people want now take a long time to do. It’s not a five-minute job, they take 40 to 45 minutes to do, maybe even an hour,” he said.
With longer styles booming in popularity, Fella has introduced a “back and sides” option to entice those who don’t want to pay full whack for a touch-up.
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“It’s been quite popular,” he said. “We felt that with the way styles are changing, people don’t necessarily want a full haircut and they find the back and sides to be the problem areas.”
Richard Scorer, the creative director of the women’s salon chain Haringtons, said people were “having higher-value services left less often”. He has seen a similar surge in demand for balayage treatments.
“Time is a big issue for people. People used to come in every week and have a blow dry. Now, they’re coming in less regularly, so they want services that last,” he said.
Scorer said his salons, located around the Thames Valley, are at the “higher end of the market” for the area. Despite this, he has seen new customers expecting to level up their treatments, especially as prices in less-luxury hairdressers have also risen.
“People want experiences now, having a haircut here is a lovely experience,” he said. “Beware of false economies. If you come to a salon like ours, the initial price might be more, but we do things like fringe trims for free for three months.”
Our experts’ top tips for long-lasting hairstyles
For men
Taper fade For those who still want a bit of tightness in their cut, the taper fade offers a good balance between some shortness on the sides while retaining some volumising length on top. Because it’s left longer towards the blended top of the head, when it grows out it still retains a good shape, which means less frequent visits to the barber.
Mod cut This longer, textured trim will give your mop some flexibility. You can leave it soft and unkempt and still look fresh or apply some product for a more defined look. The fringe also gives you some hair to play with, which can be slightly parted or left to sit on your forehead. This cut can be done every four to six weeks.
Timothée Chalamet shows off his textured mod look. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA
For women
Forward graduation This layered, textured cut will give your long, luscious locks some bounce and make your facial features pop. It involves cutting shorter layers in the front and longer layers in the back, which will make it grow out more evenly. It is a particularly good style if you want to add some shape, volume and bounce to long, flowing hair.
Jennifer Aniston is known for having plenty of bounce and volume in her hairstyling. Photograph: Michael Buckner/Variety/Getty Images
Square layered haircut This boxy cut, which involves cutting layers at a 90-degree angle to the head shape, will give your hair a neat but bouncy look. Like the forward graduation, the layered cuts mean it will grow out more evenly and is fairly maintenance-free.
A newly developed artificial intelligence model is showing promising results in simulating human behavior with a level of accuracy not previously achieved in cognitive science. The model, called Centaur, is designed to predict how people make decisions across a wide range of situations, including unfamiliar ones.
Developed at Helmholtz Munich’s Institute for Human-Centered AI, Centaur is based on a large dataset—over ten million individual decisions made by more than 60,000 participants across 160 controlled psychological experiments, according to the press release. These included studies on risk-taking, reward processing, moral reasoning, and more. The dataset, named Psych-101, was specifically structured to train a language model on cognitive behavior.
Earlier models were built on rigid rules or task-specific designs. Centaur, on the other h learns generalizable patterns in human decision-making. It processes inputs described in natural language and predicts not just outcomes, but also likely response times—offering a layered understanding of the decision process. This capacity to model cognition dynamically brings researchers closer to replicating the underlying mechanisms of thought.
One of the model’s potential applications is in clinical psychology. By simulating how individuals with mental health conditions approach decisions, the model may help researchers identify behavioral markers for conditions like anxiety and depression. Future versions of the dataset will incorporate psychological profiles and demographic factors, expanding its relevance for personalized mental health research.
Beyond psychology, the model may offer tools for decision-making in fields such as healthcare, social policy, and behavioral economics. The ability to simulate human reasoning in response to complex, real-world scenarios could assist in designing more effective interventions or services.
The research team emphasizes ethical deployment, advocating for transparent and open systems. Their goal is to maintain full control over data and model behavior, ensuring that such tools are used responsibly—particularly in sensitive domains.
As research progresses, the team plans to examine how internal computations within the model correspond to actual cognitive strategies. This could provide further insight into how individuals process information, and how those processes differ across populations.
The findings were published in Nature and mark a step forward in the use of AI to explore human cognition at scale.
The first song I fell in love withFight the Power by Public Enemy from their Fear of a Black Planet album touched my soul. Hearing the vibrant production on that record is what really inspired me as a child to become a musician. I listened to it so much, I nearly wore it out. It was crazy.
The first single I bought Ruff Rhyme (Back Again) by my friend King T on cassette tape from Tower Records in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It has the Ruff Mix remix on the B-side, and to this day he and I fight about which is best.
The song I do at karaoke In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel. Is it in my vocal range? I don’t give care if I’m singing it right. I’ll do my best.
The best song to play at a party It depends on what they’re serving. If it’s a wild party and there’s a whole bunch of drugs involved, it’s gotta be uptempo. If it’s kick back with some weed, then some 90s or 00s gangsta rap like Nuthin’ But a “G” Thang by Dr Dre featuring Snoop Dogg.
The song I secretly like I love Everything by Mary J Blige from her Share My World album, which samples You Are Everything by the Stylistics and The Payback by James Brown. I’ve been a fan of hers ever since she came out. She’s one of my favourite artists who integrates hip-hop and R&B.
The best song to have sex to It’s not about the music. Sometimes it’s just about being into your partner: that’s the music right there. Would I have sex to my own records? Hell no. Have you heard my shit, like Choke Me, Spank Me (Pull My Hair)? You can’t have sex to those records.
The song that changed my life Bitch Please by Snoop Dogg featuring Nate Dogg and Xzibit was the beginning of an era. It launched us into the stratosphere, turned the page, and kicked everything up in my career.
The song that makes me cry You just reminded me I haven’t cried in a minute. I gotta go look for that.
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The song that gets me up in the morning Yankee and the Brave by Run the Jewels because it’s adrenaline and goes good with coffee.
The song I’d like played at my funeral Play This at My Funeral, the first song on my new album.
Canada continues to see an alarming rise in measles cases in 2025.
Through the spring, the virus spread most intensely in Ontario. But after over 2,200 cases, hundreds hospitalized and one measles-related death, it seems to be dwindling in that province.
Now, Alberta’s seeing a spike, with almost 1,300 confirmed cases so far.
With every province except Newfoundland and Labradorreporting cases of measles, here are some common questions from CBC readers, viewers and listeners — answered.
I’ve had measles as a child. Am I safe from getting infected again?
Most likely yes, says the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC).
It says those who have had a past measles infection should be immune against another one, as long as they have a normal immune response.
I’ve lost my vaccination records. Should I get another dose?
Generally, yes, says PHAC.
PHAC recommends that children and adults who don’t have records of their vaccination history be started on an immunization schedule appropriate to their age and risk factors.
Even if you’ve already been vaccinated, it’s generally considered safe for health-care providers to give another dose, PHAC says, because they haven’t seen additional side effects from repeated immunization.
But this is why a national vaccine registry would be hugely helpful, says Dawn Bowdish, a professor of immunology at McMaster University.
“The number of people who are looking to figure out if they got one dose, if they got two doses, if they were vaccinated as children and perhaps they just moved provinces and they can’t get their records is extremely high.”
Two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine offer almost 100 per cent effectiveness against the virus in the long term.
Can I check my immunity to measles?
That depends.
PHAC says routine testing for laboratory evidence of measles immunity is not recommended for the general population.
Some populations, like health-care workers who work with vulnerable people, as well as some pregnant women, can get a blood test looking for antibodies against measles.
Those who have received two doses of a measles-containing vaccine, or those who are born before 1970, are presumed to be immune against the virus.
Do we screen for measles vaccination status among people who enter Canada?
No. Proof of vaccination is not mandatory to enter Canada.
Canada does require permanent residents and certain temporary residents to have an immigration medical exam before arriving in Canada, said a spokesperson for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. The test also screens for certain communicable diseases.
During that medical exam, some may be offered vaccinations — including the measles, mumps and rubella shots.
Doctors who work with recent immigrants and asylum seekers tell CBC News their patients generally don’t hesitate to get any childhood vaccinations they might have missed.
But, they say, the federal government can do more to ramp up pre-departure vaccination programs, and make it easier for health-care providers to access medical and vaccination records across borders.
Two facts about Alice Warner Johnson were as important as anything else about her time on earth.
One, she loved The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and her family above all else. And two, she devoted her life — even after it became nearly impossible to carry on — to help others through their trials, explained her obituary in 2019 after she died at age 55.
Johnson is the author and composer of “O Lord, Who Gave Thy Life for Me,” which was included in the latest batch of new hymns for “Hymns — For Home and Church.”
She wrote the hymn while suffering from a progressive form of multiple sclerosis, which came with episodes of blindness and numbness and led to increasing, then total incapacity.
Alice Warner Johnson, nee Alice Anne Warner, is pictured in 1982. She wrote several books and hymns, including “O Lord, Who Gave Thy Life for Me” in the Church’s new hymnbook. | Provided by the Johnson family
The About the Hymns section of gospel library says this for this hymn:
“Devastated as she declined, Sister Johnson pled with the Lord for more time to serve Him and her family. While learning to trust Him and surrender her will to His, she was inspired to write ‘O Lord, Who Gave Thy Life for Me.’”
Her daughter, Katherine Pearse, remembers going into her mother’s office in the basement and watching her “hunched over her keyboard, meticulously working on the melodies and chords. … She spent hours writing and rewriting that beautiful hymn as her disease worsened and became more severe.”
The hymn speaks of humbly going to the Lord and offering a sacrifice of a contrite soul and broken heart. The second verse talks about bearing His yoke. In the end, the hymn says, “Now bind my grateful heart to Thine.”
Scripture references in the new hymnbook for this hymn are Doctrine and Covenants 59:8 and Matthew 11:28–30, which include the Lord’s teachings on these themes.
Alice Warner Johnson plays the piano in a picture from 2006. Johnson wrote the hymn “O Lord, Who Gave Thy Life for Me.” | Provided by the Johnson family
Pearse said even in the worst moments, her mother remained positive and continued to share and serve however she could.
“Most importantly her faith never wavered,” Pearse told the Church News. “She gave thanks to God constantly, she looked to Christ as her support, and she lived by the Spirit in hopes that she could find ways to reach out to others in need.”
‘The perfect way to honor her legacy’
Johnson grew up in Provo, Utah, as the oldest of 10 siblings. She showed remarkable gifts from a young age, including learning to read by the age of 3 and teaching herself piano. She performed in many musicals, wrote stories, sang in University Singers at Brigham Young University and served a full-time mission to Taiwan.
After college, she had a prestigious job in Boston, Massachusetts, and always wanted to become a wife and mother. After moving back to Utah in her 30s to help her dad start a new company, a mutual friend set her up with Paul Johnson and they were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple in 1996.
Paul, Alice, Annie, Katie, Sam and Molly Johnson are pictured in 2006. Before dying in 2019, Alice Warner Johnson wrote the hymn “O Lord, Who Gave Thy Life for Me,” which is included in the Church’s new hymnbook. | Provided by the Johnson family
Two months after her second daughter, Pearse, was born, Johnson woke up in the morning to sudden blindness. She learned that she had an advanced form of multiple sclerosis.
“This devastating blow did not stop my mom,” Pearse said. Johnson continued pursuing and sharing her musical and writing talents from her home in Lindon, Utah. Several of her hymns won Church music contests at this time. Later, moving to Eagle, Idaho, Johnson directed ward choirs and made it a joy for people to participate, Pearse said.
Despite the danger that the disease would progress more rapidly with more children, the Johnsons — after much deliberation, prayer and priesthood blessings — had two more children.
Soon Johnson was unable to walk or drive. Pearse said she continued to write books and hymns from her bed, and would call people to say she was thinking about them and offer ways to help them. Relief Society sisters who went to visit her would leave saying they felt served by her instead.
After five years of being completely bed bound, Johnson passed away. Her funeral included a choir with people from her childhood and her wards in Boston, Lindon and Eagle singing in her honor.
“Her life was filled with loving friends and family, incredible experiences, and so much music,” Pearse said.
Alice Warner Johnson and her children, Annie and Katie, play music together in 2004. Johnson wrote the hymn “O Lord, Who Gave Thy Life for Me,” which is in the Church’s new hymnbook. | Provided by the Johnson family
While Johnson received many awards and accolades throughout her life, she would say her crowning jewel was being a mother to her four children. While all of them are also musical, they strive to honor her by remembering her words — “kindness is the most important thing.”
“Her hymn being included in the hymnbook is the perfect way to honor her legacy,” Pearse said. “The lyrics follow her story of terrible loss, but giving it over to the Lord. She truly did lay her burdens at His feet, trust His will, and even feel profound gratitude for her many blessings.”
O Lord, Who Gave Thy Life for Me
1. O Lord, who gave Thy life for me, I come now in humility And here my sacrifice impart: A contrite soul, a broken heart. Oh, may Thy love in mercy shine And bind my sorrowing heart to Thine.
2. My burden at Thy feet I lay— My pride, my hurt, each willful way, The weight of all my sin and care— And in its place Thy yoke I’ll bear. Oh, may Thy love my soul refine And bind my trusting heart to Thine.
3. My heart is full of love for Thee, Because I know Thou first loved me. Now by that love I’ll seek to live; Like Thee, I freely would forgive. Oh, may Thy love my life define And bind my willing heart to Thine.
4. And as I strive to thus endure With cleaner hands and heart more pure, In all around I see Thy face And feel the bounties of Thy grace. O Savior, may Thy love divine Now bind my grateful heart to Thine.
Learn more about all the new hymns in the “About the Hymns” resource in of Gospel Library.
עברית (Hebrew)
