'I don't think it's any of your business where I live,' said Zach Bryan to the police officers who detained him

The British government confirmed Sunday it may scrap a big chunk of an overdue and over-budget high-speed rail line once touted as a way to attract jobs and investment to northern England. British media reported that an announcement is expected this week that the line will end in Birmingham – 100 miles (160 kilometers) from London -- rather than further north in Manchester. The Conservative government insists no final decision has been made about the embattled High Speed 2 project. But Cabinet minister Grant Shapps said it was “proper and responsible” to reconsider a project whose costs have ballooned because of high inflation driven by the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. “We’ve seen very, very high global inflation in a way that no government could have predicted,” said Shapps, a former transportation secretary who now serves as the U.K.'s defense minister. “It would be irresponsible to simply spend money, carry on as if nothing had changed,” he told the BBC. The projected cost of the line, once billed as Europe’s largest infrastructure project, was estimated at 33 billion pounds in 2011 and has soared to more than 100 billion pounds ($122 billion) by some estimates. HS2 is the U.K.’s second high-speed rail line, after the HS1 route that links London and the Channel Tunnel connecting England to France. With trains traveling at a top speed of around 250 m.p.h. (400 kph), the new railway was intended to slash journey times and increase capacity between London, the central England city of Birmingham and the northern cities of Manchester and Leeds. Though it drew opposition from environmentalists and lawmakers representing districts along the route, the project was touted as a way to strengthen the north’s creaky, overcrowded and unreliable train network. The government hailed it as a key plank in its plan to “level up” prosperity across the country. The north of England, which used to be Britain’s economic engine, saw industries such as coal, cotton and shipbuilding disappear in the last decades of the 20th century, as London and the south grew richer in an economy dominated by finance and services. The government canceled the Birmingham-to-Leeds leg of HS2 in 2021 but kept the plan to lay tracks on the 160 miles (260 km) between London and Manchester. Former Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a longtime champion of the project, said cutting it back even further “makes no sense at all.” “It is no wonder that Chinese universities teach the constant cancellation of U..K infrastructure as an example of what is wrong with democracy,” Johnson said. Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said people in northern England were “always treated as second-class citizens when it comes to transport.” “If they leave a situation where the southern half of the country is connected by modern high-speed lines, and the north of England is left with Victorian infrastructure, that is a recipe for the north-south divide to become a north-south chasm over the rest of this century,” Burnham, a member of the opposition Labour Party, told British TV channel Sky News. The government has also delayed work on bringing the line all the way to Euston station in central London. When it opens, some time between 2029 and 2033, trains will start and finish at Old Oak Common station in the city’s western suburbs. London Mayor Sadiq Khan said that would create “a ridiculous situation where a ‘high speed’ journey between Birmingham and central London could take as long as the existing route, if not longer.” “The government’s approach to HS2 risks squandering the huge economic opportunity that it presents and turning it instead into a colossal waste of public money,” Khan said in a letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Read More Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Shapps says HS2 cannot have ‘open-ended cheque’ as Sunak set to wield axe It would be ‘irresponsible’ to keep spending money on HS2, cabinet minister says How the timeline for banning petrol and diesel cars has shifted over the years

TikTok Chief Executive Officer Shou Chew and other top executives met recently with 40 influential leaders, including many

The Justice Department says two Pinterest directors resigned from Nextdoor’s board of directors in response to the department's efforts to enforce an antitrust law aimed at barring executives from holding similar positions at rival companies

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Zijie Yan suffered multiple gunshot wounds, including to the head, face, neck, left arm, chest, and abdomen

“If you marry me, I am not against waking up at 3 am to bake scones,” reads a DM from an anonymous and evidently thirsty individual to Black Panther actor (and thick-thighed king) Winston Duke. “One thing is for certain… my fans are determined to keep me thicc! 3 am scones you say?” the actor tweeted in reply alongside screenshot evidence. In a matter of seconds, Duke’s responses became a non-judgemental zone for marriage proposals and offers of various 3 am meals he could have if only he chose them instead. “Oh? You respond to fan messages?” tweeted one fan. “Please notice me, I can cook and do laundry and in the evenings we can read together.” We get it. If anything, this cute fan-to-celebrity social media interaction only served to make the thirsty thirstier — there’s now more than enough reason to hope that a simple DM could lead to something more (‘maybe, just maybe, my crush will read the direct message I sent at an ungodly hour and our love story will unfold…’).

Though these words sound like fiddle-faddle, they have specific uses that go beyond yada yada and twittle-twattle.

Egyptian authorities say two tankers have collided in the Suez Canal, disrupting traffic through the global waterway

Michael Strahan celebrated the creation of Nickelodeon's 'Kids Choice Sports' ceremony ahead of its upcoming anniversary

NFL teams will be allowed to play an emergency quarterback from the inactive list if the first two are injured during a game

Twitter has added video calling – and left it turned on by default. The feature is now being officially rolled out, Elon Musk confirmed. He said it was an “early version” of a tool he has been hinting at for a year. Video calls are part of Elon Musk’s plans to make Twitter, which he has renamed X, into the “everything app”, offering a wide array of different functionality. For now, video calls are limited to the iOS app, and appear to be rolling out slowly. But they are also switched on by default. The system means that all accounts are liable to receive calls from accounts you follow, or those run by people whose number you have in your address book. To be able to call someone, they must have sent at least one direct message to your account. Users have the option to change that setting, however, either to switch it off or to change who has the ability to make calls. From the direct message settings, users can either disable it entirely or change it so that they can receive calls from people in your address book, from people you follow, or from all “verified” users. Making phone calls is limited to premium subscribers, who pay the monthly subscription for what was once called Twitter Blue. It can be done by opening up the DM menu to start a conversation with someone. If the feature is enabled, then a phone icon should show within the direct message conversation, and tapping audio or video will start the relevant kind of call. Users will receive a notification that they are being called, and will get another telling them they missed the call if they do not pick up. Read More The Twitter app just went very, very strange TikTok prankster Mizzy arrested ‘on suspicion of perverting course of justice’ Study finds ‘deepfakes’ from Ukraine war undermining trust in conflict footage