Michael Strahan admits he would be an 'awful' player on 'The $100,000 Pyramid' as he can't handle the 'pressure' of the game show

SYDNEY Australian retail sales unexpectedly slipped in October as consumers cut back on everything but food, though analysts

With a global military footprint, experts are asking how Wagner will fill the void left by its leader.

'They (Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce) have a huge appreciation for life and their careers, strong family bond and values,' said a source

US economic growth in the first three months of the year was faster than previously estimated, the Commerce Department reported on Thursday.

Katharine McPhee has revealed that she and husband David Foster have suffered a “horrible family tragedy”. The singer, 39, shared a statement to Instagram on 11 August to announce that she’ll be missing the rest of her husband’s tour in Asia, where she’s been performing as a guest, due to a family emergency. Although she didn’t specify what the tragedy was, she wrote that she’ll be heading home to be with her loved ones, while implying that her husband will still be doing the shows this weekend. “Dearest Jakarta fans, it’s with heavy heart I announce I have to miss our final two shows of our Asian run,” she wrote. “David and I have had a horrible tragedy in our family and at least one of us needs to get back home to our family.” She concluded: “Please know how sorry I am and how much I wish to return someday and perform for you all. Love, Katharine.” Many friends and fans of the couple took to the comments of McPhee’s post to send her kind messages amid the family tragedy. “Sending my love and prayers for your family,” Masked Singer judge Nicole Scherzinger wrote, while Linda Thompson added: “Sending you and David love, & hoping that everything is okay.” “Sending you loads of love. I’m thinking of you guys,” Amanda Kloots also wrote. Foster, 73, is still set to play at the Sentul International Convention Centre in Jakarta, Indonesia, on 11 August and 12 August, according to his official website. He will then be on a hiatus from his tour, before returning to the stage on 1 November in Warren, Michigan. The Independent has contacted a representative for McPhee and Foster for comment. Foster and McPhee made their official debut as a couple in 2018, before officially tying the knot the next year. They welcomed their first child, Rennie, in February 2021. Since then, they have continued to post about their son on social media, hinting that he also has a musical side. In June, Foster shared a video on Instagram of Rennie playing the drums, alongside the caption: “PROGRESS!! Two years three months.” During an interview with Entertainment Tonight in October, Foster acknowledged that although his youngest child has developed an interest in drumming, it’s still soon to tell if he’ll become a musician like his parents. “You know when you look at somebody like Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf, their kids are very talented... but they’re not tennis players, so we don’t know,” he said “He’s so young.” McPhee also agreed, adding: “It makes sense that he’d be musical, but we’re not really sure. He’s certainly obsessed with the drums! Or imaginary drums, for that matter.” Read More Katharine McPhee reveals whether she and David Foster want more children David Foster opens up about raising a toddler at age 73 Katharine McPhee defends husband David Foster after backlash over postpartum body comment Gemma Atkinson slams trolls who called her ‘fat’ just three weeks after giving birth Mother diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, anorexia and incurable cancer 7 ways for parents and carers to ease back-to-school worries

More than 100 troops from the Russian mercenary group Wagner are moving towards a thin strip of land between Poland and Lithuania, Poland's prime minister says, who warned they could pose as migrants to cross the border.

Ukrainian and Russian forces clashed more than 80 times on Sunday as fierce fighting was witnessed in three major fronts that saw the use of guided air missiles, drones, rockets, artillery and mortar shells, military officials in Kyiv said. The announcement by Kyiv’s officials comes amid reports that Russia rushed more troops to Avdiivka to replace their heavy losses. Officials have said fighting on three fronts has remained particularly “hot”. Fighting in the direction of Avdiivka, Marinka and Kupiansk has intensified in the past few months but aggravated assaults have been particularly strong this month as Russian forces are eyeing the capture of Avdiivka. “During the day, 82 combat clashes took place. In total, the enemy launched 10 missiles and 36 air strikes, carried out 35 attacks from rocket salvo systems on the positions of Ukrainian troops and populated areas,” the General Staff of the Ukraine Armed Forces said in a daily update on Sunday evening. The Russian military is deploying personnel from Russian territory directly to Avdiivka positions to replace personnel losses, Ukrainian spokesperson for forces in the south Oleksandr Shtupun said. Another military observer from Kyiv, Kostyantyn Mashovets, said the Russian military command has recently transferred several Russian regiments comprising mobilised personnel to the Avdiivka direction suggesting Moscow does not plan to abandon its military operations in this direction, noted The Institute for the Study of War. It added that Vladimir Putin’s forces failed in their renewed push on 19-20 October and are now funnelling additional forces to this front despite suffering challenges with frontal mechanised assaults. “Russian forces are likely once again pausing following a failed major push which suffered heavy losses. A prominent Russian milblogger claimed that Ukrainian forces ‘unexpectedly’ counterattacked in the direction of Pisky (8km southwest of Donetsk City) and pushed Russian forces from positions in the area,” the US based think-tank said in its latest assessment on Sunday. In Kupiansk, Ukrainian forces repelled 15 attacks by Russian troops in Kharkiv’s Sinkivka and Ivanivka districts. Russian forces also fired artillery and mortar on the region, the General Staff said. Similar artillery shelling and mortar attacks, targeting 15 settlements, were carried out by Russian forces in eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk where the Lyman direction lies. The besieged city of Bakhmut also suffered Russian strikes. “At the same time, the Defence Forces of Ukraine continue offensive operations in the Melitopol direction, offensive (assault) actions in the Bakhmut direction, inflicting losses in manpower and equipment on the occupying troops, exhausting the enemy along the entire front line,” the General Staff said. Troops amassed on both sides are engaged in daily shelling, but Russian forces are likely facing “positional deadlock”, a Kremlin-affiliated military blogger said, citing difficulties. “The milblogger claimed that it is difficult to conduct manoeuvre warfare on a static front line with a large number of personnel and fortified areas on both sides. The milblogger noted that Ukrainian drones and other precision weapons have made armoured vehicles increasingly vulnerable and have made ground attacks increasingly difficult,” the ISW said. He said Russian forces are “facing difficulties in overcoming Ukrainian minefields near Avdiivka and are unable to completely destroy Ukrainian logistics, allowing the Ukrainian command to quickly transfer personnel to critical areas”. Read More Ukraine-Russia war - live: Putin forced to increase number of soldiers on ground as UK estimates death toll Six killed and 16 injured in Russian missile strike on Kharkiv mail depot A price cap on Russian oil aims to starve Putin of cash. But it's largely been untested. Until now

Since his discovery on November 18 at 9:30 pm, Jace Evans has been receiving mental health treatment at a hospital

At least 16 people were injured Wednesday when an Amtrak train collided with a truck blocking the tracks and partially derailed in Southern California, local officials said.

YouTube has revealed a host of new, musical artificial intelligence experiments. The features let people create musical texts by just writing a short piece of text, instantly and automatically generating music in the style of a number of artists. Users can also hum a simple song into their computer and have it turned into a detailed and rich piece of music. The new experiments are YouTube’s latest attempt to deal with the possibilities and dangers of AI and music. Numerous companies and artists have voiced fears that artificial intelligence could make it easier to infringe on copyright or produce real-sounding fake songs. One of the new features is called “Dream Track”, and some creators already have it, with the aim of using it to soundtrack YouTube Shorts. It is intended to quickly produce songs in people’s style. Users can choose a song in the style of a number of officially-licensed artists: Alec Benjamin, Charlie Puth, Charli XCX, Demi Lovato, John Legend, Papoose, Sia, T-Pain, and Troye Sivan. They can then ask for a particular song, deciding on the tone or themes of the song, and it can then be used in their post on Shorts. Another is called Music AI Tools, and is aimed to help musicians with their creative process. It came out of YouTube’s Music AI Incubator, a working group of artists, songwriters and producers who are experimenting with the use of artificial intelligence in music. “It was clear early on that this initial group of participants were intensely curious about AI tools that could push the limits of what they thought possible. They also sought out tools that could bolster their creative process,” YouTube said in an announcement. “As a result, those early sessions led us to iterate on a set of music AI tools that experiment with those concepts. Imagine being able to more seamlessly turn one’s thoughts and ideas into music; like creating a new guitar riff just by humming it or taking a pop track you are working on and giving it a reggaeton feel. “We’re developing prospective tools that could bring these possibilities to life and Music AI Incubator participants will be able to test them out later this year.” The company gave an example of one of those tools, where a producer was able to hum a tune and then have it turned into a track that sounded as if it had been professionally recorded. The tools are built on Google Deepmind’s Lyria system. The company said that was built specifically for music, overcoming problems such as AI’s difficulties with producing long sequences of sound that keep their continuity and do not break apart. At the same time, Deepmind said it had been working on a technology called SynthID to combine it with Lyria. That will put an audio watermark into the sound, which humans cannot hear but which can be recognised by tools so that they know the songs have been automatically generated. “This novel method is unlike anything that exists today, especially in the context of audio,” Deepmind said,. “The watermark is designed to maintain detectability even when the audio content undergoes many common modifications such as noise additions, MP3 compression, or speeding up and slowing down the track. SynthID can also detect the presence of a watermark throughout a track to help determine if parts of a song were generated by Lyria.” The announcement comes just days after YouTube announced restrictions on unauthorised AI clones of musicians. Earlier this week it said that users would have to tag AI-generated content that looked realistic, and music that “mimics an artist’s unique singing or rapping voice” will be banned entirely. Those videos have proven popular in recent months, largely thanks to online tools that allow people to easily combine a voice with an existing song and create something entirely new, such as Homer Simpson singing popular hits. Those will not be affected straight away, with the new requirements rolling out next year. Read More AI-generated faces are starting to look more real than actual ones Elon Musk unveils new sarcasm-loving AI chatbot for premium X subscribers New tech listens to your belly gurgling and monitors how well you are New tech listens to your belly gurgling and monitors how well you are SpaceX is launching the world’s biggest rocket – follow live Instagram users warned about new setting that could accidentally expose secrets

There was a tense atmosphere at Boxpark Wembley as England fans watched the Lionesses’ penalty shootout against Nigeria unfold. Sarina Wiegman’s side squeezed past their opposition with a 4-2 win on spot-kicks, after a goalless 120 minutes. Given the nation’s record on penalties, it’s no surprise that atmosphere was tense in Boxpark as the latest shootout unfolded - especially after Georgia Stanway missed England’s first. But Nigeria also failed to score their first two, leaving Chloe Kelly the opportunity to send the Lionesses through, and those watching in Wembley jumped to their feet when she smashed the ball past Chiamaka Nnadozie.