Police say a 13-year-old girl kidnapped in Texas was rescued in Southern California when passersby saw her hold up a “help me” sign in a parked car

Reddit's month may be going from bad to worse.

By Rae Wee SINGAPORE The dollar kicked off the last quarter of the year on the front foot

President Joe Biden said he plans to travel to Vietnam soon as the US seeks to bolster its

Should you get a leg up on your university application just because Mom or Dad had...

The Labour Party won a parliamentary special election in Scotland on a large swing, suggesting leader Keir Starmer

Renowned for exuding romance with tens of thousands of proposals happening at the Eiffel Tower each year, it's no wonder Paris is branded the City of Love. The French capital first got its reputation in the 19th century, when artists and writers including Victor Hugo and Honoré de Balzac banded together for what we now know as the Romantic period. The movement rebelled against the formalities of neo-classicism, through a newfound interest in the expression of personal feeling. It was a time when literary evenings were a big hit among the bourgeoisie, later introducing words to European vocabulary such as "rendez-vous" and "je t’aime". Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Fast forward to 2023, and Paris' ties to romance are still going strong with its elegant buildings, charming streets, sultry bars and love for the arts. Given the unwritten pressures of visiting with special someone, Paris may not initially spring to mind as a solo travel destination. I've visited the famed city many times, but never alone. I too, felt the need to string someone along so I didn't feel out of place. Instead, I romanticised my solo life and headed to the city to explore through a different lens – and ironically, I fell in love, but not how you might expect. Nestled in the 15th arrondissement resides Hôtel Beauregard, a six-storey Haussmann building home to 38 rooms. Designed by Chloé Nègre, an India Mahdavi alum and one of this year’s AD 100, the hotel marries classic and contemporary features with a seventies retro twist. Complete with Eiffel Tower views and a Wes Anderson-esque restaurant, Hôtel Beauregard is the newest addition to hipster hotel company Touriste. The chain is passionate about guests "stepping outside of their comfort zone" to discover other lives, and "being comfortable with occasionally finding yourself off-centre before reclaiming parts of yourself you sometimes didn’t think were there". And, that's exactly what I did. The idea that Paris is exclusive to lovers is far from reality. It's quite the opposite: Parisians are experts at being by themselves. I read in cafes, dined al fresco, drank wine, visited galleries, and smashed my step goal. This led me to an epiphany that consciously dating yourself is one of the most romantic gestures. Even with public displays of affection in every corner, there wasn't once a feeling of missing out. While that may sound slightly self-absorbed, solitude has almost become a lost art. We spend most of our 'free time' booking in social plans, fighting dating app fatigue and desperately trying to stay busy. But, when you cut all attachment to the things you think you need, you learn to love your own company, time and freedom. It almost becomes addictive. Being alone also pushes you outside of your comfort zone. I found myself putting the world to rights with locals, discussing everything from French culture, politics, to their hate for Emily in Paris and exaggerated stereotypes – one of which being the French are rude. They're some of the friendliest people I've ever met. There's something poetic about being in the City of Love solo. Some friends, partners and family members come and go but you will always have yourself – which poses the question: Why do we struggle to value ourselves and cherish our time as much as we do with others? While I didn't find love in another person, nor did I intend to, it brings me to believe that solo travel life epitomises self-love. For more information, visit Touriste here. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

A tropical storm warning has been issued from the North Carolina coast to Delaware ahead of a potential tropical cyclone that's headed toward the densely populated East Coast

Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs have been fast starters to the NFL season

The illegal party drug MDMA – also known as ecstasy – may have led to an astonishing turnaround for a former white supremacist, according to one study. The man, referred to only by his first name, Brendan, took MDMA in February 2020 as part of an University of Chicago research project about whether the drug increased the pleasantness of social touch, Rachel Nuwer, author of new book I Feel Love: MDMA and the Quest for Connection in a Fractured World, wrote for the BBC. Brendan had become indoctrinated into white supremacy while at university in Illinois and gone on to become active within extremist circles, even attending the infamous 2017 rally in Charlottesville and taken on midwestern leadership roles within his organisation. After using MDMA and filling out the standard questionnaire at the end of the study, run by psychiatry and behavioral science professor Harriet de Wit, he added in bold letters: “This experience has helped me sort out a debilitating personal issue. Google my name. I now know what I need to do,’” Ms Nuwer reported. Upon googling his name and realizing his connection to white supremacy, the researchers contacted Brendan to ensure his cryptic message did not refer to violence or other worrying behaviour – but he told a research assistant: ‘Love is the most important thing. Nothing matters without love,” Ms Nuwer wrote. Prof de Wit, speaking to the author nearly two years later, still expressed astonishment at the results. “Isn’t that amazing?” she said. “It’s what everyone says about this damn drug, that it makes people feel love. To think that a drug could change somebody’s beliefs and thoughts without any expectations – it’s mind-boggling.” The use of MDMA and psychedelics such as psilocybin – the hallucinogenic component in magic mushrooms – is gaining traction in the medical community, showing promising results for the treatment of disorders such as PTSD and alcoholism. Brendan later told the author that the MDMA “helped me see things in a different way that no amount of therapy or antiracist literature ever would have done. “I really think it was a breakthrough experience,” he said, while explaining that many white supremacists had used MDMA previously and the drug alone was unlikely to spontaneously change minds. Ms Nuwer’s new book explores the uses of MDMA and whether it could “transform people’s beliefs too”. “MDMA does not seem to be able to magically rid people of prejudice, bigotry, or hate on its own,” she wrote. “But some researchers have begun to wonder if it could be an effective tool for pushing people who are already somehow primed to reconsider their ideology toward a new way of seeing things. While MDMA cannot fix societal-level drivers of prejudice and disconnection, on an individual basis it can make a difference. In certain cases, the drug may even be able to help people see through the fog of discrimination and fear that divides so many of us.” Read More Oregon's magic mushroom experiment steps toward reality Psychedelic drugs to treat depression without causing hallucinations may finally be near ‘Mystical’ experience using psychedelics may improve mental health, study reveals Dealer who bought 100,000 paracetamol he thought were diazepam given away by blue lips Psychedelic drug trip improves symptoms of depression for six months, breakthrough study finds Trump can’t bully his way out of his latest legal woes | Andrew Feinberg The 25-year-old party chairwoman who wants to turn North Carolina blue Trump floats special counsel conspiracy as he claims Fox abandoned ‘King’ of Maga

Craig Melvin was nowhere to be found when the show came back from commercial about 40 minutes in

Searches are taking place for Susan Hart, 74, who disappeared in Telendos on 30 April.