By Gabriel Burin BUENOS AIRES Argentina's troubled peso currency is at risk of suffering another devaluation after October's

The nation’s economy expanded at a robust 4.9% annual rate from July through September as Americans defied higher prices, rising interest rates and widespread forecasts of a recession to spend at a brisk pace

Academy graduate Jarell Quansah was denied a dream first goal by VAR in the final minute of added time as Liverpool squandered the chance to secure qualification for the Europa League knockout stage with a 3-2 defeat in Toulouse. The 20-year-old, replacing ill captain Virgil van Dijk in the side, poked home in the seventh additional minute to claim what would have been a barely-deserved point in southern France. However, VAR alerted referee Georgi Kabakov to a potential handball after the ball bounced up off Alexis Mac Allister’s chest in the build-up and the Georgian official contentiously chalked it off. Even a draw would have hardly papered over the individual errors and a lack of cohesion throughout a team registering nine changes. Toulouse, who had won only three matches prior to this game, had been thrashed 5-1 at Anfield a fortnight ago but were an entirely different prospect on home turf, although they benefited from some shambolic defending. Liverpool still top the group but their advantage has been cut to just two points and although they have the two weakest sides still to play Klopp’s 450th game in charge was not one to remember as they slipped to their first European defeat this season. The only cause for celebration on the night came a couple of hours before kick-off when news came through from Colombia that Luis Diaz’s father had been released from his 12-day kidnap ordeal. But even that could not ease the pain of Kostas Tsimikas dawdling in possession for Toulouse’s psychologically important first goal, or how easily the visitors conceded two more in the second half. It even took an own goal from Cristian Casseres to get them back into the game at 2-1, only for them to concede again less than three minutes later and it was not until the 89th minute that substitute Diogo Jota set up the late drama. On the back of the Diaz news the game began brightly for Liverpool with Joe Gomez, who has never scored for Liverpool in 188 games, flicking a Cody Gakpo cross onto the bar. Diaz turned Mikkel Desler inside out twice to win a free-kick before his knockdown of Gomez’s cross saw Mac Allister’s volley deflected over, with goalkeeper Guillaume Restes’ parrying Ben Doak’s shot. Toulouse gave Liverpool a warning they did not heed when Gabriel Suazo slid in at the far post to deflect Niklas Schmidt’s cross wide. Seven minutes later Tsimikas was sloppy in possession and robbed by Donnum, who raced into the penalty area to beat Caoimhin Kelleher via a deflection off Quansah’s leg. Midfielder Wataru Endo, who had already been booked, was lucky to escape with a lunge on Casseres but he was not so fortunate in surviving the half-time cull – and neither was Tsimikas. Dominik Szoboszlai and Trent Alexander-Arnold were their replacements, with the unfortunate Doak making way for Mohamed Salah. Toulouse immediately exposed the space behind Alexander-Arnold, as Gomez had switched to left-back, with Suazo breaking forward and cutting inside Quansah before rolling a shot wide of the far post. Thijs Dallinga did beat Kelleher in the 50th minute but referee Georgi Kabakov brought play back for a foul on Joel Matip on the edge of the penalty area. However, Dallinga’s movement got the better of Matip eight minutes later when Diaz lost the ball on the left wing, running in behind to collect Suazo’s cross with his first touch and fire past Kelleher with his second. Liverpool pulled a goal back they barely deserved in fortuitous fashion in the 74th minute when Gomez’s looping header towards the far post was turned into his own net by Casseres. But that luck was short-lived as almost instantly Frank Magri converted Suazo’s cross. Although Jota’s weaving run and shot set up Quansah’s moment in the spotlight late on, the technology denied the young centre-back. Read More Ansu Fati and Simon Adingra guide Brighton to victory at Ajax England’s Ben Stokes has ‘no idea’ if Pakistan clash will be his last ODI Rasmus Hojlund says ‘a matter of time’ until Erik ten Hag improves Man United Gareth Southgate ‘not interested in just racking up games’ as England manager Ali Price joins Edinburgh on loan from Glasgow after input from Scotland How Manchester United managers have fared since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement

SYDNEY Nearly 350 BHP iron ore rail workers in Australia, including train drivers, have approved industrial action plans

Taylor Swift and Matty Healy break up after whirlwind romance

Individual Russian swimmers will be allowed to compete in international events such as the Paris Olympics if they meet a set of “strict criteria” that include not talking to the media

The accused allegedly targeted young Asian girls on Instagram, specifically those who expressed financial difficulties or posted about self-harm

Brentford and England striker Ivan Toney says missing the World Cup was a bigger blow than the eight-month ban he is...

Garrett Wilson vs

DIICOT charged Andrew Tate and Tristan Tate, along with two other women, for rape, human trafficking, and forming a crime group to exploit women

The House has voted to censure California Rep. Adam Schiff for comments made several years ago about investigations into Donald Trump’s ties to Russia

Pokémon’s TV series has been delighting animé lovers for more than 26 years, and yet, there’s one episode that even the most diehard of fans may well have missed. The installment, titled Dennō Senshi Porygon (which roughly translates as "Computer Warrior Porygon”) aired in Japan on December 16, 1997. And, after that single, fateful outing, it was never to grace television screens again. The reason for the ban? Reports of a strange health outbreak among children which was linked to a specific scene. The episode follows Ash Ketchum, Pikachu and their pals as they investigate a faulty Poké Ball transfer machine by getting inside it. Once there, the team come under attack, but are saved when Pikachu unleashes one of his high-octane electric outbursts – represented by a barrage of red and blue strobe lights. And that’s where the trouble began. According to scientific paranormal investigator Benjamin Radford and sociologist Robert Bartholomew, who dedicated a study to the event: "At 6:51 PM, the flashing lights of Pikachu's 'attack' appeared on television screens. “By 7:30 PM, according to Japan's Fire-Defense Agency, 618 children had been taken to hospitals complaining of various symptoms." These symptoms included convulsions, nausea and vomiting, with news of the “illness” spreading rapidly throughout the country. Inevitably, it made headlines, with several news broadcasters replaying the offending clip, “whereupon even more children fell ill and sought medical attention,” Radford and Bartholomew wrote. The following day, TV Tokyo issued an apology, suspended the show, and announced an investigation into the cause of the seizures. Meanwhile, video retailers pulled the series from their shelves, and even the then-prime minister Ryuaro Hashimoto expressed concern at the use of rays and lasers in the popular cartoon. Within two days, the number of children reported to have been affected by the flashing sequence increased to around 12,700. And yet, after four months of investigation – with input from health experts and Japanese government officials – no obvious cause could be found for the outbreak and Pokémon returned to the airwaves. Because, although the bright flashes were assumed to be the cause of the health panic, such visual techniques had been used in numerous other animé episodes before, with no reports of any problems. So what was going on here? Well, a tiny fraction of the children who reported being affected were diagnosed with photosensitive epilepsy, with experts concluding that the rapid colour changes during the scene caused them to suffer seizures. However, the bulk of “patients” reported symptoms that had no identifiable “organic” cause and were, instead, consistent with a very different type of condition… Mass hysteria. Radford and Bartholomew attribute this “epidemic hysteria”, in large part, to the mass media, which they say fuelled panic and misinformation. "Many of the children's symptoms had no identifiable organic basis; other than the verified cases of seizures, the symptoms reported were minor and short-lived; the victims were nearly exclusively school children in early adolescence; and anxiety from dramatic media reports of the first wave of illness reports was evident,” they wrote. “Media reports and publicity fuel the hysteria as news of the affliction spreads, planting the idea or concern in the community while reinforcing and validating the veracity of the illness for the initial victims,” they continued. “According to news accounts of the time, the number of children said to be affected remained around 700 the evening of the Pokémon episode and the next day. “The next morning, the episode dominated the Japanese news. Japanese children who had not heard about their peers from the news or from their parents learned of it that morning when the seizures ‘were the talk of the schoolyards’,” they continued. “Once the children had a chance to hear panicky accounts of what had happened through the mass media, their friends and their schools, the number of children reported the next day to have been initially affected – 2 days earlier – increased by 12,000.” Radford and Bartholomew ended their paper by noting that this Pokémon drama offers a warning to us all. They pointed out that our continuing reliance on mass communications, especially TV and the internet, places us at risk of more and more hysteria outbreaks. “Technological innovations are occurring at unprecedented rates and have the potential to influence significant numbers of people beyond the typical number in traditional mass hysteria episodes,” they stressed. “Epidemic hysterias that in earlier periods were self-limited by geography now have free and wide access to the globe in seconds.” Concluding on an ominous note, they added: “The Pokémon illness symptoms are without precedence, given the large numbers affected, and may be a harbinger of future technological hysterias that have the capacity to affect unprecedented numbers of people at a phenomenal speed.” Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter 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.