Microsoft nears takeover of 'Call of Duty' maker
Xbox-owner Microsoft has closed in on its $69-billion takeover of "Call of Duty" video-game maker Activision Blizzard after the UK said Friday that a...
2023-09-22 17:23
Take Five: An inflationary dilemma
The moment investors have been waiting for seems to finally have arrived, as major central banks have indicated
2023-09-22 17:22
Guantanamo defendant 'too damaged' to stand trial
A military judge accepts Ramzi bin al-Shibh is too psychologically damaged to defend himself.
2023-09-22 17:22
Verstappen gets back on track ahead of Japanese GP qualifying
Max Verstappen laid down a marker with the fastest times in both practice sessions for the Japanese Grand Prix on Friday, as he looks to put one hand...
2023-09-22 17:16
Ukraine war expected to have bigger impact on European economies - Swiss study
ZURICH The war in Ukraine has reduced economic growth and "considerably" pushed up inflation across Europe, the Swiss
2023-09-22 17:15
Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky visits Canada for first time since Russia invasion
The Ukrainian president and first lady land in Ottawa, more than 18 months after Russia invaded.
2023-09-22 16:57
King Charles goes to Bordeaux to visit urban forest and sustainable winery
Britain's King Charles III is heading to Bordeaux on the third day of his state visit to France to focus on climate and the environment
2023-09-22 16:57
Major UFC announcement hints at Conor McGregor return date
UFC President Dana White has seemingly quashed rumours that Conor McGregor would make his return to the Octagon in December at UFC 296. “Notorious” hasn’t fought since suffering a broken leg in his second straight loss to Dustin Poirier in 2021, but had seemed confident he would make his return at the end of this year against Michael Chandler. White did not include McGregor, however, when he announced the headline bout for the upcoming UFC 296 event in December, although he did say that more fights were to be announced. In a video on social media, White confirmed that Britain’s Leon Edwards will defend the welterweight title against Colby Covington in the UFC 296 main event in Las Vegas. Covington is a former interim champion. He also revealed that Alex Pereira vs Jiri Prochazka will be the co-main event for UFC 295 in New York in November, as the pair clash over the vacant light-heavyweight title. Pereira is a former middleweight champion, while Prochazka won the light-heavyweight title in 2021 but vacated it due to injury later that year. Irishman McGregor missed the deadline for re-enrollment into the United States Anti-Doping Agency’s (Usada) testing pool in July, which made his return this year questionable, given fighters must be in this pool for a minimum of six months before they can fight. Brock Lesnar was famously given an exemption to this rule in 2016 when he returned for UFC 200, but the official UFC-Usada policy states this can only be for “exceptional circumstances or where the strict application of that rule would be manifestly unfair to an athlete”. It now looks like McGregor’s long-awaited return will have to wait until 2024, when his fight with Chandler may precede bouts against Justin Gaethje and Nate Diaz. The 35 year-old’s current gap between fights is the longest since he made his UFC debut in 2013. Read More UFC schedule 2023: Every fight happening this year Khabib coach predicts Conor McGregor vs Michael Chandler outcome When is the next UFC event?
2023-09-22 16:56
Microsoft's revamped $69 billion deal for Activision gets closer to UK approval
British competition regulators has signaled that Microsoft’s restructured $69 billion deal to buy video game maker Activision Blizzard is likely to receive antitrust approval
2023-09-22 16:55
Historian explains why TikTok is so obsessed with the Roman Empire
If TikTok is to be believed, American men are absolutely obsessed with ancient Rome – and now a historian has explained why. The trend: “How often do you think about the Roman Empire?” has swept the social media platform in recent weeks. Scores of women have posted about how often their husbands or boyfriends said they think about it. More often than not, it’s more than once a day. But why the fascination? Historian Tom Holland could have the answer – and it doesn’t reflect well on America. Firstly, he writes in Time magazine, it is likely to be something more “visceral” than the great orators and writers like Cicero and Ovid, whose work still gets academics excited 2,000 years later. Instead, he says, it is because the Roman empire was “the apex predator of antiquity: powerful, terrifying, box-office”. Not only this, he adds, but the fact that it was so long ago means modern audiences don’t feel as uncomfortable with the cruel and violent acts of the Roman Empire as with more recent examples. “The Romans, much like the dinosaurs, are not merely glamorous—they are also safely extinct.” However, writes Holland, an author and co-host of podcast The Rest Is History, there is more to it than that: “Romans, more than any other ancient people, seem to offer America a distorted reflection of itself.” @theyaresam_ the roman empire is actually fascinating “Just as American conservatives today look back wistfully to the Founding Fathers as patrons of an age of rugged independence and virtue, so did the Founding Fathers look back with an equal wistfulness to the early years of Rome. “There, for any infant republic victorious in a war against a great monarchy, was a morality tale to be found that could hardly help but serve as inspiration. “The Romans, like the Americans, had originally been ruled by a king; then, resolved no longer to live in servitude, they had dared all in a heroic and ultimately successful campaign to expel him.” The picture gets less rosy when you look to 21st century comparisons, he continues. Both the US and Rome suffered from from wars in Iraq, the rise of rival superpowers, “political vendettas pursued in the law courts” and “the emergence of radicals preaching that the last will be first, and the first will be last, to the excitement of many, and the consternation of others”. When Americans think of Rome, Holland concludes, they are thinking of a civilisation that is both “strange and familiar; terrifying and glamorous; safely extinct and the image of themselves”. Let's just hope the US doesn't suffer the same fate as the Roman Empire any time soon. Sign up to 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.
2023-09-22 16:53
Another top Silicon Valley investor is splitting off its China business as pressure mounts
GGV Capital, a prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firm, has become the latest big investor to break up its US and China operations into separate companies as tensions between the two countries over tech and geopolitics continue to rise.
2023-09-22 16:52
RYDER CUP ’23: A rarity in the golf world. A woman is the course superintendent
Lara Arias is a rare female golf course superintendent and she's in charge at the Marco Simone club outside Rome that will host the Ryder Cup next week
2023-09-22 16:47
