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Mohamed Al Fayed, the Egyptian-born businessman who owned the department store Harrods, has died aged 94. His death comes almost 26 years to the day after the car crash in Paris that killed his eldest son, Dodi, and Diana, Princess of Wales, on 31 August 1997. In a statement released by Fulham FC, his family said: “Mrs Mohamed Al Fayed, her children and grandchildren wish to confirm that her beloved husband, their father and their grandfather, Mohamed, has passed away peacefully of old age on Wednesday 30 August 2023. “He enjoyed a long and fulfilled retirement surrounded by his loved ones. The family have asked for their privacy to be respected at this time.” Fayed was born in Alexandria and was the son of a schoolteacher. His break in business came after he met his first wife, Samira Khashoggi, the sister of Saudi millionaire arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, who employed him in his Saudi Arabian import business. The role helped him forge new connections in Egypt and he went on to launch his own shipping business, before becoming an adviser to one of the world’s richest men, the Sultan of Brunei, in 1966. He moved to Britain in the 1970s and in 1979, with his brother Ali, he bought the Paris Ritz Hotel. FULL STORY

Rudy Giuliani on Friday pleaded not guilty to Georgia charges that accuse him of trying, along with former president Donald Trump and others, to illegally overturn the results of the 2020 election in the state. In filing his not guilty plea with the court, the former New York mayor and Trump attorney also waived his right to appear at an arraignment hearing set for 6 September. He joins the former president and at least 10 others in forgoing a trip to Atlanta to appear before a judge in a packed courtroom with a news camera rolling. Trump and Giuliani are among 19 people charged in a sprawling, 41-count indictment that details a wide-ranging conspiracy to thwart the will of Georgia’s voters who had selected Democratic nominee Joe Biden over the Republican incumbent. The charges against Giuliani, along with other legal woes, signal a remarkable fall for a man who was celebrated as “America’s mayor” in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attack. He now faces 13 charges, including violation of Georgia’s anti-racketeering law, the federal version of which was one of his favorite tools as a prosecutor in the 1980s. Fani Willis, the Fulton county district attorney, has said she wants to try all 19 defendants together. But the legal wrangling has already begun in a slew of court filings since the indictment was filed on 14 August. Several of those charged have filed motions to be tried alone or with a small group of other defendants, while others are trying to move their proceedings to federal court. Some are seeking to be tried quickly under a Georgia court rule that would have their trials start by early November, while others are already asking the court to extend deadlines. Due to “the complexity, breadth, and volume of the 98-page indictment”, Giuliani asked the judge in Friday’s filing to give him at least 30 days after he receives information about witnesses and evidence from prosecutors to file motions. Normally, pretrial motions are to be filed within 10 days after arraignment. FULL STORY

There are many jokes that center around older adults waking up before the sun, and even more about teenagers’ late-sleeping habits. Turns out there’s truth to them: The time our body naturally goes to sleep and wakes up is not only part of our genetics, but part of the natural aging process, too. As we age, our bodies change both internally and externally, which is a major factor behind the sleep changes that come later in life. “Like most of the things that change with age, there’s not just one reason, and they are all interconnected,” said Cindy Lustig, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan. We asked Lustig and other experts to break down the main reasons why this occurs, and what you can do to push back if you just want those few extra hours of Zzzs. Earlier wake times are part of the natural aging process. Like other aspects of our physical and mental health, the brain becomes less responsive as we age. “The wiring of the brain is likely not sensing...and responding to the inputs as well as it should because it’s an aging brain,” said Dr. Sairam Parthasarathy, the director of the Center for Sleep and Circadian Sciences at the University of Arizona Health Sciences. These inputs include sunset, sunlight, meals, social cues, and physical activity that help mark where we are in a day. “These are all what we call time givers, or they give time to the brain,” he said. In other words, they help the brain sense where it is in the 24-hour circadian cycle. So, for a younger person, dinner time may help the brain understand that bedtime is in a few hours; for someone older, this connection may not happen. The nerves that are supposed to give the brain time cues have undergone the same amount of degeneration as the brain, Parthasarathy said. This inability to sense time cues is part of the reason why older people tend to get tired before their children or grandchildren. And, as a result, wake up fully rested and earlier than the rest of the world. FULL ARTICLE

Efforts to keep former President Donald Trump off the 2024 ballot under the 14th Amendment are gaining momentum as election officials in key states are preparing for or starting to respond to legal challenges to Trump's candidacy. The argument to disqualify Trump from appearing on primary or general election ballots in 2024 boils down to Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment, which states that an elected official is not eligible to assume public office if that person "engaged in insurrection or rebellion against" the United States, or had "given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof," unless they are granted amnesty by a two-thirds vote of Congress. Several advocacy groups have said that Trump's actions on Jan. 6, 2021, fit that criteria -- that he directly engaged in an insurrection. The legal theory has been pursued, unsuccessfully, against a few other elected Republicans; arguing their actions around Jan. 6 and support for overturning the 2020 election results amounted to the disqualifying behavior. Trump has denied any involvement in the attack on the Capitol. "Joe Biden, Democrats, and Never Trumpers are scared to death because they see polls showing President Trump winning in the general election," Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Chung told ABC News in a statement. "The people who are pursuing this absurd conspiracy theory and political attack on President Trump are stretching the law beyond recognition much like the political prosecutors in New York, Georgia, and DC. There is no legal basis for this effort ... " The push to disqualify Trump under this constitutional clause gained more traction when two members of the conservative Federalist Society, William Baude and Michael Stokes Paulsen, recently supported the idea in the pages of the Pennsylvania Law Review. Following the Baude and Paulsen article, retired conservative federal appeals judge J. Michael Luttig and Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Laurence Tribe made the same argument in The Atlantic. FULL STORY

Thailand's King has reduced the eight-year prison sentence of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra to a year. Mr Thaksin, who returned home last month after 15 years of self-imposed exile, was immediately sent to jail. He was then moved to the luxury wing of a state hospital after complaining of heart problems. Mr Thaksin has always said the outstanding sentences, over charges of corruption and abuse of power, were politically motivated. Deposed by a military coup in 2006, Mr Thaksin, one of Thailand's most influential and polarising personalities, left the country two years later to avoid a prison sentence. His return on 22 August was assumed to be part of a wider political deal. And it was one that was meant to bring his popular Pheu Thai party together with its one-time adversaries in a compromise government. And it did that. Hours after he arrived, a new coalition government, led by Pheu Thai, voted its candidate Srettha Thavisin as the new PM. The coalition includes Mr Thaksin's former military rivals who deposed his party in 2014 in a coup. Who is Thaksin Shinawatra? Thaksin's return seals grand Thai political bargain Mr Thaksin clearly hoped for leniency as a part of that deal, and King Vajiralongkorn has responded quickly to his request for a pardon, reducing his eight-year sentence to just one. Mr Thaksin is likely to stay in hospital. In response to his request for a royal pardon, the royal gazette on Friday noted his age and "illness". It added that Mr Thaksin "has done good for the country and people and is loyal to the monarchy". FULL STORY

About 61% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, an issue that impacts both low-wage and high-income families alike, according to new research from LendingClub. Low-wage earners are most likely to live paycheck to paycheck, with almost 8 in 10 consumers earning less than $50,000 a year unable to cover their future bills until their next paycheck arrives. Yet even 4 in 10 high-income Americans, or those earning more than $100,000, say they're in the same position, the research found. Such a situation is viewed as financially risky because it means those households don't have enough savings to tide them over in case of an emergency, indicating that they are unable to cover their upcoming bills until their next payday. The rate of Americans who are living paycheck to paycheck is on the rise, up 2 percentage points from a year earlier, the analysis found. Inflation is partly to blame, with consumers still grappling with higher prices — although prices have cooled since hitting a 40-year high of 9.1% in June 2022. But a minority of paycheck-to-paycheck consumers point to another issue that's impacting their financial stability: nonessential spending on items such as travel, eating out and streaming services, the analysis found. FULL STORY

Former President Donald Trump's trial in Fulton County, Georgia, will be televised and live streamed, a judge said Thursday. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee said he will allow a YouTube stream of all related hearings and trials stemming from the investigation into an alleged scheme to overturn the state's 2020 presidential election results. The live stream will be operated by the court. There will also be pool coverage for television, radio and still photography allowed, he said. The former president has pleaded not guilty in the case. He surrendered last week at the Fulton County jail, after he and 18 others were indicted for allegedly participating in a "criminal enterprise" that aimed to overturn his loss in Georgia's 2020 presidential election. Trump is charged with 13 felony counts. A date for his trial has not yet been set. This would be the first time cameras would be allowed to capture full proceedings in one of the four criminal cases brought against Trump this year. Georgia allows cameras in the courtroom as long as they do not disrupt proceedings. A number of photographers were allowed inside the courtroom for a few minutes before the start of the hearing in Trump's arraignment in New York in April, before they had to leave. Cameras are typically not allowed in New York courtrooms but news organizations had asked for an exception. FULL STORY

Whale hunting is set to return in Iceland despite hopes the temporary ban would remain. Iceland‘s minister of food, agriculture and fisheries, Svandís Svavarsdóttir, announced on Thursday that this summer’s temporary ban on whaling would be lifted in a move international marine conservation organisation OceanCare has described as ‘disappointing’, A suspension on whaling was put in place by the Icelandic government in June, set to expire in August 2023, due to animal welfare concerns. It came after monitoring by Iceland’s Food and Veterinary Authority on the fin whale hunt found that the killing of the animals took too long based on the main objectives of the Animal Welfare Act. An investigation found that around 40% of hunted whales did not die instantly, with an average time to death of 11.5 minutes. Iceland’s Food and Veterinary Authority found that two whales had to be shot four times. One of the whales took almost an hour to die, while the other took almost two hours. In anticipation of the ban being lifted, two Icelandic whaling vessels left port yesterday to resume whale hunting, OceanCare said. FULL STORY

A handful of defendants have been sentenced to more than a decade of incarceration over their actions during the Capitol riots on Jan. 6, 2021. The Justice Department (DOJ) announced earlier this month that approximately 597 federal defendants have had their cases adjudicated and received sentences for their activity Jan. 6. About 366 individuals have been sentenced to periods of incarceration. Many of those with the longest sentences include members of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers — two far-right extremist groups whose members took to the Capitol to attempt to stop the votes of the 2020 election from being counted. Two members of the Proud Boys — Joe Biggs and Zachary Rehl — were sentenced Thursday for actions they took on Jan. 6. Two more Proud Boys, Dominic Pezzola and Ethan Nordean, are scheduled to be sentenced Friday while Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio will be sentenced next week. Here are five of the longest Jan. 6 sentencings so far: Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years in prison in May, after being found guilty on conspiracy charges for his role in the Capitol attack. Rhodes currently has the longest sentence of any Jan. 6 defendant. Judge Amit Mehta laid down the sentence at the time, telling the leader that he is “not a political prisoner” and that he is an “ongoing threat and a peril to this country.” Rhodes’s sentence was also notable because he did not actually enter the Capitol on Jan. 6, but instead he directed his team via a walkie-talkie app as they entered the building in a “stack” formation. The sentence was shorter than the DOJ’s ask for 25 years of imprisonment. FULL STORY

Former President Trump told conservative media personality Glenn Beck he would prosecute his political enemies if elected president again. “You said in 2016, you know, ‘Lock her up,'” Beck reminded Trump of his statements about Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016 during an appearance on his BlazeTV show Tuesday. “And then when you became president, you said, ‘We don’t do that in America. That’s just not the right thing to do.'” “That’s what they’re doing,” Beck continued, asking the former president, “Do you regret not locking her up? And if you’re president again, will you lock people up?” Trump, who dismissed the various charges he faces in Georgia, New York, Florida and Washington, D.C., said there is “no choice.” “Well, I’ll give you an example… The answer is you have no choice, because they’re doing it to us,” Trump said, adding that he “never hit Biden as hard as I could have.” “I always had such great respect for the office of the president and the presidency … And then I heard he was trying to indict me, and it was him that was doing it,” he said. The former president, also the current front-runner for the GOP nomination for president in 2024, has been indicted four times this year in connection with his personal business dealings, handling of classified documents and efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. FULL STORY

This looks really different ! Have you been, would you go, let us know ????

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Posts edited to remove personal inflammatory remarks. Keep it civil please. The alternative is losing the ability to post at all.

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Used since 1967, the Century nameplate lives on the part of the Toyota iceberg that we've never seen in the United States. It has historically denoted a big, luxurious sedan often referred to as Japan's Rolls-Royce, and the brand announced it will soon appear on a flagship SUV. Confirming a recent rumor, Toyota revealed that the Century SUV will make its debut online in September 2023. It hasn't shown the model yet, but it released a preview image that gives us a basic idea of what to expect from it. The sedan has traditionally been characterized by a boxy, understated and elegant design, and it looks like the SUV will tick the same boxes. It features a pronounced belt line that flows into a squared-off quarter panel, horizontal LED rear lights, and bright exterior trim pieces to underline its positioning as a range-topping SUV. The image shows someone wearing a glove preparing to open the passenger-side rear door. This confirms two points. One, the Century SUV (a name that may not end up on the production model) gets front-hinged rear doors instead of Rolls-Royce-style rear-hinged units. Two, its interior will be designed for chauffeur-driven buyers. We expect to find a long list of luxury and comfort features for the rear passengers. We'll need to be patient to find out what's under the sheet metal. Toyota builds the current-generation Century on a platform launched in 2003, so we wouldn't be surprised if the SUV rides on one of the brand's newer architectures. Powertrain details remain under wraps as well, though an earlier rumor claims the high-riding limousine will use a gasoline-electric hybrid drivetrain built around a twin-turbocharged V6. Toyota will stream the unveiling on its YouTube channel on September 6, 2023, at 1:30 p.m. Japan time, which is 9:30 p.m. on September 5 in California and 12:30 a.m. on September 6 in New York. While unveiling a car this late (or this early, depending on your perspective) might sound odd, nothing suggests that the Century SUV will be sold in the United States. FULL STORY

New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) alleged former President Trump inflated his net worth by as much as $2.2 billion, according to court documents filed Wednesday. The allegation came as part of James’s lawsuit against Trump, the Trump Organization and two of the former president’s children alleging more than a decade of fraud. Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump both currently serve as executive vice presidents at the Trump Organization, playing prominent roles in their father’s business arm. Ivanka Trump was previously included in the lawsuit, but later dismissed from it by a state appeals judge. James included the new figure in a court filing urging a judge to partially rule against Trump ahead of the scheduled Oct. 2 trial. She alleged that Trump inflated his net worth by hundreds of millions of dollars between 2011 and 2021. In 2014, James accused Trump of exaggerating his net worth by as much as $2.225 billion. “While this is just the tip of a much larger iceberg of deception Plaintiff is prepared to expose at trial — which would result in carving off billions more from Mr. Trump’s net worth — it is more than sufficient to permit this Court to rule as a matter of law that each [statement of financial conditions] from 2011 to 2021 was false or misleading,” James wrote. FULL STORY

THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION pleasantly stunned health care reform advocates Tuesday by including short-acting insulin in its list of 10 drugs for which Medicare will negotiate lower prices, power vested in the White House by the Inflation Reduction Act. The IRA was passed in the face of one of the heftiest barrages of lobbying in congressional history, with the pharmaceutical industry spending more than $700 million over 2021 and 2022 — several times more than the second- and third-ranking industries — much of it aimed at stopping the legislation, watering it down, or undermining its implementation. The industry succeeded in narrowing the scope of the new law, with only 10 drugs eligible for negotiation in 2023. But the effort to stop the administration from using that authority to target blockbuster drugs failed spectacularly, as the White House list includes medications that seniors spend billions on in out-of-pocket costs alone, never mind the fees paid by Medicare itself. But it was the inclusion of the broad swath of ingredients and medical devices needed to make insulin that sets the White House move apart and which will likely have the most far-reaching impact. FULL STORY

A study has found that marijuana users have elevated levels of heavy metals in their blood and urine compared to those who do not use marijuana. The study, published Wednesday in the Environmental Health Perspectives journal, found that marijuana users had higher levels of lead in their blood and urine compared to non-marijuana users. Conducted at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, the study used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and conducted the research with a group of more than 7,200 participants. The researchers split participants into five groups: non-marijuana/non-tobacco, exclusive marijuana, exclusive tobacco, and dual marijuana and tobacco use. They measured five different metals in participants’ blood and 16 in their urine. “Because the cannabis plant is a known scavenger of metals, we had hypothesized that individuals who use marijuana will have higher metal biomarker levels compared to those who do not use,” author Katlyn McGraw, postdoctoral researcher in Columbia Public Health’s Department of Environmental Health Sciences, said in a press release. “Our results therefore indicate marijuana is a source of cadmium and lead exposure,” she added. FULL STORY

The past six months has brought a stream of bad news for China's economy: slow growth, record youth unemployment, low foreign investment, weak exports and currency, and a property sector in crisis. US President Joe Biden described the world's second-largest economy as "a ticking time bomb", predicting growing discontent in the country. China's leader Xi Jinping hit back, defending the "strong resilience, tremendous potential and great vitality" of the economy. So who is right - Mr Biden or Mr Xi? As is often the case, the answer probably lies somewhere in between. While the economy is unlikely to implode any time soon, China faces huge, deep-rooted challenges. A property crisis and poorer households Central to China's economic problems is its property market. Until recently, real estate accounted for a third of its entire wealth. "This made no sense. No sense at all," says Antonio Fatas, professor of economics at the business school INSEAD in Singapore. For two decades, the sector boomed as developers rode a wave of privatisation. But crisis struck in 2020. A global pandemic and a shrinking population at home are not good ingredients for a programme of relentless housebuilding. The government, fearing a US-style 2008 meltdown, then put limits on how much developers could borrow. Soon they owed billions they could not pay back. Now demand for houses has slumped and property prices have plunged. This has made Chinese homeowners - emerging from three years of tough coronavirus restrictions - poorer. "In China, property is effectively your savings," says Alicia Garcia-Herrero, chief Asia economist at wealth management firm Natixis. "Until recently, it seemed better than putting your money into the crazy stock market or a bank account with low interest rates" It means that, unlike in Western countries, there has been no post-pandemic spending boom or major economic bounce back. FULL STORY

For the second time in just over a month, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell appeared to freeze while speaking to reporters. At a press event in Covington, Kentucky, the 81-year-old paused for more than 30 seconds when asked whether he would run for-re-election in 2026. Aides attempted to prompt the senator, but it took several more seconds for Mr McConnell to recover. He then answered two more questions, which had to be repeated by staff. He made no comments about his health, before leaving with aides. "Leader McConnell felt momentarily lightheaded and paused during his press conference today," a spokesperson said after the incident. A staffer later told the BBC's US partner CBS News the lawmaker "feels fine" but "will be consulting a physician prior to his next event". Mr McConnell's first verbal lapse occurred during a press conference at the US Capitol in Washington DC on 26 July. There, he paused mid-sentence for approximately 20 seconds, before being ushered away by his fellow Republican senators. He later returned and told reporters he was "fine" and had felt "lightheaded". Mr McConnell, who leads the Republican party's narrow minority in the upper chamber of Congress, was admitted to hospital for a week after suffering a concussion and a fractured rib following a fall outside a Washington area hotel in March. He was transferred to a rehabilitation facility and did not return to the Senate until mid-April. After the freezing incident in July, US media reported that Mr McConnell has endured at least three other falls since February. This latest episode will again raise questions about the health of the Kentucky senator heading into what will be a busy autumn legislative session, as Congress attempts to avoid a partial government shutdown at the end of October. An aide to Senator John Thune, Mr McConnell's deputy in the chamber, told reporters they had spoken after the incident. Mr McConnell "sounded like his usual self and was in good spirits", Ryan Wrasse said. "We have disagreements politically but he's a good friend and so I'm going to try and get in touch with him later this afternoon," President Joe Biden said later on Wednesday. Concern over Mr McConnell's health follows questions about the condition of 90-year-old California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, who was absent from the chamber for months after being diagnosed with a severe case of shingles. The average age for members of the US Senate is 65. FULL STORY

Sky gazers around the world are in for a rare treat as a blue supermoon is making a spectacular appearance for the first time since 2009. A blue Moon occurs when the pattern of days in a year means there are 13 full Moons instead of the usual 12. This blue Moon is also a supermoon - when the Earth's only natural satellite appears brighter than usual because it is at its closest point in its orbit around our planet. But despite its name, the lunar phenomenon has nothing to do with colour - it gets its name because it does not fall in the usual scheme of named Moons. The lunar spectacle is visible either on Wednesday or Thursday in different parts of the world. In the UK, the best time to see the spectacle will be in early hours of Thursday morning. MORE IMAGES