Wild swimming linked to higher risk of stomach bugs and skin rashes

Wild swimming has been linked to a higher risk of stomach bugs and skin rashes, according to the largest ever controlled study of illnesses associated with bathing in rivers and lakes.

‘Who Has Time to Watch All This Crap?’: Inside 10 Anonymous Emmy Ballots as Voting Officially Closes

Emmy voting is now closed, and not a moment too soon.

Every year, more than 27,000 members of the Television Academy — actors and editors, showrunners and composers, the people who actually make television — sit down with their ballots and decide who walks away with an Emmy. And every year, almost none of them will tell us, on the record, what they really think.

The cow comes home: China's Internet celebrates Z.ai claiming ownership of Ox Alpha

How To Solve Today’s NYT Pips Puzzles, Thursday August 27

Today's Pips

Credit: NYT

Looking for help with today’s NYT Pips puzzles? You’ve come to the right place. Not only will you find strategies below, but full answers for each daily trio of Pips puzzles and a full walkthrough for the Hard Pips.

Amid a dire bargain drought, the best PC gaming headset is currently cheaper than I've ever seen it in Australia

For gamers, 2026 has been a truly abysmal year for buying expensive things cheaply. The AI-induced component shortage crisis has blighted the market for RAM, storage and GPUs, which has had a knock-on effect to most other gaming-related gear. I guess the logic is: If people can't buy a stick of RAM cheaply, or a Nintendo Switch 2 cheaply, then they're not going to expect to pay less for—as an example—a headset.

Forty children reported missing from UK asylum hotels still not found

Forty children who went missing from hotels housing asylum seekers in the UK have still not been found, according to a parliamentary report.

Ministers are facing calls from MPs and peers to explain what they are doing to locate the group, two of whom are believed to still be under 18. The figure emerged in a report on Thursday by the joint committee on human rights on how the social care system is failing young adults.

France to relax cheese production rules after drought takes toll on grazing land

Strict production rules will be loosened for some of France’s most famous cheeses after drought and repeated heatwaves dried out grazing pastures, threatening the livelihoods of traditional dairy workers.

Comté, a hard cheese made from raw cows’ milk in the Jura mountains, is France’s top-selling traditional cheese, with more than 62,000 tonnes produced last year. The government announced on Wednesday that its producers would be granted a temporary change to strict rules on grazing after farmers said extreme heat had scorched their pastures, putting production at risk.

‘No transparency’: Labor to scrap levy secretly placed on Victorian public transport fares

A levy secretly slapped on Victorian public transport users – designed to help pay for the Suburban Loop and other Big Build projects – will be scrapped, the state premier has announced.

Flipboard acquires Graze, the feed builder working to monetize the open social web

Flipboard, the news magazine software company that has more recently invested in the open social web — the umbrella term for social platforms that let users, not one company, control their own data and audience — is making another big bet on that ecosystem. The company on Wednesday announced it’s acquiring the Portland-based feed-building startup Graze, which has been working to monetize the open social web by allowing feed creators to support themselves via ads.

LIV Golf: Tyrrell Hatton expects league to continue next year despite job cuts

Tyrrell Hatton says he expects LIV Golf to continue next year despite confirmation of job losses following the early conclusion of its season in Indianapolis last week.

The breakaway circuit that began in 2022 says it needs to find $350m (£257m) investment to survive.