The Guardian

Latest news, sport, business, comment, analysis and reviews from the Guardian, the world's leading liberal voice

Vegetarians have ‘substantially lower risk’ of five types of cancer

Study shows lower risk for multiple myeloma as well as pancreatic, prostate, breast and kidney cancers

Vegetarians have a substantially lower risk of five types of cancer, a landmark study on the role of diet has revealed.

The research, using data from more than 1.8 million people who were tracked over many years, found that vegetarians had a 21% lower risk of pancreatic cancer, a 12% lower risk of prostate cancer and a 9% lower risk of breast cancer compared with meat eaters. Combined, these cancers account for around a fifth of cancer deaths in the UK.

Continue reading...

I am in my 30s, unmarried, and afraid I’ve missed my chance. How do I make peace with my fear? | Leading questions

Your life may not look the way you thought it would, writes advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith, but whatever happens it can still be rich and fulfilling

I am in my early 30s, unmarried, and increasingly afraid that I may have missed my chance at the life I’ve always imagined. For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted children and a loving partnership that embodies safety, warmth and a shared sense of joy in living. But lately, that future feels more like a fantasy than a possibility.

Many of my closest friends are in similar positions, yet one friend is happily married with her first child and already planning a second. Watching the tenderness and stability in her marriage is both beautiful and painful. Her husband embodies so many of the qualities I long for in a partner, and I find myself wondering whether that kind of love is something I will ever experience, or whether it simply isn’t meant for me.

Continue reading...

Pakistan strikes Kabul hours after Afghanistan attack on border troops

Escalation of violence between the volatile neighbours makes a Qatar-mediated ceasefire appear increasingly shaky

Pakistan carried out airstrikes in Kabul and two other Afghan provinces early Friday, Afghanistan’s government spokesperson said, hours after Afghanistan launched a cross-border attack on Pakistan in the latest escalation of violence between the volatile neighbours that made a Qatar-mediated ceasefire appear increasingly shaky.

At least three explosions were heard in Kabul, but there was no immediate information on the exact location of the strikes in the Afghan capital, or of any potential casualties.

Continue reading...

Fleeing New Zealand to live in Australia? I’m right there with you, Jacinda Ardern | Johanna Cosgrove

I overheard the news from Clarke Gayford on a dancefloor at 2am. I’m thrilled for our former first couple

I got the news that Aotearoa’s most (internationally) famous prime minister is moving to Sydney in a way that is only possible in New Zealand. I was at the final Splore festival in Tāpapakanga at the weekend (one of our longest-running and arguably most beautiful festivals) when Clarke Gayford, Jacinda Ardern’s husband, popped up next to me on the dancefloor dressed as a giant toadstool. “Yeah, we’re moving to Sydney,” he said to a man in funereal pirate garb. “Can’t wait!”

Maybe it was the joy of a perfect tracklist at 2am, maybe it was getting this breaking news from the horse’s mouth, but I felt thrilled for our former first couple. Like Splore, NZ has the hungover malaise of a party being cancelled and the lights going out.

Johanna Cosgrove is an award-winning actor/writer/comedian. She will perform her show Sweetie at the Melbourne international comedy festival and is now in NZ filming an exciting top-secret feature film

Continue reading...

Slashdot

News for nerds, stuff that matters

Jack Dorsey's Block Cuts Nearly Half of Its Staff In AI Gamble

Jack Dorsey's Block is cutting more than 4,000 jobs, or nearly half its workforce, as part of a deliberate shift toward becoming a smaller, "intelligence-native" company built around AI. The Verge reports: "We're not making this decision because we're in trouble," Dorsey says. "Our business is strong. Gross profit continues to grow, we continue to serve more and more customers, and profitability is improving. But something has changed. We're already seeing that the intelligence tools we're creating and using, paired with smaller and flatter teams, are enabling a new way of working which fundamentally changes what it means to build and run a company. And that's accelerating rapidly."

Dorsey opted to do a big layoff instead of gradual cuts because "I'd rather take a hard, clear action now and build from a position we believe in than manage a slow reduction of people toward the same outcome." The layoffs were announced on Thursday as part of the company's Q4 2025 earnings. In a shareholder letter (PDF), Dorsey says that "We believe Block will be significantly more valuable as a smaller, faster, intelligence-native company. Everything we do from here is in service of that."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Koss Krieger

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Koss Krieger

Takashi Murakami, End of the Line, 2011

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Takashi Murakami, End of the Line, 2011

The Register

Biting the hand that feeds IT — Enterprise Technology News and Analysis

Jack Dorsey’s fintech outfit Block announces 40% layoffs, blames AI, gets 23% stock bump

One massive round of firings is apparently better for morale than a drip-drip-drip of death

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey’s financial services company Block has announced it will fire 40 percent of staff – around 4,000 people – because new "intelligence tools" the company is implementing “can do more and do it better.”…

New endowment hopes to raise a big pile of money for open source projects

Grants for critical, unappreciated projects

Open source projects, ever short of funding, have a potential new source of revenue in the form of the Open Source Endowment (OSE).…

MetaFilter

The past 24 hours of MetaFilter

Access to cool spaces is life & death for some people

Access to cool spaces is life and death for some people living with disabilities. With heatwave events set to be more frequent across the country, researchers say thermoregulation must be part of urban planning to avoid risking the lives of people with heat regulation impairments. (Australia)