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Monaco GP: Haas explain disqualification from Qualifying after technical breach on rear wing | F1 News

admin — Sun, 26 May 2024 11:22:36 +0000

Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu has explained how failures in communication and procedure led to both cars being disqualified from Monaco Grand Prix Qualifying.

Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen qualified 12th and 15th respectively at the famous street circuit, but were disqualified from the session due to a non-compliant rear wing element.

When the upgraded rear wing opened in the track’s sole DRS zone, the clearance was found to be greater than the maximum allowed opening of 85mm.

Komatsu said that the team’s designers had not properly explained to Haas’ trackside squad the differences in between the new rear wing and the previous part.

“We had a new rear wing for Monaco, which was good,” Komatsu told reporters on Sunday morning in Monaco.

“But the issue is it was designed a slightly different way, and then just a slight lack of communication from design intention to the guys who were doing the legality check on the trackside.

“The guys doing the legality check at trackside didn’t realise this change in the concept, where is going to be the limit, which is at both extremities. On previous wings, the limit was always around the centre, so they checked it in the same way.

“It’s no excuse. Regardless of any information, you should be checking across the whole span, but they weren’t. They were just concentrating on more centre. Then just the last bit on both extremities, it was too wide because of that.”

Komatsu confirmed that Hulkenberg and Magnussen will be allowed to start from the back of the grid, as opposed to the pit lane, with the FIA having approved the changes required to make the cars compliant.

The Haas boss, who took over from Guenther Steiner at the end of last season, admitted that the failure was “incredibly frustrating”.

“If the designers made it absolutely clear that the design intentions are slightly different to the wings you’ve been using and you have to check it in this way, that would have helped,” Komatsu added.

“But at the same time, even without that information, the trackside legality check guys should have checked the whole legality surface. So it’s just a failure in management sense, unfortunately.

“There’s no performance gained, absolutely zero, but that’s not the point. The car needs to be legal. So we just have to accept this as a failure of the team and then learn from it, make sure we don’t make the same mistake again. We can’t.

“I had a team meeting earlier this morning just to explain that. We just have to accept it as a team, take it on the chin. It’s going to be a long afternoon in Monaco but we’ve only got ourselves to blame, so you have to take responsibility and move forward.

“Of course it is incredibly frustrating but there’s nothing we can do at this minute, so we just have to learn from it and take it on the chin.”

The American-owned team have defied low pre-season expectations to sit seventh in the constructors’ standings after the opening seven rounds of the season, but are highly unlikely to be able to score points from the back of the grid.

Sky Sports F1’s live Monaco GP and Indy 500 schedule

Sunday May 26
12.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: Monaco GP build-up*
2pm: The MONACO GRAND PRIX*
4pm: Chequered Flag: Monaco GP reaction
5pm: Ted’s Notebook
5.30pm: The Indy 500

*also live on Sky Sports Main Event

It’s time for the most-famous F1 race of them all – the Monaco Grand Prix. Watch every session from the famous street circuit live on Sky Sports F1, with Sunday’s race at 2pm. Stream every F1 race and more with a NOW Sports Month Membership – No contract, cancel anytime

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An Editor Whose Business Is Fitness

admin — Sun, 26 May 2024 08:48:22 +0000

Times Insider explains who we are and what we do and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.

Molly Mirhashem is used to running around in circles — literally.

Six days a week, Ms. Mirhashem runs near her home in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Much of her weekly mileage takes place on the same, roughly 3.5-mile loop of a nearby park. Her training will come in handy: This weekend, she is running the Buffalo Marathon in upstate New York. It will be her ninth time gutting out 26.2 miles since she first caught the marathon bug in 2017.

Ms. Mirhashem, an editor on the Well desk covering fitness, came to The New York Times last month from Outside Magazine, where she spent eight years assigning and editing health and wellness articles, among other responsibilities.

One of her goals at The Times is to reach readers who are dabbling in fitness, but want a little extra guidance.

“There are beginners, who we often speak to, and then there are experts looking for the tiniest, marginal gain in their marathon time,” she said in a recent interview. “I think there is room to serve those readers in the middle ground.”

Here, Ms. Mirhashem shares what motivates her to hit the ground running — in her new job, that is — and the biggest challenges of the fitness beat. These are edited excerpts.

Were you always interested in fitness?

I am a lifelong runner. I started running in youth track and field, and stuck with it through high school. I ran track and cross-country in college, and then tried marathons after that.

When did your love of fitness merge with your passion for journalism?

For a short while after college, I worked in political news media in D.C. Then, in 2016, I moved to Santa Fe to work at Outside as an editorial assistant. That was the first time that I started melding my personal interest in health and fitness with my work. At Outside, it was broader than just fitness — I worked on all kinds of health and wellness stories.

What does a week in fitness look like for you?

A lot of people think that because I’m an editor working in the fitness space, I take a bunch of supplements, or I’m doing all sorts of crazy workout classes. My routine is pretty simple. I run six days a week. I do some light mobility work and bodyweight exercises, though not as much as research says I should do.

What’s the biggest challenge of your beat?

Fitness advice can feel boring and repetitive, but so much of fitness is really about finding a type of movement that you enjoy, practicing it consistently, making sure you’re resting enough and drinking enough water. A lot of people just don’t have time for that. Finding new ways to present the basics — in a way that is enticing to people who are not necessarily excited about exercise or running a marathon — is the biggest challenge.

Where do you find ideas for articles?

I read a lot of newsletters in the health and fitness space so that’s one place. Also, because I have been a runner for so long, a big part of my community and my friend group are runners or people who are just interested in fitness and exercise. So conversations happen organically among people I know, and then I have to do the work of looking into whether certain ideas are solid or just anecdotal. At Outside, I also had a really great stable of columnists and reporters who were on the ground, keeping up with new research and having conversations with people all the time.

Is there an article from Outside that you are particularly proud of?

I edited a column for about seven years called “Sweat Science” that was written by Alex Hutchinson. He covered the emerging science in endurance sports and exercise science. He has a Ph.D. in physics and is an elite runner, but he had such a knack for distilling takeaways. Working with him really informed my whole philosophy about the role of service journalism in this space, and how important it is to have a skeptical eye, but also to be empathetic.

I also worked on a lot of stories about the gender gap in sports science research, and how little of the research is performed on women. Many of those stories were written by Christine Yu, who went on to write a book about how a lot of training and nutrition protocols are based on small studies that don’t include women by design, and what that means for female athletes.

What song is on repeat on your workout playlist?

I don’t listen to music when I run.

Wow. Why is that?

I like to be aware of my surroundings and the outdoors. Even if I’m running the same loop of a park for the millionth time, I like to feel like I’m taking it in. Also, on a more technical level, I find it harder to gauge my effort level if I’m listening to something.

So you are just listening to your inner monologue?

Yes, unfortunately.

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To See the Past and Predict the Future, Try ‘Reading’ a Landscape

admin — Sun, 26 May 2024 06:39:58 +0000

When Noah Charney and his wife were house-shopping near Philadelphia, one real estate agent after another claimed to have the ideal home for them, and couldn’t wait to offer a virtual tour of its features: the renovated kitchen, the ample closet space.

But the listings never included the image that Dr. Charney, a conservation biologist, most needed to see: the satellite view from Google Earth.

“You want to see what?” was the typical response when he suggested opening an extra browser tab so he could explore the properties in an entirely different way before deciding which ones to see in person.

The decision, he knew, wouldn’t hinge on square footage or the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, but on location, location, location. To Dr. Charney, that meant a lot more than a street address.

He had done preliminary online scouting of the larger area using satellite imagery and had identified three places with forest remnants that had escaped development. They looked like his sort of neighborhoods — the kind likely to appeal to the greatest possible diversity of birds and other wildlife.

Were any of the houses being suggested contiguous to those areas?

“I wanted to see, in part, what animals could survive there, and would be in our yard,” he said. “Because what’s next to it informs what is going to end up there.”

Today, he and his family live in New England, splitting their time between Orono, Maine, where he is an assistant professor of wildlife, fisheries and conservation biology at the University of Maine, and Western Massachusetts, where they used to live full-time.

Dr. Charney is an advanced practitioner of reading the land and the author of the 2023 book “These Trees Tell a Story: The Art of Reading Landscapes.” He divines information about a landscape’s past and present, and hints of its future, from clues and patterns most of us wouldn’t notice or think to look for, even when the place in question is as familiar as our backyard or the park where we walk the dog every day.

He is a sleuth by nature, endowed with the gift of deep curiosity, arguing in his writing and teaching for the need to heighten our intimacy with the places in our lives — and showing us exactly how to do that.

Finding Our Place on the Map

Do you really know where you live?

To get a better sense of a place, even one you think you know, Dr. Charney said, don’t start too small. Whenever he explores — whether it’s on a hike, teaching a class in the field or in that long-ago home search — he begins by using maps to expand his perspective beyond human constructs like property lines and town boundaries.

“Get a satellite map and look down, and look at your place, and look around,” he said. “What is it connected to? What’s the nearest river or wetland or hill or big, expansive forest? And get to thinking about if you’re an animal, if you want to wander.” Where would you go?

The Northern leopard frog, for instance, breeds and overwinters in water, but a meadow of longish grass is its preferred summertime habitat. If that’s not in your immediate backyard, are there places nearby that could accommodate the amphibian, whose numbers have been decreasing?

Satellite imagery from Google Earth can reveal the relationship of a particular place to forest remnants like those Dr. Charney saw around Philadelphia, and topographic maps can tip us off to a range of features, from the elevation of the land to any bodies of water in the vicinity.

Dr. Charney uses the United States Geological Survey national map viewer. Many states and counties have their own viewer portals revealing local conservation corridors and other environmental layers. (A few examples include New York’s Environmental Resource Mapper tool, Maine’s Beginning with Habitat viewer and the MassMapper from Massachusetts.)

Getting a more intimate sense of place also requires on-site checks, some more obvious than others. If your land slopes, for example, what is the aspect: Which direction is downhill?

North-facing slopes, which face away from the sun in the Northern Hemisphere, offer moister, cooler environments; sunnier, south-facing slopes generally have drier soils. Those are “two really different habitats on those two sides,” Dr. Charney said, and especially in a hilly neighborhood, the extremes can exist side by side, “just down the road and around the bend.”

Another characteristic of slopes: They can have wide variations in soil depth. But rather than thinking of a particular depth or kind of soil as good or bad — a judgment often based on what we hope to grow — Dr. Charney encourages us to cultivate an awareness of how it got there.

Soil, he said, basically “comes from the rocks below the surface weathering, and the plants above the surface decomposing generally.”

Higher areas on slopes have less soil buildup, and tend to be erosional zones. “If you dig down and suddenly you hit rock, and there’s no soil — that’s an erosional zone,” he said.

At the bottom of the slope, where all that eroded material from above came to rest, “if you can just keep on digging and you can’t find the rocks,” he said, it’s a depositional zone.

Go ahead and put your shovel in the ground. Pull it away from the side of the hole and look: Do you see defined layers, or bands of various color?

“Has it been tilled, disturbed by people recently, or does it still have those natural horizons in it?” Dr. Charney asked.

Wind moves soil and, in floodplains, water transports it. So do glaciers, like those that once occupied the land where Dr. Charney’s Massachusetts home now stands. Some 10,000 years ago, his property was near a glacial lake, before the last ice age receded. So it’s not surprising that there are no rocks in the yard.

“The house itself is down below lake level,” he said, “where there’s lots of deep soil” — essentially former lake-bottom sediment — “and the garden grows really well.”

He added: “And then if you walk a little bit up the hill, you’re above lake level and it’s all glacial till — rocky, acidic soil.”

On the topic of rocks: Are there human artifacts like stone walls, a sign that the land was once a field for grazing or agriculture? If the walls incorporate lots of little rocks, Dr. Charney’s guess is that those fields were tilled, for planting.

“Every year, with the frost heaving, it brought the rocks up to the surface, and so they put them into those stone walls,” he said.

Walls without those little rocks, he suspects, probably ran alongside sheep pasture: “They weren’t tilling the soil, so they just left all the little rocks in the field.”

Seeing Patterns in the Trees

A walk in the woods looks different through Dr. Charney’s eyes. He observes the mix of trees, comparing the older canopy to the younger understory, visualizing the past and imagining what the forest will become someday, as the force of succession continues.

He notes any indicator species, too, like sycamores, cottonwoods and silver maples — all wetland indicators — or chestnut oaks that favor dry, acidic hilltop soils. “And then there’s just some generalist red maples that don’t tell you much,” he said.

As the title of his book implies, trees have much to teach us. “Trees hold clues for a long time,” he said.

Have you ever seen a wolf tree? That’s a tree in a wooded area that stands out because it has a lot of lower branches, while those surrounding it don’t. Trees growing together within a forest don’t develop that way; they grow up straight, competing for light.

“The wolf tree tells you that tree was there when it was a field,” he said. “And then whatever was maintaining the field — sheep or people or whatever — went away. And then the forest grew up. It’s telling you what it used to be like there: big and open.”

Split-trunk trees can be another historical tip-off, especially if they’re oaks or other hardwood species. They may hint that the area was logged, as multi-stemmed trees can sprout from stumps.

“Those split trunks tell you that there was a forest there of single-trunk trees that got cut down, and then they were allowed to regrow,” Dr. Charney said.

Have you viewed your land on a satellite map or explored the wild spaces nearby? The payoff in wonder can be substantial, and such research shouldn’t be reserved solely for real estate transactions.

It did make a difference, though, during that Philadelphia adventure. Dr. Charney stuck to his instincts, and his family eventually found a home next to one of the areas he had circled on the Google Earth maps.

And what great features that property had — just the ones he hoped for.

“It had screech owls and lots of different salamanders, belted kingfishers and great blue herons, and an assortment of old trees,” he recalled. “And we were half a mile from the largest mall in America.”

Margaret Roach is the creator of the website and podcast A Way to Garden, and a book of the same name.

If you have a gardening question, email it to Margaret Roach at gardenqanda@nytimes.com, and she may address it in a future column.

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Luke Donald seven shots behind leader Nacho Elvira at Soudal Open after third-round 65 | Golf News

admin — Sun, 26 May 2024 06:26:38 +0000

Luke Donald shot a six-under third round of 65 to move within seven of the lead at the Soudal Open, where Spaniard Nacho Elvira leads by four strokes after carding a 67 in Belgium.

Donald raced out of the blocks with six birdies on his front nine, before managing three upon turning the corner to claw his way back up the leaderboard after going around in two-under on Friday.

Fellow Englishman Sam Bairstow meanwhile produced one of the rounds of day three as he carded an eight-under 63 to join Donald on 11 under par.

Elvira entered the weekend with a two-shot advantage after a pair of bogey-free 64s and was still without a blemish as he turned in 32 to lead by five.

Some ragged swings set in on the back nine but he came home in level par despite making his first two bogeys of the week and will head into round four at 18 under, four clear of English duo Joe Dean and Ross Fisher, Frenchman Romain Langasque and Dane Niklas Norgaard.

Elvira’s only DP World Tour win to date came three years ago at Celtic Manor when he needed a play-off despite taking a six-shot lead into the last 18 holes, and he was hoping to use that experience in Antwerp.

“I was leading by six then, I’m leading by four,” he said. “I could have taken three or four more just to be relaxed but this game is funny sometimes.

“I cannot hit it as good as I want and be leading by four, it’s just a weird game. I learned a lot about being patient that day so hopefully I can take that into Sunday.”

Elvira was threatening to run away with it when he started with three birdies and added another on the eighth but a dropped shot on the 13th stalled his momentum.

He picked it straight back up on the next and was five ahead again after a birdie on the 17th but dropped a shot on the last and looked to be holding his wrist in pain after playing away from a tree root.

Dean was a delivery driver for Morrisons the week before he finished second at the Magical Kenya Open in March but revealed this week that he has given up the day job and a 66 including two chip-ins put him in contention for a life-changing win.

Fisher – a Ryder Cup winner in 2010 – is looking for a first victory in a decade and sat a shot ahead of another Englishman in Andrew Wilson, who stayed bogey-free for the week in his 68.

Watch the final round of the DP World Tour’s Soudal Open in Belgium live on Sky Sports Golf on Sunday from 9am.

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Some Jewish Students Say Their Views on Zionism Have Affected Their Social Life

admin — Sun, 26 May 2024 05:06:57 +0000

At Yale College, a Jewish junior said she was discouraged from joining a secret society she had been admitted to when members began to suspect she was a Zionist after she mentioned attending an event at the Slifka Center, Yale’s main hub for Jewish life. The student, who asked to remain anonymous because she feared social ramifications on campus, said she was not a Zionist, and thought that members of the society, Ceres Athena, had come to the conclusion that she was by misconstruing old social media posts related to Israel — though none reached out to ask her directly. (Members of Ceres Athena did not respond to emails from The Times.)

And at Columbia University, a senior named Dessa Gerger — who says she is often “put off” by peers who are quick to label anti-Zionism as antisemitism and feels that “the story about Jewish students feeling unsafe on campus is overplayed” — decided not to continue her participation in college radio after a member of the station’s board expressed ambivalence about the idea of a program that featured Israeli music.

“I didn’t do the radio show this semester because I don’t feel any kind of desire to be in a political organization,” Ms. Gerger said. “I want to be in a radio station.”

Of course, for pro-Palestinian activists who support a cultural and academic boycott of Israel, there can be no such thing as Israeli music without politics. According to its website, the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement operates according to the principle of “anti-normalization,” which forbids joint events or projects between Arabs and Jewish Israelis who do not, among other things, recognize Palestinians’ right of return to the land they were forced from in 1948.

“For Palestinians and those in solidarity, the problem is Zionism and what it’s meant to Palestinians,” said Yousef Munayyer, the head of the Palestine-Israel program at the Arab Center in Washington. “That’s going to put people in the Jewish community who are dealing with these tensions in an uncomfortable situation. They’re going to be asked to pick between a commitment to justice and a commitment to Zionism.”

For Layla Saliba, a Palestinian American student at the Columbia School of Social Work, not wanting to be friends with Zionists on campus comes down to the way she said she had been treated by some on campus: with offensive chants like “terrorist go home,” and jeering when she has spoken out about family she has lost in Gaza.

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Man Utd win the FA Cup: Erik ten Hag says he will go somewhere else and win trophies if club doesn’t want him | Football News

admin — Sun, 26 May 2024 05:03:55 +0000

A bullish Erik ten Hag hit back after Man Utd’s FA Cup final win against Man City as uncertainty continues to surround his future at the club.

There was plenty of focus on the Dutchman after his side were 2-1 winners at Wembley, with goals from Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo securing a second trophy in two seasons under Ten Hag.

Victory also secured a place in the Europa League next season.

When questioned about his future after the game, Ten Hag said: “I don’t think about this. I’m in a project and we are exactly where we want to be.

“We are constructing a team and when I took over, it was a mess at Man Utd. We are now on our way to constructing a team for the future.

“There will be ups and downs, but you see, the team is developing, the team is winning and at the end of the day, it is about winning trophies.

“The team also plays to an identity, but you need the players to be available. You need a strong squad in top football, especially when you play in England and in Europe. The Premier League is so competitive, so you need a very good squad, and you need the players available in that squad.

“There is still a lot of work to do but we are exactly where we are. We have value in the squad, and we have players with high potential who are progressing very well.

“The team is progressing, and we are winning trophies. Two trophies in two years is not bad. Three finals is not bad, but we have to keep going. I’m not satisfied with it.

“We have to do better and if they don’t want me anymore, then I’ll go anywhere else to win trophies because that is what I have done my whole career.”

When asked if he felt undermined by the club reportedly speaking to other managers ahead of the final, Ten Hag added: “I don’t know if they’ve done this. I can’t answer this question. Maybe you have sources, I don’t have them.”

Dalot: You could feel in the dressing room that we wanted to win

Diogo Dalot speaking to ITV:

“You could feel in the dressing room we really wanted to win this game.

“You could use all the excuses that everybody has talked about all season, from injuries to performances, overall I try not to use excuses, we still play for Manchester United.

“It’s reality, we cannot hide from it, but we’re on the pitch and still have opportunities to do things good.

“It feels good, especially for the fans who were amazing, they deserve this.”

When asked if the club needs stability after appointing five permanent managers since Sir Alex Ferguson’s departure, Ten Hag replied: “When you see the last decade, there were not so many finals for this club, there were not so many trophies for this club and there were not so many talents coming through into the first team with high potential.

“But also, in the middle group, they developed this season very well. Think about Diogo Dalot as an example. There are also others.

“We strengthened the squad by our coaching and with our training. But also, we still need transfer windows to bring better players in and also players who are always available or often available.

“When the players are not robust enough, and this season the players were not robust enough, you cannot deliver consistent performances.”

Keane: Fingers crossed Man Utd support the manager

Sky Sports pundit Roy Keane hopes Manchester United back Erik ten Hag, adding the manager has done his job by winning the FA Cup on Saturday.

He told ITV Sport: “We don’t know if a decision has been made, we know the pressure the manager is under and the questions before the game.

“It’s always difficult when you are preparing for a cup final. In football you have to enjoy these moments, the staff, the players, the supporters. And then cross the bridge when it comes to it.

“The manager has done his job today. Beating Man City in an FA Cup final is an extra bonus. Fingers crossed they support the manager.”

Discussing his former side’s performance, Keane added: “I’m really pleased for United. I had a funny feeling this morning that they’d turn up and win the Cup. I can’t put my finger on but I’m delighted they have done.

“The league form has to improve, but you have to enjoy these moments. This is what you want when you play for Manchester United – you want more of it. There’s the expectation.

“It was a proper Manchester United performance. They were dogged, sat in and played some good football, scoring two goals. They had confidence from the past two games.

“I’ve been critical of Bruno [Fernandes] over the years, but I’ve been proven wrong, his leadership was outstanding. I’ve always mentioned how brilliant he is as a player.”

Mainoo: This was the light at the end of the tunnel

Man Utd goalscorer and man of the match Kobbie Mainoo praised the togetherness at the end of a tough season, adding his goal was “an amazing moment”.

He told ITV Sport: “It’s unbelievable, the fans, the game as a whole. We tried to stop them playing through the middle, they are so dangerous. They have so much quality. We tried to send them wide and block from there, defend with our lives.

“I can’t even remember it [his goal], it was such an amazing moment. I just made the run and slotted it into the corner. The quality Bruno has, he sees things that no one else can.

“It’s been a tough season and the fans have been with us the whole way but in a game like this, we had to come together. This game was the light at the end of the tunnel, we had to come together.”

Praise for Kobbie Mainoo…

Erik ten Hag to BBC Sport:“He was really so enjoyable to watch. At his age, he’s an example.”

Alejandro Garnacho to BBC Sport: “Incredible. The best player in the squad and he’s the youngest. We’re also good friends. I’m so happy for him.”

Wayne Rooney to BBC Sport: “You look at his composure on the ball, little passes, one-twos – I think he’s got everything.”

Micah Richards to BBC Sport: “He could play alongside Declan Rice [for England]. He’s got confidence, he’s great to watch – he’s going all the way to the top.”

Guardiola: My game plan wasn’t good

Man City boss Pep Guardiola took the blame for Saturday’s FA Cup final defeat to Man Utd.

“First of all congratulations to Man Utd,” he told his post-match press conference. “My game plan wasn’t good. The second half was much better. We were more intense.

“The players know the reason why. Tactically it wasn’t good. You plan for a game and different positions, but it didn’t work.

“As always against United, we had control but, [not] like we did in the second-half, we couldn’t create.

“We are disappointed today. It’s normal when a team loses the final, but this season has been extraordinary.

“We have challenged for all the trophies in a good way. We now need to rest and come back.”

There was also praise for Man Utd manager Ten Hag, with Guardiola adding: “They have to take a decision [on Ten Hag’s future].

“I don’t know, but he is lovely person, an extraordinary manager, winning the FA Cup was important for them like it was for us last season.”

Analysis: Has Ten Hag given Ratcliffe a dilemma?

Sky Sports’ Nick Wright:

The build-up to the game was dominated by speculation over Erik ten Hag’s future, with one newspaper report going as far as to say the decision to sack him had already been made.

It would be no surprise if indeed part owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe had come to that conclusion. Manchester United’s eighth-placed finish was their worst in the Premier League era; their points total the lowest. It had been a desperately poor campaign.

But Ten Hag has at least given him pause for thought. The Dutchman is adamant it would have been different if not for their injuries. This victory, in which returning trio Raphael Varane, Lisandro Martinez and Marcus Rashford played key roles, offered some vindication.

Ten Hag can point to those circumstances, and a record of two trophy wins in two years. He can point to the development of Kobbie Mainoo and Alejandro Garnacho under his watch. But it remains to be seen whether there are too many red flags for Ratcliffe.

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Is Fluoride in Water Safe to Drink During Pregnancy?

admin — Sun, 26 May 2024 03:46:49 +0000

The Latest

A small study published Monday suggested that higher levels of fluoride consumed during the third trimester of pregnancy were associated with a greater risk of behavioral problems in the mothers’ children at 3 years old. The authors of the study, which was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency and published in the journal JAMA Network Open, believe it is the first to examine links between prenatal fluoride exposure and child development among families living in the United States, where fluoride is often added to community water supplies to prevent dental cavities.

The study’s authors and some outside researchers said that the findings should prompt policymakers to evaluate the safety of fluoride consumption during pregnancy.

“I think it’s a warning sign,” said Dr. Beate Ritz, an environmental epidemiologist at the U.C.L.A. Fielding School of Public Health.

But other experts cautioned that the study had several important limitations that made it difficult to assess the potential effects of fluoride consumption during pregnancy.

“There is nothing about this study that alarms me or would make me recommend that pregnant women stop drinking tap water,” said Dr. Patricia Braun, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and a spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The Background

Fluoride strengthens tooth enamel, and research suggests that drinking water with added fluoride can reduce cavities by up to 25 percent. Many communities in the United States have added fluoride to their water for this reason since the 1940s, a practice widely celebrated as a major public health achievement. In 2020, 63 percent of people in the United States lived in areas with at least 0.7 milligrams per liter of fluoride in the water — considered optimal for cavity prevention — though some areas have levels that are higher, in part because of naturally high fluoride in the groundwater.

In the last few years, several studies from Mexico and Canada have suggested that fluoride exposure during pregnancy is linked to slightly lower scores on intelligence tests and other measures of cognitive function in children.

But recent studies from Spain and Denmark have found no such link.

There is a “contentious debate” about water fluoridation, acknowledged Ashley Malin, an assistant professor of epidemiology in the College of Public Health and Health Professions at the University of Florida and the lead author of the new study. The issue is currently the subject of a lawsuit filed by the nonprofit Food and Water Watch and other groups against the Environmental Protection Agency. The nonprofit claims that water fluoridation poses a risk to children’s health.

The Research

The study looked at a group of 229 predominantly low-income Hispanic pregnant women in Los Angeles who were already being followed in other research. Most of the women lived in areas with fluoridated water. The researchers measured the fluoride levels in their urine in a single test during the third trimester. Then, when their children were 3 years old, the mothers filled out the Preschool Child Behavior Checklist, a measure used to detect emotional, behavioral and social problems.

Overall, 14 percent of the children had a total score in the “borderline clinical” or “clinical” range, meaning that a doctor may want to watch or evaluate them, or provide additional support, Dr. Malin said. And on average, higher fluoride levels in the mothers’ urine were correlated with a greater risk of behavioral problems in the children. The researchers found that women with urine fluoride levels at the 75th percentile were 83 percent more likely to have children with borderline or clinically significant behavioral problems than women with levels at the 25th percentile.

The main problems reported by the mothers were emotional reactivity, which is the tendency to overreact; somatic complaints, such as headaches and stomachaches; anxiety; and symptoms linked to autism (though those symptoms alone would not be enough for an autism diagnosis).

The researchers did not find an association with other behavioral symptoms like aggression or issues with concentration.

The findings are important and add to evidence suggesting prenatal fluoride consumption may affect the developing brain, said Joseph Braun, a professor of epidemiology and the director of the Center for Children’s Environmental Health at Brown University, who was not involved in the research. That said, the increases in behavioral scores were relatively small — about two points on a scale from 28 to 100 for overall behavioral problems. It’s hard to say whether such a difference might be noticeable in an individual child, he said.

But given how widespread water fluoridation is, he added, even minor behavioral changes in individual children could have a meaningful impact on the overall population.

The Limitations

The study was relatively small and didn’t include a diverse group of women. It didn’t account for many factors that can affect child development, including genetics, maternal nutrition, home environment and community support, several experts not involved in the study said.

The data would also have been stronger if the researchers had measured fluoride in urine samples from several points of time during pregnancy and collected information on tap water, bottled water and tea consumption to better understand how each contributed to the women’s fluoride levels, experts said. Black and green teas can contain high levels of fluoride.

The Preschool Child Behavior Checklist that was used to evaluate the 3-year-olds is considered a reliable measure of child behavior. But it did not take into account the fact that symptoms can change in frequency and intensity during early childhood, said Catherine Lord, an expert on autism and related disorders at the University of California, Los Angeles medical school.

Dr. Lord, who was not involved in the fluoride research, added that the checklist is not considered a reliable way to diagnose autism.

It would also be helpful to follow the children to see if the problematic behaviors persisted beyond age 3, said Melissa Melough, an assistant professor of nutrition sciences at the University of Delaware, who was not involved in the research.

What’s Next

While the experts agreed that more robust research was needed to untangle the potential effects of prenatal fluoride exposure, they had differing opinions about the study’s bottom line.

Dr. Malin said that, based on her findings and the evidence from previous studies, it might be a good idea for women to limit fluoride intake during pregnancy, a view that was echoed by Dr. Ritz and others.

“For me, the takeaway is: Protect pregnancy,” said Marcela Tamayo-Ortiz, an environmental epidemiologist at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health who has studied prenatal exposures for more than two decades.

But the American Dental Association said in a statement that the organization stands by its recommendation to “brush twice a day with fluoride toothpaste and drink optimally fluoridated water.”

And Dr. Nathaniel DeNicola, an OB-GYN and environmental health expert in Orange County, Calif., said he wouldn’t advise his pregnant patients to avoid fluoridated water based on the study, because “it’s not conclusive.”

Dr. Melough said she didn’t think women should be alarmed by the findings. But, she added, while it’s clear that fluoride helps to reduce cavities, it’s possible that adding it to the water “could have some unintended consequences,” and policymakers should continually evaluate the practice as new science emerges.

You can find out what the fluoride levels are in your local water by contacting your water utility or checking the C.D.C.’s My Water’s Fluoride website. If you want to reduce your fluoride consumption, experts said, limit how much black or green tea you drink. You can also purchase certain water filters that remove some fluoride. There’s no reason to stop brushing your teeth with fluoride toothpaste — just don’t swallow it.

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Monaco GP: Charles Leclerc aiming to end curse at home F1 event as Oscar Piastri targets first win | F1 News

admin — Sun, 26 May 2024 03:38:28 +0000

Charles Leclerc claimed pole position for a third time at the Monaco Grand Prix to give himself another opportunity to win his home event.

Leclerc will start alongside McLaren’s Oscar Piastri on the front row when the lights go out at 2pm on Sunday, live on Sky Sports F1 and Main Event, and will be hoping his luck turns around after previous Monaco heartbreak.

The Monegasque driver has never finished on the podium, with a best finish of fourth, but has a big opportunity to change that.

“We just have to focus on ourselves. We are in the best possible position to win the race. It’s in our hands. We are a much stronger team than we were in the past. We have to maximise this opportunity,” Leclerc told Sky Sports F1.

“In the last three years, there have been lots of things changing. The team taking experience and doing steps in the right direction. Since the arrival of Fred [Vasseur], he has very clear ideas and vision of what he wants to achieve.”

Can Leclerc hold position at the start?

Luckily for Leclerc, it’s a very short run down to Turn One and the pole-sitter starts on the inside, so as long as he doesn’t have a drastically worse start than Piastri, he should hold the lead.

The most interesting aspect will be whether Carlos Sainz in third or Lando Norris in fourth can gain a spot, so the two Ferraris or two McLarens will be together after the first corner, rather than split.

“I’m one place off the podium and that’s our goal. It’s all about the start, strategy and pit stops,” said Norris.

“There are a lot of quick cars behind and we have to watch out for them. It’s going to be exciting and hopefully we can push Ferrari. The people who make the least mistakes, will be the ones who win tomorrow.”

Recent races have seen the front-running teams start on the medium tyre and Sky Sports F1 strategy expert Bernie Collins does not expect Sunday’s race to be any different.

“When you’re looking at launch, you will be looking at the difference between the soft and the medium,” she explained.

“Both teams will be thinking if it’s worth having a soft tyre at that start just to try and gain or retain track position.

“Most likely I would imagine both go from medium, which allows you the chance to hopefully hold position of the line because obviously it’s a very short run to Turn One.

“But, it gives you a very flexible first stint, so allows you to stop very early or go long into the race. Many years you’ve seen that the leaders try and go as long into the race as they can to try and avoid having to stop in any sort of traffic.”

Leclerc’s Monaco curse

In F2, in 2017, Leclerc lost a Feature Race win due to a loose wheel
In 2018, in his first Monaco Grand Prix, he was taken out of the race going into the Nouvelle Chicane as Brendon Hartley hit the back of him
A year later, Leclerc was eliminated in Q1 and retired in the race due to contact with the wall at Rascasse
In 2021, he took pole position for Ferrari despite bringing out the red flag in Q3 when crashing at the Swimming Pool chicane. Ferrari thought they repaired his car but on race day, the team discovered a problem on the way to the grid and Leclerc failed to start due to a driveshaft failure
Twelve months on, Leclerc was winning the race but lost out to his rivals through strategy and finished fourth
Last year, he started and finished in sixth as wet weather caused mayhem mid-race

Pace management expected before pit stop crescendo

It’s widely known that overtaking in Monaco is extremely difficult due to the narrowness of the track and the tight turns.

Leclerc will almost certainly control the pace at the front to manage his tyres, a tactic we have seen before in Monaco and Singapore.

“Whoever’s in the lead, the difficulty from a strategy point of view is deciding how much you push and when,” said Bernie.

“There’s generally a lot of pace management in the first 10 or 15 laps. Whoever’s at the front is driving very slowly to control their tyres and keep the group quite bunched behind.

“Then whoever is behind is struggling with graining on their tyres because they are in dirty air. The advantage of driving slowly is you keep the group packed up, so it means that whoever is directly behind you doesn’t have free pit window to stop into.

“It’s a big question mark of how slowly you drive. Then you start to gradually push on those tyres, it’s about making the right call or the right stop lap that you push early enough to have margin to stop people behind undercutting.

“I think we’ve seen last weekend in Imola that McLaren were very aggressive in order to get Piastri the position over Carlos. But in races before that, Ferrari were a bit more aggressive, so this race is potentially going to reward a little bit of each of that.”

Expect Piastri to do opposite of Leclerc

If Piastri is in second place, he will try to stay within a few seconds of Leclerc to attempt an undercut. However, the key will be pitting and coming out in clean air to make the most of fresh tyres.

Should Ferrari decide to pit Leclerc first, McLaren will likely go long with Piastri and hope for a Safety Car or Virtual Safety Car to make a cheaper pit stop.

You lose around 20 seconds when making a pit stop under green flag conditions. During a SC or VSC, this becomes approximately 12 seconds.

“I think we can win it. When you’re starting from second, there are always opportunities,” said Piastri, who has never won a Grand Prix before.

“You just have to be executing extremely well around here. You might have one opportunity, and you’ve got to be able to take it and do everything right.

“I think we can win, it will require a lot of team work and effort and luck, but I definitely think we can win.”

Sainz to help Leclerc

The last time Leclerc started on pole in Monaco, in 2022, Ferrari messed up their strategy in mixed conditions, which saw their driver drop to fourth.

No rain is expected this Sunday but that race showed it’s not completely straightforward to convert pole into a win.

Leclerc may need help from Ferrari team-mate Sainz, who could be asked to hold cars up or take a certain strategy to secure the team’s first Monaco win since 2017.

“The focus will be to see what we can do with the two cars to win the race with Charles, that he’s in the best possible position to do so,” said Sainz.

“Then obviously Monaco, you never know, all sorts of things can happen, but if I win it’s probably because something weird has happened with Charles with strategy or with Safety Cars – I hope they don’t [happen] in a way.

“Obviously, we all want to win, but at the same time, I feel like Charles deserves to win in Monaco after his unlucky run. He’s been extremely strong all week, all weekend, and here in the past, so, yeah, tomorrow is a day to kind of wish that nothing happens and see if we can win with Charles.”

Sky Sports F1’s live Monaco GP and Indy 500 schedule

Sunday May 26
6.55am: F3 Feature Race
8.35am: F2 Feature Race
12.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: Monaco GP build-up*
2pm: The MONACO GRAND PRIX*
4pm: Chequered Flag: Monaco GP reaction
5pm: Ted’s Notebook
5.30pm: The Indy 500

*also live on Sky Sports Main Event

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‘Selling the Hamptons’: Real Estate Drama on Long Island

admin — Sun, 26 May 2024 00:54:41 +0000

Like the Hamptons itself, where white-sand beaches and white-glove service await those with enough equity each summer, the reality TV show “Selling the Hamptons” is an escape and an indulgence. Now in its second season on Max, the streaming service formerly known as HBO Max, the show follows the cast in the storied vacationland of moneyed New Yorkers.

The show’s stars are a motley crew of ambitious, good-looking real estate agents who all work for the luxury brokerage Nest Seekers International: the bad-boy pro surfer who has anointed himself the “Prince of Montauk,” an aspiring pop princess whose favorite topic of conversation is her wealthy developer father, an agent known as “Deals in Heels,” an entrepreneur with $10 billion in her portfolio and, of course, two former models.

They are all in a cutthroat competition for a razor-thin inventory of houses for sale in the resort towns of Long Island, and they always seem to be popping up, in stilettos or suit jackets, at each other’s listings. It’s not only about the drama; it’s their livelihood, some members of the cast said.

“My goal is to make as much money as I can,” said Mia Calabrese, 32, a model-turned-luxury agent who grew up on the South Side of Chicago. She got her real estate license in 2019 and joined the show for its first season just two years later.

“I’m not just doing this to be on television. I’m doing it to grow my business,” Ms. Calabrese said.

How It Started

Three members of the show got their start on Netflix’s “Million Dollar Beach House”: Peggy Zabakolas, owner of both a broker’s license and a law degree; Michael Fulfree, a former Milan runway model turned doting dad; and J.B. Andreassi, who declined to be interviewed for this story. Ms. Zabakolas, 37, said she understands the risk and reward of being on reality TV. “People are going to love you and people are going to hate you,” she said. “Being in sales, you spin it to your advantage.”

Ms. Zabakolas, the self-anointed “Dealsinheels” who is so enamored of her title that she bought the trademark, doesn’t shy away from drama. She sparred with Mr. Andreassi over a $20 million listing. She accused new agent Ashley Allen of trash-talking her behind her back. These sparks, Ms. Zabakolas said, are reality TV’s raison d’être.

“People tune in to watch drama,” she said, adding that off camera, she rarely gets into conflicts with people. “If people tuned in to my real life, they would have a snooze fest.”

Being on the show, Ms. Zabakolas said, has given her a well-shod leg up in a market where the average sale price of a home is more than $3 million and inventory all but disappears after the close of summer. “Some people invest in billboards or postcards. But I have a TV show,” she said. “It’s another marketing tool in my portfolio.”

On the Monday afternoon when The New York Times interviewed some of the cast members, Mr. Fulfree, the show’s resident nice guy who nevertheless has an affinity for profanity, was rushing to visit a new, all-glass eight-bedroom oceanfront home in Bridgehampton. He had to coach his son Luca’s T-ball game at 5 p.m., and was anxiously checking the time.

The home has a floating staircase, 8,600 square feet of living space and a putting green on the rooftop. It’s an open listing — any agent who wants to can try and bring in a buyer — and the builder, Joe Farrell, is hoping it goes for $80 million. Mr. Fulfree, 35, believes he can be the one to close the deal.

“You can like me or not,” Mr. Fulfree said, but he makes the people who work with him a great deal of money, he said, using a more colorful term that rhymes with truckload.

Brokerage or Talent Agency?

The drama may be turned up, but the show isn’t scripted, said Bianca D’Alessio, 31, who runs her own team of agents and is a managing director at Nest Seekers.

“Everything that I put onscreen is who I am as a person,” she said in an interview.

The agents’ lifestyles are gladiatorial, and no pair have as much conflict as Mr. Fulfree and Dylan Eckhardt, a notorious Hamptons party boy and native son who years ago made a name for himself on the professional surfing circuit. In Season 2, he appears to have been plucked from central casting because Nest Seekers was seeking a villain, and in one scene he and Mr. Fulfree nearly come to blows.

Mr. Eckhardt, who declined to be interviewed, has a personal tagline: “Whatever I touch turns to sold.” Eddie Shapiro, the president of Nest Seekers, said the show’s sudsy drama is all part of the plan. “We consider ourselves a talent agency and a casting agency as much as we are a brokerage,” he said.

Occasionally, the company’s wealthy buyers are turned off by the prospect of cameras and histrionics, he said. But not often.

“Sometimes, they will say, ‘My property is my most important asset, and I saw your show and the only thing I saw was a silly 10-minute back and forth of some people fighting on the beach,’” he said. “That can happen.”

On the other hand, he said, “People don’t list with us just because we’re on TV. But they will certainly give us a shot over a brand that may not have any exposure at all.” Max declined to disclose ratings information for the show. After Netflix’s “Million Dollar Beach House,” lasted a single season, its production team moved on to “Selling the Hamptons,” which earned a second season, gaining cast members in the process. Max has now invested in another similar show, “Serving the Hamptons,” which follows a crew of servers and bartenders at a stylish Hamptons restaurant.

Ms. Allen, a new agent who joined the cast in Season 2 and regularly appears alongside her father, the real estate developer Jeff Allen, said she is enjoying the spotlight.

Mr. Allen was a longtime music agent before crossing over into real estate, and Ms. Allen, 35, flirted with a singing career in her 20s, and now speaks excitedly of releasing a single this month. Real estate is just a side gig for her, she said, but the exposure of “Selling the Hamptons” is a boon.

“As my godfather James Brown would always say to my dad and to me, ‘Any press is good press,’” she said. “So if they’re talking about you, you must be doing something right.”

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Jack Catterall beats Josh Taylor by unanimous decision in epic rematch in Leeds | Boxing News

admin — Sun, 26 May 2024 00:48:54 +0000

Jack Catterall beat former undisputed world super lightweight champion Josh Taylor by a unanimous decision in a thrilling rematch in Leeds on Saturday night.

Catterall avenged his controversial split-decision defeat to Taylor in Glasgow two years ago, landing the heavier punches to finally settle the score in one of British boxing’s biggest grudge fights in recent memory.

All three judges gave the fight at a sold-out First Direct Arena to Catterall, two by scores of 117-111 and the other by 116-113, although Taylor will feel aggrieved it was not scored closer.

Taylor worked busily behind his jab in the early rounds, while southpaw Catterall enjoyed particular success with his left hook.

After an accidental clash of heads in the second round Taylor briefly backed his opponent on to the ropes, but Catterall responded with a swinging left before another head clash at the start of the third caused Taylor to wince.

Catterall landed two successive lefts at the end of the fourth and looked to take charge in the fifth, finding his range with his jab before hurting Taylor with a series of lefts and rights that pressed the Scot against the ropes.

Taylor regained his composure in the sixth despite a swelling under his right eye, but Catterall’s punches continued to be more accurate and heavier.

Two short rights from Taylor gave him momentum in the seventh as both fighters traded blows and the Scot proved more effective again in the eighth to even up the fight.

Catterall breached his opponent’s defence early in the ninth and both boxers went toe-to-toe.

Taylor stalked his man in the 10th, now looking the more menacing fighter, and landed with a right and then an uppercut.

But a thundering straight right from Catterall in the 11th had Taylor in trouble with little to separate the pair going into the final round as they punched themselves to a standstill.

The two fighters first clashed in February 2022 when Taylor controversially retained his WBC, WBA, IBF and WBO belts in Glasgow via a contentious split decision.

Most observers felt Chorley’s Catterall did enough to win and in the two years since, the fighters have traded insults in person and on social media.

This second meeting – no belts were on the line – was twice postponed, first in January 2023 due to Taylor’s foot injury and again in March this year when the Scot had a minor eye problem.

Taylor, who became Britain’s first undisputed world champion in the four-belt era by defeating Jose Ramirez in Las Vegas in 2021, lost to American Teofimo Lopez in June last year in his only fight since first facing Catterall.

The Edinburgh man’s record now stands at 20-2, with Catterall’s at 29-1 and there will now be a clamour for a decisive third meeting.

Earlier on the undercard, Jamaican-born Chev Clarke won the vacant British cruiserweight title by knocking out Lewisham’s Ellis Zorro in the eighth round.

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