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Microsoft blames incoming UK Online Safety Act, says you have until 2026

Microsoft has begun emailing users of its Xbox gaming platform with likely unwelcome news: users will need to verify their age if they want to keep access to the company's various social services, and it's blaming the UK Online Safety Act.…

Russian sources have said the flight by the Su-35S multirole fighter and P-8A Poseidon aircraft shows the US remains active in intelligence gathering to support Ukraine 's war effort off of Crimea.

Meghan Trainor showed off her svelte physique at The Paper premiere in Los Angeles on Wednesday, following her weight loss journey and recent breast augmentation.

Jordan Fenton, who lost his mum Julie last year after a 19-month battle with mantle cell lymphoma, dedicated the restoration of a car to her.

Jordan Fenton, who lost his mum Julie last year after a 19-month battle with mantle cell lymphoma, dedicated the restoration of a car to her.

alternative_right shares a report from ScienceAlert: When's the last time you settled down with a good book, just because you enjoyed it? A new survey shows reading as a pastime is becoming dramatically less popular in the U.S., which correlates with an increased consumption of other digital media, like social media and streaming services. The survey was carried out by researchers from the University of Florida and the University of London, and charts a 40 percent decrease in daily reading for pleasure across the years 2003-2023, based on responses from 236,270 US adults. "This is not just a small dip -- it's a sustained, steady decline of about 3 percent per year," says Jill Sonke, director for the Center for the Arts in Medicine at the University of Florida. "It's significant, and it's deeply concerning." The number of US people reading for pleasure every day peaked in 2004 at 28 percent, the researchers found, but by 2023 this was down to 16 percent. There was a silver lining though: those people who are still reading are reading for slightly longer on average. Reading habits aren't changing across the board. The drops in reading for pleasure were higher in Black Americans, especially those with lower income, education levels, and who lived outside of cities. That speaks to problems beyond the rise of smartphones, tablets, and other screens, according to the researchers. Different life situations are leading to disparities in accessibility that don't help promote reading as a pastime. "Our digital culture is certainly part of the story," says Sonke. "But there are also structural issues -- limited access to reading materials, economic insecurity and a national decline in leisure time. If you're working multiple jobs or dealing with transportation barriers in a rural area, a trip to the library may just not be feasible." The findings have been published in the journal iScience.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

'This will be a wardrobe staple for years to come'

Essex residents are advised to brace for heavy showers and flooding as a weather warning has been issued.

Essex residents are advised to brace for heavy showers and flooding as a weather warning has been issued.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz has unveiled a sweeping plan to strengthen the German armed forces and hinted that conscription could return if efforts to boost voluntary recruitment fail.

He has asked to have converstations instead of shouting online

From November 3, a new rule is in place for anyone jetting off on a Ryanair flight.

A frantic couple took drastic measures to ensure they made their flight on time after getting caught up in gridlocked traffic on the way to the airport.

The setting was so magnificent that, for a moment, I felt as if I had been transported to a sort of paradise.

She's shown that she's willing to do whatever's necessary to help her on her way - perhaps never more so than in her role on game show Deal Or No Deal

The famous adage 'all political careers end in failure' isn't actually true. All politicians are, by definition, successful.

I met my mother's eyes across the hospital bed where my brother lay in a coma. Ten years my junior, he had suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm. This was the first time I had seen her in almost a decade.

Ah, the joy of slumping in an armchair and scrolling through Facebook or Instagram after a long day at work.

Britain's sleep has never been worse. Study after study finds we are sleeping for shorter periods with, in many cases, poor quality rest to boot.

Tough and courageous though I am, there are some moments in my life I've struggled to recover from. One of those was some 20 years ago now