Countries around the world are experiencing low birth rates. In 2022, more than one hundred countries, representing two-thirds of world’s population, experienced fertility rates below the replacement level of 2.1 births per woman. Fertility rates below the replacement level were relatively uncommon in the distant past. But today, many of the countries with sustained rates […]

Around 3000 years ago, several empires and kingdoms in the Mediterranean collapsed, with a group of sea-faring warriors implicated as the culprit. But new evidence shows that many of our ideas about this turbulent time need completely rethinking

But the public’s economic outlook is still the most straightforward explanation for voters’ rejection of the incumbent party last week.

Planning for a vacation? Got wedding? Got a puja to attend that you absolutely cannot miss? A woman's period will always arrive just in time to shatter important plans.

Plastic surgery costs the life of a 21-year-old Kannada TV actress - Chethana Raj at Dr. Shetty's Cosmetic Centre in Bengaluru. The actress was

Wonder Land: As District Attorneys pull back on prosecution and focus on areas like bail reduction, crime rates are rising. Perhaps voters are now starting to regret the consequences of electing progressives. Image: Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images

The national supply of homes for sale is getting squeezed by the small amount of equity millions of would-be sellers have in their properties and relatively weak output from home builders, according to economists speaking Friday at a real-estate conference in Miami.

In a recent post on his social platform X, tech magnate Elon Musk stirred debate by sharing a video with economist Jeffrey D. Sachs, who argued that the United States-not Russian President Vladimir Putin-bears significant responsibility for the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Tells Maharashtra CM to protect Mumbai from water, air pollution

The latest controversy gives rise to a nagging suspicion: Were the utterances of the Kerala Chief Minister and his Cabinet colleague aimed at deflecting attention from the raging solar scam?

Centre tried to present the high voter turnout as signs of normalcy and as if the people had accepted the revocation of Article 370, said the National Conference leader

NC vice-president Omar Abdullah said the Centre was at fault to project the high poll percentage in the first phase as normalcy and call it the effect of Article 370 removal. “I think the low voter turnout was the reaction to it in Srinagar,” he said.

Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar asks Mr. Chouhan to look at pending issues of farmers

Nivin Pauly is very proud of his latest release, Malayalee From India.

Rains in Maharashtra delay kharif arrivals; prices likely to drop in a fortnight

Toxic grey smog has sickened tens of thousands of people, mainly children and elderly people, since last month when the air quality started worsening in Lahore, the city bordering India.

Middle East tensions escalate and oil prices rise after Norwegian and Japanese ships hit

On Thursday, the Professional Beauty Federation of California published a press release to the “Hot Topics” section of their website. It was titled: “Time to Sue Governor Newsom.” The release came in response to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s announcement that the following morning, California would officially enter “Phase Two” of the “Safer at Home” order. Select businesses, from florists to clothing retailers to toy stores, would be able to resume operations in a limited capacity. But absent from the list of acceptable businesses: beauty salons. Newsom placed businesses like nail salons and barbershops in “Phase Three”—a stage he believes to be “months, not weeks” away. “This whole thing spread in the state of California—the first community spread—was in a nail salon,” Newsom said in a press conference last week, without providing details about the date or location of the case. “Many of the practices that you would otherwise expect of a modification were already in play in many of these salons, with people that had procedure masks on, were using gloves, and were advancing higher levels of sanitation.”The news has thrust nail salons onto the frontline of a growing coronavirus revolt in California, a battle being waged in many more American cities, like Dallas, where hairdresser Shelley Luther became a star of the anti-lockdown movement when she opted to go to jail rather than comply with an order to close her hair salon. Anti-Lockdown Protesters Are Now Facing Down Cops Outside of BarsOn Monday morning, the Professional Beauty Federation of California will file a lawsuit in federal court demanding a regulated reopening process of their salons. “We were 100 percent behind the lockdown, so that we would not overwhelm our hospitals,” the group’s legal counsel Fred Jones said in an interview with The Daily Beast. “However, after two months of the lockdown, in which, by Gov. Newsom’s own admission, we have succeeded—we have checked the mark, we have flattened the curve—we were anticipating that the governor would allow for gradual reopenings of our beauty salons under strict new guidelines.”Their argument, Jones said, hinges on the fact that, without regulated reopening, stylists will be forced underground to meet financial ends, resulting in a potentially more dangerous risk.“A lot of our stylists are on the brink of starvation in order to make their leases and make ends meet,” Jones said. “So you have a volatile combination of desperate clients and desperate stylists. We know that will lead to thousands of our stylists going underground and moving kitchen to kitchen and house to house. That’s reality. Nobody can argue that. So the real question is: how do you stop that from happening if you’re the governor? You can’t.”He suggested a gradual and controlled reopening would be safer than “stylists going house to house and spreading more than beauty.”Unmasked Protesters Storm Huntington Beach After California Governor’s ClosureSome salons statewide have already opened, defying the statewide order, like an Orange County nail spa owner who has vowed to stay open despite being handed a citation by local police, who ordered her to appear in court in July. “I have to do what I have to do. I’m fighting to provide for my children and myself and my family,” another salon owner, Breann Curtis, of The Clip Cage barbershop in Auburn, California, told Fox40 about her decision to reopen. “It’s very hard. I’m pregnant. I have children.”“Just going into debt every single day,” added Tisha Fernhoff, who owns The Beauty Bar Salon in the same Auburn shopping center. “How much longer am I supposed to just go down the rabbit hole before I just throw in the towel and go back to work?”According to Jones, the California State Board of Barbering and Cosmetology—which issues all 623,442 beauty licenses in the state—has already drafted a protocol for how salons could reopen under the current conditions. He claimed Newsom had blocked the plan from distribution, to avoid mixed messaging. (Newsom’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment and a spokesperson for the Board of Barbering and Cosmetology said their draft protocols “haven't been published because they are not finished.”)“We want him to release the plan so that our professionals can start stocking up,” Jones said. “We know we’ll need masks. Will shields be required for these services? They probably will.”If such a plan was to go into effect, Jones said, salons would use personal protective equipment widely. They would stagger appointments to avoid crowded waiting rooms, spread out work stations and shift schedules, implement a touchless pay system, and remove anything in the waiting rooms that could carry contagion. “So, sorry no more magazines and newspapers for our clientele,” Jones said. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends maintaining a distance of six feet from other people—a practice that would be all but impossible in salon settings. Dr. Birx Says What Trump Would Not About ProtestersThere are 53,694 licensed beauty salons in California, representing 313,734 stylists or cosmetologists, 34,093 barbers, 90,392 estheticians, 1,679 electrologists, and 129,802 manicurists, according to the State Board of Barbering and Cosmetology. All of these workers, Jones said, have to complete between 350 and 1600 hours of formal education before acquiring their license, including training in sanitization. Jones emphasized that the lawsuit stemmed from financial desperation, a sentiment shared across the country. The Labor Department announced Friday that the economy lost over 20.5 million jobs in April alone, putting the national unemployment rate at its highest since the Great Depression: 14.7 percent. But the devastation has hit the beauty sector differently than many industries. Over 80 percent of salon workers are independent contractors, meaning each stylist represents their own business. By extension, many salon owners are basically landlords, “whose income relies on those booth owners,” Jones said. As a result, most salon workers qualify for unemployment benefits under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, signed by Trump in March—although the program is riddled with loopholes, has frequently run out of money, and may not cover their entire income, which heavily relies on tips. It is salon owners who stand to gain the most from the lawsuit. “Freelance workers do benefit on unemployment benefits,” Jones said. “But most of those Paycheck Protection Program reimbursements are based on your payments. If you’re a salon owner, you don’t have a payroll. Those stylists are their own proprietors.”On Friday, Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Ed Markey (D-MA), and Kamala Harris (D-CA) introduced legislation to give a majority of Americans $2,000 a month throughout the pandemic. Asked whether the bill could provide financial relief to salon workers, while allowing them to maintain social distancing, Jones seemed doubtful that it would pass. “It’s the proverbial ‘check is in the mail’ promise,” he said. “When you’re dealing with true economic devastation, let me tell you, most of our licensees will not be banking on a divided Congress and a White House that is also divided. While Washington fiddles, our stylists are burning.” Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

RUTH Davidson, the Scottish Conservative leader, will take on Boris Johnson in the BBC's final EU debate, grandly entitled The Great Debate, which will be broadcast at 8pm tonight.

BSE Sensex tanked 723 pts, its second biggest single day fall since Narendra Modi govt took over; Salman Khan, GST, others field the blame.

Can’t blame Corona for crisis, investment choice was poor

One attendee joked that, because she was coughing, she probably had the virus, a city of Pasadena spokeswoman said.

Former President Barack Obama on Friday said that the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has been an “absolute chaotic disaster” and blamed it on a “selfish” and “tribal” mindset that has become operationalized in government.

On Thursday, the Professional Beauty Federation of California published a press release to the “Hot Topics” section of their website. It was titled: “Time to Sue Governor Newsom.” 

The release came in response to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s announcement that the following morning, California would officially enter “Phase Two” of the “Safer at Home” order. Select businesses, from florists to clothing retailers to toy stores, would be able to resume operations in a limited capacity. But absent from the list of acceptable businesses: beauty salons. Newsom placed businesses like nail salons and barbershops in “Phase Three”—a stage he believes to be “months, not weeks” away. 

“This whole thing spread in the state of California—the first community spread—was in a nail salon,” Newsom said in a press conference last week, without providing details about the date or location of the case. “Many of the practices that you would otherwise expect of a modification were already in play in many of these salons, with people that had procedure masks on, were using gloves, and were advancing higher levels of sanitation.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Comic-book creator Rob Liefeld blames Marvel for the delay to Deadpool 3.

Adelaide Crows coach Matthew Nicks says he is taking the blame for the club’s isolation training incident.

Jenson Button blamed a poor balance in his McLaren for failing to make the final session of qualifying at the Brazilian Grand Prix and lining up 11th for Sunday's race

Red Bull has revealed that the problem that cost Sebastian Vettel near certain victory at the Bahrain Grand Prix was in fact due to a faulty spark plug rather than a cracked exhaust

David Coulthard has pointed his finger at former FIA president Max Mosley after Sunday's processional start to the 2010 season in Bahrain

Mark Webber believes the narrower front tyres introduced this season to improve the car's balance were key to the lack of overtaking at the Bahrain Grand Prix

A loose wheel nut has been blamed for Sebastian Vettel's retirement from the Australian Grand Prix, after he lost control under braking on lap 25

Felipe Massa refused to take the blame for his move on the opening lap that led to his retirement, instead blaming bad luck

Toro Rosso rookie Carlos Sainz Jr blamed high winds for the crash he suffered late on Sunday in Barcelona and said it spoiled his most encouraging day of testing so far

Above ­average wind strengths in recent months have contributed to a slight decline in flights departing and arriving on time at Sydney Airport, according to the latest federal government aviation data.

PETER CROUCH: There will come a point when Mohamed Salah is charging at Newcastle's goal on Saturday but Sadio Mane is away to his left, screaming for a pass.

Receipts from residential purchases fell 10 per cent in 2018/19 to £8.4billion compared with the previous year. This is the biggest fall since house prices collapsed during credit crunch in 2008.

Andros Townsend has accused Health Secretary Matt Hancock of painting footballers as 'villains' and 'deflecting blame' after he said they should take a pay cut to help fight coronavirus.

A recent decline in Ovenbirds (Seiurus aurocapilla), a ground-nesting migratory songbird, in forests in the northern Midwest United States is being linked by scientists to a seemingly unlikely culprit: earthworms.

The post Earthworms to blame for decline of Ovenbirds in northern Midwest forests, study reveals appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

As the lights went out in the Superdome, social media lit up like crazy.

Something seems fishy ... when asked about poor response to the disaster, the head of the Louisiana Coast Guard said: 'I'm just slow and dumb.'

The Youngstown quakes were triggered by wastewater injection, scientists have discovered.

Death by acid was the fate of the sea monsters that perished in Earth's biggest mass extinction, some 251 million years ago.

The potent allure or either money or ideology, or both, leads a lot of people to devote their lives to either impeding environmental progress, or enabling envir

All it took was one avian aficionado with a love of William Shakespeare to introduce this aggressive species to the United States.