Is Elis James linked to everyone in Wales?
Is Elis James linked to everyone in Wales?
Comedian Elis James has 60 seconds to find a mutual connection to random callers from Wales each week on his radio programme
It is the most natural thing in the world to look for common ground with someone you have just met.
But every week, BBC presenter and comedian Elis James goes one step further by testing the stereotype that people from Wales, a country of more than three million people, somehow all know each other.
The Cymru Connection, where James has 60 seconds to find a mutual connection, began in earnest when a Welshman living in Japan called James’ Radio 5 Live show and podcast last year.
“I discovered [the caller] was from Aberystwyth,” said James. “Within 20 seconds I derailed the call and I named about 20 people from Aberystwyth and he knew about 18 of them.
“We thought ‘there might be a feature in this’.”
The hurried and tense one-minute exchanges have had hundreds of thousands of views across TikTok, YouTube and Instagram, with listeners from outside Wales often amused – if slightly baffled.
“This is genuinely a superpower,” said one person in the social media comments.
“Nah, just genuinely Welsh,” replied another.
So far 30 callers have put James to the test, with his success rate hovering just north of 50%.
James, from Carmarthenshire, believes it is instinctive for people from Wales to try to find a mutual connection.
“I’ve never been on holiday without bumping into a Welsh person and then after about half a minute you’re like, ‘well do you know so-and-so if you’re from Merthyr?’ and they always do.”
Together with his co-host, comedian John Robins, James said the feature “clearly has resonated with our Welsh listeners”.
The desire to connect is not a phenomenon exclusive to the Welsh.
“I find that people from the north of England do it and certainly the Irish and the Scots do it,” said James.
“In the south-east of England I think there’s too many people, too many places.”
Co-presenters John Robins and Elis James have worked together for more than a decade
James believes the urge to connect is particularly relevant to people from smaller countries.
“I was doing stand-up in Brussels and there was a guy in the front row who’d been taught by my auntie and uncle,” he said.
“All the Americans thought it was a set up and all the people from smaller countries were like ‘no, no, that makes sense’.
“I [also] did stand-up in Auckland in New Zealand. On the first night, I’d only been in the country a couple of days, there was a girl from Lampeter and she knew my auntie’s farm.”
Watch: Elis James attempts to find a Cymru Connection with a Welsh caller to his show
It is one thing to find these links organically, but under time pressure it becomes harder.
As The Cymru Connection theme music kicks in each week, James is often seen putting his head in his hands.
“I find it immensely stressful,” he said.
“It pays off because as long as I Cymru Connect I’m floating on air for hours. If I fail I’m incredibly depressed for about a day.
“Often if I’m wearing a jumper or a jacket I’ve got to take it off because I start to sweat. So the head in hands, that’s genuine, it’s very, very authentic, I’m not putting it on for effect.
“I always start with where people grew up and where they went to school, and how old they are.
“The stats have proven it doesn’t always work. But that’s where I begin.”
Comedian Elis James believes people from small countries have an inherent urge to connect with one another
James and Robins have worked together for more than a decade – firstly on XFM and now for the BBC – but have been friends for much longer.
“It’s quite an interesting thing to observe because it’s obviously a very natural interaction for Welsh people,” said Robins, from Bristol.
“I watch Elis connecting thinking ‘is this really happening every week?’ and it is. It’s on national radio.”
But why is it happening?
Dr Martin Graff, a psychologist at the University of South Wales, believes “we all want to meet people who have a degree of familiarity to ourselves”.
“In Wales there’s three million of us – we’re a fairly exclusive club. Therefore when we meet someone Welsh it’s kind of thrilling.
“From an evolutionary angle, meeting someone who is familiar makes them more predictable.
“If people’s behaviour is more predictable we feel safer in their company.”
Born and bred in Bridgend, I couldn’t finish my interview without putting James to the test – could he find a Cymru Connection with me?
Robins, who acts as adjudicator, declared in advance that mutual BBC colleagues did not count.
Despite that, after roughly 45 seconds, James managed to name somebody he knew who was in the year above me at school.
Job done – our very own Cymru Connection.
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Time travelling in France for 125th birthday of the Paris Metro
Time travelling in France for 125th birthday of the Paris Metro
This year is the 125th birthday of the Paris Metro, a wonder of the belle epoque and one of the world’s great transport systems.
Since opening before the 1900 Olympics, its tentacles have spread around the French capital, evolving into an ever-growing knot of lines aiding the millions of people living in and around Paris (as well as all the tourists).
While my favourite of all the 308 stations is probably the futuristic Arts et Metiers — its platforms look like something from a Jules Verne sci-fi story — my favourite of all the 16 current Metro lines (four more are being constructed) is Line 1.
Its now-driverless trains rush east-west — and west-east — through the core of France’s capital every few minutes. It’s an outstanding service and drops you — and picks you up — at a variety of places, from the Arc de Triomphe and the Louvre Museum, to the Hotel de Ville and Bastille. Not only the busiest line on the whole network, it was also the first to become automated more than a decade ago.
Extended over the years, with plans for future extensions, it’s bookended by two contrasting enclaves technically outside the city limits of Paris.
While its western terminus is La Defense, a glossy, skyscraper-strewn financial district, at its eastern end is the Chateau de Vincennes, which (kind of) takes you back to the Middle Ages.
Emerging from the subway here, you’ll see the castle that gives the station its name, with its 52m-high keep especially striking. One of the best preserved medieval fortresses in France, the chateau was used as a royal residence from the 12th to 18th centuries and also, for a *******, as a prison, where the likes of the Marquis de Sade and Denis Diderot — controversial figures from the French Enlightenment ******* — were detained.
Step across the footbridge over the grassy moat and you can enter the complex and its huge courtyard. A ticket allows access to the dungeon and other parts of the castle, as well as its chapel.
Alternatively, you could just wander by the perimeter of the chateau walls into the neighbouring Bois de Vincennes. A favourite with families, dog walkers, joggers and cyclists, this enormous urban park — Paris’ largest — sprawls almost 1000ha across former royal hunting grounds.
It’s divided into sections, with woodlands, boating lakes, botanical gardens and rustic spots for picnics and reading books in the shade. You’ll come across occasional quirks, such as totem poles and a monument to Beethoven, whose symphonies wowed the French.
For an altogether different experience, mosey through Vincennes’ tidy town centre, which stretches north of the chateau. You’ll see a string of bistros with terraces — several offering keenly-priced lunch menus (three courses for $30-40) — as well as boulangeries and patisseries selling freshly-baked treats.
Munching on a crunchy ham baguette sandwich, I carry on wandering through the mostly residential streets up into Montreuil, Vincennes’ nextdoor neighbour.
There’s a grittier feel in this former industrial town, located on a plateau 120m high. It’s less polished and more working-class and bohemian, with shabby-arty bars and eateries spilling out onto the pavements, old factories transformed into studios and cafes, street art liberally splashed about by the town’s graffiti artists, some of whom lead occasional guided walking tours showcasing the best pieces.
There’s nothing running today, so I amble around Montreuil independently.
As well as an array of eye-catching art, I also find new shopping strips and shiny glass offices that are becoming the norm on the old industrial fringes of Paris.
On the square by the town hall of Montreuil, police are chatting to African men selling corn from shopping trolleys while old French ladies shuffle past with their produce-filled bags and a young crowd are larking around outside a modern contemporary arts theatre.
And guess what? There’s a Metro stop here too.
Montreuil is at the eastern end of Line 9. And riding this for 20 minutes will take me back to central Paris. I may alight at Chaussee d’Antin — La Fayette station — gateway to glamorous department stores and the Opera Garnier — but if I stay on for another 10 minutes, I’ll reach the Franklin D Roosevelt stop, where I could hop out onto the Champs-Elysees or even change to that trusty Line 1.
fact file
+ For more information on visiting Paris, see parisjetaime.com
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What you need to know
What you need to know
Hundreds of flights at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport were delayed Friday by an average of 49 minutes as rainy weather made its way through metro Phoenix.
A ground delay was in effect for Sky Harbor because of low clouds from the inclement weather. It was scheduled to remain in effect through 8:59 p.m., according to the Federal Aviation Administration’s National Airspace System.
Low clouds can affect flights because they negatively impact pilots’ visibility when flying, making conditions less safe, according to the World Meteorological Association.
Around 11:30 a.m. on March 7, flight tracking website FlightAware showed 404 delayed flights and three canceled flights out of Sky Harbor. Here’s what travelers should know if they’re flying.
Where to fly: New flights from Phoenix to spring-break hotspots
Is Phoenix airport having delays today?
Winter storms brought rainy, cloudy weather to metro Phoenix. The National Weather Service in Phoenix predicted a 100% chance of rainfall for Friday and precipitation amounts between one-half to three-quarters of an inch.
Most of the flights delayed Friday out of Phoenix were Southwest Airlines flights. Southwest spokesman Dan Landson told The Arizona Republic that the airline’s staff is working through the weather and getting passengers to their destinations safely and as fast as possible.
What is the meaning of ground delay?
Ground delays are when flights headed to an airport experiencing adverse conditions must delay their takeoffs, according to the FAA.
The FAA can also order a ground stop, when flights cannot take off or land because it’s not safe enough to do so.
While the FAA can order a ground delay or ground stop, it does not cancel flights.
How long will my flight be delayed?
The FAA’s delay trend outlook forecasted the effects of the ground delay based on original departure times as follows:
Michael Salerno is an award-winning journalist who’s covered travel and tourism since 2014. His work as The Arizona Republic’s consumer travel reporter aims to help readers navigate the stresses of traveling and get the best value for their money on their vacations. He can be reached at *****@*****.tld.
Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport faces hundreds of flight delays. Here’s why
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Trump Plays Matchmaker for NASA Astronauts Stuck in Space – The Daily Beast
Trump Plays Matchmaker for NASA Astronauts Stuck in Space – The Daily Beast
Trump Plays Matchmaker for NASA Astronauts Stuck in Space The Daily BeastElon Musk’s offer to bring home stranded astronauts never reached the space station, say NASA astronauts who are still in orbit after 9 months YahooStranded astronaut confirms Biden shot down Musk’s offer to bring pair home: ‘Absolutely factual’ New York Post We planned for the unexpected, say stranded Nasa astronauts from space station – live updates BBC.com
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*** entry Remember Monday promises theatrical act
*** entry Remember Monday promises theatrical act
Pete Allison & Riyah Collins
BBC Newsbeat
PA Media
Remember Monday is made up of (L-R) Holly-Anne Hull, Charlotte Steele and Lauren Byrn
About 200 million viewers, 37 countries taking part and cries of “Nul Points” on the horizon.
Eurovision fever has been ramping up with Remember Monday announced as the ***’s entry to the world’s largest live music event.
And with all three members of the group having a background in musical theatre, they know more than most about how to put on a show.
“Our performance is theatrical,” Holly-Anne Hull tells BBC Newsbeat, as Lauren Byrne adds: “We haven’t shied away from it”.
Despite the pressure of years of disappointing results for the ***, the trio, completed by Charlotte Steele, have been busy in rehearsals and say they’re “feeling good” about their chances in Basel, Switzerland.
With the exception of Sam Ryder’s second place in 2022, the ***’s been stuck in the bottom half of the leader board for a decade – even the star power of Olly Alexander couldn’t pull the country higher than 18th.
To break out of the rut needs a roll of the dice and Holly-Anne says “we were a real risk”.
Not least because they hadn’t even written their entry when they found out they’d be representing the country.
“That was really scary – finding out we got it and we were like: ‘But what do we sing?'”
Getty Images
Last year’s entry, Olly Alexander, placed 18th in the song contest with his track Dizzy
The song they’ve gone for, What The Hell Just Happened?, crosses a few different genres, including country, pop and, of course, musical theatre.
It may be risky, but Remember Monday aren’t the only ones feeling confident it could break them into the top half of the leaderboard.
“I think all the evidence points towards a better result at Eurovision this year,” Euro Trip podcast host, Rob Lilley-Jones, tells Newsbeat.
With a country background, Remember Monday can bring something “a little bit different for the ***”, he says.
“No other country is doing anything like this at Eurovision this year.”
Lauren says the group’s love of country can be traced through to their passion for storytelling through music and they’ve already been making waves in the genre.
Last year they were recognised as best trio by the British Country Music Association and have toured the US as well as the ***, racking up hundreds of thousands of streams on Spotify along the way.
Watch: ***’s Eurovision act announced on BBC Radio 2
Rather than a public vote, the entry was chosen by a team made up of *** record labels, publishers, songwriters, BBC Music and BBC Introducing.
They worked closely with Sam Ryder’s manager, David May, in the hope he could find another contender for the top spot.
Since Remember Monday were unveiled as the *** entry, reaction has been largely positive on social media, but after a difficult few years in the competition there is some scepticism too.
Lauren, Holly-Anne and Charlotte found out in December they’d be heading to the 69th Eurovision competition in Switzerland.
“Andrew [Cartmell, the BBC’s head of delegation for the ***] was like: ‘So first things first girls, what are you doing in May next year?’,” Lauren says of the day they found out.
Charlotte received the news while visiting her grandad in hospital while Lauren was parked up at a service station.
“We just go dead silent and just release so many tears,” Holly-Anne says.
“We were just sobbing. It’s so surreal.”
‘It’s our version of shopping’
Like former entrants Sam Ryder and Mae Muller, they credit TikTok with getting their break.
They’ve got more than half a million followers on the app with a combined 11.3 million likes across their videos.
“It really has changed our lives – without sounding too dramatic,” Charlotte says.
“We started posting in lockdown and when we came out we put on a gig, our first one in a long time, and it sold out in like 24 hours.”
They thought it was their families who “spent a lot of money on tickets”.
“We walked out on stage and we didn’t recognise anyone – it was all new faces.
“It was that gig that spurred us on to do this full-time.”
It’s only been about 18 months since they decided to take the plunge and focus fully on the band but they go back much further.
First meeting at school in Hampshire, the trio used to skip classes to practise instead.
“We have been singing for years and years for fun because we adore singing with each other,” says Holly-Anne.
“It’s our version of shopping or getting our nails done.”
They hope that legacy of friendship will be the secret to going the distance in this year’s competition.
“We have each other, we are best mates, we’re each other’s therapists.”
Remember Monday also marks the first time since a girl group has represented the *** in more than 25 years and podcast host Rob thinks this might give them an edge too.
“It’s going to be really exciting to follow their journey all the way through to Switzerland.
“I don’t know if Remember Monday are going to win Eurovision, there are so many different things there at play – but I think we’ve got a good chance,” he says.
Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays – or listen back here.
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Drone strike deaths, Gaza ceasefire standoff continues
Drone strike deaths, Gaza ceasefire standoff continues
Israel says a drone has struck a group of suspected militants planting an explosive device in northern Gaza, but gave no details on casualties.
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Firing squad executes Brad Keith Sigmon in South Carolina for ******* of ex’s parents
Firing squad executes Brad Keith Sigmon in South Carolina for ******* of ex’s parents
A firing squad in South Carolina executed Brad Keith Sigmon on Friday for the beating deaths of his ex-girlfriend’s parents, marking the first firing squad execution in the state in modern history and the first in the U.S. since 2010.
Sigmon was strapped to a specially made chair and had a hood over his head while three volunteer corrections staffers aimed loaded rifles at his heart and each fired off live rounds, according to several news media witnesses who spoke at a news conference afterward. He was pronounced dead at 6:08 p.m., the witnesses said.
The execution came shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court denied Sigmon’s last remaining appeal, and Republican South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster declined to grant him clemency.
Sigmon, 67, was convicted of the 2001 murders of Gladys and David Larke, who were beaten to death with a baseball bat in their small-town home in northwestern South Carolina. Sigmon, who chose the firing squad over lethal injection or the electric chair, always admitted to killing the Larkes.
“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I am guilty,” Sigmon told jurors at his trial, according to archived coverage in the Greenville News, part of the USA TODAY Network. “I have no excuse for what I did. It’s my fault and I’m not trying to blame nobody else for it, and I’m sorry.”
During his last words Friday, Sigmon listed four ****** quotes that he said showed that “nowhere does God in the New Testament give man the authority to kill another man.”
“I want my closing statement to be one of love and a calling to my fellow Christians to help us end the death penalty,” Sigmon said through his attorney. “We are now under God’s grace and mercy.”
Sigmon’s ex-girlfriend, Rebecca Armstrong, told USA TODAY − in her first interview in the 24 years since her parents’ ******* − that Sigmon’s actions ripped her family apart but that she didn’t agree with his execution, saying death should be in God’s hands.
Here’s what you need to know about Sigmon’s execution, including more about the rare firing squad method and what else his victims’ family has to say.
How the firing squad execution method was planned
Sigmon was seated and restrained in a metal chair, a hood over his head, in the corner of a room shared by the state’s electric chair, according to the execution witnesses.
The firing squad team − three voluntary corrections staff − were standing behind a wall with loaded rifles 15 feet from Sigmon. The wall has an opening for the weapons.
A small target was placed over Sigmon’s heart, after which his attorney read his last words, the warden ordered the execution and the team fired, the witnesses said. The bullets all seemed to hit the target, said Associated Press reporter Jeffrey Collins.
“It was instantaneous,” Collins said. “When the shots were fired, it was very loud, it was very jarring … I think at that point everyone in the room flinched … There was only one place where I could see any damage so that makes me think they (the bullets) were all clustered.”
The witnesses viewed the execution from Sigmon’s right-side profile.
Sigmon chose the firing squad over the electric chair or lethal injection, with his attorneys citing the unreliability of the execution drug and the barbarity of an “ancient electric chair, which would burn and cook him alive.”
South Carolina firing squad: Is the ‘barbaric’ method making a comeback?
What is the modern history of the firing squad in the U.S.?
Five states − South Carolina, Mississippi, Utah, Oklahoma and Idaho − have legalized firing squads as an execution method, most recently Idaho in 2023.
The last inmate in the U.S. to be killed by firing squad before Friday was in 2010, when Utah executed Ronnie Lee Gardner for killing a man during a robbery. Both other firing squad executions were in Utah, Gary Mark Gilmore in 1977 and John Albert Taylor in 1996.
Among the witnesses to Gardner’s execution was an Associated Press reporter who said that five volunteer prison staff members fired at him from about 25 feet away with .30-caliber rifles, aiming at a target pinned over his chest as he sat in a chair. One of the rifles had a blank so none of the volunteers knew whether they fired a fatal bullet, AP reported.
King, Sigmon’s attorney, said in a statement ahead of Friday’s execution that with it, “there is no justice.”
“Everything about this barbaric, state-sanctioned atrocity − from the choice to the method itself − is abjectly cruel,” he said. “We should not just be horrified – we should be furious.”
He had argued that Sigmon was a “tortured” man at the time of the killings because of an undiagnosed mental illness that caused “irrational and impulsive episodes,” something he tried to treat with street drugs.
“And that Brad, who was already struggling with organic brain damage and grief from his violent childhood, succumbed to a psychotic break,” King said. “The jury that sentenced him had no idea of how severely compromised his mental health was, or that he was probably incompetent even to stand trial.”
Who is Brad Keith Sigmon? More about the South Carolina man who chose the firing squad
What was Brad Keith Sigmon convicted of?
On April 27, 2001, Sigmon showed up at David and Gladys Larke’s house with a plan that he hatched while doing crack ******** the night before: He was going to tie them up and kidnap his ex, he told police.
Instead, he beat the couple to death with a baseball bat, hitting each of them nine times, according to police and a medical examiner’s report. Sigmon kidnapped Armstrong in his car but she jumped out of the moving vehicle and was able to escape, though Sigmon shot her once in the foot before his gun ran out of bullets, according to court records.
Sigmon told jurors at his 2002 trial that he had no excuse for what he did, saying that when Armstrong fell out of love with him, it “set me off,” according to the Greenville News.
“I was obsessed with her,” he told jurors. “Did I love her? More than anything else in the world.”
He continued to tell jurors that the death penalty was probably appropriate in his case, saying: “I hate what I did.”
“Do I deserve to die? I probably do,” he said. “I don’t want to die … I just want to live for my family’s sake.”
Who were Gladys and David Larke? The small-town parents of 5 killed by Brad Keith Sigmon
The Larkes’ family says they were their ‘glue’
Armstrong told USA TODAY this week that her parents were simple country folk who had five children and were always looking out for everyone. Her mom, who was 59 when she was killed, loved cooking up a feast for the whole family. Her dad, who was 62, “had a good heart” who was quick to forgive and ask forgiveness.
“They were the glue of the family,” Armstrong said, adding that they’ve missed the births of some of their eight grandchildren and five great-grand children since they were murdered. “He took that away.”
She did not attend the execution, saying that she was eventually able to forgive Sigmon through God’s love and the counseling of a Christian psychiatrist.
“The ****** tells you, I know it says ‘an eye for an eye’ and ‘a tooth for a tooth’ but if you read on down in there it says, ‘Revenge is not mine, says the Lord, revenge is God’s,” she said. “I don’t think somebody being put to death is gonna bring me closure.”
Rebecca Barbare, who now goes by Rebecca Armstrong, sits and watches as attorneys talks about testimony given by her ex-boyfriend Brad Keith Sigmon on July 18, 2002.
But, she added, she was hoping it would bring some relief.
”I miss my momma and daddy,” said Armstrong, who had broken up with Sigmon before the killings and has never given an interview about the crimes until she spoke with USA TODAY this week. “I didn’t get to see them grow old. I didn’t get to take care of them. My brothers and sisters, we missed that.”
Sigmon was the second inmate executed in South Carolina this year and the sixth in the U.S.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Firing squad execution: Brad Keith Sigmon executed in South Carolina
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Broadcom (AVGO) Q1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript – The Motley Fool
Broadcom (AVGO) Q1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript – The Motley Fool
Broadcom (AVGO) Q1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript The Motley FoolBroadcom shares soar 16% as earnings top estimates on demand for custom AI chips CNBCBroadcom has won. 70 percent of large VMware customers bought its biggest bundle The RegisterBroadcom shares surge as solid forecast eases demand worries for AI chips Yahoo Finance
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‘Putin’s dirty work in ***’ and ‘Honeytrap spies’
‘Putin’s dirty work in ***’ and ‘Honeytrap spies’
The case of three Bulgarians who were found guilty on Friday of spying for Russia makes the front of several papers. The Daily Express says the agents “undermined our security and safety”. The paper quotes a senior Met Police officer as saying it was a “clear example” of Russia hiring criminals and that “we will see more of that”.
The Daily Mail asks how many more Russian spy cells are “lurking” in Britain. It says the spy ring received orders directly from Moscow and was run from a Great Yarmouth guesthouse. The agents “passed secrets to Russian intelligence for almost three years”, the paper says. It says that, according to Scotland Yard, a fifth of British counter-terror policing is now focused on tackling “a surge of state-backed threats”.
“Putin’s spooks snared,” says the Mirror. Vanya Gaberova, 30, Katrin Ivanova, 33, and Tihomir Ivanchev, 39, are now facing jail, the paper reports.
The Daily Telegraph focuses on the man who ran the spy ring in Britain, Jan Marsalek. The paper says it has carried out a year-long investigation into Marsalek – who faces no charges in the *** and is believed to be in hiding – which can now be reported for the first time after the ring of agents he was operating in Britain was found guilty. Security sources tell the Telegraph that Marsalek was previously “co-operating” with rival secret services around the world including MI6 and the Americans.
A picture of one of the agents, Vanya Gaberova, is featured on the front of the Daily Star as an inset picture, which the paper captions as “the spy who loved the ***”. But the paper’s main story reports that parts of Britain could hit 20C this weekend – making it “hotter than Ibiza”. The paper’s thought for the day adds: “Budgie smugglers at the ready.”
Two of the “Kremlin spies” are pictured on front of the Financial Times. But the paper’s top story is on the chair of the US Federal Reserve, who has reportedly played down concerns over US growth and said the economy remained “in good shape”. It comes after a series of U-turns by the Trump administration over tariffs.
The Times reports on some of the latest comments from US President Donald Trump, who said he finds it “easier” to deal with Russia than Ukraine. Asked whether he thought President Vladimir Putin was taking advantage of the current pause in military aid by intensifying bombing, Trump said he was “doing what anybody else would do”.
The Sun’s top story is on former Nottingham Forest and England captain Stuart Pearce, who reportedly suffered a medical emergency while on a Virgin Atlantic flight from Las Vegas to Heathrow. The flight was diverted to Canada where Pearce is now said to be recovering in hospital.
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Top-seed Zverev stunned by Griekspoor at Indian Wells
Top-seed Zverev stunned by Griekspoor at Indian Wells
Tallon Griekspoor has upset top-seed Alexander Zverev 4-6 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-4) in a marathon second-round clash at Indian Wells.
The Dutchman collapsed on the court after converting his sixth match point to end an absorbing three-hour, seven-minute affair under sunny skies on Stadium One court.
“I’m incredibly proud. It was such a mental battle to beat him,” Griekspoor said after claiming the win over the *******, who had dominated their head-to-head matchups coming into the contest.
“I beat him once but then lost the next six times so it was such a mental thing. Happy to finally get it out of the way.”
Zverev served for the match in the second set but was unable to get over the line and Griekspoor edged him in the second set tiebreaker to force a decider.
Griekspoor failed to convert five match points with the match on his racket at 6-5 in the third, but regrouped to win the deciding tiebreak.
It was Griekspoor’s first win over a top-five opponent in 19 attempts.
“Finally,” Griekspoor wrote with a smiley face on the TV camera lens after the hard-fought victory.
Griekspoor will face big-serving Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in the third round.
Zverev has struggled with his form since losing to world number one Jannik Sinner in the *********** Open final in January.
“I’m just not playing good tennis at the moment. It’s as simple as that,” he told reporters.
“I’m not playing a level that I want to play, definitely not playing anywhere near what I played in Australia.
“I’m just disappointed with my game.”
The world No.2 said he would need to go back to the drawing board.
“Right now it’s not clicking. I have to find a way to make that happen.”
Popular 10th-seed Tommy Paul eased past fellow American Tristan Boyer 6-3 6-1 in front of packed stands on court three.
Paul, who reached the semi-finals of the tournament last year, was among the players who fell ill with a stomach bug at the ******** Open in Acapulco last month but said he had fully recovered.
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What is hantavirus, the infection that killed Gene Hackman’s wife, Betsy Arakawa?
What is hantavirus, the infection that killed Gene Hackman’s wife, Betsy Arakawa?
Gene Hackman’s wife, Betsy Arakawa, died from hantavirus infection, officials in New Mexico announced Friday.
Hantavirus, found throughout the world, is spread by contact with rodents or their ****** or ******. It does not spread between people. There is no specific treatment or cure, but early medical attention can increase the chance of survival.
An infection can rapidly progress and become life-threatening.
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“It really starts like the flu: body aches, feeling poorly overall,” said Dr. Sonja Bartolome of UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. “Early in the illness, you really may not be able to tell the difference between hantavirus and having the flu.”
The virus can cause a severe and sometimes deadly lung infection called hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency began tracking the virus after a 1993 outbreak in the Four Corners region — the area where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah meet.
The vast majority of U.S. cases since then have been in western states, especially the southwest. Between 1993 and 2022, there were 864 reported U.S. cases. New Mexico had the highest number over that time, at 122, followed by Colorado at 119.
Symptoms start one to eight weeks after exposure, and initially can include fatigue, fever and muscle aches, according to the CDC. As the disease progresses, symptoms can include coughing, shortness of breath and tightness in the chest as the lungs fill with fluid. About a third of people who develop respiratory symptoms from the disease can die, the CDC says.
“If you are ill and then progressing to the sort of symptoms interfering with the things you would normally do during the day, you do need to seek medical attention,” Bartolome said.
The best way to avoid the germ is to minimize contact with rodents and their droppings. Use protective gloves and a bleach solution for cleaning up rodent droppings. Public health experts caution against sweeping or vacuuming which can cause virus to get into the air.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini review: top-end specs in a small package
Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini review: top-end specs in a small package
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We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.
Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini: two-minute review
The Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini doesn’t contain any new tech, but it does fulfil a sentiment among enthusiasts – what if Asus took its top-end sensors and switches and put them into a smaller pointer?
The company’s latest high-end mouse tech, including its ROG AimPoint Pro optical sensor (capable of an impressive 42,000-dpi) and its ROG 100M Optical Micro Switches, were previously exclusive to the ludicrously expensive Harpe Ace Extreme and the comparatively reasonably priced Keris II Ace – both aimed at competitive gamers with deep pockets.
The Harpe Ace Mini adopts the new tech, making it another top-end mouse in the Asus arsenal, putting it on par with the Ace Extreme at a price that’s not terrible – though still is out of reach of many gamers, even without the 8,000Hz Polling Rate Booster dongle that’s sold separately.
(Image credit: Zachariah Kelly / TechRadar)
Without the additional dongle, the mouse is capable of a standard 1,000Hz polling rate, which is fairly average among performance mice. What’s not average is the low weight – at only 1.72oz (49g), it’s a number I’ve only seen bested by a handful of rivals.
The aforementioned AimPoint Pro sensor and Asus’ ROG SpeedNova 2.4Ghz tech makes the mouse satisfyingly precise, which the low weight no doubt helps with. Hitting my shots in shooting games and navigating programs with small icons was a breeze, and at no time did I notice it being any less reliable than other high-spec mice that I’ve reviewed.
The maximum acceleration of 50g is less than that of the Razer Deathadder V3 (70g), but it felt sufficiently up to scratch for a casual gamer or PC user who might, at most, want to quickly flick the mouse to hit their shots in a shooting game. Additionally, the mouse can track on almost any surface without the need for a mouse pad – I’ve used it on wood, plastic, glass and metallic surfaces and had no trouble (though I prefer the feeling of a mouse pad).
The RGB is minimalist, housed entirely within the scroll wheel. The Asus Armory Crate software allows you to tweak its animation, color and brightness to your liking, and the lights will pulse red when it’s at low battery. It’ll also pulse green when charging.
(Image credit: Zachariah Kelly / TechRadar)
The battery life, which maxes out at 139 hours when RGB is disabled and Bluetooth is used, is impressive, as is the neutral design that I prefer my peripherals to have. You’ll likely be using the mouse with the 2.4GHz dongle for its greater performance, bringing maximum mouse battery life to 105 hours with lighting off and 79 hours with lighting on. Don’t get the wrong idea though – that’s still a fairly impressive number among RGB-touting rivals.
Flipping the mouse over, you’ll find a button that changes the DPI among your presets, cycling through them with every click, along with a pairing button. There’s also a slider that switches between wired (also ‘off’), Bluetooth and 2.4GHz dongle options.
There’s genuinely not a lot of bad things to say about the Harpe Ace Mini. It’s comfortable, it glides across a mousepad easily, and the only things I could even say critically about this pointer feel quite tepid.
(Image credit: Zachariah Kelly / TechRadar)
The high price is obviously a drawback, and the small size isn’t for everyone. The scroll wheel is a bit stiff, though this might be preferential for some users. The mouse is designed for right hands with its side buttons aligned on the left, though this would be a non-issue for many. The DPI switch is on the bottom, meaning you can’t quickly switch between presets, but this isn’t unique to the Harpe Ace Mini and is the case on many high-end mice.
Asus’ Armory Crate software is a bit difficult to navigate, but is fine if you’re only going to make small tweaks here and there like I did (changing up the DPI, the actions of the side buttons and the mouse RGB).
There’s not much more I would have liked the mouse to have, given that it’s sporting much of the great tech found in the pricey ROG Harpe Extreme – though the carbon fiber shell from the Extreme would have been awesome (but understandably would have raised the price).
The ROG Harpe Ace Mini feels masterful. There’s very little room for improvement here, and it’s certainly a contender among the best gaming mice.
Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini review: price & availability
(Image credit: Zachariah Kelly / TechRadar)
$129.99/£129.99/AU$229
Available in white and ******
Polling Rate Booster dongle solder separately
Available now in ****** and white, the Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini comes with a set of mouse grip tape, replaceable mouse feet and a 2-meter USB-C cord, along with a 2.4GHz dongle and USB-C to USB-A converter. That dongle shouldn’t be confused with the Polling Rate Booster, which takes the report rate from 1,000Hz to a whopping 8,000Hz but is sold separately.
At this price, the ROG Harpe Ace Mini is competing with other high performance but fairly discreet mice, and is punching well above its price point. The now two-year-old Razer Deathadder V3 Pro is a considerable contender, as it launched three years ago and can often be found with attractive discounts. The same can be said for the impressive Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2.
These mice launched at higher prices than the ROG Harpe Ace Mini, which in my mind puts Asus’ tiny gaming mouse on the winning track, especially considering that it’s much smaller than either of these rivals. On size, we’d look to the Razer Cobra Pro as the closest contender, though it has a much lower DPI (30,000) and greater weight (77g).
Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini review: specs
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Interface:
Dongle (2.4GHz), Bluetooth, Wired
Ergonomics:
Right-handed
Buttons:
5
DPI:
Up to 42,000 DPI.
Switches:
ROG 100M Optical Micro Switches
Weight:
1.72oz (49g)
Should I buy the Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini?
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Value
The ROG Harpe Mini doesn’t come cheap, but for what’s on offer it’s priced competitively.
4 / 5
Design
Small and discreet, the ROG Harpe Mini fills a niche that gamers may find attractive.
4.5 / 5
Performance
An immense 42,000 DPI and the upgraded ROG 100M Optical Pro Switch make this an ideal pointer for competitive gamers.
5 / 5
Avarage rating
The Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini feels well-rounded and balanced, offering high-end features at a reasonable price.
4.5 / 5
Buy it if…
Don’t buy it if…
Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini: Also consider
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Row 0 – Cell 0
Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini
Logitech G Pro X2 Superlight
Razer Deathadder V3 Pro
Razer Cobra Pro
Price:
$129.99 / £129.99 / AU$229
$159 / £149 / AU$299
$149 / £149 / AU$279
$130 / £129.99 / AU$234.95
Interface:
Dongle (2.4GHz), Bluetooth, Wired
Dongle (2.4GHz), Wired
Dongle (2.4GHz), Bluetooth, Wired
Dongle (2.4GHz), Bluetooth, Wired
Ergonomics:
Right-handed
Ambidextrous symmetrical
Right-handed
Right-handed symmetrical
Buttons:
5
5
6
8
DPI:
Up to 42,000
Up to 32,000
Up to 30,000
Up to 30,000
Switches:
ROG 100M Optical Micro Switches
LIGHTFORCE Hybrid Switches
Focus Pro 30K Optical
Gen 3 Razer Optical
Weight:
1.72oz (49g)
2.12oz (60g)
2.22oz (63g)
2.72oz (77g)
Dimensions
117(L)x63(W)x37(H) mm
125(L)x63.5(W)x40(H) mm
128(L)x68(W)x44(H) mm, 49 grams
119.6(L)x62.5(W)x38.1(H) mm
How I tested the Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini
Used primarily on a Windows 11 gaming PC
Multiple tweaks made in Armory Crate
Tested alongside other new Asus ROG products
I tested the Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini over the course of a month, mostly using it to play games like Avowed, Marvel Rivals and The Headliners. I also used it regularly when browsing the internet and when writing things up at my home computer.
I made good use of Asus’ Armory Crate software, using it to tweak the RGB color and animation, along with changing my DPI presets and tweaking the actions of the side buttons. I used it primarily with the 2.4GHz dongle, but also over Bluetooth and while wired.
I also used the mouse alongside a slew of new Asus products to get the best unified experience, swapping out my all-Logitech setup for an all Asus arrangement.
Read more about how we test
First reviewed in March 2025
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Hinge Health to go public as soon as April, source says
Hinge Health to go public as soon as April, source says
Hinge Health’s TrueMotion feature.
Courtesy: Hinge Health
Digital physical therapy startup Hinge Health is gearing up to file for an initial public offering, potentially as soon as next week, CNBC has learned.
Hinge Health helps patients with musculoskeletal injuries ranging from minor sprains to chronic pain recover from the comfort of their own homes. Its IPO has been a highly-anticipated exit within the battered digital health sector, which has been reeling from the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The IPO could happen as early as April, but timelines might still change due to uncertainty around tariffs, according to a person familiar with the matter. Hinge Health, which contracts with employers, generated $390 million in revenue in 2024, had $45 million in free cash flow and hit gross margins of about 78%, the person said.
The San Francisco startup has raised more than $1 billion from investors like Tiger Global and Coatue Management. Hinge Health had a $6.2 billion valuation as of October 2021. Physical therapy is estimated to be a roughly $70 billion market by the end of the decade.
A spokesperson for Hinge Health declined to comment.
Hinge Health CEO Daniel Perez and Executive Chairman Gabriel Mecklenburg co-founded the company in 2014 after they were frustrated by their own experiences with physical rehabilitation, according to the company’s website.
Members of Hinge Health can access virtual exercise therapy and an electrical nerve stimulation device called Enso that’s designed to serve as an alternative to pain medications like opiates. The company has been using generative artificial intelligence to scale its care team in recent years.
The company competes directly with other digital health startups like Sword Health, but Hinge Health is about four times larger than is closet competitor, the person said.
Investors will be watching closely to see whether Hinge Health’s IPO serves as a positive bellwether for the sector.
Bloomberg reported Hinge Health’s IPO plans earlier on Friday.
WATCH: The market is in a good environment for hedge funds, says Citi’s Mithra Warrier
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#Hinge #Health #public #April #source
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“Ava! Ava!”Hawkeye women knock off No. 24 Michigan State 74-61, reach Big Ten quarterfinals – The Gazette
“Ava! Ava!”Hawkeye women knock off No. 24 Michigan State 74-61, reach Big Ten quarterfinals – The Gazette
“Ava! Ava!”Hawkeye women knock off No. 24 Michigan State 74-61, reach Big Ten quarterfinals The GazetteMichigan St. clinches Big Ten regular-season title ESPNMichigan State basketball unleashes monster comeback to lock up outright Big Ten title Detroit Free PressUpdated Big Ten men’s basketball tournament bracket projection (March 7) Badgers WireTalkin’ Spartans: Analyzing Michigan State’s Big Ten outright title-clinching win at Iowa Lansing State Journal
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#Ava #AvaHawkeye #women #knock #Michigan #State #reach #Big #Ten #quarterfinals #Gazette
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Four ways cuts at NOAA will make weather forecasts less reliable
Four ways cuts at NOAA will make weather forecasts less reliable
A destructive tornado near Minden, Iowa in April 2024
Jonah Lange/Getty Images
Widespread firings and staffing changes at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) could make the country’s weather forecasts less reliable, according to multiple researchers and the American Meteorological Society.
“The consequences to the American people will be large and wide-ranging, including increased vulnerability to hazardous weather,” the organisation said in a statement.
More than 880 NOAA employees have been fired under the administration of President Donald Trump, according to a statement from US Senator Maria Cantwell. That includes researchers working to improve hurricane forecasts and build the next generation of weather models, and more than 200 people within the National Weather Service, which is part of NOAA. An additional 500 people also accepted an earlier “fork in the road” offer to resign, further hollowing out the agency – which was already understaffed, according to two former NOAA employees.
A spokesperson for NOAA declined to discuss the firings and staffing changes. They said the agency will “continue to provide weather information, forecasts and warnings pursuant to our public safety mission”. But outside researchers and former NOAA employees say the cuts could degrade the quality of the agency’s weather forecasts.
The changes will have “definite cascading effects that will impact the forecast, even what people see on their phone via a third party”, says Kari Bowen at the University of Colorado Boulder.
The cuts could start to affect alerts about extreme weather like tornadoes and hurricanes immediately, and in the longer term, they could make general weather reports less accurate, as even commercial weather apps rely on data and modelling from NOAA. Here are four ways experts predict the storm of firings and resignations will affect weather forecasts.
Delayed tornado warnings
The National Weather Service runs a network of 122 weather forecasting offices across the country. At least 16 of the offices in the tornado-prone central part of the country are now understaffed, says William Gallus at Iowa State University. More than a dozen offices in this central region saw their head meteorologists resign, according to the former NOAA employees. And the region’s severe weather season is about to begin.
Neighbouring offices may be able to help understaffed sites track tornadoes and issue alerts, but the disruption could result in delays. “It is more likely there will be some mistakes,” says Gallus.
Such delays were evident last year, when a tornado forced a local forecast office in Iowa to evacuate, says Gallus. A neighbouring station stepped in to help track the storm. But in the confusion, some residents got only a 5-minute warning that a tornado was headed their way, rather than the 15-minute minimum that forecasters aim to provide. In an emergency situation, those lost minutes can make the difference between being able to get to safety or not.
Not knowing when hurricanes will suddenly get stronger
Some employees fired from NOAA were working on improving hurricane forecasts, in particular estimating when they will rapidly intensify. Rapid intensification can make hurricanes more dangerous by leaving people with less time to prepare. But these events are notoriously challenging to predict.
Hurricane modellers at NOAA and at other institutions have made substantial progress in forecasting rapid intensification in recent years, says Brian ***** at the University at Albany in New York. This has been due to better modelling, data collection and data integration efforts by NOAA researchers. Now staffing cuts are “destabilising the whole process that makes for improvements into hurricane track and intensity forecasts”, he says.
“It’s going to be slower going to make the improvements that we have counted on to make hurricane forecasts better over the last 30 years,” says Andy Hazelton, who had worked on improving NOAA’s hurricane forecasts before he was fired from his position at the agency’s Environmental Modeling Center last week. He says several people were also fired from the “Hurricane Hunters” group that flies planes into storms to collect data, including two flight directors.
Less reliable weather data
Accurate weather forecasts rely on a continuous stream of information about real-time conditions around the world, collected from ocean buoys, satellites, radar and other sensors. The data is then fed into global weather models that underlie both public and private forecasts. Much of the world’s data and modelling is provided by NOAA.
Staffing cuts could affect these vital data-gathering efforts, which would degrade the quality of forecasts. In fact, some local weather forecasting centres have already suspended regular weather balloon launches because of staffing shortages.
“All of those observing networks are maintained and run by people,” says Emily Becker at the University of Miami in Florida. “And we have already lost many people from those teams. It’s going to be an aggregate effect.”
Stalled improvements to future weather forecasts
At least eight people, a quarter of its staff, were fired from the Environmental Modeling Center, which is responsible for validating weather data and integrating it into the models that underlie more or less all forecasting, says Hazelton. “Everything from ‘What’s the temperature this weekend?’ to ‘Is there going to be a tornado outbreak?’”
Staffing cuts at the Environmental Modeling Center will also slow down research to improve current global weather models, he says. Ten people were also fired from the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, where researchers were building the next generation of global weather and climate models.
Such cuts are “extremely harmful” to efforts to make forecasts more reliable, says Gallus. He says almost all the improvements in forecasts in the past few decades have been down to improvements in modelling. “If we’re losing a large amount of researchers working on them, you’re basically saying my forecasts are never going to get better.”
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European Indoor Championships: Georgia Hunter Bell fourth in 1500m
European Indoor Championships: Georgia Hunter Bell fourth in 1500m
Olympic bronze medallist Georgia Hunter Bell finishes fourth as fellow Briton Revee Walcott-Nolan takes bronze and France’s Agathe Guillemot wins gold in the women’s 1500m at the European Indoor Championships.
WATCH MORE: GB’s Randolph out of 800m after being pushed on final lap
Available to *** users only.
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Thousands join Stand Up for Science rallies across the US
Thousands join Stand Up for Science rallies across the US
Stand Up for Science rally in Washington Square Park in New York City on 7 March
James Dinneen
Thousands of people in cities across the US protested the Trump administration’s cuts to scientific funding on 7 March.
In New York City, more than a thousand people gathered in Washington Square Park, chanting, “Fund science not war!” People carried signs in support of science and deploring the cuts, including one that read: “Science makes America great.”
The protest was one of at least 30 “Stand Up for Science” rallies in cities across the US, with more than 150 events expected worldwide. Researchers also walked out of laboratories as part of the protest.
Since President Donald Trump’s inauguration on 20 January, the administration has cancelled or frozen billions of dollars of federal funding for scientific and medical research. Many of the cuts have focused on research related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), as well as research on climate change and gender. The administration has also fired thousands of federal employees at US scientific agencies, including at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Science is something that has to be treasured. I think everyone has to be here. I would rather be in my lab working with my cells, but I think we have to bring awareness to these problems,” says Ana Vivinetteo, a neuroscientist at Weill Cornell Medicine who attended the New York protest. She was carrying a sign that read: “So bad, even introverts are here.”
Demonstrators hold signs during a Stand Up for Science rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC on 7 March
Tierney L Cross / Bloomberg via Getty Images
“Science is being attacked and funding is being slashed in a way that is going to impact our nation’s well-being now and for many decades,” says Maia, a postdoctoral researcher in cardiology at Columbia University in New York, who only gave her first name for fear of reprisal. She says she and her colleagues have lost funding for their research.
The largest rally took place in Washington DC, where thousands of people attended. Speakers there included Bill Nye the Science Guy; Francis Collins, former director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH); and several members of Congress. More than 1500 people attended the New York event, where prominent researchers also spoke, including Harvard theoretical physicist Lisa Randall, chief scientist at Meta AI Yann LeCun and Harold Varmus, a former NIH director and Nobel prizewinner.
Researchers from all over the world attended the New York protest. “America was very exceptional for science. We really believe that science made America great. Now we are very disappointed because everything is going to be destroyed,” says a French ******* biologist, who asked to remain anonymous.
New Scientist also spoke with scientists from Argentina, Israel, Canada and Australia at the rally. Several of them were concerned they may have to leave the US to continue their work. “I’m heartbroken. I thought I would make this my home and do my science here,” says Vivinetteo, who is from Argentina.
Dennis Robbins, a science educator at Hunter College in New York, was carrying a sign that read: “Now I’m a mad scientist.” He says he carried the same sign in the first “March for Science” protest in 2017. “It’s stunning that we still have to rally for science, that someone has to speak up for its meaningfulness in a democracy,” he says.
#StandUpForScience2025 at Michigan Capitol. Still time to come out and advocate for preserving science funding and evidence-based decision making by our government. pic.twitter.com/jvTkTzoCaF
— Rebecca Santelli (She/Her) (@RebeccaSantelli) March 7, 2025
We stood up! We were so proud to lend our voices (and our sign-making talents) to support scientific research. #ResearchMatters #standupforscience2025 #scienceforall #sciencenotsilence pic.twitter.com/MoFMrnVkUV
— NDRI (@NDRI_Resource) March 7, 2025
Great crowd at the March for science in Philly! Most popular sign ‘I left lab for this’. Protest is just starting so come join us! #marchforscience #science #philly
[image or embed]
— Melissa Shusterman (@melshust.bsky.social) March 7, 2025 at 11:04 AM
?For American and international researchers live from Paris #StandUpForScience2025 pic.twitter.com/Mvl6jYsUtg
— Maurel (@PascalMaurel) March 7, 2025
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Sound of silence at an affordable price
Sound of silence at an affordable price
Mogens Johansen tests HiFuture’s affordable noise cancelling headphones
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#Sound #silence #affordable #price
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Hinge Health to go public as soon as April, source says
Hinge Health to go public as soon as April, source says
Hinge Health’s TrueMotion feature.
Courtesy: Hinge Health
Digital physical therapy startup Hinge Health is gearing up to file for an initial public offering, potentially as soon as next week, CNBC has learned.
Hinge Health helps patients with musculoskeletal injuries ranging from minor sprains to chronic pain recover from the comfort of their own homes. Its IPO has been a highly-anticipated exit within the battered digital health sector, which has been reeling from the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The IPO could happen as early as April, but timelines might still change due to uncertainty around tariffs, according to a person familiar with the matter. Hinge Health, which contracts with employers, generated $390 million in revenue in 2024, had $45 million in free cash flow and hit gross margins of about 78%, the person said.
The San Francisco startup has raised more than $1 billion from investors like Tiger Global and Coatue Management. Hinge Health had a $6.2 billion valuation as of October 2021. Physical therapy is estimated to be a roughly $70 billion market by the end of the decade.
A spokesperson for Hinge Health declined to comment.
Hinge Health CEO Daniel Perez and Executive Chairman Gabriel Mecklenburg co-founded the company in 2014 after they were frustrated by their own experiences with physical rehabilitation, according to the company’s website.
Members of Hinge Health can access virtual exercise therapy and an electrical nerve stimulation device called Enso that’s designed to serve as an alternative to pain medications like opiates. The company has been using generative artificial intelligence to scale its care team in recent years.
The company competes directly with other digital health startups like Sword Health, but Hinge Health is about four times larger than is closet competitor, the person said.
Investors will be watching closely to see whether Hinge Health’s IPO serves as a positive bellwether for the sector.
Bloomberg reported Hinge Health’s IPO plans earlier on Friday.
WATCH: The market is in a good environment for hedge funds, says Citi’s Mithra Warrier
Source link
#Hinge #Health #public #April #source
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
Hinge Health to go public as soon as April, source says
Hinge Health to go public as soon as April, source says
Hinge Health’s TrueMotion feature.
Courtesy: Hinge Health
Digital physical therapy startup Hinge Health is gearing up to file for an initial public offering, potentially as soon as next week, CNBC has learned.
Hinge Health helps patients with musculoskeletal injuries ranging from minor sprains to chronic pain recover from the comfort of their own homes. Its IPO has been a highly-anticipated exit within the battered digital health sector, which has been reeling from the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The IPO could happen as early as April, but timelines might still change due to uncertainty around tariffs, according to a person familiar with the matter. Hinge Health, which contracts with employers, generated $390 million in revenue in 2024, had $45 million in free cash flow and hit gross margins of about 78%, the person said.
The San Francisco startup has raised more than $1 billion from investors like Tiger Global and Coatue Management. Hinge Health had a $6.2 billion valuation as of October 2021. Physical therapy is estimated to be a roughly $70 billion market by the end of the decade.
A spokesperson for Hinge Health declined to comment.
Hinge Health CEO Daniel Perez and Executive Chairman Gabriel Mecklenburg co-founded the company in 2014 after they were frustrated by their own experiences with physical rehabilitation, according to the company’s website.
Members of Hinge Health can access virtual exercise therapy and an electrical nerve stimulation device called Enso that’s designed to serve as an alternative to pain medications like opiates. The company has been using generative artificial intelligence to scale its care team in recent years.
The company competes directly with other digital health startups like Sword Health, but Hinge Health is about four times larger than is closet competitor, the person said.
Investors will be watching closely to see whether Hinge Health’s IPO serves as a positive bellwether for the sector.
Bloomberg reported Hinge Health’s IPO plans earlier on Friday.
WATCH: The market is in a good environment for hedge funds, says Citi’s Mithra Warrier
Source link
#Hinge #Health #public #April #source
Pelican News
View the full article at [Hidden Content]
A South Carolina man executed by firing squad is the first US prisoner killed this way in 15 years
A South Carolina man executed by firing squad is the first US prisoner killed this way in 15 years
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) —
A South Carolina man convicted of ******* was executed by firing squad Friday, the first U.S. prisoner to die by that method in 15 years.
Three volunteer prison employees used rifles to carry out the execution of Brad Sigmon, 67, who was pronounced dead at 6:08 p.m.
Sigmon killed his ex-girlfriend’s parents with a baseball bat in their Greenville County home in 2001 in a botched plot to kidnap their daughter. He told police he planned to take her for a romantic weekend, then kill her and himself.
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Sigmon’s lawyers said he chose the firing squad because the electric chair would “cook him alive,” and he feared that a lethal injection of pentobarbital into his veins would send a rush of fluid and blood into his lungs and drown him.
The details of South Carolina’s lethal injection method are kept secret in South Carolina, and Sigmon unsuccessfully asked the state Supreme Court on Thursday to pause his execution because of that.
On Friday, Sigmon wore a ****** jumpsuit with a hood over his head and a white target with a red bullseye over his chest.
The armed prison employees stood 15 feet (4.6 meters) from where he sat in the state’s death chamber — the same distance as the backboard is from the free-throw line on a basketball court. Visible in the same small room was the state’s unused electric chair. The gurney used to carry out lethal injections had been rolled away.
The volunteers all fired at the same time through openings in a wall. They were not visible to about a dozen witnesses in a room separated from the chamber by bullet-resistant glass. Sigmon made several heavy breaths during the two minutes that elapsed from when the hood was placed to the shots being fired.
His arms briefly tensed when he was shot, and the target was blasted off his chest. He appeared to give another breath or two with a red stain on his chest, and small amounts of tissue could be seen from the wound during those breaths.
A doctor came out about a minute later and examined Sigmon for 90 seconds before declaring him dead.
Witnesses included three family members of the victims, David and Gladys Larke. Also present were Sigmon’s attorney and spiritual advisor, a representative from the prosecuting solicitor’s office, a sheriff’s investigator and three members of the news media.
Sigmon delivered a closing statement that he said was “one of love and a calling to my fellow Christians to help us end the death penalty.”
The firing squad is an execution method with a long and violent history in the U.S. and around the world. Death in a hail of bullets has been used to punish mutinies and desertion in armies, as frontier justice in America’s Old West and as a tool of terror and political repression in the former Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.
Since 1977 only three other prisoners in the U.S. have been executed by firing squad. All were in Utah, most recently Ronnie Lee Gardner in 2010. Another Utah man, Ralph Menzies, could be next; he is awaiting the result of a hearing in which his lawyers argued that his dementia makes him unfit for execution.
In South Carolina on Friday, a group of protesters holding signs with messages such as “All life is precious” and “Execute justice not people” gathered outside the prison before Sigmon’s execution.
Supporters and lawyers for Sigmon asked Republican Gov. Henry McMaster to commute his sentence to life in prison. They said he was a model prisoner trusted by guards and worked every day to atone for the killings and also that he committed the killings after succumbing to severe mental illness.
But McMaster denied the clemency plea. No governor has ever commuted a death sentence in the state, where 46 other prisoners have been executed since the death penalty resumed in the U.S. in 1976. Seven have died in the electric chair and 39 others by lethal injection.
In the early 2000s, South Carolina was among the busiest death penalty states, carrying out an average of three executions a year. But officials suspended executions for 13 years, in part because they were unable to obtain lethal injection drugs.
The state Supreme Court cleared the way to resume them in July. Freddie Owens was the first to be put to death, on Sept. 20, after McMaster denied him clemency. Richard Moore was executed on Nov. 1 and Marion Bowman Jr. on Jan. 31.
Going forward the court will allow an execution every five weeks.
South Carolina now has 28 inmates on its death row including two who have exhausted their appeals and are awaiting execution, most likely this spring. Just one man has been added to death row in the past decade.
Before executions were paused, more than 60 people faced death sentences. Many of those have either had their sentences reduced to life or died in prison.
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‘Mickey 17’ and the Long Line of Movie Clones – The New York Times
‘Mickey 17’ and the Long Line of Movie Clones – The New York Times
‘Mickey 17’ and the Long Line of Movie Clones The New York Times‘Mickey 17’ Review: Robert Pattinson in ***** Joon Ho’s Latest Dystopia The New York TimesBong Joon Ho’s Parasite Follow-Up Takes On Trump. It’s a Blast. SlateDean’s A-List Interview: Stars of new film ‘Mickey 17’ AOLMickey 17 Ending Explained: What Happens When You Have Too Many Robert Pattinsons? IGN
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#Mickey #Long #Line #Movie #Clones #York #Times
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Man dies after being assaulted during home invasion at Penrith
Man dies after being assaulted during home invasion at Penrith
A man has died after he was allegedly attacked by two intruders in his home.
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Pelican News
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