Beijing's restrictions on American chipmaker Micron in retaliation to sweeping US chip curbs marks a major step up in its response to Washington's pressure and could open the door for further...

A group of famous fiction writers joined the Authors Guild in filing a class action suit against OpenAI on Wednesday, alleging the company's technology is illegally using their copyrighted work.

By Blake Brittain and Katie Paul A group of writers including Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Chabon sued Meta

Diablo 4 Helltide Mystery Chest map explained to help players traverse regions in Sanctuary and find the best loot possible.

Days after the US Supreme Court struck down race-conscious university admissions, civil rights groups have filed a federal lawsuit targeting so-called “legacy” admissions at Harvard University. The lawsuit, alleging widespread discrimination at the college in violation of the Civil Rights Act, is the latest challenge to the practice of prioritising university admissions for the children of alumni. “There’s no birthright to Harvard. As the Supreme Court recently noted, ‘eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it.’ There should be no way to identify who your parents are in the college application process,” said Ivan Espinoza-Madrigal, executive director of Boston-based Lawyers for Civil Rights, which filed the complaint on 3 July. “Why are we rewarding children for privileges and advantages accrued by prior generations?” he said in a statement. “Your family’s last name and the size of your bank account are not a measure of merit, and should have no bearing on the college admissions process.” The group filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Chica Project, the African Community Economic Development of New England and the Greater Boston Latino Network. Last week, the conservative supermajority on the nation’s highest court ruled that private and public colleges and universities may not consider race as a factor in admissions, striking down the precedent affirmed in the 2003 ruling in Grutter v Bollinger. Civil rights advocates and justices who supported the decades-long precedent, intended to promote racially diverse college campuses, derided what they argue is the court’s ongoing perversion of the 14th Amendment and the foundational concept of equal protection. The latest lawsuit points to Harvard data finding that 70 per cent of the college’s donor-related and legacy applicants are white. So-called “legacy” applicants have a roughly six times greater chance of admission, according to records, pointing to a “custom, pattern and practice” that is “exclusionary and discriminatory” and “severely disadvantages and harms applicants of color,” plaintiffs argued. The complaint calls on the US Department of Education to initiate a federal investigation into Harvard’s application process and for the federal government to declare such practices illegal. “Harvard’s practice of giving a leg-up to the children of wealthy donors and alumni – who have done nothing to deserve it – must end,” Lawyers for Civil Rights litigation fellow Michael Kippins said in a statement accompanying the complaint. Following the Supreme Court ruling, Democratic lawmakers and President Joe Biden urged universities to reconsider their legacy admissions, which he said “expand privilege instead of opportunity.” The Independent has requested comment from Harvard. Read More Biden condemns Supreme Court striking down affirmative action: ‘This is not a normal court’ Biden reveals ‘new path’ to student debt relief after Supreme Court strikes down president’s plan Pence ‘doesn’t believe’ racial inequality exists in schools as he celebrates SCOTUS affirmative action ban

'1000-lb Sisters' fans slammed Tammy Slaton, saying 'Please kick the horrible filters out! You don't need them!'

European Union negotiators struck a deal to curb methane emissions leaking from fossil-fuel infrastructure and plotted a course

Blue eyed people listen up. Ever wondered why your eyes are the colour they are? Well wonder no more. Every blue eyed person is descended from a single European who lived around 6,000 to 10,000 years ago, according to scientists. How did they work it out? Originally, all humans had brown eyes in various shades until there was a specific mutation that made the change. The mutation is a gene called HERC2 and it switches off OCA2, the gene that determines how much brown pigment we make. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter So that's why eyes become blue. As for being descended from the same person, the evidence for this is because every blue eyed person alive today has this same mutation. Scientists reckon only 8 to 10 per cent of the population have blue eyes and eyes don't fully develop in childhood meaning the brown pigment can kick in later, causing blue eyed children to end up with brown eyes in adulthood. So if you have blue eyes, now you know - your family is a lot bigger than you might have thought previously. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Kick's TikTok ad trolled Pokimane after she took a dig at other streams

The Earth narrowly avoided being hit by a “cannibal” solar flare – but has been lashed by powerful enough blasts to disrupt communications. In recent days, space weather forecasters had warned that the Earth could be hit by a range of powerful flares that have been ejected from the Sun. Particular warnings focused on the “cannibal” flare, which was forecast to potentially glance Earth. “Cannibal” solar flares are formed when a later blast catches up with one that was ejected earlier, and consumes it. The energy of the two is combined, which can make them far more powerful than flares that are released on their own. The latest cannibal flare appears to have missed Earth, however. Forecasts had suggested that it was only expected to glance the planet, and so a miss was perhaps likely. The Earth was struck by an X-class flare, however. That is the most potent category of solar flares, and can cause considerable disruption on Earth. This time around, space weather experts warned that the blast was enough to disrupt radio and navigation signals in North America. It was measured as an R3 blackout – on a scale that runs from 1 to 5 – which meant that areas in the US and Canada as well as on the Pacific Ocean were at risk of having radio signals and navigation disrupted. The Sun moves through a cycle of activity every 11 years, during which it releases more and less “coronal mass ejections” or CMEs, and it is currently in a particularly busy part of that cycle. Those CMEs can bring energetic flares that hit Earth – and could one day cause considerable problems on the planet, disrupting energy grids and other important infrastructure. The latest flare was measured at X1.5 and is the 20th such X flare to have hit the Earth in its current period. It came out of a particularly active part of the Sun, and followed other, weaker flares, the UK’s Met Office said. Nonetheless, experts said the “minor ongoing solar radiation storm” was “waning” and that it did not expect significant disruption in the coming days. Read More Giant space ‘umbrella’ tethered to asteroid could protect Earth from climate crisis James Webb Space Telescope captures new images of the Ring Nebula Massive solar storm strikes Earth, Moon and Mars together for first time in history

When a seam joining two segments of the Keystone oil pipeline ruptured on a frigid night last December

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