For makeup devotees, the name Danessa Myricks holds power. The makeup artist and founder of her eponymous makeup line has easily reached icon status for those in the know, and after her Yummy Skin Blurring Balm Powder went viral last summer, it seems like her star is only rising further. With multi-use makeup products becoming essentials in our makeup routines, Myricks took note and launched the Groundwork Defining Neutrals Palette in September, creating a one-stop tool to a stellar makeup look.

Raheem Sterling faced an awkward post-match interview following Chelsea's game against Manchester City, when a reporter noticed he had something in his eye. Patrick Davidson saw the Chelsea ace rubbing his eye mid-questioning, and decided to take action himself. "Crazy game followed by…Oh you’ve got a bit…come here. You’ve got a bit of grass in your eye,” he began, putting his hand out to assist the player. "You’re going to put some more dirt in my eye!”, Sterling clapped back, making things even more awkward. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez met in 2008 when they were dating one of the Jonas Brothers

Hydrogen is a losing bet for investors interested in making money in the foreseeable future, according to Barry

Elizabeth Banks has confessed she'd love to bring her creature feature Cocaine Bear back to the big screen for a sequel

The former campaign treasurer for New York Rep. George Santos will plead guilty to at least one federal felony charge in connection with the case against the Republican congressman, according to court documents.

Astronomers are hoping to receive a message from aliens after a 40-year wait for a reply comes to an end. On 15 August 1983, a pair of hopeful astronomers at Stanford University beamed a message into space via an antenna. They believe that 22 August 2023 is the earliest time they can expect to receive a reply. The experiment was the brain-child of professors Masaki Morimoto and Hisashi Hirabayashi, who, around 40 years ago, beamed 13 drawings in radio waves to a star named Altair, approximately 16.7 light-years away from Earth. The 13 drawings sent into space by Morimoto and Hirabayashi were designed to tell the story of human evolution and how human beings came to exist on Earth. Drawings depicted how humans evolved from microscopic creatures that eventually moved from water onto land. It also explained our solar system and what DNA is. It was the hope that if there was any intelligent life on planets close to the star, they would interpret the messages and hopefully send a reply. In anticipation of a reply, a team at The University of Hyogo in Japan will monitor for a reply using the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) antenna. Led by Shinya Narusawa, the team will listen for around an hour for signs of unusual radio activity or signals that could suggest a reply. Narusawa explained: “A large number of exoplanets have been detected since the 1990s,” adding, “Altair may have a planet whose environment can sustain life.” Unfortunately, if a reply is received, it will be too late for Morimoto, one of the professors responsible for the original project, after he died in 2010. Dr Hirabayashi, the other pioneer, is currently a professor emeritus at JAXA. It is yet to be seen whether he will see his 40-year experiment gets the conclusion he was hoping for. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter 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.

Manager Phil Nevin said it will likely be a couple more days before the Los Angeles Angels finalize when Shohei Ohtani will make his next pitching start

Singapore’s ruling People’s Action Party was dealt a fresh blow on Monday when the parliament speaker resigned in

The Ukraine war may remain a “stalemate” throughout 2024, military experts have told The Independent, as hopes fade for a major breakthrough in this year’s counteroffensive against Russia. Delays in Western military aid handed Moscow time to build heavily fortified defences, which have largely held up against months of intense assaults – and constraints in ammunition and weaponry now mean both armies may struggle to sustain the current pace of the war, some analysts believe. With the prospect of a Middle East conflict likely to further stretch Washington – Ukraine’s largest backer – ahead of a US presidential election in November 2024, Vladimir Putin’s strategy may now be to preserve the current state of the frontline and “wait it out”, Western experts say. With just weeks likely left before seasonal weather changes dampen offensive efforts in Ukraine, Dr Patrick Bury of the University of Bath said: “There hasn’t been a breakthrough, there’s been tactical gains, low-level operational gains – but not strategic.” “What this summer has shown is that [Ukraine] can fight at company level [of around 100 soldiers] but when you go the next level up to the battalion, they just don’t really have the coordinated experience to fight with all the moving parts”, said Dr Bury, a former Nato analyst and British Army captain. While the US is due to start providing F-16 fighter jets next year, the sophistication of the Russian air force means Ukraine will still struggle to achieve air superiority, “and you need air superiority really to be able to free up the chance of large-scale manoeuvre”, he added. Therefore “unless there’s significant widespread packages of training, new weapons and equipment”, Dr Bury said, “it’s looking like 2024 is a bit of a stalemate” – with any significant shifts instead likely to take place off the battlefield. Agreeing that “we’re [already] seeing a stalemate now”, Dr Frank Ledwidge – a former military intelligence officer, now at the University of Portsmouth – questioned “whether any tactics would have worked against defenders who [Ukraine] didn’t outnumber three to one”. “In the most basic military algorithms, you need an attack ratio of three [troops] to one, and the Ukrainians don’t have anything like that,” he said. “So barring any significant change in that force ratio there’s no reason really now to assume that future operations will be any different.” Warning that there are “no game changers”, including F-16s, Dr Ledwidge likened the situation to the Western Front in 1917, adding: “Breakthroughs were made eventually in the First World War, but only when the Americans came in with two million soldiers.” He added: “Unless somebody has the moral courage to say ‘Ukraine is highly unlikely to retake all its land’, then this will go on.” James Nixey, director of the Chatham House think-tank’s Russia and Eurasia programme, said: “It does seem as though we’re heading towards a battle for Crimea.” While noting that Russia is “going all-in” by putting its economy and society “on a near at total war footing”, which may help address ammunition shortages, Mr Nixey said he agreed that significant changes to the situation in Ukraine will now likely “happen off field”. “Putin is banking almost everything on a Trump return,” he said, adding that the conflict emerging in Gaza and Israel – and threatening to become a wider Middle East conflict drawing in Hezbollah and Iran – means that “attention, resources and funding will be diverted now” from Ukraine. “While it’s true that the US army prepares for to simultaneous separate wars, the reality is that the pie is likely to be smaller – even if Ukraine funding is tagged onto an Israel assistance bid,” said Mr Nixey. US president Joe Biden, who recently suffered a setback in securing Congress’s approval for Ukraine aid, rejected that prospect this week, telling CBS News: “We’re the United States of America, for God’s sake. The most powerful nation in the history of the world. “We can take care of both of these and still maintain our overall international defence. We have the capacity to do this and we have an obligation … If we don’t, who does?” But agreeing that a second conflict has “certainly got the potential for stretching the US”, Dr Bury and Dr Ledwidge both believe a military stalemate in Ukraine is therefore “very satisfactory” to the Russian president. “Putin’s strategy is just to wait it out,” said Dr Bury. “Putin’s played a masterstroke here – he’s basically used a nuclear threat to slow down and salami-slice the aid to Ukraine. That’s the effect it’s had.” “Those threats were enough to make the Biden administration and the Germans were very wary” of supplying F-16s, tanks and long-range weaponry, he noted, adding: “We got there in the end, but it took time. “And that, it turned out, gave Russia time to build very good defensive lines and make their problem easier and the Ukrainians’ much harder.” Read More Russia to return four Ukrainian children to their families as part of Qatari-brokered deal Putin arrives in China on rare trip abroad to meet ‘dear friend’ Xi Jinping As the conflict in Israel rages on, the world must not forget about Ukraine ‘My body was burning’: Russian journalist’s horror journey in grips of suspected poisoning

Watch out, Roborock and iRobot. Ecovacs just introduced a new 2-in-1 floor-cleaning robot capable of

Deontay Wilder ducks his head, cramping his 6ft 6in frame under the vent in a seemingly endless, narrow green hallway in Wembley Arena, and howling as he marches towards his dressing room. Across the corridor – three steps for you or me, one for the American – is Anthony Joshua’s dressing room. Once inside his own, Wilder hurries to the bathroom, where he belts out the refrain of “This Is How We Do It” repeatedly, for about 90 seconds. When he emerges, the “Bronze Bomber” is ready to get down to brass tacks. Wilder soon declares that he has been metaphorically “knocking on Joshua’s door for years”, but what if he were to take the short trip across the hall and knock literally? “At this moment in time, I’d tell him it’s good to see him,” the 38-year-old tells The Independent and a small group of reporters. “I’d tell him it has been a long time coming, and I wish him nothing but the best.” Moments later, in Joshua’s dressing room, I ask the Briton the same question. “I’d probably do more listening than talking,” the 34-year-old replies. “I don’t have much to say to these guys. I don’t have much to say. These heavyweights, man...” But these two particular heavyweights are not here for a press conference promoting a long, long, long-awaited fight between them. On this November evening in Wembley, the former world champions share a stage, and on 23 December, they will share a ring in Riyadh – just not at the same time. Joshua will box Otto Wallin, after Wilder fights Joseph Parker. Yet inevitably, our conversation in Joshua’s dressing room revolves almost entirely around Wilder, and vice versa once we cross the hall, with December’s event intended to pave the way to one of the most hotly anticipated fights in history. And while Wilder’s hypothetical message to Joshua is a polite one, it is not necessarily in keeping with his overall thoughts on “AJ” this evening. That’s OK, though, because Joshua has no intention of pleasantries tonight. The Briton’s first issue is with Wilder questioning his identity. Wilder, sitting beside his manager Malik Scott, his arms stretching almost the entire length of their purple, velvet sofa, has this to say: “I worry about every fight Joshua is in. Eddie Hearn built Anthony Joshua; he wasn’t born a champion, he was made a champion. I think they did a f***ing amazing job of promoting him and getting him to the top. I am happy for him as a fellow fighter, I am proud of him and happy for him. But I would have been the undefeated, undisputed heavyweight world champion many years ago, for many years, if I had the opportunities he was given. “If you have a company with only one moneymaker, you will never risk him against the best, you will put him in with mediocre guys. I don’t want to call guys mediocre, I’m not downplaying them, but they’re not at the top of the competition. “Man, Joshua better get ready. That’s all I can say. It’s that time.” Ten minutes later, we hear Joshua’s response. “Who the f*** is he? He’s a boxer, not a psychologist.” The Olympic gold medalist is reclining on a sofa beside Hearn, and sporting a grey tracksuit and a black beanie hat. It is a less ostentatious get-up than Wilder’s tuxedo-and-varsity-jacket combination, and similarly, the dim, grey walls around Joshua are a world away from the flowered wallpaper in Wilder’s room – if just a few steps away in reality. “I’ve stood 10 toes on what I represent, I’ve been two-time champion of the world, defended, fought X amount of world champions,” Joshua continues. “The boy has had 50 fights, and he fought Jason Gavern in his 30-somethingth fight; I fought him in my 11th. We are different; my identity is strong. If they’re looking for weaknesses and gaps, then they need to stop looking over here, because I’m solid. I don’t know what he’s talking about if I’m honest.” Joshua, it must be said, seems to be in a somewhat prickly mood. It’s apparent later, in his back-and-forth on stage with Jarell Miller (understandably, after the American’s failed drug tests derailed their planned clash in 2019, leading to Joshua’s stoppage loss to Andy Ruiz Jr) and his dismissal of host Dev Sahni. Joshua would prefer that Hearn ask him questions, not Sahni, who is employed by Hearn’s rival Frank Warren. It is also evident in his response to a question about Ben Davison, who worked with Tyson Fury and is – in a sense – Joshua’s fourth coach in two years. “I don’t want to talk about trainers,” Joshua says, before pretending not to know about Davison’s past with Fury. Wilder, meanwhile, is in a more playful mood, but he picks his moments to be cutting. After questioning Joshua’s identity, he questions the Briton’s grit. “I don’t want you to get in the ring [with me] because the money’s right; I want you to get into the ring because you feel like you can beat Wilder, in your heart,” he says. “When you get in that ring, you’re going to put on a great performance and not lay down the first time you get hit.” Then, he questions Joshua’s courage, to a degree. “The fight is closing in, and Joshua has nowhere to run. I don’t think he’s scared of me, but the people around him are. Maybe there is some fear in him, but we are in a business where we all risk our lives. The sport and the dangers get under your skin, so I understand that side, [but] everyone will get in the ring for the right price, especially when there is over $50m (£40m) on the table. Everything is going in the right direction now, and the fight will happen. The time is finally here, and people are going to get what they have wanted for years. “There have been a lot of lies and manipulation going on, there have been a lot of years I have been waiting. I have never been the hold-up, and I could say a lot of things. All of these guys – promoters, managers – they don’t want me to say certain things, because it exposes them. But, at the end of the year, we are here now.” Joshua, for his part, says: “We’ve stayed around long enough to see the changes happen, and just the timing factor. It was either going to happen now or 10 years from now, we were just lucky enough to be in the driving seat at this present time.” Yet, again, it is worth remembering: Joshua and Wilder are not fighting each other on 23 December. Instead, their respective bouts will top an admittedly remarkable card involving the likes of Daniel Dubois, Dmitry Bivol, Filip Hrgovic and Jarrell Miller. The event – the likes of which the boxing world has never seen before – marks a sudden, stupefying collaboration between Hearn’s Matchroom, Warren’s Queensberry Promotions, and various other companies. “In terms of Frank and Eddie, you’d have to ask [Eddie],” Joshua says, “but me and Wilder, we’re fighters; we were going to fight each other one day. It was either going to be on his card or someone else’s card. To have us all working together, it’s unbelievable.” But Joshua and Hearn repeatedly stress that Wilder may not even be next for AJ after 23 December. “I want to go for the title – we might fight [Oleksandr] Usyk,” Joshua says of the man who dethroned him in 2021 and outpointed him again in 2022. “It’s better to plan for everything than to plan for nothing. This might happen, this may not. I fought a tall guy, [Robert] Helenius – that’s leading me towards Wilder; I fight a southpaw [Wallin] – that’s leading me towards Usyk. Either way, I’m going down a positive route. “Do you know what’s good? I’ve got opportunities. That’s what I think is the best thing right now. I feel like the fight with Wilder is massive, it will happen, but I have options. I don’t aim to be a part of the circus, I aim to own the circus.” Right now, boxing is certainly a circus. But how could you take your eyes off it? Read More Anthony Joshua sees Otto Wallin as stepping stone on way to title fight Joshua vs Wallin and Wilder vs Parker official for 23 December Boxing’s heavyweight saga sees biggest plot twist yet Joshua and Wilder in line to fight on same Saudi card – but not against each other Eddie Hearn makes surprising revelation about Anthony Joshua coach Anthony Joshua and Louis Theroux break into freestyle rap battle: ‘Fire in the booth’