President Joe Biden is celebrating his 81st birthday by joking repeatedly about his advanced age

Scott Hall, one of former President Donald Trump's 18 co-defendants, has turned himself in to the Fulton County jail, according to the jail's online database.

Great Ezihie reveals having feelings for two women in 'Temptation Island' Season 5 Reunion

Twitter has been plunged into chaos in recent days, amid new “rate limits” and rules that actually stop people from using the site. The changes have been dramatic enough that they have led to speculation that they could be the thing to finally doom Elon Musk’s takeover of the social network. What are the ‘rate limits’? It is a somewhat technical term for a complex process that has a simple effect: users are rationed on how many tweets they can see. If people and the apps they use make too many requests too often – in this case for tweets – then the service will stop providing them. On Twitter, the new rate limits are different depending on what kind of user is on: someone who pays for the premium “Twitter Blue” service will get more than a normal user, for instance. They are also changing all the time, with the limit being increased recently. Twitter has long had rate limits, which ensure that malicious actors cannot send huge number of requests to the site and bring it down, for instance. But they would previously only have been hit by people using specific tools, since they were much higher. What happens when you hit the limit? Users will see a warning telling them they have received the rate limit. The site will then stop working properly, because it will refuse to load any more tweets. Why has it happened? The official explanation is that Elon Musk is concerned about how many artificial intelligence companies are scraping posts from Twitter in order to feed to their systems and teach them more about how to use language. In an attempt to stop that, Mr Musk placed the limits to make it harder for that scraping to happen. But there is no proof that is actually the case. The problems at Twitter may well be infrastructural issues caused by the site’s engineering, and its lack of staff, that have made it incapable of serving normal requests. Or it might be a mix of the two. There is no doubt that the site is being scraped, but rate limits of this kind are an unusual way of responding to it, and other sites that are being scraped have not needed to do the same thing. Are there other changes? The other major change instituted recently by Elon Musk is to ban people who are not signed into the site from seeing posts. This is ostensibly for the same reason, since it means that scrapers cannot just gather up posts from the site from the outside. It already means that some things about Twitter are not working as they used to. If someone sends a tweet within a messaging app, for instance, then the posts’ preview won’t show, since the app cannot access the tweet. Will this change how people use Twitter? Almost certainly. Much of Twitter’s value lies in its high-profile and high-commitment users: the celebrities, organisations and big brands who use it to post, and the engaged users who follow them. That is much of what sustains its place in culture, even as it gets fewer users than much bigger social networks such as Facebook. The recent changes have directly antagonised those users. Big organisations cannot rely on tweets as a way for anyone to see what they’re posting, since users have to be logged in; engaged users cannot rely on being able to use the platform, since they are set to be rate limited. What’s more, the recent changes could cause problems for advertisers, given how important it is for users to stay engaged and see their posts. Companies are already using Twitter less for advertising, as a result of other controversies, and that may just continue. Is this the end? Some people have been predicting an end to Twitter since long before Elon Musk took it over; when he did, those predictions got louder and more regular, but they have still been largely wrong. It appears that no matter what Mr Musk does, people keep logging on and using the site. That might well be largely due to network effects: the idea that the value really comes from the number of people using the platform, which also makes it very difficult to create a new one. People might be unhappy on Twitter, but the network effect means they might feel lonely or that they are missing out if they move elsewhere. But all of that doesn’t mean that this time around won’t be the end. Certainly the latest problems have the most obviously problematic effect, of forcing Twitter’s most engaged users to not use the app, which might finally encourage them to go elsewhere. In the end, the discussion is often based on the idea that there will be some big moment that causes everyone to leave Twitter, or for the app to die. In fact, social networks have tended to decline slowly before they are finally shut down; something that might already be happening on Twitter. What are the alternatives to Twitter? Again, people have been trying to replace Twitter for years, for reasons including everything from protests against its content management rules to opposition to its centralised nature. Attempts to create a new Twitter have only increased since Elon Musk took over the original one. But they have almost always failed to take off. Network effects and the relative maturity of Twitter as a platform mean that they have always faced a challenge, and never really met it. As such there are a number of alternatives to Twitter. Notable among them are Mastodon, which is decentralised and has become perhaps the most discussed new alternative, and Bluesky, an effort to build a new kind of Twitter that originally began with the company. But the most promising alternative might be about to launch. Meta is launching Threads this week, an app linked to Instagram that aims to allow people to post text updates that might have the might to actually take over from Twitter. What is happening to TweetDeck? TweetDeck also went down along with Twitter over the weekend. It’s unclear how the two are connected, though they happened at the same time. Now Twitter has announced that TweetDeck is coming back. But it comes with some changes, and the most notable of them is that people will have to pay for Twitter Blue to get access to it. Read More Twitter to stop TweetDeck access for unverified users Meta’s Twitter alternative Threads to be launched this week How Elon Musk finally broke Twitter – and why it might just be the start Twitter rival Bluesky halts sign-ups after huge surge in demand Twitter is breaking more and more Twitter rival sees huge increase in users as Elon Musk ‘destroys his site’

A British court has ruled against five London suburbs that tried to block a pollution tax on older cars

At least four military transport planes were destroyed in a drone attack at the Pskov airport in western Russia, the regional governor has said. Moscow on Wednesday accused Ukraine of targeting six Russian regions in what appeared to be the biggest drone attack on Russian soil since the beginning of the invasion. The strike, which was first reported minutes before midnight, hit the airport and damaged four Il-76 transport aircraft, Russia’s state news agency Tass reported. All flight operations to and from the airport have been suspended to assess the damage. The strike comes a day after Ukraine said its armed forces have gained a foothold in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, where they are believed to be advancing towards Russia’s second line of defence. Kyiv’s General Staff said its forces had “achieved success ... within the re-captured frontiers” and were attacking detected enemy targets with artillery as well as carrying out counter-battery measures. Meanwhile, the Kremlin said Vladimir Putin had no plans to attend the funeral of Yevgeny Prigozhin, as the Wagner chief’s press service said a closed-door “farewell” service was held for him on Tuesday, with mourners welcome at a cemetery in his native St Petersburg. Read More 6 regions targeted in biggest drone attack on Russia since it sent troops to Ukraine, officials say Secretive funeral for Wagner chief as Putin stays away White House says Kremlin has ‘long history’ of killing its opponents following Prigozhin death

Players of the new feline adventure game, Stray, need to know how to steal a Worker Vest to progress in the game.

By Leah Douglas WASHINGTON The U.S. Department of Agriculture will temporarily close a damaged laboratory building at its

Professional wrestler Will Ospreay has spoken about a regretful tattoo he got after competing at AEW's All In show at Wembley Stadium, where the wrong attendance was announced. The show which happened on August 27th, was believed at the time to be a world record for a wrestling show with 81,035 fans in attendance at the historic venue London. However, it has since been reported by Wrestlenomics that the actual number of people that went through the Wembley turnstiles on the day was only 72,265, as per data provided by Brent Civic Centre. Although AEW did sell 81,035 tickets for the show the actual attendance means that it doesn't have the record for a wrestling show, that still belongs to WWE's WrestleMania 32 at the AT&T Stadium in Texas in 2016. It also doesn't have the record for a wrestling show at Wembley Stadium either which is still held by WWE for their SummerSlam 1992 show with 78,927 fans in attendance. Aside from being an unfortunate error for AEW (the 'record' number was read out at the show) its even more embarrassing for Ospreay who got a tattoo of the stat on his arm to commemorate partaking in the show. Ospreay is regarded as one of the best wrestlers in the world and was the highest-profile British wrestler on the show, defeating Chris Jericho on the night. In a video the star uploaded then quickly deleted, Ospreay jokingly bemoaned the incorrect number which he now has on his arm, which is incidentally the first tattoo he's ever gotten. The 30-year-old said: "Bruv, you cannot make this f**king sh*t up. I am currently in Japan and I’ve had no f*cking sleep. I am tired and I wake up. This is the worst f*cking day of my life. Do you know how hard it was for me to get a tattoo? My Mum f**king hates them bruv. They announced it to everyone! They announced it was 81,000 people. I’ve got this f**king thing on my arm now." Commiserations Will but there is always a chance that he could appear at the show next year as AEW have announced that they will be returning to Wembley on August Bank Holiday weekend in 2024. Sign up for 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.

The Biden administration has suspended funding for the Wuhan Institute of Virology following a monthslong review that determined that the Chinese research institute "is not compliant with federal regulations and is not presently responsible," according to a memo from the Department of Health and Human Services.

DENVER — After a day where the San Diego Padres looked like the Padres team that was projected at the start of the season, Fernando Tatis Jr. offered a warning to the other 29 MLB teams."We just feel good as a team,” Tatis said. “Everybody’s clicking at the same time...

Max Verstappen finished fastest in a rain-hit final practice session for the Spanish Grand Prix. Verstappen completed his speediest time in the early minutes before it started drizzling at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya. The double world champion finished two tenths clear of Sergio Perez in the other Red Bull, with Lewis Hamilton third, four tenths back. Hamilton completed only eight laps as he elected not to run in the slippery conditions, despite the chance qualifying – which takes place at 4pm local time (3pm BST) – could also be disrupted by showers. Behind Hamilton, Carlos Sainz finished fourth for Ferrari, one place ahead of his countryman Fernando Alonso in his Aston Martin. George Russell finished sixth for Mercedes. The one-hour running was suspended for nine minutes after Logan Sargeant crashed out. Sargeant lost control of his Williams through the high-speed final corner, before sliding into the gravel and grazing the wall. Verstappen will head into qualifying having finished fastest in all three sessions as he bids to extend his 39-point championship lead over team-mate Perez. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live