The group that pursued a successful U.S. Supreme Court challenge to the consideration of race in collegiate admissions

The rift between two strategic partners erupted over a Sikh separatist leader's murder in Canada.

Instacart’s shares are surging in the grocery delivery company’s stock market debut

Ray Epps is expected to plead guilty Wednesday

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday demanded that India treat with "utmost seriousness" Canada's allegations of New Delhi's possible involvement in the slaying of a Sikh exile...

The Metropolitan Opera is broadening its repertoire this season by performing more recent operas alongside classics like “La Boheme.”

WASHINGTON The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday charged Concord Management and its owner with failing

Scientists say climate change made the devastating storm along the Libyan coast up to 50 times more likely and 50% more intense

Official says a man accused of killing nearly two dozen elderly women who was convicted last year of in the slayings of two was killed by his cellmate early Tuesday morning in a Texas prison

Google says it has made a significant step in identifying disease-causing genes, which could help spot rare genetic disorders. A new model named AlphaMissense is able to confidently classify 89 per cent of all possible “missense” variants in genes, identifying whether they are likely to cause diseases or benign. That compares with just 0.1 per cent of all missense variants that have been confidently classified by human experts. Missense variants happen when a single letter is substituted in the DNA, which in turn leads to proteins with a different amino acid. That small change can have significant effects – Google likened it to the way that changing a letter in one word can change the meaning of the whole sentence. Most of those variants are benign: the average person has more than 9,000 of them. But some of them can be disastrous, leading to rare genetic diseases. The new AlphaMissense looked at existing information about missense variants, and how commonly they are seen in humans and closely-related primates. It looked for those that were rarely seen, classifying them as pathogenic, and from that was able to use that information to analyse other protein sequences – giving not just a verdict on whether they were likely to cause problems, but also how confident it was. Experiments, conducted by humans, which look to find those mutations are expensive and slow: they require people to examine each unique protein and designed separately. Google says that the new system means that researchers can “preview” those results for thousands of proteins at a time, helping them decide where to focus. The company has used its systems to release a vast catalogue of “missense” mutations, so that researchers can learn about what effect they have. In some cases, those variations can lead to conditions such as cystic fibrosis, sickle-cell anaemia, or cancer, and understanding them could be key to researchers studying ways to treat or prevent those diseases. It is just the latest health breakthrough from Google’s Deepmind division, which is looking to use artificial intelligence to both identify and treat a variety of conditions. The new system was built on AlphaFold, the breakthrough model that helped unfold proteins, the building blocks of life. The research is described in a new paper, ‘Accurate proteome-wide missense variant effect prediction with AlphaMissense’, published in the journal Science. The catalogue is being made “freely available to the research community”, Google said, and the company will release the code behind the AI system. Read More BBC removes some Russell Brand content as monetisation suspended on YouTube Google Bard can now link to Gmail and other apps to help with responses Long-form video content is here to stay, says YouTube UK boss

The notorious Delphi murders case has taken another shocking twist as accused killer Richard Allen made a bombshell claim about the killings of teenagers Libby German and Abby Williams. In court documents released on Monday, the 50-year-old local man maintained his innocence of the 2017 killings and instead claimed that the murders were carried out by a pagan cult hijacked by white nationalists. “Members of a pagan Norse religion, called Odinism, hijacked by white nationalists, ritualistically sacrificed Abigail Williams and Liberty German,” his attorneys write in the documents seen by The Independent. Mr Allen’s attorneys said that “possible Odinism signatures” were left behind by the killers at the crime scene with the victims’ bodies staged by trees with branches and sticks laid across their bodies in the shape of pagan symbols. While Mr Allen has no known connection to any pagan cult, his defence attorneys also took the extraordinary step of naming four individuals they say are involved in Odinism as potential suspects. None of these individuals have ever been named by law enforcement as suspects or persons of interest in the case. What is Odinism? Odinism is a pagan Norse religion with origins in ancient Viking and Nordic beliefs and pre-Christian European culture. Sometimes referred to as Wotanism, it is seen as a “racist variant” of the pagan religious sect Asatru, according to the Anti-Defamation League. While Asatru itself is not racist, over the years Odinism has become increasingly tied to white supremacist and neo-Nazi beliefs in the US. Many followers – known as Odinites – are now said to exist among the white supremacist prison population. “The religion, which revives a pre-Christian pantheon of Norse gods, is appealing to white supremacists because it mythologizes the virtues of early northern European whites – seen as wandering barbarians, deeply involved in a mystical relationship with nature, struggling heroically against the elements,” the Southern Poverty Law Center explains. “It sings the virtues of the tribe, or folk, strongly emphasizing genetic closeness. And it credits whites with building civilization and an ethic of individual responsibility, even as they boldly slew wild boars, fought for their tribes and explored the far reaches of the known world.” Were Libby and Abby killed by Odinites? The murders of Libby and Abby have never been publicly linked to Odinism before now. But, according to Mr Allen’s attorneys, law enforcement officials did explore the cult’s possible involvement early on in the investigation – as far back as February 2018. On 13 February 2017, Libby and Abby disappeared after set off on a walk along the Monon High Bridge Trail in their hometown of Delphi. During the walk, Libby posted a photo of her best friend on Snapchat as they walked along the Monon High Bridge. Minutes later, Libby captured a video of a man – known as “bridge guy” – dressed in blue jeans, a blue jacket and a cap walking along the abandoned railroad bridge. In the footage – found on Libby’s phone following their murders – the man tells the two girls: “Guys, down the hill.” The next day – Valentine’s Day 2017 – the girls’ bodies were discovered in a wooded area less than half a mile off the trail along the side of Deer Creek. In the court documents, Mr Allen’s attorneys claim that there were “possible Odinism signatures left behind at the crime scene” including the staging of the bodies and branches displayed on the victims to create pagan symbols and shapes. Describing the scene as “ghoulish”, the documents also reveal never-before-known details about how Libby and Abby died. The teenage best friends both had their necks slashed, the documents reveal. Libby was found at the base of a tree with “four tree branches of varying sizes intentionally placed in a very specific and arranged pattern on her naked body” and blood spots and drippings all over her body. Abby meanwhile was fully clothed, including in Libby’s sweatshirt and jeans, the documents state. There was no blood on her clothing, indicating that she was likely murdered while naked and then dressed after she was killed. Tree branches and sticks had also been arranged on her body, the documents state. Both victims appeared to have been moved after they were murdered and positioned. According to Mr Allen’s attorneys, police on the case did investigate a link to Odinism but, after speaking to an expert, the theory was quickly “abandoned”. Several officials continued to believe an Odinist cult was behind the murders but the information was withheld from the defence, his attorneys claim. Now, the defence is seeking a Franks hearing in the case and to have Mr Allen moved to another facility. Read More Delphi murders suspect makes bombshell claim that victims were ‘sacrificed’ by white nationalist cult What we know about the Delphi murders of Abigail Williams and Libby German Delphi murders: What we know about suspect Richard Allen

Shannen Doherty was showered with love over the weekend.