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Madeleine Dring, born in 1923, was a composer with an unconventional career that spanned theatre, pantomime, and cabaret. Despite her untimely death at 53, her music has been rediscovered, and her seriousness as a composer is now evident.The album Through the Centuries: Songs of Madeleine Dring, performed by Kitty Whately and Julius Drake, features a wide-ranging survey of Dring's work, drawing on poets from Shakespeare to her contemporaries. Dring's ability to find distinctive new melodies for old classics, such as It Was a Lover and His Lass, is showcased, along with her knack for word-setting.Whately's warm, supple mezzo-soprano brings these fervent outpourings to life, while Drake's piano accompaniment provides the perfect balance of support and independence. The album offers a variety of moods, from the passionate Love Is a Sickness and Echoes to the tongue-in-cheek Encouragements to a Lover and The Cuckoo.The encore, Dring's arrangement of Cole Porter's In the Still of the Night, is a delightful addition, showcasing her skill in reinterpreting popular songs. This album puts paid to any idea that Dring was not a serious composer, instead highlighting her unique voice and contribution to classical music.

In a bid to make housing more affordable, some Seattle families are embracing a communal living model. This approach allows them to share resources and split costs, providing a more sustainable and economical way to live. The rising cost of living in Seattle has prompted many to seek alternative housing solutions. By pooling their resources, these families can enjoy a better quality of life while reducing their financial burden. Communal living arrangements can take many forms, from shared housing to cooperative living. These setups often involve shared responsibilities and resources, such as cooking, cleaning, and childcare. While this lifestyle may not be for everyone, it offers a unique solution to the affordability crisis in Seattle's housing market. As the city continues to grapple with rising housing costs, communal living arrangements are likely to become an increasingly popular option.

CrossSense, an innovative AI software, has been awarded a £1m prize for its groundbreaking technology designed to assist individuals with dementia. This cutting-edge system is integrated into smart glasses and features a user-friendly assistant named Wispy. The smart glasses, equipped with a camera, microphone, and speakers, provide wearers with real-time guidance and support through everyday tasks.Wispy offers verbal cues and text prompts that float in front of the wearer's eyes, enhancing their ability to navigate daily life. The AI assistant can also engage in light conversation, ask questions, and aid reminiscences, significantly improving the wearer's independence and quality of life.The Longitude Prize on Dementia, funded by Alzheimer's Society and Innovate UK, aims to encourage the development of technology that helps people with dementia stay independent for longer. About 150 million people are expected to be living with dementia by 2050, making such innovations crucial.The CrossSense technology is expected to cost around £50 a month per subscription, with the smart glasses potentially costing up to £1,000. However, the developers plan to make the technology more affordable over time. The team behind CrossSense plans to conduct a pilot study with smart glasses in people's homes later this year.Prof Julia Simner, who led the study, noted that participants with dementia could correctly identify 46% of household items without the glasses, increasing to 82% with the glasses. An hour after removing the glasses, the identification rate remained high at 78%.While experts praise the innovation, they also highlight the need for larger, more controlled studies to test the device's effectiveness and address ethical considerations regarding data collection and user consent.

A staggering 4.9 million children died in 2024, with the majority of these deaths being preventable, according to a new UN report. The report warns that aid cuts could hinder the global goal of ending preventable child deaths. Progress towards ending preventable deaths of children under five by 2030 has slowed by 60% since 2015. UN experts are calling for sustained investment in health systems to reach this target. “No child should die from diseases that we know how to prevent,” said Unicef executive director Catherine Russell. “But we see worrying signs that progress in child survival is slowing – and at a time where we’re seeing further global budget cuts.” The report highlights that Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia have persistently had the worst rates of child death, largely due to newborn deaths. The most common causes of death were premature birth, pneumonia, and trauma during birth. Infectious diseases, including malaria, were also a major cause. 100,000 children died directly from severe acute malnutrition – with the highest numbers in Pakistan, Somalia, and Sudan. Aid cuts are threatening to close lifesaving facilities, humanitarian workers warn. “We are not moving far enough or fast enough and leaving 5 million [children] under the age of five vulnerable,” said Abdurahman Sharif, senior humanitarian affairs director at Save the Children. Aid cuts have affected 6,600 health facilities, with a third forced to close. Experts warn that without sustained investment, progress in reducing child deaths will slow further, and gains could begin to reverse.

The WebKit Vulnerability and the New Patching MechanismApple has officially rolled out its first 'background security improvement' update, marking a significant evolution in its software maintenance strategy. This latest release targets a critical vulnerability discovered in WebKit, the browser engine that powers Safari across iPhones, iPads, and Macs.The advisory reveals that the bug, if exploited, could allow a malicious website to potentially access data from another website within the same browser session. To mitigate this risk, Apple introduced a new category of updates designed to be 'lightweight' and pushed between major software releases.Target Version: iOS, iPadOS, and macOS 26.1 and higher.Scope: Fixes for Safari, WebKit, and system libraries.Deployment: Background updates without requiring a full system reinstall.Efficiency in Security Response: The 'Quick Reboot' AdvantageOne of the most notable aspects of this update is the user experience. Unlike traditional major updates that often require lengthy reboots, this background security improvement only necessitates a quick device restart. This suggests a streamlined deployment process that minimizes user friction while maximizing security coverage.Apple has been testing this feature with software testers prior to the public release, indicating a deliberate effort to refine the mechanism before a wider rollout. The decision to withhold a specific reason for the patch from the public advisory highlights the sensitive nature of the vulnerability.Redefining the Security Patching LifecycleThe introduction of this update model fundamentally changes how Apple addresses the threat landscape. By decoupling critical security fixes from major feature updates, Apple can respond to zero-day threats and active exploits much faster.This approach reduces the 'window of exposure' for users, ensuring that security patches are applied as soon as they are available, rather than waiting for the next annual or bi-annual major OS release cycle.The Future of Continuous SecurityAs this is the inaugural release of the background security improvement program, it sets a precedent for future updates. We can expect to see a shift toward a more continuous security model, where minor but critical patches are pushed regularly to keep devices secure against evolving cyber threats.

Apple has unveiled a comprehensive hardware refresh this month, signaling a definitive shift toward on-device artificial intelligence with the introduction of the M5 chip family, while simultaneously broadening its accessibility with the budget-friendly MacBook Neo and iPhone 17e. The March 2026 Hardware Ecosystem Refresh The tech giant kicked off the month with the iPhone 17e and the M4 iPad Air on March 2. A day later, Apple announced the M5 MacBook Air, updated MacBook Pro models, and the new M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, along with the Studio Display and Studio Display XDR. On March 4, a surprise entry was revealed: the MacBook Neo, a low-cost laptop running on an A18 Pro chip. Finally, a week later, Apple dropped the AirPods Max 2, the long-awaited successor to its premium headphones. Performance Metrics and Pricing Strategy The new iPhone 17e is positioned as a budget-friendly option, retailing for $599 and featuring the A19 chip and the new C1X modem, which Apple claims is 30% more energy-efficient than the modem in the iPhone 16 Pro. The M4 iPad Air offers a significant performance jump, with the 11-inch model still priced at $599. The MacBook Pro with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips delivers up to 4x faster LLM prompt processing and 8x faster AI image generation compared to previous generations. MacBook Pro Battery Life: Up to 24 hours of battery life. MacBook Air Battery Life: Improved to 18 hours. MacBook Neo Pricing: Starts at $599 for 256GB storage. Storage Upgrades: MacBook Air now starts with 512GB storage. The Strategic Pivot to On-Device AI The core of this launch is the new Fusion Architecture found in the M5 chips, which integrates a powerful CPU, scalable GPU, and a Neural Engine designed specifically for AI workloads. The MacBook Neo represents a strategic divergence, utilizing the A18 Pro chip to target students and casual users, effectively positioning it as a direct competitor to Google's Chromebook ecosystem. Notably, the MacBook Neo has been praised by iFixit as the most repairable MacBook in over fourteen years. Market Implications and Future Outlook Apple is clearly betting that AI processing power will be the primary driver of hardware sales in the coming years. By embedding advanced AI capabilities into both high-end Pro machines and budget devices, the company is attempting to create a seamless AI experience across its entire product line. The introduction of the MacBook Neo suggests a strategy to capture the education market by offering a macOS experience at a Chromebook price point, potentially disrupting the low-end laptop market.

Mythmatch is a match-three game that has captured the essence of ancient Greek mythology, blending it with a heartwarming tale of friendship and community. Players take on the role of Artemis, the immortal daughter of Zeus, who is determined to become the God of the Hunt. To achieve her goal, Artemis must first earn favor with a council of her elders on Mount Olympus, and they all have puzzle-based jobs for her.The game seamlessly integrates elements from various puzzle games, such as Plants vs Zombies and Overcooked, into its match-three gameplay. As Artemis navigates her way through the challenges set by the gods, she gets cast out of Olympus and sent down to the mortal town of Ithaca, home of Odysseus. Here, the game transforms into a rural life sim, where players help the locals by constructing new buildings, assisting their trade with other settlements, and solving their complicated lives.The gameplay cycle revolves around spending days on Earth becoming a more useful deity and then returning to Olympus at night to try to better your score at the challenges set by the gods. As players become indispensable in the lives of the mortals, they reward Artemis with ecclesiastical XP (experience points), which can be spent to make the Olympian puzzle tasks easier.The visual style of Mythmatch is gentle and cartoonish without being overly cute, and the characters are well-drawn and sympathetic. The game tackles timeless sociopolitical themes, including unrequited love, social anxiety, absent fathers, corporate greed, and the philosophy of leadership. The game is also extremely funny, with a unique sense of humor that adds to its charm.Overall, Mythmatch is a lyrical poem about beautiful and rewarding game design. With its interlocking systems, pleasing pace, and ebb and flow between Olympus and the mortal realm, the game is almost hypnotic. If you're looking for a new game to get lost in, Mythmatch is available now for £16.75.

The USAID agency was a primary financial backer of Liberia's eco-guards, who help protect species from poaching and trafficking. The eco-guards, all of whom live in forest communities, patrol for signs of illegal activity and share their findings with rangers from nearby parks and forests.In late January 2025, the SCNL learned that USAID, the eco-guards' primary financial backer, was being dismantled by the Trump administration and that funding had been abruptly suspended. The SCNL programme manager, Michael E Taire, a Liberian who lives in the capital, Monrovia, spent several days travelling over rough forest roads to break the news to the eco-guards, who were shocked and distraught.Conservation organisations large and small lost tens of millions of dollars, forcing some to function with a fraction of the resources they had expected and others to shut down programmes entirely. Efforts to address the root causes of wildlife trafficking across the globe were axed, as was USAID's forest-protection programme in the Congo basin of central Africa, one of the agency's largest and most enduring endeavours.David Kaimowitz, a longtime advocate of community-led conservation in the Amazon basin and Central America, puts it bluntly: 'We’re talking about an end to a whole era of conservation.'Diane Russell, an American anthropologist who has worked for USAID in the Congo basin since the 1980s, says the agency helped draw international attention and funding to the region’s remarkably rich remaining forests, which are home to mountain gorillas and forest elephants. It also enabled conservation to continue through extraordinarily difficult conditions.'The callous glee with which [the Trump] administration choked off aid is something I will never forgive or forget,' Kevin Starr writes.'We cannot replace USAID, but we can do big things, because we, the locals, were the engine behind what USAID was doing in this region,' Dida Fayo says.