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Trump Claims ‘Complete Power to Pardon’ in Tweetstorm

The president launched a Twitter blitz Saturday — 10 tweets in all — claiming his power to pardon, demanding action on health care to attacking Hillary Clinton.

Departing White House press secretary says good riddance to press

Maybe hoping for the last word, Sean Spicer took another dig at the press in a “Hannity” appearance Friday.

Minneapolis Police Chief Resigns After Fatal Shooting

Minneapolis Police Chief Janeé Harteau resigned on Friday, nearly a week after a police officer fatally Justine Damond.

Eight Massive Wildfires Rage Across California

Among the fires is the most destructive wildfire in the U.S. this year, which crept within a mile of the historic tourist town of Mariposa.

Russian Spy House That Inspired 'The Americans' Will Be Put Up for Sale

A New Jersey home that has been vacant since the FBI arrested a family of undercover Russian spies living there is heading for sale

Woman Shares Touching Photo of Walmart Employee Helping Blind Man Shop

She said the heartwarming moment caught her eye.

Afghanistan's Shiites mark anniversary of deadly attack

The site west of Kabul is the last resting place for victims of a deadly suicide bombing on July 23 last year -- the first claimed by the Islamic State group in the heart of Kabul against Afghanistan's Shiite Muslim Hazara ethnic minority. The line from Turkmenistan to Kabul, capital of energy-starved Afghanistan, bypasses the province of Bamiyan, a Hazara stronghold. For Hazara leaders the route is a further sign of discrimination against their community and their province, one of the least developed in Afghanistan.

Trump warns Iran over detained Americans: White House

U.S. President Donald Trump warned that Iran would face "new and serious consequences" unless all unjustly detained American citizens were released and returned, the White House said in a statement on Friday. Trump urged Iran to return Robert Levinson, an American former law enforcement officer who disappeared more than 10 years ago in Iran, and demanded that Tehran release businessman Siamak Namazi and his father, Baquer. The statement capped a week of rhetoric against Tehran.

Minnesota police shooting isn't only death of 911 caller

WASHINGTON (AP) — The fatal shooting of an unarmed Australian woman in Minnesota isn't by any means the first-time police in the U.S. have mistakenly killed someone who called them for help or to report a crime.

The Future Of Kindergarten Is Less Play, More Work

Being a kindergartner today is more like first grade.

Hundreds of sheep killed after bear chases them over cliff

More than 200 sheep have died after they hurtled over the edge of a cliff in the Pyrenees mountains while being chased by a bear. Their deaths have reignited the bitter debate over the presence of bears in the mountain range that straddles the French-Spanish border, where they were reintroduced 20 years ago after disappearing in the early 1990s. The sheep belonged to a farmer in the Couflens area on the French side of the border, but their bodies were found last Sunday at the foot of a cliff just over the border in Spain. The rest of the large flock was missing after dispersing over the mountains while fleeing the attack. Local authorities sent experts to examine the scene during the week and they concluded that the sheep had been running away from a bear. The sheep’s owner will be compensated for each of the 209 animals found dead,  which is standard practice in such cases as part of the deal made between the government and farmers when brown bears from Slovenia were introduced in the late 1990s. Firefighters rescue Dolly the sheep from 15ft fall into rock crevice 00:47 But the deaths provoked an angry statement from the militant Confédération Paysanne (Farmers’ Federation) which demanded immediate action to stop deadly attacks by bears on livestock. “Pastoralism, which is a guarantor of biodiversity and of a living and welcoming mountain region, is not compatible with the reintroduction of large predators,” it said in a statement. “The state, which is responsible for the reintroduction of the bears, should remove the ones that are causing problems and should not reintroduce any more bears,” it said. The verbal protest was the latest battle in the long-running war between livestock farmers and animal conservationists who believe bears have their rightful pace in the mountain range. Herd of bison sees off pack of wolves in incredible footage 01:22 A similar battle is going on over the growing presence of wolves in France. On Thursday the government gave the green light for the cull of dozens of wolves in mountain areas, mostly in the southeast, where they have killed around 8,000 farm animals, mostly sheep, over the past year. The cull of up to 40 wolves by July next year represents a little over 10 percent of France's total wolf population. Wolves were eradicated in France in the 1930s but began to arrive back from Italy in the 1990s.

Mom of Teen Who Went Missing at Sea with Friend Files Wrongful Death Lawsuit Against Other Family

She claims their negligence led to the boys' deaths in the suit.

Here's what would happen if North Korea exported nukes to US enemies

North Korea shocked the world in the early morning hours of July 4 by launching a ballistic missile that could reach the US mainland — but North Korea has long had the ability to make and detonate nuclear devices.

Russia is responsible for 'hot war' in Ukraine: US envoy

The new US special envoy on Ukraine said Sunday that Russia is responsible for the "hot war" in the country's east, after fresh clashes between government forces and Russian-backed rebels. Kurt Volker, who was appointed this month as the State Department's special representative for negotiations to end more than three years of fighting, was visiting on the eve of telephone talks between the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France on how to stem a conflict that has claimed 10,000 lives. "This is not a frozen conflict, this is a hot war and it is an immediate crisis that we all need to address as quickly as possible," Volker said while visiting the government-controlled city of Kramatorsk in the war-torn Donetsk region.

'Justice League' Comic-Con Trailer Teases Green Lantern, Superman's Return

It's time to unite the league.

Eight dead bodies including two young children found in truck outside San Antonio Walmart, in suspected people-trafficking tragedy

The driver of the lorry found in the car park at the store in San Antonio was arrested and taken into police custody, although his identity has not yet been released. Around 38 people were inside the truck, fire chief Charles Hood said at a news conference. The San Antonio Fire Department released a statement saying: “A search of the surrounding area was also conducted to attempt to locate any patients that may have attempted to flee the scene.

Minneapolis police chief resigns after shooting by officer

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minneapolis police Chief Janee Harteau resigned Friday at the request of the mayor, who said she lost confidence in the chief after last weekend's fatal police shooting of an unarmed Australian woman who had called 911.

How to Peel and Devein Shrimp

This article, How to Peel and Devein Shrimp, originally appeared on Chowhound.

31-pound stray cat named Mr. Handsome is my favorite celebrity

Here's a good situation: a 31-pound stray cat who goes by "Mr. Handsome" has received so much interest at a Pittsboro, North Carolina animal shelter that his new home will be determined by a literal raffle. Mr. Handsome, a flawless celebrity, has been winning hearts all week after being brought into the Chatham County Animal Shelter as a stray. Since then, there's been such an influx of prospective adopters to the shelter that parking and traffic have become strained.  SEE ALSO: Cat that ingested antifreeze saved by the elixir of life: Vodka Now, those who'd like to adopt Mr. Handsome can fill out an application, which must be emailed to the shelter by July 26. If your name is drawn from the raffle, you'll be vetted further before the greatest cat to ever live is yours to keep. In the meantime, Mr. Handsome will be luxuriating in the ideal hotel suite — a cleared-out cabinet shelf he selected himself. WATCH: An incredible new robot inspired by vines can grow 25,000 times its original size

10-Year-Old Arrested For Allegedly Stealing a Car for the Fourth Time in 6 Weeks

Police said he removed his ankle monitor being caught.

6 of the most notable discoveries that have been revealed by melting ice

Two frozen bodies uncovered in the Swiss Alps this week are only the latest secret shrinking glaciers around the world have given up.

US airstrike kills 16 Afghan policemen in Helmand as Taliban leader's son believed dead in suicide attack 

A US airstrike has killed 16 policemen in Afghanistan, officials said Saturday, the latest setback to Washington's efforts to bring peace to the war-torn country. The incident took place in Helmand province on Friday as Afghan security forces attempted to clear a village of Taliban militants, Salam Afghan, a police spokesman, told AFP. "In the strike, 16 Afghan policemen were killed including two commanders. Two other policemen were wounded," he said. The strike hit a compound in Gereshk district in Helmand, large parts of which are under Taliban control. Afghan security force members are in an ongoing battle against the Taliban Credit:  Xinhua / Barcroft Images "A US-supported (Afghan security) operation... resulted in the deaths of... friendly Afghan forces who were gathered in a compound," Nato's mission in Afghanistan said in a statement. "We would like to express our deepest condolences to the families affected by this unfortunate incident," the statement said, adding there would be a probe into what happened. This follows the news that the son of Taliban leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada died on Thursday carrying out a suicide attack in Helmand. Abdur Rahman, 23, also known as Hafiz Khalid, was driving a vehicle laden with explosives into an Afghan military base in the town of Gereshk, north of the provincial capital Lashkar Gah, Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, the Taliban's main spokesman for southern Afghanistan, said. A US Marine talks with Afghan National Army soldiers during a training in Helmand province Credit: REUTERS/Omar Sobhani He said Abdur Rahman had been a madrassa student but had wanted to carry out a suicide attack. "He succeeded in his mission last Thursday," he said. Taliban fighters drove three captured Humvee vehicles into checkpoints during heavy fighting around Gereshk on Thursday. One senior Taliban member, close to Haibatullah's family, said Abdur Rahman had enrolled as a suicide bomber before his father became leader of the Taliban last year and had insisted on continuing after his father took office. Mullah Haibatullah took over leadership of the Taliban after his predecessor, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour died in a US drone strike in Pakistan in May, 2016. "Before this, a number of close relatives and family members of previous supreme leaders had conducted suicide bombings but Sheikh Haibatullah has become the first supreme leader whose son sacrificed his life," the senior Taliban member said. A government official said security authorities were investigating the incident and could not confirm that Mullah Haibatullah's son had been killed. People greet the Afghan security officials as they took control of the Nawa district following an operation against Taliban militants in Helmand earlier this month Credit: EPA/WATAN YAR The incident in Gereshk came as fighting in Helmand, source of most of Afghanistan's opium crop, has intensified in recent days following the end of the harvest season. The insurgents control much of the province and threaten Lashkar Gah but government forces, backed by US airstrikes, have launched an operation to drive them back from around the provincial capital. In addition to the fighting in Helmand, there have also been reports of heavy fighting in other areas of the country, from Kunduz and Baghlan province in the north to Farah province in the west. An interior ministry spokesman, Najeeb Danish, said a ministry delegation had been sent to the area to investigate and help families of the victims. Helmand for years was the centrepiece of the US and British military intervention in Afghanistan. But the Taliban now effectively controls or contests 10 of Helmand's 14 districts, blighted by a huge opium harvest that helps fund the insurgency.

Lawmakers Agree on Sweeping Russia Sanctions Package

The bill includes stiff economic penalties against Iran and North Korea

Hungarian PM offers support to Poland in row with EU

By Marton Dunai BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Saturday that Budapest would defend Poland as the European Union threatens Warsaw with sanctions over its plans to extend government control over its courts. Poland is overhauling its supreme court despite street protests against the move and the threat of EU penalties. "The inquisition offensive against Poland can never succeed because Hungary will use all legal options in the European Union to show solidarity with the Poles," Orban said in an annual speech that was televised from Baile Tusnad, Romania, where he was attending a gathering of conservative leaders.

No-show inflation poses conundrum for US Fed

After tightening monetary policy last month for the second time this year, the US central bank is expected to pause for the next few months to monitor developments. The Federal Reserve will leave the benchmark interest rate untouched when it meets Tuesday and Wednesday, partly because it has yet to begin to wind down its huge stock of bond holdings, and will not make another move on interest rates until that process is underway. In the normal course of events, as an economy recovers and hiring increases, that brings with it rising wages and inflation, which in turn prompts the central bank to hike lending rates to keep prices in check while still allowing economic growth to continue.

California governor turns to housing, rail after climate win

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Gov. Jerry Brown's aggressive plea for lawmakers to renew California's signature climate change law proved fruitful this week, bolstering his credibility as a world leader in the fight against global warming.

Teenage cheerleader accused of killing newborn baby and burying it in garden

An 18-year-old cheerleader has been arrested after her child’s remains were found buried in her backyard, with investigators revealing the baby was alive at the time of birth. Brooke Skylar Richardson was charged with reckless homicide in the US state of Ohio on Friday after evidence emerged that the child “was not a stillborn baby”, according to the Dayton Daily News. Authorities determined the infant died more than two months ago and only found the child's remains because of a tip from a doctor's office.

Sisters Give Birth to Babies on the Same Day: 'It Was Not Planned'

They said the cousins will have joint first birthday party.

Elon Musk scraps the idea of a Model 3 with a solar panel roof

For as long as Elon Musk has been involved in the tech world, he has demonstrated an almost unrivaled obsession with dreaming big and boldly pursuing initiatives that objectively seem downright crazy at first glance. From his work at SpaceX to his more recent effort to create underground tunnels capable of transporting cars at speeds as high as 125 MPH, Musk, to his great credit, is a man of action. Still, when you have as many outrageous and ambitious ideas as Musk, not everything can become a reality. That said, the idea that the Model 3 -- or any subsequent Tesla vehicle -- might one day feature a roof with embedded solar panels has finally been put to rest by Musk. Recall, Musk initially floated the idea of a Model 3 outfitted with solar roof technology late last year, even going so far as to say that Tesla would "probably offer that as an option." https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/794575003446480896 A few months later, Musk revealed that he decided to scrap the idea. During a speech at the National Governors Association a few days ago, Musk said that he actively had Tesla engineers look into the feasibility of a roof embedded with solar panels before realizing that it just wouldn't work out. "I really thought about this," Musk said. "I pushed my team. Is there some way we can do it on the car? Technically, if you have some sort of transformer-like thing that will pop out of the trunk like a hardtop convertible that ratchets solar panels over the car, and provided you are in the sun, that would be enough to generate 20 to 30 miles a day of electricity. It’s a difficult way to do it." Still, the idea of a solar panel roof atop of a Tesla vehicle sounds a lot cooler than it would actually be in practice. Given the surface area of the roof, Musk's 20-30 mile figure seems wildly optimistic. A solar panel roof could certainly come in handy in dire situations, but it's far from being a game-changer. Video of Musk's full remarks can be seen over here.

Xanda, son of Cecil the Lion, killed by hunter in Zimbabwe

The son of Cecil the Lion, whose death at the hands of an American tourist in Zimbabwe caused international uproar, has also been shot dead by a hunter in Zimbabwe, scientists said. The lion, known as Xanda, was shot on July 7 just outside the boundary of Hwange National Park, close to where his father died, according to a group of researchers from Oxford University who were tracking him. As Xanda was shot outside the park, his killing was legal.

Human trafficking suspected as nine people die in sweltering lorry at Texas car park

At least nine people have died after being crammed inside a sweltering lorry parked at a Walmart store in San Antonio, Texas, and authorities said they were the victims of "ruthless" human traffickers. The driver was arrested, and nearly 20 others rescued from the rig were in hospital in dire condition, many with extreme dehydration and heatstroke, officials said. Authorities were called to the San Antonio car park late Saturday night or early Sunday and found eight dead inside the truck. A ninth victim died at the hospital. The victims "were very hot to the touch. So these people were in this trailer without any signs of any type of water" to air conditioning, Fire Chief Charles Hood said.  Based on initial interviews with survivors of the weekend tragedy, more than 100 people may have been packed into the back of the 18-wheeler at one point in its journey, ICE acting Director Thomas Homan said. In addition to the dead, there were 28 injured - 20 of them severely Thirty-nine were inside when rescuers arrived, and the rest were believed to have escaped or hitched rides to their next destination, officials said. Temperatures outside the vehicle topped 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 Celsius). The truck's driver was arrested and will face charges, said Richard Durbin, US attorney for the Western District of Texas, and prosecutors are working to identify others responsible. The bodies were discovered after officials were led to the trailer by a man who had approached a Walmart employee and asked for water. "All were victims of ruthless human smugglers indifferent to the well-being of their fragile cargo," Durbin said. "These people were helpless in the hands of their transporters. Imagine their suffering, trapped in a stifling trailer in 100-plus degree heat," he said. A police officer works on the crime scene behind a Walmart store in San Antonio, Texas Credit: Ray Whitehouse/Reuters San Antonio is about 150 miles (240 km) north of the border with Mexico. Temperatures in the area held above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8C) until 6 p.m. local time on Saturday and were expected to soar into the 100s again on Sunday, with humidity making the heat feel close to 110 degrees, forecasters said. Raids on suspected illegal immigrants have ramped up across the United States in recent months, after president Donald Trump's vow to crack down on those entering the country without authorisation or overstaying their visas. In Texas alone, federal immigration agents said they arrested 123 illegal immigrants with criminal records in an eight-day operation that ended last week. The San Antonio deaths come more than a decade after what is considered the worst immigrant smuggling case in US history, when 70 people were found stuffed into an 18-wheeler. Nineteen of them died in the incident in Victoria, Texas, about 100 miles southeast of San Antonio, in May 2003. San Antonio Police Chief William McManus described the latest fatalities as a "horrible tragedy" and said other suspects had fled the scene as police officers arrived. Police forensics officers work on the crime scene "Checking the video, there were a number of vehicles that came and picked up other people who were in that trailer," McManus said. Twenty people were airlifted to seven hospitals and their conditions were "critical to very critical," Hood said. Eight others are hospitalised in less serious condition, he said. At San Antonio's University Hospital, six adults were admitted early Sunday with heat-related injuries, all of them in critical condition, spokesman Donald Finley said. McManus said the people in the truck ranged from school-age juveniles to adults in their 20s and 30s. He said the Department of Homeland Security had joined the investigation, and that the origin of the truck is unclear. Experts have warned in recent months that tougher immigration policies could make it more difficult to stop human trafficking. Measures to harden international borders encourage would-be migrants to turn to smugglers and fear of deportation deters whistle-blowing, they said. The Border Patrol has regularly reported finding suspected immigrants inside trucks along the U.S. border with Mexico. Earlier this month, 72 Latin Americans were found in a trailer in Laredo, it said. In June, 44 people were found in the back of a lorry in the same Texas city, which lies directly across the Rio Grande from Mexico.  

Trump attacks Post over report Sessions discussed campaign with ambassador

Donald Trump went on the offensive on Saturday morning, after the Washington Post reported that his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, discussed Trump’s White House bid with the Russian ambassador to Washington in 2016. The president did not defend Sessions, whom earlier this week he criticised strongly for his recusal from the Russia investigation.

Hundreds of Islamic State corpses await repatriation from Libya

Seven months after Libyan forces defeated Islamic State in the coastal city of Sirte, hundreds of bodies of foreign militants still lie stored in freezers as authorities negotiate with other governments to decide what to do with them, local officials say. The corpses have been shipped to Misrata, a city further to the west whose forces led the fight to defeat Islamic State in Sirte in December. Allowing the bodies to be shipped home to countries such as Tunisia, Sudan and Egypt would be sensitive for the governments involved, wary of acknowledging how many of their citizens left to fight as jihadists in Iraq, Syria and Libya.

Popularity tumbles for France's Macron: poll

A poll out Sunday shows the popularity rating of France's new President Emmanuel Macron has slumped 10 points to hit 54 percent over the past month. The 39-year-old leader has also backed a controversial bill to toughen France's security laws that includes measures some rights groups have branded as draconian. According to an Ifop poll carried out for Journal du Dimanche newspaper, the number of French people satisfied with his performance fell 10 points from 64 percent in June.

Thoughts On Love From The Duggar

Get Jana, John-David and Josiah Duggar’s thoughts on love and courtship.

Radio station cancels Richard Dawkins appearance over Islam tweets

A US radio station invited Richard Dawkins to speak about his latest book, and then cancelled the ticketed event over his tweets about Islam. The evolutionary biologist was due to discuss Science in the Soul: Collected Writings of a Passionate Rationalist at a benefit event for KPFA, a listener-funded station in Berkeley, California. Tickets were snapped up ahead of the anti-theist’s planned talk on 9 August – but KPFA cancelled the event on Thursday, claiming it had recently discovered that his comments about Islam had upset people.

Sprint is just straight-up trolling Verizon now

In absence of actually having a good network, Sprint is relying on some top-notch PR to bother Verizon. Sprint already stole away Verizon's signature spokesperson -- Mr "Can You Hear Me Now?" -- and it's now hitting on Verizon's pricing with a savage stunt. For one day only, Sprint has opened up a "Twice the Price" shop next to a Verizon store in Queens, NY. The concept is a store filled with regular things that are twice the price, just like Verizon's plans are twice the price of Sprint. It's an incredibly brazen attempt to hit Verizon where it hurts most, and it is kinda funny. Verizon has arguably the best network around: it comes joint-top in most speed tests with T-Mobile, and its coverage is hands-down the best in rural areas and indoors. But Verizon's pricing is undeniably high. Even the new Unlimited plan, which was meant to be Verizon's answer to T-Mobile One, is $80 a month for the first line. Now, you can argue that Verizon's plans are still value for money. The Unlimited plan comes with good perks like 10GB of hotspot data, which you pay extra for on T-Mobile (or anyone else), and Verizon does get you more consistent coverage. But for the average user, Sprint's betting that paying half the price makes up for any shortcomings in service. Sprint doesn't have the money to build out its network to compete with Verizon, so the "Twice the Price" store is going to have to do as a competitive strategy for now.

German runaway girl who converted to Islam is found in Iraq

BERLIN (AP) — A German girl who ran away from home after converting to Islam has been found as Iraqi forces liberated the northern city of Mosul from Islamic State extremists, German and Iraqi officials said Saturday. She is reported to be in good health and will be interrogated next week by Iraqi officials.

O.J. Simpson had a 'conflict-free life'? Not really

LOS ANGELES (AP) — When O.J. Simpson told a Nevada parole board last week that he's led a "conflict-free life," he seemed to overlook a few episodes that had him cycling in and out of courtrooms and jail cells for nearly 20 years before the Las Vegas hotel-room heist that sent him to prison in 2008.

Who is Anthony Scaramucci? Everything you should know about the new communications director

Anthony Scaramucci, who has been appointed to head the White House's communications operations, has a long history on Wall Street – and has been a big Trump backer and public advocate.

Are you a medieval sleeper? Why it's time to put the eight-hour night to bed 

It’s 3am and I’m sitting on my bed propped up against a Manhattan skyline of pillows, painting my toenails palm green. On recent nights, around this hour, I’ve also planned my husband’s birthday party and learnt how to make an authentic Cuban daiquiri. I call these stolen 60 minutes in the middle of the night my  ‘anti-nap’: a peaceful shadowland between sleep and the day’s activities, when I catch up on the sort of quiet pursuits that are impossible when you’re trying to extract a toddler’s fingers from a plug socket. As a working mother this is the closest I get to me time – and it’s a joy. The odd hours I keep are nothing new.  Insomnia In my 20s I’d fall asleep like a cat: on aeroplanes and trains and even – a lucky knack for a travel writer – the back of bumpy rickshaws. But wherever I lay my head, by 3am I’d be awake and pottering about for up to an hour before dozing off again until 6am. I now know I’m not alone. Two thirds of women over the age of 40 wake at least once during the night, according to researchers at Harvard University, while a Sleep Council report found that a quarter of over 40s are natural ‘biphasic sleepers’. Biphasics, as we are known, tend either towards the ‘siesta structure’ of a five- or six-hour night-time sleep, plus a 30- to 90-minute daytime nap, or – like me – into a rhythm of two- to four-hour sleeps bridged by a waking period. Expert view | Three ways to improve your sleep This isn’t something we can control – it is related to your age and circadian chronotype, which decides if you’re a night owl or up with the larks (or, in fact, a dolphin, lion, bear or wolf). Biphasics differ from insomniacs in that they do get enough sleep. In fact, A. Roger Ekirch, author of At Day’s Close: A History of Nighttime, argues that biphasics or ‘medieval sleepers’ get closer to nature’s intention than the sleep we aspire to today (those precious eight uninterrupted hours). ‘For thousands of years until the industrial age, humans slept twice,’ Ekirch says. ‘A deeper first sleep from sunset until around 2am, followed by an interval of wakefulness, usually lasting an hour, then a lighter second sleep until around 6am, or later in the winter.’ Insomnia The interval in the middle was used to visit neighbours, pray, or have sex, according to Ekirch. Only with the arrival of artificial lighting in the 1820s did sleep begin to compress into the pattern we now know. For years I battled my ‘medieval’ sleep schedule, thinking it eccentric and antisocial. I tried meditation and melatonin hormone supplements. I ignored the clock during my wakeful phase and counted my breaths and heartbeats. I tried sprinting and yoga, valerian roots, chamomile and blackout curtains. Back then, my sleeping patterns had a greater impact on my life. In a particularly hormonal phase in my late 20s, I’d sleepwalk, or rather ‘sleep cook’, at the tail end of my first sleep, jolting to wakefulness to find myself in the kitchen grilling something peculiar (once, sweet pickle and mayonnaise). Why not get up at 2am after your first sleep cycle and do some chores? In my early 30s, my nocturnal activities caused tensions with a boyfriend who was  a light sleeper and, after I woke him up, he would pace the flat in his underpants accusing me of ‘Riverdancing’ in bed.  More recently, with a husband who’s a rock-solid sleeper and a renewed gratitude for my wakeful hour, I’ve made peace with my medieval sleep patterns. Unbothered by my night-time wakings, Tim is grateful that I’m a morning lark to his night owl, making us compatible for shared parenthood. The best ways to reboot your sleep routine Dr Bryony Sheaves, a clinical psychologist from the Sleep & Circadian Neuroscience Institute, concurs. ‘Some people will wake in the night and others won’t; some people are morning people and others are evening types. So abandoning strict rules about sleep can reduce the anxiety that often gets in the way of a good night’s sleep.’ But are there any other benefits to biphasic sleeping, beyond splitting childcare and achieving a neat sock drawer? Segmented sleepers often find they sleep fewer hours overall but that they wake feeling more refreshed. According to a report in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, biphasics consolidate deep sleep (when your brain and body are restored) in their first block, then have REM sleep (when dreaming occurs) during their second, which boosts sleep quality.  Nick Littlehales, a sleep coach to Premier League football teams, agrees we should think less in terms of an unbroken night’s sleep and more in terms of sleep phases. ‘We’re all up on exercise and diet these days, but when it comes to sleep we just trundle through our day until we only have seven or eight hours left until we have to  do it all again,’ he says. Instead, he advises people to think in terms of four to five 90-minute blocks of sleep over a 24-hour period. ‘Why not get up at 2am after your first two or three sleep cycles and do some ironing, or make your lunch for the next day, before heading back to bed?’ he says.  Since I stopped worrying about my own unusual way of sleeping, I’ve harnessed  the time for my benefit. I find my ironing pile greatly reduced as a result of my night-time waking periods. And I’m  less anxious during the day when I’ve made the most of that precious middle-of-the-night hour for thinking over my problems and working out how to  tackle them. So maybe it is time to stop aspiring to that maddening myth of eight uninterrupted hours’ sleep at  night, in order to have a really good night’s (or day’s) sleep. Which sleep tribe are you – lion, wolf, bear or dolphin? Illustrations by Giacomo Bagnara

China cashing out as mobile payment soars

The dance student is part of an explosion in the use of mobile payment platforms in China as consumers increasingly take out phones instead of cash to pay for everything from a coffee to a language class or a gas bill. China was the first country in the world to use paper money but centuries later the soaring popularity of mobile payment has some analysts forecasting it could be the first to stop. The gross merchandise value of third party mobile payment rose more than 200 percent to 38 trillion yuan (about $5.6 trillion) in 2016 from a year earlier, according to China-based iResearch.