Stay at home, “meet” on Zoom, no travel beyond 5km, no pub or cinema or football or school, hospital treatments cancelled or put back, holidays out of the question, flatten the curve.

For many people, after a couple of weeks of the Covid lockdown routine, days merged as a fugue of repetitiveness and lethargy clouded minds and memories.

Life went on though, and with it some attenuated versions of what otherwise would be remembered as big news: the last-ditch hammering out of a Brexit deal between Britain and the European Union, the blocking for months of the Suez Canal by a stricken container ship, the mushroom cloud explosion at a fertiliser factory in Beirut, to list a few headline-grabbers.

But it turns out people struggle to recall the timing of such events, going by a survey carried out by Daria Pawlak and Arash Sahraie of the University of Aberdeen, the findings from which were published in May in the medical journal PLOS One.

The respondents’ recollection of the timing of events that occurred in 2021, the year before the survey was carried out, was “just as inaccurate as for events that occurred three to four years earlier” and resembled a level of recall for “those previously reported for prison inmates.”

“Accurate recollection of event timing requires ‘anchoring’ life events, such as birthday celebrations and vacations, which were lacking during Covid-19 lockdowns,” said Pawlak and Sahraie.

“In other words, many participants had difficulty recalling the timing of events coinciding with Covid-19 lockdowns,” the team said, describing the findings as echoing previous research that showed how “the social isolation resulting from Covid-19 lockdowns significantly impacted people’s activities and emotions.”

“Prior research has shown that the pandemic triggered distortions in people’s perception of time,” they added.

While the restrictions were justified by governments as a means of slowing the spread of Covid-19, “little attention was paid to the consequences that pandemic related restrictions might have on the psychological well-being of individuals,” the team wrote.

Participants were asked to complete “standard evaluations” in the survey, covering categories “related to mental health, including levels of boredom, depression, and resilience,” with those who “made more errors in event timing” at the same time “more likely to show greater levels of depression, anxiety, and physical mental demands during the pandemic,” the researchers explained.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Federal prosecutors have a 2021 audio recording of former President Donald Trump acknowledging he kept a classified Pentagon document about a possible attack on Iran after leaving the White House, CNN reported on Wednesday.

CNN did not listen to the recording but cited unidentified multiple sources describing it. Reuters was not able to confirm the report.

The recording shows Trump, who is seeking the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, understood he retained classified material after he left the White House in 2021, according to the cable television network.

Trump’s remarks indicated he would like to share the information but was aware of the limitations on his ability to declassify documents after leaving office, two sources told CNN.

A Trump representative did not immediately return a request for comment. Peter Carr, the spokesman for Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office at the Justice Department, also did not immediately comment.

Smith is investigating Trump’s handling of classified documents, as well as efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Kanishka Singh; editing by Tim Ahmann)

By Diane Bartz

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A former employee of Amazon.com’s Ring doorbell camera unit spied for months on female customers in 2017 with cameras placed in bedrooms and bathrooms, the Federal Trade Commission said in a court filing on Wednesday when it announced a $5.8 million settlement with the company over privacy violations.

Amazon also agreed to pay $25 million to settle allegations it violated children’s privacy rights when it failed to delete Alexa recordings at the request of parents and kept them longer than necessary, according to a court filing in federal court in Seattle that outlined a separate settlement.

The FTC settlements are the agency’s latest effort to hold Big Tech accountable for policies critics say place profits from data collection ahead of privacy.

The FTC is also probing Amazon.com’s $1.7 billion deal to buy iRobot Corp, which was announced in August 2022 in Amazon’s latest push into smart home devices, and has a separate antitrust probe underway into Amazon.

Amazon, which purchased Ring in April 2018, pledged to make some changes in its practices.

“While we disagree with the FTC’s claims regarding both Alexa and Ring, and deny violating the law, these settlements put these matters behind us,” Amazon.com said in a statement.

The FTC said Ring gave employees unrestricted access to customers’ sensitive video data: “As a result of this dangerously overbroad access and lax attitude toward privacy and security, employees and third-party contractors were able to view, download, and transfer customers’ sensitive video data.”

In one instance in 2017, an employee of Ring viewed videos made by at least 81 female customers and Ring employees using Ring products. “Undetected by Ring, the employee continued spying for months,” the FTC said.

A colleague noticed the misconduct and the employee was eventually terminated, the FTC complaint said.

In May 2018, an employee gave information about a customer’s recordings to the person’s ex-husband without consent, the complaint said. In another instance, an employee was found to have given Ring devices to people and then watched their videos without their knowledge, the FTC said.

As part of the FTC agreement with Ring, which expires after 20 years, Ring is required to disclose to customers how much access to their data the company and its contractors have.

In February 2019, Ring changed its policies so that most Ring employees or contractors could only access a customer’s private video with that person’s consent.

FTC Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya told Reuters the settlements should send a message to tech companies that their need to collect data was not an excuse to break the law. “This is a very clear signal to them,” he said.

The fines, totaling $30.8 million, represent a fraction of Amazon’s $3.2 billion first-quarter profit.

In its complaint against Amazon.com filed in Washington state, the FTC said that it violated rules protecting children’s privacy and rules against deceiving consumers who used Alexa. For example, the FTC complaint says that Amazon told users it would delete voice transcripts and location information upon request, but then failed to do so.

“The unlawfully retained voice recordings provided Amazon with a valuable database for training the Alexa algorithm to understand children, benefiting its bottom line at the expense of children’s privacy,” the FTC said.

(Reporting by Diane Bartz and David Shepardson; Editing by Anna Driver and Deepa Babington)

Neil Patrick Harris is looking forward to turning 50.

The 49-year-old actor will celebrate his landmark birthday on June 15, and Neil insists that he’s excited about the next “chapter” in his life.

He told PEOPLE: “I’m not going anywhere. To me, 50 is chapter two.”

Neil co-produces his new Hulu series, ‘Drag Me to Dinner’, with his husband David Burtka, and the Hollywood star admits that he has actually enjoyed the experience of working behind the camera.

Reflecting on the experience, Neil – who also co-hosts the series, which sees drag queens host themed dinner parties – said: “We’ve spent a lot of our lives as actors, so it’s nice that in this next chapter of our adult lives we get to be the painter and not just a colour on the palette.

“[We] designed [the show] for people to appreciate these drag performers.”

Neil shot to fame as a child actor, after being discovered at a drama summer camp.

However, the ‘How I Met Your Mother’ star previously insisted that he’s never really been motivated by fame.

Speaking to the Guardian newspaper in 2021, Neil explained: “I love process. I’ve always really been most excited about learning how things work. Fame is a bit of an ether fog and you can get overwhelmed by the treatment, as opposed to the work.

“I loved being in an apartment building I’d never been in, in a town I’d never been in, and meeting people. I don’t think I was ever really caught up in the size of my dressing room or my salary or getting free sweaters from Adidas. When you get lost into that world, fame fleets, right?”

Madonna’s daughter Lourdes Leon starts her day with a spliff and cup of tea.

The 26-year-old model added she has smoked marijuana since childhood, when she would sneak onto the roof of her Queen of Pop mum’s house to light up.

She said in a cover interview for The Face magazine: when asked what the first thing she does when she wakes in the morning: “I make a London fog tea. (Earl Grey with vanilla and steamed milk.)”

When she was told by the interviewer she actually looks at her phone first, Lourdes admitted: “Oh, well, yeah, I look at my phone! Obviously that’s what everyone does, and it’s such a bad habit.

“OK, I look on my phone, I make my Earl Grey and I have my spliff.”

She added about her childhood: “I would sneak up to the roof to smoke a spliff, but I wouldn’t sneak out.”

But Lourdes insisted she wasn’t that rebellious, and when asked if she ever had a curfew, added: “There was no curfew to be had because there was no going out.”

She said she did not start going out until her Cuban actor dad Carlos Leon, 56, “would let me go hang out with my friends sometimes on the weekends”.

Lourdes added: “But I really wouldn’t consider that going out. I never went to a club until I was 19, 20 years old. I was in Michigan for a year, then I came back to New York, and that’s when I started to step out.”

The model, who is a rising singer and last year released her debut EP ‘Go’ added one of her favourite artists is Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke.

She said about the 54-year-old: “There’s something about Thom Yorke that makes me go crazy, I just don’t understand it.

“I’ve always felt this way, since I was young – he’s so beautifully scatter brained in a way where you’re like, ‘Where the f*** did that come from?’

“And then it all ends up making sense once the whole song is together. He literally will go from storytelling – writing about something very specific – to just using random words and sentences and stringing them together. I’m obsessed with him.”

Ben Platt has got engaged to his fiancé Noah Galvin for the second time.

‘The Book of Mormon’ star, 29, showed off a diamond engagement ring on his Instagram Story on Monday (29.05.23) after ‘The Real O’Neals’ sitcom actor Noah, also 29, first proposed to him in November.

Displaying a sapphire ring that is similar to the one Ben gave Noah in 2022, he said: “He proposed back.”

He also posted a photo of their dog holding a red rose in his mouth, alongside which Ben wrote: “I said yes.”

Noah joked on Instagram about their dog, who Ben calls Georgie: “GEORGE DID THE ASKING.”

The pair also celebrated the second engagement with a cake that said: “Gay marriage is cool.”

Ben captioned a series of Instagram snaps in November initially announcing their engagement, which happened at a restaurant in Williamsburg, Brooklyn: “He agreed to hang out forever.”

Noah added on his Instagram: “I said yeehaw and then cried for like 7 hours.”

In one image, the couple were surrounded by a floral display adorned with candles.

The pair have each played the lead role in the Broadway show ‘Dear Evan Hansen’, and after Ben stepped down from the part, Noah took over – sparking a friendship that lasted years before they became boyfriends during the Covid pandemic.

Ben told Kelly Clarkson in an interview: “We were friends for five years, and right before the pandemic, we finally decided to really give it a shot.

“We kind of skated around it for a long time.”

The actor added in a chat with Out magazine he had finally found a partner “that I really love”.

He said: “(Noah) has a really unique ability to help me to… be present where I am and to make the life that’s happening day to day too wonderful to not want to be on the ground for it.”

Jesse Tyler Ferguson has encouraged Sarah Hyland to enjoy married life “for a few years” before having children.

The 47-year-old actor – who has Beckett, two, and Sullivan, six months, with his husband Justin Mikita – has urged his former ‘Modern Family’ co-star to delay starting a family.

He told Us Weekly: “I would say, ‘Just be married for a few years.’ That’s what Justin and I did. We said, ‘Let’s do, like, five years of just being married, just the two of us, and then we’ll talk about kids.’ Hopefully that’s what they’re doing. But if they wanna (get started), I’m here for advice.”

Jesse also revealed that he doesn’t plan to have any more children.

He shared: “It sort of just worked out that two boys were what made sense for us. I think we’re done. I think two is it for us.”

Meanwhile, Sarah recently revealed that she’s loving married life.

The actress told E! News: “He’s a wonderful, wonderful husband.

“I think he has to compromise – and it has been our entire relationship – of my multiple alarms in the morning.”

Sarah explained that their relationship hasn’t actually changed since they tied the knot.

The actress – who married Wells Adams in 2022 – said: “We were together for so long and went through a pandemic.

“We were engaged for a really long time before we were able to get married, so I think the greatest thing about our marriage is that nothing has changed – other than a woman at a bar seeing his ring.”

Sarah and Wells tied the knot in an intimate ceremony at a California vineyard.

The loved-up couple were joined on their big day by some of Sarah’s former ‘Modern Family’ co-stars, including Sofia Vergara and Jesse.

Sofia, 50, even posted some behind-the-scenes photos from the wedding on her Instagram account.

The actress captioned one of the images: “#sarahandwells wedding.”

KAMPALA (Reuters) -Uganda on Tuesday condemned the Western response to the East African country’s new anti-LGBTQ law, considered one of the harshest in the world, and said sanctions threats from donors amounted to “blackmail”.

The law signed by President Yoweri Museveni carries the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality”, an offence that includes transmitting HIV through gay sex.

Its enactment, announced on Monday, drew immediate rebukes from Western governments and puts in jeopardy some of the billions of dollars in foreign aid the country receives each year.

U.S. President Joe Biden threatened aid cuts and other sanctions, while Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the government would consider visa restrictions against Ugandan officials.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the law would impact Uganda’s ties with international partners.

In the Ugandan government’s first detailed comments since Museveni signed the law, Information Minister Chris Baryomunsi rejected the condemnation.

“We do not consider homosexuality as a constitutional right. It is just a sexual deviation which we do not promote as Ugandans and Africans,” he told Reuters.

“While we appreciate the support we get from partners, they must be reminded that we are a sovereign country and we do not legislate for the Western world. We legislate for our own people here in Uganda. So that kind of blackmail is not acceptable.”

Ugandan activists and lawyers filed a lawsuit on Monday against the law. They said it encourages discrimination and stimgmatisation and allege it was passed without meaningful public participation.

In an interview, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk told Reuters he expects the courts to agree.

“I hope that the judiciary is going to look into it and I can tell you, if they look at human rights law, their own constitution, they will find it in violation of it,” Turk said, describing the law as “devastating”.

He did not elaborate on which aspect of the constitution had been violated.

Asked about alleged breaches of international law, a spokesperson later added: “a whole range”, saying these included the rights to equality, non-discrimination and to life.

France’s TotalEnergies, which is developing a $3.5 billion oil pipeline between Uganda and Tanzania, told Reuters on Tuesday that its CEO had expressed the company’s views on the bill to Museveni before he signed it.

“Respect for others is a core value at TotalEnergies,” a spokesperson said.

(Reporting by Emma Farge; Editing by Alison Williams, Aaron Ross and Nick Macfie)

By Elaine Lies

TOKYO (Reuters) – A Japanese court ruled on Tuesday that not allowing same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, a decision activists welcomed as a step towards marriage equality in the only Group of Seven nation with no legal protection for same-sex unions.

The ruling by the Nagoya District Court was the second to find a ban against same-sex marriage unconstitutional, out of four cases over the past two years, and is likely to add to pressure to change the law in a country in which the constitution says marriage is between a man and a woman.

“This ruling has rescued us from the hurt of last year’s ruling that said there was nothing wrong with the ban, and the hurt of what the government keeps saying,” lead lawyer Yoko Mizutani told journalists and supporters outside the court.

She was referring to a ruling in Osaka last year that the ban was not out of line with the constitution.

A Tokyo court later upheld the ban on same-sex marriage but said a lack of legal protection for same-sex families violated their human rights.

Tuesday’s ruling was greeted with cheers from the activists and supporters waving rainbow flags outside the court.

Though opinion polls show some 70% of the public supports same-sex marriage, the conservative ruling Liberal Democratic Party of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida opposes it.

Kishida in February sacked an aide who sparked outrage by saying people would flee Japan if same-sex marriage was allowed, but the premier remains noncommittal about it and has said discussions must proceed “carefully”.

Nevertheless, more than 300 Japanese municipalities covering some 65% of the population allow same-sex couples to enter partnership agreements.

But the right is limited in scope. Partners can’t inherit each other’s assets or have parental rights to each other’s children. Hospital visits are not guaranteed.

Mizutani said the court in its ruling had noted that such partnership agreements were not fully sufficient, which she took as an encouraging sign, adding that she felt the court recognised there was little difference between same-sex couples and other couples.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told a press conference that the government did not believe the civil code and marriage laws were unconstitutional.

“With regard to issues surrounding the introduction of same-sex marriage, we believe it is important to pay close attention to the opinions of all parts of the public,” he said.

While in general the world’s third-largest economy is considered relatively liberal, the LGBT community has been largely invisible because of conservative attitudes. Taiwan became the first place in Asia to legalise same-sex marriages in 2019.

A new law would have to be passed in Japan before same-sex marriages could actually take place.

The government pledged to pass a law promoting “understanding” of LGBT people before hosting the G7 summit this month, but opposition from conservatives delayed it so much a watered-down version was only submitted to parliament the day before the summit began.

The initial draft stipulated discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity should “not be tolerated” but was changed to “there should be no unfair discrimination”, wording that critics say tacitly allows bigotry.

Japan has come under increasing pressure to change, both from other G7 members but also from economic lobbies, with businesses arguing that greater diversity is needed for international competitiveness.

(Additional reporting by Kantaro Komiya; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim, Robert Birsel)