A century after the city of Berlin banned swimming in the Spree River because it was so polluted, it could make people sick, there's a push by swimmers to get back into the water.

Around 200 people jumped into the slow-moving, greenish water to show that it's not only clean enough, but also lots of fun to splash and swim in the Mitte neighborhood along the world-famous Museum Island.

A group calling itself Fluss Bad Berlin, or River Pool Berlin, has been lobbying for years to open the meandering river for swimmers again.

For 100 years now, people have not been allowed to swim in the inner-city Spree and we no longer think this is justified, because we can show that the water quality is usually good enough to go swimming during the season, said Jan Edler, who is on the board of Fluss Bad Berlin and helped organize the swim-in.

To circumvent the ban, the group registered their collective swim event as an official protest.

Standing on a little staircase that leads down to the Spree canal, which flows around the southern side of the island, Edler stressed that we want the people to use the Spree for recreation again.

He pointed to the fact that the river has been cleaned up thoroughly, and that the water quality has improved in the last decade and is constantly being monitored.

Even city officials in the central Mitte district of Berlin say they'd be interested in introducing river swimming again in 2026.

There are still many things that need to be clarified, but I am optimistic that it can succeed, district city councilor Ephraim Gothe told the German Press Agency recently.

Supporters of lifting the swimming ban also point to Paris, where the Seine River was opened up for swimmers for the Olympic Games last year and will be opened this summer for Parisians. Swimming had been banned there since 1923.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

Officials at the University of Chicago Crime Lab’s Policing Leadership Academy brought members of The Second City, Chicago’s storied improv theater, to teach police leaders the more diverse skills found in improv exercises—like thinking on your feet, reserving judgment and fully listening.

The academy, a workshop taught over five months, tackles some serious topics like how to make data-driven decisions or how to help officers handle on-the-job trauma.

The skills might not apply to all policing situations in the field, but being a better listener or learning to take a breath before responding can make for better leaders, according to Tree Branch, a strategic client partner at The Second City Works.

The Policing Leadership Academy’s creators believe those skills can also help meet their goals to increase community engagement, improve officer morale and ultimately reduce violent crime.

Capt. Louis Higginson with the Philadelphia Police Department said the academy provided a much broader training than the two weeks of police job training he got before being promoted to captain a little more than a year ago.

“The big thing for me was thinking about the things we allow to happen because they’ve been that way before us,” he said. “And the ways we can change the culture of our district by changing the thinking around why we do things.”

Albuquerque Police Department Commander Ray Del Greco said he’s still thinking more about how he communicates weeks after the improv class.

“When people talk to you and come to have you help solve their issues, to be able to push your ego out and worry less about your own agenda and listen, that’s an understanding of leadership,” Del Greco said. “To me, that was the most valuable class we had.”

Academy leaders stressed the learning doesn't stop at graduation. They create communication channels so classmates can continue to support each other, they encourage captains to put on training with their departments, and participants are required to implement a capstone project that lasts well past the last day of class and addresses a real problem in their district or department.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

Varsity Spirit is starting a professional cheerleading league that promises to pay athletes, joining the crowded niche sports market that already includes softball, volleyball, 3-on-3 basketball, lacrosse, indoor football and more, clamoring for both fans' attention and their dollars.

Pro Cheer League is billed as the first professional cheerleading league for athletes 18 and older, designed to give cheerleaders the chance to keep competing after college.

Bill Seely, president of Varsity Spirit, based in Memphis, Tennessee, sees plenty of opportunity for all these sports to succeed. This cheer league's advantage comes from the sport's growth since the 1970s, along with Varsity's own fan base through its cheerleading, dance team camps, events and shows.

“That’s going to help us really kind of build this out in a way that is sustainable and will continue to grow not just domestically but globally, Seely said.

Varsity Spirit has had more than 80,000 people attend its events. The Pro Cheer League will try to tap into that fan base by competing the same night as other events starting in January in Indianapolis, when competition begins.

Each match will feature three periods of competition, with two focusing on cheerleading skills, stunts, basket tosses and tumbling in bracket-style rounds. The final period will feature choreography and music.

“We hope a media deal, which we’re working on right now, will help kind of bridge beyond the existing fan base, Seely said. “And we’re trying to build something that entertains families, friends and gives everyone just a great show that they want to come out to.

Best for the cheerleaders will be money for their athleticism. Compensation will include pay, money for travel, lodging and uniforms along with bonuses and prizes.

Seely noted stunt is on track for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championship status for women by spring 2027 after being designated an emerging sport in 2023. The International Olympic Committee recognized cheerleading as a sport in 2021.

“We just felt like it was the right next step for the activity and to really kind of magnify it to help inspire young people to participate in it,” Seely said.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

A high-tech breakthrough could speed up the restoration of centuries-old paintings using a digital mask. Scientists say the method, tested on a 15th-century work, took hours instead of months, and leaves the original untouched.

The method, published in Nature on June 11, uses a digitally printed mask to repair damaged images. Researchers tested it on a 15th-century oil painting that had suffered heavy damage.

Instead of months of cleaning, analysis and touch-ups, this process took just three and a half hours.

It works by digitally reconstructing the missing parts of the painting. That digital image is then printed onto a color-accurate laminate. The printed mask is laid directly over the damaged artwork, restoring the image without altering the original.

This is a multilayer film that is made of very thin polymer membranes that are bound with conservation-grade varnish, and this mask it is a color-accurate printed mask of just the regions that need to be restored in the painting and is otherwise transparent everywhere else, explains Alex Kachkine, a mechanical engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), who has led the study.

The process used more than 57,000 unique colors and covered over 66,000 square millimeters. Crucially, the mask is removable, so no permanent changes are made to the painting itself.

The method only works on smooth, varnished surfaces for now. But experts say it could help museums restore more works, especially those lower on the priority list. And it may be a step toward bridging the gap between digital tools and physical restoration.

And Kachkine says it will not replace traditional, human conservators.

A conservator needs a huge amount of background knowledge, skill, and resources to preserve the work and ensure it’s maintained for future generations. This technique changes none of that, he says.

What it gives conservators is more tools, more precision, and more flexibility. It also enables them to work on more pieces than they were previously able to.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

At VivaTech in Paris, artificial intelligence is taking center stage, reshaping how global brands in fashion and beauty create, sell, and connect.

An AI-powered scanner, developed in collaboration with Danish imaging specialists Rigsters and creative agency OKCC, captures detailed visuals that are transformed into highly realistic 3D models.

These models are then processed using generative AI, with the aim to automate the creation of digital assets, enabling luxury brands to generate tailored content for online retail, advertising and social media, while remaining true to their brand identity.

Louis Vuitton is part of the LVMH group, which stands for Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton and is one of the world’s largest luxury goods groups. The French multinational owns more than 75 prestigious brands across fashion, jewelry, cosmetics, wines and spirits, including Dior, Bulgari, Fendi, Givenchy and Sephora.

At its Bulgari stand, innovation is showcased again, but this time, focused on security and provenance. Displayed behind glass is the Serpenti Baroque necklace: a platinum showpiece set with eight baroque emeralds. A Bulgari smartphone app attempts to scan the necklace, but the protective screen, Bulgari says, gets in the way.

Bulgari says the system strengthens the fight against counterfeiting and theft, which is a growing issue in the luxury market.

Artificial intelligence is also aiming to support Bulgari staff behind the scenes. The brand has developed an internal AI assistant that helps teams communicate in line with the company’s values and heritage. The AI chat tool provides instant access to Bulgari’s internal knowledge base—from sustainability commitments to design history.

For LVMH, artificial intelligence is a strategic investment aimed at protecting market share and driving performance in a rapidly evolving global luxury landscape.

Across the exhibition floor, L’Oréal is taking a different approach, using AI to look beneath the surface of the skin.

The company’s Spotscan Plus tool uses microfluidic technology and artificial intelligence to analyze protein biomarkers that offer insights into a person’s biological age and future skin health.

It’s a shift from traditional diagnostics, designed to offer consumers more personalized and scientifically grounded skincare routines without the need to see a specialist.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

WhatsApp said that users will start seeing ads in parts of the app, as owner Meta Platforms moves to cultivate a new revenue stream by tapping the billions of people who use the messaging service.

Advertisements will be shown only in the app's Updates tab, which is used by as many as 1.5 billion people each day. However, they won't appear where personal chats are located, developers said.

The personal messaging experience on WhatsApp isn't changing, and personal messages, calls and statuses are end-to-end encrypted and cannot be used to show ads, WhatsApp said in a blog post.

It's a big change for the company, whose founders, Jan Koum and Brian Acton, vowed to keep the platform free of ads when they created it in 2009.

Facebook purchased WhatsApp in 2014, and the pair left a few years later. Parent company Meta Platforms Inc. has long been trying to generate revenue from WhatsApp.

WhatsApp said ads will be targeted at users based on information like their age, the country or city where they're located, the language they're using, the channels they're following in the app, and how they're interacting with the ads they see.

WhatsApp said it won't use personal messages, calls and groups that a user is a member of to target ads to the user.

It's one of three advertising features that WhatsApp unveiled as it tries to monetize the app's user base. Channels will also be able to charge users a monthly fee for subscriptions, so they can get exclusive updates. And business owners will be able to pay to promote their channel's visibility to new users.

Most of Meta's revenue comes from ads. In 2024, the Menlo Park, California-based company's revenue totaled $164.5 billion, and $160.6 billion of it came from advertising.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

A New York man is laying claim to the record for most consecutive hours playing golf—a 35-hour stint on a course on Long Island that began early evening of June 8 and ended early morning of June 10.

Kelechi Ezihie initially planned to play 24 hours to set a Guinness World Record, only to learn hours into his effort that a British golfer had played for 32 straight hours on a course in Norway at the end of May. His sister had called him after seeing the 32-hour record while searching the internet, he said.

Surprised but determined, he plodded on through rain, fatigue and drenched and aching feet to outlast the Brit, Isaac Rowlands.

“I feel proud to be able to say I am a world champion,” he said. “This is an opportunity that not many people have. It’s definitely something I will definitely be telling my kids and my grandkids moving forward in the future.”

Armed with friends, flashlights and glow-in-the-dark golf balls, the 27-year-old Ezihie teed off at Huntington Crescent Club at about 6:30 p.m. on June 8 and sank his last putt shortly after 5:30 a.m. on June 10—playing the 18 holes seven times for a total of 126 holes, he said.

Along the way, friends took video of the entire outing and other people served as witnesses so Guinness could verify the record, he said. He was allowed a five-minute break per hour, under Guinness rules, and ended up taking 20-minute breaks at the end of each round while still following the rules.

Ezihie, an assistant manager at an organization that serves people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and autism, said he wanted to set the record to promote diversity in golf.

“People become intimidated when they hear about golf and they think it’s for the wealthy,” he said in a phone interview. “I see how much golf has taught me, and I just believe that golf is a game that everybody should be able to get a chance to play and they could definitely learn life lessons from this game.”

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

It turns out our furry best friend might be our sleep enemy. Lots of pet owners let their animals sleep on the bed with them, which usually disrupts sleep. But many would say it's worth it.

And researchers don't necessarily disagree.

Melissa Milanak, a professor at the Medical University of South Carolina specializing in sleep health, said most people at her clinic say their pets disturb them often at night. You can't say that hands down, it's bad for every single person, but there is a lot out there saying it negatively impacts your sleep, she said.

Generally speaking, having a pet is good for many people's health. Pets have been shown to lower their humans' stress levels, get them to exercise and more. Many pet owners also say they feel an immeasurable amount of comfort by having their pets close as they sleep.

But dogs' and cats' natural sleep cycles aren't the same as those of humans.

Dogs tend to be light sleepers and wake up multiple times at night. Some display instinctual behavior like scratching at bedding, which can prevent deeper phases of sleep, even if it doesn't wake you up. As many cat owners know, the zoomies often happen before they are ready to get out of bed. Cats evolved to hunt in low light, meaning they are particularly active at dusk and dawn.

Milanak also said allergens such as pet dander and microbes brought into the house can affect owners' breathing, preventing them from getting enough deep sleep.

Brian Chin, a professor of social and health psychology at Trinity College in Connecticut, said his research has found that sleeping with pets was associated with poor sleep, particularly those dimensions of sleep quality and insomnia symptoms. That's even accounting for the fact that pet owners may be less inclined to report problems in a survey because they don't believe their beloved pets cause problems.

Despite many problems, many pet owners feel that the bonding and emotional benefits outweigh the minor sleep disruption.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

The head of Japan’s meteorological agency dismissed widespread rumors of a major earthquake in Japan this summer as unscientific and a “hoax,” urging people not to worry because even the most advanced science still cannot predict any quake or tsunami.

“At the moment, it is still impossible to predict an earthquake with specific timing, location or its magnitude,” Japan Meteorological Agency Director General Ryoichi Nomura told reporters. “Any such prediction is a hoax, and there is absolutely no need to worry about such disinformation.”

Nomura was referring to rumors in Hong Kong and other Asian cities that a major earthquake or a tsunami in July in Japan had led to flight cancellations and reductions in service, affecting tourism.

He said it was “unfortunate” that many people are affected by the disinformation, though he sympathized with the sense of unease that the people tend to develop toward something invisible.

The rumor originates from a 2022 Japanese comic book “The Future I Saw,” which features a dream foreseeing a tsunami and is also available in Chinese. The chatter began spreading earlier this year through social media, mainly in Hong Kong.

The author previously gained attention for allegedly predicting the 2011 quake and tsunami in northern Japan.

Japan, which sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” is one of the world’s most quake-prone countries.

Last summer, a panel of seismologists noted a slight increase in the probability of a megaquake on Japan’s Pacific coasts. The government organized an awareness-raising week but only triggered panic buying, beach closures and other overreactions and complaints.

While it is important to inform people about the science, Nomura said, it is also necessary for everyone in this quake-prone country to take early precautions.

“In Japan, an earthquake can occur anytime, anywhere,” Nomura said. “So I ask everyone to take this opportunity to ensure your preparedness for a major quake.”

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

As the owner of a marina, Kate Gervais is used to seeing boats in the water. But for the last couple of days, she's been seeing them in the air.

The Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) used one of its firefighting helicopters to haul abandoned boats off an uninhabited island in the southernmost reaches of Puget Sound, where the vessels had come to rest after drifting with the currents, and fly them to the mainland to be deconstructed later.

With 14 vessels removed, it was the agency's largest operation of its kind, officials said.

It was a very, very weird sight, said Gervais, who owns Boston Harbor Marina, just north of Olympia. The sailboat with the mast was the weirdest one to see.

A boat removal by helicopter is typically done by a private pilot, but for this operation, which was funded by a federal grant, the DNR opted to use one of its firefighting helicopters. It was cheaper and helped stretch the $1 million National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) grant, said Commissioner of Public Lands Dave Upthegrove.

The state agency opts to airlift boats when towing them would disrupt the marine bed or the surrounding environment too much. The aquatic lands where the boats land often include kelp beds, which are critical for supporting the forage fish that salmon rely on.

Vessels for this operation were found in hard-to-reach coves, at the tree line or in mud that rendered an airlift a better option, agency staff said.

Since the boat removal program began in 2002, the department has hauled out more than 1,200 derelict vessels. There are at least 300 more out there, with more found all the time, Upthegrove said.

It's a real challenge impacting the Puget Sound when people essentially dump their old boats into the water because they don't want to deal with disposing of them, he said. That burden then falls on all of us.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.