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Earth Is Spinning Weirdly Faster, Making Tuesday One of the Shortest Days Ever

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Earth’s rotation is randomly speeding up, and nobody is quite sure why. These speedups, which have occurred several times over the last few years, haven’t had any effect on daily life, but they also haven’t gone unnoticed by science. Tuesday, Aug. 5 is the next date when Earth’s rotation is expected to speed up, shortening the day by between 1.25 and 1.51 milliseconds. 

According to Time and Date, the current prediction is set by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service and the US Naval Observatory. The original prediction was 1.51 milliseconds, but it’s since been updated to 1.25 milliseconds. This is also the third time Earth’s rotation has sped up for a day this summer. The other two instances occurred on July 10 and July 22. 

Should the first prediction be accurate, Aug. 5, 2025, will be the third shortest day on record behind June 30, 2022, when the Earth spun 1.59 milliseconds faster, and July 5, 2024, when it completed its rotation 1.66 milliseconds faster. If the prediction is off, then it may succeed those two as the shortest day Earth has seen in recorded history. 

For reference, Earth generally takes approximately 86,400 seconds to make one full rotation. One millisecond is 0.001 seconds. So, this won’t be noticeable to humans and will not affect anything. 

What’s causing Earth to spin faster?

There are numerous reasons why Earth could be spinning faster. The prevailing opinion is that it’s due to the moon’s current position over Earth. When the moon is further north or south than Earth’s equator, it can impact how fast the planet spins. 

On Aug. 5, 2025, the moon will be quite a bit further south than the equator, which is likely causing the slightly faster spin. This is expected to have a short-term impact on Earth’s orbit.

Science can’t explain it

Scientists are puzzling over why Earth is speeding up at all. Approximately 245 million years ago, the dinosaurs roamed, and days were an hour and a half shorter than they are today. Earth’s rotation has been slowing ever since, mostly due to the moon’s impact on Earth’s oceans. Science has measured Earth’s rotation subtly slowing down since official records began in 1973. 

However, a recent trend shows that Earth’s rotation is speeding up, and since these faster days are mostly explained by the moon’s orbit, science has yet to fully explain why. A research paper posted in Nature in 2023 suggests that Earth’s core may have started slowing down as recently as 2010, which would explain Earth’s faster rotation. However, confirmation doesn’t yet exist.  





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Terence Crawford tops Canelo Alvarez for historic undisputed crown

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LAS VEGAS — Terence Crawford proved that size didn’t matter, putting together a master class to defeat Canelo Alvarez by unanimous decision and become the new undisputed super middleweight champion Saturday night at Allegiant Stadium.

Although the scores were 116-112, 115-113 and 115-113, it felt as if Crawford won by a wider margin as he stymied Alvarez and left the Mexican star shaking his head in frustration when he couldn’t impose his will on his smaller opponent.

With the win, Crawford (42-0, 31 KOs) becomes the first male boxer in the four-belt era to be undisputed in three weight classes. And he did it with style in front of an announced crowd of 70,482 in the stadium — most of whom were Alvarez fans — and millions more who streamed the fight live on Netflix.

After capturing world titles in four weight classes — including achieving undisputed status at junior welterweight and welterweight — Crawford made the audacious jump from 154 pounds to 168 pounds to dethrone boxing’s biggest star.

Fighting out of Omaha, Nebraska, Crawford utilized movement early to keep Alvarez off-balance. Crawford kept an active jab and picked his spots with hard combinations throughout the bout. Crawford was dialed in from the start as Alvarez sought to corner his opponent. But Crawford’s movement prevented Alvarez from rumbling inside and landing his thudding power shots. Instead, Alvarez was on the receiving end of Crawford’s combinations.

Crawford outlanded Alvarez 115-99 in total punches and 45-16 in jabs. Alvarez had an 83-70 edge in power punches.

Alvarez (63-3-2, 39 KOs) entered the fight 10-0 at super middleweight and a winner of six consecutive fights, with his only loss coming against Dmitry Bivol when Alvarez attempted to capture a world title at light heavyweight. But against a fighter coming up in weight, Alvarez struggled to mount significant offense and was muscled around by Crawford late in the fight.

Crawford closed the fight convincingly late in the bout by shredding Alvarez with combinations and rocking his opponent at the final bell.



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Round-by-round: Crawford tops Canelo, makes boxing history

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Terence Crawford moved up two divisions to challenge Canelo Alvarez and scored the biggest win of his career, a unanimous decision victory to win the undisputed super middleweight championship on Saturday at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

Crawford, a four-division world champion, put his name in the history books by becoming the first men’s fighter in the four-belt era (since 2007) to become an undisputed champion in three weight classes (junior welterweight, welterweight and super middleweight).

Crawford had fought most of his career between 135 and 147 pounds. He moved up a weight class to 154 in August 2024 and defeated Israil Madrimov to win the WBA junior middleweight title before taking a year to build up for the fight against Canelo.

Canelo is also a four-division champion. His only three losses are to Crawford, Floyd Mayweather in 2013 and Dmitry Bivol in 2022, when Canelo moved up to light heavyweight to challenge for a world title. The loss to Crawford snapped a six-fight winning streak.

Relive the fight round-by-round here.



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Roblox, Discord sued after 15-year-old boy was allegedly groomed online before he died by suicide

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The mother of a 15-year-old California boy who took his own life is now suing Roblox and Discord over his death, alleging her son was groomed and coerced to send explicit images on the apps.

Rebecca Dallas filed the lawsuit Friday in San Francisco County Superior Court accusing the companies of “recklessly and deceptively operating their business in a way that led to the sexual exploitation and suicide” of Ethan Dallas.

Ethan was a “bright, imaginative boy who loved gaming, streaming and interacting with friends online,” the lawsuit states. He started playing on the online gaming platform Roblox around the age of 9, with his parents’ approval and with parental controls in place. When he was 12, he was targeted by “an adult sex predator” who posed as a child on Roblox and befriended Ethan, attorneys for Rebecca Dallas said in a statement.

What started out as innocent conversation “gradually escalated to sexual topics and explicit exchanges,” the complaint says.

After a while, the man encouraged Ethan to turn off parental controls and move their conversations to Discord, the lawyers said.

On Discord, the man “increasingly demanded explicit photographs and videos” and threatened Ethan that he’d post or share the images. Ethan complied out of fear, the complaint says.

“Tragically, Ethan was permanently harmed and haunted by these experiences, and he died by suicide at the age of 15,” the complaint said. He died in April 2024, according to an online obituary.

The lawsuit accuses Roblox and Discord of wrongful death, fraudulent concealment and misrepresentations, negligent misrepresentation, and strict liability.

It argues that had Roblox and Discord taken steps to screen users before allowing them on apps, or implemented age and identity verification and other safety measures, “Ethan would have never interacted with this predator, never suffered he harm that he did, and never died by suicide.”

Apps not safe for kids, suit says

Dallas, of San Diego County, thought both platforms were safe for her son to use to communicate with friends while gaming, given how the apps marketed themselves and the parental controls she set, the suit contended.

Roblox is used daily by 111 million people, according to its website, offering a variety of games, obstacle courses, and the ability to chat with other users. It is free to make an account and there is no age minimum, nor required age verification.

Discord, launched in 2015, is a communications platform commonly used by gamers who want to chat or video chat while playing video games. The suit said that the app doesn’t verify age or identity.

The suit claims Roblox allowed Ethan to turn off the parental controls and Discord allowed him to create an account and communicate with adults without any parental oversight. It said that while Roblox states children must have parental permission to sign up, “nothing prevents them from creating their own accounts and playing on Roblox.”

The suit alleges the two apps misrepresented safety on their platforms, saying the design of the apps “makes children easy prey for pedophiles” due to a lack of safeguards and predator screening.

After Ethan’s tragic death, his family learned from law enforcement that the man who groomed him had been arrested in Florida “for sexually exploiting other children through Defendants’ apps,” the complaint said.

Today, Roblox’s default settings do not allow adults to directly message children under the age of 13, but children can still create accounts with fake birth dates giving them full access to direct-messaging options, the complaint said.

“We are deeply saddened by this tragic loss. While we cannot comment on claims raised in litigation, we always strive to hold ourselves to the highest safety standard,” a spokesperson for Roblox told NBC News.

Roblox said it is designed with “rigorous built in safety features” and is “continually innovating new safety features — over 100 this year alone — that protect our users and empower parents and caregivers with greater control and visibility.”

Safety efforts include processes to detect and act on problematic behaviors and 24/7 human moderation. Roblox added that the company partners with law enforcement and leading child safety and mental health organizations worldwide to combat the sexual exploitation of children.

While Discord has settings to keep minors safe such as automatically scanning messages for explicit images and videos, the suit said Discord is “overflowing with sexually explicit images and videos involving children, including anime and child sex abuse material.”

Discord said it doesn’t comment on legal matters but said the platform is “deeply committed to safety.”

“We require all users to be at least 13 to use our platform. We use a combination of advanced technology and trained safety teams to proactively find and remove content that violates our policies,” a spokesperson said. “We maintain strong systems to prevent the spread of sexual exploitation and grooming on our platform and also work with other technology companies and safety organizations to improve online safety across the internet.”

Other allegations against Roblox, Discord

Anapol Weiss, the firm that filed Dallas’ suit, noted this is the ninth lawsuit it has filed in connection with allegations that children were groomed, exploited or assaulted after contact on Roblox or related platforms.

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation in 2024 complied a “Dirty Dozen” list of mainstream entitles it says facilitate, enable and profit from sexual abuse and exploitation. It included Discord, saying “this platform is popular with predators seeking to groom kids and with creeps looking to create, trade or find sexually abusive content of children and unsuspecting adults,” and Roblox, saying children are exposed to sex-themed games and exposed to predators.

An NBC News investigation in 2023 found 35 cases over the six years prior in which adults were prosecuted on charges of kidnapping, grooming or sexual assault that allegedly involved communications on Discord.

In August, Louisiana’s top prosecutor sued Roblox, alleging that its failure to implement strong safety protocols for children has made it “the perfect place for pedophiles.”

“This case lays bare the devastating consequences when billion-dollar platforms knowingly design environments that enable predators to prey on vulnerable children,” said Alexandra Walsh, a partner at Anapol Weiss. “These companies are raking in billions. Children are paying the price.”

Dallas seeks a jury trial and compensatory damages.

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988, or go to 988lifeline.org, to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. You can also call the network, previously known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, at 800-273-8255, or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources.



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