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Perhaps the most prominent new feature of iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 is Focus, an enhanced Do Not Disturb tool that makes it possible to schedule which type of notifications you receive depending on the time of day. It's just the latest in a series of features Apple has added to its products over the years to help users better concentrate, relax, and sleep.

Background Sounds is another wellness feature in iOS/iPadOS 15. As its name suggests, the tool provides sounds to help you relax. Use the feature on all of the best iPhones and best iPads. Here's more about it.

You'll find the new Background Sounds feature in the Accessibility section of iOS/iPadOS. To activate:

Scroll down, select Audio/Visual.

Choose Sound.

Change the ** Volume** using the slider as needed.

You can have the assigned Background Sound continue to play even with other audio. On the same Background Sounds page:

Toggle on Stop Sounds When Locked to stop the Background Sounds from playing automatically whenever the device is locked.

The easiest way to turn Background Sounds on/off is through Control Center. You must first add the Hearing tile to Control Center to do so:

Click the + in the front of Hearing under More Controls.

When Background Sounds are on, you can adjust the sound and the Volume from the same location.

Do you have any questions about Background Sounds and iOS/iPadOS 15? Let us know in the comments below.

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How to use Background Sounds on iPhone and iPad - iMore

This summer, Bahar Jalali watched anxiously as the United States withdrew its military from Afghanistan and the Taliban began to reassert control over the country. Women were told to stay home and to cover themselves an early indicator that other rights, protections and services for women would soon be eliminated, including, this week, the right to attend Kabul University.

Ms. Jalali, a visiting associate professor at Loyola University Maryland, is a member of the Afghan diaspora born in Kabul, raised in the United States, but connected still to her home country, where she returned in 2009 to teach at the American University of Afghanistan. She left again in 2016 after surviving a violent attack at the university by the Taliban.

When reports surfaced this summer that, with the Taliban takeover, Afghan women were shredding their education degrees and that safe houses for women were closing their doors, she was distraught.

Then, on Sept. 11, she saw images of hundreds of women in Kabul wearing all black in full veils and long robes in a pro-Taliban demonstration. (The timing of the demonstration on the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks along with the presence of Taliban fighters and official Taliban statements released afterward suggest that the demonstration was organized by the Taliban.)

It confirmed my fears that our culture, our heritage is coming under attack, Ms. Jalali, 46, said in a phone interview. One of the biggest concerns that I have, now that the Taliban are back in power, is Afghan sovereignty, Afghan identity, Afghan culture, Afghan heritage. Even before the Taliban came to power, 43 years of war really transformed our culture to the point where very important aspects of it are lost.

Compelled to speak out, she tweeted a photo of herself from 2005, wearing an emerald green dress with delicate embroidery a traditional outfit that she wore for her first wedding. This is Afghan culture, she wrote in the caption.

The tweet went viral, and soon, women across the world started sharing photos of themselves in their own traditional Afghan clothing, often with the hashtag #DoNotTouchMyClothes.

Ms. Jalali shared another photo, of her as a teenager in the United States in the 1990s, wearing a blue-and-gold Afghan kuchi, a dress that the nomads of Afghanistan wore, she said. Kuchi women wear this dress on a daily basis. It is their everyday attire.

Ms. Jalali wasnt expecting her tweets to go viral, but she now hopes that the hashtag can teach the world more about Afghan culture. Im just hoping that the world will see through these dresses that the real Afghan culture is colorful and vibrant and alive and animated and really meant to celebrate life, she said.

Zarifa Ghafari, an activist who became one of Afghanistans first female mayors at age 26 in 2019 and had to flee the country in August, shared a photo on Twitter of the vibrant Afghan clothing she wore earlier this month for the Geneva PeaceTalks. With my traditional colorful dress and a powerful msg from every part of my country representing Afghanistan in particular Afghan women at #GenevaPeaceTalks, she wrote.

It is important to create awareness and to show the true colors of women in Afghanistan, Ms. Ghafari wrote later, in an emailed statement. Taliban are trying to erase womens presence erase them from the walls, from the streets, from schools, from work, from government.

We are so much more than a dress, an outfit, she wrote. But my mother, grand-mother and older generations have worn similar dresses with bright colors. This is our beautiful heritage, our rich culture, our joy of life.

Sophia Moruwat, 25, a dialogue coordinator in Norway who lived in Afghanistan until 2002, also participated. This is how Afghan women dress, she wrote in a tweet accompanying a photo of herself in a bright yellow Afghan kuchi and handmade jewelry, fashioned from melted glass and coins.

In an interview, Ms. Moruwat noted that the term for Afghan traditional clothing is gand.

My gand is my Afghan identity, she said. Its one thing among many that symbolizes being an Afghan. My gand is what has had me stay connected to my country and my culture the past 20 years weve been away from our homeland.

Who are the Taliban? The Taliban arose in 1994 amid the turmoil that came after the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan in 1989. They used brutal public punishments, including floggings, amputations and mass executions, to enforce their rules. Heres more on their origin story and their record as rulers.

Who are the Taliban leaders? These arethe top leaders of the Taliban, men who have spent years on the run, in hiding, in jail and dodging American drones. Little is known about them or how they plan to govern, including whether they will be as tolerant as they claim to be. One spokesman told The Timesthat the group wanted to forget its past, but that there would be some restrictions.

Ms. Moruwat said that her own memories, flashbacks and encounters with these terrorists is what made her want to take a stand, adding that her sister was forced into marriage at age 13 and couldnt pursue an education or a career. After years of struggle and oppression, Ms. Moruwats sister was finally able to pursue an education and get a university degree, Ms. Moruwat said.

Seeing the image of women covered from head to toe brought a fire to the already existing fear within me, Ms. Moruwat said. This was a step towards erasing women from society once again.

In the 1990s, during the first Taliban rule, Afghan womens access to education, work and health care were severely restricted. Burqa coverings were mandatory, women werent allowed to be seen in public without men, and almost all female education was banned.

Since the Taliban seized power in August, they have tried to appear more flexible. Still, while schools have reopened for male students, a date for the return of female students has not been announced. In addition to requiring that women wear a hijab in schools, female students will not be allowed to study alongside male students, the Talibans higher education minister, Abdul Baqi Haqqani, announced earlier this month.

Its alarming to me because I feel like women will no longer have a role in society, and wed lose all the progress weve made over the last 20 years since we took back control from the Taliban, said Marjan Yahia, 28, who was born in Kabul and moved to Canada when she was 6.

Ms. Yahia, now a part-time makeup artist and student in Virginia, also joined the social media campaign with an Instagram post that showed her wearing an ornate kuchi with coins and mirrors sewn into it.

It was a gift from her father, who bought it for her during a visit to Afghanistan, Ms. Yahia said. The dress is special to me because it symbolizes freedom, she said. Before the Taliban took rule in Afghanistan, women had the freedom to express themselves through clothing, and its sad to see the freedom be taken away from them.

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#DoNotTouchMyClothes: Afghan Women Protest Taliban Restrictions on Rights - The New York Times

Last season, coach Matt Nagy and the Bears had a six-game losing streak. The season before, they lost four in a row.

Neither compares to their one-game losing streak right now.

After the Bears gained 47 yards on 42 plays last Sunday against the Browns, Nagy took criticism like never before. On Monday, one ESPN analyst wondered whether Nagy was trying to set up rookie quarterback Justin Fields to fail. Another called for his job. Later in the week, a debate show on the network wondered whether Fields should force his way out of town and away from this mess altogether.

Locally, it was worse. The Wieners Circle called for Nagys firing on the famous sign outside its building and passed along the link to a petition online. Bears fans on social media and in their own homes insulted Nagy like, well, he was a customer at The Wieners Circle.

The fire rages outside.

Where Im at right now is inside, Nagy said Friday. Im inside with these guys. Im inside this building. Im inside with everybody thats here together doing this.

In terms of self-preservation, the Bears game Sunday against the winless, historically hapless Lions thought of as a gimme as recently as 10 days ago is the most important of Nagys career. A loss would spin the Bears season further out of control and do nothing to quell concerns that Nagy despite his experience tutoring Patrick Mahomes in 2017 is the wrong person to shepherd Fields career.

More immediately, a loss would send the Bears down the long ramp toward another six-game losing streak, with the Raiders, Packers, Buccaneers and 49ers next on their schedule.

The McCaskeys never have fired a coach in the middle of a season. If Sunday is ugly, perhaps they would reconsider.

Nagy feels the pressure from inside and outside Halas Hall. Thats part of the reason that, for the first time in his head-coaching career, he refused to name a quarterback during game week.

He could have chosen to be bold and stake his reputation on a banged-up Andy Dalton or a still-reeling Fields but decided to act as though the injury report was deciding for him.

If Dalton cant play because of a bone bruise in his left knee and Fields shines, then Nagy made the right call. If Fields struggles, then Nagy was a victim of medical circumstance. If Dalton shines, then it validates him being Nagys starter. If he doesnt, its because of the knee. Nagy probably figures he cant lose unless the Bears lose the game.

Nagy bunkered himself in like never before during the week, playing coy about quarterback and play-caller alike. On Tuesday, he took the bizarre measure of asking his offensive players during a meeting what suggestions they had to fix the offense. Veteran Nick Foles chimed in with an idea; Fields said he didnt.

Either way, it was a bad look for Nagy for his offense to seem so lost so early in the season.

Were going to fight for him this weekend, tight end Cole Kmet said.

Well see.

For three seasons and three games, Nagy has done an impressive job of rallying his players and minimizing whatever rifts existed between a dominant defense and a popgun offense. If he cant hold his team together Sunday if his players wont fight for him its fair to wonder what exactly he does well.

For two-plus seasons, Nagys quarterbacks his area of expertise have been among the worst in the league. And play-calling might not be entirely under his control anymore. While he wouldnt say whether he had ceded that duty to coordinator Bill Lazor, its hard to believe Nagys bosses would accept another week with the same structure.

Nagy said Friday he wanted to keep the play-caller secret, so as not to give away tendencies to the Lions, the biggest walkover opponent the Bears will face all season.

As much as the coaches can take accountability of what happened [last] Sunday, the coaches werent out there playing, running back David Montgomery said. It was on us as an offense, us as a team, to get the job done. The play doesnt make the play; the player makes the play.

Montgomery is as close to Nagy as any player at Halas Hall. They communicate even when both are outside the facility, be it through FaceTime, text messages or phone calls.

He described Nagy last week as the leader we know him to be.

We still have a lot of opportunities and a lot of games to prove what were capable of, Montgomery said. Were still stuck together like glue.

If the Bears dont prove something Sunday, things will fall apart even more.

See original here:
Why Matt Nagy is facing the most important game of his Bears career - Chicago Sun-Times

NAIROBI, Kenya Sudanese authorities said they thwarted an attempted coup by loyalists of the deposed dictator Omar Hassan al-Bashir on Tuesday, the latest sign of instability in an African nation battling persistent economic hardship under a fragile transitional government.

Soldiers tried to seize control of a state media building in the city of Omdurman, across the Nile from the capital, Khartoum, but they were rebuffed and arrested, Sudanese officials said.

Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok described it as a near miss for Sudans turbulent transition to democracy, which started in 2019 with the ouster of Mr. Bashir, the longtime ruler. The prime minister blamed the failed coup on Bashir loyalists, both military and civilian.

What happened is an orchestrated coup by factions inside and outside the armed forces, Mr. Hamdok said. This is an extension of the attempts by remnants since the fall of the former regime to abort the civilian democratic transition.

The possibility of another coup has haunted Sudans transitional government since 2019, when Mr. Bashir was overthrown in a military takeover prompted by widespread popular protests.

Disgruntled officers have since hatched several plots, but all were foiled before they could come to fruition. Tuesday was the first time that an attempted takeover had spilled onto the streets, said Amjad Farid, a former deputy chief of staff to the prime minister.

It underscored the urgent need to get Sudans military under full civilian control, he said.

There will be no stability without civilian oversight over all the state apparatus, including the military and intelligence agencies, Mr. Farid said. A genuine reform process needs to start now.

The thwarted coup was the latest drama in an increasingly turbulent part of the world. Ethiopia is embroiled in a vicious civil war in its northern Tigray region; Somalia is torn by power struggles between its president and prime minister, and the international isolation of Eritrea has deepened with American economic sanctions, imposed last month, against the countrys army chief.

More broadly, it is part of an unusual surge in attempted putsches in Africa. On Sept. 6, the military seized power in Guinea, the third West African country to experience a violent transfer of power this year.

Sudans Sovereignty Council, a body of civilian and military leaders overseeing the countrys transition to democracy, issued a statement insisting the situation was under control. But the dramatic events, which saw tanks rolling through downtown Khartoum early Tuesday, were a reminder of the deep political fissures that threaten the transition.

Some military officers are unhappy with plans to send Mr. al-Bashir, currently in jail in Khartoum, to stand trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. He faces charges including genocide and crimes against humanity for his role in the conflict in the western Sudanese region of Darfur in the 2000s.

The Sovereignty Council, which is headed by the army chief, Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, did not specify how the coup attempt had been foiled or whether it had involved any violence.

The military said that 21 officers and an unspecified number of soldiers had been detained, and a search for others was ongoing.

Two officials with the Forces for Freedom and Change, a coalition of civil and political groups that led the uprising against Mr. al-Bashir in 2019, said the attempt had been orchestrated by the military commander in charge of the Omdurman region.

It started at about 3 a.m. when officers tried, but apparently failed, to read a statement on the state radio station. It was not immediately clear what the statement would have said.

The prime minister accused the coup plotters of laying the ground for their actions by stoking unrest in eastern Sudan in recent days. This week, members of the Beja tribe blocked Port Sudan, the biggest port, and cut off highways leading to the city.

By midmorning, traffic was reported to be flowing normally in central Khartoum and the authorities said they had begun to question suspected mutineers. Street protests against the attempted coup erupted in several cities, including Port Sudan.

The swift return to normalcy in Khartoum belied broader worries about Sudan, where the euphoric scenes of Mr. Bashirs ouster in 2019 have given way to a sense of unease nourished by successive crises.

Public confidence in Mr. Hamdoks government has been undermined by persistent economic hardship the spark for the protests that toppled Mr. al-Bashir.

Some Sudanese also worry that the army is not truly willing to share power.

In November, the army chief of staff is expected to hand over leadership of the Sovereignty Council to Mr. Hamdok a largely ceremonial post, but nonetheless one that signifies full civilian control of Sudan for the first time in decades.

Last year, Mr. Hamdok survived an assassination attempt when gunfire struck his convoy as he traveled to work in Khartoum.

Although the United States lifted decades-old economic sanctions against Sudan last year in return for its governments agreeing to recognize Israel, high inflation and soaring unemployment have driven popular discontent.

Tough economic changes demanded by the International Monetary Fund to stem inflation, which is running at more than 300 percent a year, and to help the country qualify for new loans, have contributed to the sense of unease.

See more here:
Sudan Leaders Say They Thwarted Coup Attempt by Loyalists of Former Dictator - The New York Times

Online freedom is continuing to decline globally, according to a new study, with governments increasingly cracking down on user speech and misinformation on the rise.

The report from Freedom House, a Washington DC-based democracy advocacy group, found internet freedom declined for the fifth year in a row in the US and the 11th year internationally for two distinct reasons.

Domestically, the lack of regulation in the tech industry has allowed companies to grow beyond reproach and misinformation to flourish online. Abroad, authoritarian governments have harnessed their tight control of the internet to subdue free expression.

Freedom House cited a growing lack of diversity among sources of online information in the US that allowed conspiracies and misinformation to rise, an issue that was gravely underscored during the 2020 elections and the 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol.

The spread of false and conspiracist content about the November 2020 elections shook the foundations of the American political system, the report said.

The yearly study, which has been published since 1973, uses a standard index to measure internet freedom by country on a 100-point scale. It asks questions about internet infrastructure, government control and obstacles to access, and content regulation. Countries are scored on a scale of 100 points with higher numbers considered more free.

The report called measures taken by Joe Biden since his election promising for internet freedom, citing the reversal of a Trump administration order to halt transactions between US individuals and Chinese social media companies as beneficial.

Meanwhile, global internet freedom declined for the 11th consecutive year, with more governments arresting users for nonviolent political, social, or religious speech than ever before. Officials in at least 20 countries suspended internet access, and 20 regimes blocked access to social media platforms, the report said.

The biggest declines were seen in Myanmar, Belarus, and Uganda. In Uganda, internet freedom fell by seven points after pro-government social media accounts flooded the online environment with manipulated information preceding the January 2021 elections. In August 2020 in Belarus, government forces cracked down on election unrest by restricting access to the internet and surveilling activists online.

The report called the Chinese government the worlds worst abuser of internet freedom, citing new legislation criminalizing certain expressions online and draconian prison terms issued to activists for online dissent - including an 18-year sentence against one activist for distributing a paper criticizing the governments handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

This year, officials in India pressured Twitter to remove protest-related and critical commentary and to stop flagging manipulated content shared by the ruling party. Nigerian authorities Turkish president Recep Tayyip , who himself has overseen the mass incarceration of journalists and opposition politicians.

The report further showed governments are clashing with technology companies on users rights, with authorities in at least 42 countries pursuing new rules for platforms on content, data, and competition over the past year.

Specifically, in India, officials pressured Twitter to remove posts critical of the ruling party. Authorities in Nigeria blocked access to Twitter after the platform removed incendiary posts by the countrys president. President Recep Erdoan of Turkey repeatedly accused tech companies of digital fascism for their refusal to comply with provisions in the countrys new social media law.

Despite these issues, the report said legislation to address abuses of tech companies has been limited. It found that while 48 countries have pursued regulatory actions in the past year, little of that legislation has the potential to make meaningful change.

In the high stakes battles between governments and tech companies, human rights are the main casualties, said Allie Funk, senior research analyst who co-wrote the report, in a news briefing on Monday.

Originally posted here:
Internet freedom on the decline in US and globally, study finds - The Guardian