All good things must come to an end, they say…but every so often, good things need a bit of a break, too. Ever since it first began in 2012, the science-fiction comic Saga by writer Brian K. Vaughan and artist Fiona Staples has astounded readers with its story of star-crossed lovers Marko and Alana trying to raise their baby daughter Hazel in the midst of a seemingly endless war between their two species. Vaughan and Staples have now produced 54 issues of Saga (collected into eight paperback volumes, with a ninth coming in September, or two omnibus editions) and won multiple Eisner Awards for their creative storytelling, but now they think it’s time for a hiatus — especially considering the game-changing, heartbreaking events of issue #54.

 

Warning: The following contains spoilers for issues #53 and #54 of Saga. Read at your own risk!

Throughout the series, Vaughan and Staples have loved to pull the rug out from under their characters at the worst possible moments. And so, just as the main characters had all reunited on the planet Quietus, disaster struck. The Will, the bounty hunter who was tasked with hunting down Marko and Alana way back in the series’ first issue, was brought to Quietus by his sadistic torturer Ianthe. Things only got worse after The Will escaped from Ianthe’s control. He killed Prince Robot IV in revenge for the robot murdering his lover The Stalk way back in an early issue. This enraged Marko, who let his well-honed pacifism slide in favor of murderous bloodlust. Marko tackled The Will, and the two combatants ended up battling on a spaceship as it rocketed away from Quietus’ orbit. Marko overpowered The Will and came close to killing him…only to relinquish the chance at a finishing move in favor of looking out the window at the planet where his family still survived. It was a deadly mistake, one that allowed The Will to sneak up behind Marko and deliver a fatal blow to one of Saga‘s most important characters. As Marko lay bleeding to death, readers were treated to the very same narration by Hazel that ended issue #1: “Thanks to my parents, at least I get to grow old. Not everybody does.”

EW caught up with Vaughan and Staples to discuss the staggering events and the need for a temporary break from the series.

 

 

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Saga has always thrived on cliffhangers like this, but now it feels like you’ve outdone yourselves with this one. What are you hoping people to feel after reading issue #54? Why does it feel right to take a hiatus now?
BRIAN K. VAUGHAN: I’m still processing how I feel about it myself. I think it’s part of the reason that we felt we’re gonna need to give everyone some time to digest this. But it’s a little easier for Fiona and me, in that we always knew from the beginning this is Hazel’s story that we’re setting out to tell. It’s difficult when Hazel’s just an infant, because she’s a character with no agency and basically just a lump getting carried around, so it’s very much Marko’s and Alana’s story at the beginning. But we knew this point would come, where there would be an uncomfortable transition to really make it clear that this is Hazel’s story and her parents are a part of the story. But like for all of us, sadly, they’re not a permanent part of that story.

FIONA STAPLES: Saga‘s plot building to this climax happens to coincide with my own feelings of mild burnout. It took seven years to get the story to this point, and being under intense deadline pressure nearly the whole time was starting to wear me out. I also experienced a lot of loss and change in my life this year, and Saga‘s increasingly heavy themes began to hit close to home! It felt necessary to take a step back and let the book and ourselves breathe for a bit.

Did you guys have any tearful conversations about these deaths?
VAUGHAN: My wife and I went to Canada for Fiona’s wedding. The day after we went out for breakfast, and we were just talking about this most recent arc. After each story line we discuss, what did you like, what did you not like, what environments do you wanna draw, what themes do you want to explore? But Fiona doesn’t like exact spoilers. Fiona likes to read the script and have an emotional experience and then channel that into drawing. So I just had to be like, ‘Things that we maybe hinted at are going to be happening, is there anything that’s off-limits or that you would never not want to do?’ But Fiona’s the best, she’s very trusting. She was like, ‘I know it’s gonna be painful and I hate you for it already, but let’s do what the story is telling us what to do and be truthful to that.’ So, no tears. Fiona’s a consummate professional who kills people with grace and elegance.

Fiona, How did you react to reading the script where Marko dies?
STAPLES: I get weepy whenever one of our beloved characters is written out. Hazel’s narration in the final scene, echoed from our very first issue, is what really got me. At the same time, I was kind of relieved because I had convinced myself that Alana and Marko would BOTH die.

Marko’s death sequence is essentially wordless, and the burden is really on Fiona there to tell this important story moment. How did you guys approach that? I was really blown away by the result.
VAUGHAN: I was too. It’s a great relief to know that something really important is going to happen, and I need to get out of Fiona’s way and let her do what she’s always done, which is tell the story visually and emotionally.

STAPLES: It’s just someone who is finally more or less at peace with who he is, and with most of the choices he’s made. It’s a quiet and lonely scene, since Marko’s last violent rage has carried him far away from his family. I wanted to emphasize the suddenness and apparent randomness of The Will’s attack, and tried to draw it in a pretty matter-of-fact way to give it a sense of finality.

Was Marko’s death foreshadowed at all by his father’s death earlier in the series? He compares himself to his father a lot.
VAUGHAN: Since that issue came out, it’s been fun — well, fun is the wrong word — to see people starting to read the book over from the beginning. I think the fact that the narration that ends #54 is the same narration that ends the very first issue shows that this is something we’ve been planning since the very beginning. There have been issues where people have said ‘Hey, nothing happened that issue! What was that about?’ It’s always a setup for something we intend to pay off down the line. I hope it will be a bittersweet experience to read the story from the beginning and see the seeds we planted early on.

I must admit, I ended up feeling internally guilty because when Ghüs and Squire were on their hunt in issue #48, I was like, ‘Oh no, no matter what, please don’t let anything happen to Ghüs!’ And now it’s like, ‘Well I didn’t mean this!’
VAUGHAN: It’s been interesting because I remember when the first issue came out, some people were like, ‘It’s weird that baby Hazel is narrating from the future because we have a sense that things are going to turn out okay for her, so there are no stakes.’ From the very beginning I was just like, ‘Oh, we will see about that.’

It’s been really fun — again, fun being the wrong word…fascinating, maybe — to see a character like Prince Robot IV, someone that readers really despised at the beginning and have been all over the map with him throughout the series. They hate him, they love him, they mourn him. The Will has been something similar. For the last half-year as he’s been tortured by this despicable character, and people have been praying for him to break out of bondage. Like, ‘Let’s see The Will get back to being The Will again and killing people.’ And now it’s like you said: ‘No, we didn’t mean like that!’ It’s been very interesting to work on a comic where you try to have every character be fully rounded, neither a hero nor a villain but just a human being trying to get through their day.

Marko isn’t the only character we’ve said goodbye to in these last few issues. Fiona, who will you most miss drawing?
STAPLES: I’ve always loved drawing the robots because it’s such a fun challenge to give faceless people personality and emotion. Prince Robot IV wasn’t the only android in our story, but I’ll certainly miss him a lot.

Your guys’ depiction of war in Saga almost resembles something like The Iliad, where no one really knows why they’re fighting in the first place and it just becomes a cycle of self-perpetuating violence. Prince Robot went on this whole redemption journey, but even so his murder of The Stalk way back in issue #5 still came back to bite him in the end. 
VAUGHAN: That’s been my thought since the very beginning. As I’ve started to have children of my own, I realized Star Wars would be a huge part of their upbringing, as it was for me. Star Wars is obviously a classic and an important piece of art, but it has little to do with actual war. It’s interesting that for a lot of kids it’s your first exposure to war, like, ‘Oh the bad guys wear this costume, the good guys wear this costume, and you can end it through bravery and getting this MacGuffin.’ It has very little to do with the reality of war. To try and do a fantasy sci-fi story, but to try and do it with the complexity and moral grays of actual conflict has been an education for me. I think a lot about violence, and how much I absolutely love violence in fiction, where it’s beautiful and funny and cathartic. But violence in reality is universally stupid and immoral and ugly, so how do you wed those two concepts together? That has a lot to do with this conclusion we were trying to explore.

CHICAGO — For more than six decades, a mystery has swirled around the Emmett Till case, a mystery involving the photograph of a white girl.

His Mississippi cousins saw the picture and apparently so did his killers.

Till’s murderers “killed him because he boasted of having a white girl and showed them the picture of a white girl in Chicago,” journalist William Bradford Huie told filmmakers for the 1987 “Eyes on the Prize” documentary.

The years have passed, and the long-lost photograph has remained an enigma.

Who was this girl? Did she even exist?

Now, 63 years later, evidence has emerged that the answer is yes.

She was the only white girl in his class

Joan Brody, who lives in a condo in the northern suburbs of Chicago, is making lunch for a film crew as she gets ready to give her first-ever interview.

Her 68-year-old friend, Carole Bass, who is here, too, is the main reason the Clarion Ledger learned of Brody’s existence. When she first heard Brody talk about sitting next to Till in class, she felt chills.

Brody wasn’t aware of the historical significance, Bass said. “She just thought, ‘I sat next to him.’”

In “Eyes on the Prize,” Till’s cousin Curtis Jones mentioned that Till had a “picture of some white kids that he had graduated from (elementary school with) … female and male.”

The documentary’s producer, Henry Hampton, told NPR that Till showed this photo of his classmates to his Mississippi peers, pointing to the white girl and saying she was “his girlfriend. In fact, it was his classmate.”

Upon hearing the audio interview of Hampton, Brody said, “That had to be me.”

She was the only white girl in his class.

She sat next to Emmett Till in class

On her kitchen table, she prepared lox, bagels, cream cheese, cherries, strawberries and Swedish pancakes — all gluten-free.

“I’m only 43,” the 76-year-old joked, “but don’t tell anybody.”

The thing that has puzzled historians was that Till attended the all-black McCosh Grammar School (which now bears his name).

So where did this white girl come from?

The answer lies in the fact Chicago Public Schools kept fewer schools open in summer. One of those was Lewis-Champlain Elementary School.

Normally, this school was all black, but during the summer, a handful of white students went there. Brody and her twin brother, Howie, attended because they needed extra credits to attend South Shore High School, where the family was moving.

In the classroom, she sat next to Till, who was 13. She was 12.

“He had beautiful eyes,” she recalled.

Their first teacher was a white lady, who lasted only a few days.

Their second teacher was a black man, who ran the classroom with a firm hand, whacking students with his ruler.

One day, she and Till were tugging on a belt, and they were both laughing.

She can’t remember what tickled them, but she suspects it was because of their strict teacher.

When the teacher saw them goofing around, he came over and smacked her on the hand with his ruler. She grabbed onto the ruler in defiance, she said.

She has no memory of getting into trouble for doing that — something that surprises her.

When July 25 came, Till celebrated his 14th birthday. She had to wait a month to celebrate her 13th birthday.

Graduation came for the eighth-graders in August. That meant her parents were able to get back the $5 or so they paid in advance for her to attend.

“That was my graduation present. I got to keep the $5,” she said. “My sister got a bike.”

A graduation ceremony took place, and she was forced to wear the dress of a cousin 5 inches taller than her, she said. “I had to tuck it in here and there.”

She joined other students on the stage where photos were apparently taken, she said. “I had no interest in it.”

She never saw Till again.

Emmett Till said he would talk to anybody

In his interview, Hampton explained that when Till showed the picture of the white girl, his peers scoffed.

Till explained that he would talk to anybody, Hampton said, and his peers then challenged him to talk to the white woman in the store in Money, Carolyn Bryant.

After Till bought something and began to leave, “he turned around and said, ‘Bye, baby,’” Hampton said. “He didn’t understand that was a killing offense in Mississippi in (1955), but indeed it was.”

In the 1955 trial, Bryant testified that Till grabbed her by the waist and told her he had had sex with white women before, uttering an obscenity.

Brody shook her head in disbelief.

“He wasn’t a smart-alecky kid,” she said. “He wasn’t a person to smart off to a white woman or any woman.”

Look article claimed Emmett Till talked of sex with white women

The January 1956 Look magazine article obsesses about the claim Till said he’d had sex with white women.

His mother, Mamie, called it preposterous, saying her son would “never brag about the women he had. How could he? He was only 14.”

William Bradford Huie, who wrote the article, claimed that one of Till’s killers, J.W. Milam, flew into a rage after Till told him “about this white girl that he had.”

He quoted Milam as telling Till, “Boy, you ain’t never going to see the sun come up again.”

Upon hearing these words, Brody said that wasn’t the Till she knew.

He never talked about sex, or she would have certainly blushed, she said. “He was a gentleman.”

His horrific photo has been published around the world. Many Americans have never seen it.

Inside the barn, Till’s killers pistol-whipped him so badly that parts of his skull fell out.

His face looked so monstrous when his body arrived in Chicago that his mother, Mamie, insisted his casket be opened so “the world could see what they did to my boy.”

The photograph ran in the Chicago Defender, Jet magazine, many other black publications and in publications around the world, yet many Americans have never seen it because publications have considered it too graphic to print.

Brody was one of them until she recently went online and looked at the picture of Till’s battered body. 

It was the first time she had ever seen it.

The photo was so horrific, she turned away, and tears streamed down her cheeks.

The men that killed him, she said, “were worse than animals.”

Some believed the photo of the white girl came with Emmett Till’s wallet.

For decades, the photo of the white girl has raised many questions for historians.

Some suggested Till’s cousins were lying about the photo.

Some suggested the picture was really one that Till received with his wallet, perhaps a photograph of a model or actress.

“We didn’t know anything about white girls back in Chicago who might have been Emmett Till’s friends or girlfriends,” said Davis Houck, co-author of “Emmett Till and the Mississippi Press.” “For me, as a historian of the case, this is a real revelation.”

Brody said the story is not about her, “but about him. I want people to know that he did go to an integrated school and that he was a nice kid. He was not the kid he was made out to be.”

‘He could have been president’

There is a photo of a white girl in Brody’s home.

She is wearing a pink jumper with a blue anchor on the front. Her head is covered with dark curly hair, and a smile fills her face.

Next to her is a photo of a blond-haired boy, wearing an almost identical jumper.

She said it is her twin brother. Or was.

“He died when he was only 53.”

He and his family had traveled from their home in Hendersonville, Tennessee, to Atlanta for his daughter’s soccer tournament. While out jogging, he had a massive heart attack and died.

“I’m sure if he had been home, he would have been recognized and would still be alive,” she said.

She wonders, too, what might have been if Till had lived.

“He had his whole life ahead of him — to be gone just like that,” she said. “And for what reason?”

She wiped away her tears.

“He could have been president,” she said. “He was just a nice kid with a nice smile.”

She choked up.

“He didn’t deserve it,” she said. “Nobody deserves what they did to him.”

 

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A Vanderbilt football player has been suspended indefinitely from the team after a reported assault on an off-duty police officer last week, according to information from the university and police records.

Zaire Jones, a 20-year-old sophomore from Meridian, Miss., is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in connection with an Aug. 23 incident in Nashville, court records show.

According to a Vanderbilt University Police Department arrest affidavit, at about 6:43 p.m. that day Jones was attempting to drive around a traffic barricade on Vanderbilt Place at 29th Avenue South when he was stopped by off-duty police officer, Charles Harrison.

Harrison, the affidavit states, was working the road closure for Apex security and had his badge and firearm plainly visible.

As Harrison tried to figure out where Jones was trying to go, Jones “refused to completely stop and struck Harrison on the left knee with the front left corner of Jones’ vehicle,” the affidavit reads.

Jones failed to stop the vehicle, drove off and parked at 2818 Vanderbilt Place, where police arrested him for aggravated assault, the affidavit states.

After his arrest, Jones was booked into the Metro jail and later released on $10,000 bond.

Jones, who plays defensive back, will not play in Vanderbilt’s season opener against MTSU on Saturday because of “disciplinary reasons,” coach Derek Mason said at Tuesday’s press conference. Mason later added that Jones will be suspended indefinitely until a thorough review of the facts.

It was not immediately known if the university had taken further disciplinary action against Jones.

Jones, who attended Meridian High School, played in 11 of 12 games for Vanderbilt last season, including one start versus South Carolina. He finished with 11 tackles and one forced fumble, and he was the front-runner for a starting spot in preseason camp this season. .

Vanderbilt listed sophomore Frank Coppet as the starting safety in Jones’ spot for the MTSU game. “We have a next-player-up mentality,” fellow safety LaDarius Wiley said. “We have a very athletic defensive back group. Anybody is ready to play any week, so I feel pretty positive about it.”

Jones is currently enrolled in the university’s College of Arts and Science and was competing for a starting spot. He is due in court for a hearing Sept. 21.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Reach Natalie Neysa Alund at nalund@tennessean.com and follow her on Twitter @nataliealund.

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Australian Open champion Caroline Wozniacki beat Australian Sam Stosur 6-3 6-2 in hot conditions to reach the second round of the US Open.

Second seed Wozniacki, 28, broke the 2011 champion’s serve five times on a day when temperatures in New York are expected to top 32C with high humidity.

The Dane plays Lesia Tsurenko next.

Organisers implemented the extreme heat policy at Flushing Meadows with a 10-minute break between the second and third sets in women’s singles matches.

There will be a 10-minute break between the third and fourth sets of men’s singles matches.

Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova is also into the second round after beating Belgian Yanina Wickmayer 6-1 6-4.

The Czech fifth seed, 28, broke serve twice to take the first set and won five successive games from 4-1 down in the second. She will face China’s Yafan Wang next.

Two-time US Open runner-up Wozniacki said: “I’m just glad to have won this one. It’s definitely difficult. It’s very hot out here. I just tried to cool down between games.”

American 24th seed Coco Vandeweghe, a semi-finalist at Flushing Meadows last year, was knocked out in the first round by Belgian Kirsten Flipkens, 6-3 7-6 (7-3).

Latvian 10th seed Jelena Ostapenko, the 2017 French Open champion, beat Germany’s Andrea Petkovic 6-4 4-6 7-5 to set up a second-round meeting with American Taylor Townsend.

Japan’s Naomi Osaka, seeded 20th, defeated German Laura Siegemund 6-3 6-2 and will play Romani’s Monica Niculescu or Israel’s Julia Glushko next.

Wimbledon champion and fourth seed Angelique Kerber will face Russia’s Margarita Gasparyan on Louis Armstrong.

Top seed Simona Halep was knocked out in the first round on Monday.

Image: JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP/Getty Images

Just because you and your friends have moved to different corners of the globe doesn’t mean you have to stop watching shows and movies together.

Trying to all hit play at the same moment — as well as juggling between Netflix and Skype, a Facebook chat, Slack, Discord, or any other online chat program — isn’t exactly the most convenient thing in the world. Luckily, there is another way. 

There are several great apps, extensions and websites with the goal of syncing up Netflix streams across the Internet, but they all have their ups and downs. Some are exclusive to Chrome, some have top-notch chat features and some don’t go full screen.

Here are the pros and cons of the best ways to watch Netflix with your friends online.

1. Netflix Party

Netflix Party is a Google Chrome-exclusive extension that only requires one person to install it, making it the easiest of the three to set up. 

Once you install it, choose a movie or show, pause it, and then click the red “NP” button at the top right of your browser to get a link to a shared session. The extension allows you to chat with everyone in the viewing session, but doesn’t allow you to put in a name, so you’ll have to remember your friends’ random symbols.

Netflix Party allows for full-screen viewing and anybody in the session can hit pause, play or scrub through the timeline. The stream adjusts seamlessly.

The biggest downside to Netflix Party is that if you want to watch a few episodes of something or another movie, you’ll have to create a new session every time. Even if Netflix autoplays to the next episode, it will kick everyone out of the session and you’ll have to send out a new link to everyone.

2. Rabbit

Rabbit is one of the most well-rounded stream-sharing services available, partially because it can be used with any browser and partially because you can share all your favorite streaming services including Netflix, Hulu, Crackle and more.

Rabbit requires you to have an account and add the people you want to share a stream with as your friends. It works by having one person in control of the stream, which is shared via a proxy browser right on the Rabbit website. This means you’re essentially sharing the view of a full browser with everyone in your party, and you can go anywhere on the web that you like.

While this is a great feature, it doesn’t give the best stream quality. Even when watching something in a Rabbit room alone, the Netflix stream is pretty pixelated. It also cannot be put in full-screen mode or resized, relegating your viewing area to a small portion of your actual screen. If you’re watching on a laptop or tablet that’s 13 inches or less, good luck seeing much of what’s happening.

The chat options on Rabbit are great, though. The chat window on the right shows everyone’s username and picture, and you can even do voice and video chat.

These services have their upsides and downsides but they are the best Netflix-sharing services available, at least for now. Happy viewing with your friends. 

Madison Caswell worked every day for nearly three months prepping to take the SAT, the high-stakes college entrance exam.

Finally, on Saturday, Caswell joined thousands of other high school students from around the world in taking the test. What the 17-year-old from Lake Orion, Michigan, didn’t know: The test she took apparently had been floating around the internet for months.

SAT watchers say the College Board, the organization that runs the exam, had recycled a test given in October overseas. That exam’s answers had been leaked on the internet.

“This will give an unfair advantage to the people who cheated, which can have large repercussions when it comes to college admissions,” Caswell said. “Because schools are so competitive today, that score boost someone gets from cheating can change decisions on who’s accepted and who isn’t.

“The College Board shouldn’t have reused parts of their test.”

The answers to the October SAT apparently had been circulating in the depths of the internet for months. Students who searched for SAT tests were able to see them.

“It’s not unusual for them to reuse some questions,” said Jon Boeckenstedt, enrollment and marketing chief at DePaul University in Chicago. DePaul is a testing-optional institution, which means students don’t have to provide test scores to get admitted, and its leaders have spoken out against the College Board. 

The difference in this test: Students who took it say it was exactly the same as the version available online – one given in Asia and posted on a Chinese website.

Could some students have expected to see that test on Saturday? It’s possible, said Robert Schaeffer, public education director of National Center for Fair & Open Testing. The group, also known as FairTest, is a leader in the testing optional movement.

Test-prep companies around the world often study the recirculation of tests to narrow down which questions might be reused on which date, Schaeffer said. 

But they also go further. In 2016, an investigation by the news agency Reuters found massive loopholes in the College Board’s security. Among them: networks of test takers that share material across time zones, preparing students on the West Coast before they take the test.

Reuters also found regular leaks of the full test in Asia, just like what reportedly happened with Saturday’s test. Students from Asia, particularly South Korea and China, then fly to the U.S. to spend a few days and take the test.

The College Board views these tactics as against the rules but said it wouldn’t throw out Saturday’s test.

In a statement posted to its social media sites, the company said it always looks carefully at scores for evidence of cheating. It also said it doesn’t comment on test question usage.

“If we determine students have gained an unfair advantage, we will take appropriate actions,” the company said in a statement. The Board said it could cancel test scores of people who cheated and might prohibit them from taking another College Board exam. 

“The vast majority of students follow our test security policies, and our efforts are focused on identifying those who did not,” the College Board said. 

The Board plans to release multiple-choice SAT scores as normal on Sept. 7.

Skylar Bartush of Watertown, Connecticut, saw reports of the leaked test on Twitter right after she walked out of the testing room Saturday.

“I honestly felt cheated by the College Board,” said Bartush, 17. “The SAT is one of the most crucial aspects to college applications, and I’m disgusted by the lousy and vague response the College Board gave about our concerns. These are students’ futures in their hands, and it’s unprofessional for them to be so careless about the situation. …

“This was by far the hardest SAT I’ve ever taken, which is why it infuriates me even more that some students cheated and the College Board doesn’t seem to care.”

The Board said it is working to make its test more secure.

“We recognize that organizations and individuals will consistently try to challenge the system and find new ways to cheat, which is why we continue to enhance our test security measures. We are compelled to take bolder steps to ensure the SAT remains a valid, reliable tool for college admissions,” the College Board said in a statement.

The College Board is “burying its head in the sand to the fact that once tests are administered in the 21st century, their content is very quickly available online and elsewhere,” said Schaeffer, of FairTest.

Test takers memorize some of the questions and regurgitate them on sites like Redditt.com, where entire tests are rebuilt. Or they use technology such as micro-cameras to take photos of the test and share it, Schaeffer said.

“The College Board refuses to take the one simple step, which is to stop recycling tests. If it’s a fresh exam, there’s still not (a) 100 percent guarantee, but at least there won’t be old tests that are going to be re-used in their entirety, which people have an opportunity to sell,” Schaeffer said.

The Board has said creating new questions for each exam would cost too much money and make the test more expensive.

Feb. 28: Majority of parents saving for kid’s college have socked away less than $10,000

Trusting Saturday’s scores to be accurate could be a problem, said Boeckenstedt, of DePaul University. How does a college know if a high score is legitimate or if a student had seen the test before taking it Saturday?

“It continues to undermine the confidence colleges have in the College Board,” he said.

College admissions officers can look at previous scores if a student has taken multiple SATs to see if there’s a big jump. 

The difficulty comes if a student has taken the test and has a high score, even if their grade point average is average or low. There could be legitimate reasons for that, experts said. Some students just test well. Others students are bored in high school but do well both on the SAT and in college.

Lisa Willis, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, said she is concerned about how college admissions and scholarship officers will look at the score her daughter gets on the test, which she took Saturday.

“She does OK in high school. Not great, but good. She really studied and worked. She thinks she did well on it,” said Willis, 48. “But if she gets a good score, are all those college folks going to think she cheated? It’s crazy.

“The College Board is really messing with people’s lives here.”

Follow David Jesse and Kate Murphy on Twitter: @reporterdavidj and @KateMurphyENQ

 

 

 

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Many Internet users are rightfully questioning how secure their private data really is.

But it takes an explosive scandal like Facebook’s acknowledgement that 87 million users may have had their information improperly shared with political ad targeting firm Cambridge Analytica to shine a bright spotlight on the issue.

Many of us think we’re taking the right precautions, when in fact we’re putting our info at risk.

The following are five such misconceptions, the truth behind them, and what to do about it.

Myth No. 1: Using a private browser keeps my information private

Truth:

Whatever your browser calls it – Private Browsing, Incognito Window, or In-Private Mode – it’s meant to let you browse without leaving behind a local trail of history, passwords, cookies, and other assorted bits of revealing information.

Whenever you leave a private session, the browser is supposed to scrub your information, but your online activity is still visible, saved, and could be shared or sold to third-parties, says Paige Hanson, chief of identity education at cybersecurity firm Norton.

In other words, while private browsing prevents information from being automatically stored on your device, such as browsing history or downloaded cookies, your activity is still visible to the Internet Service Provider, as well as to the organization that provides the Internet connection (such as a school or company). Also, the websites you visit may be able to view the session, too.

What to do:

Just remember a “private browsing” mode may not be as private as it suggests. Those who are concerned about privacy could install a reputable Virtual Private Network (VPN), which provides anonymity when browsing online. An up-to-date security suite should also help you keep away from prying eyes.

More: 3 ways to clean up your online history on Facebook, Google and Apple’s Safari

More: How to download your Google data and what you’ll find

Myth No. 2: It’s safe to use public Wi-Fi, because, well, everyone does it.

Truth:

It’s true Wi-Fi hotspots are a popular way to get online. They’re free, easy to use, and available in many places – from coffee shops, restaurants and bars to airports, hotels, sports arenas, and schools.

But there are risks in using them. One is you may not be joining the network you think you’re joining – even though it may be called McDonaldsWiFi, for example – as it could be a fake, “rogue” network setup by someone nearby, who’s trying to access your info. Secondly, even if it’s a legitimate Wi-Fi hotspot, there are still risks in using the same one as everyone else. Malicious types can use tools to hack your device; it’s not common, but technically possible. Third, those who provide free Wi-Fi can (and often) collect and sell data about your browsing habits.

Another misconception is a public Wi-Fi hotspot is safe if there’s a password required, often given out by the establishment. But Hanson says this is not much safer than having a password if it’s freely given out to everyone indiscriminately.

What to do:

If you can avoid them altogether, don’t use public Wi-Fi. Instead, consider your smartphone’s cellular connection by creating a personal hotspot. If you want to use free public Wi-Fi, use a VPN (per above) to browse anonymously.

And once you’re in a Wi-Fi hotspot, refrain from inputting personal information, such as passwords and usernames (yes, this means don’t read email or access social media). And of course, never conduct financial transactions, such as paying bills, shopping online, day trading, or filing taxes.

If you want to read the news or check sports scores, have at it.

One last tip: don’t let devices automatically log onto free networks, which is sometimes an option (depending on the device), and if prompted, always say “no” to allowing your device to be visible on the network for sharing purposes (a common Windows prompt).

More: This little-known iPhone feature lets you share your Wi-Fi with friends in seconds

Myth No. 3: My personal data is gone once I delete it from a device.

Truth:

Deleting files, emptying the Recycling Bin and even formatting a computer’s hard drive, USB thumbdrive or memory card can still leave your personal files buried among those 0s and 1s. Yes, it’s true. Cybercriminals can still retrieve your documents, images, and other files using easily accessible “recovery” tools found online.

Unless you take the necessary steps to properly wipe the hard drive or Flash drives clean, don’t sell, donate, trade-in, or recycle your computer.

What to do:

There is downloadable software that can properly erase your hard drive. Sometimes referred to as “shredding” a drive, these tools, like Eraser and CBL Data Shredder, that can comb through every sector to clear all your data. The process can take a while, so wait it out.

If your wiping software asks you to identify the number of passes you would like it to run, three is a sufficient number, suggests Hanson.

Some people physically destroy hard drives before recycling an old computer, such as taking a drill or hammer to it, but you don’t want to physically hurt yourself in the process. Good software will do the trick.

As for smartphones and tablets, the good news is newer iOS and Android devices support encryption, therefore opting for a “restore” or “factory reset” should be fine (it will say something like “Erase All Content and Settings?)” Or use reliable third-party software to do the job on an Android device.

Myth No. 4: If your Facebook is set to Private, only my Friends can see me

Truth:

Not entirely true. While Facebook gives you the option to only share info with your chosen friends, even private profiles show your name, profile picture, cover photo, user I.D., and more, to others on the network.

Plus,  apps you downloaded may have had access to your entire friends list. If you’re using Facebook to sign in somewhere, or play a game, carefully read what you’re granting access to.

What to do:

If you still want to be on Facebook, take the time to read your privacy and security settings. If you don’t understand them all, talk to someone who does or do some online research — so your permission choices are clear to you.

Don’t allow any third-party apps. They’re “free” for a reason: they want your data. Uninstall third-party apps now, even though they already have some data now. It’s still not too late.

Nothing is completely secure, private, or anonymous. For example, your birth date may be in a friend’s Contact list and he or she might agreed to sync those contacts when signing up for a social media platform, or an app.

More: How Facebook tracks your every move: Fact vs. fiction

More: I downloaded all my Facebook data. This is what I learned.

More: Know of an app that’s abusing Facebook user data? It could be worth $40,000

More: Why you should think twice before you ‘sign in with Facebook’

Myth No. 5: I can use the same password for everything, because it’s not easy to guess.

Truth:

Never use the same password for all your online activity, because if a service is hacked and your password is exposed, cybercriminals will likely try it on another account. Even if your password is super long and complicated, once it’s known, the bad guys have the keys to the kingdom.

A related myth is you have nothing of interest to hackers. Perhaps you think you’re not wealthy or famous, so you’re safe.

Wrong. Everyone’s data is valuable.

What to do:

Not only should you use different passwords for all accounts – and reputable password manager apps can be a handy way to remember them all – try to use a passphrase instead of a password, therefore a sequence of words and other characters including numbers, symbols, and a combination of upper- and lower-case letters.

What’s more, make it harder for malicious types to access your data by adding a second layer of defense. With two-factor authentication (or sometimes referred to as “two-step verification”), you not only need a password or passcode (or biometrics logon, like a fingerprint of facial scan) to confirm only you can access your accounts, but you also receive a one-time code to your mobile phone to type in.

More: Why you should think twice before you ‘sign in with Facebook’

More: 7 steps for crafting the perfect password

 

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Carabao Cup second round live including commentary of AFC Wimbledon v West Ham – Live – BBC Sport

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Russia will hold its biggest war games in nearly four decades next month, a massive military exercise that will also involve the Chinese and Mongolian armies.

The September 11-15 manoeuvres will involve almost 300,000 troops, more than 1,000 military aircraft, two of Russia’s naval fleets, and all its airborne units, Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said in a statement on Tuesday.

Shoigu said the drills “are on an unprecedented scale both in terms of the area covered and in terms of the numbers” of military forces. 

“Imagine 36,000 pieces of military equipment moving together at the same time — tanks, armoured personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles. And all of this, of course, in conditions as close to combat as possible,” he said.

The exercises in central and eastern Russia, dubbed Vostok-2018, will take place at a time of heightened tensions between the West and Russia, which is concerned about what it says is an unjustified build-up of the NATO alliance on its western flank.

NATO says it has beefed up its forces in eastern Europe to deter potential Russian military action after Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014 and backed a pro-Russian uprising in eastern Ukraine.

The war games are also likely to displease Japan, which has complained about what it says is a Russian military build-up in the Asia-Pacific.

China’s state Xinhua news agency has reported Beijing plans to send 3,200 troops and about 900 weapons units for the exercises.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will attend a forum in Vladivostok over the same period. A foreign ministry official said on Tuesday that Tokyo always pays attention to shifts in Russian-Chinese military cooperation.

When asked if the cost of holding such a massive military exercise was justified at a time when Russia is faced with higher social spending demands, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said such war games were essential.

“The country’s ability to defend itself in the current international situation, which is often aggressive and unfriendly towards our country, means [it] is justified,” Peskov told reporters on a conference call.

‘More assertive Russia’

When asked if China’s involvement meant Moscow and Beijing were moving towards an alliance, Peskov said it showed the two were cooperating in all areas. China and Russia have taken part in joint military drills before, but not on such a large scale.

NATO spokesman Dylan White said Russia had briefed the alliance on the planned exercise in May and NATO planned to monitor it.

Russia invited military attaches from NATO countries based in Moscow to observe the war games, an offer he said was under consideration.

“All nations have the right to exercise their armed forces, but it is essential that this is done in a transparent and predictable manner,” White said.

“Vostok demonstrates Russia’s focus on exercising large-scale conflict. It fits into a pattern we have seen over some time: a more assertive Russia, significantly increasing its defence budget and its military presence.”