Micron Technology, a standout stock, reported strong results but still fell short of sky-high market expectations, plunging nearly 8% in after-hours trading. - Moomoo

The Arab world is having fewer babies. Far fewer. A region known for large families, youthful populations and some of the highest birth rates in the world is undergoing a demographic transformation. Families are shrinking. Parenthood is being delayed. And a region that once seemed far removed from the fertility crisis gripping Japan and South Korea is beginning to confront similar questions about its own future. The numbers tell the story. A study tracking fertility rates across Arab countries between 2011 and 2021 found sharp declines in every country examined, with Jordan recording one of the steepest drops at 24.3%. In the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain, fertility rates during the period fell below 2.1 children per woman, below the UN’s replacement level needed to sustain a population without immigration. Even in Saudi Arabia, whose youthful population has long been heralded as an economic advantage – where 69% of the population is under 35 – has seen a decline in annual births of more than 10% between 2017 and 2022, according to Saudi Arabia’s General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT).

If there’s anything to take away from a preseason loss, it’s that the Toronto Raptors are ready to play real basketball. Against a New York Knicks squad that was humiliated by these same Raptors only a few nights earlier, Toronto outperformed the defending champions for much of the evening. Though neither team treated it as seriously as a regular season game, this was about as close as it gets for the preseason. Both squads had starters reach the 30-minute threshold, and both teams had moments of brilliance — and real effort — from their stars. But there were four Raptors who rose head and shoulders above the rest.1. RJ BarrettI called Barrett the team’s running back in the Quick Reaction, and that covers his role. He moves the chains in a variety of ways. He’s physical, likely the most physical player on the offensive end. He drives, finishes, draws free throws, cuts, hits the offensive glass, even hits triples. He finished with 21 points on 12 shots, and he will hit that level of efficiency on many nights this year. Few teams have horses in the wing-defence stables to guard Kawhi Leonard and Scottie Barnes and still have a stopper left over for Barrett.

Here’s your NYT Strands hint for today, plus the spangram and all of today’s Strands answers for puzzle No. 959 on Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. Today’s Strands theme was tricky. It helps to be a runner. Read on for all the answers.

A supply-chain attack involving ConnectWise’s cloud services has exposed Microsoft 365 customers to unauthorized application access, with researchers reporting successful sign-ins across 173 partner and customer tenants. The incident centres on credentials associated with ConnectWise Cloud Backup, formerly SkyKick, and raises concerns about attackers exploiting permissions already entrusted to business software. ConnectWise has confirmed unauthorized access to application identities within its Cloud Backup environment. In an October 17 update on its service-status page, the company said it was shutting off application access, interrupting customer backups while investigation and remediation continued.

You once played Basil Fawlty in an amateur student production of Fawlty Towers at Queen’s College in Melbourne. How amateur was your Basil Fawlty moustache? It was terrible. It was real but it was definitely coloured in – I still have holes in my beard. I’d also shaved my head, so if you look at the early promo posters, you can clearly see I’m wearing a wig. Our theatre was closed so we had to perform in a circus tent in the middle of winter, on an oval in the university grounds, which was all very Fawlty Towers. I’ve always loved comedy. I didn’t really do anything serious until drama school. I always thought there might be a good spin-off with Sauron and Celebrimbor as an odd-couple situation. You play Sauron in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Tolkien wrote that Sauron “represents as near an approach to the wholly evil will as is possible”. What do you consider wholly evil? A complete disregard for the feelings and wellbeing of other people, to put it simply. It’s the intention, I think. I have horrible flashbacks to playing Aussie rules when I was about 17. I thought people were being quite evil to me at the time.