Today's News

[Gemini]

What a terrible day.

[Oma]

I can remember sitting sobbing watching it all unfold

[Gemini]

I thought it was a tragic accident until I saw the second plane hit

[Nanto2girls]

Who could forget this tragedy.

[Daisy]

It isn't often a sporting event will make it to the top of my daily news, but today is an exception.

Eighteen year old Emma Raducanu took her A Levels this summer and then took off on the tennis circuit displaying a level of maturity rarely seen in players years older than her.

Yesterday she became the first British woman to win a Grand Slam singles championship since Virginia Wade in 1968 by beating 19 year old Canadian Leylah Fernandez 6-4, 6-3 to win the US Open. She also became the youngest Brit to win a Grand Slam title.

Congratulations, Emma. Enjoy your success.

[Plantaholic]

I watched her in the semi-final and last night in the final, she is an amazing tennis player. It was a shame she broke down at Wimbledon, next year perhaps. Tim Henman has been her mentor.

[Daisy]

Plant - a friend who watched the match said Tim Henman was keeping good eye contact with her and was clearly a huge support.

Was she unwell in that match at Wimbledon - she seemed to be having difficulty breathing, if I remember rightly?

[Plantaholic]

Yes, her coach withdrew her from the tennis at Wimbledon. Ladies tennis is greatly improved, years ago it was mainly playing from the back of the court until one player failed to return it, not so now, much more exciting.

[Daisy]

I've watched a bit of the final and they hit the ball so hard I can hardly follow it!

[Daisy]

Did you know that you could earn about £3 every time someone clicks on a YouTube video you've uploaded, or to be more accurate, £3 per 1,00 clicks? If YouTube isn't your thing Instagram or TikTok might be - plenty of choice as to where you can earn your daily crust.

There is the potential to earn huge amounts of money and become household names - you don't have to be a social media addict to have heard of Mrs Hinch or Zoella.

This is the brave new world of Influencers - it's not a job title we ever heard of when we were leaving school!

Influencer Michelle Phan, who now runs her own cosmetics company, points out the downside of her chosen path. Burnout. She has quit making her makeup and beauty YouTube videos due to burn out. She said the constant pressure to upload more and more content and chase ever more "Likes" and views had impact on her mental health and well-being. She now helps and supports other Influencers who may feel stressed by trying to upload new content several times a day.

An influencer's income can come from two main sources - adverts placed on their videos if yjru have more than 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watched hours. Secondly it comes from brands you do deals with. On Instagram if you have more than a million followers one report says that if a company wants you to promote their product you could earn $10,000 for just one post.

It's a world away from our working lives of 9-5, isn't it.

[Gemini]

I never understood how all that worked!

Very different indeed.

[Daisy]

Gem, it all seems like smoke, mirrors and sleight of hand to me.

[Daisy]

Somewhere in Scotland there is a very proud Granny. She (I don't know her name) has a 12-year old grandson called Xander who was filmed flying ahead of the professional cyclists in the Tour of Britain race on Saturday.

He was watching the race having just been out on his own bike, and on impulse decided to race alongside a breakaway group.

He told a reporter "We already knew they were going to be there because we had seen the route online. They were coming round the corner and people were clapping and that's when I decided to start riding up beside them. It was about one minute and I was just riding as fast as I could - about 25km and hour I think."

Pascal Eenkhorn from Holland passed Xander his water bottle, which Xander says he will treasure on a special shelf in his bedroom. He hopes to become a pro rider and has already won various accolades with Scottish Cycling.

[Gemini]

Well done that boy!!

[grannyjules]

He’ll remember that for ever. It’ll spear him on with his own cycling too.