There are spoilers ahead. You might want to solve today’s puzzle before reading further! We Are the Champions (Freestyle)
Constructor: Matthew Stock
Editor: Amanda Rafkin
What I Learned from Today’s Puzzle
GUKESH DOMMARAJU (30A: Grandmaster who became the youngest-ever World Chess Champion in December 2024) GUKESH DOMMARAJU became a chess grandmaster at the age of 12. (He is currently the third-youngest person to attain that rank.) Last December, at the age of 18 he defeated Ding Liren at the World Chess Championship, and became the youngest person to hold the title of World Chess Champion. GUKESH DOMMARAJU was born in India, and has been playing chess since he was seven years old. My husband plays a lot of chess, so chess news always catches my attention. I remember reading in December that the new World Chess Champion was the youngest person to achieve that title, but I didn’t remember his name. I’m happy to learn more about GUKESH DOMMARAJU.
ZARA (63A: Fast-fashion brand headquartered in Spain) ZARA was established in Spain in 1975, selling lookalike products of higher-end fashion brands at a lower price. The company expanded to the United States in 1989. ZARA was originally named Zorba after the 1964 movie Zorba the Greek, but the company changed its name after learning there was a bar named Zorba two blocks away.
Random Thoughts & Interesting Things
CINDERELLA TEAM (20A: Squad making an underdog March Madness run) It’s always exciting to root for the CINDERELLA TEAM. This clue just missed being published during the March Madness aka the NCAA Basketball Tournament.
BOTTOMS (24A: 2023 comedy about two high school girls who start a fight club) I have previously written about BOTTOMS. The movie stars Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri.
EWAN (26A: Actor McGregor) Sir EWAN McGregor’s acting credits are many and include the dual role of brothers Ray and Emmit in the third season of the TV series Fargo (2017), the title role in the miniseries Halston (2021), and Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars franchise.
LEAH (46A: Author and chef Chase) LEAH Chase (1923-2019) was a chef based in New Orleans. In 2018, the restaurant LEAH and her husband founded was named one of the 40 most important restaurants of the last 40 years by Food & Wine magazine. The restaurant, named Dooky Chase for her husband, was a gathering place for Civil Rights Movement participants in the 1960s, and was known as a gallery due to its extensive collection of art by Black artists. LEAH Chase authored three cookbooks: The Dooky Chase Cookbook (1990), And I Still Cook (2003), and Down Home Healthy: Family Recipes of Black American Chefs (1994). I’m always happy to see the name LEAH in the puzzle, as that’s my daughter’s name.
NEALE (64A: Author Zora ___ Hurston) Zora NEALE Hurston (1891-1960) was an author, anthropologist, and filmmaker. Her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, was published in 1937. The book was adapted into a TV movie of the same name in 2005.
SOS (65A: Palindromic “help!”) and TNT (66A: Palindromic sports network (Abbr.)) I enjoyed this palindromic pair.
ISLAM (11D: Religion that follows the teachings of Muhammad) In ISLAM, Muhammad is considered to be a prophet and a messenger of God. Muslims believe the Quran, ISLAM’s central text, was revealed to Muhammad by God.
ATLANTA (22D: The Peach State’s capital) ATLANTA is the capital of Georgia. One of Georgia’s nicknames is “The Peach State.”
BLITZ (45D: ___ chess aka speed chess) There are several variations of speed chess – rapid chess, BLITZ chess, and bullet chess – each of which allows players a different amount of time to make their moves. In BLITZ chess, each player has ten minutes or less to make all of their moves in the entire game! This clue is a nice tie-in with GUKESH DOMMARAJU.
RIMES (50D: Country singer LeAnn) LeAnn RIMES began her country music as a child. Her country album, Blue, released in 1994 (when she was 13 years old), reached the top of Billboard‘s Top Country Albums chart. LeAnn RIMES has also crossed over into pop and gospel music. Her most recent album, God’s Work, was released in 2022.
MONAE (“Hidden Figures” actress Janelle) The 2016 movie, Hidden Figures, tells the story of NASA mathematicians Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson. It is loosely based on Margot Lee Shetterly’s 2016 non-fiction book of the same name. Janelle MONAE played the role of aerospace engineer, Mary Jackson, in the movie.
A few other clues I especially enjoyed:
HO HO (5A: Hostess treat that sounds like something Santa would enjoy)
WAIT LIST (55A: Queue that people join until new spots open up)
ALMOST CERTAINLY (60A: “95% sure that’ll happen)
BOWLS (40D: Tries to knock pins down in an alley)
Crossword Puzzle Theme Synopsis
WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS (Freestyle): There’s no theme today, as this is a freestyle, or themeless, puzzle. The title is a nod to CINDERELLA TEAM (20A: Squad making an underdog March Madness run) and GUKESH DOMMARAJU (30A: Grandmaster who became the youngest-ever World Chess Champion in December 2024).
I enjoyed this puzzle, even though I now have “WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS” – the 1977 song by Queen – stuck in my head! I enjoyed learning GUKESH DOMMARAJU’s name. I’m guessing Matthew had a nice “Aha!” moment when realizing GUKESH DOMMARAJU was 15 letters long, making it a perfect grid-spanning entry. Thank you, Matthew, for this delightful puzzle.
Since its release, Netflix’s ‘Adolescence’ has sparked widespread discussion, offering a chilling look at the impact of the internet and social media on children.
unbranded – Entertainment
The scandal surrounding the family of teen YouTube star Piper Rockelle are the focus of “Bad Influence,” a new Netflix docuseries that explores the perils of child vlogging.
The three-part docuseries, which premieres this week, offers an inside look at the “disturbing stories of alleged exploitation, cult-like manipulation, and abuse” Rockelle’s former costars endured at the hands of her “momager” Tiffany Smith, according to Netflix’s Tudum.
Rockelle is a vlogger who rose to internet stardom by staging elaborate pranks, competing in absurd challenges, and making soapy “crush content” with a group of aspiring child stars known as “The Squad” on YouTube.
Smith was accused of abuse and exploitation and was sued by nearly a dozen teenagers who were regularly featured on her daughter’s YouTube channel in January 2022, NBC News reported. The parties reached a $1.85 million settlement agreement in October 2024.
“Through their stories, (Bad Influence) exposes the dark realities of social media fame and the fight to protect the next generation of creators from exploitation,” according to Netflix.
Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.
Here’s what to know about new Netflix docuseries “Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing,” including additional details about Piper Rockelle’s mother, Tiffany Smith.
Who is Tiffany Smith?
Tiffany Smith is Piper Rockelle’s mom and business manager. Smith and her boyfriend Hunter Hill helped Piper film and produce short-form content for YouTube and other social media platforms.
“As she continued to post online, Piper amassed millions of followers along with a lot of revenue — at one point, reportedly upwards of over half a million dollars per month — in the form of brand deals and other income streams,” according to Tudum.
Smith began to invite a number of aspiring influencers to join her daughter in front of the camera. The rotating cast of tween friends Smith enlisted in 2018 to appear in her daughter’s videos were known as “The Squad.”
The group would create content together and promote each other’s work on social media. Some of them even moved in with Smith and her daughter. The parents of some of the members of “The Squad” and even members of “The Squad” themselves eventually grew concerned about Smith’s questionable behavior on and off camera, according to Tudum.
Eleven Squad members accused Smith of inappropriate behavior and later sued the momager as a result of physical and emotional injuries they endured from “harassment, molestation, and abuse,” NBC News reported. Some of the teens alleged that they were not compensated for their work, appearances and likeness.
The years-long case came to a close in October 2024 with a $1.85 million settlement agreement, according to NBC News.
YouTube demonetized Rockelle’s channel in February 2022, which means neither Smith nor her daughter can make money from ads featured in videos. Rockelle, now 18, continues to post regularly on social media.
What is ‘Bad Influence’ about?
“Bad Influence” is a three-part docuseries that “explores the shadowy world of child influencers,” specifically surrounding the abuse allegations made against Tiffany Smith, the mother of popular YouTube vlogger Piper Rockelle.
Here’s what to know: What is the Natalia Grace Barnett case, the subject of Hulu show ‘Good American Family?’
When does ‘Bad Influence’ premiere?
“Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing” premieres Wednesday, April 9 on Netflix.
Leon Harris, the NBC4 Washington anchor who sparked public concern about his health in November, is stepping down from his role at the station.
Harris, 63, confirmed his departure in a Tuesday statement released on the official NBC4 website, which was also shared on social media.
The news comes five months after Harris went viral for his appearance in a Thanksgiving broadcast, during which he seemed to struggle stringing words together. He subsequently took a medical leave of absence.
“Many of you have kindly asked about me over the past few months,” Harris said. “As you know, I took time off to focus on my health and family. After 40+ years of nonstop work and the dramatic changes in the news and television industry, I’ve made the difficult decision to step away from my role at NBC4.”
While Harris did not provide any specifics on his condition, the newscaster added that “this is the right time to prioritize my health and family.”
“I’m grateful to NBC4 for having me as part of their team for the last eight years,” Harris concluded. “A special thanks to my amazing colleagues, friends, and especially to our viewers who welcomed me into their homes. It’s been an honor.”
In its own statement, NBC4 said the news outlet is “grateful” for Harris’ nearly decade-long tenure.
“We thank him for his commitment to our community, dedication to journalism, hard work, and friendship,” NBC4 said. “He will be missed, and we wish him nothing but the best.”
Prior to his stint at NBC, Harris worked as an anchor at CNN and ABC affiliate WJLA-TV. He has won more than a dozen local Emmy Awards, including two for best local news anchor, according to a biography on the NBC4 website.
Leon Harris health concerns led to public scrutiny
Harris has openly discussed his issues with alcohol in the past, though it’s unclear if the November 2024 incident was related to his struggle with substance abuse. The journalist previously suffered from a near-fatal case of necrotizing pancreatitis, according to a 2013 interview with CNN.
Soon after Harris’ troubling Thanksgiving broadcast, prayers and concerns trickled in for the newscaster, but not before speculation went rampant. “Pull him & get him some help!” one X user wrote at the time.
Experts warn that while it’s OK to wonder about the health of public figures — or anyone in your life — people should remember that everyone deserves respect amid a medical scare.
Because celebrities live their lives in the public eye, “some people can inappropriately believe they are entitled to every aspect of their life, which is untrue,” Chase Cassine, licensed clinical social worker, previously told USA TODAY.
“Celebrities and public figures are humans and deserve the fundamental human right of autonomy and self-determination by controlling what aspects of their lives will be self-disclosed.”
Leon Harris speculation: He stepped away for ‘health issues.’ Why you shouldn’t gossip.
Just because someone is in the public eye doesn’t render them immune to pain or suffering — from a serious health condition or gossip.
“Instead of speculating and spreading false information, people should allow a safe and respectful space for the person whether they are providing information on their protected health information or not,” Cassine said. “They are not obligated to do so.”
Theater composer and lyricist William Finn, best known for his work on the Tony Award-winning musical “Falsettos,” has died. He was 73.
The acclaimed playwright died Monday following a battle with pneumonia, Finn’s literary agent, Ron Gwiazda, confirmed to USA TODAY on Tuesday.
He made his off-Broadway debut in 1979 with the one-act musical “In Trousers,” a loosely autobiographical piece about a man named Marvin who struggles with his queer sexuality. The show spawned two sequels, 1981’s “March of the Falsettos” and 1990’s “Falsettoland.”
Finn graduated to Broadway in 1989 with the musical “Dangerous Games,” for which he composed the lyrics alongside Argentinian arranger Ástor Piazzolla. His breakthrough came three years later with 1992’s “Falsettos,” a sung-through musical that combines the stories of “March of the Falsettos” and “Falsettoland.”
The emotional musical, which takes inspiration from the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s, won Finn a pair of Tony Awards for best original score and best book of a musical.
“I hope it’s a show that will rise above the horribleness of the time,” Finn told the Lincoln Center Theater in 2016. “Do you not want to see ‘Angels in America’ again because it’s about a horrible time?”
Finn’s other works include “The Sisters Rosensweig,” “A New Brain,” “Love’s Fire” and “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” the latter of which was nominated for best original score at the 2005 Tony Awards.
The playwright’s final show, “The Royal Family of Broadway,” premiered in 2018 at the Barrington Stage Company in Finn’s home state of Massachusetts. The musical was an adaptation of the 1927 play “The Royal Family” by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber.
Val Kilmer died of pneumonia: How does the common illness turn deadly?
‘I like to write songs that tell you the story of a life in three or four minutes’
In February 1952, Finn was born in Boston to Jason and Barbara Finn, and the Jewish couple raised him in the neighboring town of Natick, Massachusetts. Finn developed an early love for the world of musical theater, dancing around his family’s living room to the Frank Loesser-penned “Guys and Dolls.”
“I was always interested in the theater and just gravitated there,” Finn previously told The Cultural Critic. “And I was always smart, so my parents figured I wasn’t doing anything stupid, and they were supportive. I must have been an obnoxious child, always singing and always — well, dancing is not the word. Moving is more accurate.”
During his adolescence, Finn took up the guitar after receiving the instrument as a gift for his bar mitzvah, per The Cultural Critic. Inspired by folk singer-songwriters such as Joni Mitchell and Simon & Garfunkel, the self-taught musician began writing his own songs and later learned the piano.
Michael Hurley dies: Singer known as ‘Godfather of freak folk’ was 83
Finn honed his craft as a theatrical composer while attending Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, where he wrote three musicals and studied the work of college alumnus and Broadway icon Stephen Sondheim, according to his interview with the Lincoln Center Theater.
“When I began to get personal, my songs got better,” Finn told The Cultural Critic. “I like to write songs that tell you the story of a life in three or four minutes, where a panoply of emotions is expressed, and also where real craft is demonstrated.”
Ms. Rachel, a popular YouTube educator, delivered an inspiring speech during a commencement ceremony at NYU’s Steinhardt School.
Ms. Rachel is officially a mom of two.
Rachel Accurso, best known for her popular toddler learning videos, announced on social media that she and her husband, Aron, welcomed a baby girl via surrogate on Tuesday.
“We welcomed sweet baby Susannah into the world!” Accurso wrote on Instagram. “We are so in love! Sometimes timing isn’t what you plan and the road to get there is bumpier than you expect, but when you hold your little ones you know… I’m meant to be your mama.”
Accurso, who was unable to carry the pregnancy due to medical reasons, praised the surrogate for giving the couple “the most precious gift possible.”
“We are now all family forever,” the YouTube star wrote. “We have immense gratitude and a deep bond. It’s been a truly beautiful experience. I’m in awe of her.”
Accurso also gave her partner, Aron, a special shoutout for “being the best husband and dada.”
‘Ms. Rachel’ is coming to Netflix: When, what to know and how to watch
Who is Ms. Rachel?
“Ms. Rachel” is a popular YouTuber who makes content, described as “toddler learning videos” and “baby learning videos” for young children.
“Ms. Rachel uses techniques recommended by speech therapists and early childhood experts to help children learn important milestones and preschool skills!” according to Ms. Rachel’s YouTube channel description. “You can trust Ms. Rachel to provide interactive, high quality screen time!”
Accurso’s free “Songs for Littles” series went viral on YouTube in 2020, catapulting her and her channel into stardom. Over 14 million people are currently subscribed to her YouTube channel, not to mention the hundreds of millions who tune in regularly.
Accurso has become something of a quintessential figure in children’s media since her come up, partnering with Netflix for a television special based on her videos and with Spin Master for a toy line.
Accurso, who began writing the songs used in her clips alongside Broadway director and composer husband Aron Accurso, is especially popular for her cheery demeanor, kind disposition, inclusivity and signature overalls and headband look. She is also praised for her degrees and background in music education and early childhood development.
Accurso has taken a hiatus from YouTube, with her last video being posted in January. In March, she said it was due to “family things.”
Phaedra Parks returning to Real Housewives of Atlanta
Phaedra Parks is returning to Real Housewives of Atlanta after being gone for 6 seasons.
Fox – 5 Atlanta
The 2010s had E!’s “The Rich Kids of Beverly Hills.” Now, the next generation of famous children is set to star on Bravo’s upcoming series, “Next Gen NYC.”
The Bravo reality show, which premieres June 3, will feature adult children of cast members from the “Real Housewives” franchise.
The show will follow the friend group, all in their 20s, as they navigate business pursuits, personal drama and their own goals in New York City. While some were raised by reality TV royalty or hail from a famous family, others are starting their empires from scratch.
The trailer, released Tuesday, proved the drama doesn’t end on “Housewives.” In one scene, Ariana Biermann appeared to reference a past family controversy for fellow cast member Ava Dash. “Excuse me, Becky with the good hair? I want Ava” with the attitude, Biermann quipped in the trailer.
In 2016, Dash’s mother, Rachel Roy, was the subject of tabloid rumors about an affair with Jay Z following the release of lyrics from Beyoncé’s “Lemonade” album that referred to “Becky with the good hair.” At the time, Roy denied the speculation, saying there is “no truth to the rumors.”
During a double-decker bus ride around the city, some friends get hit by tree branches and in select trailer scenes, tension turns into comedic relief. “This friend group is honestly a beautiful hot mess,” newbie Georgia McCann said in another clip.
Who’s in the ‘Next Gen NYC’ cast?
The “Next Gen NYC” cast includes New Jersey titan Teresa Giudice’s eldest daughter Gia Giudice alongside Ariana Biermann and Riley Burruss, the respective daughters of former Atlanta housewives Kim Zolciak and Kandi Burruss.
Brooks Marks, the youngest son of Salt Lake City star Meredith Marks, is also a cast member alongside Ava Dash, who’s the daughter of music mogul Damon Dash and designer Rachel Roy. Brooks’ sister, Chloe Marks, will appear as a friend of the cast.
Teddi Mellencamp has numerous tumors, will undergo emergency surgery
The cast also includes influencer Emira D’Spain and newcomers McCann, Charlie Zakkour, Shai Fruchter and Hudson McLeroy.
“Next Gen NYC” premieres June 3 at 9 p.m. EDT on Bravo.
For a few brief moments, the entrance to Toru Shimokawa’s home in Kurume looks, smells and feels recognisably – almost classically – Japanese. The mixture of light and dark woods; the waft of cedar and plum blossom, the hard-fought quest for insularity amid the tight jostle of neighbouring houses. No traditions feel in immediate danger of being broken. Shoes are removed at the tiled genkan entranceway before the high, deliberately disconnective step onto tatami; a knee-level ikebana arrangement has been set to honour the guest; an uneven pillar of sanded mulberry softens the corner into a shoji screen-lined entrance room.
But the illusion of familiarity is brief. Once I am up on the tatami – and now officially “inside” the home – the first of Shimokawa’s gentle architectural ambushes is triggered: “1,950mm high,” beams the 42-year-old architect, raising his hand to the room’s low wooden ceiling and clearly enjoying both the engineered sense of confinement and the visitor’s instinctive duck of the head. “This was my first home,” he says of the house he was born in, “so I wanted to experiment with it.”
In fact, this house is not the actual building he was born in but another, completed in 2015, that sits on the same site. The house makes for a far more conservative take on many of his more radical creations, but still bears the hallmarks of a design practice that marries traditional architecture with modern interventions in a career that first made its presence felt in 2009 when he was named in Wallpaper* magazine’s architects directory as one of the 30 most exciting names to have emerged around the world. This is now the 20th year since he decided, with no formal training, to start an architectural firm. “I was never taught about architecture,” he explains. “But looking back now at the things I was sketching as a child and a teenager, what I was drawing was architecture,” he says.
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Current and past projects include an art gallery in Fukuoka, a buckwheat soba noodle restaurant, a little nirvana of thatch and waterfalls a 30-minute drive away in Dazaifu, a hot-spring project at Niseko Weiss and the reconstruction of a shrine. His work is increasingly concentrated on high-end private homes around the country whose owners, from tech entrepreneurs to psychiatrists, share his view that classic Japanese architectural styles are there to be simultaneously cherished and tweaked. And yet, even as his new commissions arrive from the wealthy playgrounds of Karuizawa, Niseko and elsewhere, he is unmoved by the magnetic fields of Kyoto or Tokyo. Shimokawa remains resolutely committed to being a Kyushu-bred architect in Kyushu.
Shinichi Takaki is the owner of the Yasutake Soba noodle shop, in Dazaifu, which was completed in October 2024. “My impression of Shimokawa is of a pure person in terms of architecture,” he says.
“When we first met with him at his home, I had the impression that his architecture would not deteriorate, but just become more beautiful. So I asked him to design my restaurant. He is very passionate in his pursuit of beauty, and how to move people’s hearts in various different ways. He is a maniac for beauty.”
“Toru Shimokawa has managed to reconcile the craft techniques of carpentry and the use of traditional and historic materials with an aesthetic that is clear, crisp and contemporary,” says Edwin Heathcote, the FT architecture critic. “In a nation still in thrall to the fetish of the new, where houses often last barely a generation, Toru Shimokawa traces a line between past and present, retaining existing fabric where possible but also acknowledging that history can be embodied in the process and knowledge of making, as well as in the finished object. His approach to landscape, the flow of space between interior and garden and the subtleties in the architectural delineation of those barely visible boundaries create an exquisite architecture in which history is profoundly present, even if his buildings appear utterly and elegantly modern.”
Shimokawa’s home has proven the perfect fulcrum for his tweaking. The confined Japanese-style room at the entrance, for example, is a calculated onslaught of the very traditional: it is influenced by the dimensions and scale of Japanese tea houses. It feels low by modern standards. He opens the small door into the main living room, and suddenly all that temporal and physical constriction is released. Minimalism has sped through the epochs. The ceiling, no longer flat and low, sweeps upwards to the full, glorious height of the house. The floor is tiled. The windows are huge. The airflow feels entirely different. There is no downlighting, only standing lamps with cords that vanish into the floor. Decades of evolution in Japanese home design gust along the floor and up into the ridged wooden rafters. A large ceramic hibachi squats at the heart of the room, subtly aglow.
Shimokawa’s home sits on a residential street a few hundred metres from the broad, winding Chikugo river in northern Kyushu. This the most southern of Japan’s four main islands – a stunningly beautiful part of the country known for its food, hot springs and as the main producer of Japanese green tea. Kyushu’s most famous architectural son is Arata Isozaki, the Pritzker Architecture Prize winner of 2019. Kurume is a large suburb of Fukuoka city: potentially forgettable if it did not punch so far above its weight as the home of Seiko Matsuda, the “eternal idol” pop superstar, and Kiyonori Kikutake, a founding member of Japan’s Metabolist architectural movement and designer of the iconic Edo-Tokyo museum.
And yet Shimokawa grew up in a world unconnected with architecture. His father and mother, he says, had unrelated jobs and, unlike most others, Shimokawa did not go to university. Entirely self-taught, he did not have the resources to tour Japan looking at architecture, and so he looked more locally around him and learnt what he could from books. “When you are in your teens or 20s, you look at the things that are closest to you,” he explains. “If you don’t have money you just see as much architecture as you can. So after doing what I could on a small budget I would study in books. But the more I studied, the more I began to see the difference between good and bad. If you know what is good, you already have a base, so you can build on that.”
By the age of 21, he decided to set up an architectural design firm. “At first, I didn’t have any work, because there was no way anyone was going to commission a 21-year-old who didn’t know anything and hadn’t studied architecture,” he says. “But then someone suddenly invited me to do a small job and that turned into more interior design work, and then houses and so on.” He is reluctant to acknowledge that his style has been shaped by any particular influence. “I don’t think there is an architect who thinks completely originally,” he says. “Everyone – Tadao Ando or Kazuyo Sejima – is imitating someone else. When I think about what is the basis of good architecture in Kyushu or Kyoto, I realise that old temples and shrines are the purest form. I learnt from visiting temples, shrines and Japanese architecture, and that has become my natural style. But that alone is not enough for the modern age.”
Shimokawa is married to a formally trained architect who has worked with him since 2008. Although the architectural firm bears his name, in the house next door, which the pair have converted into a design studio and office, the husband and wife’s desks sit side by side.
Within the Shimokawa story, the rebuilding of homes close to the architect’s heart holds a particular importance. His first great formative project was the house his parents eventually moved to, which he radically rebuilt in concrete in 2007. On that front, Shimokawa is in excellent company. Many Japanese architects cite the rebuilding of their parents’ home as being among their most significant projects – for many it is the first moment they are handed full creative control.
That pattern is common because one of the great defining features of Japanese home ownership in the postwar period was the expectation that most residential homes would at some point be torn down. “In the past, Japanese people used to scrap and build over the course of 20 to 30 years – completely different from Europe and America,” says Shimokawa, who says that Japanese housebuilding was dominated historically by the idea that a house’s value would automatically fall. He now sees Japan’s economy pushing its architecture to a critical turning point where gradual improvement is replacing this instinct. “The Japanese way of thinking is changing. We are now in an era when we have no choice but to renovate, because the costs are higher. My own mind is also changing. Young people think about fixing things, or making things that last.”
Back in the living room, one experiences the second of Shimokawa’s ambushes. The roof of the main living room extends out and back towards the genkan to cover a large external terrace. This sets up, he says, a visual ambiguity between inside and outside, purposefully playing on what has always been a diamond-hard Japanese distinction between the two. Inside is you and yours, outside is everything else. But with the shoji screens opened, there isa view from the entranceway through three zones of the house into the garden – a Japanese-style rockery punctuated with plum and other trees. The effect of the through-view is heightened, he says, by having elevated the house about 1.5m above ground level. “You are inside, then you see outside, then you see the living room, and then beyond that the outside,” he says, relishing the idea that this builds what he calls an “endless relationship” between the garden and house.
He leans back on a chair and sips tea from a cup designed by Takayuki Watanabe, a ceramicist who also fashioned a spectacular sphere that perches on the piloti as one passes along the serpentine garden path.
“I have done a lot of experimentation,” he says, in evident joy at the home he has created for his young family. Along the way, he has attained a quintessentially Japanese feel for detail. For example, sliding doors are generally moved by gripping a small oblong indentation. Shimokawa has replaced that oblong with a brass ingot with an inset figure of eight of his design that perfectly guides the fingers to the optimum location to move the door. “I spend a lot of time thinking about things during the design and construction period,” he continues. “But once I hand it over to the client, that’s the end isn’t it? It feels good to look at this and know it is your own home.”
It is easy to forget that this is, for all its overwhelming minimalism and power to surprise, a family home. His wife accepts a compliment about the lack of clutter by indicating an austere cupboard in which she says everything is hidden away.
The third great architectural trick of the Shimokawa home is its kitchen, which is sunken 60cm below the living room and separated by a broad wooden counter. On the garden side of the counter are four low wicker stools – this is the family table. On the other are the sink and cooking surfaces. Whoever is cooking is not only at the exact eye level of any inhabitants of the stools, but is able to look back across the living room in a way that creates an infinity-pool garden view.
The effect of all this is both subversive and inclusive. And, in its purity of execution, a triumph of design. Food is served comfortably from the kitchen and cleared instantly down into the sink. Yes, it may sound odd to organise a family table like a panel, but the practical reality of Japanese family life is that one adult is generally busy in the kitchen as the children eat. “I thought it would be better if we were closer to each other’s eye level,” explains Shimokawa simply. A traditional family table may feel inclusive, but lived reality tells you it isn’t always so. Shimokawa’s sunken kitchen admits something of modern life that traditional architecture has pretended is otherwise.
George R.R. Martin, author of the saga adapted for HBO’s ‘Game of Thrones’ series, invented dire wolves in his fantasy world. Thanks to Peter Jackson he got to meet the dire wolves in the real world.
Dire wolves extinct for 13,000 years recreated from ancient DNA
Colossal, a Texas-based biotech company, revealed that it successfully recreated extinct dire wolves.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated when George R.R. Martin visited Colossal. It was in 2025.
George R.R. Martin made fictional dire wolves integral to his books in the “A Song of Fire and Ice” saga, which spawned the HBO series “Game of Thrones.”
Little did he know he would eventually get to hold a real dire wolf – well, as close as one likely ever produced – and he would have “Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson to thank.
Jackson is among the investors in Colossal Biosciences, a private company which has seen its value increase to more than $10 billion since 2021 when it was founded by George Church, a biologist at Harvard Medical School, and tech entrepreneur Ben Lamm with the goal of bringing back the woolly mammoth.
What Jackson had learned – and Martin didn’t know yet – was that Colossal’s gene editing advances had made it possible to produce offspring born from surrogate mothers. They had a breakthrough allowing them to create dire wolves, which were actual Ice Age predators until they died out as many as 13,000 years ago.
So Peter Jackson says to George R.R. Martin …
Martin detailed how he got to meet the dire wolves in a post on his official website.
It started with Jackson calling him “with a mysterious suggestion that I phone this guy named Ben Lamm, who had something huge he wanted to share with me. Peter had taken an oath of silence, so he could not share the secret with me, but I could hear the excitement in his voice, so I made the call. And damn, I am sure glad I did.”
Subsequently, Martin visited Colossal in February 2025, more than four months after the biotech company’s researchers oversaw the birth of two male dire wolf pups and one month after a female pup was born.
“I’ve been holding my tongue for months now, sworn to silence yet dying to tell the world,” he said on the site, which had a picture of him holding one of the wolves.
How did George R.R. Martin come up with dire wolves?
A visit to the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, where the remains of hundreds of dire wolves have been found, sparked inspiration for the author. “When I saw their direwolf exhibit, four hundred skull arrayed on a wall, something stirred inside me,” Martin said.
“Most of my readers will have heard the story of how I (was) writing a science fiction novel in the summer of 1991 when a scene came to me, the first chapter of GAME OF THRONES where they find the direwolf pups in the summer snows. Where did THAT come from? Why did it seize me so powerfully? I have no idea,” he continued. “But it grabbed hold of me so hard that I put the other novel aside and began to write A SONG OF ICE & FIRE. The direwolves were a huge part of it. Without them, Westeros might not exist.”
Martin went on to muse that “maybe I was remembering a past life, when I ran with a pack in the Ice Age. … Whatever the reason, I have to say the rebirth of the direwolf has stirred me as no scientific news has since Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.”
Martin had prepared his followers for an upcoming special bit of news, ahead of Colossal’s dire wolf reveal, saying it was not going to be an update on “The Winds of Winter,” the long-awaited next novel in the Game of Thrones series.
The news, he said, “had nothing to do with that. But it was going to be something very cool, something astonishing.”Remembering Martin’s visit, Lamm said, “George R.R. Martin called us wizards, which is pretty cool.”
Not all fans were as excited. “We got Dire Wolves back after 10,000 years before we got the Epstein Files or Winds of Winter,’ one person posted on X.
We got Dire Wolves back after 10,000 years before we got the Epstein Files or Winds of Winter
— FEDORABLE THE HORRIBLE (@FedorableL) April 8, 2025
This story has been updated to correct an inaccuracy.
Mike Snider is a reporter on USA TODAY’s Trending team. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, X and email him at mikegsnider & @mikegsnider.bsky.social & @mikesnider & [email protected]
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Action star Jean-Claude Van Damme is hitting back amid news that he is being investigated for alleged sexual relations with human trafficking victims.
A representative for the “Street Fighter” and “Bloodsport” actor, 64, said in an April 3 statement to USA TODAY, written in French, the reported claims “are both grotesque and non-existent.”
“Mr. Van Damme does not wish to comment on or fuel this rumor, which is as absurd as it is unfounded,” his agent, Patrick Goavec, said.
On Tuesday, the Romanian government’s Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism, a law enforcement branch, confirmed to USA TODAY that a complaint against Van Damme was submitted April 2.
According to DIICOT’s statement, translated from Romanian, the complaint “was transmitted to the Territorial Service for competent resolution.” The agency also noted that the contents of any reports “pending before the criminal investigation bodies” is not made public.
Jean-Claude Van Damme had sexual relations with trafficked Romanian women, lawyer alleges
On April 1, news of the complaint against Van Damme emerged via reports from various Romanian news outlets.
CNN affiliate Antena 3, TV news station Antena 1 and newspaper HotNews reported Romanian lawyer Adrian Cuculis said in a statement last week that Van Damme is accused of knowingly having sexual relations in Cannes with five Romanian women who had been trafficked. An alleged victim came forward to provide testimony, Cuculis reportedly said.
The claim reportedly emerged amid DIICOT’s investigation into a network engaged in human trafficking, including minors.
According to Antena 3, DIICOT will continue to gather evidence before Romanian prosecutors determine whether to initiate criminal proceedings.
Van Damme, a Belgium-born martial artist-turned actor, has three children from five marriages. “Bloodsport” was his breakout role in 1988, and he went on achieve action icon status through films like 1989’s “Kickboxer,” 1991’s “Double Impact,” 1994’s “Street Fighter” and 1997’s “Double Team”.
He also appeared in “The Expendables 2” (2012) and the one-season Amazon Prime Video series “Jean-Claude Van Johnson,” which was produced by Ridley Scott.
