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China’s Xi is visiting Vietnam, Cambodia and Malaysia — countries Trump hit with tariffs
Mon, 14 Apr 2025 13:42:23 +0000
Match ID: 0 Score: 95.00 source: www.washingtonpost.com age: 0 days
qualifiers: 40.00 china, 20.00 malaysia, 20.00 cambodia, 15.00 vietnam
‘No winners’ in a trade war, says China’s Xi as he heads to Vietnam on charm offensive
Mon, 14 Apr 2025 10:55:04 GMT
Xi Jinping expected to present China as reliable partner in contrast to US, which imposed – then suspended – tariffs over 40% on some countries
The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, warned there would be “no winners” in a trade war and that protectionism “leads nowhere”, as he began a three-nation trip to south-east Asia, starting in Vietnam on Monday.
Xi’s tour, which started in Hanoi, also includes rare visits to Malaysia and Cambodia and will seek to strengthen ties with China’s closest neighbours amid a trade war that has sent shock waves through global markets.
Continue reading...Effects could tip one into recession and undermine other’s fragile economy but prospects for rapprochement are not hopeless
Sky-high tariffs that now hang heavily over US-China trade mean, effectively, that they have declared a trade embargo on each other, normally an act of war. The economic consequences for both will hurt.
The US’s $150bn (£113bn) or so of exports to China will fall away quickly, while China’s $440bn worth of exports to the US may drop by up to 75% over the next 18 months, unless some sort of negotiation happens. No one will be spared the effects.
Continue reading...China has been flexing its maritime muscle in the Indo-Pacific – moves that pose a challenge for the US president
In the space of just five weeks, China held live-fire drills on the doorsteps of Australia, Taiwan and Vietnam. It tested new landing barges on ships that could facilitate an amphibious assault on Taiwan. And it unveiled deep-sea cable cutters with the ability to switch off another country’s internet access – a tool no other nation admits to having.
China has been flexing its maritime muscle in the Indo-Pacific to send a message of supremacy to its regional neighbours, experts say. But it’s also testing the thinking of a bigger rival further afield: Donald Trump.
Continue reading...Students from Muslim-majority countries as well as Asia and Africa are having their visas revoked with little or no explanation.
The post Trump Appears to Be Targeting Muslim and “Non-White” Students for Deportation appeared first on The Intercept.
The Wall Street Journal has the story:
Chinese officials acknowledged in a secret December meeting that Beijing was behind a widespread series of alarming cyberattacks on U.S. infrastructure, according to people familiar with the matter, underscoring how hostilities between the two superpowers are continuing to escalate.
The Chinese delegation linked years of intrusions into computer networks at U.S. ports, water utilities, airports and other targets, to increasing U.S. policy support for Taiwan, the people, who declined to be named, said.
The admission wasn’t explicit:...
Unctad says many countries targeted with high tariff rates are unlikely to be a threat to US
The UN’s trade and development arm, Unctad, is calling on Donald Trump to exempt the world’s poorest and smallest countries from “reciprocal” tariffs, or risk “serious economic harm”.
In a report published on Monday, Unctad identifies 28 nations the US president singled out for a higher tariff rate than the 10% baseline – despite each accounting for less than 0.1% of the US trade deficit.
Continue reading...Protesters across the country have been rallying every weekend to try and drive Elon Musk’s car business into the ground.
The post Meet the Activists Motivated by Hatred of Elon Musk appeared first on The Intercept.
Tech firm has reportedly flown 600 tonnes of handsets from Indian factories as Chinese goods face huge tariffs
Apple is reportedly chartering cargo flights to ferry iPhones from its Indian manufacturing plants to the US in an attempt to beat Donald Trump’s tariffs.
The tech company has flown 600 tonnes of iPhones, or as many as 1.5m handsets, to the US from India since March after ramping up production at its plants in the country, according to Reuters.
Continue reading...The U.S. moved toward tariffs that protected U.S. workers, industry, and the environment, says one expert. Trump is undoing it all.
The post What Could Progressive Tariffs Actually Look Like? appeared first on The Intercept.
Mohsen Mahdawi was arrested by Ice in Colchester, Vermont, while he was attending a naturalization interview, his lawyer said
Donald Trump will meet this morning with El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, at 11am ET at the White House.
Referring to the cost of imprisoning the detainees in El Salvador, Trump told reporters on Sunday about Bukele:
I think he’s doing a fantastic job, and he’s taking care of a lot of problems that we have that we really wouldn’t be able to take care of from a cost standpoint.
He’s been amazing. We have some very bad people in that prison. People that should have never have been allowed into our country. People that murdered, drug dealers, some of the worst people on earth are in that prison. And he’s able to do that.
Continue reading...Government’s rapprochement with Beijing may risk national security in wake of British Steel crisis, party members say
Senior Labour figures have urged the government to review Chinese investment in UK infrastructure in the wake of theBritish Steel crisis, warning that a rapprochement with Beijing could risk national security.
Government officials insisted on Monday the country remained open to funding from Chinese companies even after a dramatic weekend during which ministers wrested control of the Scunthorpe steelmaking plant from the Chinese owners, Jingye.
Continue reading...Chinese customs official says trade has diversified away from US in recent years and plays up ‘vast domestic market’
China has played down the risk of damage to its exports from Donald Trump’s tariffs, with an official saying the “sky won’t fall”, as stock markets rose amid signs of a retreat on electronics restrictions.
The US president claimed his strategy was working on Monday, with record levels of investment. Addressing reporters at the White House, he continued to threaten new tariffs on pharmaceutical goods.
Continue reading...The deal signed last week between the centre-right CDU and centre-left SPD paves the way for vital investment in Europe’s biggest economy
Some years ago, hundreds of German finance ministry staff dressed in black and formed a giant zero to salute their boss, Wolfgang Schäuble, as he left office. It was a tribute to Mr Schäuble’s extreme fiscal conservatism, which had delivered Germany’s first balanced budget in the postwar period. Amid resurgent prosperity in the Angela Merkel years, the so-called black zero – symbolising a constitutional prohibition on public debt – had gradually acquired cult status.
As a new administration prepares to take power in Berlin, it seems unlikely that human euro signs will welcome the latest politician to take on Mr Schäuble’s former role. But in dramatic fashion, the spending taps are set to be turned on. Via a swiftly staged March vote in the outgoing Bundestag, “debt brake” dogma was consigned to history by the chancellor‑elect, Friedrich Merz. The way was thus paved for groundbreaking expenditure on defence, and the overhaul of an economy being left behind in a changed, suddenly menacing world.
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
Continue reading...Approach to expanding trade has been castigated for allowing Beijing to invest heavily in vital UK infrastructure
As even Donald Trump was forced to accept in scaling back his latest tariffs, China is just too big to ignore. And so it is, on a much smaller scale, that yet another UK government is doing several contradictory things at once when it comes to Beijing.
This weekend brought a particularly resonant example. On the one hand, the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, was hinting that British Steel’s Chinese owner, Jingye, was to blame for neglect – if not worse – over the fate of the threatened blast furnaces at Scunthorpe.
Continue reading...A little-known database logs hundreds of millions of wire transfers sent to or from Mexico, Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas.
The post The Unusual Nonprofit That Helps ICE Spy on Wire Transfers appeared first on The Intercept.
Wera Hobhouse says her apparent presence on secret list of critics of country’s human rights record made her a target
A Liberal Democrat MP refused entry to Hong Kong to see her young grandson has said her experience should be “a wake-up call for any parliamentarian”, given that it seems to show China holds a secret list of banned politicians.
Wera Hobhouse, who was turned back by officials on Thursday, said she was given no explanation as to why this happened, and could only assume that it was because she had spoken out about rights abuses by China.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Government is weighing up security concerns against economic benefits of closer ties with Beijing
The government could target parts of China’s security apparatus under new foreign influence rules, the Guardian has learned.
Ministers are considering including parts of the Chinese state accused of interference activities on the enhanced tier of the foreign influence registration scheme (Firs).
Continue reading...The “Tesla Takedown” protests reveal a major vulnerability of the Trump regime.
The post The Tesla Takedown Shows How We Can Make Oligarchs Feel the Pain appeared first on The Intercept.
Owner of Michelin-starred Veeraswamy, London, heads to high court to object to ‘heartless’ plans to upgrade building
It has been a fixture of British-Indian dining since it first opened its doors in April 1926 on the day of Elizabeth II’s birth, serving guests over the decades ranging from Marlon Brando to the late Queen herself.
Yet despite surviving the Blitz and London’s relentlessly competitive restaurant sector, a dispute with the current monarch’s property developer threatens the survival of London’s oldest Indian restaurant just short of its 100th anniversary.
Continue reading...We’d like to hear from small business owners in the UK and elsewhere about any impact of changing tariffs
China has raised tariffs on US imports to 125% in an escalation of the trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies.
US tariffs on Chinese goods now total 145%, while most other countries, including the UK, have maintained a 10% tariff on goods following Donald Trump’s announcements on Wednesday pausing “reciprocal” tariffs for 90 days.
Continue reading...Just weeks away from graduation, some international students at Arizona State University have been blocked from completing degrees.
The post At Least 50 Arizona State Students Have Now Had Visas Revoked, Lawyer Says appeared first on The Intercept.
Tahawwur Hussain Rana, 64, to stand trial for plotting multiday slaughter carried out by 10 Islamist gunmen
A Pakistan-born Canadian citizen wanted for his alleged role in the deadly 2008 Mumbai siege has landed in New Delhi after his extradition from the United States.
Tahawwur Hussain Rana, 64, arrived at a military airbase outside the Indian capital under heavily armed guard late on Thursday, and will be held in detention to face trial.
Continue reading...The veteran investigative journalist will cover U.S. military operations, national security issues, and foreign affairs through this yearlong fellowship.
The post Nick Turse Joins The Intercept as Inaugural National Security Reporting Fellow appeared first on The Intercept.
At a Congressional hearing earlier this week, Matt Blaze made the point that CALEA, the 1994 law that forces telecoms to make phone calls wiretappable, is outdated in today’s threat environment and should be rethought:
In other words, while the legally-mandated CALEA capability requirements have changed little over the last three decades, the infrastructure that must implement and protect it has changed radically. This has greatly expanded the “attack surface” that must be defended to prevent unauthorized wiretaps, especially at scale. The job of the illegal eavesdropper has gotten significantly easier, with many more options and opportunities for them to exploit. Compromising our telecommunications infrastructure is now little different from performing any other kind of computer intrusion or data breach, a well-known and endemic cybersecurity problem. To put it bluntly, something like Salt Typhoon was inevitable, and will likely happen again unless significant changes are made...
Leaders around the world have reacted with a mix of a mix of confusion and concern after Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs on some of its largest trading partners, upending decades of US trade policy and starting a possible global trade war. The tariffs range from 10% to 49% on all goods imported from abroad
‘Nowhere on earth is safe’: Trump imposes tariffs on uninhabited islands near Antarctica
War-torn and struggling countries among those facing steepest Trump reciprocal tariffs
Former City minister denies allegations she received land illegally from her aunt, the ousted PM Sheikh Hasina
The former City minister Tulip Siddiq has said an arrest warrant issued against her in Bangladesh over allegations she illegally received a plot of land from her aunt, the country’s ousted former prime minister, is a “politically motivated smear campaign”.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, the Hampstead and Highgate MP said: “No one from the Bangladeshi authorities has contacted me. The entire time they’ve done trial by media. My lawyers proactively wrote to the Bangladeshi authorities, they never responded.
Continue reading...Former City minister accused of illegally receiving plot of land from her aunt, ousted PM Sheikh Hasina
An arrest warrant for the former City minister Tulip Siddiq has been issued in Bangladesh with a new allegation accusing her of illegally receiving a plot of land from her aunt, the ousted former prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
Bangladeshi media reported the warrant was issued by a judge for 53 people connected to Hasina, including Siddiq. There is no formal extradition treaty between the UK and Bangladesh.
Continue reading...China has dramatically increased military activities around Taiwan, with more than 3,000 incursions into Taiwan's airspace in 2024 alone. Amy Hawkins examines how Beijing is deploying 'salami-slicing' tactics, a strategy of gradual pressure that stays below the threshold of war while steadily wearing down Taiwan's defences. From daily air incursions to strategic military exercises, we explore the four phases of China's approach and what it means for Taiwan's future
Continue reading...
The European Space Agency's (ESA) Director of Human and Robotic Exploration, Daniel Neuenschwander, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) Vice President for Exploration and Human Spaceflight, Mayumi Matsuura, have signed a new statement of intent focused on Moon and Mars activities. This statement marks their intention towards a step forward in space exploration cooperation between ESA and JAXA, and lays the groundwork for expanded collaboration between the two agencies in advancing science, technology and international partnerships.
The “Tesla Takedown” protests reveal a major vulnerability of the Trump regime.
The post The Tesla Takedown Shows How We Can Make Oligarchs Feel the Pain appeared first on The Intercept.
Almost as amazing as the knowledge we have gained in the past four decades is the fact that some people continue to deny the damage we are doing to our world
Earlier this year I received an email from a reader asking background questions about an article I had written more than four decades ago. Given the time gap, my recollection was hazy. To be honest, it was almost non-existent. So I was intrigued – and then astonished when I read the feature.
I had written about the British glaciologist John Mercer, author of a 1978 Nature paper in which he warned that continuing increases in fossil fuel consumption would cause amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide to soar. Global temperatures could rise by 2C by the mid-21st century, causing major ice loss at the poles and threatening a 5-metre rise in sea levels, he warned.
Continue reading...An animal’s chance of survival after domoic acid poisoning is 50-50, and this year an outbreak has sickened hundreds
It was just after 8am on Tuesday, a thick morning fog still clinging to the California coastline, and SeaWorld’s animal rescue team had already made their first save of the day: a hefty, sick-looking sea lion that had been waddling dangerously close to a four-lane highway in downtown San Diego.
Now, in a private area of SeaWorld that few of the theme park’s thousands of daily visitors ever get to see, the rescue team was in full “triage” mode. Half a dozen staff members maneuvered the caged sea lion off the bed of a truck, and grabbed IV bags full of fluids and vitamins.
Continue reading...Twenty years after Concorde was grounded, a new wave of ‘quiet’ supersonic aircraft are in development – but not everyone welcomes the return of this costly, carbon-intensive technology
When I call Blake Scholl from New York, he says it’s a shame we couldn’t have met at his office in Colorado. If only there were a supersonic jet that could cruise at 1.7 times the speed of sound, and get me there two hours quicker than the typical JFK-to-Denver route.
There soon might be. Scholl is the CEO of Boom Supersonic, a company betting that ordinary civilians want to shoot across the sky at 1,100 miles (1,700 kilometres) per hour. After the pandemic brought a slump to the skies, air travel has returned to its former levels, and in-person business events are back on track. As a faster option for these travellers, Boom is developing its breakneck jets to be operational by 2029 – nearly a quarter century after Concorde landed its last plane.
Continue reading...Imagine that all of us—all of society—have landed on some alien planet and need to form a government: clean slate. We do not have any legacy systems from the United States or any other country. We do not have any special or unique interests to perturb our thinking. How would we govern ourselves? It is unlikely that we would use the systems we have today. Modern representative democracy was the best form of government that eighteenth-century technology could invent. The twenty-first century is very different: scientifically, technically, and philosophically. For example, eighteenth-century democracy was designed under the assumption that travel and communications were both hard...
The U.S. moved toward tariffs that protected U.S. workers, industry, and the environment, says one expert. Trump is undoing it all.
The post What Could Progressive Tariffs Actually Look Like? appeared first on The Intercept.
Net zero is a target that countries should be striving for to stop the climate crisis. But beyond the buzzword, it is a complex scientific concept – and if we get it wrong, the planet will keep heating.
Biodiversity and environment reporter Patrick Greenfield explains how a loophole in the 2015 Paris climate agreement allows countries to cheat their net zero targets through creative accounting, and how scientists want us to fix it
Continue reading...
SEMrush and Ahrefs are among
the most popular tools in the SEO industry. Both companies have been in
business for years and have thousands of customers per month.
If you're a professional SEO or trying to do digital
marketing on your own, at some point you'll likely consider using a tool to
help with your efforts. Ahrefs and SEMrush are two names that will likely
appear on your shortlist.
In this guide, I'm going to help you learn more about these SEO tools and how to choose the one that's best for your purposes.
What is SEMrush?
SEMrush is a popular SEO tool with a wide range of
features—it's the leading competitor research service for online marketers.
SEMrush's SEO Keyword Magic tool offers over 20 billion Google-approved
keywords, which are constantly updated and it's the largest keyword database.
The program was developed in 2007 as SeoQuake is a
small Firefox extension
Features
Ahrefs is a leading SEO platform that offers a set of
tools to grow your search traffic, research your competitors, and monitor your
niche. The company was founded in 2010, and it has become a popular choice
among SEO tools. Ahrefs has a keyword index of over 10.3 billion keywords and
offers accurate and extensive backlink data updated every 15-30 minutes and it
is the world's most extensive backlink index database.
Features
Direct Comparisons: Ahrefs vs SEMrush
Now that you know a little more about each tool, let's
take a look at how they compare. I'll analyze each tool to see how they differ
in interfaces, keyword research resources, rank tracking, and competitor
analysis.
User Interface
Ahrefs and SEMrush both offer comprehensive information
and quick metrics regarding your website's SEO performance. However, Ahrefs
takes a bit more of a hands-on approach to getting your account fully set up,
whereas SEMrush's simpler dashboard can give you access to the data you need
quickly.
In this section, we provide a brief overview of the elements
found on each dashboard and highlight the ease with which you can complete
tasks.
AHREFS
The Ahrefs dashboard is less cluttered than that of
SEMrush, and its primary menu is at the very top of the page, with a search bar
designed only for entering URLs.
Additional features of the Ahrefs platform include:
SEMRUSH
When you log into the SEMrush Tool, you will find four
main modules. These include information about your domains, organic keyword
analysis, ad keyword, and site traffic.
You'll also find some other options like
Both Ahrefs and SEMrush have user-friendly dashboards,
but Ahrefs is less cluttered and easier to navigate. On the other hand, SEMrush
offers dozens of extra tools, including access to customer support resources.
When deciding on which dashboard to use, consider what
you value in the user interface, and test out both.
If you're looking to track your website's search engine
ranking, rank tracking features can help. You can also use them to monitor your
competitors.
Let's take a look at Ahrefs vs. SEMrush to see which
tool does a better job.
The Ahrefs Rank Tracker is simpler to use. Just type in
the domain name and keywords you want to analyze, and it spits out a report
showing you the search engine results page (SERP) ranking for each keyword you
enter.
Rank Tracker looks at the ranking performance of
keywords and compares them with the top rankings for those keywords. Ahrefs
also offers:
You'll see metrics that help you understand your
visibility, traffic, average position, and keyword difficulty.
It gives you an idea of whether a keyword would be
profitable to target or not.
SEMRush offers a tool called Position Tracking. This
tool is a project tool—you must set it up as a new project. Below are a few of
the most popular features of the SEMrush Position Tracking tool:
All subscribers are given regular data updates and
mobile search rankings upon subscribing
The platform provides opportunities to track several
SERP features, including Local tracking.
Intuitive reports allow you to track statistics for the
pages on your website, as well as the keywords used in those pages.
Identify pages that may be competing with each other
using the Cannibalization report.
Ahrefs is a more user-friendly option. It takes seconds
to enter a domain name and keywords. From there, you can quickly decide whether
to proceed with that keyword or figure out how to rank better for other
keywords.
SEMrush allows you to check your mobile rankings and
ranking updates daily, which is something Ahrefs does not offer. SEMrush also
offers social media rankings, a tool you won't find within the Ahrefs platform.
Both are good which one do you like let me know in the comment.
Keyword research is closely related to rank tracking,
but it's used for deciding which keywords you plan on using for future content
rather than those you use now.
When it comes to SEO, keyword research is the most
important thing to consider when comparing the two platforms.
The Ahrefs Keyword Explorer provides you with thousands
of keyword ideas and filters search results based on the chosen search engine.
Ahrefs supports several features, including:
SEMrush's Keyword Magic Tool has over 20 billion
keywords for Google. You can type in any keyword you want, and a list of
suggested keywords will appear.
The Keyword Magic Tool also lets you to:
Both of these tools offer keyword research features and
allow users to break down complicated tasks into something that can be
understood by beginners and advanced users alike.
If you're interested in keyword suggestions, SEMrush
appears to have more keyword suggestions than Ahrefs does. It also continues to
add new features, like the Keyword Gap tool and SERP Questions recommendations.
Both platforms offer competitor analysis tools,
eliminating the need to come up with keywords off the top of your head. Each
tool is useful for finding keywords that will be useful for your competition so
you know they will be valuable to you.
Ahrefs' domain comparison tool lets you compare up to five websites (your website and four competitors) side-by-side.it also shows you how your site is ranked against others with metrics such as backlinks, domain ratings, and more.
Use the Competing Domains section to see a list of your
most direct competitors, and explore how many keywords matches your competitors
have.
To find more information about your competitor, you can
look at the Site Explorer and Content Explorer tools and type in their URL
instead of yours.
SEMrush provides a variety of insights into your
competitors' marketing tactics. The platform enables you to research your
competitors effectively. It also offers several resources for competitor
analysis including:
Traffic Analytics helps you identify where your
audience comes from, how they engage with your site, what devices visitors use
to view your site, and how your audiences overlap with other websites.
SEMrush's Organic Research examines your website's
major competitors and shows their organic search rankings, keywords they are
ranking for, and even if they are ranking for any (SERP) features and more.
The Market Explorer search field allows you to type in
a domain and lists websites or articles similar to what you entered. Market
Explorer also allows users to perform in-depth data analytics on These
companies and markets.
SEMrush wins here because it has more tools dedicated to
competitor analysis than Ahrefs. However, Ahrefs offers a lot of functionality
in this area, too. It takes a combination of both tools to gain an advantage
over your competition.
When it comes to keyword data research, you will become
confused about which one to choose.
Consider choosing Ahrefs if you
Consider SEMrush if you:
Both tools are great. Choose the one which meets your
requirements and if you have any experience using either Ahrefs or SEMrush let
me know in the comment section which works well for you.
A green card holder, Columbia University protest leader Mohsen Mahdawi faced attacks from pro-Israel activists.
The post Palestinian Student Leader Was Called In for Citizenship Interview — Then Arrested by ICE appeared first on The Intercept.
The Trump administration vows to seek the death penalty “whenever possible.” But federal cases move slowly, and few result in a death sentence at all.
The post Trump Will Be Long Gone Before Luigi Mangione Faces Execution appeared first on The Intercept.
A little-known database logs hundreds of millions of wire transfers sent to or from Mexico, Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas.
The post The Unusual Nonprofit That Helps ICE Spy on Wire Transfers appeared first on The Intercept.
The truth is, we were always dangerously overexposed to decisions made in Washington – consider this chaotic moment an opportunity
“People speak with forked tongues about America,” a veteran foreign correspondent once said to me. It was a long time ago – during a debate about whether the US should intervene in a foreign conflict – and I have never forgotten it. What they meant was that just as the US is condemned for foreign intervention in some instances, it is also called upon to do so in others and then judged for not upholding its moral standards. That dissonance persists, and is even more jarring as we approach the 100th day of Donald Trump’s second term. There is a duality to how the US is seen: as both a country that wantonly violates international law and as the only one capable of upholding that system of law and order. This duality, always tense, is no longer sustainable.
I have felt this ambivalence myself – the contradictory demand that the US stay out of it but also anger that it is not doing more. In Sudan, Washington frustratingly refuses to pressure its ally, the UAE, into stopping pumping arms and funding into the conflict. But what proof or history is there to support the delusional notion that the US cares about a conflict in which it has no direct interest? It is an expectation of moral policing from an amoral player that I remember even in childhood, after Iraq invaded Kuwait and the Arab world was rocked with fear of regional war. A fierce debate in our classroom in Sudan on the merits of US intervention was silenced by one indignant evacuee from Kuwait, who said that the most important thing was to defeat Saddam Hussein. Her words occasionally echo in my mind: “We must deal with the greater evil first.”
Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnist
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
Continue reading...Former City minister accused of illegally receiving plot of land from her aunt, ousted PM Sheikh Hasina
An arrest warrant for the former City minister Tulip Siddiq has been issued in Bangladesh with a new allegation accusing her of illegally receiving a plot of land from her aunt, the ousted former prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
Bangladeshi media reported the warrant was issued by a judge for 53 people connected to Hasina, including Siddiq. There is no formal extradition treaty between the UK and Bangladesh.
Continue reading...Despite Friday’s immigration court ruling, the legal fight to keep Khalil in the U.S. may stretch months or years.
The post What Comes Next in Mahmoud Khalil’s Fight Against Deportation appeared first on The Intercept.
Students from Muslim-majority countries as well as Asia and Africa are having their visas revoked with little or no explanation.
The post Trump Appears to Be Targeting Muslim and “Non-White” Students for Deportation appeared first on The Intercept.
Death is the point.
The post Mahmoud Khalil and the Necropolitics of Trump’s Deportation Regime appeared first on The Intercept.
Imagine that all of us—all of society—have landed on some alien planet and need to form a government: clean slate. We do not have any legacy systems from the United States or any other country. We do not have any special or unique interests to perturb our thinking. How would we govern ourselves? It is unlikely that we would use the systems we have today. Modern representative democracy was the best form of government that eighteenth-century technology could invent. The twenty-first century is very different: scientifically, technically, and philosophically. For example, eighteenth-century democracy was designed under the assumption that travel and communications were both hard...
The Trump administration filed no new evidence in its case against Khalil, according to a new filing ahead of Friday's hearing.
The post The Case Against Mahmoud Khalil Hinges on Vague “Antisemitism” Claim appeared first on The Intercept.
Trump’s attacks on the courts and Big Law are an existential threat to the legal system. Expect a reckoning.
The post The Clear and Present Danger to the American Rule of Law appeared first on The Intercept.
Cuts would mean dramatic decreases in funding for humanitarian aid, global health and international groups
The Trump administration is reportedly proposing to slash the state department budget by nearly half in a move that could drastically reduce US international spending and end its funding for Nato and the United Nations, according to an internal memorandum.
The memo based on spending cuts devised by the White House office of management and budget envisions the total budget of the state department and USAID, the main foreign assistance body which has been largely dismantled by Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency”, or Doge, being reduced to $28.4bn, a reduction of $27bn or 48% from what Congress approved for 2025.
Continue reading...Noboa made armed forces central, initially leading to drop in crime but also to surge in reports of rights violations
In an election seen as a referendum on his “war on drugs”, Ecuador’s rightwing president, Daniel Noboa, won Sunday’s presidential runoff, defeating the leftist candidate Luisa González.
With 97% of ballots counted, the incumbent had secured 55.65% of the vote, compared with 44.35% for the former congresswoman.
Continue reading...On the chopping block is the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response program, which tracks sexual violence in the military and supports victims.
The post Pentagon Considers Cutting Its Sexual Assault Rules appeared first on The Intercept.
The “Tesla Takedown” protests reveal a major vulnerability of the Trump regime.
The post The Tesla Takedown Shows How We Can Make Oligarchs Feel the Pain appeared first on The Intercept.
Protesters across the country have been rallying every weekend to try and drive Elon Musk’s car business into the ground.
The post Meet the Activists Motivated by Hatred of Elon Musk appeared first on The Intercept.
The veteran investigative journalist will cover U.S. military operations, national security issues, and foreign affairs through this yearlong fellowship.
The post Nick Turse Joins The Intercept as Inaugural National Security Reporting Fellow appeared first on The Intercept.
Questions about who profited from Trump’s tariff flip-flop revived the push to ban members of Congress themselves from trading stocks.
The post How Much Did Congress Make Off Market Turmoil and Why’re They Allowed to Make Anything at All? appeared first on The Intercept.
A conversation with the Massachusetts congresswoman on challenging executive authority and the ICE abduction of Rümeysa Öztürk.
The post Unchecked: Rep. Ayanna Pressley on the President’s Power Grab appeared first on The Intercept.
Going beyond their critique of the infamous Signal chat, progressives demanded to know the White House’s legal justification for its Yemen strikes.
The post Progressives Push to Assert Congress Power Over Yemen War appeared first on The Intercept.
The U.S. moved toward tariffs that protected U.S. workers, industry, and the environment, says one expert. Trump is undoing it all.
The post What Could Progressive Tariffs Actually Look Like? appeared first on The Intercept.
At a Congressional hearing earlier this week, Matt Blaze made the point that CALEA, the 1994 law that forces telecoms to make phone calls wiretappable, is outdated in today’s threat environment and should be rethought:
In other words, while the legally-mandated CALEA capability requirements have changed little over the last three decades, the infrastructure that must implement and protect it has changed radically. This has greatly expanded the “attack surface” that must be defended to prevent unauthorized wiretaps, especially at scale. The job of the illegal eavesdropper has gotten significantly easier, with many more options and opportunities for them to exploit. Compromising our telecommunications infrastructure is now little different from performing any other kind of computer intrusion or data breach, a well-known and endemic cybersecurity problem. To put it bluntly, something like Salt Typhoon was inevitable, and will likely happen again unless significant changes are made...
In “Secrets and Lies” (2000), I wrote:
It is poor civic hygiene to install technologies that could someday facilitate a police state.
It’s something a bunch of us were saying at the time, in reference to the vast NSA’s surveillance capabilities.
I have been thinking of that quote a lot as I read news stories of President Trump firing the Director of the National Security Agency. General Timothy Haugh.
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote:
We don’t know what pressure the Trump administration is using to make intelligence services fall into line, but it isn’t crazy to ...
![[later] I don't get why our pizza slices have such terrible reviews; the geotextile-infused sauce gives the toppings incredible slope stability!](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/tariffs.png "[later] I don't get why our pizza slices have such terrible reviews; the geotextile-infused sauce gives the toppings incredible slope stability!")
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Imagine a world in which you can do transactions and many other things without having to give your personal information. A world in which you don’t need to rely on banks or governments anymore. Sounds amazing, right? That’s exactly what blockchain technology allows us to do.
It’s like your computer’s hard drive. blockchain is a technology that lets you store data in digital blocks, which are connected together like links in a chain.
Blockchain technology was originally invented in 1991 by two mathematicians, Stuart Haber and W. Scot Stornetta. They first proposed the system to ensure that timestamps could not be tampered with.
A few years later, in 1998, software developer Nick Szabo proposed using a similar kind of technology to secure a digital payments system he called “Bit Gold.” However, this innovation was not adopted until Satoshi Nakamoto claimed to have invented the first Blockchain and Bitcoin.
A blockchain is a distributed database shared between the nodes of a computer network. It saves information in digital format. Many people first heard of blockchain technology when they started to look up information about bitcoin.
Blockchain is used in cryptocurrency systems to ensure secure, decentralized records of transactions.
Blockchain allowed people to guarantee the fidelity and security of a record of data without the need for a third party to ensure accuracy.
To understand how a blockchain works, Consider these basic steps:
Let’s get to know more about the blockchain.
Blockchain records digital information and distributes it across the network without changing it. The information is distributed among many users and stored in an immutable, permanent ledger that can't be changed or destroyed. That's why blockchain is also called "Distributed Ledger Technology" or DLT.
Here’s how it works:
And that’s the beauty of it! The process may seem complicated, but it’s done in minutes with modern technology. And because technology is advancing rapidly, I expect things to move even more quickly than ever.
Even though blockchain is integral to cryptocurrency, it has other applications. For example, blockchain can be used for storing reliable data about transactions. Many people confuse blockchain with cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum.
Blockchain already being adopted by some big-name companies, such as Walmart, AIG, Siemens, Pfizer, and Unilever. For example, IBM's Food Trust uses blockchain to track food's journey before reaching its final destination.
Although some of you may consider this practice excessive, food suppliers and manufacturers adhere to the policy of tracing their products because bacteria such as E. coli and Salmonella have been found in packaged foods. In addition, there have been isolated cases where dangerous allergens such as peanuts have accidentally been introduced into certain products.
Tracing and identifying the sources of an outbreak is a challenging task that can take months or years. Thanks to the Blockchain, however, companies now know exactly where their food has been—so they can trace its location and prevent future outbreaks.
Blockchain technology allows systems to react much faster in the event of a hazard. It also has many other uses in the modern world.
Blockchain technology is safe, even if it’s public. People can access the technology using an internet connection.
Have you ever been in a situation where you had all your data stored at one place and that one secure place got compromised? Wouldn't it be great if there was a way to prevent your data from leaking out even when the security of your storage systems is compromised?
Blockchain technology provides a way of avoiding this situation by using multiple computers at different locations to store information about transactions. If one computer experiences problems with a transaction, it will not affect the other nodes.
Instead, other nodes will use the correct information to cross-reference your incorrect node. This is called “Decentralization,” meaning all the information is stored in multiple places.
Blockchain guarantees your data's authenticity—not just its accuracy, but also its irreversibility. It can also be used to store data that are difficult to register, like legal contracts, state identifications, or a company's product inventory.
Blockchain has many advantages and disadvantages.
I’ll answer the most frequently asked questions about blockchain in this section.
Blockchain is not a cryptocurrency but a technology that makes cryptocurrencies possible. It's a digital ledger that records every transaction seamlessly.
Yes, blockchain can be theoretically hacked, but it is a complicated task to be achieved. A network of users constantly reviews it, which makes hacking the blockchain difficult.
Coinbase Global is currently the biggest blockchain company in the world. The company runs a commendable infrastructure, services, and technology for the digital currency economy.
Blockchain is a decentralized technology. It’s a chain of distributed ledgers connected with nodes. Each node can be any electronic device. Thus, one owns blockhain.
Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, which is powered by Blockchain technology while Blockchain is a distributed ledger of cryptocurrency
Generally a database is a collection of data which can be stored and organized using a database management system. The people who have access to the database can view or edit the information stored there. The client-server network architecture is used to implement databases. whereas a blockchain is a growing list of records, called blocks, stored in a distributed system. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, timestamp and transaction information. Modification of data is not allowed due to the design of the blockchain. The technology allows decentralized control and eliminates risks of data modification by other parties.
Blockchain has a wide spectrum of applications and, over the next 5-10 years, we will likely see it being integrated into all sorts of industries. From finance to healthcare, blockchain could revolutionize the way we store and share data. Although there is some hesitation to adopt blockchain systems right now, that won't be the case in 2022-2023 (and even less so in 2026). Once people become more comfortable with the technology and understand how it can work for them, owners, CEOs and entrepreneurs alike will be quick to leverage blockchain technology for their own gain. Hope you like this article if you have any question let me know in the comments section
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Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are the most popular digital assets today, capturing the attention of cryptocurrency investors, whales and people from around the world. People find it amazing that some users spend thousands or millions of dollars on a single NFT-based image of a monkey or other token, but you can simply take a screenshot for free. So here we share some freuently asked question about NFTs.
NFT stands for non-fungible token, which is a cryptographic token on a blockchain with unique identification codes that distinguish it from other tokens. NFTs are unique and not interchangeable, which means no two NFTs are the same. NFTs can be a unique artwork, GIF, Images, videos, Audio album. in-game items, collectibles etc.
A blockchain is a distributed digital ledger that allows for the secure storage of data. By recording any kind of information—such as bank account transactions, the ownership of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), or Decentralized Finance (DeFi) smart contracts—in one place, and distributing it to many different computers, blockchains ensure that data can’t be manipulated without everyone in the system being aware.
The value of an NFT comes from its ability to be traded freely and securely on the blockchain, which is not possible with other current digital ownership solutionsThe NFT points to its location on the blockchain, but doesn’t necessarily contain the digital property. For example, if you replace one bitcoin with another, you will still have the same thing. If you buy a non-fungible item, such as a movie ticket, it is impossible to replace it with any other movie ticket because each ticket is unique to a specific time and place.
One of the unique characteristics of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) is that they can be tokenised to create a digital certificate of ownership that can be bought, sold and traded on the blockchain.
As with crypto-currency, records of who owns what are stored on a ledger that is maintained by thousands of computers around the world. These records can’t be forged because the whole system operates on an open-source network.
NFTs also contain smart contracts—small computer programs that run on the blockchain—that give the artist, for example, a cut of any future sale of the token.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) aren't cryptocurrencies, but they do use blockchain technology. Many NFTs are based on Ethereum, where the blockchain serves as a ledger for all the transactions related to said NFT and the properties it represents.5) How to make an NFT?
Anyone can create an NFT. All you need is a digital wallet, some ethereum tokens and a connection to an NFT marketplace where you’ll be able to upload and sell your creations
When you purchase a stock in NFT, that purchase is recorded on the blockchain—the bitcoin ledger of transactions—and that entry acts as your proof of ownership.
The value of an NFT varies a lot based on the digital asset up for grabs. People use NFTs to trade and sell digital art, so when creating an NFT, you should consider the popularity of your digital artwork along with historical statistics.
In the year 2021, a digital artist called Pak created an artwork called The Merge. It was sold on the Nifty Gateway NFT market for $91.8 million.
Non-fungible tokens can be used in investment opportunities. One can purchase an NFT and resell it at a profit. Certain NFT marketplaces let sellers of NFTs keep a percentage of the profits from sales of the assets they create.
Many people want to buy NFTs because it lets them support the arts and own something cool from their favorite musicians, brands, and celebrities. NFTs also give artists an opportunity to program in continual royalties if someone buys their work. Galleries see this as a way to reach new buyers interested in art.
There are many places to buy digital assets, like opensea and their policies vary. On top shot, for instance, you sign up for a waitlist that can be thousands of people long. When a digital asset goes on sale, you are occasionally chosen to purchase it.
To mint an NFT token, you must pay some amount of gas fee to process the transaction on the Etherum blockchain, but you can mint your NFT on a different blockchain called Polygon to avoid paying gas fees. This option is available on OpenSea and this simply denotes that your NFT will only be able to trade using Polygon's blockchain and not Etherum's blockchain. Mintable allows you to mint NFTs for free without paying any gas fees.
The answer is no. Non-Fungible Tokens are minted on the blockchain using cryptocurrencies such as Etherum, Solana, Polygon, and so on. Once a Non-Fungible Token is minted, the transaction is recorded on the blockchain and the contract or license is awarded to whoever has that Non-Fungible Token in their wallet.
You can sell your work and creations by attaching a license to it on the blockchain, where its ownership can be transferred. This lets you get exposure without losing full ownership of your work. Some of the most successful projects include Cryptopunks, Bored Ape Yatch Club NFTs, SandBox, World of Women and so on. These NFT projects have gained popularity globally and are owned by celebrities and other successful entrepreneurs. Owning one of these NFTs gives you an automatic ticket to exclusive business meetings and life-changing connections.
That’s a wrap. Hope you guys found this article enlightening. I just answer some question with my limited knowledge about NFTs. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to drop them in the comment section below. Also I have a question for you, Is bitcoin an NFTs? let me know in The comment section below
In the rapidly advancing landscape of AI technology and innovation, LimeWire emerges as a unique platform in the realm of generative AI tools. This platform not only stands out from the multitude of existing AI tools but also brings a fresh approach to content generation. LimeWire not only empowers users to create AI content but also provides creators with creative ways to share and monetize their creations.
As we explore LimeWire, our aim is to uncover its features, benefits for creators, and the exciting possibilities it offers for AI content generation. This platform presents an opportunity for users to harness the power of AI in image creation, all while enjoying the advantages of a free and accessible service.
Let's unravel the distinctive features that set LimeWire apart in the dynamic landscape of AI-powered tools, understanding how creators can leverage its capabilities to craft unique and engaging AI-generated images.
This revamped LimeWire invites users to register and unleash their creativity by crafting original AI content, which can then be shared and showcased on the LimeWire Studio. Notably, even acclaimed artists and musicians, such as Deadmau5, Soulja Boy, and Sean Kingston, have embraced this platform to publish their content in the form of NFT music, videos, and images.
Beyond providing a space for content creation and sharing, LimeWire introduces monetization models to empower users to earn revenue from their creations. This includes avenues such as earning ad revenue and participating in the burgeoning market of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). As we delve further, we'll explore these monetization strategies in more detail to provide a comprehensive understanding of LimeWire's innovative approach to content creation and distribution.
LimeWire Studio welcomes content creators into its fold, providing a space to craft personalized AI-focused content for sharing with fans and followers. Within this creative hub, every piece of content generated becomes not just a creation but a unique asset—ownable and tradable. Fans have the opportunity to subscribe to creators' pages, immersing themselves in the creative journey and gaining ownership of digital collectibles that hold tradeable value within the LimeWire community. Notably, creators earn a 2.5% royalty each time their content is traded, adding a rewarding element to the creative process.
The platform's flexibility is evident in its content publication options. Creators can choose to share their work freely with the public or opt for a premium subscription model, granting exclusive access to specialized content for subscribers.
As of the present moment, LimeWire focuses on AI Image Generation, offering a spectrum of creative possibilities to its user base. The platform, however, has ambitious plans on the horizon, aiming to broaden its offerings by introducing AI music and video generation tools in the near future. This strategic expansion promises creators even more avenues for expression and engagement with their audience, positioning LimeWire Studio as a dynamic and evolving platform within the realm of AI-powered content creation.
The LimeWire AI image generation tool presents a versatile platform for both the creation and editing of images. Supporting advanced models such as Stable Diffusion 2.1, Stable Diffusion XL, and DALL-E 2, LimeWire offers a sophisticated toolkit for users to delve into the realm of generative AI art.
Much like other tools in the generative AI landscape, LimeWire provides a range of options catering to various levels of complexity in image creation. Users can initiate the creative process with prompts as simple as a few words or opt for more intricate instructions, tailoring the output to their artistic vision.
What sets LimeWire apart is its seamless integration of different AI models and design styles. Users have the flexibility to effortlessly switch between various AI models, exploring diverse design styles such as cinematic, digital art, pixel art, anime, analog film, and more. Each style imparts a distinctive visual identity to the generated AI art, enabling users to explore a broad spectrum of creative possibilities.
The platform also offers additional features, including samplers, allowing users to fine-tune the quality and detail levels of their creations. Customization options and prompt guidance further enhance the user experience, providing a user-friendly interface for both novice and experienced creators.
Excitingly, LimeWire is actively developing its proprietary AI model, signaling ongoing innovation and enhancements to its image generation capabilities. This upcoming addition holds the promise of further expanding the creative horizons for LimeWire users, making it an evolving and dynamic platform within the landscape of AI-driven art and image creation.
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Upon completing your creative endeavor on LimeWire, the platform allows you the option to publish your content. An intriguing feature follows this step: LimeWire automates the process of minting your creation as a Non-Fungible Token (NFT), utilizing either the Polygon or Algorand blockchain. This transformative step imbues your artwork with a unique digital signature, securing its authenticity and ownership in the decentralized realm.
Creators on LimeWire hold the power to decide the accessibility of their NFT creations. By opting for a public release, the content becomes discoverable by anyone, fostering a space for engagement and interaction. Furthermore, this choice opens the avenue for enthusiasts to trade the NFTs, adding a layer of community involvement to the artistic journey.
Alternatively, LimeWire acknowledges the importance of exclusivity. Creators can choose to share their posts exclusively with their premium subscribers. In doing so, the content remains a special offering solely for dedicated fans, creating an intimate and personalized experience within the LimeWire community. This flexibility in sharing options emphasizes LimeWire's commitment to empowering creators with choices in how they connect with their audience and distribute their digital creations.
After creating your content, you can choose to publish the content. It will automatically mint your creation as an NFT on the Polygon or Algorand blockchain. You can also choose whether to make it public or subscriber-only.
If you make it public, anyone can discover your content and even trade the NFTs. If you choose to share the post only with your premium subscribers, it will be exclusive only to your fans.
Additionally, you can earn ad revenue from your content creations as well.
When you publish content on LimeWire, you will receive 70% of all ad revenue from other users who view your images, music, and videos on the platform.
This revenue model will be much more beneficial to designers. You can experiment with the AI image and content generation tools and share your creations while earning a small income on the side.
The revenue you earn from your creations will come in the form of LMWR tokens, LimeWire’s own cryptocurrency.
Your earnings will be paid every month in LMWR, which you can then trade on many popular crypto exchange platforms like Kraken, ByBit, and UniSwap.
You can also use your LMWR tokens to pay for prompts when using LimeWire generative AI tools.
You can sign up to LimeWire to use its AI tools for free. You will receive 10 credits to use and generate up to 20 AI images per day. You will also receive 50% of the ad revenue share. However, you will get more benefits with premium plans.
For $9.99 per month, you will get 1,000 credits per month, up to 2 ,000 image generations, early access to new AI models, and 50% ad revenue share
For $29 per month, you will get 3750 credits per month, up to 7500 image generations, early access to new AI models, and 60% ad revenue share
For $49 per month, you will get 5,000 credits per month, up to 10,000 image generations, early access to new AI models, and 70% ad revenue share
For $99 per month, you will get 11,250 credits per month, up to 2 2,500 image generations, early access to new AI models, and 70% ad revenue share
With all premium plans, you will receive a Pro profile badge, full creation history, faster image generation, and no ads.
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In conclusion, LimeWire emerges as a democratizing force in the creative landscape, providing an inclusive platform where anyone can unleash their artistic potential and effortlessly share their work. With the integration of AI, LimeWire eliminates traditional barriers, empowering designers, musicians, and artists to publish their creations and earn revenue with just a few clicks.
The ongoing commitment of LimeWire to innovation is evident in its plans to enhance generative AI tools with new features and models. The upcoming expansion to include music and video generation tools holds the promise of unlocking even more possibilities for creators. It sparks anticipation about the diverse and innovative ways in which artists will leverage these tools to produce and publish their own unique creations.
For those eager to explore, LimeWire's AI tools are readily accessible for free, providing an opportunity to experiment and delve into the world of generative art. As LimeWire continues to evolve, creators are encouraged to stay tuned for the launch of its forthcoming AI music and video generation tools, promising a future brimming with creative potential and endless artistic exploration
A little-known database logs hundreds of millions of wire transfers sent to or from Mexico, Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas.
The post The Unusual Nonprofit That Helps ICE Spy on Wire Transfers appeared first on The Intercept.
The “Tesla Takedown” protests reveal a major vulnerability of the Trump regime.
The post The Tesla Takedown Shows How We Can Make Oligarchs Feel the Pain appeared first on The Intercept.
Protesters across the country have been rallying every weekend to try and drive Elon Musk’s car business into the ground.
The post Meet the Activists Motivated by Hatred of Elon Musk appeared first on The Intercept.
The Trump administration vows to seek the death penalty “whenever possible.” But federal cases move slowly, and few result in a death sentence at all.
The post Trump Will Be Long Gone Before Luigi Mangione Faces Execution appeared first on The Intercept.
Death is the point.
The post Mahmoud Khalil and the Necropolitics of Trump’s Deportation Regime appeared first on The Intercept.
The U.S. moved toward tariffs that protected U.S. workers, industry, and the environment, says one expert. Trump is undoing it all.
The post What Could Progressive Tariffs Actually Look Like? appeared first on The Intercept.
Questions about who profited from Trump’s tariff flip-flop revived the push to ban members of Congress themselves from trading stocks.
The post How Much Did Congress Make Off Market Turmoil and Why’re They Allowed to Make Anything at All? appeared first on The Intercept.
Going beyond their critique of the infamous Signal chat, progressives demanded to know the White House’s legal justification for its Yemen strikes.
The post Progressives Push to Assert Congress Power Over Yemen War appeared first on The Intercept.
Imagine that all of us—all of society—have landed on some alien planet and need to form a government: clean slate. We do not have any legacy systems from the United States or any other country. We do not have any special or unique interests to perturb our thinking. How would we govern ourselves? It is unlikely that we would use the systems we have today. Modern representative democracy was the best form of government that eighteenth-century technology could invent. The twenty-first century is very different: scientifically, technically, and philosophically. For example, eighteenth-century democracy was designed under the assumption that travel and communications were both hard...
Trump’s attacks on the courts and Big Law are an existential threat to the legal system. Expect a reckoning.
The post The Clear and Present Danger to the American Rule of Law appeared first on The Intercept.
Despite Friday’s immigration court ruling, the legal fight to keep Khalil in the U.S. may stretch months or years.
The post What Comes Next in Mahmoud Khalil’s Fight Against Deportation appeared first on The Intercept.
Wera Hobhouse says her apparent presence on secret list of critics of country’s human rights record made her a target
A Liberal Democrat MP refused entry to Hong Kong to see her young grandson has said her experience should be “a wake-up call for any parliamentarian”, given that it seems to show China holds a secret list of banned politicians.
Wera Hobhouse, who was turned back by officials on Thursday, said she was given no explanation as to why this happened, and could only assume that it was because she had spoken out about rights abuses by China.
Continue reading...The award-winning writer Ta-Nehisi Coates on why US liberals have misunderstood the role culture plays in shaping politics
“This is a cultural president. Make no mistake about it.”
For Ta-Nehisi Coates, the award-winning writer and journalist, the US president, Donald Trump, and his allies clearly understand the power of story-telling in politics. Coates has recently written a new book, The Message, and he tells Michael Safi that the stories told in TV, films, literature and beyond are not a distraction from politics today but are actively shaping it.
Continue reading...Self-styled anti-corruption crusader Brice Nguema helped overthrow Bongo family dynasty in August 2023
An estimated 1 million Gabonese citizens head to the polls on Saturday to vote in the country’s first presidential election since an August 2023 coup ended the 55-year Bongo family dynasty. For Brice Nguema, the junta leader turned civilian head of state, it could be a chance to cement his democratic credentials.
Last November, 860,000 registered voters approved a referendum for a new constitution with two seven-year presidential terms and an amnesty for participants in the removal of Ali Bongo, who had succeeded his father in 2009. Officials are yet to release data on the updated voters’ register but previously said they expected an additional 300,000 new registrations, including from those who have recently come of age.
Continue reading...Opposition leader brought his son Harry on the campaign trail yesterday, to tell reporters how hard it is for young people to save up for a home. Follow today’s news live
Battle of housing supply: who’s building more?
Both parties have said they’re the ones doing more on housing supply, while experts and economists have said neither is doing enough to address the supply versus demand issue.
What we’re doing is dealing with supply as well as demand. The Coalition’s plan will push up prices. Our plan will ensure that more homes are built. And what we’ve seen under my government is 28,000 of those social housing through the housing Australia Future Fund are either under construction or under planning.
We have $5bn, which works with councils to release 500,000 blocks of land. We cut migration by 25%…
If you’ve got a house that you’ve just bought and you’ve got a $500,000 mortgage and your house goes down by $100,000 under Labor, and your mortgage is worth more than the house itself, then that’s not a good situation for you. So, no, we don’t want house prices to plummet.
We want sustainable growth. If you’re buying a house today, if you can find one – and if you can afford one under this government – you don’t want to wake up in two years’ time and find that the value of that house has gone down.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Brad Battin says he had a conversation with the federal opposition leader about the ‘language’ he would use about plans to build a nuclear reactor in eastern Victoria
The Victorian opposition leader says he discussed the language he would use to distance the state party from the federal Coalition’s campaign to build a nuclear reactor in the Latrobe Valley, telling Peter Dutton “it’s your campaign”.
The Loy Yang coal-fired power station in the Latrobe Valley east of Melbourne is one of seven proposed sites for the federal Coalition’s proposal to build nuclear reactors, the centrepiece energy policy the federal Liberal leader will be taking to the 3 May poll.
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Continue reading...Construction industry already faces shortfall of 80,000 workers as government vows to build 250,000 homes a year for four years
Australia does not have enough construction workers and other tradies to meet election pitches to boost housing supply, experts say, casting doubt over the major parties’ pledges to address housing affordability.
Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton announced their competing housing plans this week, with both major parties seeking to increase the number of new home builds above the current annual rate of about 170,000.
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Continue reading...Familiarise yourself with the state of play ahead of the election with our data-driven electorate guide
In the election there will be a total of 150 electorates. This is one fewer than at the 2022 election, as two electorates were abolished due to redistributions by the AEC, and one new one – Bullwinkel in Western Australia – was created.
Continue reading...In a message, the university’s president said it will not ‘surrender its independence’ amid crackdown on education
Harvard University said on Monday that it will not comply with a new list of demands from the Trump administration issued last week that the government says are designed to crack down on antisemitism and alleged civil rights violations at elite academic institutions.
In a message to the Harvard community, the university president, Alan Garber, vowed that the school would not yield to the government’s pressure campaign. “The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” Garber said.
Continue reading...The deal signed last week between the centre-right CDU and centre-left SPD paves the way for vital investment in Europe’s biggest economy
Some years ago, hundreds of German finance ministry staff dressed in black and formed a giant zero to salute their boss, Wolfgang Schäuble, as he left office. It was a tribute to Mr Schäuble’s extreme fiscal conservatism, which had delivered Germany’s first balanced budget in the postwar period. Amid resurgent prosperity in the Angela Merkel years, the so-called black zero – symbolising a constitutional prohibition on public debt – had gradually acquired cult status.
As a new administration prepares to take power in Berlin, it seems unlikely that human euro signs will welcome the latest politician to take on Mr Schäuble’s former role. But in dramatic fashion, the spending taps are set to be turned on. Via a swiftly staged March vote in the outgoing Bundestag, “debt brake” dogma was consigned to history by the chancellor‑elect, Friedrich Merz. The way was thus paved for groundbreaking expenditure on defence, and the overhaul of an economy being left behind in a changed, suddenly menacing world.
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
Continue reading...Operatives placed buttons at CSFN trying to link Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre with Donald Trump
Campaigners with Canada’s Liberal party had some very American-esque politicking over the weekend, when Liberal operatives were found to have planted “stop the steal” buttons at a conservative conference to link the Conservative party to Donald Trump.
Two Liberal party staffers infiltrated last week’s Canada Strong and Free Network Conference (CSFN) in Ottawa at which they strategically placed provocative buttons designed to create the false impression that Conservative supporters of party leader Pierre Poilievre were embracing Trump-style rhetoric, highlighting internal party divisions.
Continue reading...Court ruled Steve Bray’s anti-Tory and anti-Brexit protest featuring The Muppet Show and Darth Vader themes was lawful expression of his views
An activist known as Stop Brexit Man has been cleared of flouting a police ban after playing anti-Conservative and anti-Brexit edits of The Muppet Show and Darth Vader’s theme outside parliament.
Steve Bray, 56, was playing music on 20 March last year before the then prime minister, Rishi Sunak, arrived for prime minister’s questions.
Continue reading...Cuts would mean dramatic decreases in funding for humanitarian aid, global health and international groups
The Trump administration is reportedly proposing to slash the state department budget by nearly half in a move that could drastically reduce US international spending and end its funding for Nato and the United Nations, according to an internal memorandum.
The memo based on spending cuts devised by the White House office of management and budget envisions the total budget of the state department and USAID, the main foreign assistance body which has been largely dismantled by Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency”, or Doge, being reduced to $28.4bn, a reduction of $27bn or 48% from what Congress approved for 2025.
Continue reading...The survey is in line with other recent major polls which have all showed movements toward the ALP
Labor has pulled further ahead of the Coalition as the election campaign continues, opening up a larger lead in the latest Essential poll after two weeks of policy confusion and backdowns from Peter Dutton’s Liberals.
Dutton’s approval rating has also dipped, while more voters rate Anthony Albanese as the better leader on addressing cost of living, providing stable leadership, emissions reduction and keeping Australians safe.
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Continue reading...On the chopping block is the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response program, which tracks sexual violence in the military and supports victims.
The post Pentagon Considers Cutting Its Sexual Assault Rules appeared first on The Intercept.
A conversation with the Massachusetts congresswoman on challenging executive authority and the ICE abduction of Rümeysa Öztürk.
The post Unchecked: Rep. Ayanna Pressley on the President’s Power Grab appeared first on The Intercept.
Noboa made armed forces central, initially leading to drop in crime but also to surge in reports of rights violations
In an election seen as a referendum on his “war on drugs”, Ecuador’s rightwing president, Daniel Noboa, won Sunday’s presidential runoff, defeating the leftist candidate Luisa González.
With 97% of ballots counted, the incumbent had secured 55.65% of the vote, compared with 44.35% for the former congresswoman.
Continue reading...Mohsen Mahdawi was arrested by Ice in Colchester, Vermont, while he was attending a naturalization interview, his lawyer said
Donald Trump will meet this morning with El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, at 11am ET at the White House.
Referring to the cost of imprisoning the detainees in El Salvador, Trump told reporters on Sunday about Bukele:
I think he’s doing a fantastic job, and he’s taking care of a lot of problems that we have that we really wouldn’t be able to take care of from a cost standpoint.
He’s been amazing. We have some very bad people in that prison. People that should have never have been allowed into our country. People that murdered, drug dealers, some of the worst people on earth are in that prison. And he’s able to do that.
Continue reading...Notices show Trump administration setting stage for levies on both sectors on national security grounds
The Trump administration is kicking off investigations into imports of pharmaceuticals and semiconductors as part of a bid to impose tariffs on both sectors on national security grounds, notices posted to the Federal Register on Monday showed.
The filings scheduled to be published on Wednesday set a 21-day deadline from that date for the submission of public comment on the issue and indicate the administration intends to pursue the levies under authority granted by the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. Such inquiries need to be completed within 270 days after being announced.
Continue reading...JD Vance, the man entrusted as America’s back-up in times of emergency, may not be the safest pair of hands if Monday’s events are anything to go by. The vice-president ended the Ohio State football team’s visit to the White House by fumbling the team’s national championship trophy.
After laudatory speeches by Donald Trump, Buckeyes coach Ryan Day and Vance on the South Lawn, the Vance – an Ohio State graduate – tried to lift the trophy. He didn’t appear to realize that the top of the trophy is detachable from its base. After a moment of struggle, the vice-president lost his grip on the two pieces. OSU running back TreVeyon Henderson, standing behind Vance, grabbed the football-shaped top of the trophy, but the base fell to the ground, forcing Vance to grasp around as it rolled away from him.
Continue reading...Administration advances new misrepresentations of US supreme court order in case of Kilmar Abrego García
The Trump administration on Monday misrepresented a US supreme court decision that compelled it to return a man wrongly deported to El Salvador, using tortured readings of the order to justify taking no actions to secure his release.
The supreme court last week unanimously ordered the administration to “facilitate” the release of Kilmar Abrego García, who was supposed to have been protected from deportation to El Salvador regardless of whether he was a member of the MS-13 gang.
Continue reading...Government’s rapprochement with Beijing may risk national security in wake of British Steel crisis, party members say
Senior Labour figures have urged the government to review Chinese investment in UK infrastructure in the wake of theBritish Steel crisis, warning that a rapprochement with Beijing could risk national security.
Government officials insisted on Monday the country remained open to funding from Chinese companies even after a dramatic weekend during which ministers wrested control of the Scunthorpe steelmaking plant from the Chinese owners, Jingye.
Continue reading...The US says it can’t aid in his return as he’s in El Salvador; El Salvador says to help would be like ‘smuggling’ him back
It is difficult to find a term more fitting for the fate of the Maryland father Kilmar Abrego García than Kafkaesque.
Abrego García is one of hundreds of foreign-born men deported under the Trump administration to the Cecot mega-prison in El Salvador as part of a macabre partnership with the self-declared “world’s coolest dictator”, Nayib Bukele.
Continue reading...Prison Officers’ Association official says staff are furious after attack by Hashem Abedi
Inmates in the jail where three guards were allegedly attacked by the brother of the Manchester Arena bomber were allowed in a kitchen with knives despite being assessed as being so dangerous they should be isolated from other prisoners, according to claims by a union official.
The prime suspect for the attack is Hashem Abedi, 28, brother of the Manchester Arena bomber. The attacker used a makeshift sharp weapon fashioned out of metal during the sustained attack, as well as cooking fat. One officer suffered third degree burns.
Continue reading...Chinese customs official says trade has diversified away from US in recent years and plays up ‘vast domestic market’
China has played down the risk of damage to its exports from Donald Trump’s tariffs, with an official saying the “sky won’t fall”, as stock markets rose amid signs of a retreat on electronics restrictions.
The US president claimed his strategy was working on Monday, with record levels of investment. Addressing reporters at the White House, he continued to threaten new tariffs on pharmaceutical goods.
Continue reading...As the US president hangs a fist-pumping portrait of himself in the White House and seeks to purge museums of ‘improper ideology’, our writer finds chilling parallels at a new show about the Nazis’ ridiculing of modern art
Donald Trump has unveiled a new portrait of himself and it’s the most autocratic yet. A painted version of his fist-pumping stance after being shot in July 2024 now greets visitors in the entrance hall of the White House. This “Fight, fight, fight!” canvas is true strongman art.
It is just the latest in a series of artistic moves by Trump that look disturbingly tyrannical. When he complained that a portrait of himself in the Colorado State Capitol building was “purposefully distorted” it was taken down as quickly as if the US were Stalin’s Soviet Union. And he has ordered JD Vance to purge the Smithsonian museums of “improper ideology”. But how seriously should any of this be taken? Is it an urgent threat to democracy and culture or mere muscle-flexing?
Continue reading...Unite leader says ‘partial deal on pay protection for a few’ was overwhelmingly rejected in vote, as rubbish piles up
Bin workers have “overwhelmingly” rejected a deal that would have ended the all-out strike in Birmingham that has caused bin bags to pile up in the streets and an influx of rats in the city.
Negotiations between the council and Unite, which is representing the striking workers, have stalled for months, and refuse workers have been on indefinite strike since 11 March.
Continue reading...Trump officials claim they’re not legally bound to bring Kilmar Abrego García back despite supreme court ruling
The president of El Salvador said in a meeting with Donald Trump in the White House on Monday that he would not order the return of a Maryland man who was deported in error to a Salvadorian mega-prison.
“The question is preposterous,” Nayib Bukele said in the Oval Office on Monday, where he was welcomed by Trump and spoke with the president and members of his cabinet. “How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? I’m not going to do it.”
Continue reading...Saffron Cordery says too many staff are worn out and suffering low morale, while Dr Geoffrey Searle reflects on years of ‘efficiency savings’. Plus one reader on the stress their daughter is facing as a newly qualified doctor
NHS trusts are right behind government ambitions to shift more care of patients from hospitals to the community and to do more to prevent ill health in the first place (Editorial, 8 March). But nobody should be under any illusion that this is going to happen overnight. Despite the recent budget boost for the NHS, finances for hospitals, mental health, community and ambulance services are stretched to the limit.
People are the backbone of the NHS, but growing demand and workloads, vacancies and financial pressures have left far too many staff feeling worn out and suffering low morale. This has driven up the rate of people leaving the health service. Worries about staffing cuts as trusts try to balance their books are going to make an already tough situation even harder for overstretched frontline teams.
Continue reading...Approach to expanding trade has been castigated for allowing Beijing to invest heavily in vital UK infrastructure
As even Donald Trump was forced to accept in scaling back his latest tariffs, China is just too big to ignore. And so it is, on a much smaller scale, that yet another UK government is doing several contradictory things at once when it comes to Beijing.
This weekend brought a particularly resonant example. On the one hand, the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, was hinting that British Steel’s Chinese owner, Jingye, was to blame for neglect – if not worse – over the fate of the threatened blast furnaces at Scunthorpe.
Continue reading...Former City minister denies allegations she received land illegally from her aunt, the ousted PM Sheikh Hasina
The former City minister Tulip Siddiq has said an arrest warrant issued against her in Bangladesh over allegations she illegally received a plot of land from her aunt, the country’s ousted former prime minister, is a “politically motivated smear campaign”.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, the Hampstead and Highgate MP said: “No one from the Bangladeshi authorities has contacted me. The entire time they’ve done trial by media. My lawyers proactively wrote to the Bangladeshi authorities, they never responded.
Continue reading...Putin is planning for this war to continue. That leaves two key questions for Ukraine’s European allies
The war between Russia and Ukraine is approaching a historic turning point: unless the Trump administration adjusts course, US military aid for Ukraine is about to cease.
In the months before leaving office, Joe Biden made a series of decisions to augment Ukraine’s stockpiles of vital munitions. Toward the end of 2024, the Department of Defense surged hundreds of thousands of artillery rounds, thousands of rockets and hundreds of armored vehicles to Ukraine, and that December, he approved an additional $1.25bn security assistance package for Ukraine, which has enabled the continued flow of US arms ever since (with the exception of the damaging pause ordered by Donald Trump in March).
David Shimer served on the White House national security council from 2021-25, including as the director for eastern Europe and Ukraine and as director for Russian affairs. He is an adjunct senior research scholar at the Institute of Global Politics at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.
Continue reading...Unctad says many countries targeted with high tariff rates are unlikely to be a threat to US
The UN’s trade and development arm, Unctad, is calling on Donald Trump to exempt the world’s poorest and smallest countries from “reciprocal” tariffs, or risk “serious economic harm”.
In a report published on Monday, Unctad identifies 28 nations the US president singled out for a higher tariff rate than the 10% baseline – despite each accounting for less than 0.1% of the US trade deficit.
Continue reading...Skewed interpretations of classic works are feeding the dark visions of tech moguls, from Musk to Thiel
One can only imagine the horror the late Iain Banks would have felt on learning his legendary Culture series is a favourite of Elon Musk. The Scottish author was an outspoken socialist who could never understand why rightwing fans liked novels that were so obviously an attack on their worldview.
But that hasn’t stopped Musk, whose Neuralink company – which develops implantable brain-to-computer interfaces – was directly inspired by Banks’s concept of “neural lace”. The barges used by SpaceX to land their booster rockets are all named after spaceships from the Culture books.
Continue reading...The Wall Street Journal has the story:
Chinese officials acknowledged in a secret December meeting that Beijing was behind a widespread series of alarming cyberattacks on U.S. infrastructure, according to people familiar with the matter, underscoring how hostilities between the two superpowers are continuing to escalate.
The Chinese delegation linked years of intrusions into computer networks at U.S. ports, water utilities, airports and other targets, to increasing U.S. policy support for Taiwan, the people, who declined to be named, said.
The admission wasn’t explicit:...
Xi Jinping expected to present China as reliable partner in contrast to US, which imposed – then suspended – tariffs over 40% on some countries
The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, warned there would be “no winners” in a trade war and that protectionism “leads nowhere”, as he began a three-nation trip to south-east Asia, starting in Vietnam on Monday.
Xi’s tour, which started in Hanoi, also includes rare visits to Malaysia and Cambodia and will seek to strengthen ties with China’s closest neighbours amid a trade war that has sent shock waves through global markets.
Continue reading...The positive news is that better laws, regulations and rights for residents are on the way
Damp, mould, rats in children’s bedrooms – no one should be living in the conditions many of my constituents do. And yet, in one of the wealthiest parts of the country, this is the daily reality for far too many families.
Since being elected as MP for Kensington and Bayswater last year, I have been contacted more about housing than any other issue. More than half of the people who get in touch with my office want my help with housing problems: homes riddled with damp and mould; residents left waiting months – sometimes years – for basic repairs; people placed in temporary accommodation miles from their communities. The scale of the problem is enormous, and the damage is having a real impact on people’s lives.
Joe Powell is the Labour MP for Kensington and Bayswater
Continue reading...Government acknowledges that many victims have felt too nervous to engage with officials from Home Office
A £1.5m fund has been launched to encourage people affected by the Windrush scandal to come forward to seek compensation, as ministers finally acknowledge that many victims have felt too nervous to engage with officials from the Home Office.
Since the compensation fund was launched in 2019 it has been the subject of intense criticism over long processing delays, low offers of payment, and the lack of legal aid for claimants. There has also been unease over the original decision to hand the administration of the scheme to officials from the department that was responsible for the scandal.
Continue reading...The truth is, we were always dangerously overexposed to decisions made in Washington – consider this chaotic moment an opportunity
“People speak with forked tongues about America,” a veteran foreign correspondent once said to me. It was a long time ago – during a debate about whether the US should intervene in a foreign conflict – and I have never forgotten it. What they meant was that just as the US is condemned for foreign intervention in some instances, it is also called upon to do so in others and then judged for not upholding its moral standards. That dissonance persists, and is even more jarring as we approach the 100th day of Donald Trump’s second term. There is a duality to how the US is seen: as both a country that wantonly violates international law and as the only one capable of upholding that system of law and order. This duality, always tense, is no longer sustainable.
I have felt this ambivalence myself – the contradictory demand that the US stay out of it but also anger that it is not doing more. In Sudan, Washington frustratingly refuses to pressure its ally, the UAE, into stopping pumping arms and funding into the conflict. But what proof or history is there to support the delusional notion that the US cares about a conflict in which it has no direct interest? It is an expectation of moral policing from an amoral player that I remember even in childhood, after Iraq invaded Kuwait and the Arab world was rocked with fear of regional war. A fierce debate in our classroom in Sudan on the merits of US intervention was silenced by one indignant evacuee from Kuwait, who said that the most important thing was to defeat Saddam Hussein. Her words occasionally echo in my mind: “We must deal with the greater evil first.”
Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnist
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
Continue reading...Secretary of state says ‘criminals’ were taken to country thanks to alliance between Trump and Nayib Bukele
The US has deported another 10 people that it alleges are gang members to El Salvador, secretary of state Marco Rubio said on Sunday, a day before that country’s president is due to visit the White House.
“Last night, another 10 criminals from the MS-13 and Tren de Aragua Foreign Terrorist Organizations arrived in El Salvador,” Rubio said in an X/Twitter post.
Continue reading...Former City minister accused of illegally receiving plot of land from her aunt, ousted PM Sheikh Hasina
An arrest warrant for the former City minister Tulip Siddiq has been issued in Bangladesh with a new allegation accusing her of illegally receiving a plot of land from her aunt, the ousted former prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
Bangladeshi media reported the warrant was issued by a judge for 53 people connected to Hasina, including Siddiq. There is no formal extradition treaty between the UK and Bangladesh.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Government is weighing up security concerns against economic benefits of closer ties with Beijing
The government could target parts of China’s security apparatus under new foreign influence rules, the Guardian has learned.
Ministers are considering including parts of the Chinese state accused of interference activities on the enhanced tier of the foreign influence registration scheme (Firs).
Continue reading...Emily Thornberry calls for UK to join France, as Emmanuel Macron says June UN conference must be decisive moment
The Foreign Office is under pressure from Labour MPs to recognise a Palestinian state if Emmanuel Macron, the French president, presses ahead with plans to recognise Palestine at an international conference set for June.
France is co-chairing the conference at the UN in New York alongside Saudi Arabia, and Macron has said the conference must be a decisive moment.
Continue reading...Almost as amazing as the knowledge we have gained in the past four decades is the fact that some people continue to deny the damage we are doing to our world
Earlier this year I received an email from a reader asking background questions about an article I had written more than four decades ago. Given the time gap, my recollection was hazy. To be honest, it was almost non-existent. So I was intrigued – and then astonished when I read the feature.
I had written about the British glaciologist John Mercer, author of a 1978 Nature paper in which he warned that continuing increases in fossil fuel consumption would cause amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide to soar. Global temperatures could rise by 2C by the mid-21st century, causing major ice loss at the poles and threatening a 5-metre rise in sea levels, he warned.
Continue reading...Police searching for a killer after multiple shots fired in an attack on a home in Ambarvale
A woman has been killed in a drive-by shooting in suburban Sydney after she was hit in the leg when a home was peppered with bullets.
Police were searching for her killer on Tuesday morning after the overnight attack at Ambarvale, on Sydney’s south-west outskirts.
Continue reading...A green card holder, Columbia University protest leader Mohsen Mahdawi faced attacks from pro-Israel activists.
The post Palestinian Student Leader Was Called In for Citizenship Interview — Then Arrested by ICE appeared first on The Intercept.
Almost 4,600 fewer people went to the US in March compared with the same time last year, according to government data
Australians are increasingly avoiding travel to the US under Donald Trump’s second presidency, fresh data shows, with forecasters expecting tourist numbers to plummet further throughout the year.
Official statistics from the US International Trade Administration reveal the number of visitors from Australia in March 2025 was down by 7% compared with March 2024 – a reduction of 4,559 people.
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Continue reading...Much-anticipated black comedy western from Midsommar director stars Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone and Pedro Pascal
The first footage has been released of Eddington, the much-anticipated black comedy western from Midsommar director Ari Aster. The film, which will premiere at Cannes next month, is set in May 2020 and concerns a standoff between the sheriff of a small town in New Mexico and the town’s mayor, who is seeking re-election.
Joaquin Phoenix plays the sheriff, with Emma Stone his wife, while Pedro Pascal is the mayor. Austin Butler plays a charismatic preacher whose stirring speeches we see over YouTube and Instagram; we also see footage of the quarantined central characters on social media.
Continue reading...Senior Tories charged after Guardian story about alleged bets placed on July poll days before date was announced
The former Conservative MP Craig Williams is among 15 people, including several other senior Tories, charged by the Gambling Commission for alleged cheating connected to bets based on the date of the 2024 UK general election.
Williams was the MP for Montgomeryshire and Rishi Sunak’s parliamentary private secretary, but lost the support of the Conservative party after a Guardian story about alleged bets placed on a July election just days before the date was announced.
Continue reading...Daughter of Peter and Barbie Reynolds, 79 and 75, says they have ‘no idea’ why they have been in jail for two months
An elderly British couple taken captive by the Taliban have been interrogated 29 times since they were imprisoned more than two months ago, and still have “absolutely no idea” why they have been incarcerated, their daughter has said.
No charges have been brought against Peter Reynolds, 79, and his wife, Barbie, 75, who ran school training programmes and were arrested alongside an American friend, Faye Hall, as they travelled to their home in Bamyan province, in central Afghanistan, in February.
Continue reading...The Trump administration filed no new evidence in its case against Khalil, according to a new filing ahead of Friday's hearing.
The post The Case Against Mahmoud Khalil Hinges on Vague “Antisemitism” Claim appeared first on The Intercept.
As demand for smartphones, laptops and electric vehicles has soared, so has demand for the minerals - such as cobalt and coltan - for the batteries that power them. The Democratic Republic of the Congo has vast reserves of these minerals, and their extraction is fuelling the country's civil war. Josh Toussaint-Strauss finds out more about how global demand for tech is causing human suffering in central Africa, and how we, and western powers and companies, are complicit
Continue reading...Students from Muslim-majority countries as well as Asia and Africa are having their visas revoked with little or no explanation.
The post Trump Appears to Be Targeting Muslim and “Non-White” Students for Deportation appeared first on The Intercept.
Just weeks away from graduation, some international students at Arizona State University have been blocked from completing degrees.
The post At Least 50 Arizona State Students Have Now Had Visas Revoked, Lawyer Says appeared first on The Intercept.
Sixty-one media organizations and press freedom advocates filed an amicus brief warning of the chilling effect on First Amendment rights.
The post Press Coalition Challenges Trump’s Executive Order Threatening Press Freedom and Legal Representation appeared first on The Intercept.
At a Congressional hearing earlier this week, Matt Blaze made the point that CALEA, the 1994 law that forces telecoms to make phone calls wiretappable, is outdated in today’s threat environment and should be rethought:
In other words, while the legally-mandated CALEA capability requirements have changed little over the last three decades, the infrastructure that must implement and protect it has changed radically. This has greatly expanded the “attack surface” that must be defended to prevent unauthorized wiretaps, especially at scale. The job of the illegal eavesdropper has gotten significantly easier, with many more options and opportunities for them to exploit. Compromising our telecommunications infrastructure is now little different from performing any other kind of computer intrusion or data breach, a well-known and endemic cybersecurity problem. To put it bluntly, something like Salt Typhoon was inevitable, and will likely happen again unless significant changes are made...
Amendment passes with 140 votes in favour and 21 against despite disruption in the chamber as rights campaigners say it chips away at human rights
The Russian defence ministry also responded to the criticism for its attack on Sumy, claiming it had targeted a meeting of Ukrainian commanding officers, Russian news agencies reported on Monday.
We are now hearing from the Kremlin, with Russia insisting that it “strikes only military or military-related targets,” despite the widespread condemnation for the attack on civilians in Sumy (9:18).
Continue reading...Amendment also enshrines recognition of only two sexes, providing basis for denying gender identities
Hungarian lawmakers have voted through a controversial constitutional amendment that campaigners described as a “significant escalation” in the government’s efforts to crack down on dissent and chip away at human rights.
Backed by the prime minister, Viktor Orbán, and his rightwing populist party, Fidesz, the amendment passed on Monday along party lines, with 140 votes for and 21 against.
Continue reading...Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Mark Pougatch and Sam Dalling as Newcastle’s form puts them fourth in the Premier League
Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.
On the podcast today; the race for fifth place in the Premier League is just about all that’s left to play for this season and Newcastle hammer Manchester United to move fourth. Can they now reel in Nottingham Forest? Nuno Espírito Sant’s side have now lost back-to-back games to leave them looking over their shoulder at the chasing pack.
Continue reading...She spent her life in northern France doing exhausting, back-breaking work – and yet she turned her anger against people who had done no wrongs to her. But as much as I couldn’t stand her rants, I was forced to accept her as she was
By Didier Eribon. Read by Mark Noble
Continue reading...Gina Rinehart has been Australia’s richest person for the last six years in a row. But where does her money come from?
In episode three we unpack the bitter rivalries, court battles and family conflicts behind the Hancock fortune – and consider a fundamental question: is Rinehart a mining heiress or is she a self-made mining magnate? We then look at her crowning achievement to date in her time at the helm of Hancock Prospecting – owning and operating her own iron mine at Roy Hill, something her father was never able to do
Continue reading...Alexandra Morton-Hayward is using cutting-edge methods to crack the secrets of ancient brains – even as hers betrays her
There are more Audio Long Reads here, or search Audio Long Read wherever you listen to your podcasts
Continue reading...In “Secrets and Lies” (2000), I wrote:
It is poor civic hygiene to install technologies that could someday facilitate a police state.
It’s something a bunch of us were saying at the time, in reference to the vast NSA’s surveillance capabilities.
I have been thinking of that quote a lot as I read news stories of President Trump firing the Director of the National Security Agency. General Timothy Haugh.
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote:
We don’t know what pressure the Trump administration is using to make intelligence services fall into line, but it isn’t crazy to ...
The veteran investigative journalist will cover U.S. military operations, national security issues, and foreign affairs through this yearlong fellowship.
The post Nick Turse Joins The Intercept as Inaugural National Security Reporting Fellow appeared first on The Intercept.
The shape of the Trump 2.0 White House has spurred serious concerns about public health and reproductive rights, and left military leaders 'stunned' and former intelligence experts 'appalled'. From a vaccine skeptic in charge of running the department of health, to a wrestling mogul in charge of the country's education, and even a ‘deep state conspiracy theorist’ becoming head of the FBI, the Guardian US live news editor Chris Michael takes us through the six most controversial members, and what their appointments could mean for the country
Continue reading...Residents of Sackets Harbor, New York, protested the detention of a mother and her three school-aged children.
The post Family Detained in Immigration Raid in Tom Homan’s Hometown Is Released appeared first on The Intercept.
Leaders around the world have reacted with a mix of a mix of confusion and concern after Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs on some of its largest trading partners, upending decades of US trade policy and starting a possible global trade war. The tariffs range from 10% to 49% on all goods imported from abroad
‘Nowhere on earth is safe’: Trump imposes tariffs on uninhabited islands near Antarctica
War-torn and struggling countries among those facing steepest Trump reciprocal tariffs
A GP surgery in one of the most deprived areas in the north-east of England is struggling to provide care for its patients as the health system crumbles around them. In the depths of the winter flu season, the Guardian video producers Maeve Shearlaw and Adam Sich went to Bridges medical practice to shadow the lead GP, Paul Evans, as he worked all hours keep his surgery afloat. Juggling technical challenges, long waiting lists and the profound impact austerity has had on the health of the population, Evans says: 'We are seeing the system fail'
Continue reading...
In the rapidly advancing landscape of AI technology and innovation, LimeWire emerges as a unique platform in the realm of generative AI tools. This platform not only stands out from the multitude of existing AI tools but also brings a fresh approach to content generation. LimeWire not only empowers users to create AI content but also provides creators with creative ways to share and monetize their creations.
As we explore LimeWire, our aim is to uncover its features, benefits for creators, and the exciting possibilities it offers for AI content generation. This platform presents an opportunity for users to harness the power of AI in image creation, all while enjoying the advantages of a free and accessible service.
Let's unravel the distinctive features that set LimeWire apart in the dynamic landscape of AI-powered tools, understanding how creators can leverage its capabilities to craft unique and engaging AI-generated images.
This revamped LimeWire invites users to register and unleash their creativity by crafting original AI content, which can then be shared and showcased on the LimeWire Studio. Notably, even acclaimed artists and musicians, such as Deadmau5, Soulja Boy, and Sean Kingston, have embraced this platform to publish their content in the form of NFT music, videos, and images.
Beyond providing a space for content creation and sharing, LimeWire introduces monetization models to empower users to earn revenue from their creations. This includes avenues such as earning ad revenue and participating in the burgeoning market of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). As we delve further, we'll explore these monetization strategies in more detail to provide a comprehensive understanding of LimeWire's innovative approach to content creation and distribution.
LimeWire Studio welcomes content creators into its fold, providing a space to craft personalized AI-focused content for sharing with fans and followers. Within this creative hub, every piece of content generated becomes not just a creation but a unique asset—ownable and tradable. Fans have the opportunity to subscribe to creators' pages, immersing themselves in the creative journey and gaining ownership of digital collectibles that hold tradeable value within the LimeWire community. Notably, creators earn a 2.5% royalty each time their content is traded, adding a rewarding element to the creative process.
The platform's flexibility is evident in its content publication options. Creators can choose to share their work freely with the public or opt for a premium subscription model, granting exclusive access to specialized content for subscribers.
As of the present moment, LimeWire focuses on AI Image Generation, offering a spectrum of creative possibilities to its user base. The platform, however, has ambitious plans on the horizon, aiming to broaden its offerings by introducing AI music and video generation tools in the near future. This strategic expansion promises creators even more avenues for expression and engagement with their audience, positioning LimeWire Studio as a dynamic and evolving platform within the realm of AI-powered content creation.
The LimeWire AI image generation tool presents a versatile platform for both the creation and editing of images. Supporting advanced models such as Stable Diffusion 2.1, Stable Diffusion XL, and DALL-E 2, LimeWire offers a sophisticated toolkit for users to delve into the realm of generative AI art.
Much like other tools in the generative AI landscape, LimeWire provides a range of options catering to various levels of complexity in image creation. Users can initiate the creative process with prompts as simple as a few words or opt for more intricate instructions, tailoring the output to their artistic vision.
What sets LimeWire apart is its seamless integration of different AI models and design styles. Users have the flexibility to effortlessly switch between various AI models, exploring diverse design styles such as cinematic, digital art, pixel art, anime, analog film, and more. Each style imparts a distinctive visual identity to the generated AI art, enabling users to explore a broad spectrum of creative possibilities.
The platform also offers additional features, including samplers, allowing users to fine-tune the quality and detail levels of their creations. Customization options and prompt guidance further enhance the user experience, providing a user-friendly interface for both novice and experienced creators.
Excitingly, LimeWire is actively developing its proprietary AI model, signaling ongoing innovation and enhancements to its image generation capabilities. This upcoming addition holds the promise of further expanding the creative horizons for LimeWire users, making it an evolving and dynamic platform within the landscape of AI-driven art and image creation.
Sign Up Now To Get Free Credits
Upon completing your creative endeavor on LimeWire, the platform allows you the option to publish your content. An intriguing feature follows this step: LimeWire automates the process of minting your creation as a Non-Fungible Token (NFT), utilizing either the Polygon or Algorand blockchain. This transformative step imbues your artwork with a unique digital signature, securing its authenticity and ownership in the decentralized realm.
Creators on LimeWire hold the power to decide the accessibility of their NFT creations. By opting for a public release, the content becomes discoverable by anyone, fostering a space for engagement and interaction. Furthermore, this choice opens the avenue for enthusiasts to trade the NFTs, adding a layer of community involvement to the artistic journey.
Alternatively, LimeWire acknowledges the importance of exclusivity. Creators can choose to share their posts exclusively with their premium subscribers. In doing so, the content remains a special offering solely for dedicated fans, creating an intimate and personalized experience within the LimeWire community. This flexibility in sharing options emphasizes LimeWire's commitment to empowering creators with choices in how they connect with their audience and distribute their digital creations.
After creating your content, you can choose to publish the content. It will automatically mint your creation as an NFT on the Polygon or Algorand blockchain. You can also choose whether to make it public or subscriber-only.
If you make it public, anyone can discover your content and even trade the NFTs. If you choose to share the post only with your premium subscribers, it will be exclusive only to your fans.
Additionally, you can earn ad revenue from your content creations as well.
When you publish content on LimeWire, you will receive 70% of all ad revenue from other users who view your images, music, and videos on the platform.
This revenue model will be much more beneficial to designers. You can experiment with the AI image and content generation tools and share your creations while earning a small income on the side.
The revenue you earn from your creations will come in the form of LMWR tokens, LimeWire’s own cryptocurrency.
Your earnings will be paid every month in LMWR, which you can then trade on many popular crypto exchange platforms like Kraken, ByBit, and UniSwap.
You can also use your LMWR tokens to pay for prompts when using LimeWire generative AI tools.
You can sign up to LimeWire to use its AI tools for free. You will receive 10 credits to use and generate up to 20 AI images per day. You will also receive 50% of the ad revenue share. However, you will get more benefits with premium plans.
For $9.99 per month, you will get 1,000 credits per month, up to 2 ,000 image generations, early access to new AI models, and 50% ad revenue share
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For $49 per month, you will get 5,000 credits per month, up to 10,000 image generations, early access to new AI models, and 70% ad revenue share
For $99 per month, you will get 11,250 credits per month, up to 2 2,500 image generations, early access to new AI models, and 70% ad revenue share
With all premium plans, you will receive a Pro profile badge, full creation history, faster image generation, and no ads.
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In conclusion, LimeWire emerges as a democratizing force in the creative landscape, providing an inclusive platform where anyone can unleash their artistic potential and effortlessly share their work. With the integration of AI, LimeWire eliminates traditional barriers, empowering designers, musicians, and artists to publish their creations and earn revenue with just a few clicks.
The ongoing commitment of LimeWire to innovation is evident in its plans to enhance generative AI tools with new features and models. The upcoming expansion to include music and video generation tools holds the promise of unlocking even more possibilities for creators. It sparks anticipation about the diverse and innovative ways in which artists will leverage these tools to produce and publish their own unique creations.
For those eager to explore, LimeWire's AI tools are readily accessible for free, providing an opportunity to experiment and delve into the world of generative art. As LimeWire continues to evolve, creators are encouraged to stay tuned for the launch of its forthcoming AI music and video generation tools, promising a future brimming with creative potential and endless artistic exploration
Are you looking for a new graphic design tool? Would you like to read a detailed review of Canva? As it's one of the tools I love using. I am also writing my first ebook using canva and publish it soon on my site you can download it is free. Let's start the review.
Canva has a web version and also a mobile app
Canva is a free graphic design web application that allows you to create invitations, business cards, flyers, lesson plans, banners, and more using professionally designed templates. You can upload your own photos from your computer or from Google Drive, and add them to Canva's templates using a simple drag-and-drop interface. It's like having a basic version of Photoshop that doesn't require Graphic designing knowledge to use. It’s best for nongraphic designers.
Canva is a great tool for small business owners, online entrepreneurs, and marketers who don’t have the time and want to edit quickly.
To create sophisticated graphics, a tool such as Photoshop can is ideal. To use it, you’ll need to learn its hundreds of features, get familiar with the software, and it’s best to have a good background in design, too.
Also running the latest version of Photoshop you need a high-end computer.
So here Canva takes place, with Canva you can do all that with drag-and-drop feature. It’s also easier to use and free. Also an even-more-affordable paid version is available for $12.95 per month.
The product is available in three plans: Free, Pro ($12.99/month per user or $119.99/year for up to 5 people), and Enterprise ($30 per user per month, minimum 25 people).
To get started on Canva, you will need to create an account by providing your email address, Google, Facebook or Apple credentials. You will then choose your account type between student, teacher, small business, large company, non-profit, or personal. Based on your choice of account type, templates will be recommended to you.
You can sign up for a free trial of Canva Pro, or you can start with the free version to get a sense of whether it’s the right graphic design tool for your needs.
When you sign up for an account, Canva will suggest different post types to choose from. Based on the type of account you set up you'll be able to see templates categorized by the following categories: social media posts, documents, presentations, marketing, events, ads, launch your business, build your online brand, etc.
Start by choosing a template for your post or searching for something more specific. Search by social network name to see a list of post types on each network.
Next, you can choose a template. Choose from hundreds of templates that are ready to go, with customizable photos, text, and other elements.
You can start your design by choosing from a variety of ready-made templates, searching for a template matching your needs, or working with a blank template.
Inside the Canva designer, the Elements tab gives you access to lines and shapes, graphics, photos, videos, audio, charts, photo frames, and photo grids.The search box on the Elements tab lets you search everything on Canva.
To begin with, Canva has a large library of elements to choose from. To find them, be specific in your search query. You may also want to search in the following tabs to see various elements separately:
The Photos tab lets you search for and choose from millions of professional stock photos for your templates.
You can replace the photos in our templates to create a new look. This can also make the template more suited to your industry.
You can find photos on other stock photography sites like pexel, pixabay and many more or simply upload your own photos.
When you choose an image, Canva’s photo editing features let you adjust the photo’s settings (brightness, contrast, saturation, etc.), crop, or animate it.
When you subscribe to Canva Pro, you get access to a number of premium features, including the Background Remover. This feature allows you to remove the background from any stock photo in library or any image you upload.
The Text tab lets you add headings, normal text, and graphical text to your design.
When you click on text, you'll see options to adjust the font, font size, color, format, spacing, and text effects (like shadows).
Canva Pro subscribers can choose from a large library of fonts on the Brand Kit or the Styles tab. Enterprise-level controls ensure that visual content remains on-brand, no matter how many people are working on it.
Create an animated image or video by adding audio to capture user’s attention in social news feeds.
If you want to use audio from another stock site or your own audio tracks, you can upload them in the Uploads tab or from the more option.
Want to create your own videos? Choose from thousands of stock video clips. You’ll find videos that range upto 2 minutes
You can upload your own videos as well as videos from other stock sites in the Uploads tab.
Once you have chosen a video, you can use the editing features in Canva to trim the video, flip it, and adjust its transparency.
On the Background tab, you’ll find free stock photos to serve as backgrounds on your designs. Change out the background on a template to give it a more personal touch.
The Styles tab lets you quickly change the look and feel of your template with just a click. And if you have a Canva Pro subscription, you can upload your brand’s custom colors and fonts to ensure designs stay on brand.
If you have a Canva Pro subscription, you’ll have a Logos tab. Here, you can upload variations of your brand logo to use throughout your designs.
With Canva, you can also create your own logos. Note that you cannot trademark a logo with stock content in it.
With Canva, free users can download and share designs to multiple platforms including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Slack and Tumblr.
Canva Pro subscribers can create multiple post formats from one design. For example, you can start by designing an Instagram post, and Canva's Magic Resizer can resize it for other networks, Stories, Reels, and other formats.
Canva Pro subscribers can also use Canva’s Content Planner to post content on eight different accounts on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Slack, and Tumblr.
Canva Pro allows you to work with your team on visual content. Designs can be created inside Canva, and then sent to your team members for approval. Everyone can make comments, edits, revisions, and keep track via the version history.
When it comes to printing your designs, Canva has you covered. With an extensive selection of printing options, they can turn your designs into anything from banners and wall art to mugs and t-shirts.
Canva Print is perfect for any business seeking to make a lasting impression. Create inspiring designs people will want to wear, keep, and share. Hand out custom business cards that leave a lasting impression on customers' minds.
The Canva app is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play. The Canva app has earned a 4.9 out of five star rating from over 946.3K Apple users and a 4.5 out of five star rating from over 6,996,708 Google users.
In addition to mobile apps, you can use Canva’s integration with other Internet services to add images and text from sources like Google Maps, Emojis, photos from Google Drive and Dropbox, YouTube videos, Flickr photos, Bitmojis, and other popular visual content elements.
In general, Canva is an excellent tool for those who need simple images for projects. If you are a graphic designer with experience, you will find Canva’s platform lacking in customization and advanced features – particularly vectors. But if you have little design experience, you will find Canva easier to use than advanced graphic design tools like Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator for most projects. If you have any queries let me know in the comments section.
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