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Station Science Top News: Jan. 10, 2025
Mon, 13 Jan 2025 18:34:47 +0000
Measurements from space support wildfire risk predictions Researchers demonstrated that data from the International Space Station’s ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS) instrument played a significant role in the ability of machine learning algorithms to predict wildfire susceptibility. This result could help support development of effective strategies for predicting, preventing, monitoring, and […]
Match ID: 0 Score: 30.00 source: www.nasa.gov age: 0 days
qualifiers: 15.00 climate change, 15.00 carbon
Revealed: US hazardous waste is sent to Mexico – where a ‘toxic cocktail’ of pollution emerges
Tue, 14 Jan 2025 12:00:27 GMT
Investigation finds very high levels of lead and arsenic in homes near a factory processing US toxic waste
Raquel Villarreal lives in a bright-yellow house in Mexico’s Monterrey metropolitan area with her family and nine cats. Here, the emergency medicine doctor has raised three daughters, one of whom died at the age of 14.
Just steps away is an industrial plant that operates 24 hours a day, emitting pollution that neighbors say blankets the neighborhood and which Villarreal says is hard to remove from her car.
Continue reading...Allocation of funds from Inflation Reduction Act makes it harder for president-elect to halt green initiatives
The Biden administration has raced to allocate $74bn of funding for climate initiatives before Donald Trump’s inauguration, leaving $20bn vulnerable to potential rollback by the incoming president, new figures reveal.
As the inauguration of Trump looms, the outgoing administration has been accelerating its allocation of cash for climate change and clean energy programs before they are throttled by the incoming US president.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: Kyiv’s interrogation footage of captured North Korean soldiers leads to questions about what it might do with the soldiers – and what the PoWs might do for them
Good morning. In a grinding war where significant changes at the front are hard to discern, a video released by Ukraine on Sunday is a rare point of focus: it featured two North Korean soldiers, answering questions from their Ukrainian captors, and weighing the circumstances of their presence in a conflict thousands of miles from home.
The video is, perhaps, not militarily significant. But it is a unique insight into one of the more extraordinary aspects of a conflict that has drawn in actors from all over the world, and is a crucible in which every participant is learning how modern wars are fought.
Economy | Rachel Reeves will remain as chancellor until the next general election, Keir Starmer has insisted, as he warned the Treasury would be “ruthless” over public spending cuts to help meet the government’s fiscal rules.
Gaza | Joe Biden has said his administration is on the brink of sealing a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas that could pause the war after more than 14 months of fighting. Biden administration officials have said they believe the deal may be concluded before Donald Trump’s inauguration next week.
US politics | Donald Trump would have been convicted of crimes over his failed attempt to cling to power in 2020 if he had not won the presidential election in 2024, according to the special counsel who investigated him. Jack Smith’s report detailing his team’s findings about Trump’s efforts to subvert democracy was released early on Tuesday.
UK news | A man accused of driving a young mother to suicide through domestic violence has been found guilty of assault and prolonged controlling behaviour but cleared of her manslaughter. Ryan Wellings, 30, was blamed from “beyond the grave” for the death of his partner, Kiena Dawes. Read more about the case.
‘Forever chemicals’ | The cost of cleaning up toxic forever chemical pollution could reach more than £1.6tn across the UK and Europe over a 20-year period, an annual bill of £84bn, research has found. PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are used in everything from cosmetics to nonstick pans but are almost indestructible without human intervention.
[It is] unclear if North Korea will even claim the two captured soldiers as their own, given Moscow and Pyongyang’s refusal to officially admit that North Korean forces have been deployed to Russia. At the same time, Russia could claim them as their own and hand them over to North Korea after they are traded with Ukrainian PoWs.
Continue reading...It’s free, it’s sensible and it makes workers happy. The government needs to accept that this is the new normal
You would be hard-pressed to find a single positive side-effect of the pandemic. If there is one, it is the growing numbers of people who now work from home. Half of workers work from home for at least part of the week now, and many workplaces have thrived because of it. Zoom meetings save time and wasteful travel, employers are free to hire talent from anywhere in the country, and employees have escaped escalating property prices in London and steep commuting costs. Working from home (WFH) has been a boon for the climate, too; according to one US study, two to four days of remote working a week lowers carbon emissions by between 11% and 29%.
Yet WFH is now coming under accelerating attack. JP Morgan will now require employees to spend five days a week in the office and other big companies may soon follow suit. A perverse strain of rightwing thought opposes almost any social progress that improves other people’s lives. This Scrooge-like instinct yearns to make work as grindingly hard and low-paid as possible. Recall Jacob Rees-Mogg pacing civil service offices like the Child Catcher, leaving “sorry you were out when I visited” notes on employees’ desks in 2022. The same age-old sentiment prompted the CBI chair, Rupert Soames, to savage Labour’s flagship anti-gig economy employment rights bill on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme yesterday, warning that the new bill would force businesses to let people go.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Costs of UK cleanup will reach £9.9bn a year in UK if emissions of ‘forever chemicals’ remain uncontrolled
The cost of cleaning up toxic forever chemical pollution could reach more than £1.6tn across the UK and Europe over a 20-year period, an annual bill of £84bn, research has found.
The number of British pollution hotspots is also on the rise. If emissions remain unrestricted and uncontrolled, the costs of cleanup will reach £9.9bn a year in the UK, according to the findings of a year-long investigation by the Forever Lobbying Project, a cross-border investigation involving 46 journalists and 18 experts across 16 countries.
Continue reading...“The consistent defunding of other city programs in order to give the LAPD billions a year has consequences,” said a local activist.
The post LA Budgeted Money For Cop Jobs While Cutting Fire Department Positions. Now the City Is Burning. appeared first on The Intercept.
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 year in Palestine, living in fear of not just genocide — but AIDS.
The post Queer, HIV-Positive, and Running Out of Medication in Gaza appeared first on The Intercept.
The prisons are open, the secret files are unlocked. Now Syrians are trying to figure out how to hold war criminals accountable.
The post Searching for Justice and the Missing in the New Syria appeared first on The Intercept.
Workers at Teleperformance, customer support company for Apple, Google and Netflix, accuse it of union busting and surveillance
Call center workers for some of the world’s biggest tech companies including Apple, Google, Microsoft and Netflix are accusing their employer of retaliating against union organisers, constantly surveilling staff and even refusing bathroom breaks.
In the US or Europe, if you call for technical or customer support from a big tech company, you may be speaking with a worker at one of Teleperformance’s call centers in Greece.
Continue reading...Billionaires gonna billionaire — and lick the boots of whoever will bring them more riches and impunity.
The post Facebook Fact Checks Were Never Going to Save Us. They Just Made Liberals Feel Better. appeared first on The Intercept.
Whether it’s banning articles on X or killing fact checks on Meta, the only constant is that it benefits the powerful.
The post My Ban From X Is About One Simple Thing: Elon Musk Controlling the Flow of Information appeared first on The Intercept.
Ham, gammon, bacon, salami and some dairy products banned after Germany’s first reported case in nearly 40 years
Britain has banned the import of German ham, bacon and salami as well as many other meat and dairy products after a case of foot-and-mouth disease was confirmed on the outskirts of Berlin last week.
The government said that while there were no cases of the livestock disease in Britain, the ban would help stop it spreading and protect British farmers and their livelihoods.
Continue reading...CMA to look at impact on consumers, businesses, advertisers and publishers, as well as collection of data
Google is being investigated by the UK competition watchdog over the impact of its search and advertising practices on consumers, news publishers, businesses and rival search engines.
The tech company accounts for more than 90% of general searches in the UK, according to the Competition and Markets Authority.
Continue reading...Chan, now 70, rehearses his trademark action comedy chops playing a film star battling bad guys to protect a CGI panda cub
Fun though it is to see Jackie Chan good-naturedly busting out the classic moves – and very spry he is at 70 years old – this really is a by-the-numbers piece of work. It’s a Chinese action comedy in which Chan plays himself, the adored movie star, who is a little bored with the range of downtime activities on offer for an icon like him.
Then he jumps at the chance to adopt a rare baby panda at the zoo, and shows up just as a kidnap attempt is under way: a battalion of tough guys have been sent in to abduct the CGI creature at the behest of some Middle Eastern businessmen whose obvious stereotypical villainy is finally redeemed by some sentimental tearjerking — and of course Chan has to kick their butts in that unique slapstick way, helped by winsome zoo assistant Su Xiaozhu (Shi Ce). It’s a kids’ film in essence, although oddly the action violence means that it has a 15 certificate in the UK.
Continue reading...The Intercept found dozens of government websites exploited by spammers to redirect to porn. Here’s how this hack happened.
The post Government Sites Across the U.S. Are Awash in Hardcore Porn appeared first on The Intercept.
In today’s newsletter: Kyiv’s interrogation footage of captured North Korean soldiers leads to questions about what it might do with the soldiers – and what the PoWs might do for them
Good morning. In a grinding war where significant changes at the front are hard to discern, a video released by Ukraine on Sunday is a rare point of focus: it featured two North Korean soldiers, answering questions from their Ukrainian captors, and weighing the circumstances of their presence in a conflict thousands of miles from home.
The video is, perhaps, not militarily significant. But it is a unique insight into one of the more extraordinary aspects of a conflict that has drawn in actors from all over the world, and is a crucible in which every participant is learning how modern wars are fought.
Economy | Rachel Reeves will remain as chancellor until the next general election, Keir Starmer has insisted, as he warned the Treasury would be “ruthless” over public spending cuts to help meet the government’s fiscal rules.
Gaza | Joe Biden has said his administration is on the brink of sealing a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas that could pause the war after more than 14 months of fighting. Biden administration officials have said they believe the deal may be concluded before Donald Trump’s inauguration next week.
US politics | Donald Trump would have been convicted of crimes over his failed attempt to cling to power in 2020 if he had not won the presidential election in 2024, according to the special counsel who investigated him. Jack Smith’s report detailing his team’s findings about Trump’s efforts to subvert democracy was released early on Tuesday.
UK news | A man accused of driving a young mother to suicide through domestic violence has been found guilty of assault and prolonged controlling behaviour but cleared of her manslaughter. Ryan Wellings, 30, was blamed from “beyond the grave” for the death of his partner, Kiena Dawes. Read more about the case.
‘Forever chemicals’ | The cost of cleaning up toxic forever chemical pollution could reach more than £1.6tn across the UK and Europe over a 20-year period, an annual bill of £84bn, research has found. PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are used in everything from cosmetics to nonstick pans but are almost indestructible without human intervention.
[It is] unclear if North Korea will even claim the two captured soldiers as their own, given Moscow and Pyongyang’s refusal to officially admit that North Korean forces have been deployed to Russia. At the same time, Russia could claim them as their own and hand them over to North Korea after they are traded with Ukrainian PoWs.
Continue reading...Public investment in technology is the right move. But ministers must not become boosters for an industry that causes harm as well as good
Digital technology companies have reshaped our world and will continue doing so. Sir Keir Starmer knows his government must seek a role in shaping this new order – and avoid ceding all control to the US and China. According to official estimates, the UK is the third-largest AI market. Its universities are important incubators of talent. Google DeepMind, two of whose scientists won a Nobel chemistry prize last year, was a British company until Google bought it in 2014. But the world’s two largest economies, and particularly the US corporations that dominate our online lives, are a long way ahead. The danger for the rest of the world is being swept along in an AI wave over which it has little control.
Expanding Britain’s publicly owned computing resource – a national asset known as sovereign compute capacity – is a necessary step toward securing technological independence. Wes Streeting, the health secretary, is right to warn of a coming battle to ensure democratic control of computing. Countering private-sector dominance with new public investment is part of that. Plans to boost the AI industry, beginning with a new growth zone in Oxfordshire, make sense as part of a 21st-century industrial strategy.
Continue reading...Chancellor’s mission to Beijing weighted with greater expectations
Rachel Reeves hailed a new era of “respectful and consistent future relations with China” as pressure grew on the embattled chancellor to deliver on her government’s central promise to fire up UK economic growth.
After meeting China’s vice-premier, He Lifeng, in Beijing, Reeves said Britain’s relationship with the world’s second largest economy would be “frank and open on areas where we disagree”, while stressing it would be pragmatic in “finding opportunities for safe trade and investment”.
Continue reading...After the worst rains in decades, rivers are drying up and crops failing, leaving people in the interior without clean water or healthcare, and cutting transport links
John Adjako lets out a deep sigh when his thoughts turn to his income as a boatman. It has been dwindling for the past few months during the drought in the Upper Suriname region where he lives and where his boat is one of the dozens moored each day at the Atjoni jetty.
December generally sees a surge of local passengers and tourists heading to the interior of Suriname, a country on the north-east coast of South America, where the Amazon meets the Atlantic Ocean.
Continue reading...The Trump administration spied on reporters to catch leakers. At the same time, it was leaking to right-wing media.
The post The Trump DOJ Loved Leaking, as Long as It Was to Rupert Murdoch’s Newspapers appeared first on The Intercept.
“The consistent defunding of other city programs in order to give the LAPD billions a year has consequences,” said a local activist.
The post LA Budgeted Money For Cop Jobs While Cutting Fire Department Positions. Now the City Is Burning. appeared first on The Intercept.
Critics worry that a sweeping ban based on predictions rather than more concrete proof of TikTok’s security risks sets a precedent in line with repressive regimes.
The post To Ban TikTok, Supreme Court Would Rank “National Security” Before First Amendment appeared first on The Intercept.
Premier of most populous province says rhetoric clouds trade relationship worth hundreds of billions of dollars
The United States will “feel pain” if Donald Trump doesn’t back down from his threat to impose steep tariffs on its northern neighbour, the leader of Canada’s most populous province has warned.
After a tumultuous week that left Canadian leaders flailing for a coherent national response to Trump’s provocations – including the suggestion that the US would annex its closest ally – the Ontario premier, Doug Ford, told the Guardian: “We will never be for sale.”
Continue reading...A job listing for the Super Bowl LIX halftime show offers $12 per hour — part of a long pattern of host-city residents getting the short shrift.
The post Everyone’s Making Millions But the Super Bowl Haltime Show Wants to Hire New Orleans Locals for $12 an Hour appeared first on The Intercept.
The self-styled misogynist has announced his intention to enter UK politics - and unfortunately, when it comes to influence, we can’t just laugh him off
‘The desire to be a politician should bar you for life from ever becoming one,” the comedian Billy Connolly once said. Never has this been truer. There was a time when unapologetic narcissists and sociopaths thrived on reality TV. Now they all seem to be pivoting to podcasts and politics.
The latest would-be politico is Andrew Tate, the British American self-styled misogynist and influencer who was humiliated by Greta Thunberg. He is suddenly very interested in becoming prime minister of Britain – which I suppose makes sense when you look at the legal mess he’s in. Tate and his brother, Tristan, are being investigated by Romanian authorities for alleged crimes including forming an organised criminal group, human trafficking, trafficking of minors, sexual intercourse with a minor and money laundering. As the convicted felon and adjudicated sexual abuser Donald Trump has demonstrated, you can get away with absolutely anything as long as you’re powerful enough. There is no better get-out-of-jail-free card than being the guy in charge of the jails.
Continue reading...The latest actions of Musk and Zuckerberg are a sign of things to come, but the EU already has the power to give people back control
Elon Musk’s latest attempts at direct political interference illustrate the grave danger that Europe is facing. He has suggested overthrowing the UK government, asking if “America should liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government”. Three days after that, he hosted Germany’s far-right candidate for chancellor in forthcoming federal elections in a livestream discussion on the social media platform X, which he owns. It is likely that his rigging of X’s algorithm helped push both into millions of people’s feeds. It also emerged last week that Musk’s SpaceX may start providing a major part of Italy’s defence network.
Europe’s leaders should view this conduct as a sign of things to come. We foolishly allowed control of digital media and infrastructure to concentrate in the hands of a few US tech oligarchs. Now US big tech is Donald Trump’s tool.
Johnny Ryan is director of Enforce, a unit of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties
Continue reading...Tech company rejects as ‘pure fiction’ a report that a deal could take place if it fails to avoid an impending ban
Chinese officials have reportedly held preliminary talks about a potential option to sell TikTok’s operations in the US to the billionaire Elon Musk, should the short-video app be unable to avoid an impending ban.
Beijing officials prefer that TikTok remains under the control of Chinese parent Bytedance, but have discussed other options including a sale to Musk, Bloomberg reported.
Continue reading...Dr Itziar Castelló says the move raises concerns about the quality of deliberation on its platforms and will ultimately harm democracy. Tony Cima reflects on the cloak of anonymity. Plus a letter from Phil Goddard
Meta’s move to scrap factcheckers is not about “complexity”, as it says (Report, 8 January), but to support Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s agenda.
It is widely agreed that effective, fast and unbiased factchecking is essential for the proper functioning of social media platforms. Similarly, principles of free speech are foundational to fostering communication and public debate in a healthy democratic society. Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement that Meta is to follow X in introducing user-generated notes raises serious concerns.
Continue reading...And why those that do aren’t just trading in meme coins for the lulz.
The post Congress Loves Crypto. So Why Do So Few Members Buy It? appeared first on The Intercept.
With fire weather expected to continue until at least Wednesday, officials have pre-deployed firefighters across surrounding counties
California homeowners and business owners who lost everything in the devastating Los Angeles-area fires now have to tackle their insurance companies to recover the value of their homeowners’ policies – if they are lucky enough to have insurance at all.
With estimates of the economic damage from the fires now reaching over $200bn, we’d like to hear what financial consequences people face due to the fires.
In the rural enclaves tucked close to the canyons most prime to burn, scores of animals – horses, goats, pigs, chickens, and even emus among them – were in danger as the fast-moving fires swept closer. Some had been left behind during chaotic evacuations. Others required large trailers or a gentle hand to calmly coax them through the terror caused by howling winds, ashen air and the very strangers desperately trying to get them to safety. A network of volunteers was preparing to descend on the fire zones, ready to risk it all to save pets and livestock in need.
These strangers had quickly stepped up to answer calls for help. Mobilizing through social media pages or elaborate phone trees, they worked through the nights, driving into burning hillsides and through scorched wreckage. For some, it’s not the first time they’ve gone willingly into the fray.
Continue reading...Lawsuits filed against Southern California Edison, while suspects arrested for looting homes, including one from which Emmy was taken
As officials warn that strong winds could worsen wildfire conditions in Los Angeles, residents and business owners have sued the city’s largest electricity provider, arguing that some of the utility’s equipment started the Eaton blaze in the area.
Officials have also announced the arrests of several people who are suspected of looting evacuated homes in the neighborhoods of the Palisades and Eaton fires, including one from which an Emmy award was taken.
Continue reading...Clowns are associated with laughter and entertainment, but increasing numbers of people are using the medium as a form of personal development and self-discovery
Without clowning, Olly Mead would never have had the courage to become a politician; Issy Millsop wouldn’t have swapped her career for something that paid less but was more fulfilling; and Lucy Heard wouldn’t have learned to “appreciate silliness, being stupid and playful, and the freedom that gives me”.
Therapeutic clowning, albeit still niche, is gaining in popularity: while 10 years ago, Holly Stoppit says she was probably the only therapeutic clown teacher in the UK, there are now teachers across the country.
Continue reading...In Steven C Miller’s intermittently effective film a supermoon turns those exposed to its light into werewolves – or rather people wearing hairy Halloween masks
Intermittently effective but grindingly repetitive, this lupine-themed horror posits a world where nearly a billion people have died after a supermoon turned anyone exposed to its light into a werewolf. A full year has passed, and in an unnamed city (San Juan, Puerto Rico and Los Angeles, California are listed as the locations used) folks are preparing for yet another supermoon-werewolf apocalypse by securing their homes with booby traps and arming themselves to the teeth.
Sensitive yet studly former soldier turned scientist Wesley (Frank Grillo) takes leave of his widowed sister-in-law Lucy (Ilfenesh Hadera) and her daughter Emma (Kamdynn Gary, a strikingly good child performer) as he heads off to help out in a special experiment. At a facility nearby, a team of boffins have developed a kind of “moonblock” that is designed to stop the reflected rays from Earth’s largest satellite from turning people into snarling, uncontrollable werefolk. The science-y bits are insultingly ill conceived, but that’s not really the point here; it’s all about those moments of transformation, the money shots common to all werewolf films, coups de cinema overseen by make-up and prosthetic designers and various effects (both special and visual) teams. Here the actual transitions are quite nifty, featuring lots of bulging veins and grisly-looking in-between stages as people turn into different kinds of snarling mammalian creatures. However, once they are done transforming, the masks or make-up or whatever the actors are clad in are so ineffectual they end up looking like a bunch of underlit extras in Halloween costumes recreating The Purge while howling.
Continue reading...Bitter battle expected at Senate hearing but Republicans appear confident Pete Hegseth will be confirmed
Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s controversial pick for US secretary of defense, will testify at a Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday, as the military veteran and Fox News host faces intense scrutiny over allegations of sexual assault, excessive alcohol use and financial mismanagement.
The Senate armed services committee will convene at 9.30am ET on Tuesday to question Hegseth, who faces an uncertain path to confirmation. Hegseth can only afford to lose the votes of three Senate Republicans, assuming every Democratic senator opposes his nomination, and several Republican members have voiced concerns about Hegseth’s personal history and his views on women in the military.
Continue reading...As fires licked the Los Angeles landscape, a network of volunteers plunged into action to rescue pets and livestock
As flames roared into communities on all sides of Los Angeles last week, and tens of thousands of residents rushed to evacuate, trailers across southern California were being hitched and trucks fueled. A network of volunteers was preparing to descend on the fire zones, ready to risk it all to save pets and livestock in need.
In the rural enclaves tucked close to the canyons most prime to burn, scores of animals – horses, goats, pigs, chickens, and even emus among them – were in danger as the fast-moving fires swept closer. Some had been left behind during chaotic evacuations. Others required large trailers or a gentle hand to calmly coax them through the terror caused by howling winds, ashen air and the very strangers desperately trying to get them to safety.
Continue reading...Tory leader says new inquiry should look at background of perpetrators as well as why some in authority did not act
Kemi Badenoch has said “peasants” from “sub-communities” in some countries are the ones in grooming and rape gangs, and that a national inquiry would seek to identify those in authority who did not act.
“There are some places where, when people behave in that way, a mob turns up and burns their homes down, and then they know that they can’t do that sort of thing,” the Conservative leader told GB News.
Continue reading...Pizzeria adds eye-watering price-tag to divisive Hawaiian variant to put customers off ordering it
A pizzeria is asking its customers to put their dough where their mouth is if they want to eat a Hawaiian – charging £100 for a ham and pineapple-topped pizza.
The owners and staff of Lupa pizza in Norwich are so revolted by the Hawaiian that they have reluctantly added the topping to their delivery menu but only with the eye-watering price tag.
Continue reading...More than 150 Nobel and World Food prize laureates sign open letter calling for immediate ramping up of food production
More than 150 Nobel and World Food prize laureates have signed an open letter calling for “moonshot” efforts to ramp up food production before an impending world hunger catastrophe.
The coalition of some of the world’s greatest living thinkers called for urgent action to prioritise research and technology to solve the “tragic mismatch of global food supply and demand”.
Continue reading...Fadi al-Wahidi’s condition is deteriorating, say hospital staff, who do not have medication needed to treat him
It was about 3pm on 9 October when a small group of Al Jazeera journalists arrived at the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza. The team say they were reporting on the displacement of Palestinian families after Israel launched its third offensive on the area, turning it into an unrecognisable wasteland of rubble.
Among them was the cameraman Fadi al-Wahidi, who moved ahead and began recording as his team set up their equipment. “At the time, none of us were aware that the IDF was close by,” says the 25-year-old from his bed at al-Helou hospital in Gaza. “But suddenly, the sound of gunfire surrounded us.”
Continue reading...As wildfires continue to cause devastation in Los Angeles, Madeleine Finlay speaks to Albert van Dijk, professor of water science and management at the Australian National University, about how rising temperatures are causing rapid swings in extreme weather
Clips: CBS News, CBS Sunday Morning, King 5 Seattle
Climate crisis ‘wreaking havoc’ on Earth’s water cycle, report finds
Continue reading...As hopes of a ceasefire grow, hunger and cold are adding to the suffering for the millions of Palestinians in the strip
Fifteen months into the war in Gaza, where more than 46,500 Palestinians have been killed and almost all of the population of 2.1 million are living in makeshift accommodation, conditions continue to deteriorate in the face of famine and cold.
At least 1.9 million people – or about 90% of the territory’s population – are displaced. Many have been forced to relocate repeatedly, some as many as 10 times.
Continue reading...Wildfires fuelled by intense Santa Ana winds are still burning across Los Angeles despite some progress at containing them. At least 24 people have died and more than 100,000 are under evacuation orders, while at least 12,000 structures have been incinerated
Max Rushden, Jonathan Wilson, Jonathan Liew and Nedum Onuoha review all the action from the FA Cup third round
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: Manchester United win on penalties at Arsenal. Altay Bayindir was the hero for the visitors, but Arsenal missed so many chances – are you ready for another conversation about whether they need a striker?
Continue reading...Not sure this will matter in the end, but it’s a positive move:
Microsoft is accusing three individuals of running a “hacking-as-a-service” scheme that was designed to allow the creation of harmful and illicit content using the company’s platform for AI-generated content.
The foreign-based defendants developed tools specifically designed to bypass safety guardrails Microsoft has erected to prevent the creation of harmful content through its generative AI services, said Steven Masada, the assistant general counsel for Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit. They then compromised the legitimate accounts of paying customers. They combined those two things to create a fee-based platform people could use...
Afghanistan’s ‘morality police’ arrested Samira at work in Kabul – and then made the 19-year-old marry her employer
It was a normal summer morning in July last year when 19-year-old Samira* made her way to the carpet-weaving shop where she worked in Kabul to pick up her wages. She had no way of knowing that in just a few hours, her life as she knew it would be over.
She would end the day in a Taliban police station, a victim of forced marriage with her entire future decided for her by a group of strangers with guns.
Continue reading...During the siege of Leningrad, botanists in charge of an irreplaceable seed collection had to protect it from fire, rodents – and hunger. By Simon Parkin
Continue reading...Alfred Bourgeois’s daughter is convinced of his innocence. In the four years since his execution, she has waged a sometimes-lonely battle to prove it.
The post She Lost Her Dad to Trump’s Killing Spree. Now She Wants Biden to Clear His Name. appeared first on The Intercept.
As the TikTok ban goes up before the Supreme Court on Friday, TikTok creator Pearlmania500, Shawn Musgrave, and Jessica Washington discuss what’s at stake.
The post TikTok SCOTUS Battle appeared first on The Intercept.
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.
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
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.
Sign Up Now To Get Free Credits
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
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
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The marketing industry is turning to artificial intelligence (AI) as a way to save time and execute smarter, more personalized campaigns. 61% of marketers say AI software is the most important aspect of their data strategy.
If you’re late to the AI party, don’t worry. It’s easier than you think to start leveraging artificial intelligence tools in your marketing strategy. Here are 11 AI marketing tools every marketer should start using today.
Personalize is an AI-powered technology that helps you identify and produce highly targeted sales and marketing campaigns by tracking the products and services your contacts are most interested in at any given time. The platform uses an algorithm to identify each contact’s top three interests, which are updated in real-time based on recent site activity.
Key Features
Seventh Sense provides behavioral analytics that helps you win attention in your customers’ overcrowded email inboxes. Choosing the best day and time to send an email is always a gamble. And while some days of the week generally get higher open rates than others, you’ll never be able to nail down a time that’s best for every customer. Seventh Sense eases your stress of having to figure out the perfect send-time and day for your email campaigns. The AI-based platform figures out the best timing and email frequency for each contact based on when they’re opening emails. The tool is primarily geared toward HubSpot and Marketo customers
Key Features
Phrasee uses artificial intelligence to help you write more effective subject lines. With its AI-based Natural Language Generation system, Phrasee uses data-driven insights to generate millions of natural-sounding copy variants that match your brand voice. The model is end-to-end, meaning when you feed the results back to Phrasee, the prediction model rebuilds so it can continuously learn from your audience.
Key Features
HubSpot Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an integral tool for the Human Content team. It uses machine learning to determine how search engines understand and categorize your content. HubSpot SEO helps you improve your search engine rankings and outrank your competitors. Search engines reward websites that organize their content around core subjects, or topic clusters. HubSpot SEO helps you discover and rank for the topics that matter to your business and customers.
Key Features
When you’re limited to testing two variables against each other at a time, it can take months to get the results you’re looking for. Evolv AI lets you test all your ideas at once. It uses advanced algorithms to identify the top-performing concepts, combine them with each other, and repeat the process to achieve the best site experience.
Key Features
Acrolinx is a content alignment platform that helps brands scale and improves the quality of their content. It’s geared toward enterprises – its major customers include big brands like Google, Adobe, and Amazon - to help them scale their writing efforts. Instead of spending time chasing down and fixing typos in multiple places throughout an article or blog post, you can use Acrolinx to do it all right there in one place. You start by setting your preferences for style, grammar, tone of voice, and company-specific word usage. Then, Acrolinx checks and scores your existing content to find what’s working and suggest areas for improvement. The platform provides real-time guidance and suggestions to make writing better and strengthen weak pages.
Key features
MarketMuse uses an algorithm to help marketers build content strategies. The tool shows you where to target keywords to rank in specific topic categories, and recommends keywords you should go after if you want to own particular topics. It also identifies gaps and opportunities for new content and prioritizes them by their probable impact on your rankings. The algorithm compares your content with thousands of articles related to the same topic to uncover what’s missing from your site.
Key features:
Copilot is a suite of tools that help eCommerce businesses maintain real-time communication with customers around the clock at every stage of the funnel. Promote products, recover shopping carts and send updates or reminders directly through Messenger.
Key features:
Yotpo’s deep learning technology evaluates your customers’ product reviews to help you make better business decisions. It identifies key topics that customers mention related to your products—and their feelings toward them. The AI engine extracts relevant reviews from past buyers and presents them in smart displays to convert new shoppers. Yotpo also saves you time moderating reviews. The AI-powered moderation tool automatically assigns a score to each review and flags reviews with negative sentiment so you can focus on quality control instead of manually reviewing every post.
Key features:
Albert is a self-learning software that automates the creation of marketing campaigns for your brand. It analyzes vast amounts of data to run optimized campaigns autonomously, allowing you to feed in your own creative content and target markets, and then use data from its database to determine key characteristics of a serious buyer. Albert identifies potential customers that match those traits, and runs trial campaigns on a small group of customers—with results refined by Albert himself—before launching it on a larger scale.
Albert plugs into your existing marketing technology stack, so you still have access to your accounts, ads, search, social media, and more. Albert maps tracking and attribution to your source of truth so you can determine which channels are driving your business.
Key features:
There are many tools and companies out there that offer AI tools, but this is a small list of resources that we have found to be helpful. If you have any other suggestions, feel free to share them in the comments below this article. As marketing evolves at such a rapid pace, new marketing strategies will be invented that we haven't even dreamed of yet. But for now, this list should give you a good starting point on your way to implementing AI into your marketing mix.
Note: This article contains affiliate links, meaning we make a small commission if you buy any premium plan from our link.
In this article, we explore the top 10 AI tools that are driving innovation and efficiency in various industries. These tools are designed to automate repetitive tasks, improve workflow, and increase productivity. The tools included in our list are some of the most advanced and widely used in the market, and are suitable for a variety of applications. Some of the tools focus on natural language processing, such as ChatGPT and Grammarly, while others focus on image and video generation, such as DALL-E and Lumen5. Other tools such as OpenAI Codex, Tabnine, Canva, Jasper AI,, and Surfer SEO are designed to help with specific tasks such as code understanding content writing and website optimization. This list is a great starting point for anyone looking to explore the possibilities of AI and how it can be applied to their business or project.
So let’s dive into
ChatGPT is a large language model that generates human-like
responses to a variety of prompts. It can be used for tasks such as language
translation, question answering, and text completion. It can
handle a wide range of topics and styles of writing, and generates coherent and
fluent text, but should be used with care as it may generate text that is
biased, offensive, or factually incorrect.
Pros:
Cons:
Overall, ChatGPT is a powerful tool for natural language
processing, but it should be used with care and with an understanding of its
limitations.
DALL-E is a generative model developed by OpenAI that is
capable of generating images from text prompts. It is based on the GPT-3 architecture,
which is a transformer-based neural network language model that has been
trained on a massive dataset of text. DALL-E can generate images that
are similar to a training dataset and it can generate high-resolution
images that are suitable for commercial use.
Pros:
Cons:
Overall, DALL-E is a powerful AI-based tool for generating
images, it can be used for a variety of applications such as creating images
for commercial use, gaming, and other creative projects. It is important to
note that the generated images should be reviewed and used with care, as they
may not be entirely original and could be influenced by the training data.
Lumen5 is a content creation platform that uses AI to help
users create videos, social media posts, and other types of content. It has
several features that make it useful for content creation and marketing,
including:
Pros:
Cons:
Overall, Lumen5 is a useful tool for creating content
quickly and easily, it can help automate the process of creating videos, social
media posts, and other types of content. However, the quality of the generated
content may vary depending on the source material and it is important to review
and edit the content before publishing it.
Grammarly is a writing-enhancement platform that uses AI to
check for grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors in the text. It also provides
suggestions for improving the clarity, concision, and readability of the text. It
has several features that make it useful for improving writing, including:
Pros:
Cons:
OpenAI Codex is a system developed by OpenAI that can
create code from natural language descriptions of software tasks. The system is
based on the GPT-3 model and can generate code in multiple programming
languages.
Pros:
Cons:
Overall, OpenAI Codex is a powerful tool that can help
automate the process of writing code and make it more accessible to
non-technical people. However, the quality of the generated code may vary
depending on the task description and it is important to review and test the
code before using it in a production environment. It is important to use the
tool as an aid, not a replacement for the developer's knowledge.
Tabnine is a code completion tool that uses AI to predict
and suggest code snippets. It is compatible with multiple programming languages
and can be integrated with various code editors.
Pros:
Cons:
Overall, TabNine is a useful tool for developers that can
help improve coding efficiency and reduce the time spent on writing code.
However, it is important to review the suggestions provided by the tool and use
them with caution, as they may not always be accurate or appropriate. It is
important to use the tool as an aid, not a replacement for the developer's
knowledge.
Jasper is a content writing and content generation tool that uses artificial intelligence to identify the best words and sentences for your writing style and medium in the most efficient, quick, and accessible way.
Pros:
Cons:
Surfer SEO is a software tool designed to help website
owners and digital marketers improve their search engine optimization (SEO)
efforts. The tool provides a variety of features that can be used to analyze a
website's on-page SEO, including:
Features:
Pros:
Cons:
Overall, Surfer SEO can be a useful tool for website owners
and digital marketers looking to improve their SEO efforts. However, it is
important to remember that it is just a tool and should be used in conjunction
with other SEO best practices. Additionally, the tool is not a guarantee of
better ranking.
Zapier is a web automation tool that allows users to
automate repetitive tasks by connecting different web applications together. It
does this by creating "Zaps" that automatically move data between
apps, and can also be used to trigger certain actions in one app based on
events in another app.
Features:
Pros:
Cons:
Overall, Zapier is a useful tool that can help users
automate repetitive tasks and improve workflow. It can save time and increase
productivity by connecting different web applications together. However, it may
require some technical skills and some features may require a paid
subscription. It is important to use the tool with caution and not to rely too
much on it, to understand the apps better.
Compose AI is a company that specializes in developing
natural language generation (NLG) software. Their software uses AI to
automatically generate written or spoken text from structured data, such as
spreadsheets, databases, or APIs.
Features:
Pros:
Cons:
Overall, Compose AI's NLG software can be a useful tool for
automating the process of creating written or spoken content from structured
data. However, the quality of the generated content may vary depending on the
data source, and it is essential to review the generated content before using
it in a production environment. It is important to use the tool as an aid, not
a replacement for the understanding of the data.
AI tools are becoming increasingly important in today's
business and technology landscape. They are designed to automate repetitive
tasks, improve workflow, and increase productivity. The top 10 AI tools
included in this article are some of the most advanced and widely used in the
market, and are suitable for various applications. Whether you're looking
to improve your natural language processing, create high-resolution images, or
optimize your website, there is an AI tool that can help. It's important to
research and evaluate the different tools available to determine which one is
the best fit for your specific needs. As AI technology continues to evolve,
these tools will become even more powerful and versatile and will play an even
greater role in shaping the future of business and technology.
Grammarly is a tool that checks for grammatical errors, spelling, and punctuation.it gives you comprehensive feedback on your writing. You can use this tool to proofread and edit articles, blog posts, emails, etc.
Grammarly also detects all types of mistakes, including sentence structure issues and misused words. It also gives you suggestions on style changes, punctuation, spelling, and grammar all are in real-time. The free version covers the basics like identifying grammar and spelling mistakes
whereas the Premium version offers a lot more functionality, it detects plagiarism in your content, suggests word choice, or adds fluency to it.
ProWritingAid is a style and grammar checker for content creators and writers. It helps to optimize word choice, punctuation errors, and common grammar mistakes, providing detailed reports to help you improve your writing.
ProWritingAid can be used as an add-on to WordPress, Gmail, and Google Docs. The software also offers helpful articles, videos, quizzes, and explanations to help improve your writing.
Here are some key features of ProWriting Aid:
Grammarly and ProWritingAid are well-known grammar-checking software. However, if you're like most people who can't decide which to use, here are some different points that may be helpful in your decision.
As both writing assistants are great in their own way, you need to choose the one that suits you best.
Both ProWritingAid and Grammarly are awesome writing tools, without a doubt. but as per my experience, Grammarly is a winner here because Grammarly helps you to review and edit your content. Grammarly highlights all the mistakes in your writing within seconds of copying and pasting the content into Grammarly’s editor or using the software’s native feature in other text editors.
Not only does it identify tiny grammatical and spelling errors, it tells you when you overlook punctuations where they are needed. And, beyond its plagiarism-checking capabilities, Grammarly helps you proofread your content. Even better, the software offers a free plan that gives you access to some of its features.
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.
Are you a great Chrome user? That’s nice to hear. But first, consider whether or not there are any essential Chrome extensions you are currently missing from your browsing life, so here we're going to share with you 10 Best Chrome Extensions That Are Perfect for Everyone. So Let's Start.
When you have too several passwords to remember, LastPass remembers them for you.
This chrome extension is an easy way to save you time and increase security. It’s a single password manager that will log you into all of your accounts. you simply ought to bear in mind one word: your LastPass password to log in to all or any your accounts.
Features
MozBar is an SEO toolbar extension that makes it easy for you to analyze your web pages' SEO while you surf. You can customize your search so that you see data for a particular region or for all regions. You get data such as website and domain authority and link profile. The status column tells you whether there are any no-followed links to the page.You can also compare link metrics. There is a pro version of MozBar, too.
Grammarly is a real-time grammar checking and spelling tool for online writing. It checks spelling, grammar, and punctuation as you type, and has a dictionary feature that suggests related words. if you use mobile phones for writing than Grammerly also have a mobile keyboard app.
VidIQ is a SaaS product and Chrome Extension that makes it easier to manage and optimize your YouTube channels. It keeps you informed about your channel's performance with real-time analytics and powerful insights.
Features
ColorZilla is a browser extension that allows you to find out the exact color of any object in your web browser. This is especially useful when you want to match elements on your page to the color of an image.
Features
Honey is a chrome extension with which you save each product from the website and notify it when it is available at low price it's one among the highest extensions for Chrome that finds coupon codes whenever you look online.
Features
GMass (or Gmail Mass) permits users to compose and send mass emails using Gmail. it is a great tool as a result of you'll use it as a replacement for a third-party email sending platform. you will love GMass to spice up your emailing functionality on the platform.
It's a Chrome extension for geeks that enables you to highlight and save what you see on the web.
It's been designed by Notion, that could be a Google space different that helps groups craft higher ideas and collaborate effectively.
Features
If you are someone who works online, you need to surf the internet to get your business done. And often there is no time to read or analyze something. But it's important that you do it. Notion Web Clipper will help you with that.
WhatFont is a Chrome extension that allows web designers to easily identify and compare different fonts on a page. The first time you use it on any page, WhatFont will copy the selected page.It Uses this page to find out what fonts are present and generate an image that shows all those fonts in different sizes. Besides the apparent websites like Google or Amazon, you'll conjointly use it on sites wherever embedded fonts ar used.
Similar Web is an SEO add on for both Chrome and Firefox.It allows you to check web site traffic and key metrics for any web site, as well as engagement rate, traffic ranking, keyword ranking, and traffic source. this is often a good tool if you are looking to seek out new and effective SEO ways similarly as analyze trends across the web.
Features
I know everyone knows how to install extension in pc but most of people don't know how to install it in android phone so i will show you how to install it in android
1. Download Kiwi browser from Play Store and then Open it.
2. Tap the three dots at the top right corner and select Extension.
3. Click on (+From Store) to access chrome web store or simple search chrome web store and access it.
4. Once you found an extension click on add to chrome a message will pop-up asking if you wish to confirm your choice. Hit OK to install the extension in the Kiwi browser.
5. To manage extensions on the browser, tap the three dots in the upper right corner. Then select Extensions to access a catalog of installed extensions that you can disable, update or remove with just a few clicks.
Your Chrome extensions should install on Android, but there’s no guarantee all of them will work. Because Google Chrome Extensions are not optimized for Android devices.
We hope this list of 10 best chrome extensions that is perfect for everyone will help you in picking the right Chrome Extensions. We have selected the extensions after matching their features to the needs of different categories of people. Also which extension you like the most let me know in the comment section
Looking to level up your content creation game in 2025? You're in the right place! The digital landscape has evolved dramatically, and AI tools have become essential for creators who want to stay ahead of the curve. In this guide, I'll show you the top 10 AI tools that are revolutionizing content creation and making creators' lives easier.
Why You Need These AI Tools in 2025
Content creation has become more demanding than ever. Whether you're a social media influencer, marketer, or business owner, keeping up with the constant need for fresh, engaging content can be overwhelming. That's where AI tools come in – they're not just fancy tech, they're your secret weapon for creating better content faster.
Let's Dive Into the Top 10 AI Tools for 2025
What Makes It Special: ChatGPT has evolved into a comprehensive content creation assistant by combining advanced language understanding with specialized content optimization features. Its ability to generate, edit, and optimize content while maintaining brand voice and industry expertise makes it an essential tool for creators who need to produce high-quality written content at scale.
What Makes It Special: Canva Magic Studio has transformed the graphic design landscape by combining its user-friendly interface with powerful AI capabilities. The platform's ability to understand design principles and automatically generate on-brand content while maintaining professional aesthetics makes it accessible for beginners while providing enough sophistication for professional designers.
Key Features:
Pricing:
Perfect For: Small businesses, social media managers, and anyone needing quick, professional-looking designs.
What Makes It Special: RunwayML stands out as the ultimate video creation powerhouse by combining professional-grade effects with user-friendly AI technology. Its game-changing ability to manipulate video content – from changing weather effects with a text prompt to removing objects seamlessly in real-time – makes it indispensable for creators who want to produce high-quality video content without getting bogged down by technical complexities.
Key Features:
Pricing:
Perfect For: Video creators, YouTubers, and social media managers who want to create professional-quality videos quickly.
What Makes It Special: Midjourney V6 has redefined AI image generation by mastering the nuances of professional photography and artistic style. Its ability to understand and execute complex creative directions – from specific lighting conditions to branded visual styles – while maintaining consistent quality across multiple generations makes it the go-to tool for creators who need stunning visuals that align perfectly with their brand identity.
Key Features:
Pricing:
Perfect For: Social media managers, digital marketers, and anyone needing professional-quality visuals consistently.
What Makes It Special: Synthesia has transformed video creation by making it possible to create professional-looking AI avatar videos in minutes. Its ability to generate natural-looking presentations in multiple languages with synchronized lip movements and gestures makes it invaluable for creators who need to produce video content at scale without the traditional filming process.
Key Features:
Pricing:
Perfect For: Businesses and educators creating training videos, presentations, and multilingual content.
What Makes It Special: Descript has transformed audio and video editing by making it as simple as editing a text document. Its innovative approach to media editing, combined with powerful AI features like automatic transcription and filler word removal, makes professional-quality editing accessible to creators of all skill levels.
Key Features:
Pricing:
Perfect For: Podcasters, video creators, and teams needing efficient audio/video editing solutions.
What Makes It Special: ElevenLabs has revolutionized voice synthesis by achieving unprecedented levels of natural speech quality and emotional expression. Its ability to clone voices accurately and generate multiple languages with proper accents and inflections makes it the ultimate tool for creators who need professional-quality voiceovers without the traditional recording process or voice actor limitations.
Key Features:
Pricing:
Perfect For: Podcasters, video creators, and content creators needing professional voiceovers in multiple languages.
What Makes It Special: Tribescaler brings a scientific approach to viral content creation by combining trend analysis with content optimization. Its powerful AI engine analyzes successful content patterns across platforms and provides actionable insights to help creators craft content that's more likely to go viral, while maintaining authenticity and audience engagement.
Key Features:
Pricing:
Perfect For: Content creators and social media managers focused on maximizing reach and engagement.
What Makes It Special: Clickable revolutionizes ad creation by seamlessly blending data-driven insights with creative automation. Its ability to analyze brand assets and automatically generate platform-optimized ad variations while maintaining brand voice transforms the tedious process of ad creation into a streamlined, results-driven workflow that consistently delivers high-performing content.
Key Features:
Perfect For: Digital marketers and businesses looking to scale their ad production efficiently.
What Makes It Special: CopyAI has established itself as a powerhouse in AI-powered copywriting by offering specialized content generation for various marketing formats. Its sophisticated understanding of marketing psychology and brand voice, combined with its ability to generate compelling copy across multiple formats and industries, makes it invaluable for marketers and content creators who need to produce engaging, conversion-focused content at scale.
Key Features:
Pricing:
Perfect For: Marketing teams, copywriters, and businesses needing high-converting marketing copy across multiple channels.
The AI tools listed here are revolutionizing the content creation landscape in 2025, making it easier than ever to produce high-quality, engaging, and impactful content. By integrating these tools into your workflow, you can save time, unleash your creativity, and achieve better results.
AI doesn't replace creativity; it amplifies it. As a content creator, your unique voice and vision are irreplaceable. These tools serve as enablers, helping you focus on what you do best—creating. Explore, experiment, and innovate. The future of content creation is here, and it's brimming with possibilities.
Embrace these technologies, stay ahead of the curve, and watch your creative potential soar. The only limit is your imagination!
All features and pricing information are subject to change. Please verify current details with the respective platforms, Also this article contain affiliate links which means we make a small comission if yo buy any premium plan from our links
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| Photo:- Copy.ai |
First one on the list is copy.ai. It is an AI based copy writer tool. Basically what a copywriter tool does is, it gives you content that you can post on your blog or video when you give it a few descriptions about the topic you want content on.So copy ai can help you write instagram captions gives you blog idea, product descriptions, facebook content, startup ideas, viral ideas, a lot of things it can do, you just make an account in this website, then select a tool and fill in the necessary description and the AI will generate content on what you ask for.
For tutorials go to their official Youtube channel .An awesome tool that is going to be really handy in the future.
Hotpot.ai offers a collection of AI tools for designers, as well as for anyone, it has an “AI picture restorer” which removes scratches ,and basically restores your old photo into amazing pictures and makes it look brand new.
Ai picture colorizer , turns your black and white photo into color. And there is a background remover tool, picture enlarger and a lot more for designers, check it out,and explore all the tools.
Deep-nostalgia became very popular on the internet when people started
making reaction videos of their parents reacting to animated pictures of their grandparents. So deep - nostalgia is a very cool app, that will animate any photo of a person.
So what makes it really cool is that fact that you can upload an old photo of your family and see them animate and living. Which is pretty cool and creepy at the same time if they are dead already.. Really amazing service from myheritage, I created a lot of cool animations with my old photos as well as with the photos of my grandparents.
Having a nice looking profile picture is really important if you want that professional feel in your socials. Whether in linkedin or twitter having a
distinct and catchy profile picture can make all the difference. So that's where pfpmaker comes in. it a free online tool to create amazing professional profile pictures that fits you. It generates a lot of profile pictures and you can also make small changes to already created profile pictures if you want to,as well.
Speaking of brands, getting a good logo for your brand is the most frustrating
thing ever, so brandmark.io makes it super easy. It will create a logo for your brand within 2 clicks. So you goto this website. Type in your brand name and slogan if you have any, and give BRAND KEYWORDS that relate to your brand, then pick a color style and done, the ai will
generate amazing logos for you.You can also make minor edits to the suggested logos to better fit your needs as well. But to get that png you need to pay a hefty price, but if you are looking for some logo ideas, this is a great place to start.
Even in the previous websites, some had picture enlarger tools. This deep-image.ai is a dedicated image enlarger, which supports upto 4x enlargement for free. The UI is pretty good and the tool is pretty fast with amazing results.
Bigjpg does the same as deep-image.ai , but this service offers a little bit more options like if your photo is an artwork it scales image differently than normal photos and it supports upto 4x enlargement for free and you can also set noise reduction options. Very good tool,
Lumen5 is an online marketing video maker that makes it really easy to create branding or informational videos within a couple of clicks. They have really great templates and various aspect ratios for various social media platforms.
If you are struggling to find good names for your brand or youtube channel, give
namelix a try. It's an ai based name generator that will suggest good names for your brand depending on the keyword that you give.. Also logo for your brand. Pretty cool and an amazing piece of tool. So that's been it , those are my favourite free AI based tools that you can use right now,
Which one You like the most Let me know in the Comments below.
Lukasz Olejnik writes about device fingerprinting, and why Google’s policy change to allow it in 2025 is a major privacy setback.
EDITED TO ADD (1/12): Shashdot thread.
Are you looking for a way to create content that is both effective and efficient? If so, then you should consider using an AI content generator. AI content generators are a great way to create content that is both engaging and relevant to your audience.
There are a number of different AI content generator tools available on the market, and it can be difficult to know which one is right for you. To help you make the best decision, we have compiled a list of the top 10 AI content generator tools that you should use in 2022.
So, without further ado, let’s get started!
Boss Mode: $99/Month
The utility of this service can be used for short-term or format business purposes such as product descriptions, website copy, market copy, and sales reports.
Free Trial – 7 days with 24/7 email support and 100 runs per day.
Pro Plan: $49 and yearly, it will cost you $420 i.e. $35 per month.
Wait! I've got a pretty sweet deal for you. Sign up through the link below, and you'll get (7,000 Free Words Plus 40% OFF) if you upgrade to the paid plan within four days.
Claim Your 7,000 Free Words With This Special Link - No Credit Card Required
Just like Outranking, Frase is an AI that helps you research, create and optimize your content to make it high quality within seconds. Frase works on SEO optimization where the content is made to the liking of search engines by optimizing keywords and keywords.
Solo Plan: $14.99/Month and $12/Month if billed yearly with 4 Document Credits for 1 user seat.
Basic Plan: $44.99/month and $39.99/month if billed yearly with 30 Document Credits for 1 user seat.
Team Plan: $114.99/month and $99.99/month if billed yearly for unlimited document credits for 3 users.
*SEO Add-ons and other premium features for $35/month irrespective of the plan.
Article Forge is another content generator that operates quite differently from the others on this list. Unlike Jasper.ai, which requires you to provide a brief and some information on what you want it to write this tool only asks for a keyword. From there, it’ll generate a complete article for you.
What’s excellent about Article Forge is they provide a 30-day money-back guarantee. You can choose between a monthly or yearly subscription. Unfortunately, they offer a free trial and no free plan:
Basic Plan: $27/Month
This plan allows users to produce up to 25k words each month. This is excellent for smaller blogs or those who are just starting.
Standard Plan: $57/month)
Unlimited Plan: $117/month
It’s important to note that Article Forge guarantees that all content generated through the platform passes Copyscape.
Rytr.me is a free AI content generator perfect for small businesses, bloggers, and students. The software is easy to use and can generate SEO-friendly blog posts, articles, and school papers in minutes.
Cons
Pricing
Rytr offers a free plan that comes with limited features. It covers up to 5,000 characters generated each month and has access to the built-in plagiarism checker. If you want to use all the features of the software, you can purchase one of the following plans:
Saver Plan: $9/month, $90/year
Writesonic is a free, easy-to-use AI content generator. The software is designed to help you create copy for marketing content, websites, and blogs. It's also helpful for small businesses or solopreneurs who need to produce content on a budget.
Writesonic is free with limited features. The free plan is more like a free trial, providing ten credits. After that, you’d need to upgrade to a paid plan. Here are your options:
Short-form: $15/month
Features:
Long-Form: $19/month
CopySmith is an AI content generator that can be used to create personal and professional documents, blogs, and presentations. It offers a wide range of features including the ability to easily create documents and presentations.
CopySmith also has several templates that you can use to get started quickly.
CopySmith offers a free trial with no credit card required. After the free trial, the paid plans are as follows:
Starter Plan: $19/month
Hypotenuse.ai is a free online tool that can help you create AI content. It's great for beginners because it allows you to create videos, articles, and infographics with ease. The software has a simple and easy-to-use interface that makes it perfect for new people looking for AI content generation.
Special Features
Hypotenuse doesn’t offer a free plan. Instead, it offers a free trial period where you can take the software for a run before deciding whether it’s the right choice for you or not. Other than that, here are its paid options:
Starter Plan: $29/month
Growth Plan: $59/month
Enterprise – pricing is custom, so don’t hesitate to contact the company for more information.
Kafkai comes with a free trial to help you understand whether it’s the right choice for you or not. Additionally, you can also take a look at its paid plans:
Writer Plan: $29/month Create 100 articles per month. $0.29/article
Newsroom Plan $49/month – Generate 250 articles a month at $0.20 per article.
Printing Press Plan: $129 /month Create up to 1000 articles a month at roughly $0.13/article.
Industrial Printer Plan: ($199 a month) – Generate 2500 articles each month for $0.08/article.
Peppertype.ai is an online AI content generator that’s easy to use and best for small business owners looking for a powerful copy and content writing tool to help them craft and generate various content for many purposes.
Unfortunately, Peppertype.ai isn’t free. However, it does have a free trial to try out the software before deciding whether it’s the right choice for you. Here are its paid plans:
personal Plan:$35/Month
Team Plan: $199/month
Enterprise – pricing is custom, so please contact the company for more information.
It is no longer a secret that humans are getting overwhelmed with the daily task of creating content. Our lives are busy, and the process of writing blog posts, video scripts, or other types of content is not our day job. In comparison, AI writers are not only cheaper to hire, but also perform tasks at a high level of excellence. This article explores 10 writing tools that used AI to create better content choose the one which meets your requirements and budget but in my opinion Jasper ai is one of the best tools to use to make high-quality content.
If you have any questions ask in the comments section
Note: Don't post links in your comments
Note: This article contains affiliate links which means we make a small commission if you buy any premium plan from our link.
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| Image by vectorjuice on Freepik |
There are lots of questions floating around about how affiliate marketing works, what to do and what not to do when it comes to setting up a business. With so much uncertainty surrounding both personal and business aspects of affiliate marketing. In this post, we will answer the most frequently asked question about affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is a way to make money by promoting the products and services of other people and companies. You don't need to create your product or service, just promote existing ones. That's why it's so easy to get started with affiliate marketing. You can even get started with no budget at all!
An affiliate program is a package of information you create for your product, which is then made available to potential publishers. The program will typically include details about the product and its retail value, commission levels, and promotional materials. Many affiliate programs are managed via an affiliate network like ShareASale, which acts as a platform to connect publishers and advertisers, but it is also possible to offer your program directly.
Affiliate networks connect publishers to advertisers. Affiliate networks make money by charging fees to the merchants who advertise with them; these merchants are known as advertisers. The percentage of each sale that the advertiser pays is negotiated between the merchant and the affiliate network.
Dropshipping is a method of selling that allows you to run an online store without having to stock products. You advertise the products as if you owned them, but when someone makes an order, you create a duplicate order with the distributor at a reduced price. The distributor takes care of the post and packaging on your behalf. As affiliate marketing is based on referrals and this type of drop shipping requires no investment in inventory when a customer buys through the affiliate link, no money exchanges hands.
Performance marketing is a method of marketing that pays for performance, like when a sale is made or an ad is clicked This can include methods like PPC (pay-per-click) or display advertising. Affiliate marketing is one form of performance marketing where commissions are paid out to affiliates on a performance basis when they click on their affiliate link and make a purchase or action.
Smartphones are essentially miniature computers, so publishers can display the same websites and offers that are available on a PC. But mobiles also offer specific tools not available on computers, and these can be used to good effect for publishers. Publishers can optimize their ads for mobile users by making them easy to access by this audience. Publishers can also make good use of text and instant messaging to promote their offers. As the mobile market is predicted to make up 80% of traffic in the future, publishers who do not promote on mobile devices are missing out on a big opportunity.
The best way to find affiliate publishers is on reputable networks like ShareASale Cj(Commission Junction), Awin, and Impact radius. These networks have a strict application process and compliance checks, which means that all affiliates are trustworthy.
An affiliate disclosure statement discloses to the reader that there may be affiliate links on a website, for which a commission may be paid to the publisher if visitors follow these links and make purchases.
Publishers promote their programs through a variety of means, including blogs, websites, email marketing, and pay-per-click ads. Social media has a huge interactive audience, making this platform a good source of potential traffic.
A super affiliate is an affiliate partner who consistently drives a large majority of sales from any program they promote, compared to other affiliate partners involved in that program. Affiliates make a lot of money from affiliate marketing Pat Flynn earned more than $50000 in 2013 from affiliate marketing.
Publishers can be identified by their publisher ID, which is used in tracking cookies to determine which publishers generate sales. The activity is then viewed within a network's dashboard.
Because the Internet is so widespread, affiliate programs can be promoted in any country. Affiliate strategies that are set internationally need to be tailored to the language of the targeted country.
Affiliate marketing can help you grow your business in the following ways:
One of the best ways to work with qualified affiliates is to hire an affiliate marketing agency that works with all the networks. Affiliates are carefully selected and go through a rigorous application process to be included in the network.
Affiliate marketing is generally associated with websites, but there are other ways to promote your affiliate links, including:
To build your affiliate marketing business, you don't have to invest money in the beginning. You can sign up for free with any affiliate network and start promoting their brands right away.
Commission rates are typically based on a percentage of the total sale and in some cases can also be a flat fee for each transaction. The rates are set by the merchant.
Who manages your affiliate program?
Some merchants run their affiliate programs internally, while others choose to contract out management to a network or an external agency.
Cookies are small pieces of data that work with web browsers to store information such as user preferences, login or registration data, and shopping cart contents. When someone clicks on your affiliate link, a cookie is placed on the user's computer or mobile device. That cookie is used to remember the link or ad that the visitor clicked on. Even if the user leaves your site and comes back a week later to make a purchase, you will still get credit for the sale and receive a commission it depends on the site cookies duration
The merchant determines the duration of a cookie, also known as its “cookie life.” The most common length for an affiliate program is 30 days. If someone clicks on your affiliate link, you’ll be paid a commission if they purchase within 30 days of the click.
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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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Are you searching for an ecomerce platform to help you build an online store and sell products?
In this Sellfy review, we'll talk about how this eCommerce platform can let you sell digital products while keeping full control of your marketing.
And the best part? Starting your business can be done in just five minutes.
Let us then talk about the Sellfy platform and all the benefits it can bring to your business.
Sellfy is an eCommerce solution that allows digital content creators, including writers, illustrators, designers, musicians, and filmmakers, to sell their products online. Sellfy provides a customizable storefront where users can display their digital products and embed "Buy Now" buttons on their website or blog. Sellfy product pages enable users to showcase their products from different angles with multiple images and previews from Soundcloud, Vimeo, and YouTube. Files of up to 2GB can be uploaded to Sellfy, and the company offers unlimited bandwidth and secure file storage. Users can also embed their entire store or individual project widgets in their site, with the ability to preview how widgets will appear before they are displayed.
Sellfy includes:
Sellfy is a powerful e-commerce platform that helps you personalize your online storefront. You can add your logo, change colors, revise navigation, and edit the layout of your store. Sellfy also allows you to create a full shopping cart so customers can purchase multiple items. And Sellfy gives you the ability to set your language or let customers see a translated version of your store based on their location.
Sellfy gives you the option to host your store directly on its platform, add a custom domain to your store, and use it as an embedded storefront on your website. Sellfy also optimizes its store offerings for mobile devices, allowing for a seamless checkout experience.
Sellfy allows creators to host all their products and sell all of their digital products on one platform. Sellfy also does not place storage limits on your store but recommends that files be no larger than 5GB. Creators can sell both standard and subscription-based products in any file format that is supported by the online marketplace. Customers can purchase products instantly after making a purchase – there is no waiting period.
You can organize your store by creating your product categories, sorting by any characteristic you choose. Your title, description, and the image will be included on each product page. In this way, customers can immediately evaluate all of your products. You can offer different pricing options for all of your products, including "pay what you want," in which the price is entirely up to the customer. This option allows you to give customers control over the cost of individual items (without a minimum price) or to set pricing minimums—a good option if you're in a competitive market or when you have higher-end products. You can also offer set prices per product as well as free products to help build your store's popularity.
Sellfy is ideal for selling digital content, such as ebooks. But it does not allow you to copyrighted material (that you don't have rights to distribute).
Sellfy offers several ways to share your store, enabling you to promote your business on different platforms. Sellfy lets you integrate it with your existing website using "buy now" buttons, embed your entire storefront, or embed certain products so you can reach more people. Sellfy also enables you to connect with your Facebook page and YouTube channel, maximizing your visibility.
Sellfy is a simple online platform that allows customers to buy your products directly through your store. Sellfy has two payment processing options: PayPal and Stripe. You will receive instant payments with both of these processors, and your customer data is protected by Sellfy's secure (PCI-compliant) payment security measures. In addition to payment security, Sellfy provides anti-fraud tools to help protect your products including PDF stamping, unique download links, and limited download attempts.
The Sellfy platform includes marketing and analytics tools to help you manage your online store. You can send email product updates and collect newsletter subscribers through the platform. With Sellfy, you can also offer discount codes and product upsells, as well as create and track Facebook and Twitter ads for your store. The software's analytics dashboard will help you track your best-performing products, generated revenue, traffic channels, top locations, and overall store performance.
To expand functionality and make your e-commerce store run more efficiently, Sellfy offers several integrations. Google Analytics and Webhooks, as well as integrations with Patreon and Facebook Live Chat, are just a few of the options available. Sellfy allows you to connect to Zapier, which gives you access to hundreds of third-party apps, including tools like Mailchimp, Trello, Salesforce, and more.
The free plan comes with:
Starter plan comes with:
The business plan comes with:
The premium plan comes with:
Sellfy has its benefits and downsides, but fortunately, the pros outweigh the cons.
In this article, we have taken a look at some of the biggest benefits associated with using sellfy for eCommerce. Once you compare these benefits to what you get with other platforms such as Shopify, you should find that it is worth your time to consider sellfy for your business. After reading this article all of your questions will be solved but if you have still some questions let me know in the comment section below, I will be happy to answer your questions.
Note: This article contains affiliate links which means we make a small commission if you buy sellfy premium plan from our link.
If you are looking for the best wordpress plugins, then you are at the right place. Here is the list of best wordpress plugins that you should use in your blog to boost SEO, strong your security and know every aspects of your blog . Although creating a good content is one factor but there are many wordpress plugins that perform different actions and add on to your success. So let's start
Those users who are serious about SEO, Yoast SEO will do the work for them to reach their goals. All they need to do is select a keyword, and the plugin will then optimize your page according to the specified keyword
Yoast offers many popular SEO WordPress plugin functions. It gives you real-time page analysis to optimize your content, images, meta descriptions, titles, and kewords. Yoast also checks the length of your sentences and paragraphs, whether you’re using enough transition words or subheadings, how often you use passive voice, and so on. Yoast tells Google whether or not to index a page or a set of pages too.
A website running WordPress can put a lot of strain on a server, which increases the chances that the website will crash and harm your business. To avoid such an unfortunate situation and ensure that all your pages load quickly, you need a caching plugin like WP Rocket.
WP Rocket plugin designed to increases your website speed. Instead of waiting for pages to be saved to cache, WP Rocket turns on desired caching settings, like page cache and gzip compression. The plugin also activates other features, such as CDN support and llazy image loadding, to enhance your site speed.
Wordfence Security is a WordPress firewall and security scanner that keeps your site safe from malicious hackers, spam, and other online threats. This Plugin comes with a web application firewall (WAF) called tthread Defence Feed that helps to prevents brute force attacks by ensuring you set stronger passwords and limiting login attempts. It searches for malware and compares code, theme, and plugin files with the records in the WordPress.org repository to verify their integrity and reports changes to you.
Wordfence security scanner provides you with actionable insights into your website's security status and will alert you to any potential threats, keeping it safe and secure. It also includes login security features that let you activate reCAPTCHA and two-factor authentication for your website.
Akismet can help prevent spam from appearing on your site. Every day, it automatically checks every comment against a global database of spam to block malicious content. With Akismet, you also won’t have to worry about innocent comments being caught by the filter or false positives. You can simply tell Akismet about those and it will get better over time. It also checks your contact form submissions against its global spam database and weed out unnecessary fake information.
Contact Form 7 is a plug-in that allows you to create contact forms that make it easy for your users to send messages to your site. The plug-in was developed by Takayuki Miyoshi and lets you create multiple contact forms on the same site; it also integrates Akismet spam filtering and lets you customize the styling and fields that you want to use in the form. The plug-in provides CAPTCHA and Ajax submitting.
When you’re looking for an easy way to manage your Google Analytics-related web tracking services, Monster Insights can help. You can add, customize, and integrate Google Analytics data with ease so you’ll be able to see how every webpage performs, which online campaigns bring in the most traffic, and which content readers engage with the most. It’s same as Google Analytics
It is a powerful tool to keep track of your traffic stats. With it, you can view stats for your active sessions, conversions, and bounce rates. You’ll also be able to see your total revenue, the products you sell, and how your site is performing when it comes to referrals.
MonsterInsights offers a free plan that includes basic Google Analytics integration, data insights, and user activity metrics.
Pretty Links is a powerful WordPress plugin that enables you to easily cloak affiliate links on your websiteIt even allows you to easily redirect visitors based on a specific request, including permanent 301 and temporary 302/307 redirects.
Pretty links also helps you to automatically shorten your url for your post and pages.
You can also enable auto-linking feature to automatically add affiliate links for certain keywords
We hope you’ve found this article useful. We appreciate you reading and welcome your feedback if you have it.
Ginger VS Grammarly: When it comes to grammar checkers, Ginger and Grammarly are two of the most popular choices on the market. This article aims to highlight the specifics of each one so that you can make a more informed decision about the one you'll use.
If you are a writer, you must have heard of Grammarly before. Grammarly has over 10M users across the globe, it's probably the most popular AI writing enhancement tool, without a doubt. That's why there's a high chance that you already know about Grammarly.
But today we are going to do a comparison between Ginger and Grammarly, So let's define Grammarly here. Like Ginger, Grammarly is an AI writing assistant that checks for grammatical errors, spellings, and punctuation. The free version covers the basics like identifying grammar and spelling mistakes
While the Premium version offers a lot more functionality, it detects plagiarism in your content, suggests word choice, or adds fluency to it.
Ginger is a writing enhancement tool that not only catches typos and grammatical mistakes but also suggests content improvements. As you type, it picks up on errors then shows you what’s wrong, and suggests a fix. It also provides you with synonyms and definitions of words and allows you to translate your text into dozens of languages.
In addition, the program provides a text reader, so you can gauge your writing’s conversational tone.
Grammarly and Ginger are two popular grammar checker software brands that help you to become a better writer. But if you’re undecided about which software to use, consider these differences:
Grammarly Score: 7/10
Ginger:4/10
So Grammarly wins here.
For companies with three or more employees, the Business plan costs $12.50/month for each member of your team.
Ginger Wins Here
While both writing assistants are fantastic in their ways, you need to choose the one you want.
For example, go for Grammarly if you want a plagiarism tool included.
Choose Ginger if you want to write in languages other than English. I will to the differences for you in order to make the distinctions clearer.
Which one you like let me know in the comments section also give your opinions in the comments section below.
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| (Photo Credit:- Exploding Topics) |
Some examples can be:
There’s no excuse not to try this website — it’s free and easy to use!
Visit Exploding Topics From Here
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| (Photo Credit:-Headline Studio) |
Headline Studio allows you to create catchy headlines for your content. After writing a title there is data on how often people view articles with similar titles and why they are involved with them.
This is a valuable tool when creating new blog posts because it generates catchy headlines for your blog post to catch a reader’s attention.
Visit Headline Studio From Here
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| (Photo Credit:- Answer The Public) |
Answer The public is an excellent tool for content creators. It gives you insight into what people are asking on social media sites and communities and lets you guess about topics that matter to your audience. Answer the public allows you to enter a keyword or topic related to your niche and it will show results with popular questions and keywords related to your topic. It's an amazing way to get insights into what people are searching online and allows you to identify topics driven by new blog posts or social media content on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and Twitter as well as the types of questions they ask and also want answers.
Visit Answer The Public From Here
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| (Photo Credit:-Surfer Seo) |
With this tool, content creators can quickly and easily check the ranking of their websites and those of other competitors. This tool allows you to see how your website compares to others in different categories, including:
Surfer Seo is free and the interface is very friendly. It's a great tool for anyone who wants to do quick competitor research or check their site's rankings at any time.
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| (Photo Credit:- Canva) |
Canva is a free graphic design platform that makes it easy to create invitations, business cards, mobile videos, Instagram posts, Instagram stories, flyers, and more with professionally designed templates. You can even upload your photos and drag and drop them into Canva templates. It's like having a basic version of Photoshop. You can also remove background from images with one click.
Canva offers thousands of free, professionally designed templates that can be customized with just a few clicks. Simply upload your photos to Canva, drag them into the template of your choice, and save the file to your computer.
It is free to use for basic use but if you want access to different fonts or more features, then you need to buy a premium plan.
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| (Photo Credit:- Facebook Audience Insights |
Facebook Audience Insights is a powerful tool for content creators when researching their target market. This can help you understand the demographics, interests, and behaviors of your target audience. This information helps determine the direction of your content so that it resonates with them. The most important tools to consider in Facebook Audience Insights are Demographics and Behavior. These two sections provide you with valuable information about your target market, such as their age and from where they belong, how much time they spend on social media per day, what devices they use to access it, etc.
There is another section of Facebook Audits that is very helpful. This will let you know the interests, hobbies, and activities that people in your target market are most interested in. You can use this information to create content for them about things they will be about as opposed to topics they may not be so keen on.
Visit Facebook Audience Insights From Here
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| (Photo Credit: Pixel |
Pexels is a warehouse for any content creator with millions of free royalty images who wants to find high-quality images that can be used freely without having to worry about permissions or licensing so you are free to use the photos in your content and also there is no watermark on photos
The only cons are that some photos contain people, and Pexels doesn't allow you to remove people from photos. Search your keyword and download as many as you want!
So there you have it. We hope that these specially curated websites will come in handy for content creators and small businesses alike. If you've got a site that should be on this list, let us know! And if you're looking for more content creator resources, then let us know in the comments section below
Rep. Sara Jacobs is trying to raise the alarm about the key U.S. ally’s conduct after the Christmas strike killed 10 civilians.
The post Nigeria’s Military Gets Billions in U.S. Aid. On Christmas Day, It Bombed Its Own Civilians Again. appeared first on The Intercept.
Initial speculation about a new Apple feature.
Using video analysis and satellite imagery, the Guardian has chronicled the destruction of the Jabaliya refugee camp through three offensives since October 2023. Repeated airstrikes and ground operations by Israel, which claims it is used as a Hamas base, have razed the camp to the ground and driven out most of the civilians. Observers have said the systematic destruction of entire neighbourhoods in northern Gaza is part a policy known as the 'generals’ plan', aimed at driving out civilians by declaring certain areas closed military zones
Continue reading...Pharmaceutical corporations claim high prices are the cost of innovation, but the reality is far more complicated — and troubling. In 2030, the patents of some of the world’s best-selling drugs will expire, an event called the 'patent cliff', and companies are doubling down on tactics such as 'evergreening' patents and pay-for-delay deals to keep prices high and competition out.
In this video, Neelam Tailor uncovers the shocking strategies big pharma use to game the system, explaining how these moves protect profits but hurt patients
Continue reading...
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Rover trials in a quarry in the UK showing a four-wheeled rover, known as Codi, using its robotic arm and a powerful computer vision system to pick up sample tubes.
The rover drives to the samples with an accuracy of 10cm, constantly mapping the terrain. Codi uses its arm and four cameras to locate the sample tube, retrieve it and safely store it on the rover – all of it without human intervention. At every stop, the rover uses stereo cameras to build up a 180-degree map of the surroundings and plan its next maneouvres. Once parked, the camera on top of the mast detects the tube and estimates its position with respect to the rover. The robotic arm initiates a complex choreography to move closer to the sample, fetch it and store it.
The sample tubes are a replica of the hermetically sealed samples inside which NASA’s Perseverance rover is collecting precious martian soil inside. To most people on Earth, they resemble lightsabres.
The reddish terrain, although not fully representative of Mars in terms of soil composition, has plenty of slopes and rocks of different sizes, similar to what a rover might encounter on the martian surface. Quarry testing is an essential next step in the development process, providing a unique and dynamic landscape that cannot be replicated indoors.
ESA continues to run further research using the rover to maintain and develop rover capabilities in Europe.
Read the full article: Rovers, lightsabres and a piglet.
Come for wonderful walks on Box Hill and the Happy Valley trail, stay for cosy inns, great food and a sense of discovery
If Surrey were a restaurant, it would be a drive-thru. Sandwiched between London and England’s south coast, famous for its wealthy commuter-belt towns and the great thick scar of the M25, it’s a place people whip through on their way to somewhere else. I’ve spent several decades doing it; back and forth between Sussex and London, occasionally meeting friends in Guildford or Dorking, but never really exploring any further.
My husband and I had our first date in a pub in the Surrey Hills (an AONB since 1958, the second in the country) – the lovely Fox Revived at Norwood Hill – and I remember thinking at the time, “Oh, this is quite pretty.” A decade later, sitting in the same pub, and slightly less distracted by first-date nerves, I decided it was somewhere I really should get to know.
Continue reading...It’s free, it’s sensible and it makes workers happy. The government needs to accept that this is the new normal
You would be hard-pressed to find a single positive side-effect of the pandemic. If there is one, it is the growing numbers of people who now work from home. Half of workers work from home for at least part of the week now, and many workplaces have thrived because of it. Zoom meetings save time and wasteful travel, employers are free to hire talent from anywhere in the country, and employees have escaped escalating property prices in London and steep commuting costs. Working from home (WFH) has been a boon for the climate, too; according to one US study, two to four days of remote working a week lowers carbon emissions by between 11% and 29%.
Yet WFH is now coming under accelerating attack. JP Morgan will now require employees to spend five days a week in the office and other big companies may soon follow suit. A perverse strain of rightwing thought opposes almost any social progress that improves other people’s lives. This Scrooge-like instinct yearns to make work as grindingly hard and low-paid as possible. Recall Jacob Rees-Mogg pacing civil service offices like the Child Catcher, leaving “sorry you were out when I visited” notes on employees’ desks in 2022. The same age-old sentiment prompted the CBI chair, Rupert Soames, to savage Labour’s flagship anti-gig economy employment rights bill on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme yesterday, warning that the new bill would force businesses to let people go.
Continue reading...Wang Xing was abducted in Thailand by increasingly bold crime gangs operating in Myanmar, putting an entire tourism industry at risk
Wang Xing thought he was travelling to a casting call with film producers in Thailand.
The 22-year-old Chinese actor, also known by his stage name Xing Xing, had been communicating on WeChat with people he believed were Chinese employees of a major Thai entertainment firm, according to Thai police. One of them greeted him at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport and led him through security, before telling him that the plan – to stay at a nearby hotel – had changed. Instead they drove 500km to Mae Sot in western Thailand.
Continue reading...As national populist parties gain ground in the west, progressives must put social and climate priorities ahead of market interests
Different year, same direction of travel. The likely formation of the first far-right-led government in Austria’s postwar history, after the breakdown this month of coalition talks between mainstream parties, is the latest confirmation of the illiberal drift in western democracies. Only a few years ago, Viktor Orbán’s Hungary remained a troublesome outlier in the European Union. These days, variations on Mr Orbán’s ethno-nationalist approach to 21st-century politics are flourishing across the continent. And in a week’s time, Donald Trump will be back in the White House.
In an era of stagnating living standards and rising inequality, the growing appeal of national populism should not come as a surprise. The targeting of immigration, “liberal elites” and globalisation has channelled resentments felt in deindustrialised regions, where good jobs and a sense of identity were lost as capital and investment moved elsewhere. The migration of the less well-off towards parties of the far right is a symptom of times in which trust in mainstream politics has collapsed.
Continue reading...A year in Palestine, living in fear of not just genocide — but AIDS.
The post Queer, HIV-Positive, and Running Out of Medication in Gaza appeared first on The Intercept.
Alfred Bourgeois’s daughter is convinced of his innocence. In the four years since his execution, she has waged a sometimes-lonely battle to prove it.
The post She Lost Her Dad to Trump’s Killing Spree. Now She Wants Biden to Clear His Name. appeared first on The Intercept.
“The consistent defunding of other city programs in order to give the LAPD billions a year has consequences,” said a local activist.
The post LA Budgeted Money For Cop Jobs While Cutting Fire Department Positions. Now the City Is Burning. appeared first on The Intercept.
A new Syria is emerging from the shadow of the brutal Assad regime. The Guardian’s Bethan McKernan and Ayman Abu Ramouz meet people celebrating their hard-won freedom, but also those grappling with a traumatic past. The pair travel to the notorious Sednaya prison, where they meet a former prisoner who was liberated by his family just days before
Resistance was not a choice’: how Syria’s unlikely rebel alliance took Aleppo
'The Syrian regime hit us with chemical weapons: only now can we speak out' – video
Syria’s disappeared: one woman’s search for her missing father
From biking adventures to city breaks, get inspiration for your next break – whether in the UK or further afield – with twice-weekly emails from the Guardian’s travel editors. You’ll also receive handpicked offers from Guardian Holidays.
From biking adventures to city breaks, get inspiration for your next break – whether in the UK or further afield – with twice-weekly emails from the Guardian’s travel editors.
You’ll also receive handpicked offers from Guardian Holidays.
Continue reading...Crunchy tortillas, beans, salsa and creamy avocado – this seriously good brunch bowl has it all
You wouldn’t think of nachos as a natural way to start the day, but then nachos are simply a (more delicious) copy of a dish found throughout Mexico, where the tortillas from the day before are fried or baked until crisp and tossed in a salsa of your choice. Here, I use the acidity of tomatillo, which is given some smokiness and heat by chipotle chillies, and add a fried or poached egg and a squeeze of lime to make a seriously good brunch.
Continue reading...Feed picky nippers with dips and chips made from veg, perhaps some crackers, cheese, eggs – anything with some colour to attract the eye
Where there are picky eaters, there needs to be a gameplan. For Alissa Timoshkina, author of Kapusta, that means slipping vegetables into an existing favourite, be that pasta, pancakes or muffins. “You can’t go wrong with a veg-rich pasta sauce or pasta salad with roast vegetables [courgette, peppers and tomatoes, say] and mini mozzarella balls,” she says. Meanwhile, courgette, pea and sweetcorn pancakes, and cheddar and courgette muffins are other firm favourites round at Timoshkina’s: “You could add a few chopped green olives as well.”
Failing that, she goes for colour: “Think something that would be appealing and exciting to the eye, and therefore likely to entice children to dig in.” Give them options and keep things customisable: “Offer a platter-style selection of fruit and veg, and pair it with cheese, a dip and crackers.” More practically, for Timoshkina that means a small cheese sandwich, crudités (carrots, celery, peppers, cucumber), hummus or guacamole, olives, nori sheets (“instead of crisps”), grapes, clementines and/or dried fruit. “If you have a bento-style box, that’s even better.”
Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.com
Continue reading...How long does it take to change a habit? It varies, but one paper suggests it takes an average of 66 days. We ask writers to change one thing in their lives within that timeframe … and tell us if it works
I drink a lot of Pepsi Max. A slab of 30 cans has been known to disappear within a week. That’s upward of four 375ml cans a day – one and a half litres of sugar-free cola every 24 hours. Not enough to end up on My Strange Addiction but enough to concern friends. “Those things will kill you,” they tell me.
To be clear, there’s no evidence that Pepsi Max will kill anybody. Breathe easy, PepsiCo.
Continue reading...Ham, gammon, bacon, salami and some dairy products banned after Germany’s first reported case in nearly 40 years
Britain has banned the import of German ham, bacon and salami as well as many other meat and dairy products after a case of foot-and-mouth disease was confirmed on the outskirts of Berlin last week.
The government said that while there were no cases of the livestock disease in Britain, the ban would help stop it spreading and protect British farmers and their livelihoods.
Continue reading...A dazzlingly exotic fruit salad for a fine midweek treat
A dazzling salad for a winter’s dessert, or as something with which to start the day.
Halve 8 passion fruit, scoop out the seeds and juice with a spoon into a mixing bowl. Halve and squeeze 4 clementines, or 1 large orange, and stir into the passion fruit.
Continue reading...Fifteen bodies brought to surface amid claims 109 are dead and between 400 and 800 people still alive and trapped
Fifteen bodies have been brought out of an illegal goldmine in South Africa and 44 people have been taken out alive since Monday, after police blocked supplies of food, water and medicine to the workers underground in October in an attempt to force them out.
On Thursday, a letter brought up to the surface claimed there were 109 dead bodies underground. A video circulated by the NGO Mining Affected Communities United in Action (Macua) appeared to show more than 50 wrapped bodies laid out in a tunnel.
Continue reading...Study has linked a soft and liquid diet to smaller jaw size in children, but others say evolution is more likely the cause
Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) have caused concern among experts for their potential impact on human health, but now scientists have warned they might also affect how our bodies develop, in particular our jaws.
We take a look at the issue and explore what, if anything, should be done.
Continue reading...Coffee chain reverses policy introduced in North America in 2018 that lets anyone use its facilities
Starbucks has said that people using its coffee shops in North America need to buy something, U-turning on a policy that allowed anyone to use its toilets even if they had not made a purchase.
The world’s biggest coffee chain this week published a new code of conduct to be displayed in every US and Canadian shop saying “Starbucks spaces are for use by our partners and customers – this includes our cafes, patios and restrooms”.
Continue reading...Pizzeria adds eye-watering price-tag to divisive Hawaiian variant to put customers off ordering it
A pizzeria is asking its customers to put their dough where their mouth is if they want to eat a Hawaiian – charging £100 for a ham and pineapple-topped pizza.
The owners and staff of Lupa pizza in Norwich are so revolted by the Hawaiian that they have reluctantly added the topping to their delivery menu but only with the eye-watering price tag.
Continue reading...Come for wonderful walks on Box Hill and the Happy Valley trail, stay for cosy inns, great food and a sense of discovery
If Surrey were a restaurant, it would be a drive-thru. Sandwiched between London and England’s south coast, famous for its wealthy commuter-belt towns and the great thick scar of the M25, it’s a place people whip through on their way to somewhere else. I’ve spent several decades doing it; back and forth between Sussex and London, occasionally meeting friends in Guildford or Dorking, but never really exploring any further.
My husband and I had our first date in a pub in the Surrey Hills (an AONB since 1958, the second in the country) – the lovely Fox Revived at Norwood Hill – and I remember thinking at the time, “Oh, this is quite pretty.” A decade later, sitting in the same pub, and slightly less distracted by first-date nerves, I decided it was somewhere I really should get to know.
Continue reading...More than 150 Nobel and World Food prize laureates sign open letter calling for immediate ramping up of food production
More than 150 Nobel and World Food prize laureates have signed an open letter calling for “moonshot” efforts to ramp up food production before an impending world hunger catastrophe.
The coalition of some of the world’s greatest living thinkers called for urgent action to prioritise research and technology to solve the “tragic mismatch of global food supply and demand”.
Continue reading...His meal-replacement business is worth hundreds of millions, but Collier’s rise to the top has been far from easy. He discusses bodybuilding, bullies and why nutrition is more polarising than politics
When James Collier got married to Melanie nearly 10 years ago, his dad paid for the honeymoon. Collier’s businesses weren’t exactly booming, but he had a good feeling about a new venture. “I was on the beach checking my emails, and I said to Mel: ‘I think this is going to do all right, this one.’ And that was an underestimation.”
It certainly was. Sales of Huel, the meal-replacement brand Collier launched in 2015, topped £214m last year. Pre-tax profits tripled to £13.8m. Huel – a product mainly made of oats, pea protein and flaxseeds, which comes in powder, drink, snack bar and meal-pot forms – is sold in 25,000 shops worldwide, including 70% of UK supermarkets. The company was most recently valued at £440m, but has since had investment from Morgan Stanley. Just how rich is Collier now?
Continue reading...Phone video shared by mining NGO appears to show dozens of wrapped bodies in underground tunnel
The South African government has launched a mission to bring to the surface potentially hundreds of people in an illegal mine who last year had supplies of food, water and medicine blocked by police in an attempt to force them out.
The government agreed to the attempt on Friday after the sister of one of those underground initiated a court case in response to letters from miners brought to the surface on Thursday.
Continue reading...This week: what we learned testing toothbrushes, fitness kit worth the investment, and slow cookers for warming winter feasts
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When the Filter asked me to write a roundup of the best electric toothbrushes, I didn’t see any reason not to. After all, I’ve been reviewing battery-powered gadgets for more than a decade, and I have all 32 teeth and a comfortable toothpaste budget, which makes me as qualified as anybody else.
Or does it? Actually, in the absence of professional toothbrushing leagues*, how would I know if I’m an expert in the art of oral hygiene or not? Conventional (and, as it turns out, likely bogus) wisdom suggests that anyone can become an expert in anything with 10,000 hours of practice.
The best blenders to blitz like a pro, tried and tested, from Ninja to Nutribullet
14 of the best men’s boots for winter, from Chelsea to brogues to western
The best slow cookers for effortless homemade meals, tried and tested
Continue reading...A year in Palestine, living in fear of not just genocide — but AIDS.
The post Queer, HIV-Positive, and Running Out of Medication in Gaza appeared first on The Intercept.
From Whole Earth and Meridian to supermarket staples, which is the best crunchy peanut butter, and how much do you really need to spend on it?
I came late to the peanut butter party, and my mum remains convinced that it’s extremely unhealthy stuff, which, to be fair to her, is probably true of the sugary versions of my childhood. In the past few years, however, peanut butter has gone back to its health-food roots. It is now championed for its protein and monounsaturated fat content, as brands stripped of their sweeteners and emulsifiers have occupied the premium end of the market. Given that these new-wave natural peanut butters tend to contain nothing but peanuts – give or take the odd pinch of salt – the difference between supermarket own-label and luxury jars tends to be slight. The biggest variations are largely in the sourcing and quality of the peanuts themselves.
This means that peanut butter is a handy thing to have in the cupboard at all times. Personally, I prefer a loose, crunchy consistency; for all the claims about sustainable palm oil, there’s simply no need for it in peanut butter, which, like tahini, separates naturally over time and is just as easily stirred back together. To slow the separation, simply beat the oil back in, then store the jar upside down in the fridge – assuming it lasts that long.
Continue reading...A job listing for the Super Bowl LIX halftime show offers $12 per hour — part of a long pattern of host-city residents getting the short shrift.
The post Everyone’s Making Millions But the Super Bowl Haltime Show Wants to Hire New Orleans Locals for $12 an Hour appeared first on The Intercept.
Whether you’re making comforting curries, casseroles or chilli con carne, we’ve tested the top slow cookers for serving up winter warmers
• The best blenders to blitz like a pro, tried and tested, from Ninja to Nutribullet
As January beds in and our craving for cosiness increases, you may be minded to dig out the slow cooker. Coming home to a warm, bubbling meal – with very little effort – is a real treat in the cold and dark. Plus, slow cooking can be an economical method of cooking.
If you have yet to experience the comfort and joy of a slow cooker, or if your ancient model has finally died a death, it could be time to treat yourself to a season of stews, casseroles, curries and more. I’ve spent weeks testing slow cookers to compile a shortlist of the most functional, useful and well-designed recommendations to transform your dinner time.
Best overall slow cooker:
GreenPan slow cooker
£200 at GreenPan
Best basic slow cooker:
ProCook digital slow cooker
£49 at ProCook
Best multi-cooker:
Ninja Foodi 8-in-1 PossibleCooker
£119 at Appliances Direct
Best pressure-cooking slow cooker:
Sage Fast Slow Pro
£179.95 at Sage Appliances
A weekly email from Yotam Ottolenghi, Meera Sodha, Felicity Cloake and Rachel Roddy, featuring the latest recipes and seasonal eating ideas
Each week we’ll send you an exclusive newsletter from our star food writers. We’ll also send you the latest recipes from Yotam Ottolenghi, Nigel Slater, Meera Sodha and all our star cooks, stand-out food features and seasonal eating inspiration, plus restaurant reviews from Grace Dent and Jay Rayner.
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Continue reading...Style, with substance: what’s really trending this week, a roundup of the best fashion journalism and your wardrobe dilemmas solved, direct to your inbox every Thursday
Style, with substance: what’s really trending this week, a roundup of the best fashion journalism and your wardrobe dilemmas solved, delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday
Explore all our newsletters: whether you love film, football, fashion or food, we’ve got something for you
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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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Steven Soderbergh’s TV film honours the master pianist in the only appropriate way: with lurid spectacle
“We, as gay people, we get to choose our family,” said RuPaul Charles in a frequently cited line from a 2013 episode of Drag Race. On a different channel that year, HBO aired Steven Soderbergh’s TV movie Behind the Candelabra, a film adaptation of Scott Thorson’s memoir of the same name. Published in 1988, a year after Liberace’s death, the memoir was a haunting account of Thorson’s relationship with the spangled, mononymous pianist – an unusual chosen family just begging to be depicted on screen.
Brought to life by an extravagantly eyelinered Matt Damon, Thorson was Liberace’s live-in lover turned chauffeur. They dated for five pyrotechnic years before Thorson’s so-called “employment” was terminated by his celebrity boyfriend.
Continue reading...Chan, now 70, rehearses his trademark action comedy chops playing a film star battling bad guys to protect a CGI panda cub
Fun though it is to see Jackie Chan good-naturedly busting out the classic moves – and very spry he is at 70 years old – this really is a by-the-numbers piece of work. It’s a Chinese action comedy in which Chan plays himself, the adored movie star, who is a little bored with the range of downtime activities on offer for an icon like him.
Then he jumps at the chance to adopt a rare baby panda at the zoo, and shows up just as a kidnap attempt is under way: a battalion of tough guys have been sent in to abduct the CGI creature at the behest of some Middle Eastern businessmen whose obvious stereotypical villainy is finally redeemed by some sentimental tearjerking — and of course Chan has to kick their butts in that unique slapstick way, helped by winsome zoo assistant Su Xiaozhu (Shi Ce). It’s a kids’ film in essence, although oddly the action violence means that it has a 15 certificate in the UK.
Continue reading...It’s free, it’s sensible and it makes workers happy. The government needs to accept that this is the new normal
You would be hard-pressed to find a single positive side-effect of the pandemic. If there is one, it is the growing numbers of people who now work from home. Half of workers work from home for at least part of the week now, and many workplaces have thrived because of it. Zoom meetings save time and wasteful travel, employers are free to hire talent from anywhere in the country, and employees have escaped escalating property prices in London and steep commuting costs. Working from home (WFH) has been a boon for the climate, too; according to one US study, two to four days of remote working a week lowers carbon emissions by between 11% and 29%.
Yet WFH is now coming under accelerating attack. JP Morgan will now require employees to spend five days a week in the office and other big companies may soon follow suit. A perverse strain of rightwing thought opposes almost any social progress that improves other people’s lives. This Scrooge-like instinct yearns to make work as grindingly hard and low-paid as possible. Recall Jacob Rees-Mogg pacing civil service offices like the Child Catcher, leaving “sorry you were out when I visited” notes on employees’ desks in 2022. The same age-old sentiment prompted the CBI chair, Rupert Soames, to savage Labour’s flagship anti-gig economy employment rights bill on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme yesterday, warning that the new bill would force businesses to let people go.
Continue reading...The actor soared to fame in the 90s and 00s in Kill Bill, Charlie’s Angels and Ally McBeal – navigating a notorious time for women on set. Now, she returns to Hollywood in Steven Soderbergh’s Presence – and says she’s still not afraid of standing up for herself
Boredom is not a feeling with which Lucy Liu is familiar. “Sometimes I wouldn’t mind it,” she says with a smile. “But it feels nonstop. I never get bored because I don’t have time.” If there wasn’t so much to do, she says: “I’m sure I could learn a language, you know, learn how to ride a unicycle. I mean, come on, the list is endless. So it never feels, like ‘What’s left?’ It’s ‘Where do we start?’” Liu is not someone who likes to look backwards. “I think my best work is ahead of me,” says the actor who has done blockbusters (2000’s Charlie’s Angels and its sequel), two Quentin Tarantino movies (Kill Bill Vols 1 & 2), performed on Broadway, shared top billing on a hit TV show (Sherlock Holmes update Elementary, playing a female Watson), all after receiving her big break on another, era-defining series (Ally McBeal).
Liu’s latest film is Presence, one of Steven Soderbergh’s more experimental works. Although nominally a horror, it’s weirder than that, being shot from the perspective of a ghost who watches a new family move into a house. “He’s truly an artist, because he’s willing to experiment and not really afraid to fail,” says Liu of the director. She has been a fan of Soderbergh’s since his 1989 breakthrough Sex, Lies, and Videotape. “I feel like it [Presence] is coming from a very clear place of curiosity, which I enjoy, because that is artistic freedom, isn’t it? You’re not doing it for ‘the Man’. It’s something you are curious about so then you just try it. It’s almost childlike.” The film has little dialogue, and little backstory. Liu’s character is the mother of two teenagers, and there is clearly tension within the family, not least because she seems to favour her son over her daughter. Sometimes there are scenes, in the ghost’s watchful presence, where nothing appears to happen, which feels a little destabilising to a modern audience used to fast cuts and spoon-fed exposition. “We’re so used to being told what to look at, what to do or feel,” says Liu.
Continue reading...
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 today’s newsletter: Kyiv’s interrogation footage of captured North Korean soldiers leads to questions about what it might do with the soldiers – and what the PoWs might do for them
Good morning. In a grinding war where significant changes at the front are hard to discern, a video released by Ukraine on Sunday is a rare point of focus: it featured two North Korean soldiers, answering questions from their Ukrainian captors, and weighing the circumstances of their presence in a conflict thousands of miles from home.
The video is, perhaps, not militarily significant. But it is a unique insight into one of the more extraordinary aspects of a conflict that has drawn in actors from all over the world, and is a crucible in which every participant is learning how modern wars are fought.
Economy | Rachel Reeves will remain as chancellor until the next general election, Keir Starmer has insisted, as he warned the Treasury would be “ruthless” over public spending cuts to help meet the government’s fiscal rules.
Gaza | Joe Biden has said his administration is on the brink of sealing a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas that could pause the war after more than 14 months of fighting. Biden administration officials have said they believe the deal may be concluded before Donald Trump’s inauguration next week.
US politics | Donald Trump would have been convicted of crimes over his failed attempt to cling to power in 2020 if he had not won the presidential election in 2024, according to the special counsel who investigated him. Jack Smith’s report detailing his team’s findings about Trump’s efforts to subvert democracy was released early on Tuesday.
UK news | A man accused of driving a young mother to suicide through domestic violence has been found guilty of assault and prolonged controlling behaviour but cleared of her manslaughter. Ryan Wellings, 30, was blamed from “beyond the grave” for the death of his partner, Kiena Dawes. Read more about the case.
‘Forever chemicals’ | The cost of cleaning up toxic forever chemical pollution could reach more than £1.6tn across the UK and Europe over a 20-year period, an annual bill of £84bn, research has found. PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are used in everything from cosmetics to nonstick pans but are almost indestructible without human intervention.
[It is] unclear if North Korea will even claim the two captured soldiers as their own, given Moscow and Pyongyang’s refusal to officially admit that North Korean forces have been deployed to Russia. At the same time, Russia could claim them as their own and hand them over to North Korea after they are traded with Ukrainian PoWs.
Continue reading...The latest actions of Musk and Zuckerberg are a sign of things to come, but the EU already has the power to give people back control
Elon Musk’s latest attempts at direct political interference illustrate the grave danger that Europe is facing. He has suggested overthrowing the UK government, asking if “America should liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government”. Three days after that, he hosted Germany’s far-right candidate for chancellor in forthcoming federal elections in a livestream discussion on the social media platform X, which he owns. It is likely that his rigging of X’s algorithm helped push both into millions of people’s feeds. It also emerged last week that Musk’s SpaceX may start providing a major part of Italy’s defence network.
Europe’s leaders should view this conduct as a sign of things to come. We foolishly allowed control of digital media and infrastructure to concentrate in the hands of a few US tech oligarchs. Now US big tech is Donald Trump’s tool.
Johnny Ryan is director of Enforce, a unit of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties
Continue reading...The president defended his record on Ukraine, Gaza and Afghanistan but foreign policy successes have been few
On paper, few US presidents could boast the foreign policy bona fides of Joe Biden, a veteran statesman with nearly a half-century of experience before he even stepped into office.
But as his term comes to an end, critics have said that the president will leave a legacy of cautious and underpowered diplomacy, as even allies have conceded that the administration is still grasping for a cornerstone foreign policy success.
Continue reading...As national populist parties gain ground in the west, progressives must put social and climate priorities ahead of market interests
Different year, same direction of travel. The likely formation of the first far-right-led government in Austria’s postwar history, after the breakdown this month of coalition talks between mainstream parties, is the latest confirmation of the illiberal drift in western democracies. Only a few years ago, Viktor Orbán’s Hungary remained a troublesome outlier in the European Union. These days, variations on Mr Orbán’s ethno-nationalist approach to 21st-century politics are flourishing across the continent. And in a week’s time, Donald Trump will be back in the White House.
In an era of stagnating living standards and rising inequality, the growing appeal of national populism should not come as a surprise. The targeting of immigration, “liberal elites” and globalisation has channelled resentments felt in deindustrialised regions, where good jobs and a sense of identity were lost as capital and investment moved elsewhere. The migration of the less well-off towards parties of the far right is a symptom of times in which trust in mainstream politics has collapsed.
Continue reading...Allocation of funds from Inflation Reduction Act makes it harder for president-elect to halt green initiatives
The Biden administration has raced to allocate $74bn of funding for climate initiatives before Donald Trump’s inauguration, leaving $20bn vulnerable to potential rollback by the incoming president, new figures reveal.
As the inauguration of Trump looms, the outgoing administration has been accelerating its allocation of cash for climate change and clean energy programs before they are throttled by the incoming US president.
Continue reading...Vladimir Gubarev’s tragic satire about the response to the nuclear disaster transfixed audiences and showed the absolute necessity of theatre
I was pregnant when the terrifying radiation clouds came over Europe after the Chornobyl disaster. My interest was much greater as a result. I was at the Royal Shakespeare Company as a director at the time, and they had asked me to find a contemporary play for the next London season in 1987.
By coincidence, I got a phone call from Michael Glenny, the translator. He had come across this play being done in Russia. Most of its regional theatres had ensemble troupes and they were all doing it.
Vladimir Gubarev was the science editor of the newspaper Pravda and was one of the first journalists to step inside Chornobyl and witness what had happened. He was so horrified that he didn’t want to just write journalism. He’d never written a play before, but he went away to his dacha and wrote Sarcophagus. It dealt with what happened at the plant, but also touched on so many other things to do with corruption at the time in Russia. This was a moment when Gorbachev had announced perestroika. So you were kind of encouraged to be truthful about everything. The play talked about alcoholism, corruption, laziness. All the things which previously you wouldn’t have been able to speak about because the great Soviet empire was glorious and untouchable.
Chornobyl was a symptom of all of it. The sarcophagus was a literal thing, because the solution to trying to deal with the radiation was to enclose everything in a concrete bunker so the radiation couldn’t get out. And that’s what happened, although it is also a perfect metaphor for a totally sealed up country where the truth can’t get out.
Continue reading...Premier of most populous province says rhetoric clouds trade relationship worth hundreds of billions of dollars
The United States will “feel pain” if Donald Trump doesn’t back down from his threat to impose steep tariffs on its northern neighbour, the leader of Canada’s most populous province has warned.
After a tumultuous week that left Canadian leaders flailing for a coherent national response to Trump’s provocations – including the suggestion that the US would annex its closest ally – the Ontario premier, Doug Ford, told the Guardian: “We will never be for sale.”
Continue reading...The prisons are open, the secret files are unlocked. Now Syrians are trying to figure out how to hold war criminals accountable.
The post Searching for Justice and the Missing in the New Syria appeared first on The Intercept.
Whether it’s banning articles on X or killing fact checks on Meta, the only constant is that it benefits the powerful.
The post My Ban From X Is About One Simple Thing: Elon Musk Controlling the Flow of Information appeared first on The Intercept.
Billionaires gonna billionaire — and lick the boots of whoever will bring them more riches and impunity.
The post Facebook Fact Checks Were Never Going to Save Us. They Just Made Liberals Feel Better. appeared first on The Intercept.
Pete Hegseth faces potentially combative confirmation hearing as senators question whether former Fox News host is fit to lead US military
Donald Trump will come in to power with a “trifecta” of governmental control after his Republican party won the House of Representatives, the Senate and the presidency in the 2024 US election. It will give Trump significant power to enact his agenda on the economy, immigration and other major issues.
House Democrats are said to be prioritising taking control of Congress in 2026 over everything else, with Axios reporting that the House Democrats’ two largest ideological factions – the Progressive Caucus and the centre-left New Democrat Coalition – are trying to smooth over any disagreements ahead of Trump returning to the White House on 20 January. The two factions contain roughly 100 House Democrats. Who was to blame for the loss in the presidential election and the Biden administration’s policy towards Israel during its war on Gaza are among the topics of disagreement between some House Democrats.
Continue reading...Reeves says that Tories have no policies and says she is dealing with ‘14 years of stagnant economic growth’
Stephen Doughty, a Foreign Office minister, has told MPs that the future of Greenland is a matter for the people who live there. And he said that he made this clear in a meeting with Greenland’s foreign minister.
But he did not explicitly criticise Donald Trump for threatening to use military force to seize the island for the US.
Greenland is part of the Kingdom of Denmark and the future of their constitutional arrangements is a matter for the people and government of Greenland and indeed the Kingdom of Denmark. It would be wrong to speculate on any policy decisions the incoming administration of President-elect Trump may make.
Those are messages I delivered in a meeting with the Greenlandic foreign minister yesterday, but there are rightly important concerns about security in the Arctic, which is why I was proud to be one of the first British ministers in 10 years to attend the Arctic Circle Assembly and meet partners to discuss these issues just a few months ago.
Continue reading...The self-styled misogynist has announced his intention to enter UK politics - and unfortunately, when it comes to influence, we can’t just laugh him off
‘The desire to be a politician should bar you for life from ever becoming one,” the comedian Billy Connolly once said. Never has this been truer. There was a time when unapologetic narcissists and sociopaths thrived on reality TV. Now they all seem to be pivoting to podcasts and politics.
The latest would-be politico is Andrew Tate, the British American self-styled misogynist and influencer who was humiliated by Greta Thunberg. He is suddenly very interested in becoming prime minister of Britain – which I suppose makes sense when you look at the legal mess he’s in. Tate and his brother, Tristan, are being investigated by Romanian authorities for alleged crimes including forming an organised criminal group, human trafficking, trafficking of minors, sexual intercourse with a minor and money laundering. As the convicted felon and adjudicated sexual abuser Donald Trump has demonstrated, you can get away with absolutely anything as long as you’re powerful enough. There is no better get-out-of-jail-free card than being the guy in charge of the jails.
Continue reading...Treasury expected to decide whether to support EDF-backed nuclear power plant in this year’s spending review
The cost of building the Sizewell C nuclear power plant in Suffolk has doubled since the plans were presented to the UK government in 2020 and could now reach close to £40bn, according to reports.
A rise in construction charges over recent years, combined with cost overruns and delays at EDF’s Hinkley Point C nuclear project in Somerset is expected to increase the final bill to build a successor project at Sizewell, according to the Financial Times.
Continue reading...Bitter battle expected at Senate hearing but Republicans appear confident Pete Hegseth will be confirmed
Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s controversial pick for US secretary of defense, will testify at a Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday, as the military veteran and Fox News host faces intense scrutiny over allegations of sexual assault, excessive alcohol use and financial mismanagement.
The Senate armed services committee will convene at 9.30am ET on Tuesday to question Hegseth, who faces an uncertain path to confirmation. Hegseth can only afford to lose the votes of three Senate Republicans, assuming every Democratic senator opposes his nomination, and several Republican members have voiced concerns about Hegseth’s personal history and his views on women in the military.
Continue reading...Photojournalist JM Giordano has followed the rise of Donald Trump, from the carnival-like kick-off at his first rally in 2015, to the insurrection at the Capitol on 6 January 2021, when many thought his political career was over. Trump is unseen, but looms over Giordano’s new book, Trumpland, published by Nighted Life
Continue reading...Report by Jack Smith says evidence ‘was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction’ had Trump not won re-election in 2024
Donald Trump would have been convicted of crimes over his failed attempt to cling to power in 2020 but for his victory in last year’s US presidential election, according to the special counsel who investigated him.
Jack Smith’s report detailing his team’s findings about Trump’s efforts to subvert democracy was released by the justice department early on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Factchecker Jesse Stiller and technology journalist Chris Stokel-Walker explore why Mark Zuckerberg has announced dramatic changes to Meta’s social platforms, and what they will mean for their 3.3 billion users
When Mark Zuckerberg announced dramatic changes to Meta’s social platforms last week – including Facebook, Instagram and Threads – he admitted: “We’re going to catch less bad stuff.”
Zuckerberg said Meta would get rid of factcheckers, overhaul its content moderation and boost political content in users’ feeds – all 3.3 billion of them. He argued the company was doing it because the political winds had changed: the public no longer viewed these safeguards as a way of preventing the spread of misinformation, hate speech, or even real-world violence, but as censorship by other means.
Continue reading...Dr Itziar Castelló says the move raises concerns about the quality of deliberation on its platforms and will ultimately harm democracy. Tony Cima reflects on the cloak of anonymity. Plus a letter from Phil Goddard
Meta’s move to scrap factcheckers is not about “complexity”, as it says (Report, 8 January), but to support Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s agenda.
It is widely agreed that effective, fast and unbiased factchecking is essential for the proper functioning of social media platforms. Similarly, principles of free speech are foundational to fostering communication and public debate in a healthy democratic society. Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement that Meta is to follow X in introducing user-generated notes raises serious concerns.
Continue reading...What the president-elect calls a ‘giant hoax’ is changing the strategic calculus in the Arctic and for the Panama canal
Donald Trump’s desire to seize control of Greenland and the Panama canal is being shaped in part by a force that he has sought to deny even exists – the climate crisis.
Last week, Trump ramped up his demands that the United States annex both Greenland and the Panama canal, refusing to rule out economic or even military interventions to take them and threatening “very high” tariffs upon Denmark, of which Greenland is an autonomous territory, if it opposes him.
Continue reading...The Trump administration spied on reporters to catch leakers. At the same time, it was leaking to right-wing media.
The post The Trump DOJ Loved Leaking, as Long as It Was to Rupert Murdoch’s Newspapers appeared first on The Intercept.
And why those that do aren’t just trading in meme coins for the lulz.
The post Congress Loves Crypto. So Why Do So Few Members Buy It? appeared first on The Intercept.
Alfred Bourgeois’s daughter is convinced of his innocence. In the four years since his execution, she has waged a sometimes-lonely battle to prove it.
The post She Lost Her Dad to Trump’s Killing Spree. Now She Wants Biden to Clear His Name. appeared first on The Intercept.
Public defenders and legal professionals said they never see the leniency offered to Trump given to other defendants.
The post A Tale of Two Justice Systems: Only Trump Gets Convicted of 34 Felonies and Receives No Punishment appeared first on The Intercept.
US president moves to shield roughly 230,000 Salvadorans and 600,000 Venezuelans against Trump administration
The Biden administration on Friday extended temporary humanitarian protections for about 230,000 Salvadorans and 600,000 Venezuelans living in the US, in an effort to shield those groups from an incoming Trump administration that has promised to deport them.
The decision in the dying days of Joe Biden’s presidency came after immigrant advocates and lawmakers urged the Department of Homeland Security to extend temporary protected status (TPS), designed to protect immigrants from being deported to countries that are engulfed in disaster or conflict.
Continue reading...Australian government holds ‘grave concerns’ for welfare of Oscar Jenkins, a 32-year-old teacher from Melbourne
The Australian government is “making urgent inquiries” after reports of the death of an Australian citizen captured by Russian forces while fighting for Ukraine.
Oscar Jenkins, a 32-year-old teacher from Melbourne, was serving alongside Ukraine’s armed forces when he was reportedly captured by Russian soldiers last year as a prisoner of war. A video taken at the time showed him, dressed in military fatigues, speaking English and Ukrainian, confirming his name and nationality, and being asked if he was a mercenary.
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Continue reading...Lazio fired the far-right sympathiser who handles their eagle mascot on Monday after he posted a series of videos and pictures of his erect penis online.
Falconer Juan Bernabe, who has been present at Lazio home matches with Olympia the eagle since the 2010-11 season, posted the footage on social media after having surgery on Saturday to implant a penile prosthesis to improve his sexual performance.
Continue reading...Fascism in power in the 1930s brought the world to genocidal war. But memories have faded, as has the stigma attached to the far-right – and that’s dangerous
Democracy is dying across the globe. This may sound alarmist and generate a follow-up question: what does that actually mean? Will there be no elections? Will the opposition be criminalised? If these are the metrics, then Vladimir Putin’s Russia remains a democracy. Six political parties are represented in the State Duma, its federal parliament, and there are more than 20 registered political parties. Well, as you probably understand, Russia is no democracy: indeed, this is a nation veering past authoritarianism and into totalitarianism, with more Russians being persecuted for political activity than since the days of Joseph Stalin.
Faith in democracy is unquestionably on the decline. A new study finds that a fifth of Britons under 45 believe that the best system for running a country effectively is “a strong leader who doesn’t have to bother with elections” compared with 8% of their older counterparts. That mirrors other findings across the world. A study by Cambridge researchers in 2020 examined attitudes in 160 countries and found that younger generations “have become steadily more disillusioned with democracy”. And according to the Pew Research Center, nearly two-thirds of citizens in 12 high-income nations were dissatisfied with democracy in 2024, up from just under half in 2017.
Owen Jones 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...First of five hearings into martial law declaration lasts only minutes, while Yoon Suk Yeol remains holed up inside his presidential compound
The first hearing in the impeachment trial of South Korea’s suspended president, Yoon Suk Yeol, ended after just a few minutes on Tuesday as Yoon failed to appear at the constitutional court.
The court’s justices have about five months to decide whether to strip Yoon of his presidential duties over his short-lived declaration of martial law on 3 December or return him to office.
Continue reading...Documents indicate monarch was informed Anthony Blunt was Soviet agent in 1973, though he confessed in 1964
The late Queen Elizabeth II was not told for almost 10 years that Anthony Blunt, a surveyor of the queen’s pictures and a member of the royal household, had confessed to being a Soviet double agent, previously secret security files suggest.
Declassified MI5 documents throw intriguing new light on how the security services closely guarded news that the art historian, of the notorious Cambridge Five spy ring, had confessed in April 1964, with records indicating the queen was only informed in 1973.
Continue reading...Yoon Suk Yeol’s failed coup attempt in December plunged country into worst political crisis in decades
The impeached South Korean president, Yoon Suk Yeol, will receive a pay rise, official documents revealed, as he continues to resist arrest over his ill-fated martial law declaration.
Yoon suspended civilian rule on 3 December, sending soldiers into parliament and plunging the country into its worst political crisis in decades. He was forced to backtrack hours later.
Continue reading...A year in Palestine, living in fear of not just genocide — but AIDS.
The post Queer, HIV-Positive, and Running Out of Medication in Gaza appeared first on The Intercept.
During the siege of Leningrad, botanists in charge of an irreplaceable seed collection had to protect it from fire, rodents – and hunger. By Simon Parkin
Continue reading...Lawyer for suspended president says concerns about ‘potential incidents’ have arisen following thwarted attempt to arrest him at his residence
South Korea’s suspended president, Yoon Suk Yeol, will not attend the first hearing of his impeachment trial next week because of safety concerns, his lawyer has said.
Yoon has been holed up in the presidential residence and protected by an elite guard force since being suspended and impeached last month following a short-lived declaration of martial law that plunged the country into political chaos.
Continue reading...Under Meta’s relaxed hate speech rules, users can now post “I’m a proud racist” or “Black people are more violent than whites.”
The post Leaked Meta Rules: Users Are Free to Post “Mexican Immigrants Are Trash!” or “Trans People Are Immoral” appeared first on The Intercept.
In a speech to Israel’s parliament, Jonathan Greenblatt admits the ADL’s battle against antisemitism is losing — but blows it on what to do.
The post ADL Chief Invokes Pager Attack as Inspiration for Taking on Internet Trolls appeared first on The Intercept.
Conservatives have been hyperfixated on TikTok content that’s sympathetic with Gaza — and accused the company of algorithmic bias against Israel.
The post The TikTok Ban Is Also About Hiding Pro-Palestinian Content. Republicans Said So Themselves. appeared first on The Intercept.
Low-income families like mine have run out of corners to cut. When I spend more on fuel, other areas are drastically affected
My children and I have been sleeping in the same bed to stay warm for the past week. In the day, we layer up and put the heating on for short bursts to try to combat the black mould that is starting to appear on the ceilings and walls in the bathroom and the children’s bedrooms. Our prepayment meter is a ticking timebomb, always about to go off. This is the reality of the cold snap for families like mine.
The weather forecast, warning of further cold weather, brings mixed emotions. All I can think about is how I will be able to keep the kids warm and prevent the mould in our house from getting even worse. But seeing children enjoying the snow is uplifting. I just wish that I didn’t feel so guilty that I can’t afford to take the kids anywhere, to warm them back up when we get home or dry their clothes when they’ve been out. Today, my son’s nursery offered to put all his outdoor clothes in their dryer because they know how much I’m struggling.
Gemma takes part in Changing Realities, a collaboration between almost 200 parents and carers on a low income, researchers at the universities of York and Salford, and Child Poverty Action Group
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...Critics worry that a sweeping ban based on predictions rather than more concrete proof of TikTok’s security risks sets a precedent in line with repressive regimes.
The post To Ban TikTok, Supreme Court Would Rank “National Security” Before First Amendment appeared first on The Intercept.
Heated airers claim to dry your clothes whatever the weather, without costing the earth in energy. From covered options to mini drying racks, we put 13 to the test to reveal the best
An energy crisis and perma-drizzle have conspired to keep the nation’s laundry damp, not least by making it such a turn-off to turn on the heating. No wonder heated clothes airers are having a moment. These modish appliances sell out within hours of reaching shops and inspire evangelistic fervour among owners, who call them “life-savers” and “gamechangers”.
Can a hot clothes horse really change your life, let alone dry your washing as fast as a tumble dryer for a fraction of the cost and with none of the noise? I needed to be convinced, so I put 13 bestsellers through their paces with my soggy washing to find out whether they’re the best thing in laundry since the clothes peg – or destined for the loft.
Continue reading...From the Washington Post:
The sanctions target Beijing Integrity Technology Group, which U.S. officials say employed workers responsible for the Flax Typhoon attacks which compromised devices including routers and internet-enabled cameras to infiltrate government and industrial targets in the United States, Taiwan, Europe and elsewhere.
Authorities now have access to cockpit dialogue from Azerbaijan Airlines plane that went down on Christmas Day
Brazil’s air force has extracted the data from two black box recorders belonging to a crashed Azerbaijan Airlines plane that Baku claims was downed by Russia on Christmas Day, killing 38 of the 67 people on board.
The Brazilian-made Embraer 190 crash-landed in Kazakhstan after being diverted from a scheduled landing in the Chechen capital, Grozny, in southern Russia. Azerbaijan believes the plane was shot down by Russian air defences, which Moscow says were operational in the area at the time.
Continue reading...As he prepares to retire from journalism, James Risen warns of press missteps in the Trump era.
The post Media’s Biggest Failures appeared first on The Intercept.
The Louisiana Republican blamed “wokeness” in part for police’s failure to stop the New Orleans attack that left 15 dead.
The post Steve Scalise Knows Exactly What Led to the Bourbon Street Attack: DEI Initiatives appeared first on The Intercept.
For the first group of ESA’s Astronaut Reserve, two intensive months of Astronaut Reserve Training (ART) have come to a close. During this initial training phase, members of the ESA Astronaut Reserve Sara García Alonso from Spain, Andrea Patassa from Italy, Arnaud Prost from France, Amelie Schoenenwald from Germany, and Aleš Svoboda from Czechia were introduced to essential skills required for future space exploration and scientific research.
Pete Hegseth faces potentially combative confirmation hearing as senators question whether former Fox News host is fit to lead US military
Donald Trump will come in to power with a “trifecta” of governmental control after his Republican party won the House of Representatives, the Senate and the presidency in the 2024 US election. It will give Trump significant power to enact his agenda on the economy, immigration and other major issues.
House Democrats are said to be prioritising taking control of Congress in 2026 over everything else, with Axios reporting that the House Democrats’ two largest ideological factions – the Progressive Caucus and the centre-left New Democrat Coalition – are trying to smooth over any disagreements ahead of Trump returning to the White House on 20 January. The two factions contain roughly 100 House Democrats. Who was to blame for the loss in the presidential election and the Biden administration’s policy towards Israel during its war on Gaza are among the topics of disagreement between some House Democrats.
Continue reading...Bitter battle expected at Senate hearing but Republicans appear confident Pete Hegseth will be confirmed
Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s controversial pick for US secretary of defense, will testify at a Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday, as the military veteran and Fox News host faces intense scrutiny over allegations of sexual assault, excessive alcohol use and financial mismanagement.
The Senate armed services committee will convene at 9.30am ET on Tuesday to question Hegseth, who faces an uncertain path to confirmation. Hegseth can only afford to lose the votes of three Senate Republicans, assuming every Democratic senator opposes his nomination, and several Republican members have voiced concerns about Hegseth’s personal history and his views on women in the military.
Continue reading...The Trump administration spied on reporters to catch leakers. At the same time, it was leaking to right-wing media.
The post The Trump DOJ Loved Leaking, as Long as It Was to Rupert Murdoch’s Newspapers appeared first on The Intercept.
Fascism in power in the 1930s brought the world to genocidal war. But memories have faded, as has the stigma attached to the far-right – and that’s dangerous
Democracy is dying across the globe. This may sound alarmist and generate a follow-up question: what does that actually mean? Will there be no elections? Will the opposition be criminalised? If these are the metrics, then Vladimir Putin’s Russia remains a democracy. Six political parties are represented in the State Duma, its federal parliament, and there are more than 20 registered political parties. Well, as you probably understand, Russia is no democracy: indeed, this is a nation veering past authoritarianism and into totalitarianism, with more Russians being persecuted for political activity than since the days of Joseph Stalin.
Faith in democracy is unquestionably on the decline. A new study finds that a fifth of Britons under 45 believe that the best system for running a country effectively is “a strong leader who doesn’t have to bother with elections” compared with 8% of their older counterparts. That mirrors other findings across the world. A study by Cambridge researchers in 2020 examined attitudes in 160 countries and found that younger generations “have become steadily more disillusioned with democracy”. And according to the Pew Research Center, nearly two-thirds of citizens in 12 high-income nations were dissatisfied with democracy in 2024, up from just under half in 2017.
Owen Jones 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...Bills crafted to stop what is widely viewed a loophole as abortion pills have helped mitigate bans dotting the US
As the Texas legislature convenes in Austin on Tuesday for the first day of its 2025 session, a number of anti-abortion bills have already been filed, largely aimed at halting the flow of abortion pills into the state.
The bills were crafted to stop what is widely viewed as a loophole in abortion bans across the country, as pills have helped mitigate the impact of the bans now dotting the US. Texas Right to Life, the state’s largest anti-abortion advocacy group, has had a hand in drafting a number of the bills, and is encouraging men to sue people who have supported their partners’ abortions.
Continue reading...Report by Jack Smith says evidence ‘was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction’ had Trump not won re-election in 2024
Donald Trump would have been convicted of crimes over his failed attempt to cling to power in 2020 but for his victory in last year’s US presidential election, according to the special counsel who investigated him.
Jack Smith’s report detailing his team’s findings about Trump’s efforts to subvert democracy was released by the justice department early on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Billionaires gonna billionaire — and lick the boots of whoever will bring them more riches and impunity.
The post Facebook Fact Checks Were Never Going to Save Us. They Just Made Liberals Feel Better. appeared first on The Intercept.
Conservatives have been hyperfixated on TikTok content that’s sympathetic with Gaza — and accused the company of algorithmic bias against Israel.
The post The TikTok Ban Is Also About Hiding Pro-Palestinian Content. Republicans Said So Themselves. appeared first on The Intercept.
Reeves says that Tories have no policies and says she is dealing with ‘14 years of stagnant economic growth’
Stephen Doughty, a Foreign Office minister, has told MPs that the future of Greenland is a matter for the people who live there. And he said that he made this clear in a meeting with Greenland’s foreign minister.
But he did not explicitly criticise Donald Trump for threatening to use military force to seize the island for the US.
Greenland is part of the Kingdom of Denmark and the future of their constitutional arrangements is a matter for the people and government of Greenland and indeed the Kingdom of Denmark. It would be wrong to speculate on any policy decisions the incoming administration of President-elect Trump may make.
Those are messages I delivered in a meeting with the Greenlandic foreign minister yesterday, but there are rightly important concerns about security in the Arctic, which is why I was proud to be one of the first British ministers in 10 years to attend the Arctic Circle Assembly and meet partners to discuss these issues just a few months ago.
Continue reading...Public investment in technology is the right move. But ministers must not become boosters for an industry that causes harm as well as good
Digital technology companies have reshaped our world and will continue doing so. Sir Keir Starmer knows his government must seek a role in shaping this new order – and avoid ceding all control to the US and China. According to official estimates, the UK is the third-largest AI market. Its universities are important incubators of talent. Google DeepMind, two of whose scientists won a Nobel chemistry prize last year, was a British company until Google bought it in 2014. But the world’s two largest economies, and particularly the US corporations that dominate our online lives, are a long way ahead. The danger for the rest of the world is being swept along in an AI wave over which it has little control.
Expanding Britain’s publicly owned computing resource – a national asset known as sovereign compute capacity – is a necessary step toward securing technological independence. Wes Streeting, the health secretary, is right to warn of a coming battle to ensure democratic control of computing. Countering private-sector dominance with new public investment is part of that. Plans to boost the AI industry, beginning with a new growth zone in Oxfordshire, make sense as part of a 21st-century industrial strategy.
Continue reading...And why those that do aren’t just trading in meme coins for the lulz.
The post Congress Loves Crypto. So Why Do So Few Members Buy It? appeared first on The Intercept.
Public defenders and legal professionals said they never see the leniency offered to Trump given to other defendants.
The post A Tale of Two Justice Systems: Only Trump Gets Convicted of 34 Felonies and Receives No Punishment appeared first on The Intercept.
Whether it’s banning articles on X or killing fact checks on Meta, the only constant is that it benefits the powerful.
The post My Ban From X Is About One Simple Thing: Elon Musk Controlling the Flow of Information appeared first on The Intercept.
In today’s newsletter: Kyiv’s interrogation footage of captured North Korean soldiers leads to questions about what it might do with the soldiers – and what the PoWs might do for them
Good morning. In a grinding war where significant changes at the front are hard to discern, a video released by Ukraine on Sunday is a rare point of focus: it featured two North Korean soldiers, answering questions from their Ukrainian captors, and weighing the circumstances of their presence in a conflict thousands of miles from home.
The video is, perhaps, not militarily significant. But it is a unique insight into one of the more extraordinary aspects of a conflict that has drawn in actors from all over the world, and is a crucible in which every participant is learning how modern wars are fought.
Economy | Rachel Reeves will remain as chancellor until the next general election, Keir Starmer has insisted, as he warned the Treasury would be “ruthless” over public spending cuts to help meet the government’s fiscal rules.
Gaza | Joe Biden has said his administration is on the brink of sealing a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas that could pause the war after more than 14 months of fighting. Biden administration officials have said they believe the deal may be concluded before Donald Trump’s inauguration next week.
US politics | Donald Trump would have been convicted of crimes over his failed attempt to cling to power in 2020 if he had not won the presidential election in 2024, according to the special counsel who investigated him. Jack Smith’s report detailing his team’s findings about Trump’s efforts to subvert democracy was released early on Tuesday.
UK news | A man accused of driving a young mother to suicide through domestic violence has been found guilty of assault and prolonged controlling behaviour but cleared of her manslaughter. Ryan Wellings, 30, was blamed from “beyond the grave” for the death of his partner, Kiena Dawes. Read more about the case.
‘Forever chemicals’ | The cost of cleaning up toxic forever chemical pollution could reach more than £1.6tn across the UK and Europe over a 20-year period, an annual bill of £84bn, research has found. PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are used in everything from cosmetics to nonstick pans but are almost indestructible without human intervention.
[It is] unclear if North Korea will even claim the two captured soldiers as their own, given Moscow and Pyongyang’s refusal to officially admit that North Korean forces have been deployed to Russia. At the same time, Russia could claim them as their own and hand them over to North Korea after they are traded with Ukrainian PoWs.
Continue reading...National reconstruction fund to buy stake in Arafura Rare Earth’s planned facility 135km north of Alice Springs
The federal government will pour another $200m into the Gina Rinehart-backed Arafura Rare Earths, taking the total volume of taxpayer support for the critical minerals venture beyond $1bn.
The industry and science minister, Ed Husic, will on Wednesday announce that the commonwealth’s national reconstruction fund will take an equity stake in Arafura’s planned mining and processing facility 135km north of Alice Springs.
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Continue reading...Critics worry that a sweeping ban based on predictions rather than more concrete proof of TikTok’s security risks sets a precedent in line with repressive regimes.
The post To Ban TikTok, Supreme Court Would Rank “National Security” Before First Amendment appeared first on The Intercept.
US announces $65m bounty for arrest of president, who has led country since 2013 and failed to prove he won recent vote
Venezuela’s authoritarian president, Nicolás Maduro, has been accused of a shameless and fraudulent power-grab after swearing himself in for a third term, despite domestic outrage and a chorus of international condemnation at his alleged theft of last year’s election.
“This is a great victory for Venezuelan democracy,” the 62-year-old autocrat boasted during a sparsely attended oath-taking ceremony in Caracas that was boycotted by the leaders of democratic nations.
Continue reading...Tory leader says new inquiry should look at background of perpetrators as well as why some in authority did not act
Kemi Badenoch has said “peasants” from “sub-communities” in some countries are the ones in grooming and rape gangs, and that a national inquiry would seek to identify those in authority who did not act.
“There are some places where, when people behave in that way, a mob turns up and burns their homes down, and then they know that they can’t do that sort of thing,” the Conservative leader told GB News.
Continue reading...As national populist parties gain ground in the west, progressives must put social and climate priorities ahead of market interests
Different year, same direction of travel. The likely formation of the first far-right-led government in Austria’s postwar history, after the breakdown this month of coalition talks between mainstream parties, is the latest confirmation of the illiberal drift in western democracies. Only a few years ago, Viktor Orbán’s Hungary remained a troublesome outlier in the European Union. These days, variations on Mr Orbán’s ethno-nationalist approach to 21st-century politics are flourishing across the continent. And in a week’s time, Donald Trump will be back in the White House.
In an era of stagnating living standards and rising inequality, the growing appeal of national populism should not come as a surprise. The targeting of immigration, “liberal elites” and globalisation has channelled resentments felt in deindustrialised regions, where good jobs and a sense of identity were lost as capital and investment moved elsewhere. The migration of the less well-off towards parties of the far right is a symptom of times in which trust in mainstream politics has collapsed.
Continue reading...Pippa Crerar and Kiran Stacey look at just how serious warnings about the UK’s financial position really are, and what this means for the chancellor, Rachel Reeves. Plus, why the government is hoping AI could be the magic bullet that revives our economy
Click here to vote for Politics Weekly UK in the iNHouse Political Podcast Awards’ people’s choice category.
Continue reading...The prisons are open, the secret files are unlocked. Now Syrians are trying to figure out how to hold war criminals accountable.
The post Searching for Justice and the Missing in the New Syria appeared first on The Intercept.
The latest actions of Musk and Zuckerberg are a sign of things to come, but the EU already has the power to give people back control
Elon Musk’s latest attempts at direct political interference illustrate the grave danger that Europe is facing. He has suggested overthrowing the UK government, asking if “America should liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government”. Three days after that, he hosted Germany’s far-right candidate for chancellor in forthcoming federal elections in a livestream discussion on the social media platform X, which he owns. It is likely that his rigging of X’s algorithm helped push both into millions of people’s feeds. It also emerged last week that Musk’s SpaceX may start providing a major part of Italy’s defence network.
Europe’s leaders should view this conduct as a sign of things to come. We foolishly allowed control of digital media and infrastructure to concentrate in the hands of a few US tech oligarchs. Now US big tech is Donald Trump’s tool.
Johnny Ryan is director of Enforce, a unit of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties
Continue reading...As the TikTok ban goes up before the Supreme Court on Friday, TikTok creator Pearlmania500, Shawn Musgrave, and Jessica Washington discuss what’s at stake.
The post TikTok SCOTUS Battle appeared first on The Intercept.
Under Meta’s relaxed hate speech rules, users can now post “I’m a proud racist” or “Black people are more violent than whites.”
The post Leaked Meta Rules: Users Are Free to Post “Mexican Immigrants Are Trash!” or “Trans People Are Immoral” appeared first on The Intercept.
In report David Weiss sharply criticizes Joe Biden for maligning justice department when pardoning his son
The criminal charges against Hunter Biden “were the culmination of thorough, impartial investigations, not partisan politics”, the prosecutor who led the inquiries said in a report that sharply criticized Joe Biden for having maligned the US justice department when the president pardoned his son.
“Other presidents have pardoned family members, but in doing so, none have taken the occasion as an opportunity to malign the public servants at the Department of Justice based solely on false accusations,” said Monday’s report from special counsel David Weiss, whose team filed gun and tax charges against the younger Biden that resulted in felony convictions that were subsequently wiped away by a presidential pardon from his father.
Continue reading...The self-styled misogynist has announced his intention to enter UK politics - and unfortunately, when it comes to influence, we can’t just laugh him off
‘The desire to be a politician should bar you for life from ever becoming one,” the comedian Billy Connolly once said. Never has this been truer. There was a time when unapologetic narcissists and sociopaths thrived on reality TV. Now they all seem to be pivoting to podcasts and politics.
The latest would-be politico is Andrew Tate, the British American self-styled misogynist and influencer who was humiliated by Greta Thunberg. He is suddenly very interested in becoming prime minister of Britain – which I suppose makes sense when you look at the legal mess he’s in. Tate and his brother, Tristan, are being investigated by Romanian authorities for alleged crimes including forming an organised criminal group, human trafficking, trafficking of minors, sexual intercourse with a minor and money laundering. As the convicted felon and adjudicated sexual abuser Donald Trump has demonstrated, you can get away with absolutely anything as long as you’re powerful enough. There is no better get-out-of-jail-free card than being the guy in charge of the jails.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Natural England furious that years of work has been undone, with minister urged to push policy through
Downing Street has blocked plans to release wild beavers in England because officials view it as a “Tory legacy”, the Guardian can reveal.
Natural England, the government’s nature watchdog, has drawn up a plan for reintroductions of the rodent, which until about 20 years ago had been extinct in Britain for 400 years, having been hunted for their fur, meat and scent oil. Beavers create useful habitats for wildlife and reduce flooding by breaking up waterways, slowing water flow, and creating still pools.
Continue reading...Angela Rayner amends renters’ rights bill to limit rent that can be charged in advance, as MPs prepare to debate bill
Landlords in England would be banned from charging more than a month’s rent upfront under changes MPs are due to vote on on Tuesday.
Angela Rayner, the housing secretary, has amended her renters’ rights bill to limit the amount of money property owners can demand before a tenant moves in, as part of a package of new protections for those in rented accommodation.
Continue reading...As legislation returns to the Commons, hopes rise of an end to no-fault evictions in England, but some fear loopholes
When Nicola Jalland, 62, was served with a section 21 no-fault eviction in March 2022 – which means a landlord can oust a tenant for no reason – she was upset to leave the property she had lived in for 11 years. She had made the home a sanctuary, with a garden full of flowers.
But when Jalland got her second no-fault eviction in two years in November 2023, she was angry. “It was an incredible feeling of imbalance of power,” she says. “The second time it happened, I literally felt worthless.”
Continue reading...MP accused of misusing her position to gain influence and illegally acquire land with her aunt Sheikh Hasina
Authorities in Bangladesh have filed a criminal case against the UK Treasury minister Tulip Siddiq, accusing her of misusing her position as an MP to gain influence and illegally acquire land with her aunt the ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
Siddiq has faced mounting calls to resign over her links to Hasina, who was toppled in August after mass protests across Bangladesh and is facing charges of corruption and crimes against humanity.
Continue reading...For years I’ve overlooked the many good reasons for leaving the social media platform. But now there is no other choice
Jaron Lanier was chief scientist of the engineering office of Internet2 back in the day, which is to say, definitely one of the godfathers of the internet. In 2018, he set out the reasons to get rid of your social media in his book Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now. When I read it, I shorthanded it to: “Facebook. I really should just close down my Facebook account.” There was no way back then I would have got rid of Twitter. It was where I went to complain about Brexit, and that’s all I did. Also, seven years ago, Twitter wasn’t just porn and chatbots.
Regarding Facebook, though, all Lanier’s propositions were laid out in a buffet: in politics, it creates a bias “not towards the left or right, but downwards”. Any position that could be less evidenced, more stupid, would be the one that would fly.
Continue reading...High court had ruled government was not meeting legal duty to clean up Costa Beck near Pickering
The UK environment secretary, Steve Reed, is pursuing legal action against a group of anglers who are trying to restore the ecosystem of a river.
Lawyers for Reed will argue on Tuesday in the court of appeal that cleaning up individual rivers and streams devastated by pollution is administratively unworkable.
Continue reading...It’s free, it’s sensible and it makes workers happy. The government needs to accept that this is the new normal
You would be hard-pressed to find a single positive side-effect of the pandemic. If there is one, it is the growing numbers of people who now work from home. Half of workers work from home for at least part of the week now, and many workplaces have thrived because of it. Zoom meetings save time and wasteful travel, employers are free to hire talent from anywhere in the country, and employees have escaped escalating property prices in London and steep commuting costs. Working from home (WFH) has been a boon for the climate, too; according to one US study, two to four days of remote working a week lowers carbon emissions by between 11% and 29%.
Yet WFH is now coming under accelerating attack. JP Morgan will now require employees to spend five days a week in the office and other big companies may soon follow suit. A perverse strain of rightwing thought opposes almost any social progress that improves other people’s lives. This Scrooge-like instinct yearns to make work as grindingly hard and low-paid as possible. Recall Jacob Rees-Mogg pacing civil service offices like the Child Catcher, leaving “sorry you were out when I visited” notes on employees’ desks in 2022. The same age-old sentiment prompted the CBI chair, Rupert Soames, to savage Labour’s flagship anti-gig economy employment rights bill on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme yesterday, warning that the new bill would force businesses to let people go.
Continue reading...His meal-replacement business is worth hundreds of millions, but Collier’s rise to the top has been far from easy. He discusses bodybuilding, bullies and why nutrition is more polarising than politics
When James Collier got married to Melanie nearly 10 years ago, his dad paid for the honeymoon. Collier’s businesses weren’t exactly booming, but he had a good feeling about a new venture. “I was on the beach checking my emails, and I said to Mel: ‘I think this is going to do all right, this one.’ And that was an underestimation.”
It certainly was. Sales of Huel, the meal-replacement brand Collier launched in 2015, topped £214m last year. Pre-tax profits tripled to £13.8m. Huel – a product mainly made of oats, pea protein and flaxseeds, which comes in powder, drink, snack bar and meal-pot forms – is sold in 25,000 shops worldwide, including 70% of UK supermarkets. The company was most recently valued at £440m, but has since had investment from Morgan Stanley. Just how rich is Collier now?
Continue reading...Starmer is banking on AI to save him. It’s not as if other technologies have had unforeseen consequences, is it?
“We are at a pivotal moment in history. AI is not just a tool for the future, it is already reshaping our lives in profound ways.” No kidding. That’s just a couple of sentences out of an entire speech written by ChatGPT when it was asked to come up with one on AI in the style of Keir Starmer.
Much of it wasn’t a million miles away. OK, AI hasn’t yet learned Starmer’s particular gift with language. The unfortunate persistent note of regret. As if he knows he can’t help making even the most interesting subjects just a wee bit dull. What should be engaging too frequently dies on the tongue. It’s his cross to bear. Integrity he can do with ease. Enthusiasm takes a little longer.
Continue reading...Responding to an article on increased input from private healthcare, John Newman calls for grants for training medical personnel, Stephen Farrington-Bell for greater productivity and Bernadette Roden for more care at home
I cannot have been the only person staggered by the figure – £16bn – that the government is proposing to pay to the private sector in its attempts to reduce waiting lists for planned care (Private sector’s role in cutting NHS waiting lists in England to rise by 20%, 6 January).
Your report and the response to the proposal from Keep Our NHS Public raise the issues that everyone should be concerned about, ie how the private sector proposes to staff their treatment facilities, and what the effects on an already demoralised and stretched NHS will be.
Continue reading...Dr Itziar Castelló says the move raises concerns about the quality of deliberation on its platforms and will ultimately harm democracy. Tony Cima reflects on the cloak of anonymity. Plus a letter from Phil Goddard
Meta’s move to scrap factcheckers is not about “complexity”, as it says (Report, 8 January), but to support Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s agenda.
It is widely agreed that effective, fast and unbiased factchecking is essential for the proper functioning of social media platforms. Similarly, principles of free speech are foundational to fostering communication and public debate in a healthy democratic society. Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement that Meta is to follow X in introducing user-generated notes raises serious concerns.
Continue reading...Verdict of crimes against humanity for kidnap of mixed-race children could pave way for wider justice, activists say
A historic court ruling that found Belgium guilty of crimes against humanity during its colonial rule of central Africa has been hailed as a turning point that could pave the way for compensation and other forms of justice.
Belgium’s court of appeal ruled last month that the “systematic kidnapping” of mixed-race children from their African mothers in Belgian-ruled Congo, Rwanda and Burundi was a crime against humanity. The case was brought by five women who were removed from their Congolese mothers as small children between 1948 and 1953, and who now live in Belgium and France. Each was awarded €50,000 (£42,000) in damages.
Continue reading...Chancellor’s mission to Beijing weighted with greater expectations
Rachel Reeves hailed a new era of “respectful and consistent future relations with China” as pressure grew on the embattled chancellor to deliver on her government’s central promise to fire up UK economic growth.
After meeting China’s vice-premier, He Lifeng, in Beijing, Reeves said Britain’s relationship with the world’s second largest economy would be “frank and open on areas where we disagree”, while stressing it would be pragmatic in “finding opportunities for safe trade and investment”.
Continue reading...US president moves to shield roughly 230,000 Salvadorans and 600,000 Venezuelans against Trump administration
The Biden administration on Friday extended temporary humanitarian protections for about 230,000 Salvadorans and 600,000 Venezuelans living in the US, in an effort to shield those groups from an incoming Trump administration that has promised to deport them.
The decision in the dying days of Joe Biden’s presidency came after immigrant advocates and lawmakers urged the Department of Homeland Security to extend temporary protected status (TPS), designed to protect immigrants from being deported to countries that are engulfed in disaster or conflict.
Continue reading...Feed picky nippers with dips and chips made from veg, perhaps some crackers, cheese, eggs – anything with some colour to attract the eye
Where there are picky eaters, there needs to be a gameplan. For Alissa Timoshkina, author of Kapusta, that means slipping vegetables into an existing favourite, be that pasta, pancakes or muffins. “You can’t go wrong with a veg-rich pasta sauce or pasta salad with roast vegetables [courgette, peppers and tomatoes, say] and mini mozzarella balls,” she says. Meanwhile, courgette, pea and sweetcorn pancakes, and cheddar and courgette muffins are other firm favourites round at Timoshkina’s: “You could add a few chopped green olives as well.”
Failing that, she goes for colour: “Think something that would be appealing and exciting to the eye, and therefore likely to entice children to dig in.” Give them options and keep things customisable: “Offer a platter-style selection of fruit and veg, and pair it with cheese, a dip and crackers.” More practically, for Timoshkina that means a small cheese sandwich, crudités (carrots, celery, peppers, cucumber), hummus or guacamole, olives, nori sheets (“instead of crisps”), grapes, clementines and/or dried fruit. “If you have a bento-style box, that’s even better.”
Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.com
Continue reading...Karlsruhe police say they have opened inquiry into ‘persons unknown on suspicion of incitement of racial hatred’
German police have launched an investigation after the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party distributed flyers designed to resemble plane tickets for deportation that were addressed to “illegal immigrants” as part of an increasingly provocative campaign for next month’s general election.
People from immigrant communities in the south-western city of Karlsruhe found the flyers in their letterboxes, although it was not immediately clear if they had been directly targeted.
Continue reading...Australian government holds ‘grave concerns’ for welfare of Oscar Jenkins, a 32-year-old teacher from Melbourne
The Australian government is “making urgent inquiries” after reports of the death of an Australian citizen captured by Russian forces while fighting for Ukraine.
Oscar Jenkins, a 32-year-old teacher from Melbourne, was serving alongside Ukraine’s armed forces when he was reportedly captured by Russian soldiers last year as a prisoner of war. A video taken at the time showed him, dressed in military fatigues, speaking English and Ukrainian, confirming his name and nationality, and being asked if he was a mercenary.
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Continue reading...Council worker hospitalised after jumping from second storey of home as it collapsed on Penny Lane in McCrae south-east of Melbourne
A man whose house on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula collapsed down a cliff in a landslide on Tuesday morning, has said he is thankful nobody was killed in the incident.
The house on Penny Lane in McCrae collapsed shortly before 9am, injuring a council worker, who was hospitalised.
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Continue reading...Premier of most populous province says rhetoric clouds trade relationship worth hundreds of billions of dollars
The United States will “feel pain” if Donald Trump doesn’t back down from his threat to impose steep tariffs on its northern neighbour, the leader of Canada’s most populous province has warned.
After a tumultuous week that left Canadian leaders flailing for a coherent national response to Trump’s provocations – including the suggestion that the US would annex its closest ally – the Ontario premier, Doug Ford, told the Guardian: “We will never be for sale.”
Continue reading...Culture secretary says it should go ahead despite pressure for it to be cancelled over Taliban’s treatment of women
England should be allowed to play next month’s cricket match against Afghanistan, the culture and sport secretary has said, despite calls for a boycott over the Taliban government’s treatment of women.
Lisa Nandy backed a decision by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to allow the game to go ahead, saying on Friday that cancelling it would “deny sports fans the opportunity that they love”.
Continue reading...Edmundo González, widely believed to have won July election, gives address after autocrat sworn in for third term
The man widely believed to be the real victor of last year’s presidential election in Venezuela has accused Nicolás Maduro of staging a coup and “crowning himself dictator” after the South American autocrat claimed another six years in power.
Maduro, a former union leader who has governed since 2013, in increasingly authoritarian fashion, was sworn in for a third term on Friday, despite claims that he stole the election from the actual winner, the retired diplomat Edmundo González.
Continue reading...A job listing for the Super Bowl LIX halftime show offers $12 per hour — part of a long pattern of host-city residents getting the short shrift.
The post Everyone’s Making Millions But the Super Bowl Haltime Show Wants to Hire New Orleans Locals for $12 an Hour appeared first on The Intercept.
The Intercept found dozens of government websites exploited by spammers to redirect to porn. Here’s how this hack happened.
The post Government Sites Across the U.S. Are Awash in Hardcore Porn appeared first on The Intercept.
First of five hearings into martial law declaration lasts only minutes, while Yoon Suk Yeol remains holed up inside his presidential compound
The first hearing in the impeachment trial of South Korea’s suspended president, Yoon Suk Yeol, ended after just a few minutes on Tuesday as Yoon failed to appear at the constitutional court.
The court’s justices have about five months to decide whether to strip Yoon of his presidential duties over his short-lived declaration of martial law on 3 December or return him to office.
Continue reading...As wildfires continue to cause devastation in Los Angeles, Madeleine Finlay speaks to Albert van Dijk, professor of water science and management at the Australian National University, about how rising temperatures are causing rapid swings in extreme weather
Clips: CBS News, CBS Sunday Morning, King 5 Seattle
Climate crisis ‘wreaking havoc’ on Earth’s water cycle, report finds
Continue reading...Factchecker Jesse Stiller and technology journalist Chris Stokel-Walker explore why Mark Zuckerberg has announced dramatic changes to Meta’s social platforms, and what they will mean for their 3.3 billion users
When Mark Zuckerberg announced dramatic changes to Meta’s social platforms last week – including Facebook, Instagram and Threads – he admitted: “We’re going to catch less bad stuff.”
Zuckerberg said Meta would get rid of factcheckers, overhaul its content moderation and boost political content in users’ feeds – all 3.3 billion of them. He argued the company was doing it because the political winds had changed: the public no longer viewed these safeguards as a way of preventing the spread of misinformation, hate speech, or even real-world violence, but as censorship by other means.
Continue reading...Max Rushden, Jonathan Wilson, Jonathan Liew and Nedum Onuoha review all the action from the FA Cup third round
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: Manchester United win on penalties at Arsenal. Altay Bayindir was the hero for the visitors, but Arsenal missed so many chances – are you ready for another conversation about whether they need a striker?
Continue reading...During the siege of Leningrad, botanists in charge of an irreplaceable seed collection had to protect it from fire, rodents – and hunger. By Simon Parkin
Continue reading...Alfred Bourgeois’s daughter is convinced of his innocence. In the four years since his execution, she has waged a sometimes-lonely battle to prove it.
The post She Lost Her Dad to Trump’s Killing Spree. Now She Wants Biden to Clear His Name. appeared first on The Intercept.
Anti-money laundering officials ask banks for information on UK minister and seven of her family members
Anti-money laundering officials in Bangladesh have demanded bank account details for Tulip Siddiq, the UK anti-corruption minister, in the latest escalation of the inquiries into her family’s financial interests.
The Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU), which investigates money laundering and suspicious transactions, wrote to the country’s main banks on Tuesday asking them to provide account details for Siddiq and seven of her family members.
Continue reading...The Louisiana Republican blamed “wokeness” in part for police’s failure to stop the New Orleans attack that left 15 dead.
The post Steve Scalise Knows Exactly What Led to the Bourbon Street Attack: DEI Initiatives appeared first on The Intercept.
Ohio has become the latest state to allow police to charge high fees for access to footage.
The post Ohio Puts Police Bodycam Footage Behind a Paywall appeared first on The Intercept.
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
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.
Sign Up Now To Get Free Credits
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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