********** CRYPTO **********
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With Bitcoin near $100,000, even pension funds are buying cryptocurrency
Thu, 16 Jan 2025 14:32:56 +0000
Michigan's and Wisconsin's state employee pension funds among top holders.
Match ID: 0 Score: 30.00 source: arstechnica.com age: 0 days
qualifiers: 20.00 cryptocurrenc(y|ies), 10.00 bitcoin(|s)
The First Bitcoin President? Tracing Trump’s Crypto Connections
Thu, 16 Jan 2025 11:00:00 +0000
Crypto execs funneled millions in donations to swing this election, and now their man is in charge. Here’s how Donald Trump’s “crypto cabinet” could shape the next four years.
Match ID: 1 Score: 30.00 source: www.wired.com age: 0 days
qualifiers: 20.00 cryptocurrenc(y|ies), 10.00 bitcoin(|s)
Does This Trump Crypto Appointee Even Have Crypto Experience? Yes, With a Trump-Themed Meme Coin.
Wed, 15 Jan 2025 10:00:00 +0000
And, when he ran for Congress, trust fund kid Bo Hines got half a million in support from FTX crypto fraudsters.
The post Does This Trump Crypto Appointee Even Have Crypto Experience? Yes, With a Trump-Themed Meme Coin. appeared first on The Intercept.
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Imagine a world in which you can do transactions and many other things without having to give your personal information. A world in which you don’t need to rely on banks or governments anymore. Sounds amazing, right? That’s exactly what blockchain technology allows us to do.
It’s like your computer’s hard drive. blockchain is a technology that lets you store data in digital blocks, which are connected together like links in a chain.
Blockchain technology was originally invented in 1991 by two mathematicians, Stuart Haber and W. Scot Stornetta. They first proposed the system to ensure that timestamps could not be tampered with.
A few years later, in 1998, software developer Nick Szabo proposed using a similar kind of technology to secure a digital payments system he called “Bit Gold.” However, this innovation was not adopted until Satoshi Nakamoto claimed to have invented the first Blockchain and Bitcoin.
A blockchain is a distributed database shared between the nodes of a computer network. It saves information in digital format. Many people first heard of blockchain technology when they started to look up information about bitcoin.
Blockchain is used in cryptocurrency systems to ensure secure, decentralized records of transactions.
Blockchain allowed people to guarantee the fidelity and security of a record of data without the need for a third party to ensure accuracy.
To understand how a blockchain works, Consider these basic steps:
Let’s get to know more about the blockchain.
Blockchain records digital information and distributes it across the network without changing it. The information is distributed among many users and stored in an immutable, permanent ledger that can't be changed or destroyed. That's why blockchain is also called "Distributed Ledger Technology" or DLT.
Here’s how it works:
And that’s the beauty of it! The process may seem complicated, but it’s done in minutes with modern technology. And because technology is advancing rapidly, I expect things to move even more quickly than ever.
Even though blockchain is integral to cryptocurrency, it has other applications. For example, blockchain can be used for storing reliable data about transactions. Many people confuse blockchain with cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum.
Blockchain already being adopted by some big-name companies, such as Walmart, AIG, Siemens, Pfizer, and Unilever. For example, IBM's Food Trust uses blockchain to track food's journey before reaching its final destination.
Although some of you may consider this practice excessive, food suppliers and manufacturers adhere to the policy of tracing their products because bacteria such as E. coli and Salmonella have been found in packaged foods. In addition, there have been isolated cases where dangerous allergens such as peanuts have accidentally been introduced into certain products.
Tracing and identifying the sources of an outbreak is a challenging task that can take months or years. Thanks to the Blockchain, however, companies now know exactly where their food has been—so they can trace its location and prevent future outbreaks.
Blockchain technology allows systems to react much faster in the event of a hazard. It also has many other uses in the modern world.
Blockchain technology is safe, even if it’s public. People can access the technology using an internet connection.
Have you ever been in a situation where you had all your data stored at one place and that one secure place got compromised? Wouldn't it be great if there was a way to prevent your data from leaking out even when the security of your storage systems is compromised?
Blockchain technology provides a way of avoiding this situation by using multiple computers at different locations to store information about transactions. If one computer experiences problems with a transaction, it will not affect the other nodes.
Instead, other nodes will use the correct information to cross-reference your incorrect node. This is called “Decentralization,” meaning all the information is stored in multiple places.
Blockchain guarantees your data's authenticity—not just its accuracy, but also its irreversibility. It can also be used to store data that are difficult to register, like legal contracts, state identifications, or a company's product inventory.
Blockchain has many advantages and disadvantages.
I’ll answer the most frequently asked questions about blockchain in this section.
Blockchain is not a cryptocurrency but a technology that makes cryptocurrencies possible. It's a digital ledger that records every transaction seamlessly.
Yes, blockchain can be theoretically hacked, but it is a complicated task to be achieved. A network of users constantly reviews it, which makes hacking the blockchain difficult.
Coinbase Global is currently the biggest blockchain company in the world. The company runs a commendable infrastructure, services, and technology for the digital currency economy.
Blockchain is a decentralized technology. It’s a chain of distributed ledgers connected with nodes. Each node can be any electronic device. Thus, one owns blockhain.
Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, which is powered by Blockchain technology while Blockchain is a distributed ledger of cryptocurrency
Generally a database is a collection of data which can be stored and organized using a database management system. The people who have access to the database can view or edit the information stored there. The client-server network architecture is used to implement databases. whereas a blockchain is a growing list of records, called blocks, stored in a distributed system. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, timestamp and transaction information. Modification of data is not allowed due to the design of the blockchain. The technology allows decentralized control and eliminates risks of data modification by other parties.
Blockchain has a wide spectrum of applications and, over the next 5-10 years, we will likely see it being integrated into all sorts of industries. From finance to healthcare, blockchain could revolutionize the way we store and share data. Although there is some hesitation to adopt blockchain systems right now, that won't be the case in 2022-2023 (and even less so in 2026). Once people become more comfortable with the technology and understand how it can work for them, owners, CEOs and entrepreneurs alike will be quick to leverage blockchain technology for their own gain. Hope you like this article if you have any question let me know in the comments section
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Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are the most popular digital assets today, capturing the attention of cryptocurrency investors, whales and people from around the world. People find it amazing that some users spend thousands or millions of dollars on a single NFT-based image of a monkey or other token, but you can simply take a screenshot for free. So here we share some freuently asked question about NFTs.
NFT stands for non-fungible token, which is a cryptographic token on a blockchain with unique identification codes that distinguish it from other tokens. NFTs are unique and not interchangeable, which means no two NFTs are the same. NFTs can be a unique artwork, GIF, Images, videos, Audio album. in-game items, collectibles etc.
A blockchain is a distributed digital ledger that allows for the secure storage of data. By recording any kind of information—such as bank account transactions, the ownership of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), or Decentralized Finance (DeFi) smart contracts—in one place, and distributing it to many different computers, blockchains ensure that data can’t be manipulated without everyone in the system being aware.
The value of an NFT comes from its ability to be traded freely and securely on the blockchain, which is not possible with other current digital ownership solutionsThe NFT points to its location on the blockchain, but doesn’t necessarily contain the digital property. For example, if you replace one bitcoin with another, you will still have the same thing. If you buy a non-fungible item, such as a movie ticket, it is impossible to replace it with any other movie ticket because each ticket is unique to a specific time and place.
One of the unique characteristics of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) is that they can be tokenised to create a digital certificate of ownership that can be bought, sold and traded on the blockchain.
As with crypto-currency, records of who owns what are stored on a ledger that is maintained by thousands of computers around the world. These records can’t be forged because the whole system operates on an open-source network.
NFTs also contain smart contracts—small computer programs that run on the blockchain—that give the artist, for example, a cut of any future sale of the token.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) aren't cryptocurrencies, but they do use blockchain technology. Many NFTs are based on Ethereum, where the blockchain serves as a ledger for all the transactions related to said NFT and the properties it represents.5) How to make an NFT?
Anyone can create an NFT. All you need is a digital wallet, some ethereum tokens and a connection to an NFT marketplace where you’ll be able to upload and sell your creations
When you purchase a stock in NFT, that purchase is recorded on the blockchain—the bitcoin ledger of transactions—and that entry acts as your proof of ownership.
The value of an NFT varies a lot based on the digital asset up for grabs. People use NFTs to trade and sell digital art, so when creating an NFT, you should consider the popularity of your digital artwork along with historical statistics.
In the year 2021, a digital artist called Pak created an artwork called The Merge. It was sold on the Nifty Gateway NFT market for $91.8 million.
Non-fungible tokens can be used in investment opportunities. One can purchase an NFT and resell it at a profit. Certain NFT marketplaces let sellers of NFTs keep a percentage of the profits from sales of the assets they create.
Many people want to buy NFTs because it lets them support the arts and own something cool from their favorite musicians, brands, and celebrities. NFTs also give artists an opportunity to program in continual royalties if someone buys their work. Galleries see this as a way to reach new buyers interested in art.
There are many places to buy digital assets, like opensea and their policies vary. On top shot, for instance, you sign up for a waitlist that can be thousands of people long. When a digital asset goes on sale, you are occasionally chosen to purchase it.
To mint an NFT token, you must pay some amount of gas fee to process the transaction on the Etherum blockchain, but you can mint your NFT on a different blockchain called Polygon to avoid paying gas fees. This option is available on OpenSea and this simply denotes that your NFT will only be able to trade using Polygon's blockchain and not Etherum's blockchain. Mintable allows you to mint NFTs for free without paying any gas fees.
The answer is no. Non-Fungible Tokens are minted on the blockchain using cryptocurrencies such as Etherum, Solana, Polygon, and so on. Once a Non-Fungible Token is minted, the transaction is recorded on the blockchain and the contract or license is awarded to whoever has that Non-Fungible Token in their wallet.
You can sell your work and creations by attaching a license to it on the blockchain, where its ownership can be transferred. This lets you get exposure without losing full ownership of your work. Some of the most successful projects include Cryptopunks, Bored Ape Yatch Club NFTs, SandBox, World of Women and so on. These NFT projects have gained popularity globally and are owned by celebrities and other successful entrepreneurs. Owning one of these NFTs gives you an automatic ticket to exclusive business meetings and life-changing connections.
That’s a wrap. Hope you guys found this article enlightening. I just answer some question with my limited knowledge about NFTs. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to drop them in the comment section below. Also I have a question for you, Is bitcoin an NFTs? let me know in The comment section below
In the rapidly advancing landscape of AI technology and innovation, LimeWire emerges as a unique platform in the realm of generative AI tools. This platform not only stands out from the multitude of existing AI tools but also brings a fresh approach to content generation. LimeWire not only empowers users to create AI content but also provides creators with creative ways to share and monetize their creations.
As we explore LimeWire, our aim is to uncover its features, benefits for creators, and the exciting possibilities it offers for AI content generation. This platform presents an opportunity for users to harness the power of AI in image creation, all while enjoying the advantages of a free and accessible service.
Let's unravel the distinctive features that set LimeWire apart in the dynamic landscape of AI-powered tools, understanding how creators can leverage its capabilities to craft unique and engaging AI-generated images.
This revamped LimeWire invites users to register and unleash their creativity by crafting original AI content, which can then be shared and showcased on the LimeWire Studio. Notably, even acclaimed artists and musicians, such as Deadmau5, Soulja Boy, and Sean Kingston, have embraced this platform to publish their content in the form of NFT music, videos, and images.
Beyond providing a space for content creation and sharing, LimeWire introduces monetization models to empower users to earn revenue from their creations. This includes avenues such as earning ad revenue and participating in the burgeoning market of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). As we delve further, we'll explore these monetization strategies in more detail to provide a comprehensive understanding of LimeWire's innovative approach to content creation and distribution.
LimeWire Studio welcomes content creators into its fold, providing a space to craft personalized AI-focused content for sharing with fans and followers. Within this creative hub, every piece of content generated becomes not just a creation but a unique asset—ownable and tradable. Fans have the opportunity to subscribe to creators' pages, immersing themselves in the creative journey and gaining ownership of digital collectibles that hold tradeable value within the LimeWire community. Notably, creators earn a 2.5% royalty each time their content is traded, adding a rewarding element to the creative process.
The platform's flexibility is evident in its content publication options. Creators can choose to share their work freely with the public or opt for a premium subscription model, granting exclusive access to specialized content for subscribers.
As of the present moment, LimeWire focuses on AI Image Generation, offering a spectrum of creative possibilities to its user base. The platform, however, has ambitious plans on the horizon, aiming to broaden its offerings by introducing AI music and video generation tools in the near future. This strategic expansion promises creators even more avenues for expression and engagement with their audience, positioning LimeWire Studio as a dynamic and evolving platform within the realm of AI-powered content creation.
The LimeWire AI image generation tool presents a versatile platform for both the creation and editing of images. Supporting advanced models such as Stable Diffusion 2.1, Stable Diffusion XL, and DALL-E 2, LimeWire offers a sophisticated toolkit for users to delve into the realm of generative AI art.
Much like other tools in the generative AI landscape, LimeWire provides a range of options catering to various levels of complexity in image creation. Users can initiate the creative process with prompts as simple as a few words or opt for more intricate instructions, tailoring the output to their artistic vision.
What sets LimeWire apart is its seamless integration of different AI models and design styles. Users have the flexibility to effortlessly switch between various AI models, exploring diverse design styles such as cinematic, digital art, pixel art, anime, analog film, and more. Each style imparts a distinctive visual identity to the generated AI art, enabling users to explore a broad spectrum of creative possibilities.
The platform also offers additional features, including samplers, allowing users to fine-tune the quality and detail levels of their creations. Customization options and prompt guidance further enhance the user experience, providing a user-friendly interface for both novice and experienced creators.
Excitingly, LimeWire is actively developing its proprietary AI model, signaling ongoing innovation and enhancements to its image generation capabilities. This upcoming addition holds the promise of further expanding the creative horizons for LimeWire users, making it an evolving and dynamic platform within the landscape of AI-driven art and image creation.
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
High amounts of ‘forever chemicals’ that can be absorbed through skin detected in common brands of wrist bands
Smartwatch and fitness tracker bands can contain high levels of toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” that are absorbed through the skin, presenting a potentially “major” exposure to the dangerous substance, new US research finds.
The University of Notre Dame study checked for PFAS, or markers of the chemicals, in 22 common brands. It detected them in 15, and at levels much higher than typically found in consumer goods and clothing.
Continue reading...Whether you’re chasing folding treadmills or gym quality on a budget, our top-rated running machines will accelerate your training
• The best running shoes to take you from trail to road to marathon, tried and tested by runners
Although the treadmill has been around since the early 1800s, when it was once used to punish prisoners (sounds about right), it didn’t become a common feature in the home until the late 1960s, when William Staub unleashed his PaceMaster 600 on the US public.
Where they were once a simple rolling deck, treadmills today are often glossy pieces of interactive tech. Many now offer on-demand, real-time workouts (pioneered by Peloton) and the latest blockbuster movies via streaming services. Even if your treadmill doesn’t sport a whopping touchscreen display, it probably works nicely with heart-rate monitors, smartwatches and smartphone apps to track workouts and offer performance statistics after every session.
Best treadmill overall:
Peloton Tread
£3,095 at Peloton
Best budget treadmill:
JTX Slimline
£599 at JTX Fitness
Best for gym quality:
JTX Sprint-9 Pro
£1,699 at JTX Fitness
Best folding treadmill:
ProForm Pro 9000
£2,299 at Fitness Superstore
Bundle up and break a sweat with these winter running accessories, from base layers and gloves to waterproof jackets
• The best running shoes to take you from trail to road to marathon
If you’re tempted to stop running in the winter or retreat to the gym, think again. Whether it’s getting out for fresh air and daylight on crisp, blue-sky days, or blowing away the cobwebs in the dark and rain after work, running outdoors can make winter more bearable.
With a few changes to your attire and some nifty accessories, you can stay warm and dry and be safer. You won’t need all of the below – it depends on where you run, how far and what time of day you get out. Everything featured is either unisex or available in women’s and men’s versions.
Continue reading...This week: what we learned testing toothbrushes, fitness kit worth the investment, and slow cookers for warming winter feasts
• Don’t get the Filter delivered to your inbox? Sign up here
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...
Better Man is a genuinely good movie but it’s bombing – and now his song has been disqualified from the Oscars too
Despite the terrible box office performance, and movie theatres cancelling screenings, Americans are at least talking about the Robbie Williams biopic, Better Man.
“I hate this movie, and I haven’t even seen it … it makes me angry and I don’t know why!” complains TikTokker Jasmine Dayra, one of thousands posting similar videos. Others claim they’ve been “gaslit” into believing he’s a huge star, or that the film is the result of “the Mandela effect”, a false memory shared by a large group of people. “I just found out Robbie Williams is real,” says one angry poster.
Continue reading...(Rock Action)
While old-school fans may lament their softening, the Glasgow band swap rage for refuge as they face personal strife – and their 30th anniversary
Mogwai’s 11th album commences with an icy electronic arpeggio enveloped in reverb. Beneath, other, deeper, darker synthesiser tones build and glide. The effect is both faintly ominous and cinematic, perhaps because the sound bears a resemblance to the electronic scores that director John Carpenter devised for his movies in the late 70s and early 80s. It’s a suitably grand and portentous opening for The Bad Fire, an album that coincides with Mogwai’s 30th anniversary.
If you’re old enough to remember Mogwai as tracksuit-clad teenage upstarts on the fringes of 90s alt-rock – with their gobby interviews and Blur Are Shite T-shirts, their albums named after gang graffiti and their habit of referring to keyboardist Brendan O’Hare, formerly of Teenage Fanclub, as “the relic” – the notion of them as a stalwart band whose albums now regularly make the Top 10, who command documentaries and autobiographies, feels undeniably odd. But an august institution is what they have become – Britain’s best-loved and longest-serving purveyors of what we might as well call post-rock, despite the band’s aversion to the term.
Continue reading...Whether you’re chasing folding treadmills or gym quality on a budget, our top-rated running machines will accelerate your training
• The best running shoes to take you from trail to road to marathon, tried and tested by runners
Although the treadmill has been around since the early 1800s, when it was once used to punish prisoners (sounds about right), it didn’t become a common feature in the home until the late 1960s, when William Staub unleashed his PaceMaster 600 on the US public.
Where they were once a simple rolling deck, treadmills today are often glossy pieces of interactive tech. Many now offer on-demand, real-time workouts (pioneered by Peloton) and the latest blockbuster movies via streaming services. Even if your treadmill doesn’t sport a whopping touchscreen display, it probably works nicely with heart-rate monitors, smartwatches and smartphone apps to track workouts and offer performance statistics after every session.
Best treadmill overall:
Peloton Tread
£3,095 at Peloton
Best budget treadmill:
JTX Slimline
£599 at JTX Fitness
Best for gym quality:
JTX Sprint-9 Pro
£1,699 at JTX Fitness
Best folding treadmill:
ProForm Pro 9000
£2,299 at Fitness Superstore
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
The Laken Riley Act authorizes state attorneys general to sue federal authorities to force deportations and block visas.
The post Congress Considers Putting Ken Paxton in Charge of Choosing Who to Deport appeared first on The Intercept.
And, when he ran for Congress, trust fund kid Bo Hines got half a million in support from FTX crypto fraudsters.
The post Does This Trump Crypto Appointee Even Have Crypto Experience? Yes, With a Trump-Themed Meme Coin. appeared first on The Intercept.
In their confirmation hearings, John Ratcliffe, Pam Bondi, and Tulsi Gabbard gave government mass surveillance two thumbs up.
The post Trump Decried This Law as a Deep State Spy Weapon. His Nominees Sure Seem to Love It. appeared first on The Intercept.
Trump’s nominee to lead the interior department will tell senators that he supports expanding drilling on public lands, a reversal from Biden’s policy
Donald Trump’s pledge to expand oil and gas drilling was one of several campaign promises he made that could undermine the fight against the climate crisis. In October, the Guardian’s Oliver Milman took a closer look at how Trump’s proposals could have consequences that reverberate for millions of years:
The climate crisis may appear peripheral in the US presidential election but a victory for Donald Trump will, more than any other issue, have profound consequences for people around a rapidly heating world, experts have warned.
The comments signal a coming sharp turn in policy after President Joe Biden attempted for years to restrict oil and gas drilling by reducing federal lease auctions and banning future development in vast areas of federal offshore waters as part of a strategy to fight climate change.
“Today, America produces energy cleaner, smarter and safer than anywhere in the world. When energy production is restricted in America, it doesn’t reduce demand, it just shifts production to countries like Russia, Venezuela, and Iran – whose autocratic leaders don’t care about the environment,” Burgum will tell lawmakers, according to his prepared remarks.
Continue reading...Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire deal on almost entirely the same terms as a proposal that fell apart in the summer.
The post A Deal Too Late: Israel Agrees to the Ceasefire It Rejected Months Ago, Thousands More Died appeared first on The Intercept.
During his Senate confirmation hearing, Russell Vought downplayed Trump’s moves to strip protections from civil service employees.
The post White House Budget Office Nominee Tries to Whitewash Trump’s First Term appeared first on The Intercept.
The president did not air grievances or dwell on the past, but sounded an alarm call about the future under Trump
There was a sting in the tail. Joe Biden’s farewell address had not seemed like a must-watch for most politics-weary Americans. Those who did dutifully tune in might have been expecting the president to deliver a yawn-inducing first draft of his White House memoir.
But after more than half a century in elected office, the 82-year-old great-grandfather had one last surprise. The primetime speech did not mention Donald Trump by name. Instead it will be remembered for its dark, ominous warning about something wider and deeper of which Trump is a symptom.
Continue reading...President sounds alarm about growing power of ultra-wealthy before handing presidency back to Trump
Joe Biden’s final address to the nation struck an ominous tone after warning of the growing power of America’s ultra-wealthy, and cautioning that an emerging oligarchy threatens the foundations of US democracy.
The Wednesday prime-time Oval Office speech came as Biden prepares to hand the presidency back to Donald Trump, who he defeated in 2020 only to see return to power after Biden’s own dramatic exit from politics last summer.
Continue reading...Conservatives have been caught admitting that age-verification laws are pretext to shut down pornography entirely.
The post SCOTUS Won’t Hear the Real Reason Porn Age-Verification Laws Are Spreading appeared first on The Intercept.
President-elect ‘has warm spot’ for platform and wants political solution to ‘preserve app but protect data’
Donald Trump is considering suspending a TikTok ban in the US with an executive order when he enters the White House on 20 January, according to a report.
The president-elect is exploring an executive order that would postpone enforcement of a sale-or-ban law due to come into force on 19 January, said the Washington Post. The report added, however, that Trump’s legal grounds for suspending a law passed by Congress are questionable.
Continue reading...Proposal follows loss of constitutional payment given to opposition parties
Labour party staff are being balloted on whether to accept a pay freeze this year, the Guardian has learned.
Unite and GMB members who work for the party have until Friday to vote on whether to accept the proposed pay freeze.
Continue reading...Opposition leader expected to turn fire on predecessors in speech in which she will try to break with the past
Richard Adams is the Guardian’s education editor.
Thirty-two sixth form colleges across England will be hit by more strikes over a pay disparity between staff employed by academies and those in standalone colleges.
We will never accept a situation in which college teachers in non-academised colleagues are paid less than their academised peers for identical work. It is absurd and blatantly unfair to under-fund sixth form colleges in this way, risking lasting damage to longstanding collective bargaining arrangements.
We cannot make a 5.5% pay offer for the whole year, because the government has not provided funding for the whole year. Students will pay the price for this through further disruption to their education.
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.
Jaymey McIvor, Reform UK’s first Essex councillor, was suspended from Conservatives last year amid claims
A Reform UK councillor has been accused of being expelled from the Conservative party last year over allegations he sent an unsolicited picture of his “private parts”.
Jaymey McIvor had been due to stand as a Tory parliamentary candidate in July but was suspended before the election. Sources say he was expelled after an investigation into the allegations.
Continue reading...February’s election is shaping up to be one of the most consequential since the second world war
In the German city of Karlsruhe, a police investigation has just been launched into the distribution of 30,000 flyers designed to resemble deportation plane tickets, many of which were placed in the letterboxes of immigrants. Organised by the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party (AfD), the stunt recalled a similar malicious exercise by the neo-Nazi National Democratic party (NPD) in 2013. The difference is that while the NPD – now renamed the Homeland – is a fringe movement that has never crossed the 5% threshold of votes necessary to enter the Bundestag, the AfD is now running second in polls, at about 21%.
The booming popularity of a xenophobic party officially suspected of anti-constitutional extremism is just the starkest signal of how much is at stake in next month’s snap election in Germany. A national poll in Europe’s largest economy will always be of deep continental significance. But as campaigning begins in earnest, there are grounds beyond the issue of immigration for judging this to be one of the country’s most consequential contests since the second world war.
Continue reading...Ed Davey says incoming US president is ‘threat to peace and prosperity’ and relations with him must be transactional
Britain should offer Donald Trump a state visit only on the condition he agrees to a sit-down summit with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as part of an openly transactional US-UK relationship with the returning president, Ed Davey has said.
In a speech in which the Liberal Democrat leader also called for the UK to seek a new customs union with the EU to help insulate itself from the potential impacts of Trump’s second presidency, Davey said that while the US leader could not be trusted, he could also very much not be ignored.
Continue reading...Nothing has challenged Silicon Valley like the Chinese app. Blocking its use in the US would be like stealing half the books in a library
How many times in your life can you say that one of the culture-defining platforms of your era is being forcibly removed? This is what will happen to the one third of American adults who use TikTok – and the other two-thirds whose lives have been undoubtedly affected by it – if the US supreme court upholds its ban on the Chinese-owned app, as it is expected to do on 19 January, in the interests of national security.
I have spent the last few years researching instances of linguicide, where authoritarian regimes have burned dictionaries, or sent people to prison just for singing a song. I see alarming parallels with the dismantling of TikTok in the US; a ruthless cull of a communication tool that challenges Silicon Valley hegemony and gave the US a serving of what it is allegedly supposed to prize: healthy, full-fat competition.
Sophia Smith Galer is a journalist, content creator and the author of Losing It
Fair Work Commission puts interim pause on approval for industrial action after second day of delays for commuters
New South Wales trains will return to normal scheduling for now after the Fair Work Commission placed an interim pause on its approval for rail unions to undertake industrial action amid a long-running pay dispute with the state government.
The decision came after the NSW premier, Chris Minns, announced on Thursday – after commuters faced havoc for a second day – that the government had made an urgent application to the commission to end the union’s protected industrial actions and move to an arbitrated decision.
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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...With vaccine sceptic as Trump pick to lead US health policy, parents and advocates anticipate devastating changes
A political battle over school-based Covid protocols in early 2021 quickly turned personal for one Colorado family, whose son’s cystic fibrosis – a life-threatening genetic disease affecting the lungs and other vital organs – made him susceptible to complications from the virus.
Kate Gould said the classroom became a dangerous place for her son after hardline conservatives took over the Douglas county school board and the district removed masking requirements.
Continue reading...Tory leader to condemn predecessors’ Brexit, climate and migration failings amid rising popularity of Reform UK
Kemi Badenoch will attack the Conservative party’s record under Boris Johnson and Theresa May on Brexit, the economy, net zero and immigration in a speech aimed at “rebuilding trust”.
The Tory leader, who is competing with the sharp rise in popularity of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, will “acknowledge the Conservative party made mistakes” under her predecessors.
Continue reading...With A&E departments at breaking point and the NHS on its knees, what is the government doing to repair the health service? Will it be enough? John Harris hears from an emergency medicine doctor about the dire situation on the ground, and speaks to our political correspondent Kiran Stacey about Labour’s plans to put things right
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Continue reading...Political correspondent Kiran Stacey traces the allegations of corruption against Labour MP Tulip Siddiq that caused her to resign from her ministerial role in Keir Starmer’s government
On Tuesday afternoon, Labour’s Tulip Siddiq resigned from her post as City minister.
It was the culmination of weeks and weeks of stories about Siddiq’s finances and family ties. For, as political correspondent Kiran Stacey explains, Siddiq comes from a truly extraordinary political family: her aunt, Sheikh Hasina, was the prime minister of Bangladesh for 15 years.
Continue reading...Future of Diego Garcia military base should be considered before handover to Mauritius signed off, No 10 says
The UK government will not sign off a deal to hand back the Chagos Islands to Mauritius until Donald Trump’s administration has had a chance to consider the future of the joint military base, Downing Street has confirmed.
Allies of the US president-elect have been critical of the deal because of the implications for the strategically important Diego Garcia base, with concerns that it could bolster Chinese interests in the Indian Ocean.
Continue reading...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.
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.
UK prime minister meets Ukrainian president as they sign 100-year partnership agreement to deepen security ties between nations
Starmer hails ‘closer than ever’ partnership with Ukraine on visit
City officials say there have been no casualties after the reported Russian drone attack on Kyiv, but say a car was damaged by falling debris in one of the districts.
As we have previously mentioned, Starmer is in Kyiv to sign a so-called “100-year partnership” treaty between Britain and Ukraine (see more details of what is in the agreement here). The UK, one of Ukraine’s biggest military supporters, has committed £12.8bn in military and civilian aid to Kyiv over the war and has trained tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops. Starmer is to announce another £40m for Ukraine’s postwar economic recovery.
Continue reading...British director of Human Rights Watch attacks ‘dangerous hypocrisy’ of government
Britain’s crackdown on climate protest is setting “a dangerous precedent” around the world and undermining democratic rights, the UK director of Human Rights Watch has said.
Yasmine Ahmed accused the Labour government of hypocrisy over its claims to be committed to human rights and international law.
Continue reading...Experts say the flood of users to RedNote highlights flaws in the Albanese government’s social media ban
As the TikTok ban looms in the United States, users have flocked to RedNote, also known as Xiaohongshu, a China-based app that looks similar to Instagram.
But in Australia, where there is no imminent TikTok ban, the app is also rocketing up the app download charts. And it doesn’t just tell us about TikTok – it also exposes issues with Australia’s forthcoming social media age ban.
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Continue reading...Joe Biden says his team negotiated deal but Donald Trump claims it was agreed now only because he is about to become president
The question yelled at Joe Biden by a reporter was unapologetically blunt: “Who do you think deserves credit for this Mr President: you or [Donald] Trump?”
Biden had just finished announcing what he presented as his signature foreign policy achievement – a ceasefire-for-hostages deal between Israel and Hamas to halt the bloody war in Gaza that has left 46,000 Palestinians and 1,700 Israelis dead. He wasn’t in the mood for that debate.
Continue reading...Growth weaker than City forecasts but government says it’s a ‘step in the right direction’
The UK economy grew by 0.1% in November, reversing a 0.1% drop in the previous month, and easing some of the pressure on the chancellor, Rachel Reeves.
The rise in activity was weaker than forecast, with Reeves acknowledging it would take time to revive the UK economy.
Continue reading...Judge adjourns case to 24 February and tells MP for Runcorn and Helsby he is leaving all sentencing options open
The MP for Runcorn and Helsby, Mike Amesbury, has pleaded guilty to assault.
Appearing at Chester magistrates court, Amesbury, who was suspended by the Labour party after an investigation, admitted the single charge of section 39 assault in relation to an incident after a night out in his constituency.
Continue reading...After years of militant bravado in my art and politics, I now seek to empathise with people I used to write off as enemies
When I look back at some of the opinion pieces I wrote and the art I made in the 2010s, I can’t help but cringe at the conviction with which I presented myself and my work. Like many of my twentysomething contemporaries, I spoke with delusional ferocity about the “evils of the straight cis white man” and described anyone who disagreed with me as an out-and-out enemy. As a queer and Arab person in Britain who had long felt excluded from the mainstream conversation, it was thrilling to be making forceful and oppositional interventions in public debate.
Thinking back to this version of myself, I understand now that my combative approach to political disagreement – which was admittedly part of the spirit of the age, marked by culture wars escalating across the social media landscape – was, in my case, a response to personal trauma. In my mid-20s I was a struggling artist carrying unprocessed feelings from the conservatism of my childhood. I had been raised in a religious environment where my sexuality was not only suppressed but outright prohibited, and I lived so much of my childhood genuinely terrified of losing the support of my family (and God). I had also moved to the UK at the start of Britain’s invasion of Iraq – my family’s home country – and internalised much of the racism I encountered.
Amrou Al-Kadhi is performing Glamrou: Drag Mother at the Soho theatre in London from 20 to 25 January. Their feature film Layla is available to stream now
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Continue reading...They disagreed on Israel/Gaza, but did they find common ground on Covid contracts, the treatment of farmers, or the Labour government?
Rhodri, 47, Fishguard, Pembrokeshire
Occupation Farmer, and also has a construction business
Continue reading...‘Rock star central banker’ Carney, expert on economic risks of climate change, is unknown by 76% of voters
Mark Carney, the “rock star central banker” who navigated a string of financial crises and became a leading global voice on the economic risks of climate change, has rapidly emerged as a favourite in the race to lead Canada’s Liberal party.
But the steepest challenge for Carney, a fixture at international summits and company boardrooms, may be getting ordinary Canadian voters – even those within his own party – to recognize him.
Continue reading...Aircraft – possibly a Russian decoy – seen above presidential palace where UK PM is meeting Ukrainian president
Anti-aircraft fire has erupted in Kyiv as Keir Starmer held talks with Volodymyr Zelenskyy during the UK prime minister’s first official trip to Ukraine since taking office.
The presidential palace, where the two leaders are due to hold a press conference on Thursday, echoed with loud booms as Ukrainian air defences tried to shoot down a drone.
Continue reading...Unions accuse Reform leader of being ‘on the side of bad bosses, zero-hours contracts and fire and rehire’
Labour and trade unions have criticised an attack by Nigel Farage on a proposed law aimed at protecting workers from sexual harassment – which the Reform UK leader claimed could lead to the end of pub banter.
Farage is among those who have criticised the clause in the employment bill that gives workers protection from third-party harassment. It says employers must take “reasonable steps”, for example to protect bartenders from harassment by customers.
Continue reading...These high priests of globalisation are facing the fact that Trump’s tariffs are part of a global shift to protectionism
Hollywood would struggle to come up with a better plot. On Monday, as Donald Trump returns to the White House, the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) annual talk fest kicks off in Davos. The arch protectionist v the spiritual home of globalisation. The man who says “tariff” is “the most beautiful word in the dictionary” being sworn in for a second term just as the high priests of free trade assemble 5,000ft up in the Swiss Alps.
The Davos elite have a love-hate relationship with Trump: they despise him, but when he showed up at the WEF as president he was the hottest ticket in town. This year, the billionaires will have to make do with a video link appearance, but even from the other side of the Atlantic, Trump will dominate events. That’s not surprising. Most of the WEF attenders have grown up believing that trade barriers should be torn down, not erected. As such, they see Trump’s support for protectionism as a dangerous heresy.
Larry Elliott is a Guardian columnist
Continue reading...From these beginnings must come a just and lasting settlement for Palestinians and Israelis alike – and a reckoning
At last! The yearned for Israel-Hamas ceasefire-for-hostages deal is finally happening. It is welcome. Like thin ice covering deep waters, it is scarily fragile, prone to crack under the slightest pressure. And it is desperately, lethally overdue. Tens of thousands of Palestinians, and many Israelis, have died since last May, when the US president, Joe Biden, first set out the parameters of this agreement. Civilians are still being killed in Israeli airstrikes that have actually intensified since the two sides grudgingly initialled the deal in Qatar.
Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere are naturally relieved that these merciless Israeli bombardments will soon stop. But celebrations are tempered by fears about the future, and by deep grief and anger over the still terrifying present and immediate past. According to Gaza health ministry figures, more than 46,000 people have died there since the 7 October 2023 Hamas terrorist attacks killed over 1,200 people. The true Palestinian death toll may be even higher.
Simon Tisdall is the Observer’s foreign affairs commentator
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Continue reading...Labour’s panicked reaction to turbulence is to promise ‘ruthless’ cuts. It has learned the wrong lessons from Britain’s shortest-lived PM
Britain’s centre of power is stalked by a zombie. Across Westminster, the mere mention of her name summons up a grim past, but she remains ever present: blond bob, eyes that never move and a grin slightly aslant so it expresses not mirth, but faint menace. When least expected, she can bark a laugh that sends shivers up a cabinet minister’s spine. And whenever her shadow looms in SW1, the dread murmur starts: she used to be prime minister, you know.
Liz Truss’s stint at the top of politics ended years ago. Perhaps close confidants and trained medics are yet to break the news, but for her, power is a fading memory, a shrinking image in the rear-view. As the voters of South West Norfolk ensured last July, she is now an ex-politician. Yet in British political culture, she is the great undead. No other prime minister since the Brexit vote so haunts current debates. It’s not just because she never belts up, never stops chuntering about how the Guardian and the BBC must be “fixed”, or siccing her lawyers on Keir Starmer. It’s also because her few days of mayhem at No 10 remains the pre-eminent cautionary tale of our times.
Aditya Chakrabortty is a Guardian columnist
Continue reading...Patients tell of their anger and embarrassment, while healthcare professionals say they are ‘heartbroken’
John, 42, said he was “quite angry” after spending about 24 hours in a hospital corridor in south-west England, having arrived in A&E on Monday afternoon with chest pain. “It was very clear that the hospital was running beyond capacity.”
At the time of writing, he had moved to a different hospital in the area and was waiting for an angiogram on Wednesday. Messaging from his corridor hospital bed he said: “It’s narrow, cramped and there is zero patient privacy.”
Continue reading...The UK’s road, rail and other vital networks are threatened by global warming, warns Dr Janet Young
Your article sets out the stark picture we’re dealing with (Hottest year on record sent planet past 1.5C of heating for first time in 2024, 10 January). Climate change is causing more extreme weather, and if we don’t speed up our global transition to clean energy, it will only get worse.
Making societies more resilient is mentioned, briefly. This is a topic that should be given much more prominence. Despite warnings from the Climate Change Committee and the United Nations, rising temperatures, and more extreme weather events all over the world, we have yet to take decisive action to adapt the UK’s infrastructure.
Continue reading...In an instant, Sam Pordale went from a world of privilege to becoming a refugee in imminent danger. He talks about how he lost everything and began to rebuild his life
On 15 August 2021, 21-year-old Sam Pordale and his father found themselves part of a huge, panicked crowd of people all trying to get to Kabul airport and away from the Taliban militants who, just hours earlier, had taken control of Afghanistan’s capital city.
Between the crowd and the entrance to the airport, Pordale could see a Taliban checkpoint, where heavily armed men were holding lists in their hands and checking people’s documents. Pordale, whose father had until that morning held a high-ranking position in the democratic government, knew that their chances of getting to the airport and on to an evacuation flight were blown.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: With reports of a breakthrough in ceasefire negotiations, a look at what the detail includes – and what its obstacles are
Good morning. After months of false starts, Israel and Hamas are close to agreeing a ceasefire that would involve the release of hostages and a major influx of aid into Gaza. Last night, both sides appeared to have accepted the outlines of a deal, with Reuters reporting that once Israel delivers maps showing how its forces will withdraw from Gaza, Hamas will give its response.
“It’s closer than it’s ever been before,” US secretary of state Antony Blinken said yesterday. “But, right now, as we sit here, we await final word from Hamas on its acceptance, and until we get that word, we’ll remain on the brink.”
Economy | UK inflation unexpectedly fell in December, handing some breathing space to the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, after a week of turbulence in financial markets. Figures from the Office for National Statistics showed the consumer prices index eased to 2.5%, below a reading of 2.6% in November.
UK politics | Tulip Siddiq has resigned as a Treasury minister after accepting the furore over her close ties to her aunt, the ousted prime minister of Bangladesh now accused of corruption, had become a distraction. An investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing but said a lack of records meant that it was not possible “to obtain comprehensive comfort” over properties linked to Sheikh Hasina.
South Korea | South Korea’s impeached president, Yoon Suk Yeol, has been arrested and is being questioned over his ill-fated declaration of martial law last month, anti-corruption investigators said on Wednesday, bringing to an end an early-morning standoff outside his official residence in Seoul.
Health | Doctors are proposing a “radical overhaul” of how obesity is diagnosed worldwide amid concerns that a reliance on body mass index may be causing millions of people to be misdiagnosed. Relying only on BMI is “ineffective” because it is not a direct measure of fat and does not provide information about a person’s health, a report by the Lancet commission said.
Comedy | The comedian and actor Tony Slattery has died aged 65 after a heart attack, his partner has announced. Slattery was known for his improvisations on the popular comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway?, as well as his appearances on Just a Minute and Have I Got News for You.
Continue reading...Law to stop armed groups profiting from trade in gold, tin, tungsten and tantalum is being breached, rights groups say
The European Union has been urged to clamp down on illegal imports of conflict minerals from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) after evidence was found that current regulations had been breached.
The advocacy group Global Witness (GW) said there remained a “high risk” of the EU’s mineral imports being used to fund militias and state repression in several countries.
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...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.
Tribunal decision for 54-year-old Veronica Stephan-Miller suggests onus of proof should be on NDIA, not recipient, before revoking benefits
A tribunal has questioned whether it is lawful for the National Disability Insurance Agency to require that participants provide renewed evidence of their eligibility before revoking their access, describing the approach as “troubling”.
The Administrative Review Tribunal on Wednesday granted a 54-year-old Melbourne woman with disability, Veronica Stephan-Miller, the right to continue accessing the National Disability Insurance Scheme while she appealed against the agency’s decision last year to remove her from it.
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Continue reading...Eastern NSW, particularly northern rivers, and Gold Coast at high risk for severe thunderstorms and winds on Thursday, BoM forecasts
Persistent rain and strong winds will sweep across New South Wales into the weekend, the Bureau of Meteorology predicts, with parts of Victoria and south-east Queensland also likely to be affected.
Angus Hines, a senior meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology, said Sydney’s weather could shift from storms to a “dreary” mix of wind, rain and cloud. It would be “persistently windy” and “quite chilly”, he said.
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Continue reading...Potential looting and commercial trips pose risk to artefacts left by lunar landings, says World Monuments Fund
The moon has been placed on a list of threatened heritage sites, owing to fears of potential looting and destruction caused by planned commercial trips.
The watchlist of the World Monuments Fund (WMF) usually includes vulnerable cultural sites on Earth. This year’s selection – the first since 2022 – includes Qhapaq Ñan, a pre-Hispanic Andean road system. Antakya in Turkey and the Noto peninsula in Japan, which were damaged by earthquakes, also made the list.
Continue reading...Why are your favourite products getting smaller but costing the same? From toilet paper rolls to snacks, shrinkflation is the sneaky tactic is affecting many things we buy.
In this video, Neelam Tailor looks into how companies hide shrinkflation and what you can do about it.
After a holiday season where festive treats like Cadbury’s Christmas selection boxes shrank while prices stayed the same, shrinkflation continues to impact shoppers in 2025. Start the year informed and learn how to spot these subtle changes to protect your budget.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Philippe Auclair and Dan Bardell as Arsenal beat Spurs to reignite their title challenge
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; Arsenal win the north London derby at a canter – Spurs never really looked in it even at 1-0 up. Is pressure growing on Ange Postecoglou and can Arsenal’s defence paper over other cracks in the side and lead them to glory?
Continue reading...  | submitted by /u/chrisdh79 [link] [comments] |
Oil company to lose 5% of its staff in effort to cut costs amid shareholder worries over green energy strategy
BP is to cut thousands of jobs from its global workforce, amounting to 5% of its staff, in an effort to save billions in costs to appease its worried shareholders.
The oil company told staff on Tuesday that it would cut 4,700 jobs and scrap another 3,000 contractor positions, after its chief executive promised to reduce the company’s costs by at least $2bn (£1.6bn) by the end of 2026.
Continue reading...There was a time in the not-so distant past when Rory McIlroy praise for Greg Norman felt as realistic a concept as the Open Championship taking place on the moon. In the latest sign of golf’s thawing relations, McIlroy used the aftermath of his opening round at the Dubai Desert Classic to give credit to the outgoing LIV chief executive.
After fronting LIV’s disruption plan, Norman has been replaced by Scott O’Neill. “We changed the game for ever,” said the Australian on Wednesday, confirming he was stepping down. “I started this journey more than 30 years ago, knowing in my heart and mind that the game and its professional players were undervalued, delivering a product that felt stagnant.”
Continue reading...  | submitted by /u/HellYeahDamnWrite [link] [comments] |
Last year was full of unexpected science news, from a new strain of Mpox emerging in the DRC, to artificial intelligence dominating the Nobel prizes and two astronauts getting ‘stuck’ in space. So what will this year bring? Ian Sample and science correspondent Hannah Devlin discuss the big stories likely to hit the headlines and share their predictions for 2025
Clips: France 24, Super Data Science podcast, R. Digital
Support the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod
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.
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.
 | submitted by /u/BlitzOrion [link] [comments] |
Deal negotiated through Catholic church will involve ‘gradual’ release of 553 political prisoners, says Havana
The Biden administration has notified Congress that it will remove Cuba from its list of state sponsors of terrorism in a deal the country’s communist government said would involve the “gradual” release of 553 political prisoners.
The deal, which administration officials said was negotiated through the Catholic church, was announced on Tuesday, just five days before Biden exits the White House and Donald Trump is inaugurated as the country’s 47th president.
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.
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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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...Trump’s nominee to lead the interior department will tell senators that he supports expanding drilling on public lands, a reversal from Biden’s policy
Donald Trump’s pledge to expand oil and gas drilling was one of several campaign promises he made that could undermine the fight against the climate crisis. In October, the Guardian’s Oliver Milman took a closer look at how Trump’s proposals could have consequences that reverberate for millions of years:
The climate crisis may appear peripheral in the US presidential election but a victory for Donald Trump will, more than any other issue, have profound consequences for people around a rapidly heating world, experts have warned.
The comments signal a coming sharp turn in policy after President Joe Biden attempted for years to restrict oil and gas drilling by reducing federal lease auctions and banning future development in vast areas of federal offshore waters as part of a strategy to fight climate change.
“Today, America produces energy cleaner, smarter and safer than anywhere in the world. When energy production is restricted in America, it doesn’t reduce demand, it just shifts production to countries like Russia, Venezuela, and Iran – whose autocratic leaders don’t care about the environment,” Burgum will tell lawmakers, according to his prepared remarks.
Continue reading...Ed Davey says incoming US president is ‘threat to peace and prosperity’ and relations with him must be transactional
Britain should offer Donald Trump a state visit only on the condition he agrees to a sit-down summit with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as part of an openly transactional US-UK relationship with the returning president, Ed Davey has said.
In a speech in which the Liberal Democrat leader also called for the UK to seek a new customs union with the EU to help insulate itself from the potential impacts of Trump’s second presidency, Davey said that while the US leader could not be trusted, he could also very much not be ignored.
Continue reading...Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire deal on almost entirely the same terms as a proposal that fell apart in the summer.
The post A Deal Too Late: Israel Agrees to the Ceasefire It Rejected Months Ago, Thousands More Died appeared first on The Intercept.
In their confirmation hearings, John Ratcliffe, Pam Bondi, and Tulsi Gabbard gave government mass surveillance two thumbs up.
The post Trump Decried This Law as a Deep State Spy Weapon. His Nominees Sure Seem to Love It. appeared first on The Intercept.
Exclusive: records show evacuees with pending applications to enter US ‘forced to remain in limbo’ in at least 36 countries, some in ‘untenable conditions’
Afghan citizens who fled the country with American assistance after the US’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan remain stranded in third countries, new documents shared exclusively with the Guardian suggest, some at prison-like facilities and many with no clarity about their prospects for resettlement.
US officials won’t say exactly how many Afghans remain at such sites, where they were taken after the withdrawal that involved hundreds of thousands fleeing for their lives during the Taliban’s lightning takeover in 2021. Some advocates estimate that “hundreds” remain stranded in temporary facilities in up to three dozen countries.
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...EU can negate Trump’s threats by buying more US goods, oil and gas or impose its own tariffs in retaliation
If there is one thing the EU knows about Donald Trump, it is that he loves tariffs. The incoming president has said “tariff” is “the most beautiful word in the dictionary” and has threatened to impose them on US allies around the world.
On the campaign trail he proposed tariffs of 10-20% on imports from all countries, with a 60% rate reserved for China. Once elected, Trump tweeted that the EU must buy more US oil and gas “otherwise it is TARIFFS all the way!!!” This week, he announced he would create an “external revenue service” on the day of his inauguration.
Continue reading...These high priests of globalisation are facing the fact that Trump’s tariffs are part of a global shift to protectionism
Hollywood would struggle to come up with a better plot. On Monday, as Donald Trump returns to the White House, the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) annual talk fest kicks off in Davos. The arch protectionist v the spiritual home of globalisation. The man who says “tariff” is “the most beautiful word in the dictionary” being sworn in for a second term just as the high priests of free trade assemble 5,000ft up in the Swiss Alps.
The Davos elite have a love-hate relationship with Trump: they despise him, but when he showed up at the WEF as president he was the hottest ticket in town. This year, the billionaires will have to make do with a video link appearance, but even from the other side of the Atlantic, Trump will dominate events. That’s not surprising. Most of the WEF attenders have grown up believing that trade barriers should be torn down, not erected. As such, they see Trump’s support for protectionism as a dangerous heresy.
Larry Elliott is a Guardian columnist
Continue reading...Conservatives have been caught admitting that age-verification laws are pretext to shut down pornography entirely.
The post SCOTUS Won’t Hear the Real Reason Porn Age-Verification Laws Are Spreading appeared first on The Intercept.
And, when he ran for Congress, trust fund kid Bo Hines got half a million in support from FTX crypto fraudsters.
The post Does This Trump Crypto Appointee Even Have Crypto Experience? Yes, With a Trump-Themed Meme Coin. appeared first on The Intercept.
Responses range from conciliation to retaliation, including cutting off electricity and halting the purchase of US liquor
Canada’s provincial premiers are sharply divided on how to prepare for US trade tariffs, less than a week before Donald Trump takes office with a threat to dramatically reshape the relationship between the two countries.
Canadian officials have sought to defuse the crisis with personal appeals to the president-elect, multimillion-dollar advertising sprees and targeted threats, but the country remains gripped by uncertainty over how Trump’s tariffs might take effect. On Monday, Bloomberg reported that the incoming US administration is weighing hiking tariffs by 2%-5% a month to avoid spiking inflation.
Continue reading...Hundreds of prisoners set to be released as part of agreement with outgoing Biden administration that removes Cuba from terrorism-sponsor list
When Maykel González Vivero, a journalist and LGBTQ+ activist, was picked up by police during massive street protests in Cuba in July 2021, he was driven to a detention centre on the outskirts of Havana and thrown into a jail cell with dozens of others.
“When I was in that cell I thought I would never get out. I prepared myself mentally,” he said. He was released that night, but hundreds of others were not.
Continue reading...Final sign-off for ceasefire deal delayed after Benjamin Netanyahu accuses Hamas of ‘reneging’ on parts of agreement
Key mediator Qatar said that 33 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza would be released in the first stage of a ceasefire deal aimed at ending the war in the Palestinian territory.
Israel earlier said it would release about 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in the first stage of a Gaza truce agreement, Israeli and Palestinian sources reported Tuesday.
Continue reading...Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg’s desperation to be cool as they suck up to Donald Trump is so cringe it makes my skin crawl
I don’t know if anyone else has noticed this but everything seems to be going down the tubes quite fast. And not fun tubes, like at a waterpark. The “ending in shit” kind. The issues are complicated, the reasons diverse, but there are a few culprits who have been making themselves extremely visible.
Alongside those holding political office, tech gragillionnaires (I had to invent a new number) like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg obviously wield huge global influence with their computers and numbers and whatnot. There has been a lot written about them and there will be more, as they continue to shape the world and win favour with Donald Trump. Big, scary, probably ruinous things lie ahead. But I’m here to discuss the smaller part. The insult to injury, the sprinkling of salt in the wound.
Continue reading...Joe Biden says his team negotiated deal but Donald Trump claims it was agreed now only because he is about to become president
The question yelled at Joe Biden by a reporter was unapologetically blunt: “Who do you think deserves credit for this Mr President: you or [Donald] Trump?”
Biden had just finished announcing what he presented as his signature foreign policy achievement – a ceasefire-for-hostages deal between Israel and Hamas to halt the bloody war in Gaza that has left 46,000 Palestinians and 1,700 Israelis dead. He wasn’t in the mood for that debate.
Continue reading...As images of the war flooded social media and news reports, disillusioned ex-military personnel increased their efforts to pressurise the administration to stop arming Israel
Of the protesters who were forcibly bundled out of the hearing for Donald Trump’s defence secretary nominee Pete Hegseth at the Senate’s armed services committee on Tuesday, two were notable for their jackets.
With “US military” stitched over one breast pocket and their surnames on the other, Greg Stoker and Josephine Guilbeau are among thousands of veterans who have become a loud and visible presence in America’s anti-war movement.
Continue reading...President-elect ‘has warm spot’ for platform and wants political solution to ‘preserve app but protect data’
Donald Trump is considering suspending a TikTok ban in the US with an executive order when he enters the White House on 20 January, according to a report.
The president-elect is exploring an executive order that would postpone enforcement of a sale-or-ban law due to come into force on 19 January, said the Washington Post. The report added, however, that Trump’s legal grounds for suspending a law passed by Congress are questionable.
Continue reading...With vaccine sceptic as Trump pick to lead US health policy, parents and advocates anticipate devastating changes
A political battle over school-based Covid protocols in early 2021 quickly turned personal for one Colorado family, whose son’s cystic fibrosis – a life-threatening genetic disease affecting the lungs and other vital organs – made him susceptible to complications from the virus.
Kate Gould said the classroom became a dangerous place for her son after hardline conservatives took over the Douglas county school board and the district removed masking requirements.
Continue reading...From these beginnings must come a just and lasting settlement for Palestinians and Israelis alike – and a reckoning
At last! The yearned for Israel-Hamas ceasefire-for-hostages deal is finally happening. It is welcome. Like thin ice covering deep waters, it is scarily fragile, prone to crack under the slightest pressure. And it is desperately, lethally overdue. Tens of thousands of Palestinians, and many Israelis, have died since last May, when the US president, Joe Biden, first set out the parameters of this agreement. Civilians are still being killed in Israeli airstrikes that have actually intensified since the two sides grudgingly initialled the deal in Qatar.
Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere are naturally relieved that these merciless Israeli bombardments will soon stop. But celebrations are tempered by fears about the future, and by deep grief and anger over the still terrifying present and immediate past. According to Gaza health ministry figures, more than 46,000 people have died there since the 7 October 2023 Hamas terrorist attacks killed over 1,200 people. The true Palestinian death toll may be even higher.
Simon Tisdall is the Observer’s foreign affairs commentator
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Deal to pause 15-month war expected to be officially accepted by Israel after cabinet meeting
Hamas and Israel have agreed to a ceasefire deal, pausing the war in Gaza and designed to broker an end to the brutal 15-month conflict, the mediator Qatar has said. The agreement is set to be officially accepted by Israel after a cabinet meeting on Thursday.
The announcement on Wednesday night from Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, was made after weeks of negotiations in the Qatari capital, Doha. There were intensified efforts in recent days to hammer out the final details after increased pressure on Israel to reach a deal from the US president-elect, Donald Trump, which Sheikh Mohammed acknowledged in a media conference.
Continue reading...The president did not air grievances or dwell on the past, but sounded an alarm call about the future under Trump
There was a sting in the tail. Joe Biden’s farewell address had not seemed like a must-watch for most politics-weary Americans. Those who did dutifully tune in might have been expecting the president to deliver a yawn-inducing first draft of his White House memoir.
But after more than half a century in elected office, the 82-year-old great-grandfather had one last surprise. The primetime speech did not mention Donald Trump by name. Instead it will be remembered for its dark, ominous warning about something wider and deeper of which Trump is a symptom.
Continue reading...  | submitted by /u/cmaia1503 [link] [comments] |
President sounds alarm about growing power of ultra-wealthy before handing presidency back to Trump
Joe Biden’s final address to the nation struck an ominous tone after warning of the growing power of America’s ultra-wealthy, and cautioning that an emerging oligarchy threatens the foundations of US democracy.
The Wednesday prime-time Oval Office speech came as Biden prepares to hand the presidency back to Donald Trump, who he defeated in 2020 only to see return to power after Biden’s own dramatic exit from politics last summer.
Continue reading...During his Senate confirmation hearing, Russell Vought downplayed Trump’s moves to strip protections from civil service employees.
The post White House Budget Office Nominee Tries to Whitewash Trump’s First Term appeared first on The Intercept.
 | submitted by /u/abrownn [link] [comments] |
As officials report that a deal has been agreed, a precarious pause in hostilities and the release of hostages could only be welcomed
Hope has rarely felt so fragile, or so inadequate. A moment long sought and prayed for will nonetheless be met with fear and apprehension as well as joy by Palestinians in the wasteland that is Gaza and among the traumatised families of Israeli hostages.
After more than 15 months of war, which has left tens of thousands dead and almost 2 million struggling to survive, the US and Qatar announced that a ceasefire and hostage-release deal has been reached. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said there were still “unresolved clauses”, though his cabinet was expected to vote on it on Thursday morning. They should back it. The broad outlines of this agreement have long been clear. The cost of the delay is unbearable. Since it was first mooted, thousands more Palestinians and an unknown number of Israeli hostages taken in the Hamas raids of 7 October 2023 have been killed. Last week, research in the Lancet medical journal suggested that the death toll recorded by Gazan health officials was 40% too low, with an estimated 64,260 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces by last June.
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Future of Diego Garcia military base should be considered before handover to Mauritius signed off, No 10 says
The UK government will not sign off a deal to hand back the Chagos Islands to Mauritius until Donald Trump’s administration has had a chance to consider the future of the joint military base, Downing Street has confirmed.
Allies of the US president-elect have been critical of the deal because of the implications for the strategically important Diego Garcia base, with concerns that it could bolster Chinese interests in the Indian Ocean.
Continue reading...Deal negotiated through Catholic church will involve ‘gradual’ release of 553 political prisoners, says Havana
The Biden administration has notified Congress that it will remove Cuba from its list of state sponsors of terrorism in a deal the country’s communist government said would involve the “gradual” release of 553 political prisoners.
The deal, which administration officials said was negotiated through the Catholic church, was announced on Tuesday, just five days before Biden exits the White House and Donald Trump is inaugurated as the country’s 47th president.
Continue reading...The Laken Riley Act authorizes state attorneys general to sue federal authorities to force deportations and block visas.
The post Congress Considers Putting Ken Paxton in Charge of Choosing Who to Deport appeared first on The Intercept.
The 20-year-old, who is set to join Premier League champions, had to move to Belarus to reignite his career after rejection in Uzbekistan
Abdukodir Khusanov was born on 29 February and he is, without a doubt, a rarity. In four years the defender has gone from being discarded in his home country of Uzbekistan to play for a small club in Belarus before, this month, agreeing to join Manchester City from Lens in a £33.5m deal. Pending a medical, he will become the first Uzbek to play in the Premier League but – because of his success – perhaps not the last.
The nation has been captivated by Khusanov’s rise and delighted that he is now joining the Premier League champions. It is a huge source of pride. “Abdukodir means almighty in the Uzbek language, and it suits him,” says the Championat.asia editor Narzulla Saidullaev. “He is also nicknamed “the train” here because of his raw power and has become the most famous person in the country. Even people who know nothing about football talk about him. Only two Uzbek footballers have played in major European leagues before – both in Italy. Ilyas Zeytullaev at the beginning of the century and Eldor Shomurodov at Roma at the moment. Now we have a star in England and it is a very big story. Many millions of Uzbeks are going to watch Khusanov’s matches.”
Continue reading...UK prime minister meets Ukrainian president as they sign 100-year partnership agreement to deepen security ties between nations
Starmer hails ‘closer than ever’ partnership with Ukraine on visit
City officials say there have been no casualties after the reported Russian drone attack on Kyiv, but say a car was damaged by falling debris in one of the districts.
As we have previously mentioned, Starmer is in Kyiv to sign a so-called “100-year partnership” treaty between Britain and Ukraine (see more details of what is in the agreement here). The UK, one of Ukraine’s biggest military supporters, has committed £12.8bn in military and civilian aid to Kyiv over the war and has trained tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops. Starmer is to announce another £40m for Ukraine’s postwar economic recovery.
Continue reading...Aircraft – possibly a Russian decoy – seen above presidential palace where UK PM is meeting Ukrainian president
Anti-aircraft fire has erupted in Kyiv as Keir Starmer held talks with Volodymyr Zelenskyy during the UK prime minister’s first official trip to Ukraine since taking office.
The presidential palace, where the two leaders are due to hold a press conference on Thursday, echoed with loud booms as Ukrainian air defences tried to shoot down a drone.
Continue reading...Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Tusk reach agreement on massacre of up to 100,000 Poles by Ukrainian nationalists
Poland has hailed a breakthrough in a painful historical dispute with Ukraine, after it said its neighbour had agreed to allow exhumations of Polish citizens massacred by Ukrainian nationalists in the second world war.
Warsaw is one of Ukraine’s strongest supporters in the EU, offering military and diplomatic support, but for years ties have been strained over a historical atrocity – the massacre of as many as 100,000 Poles by Ukrainian nationalists between 1943 and 1945.
Continue reading...If Moscow’s forces manage to take all of Donetsk oblast it would be a symbolic moment for Putin – and Kyiv
In an underground command post in eastern Ukraine, a Ukrainian soldier peered at a map. Russian positions were marked in red. A year ago enemy troops were at least 35 miles (60km) away from the administrative border between Donetsk oblast and the neighbouring Dnipropetrovsk region. Now they were on the doorstep: a mere 5 miles away.
“The situation is pretty bad,” Valerii – call-sign “Oves” – admitted, sitting in front of a bank of screens showing live footage from the battlefield. Reconnaissance drones zoomed in on Russian positions under a snowy tree-line. “If a mouse moves, we can see it,” he said. His brigade, the 110th, spent a year and a half defending the eastern city of Avdiivka. It fell in February 2024 after a long and brutal siege.
Continue reading...Impeached president questioned over martial law declaration last month after standoff at his residence
South Korea’s impeached president, Yoon Suk Yeol, was arrested and questioned for hours over his ill-fated declaration of martial law last month, handing himself in after an early-morning standoff outside his official residence in Seoul.
His detention on Wednesday makes him the first sitting president in the country’s history to be arrested.
Continue reading...Exclusive: US companies are increasingly shipping toxic waste to other countries, where some argue it poses a risk
US companies ship more than 1m tons of hazardous waste to other countries each year, raising questions over possible impacts on health and the environment, an investigation by the Guardian and Quinto Elemento Lab has found.
Exports of toxic waste, most of which is shipped to Mexico and Canada, have climbed 17% since 2018, US records show. And while sending it away for recycling and disposal is legal, some experts are concerned that more and more of America’s most dangerous discards are leaving the country.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: With reports of a breakthrough in ceasefire negotiations, a look at what the detail includes – and what its obstacles are
Good morning. After months of false starts, Israel and Hamas are close to agreeing a ceasefire that would involve the release of hostages and a major influx of aid into Gaza. Last night, both sides appeared to have accepted the outlines of a deal, with Reuters reporting that once Israel delivers maps showing how its forces will withdraw from Gaza, Hamas will give its response.
“It’s closer than it’s ever been before,” US secretary of state Antony Blinken said yesterday. “But, right now, as we sit here, we await final word from Hamas on its acceptance, and until we get that word, we’ll remain on the brink.”
Economy | UK inflation unexpectedly fell in December, handing some breathing space to the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, after a week of turbulence in financial markets. Figures from the Office for National Statistics showed the consumer prices index eased to 2.5%, below a reading of 2.6% in November.
UK politics | Tulip Siddiq has resigned as a Treasury minister after accepting the furore over her close ties to her aunt, the ousted prime minister of Bangladesh now accused of corruption, had become a distraction. An investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing but said a lack of records meant that it was not possible “to obtain comprehensive comfort” over properties linked to Sheikh Hasina.
South Korea | South Korea’s impeached president, Yoon Suk Yeol, has been arrested and is being questioned over his ill-fated declaration of martial law last month, anti-corruption investigators said on Wednesday, bringing to an end an early-morning standoff outside his official residence in Seoul.
Health | Doctors are proposing a “radical overhaul” of how obesity is diagnosed worldwide amid concerns that a reliance on body mass index may be causing millions of people to be misdiagnosed. Relying only on BMI is “ineffective” because it is not a direct measure of fat and does not provide information about a person’s health, a report by the Lancet commission said.
Comedy | The comedian and actor Tony Slattery has died aged 65 after a heart attack, his partner has announced. Slattery was known for his improvisations on the popular comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway?, as well as his appearances on Just a Minute and Have I Got News for You.
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.
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.
Oil company to lose 5% of its staff in effort to cut costs amid shareholder worries over green energy strategy
BP is to cut thousands of jobs from its global workforce, amounting to 5% of its staff, in an effort to save billions in costs to appease its worried shareholders.
The oil company told staff on Tuesday that it would cut 4,700 jobs and scrap another 3,000 contractor positions, after its chief executive promised to reduce the company’s costs by at least $2bn (£1.6bn) by the end of 2026.
Continue reading...Slowed down by a sore back, swirling wind and a supremely talented ball-striker who robbed her of rhythm, all Emma Raducanu could do was fight with all the energy, intelligence and conviction she could rouse as her presence at the Australian Open hung in the balance. Across two testing, uncomfortable hours, Raducanu scrapped, counterpunched and chased down every last ball, her significant efforts yielding a brilliant win as Raducanu out-hustled Amanda Anisimova 6-3, 7-5 to reach round three at Melbourne Park.
“I thought I played really well in some big moments in that match,” said Raducanu. “I thought it was going to be a really challenging one, playing Amanda. She’s obviously a good friend of mine, so it’s never easy. I feel like that adds another dimension to the match, but yeah, I’m happy I stuck with her in the second set and came through and found a way.”
Continue reading...More than 170,000 people go missing in the UK each year – and Holm was one of them. She was adored by her family, who say she was let down again and again by the state, the police and the media
Fiona Holm loved people. “She’d be talking to everyone,” her daughter Savannah says, laughing about what would happen when her mum came on to the ward where she gets her sickle cell treatment. “I’ll tell her, ‘Can you sit down next to me?’ And she’ll be like, ‘All right, I’m just going to go speak to my mate.’ And I’m like, ‘Who is your mate? You don’t know no one in here!’ She’d be asking everyone, ‘Are you OK, are you warm? Your eyes are really yellow – have you been taking your medicine?’”
There’s a pause. Savannah is clearly wishing she could have her mum back on the ward with her. She is supposed to go to the hospital every three months for her treatment. But since Fiona went missing a year and a half ago, she’s barely been able to muster up the energy to go. Her health is suffering.
Continue reading...The UK’s road, rail and other vital networks are threatened by global warming, warns Dr Janet Young
Your article sets out the stark picture we’re dealing with (Hottest year on record sent planet past 1.5C of heating for first time in 2024, 10 January). Climate change is causing more extreme weather, and if we don’t speed up our global transition to clean energy, it will only get worse.
Making societies more resilient is mentioned, briefly. This is a topic that should be given much more prominence. Despite warnings from the Climate Change Committee and the United Nations, rising temperatures, and more extreme weather events all over the world, we have yet to take decisive action to adapt the UK’s infrastructure.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Laken Riley Act authorizes state attorneys general to sue federal authorities to force deportations and block visas.
The post Congress Considers Putting Ken Paxton in Charge of Choosing Who to Deport appeared first on The Intercept.
Conservatives have been caught admitting that age-verification laws are pretext to shut down pornography entirely.
The post SCOTUS Won’t Hear the Real Reason Porn Age-Verification Laws Are Spreading appeared first on The Intercept.
Judge adjourns case to 24 February and tells MP for Runcorn and Helsby he is leaving all sentencing options open
The MP for Runcorn and Helsby, Mike Amesbury, has pleaded guilty to assault.
Appearing at Chester magistrates court, Amesbury, who was suspended by the Labour party after an investigation, admitted the single charge of section 39 assault in relation to an incident after a night out in his constituency.
Continue reading...Trump’s nominee to lead the interior department will tell senators that he supports expanding drilling on public lands, a reversal from Biden’s policy
Donald Trump’s pledge to expand oil and gas drilling was one of several campaign promises he made that could undermine the fight against the climate crisis. In October, the Guardian’s Oliver Milman took a closer look at how Trump’s proposals could have consequences that reverberate for millions of years:
The climate crisis may appear peripheral in the US presidential election but a victory for Donald Trump will, more than any other issue, have profound consequences for people around a rapidly heating world, experts have warned.
The comments signal a coming sharp turn in policy after President Joe Biden attempted for years to restrict oil and gas drilling by reducing federal lease auctions and banning future development in vast areas of federal offshore waters as part of a strategy to fight climate change.
“Today, America produces energy cleaner, smarter and safer than anywhere in the world. When energy production is restricted in America, it doesn’t reduce demand, it just shifts production to countries like Russia, Venezuela, and Iran – whose autocratic leaders don’t care about the environment,” Burgum will tell lawmakers, according to his prepared remarks.
Continue reading...President-elect ‘has warm spot’ for platform and wants political solution to ‘preserve app but protect data’
Donald Trump is considering suspending a TikTok ban in the US with an executive order when he enters the White House on 20 January, according to a report.
The president-elect is exploring an executive order that would postpone enforcement of a sale-or-ban law due to come into force on 19 January, said the Washington Post. The report added, however, that Trump’s legal grounds for suspending a law passed by Congress are questionable.
Continue reading...| | submitted by /u/BlitzOrion [link] [comments] |
Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire deal on almost entirely the same terms as a proposal that fell apart in the summer.
The post A Deal Too Late: Israel Agrees to the Ceasefire It Rejected Months Ago, Thousands More Died appeared first on The Intercept.
In their confirmation hearings, John Ratcliffe, Pam Bondi, and Tulsi Gabbard gave government mass surveillance two thumbs up.
The post Trump Decried This Law as a Deep State Spy Weapon. His Nominees Sure Seem to Love It. appeared first on The Intercept.
And, when he ran for Congress, trust fund kid Bo Hines got half a million in support from FTX crypto fraudsters.
The post Does This Trump Crypto Appointee Even Have Crypto Experience? Yes, With a Trump-Themed Meme Coin. appeared first on The Intercept.
Deal negotiated through Catholic church will involve ‘gradual’ release of 553 political prisoners, says Havana
The Biden administration has notified Congress that it will remove Cuba from its list of state sponsors of terrorism in a deal the country’s communist government said would involve the “gradual” release of 553 political prisoners.
The deal, which administration officials said was negotiated through the Catholic church, was announced on Tuesday, just five days before Biden exits the White House and Donald Trump is inaugurated as the country’s 47th president.
Continue reading...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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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