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The 46 Best Shows on Hulu Right Now (April 2025)
Tue, 01 Apr 2025 19:00:00 +0000
Big Boys, A Thousand Blows, and The Handmaid's Tale are just a few of the shows you should be watching on Hulu this month.
Match ID: 0 Score: 35.00 source: www.wired.com age: 1 day
qualifiers: 35.00 (best|good|great) (show|movie)
A Minecraft Movie review – building-block game franchise spin-off is rollicking if exhausting fun
Wed, 02 Apr 2025 19:00:10 GMT
Full-throttle star turns from Jack Black and Jennifer Coolidge raise laughs but don’t help the perfunctory plotting in this screen take on the game franchise
If you’re not familiar with Minecraft as a game then this film, notionally a big screen version of same, won’t necessarily solve that. Minecraft, even more than most computer games, is what you make of it, an experience generated by the player. So in a way, the idea of making a film set in the Minecraft world is counterintuitive, because it can never replicate what is good about Minecraft, it can only tell you what is good about Minecraft. In addition to that, this comedy-fantasy takes aspects of the Minecraft world and uses them as building blocks in a rollicking adventure suitable for almost all ages, giving Jack Black and Jason Momoa carte blanche to wild out and be deeply silly. Your affection for and/or tolerance of this latter prospect will dictate to a large extent your enjoyment of this film.
Black plays Steve, a crafter who in the game was the original default player, although that doesn’t especially matter here. Momoa is Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison, a washed-up video game champ with an aesthetic stuck permanently and delightfully in the 1980s: pink leather fringed jacket and luscious locks flowing down past his prodigious shoulders like the first snowmelt off a mountain range. As this is kinda-sorta an ensemble film, we also have Henry (Sebastian Hansen), Natalie (Emma Myers) and Dawn (Danielle Brooks) rounding out the good guys squad. It’s not the fault of any of the three latter actors, but it’s hard for them to make an impression alongside Black and Momoa going full-throttle – and it would become an exhausting experience if they tried. That does mean their storylines feel like downtime, a chance to relax and catch your breath, rather than providing the emotional core that the writers presumably intended.
Continue reading...The ex-member of Brother Beyond now writes chart-toppers for stars. Why has he decided to make a musical of seedy, gutter-life classic Midnight Cowboy, a film he can’t bear?
Troop into Eg White’s living room, past the bright, spacious kitchen and the yapping terriers (“Meet the unwelcoming committee!”), then descend into the snug basement studio with its underfloor heating and you will have reached the place where pop bangers are born: hits for Adele (Chasing Pavements), Will Young (Leave Right Now), Duffy (Warwick Avenue) and countless others. The Ivor Novello award-winning songwriter, born Francis White, sits in front of a desk cluttered with screens and consoles and thingamajigs. In T-shirt, jeans and trainers, he looks as lean as the neck of a Stratocaster. When he is in quizzical mode, as he very often is, four deep grooves appear on his forehead like the strings on a bass guitar.
White’s newest project is the music for a stage version of Midnight Cowboy, the Oscar-winning 1969 buddy movie with Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman as deluded outsiders adrift in New York, adapted now by Bryony Lavery. Most of its 15 songs – from sanguine ballads to Latin-tinged stompers – were composed not here in White’s west London home but on a family holiday to Colombia. For two hours each morning, while his wife and children were still in bed, he wrote on a cheap baritone ukulele, which he plucks off the wall from between rows of guitars to show me. “You can take it in the hand luggage,” he says cheerfully. “If your kid sits on it, which happened a few times, it lives.” Presumably he means the ukulele, not the kid.
Continue reading...‘Japan is the mecca of cosplay. Monaka runs a cafe in Tokyo called Monster Party, where people go dressed as characters from a subculture known as tanganmen. Her brother is holding a picture of their mum’
My personal projects have often focused on the topic of identity, so the world of cosplay immediately appealed to me. I knew nothing about it until I saw some photographs on Instagram and became interested in these people who spend their free time turning themselves into characters from manga, anime, movies and video games – or even into creations they’ve come up with by themselves.
Italy’s biggest annual cosplay event is held in the region where I live, Tuscany. I started going and taking pictures, just on my phone at first, and that’s where I first approached cosplayers to ask if they’d like to help me with a project I had in mind. In the 1970s, John Olson took some portraits for Life magazine of musicians such as Frank Zappa and Elton John at home with their parents. They contrasted the individual identity of the rock stars and the social identity represented by their parents, and that seemed the right way to photograph cosplayers, too. I thought it was far more interesting to show them in a domestic setting, alongside people in everyday clothes, than in the environment of a fantasy-themed event.
Continue reading...Kilmer, who has died aged 65, made his name with Top Gun and The Doors – but his exceptional talents were often under-appreciated by the mainstream film industry
Why do some movie careers take off … and others go a bit sideways? Val Kilmer was a smart actor, a looker, a terrific screen presence and in later years an under-appreciated comic performer. His finest hour as an actor came in Shane Black’s comedy action thriller Kiss Kiss Bang Bang in 2005, when he was quite superb as the camp private investigator Gay Perry Shrike: a gloriously sleek, plump performance which was transparently – and outrageously – based on Tom Ford. If only Kilmer could have started his acting life with that bravura performance, and shown the world what he could do. Instead, and at a crucial stage in his career, he was trapped in the body and face of a staggeringly beautiful young man.
He could somehow never quite persuade Hollywood to accept him as a leading man and above-the-title player in the mould of his Top Gun contemporary Tom Cruise, who in 1986 played Pete “Maverick” Mitchell to Val Kilmer’s Tom “Iceman” Kazansky. As the 80s and 90s rolled by, Kilmer never ascended to the league of Cruise, Hanks, Clooney and Pitt. Medication for the illness he latterly suffered can’t have helped, and it is a great sadness that fate never allowed him to mature in the same way as, say, Kurt Russell.
Continue reading...“We had positive ID of him walking into his girlfriend’s building and it’s now collapsed.”
The post The Real Outrage About the Yemen Signal Group Is That It Called for Attack on Civilian Home appeared first on The Intercept.
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
Survey finds vast majority of doctors are concerned at impact of health inequalities on their patients
Doctors have reported a rise in the number of patients with Victorian diseases such as scabies, as the Royal College of Physicians urged the government to do more to fight poverty.
The survey of 882 doctors found 89% were concerned about the impact of health inequalities on their patients, while 72% had seen more patients in the past three months with illnesses related to poor-quality housing, air pollution and access to transport.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: Israel’s offensive has resulted in thousands of casualties and severe restrictions on aid, and signals a potential long-term territorial and political shift
Good morning. On Tuesday, Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, announced a major expansion of attacks on Gaza and the “capture of large areas that will be added to the security zones of the state of Israel”.
The announcement followed a night of airstrikes on Khan Younis and Rafah in southern Gaza, which officials said had killed at least 21 people, including a pregnant woman. The intensification of Israel’s offensive comes after more than two weeks of airstrikes and ground operations that have, according to Gaza’s health ministry, killed more than 900 people. Unicef has said that at least 322 of those killed since the renewed attacks have been children.
UK economy | Donald Trump has hit the UK with tariffs of 10% on exports to the US as he ignited a global trade war. Other tariffs include 20% on the EU and 34% on China. Downing Street had been expecting 20% but Keir Starmer’s conciliation towards the Trump administration appeared to have paid off.
Immigration | An investigation has been launched after a racist message was reportedly “blasted out” on portable radios used by Home Office contractors at an asylum processing centre. The deeply offensive broadcast – “fuck off you [N-word]s, go back to where you came from” – was reportedly heard at the Manston processing site for small boat arrivals in Kent.
Health | Doctors have reported a rise in the number of patients with Victorian diseases such as scabies, as the Royal College of Physicians urged the government to do more to fight poverty.
UK news | A third former South Yorkshire police officer has been arrested as part of an investigation into child sexual exploitation in Rotherham. The ex-constable, aged in his 50s, was arrested on Monday on suspicion of raping a teenage girl in the town in 2004.
Education | The fate of boys “is a defining issue of our time”, according to the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, as she calls for more men to become teachers to combat “toxic” behaviours.
Continue reading...Animals affected by domoic acid are known to exhibit erratic behavior and poisonings are becoming frequent
A teenager was attacked by a sea lion in southern California, raising concerns that a recent increase in algae-induced poisonings among marine mammals could have elicited the erratic behavior.
Phoebe Beltran initially feared it was a shark when she was bitten repeatedly during a 1000-yard swim test for the Junior Lifeguards cadet program in Long Beach on 30 March. Relatives onshore saw the sea lion pop its head out of the water before it swam away, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Continue reading...Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, says there are too few men working in schools as UK reflects on TV series Adolescence
The fate of boys “is a defining issue of our time”, according to the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, as she calls for more men to become teachers to combat “toxic” behaviours.
Speaking at a conference on Thursday, Phillipson will warn that boys and young men growing up in Britain need stronger role models to counteract the dangers they face, illustrated by the Netflix series Adolescence.
Continue reading...The influential US commentator has written a book about how politics can change people’s lives for the better. But first, there are more pressing challenges to address ...
Ezra Klein, the New York Times podcast host and progressive media’s undisputed nerd king, starts his new book with something of a palate cleanser for our troubled times. For a few paragraphs, he and his co-author, the Atlantic journalist Derek Thompson, whisk us out of the grim reality of contemporary politics to a world of Abundance (the word they picked as their title).
“You open your eyes at dawn and turn in the cool bedsheets,” they purr, before conjuring a near-future utopia where the cost of living crisis is a distant memory. “You live in a cocoon of energy so clean it barely leaves a carbon trace and so cheap you can scarcely find it on your monthly bill.” The fridge is full of fresh fruit and vegetables from skyscraper farms that sit amid rewilded landscapes. This is what we can look forward to, they say, if we sweep away the bureaucratic cobwebs that mean government too often gets in the way of innovation, rather than leading it.
Continue reading...A holiday park on the lesser-known Côte Orientale offers lower prices, activities for all ages, and secluded sandy beaches
I had held out as long as I could, but there was no getting out of it. The catcalls were rising; the baying, cackling audience of under-11s intoxicated by a combination of ice-cream sugar rushes and my obvious, clammy fear. It was day 14 of a two-week summer holiday, and our final afternoon in blissful 30C Corsican sunshine. I just needed one more chapter, lounging with my book, soaking in the last of the bone-warming sun slowly edging down towards the island’s dramatic mountainous spine.
But my calculating offspring had not forgotten ill-fated promises made on a previous evening, probably a little too deep into the second carafe. I was probably caught off-guard at Barny’s, a sensational sushi restaurant in the town of Ghisonaccia, enjoying our best meal of the holiday. They know when my defences are down; when I’m fully relaxed into holiday “yes” mode, and prime for being taken advantage of.
Continue reading...Florida prosecutors say Michelle Taylor used gasoline to set a fire that killed her son. Top forensic chemists say they’re wrong.
The post The Arson Evidence Doesn’t Hold Up. Florida Is About to Convict Her for Murder Anyway. appeared first on The Intercept.
Net zero is a target that countries should be striving for to stop the climate crisis. But beyond the buzzword, it is a complex scientific concept – and if we get it wrong, the planet will keep heating.
Biodiversity and environment reporter Patrick Greenfield explains how a loophole in the 2015 Paris climate agreement allows countries to cheat their net zero targets through creative accounting, and how scientists want us to fix it
Continue reading...
SEMrush and Ahrefs are among
the most popular tools in the SEO industry. Both companies have been in
business for years and have thousands of customers per month.
If you're a professional SEO or trying to do digital
marketing on your own, at some point you'll likely consider using a tool to
help with your efforts. Ahrefs and SEMrush are two names that will likely
appear on your shortlist.
In this guide, I'm going to help you learn more about these SEO tools and how to choose the one that's best for your purposes.
What is SEMrush?
SEMrush is a popular SEO tool with a wide range of
features—it's the leading competitor research service for online marketers.
SEMrush's SEO Keyword Magic tool offers over 20 billion Google-approved
keywords, which are constantly updated and it's the largest keyword database.
The program was developed in 2007 as SeoQuake is a
small Firefox extension
Features
Ahrefs is a leading SEO platform that offers a set of
tools to grow your search traffic, research your competitors, and monitor your
niche. The company was founded in 2010, and it has become a popular choice
among SEO tools. Ahrefs has a keyword index of over 10.3 billion keywords and
offers accurate and extensive backlink data updated every 15-30 minutes and it
is the world's most extensive backlink index database.
Features
Direct Comparisons: Ahrefs vs SEMrush
Now that you know a little more about each tool, let's
take a look at how they compare. I'll analyze each tool to see how they differ
in interfaces, keyword research resources, rank tracking, and competitor
analysis.
User Interface
Ahrefs and SEMrush both offer comprehensive information
and quick metrics regarding your website's SEO performance. However, Ahrefs
takes a bit more of a hands-on approach to getting your account fully set up,
whereas SEMrush's simpler dashboard can give you access to the data you need
quickly.
In this section, we provide a brief overview of the elements
found on each dashboard and highlight the ease with which you can complete
tasks.
AHREFS
The Ahrefs dashboard is less cluttered than that of
SEMrush, and its primary menu is at the very top of the page, with a search bar
designed only for entering URLs.
Additional features of the Ahrefs platform include:
SEMRUSH
When you log into the SEMrush Tool, you will find four
main modules. These include information about your domains, organic keyword
analysis, ad keyword, and site traffic.
You'll also find some other options like
Both Ahrefs and SEMrush have user-friendly dashboards,
but Ahrefs is less cluttered and easier to navigate. On the other hand, SEMrush
offers dozens of extra tools, including access to customer support resources.
When deciding on which dashboard to use, consider what
you value in the user interface, and test out both.
If you're looking to track your website's search engine
ranking, rank tracking features can help. You can also use them to monitor your
competitors.
Let's take a look at Ahrefs vs. SEMrush to see which
tool does a better job.
The Ahrefs Rank Tracker is simpler to use. Just type in
the domain name and keywords you want to analyze, and it spits out a report
showing you the search engine results page (SERP) ranking for each keyword you
enter.
Rank Tracker looks at the ranking performance of
keywords and compares them with the top rankings for those keywords. Ahrefs
also offers:
You'll see metrics that help you understand your
visibility, traffic, average position, and keyword difficulty.
It gives you an idea of whether a keyword would be
profitable to target or not.
SEMRush offers a tool called Position Tracking. This
tool is a project tool—you must set it up as a new project. Below are a few of
the most popular features of the SEMrush Position Tracking tool:
All subscribers are given regular data updates and
mobile search rankings upon subscribing
The platform provides opportunities to track several
SERP features, including Local tracking.
Intuitive reports allow you to track statistics for the
pages on your website, as well as the keywords used in those pages.
Identify pages that may be competing with each other
using the Cannibalization report.
Ahrefs is a more user-friendly option. It takes seconds
to enter a domain name and keywords. From there, you can quickly decide whether
to proceed with that keyword or figure out how to rank better for other
keywords.
SEMrush allows you to check your mobile rankings and
ranking updates daily, which is something Ahrefs does not offer. SEMrush also
offers social media rankings, a tool you won't find within the Ahrefs platform.
Both are good which one do you like let me know in the comment.
Keyword research is closely related to rank tracking,
but it's used for deciding which keywords you plan on using for future content
rather than those you use now.
When it comes to SEO, keyword research is the most
important thing to consider when comparing the two platforms.
The Ahrefs Keyword Explorer provides you with thousands
of keyword ideas and filters search results based on the chosen search engine.
Ahrefs supports several features, including:
SEMrush's Keyword Magic Tool has over 20 billion
keywords for Google. You can type in any keyword you want, and a list of
suggested keywords will appear.
The Keyword Magic Tool also lets you to:
Both of these tools offer keyword research features and
allow users to break down complicated tasks into something that can be
understood by beginners and advanced users alike.
If you're interested in keyword suggestions, SEMrush
appears to have more keyword suggestions than Ahrefs does. It also continues to
add new features, like the Keyword Gap tool and SERP Questions recommendations.
Both platforms offer competitor analysis tools,
eliminating the need to come up with keywords off the top of your head. Each
tool is useful for finding keywords that will be useful for your competition so
you know they will be valuable to you.
Ahrefs' domain comparison tool lets you compare up to five websites (your website and four competitors) side-by-side.it also shows you how your site is ranked against others with metrics such as backlinks, domain ratings, and more.
Use the Competing Domains section to see a list of your
most direct competitors, and explore how many keywords matches your competitors
have.
To find more information about your competitor, you can
look at the Site Explorer and Content Explorer tools and type in their URL
instead of yours.
SEMrush provides a variety of insights into your
competitors' marketing tactics. The platform enables you to research your
competitors effectively. It also offers several resources for competitor
analysis including:
Traffic Analytics helps you identify where your
audience comes from, how they engage with your site, what devices visitors use
to view your site, and how your audiences overlap with other websites.
SEMrush's Organic Research examines your website's
major competitors and shows their organic search rankings, keywords they are
ranking for, and even if they are ranking for any (SERP) features and more.
The Market Explorer search field allows you to type in
a domain and lists websites or articles similar to what you entered. Market
Explorer also allows users to perform in-depth data analytics on These
companies and markets.
SEMrush wins here because it has more tools dedicated to
competitor analysis than Ahrefs. However, Ahrefs offers a lot of functionality
in this area, too. It takes a combination of both tools to gain an advantage
over your competition.
When it comes to keyword data research, you will become
confused about which one to choose.
Consider choosing Ahrefs if you
Consider SEMrush if you:
Both tools are great. Choose the one which meets your
requirements and if you have any experience using either Ahrefs or SEMrush let
me know in the comment section which works well for you.
The University of Pennsylvania has been a target of Canary Mission, a pro-Israel “blacklist” group. Turns out the call was coming from inside the house.
The post Pro-Israel Group That Attacked UPenn Was Funded by Family of UPenn Trustee appeared first on The Intercept.
I accompanied one of the students who fled Trump’s crackdown. It gave me clarity on what’s at stake.
The post This Is Not About Antisemitism, Palestine, or Columbia. It’s Trump Dismantling the American Dream. appeared first on The Intercept.
The Trump administration’s detention of Tufts student Rümeysa Öztürk rests on an opinion article she wrote in 2024, her lawyers said in a filing.
The post In Trump’s America, You Can Be Disappeared for Writing an Op-Ed appeared first on The Intercept.
US president accused of blowing up country’s ability to respond to disasters by removing funding
As aid from China, Russia, India and the UK begins to flow into Myanmar, there is a conspicuous gap in global support from the world’s richest country: the US.
The powerful 7.7-magnitude quake that struck central Myanmar on Friday has caused widespread destruction, flattening swathes of the country’s second-largest city, Mandalay, and even a tower block in the Thai capital, Bangkok, more than 600 miles (1,000km) away.
Continue reading...Nasdaq futures tumbled 3.3% and in after-hours trade as $760bn was wiped from the market value of ‘Magnificent Seven’ technology leaders
Stocks dived and investors scrambled to the safety of bonds, gold and the yen on Thursday as Donald Trump unveiled a bigger-than-expected wall of tariffs around the world’s largest economy, upending trade and supply chains.
The technology sector was pummelled as manufacturing hubs in China and Taiwan faced new tariffs above 30%. In total, China now faces an eye-watering 54% in tariffs on its exports to the US.
Continue reading...Myanmar, which is reeling from a huge earthquake and civil war, faces 44% rate amid suspicions that the underlying target is China
Developing nations in South-east Asia, including war-torn and earthquake-hit Myanmar, and several African nations are among the trading partners facing the highest tariffs set by US President Donald Trump.
Upending decades of US trade policy and threatening to unleash a global trade war, Trump on Wednesday announced a raft of tariffs he said were designed to stop the US economy from being “cheated”.
Continue reading...Beijing continues drills in Taiwan strait, practising hitting key ports and energy infrastructure
The US has accused China of putting the region’s security at risk after it launched a second day of military drills targeting Taiwan with a rehearsal blockade and attack.
The China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) began the joint drills without notice on Tuesday morning, sending 76 aircraft and more than 20 navy and coastguard ships, including the Shandong carrier group, to positions around Taiwan’s main island.
Continue reading...Defence secretary’s trip to Asia shows the Trump administration is engaged with the region, but analysts warn Taipei to tread carefully
On Tuesday China’s military launched joint drills around Taiwan, sending ships, planes and some bizarre propaganda videos across the strait to both warn and punish Taiwan’s government over what Beijing calls “separatist activity”.
The purported provocation was recent assertiveness by Taiwan’s president, Lai Ching-te, who in March designated China a “foreign hostile force” and announced 17 measures to counter its espionage and influence operations.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: Israel’s offensive has resulted in thousands of casualties and severe restrictions on aid, and signals a potential long-term territorial and political shift
Good morning. On Tuesday, Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, announced a major expansion of attacks on Gaza and the “capture of large areas that will be added to the security zones of the state of Israel”.
The announcement followed a night of airstrikes on Khan Younis and Rafah in southern Gaza, which officials said had killed at least 21 people, including a pregnant woman. The intensification of Israel’s offensive comes after more than two weeks of airstrikes and ground operations that have, according to Gaza’s health ministry, killed more than 900 people. Unicef has said that at least 322 of those killed since the renewed attacks have been children.
UK economy | Donald Trump has hit the UK with tariffs of 10% on exports to the US as he ignited a global trade war. Other tariffs include 20% on the EU and 34% on China. Downing Street had been expecting 20% but Keir Starmer’s conciliation towards the Trump administration appeared to have paid off.
Immigration | An investigation has been launched after a racist message was reportedly “blasted out” on portable radios used by Home Office contractors at an asylum processing centre. The deeply offensive broadcast – “fuck off you [N-word]s, go back to where you came from” – was reportedly heard at the Manston processing site for small boat arrivals in Kent.
Health | Doctors have reported a rise in the number of patients with Victorian diseases such as scabies, as the Royal College of Physicians urged the government to do more to fight poverty.
UK news | A third former South Yorkshire police officer has been arrested as part of an investigation into child sexual exploitation in Rotherham. The ex-constable, aged in his 50s, was arrested on Monday on suspicion of raping a teenage girl in the town in 2004.
Education | The fate of boys “is a defining issue of our time”, according to the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, as she calls for more men to become teachers to combat “toxic” behaviours.
Continue reading...This liveblog is now closed. For continued coverage on the tariffs, head to the live business blog.
Donald Trump’s planned tariffs will be negative across the world, with the damage depending on how far they go, how long they last and whether they lead to successful negotiations, the European Central Bank head, Christine Lagarde, said on Wednesday.
The Trump administration on Wednesday is set to announce “reciprocal tariffs” targeting nations that have duties on US goods. That move would come after it slapped new import levies on products from Mexico, China and Canada – the top US trading partners – as well as on goods including steel and autos.
Wisconsin beat the billionaire.
Wisconsin cannot be bought. Our democracy is not for sale. And when we fight, we win. Congratulations, @CrawfordForWI
Continue reading...There were charts and scores, as if The Price Is Right had come to Washington. The big prize? A global trade war
It was Jeopardy!, or The Price Is Right, come to Washington.
On an unseasonably chilly day in the White House Rose Garden, Donald Trump stood with a giant chart listing which reciprocal tariffs he would impose on China, the European Union, the United Kingdom and other hapless contestants.
Continue reading...President to impose ‘reciprocal’ tariffs on largest trading partners and says new charges will bring about ‘golden age’
Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs on some of its largest trading partners on Wednesday, upending decades of US trade policy and threatening to unleash a global trade war on what he has called “liberation day”.
Trump said he will impose a 10% universal tariff on all imported foreign goods in addition to “reciprocal tariffs” on a few dozen countries, charging additional duties onto countries that Trump claims have “cheated” America.
Continue reading...Britain gets off comparatively lightly but US president’s action could still cost billions in lost growth
Donald Trump has hit the UK with tariffs of 10% on exports to the US as he ignited a global trade war that could wipe billions off economic growth.
The US president accused other nations, including allies, of “looting, pillaging, raping and plundering” the US, as he announced tariffs on economic rivals including 20% on the EU and 34% on China as part of what he dubbed “liberation day”.
Continue reading...‘Japan is the mecca of cosplay. Monaka runs a cafe in Tokyo called Monster Party, where people go dressed as characters from a subculture known as tanganmen. Her brother is holding a picture of their mum’
My personal projects have often focused on the topic of identity, so the world of cosplay immediately appealed to me. I knew nothing about it until I saw some photographs on Instagram and became interested in these people who spend their free time turning themselves into characters from manga, anime, movies and video games – or even into creations they’ve come up with by themselves.
Italy’s biggest annual cosplay event is held in the region where I live, Tuscany. I started going and taking pictures, just on my phone at first, and that’s where I first approached cosplayers to ask if they’d like to help me with a project I had in mind. In the 1970s, John Olson took some portraits for Life magazine of musicians such as Frank Zappa and Elton John at home with their parents. They contrasted the individual identity of the rock stars and the social identity represented by their parents, and that seemed the right way to photograph cosplayers, too. I thought it was far more interesting to show them in a domestic setting, alongside people in everyday clothes, than in the environment of a fantasy-themed event.
Continue reading...If you’ve just bought a pair of these rubber sandals, you may want to think twice before wearing them down to the beach
Name: Flip-flops.
Age: They date from 1500BC, although the modern version is adapted from Japanese thonged sandals called zori, brought back by US soldiers returning from the second world war.
Continue reading...London PhD student convicted of 10 rapes may have 60 more victims, force fears
More than 20 women have contacted police to say they fear they may have been attacked by the serial rapist Zhenhao Zou, with detectives fearing there may be even more victims to come.
Zou, 28, was convicted last month of raping three women in London and seven in China between 2019 and 2024.
Continue reading...US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, who started the now-infamous group chat coordinating a US attack against the Yemen-based Houthis on March 15, is seemingly now suggesting that the secure messaging service Signal has security vulnerabilities.
"I didn’t see this loser in the group," Waltz told Fox News about Atlantic editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg, whom Waltz invited to the chat. "Whether he did it deliberately or it happened in some other technical mean, is something we’re trying to figure out."
Waltz’s implication that Goldberg may have hacked his way in was followed by a ...
Charlotte Edwards has promised to make England’s players “more accountable for their fitness” as she seeks to improve the team’s fortunes after her appointment as women’s head coach.
The 45-year-old insisted that despite England women’s recent troubles against Australia they were capable of winning this year’s 50-over World Cup in India, saying she was “really confident we can turn things around very quickly”. Jon Lewis was sacked as coach last month after a miserable winter in which group-stage elimination at the T20 World Cup was followed by a 16-0 rout in the Ashes.
Continue reading...Brother of Jagtar Singh Johal claims he is being ‘mentally tortured’ through unwarranted detention
The British Sikh activist Jagtar Singh Johal, detained for seven years in an Indian jail, has been placed into solitary confinement and under 24-hour surveillance despite being acquitted of all terrorism charges against him by a Punjab court on 4 March, his family have claimed.
Johal is still facing the exact same charges in a parallel case in a clear example of double jeopardy, his brother Gurpreet said when giving testimony at Westminster to an all party committee on arbitrary detention. He said the Indian courts have not granted his brother bail, despite the prosecutor’s failure to produce any credible evidence or witnesses in the Punjab court.
Gurpreet said UK consular staff met his brother in jail on Tuesday and were told he had been put into solitary confinement with a 24-hour guard, adding no explanation had been given.
Continue reading...In what may be an American first, President Donald Trump pardoned a company sentenced to $100 million in fines for breaking money laundering laws.
The post Trump Just Pardoned … a Corporation? appeared first on The Intercept.
Vast scheme aims to counter disinformation and increase awareness in country where low HPV vaccine take-up means many die from the preventable disease
Tens of thousands of doctors across India are being trained to promote the HPV vaccine, in a push to eliminate cervical cancer in the country.
They will check with mothers attending medical appointments that they intend to vaccinate their daughters, and visit schools and community centres armed with facts and slideshows to counter vaccine disinformation.
Continue reading...Barricades go up in Seoul as court prepares to rule on whether to uphold Yoon’s impeachment or restore his powers
The usually quiet streets outside South Korea’s constitutional court in Seoul are now a political ground zero for a decision that will determine the country’s future.
Months after Yoon Suk Yeol imposed martial law and triggered South Korea’s worst political crisis in decades, the court will on Friday decide whether to uphold the suspended president’s impeachment or return him to office.
Continue reading...“Do your job!” the crowd chanted, urging Rep. Victoria Spartz, one of the most outspoken DOGE supporters, to rein in Elon Musk.
The post GOP Leaders Said Don’t Do Town Halls. This Indiana Republican Did — and Got an Earful. appeared first on The Intercept.
Myanmar’s military junta has been losing territory for months. Will the earthquake and a new ceasefire help it turn the tide? Rebecca Ratcliffe reports
“It took around four to five minutes for the earthquake to shake and then it stopped and shook again. It is the most severe earthquake I have experienced in my life.”
Esther J is a reporter based in Bangkok, Thailand, more than 600 miles (966km) away from her home country of Myanmar – the epicentre of last week’s 7.7 magnitude earthquake.
Continue reading...Retaliation may not be needed as Britain likely to be ‘front of the queue’ in agreeing deal to redraw trade relationship
What is the best way to respond to Donald Trump and his sweeping tariffs? Keir Starmer thinks the answer is to tread softly, softly – while engaging in intensive negotiations behind the scenes.
There are signs that this strategy is bearing fruit. On Wednesday night, the president announced “reciprocal tariffs on countries throughout the world” including a 10% import tax on UK exports to the US – crucially, lower than the 20% imposed on the EU. The 10% rate was the lowest rate Trump announced and applied to several other countries including Australia, Singapore and Brazil.
100 days of Trump’s presidency, with Jonathan Freedland and guests
Continue reading...WHO warns there is urgent need for care capacity, while US agency says number of dead could eventually exceed 10,000
The fallout from Myanmar’s earthquake has overwhelmed parts of the healthcare system, the World Health Organization has said, as the official death toll rose to more than 2,000, with many more missing.
Rescue operations faced “significant obstacles including damaged roads, collapsed bridges, unstable communications and the complexities related to civil conflict”, the WHO said in an update.
Continue reading...The 7.7 magnitude quake on Friday wrought destruction across central areas of the country, including the capital
A devastating earthquake has wrought destruction across central Myanmar, toppling ancient sites, bringing down hospital buildings and collapsing homes.
The 7.7 magnitude quake on Friday was followed by a number of aftershocks along the Sagaing fault. It also caused damage in neighbouring Thailand, where a skyscraper under construction collapsed in Bangkok.
Continue reading...World Health Organization issues flash appeal for $8m of emergency support amid frantic search for survivors
AFP has spoken to relatives anxiously waiting at the site of a collapsed building in Bangkok.
Daodee Paruay said she had been at the site for two days, hoping for a miracle. Her brother was an electrician working on site, and he is believed to be under the rubble. “We wait, we wait.” she said.
Continue reading...The law behind the warrants bars concealment of people in the country illegally, yet the students were legal residents living on campus.
The post ICE Got Warrants Under “False Pretenses,” Claims Columbia Student Targeted Over Gaza Protests appeared first on The Intercept.
Rescue efforts are entering their third day and attempts to find survivors are intensifying after a devastating 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck Myanmar and Thailand, killing at least 1,600 people and injuring more than 3,400. At least 139 others are missing. The initial quake struck near Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, collapsing buildings, downing bridges and buckling roads, causing mass destruction in Myanmar's second largest city
Continue reading...“We had positive ID of him walking into his girlfriend’s building and it’s now collapsed.”
The post The Real Outrage About the Yemen Signal Group Is That It Called for Attack on Civilian Home appeared first on The Intercept.
China has dramatically increased military activities around Taiwan, with more than 3,000 incursions into Taiwan's airspace in 2024 alone. Amy Hawkins examines how Beijing is deploying 'salami-slicing' tactics, a strategy of gradual pressure that stays below the threshold of war while steadily wearing down Taiwan's defences. From daily air incursions to strategic military exercises, we explore the four phases of China's approach and what it means for Taiwan's future
Continue reading...
The European Space Agency's (ESA) Director of Human and Robotic Exploration, Daniel Neuenschwander, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) Vice President for Exploration and Human Spaceflight, Mayumi Matsuura, have signed a new statement of intent focused on Moon and Mars activities. This statement marks their intention towards a step forward in space exploration cooperation between ESA and JAXA, and lays the groundwork for expanded collaboration between the two agencies in advancing science, technology and international partnerships.
Citizen Lab has a new report on Paragon’s spyware:
Key Findings:
- Introducing Paragon Solutions. Paragon Solutions was founded in Israel in 2019 and sells spyware called Graphite. The company differentiates itself by claiming it has safeguards to prevent the kinds of spyware abuses that NSO Group and other vendors are notorious for.
- Infrastructure Analysis of Paragon Spyware. Based on a tip from a collaborator, we mapped out server infrastructure that we attribute to Paragon’s Graphite spyware tool. We identified a subset of suspected Paragon deployments, including in Australia, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, Israel, and Singapore. ...
The University of Pennsylvania has been a target of Canary Mission, a pro-Israel “blacklist” group. Turns out the call was coming from inside the house.
The post Pro-Israel Group That Attacked UPenn Was Funded by Family of UPenn Trustee appeared first on The Intercept.
Concerns about cable theft raised with airport before substation fire but Heathrow chief defends handling of incident
Airlines warned Heathrow about risks to its power supply days before the airport was shut down by a substation fire, a Commons committee has been told.
Heathrow’s chief executive, Thomas Woldbye, apologised for the disruption, which affected more than 200,000 passengers on Friday 21 March, but defended the decision to close as he said staying open was potentially “disastrous”.
Continue reading...Insomnia is not a grievance made by difficult women. It’s a life-threatening condition that often stems from a physical issue many doctors refuse to see
In February, I taught memoir writing at a conference in Mexico where the faculty is traditionally put up with local hosts. Mine was especially communicative in the months leading up to my arrival, going out of his way to indicate affordable rooftop bars, the finest locations to view murals, and general best practices for the city he’d adopted as his own.
So when I told my host that I have chronic insomnia, I felt he’d take me seriously, given how generous he’d been in his emails. “I’ve traveled a lot throughout Mexico,” I wrote him. “And the one thing I can’t deal with as an insomniac is roosters.”
Continue reading...A holiday park on the lesser-known Côte Orientale offers lower prices, activities for all ages, and secluded sandy beaches
I had held out as long as I could, but there was no getting out of it. The catcalls were rising; the baying, cackling audience of under-11s intoxicated by a combination of ice-cream sugar rushes and my obvious, clammy fear. It was day 14 of a two-week summer holiday, and our final afternoon in blissful 30C Corsican sunshine. I just needed one more chapter, lounging with my book, soaking in the last of the bone-warming sun slowly edging down towards the island’s dramatic mountainous spine.
But my calculating offspring had not forgotten ill-fated promises made on a previous evening, probably a little too deep into the second carafe. I was probably caught off-guard at Barny’s, a sensational sushi restaurant in the town of Ghisonaccia, enjoying our best meal of the holiday. They know when my defences are down; when I’m fully relaxed into holiday “yes” mode, and prime for being taken advantage of.
Continue reading...Florida prosecutors say Michelle Taylor used gasoline to set a fire that killed her son. Top forensic chemists say they’re wrong.
The post The Arson Evidence Doesn’t Hold Up. Florida Is About to Convict Her for Murder Anyway. appeared first on The Intercept.
We asked the experts about keeping luggage as light as possible (and still being ready for anything)
• The best travel-size toiletries for your next trip
Packing is a fine art. No one wants to lug heavy bags around transport hubs or arrive at the other end to a chaotically stuffed bag full of creased clothes. But we all have our “essentials” to cram in. For some, that’ll be a full skincare routine or a semblance of a wardrobe; for others, it’ll be sports equipment (though you really should leave the weights at home). So whether you’re flying on an airline offering ever-dwindling luggage limits, trying to cram a car for the whole crew, or rushing between trains with a backpack, it really does pay to travel light.
But what are the secrets to lightening the load without compromising? To find out, we’ve asked world travellers for all their best hacks and buys. Whether it’s the travel writer who’s been solo backpacking for more than 20 years or the hotel designer who has to dress smartly while zipping to locations across Europe, our globe-trotters shared their tips for everything from the ultimate wear-everywhere shoes to the best tech cheats.
Continue reading...Searches of phones and other electronics are on the rise for those entering the U.S. Take these steps to help secure your devices.
The post Crossing the U.S. Border? Here’s How to Protect Yourself appeared first on The Intercept.
Trump wants Gaza for real estate deals, but Mike Huckabee’s all-inclusive Israel tours erase Palestinians for a higher purpose.
The post Trump’s Pick for Israel Ambassador Leads Tours That Leave Out Palestinians — and Promote End of Days Theology appeared first on The Intercept.
How reporters with the Gaza Project investigate the killing and targeting of Palestinian journalists.
The post Journalists Under Fire in Gaza, Israel’s Deadly War on Reporters appeared first on The Intercept.
Investigative journalists working as part of the Gaza Project used reporting, geolocation, and forensic analysis to reconstruct the shooting of Fadi al-Wahidi.
The post Gaza Journalist Fadi al-Wahidi Avoided Israel’s “Red” Zone. Israel Shot Him Anyway. appeared first on The Intercept.
From biking adventures to city breaks, get inspiration for your next break – whether in the UK or further afield – with twice-weekly emails from the Guardian’s travel editors. You’ll also receive handpicked offers from Guardian Holidays.
From biking adventures to city breaks, get inspiration for your next break – whether in the UK or further afield – with twice-weekly emails from the Guardian’s travel editors.
You’ll also receive handpicked offers from Guardian Holidays.
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