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Nigel Slater’s recipes for baked potatoes, beans and chilli, and potato, cheddar and rosemary pie
Sun, 19 Jan 2025 10:30:03 GMT
It’s still cold enough for a big dish of soul-warming potatoes, in a pie or piled high with beans
There is a tiny room in the basement with walls of whitewashed brick and stone shelves as thick as a bible. I have never known its original use, but it is where I keep cake tins and baking sheets, casseroles and bun tins. As you open the creaking door, you are greeted by a teetering pile of tart tins.: A cheap enamelled dish with a wide rim, a thin blue line running around its chipped edge; a deep fluted tin with a loose base for tarts of frangipane and stone fruits; and a wide, shallow, cast-iron tart tin, which I use for chicken or mushroom pies, open-faced treacle tarts and, today, a pie for the coldest of days, thick with potatoes, crème fraîche, rosemary and mustard.
Such double-carb suppers – let us not pretend this is anything but comfort food – are welcome on a freezing night, when you have been blown home by an icy wind. The pastry and potatoes offer sustenance, the cream solace and the mustard will warm cold bones. If a pie seems too much trouble, then I will bake a potato or two and slather them not with butter, but with a ragu of butter beans, tomato and chillies. Either will send me into a blissful, end of winter’s day slumber.
Continue reading...I was separated from my mom at age 10. Donald Trump's reelection has reignited my family's fears.
The post Why My Memories of Being Taken From My Mom at the Border Came Flooding Back appeared first on The Intercept.
There’s at least one outstanding chocolatier and some great bakeries
Ocelot chocolate is made in Scotland. I’m not sure why I haven’t featured it more than I have. It has it all going on: it’s organic, it works with great cocoa beans and it supports women cocoa farmers. The packaging is also really fabulous, like retro modern (yes, this is a thing) paperback books. I have mentioned a few of its bars in the past (Chocaletta: a creamy milk not currently available, but I remember going mad for it).
Anyway. Ocelot also works with bakeries in Scotland. Wild Hearth, a wood-fired, artisan bakery in an old Nissen hut on the edge of the Highlands, makes the cinnamon swirls for Ocelot’s Cinnamon Swirl bar, £6.99/75g (sadly, not tested).
Continue reading...Concerns had been mounting over future of £200m a year scheme providing food and activities for vulnerable children
Ministers are to safeguard the Marcus Rashford-inspired scheme providing food and activities to vulnerable children during school holidays for another year, following concerns it could fall victim to a desperate search for savings across Whitehall.
More than a million people signed a petition from the Manchester United star calling for the scheme after a huge grassroots campaign in 2020.
Continue reading...The elegant towns of Cascais, Estoril and Sintra have plenty to offer, from romantic royal palaces to the best of Portuguese cuisine
On a blue-sky Saturday morning, I joined a foraging hike in Sintra-Cascais nature park, a former municipal wasteland and now thriving ecosystem on the outskirts of Cascais in Portugal. Progress was deliciously slow, thanks to our passionate guide – ecologist Fernanda Botelho, Portugal’s foremost herbalist and wild forager. We’d barely made it out of the park’s welcome centre when she lunged at a bush and held a spiky leaf ahoy.
“Sow thistle,” she proclaimed. “Pigs love it. It’s good for salads, but it too often gets confused with the dandelion.” Everything has its uses, she said, from pine needles for sauces and honey to ash trees for flour and berries of the Peruvian Pink Pepper tree – “planted as an ornamental tree, but it combines very well with chocolate”.
Continue reading...Kensington’s Blue Stoops looks like a pub and thinks like a pub – so it must be a pub
The Blue Stoops, 127-129 Kensington Church Street, London W8 7LP. Bar snacks £4-£12, starters £6-£15, mains £19-£26, desserts £10-£12, wines from £38
There are many who believe a true pork scratching should be a challenging affair; that you should stumble across the odd one so rich in bristles you don’t know whether to eat it or comb it. There should be others that present an invitation to suckle. The pork scratchings at the Blue Stoops in Kensington are, like the street it occupies, rather more refined. No deep-fried nipples here. The pig skin has been scraped of fat, simmered then dehydrated, before being puffed up on service to a hand’s length in the deep fat fryer. They arrive, salt and chilli-dusted and still warm, tucked into a beer glass, looking like some creamy-coloured mineral accretion dug out of a cave. They have crunch and a pleasing collagen stickiness and are more like a Mexican chicharrón than a friendly tooth-destroyer from the Black Country.
Continue reading...Small businesses would be able to claim tax deductions on food and entertainment expenses for up to $20,000 under a Coalition policy
Tax breaks for work lunches are on the cards as part of a push by the Coalition to win over small businesses, as Peter Dutton looks to regain ground in inner-city Brisbane seats.
The opposition leader used a campaign rally to unveil a plan to allow tax deductions of up to $20,000 for meal and entertainment expenses for small businesses.
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Continue reading...Trump’s pick to lead US health policy lobbied to rescind 2021 authorization and to deny any future vaccine
Robert F Kennedy Jr reportedly sought to block the historic and pioneering new Covid-19 vaccinations in 2021, six months after they began being rolled out at the height of the pandemic when many thousands of people were dying of the virus.
In a petition filed with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in May 2021, Donald Trump’s pick to lead the $1.8tn Department of Health and Human Services – who was not an elected politician or public official at that time – called on health officials to rescind emergency government authorization for the shots and to refrain from approving any Covid vaccine in the future, the New York Times reported on Friday.
Continue reading...The host of our Comfort Eating podcast tastes and rates thick chocolate biscuits from UK supermarkets
• Who makes the best crunchy peanut butter?
I am a complete sucker for a chocolate biscuit, one of the most exciting things about a 1980s childhood. Before structured playdates, Roblox and MrBeast videos, our thrills came in a biscuit tin full of Penguins, Clubs and Breakaways. The more chocolatey the chocolate, the better. Bliss.
In recent years, the rise of the posh, extra-chocolatey biscuit has delighted me. An ideal fancy biscuit should feel heavy in the hand, need a good bite to break through the chocolatey shell, it should withstand at least three good dunks in tea, and it should come in a packet with at least one breathlessly outlandish claim along the lines of “most chocolatey yet” or “thickest coating ever”. You should feel instantly joyful when you’re eating the first one. After the third, ideally, you should feel a bit sick.
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...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.
A weekly email from Yotam Ottolenghi, Meera Sodha, Felicity Cloake and Rachel Roddy, featuring the latest recipes and seasonal eating ideas
Each week we’ll send you an exclusive newsletter from our star food writers. We’ll also send you the latest recipes from Yotam Ottolenghi, Nigel Slater, Meera Sodha and all our star cooks, stand-out food features and seasonal eating inspiration, plus restaurant reviews from Grace Dent and Jay Rayner.
Sign up below to start receiving the best of our culinary journalism in one mouth-watering weekly email.
Continue reading...A job listing for the Super Bowl LIX halftime show offers $12 per hour — part of a long pattern of host-city residents getting the short shrift.
The post Everyone’s Making Millions But the Super Bowl Haltime Show Wants to Hire New Orleans Locals for $12 an Hour appeared first on The Intercept.
Style, with substance: what’s really trending this week, a roundup of the best fashion journalism and your wardrobe dilemmas solved, direct to your inbox every Thursday
Style, with substance: what’s really trending this week, a roundup of the best fashion journalism and your wardrobe dilemmas solved, delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday
Explore all our newsletters: whether you love film, football, fashion or food, we’ve got something for you
Continue reading...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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I was separated from my mom at age 10. Donald Trump's reelection has reignited my family's fears.
The post Why My Memories of Being Taken From My Mom at the Border Came Flooding Back appeared first on The Intercept.
A new report from MIT Coalition for Palestine details Israeli-funded research into everything from drone swarms to underwater surveillance.
The post MIT Shuts Down Internal Grant Database After It Was Used to Research School’s Israel Ties 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.
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.
There’s at least one outstanding chocolatier and some great bakeries
Ocelot chocolate is made in Scotland. I’m not sure why I haven’t featured it more than I have. It has it all going on: it’s organic, it works with great cocoa beans and it supports women cocoa farmers. The packaging is also really fabulous, like retro modern (yes, this is a thing) paperback books. I have mentioned a few of its bars in the past (Chocaletta: a creamy milk not currently available, but I remember going mad for it).
Anyway. Ocelot also works with bakeries in Scotland. Wild Hearth, a wood-fired, artisan bakery in an old Nissen hut on the edge of the Highlands, makes the cinnamon swirls for Ocelot’s Cinnamon Swirl bar, £6.99/75g (sadly, not tested).
Continue reading...The elegant towns of Cascais, Estoril and Sintra have plenty to offer, from romantic royal palaces to the best of Portuguese cuisine
On a blue-sky Saturday morning, I joined a foraging hike in Sintra-Cascais nature park, a former municipal wasteland and now thriving ecosystem on the outskirts of Cascais in Portugal. Progress was deliciously slow, thanks to our passionate guide – ecologist Fernanda Botelho, Portugal’s foremost herbalist and wild forager. We’d barely made it out of the park’s welcome centre when she lunged at a bush and held a spiky leaf ahoy.
“Sow thistle,” she proclaimed. “Pigs love it. It’s good for salads, but it too often gets confused with the dandelion.” Everything has its uses, she said, from pine needles for sauces and honey to ash trees for flour and berries of the Peruvian Pink Pepper tree – “planted as an ornamental tree, but it combines very well with chocolate”.
Continue reading...Facilities giant called ‘uncaring’ by low-paid cleaners, who believed they were covered by a fair-pay pledge
Low-paid cleaners have accused the Living Wage Foundation of giving accreditation to an “uncaring” outsourcing company paying less than the living wage.
Facilities services giant OCS is accredited under a bespoke scheme for outsourcing firms. But the company has only committed to paying a living wage to its centrally employed staff. The scheme does not cover the majority of OCS’s 50,000 workforce, who are tied to external contracts.
Continue reading...Kensington’s Blue Stoops looks like a pub and thinks like a pub – so it must be a pub
The Blue Stoops, 127-129 Kensington Church Street, London W8 7LP. Bar snacks £4-£12, starters £6-£15, mains £19-£26, desserts £10-£12, wines from £38
There are many who believe a true pork scratching should be a challenging affair; that you should stumble across the odd one so rich in bristles you don’t know whether to eat it or comb it. There should be others that present an invitation to suckle. The pork scratchings at the Blue Stoops in Kensington are, like the street it occupies, rather more refined. No deep-fried nipples here. The pig skin has been scraped of fat, simmered then dehydrated, before being puffed up on service to a hand’s length in the deep fat fryer. They arrive, salt and chilli-dusted and still warm, tucked into a beer glass, looking like some creamy-coloured mineral accretion dug out of a cave. They have crunch and a pleasing collagen stickiness and are more like a Mexican chicharrón than a friendly tooth-destroyer from the Black Country.
Continue reading...Emergency services say 30 people were involved, of whom 10 were taken to hospital, at Astún in the Pyrenees
Ten people have been hurt, two of them seriously, after a ski lift collapsed at a resort in north-east Spain, hurling dozens of passengers into the snow below.
Although initial reports said 35 people had been injured on Saturday at the Pyrenean resort of Astún, in the Aragón region, the figures were later revised down.
Continue reading...Discovery of two injured servicemen sent from Pyongyang and disguised as Russian fighters blows apart myth that Zelenskyy’s fight is solely with Moscow
The news was sensational. It travelled quickly among Ukrainian soldiers fighting in Russia’s Kursk region. “I heard from a friend of a friend,” one officer, Vitalii Ovcharenko, recalled. “This was half an hour after it happened. My friend said: ‘We’ve got a North Korean prisoner! He’s in shock but OK.’ I said: ‘Wow.’” Ovcharenko added: “Everyone wanted a selfie. They wrapped him in a blanket and gave him tea.”
Last week’s capture of two North Korean servicemen was an extraordinary moment in Russia’s bloody war against Ukraine. The Kremlin has taken elaborate steps to conceal the presence of 12,000 elite troops sent in autumn by Pyongyang to Russia. At camps in the Far East they were given Russian equipment: uniforms, rifles and fake military documents.
Continue reading...Italian region comes surprise eighth place and has plenty of budget package deals available, according to Which?
January is the best month to book a summer holiday – and this year there is a surprise budget option: Tuscany. According to Which?, the central Italian region is among the cheapest package holiday destinations for 2025.
Researchers analysed almost 6,000 package holidays from three of the UK’s biggest tour operators, Jet2holidays, Tui and easyJet Holidays. Tuscany, more usually associated with luxury villa holidays amid rolling hills and vineyards and the expensive hotels of Florence, made it into the top 10 cheapest package destinations, behind better-known budget areas such as Costa Brava in Spain and Corfu in Greece.
Continue reading...Our expert picks the top wetsuits to keep you warm whatever the weather, so you can ride the waves year-round
• The fitness gear that made you fitter
Gone are the days when surfers needed a woolly jumper under their wetsuit – or to wear two wetsuits – to stay warm. Wetsuit tech has come a long way in recent years and now offer far greater protection against the cold. This shift has meant more of us are surfing all year round, even in the chilliest of British winters.
But such innovation has come at a cost, as explained in The Big Sea, a documentary made by two surfers from the north-east of England. The film shows the effects of producing neoprene, the synthetic rubber used to make most surf wetsuits, on the predominantly black and low-income residents of Reserve in Louisiana, where cancer rates are alarmingly high.
Best overall winter wetsuit:
Patagonia R4 Regulator front zip hooded full suit
Women’s £560 at Patagonia
Men’s £560 at Patagonia
Best budget winter wetsuit:
C-Skins NuWave Solace/Session 5/4 chest zip steamer
Women’s £233.95 at Sorted Surf Shop
Men’s £244.39 at Ocean Sports Board Riders
Best winter wetsuit for flexibility:
Billabong 5/4mm Furnace natural chest zip wetsuit
Women’s £410 at Billabong
Men’s £410 at Billabong
Best winter wetsuit for warmth:
Finisterre Nieuwland 5.5/4.5mm Yulex chest zip hooded wetsuit
Women’s £345 at Finisterre
Men’s £345 at Finisterre
From mindfulness retreats to monastery stays, tell us about a getaway where you were able to switch off completely – the best tip wins £200 towards a Coolstays break
In an age of constant distraction, silence and stillness are increasingly rare commodities, so it’s hardly surprising that more of us are turning to retreats as a way to get some much-needed breathing space. Whether it’s a meditation retreat, a yoga holiday, a digital detox or a stay in a monastery, we’d love to hear about the places in the UK, Europe or further afield where you go to rest, reset and recharge.
If you have a relevant photo, do send it in – but it’s your words that will be judged for the competition.
Continue reading...A year in Palestine, living in fear of not just genocide — but AIDS.
The post Queer, HIV-Positive, and Running Out of Medication in Gaza appeared first on The Intercept.
Alfred Bourgeois’s daughter is convinced of his innocence. In the four years since his execution, she has waged a sometimes-lonely battle to prove it.
The post She Lost Her Dad to Trump’s Killing Spree. Now She Wants Biden to Clear His Name. appeared first on The Intercept.
A new Syria is emerging from the shadow of the brutal Assad regime. The Guardian’s Bethan McKernan and Ayman Abu Ramouz meet people celebrating their hard-won freedom, but also those grappling with a traumatic past. The pair travel to the notorious Sednaya prison, where they meet a former prisoner who was liberated by his family just days before
Resistance was not a choice’: how Syria’s unlikely rebel alliance took Aleppo
'The Syrian regime hit us with chemical weapons: only now can we speak out' – video
Syria’s disappeared: one woman’s search for her missing father
From biking adventures to city breaks, get inspiration for your next break – whether in the UK or further afield – with twice-weekly emails from the Guardian’s travel editors. You’ll also receive handpicked offers from Guardian Holidays.
From biking adventures to city breaks, get inspiration for your next break – whether in the UK or further afield – with twice-weekly emails from the Guardian’s travel editors.
You’ll also receive handpicked offers from Guardian Holidays.
Continue reading...Social media accounts blocked for breaking Beijing rules as millions of users join up before ban takes effect
Nine invaluable things I’ve learned from TikTok
When Angelica Oung received the notification that her Xiaohongshu account had been blocked for violating the social media app’s code of conduct, her mind started racing.
The only picture she had posted on her account, apart from her profile headshot, was of herself wearing an inflatable polar bear suit, holding a sign saying: “I love nuclear”. What could be the problem with that, wondered Oung, a clean energy activist in Taiwan.
Continue reading...Former vice-president makes surprise visit to Taipei and predicts that if China annexes its neighbour other Asia-Pacific countries will build nuclear arsenals
Mike Pence called on Donald Trump’s incoming administration to maintain support for Taiwan against the threat of Chinese annexation during a surprise visit to the capital, Taipei, on Friday.
On the eve of Trump’s inauguration for his second term as president, his estranged former vice-president said withdrawing or reducing support for Taiwan – as Trump has repeatedly indicated he is considering – would endanger global security and “likely spark a new nuclear arms race” in the Asia-Pacific region.
Continue reading...Journalists from countries that have seen challenges to democracy give their view on the second Trump presidency
What is the view of US democracy from abroad, and what can Americans learn from other nations with a history of political tumult?
During his first term Donald Trump tested democratic norms by undermining trust in fair elections, encouraging political violence and demonizing the media and public servants. He has promised to be a dictator “on day one” of his second term.
Continue reading...As Musk, Zuckerberg and Bezos attempt to reshape our reality, my advice is to avoid their toxic platforms and wait it out
Wow! That escalated quickly. Last time I filed my supposedly funny column, only two weeks ago, Los Angeles wasn’t on fire; Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg hadn’t abandoned the guardrails that restrict neo-fascist lies, or “free speech” as they are now known; the US hadn’t threatened to invade Canada and Greenland; Elon Musk and Jordan Peterson hadn’t declared the sniff-conked sunbed fraudster Tommy Robinson the new Nelson Mandela; and the next US president, though already an adjudicated sexual abuser, wasn’t actually a convicted felon who would have been in prison were he not in the White House. Jesus! I only popped out for some (oat) milk.
Twenty or so years ago, I had a friend whose flat was clearly infested by hundreds of rats that she never saw. We’d come in, put the Happy Shopper bags on the kitchen table, go to the loo, and return to see the sacks shredded and everything attractive to rodents disappeared into the cavity walls. Either that or there was a really hungry flatmate who was usually out whenever my friend was in. And wasn’t paying any rent. And left tiny oblong droppings under the units.
Stewart Lee tours Stewart Lee vs the Man-Wulf this year, with a Royal Festival Hall run in July
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk
Continue reading...Beijing has prepared for increased tariffs but its actions will not be enough to offset falling demand from the US
When Donald Trump enters the White House for the second time on 20 January, the view from the Oval Office will look very different to the one he encountered in 2017. A pandemic, the war in Ukraine and a trade war with China have caused ripples through the global economy that are still being felt midway through the decade.
Beijing will be watching closely. Trump has promised to impose tariffs of up to 60% on Chinese imports, partly in retaliation for the flow of fentanyl from China to the US.
Continue reading...The machinations of Elon Musk and the incoming US president loom large in the minds of politicians and voters
A Donald Trump-shaped shadow is looming over the campaign for Germany’s snap elections next month, with unprecedented US interference on behalf of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland and a startling degree of attention from the incoming US administration scrambling the political landscape.
In a country that puts a premium on stability, Trump’s second term is forcing all parties to revamp fundamental stances, with responses ranging from opportunistic fealty to still wan-looking resistance. The stakes for Berlin could hardly be higher.
Continue reading...App no longer available on US Apple and Google stores after supreme court upholds lawmakers’ ban
TikTok stopped working in the US late on Saturday, shortly before a federal ban on the Chinese-owned short-video app was due to take effect.
The app was no longer available on Apple’s iOS App Store or Google’s Play Store. The US Congress passed a law in April mandating that parent company ByteDance either sell TikTok to a non-Chinese owner or face a total shutdown. It chose the latter.
Continue reading...Former Trump White House adviser says supplication akin to Japanese surrender to allied forces in September 1945
Steve Bannon, the former Trump White House chief strategist, has described the tech titans gathering at Monday’s inauguration as “supplicants” to Donald Trump making “an official surrender”, akin to the Japanese surrender to allied forces on the deck of the USS Missouri in September 1945.
Bannon, who served as architect of Trump’s 2016 presidential win but later fell out with the president-elect after he criticized his intellect and members of his family, told ABC News in an interview airing Sunday that Trump “broke the oligarchs” who had previously been aligned against him.
Continue reading...As the platform bows out in the US, here is my carefully curated list of the best things it’s taught me
The average TikTok user spends almost one hour each day on the app. However, the screen time of American users is about to be rapidly reduced, as the app is set to be banned in the US.
On Friday the US Supreme Court rejected an appeal against a law that would see the social media platform banned over national security concerns. TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance had challenged the law, arguing that it violates free speech protections for more than 170 million users.
Continue reading...With the Supreme Court approving the TikTok ban, the U.S. is embracing the type of internet authoritarianism it long opposed.
The post Washington’s TikTok Ban Hypocrisy: Internet Censorship Is Good, Now appeared first on The Intercept.
WHO is ‘critical in protecting US business interests’, says CEO of firm that may see lean years if Trump carries out vow
The World Health Organization (WHO) could see lean years ahead if the US withdraws membership under the new Trump administration. Such a withdrawal, promised on the first day of Donald Trump’s new administration, would in effect cut the multilateral agency’s funding by one-fifth.
The severe cut would be uncharted territory for the WHO, potentially curtailing public health works globally, pressuring the organization to attract private funding, and providing an opening for other countries to influence the organization. Other countries are not expected to make up the funding loss.
Continue reading...Chinese president declines US president-elect’s unusual invitation but sends special representative Han Zheng
The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, will not attend Donald Trump’s inauguration, but he is sending his vice-president, Han Zheng, as his special representative.
The decision, announced on Friday in China by the foreign ministry, came more than a month after Trump extended the unusual invitation to Xi, a break from tradition since no heads of state have previously made an official visit to the US for the inauguration.
Continue reading...Latter part of 2024 ‘recovered remarkably’ after stimulus measures, says National Bureau of Statistics
China’s economy grew by 5% in 2024, in line with government targets but at the slowest rate since 1990 outside the Covid pandemic, according to official data.
Growth accelerated through the year, with an expansion of 5.4% in the final quarter, up from 4.6% in the third quarter, according to Beijing’s National Bureau of Statistics.
Continue reading...The secretaries of defense and state will play key roles in U.S. policy on Israel, but they faced little scrutiny on Palestinian suffering.
The post Pete Hegseth and Marco Rubio Get a Pass on Suffering in Gaza appeared first on The Intercept.
A new report from MIT Coalition for Palestine details Israeli-funded research into everything from drone swarms to underwater surveillance.
The post MIT Shuts Down Internal Grant Database After It Was Used to Research School’s Israel Ties appeared first on The Intercept.
According to a DOJ press release, the FBI was able to delete the Chinese-used PlugX malware from “approximately 4,258 U.S.-based computers and networks.”
To retrieve information from and send commands to the hacked machines, the malware connects to a command-and-control server that is operated by the hacking group. According to the FBI, at least 45,000 IP addresses in the US had back-and-forths with the command-and-control server since September 2023.
It was that very server that allowed the FBI to finally kill this pesky bit of malicious software. First, they tapped the know-how of French intelligence agencies, which had ...
Case was fast-tracked after crime in Kolkata sparked protests across India amid concern for women’s safety
A police volunteer has been found guilty of the rape and murder of a trainee doctor who was on duty in Kolkata, a crime that sparked protests across India amid concern about violence against women and girls.
The outcry over the killing of the 31-year-old physician in August led to the trial being fast-tracked through the legal system.
Continue reading...As three men challenge their commutations, others brace for imminent prison transfers and the finality of a life sentence with no chance of release.
The post Biden Commuted Their Death Sentences. Now What? appeared first on The Intercept.
Protesters smash windows after officials cite concerns the impeached president could destroy evidence if released
A South Korean court has extended the detention of the impeached president Yoon Suk Yeol, citing concerns he could destroy evidence linked to his martial law declaration, enraging his supporters, who attacked the court building.
Hundreds of pro-Yoon protesters smashed windows and broke down doors to enter the court on Sunday after the decision was announced, chanting the name of the president, who plunged South Korea into its worst political chaos in decades with his bid to suspend civilian rule.
Continue reading...Discovery of two injured servicemen sent from Pyongyang and disguised as Russian fighters blows apart myth that Zelenskyy’s fight is solely with Moscow
The news was sensational. It travelled quickly among Ukrainian soldiers fighting in Russia’s Kursk region. “I heard from a friend of a friend,” one officer, Vitalii Ovcharenko, recalled. “This was half an hour after it happened. My friend said: ‘We’ve got a North Korean prisoner! He’s in shock but OK.’ I said: ‘Wow.’” Ovcharenko added: “Everyone wanted a selfie. They wrapped him in a blanket and gave him tea.”
Last week’s capture of two North Korean servicemen was an extraordinary moment in Russia’s bloody war against Ukraine. The Kremlin has taken elaborate steps to conceal the presence of 12,000 elite troops sent in autumn by Pyongyang to Russia. At camps in the Far East they were given Russian equipment: uniforms, rifles and fake military documents.
Continue reading...Actor repeatedly stabbed during 2am attack at Mumbai flat he shares with Kareena Kapoor and their two children
Saif Ali Khan, one of Bollywood’s most popular actors, is recovering in hospital after a knife became lodged in his spine during an attack by an intruder in his Mumbai home.
Medical officials said Khan sustained six stab wounds in the attack, which took place during a 2am altercation with an intruder who had entered the family home he shares with his wife, the Bollywood superstar Kareena Kapoor, and their two children.
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...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 price of gold continues to rise, but who buys it, and where do they keep it? We head to Geneva’s secret vault and meets the dealers
There’s a secrecy to the specifics of our planned rendezvous, when I meet a sharp-suited Egon von Greyerz in Zurich airport’s arrivals hall. Hands shaken, he guides us out of a side entrance towards a car park in a quiet corner of the sprawling complex. Roughly 30,000 people work in and around the site; annually, tens of millions of passengers pass through here. Scarce few are aware of the existence, let alone the precise location, of our intended destination: a high-security, 350sqm vault somewhere deep beneath us. Inside it, vast quantities of gold, much of it belonging to von Greyerz, and a roster of his company’s exceedingly wealthy international clientele.
For more than 25 years, von Greyerz has been in this business: buying, selling and storing precious metals for the super-rich, all the while preaching his golden gospel. “We set certain minimum levels,” he says, “to invest through us: $400,000 to store gold in this Zurich vault, or our similar one in Singapore. We use another deep in the Swiss Alps: you’ll need to invest $5m to have anything there.”
Continue reading...The German photographer hopes the image he shot in a public bathroom in Malaysia will inspire others to explore their own ideas of beauty
In 2018, when Jan Schölzel was on the Malaysian archipelago of Langkawi, some days were so humid, he found it difficult to leave his accommodation. “It was the hottest, most humid place I’ve ever been,” says Schölzel, who currently lives in Hanover, Germany. “This must have been one of the cooler days, because we went to visit a waterfall.”
After fish head soup for lunch – a local delicacy – he spent some time in the water before heading to use a nearby bathroom. This image, taken on an iPhone SE, was shot facing the entrance.
Continue reading...“MUST FIND THE LEAKER!” Trump posted, decrying the damage to Israel when its Iran attack plans were made public.
The post CIA Leaker of Israel Intel Pleads Guilty Days Before Trump Takes Office appeared first on The Intercept.
There is no more status quo, no going back, and yet, after the ceasefire, so much will remain the same.
The post Gaza Changed the World 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.
After 30 years of relentless growth and capitalism, a new trend has emerged in China. The search for a simpler, calmer life is leading some Chinese people to seek a life abroad. The trend is so popular that it’s gained its own internet buzzword: the 'run philosophy'.
Chiang mai, in northern Thailand is the country’s second biggest city. It’s a tourist hotspot popular with backpackers but has recently become an unlikely second home for thousands of Chinese people seeking alternative lifestyles.
Continue reading...Exclusive: ‘Grotesque’ footage shows previously undocumented incidents on day PM Sheikh Hasina fled country
Bangladeshi police killed or injured at least 20 unarmed protesters in two previously undocumented incidents during the demonstrations that engulfed the country last year, according to newly examined video footage.
The International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP), a rights group that documents alleged abuses, has analysed video footage of two incidents in Dhaka on 5 August – the day that Sheikh Hasina resigned as prime minister and fled the country – and found evidence that officers deliberately targeted peaceful civilians.
Continue reading...News:
A sponge made of cotton and squid bone that has absorbed about 99.9% of microplastics in water samples in China could provide an elusive answer to ubiquitous microplastic pollution in water across the globe, a new report suggests.
[…]
The study tested the material in an irrigation ditch, a lake, seawater and a pond, where it removed up to 99.9% of plastic. It addressed 95%-98% of plastic after five cycles, which the authors say is remarkable reusability.
The sponge is made from chitin extracted from squid bone and cotton cellulose, materials that are often used to address pollution. Cost, secondary pollution and technological complexities have stymied many other filtration systems, but large-scale production of the new material is possible because it is cheap, and raw materials are easy to obtain, the authors say...
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