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Going to the gym gives me so much more than the physique I want, even if body dysmorphia lingers | Bertin Huynh
Mon, 03 Mar 2025 14:00:10 GMT
I feel more focused and energetic than ever before. But as I have changed, so has my algorithm
For almost my entire life I hated how I looked.
I was by no means unhealthy but a youth spent playing video games and eating heaping mounds of white rice meant I was far from the models, superheroes and movie stars I looked up to.
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Continue reading...The Olympic silver medallist Liz McColgan has hit out at the “demeaning and abusive comments” received on social media by her daughter, Eilish, the reigning Commonwealth Games 10,000m champion.
Liz, who also won the 1991 world 10,000m title and coaches Eilish, used screenshots in a post on X to highlight comments attacking her daughter’s body shape and questioning whether she has an eating disorder.
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The last right-wing American president before Trump galvanized a resurgent Latin American left. Where will the region go now?
The post Latin America’s New Right Ushers in Pan-American Trumpism appeared first on The Intercept.
Vast human smuggling ring was responsible for deaths of seven, including a four-year-old child, prosecutors say
Two alleged leaders of a criminal organization suspected of smuggling 20,000 people without permanent legal residency into the US from Guatemala have been arrested in Los Angeles, federal prosecutors said on Monday.
Eduardo Domingo Renoj-Matul, known as “Turko”, and his lieutenant, Cristobal Mejia-Chaj, were taken into custody Friday and have pleaded not guilty to multiple charges related to smuggling migrants across the border over five years, the US attorney’s office said. A federal judge ordered the men, who themselves are in the country illegally, jailed without bond until their trial in April.
Continue reading...Lobbying to return Andrew Tate to the U.S. reveals the hollowness of the Republican Party’s anti-sex trafficking campaign.
The post Trump Helps Alleged Sex Trafficker Andrew Tate Cross Border Into U.S. appeared first on The Intercept.
The Bureau of Prisons rescinded rules shielding trans women from being searched by male guards, The Intercept has learned.
The post Trump Administration Abolishes Rules Protecting Trans Prisoners appeared first on The Intercept.
Peter Grimsdale says the documentary must be put back on iPlayer so we can judge it for ourselves, while David Skinner says the controversy distracts from children’s plight in Gaza
Roger Mosey, the former head of BBC television news, may be right that “basic rookie errors” were made over the BBC’s film featuring relatives of Hamas officials, but I doubt it’s that simple (Culture secretary to hold urgent meeting with BBC chair over Gaza film, 28 February). As a former TV commissioner, I have been asked to conduct investigations into editorial misdemeanours. In every case it came down either to a member of the production team having not been straight with the producer, or the producer not being straight with the broadcaster.
No matter how much small print is added to the contracts between broadcasters and producers, nothing works in factual programming without trust. Factual programmes throw up myriads of unforeseen problems that must be resolved between the film-makers and the broadcaster. But having resolved them and made the appropriate editorial changes, including adding missing information, these programmes were then broadcast without further issue.
Continue reading...Stocks plunge after Trump announced the start of 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico and after data showed a slight dip in US manufacturing
Donald Trump will lay out his priorities tomorrow evening in a prime-time speech to Congress, his first since returning to the White House.
He’s doing some expectation setting this morning, posting on Truth Social:
TOMORROW NIGHT WILL BE BIG. I WILL TELL IT LIKE IT IS!
Continue reading...In a clash of self-described progressives, GOP donors are pouring money into the race to unseat Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey.
The post Trump Donors Try to Buy Pittsburgh Mayor’s Race appeared first on The Intercept.
Joseph Czuba’s comments about Palestinians and Muslims took center stage at his trial for the murder of Wadee Alfayoumi.
The post Landlord Convicted in Hate Crime Stabbing of 6-Year-Old Palestinian American Boy appeared first on The Intercept.
The bloated Department of Defense spends more money than any other government agency. So where is Elon Musk and DOGE?
The post Hey Elon: We Found a Place to Cut More Than $2 Trillion in Wasteful Spending appeared first on The Intercept.
Friday’s economic boycott is a one-day attack on corporate interests. The degrowth movement calls for a broader societal shift.
The post How to Turn an “Economic Blackout” Into an All-Out War on Corporate Power appeared first on The Intercept.
Last month, the UK government demanded that Apple weaken the security of iCloud for users worldwide. On Friday, Apple took steps to comply for users in the United Kingdom. But the British law is written in a way that requires Apple to give its government access to anyone, anywhere in the world. If the government demands Apple weaken its security worldwide, it would increase everyone’s cyber-risk in an already dangerous world.
If you’re an iCloud user, you have the option of turning on something called “advanced data protection,” or ADP. In that mode, a majority of your data is end-to-end encrypted. This means that no one, not even anyone at Apple, can read that data. It’s a restriction enforced by mathematics—cryptography—and not policy. Even if someone successfully hacks iCloud, they can’t read ADP-protected data...
An industry increasingly associated with Trumpism is moving into the spotlight in Democratic gubernatorial races in New Jersey and New York.
The post “Opportunism and Fear”: Crypto Industry Sets Its Sights on Governors’ Mansions appeared first on The Intercept.
With DOGE initiatives getting hung up in court, Elon Musk and Donald Trump attacked judges and flirted with defying their rulings.
The post DOGE’s Lawyer Once Warned That Ignoring Court Orders Would Destroy the Country appeared first on The Intercept.
With the ceasefire in Gaza on the edge of collapse, Sanders once again introduced resolutions to block certain weapons sales to Israel.
The post Bernie Sanders Hasn’t Stopped Arms Sales to Israel — But He Won’t Stop Trying appeared first on The Intercept.
The cut, an anti-trans attack, was the latest example of confusion sown by bold claims that wither under scrutiny.
The post DOGE Said It Cut $232 Million From Social Security Budget. It Was Only About Half a Million. appeared first on The Intercept.
A former campaign staffer said Sen. John Fetterman’s single-minded focus came at the exclusion of the progressive positions he ran on.
The post Fetterman Staff Quit Amid Frustration Over “Just Working on Israel All the Time” appeared first on The Intercept.
After spending four years meeting people all over the country, Vicky Roy’s new book, Everyone is Good at Something, contains 100 inspirational life stories to raise awareness and combat taboos
For Bikram Bhattarai, getting to school meant being carried by his father, Narpati, across the hilly terrain of Gangtok in the north Indian region of Sikkim. The half-hour journey each way was especially treacherous when the rains came and Bhattarai, who was born without arms, sometimes had to ask classmates to help carry him, too.
Now in his twenties, he is at college studying history and enjoys writing poetry and listening to rappers including Eminem and Nepal’s Yama Buddha. But his true passion is art, he says, as he shares a sketch of an open palm holding a butterfly, drawn with his feet.
Bikram Bhattarai, a college student from Gangtok in Sikkim who was born without arms, loves art and has taught himself to draw with his feet
Continue reading...Jessica Brösche has spent more than a month in detention center after being denied entry at San Diego from Mexico
A German tourist is fighting to be released from an immigration detention center after she was denied entry at the San Diego border and taken into custody by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) last month.
Jessica Brösche, a 26-year-old German tattoo artist, is being indefinitely detained by US Customs and Border Protection after she tried to enter San Diego on 25 January from Tijuana, Mexico, with her American best friend, Amelia Lofving. The two were traveling with tattoo equipment.
Continue reading...The increasingly international Academy has warmed to more and more Cannes film festival premieres, leaving all eyes on this year’s edition
It might have been a bad night for streamers, blockbusters and horror movies, but last night’s Oscars was another excellent year for the Cannes film festival.
The major winner, Anora, which picked up five awards including best picture, best director and best actress, was a Palme d’Or winner at last May’s edition and became only the fourth recipient to go on to a best picture Oscar.
Continue reading...Taking place in the middle of a chaotic time for the US and the world at large, this year’s ceremony was light on statements and devoid of the Trump word entirely
Twenty-two years ago, the last time Adrien Brody won the Academy award for best actor, film-maker Michael Moore accepted his own Oscar for Bowling for Columbine, a documentary about America’s obsession with guns, by offering a preview of sorts of his next feature, Fahrenheit 9/11. He decried then president George W Bush as “fictitious” (alluding to his fishy, supreme court-assisted election win a year and a half earlier) and excoriated the Bush administration for sending the United States to war with Iraq – just three days earlier, in fact – for “fictitious reasons”. It was received with a mixture of applause and boos, probably the most memorable moment of the night, give or take Brody planting a kiss on Halle Berry.
Two years later, when Fahrenheit 9/11 might have been similarly honored (and almost certainly would have been, as it became the highest-grossing non-music doc ever in the US, a record it still holds after two decades), Moore wasn’t on stage. Months earlier, he had decided not to submit his movie for consideration, nominally because he didn’t feel like he needed to steal focus from other, less widely seen docs, and also because he was negotiating an airing of the film on TV, which would scotch its eligibility anyway. By the time the Oscars rolled around, however, the presidential election Moore had hoped to affect with that television airing was long over; Bush won again, and maybe a documentary designed to prevent this from happening wouldn’t have seemed worth all the fuss, anyway. The administration’s worst policies were still in place, but protesting them seemed less urgent. Better to just put on a fun show.
Continue reading...Walter Salles’s dictatorship-era movie turns focus on dark time in country’s history and more recent coup attempt
Ahead of the Oscars ceremony, Brazil’s Fernanda Torres – star of Walter Salles’s dictatorship-era movie I’m Still Here – had warned her compatriots not to get into a “World Cup fever” over the Academy Awards.
Her plea went in vain on Sunday night, however, as crowds across the country – already gathered to celebrate carnival – erupted in joy over Brazil’s first-ever Oscar win, for best international feature.
Continue reading...Perhaps the Ozempic was making people light-headed, or the stars felt they should stay silent. Either way, there was a notable lack of politics
The Oscars ceremony on Sunday night was long and boring, as it has been for a few years, but this year its shortcomings landed differently. Hollywood’s waning influence, which registered most glaringly last month in the large number of American nominees who showed up in London for the Baftas – not something they were inclined to do in better times – gave the ceremony a sense of low-stakes irrelevance that was frankly a relief from the rest of the news cycle. Still, the question lingers as to why the actors and presenters largely, and mercifully in my view, stayed away from mention of Donald Trump.
After the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles in January, the classy thing to have done this year would’ve been to cancel or at least radically downsize the Oscars ceremony, but of course no one involved was going to vote for that. Instead, audiences were treated to a muted spectacle celebrating movies with record-breakingly small box-office returns, including The Brutalist, in which Adrien Brody relived the US postwar construction boom in real time, and Anora, one of the lowest-grossing best pictures of all time, about an exotic dancer who marries a rich Russian. (What could be behind the deep and abiding fascination of straight male directors – and novelists, and podcasters – with the “sex worker community”? That’s right, it’s altruism.)
Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist
Continue reading...I feel more focused and energetic than ever before. But as I have changed, so has my algorithm
For almost my entire life I hated how I looked.
I was by no means unhealthy but a youth spent playing video games and eating heaping mounds of white rice meant I was far from the models, superheroes and movie stars I looked up to.
Sign up for our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning
Continue reading...The awards ceremony can’t escape Harvey Weinstein and two fairytales come a cropper
While the dominance of last year’s Oppenheimer showed that big films will forever have their place at the Oscars, the Academy has increasingly gravitated to the smaller movie. Back in 2017, Moonlight became the best picture winner with the smallest ever budget (about $1.5m) and since then, films like Coda ($10m), Parasite ($11m) and Nomadland ($5m) have continued to bring indie films back to the main stage. This year, blockbusters like Wicked and Dune: Part Two might have scored major nominations but they had to settle for below-the-line wins, typically where bigger budget films have now tended to remain. The films that won above the line such as Anora ($6m), The Brutalist ($10m) and A Real Pain ($3m) relied on campaigns that stressed the importance of making a lot from a little and it meant that the night was ultimately another success story for independent film-making. Benjamin Lee
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Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are the most popular digital assets today, capturing the attention of cryptocurrency investors, whales and people from around the world. People find it amazing that some users spend thousands or millions of dollars on a single NFT-based image of a monkey or other token, but you can simply take a screenshot for free. So here we share some freuently asked question about NFTs.
NFT stands for non-fungible token, which is a cryptographic token on a blockchain with unique identification codes that distinguish it from other tokens. NFTs are unique and not interchangeable, which means no two NFTs are the same. NFTs can be a unique artwork, GIF, Images, videos, Audio album. in-game items, collectibles etc.
A blockchain is a distributed digital ledger that allows for the secure storage of data. By recording any kind of information—such as bank account transactions, the ownership of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), or Decentralized Finance (DeFi) smart contracts—in one place, and distributing it to many different computers, blockchains ensure that data can’t be manipulated without everyone in the system being aware.
The value of an NFT comes from its ability to be traded freely and securely on the blockchain, which is not possible with other current digital ownership solutionsThe NFT points to its location on the blockchain, but doesn’t necessarily contain the digital property. For example, if you replace one bitcoin with another, you will still have the same thing. If you buy a non-fungible item, such as a movie ticket, it is impossible to replace it with any other movie ticket because each ticket is unique to a specific time and place.
One of the unique characteristics of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) is that they can be tokenised to create a digital certificate of ownership that can be bought, sold and traded on the blockchain.
As with crypto-currency, records of who owns what are stored on a ledger that is maintained by thousands of computers around the world. These records can’t be forged because the whole system operates on an open-source network.
NFTs also contain smart contracts—small computer programs that run on the blockchain—that give the artist, for example, a cut of any future sale of the token.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) aren't cryptocurrencies, but they do use blockchain technology. Many NFTs are based on Ethereum, where the blockchain serves as a ledger for all the transactions related to said NFT and the properties it represents.5) How to make an NFT?
Anyone can create an NFT. All you need is a digital wallet, some ethereum tokens and a connection to an NFT marketplace where you’ll be able to upload and sell your creations
When you purchase a stock in NFT, that purchase is recorded on the blockchain—the bitcoin ledger of transactions—and that entry acts as your proof of ownership.
The value of an NFT varies a lot based on the digital asset up for grabs. People use NFTs to trade and sell digital art, so when creating an NFT, you should consider the popularity of your digital artwork along with historical statistics.
In the year 2021, a digital artist called Pak created an artwork called The Merge. It was sold on the Nifty Gateway NFT market for $91.8 million.
Non-fungible tokens can be used in investment opportunities. One can purchase an NFT and resell it at a profit. Certain NFT marketplaces let sellers of NFTs keep a percentage of the profits from sales of the assets they create.
Many people want to buy NFTs because it lets them support the arts and own something cool from their favorite musicians, brands, and celebrities. NFTs also give artists an opportunity to program in continual royalties if someone buys their work. Galleries see this as a way to reach new buyers interested in art.
There are many places to buy digital assets, like opensea and their policies vary. On top shot, for instance, you sign up for a waitlist that can be thousands of people long. When a digital asset goes on sale, you are occasionally chosen to purchase it.
To mint an NFT token, you must pay some amount of gas fee to process the transaction on the Etherum blockchain, but you can mint your NFT on a different blockchain called Polygon to avoid paying gas fees. This option is available on OpenSea and this simply denotes that your NFT will only be able to trade using Polygon's blockchain and not Etherum's blockchain. Mintable allows you to mint NFTs for free without paying any gas fees.
The answer is no. Non-Fungible Tokens are minted on the blockchain using cryptocurrencies such as Etherum, Solana, Polygon, and so on. Once a Non-Fungible Token is minted, the transaction is recorded on the blockchain and the contract or license is awarded to whoever has that Non-Fungible Token in their wallet.
You can sell your work and creations by attaching a license to it on the blockchain, where its ownership can be transferred. This lets you get exposure without losing full ownership of your work. Some of the most successful projects include Cryptopunks, Bored Ape Yatch Club NFTs, SandBox, World of Women and so on. These NFT projects have gained popularity globally and are owned by celebrities and other successful entrepreneurs. Owning one of these NFTs gives you an automatic ticket to exclusive business meetings and life-changing connections.
That’s a wrap. Hope you guys found this article enlightening. I just answer some question with my limited knowledge about NFTs. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to drop them in the comment section below. Also I have a question for you, Is bitcoin an NFTs? let me know in The comment section below
Jessica Brösche has spent more than a month in detention center after being denied entry at San Diego from Mexico
A German tourist is fighting to be released from an immigration detention center after she was denied entry at the San Diego border and taken into custody by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) last month.
Jessica Brösche, a 26-year-old German tattoo artist, is being indefinitely detained by US Customs and Border Protection after she tried to enter San Diego on 25 January from Tijuana, Mexico, with her American best friend, Amelia Lofving. The two were traveling with tattoo equipment.
Continue reading...Environmental groups say two-year grace period allowed by Ursula von der Leyen ‘rewards laggard’ manufacturers
European carmakers are to be given two extra years to meet this year’s pollution target, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has said, in a further rollback of her green deal climate policies.
Companies who sell too many dirty vehicles this year will be allowed to compensate by selling more clean vehicles in the two years that follow, under a proposal that would stretch the window of compliance for the 2025 fleet emissions target to 2027.
Continue reading...After a painful midlife crisis, the former Lambchop sideman went to rehab, rejected ambition and embraced lo-fi recording. It made for his most startling music yet – with a surprise Four Tet collaboration still to come
When William Tyler put out Goes West in 2019, the album minted what the Nashville-born guitarist calls “an expansive, aspirational part of my life”. It was a prettier take on the crisp heartland Krautrock of his 2016 breakout Modern Country. Both were released on renowned US indie label Merge, his home after starting out as sideman for Silver Jews and Lambchop in the early 2000s. “I was living in California,” says Tyler, 45. “I was travelling the world. My career was very much upwards.” He embraced it, for better or worse. “From 2017 to 2019, the years I was living in LA, I will fully admit that I was riding a kind of ego-type energy that was probably good for a while, but certainly was apathy for real personal growth.”
Goes West was Tyler’s attempt to capitalise on Modern Country, seeing how commercial he could possibly make instrumental guitar music originally informed by Popol Vuh, Public Image Ltd and discordant label Siltbreeze. “But there’s a glass ceiling,” he says now, in his lovely southern accent, speaking from his parents’ house in Nashville. Declining record sales generally meant it only sold as much as Tyler’s second album, 2013’s Impossible Truth. Additionally, he says, “the way I was drinking was moving in a pretty negative direction. Being in your late 30s, your body and mind start not being as resilient to it.”
Continue reading...Although better known for his sprawling Romantic novels The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and Les Misérables, celebrated French author Victor Hugo spent much of his time drawing. A collection of about 70 of his sketches will soon be on display at the Royal Academy in London, in an exhibition bringing together caricatures, travel drawings and landscapes. Several of the drawings feature castles and ruins. “Hugo was inspired by ‘burgs’ – castles, fortresses or walled towns – that he saw when travelling along the Rhine, but he often drew fantastical castles that fuse memory and imagination,” says the exhibition’s curator Sarah Lea. “Hugo’s castle drawings range in tone from sinister and sublime to highly romantic and exquisitely detailed.”
Continue reading...Lobbying to return Andrew Tate to the U.S. reveals the hollowness of the Republican Party’s anti-sex trafficking campaign.
The post Trump Helps Alleged Sex Trafficker Andrew Tate Cross Border Into U.S. appeared first on The Intercept.
We would like to hear from parents about their children’s experiences of getting NHS dental treatment
According to a government report, nearly 50,000 tooth extractions took place last year in NHS hospitals in England for 0 to 19-year-olds, with 62% of those having a primary diagnosis of tooth decay.
We would like to hear from parents in England about their experiences of accessing NHS dental services for their children. Were you able to find somewhere locally or do you have to travel further afield? How easy have you found it to access care? We’re also interested in hearing from those whose children have had hospital tooth extractions recently.
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A group of volunteers is spending two months lying in bed—with their feet up and one shoulder always touching the mattress—even while eating, showering, and using the toilet. But why? This extreme bedrest study is helping scientists understand how space travel affects the human body and how to keep astronauts healthy on long missions.
Microgravity causes muscle and bone loss, fluid shifts, and other physiological changes similar to those experienced by bedridden patients on Earth. By studying volunteers here on Earth, researchers can develop better countermeasures for astronauts and even improve treatments for medical conditions like osteoporosis.
In this study, participants are divided into three groups: one stays in bed with no exercise, another cycles in bed to mimic astronaut workouts, and a third cycles while being spun in a centrifuge to simulate artificial gravity. Scientists hope artificial gravity could become a key tool in protecting astronauts during deep-space missions.
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...The last right-wing American president before Trump galvanized a resurgent Latin American left. Where will the region go now?
The post Latin America’s New Right Ushers in Pan-American Trumpism appeared first on The Intercept.
In a clash of self-described progressives, GOP donors are pouring money into the race to unseat Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey.
The post Trump Donors Try to Buy Pittsburgh Mayor’s Race appeared first on The Intercept.
Friday’s economic boycott is a one-day attack on corporate interests. The degrowth movement calls for a broader societal shift.
The post How to Turn an “Economic Blackout” Into an All-Out War on Corporate Power appeared first on The Intercept.
An industry increasingly associated with Trumpism is moving into the spotlight in Democratic gubernatorial races in New Jersey and New York.
The post “Opportunism and Fear”: Crypto Industry Sets Its Sights on Governors’ Mansions appeared first on The Intercept.
GOP lawmakers said that they couldn’t enforce bathroom bans with the civil rights protections on the books.
The post Iowa Becomes the First State to Repeal Civil Rights Protections for Trans People appeared first on The Intercept.
Anat Shenker-Osorio and Sunjeev Bery discuss sustained civil resistance on The Intercept Briefing.
The post How to Really Resist appeared first on The Intercept.
With the ceasefire in Gaza on the edge of collapse, Sanders once again introduced resolutions to block certain weapons sales to Israel.
The post Bernie Sanders Hasn’t Stopped Arms Sales to Israel — But He Won’t Stop Trying appeared first on The Intercept.
Lobbying to return Andrew Tate to the U.S. reveals the hollowness of the Republican Party’s anti-sex trafficking campaign.
The post Trump Helps Alleged Sex Trafficker Andrew Tate Cross Border Into U.S. appeared first on The Intercept.
Reform leader accused of ‘equivocating over Russia’s illegal war’ after criticising Volodymyr Zelenskyy
The Conservatives have compared Nigel Farage to Jeremy Corbyn after the Reform UK leader said Volodymyr Zelenskyy had been “rude” to Donald Trump, as well as criticising the Ukrainian president for not wearing a suit to the Oval Office.
The Liberal Democrats accused Farage of parroting White House talking points after Farage denied that Elon Musk and Steve Bannon had given Nazi salutes, saying their gestures were “out to the side and not in front”.
Continue reading...Joseph Czuba’s comments about Palestinians and Muslims took center stage at his trial for the murder of Wadee Alfayoumi.
The post Landlord Convicted in Hate Crime Stabbing of 6-Year-Old Palestinian American Boy appeared first on The Intercept.
Stocks plunge after Trump announced the start of 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico and after data showed a slight dip in US manufacturing
Donald Trump will lay out his priorities tomorrow evening in a prime-time speech to Congress, his first since returning to the White House.
He’s doing some expectation setting this morning, posting on Truth Social:
TOMORROW NIGHT WILL BE BIG. I WILL TELL IT LIKE IT IS!
Continue reading...Health, policing, housing, crime: Westminster has so much to deal with. How can a flawed reorganisation be a priority?
Why? That’s the mystery. Why go through the upheaval of a mighty local government reorganisation, merging hundreds of district councils with the counties above them, when it will exhaust capacity in already overstretched and near-bankrupt councils? It wasn’t in Labour’s manifesto – and its electoral system for mayors will do Labour untold damage.
It’s baffling to watch the government struggling with abolishing districts and reordering unitary councils, for no practical or political purpose. It looks like a displacement activity: everyone knows financially crippled councils need relief from the social care crisis, and reform of the hated council tax system in which Buckingham Palace pays less than an average house in Hartlepool. But this busy deckchair-shifting avoids those. Nor is there very much devolution in it.
Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
Continue reading...Keir Starmer won praise for taking the UK ‘back to the heart of Europe’ at the weekend, but will it be a long-term move?
Britain is back. That was the concise verdict of Eléonore Caroit, the vice-chair of the French national assembly’s foreign affairs committee. And the optics of Sunday’s crisis talks on Ukraine bore this out, with Keir Starmer at the very centre of the leaders’ joint photo.
“You are back on the scene, of the leadership in Europe,” Caroit told the BBC on Monday morning. James MacClearly, the Liberal Democrat MP who speaks for the party on Europe, was equally adamant, praising the prime minister for taking this chance “to bring us back to the heart of Europe where we belong”.
Continue reading...The slur is rooted in the dehumanization of people with intellectual disabilities. Its resurgence threatens the fragile progress we’ve made
I got into my one and only physical fight when I was in seventh grade. It was right after school let out, the other boy was called Nathan, and moments before I launched at him, he knocked the books out of my brother Casey’s hands and called him “retarded”. More than 20 years after that scuffle, I still wonder how often Casey, a now 35-year-old autistic man, is called that word. Given the current political landscape, I’m certain he’s going to start hearing it more often.
The R-word is in a new era of prominence in rightwing, chronically online circles – especially on 4chan and X. A favorite of those who currently hold power or stand to gain power under Donald Trump’s second administration, the slur is being used with gleeful relish to belittle and mock ideological enemies.
Continue reading...The world’s most admired democracy is being held hostage by a clique of far-right thugs. It would be a mistake to placate them
It’s not only about Donald Trump. It’s not just about saving Ukraine, or defeating Russia, or how to boost Europe’s security, or what to do about an America gone rogue. It’s about a world turned upside down – a dark, fretful, more dangerous place where treaties and laws are no longer respected, alliances are broken, trust is fungible, principles are negotiable and morality is a dirty word. It’s an ugly, disordered world of raw power, brute force, selfish arrogance, dodgy deals and brazen lies. It’s been coming for a while; the US president is its noisy harbinger.
Take the issues one at a time. Trump is a toxic symptom of the wider malaise. For sure, he is an extraordinarily malign, unfeeling and irresponsible man. He cares nothing for the people he leads, seeing them merely as an audience for his vulgar showmanship. His undeserved humiliation of Ukraine’s valiant leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, was, he crowed, “great television”. As president, Trump wields enormous power and influence. But Potus is not omnipotent. America’s vanquished Democrats are slowly finding their voice. Connecticut senator Chris Murphy shows how it should be done. Don’t bite your lip. Don’t play by rules Trump ignores. When Trump tried to blame diversity hiring policies for January’s deadly Potomac midair collision, Murphy hit back fiercely.
Simon Tisdall is the Observer’s foreign affairs commentator
Continue reading...The bloated Department of Defense spends more money than any other government agency. So where is Elon Musk and DOGE?
The post Hey Elon: We Found a Place to Cut More Than $2 Trillion in Wasteful Spending appeared first on The Intercept.
Follow today’s news live
Why should Australia trust president Donald Trump, given how he’s treated Ukraine’s president at the Oval Office? Richard Marles said the government’s focus was on supporting Ukraine:
That’s where Australia lies. That’s the decision that we have to make. And Ukraine can absolutely rely on Australia’s ongoing support in their defence, and we will work with international partners.
We’ve obviously worked with the United States over the last three years, and we’ll continue to do that, but we’ve worked with the United Kingdom, and we’ll continue to do that as well, and with European partners, and look at the best way in which we can provide support.
We have established a timeline with [the] Ukrainian government about the delivery of those tanks to Ukraine. Now, for operational reasons, won’t go into the detail of that timeline.
Continue reading...Taking place in the middle of a chaotic time for the US and the world at large, this year’s ceremony was light on statements and devoid of the Trump word entirely
Twenty-two years ago, the last time Adrien Brody won the Academy award for best actor, film-maker Michael Moore accepted his own Oscar for Bowling for Columbine, a documentary about America’s obsession with guns, by offering a preview of sorts of his next feature, Fahrenheit 9/11. He decried then president George W Bush as “fictitious” (alluding to his fishy, supreme court-assisted election win a year and a half earlier) and excoriated the Bush administration for sending the United States to war with Iraq – just three days earlier, in fact – for “fictitious reasons”. It was received with a mixture of applause and boos, probably the most memorable moment of the night, give or take Brody planting a kiss on Halle Berry.
Two years later, when Fahrenheit 9/11 might have been similarly honored (and almost certainly would have been, as it became the highest-grossing non-music doc ever in the US, a record it still holds after two decades), Moore wasn’t on stage. Months earlier, he had decided not to submit his movie for consideration, nominally because he didn’t feel like he needed to steal focus from other, less widely seen docs, and also because he was negotiating an airing of the film on TV, which would scotch its eligibility anyway. By the time the Oscars rolled around, however, the presidential election Moore had hoped to affect with that television airing was long over; Bush won again, and maybe a documentary designed to prevent this from happening wouldn’t have seemed worth all the fuss, anyway. The administration’s worst policies were still in place, but protesting them seemed less urgent. Better to just put on a fun show.
Continue reading...Commonwealth will pay for a quarter of public school funding, up from a fifth, replicating an agreement reached with South Australia and Victoria last month
New South Wales has secured a deal with the commonwealth to fully fund public schools by 2034, leaving Queensland as the country’s only outlier ahead of the federal election.
The agreement is expected to inject $4.8bn into NSW public schools over the next decade and follows more than seven months of stalled negotiations.
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Continue reading...As the official start of the election campaign nears, almost one in two Australians don’t know who they will vote for or might change their mind
More than half of Australians believe last month’s cash rate cut was too little too late and a sign the Labor government’s economic plan is not working, but voters think Anthony Albanese is better placed than Peter Dutton to deliver cost-of-living relief and higher wages and safeguard Medicare.
Voters have again marked down Albanese, with his net approval rating dipping to minus eight in the latest Guardian Essential poll. But Australians believe his party would be better – or at least no worse – than the Coalition on some key issues.
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Continue reading...US Senate confirmed Trump ally and ex-wrestling executive as chief of department president wants dismantled
The US Senate has confirmed Linda McMahon as the nation’s next education secretary, entrusting the former wrestling executive with a department marked for dismantling by Donald Trump.
The 76-year-old billionaire businesswoman and longtime Trump ally was approved 51-45, reflecting deep divisions over her qualifications and the administration’s education agenda. McMahon, who previously led the small business administration during Trump’s first term, now faces the paradoxical task of running an agency while simultaneously working toward its potential elimination.
Continue reading...Wes Streeting is building a team of reformers, but ingrained weaknesses in the health service will be hard to fix
Speaking to MPs last week, Dr Penny Dash quoted the Guardian’s description of her as a reforming zealot. Dr Dash is less zealous than she used to be, she said, and better at listening. But the doctor and management consultant, who has just been appointed chair of NHS England, has lost none of her determination to make the health service better and more productive.
How this boost will be achieved is the multibillion-pound question. The upcoming 10-year plan is Wes Streeting’s chance to turn Labour’s manifesto pledges, and consistent poll lead on the NHS, into policies that could help his party win a second term.
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
Continue reading...Pippa Crerar and Kiran Stacey reflect on the momentous events of the last few days, after the jaw-dropping exchange between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy. As Keir Starmer takes on a pivotal role in lowering the temperature between the US and Ukraine, will his plan for a ‘coalition of the willing’ work? And, what does it all mean for the future of the war? Pippa and Kiran speak to the Guardian’s defence and security editor, Dan Sabbagh
Keir Starmer’s plan to replace upper house was scaled back to scrapping hereditaries – but even that is proving difficult
Abolishing hereditary peers was supposed to be the easy part of House of Lords reform for Labour, which grandly set out plans three years ago to replace the second chamber altogether. But on Monday Conservative peers will make an effort to clog up the legislation as it goes through parliament, suggesting delays to allow abolished hereditaries more time to find a job, allowing some of them to stay, or even converting them to become life peers.
As a detailed scrutiny of the bill gets under way, 116 amendments have been put forward, which are likely to be debated individually. Some propose progressive changes such as cutting numbers of peers, introducing attendance requirements and getting rid of bishops from the house, but many are aimed at watering down the abolition of hereditaries.
Continue reading...The German elections show we don’t need to moderate fascism, we need to oppose it.
The post Grow a Spine: Democrats Have a Lot to Learn From the German Left appeared first on The Intercept.
Exclusive: Critics say inducements are harmful and urge a ban as recommended by Murphy inquiry
Gambling companies are preparing to ramp up their use of harmful inducements that encourage people to spend more money, in response to the AFL’s push for a bigger slice of gambling revenue.
Earlier this week, Guardian Australia revealed AFL executives had cited concerns about serious shortcomings in the integrity system to justify a campaign to seize a bigger share of money gambled on its games.
Continue reading...After the Supreme Court ordered a new trial for Richard Glossip, his fate is in the hands of an Oklahoma City district attorney.
The post After Nine Execution Dates and Three Last Meals, Richard Glossip May Soon Walk Free appeared first on The Intercept.
Scathing assessment shows operation was losing $1.5m a day, running low of critical steelmaking materials and owed creditors more than $1.3bn
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The Whyalla steelworks was “running on empty” and left in a “dangerous” financial position by its former owner, according to a scathing assessment of the South Australian project by the recently appointed administrators.
It was also losing $1.5m a day, running low of critical steelmaking materials and owed creditors more than $1.3bn, those at the first creditors meeting heard on Monday.
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Continue reading...Vast human smuggling ring was responsible for deaths of seven, including a four-year-old child, prosecutors say
Two alleged leaders of a criminal organization suspected of smuggling 20,000 people without permanent legal residency into the US from Guatemala have been arrested in Los Angeles, federal prosecutors said on Monday.
Eduardo Domingo Renoj-Matul, known as “Turko”, and his lieutenant, Cristobal Mejia-Chaj, were taken into custody Friday and have pleaded not guilty to multiple charges related to smuggling migrants across the border over five years, the US attorney’s office said. A federal judge ordered the men, who themselves are in the country illegally, jailed without bond until their trial in April.
Continue reading...Announcement leads to sharp sell-off on Wall Street as Trump also vows tariffs on farm products starting in April
The US will press ahead with steep tariffs on Canada and Mexico from Tuesday, Donald Trump has said, setting the stage for a trade war with his country’s two largest economic partners.
Hours before his administration was due to hit America’s closest neighbors with sweeping import duties, the US president claimed there was “no room left” for a deal to avoid their imposition. The announcement led to a sharp sell-off on Wall Street.
Continue reading...Stock markets tumbled on Monday as Donald Trump announced tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 1.8% and the S&P fell 2.1%
Continue reading...James Woodworth, former NCES commissioner, says cuts to key agency made ‘without knowing what they’re doing’
A former education department commissioner appointed by Donald Trump has condemned the recent massive cuts to the federal agency.
James Woodworth, who served as commissioner for the department’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) from 2018 to 2021, said the cuts to the agency made by the so-called “department of government efficiency,” led by Elon Musk, were made by someone “without knowing what they were doing”.
Continue reading...The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, said in parliament on Monday that Donald Trump’s proposed minerals deal would not provide a sufficient security guarantee for Ukraine. The Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, said Kyiv had agreed to sign a deal with the US and asked whether that would satisfy its security needs. Starmer replied: ‘The minerals deal is not enough on its own.’ He added: ‘Can I just remind him [Farage] that Russia is the aggressor, Zelenskyy is a wartime leader whose country has been invaded, and we should all be supporting him, not fawning over Putin’
Trump outraged at Zelenskyy saying end of Russia-Ukraine war could be ‘very far away’
Western countries must keep military aid flowing to Ukraine, Starmer warns
Poll conducted before meeting with Trump and Zelenskyy says 52% of respondents ‘personally support’ Ukraine
A US poll taken before the diplomatic meltdown in the Oval Office on Friday between Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, found that only 4% of surveyed Americans are backing Russia after its 2022 invasion of Ukraine – but a large minority of 44% said they do not support the invaded country either.
The CBS News/YouGov poll, conducted over three days beginning on 26 February, also found that a relatively slim majority – 52% – said they “personally support” Ukraine.
Continue reading...Machines could be marketed as ‘used in UK hospitals’ after James Dyson spoke to PM, inquiry hears
A minister warned a senior official that ventilators might need to be bought from Sir James Dyson “so that he [could] then market [them] internationally” as “being used in UK hospitals” after the businessman spoke to Boris Johnson, the Covid inquiry has heard.
The message from Lord Agnew, a Tory Treasury minister, to the government’s chief commercial officer, Gareth Rhys Williams, emerged as the public inquiry into the pandemic started a four-week examination of procurement.
Continue reading...Through a combination of soft and hard power, Europe must seek to ensure Kyiv has agency and a voice in peace negotiations
After last Friday’s disgraceful roughhouse treatment of Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the White House, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, delivered a pithy summary of first principles regarding the first full-scale war between nation states on European soil since 1945. “There is an aggressor: Russia,” Mr Macron observed on social media, “There is a victim: Ukraine. We were right to help Ukraine and sanction Russia three years ago – and to keep doing so.”
That this needed saying underlines the extent to which Donald Trump’s administration is laying waste to decades-old assumptions governing transatlantic relations. Appearing to prioritise a reset of the US relationship with Russia over international law and the unity of the west, Mr Trump is pursuing a peace deal with Moscow on Vladimir Putin’s terms. At the same time he is seeking to plunder Ukraine’s natural resources, while demanding obeisance and gratitude from Kyiv in return.
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
Continue reading...US president responds to Ukrainian president’s most recent interview, following blow-up in the Oval Office last week
The rift between Washington and Kyiv over a potential ceasefire in the war with Russia deepened on Monday as Donald Trump was said to be considering cutting military aid to Ukraine and expressed new outrage at Volodymyr Zelenskyy for saying that the end of the war could be “very, very far away”.
In a post to social media on Monday, Trump posted a link to an Associated Press story outlining Zelenskyy’s comments and said: “This is the worst statement that could have been made by Zelenskyy, and America will not put up with it for much longer!
Continue reading...Such a truce would determine whether Putin is ‘acting in good faith’, French foreign minister says
France is proposing a partial one-month truce between Russia and Ukraine, Emmanuel Macron and his foreign minister have said, as European efforts to bolster support for Kyiv accelerate in the face of uncertain US backing.
The French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, said on Monday: “Such a truce – on air, sea and energy infrastructure – would allow us to determine whether Vladimir Putin is acting in good faith”. He said it would also enable Europe to gauge Putin’s attitude to “real peace negotiations”.
Continue reading...Perhaps the Ozempic was making people light-headed, or the stars felt they should stay silent. Either way, there was a notable lack of politics
The Oscars ceremony on Sunday night was long and boring, as it has been for a few years, but this year its shortcomings landed differently. Hollywood’s waning influence, which registered most glaringly last month in the large number of American nominees who showed up in London for the Baftas – not something they were inclined to do in better times – gave the ceremony a sense of low-stakes irrelevance that was frankly a relief from the rest of the news cycle. Still, the question lingers as to why the actors and presenters largely, and mercifully in my view, stayed away from mention of Donald Trump.
After the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles in January, the classy thing to have done this year would’ve been to cancel or at least radically downsize the Oscars ceremony, but of course no one involved was going to vote for that. Instead, audiences were treated to a muted spectacle celebrating movies with record-breakingly small box-office returns, including The Brutalist, in which Adrien Brody relived the US postwar construction boom in real time, and Anora, one of the lowest-grossing best pictures of all time, about an exotic dancer who marries a rich Russian. (What could be behind the deep and abiding fascination of straight male directors – and novelists, and podcasters – with the “sex worker community”? That’s right, it’s altruism.)
Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist
Continue reading...Sepp Blatter, the former president of Fifa, and Michel Platini, the France great and former president of Uefa, have restated their innocence in relation to allegations of fraud when appearing on Monday in a Swiss court.
The pair were cleared of fraud in July 2022 at a lower Swiss court following a seven-year investigation into a payment of 2.2m Swiss francs (£1.7m) from Fifa to Platini with Blatter’s approval in 2011, for consultancy work a decade earlier. The Swiss federal prosecutor has appealed against that decision, leading to a new hearing at the extraordinary appeals chamber of the Swiss criminal court in Muttenz, near Basel. The prosecutor asked for the judgment to be set aside in full.
Continue reading...Volker Türk alarmed at growing power of ‘unelected tech oligarchs’ and warns gender equality is being rolled back
The UN human rights chief has warned of a “fundamental shift” in the US and sounded the alarm over the growing power of “unelected tech oligarchs”, in a stinging rebuke of Washington weeks into Donald Trump’s presidency.
Volker Türk said there had been bipartisan support for human rights in the US for decades but said he was “now deeply worried by the fundamental shift in direction that is taking place domestically and internationally”.
Continue reading...It’s not just that Starmer’s policy is immoral and will be ineffective. It also sidesteps the safeguards we have to prevent calamitous decisions
Your humble civil servants are watching with fascinated horror as our terrified prime minister tries to secure the guy ropes for a rapidly shrinking UK tent, in the hope that it can survive geopolitical storms from the east and west.
Spare a thought, then, for the one government department that has repeatedly found itself politically outside that tent and does so again now – the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
The author works for the UK civil service
Continue reading...Guardian analysis lays bare a neglected system that is ruinously expensive, and often fails children and parents
The alarming details of the special educational needs financial crisis in English local authorities are buried deep in internal council papers but the reality of the situation is crystal-clear to those close to it. “It’s a ticking timebomb,” one town hall boss told the Guardian. “It’s what keeps me awake at night.”
Budget reports, schools forum minutes and financial planning documents help tell a story of a system woefully unprepared for the explosion in numbers of children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) in recent years, chronically underfunded to meet the growing demand, and now struggling to keep afloat.
Continue reading...Keir Starmer plans to build up UK military, but domestic companies could lose out if it is forced to turn to US weapons instead
Crowds of people cheered the HMS Prince of Wales aircraft carrier as it sailed out of Portsmouth harbour last week, on its way to join the cream of the Royal Navy for a round trip to Japan later this spring.
Only a few months ago rumours were swirling in Westminster that the carrier and its sister ship, HMS Queen Elizabeth, could be mothballed or scrapped as the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, tightened her grip on public spending before next month’s spring statement.
Continue reading...Exclusive: White paper being prepared as councils hope for relief from huge deficits in special educational needs budgets
Labour is preparing major changes to special educational needs provision in English schools, as individual councils raise the alarm over debts running into hundreds of millions of pounds that have pushed many to the brink of bankruptcy.
A Guardian analysis has found the vast majority of English upper-tier councils have accumulated often eye-watering special educational needs spending deficits. At least 12 have forecast accumulated deficits of more than £100m, running as high as £312m, when the debts have to be settled in a year’s time.
Some councils have raised concerns about profiteering amid frustration over huge fees from private specialist schools, which can charge between £50,000 and £100,000 per place, typically two to three times the cost of state provision.
Tensions between headteachers and councils over attempts by the latter to shift millions of pounds from local school budgets to ease high needs deficits. Some schools have said such moves would force them to sack Send support staff.
Attempts to rein in local Send demand and spending via “safety valve” initiatives at 42 councils have largely failed, with most failing to hit savings targets on time, despite receiving government grants running into tens of millions of pounds.
Continue reading...  | submitted by /u/indig0sixalpha [link] [comments] |
Mohammad Javad Zarif implies move was endorsed by supreme leader, as his exit sends stock market into a tailspin
Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s most prominent reformist, has resigned from the government, saying he had been instructed to do so by an unnamed senior official.
He implied the move was endorsed by the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, although he did not name him in his resignation letter as he stepped down as vice-president for strategic affairs.
Continue reading...He went from Harold Pinter’s protege to barely scraping a living to roaring success in Jilly Cooper’s Rivals. With the release of his new film Marching Powder, he talks about his journey from national joke to national treasure
The Danny Dyer fanbase is an eclectic one. There are the ravers who got in on the ground floor, idolising Moff, the ranting pill dealer Dyer played in the 1999 film Human Traffic. There are the “sort of alpha males”, as he calls them; basically, lads who were into The Football Factory and his run of 00s films about hooliganism, drugs and sex (usually all three). Then, a nine-year run in EastEnders brought onside a lot of “old ladies”, he says. And now, with the success of Rivals – the TV adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s book, in which he plays the kind-hearted self-made millionaire Freddie Jones – a hornier faction has joined his supporters’ ranks.
“I’m getting a lot of women of a certain age and a certain class come up to me in the street,” says Dyer, “you know, just sort of drooling.”
Continue reading...Israeli media reports Israeli American Trump donor will fly Eli Sharabi to Washington DC to meet president this week
The freed Israeli hostage Eli Sharabi has been invited to Washington to meet Donald Trump this week, his brother told Israeli media on Sunday.
Sharabi, who was released from Gaza after 16 months in captivity, expects to meet Trump with other freed hostages on Tuesday, after the US president watched him describe the severe hunger and violence he endured on Israeli television.
Continue reading...‘That is a fluid situation,’ Howard Lutnick says in first indication that administration may not impose full tariffs
Donald Trump’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, said on Sunday that US tariffs on Canada and Mexico would go into effect on Tuesday, but the president would determine whether to stick with the planned 25% level.
“That is a fluid situation,” Lutnick told the Fox News program Sunday Morning Futures.
Continue reading...Widespread shooting and looting preceded arrival of M23 rebels, overwhelming city’s poorly resourced facilities
Patients at hospitals in the second-largest city in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo have described how they sustained serious injuries during the chaotic withdrawal of the Congolese army and its allies in the days before Rwanda-backed M23 rebels marched in.
Widespread shooting and looting preceded the arrival of the rebels in Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu province, on 14 February, overwhelming the city’s poorly resourced hospitals.
Continue reading...Last month, the UK government demanded that Apple weaken the security of iCloud for users worldwide. On Friday, Apple took steps to comply for users in the United Kingdom. But the British law is written in a way that requires Apple to give its government access to anyone, anywhere in the world. If the government demands Apple weaken its security worldwide, it would increase everyone’s cyber-risk in an already dangerous world.
If you’re an iCloud user, you have the option of turning on something called “advanced data protection,” or ADP. In that mode, a majority of your data is end-to-end encrypted. This means that no one, not even anyone at Apple, can read that data. It’s a restriction enforced by mathematics—cryptography—and not policy. Even if someone successfully hacks iCloud, they can’t read ADP-protected data...
The Bureau of Prisons rescinded rules shielding trans women from being searched by male guards, The Intercept has learned.
The post Trump Administration Abolishes Rules Protecting Trans Prisoners appeared first on The Intercept.
USAid cuts to clinics dispensing antiretroviral drugs will be ‘death sentence for mothers and children’, expert warns
Sweeping notices of termination of funding have been received by organisations working with HIV and Aids across Africa, with dire predictions of a huge rise in deaths as a result.
After the US announced a permanent end to funding for HIV projects, services across the board have been affected, say doctors and programme managers, from projects helping orphans and pregnant women to those reaching transgender individuals and sex workers.
Continue reading...BoM data prediction says path of TC Alfred shows it tracking to hit Queensland coast overnight on Thursday
Tropical Cyclone Alfred has intensified and is forecast to take a sharp turn towards the heavily populated south-east Queensland coast on Tuesday afternoon.
It has been upgraded from a category one to a category two storm, with wind gusts up to 130km/h. Updated tracking maps from the Bureau of Meteorology now forecast Alfred potentially making landfall just north of Brisbane overnight on Thursday.
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Continue reading...With DOGE initiatives getting hung up in court, Elon Musk and Donald Trump attacked judges and flirted with defying their rulings.
The post DOGE’s Lawyer Once Warned That Ignoring Court Orders Would Destroy the Country appeared first on The Intercept.
The US president, Donald Trump, denied calling the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a dictator, despite calling him one on his social media platform, Truth Social. Trump was asked by a reporter if he still held that view in a press conference alongside the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, and he replied: 'Did I say that? I can't believe I said that'
Continue reading...Peter Marocco sends letter to UNAids terminating US involvement in serious blow to live-saving health service
The Trump administration has terminated its funding of the joint United Nations program on HIV/Aids, known as UNAids, delivering another devastating blow to the global fight against the disease.
The notice that US funding of UNAids is being cut off is the latest move by the administration to end American involvement in life-saving health and anti-poverty programs around the world. It was issued by Peter Marocco, a Trump loyalist who is spearheading the evisceration of the US overseas aid program through USAid.
Continue reading...We would like to hear from people about how their faith influences their views on politics and the environment
How much does your faith influence your political views, particularly when it comes to the environment?
The Guardian is looking to speak with individuals whose religious beliefs shape their stance on political and environmental issues. Does your faith call you to protect the Earth? Has it influenced the way you vote, advocate, or engage with climate justice? How do your spiritual values align or clash with mainstream political narratives on environmentalism?
Continue reading...Trump’s crusade against “wokeness” is co-opting the language of the civil rights movement to undo its legacy.
The post How Trump Twisted DEI to Only Benefit White Christians appeared first on The Intercept.
A former campaign staffer said Sen. John Fetterman’s single-minded focus came at the exclusion of the progressive positions he ran on.
The post Fetterman Staff Quit Amid Frustration Over “Just Working on Israel All the Time” appeared first on The Intercept.
Want to expose wrongdoing in the U.S. government? Take these steps to keep yourself safe.
The post How to Leak Under the Trump Administration appeared first on The Intercept.
President says TSMC won’t have to pay tariffs and encourages other semiconductor companies to build in US
The CEO of a giant in the semiconductor chip industry joined Donald Trump on Monday to announce the Taiwanese company’s new $100bn investment in production in the United States.
CC Wei, the chief executive of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) announced the investment at the White House alongside the president, the US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, and David Sacks, a Trump adviser on AI and crypto. He said the new investment brings TSMC’s total investment in chip manufacturing in the US to $165bn.
Continue reading...Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, John Brewin and Sanny Rudravajhala as Fulham knock Manchester United out of the FA Cup on penalties
Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.
On the podcast today; a penalty shoot out win for Fulham over Manchester United moves them one step closer to a first major trophy in the club’s history. They’ll join Crystal Palace, Aston Villa, Brighton and Bournemouth in the quarter-finals who can all start to dream of a trip to Wembley.
Continue reading...In 2004, 29 people were killed by members of the Cinta Larga tribe in Brazil’s Amazon basin. The story shocked the country – but the truth of what happened is still being fought over
By Alex Cuadros. Read by Felipe Pacheco
Continue reading...Doctors in Gaza say they have been targeted for doing their jobs, detained and even tortured. Annie Kelly reports
Since the war in Gaza began more than a year ago, the health system has crumbled. Hospitals have been attacked, medical supply lines disrupted and many doctors have been killed in the Israeli bombardment. Other physicians have been detained.
Dr Khaled Serr is a surgeon at Nasser hospital in Gaza. He says he was arrested after his hospital was attacked by the Israeli military. Like other doctors in Gaza, he says he thinks he was held because of his job. He tells Hannah Moore he was beaten, humiliated and endured terrible conditions before he was released without charge.
Continue reading...With the mothers of Elon’s kids begging for his attention on social media, he makes much of ‘pronatalism’ – but is that just a fancy word for bad parenting? ‘I don’t know whether I’d describe it as fun,’ says Aimee Lou Wood on the intensity of making The White Lotus. And are ordinary life experiences, bodily imperfections and normal differences being unnecessarily pathologised? Neurologist and author Suzanne O’Sullivan argues just that
Continue reading...The Trump administration may claim Title 42 aims to stop the spread of tuberculosis. But it’s truly a ploy to stop asylum-seekers.
The post Title 42 Isn’t About Public Health — It’s About Keeping Immigrants Out appeared first on The Intercept.
This week on The Intercept Briefing, politics reporters Jessica Washington and Akela Lacy assess the full scope of Trump's first month in office.
The post One Month Under Trump: Are You Keeping Up? appeared first on The Intercept.
The cut, an anti-trans attack, was the latest example of confusion sown by bold claims that wither under scrutiny.
The post DOGE Said It Cut $232 Million From Social Security Budget. It Was Only About Half a Million. appeared first on The Intercept.
Apparently baseless claim that $21m was given to help voter turnout seized on by Trump and Modi government
Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” has been accused of setting off a political firestorm in India after it claimed that the US government had been sending millions of dollars to support the Indian elections.
In a list published on Musk’s social media platform X last week, Doge, a special group that Donald Trump created, claimed that a $21m grant distributed by USAid – the US agency for international development – to help “voter turnout in India” had been cancelled, as part of the president’s sweeping cuts to foreign aid.
Continue reading...Daughter of Peter and Barbie Reynolds says government must do ‘everything in their power’ to secure their release
The family of a British couple arrested by the Taliban in Afghanistan have called on the government to do “everything in their power” to secure their release.
Peter and Barbie Reynolds, 79 and 75, who run education and training programmes in Afghanistan, were detained by the Taliban on 1 February while returning to their home in the central province of Bamiyan.
Continue reading...Business secretary says negotiations – now in their 15th round – are a ‘top priority’ for Labour government
Ministers are relaunching negotiations with India this week in an attempt to clinch a multibillion-pound free trade agreement that they hope will boost the UK’s flatlining economy.
Jonathan Reynolds, the business and trade secretary, flew to Delhi on Sunday to meet his Indian counterpart, Piyush Goyal, for the first time since Labour won the election.
Continue reading...A GP surgery in one of the most deprived areas in the north-east of England is struggling to provide care for its patients as the health system crumbles around them. In the depths of the winter flu season, the Guardian video producers Maeve Shearlaw and Adam Sich went to Bridges medical practice to shadow the lead GP, Paul Evans, as he worked all hours keep his surgery afloat. Juggling technical challenges, long waiting lists and the profound impact austerity has had on the health of the population, Evans says: 'We are seeing the system fail'
Continue reading...
In the rapidly advancing landscape of AI technology and innovation, LimeWire emerges as a unique platform in the realm of generative AI tools. This platform not only stands out from the multitude of existing AI tools but also brings a fresh approach to content generation. LimeWire not only empowers users to create AI content but also provides creators with creative ways to share and monetize their creations.
As we explore LimeWire, our aim is to uncover its features, benefits for creators, and the exciting possibilities it offers for AI content generation. This platform presents an opportunity for users to harness the power of AI in image creation, all while enjoying the advantages of a free and accessible service.
Let's unravel the distinctive features that set LimeWire apart in the dynamic landscape of AI-powered tools, understanding how creators can leverage its capabilities to craft unique and engaging AI-generated images.
This revamped LimeWire invites users to register and unleash their creativity by crafting original AI content, which can then be shared and showcased on the LimeWire Studio. Notably, even acclaimed artists and musicians, such as Deadmau5, Soulja Boy, and Sean Kingston, have embraced this platform to publish their content in the form of NFT music, videos, and images.
Beyond providing a space for content creation and sharing, LimeWire introduces monetization models to empower users to earn revenue from their creations. This includes avenues such as earning ad revenue and participating in the burgeoning market of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). As we delve further, we'll explore these monetization strategies in more detail to provide a comprehensive understanding of LimeWire's innovative approach to content creation and distribution.
LimeWire Studio welcomes content creators into its fold, providing a space to craft personalized AI-focused content for sharing with fans and followers. Within this creative hub, every piece of content generated becomes not just a creation but a unique asset—ownable and tradable. Fans have the opportunity to subscribe to creators' pages, immersing themselves in the creative journey and gaining ownership of digital collectibles that hold tradeable value within the LimeWire community. Notably, creators earn a 2.5% royalty each time their content is traded, adding a rewarding element to the creative process.
The platform's flexibility is evident in its content publication options. Creators can choose to share their work freely with the public or opt for a premium subscription model, granting exclusive access to specialized content for subscribers.
As of the present moment, LimeWire focuses on AI Image Generation, offering a spectrum of creative possibilities to its user base. The platform, however, has ambitious plans on the horizon, aiming to broaden its offerings by introducing AI music and video generation tools in the near future. This strategic expansion promises creators even more avenues for expression and engagement with their audience, positioning LimeWire Studio as a dynamic and evolving platform within the realm of AI-powered content creation.
The LimeWire AI image generation tool presents a versatile platform for both the creation and editing of images. Supporting advanced models such as Stable Diffusion 2.1, Stable Diffusion XL, and DALL-E 2, LimeWire offers a sophisticated toolkit for users to delve into the realm of generative AI art.
Much like other tools in the generative AI landscape, LimeWire provides a range of options catering to various levels of complexity in image creation. Users can initiate the creative process with prompts as simple as a few words or opt for more intricate instructions, tailoring the output to their artistic vision.
What sets LimeWire apart is its seamless integration of different AI models and design styles. Users have the flexibility to effortlessly switch between various AI models, exploring diverse design styles such as cinematic, digital art, pixel art, anime, analog film, and more. Each style imparts a distinctive visual identity to the generated AI art, enabling users to explore a broad spectrum of creative possibilities.
The platform also offers additional features, including samplers, allowing users to fine-tune the quality and detail levels of their creations. Customization options and prompt guidance further enhance the user experience, providing a user-friendly interface for both novice and experienced creators.
Excitingly, LimeWire is actively developing its proprietary AI model, signaling ongoing innovation and enhancements to its image generation capabilities. This upcoming addition holds the promise of further expanding the creative horizons for LimeWire users, making it an evolving and dynamic platform within the landscape of AI-driven art and image creation.
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Upon completing your creative endeavor on LimeWire, the platform allows you the option to publish your content. An intriguing feature follows this step: LimeWire automates the process of minting your creation as a Non-Fungible Token (NFT), utilizing either the Polygon or Algorand blockchain. This transformative step imbues your artwork with a unique digital signature, securing its authenticity and ownership in the decentralized realm.
Creators on LimeWire hold the power to decide the accessibility of their NFT creations. By opting for a public release, the content becomes discoverable by anyone, fostering a space for engagement and interaction. Furthermore, this choice opens the avenue for enthusiasts to trade the NFTs, adding a layer of community involvement to the artistic journey.
Alternatively, LimeWire acknowledges the importance of exclusivity. Creators can choose to share their posts exclusively with their premium subscribers. In doing so, the content remains a special offering solely for dedicated fans, creating an intimate and personalized experience within the LimeWire community. This flexibility in sharing options emphasizes LimeWire's commitment to empowering creators with choices in how they connect with their audience and distribute their digital creations.
After creating your content, you can choose to publish the content. It will automatically mint your creation as an NFT on the Polygon or Algorand blockchain. You can also choose whether to make it public or subscriber-only.
If you make it public, anyone can discover your content and even trade the NFTs. If you choose to share the post only with your premium subscribers, it will be exclusive only to your fans.
Additionally, you can earn ad revenue from your content creations as well.
When you publish content on LimeWire, you will receive 70% of all ad revenue from other users who view your images, music, and videos on the platform.
This revenue model will be much more beneficial to designers. You can experiment with the AI image and content generation tools and share your creations while earning a small income on the side.
The revenue you earn from your creations will come in the form of LMWR tokens, LimeWire’s own cryptocurrency.
Your earnings will be paid every month in LMWR, which you can then trade on many popular crypto exchange platforms like Kraken, ByBit, and UniSwap.
You can also use your LMWR tokens to pay for prompts when using LimeWire generative AI tools.
You can sign up to LimeWire to use its AI tools for free. You will receive 10 credits to use and generate up to 20 AI images per day. You will also receive 50% of the ad revenue share. However, you will get more benefits with premium plans.
For $9.99 per month, you will get 1,000 credits per month, up to 2 ,000 image generations, early access to new AI models, and 50% ad revenue share
For $29 per month, you will get 3750 credits per month, up to 7500 image generations, early access to new AI models, and 60% ad revenue share
For $49 per month, you will get 5,000 credits per month, up to 10,000 image generations, early access to new AI models, and 70% ad revenue share
For $99 per month, you will get 11,250 credits per month, up to 2 2,500 image generations, early access to new AI models, and 70% ad revenue share
With all premium plans, you will receive a Pro profile badge, full creation history, faster image generation, and no ads.
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In conclusion, LimeWire emerges as a democratizing force in the creative landscape, providing an inclusive platform where anyone can unleash their artistic potential and effortlessly share their work. With the integration of AI, LimeWire eliminates traditional barriers, empowering designers, musicians, and artists to publish their creations and earn revenue with just a few clicks.
The ongoing commitment of LimeWire to innovation is evident in its plans to enhance generative AI tools with new features and models. The upcoming expansion to include music and video generation tools holds the promise of unlocking even more possibilities for creators. It sparks anticipation about the diverse and innovative ways in which artists will leverage these tools to produce and publish their own unique creations.
For those eager to explore, LimeWire's AI tools are readily accessible for free, providing an opportunity to experiment and delve into the world of generative art. As LimeWire continues to evolve, creators are encouraged to stay tuned for the launch of its forthcoming AI music and video generation tools, promising a future brimming with creative potential and endless artistic exploration
Are you looking for a new graphic design tool? Would you like to read a detailed review of Canva? As it's one of the tools I love using. I am also writing my first ebook using canva and publish it soon on my site you can download it is free. Let's start the review.
Canva has a web version and also a mobile app
Canva is a free graphic design web application that allows you to create invitations, business cards, flyers, lesson plans, banners, and more using professionally designed templates. You can upload your own photos from your computer or from Google Drive, and add them to Canva's templates using a simple drag-and-drop interface. It's like having a basic version of Photoshop that doesn't require Graphic designing knowledge to use. It’s best for nongraphic designers.
Canva is a great tool for small business owners, online entrepreneurs, and marketers who don’t have the time and want to edit quickly.
To create sophisticated graphics, a tool such as Photoshop can is ideal. To use it, you’ll need to learn its hundreds of features, get familiar with the software, and it’s best to have a good background in design, too.
Also running the latest version of Photoshop you need a high-end computer.
So here Canva takes place, with Canva you can do all that with drag-and-drop feature. It’s also easier to use and free. Also an even-more-affordable paid version is available for $12.95 per month.
The product is available in three plans: Free, Pro ($12.99/month per user or $119.99/year for up to 5 people), and Enterprise ($30 per user per month, minimum 25 people).
To get started on Canva, you will need to create an account by providing your email address, Google, Facebook or Apple credentials. You will then choose your account type between student, teacher, small business, large company, non-profit, or personal. Based on your choice of account type, templates will be recommended to you.
You can sign up for a free trial of Canva Pro, or you can start with the free version to get a sense of whether it’s the right graphic design tool for your needs.
When you sign up for an account, Canva will suggest different post types to choose from. Based on the type of account you set up you'll be able to see templates categorized by the following categories: social media posts, documents, presentations, marketing, events, ads, launch your business, build your online brand, etc.
Start by choosing a template for your post or searching for something more specific. Search by social network name to see a list of post types on each network.
Next, you can choose a template. Choose from hundreds of templates that are ready to go, with customizable photos, text, and other elements.
You can start your design by choosing from a variety of ready-made templates, searching for a template matching your needs, or working with a blank template.
Inside the Canva designer, the Elements tab gives you access to lines and shapes, graphics, photos, videos, audio, charts, photo frames, and photo grids.The search box on the Elements tab lets you search everything on Canva.
To begin with, Canva has a large library of elements to choose from. To find them, be specific in your search query. You may also want to search in the following tabs to see various elements separately:
The Photos tab lets you search for and choose from millions of professional stock photos for your templates.
You can replace the photos in our templates to create a new look. This can also make the template more suited to your industry.
You can find photos on other stock photography sites like pexel, pixabay and many more or simply upload your own photos.
When you choose an image, Canva’s photo editing features let you adjust the photo’s settings (brightness, contrast, saturation, etc.), crop, or animate it.
When you subscribe to Canva Pro, you get access to a number of premium features, including the Background Remover. This feature allows you to remove the background from any stock photo in library or any image you upload.
The Text tab lets you add headings, normal text, and graphical text to your design.
When you click on text, you'll see options to adjust the font, font size, color, format, spacing, and text effects (like shadows).
Canva Pro subscribers can choose from a large library of fonts on the Brand Kit or the Styles tab. Enterprise-level controls ensure that visual content remains on-brand, no matter how many people are working on it.
Create an animated image or video by adding audio to capture user’s attention in social news feeds.
If you want to use audio from another stock site or your own audio tracks, you can upload them in the Uploads tab or from the more option.
Want to create your own videos? Choose from thousands of stock video clips. You’ll find videos that range upto 2 minutes
You can upload your own videos as well as videos from other stock sites in the Uploads tab.
Once you have chosen a video, you can use the editing features in Canva to trim the video, flip it, and adjust its transparency.
On the Background tab, you’ll find free stock photos to serve as backgrounds on your designs. Change out the background on a template to give it a more personal touch.
The Styles tab lets you quickly change the look and feel of your template with just a click. And if you have a Canva Pro subscription, you can upload your brand’s custom colors and fonts to ensure designs stay on brand.
If you have a Canva Pro subscription, you’ll have a Logos tab. Here, you can upload variations of your brand logo to use throughout your designs.
With Canva, you can also create your own logos. Note that you cannot trademark a logo with stock content in it.
With Canva, free users can download and share designs to multiple platforms including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Slack and Tumblr.
Canva Pro subscribers can create multiple post formats from one design. For example, you can start by designing an Instagram post, and Canva's Magic Resizer can resize it for other networks, Stories, Reels, and other formats.
Canva Pro subscribers can also use Canva’s Content Planner to post content on eight different accounts on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Slack, and Tumblr.
Canva Pro allows you to work with your team on visual content. Designs can be created inside Canva, and then sent to your team members for approval. Everyone can make comments, edits, revisions, and keep track via the version history.
When it comes to printing your designs, Canva has you covered. With an extensive selection of printing options, they can turn your designs into anything from banners and wall art to mugs and t-shirts.
Canva Print is perfect for any business seeking to make a lasting impression. Create inspiring designs people will want to wear, keep, and share. Hand out custom business cards that leave a lasting impression on customers' minds.
The Canva app is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play. The Canva app has earned a 4.9 out of five star rating from over 946.3K Apple users and a 4.5 out of five star rating from over 6,996,708 Google users.
In addition to mobile apps, you can use Canva’s integration with other Internet services to add images and text from sources like Google Maps, Emojis, photos from Google Drive and Dropbox, YouTube videos, Flickr photos, Bitmojis, and other popular visual content elements.
In general, Canva is an excellent tool for those who need simple images for projects. If you are a graphic designer with experience, you will find Canva’s platform lacking in customization and advanced features – particularly vectors. But if you have little design experience, you will find Canva easier to use than advanced graphic design tools like Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator for most projects. If you have any queries let me know in the comments section.
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