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Lucy Letby murder convictions: what did the expert panel find?
Tue, 04 Feb 2025 15:21:33 GMT
Group concludes babies died due to natural causes or errors in medical care, saying there was no evidence of deliberate harm
A distinguished panel of paediatric specialists and neonatologists was convened by Dr Shoo Lee, professor emeritus at the University of Toronto, to review the medical evidence used to convict Lucy Letby. She is serving 15 life sentences for murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others.
The panel members, who rank among the most senior experts in the world, include Neena Modi, a professor of neonatal medicine at Imperial College London; Mikael Norman, a senior physician at the Karolinska Institute and founder of the International Society of Evidence-based Neonatology; and Ann Stark, professor in residence of paediatrics at Harvard medical school.
Continue reading...The founder of Mothers Against College Antisemitism says her 62,000-member Facebook group is influencing NYU policy.
The post A Well-Connected NYU Parent Is Trying to Get Students Deported appeared first on The Intercept.
Friends and allies of the US president will say his recent tariff threats delivered quick wins, but he may find there are no winners in a trade war
As the world reels from the first three weeks of Donald Trump’s shakedown diplomacy, it is divided between those who marvel at this display of raw American economic hegemony, and those who fear that the US’s president, fatally misreading how the globe has changed since his first term, is storing up trouble that will diminish the US as an economic and moral force in four years’ time.
At one level Trump’s antics are wearily familiar. After all, the last rites of the 70-year-old liberal world order were also read when Trump came to power in 2017, before that order was briefly disinterred under Joe Biden. The diplomatic pearls were collectively clutched when Trump 1.0 threatened to pull out of Nato, launched a trade war with China, introduced a travel ban on mainly Muslim countries, and withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the 12-nation trade agreement championed by Barack Obama. In 2019, Trump dropped the threat of a 5% tariff in return for Mexico sending 6,000 militarised police to the southern border. Grievances, and bargains, have always animated Trump’s thinking.
Continue reading...A German couple who renovate abandoned wooden houses and rent them out offer a window onto a traditional way of life in the north of the country
Cattle are lumbering home in the twilight, horse-drawn farm carts trundle by and shepherds huddle around bonfires. We spy a woman milking her one cow in her garden and another, ancient-looking but upright, strolling back from the field, hoe over one shoulder. Traditional houses are made entirely of wood, roofs included, and many are dwarfed by ornate carved gateways, with tiled roof and massive beam across the top.
We could be in south-east Asia, but this fairytale world of time-honoured custom and lives lived close to the land is a lot nearer home – in south-eastern Europe.
Continue reading...Meteorite falls are extremely rare and offer a glimpse of the processes that formed our world billions of years ago. When a space rock came to an English market town in 2021, scientists raced to find as much out as they could
At 21.54 on 28 February 2021, 16 cameras belonging to amateur sky-watching network UKMON picked up a bright shape headed towards Earth. Pictures show a long white line, which was visible for eight seconds, a glowing globule of light against the dark sky. “For me it’s like fishing,” said Richard Kacerek, one of the founders of UKMON. “You cast your line and then you wait. There are days when you catch nothing but there are days when you catch a really, really big fish and it’s so exciting.” The fireball of February 2021 was such a fish: a lump of flaming extraterrestrial rock travelling at a speed of about 8.4 miles a second – 15 times the speed of a rifle bullet – and headed for the Cotswolds market town of Winchcombe.
Meteorites are rocks from space that have entered our atmosphere. Most were once part of asteroids – the rocky, airless remnants left over from the formation of our solar system 4.6bn years ago. Almost all of them are what collectors call “finds”, meaning that the stone has been discovered by searching the ground, having fallen earlier – in most cases several thousand years earlier. A “fall”, a meteorite that is seen in flight and then recovered, is very, very rare. Worldwide, typically only about 10 such rocks are picked up each year. Before 2021, the last reported UK fall was a rock the size of a cricket ball that landed in a hedge in Glatton in Cambridgeshire in May 1991.
Continue reading...Since the fall of Bashar al-Assad, Turkey and its militias have cut off the Kurdish city of Kobane from the rest of Syria.
The post Twelve Days in Kobane, Where Syrian Kurds Are Under Attack by Turkey appeared first on The Intercept.
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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.
Whether you hiked the Atlas Mountains or enjoyed a beach or city break, share a tip on your favourite Moroccan find – the best wins £200 towards a Coolstays break
Morocco saw visitor numbers climb by an incredible 20% in 2024, making it one of the fastest-growing tourism destinations in the world. From the cultural highlights of Marrakech and Fes to the surf beaches of the Atlantic and up into the remote villages of the High Atlas mountains, the country offers extraordinary variety. We’d love to hear about your favourite spots, whether it’s a gorgeous riad hotel tucked away in the medina, a fantastic surf beach, a desert retreat or an off-the-beaten-track discovery.
If you have a relevant photo, do send it in – but it’s your words that will be judged for the competition.
Continue reading...In some of the photographs you have to squint hard to see it – sandwiched between tree trunks or cloaked in fog. In others, it’s so close up that all you see are rivets or the cross-hatching of metal beams. In his series Thirty-Six Views of the Golden Gate Bridge (the title nods to Katsushika Hokusai’s famous woodcut prints of Mount Fuji), US photographer Arthur Drooker set out to defamiliarise the great Californian landmark, asking: “Is it possible to see the most photographed bridge in the world anew?” After two years on the project, he came away with “deep admiration” for its builders who defied predictions that the mile-wide strait could never be bridged. “What I found most resonant,” says Drooker, “even more than the span’s status as an engineering and architectural icon, is its power as a symbol of possibility.”
The founder of Mothers Against College Antisemitism says her 62,000-member Facebook group is influencing NYU policy.
The post A Well-Connected NYU Parent Is Trying to Get Students Deported appeared first on The Intercept.
Asylum-seekers are being detained because they come from Russia and Central Asia, immigrants and attorneys told The Intercept.
The post They Flee Russia as Dissidents Seeking Asylum. The U.S. Locks Them Up. appeared first on The Intercept.
From biking adventures to city breaks, get inspiration for your next break – whether in the UK or further afield – with twice-weekly emails from the Guardian’s travel editors. You’ll also receive handpicked offers from Guardian Holidays.
From biking adventures to city breaks, get inspiration for your next break – whether in the UK or further afield – with twice-weekly emails from the Guardian’s travel editors.
You’ll also receive handpicked offers from Guardian Holidays.
Continue reading...Labour pledges to protect 66,500 more properties, criticising previous Tory efforts
Ministers are topping up flood defence investment in England to a “record” £2.65bn, after accusing the previous government of “putting lives at risk” by under-spending.
An extra £250m is being pledged on top of the £2.4bn previously announced, to shore up defences and protect an extra 66,500 properties from flooding over a two-year period, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said.
Continue reading...There’s no hiding from a 5% fall in operating profit at owner Diageo in the second half of 2024, Trump trade policy or not
Donald Trump’s on-off tariffs are at least good for one thing: they provide struggling managements with a handy excuse to ditch their sales forecasts. Diageo, the Guinness, Johnnie Walker and Smirnoff combo, was able to cite “the current macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty” – exhibit A being the possible US tariffs on Canada and Mexico – as it dropped its guidance for growth.
What that reasonable-sounding explanation misses, however, is that nobody believed Diageo’s old forecasts anyway – and they hadn’t for a long time before Trump re-entered the White House.
Continue reading...Pasadena school district direct’s Liz Powell and staff used ‘everything on hand’ at school sites to dispense meals
As the Eaton fire raged on 8 January, Liz Powell was focused on one thing: getting to work. Powell, Pasadena unified schools interim food director, rushed to the district’s service center on Woodbury Road in Altadena to meet up with food service coworkers Melissa Washington and Marcela Zamorano.
“But pretty soon the police showed up and told us we had to evacuate,” said Powell, whose home lost power and employees could hear transformers and propane tanks blowing before returning home and waiting out the blaze. “It was bad, very scary.”
Continue reading...The impact of the billionaire’s declaration has been swift and brutal, with food and crucial drugs abandoned in warehouses, vital programmes closed and workers laid off
Critical supplies of life-saving medicines have been blocked and children left without food and battling malnutrition as multiple effects were reported across the globe after Elon Musk resolved to shut down the US government’s pre-eminent international aid agency.
Chaotic scenes were seen in scores of countries as aid organisations warned of the risk of escalating disease and famine along with disastrous repercussions in areas such as family planning and girls’ education, after President Donald Trump’s decision to freeze funding to USAid. In 2023, the agency managed more than $40bn (£32bn).
Continue reading...Staying sober beyond Dry January? Enjoy the buzz without the booze year–round with our pick of the best hangover-free beverages
• Is there such a thing as a good alcohol-free wine?
Dry January may be behind us, but more and more of us are choosing to ditch the hard stuff year-round. Lighter on the waistline and wallet and hangxiety-free, low ABV (alcohol by volume) drinks have surged in popularity in recent years. A 2024 YouGov survey found almost half of young people regularly choose low- or no-alcohol drinks – and 39% of 18- to 24-year-olds never drink alcohol at all.
Whether you want to cement the good habits you formed during dry January, stay dry full-time or are simply tonight’s designated driver, there are plenty of tempting low- and no-alcohol tipples to try. And zebra striping (alternating alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks) is no chore when the 0% category is as refreshing as we have today.
Continue reading...A spicy, fruity recipe for a cold winter’s day
A sweet and warming pudding for a very cold day.
Line the base of a 20cm square cake tin with a piece of baking parchment. Heat the oven to 160C/gas mark 6.
Continue reading...Militias say decision is ‘for humanitarian reasons’, as UN says at least 900 killed in last week’s fighting with DRC forces
The Rwanda-backed M23 rebels who seized the city of Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo last week have declared a unilateral ceasefire starting on Tuesday.
The Congo River Alliance, a coalition of militias including M23, said it was declaring the ceasefire “for humanitarian reasons”. Flows of aid, food and other basic goods into the city were all but cut off by the M23 advance, and in recent days humanitarian organisations and the international community have stepped up calls for the creation of safe corridors to get vital items in.
Continue reading...Open-net farms to continue despite numbers of wild fish halving as minister looks for ‘acceptable’ pollution levels
Norway’s environment minister has ruled out a ban on open-net fish farming at sea despite acknowledging that the wild North Atlantic salmon is under “existential threat”.
With yearly exports of 1.2m tonnes, Norway is the largest producer of farmed salmon in the world. But its wild salmon population has fallen from more than a million in the early 1980s to about 500,000 today.
Continue reading...From luxury Sicilian to budget buys, our Rome correspondent tests supermarket extra-virgin olive oils – and reveals how much you should spend
• The best hot sauces, tasted and rated by Thomasina Miers
Years ago, a good cook, who happened to be Greek, told me to think of olive oil not simply as liquid fat, but as an essential ingredient, as flavour and as a seasoning, with the ability to act like herbs and spices. He’s absolutely right and his excellent advice continues to motivate me when I’m choosing extra-virgin olive oil, which is the single most important ingredient I buy, and my biggest expense in the kitchen. While I do have the odd special bottle for drizzling, I am more interested in a good-tasting all-rounder that I can use for everything (my cooking is largely vegetable-, pasta-, pulse-, cheese- and egg-centric), including deep-frying (in a very small pan).
Just to recap, olive oil is the liquid fat obtained by pressing olives, which are fruits. Once picked, they need to be processed as soon as possible – that is, crushed, then centrifugally spun to separate the pulp, water and oil, all in scrupulously clean machinery and at a steady temperature, which preserves the natural aromas of the olives. It takes about eight kilos of olives to make a litre of oil, which, to be considered extra-virgin olive oil, needs to have no defects and no more than 0.8% of free fatty acids. And that comes at a price: expect to pay between £14 and £18 a litre.
Continue reading...From thermal jugs to the best beans, upgrade your morning brew with our essential coffee kit list – including the things you don’t need
• The best coffee machines for your home, according to our expert
If your belief in nominative determinism has led you to the Filter expecting coffee content, then – on this occasion at least – you’re in luck.
And if you’re here because you’re not entirely happy with the coffee in your cup now – or wish you could replicate the £4-a-cup magic brewed by your local barista – then you’ve definitely come to the right place.
Continue reading...Daisy’s dithering frustrates phone fraudsters and wastes time they could be using to scam real people
An elderly grandmother who chats about knitting patterns, recipes for scones and the blackness of the night sky to anyone who will listen has become an unlikely tool in combatting scammers.
Like many people, “Daisy” is beset with countless calls from fraudsters, who often try to take control of her computer after claiming she has been hacked.
Continue reading...UNRWA delivered the majority of food aid during the war and sheltered more than 1 million people. What happens when it’s banned?
The post Israel Bans UNRWA as Trump Throttles Foreign Aid 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.
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Continue reading...Style, with substance: what’s really trending this week, a roundup of the best fashion journalism and your wardrobe dilemmas solved, direct to your inbox every Thursday
Style, with substance: what’s really trending this week, a roundup of the best fashion journalism and your wardrobe dilemmas solved, delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday
Explore all our newsletters: whether you love film, football, fashion or food, we’ve got something for you
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Imagine a world in which you can do transactions and many other things without having to give your personal information. A world in which you don’t need to rely on banks or governments anymore. Sounds amazing, right? That’s exactly what blockchain technology allows us to do.
It’s like your computer’s hard drive. blockchain is a technology that lets you store data in digital blocks, which are connected together like links in a chain.
Blockchain technology was originally invented in 1991 by two mathematicians, Stuart Haber and W. Scot Stornetta. They first proposed the system to ensure that timestamps could not be tampered with.
A few years later, in 1998, software developer Nick Szabo proposed using a similar kind of technology to secure a digital payments system he called “Bit Gold.” However, this innovation was not adopted until Satoshi Nakamoto claimed to have invented the first Blockchain and Bitcoin.
A blockchain is a distributed database shared between the nodes of a computer network. It saves information in digital format. Many people first heard of blockchain technology when they started to look up information about bitcoin.
Blockchain is used in cryptocurrency systems to ensure secure, decentralized records of transactions.
Blockchain allowed people to guarantee the fidelity and security of a record of data without the need for a third party to ensure accuracy.
To understand how a blockchain works, Consider these basic steps:
Let’s get to know more about the blockchain.
Blockchain records digital information and distributes it across the network without changing it. The information is distributed among many users and stored in an immutable, permanent ledger that can't be changed or destroyed. That's why blockchain is also called "Distributed Ledger Technology" or DLT.
Here’s how it works:
And that’s the beauty of it! The process may seem complicated, but it’s done in minutes with modern technology. And because technology is advancing rapidly, I expect things to move even more quickly than ever.
Even though blockchain is integral to cryptocurrency, it has other applications. For example, blockchain can be used for storing reliable data about transactions. Many people confuse blockchain with cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum.
Blockchain already being adopted by some big-name companies, such as Walmart, AIG, Siemens, Pfizer, and Unilever. For example, IBM's Food Trust uses blockchain to track food's journey before reaching its final destination.
Although some of you may consider this practice excessive, food suppliers and manufacturers adhere to the policy of tracing their products because bacteria such as E. coli and Salmonella have been found in packaged foods. In addition, there have been isolated cases where dangerous allergens such as peanuts have accidentally been introduced into certain products.
Tracing and identifying the sources of an outbreak is a challenging task that can take months or years. Thanks to the Blockchain, however, companies now know exactly where their food has been—so they can trace its location and prevent future outbreaks.
Blockchain technology allows systems to react much faster in the event of a hazard. It also has many other uses in the modern world.
Blockchain technology is safe, even if it’s public. People can access the technology using an internet connection.
Have you ever been in a situation where you had all your data stored at one place and that one secure place got compromised? Wouldn't it be great if there was a way to prevent your data from leaking out even when the security of your storage systems is compromised?
Blockchain technology provides a way of avoiding this situation by using multiple computers at different locations to store information about transactions. If one computer experiences problems with a transaction, it will not affect the other nodes.
Instead, other nodes will use the correct information to cross-reference your incorrect node. This is called “Decentralization,” meaning all the information is stored in multiple places.
Blockchain guarantees your data's authenticity—not just its accuracy, but also its irreversibility. It can also be used to store data that are difficult to register, like legal contracts, state identifications, or a company's product inventory.
Blockchain has many advantages and disadvantages.
I’ll answer the most frequently asked questions about blockchain in this section.
Blockchain is not a cryptocurrency but a technology that makes cryptocurrencies possible. It's a digital ledger that records every transaction seamlessly.
Yes, blockchain can be theoretically hacked, but it is a complicated task to be achieved. A network of users constantly reviews it, which makes hacking the blockchain difficult.
Coinbase Global is currently the biggest blockchain company in the world. The company runs a commendable infrastructure, services, and technology for the digital currency economy.
Blockchain is a decentralized technology. It’s a chain of distributed ledgers connected with nodes. Each node can be any electronic device. Thus, one owns blockhain.
Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, which is powered by Blockchain technology while Blockchain is a distributed ledger of cryptocurrency
Generally a database is a collection of data which can be stored and organized using a database management system. The people who have access to the database can view or edit the information stored there. The client-server network architecture is used to implement databases. whereas a blockchain is a growing list of records, called blocks, stored in a distributed system. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, timestamp and transaction information. Modification of data is not allowed due to the design of the blockchain. The technology allows decentralized control and eliminates risks of data modification by other parties.
Blockchain has a wide spectrum of applications and, over the next 5-10 years, we will likely see it being integrated into all sorts of industries. From finance to healthcare, blockchain could revolutionize the way we store and share data. Although there is some hesitation to adopt blockchain systems right now, that won't be the case in 2022-2023 (and even less so in 2026). Once people become more comfortable with the technology and understand how it can work for them, owners, CEOs and entrepreneurs alike will be quick to leverage blockchain technology for their own gain. Hope you like this article if you have any question let me know in the comments section
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