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Tariffs![[later] I don't get why our pizza slices have such terrible reviews; the geotextile-infused sauce gives the toppings incredible slope stability!](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/tariffs.png "[later] I don't get why our pizza slices have such terrible reviews; the geotextile-infused sauce gives the toppings incredible slope stability!")
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EY fined almost £5m for breaching standards in Thomas Cook audit
Thu, 10 Apr 2025 10:31:53 GMT
EY admits to failings in assessment of 2017 and 2018 financial statements of travel firm, which collapsed in 2019
EY has been fined almost £5m for “serious breaches of standards” over its audits of Thomas Cook in the years before the travel company’s devastating collapse in 2019.
The UK’s audit watchdog, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), said EY and one of its partners, Richard Wilson, had admitted to failings related to their assessment of the travel agent’s financial statements from 2017 and 2018.
Continue reading...A wave of immigration during the communist years has seen a slow burn for Vietnamese food – from beef noodles to green rice ice-cream – in the Czech Republic’s capital
An older Asian woman is hunched over a gas burner serving noodles, a young couple in the distance shuffle piously into a tiny Buddhist temple, and a perpetual gaggle of families emerge from a Vietnamese supermarket armed with giant sacks of rice. It is a scene as authentically Vietnamese as I could expect to find. But I am not in Vietnam or even Asia. I am in Prague.
Sapa, or Little Hanoi as it is affectionately known, is the hub of the Czech Republic capital’s Vietnamese community, and is a far cry from the spires, dumplings and beer-sploshed splendour of the historical centre. Tucked inconspicuously on its outskirts, this city within a city is where the nation’s Vietnamese people come to stock up on spices, eat plates of bun cha or sell inordinate amounts of large, fluffy geese.
Continue reading...Switzerland is leading the world in purifying its water of micropollutants, a concoction of chemicals often found in bodies of water that look crystal clear. They include common medicines like antidepressants and antihistamines, but have unknown and potentially damaging consequences for human and ecosystem health.
In the second of a two-part series, Phoebe Weston travels to Geneva to find out how the country has transformed its rivers from sewage-filled health hazards to pristine swimming spots. She tells Madeleine Finlay how a public health disaster in the 1960s spurred the government to act, and what the UK could learn from the Swiss about taking care of a precious national asset.
From sewage and scum to swimming in ‘blue gold’: how Switzerland transformed its rivers
Support the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod
Sixty years old this month, the famous northern walking route successfully blazed a trail for a national pastime
For those seeking pastoral shelter from the storm of world events this spring, there is a special incentive to look north. Sixty years old this month, the Pennine Way is being celebrated in style, with guided walks and an exhibition at the Dales Countryside Museum in Wensleydale. In North Yorkshire, speeches and a singsong are planned to mark the April day, in 1965, when the village of Malham hosted the opening of Britain’s first national trail.
The recognition is richly deserved. Stretching 268 miles from Derbyshire to the Scottish Borders, the establishment of the Pennine Way represented an epic political achievement as well as a new leisure option. Though the inhabitants of northern mill towns and mining communities had a voracious appetite for open spaces and beauty, local landowners were for decades reluctant to give it to them. The postwar campaigning work of the Lancashire journalist Tom Stephenson and the Ramblers’ Association opened up swaths of private moorland previously fenced off behind “No Trespassing” signs.
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...Costly and cumbersome intracontinental flights have led to a disconnect between countries that share so much. Plus: a heart-pounding season of films by Black women
Hello and welcome to The Long Wave. This week, I dig into one of my biggest travelling bugbears. Why is it so circuitous, expensive, time-consuming and exhausting to travel within Africa?
Continue reading...Students from Muslim-majority countries as well as Asia and Africa are having their visas revoked with little or no explanation.
The post Trump Appears to Be Targeting Muslim and “Non-White” Students for Deportation appeared first on The Intercept.
Monica Feria-Tinta is one of a growing number of lawyers using the courts to make governments around the world take action
In November 2024, Monica Feria-Tinta, a veteran of UN tribunals and the international criminal court, strode through a heavy black door into a Georgian building in London’s august legal district for a meeting about a tree in Southend. Affectionately known as Chester, the 150-year-old plane tree towers over a bus shelter in the centre of the Essex seaside town. The council wanted to cut it down and residents were fighting back – but they were running out of options. Katy Treverton, a local campaigner, had travelled from Southend to ask Feria-Tinta’s legal advice. “Chester is one of the last trees left in this part of Southend,” said Treverton, sitting at a large table in an airy meeting room. “Losing him would be losing part of the city’s identity.”
Feria-Tinta nodded, deep-red fingernails clattering on her laptop as she typed. She paused and looked up. “Are we entitled to nature? Is that a human right? I would say yes. It’s not an easy argument, but it’s a valid one.” She recommended going to the council with hard data about the impact of trees on health, and how removing the tree could violate the rights of an economically deprived community. Recent rulings in the European court of human rights, she added, reinforced the notion that the state has obligations on the climate crisis. This set a legal precedent that could help residents defend their single tree in Southend. “It isn’t just a tree,” said Feria-Tinta. “More than that is at stake: a principle.”
Continue reading...Just weeks away from graduation, some international students at Arizona State University have been blocked from completing degrees.
The post At Least 50 Arizona State Students Have Now Had Visas Revoked, Lawyer Says appeared first on The Intercept.
We want to hear about a community-based project or travel company that made your trip memorable. The best tip wins £200 towards a Coolstays break
When it comes to planning a trip, how we travel is just as important as where we go – the connections we make, the insights into different cultures and, hopefully, a sense that our visit is having a positive impact on the communities that host us. We’d love to hear about the community tourism initiatives that you’ve encountered on your travels, whether it was a wilderness lodge or trekking company owned and run by locals, a cultural exchange programme, or a conservation project perhaps.
If you have a relevant photo, do send it in – but it’s your words that will be judged for the competition.
Continue reading...The University of Pennsylvania has been a target of Canary Mission, a pro-Israel “blacklist” group. Turns out the call was coming from inside the house.
The post Pro-Israel Group That Attacked UPenn Was Funded by Family of UPenn Trustee appeared first on The Intercept.
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...Actions allow the detained men to fight the government’s attempt to remove them under rarely invoked law
Federal judges in New York and Texas on Wednesday took legal action to block the government from moving five Venezuelans out of the country until they can fight the government’s attempt to remove them under a rarely invoked law that gives the president the power to imprison and deport noncitizens in times of war.
The men were identified as belonging to the Tren de Aragua gang, a claim their lawyers dispute.
Continue reading...Students from Muslim-majority countries as well as Asia and Africa are having their visas revoked with little or no explanation.
The post Trump Appears to Be Targeting Muslim and “Non-White” Students for Deportation appeared first on The Intercept.
Trump’s attacks on the courts and Big Law are an existential threat to the legal system. Expect a reckoning.
The post The Clear and Present Danger to the American Rule of Law appeared first on The Intercept.
Governor’s speech flags rocky path ahead and gives no indication of increasing the pace of rate cuts in 2025
The Reserve Bank of Australia governor says it is “too early” to judge how Donald Trump’s trade war will affect interest rates over coming months, while hosing down forecasts the bank will issue a double rate cut in May.
Michele Bullock’s measured tone on Thursday evening in Melbourne gave no indication of a central bank that sees the need, at least at this stage, to accelerate the pace of rate cuts in 2025, as many economists now expect.
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Continue reading...Series of actions this week including at Princeton and in a tiny town, offer hope that courageous voices can make a difference
Given the constant flow of bad news – recession nearing, markets tanking, federal agencies run amok – a victory in court for a news wire service might seem trivial.
But the Associated Press’s win against the Trump administration this week is meaningful for two reasons. It underscores the judiciary’s commitment to the first amendment, and it suggests that standing up for one’s principles may not be just a gesture made in vain.
Continue reading...Foreign ministers will gather in London and seek to exert diplomatic pressure demanding a ceasefire
The British government is bringing together foreign ministers from nearly 20 countries and organisations in an attempt to establish a group that can drive the warring factions in Sudan closer towards peace.
The conference at Lancaster House in London on 15 April comes on the second anniversary of the start of a civil war that has led to the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis, but has been persistently left at the bottom of the global list of diplomatic priorities. Half of Sudan’s population are judged to be desperately short of food, with 11 million people internally displaced.
Continue reading...We want to hear about a community-based project or travel company that made your trip memorable. The best tip wins £200 towards a Coolstays break
When it comes to planning a trip, how we travel is just as important as where we go – the connections we make, the insights into different cultures and, hopefully, a sense that our visit is having a positive impact on the communities that host us. We’d love to hear about the community tourism initiatives that you’ve encountered on your travels, whether it was a wilderness lodge or trekking company owned and run by locals, a cultural exchange programme, or a conservation project perhaps.
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 what may be an American first, President Donald Trump pardoned a company sentenced to $100 million in fines for breaking money laundering laws.
The post Trump Just Pardoned … a Corporation? appeared first on The Intercept.
South Carolina resumed executions with the firing squad killing of Brad Sigmon last month. Mikal Madhi’s execution date is days away.
The post Lethal Injection, Electric Chair, or Firing Squad? An Inhumane Decision for Death Row Prisoners appeared first on The Intercept.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth boasts he’s nixing contracts and grants amid DOGE’s cost-cutting campaign. But those trims won’t hit SpaceX.
The post DOGE’s Pentagon Budget Cuts Don’t Touch Elon Musk’s SpaceX appeared first on The Intercept.
A conversation with the Massachusetts congresswoman on challenging executive authority and the ICE abduction of Rümeysa Öztürk.
The post Unchecked: Rep. Ayanna Pressley on the President’s Power Grab appeared first on The Intercept.
Nasa cuts contract that convened USGCRP, which released assessments impacting environmental decision-making
The White House is ending funding for the body that produces the federal government’s pre-eminent climate report, which summarizes the impacts of rising global temperatures on the United States.
Every four years, the US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) is required by Congress to release a new national climate assessment to ensure leaders understand the drivers of – and threats posed by – global warming. It is the most comprehensive, far-reaching and up-to-date analysis of the climate crisis, playing a key role in local and national decision making about agriculture, energy production, and land and water use.
Continue reading...Going beyond their critique of the infamous Signal chat, progressives demanded to know the White House’s legal justification for its Yemen strikes.
The post Progressives Push to Assert Congress Power Over Yemen War appeared first on The Intercept.
The U.S. moved toward tariffs that protected U.S. workers, industry, and the environment, says one expert. Trump is undoing it all.
The post What Could Progressive Tariffs Actually Look Like? appeared first on The Intercept.
At a Congressional hearing earlier this week, Matt Blaze made the point that CALEA, the 1994 law that forces telecoms to make phone calls wiretappable, is outdated in today’s threat environment and should be rethought:
In other words, while the legally-mandated CALEA capability requirements have changed little over the last three decades, the infrastructure that must implement and protect it has changed radically. This has greatly expanded the “attack surface” that must be defended to prevent unauthorized wiretaps, especially at scale. The job of the illegal eavesdropper has gotten significantly easier, with many more options and opportunities for them to exploit. Compromising our telecommunications infrastructure is now little different from performing any other kind of computer intrusion or data breach, a well-known and endemic cybersecurity problem. To put it bluntly, something like Salt Typhoon was inevitable, and will likely happen again unless significant changes are made...
In “Secrets and Lies” (2000), I wrote:
It is poor civic hygiene to install technologies that could someday facilitate a police state.
It’s something a bunch of us were saying at the time, in reference to the vast NSA’s surveillance capabilities.
I have been thinking of that quote a lot as I read news stories of President Trump firing the Director of the National Security Agency. General Timothy Haugh.
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote:
We don’t know what pressure the Trump administration is using to make intelligence services fall into line, but it isn’t crazy to ...
She lost her job at Emerson College after screening a film critical of Israel. Her lawsuit seeks to leverage an unusual Massachusetts free speech law.
The post This College Staffer Lost Her Job After Showing a Film Critical of Israel. Now She’s Suing Over Free Speech. appeared first on The Intercept.
Republicans need to worry about getting bullied by Elon Musk, and Democrats need to worry about AIPAC, Sanders said.
The post Trying to Block Arms to Israel, Bernie Sanders Denounces AIPAC’s Massive Election Spending appeared first on The Intercept.
US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, who started the now-infamous group chat coordinating a US attack against the Yemen-based Houthis on March 15, is seemingly now suggesting that the secure messaging service Signal has security vulnerabilities.
"I didn’t see this loser in the group," Waltz told Fox News about Atlantic editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg, whom Waltz invited to the chat. "Whether he did it deliberately or it happened in some other technical mean, is something we’re trying to figure out."
Waltz’s implication that Goldberg may have hacked his way in was followed by a ...
John Kelsey and I wrote a short paper for the Rossfest Festschrift: “Rational Astrologies and Security“:
There is another non-security way that designers can spend their security budget: on making their own lives easier. Many of these fall into the category of what has been called rational astrology. First identified by Randy Steve Waldman [Wal12], the term refers to something people treat as though it works, generally for social or institutional reasons, even when there’s little evidence that it works—and sometimes despite substantial evidence that it does not...
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