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Britain’s natural landscape is in ruins – thanks to the Tories. Here’s how Labour will restore it | Steve Reed
Thu, 25 Apr 2024 15:57:08 GMT
Sewage pollutes our waterways, species face extinction. We must act fast to halt the decline – and we will
We must not be the last generation to have the opportunity to marvel at nature.
When I was growing up, I took for granted the excitement of climbing trees in the local woods at the end of our road, sleeping under the stars at Scout camp, and exploring the micro-worlds of seaside rockpools on holiday in Cornwall. Our children and grandchildren deserve to be astounded by the magnificence of our landscapes and coastlines, mesmerised by the beauty of a robin’s song, and to splash about in the local river.
Steve Reed is the MP for Croydon North, and shadow secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs
Continue reading...Humza Yousaf’s position as first minister is in danger, but the problems predate his leadership
A year ago, Scotland’s newly elected first minister, Humza Yousaf, said that the Scottish National party’s 2021 pact with the Scottish Greens – giving him a majority in the Holyrood parliament – was “worth its weight in gold”. As recently as Tuesday, Mr Yousaf was publicly buffing his treasure, insisting that he hoped the deal would continue. Less than 48 hours later, however, he decided it was time to sell, scrapping the pact and pledging instead to lead a minority SNP government for the remaining two years of this Scottish parliament. Shortly afterwards, the furious Greens vowed to back next week’s Conservative motion of no confidence against the man who had “betrayed” them.
The split is no surprise. Last week, the Scottish government scrapped its pledge of a 75% cut in carbon emissions by 2030, and its legally binding annual reduction targets. It did so after the UK Climate Change Committee declared the target “no longer credible” because not enough groundwork had been done. The Scottish Greens reacted with anger; an emergency meeting was planned for May to decide whether to continue in government. Meanwhile, some SNP backbenchers made clear that they had had enough too. On Thursday, anxious to show decisive leadership, Mr Yousaf got in first, dumping the deal.
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...The web has become so interwoven with everyday life that it is easy to forget what an extraordinary accomplishment and treasure it is. In just a few decades, much of human knowledge has been collectively written up and made available to anyone with an internet connection.
But all of this is coming to an end. The advent of AI threatens to destroy the complex online ecosystem that allows writers, artists, and other creators to reach human audiences.
To understand why, you must understand publishing. Its core task is to connect writers to an audience. Publishers work as gatekeepers, filtering candidates and then amplifying the chosen ones. Hoping to be selected, writers shape their work in various ways. This article might be written very differently in an academic publication, for example, and publishing it here entailed pitching an editor, revising multiple drafts for style and focus, and so on...
Few economic and social benefits will come to Africans if processing is all done overseas, says Wanjira Mathai
Africa must take greater control in the industries it supplies with raw materials to lift its people from poverty and seize its own destiny in a low-carbon world, one of the continent’s leading environmentalists has urged.
Wanjira Mathai, the managing director for Africa and global partnerships at the World Resources Institute thinktank, said much more of what the continent produced must be processed and made use of close to where it is produced, if the world is to shift to a low-carbon footing.
Continue reading...Historic hearing will receive submissions from people whose human rights have been affected by climate change
Julian Medina comes from a long line of fishers in the north of Colombia’s Gulf of Morrosquillo who use small-scale and often traditional methods to catch species such as mackerel, tuna and cojinúa.
Medina went into business as a young man but was drawn back to his roots, and ended up leading a fishing organisation. For years he has campaigned against the encroachment of fossil fuel companies, pollution and overfishing, which are destroying the gulf’s delicate ecosystem and people’s livelihoods.
Continue reading...Like countless other hostilities, the stealthy Israeli missile and drone strike on Iran doesn’t risk war. It is war.
The post Israel Attack on Iran Is What World War III Looks Like appeared first on The Intercept.
The university suspended three students out of hundreds participating in an on-campus encampment to protest the Israeli government.
The post Columbia Suspends Ilhan Omar’s Daughter One Day After Omar Grilled School Administrators appeared first on The Intercept.
In congressional testimony, school administrators also said they are investigating pro-Israel and pro-Palestine professors.
The post Columbia Suspended Two Students for Assault on Gaza Rally, School Says in Antisemitism Hearing appeared first on The Intercept.
Buying refurbished tech might feel risky if you’ve never done it before – but we’re here to tell you, it’s the future. Here’s what you need to know ...
Whether it’s eating less meat, swapping your car for a bike or saying no to single-use plastic, many of us are making lifestyle switches to live more ethically. However, fewer of us are aware of the huge environmental impact of something we use every day – our smartphone – and what we can all do to reduce it. Keen to know more? Here are five reasons why your next smartphone should be refurbished …
Keep your carbon footprint in check
The metal extraction, shipping and production that take place before a smartphone ends up in your hands create carbon emissions – and carbon emissions are the number one cause of the climate crisis. Metal mining and the manufacturing of smartphones, which predominantly take place in the global south, are also very polluting and therefore damaging to delicate ecosystems. Extending the lifespan of a smartphone can help to reduce this impact – the longer a smartphone is in use, the less damage is done to the planet. Obviously it’s not always possible to avoid needing a new phone, so this is why buying a refurbished one – and selling or recycling your old phones – is a more sustainable choice.
Cruising is booming – 2023 ticket sales have surpassed historic levels and 2024 has seen the launch of the largest cruise ship ever built. But as cruise tourism's popularity has increased, so have the pollution problems it brings. To customers, it may not be evident that any problems exist, since some cruise line companies claim to be becoming more climate-friendly. But the truth can be quite different. Josh Toussaint-Strauss interrogates what impact the world's biggest ships are having on the planet
‘Biggest, baddest’ – but is it the cleanest? World’s largest cruise ship sets sail
‘A good cruise is one that doesn’t come’: Europe’s ports bear brunt of ship pollution
Shipping’s dirty secret: how ‘scrubbers’ clean the air – while contaminating the sea
SEMrush and Ahrefs are among
the most popular tools in the SEO industry. Both companies have been in
business for years and have thousands of customers per month.
If you're a professional SEO or trying to do digital
marketing on your own, at some point you'll likely consider using a tool to
help with your efforts. Ahrefs and SEMrush are two names that will likely
appear on your shortlist.
In this guide, I'm going to help you learn more about these SEO tools and how to choose the one that's best for your purposes.
What is SEMrush?
SEMrush is a popular SEO tool with a wide range of
features—it's the leading competitor research service for online marketers.
SEMrush's SEO Keyword Magic tool offers over 20 billion Google-approved
keywords, which are constantly updated and it's the largest keyword database.
The program was developed in 2007 as SeoQuake is a
small Firefox extension
Features
Ahrefs is a leading SEO platform that offers a set of
tools to grow your search traffic, research your competitors, and monitor your
niche. The company was founded in 2010, and it has become a popular choice
among SEO tools. Ahrefs has a keyword index of over 10.3 billion keywords and
offers accurate and extensive backlink data updated every 15-30 minutes and it
is the world's most extensive backlink index database.
Features
Direct Comparisons: Ahrefs vs SEMrush
Now that you know a little more about each tool, let's
take a look at how they compare. I'll analyze each tool to see how they differ
in interfaces, keyword research resources, rank tracking, and competitor
analysis.
User Interface
Ahrefs and SEMrush both offer comprehensive information
and quick metrics regarding your website's SEO performance. However, Ahrefs
takes a bit more of a hands-on approach to getting your account fully set up,
whereas SEMrush's simpler dashboard can give you access to the data you need
quickly.
In this section, we provide a brief overview of the elements
found on each dashboard and highlight the ease with which you can complete
tasks.
AHREFS
The Ahrefs dashboard is less cluttered than that of
SEMrush, and its primary menu is at the very top of the page, with a search bar
designed only for entering URLs.
Additional features of the Ahrefs platform include:
SEMRUSH
When you log into the SEMrush Tool, you will find four
main modules. These include information about your domains, organic keyword
analysis, ad keyword, and site traffic.
You'll also find some other options like
Both Ahrefs and SEMrush have user-friendly dashboards,
but Ahrefs is less cluttered and easier to navigate. On the other hand, SEMrush
offers dozens of extra tools, including access to customer support resources.
When deciding on which dashboard to use, consider what
you value in the user interface, and test out both.
If you're looking to track your website's search engine
ranking, rank tracking features can help. You can also use them to monitor your
competitors.
Let's take a look at Ahrefs vs. SEMrush to see which
tool does a better job.
The Ahrefs Rank Tracker is simpler to use. Just type in
the domain name and keywords you want to analyze, and it spits out a report
showing you the search engine results page (SERP) ranking for each keyword you
enter.
Rank Tracker looks at the ranking performance of
keywords and compares them with the top rankings for those keywords. Ahrefs
also offers:
You'll see metrics that help you understand your
visibility, traffic, average position, and keyword difficulty.
It gives you an idea of whether a keyword would be
profitable to target or not.
SEMRush offers a tool called Position Tracking. This
tool is a project tool—you must set it up as a new project. Below are a few of
the most popular features of the SEMrush Position Tracking tool:
All subscribers are given regular data updates and
mobile search rankings upon subscribing
The platform provides opportunities to track several
SERP features, including Local tracking.
Intuitive reports allow you to track statistics for the
pages on your website, as well as the keywords used in those pages.
Identify pages that may be competing with each other
using the Cannibalization report.
Ahrefs is a more user-friendly option. It takes seconds
to enter a domain name and keywords. From there, you can quickly decide whether
to proceed with that keyword or figure out how to rank better for other
keywords.
SEMrush allows you to check your mobile rankings and
ranking updates daily, which is something Ahrefs does not offer. SEMrush also
offers social media rankings, a tool you won't find within the Ahrefs platform.
Both are good which one do you like let me know in the comment.
Keyword research is closely related to rank tracking,
but it's used for deciding which keywords you plan on using for future content
rather than those you use now.
When it comes to SEO, keyword research is the most
important thing to consider when comparing the two platforms.
The Ahrefs Keyword Explorer provides you with thousands
of keyword ideas and filters search results based on the chosen search engine.
Ahrefs supports several features, including:
SEMrush's Keyword Magic Tool has over 20 billion
keywords for Google. You can type in any keyword you want, and a list of
suggested keywords will appear.
The Keyword Magic Tool also lets you to:
Both of these tools offer keyword research features and
allow users to break down complicated tasks into something that can be
understood by beginners and advanced users alike.
If you're interested in keyword suggestions, SEMrush
appears to have more keyword suggestions than Ahrefs does. It also continues to
add new features, like the Keyword Gap tool and SERP Questions recommendations.
Both platforms offer competitor analysis tools,
eliminating the need to come up with keywords off the top of your head. Each
tool is useful for finding keywords that will be useful for your competition so
you know they will be valuable to you.
Ahrefs' domain comparison tool lets you compare up to five websites (your website and four competitors) side-by-side.it also shows you how your site is ranked against others with metrics such as backlinks, domain ratings, and more.
Use the Competing Domains section to see a list of your
most direct competitors, and explore how many keywords matches your competitors
have.
To find more information about your competitor, you can
look at the Site Explorer and Content Explorer tools and type in their URL
instead of yours.
SEMrush provides a variety of insights into your
competitors' marketing tactics. The platform enables you to research your
competitors effectively. It also offers several resources for competitor
analysis including:
Traffic Analytics helps you identify where your
audience comes from, how they engage with your site, what devices visitors use
to view your site, and how your audiences overlap with other websites.
SEMrush's Organic Research examines your website's
major competitors and shows their organic search rankings, keywords they are
ranking for, and even if they are ranking for any (SERP) features and more.
The Market Explorer search field allows you to type in
a domain and lists websites or articles similar to what you entered. Market
Explorer also allows users to perform in-depth data analytics on These
companies and markets.
SEMrush wins here because it has more tools dedicated to
competitor analysis than Ahrefs. However, Ahrefs offers a lot of functionality
in this area, too. It takes a combination of both tools to gain an advantage
over your competition.
When it comes to keyword data research, you will become
confused about which one to choose.
Consider choosing Ahrefs if you
Consider SEMrush if you:
Both tools are great. Choose the one which meets your
requirements and if you have any experience using either Ahrefs or SEMrush let
me know in the comment section which works well for you.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators are calling on universities to sell investments in companies they say are complicit in war in Gaza
As protests against Israel’s offensive in Gaza are spreading throughout American campuses, one demand made by students across schools keeps coming up: divestment from Israel.
Universities rely on endowments to fund things like research and scholarships, and those endowments are typically invested in companies and alternative asset classes, such as private equity and hedge funds.
Continue reading...The Department of Education is probing claims that the school discriminated against Palestinian and Arab students amid Israel’s war on Gaza.
The post “Kill All Arabs”: The Feds Are Investigating UMass Amherst for Anti-Palestinian Bias appeared first on The Intercept.
The blanket suspension of student protesters casts “serious doubt on the University’s respect for the rule-of-law values that we teach,” 54 law professors wrote.
The post Columbia Law School Faculty Condemn Administration for Mass Arrests and Suspensions appeared first on The Intercept.
The university suspended three students out of hundreds participating in an on-campus encampment to protest the Israeli government.
The post Columbia Suspends Ilhan Omar’s Daughter One Day After Omar Grilled School Administrators appeared first on The Intercept.
Court rules judge who oversaw landmark trial was mistaken in allowing women whose accusations were not part of case to testify
The disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 conviction on sex crimes was overturned by a New York appeals court on Thursday, as prosecutors say they will retry the firestorm case.
In a 4-3 decision, the state of New York court of appeals ruled that the judge who oversaw Weinstein’s 2020 conviction prejudiced the ex-movie mogul with “egregious” improper rulings and was mistaken in allowing other women whose accusations were not a part of the 2020 case to testify.
Continue reading...Surprise reversal of producer’s New York conviction led to anger from stars and accusers, including Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino
Hollywood has reacted with shock to the news that the disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein’s rape conviction has been overturned by a New York court.
The fallen movie mogul was sentenced to 23 years in 2020 for two sex crimes, a decision that a court of appeals has now called the result of an unfair trial.
Continue reading...In Human Resources, Time Out and The Class, the Palme d’Or-winning film-maker – who has died aged 63 – addressed French and European society at all levels
Laurent Cantet was a classic product of the French cinema industry: a deeply intelligent, high-minded progressive film-maker of the same generation as Robin Campillo and Dominik Moll whose supremely literate, emotionally committed, stylish and well-acted movies aspired to address French and European society at all levels.
Cantet made films that you could imagine being discussed around a gregarious dinner table of fashionable Parisians, with glasses being avidly drained and refilled all round – in fact, you could imagine Cantet himself talking about his work at just this kind of gathering.
Continue reading...Muscular bodies dripping with sweat are all over cinema screens – and each other. But these films are very different from the sports romances of old
This spring is shaping up to be the season of the artful athletic romance in cinema. Rose Glass’s Love Lies Bleeding and Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers both offer up their own twisted queer romances set within the world of sport. Both film-makers share a preoccupation with their athletes, lingering over their bodies in ultra-closeup. Muscles ripple and swell like the powerful pulse of the tide. Perfect, glistening orbs of sweat form then drift off the body in slow motion. In these films, ripped, toned bodies become tantalising, treacherous landscapes, and it’s on this physical terrain that we can see exactly how and why the characters’ internal desires play out.
Love Lies Bleeding opens with a pulsating montage in a grimy gym as Glass confronts us with running, cycling, lifting, pressing bodies in all of their sweating, straining vulgarity. Meanwhile, Lou (Kristen Stewart), the uninspired gym manager, is sticking her hand down the venue’s perpetually clogged toilet. However, when Jackie (Katy O’Brian), a wannabe bodybuilder, rolls through town, all this grotesquery becomes a thing of beauty. They begin a romance. Lou pumps her lover full of steroids and constantly ogles her dense muscles.
Continue reading...Paola Cortellesi’s directing debut, in which she also stars, depicts gruelling domestic abuse before finding its way to startling redemption
Italian actor and singer Paola Cortellesi has been breaking hearts and box office records on her home turf with this directing debut. It’s a richly and even outrageously sentimental working-class drama of postwar Rome, a story of domestic abuse whose heroine finally escapes from misogyny and cruelty through a piece of narrative sleight-of-hand that borders on magic-neorealism, performed with shameless theatrical flair and marvellously composed in luminous monochrome. The film pays homage to early pictures by De Sica and Fellini, and Cortellesi’s own performance is consciously in the spirit of movie divas such as Anna Magnani, Sophia Loren and Giulietta Masina.
The scene is Rome just after the end of the second world war, when American GIs were a presence on the streets and Italian women had just been given the right to vote – though exercising it while under the baleful eye of the film’s misogynist menfolk is another matter. Cortellesi plays Delia, a woman who is being regularly beaten by her brutish husband Ivano (Valerio Mastandrea). He makes her slave around the house, skivvy to his cantankerous bedridden father (great stuff from veteran comic turn Giorgio Colangeli), and do odd jobs around the city, the cash payment for which she has to hand over at the end of every day. Their teenage daughter Marcella (Romana Maggiora Vergano), who sees how her mother is being brutalised and humiliated, is made to sleep in the same bedroom as her two brattish kid brothers, and when she receives a proposal of marriage from a well-off local boy, she, like her parents, is thrilled – at first.
Continue reading...
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
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