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The Guardian view on the price of chocolate: cocoa producers face bitter truths | Editorial
Sun, 28 Apr 2024 16:55:09 GMT
Farmers, even more than consumers, need a stable and predictable global food system
The small indulgence of chocolate is becoming a more costly one. Soaring prices for cocoa beans recently hit a record $12,000 a tonne: roughly four times last year’s price. Many think they will go higher. That means smaller or more expensive bars and reformulated recipes for many consumers, and may put out of business small specialist producers. Yet it is bringing little reward to struggling growers.
The immediate culprit is a bad harvest in west Africa – which produces 70% of the world’s beans – reflecting El Niño-linked weather patterns and disease. Major processing plants in Ghana and Ivory Coast, the main growers, have halted or reduced operations because they cannot afford the beans. But underlying the crisis are longer-term issues including the climate crisis and the inability of farmers to invest in production due to their low incomes. Big companies have long claimed that it simply wasn’t viable to pay more for beans. Now they are suddenly finding that they can, in fact, manage to do so when the market demands it. Cocoa amounts for only around a tenth of the costs of producing a bar.
Continue reading...A little sweet, a little sour, rather sticky – and irresistible!
Two oranges have been sitting in the fruit bowl since 24 January. I can be precise thanks to the boastful photographs of marmalade I took on 25 January, having bought the fruit the day before. Only half the oranges became marmalade (which filled 10 jars and made every surface in the kitchen sticky), so to start with a dozen or so sat in the bowl. They are not bitter oranges, nor are they sweet, which is why they have been consumed so slowly, watching other fruit come, go and succumb to rot (something these last two seem immune to).
They have shrunk, of course, and, like all ageing creatures, developed plenty of fine lines and open pores, but otherwise remain in excellent orange health, while their rich, oily scent is stronger than ever. In her Fruit Book, Jane Grigson notes that the word “orange” can be traced back 3,000 years, to an ancient Indian language called Dravidian, and the word naranga, which means “perfume within”. The fruit and name migrated, first into Persian and Arabic, then to European languages; narancs in Hungarian, naranja in Spanish, which morphed into the Italian arancia and the French narange, and then lost its “n”, giving us orange – both the fruit and the colour.
Discover this recipe and over 1,000 more from your favourite cooks on the new Guardian Feast app, with smart features to make everyday cooking easier and more fun
Continue reading...Dublin records near-doubling of tax revenue from duties on imports of clothing, food and other goods from Great Britain
Ireland has landed a €700m (£600m) Brexit bonanza with a steep increase in tax revenues flowing from customs duties now applicable to imports of clothing, food and other goods from Great Britain.
Before Brexit, Britain enjoyed customs-free exports to Ireland and the rest of the EU because it was part of the single market and customs union.
Continue reading...Analysts say impact on wheat, barley, oats and oilseed rape harvests means price rises on beer, bread and biscuits and more food imported
UK harvests of important crops could be down by nearly a fifth this year due to the unprecedented wet weather farmers have faced, increasing the likelihood that the prices of bread, beer and biscuits will rise.
Analysis by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) has estimated that the amount of wheat, barley, oats and oilseed rape could drop by 4m tonnes this year, a reduction of 17.5% compared with 2023.
Continue reading...You don’t really ever need extra reasons to visit Denmark, but the country’s sheer variety of cultural highlights looks set to enliven any stay this year
Stargazing, seals and sandbanks in Mandø
Denmark’s wilderness zones and sparsely populated isles have long been havens for nature lovers and stargazers. Mandø, on the south-west coast of Jutland, is the most recent addition to the country’s four Dark Sky Parks. A small island in the Wadden Sea National Park, Mandø is most easily accessed at low tide via tractor bus over the causeway from the mainland – adding to the adventure and reducing the chances of latecomers’ annoying car headlights ruining your night vision. By day, you’ll likely want to visit the lovingly preserved, thatched and white-walled Mandø House museum (an early 19th-century shipmaster’s home), not to mention the island’s landmark windmill and church. Observe thriving seal and migratory bird species on a bike ride around the marshes and sandbanks.
Raise a glass to (probably) the world’s best beer
Not content with producing, probably, the best beer in the world, Carlsberg has created the impressive Carlsberg City District in one of Copenhagen’s most historic quarters. The recently completed Home of Carlsberg is the result of an extensive five-year museum revamp to bring history to life through interactive displays and guided tours of the old cellars. With a beautifully appointed gallery of vintage bottles, a stable with draught horses that hark back to the days of carts hauling barrels through Copenhagen’s cobbled streets, and tasting sessions too, if you’re in Copenhagen and you love beer, this is one not to be missed. Definitely.
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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 state says EMTALA, a law barring discrimination in emergency medical care, interferes with its abortion ban.
The post Idaho Goes to the Supreme Court to Argue That Pregnant People Are Second-Class Citizens appeared first on The Intercept.
U.S. military service members interviewed for a congressional inquiry said intelligence reports about how bad the situation is were being suppressed.
The post U.S. Troops in Niger Say They’re “Stranded” and Can’t Get Mail, Medicine appeared first on The Intercept.
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On the last day of his Huginn mission, ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen takes us on a tour of the place he called home for 6 months: the International Space Station. From the beautiful views of Cupola to the kitchen in Node 1 filled with food and friends and all the way to the science of Columbus, the Space Station is the work and living place for astronauts as they help push science forward.
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
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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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For years, the political establishment opportunistically railed against sex trafficking. Then came Pizzagate.
The post QAnon Was Born Out of the Sex Ad Moral Panic That Took Down Backpage.com appeared first on The Intercept.
Evidence points to Absolute Standards as the source of a lethal drug the Trump administration used to restart federal executions after 17 years.
The post “Little Home Market”: The Connecticut Company Accused of Fueling an Execution Spree appeared first on The Intercept.
Facebook and Instagram owner given five days to address Brussels’ concerns it is failing to counter ‘deceptive advertising’ or monitor content
The EU has launched formal proceedings against Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, amid concerns it is not doing enough to counter disinformation before the EU elections in June.
Thierry Breton, the commissioner responsible for the internal market, has given the tech firm five days to address commission concerns that it is breaching new laws.
Continue reading...Gordon Brown challenged Conservative ideas to fix the economy. His successors unfortunately will not
When Labour’s Gordon Brown embraced “post neo-classical endogenous growth theory” in 1994, he was ridiculed by his opponents. This said more about his critics than Mr Brown. His speech reflected an engagement with academic debates as well as a worldview and diagnosis distinct from Tory narratives. He judged education to be key, as growth depended on human capital. By contrast, today Labour’s top team struggles to say exactly what they believe will drive growth and how they will achieve it.
Part of the reason is that mainstream economics is proving incapable of giving sensible answers to important questions. Whether it is the financial crash, the pandemic or inflation shocks, the response is that spending cuts are needed as public debt threatens to bankrupt the nation. Many economists are questioning their discipline’s worth. Last month, the Nobel laureate Angus Deaton blogged that economics was in “disarray” and had “largely stopped thinking about ethics”. Jeremy Rudd of the US Federal Reserve writes scornfully in his latest book, A Practical Guide to Macroeconomics, that economists’ role today is to justify “what elite interests want to do anyway: deregulate, pay fewer taxes, keep wages as low as possible”.
Continue reading...The effectiveness of Tinder and Hinge is hard to judge without access to their data. But now researchers are creating a free alternative with full transparency
A class-action lawsuit filed in a US federal court last Valentine’s Day accuses Match Group – the owners of Tinder, Hinge and OkCupid dating apps, among others – of using a “predatory business model” and of doing everything in its power to keep users hooked, in flagrant opposition to Hinge’s claim that it is “designed to be deleted”.
The lawsuit crystallised an ocean of dissatisfaction with the apps, and stimulated a new round of debate over their potential to harm mental health, but for scientists who study romantic relationships it sidestepped the central issue: do they work? Does using the apps increase your chances of finding your soulmate, or not? The answer is, nobody knows.
Continue reading...Researchers are calling for the retraction of misleading anti-abortion studies that could influence judges in critical cases
The retraction of three peer-reviewed articles prominently cited in court cases on the so-called abortion pill – mifepristone – has put a group of papers by anti-abortion researchers in the scientific limelight.
Seventeen sexual and reproductive health researchers are calling for four peer-reviewed studies by anti-abortion researchers to be retracted or amended. The papers, critics contend, are “fatally flawed” and muddy the scientific consensus for courts and lawmakers who lack the scientific training to understand their methodological flaws.
Continue reading...House is back in session with Republicans looking to denounce Biden over immigration policy and a bill to allow oil production on protected Alaskan land
The first week of Donald Trump’s hush-money trial in New York centered on the testimony of David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer tabloid.
He elaborated on the tactic of “catch and kill”, which is when a publication negotiates exclusive rights to stories to prevent their publication, and whether or not Trump was attempting to carry out such a scheme ahead of his 2016 election victory.
Continue reading...Nigeria has gotten billions in U.S. security assistance, even as its counterterrorism campaign has a massive civilian death toll.
The post Biden Says He Told Nigeria to Kill Fewer Civilians — but Nigeria Keeps Killing Lots of Civilians appeared first on The Intercept.
Despite talk of a Nobel peace prize, Japan’s leader is facing a backlash among voters as key byelection approaches
In the past fortnight Fumio Kishida has been mentioned as a possible recipient of the Nobel peace prize and praised for a speech to congress in which he urged the US not to retreat into isolation.
But since his return to Tokyo after a successful summit with Joe Biden, Japan’s prime minister has been buffeted by domestic political headwinds that this weekend could spell the beginning of the end of his administration.
Continue reading...Polls predict ANC likely to lose parliamentary majority, due to high unemployment and wealth inequality
South Africa marked 30 years since the end of apartheid and the birth of its democracy with a ceremony in the capital that included a 21-gun salute and the waving of the country’s multicoloured flag.
Any sense of celebration on the momentous anniversary was however set against a growing discontent with the current government.
Continue reading...A measure passed by the House seeks to block Americans from traveling to Iran on U.S. passports.
The post House Responds to Israeli-Iranian Missile Exchange by Taking Rights Away From Americans appeared first on The Intercept.
Rights chief also warns Britain will be ‘judged harshly by history for its failure to help prevent civilian slaughter in Gaza’
The UK has been accused by Amnesty International of “deliberately destabilising” human rights on the global stage for its own political ends.
In its annual global report, released today, the organisation said Britain was weakening human rights protections nationally and globally, amid a near-breakdown of international law.
Continue reading...The state says EMTALA, a law barring discrimination in emergency medical care, interferes with its abortion ban.
The post Idaho Goes to the Supreme Court to Argue That Pregnant People Are Second-Class Citizens appeared first on The Intercept.
If the courts agree to vacate the conviction, Lucio will have spent 16 years on death row for a crime that never happened.
The post A Prosecutor Asked Texas to Kill Melissa Lucio. Now He Says She Should Be Freed. appeared first on The Intercept.
The White House brushes off accusations of hypocrisy, courting TikTok while seeking to ban it.
The post As Biden Cheers TikTok Ban, White House Embraces TikTok Influencers appeared first on The Intercept.
Supporters worry Khan’s life is in danger and with good reason: The military has a long history of killing deposed leaders.
The post Chuck Schumer Privately Warns Pakistan: Don’t Kill Imran Khan in Prison 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 smears spurred Austrian police to raid Islamophobia scholar Farid Hafez’s family home. Then the terrorism charges fell apart.
The post Lawsuit Links Wild UAE-Financed Smear Campaign to George Washington University appeared first on The Intercept.
“Yes I’m a Republican and I exclusively supported John through the Jewish community for his principled actions supporting Israel.”
The post Since October, Sen. John Fetterman Has Been Building a Roster of Republican Donors appeared first on The Intercept.
U.S. military service members interviewed for a congressional inquiry said intelligence reports about how bad the situation is were being suppressed.
The post U.S. Troops in Niger Say They’re “Stranded” and Can’t Get Mail, Medicine 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.
Parties appearing before the Supreme Court can fund the groups that file briefs supporting their arguments — and almost never have to disclose it.
The post The Gaping Hole in Supreme Court Rules for Tracking Links Between Litigants and Influence Groups appeared first on The Intercept.
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Zoopla reports the annual mortgage repayments for the average buyer in 2024 have now reached £11,400. 61% higher than 3 years ago
New inflation data today has shown that prices rose in four German states this month.
In Bavaria, the annual inflation rate rose in April to 2.5% from 2.3% in March, in Brandenburg it rose to 3.0% from 2.8%, in Saxony it rose to 2.7% from 2.5%, and in Hesse it rose to 1.9% from 1.6%.
Continue reading...Yun Chuan and Xin Bao, who are five and four, have a trip planned to southern California as part of partnership between US and China
A pair of giant pandas will soon make the journey from China to the US, where they will be cared for at the San Diego zoo as part of an ongoing conservation partnership between the two nations, officials said on Monday.
The San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance said its caretakers recently visited China to meet the giant pandas, Yun Chuan and Xin Bao, ahead of their planned trip to southern California. An exact date for the handoff has not been set.
Continue reading...  | submitted by /u/chrisdh79 [link] [comments] |
Deal to use mapping data from web search giant Baidu is a big step towards launching driver assistance tech in world’s biggest car market
Elon Musk’s visit to China has reportedly reaped immediate rewards with a deal for Tesla to use mapping data provided by web search company Baidu, a big step in introducing driver assistance technology in the world’s largest car market.
Musk made an unannounced visit to China over the weekend. The billionaire posted a picture of his meeting with the Chinese premier, Li Qiang, on X, the social network he took over in 2022.
Continue reading...  | submitted by /u/Puginator [link] [comments] |
With tourists struggling to access the two primary digital payment apps, Alipay and WeChat pay, Beijing has put measures in place to make cash payments easier
For 18 years, Liu Yau-li has been bringing tourists to China. In that time she’s seen the full evolution of China’s digital payment system. Twenty years ago, she says, everyone used cash. But today it’s not unusual to find places that can’t or won’t accept cash at all, particularly after the pandemic when much of the world grew wary of handling shared items.
If visitors want to enjoy convenient travel, she says, they’re better off downloading one of the major payment apps and hoping it works for them.
Continue reading...Tim Loughton had sanctions imposed on him in 2021 by Beijing, which has close ties to east African country
A former government minister who has had sanctions imposed on him by China has said he was detained and deported by Djibouti as a “direct consequence” of the east African country’s close ties with Beijing.
Tim Loughton, the Conservative MP for East Worthing and Shoreham since 1997, said he was held for more than seven hours at the airport earlier this month, barred entry to Djibouti, and told he was being removed on the next available flight.
Continue reading...Tesla boss reportedly meets Premier Li Qiang in visit aimed at sealing rollout of Autopilot software and transferring data overseas
The Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, arrived on an unannounced visit to Beijing on Sunday where he is expected to meet senior officials to discuss the rollout of full self-driving software and permission to transfer data overseas, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
Chinese state media reported that he held talks with the country’s premier, Li Qiang, during which Li told Musk that Tesla’s development in China could be seen as a successful example of US-China economic and trade cooperation.
Continue reading...Girl of between 12 and 16 was making her first appearance at Evo Japan as contests previously finished past her bedtime
A girl scored a win at one of Japan’s top fighting video game contests, in a competitive puzzle game released before she was born.
The girl, known as “Money Idol-chan” after the game she competed in, has grown up playing competitive video games. Since 2022, her parents have run Anegasaki Shooting Star, a tiny arcade on the east side of Tokyo Bay. Her name has not been released and her age has been given only as between 12 and 16.
Continue reading...Despite talk of a Nobel peace prize, Japan’s leader is facing a backlash among voters as key byelection approaches
In the past fortnight Fumio Kishida has been mentioned as a possible recipient of the Nobel peace prize and praised for a speech to congress in which he urged the US not to retreat into isolation.
But since his return to Tokyo after a successful summit with Joe Biden, Japan’s prime minister has been buffeted by domestic political headwinds that this weekend could spell the beginning of the end of his administration.
Continue reading...The Indian PM may still be in a strong position; but incendiary, anti-Muslim rhetoric shows that all may not be going to plan
When Narendra Modi ran for prime minister for the first time in 2014, his overriding aim was to convince voters that he was a different man – no longer the chief minister of the western state of Gujarat, where, under his watch, more than 1,000 people were massacred in a communal pogrom in 2002. (A British government report found Modi “directly responsible” for not stopping the killing of Muslims; he has always denied culpability and was cleared of all charges by the supreme court.) Modi was going to be the man who would transform India by ushering in vikas, or economic development, for everyone.
His record as prime minister in the past decade belies that. Now the mask has fallen completely. In a recent campaign rally in Rajasthan, Modi made an exceptionally incendiary speech in which he claimed that his predecessor, Manmohan Singh, had declared that Muslims had “the first claim” to the nation’s resources. This was distortion and exaggeration. The reference was to a speech that Singh had made in 2006 about India’s development priorities.
Continue reading...A little sweet, a little sour, rather sticky – and irresistible!
Two oranges have been sitting in the fruit bowl since 24 January. I can be precise thanks to the boastful photographs of marmalade I took on 25 January, having bought the fruit the day before. Only half the oranges became marmalade (which filled 10 jars and made every surface in the kitchen sticky), so to start with a dozen or so sat in the bowl. They are not bitter oranges, nor are they sweet, which is why they have been consumed so slowly, watching other fruit come, go and succumb to rot (something these last two seem immune to).
They have shrunk, of course, and, like all ageing creatures, developed plenty of fine lines and open pores, but otherwise remain in excellent orange health, while their rich, oily scent is stronger than ever. In her Fruit Book, Jane Grigson notes that the word “orange” can be traced back 3,000 years, to an ancient Indian language called Dravidian, and the word naranga, which means “perfume within”. The fruit and name migrated, first into Persian and Arabic, then to European languages; narancs in Hungarian, naranja in Spanish, which morphed into the Italian arancia and the French narange, and then lost its “n”, giving us orange – both the fruit and the colour.
Discover this recipe and over 1,000 more from your favourite cooks on the new Guardian Feast app, with smart features to make everyday cooking easier and more fun
Continue reading...Parties clash over communal issues in increasingly charged campaign amid concerns unseasonably hot weather affecting voter numbers
India has held the second phase of the world’s biggest election, with prime minister Narendra Modi and his rivals hurling accusations of religious discrimination and threats to democracy amid flagging voter turnout.
Almost 1 billion people are eligible to vote in the seven-phase general election that began on 19 April and concludes on 1 June, with votes set to be counted on 4 June.
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.
Evidence points to Absolute Standards as the source of a lethal drug the Trump administration used to restart federal executions after 17 years.
The post “Little Home Market”: The Connecticut Company Accused of Fueling an Execution Spree appeared first on The Intercept.
The White House brushes off accusations of hypocrisy, courting TikTok while seeking to ban it.
The post As Biden Cheers TikTok Ban, White House Embraces TikTok Influencers appeared first on The Intercept.
For the first time, government military spending increased in all five geographical regions, Sipri thinktank finds
Global military expenditure has reached a record high of $2440bn (£1970bn) after the largest annual rise in government spending on arms in over a decade, according to a report.
The 6.8% increase between 2022 and 2023 was the steepest since 2009, pushing spending to the highest recorded by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) in its 60-year history.
Continue reading...Four buildings destroyed in blast that also damaged homes in nearby villages
An ammunition explosion at a base in south-western Cambodia has killed 20 soldiers and wounded several others, the prime minister has said.
Hun Manet said in a Facebook post that he was “deeply shocked” when he received the news of Saturday afternoon’s blast at the base in Kampong Speu province. The cause was not immediately clear.
Continue reading...Supporters worry Khan’s life is in danger and with good reason: The military has a long history of killing deposed leaders.
The post Chuck Schumer Privately Warns Pakistan: Don’t Kill Imran Khan in Prison appeared first on The Intercept.
Government tells operators they must join cooperatives by Tuesday and gradually replace their vehicles with greener options
A three-day strike by drivers of jeepneys in the Philippines began on Monday as transport groups warned that thousands could be pushed off the roads by government modernisation plans.
The jeepney is the backbone of the Philippines’ transport system. The customised, privately-owned buses, which look like a cross between a Jeep and a van and are decorated in flamboyant colours, ply routes in neighbourhood streets and city centres, offering rides for as little as 13 pesos (23 US cents). They have featured in pop songs and films – Pope Francis even travelled through Manila in a jeepney-inspired popemobile.
Continue reading...Despite eventual visa backflip by authorities, ABC’s south-Asia correspondent Avani Dias left after being made to ‘feel so uncomfortable’
The south-Asia correspondent for Australia’s national broadcaster, Avani Dias, has been forced out of India after her reporting fell foul of the Indian government, in a sign of the increasing pressure on journalists in the country under Narendra Modi.
Dias, who has been based in Delhi for the ABC since January 2022, said she felt the government had made it “too difficult” for her to continue to do her job, claiming it blocked her from accessing events, issued takedown notices to YouTube for her news stories, and then refused her a standard visa renewal.
Continue reading...Opposition says prime minister targeting Muslim minority with ‘hate speech’ and violating election rules
India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, has been accused of hate speech during a campaign rally where he called Muslims “infiltrators” who had “many children” and claimed they would take people’s hard-earned money.
The opposition accused Modi of “blatantly targeting” India’s 200 million Muslim minority with comments made while addressing voters at a speech in Rajasthan on Sunday.
Continue reading...Thousands of civilians flee as resistance fighters fight to flush out soldiers holed up at eastern bridge border crossing
Fighting raged at Myanmar’s eastern border with Thailand on Saturday, both governments said, forcing 3,000 civilians to flee as rebels fought to flush out Myanmar junta troops holed up for days at a bridge border crossing.
Resistance fighters and ethnic minority rebels seized the key trading town of Myawaddy on the Myanmar side of the frontier on 11 April, a blow to a well-equipped military struggling to govern and facing a test of battlefield credibility.
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