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He’s 93, he’s run 52 marathons and he’s in the gym six days a week: can this man teach us how to age well?
Sun, 05 May 2024 13:00:11 GMT
Known to his friends as the Legend, John Starbrook is living, breathing proof of the power of exercise and enthusiasm. I tried to keep up with him – and barely survived
I like to think of myself as a strong swimmer. I’m not fast, I can’t dive or tumble turn, but when I get a lane to myself I’ll happily bash out 50 or 60 lengths. Give me a nice big lake, and my idea of heaven is to backstroke into the middle and watch the swallows overhead. I don’t worry that I’ll cramp up or suddenly forget how to float.
But I’ve never fancied water polo. If you’ve not watched it, it’s a sort of cross between swimming, basketball and wrestling, usually played in a pool that’s so deep you have to tread water or drown. There are two teams, two goals, a large ball and an ungodly amount of throwing, catching and flat-out sprinting. Aquatics GB, the governing body, says players can swim two miles in a single game, and need “remarkable stamina” to cope with all the holding and pushing.
Continue reading...Beware what the fitness gurus tell you: the body has its limits. Perhaps that’s why orthopaedic waiting lists are so long
I am preparing for an anaesthetist to sink a hypodermic needle into my back at a busy London hospital ahead of a scheduled surgery to replace my knee. Knowing this might be painful, I ask a fellow patient how he got his mind around the jab. “Two spliffs of good dope worked for me,” he confessed. I’m yet to try that, but this is my second left knee replacement in less than 15 years – an increasingly common story as our population ages and obesity levels cause growing strain on our joints.
More than 2m hip and knee replacements have been performed in the UK since the early 2000s and waiting lists continue to grow. By 2060, demand for hip and knee joint replacement (based on data for England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man) is estimated to increase by almost 40%.
Continue reading...The Professional Cricketers Association has called for a cut in domestic cricket, warning that fixture congestion is compromising performance and could even result in “disaster” on the roads as exhausted players bounce from match to match.
Figures released by the union after a country-wide study at the start of the current season show that 81% of men’s players have concerns about the physical strain of the schedule and the heightened risk of injury, while 62% expressed similar worries about the impact on mental health. Two-thirds of PCA members believe there is too much domestic cricket, with the union calling the schedule “unfit for purpose”.
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Emerging from Covid’s shadow, the city is resonating with glamour, politics and power – and the traffic jams are building up too
Call it a return to IRL (In Real Life). New Yorkers are experiencing a bracing resumption of the physical experience of living in the city, four years after the onset of the pandemic upended routines, pushed people online and left much of the population, as in so many places, wondering if normality would ever return.
Uptown, police have broken up student protests on the Columbia and City University campuses condemning Israel’s attack on Gaza. Downtown, a furious Donald Trump is commandeering attention from the courthouse on the edge of Chinatown, snarling up traffic as his motorcade travels to and fro. President Biden’s fundraising trips to the city to fund his re-election are having a similar effect.
Continue reading...From a hideaway with star-gazing spectacular enough to keep you off your phone to a ‘burnout’ retreat and a reimagined coastguard lookout
Bordering the Consall Nature Park, a nature reserve featuring 740 acres of woodland, heath and moor, is The Tawny, a “deconstructed hotel”. This means that instead of a single house with rooms there are a collection of boathouses, huts and treehouses scattered around the woodlands and lakes. At the top of the hill is a modern glass building, the Plumicorn restaurant, and a heated outdoor pool looking out over the gardens. Stargazing sessions and night-time meditation are on offer, while spa treatments can be booked in the thatched cottage onsite.
Huts from £240 B&B; thetawny.co.uk
Siblings Callum and Jake Robinson and US citizen Jack Carter Rhoad were travelling on a surfing holiday when they were reported missing
Three people have been arrested on charges of kidnapping after three bodies were found in an area of northern Mexico where two Australian brothers and an American friend went missing.
Perth siblings Callum and Jake Robinson, both in their 30s, were travelling in the region on a surfing holiday, with their friend Jack Carter Rhoad, a US citizen. The trio was reported missing when they failed to check into pre-arranged accommodation near the city of Ensenada last weekend.
Continue reading...Nahla Al-Arian lost more than 200 relatives in Israel's attacks on Gaza. Then Eric Adams said she was the reason police raided Columbia.
The post NYC Mayor Smeared a Grandmother as an “Outside Agitator” to Justify NYPD Assault on Columbia appeared first on The Intercept.
We would like to hear from people who have been affected by postponements and cancellations at the Co-op Live arena
The Co-op Live arena has postponed or cancelled several of its music and comedy shows in recent weeks due to technical problems at the venue. Olivia Rodrigo, Peter Kay and A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie are among the performers whose gigs have been disrupted.
We would like to hear from people who have been affected by the disruptions at the Co-op Live arena. Had you planned to travel to see the show? Will you make it to a rescheduled show?
Continue reading...The far right are on the march in Germany and the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany has become the most popular party in several states. Immigration and a sense of being economically left behind have been driving factors in the rise in popularity but the Green party and the federal government’s climate policies have also borne the brunt of public anger. The Guardian travelled to Görlitz, on the German border with Poland, to find out to what extent Germany’s green policies are fuelling the far right
• How climate policies are becoming focus for far-right attacks in Germany
Continue reading...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.
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.
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...
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.
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...University faculty have put their bodies and livelihoods on the line amid a brutal, violent response to student protests for Gaza.
The post From UCLA to Columbia, Professors Nationwide Defend Students as Politicians and Police Attack appeared first on The Intercept.
The bipartisan duo also praised schools that brought in police to violently quell protests and connected the demonstrations to the TikTok ban.
The post In No Labels Call, Josh Gottheimer, Mike Lawler, and University Trustees Agree: FBI Should Investigate Campus Protests appeared first on The Intercept.
Nahla Al-Arian lost more than 200 relatives in Israel's attacks on Gaza. Then Eric Adams said she was the reason police raided Columbia.
The post NYC Mayor Smeared a Grandmother as an “Outside Agitator” to Justify NYPD Assault on Columbia appeared first on The Intercept.
When police attacked student protesters, a lone trash can was the only damaged property I saw around City College of New York.
The post I’ve Covered Violent Crackdowns on Protests for 15 Years. This Police Overreaction Was Unhinged. appeared first on The Intercept.
The famed scholar on why reducing Hamas to a terrorist label sanctions Israel’s war on Palestinians.
The post Judith Butler Will Not Co-Sign Israel’s Alibi for Genocide appeared first on The Intercept.
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.
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In our age of misinformation, this unsparing study of the many ways in which we can be deceived and how to counter the pernicious effects couldn’t be more timely
“What is truth, said jesting Pilate – and would not stay for an answer.” Thus philosopher Francis Bacon dramatised the opening of his famous Of Truth essay. Every human being alive, he thought, was prey to the bewitching temptation to disregard truth even to the point of deceiving ourselves, and to believe what it pleased us to believe – certainly disregarding truths put to us by others. In Pilate’s view, both Jesus Christ and the high priests urging his crucifixion were no more than partisans of their own particular truths – just like all of us. But, writing more than 400 years ago, Bacon thought that was not good enough. It was crucial, he said, to be honest and have shared truths, and for that he looked to the methodologies being pioneered by science. There were no partisan truths in nature – only immutable laws and facts awaiting discovery.
Today the temptation to believe our own truth to the point of collectively deceiving ourselves, hugely intensified by social media and its accompanying polarisation, has become an everyday talking point – the enemy of democracy and, arguably, civilisation itself. Bacon may have had faith in scientific facts to be the foundations of truth, but alarming proportions of educated people in western democracies do not share his faith even in science, distrusting what it has to say about everything from climate change to vaccination. If a message, especially political or cultural, is uncongenial, retreat to your own truth. Americans approach the 2024 presidential election with mounting foreboding that it will be characterised by industrial-scale misinformation – and there are parallel fears in Britain. Winston Churchill once said a lie can be halfway around the world before the truth can get its pants on – and that was before social media. False stories on X are 70% more likely to be retweeted than true ones – and true stories take six times longer to reach a sample of 1,500 than false ones.
Continue reading...Environmental campaign groups took joint action against decision to approve carbon budget delivery plan
The UK government’s climate action plan is unlawful, the high court has ruled, as there is not enough evidence that there are sufficient policies in place to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The energy secretary, Claire Coutinho, will now be expected to draw up a revised plan within 12 months. This must ensure that the UK achieves its legally binding carbon budgets and its pledge to cut emissions by more than two-thirds by 2030, both of which the government is off track to meet.
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...
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.
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.
The bipartisan duo also praised schools that brought in police to violently quell protests and connected the demonstrations to the TikTok ban.
The post In No Labels Call, Josh Gottheimer, Mike Lawler, and University Trustees Agree: FBI Should Investigate Campus Protests appeared first on The Intercept.
The Israel lobby is expected to start a $20 million ad blitz backing its handpicked candidate against the incumbent Squad member.
The post AIPAC’s Next Top Target? Rep. Jamaal Bowman appeared first on The Intercept.
The pro-Israel group is funneling money through a “pro-science” PAC, according to two members of Congress.
The post AIPAC Is Secretly Intervening in Portland’s Congressional Race to Take Down Susheela Jayapal, Sources Say appeared first on The Intercept.
Republicans accuse president of weak response, but prominent Democrats claim he ‘has been very strong from the beginning’
Some Democrats rallied to the defense of Joe Biden on Sunday as the president came under increased criticism over his response to pro-Palestinian student protests and his handling of Israel’s war on Gaza.
Republicans have seized on Biden’s response to the protests, which have seen more than2,000 people arrested around the country, accusing him of a weak response. But prominent Democrats, including Biden re-election campaign co-chairperson Mitch Landrieu, the former mayor of New Orleans, claimed the president “has been very strong about this from the beginning”.
Continue reading...Party has gained 768 seats, Labour 545 and the Greens 480, while the Conservatives have lost 1,783
The Lib Dems have added more council seats than any other party over the last parliament, gaining more than 750 in the last five years, largely in the south-west and south of England.
As Ed Davey’s party won more seats than the Conservatives in the local elections last week, the Lib Dems said Tories would be “looking over their shoulder terrified” as the general election approached.
Continue reading...From the new mayoralties through to bellwether councils, find out what happened in your area
Continue reading...South Dakota governor and possible Trump running mate says she made ‘a choice between [my children] and a dangerous animal’
The South Dakota governor and Republican vice-presidential hopeful Kristi Noem asked the American public to consider having to “make a choice between your children or a dangerous animal”, as she again defended her killing of a 14-month-old dog.
“I would ask everybody in the country to put themselves in that situation,” Noem told CBS’s Face the Nation about her decision to shoot the dog, named Cricket, after the animal ruined a pheasant hunt and killed a neighbor’s chickens.
Continue reading...In the first of our Politics Weekly Westminster episodes, the Guardian’s political editor Pippa Crerar and political correspondent Kiran Stacey go over the big wins and losses from the local and mayoral elections
Continue reading...South Dakota governor says she met North Korean dictator in same book in which she describes killing her dog
The South Dakota governor, Republican vice-presidential hopeful and self-confessed dog-killer Kristi Noem’s bizarre claim in a new book to have met the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un has been dismissed by experts as “dubious” and not “conceivable”.
The Dakota Scout first reported Noem’s claim, which is in her forthcoming book, No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong With Politics and How We Move America Forward.
Continue reading...The famed scholar on why reducing Hamas to a terrorist label sanctions Israel’s war on Palestinians.
The post Judith Butler Will Not Co-Sign Israel’s Alibi for Genocide appeared first on The Intercept.
Democrat says country is going off track after Trump compares Biden administration to Germany’s fascist secret police
The senior congressional Democrat James Clyburn has responded to remarks made by Donald Trump at a private event on Saturday in which he compared the Biden administration with the Gestapo secret police in fascist Germany, saying it was “incredible, but it’s not surprising”.
The 83-year-old South Carolina Democrat added that Trump “is given to hyperbole on every subject that he ever approaches … The country got off track after that 1876 election and we are approaching the same kinds of elements today.”
Continue reading...University faculty have put their bodies and livelihoods on the line amid a brutal, violent response to student protests for Gaza.
The post From UCLA to Columbia, Professors Nationwide Defend Students as Politicians and Police Attack appeared first on The Intercept.
Pat McFadden says local election results give the party confidence it can win ‘blue wall’ seats that are ‘turning red’
Labour is planning to target the south of England heavily at the general election as the local election results show some “blue wall” seats are turning red, Keir Starmer’s election chief has said.
The shadow cabinet minister Pat McFadden said Labour was advancing in southern Tory heartlands and it was wrong to think the Lib Dems were the only challengers to the Conservatives in the south.
Continue reading...Bernie Evans bemoans the party’s centre-right policies and lack of radicalism to really inspire voters. Plus letters from Lyn Dade, Keith Flett, Jimmy McCluskey and Dr Mark Wilcox
Keir Starmer’s party has not only, as Jonathan Freedland says, sought “to reassure Tory switchers” that they have nothing to worry about, in doing so it has remoulded itself into a centre-right conservative Labour party, with policies so moderate that they’re in danger of Tory adoption prior to the election (Triumphant Starmer already seems like the prime minister. Now his troubles really begin, 3 May). Like the effect of Joe Biden’s weak stance over Gaza, the real danger is that many voters will “cast their ballots for alternatives to Sir Keir” (The Guardian view on local elections: voters aren’t listening to Tories, but are hearing Labour, 3 May).
Does Freedland seriously believe that if the Gaza situation is “sufficiently calmed” come election day, voters are so fickle that they will have forgotten Starmer’s refusal to support an immediate ceasefire, or his hesitation about whether Israel has the right to withhold power and water from Gaza?
Continue reading...In the first of our Politics Weekly Westminster episodes, the Guardian’s political editor Pippa Crerar and political correspondent Kiran Stacey go over the big wins and losses from the local and mayoral elections
Continue reading...Come to Thurrock, where the Tory council went bankrupt, services are depleted and costs are up. People feel victims of a terrible injustice
Late last Monday, I got home from a long day of political reporting to find a political leaflet produced by the Conservative party. It had nothing do with the local elections; where I live, the only contest was the rather underwhelming vote on a new police and crime commissioner. Instead, what it said looked ahead to the general election.
“Inflation down, wages up, taxes being cut – let’s stick with the plan that’s working,” it read. There were pithy paragraphs about “ensuring high-quality education and childcare for all children”, and “better transport for our community”. As with a lot of what we now hear from the ruling party, I read it as a sign that the government’s pitch to voters had decisively tipped into brazen self-satire. Its implied portrait of everyday life seemed to describe another country. Each promise and boast only highlighted yet another unmentioned failure.
Continue reading...Three key economic indicators loom large but none offer great hope for the Conservatives’ survival
Tory MPs have been busy this past week and probably not found the time to watch Shardlake, the adaptation of CJ Sansom’s book set during the dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530s, but once the dust has settled from last week’s elections they might want to take a look.
This was a turbulent period. Having forced through his own version of Brexit through the break with Rome, Henry VIII then in effect nationalised the assets of religious houses dotted around England, Wales and Ireland. It was a seminal moment in the development of British capitalism and the nation state.
Continue reading...Last week, Conservative campaigning gave a chilling indication of the depths to which they will sink to retain power
In the psychedelic 60s stop-frame animation children’s television series Trumpton, all the characters have identifying proper names – the fireman Captain Flack, the state stormtrooper Police Constable Potter, and the mysterious dungeon-dwelling economist Gideon Pencils Osborne. The mayor of Trumpton, however, was known only as The Mayor, and neither his actual name nor his political affiliations were ever revealed, though he smelt of pubs and Wormwood Scrubs and too many rightwing meetings.
All over the land last week, Tory mayors dreamed of similar anonymity, hoping that if no one knew anything about them, and their campaign literature didn’t reveal they belonged to the Tory party, people might at least vote for them by accident, thinking they were someone else. “Oh! Andy Street was the West Midlands’ Tory mayor candidate? I thought I was voting for the glamorous, and now deceased, Welsh wrestler Adrian Street. I liked it when he pulled out Jimmy Savile’s hair in 1971.”
Stewart Lee’s new live show, Stewart Lee vs the Man-Wulf, opens in London in December before a national tour
Keir Starmer says the prime minister has no option but to call a general election
Rishi Sunak was dealt a series of shattering blows last night as Labour won a knife-edge battle to seize the West Midlands mayoralty from the Conservatives and Sadiq Khan trounced his Tory rival in London to secure a third term.
The results, along with decisive victories for Labour’s Andy Burnham in Greater Manchester, Steve Rotheram in Liverpool and Tracy Brabin in West Yorkshire, left Labour in charge of most of England’s mayoralties.
Continue reading...Ahead of the byelection in Blackpool South, the Guardian takes the temperature in the once prosperous northern coastal town, with many voters expressing complete apathy and disdain for the state of politics.
The area is going to the polls because the former Tory MP Scott Benton resigned after being found guilty of breaching standards rules in a lobbying scandal. Labour is hopeful of taking back the seat, which Benton won with a majority of 3,690 in 2019
Polls open in England’s local elections with Tories braced for heavy losse
Analysis: Will Tories dump Rishi Sunak if election results worse than expected?
Depending on the expert, either Biden or Trump is likely to pull ahead, but nothing about this election – especially events – is predictable
“You know what I hate?” Donald Trump asked in Freeland, Michigan, on Wednesday night. “When these guys get on television, they say – pundits, you know, the great pundits that never did a thing in their whole lives – ‘You know, we have two very unpopular candidates. We have Biden or we have Trump. These are very unpopular.’”
Watched by a crowd of adoring fans in Make America Great Again (Maga) regalia, against the backdrop of a plane marked “Trump” in giant gold letters, the former US president protested a little too much: “I’m not unpopular!”
Continue reading...A tale of two Americas.
The post Cable News Viewers Have a Skewed Attitude Toward Gaza War, Survey Finds appeared first on The Intercept.
Former England cricketer Monty Panesar is to stand for parliament, but he doesn’t seem to know what his own policies are
There’s an old adage that says sport and politics don’t mix. It’s a moot point with persuasive arguments on both sides. But in light of former England spin bowler Monty Panesar’s jaw-dropping radio interview last week as George Galloway’s Workers Party of Britain’s prospective candidate for Ealing Southall, west London, in the next election, perhaps a more pertinent question is whether sportspeople and politics are a propitious union.
Panesar, once described as the “best finger spinner in the world”, was asked about the party’s commitment to leave Nato, which is one of its key policies. He admitted that he didn’t have a “deep knowledge” of Nato but explained that his party wanted to quit the military alliance to prevent illegal immigration.
Continue reading...Emerging from Covid’s shadow, the city is resonating with glamour, politics and power – and the traffic jams are building up too
Call it a return to IRL (In Real Life). New Yorkers are experiencing a bracing resumption of the physical experience of living in the city, four years after the onset of the pandemic upended routines, pushed people online and left much of the population, as in so many places, wondering if normality would ever return.
Uptown, police have broken up student protests on the Columbia and City University campuses condemning Israel’s attack on Gaza. Downtown, a furious Donald Trump is commandeering attention from the courthouse on the edge of Chinatown, snarling up traffic as his motorcade travels to and fro. President Biden’s fundraising trips to the city to fund his re-election are having a similar effect.
Continue reading...Congress party’s Arun Reddy held over fake video of interior minister Amit Shah
Indian police have said they have arrested the social media chief of the country’s main opposition party over a doctored video widely shared during the ongoing national election.
Arun Reddy of the Congress party was detained late on Friday in connection with the edited footage, which falsely shows India’s powerful interior minister, Amit Shah, vowing in a campaign speech to end affirmative action policies for millions of poor and low-caste Indians.
Continue reading...Trailers for fake five-episode series use broadcast clips to poke fun at Conservative prime ministers
Chaos, drama, sleaze and scandal – it sounds like the background to a prestige TV show, but it could also describe 14 years of Conservative government.
It’s this overlap that Labour is riffing on as the party releases trailers for Chaos & Decline, a spoof five-episode series stitching together broadcast clips of low moments under Conservative rule that pokes fun at Tory MPs while telling the story of the damage wreaked on UK society and the economy under the party’s five prime ministers.
Continue reading...The business and trade secretary played into the ideological tosh that the wonders of the Industrial Revolution were funded by beer brewers and sheep farmers
Britain ran an empire for centuries that at its peak 100 years ago occupied just under a quarter of the world’s land area. Yet if you believe “Imperial Measurement”, a report released last week from the rightwing Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), the net economic impact of this vast empire on Britain was negligible, even negative.
If you thought the empire profoundly shaped our industry, trade and financial institutions, with slavery an inherent part of the equation, helped turbocharge the Industrial Revolution and underwrote what was the world’s greatest navy for 150 years, think again. The contribution of the transatlantic trade in enslaved people to our economy was trumped by domestic brewing and sheep farming, opines the IEA. The tax “burden” of defending this barely profitable empire was not worth the candle. Instead, it was free-market economics that unleashed British economic growth – a truth that must be restated before Marxists and reparation-seeking ex-colonies start controlling the narrative.
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk
Continue reading...Nahla Al-Arian lost more than 200 relatives in Israel's attacks on Gaza. Then Eric Adams said she was the reason police raided Columbia.
The post NYC Mayor Smeared a Grandmother as an “Outside Agitator” to Justify NYPD Assault on Columbia appeared first on The Intercept.
Péter Magyar, who is running in European elections, has shot to prominence by pledging to end corruption
A rising challenger to the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has held what he has called the largest countryside political demonstration in the country’s recent history on the latest stop of his campaign tour that has mobilised thousands across Hungary’s rural heartland.
About 10,000 people gathered in Debrecen, Hungary’s second-largest city, in support of Péter Magyar, a political newcomer who has shot to prominence in less than three months by pledging to end official corruption and reverse the declining quality of life in the country.
Supporters endured a brief but unexpected rain shower before the afternoon demonstration, turning the city’s central square into a sea of umbrellas. They waved Hungarian flags bearing the names of towns and villages across the country from which they had come.
“Today, the vast majority of the Hungarian people are tired of the ruling elite, of the hatred, apathy, propaganda and artificial divides,” Magyar told the crowd. “Hungarians today want cooperation, love, unity and peace.”
Magyar, a former insider in Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party, has since February denounced the nationalist Orbán since February as running an entrenched “mafia state” and declared war on what he calls the government’s propaganda machine.
His party, Tisza, which stands for Respect and Freedom, has announced it will run 12 candidates in the European elections on 9 June, with Magyar appearing first on the party list. It has also announced it will run four candidates in local council elections in Budapest.
I used to be an avid user of TikTok, but the algorithm serves much less delight and serendipity than it used to
TikTok is facing its most credible existential threat yet. Last week, the US Congress passed a bill that bans the short-form video app if it does not sell to an American company by this time next year. But as a former avid user whose time on the app has dropped sharply in recent months, I am left wondering – will I even be using the app a year from now?
Like many Americans of my demographic (aging millennial), I first started using TikTok regularly when the Covid-19 pandemic began and lockdowns gave many of us more time than we knew how to fill.
Continue reading... submitted by /u/Anoth3rDude [link] [comments] |
The Israel lobby failed to take down Rep. Summer Lee. They’ve now set their sights on Reps. Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush.
The post Let’s Check In on AIPAC’s Assault on the Squad appeared first on The Intercept.
The far right are on the march in Germany and the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany has become the most popular party in several states. Immigration and a sense of being economically left behind have been driving factors in the rise in popularity but the Green party and the federal government’s climate policies have also borne the brunt of public anger. The Guardian travelled to Görlitz, on the German border with Poland, to find out to what extent Germany’s green policies are fuelling the far right
• How climate policies are becoming focus for far-right attacks in Germany
Continue reading...Albanese acknowledges ‘very important work’ of Muslim community in alerting police over Sunday incident. Follow today’s news live
‘Lower the temperature’ on protests at university campuses, education minister says
The education minister was also asked about the pro-Palestine encampments taking place across Australian universities, and whether they should be allowed to continue for as long as students are willing to man them.
There’s always going to be protests in a democracy, that’s part of being a democracy. What there’s no place for is hate or violence or prejudice or discrimination and certainly no place [for] antisemitism or Islamophobia – whether it’s on our university campuses or anywhere else in the country.
What I’d say is that we’ve just got to lower the temperature. You know, what’s happening on the other side of the world is trying to pull our country apart. We’ve got to work together – whether it’s politicians or religious leaders or community leaders, whether it’s the media, or student representatives – to work to keep our country together, not let it get pulled apart.
There’ll be a lot of people who will still be able to work at the same time as they’re doing [placements]. But there are people who can’t [and] this will provide that bit of extra help to pay the bills, put food on the table, pay for transport, sometimes the relocation costs that come with prac.
The commonwealth government hasn’t done this before. This is the first time that this has happened. It’s happened in the in response to calls from students – both teaching students and nursing students and social work students – across the country, and it’s come out of the work for the universities accord team that heard loud and clear that there is placement poverty in this country.
Continue reading...Governments in Westminster and Edinburgh urged to engage with Petroineos to save Scotland’s sole remaining oil refinery
The UK and Scottish governments have been asked to arrange urgent talks to protect the future of Scotland’s only remaining oil refinery at Grangemouth.
Daniel Johnson, Scottish Labour’s economy spokesperson, has written to PetroChina, part of the joint venture that owns the site, seeking to discuss the future of the complex where oil refining is due to cease next year.
Continue reading...Graeme McCormick said he had the support to run but is backing former Scottish deputy first minister, who is sole official candidate
A Scottish National party activist has pulled out of the race to become its new leader and has endorsed John Swinney as Scotland’s next first minister.
Graeme McCormick, who stood to become SNP president in 2023, earlier claimed he could gather the 100 signatures needed from 20 different party branches to mount a challenge for the leadership.
Continue reading...About 100 people attended Republic rally in central London, with parallel events in Edinburgh and Cardiff
A 15ft dinosaur called “Chuck the Rex” was the centrepiece of a rally calling for the abolition of the monarchy ahead of the first anniversary of King Charles’s coronation.
It will be a year since the king’s coronation on Monday, when gun salutes across the capital will commemorate his reign.
Continue reading...About 52,000 people are eligible under the scheme, but a government spokesperson said Kigali would accept ‘thousands’
Rwanda has admitted it cannot guarantee how many people it will take from the UK under Rishi Sunak’s deportation scheme.
The east African country did not give assurances that the estimated 52,000 asylum seekers in the UK who are eligible to be sent to Kigali would be accepted, instead saying it would be “thousands”.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Party insiders say departure of Hilary Schan could mark start of end for grassroots leftwing group
Momentum’s future is “hanging in the balance” after the leftwing grassroots group’s co-chair resigned and quit Labour to campaign for the Green party and independent candidates.
Hilary Schan said she had begun contemplating her role within Labour in October when councillors first expressed their frustrations over the leadership’s “unwillingness to show value to the humanity of Palestinian lives”.
Continue reading...Shyamol Banerji responds to an article by Mihir Bose on the country coming to terms with its colonial past
Mihir Bose’s experiences in the UK resonate somewhat with my own (I came to Britain from India, fulfilled a dream, and I say this: we’re a great country, but a work in progress, 30 April). In 1966, as a 14-year-old, I arrived at Tilbury Docks on a cold foggy morning aboard the SS Himalaya. My father, on temporary assignment in the UK, was able to get me admission to Westminster City grammar, a five-minute walk from Buckingham Palace. I was the only Indian; the racism I faced was not vicious but muted, often manifested through jokes and accent mimicry.
There is a certain advantage to being a minority of one versus a group. People are more accommodating. However, I still remember the first joke from school: “Did you hear about the Indian who lived with a cow?”
Continue reading...Midwives and social workers will also be given $320 weekly payment for undertaking mandatory work placements at university
Student teachers, nurses, midwives and social workers will receive a $320 weekly payment during their mandatory placements under a new cost-of-living measure in the May budget.
The Albanese government will establish a commonwealth practical payment for 68,000 university students and 5,000 vocational education and training students undertaking mandatory workplace placements as part of their courses.
Continue reading...Analysis finds engagement with news is at an all-time low – due at least in part to changes to algorithms
Meta has refused to enter into new deals with Australian media publishers for the use of their content on Facebook, leading to fears it may again implement a ban on news content appearing on the platform. But an analysis of Facebook data suggests engagement with posts from news organisations is already at an all-time low, as memes fill the space.
Meta has argued that news makes up just 3% of what people engage with on its services.
Continue reading...About 6,000 have been installed this year, a quarter of them rapid chargers that can power up a car in under an hour
The UK has installed a record number of public electric car chargers this year, as companies race to keep up with the growing number of battery vehicles on British roads.
Nearly 6,000 new chargers were installed during the first three months of 2024, according to quarterly figures from data company Zapmap published by the Department for Transport. About 1,500 of those were rapid chargers, capable of charging a car in less than an hour.
Continue reading...The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts
Which conspiracy theories have been proved true? Anne Gibson, Leicester
Send new questions to nq@theguardian.com.
Continue reading...The spoken word artist and podcaster’s hybrid of social history and rallying cry is heartfelt, if occasionally hectoring
George Mpanga, better known as George the Poet, is a British-Ugandan spoken word artist, poet and rapper. In 2019 he was offered, and turned down, an MBE, a gesture indicative of his progressive politics. He is best known for his award-winning podcast, Have You Heard George’s Podcast?, which has won him legions of fans. Wittily and rhythmically, the show combines social commentary, activism and music. It contains many of the principal ingredients of Track Record: Me, Music and the War on Blackness, Mpanga’s part-memoir, part-treatise on the history of anti-Blackness.
He begins the book in personal mode: he’s at a party when a mansplaining white chap called Will bulldozes into a nuanced conversation between three Black people about representations of Black experience. Thankfully, Track Record is not merely a corrective of Will’s wrongheadedness. Its main concern is addressing Black readers. At its clearest, Mpanga’s writing, full of conviction and integrity, focuses on the importance of “Afro-descended peoples” globally working together. Like Akala’s Natives, it’s a rallying cry for Black communities to re-educate themselves about their histories; to empower themselves and change their worlds.
Continue reading...As I found during last week’s assisted dying debate, it’s not wrong to agree with the other side
It’s not often you find yourself nodding along with those with whom you normally profoundly disagree, and raising an eyebrow at the contributions of those you would count as political allies. But it was the position I found myself in listening to MPs debate assisted dying last week.
What to make of my outbreak of fervent agreement with Conservative Danny Kruger and DUP MP Ian Paisley? Some may see this as the mark of a repressed rightwinger, or a born-again social conservative. If you agree with a member of tribe X, you must de facto be part of that tribe, or so the argument goes.
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk
Continue reading...The UN says two camps for displaced people were hit near the city of Goma where thousands are seeking refuge from fighting in surrounding areas
Bomb attacks on two camps for displaced people in eastern Congo have killed at least 12 people, including children, according to the UN.
The bombs hit the camps in Lac Vert and Mugunga, near the city of Goma, the UN said in a statement, calling the attacks a “flagrant violation of human rights and international humanitarian law and may constitute a war crime”.
Continue reading...Glossy promotional leaflet handed out to asylum seekers detained under Rishi Sunak’s deportation policy
Asylum seekers who have been detained under Rishi Sunak’s deportation policy are being handed a colourful promotional document entitled: “I’m being relocated to Rwanda. What does it mean to me?”
The news came as the government faced a second legal challenge over the prime minister’s £500m policy and it emerged that dozens of asylum seekers were being forcibly taken to detention centres.
Continue reading...Environmental campaign groups took joint action against decision to approve carbon budget delivery plan
The UK government’s climate action plan is unlawful, the high court has ruled, as there is not enough evidence that there are sufficient policies in place to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The energy secretary, Claire Coutinho, will now be expected to draw up a revised plan within 12 months. This must ensure that the UK achieves its legally binding carbon budgets and its pledge to cut emissions by more than two-thirds by 2030, both of which the government is off track to meet.
Continue reading...Hundreds of protesters prevented an attempt to collect asylum seekers from a south London hotel and transfer them to the Bibby Stockholm barge. The Guardian witnessed crowds blocking the bus and the road outside the Best Western hotel in Peckham before police were able to move in and break up the protest. The bus eventually left the area after seven hours, with no asylum seekers onboard
London protesters block transfer of asylum seekers to Bibby Stockholm
Continue reading...Civil servant Josie Stewart spoke to media after government presented ‘dishonest account’, tribunal told
A Foreign Office civil servant felt “morally compelled” to speak to the media about the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan after the government presented a “dishonest account” of what happened, an employment tribunal has heard.
Josie Stewart was sacked by the Foreign Office (FCDO) after blowing the whistle on the failures of the withdrawal from Kabul and disclosing emails indicating Boris Johnson’s involvement in an “outrageous” decision to prioritise the evacuation of staff from the animal charity Nowzad, despite his denials.
Continue reading...In our age of misinformation, this unsparing study of the many ways in which we can be deceived and how to counter the pernicious effects couldn’t be more timely
“What is truth, said jesting Pilate – and would not stay for an answer.” Thus philosopher Francis Bacon dramatised the opening of his famous Of Truth essay. Every human being alive, he thought, was prey to the bewitching temptation to disregard truth even to the point of deceiving ourselves, and to believe what it pleased us to believe – certainly disregarding truths put to us by others. In Pilate’s view, both Jesus Christ and the high priests urging his crucifixion were no more than partisans of their own particular truths – just like all of us. But, writing more than 400 years ago, Bacon thought that was not good enough. It was crucial, he said, to be honest and have shared truths, and for that he looked to the methodologies being pioneered by science. There were no partisan truths in nature – only immutable laws and facts awaiting discovery.
Today the temptation to believe our own truth to the point of collectively deceiving ourselves, hugely intensified by social media and its accompanying polarisation, has become an everyday talking point – the enemy of democracy and, arguably, civilisation itself. Bacon may have had faith in scientific facts to be the foundations of truth, but alarming proportions of educated people in western democracies do not share his faith even in science, distrusting what it has to say about everything from climate change to vaccination. If a message, especially political or cultural, is uncongenial, retreat to your own truth. Americans approach the 2024 presidential election with mounting foreboding that it will be characterised by industrial-scale misinformation – and there are parallel fears in Britain. Winston Churchill once said a lie can be halfway around the world before the truth can get its pants on – and that was before social media. False stories on X are 70% more likely to be retweeted than true ones – and true stories take six times longer to reach a sample of 1,500 than false ones.
Continue reading...Matthias Ecke, a European parliamentarian for Olaf Scholz’s SPD, was set upon while putting up EU election posters in Dresden
A 17-year-old has turned himself in to police in Germany after an attack on a lawmaker that the country’s leaders decried as a threat to democracy.
The teenager reported to police in the eastern city of Dresden early on Sunday morning and said he was “the perpetrator who had knocked down the SPD politician”, police said in a statement.
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.
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.
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.
Sofie Hagen loves sex – so why has it been 3,089 days since she’s had any? (1m27s); A flat white can now set you back up to £5.19 – but should we swallow it? (25m13s); and psychotherapist and Observer columnist Philippa Perry addresses a reader’s personal problem (43m51s).
Continue reading...Advances in fields such as spectrometry and gene sequencing are unleashing torrents of new data about the ancient world – and could offer answers to questions we never even knew to ask. By Jacob Mikanowski
Continue reading...With the threat of famine and the invasion of Rafah looming over Gaza, the leaders of Israel and Hamas are discussing a ceasefire deal. Julian Borger reports
The outlook in Gaza appears bleak. A famine looms if not more aid is brought in, while Israel has said it is preparing to invade Rafah, the southern city where half the civilians in Gaza are sheltering. But there is a glimmer of hope.
In Cairo a deal between Israel and Hamas has been tabled and the two sides are discussing whether to accept it. Julian Borger explains how such negotiations happen, what the deal includes and why there is pressure on both sides to make it happen.
Continue reading...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.
Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Philippe Auclair and Archie Rhind-Tutt as Dortmund beat PSG 1-0 in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final, while Chelsea slip up in a WSL thriller
Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.
On the podcast today: Dortmund beat PSG in front of the Yellow Wall. So many brilliant performances for the Bundesliga side but, in particular, Jadon Sancho. The panel try to figure out what happens to him this summer.
Continue reading...Glioblastomas are an extremely aggressive type of brain tumour, which is why the news this week of a vaccine that has shown promise in fighting them is so exciting. And this comes right off the back of the announcement of another trial of the world’s first personalised mRNA vaccine for melanoma, a kind of skin cancer. Ian Sample talks to Prof Alan Melcher of the Institute of Cancer Research about how these vaccines work and whether they could one day be used to target cancer before it is even detectable on scans
Clips: BBC
Read more about the personalised cancer vaccine for melanoma
Continue reading...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.
A new report reveals details of the massacres by a longtime U.S. ally and counterterrorism partner.
The post U.S.-Trained Burkina Faso Military Executed 220 Civilians appeared first on The Intercept.
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...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.
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.
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...
In the rapidly advancing landscape of AI technology and innovation, LimeWire emerges as a unique platform in the realm of generative AI tools. This platform not only stands out from the multitude of existing AI tools but also brings a fresh approach to content generation. LimeWire not only empowers users to create AI content but also provides creators with creative ways to share and monetize their creations.
As we explore LimeWire, our aim is to uncover its features, benefits for creators, and the exciting possibilities it offers for AI content generation. This platform presents an opportunity for users to harness the power of AI in image creation, all while enjoying the advantages of a free and accessible service.
Let's unravel the distinctive features that set LimeWire apart in the dynamic landscape of AI-powered tools, understanding how creators can leverage its capabilities to craft unique and engaging AI-generated images.
This revamped LimeWire invites users to register and unleash their creativity by crafting original AI content, which can then be shared and showcased on the LimeWire Studio. Notably, even acclaimed artists and musicians, such as Deadmau5, Soulja Boy, and Sean Kingston, have embraced this platform to publish their content in the form of NFT music, videos, and images.
Beyond providing a space for content creation and sharing, LimeWire introduces monetization models to empower users to earn revenue from their creations. This includes avenues such as earning ad revenue and participating in the burgeoning market of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). As we delve further, we'll explore these monetization strategies in more detail to provide a comprehensive understanding of LimeWire's innovative approach to content creation and distribution.
LimeWire Studio welcomes content creators into its fold, providing a space to craft personalized AI-focused content for sharing with fans and followers. Within this creative hub, every piece of content generated becomes not just a creation but a unique asset—ownable and tradable. Fans have the opportunity to subscribe to creators' pages, immersing themselves in the creative journey and gaining ownership of digital collectibles that hold tradeable value within the LimeWire community. Notably, creators earn a 2.5% royalty each time their content is traded, adding a rewarding element to the creative process.
The platform's flexibility is evident in its content publication options. Creators can choose to share their work freely with the public or opt for a premium subscription model, granting exclusive access to specialized content for subscribers.
As of the present moment, LimeWire focuses on AI Image Generation, offering a spectrum of creative possibilities to its user base. The platform, however, has ambitious plans on the horizon, aiming to broaden its offerings by introducing AI music and video generation tools in the near future. This strategic expansion promises creators even more avenues for expression and engagement with their audience, positioning LimeWire Studio as a dynamic and evolving platform within the realm of AI-powered content creation.
The LimeWire AI image generation tool presents a versatile platform for both the creation and editing of images. Supporting advanced models such as Stable Diffusion 2.1, Stable Diffusion XL, and DALL-E 2, LimeWire offers a sophisticated toolkit for users to delve into the realm of generative AI art.
Much like other tools in the generative AI landscape, LimeWire provides a range of options catering to various levels of complexity in image creation. Users can initiate the creative process with prompts as simple as a few words or opt for more intricate instructions, tailoring the output to their artistic vision.
What sets LimeWire apart is its seamless integration of different AI models and design styles. Users have the flexibility to effortlessly switch between various AI models, exploring diverse design styles such as cinematic, digital art, pixel art, anime, analog film, and more. Each style imparts a distinctive visual identity to the generated AI art, enabling users to explore a broad spectrum of creative possibilities.
The platform also offers additional features, including samplers, allowing users to fine-tune the quality and detail levels of their creations. Customization options and prompt guidance further enhance the user experience, providing a user-friendly interface for both novice and experienced creators.
Excitingly, LimeWire is actively developing its proprietary AI model, signaling ongoing innovation and enhancements to its image generation capabilities. This upcoming addition holds the promise of further expanding the creative horizons for LimeWire users, making it an evolving and dynamic platform within the landscape of AI-driven art and image creation.
Sign Up Now To Get Free Credits
Upon completing your creative endeavor on LimeWire, the platform allows you the option to publish your content. An intriguing feature follows this step: LimeWire automates the process of minting your creation as a Non-Fungible Token (NFT), utilizing either the Polygon or Algorand blockchain. This transformative step imbues your artwork with a unique digital signature, securing its authenticity and ownership in the decentralized realm.
Creators on LimeWire hold the power to decide the accessibility of their NFT creations. By opting for a public release, the content becomes discoverable by anyone, fostering a space for engagement and interaction. Furthermore, this choice opens the avenue for enthusiasts to trade the NFTs, adding a layer of community involvement to the artistic journey.
Alternatively, LimeWire acknowledges the importance of exclusivity. Creators can choose to share their posts exclusively with their premium subscribers. In doing so, the content remains a special offering solely for dedicated fans, creating an intimate and personalized experience within the LimeWire community. This flexibility in sharing options emphasizes LimeWire's commitment to empowering creators with choices in how they connect with their audience and distribute their digital creations.
After creating your content, you can choose to publish the content. It will automatically mint your creation as an NFT on the Polygon or Algorand blockchain. You can also choose whether to make it public or subscriber-only.
If you make it public, anyone can discover your content and even trade the NFTs. If you choose to share the post only with your premium subscribers, it will be exclusive only to your fans.
Additionally, you can earn ad revenue from your content creations as well.
When you publish content on LimeWire, you will receive 70% of all ad revenue from other users who view your images, music, and videos on the platform.
This revenue model will be much more beneficial to designers. You can experiment with the AI image and content generation tools and share your creations while earning a small income on the side.
The revenue you earn from your creations will come in the form of LMWR tokens, LimeWire’s own cryptocurrency.
Your earnings will be paid every month in LMWR, which you can then trade on many popular crypto exchange platforms like Kraken, ByBit, and UniSwap.
You can also use your LMWR tokens to pay for prompts when using LimeWire generative AI tools.
You can sign up to LimeWire to use its AI tools for free. You will receive 10 credits to use and generate up to 20 AI images per day. You will also receive 50% of the ad revenue share. However, you will get more benefits with premium plans.
For $9.99 per month, you will get 1,000 credits per month, up to 2 ,000 image generations, early access to new AI models, and 50% ad revenue share
For $29 per month, you will get 3750 credits per month, up to 7500 image generations, early access to new AI models, and 60% ad revenue share
For $49 per month, you will get 5,000 credits per month, up to 10,000 image generations, early access to new AI models, and 70% ad revenue share
For $99 per month, you will get 11,250 credits per month, up to 2 2,500 image generations, early access to new AI models, and 70% ad revenue share
With all premium plans, you will receive a Pro profile badge, full creation history, faster image generation, and no ads.
Sign Up Now To Get Free Credits
In conclusion, LimeWire emerges as a democratizing force in the creative landscape, providing an inclusive platform where anyone can unleash their artistic potential and effortlessly share their work. With the integration of AI, LimeWire eliminates traditional barriers, empowering designers, musicians, and artists to publish their creations and earn revenue with just a few clicks.
The ongoing commitment of LimeWire to innovation is evident in its plans to enhance generative AI tools with new features and models. The upcoming expansion to include music and video generation tools holds the promise of unlocking even more possibilities for creators. It sparks anticipation about the diverse and innovative ways in which artists will leverage these tools to produce and publish their own unique creations.
For those eager to explore, LimeWire's AI tools are readily accessible for free, providing an opportunity to experiment and delve into the world of generative art. As LimeWire continues to evolve, creators are encouraged to stay tuned for the launch of its forthcoming AI music and video generation tools, promising a future brimming with creative potential and endless artistic exploration
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...
Are you looking for a new graphic design tool? Would you like to read a detailed review of Canva? As it's one of the tools I love using. I am also writing my first ebook using canva and publish it soon on my site you can download it is free. Let's start the review.
Canva has a web version and also a mobile app
Canva is a free graphic design web application that allows you to create invitations, business cards, flyers, lesson plans, banners, and more using professionally designed templates. You can upload your own photos from your computer or from Google Drive, and add them to Canva's templates using a simple drag-and-drop interface. It's like having a basic version of Photoshop that doesn't require Graphic designing knowledge to use. It’s best for nongraphic designers.
Canva is a great tool for small business owners, online entrepreneurs, and marketers who don’t have the time and want to edit quickly.
To create sophisticated graphics, a tool such as Photoshop can is ideal. To use it, you’ll need to learn its hundreds of features, get familiar with the software, and it’s best to have a good background in design, too.
Also running the latest version of Photoshop you need a high-end computer.
So here Canva takes place, with Canva you can do all that with drag-and-drop feature. It’s also easier to use and free. Also an even-more-affordable paid version is available for $12.95 per month.
The product is available in three plans: Free, Pro ($12.99/month per user or $119.99/year for up to 5 people), and Enterprise ($30 per user per month, minimum 25 people).
To get started on Canva, you will need to create an account by providing your email address, Google, Facebook or Apple credentials. You will then choose your account type between student, teacher, small business, large company, non-profit, or personal. Based on your choice of account type, templates will be recommended to you.
You can sign up for a free trial of Canva Pro, or you can start with the free version to get a sense of whether it’s the right graphic design tool for your needs.
When you sign up for an account, Canva will suggest different post types to choose from. Based on the type of account you set up you'll be able to see templates categorized by the following categories: social media posts, documents, presentations, marketing, events, ads, launch your business, build your online brand, etc.
Start by choosing a template for your post or searching for something more specific. Search by social network name to see a list of post types on each network.
Next, you can choose a template. Choose from hundreds of templates that are ready to go, with customizable photos, text, and other elements.
You can start your design by choosing from a variety of ready-made templates, searching for a template matching your needs, or working with a blank template.
Inside the Canva designer, the Elements tab gives you access to lines and shapes, graphics, photos, videos, audio, charts, photo frames, and photo grids.The search box on the Elements tab lets you search everything on Canva.
To begin with, Canva has a large library of elements to choose from. To find them, be specific in your search query. You may also want to search in the following tabs to see various elements separately:
The Photos tab lets you search for and choose from millions of professional stock photos for your templates.
You can replace the photos in our templates to create a new look. This can also make the template more suited to your industry.
You can find photos on other stock photography sites like pexel, pixabay and many more or simply upload your own photos.
When you choose an image, Canva’s photo editing features let you adjust the photo’s settings (brightness, contrast, saturation, etc.), crop, or animate it.
When you subscribe to Canva Pro, you get access to a number of premium features, including the Background Remover. This feature allows you to remove the background from any stock photo in library or any image you upload.
The Text tab lets you add headings, normal text, and graphical text to your design.
When you click on text, you'll see options to adjust the font, font size, color, format, spacing, and text effects (like shadows).
Canva Pro subscribers can choose from a large library of fonts on the Brand Kit or the Styles tab. Enterprise-level controls ensure that visual content remains on-brand, no matter how many people are working on it.
Create an animated image or video by adding audio to capture user’s attention in social news feeds.
If you want to use audio from another stock site or your own audio tracks, you can upload them in the Uploads tab or from the more option.
Want to create your own videos? Choose from thousands of stock video clips. You’ll find videos that range upto 2 minutes
You can upload your own videos as well as videos from other stock sites in the Uploads tab.
Once you have chosen a video, you can use the editing features in Canva to trim the video, flip it, and adjust its transparency.
On the Background tab, you’ll find free stock photos to serve as backgrounds on your designs. Change out the background on a template to give it a more personal touch.
The Styles tab lets you quickly change the look and feel of your template with just a click. And if you have a Canva Pro subscription, you can upload your brand’s custom colors and fonts to ensure designs stay on brand.
If you have a Canva Pro subscription, you’ll have a Logos tab. Here, you can upload variations of your brand logo to use throughout your designs.
With Canva, you can also create your own logos. Note that you cannot trademark a logo with stock content in it.
With Canva, free users can download and share designs to multiple platforms including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Slack and Tumblr.
Canva Pro subscribers can create multiple post formats from one design. For example, you can start by designing an Instagram post, and Canva's Magic Resizer can resize it for other networks, Stories, Reels, and other formats.
Canva Pro subscribers can also use Canva’s Content Planner to post content on eight different accounts on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Slack, and Tumblr.
Canva Pro allows you to work with your team on visual content. Designs can be created inside Canva, and then sent to your team members for approval. Everyone can make comments, edits, revisions, and keep track via the version history.
When it comes to printing your designs, Canva has you covered. With an extensive selection of printing options, they can turn your designs into anything from banners and wall art to mugs and t-shirts.
Canva Print is perfect for any business seeking to make a lasting impression. Create inspiring designs people will want to wear, keep, and share. Hand out custom business cards that leave a lasting impression on customers' minds.
The Canva app is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play. The Canva app has earned a 4.9 out of five star rating from over 946.3K Apple users and a 4.5 out of five star rating from over 6,996,708 Google users.
In addition to mobile apps, you can use Canva’s integration with other Internet services to add images and text from sources like Google Maps, Emojis, photos from Google Drive and Dropbox, YouTube videos, Flickr photos, Bitmojis, and other popular visual content elements.
In general, Canva is an excellent tool for those who need simple images for projects. If you are a graphic designer with experience, you will find Canva’s platform lacking in customization and advanced features – particularly vectors. But if you have little design experience, you will find Canva easier to use than advanced graphic design tools like Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator for most projects. If you have any queries let me know in the comments section.
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