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Efforts to secure hostage deal appear to resume as Rafah invasion looms
Thu, 25 Apr 2024 22:10:03 +0000
An Egyptian delegation will travel to Israel Friday, signaling a resumption of efforts to secure a cease-fire and hostage release deal after months of failed talks.
Match ID: 0 Score: 35.00 source: www.washingtonpost.com age: 0 days
qualifiers: 35.00 travel(|ing)
Joe and Katherine’s Bargain Holidays review – comedians slum it with a ‘spa day’ in a pub car park
Thu, 25 Apr 2024 22:05:21 GMT
Budget ice baths, graveyard sleepovers and a night of slam poetry in Norwich! Joe Wilkinson and Katherine Ryan are super fun as they hunt for adventures that don’t break the bank
Channel 4 has carved out a particular niche in daytime-shaped TV shows airing at night. This largely means that an afternoon-ish format, of the sort that would usually be broken up with ads for life insurance, animal charities and conservatories, now comes with the added frisson of knowing that a well-known comedian might say a bad word – see, for example, Eight Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown. Here we are, then, in familiar territory, with Joe and Katherine’s Bargain Holidays, a strangely late-afternoon-meets-late-night travelogue from comedians Joe Wilkinson and Katherine Ryan, about how to enjoy a holiday on the cheap.
It was filmed in the summer of 2022 – that must be why England looks so green and pleasant, rather than soaked to the skin with six months’ worth of relentless rain – and bears the hallmarks of peak inflation, as it searches for the best means of getting away without breaking the bank. Wilkinson is the bargain-hunter here, while Ryan leans into her luxury-loving persona. Throughout her career, Ryan has always been refreshingly open about money, and here she continues to be frank, as she shrugs off any notion of embarrassment about splashing out on nice stuff. She’ll spend £500 on a spa day, she says, and £300 on dinner, or more, if she gets the train from London to Paris and back, just for a romantic meal with her husband. “I just don’t want to compromise on my lifestyle,” she says. “Shall we compromise for a bit?” asks Wilkinson. “No,” she replies.
Continue reading...Train services are essential to the health of the economy, society and environment. These proposals are pragmatic and welcome
Failing train services in Britain have often been the butt of jokes, but the chaos is not funny to those who rely on them. For many in the north of England in particular, frustration has given way to despair. Railways are a public good that the public are turning away from.
The pandemic’s long-term impact on working patterns may be the chief culprit for slashed traveller numbers. But it is unsurprising that former passengers are declining to come back. Many are concluding that late and cancelled trains, dirty and overcrowded carriages, and broken toilets make journeys too unpredictable or unpleasant, and are driving, flying or staying put instead. In the last quarter of 2024, a record 4.87% of trains were cancelled. Fares have risen almost twice as fast as wages since 2010.
Continue reading...The overcrowded city is leading the way with a tax on day trippers. Surely other great European destinations should follow suit
Venice has had enough. It is sinking beneath the twin assaults of tourism and the sea and believes the answer lies in fending off visitors by charging them to enter. It is not alone. Tourism is under attack. Seville is charging for entry to the central Plaza de España. In Paris, the Mona Lisa is so besieged by flashing phones she is about to be banished to a basement. Barcelona graffiti shout, “Tourists go home, refugees welcome.” Amsterdam wants no more coach parties, nor does Rome.
The Venice payment will be complicated. It will apply at specific entry points only to day trippers to the city centre, not hotel guests. It will be a mere five euros and confined to peak times of day over the summer. This will hardly cover the cost of running it. It is a political gesture that is unlikely to stem the tourist flow round the Rialto and St Mark’s Square, let alone leave more room for Venetians to enjoy their city undisturbed by mobs.
Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist
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Continue reading...Some residents say €5 fee aimed at curbing tourist numbers goes against principle of freedom of movement
For more than 160 years, visitors have been arriving at Venezia Santa Lucia train station and disembarking straight into the heart of one of the world’s most historic and beautiful cities. Until Thursday, however, they had never been met by a group of stewards in white and yellow bibs demanding to know if they had downloaded their QR code.
On the first day of what the mayor of Venice has hailed as a bold experiment in reducing over-tourism, day-trippers faced a €5 (£4.30) charge, which kicked in at 8.30am on Thursday and will apply on 29 peak days until 14 July as part of a trial.
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.
Strict rules have led to a wild west of rentals, with visitors choosing between huge hotel bills or word-of-mouth deals
Until recently, visitors to New York basically had two options: hotel rooms or short-term rental platforms like Airbnb. But in September 2023, the city started enforcing a 2022 law that banned people from renting their homes for fewer than 30 days (unless the host stayed in the home with guests).
Now the only legit option for people visiting the city is hotel rooms – and they’re unaffordable for many. Most of the Times Square hotels don’t have rooms for less than $300 a night. A search for Thursday 2 May found the Muse at $356, Hampton Inn at $323 and the Hard Rock at $459 (although, because of dynamic pricing, these are subject to regular change). They’re getting more expensive still. Hotel rates have increased between the first quarter of this year and the first quarter of 2023 at twice the rate of inflation, said Jan Freitag, an analyst at the real-estate data firm CoStar Group.
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...
As Taylor Swift tops $1bn in tour revenue, musicians playing smaller venues are facing pitiful fees and frequent losses. Should the state step in to save our live music scene?
When you see a band playing to thousands of fans in a sun-drenched festival field, signing a record deal with a major label or playing endlessly from the airwaves, it’s easy to conjure an image of success that comes with some serious cash to boot – particularly when Taylor Swift has broken $1bn in revenue for her current Eras tour. But looks can be deceiving. “I don’t blame the public for seeing a band playing to 2,000 people and thinking they’re minted,” says artist manager Dan Potts. “But the reality is quite different.”
Post-Covid there has been significant focus on grassroots music venues as they struggle to stay open. There’s been less focus on the actual ability of artists to tour these venues. David Martin, chief executive officer of the Featured Artists Coalition (FAC), says we’re in a “cost-of-touring crisis”. Pretty much every cost attached to touring – van hire, crew, travel, accommodation, food and drink – has gone up, while fees and audiences often have not. “[Playing] live is becoming financially unsustainable for many artists,” he says. “Artists are seeing [playing] live as a loss leader now. That’s if they can even afford to make it work in the first place.”
Continue reading...We would like to hear about your favourite, most useful everyday utensil
What’s your favourite, most useful everyday gadget? It could be a much-used kitchen gizmo, a tool for your daily beauty routine that you can’t live without, or a piece of kit that makes your day-to-day life easier: anything small, genuinely useful, and inexpensive to buy (nothing over £20).
Continue reading...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.
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.
Cruising is booming – 2023 ticket sales have surpassed historic levels and 2024 has seen the launch of the largest cruise ship ever built. But as cruise tourism's popularity has increased, so have the pollution problems it brings. To customers, it may not be evident that any problems exist, since some cruise line companies claim to be becoming more climate-friendly. But the truth can be quite different. Josh Toussaint-Strauss interrogates what impact the world's biggest ships are having on the planet
‘Biggest, baddest’ – but is it the cleanest? World’s largest cruise ship sets sail
‘A good cruise is one that doesn’t come’: Europe’s ports bear brunt of ship pollution
Shipping’s dirty secret: how ‘scrubbers’ clean the air – while contaminating the sea
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...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.
Ministers considering more funding to protect important research sites, with China seen as a particular concern
MI5 has warned universities that hostile foreign states are targeting sensitive research, as ministers consider measures to bolster protections.
Vice-chancellors from 24 leading institutions, including Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial College London, were briefed on the threat by the domestic security service’s director general, Ken McCallum, and National Cybersecurity Centre (NCSC) chief, Felicity Oswald.
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Emmanuel Macron says Europe faces existential threat from Russian aggression and calls on continent to adopt ‘credible’ defence strategy. This live blog is closed
Russia has vetoed a UN security council resolution calling on all nations to prevent a dangerous nuclear arms race in outer space, describing it as “a dirty spectacle”.
The resolution, sponsored by the United States and Japan, would have called on all countries not to develop or deploy nuclear arms or other weapons of mass destruction in space, which are already banned under a 1967 international treaty.
Continue reading...A bill passed by Congress and signed by Biden requires owner ByteDance to sell or face a US ban – it’s its biggest threat yet
The House of Representatives passed a bill that would require TikTok owner ByteDance to sell the social media platform or face a total ban in the United States. The Senate passed it less than a week later. Joe Biden signed it a day after the Senate voted yes.
TikTok is facing its biggest existential threat yet in the US. The app was banned in Montana last year, but courts found that prohibition unconstitutional, and it never went into effect.
Continue reading...US secretary of state to hold talks with Chinese counterpart and most likely with President Xi Jinping
Antony Blinken has landed in China amid a worsening rift between the world’s two most powerful countries that threatens to overshadow otherwise improving relations.
The US secretary of state arrives with a warning that the US and its European allies are no longer prepared to tolerate China’s sale of weapon components and dual-use products to Russia, which are helping Vladimir Putin rebuild and modernise his arms factories, enabling him to intensify his onslaught on Ukraine.
Continue reading...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.
Man worked as assistant to Maximilian Krah, top candidate in European parliament elections, say prosecutors
A close adviser to a leading member of Germany’s far-right populist Alternative für Deutschland party (AfD) has been arrested on suspicion on spying for China in the latest high-profile espionage case to have come to light.
The man, identified by prosecutors as Jian G, was accused of “an especially severe instance” of espionage, prosecutors said, following his arrest in the early hours of Tuesday morning. It comes after the arrests of three German citizens accused of industrial spying for China in return for payment.
Continue reading...Muslims worry Modi’s party will rely on familiar tactics of drawing on religious divisions as it battles Congress to to retain seats in Karnataka
The sun scorched the carpeted car park at Mudipu Junction outside Mangalore in Karnataka state as volunteers arranged rows of red plastic chairs and placed mounds of biryani and fruit on the table for a public iftar, the moment Muslims break their fast during Ramadan.
But this was no ordinary iftar. India is in the midst of a general election during which prime minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are seeking a third term, and factionalism is rife.
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.
We are raiding the Guardian Long Read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors.
This week, from 2020: For seven decades, India has been held together by its constitution, which promises equality to all. But Narendra Modi’s BJP is remaking the nation into one where some people count as more Indian than others. By Samanth Subramanian
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.
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...Rivals had said February election won by former general was undermined by state interference and unfair rule changes
Indonesia’s electoral commission has formally declared Prabowo Subianto president-elect in a ceremony, after the country’s highest court rejected challenges to his win by rival candidates.
Prabowo, 72, a former general dogged by allegations of human rights abuses, won a landslide victory in February’s elections, but his two opponents claimed that the vote had been undermined by state interference and unfair rule changes.
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...President says legislation is ‘going to make the world safer’ after months of congressional gridlock threatened support for Kyiv
Joe Biden has signed into law a bill that rushes $95bn in foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, a bipartisan legislative victory he hailed as a “good day for world peace” after months of congressional gridlock threatened Washington’s support for Kyiv in its fight to repel Russia’s invasion.
The Senate overwhelmingly passed the measure in a 79 -18 vote late on Tuesday night, after the package won similarly lopsided approval in the Republican controlled House, despite months of resistance from an isolationist bloc of hardline conservatives opposed to helping Ukraine.
Continue reading...Experts say Indian PM is hoping to be ‘bigger than Gandhi’ as he aims to win a third term in office
As the distant rumble of a helicopter drew closer, cheers erupted from the gathered crowds in anticipation. By the time India’s prime minister finally stepped on to the stage, bowing deeply while immaculately dressed in a white kurta and peach waistcoat and with a neatly trimmed beard, the chants had reached a deafening pitch: “Modi, Modi, Modi.”
These scenes, at a campaign rally on the outskirts of the Uttar Pradesh city of Meerut, have been replicated across the country in recent weeks as Modi and his Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) seek to win a third term in India’s election, which begins on 19 April and goes on for six weeks.
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.
Continue reading...Despite Biden’s pledge to support a two-state solution, cables argue that Palestine should not be granted U.N. member status.
The post Leaked Cables Show White House Opposes Palestinian Statehood appeared first on The Intercept.
First phase in world’s largest democratic exercise begins, with 969 million people eligible to vote over six-week period
Voting has begun in India’s mammoth general election, as Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party hopes to increase its parliamentary majority amid allegations that the country’s democracy has been undermined since it came to power 10 years ago.
India’s elections are the largest democratic exercise in the world, with more than 969 million voters, amounting to more than 10% of the world’s population. The voting began at 8am on Friday, when polling opened at 102 constituencies across the country, and will continue over the next six weeks, in seven phases, until 1 June. All the results will be counted and declared on 4 June.
Continue reading...Scientists estimate Vasuki indicus was up to 15 metres long, weighed a tonne and would have constricted its prey
Fossil vertebrae unearthed in a mine in western India are the remains of one of the largest snakes that ever lived, a monster estimated at up to 15 metres in length – longer than a T rex.
Scientists have recovered 27 vertebrae from the snake, including a few still in the same position as they would have been when the reptile was alive. They said the snake, which they named Vasuki indicus, would have looked like a large python and would not have been venomous.
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