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Jeepney strike under way in Philippines as deadline to modernise nears
Mon, 29 Apr 2024 07:28:12 GMT
Government tells operators they must join cooperatives by Tuesday and gradually replace their vehicles with greener options
A three-day strike by drivers of jeepneys in the Philippines began on Monday as transport groups warned that thousands could be pushed off the roads by government modernisation plans.
The jeepney is the backbone of the Philippines’ transport system. The customised, privately-owned buses, which look like a cross between a Jeep and a van and are decorated in flamboyant colours, ply routes in neighbourhood streets and city centres, offering rides for as little as 13 pesos (23 US cents). They have featured in pop songs and films – Pope Francis even travelled through Manila in a jeepney-inspired popemobile.
Continue reading...Rather than bomb down motorways for marathon stretches, the idea was to see new things along the way, such as the great lakes of Germany and a Renaissance town in Italy
How far would you go – and how long would you take – to avoid flying and thoroughly embrace the idea of slow travel? In my case, it was 3,167 miles over three weeks. For nearly a decade I had wanted to do a road trip to Croatia, and to get as much out of the journey as the destination itself. Rather than bomb down the motorway for marathon stretches, the idea was to slow down and see new things.
It seemed we had barely rolled off Le Shuttle (the name Eurotunnel reverted to last spring) before my husband and I were out of France and bouncing along Belgium’s bumpy motorways. After a six-hour drive, Germany’s oldest city, Trier, made a pleasant overnight stop, the reconstructed gothic Hauptmarkt square bathed in late afternoon sunlight. Its summer pop-up bar taught me that the Mosel wine region makes some very drinkable rosés.
Continue reading...The Essex Serpent author’s fourth novel, about a newspaper columnist who lives a double life, mixes themes of faith and physics to powerful effect
Sarah Perry’s third book, Melmoth, remains, to my mind, one of the most complex and brilliant novels of the past few decades: a serious and haunting attempt to wrestle with the darkest elements of the 20th century. Perry remains best known for The Essex Serpent, her bestselling story of science, faith and monsters in late-19th-century England. Her extraordinary and ambitious fourth novel, Enlightenment, might best be thought of as a combination of the previous two books, being almost a sequel to The Essex Serpent and containing within it regular, uncanny echoes of Melmoth.
The book opens in 1997 with the Hale-Bopp comet high in the sky over the (fictional) Essex town of Aldleigh, just up the river from the Blackwater marshes and the half-drowned (and also fictional) village of Aldwinter, setting for The Essex Serpent. Our hero is the unlikely figure of Thomas Hart, “a man of Essex, for his sins”, who is 50, bookish, gay, and a columnist for the Essex Chronicle. He “had about him the melancholy religious air of a defrocked priest” and it’s no wonder: he lives a double life, travelling down to London to pick up men before returning to sit in the pews at the Bethesda chapel, a congregation of Strict and Particular Baptists.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: There were shocking revelations in the first week of the former president’s trial in New York – but the defence’s tactics of sowing doubt and playing for time may just work
• Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First Edition
Good morning. Keeping track of Donald Trump’s trials, hearings and campaign stops could make anyone feel like the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia meme where Charlie stands, looking altogether unhinged, in front of a bulletin board covered in conspiratorial red tape.
Last week, Trump’s legal issues stretched across the United States. In New York City, his hush money case began in earnest. In Washington DC, supreme court judges heard his astonishing plea for absolute immunity for any action committed while he was in office. And on the same day in Arizona, a grand jury charged 18 Trump aides with felonies associated with trying to subvert the 2020 election in that state.
Immigration and asylum | The Home Office will launch a major operation to detain asylum seekers across the UK on Monday, weeks earlier than expected, in preparation for their deportation to Rwanda. Lawyers and campaigners said the detentions risked provoking protracted legal battles, community protests and clashes with police.
SNP | Humza Yousaf’s leadership hangs by a thread as he approaches a confidence vote this week, with the Scottish Greens remaining unequivocal that he no longer has their support after he axed their power-sharing agreement. Amid reports that Yousaf is now considering his position, Scottish Green co-leader Lorna Slater told the BBC: “We will vote in support of a vote of no confidence against Humza Yousaf.”
Public finance | Senior Whitehall officials fear Thames Water’s financial collapse could trigger a rise in government borrowing costs not seen since the chaos of the Liz Truss mini-budget, the Guardian can reveal. Concerns over the potential impact have led officials to believe that Thames should be renationalised before the general election.
Ukraine | Russia has consolidated recent battlefield gains in the east of Ukraine, and is attempting to break through Ukrainian defensive lines before a long-awaited package of US military assistance arrives at the frontline. After a surprise Russian attack in the rural settlement of Ocheretyne, Ukrainian security officials described the situation in the Donbas region as “very difficult”.
Air travel | A 101-year-old woman has been regularly mistaken for an infant because an airline’s booking system was unable to compute her date of birth. The woman, named only as Patricia, was born in 1922, but the American Airlines system apparently does not recognise that year, defaulting instead to 2022.
Continue reading...With tourists struggling to access the two primary digital payment apps, Alipay and WeChat pay, Beijing has put measures in place to make cash payments easier
For 18 years, Liu Yau-li has been bringing tourists to China. In that time she’s seen the full evolution of China’s digital payment system. Twenty years ago, she says, everyone used cash. But today it’s not unusual to find places that can’t or won’t accept cash at all, particularly after the pandemic when much of the world grew wary of handling shared items.
If visitors want to enjoy convenient travel, she says, they’re better off downloading one of the major payment apps and hoping it works for them.
Continue reading...US secretary of state to discuss avoiding regional conflict
Antony Blinken will travel to Saudi Arabia to try to restart fraught ceasefire negotiations in Gaza, as a delegation from Hamas, expected in Cairo in parallel to the US secretary of state’s visit, said they would provide a response to an Israeli proposal focused on an initial hostage release.
Pressure on international mediators has mounted to secure a swift deal, amid fears of a looming Israeli ground invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza, where over a million people are now believed to be sheltering. The move risks sounding the death knell on talks to free hostages or find a diplomatic solution to end the conflict.
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.
Two-year-old calf one step closer to reuniting with family group after tragic accident that left her stranded in remote lagoon
An orca calf, trapped for weeks in a remote lagoon in western Canada, has freed herself and is travelling towards open waters, hailed as “incredible news” by a growing body of human supporters.
The move puts her one step closer to reuniting with her family one month after a tragic accident left her stranded.
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 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.
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.
With stunning sunsets, one of the most beautiful beaches in the Mediterranean and must-see medieval cities, Croatia’s coast and islands are nothing short of spectacular
Once seen, never forgotten. Croatia’s fabulously beautiful coast and islands (1,246 to be precise) – with their rocky coves, iconic beaches, historic towns and gorgeous sunsets, all surrounded by some of the most breathtakingly blue waters imaginable – are places that stay in the mind, and they have a habit of luring you back.
Rovinj in Istria is one of the most instantly recognisable towns on the Croatian coast, its narrow streets and colourful facades climbing upwards to a soaring bell tower, modelled on that of St Mark’s Basilica in Venice. Travel north just a little and you’ll reach Poreč, home to Unesco-listed Byzantine mosaics to rival those in Ravenna or Istanbul – or south to Pula, with its magnificently preserved Roman amphitheatre. For a peaceful oasis set among some of the country’s finest vineyards, head just five miles inland from the sea walls of Novigrad to Brtonigla.
Continue reading...Do you enjoy exploring the cobbled streets of historic towns, or is spending long days stretched out on the beach more your thing? Answer these questions to find out your Croatian holiday persona
Find out more by visiting croatia.hr
Continue reading...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...For years, the political establishment opportunistically railed against sex trafficking. Then came Pizzagate.
The post QAnon Was Born Out of the Sex Ad Moral Panic That Took Down Backpage.com appeared first on The Intercept.
Evidence points to Absolute Standards as the source of a lethal drug the Trump administration used to restart federal executions after 17 years.
The post “Little Home Market”: The Connecticut Company Accused of Fueling an Execution Spree appeared first on The Intercept.
Makers of phones, TVs and smart doorbells legally required to protect devices against access by cybercriminals
Tech that comes with weak passwords such as “admin” or “12345” will be banned in the UK under new laws dictating that all smart devices must meet minimum security standards.
Measures to protect consumers from hacking and cyber-attacks come into effect on Monday, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology said.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: There were shocking revelations in the first week of the former president’s trial in New York – but the defence’s tactics of sowing doubt and playing for time may just work
• Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First Edition
Good morning. Keeping track of Donald Trump’s trials, hearings and campaign stops could make anyone feel like the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia meme where Charlie stands, looking altogether unhinged, in front of a bulletin board covered in conspiratorial red tape.
Last week, Trump’s legal issues stretched across the United States. In New York City, his hush money case began in earnest. In Washington DC, supreme court judges heard his astonishing plea for absolute immunity for any action committed while he was in office. And on the same day in Arizona, a grand jury charged 18 Trump aides with felonies associated with trying to subvert the 2020 election in that state.
Immigration and asylum | The Home Office will launch a major operation to detain asylum seekers across the UK on Monday, weeks earlier than expected, in preparation for their deportation to Rwanda. Lawyers and campaigners said the detentions risked provoking protracted legal battles, community protests and clashes with police.
SNP | Humza Yousaf’s leadership hangs by a thread as he approaches a confidence vote this week, with the Scottish Greens remaining unequivocal that he no longer has their support after he axed their power-sharing agreement. Amid reports that Yousaf is now considering his position, Scottish Green co-leader Lorna Slater told the BBC: “We will vote in support of a vote of no confidence against Humza Yousaf.”
Public finance | Senior Whitehall officials fear Thames Water’s financial collapse could trigger a rise in government borrowing costs not seen since the chaos of the Liz Truss mini-budget, the Guardian can reveal. Concerns over the potential impact have led officials to believe that Thames should be renationalised before the general election.
Ukraine | Russia has consolidated recent battlefield gains in the east of Ukraine, and is attempting to break through Ukrainian defensive lines before a long-awaited package of US military assistance arrives at the frontline. After a surprise Russian attack in the rural settlement of Ocheretyne, Ukrainian security officials described the situation in the Donbas region as “very difficult”.
Air travel | A 101-year-old woman has been regularly mistaken for an infant because an airline’s booking system was unable to compute her date of birth. The woman, named only as Patricia, was born in 1922, but the American Airlines system apparently does not recognise that year, defaulting instead to 2022.
Continue reading...As people play their hearts out on station platforms, this is undoubtedly stirring stuff – but there’s always been something terribly odd plaguing it too
The new series of The Piano confronts the obvious problem head on. “I thought we were one and done,” Claudia Winkleman says to the talent show’s judges, Mika and Lang Lang, because everyone will know now that the pair are hidden away somewhere, assessing all the amateur musicians who step forward to take their place at the public pianos stationed at various – well, stations – and selecting the winner from each concourse, who will go on to perform in a special concert at the end of the series.
No matter, says Mika, wholly unconvincingly. It was the stories of the people that drove the series, not the big reveal. So, that apparently dealt with, on we go.
Continue reading...Gordon Brown challenged Conservative ideas to fix the economy. His successors unfortunately will not
When Labour’s Gordon Brown embraced “post neo-classical endogenous growth theory” in 1994, he was ridiculed by his opponents. This said more about his critics than Mr Brown. His speech reflected an engagement with academic debates as well as a worldview and diagnosis distinct from Tory narratives. He judged education to be key, as growth depended on human capital. By contrast, today Labour’s top team struggles to say exactly what they believe will drive growth and how they will achieve it.
Part of the reason is that mainstream economics is proving incapable of giving sensible answers to important questions. Whether it is the financial crash, the pandemic or inflation shocks, the response is that spending cuts are needed as public debt threatens to bankrupt the nation. Many economists are questioning their discipline’s worth. Last month, the Nobel laureate Angus Deaton blogged that economics was in “disarray” and had “largely stopped thinking about ethics”. Jeremy Rudd of the US Federal Reserve writes scornfully in his latest book, A Practical Guide to Macroeconomics, that economists’ role today is to justify “what elite interests want to do anyway: deregulate, pay fewer taxes, keep wages as low as possible”.
Continue reading...The effectiveness of Tinder and Hinge is hard to judge without access to their data. But now researchers are creating a free alternative with full transparency
A class-action lawsuit filed in a US federal court last Valentine’s Day accuses Match Group – the owners of Tinder, Hinge and OkCupid dating apps, among others – of using a “predatory business model” and of doing everything in its power to keep users hooked, in flagrant opposition to Hinge’s claim that it is “designed to be deleted”.
The lawsuit crystallised an ocean of dissatisfaction with the apps, and stimulated a new round of debate over their potential to harm mental health, but for scientists who study romantic relationships it sidestepped the central issue: do they work? Does using the apps increase your chances of finding your soulmate, or not? The answer is, nobody knows.
Continue reading...Researchers are calling for the retraction of misleading anti-abortion studies that could influence judges in critical cases
The retraction of three peer-reviewed articles prominently cited in court cases on the so-called abortion pill – mifepristone – has put a group of papers by anti-abortion researchers in the scientific limelight.
Seventeen sexual and reproductive health researchers are calling for four peer-reviewed studies by anti-abortion researchers to be retracted or amended. The papers, critics contend, are “fatally flawed” and muddy the scientific consensus for courts and lawmakers who lack the scientific training to understand their methodological flaws.
Continue reading...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...Union body says austerity is to blame for longest squeeze on wages since Napoleonic era with most ‘wage black spots’ in London
Pay packets are smaller than they were in 2008 in most local authority areas in the UK, according to analysis by the Trades Union Congress, which described the findings as a “damning indictment” of the Conservatives’ economic record.
The TUC, which includes 48 unions with more than five million members, said stagnating wages meant British workers were in the midst of the longest squeeze on wages since the Napoleonic era.
Continue reading...Despite talk of a Nobel peace prize, Japan’s leader is facing a backlash among voters as key byelection approaches
In the past fortnight Fumio Kishida has been mentioned as a possible recipient of the Nobel peace prize and praised for a speech to congress in which he urged the US not to retreat into isolation.
But since his return to Tokyo after a successful summit with Joe Biden, Japan’s prime minister has been buffeted by domestic political headwinds that this weekend could spell the beginning of the end of his administration.
Continue reading...Polls predict ANC likely to lose parliamentary majority, due to high unemployment and wealth inequality
South Africa marked 30 years since the end of apartheid and the birth of its democracy with a ceremony in the capital that included a 21-gun salute and the waving of the country’s multicoloured flag.
Any sense of celebration on the momentous anniversary was however set against a growing discontent with the current government.
Continue reading...A measure passed by the House seeks to block Americans from traveling to Iran on U.S. passports.
The post House Responds to Israeli-Iranian Missile Exchange by Taking Rights Away From Americans appeared first on The Intercept.
The state says EMTALA, a law barring discrimination in emergency medical care, interferes with its abortion ban.
The post Idaho Goes to the Supreme Court to Argue That Pregnant People Are Second-Class Citizens appeared first on The Intercept.
If the courts agree to vacate the conviction, Lucio will have spent 16 years on death row for a crime that never happened.
The post A Prosecutor Asked Texas to Kill Melissa Lucio. Now He Says She Should Be Freed. appeared first on The Intercept.
The White House brushes off accusations of hypocrisy, courting TikTok while seeking to ban it.
The post As Biden Cheers TikTok Ban, White House Embraces TikTok Influencers appeared first on The Intercept.
Supporters worry Khan’s life is in danger and with good reason: The military has a long history of killing deposed leaders.
The post Chuck Schumer Privately Warns Pakistan: Don’t Kill Imran Khan in Prison appeared first on The Intercept.
The blanket suspension of student protesters casts “serious doubt on the University’s respect for the rule-of-law values that we teach,” 54 law professors wrote.
The post Columbia Law School Faculty Condemn Administration for Mass Arrests and Suspensions appeared first on The Intercept.
The smears spurred Austrian police to raid Islamophobia scholar Farid Hafez’s family home. Then the terrorism charges fell apart.
The post Lawsuit Links Wild UAE-Financed Smear Campaign to George Washington University appeared first on The Intercept.
“Yes I’m a Republican and I exclusively supported John through the Jewish community for his principled actions supporting Israel.”
The post Since October, Sen. John Fetterman Has Been Building a Roster of Republican Donors appeared first on The Intercept.
U.S. military service members interviewed for a congressional inquiry said intelligence reports about how bad the situation is were being suppressed.
The post U.S. Troops in Niger Say They’re “Stranded” and Can’t Get Mail, Medicine appeared first on The Intercept.
The university suspended three students out of hundreds participating in an on-campus encampment to protest the Israeli government.
The post Columbia Suspends Ilhan Omar’s Daughter One Day After Omar Grilled School Administrators appeared first on The Intercept.
Parties appearing before the Supreme Court can fund the groups that file briefs supporting their arguments — and almost never have to disclose it.
The post The Gaping Hole in Supreme Court Rules for Tracking Links Between Litigants and Influence Groups appeared first on The Intercept.
The Department of Education is probing claims that the school discriminated against Palestinian and Arab students amid Israel’s war on Gaza.
The post “Kill All Arabs”: The Feds Are Investigating UMass Amherst for Anti-Palestinian Bias appeared first on The Intercept.
The blanket suspension of student protesters casts “serious doubt on the University’s respect for the rule-of-law values that we teach,” 54 law professors wrote.
The post Columbia Law School Faculty Condemn Administration for Mass Arrests and Suspensions appeared first on The Intercept.
The university suspended three students out of hundreds participating in an on-campus encampment to protest the Israeli government.
The post Columbia Suspends Ilhan Omar’s Daughter One Day After Omar Grilled School Administrators appeared first on The Intercept.
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