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The 25 Best Movies on Apple TV+ Right Now (February 2025)
Thu, 13 Feb 2025 20:00:00 +0000
Fly Me to the Moon, The Gorge, and Blitz are just a few of the movies you should be watching on Apple TV+ this month.
Match ID: 0 Score: 55.00 source: www.wired.com age: 0 days
qualifiers: 35.00 (best|good|great) (show|movie), 20.00 movie
Streaming used to make stuff networks wouldn’t. Now it’s seeking safer bets.
Thu, 13 Feb 2025 20:08:31 +0000
Opinion: Streaming gets more cable-like with new focus on live events, mainstream content.
Match ID: 1 Score: 20.00 source: arstechnica.com age: 0 days
qualifiers: 20.00 movie
Film in Europe is booming, but the gongs and glamour only tell one side of the story | Moritz Pfeifer
Thu, 13 Feb 2025 11:00:03 GMT
The Berlinale opens today to an industry thriving on EU funds. But where is the money going – and are audiences benefiting too?
European film is booming. Really. In spite of the disruption caused by the pandemic to production and release schedules, film productions on the continent have increased by more than 50% over the past decade. Some of these new films will premiere at the Berlin film festival, which opens today, or Cannes and Venice later in the year. Those who don’t manage to get a slot at the “big three” can still hope for red-carpet treatment: the submission platform FilmFreeway records more than 600 new European film festivals for this year alone.
There is a less shiny flipside to the golden decade of European film, however. Since 2011, the growth in film productions has not been matched by a similar growth in audiences, meaning fewer moviegoers per film. In economics, increasing choices through product differentiation – offering more options to cater to diverse tastes – usually boosts demand. But for European cinema, the increase in production has not translated into more ticket sales. The French director Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez feels like a symptomatic film in this regard, irrespective of the recent controversy around its star’s social media comments. It was a jury-prize winner at Cannes, hyped as an arthouse-to-mainstream crossover hit with a triumphant night at the European film awards – and has mostly left cinemagoers cold.
Moritz Pfeifer is a film critic and research fellow at Leipzig University’s Institute of Economic Policy
Continue reading...‘Guðjón was kind of angry that day. He was looking for a mink that had been killing his eider ducks. This image opened doors for him, leading to advert and movie work’
I first met Guðjón Þorsteinsson through my work as a photographer for the Icelandic daily newspaper Morgunblaðið. He and his older brother, Óskar, ran a farm above the peninsula of Dyrhólaey, a couple of hours’ drive from Reykjavík. A raging storm had broken lots of power lines so the farm had no electricity. I’d heard the brothers were having to milk their cows by hand and thought I might be able to get a good picture for the paper.
When Guðjón opened the door, he just said: “What do you want?” He wasn’t very friendly, though I sensed this was an act. He invited me in for coffee and I ended up getting the shots I wanted, but after they ran in the paper, someone complained that the cows looked dirty and they were taken away. Feeling it was my fault, I went back to the farm to apologise. Guðjón said: “I’m glad – I didn’t want to milk them anyway.”
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Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are the most popular digital assets today, capturing the attention of cryptocurrency investors, whales and people from around the world. People find it amazing that some users spend thousands or millions of dollars on a single NFT-based image of a monkey or other token, but you can simply take a screenshot for free. So here we share some freuently asked question about NFTs.
NFT stands for non-fungible token, which is a cryptographic token on a blockchain with unique identification codes that distinguish it from other tokens. NFTs are unique and not interchangeable, which means no two NFTs are the same. NFTs can be a unique artwork, GIF, Images, videos, Audio album. in-game items, collectibles etc.
A blockchain is a distributed digital ledger that allows for the secure storage of data. By recording any kind of information—such as bank account transactions, the ownership of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), or Decentralized Finance (DeFi) smart contracts—in one place, and distributing it to many different computers, blockchains ensure that data can’t be manipulated without everyone in the system being aware.
The value of an NFT comes from its ability to be traded freely and securely on the blockchain, which is not possible with other current digital ownership solutionsThe NFT points to its location on the blockchain, but doesn’t necessarily contain the digital property. For example, if you replace one bitcoin with another, you will still have the same thing. If you buy a non-fungible item, such as a movie ticket, it is impossible to replace it with any other movie ticket because each ticket is unique to a specific time and place.
One of the unique characteristics of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) is that they can be tokenised to create a digital certificate of ownership that can be bought, sold and traded on the blockchain.
As with crypto-currency, records of who owns what are stored on a ledger that is maintained by thousands of computers around the world. These records can’t be forged because the whole system operates on an open-source network.
NFTs also contain smart contracts—small computer programs that run on the blockchain—that give the artist, for example, a cut of any future sale of the token.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) aren't cryptocurrencies, but they do use blockchain technology. Many NFTs are based on Ethereum, where the blockchain serves as a ledger for all the transactions related to said NFT and the properties it represents.5) How to make an NFT?
Anyone can create an NFT. All you need is a digital wallet, some ethereum tokens and a connection to an NFT marketplace where you’ll be able to upload and sell your creations
When you purchase a stock in NFT, that purchase is recorded on the blockchain—the bitcoin ledger of transactions—and that entry acts as your proof of ownership.
The value of an NFT varies a lot based on the digital asset up for grabs. People use NFTs to trade and sell digital art, so when creating an NFT, you should consider the popularity of your digital artwork along with historical statistics.
In the year 2021, a digital artist called Pak created an artwork called The Merge. It was sold on the Nifty Gateway NFT market for $91.8 million.
Non-fungible tokens can be used in investment opportunities. One can purchase an NFT and resell it at a profit. Certain NFT marketplaces let sellers of NFTs keep a percentage of the profits from sales of the assets they create.
Many people want to buy NFTs because it lets them support the arts and own something cool from their favorite musicians, brands, and celebrities. NFTs also give artists an opportunity to program in continual royalties if someone buys their work. Galleries see this as a way to reach new buyers interested in art.
There are many places to buy digital assets, like opensea and their policies vary. On top shot, for instance, you sign up for a waitlist that can be thousands of people long. When a digital asset goes on sale, you are occasionally chosen to purchase it.
To mint an NFT token, you must pay some amount of gas fee to process the transaction on the Etherum blockchain, but you can mint your NFT on a different blockchain called Polygon to avoid paying gas fees. This option is available on OpenSea and this simply denotes that your NFT will only be able to trade using Polygon's blockchain and not Etherum's blockchain. Mintable allows you to mint NFTs for free without paying any gas fees.
The answer is no. Non-Fungible Tokens are minted on the blockchain using cryptocurrencies such as Etherum, Solana, Polygon, and so on. Once a Non-Fungible Token is minted, the transaction is recorded on the blockchain and the contract or license is awarded to whoever has that Non-Fungible Token in their wallet.
You can sell your work and creations by attaching a license to it on the blockchain, where its ownership can be transferred. This lets you get exposure without losing full ownership of your work. Some of the most successful projects include Cryptopunks, Bored Ape Yatch Club NFTs, SandBox, World of Women and so on. These NFT projects have gained popularity globally and are owned by celebrities and other successful entrepreneurs. Owning one of these NFTs gives you an automatic ticket to exclusive business meetings and life-changing connections.
That’s a wrap. Hope you guys found this article enlightening. I just answer some question with my limited knowledge about NFTs. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to drop them in the comment section below. Also I have a question for you, Is bitcoin an NFTs? let me know in The comment section below
Roger Black, who won Olympic silver in the 400m for Great Britain, has revealed he had open heart surgery last month. The 58-year-old said the procedure was to treat a heart condition he has known about since he was 11 years old.
“Three weeks ago I had open heart surgery to replace my aortic valve and repair my aortic root,” Black wrote on Instagram. “My ‘incompetent’ bicuspid aortic valve was discovered when I was 11 years old and for the last 47 years I have been looked after by the cardiac team at Southampton General Hospital.
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Imagine a world in which you can do transactions and many other things without having to give your personal information. A world in which you don’t need to rely on banks or governments anymore. Sounds amazing, right? That’s exactly what blockchain technology allows us to do.
It’s like your computer’s hard drive. blockchain is a technology that lets you store data in digital blocks, which are connected together like links in a chain.
Blockchain technology was originally invented in 1991 by two mathematicians, Stuart Haber and W. Scot Stornetta. They first proposed the system to ensure that timestamps could not be tampered with.
A few years later, in 1998, software developer Nick Szabo proposed using a similar kind of technology to secure a digital payments system he called “Bit Gold.” However, this innovation was not adopted until Satoshi Nakamoto claimed to have invented the first Blockchain and Bitcoin.
A blockchain is a distributed database shared between the nodes of a computer network. It saves information in digital format. Many people first heard of blockchain technology when they started to look up information about bitcoin.
Blockchain is used in cryptocurrency systems to ensure secure, decentralized records of transactions.
Blockchain allowed people to guarantee the fidelity and security of a record of data without the need for a third party to ensure accuracy.
To understand how a blockchain works, Consider these basic steps:
Let’s get to know more about the blockchain.
Blockchain records digital information and distributes it across the network without changing it. The information is distributed among many users and stored in an immutable, permanent ledger that can't be changed or destroyed. That's why blockchain is also called "Distributed Ledger Technology" or DLT.
Here’s how it works:
And that’s the beauty of it! The process may seem complicated, but it’s done in minutes with modern technology. And because technology is advancing rapidly, I expect things to move even more quickly than ever.
Even though blockchain is integral to cryptocurrency, it has other applications. For example, blockchain can be used for storing reliable data about transactions. Many people confuse blockchain with cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum.
Blockchain already being adopted by some big-name companies, such as Walmart, AIG, Siemens, Pfizer, and Unilever. For example, IBM's Food Trust uses blockchain to track food's journey before reaching its final destination.
Although some of you may consider this practice excessive, food suppliers and manufacturers adhere to the policy of tracing their products because bacteria such as E. coli and Salmonella have been found in packaged foods. In addition, there have been isolated cases where dangerous allergens such as peanuts have accidentally been introduced into certain products.
Tracing and identifying the sources of an outbreak is a challenging task that can take months or years. Thanks to the Blockchain, however, companies now know exactly where their food has been—so they can trace its location and prevent future outbreaks.
Blockchain technology allows systems to react much faster in the event of a hazard. It also has many other uses in the modern world.
Blockchain technology is safe, even if it’s public. People can access the technology using an internet connection.
Have you ever been in a situation where you had all your data stored at one place and that one secure place got compromised? Wouldn't it be great if there was a way to prevent your data from leaking out even when the security of your storage systems is compromised?
Blockchain technology provides a way of avoiding this situation by using multiple computers at different locations to store information about transactions. If one computer experiences problems with a transaction, it will not affect the other nodes.
Instead, other nodes will use the correct information to cross-reference your incorrect node. This is called “Decentralization,” meaning all the information is stored in multiple places.
Blockchain guarantees your data's authenticity—not just its accuracy, but also its irreversibility. It can also be used to store data that are difficult to register, like legal contracts, state identifications, or a company's product inventory.
Blockchain has many advantages and disadvantages.
I’ll answer the most frequently asked questions about blockchain in this section.
Blockchain is not a cryptocurrency but a technology that makes cryptocurrencies possible. It's a digital ledger that records every transaction seamlessly.
Yes, blockchain can be theoretically hacked, but it is a complicated task to be achieved. A network of users constantly reviews it, which makes hacking the blockchain difficult.
Coinbase Global is currently the biggest blockchain company in the world. The company runs a commendable infrastructure, services, and technology for the digital currency economy.
Blockchain is a decentralized technology. It’s a chain of distributed ledgers connected with nodes. Each node can be any electronic device. Thus, one owns blockhain.
Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, which is powered by Blockchain technology while Blockchain is a distributed ledger of cryptocurrency
Generally a database is a collection of data which can be stored and organized using a database management system. The people who have access to the database can view or edit the information stored there. The client-server network architecture is used to implement databases. whereas a blockchain is a growing list of records, called blocks, stored in a distributed system. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, timestamp and transaction information. Modification of data is not allowed due to the design of the blockchain. The technology allows decentralized control and eliminates risks of data modification by other parties.
Blockchain has a wide spectrum of applications and, over the next 5-10 years, we will likely see it being integrated into all sorts of industries. From finance to healthcare, blockchain could revolutionize the way we store and share data. Although there is some hesitation to adopt blockchain systems right now, that won't be the case in 2022-2023 (and even less so in 2026). Once people become more comfortable with the technology and understand how it can work for them, owners, CEOs and entrepreneurs alike will be quick to leverage blockchain technology for their own gain. Hope you like this article if you have any question let me know in the comments section
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Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are the most popular digital assets today, capturing the attention of cryptocurrency investors, whales and people from around the world. People find it amazing that some users spend thousands or millions of dollars on a single NFT-based image of a monkey or other token, but you can simply take a screenshot for free. So here we share some freuently asked question about NFTs.
NFT stands for non-fungible token, which is a cryptographic token on a blockchain with unique identification codes that distinguish it from other tokens. NFTs are unique and not interchangeable, which means no two NFTs are the same. NFTs can be a unique artwork, GIF, Images, videos, Audio album. in-game items, collectibles etc.
A blockchain is a distributed digital ledger that allows for the secure storage of data. By recording any kind of information—such as bank account transactions, the ownership of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), or Decentralized Finance (DeFi) smart contracts—in one place, and distributing it to many different computers, blockchains ensure that data can’t be manipulated without everyone in the system being aware.
The value of an NFT comes from its ability to be traded freely and securely on the blockchain, which is not possible with other current digital ownership solutionsThe NFT points to its location on the blockchain, but doesn’t necessarily contain the digital property. For example, if you replace one bitcoin with another, you will still have the same thing. If you buy a non-fungible item, such as a movie ticket, it is impossible to replace it with any other movie ticket because each ticket is unique to a specific time and place.
One of the unique characteristics of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) is that they can be tokenised to create a digital certificate of ownership that can be bought, sold and traded on the blockchain.
As with crypto-currency, records of who owns what are stored on a ledger that is maintained by thousands of computers around the world. These records can’t be forged because the whole system operates on an open-source network.
NFTs also contain smart contracts—small computer programs that run on the blockchain—that give the artist, for example, a cut of any future sale of the token.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) aren't cryptocurrencies, but they do use blockchain technology. Many NFTs are based on Ethereum, where the blockchain serves as a ledger for all the transactions related to said NFT and the properties it represents.5) How to make an NFT?
Anyone can create an NFT. All you need is a digital wallet, some ethereum tokens and a connection to an NFT marketplace where you’ll be able to upload and sell your creations
When you purchase a stock in NFT, that purchase is recorded on the blockchain—the bitcoin ledger of transactions—and that entry acts as your proof of ownership.
The value of an NFT varies a lot based on the digital asset up for grabs. People use NFTs to trade and sell digital art, so when creating an NFT, you should consider the popularity of your digital artwork along with historical statistics.
In the year 2021, a digital artist called Pak created an artwork called The Merge. It was sold on the Nifty Gateway NFT market for $91.8 million.
Non-fungible tokens can be used in investment opportunities. One can purchase an NFT and resell it at a profit. Certain NFT marketplaces let sellers of NFTs keep a percentage of the profits from sales of the assets they create.
Many people want to buy NFTs because it lets them support the arts and own something cool from their favorite musicians, brands, and celebrities. NFTs also give artists an opportunity to program in continual royalties if someone buys their work. Galleries see this as a way to reach new buyers interested in art.
There are many places to buy digital assets, like opensea and their policies vary. On top shot, for instance, you sign up for a waitlist that can be thousands of people long. When a digital asset goes on sale, you are occasionally chosen to purchase it.
To mint an NFT token, you must pay some amount of gas fee to process the transaction on the Etherum blockchain, but you can mint your NFT on a different blockchain called Polygon to avoid paying gas fees. This option is available on OpenSea and this simply denotes that your NFT will only be able to trade using Polygon's blockchain and not Etherum's blockchain. Mintable allows you to mint NFTs for free without paying any gas fees.
The answer is no. Non-Fungible Tokens are minted on the blockchain using cryptocurrencies such as Etherum, Solana, Polygon, and so on. Once a Non-Fungible Token is minted, the transaction is recorded on the blockchain and the contract or license is awarded to whoever has that Non-Fungible Token in their wallet.
You can sell your work and creations by attaching a license to it on the blockchain, where its ownership can be transferred. This lets you get exposure without losing full ownership of your work. Some of the most successful projects include Cryptopunks, Bored Ape Yatch Club NFTs, SandBox, World of Women and so on. These NFT projects have gained popularity globally and are owned by celebrities and other successful entrepreneurs. Owning one of these NFTs gives you an automatic ticket to exclusive business meetings and life-changing connections.
That’s a wrap. Hope you guys found this article enlightening. I just answer some question with my limited knowledge about NFTs. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to drop them in the comment section below. Also I have a question for you, Is bitcoin an NFTs? let me know in The comment section below
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
Betar U.S. said it has shared with the Trump administration a list of the “names of hundreds of terror supporters.”
The post The Far-Right Group Building a List of Pro-Palestine Activists to Deport appeared first on The Intercept.
Cycling at night? You’ll need a light that’s up to the job – these are our top rear and front bike lights for staying visible
• The best bike locks for all budgets, unpicked by experts
I am a bag of meat. I’d long suspected as much, and a run-in with a car windscreen last year provided confirmation. It was unpleasant, seeing the inner workings of my thigh, but it reinforced my decision to take certain safety precautions while riding my bike.
As my accident proved, bike lights alone won’t prevent collisions with motorists – only proper cycling infrastructure and a shift in attitudes towards bikes can do that. Still, as long as I’m forced to share roads with unpredictable lumps of metal travelling at four times my speed, I choose to illuminate myself like a Christmas tree.
Best overall front bike light:
Knog Blinder Pro 900
£52.09 at Fawkes Cycles
Best value front bike light:
Ravemen CR450
£32.99 at Merlin Cycles
Best rear bike light:
Garmin Varia RTL515
£114.99 at Decathlon
Our tour of unheralded towns continues with Black Country legends in Dudley, Renaissance-style architecture in Enniskillen and Middlesbrough, birthplace of the Sydney Harbour Bridge
Duncan Edwards’s right leg swings back, ready to kick the ball into the rain, down the hill. Paragon of Black Country respectability, a “real-life Roy of the Rovers” (so said Terry Venables), the late Manchester United midfielder’s myth is as surely set as his bronze quiff. In Best and Edwards, his remarkable book about footballing fame and tragedy, Gordon Burn quotes the Austrian philosopher Robert Musil: “There is nothing as invisible as a monument.” Despite the statue’s prominent site on the edge of Dudley’s market square, only ageing Man United pilgrims and curious travellers pause to admire it.
Continue reading...Group claims compensation after allegedly losing thousands from over-inflated caravan prices and pitch fees
Campaigners have called on the UK government to take action on the “wild west” holiday park industry, as nearly 2,000 people join a group legal action alleging they have lost thousands of pounds on mis-sold static caravans and unfair pitch fees.
Holiday Park Action Group, which is leading the legal action, says the number of claimants is growing by the day, with people reporting losing their life savings and being forced to sell their homes after losing large sums of money.
Continue reading...Tell us about a lesser known corner of Spain – the best tip wins £200 towards a Coolstays break
Spain is one of the most enduringly popular tourist destinations in Europe, but sometimes that popularity comes at a price – a fact that has been highlighted by recent protests against overtourism in Barcelona and the Balearic islands. But if you’re willing to go a little off the beaten track, there is still much to discover in this fascinating country. We’d love to hear about your favourite finds in Spain, whether it’s a beach cafe serving fresh seafood, a mountain walk or an unsung museum or heritage attraction.
If you have a relevant photo, do send it in – but it’s your words that will be judged for the competition.
Continue reading...Palestinians from Gaza responded with outrage to Trump’s proposal to expel them from their homes.
The post “You Don’t Own Gaza, Donald Trump”: Palestinians Vow to Remain and Rebuild appeared first on The Intercept.
In South Africa, a 36-year-old living with HIV since childhood fears she will lose access to treatment due to Trump’s policy.
The post Global HIV Care Thrown Into Chaos by Trump: “I Will Be Sick and Maybe Die” appeared first on The Intercept.
Since the fall of Bashar al-Assad, Turkey and its militias have cut off the Kurdish city of Kobane from the rest of Syria.
The post Twelve Days in Kobane, Where Syrian Kurds Are Under Attack by Turkey appeared first on The Intercept.
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A group of volunteers is spending two months lying in bed—with their feet up and one shoulder always touching the mattress—even while eating, showering, and using the toilet. But why? This extreme bedrest study is helping scientists understand how space travel affects the human body and how to keep astronauts healthy on long missions.
Microgravity causes muscle and bone loss, fluid shifts, and other physiological changes similar to those experienced by bedridden patients on Earth. By studying volunteers here on Earth, researchers can develop better countermeasures for astronauts and even improve treatments for medical conditions like osteoporosis.
In this study, participants are divided into three groups: one stays in bed with no exercise, another cycles in bed to mimic astronaut workouts, and a third cycles while being spun in a centrifuge to simulate artificial gravity. Scientists hope artificial gravity could become a key tool in protecting astronauts during deep-space missions.
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...CoreCivic CEO Damon Hininger could barely contain his excitement about the Laken Riley Act and Trump’s anti-immigration executive orders.
The post Private Prison CEO on Trump Deportation Surge: “One of the Most Exciting Periods in My Career” appeared first on The Intercept.
Exclusive: Tom Cotton, Senate intelligence chair, risks angering key Trump ally with harsh words for ‘tech titans’
In a new book, the Arkansas senator Tom Cotton condemns Elon Musk for “chasing Chinese dollars” and having “shamefully supplicated China’s Communist rulers”, in order to advance his own interests as chief executive of companies including Tesla and SpaceX.
It’s an explosive charge from the Republican chair of the powerful Senate intelligence committee, given that Musk, the world’s richest person, is a major donor and close adviser to Donald Trump, now working at the heart of the president’s administration to slash costs and reshape the federal government.
Continue reading...Oversight laws about foreign influence were already limited. Now the Trump administration is shredding them.
The post How Many Trump Officials Have Taken Money From Qatar? appeared first on The Intercept.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is trying to eliminate all Defense Department DEI efforts. It hasn’t been entirely successful.
The post Pentagon Official: Hegseth’s Campaign to Scrub DEI History Is a “Dumb” Distraction appeared first on The Intercept.
Exclusive: Dozens of congressional Democrats urge president to reconsider threatened import duties on US’s two largest trading partners
Pressing ahead with steep tariffs on Canada and Mexico risks exacerbating the US housing crisis and threatening the broader economy, dozens of congressional Democrats have warned Donald Trump.
The US president, after threatening to hit imports from the US’s two biggest trading partners with a 25% tax, is weighing how to proceed after approving a one-month delay.
Continue reading...Vaccine skeptic now leads US’s vast healthcare system after gaining backing of key Republican senators
Robert F Kennedy Jr has taken control of America’s vast healthcare apparatus, after the Senate voted on Thursday to confirm the controversial anti-vaccine campaigner’s nomination as health secretary.
The Senate voted 52 to 48, with all Republicans other than the veteran Kentucky senator and former majority leader, Mitch McConnell, backing the former environmental lawyer.
Continue reading...Constitutional law expert Helen Irving says such a change appears to be a distraction from serious nature of anti-Israeli comments from NSW nurses
Peter Dutton’s proposal to toughen citizenship-stripping laws in response to comments made by two New South Wales nurses would probably require a referendum, a constitutional lawyer says.
Both major party leaders have been accused of a “bidding war” on who can look tougher on the issue, with Abul Rizvi, a former senior immigration official, urging politicians not to throw more petrol on the fire amid social tensions.
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Continue reading...Republican attorney general files suit claiming – without evidence – coffee chain’s hiring policies cause higher prices
Missouri has sued Starbucks for discrimination because its workforce has “become more female and less white”.
Filed on Tuesday by the state’s Republican attorney general, the lawsuit accuses the coffee chain of engaging in “systemic racial, sexual, and sexual orientation discrimination” through its diversity, equity and inclusion policies, including hiring quotas, advancement opportunities and board membership.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Rupert Lowe recently fitted panels on his farm, it emerges, as Reform claims renewables are more expensive
The Reform MP Rupert Lowe installed solar panels on his farm to save money on energy bills, despite his party pledging to tax solar energy and claiming renewables are more expensive.
The Nigel Farage-led party has been accused of hypocrisy as Lowe also runs a company that installs batteries for renewables projects, which has described solar energy as a good way to reduce electricity bills.
Continue reading...Experts warn president’s blatant violations of law could upend US government’s system of checks and balances
The deceptively legalistic camouflage rendered the words almost banal – while still clearly communicating their ominous undercurrent.
“Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power,” wrote Vice-President JD Vance, a graduate of Yale law school, on X as he waded into an escalating tug-of-war between his boss, Donald Trump, and the US federal courts.
Continue reading...Democrats struggle to counter Trump’s renewed agenda.
The post Why Are Dems Surprised? appeared first on The Intercept.
Rail union announces protected industrial action. Follow the latest news headlines live
Dutton calls for more details on interaction between Australia and China in South China Sea
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has also weighed in on that interaction between Australian and Chinese aircraft in the South China Sea on Tuesday.
And then Richard Marles did a press conference to provide details. So we haven’t had a briefing on it as yet, but on what the deputy prime minister says it is deeply concerning because it puts that safety at risk, the safety of our personnel. And that is not something that Australia can tolerate.
[It] needs to be transparent in terms of what’s happened, and I just don’t think we’ve seen all of the detail yet from Richard Marles.
Continue reading...Patient care compromised by closing beds and shifting workload to less qualified staff, motion claims
The New South Wales Labor government is seeking to “redesign” the state’s mental health system without psychiatrists, despite the risks to patient care, its political rivals claim.
In a NSW legislative council meeting on Wednesday, the shadow assistant minister Susan Carter and the Greens’ health spokesperson, Dr Amanda Cohn, lambasted the Minns government’s handling of psychiatrists’ mass resignations, with Carter accusing the responsible ministers of having “sought to redesign our mental health system to work without specialist psychiatrists”.
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Continue reading...In the span of just weeks, the US government has experienced what may be the most consequential security breach in its history—not through a sophisticated cyberattack or an act of foreign espionage, but through official orders by a billionaire with a poorly defined government role. And the implications for national security are profound.
First, it was reported that people associated with the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) had accessed the US Treasury computer system, giving them the ability to collect data on and potentially control the department’s roughly ...
Shake-up to ‘drive growth and investment’ follows ministers’ calls for a more business-friendly regime
The UK’s competition regulator has pledged to “drive growth and investment” and speed up its decisions after pressure from the government to be more pragmatic and less risk averse in its investigations.
Setting out how she planned to overhaul the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the regulator’s chief executive, Sarah Cardell, said a change of strategic direction was needed after the “operating environment” had changed.
Continue reading...Her right to buy policy enriched the private sector at taxpayers’ expense. Last year, it sparked another gold rush – and looming calamity for local authorities
Perhaps only England could make its politician of the moment a woman who died more than a decade ago. Yet turn on Channel 4 and watch Margaret Thatcher: the drama. Radio 4 offers Margaret Thatcher: the play, while soon you can enjoy Thatcher: the opera. For those who can’t wait, there’s Thatcher: the news story, as the British media celebrates 50 years this week since she was crowned Tory leader.
Such pieces are reliably more fascinated by how she looked (Shoulder pads! Handbag! Blond halo!) than what she did. So let me tell you a story about one of Thatcher’s deeds that shapes how we live today. Rather than some dusty tale dug out of the archive, it’s unfolding right now. And you won’t have seen it in any other newspaper.
Brent saw a more than 7,000% rise in right-to-buy (RTB) applications in November over the month before; in Lambeth and Camden, it was more than 2,000%, for Southwark, 1,500%.
November’s flood of applications means Lewisham is dealing with more bids this financial year than it received in the previous four years put together, while Hackney is managing the equivalent of more than three years’ worth of would-be buyers.
Islington got 922 RTB applications in November alone, where it would normally expect closer to 200 over an entire year.
With months still left of this financial year, London authorities have together already received 3.5 times the RTB applications they got last year.
Aditya Chakrabortty is a Guardian columnist
Continue reading...The spotlight was back on the assisted dying bill this week after it was revealed that the requirement for a high court judge to decide on cases was to be scrapped. Those in favour of assisted dying say the change will make it safer, but does it undermine trust in the bill? Gaby Hinsliff, in for John Harris, talks to our deputy political editor, Jessica Elgot, about the changes, and asks Kit Malthouse and Jess Asato – MPs on different sides of the debate – what happens next
Betar U.S. said it has shared with the Trump administration a list of the “names of hundreds of terror supporters.”
The post The Far-Right Group Building a List of Pro-Palestine Activists to Deport appeared first on The Intercept.
Ruling reinstates Hampton Dellinger to office of special counsel as president targets bureaucrats with mass layoffs
A judge blocked Donald Trump’s attempt to fire the head of a body that protects whistleblowers and investigates corruption.
Late on Wednesday Judge Amy Berman Jackson reversed the White House order sacking Hampton Dellinger as head of the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), and reinstated him in his post pending a court hearing set for 26 February.
Continue reading...Even with Jordan and Egypt refusing to take in expelled Palestinians, Trump is charging on with his real estate development plan.
The post Trump Is Bullying Jordan and Egypt to Help in Ethnic Cleansing of Gaza. It Isn’t Working. appeared first on The Intercept.
US president says ‘whatever countries charge the United States of America, we will charge them’; vaccine critic now in charge of US health policy
Donald Trump said he plans to unveil reciprocal tariffs on Thursday but gave no other details, Reuters reports.
“Today is the big one: reciprocal tariffs,” Trump wrote on his social media platform.
Continue reading...President says US will impose ‘reciprocal’ duties but no new specific tariffs were announced
Donald Trump threatened to ramp up his economic assault on some of America’s biggest trading partners on Thursday, vowing to impose new tariffs on countries that target products made in the US within weeks.
The US will impose “reciprocal” duties, the president announced. “We want a level playing field,” he declared in the Oval Office, pledging to roll out a “beautiful, simple system” of new US import duties that match those imposed by other countries.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Charity says it has made drastic changes to safeguard future as Guardian finds it spent £100m more than it raised over last six years
Macmillan Cancer Support has axed a quarter of its staff, downgraded its helpline and scrapped its flagship financial hardship scheme that provides millions of pounds in grants to thousands of patients, the Guardian can reveal.
The UK’s most popular charity says a “tough financial climate” has led to it making drastic changes to safeguard its future and ensure it can still support the most vulnerable cancer patients.
50,000 low-income cancer patients a year with less than £1,000 in savings will lose access to £200 hardship grants with the closure of the scheme.
Macmillan has spent £100m more than it raised over the last six years.
In 2023, spending on wages and salaries surged to £80m, up by almost one-fifth (18%) from £68m in just 12 months.
In 2024, Macmillan told 1,200 staff – about 60% of its workforce – they were at risk of redundancy, with 431 leaving.
Continue reading...Potentially life-saving drug was prescribed for William Hewes but not given quickly enough due to communication mix-up
A consultant paediatrician warned medical colleagues treating her son that they had failed to give him life-saving antibiotics hours before he died from sepsis, an inquest has heard.
William Hewes, 22, a history and politics student, died on 21 January 2023 of meningococcal septicaemia at east London’s Homerton hospital, where his mother, Dr Deborah Burns, worked.
Continue reading...Statements that there can be no negotiations without Kyiv ring hollow when the US president has just sidelined it
In the aftermath of Donald Trump’s incendiary call with Vladimir Putin, UK ministers and officials have had to do some extraordinary contortions.
There is no greater priority in the UK’s foreign policy than keeping the volatile occupant of the White House on side. And that has meant over the past 24 hours that some pronouncements by the British government have seemed at odds with reality.
Continue reading...Despite growth in 2024, living standards fell. Inequality, weak public investment and government cuts threaten prosperity. Labour must offer voters something different
The picture painted by official data for the UK economy in 2024 reveals a country broken by 14 years of Conservative party rule. True, the economy grew – somewhat unexpectedly – but GDP per head fell, showing prosperity didn’t reach most people. There are a few reasons for this decline but none suggests a healthy society. One is runaway wealth inequality, with gains hoarded at the top. Another is stark regional disparities, with some areas falling further behind despite national GDP rising. A third is rising immigration without enough job creation – more workers, but not enough well-paying positions.
A growing economy means little if it doesn’t improve living standards. In 2024, it didn’t. This political reality has shaped recent years, and not in a good way. It’s worth recalling a Newcastle woman’s tart response to the political scientist Anand Menon in 2016 when he warned that Brexit would hit GDP: “That’s your bloody GDP, not ours.” That continuing frustration explains the current backlash against mainstream politicians. No wonder Sir Keir Starmer wants his party to be one of disruption.
Continue reading...Eric Adams weighs closer involvement with federal agency in sign of beleaguered mayor’s warm alliance with Trump
In a sign of increasing cooperation with Donald Trump’s anti-immigration plans, New York City’s Democratic mayor, Eric Adams, is weighing whether to allow the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (Ice) to re-establish an office at the city’s notorious Rikers Island jail.
An Ice office there closed in 2015 under sanctuary laws that severely limit the city’s involvement with federal immigration enforcement. Current law explicitly bans Ice authorities from having an office tasked with enforcement duties on department of corrections property, which includes Rikers.
Continue reading...It was left to the poor junior defence minister Maria Eagle to walk that particular tightrope in the Commons
In his ghostwritten 1987 bestseller The Art of the Deal, Donald Trump delivers his version of the American Dream. Get as much as you can for yourself. There’s always someone out there who’s stupider than you. Any attention is better than none. Promise people the Earth even if you know you can never deliver. Paint yourself orange and glue what’s left of your hair to your head. This is business as a macho willy waving contest. So much so you suspect The Donald is deeply insecure about the size of his own.
But maybe we should have read between the lines better. For the real message is: “Always let someone else take the hit.” After all, it wasn’t Trump who was left out of pocket when his hotels and casinos six times filed for bankruptcy between 1991 and 2009 due to an inability to meet scheduled payments. It was his creditors. That’s a business style The Donald has taken into his presidency. After the Trump Plaza and the Trump Tower, we now have the Trump Toilet. To flush away Ukraine.
Continue reading...Chancellor and PM insist there was no wrongdoing after claims she was investigated for alleged misuse of expenses
Rachel Reeves has been accused of having a “cavalier attitude” to expenses during her time in retail banking, forcing the chancellor and the prime minister to defend her conduct and insist there was no wrongdoing.
Keir Starmer said he had full confidence in Reeves and said she dealt with “any issues” that arose from her career in retail banking, after claims the chancellor was investigated for alleged misuse of expenses and made inaccuracies on her CV.
Continue reading...Dr Sam Perlo-Freeman, Paul Bennett, Helen Jones and Laura Harling respond to an article by a former diplomat on the UK’s complicity in war crimes
The testimony of the former Foreign Office policy adviser Mark Smith confirms exactly what the Campaign Against Arms Trade has been arguing for decades – the UK’s arms-export control system is rotten to its core (I saw illegality and complicity with war crimes. That’s why I quit the UK Foreign Office, 9 February). When we successfully took the government to court to stop arming Saudi Arabia, the key legal and moral questions were essentially the same. How could the UK government continue supplying arms in the face of overwhelming evidence of the most horrific crimes being committed against civilians?
What Smith’s evidence shows is that the only way for the Foreign Office to keep doing this is to bully civil servants and diplomats into changing their reports, warning them not to leave any written evidence, or even asking them to “delete correspondence”. There has been a systematic effort to manipulate and suppress the truth.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Future of further projects uncertain after Rosebank and Jackdaw licences were found to have been unlawfully granted
Thirteen more oil and gas licences could be cancelled as ministers decide new guidance for fossil fuel extraction after a landmark court case, the Guardian has learned.
The admission that many more licences may ultimately be unlawful comes on the back of cabinet tensions over the future of two major oil and gas fields – Rosebank and Jackdaw – whose licences were last month found to have been unlawfully granted.
Continue reading...Earlier procurement forecast had suggested Elon Musk’s company would be a beneficiary of planned purchases
The US Department of State has removed the name “Tesla” from a list of planned purchases, after an earlier version of the list said it would spend $400m buying new electric armoured vehicles, even as the carmaker’s boss, Elon Musk, leads efforts to slash government spending under Donald Trump.
A procurement forecast produced by the department showed the $400m (£320m) proposed spending on “armoured Tesla (production units)” in December. The most likely Tesla model was the Cybertruck, the company’s electric pickup, given Musk’s claims that the vehicle is bulletproof.
Continue reading...Deputy prime minister reportedly told separately by two councillors about lewd messages about her on group
Angela Rayner was told nearly three years ago that the sacked minister Andrew Gwynne had made a “derogatory” joke about her on an offensive WhatsApp group, the Guardian has been told.
The deputy prime minister was told separately by two local councillors about the lewd message about her by Gwynne, her neighbouring MP in Greater Manchester.
Continue reading...They disagreed on immigration and the climate crisis – would they be more aligned on sentencing and the death penalty?
Benjamin, 39, Watford
Occupation Council worker
Continue reading...On top of the human cost, the US’s soft power and influence is disappearing. Russia and China will fill the void
Amid the daily troubling news coming from the United States are the ongoing and increasingly damaging efforts by President Donald Trump, supported by secretary of state Marco Rubio and Elon Musk, to shut down the US Agency for International Development (USAid). Musk has called it a “criminal organization” and said that it was “time for it to die”. The agency website is down, so little official information is available. But in the week since funding to the agency was frozen, and the majority of staff placed on leave, thousands of public health and development programmes worldwide have been thrown into turmoil, and now face an uncertain future.
USAid is the main federal agency that works to provide foreign aid assistance to the poorest countries and people in the world. On Friday, a US judge prevented around 2,000 USAid employees from being placed on leave, and ordered the reinstatement of about 500 more. But Trump and Musk appear to want to move forward with a plan that would see its global workforce reduced from about 10,000 staff and contractors, to just over 600.
Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh
Seven or eight years ago, Starmer was as close as most politicians get to sounding natural and sincere. It’s a shame he messed with that
Our prime minister, it turns out, has had many years of voice coaching. Some of this work apparently happened during lockdown and may or may not have been in breach of the rules then in place. This has been the main talking point, which is a shame, because a far more interesting topic is voice coaching itself.
I’ve had a fair amount of stick about the way I speak, so I don’t feel good about disparaging anyone’s voice. I’ll put it like this: Starmer’s voice isn’t his greatest asset. I wonder what response his voice coach could have got upon telling someone that the way he spoke was down to her. Embarrassed silence? It prompts the question: how bad can his voice have been before?
Continue reading...Jewish creatives and activists also sign New York Times ad after US president’s proposal to ‘take over Gaza’
More than 350 rabbis, alongside additional signatories including Jewish creatives and activists, have signed an ad in the New York Times in which they condemn Donald Trump’s proposal for the effective ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza.
The ad, which was signed by rabbis including Sharon Brous, Roly Matalon and Alissa Wise, as well as Jewish creatives and activists including Tony Kushner, Ilana Glazer, Naomi Klein and Joaquin Phoenix, says: “Trump has called for the removal of all Palestinians from Gaza. Jewish people say no to ethnic cleansing!”
Continue reading...Figures who backed rights of religious minorities in first Trump term fall silent as vital work halted on the ground
During the first Trump administration, Mike Pence, the vice-president, pledged hundreds of millions of dollars, mostly through USAid and the state department, to help Christians and other religious minorities who were persecuted by Islamic State and – in the case of the Yazidis – suffered a genocide.
But under the second Trump administration, the same figures who championed the rights of religious minorities have fallen silent or actively participated in the destruction of USAid, cutting crucial aid to support the same communities they once helped – who now feel abandoned by the US.
Continue reading...Australian defence department also says it has been monitoring three Chinese ships in the Coral Sea
The defence department has accused the Chinese navy of another “unsafe and unprofessional” incident where flares were allegedly dropped near an Australian aircraft on routine operations in the South China Sea on Tuesday.
Defence also released information about three Chinese ships it has been monitoring in the Coral Sea, to Australia’s north, for several days.
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Continue reading...Insiders baffled by attacks on Richard Hermer, which some believe are a proxy for criticism of government’s direction
If, at the end of last year, you had asked Labour insiders to choose Keir Starmer’s defining decision as prime minister, they might have said means testing winter fuel payments or announcing billions in tax rises on business.
Now, however, many believe Starmer’s most consequential move – and the one that will determine the direction of his government – is making his friend and former colleague Richard Hermer attorney general.
Continue reading...Kathleen Sgamma to oversee Bureau of Land Management, agency that manages quarter-billion acres of public land
Donald Trump has nominated a longtime oil and gas industry representative to oversee an agency that manages a quarter-billion acres of public land concentrated in western states.
Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Colorado-based oil industry trade group Western Energy Alliance, was named Bureau of Land Management director, a position with wide influence over lands used for energy production, grazing, recreation and other purposes. An MIT graduate, Sgamma has been a leading voice for the fossil fuel industry, calling for fewer drilling restrictions on public lands that produce about 10% of US oil and gas.
Continue reading...At company owned by a Trump mega-donor, workers brought from Mexico earned per day about the same as their US counterparts were paid by the hour
Uline, a Wisconsin-based office supply company owned by one of Donald Trump’s biggest financial backers, paid workers it brought from Mexico to work at its US warehouses just a fraction of what their US counterparts were paid, according to four sources who spoke to the Guardian.
The workers from Mexico earned per day about the same as their US counterparts were paid by the hour, according to the American and Mexican sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of nervousness about speaking out publicly against the company. One pay stub, which was seen by the Guardian, showed that a Mexican worker was paid about $38 per day, plus a weekly bonus of about $225 before taxes. Separately, they were also paid daily food expenses.
Do you have a tip on this story? Please email: US.Investigations@theguardian.com
Continue reading...ICE wants to hire contractors to monitor social media for threats. Those who criticize the agency could be pulled into the dragnet.
The post ICE Wants to Know If You’re Posting Negative Things About It Online appeared first on The Intercept.
After plunging USAID and its network of contractors into chaos, communications breakdowns and bureaucratic snafus leave projects stalled.
The post Marco Rubio’s USAID “Humanitarian Waiver” Isn’t Helping Restart Lifesaving Programs appeared first on The Intercept.
“Are you going to be a coward?” Zül-Qarnain Nantambu asked himself before taking the field for Kendrick Lamar’s show. “Are you going to take a stand?”
The post Gaza Protester Who Interrupted Kendrick Lamar Super Bowl Halftime Show Speaks Out appeared first on The Intercept.
Children among at least 30 hurt as incident expected to inflame tensions ahead of this month’s election
A 24-year-old Afghan asylum seeker has driven a car into a trade union demonstration in Munich, injuring at least 30 people, German police have said, in a suspected attack that is expected to inflame tensions before this month’s election.
The car, a Mini Cooper, accelerated and ploughed into people at the back of a rally by the Verdi union at about 10.30am during a strike by public sector workers. Employees of daycare centres, hospitals, sanitation facilities and public swimming pools had joined the work stoppage calling for higher pay and longer holidays. About 1,500 people were reportedly at the scene.
Continue reading...Amid political pressure, Creative Australia says deselecting the Lebanese-born artist will avoid ‘divisive debate’
Khaled Sabsabi, the western Sydney artist who fled Lebanon’s civil war as a child, has been dropped from representing Australia at the 61st Venice Biennale – just five days after being selected to do so.
Sabsabi selection for the 2026 showcase had caused controversy due to some of the artist’s previous works, including a 2007 depiction of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was assassinated last year, and a 2006 video rendering of the 9/11 attacks called Thank You Very Much. Shortly after the announcement, Sabsabi admitted to being shocked at being chosen, telling the Guardian: “I felt that, in this time and in this space, this wouldn’t happen because of who I am.”
Continue reading...Exclusive: Sub-branches also debate benefit of poker machines and services to veterans amid financial concerns
Victorian RSL clubs have held a “crisis meeting” to discuss a bitter fight over gambling revenue, with some warning they may close due to financial pressures and others calling for the charity to stop funding the state’s largest Anzac Day service.
Detailed minutes from the 2 February meeting to discuss the organisation’s future, involving nearly 50 RSL sub-branch representatives, reveal some clubs were uncertain they would survive.
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Continue reading...Banana prices expected to rise in the short term, while cost of sugar should remain stable despite damage to cane crops
Australians can expect banana shortages and price hikes as the cleanup begins in flood-ravaged north Queensland, which grows almost 94% of Australia’s banana crop, growers say.
But the good news, for consumers at least, is that any banana dramas playing out on supermarket shelves over coming days will be linked to transport disruption, rather than widespread crop destruction – meaning the price and availability of one of the country’s favourite fruits should soon return to normal.
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Continue reading...Voters share which party they are backing on key issues from immigration to economic stagnation amid a fractured political landscape
“I live in Germany’s oldest city, founded by the Romans over 2,000 years ago,” said Gregor, 59, from Trier, a town of about 110,000 inhabitants in the country’s affluent south-west and part of the world-renowned Moselle valley wine region. A short driving distance away from the borders of Luxembourg, Belgium, France and the Netherlands, Trier is often described as being “in the heart of Europe”.
“When I walk the dog,” Gregor said, “I see old people looking for food in rubbish bins. It hurts me. Twenty years ago, I never saw anything like this.”
Continue reading...In South Africa, a 36-year-old living with HIV since childhood fears she will lose access to treatment due to Trump’s policy.
The post Global HIV Care Thrown Into Chaos by Trump: “I Will Be Sick and Maybe Die” appeared first on The Intercept.
If the State Department takes over USAID, experts fear foreign assistance will stop unless it has a perceived benefit for Trump.
The post Trump’s Attacks on USAID Spark Fear That Lifesaving Care Will Become “Transactional” appeared first on The Intercept.
With the Democratic Party reeling from its losses, the DNC is voting on a new chair. Will it choose to reform its top-down model?
The post The Democratic National Committee Is Undemocratic. That’s by Design. appeared first on The Intercept.
Palestinians from Gaza responded with outrage to Trump’s proposal to expel them from their homes.
The post “You Don’t Own Gaza, Donald Trump”: Palestinians Vow to Remain and Rebuild appeared first on The Intercept.
The Trump minion has said Jan. 6 defendants should get cash reparations and those responsible for the charges should get jail time.
The post The Capitol Rioters Are Free — But Ed Martin’s Crusade Against Jan. 6 Prosecutors Is Just Getting Started appeared first on The Intercept.
Royal Exchange theatre, Manchester
Hiding behind the fluttering dialogue and domestic chatter lies a dark poetry in a pair of plays that address terrifying futures head on
Last month, wildfires ravaged southern California, President Trump issued executive orders on gender diversity and Storm Éowyn brought 100mph winds to the UK. Could any play be more timely than Caryl Churchill’s Escaped Alone, with its apocalyptic visions of raging fires, a God who punishes gender dysphoria and a wind that “turned heads inside out”?
First seen in 2016, this startling chamber piece juxtaposes the inconsequential chitchat of four retired women with alarming descriptions of planetary destruction. Structured like a string quartet in which fluttering exchanges alternate with soulful solos, it is sometimes a leisurely free association, ranging from antiques to cats, soap opera to superpowers, and sometimes a terrifying catalogue of rising waters, miscarriages and societal collapse.
Continue reading...Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, John Brewin, Archie Rhind-Tutt and Ewan Murray as Everton earn a dramatic point against Liverpool at Goodison Park
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: Goodison Park’s final Merseyside derby is a classic. What a moment for Everton fans as James Tarkowski wallops home an equalising screamer in the 98th minute. Then the scenes afterwards, with Curtis Jones, Abdoulaye Doucouré and Arne Slot among those sent off.
Continue reading...Eric Schmidt fears terrorist groups or countries such as North Korea, Iran or Russia may use AI to develop weapons
Google’s former chief executive has warned that artificial intelligence could be used by rogue states such as North Korea, Iran and Russia to “harm innocent people”.
Eric Schmidt, who held senior posts at Google from 2001 to 2017, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that those countries and terrorists could adopt and misuse the technology to develop weapons to create “a bad biological attack from some evil person”.
Continue reading...Recently, a group of world-leading scientists called for a halt on research to create ‘mirror life’ microbes amid concerns that the synthetic organisms would present an ‘unprecedented risk’ to life on Earth. Ian Sample tells Madeleine Finlay about why this work initially seemed exciting for scientists and what the risks of it continuing could be. And Kate Adamala, assistant professor of genetics, cell biology and development at the University of Minnesota, describes what made her change her mind about pursuing her own research on mirror cells
‘Unprecedented risk’ to life on Earth: Scientists call for halt on ‘mirror life’ microbe research
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Continue reading...What will the world look like without US foreign assistance? Nesrine Malik reports
“My community, living here in the refugee camp, is already vulnerable,” Sahat Zia tells Lucy Hough. “I’m very concerned, especially for the children and the women.”
Sahat is a Rohingya activist and photographer based in Kutupalong refugee camp, Bangladesh. Hearing Donald Trump’s decision to cut USAid came as a shock to Sahat. US foreign assistance is a lifeline for the many thousands of people in the camp, providing access to food, education and healthcare.
Continue reading...‘Poll of polls’ gives prime minister’s Bharatiya Janata party a majority in the Delhi assembly, which would oust the reformist Aam Aadmi party (AAP)
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s party appears poised to win Delhi state elections, a victory that would end a 27-year drought, according to voter exit polls.
If the projections hold, the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) is set to end the reformist Aam Aadmi party’s (AAP) nearly decade-long rule in the national capital region and reclaim the Delhi assembly.
Continue reading...Baku reportedly preparing to appeal to ‘an international court’ unless Moscow takes responsibility for crash
Azerbaijan is escalating its rare standoff with the Kremlin as the fallout from the downing of an Azerbaijani passenger jet continues, highlighting Russia’s diminishing influence across the former Soviet Union.
Thirty-eight people were killed when an Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashed on 25 December near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan after rerouting across the Caspian Sea from southern Russia.
Continue reading...An FBI official urged the American Academy of Forensic Sciences to cancel a conference presentation titled “Taking on the FBI.”
The post Forensics Experts Challenged the FBI. So the FBI Tried to Censor Their Conference. appeared first on The Intercept.
Since the fall of Bashar al-Assad, Turkey and its militias have cut off the Kurdish city of Kobane from the rest of Syria.
The post Twelve Days in Kobane, Where Syrian Kurds Are Under Attack by Turkey appeared first on The Intercept.
As the second Trump presidency begins, John Harris and John Domokos go to a Staffordshire town whose economy went from coal to Amazon warehousing to find out if 21st century populism is cutting through. At a byelection down the road, meanwhile, there's a big question facing voters: Labour or Reform UK?
Continue reading...Parabon NanoLabs sells police composite images of suspects built on DNA. Critics say the product is snake-oil science fiction that can exacerbate problems in the criminal legal system.
The post A Forensics Company Tells Cops It Can Use DNA to Predict a Suspect’s Face. Scientists Worry the Tool Will Deepen Racial Bias. appeared first on The Intercept.
Interesting analysis:
We analyzed every instance of AI use in elections collected by the WIRED AI Elections Project (source for our analysis), which tracked known uses of AI for creating political content during elections taking place in 2024 worldwide. In each case, we identified what AI was used for and estimated the cost of creating similar content without AI.
We find that (1) half of AI use isn’t deceptive, (2) deceptive content produced using AI is nevertheless cheap to replicate without AI, and (3) focusing on the demand for misinformation rather than the supply is a much more effective way to diagnose problems and identify interventions...
Trump told reporters that he wants to expel “all” Palestinians from Gaza — not just during a period of reconstruction, but permanently.
The post Trump: “The U.S. Will Take Over the Gaza Strip” appeared first on The Intercept.
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
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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Continue reading...The American tradition of airstrikes against Somalia is continuing into Trump’s second term.
The post Trump the “Peacemaker” Ramps Up America’s Forever War in Somalia appeared first on The Intercept.
Kathleen Sgamma to oversee Bureau of Land Management, agency that manages quarter-billion acres of public land
Donald Trump has nominated a longtime oil and gas industry representative to oversee an agency that manages a quarter-billion acres of public land concentrated in western states.
Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Colorado-based oil industry trade group Western Energy Alliance, was named Bureau of Land Management director, a position with wide influence over lands used for energy production, grazing, recreation and other purposes. An MIT graduate, Sgamma has been a leading voice for the fossil fuel industry, calling for fewer drilling restrictions on public lands that produce about 10% of US oil and gas.
Continue reading...US president makes positive comments about Russian leaders’ intentions as Ukraine’s president warns world leaders and calls for united position for talks
Poland’s Europe minister Adam Szłapka told Polish broadcaster TVN24 this morning that he was “concerned” by the message on peace talks sent by Trump, as it followed the logic of “a 19th-century concert of powers: we’ll have a chat and come up with something.”
“The statement we got from president Trump that they spoke not only about the war, but also other things… it is somewhat strange. [The idea of them] talking about artificial intelligence and so on, while [we are] thinking about the images of the Bucha massacre is somewhat hair-raising.”
Continue reading...The US president wants to end this war – and is happy to do so on Russian terms
Ukraine and its European allies braced for the worst when Donald Trump won a second term. But the scale of his surrender to Russian aggression has still shocked them. On Wednesday, Vladimir Putin’s nearly three years of isolation by the west was broken by his 90-minute, “highly productive” conversation with Mr Trump. Joe Biden called the Russian president a murderous dictator; Mr Trump praised Mr Putin’s mounting aggression towards Ukraine as “genius”, days before the full-scale invasion of 2022. Now, two great powers plan negotiations – without regard for Ukraine, Europe or even Mr Trump’s own Ukraine envoy.
Forget territorial integrity. The US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, described a return to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders as “unrealistic” and “an illusory goal”. Forget Ukrainian membership of Nato: “I don’t think it’s practical … I’m OK with that,” Mr Trump declared. Forget US support: it will be up to European countries and others to provide any deterrent force, the US defence secretary made clear. European security is no longer the primary focus for the US, added Mr Hegseth – and that was the toned-down version.
Continue reading...As Putin’s actions again disrupt the start of a Munich security conference, Brussels largely has itself to blame
The start of the Munich security conference has a habit of being disrupted by a display of power by Vladimir Putin. In 2022, the transatlantic security establishment gathered in the knowledge that Putin was days from launching his attack on Kyiv. In February 2024, the opposition leader Alexei Navalny died in disputed circumstances in a Russian jail and this year Russia’s leader is on the brink of opening talks with Donald Trump that many analysts predict will end with Russia not just gaining Ukrainian territory but dismembering Ukraine as a sovereign independent state.
For Europe it is a humiliation. And yet little that Trump or his defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, said on Wednesday about their approach to a ceasefire including the US’s refusal to commit further resources to Ukraine could have come as a shock. Indeed Europe largely has only itself to blame.
Continue reading...While some Kyiv residents express relief over possible end to war, others predict further Russian attacks in future
The first thing Olena Litovchenko thought, when she read the news of Donald Trump’s phone call to Vladimir Putin on Wednesday evening, was that it may finally be time for her to leave Ukraine.
“It feels like Ukraine is being screwed,” said Litovchenko, a personal trainer who was born in Kyiv and has stayed in the city throughout the three years of full-scale war. Believing the prospect of a Ukrainian defeat to be closer after Trump’s call and statements on Wednesday, she thought for the first time that she perhaps ought to leave, for the sake of her daughter. “But then, leave and go where? Europe is most certainly going to be next. Go to Australia? I don’t know. I feel angry and betrayed.”
Continue reading...As the US and its European allies head to the Munich security conference, Europe must learn from its tragic history and oppose appeasement
Donald Trump’s appeasement of Vladimir Putin makes Neville Chamberlain look like a principled, courageous realist. At least Chamberlain was trying to prevent a major European war, whereas Trump is acting in the middle of one. Trump’s “Munich” (synonymous in English with the 1938 deal in which Britain and France sold out Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany) comes on the eve of the big security conference in today’s Bavarian capital, where his emissaries will meet western allies. That Munich security conference must be the beginning of a decisive European response, learning from our own tragic history in order to avoid repeating it.
The next step Trump proposes is in effect a new “Yalta” (referring to the February 1945 US-Soviet-UK summit in the Crimean resort of Yalta, which has become synonymous with superpowers deciding the fate of European countries over their heads). In this case, his proposal is that the US and Russia should decide the fate of Ukraine with marginal if any involvement of Ukraine or other European countries. But this time the occupants of the White House and the Kremlin should meet first in Saudi Arabia, then in their respective capitals, while it seems the actual Yalta, in the Crimea, is to be ceded to Russia. For in the brave new world of Trump and Putin, might is right and territorial expansion is what great powers do, be it Russia to Ukraine, the US to Canada and Greenland – or China to Taiwan.
Timothy Garton Ash is a Guardian columnist
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Continue reading...On top of the human cost, the US’s soft power and influence is disappearing. Russia and China will fill the void
Amid the daily troubling news coming from the United States are the ongoing and increasingly damaging efforts by President Donald Trump, supported by secretary of state Marco Rubio and Elon Musk, to shut down the US Agency for International Development (USAid). Musk has called it a “criminal organization” and said that it was “time for it to die”. The agency website is down, so little official information is available. But in the week since funding to the agency was frozen, and the majority of staff placed on leave, thousands of public health and development programmes worldwide have been thrown into turmoil, and now face an uncertain future.
USAid is the main federal agency that works to provide foreign aid assistance to the poorest countries and people in the world. On Friday, a US judge prevented around 2,000 USAid employees from being placed on leave, and ordered the reinstatement of about 500 more. But Trump and Musk appear to want to move forward with a plan that would see its global workforce reduced from about 10,000 staff and contractors, to just over 600.
Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh
In the span of just weeks, the US government has experienced what may be the most consequential security breach in its history—not through a sophisticated cyberattack or an act of foreign espionage, but through official orders by a billionaire with a poorly defined government role. And the implications for national security are profound.
First, it was reported that people associated with the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) had accessed the US Treasury computer system, giving them the ability to collect data on and potentially control the department’s roughly ...
Oversight laws about foreign influence were already limited. Now the Trump administration is shredding them.
The post How Many Trump Officials Have Taken Money From Qatar? appeared first on The Intercept.
US president says ‘whatever countries charge the United States of America, we will charge them’; vaccine critic now in charge of US health policy
Donald Trump said he plans to unveil reciprocal tariffs on Thursday but gave no other details, Reuters reports.
“Today is the big one: reciprocal tariffs,” Trump wrote on his social media platform.
Continue reading...President says US will impose ‘reciprocal’ duties but no new specific tariffs were announced
Donald Trump threatened to ramp up his economic assault on some of America’s biggest trading partners on Thursday, vowing to impose new tariffs on countries that target products made in the US within weeks.
The US will impose “reciprocal” duties, the president announced. “We want a level playing field,” he declared in the Oval Office, pledging to roll out a “beautiful, simple system” of new US import duties that match those imposed by other countries.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Rupert Lowe recently fitted panels on his farm, it emerges, as Reform claims renewables are more expensive
The Reform MP Rupert Lowe installed solar panels on his farm to save money on energy bills, despite his party pledging to tax solar energy and claiming renewables are more expensive.
The Nigel Farage-led party has been accused of hypocrisy as Lowe also runs a company that installs batteries for renewables projects, which has described solar energy as a good way to reduce electricity bills.
Continue reading...Eric Schmidt fears terrorist groups or countries such as North Korea, Iran or Russia may use AI to develop weapons
Google’s former chief executive has warned that artificial intelligence could be used by rogue states such as North Korea, Iran and Russia to “harm innocent people”.
Eric Schmidt, who held senior posts at Google from 2001 to 2017, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that those countries and terrorists could adopt and misuse the technology to develop weapons to create “a bad biological attack from some evil person”.
Continue reading...CoreCivic CEO Damon Hininger could barely contain his excitement about the Laken Riley Act and Trump’s anti-immigration executive orders.
The post Private Prison CEO on Trump Deportation Surge: “One of the Most Exciting Periods in My Career” appeared first on The Intercept.
Vaccine skeptic now leads US’s vast healthcare system after gaining backing of key Republican senators
Robert F Kennedy Jr has taken control of America’s vast healthcare apparatus, after the Senate voted on Thursday to confirm the controversial anti-vaccine campaigner’s nomination as health secretary.
The Senate voted 52 to 48, with all Republicans other than the veteran Kentucky senator and former majority leader, Mitch McConnell, backing the former environmental lawyer.
Continue reading...Statements that there can be no negotiations without Kyiv ring hollow when the US president has just sidelined it
In the aftermath of Donald Trump’s incendiary call with Vladimir Putin, UK ministers and officials have had to do some extraordinary contortions.
There is no greater priority in the UK’s foreign policy than keeping the volatile occupant of the White House on side. And that has meant over the past 24 hours that some pronouncements by the British government have seemed at odds with reality.
Continue reading...Eric Adams weighs closer involvement with federal agency in sign of beleaguered mayor’s warm alliance with Trump
In a sign of increasing cooperation with Donald Trump’s anti-immigration plans, New York City’s Democratic mayor, Eric Adams, is weighing whether to allow the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (Ice) to re-establish an office at the city’s notorious Rikers Island jail.
An Ice office there closed in 2015 under sanctuary laws that severely limit the city’s involvement with federal immigration enforcement. Current law explicitly bans Ice authorities from having an office tasked with enforcement duties on department of corrections property, which includes Rikers.
Continue reading...It was left to the poor junior defence minister Maria Eagle to walk that particular tightrope in the Commons
In his ghostwritten 1987 bestseller The Art of the Deal, Donald Trump delivers his version of the American Dream. Get as much as you can for yourself. There’s always someone out there who’s stupider than you. Any attention is better than none. Promise people the Earth even if you know you can never deliver. Paint yourself orange and glue what’s left of your hair to your head. This is business as a macho willy waving contest. So much so you suspect The Donald is deeply insecure about the size of his own.
But maybe we should have read between the lines better. For the real message is: “Always let someone else take the hit.” After all, it wasn’t Trump who was left out of pocket when his hotels and casinos six times filed for bankruptcy between 1991 and 2009 due to an inability to meet scheduled payments. It was his creditors. That’s a business style The Donald has taken into his presidency. After the Trump Plaza and the Trump Tower, we now have the Trump Toilet. To flush away Ukraine.
Continue reading...Government says it will follow ceasefire agreement as long as Hamas releases three hostages on Saturday
The Israeli government has signalled it intends to stick to the hostage release schedule agreed in the ceasefire deal with Hamas, but warned that if the anticipated three surviving hostages were not released on Saturday, it would go back to war in Gaza.
The statement from the prime minister’s office ends nearly three days of confusion after Donald Trump’s declaration that Israel should demand Hamas release all the remaining hostages, more than 70 people, by Saturday or failing that, end the ceasefire.
Continue reading...Earlier procurement forecast had suggested Elon Musk’s company would be a beneficiary of planned purchases
The US Department of State has removed the name “Tesla” from a list of planned purchases, after an earlier version of the list said it would spend $400m buying new electric armoured vehicles, even as the carmaker’s boss, Elon Musk, leads efforts to slash government spending under Donald Trump.
A procurement forecast produced by the department showed the $400m (£320m) proposed spending on “armoured Tesla (production units)” in December. The most likely Tesla model was the Cybertruck, the company’s electric pickup, given Musk’s claims that the vehicle is bulletproof.
Continue reading...Ruling reinstates Hampton Dellinger to office of special counsel as president targets bureaucrats with mass layoffs
A judge blocked Donald Trump’s attempt to fire the head of a body that protects whistleblowers and investigates corruption.
Late on Wednesday Judge Amy Berman Jackson reversed the White House order sacking Hampton Dellinger as head of the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), and reinstated him in his post pending a court hearing set for 26 February.
Continue reading...Royal Exchange theatre, Manchester
Hiding behind the fluttering dialogue and domestic chatter lies a dark poetry in a pair of plays that address terrifying futures head on
Last month, wildfires ravaged southern California, President Trump issued executive orders on gender diversity and Storm Éowyn brought 100mph winds to the UK. Could any play be more timely than Caryl Churchill’s Escaped Alone, with its apocalyptic visions of raging fires, a God who punishes gender dysphoria and a wind that “turned heads inside out”?
First seen in 2016, this startling chamber piece juxtaposes the inconsequential chitchat of four retired women with alarming descriptions of planetary destruction. Structured like a string quartet in which fluttering exchanges alternate with soulful solos, it is sometimes a leisurely free association, ranging from antiques to cats, soap opera to superpowers, and sometimes a terrifying catalogue of rising waters, miscarriages and societal collapse.
Continue reading...Fears grow for endangered species as the US president sets about dismantling basic laws to protect them to make way for oil and gas drilling
Donald Trump has already begun dismantling parts of the envied US endangered species protections in his quest to boost oil and gas drilling, in part using a panel with an ominous name: the God squad.
A slew of early actions by the Trump administration has set about throwing open more land and waters for the fossil fuel industry, triggering the reversal of regulations that strengthen the Endangered Species Act, the country’s landmark 1973 conservation bill, including a rule that protects migratory birds from unintentional killing.
Continue reading...Experts warn president’s blatant violations of law could upend US government’s system of checks and balances
The deceptively legalistic camouflage rendered the words almost banal – while still clearly communicating their ominous undercurrent.
“Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power,” wrote Vice-President JD Vance, a graduate of Yale law school, on X as he waded into an escalating tug-of-war between his boss, Donald Trump, and the US federal courts.
Continue reading...Jewish creatives and activists also sign New York Times ad after US president’s proposal to ‘take over Gaza’
More than 350 rabbis, alongside additional signatories including Jewish creatives and activists, have signed an ad in the New York Times in which they condemn Donald Trump’s proposal for the effective ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza.
The ad, which was signed by rabbis including Sharon Brous, Roly Matalon and Alissa Wise, as well as Jewish creatives and activists including Tony Kushner, Ilana Glazer, Naomi Klein and Joaquin Phoenix, says: “Trump has called for the removal of all Palestinians from Gaza. Jewish people say no to ethnic cleansing!”
Continue reading...Figures who backed rights of religious minorities in first Trump term fall silent as vital work halted on the ground
During the first Trump administration, Mike Pence, the vice-president, pledged hundreds of millions of dollars, mostly through USAid and the state department, to help Christians and other religious minorities who were persecuted by Islamic State and – in the case of the Yazidis – suffered a genocide.
But under the second Trump administration, the same figures who championed the rights of religious minorities have fallen silent or actively participated in the destruction of USAid, cutting crucial aid to support the same communities they once helped – who now feel abandoned by the US.
Continue reading...What will the world look like without US foreign assistance? Nesrine Malik reports
“My community, living here in the refugee camp, is already vulnerable,” Sahat Zia tells Lucy Hough. “I’m very concerned, especially for the children and the women.”
Sahat is a Rohingya activist and photographer based in Kutupalong refugee camp, Bangladesh. Hearing Donald Trump’s decision to cut USAid came as a shock to Sahat. US foreign assistance is a lifeline for the many thousands of people in the camp, providing access to food, education and healthcare.
Continue reading...Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is trying to eliminate all Defense Department DEI efforts. It hasn’t been entirely successful.
The post Pentagon Official: Hegseth’s Campaign to Scrub DEI History Is a “Dumb” Distraction appeared first on The Intercept.
Exclusive: Dozens of congressional Democrats urge president to reconsider threatened import duties on US’s two largest trading partners
Pressing ahead with steep tariffs on Canada and Mexico risks exacerbating the US housing crisis and threatening the broader economy, dozens of congressional Democrats have warned Donald Trump.
The US president, after threatening to hit imports from the US’s two biggest trading partners with a 25% tax, is weighing how to proceed after approving a one-month delay.
Continue reading...The US is targeting its own allies and its withdrawal from the region has left a power vacuum for China to fill in
While Donald Trump and his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, were engaged in a very public row over the deportation of migrants last month, China’s ambassador to Bogotá was enthusiastically tweeting that diplomatic relations between China and Colombia had reached their “best moment”.
After Petro refused to receive a plane from the US carrying handcuffed deported Colombians, Trump retaliated by doubling tariffs and revoking visas for Colombian government officials.
Continue reading...At company owned by a Trump mega-donor, workers brought from Mexico earned per day about the same as their US counterparts were paid by the hour
Uline, a Wisconsin-based office supply company owned by one of Donald Trump’s biggest financial backers, paid workers it brought from Mexico to work at its US warehouses just a fraction of what their US counterparts were paid, according to four sources who spoke to the Guardian.
The workers from Mexico earned per day about the same as their US counterparts were paid by the hour, according to the American and Mexican sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of nervousness about speaking out publicly against the company. One pay stub, which was seen by the Guardian, showed that a Mexican worker was paid about $38 per day, plus a weekly bonus of about $225 before taxes. Separately, they were also paid daily food expenses.
Do you have a tip on this story? Please email: US.Investigations@theguardian.com
Continue reading...Even with Jordan and Egypt refusing to take in expelled Palestinians, Trump is charging on with his real estate development plan.
The post Trump Is Bullying Jordan and Egypt to Help in Ethnic Cleansing of Gaza. It Isn’t Working. appeared first on The Intercept.
Exclusive: Tom Cotton, Senate intelligence chair, risks angering key Trump ally with harsh words for ‘tech titans’
In a new book, the Arkansas senator Tom Cotton condemns Elon Musk for “chasing Chinese dollars” and having “shamefully supplicated China’s Communist rulers”, in order to advance his own interests as chief executive of companies including Tesla and SpaceX.
It’s an explosive charge from the Republican chair of the powerful Senate intelligence committee, given that Musk, the world’s richest person, is a major donor and close adviser to Donald Trump, now working at the heart of the president’s administration to slash costs and reshape the federal government.
Continue reading...ICE wants to hire contractors to monitor social media for threats. Those who criticize the agency could be pulled into the dragnet.
The post ICE Wants to Know If You’re Posting Negative Things About It Online appeared first on The Intercept.
“Are you going to be a coward?” Zül-Qarnain Nantambu asked himself before taking the field for Kendrick Lamar’s show. “Are you going to take a stand?”
The post Gaza Protester Who Interrupted Kendrick Lamar Super Bowl Halftime Show Speaks Out appeared first on The Intercept.
Anya Stasenko and Slava Leontyev felt the responsibility of history upon them when they chose to film the everyday people defending their homeland from the Russian onslaught
The exhausted couple speaking over video from Los Angeles do not look like typical Oscar nominees. The tiredness etched on their faces is not from late nights partying or long days networking. It looks more like the weight of the world on their shoulders.
Anya Stasenko and Slava Leontyev are ceramics artists from the frontline Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. They have been married for decades and work together, making beautifully intricate painted porcelain beasts no bigger than your fist. When Russian troops invaded in 2022, rather than fleeing, the couple stayed in Kharkiv. Leontyev was a weapons instructor in the Ukrainian special forces, a weapons instructor who trained civilian volunteers. Then he picked up a camera and shot a documentary, Porcelain War. When the film premiered at Sundance in January 2024, the couple flew to the US, expecting to stay for a month.
Continue reading...Two countries’ foreign ministers meet in Moscow and agree there are no obstacles to long-delayed plan
A plan for Russia to establish its first naval base in Africa will go ahead, Sudan’s foreign minister has confirmed, after years of delays over the Red Sea military port.
If the agreement is implemented, Russia would join the US and China in the region; they have bases to the south in Djibouti.
Continue reading...Photo appears to show UK ambassador to Iran meeting pair, whose detention comes after tit-for-tat releases with Germany and Italy
Two British nationals have been arrested in Iran and given access to the UK ambassador, Hugo Shorter, according to reports.
State media published photographs purportedly showing Shorter meeting two British “national security” suspects at the general and revolutionary prosecutor’s office in Kerman province, about 500 miles south-east of Tehran.
Continue reading...Russia, Turkey and Egypt also among worst perpetrators of transnational repression around the globe
A quarter of the world’s countries have engaged in transnational repression – targeting political exiles abroad to silence dissent – in the past decade, new research reveals.
The Washington DC-based non-profit organisation Freedom House has documented 1,219 incidents carried out by 48 governments across 103 countries, from 2014 to 2024.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Italy-based David Yambio, a critic of Meloni government, was told of attempt to compromise his phone
An Italy-based human rights activist whose work supports the international criminal court in providing evidence about cases of abuse suffered by migrants and refugees held in Libyan detention camps and prisons has revealed that Apple informed him his phone was targeted in a spyware attack
David Yambio, the president and co-founder of Refugees in Libya, has been a critic of the Italian government’s migrant pact with the north African country and its recent controversial decision to release Osama Najim, a Libyan police chief wanted by the international criminal court (ICC) for suspected war crimes, including torture, murder, enslavement and rape. Yambio, 27, was an alleged victim of Najim’s abuses during his detention at the notorious Mitiga prison near Tripoli.
Continue reading...If the State Department takes over USAID, experts fear foreign assistance will stop unless it has a perceived benefit for Trump.
The post Trump’s Attacks on USAID Spark Fear That Lifesaving Care Will Become “Transactional” appeared first on The Intercept.
Green politicians describe plan as ‘a historic attack on Norwegian nature’
The Norwegian parliament has voted to open up protected rivers to hydropower plants, prompting fury from conservation groups who fear for the fate of fish and other wildlife.
The bill allows power plants bigger than 1MW to be built in protected waterways if the societal benefit is “significant” and the environmental consequences “acceptable”. It was voted through on Thursday as part of measures to improve flood and landslide protection.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Future of further projects uncertain after Rosebank and Jackdaw licences were found to have been unlawfully granted
Thirteen more oil and gas licences could be cancelled as ministers decide new guidance for fossil fuel extraction after a landmark court case, the Guardian has learned.
The admission that many more licences may ultimately be unlawful comes on the back of cabinet tensions over the future of two major oil and gas fields – Rosebank and Jackdaw – whose licences were last month found to have been unlawfully granted.
Continue reading...The utility addressed bills to ‘Feeder Pillar’, which powers flats’ car park gates
We moved into our current home, a new-build at the time, 15 years ago. Our end-of-terrace is next door to a block of flats that is part of the same development.
Just inside the block’s car park there is an electricity feeder pillar that powers the gates. Because of an admin error, when the site was being developed, the feeder pillar was assigned our postal address not the flats’, which resulted in several years of letters and bills from SSE Energy addressed to “Feeder Pillar”.
We usually marked them “return to sender” or “not known at this address” and posted them back. We tried contacting SSE and its response included quizzing me on “why are you opening mail not addressed to you?”
Then two years ago, a debt collection firm turned up at my door. They were acting on SSE’s behalf and said I owed more than £7,000 in unpaid bills for the feeder pillar and that, if we didn’t pay up, they’d start legal proceedings.
Continue reading...Minimum quotas for purchase of coal power and new project approvals threaten major advances in renewable energy production, thinktanks say
China’s energy production is putting coal and renewables in competition with each other, according to a new analysis that found continuing approval of coal-fired projects in 2024 undermined the “unprecedented” surge in clean energy production.
The analysis of China’s 2024 energy production – released on Thursday by two thinktanks, the Global Energy Monitor and the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) – found China’s major advances in energy production were being held back by a commitment to coal power.
Continue reading...Greenpeace protest draws attention to worsening typhoons and demands accountability from major polluters
For two days and two nights, Ronalyn Carbonel and her four children clung to the roof of their home as a huge storm raged around them. With the wind battering her village of Rizal, about 10 miles east of Manila in the Philippines, and water swirling through the rooms below them, they had no choice but to wait, hoping that someone would come to rescue them and hundreds of their neighbours.
“We did not have shelter, we did not have food … we just had to wait for the government for two days,” Carbonel said. “It is not easy, no electricity, no light, we just wait for the sun to rise. The children were scared, we had never experienced anything like this.”
Continue reading...Exclusive: Military experts raise concerns over change to protocols on Pakistan border to allow project that was handed to billionaire Gautam Adani
The Indian government relaxed national security protocols along the Pakistan border to make way for a renewable energy park, a project ultimately handed to one of India’s richest men, Gautam Adani, official documents reveal.
The Adani Group is constructing the Khavda plant, the largest renewable project in the world, in the state of Gujarat. The conglomerate is controlled by Adani, whose close relationship with the prime minister, Narendra Modi, has recently been under intense scrutiny.
Continue reading...Palestinians from Gaza responded with outrage to Trump’s proposal to expel them from their homes.
The post “You Don’t Own Gaza, Donald Trump”: Palestinians Vow to Remain and Rebuild appeared first on The Intercept.
Energy minister says monkey ‘came into contact with grid transformer’, causing hours-long outage in sweltering heat
A countrywide power outage in Sri Lanka has been blamed on a monkey that clambered into a power station south of Colombo.
The blackout, which began around midday on Sunday, left many people sweltering in temperatures exceeding 30C (86F).
Continue reading...An FBI official urged the American Academy of Forensic Sciences to cancel a conference presentation titled “Taking on the FBI.”
The post Forensics Experts Challenged the FBI. So the FBI Tried to Censor Their Conference. appeared first on The Intercept.
In South Africa, a 36-year-old living with HIV since childhood fears she will lose access to treatment due to Trump’s policy.
The post Global HIV Care Thrown Into Chaos by Trump: “I Will Be Sick and Maybe Die” appeared first on The Intercept.
Democrats struggle to counter Trump’s renewed agenda.
The post Why Are Dems Surprised? appeared first on The Intercept.
Baku reportedly preparing to appeal to ‘an international court’ unless Moscow takes responsibility for crash
Azerbaijan is escalating its rare standoff with the Kremlin as the fallout from the downing of an Azerbaijani passenger jet continues, highlighting Russia’s diminishing influence across the former Soviet Union.
Thirty-eight people were killed when an Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashed on 25 December near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan after rerouting across the Caspian Sea from southern Russia.
Continue reading...Trump told reporters that he wants to expel “all” Palestinians from Gaza — not just during a period of reconstruction, but permanently.
The post Trump: “The U.S. Will Take Over the Gaza Strip” appeared first on The Intercept.
Since the fall of Bashar al-Assad, Turkey and its militias have cut off the Kurdish city of Kobane from the rest of Syria.
The post Twelve Days in Kobane, Where Syrian Kurds Are Under Attack by Turkey appeared first on The Intercept.
After plunging USAID and its network of contractors into chaos, communications breakdowns and bureaucratic snafus leave projects stalled.
The post Marco Rubio’s USAID “Humanitarian Waiver” Isn’t Helping Restart Lifesaving Programs appeared first on The Intercept.
Betar U.S. said it has shared with the Trump administration a list of the “names of hundreds of terror supporters.”
The post The Far-Right Group Building a List of Pro-Palestine Activists to Deport appeared first on The Intercept.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has called for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages. Guterres warned against 'any form of ethnic cleansing' in Gaza as he addressed the UN committee on the exercise of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, a day after Donald Trump announced plans for the US to take control of the strip and for Palestinians to be 'resettled' in neighbouring countries. 'In the search for solutions, we must not make the problem worse,' the UN chief said. He said that any durable peace will require 'tangible, irreversible and permanent' progress toward the two-state solution as well as the establishment of an 'independent Palestinian state with Gaza as an integral part'
Continue reading...The Trump minion has said Jan. 6 defendants should get cash reparations and those responsible for the charges should get jail time.
The post The Capitol Rioters Are Free — But Ed Martin’s Crusade Against Jan. 6 Prosecutors Is Just Getting Started appeared first on The Intercept.
The American tradition of airstrikes against Somalia is continuing into Trump’s second term.
The post Trump the “Peacemaker” Ramps Up America’s Forever War in Somalia appeared first on The Intercept.
With the Democratic Party reeling from its losses, the DNC is voting on a new chair. Will it choose to reform its top-down model?
The post The Democratic National Committee Is Undemocratic. That’s by Design. appeared first on The Intercept.
An American Airlines passenger jet with 64 people onboard was coming in to land at Reagan National airport when it collided with a military helicopter. Here is a video timeline of the incident
Trump claims military helicopter in Washington collision ‘flying too high’
Victims of the Washington DC plane crash – the full list so far
In 2024, the Army recorded more Class A flight mishaps — the most serious type of aircraft accidents — than it has in a decade.
The post Army Helicopter Accidents Are Occurring at Near Record Rates appeared first on The Intercept.
Efforts at stopping population movement by force often fail to stop people migrating across borders. But for many politicians, that can be a good thing. Josh Toussaint-Strauss explores how immigration is being exploited for business, to boost political agendas, and as a weapon of war
Continue reading...As the second Trump presidency begins, John Harris and John Domokos go to a Staffordshire town whose economy went from coal to Amazon warehousing to find out if 21st century populism is cutting through. At a byelection down the road, meanwhile, there's a big question facing voters: Labour or Reform UK?
Continue reading...
The European Space Agency (ESA) has signed a contract with Thales Alenia Space in Italy to lead European aerospace companies in building the Argonaut Lunar Descent Element, ESA’s first lunar lander.
With Daft Punk Is Playing at My House turning 20 and a new album being worked on, we select the dance-rock musos’ finest tracks
The most recent LCD Soundsystem single sounded remarkably like a callback to their earliest releases: a minimal backing of rhythm track and synth – playing a riff that recalls their debut single, Losing My Edge – plus a spoken-word vocal that’s alternately creepily stalker-ish and drily funny.
Continue reading...Recently, a group of world-leading scientists called for a halt on research to create ‘mirror life’ microbes amid concerns that the synthetic organisms would present an ‘unprecedented risk’ to life on Earth. Ian Sample tells Madeleine Finlay about why this work initially seemed exciting for scientists and what the risks of it continuing could be. And Kate Adamala, assistant professor of genetics, cell biology and development at the University of Minnesota, describes what made her change her mind about pursuing her own research on mirror cells
‘Unprecedented risk’ to life on Earth: Scientists call for halt on ‘mirror life’ microbe research
Support the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod
Continue reading...Tributes paid to journalist remembered for infectious enthusiasm for science and talent for turning a phrase
Tim Radford, the Guardian’s former science editor and mentor to a generation of writers who followed in his footsteps, has died aged 84.
His reporting covered a breadth of topics from genetically modified crops and the environmental impact of greenhouse gases to the arrival of cloned animals and the discovery of gravitational waves, the ripples in the fabric of spacetime first predicted by Albert Einstein a century earlier.
Continue reading...Banana prices expected to rise in the short term, while cost of sugar should remain stable despite damage to cane crops
Australians can expect banana shortages and price hikes as the cleanup begins in flood-ravaged north Queensland, which grows almost 94% of Australia’s banana crop, growers say.
But the good news, for consumers at least, is that any banana dramas playing out on supermarket shelves over coming days will be linked to transport disruption, rather than widespread crop destruction – meaning the price and availability of one of the country’s favourite fruits should soon return to normal.
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Continue reading...In the span of just weeks, the US government has experienced what may be the most consequential security breach in its history—not through a sophisticated cyberattack or an act of foreign espionage, but through official orders by a billionaire with a poorly defined government role. And the implications for national security are profound.
First, it was reported that people associated with the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) had accessed the US Treasury computer system, giving them the ability to collect data on and potentially control the department’s roughly ...
US president says ‘whatever countries charge the United States of America, we will charge them’; vaccine critic now in charge of US health policy
Donald Trump said he plans to unveil reciprocal tariffs on Thursday but gave no other details, Reuters reports.
“Today is the big one: reciprocal tariffs,” Trump wrote on his social media platform.
Continue reading...President says US will impose ‘reciprocal’ duties but no new specific tariffs were announced
Donald Trump threatened to ramp up his economic assault on some of America’s biggest trading partners on Thursday, vowing to impose new tariffs on countries that target products made in the US within weeks.
The US will impose “reciprocal” duties, the president announced. “We want a level playing field,” he declared in the Oval Office, pledging to roll out a “beautiful, simple system” of new US import duties that match those imposed by other countries.
Continue reading...Dr Sam Perlo-Freeman, Paul Bennett, Helen Jones and Laura Harling respond to an article by a former diplomat on the UK’s complicity in war crimes
The testimony of the former Foreign Office policy adviser Mark Smith confirms exactly what the Campaign Against Arms Trade has been arguing for decades – the UK’s arms-export control system is rotten to its core (I saw illegality and complicity with war crimes. That’s why I quit the UK Foreign Office, 9 February). When we successfully took the government to court to stop arming Saudi Arabia, the key legal and moral questions were essentially the same. How could the UK government continue supplying arms in the face of overwhelming evidence of the most horrific crimes being committed against civilians?
What Smith’s evidence shows is that the only way for the Foreign Office to keep doing this is to bully civil servants and diplomats into changing their reports, warning them not to leave any written evidence, or even asking them to “delete correspondence”. There has been a systematic effort to manipulate and suppress the truth.
Continue reading...CoreCivic CEO Damon Hininger could barely contain his excitement about the Laken Riley Act and Trump’s anti-immigration executive orders.
The post Private Prison CEO on Trump Deportation Surge: “One of the Most Exciting Periods in My Career” appeared first on The Intercept.
An FBI official urged the American Academy of Forensic Sciences to cancel a conference presentation titled “Taking on the FBI.”
The post Forensics Experts Challenged the FBI. So the FBI Tried to Censor Their Conference. appeared first on The Intercept.
Earlier procurement forecast had suggested Elon Musk’s company would be a beneficiary of planned purchases
The US Department of State has removed the name “Tesla” from a list of planned purchases, after an earlier version of the list said it would spend $400m buying new electric armoured vehicles, even as the carmaker’s boss, Elon Musk, leads efforts to slash government spending under Donald Trump.
A procurement forecast produced by the department showed the $400m (£320m) proposed spending on “armoured Tesla (production units)” in December. The most likely Tesla model was the Cybertruck, the company’s electric pickup, given Musk’s claims that the vehicle is bulletproof.
Continue reading...Children among at least 30 hurt as incident expected to inflame tensions ahead of this month’s election
A 24-year-old Afghan asylum seeker has driven a car into a trade union demonstration in Munich, injuring at least 30 people, German police have said, in a suspected attack that is expected to inflame tensions before this month’s election.
The car, a Mini Cooper, accelerated and ploughed into people at the back of a rally by the Verdi union at about 10.30am during a strike by public sector workers. Employees of daycare centres, hospitals, sanitation facilities and public swimming pools had joined the work stoppage calling for higher pay and longer holidays. About 1,500 people were reportedly at the scene.
Continue reading...On top of the human cost, the US’s soft power and influence is disappearing. Russia and China will fill the void
Amid the daily troubling news coming from the United States are the ongoing and increasingly damaging efforts by President Donald Trump, supported by secretary of state Marco Rubio and Elon Musk, to shut down the US Agency for International Development (USAid). Musk has called it a “criminal organization” and said that it was “time for it to die”. The agency website is down, so little official information is available. But in the week since funding to the agency was frozen, and the majority of staff placed on leave, thousands of public health and development programmes worldwide have been thrown into turmoil, and now face an uncertain future.
USAid is the main federal agency that works to provide foreign aid assistance to the poorest countries and people in the world. On Friday, a US judge prevented around 2,000 USAid employees from being placed on leave, and ordered the reinstatement of about 500 more. But Trump and Musk appear to want to move forward with a plan that would see its global workforce reduced from about 10,000 staff and contractors, to just over 600.
Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh
Eric Schmidt fears terrorist groups or countries such as North Korea, Iran or Russia may use AI to develop weapons
Google’s former chief executive has warned that artificial intelligence could be used by rogue states such as North Korea, Iran and Russia to “harm innocent people”.
Eric Schmidt, who held senior posts at Google from 2001 to 2017, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that those countries and terrorists could adopt and misuse the technology to develop weapons to create “a bad biological attack from some evil person”.
Continue reading...Inspired by Che Guevara, Jean Ziegler has spent the past 60 years exposing how Switzerland enabled global wrongdoing. His enemies accuse him of treason
In early 1964, Jean Ziegler, a young Swiss politician, received a phone call from a man claiming to represent Ernesto “Che” Guevara, the Cuban revolutionary and minister of industry. Che would be in Geneva in March for a UN conference on trade policy, and some comrades had suggested Jean might be his chauffeur during his stay. Was Ziegler available for the gig?
Today, in his tenth decade of life, Ziegler is Switzerland’s most notorious public intellectual. That’s because, over the course of writing about 30 books, serving for close to three decades in the Swiss parliament, and relentlessly crusading for leftwing causes in his free time, Ziegler has made a career of unsparing criticism of his home country and its outsize influence on the rest of the world. In the 1960s, though, he was just another eager young leftist, waiting for his chance to change the world.
Continue reading...What will the world look like without US foreign assistance? Nesrine Malik reports
“My community, living here in the refugee camp, is already vulnerable,” Sahat Zia tells Lucy Hough. “I’m very concerned, especially for the children and the women.”
Sahat is a Rohingya activist and photographer based in Kutupalong refugee camp, Bangladesh. Hearing Donald Trump’s decision to cut USAid came as a shock to Sahat. US foreign assistance is a lifeline for the many thousands of people in the camp, providing access to food, education and healthcare.
Continue reading...Kathleen Sgamma to oversee Bureau of Land Management, agency that manages quarter-billion acres of public land
Donald Trump has nominated a longtime oil and gas industry representative to oversee an agency that manages a quarter-billion acres of public land concentrated in western states.
Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Colorado-based oil industry trade group Western Energy Alliance, was named Bureau of Land Management director, a position with wide influence over lands used for energy production, grazing, recreation and other purposes. An MIT graduate, Sgamma has been a leading voice for the fossil fuel industry, calling for fewer drilling restrictions on public lands that produce about 10% of US oil and gas.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Tom Cotton, Senate intelligence chair, risks angering key Trump ally with harsh words for ‘tech titans’
In a new book, the Arkansas senator Tom Cotton condemns Elon Musk for “chasing Chinese dollars” and having “shamefully supplicated China’s Communist rulers”, in order to advance his own interests as chief executive of companies including Tesla and SpaceX.
It’s an explosive charge from the Republican chair of the powerful Senate intelligence committee, given that Musk, the world’s richest person, is a major donor and close adviser to Donald Trump, now working at the heart of the president’s administration to slash costs and reshape the federal government.
Continue reading...Here’s an easy system for two humans to remotely authenticate to each other, so they can be sure that neither are digital impersonations.
To mitigate that risk, I have developed this simple solution where you can setup a unique time-based one-time passcode (TOTP) between any pair of persons.
This is how it works:
- Two people, Person A and Person B, sit in front of the same computer and open this page;
- They input their respective names (e.g. Alice and Bob) onto the same page, and click “Generate”;
- The page will generate two TOTP QR codes, one for Alice and one for Bob; ...
If the State Department takes over USAID, experts fear foreign assistance will stop unless it has a perceived benefit for Trump.
The post Trump’s Attacks on USAID Spark Fear That Lifesaving Care Will Become “Transactional” appeared first on The Intercept.
Parabon NanoLabs sells police composite images of suspects built on DNA. Critics say the product is snake-oil science fiction that can exacerbate problems in the criminal legal system.
The post A Forensics Company Tells Cops It Can Use DNA to Predict a Suspect’s Face. Scientists Worry the Tool Will Deepen Racial Bias. appeared first on The Intercept.
Exclusive: Italy-based David Yambio, a critic of Meloni government, was told of attempt to compromise his phone
An Italy-based human rights activist whose work supports the international criminal court in providing evidence about cases of abuse suffered by migrants and refugees held in Libyan detention camps and prisons has revealed that Apple informed him his phone was targeted in a spyware attack
David Yambio, the president and co-founder of Refugees in Libya, has been a critic of the Italian government’s migrant pact with the north African country and its recent controversial decision to release Osama Najim, a Libyan police chief wanted by the international criminal court (ICC) for suspected war crimes, including torture, murder, enslavement and rape. Yambio, 27, was an alleged victim of Najim’s abuses during his detention at the notorious Mitiga prison near Tripoli.
Continue reading...Vaccine skeptic now leads US’s vast healthcare system after gaining backing of key Republican senators
Robert F Kennedy Jr has taken control of America’s vast healthcare apparatus, after the Senate voted on Thursday to confirm the controversial anti-vaccine campaigner’s nomination as health secretary.
The Senate voted 52 to 48, with all Republicans other than the veteran Kentucky senator and former majority leader, Mitch McConnell, backing the former environmental lawyer.
Continue reading...Kaspersky is reporting on a new type of smartphone malware.
The malware in question uses optical character recognition (OCR) to review a device’s photo library, seeking screenshots of recovery phrases for crypto wallets. Based on their assessment, infected Google Play apps have been downloaded more than 242,000 times. Kaspersky says: “This is the first known case of an app infected with OCR spyware being found in Apple’s official app marketplace.”
That’s a tactic I have not heard of before.
Palestinians from Gaza responded with outrage to Trump’s proposal to expel them from their homes.
The post “You Don’t Own Gaza, Donald Trump”: Palestinians Vow to Remain and Rebuild appeared first on The Intercept.
In South Africa, a 36-year-old living with HIV since childhood fears she will lose access to treatment due to Trump’s policy.
The post Global HIV Care Thrown Into Chaos by Trump: “I Will Be Sick and Maybe Die” appeared first on The Intercept.
Judgment against Justyna Wydrzyńska overturned in symbolic moment for abortion rights movement
A Polish court has ordered a retrial in the case of an activist found guilty of helping a woman to terminate her pregnancy in a symbolic moment for Poland’s abortion rights movement.
Justyna Wydrzyńska was sentenced to community service in 2023 in the first such case for an activist in the EU country, which has a near-total abortion ban and outlaws abortion assistance.
Continue reading...Deputy prime minister reportedly told separately by two councillors about lewd messages about her on group
Angela Rayner was told nearly three years ago that the sacked minister Andrew Gwynne had made a “derogatory” joke about her on an offensive WhatsApp group, the Guardian has been told.
The deputy prime minister was told separately by two local councillors about the lewd message about her by Gwynne, her neighbouring MP in Greater Manchester.
Continue reading...Royal Exchange theatre, Manchester
Hiding behind the fluttering dialogue and domestic chatter lies a dark poetry in a pair of plays that address terrifying futures head on
Last month, wildfires ravaged southern California, President Trump issued executive orders on gender diversity and Storm Éowyn brought 100mph winds to the UK. Could any play be more timely than Caryl Churchill’s Escaped Alone, with its apocalyptic visions of raging fires, a God who punishes gender dysphoria and a wind that “turned heads inside out”?
First seen in 2016, this startling chamber piece juxtaposes the inconsequential chitchat of four retired women with alarming descriptions of planetary destruction. Structured like a string quartet in which fluttering exchanges alternate with soulful solos, it is sometimes a leisurely free association, ranging from antiques to cats, soap opera to superpowers, and sometimes a terrifying catalogue of rising waters, miscarriages and societal collapse.
Continue reading...Looking for the latest iPhone, or a good deal on a refurbished handset? Our expert has assessed and rated the current crop of Apple smartphones
The best iPhone may be the one you already own. There is generally no need to buy a fresh phone just because new models have been released, as hardware updates are broadly iterative, adding small bits to an already accomplished package. But if you do want a replacement handset, whether new or refurbished, here are the best devices of the current crop of Apple smartphones.
Many other smartphones are available besides the iPhone, but if you’re an Apple user and don’t fancy switching to Android, you still have a couple of choices. Whether your priority is the longest battery life, the best camera, the biggest screen or simply the optimal balance of features and price, there’s more to choose from in the Apple ecosystem than you may expect, especially after the iPhone 16 models were released in September 2024.
Best iPhone for most people:
iPhone 16
From £799 at Apple
Best value iPhone:
iPhone SE
From £429 at Apple
Best iPhone for camera:
iPhone 16 Pro
From £999 at Apple
Best iPhone for screen:
iPhone 16 Pro Max
From £1,199 at Apple
Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, John Brewin, Archie Rhind-Tutt and Ewan Murray as Everton earn a dramatic point against Liverpool at Goodison Park
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: Goodison Park’s final Merseyside derby is a classic. What a moment for Everton fans as James Tarkowski wallops home an equalising screamer in the 98th minute. Then the scenes afterwards, with Curtis Jones, Abdoulaye Doucouré and Arne Slot among those sent off.
Continue reading...Investigation reveals ineffective products being sold across Africa, with poor regulation and shortage of effective medication leading to needless deaths
He had heard rats scuttling around and was reaching to turn on his bedside lamp when Kamidikolo* was bitten. By the time he reached hospital, snake venom had already started breaking down his skin and muscle. The flesh around the bite was necrotising, or dying.
The only treatment to stop the damage was antivenom and a vial was given to Kamidikolo, 60, a handyman from Lwanga, southern Uganda. But it was too late to stop the damage to the finger and arm where he was bitten.
Continue reading...RPG Maker was launched in 1992 and has become increasingly complex, but it’s still a remarkably accessible way to make adventure games with no development experience
It is said that every 100 years, a small fishing village on the southern coast of an unknown fantasy realm holds a magical artisanal cheese festival. As an adventurer and fan of ethically produced dairy products, you are determined to attend the fabled event, arriving at the dock on a small boat with only a few gold coins and a dream. This is the backdrop to the worst role-playing adventure I have ever experienced – and, entirely coincidentally, the only one I have ever designed.
The game creation package RPG Maker has been around since 1992, the first version launching on the Japanese PC-98 computer. Since then, development has been passed from veteran software publisher ASCII to Enterbrain and then Chiyoda-based Gotcha Gotcha Games, and dozens of instalments have appeared. Although it has become increasingly complex over the years, RPG Maker remains a remarkably intuitive way to make adventure games with no development experience at all.
Continue reading...The utility addressed bills to ‘Feeder Pillar’, which powers flats’ car park gates
We moved into our current home, a new-build at the time, 15 years ago. Our end-of-terrace is next door to a block of flats that is part of the same development.
Just inside the block’s car park there is an electricity feeder pillar that powers the gates. Because of an admin error, when the site was being developed, the feeder pillar was assigned our postal address not the flats’, which resulted in several years of letters and bills from SSE Energy addressed to “Feeder Pillar”.
We usually marked them “return to sender” or “not known at this address” and posted them back. We tried contacting SSE and its response included quizzing me on “why are you opening mail not addressed to you?”
Then two years ago, a debt collection firm turned up at my door. They were acting on SSE’s behalf and said I owed more than £7,000 in unpaid bills for the feeder pillar and that, if we didn’t pay up, they’d start legal proceedings.
Continue reading...The marshes in Colombia’s capital are sacred to Indigenous peoples, provide vital wildlife habitats and could help the city adapt to climate change. But after centuries of development they are close to collapse
Early last year, Bogotá faced a prolonged drought, leading to historically low water levels in reservoirs and forcing Colombia’s authorities to impose water rationing. Then, in November, heavy rains triggered widespread flooding, submerging streets, stranding vehicles and disrupting traffic.
People living in neighbourhoods built over wetlands, such as Suba Rincón, suffered a double impact from these extreme events, that served to underscore the city’s vulnerability to deforestation, El Niño and the climate crisis. In these districts people have been left counting the cost of repeated floods.
Continue reading...Here’s a supply-chain attack just waiting to happen. A group of researchers searched for, and then registered, abandoned Amazon S3 buckets for about $400. These buckets contained software libraries that are still used. Presumably the projects don’t realize that they have been abandoned, and still ping them for patches, updates, and etc.
The TL;DR is that this time, we ended up discovering ~150 Amazon S3 buckets that had previously been used across commercial and open source software products, governments, and infrastructure deployment/update pipelines—and then abandoned...
Russia, Turkey and Egypt also among worst perpetrators of transnational repression around the globe
A quarter of the world’s countries have engaged in transnational repression – targeting political exiles abroad to silence dissent – in the past decade, new research reveals.
The Washington DC-based non-profit organisation Freedom House has documented 1,219 incidents carried out by 48 governments across 103 countries, from 2014 to 2024.
Continue reading...Even with Jordan and Egypt refusing to take in expelled Palestinians, Trump is charging on with his real estate development plan.
The post Trump Is Bullying Jordan and Egypt to Help in Ethnic Cleansing of Gaza. It Isn’t Working. appeared first on The Intercept.
Mamady Doumbouya has led the country since a 2021 coup. Some fear he has no intention of relinquishing power
Across Guinea’s capital, Conakry, billboards and posters proclaim the people’s loyalty to the vision of Mamady Doumbouya, the general who has led the west African country since a coup in September 2021.
The iconography is omnipresent. Along the Fidel Castro highway, the posters hang on poles that rise out of piles of rubbish. Near the grand mosque, one poster is accompanied by the gnomic inscription “Your silence is precious, your eyes reassuring”. Another, bearing an image of him shaking Xi Jinping’s hand at a meeting in Beijing in September, has the caption: “Welcome back Mamady Doumbouya, our pride.”
Continue reading...“Are you going to be a coward?” Zül-Qarnain Nantambu asked himself before taking the field for Kendrick Lamar’s show. “Are you going to take a stand?”
The post Gaza Protester Who Interrupted Kendrick Lamar Super Bowl Halftime Show Speaks Out appeared first on The Intercept.
Hawa Hunt’s detention a month ago was politically motivated, say daughter and rights groups, who also raise concerns about her treatment in jail
Fears are mounting over the mental and physical health of a social media influencer who has been in prison in Sierra Leone for more than a month after she was arrested on live television.
Hawa Hunt, a dual Canadian and Sierra Leonean citizen, was arrested on 22 December while starring in House of Stars, a reality TV show, for comments she made on social media about the president of Sierra Leone and the first lady in May 2023.
Continue reading...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.
After plunging USAID and its network of contractors into chaos, communications breakdowns and bureaucratic snafus leave projects stalled.
The post Marco Rubio’s USAID “Humanitarian Waiver” Isn’t Helping Restart Lifesaving Programs appeared first on The Intercept.
Betar U.S. said it has shared with the Trump administration a list of the “names of hundreds of terror supporters.”
The post The Far-Right Group Building a List of Pro-Palestine Activists to Deport appeared first on The Intercept.
Most people know that robots no longer sound like tinny trash cans. They sound like Siri, Alexa, and Gemini. They sound like the voices in labyrinthine customer support phone trees. And even those robot voices are being made obsolete by new AI-generated voices that can mimic every vocal nuance and tic of human speech, down to specific regional accents. And with just a few seconds of audio, AI can now clone someone’s specific voice.
This technology will replace humans in many areas. Automated customer support will save money by cutting staffing at ...
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
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are the most popular digital assets today, capturing the attention of cryptocurrency investors, whales and people from around the world. People find it amazing that some users spend thousands or millions of dollars on a single NFT-based image of a monkey or other token, but you can simply take a screenshot for free. So here we share some freuently asked question about NFTs.
NFT stands for non-fungible token, which is a cryptographic token on a blockchain with unique identification codes that distinguish it from other tokens. NFTs are unique and not interchangeable, which means no two NFTs are the same. NFTs can be a unique artwork, GIF, Images, videos, Audio album. in-game items, collectibles etc.
A blockchain is a distributed digital ledger that allows for the secure storage of data. By recording any kind of information—such as bank account transactions, the ownership of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), or Decentralized Finance (DeFi) smart contracts—in one place, and distributing it to many different computers, blockchains ensure that data can’t be manipulated without everyone in the system being aware.
The value of an NFT comes from its ability to be traded freely and securely on the blockchain, which is not possible with other current digital ownership solutionsThe NFT points to its location on the blockchain, but doesn’t necessarily contain the digital property. For example, if you replace one bitcoin with another, you will still have the same thing. If you buy a non-fungible item, such as a movie ticket, it is impossible to replace it with any other movie ticket because each ticket is unique to a specific time and place.
One of the unique characteristics of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) is that they can be tokenised to create a digital certificate of ownership that can be bought, sold and traded on the blockchain.
As with crypto-currency, records of who owns what are stored on a ledger that is maintained by thousands of computers around the world. These records can’t be forged because the whole system operates on an open-source network.
NFTs also contain smart contracts—small computer programs that run on the blockchain—that give the artist, for example, a cut of any future sale of the token.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) aren't cryptocurrencies, but they do use blockchain technology. Many NFTs are based on Ethereum, where the blockchain serves as a ledger for all the transactions related to said NFT and the properties it represents.5) How to make an NFT?
Anyone can create an NFT. All you need is a digital wallet, some ethereum tokens and a connection to an NFT marketplace where you’ll be able to upload and sell your creations
When you purchase a stock in NFT, that purchase is recorded on the blockchain—the bitcoin ledger of transactions—and that entry acts as your proof of ownership.
The value of an NFT varies a lot based on the digital asset up for grabs. People use NFTs to trade and sell digital art, so when creating an NFT, you should consider the popularity of your digital artwork along with historical statistics.
In the year 2021, a digital artist called Pak created an artwork called The Merge. It was sold on the Nifty Gateway NFT market for $91.8 million.
Non-fungible tokens can be used in investment opportunities. One can purchase an NFT and resell it at a profit. Certain NFT marketplaces let sellers of NFTs keep a percentage of the profits from sales of the assets they create.
Many people want to buy NFTs because it lets them support the arts and own something cool from their favorite musicians, brands, and celebrities. NFTs also give artists an opportunity to program in continual royalties if someone buys their work. Galleries see this as a way to reach new buyers interested in art.
There are many places to buy digital assets, like opensea and their policies vary. On top shot, for instance, you sign up for a waitlist that can be thousands of people long. When a digital asset goes on sale, you are occasionally chosen to purchase it.
To mint an NFT token, you must pay some amount of gas fee to process the transaction on the Etherum blockchain, but you can mint your NFT on a different blockchain called Polygon to avoid paying gas fees. This option is available on OpenSea and this simply denotes that your NFT will only be able to trade using Polygon's blockchain and not Etherum's blockchain. Mintable allows you to mint NFTs for free without paying any gas fees.
The answer is no. Non-Fungible Tokens are minted on the blockchain using cryptocurrencies such as Etherum, Solana, Polygon, and so on. Once a Non-Fungible Token is minted, the transaction is recorded on the blockchain and the contract or license is awarded to whoever has that Non-Fungible Token in their wallet.
You can sell your work and creations by attaching a license to it on the blockchain, where its ownership can be transferred. This lets you get exposure without losing full ownership of your work. Some of the most successful projects include Cryptopunks, Bored Ape Yatch Club NFTs, SandBox, World of Women and so on. These NFT projects have gained popularity globally and are owned by celebrities and other successful entrepreneurs. Owning one of these NFTs gives you an automatic ticket to exclusive business meetings and life-changing connections.
That’s a wrap. Hope you guys found this article enlightening. I just answer some question with my limited knowledge about NFTs. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to drop them in the comment section below. Also I have a question for you, Is bitcoin an NFTs? let me know in The comment section below
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The marketing industry is turning to artificial intelligence (AI) as a way to save time and execute smarter, more personalized campaigns. 61% of marketers say AI software is the most important aspect of their data strategy.
If you’re late to the AI party, don’t worry. It’s easier than you think to start leveraging artificial intelligence tools in your marketing strategy. Here are 11 AI marketing tools every marketer should start using today.
Personalize is an AI-powered technology that helps you identify and produce highly targeted sales and marketing campaigns by tracking the products and services your contacts are most interested in at any given time. The platform uses an algorithm to identify each contact’s top three interests, which are updated in real-time based on recent site activity.
Key Features
Seventh Sense provides behavioral analytics that helps you win attention in your customers’ overcrowded email inboxes. Choosing the best day and time to send an email is always a gamble. And while some days of the week generally get higher open rates than others, you’ll never be able to nail down a time that’s best for every customer. Seventh Sense eases your stress of having to figure out the perfect send-time and day for your email campaigns. The AI-based platform figures out the best timing and email frequency for each contact based on when they’re opening emails. The tool is primarily geared toward HubSpot and Marketo customers
Key Features
Phrasee uses artificial intelligence to help you write more effective subject lines. With its AI-based Natural Language Generation system, Phrasee uses data-driven insights to generate millions of natural-sounding copy variants that match your brand voice. The model is end-to-end, meaning when you feed the results back to Phrasee, the prediction model rebuilds so it can continuously learn from your audience.
Key Features
HubSpot Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an integral tool for the Human Content team. It uses machine learning to determine how search engines understand and categorize your content. HubSpot SEO helps you improve your search engine rankings and outrank your competitors. Search engines reward websites that organize their content around core subjects, or topic clusters. HubSpot SEO helps you discover and rank for the topics that matter to your business and customers.
Key Features
When you’re limited to testing two variables against each other at a time, it can take months to get the results you’re looking for. Evolv AI lets you test all your ideas at once. It uses advanced algorithms to identify the top-performing concepts, combine them with each other, and repeat the process to achieve the best site experience.
Key Features
Acrolinx is a content alignment platform that helps brands scale and improves the quality of their content. It’s geared toward enterprises – its major customers include big brands like Google, Adobe, and Amazon - to help them scale their writing efforts. Instead of spending time chasing down and fixing typos in multiple places throughout an article or blog post, you can use Acrolinx to do it all right there in one place. You start by setting your preferences for style, grammar, tone of voice, and company-specific word usage. Then, Acrolinx checks and scores your existing content to find what’s working and suggest areas for improvement. The platform provides real-time guidance and suggestions to make writing better and strengthen weak pages.
Key features
MarketMuse uses an algorithm to help marketers build content strategies. The tool shows you where to target keywords to rank in specific topic categories, and recommends keywords you should go after if you want to own particular topics. It also identifies gaps and opportunities for new content and prioritizes them by their probable impact on your rankings. The algorithm compares your content with thousands of articles related to the same topic to uncover what’s missing from your site.
Key features:
Copilot is a suite of tools that help eCommerce businesses maintain real-time communication with customers around the clock at every stage of the funnel. Promote products, recover shopping carts and send updates or reminders directly through Messenger.
Key features:
Yotpo’s deep learning technology evaluates your customers’ product reviews to help you make better business decisions. It identifies key topics that customers mention related to your products—and their feelings toward them. The AI engine extracts relevant reviews from past buyers and presents them in smart displays to convert new shoppers. Yotpo also saves you time moderating reviews. The AI-powered moderation tool automatically assigns a score to each review and flags reviews with negative sentiment so you can focus on quality control instead of manually reviewing every post.
Key features:
Albert is a self-learning software that automates the creation of marketing campaigns for your brand. It analyzes vast amounts of data to run optimized campaigns autonomously, allowing you to feed in your own creative content and target markets, and then use data from its database to determine key characteristics of a serious buyer. Albert identifies potential customers that match those traits, and runs trial campaigns on a small group of customers—with results refined by Albert himself—before launching it on a larger scale.
Albert plugs into your existing marketing technology stack, so you still have access to your accounts, ads, search, social media, and more. Albert maps tracking and attribution to your source of truth so you can determine which channels are driving your business.
Key features:
There are many tools and companies out there that offer AI tools, but this is a small list of resources that we have found to be helpful. If you have any other suggestions, feel free to share them in the comments below this article. As marketing evolves at such a rapid pace, new marketing strategies will be invented that we haven't even dreamed of yet. But for now, this list should give you a good starting point on your way to implementing AI into your marketing mix.
Note: This article contains affiliate links, meaning we make a small commission if you buy any premium plan from our link.
Democrats struggle to counter Trump’s renewed agenda.
The post Why Are Dems Surprised? appeared first on The Intercept.
The Washington Post is reporting that the UK government has served Apple with a “technical capability notice” as defined by the 2016 Investigatory Powers Act, requiring it to break the Advanced Data Protection encryption in iCloud for the benefit of law enforcement.
This is a big deal, and something we in the security community have worried was coming for a while now.
The law, known by critics as the Snoopers’ Charter, makes it a criminal offense to reveal that the government has even made such a demand. An Apple spokesman declined to comment...
In this article, we explore the top 10 AI tools that are driving innovation and efficiency in various industries. These tools are designed to automate repetitive tasks, improve workflow, and increase productivity. The tools included in our list are some of the most advanced and widely used in the market, and are suitable for a variety of applications. Some of the tools focus on natural language processing, such as ChatGPT and Grammarly, while others focus on image and video generation, such as DALL-E and Lumen5. Other tools such as OpenAI Codex, Tabnine, Canva, Jasper AI,, and Surfer SEO are designed to help with specific tasks such as code understanding content writing and website optimization. This list is a great starting point for anyone looking to explore the possibilities of AI and how it can be applied to their business or project.
So let’s dive into
ChatGPT is a large language model that generates human-like
responses to a variety of prompts. It can be used for tasks such as language
translation, question answering, and text completion. It can
handle a wide range of topics and styles of writing, and generates coherent and
fluent text, but should be used with care as it may generate text that is
biased, offensive, or factually incorrect.
Pros:
Cons:
Overall, ChatGPT is a powerful tool for natural language
processing, but it should be used with care and with an understanding of its
limitations.
DALL-E is a generative model developed by OpenAI that is
capable of generating images from text prompts. It is based on the GPT-3 architecture,
which is a transformer-based neural network language model that has been
trained on a massive dataset of text. DALL-E can generate images that
are similar to a training dataset and it can generate high-resolution
images that are suitable for commercial use.
Pros:
Cons:
Overall, DALL-E is a powerful AI-based tool for generating
images, it can be used for a variety of applications such as creating images
for commercial use, gaming, and other creative projects. It is important to
note that the generated images should be reviewed and used with care, as they
may not be entirely original and could be influenced by the training data.
Lumen5 is a content creation platform that uses AI to help
users create videos, social media posts, and other types of content. It has
several features that make it useful for content creation and marketing,
including:
Pros:
Cons:
Overall, Lumen5 is a useful tool for creating content
quickly and easily, it can help automate the process of creating videos, social
media posts, and other types of content. However, the quality of the generated
content may vary depending on the source material and it is important to review
and edit the content before publishing it.
Grammarly is a writing-enhancement platform that uses AI to
check for grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors in the text. It also provides
suggestions for improving the clarity, concision, and readability of the text. It
has several features that make it useful for improving writing, including:
Pros:
Cons:
OpenAI Codex is a system developed by OpenAI that can
create code from natural language descriptions of software tasks. The system is
based on the GPT-3 model and can generate code in multiple programming
languages.
Pros:
Cons:
Overall, OpenAI Codex is a powerful tool that can help
automate the process of writing code and make it more accessible to
non-technical people. However, the quality of the generated code may vary
depending on the task description and it is important to review and test the
code before using it in a production environment. It is important to use the
tool as an aid, not a replacement for the developer's knowledge.
Tabnine is a code completion tool that uses AI to predict
and suggest code snippets. It is compatible with multiple programming languages
and can be integrated with various code editors.
Pros:
Cons:
Overall, TabNine is a useful tool for developers that can
help improve coding efficiency and reduce the time spent on writing code.
However, it is important to review the suggestions provided by the tool and use
them with caution, as they may not always be accurate or appropriate. It is
important to use the tool as an aid, not a replacement for the developer's
knowledge.
Jasper is a content writing and content generation tool that uses artificial intelligence to identify the best words and sentences for your writing style and medium in the most efficient, quick, and accessible way.
Pros:
Cons:
Surfer SEO is a software tool designed to help website
owners and digital marketers improve their search engine optimization (SEO)
efforts. The tool provides a variety of features that can be used to analyze a
website's on-page SEO, including:
Features:
Pros:
Cons:
Overall, Surfer SEO can be a useful tool for website owners
and digital marketers looking to improve their SEO efforts. However, it is
important to remember that it is just a tool and should be used in conjunction
with other SEO best practices. Additionally, the tool is not a guarantee of
better ranking.
Zapier is a web automation tool that allows users to
automate repetitive tasks by connecting different web applications together. It
does this by creating "Zaps" that automatically move data between
apps, and can also be used to trigger certain actions in one app based on
events in another app.
Features:
Pros:
Cons:
Overall, Zapier is a useful tool that can help users
automate repetitive tasks and improve workflow. It can save time and increase
productivity by connecting different web applications together. However, it may
require some technical skills and some features may require a paid
subscription. It is important to use the tool with caution and not to rely too
much on it, to understand the apps better.
Compose AI is a company that specializes in developing
natural language generation (NLG) software. Their software uses AI to
automatically generate written or spoken text from structured data, such as
spreadsheets, databases, or APIs.
Features:
Pros:
Cons:
Overall, Compose AI's NLG software can be a useful tool for
automating the process of creating written or spoken content from structured
data. However, the quality of the generated content may vary depending on the
data source, and it is essential to review the generated content before using
it in a production environment. It is important to use the tool as an aid, not
a replacement for the understanding of the data.
AI tools are becoming increasingly important in today's
business and technology landscape. They are designed to automate repetitive
tasks, improve workflow, and increase productivity. The top 10 AI tools
included in this article are some of the most advanced and widely used in the
market, and are suitable for various applications. Whether you're looking
to improve your natural language processing, create high-resolution images, or
optimize your website, there is an AI tool that can help. It's important to
research and evaluate the different tools available to determine which one is
the best fit for your specific needs. As AI technology continues to evolve,
these tools will become even more powerful and versatile and will play an even
greater role in shaping the future of business and technology.
Grammarly is a tool that checks for grammatical errors, spelling, and punctuation.it gives you comprehensive feedback on your writing. You can use this tool to proofread and edit articles, blog posts, emails, etc.
Grammarly also detects all types of mistakes, including sentence structure issues and misused words. It also gives you suggestions on style changes, punctuation, spelling, and grammar all are in real-time. The free version covers the basics like identifying grammar and spelling mistakes
whereas the Premium version offers a lot more functionality, it detects plagiarism in your content, suggests word choice, or adds fluency to it.
ProWritingAid is a style and grammar checker for content creators and writers. It helps to optimize word choice, punctuation errors, and common grammar mistakes, providing detailed reports to help you improve your writing.
ProWritingAid can be used as an add-on to WordPress, Gmail, and Google Docs. The software also offers helpful articles, videos, quizzes, and explanations to help improve your writing.
Here are some key features of ProWriting Aid:
Grammarly and ProWritingAid are well-known grammar-checking software. However, if you're like most people who can't decide which to use, here are some different points that may be helpful in your decision.
As both writing assistants are great in their own way, you need to choose the one that suits you best.
Both ProWritingAid and Grammarly are awesome writing tools, without a doubt. but as per my experience, Grammarly is a winner here because Grammarly helps you to review and edit your content. Grammarly highlights all the mistakes in your writing within seconds of copying and pasting the content into Grammarly’s editor or using the software’s native feature in other text editors.
Not only does it identify tiny grammatical and spelling errors, it tells you when you overlook punctuations where they are needed. And, beyond its plagiarism-checking capabilities, Grammarly helps you proofread your content. Even better, the software offers a free plan that gives you access to some of its features.
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.
Are you a great Chrome user? That’s nice to hear. But first, consider whether or not there are any essential Chrome extensions you are currently missing from your browsing life, so here we're going to share with you 10 Best Chrome Extensions That Are Perfect for Everyone. So Let's Start.
When you have too several passwords to remember, LastPass remembers them for you.
This chrome extension is an easy way to save you time and increase security. It’s a single password manager that will log you into all of your accounts. you simply ought to bear in mind one word: your LastPass password to log in to all or any your accounts.
Features
MozBar is an SEO toolbar extension that makes it easy for you to analyze your web pages' SEO while you surf. You can customize your search so that you see data for a particular region or for all regions. You get data such as website and domain authority and link profile. The status column tells you whether there are any no-followed links to the page.You can also compare link metrics. There is a pro version of MozBar, too.
Grammarly is a real-time grammar checking and spelling tool for online writing. It checks spelling, grammar, and punctuation as you type, and has a dictionary feature that suggests related words. if you use mobile phones for writing than Grammerly also have a mobile keyboard app.
VidIQ is a SaaS product and Chrome Extension that makes it easier to manage and optimize your YouTube channels. It keeps you informed about your channel's performance with real-time analytics and powerful insights.
Features
ColorZilla is a browser extension that allows you to find out the exact color of any object in your web browser. This is especially useful when you want to match elements on your page to the color of an image.
Features
Honey is a chrome extension with which you save each product from the website and notify it when it is available at low price it's one among the highest extensions for Chrome that finds coupon codes whenever you look online.
Features
GMass (or Gmail Mass) permits users to compose and send mass emails using Gmail. it is a great tool as a result of you'll use it as a replacement for a third-party email sending platform. you will love GMass to spice up your emailing functionality on the platform.
It's a Chrome extension for geeks that enables you to highlight and save what you see on the web.
It's been designed by Notion, that could be a Google space different that helps groups craft higher ideas and collaborate effectively.
Features
If you are someone who works online, you need to surf the internet to get your business done. And often there is no time to read or analyze something. But it's important that you do it. Notion Web Clipper will help you with that.
WhatFont is a Chrome extension that allows web designers to easily identify and compare different fonts on a page. The first time you use it on any page, WhatFont will copy the selected page.It Uses this page to find out what fonts are present and generate an image that shows all those fonts in different sizes. Besides the apparent websites like Google or Amazon, you'll conjointly use it on sites wherever embedded fonts ar used.
Similar Web is an SEO add on for both Chrome and Firefox.It allows you to check web site traffic and key metrics for any web site, as well as engagement rate, traffic ranking, keyword ranking, and traffic source. this is often a good tool if you are looking to seek out new and effective SEO ways similarly as analyze trends across the web.
Features
I know everyone knows how to install extension in pc but most of people don't know how to install it in android phone so i will show you how to install it in android
1. Download Kiwi browser from Play Store and then Open it.
2. Tap the three dots at the top right corner and select Extension.
3. Click on (+From Store) to access chrome web store or simple search chrome web store and access it.
4. Once you found an extension click on add to chrome a message will pop-up asking if you wish to confirm your choice. Hit OK to install the extension in the Kiwi browser.
5. To manage extensions on the browser, tap the three dots in the upper right corner. Then select Extensions to access a catalog of installed extensions that you can disable, update or remove with just a few clicks.
Your Chrome extensions should install on Android, but there’s no guarantee all of them will work. Because Google Chrome Extensions are not optimized for Android devices.
We hope this list of 10 best chrome extensions that is perfect for everyone will help you in picking the right Chrome Extensions. We have selected the extensions after matching their features to the needs of different categories of people. Also which extension you like the most let me know in the comment section
Looking to level up your content creation game in 2025? You're in the right place! The digital landscape has evolved dramatically, and AI tools have become essential for creators who want to stay ahead of the curve. In this guide, I'll show you the top 10 AI tools that are revolutionizing content creation and making creators' lives easier.
Why You Need These AI Tools in 2025
Content creation has become more demanding than ever. Whether you're a social media influencer, marketer, or business owner, keeping up with the constant need for fresh, engaging content can be overwhelming. That's where AI tools come in – they're not just fancy tech, they're your secret weapon for creating better content faster.
Let's Dive Into the Top 10 AI Tools for 2025
What Makes It Special: ChatGPT has evolved into a comprehensive content creation assistant by combining advanced language understanding with specialized content optimization features. Its ability to generate, edit, and optimize content while maintaining brand voice and industry expertise makes it an essential tool for creators who need to produce high-quality written content at scale.
What Makes It Special: Canva Magic Studio has transformed the graphic design landscape by combining its user-friendly interface with powerful AI capabilities. The platform's ability to understand design principles and automatically generate on-brand content while maintaining professional aesthetics makes it accessible for beginners while providing enough sophistication for professional designers.
Key Features:
Pricing:
Perfect For: Small businesses, social media managers, and anyone needing quick, professional-looking designs.
What Makes It Special: RunwayML stands out as the ultimate video creation powerhouse by combining professional-grade effects with user-friendly AI technology. Its game-changing ability to manipulate video content – from changing weather effects with a text prompt to removing objects seamlessly in real-time – makes it indispensable for creators who want to produce high-quality video content without getting bogged down by technical complexities.
Key Features:
Pricing:
Perfect For: Video creators, YouTubers, and social media managers who want to create professional-quality videos quickly.
What Makes It Special: Midjourney V6 has redefined AI image generation by mastering the nuances of professional photography and artistic style. Its ability to understand and execute complex creative directions – from specific lighting conditions to branded visual styles – while maintaining consistent quality across multiple generations makes it the go-to tool for creators who need stunning visuals that align perfectly with their brand identity.
Key Features:
Pricing:
Perfect For: Social media managers, digital marketers, and anyone needing professional-quality visuals consistently.
What Makes It Special: Synthesia has transformed video creation by making it possible to create professional-looking AI avatar videos in minutes. Its ability to generate natural-looking presentations in multiple languages with synchronized lip movements and gestures makes it invaluable for creators who need to produce video content at scale without the traditional filming process.
Key Features:
Pricing:
Perfect For: Businesses and educators creating training videos, presentations, and multilingual content.
What Makes It Special: Descript has transformed audio and video editing by making it as simple as editing a text document. Its innovative approach to media editing, combined with powerful AI features like automatic transcription and filler word removal, makes professional-quality editing accessible to creators of all skill levels.
Key Features:
Pricing:
Perfect For: Podcasters, video creators, and teams needing efficient audio/video editing solutions.
What Makes It Special: ElevenLabs has revolutionized voice synthesis by achieving unprecedented levels of natural speech quality and emotional expression. Its ability to clone voices accurately and generate multiple languages with proper accents and inflections makes it the ultimate tool for creators who need professional-quality voiceovers without the traditional recording process or voice actor limitations.
Key Features:
Pricing:
Perfect For: Podcasters, video creators, and content creators needing professional voiceovers in multiple languages.
What Makes It Special: Tribescaler brings a scientific approach to viral content creation by combining trend analysis with content optimization. Its powerful AI engine analyzes successful content patterns across platforms and provides actionable insights to help creators craft content that's more likely to go viral, while maintaining authenticity and audience engagement.
Key Features:
Pricing:
Perfect For: Content creators and social media managers focused on maximizing reach and engagement.
What Makes It Special: Clickable revolutionizes ad creation by seamlessly blending data-driven insights with creative automation. Its ability to analyze brand assets and automatically generate platform-optimized ad variations while maintaining brand voice transforms the tedious process of ad creation into a streamlined, results-driven workflow that consistently delivers high-performing content.
Key Features:
Perfect For: Digital marketers and businesses looking to scale their ad production efficiently.
What Makes It Special: CopyAI has established itself as a powerhouse in AI-powered copywriting by offering specialized content generation for various marketing formats. Its sophisticated understanding of marketing psychology and brand voice, combined with its ability to generate compelling copy across multiple formats and industries, makes it invaluable for marketers and content creators who need to produce engaging, conversion-focused content at scale.
Key Features:
Pricing:
Perfect For: Marketing teams, copywriters, and businesses needing high-converting marketing copy across multiple channels.
The AI tools listed here are revolutionizing the content creation landscape in 2025, making it easier than ever to produce high-quality, engaging, and impactful content. By integrating these tools into your workflow, you can save time, unleash your creativity, and achieve better results.
AI doesn't replace creativity; it amplifies it. As a content creator, your unique voice and vision are irreplaceable. These tools serve as enablers, helping you focus on what you do best—creating. Explore, experiment, and innovate. The future of content creation is here, and it's brimming with possibilities.
Embrace these technologies, stay ahead of the curve, and watch your creative potential soar. The only limit is your imagination!
All features and pricing information are subject to change. Please verify current details with the respective platforms, Also this article contain affiliate links which means we make a small comission if yo buy any premium plan from our links
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| Photo:- Copy.ai |
First one on the list is copy.ai. It is an AI based copy writer tool. Basically what a copywriter tool does is, it gives you content that you can post on your blog or video when you give it a few descriptions about the topic you want content on.So copy ai can help you write instagram captions gives you blog idea, product descriptions, facebook content, startup ideas, viral ideas, a lot of things it can do, you just make an account in this website, then select a tool and fill in the necessary description and the AI will generate content on what you ask for.
For tutorials go to their official Youtube channel .An awesome tool that is going to be really handy in the future.
Hotpot.ai offers a collection of AI tools for designers, as well as for anyone, it has an “AI picture restorer” which removes scratches ,and basically restores your old photo into amazing pictures and makes it look brand new.
Ai picture colorizer , turns your black and white photo into color. And there is a background remover tool, picture enlarger and a lot more for designers, check it out,and explore all the tools.
Deep-nostalgia became very popular on the internet when people started
making reaction videos of their parents reacting to animated pictures of their grandparents. So deep - nostalgia is a very cool app, that will animate any photo of a person.
So what makes it really cool is that fact that you can upload an old photo of your family and see them animate and living. Which is pretty cool and creepy at the same time if they are dead already.. Really amazing service from myheritage, I created a lot of cool animations with my old photos as well as with the photos of my grandparents.
Having a nice looking profile picture is really important if you want that professional feel in your socials. Whether in linkedin or twitter having a
distinct and catchy profile picture can make all the difference. So that's where pfpmaker comes in. it a free online tool to create amazing professional profile pictures that fits you. It generates a lot of profile pictures and you can also make small changes to already created profile pictures if you want to,as well.
Speaking of brands, getting a good logo for your brand is the most frustrating
thing ever, so brandmark.io makes it super easy. It will create a logo for your brand within 2 clicks. So you goto this website. Type in your brand name and slogan if you have any, and give BRAND KEYWORDS that relate to your brand, then pick a color style and done, the ai will
generate amazing logos for you.You can also make minor edits to the suggested logos to better fit your needs as well. But to get that png you need to pay a hefty price, but if you are looking for some logo ideas, this is a great place to start.
Even in the previous websites, some had picture enlarger tools. This deep-image.ai is a dedicated image enlarger, which supports upto 4x enlargement for free. The UI is pretty good and the tool is pretty fast with amazing results.
Bigjpg does the same as deep-image.ai , but this service offers a little bit more options like if your photo is an artwork it scales image differently than normal photos and it supports upto 4x enlargement for free and you can also set noise reduction options. Very good tool,
Lumen5 is an online marketing video maker that makes it really easy to create branding or informational videos within a couple of clicks. They have really great templates and various aspect ratios for various social media platforms.
If you are struggling to find good names for your brand or youtube channel, give
namelix a try. It's an ai based name generator that will suggest good names for your brand depending on the keyword that you give.. Also logo for your brand. Pretty cool and an amazing piece of tool. So that's been it , those are my favourite free AI based tools that you can use right now,
Which one You like the most Let me know in the Comments below.
Are you looking for a way to create content that is both effective and efficient? If so, then you should consider using an AI content generator. AI content generators are a great way to create content that is both engaging and relevant to your audience.
There are a number of different AI content generator tools available on the market, and it can be difficult to know which one is right for you. To help you make the best decision, we have compiled a list of the top 10 AI content generator tools that you should use in 2022.
So, without further ado, let’s get started!
Boss Mode: $99/Month
The utility of this service can be used for short-term or format business purposes such as product descriptions, website copy, market copy, and sales reports.
Free Trial – 7 days with 24/7 email support and 100 runs per day.
Pro Plan: $49 and yearly, it will cost you $420 i.e. $35 per month.
Wait! I've got a pretty sweet deal for you. Sign up through the link below, and you'll get (7,000 Free Words Plus 40% OFF) if you upgrade to the paid plan within four days.
Claim Your 7,000 Free Words With This Special Link - No Credit Card Required
Just like Outranking, Frase is an AI that helps you research, create and optimize your content to make it high quality within seconds. Frase works on SEO optimization where the content is made to the liking of search engines by optimizing keywords and keywords.
Solo Plan: $14.99/Month and $12/Month if billed yearly with 4 Document Credits for 1 user seat.
Basic Plan: $44.99/month and $39.99/month if billed yearly with 30 Document Credits for 1 user seat.
Team Plan: $114.99/month and $99.99/month if billed yearly for unlimited document credits for 3 users.
*SEO Add-ons and other premium features for $35/month irrespective of the plan.
Article Forge is another content generator that operates quite differently from the others on this list. Unlike Jasper.ai, which requires you to provide a brief and some information on what you want it to write this tool only asks for a keyword. From there, it’ll generate a complete article for you.
What’s excellent about Article Forge is they provide a 30-day money-back guarantee. You can choose between a monthly or yearly subscription. Unfortunately, they offer a free trial and no free plan:
Basic Plan: $27/Month
This plan allows users to produce up to 25k words each month. This is excellent for smaller blogs or those who are just starting.
Standard Plan: $57/month)
Unlimited Plan: $117/month
It’s important to note that Article Forge guarantees that all content generated through the platform passes Copyscape.
Rytr.me is a free AI content generator perfect for small businesses, bloggers, and students. The software is easy to use and can generate SEO-friendly blog posts, articles, and school papers in minutes.
Cons
Pricing
Rytr offers a free plan that comes with limited features. It covers up to 5,000 characters generated each month and has access to the built-in plagiarism checker. If you want to use all the features of the software, you can purchase one of the following plans:
Saver Plan: $9/month, $90/year
Writesonic is a free, easy-to-use AI content generator. The software is designed to help you create copy for marketing content, websites, and blogs. It's also helpful for small businesses or solopreneurs who need to produce content on a budget.
Writesonic is free with limited features. The free plan is more like a free trial, providing ten credits. After that, you’d need to upgrade to a paid plan. Here are your options:
Short-form: $15/month
Features:
Long-Form: $19/month
CopySmith is an AI content generator that can be used to create personal and professional documents, blogs, and presentations. It offers a wide range of features including the ability to easily create documents and presentations.
CopySmith also has several templates that you can use to get started quickly.
CopySmith offers a free trial with no credit card required. After the free trial, the paid plans are as follows:
Starter Plan: $19/month
Hypotenuse.ai is a free online tool that can help you create AI content. It's great for beginners because it allows you to create videos, articles, and infographics with ease. The software has a simple and easy-to-use interface that makes it perfect for new people looking for AI content generation.
Special Features
Hypotenuse doesn’t offer a free plan. Instead, it offers a free trial period where you can take the software for a run before deciding whether it’s the right choice for you or not. Other than that, here are its paid options:
Starter Plan: $29/month
Growth Plan: $59/month
Enterprise – pricing is custom, so don’t hesitate to contact the company for more information.
Kafkai comes with a free trial to help you understand whether it’s the right choice for you or not. Additionally, you can also take a look at its paid plans:
Writer Plan: $29/month Create 100 articles per month. $0.29/article
Newsroom Plan $49/month – Generate 250 articles a month at $0.20 per article.
Printing Press Plan: $129 /month Create up to 1000 articles a month at roughly $0.13/article.
Industrial Printer Plan: ($199 a month) – Generate 2500 articles each month for $0.08/article.
Peppertype.ai is an online AI content generator that’s easy to use and best for small business owners looking for a powerful copy and content writing tool to help them craft and generate various content for many purposes.
Unfortunately, Peppertype.ai isn’t free. However, it does have a free trial to try out the software before deciding whether it’s the right choice for you. Here are its paid plans:
personal Plan:$35/Month
Team Plan: $199/month
Enterprise – pricing is custom, so please contact the company for more information.
It is no longer a secret that humans are getting overwhelmed with the daily task of creating content. Our lives are busy, and the process of writing blog posts, video scripts, or other types of content is not our day job. In comparison, AI writers are not only cheaper to hire, but also perform tasks at a high level of excellence. This article explores 10 writing tools that used AI to create better content choose the one which meets your requirements and budget but in my opinion Jasper ai is one of the best tools to use to make high-quality content.
If you have any questions ask in the comments section
Note: Don't post links in your comments
Note: This article contains affiliate links which means we make a small commission if you buy any premium plan from our link.
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| Image by vectorjuice on Freepik |
There are lots of questions floating around about how affiliate marketing works, what to do and what not to do when it comes to setting up a business. With so much uncertainty surrounding both personal and business aspects of affiliate marketing. In this post, we will answer the most frequently asked question about affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is a way to make money by promoting the products and services of other people and companies. You don't need to create your product or service, just promote existing ones. That's why it's so easy to get started with affiliate marketing. You can even get started with no budget at all!
An affiliate program is a package of information you create for your product, which is then made available to potential publishers. The program will typically include details about the product and its retail value, commission levels, and promotional materials. Many affiliate programs are managed via an affiliate network like ShareASale, which acts as a platform to connect publishers and advertisers, but it is also possible to offer your program directly.
Affiliate networks connect publishers to advertisers. Affiliate networks make money by charging fees to the merchants who advertise with them; these merchants are known as advertisers. The percentage of each sale that the advertiser pays is negotiated between the merchant and the affiliate network.
Dropshipping is a method of selling that allows you to run an online store without having to stock products. You advertise the products as if you owned them, but when someone makes an order, you create a duplicate order with the distributor at a reduced price. The distributor takes care of the post and packaging on your behalf. As affiliate marketing is based on referrals and this type of drop shipping requires no investment in inventory when a customer buys through the affiliate link, no money exchanges hands.
Performance marketing is a method of marketing that pays for performance, like when a sale is made or an ad is clicked This can include methods like PPC (pay-per-click) or display advertising. Affiliate marketing is one form of performance marketing where commissions are paid out to affiliates on a performance basis when they click on their affiliate link and make a purchase or action.
Smartphones are essentially miniature computers, so publishers can display the same websites and offers that are available on a PC. But mobiles also offer specific tools not available on computers, and these can be used to good effect for publishers. Publishers can optimize their ads for mobile users by making them easy to access by this audience. Publishers can also make good use of text and instant messaging to promote their offers. As the mobile market is predicted to make up 80% of traffic in the future, publishers who do not promote on mobile devices are missing out on a big opportunity.
The best way to find affiliate publishers is on reputable networks like ShareASale Cj(Commission Junction), Awin, and Impact radius. These networks have a strict application process and compliance checks, which means that all affiliates are trustworthy.
An affiliate disclosure statement discloses to the reader that there may be affiliate links on a website, for which a commission may be paid to the publisher if visitors follow these links and make purchases.
Publishers promote their programs through a variety of means, including blogs, websites, email marketing, and pay-per-click ads. Social media has a huge interactive audience, making this platform a good source of potential traffic.
A super affiliate is an affiliate partner who consistently drives a large majority of sales from any program they promote, compared to other affiliate partners involved in that program. Affiliates make a lot of money from affiliate marketing Pat Flynn earned more than $50000 in 2013 from affiliate marketing.
Publishers can be identified by their publisher ID, which is used in tracking cookies to determine which publishers generate sales. The activity is then viewed within a network's dashboard.
Because the Internet is so widespread, affiliate programs can be promoted in any country. Affiliate strategies that are set internationally need to be tailored to the language of the targeted country.
Affiliate marketing can help you grow your business in the following ways:
One of the best ways to work with qualified affiliates is to hire an affiliate marketing agency that works with all the networks. Affiliates are carefully selected and go through a rigorous application process to be included in the network.
Affiliate marketing is generally associated with websites, but there are other ways to promote your affiliate links, including:
To build your affiliate marketing business, you don't have to invest money in the beginning. You can sign up for free with any affiliate network and start promoting their brands right away.
Commission rates are typically based on a percentage of the total sale and in some cases can also be a flat fee for each transaction. The rates are set by the merchant.
Who manages your affiliate program?
Some merchants run their affiliate programs internally, while others choose to contract out management to a network or an external agency.
Cookies are small pieces of data that work with web browsers to store information such as user preferences, login or registration data, and shopping cart contents. When someone clicks on your affiliate link, a cookie is placed on the user's computer or mobile device. That cookie is used to remember the link or ad that the visitor clicked on. Even if the user leaves your site and comes back a week later to make a purchase, you will still get credit for the sale and receive a commission it depends on the site cookies duration
The merchant determines the duration of a cookie, also known as its “cookie life.” The most common length for an affiliate program is 30 days. If someone clicks on your affiliate link, you’ll be paid a commission if they purchase within 30 days of the click.
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Imagine a world in which you can do transactions and many other things without having to give your personal information. A world in which you don’t need to rely on banks or governments anymore. Sounds amazing, right? That’s exactly what blockchain technology allows us to do.
It’s like your computer’s hard drive. blockchain is a technology that lets you store data in digital blocks, which are connected together like links in a chain.
Blockchain technology was originally invented in 1991 by two mathematicians, Stuart Haber and W. Scot Stornetta. They first proposed the system to ensure that timestamps could not be tampered with.
A few years later, in 1998, software developer Nick Szabo proposed using a similar kind of technology to secure a digital payments system he called “Bit Gold.” However, this innovation was not adopted until Satoshi Nakamoto claimed to have invented the first Blockchain and Bitcoin.
A blockchain is a distributed database shared between the nodes of a computer network. It saves information in digital format. Many people first heard of blockchain technology when they started to look up information about bitcoin.
Blockchain is used in cryptocurrency systems to ensure secure, decentralized records of transactions.
Blockchain allowed people to guarantee the fidelity and security of a record of data without the need for a third party to ensure accuracy.
To understand how a blockchain works, Consider these basic steps:
Let’s get to know more about the blockchain.
Blockchain records digital information and distributes it across the network without changing it. The information is distributed among many users and stored in an immutable, permanent ledger that can't be changed or destroyed. That's why blockchain is also called "Distributed Ledger Technology" or DLT.
Here’s how it works:
And that’s the beauty of it! The process may seem complicated, but it’s done in minutes with modern technology. And because technology is advancing rapidly, I expect things to move even more quickly than ever.
Even though blockchain is integral to cryptocurrency, it has other applications. For example, blockchain can be used for storing reliable data about transactions. Many people confuse blockchain with cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum.
Blockchain already being adopted by some big-name companies, such as Walmart, AIG, Siemens, Pfizer, and Unilever. For example, IBM's Food Trust uses blockchain to track food's journey before reaching its final destination.
Although some of you may consider this practice excessive, food suppliers and manufacturers adhere to the policy of tracing their products because bacteria such as E. coli and Salmonella have been found in packaged foods. In addition, there have been isolated cases where dangerous allergens such as peanuts have accidentally been introduced into certain products.
Tracing and identifying the sources of an outbreak is a challenging task that can take months or years. Thanks to the Blockchain, however, companies now know exactly where their food has been—so they can trace its location and prevent future outbreaks.
Blockchain technology allows systems to react much faster in the event of a hazard. It also has many other uses in the modern world.
Blockchain technology is safe, even if it’s public. People can access the technology using an internet connection.
Have you ever been in a situation where you had all your data stored at one place and that one secure place got compromised? Wouldn't it be great if there was a way to prevent your data from leaking out even when the security of your storage systems is compromised?
Blockchain technology provides a way of avoiding this situation by using multiple computers at different locations to store information about transactions. If one computer experiences problems with a transaction, it will not affect the other nodes.
Instead, other nodes will use the correct information to cross-reference your incorrect node. This is called “Decentralization,” meaning all the information is stored in multiple places.
Blockchain guarantees your data's authenticity—not just its accuracy, but also its irreversibility. It can also be used to store data that are difficult to register, like legal contracts, state identifications, or a company's product inventory.
Blockchain has many advantages and disadvantages.
I’ll answer the most frequently asked questions about blockchain in this section.
Blockchain is not a cryptocurrency but a technology that makes cryptocurrencies possible. It's a digital ledger that records every transaction seamlessly.
Yes, blockchain can be theoretically hacked, but it is a complicated task to be achieved. A network of users constantly reviews it, which makes hacking the blockchain difficult.
Coinbase Global is currently the biggest blockchain company in the world. The company runs a commendable infrastructure, services, and technology for the digital currency economy.
Blockchain is a decentralized technology. It’s a chain of distributed ledgers connected with nodes. Each node can be any electronic device. Thus, one owns blockhain.
Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, which is powered by Blockchain technology while Blockchain is a distributed ledger of cryptocurrency
Generally a database is a collection of data which can be stored and organized using a database management system. The people who have access to the database can view or edit the information stored there. The client-server network architecture is used to implement databases. whereas a blockchain is a growing list of records, called blocks, stored in a distributed system. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, timestamp and transaction information. Modification of data is not allowed due to the design of the blockchain. The technology allows decentralized control and eliminates risks of data modification by other parties.
Blockchain has a wide spectrum of applications and, over the next 5-10 years, we will likely see it being integrated into all sorts of industries. From finance to healthcare, blockchain could revolutionize the way we store and share data. Although there is some hesitation to adopt blockchain systems right now, that won't be the case in 2022-2023 (and even less so in 2026). Once people become more comfortable with the technology and understand how it can work for them, owners, CEOs and entrepreneurs alike will be quick to leverage blockchain technology for their own gain. Hope you like this article if you have any question let me know in the comments section
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Are you searching for an ecomerce platform to help you build an online store and sell products?
In this Sellfy review, we'll talk about how this eCommerce platform can let you sell digital products while keeping full control of your marketing.
And the best part? Starting your business can be done in just five minutes.
Let us then talk about the Sellfy platform and all the benefits it can bring to your business.
Sellfy is an eCommerce solution that allows digital content creators, including writers, illustrators, designers, musicians, and filmmakers, to sell their products online. Sellfy provides a customizable storefront where users can display their digital products and embed "Buy Now" buttons on their website or blog. Sellfy product pages enable users to showcase their products from different angles with multiple images and previews from Soundcloud, Vimeo, and YouTube. Files of up to 2GB can be uploaded to Sellfy, and the company offers unlimited bandwidth and secure file storage. Users can also embed their entire store or individual project widgets in their site, with the ability to preview how widgets will appear before they are displayed.
Sellfy includes:
Sellfy is a powerful e-commerce platform that helps you personalize your online storefront. You can add your logo, change colors, revise navigation, and edit the layout of your store. Sellfy also allows you to create a full shopping cart so customers can purchase multiple items. And Sellfy gives you the ability to set your language or let customers see a translated version of your store based on their location.
Sellfy gives you the option to host your store directly on its platform, add a custom domain to your store, and use it as an embedded storefront on your website. Sellfy also optimizes its store offerings for mobile devices, allowing for a seamless checkout experience.
Sellfy allows creators to host all their products and sell all of their digital products on one platform. Sellfy also does not place storage limits on your store but recommends that files be no larger than 5GB. Creators can sell both standard and subscription-based products in any file format that is supported by the online marketplace. Customers can purchase products instantly after making a purchase – there is no waiting period.
You can organize your store by creating your product categories, sorting by any characteristic you choose. Your title, description, and the image will be included on each product page. In this way, customers can immediately evaluate all of your products. You can offer different pricing options for all of your products, including "pay what you want," in which the price is entirely up to the customer. This option allows you to give customers control over the cost of individual items (without a minimum price) or to set pricing minimums—a good option if you're in a competitive market or when you have higher-end products. You can also offer set prices per product as well as free products to help build your store's popularity.
Sellfy is ideal for selling digital content, such as ebooks. But it does not allow you to copyrighted material (that you don't have rights to distribute).
Sellfy offers several ways to share your store, enabling you to promote your business on different platforms. Sellfy lets you integrate it with your existing website using "buy now" buttons, embed your entire storefront, or embed certain products so you can reach more people. Sellfy also enables you to connect with your Facebook page and YouTube channel, maximizing your visibility.
Sellfy is a simple online platform that allows customers to buy your products directly through your store. Sellfy has two payment processing options: PayPal and Stripe. You will receive instant payments with both of these processors, and your customer data is protected by Sellfy's secure (PCI-compliant) payment security measures. In addition to payment security, Sellfy provides anti-fraud tools to help protect your products including PDF stamping, unique download links, and limited download attempts.
The Sellfy platform includes marketing and analytics tools to help you manage your online store. You can send email product updates and collect newsletter subscribers through the platform. With Sellfy, you can also offer discount codes and product upsells, as well as create and track Facebook and Twitter ads for your store. The software's analytics dashboard will help you track your best-performing products, generated revenue, traffic channels, top locations, and overall store performance.
To expand functionality and make your e-commerce store run more efficiently, Sellfy offers several integrations. Google Analytics and Webhooks, as well as integrations with Patreon and Facebook Live Chat, are just a few of the options available. Sellfy allows you to connect to Zapier, which gives you access to hundreds of third-party apps, including tools like Mailchimp, Trello, Salesforce, and more.
The free plan comes with:
Starter plan comes with:
The business plan comes with:
The premium plan comes with:
Sellfy has its benefits and downsides, but fortunately, the pros outweigh the cons.
In this article, we have taken a look at some of the biggest benefits associated with using sellfy for eCommerce. Once you compare these benefits to what you get with other platforms such as Shopify, you should find that it is worth your time to consider sellfy for your business. After reading this article all of your questions will be solved but if you have still some questions let me know in the comment section below, I will be happy to answer your questions.
Note: This article contains affiliate links which means we make a small commission if you buy sellfy premium plan from our link.
If you are looking for the best wordpress plugins, then you are at the right place. Here is the list of best wordpress plugins that you should use in your blog to boost SEO, strong your security and know every aspects of your blog . Although creating a good content is one factor but there are many wordpress plugins that perform different actions and add on to your success. So let's start
Those users who are serious about SEO, Yoast SEO will do the work for them to reach their goals. All they need to do is select a keyword, and the plugin will then optimize your page according to the specified keyword
Yoast offers many popular SEO WordPress plugin functions. It gives you real-time page analysis to optimize your content, images, meta descriptions, titles, and kewords. Yoast also checks the length of your sentences and paragraphs, whether you’re using enough transition words or subheadings, how often you use passive voice, and so on. Yoast tells Google whether or not to index a page or a set of pages too.
A website running WordPress can put a lot of strain on a server, which increases the chances that the website will crash and harm your business. To avoid such an unfortunate situation and ensure that all your pages load quickly, you need a caching plugin like WP Rocket.
WP Rocket plugin designed to increases your website speed. Instead of waiting for pages to be saved to cache, WP Rocket turns on desired caching settings, like page cache and gzip compression. The plugin also activates other features, such as CDN support and llazy image loadding, to enhance your site speed.
Wordfence Security is a WordPress firewall and security scanner that keeps your site safe from malicious hackers, spam, and other online threats. This Plugin comes with a web application firewall (WAF) called tthread Defence Feed that helps to prevents brute force attacks by ensuring you set stronger passwords and limiting login attempts. It searches for malware and compares code, theme, and plugin files with the records in the WordPress.org repository to verify their integrity and reports changes to you.
Wordfence security scanner provides you with actionable insights into your website's security status and will alert you to any potential threats, keeping it safe and secure. It also includes login security features that let you activate reCAPTCHA and two-factor authentication for your website.
Akismet can help prevent spam from appearing on your site. Every day, it automatically checks every comment against a global database of spam to block malicious content. With Akismet, you also won’t have to worry about innocent comments being caught by the filter or false positives. You can simply tell Akismet about those and it will get better over time. It also checks your contact form submissions against its global spam database and weed out unnecessary fake information.
Contact Form 7 is a plug-in that allows you to create contact forms that make it easy for your users to send messages to your site. The plug-in was developed by Takayuki Miyoshi and lets you create multiple contact forms on the same site; it also integrates Akismet spam filtering and lets you customize the styling and fields that you want to use in the form. The plug-in provides CAPTCHA and Ajax submitting.
When you’re looking for an easy way to manage your Google Analytics-related web tracking services, Monster Insights can help. You can add, customize, and integrate Google Analytics data with ease so you’ll be able to see how every webpage performs, which online campaigns bring in the most traffic, and which content readers engage with the most. It’s same as Google Analytics
It is a powerful tool to keep track of your traffic stats. With it, you can view stats for your active sessions, conversions, and bounce rates. You’ll also be able to see your total revenue, the products you sell, and how your site is performing when it comes to referrals.
MonsterInsights offers a free plan that includes basic Google Analytics integration, data insights, and user activity metrics.
Pretty Links is a powerful WordPress plugin that enables you to easily cloak affiliate links on your websiteIt even allows you to easily redirect visitors based on a specific request, including permanent 301 and temporary 302/307 redirects.
Pretty links also helps you to automatically shorten your url for your post and pages.
You can also enable auto-linking feature to automatically add affiliate links for certain keywords
We hope you’ve found this article useful. We appreciate you reading and welcome your feedback if you have it.
Ginger VS Grammarly: When it comes to grammar checkers, Ginger and Grammarly are two of the most popular choices on the market. This article aims to highlight the specifics of each one so that you can make a more informed decision about the one you'll use.
If you are a writer, you must have heard of Grammarly before. Grammarly has over 10M users across the globe, it's probably the most popular AI writing enhancement tool, without a doubt. That's why there's a high chance that you already know about Grammarly.
But today we are going to do a comparison between Ginger and Grammarly, So let's define Grammarly here. Like Ginger, Grammarly is an AI writing assistant that checks for grammatical errors, spellings, and punctuation. The free version covers the basics like identifying grammar and spelling mistakes
While the Premium version offers a lot more functionality, it detects plagiarism in your content, suggests word choice, or adds fluency to it.
Ginger is a writing enhancement tool that not only catches typos and grammatical mistakes but also suggests content improvements. As you type, it picks up on errors then shows you what’s wrong, and suggests a fix. It also provides you with synonyms and definitions of words and allows you to translate your text into dozens of languages.
In addition, the program provides a text reader, so you can gauge your writing’s conversational tone.
Grammarly and Ginger are two popular grammar checker software brands that help you to become a better writer. But if you’re undecided about which software to use, consider these differences:
Grammarly Score: 7/10
Ginger:4/10
So Grammarly wins here.
For companies with three or more employees, the Business plan costs $12.50/month for each member of your team.
Ginger Wins Here
While both writing assistants are fantastic in their ways, you need to choose the one you want.
For example, go for Grammarly if you want a plagiarism tool included.
Choose Ginger if you want to write in languages other than English. I will to the differences for you in order to make the distinctions clearer.
Which one you like let me know in the comments section also give your opinions in the comments section below.
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| (Photo Credit:- Exploding Topics) |
Some examples can be:
There’s no excuse not to try this website — it’s free and easy to use!
Visit Exploding Topics From Here
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| (Photo Credit:-Headline Studio) |
Headline Studio allows you to create catchy headlines for your content. After writing a title there is data on how often people view articles with similar titles and why they are involved with them.
This is a valuable tool when creating new blog posts because it generates catchy headlines for your blog post to catch a reader’s attention.
Visit Headline Studio From Here
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| (Photo Credit:- Answer The Public) |
Answer The public is an excellent tool for content creators. It gives you insight into what people are asking on social media sites and communities and lets you guess about topics that matter to your audience. Answer the public allows you to enter a keyword or topic related to your niche and it will show results with popular questions and keywords related to your topic. It's an amazing way to get insights into what people are searching online and allows you to identify topics driven by new blog posts or social media content on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and Twitter as well as the types of questions they ask and also want answers.
Visit Answer The Public From Here
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| (Photo Credit:-Surfer Seo) |
With this tool, content creators can quickly and easily check the ranking of their websites and those of other competitors. This tool allows you to see how your website compares to others in different categories, including:
Surfer Seo is free and the interface is very friendly. It's a great tool for anyone who wants to do quick competitor research or check their site's rankings at any time.
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| (Photo Credit:- Canva) |
Canva is a free graphic design platform that makes it easy to create invitations, business cards, mobile videos, Instagram posts, Instagram stories, flyers, and more with professionally designed templates. You can even upload your photos and drag and drop them into Canva templates. It's like having a basic version of Photoshop. You can also remove background from images with one click.
Canva offers thousands of free, professionally designed templates that can be customized with just a few clicks. Simply upload your photos to Canva, drag them into the template of your choice, and save the file to your computer.
It is free to use for basic use but if you want access to different fonts or more features, then you need to buy a premium plan.
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| (Photo Credit:- Facebook Audience Insights |
Facebook Audience Insights is a powerful tool for content creators when researching their target market. This can help you understand the demographics, interests, and behaviors of your target audience. This information helps determine the direction of your content so that it resonates with them. The most important tools to consider in Facebook Audience Insights are Demographics and Behavior. These two sections provide you with valuable information about your target market, such as their age and from where they belong, how much time they spend on social media per day, what devices they use to access it, etc.
There is another section of Facebook Audits that is very helpful. This will let you know the interests, hobbies, and activities that people in your target market are most interested in. You can use this information to create content for them about things they will be about as opposed to topics they may not be so keen on.
Visit Facebook Audience Insights From Here
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| (Photo Credit: Pixel |
Pexels is a warehouse for any content creator with millions of free royalty images who wants to find high-quality images that can be used freely without having to worry about permissions or licensing so you are free to use the photos in your content and also there is no watermark on photos
The only cons are that some photos contain people, and Pexels doesn't allow you to remove people from photos. Search your keyword and download as many as you want!
So there you have it. We hope that these specially curated websites will come in handy for content creators and small businesses alike. If you've got a site that should be on this list, let us know! And if you're looking for more content creator resources, then let us know in the comments section below
For those lucky enough to have a place to return to in Altadena, going home meant dealing with unfinished chores left behind when the Eaton fire forced them to evacuate. For Samy Arbid, who had moved into a property just a block from the fire line in November, there was a different kind of challenge: a 525lb (240kg) black bear. It had moved into the crawl space under the house before the fire and was still sheltering there when Arbid and his wife returned. The California wildfire department stepped in to help, luring the bear out with treats after deciding it was too big to tranquillise. The bear's new home is much more appropriate: the Angeles national forest
Continue reading...Microsoft’s AI Red Team just published “Lessons from
Red Teaming 100 Generative AI Products.” Their blog post lists “three takeaways,” but the eight lessons in the report itself are more useful:
- Understand what the system can do and where it is applied.
- You don’t have to compute gradients to break an AI system.
- AI red teaming is not safety benchmarking.
- Automation can help cover more of the risk landscape.
- The human element of AI red teaming is crucial.
- Responsible AI harms are pervasive but difficult to measure.
- LLMs amplify existing security risks and introduce new ones...
Trump told reporters that he wants to expel “all” Palestinians from Gaza — not just during a period of reconstruction, but permanently.
The post Trump: “The U.S. Will Take Over the Gaza Strip” appeared first on The Intercept.
As the second Trump presidency begins, John Harris and John Domokos go to a Staffordshire town whose economy went from coal to Amazon warehousing to find out if 21st century populism is cutting through. At a byelection down the road, meanwhile, there's a big question facing voters: Labour or Reform UK?
Continue reading...
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Rover trials in a quarry in the UK showing a four-wheeled rover, known as Codi, using its robotic arm and a powerful computer vision system to pick up sample tubes.
The rover drives to the samples with an accuracy of 10cm, constantly mapping the terrain. Codi uses its arm and four cameras to locate the sample tube, retrieve it and safely store it on the rover – all of it without human intervention. At every stop, the rover uses stereo cameras to build up a 180-degree map of the surroundings and plan its next maneouvres. Once parked, the camera on top of the mast detects the tube and estimates its position with respect to the rover. The robotic arm initiates a complex choreography to move closer to the sample, fetch it and store it.
The sample tubes are a replica of the hermetically sealed samples inside which NASA’s Perseverance rover is collecting precious martian soil inside. To most people on Earth, they resemble lightsabres.
The reddish terrain, although not fully representative of Mars in terms of soil composition, has plenty of slopes and rocks of different sizes, similar to what a rover might encounter on the martian surface. Quarry testing is an essential next step in the development process, providing a unique and dynamic landscape that cannot be replicated indoors.
ESA continues to run further research using the rover to maintain and develop rover capabilities in Europe.
Read the full article: Rovers, lightsabres and a piglet.
CoreCivic CEO Damon Hininger could barely contain his excitement about the Laken Riley Act and Trump’s anti-immigration executive orders.
The post Private Prison CEO on Trump Deportation Surge: “One of the Most Exciting Periods in My Career” appeared first on The Intercept.
In the span of just weeks, the US government has experienced what may be the most consequential security breach in its history—not through a sophisticated cyberattack or an act of foreign espionage, but through official orders by a billionaire with a poorly defined government role. And the implications for national security are profound.
First, it was reported that people associated with the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) had accessed the US Treasury computer system, giving them the ability to collect data on and potentially control the department’s roughly ...
Ruling reinstates Hampton Dellinger to office of special counsel as president targets bureaucrats with mass layoffs
A judge blocked Donald Trump’s attempt to fire the head of a body that protects whistleblowers and investigates corruption.
Late on Wednesday Judge Amy Berman Jackson reversed the White House order sacking Hampton Dellinger as head of the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), and reinstated him in his post pending a court hearing set for 26 February.
Continue reading...On top of the human cost, the US’s soft power and influence is disappearing. Russia and China will fill the void
Amid the daily troubling news coming from the United States are the ongoing and increasingly damaging efforts by President Donald Trump, supported by secretary of state Marco Rubio and Elon Musk, to shut down the US Agency for International Development (USAid). Musk has called it a “criminal organization” and said that it was “time for it to die”. The agency website is down, so little official information is available. But in the week since funding to the agency was frozen, and the majority of staff placed on leave, thousands of public health and development programmes worldwide have been thrown into turmoil, and now face an uncertain future.
USAid is the main federal agency that works to provide foreign aid assistance to the poorest countries and people in the world. On Friday, a US judge prevented around 2,000 USAid employees from being placed on leave, and ordered the reinstatement of about 500 more. But Trump and Musk appear to want to move forward with a plan that would see its global workforce reduced from about 10,000 staff and contractors, to just over 600.
Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh
Experts warn president’s blatant violations of law could upend US government’s system of checks and balances
The deceptively legalistic camouflage rendered the words almost banal – while still clearly communicating their ominous undercurrent.
“Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power,” wrote Vice-President JD Vance, a graduate of Yale law school, on X as he waded into an escalating tug-of-war between his boss, Donald Trump, and the US federal courts.
Continue reading...The spotlight was back on the assisted dying bill this week after it was revealed that the requirement for a high court judge to decide on cases was to be scrapped. Those in favour of assisted dying say the change will make it safer, but does it undermine trust in the bill? Gaby Hinsliff, in for John Harris, talks to our deputy political editor, Jessica Elgot, about the changes, and asks Kit Malthouse and Jess Asato – MPs on different sides of the debate – what happens next
ICE wants to hire contractors to monitor social media for threats. Those who criticize the agency could be pulled into the dragnet.
The post ICE Wants to Know If You’re Posting Negative Things About It Online appeared first on The Intercept.
Tell us about a lesser known corner of Spain – the best tip wins £200 towards a Coolstays break
Spain is one of the most enduringly popular tourist destinations in Europe, but sometimes that popularity comes at a price – a fact that has been highlighted by recent protests against overtourism in Barcelona and the Balearic islands. But if you’re willing to go a little off the beaten track, there is still much to discover in this fascinating country. We’d love to hear about your favourite finds in Spain, whether it’s a beach cafe serving fresh seafood, a mountain walk or an unsung museum or heritage attraction.
If you have a relevant photo, do send it in – but it’s your words that will be judged for the competition.
Continue reading...Vaccine skeptic now leads US’s vast healthcare system after gaining backing of key Republican senators
Robert F Kennedy Jr has taken control of America’s vast healthcare apparatus, after the Senate voted on Thursday to confirm the controversial anti-vaccine campaigner’s nomination as health secretary.
The Senate voted 52 to 48, with all Republicans other than the veteran Kentucky senator and former majority leader, Mitch McConnell, backing the former environmental lawyer.
Continue reading...Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is trying to eliminate all Defense Department DEI efforts. It hasn’t been entirely successful.
The post Pentagon Official: Hegseth’s Campaign to Scrub DEI History Is a “Dumb” Distraction appeared first on The Intercept.
Exclusive: Dozens of congressional Democrats urge president to reconsider threatened import duties on US’s two largest trading partners
Pressing ahead with steep tariffs on Canada and Mexico risks exacerbating the US housing crisis and threatening the broader economy, dozens of congressional Democrats have warned Donald Trump.
The US president, after threatening to hit imports from the US’s two biggest trading partners with a 25% tax, is weighing how to proceed after approving a one-month delay.
Continue reading...Even with Jordan and Egypt refusing to take in expelled Palestinians, Trump is charging on with his real estate development plan.
The post Trump Is Bullying Jordan and Egypt to Help in Ethnic Cleansing of Gaza. It Isn’t Working. appeared first on The Intercept.
Exclusive: Tom Cotton, Senate intelligence chair, risks angering key Trump ally with harsh words for ‘tech titans’
In a new book, the Arkansas senator Tom Cotton condemns Elon Musk for “chasing Chinese dollars” and having “shamefully supplicated China’s Communist rulers”, in order to advance his own interests as chief executive of companies including Tesla and SpaceX.
It’s an explosive charge from the Republican chair of the powerful Senate intelligence committee, given that Musk, the world’s richest person, is a major donor and close adviser to Donald Trump, now working at the heart of the president’s administration to slash costs and reshape the federal government.
Continue reading...The Washington Post is reporting that the UK government has served Apple with a “technical capability notice” as defined by the 2016 Investigatory Powers Act, requiring it to break the Advanced Data Protection encryption in iCloud for the benefit of law enforcement.
This is a big deal, and something we in the security community have worried was coming for a while now.
The law, known by critics as the Snoopers’ Charter, makes it a criminal offense to reveal that the government has even made such a demand. An Apple spokesman declined to comment...
The Trump minion has said Jan. 6 defendants should get cash reparations and those responsible for the charges should get jail time.
The post The Capitol Rioters Are Free — But Ed Martin’s Crusade Against Jan. 6 Prosecutors Is Just Getting Started appeared first on The Intercept.
In South Africa, a 36-year-old living with HIV since childhood fears she will lose access to treatment due to Trump’s policy.
The post Global HIV Care Thrown Into Chaos by Trump: “I Will Be Sick and Maybe Die” appeared first on The Intercept.
If the State Department takes over USAID, experts fear foreign assistance will stop unless it has a perceived benefit for Trump.
The post Trump’s Attacks on USAID Spark Fear That Lifesaving Care Will Become “Transactional” appeared first on The Intercept.
Betar U.S. said it has shared with the Trump administration a list of the “names of hundreds of terror supporters.”
The post The Far-Right Group Building a List of Pro-Palestine Activists to Deport appeared first on The Intercept.
Since the fall of Bashar al-Assad, Turkey and its militias have cut off the Kurdish city of Kobane from the rest of Syria.
The post Twelve Days in Kobane, Where Syrian Kurds Are Under Attack by Turkey appeared first on The Intercept.
With the Democratic Party reeling from its losses, the DNC is voting on a new chair. Will it choose to reform its top-down model?
The post The Democratic National Committee Is Undemocratic. That’s by Design. appeared first on The Intercept.
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