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As a polar guide I need to take a gun to the Arctic. But airlines are freezing me out
Mon, 09 Sep 2024 08:00:11 GMT
I’ve been repeatedly forced to pay a fare before finding out that firearms can’t be carried – after the refund window has closed
I am a polar guide. I frequently travel to Spitsbergen, the Arctic island, with my firearm, which I carry as last-resort protection in case I am attacked by a polar bear. It is something I hope that I never have to use.
For the last five years or so, I have flown with it in and out of Manchester airport without issue. The problem now is that airlines will not tell you in advance which airports accept firearms. You have to first buy a ticket, then register it as special baggage.
Continue reading...If you can commute simply to classes, why make life harder with crippling rent payments? Just remember, your social life is what you make it
When deciding which five universities to apply to, I chose all London options. My parents had no issue with me moving out of my west London family home, but they reminded me that they had raised our family in London for its educational and career opportunities. With the best universities only an hour’s train ride away, the savings I could make by staying at home were significant.
I accepted my LSE offer, and prepared to commute. With friends paying at least £250 a week to rent in London, I couldn’t justify moving out when I could travel for £10 a day.
Continue reading...After this year’s protests against mass tourism all over the Canaries, we head for the small towns, vineyards and rugged coast of Lanzarote’s less-visited north
The sky is clear as I sit sipping coffee in the sunny courtyard of an 18th-century house – now a boutique hotel – in the small Lanzarote town of Teguise. But Óscar Cubillo, my host, sees something different. Looking up, he says: “The planes are always there. They never stop.”
Lanzarote, an island shaped by volcanoes, salt and wind, feels like an otherworldly outpost, but it has recently been wrestling with an influx of tourists that residents fear the island cannot handle.
Continue reading...Thanks to buzzy cafes and the backing of Chanel’s fashion supremos, France’s oldest city is having its moment
When a place becomes a meme, you know it is having a moment. This is what is happening to Marseille, which found its name plastered on a satirical Instagram account this week. “‘Mate was finkin’ of goin’ Marseille? Apparently it’s poppin’ off!?’,” read the caption on the viral Socks House Meeting fashion account that satirises the absurdities of trends, usually with an eye to London’s cultural niches but with a foothold in wider British internet humour.
It was accompanied by a picture of the type of lifestyle and fashion staples that a certain kind of traveller might enjoy while in the southern French city, including a skinny Vogue cigarette, on-trend wraparound sunglasses and a bottle of Terre d’Hermès eau de toilette.
Continue reading...The pontiff visited the small town of Vanimo after delivering mass to an estimated 35,000 people in the capital of Port Moresby
Pope Francis travelled to Vanimo, on Papua New Guinea’s remote north-west coast, after celebrating a mass in the capital of Port Moresby in front of an estimated audience of 35,000 people.
The pope received an enthusiastic welcome in the town located on a peninsula close to the border with Indonesia. He was greeted by members of the small Catholic community who are served by missionaries from his native Argentina.
Continue reading...It has been a long wait for the canoeists, paddling into action in Paris when most other sports have moved on to their sightseeing and Sazerac eras. But all the kicking their heels was worth it for the British team, who finished the penultimate day of the Games with two golds and two silvers at the Stade Nautique de Vaires-sur-Marne.
An end-of-term feel percolated, spectators queueing for photographs alongside both a giant Phryge – the Games mascot – and a torch with the sudden realisation that all this will soon be gone. Later a waving Phryge travelled down the flat waters on a barge, accompanied by a five-piece band, to huge cheers.
Continue reading...Interesting vulnerability:
…a special lane at airport security called Known Crewmember (KCM). KCM is a TSA program that allows pilots and flight attendants to bypass security screening, even when flying on domestic personal trips.
The KCM process is fairly simple: the employee uses the dedicated lane and presents their KCM barcode or provides the TSA agent their employee number and airline. Various forms of ID need to be presented while the TSA agent’s laptop verifies the employment status with the airline. If successful, the employee can access the sterile area without any screening at all...
On Saturday 24 April, the billionaire founder of the Telegram social media and messaging app, Pavel Durov, was arrested by French authorities as he disembarked from his private jet in Paris on his way from Azerbaijan. Officials said the arrest was part of an inquiry into criminal activity on the platform and a lack of cooperation with law enforcement. Durov has since been formally charged.
In a statement on Sunday, Telegram said it abided by European Union laws and that its moderation was 'within industry standards and constantly improving'. 'Telegram’s CEO, Pavel Durov, has nothing to hide and travels frequently in Europe,' it said. 'It is absurd to claim that a platform, or its owner, are responsible for abuse of that platform.'
Durov, known as the 'Russian Mark Zuckerberg' for having founded a similar platform to Zuckerberg’s Facebook in Russia called VKontakte, is a self-styled champion of free speech and has cultivated a reputation for being unwilling to work with authorities to censor and more closely control what happens on his platform. His arrest has raised important questions about the extent to which tech executives are responsible for how users employ their social media networks. Chris Stokel-Walker, a technology journalist, explains the implications of Durov's arrest for the tech sector
Telegram CEO charged in France for ‘allowing criminal activity’ on messaging app
What the Telegram founder’s arrest means for the regulation of social media firms
The Orion vehicle that will bring astronauts around the Moon and back for the first time in over 50 years was recently tested in a refurbished altitude chamber used during the Apollo era.
Engineers tested Orion in a near-vacuum environment designed to simulate the space conditions the vehicle will travel through during its mission towards the Moon. Teams emptied the altitude chamber of air, a process taking up to a day, to create a very low-pressure environment over 2000 times lower and more vacuum-like than inside your vacuum cleaner. Orion remained in the altitude chamber’s low-pressure environment for around a week, with engineering teams monitoring the spacecraft’s systems and collecting data to qualify Orion for safely flying the Artemis II crew through the harsh environment of space.
The next step for Orion will take place after the summer: the installation of its four, seven-metre long solar arrays that the European Service Module (ESM) will use to power the vehicle and its crew of four towards the Moon and back during the Artemis II mission.
Rachid Amekrane, Orion-ESM US Campaign Lead at Airbus, stands next to the Orion spacecraft inside the altitude chamber at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Next to his hand are four nozzles; these are some of the reaction control system engines of the ESM. In total, there are 33 engines on the ESM: 24 reaction control system engines, eight auxiliary thrusters and a Shuttle-era main engine.
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...Speaking at Toronto film festival, John thanks Trump for support but does not endorse either candidate for November’s US election
Elton John has praised Donald Trump’s “hilarious” use of John’s hit Rocket Man as a nickname for North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Trump has frequently used the nickname, including during a diplomatic crisis between the US and North Korea in 2017, saying in an address to the United Nations: “Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself.”
Continue reading...Protesters who lost savings in financial crisis demonstrated outside court as Riad Salameh pleaded not guilty
The former head of Lebanon’s central bank, Riad Salameh, appeared in court on Monday for the first time since he was arrested last week on charges of embezzling up to $42m (£32m) of public funds.
Monday’s hearing is the latest in the long saga of Salameh, once vaunted as a financial wizard who earned Lebanon its reputation as the “Switzerland of the Middle East” during his 30-year tenure. He has since fallen into disrepute and is suspected of engineering a country-wide Ponzi scheme that caused Lebanon’s 2019 financial meltdown and its five-year-long economic crisis.
Continue reading...A sense of inevitable finality permeates every frame of Marusya Syroechkovskaya’s documentary, composed of personal footage shot over a decade
At the age of 16, in 2005, Marusya Syroechkovskaya was already certain that she would die young. “Everyone knows Russia’s for the depressed,” she would say, as she witnessed her circle of adolescent friends succumb, one by one, to a terrible cycle of drug addiction and suicidal despair. Her teenage world shifted, however, when she met her twin flame in Kimi Morev, a blond-haired boy with sensitive features that belie deep sorrows. Composed of personal footage shot over a decade, Syroechkovskaya’s moving documentary is both a hymn to a troubled soul and a portrait of a lost generation.
A sense of inevitable finality permeates through every frame of the film, which opens with Morev’s funeral in 2016. At the same time, Syroechkovskaya beautifully balances darkness with light. Her loving bond with Morev sparkles across the fuzzy camcorder images, which capture the energy of hangouts among friends as well as the pure comfort of simply being together. One particularly cathartic scene shows the jubilant celebration that followed Russia’s progress in the 2008 European Championships. Streams of kids pour out on to the streets as they are united, perhaps for the first time, by a sense of patriotism and connectedness.
Continue reading...Palestinians tell of self-styled warlord’s brutal reign across whole of Jabal Salman valley – and he is one of many
“Call me Yakov,” the burly, red-bearded settler told the Palestinian villagers who lived in his shadow. They should, it was understood, consider him their mukhtar, their chief, mayor and sheriff.
It was only after he was singled out for sanctions by the US government last week that they learned his real name: Yitzhak Levi Filant.
Continue reading...Ten retired top brass say Harris is only candidate fit to serve as commander in chief as ad shows former Trump officials saying he is a danger to the US
The statement of support for Kamala Harris by a group of retired top military officials comes a day before the Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, and the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, will host a congressional gold medal ceremony honoring the 13 service members killed in the chaotic 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal.
Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans have tried to blame Harris for the Afghanistan pullout, including in a report by House GOP lawmakers today.
Our investigation reveals the Biden-Harris administration had the information and opportunity to take necessary steps to plan for the inevitable collapse of the Afghan government. At each step of the way, however, the administration picked optics over security.
Without involving the Afghan government, he and his administration negotiated a deal with the Taliban that freed 5,000 Taliban fighters and allowed them to return to the battlefield.
This chaotic approach severely hindered the Biden-Harris administration’s ability to execute the most orderly withdrawal possible and put our service members and our allies at risk.
Continue reading...Democrats say Republican chairman’s report inflates Harris’s role and overlooks Trump’s for election purposes
Partisan divisions over the chaotic 2021 pullout of western forces from Afghanistan have burst into the open ahead of Tuesday’s presidential debate in Philadelphia after a Republican-led congressional report attempted to implicate Kamala Harris in the episode.
A 250-page report from the House of Representatives’ foreign affairs committee castigated the Biden administration for failing to anticipate the Taliban’s rapid takeover and neglecting to prepare for the orderly departure of non-combatant personnel.
Continue reading...Campaign posts positions on economy, ‘fundamental freedoms’, safety and crime, and national security
Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign has posted a list of her policy positions on its website, less than 48 hours before her debate against Donald Trump on Tuesday, after critics have called her vague and thin on proposed policies since the Democratic nominee launched her run for the White House in July.
The Harris campaign’s move came as she and the Republican former president enter the final weeks of the 5 November election – and as new polling published on Sunday showed the candidates are locked in a tight race. The vice-president had initially gained significant momentum over Trump after she replaced Joe Biden at the top of her party’s presidential ticket.
Continue reading...Debate could allow Harris to deliver on her oft-repeated promise: that she will prosecute the case against Trump
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will arrive in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday for their first (and potentially only) presidential debate. The event will mark the first time that Harris and Trump have ever met face to face, and it comes less than two months after Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race following his own fateful debate performance in June.
The change at the top of the Democratic ticket appears to have unnerved Trump and his campaign advisers, who have struggled to land attacks against Harris. The debate will present Trump with his most significant opportunity yet to negatively define Harris in voters’ minds, as polls show a neck-and-neck race in key battleground states.
Continue reading...As Trump utters the last phrase of the oath of office – ‘so help me God’ – the first phase of what Project 2025’s authors call ‘the playbook’ begins
It’s a cold day in Washington DC in late January 2025. Though Donald Trump has lost the popular vote for a third consecutive election, his narrow capture of the electoral college has delivered the presidency.
During the campaign, Trump offered some symbolic gestures to distance himself from Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation-led policy blueprint for the next Republican administration, matched with a database of conservative personnel to execute those plans. “Personnel is politics,” they explain.
Daniel Martinez HoSang is Professor of American Studies at Yale and a Race and Democracy Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute. He is the co-editor of the forthcoming volume The Politics of the Multiracial Right
Continue reading...National and swing-state polling indicates a narrow race, with support for Trump remaining solid despite his change of Democratic rival
Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are in effect tied heading into the final weeks of the election campaign, according to a national poll conducted by the New York Times and Siena College, raising the stakes of Tuesday’s presidential debate.
Trump is up one percentage point, 48%-47%, over Harris, according to the survey released on Sunday, a difference that is within the survey’s three-percentage point margin of error, meaning a win for either candidate in the election on 5 November is well within reach.
Continue reading...Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will meet face to face on the debate stage next Tuesday. Jonathan Freedland speaks to Paul Begala – who helped Al Gore to prepare for his 2000 debate against George W Bush – about what the 2024 candidates will be doing to prepare.
What can they do to increase their chances of coming out on top, and will this debate be as election-defining as the last?
Archive: CSPAN, ABC, MSNBC, CNN
Continue reading...Animal rights groups had said the beluga, nicknamed Hvaldimir, which was found dead last month, had been shot
A beluga whale that rose to fame in Norway after its unusual harness prompted suspicions that the creature was trained by Russia as a spy died after a stick became stuck in its mouth, police have said.
The lifeless body of the whale, named Hvaldimir – a combination of the Norwegian word for whale and the first name of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin – was found floating in the sea on 31 August by a father and son fishing in Risavika Bay, southern Norway.
Continue reading...Chef who helped shape the gastronomy of London in the 1980s and later returned to Italy and gave cookery classes in Rome
Carla Tomasi, who has died aged 70, belonged to a generation of chefs, among them Alastair Little, Simon Hopkinson, Antony Worrall Thompson and Rowley Leigh, who helped shape the gastronomic geography of London in the 1980s.
She became head chef of Frith’s, in Frith Street, Soho, early in that decade and, not long after, took over the restaurant altogether. This was a time when few restaurants were run, let alone owned, by women. However, Sally Clarke (at Clarke’s), Ruth Rogers and Rose Gray (at the River Café) and Juliet Peston (at Alastair Little) were successfully challenging male domination. Like these redoubtable pioneers, Tomasi showed passion, resolve and determination – her colleague and friend Jeremy Lee described her as “distinctly feisty”.
Continue reading...A combination of Tuscan recipes for baking tomatoes from a book published in 1899, resulting in delightfully soft tomatoes with an irresistible nutty crumble crust
Two years ago, a friend bought me a book at an auction. “Dear friend, will you accept this little book?” she joked, before handing it to me with a cover like a dried teabag crossed with a stocking, and a dislocated spine that revealed what looked like fishnet underneath. It must be 100 years old, I said as I put on my reading specs. The line drawing of vegetables and letters on the tobacco-coloured cover were faded, and one letter was almost completely erased by a watermark, but nonetheless the title was clear: Leaves from Our Tuscan Kitchen, by Janet Ross. It bloody well was 100 years old!
The cover held 150 manilla-yellow pages; if not a first edition, certainly an early one, and a stupendous gift. “Look at the first page,” my friend said with a laughing eye. I opened the book to find a note written in pencil on the endpaper (the name Mrs Ward and an address I can’t make out except for the postcode SW1), while on the first page was a typed dedication to Mrs GF Watts: “Dear friend, will you accept this little book? It may sometimes bring the thought of Italy into your beautiful Surrey home.”
Continue reading...Oil and gas company to use artificial intelligence to speed up decision-making by engineers
The oil and gas supermajor BP is to use artificial intelligence to speed up the decision-making of its engineers, after signing a five-year deal with the US spy technology company Palantir.
The British company plans to use large language models to automatically analyse data from its sites and produce advice to help humans come to conclusions.
Continue reading...The decision has become Labour’s first political crisis but is the government likely to change course?
The decision to axe winter fuel payments for all but the poorest pensioners has become the Labour government’s first political crisis. So what is it about?
Continue reading... submitted by /u/chrisdh79 [link] [comments] |
Louisianans say a major accident at a sprawling Marathon refinery caused health issues. The company insists there were ‘no offsite impacts’
At 8.04am on 25 August last year, Darnell Alboudoor watched a plume of black smoke blanketing the sky and rolling in the direction of her family home.
A stench like burning oil filled the air on that piping hot summer morning, as Alboudoor, 54, looked in the direction of the sprawling petroleum refinery, which sat a few hundred feet from her back yard. She called 911.
Continue reading...Solar power could enable 400 million Africans without water to tap into groundwater aquifers. However, we must ensure smaller projects do not lose out in the rush for new technology
It’s a truly dreadful irony: for many of the 400 million people in sub-Saharan Africa who lack access to even a basic water supply, there is likely to be a significant reserve in aquifers sitting just a few metres below their feet.
Groundwater – the water stored in small spaces and fractures in rocks – makes up nearly 99% of all of the unfrozen fresh water on the planet. Across the African continent, the volume of water stored underground is estimated to be 20 times the amount held in lakes and reservoirs.
Continue reading...The Drax power plant burns 7m tonnes of biomass pellets a year and generates 4% of the UK’s electricity needs
The cooling towers of the giant Drax power station loom over rural North Yorkshire as a reminder of Britain’s grimy past – and as a beacon of its efforts to create a net zero economy by 2050.
The power plant was once one of the largest coal-burners in Europe, and a lightning rod for campaigners against fossil fuels in the UK’s electricity system. Today, its owners claim to be the UK’s largest renewable energy power plant – burning 7m tonnes of biomass pellets a year to generate enough electricity that meets almost 4% of the UK’s power needs.
Continue reading...He’s been called ‘a poster-boy for indie sleaze’, a hard-partying NY DJ who just had a global smash with Charli xcx and Billie Eilish. But is the Dare for real? As he releases his controversial debut album, we meet a superstar in the making
The Dare delays our 10am interview by an hour. “He’s been having trouble sleeping,” explains his publicist. When he emerges bleary-eyed on Zoom at 11, I ask what’s been keeping him awake, wondering if he was out late. Apparently not. “But I actually have a harder time sleeping when I stay in,” he growls. “I go out so much that there’s a natural rhythm. I walk around all night and eventually get tired. When I stay in, I feel like I have too much pent-up energy. So I just lay there all night.”
If you don’t know who the Dare is yet, that’s understandable. Despite how he dresses (almost always in a Hedi Slimane-esque skinny black suit) and the manner in which he answers questions about mild insomnia, he’s not a rock star yet. More of a microcelebrity, extremely well known to a certain subset of downtown New York scene kids, fans of Charli xcx’s future pop, the glossy magazine class and the incurably online.
Continue reading...The government wants to act tough over the public finances. But ministers look mean, unjust and politically inept
Winter fuel payments for all pensioners were, according to Gordon Brown, one of the greatest achievements of the last Labour administration. It was the bitterly cold winter during the miners’ strike that brought home to him the disastrous effects that means testing had on elderly people. New Labour lifted more than a million pensioners out of relative poverty. It is odd that the next Labour prime minister seems intent on repudiating that legacy.
Sir Keir Starmer wants to do away with the “untargeted” payments – worth up to £300 – from 10 million pensioners, when energy bills rise by 10%, to save the Treasury £1.4bn. This is mean, unjust and politically inept. There is widespread disquiet in Labour, which traditionally argues that universalism matters for poverty prevention because it generates public support for welfare spending. An early day motion asking for the change to be reconsidered has been organised by newly elected centrist MPs. Others say that withdrawing winter fuel payments for those in fuel poverty will lead to excess deaths.
Continue reading...Healthy ticket sales, record TV ratings – a nation once indifferent to parasport is now cheering its athletes on to new levels of success
When French athlete Aurélie Aubert’s sharp strategy and ice-cool precision won her a boccia gold at the Paris Paralympics, the fervour of the nationwide victory celebrations seemed likely to change the country for ever.
Aubert, 27, who has cerebral palsy and competed in the BC1 category, took France’s first ever medal in a sport which is a test of skill and tactics akin to bowls and France’s favourite ballgame, pétanque.
Continue reading...On Saturday 24 April, the billionaire founder of the Telegram social media and messaging app, Pavel Durov, was arrested by French authorities as he disembarked from his private jet in Paris on his way from Azerbaijan. Officials said the arrest was part of an inquiry into criminal activity on the platform and a lack of cooperation with law enforcement. Durov has since been formally charged.
In a statement on Sunday, Telegram said it abided by European Union laws and that its moderation was 'within industry standards and constantly improving'. 'Telegram’s CEO, Pavel Durov, has nothing to hide and travels frequently in Europe,' it said. 'It is absurd to claim that a platform, or its owner, are responsible for abuse of that platform.'
Durov, known as the 'Russian Mark Zuckerberg' for having founded a similar platform to Zuckerberg’s Facebook in Russia called VKontakte, is a self-styled champion of free speech and has cultivated a reputation for being unwilling to work with authorities to censor and more closely control what happens on his platform. His arrest has raised important questions about the extent to which tech executives are responsible for how users employ their social media networks. Chris Stokel-Walker, a technology journalist, explains the implications of Durov's arrest for the tech sector
Telegram CEO charged in France for ‘allowing criminal activity’ on messaging app
What the Telegram founder’s arrest means for the regulation of social media firms
Indian PM says he respects and supports ‘sovereignty and territorial integrity’ of Ukraine during historic visit
India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, made a historic visit to Kyiv on Friday and told Volodymyr Zelenskiy he was ready to work “as a friend” to bring about a peace deal that would end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Modi said he respected and supported Ukraine’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity”. “It is our highest priority,” he said, adding that he had told Vladimir Putin during their meeting in July that “problems cannot be resolved on the battlefield”. The war could only end through “dialogue and diplomacy”, he stressed.
Continue reading...Democrats say Republican chairman’s report inflates Harris’s role and overlooks Trump’s for election purposes
Partisan divisions over the chaotic 2021 pullout of western forces from Afghanistan have burst into the open ahead of Tuesday’s presidential debate in Philadelphia after a Republican-led congressional report attempted to implicate Kamala Harris in the episode.
A 250-page report from the House of Representatives’ foreign affairs committee castigated the Biden administration for failing to anticipate the Taliban’s rapid takeover and neglecting to prepare for the orderly departure of non-combatant personnel.
Continue reading...Campaign posts positions on economy, ‘fundamental freedoms’, safety and crime, and national security
Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign has posted a list of her policy positions on its website, less than 48 hours before her debate against Donald Trump on Tuesday, after critics have called her vague and thin on proposed policies since the Democratic nominee launched her run for the White House in July.
The Harris campaign’s move came as she and the Republican former president enter the final weeks of the 5 November election – and as new polling published on Sunday showed the candidates are locked in a tight race. The vice-president had initially gained significant momentum over Trump after she replaced Joe Biden at the top of her party’s presidential ticket.
Continue reading...Ten retired top brass say Harris is only candidate fit to serve as commander in chief as ad shows former Trump officials saying he is a danger to the US
The statement of support for Kamala Harris by a group of retired top military officials comes a day before the Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, and the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, will host a congressional gold medal ceremony honoring the 13 service members killed in the chaotic 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal.
Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans have tried to blame Harris for the Afghanistan pullout, including in a report by House GOP lawmakers today.
Our investigation reveals the Biden-Harris administration had the information and opportunity to take necessary steps to plan for the inevitable collapse of the Afghan government. At each step of the way, however, the administration picked optics over security.
Without involving the Afghan government, he and his administration negotiated a deal with the Taliban that freed 5,000 Taliban fighters and allowed them to return to the battlefield.
This chaotic approach severely hindered the Biden-Harris administration’s ability to execute the most orderly withdrawal possible and put our service members and our allies at risk.
Continue reading...Debate could allow Harris to deliver on her oft-repeated promise: that she will prosecute the case against Trump
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will arrive in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday for their first (and potentially only) presidential debate. The event will mark the first time that Harris and Trump have ever met face to face, and it comes less than two months after Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race following his own fateful debate performance in June.
The change at the top of the Democratic ticket appears to have unnerved Trump and his campaign advisers, who have struggled to land attacks against Harris. The debate will present Trump with his most significant opportunity yet to negatively define Harris in voters’ minds, as polls show a neck-and-neck race in key battleground states.
Continue reading...As Trump utters the last phrase of the oath of office – ‘so help me God’ – the first phase of what Project 2025’s authors call ‘the playbook’ begins
It’s a cold day in Washington DC in late January 2025. Though Donald Trump has lost the popular vote for a third consecutive election, his narrow capture of the electoral college has delivered the presidency.
During the campaign, Trump offered some symbolic gestures to distance himself from Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation-led policy blueprint for the next Republican administration, matched with a database of conservative personnel to execute those plans. “Personnel is politics,” they explain.
Daniel Martinez HoSang is Professor of American Studies at Yale and a Race and Democracy Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute. He is the co-editor of the forthcoming volume The Politics of the Multiracial Right
Continue reading...National and swing-state polling indicates a narrow race, with support for Trump remaining solid despite his change of Democratic rival
Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are in effect tied heading into the final weeks of the election campaign, according to a national poll conducted by the New York Times and Siena College, raising the stakes of Tuesday’s presidential debate.
Trump is up one percentage point, 48%-47%, over Harris, according to the survey released on Sunday, a difference that is within the survey’s three-percentage point margin of error, meaning a win for either candidate in the election on 5 November is well within reach.
Continue reading...Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will meet face to face on the debate stage next Tuesday. Jonathan Freedland speaks to Paul Begala – who helped Al Gore to prepare for his 2000 debate against George W Bush – about what the 2024 candidates will be doing to prepare.
What can they do to increase their chances of coming out on top, and will this debate be as election-defining as the last?
Archive: CSPAN, ABC, MSNBC, CNN
Continue reading...Draft bill requires social media platforms to stop children in the restricted age range from accessing their services
The Albanese government plans to impose a minimum age for teenagers accessing social media and gaming platforms, with legislation to be introduced into parliament before the next election.
The prime minister will announce the nationwide move on Tuesday but will stop short of specifying the age, arguing the government wants to wait for the conclusion of an age-verification trial which begins its final phase this week.
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Continue reading...Rishi Sunak, Keir Starmer, Diane Abbott, Suella Braverman and Sadiq Khan received between them 85,000 abusive messages, study finds
The UK’s most prominent politicians were subjected to a deluge of abuse on X during the general election period, one of the most comprehensive studies of online abuse in politics has found.
Five politicians – Rishi Sunak, Keir Starmer, Diane Abbott, Suella Braverman and Sadiq Khan – were, between them, sent more than 85,000 clearly abusive messages between 1 May and 30 July, according to the findings from researchers at the University of Sheffield.
Continue reading...After three years and more than 5,000 submissions, royal commission into veteran suicide hands down its full report. Here are its key points
Australian defence force personnel and veterans have suffered “a catastrophic failure of leadership at all levels” to prioritise their health and wellbeing, according to the head of a long-running royal commission into veteran suicide.
Nick Kaldas, the former New South Wales police deputy commissioner, made the comment on Monday shortly before the royal commission he chaired provided its final report to the federal government.
Continue reading...Downing St says it wants 100% takeup of the benefit, although that would wipe out any savings from changes to the winter fuel payment
Like the Telegraph (see 11.25am), the Times has also published a new article with a Tory endorsement for Kemi Badenoch, but this one is potentially more significant. Margaret Thatcher is no longer with us, but for Conservative party members she is still the one figure from the party’s recent past whose authority is more or less unquestioned and Peter Lilley has written an article claiming that Badenoch would be a worthy inheritor of her mantle. He says Thatcher was a scientist, and Badenoch is an engineering graduate. Like Thatcher, Badenoch is focused on facts, and what works, he says. He goes on:
Leadership candidates are under great pressure to make popular pledges, to abolish specific taxes or set a numerical limit on immigration. Kemi, rightly in my view, has refused to do so. Voters want lower taxes and much less immigration (as do I), but they have seen every glib promise broken. To convince them, a new leader will need to show first, that policies have been rigorously worked out in practical terms and second, that we truly believe in them rather than adopting them to win votes. As Margaret Thatcher said: “To carry conviction, you must have conviction.”
Conviction is the fruit of hard-nosed scepticism. Kemi’s approach is similar to Margaret Thatcher’s, for whom I once worked. When ministers took a policy to her which was in line with all her prejudices, expecting instant approval, she would tear into it, challenging every weakness. Only when satisfied that a policy was totally robust would she take it on board – but then she pursued it with unwavering conviction. Kemi is likewise willing to challenge, criticise and expose weaknesses, which does not endear her to everyone. But we cannot afford to go on adopting half-baked, unworkable policies.
We can rage at Labour’s actions, but the public won’t listen to our narrative – unless we have a leader who can communicate.
Kemi Badenoch is that person. She is blessed with that rare gift in politics: the X-factor that means she can not only communicate but achieve all important ‘cut-through’, so that the public actually notice.
Continue reading...Some campaigns say contest’s handling is disgraceful after insiders reveal they may get only brief time on stage
Conservative leadership contenders have called the lacklustre handling of the contest disgraceful after it emerged they may only get a few minutes each to address the party’s conference.
The contest, which was expected to be a battle for the soul of the party, had been reduced to leadership contenders being given just 10 minutes on the stage, insiders said.
Continue reading...Clearing bank’s future was thrown into question by HMRC action over unpaid taxes last Thursday
The Bank of London, the fledgling clearing bank backed by the Labour grandee Lord Mandelson, has announced it has raised another £42m from investors days after being hit by a winding-up order by tax authorities.
The financial company said the oversubscribed funding round closed in August, and was led by Luxembourg’s Mangrove Capital Partners. Mangrove is an existing investor known for backing companies such as Skype. Its chief executive, Mark Tluszcz, sits on the BoL board.
Continue reading...The party has faced crisis before, but this feels different. Financially and intellectually bereft, membership dwindling … it’s a battle for not much
If the 1982 Falklands war was what the great Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges called “two bald men fighting over a comb”, how can we describe the present contest for the leadership of the Conservative party? Half a dozen toothless people squabbling over a toothbrush?
Out of some form of perversity or masochism the Tories have made this contest as protracted as possible, with one ballot after another among the remaining rump of the party’s MPs before the last two names go forward to members, such as they are. But even those concerned can’t believe this process is being followed by the nation with rapt attention. If there is such a thing as unrapt inattention, that will be more like it.
Continue reading...Offering everything from coding clubs to company, they are more essential than ever as other services vanish
When Liverpool’s Spellow Hub library was torched in this summer’s far-right riots, an appeal quickly raised more than £250,000 to restore the facility. That was testament to the community’s deep attachment, but also to the broader appreciation of the value that libraries bring to society.
Yet they are in crisis – again. Thirteen have closed in Merseyside. The UK has lost one in 20 since 2016, with 180 closed in that time, a BBC investigation has revealed. The most deprived areas are around four times more likely to lose a library than the richest. Overall, library spending has halved since 2010-11.
Continue reading...We are raiding the Guardian Long Read archives to bring you some notable pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors.
This week, from 2022: Five years after the fire that killed 72, the inquiry is nearing a close. Over 300 days of evidence, what have we learned about the failings that led to disaster? By Robert Booth
Continue reading...Report by Mario Draghi calls for additional investment to regain growth and prevent social unrest
The EU should fear for its self-preservation as it faces a “slow and agonising decline”, according to a hard-hitting report by the former Italian prime minister Mario Draghi that calls for an €800bn-a-year spending boost to end years of stagnation.
Warning that the Covid pandemic and Ukraine war had changed the rules of international trade to the EU’s detriment, he said the bloc needed additional investment of €750bn-€800bn a year – equivalent to 5% of the EU’s annual economic output – to build a more resilient economy and regain previously high rates of productivity growth.
Continue reading...Brexit poisoned the well of UK-Ireland relations. But the Irish consciousness is not as consumed by Britain as it once was
Sipping pints of Guinness, swapping football shirts and purring about respect and new dawns, the British and Irish prime ministers seemed determined to inject long-absent warmth into the relationship between their countries when they met on Saturday. The thaw is overdue; Keir Starmer’s visit to Dublin was the first by a British PM in five years. In 2019, Boris Johnson’s visit came amid manifold anxieties about securing a Brexit deal, prompting a declaration from the Irish government that “the people of this island, North and South, need to know that their livelihoods, their security and their sense of identity will not be put at risk as a consequence of a hard Brexit. The stakes are high. Avoiding the return of a hard border on this island and protecting our place in the single market are the Irish government’s priorities in all circumstances.”
The distrustful atmosphere was a product not just of the June 2016 British vote to leave the EU, but a broader Tory ignorance about what the border in Ireland represented. The failure to consider that issue during the Brexit referendum campaign was compounded by simplistic distortions and assertions. The border was then resurrected as a touchstone, much to its discomfort, as imagined irascibly in the Twitter feed @BorderIrish: “I was just minding my own business, being a largely invisible little border that no one had thought about for years … after decades of misery … and then along comes Brexit, like some gobshite taking its first lesson, crashing all over the place.”
Diarmaid Ferriter is professor of modern Irish history at University College Dublin. His new book is The Revelation of Ireland 1995-2020
Continue reading...The decision has become Labour’s first political crisis but is the government likely to change course?
The decision to axe winter fuel payments for all but the poorest pensioners has become the Labour government’s first political crisis. So what is it about?
Continue reading...When my daughter developed anxiety around school, there was little we could do to make her go. Solving the problem starts with recognising the causes
When the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, vowed last week to get “tough” on persistent school absenteeism, you might have expected someone like me – a former teacher, a mother of five and a firm believer in education – to applaud. There is plenty to welcome in Phillipson’s announcement: she has pledged to support parents and help children get back into the classroom. But when this approach doesn’t work, she is prepared to get “tough” – implying that the parents of persistently absent children need to be punished.
Some 21% of pupils in England are now labelled as “persistent absentees” – meaning they miss 10% or more of school time each year. Plenty of evidence suggests that these absences have a devastating impact on a pupil’s future: a report last year by the Children’s Commissioner for England revealed that only 36% of pupils who were persistently absent passed five or more GCSEs, compared with 78% of regular attenders. There are undoubtedly parents who need a little more stick and less carrot when it comes to ensuring their children are in school, and one approach has been to fine parents (currently, schools in England can issue a fine when children miss five days of school within a year for unauthorised reasons).
Gillian Harvey is a freelance writer and the author of The Riviera House Swap
Continue reading...Support for government’s environmental legislation offered in exchange for protections that deliver ‘immediate, tangible impacts’
Greens and crossbench senators have told the government not to “hide behind” Peter Dutton and Gina Rinehart and instead work with them on a better deal for the environment.
The Greens environment spokesperson, Sarah Hanson-Young, and independent senators David Pocock and Lidia Thorpe offered to support legislation to establish a new environment protection authority (EPA) and a separate new agency to manage environmental information, if the government agreed to a series of proposals to strengthen environmental protections.
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Continue reading...Mark Saxby, 56, says he is in limbo because of Spanish authorities’ ‘petty’ concern about his medical insurance
A British teacher has told how he is “sick” with nerves about returning to his home in Spain amid a three-year battle to get post-Brexit residency after being denied it because he was missing one month’s medical insurance in the first year after the UK left the EU.
Mark Saxby, 56, said he felt “trapped” in a nightmarish limbo, unable to convince anyone that he had the right to live in Spain despite the EU-UK withdrawal agreement guaranteeing residency rights for those in the country before Brexit.
Continue reading...Just hours after opinion appears in AFR, shadow minister clarifies divestiture as ‘one of the various tools the treasurer needs to look at’ but not Coalition policy
The shadow transport minister, Bridget McKenzie, was forced to clarify the Coalition does not support breaking up Qantas just hours after floating the possibility of forced divestiture powers in the aviation sector.
McKenzie warned the competition watchdog’s review of the aviation sector “will be a failure if it does not address the role of divestiture” in an opinion piece in the Australian Financial Review on Monday.
Continue reading...Bus driver Brett Button faces lengthy jail term as ‘accountability, deterrence and punishment’, NSW judge says
A wedding guest on a Hunter Valley bus which crashed, killing 10 people, has told how he woke in hospital five days later with a gut feeling his wife and daughter had died.
Graham McBride, who lost his wife, Nadene, and their only daughter Kyah, 22, in the crash, addressed the Newcastle district court on Monday during an expected three-day sentence hearing for bus driver Brett Button.
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Continue reading...Move will help leader consolidate power over party before challenges of government dent his popularity
Keir Starmer’s allies are planning to use their moment of “maximum power” to speedily appoint a new Labour general secretary in the next fortnight, the Guardian has learned.
Insiders said party figures were planning to install a Starmer ally in the top party job in time for the appointment to be ratified by conference in late September.
Continue reading...Plans will be put before MPs on Monday that extend right to all councils to set routes and timetables
Local transport authorities across England will be able to run and control bus services under a Labour overhaul designed to “save vital routes”, parliament will hear on Monday.
The transport secretary, Louise Haigh, said the “bus revolution” would empower local communities as the government prepares formally to announce measures to make services more reliable.
Continue reading...Analysis from the Association for School and College Leaders warns extensive problems with learning, behaviour and absence to come
Repairing the damage to children’s education caused by the pandemic lockdowns and closures will disrupt England’s schools until the mid-2030s, according to a new report.
The analysis, published by the Association for School and College Leaders (ASCL), forecasted that the after-effects of the pandemic will hit schools in a series of waves, with different age groups requiring varying solutions for their problems with learning, behaviour and absence.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Home Office rejects application from family who were separated from son in chaotic 2021 evacuation
The Home Office has rejected a visa application from a family trapped in Afghanistan, whose son was evacuated to the UK during the fall of Kabul.
Ahmad (not his real name) was brought to the UK at the age of 10 with his uncle and aunt during Operation Pitting in 2021, when about 15,000 British nationals and eligible Afghans were evacuated from Afghanistan during a Taliban offensive.
Continue reading...Research shows a public less nationalistic, less ideological, with its own sense of national pride – and a media and political class out of sync
Once again the gap between politics and media, on one hand, and the general public, on the other, continues to be revealed in its scale. Survey after survey bring us the news that things are changing. That the British public is becoming more progressive in attitude towards refugees and asylum seekers, immigration, unions and industrial action, net zero targets and, most recently, British history.
The National Centre for Social Research’s British social attitudes survey shows a country that has become less nationalistic and jingoistic and, most sharply, less “proud” or “very proud” of British history. Along with that, there were also declines in pride in Britain’s democracy, its political influence and its economic achievements. The only two spheres where pride remained constant and high were sport, and art and literature.
Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnist
Continue reading...Edmundo González pledges to push for freedom and democracy for Venezuela after going into exile in Spain amid fears for his safety
The US secretary of state has said Edmundo González “remains the best hope for democracy” in Venezuela after the former presidential candidate went into exile in Spain.
Antony Blinken said on X on Sunday that González’s departure from Venezuela “is the direct result of the anti-democratic measures that [President] Nicolás Maduro has unleashed on the Venezuelan people”.
Continue reading...National Audit Office says trail of tax debts left by small UK retailers is widespread and increasing every year
The UK is missing out on billions of pounds of revenue each year from small retail businesses that exploit weaknesses in government systems to evade paying tax, the public spending watchdog has warned.
The National Audit Office (NAO), which monitors tax and spending by the government, said the trail of tax debts left by small retailers was widespread and increasing every year.
Continue reading...The government wants to act tough over the public finances. But ministers look mean, unjust and politically inept
Winter fuel payments for all pensioners were, according to Gordon Brown, one of the greatest achievements of the last Labour administration. It was the bitterly cold winter during the miners’ strike that brought home to him the disastrous effects that means testing had on elderly people. New Labour lifted more than a million pensioners out of relative poverty. It is odd that the next Labour prime minister seems intent on repudiating that legacy.
Sir Keir Starmer wants to do away with the “untargeted” payments – worth up to £300 – from 10 million pensioners, when energy bills rise by 10%, to save the Treasury £1.4bn. This is mean, unjust and politically inept. There is widespread disquiet in Labour, which traditionally argues that universalism matters for poverty prevention because it generates public support for welfare spending. An early day motion asking for the change to be reconsidered has been organised by newly elected centrist MPs. Others say that withdrawing winter fuel payments for those in fuel poverty will lead to excess deaths.
Continue reading...Roger Nichols says teachers’ needs must also be recognised, while Frank Coffield says the new model of inspection must be collaborative. Plus a letter from Karen Lewton
The idea that schools could be rated using a single-word descriptor was always ridiculous, given the roles that teachers are called on to play (The Guardian view on one-word Ofsted reports: good riddanceEditorial, 2 September). As a deputy head and former acting head in a large high school, my functions when not in the classroom included ad hoc social worker, amateur sleuth, psychologist, paramedic, car park attendant, dispute arbitrator, health and safety guru, marriage guidance counsellor for parents, advocate, promoter, developer and, back home, married father of two.
At last we appear to be coming to grips with key issues, especially attendance and behaviour, both of which are fertilised by a climate of social decline, confusion and lack of vision. In the inspections through which I helped lead my school, I was repeatedly puzzled to find that nowhere was there a satisfactory channel through which to address the feelings, worries, perceptions and concerns of teachers themselves. My wife and I are both retired from education, but our two children are still teaching. Their frustration and low morale is something we recognise, all four of us having found ourselves depressed, threatened and frightened at different periods in our careers, with nowhere to turn for advice and support.
Continue reading...The report was damning, but change is happening too slowly. The contempt that killed our loved ones has killed before, and it will kill again
Now we finally have it, in black and white. Every single death at Grenfell Tower could, and should, have been avoided, and a long list of organisations, individuals and authorities failed us catastrophically.
We acknowledge that Sir Martin Moore-Bick and the inquiry team have produced a thorough report, following an incredibly detailed inquiry process. But while we are supportive of the report, we feel there are areas where Moore-Bick did not go far enough.
Natasha Elcock is a survivor of the Grenfell Tower fire who lost her uncle on the night of 14 June 2017. She is the chair of Grenfell United, the survivors and bereaved family’s group
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
Continue reading...Uluru, the Daintree and Bondi beach among locations that could be impacted if planet hits even 2C of warming by 2050
South Australia’s wine regions shrouded in bushfire smoke, the Daintree rainforest cut off by flooding and tourists marooned at major airports because of violent storms. This snapshot is the potential chaotic future for Australia’s tourism industry, a new report has warned.
At least half of 178 tourism assets around the country – from national parks to city attractions and airports – are facing major climate risks, the analysis showed. And as the heat rises, so do the disruptions. Many of the country’s 620,000 tourism jobs will be under threat, according to the report from the insurance group Zurich and the economic analysts Mandala.
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Continue reading...Palestinians say they have no faith in Israel Defense Forces inquiry into killing as US officials insist Gaza ceasefire is near
US officials have insisted that a ceasefire in Gaza is close even as fighting rages unabated in the blockaded Palestinian territory and violence spirals in the occupied West Bank, where witnesses told the Observer an American-Turkish dual national was killed by Israeli forces on Friday.
William Burns, who is also the US’s chief negotiator in the indirect talks between Israel and Hamas, echoed secretary of state Antony Blinken during a speech in London on Saturday in which he said that “90% of the text had been agreed but the last 10% is always the hardest”.
Continue reading...Jab not yet approved for children, who make up most cases, while officials warn millions more doses will be required
The first donation of mpox vaccines arrived in Democratic Republic of the Congo on Thursday, but officials say millions more doses will be needed.
The announcement came amid warnings that the geographical spread of the virus, formerly known as monkeypox, was increasing, and swift action was needed across the continent to contain the outbreak.
Continue reading...Speaking at Toronto film festival, John thanks Trump for support but does not endorse either candidate for November’s US election
Elton John has praised Donald Trump’s “hilarious” use of John’s hit Rocket Man as a nickname for North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Trump has frequently used the nickname, including during a diplomatic crisis between the US and North Korea in 2017, saying in an address to the United Nations: “Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself.”
Continue reading...Opponent of Nicolas Maduro – widely seen as legitimate election winner – seeks asylum in Spain after being accused of a series of crimes
The Venezuelan opposition leader and former presidential candidate, Edmundo González, has gone into exile in Spain, dealing a bitter blow to opponents of the country’s authoritarian president, Nicolás Maduro.
The Spanish government said on Sunday that a Spanish air force plane carrying González and his wife had landed at the Torrejón de Ardoz military base outside Madrid
Continue reading...Anger is rising at Indonesia’s new administration – while Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines, Laos and Brunei are all led by the children of former leaders
In early August, against a backdrop of deadly student-led protests, Bangladesh’s prime minister Sheikh Hasina resigned her position, bringing to a close a political dynasty that stretched back to the country’s founding.
This week, students took to the streets on the other side of Asia, to protest against amended election laws that have helped foster the establishment of a new dynasty. In a few weeks Prabowo Subianto will be sworn in as Indonesia’s president – and with him his vice-president, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, the 36-year-old son of current leader Joko Widodo.
Continue reading...Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Robyn Cowen and George Elek as England get off to a bright start under Lee Carsley
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: the handbrake is off and Lee Carsley is at the wheel. What did the panel make of this new direction for England? And how unsurprised were they by the scorers in Dublin?
Continue reading...For children with ADHD, getting the help they need depends on being correctly diagnosed. As a doctor, I have seen how tricky and frustrating a process that can be. By Jack Goulder
Continue reading...Twenty-three years after Mohammed Ayaz fell from a plane wheel bay as it descended to Heathrow airport, his brother visits the car park where his body was found. Esther Addley reports
In 2001, Mohammed Ayaz climbed into the wheel bay of a British Airways Boeing 777 heading from Bahrain to London Heathrow. His body fell from the plane as it descended, and was discovered in a car park in Richmond.
After the police identified him, the Guardian’s Esther Addley tracked down his family to a rural village in northern Pakistan. Mohammed’s family told Esther that he had tried to get to the UK legally, but had not been successful. She wrote about the story in an article titled The man who fell to earth.
Continue reading...The Women’s Championship sides, who are fighting hard to realise broader ambitions, met on the opening weekend
Just 18 hours before kick‑off in south London, the London City Lionesses’ owner, Michele Kang, was at Audi Field in Washington DC celebrating a 96th-minute winner for another of the clubs she owns, Washington Spirit, in the National Women’s Soccer League. But an owner flying in via a private jet was just the first of a host of new-era elements to this rather star-studded start to the Women’s Championship season.
Kang, who watched yesterday’s opening 1-1 draw at home against Newcastle United in the company of several senior figures in women’s football, including the Women’s Professional Leagues Limited’s chief executive, Nikki Doucet, has injected cash into this relatively little-known club and has started work on a new elite-level training facility in Kent, as well as a plethora of high-quality transfers. She has two simultaneous visions: to try ultimately to win the WSL and also prove that women’s sport is not charity but a thriving business.
Continue reading...Scenes from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry by Richard Norton-Taylor and Nicolas Kent
On 14 June 2017, a fire broke out in Grenfell Tower in London. 72 people died. It was the worst residential fire in the UK since the second world war. The Grenfell Tower Inquiry was created to examine the circumstances leading up to and surrounding the fire.
Two reports were published as a result of this inquiry: phase 1 on 30 October 2019; and the second, and final, report last Wednesday.
This verbatim play, which was recorded in front of a live audience, is taken from excerpts of spoken evidence, given under oath, to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, Phase 2, between October 2019 and July 2022. This play was created so that some of the lessons leading up to that night, and the vital work of the Inquiry, could be more widely understood by the public.
This is the second part in a two-part series, if you haven’t yet listened to part 1, you may want to before starting this episode.
Continue reading...Scenes from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry by Richard Norton-Taylor and Nicolas Kent
On 14 June 2017, a fire broke out in Grenfell Tower in London. 72 people died. It was the worst residential fire in the UK since the second world war. The Grenfell Tower Inquiry was created to examine the circumstances leading up to and surrounding the fire.
Two reports were published as a result of this inquiry: phase 1 on 30 October 2019; and the second, and final, report last Wednesday.
This verbatim play, which was recorded in front of a live audience, is taken from excerpts of spoken evidence, given under oath, to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, Phase 2, between October 2019 and July 2022. This play was created so that some of the lessons leading up to that night, and the vital work of the Inquiry, could be more widely understood by the public.
Continue reading...Weekend is taking a little break. So for the next two weeks, we’re picking some of our favourite pieces from the last few months just in case you missed them…
Actor Julia Fox unpacks abuse, fame, and dating Kanye; should you blame yourself for your bad habits? And what happened when one man’s boat sank in the dead of night and he had to save his seven-year-old son.
Continue reading...After seven long years, the inquiry into a fire in a London tower block that left 72 people dead has concluded. But is justice for the victims – and survivors – any closer?
It’s more than seven years since Grenfell Tower burned. Now, finally, a public inquiry has finished sifting through thousands of documents, evidence from hundreds of public hearings and more than 1,600 witness statements. And its conclusions could not be more clear: every one of the 72 deaths was avoidable.
The Guardian’s social affairs correspondent, Rob Booth, has reported on the tragedy from the beginning, speaking to victims and experts about what happened on that terrible night and what has happened since. He tells Helen Pidd about the shocking revelations of the inquiry and why the companies and individuals who have been named and shamed have yet to be held accountable.
Continue reading...Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Lars Sivertsen and Mark Langdon to discuss Aston Villa’s Champions League ticket prices, Leicester City avoiding a points deduction and the international break
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: Aston Villa have announced the ticket prices for their home Champions League games and fans are justifiably angry – the club claim they have to do it to comply with PSR; the panel disagree.
Continue reading...We would like to hear from young British people under 25 about what the opportunities for working in mainland Europe’s tourism and hospitality industries are like
Many young Britons used to flock to the Mediterranean during the summer for a chance to work while enjoying the sunshine, seaside and local nightlife. But post-Brexit, opportunities to do so for young British people are few and far between.
We would like to hear from young people about their views and experience of seasonal work in continental Europe following Brexit. Is it something you have done in recent years, and if so, how? Where did you go and what did you do? Do you know others that have?
Continue reading...
In the rapidly advancing landscape of AI technology and innovation, LimeWire emerges as a unique platform in the realm of generative AI tools. This platform not only stands out from the multitude of existing AI tools but also brings a fresh approach to content generation. LimeWire not only empowers users to create AI content but also provides creators with creative ways to share and monetize their creations.
As we explore LimeWire, our aim is to uncover its features, benefits for creators, and the exciting possibilities it offers for AI content generation. This platform presents an opportunity for users to harness the power of AI in image creation, all while enjoying the advantages of a free and accessible service.
Let's unravel the distinctive features that set LimeWire apart in the dynamic landscape of AI-powered tools, understanding how creators can leverage its capabilities to craft unique and engaging AI-generated images.
This revamped LimeWire invites users to register and unleash their creativity by crafting original AI content, which can then be shared and showcased on the LimeWire Studio. Notably, even acclaimed artists and musicians, such as Deadmau5, Soulja Boy, and Sean Kingston, have embraced this platform to publish their content in the form of NFT music, videos, and images.
Beyond providing a space for content creation and sharing, LimeWire introduces monetization models to empower users to earn revenue from their creations. This includes avenues such as earning ad revenue and participating in the burgeoning market of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). As we delve further, we'll explore these monetization strategies in more detail to provide a comprehensive understanding of LimeWire's innovative approach to content creation and distribution.
LimeWire Studio welcomes content creators into its fold, providing a space to craft personalized AI-focused content for sharing with fans and followers. Within this creative hub, every piece of content generated becomes not just a creation but a unique asset—ownable and tradable. Fans have the opportunity to subscribe to creators' pages, immersing themselves in the creative journey and gaining ownership of digital collectibles that hold tradeable value within the LimeWire community. Notably, creators earn a 2.5% royalty each time their content is traded, adding a rewarding element to the creative process.
The platform's flexibility is evident in its content publication options. Creators can choose to share their work freely with the public or opt for a premium subscription model, granting exclusive access to specialized content for subscribers.
As of the present moment, LimeWire focuses on AI Image Generation, offering a spectrum of creative possibilities to its user base. The platform, however, has ambitious plans on the horizon, aiming to broaden its offerings by introducing AI music and video generation tools in the near future. This strategic expansion promises creators even more avenues for expression and engagement with their audience, positioning LimeWire Studio as a dynamic and evolving platform within the realm of AI-powered content creation.
The LimeWire AI image generation tool presents a versatile platform for both the creation and editing of images. Supporting advanced models such as Stable Diffusion 2.1, Stable Diffusion XL, and DALL-E 2, LimeWire offers a sophisticated toolkit for users to delve into the realm of generative AI art.
Much like other tools in the generative AI landscape, LimeWire provides a range of options catering to various levels of complexity in image creation. Users can initiate the creative process with prompts as simple as a few words or opt for more intricate instructions, tailoring the output to their artistic vision.
What sets LimeWire apart is its seamless integration of different AI models and design styles. Users have the flexibility to effortlessly switch between various AI models, exploring diverse design styles such as cinematic, digital art, pixel art, anime, analog film, and more. Each style imparts a distinctive visual identity to the generated AI art, enabling users to explore a broad spectrum of creative possibilities.
The platform also offers additional features, including samplers, allowing users to fine-tune the quality and detail levels of their creations. Customization options and prompt guidance further enhance the user experience, providing a user-friendly interface for both novice and experienced creators.
Excitingly, LimeWire is actively developing its proprietary AI model, signaling ongoing innovation and enhancements to its image generation capabilities. This upcoming addition holds the promise of further expanding the creative horizons for LimeWire users, making it an evolving and dynamic platform within the landscape of AI-driven art and image creation.
Sign Up Now To Get Free Credits
Upon completing your creative endeavor on LimeWire, the platform allows you the option to publish your content. An intriguing feature follows this step: LimeWire automates the process of minting your creation as a Non-Fungible Token (NFT), utilizing either the Polygon or Algorand blockchain. This transformative step imbues your artwork with a unique digital signature, securing its authenticity and ownership in the decentralized realm.
Creators on LimeWire hold the power to decide the accessibility of their NFT creations. By opting for a public release, the content becomes discoverable by anyone, fostering a space for engagement and interaction. Furthermore, this choice opens the avenue for enthusiasts to trade the NFTs, adding a layer of community involvement to the artistic journey.
Alternatively, LimeWire acknowledges the importance of exclusivity. Creators can choose to share their posts exclusively with their premium subscribers. In doing so, the content remains a special offering solely for dedicated fans, creating an intimate and personalized experience within the LimeWire community. This flexibility in sharing options emphasizes LimeWire's commitment to empowering creators with choices in how they connect with their audience and distribute their digital creations.
After creating your content, you can choose to publish the content. It will automatically mint your creation as an NFT on the Polygon or Algorand blockchain. You can also choose whether to make it public or subscriber-only.
If you make it public, anyone can discover your content and even trade the NFTs. If you choose to share the post only with your premium subscribers, it will be exclusive only to your fans.
Additionally, you can earn ad revenue from your content creations as well.
When you publish content on LimeWire, you will receive 70% of all ad revenue from other users who view your images, music, and videos on the platform.
This revenue model will be much more beneficial to designers. You can experiment with the AI image and content generation tools and share your creations while earning a small income on the side.
The revenue you earn from your creations will come in the form of LMWR tokens, LimeWire’s own cryptocurrency.
Your earnings will be paid every month in LMWR, which you can then trade on many popular crypto exchange platforms like Kraken, ByBit, and UniSwap.
You can also use your LMWR tokens to pay for prompts when using LimeWire generative AI tools.
You can sign up to LimeWire to use its AI tools for free. You will receive 10 credits to use and generate up to 20 AI images per day. You will also receive 50% of the ad revenue share. However, you will get more benefits with premium plans.
For $9.99 per month, you will get 1,000 credits per month, up to 2 ,000 image generations, early access to new AI models, and 50% ad revenue share
For $29 per month, you will get 3750 credits per month, up to 7500 image generations, early access to new AI models, and 60% ad revenue share
For $49 per month, you will get 5,000 credits per month, up to 10,000 image generations, early access to new AI models, and 70% ad revenue share
For $99 per month, you will get 11,250 credits per month, up to 2 2,500 image generations, early access to new AI models, and 70% ad revenue share
With all premium plans, you will receive a Pro profile badge, full creation history, faster image generation, and no ads.
Sign Up Now To Get Free Credits
In conclusion, LimeWire emerges as a democratizing force in the creative landscape, providing an inclusive platform where anyone can unleash their artistic potential and effortlessly share their work. With the integration of AI, LimeWire eliminates traditional barriers, empowering designers, musicians, and artists to publish their creations and earn revenue with just a few clicks.
The ongoing commitment of LimeWire to innovation is evident in its plans to enhance generative AI tools with new features and models. The upcoming expansion to include music and video generation tools holds the promise of unlocking even more possibilities for creators. It sparks anticipation about the diverse and innovative ways in which artists will leverage these tools to produce and publish their own unique creations.
For those eager to explore, LimeWire's AI tools are readily accessible for free, providing an opportunity to experiment and delve into the world of generative art. As LimeWire continues to evolve, creators are encouraged to stay tuned for the launch of its forthcoming AI music and video generation tools, promising a future brimming with creative potential and endless artistic exploration
Podcast recommendations for unexpected audio pleasures. Our reviewers and audio producers pick out the top shows
Hear Here highlights the best new podcasts and essential series to catch up on every week. Sign up and we’ll send you an email filled with the latest shows as reviewed by our podcast critics, plus best of lists and talking points from the world of audio. From entertainment to sport to politics and everything in between, you’ll find the best audio recommendations in your inbox every Thursday morning.
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Continue reading...Keza MacDonald’s look at the world of gaming
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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.
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Never in a generation have so many debates been awakened in Europe, with themes including identity, democracy, minority rights, gender equality, diversity and values. We want to offer readers a better understanding of what binds Europeans together, as well as what can set them apart.
People across Europe are taking part in vivid and fascinating discussions that have the power to shape the future of a fast-changing continent – and the Guardian’s Europe Now series will be exploring and hosting some of this debate.
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Continue reading...On Saturday 24 April, the billionaire founder of the Telegram social media and messaging app, Pavel Durov, was arrested by French authorities as he disembarked from his private jet in Paris on his way from Azerbaijan. Officials said the arrest was part of an inquiry into criminal activity on the platform and a lack of cooperation with law enforcement. Durov has since been formally charged.
In a statement on Sunday, Telegram said it abided by European Union laws and that its moderation was 'within industry standards and constantly improving'. 'Telegram’s CEO, Pavel Durov, has nothing to hide and travels frequently in Europe,' it said. 'It is absurd to claim that a platform, or its owner, are responsible for abuse of that platform.'
Durov, known as the 'Russian Mark Zuckerberg' for having founded a similar platform to Zuckerberg’s Facebook in Russia called VKontakte, is a self-styled champion of free speech and has cultivated a reputation for being unwilling to work with authorities to censor and more closely control what happens on his platform. His arrest has raised important questions about the extent to which tech executives are responsible for how users employ their social media networks. Chris Stokel-Walker, a technology journalist, explains the implications of Durov's arrest for the tech sector
Telegram CEO charged in France for ‘allowing criminal activity’ on messaging app
What the Telegram founder’s arrest means for the regulation of social media firms
The 2024 Games have provided thrilling moments and an intoxicating atmosphere
The Paris Paralympics is over and it’s another four-year wait until we see the para athletes compete again at the next summer games in Los Angeles in 2028.
This year’s Games have provided many standout sporting highlights with thrilling moments, unexpected wins and an intoxicating atmosphere.
Continue reading...Whether legally blind or using a wheelchair, four photographers say there’s no impediment to creativity at the Games
While Paralympic athletes have been capturing the limelight with feats of skill and endeavour over the past fortnight, theirs are not the only remarkable stories from the Games. Several photographers with disabilities have been creating striking images in Paris, defying mobility issues, visual impairments and societal expectations in the process. Here is some of their best work.
Main image above: Brazil’s Verônica Hipólito (L), China’s Shi Yiting (C) and New Zealand’s Danielle Aitchison (R) compete during the women’s 100m T36 final.
Continue reading...Stade de France transformed into huge electronica dance party with world’s elite para athletes doing farewell conga
With an explosion of fireworks, laser beams, breakdance and a thumping set by the giants of French electronica, France bid goodbye to the Paralympic Games on Sunday night with the biggest party it had ever thrown.
The feelgood summer of athletic achievement in Paris had turned crowds hoarse from so much cheering and for ever changed the nation’s attitude to sport and disability, and now Parisians were desperately sad to say goodbye to it all.
Continue reading...For the Weirwolf, Paris is the last hurrah. David Weir, one of the first Paralympians to break through into public consciousness in the UK, announced his retirement from international competition at the age of 45 after finishing fifth in the men’s T54 wheelchair marathon on the final day of competition.
It was a tired looking Weir, body battered after negotiating the cobbles of the Champs-Élysées on a windy day in a racing chair without suspension, who drew the curtain on his Paralympic career.
Continue reading...Healthy ticket sales, record TV ratings – a nation once indifferent to parasport is now cheering its athletes on to new levels of success
When French athlete Aurélie Aubert’s sharp strategy and ice-cool precision won her a boccia gold at the Paris Paralympics, the fervour of the nationwide victory celebrations seemed likely to change the country for ever.
Aubert, 27, who has cerebral palsy and competed in the BC1 category, took France’s first ever medal in a sport which is a test of skill and tactics akin to bowls and France’s favourite ballgame, pétanque.
Continue reading...James Turner is now a double gold medallist after bursting out of the blocks at the Stade de France to equal the Paralympic record with a time of 11.85secs, while Curtis McGrath says he owed it to his wife and six-week-old son to return to Australia with a kayak gold medal.
After golds in Rio and Tokyo, former soldier McGrath romped to a third consecutive 200m (KL2) victory to deliver on the expectation that he would net a third straight gold in Vaires-sur-Marne on Saturday.
Continue reading...Hannah Cockroft stormed to the ninth gold of her Paralympics career with a huge victory in the women’s T34 800m. Despite finishing 11 seconds outside her personal best, the 32-year-old’s time of 1min 55.44sec was 7.68sec clear of fellow ParalympicsGB athlete Kare Adenegan. Eva Houston of the USA took the bronze.
Cockroft led from the start to add to her 100m gold from last Sunday. “It’s like being back in London, I love it,” she said, as she reflected on a run that has resulted in at least two golds at every Paralympics from 2012 onwards (she won three in Rio). “This is how many people love Para sport. This is what we want to see. It doesn’t end here, we have world and European championships year on year, it’s not a four-year gap for us.”
Continue reading...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
The drug charges for Matthew Perry’s ex-assistant have shed light on a role with no set hours, few boundaries and little protection
It sounds like the dream gig: working as a personal assistant to a Hollywood celebrity, becoming immersed in a rarefied world of movie sets and production meetings and A-list parties and, who knows, climbing the ladder to an entertainment career to call your own.
Sometimes, it works out exactly that way. Winona Ryder’s former assistant, Sibi Blažić, became a stunt driver and married Christian Bale. Kevin Spacey’s former assistant, Dana Brunetti, became an Oscar-nominated producer.
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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
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We’ll also point you towards Peter Bradshaw’s film of the week, and a host of quizzes, features and festival coverage.
Analysis from the Association for School and College Leaders warns extensive problems with learning, behaviour and absence to come
Repairing the damage to children’s education caused by the pandemic lockdowns and closures will disrupt England’s schools until the mid-2030s, according to a new report.
The analysis, published by the Association for School and College Leaders (ASCL), forecasted that the after-effects of the pandemic will hit schools in a series of waves, with different age groups requiring varying solutions for their problems with learning, behaviour and absence.
Continue reading...Calvijn College was one of the first schools in the Netherlands to ban mobile phones. Four years on, officials report its culture has been transformed
Six years ago, as officials at the Netherlands’ Calvijn College began considering whether to ban phones from their schools, the idea left some students aghast.
“We were asked whether we thought we were living in the 1800s,” said Jan Bakker, the chair of the college, whose students range in age from 12 to 18 years.
Continue reading...Bus driver Brett Button faces lengthy jail term as ‘accountability, deterrence and punishment’, NSW judge says
A wedding guest on a Hunter Valley bus which crashed, killing 10 people, has told how he woke in hospital five days later with a gut feeling his wife and daughter had died.
Graham McBride, who lost his wife, Nadene, and their only daughter Kyah, 22, in the crash, addressed the Newcastle district court on Monday during an expected three-day sentence hearing for bus driver Brett Button.
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Continue reading...Superficially, the final stage of this year’s Tour of Britain into a windswept Felixstowe had a routine look, a chaotic bunch sprint won by the Slovenian Matevz Govekar, and Steve Williams of Wales straightforwardly sealing overall victory. But what preceded the sprint was 158km of anarchic racing, with a strong southerly splitting the peloton repeatedly amid a frantic series of attacks and chases.
The wind was at its most damaging between Framlingham, Aldeburgh and Wickham Market a couple of hours from the finish, blowing from the side and prompting the DSM team to increase the pace so violently that one of their number misjudged a corner in Framlingham and hit the pavement. With the peloton splitting in the crosswind, the first surge dislodged the triple stage winner Paul Magnier and – initially at least – the rider in fourth overall, Tom Donnenwirth; a second, prompted by Ineos’s Tobias Foss, saw off Julian Alaphilippe.
Continue reading...Family of Paula Leeson sued Donald McPherson after criminal prosecution over fatal drowning collapsed
A man who stood to claim a £4.4m estate from his wealthy wife has had his inheritance blocked by a judge who ruled he killed her.
The family of Paula Leeson, 47, who was found dead in a swimming pool in a Denmark holiday home in 2017, sued her husband, Donald McPherson, 51, for unlawful killing after a criminal prosecution collapsed when there was not enough evidence.
Continue reading...Ten retired top brass say Harris is only candidate fit to serve as commander in chief as ad shows former Trump officials saying he is a danger to the US
The statement of support for Kamala Harris by a group of retired top military officials comes a day before the Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, and the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, will host a congressional gold medal ceremony honoring the 13 service members killed in the chaotic 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal.
Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans have tried to blame Harris for the Afghanistan pullout, including in a report by House GOP lawmakers today.
Our investigation reveals the Biden-Harris administration had the information and opportunity to take necessary steps to plan for the inevitable collapse of the Afghan government. At each step of the way, however, the administration picked optics over security.
Without involving the Afghan government, he and his administration negotiated a deal with the Taliban that freed 5,000 Taliban fighters and allowed them to return to the battlefield.
This chaotic approach severely hindered the Biden-Harris administration’s ability to execute the most orderly withdrawal possible and put our service members and our allies at risk.
Continue reading...Democrats say Republican chairman’s report inflates Harris’s role and overlooks Trump’s for election purposes
Partisan divisions over the chaotic 2021 pullout of western forces from Afghanistan have burst into the open ahead of Tuesday’s presidential debate in Philadelphia after a Republican-led congressional report attempted to implicate Kamala Harris in the episode.
A 250-page report from the House of Representatives’ foreign affairs committee castigated the Biden administration for failing to anticipate the Taliban’s rapid takeover and neglecting to prepare for the orderly departure of non-combatant personnel.
Continue reading...This story seems straightforward. A city is the victim of a ransomware attack. They repeatedly lie to the media about the severity of the breach. A security researcher repeatedly proves their statements to be lies. The city gets mad and sues the researcher.
Let’s hope the judge throws the case out, but—still—it will serve as a warning to others.
Anger is rising at Indonesia’s new administration – while Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines, Laos and Brunei are all led by the children of former leaders
In early August, against a backdrop of deadly student-led protests, Bangladesh’s prime minister Sheikh Hasina resigned her position, bringing to a close a political dynasty that stretched back to the country’s founding.
This week, students took to the streets on the other side of Asia, to protest against amended election laws that have helped foster the establishment of a new dynasty. In a few weeks Prabowo Subianto will be sworn in as Indonesia’s president – and with him his vice-president, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, the 36-year-old son of current leader Joko Widodo.
Continue reading...At least 24 people have been killed and hundreds of others injured after the most powerful storm so far this year in Asia made landfall in north-east Vietnam. Typhoon Yagi triggered deadly landslides and floods, and on Monday the Vietnamese authorities warned of further possible flooding.
Before reaching Vietnam at the weekend, Yagi tore through southern China and the Philippines, killing at least two dozen people and injuring many more. Typhoons in the region are now forming closer to the coast, intensifying more rapidly and staying over land for longer because of the climate crisis, according to a study published in July
Continue reading...Yagi registers as the world’s second-most powerful tropical cyclone this year and has caused power outages in more than 800,000 homes
Asia’s strongest storm this year, Super Typhoon Yagi, made landfall in northern Vietnam on Saturday, the meteorological agency said, killing at least four people after tearing through China’s island of Hainan and the Philippines.
Super Typhoon Yagi hit island districts of north Vietnam at about 1pm (0600 GMT), generating winds of up to 160kph (99mph) near its centre, having lost power from its peak of 234kph (145mph) in Hainan a day earlier.
Continue reading...‘For the first time since the cold war we must genuinely fear for our self-preservation,’ warns former ECB chief as he presents new report on European competitiveness
We also have worrying signs that the US jobs market is cooling.
The latest UK Report on Jobs from KPMG and REC shows that the UK labour market softened in August, with vacancies falling for both permanent and temporary staff.
“Recent Government warnings that the UK’s economy may weaken further before improving add to the overall sense of uncertainty, affecting recruitment plans. Firms holding back from hiring led to a sharp contraction in the number of people placed into permanent roles in August amid continued decline in demand, extending the downturn in the UK’s labour market.
“The news that while salaries rose last month it was at the weakest rate since March could help make the case for more rate cuts when the [Bank of England’s] Monetary Policy Committee meets to decide the future path of interest rates.
This reflects ongoing concerns in the job market, including falling job vacancies and more people claiming unemployment-related benefits, which reached its highest level since December 2021 according to the Office for National Statistics.
Continue reading...The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world
Continue reading...Chongqing authorities say cloud seeding to break heatwave did not cause winds that sent laundry flying
It was the talk of the town. After the authorities sought to break a long-running heatwave in Chongqing by using cloud-seeding missiles to artificially bring rain, the Chinese megacity was blasted by an unusual weather event – an underwear storm.
Termed “the 9/2 Chongqing underwear crisis”, an unexpected windstorm on Monday brought gusts of up to 76mph (122km/h), scattering people’s laundry from balconies on the city’s high-rises. Douyin, China’s sister app to TikTok, was filled with videos of pants and bras flying through the skies, landing in the street and snagging on trees.
Continue reading...Whether legally blind or using a wheelchair, four photographers say there’s no impediment to creativity at the Games
While Paralympic athletes have been capturing the limelight with feats of skill and endeavour over the past fortnight, theirs are not the only remarkable stories from the Games. Several photographers with disabilities have been creating striking images in Paris, defying mobility issues, visual impairments and societal expectations in the process. Here is some of their best work.
Main image above: Brazil’s Verônica Hipólito (L), China’s Shi Yiting (C) and New Zealand’s Danielle Aitchison (R) compete during the women’s 100m T36 final.
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Great Britain are celebrating another stellar performance at the Paralympic Games with as many medals as in Tokyo three years ago but more golds, amid a warning “not to take our eyes off the ball” as the global level of competition continues to rise.
Paris 2024 has raised the bar for disability sport both inside and outside of competition with organisers celebrating the “crazy” experience delivered by hordes of passionate French fans. For Britain there is contentment at once again finishing second in the medal table, behind only China, with eight more gold medals than three years ago, even as more nations joined the competition and a greater number of countries won medals than previously.
Continue reading...The Japanese actor turned photographer seeks an element of chance in her ethereal scenes from everyday life
International interest in Japanese photography has tended to focus on male photographers; a new book featuring 25 Japanese women practitioners, I’m So Happy You Are Here, aims to redress that balance. The collection takes in the history of Japanese women photographers with particular emphasis on those working from the 1950s to the 1990s.
Many of the early street-photography pioneers documented the postwar realities of Japan, particularly the ways that women’s bodies had been effectively colonised by the male gaze of American servicemen stationed in Tokyo and elsewhere. By the 1990s, when this picture was taken by Hara Mikiko, some of those concerns had evolved.
I’m So Happy You Are Here: Japanese Women Photographers from the 1950s to Now is published by Aperture
Continue reading...Alfie Hewett will have to make do with just the single golden slam, for now at least, after he was edged out in a thrilling men’s wheelchair tennis singles final 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 by Tokito Oda.
In what is developing into an abiding rivalry at the top of the men’s wheelchair game, the Japanese teenager repeated his success over Hewett in the final of the French Open two years ago. A combination of power and brave shot-making ultimately won out for Oda, just 18 years of age, after Hewett – who sustained a groin injury in the first set – had earned match point at 5-3 in the third.
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Japanese group says Couche-Tard plan undervalues firm, but leaves door open to higher offer
The parent company of the global convenience store chain 7-Eleven has rejected a near $39bn (£29.6bn) takeover offer from a Canadian rival, arguing it “grossly undervalues” the company.
Last month, Tokyo-based Seven & i revealed that it had received a bid from Alimentation Couche-Tard setting the scene for what could be Japan’s biggest ever foreign takeover.
Continue reading...The pontiff visited the small town of Vanimo after delivering mass to an estimated 35,000 people in the capital of Port Moresby
Pope Francis travelled to Vanimo, on Papua New Guinea’s remote north-west coast, after celebrating a mass in the capital of Port Moresby in front of an estimated audience of 35,000 people.
The pope received an enthusiastic welcome in the town located on a peninsula close to the border with Indonesia. He was greeted by members of the small Catholic community who are served by missionaries from his native Argentina.
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No sooner do I praise Lammonby’s assurance than he’s gone, to Jordan Clark’s first ball, dangling his bat a touch at a straightener speared in at the left-hander. Clark finding serious movement in his first over. Somerset 33-2.
And in case you’re wondering what’s happening at Chelmsford, Durham and Canterbury, the answer is nothing. No play before lunch at the latter two before lunch, and the covers are still on in Essex too.
Continue reading...A summer of renewal for England’s Test team delivered five straight wins, two series victories and, with that eye on the future, ushered in a few new faces. It also ended with a sloppy defeat to Sri Lanka at the Oval, the tourists shepherded to a deserved first win on English soil in 10 years by a sublime unbeaten 127 from Pathum Nissanka.
England came into the fourth day still hopeful of being able to induce some jeopardy like the collapse they themselves suffered on that pivotal third day. Nine wickets needed, 125 runs to defend, a perfect home season to strive for; it was a grey, acutely end-of-season Monday and the crowd was sparse but there was no reason not to throw everything at it.
Ali Martin’s full report to follow …
Continue reading...Apollo Quiboloy, who is also wanted in US on child trafficking charges, surrenders to police after ultimatum
An influential pastor wanted in the US on child trafficking charges has been arrested in the Philippines, after a 16-day manhunt across a vast compound that included a network of underground tunnels and dozens of buildings.
Apollo Quiboloy, the founder of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) church, who claims to be the “appointed son of God” and was a spiritual adviser of the former president Rodrigo Duterte, is facing various charges, including in the US where he is wanted over alleged trafficking of women and girls as young as 12.
Continue reading...Nearly 300,000 people forced to flee after monsoon rains, which have killed 42 people in India and Bangladesh
Nearly 300,000 Bangladeshis are taking refuge in emergency shelters from floods that inundated vast areas of the country, disaster officials said.
The floods were triggered by heavy monsoon rains and have killed at least 42 people in Bangladesh and India since the start of the week, many in landslides.
Continue reading...Schools and university shut down in Tripura state after persistent heavy rain, and situation expected to worsen
Incessant rain across Tripura, a state in north-east India, has created what has been described as the state’s worst flood situation in the last three decades. Persistent heavy rain from Monday to Wednesday resulted in several rivers exceeding danger and extreme danger marks, leading to widespread flooding that has caused the deaths of 10 people as well as displacing more than 34,000.
The southern Tripura districts had the worst of the floods and the 34,000 displaced people were being sheltered in the north of the region. There were 24-hour rainfall totals on Wednesday of 375.8mm recorded in Bagafa and 324.4mm in Belonia. The flooding and heavy rain led schools to shut down on Wednesday and Thursday, while Tripura University suspended all regular classes on Wednesday. The heavy rain was caused by a low pressure system situated over Bangladesh that is slowly moving westwards into north-east India. The situation is therefore only expected to worsen, with a further 100-150mm falling through Thursday and Friday as rivers continue to remain at breaking point.
Continue reading...Indian PM says he respects and supports ‘sovereignty and territorial integrity’ of Ukraine during historic visit
India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, made a historic visit to Kyiv on Friday and told Volodymyr Zelenskiy he was ready to work “as a friend” to bring about a peace deal that would end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Modi said he respected and supported Ukraine’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity”. “It is our highest priority,” he said, adding that he had told Vladimir Putin during their meeting in July that “problems cannot be resolved on the battlefield”. The war could only end through “dialogue and diplomacy”, he stressed.
Continue reading...Type of microplastics used in skin exfoliators and banned in UK and US found in 45% of Indian products studied
India should consider a ban on microbeads in personal care products, in line with many other countries in the world, say researchers.
Microbeads are a type of microplastic used in cosmetic products to exfoliate the skin. After a public uproar when the plastics were highlighted in Europe a decade ago, they were banned in the Netherlands in 2014, with many other countries following, including the US in 2015 and the UK in 2018.
Continue reading...A combination of Tuscan recipes for baking tomatoes from a book published in 1899, resulting in delightfully soft tomatoes with an irresistible nutty crumble crust
Two years ago, a friend bought me a book at an auction. “Dear friend, will you accept this little book?” she joked, before handing it to me with a cover like a dried teabag crossed with a stocking, and a dislocated spine that revealed what looked like fishnet underneath. It must be 100 years old, I said as I put on my reading specs. The line drawing of vegetables and letters on the tobacco-coloured cover were faded, and one letter was almost completely erased by a watermark, but nonetheless the title was clear: Leaves from Our Tuscan Kitchen, by Janet Ross. It bloody well was 100 years old!
The cover held 150 manilla-yellow pages; if not a first edition, certainly an early one, and a stupendous gift. “Look at the first page,” my friend said with a laughing eye. I opened the book to find a note written in pencil on the endpaper (the name Mrs Ward and an address I can’t make out except for the postcode SW1), while on the first page was a typed dedication to Mrs GF Watts: “Dear friend, will you accept this little book? It may sometimes bring the thought of Italy into your beautiful Surrey home.”
Continue reading...Chef who helped shape the gastronomy of London in the 1980s and later returned to Italy and gave cookery classes in Rome
Carla Tomasi, who has died aged 70, belonged to a generation of chefs, among them Alastair Little, Simon Hopkinson, Antony Worrall Thompson and Rowley Leigh, who helped shape the gastronomic geography of London in the 1980s.
She became head chef of Frith’s, in Frith Street, Soho, early in that decade and, not long after, took over the restaurant altogether. This was a time when few restaurants were run, let alone owned, by women. However, Sally Clarke (at Clarke’s), Ruth Rogers and Rose Gray (at the River Café) and Juliet Peston (at Alastair Little) were successfully challenging male domination. Like these redoubtable pioneers, Tomasi showed passion, resolve and determination – her colleague and friend Jeremy Lee described her as “distinctly feisty”.
Continue reading...An early autumn risotto-style dish using low-faff orzo instead of rice. Just add parmesan, brown butter and crisp sage at the end
Orzo is such a hero ingredient, giving a risotto-like texture without the stirring, and especially so if you cook it in the oven for a hands-free dinner. My summer versions inevitably involve cherry tomatoes and red peppers, but this warming early-autumn number with mushrooms, parmesan, and hazelnut and sage butter makes for a lovely light dinner for two.
Continue reading...The mainstream media is obsessed with science and boring old facts. We unhealthy eaters need to be reassured that everything is fine and a little of what you fancy still does you good
The recent headline that a “Daily croissant can take a toll on your heart in under a month” was like a dagger to mine, just as my beloved local baker had got really good at vegan ones. Not that it has to be a croissant: researchers at Oxford investigated the impact on heart health of a diet high in saturated fat for just over three weeks. It’s bad, if you had any lingering doubt.
This comes on the back of admittedly unsurprising, but personally devastating health stories such as the one saying that eating croissants when you are stressed reduces “arterial elasticity” – a very stressful read. I also felt targeted by research on how unhealthy snacking sabotages the benefits of a healthy diet (this week a woman in a cafe asked if I was “having a party” when I put in my cake order; I was not). Then there is the continued drip-feed of doom about sedentary living and poor sleep, and general angst-provoking news about environmental contaminants.
Emma Beddington is a Guardian columnist
Continue reading...Moules frites are a staple, but the majority of the shellfish eaten in the country are imported. Previous attempts to farm them have foundered – but a bumper harvest this year suggests the ‘delicate’ Belgian mussel is here to stay
It is harvest day at the Westdiep sea farm and the crew are bringing their haul on to the boat: 12-metre long ropes laden with clusters of blue mussels. Bobbing on the water just three nautical miles off the Belgian coast, the four-man crew on the little red Smart Farmer use a crane to hoist the ropes on deck. The mussels go on to a steel conveyor belt, straight into the “declumper”, a machine that will break up bunches of molluscs into smaller groups.
It may look like a typical late summer scene on the Belgian North Sea coast, but the mussel harvest is a novelty. Although Belgium is renowned for its moules frites, it has long struggled to cultivate the shellfish for its national dish on a commercial scale. Of the estimated 20,000 tonnes of mussels Belgium consumes each year, most are imported from Zeeland in the Netherlands.
Continue reading...Nearly 200 humanitarians have been killed so far this year, the majority local hires, as growing disregard for international law ramps up the risks to those in conflict hotspots
Almost every week this year, Jagan Chapagain has had to sign a letter of condolence to the families of aid workers killed in the line of duty while serving the world’s largest humanitarian network. A volunteer in Sudan, shot while collecting data; a paramedic gunned down while evacuating wounded civilians in the West Bank; and an ambulance driver in Ethiopia, who died of a bullet wound on his way to hospital, are among the 28 staff and volunteers the secretary general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has commemorated since the year began.
By late August, 187 aid workers around the world, who play a vital role in delivering food, water and medical supplies during crises, had been killed, making 2024 likely to be the deadliest year ever for aid workers. Last year currently holds that title, when 280 lost their lives compared with 118 in 2022. The Israeli-Gaza war, where more than 280 aid workers have been killed since 7 October, as well as Sudan and South Sudan accounted for most of the deaths.
Continue reading...A university education is a major investment in yourself. It’s certainly not cheap, so it’s important to know what’s out there to reduce the financial strain
How much do you think you need to enjoy university life to the fullest, including rent, food, clothes, social life, books and other equipment?
Was your guess £18,632 a year outside London, and £21,774 in the capital?
Continue reading...Japanese group says Couche-Tard plan undervalues firm, but leaves door open to higher offer
The parent company of the global convenience store chain 7-Eleven has rejected a near $39bn (£29.6bn) takeover offer from a Canadian rival, arguing it “grossly undervalues” the company.
Last month, Tokyo-based Seven & i revealed that it had received a bid from Alimentation Couche-Tard setting the scene for what could be Japan’s biggest ever foreign takeover.
Continue reading...A weekly email from Yotam Ottolenghi, Meera Sodha, Felicity Cloake and Rachel Roddy, featuring the latest recipes and seasonal eating ideas
Each week we’ll send you an exclusive newsletter from our star food writers. We’ll also send you the latest recipes from Yotam Ottolenghi, Nigel Slater, Meera Sodha and all our star cooks, stand-out food features and seasonal eating inspiration, plus restaurant reviews from Grace Dent and Jay Rayner.
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Continue reading...Style, with substance: what’s really trending this week, a roundup of the best fashion journalism and your wardrobe dilemmas solved, direct to your inbox every Thursday
Style, with substance: what’s really trending this week, a roundup of the best fashion journalism and your wardrobe dilemmas solved, delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday
Explore all our newsletters: whether you love film, football, fashion or food, we’ve got something for you
Continue reading...From rap and rock to R&B and classical, get the Guardian’s latest music news and reviews in your inbox every week
Every genre, every era, every week. Get music news, bold reviews and unexpected extras emailed direct to you from the Guardian’s music desk.
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Continue reading...Keza MacDonald’s look at the world of gaming
Keza MacDonald’s weekly look at the world of gaming. Sign up to receive our video games editor’s unique insights into the most interesting goings on in thegames world, as well as a selection of the best journalism from the Guardian and around the world.
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Continue reading...The best new music, film, TV, podcasts and more direct to your inbox, plus hidden gems and reader recommendations
From Billie Eilish to Billie Piper, Succession to Spiderman and everything in between, subscribe and get exclusive arts journalism direct to your inbox. Gwilym Mumford provide san irreverent look at the goings on in pop culture every Friday, pointing you in the direction of the hot new releases and the best journalism from around the world.
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Continue reading...The inside story from our top Saturday magazine writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns
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Get a unique insight into the latest goings on in Silicon Valley and beyond direct to your inbox. Sign up to receive our Tuesday email and get the lowdown on everything from crypto to TikTok – and much more.
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Continue reading...The planet’s most important stories. Get the Guardian’s latest environment news – the good, the bad and the essential
Subscribe to receive an exclusive weekly piece from our top climate crisis correspondents, as well as a digest of the biggest environment stories. Plus: the good news, the not-so-good news, and everything else you need to know.
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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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