********** TRAVEL **********
return to top
My stepfather-in-law is still happy at work aged 90 – what’s his secret? | Zoe Williams
Tue, 14 May 2024 10:00:16 GMT
I wouldn’t force a seven-decade-career on anyone, but when you see someone who loves what they do after that amount of time, it’s worth learning from them
Maybe the most remarkable thing about my stepfather-in-law is that he managed to find love in a swimming pool, at the age of 85, which is how I became related to him in the first place. Just the awesome amount of charm it takes to woo over the smell of chlorine, at 6am, dressed in trunks, never mind the energy; it will be baffling to those who don’t know him. That was five years ago. Now his 90th birthday is around the corner, and even though everyone has acclimatised to the energy, the charm and the swimming, it’s still a bit chastening how hard he works. I want to call it dabbling, maybe a little bit of advice to a younger colleague; but it looks much more like actual work. He’s an academic, fine, it’s reasonable for them to have a long arc. And his subject is education which, as an area of policy it pleases the government to mess around in for dumb reasons, is in constant flux and needful of critique.
Conservatively, though, I’d say he works more hours than I do. He can find his way round a Zoom meeting faster than anyone besides gen Zs. I’m reasonably confident he can remember the dark nuances of Michael Gove and Dominic Cummings’s “blob” years better than either of them can. He’s all over Labour’s plans, when nobody else is sure they have any. He still travels for work when most of us have forgotten that was even a thing. I’ve never been 100% sure what “emeritus” means, but if he is the model, it’s something like “Highlander”.
Continue reading...So many women get discouraged by memory problems and low confidence that they’d rather quit than struggle on. But awareness is growing, and workplaces can help
When Kate from Pembrokeshire started experiencing vertigo, flooding periods, exhaustion and brain fog at 51, she had no idea what was happening to her. “It was really scary,” she says, “I felt like I was losing my mind.” Working as the general manager of a travel company, she was surrounded by younger colleagues she didn’t feel she could confide in. She recalls sitting at her desk one day thinking, “What is my job?”
She eventually quit, feeling like she couldn’t manage any more. It wasn’t until the hot flushes began after a year that she saw a doctor. “I didn’t know I needed help until I was put on HRT and a miracle occurred – I began to feel like myself.” But it was too late to rescue her working life: she had already given up her job.
Continue reading...Food writer Caroline Eden celebrates the region’s distinct - and underrated - flavours, from quince lemonade and cloudberry jam to birch syrup and blueberry soup
When I was planning a recent journey back to Riga, its food filled my thoughts more than anything else. I kept picturing the Latvian capital’s cafes, bistros and moody beer bars. Such longing was evidence, to me at least, that I was coming back to a city that knows how to feed people and with memorable flavours: smoked sprats, black pudding sausages, quince lemonade, cloudberry jam, pickled garlic, herby butters and bitter balsams tasting of liquorice.
As anticipation began to build, a question crossed my mind: why are some countries revered for their food while others are not? The cuisine of the Baltics, rich with variety and imagination, can often rival that of the nearby Nordic countries yet it is rarely held in the same esteem.
Continue reading...My daughter was taken ill with an unforeseen infection after our booking and couldn’t make the trip
On 18 February I booked a half-term holiday trip for my family to Portugal. I bought the flight with easyJet and, at the same time, bought the airline’s travel insurance provided by Collinson.
A week before we were due to fly, while visiting family in the Netherlands, my four-year-old daughter was diagnosed with bacterial pneumonia and given oral antibiotics. These were not effective and she was rushed to hospital.
It was obvious the Portugal trip was off so I claimed on the policy, providing all necessary documents, including a declaration from a doctor at the Dutch hospital stating that she had caught pneumonia and was unfit to fly.
I received a phone call from Collinson from an agent who seemed ready to settle the claim over the phone, but stopped once I said I was claiming for our non-refundable hotel bills, as well as the flights.
The next day I received a short, generic email saying my claim had been denied. The reason stated is: “I can see from the details provided that the person giving rise to your claim was not considered stable at the time of booking your trip … we cannot consider these circumstances as unforeseen.”
This was ludicrous. A pneumonia infection cannot be foreseen. My daughter was a healthy child and was attending school at the time of the booking.
Surely this kind of case is exactly what insurance is for. The policy has a £3,000 maximum for emergency cancellation which would allow me to recover about 90% of the expenses.
The 22-year-old woman and her child were civilian casualties of a U.S. drone strike, but the Pentagon won't return the family's messages.
The post Pentagon Compensated Zero Civilian Victims in 2022 — Despite Evidence That the U.S. Killed a Mom and Child in Somalia appeared first on The Intercept.
“We’re continuing to work around the clock with the government of Israel and with the government of Egypt to work on this issue,” the State Department said.
The post American Medical Missions Trapped in Gaza, Facing Death by Dehydration as Population Clings to Life appeared first on The Intercept.
County cricket members take their duty as custodians of cricket seriously and deserve a say in its future, says Alan Higham
Selling stakes in the Hundred teams to private equity is a seismic moment in cricket’s history (Selling off the summer? Why Hundred plans should matter to all cricket lovers, 9 May). It points to a future where profit trumps all other factors. There is no detail on how the sale makes cricket more sustainable and accessible. Most of the new money will surely go on higher player and executive pay. Private equity won’t care whether more young people play the game or whether top players can help England win the Ashes.
English cricket is said to be broke but, taking in the ECB, 18 county teams and the MCC, it has an income of £600m a year, more than double that of five years ago. A hard look at costs and spending priorities so that all stakeholders broadly support the direction of travel is surely the right action before selling the silver.
Continue reading...The Labour leader confirmed he would scrap the Rwanda scheme in his Dover speech, then confusingly blurred his own argument
Could Keir Starmer “Make Asylum Boring Again”? That would be the ultimate test of success for his claim that he can grip the issue that has caused Rishi Sunak more trouble than any other. Starmer’s message is that he is no less committed to securing the borders and stopping the small boats crossing the Channel, but that achieving this requires a serious plan to tackle smuggling gangs and fix the asylum system in Britain too. So how different is Labour’s plan – and would it work?
Labour’s analysis should be that making asylum work depends on blending control and compassion. The Dover speech was a political exercise in asymmetric triangulation. Robust messages about control were loudly proclaimed. More liberal ideas about a rules-based system could be found, but mostly by reading between the lines.
Starmer did confirm that Labour would scrap the Rwanda scheme. Labour had seemed to wobble in the face of premature Conservative confidence that Rwanda is already working to deter. Ironically, the biggest risk for Sunak’s deterrent argument would come if he finally gets to test it practically. Send the first flights to Rwanda this summer and further arrivals across the Channel will surely outpace any removals 10 times over.
There is a clash of principle over asylum. Labour would process the asylum claims of those who arrived without permission. The Conservatives have now passed several laws vowing they will not. Yet ministers are in denial. Whether or not up to 500 people go to Rwanda does not give the government any plan for the next 50,000 people it still claims it intends to remove. So flagship new duties on the home secretary to refuse these claims for ever have not been given legal force – as the courts would strike that out in all those cases where the government has no realistic alternative. Yet the government has ceased to process asylum cases, reversing last year’s success in clearing the historic backlog.
Starmer is right to deny the charge that Labour’s policy is an “amnesty”, since processing the backlog would see some asylum claims granted and others refused. But he confusingly blurs his own argument with a tit-for-tat labelling of government policy as a “Travelodge amnesty”.
Continue reading...Citizen journalist Zhang Zhan’s search for the truth during the early days of the pandemic was seen as a threat by the authorities
A Chinese citizen journalist who has been in prison for four years after reporting on the early days of the Covid-19 epidemic in Wuhan is due to be released on Monday.
Zhang Zhan, a former lawyer, travelled to Wuhan in February 2020 to document the Chinese government’s response to what became the start of a global pandemic. She shared her reports on X (then known as Twitter), YouTube and WeChat. She was one of the few independent Chinese reporters on the ground as Wuhan and the rest of China went into lockdown.
Continue reading...A new anti-terrorism bill would allow the government to take away vital tax exemptions from nonprofit news outlets.
The post Criticizing Israel? Nonprofit Media Could Lose Tax-Exempt Status Without Due Process appeared first on The Intercept.
Hunters reportedly find five Rwandan men in mangroves on Saibai Island, a known crocodile habitat
As the UK government continues its push to forcibly remove asylum seekers to Rwanda, a group of Rwandan nationals has claimed asylum in Australia after arriving by boat on a remote island.
The five men arrived in Australia by an unconventional route, reportedly flying into the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, to be granted visas on arrival, before travelling thousands of kilometres east to Indonesia’s Papua province, where they crossed the land border it shares with Papua New Guinea (PNG).
Continue reading...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...A new anti-terrorism bill would allow the government to take away vital tax exemptions from nonprofit news outlets.
The post Criticizing Israel? Nonprofit Media Could Lose Tax-Exempt Status Without Due Process appeared first on The Intercept.
Thanks to a new act that could reshape the internet, TikTok, Instagram and other platforms will need to ‘tame’ harmful content and algorithms
• Don’t get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up for the full article here
The Online Safety Act in the UK is, quietly, one of the most important pieces of legislation to have come out of this government. Admittedly, the competition is slim. But as time goes by, and more and more of the act begins to take effect, we’re starting to see how it will reshape the internet.
Social media firms have been told to “tame aggressive algorithms” that recommend harmful content to children, as part of Ofcom’s new safety codes of practice.
The children’s safety codes, introduced as part of the Online Safety Act, let Ofcom set new, tight rules for internet companies and how they can interact with children. It calls on services to make their platforms child-safe by default or implement robust age checks to identify children and give them safer versions of the experience.
The Goldilocks theory of policy is simple enough. If Mummy Bear says your latest government bill is too hot, and Daddy Bear says your latest government bill is too cold, then you can tuck in knowing that the actual temperature is just right.
Unfortunately, the Goldilocks theory sometimes fails. You learn that what you actually have in front of you is less a perfectly heated bowl of porridge and more a roast chicken you popped in the oven still frozen: frosty on the inside, burnt on the outside, and harmful to your health if you try to eat it.
The code is weak on design features, however. While the research shows livestreaming and direct messaging are high risk, there are few mandatory mitigations included to tackle them. Similarly, the requirement for measures to have an existing evidence base fails to incentivise new approaches to safety … How can you provide evidence that something does not work if you don’t try it?
As we celebrate the arrival of the draft code, we should already be demanding that the holes in it are fixed, the exceptions readdressed, the lobbyists contained.
Chain-of-thought responses from language models improve performance across most benchmarks. However, it remains unclear to what extent these performance gains can be attributed to human-like task decomposition or simply the greater computation that additional tokens allow. We show that transformers can use meaningless filler tokens (eg, ‘......’) in place of a chain of thought to solve two hard algorithmic tasks they could not solve when responding without intermediate tokens.
Continue reading...Ustinov, Bath
As a woman who has left her husband for a dissolute younger man in postwar London, Greig’s quiet despair compels
The torch song Stormy Weather sobs between scenes in this revival of Terence Rattigan’s 1952 drama. Desire has shaken the heroine’s world like a tempest: keeps raining all the time. We’re in pre-gentrified west London, where renegade judge’s wife Hester (Tamsin Greig) has left married respectability to live with a younger man, Freddie Page (Oliver Chris), big on golf, short on prospects.
Peter McKintosh designs a room of gloom: peeling wallpaper, faded rugs, grey light sighing through the curtains. Even the landscape on the wall shows Weymouth Pier under washed-out skies. People smoke nervy cigs or gulp at corner shop claret. Quiet despair lurks in the silences.
At the Ustinov Studio, Theatre Royal Bath, until 1 June
Continue reading...Rory Carroll, the Guardian’s Ireland correspondent, looks at what is fuelling anti-immigrant anger in the Republic of Ireland
Immigration has increasingly become a point of tension in Ireland. Recently, the Irish government said the threat of deportation to Rwanda had partly fuelled a surge in arrivals entering Ireland via the land border with Northern Ireland, a route that it says now accounts for more than 80% of asylum seekers in the republic. The Irish Refugee Council and other advocacy groups have questioned the figure. On Monday a judge in Belfast ruled that large parts of the UK government’s illegal migration act should not apply in Northern Ireland because they breach human rights laws; the UK government has said it will appeal the ruling.
Today in Focus host Hannah Moore talks to Rory Carroll, the Guardian’s Ireland correspondent, about immigration policy in Ireland. He tells Hannah that a changing population, a housing crisis and social and economic inequalities have led to rising anti-immigrant sentiment in Ireland. In November, riots broke out after a stabbing in Dublin. Social media commentators outed the alleged assailant as a foreigner – in fact, he was a naturalised Irish citizen, reportedly from Algeria – and a violent protest ensued. Hundreds of people rampaged through central Dublin, targeting property and police.
Continue reading...Supreme court judges order Arvind Kejriwal’s release until 1 June and question timing of his arrest on corruption charges
One of India’s best-known opposition leaders, Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi, has been granted bail by the country’s supreme court to allow him to take part in general election campaigningafter being kept behind bars for almost two months.
Kejriwal, who heads the Aam Aadmi party (AAP), has been held in jail since March when he was arrested on money-laundering charges. He has maintained that his arrest and detention was politically motivated to prevent him taking part in the election, which began in April and will continue until June.
Continue reading...Mission to Kyiv by US secretary of state comes after Congress approved long-delayed $60bn aid package; Russia claims to have captured Buhruvatka
Putin to visit China May 16-17
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, will visit China on May 16-17, Chinese state media reported.
Continue reading...Plea comes as US secretary of state makes first visit to Ukraine since new aid package was passed by Congress
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, arrived in Kyiv on Tuesday morning on his first visit to Ukraine since a major US aid package was passed last month, as Ukrainian forces struggle to defend against increasingly intense Russian attacks.
Blinken, who arrived by train from Poland in an unannounced visit, met Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, shortly after arriving.
Continue reading...For all the controversy about Labour’s policy on ‘workers’ rights’, it looks set to be a gamechanger
How did Labour let its most life-transforming policy get more publicity for its suspected “watering down” than it ever got for the policy itself? Today, Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner will meet the unions to assure them the new deal for working people is as radical as ever: an agreed, detailed policy document follows soon. The Trades Union Congress, broadly supportive, is watching carefully for any weakening of the deal, while this year’s TUC president, the Fire Brigades Union’s Matt Wrack, sends out warning shots against backsliding.
Speaking to the shopworkers’ union Usdaw last month, Starmer was adamant that he would not back down. And to business leaders recently he said that “to be crystal clear”, Labour would “level up workers’ rights in a way that has not been attempted for decades”, though he recognised “that might not please everyone in the room or the wider business community”. This is core to Labour’s purpose and to igniting growth. Only Unite’s Sharon Graham publicly claims “betrayal”, as she often does. But in private today, all unions will want cast-iron reassurance.
Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist
Continue reading...The 22-year-old woman and her child were civilian casualties of a U.S. drone strike, but the Pentagon won't return the family's messages.
The post Pentagon Compensated Zero Civilian Victims in 2022 — Despite Evidence That the U.S. Killed a Mom and Child in Somalia appeared first on The Intercept.
The powerful lobbying group is going against a Capitol Police officer who fended off January 6 insurrectionists.
The post Neither Candidate Has Much to Say About Israel. So Why Is AIPAC Pouring Money Into This Race? appeared first on The Intercept.
Antony Blinken’s report identifies “incidents that raise concerns,” but says Israel is not blocking humanitarian aid.
The post Israel “Likely” Used U.S.-Supplied Weapons in Violation of International Law. That’s OK, Though, State Department Says. appeared first on The Intercept.
Four lawsuits alleging Hamas ties against Students for Justice in Palestine, the AP, UNRWA, and a cryptocurrency exchange share many of the same plaintiffs.
The post October 7 Survivors Sue Campus Protesters, Say Students Are “Hamas’s Propaganda Division” appeared first on The Intercept.
A donor to Dexter in the Portland congressional race tells The Intercept: “I give all my contributions through AIPAC.”
The post AIPAC and Republican Donors Raising Big Money for Maxine Dexter Against Susheela Jayapal in Oregon appeared first on The Intercept.
An open letter from government attorneys questions the legal cover for arms transfers to Israel.
The post Even Biden’s Lawyers Are Urging the White House to Change Course on Gaza appeared first on The Intercept.
A former facility psychologist is suing the Bureau of Prisons over an Instagram account that joked about suicide at FCC Lompoc.
The post Who Ran This Derogatory Prison Meme Page? A Prison Guard. appeared first on The Intercept.
In talking points reviewed by The Intercept, the pro-Israel lobby argues that Israel has “no other option” but to invade Rafah.
The post As Biden Warns Against Rafah Invasion, AIPAC Pushes Congress to Support Israel’s Operation appeared first on The Intercept.
On campus, inside the Capitol, and in court, there’s an all-out assault on American democracy in the name of Israel.
The post They Used to Say Arabs Can’t Have Democracy Because It’d Be Bad for Israel. Now the U.S. Can’t Have It Either. appeared first on The Intercept.
NSO Group, which makes Pegasus spyware, keeps trying to extract information from Citizen Lab researchers — and a judge keeps swatting it down.
The post They Exposed an Israeli Spyware Firm. Now the Company Is Badgering Them in Court. appeared first on The Intercept.
Lots of complicated details here: too many for me to summarize well. It involves an obscure Section 230 provision—and an even more obscure typo. Read this.
The bipartisan duo also praised schools that brought in police to violently quell protests and connected the demonstrations to the TikTok ban.
The post In No Labels Call, Josh Gottheimer, Mike Lawler, and University Trustees Agree: FBI Should Investigate Campus Protests appeared first on The Intercept.
Four lawsuits alleging Hamas ties against Students for Justice in Palestine, the AP, UNRWA, and a cryptocurrency exchange share many of the same plaintiffs.
The post October 7 Survivors Sue Campus Protesters, Say Students Are “Hamas’s Propaganda Division” appeared first on The Intercept.
At least seven schools have reached an agreement with students around investment transparency and exploring divestment from Israel.
The post Some Universities Chose Violence. Others Responded to Protests by Considering Student Demands. appeared first on The Intercept.
On campus, inside the Capitol, and in court, there’s an all-out assault on American democracy in the name of Israel.
The post They Used to Say Arabs Can’t Have Democracy Because It’d Be Bad for Israel. Now the U.S. Can’t Have It Either. appeared first on The Intercept.
The movement to divest from Israel and the defense industry is gaining momentum on college campuses.
The post “A New Sense of World-Building”: Inside the Student Movement for Gaza appeared first on The Intercept.
The last big protests cost $150 million in NYPD overtime — with tens of millions more in lawsuit settlements.
The post How Much Money Did the NYPD Waste Quashing Student Protests? We Tallied It Up. appeared first on The Intercept.
Two college protesters were placed in solitary confinement, according to Columbia professors who worked in real time to support jailed students.
The post After Raids, NYPD Denied Student Protesters Water and Food in Jail appeared first on The Intercept.
The bipartisan duo also praised schools that brought in police to violently quell protests and connected the demonstrations to the TikTok ban.
The post In No Labels Call, Josh Gottheimer, Mike Lawler, and University Trustees Agree: FBI Should Investigate Campus Protests appeared first on The Intercept.
The powerful lobbying group is going against a Capitol Police officer who fended off January 6 insurrectionists.
The post Neither Candidate Has Much to Say About Israel. So Why Is AIPAC Pouring Money Into This Race? appeared first on The Intercept.
A donor to Dexter in the Portland congressional race tells The Intercept: “I give all my contributions through AIPAC.”
The post AIPAC and Republican Donors Raising Big Money for Maxine Dexter Against Susheela Jayapal in Oregon appeared first on The Intercept.
On campus, inside the Capitol, and in court, there’s an all-out assault on American democracy in the name of Israel.
The post They Used to Say Arabs Can’t Have Democracy Because It’d Be Bad for Israel. Now the U.S. Can’t Have It Either. appeared first on The Intercept.
West Midlands mayor talks about his victory, rebuilding trust in Labour and how he will handle the legacy of his predecessor
It’s been just over a week since Richard Parker became mayor of the West Midlands, in the most dramatic result of this year’s elections. His win, against the power of “Brand Andy” Street, came as a shock – even to the man with the red rosette.
“I had only written a losing speech. I’m not a negative person at all, but I think the early signals coming from [vote] sampling was that it was going to be very difficult for me to win,” he said. “I was just trying to prepare myself the best way for a negative result.”
Continue reading...Thinktank says extra funding eaten up by higher inflation despite greater demand with service in poor state of repair
Spending on the NHS in England has risen less quickly than the Conservatives promised at the last election despite the extra demand created by the pandemic and record waiting lists, a leading thinktank has said.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said increases in funding from the government had been eaten up by higher than expected inflation and, as a result, NHS day-to-day spending had grown by 2.7% a year during the current parliament – below the 3.3% pledged by Boris Johnson in 2019.
Continue reading...The Guardian’s Pippa Crerar and Kiran Stacey talk about Rishi Sunak’s big speech on security and how he hopes to draw a dividing line between the Conservatives and Labour. And Keir Starmer will meet union bosses on Tuesday but anger is brewing over Natalie Elphicke and rumours about Labour’s plan to water down pledges on workers’ rights
Continue reading...Antony Blinken’s report identifies “incidents that raise concerns,” but says Israel is not blocking humanitarian aid.
The post Israel “Likely” Used U.S.-Supplied Weapons in Violation of International Law. That’s OK, Though, State Department Says. appeared first on The Intercept.
Four lawsuits alleging Hamas ties against Students for Justice in Palestine, the AP, UNRWA, and a cryptocurrency exchange share many of the same plaintiffs.
The post October 7 Survivors Sue Campus Protesters, Say Students Are “Hamas’s Propaganda Division” appeared first on The Intercept.
$300 energy rebate to every Australian household as $3.5bn centrepiece of pre-election cost-of-living budget. Follow live updates
Nick McKim said he agrees with EY chief economist, Cherelle Murphy, who says that you can look after people without impacting inflation by taking the money you are spending on people who don’t need it, and redirecting it to people who do. (Therefore it is the same pool of money, but targeted differently.)
McKim:
For example, you could end the massive tax breaks for property investors who own multiple investment properties then put in place a rent freeze and a rent cap, for example.
You could tax billionaires and CEOs on the basis of their wealth and you could use that revenue to raise income support, which would lift a large number of Australians out of the grinding poverty that they experience every day.
No, certainly not. I mean, what the surplus shows is that they’re prioritising their own political benefit over investing in the kind of programs that would provide genuine help to people who are really doing it tough at the moment.
So what you’re going to see in the budget tonight is that having talked up an absolute storm on things like climate change and on things like cost of living, Labor is simply not prepared to take the action necessary to respond to those challenges that the urgency and the scale that is required.
Continue reading...This is likely the only Trump trial before the election – and the only hope for a shred of accountability for his endless misdeeds
When you set out to explore Donald Trump’s personal life and business practices, you don’t expect to meet any paragons of virtue.
Sleazy media figures who buy and “kill” damaging stories? Yes. An adult film actor ready to tell all to make a buck? Certainly. A parade of spokespeople and staffers who compromised their own integrity during his presidential administration? No doubt.
Continue reading...For all the controversy about Labour’s policy on ‘workers’ rights’, it looks set to be a gamechanger
How did Labour let its most life-transforming policy get more publicity for its suspected “watering down” than it ever got for the policy itself? Today, Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner will meet the unions to assure them the new deal for working people is as radical as ever: an agreed, detailed policy document follows soon. The Trades Union Congress, broadly supportive, is watching carefully for any weakening of the deal, while this year’s TUC president, the Fire Brigades Union’s Matt Wrack, sends out warning shots against backsliding.
Speaking to the shopworkers’ union Usdaw last month, Starmer was adamant that he would not back down. And to business leaders recently he said that “to be crystal clear”, Labour would “level up workers’ rights in a way that has not been attempted for decades”, though he recognised “that might not please everyone in the room or the wider business community”. This is core to Labour’s purpose and to igniting growth. Only Unite’s Sharon Graham publicly claims “betrayal”, as she often does. But in private today, all unions will want cast-iron reassurance.
Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist
Continue reading...An open letter from government attorneys questions the legal cover for arms transfers to Israel.
The post Even Biden’s Lawyers Are Urging the White House to Change Course on Gaza appeared first on The Intercept.
A new anti-terrorism bill would allow the government to take away vital tax exemptions from nonprofit news outlets.
The post Criticizing Israel? Nonprofit Media Could Lose Tax-Exempt Status Without Due Process appeared first on The Intercept.
Michelle O’Neill tells inquiry in Belfast she is ‘truly sorry’ for going to Bobby Storey’s funeral with 1,800 mourners
Alex Chalk, the justice secretary, is taking questions in the Commons this morning. After he finishes there are two urgent questions (UQs). At 12.30pm a Home Office minister will respond to one from Gavin Robinson, the DUP leader, about yesterday’s court judgment saying asylum seekers in Northern Ireland are protected under the Good Friday agreement from the risk of deportation to Rwanda.
And at around 1.15pm a health minister will respond to a UQ from the Tory Danny Kruger about the proposed World Health Organisation pandemic agreement.
Through their coercive and destabilising actions, the PRC [People’s Republic of China] poses a significant risk to international norms and values.
In cyberspace, we believe that the PRC’s irresponsible actions weaken the security of the internet for all.
We have repeatedly called out Chinese cyber adversaries for activities that threaten the security of the UK or target the institutions important to our society, such as the compromise of the UK Electoral Commission.
Continue reading...Farmer confidence at low ebb amid fears for their future as experts say extreme weather will hit crop yields
Rishi Sunak will launch his food security index to farmers on Tuesday, as experts predict extreme weather this year could cut UK self-sufficiency by 8%.
The prime minister is hosting a farm to fork summit at Downing Street and will say: “I know for many farmers the impact of adverse weather in recent months has made working the land even harder, but my message is clear, our support for you is unwavering and we will be with you every step of the way.”
Continue reading...New polling data from Pew shows shift in Americans’ opinion since loss of constitutional right to abortion in June 2022
In the two years after the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, leading to abortion bans across many parts of the south and midwest, abortion rights have only grown more popular, new polling from Pew research Center has found.
A majority of Americans has long supported abortion rights. But more than 60% of Americans now believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases – a four percentage-point jump from 2021, the year before Roe fell.
Continue reading...If even the Tory right-winger sees political capital in opposing the two-child benefit cap, Keir Starmer needs to think again
Suella Braverman wants to help lift children out of poverty by scrapping one of her party’s harshest welfare policies. Yes, I do mean that Suella Braverman; and no, I can’t quite believe I’m typing these words either. Then again, who thought Natalie Elphicke would ever defect to Labour? Sometimes lions really do lie down with lambs, though you can see why lambs tend to have very mixed feelings about it.
Anyway, writing in the not exactly bleeding heart Sunday Telegraph, Braverman unexpectedly joined a long line of children’s charities and expert reports who have been pointing out for almost seven years now that the two-child benefits limit – which prevents families claiming tax credits or universal credit for a third or subsequent child born after 2017 – is plunging ever more families into desperate circumstances while failing to achieve what its author George Osborne said it would, which is incentivise work.
Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist
Continue reading...Migration Advisory Committee says the risks are low, despite Tory claims the route is being exploited
There is no evidence of widespread abuse of the UK’s graduate visa route, the government’s immigration advisers have concluded, despite repeated claims from senior Conservatives that it is being exploited to enter the jobs market.
The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) said the graduate visa entitlement – allowing international students to work for two or three years after graduating – should remain in place. Members said the risks of abuse were relatively low and “not undermining” the integrity and quality of the higher education system.
There is no evidence of widespread abuse specifically for the graduate route. The risks of abuse are relatively low due to the limited number of conditions the route imposes.
There is concern about potential exploitation of both student and graduate visa holders due to poor practices by certain agents who recruit students on to courses and may be mis-selling UK higher education, but this is a separate issue from abuse of the rules of the graduate route.
114,000 graduate route visas were granted for main applicants in 2023 with a further 30,000 granted for dependants.
The use of the graduate route is concentrated among four nationalities: the top four – India, Nigeria, China and Pakistan – account for 70% of all graduate visas with India accounting for over 40%.
Most of those on the graduate route completed postgraduate taught courses.
Continue reading...Party reportedly copied in more than 300 email addresses in appeal to supporters to sign up for conference
The Conservative party has referred itself to the data protection watchdog over an alleged data breach after it revealed hundreds of email addresses in a pitch to sign up for its annual conference.
The party’s registration team, urging supporters to complete their applications for conference, reportedly copied in more than 300 addresses in a way that they could be seen by all recipients.
Continue reading...We know about the hardship of ‘Thatcher’s children’, but a new generation of Tories has raised inequality to even higher levels
They are austerity’s children, born after 2010, perhaps now at secondary school – and they account for 3.4 million of Britain’s 4.3 million children in poverty. Most have never known what it is like to be free of poverty. And yet in almost every single year of the past decade, even as their need has been mounting, the government’s support for children has been spiralling downwards, each year more difficult than the year before as, with almost surgical precision, the government has made the already poor even poorer and propelled the number of poor children up by 100,000 a year.
For the past 40 years we have talked of Thatcher’s children – the generation of children brought up in the 1980s at a time of mass unemployment and social security cuts, which I witnessed at first hand as an MP in a mining constituency. Study after study has charted her government’s impact in educational underachievement, broken families and the crushed aspirations of millions of young people unable to find decent work.
Continue reading...Former prime minister proposes £3bn support package for more than 3 million of ‘blighted generation’
Gordon Brown has called for a rescue plan for “austerity’s children” – a generation of more than 3 million UK young people born after 2010 from low-income families who “have never known what it is like to be free of poverty”.
The former Labour prime minister urged the government to create a multibillion pound programme of support for a “blighted generation” that has grown up under Tory rule amid huge public spending cuts, Covid, the cost of living crisis and the Ukraine conflict.
Continue reading...The world is terrible and will get worse. There are evil empires out there. The PM delivered the news in the style of a chatbot
It came billed as a landmark speech. Another one. And in a sense it was. Though not in the way that Rishi Sunak would have wanted. The landmark was merely a new low. The last throw of the dice from a desperate man. The prime minister who can’t buy a break. A sad mini-man howling into the wind.
Hard to believe that Rish! has only been in Downing Street just over 18 months. Because in that time he’s had at least seven relaunches, each one less successful than the last. There’s only so many times you can try to win over an uninterested public before you have to accept that the product is a dud.
Continue reading...County cricket members take their duty as custodians of cricket seriously and deserve a say in its future, says Alan Higham
Selling stakes in the Hundred teams to private equity is a seismic moment in cricket’s history (Selling off the summer? Why Hundred plans should matter to all cricket lovers, 9 May). It points to a future where profit trumps all other factors. There is no detail on how the sale makes cricket more sustainable and accessible. Most of the new money will surely go on higher player and executive pay. Private equity won’t care whether more young people play the game or whether top players can help England win the Ashes.
English cricket is said to be broke but, taking in the ECB, 18 county teams and the MCC, it has an income of £600m a year, more than double that of five years ago. A hard look at costs and spending priorities so that all stakeholders broadly support the direction of travel is surely the right action before selling the silver.
Continue reading...The Labour leader confirmed he would scrap the Rwanda scheme in his Dover speech, then confusingly blurred his own argument
Could Keir Starmer “Make Asylum Boring Again”? That would be the ultimate test of success for his claim that he can grip the issue that has caused Rishi Sunak more trouble than any other. Starmer’s message is that he is no less committed to securing the borders and stopping the small boats crossing the Channel, but that achieving this requires a serious plan to tackle smuggling gangs and fix the asylum system in Britain too. So how different is Labour’s plan – and would it work?
Labour’s analysis should be that making asylum work depends on blending control and compassion. The Dover speech was a political exercise in asymmetric triangulation. Robust messages about control were loudly proclaimed. More liberal ideas about a rules-based system could be found, but mostly by reading between the lines.
Starmer did confirm that Labour would scrap the Rwanda scheme. Labour had seemed to wobble in the face of premature Conservative confidence that Rwanda is already working to deter. Ironically, the biggest risk for Sunak’s deterrent argument would come if he finally gets to test it practically. Send the first flights to Rwanda this summer and further arrivals across the Channel will surely outpace any removals 10 times over.
There is a clash of principle over asylum. Labour would process the asylum claims of those who arrived without permission. The Conservatives have now passed several laws vowing they will not. Yet ministers are in denial. Whether or not up to 500 people go to Rwanda does not give the government any plan for the next 50,000 people it still claims it intends to remove. So flagship new duties on the home secretary to refuse these claims for ever have not been given legal force – as the courts would strike that out in all those cases where the government has no realistic alternative. Yet the government has ceased to process asylum cases, reversing last year’s success in clearing the historic backlog.
Starmer is right to deny the charge that Labour’s policy is an “amnesty”, since processing the backlog would see some asylum claims granted and others refused. But he confusingly blurs his own argument with a tit-for-tat labelling of government policy as a “Travelodge amnesty”.
Continue reading...Opposition say ruling party undermining democracy by using police to harass candidates into not contesting in elections
When the people of Gujarat cast their votes last week in India’s six-week-long election, there was one constituency in the state that stood silent. There were no polling stations or impatient queues of people, and no one with the tell-tale inky finger. In Surat, no voting was necessary – the outcome was already decided.
Mukesh Dalal, from the ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), won the seat by default after every other candidate was either disqualified or dropped out of the race. It was the first time in 73 years that Surat’s candidate was appointed, not elected.
Continue reading...A bad night for pro-independence parties, and a very good one for the Socialists, has vindicated Pedro Sánchez’s conciliatory strategy
In a complex political landscape, Sunday’s regional elections in Catalonia duly delivered a finely balanced result. Though the Catalan branch of the Spanish Socialist party (PSC) comfortably topped the poll as the largest party, it needs to solve some challenging parliamentary arithmetic in order to govern. Days and weeks of haggling and horse-trading loom.
The underlying message of the election, however, was much clearer. After years of extraordinary turbulence and bitter strife, the momentum that drove the campaign for Catalonia’s independence appears to have subsided. For the first time in more than a decade, pro-independence parties failed collectively to win either a majority of votes, or a majority of seats in the regional parliament.
Continue reading...In talking points reviewed by The Intercept, the pro-Israel lobby argues that Israel has “no other option” but to invade Rafah.
The post As Biden Warns Against Rafah Invasion, AIPAC Pushes Congress to Support Israel’s Operation appeared first on The Intercept.
At least seven schools have reached an agreement with students around investment transparency and exploring divestment from Israel.
The post Some Universities Chose Violence. Others Responded to Protests by Considering Student Demands. appeared first on The Intercept.
Supreme court judges order Arvind Kejriwal’s release until 1 June and question timing of his arrest on corruption charges
One of India’s best-known opposition leaders, Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi, has been granted bail by the country’s supreme court to allow him to take part in general election campaigningafter being kept behind bars for almost two months.
Kejriwal, who heads the Aam Aadmi party (AAP), has been held in jail since March when he was arrested on money-laundering charges. He has maintained that his arrest and detention was politically motivated to prevent him taking part in the election, which began in April and will continue until June.
Continue reading...The president is under pressure from Republicans and progressives as humanitarian crisis builds and immigration remains a key voter issue
The Biden administration has said its proposed changes to asylum standards, unveiled on Thursday, that would fast-track some deportations will enhance security and speed up a backlog of cases amid record numbers of arrivals at the US-Mexico border.
The changes will also, by Biden’s own admission, be limited in scope and only affect a “small” number of people who have been convicted of serious crimes or may pose a national security risk.
Continue reading...The last big protests cost $150 million in NYPD overtime — with tens of millions more in lawsuit settlements.
The post How Much Money Did the NYPD Waste Quashing Student Protests? We Tallied It Up. appeared first on The Intercept.
After a less happy time attached to triple-A games, Jayanth has settled on smaller, freer developers – and is using that freedom to speak up for causes bigger companies would rather ignore
Can a video game writer do her best work at the industry’s biggest scale? Well: Meghna Jayanth is fine where she is. Last year, with Outerloop Games, she released Thirsty Suitors, a fluorescent fusion of messy flirting and sick skating; coming up next is All Rise, a climate action courtroom drama. These are indie games – Thirsty Suitors’ hero is a queer Desi skater and the villain is her feelings; of course it is an indie game – and Jayanth, one of the star video game writers of her generation, is perfectly at home here, where a modest budget is the trade-off for making joyful games about colonialism, identity and sexuality, with people whose values align with hers.
The money is smaller, and that hurts getting the work noticed. “It was tough to come out when we did,” Jayanth says of Thirsty Suitors. “People were still playing Baldur’s Gate III, because it’s huge. The average gamer on Steam plays four games a year. That’s the real problem for most indie studios: how do you reach people without millions and a marketing budget?”
Continue reading...While everyone’s a winner with the energy rebate, which applies to every household, there are certainly some losers
In providing $300 in savings to everyone’s energy bill, the Albanese government is hoping everyone considers themselves a winner with its 2024 budget.
While the energy bill relief is being framed as a rebate, it applies to every household and will be automatically credited to electricity bills, essentially making it a cash handout for everyone that is part of a broader rebate program that will cost $3.5bn over three years.
Continue reading...New mental health service and Medicare urgent care clinics funded alongside ways to keep pensioners and older Australians out of hospital
Older Australians will have access to 24,000 new home care places to support them staying in their own house rather than entering aged care, part of a $2.2bn package delivering recommendations from the royal commission and to improve services.
The government will also stand up 29 new Medicare urgent care clinics, freeze increases to prescription medicines and give the states $882m for programs for older patients staying long-term in hospitals.
Continue reading...Government says reforms to the national disability insurance scheme that supports more than 600,000 Australians will ensure it is on a more financially sustainable footing
The Albanese government will claw back $27.9bn in savings as part of its “responsible economic management” over the next four years, with more than half of those savings dependent on plans to get the national disability insurance scheme “back on track”.
Extra efforts to address tax compliance, the “shadow economy” and multinational tax avoidance will also contribute $3.1bn to the savings pool, the government’s measures forecast.
Continue reading...Major shortfalls predicted over next two years as Jim Chalmers downplays potential for inflationary pressures
The federal budget will swing to sizable deficits from the coming financial year as government spending picks up, a switch that the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, hopes will not stoke inflationary pressures in the economy.
The budget will post a forecast surplus in the current year of $9.3bn – equivalent to 0.3% of gross domestic product – making it the first back-to-back surplus since 2007-08. The ledger, though, will slip sharply into a deficit of $28.3bn (1% of GDP) and further into the red at $42.8bn (1.5% of GDP) the following year.
Continue reading...Alarm over Natalie Elphicke’s defection also expected to be raised in meeting with Labour leader
Union leaders are to meet Keir Starmer for a showdown over the party’s plans to overhaul workers’ rights, with some also expected to express concerns over the defection of Natalie Elphicke.
The meeting at the party’s Southwark HQ on Tuesday afternoon comes amid divisions over whether the proposals have been watered down since they were first proposed by Labour’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner.
Continue reading...Former Irish president and Ban Ki-moon say fossil lobbying is hampering climate progress
Fossil fuel companies are forcing governments to compensate them for lost earnings in the transition to a low-carbon global economy, and destroying the world’s ability to counter their harmful activities, former top UN officials have warned.
Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland who was twice a UN climate envoy, said she was “outraged” by the activities of fossil fuel companies, including forcing governments into “investment treaties” that reward them with billions in compensation when countries reduce their reliance on oil, gas and coal.
Continue reading...Government told Net Zero Teesside gas scheme will be massive polluter despite its carbon capture claims
A multibillion-pound “net zero” project backed by two of the world’s biggest fossil fuel firms will be responsible for more than 20m tonnes of planet-heating carbon over its lifetime, according to research submitted to the UK government.
The Net Zero Teesside scheme to build a new gas-fired power station in north-east England is backed by BP and Equinor and says it will use carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology to capture up to 95% of its emissions and bury them beneath the North Sea.
Continue reading...Conflicts in Gaza, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have led to a total of 68m IDPs across the world
Conflict has forced more than 68 million people to leave their homes as of the end of 2023 – the highest figure since data became available 15 years ago.
Natural disasters made a further 7.7 million people homeless, pushing the total number of internally displaced people (IDPs) to a record 75.9 million, according to figures published by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Report recommends ‘double lock’ for those renewing their tenancies
Rent rises should be capped for millions of people struggling to afford soaring rates, according to a landmark report commissioned by Labour.
The leaked proposals recommend a swathe of measures that give breathing room to renters buckling under the cost of living.
An annually updated National Landlords Register which would require landlords to demonstrate compliance with the decent homes standard or face fines and even be subject to a criminal offence.
The abolition of no-fault evictions, and “back-door” evictions introduced by the Conservative renters’ reform bill, which may include landlords wishing to move themselves or family members in and landlords wishing to sell a property which Cowan says in the report “shouldn’t be a ground for ending a tenancy”.
Measures to discourage landlords from entering the short-term and holiday let market or nightly paid temporary accommodation sector by equalising the tax treatment for all forms of private letting.
Policies to ensure that medium-term affordable housing returns to being the second-largest part of the housing sector, to decrease the country’s reliance on the private rental market.
Continue reading...A pioneering report from MPs should lead to much-needed improvements in the treatment of new mothers by the NHS
Like previous inquiries on maternity care failings, the birth trauma report published on Monday was instigated by a campaigner with first-hand knowledge. After a 40-hour labour in which she suffered a third-degree tear to her perineum, followed by surgery without a general anaesthetic, Theo Clarke was horrified by the poor care she received on a ward. Last October, Ms Clarke, who is the Conservative MP for Stafford, led the first UK parliamentary debate about birth trauma. This week’s report marks the culmination of months of work by the all-party group she chairs.
Drawing on expert evidence as well as that of 1,300 people who wrote in about their own experiences, the report vividly conveys the human cost of past failures. One of Ms Clarke’s goals was to break the taboo surrounding birth trauma. Here are harrowing details of the physical and psychological consequences when labour goes wrong and care is inadequate. Birth trauma means overwhelming distress linked to childbirth with a negative impact on health. About 30,000 women each year (between 4% and 5% of all new mothers) are diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Risk factors include complications leading to delivery by emergency caesarean or using forceps, and prior mental health problems.
Continue reading...Patrick Owen, Dr Gilbert Pugh and Marianne Gemmeke write in support of the university protest camps that began in the US and have spread to the UK and other countries
Re Nesrine Malik’s article (Don’t let the sound and fury over Gaza protests drown out what the students are saying, 6 May), the students of Columbia University, and those at about 100 universities throughout the world, have put their futures at risk to secure Palestinian human rights. At least 15 UK campuses have joined in the protests and, in a joint statement by the Oxford and Cambridge University and College Union branches, campaigners have said that they refuse to accept their universities’ complicity in Israel’s attacks on the Palestinian people.
The students are on the right side of history, and governments will need to listen to demands from some for disinvestment in companies sustaining Israel’s tyranny. People have a right to know why their supposedly democratic governments and professed upholders of human rights, international law and the rules-based order are not only failing to uphold them but are undermining them by their support of Israel. This has not diminished despite Israel’s slaughter of nearly 35,000 Palestinians, including almost 15,000 children, since 7 October 2023.
Patrick Owen
Rhayader, Powys
Keir Starmer appeared in Dover and Deal alongside the Labour party’s newest MP, the former Tory Natalie Elphicke, to announce the scrapping of the Rwanda deportation scheme if Labour is elected. The Guardian spoke to people in Dover to get their reaction
Continue reading...Ex-president’s former fixer to return to stand after telling court Trump told him to ‘just take care’ of Stormy Daniels story
Good morning. Michael Cohen, once one of Donald Trump’s most loyal lieutenants and enforcers, is expected to take the stand this morning for a second day after testifying that the former president demanded that he bury an adult film star’s account of an alleged sexual liaison weeks before the election.
Cohen’s hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels is at the very heart of the historic trial in Manhattan criminal court. Prosecutors charge that Cohen wired $130,000 to Daniels’s then attorney just 12 days before the presidential election to keep quiet about her alleged sexual encounter with Trump. Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with the payments and had pleaded not guilty.
A guide to Trump’s hush-money trial – so far
The key takeaways from Daniels’ testimony last week.
The jurors: who is on the Trump trial jury?
The key arguments prosecutors will use against Trump
From Michael Cohen to Stormy Daniels: the key players
Continue reading...The More than Equal initiative, a global development programme created to assist women’s progress toward Formula One and in motor racing has announced its first selection of female drivers.
The six teenagers have been identified as showing the greatest promise and who will benefit the most from taking part in what is considered a unique approach that uses Olympic style talent ID and mentoring by Lewis Hamilton’s former performance coach.
Continue reading...Former fixer told Manhattan court on Monday that Trump had asked him to keep stories about his personal life out of the media
Donald Trump’s ex-lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen is set to continue crucial testimony on Tuesday in the former US president’s New York hush-money trial, where Trump faces charges of allegedly falsifying records of payments to a porn actor to cover an affair.
Cohen’s testimony is seen as crucial to the prosecution’s arguments that the money paid to Stormy Daniels represented an election expense, because Trump and his campaign believed news of their sexual encounter would hurt his 2016 bid for the White House.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: A major new attack on territory known for Kyiv’s biggest victory has led to a sense of Ukraine’s prospects viciously unravelling, town by town
• Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First Edition
Good morning. In September 2022, Kharkiv province was the site of the greatest Ukrainian victory of the war so far: the lightning counteroffensive that liberated at least 12,000 square kilometres from Russian control, pushed Moscow’s artillery out of range of Kharkiv city and provided real hope that Vladimir Putin could not just be slowed down, but defeated.
Over the past few days, Kharkiv has been the location of a very different shift. This time, it is the Russians who have made larger daily advances than at almost any other point in the war, and are now moving further forwards. Civilians who had come home are fleeing once more in their thousands, and even Kyiv admits that the situation is “difficult”. Further attacks could draw sparse Ukrainian resources from along the frontline, deal a heavy blow to Ukrainian morale and redraw the map before the resources belatedly provided by the US last month are in place to do anything about it.
Medical research | A weight loss injection could reduce the risk of heart attacks and benefit the cardiovascular health of millions of adults in what could be the largest medical breakthrough since statins, according to a study. Trial participants who took semaglutide, sold as Wegovy and Ozempic, had a 20% lower risk of heart attack, stroke, or death due to cardiovascular disease.
Housing | Rent rises should be capped for millions of people struggling to afford soaring rates, according to a landmark report commissioned by Labour. Leaked proposals from the independent report will put pressure on Keir Starmer to adopt measures that could ease pressure on tenants who saw an average 9% increase in rates last year.
Donald Trump | Donald Trump told his one-time fixer Michael Cohen only weeks before the 2016 election to bury Stormy Daniels’s account of an alleged sexual liaison, demanding that he “just take care of it”, Cohen told the former president’s trial on Monday. In hours of testimony, Cohen linked Trump to a $130,000 hush money payment and said: “Everything required Mr Trump’s sign-off.”
Gaza | Israeli settlers attacked an aid convoy headed into Gaza on Monday, throwing packages of food into the road and setting fire to vehicles. The incident, condemned by the US as “a total outrage”, came as Israeli troops continued their offence across Gaza in the most intensive round of fighting for weeks.
Women’s health | Women in labour have been mocked, ignored, fobbed off with paracetamol and left with permanent damage by midwives and doctors, a damning report by MPs has found. The UK’s first inquiry into birth trauma called for the appointment of a maternity commissioner and the creation of new specialist postnatal services to address the problems.
Continue reading...The bipartisan duo also praised schools that brought in police to violently quell protests and connected the demonstrations to the TikTok ban.
The post In No Labels Call, Josh Gottheimer, Mike Lawler, and University Trustees Agree: FBI Should Investigate Campus Protests appeared first on The Intercept.
Hunters reportedly find five Rwandan men in mangroves on Saibai Island, a known crocodile habitat
As the UK government continues its push to forcibly remove asylum seekers to Rwanda, a group of Rwandan nationals has claimed asylum in Australia after arriving by boat on a remote island.
The five men arrived in Australia by an unconventional route, reportedly flying into the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, to be granted visas on arrival, before travelling thousands of kilometres east to Indonesia’s Papua province, where they crossed the land border it shares with Papua New Guinea (PNG).
Continue reading...Tal Mitnick and Sofia Orr, who are in prison for refusing to serve in Israel’s military, are pleading with Biden to help stop the war on Gaza.
The post Israeli Military Refusers Appeal to Biden: “Stop Arming Israel’s War” appeared first on The Intercept.
Court says irregularities in Colombian singer’s 2018 tax return did not indicate intent to defraud
A Spanish court has shelved an investigation into an alleged tax fraud by the Colombian pop star Shakira, putting an end to her legal woes in the country where she once lived.
Prosecutors had opened the case in July, alleging she had used a network of companies, some in tax havens, to cheat the tax office out of €6.6m (£5.7m) in 2018.
Continue reading...Prime minister, Masra, accuses officials of manipulating results that show he won 18.5% of vote to Itno’s 61%
Chad’s military leader, Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, has been declared the winner of this week’s presidential election, according to provisional results that have been contested by his main rival, the prime minister, Succès Masra.
The national agency that manages Chad’s election released results of Monday’s vote weeks earlier than planned. The figures showed Itno won with 61% of the vote, and Masra fell far behind in second, on 18.5%. Gunfire erupted in the capital, N’Djamena, after the announcement, though it was unclear if it was celebratory.
Continue reading...Telecoms company is awaiting a decision from the UK regulator on its potential merger with Three
Vodafone has said its turnaround plan is starting to show results as Germany, its largest business, returned to growth last year after the sale of its Italian and Spanish operations.
The telecoms company has been undergoing a transformation programme under its chief executive, Margherita Della Valle, who has sought to simplify the group and taken action in three underperforming markets where Vodafone’s returns were below the cost of capital.
Continue reading...As AI systems have grown in sophistication, so has their capacity for deception, according to a new analysis from researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Dr Peter Park, an AI existential safety researcher at MIT and author of the research, tells Ian Sample about the different examples of deception he uncovered, and why they will be so difficult to tackle as long as AI remains a black box
Listen to the Guardian’s Black Box series all about humans and artificial intelligence
Read Hannah Devlin’s article about the MIT study
Continue reading...Car dealerships have been set on fire and supermarkets looted in Pacific French territory as protests against changes to voter eligibility spread
New Caledonia has imposed a curfew and banned public gatherings in the capital, Nouméa, after a day of protests around the French territory against planned changes to the constitution turned violent, with reports of widespread looting and businesses set on fire.
A “great deal of damage” was done to businesses including car dealerships, shops, pharmacies and security cameras in Nouméa and numerous police officers were injured in the violence, the French high commission in New Caledonia said in a statement on Tuesday. Thirty-six people were arrested.
Continue reading...Rory Carroll, the Guardian’s Ireland correspondent, looks at what is fuelling anti-immigrant anger in the Republic of Ireland
Immigration has increasingly become a point of tension in Ireland. Recently, the Irish government said the threat of deportation to Rwanda had partly fuelled a surge in arrivals entering Ireland via the land border with Northern Ireland, a route that it says now accounts for more than 80% of asylum seekers in the republic. The Irish Refugee Council and other advocacy groups have questioned the figure. On Monday a judge in Belfast ruled that large parts of the UK government’s illegal migration act should not apply in Northern Ireland because they breach human rights laws; the UK government has said it will appeal the ruling.
Today in Focus host Hannah Moore talks to Rory Carroll, the Guardian’s Ireland correspondent, about immigration policy in Ireland. He tells Hannah that a changing population, a housing crisis and social and economic inequalities have led to rising anti-immigrant sentiment in Ireland. In November, riots broke out after a stabbing in Dublin. Social media commentators outed the alleged assailant as a foreigner – in fact, he was a naturalised Irish citizen, reportedly from Algeria – and a violent protest ensued. Hundreds of people rampaged through central Dublin, targeting property and police.
Continue reading...Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Dan Bardell and Will Unwin to review the penultimate weekend in the Premier League, discuss Manchester United’s FA Cup triumph, Celtic’s win over Rangers, and more
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: Arsenal get a conservative but vital 1-0 win at Old Trafford, while the Manchester City machine bulldozes through yet another Premier League opponent in Fulham. However they got it done, both sides won … which means the winner will be decided on the final day.
Continue reading...While much has changed since 7 October, the horrific events of the past six months are not unique, and do not stand outside history. By Rashid Khalidi
Continue reading...Almost all children have them by the time they are 11 years old – and some get them at four. But are they ruining childhoods? Blake Montgomery reports
Conversations around if and when children should be given mobile phones have being going on for years. But recently the question has been catapulted to the forefront of national debate.
From campaigning parents to bestselling books, a movement has emerged that believes smartphones are ruining childhoods and that young people should be banned from having them. It’s not hard to come up with reasons why: they are addictive, keep children glued to screens instead of playing, can be used for online bullying and are one reason why so many children have seen pornography.
Continue reading...Frock horror! The ludicrous spectacle of the Met Gala; reluctant star Josh O’Connor takes the lead in a new film, Challengers; Catherine Carr talks to boys about sex, pornography and feeling isolated and vulnerable; and Philippa Perry responds to a reader who is child-free.
Continue reading...The movement to divest from Israel and the defense industry is gaining momentum on college campuses.
The post “A New Sense of World-Building”: Inside the Student Movement for Gaza appeared first on The Intercept.
Ahead of the byelection in Blackpool South, the Guardian takes the temperature in the once prosperous northern coastal town, with many voters expressing complete apathy and disdain for the state of politics.
The area is going to the polls because the former Tory MP Scott Benton resigned after being found guilty of breaching standards rules in a lobbying scandal. Labour is hopeful of taking back the seat, which Benton won with a majority of 3,690 in 2019
Polls open in England’s local elections with Tories braced for heavy losse
Analysis: Will Tories dump Rishi Sunak if election results worse than expected?
Mission to Kyiv by US secretary of state comes after Congress approved long-delayed $60bn aid package; Russia claims to have captured Buhruvatka
Putin to visit China May 16-17
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, will visit China on May 16-17, Chinese state media reported.
Continue reading...Plea comes as US secretary of state makes first visit to Ukraine since new aid package was passed by Congress
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, arrived in Kyiv on Tuesday morning on his first visit to Ukraine since a major US aid package was passed last month, as Ukrainian forces struggle to defend against increasingly intense Russian attacks.
Blinken, who arrived by train from Poland in an unannounced visit, met Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, shortly after arriving.
Continue reading...The 22-year-old woman and her child were civilian casualties of a U.S. drone strike, but the Pentagon won't return the family's messages.
The post Pentagon Compensated Zero Civilian Victims in 2022 — Despite Evidence That the U.S. Killed a Mom and Child in Somalia appeared first on The Intercept.
Hundreds of protesters prevented an attempt to collect asylum seekers from a south London hotel and transfer them to the Bibby Stockholm barge. The Guardian witnessed crowds blocking the bus and the road outside the Best Western hotel in Peckham before police were able to move in and break up the protest. The bus eventually left the area after seven hours, with no asylum seekers onboard
London protesters block transfer of asylum seekers to Bibby Stockholm
Continue reading...
In the rapidly advancing landscape of AI technology and innovation, LimeWire emerges as a unique platform in the realm of generative AI tools. This platform not only stands out from the multitude of existing AI tools but also brings a fresh approach to content generation. LimeWire not only empowers users to create AI content but also provides creators with creative ways to share and monetize their creations.
As we explore LimeWire, our aim is to uncover its features, benefits for creators, and the exciting possibilities it offers for AI content generation. This platform presents an opportunity for users to harness the power of AI in image creation, all while enjoying the advantages of a free and accessible service.
Let's unravel the distinctive features that set LimeWire apart in the dynamic landscape of AI-powered tools, understanding how creators can leverage its capabilities to craft unique and engaging AI-generated images.
This revamped LimeWire invites users to register and unleash their creativity by crafting original AI content, which can then be shared and showcased on the LimeWire Studio. Notably, even acclaimed artists and musicians, such as Deadmau5, Soulja Boy, and Sean Kingston, have embraced this platform to publish their content in the form of NFT music, videos, and images.
Beyond providing a space for content creation and sharing, LimeWire introduces monetization models to empower users to earn revenue from their creations. This includes avenues such as earning ad revenue and participating in the burgeoning market of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). As we delve further, we'll explore these monetization strategies in more detail to provide a comprehensive understanding of LimeWire's innovative approach to content creation and distribution.
LimeWire Studio welcomes content creators into its fold, providing a space to craft personalized AI-focused content for sharing with fans and followers. Within this creative hub, every piece of content generated becomes not just a creation but a unique asset—ownable and tradable. Fans have the opportunity to subscribe to creators' pages, immersing themselves in the creative journey and gaining ownership of digital collectibles that hold tradeable value within the LimeWire community. Notably, creators earn a 2.5% royalty each time their content is traded, adding a rewarding element to the creative process.
The platform's flexibility is evident in its content publication options. Creators can choose to share their work freely with the public or opt for a premium subscription model, granting exclusive access to specialized content for subscribers.
As of the present moment, LimeWire focuses on AI Image Generation, offering a spectrum of creative possibilities to its user base. The platform, however, has ambitious plans on the horizon, aiming to broaden its offerings by introducing AI music and video generation tools in the near future. This strategic expansion promises creators even more avenues for expression and engagement with their audience, positioning LimeWire Studio as a dynamic and evolving platform within the realm of AI-powered content creation.
The LimeWire AI image generation tool presents a versatile platform for both the creation and editing of images. Supporting advanced models such as Stable Diffusion 2.1, Stable Diffusion XL, and DALL-E 2, LimeWire offers a sophisticated toolkit for users to delve into the realm of generative AI art.
Much like other tools in the generative AI landscape, LimeWire provides a range of options catering to various levels of complexity in image creation. Users can initiate the creative process with prompts as simple as a few words or opt for more intricate instructions, tailoring the output to their artistic vision.
What sets LimeWire apart is its seamless integration of different AI models and design styles. Users have the flexibility to effortlessly switch between various AI models, exploring diverse design styles such as cinematic, digital art, pixel art, anime, analog film, and more. Each style imparts a distinctive visual identity to the generated AI art, enabling users to explore a broad spectrum of creative possibilities.
The platform also offers additional features, including samplers, allowing users to fine-tune the quality and detail levels of their creations. Customization options and prompt guidance further enhance the user experience, providing a user-friendly interface for both novice and experienced creators.
Excitingly, LimeWire is actively developing its proprietary AI model, signaling ongoing innovation and enhancements to its image generation capabilities. This upcoming addition holds the promise of further expanding the creative horizons for LimeWire users, making it an evolving and dynamic platform within the landscape of AI-driven art and image creation.
Sign Up Now To Get Free Credits
Upon completing your creative endeavor on LimeWire, the platform allows you the option to publish your content. An intriguing feature follows this step: LimeWire automates the process of minting your creation as a Non-Fungible Token (NFT), utilizing either the Polygon or Algorand blockchain. This transformative step imbues your artwork with a unique digital signature, securing its authenticity and ownership in the decentralized realm.
Creators on LimeWire hold the power to decide the accessibility of their NFT creations. By opting for a public release, the content becomes discoverable by anyone, fostering a space for engagement and interaction. Furthermore, this choice opens the avenue for enthusiasts to trade the NFTs, adding a layer of community involvement to the artistic journey.
Alternatively, LimeWire acknowledges the importance of exclusivity. Creators can choose to share their posts exclusively with their premium subscribers. In doing so, the content remains a special offering solely for dedicated fans, creating an intimate and personalized experience within the LimeWire community. This flexibility in sharing options emphasizes LimeWire's commitment to empowering creators with choices in how they connect with their audience and distribute their digital creations.
After creating your content, you can choose to publish the content. It will automatically mint your creation as an NFT on the Polygon or Algorand blockchain. You can also choose whether to make it public or subscriber-only.
If you make it public, anyone can discover your content and even trade the NFTs. If you choose to share the post only with your premium subscribers, it will be exclusive only to your fans.
Additionally, you can earn ad revenue from your content creations as well.
When you publish content on LimeWire, you will receive 70% of all ad revenue from other users who view your images, music, and videos on the platform.
This revenue model will be much more beneficial to designers. You can experiment with the AI image and content generation tools and share your creations while earning a small income on the side.
The revenue you earn from your creations will come in the form of LMWR tokens, LimeWire’s own cryptocurrency.
Your earnings will be paid every month in LMWR, which you can then trade on many popular crypto exchange platforms like Kraken, ByBit, and UniSwap.
You can also use your LMWR tokens to pay for prompts when using LimeWire generative AI tools.
You can sign up to LimeWire to use its AI tools for free. You will receive 10 credits to use and generate up to 20 AI images per day. You will also receive 50% of the ad revenue share. However, you will get more benefits with premium plans.
For $9.99 per month, you will get 1,000 credits per month, up to 2 ,000 image generations, early access to new AI models, and 50% ad revenue share
For $29 per month, you will get 3750 credits per month, up to 7500 image generations, early access to new AI models, and 60% ad revenue share
For $49 per month, you will get 5,000 credits per month, up to 10,000 image generations, early access to new AI models, and 70% ad revenue share
For $99 per month, you will get 11,250 credits per month, up to 2 2,500 image generations, early access to new AI models, and 70% ad revenue share
With all premium plans, you will receive a Pro profile badge, full creation history, faster image generation, and no ads.
Sign Up Now To Get Free Credits
In conclusion, LimeWire emerges as a democratizing force in the creative landscape, providing an inclusive platform where anyone can unleash their artistic potential and effortlessly share their work. With the integration of AI, LimeWire eliminates traditional barriers, empowering designers, musicians, and artists to publish their creations and earn revenue with just a few clicks.
The ongoing commitment of LimeWire to innovation is evident in its plans to enhance generative AI tools with new features and models. The upcoming expansion to include music and video generation tools holds the promise of unlocking even more possibilities for creators. It sparks anticipation about the diverse and innovative ways in which artists will leverage these tools to produce and publish their own unique creations.
For those eager to explore, LimeWire's AI tools are readily accessible for free, providing an opportunity to experiment and delve into the world of generative art. As LimeWire continues to evolve, creators are encouraged to stay tuned for the launch of its forthcoming AI music and video generation tools, promising a future brimming with creative potential and endless artistic exploration
Are you looking for a new graphic design tool? Would you like to read a detailed review of Canva? As it's one of the tools I love using. I am also writing my first ebook using canva and publish it soon on my site you can download it is free. Let's start the review.
Canva has a web version and also a mobile app
Canva is a free graphic design web application that allows you to create invitations, business cards, flyers, lesson plans, banners, and more using professionally designed templates. You can upload your own photos from your computer or from Google Drive, and add them to Canva's templates using a simple drag-and-drop interface. It's like having a basic version of Photoshop that doesn't require Graphic designing knowledge to use. It’s best for nongraphic designers.
Canva is a great tool for small business owners, online entrepreneurs, and marketers who don’t have the time and want to edit quickly.
To create sophisticated graphics, a tool such as Photoshop can is ideal. To use it, you’ll need to learn its hundreds of features, get familiar with the software, and it’s best to have a good background in design, too.
Also running the latest version of Photoshop you need a high-end computer.
So here Canva takes place, with Canva you can do all that with drag-and-drop feature. It’s also easier to use and free. Also an even-more-affordable paid version is available for $12.95 per month.
The product is available in three plans: Free, Pro ($12.99/month per user or $119.99/year for up to 5 people), and Enterprise ($30 per user per month, minimum 25 people).
To get started on Canva, you will need to create an account by providing your email address, Google, Facebook or Apple credentials. You will then choose your account type between student, teacher, small business, large company, non-profit, or personal. Based on your choice of account type, templates will be recommended to you.
You can sign up for a free trial of Canva Pro, or you can start with the free version to get a sense of whether it’s the right graphic design tool for your needs.
When you sign up for an account, Canva will suggest different post types to choose from. Based on the type of account you set up you'll be able to see templates categorized by the following categories: social media posts, documents, presentations, marketing, events, ads, launch your business, build your online brand, etc.
Start by choosing a template for your post or searching for something more specific. Search by social network name to see a list of post types on each network.
Next, you can choose a template. Choose from hundreds of templates that are ready to go, with customizable photos, text, and other elements.
You can start your design by choosing from a variety of ready-made templates, searching for a template matching your needs, or working with a blank template.
Inside the Canva designer, the Elements tab gives you access to lines and shapes, graphics, photos, videos, audio, charts, photo frames, and photo grids.The search box on the Elements tab lets you search everything on Canva.
To begin with, Canva has a large library of elements to choose from. To find them, be specific in your search query. You may also want to search in the following tabs to see various elements separately:
The Photos tab lets you search for and choose from millions of professional stock photos for your templates.
You can replace the photos in our templates to create a new look. This can also make the template more suited to your industry.
You can find photos on other stock photography sites like pexel, pixabay and many more or simply upload your own photos.
When you choose an image, Canva’s photo editing features let you adjust the photo’s settings (brightness, contrast, saturation, etc.), crop, or animate it.
When you subscribe to Canva Pro, you get access to a number of premium features, including the Background Remover. This feature allows you to remove the background from any stock photo in library or any image you upload.
The Text tab lets you add headings, normal text, and graphical text to your design.
When you click on text, you'll see options to adjust the font, font size, color, format, spacing, and text effects (like shadows).
Canva Pro subscribers can choose from a large library of fonts on the Brand Kit or the Styles tab. Enterprise-level controls ensure that visual content remains on-brand, no matter how many people are working on it.
Create an animated image or video by adding audio to capture user’s attention in social news feeds.
If you want to use audio from another stock site or your own audio tracks, you can upload them in the Uploads tab or from the more option.
Want to create your own videos? Choose from thousands of stock video clips. You’ll find videos that range upto 2 minutes
You can upload your own videos as well as videos from other stock sites in the Uploads tab.
Once you have chosen a video, you can use the editing features in Canva to trim the video, flip it, and adjust its transparency.
On the Background tab, you’ll find free stock photos to serve as backgrounds on your designs. Change out the background on a template to give it a more personal touch.
The Styles tab lets you quickly change the look and feel of your template with just a click. And if you have a Canva Pro subscription, you can upload your brand’s custom colors and fonts to ensure designs stay on brand.
If you have a Canva Pro subscription, you’ll have a Logos tab. Here, you can upload variations of your brand logo to use throughout your designs.
With Canva, you can also create your own logos. Note that you cannot trademark a logo with stock content in it.
With Canva, free users can download and share designs to multiple platforms including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Slack and Tumblr.
Canva Pro subscribers can create multiple post formats from one design. For example, you can start by designing an Instagram post, and Canva's Magic Resizer can resize it for other networks, Stories, Reels, and other formats.
Canva Pro subscribers can also use Canva’s Content Planner to post content on eight different accounts on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Slack, and Tumblr.
Canva Pro allows you to work with your team on visual content. Designs can be created inside Canva, and then sent to your team members for approval. Everyone can make comments, edits, revisions, and keep track via the version history.
When it comes to printing your designs, Canva has you covered. With an extensive selection of printing options, they can turn your designs into anything from banners and wall art to mugs and t-shirts.
Canva Print is perfect for any business seeking to make a lasting impression. Create inspiring designs people will want to wear, keep, and share. Hand out custom business cards that leave a lasting impression on customers' minds.
The Canva app is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play. The Canva app has earned a 4.9 out of five star rating from over 946.3K Apple users and a 4.5 out of five star rating from over 6,996,708 Google users.
In addition to mobile apps, you can use Canva’s integration with other Internet services to add images and text from sources like Google Maps, Emojis, photos from Google Drive and Dropbox, YouTube videos, Flickr photos, Bitmojis, and other popular visual content elements.
In general, Canva is an excellent tool for those who need simple images for projects. If you are a graphic designer with experience, you will find Canva’s platform lacking in customization and advanced features – particularly vectors. But if you have little design experience, you will find Canva easier to use than advanced graphic design tools like Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator for most projects. If you have any queries let me know in the comments section.
Be the first to see our latest thought-provoking films, bringing you bold and original storytelling from around the world
Discover the stories behind our latest short films, learn more about our international film-makers, and join us for exclusive documentary events. We’ll also share a selection of our favourite films, from our archives and from further afield, for you to enjoy. Sign up below.
Can’t wait for the next newsletter? Start exploring our archive now.
Continue reading...
RSS Rabbit links users to publicly available RSS entries.
Vet every link before clicking! The creators accept no responsibility for the contents of these entries.
Relevant
Fresh
Convenient
Agile
We're not prepared to take user feedback yet. Check back soon!
