THE GUARDIAN: Wyoming congresswoman says ‘It’s something I’m thinking about’ after losing to Trump-backed challenger
Liz Cheney, who is vice-chair of the House January 6 committee, has vowed to ‘do whatever it takes to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office’. Photograph: Patrick T Fallon/AFP/Getty Images
Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney has announced she is considering her own run for the White House in an all-out effort to prevent Donald Trump from winning another term as US president.
Cheney decisively lost her Republican primary race on Tuesday night and will lose her seat in the US Congress.
The Trump-backed challenger Harriet Hageman beat Cheney by almost 40 points as Wyoming voters took revenge for her voting to impeach Trump and for focusing on her role on the January 6 House select committee.
The panel, of which Cheney is vice-chair and one of only two Republicans, is investigating Trump’s role in fomenting the insurrection at the US Capitol by his supporters on 6 January 2021, in a vain attempt to stay in office following his defeat by Joe Biden.
Cheney was asked on NBC’s Today show on Wednesday morning whether she was thinking of running for president. She did not respond to the question directly but, when pressed a second time, admitted she was.
“It’s something I’m thinking about, and I’ll make a decision in the coming months,” she said. » | David Smith in Jackson, Wyoming, Richard Luscombe and Joanna Walters | Wednesday, August 17, 2022
Aug 7, 2022 Ihr Leben liest sich wie ein modernes Märchen. Sarah Lorenz und Elna Rinn führten ein ganz normales bürgerliches Leben. Bis sie ihre Traumprinzen trafen - die sich tatsächlich als Aristokraten entpuppten. Durch die Hochzeit wurden sie zu echten Prinzessinnen. Ein Leben hinter verstaubten Schlossmauern führen beide jedoch nicht.
Aug 13, 2022 In Zentralportugal haben zwei ehemalige Ordensschwestern einen Ort der Begegnung geschaffen. Das Herzstück ist ihr Garten für Permakultur. Margarida und Eduarda gehen schonend mit der Erde um. Im September kommen Bohnen, Kohl und Kürbis auf den Tisch. Die Küche der Schwestern ist einfach, aber nahrhaft. Einmal in der Woche backen sie Brot.
Im Landesinnern erheben sich Portugals höchste Berge. Ackerbau ist hier nur unter erschwerten Bedingungen möglich. In einer kleinen Gemeinde in der Region Leiria haben zwei ehemalige Nonnen eine traditionelle Art des schonenden Ackerbaus für sich entdeckt: Permakultur. Im Garten von Margarida Monteiro und Eduarda Barbosa wächst das Gemüse nicht in Reih und Glied. Zwischen Gräsern und Kräutern gedeihen im September Bohnen und Kürbisse und Kohl. Mit den Erträgen ihrer Ernte ernähren sie nicht nur sich selbst, sondern auch Freunde und Freundinnen. Aus Bohnen, selbst gebackenem Brot und Kohl werden traditionelle Migas. Kürbis und Mondbohnen sind die Basis für einen deftigen Eintopf. Ihre eigenen Feigen und Äpfel verfeinern einen herbstlichen Walnusskuchen.
Esskulturreihe, Regie: Stella Könemann (D 2021, 27 Min)
Verfügbar bis zum 05/11/2022
THE GUARDIAN: Exclusive: Tory leadership frontrunner suggested Britons lacked ‘skill and application’, in echo of ‘idlers’ row
Liz Truss, now the Tory leadership frontrunner, launched an astonishing broadside against British workers, saying they needed “more graft” and suggesting they lacked the “skill and application” of foreign rivals, the Guardian can reveal.
In a leaked recording, the then No 2 at the Treasury also risked pitting Londoners against the rest of the country by attempting to explain the difference between the capital and other regions in the UK.
Truss, who has put patriotism at the heart of her leadership campaign, suggested the disparity was “partly a mindset or attitude thing”.
The comments were made when Truss was the chief secretary to the Treasury, a post she held until 2019. In the recording she intimated that there seemed little desire to change the working culture so that the UK could become more prosperous.
The highly disparaging remarks echo a controversial passage about British workers being among the “worst idlers in the world”, from the book Britannia Unchained which she co-authored in 2012 when she was a new backbench MP seeking to make her mark as a neo-Thatcherite. » | Pippa Crerar Political editor | Tuesday, August 16, 20222
How much graft has this woman done in her life? How much skill does she have? She certainly doesn’t have much skill in economics. In economics, she’s a cipher.
Aug 15, 2022 Renowned Indian British novelist Salman Rushdie is in critical condition and faces a long road to recovery after he survived an assassination attempt Friday morning in western New York. Rushdie is one of the most highly acclaimed writers in the world today and has lived underground for many years after facing systematic threats of assassination for his writing. We feature Rushdie in his own words, when he gave a rare speech in 2004 on the freedom of expression at an event hosted by PEN America. "Will we become our enemy or not? Will we become repressive as our enemy is repressive? Will we become intolerant as our enemy is intolerant, or will we not?"
THE GUARDIAN: Singer and actor found dead in Minnesota, US, on 11 August but cause of death remains unknown
Darius Campbell Danesh in the talent show Popstars. Photograph: ITV/Rex/Shutterstock
The former Pop Idol contestant and theatre star Darius Campbell Danesh has been found dead in his US apartment at the age of 41, his family announced.
The singer and actor was found in Rochester, Minnesota, on 11 August. The cause of death is as yet unknown.
A statement said: “It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Darius Campbell Danesh. Darius was found unresponsive in bed in his apartment room in Rochester, Minnesota, on August 11 and was pronounced dead in the afternoon by the local medical examiners’ office.
“The local police department have confirmed that there were no signs of intent or suspicious circumstances. The cause of his sudden death is unknown at this stage while medical examinations continue. » | PA Media | Tuesday, August 16, 2022
Aug 16, 2022 Lawyers and journalists sued the CIA and former CIA Director Mike Pompeo Monday for spying on them while they met Julian Assange when he was living in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he had political asylum. The lawsuit is being filed as Britain prepares to extradite the WikiLeaks founder to the United States, where he faces up to 175 years in prison for violating the Espionage Act by publishing classified documents exposing U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. We speak with the lead attorney in the case, Richard Roth, who details how a private security company stationed at the London Embassy unknowingly sent images from Assange's visitors' cellphones and laptops as well as streamed video from inside meetings to American intelligence. He says the offenses breach a range of client privileges and could sway a U.S. judge to dismiss the case if Assange is successfully extradited.
THE NEW YORK TIMES: The country is the first to offer tampons, sanitary pads and other menstrual products free of charge.
Period products are now free to anyone in Scotland who needs them, nearly two years after the country’s Parliament approved a landmark piece of legislation.
The initiative makes Scotland the first country in the world to provide free sanitary products, part of a global effort to end “period poverty” — or a lack of access to tampons or sanitary pads because of prohibitively high costs.
Monica Lennon, the lawmaker who submitted the draft proposal for the Period Products Act in 2020, tweeted that Scotland might be “the first but won’t be the last” country to provide free period products.
“We are witnessing a massive culture change, where period stigma is no longer being tolerated,” Ms. Lennon said in an email to The New York Times. “There’s more emphasis on menstrual well-being and a renewed focus on tackling medical misogyny.” » | Remy Tumin | Monday, August 15, 2022
THE GUARDIAN: Incumbent prime minister says he ‘cannot conceive of the mindset’ that enabled Scott Morrison to appoint himself to additional positions while PM
Scott Morrison secretly appointed himself to five additional ministries while Australia’s prime minister, in what his successor has labelled an “unprecedented trashing of the Westminster system”.
Morrison now faces calls to resign from parliament over the revelations, including from one of his former ministers. Karen Andrews, a former minister for home affairs, which is one of the departments to which Morrison appointed himself, said: “This is totally unacceptable, for a prime minister to behave in this manner undermines everything that a federal government constitutionally should stand for.” » | Amy Remeikis in Canberra | Tuesday, August 16, 2022
LE MONDE : Ecrivains, essayistes et personnalités décrivent au « Monde » la portée du bouleversement intime et politique que représente l’attaque contre l’auteur des « Versets sataniques ».
Salman Rushdie au Mexique, en octobre 2014. ALFREDO ESTRELLA / AFP
Certains sont des proches. D’autres, simplement, observent depuis des années ce qui se trame autour de lui, et sa propre résistance à la menace qui le poursuit depuis la fatwa lancée par l’ayatollah Khomeyni, le 14 février 1989. Tous, écrivains, essayistes, en France, au Royaume-Uni, en Inde, en Turquie ou aux Etats-Unis, racontent au Monde le bouleversement intime autant que politique que représente pour eux l’attaque subie par Salman Rushdie, vendredi 12 août, à Chautauqua (New York).
Saisis, inquiets – malgré les nouvelles rassurantes qui, progressivement, ont commencé à se faire jour durant le week-end –, ils se montrent d’abord frappés par les circonstances du drame. « C’est incroyable que cela lui soit arrivé lors d’une conférence sur scène, parce que c’est là qu’il est à son meilleur : devant un large public. On voit alors à quel point il est aiguisé, drôle, brillant », note ainsi le romancier américain Gary Shteyngart, ami de l’auteur des Versets sataniques (Bourgois, 1989) « depuis une dizaine d’années », précise-t-il. » | Par Florent Georgesco, Raphaëlle Leyris et Florence Noiville | mardi 16 août 2022
Aug 15, 2022 In 1988, Salman Rushdie’s novel "The Satanic Verses” was published. A year later, Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini issued a "fatwah,” or death sentence, against the British-Indian author. Now, Rushdie was critically injured after being attacked at a reading.
For more than a decade, the author was a fugitive. He had to go into hiding, was under police protection, and had constantly changing identities and homes. The reason was the order to kill Rushdie by Ayatollah Khomeini that came after the publication of his novel, The Satanic Verses. Khomeini declared the work blasphemous, and Rushdie a heretic. At the time, Islamic fundamentalism and its violent and deadly consequences were not on the agenda yet. Rushdie lived in constant fear and survived 20 attempts on his life.
The film is a portrait of a man who uses calmness and humor as weapons of resistance. The portrait includes interviews with Rushdie and also features archive footage that show the violent reaction and mood after The Satanic Verses was published. They show how pop singer Cat Stevens called for Rushdie’s execution - which Cat Stevens would later deny. The film also draws attention to those who should have protected Rushdie, but abandoned him - from Jimmy Carter to Prince Charles. But there are examples of instant support too, like Isabelle Adjani, who read from The Satanic Verses at the César award ceremony. In New York, the author looks back on his life and his most famous novel, which has lost none of its importance. He speaks about his life, his childhood in Mumbai, Donald Trump and literature, of course.
LE MONDE : Salman Rushdie est visé depuis 1989 par une fatwa lancée par l’ayatollah iranien Khomeyni à cause de son roman « Les Versets sataniques ». Si l’auteur a été victime d’une attaque au couteau le 12 août, il est loin d’être la seule victime de cet appel au meurtre.
Il n’a fallu que quelques pages d’un de ses romans pour que Salman Rushdie se retrouve en danger de mort. En publiant Les Versets sataniques, dont un passage a été jugé blasphématoire par l’ayatollah Khomeyni en 1989, l’auteur britannique a été visé par une fatwa selon laquelle Téhéran proposait trois millions de dollars à quiconque abattrait l’écrivain. » | Par Service vidéo du Monde | lundi 15 août 2022
Der 1991 von Dmitri Wrubel auf der Berliner Mauer verewigte Bruderkuss zwischen Leonid Breschnew und Erich Honecker | Bild: PICTURE ALLIANCE
MALER DMITRI WRUBEL GESTORBEN
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG: Der Maler Dmitri Wrubel war in der Kunstgeschichte ausgesprochen bewandert und blieb zu Unrecht ein One-Hit-Wonder. Sein berühmtestes Bild kennt allerdings jeder. Nun ist er mit 62 Jahren gestorben.
Der seit 1990 in Berlin lebende, 1960 in Moskau geborene Künstler Dmitri Wrubel ist zu Unrecht ein One-Hit-Wonder geblieben. Mit seinem im Jahr 1991 auf die Berliner Mauer gemalten und von ihm selbst 2009 erneuerten „Bruderkuss“ zwischen Leonid Breschnew und Erich Honecker wurde er weltberühmt. Wenig verwunderlich, denn Wrubels ebenso ikonisches wie ironisches Historienbild findet sich in der von Touristen zu Tode fotografierten East Side Gallery an der Spree zwischen Berlin-Friedrichshain und Kreuzberg. Zu seiner Ehrenrettung muss gesagt werden: Kaum ein Kommentar zum Untergang der DDR fasst das Dilemma prägnanter in ein Bild. Zwar nutzte Wrubel als Vorlage für seinen Kuss ein Pressefoto von Régis Bossu anlässlich des dreißigsten Jahrestags der DDR 1979, so wie es auch Gerhard Richter bei zeitgeschichtlichen Stoffen hält. » | Stefan Trinks, Redakteur im Feuilleton | Montag, 15. August 2022
THE NEW YORK TIMES: The author of the “Harry Potter” books was threatened on Twitter after she posted condolences for the novelist Salman Rushdie, who was stabbed on Friday in western New York.
The threat was in response to J.K. Rowling’s tweet that the assault on the novelist Salman Rushdie was “Horrifying news.” | Neil Hall/EPA, via Shutterstock
The authorities in the United Kingdom said on Sunday that they were investigating an online threat against the author J.K. Rowling after she offered support on social media to Salman Rushdie, the novelist who was attacked last week at an event in western New York.
Hours after the attack on Mr. Rushdie, who was stabbed roughly 10 times as he prepared to speak at the Chautauqua Institution, Ms. Rowling tweeted her condolences. She first wrote on Twitter, “Horrifying news,” then added: “Feeling very sick right now. Let him be OK.”
In response, a user with the handle @MeerAsifAziz1 replied: “Don’t worry you are next.”
The tweet was later deleted, and the account was suspended by Sunday evening. » | Kurtis Lee | Sunday, August 14,2022
LE MONDE : Selon le porte-parole du ministère des affaires étrangères iranien, « seuls Salman Rushdie et ses partisans mériteraient d’être blâmés et même condamnés ». « Personne n’a le droit d’accuser la République islamique d’Iran », a-t-il ajouté.
Hadi Matar, 24 ans, lors de sa comparution devant le tribunal du comté de Chautauqua, à Mayville, Etat de New York, le 13 août 2022. GENE J. PUSKAR / AP
Trois jours après l’agression au couteau de Salman Rushdie, auteur des Versets sataniques, l’Iran a nié « catégoriquement », lundi 15 août, tout lien avec le suspect.
« Nous démentons catégoriquement » tout lien entre l’agresseur et l’Iran, et « personne n’a le droit d’accuser la République islamique d’Iran », a affirmé le porte-parole du ministère des affaires étrangères, Nasser Kanani, lors de ce qui constitue la première réaction officielle de Téhéran à l’attaque contre l’écrivain britannique.
« Dans cette attaque, seuls Salman Rushdie et ses partisans mériteraient d’être blâmés et même condamnés », a-t-il souligné. « En insultant les choses sacrées de l’islam et en franchissant les lignes rouges de plus d’un milliard et demi de musulmans et de tous les adeptes des religions divines, Salman Rushdie s’est exposé à la colère et à la rage des gens », a-t-il ajouté. » | Le Monde avec AFP | lundi 15 août 2022
Aug 15, 2022 A search warrant made public on Friday reveals the FBI is investigating former President Donald Trump for three federal crimes, including violating the Espionage Act, obstruction of justice and criminal handling of government records, after removing top-secret documents when they raided former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate last week. Meanwhile, Trump is calling the investigation a hoax, and Republican threats are growing against the FBI. We speak with Karen Greenberg, director of the Center on National Security at Fordham University School of Law, who calls Trump's reaction to the FBI search a "call to violence," setting the stage for a "replay" of January 6. "We really need to try to understand what former President Trump intended to do with this material" despite the backlash, says Greenberg.
Aug 15, 2022 One year ago today, the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, promising to bring stability after two decades of war and U.S. occupation. But the country now faces a grave humanitarian crisis and a severe rollback of women's rights. We speak with Afghan journalist Zahra Nader, editor-in-chief of Zan Times, a new women-led outlet documenting human rights issues in Afghanistan. "The people of Afghanistan did not make this decision, and they did not choose the Taliban," says Nader, who explains how imperial occupations of her home country led to the political instability today. Nader also describes the hunger crisis as 95% of Afghans face hunger, and calls for more international attention on Afghanistan.
Aug 3, 2022 Die Abzocke hat es in sich. Es geht um hunderttausende Euro, die verliebte und einsame Frauen an Online-Bekanntschaften überweisen, die es gar nicht gibt. Denn in Wahrheit landet ihr Erspartes bei professionellen Love-Scammern im Ausland. Jungen Männern, die mit falscher Liebe echte Kohle verdienen.
Die SPIEGEL TV-Reporter Tatjana Kurdjumow und Steffen Vogel sind der Spur des Geldes bis nach Ghana gefolgt und haben in Deutschland Frauen getroffen, die alles verloren haben.
LE MONDE : L’incendie, déclenché par un court-circuit au milieu d’une messe dans l’église Abou Sifine, du quartier populaire d’Imbaba, endeuille la plus importante communauté chrétienne du Moyen-Orient
Au moins quarante et une personnes sont mortes et quatorze autres ont été blessées en raison d’un incendie qui s’est déclaré, dimanche 14 août, dans une église du Caire, selon les autorités ecclésiastiques coptes, qui ont annoncé plus tard, que le feu a été maîtrisé.
Cet incendie en pleine messe a provoqué une bousculade, selon les autorités, à l’église Abou Sifine du quartier populaire d’Imbaba, nommée d’après le saint Mercure de Césarée, révéré par les coptes. Ces derniers forment la plus grande communauté chrétienne du Moyen-Orient avec quelque 10 millions de personnes (c’est-à-dire environ 10 % de la population égyptienne). » | Le Monde avec AFP |dimanche 14 août 2022
THE NEW YORK TIMES: A different ‘Big One’ is approaching. Climate change is hastening its arrival.
California, where earthquakes, droughts and wildfires have shaped life for generations, also faces the growing threat of another kind of calamity, one whose fury would be felt across the entire state.
This one will come from the sky.
According to new research, it will very likely take shape one winter in the Pacific, near Hawaii. No one knows exactly when, but from the vast expanse of tropical air around the Equator, atmospheric currents will pluck out a long tendril of water vapor and funnel it toward the West Coast.
This vapor plume will be enormous, hundreds of miles wide and more than 1,200 miles long, and seething with ferocious winds. It will be carrying so much water that if you converted it all to liquid, its flow would be about 26 times what the Mississippi River discharges into the Gulf of Mexico at any given moment.
When this torpedo of moisture reaches California, it will crash into the mountains and be forced upward. This will cool its payload of vapor and kick off weeks and waves of rain and snow. » | Raymond Zhong | Graphics by Mira Rojanasakul | Photographs by Erin Schaff | Friday, August 12, 2022
Aug 14, 2022 A singer, actor and a campaigner who raised millions to find a cure for cancer. Olivia Newton-John didn't waste a moment of her 73 years, but there was also always time for her greatest love, her family. Three years ago, Olivia invited 60 Minutes to her ranch in southern California for what turned out to be one of her last Australian interviews.
THE NEW YORK TIMES: Both threats of political violence and actual attacks have become a steady reality of American life. Experts blame dehumanizing and apocalyptic language.
The armed attack this week on an F.B.I. office in Ohio by a supporter of former President Donald J. Trump who was enraged by the bureau’s search of Mr. Trump’s private residence in Florida was one of the most disturbing episodes of right-wing political violence in recent months.
But it was hardly the only one.
In the year and a half since a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, threats of political violence and actual attacks have become a steady reality of American life, affecting school board officials, election workers, flight attendants, librarians and even members of Congress, often with few headlines and little reaction from politicians.
In late June, a former Marine stepped down as the grand marshal of a July 4 parade in Houston after a deluge of threats that focused on her support of transgender rights. A few weeks later, the gay mayor of an Oklahoma city quit his job after what he described as a series of “threats and attacks bordering on violence.”
Even the federal judge who authorized the warrant to search for classified material at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s beachfront home and club, became a target. On pro-Trump message boards, several threats were issued against him and his family, with one person writing, “I see a rope around his neck.” » | Alan Feuer | Saturday, August 13, 2022
Aug 13, 2022 In Spain, they're eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner - the Spanish Tortilla. Children and grown-ups alike love them. And they are on every menu. Close to 35,000 tons of ready-made tortillas are eaten every year. In Barcelona, we visited a traditional Truiteria - which is Catalan for Tortilleria - to find out the secrets behind this dish.
Credits:
Report: Regina Niedenzu
Camera & Edit: Dirk Rensmann
THE OBSERVER – EDITORIAL: The author’s courage to speak out while living under a fatwa for 30 years should be taken as an example by others
The right to dissent is fundamental to human development but, throughout history, writers and thinkers who have dared to challenge the orthodoxies of their time have faced persecution and violence. It takes extraordinary courage to persist in the face of mortal threats intended to intimidate, silence and terrorise.
For more than 30 years, Salman Rushdie has refused to be cowed by a fatwa calling for his assassination, issued in 1989 by the late supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The violent attack on Rushdie on Friday was not just a heinous attempt on the life of one of the world’s most insightful storytellers but an attack on the right to disagree, on liberal democracy and on freedom itself. » | a href=https://www.theguardian.com/profile/observer-editorials target=_blank>Observer editorial | Sunday, August 14, 2022
THE OBSERVER: Anger as thousands of Bank staff enjoy ‘performance awards’ after governor urged other British workers not to demand big rises
The Bank of England, which has been criticised for underestimating the threat of rising inflation, last year paid out bonuses to its staff amounting to more than £23m, the Observer can reveal.
This bonus pot was at its highest level for at least two years, with more than 4,260 employees receiving performance awards. Andrew Bailey, the bank’s governor, was widely criticised earlier this year after telling Britain’s workers that they should not be asking for big pay rises because inflation had to be kept under control.
The bank is tasked by the government with hitting an inflation target of 2%, but the current rate stands at 9.4%. Lord Sikka, emeritus professor of accounting at Sheffield University, said: “Bonuses should only be paid for extraordinary performance, but there is no evidence the bank has delivered even an ordinary performance. They are unjustified.” »Jon Ungoed-Thomas | Sarurday, August 13, 2022
THE GUARDIAN: First minister of Scotland also jokes she never thought she would look back fondly on Theresa May as PM
Nicola Sturgeon, who has seen four Downing Street incumbents while in office, was speaking at the Edinburgh fringe on Saturday. Photograph: Euan Cherry/Getty Images
Nicola Sturgeon has said Boris Johnson is the only prime minister she has worked with who was “a disgrace to the office”.
Speaking at a panel event at the Edinburgh fringe on Saturday afternoon, hosted by broadcaster Ayesha Hazarika, she said: “I disagreed with David Cameron, I disagreed with Theresa May, I disagreed with Boris Johnson, but he’s the only one who’s actually disgraced the office of prime minister. The sooner he’s gone, the better.”
Sturgeon said the idea that parties were taking place during the Covid-19 pandemic “blew her mind”. “The idea that this could have happened while the rest of the country was going through the horrors of it really blows my mind,” she told audience members.
“Parties themselves are bad enough, but it was the lying, frankly, and the constant attempt to shift the goalposts and the narrative. He was a disgrace, let’s be honest.”
Four prime ministers have been in Downing Street since Sturgeon took office in 2014 and she joked to audience members she never thought she would “look back fondly” on Theresa May as prime minister. » | PA Media | Saturday, August 13, 2022
BoJo has not been only a disgrace to the office of prime minister, he has also been a joke. A sick joke. Liz Truss looks to be even worse. The Conservative Party is ailing. It should go the way of the Whigs: into oblivion! The whole party is a made up of fossils. Relics from a bygone age.
Aug 13, 2022 The UK is in a very serious position. The economy is facing one of the biggest crises ever: exports are collapsing; firms are closing; and individuals are being constantly pressured by the cost of living crisis.
The government meanwhile continues to move to the right, with the two candidates vying to take over from Boris Johnson offering ever more right-wing and extremist policies to their tiny electorate of Conservative Party members. The situation is made worse by having chosen to pursue an extremely hard-right Brexit.
The parliamentary voting system of First Past The Post is archaic and unfair, favouring larger parties whilst excluding smaller parties and making it extremely difficult for them to be heard.
The House of Lords is absurd and should be completely abolished. As it is, it is a facility mostly for the Prime Minister of the day to reward those who he or she favours and in order to gain party advantage.
Party funding is obscene whereby rich and powerful men and women are effectively able to buy influence and advantage. Similarly the Labour Party is unduly influenced by trade unions who support them.
London is awash with money from all over the world, much of which is the proceeds of crime. This has resulted in thousands of very expensive properties in central London being left empty, being used as a depository for ill-gotten gains. London, with Turkey and Dubai is known the world over as the easiest place to launder money without and risk of being investigated or otherwise bothered by the authorities. Indeed, governments over the past ten years or so have appeared to encourage such activity by effectively asking not to told about it and turning a blind eye.
Climate change is not being treated as the massive crisis that it is, dwarfing all other considerations. The government should treat this as the biggest threat facing us all.
Sep 11, 2020 This baba Ganoush recipe is incredibly easy to make and jam-packed with delicious eggplant, roasted garlic, and tahini flavors!
This appetizer, or side dish, is a classic levant region recipe consisting of mashed cooked eggplant that is mixed with seasonings, olive oil, lemon juice, and tahini. Interestingly enough the baba Ganoush we eat most often in the United States is actually something called Mutabbal.
Authentic baba ganoush does not use tahini and is usually garnished with pomegranate molasses or seeds and olive oil while being mixed with tomatoes and other veggies. So not to confuse anyone, we’ll stick with the version we most commonly eat here in the US.
Ingredients:
• 2 large eggplant [aubergine], about 3 pounds total
• ¼ cup garlic confit
• ¼ cup tahini
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• ¼ teaspoon cayenne
• ¼ cup garlic confit oil
• sea salt to taste
1. Preheat the grill to high heat, 450°F to 550°F [230/240°C].
2. Add the eggplants and cook on all sides until softened and roasted, which takes about 25 minutes.
3. Remove the eggplants and let cool slightly before slicing in half and scraping out the fruit inside. Discard the peelings.
4. Add the eggplant to a food processor and process on high speed until smooth.
5. Next, add in the garlic, tahini, lemon juice, cumin, cayenne, and salt and process on high speed until smooth.r />
7. Serve and optional garnishes of olive oil, cayenne, and chopped parsley.
Chef Notes:
Make ahead: This can be made up to 1 day ahead of time. Simply keep it covered in the refrigerator until it is ready to be served.
How to Store: Keep covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Baba Ganoush does not freeze well.
If you would like to make a classic baba ganoush instead of Mutabbal, remove the tahini, and garnish with pomegranate syrup or seeds, as well as olive oil. In addition, there is no need to process it in a food processor, simply chop with a knife or mash with a fork.
You can use either raw or roasted tahini in this recipe.
If cayenne is too spicy simply substitute with paprika.
There will be plenty of garlic confit and roasted garlic olive oil left over after this recipe and both will keep in the refrigerator for up to 7 days.
When the eggplant is done roasting the outside skin will firm up and be slightly crispy.
Aug 13, 2022 Whether it’s Sunak or Truss that emerges victorious from the cess pit of the Tory leadership contest, the new leader will appoint ministers, and introduce policies, that will make the Johnson government look positively liberal. From their plans for lawless, unregulated charter cities, to the removal of our human rights of free assembly and protest, to a bonfire of environmental, consumer and employment regulations and standards, plus a doubling down on the performative cruelty of the Rwanda policy, The Conservative Party has morphed into a far right English National Party. Whichever leader they choose, and it’s probably going to be Lib Dem stroke Tory, Remainer stroke Brexiteer Liz Truss, they have no interest in the burgeoning cost of living crisis which will cause great pain to millions.
Aug 13, 2022 Author Salman Rushdie is alive but breathing through a ventilator after being stabbed on stage as he was about to give a lecture in New York state. Rushdie had spent years in hiding and under police protection after Iranian leaders called for his execution over his 1988 novel "The Satanic Verses." A 24-year-old man has been taken into custody.
LE MONDE : Salman Rushdie a été visé par une fatwa de l’ayatollah iranien Ruhollah Khomeyni en 1989, après la publication de ses « Versets sataniques », livre que de nombreux musulmans considèrent comme blasphématoire.
Salman Rushdie lors d’une conférence au Havre (Seine-Maritime), le 13 septembre 2016. CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP
L’écrivain britannique Salman Rushdie, cible de menaces de mort de la part de l’Iran depuis la publication des Versets sataniques (1988), a été placé sous respirateur artificiel après avoir été agressé et poignardé au cou et à l’abdomen, vendredi 12 août, alors qu’il s’apprêtait à prendre la parole lors d’une conférence dans l’Etat de New York, aux Etats-Unis.
Immédiatement après l’agression sur l’estrade d’un amphithéâtre d’un centre culturel à Chautauqua, M. Rushdie a été transporté en hélicoptère vers l’hôpital le plus proche, où il a été opéré en urgence. « Les nouvelles ne sont pas bonnes », a fait savoir son agent, Andrew Wylie, qui a précisé que l’écrivain de 75 ans avait besoin d’une assistance respiratoire. « Salman va probablement perdre un œil, les nerfs de son bras ont été sectionnés et son foie a été poignardé et est endommagé », a-t-il ajouté. » | Le Monde avec AFP | vendredi 12 août 2022
THE NEW YORK TIMES: Yes, this Communist politician in Graz, Austria, wants to redistribute wealth, but a focus on housing, her own modest lifestyle and a hard childhood have helped her popularity.
The iconic bell tower in the wealthy city of Graz, Austria, which is led by a Communist mayor, Elke Kahr. | Marylise Vigneau for The New York Times
THE SATURDAY PROFILE
GRAZ, Austria — That the conservative mayor would win yet again, and serve a fifth term, had been treated as a foregone conclusion in Graz, Austria’s second-largest city, a place where it’s not uncommon to encounter local residents proudly dressed in traditional lederhosen and dirndls.
Elke Kahr, the leader of the city’s Communist Party, was equally convinced she would lose again to the slick heir to a trading dynasty who had led the city for 18 years.
So she was as surprised as the journalist who told her the election news last September: The Communists had emerged victorious, and she would be the next mayor.
“He was completely bewildered — and I thought it was a joke,” Ms. Kahr recalled of her election night conversation with the reporter at City Hall.
Newspapers across Europe started calling the city “Leningraz,” a moniker the new mayor smiles about.
“Yes, 100 percent, I’m a convinced Marxist,” Ms. Kahr said in her mayoral office, flanked by the used Ikea shelves with which she displaced the stately furniture of her predecessor, Siegfried Nagl, of the Austrian People’s Party, or Ö.V.P.
Ms. Kahr, 60, is now trying to “redistribute wealth” as much as her role allows her to, she said.
But that doesn’t mean that her Communist Party of Austria, or K.P.Ö., plans to dispossess the bourgeoisie or abolish the free market. Ms. Kahr said her goal was “to alleviate the problems of the people in our city as much as possible.” » | Denise Hruby | Friday, August 12, 2022
THE GUARDIAN: Author attacked at event in western New York as police identify the suspect in custody as Hadi Matar
Sir Salman Rushdie remains on a ventilator after being attacked on stage at an event in western New York state on Friday morning.
Rushdie, the author whose writing led to death threats from Iran in the 1980s, was stabbed in the neck and torso as he was about to give a lecture in western New York.
Rushdie, 75, was taken to surgery, and Andrew Wylie, his spokesperson, said in a statement early Friday evening that the author was put on a ventilator and had suffered significant injuries: “The news is not good. Salman will likely lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver was stabbed and damaged.”
Authorities later identified the man suspected of stabbing Rushdie as 24-year-old Hadi Matar of Fairview, New Jersey, who had bought a pass to the event. Plus video » | Ed Pilkington and Maya Yang in New York, Sam Levin in Los Angeles and agencies | Friday, August 12, 2022
THE GUARDIAN: PM fuels Tory leadership dispute by saying UK will need to find more cash to help with surging bills
Boris Johnson said more support would need to be provided by winter. Photograph: Oli Scarff/AP
Boris Johnson has acknowledged that the package of support to help people pay surging energy bills is not enough, as the split deepens between Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss over how to deal with the crisis.
Amid forecasts that energy bills could hit £5,000 a year by next April, the prime minister made clear that he expected his successor to act.
Asked if the current package of £400 off bills, rising to £650 for vulnerable households, was enough, Johnson said: “No, because what I’m saying what we’re doing in addition is trying to make sure that by October, by January, there is further support, and what the government will be doing, whoever is the prime minister, is making sure there is extra cash to help people.” » | Rowena Mason, Deputy political editor | Friday, April 12, 2022
THE GUARDIAN: Details contained in explosive search warrant show US officials investigating whether three criminal statutes violated
Donald Trump in New York this week, days after the FBI searched his home in south Florida.Photograph: David Dee Delgado/Reuters
Donald Trump is under criminal investigation for potential violations of the Espionage Act and additional statutes relating to obstruction of justice and destroying federal government records, according to the search warrant executed by FBI agents at the former president’s home on Monday.
The explosive search warrant – the contents of which were confirmed by the Guardian – shows the FBI was seeking evidence about whether the mishandling of classified documents by Trump, including some marked top secret, amounted to a violation of three criminal statutes.
Most notably, the search warrant granted by US magistrate judge Bruce Reinhart and approved by Attorney General Merrick Garland authorized FBI agents to seize materials that could form evidence that Trump violated the Espionage Act under 18 USC 793, and Obstruction, under 18 USC 1519. » | Hugo Lowell in Washington | Friday, August 12, 2022
Aug 12, 2022 Italy's worst drought in decades has caused the water level of the country's largest lake to fall sharply and reduce in size. At Sirmione, in the southernmost part of Lake Garda, rocky "beaches" have emerged where the water usually is - enabling tourists to stroll and sunbathe.
THE NEW YORK TIMES: Literary figures and public officials said that they were shocked by the news that the author Salman Rushdie had been stabbed in the neck on Friday morning while onstage to give a lecture at the Chautauqua Institute in western New York.
“We cannot immediately think of any comparable incident of a public violent attack on a writer during a literary event here in the United States,” said Suzanne Nossel, the chief executive officer of the nonprofit literary organization PEN America, who noted that the motivations for the attack and Mr. Rushdie’s current condition were unknown as of Friday late morning.
Mr. Rushdie is a former president of PEN America, which advocates for writers’ freedom of expression around the world.
She said in a statement that the organization’s members were “reeling from shock and horror.”
Ms. Nossel said Mr. Rushdie had emailed her hours before the attack to ask about helping Ukrainian writers in need of safe refuge.
“Salman Rushdie has been targeted for his words for decades, but has never flinched nor faltered,” she said. “He has devoted tireless energy to assisting others who are vulnerable and menaced.”
The author Neil Gaiman wrote on Twitter that he was “shocked and distressed” about the attack.
“He’s a good man and a brilliant one and I hope he’s okay,” he said.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain said in a Twitter post that he was “appalled that Sir Salman Rushdie has been stabbed while exercising a right we should never cease to defend. Right now my thoughts are with his loved ones. We are all hoping he is okay.” » | Hurubie Meko | Friday, August 12, 2022
LE MONDE : Le pays a connu son début d’année le plus sec depuis près d’un demi-siècle, à tel point que la source de la Tamise est à sec. Des interdictions d’arrosage, de lavage de voitures et de remplissage des piscines pour les particuliers vont notamment entrer en vigueur.
Alors que l’ensemble du territoire français est concerné par la sécheresse, la situation s’aggrave aussi outre-Manche. L’état de sécheresse a ainsi été déclaré, vendredi 12 août, dans une grande partie de l’Angleterre, a annoncé le gouvernement britannique, à l’issue d’une réunion d’urgence convoquée par l’agence pour l’environnement.
L’alerte, qui n’avait pas été déclarée depuis 2018, concerne quatorzes zones incluant Londres, la vallée de la Tamise et une grande partie du sud, du centre et de l’est de l’Angleterre. Si, comme en France, elle peut entraîner des mesures allant jusqu’à des restrictions de l’usage de l’eau, elle intervient alors que le Royaume-Uni connaît sa deuxième vague de chaleur de l’été, dans un pays peu habitué aux températures élevées. » | Le Monde avec AFP | vendredi 12 août 2022
Aug 12, 2022 Malta is the only EU state with a ban on abortion, there are no exceptions, including in cases of rape or incest.
Neither of Malta's main political parties supported a bill to decriminalise abortion last year but campaigners hope that a review of the law, along with shifts in social attitudes, could trigger change.
Salman RushdieCredit...Grant Pollard/Invision, via Associated Press
THE NEW YORK TIMES: The author Salman Rushdie, who spent years in hiding and under police protection after Iranian officials called for his execution, was attacked and stabbed in the neck on Friday while onstage in Chautauqua, near Erie in western New York, the state police said.
The attack happened at about 11 a.m., shortly after Mr. Rushdie took the stage to deliver a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution, a community in western New York that offers arts and literary programming during the summer.
Mr. Rushdie was taken by helicopter to a local hospital, the state police said in a statement. His condition is not yet known. It was not clear what motivated the attacker.
Rita Landman, an endocrinologist who was in the audience, said that Mr. Rushdie had multiple stab wounds, including one to the right side of his neck, and that there was a pool of blood under his body. But she said he appeared to be alive. “People were saying, ‘He has a pulse, he has a pulse he has a pulse,’” Ms. Landman said.
The author had just come onstage and was seated in a chair as a staff member introduced him, when the assailant rushed the stage and assaulted the author. “I could just see his fists sort of pounding on Salman,” one witness, Bill Vasu, 72, said.
A number of people rushed to Mr. Rushdie’s aid, Mr. Vasu said, and quickly pinned the attacker to the ground. » | David Gelles and Elizabeth A. Harris | Friday, August 12, 2022
Aug 12, 2022 A jury in California has convicted a former worker at Twitter of spying for Saudi Arabia by providing the kingdom private information about Saudi dissidents. The spying effort led to the arrest, torture and jailing of Abdulrahman al-Sadhan, who ran an anonymous satirical Twitter account. His sister, Areej al-Sadhan, and the lawyer for the family, Jim Walden, are calling on the Biden administration to push for his release. "The brutality of the Saudi officials have no limits," says Areej al-Sadhan. "Twitter and other social media companies have more than a little responsibility for what's happening, not just with respect to Abdulrahman's case and the case of other disappeared Saudi human rights activists and outspoken dissidents, but across a much broader array of misconduct," says Walden.
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG: Die Ukraine beklagt bisher mehr als 2100 Zwangsadoptionen von Waisenkindern durch Russland. Putins Kinderbeauftragte spielt darin eine zentrale Rolle.
Wer ukrainisches Fernsehen schaut, der bekam im April und Mai mehrfach den Namen Kira Obedynska zu hören. Am Anfang ohne das Gesicht dazu. Die zwölf Jahre alte Kira war Halbwaise, bald nach Beginn des Krieges in der Ukraine auch Vollwaise. Ihr Vater wurde im von den russischen Truppen belagerten Mariupol, der Heimatstadt der Familie, erschossen – als er in seiner Wohnung auf dem Balkon stand. Daraufhin versuchte eine Gruppe von Einwohnern, darunter Kira, zu Fuß aus der Stadt zu fliehen. Ein Kind berührte eine Mine; auch Kira wurde durch die Explosion verletzt. Sie wurde be¬handelt. Am Ende brachten russische oder prorussische Kämpfer das Mädchen nach Donezk, in die 2014 unter Moskauer Anleitung gebildete sogenannte Donezker Volksrepublik (DNR). Dort lag sie wochenlang im Krankenhaus. » | Gerhard Gnauck, Politischer Korrespondent für Polen, die Ukraine, Estland, Lettland und Litauen mit Sitz in Warschau | Freitag, 12. August 2022
LE MONDE : Le royaume chérifien subit une grave sécheresse depuis plus de quarante ans. Dans les années 1960, la disponibilité en eau était quatre fois supérieure à aujourd’hui.
A 140 km de Casablanca, près du village d’Ouled Essi Masseoud, la retenue d’eau du barrage d’Al-Massira n’est plus qu’une terre assechée, le 8 août 2022. FADEL SENNA / AFP
« Voir des villageois courant chaque matin à la fontaine ou chez un voisin pour récupérer de l’eau donne envie de pleurer », confie Mohamed Sbaï, qui a abandonné l’agriculture à cause des sécheresses successives qui frappent son village isolé, à 140 km de Casablanca.
Village aux terres autrefois fertiles, Ouled Essi Masseoud est désormais durement touché par le stress hydrique qui menace tout le Maroc. Privée d’eau potable courante, cette localité située au pied de collines s’approvisionne uniquement dans les fontaines publiques ou dans les puits privés. « Les fontaines ne sont opérationnelles qu’un à deux jours par semaine, les puits commencent à se tarir et le fleuve à côté s’assèche de plus en plus », explique à l’AFP M. Sbaï, ancien paysan. « La rareté de l’eau nous fait souffrir », poursuit le sexagénaire, en route pour récupérer de l’eau chez des voisins. » | Le Monde avec AFP | vendredi 12 août 2022
Jul 6, 2022 The official visualizer for “California Saga (On My Way To Sunny Californ-i-a)” from ‘Sounds of Summer: The Very Best of The Beach Boys’ Expanded Edition.
Aug 11, 2022 British households face average energy bills surging above £5,000 next year, according to the latest forecast by the energy consultancy Auxilione.
The warning follows a steep rise in wholesale gas prices - and came as the Prime Minister attended a meeting with the electricity sector in Downing Street. That meeting failed to produce any immediate concrete help for struggling households.
Oct 12, 2020 Tinder has been downloaded more than 100 million times worldwide. It’s reinvented the way we meet people.
Billed as 'the largest, hottest community of singles in the world', Tinder urges users, 'when in doubt, give a Swipe Right. Trust us, the more options you have, the better-looking life becomes.'
The app generates enormous revenue for its parent company Match Group, but there's alarming evidence that Tinder is putting users at great risk.
In a joint investigation, Four Corners and triple j Hack reveal that the dating app has become a playground for sex offenders.
This documentary is definitely NOT suitable for children. – Mark
