General news

• Summer box office 2023: what were the big hits and misses?

  23-08-2023 23:20 via theguardian.com
  
  It was the season of Barbenheimer but also one that saw some of the costliest flops that the industry has ever seenWhile Hollywood suffered its fair share of furrowed brows this season, the end result is looking like a win. If all goes to plan by the end of the week, then this summer will see the box office reach the magic $4bn mark, making it the biggest summer since the pre-pandemic era.It’s all going to be perilously down to the wire though and with a number of major films losing a majo
  
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• What next for the Wagner group after Yevgeny Prigozhin’s reported death?

  23-08-2023 22:17 via theguardian.com
  
  The apparent death in a plane crash of the man who humiliated Putin comes as little surprise to most Russia observers. But can his mercenary group survive without him?Russia-Ukraine war: all todays developmentsPrigozhin on passenger list of plane that crashed killing all aboardIn the aftermath of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s “march on Moscow” two months ago, CIA chief William Burns predicted that Russian president Vladimir Putin would take his time exacting his revenge.“What we ar
  
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• Women’s World Cup stars on the move: 10 deals you may have missed

  23-08-2023 22:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Some of the players of the tournament are heading to new clubs for the domestic seasons, and plenty to the WSLThe World Cup may be over but, after a short break, most of its stars will start preparing for their club seasons. The transfer market is always abuzz and some players made their moves before the tournament got under way in Australia and New Zealand. Here we pick 10 of the main ones that took place, as well as some that may well happen in the next few weeks.Kadidiatou Diani: Paris St-Ger
  
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• Manchester City bid for Matheus Nunes as Bernardo Silva signs new contract

  23-08-2023 21:52 via theguardian.com
  
  Influential midfielder Silva commits to club until 2026Aymeric Laporte announces exit amid reports of Saudi moveManchester City have submitted a bid in excess of €50m (£42.7m) for Wolves midfielder Matheus Nunes on an eventful day at the club. Bernardo Silva has committed his future and signed a new contract with the club until 2026, while Aymeric Laporte has announced that his time at the Etihad Stadium has come to an end.Personal terms have been agreed with Nunes, who turns 25 on Su
  
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• Britain’s Kerr stuns Ingebrigtsen to win world championship 1500m gold

  23-08-2023 21:31 via theguardian.com
  
  Olympic bronze medallist outkicks Norwegian for victoryScottish runner, 25, follows Jake Wightman’s win last yearAt the end of a world 1500m final of unflinching intensity and staggering bloody-mindedness, Josh Kerr began to beat his chest like a silverback. The message was clear. He was the man now. As the cameras panned to the 11 vanquished rivals behind him, including the Olympic champion and huge pre-race favourite Jakob Ingebrigtsen, it was impossible to argue.This was a world title w
  
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• Quebec judge gives go-ahead for lawsuit over sterilisation of Indigenous women

  23-08-2023 21:10 via theguardian.com
  
  Three doctors accused of performing or coercing women into sterilisation proceduresA judge in Quebec has given the go-ahead for a class action lawsuit over the forced sterilisation of Indigenous women in the Canadian province.Two Atikamekw women known publicly by only their initials, UT and MX, brought the lawsuit against three doctors they accuse of performing or coercing women into sterilisation procedures in a small, remote town in northern Quebec. Continue reading...
  
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• ‘It’s not black and white’: is Carlos Ghosn a victim or a villain?

  23-08-2023 21:02 via theguardian.com
  
  A new four-part Apple TV+ docu-series charts the rise and fall of former Nissan and Renault boss turned disgraced international fugitiveIt has been said in newspapers, cable news and by the wanted man himself: Carlos Ghosn’s story was made for the screen. The disgraced former Nissan and Renault boss’s escape from Japan while awaiting trial for alleged financial misconduct in December 2019 seemed like a sequence ripped from a Hollywood heist film – a meticulously arranged plot i
  
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• Steve Borthwick’s unconvincing England a result of RFU’s botched plan | Andy Bull

  23-08-2023 21:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Head coach’s succession to Eddie Jones now looks like a hospital pass from the sport’s governing body as the World Cup loomsHere we go, here we go, here we oh. So, 16 days from the World Cup they have spent the past four years preparing for, England arrive at their final warm-up game against Fiji on Saturday sixth in the world rankings, shepherded by a new coaching team who are on a run of three wins in seven, steeled by a defence conceding an average of four tries a game, sharpened
  
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• Scientists discover why thousands of octopuses huddle in a deep-sea crevice – video

  23-08-2023 20:41 via theguardian.com
  
  A study of the biggest known congregation of breeding octopuses, about 20,000, has made discoveries as to why so many of the species gather there. A volcanic vent in the ocean bed off California provides warm water and nutrients to the brooding octopuses, and scientists from MBARI have found this helps shorten the time it takes for their eggs to hatch, increasing their chances of survivalDiscovered in the deep: an octopus’s garden in the shade Continue reading...
  
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• Wagner Prigozhin LIVE: Yevgeny Prigozhin among 10 dead in private jet crash

  23-08-2023 20:26 via express.co.uk
  
  Russian officials have confirmed that Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was on board.
  
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• ‘I thought I was dead’: Pakistan cable car survivors describe 16-hour ordeal

  23-08-2023 20:23 via theguardian.com
  
  Six children and two adults were rescued on Tuesday after being left hanging hundreds of metres in the airAttaullah, 16, was travelling to school on Tuesday to collect his exam results, using a cable car to cross the ravine from his village – as he had done many times before. But when a cable broke and left him, five other children and two adults hanging precariously in the air hundreds of metres above a steep gorge, he said he had no hope he would survive.“I was hell scared and all
  
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• Wilko to close majority of stores with loss of thousands of jobs

  23-08-2023 20:22 via theguardian.com
  
  UK retailer, which has about 400 shops, likely to shut some branches ‘in near future’ after no buyer foundThe majority of Wilko stores are expected to shut with the loss of thousands of jobs after a white knight failed to step forward to rescue the collapsed retailer.The family-owned household and garden products retailer, which has about 400 stores and employs almost 12,500 people, will leave big gaps on high streets after the failure of talks with interested parties forced it to ca
  
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• Discovered in the deep: an octopus’s garden in the shade

  23-08-2023 20:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Two miles under the dark ocean off California, 20,000 pearl octopuses use the gentle heat of nearby volcanic springs to help their babies hatch fasterScientists have solved the mystery of why tens of thousands of octopuses cluster on the foothills of a giant underwater mountain, two miles down off the coast of California. The pearl octopuses, so named because from a distance they look like scattered gems, seek out warm water seeping through the seabed and use it to speed up the hatching of their
  
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• The Guardian view on Tory MPs and tax cuts: the desperate demanding the delusional | Editorial

  23-08-2023 19:50 via theguardian.com
  
  The Conservative fixation on shrinking the state is fiscally reckless and detached from political reality Just as every problem resembles a nail to someone equipped only with a hammer, the faintest glint of good economic news entices Conservative MPs to call for tax cuts. Earlier this week, new data showed that government borrowing in the second quarter of the year was £11.3bn lower than had previously been forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). The windfall is explained b
  
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• The Guardian view on Thaksin’s return to Thailand: dodgy deals can’t replace democracy | Editorial

  23-08-2023 19:48 via theguardian.com
  
  Voters chose progress in May’s elections. Instead, they’ve been handed a fragile political bargain between longstanding foesWith enemies like this, who needs friends? After years of mutual loathing, coups, chaos and even bloodshed, the fight between Thailand’s military-royalist establishment and controversial former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has ended – for now – in a seismic new deal. The exiled tycoon flew back from self-imposed exile on Tuesday thanks to
  
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• More than 100 MPs received freebies worth £180,000 this summer

  23-08-2023 19:37 via theguardian.com
  
  Exclusive: Oliver Dowden and Keir Starmer among those who enjoyed free tickets to events including the Chelsea flower show and the Derby More than 100 MPs have enjoyed free hospitality to concerts and sporting events worth more than £180,000 this summer, with tickets given away by banks, oil companies, the gambling industry and media firms.The chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, the deputy prime minister, Oliver Dowden, and the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, are among those who have benefited from a gr
  
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• Lucy Letby: NHS could face record compensation bill of more than £60m

  23-08-2023 19:19 via theguardian.com
  
  Parents whose babies have disabilities caused by nurse’s attacks could each receive more than £10m, say expertsThe NHS could face a record compensation bill of more than £60m from civil claims lodged by the families of Lucy Letby’s victims, experts have said.Parents whose babies have disabilities caused by Letby’s attacks at the Countess of Chester hospital could each expect to receive a payout of more than £10m to fund their future care. Continue reading...
  
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• Tourists visiting one of UK's 'worst' seaside towns having to pay £29 just for parking

  23-08-2023 19:07 via express.co.uk
  
  Beach-lovers are being hit with ever-increasing charges for the privilege of parking in some of Britain's best - and worst - seaside towns.
  
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• Firefighters in Greece tackle more than 200 wildfires in 48 hours

  23-08-2023 18:57 via theguardian.com
  
  Temperature records broken in France and red alerts issued in Italy as late summer heatwave continues in southern EuropeFirefighters in Greece have battled more than 200 blazes in the past 48 hours, officials say, as swaths of southern Europe bake in a late summer heatwave that has broken a number of all-time records and triggered red alerts across France and Italy.Wildfires in Greece, which have killed 20 people in the past three days, have been raging out of control just north-west of Athens a
  
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• America on trial: the charges against Trump will decide the fate of a nation | Martin Kettle

  23-08-2023 18:50 via theguardian.com
  
  The US has no precedents for a former president in the dock, but there are echoes of France’s pursuit of Marshal PétainHistory teaches us few wider lessons. But there are rare exceptions. One of these is that for a nation to put its former leaders on trial is never straightforward. Although such cases are rare, when they do occur they frequently involve the pushing of pre-existing legal boundaries and the reshaping of constitutional norms and assumptions. The evolution of the doctri
  
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• The Fyre festival fraudster is back – and I’m fascinated by his brazenness | Emma Brockes

  23-08-2023 18:46 via theguardian.com
  
  He’s done his time in jail and now Billy McFarland has something new to sell. But who’s going to buy it this time?You may remember Billy McFarland, if not the name then the image that, six years ago, frequently accompanied public mention of him: an open cheese sandwich sweating gently on a bed of white polystyrene. McFarland was jailed in 2018 for fraud after the collapse, a year earlier, of his Fyre festival, the disastrous party on a Bahamian island that took down a generation of m
  
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• ‘Is this an apology?’ Mary Earps queries Nike statement on England replica shirt

  23-08-2023 18:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Fans still unable to buy her England women’s goalkeeper jerseyEarps posts question on Instagram in response to Nike commentThe England goalkeeper Mary Earps has questioned a Nike statement regarding the unavailability of her replica shirt during the recent Women’s World Cup.The Golden Glove winner at the tournament, in which England reached the final, spoke out before the World Cup when fans were unable to buy the women’s version of England’s goalkeeper jersey. Continue r
  
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• Amazon’s emissions ‘doubled’ under first half of Bolsonaro presidency

  23-08-2023 18:22 via theguardian.com
  
  New study published in Nature says period was as destructive as record 2016 El Niño drought and heatwaveThe first half of Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency was so destructive for the Amazon that it was comparable to the record 2016 El Niño drought and heatwave in terms of carbon emissions, according to scientists.Annual emissions from the world’s largest rainforest roughly doubled in 2019 and 2020, compared with the 2010 to 2018 average, according to a new study published in
  
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• Woman found guilty of murdering man after claims he raped her on Tinder date

  23-08-2023 18:04 via express.co.uk
  
  Dad-of-two Liam Smith, 38, was shot in the face and then doused in acid outside his home in Wigan.
  
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• Tell us: are you getting married abroad to make your money go further?

  23-08-2023 17:59 via theguardian.com
  
  We would like to hear from people who have chosen to get married in the sun to make their money go furtherWith costs in the UK soaring, it can cost as much to get married in the UK as it does to host a weekend aboard of fun for friends and family.Have you chosen to get married in the sun to make your money go further? Continue reading...
  
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• Tropical forests face ‘massive leaf death’ from global heating, study finds

  23-08-2023 17:58 via theguardian.com
  
  Some kinds of tree leaf could become too hot to be able to conduct photosynthesis, researchers warnTropical forests could become so hot that some kinds of leaves will no longer be able to conduct photosynthesis, according to a study published in the journal Nature.The photosynthetic machinery in tropical trees begins to fail at about 46.7C on average. The research suggests that forests may be nearing dangerous temperature thresholds sooner than expected. Continue reading...
  
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• ‘I was an absolute maniac’: punk legend Wreckless Eric on storming Spotify despite sounding like Mickey Mouse

  23-08-2023 17:55 via theguardian.com
  
  The cult singer is still living off Whole Wide World, his very first song – and it wasn’t even a hit. As the riotous raconteur releases a new album, he talks bloody marys, brake failures and near death by CovidAs Eric Goulden concedes, the last few years have been rather a mixed bag. On the plus side, his most famous song, Whole Wide World, enjoyed yet another of its periodic leases of life. It was the first song he ever released, in 1977, one of a succession of classic punk-era sing
  
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• India’s south pole moon landing is big business for global space race

  23-08-2023 17:52 via theguardian.com
  
  India has raised its spacefaring profile and will now be seen as low-cost provider for missions possibleFor all the risks, for all that was riding on a successful landing, the descent to the moon’s surface was remarkably uneventful, if not exactly stress-free. The Vikram lander, part of India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission, dropped steadily on its thrusters to the rock below, slowed to a hover as it approached the ground, and finally came to a rest on the dusty terrain.When confirmation cam
  
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• Back from California and Rish! is already drained. Bring on the election

  23-08-2023 17:48 via theguardian.com
  
  Tired of looking happy and as if he actually cares, Rishi Sunak is ready to be a free man once moreCalifornia dreaming. Ever since he’d returned from holiday in Santa Monica Rishi Sunak had been overwhelmed with a sense of despair. A futility no number of sessions on his Peloton could erase. He was meant to be living his best life. The tech-bro turned prime minister. The man who fell to Earth to save the UK from Boris Johnson and Liz Truss. Where was the gratitude for all he had done? At b
  
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• Rory McIlroy warning on ‘slippery slope’ of gambling fans affecting golf events

  23-08-2023 17:37 via theguardian.com
  
  Spectators watching live ‘can really affect play’Rise in US sports betting discussed by PGA Tour boardRory McIlroy has warned that golf has to remain vigilant to the rise in sports betting in the US. He also confirmed the issue has been up for regular discussion at PGA Tour board level.Jon Rahm claimed on Tuesday that the Tour will find it “extremely difficult” to stop fans with gambling interests from affecting events. At the BMW Championship on Saturday, two individuals
  
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• Proton transport through nanoscale corrugations in two-dimensional crystals - Nature.com

  23-08-2023 17:04 via news.google.com
  
  Proton transport through nanoscale corrugations in two-dimensional crystals  Nature.comView Full coverage on Google News
  
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• The bulb and the beautiful: four show-stealing recipes with lots of garlic

  23-08-2023 17:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Butter, bread, confit and a cheesy potato bake – all with ample allium. In these recipes by cook Daen Lia, more garlic is moreNo matter what I serve this with, it always steals the show. I might have spent all day making pasta with a slow-cooked sauce, but it will go untouched if this garlic bread is on the dinner table. It’s also packed with mozzarella – when baked, the mozzarella melts into the bread and oozes out when pulled apart. Continue reading...
  
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• Top 25 women list blasted as 'ludicrous' with transgender cyclist the only sports star

  23-08-2023 16:58 via express.co.uk
  
  Emily Bridges made headlines in 2022 after becoming embroiled in a national debate after being barred from a major sporting event for being transgender.
  
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• Hate sharing a plane? You’ll love the flying scooter

  23-08-2023 16:40 via theguardian.com
  
  If inventor Franky Zapata can make it work, the Airscooter will be the ‘personal flying machine’ every misanthrope dreams ofName: The Airscooter.Age: Brand new. Continue reading...
  
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• Royal Special - Queen Elizabeth II: Forever in our Hearts

  23-08-2023 16:23 via express.co.uk
  
  Celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's extraordinary life with OK! special collector's edition magazine.
  
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• Pushing Buttons: A new Switch? GTA VI? What to expect from Gamescom

  23-08-2023 16:00 via theguardian.com
  
  In this week’s newsletter: From dudebros and currywurst to top-level gore and sci-fi roadtrips, a preview of what’s to come from gaming’s biggest show• Don’t get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereFor many years, Gamescom was quietly known within the industry as “that other event” – a reference to the utter dominance E3 once enjoyed in the collective consciousness. Taking place in Cologne, it’s a very different beast to its A
  
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• An extreme dance on top of a bus shelter: Emmanuel Cole’s best photograph

  23-08-2023 15:59 via theguardian.com
  
  ‘This trio are celebrating the Notting Hill carnival with a dance called daggering which is common in Jamaica. This bus stop has now been altered – to stop people mounting it during the carnival’Technically, the first time I was at the Notting Hill carnival was in 1990. My mum went there when she was pregnant with me. I started going properly, though, when I was seven or eight. The first time I photographed it was 2014 but I messed up and didn’t get any shots. So I really
  
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• India lands spacecraft near south pole of moon in historic first

  23-08-2023 15:50 via theguardian.com
  
  Vikram lander touches down at lunar south pole shortly after 6pm India time India has become the first country to successfully land a spacecraft near the south pole of the moon, in a historic moment that drew cheers at watching parties around the country.“India is on the moon,” Sreedhara Panicker Somanath, the chair of the Indian Space Research Organisation, said as the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft’s Vikram lander touched down shortly after 6pm (1230 BST) near the little-explored l
  
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• Heartbreak for family left without answers after toddler's tragic death

  23-08-2023 15:38 via express.co.uk
  
  Heartbroken family members of Isla-Mae Oates were issued an apology by a coroner after medics and police investigators failed to clarify how she died in December 2021.
  
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• Mum of 'murdered' Sara Sharif says claim she fell down stairs is ‘lies’

  23-08-2023 15:28 via express.co.uk
  
  Olga Sharif said the claims put forward by Imran Malik, Sara's uncle, were "baseless".
  
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• Labour’s new deal for workers could be transformative, but unions fear Starmer won't stick to it | Owen Jones

  23-08-2023 15:04 via theguardian.com
  
  Will the party continue to water down its manifesto under pressure from business? The signs are not promisingIn a rare rebuke to Blairism, Keir Starmer recently admonished “times in the recent past where Labour was afraid to speak the language of class at all”. Labour was, after all, founded 123 years ago as the political wing of the working class. But is its leader’s mea culpa a rhetorical flourish or rooted in substance?A key test is its “new deal for working people&rdq
  
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• ‘It’s a beast’: landmark US climate law is too complex, environmental groups say

  23-08-2023 15:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Biden’s bill includes $60bn for environmental investments, but groups that would benefit most face hurdles in accessing fundsWhen President Joe Biden passed the Inflation Reduction Act a year ago, Adrien Salazar was skeptical.The landmark climate bill includes $60bn for environmental justice investments – money he had fought for, as policy director for the leading US climate advocacy coalition Grassroots Global Justice Alliance (GGJA). Continue reading...
  
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• How the biggest-ever Roman treasure trove was unearthed in a sleepy UK village

  23-08-2023 14:54 via express.co.uk
  
  Tens of thousands of gold Roman coins were found purely by chance in a seemingly ordinary Suffolk field.
  
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• Mayoral candidate calls for Sadiq Khan to be sacked over ULEZ expansion

  23-08-2023 14:53 via express.co.uk
  
  The expansion of ULEZ has faced multiple hurdles since it was announced earlier this year. Recently, the high court ruled the scheme could go ahead.
  
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• Objects stolen from British Museum made up fewer than one percent of 'incalculable' hoard

  23-08-2023 14:10 via express.co.uk
  
  The roughly 2,000 objects taken from the institution made up under one percent of its total collection, which is worth an "incalculable" sum.
  
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• Tell us: how is your life affected by working in the UK’s gig economy?

  23-08-2023 14:09 via theguardian.com
  
  We want to speak to workers on zero-hours contracts in the UK about their experiences of insecure employmentThe number of workers in insecure work in the UK has risen over the last decade, with black and minority ethnic (BME) workers disproportionately affected.We want to speak to people in the UK who work in the gig economy and on zero-hours contracts. We’re particularly keen to hear from app-based workers, like those working for Deliveroo, Bolt or Uber. Continue reading...
  
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• How to make the perfect strawberry ice-cream – recipe | Felicity Cloake's How to make the perfect...

  23-08-2023 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Strawberry ice-cream used to be nearly as common as vanilla, but now seems scarce. Luckily, Felicity may have found the definitive way to make it at homeI don’t know when strawberry ice-cream started to disappear from freezers, but I suspect some of the blame can be laid at the door of “a couple of old hippies from Vermont”, as the Daily Mirror described Ben and Jerry on the brand’s entry into the UK market back in the mid-1990s. Fruit flavours, it seemed, were out, choco
  
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• UK academics urge Royal Society to condemn fossil fuel industry

  23-08-2023 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Exclusive: Letter signed by more than 1,200 leading figures calls for ‘unambiguous statement’ about climate crisisThe Royal Society is under pressure from more than 1,200 leading academics to issue a clear condemnation of the fossil fuel industry.The academics have written to the association of the world’s most eminent scientists calling for an “unambiguous statement about the culpability of the fossil fuel industry in driving the climate crisis”. Continue reading..
  
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• OpenAI introduces fine-tuning for GPT-3.5 Turbo and GPT-4 - AI News

  23-08-2023 11:17 via news.google.com
  
  OpenAI introduces fine-tuning for GPT-3.5 Turbo and GPT-4  AI NewsFine-tuning OpenAI's GPT-3.5 Turbo can make it as capable as GPT-4 (if not more)  ZDNetOpenAI partners with Scale AI to allow companies to fine-tune GPT-3.5  TechCrunchOpenAI introduces fine-tuning capabilities for GPT-3.5 Turbo  Interesting EngineeringOpenAI names Scale AI 'preferred partner' to fine-tune GPT-3.5  VentureBeatView Full coverage on Google News
  
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• I travelled the UK and Ireland in an electric car, and what a shocker: nothing went wrong | Charlotte Naughton

  23-08-2023 11:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Despite being an EV convert, fearmongering made me anxious before my holiday. But the summer road trip reaffirmed my faithWhen my son suggested a road trip this summer around the UK and Ireland, I wasn’t sure. He wanted to go from our home in Brighton to Manchester, Edinburgh, Belfast, Dublin, Dingle on Ireland’s west coast, Rosslare on Ireland’s east coast, and Cardiff. We worked out a route and looked at booking hotels, a treehouse, a campervan and a lighthouse; we’d vi
  
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