The Guardian
23 hours ago
First sugar-free Easter on UK TV as chocolate ads are pushed past 9pm
Ban on junk food adverts has cut advertising spend and prompted a debate over the policy’s impactThe UK will have its first Easter without the traditional barrage of TV ads for chocolate eggs and hot cross buns as the ban on junk food advertising makes the sweetest tradition of the year a sugar-free viewing experience.New regulations, which came into force at the beginning of the year, prohibit products high in fat, sugar and salt from appearing in TV ads before 9pm, as part of efforts to tackle rising childhood obesity. Continue reading...
The Guardian
1 day ago
‘Visible from space’: why Spain has the world’s biggest concentration of greenhouses
Andalusia houses ‘Europe’s vegetable garden’ – a laboratory of development and innovation producing vegetables for all of EuropeEurope’s vegetable garden is in Andalusia, southern Spain. It is so vast that it can even be seen from space: if you open Google Maps and look west of Almería, you will see a white patch that looks like a glacier, but as you zoom in, you realise it is the highest concentration of greenhouses in the world. More than 30,000 hectares (74,131 acres) of land are covered in plastic, a geometric labyrinth five times the size of Manhattan, where 3.5m tons of vegetables are produced every year – from tomatoes to cucumbers, peppers to courgettes, aubergines to melons – enough to feed half a billion people and generate a turnover of more than 3bn euros.Workers prepare peppers inside the Hortamar cooperative, a fruit and vegetable producers’ organisation in Roquetas de Mar, founded in 1977, that now has more than 240 members and sells throughout Europe, the US and Canada. Continue reading...
The Guardian
1 day ago
Nigel Farage’s farming adviser calls for wheat prices to double
Exclusive: critics warn Reform UK use of trade policy would increase food costs amid cost-of-living crisisNigel Farage’s farming adviser has called for a doubling of wheat prices by using trade policy, which critics have said would hike food costs during a cost-of-living crisis.Arable farmer and campaigner Clive Bailye has been appointed as a farming and land use adviser for Reform UK. Bailye owns the website The Farming Forum, a social network for farmers, and helped organise the large-scale protests against the Labour government’s introduction of inheritance tax for farmed land. Continue reading...
The Guardian
1 day ago
‘Definitely dodgy’: how to spot a fake vape
Examining the packaging is key to avoiding illegal and potentially harmful devices, as millions are seized each yearYou buy a vape from a shop on the high street. Nothing looks unusual but after charging the unit and using it for a few days, you notice it is getting hotter and hotter.The vape is a fake and one of the thousands on sale illegally in shops around the UK. By not installing a simple circuit to prevent overheating, the manufacturers have saved a couple of pence but risk it catching fire. Continue reading...
The Guardian
1 day ago
The OnlyFans inheritance: how its owner’s death could reshape the porn money-making machine
Leonid Radvinsky’s widow has been left with a crucial role in deciding what happens to the business that made her husband a billionaireYekaterina Chudnovsky, online biographies say, is a mother-of-four who “enjoys spending time with her family and teaching them the importance of giving back and helping others”. They add that Ukrainian-born Chudnovsky, known as Katie, finds sanctuary in walks on the beach.In interviews, Chudnovsky has spoken warmly about her commitment to philanthropy, her dedication to supporting cancer research and her work as a lawyer for an unnamed global technology firm. Pornography is never mentioned. Continue reading...
The Guardian
1 day ago
Goodbye Graaff-Reinet: South African town’s name change stirs racial tensions
Minister’s decision to ditch town’s colonial-era identity and honour anti-apartheid activist divides residentsA South African town is divided over changing its name from the colonial-era Graaff-Reinet to Robert Sobukwe, after the anti-apartheid activist, in a debate that has inflamed racial tensions.Petitions have been signed, rival marches held and a formal letter of complaint sent to the sports, arts and culture minister, Gayton McKenzie, who approved the name change on 6 February. Continue reading...
The Guardian
1 day ago
Sugar high(st): more than twelve tons of KitKat’s ‘new chocolate range’ stolen in Italy
Thieves made a break for 413,793 units of the company’s new F1 line bars which could cause shortage before EasterA large shipment of KitKat bars was stolen while in transit to distributors, a major candy crime right before the Easter holiday that could cause shortages for customers.The truck carrying 413,793 units of a “new chocolate range”, about 12 tons of chocolate bars, was pilfered while driving through Europe on 26 March, Agence France-Presse reported. Continue reading...
The Guardian
1 day ago
Two Sudanese men face court in Greece after at least 22 people die off Crete coast
Survivors tell coastguard smugglers ordered victims to be thrown overboard after six days adrift in boat from LibyaTwo Sudanese men, believed by Greek authorities to have been behind a smuggling operation in which 22 people were “systematically” thrown overboard after succumbing to days without food or water at sea, have been ordered to appear before a local court on Crete.Accused of illegally trafficking scores of would-be migrants into the south-eastern European country from Libya, the duo were given 48 hours to prepare to testify before an investigating magistrate on Monday. Continue reading...
The Guardian
1 day ago
‘It feels like they’re pulling figures out of the sky’: UK pet owners welcome crackdown on vet fees
Competition watchdog will launch cost comparison website and has ordered vets to cap written prescription pricesThe UK’s competition watchdog has ordered vets to cap written prescription fees at £21, and practices will have to publish price lists in a crackdown on rising fees.The Competition and Markets Authority also said a costcomparison website would be introduced to increase competition and drive down costs. Continue reading...
The Guardian
1 day ago
How EVs could be part of answer to UK’s fuel reserve worries
More use of two-way charging will earn money for owners and could avoid the need to expand North Sea oil drillingThe Iran war has sent petrol and diesel prices to their highest levels in years, sparked warnings of fuel rationing across Europe and triggered calls for Britain to drill more North Sea oil and gas. But analysis suggests the UK is looking for solutions in the wrong places – and that one of them is sitting on people’s driveways or parked in the street.If more drivers switched electric vehicles, Britain would sharply reduce its petrol and diesel consumption, with every car charged from the grid rather than the pump extending the country’s fuel reserves – and experts say the potential impact goes far beyond that. Continue reading...
The Guardian
1 day ago
‘Our assumptions are broken’: how fraudulent church data revealed AI’s threat to polling
Experts say paid participants are using automated tools to generate unreliable survey responses at scaleIf you had been keeping tabs on the news about church attendance in Britain lately, you would be forgiven for thinking the country was in the midst of a Christian revival.Stories of swelling congregations, filled with young people returning to the flock, spurred on by everything from social media to a rise in bible sales appeared to be confirmed by a 2024 report from the Bible Society. Continue reading...
The Guardian
1 day ago
US embassy in Mexico prompts outrage with AI video promoting ‘self-deportation’
AI-generated footage depicts group of men performing a corrido, singing phrases including ‘return to your roots’An AI-generated video from the US embassy in Mexico encouraging migrants to “self-deport” has sparked disbelief and outrage online.The video posted this week on official embassy social media accounts depicts a group of men wearing black caps and sporting tattoos performing a kind of traditional Mexican ballad known as a corrido. Continue reading...
The Guardian
1 day ago
The great care home cash grab: how private equity turned vulnerable elderly people into human ATMs
When did care homes come to be seen as recession-proof investments? And who pays the price?On a spring morning in 1987, a 30-year-old man named Robert Kilgour pulled up beside a row of foamy cherry trees in the town of Kirkcaldy, on Scotland’s east coast, to visit an old hotel. The building was four storeys of blackened Victorian sandstone. Kilgour was a big man, a voluble Scot with a knack for storytelling. He already owned a hotel in Edinburgh but wanted to branch into property development and was planning to turn this old place, Station Court, into apartments. A few months after he completed the purchase, however, the Scottish government scrapped a grant for developers that he had been counting on. He had just sunk most of his personal savings into a useless building in a sodden, post-industrial town. He urgently needed a new idea.Care homes weren’t so different from hotels, Kilgour thought. And the beauty was, their elderly residents were unlikely to get drunk, steal the soap dispensers or invite sex workers back to their rooms. Turning Station Court into a care home seemed like the best way out of a bad situation. Kilgour arranged a bank loan and in June 1989 he launched Four Seasons Health Care, taking the name from a restaurant in Midtown Manhattan where he had once dined. Continue reading...
The Guardian
1 day ago
‘They feel true’: political deepfakes are growing in influence – even if people know they aren’t real
AI images of people – such as women in military contexts – are making money and serving as propaganda, researchers sayOnline content creators are not just building fake images and videos of prominent public figures, they are also fabricating people and using them in military contexts, which can make them money and even serve as effective propaganda, according to artificial intelligence researchers.Some of these online avatars are sexualized images of women wearing camouflage garb that have generated a significant audience and helped create an idealized image of political figures like Donald Trump, even if the viewer knows the content is not real, according to experts. Continue reading...
The Guardian
1 day ago
Saving for a pension: why gen Z aren’t all banking on retirement
More than one in eight of all those born between 1997 and 2012 don’t believe retirement will even be an optionMehjabin, 23, is a supply teacher who lives with her parents in London. She does not know whether she will ever be able to stop working.She works for a teaching agency, and for a full week she could typically earn about £650. However, sometimes she only gets two or three days a week. Continue reading...
The Guardian
1 day ago
‘Canadians don’t want to come here any more’: anger over Trump squeezes US border businesses
Shops and restaurants once bustling with tourists now struggle for survival as Canadians think twice about crossing the borderOn a warm March weekend in the American border town of Lewiston, New York, bakery owner Aimee Loughran is putting the finishing touches on a special order: a state trooper badge-shaped cake for a local officer’s retirement party.It should be the last task of a busy Saturday at her Just Desserts shop, which sits just 20 minutes north of the rushing waters of Niagara Falls. Dotted with cafes, restaurants and historic buildings from the 1800s, the Lewiston strip is usually catnip for tourists, including the Canadians whose homes can be seen from the banks of the nearby Niagara River. Continue reading...
The Guardian
1 day ago
End to two-child benefit cap offers £300-a-month lifeline to cash-strapped families
From 6 April, low-income families can claim universal credit payments for all children living in the householdThe two-child benefit policy has been described as a “cap on childhood” and as it comes to an end, Claire* hopes to throw a birthday party for her son.It is a celebration most children may take for granted, but Claire and her partner run out of money at the end of every month, skipping meals so that their three children can eat. Her son, now in his final year at primary school, has never had a party. Continue reading...
The Guardian
2 days ago
‘The era of invincibility is over’: the week big tech was brought to heel
Ruling that Meta and YouTube deliberately designed addictive products marks possible watershed moment for social mediaThe young woman at the heart of what has been called the tech industry’s “big tobacco” moment was on YouTube at six and Instagram by nine. More than a decade later, she says, she still can’t live without the social media she became addicted to.“I can’t, it’s too hard to be without it,” Kaley, now 20, told a jury at Los Angeles’ superior court. This week, five men and seven women handed down a verdict on the design of two of the world’s most popular apps that vindicated Kaley’s position. Continue reading...
The Guardian
2 days ago
The problem goes far beyond Noma – I’ve seen rot creeping into too many kitchens | Lauren Joseph
There’s a system that creates and condones these toxic restaurant environments – and too often it’s rewarded by institutions such as MichelinLauren Joseph is a writer and chefThe fine-dining world has been closely watching the fallout at Noma since chefs spoke out about the physical violence and emotional abuse that the head chef, René Redzepi, subjected them to at his Copenhagen restaurant. There were protests in Los Angeles before a four-month pop-up of the restaurant opened there this month, and Redzepi, in an Instagram video in which he failed to fully assign himself blame (“I’m sorry everyone is in this situation,” he begins), then announced that he has stepped away from the business. The LA pop-up, however, remains and the question lingers: will this be the reckoning an ultra-pressured group of restaurants has long avoided?It depends on whether we allow ourselves to be distracted by Redzepi and what comes next. I hope every chef who was allegedly intimidated, punched and threatened gets the reparations they seek. Then the story should move on. No waiting for the public redemption arc – but also, no useless vilifying of this man, whose past transgressions have previously been accepted.Lauren Joseph is a writer and chef Continue reading...
The Guardian
2 days ago
KP Sharma Oli: Nepal’s former prime minister arrested over alleged role in deadly protest crackdown
At least 77 people killed in anti-corruption youth uprising in September, which began over a brief social media banNepal’s former prime minister KP Sharma Oli was arrested early on Saturday morning over his alleged role in the deaths of dozens of people who took part in the gen Z protest that toppled his government last year.Police detained the three-time former prime minister at his residence in the capital Kathmandu, and also arrested his former home affairs minister Ramesh Lekhak. Continue reading...
The Guardian
2 days ago
In an Istanbul market, I found an old German phrase book – and a reminder of how not to speak to migrants | Carolin Würfel
Turkish immigrants to Germany in the 60s were seen as temporary labour, not people. Today’s government in Berlin is at risk of repeating the mistakeA few weekends ago, I went to the flea market in Bomonti, a neighbourhood on the European side of Istanbul. I go there regularly, and over the years I’ve accumulated a small collection of things: embroidered napkins, records, old issues of House & Garden, earrings, candle holders. It is usually on the days when you are not looking for anything in particular that you find the most interesting things – or, as the Turkish writer Sabahattin Ali once wrote, “some things we never know we need until we find them”.That particular Sunday, strolling through the stalls, I came across a book from 1965 titled Türkler için Almanca – Deutsch für Türken (German for Turks). It was among the first language textbooks of its kind, widely distributed to the so-called Gastarbeiter – “guest workers” – who came to West Germany in the 1960s and 70s. The economic boom of the 1950s had created an acute labour shortage, prompting the recruitment of workers from abroad. A bilateral agreement with Turkey, signed in 1961, facilitated the arrival of hundreds of thousands of Turkish men and women to come and work in German factories. Officially, their stay was meant to be temporary. Workers came alone; families stayed behind. A copy of the language book I found 60 years later at a flea market in Istanbul would have been in the suitcases of many of these workers.Carolin Würfel is a writer, screenwriter and journalist who lives in Berlin and Istanbul. She is the author of Three Women Dreamed of SocialismDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
The Guardian
2 days ago
Asda warns of ‘temporary shortages’ at some petrol pumps amid Iran war
Comments from boss Allan Leighton come as squeeze on supplies drives average UK petrol price above 150p a litreBusiness live – latest updatesThe boss of Asda has warned of “temporary shortages’” at petrol pumps as supplies are squeezed by the conflict in the Middle East, which has driven up average UK petrol prices to above 150p a litre.Allan Leighton, the executive chair of the supermarket chain, which is the UK’s second largest fuel retailer, said it had been experiencing high demand from drivers as fuel prices have jumped about over the past four weeks since the war started. Continue reading...
The Guardian
2 days ago
Scientists film whale giving birth while other whales work together to help her
Female named Rounder surrounded by family members when about to give birth to her second calfScientists have managed to film a sperm whale giving birth while other female whales worked together to support the mother and her newborn.A team from Project Ceti, an international effort seeking to understand how whales communicate, was in a boat near a pod of 11 whales off the coast of the Caribbean island of Dominica on 8 July 2023. Continue reading...
The Guardian
2 days ago
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