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What to Know About the Cease-Fire for a Besieged Ukrainian City
British politicians among international delegates barred from entering West Bank
Group was on visit to meet Palestinian children, farmers and civil leaders facing escalating violence from Israeli forces
An international delegation including British politicians has been barred from entering the West Bank on a trip to meet Palestinian children, farmers and society leaders facing escalating violence from Israeli forces during olive harvest season.
The delegation of 23 people, including four elected representatives, was drawn from countries including France, Spain, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Greece, Holland, Ireland and the US. It included the Labour MP Clive Lewis, the Scottish National party MP Lara Bird, the Scottish Greens MSP Kate Nevens and the former Labour MP Sam Tarry.
Continue reading...Автотюн по кусочкам: как Auto-Tune и Nectar пересобирают голос
Певец держит одну ноту, а обработанный голос на мгновение перескакивает на октаву. Такое случается, когда плагин принимает сильную гармонику за основной тон. Чем быстрее коррекция, тем заметнее может стать этот промах.
Разберу, как Auto-Tune Artist 9.x и модуль Pitch из Nectar 4 определяют высоту и что делают с волной после выбора ноты. Здесь есть интересные различия: как удержать оценку на ровном звуке, прочитать запись между сэмплами, перенести фрагмент без щелчка. На этих деталях и остановлюсь.
Для начала возьмём одну вокальную дорожку. С хором или аккордом задача была бы другой. Небольшие функции на C++ покажут отдельные расчёты, а пример на Python можно запустить целиком: он меняет высоту звука, сохраняя длину записи.
Как работает автотюнUK shop price inflation ‘highest since 2024’ as retailers struggle to limit price rises
British Retail Consortium says ‘dam is starting to break on the huge wave of costs’ being kept from consumers
Shop price inflation has risen to the highest level in two and a half years, according to the British Retail Consortium, which warned that “the dam is starting to break” when it comes to retailers trying to limit price rises for customers.
The lobby group said shop price inflation was 2.1% year on year in October, a sharp rise compared with 1.4% in September, and an indication that retailers were beginning to pass on the rising costs of energy and food ingredients since the Middle East conflict broke out.
Continue reading...‘Digital hostile environment’: AI secretly being embedded across Home Office, report claims
Tasks from determining asylum seekers’ ages to border surveillance now involve AI, says Open Rights Group
AI has been embedded across the Home Office in near-total secrecy, reinforcing the so-called hostile environment for immigration, according to research.
Tasks from the detection of potential sham marriages to determining the age of asylum seekers and checking through the contents of phones of new arrivals now involve use of the technology, according to a report by Open Rights Group (ORG).
Continue reading...Did Harry Kane have to leave England to win the Ballon d’Or?
DUP MLA joins Lockhart's call for O'Neill's removal as first minister
I earn £30,000. I'm angry there was no fuel duty cut in the Budget
The Rise of Electrostates Could Redraw The Global Economy
When shipping through the Strait of Hormuz ground to a halt in March, energy importers relearned an old lesson: a country that buys its energy as fuel, cargo by cargo, also imports every price shock. The consequences of how governments respond to this truth will soon reverberate beyond energy markets.
Decisions made today to secure more reliable energy may help determine where factories are built, which countries manufacture the technologies powering the global economy, and how vulnerable nations remain to the next disruption in oil and gas supplies. These decisions will define which countries emerge as electrostates, with the power to shape and control future economies.
New analysis by We Mean Business Coalition published today looking at electrification across 16 countries reveals how unevenly this transformation is progressing. The United States is doubling down on domestic oil and gas production, while China is rapidly electrifying its economy and consolidating its lead in electric technology manufacturing. Others are now moving in China's direction. France plans to lift electricity's share of final energy from 27% to 38% by 2035, Canada to double its electricity supply by 2050, and Europe wants to become the world's first “electro-continent.”
Rather than simply ranking countries, the Electrification Competitiveness Index maps two dimensions: the deployment and market uptake of electric technologies, and the policies and conditions supporting further progress.
Across the 16 economies, the median score for enabling conditions is 67%, compared with 45% for deployment and market conditions. In other words, in most countries, policy is running ahead of the market. Part of that gap is a time lag, but it also shows the distance between preparing for electrification and achieving it at scale. Successful electrification requires not simply more policies, but better-aligned policies that reinforce one another and give businesses the confidence to invest.
China scores highest on deployment, with extensive electric vehicle adoption and an industrial base producing much of the equipment the world needs to electrify. It already manufactures more than 80% of global battery cells. But its transition extends well beyond transport: electricity's share of China’s final energy consumption has doubled since 2005, with electrification spreading across industry, buildings, and transport. Although much of its electricity (54%) is still generated from coal, the plan is to replace that with clean power. What’s more, given China’s manufacturing dominance, as other countries electrify, they must make a choice: where to compete in electric technology manufacturing and where they might gain more from cheaper imported equipment.
Europe is one region trying to revive industrial competitiveness while reducing its exposure to imported fossil fuels, a vulnerability the Hormuz crisis has brought sharply back into focus. Electrification is central to both ambitions. Brussels wants to double electricity's share of final energy to 46% by 2040, yet that share has been stuck at around 23% for a decade, and the economics of switching remain difficult for many businesses. In Britain, industrial electricity costs over five times as much as gas per unit of energy, while factories in Germany and the U.K. face significant grid-connection constraints. France and Spain are better positioned in several respects, with more favourable electricity prices and stronger deployment, but across Europe the challenge is increasingly one of turning established policy frameworks into commercially viable investment.
Businesses deciding where to build factories, expand production, or replace equipment must also weigh electricity costs and grid access alongside skills, suppliers, and markets. If electrification remains difficult or expensive, businesses may postpone modernisation, continue investing in fossil-fuel equipment or direct new investment towards locations offering better conditions. Over time, this could reshape Europe's industrial geography, influencing where manufacturing capacity, jobs, and technological expertise develop.
In the U.S., existing deployment provides a foundation for further electrification, but policy reversals and infrastructure constraints raise questions about momentum. More than two terawatts of generation and storage are waiting in interconnection queues. Washington's focus on expanding fossil-fuel production risks leaving American manufacturers competing in a global market whose growth is increasingly driven by demand elsewhere.
For developing economies, electrification offers a different prospect: the opportunity to build modern energy and transport systems without first replicating the fossil-fuel infrastructure that wealthier countries are now spending heavily to replace. Ethiopia is already showing what is possible, with rapid electric vehicle adoption despite electricity reaching only around 60% of its population. Indonesia, the Philippines, and South Africa face greater barriers, including limited grid investment and electricity systems still dominated by fossil fuels.
Seizing those opportunities will depend on access to finance, reliable grids, and policies suited to each country's circumstances. Without them, emerging economies risk investing scarce capital in infrastructure that may become increasingly expensive to operate or eventually replace.
As this global shift evolves, economies powered increasingly by domestically generated electricity become less exposed to global fuel markets, but more dependent on access to batteries, electrical equipment, minerals, and the technologies needed to build and maintain their infrastructure. The concentration of manufacturing capacity in a handful of countries creates vulnerabilities of its own. Yet a dependency on equipment you buy once is very different from a dependency on fuel you buy every month. When a shipping lane closes, a fuel-importing economy feels it within days. If solar panel exports stopped tomorrow, the panels already installed would keep generating for decades.
Electrified economies also need far less energy in the first place. Burning fuel in engines, boilers, and power stations wastes around two-thirds of the energy that goes in, mostly as heat. Electric motors and heat pumps do the same work with a fraction of the input. So electrification does not simply swap one import for another; it can shrink the energy bill. The European Commission estimates that meeting its 2040 target could cut E.U. spending on fossil fuels by up to €260 billion a year.
This presents governments with a different industrial and energy-security challenge: not simply how quickly they can replace fossil fuels, but whether they can build the electricity systems, industrial capabilities, and trading relationships that make the transition economically resilient. Climate policy and industrial strategy are becoming impossible to separate, as the technologies needed to cut emissions also become central to economic competitiveness.
When governments meet in Antalya, Turkey, for COP31 in November, the U.N. climate conference president will push for a global goal to raise electricity's share of final energy from around 20% today to 35% by 2035. That shift deserves greater attention than it is getting. The transition from fossil fuels to electricity will not end competition over energy resources and technologies. It will change what countries compete for, what they need to import, and where economic power is concentrated. The electrostates of 2035 are being built now.
Apple confirms some reports of iPhone Duo cracking near the seam
Brazil Supreme Court Orders Flávio Bolsonaro to Hand Over Passports in Money Laundering Inquiry
India's largest share sale could end cheap mobile internet for millions
‘Will Lula’s win end Latin America’s far right turn?’: Our correspondent in Brazil answered your questions
Having lost the first round of Brazil’s presidential election to far right rival Flávio Bolsonaro, incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva spectacularly triumphed in the second. The Guardian’s Latin America corrrespondent Tom Phillips answered your questions on what’s next for Brazil.
Jeremy Hurley asks: Why did the Brazil stock market tank after the election result, and will it recover?
Tom: Basically, because the markets had been convinced that Flávio Bolsonaro was going to win and that after taking power he would implement a “chainsaw” style austerity programme inspired by Javier Milei’s government in Argentina, deal with Brazil’s budget deficit, and bring down interest rates. Lula’s victory came as a shock to investors who believe his fourth presidency will see increased and unsustainable public spending.
Yes, I’m sure things will stabilise at some point soon after the initial panic – during Lula’s previous administrations investors made a lot of money, particularly during his first two terms. There is talk of Lula naming his vice-president, the centre-right politician Geraldo Alckmin, as finance minister in order to calm markets down. Another possible name is Rafael Fonteles, a mathematician who is the governor of Piauí and used to run that state’s finances.
Tom: That’s a really good question and, as someone who lives in Rio de Janeiro, it is one that has been on my mind a lot. The far right has been very good at blaming “soft” left wing policies and federal government incompetence for the failure to control armed violence. It was a huge part of the campaign against Lula in the run up to this election.
But public security is a state matter and Rio state has largely been governed by the right for years now. Their hard-line, shoot first ask questions later approach has not worked - in fact many believe it has made the violence even worse and led to massacres such as the one I covered in the Complexo da Penha almost exactly one year ago. It must be said that similar tactics have been used in Bahia state, which has a huge problem with violence and is governed by the Worker’s party (PT). My colleague Tiago Rogero has written about this.
Continue reading...How Brazil’s Lula Pulled Off an Upset No One Saw Coming
Kane ends England’s 25-year wait to win men’s Ballon d’Or award
Details as Elon Musk says Ukraine violated Starlink's terms and conditions
Independent review announced into murder of student Henry Nowak
Chris Mason: Budget is imminent as tricky issues pile up for Burnham
Authorities launch manhunt for convicted killer who escaped from Tennessee prison
Spiritual leaders unite to help keep the peace on Election Day
Trump encourages Republicans to support down-ballot races
Former FBI chief charged for third time by Trump administration
Harry Kane claims men’s Ballon d’Or to end England’s 25-year wait for winner
Alexia Putellas picks up women’s award for third time
England captain acclaimed in London ceremony
Harry Kane is the Ballon d’Or winner for 2026, the first Englishman to win football’s most prestigious individual trophy in 25 years.
Two hours into a lavishly excitable ceremony at the Palladium Theatre in London, Kane’s name emerged from the final envelope to wild cheers inside the auditorium. The women’s Ballon d’Or, awarded moments earlier, was won by Alexia Putellas of London City Lionesses, a third Ballon, five years on from her first in the colours of Barcelona.
Continue reading...Tamara Keith and Amy Walter on the midterm outlook and possible redistricting backfire
Machado’s Return to Venezuela Tests Limits of U.S. Sway
Bob Woodward Criticizes Jeff Bezos in New Memoir
Appeals Court Declines to Intervene in California Ballot Lawsuit
FTC and 20 states sue Dollar General, accusing bargain chain of overcharging customers
Suit that cites 2025 Guardian investigation alleges ‘pattern of inaccurate pricing’ that ‘affects millions of purchases’
The Federal Trade Commission and 20 states have sued Dollar General, the nation’s largest dollar-store chain, for persistently overcharging customers at its more than 20,000 stores across the United States.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Nashville, cites a Guardian investigation published last December.
Continue reading...DOJ seeking to charge Comey with conspiring to disclose national defense information
Republican, Democratic strategists break down pre-midterm rhetoric from Trump, Obama
Extended Interview: Homeland Security's James Percival on third-country deportations
Campaigns spend big to sway voters with increasingly personal attack ads
Student-led movement ousts Serbia's right-wing ruler in historic election
Don’t expect supersize profits from Anthropic soon
Kane ends England's 25-year Ballon d'Or wait - how he bucked the trend
Lancashire consider Anderson farewell amid fan unrest
Catholic bishops accuse Trump White House of turning prayer into campaign photo op
Two bishops express regret after the White House posts photos and video of a prayer with them in the Oval Office
Two Catholic bishops who bowed their heads with Donald Trump in the Oval Office now say they regret it, accusing the White House of turning a private prayer into a campaign photo opportunity before next week’s US elections.
Archbishop Jeffrey Grob of Milwaukee and Bishop William Joensen of Des Moines, who were among the 12 bishops who met administration officials last Thursday, issued separate statements of regret over the weekend.
Continue reading...Justice department charges ex-FBI director James Comey for third time
Comey, an outspoken critic of Donald Trump, accused of leaking information related to US national defense
The justice department charged former FBI director James Comey on Monday with two counts of leaking information related to national defense, the third time the Trump administration has filed criminal charges against one of Donald Trump’s most despised foes.
The charges, filed in federal court in Washington DC, provide few details about what Comey is alleged to have leaked. The government alleges that the former FBI director leaked the information in 2016 and conspired with an unnamed person to give the information to a national news outlet.
Continue reading...Lula prevails in Brazil but Flávio Bolsonaro refuses to concede
Netanyahu faces Israeli voters in first election since Oct. 7 and Gaza war
News Wrap: AI giant Anthropic preparing for initial public offering
Candidates enter final week of campaigning with control of Congress at stake
Minimum wage set to rise but 18-20 year-olds will not get bigger increase
Kane ends England's 25-year Ballon d'Or wait - how he bucked the trend
France Makes Concessions to Students, but Not Enough to Halt Protests
Breaking down the legal battle over California's election process
Does America Need More Police? With Malcolm Gladwell
Harry Kane ends England's 25-year wait to win men's Ballon d'Or
Massachusetts lesbian bar makes frantic effort to find new owners after relaxing masking policy
Last Ditch bar announced it would ‘soft close’ after it went viral following a story on its attempt to relax Covid rules
A Massachusetts lesbian bar that went viral for loosening its Covid mask policy last month announced plans to “soft close” on Monday as it seeks new ownership.
The Last Ditch bar, in the small city of Greenfield, said in an Instagram post that it was searching for co-owners, new owners or a full sale, and that it would “soft close effective immediately”, with “only booked events” continuing while it closes this winter. It had opened just last year as a bar for “dykes, transsexuals, gender freaks, workers, and their friends”.
Continue reading...Court blocks bid by Trump DoJ to stop California from counting mail-in ballots
Newsom accuses Trump of ‘assault on democracy’ as DoJ claims 20,000 registered voters in state are non-citizens
A US federal appeals court rejected the Trump administration’s move to block California from counting the ballots of 20,000 registered voters that the justice department claims are non-citizens.
The court on Monday ruled 2-1 against Donald Trump’s justice department in the dispute, denying the administration’s demand that election officials segregate the thousands of ballots until people on the list could verify their citizenship. The justice department had given the California secretary of state 48-hours to carry out the order, which state election officials refused – leading to the lawsuit.
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