   
CEO Picks - The best that international journalism has to offer!
 S2Madhur Jaffrey: The woman who gave the world Indian food   At a spirited 90 years of age, Madhur Jaffrey takes centre stage on the streaming platform MasterClass, her screen presence marked by a shiny bob, smoky-lined eyes, vivid red lips and a trove of lively, endearing anecdotes from her rich life. A true polymath, Madhur is more than a versatile actress whose cinematic impact has spanned several decades, she's a culinary chronicler and food icon. With over 30 cookbooks to her name, spanning the flavours of India, Asia and global vegetarian cuisine, as well as many television cookery shows (including on the BBC), Madhur Jaffrey is a household name for anyone with a taste for South Asian cuisine.As Indian-born Nobel Laureate and cookbook author Abhijit Banerjee shared during this year's annual HC Mahindra Lecture at Harvard University, "While I could cook many Western dishes, I did not know how to cook Indian food. My first step was smart – to buy her [cookbook], An Invitation to Indian Cooking, and follow it with a certain amount of diligence. And that's how I learned to cook Indian food."
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S3Brack: a fruit cake to celebrate Women's Christmas  Twelfth Night is the last great frolicking feast of Christmas. It's the day decorations are taken down and stored away – woe betide anyone who takes them down sooner, tempting bad luck for the coming year. Across the British Isles, 6 January is most associated with this hand-me-down piece of folklore, rather than the arrival of the Three Kings to Bethlehem bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh for the baby Jesus.On the south-western edge of Ireland, in Cork and bordering parts of Kerry, Twelfth Night is still celebrated in style, and exclusively by women. It's a night for soaking up the last vestiges of Christmas spirit in rambunctious merriment rather than a staid religious observance.
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S4S67Coming of Age While Confronting Arab Stereotypes, in "Simo"  Simo, a typical teen-ager, lives in the shadow of Emad, his older brother, and their domineering dad, in the suburbs of Montreal, where the family emigrated from Egypt. One night, Simo impersonates Emad in a live-stream gaming session. That simple act leads to serious consequences, when a racist false accusation escalates and puts his brother at risk.Bold cinematography and a soundtrack of throbbing Egyptian rap beats set the scene and compound a sense of social alienation that affects these men yet strengthens the family. "Drawing heavily from my own life experiences, I couldn't ignore the elephant in the room," the film's writer and director, Aziz Zoromba, says, regarding "the stereotypes associated with being an 'Arab' in the West."
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S6The Chancellor of Berkeley Weighs In  When Carol Christ first joined the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley, more than fifty years ago, she remembers a new colleague giving her a half-joking piece of advice: don’t bother preparing the last three weeks of your class, because you’ll never get to teach them—the students will all be out on strike. Protest has been part of her experience at Berkeley throughout her career there, first as an English professor (she specializes in Victorian literature) and later as an administrator; apart from an eleven-year stint as the president of Smith College, in the early two-thousands, the university has been her professional home. She assumed its top leadership role—chancellor—in 2017, and announced last summer that she would retire in 2024.The job of heading a college or university has rarely come under greater public scrutiny than in the past two months. Since the October 7th Hamas attacks on Israel and the beginning of the Israeli assault on Gaza, campuses across the country have seen a wave of protests—and accompanying accusations of both Islamophobia and antisemitism. There have been demonstrations, open letters, official statements, follow-up official statements, confrontations, threats, anger, and fear. At Cornell, campus police placed the Center for Jewish Living under guard; at Columbia, the administration disbanded pro-Palestinian student groups. At Berkeley, students organized a mass walkout on behalf of Palestine. During the walkout, a student carrying an Israeli flag was allegedly hit with a water bottle, an incident that’s now among the campus conditions cited in a lawsuit alleging antisemitism at the law school. Earlier this month, the presidents of Harvard, M.I.T, and the University of Pennsylvania testified before Congress in a hearing titled “Holding Campus Leaders Accountable and Confronting Antisemitism.” Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, a Trump-aligned Republican, went viral with her questioning, in which she pushed the presidents to say whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” violated their institutions’ rules. Their responses, which parsed definitions of protected speech, inspired widespread outrage. Liz Magill resigned as president of Penn a few days later. Claudine Gay faced calls to step down as president of Harvard, but maintained the governing board’s support.
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S7Netflix Just Quietly Released the Weirdest Apocalypse Show of the Year  After The Last of Us changed the way we see the apocalypse, this series is for the rest of us.Would you quit your job and see the world? Would you reject society and move into a cabin with all your favorite books? Would you just want to spend that time with your loved ones? For a lot of people, myself included, the question is so overwhelming to fathom, the true answer is... probably nothing out of the ordinary. When they say, “Live every day like it’s your last,” that could just mean following your normal routine — why make a big deal out of something inevitable?
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S830 Years Ago, a Brilliant Capcom Platformer Redefined an Iconic Hero  A little robot person travels across various platforms and themed levels to take on a series of metallic bosses. That could describe pretty much any Mega Man game. But in December of 1993, Capcom decided to push the franchise forward with its boldest sequel yet.At first glance, Mega Man X doesn’t look too different from the franchise’s prior X-less entries on the Nintendo Entertainment System. And considering how beloved those early games are, Mega Man X could’ve very easily taken a “If it ain't broke, don’t upgrade it” route. But Mega Man X, the first game in the series to debut on the Super Nintendo, made a variety of integral changes that would culminate in one of the most iconic side-scrolling platformers of all time.
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S9'Percy Jackson' Nails a Technical Challenge that Star Wars and Marvel Both Failed  A good franchise needs to be built on good source material. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has Marvel Comics, contemporary Star Wars has the original films and non-canon books and comics... and Percy Jackson and the Olympians has the books by Rick Riordan. The series, about an alternate America populated with creatures and characters from Greek mythology, is set to make a big splash on Disney+, which is apt for a story about the son of Poseidon. Also apt is the choice of Dan Shotz and Jon Steinberg, both alumni of the hit pirate drama Black Sails, as showrunners. For them, Percy Jackson has the potential to be the start of a universe. “I think it’s a great big story, and the canvas just keeps getting bigger and bigger,” Steinberg tells Inverse. “The deeper you get into it, the idea that maybe we will be able to make more of that story real and bring it to a bigger audience is pretty exciting.”
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S10The Ultimate Guide to Trading With Friends in 'Pokemon Scarlet and Violet'  As an intrepid trainer and Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, your ultimate goal is to catch every single pocket monster in existence. But the truth is that catching them all isn’t exactly an option. Not only are some Pokémon exclusive to Scarlet or Violet, but others might not be in the current games at all — or only on rare occasions. That’s where trading Pokémon comes in. And if you’re wondering how to trade with your friends in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet we’ve got you covered. Here’s everything you need to know.First, you will need to unlock the ability to trade. This is done at the same time you unlock all of the other multiplayer functions once you reach the first Pokémon Center at Los Platos. You’ll just need to approach the center to unlock all online features. However, it’s also worth noting you will need a Nintendo Switch Online Membership to trade with another player.
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S1150 Bougie Things for Your Home That Are Surprisingly Under $30 on Amazon  Bougie on a budget sounds like an oxymoron, but this list proves that items with surprisingly high-end vibes can cost less than $30. From decor to spruce up spaces around your home to functional finds that you soon won’t be able to live without (like a lighter that works in the wind and rain), scroll on for a variety of elevated home products with rave reviews.These watering globes will keep your plants hydrated when you forget to or are unable to water. The set comes with three bird-shaped glass globes that can each hold enough water to keep your greenery watered for up to two weeks. “These lovely glass watering birds exceeded my expectations,” wrote one fan.
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S1260 Dope Things That Are Only $25 On Amazon Prime  The only thing better than finding something dope on Amazon is finding it for a low price. Everything on this list can be on your doorstep fast with Prime. Don’t miss the gnome-shaped cheese knife, tray that defrosts meat in half the time, and sushi-shaped magnets that will motivate you to check your to-do list. You won’t believe how budget-friendly everything is — nothing costs more than $25.The smooth metal of this massage roller ball will feel like a dream on sore muscles after being kept in the freezer. Since it is corrosion resistant, it can also be used with essential oils.
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S13Rick and Morty Are About to Face Their Greatest Fear in the Season 7 Finale  After two of the most bombastic Rick and Morty episodes ever — Morty’s quest with Ice-T and then one with Bigfoot in Valhalla — Season 7 is about to wrap things up with Sunday’s big finale. With Rick Prime defeated and Evil Morty MIA, there’s no telling what might happen next.Here’s everything you need to know about Rick and Morty Season 7 Episode 10, including the release date and time, episode title, teaser trailer, and more.
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S60Harold Shipman was arrested a quarter of a century ago, but we still have problems with prescribing controlled drugs  Catherine Hudson drugged two patients on the stroke ward of Blackpool Victoria Hospital to give herself an easier life. She has been jailed for seven years and two months. Her colleague, Charlotte Wilmot, who conspired with her to drug a third patient, was given a three-year jail term.The trial highlighted the easy access staff had to controlled drugs. The drug regimen on the stroke ward was described during the trial as “dysfunctional”. But why is this still happening? Wasn’t it all meant to have been sorted following the Shipman Inquiry?
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S52Through its immigration policies, the UK government decides whose families are 'legitimate'  Amid another panic over high net migration to the UK, the government and new home secretary James Cleverly have proposed several changes to visa rules. The proposals apply to economic migrants, rather than other kinds of migrants such as asylum seekers, and have particular consequences for families.Under the proposals, people on health and care visas will no longer be allowed to bring family members with them to the UK. And British citizens and those with settled status will need to earn at least £38,700 in order for their non-British family members to live with them in the UK. This minimum income requirement is double the previous threshold, which has already had devastating effects on thousands of families.
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S44Entangled Islands exhibition explores the history of Irish people in the Caribbean -  A new exhibition at Epic, Dublin’s Irish emigration museum, explores connections between Ireland and the Caribbean. Entangled Islands aims to tell “the stories of a wide range of Irish people who traversed and settled in the Caribbean”, while also outlining “our intersecting histories of colonisation and resistance”.One prominent theme is a reevaluation of Ireland’s role in the transatlantic slave trade. The topic has previously been tackled in books such as Ireland, Slavery and Anti-Slavery: 1812-1965 by Nini Rodgers (2007) and Ireland, Slavery and the Caribbean (2023), edited by Finola O’Kane and Ciaran O’Neill.
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S53Google's Gemini: is the new AI model really better than ChatGPT?  Google Deepmind has recently announced Gemini, its new AI model to compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT. While both models are examples of “generative AI”, which learn to find patterns of input training information to generate new data (pictures, words or other media), ChatGPT is a large language model (LLM) which focuses on producing text. In the same way that ChatGPT is a web app for conversations that is based on the neural network know as GPT (trained on huge amounts of text), Google has a conversational web app called Bard which was based on a model called LaMDA (trained on dialogue). But Google is now upgrading that based on Gemini.
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S54Genetically modified crops aren't a solution to climate change, despite what the biotech industry says  The European Commission launched a proposal in July 2023 to deregulate a large number of plants manufactured using new genetic techniques. Despite extraordinary attempts by the Spanish presidency to force a breakthrough, EU members have not yet reached a consensus on this plan. But if the proposal were to be approved, these plants would be treated the same as conventional plants, eliminating the need for safety tests and the labelling of genetically modified food products.
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S50A US ambassador working for Cuba? Charges against former diplomat Victor Manuel Rocha spotlight Havana's importance in the world of spying  Assistant Director, Applied History Project and Intelligence Project, Harvard Kennedy School The U.S. Department of Justice announced on Dec. 4, 2023, that Victor Manuel Rocha, a former U.S. government employee, had been arrested and faced federal charges for secretly acting for decades as an agent of the Cuban government. Rocha joined the State Department in 1981 and served for over 20 years, rising to the level of ambassador. After leaving the State Department, he served from 2006-2012 as an adviser to the U.S. Southern Command, a joint U.S. military command that handles operations in Latin America and the Caribbean.
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S56Mark Drakeford: what the resignation of Wales' first minister means for the country and the Labour party  This week, Mark Drakeford announced his resignation as Wales’ first minister after five years as leader. Back in 2018, Drakeford built his leadership bid on a platform of “21st-century socialism”. As the manifesto reveals, the mantra was rooted in the ideas of “the radical tradition of Welsh socialism”, which would drive the creation of “a more equal, fair and just society”. While it’s difficult to assess his legacy so soon, it is worth reflecting on whether these initial aims have been achieved. And what does Drakeford’s departure mean for the future of Wales and the Labour party?
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S42What Great Data Analysts Do -- and Why Every Organization Needs Them  “Full-stack” data scientist means mastery of machine learning, statistics, and analytics. Today’s fashion in data science favors flashy sophistication with a dash of sci-fi, making AI and machine learning the darlings of the job market. Alternative challengers for the alpha spot come from statistics, thanks to a century-long reputation for rigor and mathematical superiority. What about analysts?Whereas excellence in statistics is about rigor and excellence in machine learning is about performance, excellence in analytics is all about speed. Analysts are your best bet for coming up with those hypotheses in the first place. As analysts mature, they’ll begin to get the hang of judging what’s important in addition to what’s interesting, allowing decision-makers to step away from the middleman role. Of the three breeds, analysts are the most likely heirs to the decision throne.
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S57Climate summits are too big and key voices are being crowded out - here's a better solution  Every year, the official UN climate summits are getting bigger. In 2021 at COP26 in Glasgow there were around 40,000 participants, COP27 in 2022 in Sharm el-Sheikh had 50,000.But this year blew all previous records out of the water. More than 97,000 participants had badges to attend COP28 in Dubai in person. This raises questions about who is attending COPs and what they are doing there, who gets their voices heard and, on a more practical note, how this affects the negotiations.
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S59Cancer: people living in England's poorest areas at higher risk of death - new study  Each district’s socioeconomic status was measured using data from the English Indices of Deprivation. This estimates the proportion of the population experiencing deprivation due to low income. The team only included cancer deaths that occurred before the age of 80. This was to ensure the data was accurate, as multi-morbidity (the presence of two or more long-term health conditions) becomes more common after 80, and this makes it difficult to know whether a person has died from cancer or a different cause.
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S48S23S40The Sound of Cruelty  The Zone of Interest is an eerie and restrained study of the Holocaust that never shows a single frame of the atrocity.Jonathan Glazer’s new film, The Zone of Interest, begins with a black screen that lingers for at least a full minute. There’s music in the form of a groaning score, as well as a smattering of noises—faint whispers, rustling leaves—that can be heard through the discordant notes. Otherwise, though, nothing appears.
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S41Biden's Domestic, Foreign, and Familial Issues  President Joe Biden faced a convergence of issues this week—domestic, foreign, and familial.The Biden administration’s request for additional aid for Ukraine has stalled as House and Senate Republicans are prioritizing negotiations over border-security policies. Tensions between President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the war in Gaza have spilled into the open. And Hunter Biden, the president’s only surviving son, defied a congressional subpoena and instead offered again to testify in public in front of the Republican-led House committees investigating him. All of this comes as the House voted along party lines to officially open its impeachment inquiry into the president.
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S55US election: how populists encourage blind mistrust - and how to push back  Populism is booming. The first US Republican primary is only weeks away and former president Donald Trump, who is a master of populist techniques, commands substantial support. Meanwhile one in three Europeans are now voting for populist parties.At the heart of liberal democracy lies the principle of pluralism, that there are diverse views on how society should work and that numerous institutions operate independently to balance competing interests. For this principle to work, it’s important that the public trust that these diverse voices act in good faith.
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S15How to Use Battle Caps in 'Pok  If you want the best team possible in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, you’ll need to pay attention to IVs and stats. And in that case, you need to be aware of Bottle Caps. Here’s everything you need to know about this crucial item in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.Bottle Caps can be purchased for $20,000 at the Delibird Presents store, found in most of the main cities within the game. However, it won’t show up as an item in these shops until after you’ve defeated six gyms in Pokémon Violet and Scarlet. Once that’s done, you can buy as many of them as you want.
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S45S58Ukraine: opening EU accession talks is an important boost for Zelensky despite Orb  Hungarian prime minister, Victor Orban, threw a major tantrum at the European Council meeting in Brussels on December 14 2023. Essentially doing the Russian president Vladimir Putin’s bidding, he prevented agreement on a major €50 billion (£25.7 billion) financial package for Ukraine. His only concession was to abstain from a vote that delivered the long-awaited approval of opening accession talks with Ukraine. Though symbolically important, this does not address some of the key problems that Ukraine is facing as Russia’s full-scale war of aggression is about to enter its third year.
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S51Racism produces subtle brain changes that lead to increased disease risk in Black populations  The U.S. is in the midst of a racial reckoning. The COVID-19 pandemic, which took a particularly heavy toll on Black communities, turned a harsh spotlight on long-standing health disparities that the public could no longer overlook.We are clinical neuroscientists who study the multifaceted ways in which racism affects how our brains develop and function. We use brain imaging to study how trauma such as sexual assault or racial discrimination can cause stress that leads to mental health disorders like depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.
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S16S17S39The Fate of Your Holiday-Season Returns  This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning.When my colleague Amanda Mull “ventured into the belly of the holiday-returns beast,” she learned that somewhere in the midst of a complex system of transporters, warehousers, and resellers, a guy named Michael has to sniff the sweatpants.
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S14How to Change Clothes in 'Pokemon Scarlet and Violet'  Becoming a Pokémon master is great, but what’s the point if you can’t do it in style? Like in most recent games, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet lets you buy and change your character's clothing. There are a lot of options in both the main game and its DLC, but if you’re wondering how to get started here’s what you need to know about clothes in Pokémon Violet and Scarlet.There are clothing shops located in Mesagoza, Levicia, and Cascarrafa. You can see the specific shops marked on your map when you are in the area (a t-shirt icon shows where you can purchase clothing).
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S32Tiny biobots surprise their creators by healing wound  Tiny “biobots” made from human windpipe cells encouraged damaged neural tissue to repair itself in a lab experiment — potentially foreshadowing a future in which creations like this patrol our bodies, healing damage, delivering drugs, and more.The background: In a study published in 2020, researchers at Tufts University and the University of Vermont (UVM) harvested and incubated skin cells from frog embryos until they were tiny balls.
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S22S47War in Gaza: An ethicist explains why you shouldn't turn to social media for information about the conflict or to do something about it  As the war between Israel and Hamas drags on, many on both sides have taken to social media to gather information and air their outrage. The impulse to do so is understandable: Political activism on social media provides people with an emotional outlet and gives them a sense that they can do something. The war is awful, and following it generates a sharp psychological need to get involved and do something.In the past few years, my colleagues and I at UMass Boston’s Applied Ethics Center have been studying the ethics of emerging technologies. I believe that political activism on social media is a counterproductive and sometimes even dangerous form of engagement. Here’s why.
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S68A Harrowing Detention in Gaza  While trying to flee the bombardment of Gaza with his family, the poet Mosab Abu Toha, a New Yorker contributor, was erroneously identified as a Hamas activist by Israeli forces at a checkpoint. He was stripped naked and beaten in detention. “I kept saying, ‘Someone please talk to me,’ ” Abu Toha recalls. After an interrogation, he was finally released. Abu Toha talks with David Remnick about his experience, and how it affected his hopes for a resolution to the conflict. Plus, the Reverend M. William Howard, Jr., recounts the extraordinary Christmas he spent in 1979 at the United States Embassy in Tehran, performing services for the Americans held captive during the Iran hostage crisis.Mosab Abu Toha, a Palestinian writer and New Yorker contributor, was mistaken by Israeli forces for a Hamas activist while he tried to flee Gaza with his family.
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S36Why Is the NBA Letting Josh Giddey Play?  The Oklahoma City Thunder player is getting lighter treatment than others suspected of misconduct off the court.The NBA has shown in the recent past that it is willing to discipline players just for tarnishing its brand. So the league’s remarkably passive stance on Josh Giddey, a 21-year-old Oklahoma City Thunder guard, seems strangely out of place.
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