FRIDAY THE 13

Towering over Moscow's golden church domes and Stalin-era skyscrapers is the uber-modern business district of Moskva-Citi. Located 7.6km (4.7m) from Red Square and the Kremlin, Moscow's answer to London's Canary Wharf or New York's Financial District has been hastily built over the last 20 years. It is now home to the highest number of skyscrapers in Europe. The muddy front lines of the war in Ukraine must feel very far away. Yet one of Moskva-Citi's glitzy skyscrapers has been hit by drones twice in the space of a few days. On 30 and 31 July, two separate drones crashed into the building's glass facade, shattering parts of it. Reports said that the section that was hit houses the ministry of economic development and that its employees have now been told to work from home. The scale of devastation is a fraction of that endured by Ukraine since Russian launched its full-scale invasion last year. But witness reports from the scene in Moscow sound strikingly similar to the every day accounts Ukrainians have been sharing since the start of the war. One resident, Arkady Metler, was defiant: "There wasn't much panic, just everyone went outside. There is no fear... All we can do now is stick together and everything will be fine," he told AFP. But others were considerably more nervous. "During the night I was woken up by a bang, there was an explosion," Anastasia Berseneva told the BBC. "I looked out of the window and I saw that cars were stopping and that's how I realised that it [a drone attack] had happened." "I don't know what I'm going to do, but I think I'm going to move from here," Ms Berseneva said. She seemed particularly unnerved by the fact that Tuesday's drone attack hit the same spot another drone targeted last Saturday: "After the first [drone attack], everyone said it wouldn't hit the same place twice... My tower guard and I were a bit shocked." But Moscow is a big city, and few residents will even have seen or heard the drones. While many might be nervous about such attacks becoming more frequent, they might also feel rather unconcerned by them. "In terms of the building construction, (the drone attack) was like a mosquito bite for a human. Because the building is well constructed, those devices can cause only cosmetic harm, and the structure of a building won't be damaged," Moscow resident Alexander Gusev told Reuters. Masha - not her real name - told the BBC's Ukrainecast: "We have felt nervous for the last two years but this drone attack is rather ordinary for us because we are used to bad news... Unfortunately, I think this is our new reality." She said that people "don't feel more scared. We all understand that in future there will be more attacks." On Tuesday, Ukrainian presidential advisor Mikhailo Podolyak appeared to foresee a similar scenario: "Moscow is rapidly getting used to a full-fledged war... More unidentified drones, more collapse, more civil conflicts, more war," he wrote on Twitter. Ukraine has never publicly claimed responsibility for these attacks. However, experts say that Ukraine - whose Western allies would not allow it to strike Russian territory using Western-made weapons for fear of an escalation - has likely been employing Ukrainian-made drones in their attacks on Moscow. These drones might not be able to cause much damage beyond small explosions, but they can seriously fray the nerves of Muscovites who might prefer to keep the war out of sight and out of mind. Although there is no clear evidence on where these drones are launched from, they "spell trouble for the Russian authorities," Pavel Aksenov of the BBC's Russian service says. "If launched from behind the front line, it implies the weakness of Russian air defences. If the drones were launched within Russian territory, it suggests that the security services lack control over their own country." "Launching such a large device is not an easy task and shouldn't have gone unnoticed." Meanwhile, some are cashing in on the sense of resignation that more attacks are inevitable. One insurance company now provides customers with home insurance policies that include damage done by "falling flying objects or their debris" such as drones. "We decided to support our clients... against the current risks of the modern world," said a director at Alfa Insurance. link: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66374032

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The bird soars across the sky and as you watch its progress on your phone you're probably not thinking about saving the planet. But that's about to change. The developers of Angry Birds 2 and 10 other major mobile-games makers have committed to introducing environmental messages into their titles. As well as the famous flying birds, po[CENSORED]r games like Golf Clash, Subway Surfers and Transformers: Earth Wars are part of the project. "There's something like three billion people with mobile phones and half of them are gamers," says John Earner, boss of Space Ape who make Transformers: Earth Wars. "As an industry, we have a massive reach in comparison to other entertainment mediums. "We feel like there is an opportunity and increasingly an imperative for us to do something." John helped organise a "game jam" - where games companies brainstorm new ideas - with the United Nations Environment Programme earlier this year. It asked how games can educate and engage people on green issues, and inspire them to help save the planet. The 20 warmest years on record have been in the past 22 years, with 2015-2018 making up the top four. https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-53808488

Barcelona continued their pre-season tour of the USA with a 3-0 win over Real Madrid in Arlington, Texas. Ousmane Dembele's early goal was followed up by late strikes from Fermin Lopez and Ferran Torres. New signing Jude Bellingham played for Barca's El Clasico rivals Real and the England midfielder's header was one of five Real efforts that struck the woodwork at the AT&T Stadium. "The result is a bit misleading," said Barca coach Xavi Hernandez. "We shouldn't be overconfident. The result is very favourable but it doesn't mean we played a super match. "It was a very even match in which Madrid also had many chances. There are many things to improve." New Barca signing Oriel Romeu was the first to hit the woodwork at the home of the NFL's Dallas Cowboys as he rattled the Real crossbar with a thundering drive in the fourth minute. But Barca took the lead shortly after as a cleverly worked free-kick resulted in Pedri sliding a diagonal pass into the path of Dembele, who drilled the ball inside the far corner from a tight angle. Real were awarded a penalty just five minutes later after Barca defender Ronald Araujo handled in the box but Vinicius Junior blasted the spot-kick against the bar. ADVERTISEMENT The Brazil forward then fired against the underside of the bar and although Bellingham outjumped Barcelona goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen from the rebound, his header came back off a post before being scrambled behind. Arsenal 5-3 Barcelona: Trossard scores twice for Gunners in pre-season win Real Madrid 2-0 Man Utd: Bellingham scores in man-of-the-match performance Aurelien Tchouameni fired a long-range strike against the bar after half-time and as Real pushed for an equaliser, Barca substitute Lopez, 20, beat Thibuat Courtois on 85 minutes with a 20-yard strike after Toni Kroos had given away possession. Vinicius fired against the bar for a third time from a tight angle yet Torres sealed the win as he ran on to a Lopez pass before lifting the ball over the advancing Courtois and tapping it into the empty net. "The result is the least important thing," said Real coach Carlo Ancelotti. "It hurts to lose, but I'll keep the good things we did. "We were good in terms of intensity, we had a lot of chances that didn't go in. Five [against the woodwork] in a game is quite rare, I don't think it has ever happened to me. But it's better if it happens in pre-season." Barca complete their trip with a game against AC Milan in Las Vegas on 2 August while Real face Juventus in Orlando the following day. link: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/66352708

A monkey torture ring sadistically abused and killed baby macaques on camera for customers in the UK and US, an investigation has found. A year-long BBC probe found the cruel ring was operating globally with hundreds paying Indonesians to torture and kill infant long-tailed macaques on video. An alleged key video distributor in the US, known as the 'The Torture King', discussed a poll on one of the groups that gave the option of hammers or pliers for use in torture, adding: 'It went from baby bottle teasing to fingers being snipped off.' The torture ring started on YouTube, before moving to private groups on Telegram, the BBC World Service investigation found. In the secretly filmed video, M Ajis Rasjana tells an undercover reporter that when he is 'very, very angry' he hits the monkeys against the wall. In the secretly filmed video, M Ajis Rasjana, talks to the undercover reporter. He says that if he is 'very, very angry' he hits the monkeys against the wall +3 View gallery In the secretly filmed video, M Ajis Rasjana, talks to the undercover reporter. He says that if he is 'very, very angry' he hits the monkeys against the wall Rasjana also notes that about a week ago he banged a monkey's head against the wall and blood was coming out of its mouth, which he says was 'so cool', while laughing Rasjana also notes that about a week ago he banged a monkey's head against the wall and blood was coming out of its mouth, which he says was 'so cool', while laughing Journalist says Titanic sub is 'like something made by MacGyver' BBC journalists in Libyan kidnap horror after being abducted Man, 19, appears in court charged with rape of 15-year-old girl in sea He also notes that about a week ago he banged a monkey's head against the wall and blood was coming out of its mouth, which he says was 'so cool', while laughing. Police are now seeking out the buyers and a number of arrests have already been made. BBC journalists went undercover in one of the main Telegram torture groups, where hundreds of people got together to plan torture ideas and commission people in Indonesia and other nations in Asia to put them into practice. The group aimed to make tailored videos showing the abuse, torture and sometimes killing of baby long-tailed macaque monkeys. The BBC located the torturers in Indonesia, and the buyers and distributors in the US. They also managed to access an international law enforcement effort to have them punished for their actions. At least 20 people are now under investigation around the world, including three women living in the UK who were arrested by police in 2022 and released under investigation, and one man in Oregon, USA, who was indicted last week. Mike McCartney, allegedly a key video distributor in the US, who is called 'The Torture King' in the videos, described to the BBC journalists the moment he joined his first Telegram monkey torture group. McCartney, who the BBC say used to be a motorcycle gang member and served prison time before he joined the monkey torture network, remarked: 'They had a poll set up. Do you want a hammer involved? Do you want pliers involved? Do you want a screwdriver?' He said the video that arose from it was 'the most grotesque thing I have ever seen'. McCartney came to run a number of Telegram groups that saw torture enthusiasts distributing videos. 'It's no different than drug money,' he said. 'Drug money comes from dirty hands, this money comes from bloody hands.' The BBC also identified two other key suspects being investigated by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS): Stacey Storey, a grandmother from Alabama in her 40s known as 'Sadistic' among others in the network, and a ringleader known as 'Mr Ape', whose real name was not disclosed by the broadcaster for safety reasons. At the end of the video, the reporter asks Rasjana if he can take a photo of one of the monkeys At the end of the video, the reporter asks Rasjana if he can take a photo of one of the monkeys 'Mr Ape' said in an interview with the publication that he had caused the deaths of at least four monkeys and tortured several others more. He said he had commissioned 'extremely brutal' videos. Department of Homeland Security agents took Storey's phone, finding almost 100 torture videos, along with evidence that she had funded the creation of some of the most horrifying videos produced. Storey was involved in a torture group earlier this month, according to police sources. Approached by the BBC in Alabama in January, Storey said she had been hacked and would not comment on the allegations in depth. 'Mr Ape', Mike McCartney and Stacey Storey are three of five key targets in the Homeland Security investigation, which is ongoing. They have not been charged, but could face up to seven years in jail if prosecuted and convicted. The DHS investigation is being led by Special Agent Paul Wolpert. He said all law enforcement involved had been profoundly shocked by the alleged crimes. 'I don't know if anybody would ever be ready for a crime like this,' he said. 'The same with the attorneys and the juries, and anybody who reads that this is going on. It is going to be a shocker I think.' He added that anyone taking part in the distributing or buying of monkey torture videos should 'expect a knock on the door at some point'. He said: 'You are not going to get away with it.' Police in Indonesia have arrested two torture suspects. Asep Yadi Nurul Hikmah, who was charged with animal torture and the sale of a protected species, received a three-year prison sentence. M Ajis Rasjana was sentenced to eight months, the maximum available for animal torture. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12214001/Monkey-torture-ring-abused-killed-baby-monkeys-camera-customers-UK-US.html

Are other people contacting you about their John Lewis Partnership credit card? The reason I ask is that I have just received a letter from HSBC claiming I’ve been transferred to it, but nothing from John Lewis. HSBC used to offer the John Lewis card but last year customers were all switched over to another firm, NewDay. Concerned that this might be a scam – the HSBC alert letter wants me to set up a direct debit – I rang the customer care line at John Lewis Finance and spoke to a very confused person who had had several similar calls. It’s my main credit card, so I need to understand what’s going on. He was unable to clarify. This is fishy or incompetence. Can you shed any light on it? VJ, by email My immediate reaction to this was, like your own, to assume this was a scam, and that fraudsters were trying to elicit people’s bank details. However, on this occasion, it turns out that it is not. A John Lewis Finance spokesperson says: “We want to reassure customers that the correspondence they have received from HSBC UK is legitimate. “It has been sent as a legal requirement in regard to their historic partnership card accounts. We’re sorry for any confusion caused.” It added that the letter only applies to customers who still have an outstanding balance, and if you don’t, you can ignore it. Given that you pay off your balance in full each month, it’s unclear why you were sent the letter, but you were right to question it. The switch to NewDay was a painful process for many cardholders and this episode does little to instil confidence or loyalty. We welcome letters but cannot answer individually. Email us at consumer.champions@theguardian.com or write to Consumer Champions, Money, the Guardian, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Please include a daytime phone number. Submission and publication of all letters is subject to our terms and conditions https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/jul/11/hsbc-set-off-a-scam-alert-over-my-john-lewis-partnership-credit-card

Manchester City's signing of RB Leipzig and Croatia defender Josko Gvardiol for £77m makes him the second-most expensive defender of all-time. The 21-year-old left-footed centre-back, who can play at left-back too, has been called 'little Pep' because of his name's similarity to City boss Pep Guardiola. So who is Gvardiol, just how good is he - and what would he bring to City? Who are the most expensive defenders ever? City already have three of the top 10 most expensive defenders- with Ruben Dias, Joao Cancelo and Aymeric Laporte - although the futures of the latter two are in doubt. How will Gvardiol fit in at City? Gvardiol, who is 6ft 1in, is a left-sided central defender, and City feel he could feature in a back three or in a four-man defence. With Guardiola's management, though, it is hard to always gauge what might happen regarding a player's development. Gvardiol is primarily a centre-back, who has also played at left-back on occasion. John Stones, Nathan Ake and Manuel Akanji were considered to be central defenders too - but Ake and Akanji played some of last season at full-back and Stones ended the campaign in a hybrid midfield role. Gvardiol's statistics in the Bundesliga last season are comparable to City's current centre-back contingent. His passing accuracy is slightly lower, but he made more interventions and won possession more often. In Europe's top five leagues, only four defenders touched the ball more times per 90 minutes than Gvardiol. City's Ruben Dias topped the list, while Benjamin Pavard, Jordi Alba and Dayot Upamecano - from Guardiola's old teams Bayern Munich and Barcelona - were also above Gvardiol. One of Gvardiol's five goals for Leipzig was a header against City in the Champions League last 16 first leg this year. "He's fast, intense, dynamic, really good at changing directions and really good at transitioning from attack and defence and vice versa," German football expert Jasmine Baba told BBC Radio Manchester's We're Not Really Here podcast in June. "He's a really good, agile defender and his strength is in passing while he's in possession - even under pressure, he still finds solutions to play it forward. "John Stones has been pushed into more of a midfielder - I can see that happening with Gvardiol too. "It's kind of a no-brainer why someone like Pep Guardiola would want him. He really is a dream prospect at his young age." Who is Gvardiol and is he a proven winner? The defender already has four years of first-team experience with Dinamo Zagreb and Leipzig and has won a domestic cup in each of the past three seasons - in 2021 in Croatia and in the 2022 and 2023 German Cups. He was very close to joining Marcelo Bielsa's Leeds United in 2020 but moved to Leipzig instead. "Gvardiol is the best central defender in the world. He's so mature. The way he plays, with the grace he controls the ball, it's amazing," said Croatia boss Zlatko Dalic last year. Gvardiol helped Croatia reach the World Cup semi-finals last year and scored in their third-place play-off win over Morocco. Only three players at the World Cup played more successful passes than Gvardiol's 463. City's Rodri led the way. Gvardiol ranked sixth for touches of the ball (612). Gvardiol made more clearances than any other player in Qatar with 37, and he was joint second, level with England's Declan Rice, for interceptions with 11. He also ranked fifth for headed clearances (14). A version of this article was first published in June 2023. Latest Manchester City news, analysis and fan views Get Man City news notifications SOURCE

The government still does not know what it is trying to achieve with the High Speed 2 (HS2) station at Euston, a parliamentary committee report states. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said this was despite the Department for Transport (DfT) spending over eight years planning and designing it. In March it was announced that station work had been paused for two years. The DfT said it remained "committed to delivering HS2 in the most cost-effective way". HS2 Euston delays to cost more, watchdog warns HS2 will reach central London, chancellor says HS2: Leaders urge government to consider proposals The PAC report called on the DfT to use the current pause in construction on the project to establish the design and expectations for the station against what it is willing to spend. It called the original £2.6bn budget "completely unrealistic", with estimates now suggesting the cost to build the station to be about £4.8bn. It also said the department must provide greater transparency in its six-monthly updates to Parliament. Previous updates on cost pressures at Euston did not disclose the risks that construction costs could be significantly higher than expected, the committee said. Other conclusions and recommendations from the PAC report included: The department does not yet know the costs and impacts of pausing construction The department and HM Treasury have not reached a clear understanding about how they would manage high levels of inflation on the HS2 programme The department's reports to Parliament on the HS2 Programme did not reflect the significant level of uncertainty in its estimated cost of Euston station The department has not yet learned lessons from managing major rail programmes Dame Meg Hillier MP, chair of the committee, said the Euston project was "floundering". She said the scheme had caused "major disruption to the local community" and pausing it was "not cost free", even though it had been done to save money. "The government must now be clear what it is trying to achieve with this new station, and how it will benefit the public," she added. Responding to the report, a DfT spokesperson said: "Earlier this year we made the decision to rephrase the construction of Euston to help balance the nation's books and work on an affordable design for the station. "The National Audit Office recently acknowledged this will provide time to put the station design on a more stable footing and we continue to work at pace to ensure the transformational benefits of HS2 are delivered to passengers by better connecting our biggest cities, supporting thousands of jobs and helping grow the economy. "We note the recommendations made in the committee's report and will respond to them in due course." https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-66124056

Several users have reported this bug to Microsoft, which affects one of the optional protections related to kernel isolation. Windows 11 has proven to be a very complete operating system for playing, although it has not been free of problems and bugs (in reality, no system is) that have been solved through updates that also add new content or plug security holes. However, the latest system update comes with an error under the arm that our reader Javier García has informed us about and that several people are complaining through the official Microsoft forums because it causes one of the Windows Defender protections, the antivirus that Windows itself includes. Specifically, this failure causes the local authority (LSA) protection to be deactivated, one of the optional protections that are included within the kernel's isolation security features and that, explained in a simple way, helps us protect the credentials that we have them saved in the operating system in a more secure way, preventing drivers and other elements without a secure signature from being loaded into the system. This protection, to begin with, is deactivated by default in Windows 11 but those who wanted to maximize their security and have it activated have found that it has been automatically deactivated and, when trying to activate it, they have encountered erratic operation like that of a user called Setacraft which after activating it, found that "the option was still activated, but it still asked me to restart, so I restarted again, and despite the restart, it kept telling me to restart for it to activate, so I tried disabling it the option, restart again, and activate the option and restart again... and it keeps telling me to restart even though the option is activated. At the moment Microsoft has not commented on this bug and at Vandal Ware we are going to contact them to see if they are preparing some type of update to correct the bug or if they have any temporary solution beyond not updating Windows 11 if you want to have it activated (or go back to the previous version if you have already updated the operating system). In the future LSA will be activated by default Just this week we learned that Microsoft plans for Windows 11 to activate this LSA protection by default, something that they have already applied in the beta versions of the operating system and that they will implement in the "public" version in the future. Precisely, preparing the system for this change may be generating this conflict. As for the problem, if you are dedicated to playing, Microsoft itself recommends deactivating the core isolation protections to gain performance (and reactivating them when you finish playing, which is very tedious) so it is something that in principle does not always affect us too much. and when we tread carefully on the internet (something we should always do, on the other hand). https://vandal.elespanol.com/w5980/la-ultima-actualizacion-de-windows-11-viene-con-un-error-que-afecta-a-la-proteccion-lsa

The well-known peripheral brand has announced its new high-end devices designed for the most enthusiastic gamers or esports professionals. Logitech G is the brand of gaming peripherals from Logitech, one of the most veteran and prestigious companies in terms of technology and peripherals that, in fact, was one of the first to bet on devices for gamers at the time. Today the brand wanted to announce its new keyboard and the new mouse from the Pro Series range designed for esports professionals or for the most enthusiastic players designed "to offer maximum performance to eSports professionals and competitive players", according to says Brent Barry, head of eSports and PRO Series at Logitech G. ADVERTISING Let's start talking about the Logitech G PRO Many veterans like it. This mouse has a HERO 2 sensor with up to 32,000 DPI with a dual-matrix design to improve its performance in all types of situations, while if we look at its weight it is only 60 grams. In addition, the battery lasts up to 95 hours, all for €169. The other peripheral introduced by Logitech is its Logitech G PRO As for its connectivity, it is compatible with Bluetooth, Lightspeed or USB and its price is €229. It has a design suitable for all types of grips and also for left-handed users, its weight is reduced to a minimum and it has a sensor designed to offer the greatest precision. Of all the peripherals available for playing on a computer, perhaps the most important, especially for those of us who play FPS, is the mouse, that faithful "companion" that accurately transfers all the movements of our hand to the screen and is key to point and shoot in this type of video games. In fact, it is quite common to see debates among players of Counter-Strike 2, Valorant or other games of this type about which mouse is better and now Corsair launches a new mouse designed for this type of players so that, precisely, it can become an option for them and that is present within that debate of good mice to enjoy shooters. https://vandal.elespanol.com/w6066/logitech-g-lanza-su-nuevo-teclado-y-raton-pro-series-para-jugar

Maybe now I can finally get Galactus. Nuverse has introduced a new feature called Spotlight Cache to its mobile game Marvel Snap. With this new feature, it'll now be easier for you to collect cards and specific build decks. Thanks to a Marvel Snap Blog post, we know that with Spotlight Cache, you'll be able to collect Series 4 and 5 cards, but to use it, you'll need to have a Collection Level (CL) of at least 500. On top of that, it'll also replace Collector's Caches and Collector's Reserves every 120 CL. This will make one in every ten Collector's Reserves turn into a Spotlight Cache. Every week, three different Series 4 and 5 cards will be featured, including new cards that have just been released. Opening a Spotlight Cache will guarantee you at least one Series 4 or 5 card, and if you already own one of the featured cards, you'll get a time-exclusive variant for the card featured. The reason for Nuverse making this change is to make it easier for you to collect cards. And it was also because the team noticed that "a very small portion of players [are] able to get the new card each week." If you're still unlocking cards via the Collector's Tokens and Token Shop, don't worry because they'll still be around for you to use. In addition to being able to collect cards in the shop, you'll now be able to earn cards by upgrading ones you already own again. link: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/marvel-snap-is-making-it-easier-to-earn-new-cards/1100-6515470/

The Augmentation Evoker came to World of Warcraft with patch 10.1.5 last week, bringing a whole new type of DPS to the game. For the uninitiated, this new spec works by buffing party members to bump their damage numbers rather than melting faces itself. It's comparable to the Dancer from Final Fantasy 14 or the Bard from Dungeons & Dragons—basically, when an Augmentation Evoker's in the group, everyone does better. So obviously they've been getting kicked out of groups for no reason. A reddit thread on the World of Warcraft subreddit emerged with a compilation of screenshots from the Wyrmrest Temple discord, community server for Evokers. Typing "!augdps" in the augmentation channel will have Carlygos, the server's friendly bot, drop an ever-evolving montage of people missing the point: WoWhead confirms that as it stands, po[CENSORED]r damage meter addons aren't properly tracking the Evoker's contributions to their group. Despite Blizzard's mission statement that they aren't designing the game around them, WoW's numbers-obsessed community combined with a new experimental specialisation is a recipe for disaster. https://www.pcgamer.com/wows-new-specialisation-deals-damage-by-buffing-everyone-else-so-of-course-its-getting-booted-from-groups-for-low-dps/

Opener Liton Das top-scored with 35 as Bangladesh defeated Afghanistan by six wickets in the second Twenty20 international to take the two-match series 2-0 on Sunday. Liton laid the foundation for the win with a 67-run opening stand with Afif Hossain (24) as Bangladesh raced to 119-4 in 16.1 overs after Taskin Ahmed's 3-33 helped the side restrict Afghanistan to 116-7 in a rain-reduced 17 overs. Bangladesh won the opening match of the series by two wickets on Friday, and Sunday's follow-up -- both of them in the northeastern city of Sylhet -- earned them their third consecutive T20 series win, and their first against Afghanistan in three attempts. They defeated world champions England 3-0 and Scotland 2-1 earlier this year. Off-spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman gave Afghanistan a lifeline to save the series by removing Liton and Afif in the space of three balls after their solid stand before Azmatullah Omarzai bowled Najmul Hossain for four. But skipper Shakib Al Hasan and young Towhid Hridoy forged a 31-run stand for the fourth wicket to prevent further collapse. "We lost couple of wickets, but given the start we had, we were always ahead," Shakib said at the post-match presentation ceremony. "Given the ground conditions, I knew their spinners would have it tough." Afghanistan captain Rashid Khan refused to make any excuses. "Weather is not an excuse for a team. T20 should be decided on skills and we were not good enough there, especially in batting," he said. Omarzai dismissed Towhid for 19 before finishing with 2-17 but Shakib, with his unbeaten 18, took Bangladesh home. Shakib also played a hand with the ball to claim 2-15, and Mustafizur Rahman claimed 2-30 as Bangladesh, electing to bowl first, made Afghanistan struggle. Rain halted play for one-and-a-half hours after just seven overs, prompting the match officials to reduce the contest to 17 overs per side. Afghanistan were already struggling, losing both openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz (eight) and Hazratullah Zazai (four) to Taskin with 16 runs on the board. Mustafizur removed Mohammad Nabi for 16 after play resumed, and in the next over Shakib dismissed both Ibrahim Zadran (22) and Najibullah Zadran, reducing Afghanistan to 67-5. But Omarzai and Karim Janat put on 42 runs for the sixth wicket to revive the innings. Mustafizur ended Omarzai's 21-ball knock of 25 forcing him to give Shamim Hossain a catch at deep third man. Janat was out to Taskin in the final over for 22. Listen to the latest songs, only on JioSaavn.com Bangladesh won the one-off Test match by a record 546 runs while Afghanistan won the three-match one-day international series 2-1. (This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) https://sports.ndtv.com/cricket/ban-vs-afg-bangladesh-win-t20i-series-against-afghanistan-for-first-time-4213429

The nine Type D orcas were found on a beach in Chile, with a necropsy of one female showing it was a healthy adult, with no signs of human involvement in its death. A strange and rare group of orcas has stranded on a beach in Chile — the first event of its kind in 67 years and only the second ever recorded. The orcas (Orcinus orca) belong to the "Type D" sub-group — a distinct group of orcas native to the Southern Hemisphere. Type D orcas are so different from other orcas that some scientists suggest they might actually be a completely separate species. "I think there's a good possibility here that this Type D killer whale could be one of the largest undescribed species left on the planet," Robert Pitman, a marine ecologist at Oregon State University, told Live Science. Orcas are divided into at least nine different sub-groups, or "types," spread all over the world. But Type D orcas — which have smaller white patches by their eyes and rounded "melon" heads — are some of the most unique. Related: Orcas attack boat with ruthless efficiency, tearing off rudders in just 15 minutes Scientists first came across Type D orcas in 1955 when a group of unusually shaped killer whales washed up on a beach in New Zealand. But the animals weren't identified as a distinct group of orcas until the early 2000s, when researchers spotted whales that matched the odd facial markings and body shapes of 1955 New Zealand orcas in photographs from all over the southern oceans. The 1955 beaching was the only known stranding of Type D orcas until the two latest incidents. In November last year, researchers in Punta Arenas (at the very southern tip of Chile) were notified about a stranded female, which they identified as a Type D orca due to its distinctive small eye patch, rounded head and curved dorsal fin. The team took photos and measurements of the animal and transferred its remains to a museum. Later that month, a group of eight stranded orcas were reported about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) away. These individuals were much more decayed, but the researchers believe they were also Type D orcas. The researchers published the results of their study on June 8 in the journal Polar Biology. The scientists aren't sure why the nine orcas died or ended up on the beach. Whales might strand themselves for a variety of reasons, including illness or human use of underwater sonar, though the causes are not entirely understood. The team's analysis of the lone female orca showed it was a healthy adult. There were no signs of human involvement in the death, such as entanglement or a collision with a boat. The scientists didn't detect parasites in the animal, and all the abdominal organs and heart appeared healthy. The other eight, more decomposed orcas were measured, but did not have necropsies performed on them. But Type D orca strandings are likely rare for good reason, said Pitman. Type D orcas only live between 40 and 60 degrees south, and there is very little land for them to beach on in that stretch of the ocean – the only major landmasses are New Zealand, Tasmania and the bottom tip of South America. "I have to admit, I never thought I would hear about another stranding of Type D killer whales in my lifetime," Pitman, who reviewed the new paper before it went to print, told Live Science via email. link: https://www.livescience.com/animals/orcas/mystery-orcas-with-bulbous-heads-wash-up-dead-in-unexplained-mass-stranding

Rachel Roddy’s potato and tomato frittata. Photograph: Issy Croker/The Guardian. Food styling: Esther Clark. Prop styling: Louie Waller. Food styling assistant: Clare Cole A kitchen in RomeFood Rachel Roddy’s recipe for potato and tomato frittata A twist on two 18th-century recipes by ‘The Gallant Cook’ who changed Neapolitan cooking Rachel Roddy @racheleats Mon 3 Jul 2023 11.00 BST 143 “With joyful inventiveness,” is how food historian Gillian Riley describes the way Vincenzo Corrado wrote about food. She also notes his “fresh flow of ideas”, “subversive and endearingly individual way”, and his ability to “convey a complex recipe in three or four lines”. I admire these same qualities in Riley’s own lively and scholarly writing, and especially in her masterful The Oxford Companion to Italian Food, which is where I met The Gallant Cook. Born in 1738, in Oria in Puglia (then part of the Kingdom of Naples), little is known about Corrado’s childhood except that it was humble, and that, after his parents’ death, he possibly went into the service of an aristocrat. At 17, he entered a Celestine monastery that allowed him an excellent education and, later, to travel all over the Italian peninsula with senior clergy, feeding his curiosity about food and collecting recipes as they went. Monastic life also took Corrado to Naples, which at the time was the densely-po[CENSORED]ted centre of the Spanish-ruled kingdom and, for the wealthy, the pleasure capital of Europe. Corrado took up the position of capo dei servizi di bocca (head of mouth services) at the court of the Prince of Francavilla. Working with high-status cooks known as monzù (a Neapolitan corruption of monsieur), who specialised in French- and Spanish-style dishes, Corrado was responsible for planning fantastically elaborate banquets. And that is what makes his first book, Il Cuoco Galante, all the more extraordinary, and a landmark in the invention and development of Italian food. While it was written within the structure of French cuisine, it brims with distinctively Italian flavours and textures inspired by his travels and the city he loved. So, French bisca, budin, gattò and bignè sit beside calamaretti fritti, cardoni alla Parmegiana, genovese, timballi, gnocchi, lasagne and vermicelli – prototypical recipes for colloquial dishes that would become classics of Neapolitan cooking. Also, tomatoes Italian-style, which brings us to Corrado’s third (and my favourite) book, Del Cibo Pitagorico (About Pythagorean Food). Written in 1781, and influenced by the fashionable cult of vegetarianism in Europe at the time, Corrado’s treatise is hardly the frugal diet suggested by Pythagoras, but a passionate vegetable manifesto involving a discreet amount of bacon, stock, bone marrow and chicken. This book, and his 1798 treatise on the potato, are also significant in that they document the assimilation of tomato and potato – glories from the Americas that were still largely misunderstood – into the traditional cooking of southern Italy. As well as presenting the potato as “meal” for dough, Corrado “reveals” 50 ways to cook it, including frittate and mashed potato cakes. He offers 12 recipes for tomatoes, always with the skins and seeds removed, including two for sauce: a colì (from colare, “to strain”) and a salsa of tomatoes, oil, herbs and broth, also sieved. In the list of uses for this universal salsa are meat, fish, eggs and pastas, although there is only a fleeting mention of such a meeting. Potatoes and tomatoes do meet: potatoes stuffed with rice and egg are served with tomato colì, as are boiled potatoes. In the same way that Corrado invents, he invites his reader to do the same, so I mix his tomato and onion frittata with his potato one. The year 1799 also saw the creation of the Repubblica Napoletana and the start of a tumultuous period for the city. Corrado lived long enough, writing a little, to see stability return and a great deal of his take on Neapolitan cuisine become standard. He died aged 98 in 1836. Potato, tomato and onion frittata Makes 8 slices 1kg potatoes, peeled and halved A bunch of spring onions, trimmed and bulbs and green diced Olive oil 250g tomatoes, peeled and roughly chopped Handful basil or parsley (or a mix), chopped Salt and pepper 2 eggs, lightly beaten 2 tbsp grated pecorino or parmesan Watercress, to serve Boil the potatoes in well-salted water until tender, then drain. Mash or pass through a potato ricer. In a frying pan, fry the onion in four tablespoons of olive oil until it starts to turn translucent. Add the tomato, herbs and some salt, and cook for 10 minutes, mashing them with the back of a spoon to make them sauce-like (you could also pass the sauce through a food mill for a smoother texture, but it is not necessary). Add the tomatoes and onion to the potato, leave to sit for 10 minutes, then add the eggs, cheese and salt and pepper to taste. Press the potato-and-tomato mixture into a well-oiled frying pan, then leave to form a crust underneath. Flip and brown the other side, then invert on to a plate. Serve warm or at room temperature with a watercress salad and any leftovers in a sandwich. … there is a good reason why NOT to support the Guardian. Not everyone can afford to pay for news right now. That is why we keep our journalism open for everyone to read, including in Egypt. If this is you, please continue to read for free. But if you are able to, then there are THREE good reasons to support us today. 1. Our quality, investigative journalism is a scrutinising force at a time when the rich and powerful are getting away with more and more 2. We are independent and have no billionaire owner pulling the strings, so your money directly powers our reporting 3. It doesn’t cost much, and takes less time than it took to read this message Help power the Guardian’s journalism for the years to come, whether with a small sum or a larger one. If you can, please support us on a monthly basis from just $2. It takes less than a minute to set up, and you can rest assured that you’re making a big impact every single month in support of open, independent journalism. Thank you . https://www.theguardian.com/food/2023/jul/03/potato-and-tomato-frittata-recipe-rachel-roddy

Russian missile attacks on Ukraine's Black Sea coast have destroyed 60,000 tonnes of grain and damaged storage infrastructure, officials say. Agriculture Minister Mykola Solskyi said a "considerable amount" of export infrastructure was out of operation. Russia has pulled out of an international grain deal in place since last summer, guaranteeing safe passage for exports across the Black Sea. The Kremlin argued its demands for Russian exports had not been honoured. Within hours of its withdrawal from the grain deal on Monday, Russia had struck the southern port cities of Odesa and Mykolaiv in the early hours of Tuesday. It followed that up with more strikes overnight into Wednesday, targeting grain terminals and port infrastructure in Odesa and further down the Black Sea coast in Chornomorsk, two of the three ports that were included in the export deal. Odesa military spokesman Serhiy Bratchuk called it a "truly massive attack". The agriculture minister said the 60,000 tonnes destroyed in the strike were "supposed to be loaded on a large-tonnage ship and sent through the grain corridor 60 days ago". Russia's defence ministry later declared that from midnight on Wednesday night (21:00 GMT), any ships heading to Ukrainian ports would be viewed as potential carriers of military cargo and party to the conflict. Some north-western and south-eastern areas of the Black Sea would be temporarily dangerous for shipping, it added. At least 12 civilians, including a nine-year-old boy, were wounded during the attacks, which also caused damage to blocks of flats, military officials said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said each missile strike was a blow not just to Ukraine, but to "everyone in the world striving for a normal and safe life". France and Germany also condemned the attack. Germany Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said that by covering Odesa with a hail of bombs, Russian President Vladimir Putin was robbing the world of any hope of Ukrainian grain and "hitting the world's poorest". The infrastructure ministry published a series of photos showing damage to silos and other grain facilities. Officials said there had been damage to wharves and reservoirs, but it was international and Ukrainian traders that had suffered the most. Russian war commentators said the damage proved that Kyiv was unable to shoot down the majority of Russian missiles and drones. Officials said the co-ordinated attack involved Kalibr cruise missiles, Onyx supersonic and Kh-22 anti-ship missiles as well as kamikaze drones, fired from the Black Sea, Crimea and southern Russia. Although 37 Russian missiles and drones were shot down, a number did penetrate Ukrainian defences, they said. "I saw a red flash in the window and reacted immediately," one resident told the Reuters news agency. "I went downstairs, it was noisy and filled with smoke outside, people were in panic, some were crying, glass shards were scattered all over. It was impossible to remain in the area." Russia had called its initial attack on Odesa a "mass revenge strike" for an attack on the Russian-built bridge over the Kerch strait linking occupied Crimea to Russia. Seaborne drones were blamed for Monday's bridge strike that knocked out a section of bridge and killed a Russian couple. Crimea saw further disruption on Wednesday. Some 2,200 residents were evacuated from four villages near a military training range after a fire triggered hours of explosions at a nearby ammunition depot. Russian-installed officials also shut a 12-km (7.5-mile) section of the Tavrida motorway that links the cities of Simferopol and Sevastopol in southern Crimea to the bridge over the Kerch strait. Construction of the road by Russia's occupation authorities began in 2017. A series of explosions were heard in the area from about 04:30 (01:30 GMT) on Wednesday. Officials did not explain the cause of the fire near the city of Staryi Krim. But unconfirmed reports on social media spoke of three Ukrainian strikes. The Kremlin said Mr Putin had been briefed on the incident. Russia's appointee boss in Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, said the cause of the fire at the military range was being investigated, but that no-one was hurt. ;link: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66242446

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When several tigers and African lions at the Bronx Zoo tested positive for the coronavirus last April, Tracey McNamara was not surprised. The big cats fell ill a little more than a month after New York City reported its first Covid-19 case. But McNamara, a veterinary pathologist at Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, California, knew as early as January 2020 that zoo animals might be at risk: A senior Chinese health official had warned the public that the virus spread between mammals and that they should quarantine any pets that might have encountered an infected person. Soon after the virus infected the zoo’s felids, Chinese scientists reported in the journal Science that cats were “highly susceptible” to the coronavirus. SARS-CoV-2 (short for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2), the virus that causes Covid-19, “can replicate efficiently in cats,” the authors wrote. And, perhaps more importantly, they noted, the virus can transmit “between cats via the airborne route.” The pandemic has claimed more than 2 million human lives worldwide, more than 418,000 of them in the United States, even as governments spend billions to contain it. And now an expanding list of species have contracted Covid-19, including lions, tigers and gorillas in zoos, mink on farms and in the wild, and pet dogs and cats. Studies show that other animals can be infected in the lab, including ferrets, hamsters, rabbits, mice, monkeys and raccoon dogs. Scientists like McNamara say there’s an increasingly urgent need to figure out which animals can not only contract but also transmit the virus. It’s clear that small carnivores like mink, raccoon dogs and cats do so, though so far only mink have infected people. But if enough animals become reservoirs of infection, and allow the virus to move easily between animals and people, it will be much harder to control the pandemic. Dedicated efforts to monitor captive and wild animals that could be susceptible are essential, said Christine Kreuder Johnson, director of the EpiCenter for Disease Dynamics at the University of California, Davis One Health Institute. Otherwise, they could become sources of transmission after the outbreak is controlled in people. Over the past few decades, international health agencies have recognized that controlling infectious diseases requires focusing on the interconnections between people, animals and their environment. With this “One Health” approach, explained Ann Hohenhaus, staff veterinarian and hospital spokesperson for the Animal Medical Center in New York City, “if you have a problem in one, you’re going to cause problems in the others.” The novel coronavirus revealed the folly of ignoring a One Health approach, Johnson and her colleagues argued in a commentary published in Health Affairs last week, calling the U.S. response “unprepared, overconfident and inept.” They urged the incoming Biden administration to create an interagency One Health task force to improve U.S. pandemic preparedness by forging domestic and global collaborations that target “key drivers of disease emergence, including climate and global environmental changes.” It’s a massive undertaking. But with zoonoses—pathogenic diseases that spill over from animals to humans—accounting for three-quarters of emerging infectious diseases, it’s one that public health officials cannot afford to ignore. At the least, it will require better coordination between public and animal health agencies. Ideally, McNamara and others say, it would involve launching a comprehensive animal and environmental health surveillance network. McNamara has urged public health officials to do both ever since the West Nile virus caused scores of crows to drop dead around the grounds of the Bronx Zoo more than two decades ago, when she was the zoo’s lead pathologist. In the summer of 1999, McNamara feared she was seeing something new to veterinary medicine when wild crows, and then flamingos and other birds at the zoo, started keeling over. Around the same time, city health officials reported an unusual cluster of cases and deaths associated with a strange encephalitis, or brain inflammation, after a record-breaking heatwave and torrential rains—perfect breeding conditions for mosquitoes. McNamara’s gut told her the animal and human illnesses were linked. She shared her concerns with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but officials there told her they saw no connection between dying New Yorkers and birds. The CDC dealt with human health, she was told, not flamingos. That “jurisdictional straitjacket,” she argued in a 2018 Ted talk, blinded officials to a novel public health threat. It took several weeks and misdiagnoses at state and federal labs before scientists finally identified the culprit as West Nile, a mosquito-borne disease previously unknown in the Western Hemisphere. The bungled approach to the outbreak inspired a congressional report on lessons for public health preparedness. The report stressed recognizing that many emerging diseases affect both animals and people, and the importance of bolstering the links between public and animal health agencies to prevent future spillovers. More than two decades later, however, nothing has changed, McNamara said, even though yawning gaps in surveillance have opened the door to several new deadly viruses. And even though SARS-CoV-2, like West Nile, jumped from animals to people, she added, “all anybody wanted to look at was people.” All the species in closest contact with humans in crowded urban centers—dogs, cats, zoo species, shelter animals, non-game wildlife—still do not fall under the jurisdiction of any federal agency and are not under surveillance, she said. So instead of catching potential threats to human health in animals, she added, “the only time we find stuff is when we have dead people.” To find out more https://insideclimatenews.org/news/27012021/animals-covid-19-control/

Rabat - King Mohammed VI inaugurated today the Rabat-Sale-Kenitra City for vocational training (CMC) in the town of Tamesna. The project is the result of a partnership between the Office of Vocational Training and Employment, the Hassan II Fund for Economic and Social Development, and the Rabat-Sale-Kenitra Region Council. The overall budget of the project settled at MAD 380 million ($38 million). The investment does not include the cost of the two institutes specialized in health professions and the food industry attached to the City of Professions and Competencies. The city serves as an institution for professional training and is in line with royal instructions and the new roadmap for the development of the vocational training sector. To ensure the successful execution of its mission, the professional training hub is equipped with pedagogical spaces and “life spaces” that facilitate the development of technical and comprehensive skills as well as the self-development of trainees. The city houses six specialized sectors dedicated to acquiring professional skills, along with six integrated practical platforms. These platforms provide training based on “learning by doing” through exercises that simulate real professional environments, enabling trainees to gain practical experience. The “Industry” pole, designed in the form of a pedagogical factory, offers trainees the opportunity to engage with ten different specialties related to quality, health and safety, environment, industrial and electrical engineering, mechanics, and automotive professions. In addition, the pole includes a mini-pedagogical chain for manufacturing electric vehicle charging stations. It operates as a real-size application platform managed by multidisciplinary teams and trainees specializing in various fields within the sector. The training hub further comprises shared facilities, including a language and self-skills center, a vocational guidance center, innovation spaces (collaborative workspace, development laboratory, digital factory, incubator), a multimedia library, and a dedicated space for open online training courses (MOOC). The studio within this space is equipped with multimedia facilities to produce audiovisual content and training materials. Moreover, there is a conference center available. In terms of living spaces, the city provides a trainees' residence with a capacity of 700 beds, a cafeteria, a shelter, several meeting spaces, and sports fields (football, basketball, volleyball, and handball). The vocational training hub covers an area of 10 hectares and has an annual capacity of 3,560 seats, which can be increased to 4,560 seats with the addition of the two associated institutes: the Health Professions Training Institute in Rabat (currently under construction, with a capacity of 560 pedagogical seats annually) and the Food Industry Training Institute in Kenitra (completed and boasting a capacity of 440 trainees per year). The institution offers training in eight sectors, including four newly selected sectors adapting to the needs of the Moroccan market. The training programs consist of 105 training courses, including 80 newly established and 25 courses that have been restructured and updated. The course also extends to new professions, such as 22 courses on digital and artificial intelligence, 15 courses in health, 14 in agriculture, and 13 in tourism and hospitality Read Also: Morocco to Allocate Funds To Boost Vocational Training Budget © Morocco World News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed without permission. https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2023/05/355715/king-mohammed-vi-inaugurates-vocational-training-hub-in-tamesna