Author: Vidya Saras

Sir Keir Starmer has left the door open for an increase in employers’ national insurance contributions, despite Labour’s election pledge not to raise taxes on working people. The prime minister confirmed that “tough” decisions would need to be made in the upcoming budget, but stressed Labour’s commitment to its manifesto promises. During the election campaign, Labour vowed not to increase national insurance. However, while Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves have reiterated that this pledge covers taxes on workers, they have stopped short of ruling out an increase in the portion paid by employers. Reeves warned businesses that taxes would need…

It’s finally the season for all things pumpkin. Pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, pumpkin lattes, and more are everywhere this time of year. Some of us love it and some of us hate it… but I’m totally in the love it camp! This made-from-scratch pumpkin soup recipe is a quick, filling, veggie-packed fall meal. Bonus… in a pinch, I can make this soup entirely from ingredients in my pantry! Pumpkin soup has all of the flavors of fall in a bowl. Healthy Pumpkin Soup I’m not sure pumpkin soup could be unhealthy, since pumpkin itself is loaded with fiber, beta-carotene, vitamin…

The Paffi portfolio website is a celebration of ten years of exceptional projects crafted by Silvia and Giulia, the two co-founders and brand designers behind Paffi. Our vision for the site had two key objectives: to create a seamless, enjoyable browsing experience and to reflect Paffi’s vibrant, playful design approach. For the homepage slider, we wanted something dynamic and engaging, while keeping the focus on each project’s unique assets. This led us to the idea of a rotating, modular slider that showcases the logotypes and brand colors of each featured project. We named it the “Totem Slider.” It’s likely reminiscent…

SpaceX launched its 100th rocket of the year early Tuesday morning (Oct. 15), and followed it up with another liftoff just hours later.SpaceX’s centenary mission of the year lifted off from Florida, with a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 23 of the company’s Starlink internet satellites aloft. The mission launched  from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 2:10 a.m. EDT (0610 GMT). As usual, the Falcon 9’s first-stage booster came back to Earth safely, touching down on the drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas” off the Florida coast about eight minutes after launch.The company followed up that milestone with another…

Humans have been trying to talk to animals ever since we figured out how to form words. In modern times, we turn to technology for the solution—giving our dogs talking buttons to paw at, or trying to use artificial intelligence to help us understand whales.The latest and perhaps most direct approach at human-animal communication is a voice-activated collar that gives your pet the power to talk back to you. Or at least, that’s the idea.John McHale, a self-described “tech guy” based out of Austin, Texas, has a company called Personifi AI. The startup’s goal, as the name implies, is to…

Aroeira, one of the most famous names in Portuguese golf, is ready to embark on a new stage of its prestigious history after undergoing a major rebrand and being given a new identity – PGA Aroeira Lisboa.   The renaming of the iconic 36-hole Lisbon venue and its two courses comes at the same time as a major investment in its golf and leisure facilities, creating the only PGA National in Portugal and putting it alongside other leading PGA resorts including the likes of previous Ryder Cup hosts Gleneagles in Scotland and The Belfry in England.   Famously nicknamed as…

The UN’s humanitarian office has called for an investigation into an Israeli air strike that killed 23 people in northern Lebanon on Monday.Spokesman Jeremy Laurence said the strike, on the Christian-majority village of Aitou, raised “real concerns” with respect to international humanitarian law.Laurence said that 12 women and two children were understood to be among the dead from the bombing, which destroyed a residential building that had been recently rented out to a family displaced from the south.Rescue workers were still pulling bodies from the rubble in Aitou on Tuesday – far from the focus of the conflict to date…

Unfortunately, policymakers have made things worse by resorting to temporary palliatives

If you’ve ever sat in a dentist’s chair, weighed down by an unwieldy, yet oddly comfortable, lead apron, wondering if your sense of time has gone completely haywire—wait, wasn’t I just here, and isn’t it too soon for more X-rays?—take comfort. You may be entirely correct. Some dentists are pushing back against what they see as an overuse of dental imaging technology. Forcing patients to undergo regular X-rays, regardless of any obvious dental issues, is not only harmful, they argue, but goes against the standards set by the American Dental Association (there’s a joke to be made about nine out…

Getty Images(Credit: Getty Images)The late muse of director John Waters, Divine delighted in inspiring outrage and disgust on and off screen. However from The Little Mermaid to Chappell Roan, he has left a big impression on popular cultureDivine was a drag queen like no other. In the 1970s and 1980s, long before RuPaul’s Drag Race brought the art form into the mainstream, this outrageous actor, singer and cultural disruptor was blazing a trail that remains highly influential today. “We’ve seen Divine’s work bleed into fashion, music and film, particularly through the trashy aesthetic he pioneered with director John Waters,” says…