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Russia has likely been forced to move several air defence systems from its Kaliningrad enclave on the Baltic Sea coast to the frontline in Ukraine amid the losses it has suffered there, according to the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD). Vladimir Putin appears to have been left with no choice but to weaken the defences of Kaliningrad, an outpost bordered by Nato members on three sides and considered one of Moscow’s most strategically sensitive regions. “Exceptional Russian air transport movements through November 2023 suggest that Russia has likely moved strategic air defence systems from its Baltic coast enclave of Kaliningrad, to backfill recent losses on the Ukraine front,” the MoD said in its latest intelligence update on Sunday. Putin’s forces suffered particularly high losses to its SA-21 air defence systems in Russian-occupied Ukraine in late October 2023, it said. Ukrainian attacks most likely destroyed at least four Russian surface-to-air missile systems that were located in occupied territories in a span of a single week, the MoD said in an earlier update on 2 November. “The fact that the Russian MoD appears willing to accept additional risk here highlights the overstretch the war has caused for some of Russia’s key, modern capabilities,” the MoD said. Sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania on Nato’s eastern flank, Kaliningrad is geographically completely separated from the country’s main territory. The isolated oblast is only accessible to Russia through a contentious strip of land, the Suwalki gap, that links Russian ally Belarus to Kaliningrad. Moscow places significant strategic importance on Kaliningrad because it houses the Russian Baltic Fleet in the port of Baltiysk, and it stands out as one of Russia’s few ice-free European ports. In May, Poland said it was reverting the name of Kaliningrad to its historical name Krolewiec on maps, prompting a furious reaction from the Kremlin. The region was formerly called Koenigsberg when it was ceded from Germany to the Soviet Union after the Second World War. In 1946 the Soviets renamed it Kaliningrad, after Mikhail Kalinin, one of the leaders of the Bolshevik revolution. Read More Booker Prize winner Paul Lynch on Dublin riots: This is always under the surface Iceland’s new #1 selfie spot may have emerged out of ground despite volcano threat Russia places Meta spokesperson on wanted list Booker Prize winner Paul Lynch on Dublin riots: This is always under the surface Iceland’s new #1 selfie spot may have emerged out of ground despite volcano threat Russia places Meta spokesperson on wanted list

Irish Booker prize winner Paul Lynch has said he was “astonished” by violent disturbances on the streets of Dublin this week, but this kind of behaviour is “always under the surface”. The author, who lives in Dublin, spoke at a Sunday press conference after he received the award during a ceremony at Old Billingsgate, London His dystopian novel Prophet Song explores what happens when his home country slides into authoritarianism. When asked what he thought about the riots in Ireland, which involved right-wing elements, Lynch said: “Like everybody else, I was astonished by it. “And at the same time, I recognise the truth that this kind of energy is always there under the surface and, I didn’t write this book to specifically say, ‘here’s a warning’, I wrote the book to articulate the message that the things that are in this book are occurring timelessly throughout the ages. “And maybe we need to deepen our own responses to that kind of idea. But at the same time, what was happening in Dublin? Well, you know, we can see it as a warning, I think we should see it was a warning.” Lynch also said he was “distinctly not a political novelist” and his book is really about “grief”, as it tells the story of a woman who has her husband taken away by the newly formed Irish secret police. He also said that “Ireland is an extraordinary country to live in” and a welcoming country. Lynch added: “It’s a great place for writers, any country that supports writers in the way that the Arts Council has supported me and many other really truly worthy Irish writers can only be a great place to live. “So I could not be more proud to be an Irish writer right now, it’s really something. “Well, you know, I think that if any of us were to look at the state of affairs from the point of view of 20 years ago, we couldn’t quite believe the modern world that we find ourselves in. “And I do think that you looked at things objectively, there is a sense of unravelling of a kind. “The question is, is what are we going to do about it and can anything be done about it? “I mean, Prophet Song is a counterfactual novel, it’s not a prophetic statement but there are resonances in it that are there for the taking for readers who want to think about these things.” He also said that “there’s layers and layers at work in my writing” and novels are complex. Lynch added: “To reduce the book down to one single message is actually pointless to a certain extent and goes against, the reason why I wrote the book, the book is actually its own answer.” He also said he was most likely to spend half of the prize, worth £50,000, on his mortgage. Lynch also said that before writing full time he had reached a point in his life where he had “exhausted all the possibilities”. He added: “There was a moment writing this book during lockdown, it was hugely challenging. I had long Covid for periods, and I’d wake up many days and I would have had just like, brain fog, and I had just, like, just fatigue, and I couldn’t work.” Read More Rishi Sunak slams Elon Musk’s ‘wrong’ remarks as antisemitism row deepens Former England footballer Ian Wright among those to collect honours What the papers say – November 27 Covid inquiry kicks off key week with Khan and Burnham giving evidence AI image generators ‘being used by children to create indecent images’ Bill to ban creation of new leasehold houses to be introduced to Parliament

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“This one goes out to all the lost carrots over the years that have been just cut into rounds and boiled,” says chef Poppy O’Toole, who goes by Poppy Cooks on social media. “I’m sorry you went out like that. We will do better. Here’s to more carrots being roasted in honey and going out in style. They deserve it.” To make this dish vegan, replace honey with maple syrup and use a dairy-free alternative to butter – and you can boost the flavour even more by adding a crushed garlic clove to the honey and butter mix. Honey roast carrots Serves: 4 Ingredients: 4 carrots, peeled and sliced in half lengthways Vegetable oil, for spraying 2 tbsp runny honey 1 tsp butter Salt and ground black pepper Method: 1. Heat the air fryer to 180C/350F. 2. Get the carrots in the air-fryer basket and spray them with the vegetable oil. Then cook them for 10 minutes. 3. Meanwhile, in a microwaveable bowl, melt the honey and butter together for about 30 seconds, until liquidy, then season well. 4. When the carrots have been in the air fryer for 10 minutes, tip them into the honey and butter mixture and mix well so that they are all coated, then pop them back into the air fryer for a further 10 minutes, until sticky, glazed and tender. Depending on the size of your carrots, you may need to cook them for a little longer, so cook in five-minute intervals until tender. Roast potatoes “Believe it or not, I’m no stranger to a roast potato or two (or seven), and I’ve made it my life’s work to ensure you have the best potatoes on your plate every time,” says O’Toole. “With an air fryer, the process is much quicker, which means potato gets to your mouth in half the time – always a good thing. “For me, the perfect roast potato has a crispy exterior while still maintaining a beautifully fluffy interior, and this recipe does exactly that.” Serves: 2-4, depending on greed Ingredients: 4 Maris Piper, russet or red skin potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters 2 tbsp vegetable oil 1 tsp fine salt Method: 1. Heat the air fryer to 160C/325F. 2. In a mixing bowl, toss the potatoes in the oil and salt, and tip them into the air-fryer basket. 3. Cook for 30 minutes, giving them a proper aggressive toss every 10 minutes, and even poke them with a fork if you want to fluff up the insides further. 4. Increase the heat to 200C/400F and cook for a further six minutes, until golden and crispy. Chestnut and bacon sprouts “Sprouts are underrated and can be such a delicious vegetable side. When they are cooked right, and not pure mush, they add texture, flavour and colour to any dish,” says O’Toole. You can easily customise this dish to your guests’ dietary requirements – skip the bacon if anyone is vegetarian, and swap out for vegan butter if necessary. Serves: 4 Ingredients: 50g butter, melted 500g fresh or frozen Brussels sprouts (if fresh, cut in half) 100g bacon lardons 50g pre-cooked chestnuts, chopped Sea salt flakes and ground black pepper Method: 1. Heat the air fryer to 180C/350F. 2. In a large bowl, mix the butter with the sprouts, season with salt and pepper and place in the air-fryer basket. Just chuck over the bacon lardons. 3. Cook for five minutes then add in the chestnuts. Cook for another five to 10 minutes, checking at five-minute intervals until cooked to your liking. ‘Poppy Cooks: The Actually Delicious Air Fryer Cookbook’ (Bloomsbury Publishing, £20). Read More Beauty advent calendars 2021: Our guide to this year’s top treats 13 best tech gifts to spoil a gadget geek this Christmas 10 best luxury Christmas crackers for dressing up your dining table Why restaurant influencers have just ruined your dinner The Independent high street Christmas sandwich and drink taste test Seasonal affective disorder: Can you eat to improve your mood?

We’re all looking for ways to make Christmas dinner easier – and if you’ve got an air fryer, festive food could be a whole lot simpler. Christmas dinner normally requires a lot of effort to pull together all the starters, turkey and side dishes, and chef Poppy O’Toole says she’ll “definitely” be using her air fryer to help everything come together. Michelin-trained O’Toole, 29, is something of an early adopter of air fryers – she first fell in love with them in 2018, and says: “I was working in kitchens at the time, and I was like, I don’t know how chefs are going to feel about this. It might fade, but I was intrigued – and it’s got bigger and bigger.” She adds: “It was so easy to get on board with because of how convenient they are. As a chef, I wasn’t at home a lot – so my partner could use it really easily without me having to be over his shoulder.” They’ve got speed and energy efficiency going for them, O’Toole suggests, and she’s even dedicated her most recent cookbook to air fryer recipes. Her air fryer will go into overdrive on Christmas day, “because I need all the space for everything”, the Worcestershire-based chef says. “I’m going to be feeding a lot of people.” “There’s not enough space to do everything, but what it’s really good at is giving you the capability to do more stuff at the same time,” she notes. “So you’re not just relying on the oven and the hob – you’ve also got this other piece of equipment, which is amazing at cooking things and it can be done quicker and more energy efficiently.” Before diving in, there are a few mistakes O’Toole warns against making with your air fryer on 25 December. “Make sure you put a timer on. I’ve done that a few times, where I’ve gone, it comes out in 20 minutes or whatever and you go, ‘yeah, I’ll come back in a few minutes, it’ll be fine’. And I’ve left it in there the whole time and it’s burned to a crisp.” The second thing to watch out for? “Don’t overcrowd,” she says. “It can be very easy to throw it all in, it’ll be fine. But it doesn’t work that way – the whole point is that the air circulation gets around everything, so it needs a gap where that can happen.” And if you’re looking to impress your guests with beautiful-looking food, O’Toole recommends keeping your air fryer clean. “This is another thing that I do very regularly, and I think a lot of people do – I don’t wash it enough, I don’t clean it enough. I end up getting these little dark bits on the rest of my food, which is fine when you’re cooking for yourself – that doesn’t matter. “But when you’re cooking for other people, if you’ve got family coming over, you want to make sure it’s the best. So make sure in between each thing you cook, you give it a little wipe down.” Interested in using your air fryer this Christmas? This is what O’Toole recommends doing… Starters “I always like little nibbly bits on Christmas,” admits O’Toole – and these can be easily whipped up in the air fryer. “It’s something a little bit different around lunchtime, because I have my Christmas dinner a bit late – I have it more as a dinner around three, so around 12 you’re getting a bit peckish. So I do some lovely little nibbles – like crispy wontons, spring rolls, samosas, that sort of thing. They’re really tasty and fill everybody up, without having to do much.” If you’re feeling industrious you can make these yourself, but they’re just as delicious from frozen – and you can save all your cooking efforts for the main meal. The main event For O’Toole, the best way to use your air fryer is for all the festive sides. “It’s really good for roasted parsnips, roasted carrots, sprouts or chestnuts,” she says. You can cook the parsnips and carrots together. “And then they can be ready and waiting for when you want them – you can get them into a tray, and once they’re cooked, you can keep them at the bottom of the oven or in a tray that you can warm back up”. And one of the most important parts of any Christmas dinner: “I’ve got to say roast potatoes are very good in there, and you don’t have to pre-boil them – so that’s given you more space on the hob.” How can you pull off perfectly crispy roasties in the air fryer? “Chop them up, get them in a bowl, add a tablespoon of water, a little bit of oil and salt – give it a mix, so we’ve got a bit of moisture on them. Then you get them into the air fryer and cook them about 160C or 170C for about 20 to 30 minutes, so they’re a little bit cooked, then you whack it up to about 200C to get the golden crispy outside.” Dessert While O’Toole doesn’t plan on making Christmas pudding in the air fryer this year, there are plenty of sweet treats you can do in there instead. Her sister will be clamouring for a pecan and pretzel blondies recipe (or you can try any variation on brownies you like – even mince pies would work), and O’Toole adds: “Custard tarts – they’re so simple and something about doing them in the oven is always terrifying to me, but being able to put them in the air fryer for literally a few minutes is perfect. “That’s definitely something I’ll be doing.” ‘Poppy Cooks: The Actually Delicious Air Fryer Cookbook’ (Bloomsbury Publishing, £20). Read More Beauty advent calendars 2021: Our guide to this year’s top treats 13 best tech gifts to spoil a gadget geek this Christmas 10 best luxury Christmas crackers for dressing up your dining table Why restaurant influencers have just ruined your dinner The Independent high street Christmas sandwich and drink taste test Seasonal affective disorder: Can you eat to improve your mood?

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Huawei Technologies Co.’s latest automobile-related foray once again drove big share-price moves, showing the technology giant continues to