Troubled Chinese homebuilder Country Garden is rushing to raise cash to avoid default
Country Garden is raising funds to avoid default, as the troubled real estate giant battles a liquidity crisis which some fear could spread to China's wider economy and even spill over abroad.
2023-08-30 14:45
Jamaica country profile
Provides an overview of Jamaica, including key dates and facts about this Caribbean country.
2023-08-30 14:27
Taylor Swift jokingly references infamous Kanye West VMA's interruption during Era's tour
Taylor Swift appeared to jokingly reference the infamous moment Kanye West interrupted her VMAs speech back in 2009 during her recent Eras tour show. The 33-year-old pop star performed four shows at the 65,000-capacity Foro Sol in Mexico City, and during the piano moment for the ballad 'Champagne Problems,' the crowd showed their love for Swift by repeatedly chanting her name on Sunday night (August 27). In clips circulating online, Swift can be heard saying in response: “It’s the best way to be interrupted, by the way, just people chanting your name. “It’s really the only way to be interrupted… and I would know.” @sussan_mourad @Taylor Swift jokes about Kanye West interrupting her MTV VMAs speech at Eras Tour Mexico City! ?? #taylorswift #taylorswifterastour #erastour #taylorswift #tserastour #kanyewest #ye #taylorandkanye #erastourmexicocity #tserastourmexicocity #mexicocityerastour #celebritynews #entertainmentnews #taylorvmas #kanyeandtaylor #sussanmourad It appears the 'Anti-Hero' singer is referring to when she won Best Video by a Female Artist at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, for 'You Belong With Me.' But upon starting her acceptance speech, West - also known as Ye - stormed the stage and interrupted Swift by grabbing the microphone from her. “Imma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!" he said, referring to her 'Single Ladies' music video. This instantly became a meme and was the start of Swift and West's feud which inspired different songs over the years. One example of this is Swift's song called 'This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things,' from the 2017 album 'reputation' which is rumoured to be about West. On the album, Swift sings "And here's to you / 'Cause forgiveness is a nice thing to do,'" before she laughed at the idea and confessed, "I can't even say it with a straight face." It was reported that when Swift sang this song on the Eras Tour back in July as part of the surprise acoustic set in the show, she couldn't keep in her laughter, taking a momentary pause before singing the rest of the track. Elsewhere, a round-up of all the Taylor's Version songs teased on Prime Video, Swifties react to a snippet of 'Look What You Made Me Do' (Taylor's Version) and Viral singing Taylor Swift concert security guard 'fired'. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
2023-08-30 14:25
Column-September sees Fed dot plot thicken :Mike Dolan
By Mike Dolan LONDON Markets appear to have batted away next month's Federal Reserve gathering as a paused
2023-08-30 14:24
Britain's top diplomat visits China for the first time in 5 years, hoping to stabilize ties
Britain’s top diplomat, James Cleverly, has begun a long-awaited visit to China as the two countries attempt to stabilize ties that have frayed in recent years
2023-08-30 14:19
‘Today’ host Peter Alexander fills-in for Craig Melvin, Hoda Kotb, and Savannah Guthrie amid their absence
Peter Alexander filled-in as a rare substitute on 'Today' amid the absence of NBC hosts Craig Melvin, Hoda Kotb, and Savannah Guthrie on Tuesday
2023-08-30 14:19
Jamaica media guide
An overview of the media in Jamaica, including links to broadcasters and newspapers.
2023-08-30 14:17
Gabon officers say election result cancelled, 'regime' ended
A group of Gabonese military officers appeared on television Wednesday announcing they were "putting an end to the current regime" and cancelling an election that, according to official...
2023-08-30 14:17
Gabon Military officers say they're seizing power just days after the presidential election
Nearly a dozen soldiers took to state television and said they were overturning the presidential election and called for calm among the population
2023-08-30 14:16
Knotty and nice: Jurgen Krauss’s homemade soft pretzel recipe
Pretzels, or brezel or brezen in German, are the most iconic German food. Ornaments of pretzels adorn every bakery, and images of them can be found on medieval church windows in Freiburg, where I come from,” says former contestant on The Great British Bake Off, Jurgen Krauss. “Often, a pretzel works better as a soother for an upset baby than a dummy. They are a part of my upbringing and heritage. And still, there is no better snack after a long shopping spree through my hometown of Freiburg than a brezel from the bakery at the tram stop. “Disclaimer about lye: I am giving two options for the finish. One is using lye, which involves a very dangerous chemical, solid sodium hydroxide. The other option uses baking soda, which is bicarbonate of soda, and is not dangerous at all. The results are different in colour and taste, but without a direct comparison, the bicarbonate of soda pretzel can stand its ground. If you intend to use lye, I’d recommend baking a few batches of pretzels with bicarbonate of soda, but treat it as if it was lye, to practise the handling and have everything in the right place before starting.” Soft pretzel Makes: 8-10 Ingredients: For the starter: 100g bread flour 2g salt 1⁄8 tsp instant yeast 65ml water For the dough: 400g bread flour 9g salt 20g honey 5g instant yeast 25g unsalted butter, room temperature 180ml water Coarse salt crystals, for sprinkling For the lye or bicarb dipping solution: 2L water 8g salt 80g bicarbonate of soda or 80g sodium hydroxide pellets Method: 1. Prepare the starter the day before baking. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix with your hand or a spatula until all the flour is incorporated. Cover with clingfilm and leave to stand at room temperature for about two hours. Then put the starter in the fridge overnight until you need it – it will be good to use for up to three days. 2. About one hour before making the main dough, take the starter out of the fridge. 3. To make the main dough, combine all the ingredients except the salt crystals and the starter in a bowl and mix with your hand or a spatula. The resulting dough will be very stiff. Knead the dough on a work surface for about 10 minutes. Don’t use any additional flour, you won’t need it anyway. The resulting dough should be smooth and a bit elastic. Put the dough into a bowl, cover and prove at room temperature for about two hours. Fold the dough once after one hour. 4. Meanwhile, prepare the dipping solution. Use a big stainless-steel pan and stainless-steel spoons for dipping. Cover your normal work surfaces in case the lye spills. When dipping, keep the baking sheets very close to the lye pan and the oven. Always wear protective gloves and goggles when working with sodium hydroxide and lye. Never ever touch sodium hydroxide pellets with your skin. 5. If using bicarbonate of soda, bring the water to boil. Switch off the heat, add the salt and stir. Then add the bicarbonate of soda – there will be a bit of frothing and splashing, so be careful. Leave to cool. 6. If using sodium hydroxide, put the water in the pan and then add the sodium hydroxide pellets. Sodium hydroxide creates a lot of heat when it dissolves. 7. Once the dough has proved, divide it into pieces weighing 85 grams each. Roll each piece of dough into a cylinder. Once all the pieces have been rolled, start again with the first piece, to roll it into a long strand with thin ends and a belly in the middle. Aim for a length of 60 centimetres. Make sure you don’t tear your strands – if there is too much resistance in the dough, move on to the next strand. You will need several cycles to reach the length required. 8. Now shape the pretzels – the bakers use a slinging method, but there is a simpler, slower way to do this. Make sure the ends of the little arms are well attached to the middle bit. 9. Place the pretzels onto lined baking trays, cover and leave to prove at room temperature for about 45 minutes. Uncover the pretzels and put them in the fridge for 30 minutes, so that a skin can form. Preheat the oven to 230C fan/gas mark 9. 10. Take the pretzels out of the fridge. Dip each pretzel in lye or sodium carbonate solution for about five seconds. Transfer the pretzel back onto the lined baking sheet. One sheet will hold four to five pretzels. Once the sheet is full, slash the thickest part of the pretzels with a sharp serrated knife and sprinkle with salt crystals. Transfer to the oven immediately and bake for 12–15 minutes. Leave to cool on a wire rack. Repeat with the remaining pretzels. 11. Because of the salt, these pretzels are best eaten fresh. ‘German Baking: Cakes, Tarts, Traybakes And Breads From The Black Forest And Beyond’ by Jurgen Krauss (published by Kyle Books on 31 August, £26). Read More The dish that defines me: Evelin Eros’s rum cake ‘It started with a radish’: Chef Simon Rogan reflects on restaurant L’Enclume at 20 The true story – and murky history – of Portuguese piri piri oil ‘My depression stopped me doing what I loved most in life – cooking’ What Bake Off’s Jurgen Krauss really thinks of his shock elimination How to pull off a traditional German babka chocolate braid
2023-08-30 13:58
Quick, moist and flavourful: Jurgen Krauss’s marble cake
This cake was a standard on our Sunday coffee table and has a lot of nostalgia for me. It is quick to make, moist and flavourful, and the marble pattern was always fascinating to me as a child,” says former contestant on The Great British Bake Off, Jurgen Krauss. Marble cake Serves: 12-24, depending on tin size. The amounts given are for a loaf tin (950g) or a Bundt tin. For a bigger Bundt tin, double the amounts and bake for 15 minutes longer. Ingredients: For the batter: 125g unsalted butter or margarine, room temperature 2 tsp vanilla extract 2 eggs, separated 180g caster sugar 250g plain flour 8g baking powder 125ml whole milk For the chocolate batter: 10g cocoa powder 15g caster sugar 25ml double cream ¼ tsp ground cloves Method: 1. Preheat the oven to 170C fan/gas mark 5. 2. Put the butter in a bowl and, using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with the balloon whisk, beat the butter until it is light and pale. Add the vanilla extract and egg yolks, alternating with the sugar bit by bit, and whisk for another 15 minutes until the butter and sugar mix is very frothy and white. 3. Sift the flour and baking powder together in a bowl. Alternate adding the flour and milk bit by bit to the batter while whisking on a low speed. 4. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites to soft peaks. Fold the egg whites into the butter and flour mixture. 5. For the chocolate batter, take one third of the plain batter and put it into a separate bowl. Fold in the ingredients for the chocolate batter. Put the two batters in a greased 950g Bundt tin or a loaf tin, starting with the vanilla batter, then add a layer of chocolate batter and finish with vanilla batter. Use a fork to create the marble effect by pulling it through the layers of batter with a swirling motion. Bake for about one hour; the cake should start separating from the tin and a skewer inserted into the cake should come out clean. Cover with foil if the top of the cake starts getting too dark. 6. Leave the cake to cool in the tin for at least 20 minutes before attempting to take it out of the tin. 7. This cake keeps very well for up to a week in an airtight container and for the first three days its flavour actually improves. ‘German Baking: Cakes, Tarts, Traybakes And Breads From The Black Forest And Beyond’ by Jurgen Krauss (published by Kyle Books on 31 August, £26). Read More The dish that defines me: Evelin Eros’s rum cake ‘It started with a radish’: Chef Simon Rogan reflects on restaurant L’Enclume at 20 The true story – and murky history – of Portuguese piri piri oil ‘My depression stopped me doing what I loved most in life – cooking’ What Bake Off’s Jurgen Krauss really thinks of his shock elimination How to pull off a traditional German babka chocolate braid
2023-08-30 13:57
CNN Reportedly Poised to Pick Mark Thompson as Next CEO
Mark Thompson, the former chief executive officer of The New York Times Co., is set to take up
2023-08-30 13:52
