SINGAPORE (AFP) – Amazon said Tuesday it would invest USD9 billion in Singapore over the next four years to expand its cloud computing capabilities in the city.
The announcement comes after fellow tech titan Microsoft unveiled billions of dollars of investment in the same sectors in Southeast Asia last week as firms look to take advantage of growing demand in the region.
Amazon said the figure doubles its investment in the city-state and will help it meet growing demand for cloud services and adopt artificial intelligence.
“AWS (Amazon Web Services) is doubling down on its cloud infrastructure investments in Singapore from 2024 to 2028 to support customer demand, and help reinforce Singapore’s status as an attractive regional innovation launchpad…,” Priscilla Chong, Country Manager of Singapore for AWS, said.
Amazon said its investment will support some 12,000 jobs in Singaporean businesses each year.
It is also partnering with the Singapore government to help local businesses accelerate the adoption of AI.
The e-commerce titan last week said profit in the first three months of 2024 tripled as its cloud, ads, and retail businesses thrived.
The company founded by Jeff Bezos is also testing an AI chatbot named Rufus that provides shopping tips to US mobile app customers.
Meanwhile, generative AI features for sellers help them create product listings.
The company also plans to invest billions of dollars in AWS datacenters in Mexico, Saudi Arabia and the United States in coming years, according to the earnings release last week.
Tech giants such as Amazon and Microsoft have been investing more in Southeast Asia recently.
Microsoft pledged USD2.2 billion in artificial intelligence and cloud computing investment in Malaysia on Thursday.
That announcement came after tech chief Satya Nadella unveiled a USD1.7 bn investment in Indonesia, as well as Thailand’s first data centre region.
The tiny but wealthy and infrastructure-rich Singapore has become a business and technology centre in Southeast Asia, further solidifying its status after the pandemic.
AHMEDABAD, India (AFP) – Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi cast his ballot Tuesday in India’s ongoing general election after giving several inflammatory campaign speeches accused of targeting minority Muslims.
Turnout so far has dropped significantly compared with the last national poll in 2019, with analysts blaming widespread expectations that Modi will easily win a third term and hotter-than-average temperatures heading into the summer.
Modi walked out of a polling booth early morning in the city of Ahmedabad while holding up a finger marked with indelible ink, flanked by security personnel and cheered by supporters.
“Voted in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections,” Modi said on social media platform X, referring to India’s lower house of parliament.
“Urging everyone to do so as well and strengthen our democracy.”
The premier’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is expected to win the election convincingly, but since the vote began on April 19, Modi has stepped up his rhetoric on India’s main religious divide in a bid to rally voters.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, leader of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) displays his inked marked finger after casting his ballot at a polling booth at Ranip, Ahmedabad on May 7, 2024. PHOTO: AFP
He has used public speeches to refer to Muslims as “infiltrators” and “those who have more children”, prompting condemnation from opposition politicians, who have complained to election authorities.
Modi has also accused Congress, the main party in the disparate opposition alliance competing against him, of planning to reallocate the nation’s wealth to Muslim households.
“This is the first time in a long time that he is so direct,” said Hartosh Singh Bal, executive editor at news magazine The Caravan.
“I haven’t seen him be this directly bigoted, usually he alludes to bigotry,” he added.
“The comments on wealth redistribution are targeting something from the Congress manifesto that just does not exist and that is frankly quite unfortunate.”
Modi remains widely popular a decade after coming to power, in large part due to his government’s positioning the nation’s majority faith at the centre of its politics, despite India’s officially secular constitution.
In January, the prime minister presided over the inauguration of a grand temple to the deity Ram, built on the site of a centuries-old mosque razed by Hindu zealots decades earlier.
Construction of the temple fulfilled a long-standing demand of Hindu activists and was widely celebrated across India, with extensive television coverage and street parties.
Modi’s brand of Hindu-nationalist politics has in turn made India’s 220-million-plus Muslim population increasingly anxious about their future in the country.
The election commission has not sanctioned Modi for his remarks despite its code of conduct prohibiting campaigning on “communal feelings” such as religion.
– Hot weather –
India’s election is conducted in seven phases over six weeks to ease the immense logistical burden of staging the democratic exercise in the world’s most populous country.
Much of southern Asia was hit by a heatwave last week that saw several constituencies vote in searing temperatures.
In the city of Mathura, not far from the Taj Mahal, temperatures crossed 41 degrees Celsius (106 degrees Fahrenheit) on polling day, and election commission figures showed turnout dropping nearly nine points to 52 percent from five years earlier.
An analysis of turnout data published by The Hindu newspaper concluded it was too early to determine whether hot weather was impacting voter participation.
But India’s weather bureau has forecast more heatwave spells to come in May and the election commission formed a taskforce last month to review the impact of heat and humidity before each round of voting.
High temperatures were forecast for several locations voting on Tuesday including the states of Madhya Pradesh and Bihar.
Years of scientific research have found climate change is causing heatwaves to become longer, more frequent and more intense.
More than 968 million people are eligible to vote in the Indian election, with the final round of polling on June 1 and results expected three days later.
ITBAYAT, Philippines (AP) — US Marines and their Filipino counterparts darted out of Black Hawk helicopters during combat drills Monday in the Philippines’ northernmost island town along the strategic Bashi Channel off southern Taiwan — a flashpoint in the military rivalry between Washington and Beijing.
The show of allied battle readiness in Itbayat in Batanes province is part of annual military exercises that started last month, dubbed Balikatan, Tagalog for “shoulder-to-shoulder,” and involving more than 16,000 American and Philippine military personnel.
This year’s exercises by the longtime treaty allies — the largest yet — are meant to deter possible aggression. They come against the backdrop of China’s increasingly assertive actions in the disputed South China Sea, where Chinese and Philippine coast guards and accompanying ships have had several increasingly tense faceoffs since last year.
More than 250 French and Australian forces are also participating, along with observers from several allied and security partner nations, led by Japan and European nations. The drills, which began April 22, end later this week.
In Monday’s mock battle scenario, American and Filipino forces took positions at the airfield, ringed by low-lying hills, as three Army CH-47 Chinook helicopters landed to deliver combat supplies.
Marine 1st Lieutenant Annie Pentaleri said aerial combat reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance drills were also planned in the far-flung region. The Associated Press was among a small group of journalists invited to attend the maneuvers.
“We are absolutely battle-ready and that’s what we train for day in and day out,” Marine Major Robert Patterson said. “It’s important to enhance inter-operability with our Filipino counterparts.”
Washington and Manila say the drills are not directed at any country and are crucial for improving the response to emergencies in the Philippines, one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries.
However, this year’s drills focus on territorial defense and are being staged mainly in two of the most sensitive fault lines in the regional rivalry between China and the United States: the disputed South China Sea and the Bashi Channel.
The critical waterway between Taiwan and the Philippines, an important trade conduit laden with international undersea cables, has been closely watched and guarded by Chinese and American forces. China considers Taiwan a part of its territory, to be annexed by force if necessary.
In a telephone call last month, Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed to President Joe Biden that Beijing will not tolerate separatist activities by Taiwan’s independence forces, as well as “exterior indulgence and support,” an apparent reference to Washington’s support for the island.
Biden raised concerns about China’s actions in the South China Sea, including efforts to impede the Philippines, which Washington is treaty-obligated to defend, from resupplying its forces on the fiercely disputed Second Thomas Shoal.
Derek Grossman, a senior defense analyst at RAND Corporation, said the message of deterrence was important. Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s decision to allow US forces indefinite access to two Philippine air force and naval bases in Cagayan province near Batanes under a 2014 defence pact, “would likely upgrade the US military’s ability to intervene in a Taiwan contingency in a more timely manner,” he said.
“Right now, a big concern is the US simply won’t get there in time,” Grossman added.
The Balikatan exercises have included live-fire drills in the disputed South China Sea during joint naval sails by the US, France and the Philippines. An aircraft also dropped food and other supplies on a disputed island occupied by Filipino forces as part of the maneuvers in the disputed waters.
Separately on Monday, US and Philippine forces practiced repelling invading forces in the coastal province of Ilocos Norte by firing missiles and artillery rounds on floating targets at sea. The northwestern province faces the South China Sea.
“It was a huge success, the weapons were spot on,” Marine Lieutenant General Michael Cederholm said.
In escalating high-seas encounters in disputed areas, Chinese coast guard vessels have resorted to water cannons, blocking and other dangerous maneuvers that have left Philippine navy personnel injured and supply boats damaged. The Biden administration has repeatedly warned the US is obligated to defend the Philippines, its oldest treaty ally in Asia, should it come under attack.
China has strongly criticised the exercises, saying the Philippines and countries outside Asia are joining forces against Beijing, warned that the drills could lead to confrontation and undermine regional stability.
Ahead of the drills, China specifically opposed the transport of a US ground-launched missile system to the northern Philippines. No missile was to be fired as the goal was only to familiarise military participants with the hi-tech weaponry in a tropical setting.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian expressed China’s grave concern over the deployment of the missile system “at China’s doorstep.”
US troopers alight from a US Army CH-47 carrying American and Philippine troops as it lands at the Philippines’ northernmost town of Itbayat, Batanes province during a joint military exercise on Monday. PHOTO: AP
NEW YORK (AP) – With some help from artificial intelligence, country music star Randy Travis, celebrated for his timeless hits like “Forever and Ever, Amen” and “I Told You So,” has his voice back.
In July 2013, Travis was hospitalised with viral cardiomyopathy, a virus that attacks the heart, and later suffered a stroke. The Country Music Hall of Famer had to relearn how to walk, spell and read in the years that followed. A condition called aphasia limits his ability to speak — it’s why his wife Mary Travis assists him in interviews. It’s also why he hasn’t released new music in over a decade, until now.
“Where That Came From,” which released Friday, is a rich acoustic ballad amplified by Travis’ immediately recognisable, soulful vocal tone.
Cris Lacy, Warner Music Nashville co-president, approached Randy and Mary Travis and asked: “‘What if we could take Randy’s voice and recreate it using AI?,'” Mary Travis told The Associated Press over Zoom last week, Randy smiling in agreement right next to her. “Well, we were all over that, so we were so excited.”
“All I ever wanted since the day of a stroke was to hear that voice again.”
Lacy tapped developers in London to create a proprietary AI model to begin the process. The result was two models: One with 12 vocal stems (or song samples), and another with 42 stems collected across Travis’ career — from 1985 to 2013, says Kyle Lehning, Travis’ longtime producer. Lacy and Lehning chose to use “Where That Came From,” a song written by Scotty Emerick and John Scott Sherrill that Lehning co-produced and held on to for years. He believed it could best articulate the humanity of Travis’ idiosyncratic vocal style.
Randy Travis attends the announcement of the Country Music Hall of Fame inductees in Nashville, Tennesse, on March 29, 2016. PHOTO: AP
“I never even thought about another song,” Lehning said.
Once he input the demo vocal (sung by James Dupree) into the AI models, “it took about five minutes to analyse,” says Lehning. “I really wish somebody had been here with a camera because I was the first person to hear it. And it was stunning, to me, how good it was sort of right off the bat. It’s hard to put an equation around it, but it was probably 70, 75 per cent what you hear now.”
“There were certain aspects of it that were not authentic to Randy’s performance,” he said, so he began to edit and build on the recording with engineer Casey Wood, who also worked closely with Travis over a few decades.
The pair cherrypicked from the two models, and made alterations to things like vibrato speed, or slowing and relaxing phrases. “Randy is a laid-back singer,” Lehning says. “Randy, in my opinion, had an old soul quality to his voice. That’s one of the things that made him unique, but also, somehow familiar.”
His vocal performance on “Where That Came From” had to reflect that fact.
“We were able to just improve on it,” Lehning says of the AI recording. “It was emotional, and it’s still emotional.”
Mary Travis says the “human element,” and “the people that are involved” in this project, separate it from more nefarious uses of AI in music.
“Randy, I remember watching him when he first heard the song after it was completed. It was beautiful because at first, he was surprised, and then he was very pensive, and he was listening and studying,” she said. “And then he put his head down and his eyes were a little watery. I think he went through every emotion there was, in those three minutes of just hearing his voice again.”
Lacy agrees. “The beauty of this is, you know, we’re doing it with a voice that the world knows and has heard and has been comforted by,” she says.
“But I think, just on human terms, it’s a very real need. And it’s a big loss when you lose the voice of someone that you were connected to, and the ability to have it back is a beautiful gift.”
They also hope that this song will work to educate people on the good that AI can do — not the fraudulent activities that so frequently make headlines. “We’re hoping that maybe we can set a standard,” Mary Travis says, where credit is given where credit is due — and artists have control over their voice and work.
Last month, over 200 artists signed an open letter submitted by the Artist Rights Alliance non-profit, calling on artificial intelligence tech companies, developers, platforms, digital music services and platforms to stop using AI “to infringe upon and devalue the rights of human artists.” Artists who co-signed included Stevie Wonder, Miranda Lambert, Billie Eilish, Nicki Minaj, Peter Frampton, Katy Perry, Smokey Robinson and J Balvin.
So, now that “Where That Came From” is here, will there be more original Randy Travis songs in the future?
“There may be others,” says Mary Travis. “We’ll see where this goes. This is such a foreign territory. There’s likely more on the horizon.”
“We do have other tracks,” says Lacy, but Warner Music is being as selective. “This isn’t a stunt, and it’s not a parlour trick,” she added. “It was important to have a song worthy of him”. – MARIA SHERMAN
Randy Travis (left) and Mary Davis appear at the 58th annual Academy of Country Music Awards on May 11, 2023, in Frisco, Texas. PHOTO: AP
NEW YORK (AP) – Victor Wembanyama had a year like no rookie in NBA history.
Others scored more points, others grabbed more rebounds, others had more blocks, others made more steals. But never had there been a player who, in Year 1 of his career, posted all these averages — at least 21.4 points, 10.6 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 3.6 blocks and 1.2 steals per game.
Until now.
The long-expected result became reality on Monday, when the Spurs’ star from France was announced as the unanimous winner of the NBA’s Rookie of the Year award. He’s the third San Antonio player to win it, joining David Robinson in 1990 and Tim Duncan in 1998 — both of whom, like Wembanyama, were No 1 overall picks and instantly anointed as centres who would lead the Spurs to greatness.
“My goals were always to help my team as best as I could and get better as the year went on,” Wembanyama said from San Antonio on TNT after the award was announced on the network’s NBA playoff pregame show. “I knew in order to do this I had to be individually good on the court and dominant. So, it was a huge thing for me and a big thing to get. It’s always been really important and I’m glad it’s finally official.”
Wembanyama is the sixth player since the award debuted in the 1952-53 season to get every first-place vote. He joins Houston’s Ralph Sampson (1984), Robinson (1990), the Los Angeles Clippers’ Blake Griffin (2011), Portland’s Damian Lillard (2013) and Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns (2016).
Oklahoma City’s Chet Holmgren and Charlotte’s Brandon Miller were the other finalists for the award. Wembanyama got all 99 first-place votes from a panel of reporters and broadcasters who cover the league. Holmgren got 98 of 99 second-place votes, and Miller got the other second-place vote to finish third.
Miami’s Jaime Jaquez Jr was fourth, followed by Golden State’s Brandin Podziemski and Dallas’ Dereck Lively II. No other rookie got a second- or third-place vote.
There had been other near-unanimous selections in recent years: Orlando’s Paolo Banchero got 98 of 100 first-place votes last year, Memphis’ Ja Morant got 99 of 100 in 2020, Dallas’ Luka Doncic got 98 of 100 in 2019, and Philadelphia’s Ben Simmons got 90 of 101 in 2018.
But voters left no doubt — Wemby was the one. And he’s already working toward getting better.
“Physically, the work is never going to be done,” Wembanyama said. “I’ve had my plan for months ready for all of my body and we’re going to keep discovering new ways to get better and work on my body. For basketball, there’s a lot I want to work on.”
Wembanyama became the first international winner of the award since Doncic in 2019 and the fifth such winner in the last 10 seasons. Andrew Wiggins (Canada) won in 2015, Towns (Dominican Republic) won in 2016, Simmons (Australia) won in 2018 and Doncic followed the next season.
Wembanyama became just the fourth player, and first rookie, to finish a season with at least 1,500 points, 250 assists and 250 blocked shots. The others: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar did it five times, Hakeem Olajuwon did it twice and Robinson did it twice. Nobody had done it since 1993-94, when Olajuwon and Robinson both had such a season.
Wembanyama said his family has adapted to life in the US and the change from France to Texas was not overwhelming.
“With no contest, it’s the best country in the world for an athlete,” Wembanyama said. “The culture, everything, the infrastructure, it’s made for us to thrive. I’m really in a bubble. I know I’m living a very privileged life as an NBA player and there’s a lot of people taking care of me every day. This award is also for them.”
The rookie award may be the start of a big week for Wembanyama, who will be in the top three finishers for Defensive Player of the Year as well. That award gets announced Tuesday, with Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert and Miami’s Bam Adebayo the other finalists.
The NBA will reveal the MVP — either Denver’s Nikola Jokic, Dallas’ Luka Doncic or Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — on Wednesday.
San Antonio Spurs NBA basketball first round draft pick Victor Wembanyama speaks during a news conference in San Antonio, June 24, 2023. PHOTO: AP
PARIS (AFP) – Having shaken four continents, Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour finally brings the biggest pop culture icon of the century to Europe from Thursday, starting with a four-night run in Paris.
Swift has broken almost every record in music, and her sixth tour is no exception.
The Eras Tour, which began in March 2023, is already the first to sell more than USD1 billion in tickets, and is expected to more than double that by the time it concludes in Vancouver this December.
Swifties in Paris are especially excited to hear songs off her new album, “The Tortured Poets Society”, being performed for the first time.
Many critics have derided the 31-track album as bloated and mediocre — “a rare misstep” in the words of British music mag NME.
Such blasphemy leaves her devoted fanbase seeing red — Paste magazine felt the need to keep their damning review anonymous, knowing all too well how her fans would react.
(FILES) Fans of US singer Taylor Swift, also known as Swifties, display friendship bracelets as they arrive for the first of the pop star’s six sold-out Eras Tour concerts at the National Stadium in Singapore on March 2, 2024. PHOTO: AFP
But a few bad reviews are unlikely to lead to a cruel summer for Swift — the album sold 1.4 million copies on its first day and broke every streaming record going, reaching a billion streams on Spotify within five days.
Some 42,000 people will see Swift in Paris before she heads on for dates in Sweden, Portugal, Spain, Britain, Ireland, Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Poland and Austria.
Many are travelling a long way — around one in five of the Paris audience is coming from the United States, according to the La Defense Arena where she is performing.
Economic juggernaut
The 34-year-old’s tour remains a money-making machine beyond the wildest dreams of promoters and venues.
Research group QuestionPro estimated that last year’s US dates generated USD5 billion for the country’s economy. The US Travel Association said the figure may have exceeded USD10 billion when hotel rooms, restaurants and other indirect sales were included.
The La Defense Arena says it has doubled the previous record of merchandise-sellers across its dates.
The mere mention of a London pub, The Black Dog, on her new album was enough to send a swarm of Swifties to its doors this month, potentially saving the struggling boozer.
Fans tracked it down after realising it lay close to the home of British actor Joe Alwyn, with whom Swift had a six-year relationship that ended last summer.
Swift’s tell-all dissections of her love stories have been the fuel powering her global domination, and fans have been pouring over “The Tortured Poets Department” for cryptic clues about Alwyn, her short-but-dramatic fling with Matty Healy (lead singer of The 1975), and her current beau, American football star Travis Kelce.
“There is something in her music that captures the adolescent desire for a poetic existence, charged with passion, danger and love,” said Satu Hämeenaho-Fox, author of “Into the Taylor-Verse”.
Soukeyna, a 16-year-old fan travelling up from southwest France for opening night, said Swift gives her “the feeling of being part of a community”.
“She’s a complete artist who writes her own words, and you really have to listen to the lyrics and understand them, which is something unique,” she added.
TUCSON, Arizona (AP) — Snoop Dogg is putting his name on the Arizona Bowl for what will be the first partnership between an alcoholic beverage brand and a college bowl game, the rapper and media personality announced Monday.
The “Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl Presented by Gin & Juice By Dre and Snoop” is scheduled for December 28 at Arizona Stadium and will match teams from the Mountain West Conference and Mid-American Conference.
Barstool, the digital media company, previously sponsored the bowl.
Gin & Juice, named after Snoop’s 1994 hit, is the first product from Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre’s new premium spirits company.
“College football fans are exhausted by the constant talk around NIL, conference realignment, coach movement, transfer portal and super conferences,” Snoop Dog said in a video on social media. “So it’s time we get back to the roots of college football, what it was focused on — the colleges, the players, the competition, the community, fan experience and the pageantry. Being a fan, coach, supporter of all levels of the game, I’ve sent many players through my (Snoop Youth Football League) to colleges and the NFL, so it’s only fitting that I step up and help get this thing right.”
Snoop Dogg performs a DJ set as “DJ Snoopadelic” during the “Concerts In Your Car” series Friday, October 2, 2020, in Ventura, California. PHOTO: AP
NEW YORK (AP) – Mother’s Day always feels like a bit of a push-pull to me on many levels. Leaving the wide range of family dynamics aside (that’s another article, to be written by another writer!), the-stay-in-and-cook vs going-out conundrum bubbles up every year.
Make mom a fabulous meal at home (with the ensuing clean up, and perhaps a bit of pressure)? Personal and thoughtful for sure. But maybe not in the cards for everyone. Take mom out for a lavish celebration? Lovely if you can swing it, but also with some downsides (cost, fighting for reservations, etc).
If you’re looking for something simple and doable, think about breakfast. Sure, maybe even call it brunch, but I can promise you as a mom, and the daughter of a mom, the best part about Mother’s Day is keeping it happy and uncomplicated.
And what’s more happy and uncomplicated than breakfast? Scrambled eggs. Homemade pancakes. Buttered toast. Fruit salad or a bowl of mixed berries. Maybe some muffins.
And homemade strawberry jam. From-scratch jam is one of the best simple pleasures in life. Fresh and sweet and the kind of red that just makes you feel happy. No one has to know how easy it is to make — seriously three ingredients and you’re done!
All you have to do is combine chopped strawberries and sugar in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring often until the berries start to collapse. Add the lemon juice, and continue to simmer for about half an hour, stirring often, until the mixture looks like loose jam. You are looking for a temperature of 220 degrees F measured with a candy or instant-read thermometer ( Thermoworks is a great brand). If you don’t have a candy thermometer, that’s OK. You can just cook it until it starts to look like loose jam. It will thicken as it cools, even firm up even more once refrigerated.
Crush the berries as you stir and cook them. When it’s ready, spoon the jam into the clean jars and cool to room temperature. Then seal the jars and refrigerate.
And now Mom has lovely breakfasts ahead for weeks. She can spread the jam on toast, English muffins, crumpets, croissants, scones, muffins of any kind, bagels. But she also will want to stir some into plain yogurt, and spread some on warm pancakes or waffles. And it makes a lovely addition to a graze or cheese board (and then she can also tell her friends her kid made it, and believe me when I say that might be the best part).
This jam can certainly be canned using a water bath, and then it will be shelf stable for about a year. But for us non-canners, you can just spoon your strawberry jam into clean jars, and they can be stored in the refrigerator for about a month. Be diligent about using only clean utensils to scoop out the jam. Food starts to deteriorate more quickly if you get other foods mixed in – so avoid sticking a knife with bread crumbs or a smear of butter into the jar.Your jam will last longer!
If you are dropping off the jam rather than serving it up, you might also seek out a particularly cute vintage jelly jar and spoon to gift with the jam. There are some awfully cute and/or dishtowels out there, too. You could also bake up a batch of homemade scones or biscuits or muffins to go with.
Back to breakfast. It can be special even while staying simple. Buy good European style butter. Put some tulips in a vase. Use cloth napkins. And the tip I learned from my mom and stick to: no packages or containers on the table. Everything gets scooped out into a little bowl, no yogurt tubs or cream cheese wrappers allowed.
Except your homemade jam, which can be served right in the jar.
This image shows a strawberry jam recipe on pastries in New York on February 10, 2022. PHOTO: AP
Strawberry Jam
Serves: 16
Ingredients:
2 pounds strawberries, hulled and roughly chopped
1 1/2 cups sugar
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
Wash two 2-cup canning jars or other jars with tight fitting lids very well, and allow to dry completely.
Directions:
Combine the strawberries and sugar in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring frequently until the sugar has dissolved and the berries are starting to break down. Add the lemon juice, lower the heat to medium-low, and cook at a gentle simmer for about 25 to 30 minutes, stirring often, until the mixture looks like loose jam, and has reached a temperature of 220 degrees F measured with a candy or instant read thermometer. If you don’t have a candy thermometer just cook the strawberry mixture until it starts to look like loose jam. It will thicken upon cooling.
As the jam cooks you can crush the berries with a wooden spoon against the side of the pot as you go, or use a potato masher. Leave some chunks of berry in there for texture. Spoon the jam into the clean jars and allow to cool to room temperature.
Seal the jars and refrigerate. – KATIE WORKMAN
This image shows a strawberry jam recipe atop of a scone in New York on February 10, 2022. PHOTO: AP
LONDON (AFP) – Manchester United are at risk of failing to qualify for Europe next season after a dismal 4-0 thrashing at Crystal Palace left the Red Devils eighth in the Premier League.
Michael Olise scored twice, either side of goals from the in-form Jean-Philippe Mateta and Tyrick Mitchell, as the Eagles’ resurgence since the appointment of Oliver Glasner as manager continues.
The time for a change of boss at Old Trafford could be coming soon as Erik ten Hag fails to arrest a slide in his second season in charge.
“I will keep fighting and I prepared the team in the best way I could do. It was not good enough, by far not good enough, so I have to take the responsibility for that,” said Ten Hag.
United have only been absent from European competition once since the 1989-90 season.
That came after finishing seventh in David Moyes’ sole campaign 10 years ago and the Scot was sacked with four games of the season to go.
United have never come lower than seventh in the Premier League era but are staring that possibility in the face with title-chasing Arsenal to come at Old Trafford on Sunday.
Tyrick Mitchell (centre) scored in Crystal Palace’s 4-0 thrashing of Manchester United. PHOTO: AFP
Ten Hag has routinely cited injury problems as mitigation for his side’s struggles.
The Dutchman was forced to cobble together a makeshift backline as Casemiro deputised out of position at centre-back, alongside 36-year-old Jonny Evans.
Lack of fight
Captain Bruno Fernandes was also absent as his proud record of never missing a club game in his career due to injury came to an end.
“All season, we have huge (injury) problems,” added Ten Hag. “This is the fourth defeat in 2024, so that’s not a lot and every time we had huge problems. Many times, we sort it out, today, we didn’t.”
But there was little excuse for the lack of fight or quality on show from a United side, whose sole Premier League win in their last seven games came against relegated Sheffield United.
Palace are unbeaten in their last five as former Eintracht Frankfurt boss Glasner’s project takes shape.
“First half we didn’t play as well as we could but we were very efficient,” said Glasner.
“At half-time we made adaptions and second half was much better. Much better control of the game, created more chances and scored nice goals.”
The south London club will have to ward off interest in Olise and Eberechi Eze if they are to kick on to even better things under the Austrian next season.
Olise has attracted interest from United, Manchester City and Chelsea and showed why as he eased through the middle of the visitors’ defence before firing low past Andre Onana.
United failed to muster even a single shot on target in the first half but were unfortunate not to level against the run of play.
Casemiro’s looping header dropped into the net after Rasmus Hojlund clashed with Palace goalkeeper Dean Henderson and was harshly penalised for a push.
But a two-goal half-time lead was the least Palace’s superiority deserved.
Mateta has been a man transformed under Glasner and hammered home his ninth goal in 11 games after skipping past the leaden-footed Evans with ease.
There was no response from United after the break on a night which could be the final straw for the club’s new leadership group when deciding Ten Hag’s future.
Mitchell netted a rare goal from close range as United were cut open from a set-piece.
Onana was then caught out by the power of Olise’s strike that flew past the Cameroonian.
The margin of the defeat took United’s goal difference to -3 which tells the tale of a sorry season for the 20-time English champions.
The FA Cup final against Manchester City offers Ten Hag one last shot at redemption, should he survive in charge until on May 25.
However, based on this evidence, United fans will fear double-chasing City could run riot at Wembley to inflict the ultimate humiliation.
BERLIN (AP) — Germany said Monday it recalled its ambassador to Russia for a week of consultations in Berlin following an alleged hacker attack on Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s party.
Germany last week accused Russian military agents of hacking into the top echelons of Scholz’s Social Democrats’ party and other sensitive government and industrial targets. Berlin joined NATO and fellow European countries in warning that Russia’s cyberespionage would have consequences.
The Foreign Office in Berlin said Monday that the government is taking the latest incident “seriously” and that Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock had decided to call back German Ambassador Alexander Lambsdorff. He would return to Moscow after a week, it said.
“The German government takes this event very seriously as behaviour against our liberal democracy and the institutions that support it,” Foreign Office spokeswoman Kathrin Deschauer said.
Baerbock said last week that Russian military cyber operators were behind the hacking of emails of the Social Democrats, the leading party in the governing coalition. Officials said the hackers had exploited Microsoft Outlook.
The German Interior Ministry said in a statement last week that the hacking campaign began as early as March 2022, a month after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with emails at the Social Democrat party headquarters accessed beginning that December. It said German companies, including in the defence and aerospace sectors, as well as targets related to the war in Ukraine were the focus of the hacking attacks.
The statement said international efforts led by the FBI shut down in late January a botnet of compromised network devices used by the Russian hackers — known as APT28 or Fancy Bear. The group has a history of malicious and destabilising behaviour, according to the US State Department.
German officials said the attacks persisted for months.
Relations between Russia and the West have been tense since Moscow’s war with Ukraine. The US, Germany and many other European countries have been providing military support to Ukraine in the ongoing war.
In Copenhagen, Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said that “some Europeans still think that the war is only taking place in Ukraine, but right now we are seeing more and more aggressiveness from Russia.”
“We will probably see hybrid attacks in different areas. It can be critical infrastructure,” he added after a meeting with his Danish counterpart Mette Frederiksen. “What Russia is doing and planning is not acceptable. Russia is ready to use any means possible to harm our societies.”
In Prague, the Czech Foreign Ministry summoned Russia’s ambassador over the attacks by the same APT28 group linked to Russia’s GRU military intelligence unit.
“I have decided to summon the Russian ambassador because of the cyber attacks against Czech institutions and critical infrastructure,” Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said on X, the social media network. “We have called on the Russian Federation to refrain from this behaviour, which is contrary to UN standards and its own obligations.”
Then European Union Election Observation Mission to Myanmar chief Alexander Graf Lambsdorff speaks during a press briefing in Yangon, Myanmar, November 10, 2015. PHOTO: AP
