As Thailand's capital cautiously reopens many restaurants shuttered over coronavirus fears, the feline "employees" of the Caturday Cafe are back at work.

I know, I know, you don’t need to tell me that there are already four banana bread recipes on this site, plus four additional banana cakes, and that’s probably enough, right? Genuinely, I believed I was done too, that the Banana Baked Goods course at SK University* had been completed. But then a few things happened. After creating the pumpkin bread of my dreams and what I hope will be the last zucchini bread recipe you’ll ever need over the last couple years, it began to bother me that the banana bread recipes on the site lacked what these have: a towering height and a crunchy top that will be hard not to lift off in one giant tile and swiftly coat the underside with salted butter. So, I created one and I’ve been keeping it to myself for over a year because, see above: SK is probably at Banana Bread Capacity. But over the last few weeks of, well, not doing a whole lot else, I can’t help but notice that we’ve all been making a whole lot of banana bread. And I think you might like this one instead.

Read more »

Lebanon’s coronavirus lockdown has sent an economy already in deep trouble into freefall, and many are struggling to survive. Gino Raidy is an activist who was prominent during the October 2019 anti-government corruption protests. Now, with many fearing hunger and believing there is nothing left to lose, he is helping to keep demonstrators safe as they demand real and lasting change

• You think we care about masks?': anger and poverty grip Lebanese city

Continue reading...

Have you been keeping up with the news?

What reason did the government give for not joining the EU procurement scheme on four separate occasions?

Brussels had the wrong address so we never got the email

We weren’t allowed to because we had left the EU.

All the European ventilators had the wrong plugs.

In her evidence to the home affairs select committee, did Priti Patel say that the reason passengers weren’t tested on arrival at airports was because...

The UK had too many international air passengers

The UK had too few international air passengers

The UK had both too many and too few international air passengers

The communities secretary, Robert Jenrick, owns three homes, two of which are in London. Where is the third which he visited in contravention of lockdown rules?

Exmoor

His constituency of Newark

Herefordshire

What did the Daily Mail think VE Day stood for in its readers’ offer for a 75th Anniversary Celebration coin?

Victory in Europe

Victory for Europe

Victory over Europe

Who was visited by the police after breaking lockdown to go to Dover to make a video about his failure to find any illegal immigrants?

Richard Tice

John Redwood

Nigel Farage

How many people in South Korea (population 52 million) have died from the coronavirus?

256

2,560

25,600

What did Donald Trump suggest people should think about using to help them beat coronavirus?

Sunbed courses

Dettol

Chloroquine

What is France selling to help pay for the coronavirus crisis?

The Arc de Triomphe

The wine cellar of the Elysee Palace

Its national collection of antique furniture

How long do you get on a free Zoom conference call?

30 minutes

40 minutes

60 minutes

What was Boris Johnson doing when he took 10 days off in Chequers in February during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic?

Recovering from his 10-day break to Mustique at the New Year.

Sorting out his complicated private life.

Helping Carrie Symonds arrange a baby shower for her friends.

What was the name of the two doctors who cared for Boris Johnson in St Thomas’ after whom he named his son?

Imran

Ranjit

Nicholas

What aliases did the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, use for his second job as an internet marketeer when first elected as an MP?

Maurice Blue and Archie Stoat

Mostyn Orange and Torquil Beaver

Michael Green and Sebastian Fox

How many coronavirus tests did Priti Patel tell a Downing Street press conference had been carried out?

300,034,974,000

3,000,349,740,000

30,034,974,000

Who is being lined up to take the blame for the inevitable public inquiry into the government’s handling of the pandemic?

The EU

Matt Hancock

Meghan and Harry

How much will a mug of coronavirus breakout star, Chris Whitty, cost you from the ‘Chris Whitty Appreciation Society’?

£8

£10

£12

What did deputy chief medical officer, Jenny Harries, tell a Downing Street press conference in March that couples should do?

Separate

Stop being so needy

Move in together

Banksy has donated a new artwork to Southampton general hospital. It depicts a boy holding up

A testing kit

A Boris Action man

A nurse doll

Where is Tom Cruise’s new film set to be shot?

The International Space Station

Richard Branson’s Necker Island

The Nightingale Hospital in London

What was Meghan reading to her son Archie in his first birthday video

Lights! Camera! Action!

Duck! Rabbit!

Duck! Never!

15 and above.

Excellent: give yourself a round of applause

11 and above.

Well done: you seem to have been paying attention to the news

7 and above.

Not bad: you appear to have been trying to keep with events

0 and above.

Risible: were you trying to get the answers wrong?

3 and above.

Very poor: do you follow the news at all?

Continue reading...

Five-point plan to protect renters comes as poll shows 1.7 million people fear unemployment

Labour is calling on the government to draw up emergency measures to protect renters beyond June as polling shows up to 1.7 million people in the private sector fear that they will lose their jobs this summer.

Dire economic forecasts released this week, including a Bank of England warning that the country faces its worst recession in 300 years, has prompted Labour to rapidly escalate its call for current protections for the rented sector, like the three-month ban on evictions in England and Wales, to be extended.

Continue reading...

[a-RN-au-D] was looking for something fun to do with his son and dreamed up a laser blaster game that ought to put him in the running for father of the year. It was originally just going to be made of cardboard, but you know how these things go. We’re happy …read more

Trailer previews sci-fi action game from Tales of Vesperia team