Public support for benefits 'safety net'.

Steve Beauchampé mourns the closure of Birmingham’s finest, but little known, sausage emporium.

New York Sounds: The Week In Free Jazz, No Wave Funk-Disco, Jewish Cantorial Experimentation & Alternative Hip Hop

Peter Lowe, Managing Editor of Sky News, is to be chairman of the judging panel for this year’s Midlands Media Awards, shortlisted nominations for which will be announced on Monday, May 13.

Richard Lutz finds a perfect sky.

Dave Woodhall and a very important person saw a very unenthralling match at Villa Park on Saturday.

Terry Wills. Not a Happy Baggie.

Charity offers £5,000 reward over tragic discovery of baby’s body in Walsall canal.

Richard Lutz lurches towards a Christmas with tiers.

From deep down in the Coventry canal basin, Martin Longley enjoys an intimate recital by Brooklyn guitarist David Grubbs...

Coventry regeneration schemes awarded £3.7 million loan.

Two British titles changing hands were the highlights of an exciting card at Resorts World Arena.

Jessica Harris is enchanted by a half-term family performance at the MAC.

A musical celebration of themes from Gerry Anderson’s TV shows at Symphony Hall.

“Udaan’s financial performance for FY23-24 reflects its commitment to building a robust, profitable and resilient business. With revenue reaching INR 5,700 crores for FY23-24, we have made significant strides toward profitability, reducing EBITDA burn by 40% year-on-year to ~INR 900 crores,” said Kiran Thadimarri, SVP Finance, Udaan in a LinkedIn post.

The company’s revenue growth during the year picked up after it reported only 3% growth in FY23. Earlier, ET had reported that Flipkart Internet, the marketplace unit of the Walmart-owned retailer posted revenue growth of 21% in FY24.

According to a report by Kearney and LUXASIA, India's luxury beauty market is projected to grow to USD 1.6 billion by 2028 and USD 4.0 billion by 2035. This growth is fueled by economic development and an expanding middle class. Brands need to tailor their strategies for region-specific preferences to succeed. Early market entry and expert support are crucial to navigate complexities, the report said.

Key sectors, including oil & gas (18 per cent), pharma/biotech (12 per cent), FMCG (8 per cent), and IT (6 per cent) emerged as primary drivers of this positive trend, with AI/ML roles showing exceptional growth at 39 per cent year-on-year, the report stated.

India witnessed a surge in gig employment opportunities during the 2024 festive season, with over 1.2 million roles posted. This growth, a 23% increase from the previous year, was fueled by e-commerce expansion and a shift towards flexible work arrangements. Tier II cities are emerging as new gig hubs, while higher pay is attracting skilled professionals.

Godrej Interio aims for a 10 per cent contribution from e-commerce sales by fiscal-end. The company is accelerating digital transformation efforts, experiencing significant online sales growth and expanding reach across 17,200 pin codes. It introduces AI-based 'Visual Search' and an integrated dealer network to enhance customer experience and operational efficiency.

Sheela Foam, maker of Sleepwell and Kurl-on mattresses, reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 9 crore on revenues of Rs 813 crore in Q2 FY25. The company saw a 32% year-on-year revenue increase, driven by a 19% rise in mattress volume.

Amul will launch its dairy products in Europe. The launch will start with Spain. The company will then expand to other European countries. Amul already launched its products in the US in March. The company aims to cater to the Indian diaspora and Asian population. Amul is a brand owned by 36 lakh farmers in India.

Indian consumer electronics brand Elista plans to expand globally. The company aims to generate Rs 1,500 crore in revenue by 2026. Elista will expand its presence in over 35 countries in the next two years. The brand recently entered the Tanzanian market.

The Temasek and SoftBank-backed company’s operating margins also grew significantly, with Lenskart clocking an Ebitda of Rs 856 crore in FY24, against Rs 403 crore in the previous fiscal. In an interview with ET in October, Lenskart’s founder and chief executive officer Peyush Bansal had said the company is making a $200-million investment in its new manufacturing facility in southern India.

Claypond Capital, Manipal Group chairman Ranjan Pai’s family office, also participated in funding for the health and wellness startup, formerly known as Healthifyme. To date, the company has raised $125 million in primary equity.

FirstCry's CEO Maheshwari saw a 49% compensation drop. The company plans an IPO, approaching SEBI. Employee benefits decreased, with a Rs 23,000 crore valuation and an expected IPO of $3.5-3.75 billion.

Founded by Supam Maheshwari and his colleague from a previous business, Amitava Saha, FirstCry has been the darling of investors which include SoftBank, Tata Sons Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata, Premji Invest, Mahindra & Mahindra and TPG Growth.

Baby food startup Bebe Burp shared that it will utilise 60 per cent of the fund for growth, 20 per cent for operations, 10 per cent for product development, and the remaining for team building for a coherent production.

Millennium Babycares Ltd announced the closure of a Rs 122 crore private placement round with Bharat Value Fund (BVF), which acquired a significant minority stake. BVF is managed by Pantomath Capital and targets a corpus of Rs 2,000 crores. The funds will be used for market expansion in India and internationally.

Lauren Byrne Color Guard Instructor LAUREN BYRNE began her color guard career in 2013 with the Blue Springs Golden Regiment Marching Band and winter guard. She continued her performance career […]

Presentation is one of the 5 cornerstones of podcasting (content, presentation, production, promotion, and P.R.O.F.I.T.), and how you communicate in your podcast can make the biggest difference in whether people enjoy and benefit from your content.

The post 6 Free Ways to Podcast Better by Communicating Better first appeared on The Audacity to Podcast.

After being tapped to lead the Department of Government Efficiency with Vivek Ramaswamy, Elon Musk said all of the actions taken by the department will be posted online for "maximum transparency."

Atlanta police released images of a second person of interest in the July 4 shooting death of 8-year-old Secoriea Turner. The first person of interest has been cleared, attorneys for the family said. Her parents, Charmaine Turner and Secoriey Williamson, are pleading with the public to provide information about those responsible in the death of their child. The reward is up to $50,000, and anyone with information is asked to contact Crime Stoppers at 404-577-8477.

Were you really that frozen with fear? Doubtful

There's nothing I can say to this dismissive nonsense that won't get me thrown off Metafilter.

I keep returning to two things.

1) building on the idea of community, trying to spread as much love as I can in the world. The time for action will be soon but right now is the time to love each other as much as we possibly can.

2) we aren't the only country to have elected a far-right or fascist leader recently. I'm looking to the people I know who live in other countries with leaders like Trump. There is still joy and possibility in their lives, even though their fight is hard, just like ours will be.

Love and joy are exactly what the far right wants to take away from us so let's stick it to them and not let them.

Let me tell you a story about a woman I know who votes conservative. She isn't the type of person I would self-select to be a friend, or even a friendly acquaintance — perhaps to my detriment! — because she's well-to-do, right-leaning, and very Christian. But I see her every week and have talked to her quite a bit because she's one of my medical providers.

Because I'm disabled, she charges me half of what she'd normally charge; every time I thank her, she says it's no big deal, and that, "Disabled people deserve every break they can get!" This saves me something like $3,000 dollars a year: that's an extra $3,000 a year she could be making, and actually now can't be making, because she's using her hours to treat me instead of other patients. She does a lot of volunteering. Donates a lot of money. She talks about how she's disappointed that certain social services, like disabled transit, fail disabled people, and has a fairly robust understanding of how that plays out because she listens carefully to her disabled patients. In her church, she's taken a stand for welcoming gay members of the community into the congregation, and into leadership positions, and was heartbroken and felt powerless and bewildered when the higher-up leadership blocked several of these things.

Whenever I've talked about the difficulties my trans friends are facing, she is genuinely sympathetic to the individual friend, interested in their life, and sad about their suffering, but sometimes expresses the concern-trolling talking points of the right-wing media — I read this as her being very responsive and caring to any unique individual she knows, but not recognizing the perils of the wider systemic discrimination going on.

Last time there was an election, I was talking about how conservative funding cuts impact the disabled community, and she expressed a lot of opinions along the lines of, "Of course I think everyone who needs disability income should have it! But don't you realize that the left-wing government will get us further into debt, whereas the conservatives will improve the economy so that we have more government funds to give social programs?" This coming from a person whose personality is very caring, motherly, and friendly, not at all a combative or hostile "debater:" normal people genuinely believe these things because the right-wing media repeats them over and over again.

I think that you really are right when you say, I truly believe they are good, kind, thoughtful people. Most of them probably are. But they are being lied to and duped by right-wing politicians, and not realizing the extent to which they're being lied to, because they believe we still live in a reasonable society in which no one would actually lie that much ... so some of the things they're saying must be true, right?

They don't realize the extent to which BIPOC, queer, disabled, immigrant, etc. minority groups are in very real danger, and think it must be exaggerated, because they don't really know that many, or the few that they know appear to be doing just fine. And so they vote with their worry and their fear, and their vote does not truly carry through their intentions about the kind of world they wish to live in.

This is not, of course, all people. Some people really are deep into right-wing ideology and have entire groups that they do not see as real people. But I find that most of the people I meet are like her: I could have several conversations with them not knowing they are right-wing, and get along with them just fine, because their day-to-day values of how to treat other human beings really are quite similar to mine. But because of their political/cultural education, their sociological and media literacy, and the demographics of people that make up their workplace, friends, and family, they are being fed a different set of facts, a different "reality."

This all makes me incredibly sad but also gives me bit of hope, and I hope it will bring some peace to you.

I live in Canada, so it's not the same, but I do live in one of the most right-leaning provinces. I really feel what you're going through. I am also surrounded by people I care about — who appear to care about me — who vote in one awful conservative government after another. Stay strong: sending love and sympathy.

I do not want to be alive. This is not a new development; I first voiced this opinion to my mother when I was five years old, and it has persisted through the subsequent four decades despite therapy, a vast array of medications, and multiple forms of invasive treatments that have made my existence even less bearable while having no affect on my depression (or, as I think of it, my identity and most fundamental self). Given the opportunity to press a button and fast-forward to my deathbed, I'd do it without hesitation. But these Nazi motherfuckers will not leave the people I love alone. They are forcing me to stay alive, even though I hate every minute of it, just so I can contribute my meager skills to the war effort against them. You have no idea how furious I am, because all I want is to die, and they won't let me, because if I did I'd be ceding the world to them, and I refuse to do that without exhausting every drop of blood within me. If I can't have a single moment of joy, peace or happiness, then neither can they.

Two things:

1. Narrow your focus to your sphere of influence, just for now, because in this moment of helplessness and defeat, when we are feeling powerless, it behooves us to remember we do have immense power. Kamala Harris was never going to bring a casserole to your neighbor when their spouse was in the hospital, that's you. Donald Trump cannot steal the laughter from your friends' lips when you tell them a joke, that laughter is entirely in your power. You have the power to choose connection, fellowship, mutual aid, joy, hard work, love, passion, devotion, faith. To me, remembering that I have power is cause for hope.

2. When you're out there using your power to connect with your fellow human beings, look for the helpers. Take heart in their existence, their perseverance. Do everything you can to become one of them.

The woman who I worked with as Justice of the Peace, who won by five votes last time (2 years ago) was a problem, believed in a lot of conspiracy theory stuff and was a time-waster being very vocal about it at our abatement and civil authority meetings. I was also on the ballot this year (and won handily) but I told people that i didn't care who they voted for as long as it was NOT HER and she lost and in the very small pond of my town's abatement and civil authority boards, things will go much more smoothly.

Also I made kid ballots and had two contests: dragon vs unicorn (a tie, with one write-in for "pegasis") and winter vs summer (winter won handily) and kids seemed to enjoy that and the "future voter" stickers we gave them.

I don't disagree with the advice already provided, but I think you're using the word "boundary" in an odd way. You don't get to set boundaries on other people's behaviour, even when you're married to them. You can set a boundary around your own behaviour, then other people decide how they'll respond.

In this case, you might say: if you continue a friendship with B, our relationship will be at an end. Then, the ball is in R's court - he can decide what to do next.

I'm sorry you've been through so much lately, but I think you are definitely catastrophizing. I'd say the likelihood you'll be a target of political violence is pretty close to zero. I would suggest you stop reading the news/Reddit for a bit if it's causing you to feel this way - go for walks in your new neighborhood, make plans to see your friends in the city, etc.

Fresh off the latest meeting about incorporation, and I want to say: thank you to the moderators and Jessamyn who keep the site going and thank you to the volunteers past and present putting in work to build new possibilities for the site, including making it easier for more people to volunteer and contribute in different ways.

I'm also truly proud of the decision made early on by the volunteers to do things together, even if that meant slowing down. I'm the kind of person who sees a problem and goes into fix-it mode as fast as possible. Practicing on a hugely meaningful project like Metafilter to listen and consider all of our viewpoints and work through to a communal path was hard. It was sometimes frustratingly slow! But by the second half of our timeline, I can see now that we get important things done faster and faster and how strong the foundation we've built is (heh, bad pun) because we've got trust and a collaborative thoughtful process.

I'd also like to recognise the people who took a deep breath before writing a reply in a high-termperature thread, the people who edited down the snark in their comments or thought - I'll change to the thread about kitten videos instead. It is hard to be civil and think about other people when they're text on a screen - and it's harder when so much media encourages profit by provoking yelling.

Metafilter is an internet third space that isn't trying to profit actively from yelling. And sometimes we gotta yell in some threads - but most of the time we talk, and I so so appreciate having a third space where people can talk without an algorithm aimed at our lizard brains.

I am the son of a Holocaust survivor. When my dad was 11, his parents put him and his 13 year-old brother on a boat, alone, from their home in Amsterdam so they could come to America and escape the Nazis.

Hilariously, just one generation later, this website suggests I get back on the boat and return to exactly the same place for exactly the same reason.

This does sound very much like your anxiety latching on to a potential future and you getting stuck in that.

Others can give you advice about dealing with this particular scenario.

But here are some things to remember:

Seeking reassurance from others usually results in your anxiety getting worse, as their advice makes the imaginary danger seem more real.

No amount of rehearsing and imagining and ruminating will make you any safer. In fact, trying to prepare for this scenario means you're staying in the anxiety space for longer.

Don't try to fight your scary thoughts, don't argue with yourself. Just note the thought and briefly describe what you're doing to yourself in a non judgemental way.

"I'm arguing with an imaginary person right now"

"I'm trying to predict the future"

"I'm ruminating right now."

"I'm seeking reassurance"

You have the power to reassure yourself, and THAT kind of reassurance really works.

Change catastrophising thoughts into compassionate realism.

"I don't know what might happen in the future, but I'm going to cope with it when it dies"

"It's possible that this frightening thing might happen, and it might be unpleasant, but I will deal with it if it does and then it will just be another memory."

Find ways to distract yourself from your spiralling thoughts. I like explaining a topic I'm really interested in out loud to myself as a way to drown out stuck thoughts.

Trying to prepare for something that *might* happen just means you're making yourself be in that horrible scary worry space for much longer than it would take for the scary thing to happen. You can't control wether or not this thing you fear will happen, but you can control how much you focus on it.

Distraction is good! Be with people you enjoy, watch a comfort show, dance to music you love, do something to make yourself feel good.

My marriage is only monogamish, so I'm saying this with some bias towards polyamory:

If your spouse want to prioritize this friendship over your stated boundary, then your spouse is prioritizing the friendship over your marriage.

In this case, you really don't have to explain why. In fact, I'd stop explaining why. It's not a comprehension problem. It's that your partner doesn't want to do what you are asking.

Here's the words I would use: I do not want you to continue this friendship. If you do, I am going to have to take steps towards ending our marriage. We should discuss this in counselling.

In other words even in marriages where there's less emphasis on monogamy, the main thing is that you have to respect your partner's limits, or else you aren't partners. I'm sorry your partner is putting you through this.

White people are very invested in treating racism as extreme and exceptional when it is in fact commonplace and pervasive. White people are not credible judges of what non-white people describe as experiences of racism. Racism is the Occam's Razor explanation. These so-called academic framings describe patterns that white people would prefer remain undescribed.

In real life I moved to Japan from the U.S. years ago. Didn't soften the blow of the election one whit.

Wherever you go, there you are.

I work in a women's health clinic that does first-term abortions as one of its services.

We have a comment form on our web site where people who want to volunteer as patient escorts can reach out. Typically, we get about one or two inquiries a week.

Yesterday alone, we got twenty-five.

This doesn't take "Will the destination country even accept you as an immigrant" into consideration.

I'm moving to Cozylandia under my duvet and I'm never coming out.