List of All Articles with Tag 'r'

Cut your egg decorating time in half with this fun LEGO project.

The Labour Party has brutally mocked the Tories' failure to deal with the economy with the Liz Truss lettuce. Last year, the former prime minister became associated with the salad vegetable when the Economist published a column saying she had caused turmoil during her premiership faster than the time it takes for a lettuce to go bad. It said: "Liz Truss is already a historical figure. However long she now lasts in office, she is set to be remembered as the prime minister whose grip on power was the shortest in British political history. Ms Truss entered Downing Street on September 6th. She blew up her own government with a package of unfunded tax cuts and energy-price guarantees on September 23rd. Take away the ten days of mourning after the death of the queen, and she had seven days in control. That is the shelf-life of a lettuce." The Daily Star then ran with the idea of livestreaming a lettuce, asking whether it or Truss would last longer (the lettuce won). After that, the lettuce became the most lasting symbol of Truss's premiership. Now, posting on Twitter, the opposition party has brought the meme back with a picture of a lettuce in a wig with googly eyes, to make a point about soaring inflation. They wrote: "The lettuce that outlasted Liz Truss would cost 20 per cent more today thanks to Tory economic failure." They added: "This is the cost of the Tories." Food inflation is coming down, but it is still very high. Latest British Retail Consortium (BRC) data suggests it dropped to 11.5 per cent in August from 13.1 per cent in July and 17.4 per cent in June. In the last year, popular staple supermarket items like eggs have seen an annual increase of 17.3 per cent to an average of £2.65 per pack, compared to 17.2 per cent for baked beans (£1.98), 7.2 per cent for toilet rolls (£5.83), and 5.9 per cent for milk (£1.80). Meanwhile, Labour have been ramping up their attack ads lately, recently attacking the Tories over the Raac crisis in schools. Now they've brought back the lettuce, it is clear Truss will never catch a break. 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.

Former Republican Rep. Mike Rogers, who served seven terms in the U.S. House, is running for U.S. Senate in Michigan

SpaceX is ready to launch its next-generation Starship rocket, according to Elon Musk, pending regulatory approval. Starship is the most powerful rocket ever built, measuring 121 metres in height and capable of producing 5,000 metric tons of thrust. Once testing is complete, the craft will form part of Nasa’s Artemis mission to return astronauts to the Moon. Mr Musk also plans to use the rocket to transport people and cargo around the solar system, eventually using fleets of Starships to establish a permanent human colony on Mars. The next launch will be the second attempt at an orbital flight test, with the only previous effort ending in an explosion just three minutes into the 90 minute flight earlier this year. Each launch attempt requires approval from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), while also requiring favourable weather conditions. “Starship is ready to launch, awaiting FAA licence approval,” Mr Musk posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Wednesday. A spokesperson for the FAA previously told The Independent that the launch licence application for Starship depends on various requirements being met, including reviews on policy, payload, safety, airspace integration, financial responsibility and environmental impacts. “The FAA will make a licence determination only after the agency is satisfied SpaceX meets all licensing, safety and other regulatory requirements,” the spokesperson said. SpaceX typically only reveals the date for rocket tests a few days before they take place, though numerous factors can still delay them. Weather at SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Texas is currently favourable for a launch, though the area can be prone to storms and hurricanes between June and November. SpaceX performed its 62nd orbital rocket launch of 2023 earlier this week, breaking its own record for the most number of launches in a single year. The private company has delivered roughly 80 per cent of all Earth payload mass to orbit in 2023, with Mr Musk predicting that this figure will rise to more than 99 per cent once Starship is in operation. “These magnitudes are madness to consider, but necessary to make consciousness multiplanetary,” he posted on X on Sunday. Read More SpaceX smashes rocket launch record as Musk eyes historic Starship mission SpaceX abandons YouTube for live streams of launches in favour of X/Twitter

One 'Stranger Things' fan decided to turn the election season Upside Down by adding their own candidate to the ballot.

The California black sea hare is the size of a cat—and totally slimy.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Kyiv Wednesday on what is his third trip to the Ukrainian capital since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The disturbing sketches feature terrified and bound women, reigniting investigations into cold cases that may be linked to the 78-year-old criminal

The New York Department of Labor has filed a lawsuit to retrieve a significant sum of unpaid wages, penalties, and interest from Rex Heuermann

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, who is presiding over the Georgia election subversion case against former President Donald Trump and 18 other co-defendants, will hold his first hearing Wednesday afternoon amid questions of how soon a trial could begin.

The United Nations' migration agency says that more than 5 million people have now been displaced by the monthslong fighting in Sudan

Amid Logan Paul and Dillon Danis feud, Danis targeted Jake Paul by suggesting a connection between Jake and controversial figure James Charles