28 h. ago China's put a £100,000 bounty on my head! Anonymous letter sent to London residents shows how Beijing is trying to intimidate me with threat of kidnap, says high

Tony Chung accused the Chinese Communist Party of trying to 'instil fear' after he was told wanted letters arrived in the mail boxes of residents on a London street from Hong Kong this week.

Events

38 h. ago Popular pizza chain to open new store in Greater Manchester town

Boss Pizza has opened outlets across the UK with pizzas from £4.99

Politics

46 h. ago Guzman y Gomez struggling to break into US market despite offering bigger burritos

‘US sales aren’t growing as fast as we’d like it takes time,’ founder says, while analyst notes target market ‘not exactly short of Mexican food options’Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastMexican-themed chain Guzman y Gomez has reported bumper profits since it began trading on the Australian stock exchange but is struggling to expand in the US despite offering Americans bigger burritos.The fast food chain has opened 16 new stores in Australia since July but a push to break into the competitive US market with four stores in Chicago has not fared as well. Guzman y Gomez reported on Friday that its US six-month sales had decreased by 12.7% to $4.9m.Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue reading...

Politics

5 d. ago Wrestling legends left 'disgusted' by Wetherspoons dish on visit to the UK

WWE Hall-of-Famer The Great Muta has been left disgusted by the food options in at infamous pub chain Wetherspoons.

Politics

5 d. ago ‘Biologists were not part of the crime food chain’: why Ecuador’s scientists are facing violence, threats and kidnapping

Despite government efforts, armed groups control many remote areas. Now researchers are caught in the crosshairsRaul*, a biologist from Quito, has been leading conservation projects in the Chocó rainforest in north-east Ecuador for more than 20 years. It has not been easy, he says, recalling the threats he has received over the years for reporting illegal hunters and loggers in reserves, but he never considered giving up.Last year, however, tensions in the area escalated after violence soared on the country’s coast. Accounts of almost daily killings in the cities of Esmeraldas and Guayaquil emerged as gangs appeared to fight over territory, while forced recruitment in rural areas increased, as did extortions, known locally as vacunas, or vaccines. Continue reading...

Events

7 d. ago Extreme weather expected to cause food price volatility in 2025 after cost of cocoa and coffee doubles

Trend towards more extreme-weather events will continue to hit crop yields and create price spikes, Inverto saysExtreme weather events are expected to lead to volatile food prices throughout 2025, supply chain analysts have said, after cocoa and coffee prices more than doubled over the past year.In an apparent confirmation of warnings that climate breakdown could lead to food shortages, research by the consultancy Inverto found steep rises in the prices of a number of food commodities in the year to January that correlated with unexpected weather. Continue reading...

Society