A woman who found hairs in her Aldi dip has said she was disappointed the company included an AI prompt in its reply when she complained.
Jo Reeves from Cotteridge in Birmingham said she found the "vile" hairs when she popped out for a snack, while her partner was in hospital.
The AI prompt included the phrase: "Make it short and concise but do not overdo it" and Reeves said: "Everyone uses AI but the language is disappointing as a customer.
An Aldi spokesperson said: "This response fell well below our normal standards of customer service. We have contacted Ms Reeves directly to apologise and fully resolve the issue she had with our product."
Reeves said: "My partner was having an op in Worcester hospital so popped to the local Aldi to get 'recovery food'."

#hairs

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she hated the governments and policies of President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but said she loved America and Israel during an interview Thursday.
"I have said repeatedly I love Israel and I hate Netanyahu's government and his policies. I love America, and I hate Trump's government and policies. I think it's bad, in the first case for Israel, what's happening, and I think it's really bad for the United States, what's happening," Clinton told MS NOW's "Morning Joe."
Clinton spoke to the MS NOW panel about Israel and achieving peace in the Middle East.
Hillary Clinton Breaks With Democratic Critics By Backing Trump's Gaza Plan As The 'Only Game In Town'
Hillary Clinton said she hated the governments of President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during an interview on "Morning Joe," Sept. 10, 2026.

#president #Trump #prime

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump's pitch to send Americans $5,000 checks should Republicans prevail in the November midterms is drawing scorn from some members of Congress — the very people who have constitutional authority over federal spending.
Economists and other political observers are voicing concerns about the potential effects on inflation and the national balance sheet. Taken together, it's a swift reaction that makes clear that Trump's dubious election-year gambit is likely little more than another grand promise from a politician with a long history of them.
"Donald Trump is a known liar. This is the biggest liar to ever serve in government. Period," said Rep. Robert Garcia, a California Democrat who was in Dallas on Thursday as part of his party's effort to counter Republicans' midterm convention. "The dividend is not happening."
Trump previously pledged to use savings from the Department of Government Efficiency and revenue from tariffs on foreign imports to distribute payments of $2,000 or more, but none of that came to pass.
His latest idea comes as the U.S. economy is reckoning with persistent inflation and rising interest rates, two forces that have politically undermined Republicans after previously helping them reclaim power from Democrats. Trump claimed the payments would be possible because of the economy's strength, yet consumer sentiment is weak as gasoline prices are increasing because of the war with Iran and wages are struggling to keep pace with inflation.

#inflation

Over the last year, Nick Maggiulli has come to what he calls an unsettling realization: The upper-middle class is caught in a trap, and many of them don't even realize it.
The chief operating officer of Ritholtz Wealth Management has spent the better part of a year building the case in pieces on his blog, Of Dollars and Data—first arguing private school isn't worth the cost despite its price tag, then that premium travel experiences have grown crowded while remaining expensive in "The Death of the Amex Lounge." He previously talked to Fortune about his book, The Wealth Ladder, and his growing belief "something weird's going on" with the upper-middle class in the U.S. economy.
In an April essay, he pulled the threads together and gave the phenomenon a name: the "upper-middle-class trap," in which people earning roughly $200,000 to $400,000 a year are working more and relaxing less to buy products and services of declining quality.
His evidence includes new single-family homes shrinking in average size by 12% between 2014 and 2024, even as the price per square foot surged 74%, according to LendingTree data. A home near a public elementary school with a top GreatSchools rating costs 78.6% more than a comparable home in the surrounding county. Homebuyers who win bidding wars end up worse off: One study found their purchases produced 6.9% lower annualized returns than homes bought without competition. In higher education, the number of college applicants has jumped 78% since 2015 even as acceptance rates at elite schools have collapsed, driving tuition and private-school costs up roughly twice as fast as overall inflation.
The mechanism Maggiulli describes is a "financial arms race": Every individual decision is rational, but collectively the competition for the same scarce positional goods lowers everyone's quality of life while draining their bank accounts.

#even #maggiulli

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican North Carolina Rep. Chuck Edwards implored House colleagues to reconsider an Ethics Committee report that found he engaged in persistent, unprofessional and inappropriate conduct toward two female aides and recommended his censure.
Edwards' letter asks representatives to distinguish between unconventional conduct and ***** ual harassment.
"An affectionate friendship is not a ***** ual proposition. A gift is not ***** ual misconduct," he wrote. "A compliment is not ***** ual misconduct. Poetry is not ***** ual misconduct."
Edwards' letter, dated Tuesday, was first reported by the news outlet NOTUS.
The Ethics Committee on Thursday declined to comment in response to Edwards' letter.

#ethics

PARIS, Aug 21 (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Andy ‌Burnham and German Chancellor Friedrich ‌Merz will co-chair a meeting of the so-called Coalition of the Willing group of pro-Ukrainian countries on Monday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will be at the meeting in Kyiv, ‌which will be ⁠attended both in person and remotely, Macron's office said on ⁠Friday, without specifying who will be there in person. The Ukrainian capital has come under heavy bombardment recently, and Zelenskiy has ‌pleaded with his allies to do more to help his country.
European Council President Antonio Costa will attend the meeting in person and NATO Deputy Secretary ‌General Radmila Shekerinska will participate remotely, NATO and the EU said in separate statements.
"The leaders ‌will reiterate their determination to strengthen their support for Ukraine so that it can defend itself against Russian aggression," Macron's ‌office said in a statement.
(Reporting by Inti Landauro; Editing by Alison Williams and Hugh Lawson)

#meeting #office

BUCHAREST, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Romania scrambled F-16 fighter jets to destroy a marine drone spotted a few hundred metres from the Black Sea gas project Neptun ‌Deep, Defence Minister Radu Miruta said on Thursday.
The incident underscores the growing threat to ‌critical energy infrastructure in the Black Sea from drones and mines linked to Russia's war in Ukraine, with Neptun Deep expected to make Romania the European Union's largest gas producer when it comes onstream in 2027.
NATO-member Romania shares a 614-km (382-mile) land border with Ukraine and has seen Russian drones breaching its airspace over the last four years and mines floating in the Black Sea across key trade ‌and energy routes.
Thursday's incident follows similar ⁠action earlier this month when army divers destroyed two Gerbera-type drones drifting in the exclusive economic zone near the offshore Neptun Deep project.
"In order ⁠to protect the lives of the several hundred people working on the platform and to secure critical infrastructure, the decision was made to destroy (the marine drone)," Miruta said in a Facebook post on Thursday.

#neptun #ukraine #destroy

By Michael Martina
WASHINGTON, Aug 14 (Reuters) - The U.S. is preparing to tell dozens of countries they must pick sides in the artificial intelligence race with China, warning they will be excluded from a U.S.-led AI coalition if they also sign up for Beijing's competing framework, ‌according to a U.S. official and an internal draft reviewed by Reuters.
Washington last year launched the Pax Silica initiative aimed at securing supply chains ‌for AI models, semiconductors and critical minerals, amid a fierce technology rivalry with Beijing.
About two dozen countries have joined, including Kazakhstan, a key potential source of critical minerals that has also joined China's coalition, as well as close U.S. allies such as ****** an, Australia and South Korea.
The draft letter, prepared by the State Department, is addressed to the 35 signatories of a U.S. "AI Opportunity Statement" signed in June, which includes members of the non-binding Pax Silica framework and other countries that have expressed a desire to align cooperation on AI with Washington.

#coalition #critical #minerals

Aug 15 (Reuters) - Russian troops have taken control of 19 settlements ‌in southeastern Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk ‌and Zaporizhzhia regions over their summer campaign, the Russian defence ministry said on Saturday.
In a statement, the ministry cited a report by Pyotr Bolgarev, commander ‌of the ⁠eastern group of forces. It did not name the ⁠settlements.
Separately, the ministry said its forces had recently taken control of the settlement of Rybalskoye in Zaporizhzhia region, ‌news agency Interfax reported.
Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield reports.
Russian advances on the frontline have slowed this year even as Moscow has ‌intensified its ballistic strikes on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities.

#ministry #zaporizhzhia #taken #control

(NewsNation) — Homes are destroyed, shopping plazas and vehicles are submerged underwater, and communities are shocked after a "100-year flood" swept Indiana this week.
Rivers are still rising after the state was hit with storms and flash flooding.
The governor issued a statewide disaster emergency, and some cities are under a curfew.
Gov. Mike Braun said officials knew a storm was coming, but they were not expecting the magnitude.
Catastrophic Indiana flooding leaves families reckoning with the damage

#destroyed

A U.S. soldier's wife who spent more than a month in federal immigration detention said she is back home after officers removed her from a deportation flight to Brazil.
Earlier this month, The ***** ociated Press highlighted Maisa Lopes Eliaser as one of dozens of spouses or parents of U.S. troops who had been detained after President Donald Trump's administration rolled back protections for military families amid its push for mass deportations. Following the AP's reporting, a group of Congressional Democrats launched an investigation into deportations of military service members and their families.
Eliaser was placed on a deportation flight Wednesday to her native Brazil when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers on the plane received a phone call about her mid-flight, she told the AP. She said she was then asked by an ICE officer whether she wanted to continue on to Brazil or go back to the U.S.
"Who made the call? We don't know," said Eliaser's husband, Army Staff Sgt. Alexis Jaramillo. "But someone made the phone call, and then she came back."
While other detainees were led off the plane in Brazil, Eliaser stayed on board and returned to Louisiana. ICE officers told her that she was "famous" because there were videos about her case, she said.

#eliaser #immigration #deportation

One of the three men accused of raping a young woman before she was killed wants to prevent her friends, family and supporters from wearing pink at the upcoming trial.
Madison Brooks, 19, was a student at Louisiana State University when she was hit by a car and killed after a group of men allegedly raped her then dumped her out of a vehicle on a Baton Rouge highway in 2023.
The driver involved in the fatal crash stayed on scene and was cleared of charges.
Three years later, one of the accused rapists, Desmond Carter, 21, will appear before a judge later this month.
Lsu Death: Madison Brooks' Last Text To Mom Who 'Knew Something Terrible Happened'

#later #state

President Trump's campaign for lower interest rates in the U.S. faces another setback this week at the meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). Wall Street ***** ysts have generally come to the conclusion that the FOMC will hold rates steady, if not hike them—and Trump's own foreign policy is an underlying factor.

The FOMC, led by central bank chairman Kevin Warsh, will meet Tuesday and Wednesday of this week to discuss progress toward its targets of maximum employment and inflation at 2%.

It is the latter task that has caused the Fed some difficulty over the past few years. At the time of writing, inflation stands at 3.5%—a drop from May to June, but still elevated compared with the start of the year and the Fed's target.
Part of that reading has come from higher fuel prices, up 15.7% from a year ago. While pressure in this category is beginning to fade (down 4.9% May to June), prices remain elevated as a result of conflict in the Middle East, choking global oil supply as a result.
There is little sign of a resolution between Washington and Tehran in sight. While the two sides are not currently engaged in active military conflict, as they have been over the past fortnight, no official ceasefire has been announced. While the fragile pause of fire allows ***** e for diplomacy to proceed, neither side has indicated they will capitulate over control of the Strait of Hormuz—the key shipping lane in the movement of oil around the planet.
Trump's foreign policy is therefore standing in the way of Warsh's path to a cut—Wall Street ***** ysts highlighted at the start of the week.
Bank of America's base case is for a hold this month, wrote chief U.S. economist Aditya Bhave and his team: "With markets now pricing nearly 10 [basis points] of hikes in July, Chair Warsh faces a difficult choice. Not hiking could challenge the Fed's credibility on inflation. But raising rates would go against his framework of looking through supply shocks.

#bank

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Laura Loomer, an ardent ally of President Donald Trump with a reputation for incendiary social media commentary, sat down with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday after a dramatic turnaround on the war that could have political reverberations back in Washington.
Loomer had spent years minimizing Russia's invasion of Ukraine and amplifying Russian propaganda to her nearly 2 million followers. This week she had a change of heart.
"Just experienced my first air raid in Ukraine. Sirens blaring. This is everyday for every Ukrainian," Loomer wrote on X during her visit to the country. "I often said I don't care. Looking back, that wasn't very nice of me to say."
"We need to have moral clarity," she added Thursday.
It was a stunning reversal for a woman who had spent years criticizing U.S. support for Ukraine's defense, declaring it "a country full of ****** apologists" — a claim used by Russia to justify its yearslong invasion — and "led by a Jihadi apologist."

#thursday #back #years

Iran launched new attacks on U.S. allies in the region today even as Secretary Hegseth made his case to a Senate committee for more funding. The hearing turned contentious with a verbal dispute over leadership. NBC News' Gabe Gutierrez reports.

#Iran #senate

Truth Social plans to sell Wall Street firms 'fast' access to President Trump's posts. The product, called 'Truth API', will deliver posts from the 10 most influential accounts to customers at a significantly faster pace than a regular push notification.

An Aberdeen University employee has been arrested and charged over social media comments about the death of former MP Ann Widdecombe.
Heather Herbert was reported to police over an online post following Widdecombe's death on Thursday.
Police Scotland had initially said there was no criminality in relation to the comments.
The force then confirmed the case was under investigation and a 50-year-old has now been arrested and charged.
A spokesperson said: "We received reports on Saturday 11 July 2026 relating to a post made online.

At the Wall Street Journal's inaugural WSJ Sports event, New York Knicks captain Jalen Brunson shares that he stills calls his parents for guidance when making a big financial decision.

BEIJING, July 14 (Reuters) - China's foreign ministry on Tuesday called the European ‌side to be cautious in ‌its words and deeds on the South China Sea and stop endorsing the "illegal ruling" to prevent impact on China-EU ties and cooperation.
"Europe is not a party to the ‌South China ⁠Sea issue and has no right to comment on China's legitimate ⁠territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea," foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told a daily ‌press briefing.
The comments came after a joint statement issued on Sunday by countries including some European nations said China's expansive maritime claims in the South China ‌Sea have no legal basis, followed by a relevant statement from the EU.
China has ‌also summoned officials of the embassies of relevant countries in China and the EU delegation to China and lodged serious ‌representations with them, Lin said.
(Reporting by Xiuhao Chen and Liz Lee; Editing by Christopher Cushing)

Energy regulators warned data centers could be cut off as a heat wave swept the mid-Atlantic states.
PJM, which runs the regional grid, said "demand response" kept power consumption manageable.
Dark smoke was seen rising from a Virginia data center. Other big loads also ran diesel generators.
Ashburn, Virginia, is in the heart of America's "data center alley." Over the July 4 weekend, diesel generators at a Digital Realty data center switched on as temperatures spiked.
Dark smoke floated above ACC9, one of dozens of data centers clustered in Ashburn and nearby cities, according to a video and photos from July 3 seen by Business Insider. The company said it turned on generators as part of a program run by the electrical grid operator, PJM Interconnection, to reduce the load on the grid during times of peak demand.

By Andrew Silver
SHANGHAI, July 9 (Reuters) - China will add a second GLP-1 drug, used to treat diabetes, to a list of essential ‌drugs all public hospitals are required to prioritise having in their ‌formulary, a government statement said on Thursday.
China, the world's second-biggest pharmaceutical market, has the highest number of adults with diabetes in the world, according to estimates from the International Diabetes Federation.
Justin ***** , a partner at global strategy consultancy L.E.K. Consulting in Shanghai, told Reuters the essential listing would mean the drug, semaglutide, should be available ‌even in remote rural ⁠hospitals.
So far only the Ozempic brand version has approval, but ***** said the inclusion of semaglutide in the National Essential ⁠Drug List would also "pave the way for generics to be broadly listed" once they are approved in China.

By Karin Strohecker
LONDON, July 6 (Reuters) - A quarter of a century since he spotted the growing clout of emerging-market countries, the economist who coined the BRIC acronym said those countries could eventually build alternatives to the ‌dollar, an idea which had seemed a "fantasy" until only very recently.
Jim O'Neill told Reuters that recent advances in payment ‌technologies have changed his view on the prospects for alternative financial arrangements among BRICS nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
"About 18 months ago, if you would have quizzed me about all of this, I would have said it's a fantasy, the idea that the BRICS countries can create some kind of alternative financial vehicle," he said in an interview.
That belief was in part due to much of the thinking about the global monetary system being shaped by decades of dollar dominance following the collapse in the 1970s of the system established by the ‌Bretton Woods Agreement, he said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday sought to take credit for recent price cuts by Walmart, but a statement by the retailer made no mention of the administration's involvement in its decision.
The president has faced public backlash over inflation rising during his watch, as prices climbed initially in the aftermath of his tariffs and later with the start of the Iran war in late February. Trump described a recent bipartisan measure to trim housing costs as "a yawn" and tried to blame the Democrats for inflation staying elevated.
Going into the November midterm elections for control of Congress, Trump has sought to deride Democrats as communists who would have the government interfere with private companies. But in his social media post about Walmart, he said the business had trimmed prices at the specific request of his administration.
"I have just been informed that one of the biggest, best, and smartest Retailers in America, Walmart, will be lowering prices, by a lot, at my Administration's request to celebrate our great Country's 250th birthday," Trump said. "Walmart will, in particular, be dropping the price for a pound of ground beef by almost 15%, among many other products."
Walmart has benefited in part from higher inflation under Trump, as consumers have turned to its stores and website in search of lower prices, according to its quarterly earnings released in May.

By Jekaterina Golubkova
July 3 (Reuters) - The Russian city of Novorossiysk said on Friday it had suspended gasoline sales to private motorists, and the Black Sea resort of Anapa said Cossacks were helping prevent conflicts at petrol stations as ‌a fuel crisis worsened following Ukrainian attacks.
Long queues of cars now snake back at petrol stations across Russia as drivers ‌feel the impact of Ukrainian strikes on energy infrastructure intended to pressure Russia into making peace after more than four years of war.
The attacks, following Russia's pounding of Ukrainian power facilities, have forced the world's third-biggest oil producer to import gasoline from as far away as India and led to limits being imposed on how much motorists can buy in some areas and other steps to manage shortages.
Announcing the halt to gasoline sales to private motorists in Novorossiysk, Russia's largest Black Sea outlet for exporting oil, authorities said so-called fuel cards were being issued for fuel purchases to municipal services, ‌firms and businessmen.

Foreign rescue teams ― including three from the United States ― were racing time in the aftermath of twin earthquakes that rocked Venezuela's northern coast this week as the death toll from the disaster eclipsed 1,400, officials said.
The tally is expected to climb, according to U.S. Geological Survey data, which estimates more than 10,000 casualties are possible.
Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela's interim president, said 33 people had been rescued so far, including several children. Overnight, Rodríguez announced on X that a youngster had been pulled from the rubble in the coastal state of La Guaira with video showing rescue workers carrying him out on a stretcher.
"A few minutes ago, an 11-year-old boy was rescued alive in Caraballeda," she wrote. "At this time, every life is a source of hope for Venezuela."

By Jana Choukeir and Eman Abouhassira
DUBAI, June 27 (Reuters) - A tanker reported being struck by a projectile in the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, Britain's maritime security agency said, after the United States and Iran each launched strikes in the worst escalation since they signed an interim peace deal.
The warring sides each accused the other of violating the agreement reached ‌two weeks ago to end the four-month-old conflict. Washington said it hit Iranian targets overnight, while Iran said it had struck targets linked to U.S. forces on Saturday in response.
Saturday's attack on ‌a tanker in the strait followed another on a cargo ship on Thursday that triggered the latest escalation. Iran has made a fresh bid to ***** ert control over the world's most important energy shipping route, which has begun to reopen over the past two weeks after months of disruption.
Britain's UKMTO maritime security agency said the tanker hit on Saturday had sustained damage to its bridge, with all crew reported safe. The Joint Maritime Information Center, run by a coalition of navies protecting shipping, said it had raised its security threat level as a result of recent incidents.

In a video obtained by TMZ, a teenager is caught on camera at Disneyland in California, falling down a 50-foot waterfall on a water ride called Tiana's Bayou Adventure. Disneyland officials say the teen got out of the vehicle before the ride was over. He was taken to a hospital to be checked out and was released.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing swift backlash after declining to condemn a local coffee chain that told a Jewish congressman with pro-Israel views that he was not welcome.
Mamdani has remained silent after the Williamsburg, Brooklyn-based Poetica coffee shop posted — and later deleted — a message on social media telling Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., not to return after he stopped by the shop with his daughter Monday. The mayor declined to comment through a spokesman when contacted by The New York Times on Monday.
"Shameful," Fox News Radio ***** yst Josh Kraushaar wrote on social media in response to a section of The Times story detailing that Mamdani declined to comment.
"Well folks, we've reached the stage of antisemitism where Jews are being publicly barred from businesses," the CEO and co-founder of the antisemitism-focused nonprofit Boundless Israel said on X. "A coffee shop in Mamdani's New York City told Jewish Congressman Dan Goldman he wasn't welcome in their store."
Mamdani Skips Israel Day Parade Despite Joining Other Cultural Celebrations

WOODSTOCK, Ga. (AP) — In the closing stretch of Georgia's Republican U.S. Senate runoff, Rep. Mike Collins celebrated his 11th-hour endorsement from Donald Trump on Sunday and dismissed any ideas that the Republican president's stamp of approval is a risky bet in a potential showdown with Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in November.
Trump disclosed his choice of Collins over former football coach Derek Dooley in a middle-of-the-night social media post that praised the second-term congressman for his loyalty.
"I've always said that President Trump has this just impeccable ability to put his thumb on the scale at the right time," Collins said at a campaign stop Sunday in the northern Atlanta exurbs.
The Republican candidates are competing Tuesday for the chance to unseat Ossoff in one of the most closely watched campaigns in the November midterm elections. Dooley, a political newcomer, is backed by outgoing Gov. Brian Kemp, who has clashed with Trump in the past.
Collins called it "encouraging" to have the president's approval. Looking past Dooley to the potential matchup with Ossoff, the congressman said he planned to invited Trump to Georgia, despite the president's sagging approval ratings.

Expecting any level of ideological consistency from partisan political actors is a fool's errand; even so, the amount of sheer hypocrisy generated by the Graham Platner scandal is striking.
In response to fresh allegations that Platner, the presumptive Democratic candidate for Senate in Maine, was abusive in his past relationships, conservatives who in the past have been correctly discerning of the motivations behind certain **** ual misconduct claims are now heralding these accusations as all but confirmed. In fact, they have **** ailed The New York Times, which published a detailed story about Platner's dating history and alleged violent episodes, for not going further in its indictment.
Meanwhile, many Democrats who gleefully and uncritically embraced the "believe all women" mantra of the #MeToo era are broadly dismissive of the Times story, even though the evidence of wrongdoing is arguably more compelling in this case.
What do I mean by that? The central accusation unfurled by the Times comes from Lyndsey Fifield, who dated Platner from 2013 to 2015. Fifield is a Republican activist, which is probably enough reason for some people to be dismissive of the claims — her partisan reasons for raising issues about Platner's behavior and character are obvious. Nevertheless, Fifield claims that Platner often grabbed her, dragged her, and shoved her during arguments and when he was drinking; he once "twisted her arm behind her back, shoved her into a bedroom and held the door closed from the other side so she couldn't get out," she told the Times. Fifield denied that he ever seriously hurt her, instead characterizing his behavior as "rough."
In an appearance on MSNBC last week, Platner strongly denied that any of these altercations took place, though he has conceded to being a bad boyfriend in the past and has chalked this up to psychological trauma from his service as a U.S. Marine.