Working four days while getting paid for five is a dream for many employees. Yet the dramatic shifts in the pandemic-era workplace have turned this once unfathomable idea into a reality for some workers. And as more global data emerges, an increasing number of companies are courting the approach after positive trial-run results across countries including the UK, Iceland, Portugal and more.
Now, as pilots continue – in Germany, a trial of 45 companies has just begun, for instance – another factor has entered the mix. Artificial intelligence (AI) is gathering pace in the workplace, and some experts believe it could accelerate the adoption of the four-day workweek.
Data from London-based news-and-events resource Tech.co collected in late 2023 lends credence to this idea. For their 2024 Impact of Technology on the Workplace, the company surveyed more than 1,000 US business leaders. The researchers found 29% of organisations with four-day workweeks use AI extensively in their firms’ operations, implementing generative AI tools such as ChatGPT as well as other programmes to streamline operations. In comparison, only 8% of five-day working week organisations use AI to this extent. And 93% of businesses using AI are open to a four-day work week, whereas for those who don’t, fewer than half are open to working shorter weeks.
By handing over simple tasks to AI tools, we gain invaluable time previously lost to slow aspects of the process – Abb-d Taiyo
At London-based digital design agency Driftime, adopting AI technology has been crucial to enable the business to operate a flexible four-day work week. “By handing over simple tasks to AI tools, we gain invaluable time previously lost to slow aspects of the process,” says co-founder Abb-d Taiyo. “With tools like Modyfi, the graphics are all live and modifiable, making it so much easier and quicker for our designers to create concepts and ideas.”
Taiyo believes it makes sense for both his employees and his bottom line to work the condensed week. “Instead of a dip in the quantity of work created over just four days, we’ve seen a remarkably high quality of work matched by a high staff satisfaction return. The health and happiness of our team is in direct correlation to the high standard of work produced,” he says.
The mainstreaming of AI tech may mean workers get an extra day off (Credit: Alamy)
Shayne Simpson, group managing director of UK-based TechNET IT Recruitment, also believes AI has been fundamental to the success of the company’s four-day work week policy. The firm has found AI tools save each of their recruitment consultants 21 hours per week, primarily by automating previously manual tasks like data input, confirmation emails, resume screening and candidate outreach. This has reduced the time to fill permanent roles at the company by an average of 10 days. “This timesaving allows our team to achieve their weekly goals earlier in the week and the flexibility liberates our consultants from being tethered to their desks, enabling them to enjoy a well-deserved Friday off,” says Simpson.
Not only has the company’s abridged workweek boosted productivity and morale, Simpson says it’s also been key to attracting talent to work within the company itself. “Seasoned recruitment professionals are enticed by our streamlined processes while entry-level talent is eager to embrace new tools.” It’s lifted the entire business, he adds.
Rather than becoming mere caretakers or servants of machines, human workers need to develop new skills that can leverage, complement and lead AI, achieving the enhanced outcomes – Na Fu
While AI tools are certainly paving the way for a four-day work week within some industries, the technology can’t usher in the change alone. Organisational culture within a business is also fundamental, says Na Fu, a professor in human resource management at Trinity Business School, Ireland. “An openness to innovative work structures, an experimental mindset and, importantly, a culture grounded in high levels of trust are all important for the four-day work week to be successfully adopted,” she says.
As the digital transformation with AI progresses, employees themselves also must be willing to level up, she adds: “Rather than becoming mere caretakers or servants of machines, human workers need to develop new skills that can leverage, complement and lead AI, achieving the enhanced outcomes.”
Some industries will benefit from AI more than others, however – notably those who are able to use generative AI tools for such tasks including software development, content creation, marketing and legal services, says Fu. Plus, artificial intelligence development still has a way to go if it is to substantially reduce human working hours across the board.
What may drive the shift to a four-day workweek in an AI-powered business landscape may not ultimately be up to the robots, however. Executive buy-in is required, and whether leaders will embrace the unconventional concept will vary depending on a firm’s overarching purpose and values, says Fu. Instead of letting AI supplement the work of humans, for instance, some businesses could use it to automate certain tasks while piling other work on employees to fill newly open hours.
Still, despite some reservation, an increasing number of business leaders – including those from some of the world’s highest-earning companies – see a technology-driven shortened workweek as an inevitable future. In October 2023, JPMorgan Chase & Co CEO Jamie Dimon told Bloomberg TV: “Your children are going to live to 100, and they’ll https://merupakan.com/ probably be working three-and-a-half days a week.” Employees will have to wait and see.
From the iconic Bondi to Coogee walk to coastal camping on the Royal Coast Track, these hikes will take you to secluded beaches, rainforest oases and bushland swimming holes.
Australia’s iconic city, Sydney, lures visitors with promises of a harbour that pours out to the jewelled Pacific Ocean, lined with beaches and communities buzzing with culture and diversity. Woven throughout the city and its surrounds is a web of trails that leads both the ambler and experienced adventurer to some of Sydney’s most outstanding natural delights.
Getting started is easy with the free NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service app; the digital maps will keep you on track. Throw the essentials of water, snacks, lunch, hat, sunscreen and first-aid kit into your backpack and let your comfy walking shoes lead you on an adventure. Whether on a bustling coastal path or quiet mountain track where you can hear nature whisper, Sydney’s best hiking trails can take you there.
With 50 national park reserves in the Sydney region and hundreds of trails to choose from, these six walks pass secluded beaches, oases of verdant rainforest, thundering waterfalls and bushland swimming holes – and all are made even easier with nearby public transport links to trailheads.
The Bondi to Coogee walk is a quintessential experience for both locals and visitors (Credit: Ampueroleonardo/Getty Images)
1. Best for beach culture: Bondi to Coogee
There’s a reason that the 6km (2.5-3 hour) Bondi to Coogee walk has become a rite-of-passage among residents of and visitors to Sydney. By kickstarting your walk with a coffee from one of Bondi‘s famous cafes and then rewarding yourself with a meal or drink at Coogee, you’ll be opening your heart to the quintessential eastern suburbs experience – one that demands exercising and exceptional coffee to see and be seen.
Locals can be found jogging, walking and saluting the sun along the concrete pathway that winds around the golden sandstone headlands. Thank me later if you choose to wear your swimwear (that’s “cossie” to Aussies) under your clothes for a baptism into Sydney’s beach-swimming culture. Choose between the natural Pacific waves or a quintessentially Australian ocean pool, washed clean with every tide. You’ll pass five beaches and pools on your journey, so why not try them all?
To add a creative edge to your walk, visit during the annual Sculpture by the Sea exhibition (late Oct-early Nov) when 2km of the route is transformed into an immense outdoor art gallery. Whale-watching season runs from May to November, with humpbacks at the peak of their annual migration in June-July.
The 10km Manly Scenic Walkway has epic views back onto the city (Credit: John Spencer/DPE)
2. Best for harbourside bushland: Manly Scenic Walkway
Starting from the north side of the Spit Bridge in the well-to-do northern suburb of Mosman, this grade three walking track is one that, depending on the time of day, still feels a bit of a local secret. The 10km Manly Scenic Walkway (also known as The Spit to Manly Walk) meanders in and out of quiet coves, picnic-friendly parks, lonely beaches and bush-covered headlands.
If the thought of a hidden beach, with views straight out of the Sydney Heads appeals to you, some extra research could reward you with a little-known side track that leads down to Washaway Beach and the feeling like you’ve been teleported to the Mediterranean.
Views over Middle Harbour and some of Sydney’s priciest real estate dominate the first third of the walk, before the mood changes as you dive under the canopy of bushland in the Sydney Harbour National Park near Castle Rock Beach. Slow down as you climb Dobroyd Head and connect to some of Sydney’s Indigenous heritage at the Grotto Point Aboriginal engraving site where you’ll see petroglyphic images of humans and animals etched into the sandstone.
On weekends you may find an ice-cream truck as you pass Tania Park; enjoy a soft-serve cone while gazing over the Crater Cove huts below, where a handful of people came to live rent-free, building shacks from driftwood and stone from the 1920s-60s. Pull yourself away from the scene and make the final push onto well-earned refreshments at beloved beach-side suburb, Manly. Here, you’ll appreciate the 1920s ferry advertising slogan, “Manly: seven miles from Sydney and 1,000 miles from care.”
Jerusalem Bay is a great place to stop for a swim on the Cowan to Brooklyn track (Credit: Caro Ryan)
3. Best for fit adventurers: Jerusalem Bay Track
The Jerusalem Bay Track (also known as “Cowan to Brooklyn”) is a sweet 11km snippet of the epic Great North Walk that stretches 250km from Sydney to the port city of Newcastle. Like much of the full two-week adventure, this perfectly formed half-day section begins and ends at public transport, linking Cowan and Hawkesbury River railway stations. It also delivers a teaser of the full expedition along undulating and forested tracks.
Starting at Cowan, about an hour by train from Sydney’s Central Station, your knees will immediately get a workout as you wind your way downhill alongside the sing-song babble of Jerusalem Creek. Enjoy a break at Jerusalem Bay and snap a shot of the iconic palm tree planted by the Rhodes family who built a home and boatshed here in the late 1800s: this stand-alone introduced species is in stark contrast to the surrounding native eucalypts.
Jerusalem Bay makes for a great swimming spot – and you’ll appreciate cooling off before you begin the ascent up to the Brooklyn Dam campsite – but plan your day with the 1.5m tide of this branch of the Hawkesbury River in mind. A popular swimming spot for the 700 locals who call the oyster-farming community of Brooklyn home, this picturesque reservoir was originally built in 1885 to support steam trains, powering them up the hill to Cowan.
From here, it’s a gentle downhill into Brooklyn, where you can celebrate with a cooling ale and a dozen of Sydney’s freshest rock oysters at the Anglers Rest.
The Overcliff/Undercliff track takes hikers into the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area (Credit: Caro Ryan)
4. Best for mountain lovers: Overcliff/Undercliff
The most visited national park in New South Wales, the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area is a hiker’s and nature-lover’s paradise. The challenge of its diverse walking trail system is choosing the track that’s right for you. Whispered about by locals and visitors alike, the Overcliff/Undercliff track encompasses all I love about this region: immense, panoramic views, a variety of habitats, quiet spots to be drawn into nature’s embrace and a great cafe.
This hike forms part of the Blue Mountains’ new Grand Cliff Top Walk, a two-day, 20km village-to-village hike from Wentworth Falls and Leura to Katoomba. Opening in March 2024, it draws walkers along the southern escarpment of the Jamison Valley, with accommodation, dining and leisure activities in the local communities.
Just two hours west by train from Sydney’s Central Station, you’ll find yourself at the tidy village of Wentworth Falls. Here, you can follow in Charles Darwin’s 1836 footsteps and understand his struggle to describe the “quite novel” scene before him of the “immense gulf” and “absolutely vertical sandstone cliffs” Perched above Wentworth Falls’ 187m drop at Fletchers Lookout, a clear day brings the Southern Highlands region into focus, more than 80km to the south across a vast expanse of wilderness.
This recently upgraded 3.5km track from Wentworth Falls Picnic Area to the Conservation Hut Cafe (complete the loop by returning via the short and easy Short Cut Track) will take 1-2 hours and leave you feeling like you’ve discovered a hidden gem. Cut into the side of a 200m high cliff face, this exhilarating walk is jam-packed with expansive vistas across the Jamison and Kedumba valleys and you’ll pass through a variety of Blue Mountains habitats, including rainforest, heathland, eucalyptus forest and swamp; home to myriad fauna and birdlife.
Royal National Park is home to more than 650 Aboriginal archaeological sites (Credit: Natasha Webb/DPE)
5. Best for Aboriginal heritage: Jibbon Loop Track and Aboriginal Carvings
The Aboriginal lands of the Dharawal People extend around 120km from southern Sydney to Jervis Bay on the NSW South Coast. Like many First Nations communities, they were brutally cleared from their land in the early 1800s under Governor Macquarie, but the landscape of the Royal National Park still bears witness to 8,000-9,000 years of Dharawal living history in more than 650 known Aboriginal archaeological sites – including 218 rock engravings that depict food sources like eels or animals such as whales, a major totem of the Dharawal.
A 5km return walk from the sleepy seaside village of Bundeena (get here via a 40-minute ferry trip south from Cronulla) will lead you to Jibbon (Djeeban in Dharawal), meaning “sandbars at low tide”. Jibbon Head is the most extensive engraving site in the entire park and includes images of whales, kangaroos and Ancestral Beings.
An incredibly significant and spiritual site for Dharawal, this open-air museum is where their foundational stories, the Dreaming, come from. Walk up from Jibbon Beach and visualise this place 250 years ago: women with their morning catch, men returning from the hunt and life before everything changed with the arrival of British colonists in 1788. To protect the site from erosion or damage, National Parks worked closely with the Dharawal to create a viewing platform and walkway. Pause here and ponder, paying your respects to their Elders.
The heath-framed walking trails of the Royal Coast Track extend for 30km along the coast (Credit: Peter Sherratt/DPE)
6. Best for coastal camping: Royal Coast Track
Sydney’s Royal National Park was dedicated in 1879, becoming the second national park in the world after Yellowstone in the US. Only 25km from the city, this 16,000-hectare expanse is the first park that many visitors see as they land at Sydney’s Mascot Airport.
Stretching 30km south along the coast, The Royal (or “Nasho” to locals) is popular with Sydneysiders looking for a daytrip to wild beaches, well-maintained picnic areas and coastal heath-framed walking trails.
Its best-known hike is the classic Royal Coast Track, a challenging two-day stretch stopping at a walk-in-only campground at North Era beach. Fall asleep to the lullaby of the waves, wake to the sound of kangaroos munching on grass and stride out along beaches with no one else around (especially mid-week).
If you’re ready to step up and try a two-day hike with camping, carrying everything you need, this public transport-friendly track is a great choice. Create your own walking holiday by catching the quaint local ferry from Cronulla across Port Hacking to Bundeena. At the end of the hike in Otford, hop the train back to https://merupakan.com/ Cronulla.
BBC Travel’s The SpeciaList is a series of guides to popular and emerging destinations around the world, as seen through the eyes of local experts and tastemakers.
As Serhiy slowly began to regain consciousness in his hospital bed in Kyiv, he realised he couldn’t see, speak, or feel his legs – but he could hear his wife Valeria’s voice. Comforted, he lost consciousness again.
It was a pattern that lasted weeks. The severely injured Ukrainian soldier would wake up to darkness and panic, unable to communicate because of the tube down his throat – but every time he heard Valeria, he settled down.
“Until then, I only had nightmares. Terrible dreams in which I was being demolished, destroyed, chewed over – and then the light in regaining consciousness was her voice… Because I wanted to come back to her. To fight through this, to be with her.”
Serhiy, 27, suffered catastrophic injuries when his vehicle hit a Russian anti-tank mine on Ukraine’s frontline near Mariinka, nine months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of his country.
As a soldier already serving before the war, he had been thrown straight into the thick of the fighting from its first day, in February 2022. He often went weeks without speaking to Valeria, who remained in their home city of Kyiv.
Image caption,Serhiy pictured before his injuries
He was travelling with seven other soldiers on November 2022 when the vehicle was hit. The force of the blast broke his spine, pelvis, nose, eye sockets, gave him an open-skull brain injury, severe burns to his face and body, fractured his thigh and blew off both his lower legs. The flames from the blast cauterised his wounds, inadvertently saving his life.
He can’t remember anything from that day – but Valeria will never forget it.
“I didn’t expect he would come back from the war with both his legs,” Valeria says. “But even I wasn’t prepared for the extent of his wounds when I saw him.”
“My first thought was just relief that he was alive because, by the description of what happened to him, it was not clear that he would ever regain consciousness. So I went to the hospital and I saw my beloved, full of different tubes, totally unresponsive. And that was scariest part.”
Serhiy regained consciousness after 20 days in a coma. He then spent another week in intensive care, another two weeks in the traumatic injuries unit and then months in rehabilitation.
He has a stoic approach to his injuries, and says that, for him, losing two legs is better than losing one arm. Valeria takes a similarly pragmatic approach: “A blind, legless husband – it’s not so bad,” she laughs, adding that as a former dentist she’s just relieved he didn’t lose his teeth.
Last week, after travelling to the US in the hope of saving a fraction of the sight in his remaining eye, he was told the devastating news that it couldn’t be saved – that he had fully lost his eyesight.
Although the couple were disappointed, they remain hopeful for the future and Serhiy now wants to spend his life advocating for and helping his fellow injured soldiers.
“I have so many plans that one lifetime isn’t enough for all of it,” he says. “I definitely will go back to Ukraine. That’s my country. I fought for it. I sustained [my] wounds for it.”
Image caption,Serhiy has vowed to launch organisations that help injured veterans
He plans to launch two organisations, he says, both aimed at helping wounded veterans, including one to build infrastructure for their life after the war.
Both Ukraine and Russia refuse to release figures of their wounded and dead soldiers, but US officials, quoted by the New York Times, put the number at 70,000 dead and as many as 120,000 injured, as of August 2023.
While Serhiy maintains that his injuries haven’t changed him, Valeria disagrees.
“He has become more responsible. He was responsible before, but it was his family, his military unit,” she explains.
“But now he feels responsible https://merupakan.com/ for the whole country, for all of Ukraine.”
Midfielder Clinton, on loan at Tottenham from Manchester United this season, headed in England’s second goal having struck the post minutes earlier.
“I think that’s a dream debut for her,” Wiegman told ITV Sport. “She played well and has done really well in training. She was enjoying herself and it was a very good goal. I’m very happy for her.”
On an impressive night for the Lionesses in Spain, Alessia Russo scored twice, as did Beth Mead, while Jess Carter and Rachel Daly added to England’s tally.
Austria scored twice from set-pieces, which will frustrate England, but it was a good display overall.
Having failed to qualify for this summer’s Olympic Games on behalf of Great Britain – meaning they had no competitive fixtures scheduled this month – the Lionesses opted for a warm-weather training camp in Marbella.
They hoped to be tested by Austria, who they beat 1-0 in the opening match at Euro 2022, but Wiegman’s side could easily have had even more than the seven they did get.
Russo capitalised on a rapid start with the opener, then Clinton’s header landed before the rain began to fall at Estadio Nuevo Mirador.
But Russo ensured England’s pressure in the second half was rewarded with a cool finish from close range after Georgia Stanway, Maya Le Tissier and Ella Toone all had chances.
Carter’s instinctive flick made it five and – despite another Kirchberger header – Mead’s strike when Lauren James’ effort bounced back off the post and Daly’s late goal capped off a strong performance.
England face Italy in a second friendly match on Tuesday, hoping to continue preparations for the defence of their European title at the 2025 finals, which they hope to qualify for this summer.
“Going into the game, it was probably the biggest one of my career so far, so for it to go like thatz, I’m very happy,” said Clinton.
“Sarina told me at the start of the week that she was going to try me in the number eight position. I’m open to a challenge. It’s nice to be deeper and get on the ball more.
“To be in there playing with [Georgia] Stanway and Toone – they really helped me out a lot. It’s so competitive. There are so many great players and to be around them is unbelievable experience.
“My mum and dad flew out this morning to come and watch the game. I can’t wait to go and see them.”
Clinton takes her chance as England show superiority
Alessia Russo and Beth Mead both scored twice in Spain
Wiegman had always intended to make changes to the side, and injuries to centre-backs Leah Williamson and Millie Bright opened the door for young defenders Le Tissier and Esme Morgan.
They were keen to take their opportunity, as was Manchester City’s Jess Park, who came on as a substitute in a midfield role she has performed well in for her club this month.
Toone was drafted into the starting XI minutes before kick-off when Chelsea’s Fran Kirby hobbled out of the warm-up with a ‘minor knee irritation’, which the medical staff did not want to take any risks with.
Chloe Kelly, who suffered a minor injury in training on Thursday, was also absent.
“Fran had some little irritation on her knee,” said Wiegman. “In this moment, we’re not going to take any risks with anyone. We just said: ‘We’ll take you off and assess it tomorrow.’
“Hopefully it’s just a little bit of irritation and we can move on. Chloe is doing better and we hope she will be back for Tuesday.”
But there were no signs of disruption as England were fluid from the start, linking up nicely all over the pitch and taking advantage of space left in behind Austria’s defence.
Le Tissier had a good chance from a corner in the second half but her header was well-saved by Austria goalkeeper Manuela Zinsberger, while Morgan looked comfortable at centre-back.
Arsenal striker Russo was heavily involved, starting and finishing the move which put England 1-0 up, before slotting in her second after the break.
Mead found herself in good positions to capitalise on rebounds too and Clinton’s goal was just reward for a strong individual display.
Clinton’s form while on loan at Tottenham this season has thrust her into the limelight and she will be hoping a strong 12 months will help her cement a place in Wiegman’s squad for Euro 2025.
She certainly did enough here to merit another opportunity, as did Le Tissier, which will please Wiegman and shows England’s strength in depth.
All in all, it was a very comfortable evening for England, who were keen to put behind them the disappointment of their Women’s Nations League campaign.
“I’m just really happy with this game, the way we played, the intentions we had,” added Wiegman.
“We scored seven goals which is really good and created a lot of chances. I’m happy with the performance, but there’s also a little thing that you’re not happy with. We conceded two goals out of corners.
“We want to do that better on Tuesday https://merupakan.com/ [against Italy] and there’s always something to learn.”
Uzbekistan’s beloved national dish, plov, is widely believed to have aphrodisiac qualities and so it’s traditionally eaten on Thursdays – a popular day for conceiving children.
Plov – a medley of rice, vegetables, meat and spices – is popular throughout the countries of the Silk Road, but it’s most closely associated with Uzbekistan. Widely consumed at least once a week, it’s the country’s national dish and is considered an indispensable part of family celebrations, served at births, weddings and funerals and to honour Muslims returning from Hajj.
According to legend, plov was first invented for Alexander the Great, who ordered the creation of a satisfying meal to sustain his army during their campaigns in Central Asia. “We don’t have historical records to prove that, but what we do know is that by the 9th and 10th Centuries, plov had become very popular here,” said Nilufar Nuriddinova, an Uzbek tour guide who is passionate about food history. “Rice has been a staple crop in this region for more than 1,000 years. It requires hard physical work to grow, as does harvesting crops and raising livestock. So, plov would’ve been an ideal high-calorie, nutrient-rich dish for the largely agricultural society.”
Plov is now considered such a vital part of the country’s culinary traditions that it was recently inscribed on Unesco’s Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity List. “It is more than just a meal,” Nuriddinova explained. “It creates social bonds and encourages friendship; it brings our nation together.”
She told me even the word is an important part of the Uzbek language. “It appears in many everyday expressions such as, ‘If you know you have only one day left on Earth, spend it eating plov,'” she said. “It means that afterwards you can die happy. In Uzbekistan, life without plov is unthinkable.”
(Credit: Simon Urwin)
There are more than 100 types of plov in Uzbekistan. Recipes differ according to the region and the season, but each variation contains key ingredients whose initials gave the dish its full name, osh palov: “o” for ob (water in Persian), “sh” for sholi (rice), “p” for piyoz (onion), “a” for ayoz (carrot), “l” for lamh (meat), “o” for olio (fat or oil), and “v” for vet (salt).
(Credit: Simon Urwin)
The country’s most famous plov restaurant is Besh Qozon (also known as the Central Asian Plov Centre), located in the Yunusabad neighbourhood of the capital, Tashkent. Thought to be one of the largest plov restaurants in Central Asia, Besh Qozon serves between 5,000 and 8,000 customers daily, with plov made in nine vast wood-fired cauldrons known as kazan.
(Credit: Simon Urwin)
According to Uzbek tradition, every plate of plov must be accompanied by non (bread). Besh Qozon’s resident nonvoy (baker) is Shokirjon Nurmatov. Like all kitchen staff, he performs a special ritual before beginning work: he purifies himself, joins his hands together in the shape of a bowl and asks for a dua (blessing from Allah) to do his job successfully. Only then can he begin producing his daily batch of more than 3,000 loaves.
(Credit: Simon Urwin)
In the family home, plov is traditionally made by women; in restaurants (and on special occasions), it’s the reserve of a male chef known as an oshpaz. “That’s because it’s tough physical work to produce huge quantities,” said Fayzullah Sagdiyev, the oshpaz at Besh Qozon. “My largest kazan can hold up to three tonnes of food.” He told me he faces other even greater pressures. “If a guest doesn’t finish their plov because they don’t like the taste, it’s considered so shameful that the oshpaz may consider taking their own life,” he said. “Thankfully, it’s never happened to me.”
(Credit: Simon Urwin)
The process of cooking plov follows a strict order: it begins with the browning of meat (a mix of mutton and beef), before the addition of white and yellow carrots, onion, rice, water and spices. Sagdiyev uses a mix of salt, pepper, turmeric and principally cumin – which first arrived in Uzbekistan from India along the Silk Road. A local touch to Besh Qozon’s chaykhana plov is the addition of chickpeas and kishmish (a sour raisin)before it is slow-cooked for four hours.
(Credit: Simon Urwin)
Thursdays and Sundays are considered the most popular days to make and eat plov in Uzbekistan. “It’s likely because in ancient times, people from the countryside could only travel to the city bazaars to sell their goods twice a week,” Nuriddinova explained. “So, they had more money on Thursdays and Sundays to be able to afford to buy all the necessary ingredients.”
(Credit: Simon Urwin)
Sagdiyev told me that plov’s prevalence on a Thursday is also because it is thought to have strong qualities as an aphrodisiac, and so is perfect to eat on what is a popular day for conceiving children. He went on to tell me that some men joke that the word plov actually means foreplay, that oil from the bottom of the kazan is sometimes drunk as a form of natural Viagra and that many oshpaz will reserve the best meat for Thursdays to give male https://merupakan.com/ customers extra sexual power.
Image caption,US authorities claim that Takeshi Ebisawa is a senior figure in a sprawling Japanese organised crime group.
By Bernd Debusmann Jr
BBC News, Washington
US prosecutors have charged an alleged member of the Japanese mafia with conspiring to traffic nuclear materials.
Takeshi Ebisawa, 60, tried to sell uranium and plutonium that he believed would be transferred to Iran to build a nuclear bomb, it is alleged.
Mr Ebisawa and a Thai co-defendant were previously hit with weapons and drug charges in April 2022.
He faces life imprisonment if convicted of the latest charges.
US authorities say Mr Ebisawa – who is being held in a Brooklyn jail – is a senior figure in the Japanese organised crime syndicate, known as the Yakuza, with operations in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand and the US.
The US Department of Justice said Mr Ebisawa and his “confederates showed samples of nuclear materials in Thailand” to an undercover agent from the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).
The agent was posing as a drugs and weapons trafficker with links to an Iranian general.
The nuclear samples – which came from Myanmar – were seized by Thai authorities and transferred to US investigators. A US laboratory confirmed the material contained uranium and weapons-grade plutonium.
Prosecutors also allege that Mr Ebisawa sought to acquire large quantities of military-grade weapons on behalf of an unspecified rebel group in Myanmar.
The weapons included surface-to-air missiles, assault and sniper rifles, machine guns, rockets of various calibres and a variety of tactical gear.
“It is chilling to imagine the consequences had these efforts succeeded, and the justice department will hold accountable those who traffic in these materials and threaten US national security and international stability,” assistant attorney general Matthew G Olden said in a statement on Wednesday.
In February 2020, Mr Ebisawa allegedly contacted the DEA agent about selling nuclear materials. According to US prosecutors, he explained via encrypted communications that uranium is “not good for your health”.
In September that year, Mr Ebisawa allegedly emailed the undercover DEA agent a letter bearing the name of a mining company. He offered to sell 50 tonnes of uranium and thorium for $6.85m (£5.4m).
Prosecutors also say he sent photographs showing “a dark rocky material” with a Geiger counter, which is used to measure levels of radiation.
Mr Ebisawa faces charges including conspiracy to commit international trafficking of nuclear materials, narcotics importation conspiracy, conspiracy to acquire, transfer and possess anti-aircraft missiles and money laundering.
His co-conspirator in the case – 61-year-old Thai national Somphop Singhasiri – is facing drugs and weapons charges.
Both are facing life in prison if convicted.
The pair will be arraigned in a New York https://merupakan.com/ federal courtroom on Thursday.
Robert Downey Jr is the favourite to win a best supporting actor Oscar – but back in 2020, his career had dipped to a low with Dolittle. Oppenheimer hasn’t just reminded the world that Robert Downey Jr is a gifted dramatic actor, it’s reminded him, too.
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When someone wins an award for acting in a film, they usually thank the film’s director. But on Sunday, when Robert Downey Jr picked up a Bafta for best supporting actor in Oppenheimer, his thanks to Christopher Nolan were especially effusive. In particular, he paid tribute to “that dude Chris Nolan” for encouraging him to take “an understated approach, perhaps as a last-ditch effort to resurrect my dwindling credibility”.
This remark raised an obvious question: why did Downey Jr think his credibility was dwindling? Thanks to his long stint as Iron Man / Tony Stark in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he was one of the highest-paid paid A-listers in Hollywood, and he was credited for bringing a mature and relaxed sensibility to the superhero genre – not least by Nolan himself. “He has such charisma as Tony Stark,” the director said on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. “Him playing Iron Man is one of the most consequential casting decisions that’s ever been made in the history of the movie business.”
Nolan and Downey Jr have been full of praise for each other during awards season (Credit: Getty Images)
So why did Downey Jr feel that his credibility needed a boost? The answer can be found on his CV, which shows that in the four years between the release of his Marvel swan song, Avengers: Endgame, in 2019, and Oppenheimer in 2023, he had acted in just one film – and that film was Dolittle, a disastrous pile-up of bad jokes, gaping plot holes, painful accents, CGI animals, and obvious reshoots.
The film, which was co-produced by his wife, Susan Downey, was a flop, much to the horror of someone who had come to see big-budget family adventure films as his comfort zone. “At that point I was bulletproof. I was the guru of all genre movies,” Downey Jr said in The New York Times Magazine last July. Dolittle was, he continued, “a two-and-a-half-year wound of squandered opportunity”.
This wasn’t the first time that Nolan had persuaded a mainstream superstar to stretch the acting muscles they hadn’t used in a while
It was also a wake-up call – or as he put it, a “reset of priorities”. Downey Jr was in his mid-50s, coming to the end of his action hero years. But since 2008, he had been in 10 Marvel films, two Sherlock Holmes films, and not much else. If he couldn’t launch a new blockbuster franchise, then what could he do? “I was at a place in my life, in my career, where I needed someone to have a vision of what was possible for me that I couldn’t see for myself,” he said at a Q&A in February. That someone was Nolan.
When the director was casting Oppenheimer, Downey Jr’s box-office appeal might well have been a factor, but this wasn’t the first time that he had persuaded a mainstream superstar to stretch the acting muscles they hadn’t used in a while: he’d cast Matthew McConaughey in Interstellar just as the “McConaissance” was beginning. “You’re always looking to work with great actors,” he said in the New York Times in February, “but you’re also looking to catch them in a moment in their lives and careers where you’ve got something to offer them that they haven’t done before, or haven’t done in a long time.”
And so he coaxed Downey Jr to shrug off the armour of wisecracking, swaggering Tony Stark and to immerse himself in Lewis Strauss, the bitter chairman of the Atomic Enemy Commission who opposes J Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy). “I just really wanted to see this incredible movie star put down all of that baggage, that charisma, and just lose himself in a dramatic portrayal of a very complicated man.”
A spartan approach
The timing was perfect. Nolan wanted Downey Jr to bring some restraint and complexity to his portrayal of Strauss, and Downey Jr was ready to venture into uncharted territory. Emily Blunt recalled warning Downey Jr that the reserved and cerebral British director’s methods would be quite a contrast with what he had been used to at Marvel. “I said, ‘You’re going to just love it so much and the screws are going to get tightened on you so much and it’s just the most focused, wonderful, unchaotic set. But you’re going to get some very British compliments. There will be no smoke blown up your ass, and you’re going to have to be all right with it.'”
Downey Jr was more than all right with it. “Getting to see the spartan, almost monastic way he approaches this art form,” he said, “it was like going to the other side of the Moon.” At the Baftas, he said that he owed his award in part to Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan’s “British sensibility”.
The smart money is on the revitalised Downey Jr following his Bafta win with a victory at the Oscars. But even if that doesn’t happen, Oppenheimer has brought about a new phase of his career. The film hasn’t just reminded the world that he is a gifted dramatic actor, it’s reminded him, too. There’s a good chance that he’ll appear in more of Nolan’s films in the future. There’s an even better chance that he won’t appear in anything as excruciating https://merupakan.com/ as Dolittle ever again.
But this year, at the 60th Munich Security Conference (MSC), two of the most talked-about people weren’t even here.
That included former US President Donald Trump, whose possible return to the White House could throw a spanner in the work of the transatlantic relationship, which lies at the heart of this premier international forum.
And Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, who was vehemently blamed by one world leader after another for the death of his most prominent critic Alexei Navalny, not to mention his full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which continues to cast a long dark shadow across Europe and far beyond.
The staggering news of Navalny’s death, which broke just hours before the conference kicked off on Friday, underlined again the perilous unpredictability of a world carved up by multiple fault lines and entrenched interests.
“We live in a world where there is more and more confrontation and less co-operation,” regretted the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell. “The world has become a much more dangerous place,” he told me as the conference drew to a close on Sunday.
“Lose-Lose?” was the maxim of this year’s gathering, at a time of deepening geopolitical tensions and jarring economic uncertainties.
The MSC’s annual report warned that it could give rise to “lose-lose” dynamics among governments, “a downwards spiral that jeopardises co-operation and undermines the existing international order”.
“I think this has been the conference of a disordered world,” reflected David Miliband, the CEO and president of the International Rescue Committee (IRC).
“It’s a world dominated by impunity, where the guardrail stabilisers are not working and that’s why there’s so much disorder, not just in Ukraine and in Gaza and Israel, but more widely in places like Sudan, whose humanitarian crisis isn’t even getting on the agenda,” he said.
Watch Yulia Navalnaya speak following report of husband’s death
This issue of impunity, one of the toughest of political challenges, was suddenly transformed into a poignant personal story when Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, unexpectedly appeared on the conference’s main stage in the grand Bayerischer Hof hotel to condemn Russia’s president and urge the assembled presidents, prime ministers, defence chiefs and top diplomats to bring him to justice.
Her remarkable composure and clarity stunned the packed hall, which gave her a sustained standing ovation before and after she spoke with palpable pain.
This year Russia, as well as Iran, weren’t invited to Munich because the organisers assessed they weren’t “interested in meaningful dialogue”.
Image caption,Protesters against Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine made their voices heard during the Munich conference
In MSC forums gone by, vitriolic speeches by Russia’s veteran Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov angered and electrified the main hall, and Iran’s visible presence highlighted the rivalries and risks in urgent need of resolution.
The imperative of continuing hefty Western military and financial assistance to Ukraine was underscored repeatedly by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, who exhorted participants to act, as he rushed from one high-level meeting to the next.
“The year of 2024 demands your response – from everyone in the world,” he beseeched delegates when he spoke from the top podium.
The US’s pivotal support was uppermost in his mind as a vital security package, amounting to $60bn (£48bn), is being held up by a US Congress where Republican lawmakers are increasingly divided over whether to keep backing Kyiv in its fight.
Back home in Ukraine, soldiers are even running out of bullets on front lines.
Image caption,Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh argued that a “serious ceasefire” was urgently needed in Gaza
US delegates in Munich, including Vice-President Kamala Harris, were at pains to insist that she and President Joe Biden would not abandon Ukraine, nor America’s leadership in global affairs.
But with US elections just nine months away, Mr Trump is already shaping the polarised political debate in Washington and reviving anxiety that he could pull the US out of the Nato military alliance and other international commitments.
“They know what they need to do but they can’t get it done, and that’s the gap that has to be filled,” was how Mr Miliband assessed pledges voiced by the US and European allies in Munich.
Others were even more stinging in their criticism.
“Lots of words. No concrete commitments,” posted Nathalie Tocci, Director of the Institute of International Affairs, on X, formerly known as Twitter. “It’s a sad MSC2024.”
The gaps were even more glaring when it came to the devastating Israel-Gaza war, which erupted after Hamas’s murderous assault on southern Israel on 7 October.
Israel’s military operations are causing a staggering number of civilian casualties and have ravaged much of this coastal strip.
“We have seen a really great interest from the international community and the world leaders who have gathered here in Munich that they would like to see a serious ceasefire and a substantial amount of international aid into Gaza,” Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh remarked in an interview.
But Israeli delegates, including former peace negotiator Tzipi Livni, doubled down on the need to keep pressing forward.
“I’m a political opponent of [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, but I support the war in Gaza,” she emphasised in a session, which also included Mr Shtayyeh and the Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi.
“I support the strategic need to eliminate Hamas as a terrorist organisation and as a regime,” Ms Livni said.
This year’s MSC marked a record attendance: more than 900 participants including some 50 heads of state and government from around the world, more than 100 ministers, as well as representatives of think-tanks, non-governmental organisations and leading businesses.
Top spooks, feminist foreign ministers, climate warriors, Iranian activists, weapons experts, technology wizards and more – all gathered for their own get-togethers on public stages and in private rendezvous and hushed huddles.
It all underlined how the world’s understanding of “global security” keeps shifting shape.
Over the decades, this forum – born in 1963 in a Cold War quest for peace and prosperity – has often been a venue for real-time diplomacy, too.
But in a year marked by worry over “lose-lose dynamics” Munich was a place for a lot of talking and taking stock as the world nervously https://merupakan.com/ wonders where the next blows will fall.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said Israel’s military campaign was between a “highly prepared army and women and children”.
Israel accused Lula of trivialising the Holocaust and says it is fighting to destroy Hamas and return hostages taken by the militant group on 7 October.
The main Jewish organisation in Brazil has also criticised Lula’s comments.
Speaking from an African Union summit in Ethiopia, Lula said: “What is happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people has no parallel in other historical moments. In fact, it did exist when Hitler decided to kill the Jews.
“It’s not a war of soldiers against soldiers. It’s a war between a highly prepared army and women and children.”
The veteran left-wing politician condemned Hamas after its gunmen killed at least 1,200 people and seized 253 hostages in a surprise attack on Israel on 7 October.
But he has since been vocally critical of Israel’s retaliatory military campaign, which the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says has killed more than 28,800 people, mainly women and children.
Mr Netanyahu said Lula’s remarks amounted to “Holocaust trivialisation and an attempt to harm the Jewish people and the right of Israel to defend itself”.
“The comparison between Israel to the Holocaust of the Nazis and Hitler is crossing a red line,” he said in a statement.
Six million Jewish people were systematically murdered by Hitler’s Nazi regime during the 1930s and 1940s.
Israel has summoned the Brazilian ambassador for a meeting on Monday.
The Brazilian Israelite Confederation said Lula’s remarks were a “perverse distortion of reality” which “offend the memory of Holocaust victims and their descendants”.
Lula endorsed South Africa’s case of genocide brought against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) last year.
Judges at the ICJ ruled in January that South Africa’s case against Israel could proceed.
The court instructed Israel to prevent its military from committing acts which might be considered genocidal, to prevent and punish incitement to genocide, and to enable humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza.
But the court stopped short of calling on Israel to immediately halt its military operations in Gaza.
Brazil and South Africa are members of the Brics group of countries – an alliance of some of the world’s most important developing economies brought together to challenge wealthier Western nations.
On the ground in Gaza, the World Health Organization has said the territory’s Nasser hospital has ceased to function following an Israeli raid. The IDF said its operation was “precise and limited” and accused Hamas of “cynically using hospitals for terror”.
Meanwhile, efforts to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas have been taking place in Cairo, though Qatar mediators said https://merupakan.com/ recent progress was “not very promising”.
For decades, he has marketed himself as a genius business mogul who made it big in one of the world’s most cut-throat cities.
That image – forever tied to New York deal-making and reinforced by relentless self-promotion – catapulted him to international fame, allowing him to reinvent himself first as a reality TV star and then ultimately president of the United States.
But Judge Arthur Engoron’s ruling in a civil fraud case – related to the inflation of property values and lying on financial statements to obtain better loan terms – undermines Mr Trump’s entire narrative. It instead paints him as a fraud and inflicts a massive blow to his business empire and wealth.
Donald Trump once remarked that the mind can overcome any obstacle. But what an obstacle this is.
The verdict significantly curtails the Trump Organization’s ability to do business in New York. He has personally been banned from holding any directorships for three years and his company cannot secure loans with financial institutions registered with the city during that time either.
He has been hit with an enormous financial penalty of $355m (£282m; €329m) – which jumps to more than $450m once interest is included – that far exceeds how much cash he has to hand. His business will continue to be be watched by an independent monitor, with a separate independent director of compliance also signing off on major business decisions.
In perhaps the only bright spot for the former president and Republican frontrunner, the Trump empire was spared from the equivalent of the corporate death penalty – the cancellation of its business licences.
Mr Trump has for decades seemed to rally and recover from scandals and legal challenges that could irreparably damage others, so much so that he has been referred to as Teflon Don, because nothing sticks.
The nickname previously belonged to the mob boss John Gotti after he won a series of high-profile acquittals in the 1980s. But today’s verdict signals that Donald Trump’s luck, like Gotti’s, may be running out.
Judge Engoron noted Mr Trump and the other defendants’ lack of remorse and history of repeated and persistent fraud. In this case, he said the examples of fraud over more than a decade at the company “leap off the page and shock the conscience”.
Yet the defendants were incapable of admitting the error of their ways, he said, writing: “Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological.”
Watch: New York Attorney General Letitia James says ‘no one above law’ after Trump ruling
Unsurprisingly, Mr Trump sees things very differently. He says he built a “perfect company” and rejects that he should be punished for fraud because banks were paid back in full. He continues to repeat claims, without evidence, that his legal challenges are just a plot by elite Democrats to keep him out of the White House.
According to Mr Trump’s estranged niece Mary Trump, the judge’s ruling amounts to the end of the Trump family legacy. “Today is an emotional day, but one thing is for certain: the Engoron decision is absolutely devastating for Donald,” she wrote on social media.
As the son of a real estate developer whose projects included middle-class apartment buildings in the outer boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island, Mr Trump always dreamed of making a name for himself among the skyscrapers of Manhattan.
A seven-year spree of construction from 1976-1983, including the eponymous Trump Tower, solidified his reputation as a real estate giant in New York. ”Not many sons have been able to escape their fathers,” he told the New York Times in 1983 – the implication being that at 37, he already had.
And it’s true that the 1980s era of greed and excess was a prosperous time for a young developer with his ambition.
Image caption,Donald Trump reinvented himself as a reality TV star in the early 2000s – with New York at the centre
Trump Tower, with its prime location on 5th Avenue, put Donald Trump on the map. Once his reputation was established, he subsequently put his name on every project he did.
By the early 1990’s though, Donald Trump filed for several corporate bankruptcies and nearly lost it all.
It was during this time that Rich Herschlag, the chief engineer in the Manhattan Borough President’s office, worked with Mr Trump and his organization on the Riverside South project, a redevelopment in a former rail yard on the Upper West Side.
He says it meant “everything or darn close to everything” for Donald Trump to be seen as a successful real estate developer – and in particular build an empire from his father’s legacy.
“To watch it [potentially] gutted and decimated, I can’t image that’s anything less than an emotional horror,” he told the BBC.
It is not yet clear how Mr Trump will pay the nearly half a billion dollars that he is liable for and if that will involve selling any assets or businesses to raise the cash. His sprawling real estate empire in New York is valued by Forbes at $490m but there are many other properties around the country, including hotels, golf courses, condominiums and even a winery.
He will appeal against the penalty, which would put the decision on hold until a higher court reviews the case.
But if he wants to avoid paying the fine or having his personal assets seized while the appeal process plays out, he still has to deposit the full amount within 30 days or secure a costly bond.
Selling any of his prime Manhattan real estate would be an indignity for the former president – and a decision he would not take lightly.
Whether or not Donald Trump is able to recover from this financial shock, the outcome looks sure to significantly dent his fortune.
The ruling in the city where he rose to the top – while always remaining something of an outsider – is undoubtedly a big loss. And for more than six decades in New York real estate, there’s no figure Mr Trump has derided https://merupakan.com/ more than the “loser”.
