British grocery inflation hit 17.1% in the four weeks to Feb. 19, another record high, dealing the latest blow to consumers struggling with a cost-of-living crisis, industry data showed on Tuesday.

Market researcher Kantar said prices are rising fastest in markets such as milk, eggs and margarine.

It said UK households now face an additional 811 pounds ($978) on their annual shopping bills if they don't change their behaviour to cut costs.

"This February marks a full year since monthly grocery inflation climbed above 4%. This is having a big impact on people’s lives," Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, said.

German-owned discounters Aldi and Lidl were again the fastest growing grocers, partly due to new store openings, with sales up 26.7% and 25.4%, respectively.

https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/uk-grocery-price-inflation-hits-record-171-2023-02-28/

Monopolies still on fast rise.

The Conservatives in the House of Representatives passed a resolution "condemning the horrors of socialism" and opposing the pursuit of socialist policies.

On Thursday, February 2, the US House of Representatives passed a resolution condemning the "horrors of socialism." All 219 members of the Republican Party voted yes. The majority of Democrats also supported the resolution: 109 voted with the Republicans, 86 voted against, and 14 were "present", that is, they actually abstained.

At a time when socialism is becoming increasingly popular in the US, despite decades of harassment and persecution of the left, the House of Representatives condemned "socialism in all its forms" and opposed "the pursuit of a socialist policy in the United States of America."

https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-concurrent-resolution/9/text?s=1&r=4

For many Americans, finding affordable housing continues to be a challenge, whether you’re renting or buying. In today’s real estate market, many overpriced homes sit vacant while populations experiencing homelessness continue to grow. In this study, we took a closer look at data from the U.S. Census and the Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) to compare the number of people experiencing homelessness to the number of vacant housing units in 100 major cities across the country. Continue reading to learn more about which cities have the highest risk of homelessness in America.

KEY FINDINGS

• Over 580,000 Americans are experiencing homelessness. There are currently 28 vacant homes for every one person experiencing homelessness in the U.S.
• While cities like New York City, Los Angeles and Seattle have some of the largest unhoused populations in the country, Detroit has the most vacant homes per unhoused person – 116 empty homes per unhoused person.
• Syracuse, New York has the second-most vacant homes per unhoused person – 110 vacant homes per unhoused person.
• San Jose, California has the highest population of Gen-Z youth experiencing homelessness with nearly 85 unhoused Gen-Zers for every 100,000 residents.
• Pacific Islander and Black Americans are the populations most at risk to experience homelessness.

To help reduce the potential for malware, Android 14 will begin fully blocking the installation of apps that target outdated versions of Android.

For years now, the guidelines for the Google Play Store have ensured that Android developers keep their apps updated to use the latest features and safety measures of the Android platform. Just this month, the guidelines were updated, requiring newly listed Play Store apps to target Android 12 at a minimum.

Up to this point, these minimum API level requirements have only applied to apps that are intended for the Google Play Store. Should a developer wish to create an app for an older version, they can do so and simply ask their users to sideload the APK file manually. Similarly, if an Android app hasn’t been updated since the guidelines changed, the Play Store will continue serving the app to those who have installed it once before.

According to a newly posted code change, Android 14 is set to make API requirements stricter, entirely blocking the installation of outdated apps. This change would block users from sideloading specific APK files and also block app stores from installing those same apps.

Initially, Android 14 devices will only block apps that target especially old Android versions. Over time though, the plan is to increase the threshold to Android 6.0 (Marshmallow), with Google having a mechanism to “progressively ramp [it] up.” That said, it will likely still be up to each device maker to decide the threshold for outdated apps or whether to enable it at all.

You are observing step 1, intended to kill tens of thousands of older apps, because Google want to clear the field and prepare to next step.

We'll soon see that APK installation will become almost impossible.

Worms, grasshoppers and crickets in the future should play an important role in providing society with food, said the Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg (Germany) Winfried Kretschmann. The German newspaper Badische Zeitung writes about this on January 24.

Kretschmann believes that eating insects will be absolutely essential. “This will play an important role in ensuring the nutrition of humanity in the future,” the politician believes. It's a "smart way" to get protein that makes ecological sense, he says.

The politician believes that the first step should be the production of animal feed from insects. However, Kretschmann warns that in Europe, the path to eating insects will have to overcome high cultural barriers that should not be underestimated.

Kretschmann said that he himself had already tasted insects, he could not remember exactly which insects he ate. The politician noted that he did not remember much taste, but he was not bad.

Badische Zeitung reminds that from January 24, it is allowed to eat crickets in Germany. A new EU law will soon come into force that will allow crickets to be frozen, dried or used as a powder. Grain beetle larvae will also be allowed to be eaten. Locust and flour beetle larvae can already be eaten.