Day: May 26, 2024

An Impact Crater from a Hamas Rocket launched earlier from Rafah in the Southern Gaza Strip, near the City of Tel Aviv in Central Israel. pic.twitter.com/OeZSzsbWuq

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) May 26, 2024

Microsoft

• Privacy campaigners are concerned about Microsoft’s Recall feature for its new Copilot+ PCs.
• The UK data watchdog is also making inquiries with Microsoft about the feature.
• Microsoft says the Recall feature is optional, and the data is only stored locally.

Privacy campaigners are raising the alarm about Microsoft’s Recall feature for its upcoming Copilot+ PCs.

The Recall feature, which Microsoft has likened to giving PCs a “photographic memory,” can take screenshots of a user’s laptop every few seconds. The snapshots are encrypted, and Microsoft says users can choose which snapshots Recall collects. The feature can also be turned off.

The feature has already caught the attention of the Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK data watchdog. A spokesperson told Business Insider that the office was “working with Microsoft to understand the safeguards in place to protect user privacy.”

The spokesperson said: “We expect organizations to be transparent with users about how their data is being used and only process personal data to the extent that it is necessary to achieve a specific purpose. Industry must consider data protection from the outset and rigorously assess and mitigate risks to peoples’ rights and freedoms before bringing products to market.”

Microsoft representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider made outside normal working hours.

However, the company told the BBC that the Recall feature is an “optional experience” and that Microsoft is committed to privacy and security.

“Recall data is only stored locally and not accessed by Microsoft or anyone who does not have device access,” Microsoft told the outlet.

The new feature has also raised eyebrows with privacy experts.

Kris Shrishak, an advisor on AI and privacy, told the BBC that the feature could be a “privacy nightmare.”

“The mere fact that screenshots will be taken during use of the device could have a chilling effect on people,” he said.

Several social media users also shared Shrishak’s concerns.

Even Tesla CEO Elon Musk weighed in on the new feature, calling it a “‘Black Mirror’ episode” in an X post, adding that he planned to turn the feature off.

The interior of the Intimo Restaurante in Panama City.

Monica Humphries/Business Insider

• I spent my first night in Panama at Intimo Restaurante, where I dined on my first tasting menu.
• As a solo traveler, it allowed me to try a handful of dishes and learn about the country.
• Sure, it was a splurge at $83, but it was worth every penny. 

I stepped into the dimly lit Intimo Restaurante in Panama City. For the next two-and-a-half hours, I’d feast on local ingredients sourced across the country in dishes like shrimp crudo and octopus guacho, a Panamanian rice specialty.

Unlike every other restaurant experience I’ve had, I didn’t pick a single dish that was placed in front of me.

This was my first night in the country, and it was also my very first tasting menu.

When it comes to traveling, food is one of my favorite ways to explore. It could be a street stall selling takoyaki in Tokyo or tasting an Australian childhood dish complete with rainbow sprinkles. Regardless of cost, I’ve discovered that food is how people express themselves, their country’s history, and traditions.

When it came to exploring Panama, trying local cuisines and ingredients was top of mind, so I kicked things off with a chef’s selection menu.

The bar at Intimo Restaurante.

Monica Humphries/Business Insider

The restaurant’s dishes highlighted local ingredients

Like its name, Intimo Restaurante is intimate. There are only three tables, a small outdoor patio, and a long chef’s bar. In total, the restaurant accommodates 28 diners.

I sat at the bar, and moments after getting settled, the restaurant’s bartender introduced himself and asked me what I would like to drink.

He explained that the restaurant didn’t have a bar menu. Instead, there was a selection of wines and liquors. He could make me a traditional cocktail, or I could tell him my preferences, and he would create a personalized drink instead.

After sharing that I’d like something refreshing and a bit tart, a lychee cocktail appeared in front of me. I never would’ve requested it, but it was exactly what I wanted.

A custom cocktail at the Intimo Restaurante.

Monica Humphries/Business Insider

Then, the restaurant’s chef, Carlos “Chombolín” Alba, stopped by to introduce himself, welcome me to Intimo, and ask if I had any food allergies, something he does for every guest.

He explained that Intimo serves traditional Panamanian ingredients that are often creatively reimagined in dishes. He said 90% of the restaurant’s ingredients are locally sourced, which means the menu changes throughout the year to highlight peak produce.

Alba walked me through the menu and outlined the evening’s chef’s section, which includes five small plates from the menu. It was what I planned on ordering.

Then he mentioned tartare, and my heart sank. I typically eat a pescatarian diet, and while I sometimes try meat dishes when traveling to new countries, tartare isn’t something I can currently get behind.

Thankfully, Alba said he could swap the tartare for another dish. He offered a shrimp substitute, which I happily accepted.

I sat back and watched the kitchen staff create dishes for the two dozen guests in the room.

Side-by-side courses of the chef’s selection.

Monica Humphries/Business Insider

After a few minutes, my first course arrived. A waitress walked me through all the ingredients in the tuna dish, which included “pastrami-cured” tuna in leche de tigre, a Peruvian citrus-based marinade for ceviche.

This was and remained the high point of the night for me. The tuna was fresh, and a crispy, crunchy corn garnish was the perfect texture balance.

Next was the shrimp crudo, followed by grilled tomatoes from Panama’s Boquete region. The main dish was octopus guacho, a traditional Panamanian dish complemented with Caribbean sofrito.

Finally, a dessert mousse paired with amaretto ice cream.

The service was timed flawlessly. I didn’t feel rushed, but I wasn’t longing for my next meal. Plus, an open kitchen meant I got to watch each dish being crafted.

As a solo traveler, it’s also the ideal opportunity to try multiple dishes in one sitting

Not having someone to share appetizers, mains, and dessert with is easily my least favorite part about dining alone. While I want to try as many dishes as possible, I don’t want to waste food and simply don’t always have the space in my stomach.

The tasting menu was a great way to solve this dilemma. Since each dish was smaller than the typical portion, I saved money, didn’t waste food, and had just enough room to polish off all five plates.

Plus, a tasting menu took the stress out of ordering. I spend far too long eyeing menus, debating what dishes to try, and leaving with regrets over what I did and didn’t pick.

I’ll admit that not every course on Intimo’s tasting menu catered to my preferences; next time, I’ll order the bass in Caribbean curry over the guacho. But the tasting menu encouraged me to try new dishes that I may not have ordered on my own, and thankfully, most dishes, like the roasted tomatoes, left my tastebuds happily surprised.

Altogether, the meal cost $83 with a tip. For me, that’s a splurge, but it was worth every penny.

The restaurant’s staff was welcoming, which was a lovely introduction to meeting Panamanians. The ingredients were fresh, the ideal way to learn about a region. And the meals were delicious, which was a great kickoff to the next eight days of dining across Panama.

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The reader is not pictured.

kali9/Getty Images

• For Love & Money is a weekly Business Insider column answering relationship and money questions.
• This week, a reader feels obligated to spend thousands a year on birthday party gifts.
• Our columnist says they can go to fewer parties — and give the kids cash.
• Got a question for our columnist? Write to For Love & Money using this Google form.

Dear For Love & Money,

I have four kids between the ages of four and 10, and we spend every weekend at a series of birthday parties. We have gone to zoo birthdays, skating rinks, trampoline parks, nature reserves, and people’s backyards.

The food, when offered, is nearly always Costco pizza or hotdogs, but usually, it’s just a cake the kids’ parents bought from the supermarket. Meanwhile, the cost of entry is at least a $25 gift. This isn’t bad for one party, but with four kids, it can get as high as $100 to $200 a weekend.

For my kids’ birthday parties, it is very clear that our invitee’s presence is the only present we want. I don’t need 20 new pieces of junk introduced to our home four times a year anyway — where would we put it all? I don’t understand why other parents would want it. I can’t afford the financial burden of birthday party gifts, especially when my kids aren’t even getting a nutritious meal!

But I also don’t want my kids to miss out on the fun or be the reason some poor kid doesn’t have any friends attend their birthday party. How do I save money without feeling like a spoilsport?

Sincerely,

Burned Out on Birthdays

Dear Burned Out,

As the mother of three elementary and middle school kids, I relate to your struggle. I am all for inviting every kid in class to birthday parties. I don’t think anyone should feel left out, and I don’t think 4th graders can handle the social power of picking and choosing who gets an invite and who doesn’t. However, this popular rule also means my kids receive over a dozen birthday party invitations each school year.

This doesn’t include the invitations they receive from cousins, church friends, neighbors, and best friends who moved schools or are in a different class this year. At $25 a pop, the simple joy of attending a buddy’s birthday could cost us well into the thousands. And you have one kid more than me. You’re not crazy for feeling like this is becoming a financial burden. However, I am here to tell you that you don’t have to give up on sticking to a budget.

First, remember that just because your kids get invited to every birthday party doesn’t mean you’re obligated to take them. If your kids are anything like mine, how close they are to the birthday kid has little to do with whether they want to spend the afternoon bouncing their brains out at a trampoline park.

When asked, my kids’ response to a party invite will always be yes. But mine isn’t. As overwhelming as children’s birthday parties can be financially, they’re also quite a time drain. As my children get older, drop-off parties are thankfully becoming the norm, but I still have a second grader, and expecting anyone to babysit a bunch of 8-year-olds hopped up on Kool-Aid, cake, and laser tag feels unfair.

Instead, I limit my kids to only attending the parties of close friends, family members, kids I suspect may not have many friends, and, of course, the epic-level parties my kids beg me to attend. Overall, we attend five to ten parties a year for each kid — still a lot, but spread out over the course of a year, it’s not too bad time-wise. The expense, however, still creeps up on us, so I also draw a boundary across that.

You wrote that the “cost of entry is a $25 gift.” Is that true, though? I have never seen a birthday invitation party with a minimum gift price specified. As a mom, however, I am familiar with the unwritten rule you are referring to. I recently saw a meme on social media joking that kids’ birthday parties are just parents passing around the same $25 over and over, and I had to laugh because it’s true.

But you can opt out of feeling like you need to hit a certain dollar amount. We should stop looking at birthday parties as transactional. You mentioned the low-quality dinners typically provided at these events. I know I’ve complained a few times when the only food offered at parties scheduled during traditional meal times are chips and cupcakes. But in reality, they aren’t obligated to feed our kids any more than we’re obligated to bring a $25 present. There is no entry price because it’s a free event, and you can’t complain about a free event you chose to attend.

Here’s my hack for keeping our birthday present budget small: Kids like money. It makes them feel grown up and powerful. Give them three $5 bills, and they’ll feel flush with cash. Give them a $10 bill, and they won’t think, “Really? Only $10, in this economy?”

They’ll simply tally it up with all the cash they got from their grandparents, aunts, uncles, and their allowance and come up with that magic number that makes them feel like the richest kid in town. Meanwhile, their parents will be pleased not to have more junk headed toward their kid’s already disastrous bedroom.

Another option is to shop for gifts at dollar stores like Five Below and Dollar Tree. You can easily assemble a decent craft kit for under $10 at those stores.

Remember, in many ways we really are just exchanging the same gift money with other parents over and over. So, what goes around will come around, and the families you show up for today will be the same families who make your kids’ birthdays great tomorrow.

Rooting for you,

For Love & Money

Looking for advice on how your savings, debt, or another financial challenge is affecting your relationships? Write to For Love & Money using this Google form.

Finding a financial advisor doesn’t have to be hard. SmartAsset’s free tool matches you with up to three fiduciary financial advisors that serve your area in minutes. Each advisor has been vetted by SmartAsset and is held to a fiduciary standard to act in your best interests. Start your search now.

The author was estranged from her father since she was 21 years old.

Courtesy of the author

• My parents divorced when I was 21, and that was the start of the end of our relationship. 
• He knew I had remarried but never met my daughters. 
• Losing my dad, even though we weren’t speaking, hurt a lot. 

As I headed to the funeral home in black leggings and a messy bun to retrieve my estranged father’s ashes, my brother called to ask where I was. “I’m picking up Dad,” I said and we laughed since we share our dark humor. The funeral home offered curbside pickup, but I couldn’t relive this experience every time I did Target Drive-up.

I placed his ashes in the front passenger seat because it felt weird to put him in the trunk with my kid’s portable potty.

My father was amazing for the first 26 years of my life. When I was little, I stood on his feet to dance. We went on dinner dates. We traveled a lot. We grew up backstage at the Bob Marley Festival because of the relationships he fostered with the family. He was in the garment industry, probably the origin of my love of statement tees. I grew up feeling insanely lucky.

My parents divorced

My parents divorced when I was 21. That was the first shift in our relationship. He went into a downward spiral, which led to our estrangement. It was hard not to take sides as I watched my mom’s car get repossessed because he stopped paying. I tried to maintain a separate relationship and compartmentalize the complications of being a child of an acrimonious divorce. I bounced between anger and nostalgia.

He knew I divorced and remarried but never met my daughters. I’d rather them not know him, then love him and risk the torment that came with the territory. He lived in a dilapidated assisted living, was missing teeth, and couldn’t stand. I kept him at bay to avoid the inevitable heartache that came with being his daughter.

His health declined, and I got good at tracking him down. He frantically slurred from the hospital room landline that they were “trying to kill him.” The doctors called it hospital-induced delirium. His face was gaunt, with a long gray beard. He was heavily sedated to keep him from ripping off all the tubes. I sat in the chair sobbing.

His health declined

A year later, another doctor found my brother online. My dad couldn’t communicate and was breathing with a ventilator. She urged us to say goodbye and sign the DNR. My mom and stepdad picked us up, and we all walked into the ICU in white paper gowns and masks. One big modern family. He looked like a feeble stranger. One eye was stuck open. It was evident that life was not kind to him.

I was the first to lean over and talk to him. I told him I loved him and it was OK to go. His blood pressure spiked, and a single tear fell from his eye. It undid me. I thought I was already emotionally disconnected enough over the last 20 years, and it wouldn’t be as painful. It was excruciating.

Everyone thought he would die that night. He didn’t. I fidgeted at the security desk for my picture. Do you smile when you are visiting your dying father? I went every day and played Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds — “Every little thing is gonna be all right.” He spent the last decade in shitty nursing homes accruing bed sores from neglect. He burned bridges with everyone, made unfortunate choices, and was catfished by someone in China, sending them whatever money he had. I searched his face for evidence of the good parts.

I fell apart when he died

Days were consumed with the heaviness of impending death. I cold-called cremation facilities from the carline and ogled urns at my kids’ dance lessons. The one day I needed a break from visiting was when the call came. I fell apart, and if my husband hadn’t been there, I probably would have hit the ground and shattered.

We opened the cardboard box that could easily double as an Amazon package for our impromptu funeral at my grandparent’s graves. White ashes scattered from a plastic bag with an industrial-strength twisty tie. I did my part as a loving daughter, despite years of heartache, to end it with dignity and love, regardless of the past.

I learned that it doesn’t matter if your parent was estranged or at your table for every holiday. It’s a loss, it hurts, and it changes you. He was my greatest lesson in love, loss, resilience, and the non-linear nature of grieving. Also, nobody at the funeral home mentioned my leggings, so I guess anything goes when death is the backdrop.

In his bid for re-election, the Indian PM is ramping up sectarian rhetoric and weaponising state agencies against his opponents

• Mahua Moitra is an opposition politician with the Trinamool Congress party

Abh ke baar 400 paar (“More than 400 seats this time”) has been the rallying cry of Narendra Modi’s election campaign, as voting for India’s 543-member lower house stretches on through the hottest months of the year.

The prime minister’s method of ruling a once vibrant and now wounded democracy relies heavily on a heady mix of religious polarisation, subservient institutions and the apparent misuse of state-controlled agencies against his opponents. On the campaign trail, he and his party have been busy peppering his speeches with anti-Muslim rhetoric, in a seeming violation of India’s election law, which expressly prohibits electioneering based on sectarian appeals to religion, caste, language or region.

Continue reading…

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