Get ready for a new week (Picture: Getty/Metro.co.uk)
Jupiter has been in retrograde since November 2025 and turns back direct this week.
During this time, you may have been returning to your roots in some respect, thinking about the past and its impact on the present, generational patterns and traits, bonds you want to strengthen… or indeed loosen.
Now the retrograde is over, you emerge with a clear sense of what matters to you about your family, ancestors, past and background. It’s time this week to make your mark here, to set out as you mean to go on.
What shift will you be executing? Let’s ask the tarot cards…
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Aries
March 21 to April 20
You are working with a new perspective on the past this week as shown by the Nine of Swords (Picture: Getty/Metro.co.uk)
Tarot card for Aries for this week: Nine of Swords
Meaning: You’ve realised you have carried unspoken dread, insecurity or fear that comes from events or establishing beliefs experienced in childhood. And you’re ready to address that, to voice it, to say out loud how you think you’ve absorbed these fears from what was once the case long ago.
The power of saying things out loud cannot be overestimated. Find a confidant or friend (or even your mirror) and speak about this. Put down this weight. Release it.
You are working with a new perspective on the past this week as shown by the Three of Coins (Picture: Getty/Metro.co.uk)
Tarot card for Taurus for this week: Three of Coins
Meaning: You now understand just how loved you were (and are) and that things you resisted or felt were hard were all done from love. This kind of understanding often deepens when we have our own children or just hear other folks’ stories and see the differences.
Folk may have made mistakes, but it doesn’t diminish the love they had towards you, and that is precious, worth holding on to, and perhaps revisiting and celebrating now. Share love with those from your past. They did their best.
You are working with a new perspective on the past this week as shown by The Emperor (Picture: Getty/Metro.co.uk)
Tarot card for Gemini for this week: The Emperor
Meaning: You’re noticing how you were ‘shaped’ by a dominant figure in your childhood (likely a parent, likely a father or fatherly figure, but not necessarily).
Their discipline, approval, strictness and rules were boundary-creating and kept you within range of the ‘straight and narrow’ but maybe also tempered something in you that is naturally wilder, louder, bigger… and maybe now, as an adult, you can give that side of your nature permission to come out and play! Be wholly and fully you. Rebel.
You are working with a new perspective on the past this week as shown by The Magician (Picture: Getty/Metro.co.uk)
Tarot card for Cancer for this week: The Magician
Meaning: You’ve looked back at ‘little you’ and seen yourself clearly, especially your natural, innate talents and skills and interests. You’re realising you were born hardwired with certain powers and they’re the ones you should lean on in this life.
You may have circled other careers and experiences, but you’re ready to return to the ‘little you’ talents and interests you’ve always known were there. These form the blueprint of your potential for success. Work with it, enhance it, build on it. This is a new beginning.
You are working with a new perspective on the past this week as shown by the Knight of Cups (Picture: Getty/Metro.co.uk)
Tarot card for Leo for this week: Knight of Cups
Meaning: You are recognising your love language and defaults in relationships as being a product of the examples and environment from your childhood, what you saw growing up, what was presented as normal. We all have this blessing or curse!
The truth is that we can see the signs, recognise the patterns, and if they’re leading us down blind alleys, we can challenge it, we can change it. Do you want to? This is your love project homework this week.
You are working with a new perspective on the past this week as shown by The Devil (Picture: Getty/Metro.co.uk)
Tarot card for Virgo for this week: The Devil
Meaning: You are noticing repeat patterns, habits, self-limiting beliefs or behaviours that you, honestly, think have started and carried on in your life since childhood. They are so ingrained you never really noticed yourself doing it. But you do now. It’s one of those ‘can’t unsee it’ moments.
Break the chains, run wild and free from your old selfhood, smash through limiting ideas and opinions and challenge your thinking, prove yourself wrong. Change is afoot and it will liberate you.
You are working with a new perspective on the past this week as shown by the Two of Swords (Picture: Getty/Metro.co.uk)
Tarot card for Libra for this week: Two of Swords
Meaning: You’ve come to realise that choices you made in your past do not define or confine you. It’s the truth that they shaped your past experience but they don’t have to dictate your future path.
You can simply make new choices. Reunite, forgive, turn away, turn back, say yes, say no, revisit, return, move on. Whatever it is you regret, just make a new choice and put the wheels in motion this week.
You are working with a new perspective on the past this week as shown by the Death card (Picture: Getty/Metro.co.uk)
Tarot card for Scorpio for this week: Death
Meaning: This card is your sign’s actual talisman in the tarot deck, so this is a powerful pivot week, a transformation and transition lies ahead. Between now and your birthday, you are leaving the old, dead and false elements in your realm behind. Shedding and purging. And, along the way, you’re picking up new people, ideas, options and opportunities.
This links to childhood because you’re returning to your authentic nature and talents, your true selfhood, your original character before ‘adulting’ kicked in. This feels liberating, powerful and compelling. This is a major year for you.
You are working with a new perspective on the past this week as shown by The Moon (Picture: Getty/Metro.co.uk)
Tarot card for Sagittarius for this week: The Moon
Meaning: You’ve discovered there are secrets and illusions in your past that you could now, with technology and everything being as it is, uncover and resolve. Are you up for a mystery? Are you up for playing detective?
Whether this is ancestry and lineage research, replaying an old event, getting the truth of a situation you were lied to about, you know, deep down, things are not all as they seem or were presented to you before. But now you can crack the code and get the truth. Make it a mission this week.
You are working with a new perspective on the past this week as shown by the Seven of Wands (Picture: Getty/Metro.co.uk)
Tarot card for Capricorn for this week: Seven of Wands
Meaning: You’ve come to recognise a pattern of rivalry or competition in your past that has perhaps made you who you are today. Perhaps a friend or cousin who you competed with, perhaps sibling rivalry, perhaps trying to impress a parent or teacher.
Whatever it was, it ignited a competitive streak in you that has long lasted and served. But maybe you need to learn to conserve this streak for when it best serves, and put it away when it does not. Perhaps that is the lesson of this retrograde.
You are working with a new perspective on the past this week as shown by the Ace of Coins (Picture: Getty/Metro.co.uk)
Tarot card for Aquarius for this week: Ace of Coins
Meaning: You’ve worked through your roots and influences, from childhood, regarding life’s foundations – health, wealth, work, home. You know where you’ve picked up good values and habits, and where you want to branch out and do it differently, and this self awareness feels positive and empowering.
There’s no blame or pity or regret; it’s all about seeing patterns, working with them, and using your experience to make good sound choices now. You are building something new. A new year-long project in one of your foundation areas is beginning.
You are working with a new perspective on the past this week as shown by the Ten of Coins (Picture: Getty/Metro.co.uk)
Tarot card for Pisces for this week: Ten of Coins
Meaning: You’ve seen your life story in its entirety so far, extracted key lessons and wisdoms, cemented magical memories, celebrated the highs and shown compassion for the lows and feel, in the end, a tremendous sense of gratitude and excitement that there’s still so much more to write, do and create.
This story is far from finished, and you know the best is yet to come. You feel excited and optimistic this week and ready to start designing your best-ever era in life. This is a true starting point.
Kerry King has been reading, teaching and creating tarot for 30 years. Join her magical, exclusive Tarot Club for forecasts, predictions, lessons and readings straight to your inbox. Enjoy one month free for all Metro readers (no lock-in or commitment) over on Patreon.
Your daily Metro.co.uk horoscope is here every morning, seven days a week (yes, including weekends!). To check your forecast, head to our dedicated horoscopes page.
Police, paramedics and firefighters were called to the scene in Vangarde Way, next to the Vangarde Shopping Park, shortly before 2.20pm on Saturday (March 7).
North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service said two fire crews were called to the scene.
In a statement on Sunday, a fire service spokesperson said: “Crews from Acomb and York were requested by police to attend an incident involving a single vehicle road traffic collision.
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“Crews made the scene safe and left the incident in hands of police and ambulance.”
A new border control system is being rolled out at all European airports, including those in Spain, Portugal and Greece, from April 10. The new Entry Exit System (EES) requires British travellers to provide fingerprints and photographs when entering the Schengen Area.
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British holidaymakers have been cautioned about potential queues due to the new biometric system, which was first introduced in October at some EU airports. All 29 Schengen countries are now expected to have it fully operational by April.
Some airport organisations have called for an “immediate review” of the Entry Exit System (EES) rollout as it “continues to cause significant delays,” and cautioned that queues for non-EU passengers could stretch to four hours during the summer months.
The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) stated: “EES checks are being introduced in a phased way across external borders, with full operation expected from April 10, 2026.”
The Foreign Office suggested that EES might take each passenger a “few minutes extra” to complete and advised they “be prepared to wait longer than usual” at border control, reports the Express.
She is believed to be the oldest surviving victim of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal, having run Annfield Plain Post Office with her late husband Oswall from 1985 until they were forced out in 2003.
The couple lost around £100,000 of their own money covering non‑existent shortfalls.
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One of the original 555 claimants in the landmark group action led by Sir Alan Bates, Betty has become a leading campaigner, fronting national TV interviews and challenging ministers as victims finally secure compensation.
Vera Parnaby — “Mrs Poppy”, Consett
‘Mrs Poppy’ was also named in the New Year’s Honours list. (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)
She began collecting aged six after her father was killed serving in the Second World War, accompanying her mother door‑to‑door.
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Now in her mid‑80s, Vera is the Legion’s longest‑serving poppy seller and leads a dedicated volunteer team in Consett, even introducing contactless machines to keep donations flowing.
Her tireless fundraising has earned her a string of honours and a Pride of Britain regional fundraiser nomination, but she insists she has no plans to stop.
Rhiannon Hiles — Chief Executive, Beamish Museum
Rhiannon Hiles, Chief Executive of Beamish Museum.
Rhiannon Hiles has spent three decades at Beamish, The Living Museum of the North, after joining as a volunteer in 1995 and working through curatorial, commercial and development roles.
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She became chief executive in 2021 and has since led the open‑air museum to its biggest ever accolade – Art Fund Museum of the Year 2025, the world’s largest museum prize.
In February, she was named a North East Business Titan for outstanding leadership and contribution to the regional economy, praised for putting people and communities at the heart of Beamish’s success.
She also holds senior roles in European and UK museum bodies.
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Hannah Fox — Executive Director, The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle
In Derby she helped lead the £18m redevelopment of the Silk Mill into the Museum of Making, hailed as the UK’s first museum of its kind.
At Bowes, she has championed community‑led culture and co‑creation, fronting the Durham Creative Community Fellows programme, which supports 17 grassroots arts leaders from across County Durham in partnership with US‑based National Arts Strategies.
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Fox regularly cites founder Josephine Bowes’ “tenacity, creativity and ambition” as the inspiration for the museum’s future direction.
Dr Sarah Price — Head of Locomotion, Shildon
Dr Sarah Price (right) with Bishop of Durham elect Rick Simpson. (Image: North News & Pictures Ltd)
Dr Sarah Price made history in 2018 when she became the first woman to lead Locomotion in Shildon, part of the national Science Museum Group.
The museum, on the world’s first public railway route, tells the story of railways and the people who built and worked on them.
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Price has spoken about challenging the perception that railways are a male interest, noting that close to half of Locomotion’s visitors are women and girls.
Under her leadership the site has expanded its collection, events and outreach, using the region’s rail heritage to engage diverse audiences in science, engineering and history.
By choosing not to attend, Michelle O’Neill allowed the focus of the story to shift away from her argument about the war and towards the optics of her absence
Stormont rarely has much direct influence over foreign policy, but that has never stopped international events spilling quickly into the politics of this place.
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The escalating conflict involving Iran is the latest example. While decisions about military intervention are being taken in London, Washington and elsewhere, the consequences are already being felt much closer to home. Families across Northern Ireland are watching developments anxiously as the situation in the Middle East deteriorates, aware that friends and relatives are among the large number of British nationals currently in countries that could become increasingly dangerous in the days and weeks ahead.
UK officials believe hundreds of thousands of Britons are in countries targeted by Iran, with more than 140,000 registered for Foreign Office updates. If the situation continues to escalate, the prospect of evacuations on a scale rarely attempted by the UK is now openly being discussed.
It was against that backdrop that the UK Government convened a series of briefings for devolved administrations last week, and First Minister Michelle O’Neill chose not to attend.
The First Minister’s explanation has been clear enough. She has said she remains in contact with both the British and Irish governments, and that her priority is to ensure that anyone from Northern Ireland who needs assistance leaving the region can do so safely. Her objection, she says, is to taking part in a briefing by the British Government on military operations when she fundamentally disagrees with the decision to join the conflict.
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That position sits squarely within Sinn Féin’s long-established approach to international affairs. The party has consistently opposed British military intervention overseas, and Michelle O’Neill has framed the current conflict in similar terms, warning that the situation is spiralling and questioning where the escalation will end. She has also been careful to stress that the Iranian regime itself is brutal and repressive, while arguing that war will not deliver a peaceful outcome.
Taken in isolation, none of that is especially surprising. But the politics of the situation is not only about the substance of her argument. It is also about the moment in which the decision was taken and how it has been interpreted.
The briefings offered by London were not about seeking the endorsement of devolved ministers for military action. Stormont was hardly being invited to weigh in on strategic decisions about missile strikes. Their purpose, according to those who attended, was to ensure devolved administrations were updated on developments in the region and on the potential implications for citizens from their jurisdictions. In other words, they were about information rather than endorsement.
That distinction has allowed deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly to frame the situation in a way that is politically advantageous for her. By attending both briefings and speaking afterwards about the scale of the challenge involved in any potential evacuation, the deputy First Minister has been able to emphasise a more practical focus on the immediate consequences of the conflict for people here.
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Her criticism of Michelle O’Neill was measured but pointed. It was, she said, “genuinely disappointing” that the First Minister had chosen not to attend a meeting designed to update local leaders on events that could affect thousands of people connected to Northern Ireland. In Stormont terms, the exchange quickly settled into a familiar dynamic.
Emma Little-Pengelly’s argument was not really about foreign policy at all. Instead, it presented a contrast of one side attending briefings and focusing on practical contingencies, while the other is standing back on the grounds of principle.
The deputy First Minister used an opportunity to launch a broader attack on what she described as Sinn Féin’s historical relationship with Iran, while DUP leader Gavin Robinson went further, arguing the UK should have been involved earlier.
None of that necessarily changes the substance of the First Minister’s critique of the war itself. Across Europe and beyond, there are serious questions being asked about the legality of military action and the risk that the current escalation could pull more countries into a widening conflict.
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But politics, particularly in Northern Ireland, rarely unfolds in a purely substantive way. At a time when families here are worried about loved ones in the region, participation in a briefing designed to provide information about their safety carries a certain symbolic weight, regardless of the technical purpose of the meeting itself.
It is worth saying that had the First Minister attended the briefings, I don’t believe anyone would have batted an eyelid. By choosing not to attend, Michelle O’Neill allowed the focus of the story to shift away from her argument about the war and towards the optics of her absence, which has given Emma Little-Pengelly an opportunity to present herself as the steadier voice in the room.
Jail bosses vetoed 187 inmates deemed eligible, considering them to be “an immediate risk of harm” to an individual or group.
Prison governors blocked nearly half of all inmates set to be freed early under a government scheme, ruling them too high risk new figures have revealed.
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The Scottish Prison Service released 286 prisoners from November 11 and December 13 to ease the overcrowding crisis.
However jail bosses vetoed 40 per cent – equivalent to 187 inmates – deemed eligible after considering them to be “an immediate risk of harm” to an individual or group.
In spite of this, 127 of the 286 freed had convictions for violent offences – or 44 per cent, the largest share of the total, data shows.
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It comes as plans going through Parliament would slash the automatic release point to 30 per cent for sentences under four years.Critics fear the move could effectively scrap the prison governor’s veto.
As the veto applies only to emergency early release schemes, governors would be powerless to stop offenders being freed once they reach 30 per cent.
Scots Tory justice spokesman Liam Kerr said: “The Justice Secretary must start paying attention to victims, to prison governors and realise this situation presents yet more risks to community safety.”
SPS data shows 75 (26 per cent) of those released in November had convictions for crimes including drug offences, weapons possession and bail violations.
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Short-term offenders walked free after serving 50 per cent of their sentence, until it fell to 40 per cent in February last year.
If passed, the change to 30 per cent will come into force in May, a month after the end of the emergency early release programme.
It is limited to those serving less than four years and excludes sex offenders, domestic abusers or terrorists.
Rob Hay, president of the Association of Scottish Police Superintendents said: “A declining prison population cannot be heralded as a success if it means a rise in crime and more victims.”
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The Scottish Government said: “The governor’s veto remains in place – we have no intention of changing that.”
Let’s not try to sugar-coat the obvious truth: Most of us are more stressed out than ever. While our specific sources of stress vary based on what’s happening in our individual lives, one thing we all share is that a lot of what keeps us up at night is totally out of our control.
The one thing we can manage, however, is our reaction to stress. Being able to regulate our strong emotions is an invaluable skill because they can affect not only our physical health, but also our most precious relationships.
So, when it seems like the world around us has erupted into flames and we feel that meme of the dog drinking coffee at his little table, eyes glazed over, saying “this is fine” — how can we actually mean it?
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That’s what we — Raj Punjabi-Johnson and Noah Michelson, the co-hosts of HuffPost’s Am I Doing It Wrong? podcast — asked Ryan Martin, a psychologist, dean at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay, and the author of several books on emotions including his latest, Emotion Hacks.
Press play to hear the full episode and learn how to hack your emotions:
One aspect of emotional regulation that Martin emphasised is choosing healthy distractions (versus coping mechanisms that may do more harm than good in the long run). If we execute these correctly, they can save us from — or at least tone down — panic that tends to swell when stress gets the best of us.
The one common thread that runs through all four tools, as you’ll find, is to shift focus away from your stressor in order to army-crawl your way out of despair and find a calmer headspace.
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Here’s what Martin suggests:
1. Phone a friend. Martin wholeheartedly endorses Raj’s go-to coping mechanism of calling (or hanging out with) a friend who can make you laugh. Feeling joyfully connected to another human during a high-stress time can help you feel better fast.
2. Have a visual security blanket. Having a rerun of your favourite show or even some cute pet reels bookmarked on your phone can serve as an emotional life raft when you need it most. “I actually save, on my computer, some sort of motivating clips from YouTube that I can just go check out every now and then when I’m feeling down,” Martin says.
3. Shift your mind’s focus entirely. “I recently started colouring. I am not a good artist, but I found that … my brain doesn’t like rest as much as I want it to,” Martin says. “So I started [colouring] for 10 minutes a day.” This activity, he explains, diverts his mind away from politics or work or whatever he’s stressing about and gives it something new to focus on. “It’s kind of like having a mantra.”
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4. Get outside. Martin points to a wealth of data that finds just how wonderful being outside in nature can make you feel. One study took it a step further, suggesting that being in nature and focusing on an activity — in this scenario, it was bird-watching — can be even more helpful. “And that’s because [the people in the study] were giving themselves something to focus on,” he says. “Instead of being in nature but then still thinking about work, they were thinking about birds. … It doesn’t have to be birds. It could be identifying plants. It could be looking for animals.” But it gives you something to focus on besides your stress.
Martin reminded us that these healthy distractions — which are essentially tools to help ground you when you hit an overload of some kind — aren’t just meant to be emergency emotional triage (though they certainly can be). They work best when they turn into habits that you practice regularly.
However, Martin also pointed out that avoiding discomfort shouldn’t always be our goal.
“I want to be careful about the idea of encouraging just avoidance too regularly because avoidance can certainly lead to other kinds of problems,” he said. “One of the things that I do think is important is that people … do need to learn to sit with some discomfort sometimes. We need to get maybe a little better at challenging ourselves.”
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Martin said the goal isn’t to experience so much discomfort that it “harms” or “re-traumatises” us, but enough that we can start to get used to the feeling and work through it.
“The most obvious example of this is oftentimes around politics,” Martin noted. “This is something that I find myself regularly getting angry about and sometimes to a point that it doesn’t feel healthy for me anymore to wallow in it too much.”
Still, Martin said he recognises that avoiding all current events wouldn’t be healthy for him either.
“There’s a point at which I need to engage with that sort of thing just to be an informed person and to acknowledge what people are going through. And so I’m always trying to sort of find that balance of exposing myself to things I know are going to make me angry … while also trying to take care of myself.”
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We also chatted with Martin about other powerful mood hacks, how to shift our personal narrative, and the ways exercise does (and doesn’t) help improve our mood.
Have a question or need some help with something you’ve been doing wrong? Email us at AmIDoingItWrong@HuffPost.com, and we might investigate the topic in an upcoming episode.
Korean cuisine has exploded in popularity over the last couple of years, with Korean restaurants and supermarkets popping up all over London.
According to research by Just Eat, Londoners spend an estimated £1.18bn on Korean ingredients every year, some 34 per cent of the national total, signalling the K-Wave is still washing over the UK.
A flurry of viral recipes, like Eric Kim’s gochujang caramel cookies in the New York Times and the ever-popular “army stew” budae-jigae, are also inspiring home cooks to try their hand at homemade Korean dishes.
But before you start cooking up a storm, there are some basic ingredients that you need to stock your pantry with that are essential to Korean cooking. According to Chef Woongchul Park, founder of Michelin-starred Sollip in London, these are the ingredients that form the core of the Korean taste profile.
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Best Korean pantry essentials at a glance
“The Korean palate is a balance of sweet, salty, sour, spicy, and bitter flavours. Home cooks can achieve that by using a combination of sauces, pastes and condiments that come together to create the dishes you would find in any Korean kitchen,” he tells The Standard.
From the most basic of sauces, like soy sauce and sesame oil, to more complex ingredients such as gochujang paste and fish sauce, Park spells out the different ways each product is used in Korean cooking.
Soy sauce is a staple of many Asian cuisines, including Korean. Park explains that there are typically two types of soy sauces used — one for soup and another for dressing and dipping. “Commercial soy sauces are widely available and can be used for most dishes, but we also use a traditionally brewed soy sauce called Yangjo that is better used for salad dressing and dips.”
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Sesame oil is also another ingredient that is mass-produced on a commercial level. Most of these are made from toasted sesame seeds and widely available in supermarkets across the country. You could plump for ultra high quality, cold-pressed, untoasted sesame oil — but Park says few people know the difference.
“At Sollip, we use a Korean sesame oil and also one from Tesco,” he reveals. “I think it’s good quality and accessible, and there isn’t really a difference between commercially made sesame oils.”
Gochujang, a savoury and sweet red pepper paste, and doenjang, a soy bean paste, are also considered the building blocks of a number of Korean dishes. Gochujang comes in different levels of spiciness, so Park recommends starting with a medium heat paste.
For sweetness to balance out spicy and sour dishes, many Koreans turn to a syrup called jocheong, a thick liquid sweetener made from fermented rice. This is a traditional ingredient with a viscosity akin to corn syrup or honey. It’s not easily available in the UK but Korean food enthusiasts can find it on specialist online retailers or some Asian supermarkets.
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Fish sauce is extremely common in Asian cuisines. In Korea, it’s usually made from anchovies, but can also sometimes be made with shellfish or other types of fish, Park tells me. You can choose a fish sauce that depends on what kind of flavours you are going for, but the regular fish sauce made from anchovies is a must-have.
To give your dishes even more oomph, Park suggests a popular plant-based liquid umami booster called Yondu. Made by Korean brand Sempio, a few dashes of this stuff can add plenty of flavour — but Park also warns that using it too often will make everything taste the same. “It’s good for cooking soups and things like that. But in my personal opinion, it makes everything taste too similar, so I would recommend using it sparingly.”
Finally, kimchi — not quite a pantry ingredient, but certainly essential. Park prefers to make his own, as do many Korean families, but if you aren’t confident about it, there are plenty of kimchi products on the market to choose from, and I’ve found the best one below.
I tried the ingredients recommended by Park to bring you the best of the basics when it comes to Korean home cooking.
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I tested several brands and variations of each ingredient recommended by Park, both cooked and uncooked.
For basic items like soy sauce, sesame oil, and fish sauce, I branched out from my usual go-tos and tried Korean-made ingredients to compare and contrast flavour profiles, but I also kept accessibility in mind, as not all Korean products are widely available.
I put pastes and kimchis to the test by cooking them in different ways, such as kimchi fried rice, tteokbokki and bulgogi bowls.
Kimchis were also tested uncooked as a side dish (also known as banchan) to determine how balanced and spicy they were.
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Getting into a new cuisine is exciting and a great way to add new favourite dishes to your rotation. It’s also brilliant to introduce different ingredients to your cooking arsenal.
Korean cooking is defined by its ability to balance loud, punchy flavours with more subtle tastes and aromas, and these essential pantry ingredients are the building blocks you will reach for time and time again. While some ingredients are harder to find, like jocheong (Korean rice syrup), others are widely available in major supermarkets and specialist Asian retailers.
You also don’t have to go out of your way or spend a lot of money to get good-quality ingredients, either; as Park revealed, some commercially produced basic ingredients like soy sauce and sesame oil are perfectly acceptable for home cooking.
However, it can get overwhelming and confusing when shopping for products you aren’t familiar with, so I whittled down my list according to brands that are more easily available, accessible and affordable to give you the best chance at building your Korean pantry from scratch.
Her maiden bout came against Criss, daughter of hip-hop stars Anthony ‘Treach’ Criss from Naughty by Nature and Sandra ‘Pepa’ Denton from Salt-N-Pepa.
Jones, who won Olympic gold in London 2012 and Rio 2016, needed only two rounds to claim victory, with three successive left hooks flooring her opponent.
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The 32-year-old from Flint has been training with former professional boxer Stephen ‘Swifty’ Smith at Liverpool’s iconic 4 Corners Gym.
Jones has also taken inspiration from former room-mate, unified world boxing champion Lauren Price, who played football for Wales in addition to being a kickboxer and taekwondo player, prior to her own switch to boxing.
UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher has warned that the war in Iran and wider region is having a “massive impact” on civilians, describing it as “a moment of grave, grave peril”.
He also voiced concerns about “secondary impacts” of the violence, saying the conflict risked fuelling an increase in extremism and polarisation in the Middle East and beyond.
“We’ve got to step back from the brink right now”, he told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.
As attacks spread after the bombing of Iran by U.S. and Israeli forces, a video circulated widely of crowds peering up at fire, smoke and debris coming from the top of a high-rise building said to be in Bahrain.
Social media users claimed an Iranian attack had hit the skyscraper. But while buildings in Bahrain have been struck by Iranian missiles during the Iran war, this video wasn’t real. It was generated with artificial intelligence and shared by accounts associated with the Iranian government as part of an effort to amplify its successes.
There are multiple clues that the video was not authentic, including two cars on the left side of the clip that appear stuck together and a man in the bottom-right corner whose elbow seems to move straight through a backpack.
A deluge of misrepresented or fabricated videos has spread widely online since the Iran war began last weekend, fueled in part by state-linked propaganda and influence campaigns — particularly around who is winning the war and how many casualties there have been.
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“The content that’s coming from state actors tends to be a little better targeted,” said Melanie Smith, senior director of policy and research on information operations at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. “They have a very clear kind of narrative structure and the videos are just used to support some kind of statement they want to make about the conflict and about the kind of geopolitical situation writ large.”
Pro-Iran social media accounts have adopted a narrative that exaggerates the destruction and death tolls wrought by the country’s military — a position supported by what is being reported in Iranian state media. This has led to a large number of AI-generated videos of supposed air strikes, such as the one of the Bahraini high-rise on fire.
An ongoing Russia-aligned influence operation called Operation Overload, also referred to as Matryoshka or Storm-1679, has been posting videos designed to impersonate intelligence agencies and news outlets, undermining people’s sense of safety in an effort to sway their behavior — a tactic the network has previously used during election cycles. For example, it shared a warning falsely attributed to Israeli intelligence telling Israelis in Germany and the U.S. to be cautious when in public or to not go outside at all.
Iranian censorship confuses matters further
Misrepresented and fabricated videos have been a key feature of other recent conflicts, such as the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas wars, but experts say a major difference now is the lack of information from the Iranian public due to internet shutdowns and general censorship — a loss of perspectives that could have worked both for and against the Iranian government.
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“In Ukraine, that message was so full-throated it really changed the entire dynamic of the conflict because the world really aligned with the perspective of Ukrainians facing the attacks and showing resilience in light of the attacks, but we’re sort of missing that story from Iran,” said Todd Helmus, a senior behavioral scientist at RAND who studies irregular warfare, terrorism and information operations.
In search of clicks, opportunistic social media users not affiliated with state actors have also contributed heavily to the misinformation that has spread during the first days of the Iran war, presenting old footage from other conflicts as recent, sharing video game clips as real and posting their own AI-generated content.
AI, in particular, has helped fuel misinformation in ways that weren’t possible during past conflicts, even just a few years ago. Coupled with state-linked disinformation and censorship, this creates an even wider vacuum in which the truth can get lost.
“The volume of AI content is starting to just pollute the information environment in these kinds of crisis settings to a really terrifying degree,” Smith said. “The inability to get access to verified and credible information in times like this — it’s getting harder and harder to do that.”
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Nikita Bier, X’s head of product, wrote in a Tuesday post that the platform will suspend users from its revenue-sharing program if they post AI-generated content from an armed conflict without a proper disclosure. The suspensions are 90 days for a first offense and permanent after that. Emerson Brooking, director of strategy and resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, warns that social media platforms are now frontlines in war, and that users should be aware of their potential to be used by state actors, even if they are located thousands of miles away from on-the-ground action.
“If you’re in these spaces, just understand that this is an extension of the physical battle space,” he said. “That there are actors on all sides of the conflict that are actively trying to spread propaganda and disinformation to convince you that certain things are true that aren’t. That your eyeballs and your attention are an asset.”
