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This boiled bag of offal is banned in the US. In Scotland it’s a fine-dining treat | CNN

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This boiled bag of offal is banned in the US. In Scotland it’s a fine-dining treat | CNN



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Anthony Bourdain beloved haggis. However even the late, nice American chef, author and tv host acknowledged that Scotland’s nationwide dish, with its “sinister sheep elements” wrapped in a shroud of thriller and half-invented historical past, may very well be a tough promote.

“Don’t allow them to inform you in any other case, that’s actually one in all life’s nice pleasures,” Bourdain stated on one in all his gastro-curious pilgrimages to Glasgow. “There is no such thing as a extra unfairly reviled meals on Earth than the haggis.”

A mash-up of diced lung, liver and coronary heart combined with oatmeal, beef suet, onion and various spices, haggis was historically made by stuffing these uncooked elements into the abdomen of a not too long ago slain sheep and boiling the lot to a state of palatability.

Instagrammable shouldn’t be the phrase that instantly involves thoughts. In our Twenty first-century world, the place “clear” consuming and processed pap overlap, haggis can look like an “Outlander”-style outlier from one other age.

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But, by some alchemy, as soon as cooked to its required “warm-reekin’ (steaming)” state, it provides as much as far more than the sum of its modest elements. It’s offaly attraction has stored nose-to-tail consuming alive amongst a youthful technology of Scots that has largely turned its again on the tripe, liver and kidneys their predecessors loved (or endured).

Rigorously ready, haggis tastes each oaty and meaty; it’s darkish and crumbly, somewhat crispy on the edges however nonetheless moist; earthy but additionally savory and spicy; deep-tasting and profoundly warming, the proper foil for its conventional garnish of floury mashed potatoes and orange bashed turnip.

“It’s like a cuddle for the abdomen,” says Nicola Turner, a 35-year-old workplace administrator from Helensburgh, a city on western Scotland’s Firth of Clyde.

For kids of the Sixties and ’70s, like crime novelist Ian Rankin, haggis meals have been a alternative between the basic meat-and-two-veg plate and the battered and deep-fried, chip-shop iteration beloved by each his good friend Bourdain and his quintessentially Scottish detective character, Inspector John Rebus.

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Now myriad different therapies have blossomed.

“I’m fairly positive the primary time I dined with AB in Edinburgh we had haggis in filo pastry with a jam-style – perhaps blackcurrant – sauce,” Rankin recalled. “He was an enormous fan of haggis and of chip retailers. Rebus can have loved the occasional haggis supper from his native chip store. He was undoubtedly a fan, as am I.”

“It’s all in regards to the spicing and the feel,” says the Scottish meals author, novelist and cook dinner Sue Lawrence, a champion of haggis’ adaptability to be used in different dishes. “In case you didn’t know what was in it, you wouldn’t assume ‘oh that tastes of liver or no matter.’ It’s all properly chopped up and the oatmeal provides it a beautiful texture. It might simply be a pleasant, huge mince dish.”

Lawrence makes use of haggis as a substitute for beef and pork ragù in lasagna and in her pastilla, a model of the North African dish by which a hand-made haggis from the Isle of Mull substitutes for the standard poultry or seafood filling. The filo pastry savory is flavored with the spice mix ras el hanout, apricots, chile, orange zest and almonds earlier than being sprinkled with cinnamon and icing sugar.

Such cultural crossovers function a reminder that haggis might simply be a dish with nothing particularly Scottish about it in any respect. Information of comparable fast and moveable preparations of the fast-perishing innards of sheep and different animals date again to historical Rome and Greece.

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Haggis-like mixtures of offal and grains are a part of the culinary historical past of a number of nations. Spain has chireta, Romania drob and Sweden polsa, whereas chaudin, or ponce, is a rice and meat-stuffed pig abdomen that may be a staple of Cajun cooking.

Deep-fried haggis is often a staple of Scottish fish and chip shops.

In neighboring England, recipes for “hagese,” “hagws of a schepe,” “haggas” or “haggus” pop up in recipe books printed between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries, in all probability previous written data north of the border.

Etymological proof factors to the time period “haggis” having its roots in Outdated Norse, suggesting an early model of an oat-and-offal sausage might need arrived in Britain and Eire on a Viking longboat.

However ever because it was first optioned by the poet Robert Burns within the late 1700s, the haggis backstory has been monopolized by Scotland and the Scots, generally mischievously.

It’s, in accordance with the form of lore that Burns engendered, the dish a doughty Highlander would carry with him as he drove cattle by means of the glens to the markets of the central belt or the proper picnic for a whisky smuggler plying his illicit commerce by moonlight.

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Imports of Scottish haggis are banned from the United States.

From such romantic notions it was a brief step to turning the haggis right into a wee wild beastie, one with longer legs on one facet that was thus condemned to run spherical and spherical whichever hill it lived on. In 2003, a ballot of American vacationers in Scotland discovered that one in three of them believed they could encounter such a confused creature on a Caledonian trip.

Bourdain, a local New Yorker, could have certified as haggis’ greatest admirer since Burns, however his compatriots on the US Division of Agriculture stay unconverted to offal-filled paunch. Haggis imports into the USA have been prohibited in 1971 as a part of a ban on the consumption of all livestock lungs. Genuine variations of old style haggis stay culinary contraband within the US, as laborious to put your fingers on as Cuban cigars.

Throughout the remainder of the world, it’s a distinct story. In accordance with main producer Simon Howie, haggis is extra broadly appreciated and consumed now than it has been since Burns improvised his “Handle to a Haggis” for the leisure of well-to-do Edinburgh acquaintances.

The haggis is toasted on Burns Night, held every year in honor of Scottish poet Robert Burns.

Firmly tongue-in-cheek, the poem lauds the “Nice chieftain o’ the pudding race,” as precisely the form of unpretentious, hearty fare required to nourish a nation of braveheart warriors.

Compared to the enfeebling international muck loved by the capital’s claret-quaffing elites of the time – the olio, fricassée or ragoût that will “sicken a sow” – Burns urges his readers to surprise on the magical affect of haggis on his fellow sons of Scotland’s soil.

Because the English translation of the unique Scots language model places it:

However mark the Rustic, haggis-fed/

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The trembling earth resounds his tread/

Clap in his ample fist a blade/

He’ll make it whistle/

And legs and arms and heads will lower/

Off just like the heads of thistles

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Anthony Bourdain and Anderson Cooper speak Scottish meals

Today artificial casings have largely changed abdomen however ovine and porcine innards stay on the core of many of the haggis produced in its homeland, stated Howie, who estimates that his firm Simon Howie Butchers, accounts for round 60% of the roughly two million haggises produced yearly.

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For Howie, versatility, worth for cash and comfort clarify why this staple of the Scottish larder is prospering. Usually haggis retails in Scotland, which accounts for half of worldwide consumption by quantity, for round £6, or $7.70 per kilogram ($3.36/pound). That’s round half the value of inexpensive cuts of beef or a 3rd of the value of Scotch lamb whereas having fun with a reasonably related dietary and calorific profile.

“You may give your children a meal that’s not stuffed with stuff you don’t need to feed them – for a number of kilos you’ll be able to feed three strapping lads,” Howie stated.

“From a kitchen perspective, it is rather easy as a result of when it leaves our manufacturing unit it’s already cooked. So if you or a restaurant proprietor will get it into the kitchen all it’s important to do is warmth it as much as be piping sizzling. It couldn’t be extra fundamental: a scholar with no cooking expertise or a Michelin-starred chef do precisely the identical factor to place it out on the plate.”

Haggis can often be found on fine dining menus.

Its texture means haggis can be usefully deployed in positive eating alongside leaner meat like venison or as a stuffing for poultry and recreation birds. Its spicy depth means additionally it is discovering makes use of in canapés and as a crouton-borne garnish for soups.

Buoyant gross sales are additionally underpinned by the rising consumption of haggis in varieties impressed by Scotland’s ethnic minorities.

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Glasgow’s Sikh group pioneered haggis pakora within the Nineties and samosas, spring rolls and quesadillas have adopted in its wake, typically utilizing a vegetarian model of the protein by which the offal is changed by a mixture of greens, pulses and mushrooms.

Such dishes are greater than culinary twists. They’re badges of belonging, and a sign that, two centuries after Burns grabbed it for the nation, haggis is as intimately entwined with Scots identification as ever.

Simply ask Ross O’Cinneide, a promising 14-year-old fly-half within the junior part of Stirling County rugby membership.

“Most of my associates and I like haggis,” he says. “Mum makes it for us generally after rugby and it’s received a really good warming feeling. And it’s good as a result of it’s purely Scottish.”

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As California Burns, ‘Octavia Tried to Tell Us’ Has New Meaning

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As California Burns, ‘Octavia Tried to Tell Us’ Has New Meaning

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In the wake of the devastating fires in Los Angeles, many people are referencing the work of the science fiction writer Octavia Butler. Butler, who grew up in Pasadena, was the daughter of a housekeeper and a father who was a shoeshiner. She went on to become the first science fiction writer to win a MacArthur “genius” award. Her book “Parable of the Sower,” published in 1993, paints a picture of a California ravished by the effects of climate change, income inequality, political divisiveness and centers on a young woman struggling to find faith and the community to build a new future.

The phrase “Octavia tried to tell us,” which began to gain momentum in 2020 during the pandemic, has once again resurfaced, in part because Butler studied science and history so deeply. The accuracy with which she read the shifts in America can, at times, seem eerily prophetic. One entry in “Parable of the Sower,” which is structured as a journal, dated on “February 1, 2025” begins, “We had a fire today.” It goes on to describe how the fear of fires plague Robledo, a fictional town that feels much like Altadena, a haven for the Black middle class for more than 50 years, where Butler lived in the late ’90s.

In 2000, Butler wrote a piece for Essence magazine titled, “A Few Rules for Predicting the Future.” She wrote: “Of course, writing novels about the future doesn’t give me any special ability to foretell the future. But it does encourage me to use our past and present behaviors as guides to the kind of world we seem to be creating. The past, for example, is filled with repeating cycles of strength and weakness, wisdom and stupidity, empire and ashes.”

In one of the last interviews before she died in 2006, Butler spoke to Democracy Now!, an independent news organization, about how she’d been worried about how climate could devastate California . “I wrote the two ‘Parable’ books back in the ’90s,” she said, referring to “Parable of the Sower” and her 1998 follow-up, “Parable of the Talents.” These books, she explained, were about what happens when “we don’t trouble to correct some of the problems we are brewing for ourselves right now. Global warming is one of those problems. And I was aware of it back in the ’80s.” She continued: “A lot of people were seeing it as politics, as something very iffy, as something they could ignore because nothing was going to come of it tomorrow.

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Lynell George, a writer who lives in Los Angeles and the author of a book on Butler and her creative journey, has spent many years studying Butler’s archives at the Huntington Library in Pasadena. In 2022, we asked George to write about how Butler predicted the world we live in. As so many people are turning to her work during this time of tremendous loss, we wanted to share that story with our readers again.

In her piece, “The Visions of Octavia Butler,” George wrote: “In ‘Parable of the Sower,’ Earth is tipping toward climate disaster: A catastrophic drought has led to social upheaval and violent class wars. Butler, a fervent environmentalist, researched the novel by clipping articles, taking notes and monitoring rain and growth in her Southern California neighborhood. She couldn’t help but wonder, she later wrote, what ‘environmental and economic stupidities’ might lead to. She often called herself a pessimist, but threaded into the bleak landscape of her ‘Parable’ novels are strands of glimmering hope — ribbons of blue at the edges of the fictional fiery skies.”

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Donald Trump’s inauguration to be moved indoors because of ‘bitterly cold’ weather

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Donald Trump’s inauguration to be moved indoors because of ‘bitterly cold’ weather

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Parts of Donald Trump’s inauguration will be moved inside the US Capitol because of freezing weather that is forecast for Washington on Monday.

It will be the first time since 1985 — when a severe cold snap hit Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration — that a swearing-in ceremony has been moved indoors.

The president-elect announced the revised plans in a Truth Social post on Friday, saying he had ordered the inauguration address, as well as prayers and speeches, to be delivered inside the Capitol Rotunda as Reagan had done four decades ago.

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“There is an Arctic blast sweeping the Country. I don’t want to see people hurt, or injured, in any way,” Trump wrote.

“It is dangerous conditions for the tens of thousands of Law Enforcement, First Responders, Police K9s and even horses, and hundreds of thousands of supporters that will be outside for many hours on the 20th.”

The National Weather Service said an “enhanced winter storm threat” was in place for Sunday afternoon and evening, and predicted about 2-4 inches of snow would fall, with a “reasonable worst case” scenario of 4-8 inches.

“Bitterly cold wind chills” were expected Monday to Wednesday, the NWS said on Friday, as it forecast temperatures to be “well below freezing” during this period.

The agency is forecasting a high of about -5C at 11am local time on Monday, when the swearing-in ceremony is due to begin, with a wind-chill of -13C that it warned could result in hypothermia or frostbite without appropriate attire.

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Trump said the Capital One Arena — with a capacity of 20,000 — will be opened on Monday for a live viewing of the ceremony, and that he would visit the venue, located about 2km from the Capitol, following his swearing-in.

Other events, including a victory rally at the arena are scheduled for Sunday and inaugural balls set for Monday night, will continue as scheduled, the president-elect said.

Trump encouraged supporters who choose to come to “dress warmly!”

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CNN liable for defamation over story on Afghanistan 'black market' rescues

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CNN liable for defamation over story on Afghanistan 'black market' rescues

Security contractor Zachary Young alleges CNN defamed him in a November 2021 report, shown above, about Afghans’ fears of exorbitant charges from people offering to get them out of the country after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. CNN says it will defend the report in a trial set to start in a Florida court Monday.

CNN via Internet Archive/Screenshot by NPR


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CNN via Internet Archive/Screenshot by NPR

A Florida jury has found that CNN defamed a security consultant in presenting a story that suggested he was charging “exorbitant prices” to evacuate people desperate to get out of Afghanistan after the U.S. withdrawal in August 2021.

Jurors found the network should pay $5 million to U.S. Navy veteran Zachary Young for lost finances and suffering, and said he was eligible for more in punitive damages. The proceedings turned immediately to expert testimony as both sides presented cases over what punitive damages would be appropriate.

Young sat impassively as the jury’s verdict was read aloud in court.

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The November 2021 story focused on concerns from Afghans that they faced extraordinary costs in a “black market” to secure safe passage for relatives and friends, especially those who had worked with U.S. agencies and organizations and therefore were fearful of the takeover by the Taliban.

Young was the only security contractor named in the piece, however, and a caption warned he offered “no guarantee of safety or success.”

He was not directly accused of operating in a black market in the television or written versions of the story, but the words did appear in the caption in the TV version of the story.

On the witness stand during the trial, CNN editors defended use of the term “black market,” saying it meant operating in unregulated circumstances, such as the chaos of Kabul at that time; Young’s lawyers noted that dictionaries consistently ascribe illegality to the term.

The jury found CNN liable for defamation per se, meaning it had harmed Young by the very words it chose, and for defamation by implication, that is, it had harmed his reputation by the implications that a reasonable reader or viewer might take from the story.

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Young’s lead attorney, Devin Freedman, had argued that CNN willfully damaged Young, costing him millions of dollars and causing irreparable personal harm, and that the network should be punished for it. Toward the very end of his closing arguments, Freedman told the jury they had the rare opportunity to hold the press accountable.

“Media executives around the country are sitting by the phones to see what you do,” Freedman told jurors. “CNN’s executives are waiting in their boardrooms in Georgia to see what you decide. Make the phones ring in Georgia. Send a message.”

After the initial verdict, Judge William S. Henry instructed jurors that they could only find punitive damages against CNN for its actions in the case at hand, not over any other story or issue.

Even so, over the course of the lawsuit, lawyers for Zachary Young acquired internal correspondence showing several editors within CNN held reservations about the solidity of the reporting behind the story.

For example, Fuzz Hogan, a senior director of standards for CNN, acknowledged in testimony under oath that he had approved a “three-quarters true” story. Another editor, Tom Lumley, had said in an internal message that the piece was “80 percent emotion.” On the stand, Lumley said that it still wasn’t his favorite story, but on the grounds of the craft of story-telling involved.

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During the trial, CNN’s lawyers had contended the story’s reporting holds up as fair and true under scrutiny. CNN correspondent Alexander Marquardt had presented viewers with a LinkedIn message from Young saying it would cost $75,000 to evacuate a vehicle with five or six passengers from Kabul to Pakistan. Young said he worked with corporate sponsors, including Bloomberg and Audible, rather than individuals.

On the stand, Young acknowledged that he took a 65% profit margin from the fees he charged, and took inquiries from individuals. He also curtly and coarsely brushed off people inquiring about help who could not afford his fees.

Other groups involving U.S. veterans and non-governmental organizations sought to get Afghans out without such profits, as a former major general testifying on Young’s behalf acknowledged. The retired major general, James V. Young Jr. (not related to Zach Young), said he charged donors for the cost.

CNN’s legal team, led by David Axelrod (the lawyer is not related to the Obama White House official and CNN analyst of the same name) had told jurors they should rely on their own “common sense.”

Axelrod had been able to press Young to concede that some of his claims to potential clients were not borne out by facts; Young had not in fact evacuated people from Afghanistan by air. Nor was he in constant contact with journalists, as claimed.

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In his closing argument, Freedman presented Young as a swashbuckling former CIA operative to explain his curtness in messages to desperate people trying to help people.

On the witness stand, however, Young emerged as emotionally vulnerable himself, weeping during testimony. He recounted that, after the story ran, he became despondent, depressed, alienated from intimacy with his wife, cut off from friends and family members. HIs attorney cited “deep and lasting wounds” from the piece.

The piece was presented initially on CNN’s The Lead With Jake Tapper, and a fuller written version subsequently posted on CNN’s website. A few months later, shortly after Young’s legal team threatened legal actions, a substitute anchor apologized to Young on the air for use of the term “black market” in the story, and said it did not apply to him.

Freedman, Young’s attorney, called the apology insufficient.

“This is what makes this case historic: punitive damages,” Freedman told jurors. “A media company has to face an American jury with the power to punish. That is not a frequent event. Do you believe that CNN should be punished? Do you believe they should send a message to other media companies to avoid this misconduct?”

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This story will be updated after the jury decides on what, if any, punitive damages to award Young.

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