World

‘Cheap as Chips’ No Longer True in U.K. as Prices Soar for a Favorite Meal

Published

3 years ago

April 11, 2022

‘Cheap as Chips’ No Longer True in U.K. as Prices Soar for a Favorite Meal

HARTLEPOOL, England — When it opened in 2020, enterprise was booming at Chunks, a retailer serving dozens of parts every day of Britain’s finest identified takeout meal: battered and deep-fried cod with fries, or chips as they’re identified right here.

However even earlier than the battle in Ukraine additional pushed up the store’s payments for power, fish and cooking oil, inflation had already compelled the homeowners, Sayward and Michael Lewis, to boost their costs twice.

Now, with one other spike in costs driving away prospects, Chunks is on the point of failing.

“We’d not be capable to make it to the top of the month,” mentioned Ms. Lewis, sitting behind the shop in Hartlepool, a port city in northeastern England the place her husband, Michael, was raised.

The combating in Ukraine is, Ms. Lewis added, “the straw that broke the camel’s again” — and never only for Chunks, however presumably for 1000’s of different fish-and-chips outlets up and down the nation.

The battle, which has devastated cities in Ukraine and killed 1000’s, has in Britain piled extra strain on a sector that was already fighting pandemic-related inflation. Prices of fuel and electrical energy have surged. The value of cod has risen after nations introduced plans to ban or penalize Russian fish imports, making North Sea provides scarcer and pricier.

Ukraine and Russia are massive producers of sunflower oil, utilized by many fish-and-chips outlets, and that’s working out. And even potatoes are destined to change into dearer, as rising fuel costs push up the price of fertilizer.

“My business is immediately affected by the Ukraine challenge as a result of all our 4 foremost elements are immediately affected, and we use quite a lot of them,” mentioned Andrew Criminal, the president of the Nationwide Federation of Fish Friers, referring to fish, oil, flour (for batter) and potatoes.

In consequence, Britain stands to lose maybe as many as 3,000 of its roughly 10,000 fish-and-chips outlets, in response to Mr. Criminal, who describes the scenario because the business’s largest disaster since such shops first opened within the 1860s.

Greater than 150 years later, no less than one retailer — or “chippy” — is to be present in most cities of any dimension, churning out a reasonable takeout meal that impressed the British idiom “low-cost as chips.”

Not any extra.

So as to add to the gloom, and better costs, the federal government just lately ended a lowered charge of gross sales tax on takeout meals that it had utilized as a pandemic measure.

When the Lewises opened Chunks, they assumed a fish-and-chips enterprise was a protected wager. In any case, it was a product deemed so necessary to morale that it was by no means rationed throughout World Warfare II — a culinary mixture referred to by Winston Churchill because the “good companions.”

However as inflation squeezes their incomes, a few of their prospects have reacted to the elevated costs with anger and even abuse, whereas others have stayed away. Prices have even risen for getting ready mushy peas, a gooey inexperienced facet dish. After the final worth hike, gross sales at Chunks fell by 1,000 kilos, or about $1,300, in every week.

“I really feel as if the issues which can be taking place externally at the moment are going to cease us as a result of it’s out of our management: The one factor we will do is to boost costs however folks gained’t pay,” mentioned Mr. Lewis, who went again to his previous job as {an electrical} inspector to maintain cash coming in.

A brief drive away, issues are even worse for Peter Weegram, who, after a quarter-century, just lately closed his retailer and laid off two staff.

Mr. Weegram mentioned he felt sick when he shuttered his store, The Chippy, concluding that he might now not make a residing. He nonetheless hopes that fish costs will fall sufficient for him to reopen.

“I’m climbing up the partitions now — I’ve by no means been unemployed in my life,” he mentioned at his empty store.

Inside two weeks, the price for containers of cod he purchased elevated to £185 from £141, whereas his fuel and electrical energy invoice virtually doubled, which means he would have needed to increase his costs for a single serving to about £9 from £5.60 simply to interrupt even.

“Individuals round right here wouldn’t have paid it,” he mentioned, including that fish and chips “was an inexpensive meal and now it’ll find yourself as a luxurious.”

A couple of miles south, within the seaside city of Redcar, Nicola Atkinson is decided that her retailer, Seabreeze, will survive, however she can also be feeling the pinch.

“I’ve been doing this for 25 years — I’ve by no means seen something prefer it,” she mentioned as she defined how she had raised costs for the fourth time for the reason that starting of final yr.

“How do you retain explaining that to prospects?” she requested. “Individuals don’t have the disposable revenue, so what are they going to do? Are they going to come back much less? We will’t afford to not put the costs up as a result of we’d be working at a loss, after which we’d not be right here for tomorrow. However there’s a cap on what folks can afford to spend.”

Some prospects in England’s northeast nonetheless assume fish and chips is definitely worth the greater worth.

“It’s a British staple,” mentioned El Jepson, a nail technician who frequents Chunks. “Who doesn’t eat fish and chips?”

However in Redcar, David Bell was much less sanguine. “Two kilos fifty for a bag of chips? You possibly can purchase a sack of potatoes for that.”

A staple of working-class life throughout their lengthy historical past, fish-and-chips outlets are anticipated to be low-cost however should compete with chains whose main choices — burgers, fried rooster and pizza — are usually less expensive than fish.

“Costs are already at a file excessive, they’re going up between 5 and 10 % every week,” mentioned Mr. Criminal, of the federation of fish friers. Britain buys comparatively few fish from Russia — and has threatened so as to add important tariffs on these — however Mr. Criminal mentioned {that a} United States ban on Russian fish imports had elevated competitors for provides from Iceland and Norway, which fish-and-chip outlets depend on.

Mr. Criminal runs a chippy in Euxton in Lancashire the place his final provides of Ukrainian sunflower oil are stacked within the entrance. When that runs out, he would possibly go for palm oil, however different meals producers are additionally in search of provides, sending costs up.

Whereas Mr. Criminal is assured he can survive financially, he’s sure many different retailer homeowners won’t. And he mentioned Britain would lose greater than takeout meals if 1000’s of neighborhood chippies disappeared.

“There’s a little bit of theater in a fish-and-chip store, it’s bit like being behind a bar,” Mr. Criminal mentioned. “I’ve received prospects that simply are available in for the banter and, for a few of the older folks, we could be the one folks they communicate to all day.”

He added, “It’s one thing particular, it’s a part of the tradition of the nation.”

World

India kicks off a massive Hindu festival touted as the world's largest religious gathering

Published

3 hours ago

January 12, 2025

Press Room

India kicks off a massive Hindu festival touted as the world's largest religious gathering

PRAYAGRAJ, India (AP) — Millions of Hindu devotees, mystics and holy men and women from all across India flocked to the northern city of Prayagraj on Monday to kickstart the Maha Kumbh festival, which is being touted as the world’s largest religious gathering.

Over about the next six weeks, Hindu pilgrims with gather at the confluence of three sacred rivers — the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati — where they will take part in elaborate rituals, hoping to begin a journey to achieve Hindu philosophy’s ultimate goal: the release from the cycle of rebirth.

Here’s what to know about the festival:

A religious gathering at the confluence of three sacred rivers

Hindus venerate rivers, and none more so than the Ganges and the Yamuna. The faithful believe that a dip in their waters will cleanse them of their past sins and end their process of reincarnation, particularly on auspicious days. The most propitious of these days occur in cycles of 12 years during a festival called the Maha Kumbh Mela, or pitcher festival.

The festival is a series of ritual baths by Hindu sadhus, or holy men, and other pilgrims at the confluence of three sacred rivers that dates to at least medieval times. Hindus believe that the mythical Saraswati river once flowed from the Himalayas through Prayagraj, meeting there with the Ganges and the Yamuna.

Bathing takes place every day, but on the most auspicious dates, naked, ash-smeared monks charge toward the holy rivers at dawn. Many pilgrims stay for the entire festival, observing austerity, giving alms and bathing at sunrise every day.

“We feel peaceful here and attain salvation from the cycles of life and death,” said Bhagwat Prasad Tiwari, a pilgrim.

The festival has its roots in a Hindu tradition that says the god Vishnu wrested a golden pitcher containing the nectar of immortality from demons. Hindus believe that a few drops fell in the cities of Prayagraj, Nasik, Ujjain and Haridwar — the four places where the Kumbh festival has been held for centuries.

The Kumbh rotates among these four pilgrimage sites about every three years on a date prescribed by astrology. This year’s festival is the biggest and grandest of them all. A smaller version of the festival, called Ardh Kumbh, or Half Kumbh, was organized in 2019, when 240 million visitors were recorded, with about 50 million taking a ritual bath on the busiest day.

Maha Kumb is the world’s largest such gathering

At least 400 million people — more than the population of the United States — are expected in Prayagraj over the next 45 days, according to officials. That is around 200 times the 2 million pilgrims that arrived in the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia for the annual Hajj pilgrimage last year.

The festival is a big test for Indian authorities to showcase the Hindu religion, tourism and crowd management.

A vast ground along the banks of the rivers has been converted into a sprawling tent city equipped with more 3,000 kitchens and 150,000 restrooms. Divided into 25 sections and spreading over 40 square kilometers (15 square miles), the tent city also has housing, roads, electricity and water, communication towers and 11 hospitals. Murals depicting stories from Hindu scriptures are painted on the city walls.

Indian Railways has also introduced more than 90 special trains that will make nearly 3,300 trips during the festival to transport devotees, beside regular trains.

About 50,000 security personnel — a 50% increase from 2019 — are also stationed in the city to maintain law and order and crowd management. More than 2,500 cameras, some powered by AI, will send crowd movement and density information to four central control rooms, where officials can quickly deploy personnel to avoid stampedes.

The festival will boost Modi’s support base

India’s past leaders have capitalized on the festival to strengthen their relationship with the country’s Hindus, who make up nearly 80% of India’s more than 1.4 billion people. But under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the festival has become an integral part of its advocacy of Hindu nationalism. For Modi and his party, Indian civilization is inseparable from Hinduism, although critics say the party’s philosophy is rooted in Hindu supremacy.

The Uttar Pradesh state, headed by Adityanath — a powerful Hindu monk and a popular hard-line Hindu politician in Modi’s party — has allocated more than $765 million for this year’s event. It has also used the festival to boost his and the prime minister’s image, with giant billboards and posters all over the city showing them both, alongside slogans touting their government welfare policies.

The festival is expected to boost the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party’s past record of promoting Hindu cultural symbols for its support base. But recent Kumbh gatherings have also been caught in controversies.

Modi’s government changed the city’s Mughal-era name from Allahabad to Prayagraj as part of its Muslim-to-Hindu name-changing effort nationwide ahead of the 2019 festival and the national election that his party won. In 2021, his government refused to call off the festival in Haridwar despite a surge in coronavirus cases, fearing a backlash from religious leaders in the Hindu-majority country.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

World

Ukraine has captured 2 North Korean soldiers, South Korea's intelligence service says

Published

4 hours ago

January 12, 2025

Press Room

Ukraine has captured 2 North Korean soldiers, South Korea's intelligence service says

Ukraine captured two wounded North Korean soldiers who were fighting on behalf of Russia in a Russian border region, South Korea’s intelligence service said, confirming an account from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday.

Seoul’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) told AFP it has “confirmed that the Ukrainian military captured two North Korean soldiers on January 9 in the Kursk battlefield in Russia.”

The confirmation comes after Zelenskyy said in a post on the Telegram messaging app that the two captured North Korean soldiers were wounded and taken to Kyiv, where they are communicating with Ukrainian security services SBU.

SBU released video that appears to show the two prisoners on beds inside jail cells. The authenticity of the video could not be independently verified.

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In this unverified photo shared by the Ukrainian military, an apparent captured North Korean soldier with injuries is sitting in a bed inside a cell. (Ukraine Military handout)

A doctor interviewed in the SBU video said one soldier suffered a facial wound while the other soldier had an open wound and a lower leg fracture. Both men were receiving medical treatment.

In this unverified photo shared by the Ukrainian military, an apparent captured North Korean soldier with injuries is lying in a bed inside a cell. (Ukraine Military handout)

SBU also said one of the soldiers had no documents at all, while the other had been carrying a Russian military ID card in the name of a man from Tuva, a Russian region bordering Mongolia.

Ukraine’s military says North Korean soldiers are outfitted in Russian military uniforms and carry fake military IDs in their pockets, a scheme that Andrii Yusov, spokesperson for Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, says could mean Moscow and “its representatives at the U.N. can deny the facts.”

Despite Ukrainian, U.S. and South Korean assertions that Pyongyang has sent 10,000 – 12,000 troops to fight alongside Russia in the Kursk border region, Moscow has never publicly acknowledged the North Korean forces.

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While reports of their presence first emerged in October, Ukrainian troops only confirmed engagement on the ground in December.

On Thursday, Zelenskyy put the number of killed or wounded North Koreans at 4,000, though U.S. estimates are lower, at around 1,200.

Soldiers are seen at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Oct. 12, 2020. (AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin, File)

Despite North Korea’s suffering losses and initial inexperience on the battlefield, Ukrainian soldiers, military intelligence and experts suggest first-hand experience will only help them develop further as a fighting force.

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“For the first time in decades, the North Korean army is gaining real military experience,” Yusov said. “This is a global challenge — not just for Ukraine and Europe, but for the entire world.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

World

Three people killed in an avalanche in Italy's Leopontine Alps

Published

5 hours ago

January 12, 2025

Press Room

Three people killed in an avalanche in Italy's Leopontine Alps

A group of five skiers was hit by the avalanche above the village of Trasquera in the Piedmont region. Two survived and were helicoptered to hospital.

The avalanche broke away around 12.30pm on the eastern face of Punta Valgrande, a summit in the Leopontine Alps, on the border between Italy and Switzerland.

The skiers who died were dragged down the snowy mountain for several hundred metres from where they had been skiing at over 2,800 metres. The bodies have not yet been recovered because they are awaiting authorisation from the local magistrate.

An alert had been issued in the area above 2,100 metres, which warned of “considerable danger of avalanches.” The alert was at level 3, with 5 being the most dangerous.

It is not yet clear whether the rescuers were alerted by a skier who saw the avalanche sweeping away three people, or by the other two people who managed to save themselves. According to reports, the group was going uphill with crampons and then descending with skis.