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UAE Moments
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- UAE Moments
♎ Libra Daily Horoscope for July 24, 2025
Libra, the stars are nudging you to ditch the middle ground and go after what you want. Yes, you! Not your best friend, your boss, or the entire group chat. For once, it's okay to be delightfully, unapologetically selfish (in the most Libran way, of course). ⚖️ Vibe Check: Charming, Focused & Ready to Make Waves You're gliding through the day with your signature grace but beneath that polished exterior? A quiet determination that's ready to go off. You're done waiting. You're making choices. And guess what? They're good ones. Libra Tip: Stand tall in your truth. Saying 'no' is a power move today. 💼 Work & Career: Make Bold Decisions Beautifully You've got an eye for strategy today and you're not afraid to flex it. Whether it's rearranging a team, rethinking a pitch, or setting a boundary, you're doing it with poise and polish. If there's a big decision looming, don't second-guess yourself. You've already weighed the pros and cons in your head five times. Boss energy moment incoming: Someone's about to be impressed by your clarity. 💖 Love & Friendship: You Set the Tone Your charm is turned up, but today, you're not here for people-pleasing. You're craving real connection and aren't afraid to ask for it. Single Libras may find sparks with someone who challenges their usual 'type.' Coupled up? A heartfelt chat may bring your relationship into better alignment. Today's Love Mood: Soft glam with a touch of "I know what I want." 🧘♀️ Mood & Vibe: Calm Surface, Fiery Soul Sure, you look calm. But inside? A spark is lit. Today is about honoring what excites you, not just what looks good on paper. Lucky Color: Navy Blue Lucky Numbers: 6 & 24 Cosmic Playlist Song: 'Don't Start Now' – Dua Lipa Affirmation of the Day: 'I move through life with beauty, confidence, and fierce clarity.' Libra Thought for July 24: You're allowed to want more. You're allowed to go get it. You're allowed to look good doing it.
Yahoo
19-07-2025
- General
- Yahoo
What a viral TikTok teaches us about ghosting
You match with that perfect-on-paper person on a dating app. You chat back and forth for a few days, butterflies fluttering in your stomach. A fantastic first date begets a second. You check in about a third date, and then – crickets. Nada. Zilch. What gives? You've been ghosted, an all-too-common phenomenon in the digital age where your date loses interest and cuts off communication. Gut-wrenching for you, yes, but is it just as awful for your loved ones? A recent viral TikTok with 1.6 million views offered a crucial, confounding statement: "When you ghost me, just know you're not punishing me. You're punishing my best friend. You're punishing the group chat. Because I will be talking about you and all the scenarios that led up to you ghosting me 150,000 times, and they're going to have to hear it." As silly as the TikTok is, mental health experts caution the framing of expressing your feelings to loved ones as punishment, and discourage letting the "ghoster" hold power over you. "It's important to remember that the ghoster's behavior is ultimately a reflection of their own emotional handicap and impaired value system," says Cecille Ahrens, a licensed clinical social worker. "They often are wounded themselves, and lack the proper relationship and communication tools to navigate more complex emotions." In case you missed: This new dating trend is leaving people baffled and heartbroken. It's called 'Banksying.' 'Ghosting prevents development of these important relationship skills' Date around long enough, and you've likely been ghosted and/or have done the ghosting yourself. Hit a "mute" button on your phone, block a number, ignore that notification bubble – all easy. But actions have consequences. "Ghosting in my clinical opinion is a form of emotional neglect, as well as a form of conflict avoidance," Ahrens says. "In extreme cases, it can be part of a larger pattern of emotional abuse on the part of the ghoster." Sometimes ghosting, even if impolite, is understandable. "If you're going through a depressive episode or you're so burned out that you can't get your thoughts together, it makes sense that you'd have trouble communicating," says Kimberly Vered Shashoua, a licensed clinical social worker. "The ideal thing to do is let people know you're struggling and that responses will be delayed." In healthy, safe relationships, upfront, honest communication remains the best course of action. "Learning how to confront a difficult situation or have a challenging conversation is an emotional skill that is necessary for healthy relationships," adds Laura Petiford, a licensed marriage and family therapist. "Engaging in ghosting prevents development of these important relationship skills." Did you see? A woman's canceled Hinge date went mega-viral. Here's what she did next. Yes, it's OK to talk to friends, family for support How the person ghosted reacts depends on their own trauma. "In my experience, if the person being ghosted has a particular history of abandonment, abuse or rejection, they tend to suffer greatly, often internalizing and personalizing the ghoster's behaviors," Ahrens adds. It's no wonder, then, that people will reach out to loved ones to lick their wounds. But don't let this viral (albeit unserious) TikTok cloud your thinking: "In no way is having to hear about a friend's grief and loss over an attachment injury somehow worse than being injured in that way yourself," says Sheila Addison, a family and marriage therapist. If you find yourself ghosted again and again, though, there's nothing wrong with seeking professional help, especially "if one finds themselves excessively preoccupied and significantly distressed by the act of ghosting," Ahrens says. The next time you're waiting for that text back, wait. Take a deep breath. They'll text you back or they won't. And that's OK. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Relationship issues: Viral TikTok teaches us truth about ghosting Solve the daily Crossword
The Guardian
17-07-2025
- Lifestyle
- The Guardian
The search for the drink of summer 2025 is over – and it's Lonkero
Ideally, to qualify for the title, the drink of the summer – like the song of the summer – should be obvious and undeniable, emerging some time in mid-June before spreading, as though on the breeze, to be inescapable by August. You should have never even heard of this beverage before the temperature hits 20C, then you shouldn't be able to imagine life without it. You might return to it years later, and even enjoy it – but it should never hit quite the same way as it did that first summer it was everywhere. Unfortunately, this high-season, low-stakes tradition has been tested over the past decade by our heavily saturated yet highly atomised consumer culture. These days, we're flooded with options (rosorange wine? Smoked beers?) but struggle to align behind any of them. The TikTok-driven trend cycle doesn't help, claiming every teenager's cupboard-raiding concoction is the next big thing. So I was taken aback – and a little delighted – when the drink of this summer made itself known to me as though it were the year 2015, not 2025: organically, insistently and right on time. It's Lonkero: gin mixed with grapefruit soda, available on draught and served in pints. I feel confident in my pick, but I've also included some alternatives. The debate, after all, is part of the fun. I first learned of Lonkero on 18 June, when a friend messaged our group chat saying she'd just tried one at the pub, and that it had been 'occupying a lot of brain space' since. None of us had ever heard of it. The next day, another friend tried it, was instantly won over and bought a case. Then it came up again at my gym, an entirely different social circle. Then a second pub started serving it. When I finally got around to trying Lonkero, I was immediately converted – and, judging by the pint glasses containing telltale grapefruit wedges on all the tables surrounding me, most of Norwich had been, too. 'We're bizarrely doing very well in Norwich,' confirms the Lonkero co-founder Paige Gibbons. Other UK hotspots include Edinburgh, Brighton and pockets of London; they have also just started distributing to the north. Though Lonkero is a new brand, having launched in May last year, the drink itself dates back to 1952, and the Helsinki Olympic Games. To mark the occasion, the host nation came up with a premixed beverage of gin and grapefruit soda; it proved such a hit, with locals as well as visitors, it stuck. The generic lonkero ('long drink' in English) has since been dubbed the national drink of Finland. The Lonkero co-founder Joe Harris developed a taste for it while working in Helsinki, then teamed up with Gibbons to bring it to the UK. For Gibbons, not a fan of beer or cider, Lonkero held instant appeal as an easy-drinking beverage served in pints. 'I always used to joke that I was fed up with paying double the price for a drink that I'd finish sooner,' she says. She was not alone: in its first six months, Lonkero sold more than 50,000 pints. Distribution has been focused on pubs, which can offer Lonkero on tap and present it as an alternative to a session ale or cider (rather than an alcopop or even a G&T). Gibbons describes it as a 'new category of drink'. 'What we've found is that, if people try it, they get it,' she says. 'Word of mouth has been phenomenal for us – if you find it and like it, it's actually something you tell your friends about.' That shareable quality, I'd argue, is the X-factor that distinguishes a bona fide drink of the summer from one drummed up for clicks. Very few of the beverages that go viral on TikTok actually make an impact in pubs and bars (and I would know). Lonkero, on the other hand, has hit Norwich with unmistakable force. At this rate, we might wind up with a pub for every day of the year and a Lonkero pub for every Sunday. Of course, as much as the answer should be obvious, the debate is part of what makes the 'drink of the summer' question so compelling. Stylist magazine was early to call it, declaring back in May that the 2025 beverage of choice was the spicy paloma. It was a safe pick, combining two already trendy cocktails: the paloma and the spicy margarita. The traditional paloma combines tequila, grapefruit soda and lime juice; in this case, the addition of jalapeños or chilli peppers and often a spicy rim add kick. At the time of Stylist's report, it was already being offered at many trendy London joints, but has the added advantage of being easy to whip up off-menu. The Aperol spritz may have ushered in the concept of the 'drink of the summer'; it remains the defining example, along with the less syrupy Campari spritz. Still today, the holiday hasn't officially begun until you have a bright orange beverage in a goldfish-bowl glass in your hand. In the years since Aperol's peak, however, there have been rumblings of dissent: it's too sweet, too obvious, too 2021 … This summer's spritz of choice has been declared the Hugo (or St-Germain) spritz, comprising elderflower cordial, prosecco, soda water, mint and lime. It signals your discernment amid an orange sea – and, even better, it's now available in a can from M&S. If elderflower is too subtle for you, the limoncello spritz – another new M&S cocktail – is a similarly sweet and eye-catching alternative to Aperol, like replacing your tired old orange highlighter with a snazzy yellow one. If you are unwilling to be parted from Aperol, a naked and famous might be your next favourite order. Delish magazine's pick for drink of summer 2025, the cocktail packs a heavy punch with equal parts mezcal, yellow chartreuse, Aperol and fresh lime juice. It was devised in 2011 by the New York bartender Joaquín Simó, who described it as a 'more evolved, refined margarita', and has been steadily gaining popularity along with mezcal. If anything thwarts your order, it will be the chartreuse. The French herbal liqueur has been in short supply since the Carthusian monks who produce it decided to focus instead on 'solitude and prayer'. You may have already learned on this website of BuzzBallz, the globular pre-mixed cocktails loved by gen Z, available in flavours including Tequila 'Rita, Lotta Colada and Choc Tease. They tick many of the boxes for 'drink of the summer': they're attention-grabbing on social media, a conversation starter in person (did you know the company is female-owned?), and highly portable: is that a BuzzBallz in your pocket or are you just happy to see me? They are not more offensive than most pre-mixed cocktails – and almost impressively refined, given the high alcohol content – but the taste is rather beside the point. Faced with the novel selection of brightly coloured balls, they feel more like Pokémon than beverages: you want to try 'em all. For the moment, until gen Z moves on, BuzzBallz have the added advantage of making you seem youthful and in the know by association. For those not sure they have the prerequisite rizz for BuzzBallz, Suntory -196 is a more grown-up yet still novel alternative. The vodka-based RTDs are a vending-machine staple in Suntory's native Japan, but only launched in the UK last year; they are now widely available in supermarkets (though, sadly, not vending machines), in grapefruit and lemon flavours. The name ('minus one nine six') refers to the temperature at which fruit is frozen, using liquid nitrogen, before being crushed into powder and mixed with shochu and vodka. With half the alcohol content of BuzzBallz, they are a safer bet in more ways than one. At the opposite end of the youthful-abandon spectrum is a growing subcategory that might be termed 'fitspo bevs'. Where ordering a vodka soda marks you as calorie-conscious, unchill and so 90s, today's trend for 'hard seltzers' is positioned as optimisation, not deprivation. White Claw, my own longtime premix of choice, is best described as fruit-flavoured fizzy water with an ambiguous-sounding 'gluten-free malted alcohol base' (not vodka, but some other thing). In April, the makers launched a limited-edition Green Apple flavour, just in time for brat summer round two. An even more streamlined option is 'ranch water': basically, fizzy water spiked with white tequila and lime. The New York Times recipe suggests spicing it up with a salt rim, and a splash of Cointreau or flavoured syrup – but even that might be too much fuss for purists. If the drink of the summer isn't alcoholic, it tends to skew towards a refreshing dessert. Tiramisu is emerging as the flavour of these summer months, with Starbucks UK winning over gen Z with its limited-edition tiramisu-inspired drinks menu. The secret to its success has been 'cold foam': an airy, frothy, dairy topping that sits on top of iced coffees (leading Slate to declare the drink of the summer … foam). In Bristol, Full Court Press cafe has been doing brisk trade in its new Tiramibru: nitrogen-infused cold-brew coffee, topped with a shaken jersey pouring cream, mixed with a hint of panela sugar and a dusting of chocolate powder. Co-owner Jonny Simpson describes it as a twist on the iced-coffee-with-cream drinks that are popular across east Asia and recently went viral in Melbourne as a 'Mont Blanc'. 'We wanted to run a dessert-like drink that felt like an afternoon treat,' he says. 'It tastes like a liquid tiramisu, hence the name.' It has proved extremely popular, even at £5 a pop. 'We often struggle to keep up with the cold-brew production on hot days.' The Tiramibru will run to the end of the summer; Simpson is already thinking of how to adapt it for winter. It is, after all, a less crowded market.
The Guardian
17-07-2025
- Lifestyle
- The Guardian
The search for the drink of summer 2025 is over – and it's Lonkero
Ideally, to qualify for the title, the drink of the summer – like the song of the summer – should be obvious and undeniable, emerging some time in mid-June before spreading, as though on the breeze, to be inescapable by August. You should have never even heard of this beverage before the temperature hits 20C, then you shouldn't be able to imagine life without it. You might return to it years later, and even enjoy it – but it should never hit quite the same way as it did that first summer it was everywhere. Unfortunately, this high-season, low-stakes tradition has been tested over the past decade by our heavily saturated yet highly atomised consumer culture. These days, we're flooded with options (rosorange wine? Smoked beers?) but struggle to align behind any of them. The TikTok-driven trend cycle doesn't help, claiming every teenager's cupboard-raiding concoction is the next big thing. So I was taken aback – and a little delighted – when the drink of this summer made itself known to me as though it were the year 2015, not 2025: organically, insistently and right on time. It's Lonkero: gin mixed with grapefruit soda, available on draught and served in pints. I feel confident in my pick, but I've also included some alternatives. The debate, after all, is part of the fun. I first learned of Lonkero on 18 June, when a friend messaged our group chat saying she'd just tried one at the pub, and that it had been 'occupying a lot of brain space' since. None of us had ever heard of it. The next day, another friend tried it, was instantly won over and bought a case. Then it came up again at my gym, an entirely different social circle. Then a second pub started serving it. When I finally got around to trying Lonkero, I was immediately converted – and, judging by the pint glasses containing telltale grapefruit wedges on all the tables surrounding me, most of Norwich had been, too. 'We're bizarrely doing very well in Norwich,' confirms the Lonkero co-founder Paige Gibbons. Other UK hotspots include Edinburgh, Brighton and pockets of London; they have also just started distributing to the north. Though Lonkero is a new brand, having launched in May last year, the drink itself dates back to 1952, and the Helsinki Olympic Games. To mark the occasion, the host nation came up with a premixed beverage of gin and grapefruit soda; it proved such a hit, with locals as well as visitors, it stuck. The generic lonkero ('long drink' in English) has since been dubbed the national drink of Finland. The Lonkero co-founder Joe Harris developed a taste for it while working in Helsinki, then teamed up with Gibbons to bring it to the UK. For Gibbons, not a fan of beer or cider, Lonkero held instant appeal as an easy-drinking beverage served in pints. 'I always used to joke that I was fed up with paying double the price for a drink that I'd finish sooner,' she says. She was not alone: in its first six months, Lonkero sold more than 50,000 pints. Distribution has been focused on pubs, which can offer Lonkero on tap and present it as an alternative to a session ale or cider (rather than an alcopop or even a G&T). Gibbons describes it as a 'new category of drink'. 'What we've found is that, if people try it, they get it,' she says. 'Word of mouth has been phenomenal for us – if you find it and like it, it's actually something you tell your friends about.' That shareable quality, I'd argue, is the X-factor that distinguishes a bona fide drink of the summer from one drummed up for clicks. Very few of the beverages that go viral on TikTok actually make an impact in pubs and bars (and I would know). Lonkero, on the other hand, has hit Norwich with unmistakable force. At this rate, we might wind up with a pub for every day of the year and a Lonkero pub for every Sunday. Of course, as much as the answer should be obvious, the debate is part of what makes the 'drink of the summer' question so compelling. Stylist magazine was early to call it, declaring back in May that the 2025 beverage of choice was the spicy paloma. It was a safe pick, combining two already trendy cocktails: the paloma and the spicy margarita. The traditional paloma combines tequila, grapefruit soda and lime juice; in this case, the addition of jalapeños or chilli peppers and often a spicy rim add kick. At the time of Stylist's report, it was already being offered at many trendy London joints, but has the added advantage of being easy to whip up off-menu. The Aperol spritz may have ushered in the concept of the 'drink of the summer'; it remains the defining example, along with the less syrupy Campari spritz. Still today, the holiday hasn't officially begun until you have a bright orange beverage in a goldfish-bowl glass in your hand. In the years since Aperol's peak, however, there have been rumblings of dissent: it's too sweet, too obvious, too 2021 … This summer's spritz of choice has been declared the Hugo (or St-Germain) spritz, comprising elderflower cordial, prosecco, soda water, mint and lime. It signals your discernment amid an orange sea – and, even better, it's now available in a can from M&S. If elderflower is too subtle for you, the limoncello spritz – another new M&S cocktail – is a similarly sweet and eye-catching alternative to Aperol, like replacing your tired old orange highlighter with a snazzy yellow one. If you are unwilling to be parted from Aperol, a naked and famous might be your next favourite order. Delish magazine's pick for drink of summer 2025, the cocktail packs a heavy punch with equal parts mezcal, yellow chartreuse, Aperol and fresh lime juice. It was devised in 2011 by the New York bartender Joaquín Simó, who described it as a 'more evolved, refined margarita', and has been steadily gaining popularity along with mezcal. If anything thwarts your order, it will be the chartreuse. The French herbal liqueur has been in short supply since the Carthusian monks who produce it decided to focus instead on 'solitude and prayer'. You may have already learned on this website of BuzzBallz, the globular pre-mixed cocktails loved by gen Z, available in flavours including Tequila 'Rita, Lotta Colada and Choc Tease. They tick many of the boxes for 'drink of the summer': they're attention-grabbing on social media, a conversation starter in person (did you know the company is female-owned?), and highly portable: is that a BuzzBallz in your pocket or are you just happy to see me? They are not more offensive than most pre-mixed cocktails – and almost impressively refined, given the high alcohol content – but the taste is rather beside the point. Faced with the novel selection of brightly coloured balls, they feel more like Pokémon than beverages: you want to try 'em all. For the moment, until gen Z moves on, BuzzBallz have the added advantage of making you seem youthful and in the know by association. For those not sure they have the prerequisite rizz for BuzzBallz, Suntory -196 is a more grown-up yet still novel alternative. The vodka-based RTDs are a vending-machine staple in Suntory's native Japan, but only launched in the UK last year; they are now widely available in supermarkets (though, sadly, not vending machines), in grapefruit and lemon flavours. The name ('minus one nine six') refers to the temperature at which fruit is frozen, using liquid nitrogen, before being crushed into powder and mixed with shochu and vodka. With half the alcohol content of BuzzBallz, they are a safer bet in more ways than one. At the opposite end of the youthful-abandon spectrum is a growing subcategory that might be termed 'fitspo bevs'. Where ordering a vodka soda marks you as calorie-conscious, unchill and so 90s, today's trend for 'hard seltzers' is positioned as optimisation, not deprivation. White Claw, my own longtime premix of choice, is best described as fruit-flavoured fizzy water with an ambiguous-sounding 'gluten-free malted alcohol base' (not vodka, but some other thing). In April, the makers launched a limited-edition Green Apple flavour, just in time for brat summer round two. An even more streamlined option is 'ranch water': basically, fizzy water spiked with white tequila and lime. The New York Times recipe suggests spicing it up with a salt rim, and a splash of Cointreau or flavoured syrup – but even that might be too much fuss for purists. If the drink of the summer isn't alcoholic, it tends to skew towards a refreshing dessert. Tiramisu is emerging as the flavour of these summer months, with Starbucks UK winning over gen Z with its limited-edition tiramisu-inspired drinks menu. The secret to its success has been 'cold foam': an airy, frothy, dairy topping that sits on top of iced coffees (leading Slate to declare the drink of the summer … foam). In Bristol, Full Court Press cafe has been doing brisk trade in its new Tiramibru: nitrogen-infused cold-brew coffee, topped with a shaken jersey pouring cream, mixed with a hint of panela sugar and a dusting of chocolate powder. Co-owner Jonny Simpson describes it as a twist on the iced-coffee-with-cream drinks that are popular across east Asia and recently went viral in Melbourne as a 'Mont Blanc'. 'We wanted to run a dessert-like drink that felt like an afternoon treat,' he says. 'It tastes like a liquid tiramisu, hence the name.' It has proved extremely popular, even at £5 a pop. 'We often struggle to keep up with the cold-brew production on hot days.' The Tiramibru will run to the end of the summer; Simpson is already thinking of how to adapt it for winter. It is, after all, a less crowded market.
UAE Moments
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- UAE Moments
♎ Libra Daily Horoscope for July 17, 2025
You're not just vibing, you're vibing with purpose. And yes, everyone notices. Libra, July 17 brings balance and brilliance in equal parts. With Venus lending sparkle to your words and the moon syncing with your intuitive side, you're blending grace and boldness like it's your signature fragrance. Whether it's a conversation, a decision, or a deep look in the mirror, you're choosing alignment over approval. And it looks so good on you. Click here to follow our WhatsApp channel for daily horoscopes on love, career, health, tarot, and more, delivered straight to your phone! 💌 🎯 Effortless Influence, Activated You're not chasing energy today, you are the energy. People naturally gravitate toward your calm confidence and thoughtful takes. Whether you're smoothing over a situation or dropping wisdom in the group chat, your presence is both soothing and sharp. Libra Tip: Read the room, then rearrange it with a smile. You've got quiet power, use it. 💼 Career & Money: Poised and Persuasive You're in a strong position to negotiate, initiate, or elevate. Whether you're crafting the perfect email or finally asking for that raise, the universe is backing your calm confidence. Speak clearly, choose wisely, and let your natural charm seal the deal. Professional doesn't mean boring. You can lead with softness and strategy. 💖 Love & Friendship: High Vibe + Heart Aligned Your love life is getting a little poetic today. Singles might find themselves drawn to someone with depth and good taste (hello, bookshop crush). Partnered Libras? Expect meaningful convos and sweet moments that feel like movie scenes. It's a good day to feel the feels. Flirt cue: 'Let's pretend we're in a slow-burn romance… what would our next scene be?' 🧘♀️ Mood & Vibe: Peaceful but Not Passive You're finding harmony but on your own terms. It's a perfect day for journaling, unplugging for a few hours, or doing something just for the beauty of it. Quiet time doesn't mean you're hiding, it means you're recalibrating. Lucky Color: Rose Quartz Lucky Numbers: 2 & 17 Cosmic Playlist Song: 'Levitating' – Dua Lipa Affirmation of the Day: 'I choose peace, speak with clarity, and attract what reflects my worth.' 💭 Libra Thought for July 17: You don't need to raise your voice. Your presence already speaks volumes.
