A former Apple engineer has been charged with stealing trade secrets, specifically concerning the company's

When Norwegian climber Kristin Harila stepped onto the summit of Cho Oyu this month she became the fastest woman to climb all 14 of...

Thinking about canceling your Amazon Prime membership? We can't say we blame you: There are

Chef Maria Bradford remembers the first time she came to Peckham market. Originally from Sierra Leone, she moved to England in her late teens, and after four years she was desperately homesick. She was living in Kent and felt far removed from her home of Freetown – until she went to Peckham in South London. “The first time I ever came to Peckham, it was such a shock. I didn’t think a place existed like that [in England] – it reminded me so much of the hustle and bustle in Freetown,” she says. “All of a sudden, you get off the train and you come to this place and you’re like, Oh my God. I’m home.” Bradford, now 42, says she “desperately needed” a place like Peckham, and has been coming to the market regularly ever since. We’re back there today – on a hot but overcast London day, and Bradford is showing me how to pick out the best Sierra Leonean ingredients. We go on a weekday, as she says a weekend would take us a lot longer to get round, once she’s spoken to all the aunties in the community who want a chat. As we walk through the market, Bradford starts talking about Sierra Leonean cuisine. “I would say it’s quite healthy. We eat lots of leaves and greens, and we eat a lot of seafood as well. There’s lots of layers to Sierra Leonean food, because we mix things like smoked fish and meat in the same dish… Because we use fish more as a flavouring.” The words that spring to mind when she thinks about the food of her homeland? “Healthy, homely, comforting.” Bradford continues: “I don’t know if that’s because I’m Sierra Leonean, it brings me that calmness and home feeling. That warmth. It feels like I’m sitting at the back of our house with my mum, my nan, my grandmother, my aunties and everyone – we’re sitting around cooking, and it feels like comfort.” When she really wants to feel comforted and soothed, Bradford whips up a bowl of egusi soup (egusi – also known as melon seeds – is a thickener, and the recipe includes oxtail, goat meat, white sorrel, smoked barracuda and Scotch bonnet chillies) that Bradford says is like a “food hug, because when you eat it all you want to do is sleep”. After looking at some of the outdoor stalls full of colourful produce – bright pumpkins, squat varieties of cucumber, browning plantains – we go into Bit By Bit, a Sierra Leonean shop run by Sarian Karim-Kamara. Karim-Kamara immediately starts singing Bradford’s praises (“you’re flying the Sierra Leonean flag – we’re so proud of you!”) and thumbing through her new cookbook, called Sweet Salone – a nickname for the country. The shop is full of speciality ingredients you’ll need to make some of the recipes in the book – from the brightly coloured red palm oil (a staple in the country) to frozen cassava leaves and smoked barracuda. Bradford is keen to promote local shops such as this one, saying: “People are really friendly and want to talk about the ingredients – they don’t just know about the ingredients, they know what to do with it, how to promote it… It’s nice to step into these shops and have conversations, because you might learn so much more than what you bargained for.” As well as running the shop, Karim-Kamara is an FGM campaigner – she’s just launched a new campaign with the Mayor of London – and runs a food bank out the back. “For three years I’ve been supporting refugees and asylum seekers, but the food bank is open now to the community because everyone is struggling,” she says. Karim-Kamara adds she doesn’t talk much about it because “some people are really shy… The way we do the service is people come to the back and help themselves”. We move onto another shop selling West African ingredients – including jute leaves, black velvet tamarind and white hibiscus – and Bradford strikes up a conversation with the shopkeeper, who says she’ll pre-order the cookbook and give it to her daughter, so traditional Sierra Leonean cooking continues down the generations. “The children that are born here, they don’t really know how to cook the traditional stuff,” Bradford says after this exchange. “They’ll be more gearing towards the Afro-fusion side. It’s really important we keep the core traditional stuff, and also keep it separate.” But Bradford is an advocate for Afro-fusion dishes as well, describing it as “taking traditional Sierra Leonean ingredients and using techniques we wouldn’t necessarily use to extract as much flavour from those things”. After working as an accountant for 10 years (which she hated), Bradford did an evening course at prestigious cooking school Leiths and set up a catering company, and now uses her classical training to give a spin on the dishes she grew up eating. Examples of Afro-fusion recipes in the book include cassava chips with truffle and Parmesan, and the oxtail pepe stew – which has red wine added, a French technique she drew upon to deepen the flavours. Whether it’s traditional dishes or Afro-fusion flavours, Bradford – who is still based in Kent – uses cooking to connect with her roots. It started when she first moved to the UK and was missing home. “So I started cooking, making stuff I like to eat with stuff I can get my hands on,” she says. One of the first dishes she made was peanut soup (“you can get peanut butter anywhere, and you can pick up chicken anywhere”) and it grew from there. “Cooking and throwing those things together to feel like you’re home, connecting back to Sierra Leone.” ‘Sweet Salone’ by Maria Bradford (Quadrille, £30). Read More A week’s worth of summery recipes (even when the weather is dire) The dish that defines me: Frank Yeung’s prawn wontons How to make cassava chips How to make a traditional Sierra Leonean rich cake How to make West African brasied beef shorts in peanut and coconut milk In Horto: Hearty, outdoorsy fare in a secret London Bridge garden

The competition to make the best smartphone camera is a fierce one. Apple, Google, and

Jennifer Garner has spoken candidly about the “mess of parenting” her children with ex-husband Ben Affleck, and why it is a “gift”. The 51-year-old actor opened up about raising children while in the public eye during a recent conversation with Sheryl Lee Ralph for Variety’s Actors on Actors series. During the discussion, Ralph said that she had “many things in common” with Garner, as a fellow actor and mother. “With all the celebrity and all of that, I feel like I have a very normal life, and I think you have that similar sort of vibe. And we love our kids,” she said. The 13 Going on 30 star agreed with the statement by sharing her own experience, adding: “And all the mess of parenting. It’s a gift.” Both actors share children with previous partners, as Ralph has a 31-year-old son, Etienne, and 28-year-old daughter, Ivy, with ex-husband, Eric Maurice. In 2005, the Abbott Elementary star married Vincent Hughes. Before getting divorced in 2018, Garner and her ex Affleck welcomed three children, Violet, 17, Seraphina, 14, Samuel, 11. In 2022, Affleck married Jennifer Lopez, who shares 15-year-old twins, Maximilian and Emme, with her ex-husband, Marc Anthony. During their conversation for Variety, Ralph said that she has a good relationship with her ex, while she also praising Garner for her bond with Affleck. “And both of us having gone through divorce,” she said. “You did something that I did as well - maintain a healthy relationship with my ex for the health and well-being of my children. With the spotlight on us all the time, sometimes that can be difficult.” After Garner agreed with the sentiment, Ralph added: “When I look at my kids, when I see you and your kids, I was like: ‘Girl, we did that.’” In response, the Elektra star exchanged a fist bump with Ralph and said: “We’re doing it!” Amid her and Affleck’s co-parenting journey, Garner has often shared her candid thoughts about her ex and the current status of their relationship. During an interview with Stellar Magazine in April, she confessed that she tries not to read any media coverage about Affleck. “I really work hard not to see either of us in the press,” she said. “It doesn’t make me feel good, even if it’s something nice about one of us. I just try to forget that I’m out there in any way, and the same with anyone I love. I don’t need to see anyone in my family made into a meme.” Last year, Lopez also spoke out about blending families with Garner. While appearing on the cover of Vogue in November, Lopez called the Alias star “an amazing co-parent” and shared that Garner and Affleck “work really well together” when it comes to taking care of their three children. Read More Jennifer Garner recalls learning about vaginal collapse from her OB-GYN: ‘What is happening?’ Jennifer Garner reveals her children aren’t on social media and says eldest daughter is ‘grateful’ for it Jennifer Garner says she ‘works really hard’ to avoid seeing stories about ex-husband Ben Affleck in the press Chris Pratt says people should ‘rush’ to have children: ‘Don’t wait’ How should we be talking to our daughters about money? Jessie J announces name of her and Chanan Safir Colman’s baby boy

When Michel Sadelain began his decades-long quest to genetically modify immune cells to fight cancer, his peers dismissed his ideas as absurd and even his mother...

Spencer Webb’s family recently issued a statement expressing their doubts surrounding Kelly Kay’s pregnancy and paternal identity of her newborn son

Australia reached fever pitch ahead of its national team’s first appearance in a Women’s World Cup semi-final match,

In May, the Elon Musk-owned brain implant company Neuralink announced that it received FDA approval

If there's one thing The Continental: From the World of John Wick does extremely well,

'Desperate Housewives' star Eva Longoria believes a person's beauty begins from the inside out.