A stubborn, dark residue at the bottom of a stainless steel pan is more than a cosmetic issue. It indicates a layer of polymerized grease that can disrupt the even heat distribution required for proper cooking. While commercial degreasers are often marketed for this purpose, a simple mixture of baking soda, coarse salt, and hot water offers a controlled mechanical and chemical solution for this specific material.
How the mixture works
The method relies on three distinct components interacting with the soil. Baking soda acts on the fat content, while the hot water serves to soften the hardened carbon deposits. Coarse salt functions as a mild abrasive, providing the physical friction necessary to lift the residue without requiring excessive scrubbing force. This combination is specifically suited to stainless steel, a surface that tolerates mild abrasion and heat without degrading.
The procedure
The process begins with the pan in a cool state. Two to three tablespoons of baking soda and one tablespoon of coarse salt are added to the bottom, followed by one cup of hot water. The mixture is left to sit for 10 to 15 minutes to allow the chemical and thermal agents to penetrate the layer. If the residue is particularly persistent, the pan can be placed on a low heat and the solution boiled for 3 to 5 minutes. Once the pan cools, the liquid is poured out, and the remaining sludge is wiped away with a soft sponge. A final rinse with warm water and dish soap ensures that no alkaline or salty residue remains on the surface.
A damaged garden hose does not need to be discarded immediately. While the material may crack in certain areas, sections that retain their elasticity can be repurposed into functional tools that protect plants and prevent injuries around the garden.
Evaluating the Material
The viability of a repurposed hose depends entirely on the condition of the polymer. Before cutting, identify segments that do not crumble or snap when bent. Any piece that has become brittle is structurally unsound and should be discarded. Once flexible sections are identified, they should be washed and dried to remove residue before being modified with a knife or scissors.
Creating Protective Buffers for Saplings
Young trees require support, but direct contact between a tie-down rope and delicate bark often leads to girdling or abrasion as the tree sways in the wind. A hose fragment acts as a mechanical buffer to prevent this friction.
A thin film of soap scum on a shower door often persists even after a standard scrubbing, leaving a cloudy residue that resists plain water. This buildup, a combination of mineral deposits and fatty acids, responds well to acetic acid. By infusing white vinegar with citrus peels, you can create a cleaning solution that leverages the degreasing properties of limonene while mitigating the sharp scent of vinegar.
The Infusion Process
The method relies on a simple extraction: citrus peels are soaked in vinegar to transfer essential oils into the liquid. To prepare this concentrate, peel mandarin oranges, removing any remaining fruit pulp and rinsing the skins thoroughly. Chop the peels finely and fill a one-liter glass jar approximately two-thirds full. Fill the remaining space with 9% white distilled vinegar, seal the lid tightly, and store the jar in a dark area for 7 to 10 days.
During this period, the acetic acid extracts the oils from the peel. The resulting liquid will maintain its acidic strength but acquire a citrus fragrance, masking the pungent odor of the vinegar.
A Accor e o grupo Corinthia anunciaram esta quarta-feira a assinatura de um acordo estratégico para integrar a Verdi Hotels na marca Handwritten Collection. A parceria prevê a incorporação de cinco hotéis em Portugal, Malta e Tunísia, incluindo o Verdi Santarém, a partir de novembro, estando ainda previstas duas unidades adicionais na Hungria e na República Checa.
A Limehome pretende alcançar 25 mil unidades sob contrato na Europa até 2030, praticamente duplicando o seu atual portfólio de mais de 13 mil unidades. Em Portugal, considerado um mercado estratégico para a expansão do operador hoteleiro, a empresa prevê acrescentar mil novas unidades até 2028.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will visit Cyprus on Thursday and Friday for talks with President Nikos Christodoulides, the government spokesman said.
Abbas will be received at the Presidential Palace for a private meeting, followed by a working lunch with delegations from both sides.
It is the third contact between the two leaders since Christodoulides took office, with the last being held in May 2025 in Palestine.
The agenda covers the Middle East and Cyprus’ humanitarian role, in particular the ‘Amalthea’ sea corridor for aid shipments to Gaza.
The leaders will also discuss bilateral relations, EU-Palestine relations, developments in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the Cyprus problem.
The government said the visit reflects the “historical ties between Nicosia and Ramallah”.
Relations date to the 1960s and 1970s, when Archbishop Makarios took Cyprus into the Non-Aligned Movement, and the island recognised the State of Palestine immediately after its 1988 declaration.
A Cypriot representative office opened in Ramallah in 2009, and after the 2012 UN General Assembly vote, it was upgraded to a full embassy, among the first in the EU.
Demetris Christofias, president from 2008 to 2013, made the relationship a visible part of his foreign policy.
On his first official visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories, Christofias met Abbas in Ramallah, and the two signed five bilateral agreements.
His term also covered the opening of the Ramallah office and the 2012 upgrade to an embassy.
Abbas’ last visit was in June 2022, when then President Nicos Anastasiades said close ties with Israel would not come at the expense of Palestinians’ “legitimate rights”. Christodoulides visited Ramallah in August 2023.
President Nikos Christodoulides visited Ramallah in 2023 and laid a wreath at Yasser Arafat’s tomb, and in March 2024 the first aid ship for Gaza left a Cypriot port.
Israel once declared Androulla Vassiliou, wife of former president George Vassiliou, persona non grata after a delegation she led tried to meet Arafat, who was confined to his compound in Ramallah.
Abbas has led the Palestinian Authority since 2005, with its Fatah-dominated administration governing parts of the West Bank, while Hamas has run Gaza.
A 45-year-old woman has reported losing €1,219 after falling victim to an online scam, the police said on Wednesday, while also warning people to be wary of possible further scam operations.
The woman said she had received a text message regarding an unpaid fine, and clicked a link in that text message, which took her to a website which prompted her to enter her car’s registration details.
At this point, she said, a fake document appeared on the page containing information about a fine worth €6.59.
She said she then clicked on an option to pay the fine and entered her personal details, as well as her bank details, into the website, though she did not complete the transaction.
However, when she later checked her bank account, she found that she had made a payment of €1,219.
The police said its investigation into the matter is ongoing, and advised the public that it “never communicates” in this way to call on members of the public to pay fine.
Additionally, it called upon the public to “be particularly cautious when receiving messages containing electronic links”.
“It is recommended that the public avoid following such electronic links and never provide or enter personal or banking information on unknown websites,” it said, before urging the public to reach out to the police should they have doubts over the veracity of messages they have received.
The Chancellor has announced a £100 payment for millions of households, extended VAT relief on electricity, and plans to scrap gas standing charges. Here's what it means for your bills
A nova rota sazonal para a capital da Islândia começa a 1 de abril de 2027 e terá três frequências semanais em cada sentido. As tarifas de ida e volta estão disponíveis a partir de 349 euros, com taxas incluídas.
Disy president Annita Demetriou on Wednesday said that recent events threatened the unity of the party and called for the party to be put first amid ongoing tensions.
“It [the unity of the party] is certainly threatened. That is why I say that it also depends on our behaviour and actions. And we should all put Disy first and above all and of course, above Disy, our Cyprus,” she said, speaking at the October 28 parade in Nicosia.
Asked to comment on the latest installment in the Disy infighting after former finance minister Harris Georgiades handed her his resignation letter from his post at the Glafcos Clerides Institute on Tuesday, she said that she would not be accepting his resignation.
Demetriou said that there would be another attempt to resolve the issue and emphasised that “the result should be completely respected.”
“Disy members will vote, speak and decide,” she said, adding that the message of the day would be that “we should all do our own reflection”.
Demetriou on Tuesday had said that issues that arise within the party needed to be resolved through dialogue and not through resignations.
In a post on X she said that her personal decision was driven solely by her desire to unify the party.
“The resignation of Harris Georgiades from the position of president of the Glafkos Clerides Institute is not acceptable. Issues are not resolved through resignations, but through dialogue and this is what I will seek to do in the coming period,” she wrote.
Georgiades had offered his resignation as chairman of the Disy-affiliated Glafcos Clerides Institute thinktank and announced that he would not campaign for former Disy leader Averof Neophytou in the 2028 presidential elections if the latter wins Disy’s election to be its candidate.
Internal tensions unfolding within Disy came to a head after Averof Neophytou and George Pamboridis both formally submitted their candidacies for Disy’s presidential nomination on Monday.
This set the stage for an internal contest ahead of the 2028 presidential election with the winning candidate set to be chosen on November 28.
The race is taking place amid divisions within the party following the 2023 presidential election, with the outcome expected to influence both the direction of the party’s leadership and its chances of returning to government after Demetriou withdrew her own candidacy from the contest for the party’s 2028 presidential nomination in early October.
Portugal já sabe atrair turistas, mas como pode transformar esse sucesso em benefícios duradouros para os destinos e para quem neles vive? Para Nigel Morgan, professor de Sustentabilidade Social na Manchester Metropolitan University e membro da direção da International Place Branding Association (IPBA), o futuro da marca Portugal exige uma mudança de paradigma, que passe da simples promoção turística para uma gestão mais responsável dos territórios. Em entrevista ao TNews, no âmbito da 10.ª conferência anual da associação, que arranca esta quarta-feira, em Lisboa, o especialista em destination branding identifica cinco prioridades para a próxima década.
President Nikos Christodoulides on Thursday promised to do “everything humanly possible” to bring about progress towards a solution to the Cyprus problem, as he spoke on the sidelines of a parade to mark ‘Ochi Day’, the anniversary of Greece’s entry into the Second World War.
“A meeting took place yesterday in a very positive atmosphere. The discussion was constructive, and I hope, this is what I wish to promise the Cypriot people today, on such an important day for Hellenism, that I will do everything humanly possible to ensure positive developments,” he said.
He had met Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman on Tuesday, and said after that meeting that both he and Erhurman had “agreed not to make further statements regarding specific issues” related to the Cyprus problem until, at the very least, United Nations Cyprus problem envoy Maria Angela Holguin arrives on the island on Thursday.
Both leaders had also met the bicommunal technical committees on cultural heritage and on youth, as well as the civil society steering committee, following their one-on-one meeting.
Of those meetings, Christodoulides said that they were “constructive” and that “various views and suggestions were put forward” by committee members.
He added that those suggestions will be discussed by himself and Erhurman going forward.
Christodoulides insists Varosha proposal is ‘mutually beneficial’
Prior to Tuesday’s meeting, Christodoulides had stressed that his proposal to open and repopulate the fenced-off area of Varosha under the United Nations’ administration and open the port of Famagusta under the European Union’s control is “mutually beneficial”.
“I believe this is a mutually beneficial proposal. It creates a positive situation for both sides and serves as a practical test of whether we are truly committed to moving forward, specifically by taking bold confidence-building measures which also send a strong message to society as a whole,” he said.
Erhurman had said last week that he had rejected the proposal, lamenting that it fell short of an entry into force of the European Union’s direct trade regulation.
“Is this the entry into force of the direct trade regulation? No, it is not the entry into force of the regulation, but since [the port] would be under EU control, direct trade would begin,” he said.
As such, he said, the proposal was unbalanced.
The direct trade regulation is a pending EU regulation which would allow Turkish Cypriot goods, as certified by the Turkish Cypriot chamber of commerce, to be exported directly into Europe via the Green Line, and given preferential treatment inside the European single market as European goods.
It was proposed in July 2004, three months after the rejection of the Annan plan to reunify Cyprus by the Greek Cypriot side in a referendum, and shortly after the Republic of Cyprus’ accession to the EU.
Menelaou had cited progress on crossing points
Previously, Greek Cypriot chief negotiator Menelaos Menelaou had said that a dispute over the routing of the planned transit road between Athienou and the Nicosia suburb of Aglandjia “has been overcome”.
He said that the outstanding dispute now remains over the question of whether a planned crossing point to connect Louroujina, the southernmost Turkish Cypriot village, with nearby Lymbia, will open at the same time.
The Turkish Cypriot side’s position is that the road between Athienou and Aglandjia constitutes two crossing points, one in Athienou and one in Aglandjia, and that they are part of a package of four alongside plans for a crossing point in the eastern Nicosia suburb of Mia Milia, and one in Louroujina.
However, the Greek Cypriot side treats the road between Athienou and Aglandjia as one crossing point, counterweighted by the Mia Milia crossing point, and is therefore of the view that the Louroujina crossing point should only be opened if a second transit road, through the Turkish Cypriot Kokkina exclave in the Tillyria region, also be opened.
A empresa líder em Itália no fornecimento de tecnologias e serviços para o crescimento digital dos hotéis estabeleceu uma parceria com a gigante fintech para criar uma solução única de automatização e gestão de pagamentos online e presenciais.
À primeira vista, pôr robôs num hotel parece o oposto da hospitalidade. Afinal, o que o hóspede procura é calor humano. Mas quem gere uma unidade hoteleira sabe que o verdadeiro paradoxo está do outro lado: são muitas vezes as tarefas mais mecânicas que roubam às equipas o tempo para serem humanas.
A companhia aérea aumenta em 5% a capacidade na Península Ibérica durante a próxima temporada de inverno, entre novembro de 2026 e abril de 2027. A programação inclui ainda reforços para as Américas e a Ásia, a extensão da rota para Las Vegas e a expansão da nova cabine La Première.
Four men were on Wednesday remanded in custody for eight days after having been arrested on suspicion of facilitating illegal crossings across the Green Line.
The four, of whom two are aged 23 years old, one is 22 years old, and the other 19, were arrested on Tuesday morning after a police officer in Nicosia came across a group of people he found to be “suspicious”.
He called for backup, with the arriving officers finding seven people who were found to have crossed the Green Line illegally.
Further examinations found that four of those seven people are recipients of political asylum in Cyprus, while the police reported that they were “involved in the illegal smuggling of migrants”.
As such, the four were arrested, while the other three were taken to the Pournara migrant reception centre.
A nova unidade de quatro estrelas entrou em funcionamento em regime de soft opening, com 120 quartos e seis suites. Integrado no grupo Magural Hotels, o hotel inclui um restaurante com oferta de gastronomia Halal, um centro de bem-estar e espaços para reuniões e eventos.
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