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Author: From elsewhere

Mexico, betting Trump is bluffing on tariffs, sees an opportunity

Mexico, betting Trump is bluffing on tariffs, sees an opportunity

The New York Times reports: Like much of the Mexican business world, Daniel Córdova finds himself grappling with an enormous variable looming across the American border: the imminent return of Donald J. Trump to the White House. Mr. Córdova oversees a factory outside the city of Monterrey that makes heating and air-conditioning units for Trane, an American company. The last time Mr. Trump was president, he unleashed a trade war against China that proved beneficial to Mexican industry. Companies that…

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The extraordinary memories of food-caching birds

The extraordinary memories of food-caching birds

Matthew Hutson writes: A while ago, I searched for a beard trimmer in my bedroom. I spent probably forty-five minutes looking in every likely location at least twice, and every unlikely location at least once. I swore up a storm; the trimmer never turned up. I’ve played similar games with pants. There’s a reason for the burgeoning market in electronic tags that track your belongings. Our poor memories can seem mystifying, especially when you consider animals. This time of year,…

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Trump yields to Musk on H-1B visa issue despite strong MAGA opposition

Trump yields to Musk on H-1B visa issue despite strong MAGA opposition

HuffPost reports: President-elect Donald Trump weighed in Saturday on the immigration issue that has been roiling some of his highest-profile supporters online, telling The New York Post that he has “always been in favor” of H-1B visas. It is not exactly true: Trump has waffled on his support for the H-1B program over the years, going so far as to suspend it late in his first term while his administration planned harsh new restrictions for workers seeking the visas. Denial…

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German newspaper publishes op-ed by Elon Musk supporting far-right AfD party; opinion editor resigns

German newspaper publishes op-ed by Elon Musk supporting far-right AfD party; opinion editor resigns

The Guardian reports: The tech entrepreneur and close adviser to Donald Trump Elon Musk has taken a stunning new public step in his support for the far-right German political party Alternative for Germany (AfD), publishing a supportive guest opinion piece for the country’s Welt am Sonntag newspaper that has prompted the commentary editor to resign in protest. The commentary piece in German was launched online on Saturday before being published on Sunday in the flagship paper of the Axel Springer…

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Colorado man accused of attacking TV reporter while yelling: ‘This is Trump’s America now’

Colorado man accused of attacking TV reporter while yelling: ‘This is Trump’s America now’

The Associated Press reports: A Colorado man is facing possible bias-motivated charges for allegedly attacking a television news reporter after demanding to know whether he was a citizen, saying “This is Trump’s America now,” according to court documents. Patrick Thomas Egan, 39, was arrested Dec. 18 in Grand Junction, Colorado, after police say he followed KKCO/KJCT reporter Ja’Ronn Alex’s vehicle for around 40 miles (64 kilometers) from the Delta area. Alex told police that he believed he had been followed…

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How Putin tapped a well of ethnic hatred in Russia

How Putin tapped a well of ethnic hatred in Russia

Anna Nemtsova writes: Far-right activists from Russia’s largest nationalist movement, Russkaya Obshchina, donned black camouflage and patrolled multiple cities last month hunting for “ethnic criminals.” They raided dormitories, parks, and construction sites in search of migrants from Central Asia, nabbing six on November 24. On social media, the activists celebrated their “joint raid with law-enforcement officials,” posting a video of themselves leading migrants in chains on their way to deportation. Russkaya Obshchina is working in concert with the Russian state…

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Has Russia’s shadow fleet, built to evade sanctions, added sabotage to its list?

Has Russia’s shadow fleet, built to evade sanctions, added sabotage to its list?

The New York Times reports: Western officials have long been concerned about Moscow’s so-called shadow fleet, an assemblage of aged tankers created to covertly carry Russian crude oil around the world. Since Russia invaded Ukraine, the worry primarily concerned the use of such off-the-books ships to circumvent Western sanctions and generate revenue to fuel the Kremlin’s war machine. But Russia’s shadow fleet may now present a more pressing danger to the West. This week, Finnish commandos boarded an oil tanker…

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How the U.S. unwittingly laid the groundwork for the Taliban’s victory long ago

How the U.S. unwittingly laid the groundwork for the Taliban’s victory long ago

The New York Times reports: The Taliban were inching closer, encroaching on land that had once seemed secure, the American officer warned. Four of his men had just been killed, and he needed Afghans willing to fight back. “Who will stand up?” the officer implored a crowd of 150 Afghan elders. The people in Kunduz Province were largely supportive of the Americans and opposed to the Taliban. But recruiting police officers was slow going and, by the summer of 2009,…

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The communication we share with apes

The communication we share with apes

Anthony King writes: There are few one-offs in life on Earth—rarely can a single species boast a trait or ability that no other possesses. But human language is one such oddity. Our ability to use subtle combinations of sounds produced by our vocal cords to create words and sentences, which when combined with grammatical rules, convey complex ideas. There were attempts in the 1950s to teach chimpanzees to “speak” some words, but these failed. And with no other living relatives…

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Musk calls for MAGA’s ‘contemptible fools’ to be expelled from the Republican Party

Musk calls for MAGA’s ‘contemptible fools’ to be expelled from the Republican Party

Salon reports: Tesla CEO Elon Musk may have financed an anti-immigrant, ‘America First’ presidential campaign to the tune of $250 million, but his call for more skilled foreign-born workers sparked massive backlash from President-elect Donald Trump’s far-right supporters. Musk on Wednesday asserted that there was a “dire shortage of extremely talented and motivated engineers in America” and called for increased visa availability, drawing scorn from many of Trump’s followers and close allies. Former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., a momentary pick…

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Freedom Caucus chair: House GOP needs to consider if ‘current leadership is what we need’

Freedom Caucus chair: House GOP needs to consider if ‘current leadership is what we need’

Politico reports: House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris told Fox Business on Thursday that the chamber’s Republicans need to consider if current leadership “is what we need” going into unified GOP government next year. “Before the last couple of weeks, I was in his corner, but now we should consider what’s the best path forward,” Harris (R-Md.) said of Speaker Mike Johnson. “We do need to consider whether — if we’re going to advance Mr. Trump’s agenda — whether the…

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People with extreme wealth should give it away — or be penalized

People with extreme wealth should give it away — or be penalized

Ingrid Robeyns writes: In 2024, wealth concentration rose to an all-time high. According to Forbes’ Billionaires List, not only are there more billionaires than ever—2,781—but those billionaires are also richer than ever, with an aggregate worth of $14.2 trillion. This is a trend that looks set to continue unabated. A recent report from the financial data company Altrata estimated that about 1.2 million individuals who are worth more than $5 million will pass on a collective wealth of almost $31…

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Israel storms northern Gaza’s last hospital as remaining residents forced south

Israel storms northern Gaza’s last hospital as remaining residents forced south

+972 reports: In the morning hours of Dec. 27, Israeli army forces stormed the Kamal Adwan Hospital compound in Beit Lahiya, culminating a nearly week-long siege of the last functioning hospital in northern Gaza. Soldiers forcibly moved patients out of Kamal Adwan to the Indonesian Hospital further south in the city, which had itself been subjected to an evacuation order by the military several days earlier. “Surgical departments, laboratory, maintenance, and emergency units have been completely burned, and the fire…

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New leaders in Damascus call for cordial Syria ties with a resistant Israel — updated

New leaders in Damascus call for cordial Syria ties with a resistant Israel — updated

NPR reports: The newly appointed governor of Damascus has called on the United States to use its influence to push for cordial relations with Israel. In a wide-ranging interview with NPR, Governor Maher Marwan, 42, said that Syria’s new government did not want to seek conflict with Israel, which has been striking strategic military installations in Syria since the regime of former President Bashar al-Assad fell earlier this month. “We have no fear towards Israel and our problem is not…

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