Browsed by
Author: From elsewhere

Sweden suspects ‘gross sabotage’ after damage to communications cable under Baltic Sea

Sweden suspects ‘gross sabotage’ after damage to communications cable under Baltic Sea

The New York Times reports: The Swedish authorities on Monday boarded a ship in connection with what they described as “gross sabotage” after an undersea communications cable in the Baltic Sea was damaged a day earlier. The ship was escorted to the coast of Sweden for an investigation, the authorities said. “We suspect that a serious act of sabotage was committed in the Swedish economic zone yesterday,” Mats Ljungqvist, the Swedish prosecutor leading the investigation into the damage, said in…

Read More Read More

Songbirds being killed by topical pesticides used for pet fleas and ticks

Songbirds being killed by topical pesticides used for pet fleas and ticks

The Guardian reports: Songbird chicks are being killed by high levels of pesticides in the pet fur used by their parents to line their nests, a study has found. Researchers surveying nests for the harmful chemical found in pet flea treatments found that it was present in every single nest. The scientists from the University of Sussex are now calling for the government to urgently reassess the environmental risk of pesticides used in flea and tick treatments and consider restricting…

Read More Read More

How the roots of Musk and Thiel’s ‘PayPal mafia’ extend to apartheid South Africa

How the roots of Musk and Thiel’s ‘PayPal mafia’ extend to apartheid South Africa

Chris McGreal reports: When Elon Musk’s arm shot out in a stiff arm salute at Donald Trump’s inaugural celebrations, startled viewers mostly drew the obvious comparison. But in the fired-up debate about Musk’s intent that followed, as the world’s richest man insisted he wasn’t trying to be a Nazi, speculation inevitably focused on whether his roots in apartheid-era South Africa offered an insight. In recent months Musk’s promotion of far-right conspiracy theories has grown, from a deepening hostility to democratic…

Read More Read More

Head of Jewish Council for Public Affairs says Musk will spur violence with his ‘Nazi salute’

Head of Jewish Council for Public Affairs says Musk will spur violence with his ‘Nazi salute’

The Guardian reports: The head of a prominent US Jewish civil rights body said Elon Musk’s repeated fascist-style salute during Donald Trump’s inauguration could act as a spur for violent extremists. “The salute itself should be enough to warrant condemnation and attention,” said Amy Spitalnick, adding that so should “the ways extremists see an action like this and take it as license for their own violent extremism”. Spitalnick is chief executive of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, a progressive…

Read More Read More

Trump’s Gaza proposal rejected by allies and condemned as plan for ethnic cleansing

Trump’s Gaza proposal rejected by allies and condemned as plan for ethnic cleansing

The Guardian reports: Donald Trump’s proposal that large numbers of Palestinians should leave Gaza to “just clean out” the whole strip has been rejected by US allies in the region and attacked as dangerous, illegal and unworkable by lawyers and activists. The US president said he would like hundreds of thousands of people to move to neighbouring countries, either “temporarily or could be long-term”. Destinations could include Jordan, which already hosts more than 2.7 million Palestinian refugees, and Egypt, he…

Read More Read More

Trump’s gutting of federal DEI programs will hit rural poor communities

Trump’s gutting of federal DEI programs will hit rural poor communities

CNN reports: Just hours after his swearing-in this week, as a raft of executive orders was presented and signed at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump authorized action to end “radical and wasteful government DEI programs and preferencing.” Employees in federal positions overseeing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives were put on paid leave as officials were ordered to “coordinate the termination of all discriminatory programs, including illegal DEI and ‘diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility’ (DEIA) mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities in…

Read More Read More

Trump eliminates help for Black and Latino communities hit harder by pollution

Trump eliminates help for Black and Latino communities hit harder by pollution

The Associated Press reports: For four years, the Environmental Protection Agency made environmental justice one of its biggest priorities, working to improve health conditions in heavily-polluted communities often made up largely of Black, Latino and low-income Americans. Now that short-lived era is over. President Donald Trump in his first week eliminated a team of White House advisors whose job it was to ensure the entire federal government helped communities located near heavy industry, ports and roadways. Trump eliminated the “Justice40”…

Read More Read More

Fear permeates every aspect of life in Chicago, under threat of mass immigration deportations

Fear permeates every aspect of life in Chicago, under threat of mass immigration deportations

Chicago Tribune reports: “People are scared,” said Alvarez Vasquez [a legal permanent resident], 56, as she watched as her grandchildren Antonio, 9 and Yulisa, 5 — both U.S. citizens — played on the steps outside their Southwest Side school on Thursday afternoon. “They don’t want to go out. They don’t even go to work much because they’re afraid of being caught or deported.” Indeed, the week saw streets in the Little Village neighborhood, which typically bustle with crowds and businesses,…

Read More Read More

How Hitler tore down a democracy in just 53 Days

How Hitler tore down a democracy in just 53 Days

Timothy W. Ryback writes: Ninety-two years ago this month, on Monday morning, January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed the 15th chancellor of the Weimar Republic. In one of the most astonishing political transformations in the history of democracy, Hitler set about destroying a constitutional republic through constitutional means. What follows is a step-by-step account of how Hitler systematically disabled and then dismantled his country’s democratic structures and processes in less than two months’ time—specifically, one month, three weeks, two…

Read More Read More

Catastrophic tipping point in Greenland: crystal blue lakes turn brown, belch out carbon dioxide

Catastrophic tipping point in Greenland: crystal blue lakes turn brown, belch out carbon dioxide

Live Science reports: Thousands of Greenland’s crystal-clear blue lakes have turned a murky brown thanks to global warming — and the worst part is that they’ve started emitting carbon dioxide. Record heat and rain in 2022 pushed the lakes of West Greenland past a tipping point, so rather than absorbing carbon dioxide (CO₂), they began to emit it into the atmosphere, according to a new study. The changes began in fall, which is normally a snowy time for Greenland. However,…

Read More Read More

Musk promotes nationalism at far-right rally; says Germans shouldn’t feel guilty about past ‘sins’

Musk promotes nationalism at far-right rally; says Germans shouldn’t feel guilty about past ‘sins’

Politico reports: Elon Musk made a virtual appearance at a rally for the far-right Alternative for Germany party on Saturday, reiterating his support ahead of the country’s Feb. 23 snap election and telling the crowd that it’s time to “move on” from “past guilt.” The Tesla CEO addressed the crowd alongside party leader Alice Weidel, saying that the party is the “best hope for Germany” and calling to “preserve German culture” and “protect the German people.” “Children should not be…

Read More Read More

Ontario’s premier promises he will hit back hard if Trump starts a trade war with Canada

Ontario’s premier promises he will hit back hard if Trump starts a trade war with Canada

Alexander Burns writes: Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, plans to rain economic punishment on Americans if President Donald Trump targets Canada in a trade war. Ford has threatened to cut power transmission to U.S. homes and businesses and banish U.S. liquor from Ontario shelves. Wearing a MAGA-like hat reading “Canada Is Not For Sale,” Ford has pledged to target red states with dollar-for-dollar retaliation. In an interview Wednesday, he described himself matter-of-factly as a brawler with a reflex for…

Read More Read More

Under direction from the Heritage Foundation, Trump implements Project 2025’s core objectives

Under direction from the Heritage Foundation, Trump implements Project 2025’s core objectives

Time magazine reports: President Donald Trump made clear during his campaign that he wanted little to do with Project 2025, the sweeping and controversial conservative policy blueprint created by the Heritage Foundation. But just days into his second term, many of Trump’s early actions align with the Project 2025 agenda. An analysis by TIME found that nearly two-thirds of the executive actions Trump has issued so far mirror or partially mirror proposals from the 900-page document, ranging from sweeping deregulation…

Read More Read More

Trump’s memecoin launch makes the whole crypto industry ‘look corrupt and self-interested,’ says exec

Trump’s memecoin launch makes the whole crypto industry ‘look corrupt and self-interested,’ says exec

The New York Times reports: Dressed in ball gowns, tuxedos and “Make Bitcoin Great Again” baseball caps, a crowd of some of the country’s most powerful cryptocurrency executives gathered a few blocks from the White House for a lavish party three days before President Trump’s inauguration, toasting an incoming administration that had vowed to promote the industry’s interests. Even Snoop Dogg joined the festivities, offering a rendition of “Don’t Stop Believin.’” But the crypto millionaires and billionaires were caught off…

Read More Read More