Browsed by
Author: From elsewhere

Trump praises ‘fantastic’ Viktor Orbán while hosting Hungarian autocrat for meeting and concert

Trump praises ‘fantastic’ Viktor Orbán while hosting Hungarian autocrat for meeting and concert

CNN reports: Donald Trump heaped praise on Viktor Orbán while hosting the Hungarian prime minister at Mar-a-Lago on Friday night. “There’s nobody that’s better, smarter or a better leader than Viktor Orbán. He’s fantastic,” the former president told a crowd gathered for a concert at the Florida resort, as shown in a series of videos posted to Orbán’s Instagram account. Trump added that the European autocrat is “a noncontroversial figure because he said, ‘This is the way it’s going to…

Read More Read More

U.S. prepared ‘rigorously’ for potential Russian nuclear strike in Ukraine in late 2022, officials say

U.S. prepared ‘rigorously’ for potential Russian nuclear strike in Ukraine in late 2022, officials say

CNN’s Jim Sciutto reports: In late 2022, the US began “preparing rigorously” for Russia potentially striking Ukraine with a nuclear weapon, in what would have been the first nuclear attack in war since the US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki nearly eighty years before, two senior administration officials told CNN. The Biden administration was specifically concerned Russia might use a tactical or battlefield nuclear weapon, the officials said. I first reported US officials were worried about Russia using…

Read More Read More

U.S. ‘prepper’ culture diversifies amid fear of disaster and political unrest

U.S. ‘prepper’ culture diversifies amid fear of disaster and political unrest

Reuters reports: Brook Morgan surveyed booths at the “Survival & Prepper Show” in Colorado that were stocked with boxes of ammunition, mounds of trauma medical kits, and every type of knife imaginable. A self-described “30-year-old lesbian from Indiana,” Morgan is one of a new breed of Americans getting ready to survive political upheaval and natural catastrophes, a pursuit that until recently was largely associated with far-right movements such as white nationalists since the 1980s. Researchers say the number of preppers…

Read More Read More

Why hunter-gatherers value their mobility

Why hunter-gatherers value their mobility

Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias writes: New research among hunter-gatherer societies is revealing that the social networks these populations create through mobility might be larger than ever expected. These networks, defined by movement, may also be responsible for the emergence of some characteristics thought to set humans apart from our closest nonhuman primate relatives. The movement of hunter-gatherers may explain the emergence of complex, cumulative culture and our ability to maintain high levels of genetic diversity, even when population sizes drop to very,…

Read More Read More

Senator Chris Van Hollen explains why the U.S. is legally required to suspend military aid to Israel

Senator Chris Van Hollen explains why the U.S. is legally required to suspend military aid to Israel

Isaac Chotiner interviewed Senator Chris Van Hollen: Am I correct that there is a law on the books in America which says that “funds appropriated or otherwise made available for United States assistance may not be made available for any country whose government prohibits or otherwise restricts, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States humanitarian assistance?” You cited that exactly right, and the President, just within the last couple of days, said, and I’m quoting, “We’re going…

Read More Read More

Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton wants to crackdown on the next ‘Hamas sympathiser Aaron Bushnell’

Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton wants to crackdown on the next ‘Hamas sympathiser Aaron Bushnell’

The New Arab reports: US Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) has unveiled two new pieces of legislation aimed at restricting security clearances and demonstration rights for pro-Palestinian government workers and contractors, following the self-immolation of US airman Aaron Bushnell outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. on February 25th. The announcement was made on Thursday in a statement posted to Cotton’s website, in which he suggested the actions of Bushnell and others who rallied in his memory as sympathetic with ‘terrorists’…

Read More Read More

Insure Our Future: A global movement says the insurance industry could be the key to ending fossil fuels

Insure Our Future: A global movement says the insurance industry could be the key to ending fossil fuels

Inside Climate News reports: Roishetta Ozane would have rather been sitting in a rocking chair at home in Louisiana with her seven-month old grandbaby than standing outside of a multinational insurance company’s office in New York City, surrounded by dozens of police officers, speaking to a rally. But she’d traveled to New York City to fight for the future of her new grandchild and six children. “I came here because decisions being made in this building impact my community miles…

Read More Read More

Leaked audio shows No Labels has no idea if it’ll find a candidate

Leaked audio shows No Labels has no idea if it’ll find a candidate

Greg Sargent writes: The centrist group No Labels held a vote of delegates Friday and announced plans to move forward in seeking candidates for a third-party presidential run. Multiple news organizations have treated this as a significant event, reporting that the group’s intent to run a third-party ticket is very much alive and forging ahead. But audio of the call on which the vote was held suggests another interpretation may be more accurate: The group really has no idea whether…

Read More Read More

Our brains take rhythmic snapshots of the world as we walk – and we never knew

Our brains take rhythmic snapshots of the world as we walk – and we never knew

Blazej Lyjak/Shutterstock By Matthew Davidson, University of Sydney For decades, psychology departments around the world have studied human behaviour in darkened laboratories that restrict natural movement. Our new study, published today in Nature Communications, challenges the wisdom of this approach. With the help of virtual reality (VR), we have revealed previously hidden aspects of perception that happen during a simple everyday action – walking. We found the rhythmic movement of walking changes how sensitive we are to the surrounding environment….

Read More Read More

The first Europeans reached Ukraine 1.4 million years ago – new research

The first Europeans reached Ukraine 1.4 million years ago – new research

Remains of the castle in Korolevo, close to the site. Катерина Байдужа/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA By John Jansen, Czech Academy of Sciences During warm periods in Earth’s history, known as interglacials, glaciers the size of continents pulled back to reveal new landscapes. These were new worlds for early humans to explore and exploit, and 1.4 million years ago this was Europe: a Terra nullius unoccupied by humans. Long before it emerged as the epicentre of global colonialism, Europe was itself…

Read More Read More

Trump’s financial problems are very real and very bad

Trump’s financial problems are very real and very bad

David A. Graham writes: The danger posed to Donald Trump’s finances by two recent judgments against him has been, if anything, underappreciated. The size of the awards, the structure of the former president’s business empire, and the condition of the real-estate market combine to create a truly perilous moment for the former president’s company and, by extension, for Trump’s personal finances. Trump must put up the $83.3 million awarded to the writer E. Jean Carroll for defamation by March 9….

Read More Read More

White House considering imposing restrictions on how Israel uses weapons supplied by U.S.

White House considering imposing restrictions on how Israel uses weapons supplied by U.S.

David Ignatius writes: The Biden administration, worried about a new humanitarian catastrophe, appears to be considering ways to prevent Israel from using U.S. weapons if it attacks the densely populated area around the city of Rafah. President Biden and senior advisers haven’t made any decision about imposing “conditionality” on U.S. weapons. But the very fact that officials seem to be debating this extreme step shows the administration’s growing concern about the crisis in Gaza — and its sharp disagreement with…

Read More Read More

UK plan in place to resume UNRWA funding after ‘hasty’ suspension

UK plan in place to resume UNRWA funding after ‘hasty’ suspension

Middle East Eye reports: The British government has a plan in place to resume funding to the United Nations’ agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, Middle East Eye has learnt from a parliamentary source with direct knowledge of the matter. A second source told MEE that a little over a week after the UK announced it was pausing its funding to the UN agency, Foreign Secretary David Cameron acknowledged the decision had been “too hasty” and was looking for face-saving measures…

Read More Read More

Zelenskiy hails Sweden’s NATO entry, eyes day Ukraine might also join

Zelenskiy hails Sweden’s NATO entry, eyes day Ukraine might also join

RFE/RL reports: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy hailed Sweden’s entry into the NATO military alliance, largely viewed as a reaction to Russia’s invasion of his country in 2022, saying the Scandinavian country was a “strong ally and a country that can be trusted.” Zelenskiy, who seeks eventual NATO membership for Ukraine, added that “there will be a day when Sweden will be able to congratulate Ukraine on joining the alliance as well. Together, we are always stronger.” Sweden joined NATO in…

Read More Read More