Following in the footsteps of the Neptune image released in 2022, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has taken a stunning image of the solar system's other ice giant, the planet Uranus. The new image features dramatic rings as well as bright features in the planet's atmosphere. The Webb data demonstrates the observatory's unprecedented sensitivity for the faintest dusty rings, which have only ever been imaged by two other facilities: the Voyager 2 spacecraft as it flew past the planet in 1986, and the Keck Observatory with advanced adaptive optics. The seventh planet from the Sun, Uranus is unique: It rotates on its side, at roughly a 90-degree angle from the plane of its orbit. This causes extreme seasons since the planet's poles experience many years of constant sunlight followed by an equal number of years of complete darkness. (Uranus takes 84 years to orbit the Sun.) Currently, it is late spring for the northern pole, which is visible here; Uranus' northern summer will be in...

On Thursday, the Tennessee House voted to remove Reps. Justin Jones, Gloria Johnson, and Justin Pearson in connection to a March 30 protest that led to protestors storming the state Capitol. The House successfully expelled Jones and Pearson. The Tennessee House successfully voted 69-26 in favor of expelling Pearson. Earlier in the evening, the House 65-30 in favor of expelling Johnson, though the motion was one vote short of passing. The vote came after the House voted 72-25 in favor of expelling fellow Rep. Justin Jones.

NASA has warned that there's an 'invisible monster on the loose', in the form of a 'runaway' black hole. The supermassive black hole is barrelling through the universe so quickly that if it were in our solar system, it could travel the 237,674-mile journey from Earth to the Moon in just 14 minutes. Weighing as much as 20million suns, it has left a trail of stars in its wake, measuring 200,000-light-years - twice the diameter of the Milky Way. Scientists outlined the findings for the possible black hole in a study led by Yale University.

On Thursday night, swimmer and women's sports advocate Riley Gaines was assaulted by radical trans activists during a Turning Point USA event at San Francisco State University. After allegedly being physically assaulted by a protestor while she was escorted to a safe-room, protestors followed Gaines and continued to harass her.

The writer talks to Freddie Sayers about America's new censorship complex. From state actors all the way down to fact-checkers, the 'disinformation complex' has blossomed in recent years. Broadly defined as false information which is intended to mislead, disinformation as a concept is opaque and has taken on several meanings some benign, others less so. In a 13,000 word essay for Tablet, Jacob Siegel delineates all the nefarious ways disinformation has evolved over the last 70 years in America. As Siegel explains it, 'disinformation' is an invention, one that has morphed into a tool of governance. Declaring information as true or untrue is a means to control public discourse and to undermine and censor information which is "unflattering" to political elites. He joined Freddie Sayers to discuss it further:

The greenback may fall by another 15% against rival currencies by mid-2024, an investment services company says. The US dollar could weaken by as much as 15% against major world currencies over the next 18 months, as inflation continues to cool, allowing the Federal Reserve to loosen its monetary policy, according to Eurizon SLJ Capital. A research note released on Tuesday by the firm's chief executive, Stephen Jen, said the US Federal Reserve is likely close to - or already beyond - peak hawkishness, meaning that rate cuts are on the horizon. The Fed's nine previous hikes, in addition to the tighter credit conditions caused by the US banking crisis, already suggest inflation is trending to the downside, he concluded.

Pope Francis has praised the virtues of sex in a documentary released on Wednesday, describing it as "one of the beautiful things that God has given to the human person." The 86-year-old pontiff made the comment in the Disney+ production "The Pope Answers", which captures a meeting he had last year in Rome with 10 people in their early 20s. Francis was quizzed by them on a variety of topics, including LGBT rights, abortion, the porn industry, sex, and faith and sex abuse within the Catholic Church.

Women swimmers will not have to compete against transgender competitors in licensed events under new rules from Swim England. The sport's governing body has introduced an 'open' category for those born male as well as trans or non-binary competitors, while a 'female' category will be restricted to those with a birth sex of female. The policy comes into effect on September 1 and will apply to competitions under Swim England's auspices including those organised by member regions and clubs.

About a decade ago, toddler son in tow, I found myself in a playground for the first time in 35 years. It was not what I remembered. The colors were far more vibrant. Plastic had replaced wood and metal. Sharp edges had been rounded, chains and hinges softened. Cushioned ground had replaced the asphalt. What struck me most, however, was that it was full of adults. It seemed that every child had a minder within arms length. I was perplexed. I knew why I was there my son was still a bit wobbly. Many of the kids appeared to be about 6-8 years old. Why did they need minders? I soon learned the two cardinal rules of contemporary playgrounds (or at the very least, playgrounds on Manhattan's Upper West Side): One, your child may not get hurt. Two, your child may not hurt another child. Violate the first rule, and you're negligent. Violate the second and you're antisocial borderline criminal. Also, and just for good measure, "hurt" is given the broadest possible definition to include...

Drag queen storytime performers like Aida H Dee should be able to visit schools, say National Education Union members Drag queens should be invited into schools to make them more inclusive, the UK's biggest teaching union has said. Members of the National Education Union (NEU) voted to support LGBT+ initiatives including drag queen storytime and inviting LGBT+ authors to speak in schools at the union's annual conference in Harrogate on Wednesday. They said that the activities would help to challenge the "heteronormative culture and curriculum that dominates education". Teachers voted through the motion after Shelby Millard, a teacher working at a secondary school in Sutton, Surrey, told delegates that Rishi Sunak "is supporting the far-Right attacks on drag queen storytime" and "the murder of beautiful souls like Brianna [Ghey]." Two teenagers were charged in February with the murder of transgender teenager Brianna Ghey, who was found with stab wounds in a park.

The late Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a Nobel laureate and tireless campaigner against South African apartheid, once observed: "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor." For decades, the BBC's editorial policy in reporting on Israel and Palestine has consistently chosen the side of the oppressor - and all too often, not even by adopting the impartiality the corporation claims as the bedrock of its journalism. Instead, the British state broadcaster regularly chooses language and terminology whose effect is to deceive its audience. And it compounds such journalistic malpractice by omitting vital pieces of context when that extra information would present Israel in a bad light. BBC bias - which entails knee-jerk echoing of the British establishment's support for Israel as a highly militarised ally projecting western interests into the oil-rich Middle East - was starkly on show once again this week as the broadcaster reported on the violence...

The national flag of Finland was raised for the first time at the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation in Brussels on Tuesday, which also marked the 74th anniversary of the western alliance. It signifies for Finland a historic abandonment of its policy of neutrality. Not even propagandistically, anyone can say Finland has encountered a security threat from Russia. This is an act of motiveless malignity toward Russia on the part of the NATO, which of course invariably carries the imprimatur of the US, while being projected to the world audience as a sovereign choice by Finland against the backdrop of Russia's intervention in Ukraine. Quintessentially, this can only be regarded as yet another move by the US, after the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines last September, with the deliberate intent to complicate Russia's relations with Europe and render it intractable for the foreseeable future. On the other hand, suffice it to say, this will also make Europe's...

A giant vessel docked off the Dorset coast will be used to hold hundreds of asylum seekers, the Home Office has confirmed, despite legal threats from local Tories. The barge, called the Bibby Stockholm, will be berthed in Portland Port for at least 18 months and will accommodate about 500 single adult males while their claims are processed. The Home Office said the accommodation will be "basic" with healthcare provision, catering facilities and 24/7 security. It did not say how much the lease agreement cost but insisted it is "significantly cheaper than hotels".

When Nicola Sturgeon thought she had finished her resignation press conference at Bute House in February, and was gathering up her speaking notes, she was asked a direct question that seemed to make her grimace. Glenn Campbell, BBC Scotland's political editor, asked her: "Have you been, or do you expect to be, interviewed by the police who are looking into your party's finances." Sturgeon's response, given with a tense shake of her head, was brisk: "I'm not going to discuss an ongoing police investigation. I wouldn't do that on any issue and I'm not going to do it now."

The Tudor Queen was connected to Sir John Hawkins, who as a vice-admiral had helped defeat the Spanish Armada. Later, in 1562, he shipped a cargo of slaves across the Atlantic. He traded the 300 Africans he had captured in Sierra Leone for pearls and sugar. 'His missions were so lucrative that Queen Elizabeth I sponsored his subsequent journeys and provided ships, supplies and guns. She also gave him a unique coat of arms bearing a bound slave,' according to Royal Museums Greenwich, which includes the National Maritime Museum. Hawkins' trips began a grisly period in which millions of captured men, women and children were taken from West Africa to work in England's American colonies in the most horrific conditions.

Dozens of trade unionists railing against French President Emmanuel Macron's pension overhaul briefly invaded the central Paris building in which U.S.-brd investment firm BlackRock has an office, chanting slogans and setting off firecrackers. The union action in the historical Centorial building near Paris' Grand Boulevards area, targetted BlackRock because of its private pension fund activity, protester Franoise Onic, 51, told Reuters. Comment: BlackRock has its tentacles in much more than just pensions: BlackRock's tyrannical ESG agenda "The government wants to throw away pensions, it wants to force people to fund their own retirement with private pension funds, but what we know is that only the rich will be able to benefit from such a setup," Onic, a school teacher, added.

Wikipedia has become "increasingly anti-Russian" during the past decade and its policy has worsened substantially since the start of the conflict in Ukraine a year ago, a former editor at the "Participants with pro-Russian views were blocked," and "...articles about Russian achievements were deleted," from the platform over the past nine years, Arseny Natapov told the BRIEF Telegram channel on Tuesday. In 2014, a violent coup in the Ukrainian capital led to Crimea's reunification with Russia and the outbreak of conflict in Donbass. This provoked a spike in tensions between Moscow and the West, which imposed sanctions on Russia and intensified Western military buildups near its borders. Soon, these tensions were reflected online. Insiders believed Wikipedia had adopted an anti-Russia posture which, the former editor pointed out, deteriorated even further in late 2021, shortly before the launch of Russia's military...

Apparently terrorism and murdering reporters get a free pass if the Western establishment doesn't like the target's profile - or if the perpetrator risks being linked to an ally. The radio silence from the West is deafening in the wake of the murder of military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky at a cafe in St. Petersburg. Tatarsky was killed after being handed a statue by a young woman, Darya Trepova, that subsequently blew up the entire venue. For all of the Western officials' differences with Russia, can they really not at least bring themselves to condemn a blatant act of terrorism in the middle of a major city center? We're talking here about the same folks who spent two decades kicking down doors around the world under the guise of fighting a "Global War on Terrorism." Just a few years ago, cartoonists and writers for the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo were gunned down in broad daylight at their Paris office by jihadists who objected to the publication's portrayal of Islam...

Top diplomats from Middle East rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia met in Beijing on April 6, pledging to work together to bring "security and stability" to their turbulent region following a surprise China-brokered deal. In a joint statement released after talks between Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and his Saudi counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, the two sides vowed to continue to work together to improve ties.

The chief executive of JP Morgan has suggested that governments should seize private land to build wind and solar farms in order to meet net zero targets. Jamie Dimon, the longstanding boss of the Wall Street titan who donates to the Democratic Party, said green energy projects must be fast-tracked as the window for averting the most costly impacts of global climate change is closing. Comment: That darn window. It's been stuck in the closing rapidly position for the past 25 years at least. Someone close it already! In his annual shareholder letter, Mr Dimon said: "Permitting reforms are desperately needed to allow investment to be done in any kind of timely way. "We may even need to evoke eminent domain - we simply are not getting the adequate investments fast enough for grid, solar, wind and pipeline initiatives." Eminent domain is when a government or state agency carries out a compulsory purchase of private property for public use and compensates the asset holder.

Any American needing a passport to travel outside the U.S. in the near future had better get their applications in quickly. The State Department says processing delays amid "unprecedented demand" mean it could now take more than four months to receive a passport. The agency recently extended estimated processing times by two weeks to an estimated 10 to 13 weeks for routine applications and 7 to 9 weeks for expedited submissions. Add on two weeks for mailing in an expired passport and another two weeks in the mail for receiving the new one, and eager travelers should expect a wait time extending into August if they begin the process today. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was asked about the delays in testimony before the House Appropriations Committee last week, when he explained "an unprecedented demand for renewed travel" has resulted in the agency receiving roughly 500,000 passport applications a week - a 30% to 40% increase from last year. Blinken said the State Department...

The former French president confirmed that France and the EU are "participants" in the Ukraine conflict Francois Hollande has confirmed that the European Union and France are directly participating in the armed conflict in Ukraine, despite Paris officially denying such claims. The former French president unwittingly spoke at length about the situation in Ukraine with Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexus, who were pretending to be former Ukrainian president Pyotr Poroshenko. During the conversation, Hollande declared that he was on Kiev's side and "fully supports Ukraine," adding that "wherever I can speak, I always ask to provide Ukraine with the weapons it needs."

An analysis of human hair strands recovered from a burial site in Menorca, Spain, reveals that ancient human civilizations used hallucinogenic drugs derived from plants. According to the researchers, the findings are the first direct evidence of ancient drug use in Europe, which may have been used as part of ritualistic ceremonies. Previous evidence of prehistoric drug use in Europe was based on indirect evidence, such as the discovery of opium alkaloids in Bronze Age containers, the discovery of drug plant remains in ritualistic contexts, and the appearance of drug plants in artistic depictions. Researchers detected scopolamine, ephedrine, and atropine in three replicated hair samples. Atropine and scopolamine are naturally occurring substances in the nightshade plant family that can cause delirium, hallucinations, and altered sensory perception. Ephedrine is a stimulant derived from certain shrubs and pines that can boost excitement, alertness, and physical activity. Elisa...

The governors of Idaho and Indiana signed bills this week that prohibit minors from accessing gender-reassignment surgery. On Tuesday, Governor Brad Little (R., Idaho) signed a bill that would criminalize physicians and medical practitioners who provide hormone treatments, puberty blockers, and/or surgeries to minors. "In signing this bill, I recognize our society plays a role in protecting minors from surgeries or treatments that can irreversibly damage their healthy bodies," Little wrote in a letter addressed to state lawmakers upon signing the bill. "However, as policymakers we should take great caution whenever we consider allowing the government to interfere with loving parents and their decisions about what is best for their children." State Democrats have condemned the legislation.

Israeli forces conducted violent raids on the Al Aqsa Mosque compound two nights in a row, beating worshipers and forcing Palestinians out of the holy site in order to make way for Jewish pilgrims on Passover. On Wednesday evening , the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem was full of Muslim worshippers praying into the night during the holy month of Ramadan. Earlier that morning, worshipers were beaten, and forced out of the holy mosque's prayer halls. In the midst of night prayers Wednesday, Israeli forces stormed the compound again with weapons and riot gear, unleashing a coordinated and organized attack against worshippers for the second time in less than 24 hours. TRANSLATION: YESTERDAY'S SCENE IS REPEATED. THE OCCUPATION FORCES STORM THE QIBLI PRAYER HALL AND BEAT THE WORSHIPERS INSIDE IT. As Israeli Jewish settlers rally for holding Passover animal sacrifices in the mosque's compound, Muslim worshippers continue to be attacked with teargas, beatings, and extended imprisonment in some...

Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is on a quest to attack and smear organizations that support free speech. For some reason they do not understand the basic tenets of the United States Constitution and why the first amendment is the most critical element a society has to maintain freedom and to address any and all issues we have in front of us. Their website defines themselves as being "the leading anti-hate organization in the world." They also say that they work "to protect democracy and ensure a just and inclusive society for all." The "inclusive society for all" is of question. But more in question is their shift from an organization that focuses on inclusion, as they state, to one that attacks those that discuss issues that they do not agree with or that may go against Big Pharma, Big Business, or the government. More disturbing, they ignore serious cases of blackmail and pedophilia such as the Epstein case and the massive child pornography found on social media platforms. Isn't...

After a century of electing nothing but Democrats and getting only corruption, death, and poverty in return, Chicago residents have decided to make a change to the status quo by electing a different Democrat this time. "Maybe this Democrat will be different," said one local business owner while sweeping up the broken glass from her store after getting robbed for the 15th time this year. "We tried Democrats 4 years ago, and also before that, and before that, and before that, and before that, and before that, and before that, and before that, and before that, and before that, and before that, and before that, going back to the early 1900s. I sure wish there was some other kind of thing we could choose that would help." "Oh well." As violence and despair continue to rise in the city, Chicago remains hopeful that maybe this Democrat politician implementing the same Democrat policies will somehow achieve a better result than all the other times it's been tried. "I sure hope something...

What is the "No Asshole Rule"? Glad you asked! In 2007, Dr. Robert Sutton wrote the classic book titled "The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't". It can all be summed up in a few simple statements. Basically, avoid assholes at all costs, no matter how rich or powerful they might be. That being around an asshole is contagious. That chronic exposure to such nastiness will eventually rub off. Because such behavior is an "emotional contagion" - the odds are that if a company hires assholes, the corporate culture will become toxic. If a corporate culture becomes toxic due to assholes, it can be very difficult if not impossible to change. The back part of the book is about how to survive having to work for or with assholes without becoming one yourself. In Dr. Sutton's opinion, assholes are bullies, creeps, jerks, tyrants, tormentors, despots, backstabbers and egomaniacs. When I first read this book over a decade ago, I was just in the midst of...

Thousands of pubs in the UK may be forced to shut down this year due to soaring gas prices, the Daily Mail has reported. More than 1,000 pubs closed in the UK in 2022, including 485 in the first six months of the year and another 554 between July and December - "a staggering rate of 21 per week," the Mail reported on Sunday, citing figures from consumer organization the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA). The British pub industry was hit hard by Covid-related restrictions in 2020 and 2021. Last year saw gas prices skyrocket amid the economic fallout from the Ukraine conflict and sanctions against Russia, which was a major European gas supplier. Some pubs have reported a tripling of their monthly electricity bills, with one owner being charged a "whopping 2,097 [$2,600] for just 10 days' worth of energy," the Daily Mail reported. The figures come as the UK government's Energy Bill Relief Scheme, which had capped energy costs, came to an [end] on Friday. A new plan providing discounts on...

A plaintiff in an existing suit wants to add new charges against the bank for its alleged complicity in the late financier's sex-trafficking scheme... The US Virgin Islands is seeking to add a new obstruction charge to its lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase, claiming that the banking giant benefited from convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking operation, US media reported on Wednesday, citing a new filing in Manhattan federal court. The Monday filing referred to a recent deposition by JPMorgan employee Mary Erdoes, who runs an asset management division of the bank where Epstein was a client. According to the filing, the obstruction charge was proposed after it emerged that the bank had processed large cash withdrawals for Epstein and his associates, thus helping impede enforcement of a US anti-trafficking law and allowing Epstein to evade criminal liability. Furthermore, the filing alleged that Epstein's dealings had been "so widely known at JPMorgan that senior...

This bright bolide was spotted over Spain on April 5, at 21:20 local time (equivalent to 19:20 universal time). The fireball was observed by a wide number of casual eyewitnesses, who reported it on social networks. The event was generated by a rock (a meteoroid) from an asteroid that hit the atmosphere at about 54,000 km/h. The fireball overflew the provinces of Ciudad Real and Albacete (Spain). It began at an altitude of about 81 km over the locality of Ruidera (province of Ciudad Real), moved southeast, and ended at a height of around 46 km over the locality of Pozo Caada (province of Albacete). This bright meteor was recorded in the framework of the SMART project, operated by the Southwestern Europe Meteor Network (SWEMN) from the meteor-observing stations located at Ayora (Valencia), Huelva, La Hita (Toledo), Calar Alto, Sierra Nevada, La Sagra (Granada), Sevilla, and Faro de Cullera (Valencia). The event has been analyzed by the principal investigator of the SMART project:...

The prior days of clashes and tensions at Jerusalem's al-Aqsa Mosque are spiraling toward broader conflict in Gaza and along Israel's northern border as on Thursday afternoon a barrage of rockets was fired from Lebanon. Rocket sirens have been sounding in the towns of Betzet and Shlomi in the Western Galilee, close to the border, while the IDF says its Iron Dome system intercepted at least one of the projectiles. There are emerging reports of at least person wounded by shrapnel on the Israeli side. No group has claimed responsibility for the rockets, but Hezbollah is the prime armed group operating in southern Lebanon. Some reports say the rocket salvo was launched from Palestinian refugee camps, and thus might not have been approved by Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shia group backed by Iran. According to The Times of Israel, it's a likely directly response to the recent Israeli police raids on al-Aqsa Mosque during Muslim holy days: There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but...

A North Carolina Democratic legislator handed a decisive victory to the Republican party Wednesday by defecting and ensuring a veto-proof majority. Announcing the switch, Tricia Cotham declared that "The modern-day Democratic Party has become unrecognizable to me and others across the state," adding "I will not be controlled by anyone." "If you don't do exactly what the Democrats want you to do, they will try to bully you. They will try to cast you aside," she further proclaimed, adding "They have pushed me out."

A 14ft-long smalltooth sand tiger shark washed up at Kilmore Quay in Co Wexford on Saturday. Scientists believe this is the first official record of the species being found in Ireland's waters. The smalltooth sand tiger shark, scientifically called Odontaspis ferox, is a species rarely encountered by humans as it is normally found in water more than 100m deep. Shark biologist Dr Nicholas Payne, an assistant professor in Trinity College Dublin's (TCD) school of natural sciences, "could not believe it" when he received an email from a Swiss tourist who discovered the shark while walking on Saturday.

Robert F Kennedy Jr is reportedly going to run for president. The son of late Sen. Robert F Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy registered his presidential campaign with the Federal Election Commission. According to RawStory, Kennedy filed his paperwork with the FEC on Wednesday afternoon, which indicated that he would run as a Democrat. His committee is reportedly called Team Kennedy, and is testing to see how much potential support he would receive for the run. John E. Sullivan, a Florida-based attorney, is serving as the campaign's treasurer, and confirmed to the outlet that the presidential run and the FEC filing are both true.

The Prime Minister wants to 'bring legal clarity' to an issue that has become mired in fear, confusion and accusations of bigotry. Rishi Sunak is set to rewrite equality law to protect women by making it easier to bar trans people from female sports and single-sex spaces. On Tuesday, it emerged that the Government had asked the equalities watchdog for advice on changing the wording of the Equality Act to specify that it protects "biological sex" rather than "sex".

Romania is in the grips of weather specific to winter, such as low temperatures, blizzards and snow. These days, planes were grounded, schools shut and roads were blocked in several parts of the country due to snowfall and strong winds. The meteorological service ANM issued orange and yellow code warnings and an information notice valid until Saturday, April 8. "There is a cyclone formed south of the country, which brought significant amounts of precipitation, but at the same time, an atmospheric front of polar origin that brought temperature values that are currently 8-12 degrees Celsius below the multi-year averages," Elena Mateescu, director-general of ANM, told Digi24. She added that temperatures may rise over the next week to around 14-17 degrees, but that rains will persist as well. "We will have weather close to the thermal norm of the date for Palm Sunday, and for Easter, at this moment, temperature values are estimated to be throughout the country between 14 to 17-18...

Police announced Monday that transgender shooter Audrey Hale had been planning an attack on the Christian elementary school for "months," according to a press release. Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) gave an update to the investigation into the mass shooting at Covenant School in a press release, noting that Hale's manifesto indicated that she had been "planning over a period of months to commit mass murder." Hale had also been studying the way other "mass murderers" had committed acts of violence and "acted totally alone," according to police. "In the collective writings by Hale found in her vehicle in the school parking lot, and others later found in the bedroom of her home, she documented, in journals, her planning over a period of months to commit mass murder at The Covenant School," police said in the press release. "The writings remain under careful review by the MNPD and the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit based in Quantico, Virginia. The motive for Hale's actions...

A tech mogul who helped create Android and Cash App, has been stabbed to death in San Francisco. Bob Lee, 43, was attacked in the city's plush downtown residential Rincon Hill neighborhood at 2.35am on Tuesday. Police were called to the 300 block of Main Street near the entrance of a high-rise close to the waterfront and found the dad-of-two suffering from multiple stab wounds.

Freezing rain and thunderstorms pummeled parts of Ontario and Quebec on Wednesday, knocking out power for about 800,000 people, officials reported. Quebec's power utility said shortly after 5 p.m. that more than 676,000 of its 4.5 million customers had no electricity as much of the province remained under a freezing rain warning. "What's causing the outages is the mixture of precipitation and wind," Hydro-Qubec spokeswoman Gabrielle Leblanc said. "It weighs down the vegetation. There can be branches and trees that fall on the lines." In Montreal, more than 316,000 customers had lost power, while 171,000 people were hit with outages in the Montrgie region, south of the city.

The Air Force has loosened its restrictions on body fat for new recruits, one of the latest moves to grow the pool of potential applicants amid the military's recruiting crisis. In the past, men and women's bodies needed to be 20% or 28% fat, respectively, to be eligible for service. That benchmark is now 26% for men and 36% for women, Air Force Recruiting Service spokesperson Leslie Brown said Monday. The American Council on Exercise categorizes as obese those with body fat percentages over 25% for men and 32% for women. The old Air Force benchmark fell into the range of "acceptable" fat, according to the organization.

A man was mauled to death by stray dogs in southwest Detroit. Police say the dogs allegedly attacked him at a building on Fort Street between Morell and Junction streets. People who live in the area have seen a number of stray dogs. Some of them are described as vicious and have targeted neighborhood pets. Neighbors feared this tragedy was only a matter of time. "They look like junkyard dogs all greasy and dirty they're scared, but when they're together, that's when they're dangerous because they run in a pack," Gordon Compton, one of those neighbors, said.

If our banking system can't find a way to turn things around, our entire economy will soon be in a world of hurt. When banks get into trouble, they start getting really tight with their money. That means fewer mortgages, fewer commercial real estate loans, fewer auto loans and fewer credit cards being issued. So it should greatly concern all of us that U.S. banks are bleeding deposits at an absolutely staggering pace right now. During the week ending March 15th, 98.4 billion dollars was pulled out of U.S. banks. That was really bad, but we just learned that things got even worse the next week. During the week ending March 22nd, 126 billion dollars was pulled out of U.S. banks... Depositors drained another $126 billion from U.S. banks during the week ending March 22, according to new Federal Reserve data. This time the outflow came from the nation's largest institutions.

The mid-March Moscow summit between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin was notable for being publicized in advance. Since the outbreak of the Syrian war, Assad's foreign visits have not been publicly revealed until after they have occurred. This small but significant detail suggests the Syrian president has a newfound confidence in the political and security conditions outside his national borders. While the participants kept a tight lid on leaks, informed sources from both Moscow and Damascus disclosed to The Cradle that the Syrian and Russian presidents discussed the following issues: Economic ties: With a focus on Syria's energy sector, Putin expressed Russia's readiness to invest in the production of electricity in the Levantine state, which post-conflict, suffers from a 75 percent deficit in production. Putin also expressed Moscow's willingness to help Syria meet its vital grain needs.

We know the question that keeps you awake at night: when did humans start eating snails? Well, researchers have recently discovered the earliest evidence of prehistoric people cooking and eating these terrestrial mollusks. But while you might imagine a actually enormous in comparison. A team of researchers from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, have found shell fragments of land snails from the Achatinidae family - which can grow to 16 centimeters (6.3 inches) long - at Border Cave, located on a cliff near South Africa's border with Eswatini. The site has been excavated on multiple occasions since the 1930s, but it was during work conducted between 2015 and 2019 that the shell fragments of giant land snails were found.

NPR was labeled as "US state-affiliated media" by Twitter on Tuesday night. According to the social media platform's guidelines, "Labels on government accounts provide additional context for accounts heavily engaged in geopolitics and diplomacy." "Labels on state-affiliated accounts provide additional context about accounts that are controlled by certain official representatives of governments, state-affiliated media entities, and individuals associated with those entities." "The label appears on the profile page of the relevant Twitter account and on the Tweets sent by and shared from these accounts. Labels contain information about the country the account is affiliated with and whether it is operated by a government representative or state-affiliated media entity."

A fire ripped through the Russian Ministry of Defence tonight, just a short distance from the Kremlin. The blaze broke out as Vladimir Putin was holding talks with the Belarusian despot Alexander Lukashenko. Comment: Lukashenko is the President of Belarus who, just a few years ago the West was courting for partnership, until Lukashenko turned down the Covid bribes to lockdown his country and then signaled his alliance with Russia. Dark smoke was seen gushing from the third-floor windows in the defence ministry headquarters at 19 Znamenka Street. Footage shared by state media outlets on social media showed a plume of spiraling smoke. Around 50 people were evacuated as flames ripped through the headquarters. Emergency services arrived and the small blaze was put out shortly after it started. There were no casualties, the Russian TASS news agency reported.

The following is a transcript of Danny Haiphong's interview with economist Michael Hudson on Haiphong's The Left Lens YouTube channel. They discuss the US banking sector collapse and the deep connections between global economy and geopolitics. *** DANNY HAIPHONG: Good afternoon everyone, good afternoon. You are tuning in to another episode of The Left Lens. How are you all doing this afternoon? I am joined by Economist Michael Hudson, as you can see here. I am very honored to have him. How are you doing this afternoon, Michael? MICHAEL HUDSON: Pretty good. The weather is nice. The sun is shining. DANNY HAIPHONG: Indeed, indeed. So we have a lot to get to. So everyone, you know what to do. Be sure to like the stream as you're coming in. Hit that share button and share it around where you can. Subscribe to this channel. And of course if you want to support this channel you know where to go. Go to the links in the description, patreon.com/dannyhaiphong being the best place. But let's...

If you are a consumer today, inflation is only one of the problems harming you. As prices go up, quality continues to go down. What most stores have to offer you might crassly be called "cheap crap." In fact, economic writer Charles Hugh Smith has repeatedly warned that the "crapification" of the U.S. economy is the natural result of a "neoliberal-hyper-financialization-hyper-globalization model," in which quasi-monopolist manufacturers mass-produce goods with the cheapest possible components, while customers with scant other buying options are forced to accept that few purchases will last. "Planned obsolescence," combined with a free market "in name only," creates a rigged system in which downstream consumers are forced to pay more over time, while owning little that will maintain value for long. Appliances that used to work for decades now barely make it through legally required warranty periods. Metal tools that could be passed from one generation to the next now tend to rust...

Russia has just published its "Foreign Policy Concept". After recalling its position in the world, this document describes the end of Western domination and the efforts of the United States and its allies to maintain the hegemony of Washington. It lists Moscow's interests and goals. It emphasizes the primacy of contemporary international law (a creation of Tsar Nicholas II) and concludes with a description of the changing world. President Vladimir Putin met with his Security Council via video conference on March 31, 2023. At the end of this meeting, he promulgated an update of the "Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation". In this document, Russia sets out its vision of its role in building a multipolar world. First of all, Russia recalls its significant resources in all spheres of life, its status as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, its participation in major international organizations and associations, its nuclear power and its status as the successor in...

President Biden's former assistant contradicted White House claims that classified documents discovered at Biden's post-vice presidency DC office this past November were in a "locked closet" and revealed the White House sought to quietly retrieve the papers, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said Tuesday. Comer (R-Ky.) added in a statement that Chung, who sat for an interview with the panel, "provided startling information that undermines the Biden White House's narrative on the matter." "Today we learned that when Joe Biden left the vice presidency, boxes containing classified documents, vice presidential records, and other items were stored in three different locations around the Washington, DC, area, including an office near the White House, an office in Chinatown, and eventually the Penn Biden Center. "At some point, the boxes containing classified materials were transported by personal vehicles to an office location. "The boxes were not in a 'locked closet' at...

Movie star Leonardo DiCaprio took the stand in a federal trial on Monday that seeks to hammer down the details of what appears to be a money-funneling scheme that features a Malaysian financier funneling tens of millions of dollars through a prominent 90s rap artist for the purpose of donating to former President Barack Obama's 2012 re-election campaign. DiCaprio plays into the saga because he was said to have partied with Jho Low, a Malaysian financier who apparently suggested to DiCaprio once during a conversation that he intended to contribute to Obama's presidential campaign, according to the New York Post. DiCaprio said: "It was a casual conversation about what party he was in support of, I told him what party I was in support of. And he told me that he, or he and a group, were going to make a significant contribution to the Democratic Party. ... I said 'wow, that's a lot of money.'" Prakazrel "Pras" Michel, founder of The Fugees, has been recruited by Low in an effort to...

The average American lifespan keeps getting shorter, even as comparably rich countries rebound and recover after Covid-19 Recently, National Public Radio (NPR) in the US published a story titled 'Live free and die? The sad state of US life expectancy' that explored the great divide between the United States and peer countries on life expectancy. While most countries experienced a dip during the Covid-19 pandemic and rebounded after vaccines and other treatments were rolled out, American life expectancy has essentially fallen off a cliff and never came back. The graph published by NPR is shocking. It shows that US life expectancy is lower than in Cuba or Lebanon. The number has been known since just before Christmas when health officials announced that the country's life expectancy had dropped starkly for a second year in a row to 76 years. However, last week more bad news arrived after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that maternal mortality in the...

The St. Petersburg division of the so-called National Republican Army (NRA) has claimed it was behind the murder of military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, according to a Telegram statement shared by former Russian State Duma Deputy Ilya Ponomarev. Ponomarev, who has been branded a "foreign agent" by Moscow, previously claimed to be the mouthpiece of the NRA, although there is no conclusive evidence that the group actually exists. According to the statement, the NRA carried out the attack against "a group of Z-activists and personally against the well-known arsonist and propagandist, war criminal Maksim Fomin," referring to Tatarsky's real name. The group insisted that the bombing was "prepared and carried out by us autonomously," and without assistance from foreign forces or special services. The NRA also denied the involvement of Darya Trepova, who is the main suspect in the blogger's assassination.

Darya Trepova claims she was set up, according to the Fontanka news outlet... The main suspect in the murder of prominent Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, Darya Trepova, has confessed details of her involvement in the bomb attack, according to the Fontanka news outlet. Tatarsky was killed in an explosion on Sunday at a caf in St. Petersburg, after Trepova handed him a statuette that contained an improvised explosive device (IED). The bombing, which also wounded 40 people, has been classified as a terrorist attack.

French trade unions called for record turnout at protests on Thursday, after negotiations with the government over a controversial pension reform bill broke down. France has been consumed by protests and riots since President Emmanuel Macron's government hiked the retirement age without a vote in parliament. Union representatives met with Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne on Wednesday, warning beforehand that they would walk out if Borne refused to entertain the idea of bringing the retirement age for most workers back to 62 from 64. Borne refused, and the union representatives walked out, calling for strikes and mass demonstrations the following day. Cyril Chabanier, who heads the CFTC union, told reporters: "We again told the prime minister that the only democratic outcome could be the text's withdrawal. The prime minister replied that she wished to maintain the text, a grave decision." Sophie Binet, leader of the CGT union, said: "We decided to put an end to this useless meeting....

A team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has induced stem cells to emulate the development of the human heart. The result is a sort of "mini-heart" known as an organoid. It will permit the study of the earliest development phase of our heart and facilitate research on diseases. The human heart starts forming approximately three weeks after conception. This places the early phase of heart development in a time when women are often still unaware of their pregnancy. That is one reason why we still have little knowledge of many details of how the heart is formed. Findings from animal studies are not fully transferable to humans. An organoid developed at TUM could prove helpful to researchers. A ball of 35,000 cells The team working with Alessandra Moretti, Professor of Regenerative Medicine in Cardiovascular Disease, has developed a method for making a sort of "mini-heart" using pluripotent stem cells. Around 35,000 cells are spun into a sphere in a centrifuge. Over a period...

In an earlier post I suggested the earliest phase of construction of GT could be in the Younger Dryas period. This is because enclosure D is so well crafted and so large, that it is unlikely to have been the first construction of its kind. Other enclosures must have preceded it, acting as templates or precursors for its design. Given that ground penetrating radar scans show that other large structures remain to be uncovered, and that the enclosures excavated so far represent only 5-10% of the site, it seems unlikely we have excavated the oldest parts already. This idea is reinforced by the existence of enclosure E outside the main excavation area. It seems to be a rougher and less precise example than enclosure D, and so could be a precursor. Since it is missing its walls and pillars, it is possible they were re-used in the construction of enclosure D. But what about scientific evidence? Let's consider the facts. Regarding radiocarbon dates, the earliest radiocarbon dates reported...

The body of an 88-year-old Cape Town woman is believed to have only been discovered several hours after her neighbour's two pit bulls attacked and mauled her in her backyard. Olga Grill died after her neighbour's dogs assailed her in her backyard in Bonteheuwel on Tuesday. She is believed to have been hanging her laundry when the pair jumped over the fence and attacked. Her heartbroken son, Graham Woodman, 68, left home in the early hours of the morning for work. He had made her breakfast to tide her over until her carer arrived at 10:00. His mother was fiercely independent, Woodman said. She preferred to take care of herself, insisting that she could cook and clean for herself, despite his offers to do the household chores for her.

In the latest development, a group of dogs attacked 2 people in Jalandhar city. The case has been reported from Jalandhar City's Bhairon market. Reportedly, 2 scooty riding people were passing through a street late at night during which they were attacked by around 5-6 dogs. The dogs tried to harm him due to which the victim's jacket got torn off. Post this, the dogs also tried to bite him but the other person took a stone and acted to hit them after which they ran away. The CCTV of the same has gone viral. The video shows 2 people riding on a scooty and suddenly a dog started barking at them. So that the dog does not attack them, they stopped the vehicle and waited for dogs to calm down. Instead of running away, the dogs became aggressive and attacked the person sitting behind.

Washington is used to controlling the planet's top tech companies and doesn't want anyone to threaten its surveillance domination. As the United States contemplates a possible ban on TikTok, it relentlessly accuses Beijing of using the popular Chinese-owned social media application as a means of espionage, claiming that the Communist Party has access to user data. Ironically, Washington itself is known to be doing exactly what US politicians are accusing China of doing. Using the unique advantage of having jurisdiction over the world's top internet companies, the US has given itself the right to look into the private communications of foreign citizens anywhere in the world. Combine that data-sharing between intelligence agencies of the US and its allies, and you get the most comprehensive espionage regime in the world. While American politicians and media constantly talk about fears of Chinese espionage, the near-absence of coverage of Washington's own spying efforts ought to be a...

Another ski resort has just blasted into the history books and surpassed its all-time record snowfall. Following the most recent storm, Snowbird, UT, has had 792of fresh snow this season, besting the 783 in 2010/11. Snowbird has seen 28 in the last 24 hours, an incredible 43 in the last 48 hours, and has a 195 base.

At least seven tourists have died and many are feared trapped after a major avalanche struck near a mountain pass in the northeast Indian state of Sikkim. The incident occurred at 11.30am (0600 GMT) on Tuesday near the Nathu La mountain pass, a popular destination for tourists on India's border with China. The avalanche struck a road that connects Gangtok to the Nathu La pass and the nearby Changu lake - another major tourist attraction. The Indian army has said five to six vehicles carrying up to 30 tourists were stuck under the snow after the avalanche. "By 3PM, 14 persons were rescued and taken to nearby Army medical facility. However, seven persons succumbed. The other seven persons were administered first aid and returned to Gangtok," the army statement, cited by several Indian media outlets, said.

Snowfall in what has become a historic blizzard in central Wyoming has begun in Gillette, and it likely won't end until tonight. The National Weather Service in Rapid City, South Dakota, is forecasting a 100% chance of heavy snow throughout the day today, enough so to issue a Winter Storm Warning for Gillette. Patchy blowing snow will be troublesome for travelers, particularly this afternoon. Today's forecast high is 24 degrees but with a northeast wind 16 to 20 mph and gusts reaching 31 mph, wind chills will dip as low as 7 degrees. Total daytime accumulation of 3 to 7 inches is possible. Gillette city officials issued a Level I Snow Emergency on Monday ahead of the storm. Elsewhere in the state, Casper saw the fall of a 40-year snowfall record in this storm with more than 26 inches of snow Monday. The previous record of just more than 24 inches was set in 1982, according to the National Weather Service in Riverton.

Reuters reports that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates dismissed calls to halt the development of more advanced AI chatbots more powerful than OpenAI's GPT-4. Last week, an open letter signed by Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, and AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio called for a six-month pause in developing new AI tools. Gates stated that the proposed pause in AI chatbot development would not "solve the challenges." According to Gates, the focus should be on effectively integrating AI technology into society. He finds it hard to understand how a pause could work globally with so many firms working on the technology. "I don't think asking one particular group to pause solves the challenges," the billionaire said on Monday. "Clearly, there are huge benefits to these things... what we need to do is identify the tricky areas," he noted.

Snowplows are busy on Hawaii's Big Island, removing snow that continues to fall on Mauna Kea, the tallest summit on the island and in the state. An April snowstorm has brought several inches of snow to the higher terrain of Hawaii, prompting officials to close roads until they're free of snow and ice. In an update released this morning, the Mauna Kea Rangers wrote, "The access road to the summit of Maunakea is CLOSED to the public at the Visitor Information Station at an elevation of 9,200 feet due to snowy conditions, below-freezing temperatures, high humidity, and wet roadways that will likely develop into icy conditions."

A two-year-old Virginia boy is dead after a dog attacked him in Maryland Tuesday evening, according to Brunswick Police Department. According to officials, Brunswick Police and the Frederick County Division of Fire & Rescue Services (DFRS) were called to a report of a child in cardiac arrest around 5:13 p.m. in the 400 block of West B Street. There they found the toddler suffering from life-threatening injuries from a dog bite. While they tried to treat the little boy, he went into cardiac arrest.

The market and the government will continue to promote and support a neofeudal status quo until they are forced by society to restore the common good and opportunity. Of the three primary dynamics of human endeavor--the market, government and society--we focus almost exclusively on the first two. Society is rarely considered as a force of its own. It is implicitly viewed as reactive to the market economy and government, the churning wake left as the market and government chart the course. In other words, society is secondary to the economy and governance, the venue of fashions, trends, entertainment, culture wars, etc., fodder for media and social media, a reflection of what's happening in the market and government. As I explain in my book Global Crisis, National Renewal, this is a misunderstanding of society's role as a force that changes the economy and governance in profound ways. We give social transformation short shrift because it's not easy to study or understand. Social...

It's never good when you go out on the water to catch some fish and the water tries to catch you instead... Two fisherman in Franca, Brazil were in for a little more than they bargained for when a sinkhole opened up underneath the water and started to pull in their jon boat. The terrifying video shows the two men fighting to keep their boat above water (or mud) as the sinkhole pulls everything in the near vicinity down below. The boat happened to be the perfect size, because the front and the back stayed on land just far enough apart to cover the length of the sinkhole. Almost looked like a classic Saturday morning cartoon gag.

Sadly, gold is now on its way to heights which are unthinkable for most people. To all the people who have asked me over the years why gold doesn't go up, I have replied: "Don't wish for gold to go up substantially for when it does, your quality of life will deteriorate remarkably." And we are now at the point in the world when this is likely to happen. Let me be clear, now is the time to protect whatever assets you have in order to avoid the total asset destruction that is coming next. More about this later in this article. THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM WILL NOT SURVIVE I came to the conclusion early in this century that a sick financial system was not going to survive the infestation of vermin in the form of debt that started just over 50 years ago.

A strong 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck Tuesday off Panama's Pacific coast near the town of Boca Chica. The US Geological Survey said the quake hit at 5:18 local time (22:18 UTC) and its epicenter was about 44 miles (71 kilometres) south of Boca Chica. The earthquake occurred at a depth of eight miles (13 kilometres). Panama's civil defense office said there were no immediate reports of damages. But the office said the quake was felt on nearby Coiba Island. National Civil Defense Director Carlos Rumbo told local press that his office had not received reports of damage or injuries, but was continuing to check with people in the provinces along the Pacific coast. Source: Associated Press

Comment: For the original story, see: Conservative judge fires back after Stanford disruption: 'They hate my work and my ideas' James Ho and Elizabeth Branch, who announced a clerkship boycott of Yale Law last year, are adding Stanford to the list. James Ho and Elizabeth Branch, the circuit court judges who announced last year that they would no longer hire clerks from Yale Law School, are adding Stanford to the boycott. "We will not hire any student who chooses to attend Stanford Law School in the future," Ho, who sits on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, said Saturday evening in a speech to the Texas Review of Law and Politics, a transcript of which was reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon. The clerkship moratorium, like the one on Yale, will exempt current law students.

They're calling it 'revenge travel': the desire to make up for the touring opportunities we all lost when we were locked down in our pandemical homes. As a keen professional traveller, I confess I've got a fearsome case of this bug: I've spent the past 20 months going just about anywhere I can, playing catch up. Here's a brief list of the cities I have visited since mid-2021: Tbilisi, Seville, Munich, New Orleans, Lisbon, Reykjavik, Bangkok, Yerevan, Rome, Istanbul, Athens, Da Nang, Nashville, Los Angeles, Florence, Phnom Penh, Tucson. I could add a dozen more, but you get the gist. I've missed a terrific number of domestic social engagements; but I have recently seen quite a lot of the world and, more pertinently, seen how the urban world is coping post-pandemic. Conclusion? Every city has suffered in various ways, and the scars are visible. In East Asia the lingering lesions are psychological: they are all still wearing masks. In Europe, normal unmasked street life has returned,...

The Washington Post has attempted to dismiss claims the liberal financier had funded the district attorney prosecuting Trump. Twitter users corrected the Washington Post's star fact-checker, Glenn Kessler, when he attempted to write off the claim that liberal financier George Soros had funded the Manhattan district attorney who indicted former US President Donald Trump as 'misleading'. Kessler, who rated the 'incendiary claim' that Soros funded Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg 'three Pinocchios' in a Saturday fact-check, accused the Trump campaign and other Republicans who echoed the factoid of "being slippery" and conjuring "stereotypes of rich Jewish financiers secretly controlling events."

A Manhattan parking garage attendant who was shot twice while confronting an alleged thief then wrestled the gun away and opened fire on the suspect has been charged with attempted murder, police said. The overnight worker, identified by cops as Moussa Diarra, 57, was also hit with assault and criminal possession of a weapon charge in the Saturday incident, which unfolded around 5:30 a.m. as the attendant saw a man peering into cars on the second floor of the West 31st Street garage, the sources said. Believing the man was stealing, the attendant brought him outside and asked what was inside his bag.

Wikipedia is a "politically biased" platform and should eventually be banned in Russia, Valery Fadeev, the head of the Presidential Human Rights Council (HRC), has said. The Kremlin, however, cautioned that any talk about blocking the website is premature, as there is currently no adequate alternative. Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Fadeev said Wikipedia "should be closed." While the website is a convenient platform for receiving all sorts of information, he said, there are also "a lot of distortions when it comes to politics, history." Fadeev stressed that he is not insisting that the Russian authorities ban the portal right away, but rather only after a viable alternative is launched. Igor Ashmanov, an HRC member, supported this idea, saying that Moscow has no tools to influence Wikipedia. "This is a strategic weapon. We should create equivalents and block it."

Summary Contrary to the claims made by covid vaccine proponents there is hard evidence that most reports of vaccine deaths to the USA VAERS and UK Yellow Card systems are genuine. At most 30% of these reports can be ruled as likely not to have been caused by the vaccine. There is also evidence that the reporting rates for deaths and adverse events to these systems is very low. It is likely that fewer than 10% of deaths and other adverse events ever get reported. With these minimal assumptions we estimate there have been: approximately 120,000 deaths in the USA directly caused by the covid vaccines (between Dec 2020 until 23 March 2023) and 16,000 in the UK (between Dec 2020 until 29 Sept 2022). over 103 deaths per million doses of the covid vaccines in the UK with big differences between the three main vaccines (187 for Astra Zeneca, 68 for Pfizer and 35 for Moderna). For Astra Zeneca that amounts to 1 death in every 5348 doses. Taking account of the small proportion of people...

Email exchanges between Joe Biden's family and business associates show the Bidens planning to cash in on the family name in an academic venture with the University of Delaware while discussing ways to carefully distance Joe himself from financial documents outlining the deal. Team Biden was to receive $12.5 million for the establishment of the Biden Institute at the University of Delaware (UD), which launched shortly after Joe Biden left the vice presidency in 2017. The arrangement meant a nice payday for the Bidens and their associates. And, as it turned out, the launch of the Biden Institute coincided with a bonanza in foreign money donations for the university. Correspondences show that UD wanted Joe Biden to raise funds for the university after his institute opened. In the weeks and months following the opening of the Institute, UD received foreign cash donations totaling more than $33 million, including $6.7 million from China. Of that sum, three gifts came directly from the...

Former US President Donald Trump arrived at the Manhattan District Attorney's office on Tuesday afternoon, to be placed under arrest and face a series of charges his attorneys have denounced as a politically motivated "witch hunt" by the New York Democrat Alvin Bragg. The existence of the charges was leaked to the press last Friday, and more details were leaked on Monday, indicating that Bragg is going after the 45th president for the "crime" of allegedly falsifying business records in regard to "hush money" reportedly paid to porn actress Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Federal prosecutors declined to pursue the case, and multiple legal scholars have argued that the charges amount to a misdemeanor campaign violation at best. Hillary Clinton paid a fine for the same exact transgression in the matter of funding the notorious "Steele dossier," a series of fabrications accusing Trump of having ties to Russia. Trump himself has denounced the indictment as purely...

A proposed class-action lawsuit over infamous brainwashing experiments at a Montreal psychiatric hospital was before Quebec's highest court Thursday, as victims attempted to remove immunity granted to the United States government. The U.S. government successfully argued in Quebec Superior Court last August that the country couldn't be sued for the project known as MK-ULTRA, allegedly funded by the Canadian government and the CIA. U.S. lawyers argued that foreign states had absolute immunity from lawsuits in Canada between the 1940s and 1960s, when the program took place.

Leaders from European countries have recently announced trips to China. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez attended the Boao Forum for Asia in South China's Hainan Province which lasted from March 28 to 31. French President Emmanuel Macron and some EU leaders, including EU Commission President Urusla Von der Leyen, will also pay visits to China. What does this wave of visits signal about China-Europe relations? How should Europe balance its ties with China and the US? Global Times (GT) reporter Wang Wenwen talked to Michele Geraci (Geraci), former undersecretary of state at the Italian Ministry of Economic Development, over these issues on the sidelines of the Boao Forum for Asia.

Human history is a story of forgotten lessons. Despite the catastrophic collapse of European democracy in the 1930s, it appears that the tale of the twentieth century - in which citizens, cowed by existential threats, acquiesced in the rejection of liberty and truth in favour of obedience and propaganda, whilst allowing despotic leaders to seize ever more absolutist powers - is perilously close to being forgotten. Nowhere is this more evident than in relation to the apparent nonchalance which has greeted two international legal agreements currently working their way through the World Health Organisation: a new pandemic treaty, and amendments to the 2005 International Health Regulations, both due to be put before the governing body of the WHO, the World Health Assembly, in May next year. As concerned scholars and jurists have detailed, these agreements threaten to fundamentally reshape the relationship between the WHO, national governments, and individuals.

Finland formally joined NATO on Tuesday, its flag unfurling outside the military bloc's Brussels headquarters, in a historic policy shift brought on by Russia's invasion of Ukraine that drew a threat from Moscow of "counter-measures." Finland's accession, ending seven decades of military non-alignment, roughly doubles the length of the border the North Atlantic Treaty Organization shares with Russia and bolsters its eastern flank as the war in Ukraine grinds on with no resolution in sight. Finland's flag - a blue cross on a white background - was hoisted alongside those of the alliance's 30 other members as a military band played in bright spring sunshine.

New Zealand's newly elected Prime Minister Chris Hipkins struggled to define the term 'woman' when a reporter's question about gender caught him off guard. During his regular afternoon press conference on Monday, Mr Hipkins was asked by Sean Plunket, a broadcast reporter from The Platform, to 'define a woman' on behalf of himself and his government. Mr Hipkins took a moment to gather his thoughts before responding. 'Um,' Hipkins began, before pausing. 'To be honest Sean, that question has come out of left field for me.'