Author: Reporter

Federal forces occupy the streets of Washington DC under a manufactured public safety pretext

Donald Trump has taken control of DC’s law enforcement and ordered National Guard troops to deploy onto the streets of the nation’s capital, falsely arguing the extraordinary moves are necessary to curb an urgent public safety crisis. Even as district officials questioned the claims underlying his emergency declaration, the Republican president promised a “historic action to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse.” His rhetoric echoed that used by conservatives going back decades who have denounced cities, especially those with majority non-white populations or led by progressives, as lawless or crime-ridden and in need...

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Zelenskyy says Kyiv must be part of any negotiations and rejects formally ceding Ukrainian territory

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed on August 9 the planned summit between Donald Trump and Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, warning that any peace deal excluding Kyiv would lead to “dead solutions.” The Trump-Putin meeting, scheduled for August 15 in Alaska, is seen by critics as a potential setback for Ukraine’s war effort. Trump had previously agreed to meet with Putin even if the Russian leader would not meet with Zelenskyy, stoking fears Ukraine could be sidelined in efforts to stop the continent’s biggest conflict since World War II. In a statement posted to Telegram, Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s territorial integrity,...

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Why legally mandated U.S. national climate reports were removed from the federal websites

Legally mandated U.S. national climate assessments seem to have disappeared from the federal websites built to display them, making it harder for state and local governments and the public to learn what to expect in their backyards from a warming world. Scientists said the peer-reviewed authoritative reports save money and lives. Websites for the national assessments and the U.S. Global Change Research Program were down as of June 30 with no links, notes, or referrals elsewhere. The White House, which was responsible for the assessments, said the information will be housed within NASA to comply with the law, but...

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Rare bobtail cats are considered good luck in Japan and Nagasaki is overflowing with them

In Japan, bobtail cats are considered good luck, and Nagasaki is the place to find them. They are known as “omagari neko (bent-tail cats)” or “kagi neko (hook cats)” and have their own society of admirers and even a dedicated Shinto shrine. Their tails come in varieties including hook-shaped at the tip, curved or in a bun, explained Kazuya Hideshima, a worker at Omagari Neko Shrine and member of the Nagasaki Cat Society. Past findings have indicated bobtails accounted for nearly 80% of the cats in Nagasaki, twice the occurrence of anywhere else in Japan. Japanese cats are believed...

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Analysis finds Trump’s policies canceled $14 billion in U.S. clean energy projects already in 2025

More than $14 billion in clean energy investments in the U.S. have been canceled or delayed this year, according to an analysis released in June, as Donald Trump’s megabill has raised fears over the future of domestic battery, electric vehicle, and solar and wind energy development. Many companies are concerned that investments will be in jeopardy amid House Republicans’ passage of a tax bill that would gut clean energy credits, nonpartisan group E2 said in its analysis of projects that it and consultancy Atlas Public Policy tracked. The groups estimate the losses since January have also cost 10,000 new...

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How a Sikh Captain America opens a wider exchange about faith and identity in comic book storytelling

“Captain America doesn’t wear a beard and a turban, and he’s white.” Vishavjit Singh looked at the boy who uttered those words, and then he looked at himself, a skinny, bespectacled, turbaned, bearded Sikh in a Captain America suit. “I wasn’t offended, because I knew that this kid was going to have this image of me, a Sikh Captain America, forever in his mind,” Singh said. “This image has so much power to it that it opens up conversations about what it means to be American.” Representation of non-Abrahamic religions and spiritual traditions, particularly in the mainstream comics universe,...

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