#no US troops in peru

[melodyschaos]

TAKE ACTION NOW - WORLD BEYOND WAR

I don't usually post at all but this is very important. Here on the website of World Beyond War there are several petitions that enable you to do your part in ending war and violence and/or US military occupation in places it has absolutely no business being (which is pretty much everywhere).

I'm someone who hasn't been able to do much financially but these letters and petition signings are the way to go! Only by us all banding together to reach the goals can we actually make a difference. Let our voices be heard! Help us make steps to put an end to the suffering going on in so many places throughout the world!

[brookstonalmanac]

Holidays 4.15

Holidays

Anime Day

Anniversary of Tarija (Bolivia)

AR-15 Day

Ariadne Asteroid Day

ASL Day (American Sign Language Day)

Banyan Tree Day (Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii)

Bija Mangala (Field Cultivation Festival)

Buck Rogers Day

Children’s Day (Spain)

Criminal Investigation Department Employees Day (Ukraine)

Da Vinci Day

Day of Love (Georgia)

Day of People (Aysellant)

Day of Radio-Electronic Fight Troops (Russia)

Day of the Sun (North Korea)

Father Damien Day (Hawaii)

Fluff Appreciation Day

415 Day

Freak Out Day

Gallaudet Day

Good Roads Day (Illinois)

Great Stichwort

Hardware Freedom Day

Hillsborough Disaster Memorial Day (Liverpool, UK)

Himachal Day (India)

Historical City Day (Malacca)

Hug Your Boiler Day

Income Tax Pay Day

International Biomedical Laboratory Science Day

International Pompe Day

Ivory Soap Day

Jackie Robinson Day

Kim Il Sung Day (North Korea)

Lilac Day (French Republic)

Lover’s Day (Kazakhstan)

Mariah Carey Day (California)

Melaka UNESCO Heritage Day (Malaysia)

Microvolunteering Day

National Anime Day

National ASL Day

National Collegiate Recovery Day

National Griper’s Day

National Hookup Day

National Keaton Day

National Laundry Day

National Poet Day (Peru)

National Rubber Eraser Day

National Security Education Day (Hong Kong)

National That Sucks Day

National Titanic Remembrance Day

One Boston Day

Purple Up Day

Quantum Teleportation Day

Rubber Eraser Day

Swallow Day (UK)

Take a Wild Guess Day

Tax Day (US)

Tax Resistor's Day

That Sucks Day

Tipsa Diena (Traditional start of plowing; Ancient Latvia)

Titanic Remembrance Day

Type 1 Diabetes Day

Universal Day of Culture

World Art Day

World Tiny Art Gallery Day

Food & Drink Celebrations

Fast Food Day

McDonald’s Day

National Glazed Spiral Ham Day

National Takeout Day (Canada)

3rd Monday in April

Boston Marathon Day [3rd Monday]

National Stress Awareness Day [3rd Monday]

Landing of the 33 Patriots Day observed (Uruguay) [3rd Monday]

Patriots' Day (Maine, Massachusetts, Wisconsin) [3rd Monday]

Sechseläuten ends (Six Ringing Festival; Zurich, Switzerland) [3rd Monday]

Weekly Holidays beginning April 15 (3rd Week)

National Work Zone Safety Awareness Week [thru 4.19]

Undergraduate Research Week [thru 4.19]

Week of the Young Child [thru 4.19]

Independence & Related Days

Independence Day Holiday (Israel)

Unitedlands (Declared; 2022) [unrecognized]

Vishwamitra (f.k.a. Children’s Group; Declared; 2007) [unrecognized]

New Year’s Days

Day after Sidereal New Year (South and Southeast Asian) (a.k.a. …

Bengali New Year (India)

Bohag Bihu (Parts of India)

Himachl Day (Parts of India)

Lao New Yar (Laos)

Masadi (Parts of India)

Nababarsha (Parts of India)

New Year Holidays (Myanmar)

Sarhul (Parts of India)

Songkran (Thailand)

Water-Sprinkling Festival continues (Yunnan, China)

Poila Boishakh (Bengali New Year)

Festivals Beginning April 15, 2024

Boston Marathon (Boston, Massachusetts) [3rd Monday]

Coquina Beach Seafood & Music Festival (Coquina Beach, Florida) [thru 4.17]

Singing in the Sun (Myrtle Beach, South Carolina) [thru 4.20]

TED Conference (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) [thru 4.19]

Feast Days

Abbo II of Metz (Christian; Saint)

Arshile Gorky (Artology)

Bananas with Everything Day (a.k.a. Banana Day; Pastafarian)

Basilissa and Anastasia (Christian; Martyrs)

Day of Tellus Mater (Pagan)

Elizabeth Catlett Mora (Artology)

Father Damien (The Episcopal Church)

Festival of Hero/Bast (Ancient Egypt)

Festival of Matsu/Mazu (Goddess of the Sea; Taoism)

Fordicidia (Old Roman Festival of Fertility to honor Ceres)

Henry James (Writerism)

Hippachus (Positivist; Saint)

Hunna (Christian; Saint)

Jeffrey Archer (Writerism)

Kanamara Matsuri (Iron Phallus Festival; Japan)

Leonardo da Vinci (Artology)

Munde (Christian; Saint)

Padarn (Christian; Saint)

Pammy (Muppetism)

Paternus of Avranches (Christian; Saint)

Peter Gonzales (Christian; Saint)

Ruadan of Lothra (Christian; Saint)

Rusalja (Celebration of River Spirts Rusalki of the Lemko People of Carpathia; Starza Pagan Book of Days)

Tellus Mater (Old Roman Mother Earth Festival)

Vlad Tepes Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Fortunate Day (Pagan) [14 of 53]

Sakimake (先負 Japan) [Bad luck in the morning, good luck in the afternoon.]

Uncyclopedia Bad to Be Born Today (because the Titanic Sank and it’s also Tax Day.)

Premieres

The Adventures off Marco Polo (Film; 1938)

Aftermath, by The Rolling Stones (Album; 1966)

The Art of Real Happiness, by Norman Vincent Peale (Book; 1950)

The Black Island, by Hergé (Graphic Novel; 1938) [Tintin #7]

Catalogue d’Oiseaux, by Olivier Messiaen (Pieno Pieces; 1959)

Colors (Film; 1988)

Dark Command (Film; 1940)

Donald’s Nephews (Disney Cartoon; 1938)

Don’t Speak, by No Doubt (Song; 1996)

84, Charing Cross Road, by Helene Hanff (Novel; 1970)

El Amor Bruno (Love, the Magician), by Manuel de Falla (Ballet; 1915)

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (Film; 2022)

Fargo (TV Series; 2014)

The Fitzgeralds and The Kennedys, by Doris Kearns Goodwin (Book; 1987)

Flashdance (Film; 1983)

Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes (Short Story; 1959)

Genghis Khan (Film; 1965)

Girls (TV Series; 2012)

The Hypo-Chondri-Cat (WB MM Cartoon; 1950)

The Little Goldfish (MGM Cartoon; 1939)

Little Red School Mouse (Noveltoons; 1949)

In Living Color (TV Series; 1990)

The Last Emperor (Film; 1988)

The Lumberjack (Oswald the Lucky Rabbit; 1929)

The Moon and Sixpence, by W. Somerset Maugham (Novel; 1919)

Mouse Come Home (Andy Panda Cartoon; 1946)

Outer Banks (TV Series; 2020)

Outer Range (TV Series; 2022)

Rattus Norvegicus, by The Stranglers (Album; 1977)

Ride ‘Em Plowboy (Oswald the Luck Rabbit Disney Cartoon; 1928)

Rio (Animated Film; 2011)

Robinson Crusoe’s Broadcast (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1938)

Rock & Rule (Animated Film; 1983)

Rock for Light, by The Bad Brains (Album; 1983)

Stage Fright (Film; 1950)

St. Matthew’s Passion, by Johann Sebastian Bach (Oratorio; 1729)

Think, recorded by Aretha Franklin (Song; 1968)

To the Finland Station, by Edmund Wilson (Novel; 1940)

The Twenty-One Balloons, by William Pène du Bois (Novel; 1947)

Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On, by Jerry Lee Lewis (Song; 1957)

Wild, by Cheryl Strayed (Memoir; 2012)

Today’s Name Days

Anastasia, Damian, Una (Austria)

Rastislav, Teodor (Croatia)

Anastázie (Czech Republic)

Olympia (Denmark)

Uljas, Uljo, Verner, Verni (Estonia)

Linda, Tuomi (Finland)

César, Paterne (France)

Anastasia, Damian, Una (Germany)

Leonidas (Greece)

Anasztázia, Tas (Hungary)

Anastasio, Annibale (Italy)

Aelita, Agita, Balvis, Gastons (Latvia)

Anastazijus, Liudvina, Modestas, Vaidotė, Vilnius (Lithuania)

Oda, Odd, Odin (Norway)

Anastazja, Bazyli, Leonid, Ludwina, Modest, Olimpia, Tytus, Wacław, Wacława, Wiktoryn, Wszegniew (Poland)

Aristarh, Pud, Trofim (Romania)

Fedor (Slovakia)

Telmo (Spain)

Oliver, Olivia (Sweden)

Mstyslav, Mstyslava (Ukraine)

Kenya, Octavia, Tavia, Tucker (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 106 of 2024; 260 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 1 of week 16 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Saille (Willow) [Day 2 of 28]

Chinese: Month 3 (Wu-Chen), Day 7 (Ji-You)

Chinese Year of the: Dragon 4722 (until January 29, 2025) [Wu-Chen]

Hebrew: 7 Nisan 5784

Islamic: 66 Shawwal 1445

J Cal: 16 Cyan; Twosday [16 of 30]

Julian: 2 April 2024

Moon: 50%: 1st Quarter

Positivist: 22 Archimedes (4th Month) [Varro]

Runic Half Month: Man (Human Being) [Day 6 of 15]

Season: Spring (Day 28 of 92)

Week: 3rd Week of April

Zodiac: Aries (Day 26 of 31)

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazil beefs up its military presence in the Amazon

Border tensions over Guyana's Esequibo and the humanitarian crisis among the Yanomami Indigenous people have led Brazil's army to increase its forces in the Amazon by 10% ahead of plan, the military commander for the region told Reuters.

The additional 2,000 troops will help the army patrol a 9,000 km border with Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia in a jungle region used by drug traffickers and illegal miners, loggers and smugglers, General Ricardo Costa Neves said.

"They will reinforce our operations in this vast area to help combat border and environmental crimes," the four-star infantry general said in a rare media interview.

The dispute arising from Venezuela's claim over Guyana's oil-rich Esequibo region has already led the Brazilian army to send more soldiers, armored cars and artillery to the border state of Roraima with the creation of a new regiment there.

"The border situation made us bring forward some changes that were in our strategic plan. We are practically tripling our mechanized infantry, armored vehicles and artillery in Roraima," Costa Neves said.

Continue reading.

[stusalgus]

Washington

We arrived in Washington at 7ish PM local time, and we expected to get to our Airport hotel quickly, have a bite to eat, and have an early night. Instead we were stuck in passport control for an hour and a half. Now to be fair I've experienced this misery in other airports (Heathrow and LAX are examples that spring to mind), and fairly or unfairly it always leaves me resenting the country that can't put enough staff on to handle busy times. It was 2am Reykyavik time and we were pretty exhausted, esp poor old Angus. Luckily we had wifi, or we would have started rioting.

Eventually we made it through, and shambled our way out of the airport and then for one stop on the metro. We came out at a creepy business park and checked in to our creepy Hyatt Park and slept in an enormous if slightly tired room.

We then retired for the night.

14 April

Back in America, we had a buffet breakfast where we ate a large quantity of not-quite food (a stark contrast to our fare in Iceland, I can tell you), before jumping on a bus to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy branch of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, Situated out the back of Dulles Airport. this hangar boasts several treasures: an Air France concorde, an SR-71 Blackbird reconaissance plane, and the space shuttle Discovery. Also there is the Enola Gay: subject of the OMD song and also the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

We arrived 20 minutes before opening, and about ten minutes to go the coaches started arriving and disgorging punters. By the time of opening there was a big queue. Luckily we got to be at the front. We were told to expect airport-style security but after passing through a metal detector we were told to keep walking, and so we did, all the way to the concorde. It was maybe another ten minutes before other visitors reached us; so, very briefly, we had the place to ourselves.

The highlight for me was the Discovery. It was lit reverently, like a kind of secular sacred object. Everything about looked super iconic.

After the museum we caught the bus back to our hotel, picked up our bags and caught the metro into DC proper. We checked in to an apartment - essentially a large hotel room with kitchen - a motel room, essentially, except we didn't have a car.

We went on a stroll to a Walgreens supermarket to buy some food for dinner. We went a few blocks south of our hotel into a residential area lined with trees populated by squirrels. The late afternoon sun streamed down and it was a balmy 25 degrees. There were large apartment blocks that seemed well kept. If the architecture felt a bit Thorndon the vibe on the footpath was more Newtown, with a constant trooping of people who didn't seem to be very well off, or at all well. I was a bit confused by this, but I've had similar experiences in London so I'm guessing it's a case of different socio-economic segments living cheek by jowel.

The Walgreens was absolutely fascinating. Everything said about the dreadful state of US food is true. NZ supermarkets (and Iceland, I should add) provide a much better quality of fare. As for our dinner, the best we could find were frozen dumplings and noodles, which we took back to our hotel and cooked.

We then retired for the night.

15 April

Today we went to the National Zoo. The zoo opened at 8:30, so we caught the metro there early to beat the crowds and forecast heat. Unfortunately, this meant some of the animals hadn't bothered to get out of bed yet. What animals did we manage to see? Well:

An Asian Sloth Bear, relaxing in a hammock, arms behind its head

3x Indian elephants

2x 2-toed sloths

A couple of bison

A komodo dragon

A couple of orangutans, brachiating wildly

A lowlands gorilla mother and child (grumpy-looking silverback was around the corner taking a break)

A number of colourful frogs

A number of colourful stingrays

A sea lion or two

A family of spectacled bears (possibly from darkest Peru)

The animals that made the biggest impression on Sally and me were the elephants and the orangutans. Elephants strike me as both very ugly and graceful and charming animals. Orangutans feel like the sort of ape you could get along with, whereas (in my limited experience of animals in captivity only) gorillas seem standoffish and chimpanzees seem positiviely sinister.

The forecast was for 84 degrees, which is 28.9 celsius, and it got as high as 86 (30c) before there was a downpour and temperature was sacrificed for humidity. All this heat is a bit unseasonable, but it had been similar the previous day and I'd found it quite comfortable. Turns out the humidity in Washington (at least in April) is about half that of Wellington. So it was hot but not too uncomfortable, although I regretted wearing jeans. If this seems a bit excessive for mid spring, it is; it shouldn't be this hot until June.

We caught the metro back into town and ate at a Korean restaurant while the heavens opened. We then sauntered and sweltered to the National Archive, home to the three founding documents of the United States: the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. The Archive building is a stunning piece of classical architecture. In fact the whole of Washington seems to be an architectural attempt to resurrect the Roman Republic. The room containing the three sacred documents was awash with punters trying to simultaneously see the documents and and read material explaining them. The docs themselves are practically illegible - the ink on them has faded and the room is kept dark to preserve them. I tried to explain what that the constitution made everyone equal and then satirically whispered "except the slaves", and then became uncomfortably aware of the armed black guard standing right next to me, and wondered if what I'd said had caused any affront. Oh, probably.

After an aeon spent waiting for Sally and Angus to peruse the giftshop, we made our way back to our hotel to cool down in the pool.

We then retired for the night.

16 April

We blitzed an early trail up to the Capitol, for a tour. The building is still infamous for its storming by furious Trump supporters on January 6 2021. Everything was running more smoothly today, however. The sky was clear and the neoclassical marble shone brilliantly. We went quickly through airport-style security (one of these days when I pull my belt off, my pants are gonna fall down) and on into a group ushered about the small number of rooms we were able to visit (ie not the senate or house chambers) by a handle-bar moustachioed fellow named Danny. He had a winning combination of informativeness, irreverance, and a penchant for what my son considers to be "dad jokes", but which I found to be funny and insightful.

The chief treasure of the Capitol is its rotunda, which has a ceiling fresco featuring George Washington being ushered into heaven. It's a scene that's slightly comical. At ground level the rotunda contains statues of former presidents, including that jolly old salesman Ronald Reagan, and… Gerald Ford (why??).

I guess it was a conscious decision, but not only does the Capitol evoke Roman architecure, but it is set up to be a kind of temple. Danny mentioned that the original idea was to bury Washington under the rotunda, with the ceiling fresco implying he was becoming a god. Luckily Washington nixed that idea and was buried on his estate. It's a weird contradiction - the union being set up with a separation of church and state, yet the Capitol's architecture suggests a desire to create a sort of state religion.

I should add that on top of the capitol dome stands a statue of the personification of freedom. There's a copy of the statue in the visitors' centre, which looks pretty goofy: Lady Freedom has a stricken eagle on her head, and there's a circle of stars around her head, like she's suffered a concussion. Her wide-eyed expression doesn't help any.

After the tour it was down a tunnel and into the Library of Congress. More classical columns and whatnot. Apparently the library was Thomas Jefferson's idea to cement learning into the new nation, and the building is a temple to knowledge. Showing a confidence in Western Civilisation sadly lacking today, a ceiling panel in the building has America as the end stage of a march of personifications of different civilisations, starting with Ancient Egypt, through the Greeks and Romans, and eventually leading to America.

Enough of the propoganda! The two most stirring objects we saw were a Gutenberg bible and a very incomplete map of the world from the early 16th century.

Our next port of call was the Whitehouse visitors centre. As non-US citizens we couldn't get within coee of the Whitehouse proper, so we had to make do with a small museum across the road. The chief excitement was Gus being inducted as junior National Park Service ranger by filling out a questionaire and having to recite an oath.

At 3pm we found ourselves at the Washington monument. Apparently the fresco depicting Washington's apotheosis wasn't deemed a sufficient expression of gratitude to the General, and the world's tallest obelisk needed to be erected in addition. We caught a lift up 500 feet and peeped out of windows on each of the four sizes. I haven't mentioned until now, but Washington D.C. is laid out on a very large scale (makes for a lot of trudging), so being up 150m was a good way to take it in. Before going up in the elevator I learned the unsettling fact that the memorial is the world's largest freestanding stone building, with no steel reinforcing. I thought "luckily there's no earthquakes here", only to learn at the top that the monument had indeed been damaged by an earthquake in 2011.

After a bit of debate we decided to finish the day with a tour of the nearby Museum of American history. After professing little interest in the museum, Angus was (lamentably) enthused to discover lots of exhibits of weapons used in various wars. I found the museum a bit piecemeal; it didn't really tell a single coherent story. Perhaps we would have found something more resonant at the Museum of African American History, only we didn't want to be made depressed.

We then retired for the night.

17 April

Nasa's Washington headquarters are across the road from us, and it has a small visitor centre, so first thing we went and had a look. The focus was on earth science observations, one of the least exciting (but most urgent) tasks Nasa performs. There were some nice data visualisations, and a system that projectied our shapes on the wall in psychedelic fashion.

After about 20 minutes of all that we walked up the road to the Natural History Museum. This is perhaps the heart of the Smithsonian Institution and Angus and I were looking forward to it. We enjoyed the various classic skellingtons: mastodon, woolly mammoth, giant ground sloth, T-Rex, diplodicus, stegosaurus, allorsaurus… the usual. There was similar, welcome emphasis on pre-Dinosaur times ('cos of climate change the end-Permian extinction seems to be prominent in these museums). So how did it compare with the Field museum. Well, I enjoyed the Field museum more, but I suspect that's more to do with the hordes of demented school children boiling through the museum than any qualitative difference between the two. I will say though, I'm growing tired of tying evey climatic event in Earth's geophysical history to current climate change. It's a subjective gripe, but: I GET IT; I don't need to hear it again (and again). But I guess a museum needs to view each visit as the punter's first (and perhaps only) time being exposed to these ideas.

We went upstairs to the gem collection and had a gander at the Hope Diamond. I have to say I was expecting something bigger. Elsewhere we looked at shiny rocks and dodged numerous urchins. An autistic kid started screaming; we hurriedly made for the exit. One more detail: there was a life-size megalodon dangling in the cafeteria.

We had lunch at the pavilion cafe in the National Gallery of Art sculpture garden (highlight: a bit of optical illusory fun by Ray Lichtenstein). We had a bit of time before our next event so we went to the Hirshorn Museum. The titular Hirshorn was fabulously wealthy and had an excellent collection of 20th Century masters. There was also an installation by Laurie Anderson. Outside the museum there was a sculpture garden featuring a bunch of Rodin, Henry Moore, and a Barbara Hepworth.

After the Hirshorn we marched north to Planet Word, a museum about words and the features of language, conveyed through three floors of interactive exhibits. Against Washington's august and worthy museums this might seem a slight proposition, but the exhibits are well conceived, esp a "song gallery" in which patrons could sing various songs and also learn the language features that make for good song lyrics. We heard some kids deliver an effective rendition of Shake it Off (Taylor Swift, doncherknow), followed by an appalling attempt at Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire by some adults who should be ashamed!

Another highlight was Gus getting to read autocue and deliver an inspiring piece of Obama rhetoric, while Sally and I gave a stirring performance of Kennedy's "ask not what your country can do for you" speech.

Planet Word closed and we shifted next door to Planet Word was a restaurant called Immigrant Food. It was Happy Hour, and we happily ordered a series as dinner. The most remarkable item were Venezualan Tequenos, a small piece of cheese that wrapped in dough and deep fried. Bueno!

We then retired for the night.

18 April

We were a bit more leisurely in the morning, as we had to check out of our hotel. Sally booked two hotels for our Washington stay, the second just a block along from the first. The "Residence Inn by Marriot" that we've been staying in has been pretty good, but we've paid a premium for that, so to split the difference we moved to the Hyatt Place. We stayed at the same chain near Dulles Airport. It wasn't great. The new version is nicer, but I'm dreading breakfast tomorrow.

Across the road Nasa was celebrating Earth Day early, and had a number of scientists and activities as a kind of outreach. Once again we crossed the road, and spent the better part of an hour doing activities and learning, before making off with a good amount of free swag. Chatting to the scientists was interesting, and at times sobering, climate-wise.

A short stroll up the road brought us to the National Air and Space Museum. Having seen a lot of stuff at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy wing of the same museum, I wasn't expecting too much, but I found that while there was less room for planes, the supporting exhibits had a lot more information. And it should be said the museum does have some of the most sacred items of American aerospace: a Wright Flyer, the Apollo 11 and Freedom 7 space capsules, and the Spirit of St Louis (which I have to confess I didn't manage to spot). The biggest shock and awe though was the gallery about solar system exploration, in which information was densely packed into numerous screens among many model probes.

More astonishing still was that in the giftshop Angus ran into his school- (and rockband-) mate Crawford, and family. What are the chances?! We had a slightly stunned conversation with his parents and traded tips about New York and Chicago.

After this shock we left the museum and returned to our lodgings for a rest. At 5 we went back out to go memorial hunting on the eastern end of the National Mall. We caught the metro to Foggy Bottom (hur hur!) and progressed past the notorious Watergate Complex, dodged the Kennedy Center, then intersected with the Einstein memorial. The physicist's statue captures him well, I think, but also manages to make him into a Disney character - he reminded me of the Disney Winnie the Pooh (if that makes any sense??).

After that we saw the Vietnam war memorial, before turning Sharply right to visit the Lincoln memorial. The elegant building is being renovated looking a bit awful, but the Great Man was safe inside. I like that they portray him seated, looking a bit knackered. Makes him sort of otherworldly. If the Capitol and Washington's monument were intent on sending George to the heavens, Lincoln's memorial makes his assassination feel akin to the crufifixion. Well, maybe. There are two of Lincoln's speeches on each side wall. One is the speech he made at his seond inauguration, which is a bit wordy, despite starting out saying he didn't have much to say. The Gettysburg Address on the other wall is much more to the point.

After Lincoln we visited the Korean War memorial, and then Martin Luther King's. I feel like perhaps King could have done with his own temple, like Lincoln got, but not yet, anyway.

We decided to leave the Roosevelt and Jefferson memorials for another day. We had booked in for the Library of Congress's late night Thursdays, and we had about 20 minutes to get to the other end of the mall in time to see a performance by the avant garde Kronos Quartet. After having no luck with Lyft we decided to Uber it. I don't think we've Ubered in NZ, and it was definitely a first for us in the US, but it seemed to work well.

We rushed into the Library, had bite to eat in about three minutes and dashed downstairs for the performance, only to find that we hadn't booked the Kronos at all (the tickets were a bit ambuguous). Instead we were permitted to sit in a side roon while remaining seats were granted based on a lottery, for which all the tickets had already been given out. We did wait long enough to hear the first song: a rollicking string quartet rendition of House of the Rising Son, before Sally suggested we leave and get an early night in.

We walked back to our hotel on a warm spring evening. The streets were empty and the surrounds, though a bit bureaucratic, were also peaceful. Very nice.

We then retired for the night.

19 April

We rocked out and visited the Spy Museum. It seemed a touch frivolous compared to the august institutions we'd been visiting, but it was genuinely informative. There was also a collection of James Bond vehicles which I watched with misty-eyed nostalgia.

On the way to the food court we bumped into Crawford and family, who were on their way to the spy museum. I think they're off to Chicago and we're off to New York, so not sure if we'll rendezvous a third time.

After lunch we went to the National Gallery, which houses a vast collection of artworks. I reckoned we'd get more value out of the east wing, which hosts modern art, so we went there first. The building was designed by I.M. Pei, and a bit like Frank Gehry's building for the Bilbao Guggenheim, the architecture rather overshadows the artwork. It doesn't help that the building is structured around a large atrium, with galleries situated in the corners, so when you explore it you're always wondering "where's the art?".

The west wing is nothing but art, and the galleries are so labyrinthine that I frequently lost track of where I was. Sally and Angus left early to climb the Postal Service pavilion, while I tried to cover as much ground as I could. I followed my usual plan: pay close attention to the Renaissance, and the Dutch Republic, stride quickly through the baroque and the French academic painting, then pay close attention to Turner and other Romantics (though ignoring all the sentimental Victorian crap), before romping home with the Impressionists.

I largely followed this plan, though I did also pay some attention to American art, esp the early Presidential portraiture (and the odd Whistler) - but if I'm honest I have a feeling I only saw 2/3 to 3/4 of the gallery. I could have done it more justice if it had been first thing in the morning, but by mid afternoon I was getting museum fatigue. I made my way back to the hotel, where I was joined by Sally and Gus, who reported the lift in the pavilion broke down and they had to walk down nine flights. The only thing worse would have been to walk up!

For dinner we made our way to The Wharf, a fancy waterside development containing strange-shaped, glass-faced apartment buildings with restaurants on the ground floors. We dined at Mason's Lobster Rolls, which I'd glass as a fancier (and tastier) McDonald's. Down the road there was a Gordon Ramsay's fish and chips, which didn't seem too promising, but said chippie was heaving with punters. Rule Brittania!

The Wharf seemed to be quite a successful piece of urban renewal; unlike in New Zealand enough money had been thrown at it not to make it feel cheap and half-arsed. We caught a free (free!) shuttle back to L'Enfant metro station, and walked back to our hotel.

We then retired for the night.

20 April

This morning we made our way to Union Station to catch a train to Baltimore. Fans of the Wire would find this an odd choice of tourist destination, but we were going there to meet Sally's cousin Albert, who would conduct us on a visit to the National Aquarium. The train ride took about an hour and we met Albert outside the station.

Although there were plenty of sharks and rays and turtles on offer at the aquarium, two of the biggest highlights were puffins (another Sally favourite) and another two-toed tree sloth in an area devoted to rainforest wetland. There were also dolphins. Albert explained to me that in line with other aquaria there were no longer dolphin shows, which I took to mean there were no dolphins. Happily, the dolphin tank did indeed contain dolphins, and we happened to be there just in time for feeding. When being fed the animals performed tricks, along with spontaneous leaps and other wheezes, so it was hard to say that we weren't watching a show. We were certainly entertained. I guess you can't force intelligent animals not to do tricks.

After this we went to a seafood restaurant that specialises in crab cakes, which we ordered. Said cakes were the size of a baseball and rather rich (felt a bit sorry for all the crabs who died to make them, to be honest; tasted great though!). We had a good chat with Albert. He's a molecular biologist doing work on mutated proteins created/used by cancer cells. The plan is to develop therapies from them. He also told us he had an experiment to crystallise proteins taken up into space in the hope that the desired crystallisation would occur more readily in zero gravity. I was extremely impressed and urged Angus to take note that we were in the presence of a Scientist.

After lunch we parted with Albert and caught the train back to D.C. There was enough sun left to tick off the monuments of Franklin Roosevelt and Thomas Jefferson. Roosevelt's was a sprawling affair, more landscape gardening than memorial, featuring waterfalls, trees, rocks. There was a statue of FDR at one end though, and wife Eleanor got one too.

Thomas Jefferson's marble columned temple was a more straightforward affair, set up more like Lincoln's. We also got a look in at the cherry trees (sadly out of blossom season), and also saw the water overflowing the path by the Tidal Basin in several places. Apparently the water is rising due to climate change and new flood protection will have to be built.

With the sun setting we wandered back to our hotel.

We then retired for the night.

21 April

We started a chilly morning by travelling out to Arlington National Cemetary. Interestingly, despite being only over the potomac river (ie just beyond the Lincoln Memorial), it's outside the D.C. boundary, making it across the state line (sounds much more dramatic) in Virginia.

The cemetary contains thousands upon thousands of war dead from numerous conflicts. (It certainly puts the military plot in Karori cemetary to shame.) We took perhaps the most minimal path possible, taking in the JFK (and Jackie) memorial, with its eternal flame; the Challenger and Columbia space shuttle memorials; and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. This last has a guard of honour that happened to be changing when we wandered by. This ritual required a lot of meticulous stepping and crisp heel clacking, and much rifle shouldering. As I said to Sally, if it was a Japanese I would be nodding and stroking my chin with interest; as it's an American custom I thought it was a bit silly.

Still feeling cold we went back down the hill. Quite by chance I happened to spot to headstone of the late supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg (it helps to have a Star of David on your headstone rather than the much more common crucifix).

We caught the metro back across down to Eastern Market. (I should say something about the DC metro. It's one of the best mass transit systems I've been on. Clean, frequent, fairly inexpensive, with nice gleaming carriages and brutalist concrete stations, its nigh-on perfect.)

Eastern Market is at the backend of Capitol Hill and is unspeakbly twee, and I say that as someone who has been to the Havelock North Sunday market. As an example, NZ markets normally have stalls vending hippie/bogan tie-dyed shirts, crystals, scented candles, and maybe posters of Bob Marley smoking weed. There was none of that here, only tasteful African ornaments, bespoke hummus, and other bourgeois fancies.

We went into a 150 year old food hall and bought some gimbap (Korean sushi), an okomonoyake (cabbage and noodle omelette) from an Asian vendor; and a cinnamon twist, chocolate croissant and walnut brownie from a baker. Everything was delicious. Everything!

Significantly fortified by this food we zipped back across town to Renwick museum. This contained contemporary American art which was predominantly by women, and had some sort of indigenous ethnic or political slant. I've become so jaundiced towards social-justice motivated art that I couldn't get into any of it; even the coloured fishing net plus lightshow installation about nothing more controversial than the Tohoku earthquake of 2011 made me sneer.

Sally enjoyed the museum. Angus was "hungry" (read: bored).

The Renwick was very adjacent to the White House, which we hadn't really gotten a good look at. We went out the back of it an took a picture. There were various protests going on. A group of climate protestors was rallying in support of some court case the Department of Justice weren't interested in. There was an old bloke supporting Palestine and another supporting Israel. (Further on there was a larger rally with lots of US and Israeli flags, presumably also in support of Israel. I don't know if Joe was aware of any of this, but everyone carried on like he could be. Secret Service agents stolled around the crowd, in uniforms paradoxically identifying them as secret.

Here's another thing I haven't mentioned: D.C. is awash with cops. Wandering through the city you're practically tripping over someone in uniform with a gun. Paranoid? Well, when you've had the Capitol stormed and a plane dropped on the Pentagon I guess you'd be a little paranoid too. I have to confess I've never felt more safe in a city (including Wellington) than I have in DC.

We strolled on to the World War II memorial. We'd managed to miss this one in previous memorial hunts, despite its size. It's plenty grand, but the memorial is somewhat overshadowed by its fountains, making the edifice feel more like a water park than a war memorial. (Must be lovely in summer, though.)

On from the memorial we wandered back to the southwest wharf to eat a lunch of Gordon Ramsay's fish and chips; the establishment that I'd been so rude about a couple of journal entries back. Sally had promised them to Angus for undertaking the long walk. They were ok, but sticking a chef's name on a chippie is a bit misleading, I reckon.

After that we walked home.

This is the end of our time in Washington. I had a pretty good time here, and while didn't see absolutely everything we could have, I think we did a decent job getting a feel for the place in eight nights. Washington is a fairly abnormal city: it's got the cultural baggage of London, Rome, or Paris but in a city with a population of only 600k. It's got better transport infrastructure than London, and more space for tourists to spread out; so it's pretty forgiving on people like me who don't like people constantly in their face.

[brookston]

Holidays 4.15

Holidays

Anime Day

Anniversary of Tarija (Bolivia)

AR-15 Day

Ariadne Asteroid Day

ASL Day (American Sign Language Day)

Banyan Tree Day (Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii)

Bija Mangala (Field Cultivation Festival)

Buck Rogers Day

Children’s Day (Spain)

Criminal Investigation Department Employees Day (Ukraine)

Da Vinci Day

Day of Love (Georgia)

Day of People (Aysellant)

Day of Radio-Electronic Fight Troops (Russia)

Day of the Sun (North Korea)

Father Damien Day (Hawaii)

Fluff Appreciation Day

415 Day

Freak Out Day

Gallaudet Day

Good Roads Day (Illinois)

Great Stichwort

Hardware Freedom Day

Hillsborough Disaster Memorial Day (Liverpool, UK)

Himachal Day (India)

Historical City Day (Malacca)

Hug Your Boiler Day

Income Tax Pay Day

International Biomedical Laboratory Science Day

International Pompe Day

Ivory Soap Day

Jackie Robinson Day

Kim Il Sung Day (North Korea)

Lilac Day (French Republic)

Lover’s Day (Kazakhstan)

Mariah Carey Day (California)

Melaka UNESCO Heritage Day (Malaysia)

Microvolunteering Day

National Anime Day

National ASL Day

National Collegiate Recovery Day

National Griper’s Day

National Hookup Day

National Keaton Day

National Laundry Day

National Poet Day (Peru)

National Rubber Eraser Day

National Security Education Day (Hong Kong)

National That Sucks Day

National Titanic Remembrance Day

One Boston Day

Purple Up Day

Quantum Teleportation Day

Rubber Eraser Day

Swallow Day (UK)

Take a Wild Guess Day

Tax Day (US)

Tax Resistor's Day

That Sucks Day

Tipsa Diena (Traditional start of plowing; Ancient Latvia)

Titanic Remembrance Day

Type 1 Diabetes Day

Universal Day of Culture

World Art Day

World Tiny Art Gallery Day

Food & Drink Celebrations

Fast Food Day

McDonald’s Day

National Glazed Spiral Ham Day

National Takeout Day (Canada)

3rd Monday in April

Boston Marathon Day [3rd Monday]

National Stress Awareness Day [3rd Monday]

Landing of the 33 Patriots Day observed (Uruguay) [3rd Monday]

Patriots' Day (Maine, Massachusetts, Wisconsin) [3rd Monday]

Sechseläuten ends (Six Ringing Festival; Zurich, Switzerland) [3rd Monday]

Weekly Holidays beginning April 15 (3rd Week)

National Work Zone Safety Awareness Week [thru 4.19]

Undergraduate Research Week [thru 4.19]

Week of the Young Child [thru 4.19]

Independence & Related Days

Independence Day Holiday (Israel)

Unitedlands (Declared; 2022) [unrecognized]

Vishwamitra (f.k.a. Children’s Group; Declared; 2007) [unrecognized]

New Year’s Days

Day after Sidereal New Year (South and Southeast Asian) (a.k.a. …

Bengali New Year (India)

Bohag Bihu (Parts of India)

Himachl Day (Parts of India)

Lao New Yar (Laos)

Masadi (Parts of India)

Nababarsha (Parts of India)

New Year Holidays (Myanmar)

Sarhul (Parts of India)

Songkran (Thailand)

Water-Sprinkling Festival continues (Yunnan, China)

Poila Boishakh (Bengali New Year)

Festivals Beginning April 15, 2024

Boston Marathon (Boston, Massachusetts) [3rd Monday]

Coquina Beach Seafood & Music Festival (Coquina Beach, Florida) [thru 4.17]

Singing in the Sun (Myrtle Beach, South Carolina) [thru 4.20]

TED Conference (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) [thru 4.19]

Feast Days

Abbo II of Metz (Christian; Saint)

Arshile Gorky (Artology)

Bananas with Everything Day (a.k.a. Banana Day; Pastafarian)

Basilissa and Anastasia (Christian; Martyrs)

Day of Tellus Mater (Pagan)

Elizabeth Catlett Mora (Artology)

Father Damien (The Episcopal Church)

Festival of Hero/Bast (Ancient Egypt)

Festival of Matsu/Mazu (Goddess of the Sea; Taoism)

Fordicidia (Old Roman Festival of Fertility to honor Ceres)

Henry James (Writerism)

Hippachus (Positivist; Saint)

Hunna (Christian; Saint)

Jeffrey Archer (Writerism)

Kanamara Matsuri (Iron Phallus Festival; Japan)

Leonardo da Vinci (Artology)

Munde (Christian; Saint)

Padarn (Christian; Saint)

Pammy (Muppetism)

Paternus of Avranches (Christian; Saint)

Peter Gonzales (Christian; Saint)

Ruadan of Lothra (Christian; Saint)

Rusalja (Celebration of River Spirts Rusalki of the Lemko People of Carpathia; Starza Pagan Book of Days)

Tellus Mater (Old Roman Mother Earth Festival)

Vlad Tepes Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Fortunate Day (Pagan) [14 of 53]

Sakimake (先負 Japan) [Bad luck in the morning, good luck in the afternoon.]

Uncyclopedia Bad to Be Born Today (because the Titanic Sank and it’s also Tax Day.)

Premieres

The Adventures off Marco Polo (Film; 1938)

Aftermath, by The Rolling Stones (Album; 1966)

The Art of Real Happiness, by Norman Vincent Peale (Book; 1950)

The Black Island, by Hergé (Graphic Novel; 1938) [Tintin #7]

Catalogue d’Oiseaux, by Olivier Messiaen (Pieno Pieces; 1959)

Colors (Film; 1988)

Dark Command (Film; 1940)

Donald’s Nephews (Disney Cartoon; 1938)

Don’t Speak, by No Doubt (Song; 1996)

84, Charing Cross Road, by Helene Hanff (Novel; 1970)

El Amor Bruno (Love, the Magician), by Manuel de Falla (Ballet; 1915)

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (Film; 2022)

Fargo (TV Series; 2014)

The Fitzgeralds and The Kennedys, by Doris Kearns Goodwin (Book; 1987)

Flashdance (Film; 1983)

Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes (Short Story; 1959)

Genghis Khan (Film; 1965)

Girls (TV Series; 2012)

The Hypo-Chondri-Cat (WB MM Cartoon; 1950)

The Little Goldfish (MGM Cartoon; 1939)

Little Red School Mouse (Noveltoons; 1949)

In Living Color (TV Series; 1990)

The Last Emperor (Film; 1988)

The Lumberjack (Oswald the Lucky Rabbit; 1929)

The Moon and Sixpence, by W. Somerset Maugham (Novel; 1919)

Mouse Come Home (Andy Panda Cartoon; 1946)

Outer Banks (TV Series; 2020)

Outer Range (TV Series; 2022)

Rattus Norvegicus, by The Stranglers (Album; 1977)

Ride ‘Em Plowboy (Oswald the Luck Rabbit Disney Cartoon; 1928)

Rio (Animated Film; 2011)

Robinson Crusoe’s Broadcast (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1938)

Rock & Rule (Animated Film; 1983)

Rock for Light, by The Bad Brains (Album; 1983)

Stage Fright (Film; 1950)

St. Matthew’s Passion, by Johann Sebastian Bach (Oratorio; 1729)

Think, recorded by Aretha Franklin (Song; 1968)

To the Finland Station, by Edmund Wilson (Novel; 1940)

The Twenty-One Balloons, by William Pène du Bois (Novel; 1947)

Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On, by Jerry Lee Lewis (Song; 1957)

Wild, by Cheryl Strayed (Memoir; 2012)

Today’s Name Days

Anastasia, Damian, Una (Austria)

Rastislav, Teodor (Croatia)

Anastázie (Czech Republic)

Olympia (Denmark)

Uljas, Uljo, Verner, Verni (Estonia)

Linda, Tuomi (Finland)

César, Paterne (France)

Anastasia, Damian, Una (Germany)

Leonidas (Greece)

Anasztázia, Tas (Hungary)

Anastasio, Annibale (Italy)

Aelita, Agita, Balvis, Gastons (Latvia)

Anastazijus, Liudvina, Modestas, Vaidotė, Vilnius (Lithuania)

Oda, Odd, Odin (Norway)

Anastazja, Bazyli, Leonid, Ludwina, Modest, Olimpia, Tytus, Wacław, Wacława, Wiktoryn, Wszegniew (Poland)

Aristarh, Pud, Trofim (Romania)

Fedor (Slovakia)

Telmo (Spain)

Oliver, Olivia (Sweden)

Mstyslav, Mstyslava (Ukraine)

Kenya, Octavia, Tavia, Tucker (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 106 of 2024; 260 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 1 of week 16 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Saille (Willow) [Day 2 of 28]

Chinese: Month 3 (Wu-Chen), Day 7 (Ji-You)

Chinese Year of the: Dragon 4722 (until January 29, 2025) [Wu-Chen]

Hebrew: 7 Nisan 5784

Islamic: 66 Shawwal 1445

J Cal: 16 Cyan; Twosday [16 of 30]

Julian: 2 April 2024

Moon: 50%: 1st Quarter

Positivist: 22 Archimedes (4th Month) [Varro]

Runic Half Month: Man (Human Being) [Day 6 of 15]

Season: Spring (Day 28 of 92)

Week: 3rd Week of April

Zodiac: Aries (Day 26 of 31)

[newstfionline]

Thursday, March 7, 2024

Biden and Trump dominate Super Tuesday races and move closer to a November rematch (AP) President Joe Biden and his predecessor, Donald Trump, romped through more than a dozen states on Super Tuesday, all but cementing a November rematch. Their victories from coast to coast, including the delegate-rich states of California and Texas, left little doubt about the trajectory of the race. Not enough states will have voted until later this month for Trump or Biden to formally become their parties’ presumptive nominees. But the primary’s biggest day made their rematch a near-certainty. Nikki Haley later withdrew from the race.

Businesses scramble for more workers (Bloomberg) Companies across America are scrambling for workers, making the same appeal they’ve made for years: admit more immigrants to ease a severe labor shortage and fill jobs Americans don’t want. Indeed, immigration may be one of the key reasons the US avoided a recession as it emerged from the pandemic. As migrants poured over the southern border during Covid’s upheaval, the influx may have been a potential solution to a shortage that, by the end of this decade, could lead to $1.75 trillion in unrealized economic output. All of a sudden, big cities were filled with people eager to work and start building their own version of the American dream. But in 2024 America, that is not how it’s playing out. The newcomers who qualify for work permits often struggle to secure them, because government bureaucracy has been overwhelmed. Business groups say the process is broken and are ramping up calls for changes to bring in more workers through legal channels. Jay Timmons, CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers, says he “can’t have a conversation with any business owner that doesn’t revolve around the fact that they simply cannot find the skilled workforce they need.” But their pleas aren’t being heeded in Washington, where lawmakers are scrambling instead to respond to inflamed anti-immigrant sentiment.

National Guard troops will patrol New York’s subway (NYT) Kathy Hochul, New York’s governor, announced today that she would deploy 750 National Guard soldiers and 250 personnel from the State Police and the M.T.A. to the New York City subway system, where they will patrol platforms and help check bags for weapons. The show of force, Hochul said, is intended to help commuters and visitors feel safer. The deployment will add to an already large presence in the subway, where Mayor Eric Adams ordered an additional 1,000 officers last month after a January spike in thefts. Violent crimes remain relatively rare, but three recent homicides have raised urgent questions about safety for many riders.

Haiti gang leader threatens 'civil war' if PM does not resign (Reuters) The gang leader behind the violence blighting the Haitian capital has warned there will be a "civil war" if Haiti's prime minister, Ariel Henry, does not step down. Jimmy "Barbecue" Chérizier made the threat as members of his gang tried to seize the capital's airport to stop Mr Henry from returning from abroad. Thousands have been displaced by the violence. Barbecue, who leads the powerful G9 gang alliance, said on Tuesday that "if Ariel Henry does not resign ... we'll be heading straight for a civil war that will lead to genocide". Haiti has been blighted by gang violence for years. But while Prime Minister Henry was on a visit to Kenya last week, Barbecue escalated the violence. Henry is now waiting to return in Puerto Rico after the airport attack.

Peru’s prime minister steps down after alleged audio leak (Reuters) Peruvian Prime Minister Alberto Otarola said on Tuesday he had tendered his resignation after an audio recording came out over the weekend purporting to be of the official attempting to improperly influence government contracts. Otarola told media the recording was made in 2021, when he was not a government official, and was manipulated and edited as part of a conspiracy by his political opponents. With Otarola’s departure, the other 18 cabinet members must now also resign, according to Peruvian law. President Dina Boluarte has the choice to reinstate each cabinet member or swap them out for a new minister.

King Charles’ diagnosis throws UK’s long cancer treatment waiting times into sharp relief (AP) For Anna Gittins, three months would have spelled the difference between life and death. The elementary school principal from Hereford in western England was shocked when she found out she had advanced colorectal cancer in 2022. But when she contacted her local hospital, she was told no one would be able to see her for three months “due to high demand and low capacity of senior doctors.” Gittins had access to private health care and has since undergone surgery and chemotherapy. “I consider myself so lucky, but there are so many people who will die needlessly when more prompt treatment would help them,” she said. Gittins is among thousands of people with cancer let down by Britain’s National Health Service, a once-revered institution now widely seen to be in acute crisis due to years of underfunding and staff shortages.

Shift in Russian Tactics Intensifies Air War in Ukraine (NYT) The Ukraine war has been fought largely on the ground in the past two years, with troops often locked in back-and-forth battles with heavy artillery and drone support. The countries’ air forces have played second fiddle because of Ukraine’s limited fleet of planes and Russia’s inability to gain the air supremacy it once expected. But as the Russian military presses on with attacks in the east, its air force has taken on a greater role. Military analysts say Russia has increasingly used warplanes near the front lines to drop powerful guided bombs on Ukrainian positions and clear a path forward for the infantry. That tactic, used most notably in Avdiivka, the strategic eastern city captured by Russian forces last month, has yielded good results, experts say. It has also come with risks. The Ukrainian Army last week said it had shot down seven Su-34 fighter jets, nearly all operating in the east, just a few days after downing an A-50 long-range radar reconnaissance aircraft. It was, according to Ukrainian officials, part of a series of successful strikes against the Russian Air Force, in which Ukraine claimed to have shot down 15 planes in as many days.

Maldives competition for influence (NYT) Between a few flecks of coral in the Indian Ocean, a ribbon of highway more than a mile long swoops up from the blue. Since 2018, the China-Maldives Friendship Bridge has connected this archipelago’s hyper-dense capital, Malé, and the international airport—expanded by Chinese companies—one island to the east. But China is not alone in chasing friendship with the Maldives. A 20-minute walk across the capital, next to Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital, an even longer sea bridge will link Malé with islands to the west. This one is being built by Indian workers, with money from India. The Maldives, a tiny tourism-dependent country of 500,000 people, barely registers as a blip alongside India and China, the world’s most populous nations. Yet every blip counts in the two giants’ competition for influence across South Asia.

Hostage crisis poses dilemma for Israel (AP) Over the last five months, Israel has killed thousands of Hamas fighters, destroyed dozens of their tunnels and wreaked unprecedented destruction on the Gaza Strip. But it still faces a dilemma that was clear from the start of the war and will ultimately determine its outcome: It can either try to annihilate Hamas, which would mean almost certain death for the estimated 100 hostages still held in Gaza, or it can cut a deal that would allow the militants to claim a historic victory. Either outcome would be excruciating for Israelis. Either would likely seal an ignominious end for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s long political career. And either might be seen as acceptable by Hamas, which valorizes martyrdom.

U.S. floods arms into Israel despite mounting alarm over war’s conduct (Washington Post) The United States has quietly approved and delivered more than 100 separate foreign military sales to Israel since the Gaza war began Oct. 7, amounting to thousands of precision-guided munitions, small diameter bombs, bunker busters, small arms and other lethal aid, U.S. officials told members of Congress in a recent classified briefing. The triple digit figure, which has not been previously reported, is the latest indication of Washington’s extensive involvement in the polarizing five-month conflict even as top U.S. officials and lawmakers increasingly express deep reservations about Israel’s military tactics in a campaign that has killed more than 30,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health authorities. The transactions, known in government-speak as Foreign Military Sales or FMS were processed without any public debate because each fell under a specific dollar amount that requires the executive branch to individually notify Congress, according to U.S. officials and lawmakers who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military matter.

Millions of Sudanese go hungry as war disrupts food supply (Reuters) A mother who skips meals so there is enough food for her two children. A 60-year-old man who eats one meal a day—a lump of dough made of flour and water. People venturing out from their homes in a desperate search for food at the risk of being hit by artillery shells. Dozens of accounts like these gathered by Reuters show how many people are going hungry in parts of Sudan worst hit by the war that erupted last April, including areas in the capital Khartoum and in the western region of Darfur. The number of Sudanese facing emergency levels of hunger—one stage before famine—has more than tripled in a year to almost five million. In Sudan’s capital, hundreds of thousands of people face a daily struggle to find food as communal kitchens they depend on are threatened by dwindling supplies and a communications blackout across much of the country in recent weeks. In Darfur, some areas haven’t received any aid since the Sudanese military and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary, went to war almost a year ago.

In South Africa, where the buffaloes roam is sometimes a problem (AP) Where the buffaloes roam can be a problem in South Africa. Two buffaloes were spotted walking down the middle of a major highway on Saturday night on the outskirts of the country’s biggest city, Johannesburg, as cars and trucks whizzed past. Some startled motorists took pictures and videos on their phones. City authorities have decided they need to be caught and moved as soon as possible because of the danger presented by the sharp-horned bovines, which can each weigh up to 800 kilograms (1,760 pounds) and are notorious as fairly grumpy and unpredictable. The buffaloes disappeared soon after their highway stroll, but security and risk assessment company Bidvest Protea Coin helped authorities hunt them down with a helicopter armed with an infrared camera.

He Who Has Earbuds, Let Him Hear: Audio Bibles on the Rise (Christianity Today) The Word of God never returns void—even if you listen to it in traffic, at the gym, or while folding laundry. A growing number of Bible resources give listeners the chance to engage with Scripture through their headphones, with new platforms and audio versions making it easier to access Bible reading throughout the day. Creators and fans say that even without putting eyes to the page, they’re able to read more Scripture and be spurred to deeper study. The rise of audio Bible resources corresponds with a broader listening trend as people increasingly rely on their smartphones for information and entertainment. Americans are three to four times more likely to listen to podcasts than they were a decade ago, according to Pew Research Center.

[monteamazonico]

Puerto Maldonado Tambopata Monte Amazon Lodge 2 Days Tour

Tambopata is a river, a national reserve and a province in Madre de Dios state, southeastern Peru. It harbors some of the most biodiverse rainforest in the country (and possibly the entire Amazon basin), huge protected areas, and is home to several thousand people. Remote, wild, but still easily accessible, this contrasting combination has helped it to become one of the global hotspots for ecotourism. You get a hint of why Tambopata is such a wild area just before you land at the Puerto Maldonado airport. At the end of a quick flight to Tambopata from Lima or Cuzco, a sprawling carpet of jade green comes into view and stretches to the horizon. There are a few farms, a couple of roads, and the city of Puerto Maldonado is visible but these are still dwarfed by the sea of Amazon rainforest that marches into the distance. Meandering, coffee-colored rivers weave their way through the green. Massive, old growth Ceibas and other rainforest giants emerge from a 90 foot high canopy. Hidden beneath the trees are troops of monkeys, toucans, brilliantly colored macaws, and even jaguars. You never know what you are going to encounter in the rainforests of Tambopata but that view from the plane promises adventure and a once in a lifetime experience.

DAY  01:  8:00 AM – We begin the itinerary embarking…

We begin the itinerary embarking at the port of Puerto Maldonado on the river Madre de Dios and soon after leaving port sail directly through the confluence of two large jungle tributaries of the Amazon, the Madre de Dios and the Tambopata; the majestic sight of the meeting of these two mother rivers opens us to feel a deeper contact with Mother Nature. The journey of an hour downriver to the entrance to the National Reserve of Tambopata is filled with a presence of intense life, the mother Earth breathes here in the jungle and we feel our hearts beating as one with hers. After a short walk and passing the entry point to the protected area of the Reserve, we penetrate the jungle proper and follow the 5km trail to the lake itself.

The path through the mature tropical forest winds its way by immense ancient trees and entangled vines; multi-hued flowers and butterflies flash through the dense foliage in pursuit of the many insects that fill the air with their songs. The forest is teeming with wildlife and we will see many coloured butterflies, birds including macaws, parrots and tanagers, leaf cutter ants, monkeys. Upon arriving at Lake Sandoval we can bathe in the warm waters…. infested with piranhas, electric eels, black caimans and sweet-water manta rays, and it’s sure to be a very comfortable bath due to the elevated temperature of the water; it appears strange to bathe in the midst of so many animals of whom we are customarily afraid? Worried??? Then don’t be, I myself have done it a thousand times as have the many tourists who visit the lake; you too can enjoy this refreshing experience, in safety.

After the bathe, that we leave to your discretion, a delicious typical picnic lunch will be served on the beach. The afternoon begins with us taking to the water in rowing boats for an exploration of the rich wildlife that makes its home in and around the lake; this time we are hoping to sight birds such as hoatzins, shanshos, cormorants and anhinga. If we are lucky we will see playful giant river otters, an animal that has been rescued from the point of extinction here, in and around the waters of this protected lake, side neck turtles, taricayas, in the water, and monkeys jumping from branch to branch in the palm trees that line the western shoreline of the lake. As the afternoon draws to a close we disembark at a point closer to the river and walk the 3km trail back to the river Madre de Dios where our boat is waiting to gently continue downstream into a glorious equatorial sunset and the Yakari Lodge where supper is waiting.6.30 PM – After supper we set out on the river boat with reflector on a caiman hunt which will afford the opportunity to see from close quarters these magnificent animals that lounge on the warm sand of the beaches of the river banks. The largest rodent on the world, the capybara, may also be observed at sunset and dusk nosing along the river bank, looking for nocturnal insects and grubs.

8:00 PM – Bed

DAY 02:

Day Two, 5:30 AM – We rise early for a special glimpse… We rise early for a special glimpse into the magical world of jungle wildlife, taking advantage of the fact that many animals, both mammals and birds, are active in the early dawn hours.  The path through the mature tropical forest winds its way by immense ancient trees and entangled vines; multi-hued flowers and butterflies flash through the dense foliage in pursuit of the many insects that fill the air with their songs. The forest is teeming with wildlife and we will see multi-coloured butterflies, macaws, parrots and tanagers, leaf cutter ants and monkeys. Both the hike through the forest and the view from the 27m high canopy walkway at dawn is spectacular, many birds join the dawn chorus as they greet the new day. Your guide will explain and reveal much of the medicinal plants, flora and fauna you are seeing around you for the first time, helping you to see what you otherwise would have missed. The start of the adventure circuit is reached by climbing a tower and stairway that ascends to the treetops and a platform at 27m above the floor of the forest. You will feel the breeze on your face as you cross the hanging bridge, 89m long, which leads to a platform 37m above ground wrapped around the huge trunk of an ironwood tree, one of the densest and strongest to be found in the rainforest. The throbbing symphony of birdcalls,  accompanied by the warbling of toads and crickets, pours into the liquid air of the tropical forest; orchids and other aerial plants growing amongst the high branches  can be observed at close hand as can the nests of the many birds that make their home here.

7.00 AM – We return across the canopy bridge and ascend to the high platform that marks the start of the zip-line cable, almost 200m long, along which we fly through the air like eagles narrowly missing the foliage along the way, to a platform 27m high.  The breathtaking views are only matched by the excitement of overcoming our fears and the adrenaline that courses through us as we leap off the platform supported by the high security harnesses that connect us to the zip-line cable. The 75m long log walkway, hanging 27m above the floor, leads off this platform, a risky balancing act, and takes us to the platform at the start of the second zip line, a 160m fly back to the tower and stairwell that descends to the forest floor.

8.30 AM – Breakfast – a hearty meal of fruit juice, herbal tea or coffee, typical fried bananas, eggs, cheese and rice bread (please ask for our vegan and wheat free options), in order to be ready for the exertions of the day ahead.

10.00 AM – KAYAK (Level 1). We take to the river in kayaks, well protected with high quality life jackets, and accompanied by a motor boat that guarantees extra security; this level one activity is relaxing and accessible for all.  Flowing downstream, carried by the river, or fighting the current upstream we are able to observe the many birds that populate these otherwise inaccessible banks of the river, flying across our path as they call us away from their hidden nests.

12:30 PM – Lunch. After lunch there will be time for a relaxing siesta or integration time, the hammocks are very comfortable!

14:00 PM – Monkey Island – After lunch we cross the river in boats to the island situated across from Yakari known by its population of monkeys. These beautiful animals are accustomed to contact with human beings and will put on a show of swinging through the treetops, charging down the trunks of the large trees that form their home in order to accept food from your hand or inspect you up close! Various different species live in harmony due to their habitat being an island.

16:00 PM – The return upriver to Puerto Maldonado at sundown affords views of an epic equatorial sunset sky reflected in the waters of one of the largest tributaries of the Amazon.

[xtruss]

The US Sent Cluster Munitions to Ukraine But Activists Still Seek to Bolster a Treaty Banning Them

Backers of an international agreement that bans cluster munitions are striving to prevent erosion in support for it after what one leading human rights group calls an “unconscionable” U.S. decision to ship such weapons to Ukraine for its fight against ...

— By Jamey Keaten | September 5, 2023

Police officers look at collected fragments of the Russian rockets, including cluster rounds, that hit Kharkiv, in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Dec. 3, 2022. Backers of an international agreement that bans cluster munitions are striving to prevent erosion in support for it after what one leading human rights group calls an “unconscionable” U.S. decision to ship such weapons to Ukraine for its fight against Russia. Advocacy groups in the Cluster Munitions Coalition released their latest annual report on Tuesday Sept. 5, 2023. AP Photo/Libkos . The Associated Press

Geneva, Switzerland — Backers of an international agreement that bans cluster munitions are striving to prevent erosion in support for the deal after what one leading human rights group calls an “unconscionable” U.S. decision to ship such weapons to Ukraine for its fight against Russia.

Advocacy groups in the Cluster Munitions Coalition released their latest annual report on Tuesday, ahead of a meeting next week of envoys from the 112 countries that have acceded to or ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions. The treaty prohibits the explosives and calls for clearing areas where they litter the ground because they harm and kill many more civilians than combatants,

A further 12 countries have signed the convention. The United States and Russia are not among them.

Mary Wareham of Human Rights Watch, who has long championed the 15-year-old convention, says the coalition was “extremely concerned” about the U.S. move in July, after an intense debate among U.S. leaders, to transfer unspecified thousands of 155mm artillery-delivered cluster munition rounds to Ukraine.

More than 20 government leaders and officials have criticized that decision, the coalition says.

Hoping to avoid defections from the convention, Wareham says supporters hope signatories will “stay strong — that they do not weaken their position on the treaty as a result of the U.S. decision. And we don’t see that happening yet. But it’s always a danger.”

U.S. officials argue that the munitions — a type of bomb that opens in the air and releases smaller “bomblets” across a wide area — could help Kyiv bolster its offensive and push through Russian front lines.

Photo: Sergei Supinsky/AFP Via Getty Images

U.S. leaders have said the transfer involves a version of the munition that has a reduced “dud rate,” meaning fewer of the smaller bomblets fail to explode. The bomblets can take out tanks and equipment, as well as troops, hitting multiple targets at the same time.

But Wareham cited “widespread evidence of civilian harm that (is) caused by these weapons. It was just an unconscionable decision.”

The report says civilians accounted for 95% of cluster munition casualties that were recorded last year, totaling some 1,172 in eight countries: Azerbaijan, Iraq, Laos, Lebanon, Myanmar, Syria, Ukraine, and Yemen. The monitor noted efforts in places like Bulgaria, Peru and Slovakia to destroy their stockpiles of the munitions in 2022 and earlier this year.

Children made up 71% of casualties from explosions of cluster-munition remnants last year, the report said.

It said Russia had “repeatedly” used cluster munitions in Ukraine since President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian forces to invade Ukraine in February last year, while Ukraine had used them “to a lesser extent.”

Washington’s decision “is certainly a setback,” said Wareham, “but it’s not the end of the road for the Convention on Cluster Munitions by far.”

[lancebeamon22]

Gerald Horne - US Sends Troops to Peru; NYT Admits Nazis in Ukraine; Bid...

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 4.5

823 – Lothair I is crowned King of Italy by Pope Paschal I. 919 – The second Fatimid invasion of Egypt begins, when the Fatimid heir-apparent, al-Qa'im bi-Amr Allah, sets out from Raqqada at the head of his army. 1242 – During the Battle on the Ice of Lake Peipus, Russian forces, led by Alexander Nevsky, rebuff an invasion attempt by the Teutonic Knights. 1536 – Charles V makes a Royal Entry into Rome, demolishing a swath of the city to re-enact a Roman triumph. 1566 – Two hundred Dutch noblemen, led by Hendrick van Brederode, force themselves into the presence of Margaret of Parma and present the Petition of Compromise, denouncing the Spanish Inquisition in the Seventeen Provinces. 1614 – In Virginia, Native American Pocahontas marries English colonist John Rolfe. 1621 – The Mayflower sets sail from Plymouth, Massachusetts on a return trip to England. 1792 – United States President George Washington exercises his authority to veto a bill, the first time this power is used in the United States. 1795 – Peace of Basel between France and Prussia is made. 1818 – In the Battle of Maipú, Chile's independence movement, led by Bernardo O'Higgins and José de San Martín, win a decisive victory over Spain, leaving 2,000 Spaniards and 1,000 Chilean patriots dead. 1862 – American Civil War: The Battle of Yorktown begins. 1879 – Bolivia declares war on Chile, and Chile declares war on Peru, starting the War of the Pacific. 1902 – A stand box collapses at Ibrox Park (now Ibrox Stadium) in Glasgow, Scotland, which led to the deaths of 25 and injuries to more than 500 supporters during an international association football match between Scotland and England. 1910 – The Transandine Railway connecting Chile and Argentina is inaugurated. 1922 – The American Birth Control League, forerunner of Planned Parenthood, is incorporated. 1932 – Dominion of Newfoundland: Ten thousand rioters seize the Colonial Building leading to the end of self-government. 1933 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs two executive orders: 6101 to establish the Civilian Conservation Corps, and 6102 "forbidding the Hoarding of Gold Coin, Gold Bullion, and Gold Certificates" by U.S. citizens. 1933 – Andorran Revolution: The Young Andorrans occupy the Casa de la Vall and force the government to hold democratic elections with universal male suffrage. 1936 – Tupelo–Gainesville tornado outbreak: An F5 tornado kills 233 in Tupelo, Mississippi. 1942 – World War II: Adolf Hitler issues Fuhrer Directive No. 41 summarizing Case Blue, including the German Sixth Army's planned assault on Stalingrad. 1942 – World War II: The Imperial Japanese Navy launches a carrier-based air attack on Colombo, Ceylon during the Indian Ocean raid. Port and civilian facilities are damaged and the Royal Navy cruisers HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire are sunk southwest of the island. 1943 – World War II: United States Army Air Forces bomber aircraft accidentally cause more than 900 civilian deaths, including 209 children, and 1,300 wounded among the civilian population of the Belgian town of Mortsel. Their target was the Erla factory one kilometer from the residential area hit. 1945 – Cold War: Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito signs an agreement with the Soviet Union to allow "temporary entry of Soviet troops into Yugoslav territory". 1946 – Soviet troops end their year-long occupation of the Danish island of Bornholm. 1946 – A Fleet Air Arm Vickers Wellington crashes into a residential area in Rabat, Malta during a training exercise, killing all 4 crew members and 16 civilians on the ground. 1949 – A fire in a hospital in Effingham, Illinois, kills 77 people and leads to nationwide fire code improvements in the United States. 1951 – Cold War: Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are sentenced to death for spying for the Soviet Union. 1956 – Cuban Revolution: Fidel Castro declares himself at war with Cuban President Fulgencio Batista. 1958 – Ripple Rock, an underwater threat to navigation in the Seymour Narrows in Canada is destroyed in one of the largest non-nuclear controlled explosions of the time. 1966 – During the Buddhist Uprising, South Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyễn Cao Kỳ personally attempts to lead the capture of the restive city of Đà Nẵng before backing down. 1969 – Vietnam War: Massive antiwar demonstrations occur in many U.S. cities. 1971 – In Sri Lanka, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna launches a revolt against the United Front government of Sirimavo Bandaranaike. 1976 – In China, the April Fifth Movement leads to the Tiananmen Incident. 1977 – The US Supreme Court rules that congressional legislation that diminished the size of the Sioux people's reservation thereby destroyed the tribe's jurisdictional authority over the area in Rosebud Sioux Tribe v. Kneip. 1991 – An ASA EMB 120 crashes in Brunswick, Georgia, killing all 23 aboard including Sen. John Tower and astronaut Sonny Carter. 1992 – Alberto Fujimori, president of Peru, dissolves the Peruvian congress by military force. 1992 – Peace protesters Suada Dilberovic and Olga Sučić are killed on the Vrbanja Bridge in Sarajevo, becoming the first casualties of the Bosnian War. 1998 – In Japan, the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge opens to traffic, becoming the longest bridge span in the world. 1999 – Two Libyans suspected of bringing down Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988 are handed over for eventual trial in the Netherlands. 2007 – The cruise ship MS Sea Diamond strikes a volcanic reef near Nea Kameni and sinks the next day. Two passengers were never recovered and are presumed dead. 2009 – North Korea launches its controversial Kwangmyŏngsŏng-2 rocket. The satellite passed over mainland Japan, which prompted an immediate reaction from the United Nations Security Council, as well as participating states of Six-party talks. 2010 – Twenty-nine coal miners are killed in an explosion at the Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia. 2018 – Agents with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid a slaughterhouse in Tennessee, detaining nearly 100 undocumented Hispanic workers in one of the largest workplace raids in the history of the United States. 2021 – Nguyễn Xuân Phúc took office as President of Vietnam after dismissing the title of Prime Minister.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Police losing narco war in deadly Amazon region where duo disappeared

A key police outpost lies in ruins after a daring raid – a sign of the growing danger on an increasingly lucrative smuggling route

In the crime-infested tri-border region where Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira disappeared, rumours abound over what happened at Puerto Amelia in January this year.

Were Brazilian drug traffickers responsible for burning the Peruvian police outpost on the River Yavarí to the ground?

Was it Colombian guerrillas who stormed the camp, shooting at the border guards and making off with their high-powered weapons?

Or were the culprits rogue Peruvian police officers, perhaps working for organized crime?

The answer depends on who you talk to – but the consequences were the same.

Five months after the audacious raid, the camp lies in ruins. Charred logs are the only remnant of a turquoise lodging the Peruvian troops had called home.

Filing cabinets and metal bunk beds are scattered in the undergrowth while the ground is littered with empty cans of tuna fish and spam. Tiger orange butterflies dance around an abandoned border marker, bringing colour to an otherwise desolate scene.

“They took guns, rifles, bullets, the lot,” said one local, who gave the Guardian a tour of the strategically positioned base, located opposite the entrance to the River Itaquaí, where Phillips and Pereira are feared to have been murdered.

The local said the security situation had been deteriorating since 2020 as Latin American drug cartels and factions fought for control of this increasingly lucrative smuggling route.

“This is what the region is like now,” they sighed as they surveyed the deserted police position past which boats packed with drugs can now travel undisturbed. “It didn’t use to be like this.”

But this is not the first such attack on the feeble law enforcement in the Amazon region where Peru meets Colombia and Brazil.

“The narcos are bolder, more aggressive; they have attacked three police posts in the last five years,” a Peruvian anti-narcotics officer said.

Continue reading.

[intcongarchsection]

Unsubstantiated report of US troops being operational in Peru. However there are other reports indicating they will land soon. Interesting to see how this develops and what their objectives will produce.

[outlawqueen2016]

The current state of affairs, as of May 13, 2023.

• Reports of Kalibr rockets launched from air and sea towards western / central #Ukraine.

• Thermite detonation: #England, #Ukraine, #India, #Pakistan, #Australia, #Brazil, #Peru, #Thailand, #Egypt, and #north #American #west #coast.

• #Western #hemisphere on alert for camel slut, as the number of migrants from #India surpass #Europe in the #United #States #of #America for the first time.

• #Redneck #Nation alert down graded to mild advisory for #chlamydia and #syphilis.

• In the most brilliant command strategy we have seen to date, André Romanyet de Buccephallus had his own men, historically, take down two helicopters and a single jet fighter. #Bryansk, #Crimea is the site of one Su-35, one Su-34, and two Mi-8 jet fighters turned to scrap by the #International #Legion #for #the #Freedom #of #Free #Peoples. Reported as: worst day for the Russian military aviation since the first week of the war.

• Successful application of #United #Kingdom supplied StormShadow air-launched cruise missiles in #Luhansk, #Donetsk by the #International #Legion #for #the #Freedom #of #Free #Peoples.

•#Tvorchi reports an attack against #Ternopil, #Ukraine from the #Eurovision stage, by an unknown assailant. It seems Ukrainian President Vladymyr Zelensky de Buccephalus was actually in the Vatican in close proximity to the Pope. With fighter jets, none the less. Why on earth would fighter jets leave the battlefield to escort their president on a day trip?

• #Wagner operative Captain Pavel Szumrmiej is to be executed for leaking classified information on Reddit on #Belorussian command.

• #Japan you have been infiltrated by #weeabos. Hopefully Allah is with you, because all I hear is “Should have been geisha!”

• #China has taken to the high seas to continue the #war against the #abomination! Box jellyfish, eels, rays, sharks, and squid are on the list of drag net targets. Once these have been cleared out of the oceans, there will be room in the ecosystem for tank raised specimens.

• #Explosion witnessed in #Khmelnitsky, #Luhansk. It appeared to be pressurized flammable liquid stored underground. Hold thermite in this region, until ground troops are clear. No thermite use in #Luhansk region.

• #Turkmenistan #election under threat of #Kremlin interference.

• #Bakhmut under “attack” by trauma retreat tourists, in a region identified as the #Outskirts.

• #Kremlin front, the Russian Federation, ransacked today in #Luhansk by the #International #Legion #for #the #Freedom #of #Free #Peoples.

• #Redneck #Nation to avoid publications by #PenguinPublishersClearingHouse and #Scholastic.

• #Trump towers under siege by trauma retreat tourists, in #Sunny #Isles, under the falsified credentials of federal bureau of investigation.

• #Denmark is currently being held hostage by the #Destusch. #Greenland Prime Minister is refusing, staunchly, to speak #Danish.

• #Outlaw #Nation is on the hunt for individuals with old eyes. Which means, if your eyeball has been removed from your head, then, at a later date, replaced; it has been used as a key in a #Kremlin mass murdering device, and we have a few questions.

Nikia O’Niele

Outlaw Queen

[newstfionline]

Saturday, January 27, 2024

Schools are using surveillance tech to catch students vaping (AP) When Aaliyah Iglesias was caught vaping at a Texas high school, she didn’t realize how much could be taken from her. Suddenly, the rest of her high school experience was threatened: being student council president, her role as debate team captain and walking at graduation. Even her college scholarships were at risk. She was sent to the district’s alternative school for 30 days and told she could have faced criminal charges. Like thousands of other students around the country, she was caught by surveillance equipment that schools have installed to crack down on electronic cigarettes, often without informing students. Schools nationwide have invested millions of dollars in the monitoring technology, including federal COVID-19 emergency relief money meant to help schools through the pandemic and aid students’ academic recovery.

U.S. signals it is open to withdrawing some troops from Iraq (Washington Post) Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin left the door open Thursday to reducing the U.S. military presence in Iraq, saying that meetings set to begin soon between officials from the two countries will enable a “transition to an enduring bilateral security partnership” that builds on years of joint operations against the Islamic State. Many Iraqi officials have called for the ouster of U.S. forces after a months-long cycle of violence, inflamed by the Israel-Gaza war, between Iranian-backed militias and U.S. forces. U.S. military positions in Iraq and Syria have been attacked at least 153 times since October by militant groups trained and supplied by Iran, including incidents Thursday in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil and at Ain al-Asad Air Base in the western part of the country. Iraqi officials have increasingly responded with anger when the United States has retaliated with airstrikes. The militias have tied their attacks to the war in Gaza and to U.S. support for Israel’s campaign against Hamas.

Colombia declares a disaster because of wildfires (AP) Colombia’s government declared a disaster Thursday and asked for international help to combat raging wildfires that are expected to worsen in coming days due to warm, dry conditions associated with the El Niño weather phenomenon. Officials raised the number of fires from 25 to 31, and said nine of them were under control. They did not order mandatory evacuations despite some fires burning in the mountains that surround some municipalities. President Gustavo Petro said Chile, the United States, Peru and Canada have already responded to the call for help, without specifying when the assistance will arrive to the South American country.

As terror grips the streets of Ecuador, even the armed forces live in fear (CNN) In the aftermath of gang attacks on January 9, President Daniel Noboa took an unprecedented step. He declared an “internal armed conflict” in the country and ordered Ecuador’s armed forces to “neutralize” the members of more than 20 gangs, which he labeled as terror groups. Since then, Ecuador’s national police and armed forces have been carrying out raids of homes of those with suspected ties to terror groups. Fear has permeated the ranks; even in Guayaquil’s 90-degree heat and humidity, under layers of tactical gear, they insist on putting on a ski mask before being filmed. On the front lines, while there is determination, there is also hesitation. Among the police and military tasked with conducting raids and preemptive strikes, some fear what will happen to them or their families if terrorists link them to the crackdown efforts. The crisis could drive more Ecuadorians to emigrate. Locals are tired of living in fear and being extorted for protection money, says Carlos Jimenez, an urban planner who studied in the US and is now living in his native Ecuador. “These people are in the middle of gunfights in their neighborhoods, what would you do? You’re not going to want to stay there.”

Britain says it has no plans for conscription, after top general says the UK may need a citizen army (AP) On Wednesday, Gen. Patrick Saunders, the head of the British Army, said that a British “citizen army” would be needed in a potential land war with a country like Russia. Saunders stated that, if the conflict expands, “within the next three years, it must be credible to talk of a British Army of 120,000.” He also praised countries close to Russia for preparing for such a war and “prudently laying the foundations for national mobilization.” The U.K. government immediately walked back Saunders’ talking points that same day, declaring that the country had no plans to expand its armed forces past the 74,000 full-time troops it currently supports. In a statement about Saunders’ preparation plans, Max Blain, a spokesman for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, said that “engaging in hypothetical wars” was “not helpful.”

French Farmer Protests (1440) French farmers continued protesting yesterday, blocking roads and dumping imported produce across the country, demanding government action to address numerous grievances. The protests, now in their second week, are moving toward Paris after breaking out in the southwest agricultural region. At least two people have died during the protests. France has roughly 456,000 farms and is among the EU’s highest-producing countries, with an output of over $79B. The FNSEA farming union, which is leading the protest, is demanding better protection against cheaper foreign competition, continued diesel tax breaks, immediate EU agricultural subsidy payments, guarantees on health and climate insurance payouts, and aid for winemakers and organic farmers.

The Most Important Company in the World? (NYT/Opinion) Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or T.S.M.C., is the only corporation I can think of in history that could cause a global depression if it were forced to halt production. These days it seems impossible to have a conversation about geopolitics or economics without coming back to T.S.M.C., which makes about 90 percent of the world’s most advanced chips. If the lights went out here in Hsinchu, in the company’s ultraclean and ultrasecure buildings, you might not be able to buy a new phone, car or watch. Armies could run out of precision-guided missiles and hospitals could struggle to replace advanced X-ray and M.R.I. machines. It might be like the Covid-19 supply chain chip disruption—times 10—and T.S.M.C., unfortunately, is situated in a region where war is possible and could threaten production. “Taiwan Semiconductor is one of the best-managed companies and important companies in the world,” Warren Buffett said last year. But he sold his $4 billion stake in T.S.M.C. because, he said, “I don’t like its location.”

Australians protest British colonization on a national holiday some mark as ‘Invasion Day’ (AP) Thousands of Australians protested the anniversary of British colonization of their country with large crowds Friday urging for Australia Day to be moved and for a day of mourning on the holiday some call “Invasion Day.” The holiday marks the arrival of 11 British ships carrying convicts at Port Jackson in present-day Sydney on Jan. 26, 1788. For many activists, the day marked the beginning of a sustained period of discrimination and expulsion of Indigenous people from their land without a treaty.

Top UN court orders Israel to prevent genocide in Gaza but stops short of ordering cease-fire (AP) The United Nations’ top court on Friday ordered Israel to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and any acts of genocide in Gaza, but the panel stopped short of ordering Jerusalem to end the military offensive that has laid waste to the Palestinian enclave. In a ruling that will keep Israel under the legal lens for years to come, the court offered little other comfort to Israeli leaders in a genocide case brought by South Africa that goes to the core of one of the world’s most intractable conflicts. The court’s half-dozen orders will be difficult to achieve without some sort of cease-fire or pause in the fighting. The ruling amounted to an overwhelming rebuke of Israel’s wartime conduct and added to mounting international pressure to halt the nearly 4-month-old offensive, which has killed more than 26,000 Palestinians, decimated vast swaths of Gaza and driven nearly 85% of its 2.3 million people from their homes. Allowing the accusations to stand stung the government of Israel, which was founded as a Jewish state after the Nazi slaughter of 6 million Jews during World War II.

Israel is building a buffer zone along the Gaza border, risking a new rift with the U.S. (WSJ) To Israeli officials, the 1-kilometer-wide area is a critical security measure in their plan to demilitarize Gaza and assure Israelis that they can return safely to the border communities that were evacuated after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack. It would create a clear field of fire so Israeli troops can see and stop anyone approaching the frontier. The U.S. warns that turning the border along the 25-mile-long Gaza Strip into a no man’s land would deepen Palestinian fears that Israel intends to occupy all or part of the crowded enclave and would make it harder to persuade Arab governments to help rebuild a postwar Gaza. Meanwhile, Washington is pressing for a deal for the 100-plus hostages Hamas is holding in Gaza, as Israel and Qatar, one of the main Middle East mediators, spar.

Gaza’s daily struggle for food (Washington Post) The Washington Post spoke to six families across Gaza about their daily struggle for food. Ninety-three percent of people there face “crisis levels of hunger,” according to a U.N.-backed international consortium. Each day, for four days, Mohammad waited in line for a few pounds of flour. Returning home empty-handed to his five children, pained by hunger and humiliation, he ground up animal feed to bake over a makeshift stove. “We don’t know how dangerous eating animal feed is to our health, but we have no other options,” the 40-year-old said by phone from Gaza’s north.

Who bombed us today? (Daraj/Lebanon) Syria was already a nation torn apart by conflict, foreign and domestic. But lately, it appears more and more like a country that everyone feels at liberty to bomb—with different pretexts and for different reasons. Military bases in Syria that house U.S. forces were repeatedly attacked by explosives-laden drones and with missiles by Iran-backed militias. The U.S. military has responded with strikes on militias in both Syria and neighboring Iraq. Turkey, meanwhile, has continued to launch attacks on Kurdish-held areas in northeastern Syria, and has hit areas controlled by the Syrian regime in and around the city of Qamishli on January 14. Israel and the U.S. have repeatedly bombed sites and targets linked to Iran, Hezbollah and the Syrian regime. Jordan has become the latest to launch strikes on targets inside Syria, because the pace of drug smuggling from Syria to Jordan has increased. The strikes are part of multiple wars being waged on Syrian territories, involving many state and non-state actors. These wars have made Syria a country whose sovereignty is violated by many countries, with no end to such violations in sight.

Nones (Pew Research Center) When Americans are asked to check a box indicating their religious affiliation, 28% now check ‘none.’ A new study from Pew Research finds that the religiously unaffiliated—a group comprised of atheists, agnostic and those who say their religion is “nothing in particular”—is now the largest cohort in the U.S. They’re more prevalent among American adults than Catholics (23%) or evangelical Protestants (24%). Back in 2007, Nones made up just 16% of Americans, but Pew’s new survey of more than 3,300 U.S. adults shows that number has now risen dramatically. Researchers refer to this group as the “Nones.”