All posts tagged: pressure

Ex-CISA chief Chris Krebs leaving SentinelOne following Trump pressure

Ex-CISA chief Chris Krebs leaving SentinelOne following Trump pressure

Published by Sam

WASHINGTON :Christopher Krebs, whom President Donald Trump fired as head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in 2020, said on Wednesday he is leaving cybersecurity company SentinelOne following pressure from Trump. An email from Krebs, posted to SentinelOne’s website, said he offered his resignation last week after Trump singled Krebs and SentinelOne out for punishment, part of a campaign of retribution aimed at former officials that Trump has deemed insufficiently loyal. “This is my fight, not the company’s,” the email said. Trump fired Krebs from CISA in November 2020 following his refusal to endorse the president’s false claim that the election had been rigged by his then-opponent, former President Joe Biden. Last week, Trump signed an order that stripped Krebs and employees of the firm of their security clearances. The rationale for targeting SentinelOne, whose products are used to fight hackers and cybercriminals, was never publicly explained. The targeting of Krebs and his company fits within Trump’s wider campaign to use the might of the U.S. government to crush his political opponents. And while …

Auto Tariffs Take Effect, Putting Pressure on New Car Prices

Auto Tariffs Take Effect, Putting Pressure on New Car Prices

Published by skeptic

Tariffs on imported vehicles took effect Thursday, a policy that President Trump said would spur investments and jobs in the United States but that analysts say will raise new car prices by thousands of dollars. The 25 percent duty applies to all cars assembled outside the United States. Starting May 3, the tariff will also apply to imported auto parts, which will add to the cost of cars assembled domestically as well as auto repairs. There will be a partial exemption for cars made in Mexico or Canada that meet the terms of free trade agreements with those countries. Carmakers will not have to pay duties on parts like engines, transmissions or batteries that were made in the United States and later installed in cars in Mexican or Canadian factories. That provision will reduce the impact on vehicles like the Chevrolet Equinox electric vehicle, which is assembled in Mexico but includes a battery pack and other components made in the United States. General Motors will pay a tariff only on the portion of the car …

Lonnie Bunch Faces Political Pressure as Trump Targets Smithsonian

Lonnie Bunch Faces Political Pressure as Trump Targets Smithsonian

Published by skeptic

Lonnie G. Bunch III, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, is confronting the most pointed political challenge of his tenure. On the heels of a recent executive order signed by President Donald Trump that accused the Smithsonian of promoting divisive ideologies and called for an end to exhibitions and programs that “degrade shared American values” or “divide Americans by race,” Bunch and the Smithsonian now stand at a politically fraught crossroads. Related Articles Speaking to the New York Times this week, Steven Cheung, the White House’s communications director, said, “Lonnie Bunch is a Democrat donor and rabid partisan who manufactured lies out of thin air in order to boost sales of his miserable book. Fortunately, he, along with his garbage book, are complete failures.” Last week, Bunch sent an internal memo to Smithsonian staff saying that, despite pressure from the White House, the Institution would “remain steadfast in our mission to bring history, science, education, research, and the arts to all Americans” and would operate “free of …

Nigerian faith leaders appeal to US to pressure their country on religious violence

Nigerian faith leaders appeal to US to pressure their country on religious violence

Published by skeptic

NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) — Nearly four years ago, the Biden administration removed Nigeria from a list of countries whose threats to religious freedom are of “particular concern,” but continued attacks on Christians and other religious groups by Islamist militias have prompted calls from local faith leaders and members of the U.S. Congress for the designation to be restored. In Africa’s most populous nation, a deadly cycle of violence has unfolded for several years, with Christian clergy and laypeople as well as moderate Muslims falling victim to murder and kidnapping. The Christian nonprofit Open Doors recently reported that in 2024 some 3,100 Christians were killed and more than 2,000 kidnapped in Nigeria. On Wednesday (March 12), U.S. Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, held a hearing on religious freedom violations in Nigeria that included testimony from Catholic Bishop Wilfred Anagbe of the Diocese of Makurdi, in central Nigeria, and Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, a former U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom commissioner. Anagbe accused the …

Iran says won't negotiate under 'intimidation' as Trump ramps up pressure on nuclear program

Iran says won't negotiate under 'intimidation' as Trump ramps up pressure on nuclear program

Published by Sam

Iran said Monday it would not negotiate under “intimidation”, after US President Donald Trump sought to ratchet up pressure on Tehran by ending a sanctions waiver that had allowed Iraq to buy electricity from its Shiite neighbour. Iran’s mission to the United Nations had indicated Sunday that Tehran might be open to talks aimed at addressing US concerns about the potential militarisation of its nuclear programme — though not to ending the program completely. Here is the analysis of Saeed Azimi, France 24 correspondent in Tehran. Source link

The psychology behind “pressure pitfalls” and why it matters for leaders

The psychology behind “pressure pitfalls” and why it matters for leaders

Published by skeptic

Abraham Lincoln once said, “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” I have the utmost respect for the sixteenth president of the United States, but I beg to differ. Power blinds us to the impact of our actions, but it’s not power that corrupts a person’s character. It’s pressure. Left unchecked, pressure makes monsters of us all. How many times, in a time crunch or in overdrive to deliver, have you been brusque, dismissive, or even outright explosive? None of us is immune. Under enough pressure and without the right systems in place to manage it, anyone’s inner monsters come out to play. Remember, there are no purely good or bad bosses — just bad behaviors forged under pressure. Power distorts how our traits are seen and experienced by others, but pressure transmutes these traits. Our best qualities grow ugly fangs that we sink into anyone in our way. When pressure exceeds our capacity to manage it, our guardrails disappear. Our directness isn’t just …

How China uses ‘salami-slicing’ tactics to exert pressure on Taiwan – video | Taiwan

How China uses ‘salami-slicing’ tactics to exert pressure on Taiwan – video | Taiwan

Published by Sam

China has dramatically increased military activities around Taiwan, with more than 3,000 incursions into Taiwan’s airspace in 2024 alone. Amy Hawkins examines how Beijing is deploying ‘salami-slicing’ tactics, a strategy of gradual pressure that stays below the threshold of war while steadily wearing down Taiwan’s defences. From daily air incursions to strategic military exercises, we explore the four phases of China’s approach and what it means for Taiwan’s future Source link

Justin Baldoni accuses Blake Lively of using Taylor Swift to pressure him about changing movie

Justin Baldoni accuses Blake Lively of using Taylor Swift to pressure him about changing movie

Published by Sam

In the latest legal filing in the “It Ends With Us” saga, director and star Justin Baldoni alleges that co-star Blake Lively leaned on the powerful people in her life to ensure her vision for the movie ended up in the final cut. One of those powerful people is mega-pop star Taylor Swift, whom Lively has counted among her best friends for years. The other is her husband, Ryan Reynolds. The lawsuit, which Baldoni filed Thursday against Lively, Reynolds and their publicist, alleges that Reynolds and Swift bolstered a version of a scene in the movie written by Lively. His lawsuit includes screenshots of text messages between Baldoni and Lively. Swift is not named in the suit, save for one text message in which a “Taylor” is mentioned. In the text of the lawsuit, she is referred to as a “megacelebrity friend.” Baldoni’s team confirmed to NBC News that the Taylor referred to in the lawsuit is Swift.  Swift did not respond to request for comment. Taylor Swift and Blake Lively hug prior to Super …

Freddie Mercury & David Bowie’s Isolated Vocals for Queen’s “Under Pressure” (1981)

Freddie Mercury & David Bowie’s Isolated Vocals for Queen’s “Under Pressure” (1981)

Published by José

In the sum­mer of 1981, the British band Queen was record­ing tracks for their tenth stu­dio album, Hot Space, at Moun­tain Stu­dios in Mon­treux, Switzer­land. As it hap­pened, David Bowie had sched­uled time at the same stu­dio to record the title song for the movie Cat Peo­ple. Before long, Bowie stopped by the Queen ses­sions and joined in. The orig­i­nal idea was that he would add back­up vocals on the song “Cool Cat.” “David came in one night and we were play­ing oth­er peo­ple’s songs for fun, just jam­ming,” says Queen drum­mer Roger Tay­lor in Mark Blake’s book Is This the Real Life?: The Untold Sto­ry of Fred­die Mer­cury and Queen. “In the end, David said, ‘This is stu­pid, why don’t we just write one?’ ” And so began a marathon ses­sion of near­ly 24 hours, fueled, accord­ing to Blake, by wine and cocaine. Built around John Dea­con’s dis­tinc­tive bass line, the song was most­ly writ­ten by Mer­cury and Bowie. Blake describes the scene, begin­ning with the rec­ol­lec­tions of Queen’s gui­tarist: ‘We felt our way through …

US Museum Directors Face ‘Considerable Pressure’ over Palestinian Art

US Museum Directors Face ‘Considerable Pressure’ over Palestinian Art

Published by skeptic

US museum directors are facing pushback over exhibiting work by Palestinian artists, just one form of censorship among many cited in a survey put out this week by PEN America, the Association of Art Museum Directors, and the Artists at Risk Connection. It is still safer, perhaps, for museums to show work by Palestinian artists than it is exhibit art critical of other subjects. Eighteen percent of the directors who responded for the survey said they were likely to receive complaints over exhibiting work by Palestinian artists; 13 percent said something similar about showing art by Israelis. By contrast, 30 percent said they feared an outcry over showing art critical of Christianity, and 28 percent worried about the prospect of exhibiting art critical of Donald Trump—a figure that is particularly striking, given that the survey was conducted in the summer of 2024, prior to the election. Related Articles But it is art by Palestinians that is given considerable attention in the survey, which situates this form of censorship within a pattern that extends back years. …