All posts tagged: pushes

Trump order pushes states to handle preparing for disasters : NPR

Trump order pushes states to handle preparing for disasters : NPR

Published by Sam

Responding to disasters like Hurricane Helene in North Carolina takes thousands government workers and millions of dollars, something states rely on the federal government for. Mario Tama/Getty Images/Getty Images North America hide caption toggle caption Mario Tama/Getty Images/Getty Images North America President Trump has signed an executive order directing state and local governments to “play a more active and significant role” in preparing for disasters. For months, Trump has said he’s considering getting rid of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the country’s disaster response arm. “I say you don’t need FEMA, you need a good state government,” Trump said while visiting the Los Angeles fires in January. “FEMA is a very expensive, in my opinion, mostly failed situation.” But emergency management experts say Trump’s order technically wouldn’t do much to shift responsibility. Currently, local and state governments are already in charge of disasters. The question is whether the Trump administration will begin withdrawing the federal resources and funding that states rely on. When a major hurricane, flood or wildfire hits, FEMA starts working on a …

Ukraine pushes for NATO invitation, its members work on other guarantees

Ukraine pushes for NATO invitation, its members work on other guarantees

Published by Sam

Ukrainian soldiers on the Kurakhove front in Donetsk oblast, Ukraine, November 27, 2024. ADRIEN VAUTIER / LE PICTORIUM FOR LE MONDE In Brussels on Tuesday, December 3, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha showed up with a document in his hands. Invited to the NATO Council of Foreign Ministers, the Ukrainian leader showed the press the “Budapest Memorandum,” a text intended to specify the security guarantees Ukraine was to receive from 1994 onward, as part of its accession to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The United States, the United Kingdom and Russia had pledged to guarantee Ukrainian territorial integrity in exchange for giving up the Soviet nuclear weapons stored on its territory. Thirty years later, with Russia occupying 18% of its territory, this “document failed to secure Ukrainian security and transatlantic security, so we must avoid [repeating] such mistakes,” the minister said. From now on, he expects only one thing to ensure his country’s long-term security: full membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Failing to obtain it in the short term, Kyiv would like to receive a formal “invitation” from the Alliance to …

Sotheby’s Pushes Through Midseason Curated Sale with Help of Rich Paul

Sotheby’s Pushes Through Midseason Curated Sale with Help of Rich Paul

Published by skeptic

Art market prognosticators who were hoping to divine what the remainder of the year will hold likely found their tea leaves left a bitter aftertaste following Sotheby’s Contemporary Curated auction, which wrapped late Friday afternoon in New York City. The sale, which was organized by marquee sports agent, entrepreneur, and New York Times best-selling author Rich Paul, brought in almost $20.5 million (all figures reported include fees and buyer’s premium) safely in-between the presale estimate of $17 million to $25 million. Related Articles For the most part, the sale progressed at a brisk pace, with each work earning a handful of bids before the hammer dropped and the four auctioneers—two in the first half of the sale, which started at 11 am, and two in the second which started at 2 pm—keeping things moving along. That momentum, however, was not at all matched in the prices achieved. Estimate-wise, it was an afternoon of low accuracy and low precision. A visual representation of the sale would resemble pocked and tattered archery target, with, sure, some holes …

Medical Journal Pushes Training for Doctors on How to Kill

Medical Journal Pushes Training for Doctors on How to Kill

Published by skeptic

This article is reprinted from National Review with the permission of the author. “Nor shall any man’s entreaty prevail upon me to administer poison to anyone; neither will I counsel any man to do so.” So says the Hippocratic Oath. Alas, the oath is as dead as the patients some doctors now assist in suicide. In California, the Sutter Family Residency Medical Program even offers residencies to train doctors in assisted suicide — euphemistically called medical aid in dying (MAID). Chillingly, most of the doctors who participated in a small study on assisted suicide and who prescribe poison as part of their job like it. The study was published in Academic Medicine, the journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges, which pushes the assisted-suicide-training agenda: The authors surveyed 28 graduates and collected data from 21 former residents (response rate, 75%). Of these 21 former residents, 17 (81%) reported having opted to receive training in MAID during residency. Of the 12 residents who received training and were currently practicing in a location that allowed MAID, 7 (58%) were …

GOP women beg Trump to tone down attacks as his campaign pushes racist Kamala Harris meme

GOP women beg Trump to tone down attacks as his campaign pushes racist Kamala Harris meme

Published by Sam

It used to be that you had to go to the dark recesses of the web to find white supremacist memes about immigrants of color poisoning the blood of the nation. In 2024, those memes are now distributed by one of the two major political parties in the United States, using a platform owned by the world’s richest man. “Import the third world. Become the third world,” Donald Trump’s official campaign account posted on X, billionaire Elon Musk’s more racist version of Twitter. The post was accompanied by side-by-side images, one of an idyllic suburban home hanging an American flag, the other (“Your neighborhood under Kamala”) a group of largely Black men. Very fine people these immigrants are not, according to the Republican Party’s candidate for president. Elect Vice President Kamala Harris, whose biracial background is both confounding and upsetting to the Trump-Vance ticket, and the message is clear: White folks might see people of color — Black men, even — in their very own neighborhood. It’s nothing new for the 78-year-old Trump, a man …

Netanyahu Threatens Military Action Against Hezbollah as Biden Pushes for Truce

Netanyahu Threatens Military Action Against Hezbollah as Biden Pushes for Truce

Published by Sam

“The odor of blood in the hospital’s emergency room this morning was unbearable,” Karin Huster, a medical adviser for Doctors Without Borders in Gaza, said in a statement. “There are people lying everywhere, on the floor, outside.” Israel’s military said it was conducting military operations “above and below ground” against Hamas militants in Bureij and the eastern part of Deir al-Balah, both in central Gaza, and that it had “eliminated” several. Hamas also reported clashes with Israeli forces in the area, and said on Wednesday that it had fired missiles at Israeli troops in the east of Bureij. “There is no place to flee to now,” said Hani Ahmed, a teacher and father of five who lives near the center of Bureij. He said two buildings in his area had been struck. “Khan Younis is rubble. Rafah is under attack. The north is destroyed,” Mr. Ahmad said. “I might take my family in my small bus and live at the beach as I have no tent. We are terrified.” As the bloodshed in Gaza continued, …

Famine Looms in Sudan as Civil War Pushes Capital Toward Abyss

Famine Looms in Sudan as Civil War Pushes Capital Toward Abyss

Published by Sam

Families ate from a communal kitchen and fetched water from the Nile, he said, showing us around a mosque, a well-stocked pharmacy and apartments. His followers helped bury the dead, and at night they performed zikir, a devotional dance that is an expression of Sufi spirituality. “It soothed our souls,” he said. A soup kitchen still offered meals. Sheikh Elamin, a towering man in flowing green robes, said he paid for it all from his own pocket. Beyond running a Sufi Muslim order with branches in London, New York and Dubai, he was also a businessman who owned a gold mine and a meat export business, he said. Before the war, the sheikh was sometimes criticized for his lavish choices, like chartering a private jet to attend the World Cup in Qatar in 2022. But his charity now has brought praise. “In this time of war, he’s become the most popular figure in the country — period,” said Suliman Baldo, a veteran Sudan analyst. “People need something positive to hold onto.” Nearby, we passed a …

Israel Pushes Deeper Into Rafah, but Gaza Exit Plan Remains Unclear

Israel Pushes Deeper Into Rafah, but Gaza Exit Plan Remains Unclear

Published by Sam

The Israeli military said on Friday that its forces had advanced into central Rafah, pushing even more deeply into the southern Gaza city despite an international backlash and pressure from allies to scale back the latest offensive and agree to a cease-fire. Israeli special forces were engaging in “intelligence-based targeted raids” in central Rafah, the Israeli military said in a statement. It added that troops were performing “focused and low-intensity operations” in the city. On Wednesday, the military announced that it had established “operational control” over the border zone with Egypt, an eight-mile-long strip known as the Philadelphi Corridor on the outskirts of Rafah. Commercially available satellite imagery taken by Planet Labs on Thursday showed that the Israeli military had set up positions in parts of central Rafah, while military vehicles and tanks could be seen as far as the outskirts of the Tel al-Sultan area in western Rafah. As the fighting raged in Gaza, President Biden said Friday in Washington that it was time to end the war and bring about a cease-fire. “At …

Eurovision 2024: Politics pushes its way into the spotlight as final 10 acts announced ahead of grand final | Ents & Arts News

Eurovision 2024: Politics pushes its way into the spotlight as final 10 acts announced ahead of grand final | Ents & Arts News

Published by Sam

Politics has thrust its way into this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, with several of the finalists referring to ongoing global disputes while speaking about their progression into the final stage of the competition. Latvian act Dons, whose song Hollow is about insecurity, was the first to use his platform to shine a light on to the troubled geopolitical landscape. Image: Latvia’s Dons. Pic: Corinne Cumming/EBU Appearing at a news conference following the selection of the final 10 acts on Thursday, he responded to a question from Latvian media asking him “What was your message tonight?” by saying: “Today was a special day in my life. I’ve never been so proud to be part of the Latvian nation. “Latvia is the only country in the world that is in the shape of a butterfly. Butterflies symbolise hope and freedom because to be a butterfly you have to fly and you have to be free. Every country in the world deserves to be free.” He received a loud round of applause within the room. The competition – …