untitled
https://www.npr.org/series/g-s1-69417/world-reordering
Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
via NPR https://www.npr.org
August 13, 2025 at 09:14AM
“Get over it”, “hook up”, “blow away”: 10 Everyday English Expressions
https://www.engvid.com/get-over-it-hook-up-blow-away-10-everyday-english-expressions/
Understand and start using ten common, casual phrasal verbs that native English speakers use in everyday conversation. I explain how and when to use phrases like get out, bend over backward, bust out, have at it, get over it, chill out, hook up, and more. You’ll also hear about the informal or risky meanings some of these can have. Hear and practice the correct pronunciation with me so you can use these expressions confidently in conversation.
Englisch
via engVid https://www.engvid.com
August 13, 2025 at 05:33AM
The President’s Police State
https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2025/08/trump-national-guard-dc/683839/
This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.
For years, prominent voices on the right argued that Democrats were enacting a police state. They labeled everything—a report on homegrown extremism, IRS investigations into nonprofits—a sign of impending authoritarianism. Measures taken by state governments to combat the spread of COVID? Tyranny. An FBI search of Mar-a-Lago? The weaponization of law enforcement.
Now that a president is actually sending federal troops and officers out into the streets of the nation’s cities, however, the right is in lockstep behind him. This morning, Donald Trump announced that he was declaring a crime emergency, temporarily seizing control of the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department and deploying the D.C. National Guard to the nation’s capital.
“This is liberation day in D.C.,” Trump said. Nothing says liberation like deploying hundreds of uniformed soldiers against the wishes of the local elected government. District residents have made clear that they would prefer greater autonomy, including congressional representation, and they have three times voted overwhelmingly against Trump. His response is not just to flex power but to treat the District of Columbia as the president’s personal fiefdom.
Trump’s move is based on out-of-date statistics. It places two officials without municipal policing experience in positions of power over federalization and the MPD, and seems unlikely to significantly affect crime rates. What the White House hopes it might achieve, Politico reports, is “a quick, visually friendly PR win.” Trump needs that after more than a month of trying and failing to change the subject from his onetime friend Jeffrey Epstein.
But what this PR stunt could also do is create precedent for Trump to send armed forces out into American streets whenever he declares a spurious state of emergency. Some of Trump’s supporters don’t seem to mind that fact: “Trump has the opportunity to do a Bukele-style crackdown on DC crime,” Christopher Rufo, the influential conservative personality, posted on X, referring to Nayib Bukele, the Trump ally who is president of El Salvador. “Question is whether he has the will, and whether the public the stomach. Big test: Can he reduce crime faster than the Left advances a counternarrative about ‘authoritarianism’? If yes, he wins. Speed matters.”
Rufo seems to view everything in terms of a political battle to be won via narratives; the term authoritarianism appears to mean nothing to him, and maybe it never meant anything to others on the right who assailed Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Democratic governors. It does have a real meaning, though, and Bukele is its poster boy. Despite the constitution having banned it, he ran for a second term in office; his party then changed the constitution to allow “indefinite” reelection. Lawmakers in his party also brazenly removed supreme-court justices, and his government has forced journalists into exile and locked up tens of thousands of people without due process. This is apparently the America that Chris Rufo wants.
To justify the crackdown, Trump has cited an alleged carjacking attempt that police records say injured the former DOGE employee Edward “Big Balls” Coristine. But MPD has already arrested two Maryland 15-year-olds for unarmed carjacking. That’s good news. Carjacking is a serious crime and should be punished. But Trump has used the incident to claim that violent crime is skyrocketing in Washington. This is, put simply, nonsense. During a press conference today, Trump cited murder statistics from 2023, and said that carjackings had “more than tripled” over the past five years. He didn’t use more recent numbers because they show that these crimes are down significantly in Washington. Murder dropped 32 percent from 2023 to 2024, robberies 39 percent, and armed carjackings 53 percent. This is in line with a broad national reduction in crime. MPD’s preliminary data indicate that violent crime is down another 26 percent so far this year compared with the same timeframe in 2024, though as the crime-statistics analyst Jeff Asher writes, this drop is probably overstated.
Trump’s descriptions of Washington as a lawless hellscape bear little resemblance to what most residents experience. Not only is D.C. not "one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the World,” as Trump claims, but his prescription seems unlikely to help. He said he is appointing Attorney General Pam Bondi and Terry Cole, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, to help lead the federalization effort and MPD, but neither has any experience with municipal policing. They have not said what they will do differently. If the administration deploys its forces to high-profile areas such as the National Mall, they won’t have much impact on violent crime, because that’s not where it happens; if they go to less central areas with higher crime rates, they won’t get the PR boost they seek, because tourists and news cameras aren’t there.
Throughout his two presidencies, Trump has treated the military as a prop for making statements about which issues he cares about—and which he doesn’t. He deployed the D.C. National Guard during protests after the murder of George Floyd in summer 2020. Earlier this summer, he federalized the California National Guard and sent Marines to Los Angeles to assist with immigration enforcement, but they were sent home when it became clear that they had nothing to do there. Yet according to testimony before the January 6 panel, Trump did not deploy the D.C. National Guard when an armed mob was sacking the U.S. Capitol in 2021 to try to help Trump hold on to power.
Good policing is important because citizens deserve the right to live in safety. Recent drops in crime in Washington are good news because the district’s residents should be able to feel safe. But Trump’s militarization of the city, his seizure of local police, and his lies about crime in Washington do the opposite: They are a way to make people feel unsafe, and either quiet residents’ dissent or make them support new presidential power grabs. Many of Trump’s defenders are angry when he’s called an authoritarian, but not when he acts as one.
Related:
Trump’s farcical D.C. crackdown
Emergency powers are about to be tested. (From January)
Here are three new stories from The Atlantic:
Bono: Israel and Gaza, held hostage by fundamentalism
Jonathan Chait: Donald Trump doesn’t really care about crime.
Extreme Home Makeover: White House Edition, by Alexandra Petri
Today’s News
An explosion at a U.S. Steel plant in Clairton, Pennsylvania, killed at least one person and injured at least 10. Authorities are investigating the cause as rescue efforts continue, with one person still missing.
A federal judge denied the Department of Justice’s request to unseal grand-jury records in Ghislaine Maxwell’s criminal case, adding that they offer no “meaningful new information” beyond what was revealed at trial.
President Donald Trump said his administration is considering reclassifying marijuana as less dangerous and will decide in the coming weeks.
Dispatches
The Wonder Reader: Isabel Fattal compiles a list of beach-read recommendations for all moods.
The Weekly Planet: A new study found that, in hundreds of clean-energy futures, the world fell short of key resources, Alexander C. Kaufman writes.
Explore all of our newsletters here.
Evening Read
Illustration by Jonelle Afurong / The Atlantic*
A Cheat Code for Parents Isn’t Working Anymore
By Shirley Li
Julia, a Muppet on Sesame Street, is a 4-year-old girl with bright-orange hair who likes singing, painting, and playing with her stuffed bunny, “Fluffster.” She’s also autistic—which means, as the show made clear during the character’s TV debut, in 2017, that Julia expresses herself in a manner some might not understand. When Big Bird worries that Julia’s silence means she doesn’t like him, his fellow Muppet Abby explains that Julia does things “in a Julia sort of way.” By the end of the episode, Big Bird and Julia are friends, even harmonizing in song.
Neurodivergence is rarely portrayed authentically on-screen, let alone in a way children can grasp. But Julia, who went on to become a regular presence on the show, is the result of a collaboration between Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit company behind Sesame Street, and a team of researchers who study child development and autism. And her introduction did more than demonstrate what neurodivergence can look like; the show emphasized that she has an identity of her own and is as worthy of friendship as anyone else. Those are complex concepts, carefully constructed for young viewers to comprehend.
In the years ahead, such meticulous work may be harder to accomplish.
Read the full article.
More From The Atlantic
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Elaina Plott Calabro: Canada is killing itself.
No one in the White House knows how to stop Ebola.
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Culture Break
Illustration: Louise Zergaeng Pomeroy. Sources: Edoardo Fornaciari / Getty; Evening Standard / Getty.
Examine. The novelist Muriel Spark was more than just a wit; she was also a religious writer.
Read. “Surface Support,” a poem by Michael D. Snediker:
“Meniscus augur & hour of errors as the mercury rag spills its rings / from his last good pore, his teeth shaped in greenhouse suet or little / expectant pots of orchid balm in snow.”
Play our daily crossword.
P.S.
Today’s non-Atlantic recommended reading comes from David D. Kirkpatrick at The New Yo
Trump’s Farcical D.C. Crackdown
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/08/trump-dc-national-guard/683835/
In the summer of 2020, as demonstrators gathered in Washington, D.C., to protest against the murder of George Floyd, President Donald Trump directed the National Guard and officers from various federal law-enforcement agencies to patrol the streets of the nation’s capital. The results were a disaster from the perspective of crowd control but a delight to a wannabe authoritarian obsessed with good TV: Troops and police buzzed peaceful protesters with a helicopter and fired pepper balls at them as Trump walked across Lafayette Square for a photo shoot.
Now, five years later, Trump has once again decided to impose his idea of law and order upon Washington. This time, however, the city is quiet, and he’s not responding to any protests. He’s sending in the troops because he can—because D.C., as a federal enclave with few protections from presidential overreach, makes for a uniquely soft target. This ostensible show of strength is more like an admission of weakness. It is the behavior of a bully: very bad for the people it touches, but not a likely prelude to full authoritarian takeover.
The inciting incident for this particular round of repression was the attempted carjacking last week of Edward Coristine, better known as Big Balls, a 19-year-old member of Elon Musk’s DOGE inner circle. This sent Trump into a frenzy. “Crime in Washington, D.C., is totally out of control,” he wrote on Truth Social. “I am going to exert my powers, and FEDERALIZE this City.”
One could raise a few objections to this. First, violent crime in the District, including carjackings, has declined dramatically from its post-pandemic highs to the lowest rate in 30 years. Second, if Trump is deeply concerned about safety in D.C., why did his Department of Homeland Security slash federal security funding for the city almost in half in recent months? (Why, for that matter, did he refuse for hours to deploy the National Guard on January 6, 2021, when a violent mob assaulted law-enforcement officers?) And third, the president cannot unilaterally “federalize” the city. D.C. is under the direct authority of the federal government, but the Home Rule Act of 1973 provides the city with significant control over its own affairs—something that can be removed only by an act of Congress.
What Trump can do, and what he announced he would do in a press conference this morning, is direct the D.C. National Guard onto the streets of the city, along with a variety of federal agencies that the president listed off in a bored, singsong tone (“FBI, ATF, DEA, Park Police, the U.S. Marshals Service, Secret Service, Department of Homeland Security …”). He also declared his intention to take control of D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department under a never-before-used provision of the Home Rule Act that allows the president to direct local police for up to 30 days given “special conditions of an emergency nature.” Congress can extend the authorization, but Senate Republicans might well have to surmount a Democratic filibuster to do so. Whether Trump’s use of the statute can be challenged in court is unclear.
[Quinta Jurecic: Trump is exploiting D.C.’s lack of statehood]
The idea of armed officers under presidential control patrolling the streets of a free city is not a reassuring one. So far, however, the surge in law enforcement—which began a few days ago, before this morning’s announcement—appears mostly farcical. Footage from WUS9, a local news station, showed a pack of Drug Enforcement Administration agents lumbering awkwardly along the Mall in bulletproof vests as joggers streaked past. (For those unfamiliar with D.C., the Mall—a green expanse frequented by tourists and ice-cream trucks—is not exactly a hotbed of crime, especially on a sunny summer morning.) Near my quiet neighborhood in D.C.’s Northwest quadrant, federal officers have been patrolling a tiny park whose chief menace, in my experience, has been the occasional abandoned chicken bone scarfed down by my dog. Over the weekend, I watched a Secret Service car drive slowly in circles around my block. At first I assumed that the agents had gotten lost.
Trump is fresh off his deployment of National Guard troops to Los Angeles, which he launched with great fanfare in June to intimidate anti-ICE protesters, then quietly withdrew weeks later after grinding down the Guard’s morale with what some service members described to The New York Times as a “fake mission.” On the surface, deploying the Guard and federal law enforcement to D.C., and taking control of its entire police force, is an escalation of this project. In a deeper sense, however, it’s an admission of weakness. D.C.’s unique legal status means that Trump can personally direct the city’s National Guard, and even its police, with far fewer restrictions than he faced in Los Angeles. The same day that Trump announced his crackdown on the capital, a federal judge in San Francisco began a three-day trial over the legality of the Los Angeles deployment, in response to a lawsuit filed by California Governor Gavin Newsom.
The District, which is both heavily Democratic and plurality Black, has long served as a useful boogeyman in the Republican imaginary. During Trump’s press conference, he rambled about crime in not only D.C. but also Baltimore, Chicago, and Oakland, and appeared to suggest in one confusing moment that he was going to get rid of cashless bail in Chicago. (The president cannot do this.) These cities, like D.C., all have Black mayors and significant Black populations—and, for that matter, falling crime rates—but, unlike the capital, they are protected by blue-state governments with significant authority to push back against the president.
The good news, such as it is, is that Trump’s latest seizure of power is probably not the prelude to an autogolpe. The bad news is that, nine years into the Trump era, this sort of thing has become much more familiar: the president identifying a loophole in the law that allows him to wield force with little constraint. To the extent that his D.C. crackdown is real, those who will suffer the most are those who are already vulnerable, especially people living on the streets, whom Trump has declared are no longer welcome in the city. As Trump’s rhetoric heated up last week, the D.C. attorney general, Brian Schwalb, sent out a notice warning local hospitals to expect a surge of patients should law enforcement begin clearing homeless encampments.
After the 2020 National Guard deployment to D.C., congressional Democrats briefly rallied around the idea of finally granting the District statehood. After January 6, they pushed for legislation that would secure mayoral control over the Guard. Neither initiative went anywhere. Any future effort to patch up American democracy should understand that securing D.C.’s autonomy is part of the necessary work of limiting the tools available to malicious interference.
via Best of The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/
August 11, 2025 at 11:17PM
Extra-strong nicotine pouches packaged like children's sweets
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cnv75dd3v37o
Extra-strong nicotine pouches packaged like children's sweets
Katie McEvinney BBC Disclosure
BBC
The nicotine pouches are being sold in packaging that looks like children's sweets
Extra-strong nicotine products designed to appeal to children – including some which have ripped off the logos of popular sweet brands – are being openly sold in shops, BBC Scotland has found.
A Disclosure reporter, filming undercover, bought nicotine pouches which mimic the name and branding of the well-known "Millions" sweets in a shop in the east end of Glasgow.
The shop worker who sold the pouches claimed they contained 100mg of nicotine, which would make them about 10 times the strength of a cigarette.
Tests later showed a lower level of 17mg, which would still be defined as extra strong by most legitimate manufacturers.
Trading Standards said they were concerned about products with a "worrying child appeal" as well as flavours and "eye-catching packaging" that mimicked sweets.
However, there is no law restricting the age of sale for nicotine pouches, so any child can legally enter a shop and buy the addictive products.
Getty Images
The pouches are small sachets that contain nicotine
The pouches are small, pillow-like sachets that contain nicotine - a chemical found in tobacco which acts as a stimulant.
There are no restrictions on the strength of the nicotine in the pouches.
They are placed under the top lip, against the gum and deliver a nicotine hit which can be stronger than cigarettes or vapes.
Some people use them as a way to quit smoking, though they are not recommended by the NHS.
What are the potential side effects of nicotine pouches?
The pouches are significantly less harmful than cigarettes, and because chemicals do not enter the lungs, they may carry fewer risks than vapes.
However, they can cause a variety of side effects including nicotine addiction, oral health issues and gastrointestinal problems.
People may experience gum irritation and recession. The pouches can also lead to increased heart rate, blood pressure and increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases.
Kate Pike, from the Chartered Institute of Trading Standards, said it was "outrageous" that products were mimicking popular sweet brands in a bid to target children.
A BBC reporter, filming undercover, bought nicotine pouches with branding that mimicked sweets in a shop in Glasgow
For the BBC Disclosure documentary Nicotine Pouches: What's the Problem?, a reporter was secretly filmed buying a tub of orange-flavoured Millions pouches for £7.50.
The shop worker who sold the product told her: "They're special."
The product did not have all of the required hazard warnings, nor did it have traceable manufacturer details.
The design on the tub featured photos of the Millions sweets, made by Scottish confectionery manufacturer Golden Casket Ltd.
It told the BBC it had no connection to nicotine pouches and was "appalled" its branding was being used in this way.
Another brand called "Candys", with pictures of gummy bears, was also for sale.
The makers of the Candys brand did not respond.
Ms Pike told the BBC: "Millions sweets are clearly a product for children and there is no reason to link them with nicotine pouches unless you want to attract children.
"If this was alcohol, there would be an outcry. A child coming across that would think it's for them and nicotine is a highly addictive substance.
"Retailers should be more responsible for what they are offering in their communities."
Prof Crawford Moodie, of the University of Stirling, has been researching the marketing of tobacco and nicotine products for years.
He said: "It makes you question what these companies are trying to do. I mean, clearly, they don't have consent to do that.
"But the fact that companies are putting these on the market and retailers are quite happy to sell them shows that we are not in a good place with respect to controlling the nicotine pouch market and protecting young people in particular.
"There's very little in the packaging to tell you that they're not sweets and the potential for abuse and detrimental effects for young people are clearly there."
When contacted by the BBC, the retailer said it had now taken the Millions product off its shelves.
Alex said he had never tried smoking or vaping before taking nicotine patches
The Disclosure programme spoke to young people who said they had used pouches.
Alex started taking them two years ago when he was 15 in school and became addicted.
He said he had never tried smoking or vaping before.
It was the packaging, how the different flavours were advertised and seeing his friends take the pouches, that made him want to try them himself.
He said: "I think it was just something different.
"It went from one a day to three a day to - at my highest - I was using probably 15 a day.
"If I didn't take them, I'd just get withdrawals and just feel demotivated and like I didn't want to do anything until I took another one."
Nicotine pouches are currently unregulated and can be sold legally to under-18s.
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill is going through the House of Lords but there are calls for government to speed up the legislation to shut down loopholes.
The bill will ban the sale of nicotine pouches to under-18s and will restrict things like where they can be positioned in shops as well as limiting flavours, strengths, packaging and how they are advertised.
"We are receiving widespread reports from across the UK that these nicotine pouches are being sold to children," said Ms Pike, Trading Standards' lead officer for tobacco and vaping.
"Parents are getting in touch assuming we can take action and are shocked when we tell them we can't.
"At the moment it's perfectly legal and there's nothing we can do."
The BBC contacted several of the biggest manufacturers of nicotine pouches and all of them supported forthcoming legislation.
British American Tobacco said its pouches "should never be used by those under-age", manufacturer Phillip Morris said nicotine pouches had proved "hugely successful" for adults to quit cigarettes, and Japan Tobacco International said "minors should never use or access nicotine-containing products".
via BBC News https://www.bbc.co.uk/news
August 7, 2025 at 12:59PM
Practical English: Responding to good news
https://www.espressoenglish.net/practical-english-responding-to-good-news/
Download lesson PDF Everyday Speaking Course Do you ever hear good news in English… and you’re not sure how to respond? Don’t just say “okay” or “nice” – use one of the natural and expressive phrases from this video! When someone shares their good news, your response matters – and the right phrase shows that […]
The post Practical English: Responding to good news appeared first on Espresso English.
Englisch
via Espresso English https://www.espressoenglish.net/
August 10, 2025 at 02:02PM
behemoth
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/behemoth
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 9, 2025 is:
behemoth \bih-HEE-muth\ noun
A behemoth is something of monstrous size, power, or appearance. Behemoth (usually capitalized) is also the name of a mighty animal described in the biblical book of Job.
// The town will be voting on whether or not to let the retail behemoth build a store on the proposed site.
See the entry >
Examples:
"The author ... recounts how his grandfather turned a family spinach farm into an industrial behemoth, and exposes the greed and malfeasance behind the prosperous facade." — The New York Times, 6 July 2025
Did you know?
In the biblical book of Job, Behemoth is the name of a powerful grass-eating, river-dwelling beast with bones likened to bronze pipes and limbs likened to iron bars. Scholars have speculated that the biblical creature was inspired by the hippopotamus, but details about the creature’s exact nature are vague. The word first passed from the Hebrew word bĕhēmōth into Late Latin (the Latin used by writers in the third to sixth centuries), where, according to 15th century English poet and monk John Lydgate it referred to "a beast rude full of cursednesse." In modern English, behemoth functions as an evocative term for something of monstrous size, power, or appearance.
Englisch
via Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day
August 9, 2025 at 06:06AM
Trump calls for major changes to census amid GOP redistricting effort
President Donald Trump said Thursday that he plans to conduct a new census that would not count people present in the country illegally, an order that clashes with the Constitution and would almost certainly face a series of legal challenges.
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Trump wrote on his social media site, Truth Social, that he had “instructed our Department of Commerce to immediately begin work on a new and highly accurate CENSUS based on modern day facts and figures.”
The census takes place every 10 years by law, and was last held in 2020. It is meant to provide a full accounting of everyone present in the United States, including people living in the U.S. without authorization. It is unclear if Trump is ordering a new Census to be conducted immediately, or if he is saying he wants to redesign the process ahead of the planned 2030 census. Neither the White House nor a spokesperson for the Census Bureau responded to a request for comment.
The new Census, Trump wrote, would use the “results and information gained from the Presidential Election of 2024,” and would not count “people who are in our Country illegally.”
Follow Trump’s second term
The order is part of Trump’s broader fight over redistricting. Typically, redistricting — the process that allocates congressional representation — follows a census. The census, which is mandated by Article 1, Section 2 of the United States Constitution, is used to determine how many seats in the House of Representatives each state receives, as well as the disbursement of billions of dollars in federal funding.
Trump has recently spearheaded an attempt by Texas Republicans to force a mid-decade redistricting effort that would consolidate Republican power in the state and likely add seats to the House that are guaranteed to be held by Republicans.
While Trump says Republicans are “entitled” to five additional seats in Texas based on the strength of his showing there in the 2024 election, the redistricting attempt has set off a nationwide fight, with Democrats responding by threatening to redistrict in deep blue states, like California.
A census that excludes undocumented immigrants could shrink the congressional representation of some blue states, many of which have sizable undocumented populations. But it could reduce the caucuses of red states as well.
A Pew Research Center study in 2020 found that removing undocumented immigrants from the Census count would result in California, Florida and Texas — the three states with the largest undocumented populations — ending up with one less House seat than they would have had. Alabama, Minnesota and Ohio would each hold onto one seat they would have otherwise lost, according to the study.
By redoing the census, Trump seemingly believes he will be able to strengthen Republican power further, however. This is not the first time Trump has tried to change the count. During his first term in office, the Trump administration made repeated attempts to influence the 2020 Census, records obtained in a lawsuit by the nonpartisan legal organization The Brennan Center revealed, including an effort to remove undocumented people in the United States from the count.
The United States Supreme Court in 2019 struck down the Trump administration’s plan to include a citizenship question on the 2020 Census form sent to every U.S. household, arguing that the federal government had provided a “contrived” reason for wanting the information. Trump lashed out at the court for the decision, writing that it was “totally ridiculous” that the government “cannot ask a basic question of Citizenship in a very expensive, detailed and important Census.”
“I have asked the lawyers if they can delay the Census,” he added. It ultimately went ahead.
The 2020 Census, which the Government Accountability Office found cost over $13 billion, was impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, and the Census Bureau announced in 2022 that the survey undercounted Hispanics, Blacks and other minority groups and overcounted Whites and Asians.
Any attempt by the Trump administration to conduct a new Census would be met with swift legal challenges, especially because the Constitution explicitly states the Census is to be made “every subsequent term of ten years” and the 14th Amendment to the Constitution requires states count “the whole number of persons in each State.”
Adriel I. Cepeda Derieux, the deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s voting rights project, said the organization is prepared for a legal fight if Trump tries to go forward with dropping the undocumented population from the Census count. The ACLU successfully sued to block the first Trump administration’s 2019 attempt to add a citizenship question to the Census.
“Our reaction is, ‘We’ve been here before with President Trump trying to weaponize the Census against immigrant communities and particularly against undocumented immigrants,’” said Adriel I. Cepeda Derieux, the deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s voting rights project. “The goal, of course, is erasing millions of immigrants from the country with the idea they would take political power away from diverse communities where they live. Any attempt to threaten these communities in the way the first administration did … we would be ready to meet them in court.”
None of this means Trump won’t attempt to conduct a new Census or that a protracted fight over a new Census couldn’t happen, but because Congress codified the Census in the 1950s, it is likely the legislative body would need to be involved, too.
Trump has yet to nominate a candidate to lead the Census Bureau after Robert Santos, who had been nominated by former president Joe Biden and confirmed by the Senate in 2021, resigned from the position earlier this year. Ron S. Jarmin is currently the acting director of the Census Bureau.
Whether Trump can initiate an updated Census or not, he will be able to influence the 2030 Census even though his term ends in 2029. Because the process takes years to plan, the Census Bureau is required by federal law to submit the questions it plans to ask Americans no later than two years in advance, well before Trump leaves office.
via Washington Post - Politics https://www.washingtonpost.com
August 7, 2025 at 06:59PM
Trump Administration to Require Universities to Submit Data on Applicants’ Race
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/07/us/politics/trump-schools-race-data.html
Trump Administration to Require Universities to Submit Data on Applicants’ Race
nytimes.com
via News - Trending on BuzzSumo https://app.buzzsumo.com/rss/trending/MGtqaGFrc2RoYWto/bmV3c2tqaGFrc2RoYWto
August 8, 2025 at 08:54AM
Classic Stories: Oliver Twist
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0lpjrp7
Enjoy a classic story in English and learn 7 uses of ‘light’ - in 5 minutes.
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Englisch
via Learning English Stories http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02pc9s1
July 11, 2025 at 12:00PM
Time expressions
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0lq0rhz
Neil and Catherine look at time expressions with 'in', 'at' and 'on'.
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Englisch
via Learning English Vocabulary http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02pc9xz
July 14, 2025 at 10:30AM
What is degrowth?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0lryq8x
Should we shrink the economy to save the planet? Today, Phil is joined by Hannah from BBC podcast What in the world who explains the idea of degrowth.
Find a full transcript, worksheet and interactive quiz for this episode at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/6-minute-english_2025/ep-250724
Watch episodes of What in the World on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxxrFOqY6Iw&list=PLz_B0PFGIn4eMOlGZclzdcHmv7s8BFQE6 Or listen here https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w13xtvrv
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Englisch
via 6 Minute English http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02pc9tn
July 24, 2025 at 10:21AM
The past perfect
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0lswx3j
Where had John already gone when Mary rang his doorbell? We give you the answer.
Have you tried our podcast 'Real Easy English'? Find it with a free worksheet and transcript here: ✔️ https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/real-easy-english
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Englisch
via Learning English Grammar http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02pc9wq
July 29, 2025 at 11:16AM
BBC Learning English - 6 Minute English / What is the manosphere?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/6-minute-english_2025/ep-250731
Try more episodes of 6 Minute English:
Introduction
Have you heard of 'the manosphere'? Recent years have seen an increase in social media content that promotes controversial ideas about masculinity, and vulnerable young men are falling under its influence. Phil and Georgie discuss this and teach you some new vocabulary.
This week's question
According to men's self-help group the Movember Foundation, what proportion of British young men regularly engage with masculinity influencers online?
a) two thirds b) three quarters c) eight tenths
Listen to the programme to hear the answer.
Vocabulary
easy target someone who is vulnerable or easily taken advantage of
bravado show of bravery or confidence to impress other people
quote unquote used to show you are repeating someone else's words, especially if you do not agree
distorted changed and misshapen so that it looks strange or unnatural
us versus them phrase used to show hostility between two opposing groups
paint everyone with the same brush (idiom) unfairly think that everyone has the same bad qualities as another person
TRANSCRIPT
Note: This is not a word-for-word transcript.
Phil Hello, this is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Phil.
Georgie And I'm Georgie.
Phil We hear a lot about the difficulties young men face growing up in the modern world, and how many of them are looking online for answers. This has created a situation which has been given the name 'the manosphere'. What exactly is the manosphere? Here's Anita Rani, presenter of BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour, with one definition:
Anita Rani The manosphere consists of online communities and influencers that promote the idea that emotional control, material wealth, physical appearance and dominance, especially over women, are markers of male worth.
Phil The manosphere describes attitudes expressed online that men are superior. You won't find any website named www.manosphere.com, but in social media posts, TikTok videos and other online content, ideas about how to be a man are finding a young male audience, sometimes with damaging results.
Georgie In this episode we'll hear from Will Adolphy, a young British man who followed the manosphere until, in his mid-twenties, he suffered a breakdown. And as usual, we'll learn some useful new words and phrases. And remember – you'll find all the vocabulary from this episode on our website, bbclearningenglish.com.
Phil But first, I have a question for you, Georgie. According to men's self-help group the Movember Foundation, a majority of British young men regularly engage with masculinity influencers online, but how many exactly? Is it:
a) two thirds, b) three quarters, or c) eight tenths?
Georgie I'm going to guess a) two thirds.
Phil OK. Well, we'll find out the answer later in the programme. The manosphere includes the idea that the world is biased against men. According to the social media influencers who promote these views, being a man means being strong, rich and controlling others, especially women.
Georgie As a young boy, Will Adolpy was unlike other boys at school, and as he grew into a teenager, he started engaging with some of these ideas. Here, he tells BBC Radio 4 programme Woman's Hour how it all started:
Will Adolphy I didn't quite fit in the box – you know, I was doing ballet, I wanted to be an actor, I wrote poetry – and I was an easy target. By the time I got to 14 years old, if you look at pictures of me, you can see bravado, you can see a mask – I see it. I unknowingly did my best to adhere to what we call the 'man box', which is a kind of rigid set of ideals and rules that I may feel pressure as a boy to follow, in order to be a quote unquote 'real man'.
Georgie The teenage years can be difficult for someone who's different. Will enjoyed poetry and ballet, and he says this made him an easy target – someone who's vulnerable and easily taken advantage of.
Phil Will responded with bravado – a show of bravery to impress other people but which often hides someone's true feelings. He felt pressure to present himself as a quote unquote 'real man'. The phrase quote unquote can be used to show you're repeating someone else's words, especially if you don't agree with them.
Georgie But behind the bravado, Will struggled to get a girlfriend or hold down a job. Offline, his life seemed to reflect messages he saw in the videos he was watching online: that his problems were caused by women. Here's Will again, sharing more with BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour:
Will Adolphy When I went online to search for answers, I had an influencer telling me, "The world hates men," which really felt true. And it, kind of, distorted my worldview, where it got painted over – this whole brush… where I started to feel that was really true: that everyone hates men, so it was an us versus them.
Phil Will's view of the world became distorted – twisted out of shape and unrealistic. He started seeing everyone as an enemy. Will says he painted everyone with the same brush – an idiom meaning to unfairly think everyone has the same bad qualities as a certain person.
Georgie Will saw the world as us versus them – a phrase which is used to show hostility between two opposing groups: in this case, the men in the manosphere and everyone else, especially women, progressives and the mainstream media, who he believed wanted to limit their power.
Phil Luckily for Will, his experiences in the online world of the manosphere ended, but not before his mental health had declined to the point of a breakdown. Now, he visits schools around the UK telling his story to young people, reminding them always to question what they see and hear online.
Georgie OK. Phil, I think it's time to reveal the answer to your question.
Phil Yes, I asked you how many British young men regularly engage with masculinity influencers online?
Georgie And I said a) two thirds.
Phil …which was the correct answer. Well done!
Georgie Thank you. OK. Let's recap the vocabulary we've learned, starting with an easy target – a vulnerable person who is easily taken advantage of.
Phil Bravado is a show of bravery or confidence to impress people.
Georgie The phrase quote unquote can be used to show you are repeating someone else's words, especially if you do not agree.
Phil Something which is distorted has become misshapen so that it looks strange or unnatural.
Georgie The phrase us versus them is used to show hostility between two opposing groups.
Phil And finally, if you paint everyone with the same brush, you unfairly think everyone has the same bad qualities of one person. Once again, our six minutes are up, but if you enjoyed this episode, why not check out the worksheet and quiz, both available now at bbclearningenglish.com! Goodbye for now!
Georgie Goodbye.
Next
If you liked this topic, try this episode about making male friends.
Have you tried Learning English from the News?
Englisch
via BBC Learning English - Feature: 6 Minute English https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/6-minute-english
July 31, 2025 at 09:55AM
AI model appears in top fashion magazine
https://breakingnewsenglish.com/2507/250731-ai-fashion-models.html
Jul 31, 2025. An AI model has appeared in a top fashion magazine for the first time.
Englisch
via Breaking News English https://breakingnewsenglish.com/
July 31, 2025 at 03:10PM
palimpsest
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/palimpsest
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 2, 2025 is:
palimpsest \PAL-imp-sest\ noun
Palimpsest in its original use refers to writing material (such as a parchment manuscript) used one or more times after earlier writing has been erased; the underlying text is said to be “in palimpsest.” Palimpsest in extended use refers to something that has usually diverse layers or aspects apparent beneath the surface.
// Scholars believe the motive for making palimpsests was often economic—reusing parchment was cheaper than preparing a new skin.
// The ancient city is an architectural palimpsest.
See the entry >
Examples:
“My aim was to trace the course of … the Aqua Marcia, built between 144 and 140 B.C. by Julius Caesar’s ancestor Quintus Marcius Rex. … The original tuff arches carried the Marcia across a steep ravine. Subsequent retaining walls and buttresses have transformed the bridge into a palimpsest of building styles.” — David Laskin, The New York Times, 24 Apr. 2024
Did you know?
Long ago, writing surfaces were so highly valued that they were often used more than once. Palimpsest in its original use referred to an early form of recycling in which an old document was erased to make room for a new one when parchment ran short. (The word is from the Greek palimpsēstos, meaning “scraped again.”) Fortunately for modern scholars, the erasing process wasn’t completely effective, so the original could often be distinguished under the newer writing. De republica, by Roman statesman and orator Cicero, is one of many documents recovered from a palimpsest. Nowadays, the word palimpsest can refer not only to such a document but to anything that has multiple layers apparent beneath the surface.
Englisch
via Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day
August 2, 2025 at 06:05AM
shitanium
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=shitanium
[Engineering] term defining any kind of crapppy material / alloy that is not up to the job it's supposed to do. This includes also the material used plastic parts often used in [automotive] for knobs and handles that will snap or shatter during normal use. The french [translation] is Merdanium
Englisch
via Urban Word of the Day http://www.urbandictionary.com/
August 2, 2025 at 12:34PM
BOX SET: English vocabulary mega-class! 🤩 Learn 8 action verbs!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97U5wwPXzs8
Improve your English vocabulary and speaking with this 'action verbs' compilation box set from our series 'The English We Speak'! 🗣️ Do lots of listening practice and learn LOTS of new vocabulary! 🎧 👂
There are 8 programmes in this collection from BBC Learning English and each one explains the meaning and use of a real everyday British English expression with plenty of examples of how to use the words in real-life contexts!
Chapters: 00:00 - Hits different 02:16 - Call dibs 04:32 - Fly by night 06:44 - Touch grass 09:14 - Rinse and repeat 11:16 - Clutch at straws 14:17 - Throw one's toys out the pram 17:09 - Slow walk
More popular videos to help you improve your English: 'politics' vocabulary English mega-class 👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCge2_xfujQ 10 useful English lessons in 10 minutes 👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPl8MakNoR4 Formality at work 👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54fo91QlpeA
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We like receiving and reading your comments - please use English when you comment 😊
Englisch
via BBC Learning English https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHaHD477h-FeBbVh9Sh7syA
August 3, 2025 at 12:14PM
American English Pronunciation Guide
https://www.espressoenglish.net/american-english-pronunciation-guide-sounds-phonetics/
Download free pronunciation guide Pronunciation Course
The post American English Pronunciation Guide appeared first on Espresso English.
Englisch
via Espresso English https://www.espressoenglish.net/
August 3, 2025 at 02:16PM
Jeans video sparks race and genetics debate
https://breakingnewsenglish.com/2508/250804-jeans-genes-wordplay.html
Aug 04, 2025. A video from a fashion retailer has created controversy over its use of the words "jeans" and "genes".
Englisch
via Breaking News English https://breakingnewsenglish.com/
August 4, 2025 at 03:39PM
Brotox
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Brotox
Noun, botox when used on a straight male, usually something he doesn't want you to know about.
Some men use to prevent or erase wrinkles, while others use it to improve their impassive poker face.
Englisch
via Urban Word of the Day http://www.urbandictionary.com/
August 6, 2025 at 02:02PM
Hiroshima: 80 years since atomic bomb: BBC Learning English from the News
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJjlnD6UwHg
It's 80 years since the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. 🔎For a free worksheet, and all the vocabulary and definitions: https://bbc.in/3UgdLwg For more Learning English from the News: bit.ly/4e4IMMq
(Photo by Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images)
00:00 Introduction 00:37 The story 01:22 Headline 1 03:33 Headline 2 05:58 Headline 3
Your turn: can you use some of the vocabulary and phrases from this programme in a comment? Note: our YouTube channel is a space for everyone to practise their English and learn from each other. Please use English in the comments section 👇👇👇
More popular programmes: Earthquake hits Japan on New Year's Day 👉 https://youtu.be/folK5d4XhqY How green is nuclear energy? 👉 https://youtu.be/naB_3XYRtew 5 linkers for natural conversation 👉 https://youtube.com/shorts/B-URHF4gGbs
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Englisch
via BBC Learning English https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHaHD477h-FeBbVh9Sh7syA
August 6, 2025 at 02:47PM
English in a Minute: Phrases with face
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0ltb9jd
What phrases use the word 'face'? Beth has the answer in this podcast.
TRANSCRIPT Find a free transcript for this episode and more programmes to help you with your English at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/s5english_in_a_minute
FIND BBC LEARNING ENGLISH HERE: Visit our website ✔️https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish Follow us ✔️https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/followus
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Englisch
via Learning English Vocabulary http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02pc9xz
August 6, 2025 at 03:06PM
Trump’s Tariff Victory Is Not What It Seems
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/opinion/trump-tariffs-trade-economy.html
Consumers and businesses will lose out, thanks to other Trump economic policies.
via NYT > Opinion https://www.nytimes.com/section/opinion
August 8, 2025 at 07:07AM
Things Aren’t Going Donald Trump’s Way
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/08/trump-ukraine-gaza-economy/683786/
Donald Trump has almost certainly complained more about journalists than any of his predecessors have, maybe more than all of them combined. So when Trump deemed a query “the nastiest question” he’s ever gotten from a member of the press, it was notable.
The moment came in May, when CNBC’s Megan Cassella asked Trump about “TACO,” an acronym for “Trump always chickens out.” The phrase had gained popularity in the financial sector as a derisive shorthand for the president’s penchant for backing down from his tariff threats. During an otherwise routine Oval Office event, Trump sputtered angrily at Cassella, claiming that his shifting tariff timelines were “part of negotiations” and admonishing, “Don’t ever say what you said.”
Trump’s appetite for confrontation is being tested again this week, with the arrival of two of the most important self-imposed deadlines of his second term, related to the tariffs and the conflict in Ukraine. Both present fraught decisions for Trump, and they come at a time when he faces a confluence of crises. A president who, less than a year ago, staged a historic political comeback and moved to quickly conquer Washington and the world now confronts more obstacles than at any point since his inauguration. Some of his central campaign promises—that he would end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza and boost the economy—are in peril. And for the first time in his 200 days back in office, the White House has begun to worry about members of the president’s own party defying him.
Tomorrow, the clock runs out on the two-week window that Trump gave Russia to reach a cease-fire with Ukraine. The president has been upset by his inability to end the war. Without an agreement, he has said, he will impose sanctions on Russia. But doing so would represent the first time in his decade in politics that he has truly punished President Vladimir Putin. Trump likewise has grown exasperated with Israel’s prosecution of the war in the Gaza Strip, a conflict that could soon escalate; Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyhu said today that his military plans to fully occupy the famine-plagued Strip.
[Tom Nichols: Putin’s still in charge]
The other deadline is Trump’s latest vow on tariffs, which go into effect today for 60 nations, with rates ranging from 10 to 41 percent. This time, Trump appeared to relish declaring that there would not be another TACO moment, writing on social media last night, “IT’S MIDNIGHT!!! BILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN TARIFFS ARE NOW FLOWING INTO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!” Since the panic triggered by Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement in April, Wall Street has learned to shrug off Trump’s scattershot statements. But the economy has shown new signs of weakness, with stubbornly high prices potentially set to rise again because of the tariffs and, most potently, a recent jobs report poor enough that Trump lashed out against the bureaucrat who compiled it; last week, he fired the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner, claiming, without evidence, that the jobs numbers were bogus. That unprecedented act of petulance risks undermining Wall Street’s confidence in the economy and undercutting Trump’s campaign pledge to give the United States another economic “golden age.”
Those geopolitical and economic headwinds have been joined by forceful political ones. Since going out on August recess, Republican lawmakers have been heckled at town halls while trying to defend the president’s signature legislative accomplishment, the One Big Beautiful Bill. And some of those same Republicans, in a rare act of rebellion, have questioned Trump’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein matter, a scandal that the president, try as he may, simply has been unable to shake.
The mood in the White House has darkened in the past month, as the president’s challenges have grown deeper. The ongoing Russia-Ukraine war has become intensely frustrating for Trump, two White House officials and a close outside adviser told me. The president had truly believed that his relationship with Putin would bring about a quick end to the conflict. But instead, Putin has taken advantage of Trump’s deference to him and has openly defied the president—“embarrassed him,” one of the officials told me—by ignoring his calls for a cease-fire and ratcheting up his strikes on Ukrainian cities. Trump has sharply criticized his Russian counterpart in recent weeks as he’s mulled what to do.
Yesterday, Trump said that his personal envoy, Steve Witkoff, had a productive meeting with Putin in Moscow, leading the U.S. president to return to his original plan to end the war: a summit. A third White House official told me that Trump has informed European leaders that he wants to meet with Putin as soon as next week in a new effort to get a cease-fire. A Kremlin spokesperson accepted the White House offer but said its details needed to be finalized. Trump also told European leaders that he would potentially have a subsequent meeting with both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, but the Kremlin did not immediately agree to that.
One of the officials told me that Trump is still considering how and whether to directly punish Putin if Moscow doesn’t hit tomorrow’s deadline. The U.S. does little trade with Russia, so direct levies would be useless, and the West Wing is divided as to the merits of slapping secondary sanctions on nations that do business with Moscow. Trump signed off on sanctioning India this week because, the official told me, he was already annoyed at the lack of progress on a trade deal with Delhi. But he is far more leery of sanctioning China—another major economic partner of Russia’s—for fear of upending ongoing trade negotiations with Beijing.
Witkoff’s visit to Moscow came just days after he had been in Gaza to urge Netanyahu to ease a blockade and allow more aid and food to reach Palestinians. Although Israel agreed this week to allow some more food in, the humanitarian crisis has not abated. Trump, who badly wants the conflict to end, believes that Netanyahu is prolonging the war and has told advisers that he is wary of Israel’s new push to capture Gaza. Even so, officials told me, Trump is unlikely to break with Netanyahu in any meaningful way.
Any president, of course, can be vexed by events outside his nation’s borders. Trump’s superpower at home has long been to command intense loyalty from fellow Republicans. Yet that power might be hitting its limit. He was able to pressure the GOP to pass his One Big Beautiful Bill last month, but some Republicans, seeing its shaky poll numbers, have already tried to distance themselves from it; Senator Josh Hawley, for instance, has said he wants to roll back some of the Medicaid cuts that the bill, which he voted for, included. And lawmakers who are trying to defend the bill are facing voter anger. Representative Mike Flood was loudly heckled by a hostile crowd at a town hall in his Nebraska district on Monday. One of the White House officials told me that the West Wing has told House leadership to advise Republican members against holding too many in-person town halls.
Then there is Epstein. Trump has desperately wished the story away. He feels deeply betrayed by his MAGA supporters who believed him when he intimated during the campaign that something was nefarious about the government’s handling of the case, and who now have a hard time believing him when he says their suspicions are actually bogus. The president has snapped at reporters asking about Epstein, told House Speaker Mike Johnson to send Congress home early to avoid a vote on whether to release the Epstein files, and sued his on-again, off-again friend Rupert Murdoch for $10 billion after The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump had sent Epstein a lewd birthday card in 2003. Murdoch hasn’t backed down. Neither have a number of MAGA luminaries and Republican lawmakers who keep demanding to see the files.
[Read: Inside the White House’s Epstein strategy]
Trump’s own efforts to manage the story have only fed it. His account of why he and Epstein had a falling-out two decades ago has shifted multiple times. One of the White House officials and the outside ally told me that advisers have told Trump repeatedly to stop saying he has the right to pardon Epstein’s former partner Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking and related offenses, to avoid drawing more attention to his previous friendship with Epstein. Despite hopes that the story would dissipate over the August recess, the White House is preparing for Trump to take more heat from Republicans in the weeks ahead.
Some Trump allies still believe that the president, even as a lame duck, will keep Republicans in line. “Having survived Russiagate, Hillary Clinton, two impeachments, four trials designed to put him in jail, and two assassination attempts,” former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told me, “it’s unlikely the current situation will be much of a problem.”
The White House also pushed back against the idea that Trump is in a perilous moment. “Only the media industrial complex and panicans would mischaracterize this as a challenging time. They simply haven’t learned anything after covering President Trump for the last 10 years,” the spokesperson Steven Cheung told me in a statement. “The successes of the first 200 days have been unprecedented and exactly what Americans voted for, which is why this country has never been hotter.”
But others in the party sense signs of trouble. “He’s spending the political capital he’s accumulated for a decade,” Alex Conant, a GOP strategist who worked in President George W. Bush’s White House and on then-Senator Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign, told me. “Below the surface of the Republican Party, there’s an intense battle brewing over what a post-Trump GOP
Here’s where the money from Trump’s tariffs will go
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/08/07/trump-tariffs-revenue/
President Donald Trump’s tariffs finally took effect Thursday, setting the stage for upheaval in global trade and new costs for American businesses and consumers.
They may also bring in a significant amount of new revenue, according to administration officials.
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Republicans in Washington have been hopeful that the administration’s tariff policies would bring in money that can help offset a new tax law that is expected to add more than $3.4 trillion to the debt over the next 10 years.
via Business https://www.washingtonpost.com
August 7, 2025 at 09:10PM
Trump-Kreuzzug gegen Klimaforschung: NASA soll Satelliten zerstören
https://winfuture.de/news,152759.html
Sollen erfolgreiche Klimasatelliten im Wert von 750 Millionen Dollar zerstört werden, nur weil sie vermeintlich ideologisch nicht passen? Die Trump-Regierung fordert genau das von der NASA. Die Folgen wären weitreichender als gedacht.
Trump-Regierung möchte keine Klimamessung
Die Trump-Regierung hat NASA-Mitarbeiter angewiesen, Pläne für die Beendigung von mindestens zwei wichtigen Satellitenmissionen zu erstellen. Sollten diese Anweisungen tatsächlich umgesetzt werden, würde eine der Missionen dauerhaft beendet, da der Satellit in der Atmosphäre verglühen würde.
Die beiden Missionen sammeln Daten, die von Wissenschaftlern, (paradoxerweise auch) Öl- und Gasunternehmen sowie Landwirten für detaillierte Informationen über Kohlendioxid und Pflanzengesundheit genutzt werden. Sie sind die einzigen beiden Bundes-Satellitenmissionen, die speziell zur Überwachung klimaschädlicher Treibhausgase entwickelt und gebaut wurden.
Vorstellung des Klimasatelliten Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2
Laut NPR berichteten mehrere aktuelle und ehemalige NASA-Mitarbeiter von den Plänen für dieses scheinbar völlig unnötige Aus. Konkret betrifft die Entscheidung die Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO)-Missionen, die wohlgemerkt bereits eine turbulente Vergangenheit haben.
Milliarden-Investition steht auf dem Spiel
Der ursprüngliche OCO-Satellit ging 2009 bei einem spektakulären Startfehler verloren, als sich die Nutzlastverkleidung der Taurus-Rakete nicht öffnete und der Satellit im Indischen Ozean nahe der Antarktis abstürzte. Der Verlust war ein schwerer Rückschlag für die Klimaforschung, da die Mission bereits Jahre in der Entwicklung war.
OCO-2 startete am 2. Juli 2014 als Ersatz für die verlorene Mission und wurde zu einem der erfolgreichsten Erdbeobachtungssatelliten der NASA. OCO-3 folgte im Mai 2019 und wurde an der Internationalen Raumstation ISS installiert, wo er von der einzigartigen Umlaufbahn der Station profitiert.
Orbiting Carbon Observatory 3: Die NASA stellt OCO-3 näher vor
Die beiden Missionen kosteten etwa 750 Millionen Dollar für Design, Bau und Start, während die jährlichen Betriebskosten nur etwa 15 Millionen Dollar betragen. David Crisp, ein pensionierter NASA-Wissenschaftler, betont: "Aus wirtschaftlicher Sicht ergibt es überhaupt keinen Sinn, NASA-Missionen zu beenden, die unglaublich wertvolle Daten liefern."
Unerwarteter Nutzen für die Landwirtschaft
Die Missionen heißen Orbiting Carbon Observatories, weil sie ursprünglich zur Messung von Kohlendioxid in der Atmosphäre entwickelt wurden. Kurz nach dem Start erkannten Wissenschaftler jedoch, dass sie auch das Pflanzenwachstum auf der Erde messen können.
Während der Fotosynthese geben Pflanzen eine spezifische Lichtwellenlänge ab, die die OCO-Instrumente im Weltraum über den gesamten Planeten messen können. Diese als Solar-Induced Fluorescence (SIF) bekannte Eigenschaft war ein unerwarteter wissenschaftlicher Durchbruch.
Diese Fähigkeit ist nützlich für Landwirte, Weideland- und Dürreüberwachung sowie Waldkartierung. Das US-Landwirtschaftsministerium und viele private Agrarberatungsunternehmen nutzen die Daten zur Vorhersage und Verfolgung von Ernteerträgen, Dürrebedingungen und mehr. Scott Denning, ein Klimawissenschaftler der Colorado State University, erklärt: "NASA und andere haben diesen glücklichen Zufall in unglaublich wertvolle Karten der Pflanzenfotosynthese auf der ganzen Welt verwandelt."
Rechtliche Bedenken und Widerstand
Die OCO-Missionen haben bereits die Finanzierungszusage vom Kongress bis zum Ende des Haushaltsjahres 2025 erhalten, das am 30. September endet. Entwürfe für das nächste Jahr sehen eine weitgehend gleichbleibende NASA-Finanzierung vor. Demokratische Kongressabgeordnete warnen vor den geplanten Kürzungen.
Der Kongress hat die Haushaltsmacht, nicht Trump oder Vought. Die Eliminierung von Mitteln für erdbeobachtende Satelliten wäre katastrophal. Die Trump-Regierung zwingt die vorgeschlagenen Kürzungen ihres Haushaltsantrags für 2026 bereits bewilligten Mitteln für 2025 auf. Das ist illegal.
Zoe Lofgren, ranghöchste Demokratin im Wissenschaftsausschuss des Repräsentantenhauses
NASA sucht inzwischen nach privaten Gruppen, die möglicherweise die Kosten für die Wartung des an der ISS befestigten Instruments übernehmen könnten. Während OCO-3 bei einer Missionsbeendigung möglicherweise gerettet werden könnte, wäre das Ende von OCO-2 endgültig - der Satellit würde beim Wiedereintritt in die Erdatmosphäre verglühen.
Was meint ihr zu dieser Entscheidung der Trump-Regierung? Teilt eure Gedanken zu den möglichen Auswirkungen auf Klimaforschung und Landwirtschaft in den Kommentaren! Siehe auch:
Technologie
via WinFuture News https://winfuture.de/
August 6, 2025 at 03:08PM
Key sections of the US Constitution deleted from government’s website
Several sections of Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution appear to have been removed from the official U.S. government website, as pointed out by sleuths on the internet and as seen by TechCrunch.
The changes were made in the past month, according to the Wayback Machine, which shows the full original text on Congress’ website as of July 17.
Several Reddit threads identified the changes in Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution: large parts of Section 8 have been removed, and Sections 9 and 10 have been deleted altogether. In the screenshot below, you can see the archived version of the site on the Wayback Machine on the left, and the current site on the right — the text highlighted in yellow has been removed.
These sections largely relate to the powers that Congress has and does not have, as well as limitations on the powers of individual states. The removal includes sections relating to habeas corpus, the powers that protect citizens from unlawful detention.
Some of the sections’ text appears missing, as indicated by a trailing semicolon at the end of Section 8, where text used to follow.
It’s not clear why the sections of the Constitution were removed from the website. Changing the U.S. Constitution’s text on the website does not change or have any effect on U.S. law, but it nevertheless follows senior Trump administration official Stephen Miller’s threats earlier this year to suspend habeas corpus.
A White House spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.
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Large sections of the U.S. Constitution were removed from the U.S. government’s official page.Image Credits:TechCrunch (screenshot)
Technologie
via TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/
August 6, 2025 at 05:35PM
The killing code: strange symbols in a WA settler’s diaries lay bare frontier atrocities
Exclusive: Stories of murders passed down by Yamatji elders are confirmed by a cipher hidden in the 1850s journals of prominent Western Australian pastoralist Major Logue. Now descendants on both sides want to break the shame and silence
• Read more from Guardian Australia’s series The Descendants here
By Lorena Allam, Sarah Collard and Ella Achibald-Binge. Photographs: Tamati Smith. Interactive: Nick Evershed, Andy Ball and Victoria Hart
Warning: This article contains historical records that use racist and offensive language, and descriptions of events that will be distressing to some readers
It’s early morning in the Battye library in Perth, Western Australia, and we’re scrolling through microfilm pages of the diary of a prominent and powerful colonist called Major Logue.
Logue kept the diary for 50 years, until his death in 1900. He wrote in it almost every day. Entries are written in looping script, sometimes neat and measured, other times messy and cramped. Pages are peppered with sketches of horses and faces, designs for a house, mud maps, lists of crops and stock. It’s all fairly mundane. Most entries simply recount the work done on the farm by Logue and his men: fences mended, potatoes planted, cattle lost and found.
Major Logue
There is some sort of code hidden in the diary, Guardian Australia has been told. But we’re not sure what to look for. The microfilm machine we’re using to view it is an analogue artefact. It’s hooked up to a computer so we can adjust light and contrast and take screenshots. It’s already crashed several times.
To view each page we wind the film gently from one side of the light box to the other. The machine takes a while to pull each one into focus. Even so, some of the writing is impossible to read. The ink on the page has faded with age and the photographs are grainy. The diary was copied to film in the 1950s and has lain undisturbed on the public catalogue ever since.
But then, suddenly, there it is. A line of strange, angular symbols slips on to the screen. As the years spin by – 1851, 1852, 1853 – the code, a series of right-angled shapes, some with dots, appears more frequently.
It stands out. If Logue used it to hide something, he failed. It’s easier to make out than his handwriting.
There’s one person who knows for sure what it says, and we’re going to Geraldton, about 400km north of Perth, to meet her.
She has spent the past several years removing this code – and what she knows it says – from Logue’s diaries to prepare them for publication.
The strange symbols represent a horrific story buried in the banality of early colonial farm life. It is the story of murder and massacre, of a family divided, of shame and fear and the shattering of colonial silence.
Major Logue was an early settler of Western Australia.
Born in Ireland, the young Major – his given name, not a military title – arrived in the colony as a child and acquired pastoral property near Geraldton in 1850. Landed and respectable, he served in the state’s Legislative Council from 1870 to 1874 as the first MP for Geraldton.
That’s the official version.
Logue was also a killer of Aboriginal people. But he hid his exploits in this diary that has remained secret – until now.
He wrote about who he killed, where, when and how, using the code.
On 16 March 1852 Logue wrote that some cattle went missing, so he “ SHOT THREE OF THEM FOR IT. ”
Logue was not alone in this endeavour. On 24 March he wrote that the “natives at Mr Burgess’ had been stealing sheep AND THAT THE WHITE FELLOWS HAD SHOT SEVERAL OF THEM FOR IT.”
On 4 April he was among a group of armed men who set out to find “natives who had taken the cattle”.
Started after breakfast and accompanied by Carsons we pushed in search of the natives who had taken the cattle saw smoke about 2 miles from Walkaway reached within a mile of it… proceeded from a native encampment tied up our horses in a thicket as the [ground] was very rough and crawled on our hands and knees within 200 yards when the natives saw us and scattered
FIRED BOTH BARRELS OF MY GUN AND WOUNDED ONE FELLOW IN THE RUMP. THOMSON AND DICKY SHOT ONE DEAD
There are 11 coded diary entries between 1851 and 1853 that describe shooting and killing people; witnessing others in his employ doing the shooting; going on a “campaign” to kill natives; and later riding over the “battlefield” and seeing the bodies of those he had killed lying dead or “hastily buried”.
By his own account he was part of groups who shot and killed at least 19 Yamatji people around what is now called Ellendale, Walkaway and the Greenough River.
On 23 June, 1852, Logue wrote that he had been part of a party who killed three Yamatji people.
Wednesday started after breakfast and [Karney] and I [went round] on our side of the [tracks] Menzies and Norries took the other after a couple of hours tracking we met at an appointed place and were all equally puzzled by the number of tracks [travelling] in every direction. Tom [Karney] returned home and we went on toward the flats to see whether we could find where the cattle had finally gone at [noon/nine] being on a hill we saw a fire at a distance and supposing it to be an encampment of natives we kept ourselves out of sight of it and rode round to try and get close and [obtain] some information from the natives concerning the cattle. Saw some natives
AND RODE AT THEM RECTOR SHIED AND PUT HIS FOOT IN A HOLE AND FELL CRUSHING MY LEFT HAND AND KNEE AND KNOCKING THE CAP OFF MY PISTOL CAUGHT RECTOR AND GAVE CHASE TO A NIGGER APPLIED PILL MENZES AND NARRIER DID FOR 2 MORE
Lost my helmet trying to stop some of the natives to enquire about the cattle. Returned toward Glengary Called at the sheep station and heard that the natives had stolen some [fillies] got to Glengary at dusk Kenneth was at home Gregory had been there and was expected next morning on his way to Perth heard that Thomson had been [kicking] up a [indecipherable] about my having taken a horse and same had heard that the [indecipherable] had been found on the [Arwin]
Two days later he described a “battlefield”.
Friday After breakfast we [started] 7 in number well mounted and armed to look for the enemy at 9 AM [perceived] some natives on a hill
GALLOPED UP TO THEM AND MADE A TOLERABLE HAUL SEIZED ALL THEIR ARMS AND BURNT THEM
[Went] on some distance and [perceived] another party
OUT OF WHICH WE GOT TWO MORE
Rode round some distance and then started for [Quegiaruna] but after going some time we missed Ben and [Norries] so we [steered] for [Eyerama] to wait for them some time after we got there they came in and told us that they had met with a large [party] of natives and had been
ENGAGED WITH THEM AND AFTER FIRING OFF ALL THEIR AMMUNITION AND BEEN
Oblidged to [run] away and come home [Saw] a lot of [blacks] and determined to go and look for these [insolent vagabonds] Started about 3 o’clock and returned to the place Ben had seen them but could not find them
WE FOUND EVERY THING ON THE BATTLEFEILD JUST AS WE HAD LEFT IT EXEPT THAT 2 OF THE BODIES HAD BEEN BURIED OUT OF A BUSH AND LAID CLOSE TOGETHER AND THE DEAD DOG REMOVED
After searching about for [same] I returned to [Eyerama] and the remainder returned to Glengary a note from Cousins came by a native
The original large leather-bound ledgers have been in the private collection of a descendant, who declined to speak on the record. But they were loaned for copying to the State Library of Western Australia in 1955 and have been available for public reading in the stacks of the Battye library ever since.
Some of Logue’s other descendants, and those of other colonist families in the Geraldton region, have spoken to Guardian Australia. They want to break the silence surrounding their ancestors’ involvement in frontier violence. They have begun meeting with the Yamatji descendants of the survivors.
Australia’s archives contain many colonial diaries. They are how we are able to understand just how widespread frontier murders and massacres were; how commonplace it was among colonists to shoot and kill Aboriginal men, women and children on sight, for no reason and without consequences.
What makes Logue’s diaries unique is that he wrote about these exploits using code at a time when such killings were frowned upon by colonial society. And, because he kept those diaries for 50 years from his arrival in the Geraldton region until his death, we can see how he materially benefited from those killings.
Historian Nan Broad at Greenough Museum, south of Geraldton
A ‘pathetically simple’ code
A Geraldton-based historian and author, Nan Broad, has spent the past six years transcribing and decoding Logue’s diaries. Broad came across them in the late 1990s while researching her PhD on stock routes and communication in the north of WA. She knew the Logues, having grown up in one of the prominent colonial families in the area – where “everyone knows everyone”.
She’s preparing to publish a version of the diaries this year.
“I knew it was very, very unique to have 50 years straight of a diary,” she says, adding that as a historian: “I knew the value of the things.”
Wednesday Tom, Liffy and Bryant started at day break to gather the cattle found and got in 82 before breakfast after breakfast Bryant went to look for the others Thomson and [family] went home … told by Thomson that the [indecipherable] was at the Greenough looking for the cattle again
AND THAT HE AND PARTY HAD SHOT 3 NATIVES THE OTHER DAY AND THAT EGO IS AMONG THE NUMBER
When she first saw the diaries about 30 years ago, they were in boxes under a bed. Their owner gave her access. When she began editing them
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via The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com
August 2, 2025 at 08:00PM
