NuseReal
Headlines for internationalists
Major news
Politico: Trump weighs more Cabinet changes after Bondi ouster — 4 April 2026 (LINK)
— U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed frustration and disappointment with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer.
Trump told Bondi on way to SCOTUS hearing: "I think it's time." She asked Trump to keep her in post until the summer. He refused — 3 April 2026 (LINK)
U.S. payrolls rose by 178,000 in March, more than expected; unemployment at 4.3% — 3 April 2026 (LINK)
— CNBC: Though the unemployment rate posted a decline, the move largely came from a decline of 396,000 in the labour force. The share of working-age Americans in the labor force fell to 61.9%, its lowest since November 2021. With inflation well above the Fed's target and energy prices surging as the Iran war continues, markets expect little movement from the central bank this year.
Iran says it hit Oracle facilities in the UAE — 2 April 2026 (LINK)
— Iran threatened to begin striking American tech giants it deemed to be assisting American and Israeli military operations. In a list reported widely by Iranian state media, Oracle was explicitly named. Other companies on the list include Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, HP, Tesla, Nvidia, Boeing, IBM, and Cisco.
Austria refuses US requests to overfly its territory, citing its neutrality policy — 2 April 2026 (LINK)
Russia's military campaign in Ukraine stalls for first time in more than two years — 2 April 2026 (LINK)
US mortgage rates climb for fifth-straight week, pushed up by Iran war worries — 2 April 2026 (LINK)
US trade deficit jumped by almost 5% in February, another zigzag in the year since Trump's 'Liberation Day' — 2 April 2026 (LINK)
— The US trade deficit remains roughly the same today as it was on April 2, 2025, when Trump delivered his "Liberation Day" address and signed an executive order that name-checked the trade deficit in its title. The increase in February's deficit was a result of import increases, which jumped by 4.3% to $372.1 billion. That outpaced gains in exports, which increased by a smaller 4.2% to $314.8 billion. Thursday's data also included a country-by-country breakdown and showed continued multibillion-dollar trade deficits with many nations, including Mexico ($16.8 billion), Vietnam ($16.5 billion), China ($13.1 billion), and others.
US imposes 15% tariff on Swiss pharma products — 2 April 2026 (LINK)
Russia sending second ship with oil to Cuba despite US blockade — 2 April 2026 (LINK)
Colorado court throws out election denier Tina Peters' 9-year sentence for tampering with election equipment, finding that the lower court violated her First Amendment right to free speech related to her allegations of election fraud. The state appeals court is asking the trial court to resentence Peters — 2 April 2026 (LINK)
ICE arrest Palestinian advocate Salah Sarsour, the president of Islamic Society of Milwaukee: reportedly detained by 10 agents while driving on March 30 — 2 April 2026 (LINK)
Heather Cox Richardson: President Donald J. Trump attended oral arguments at the United States Supreme Court on birthright citizenship: for the first time in U.S. history, a sitting president attended such arguments at the United States Supreme Court — 1 April 2026 (LINK)
— The case argued before the court grew out of Trump's executive order of January 20, 2025, the day he took the oath of office a second time. Fulfilling a campaign promise, the order declared that, contrary to the Fourteenth Amendment, individuals born in the United States are not citizens if their parents do not have legal permanent status.
Trump drops blatantly false outburst after storming out of Supreme Court hearing: "We are the only Country in the World STUPID enough to allow 'Birthright' Citizenship!" — 1 April 2026 (LINK)
— rawstory: Despite Trump's claim, birthright citizenship exists in dozens of countries, including the United States' neighbors Canada and Mexico. In the United States, birthright citizenship was enshrined as a right in 1868 through the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Catchup: No Kings protests fill streets at over 3,300 rallies in all 50 states, a record number — 28 March 2026 (LINK)
Breaking news
Artemis astronauts pass half-way point on way to Moon — 4 April 2026 (LINK)
— AFP: The milestone was hit around two days, five hours and 24 minutes after liftoff, according to the NASA official broadcast. The US space agency's online dashboard shows that the Orion spacecraft carrying the astronauts is now more than 219,000 kilometres (136,080 miles) from Earth.
White House seeks massive increase in defence spending to $1.5 trillion, more than 40% compared to last year, and looks to slash housing, social services and health care — 3 April 2026 (LINK)
— CNN: Of the $445 billion that the administration wants to add to the defense budget, the White House is proposing that $350 billion of it be passed as part of forthcoming legislation that Republicans are planning to pass using a maneuver that requires only a majority vote in the Senate — and therefore would not need Democratic support.
— The budget proposal, by contrast, seeks to slash nondefence spending by 10% — a $73 billion cut that would primarily affect housing, social services, health care and other domestic programs that the administration has derided as "woke" — a word that is mentioned 34 times in the 92-page document. Trump's budget proposes cutting the Environmental Protection Agency's funding in half, eliminating a wide array of environmental programmes.
U.S. fighter jet shot down in Iran: Search ongoing for missing crew member — 3 April 2026 (LINK)
Major news
Politico: Trump weighs more Cabinet changes after Bondi ouster — 4 April 2026 (LINK)
— U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed frustration and disappointment with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer.
Trump told Bondi on way to SCOTUS hearing: "I think it's time." She asked Trump to keep her in post until the summer. He refused — 3 April 2026 (LINK)
U.S. payrolls rose by 178,000 in March, more than expected; unemployment at 4.3% — 3 April 2026 (LINK)
— CNBC: Though the unemployment rate posted a decline, the move largely came from a decline of 396,000 in the labour force. The share of working-age Americans in the labor force fell to 61.9%, its lowest since November 2021. With inflation well above the Fed's target and energy prices surging as the Iran war continues, markets expect little movement from the central bank this year.
Iran says it hit Oracle facilities in the UAE — 2 April 2026 (LINK)
— Iran threatened to begin striking American tech giants it deemed to be assisting American and Israeli military operations. In a list reported widely by Iranian state media, Oracle was explicitly named. Other companies on the list include Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, HP, Tesla, Nvidia, Boeing, IBM, and Cisco.
Austria refuses US requests to overfly its territory, citing its neutrality policy — 2 April 2026 (LINK)
Russia's military campaign in Ukraine stalls for first time in more than two years — 2 April 2026 (LINK)
US mortgage rates climb for fifth-straight week, pushed up by Iran war worries — 2 April 2026 (LINK)
US trade deficit jumped by almost 5% in February, another zigzag in the year since Trump's 'Liberation Day' — 2 April 2026 (LINK)
— The US trade deficit remains roughly the same today as it was on April 2, 2025, when Trump delivered his "Liberation Day" address and signed an executive order that name-checked the trade deficit in its title. The increase in February's deficit was a result of import increases, which jumped by 4.3% to $372.1 billion. That outpaced gains in exports, which increased by a smaller 4.2% to $314.8 billion. Thursday's data also included a country-by-country breakdown and showed continued multibillion-dollar trade deficits with many nations, including Mexico ($16.8 billion), Vietnam ($16.5 billion), China ($13.1 billion), and others.
US imposes 15% tariff on Swiss pharma products — 2 April 2026 (LINK)
Russia sending second ship with oil to Cuba despite US blockade — 2 April 2026 (LINK)
Colorado court throws out election denier Tina Peters' 9-year sentence for tampering with election equipment, finding that the lower court violated her First Amendment right to free speech related to her allegations of election fraud. The state appeals court is asking the trial court to resentence Peters — 2 April 2026 (LINK)
ICE arrest Palestinian advocate Salah Sarsour, the president of Islamic Society of Milwaukee: reportedly detained by 10 agents while driving on March 30 — 2 April 2026 (LINK)
Heather Cox Richardson: President Donald J. Trump attended oral arguments at the United States Supreme Court on birthright citizenship: for the first time in U.S. history, a sitting president attended such arguments at the United States Supreme Court — 1 April 2026 (LINK)
— The case argued before the court grew out of Trump's executive order of January 20, 2025, the day he took the oath of office a second time. Fulfilling a campaign promise, the order declared that, contrary to the Fourteenth Amendment, individuals born in the United States are not citizens if their parents do not have legal permanent status.
Trump drops blatantly false outburst after storming out of Supreme Court hearing: "We are the only Country in the World STUPID enough to allow 'Birthright' Citizenship!" — 1 April 2026 (LINK)
— rawstory: Despite Trump's claim, birthright citizenship exists in dozens of countries, including the United States' neighbors Canada and Mexico. In the United States, birthright citizenship was enshrined as a right in 1868 through the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Catchup: No Kings protests fill streets at over 3,300 rallies in all 50 states, a record number — 28 March 2026 (LINK)
Miscellaneous
Death of Vegas strip looms as century-old burger chain is the latest to leave — 4 April 2026 (LINK)
— Daily Mail: The city drew about 3.1 million fewer visitors in 2025, a 7.5 percent drop — its sharpest decline outside the pandemic since record-keeping began in 1970, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. Air passenger traffic also declined, falling about 6 percent in 2025 at Harry Reid International Airport.
Elon Musk insists banks working on SpaceX IPO must buy Grok subscriptions — 3 April 2026 (LINK)
Charles Schwab is gearing up to offer Bitcoin, Ethereum spot trading — 3 April 2026 (LINK)
US judge rules against deporting Subramanyam Vedam, Indian man whose murder conviction was overturned after 44 years in prison — 3 April 2026 (LINK)
— A DHS lawyer had argued he could still be deported on unrelated drug distribution convictions. The two had been high school friends and both were 19 years old when the victim disappeared. Jurors were told Vedam purchased a stolen .25-caliber gun and ammunition around the time Kinser disappeared. Jurors were told Vedam purchased a stolen .25-caliber gun and ammunition around the time Kinser disappeared but were not informed that an FBI report suggested Kinser's head wound was too small for bullets that size but were not informed that an FBI report suggested Kinser's head wound was too small for bullets that size. Despite being cleared of Kinser's murder, Vedam's no-contest pleas to LSD distribution charges put him in danger of deportation.
Technion Israel Institute of Technology physicists found something that can move faster than light: the darkness inside it — 3 April 2026 (LINK)
— They're known as phase singularities or optical vortices. This does not break relativity, which states that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. That's because the vortices carry no mass, energy, or information, and their motion is based on the evolving geometry of the wave pattern rather than any physical motion through space. "This breakthrough provides us with a powerful technological tool: the ability to map the motion of delicate nanoscale phenomena in materials, revealed through a new method (electron interferometry) that enhances image sharpness."
Meta lays off nearly 200 Silicon Valley workers as AI spending ramps up — 2 April 2026 (LINK)
— The reductions add to roughly 700 job cuts across the company in recent weeks, affecting teams in recruiting, sales, operations and its Reality Labs division.
Blake Lively's sexual harassment claims against Justin Baldoni dismissed: case continues — 2 April 2026 (LINK)
— Judge Lewis Liman on Thursday struck down 10 of Lively's 13 claims against Baldoni and other defendants tied to his production company, Wayfarer Studios, including sexual harassment, defamation and conspiracy. The allegations that he allowed to proceed to trial are breach of contract, retaliation and aiding and abetting in retaliation.
Powerful psychedelic 5-MeO-DMT —— colloquially known as "Bufo" or the God molecule — feels like a 'total fusion With God' — 2 April 2026 (LINK)
— Popular Mechanics: The substance comes from a species of toad called the Bufo alvarius, which is native to the Sonoran Desert in the southwestern United States. Some psychonauts would lick the toad's back where the venomous secretion glands lie. However, extraction methods have become more advanced, and now people have learned to milk the venom out of the glands, refining the hallucinogen into a smokable powder for more potent results, making it several times stronger than its more popular psychedelic cousin, DMT.
World's oldest known tortoise, Jonathan, 193, still alive despite reports of death using fake account of vet — 2 April 2026 (LINK)
British Airways: 265 passengers stranded in Canada for two days: passengers on London-to-Houston flight criticize British Airways for poor communication and lack of care during an unplanned two-day stopover in St. John's, Newfoundland, eastern Canada: stranded travellers accused the airline of leaving them without food, clear updates, or access to their luggage for an extended period: "families with young children were left sitting at the airport without food or drink and with no clarity on next steps" — 2 April 2026 (LINK)
Your vision can predict dementia 12 years before a diagnosis, study suggests — 2 April 2026 (LINK)
FIFA hikes World Cup prices, again. A finals ticket can now cost as much as $11,000 — 1 April 2026 (LINK)
Using AI safely as a journalist: Stand-alone AI tools — 1 April 2026 (LINK)
Anthropic leaks source code for AI software engineering tool Claude — 1 April 2026 (LINK)
— Nearly 2,000 internal files were briefly leaked after ‘human error’, raising fresh security questions at the AI company.
Elon Musk's SpaceX confidentially files to go public at $1.75tn in June, reports say: one of the most closely watched and highly valued listings in market history — 1 April 2026 (LINK)
Former Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham attacked with unknown substance by woman stalker in California — 1 April 2026 (LINK)
Wired: AI models lie, cheat, and steal to protect other models from being deleted — 1 April 2026 (LINK)
Scientists finally understand how mosquitoes zero in on human targets "like little robots": visual clues and carbon dioxide: new information could potentially be used to inform new strategies for mosquito control or to develop more effective mosquito traps — 30 March 2026 (LINK)
Catchup: Pairs of atoms observed existing in two places at once for the first time: experiment using helium atoms represents a major advancement over similar experiments using photons: observing quantum entanglement in atoms for the first time — 30 March 2026 (LINK)
Catchup: Scientists say your brain has an energy field without which consciousness wouldn't exist — 29 March 2026 (LINK)
— Discover Wild Science: The central claim is striking. Consciousness doesn't live inside any one neuron or cluster of neurons. Instead, it emerges from the electromagnetic field that all that neural activity collectively generates. This field isn't just a byproduct. Some scientists now believe it's the actual seat of conscious experience. It's a shift in perspective that honestly feels a little mind-bending the first time it lands.
— The traditional view treats the electromagnetic field as a kind of exhaust, a side effect of the real work happening inside the neurons themselves. The newer, more controversial theory flips that completely. Proponents argue the field actively influences neural activity, feeding back into the brain and shaping what you experience, think, and feel. It's less like exhaust and more like the engine itself, or at the very least, a co-pilot sitting right next to it.
Catchup: One of the most radical reinventions in evolutionary history: seagrasses staged one of evolution's boldest reversals — returning to the ocean and reinventing their biology to thrive beneath the waves — 27 March 2026 (LINK)
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