NuseReal

Sunday, 4 May 2025

Houthi missile strikes near main Israel airport, many airlines suspend flights to Tel Aviv (LINK) 4 May 2025.

Brazilian police foil bomb plot at Lady Gaga's record-breaking 2.1m-audience free concert: police arrested a man and a teenager, raids at nine sites across multiple Brazilian states such as Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, confiscating electronic equipment and other items connected to the planned bombing (LINK) — ground.news: 441 media reports (LINK) — 3 May 2025.

Seven Iranians among 8 men arrested in two separate anti-terror operations, Met police say: plot to "target a specific premises" (LINK) 4 May 2025.

UK supermarket chain Sainsbury unveils mind-blowing new plan for unsold food: an initiative to transform its food waste into fuel for its fleet of heavy goods vehicles. 'Food waste is a global tragedy' (LINK) 4 May 2025.

Guardian US politics live: Trump's 100% film tariff plan "not in the interests of American businesses": Australian and UK politicians push back against US president's move, which is expected to send 'shock waves' through global industry (LINK) 4 May 2025.

— At Mar-a-Lago, Trump meets ex-Proud Boys leader he pardoned. Enrique Tarrio wrote on X: "He called me and my Mother over while we were at dinner and said he was sorry for what @JoeBiden did to all J6ers. I thanked him for giving me my life back. He replied with…I Love You guys. To the J6ers he wanted me to send y'all a message…He said…Thank you."

UAE announces AI as mandatory subject in schools (LINK) 4 May 2025.

Dubai royal family office to invest $8.8b to turn the Maldives into a blockchain hub (LINK) 4 May 2025.

Nicaragua withdraws from UNESCO in protest over press freedom award to Nicaraguan newspaper, La Prensa (LINK) 4 May 2025.

Slate: Trump just issued an Executive Order aimed at decimating the Civil Rights Act of 1964: "Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy" executive order, published last month. (LINK) 4 May 2025.

— Thomas Silverstein: "If a policy harms members of one group much more than others and if there is no good reason for the policy, it violates the law."

— "The executive order calls for the repeal of agencies' disparate impact regulations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and demands vague 'appropriate action' (presumably dismissal) with respect to pending enforcement proceedings under other laws like the Fair Housing Act. The order proceeds from the baseless assumption that compliance with civil rights laws that allow for disparate impact claims is achieved by taking something away from members of another group."

Armed bandits kill 19, rustle livestock in northeast Nigeria (LINK) — ground.news: 7 media reports (LINK) — 4 May 2025.

Child visiting Dutch museum damages painting worth $50m: "small scratches are visible in the unvarnished paint layer in the lower part of the painting" (LINK) 4 May 2025.

— "Rothko's mixture of pigments and resins and glues were quite complex," which will make restoration all the more difficult. For now the painting has been removed from the museum's walls. Who will foot the bill to fix the painting? That remains unclear. However, EuroNews reported that the museum previously asked someone who damaged another piece of artwork to pay for its restoration.

Saturday, 3 May 2025

World may be 'post-herd immunity' to measles, top US scientist says: as infections pummel communities in the US, Mexico and Canada, fear of 'the most contagious human disease' grows (LINK) 3 May 2025.

Israeli airstrikes kill at least 40 people in Gaza, officials say (LINK) 3 May 2025.

OPEC+ countries to open the oil taps despite price slump (LINK) 3 May 2025.

Singapore's Wong retains power as ruling People's Action Party boosts vote share in landslide victory: PAP has ruled Singapore since 1959, when the city-state under the British gained full self-government (LINK) 3 May 2025.

2 major US scientific societies to do own climate assessment after Trump administration dismissed authors (LINK) 3 May 2025.

Voice of America could be back on air next week: the broadcaster fell silent in March after an executive order by US President Donald Trump (LINK) 3 May 2025.

US federal court halts ruling ordering Voice of America to allow employees back to work and restore funding for Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Networks (LINK).

— The appeals court in a 2-1 decision suggested earlier judge lacked jurisdiction to order the employees to return to work and to require the restoration of $15 million in grants for Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Networks.

Mexico's president says she rejected Trump's plan to send US troops across the border (LINK) 3 May 2025.

Vance and Rubio criticize Germany for designating AfD as a 'right-wing extremist entity', giving authorities greater powers to monitor the party's activities (LINK) 3 May 2025.

— In February, Vance met with AfD leader Alice Weidel in Munich after delivering a contentious speech at the Munich Security Conference in which he accused European nations of failing to defend free speech, calling out Germany in particular.

— AfD is now Germany's largest opposition party, after securing over 20% of the vote in February's election, a record result and behind only the center-right CDU/CSU bloc. It remains excluded from government due to the other parties' refusal to collaborate with it due to its extremist tendencies.

Worker safety agency NIOSH lays off most remaining staff: gutting programmes ranging from approvals of new safety equipment to firefighter health (LINK) 4 May 2025.

Australia's centre-left Labor Party retains power as conservative leader loses seat, networks report (LINK) 3 May 2025.

AlJazeera: Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,164 (LINK) 3 May 2025.

• A resident was killed in Ukraine's southern Kherson region when a fallen attack drone detonated as the victim was trying to carry it away from a residential house.
• At least 46 people were injured after Russia launched a mass drone attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, hitting a high-rise apartment block and triggering fires.
• Russia said its forces were continuing to create a "security strip" in border areas of Ukraine's Sumy region after driving Ukrainian troops out of the Kursk region, just across the border in western Russia.

Elon Musk's DOGE removes IRS crypto policy officers (LINK) 3 May 2025.

RFK Jr. hawks bogus "vitamins" measles cure amid escalating outbreak (LINK) 3 May 2025.

SpaceX launch site in Texas approved as the new city of Starbase: approved 212-6 among the voters who live there and are mostly Musk's employees at SpaceX (LINK) 3 May 2025.

Friday, 2 May 2025

US pulls out of formal peace talks between Ukraine and Russia (LINK) 2 May 2025.

Ukraine: Two Russian Su-30 "Flankers Downed By" AIM-9s fired from drone boats: first time drone boats downed fighters and the first successful use of AIM-9 missiles to take down any aircraft via drone boat (LINK) 2 May 2025.

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell on the situation for children in the Gaza Strip after two months of aid blockade: children "face the growing risk of starvation, illness and death — nothing can justify this" (LINK) 2 May 2025.

Israeli forces to demolish more than 100 homes in Israeli-occupied West Bank, local governor says (LINK) 2 May 2025.

National Science Foundation cuts off all funding to scientists in 30 April order (LINK) 2 May 2025.

The Trump administration says it will cut EPA staffing to Reagan-era levels (LINK) 2 May 2025.

Trump family's net worth has increased by $2.9 billion thanks to crypto investments, new report says (LINK) 2 May 2025.

Temu to stop selling goods from China directly to US customers (LINK) 2 May 2025.

— The online marketplace said sales would now be handled by "locally based sellers", with orders fulfilled from within the country. The move comes as a duty-free U.S. rule for low-value packages is closed. Temu, and rival Chinese retail giant Shein, had previously relied on the so-called "de minimis" exemption to sell and ship low-value items directly to the US without having to pay duties or import taxes.

Oil spill off Louisiana's Gulf Coast raises alarm as DOGE cuts may threaten response efforts: a report from the U.S. Coast Guard's National Response Center said "the amount discharged could potentially reach the threshold of a major spill for coastal waters (over 100,000 gallons)". The leak is occurring near the Garden Island Bay area of the Pass-a-Loutre Wildlife Management Area, a sensitive ecological zone in southeastern Louisiana (LINK) 2 May 2025.

— A study in 2023 identified 14,000 unplugged, abandoned wells in the Gulf.

Radio Free Asia announces mass layoffs amid funding fight with Trump administration: about 90 percent of staff, and shutting down many of its language services (LINK) 2 May 2025.

— Since 1996, RFA has broadcast in languages like Burmese, Cambodian and Mandarin to a weekly audience of around 60 million listeners.

UN judge Lydia Mugambe jailed for 6 years 4 months in UK for keeping housekeeper as slave (LINK) 2 May 2025.

Venezuela rejects UN ruling to refrain from holding election in region disputed with Guyana (LINK) 2 May 2025.

TikTok hit by a €530 million fine in the EU for illegally sending Europeans' data to China (LINK) 2 May 2025.

Donald Trump's budget "breaks his promise to protect social security" (LINK) 2 May 2025.

— Nancy Altman, President of Social Security Works: "It keeps funding for the Social Security Administration (SSA) flat, which is a de-facto cut since SSA's fixed costs, such as field office rents, go up every year by over $600 million. Furthermore, it forces SSA to spend more money on so-called "program integrity" — clawing back money from Americans who have been overpaid through no fault of their own — which creates extreme hardship, including homelessness. The truth is that Social Security is extremely understaffed, which is increasing backlogs and wait times. This budget will make those backlogs and delays worse. It will make mistakes — including the Orwellian nightmare of being inadvertently declared dead when you are not — harder to fix."

Study challenges leading theories on consciousness origins: results suggested sensory and perceptual processing areas, rather than the prefrontal cortex, may play a more central role in conscious experience. This discovery could advance efforts to detect covert consciousness in unresponsive patients and reshape future research directions. (LINK) 2 May 2025.

The computational limit of life may be so much higher than we thought, scientist says: quantum processes in a biological system, when taken together, far exceed the computing power of even the most advanced quantum computer. (LINK) 2 May 2025.

UN eyes major overhaul amid funding crisis, internal memo shows (LINK) — 1 May 2025.

• Task force suggests merging U.N. agencies to improve efficiency
• UN document refers to 'duplication', bloating of senior management
• Suggests relocating staff to lower-cost cities

— Under one option, operational aspects of the World Food Programme, the U.N. children's agency, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.N. refugee agency would be merged into a single humanitarian entity.

— It suggests merging the U.N. AIDS agency into the WHO, and reducing the need for up to six translators at meetings. Another suggestion proposes merging the World Trade Organization, which is not a U.N. entity, with U.N. development agencies.

Swissinfo: Nearly 500 UN staff demonstrate against budget cuts in Geneva (LINK) — 1 May 2025.

AFP fuller story — (LINK)

Reform UK makes big gains in English local elections: Nigel Farage's party gains its first foothold in local government after seizing hundreds of seats: it won 677 of around 1,600 seats contested on Thursday across a clutch of mainly Tory-held councils last contested in 2021 (LINK) 1 May 2025.

President Trump orders Corporation for Public Broadcasting to end federal funding for NPR and PBS (LINK) 1 May 2025.

whitehouse.gov: "Ending Taxpayer Subsidization Of Biased Media" (LINK) — 1 May 2025.

U.S.'s largest sandwich chain, Subway, quietly shutters 631 locations: It marks the eighth straight year Subway has shuttered restaurants in its home country. It peaked at around 27,000 stores in 2015 (LINK) 1 May 2025.

Gold prices sink as China dumps stockpiles (LINK) — 1 May 2025.

Apple says most US-bound iPhones no longer made in China as tariffs bite: The technology giant says US tariffs will add around $900m to its costs this quarter. (LINK) — 1 May 2025.

Trump-appointed judge says president's use of Alien Enemies Act is unlawful in first-of-its-kind ruling (LINK) — 1 May 2025.

FoxNews: Iran talks in Rome not happening this weekend and were never confirmed, State Department says (LINK) — 1 May 2025.

Waltz out as national security adviser and tapped for UN ambassador in the first major staff shakeup since the president took office in January (LINK) — 1 May 2025.

Netanyahu claims 18 arrests in Israel fires, police surprised (LINK) — 1 May 2025.

Conferences of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions (28 April to 9 May 2025), Geneva International Conference Centre (CICG): theme of the meetings and the high-level segment will be "Make visible the invisible: sound management of chemicals and wastes" (LINK) 5 May 2025.

Over 70 Ministers gathered for the high-level segment held on 30 April and 1 May — (LINK)

— Katrin Schneeberger, State Secretary Federal Office of Environment, Switzerland: "We must also acknowledge that multilateralism is facing challenges. Geopolitical tensions and financial crises can at times weaken our ability to act collectively. That is why this conference — and this high-level segment in particular — are also valuable opportunities to reinforce international dialogue, a space where exchange and trust prevail."