The New Zealand Air Force said Wednesday it had evacuated three people from a US research base in Antarctica.
One person in need of emergency medical care and two people in need of medical care during their rescue air flight from McMurdo Station on Tuesday, the New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) said in a statement.
The aircraft landed in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand on Wednesday morning. The statement gave no details about the medical emergency or nationality.
Air New Zealand’s Commodore Andy Scott said that a midwinter flight to Antarctica can be played by one of the most challenging air squadrons when landing extremely cold on an ice runway in the dark.
“(It’s) a very challenging environment for diving into night vision goggles due to extreme weather conditions that change very much during this time and make accurate prediction a challenge,” he said.
Temperatures at McMuldo Station fell low at -24 Celsius (-11 Fahrenheit) on Tuesday, hampering a 20-hour mission that took place in the complete darkness of Antarctica winter.
New Zealand’s US chargéd’Affaires, Melissa Sweeney, said the evacuation was “perfect.”
“We are very grateful. Our Kiwi partners didn’t hesitate to take on this mission in one of the most relentless environments on the planet. Their skills and preparation are truly world-class,” she said.
The sick sea star is lethargic, losing his arm and collapses into a terrible clump. Over 90% of the Sunflower Sea Stars were killed.
Bacteria condemned the death of a sea star along the Pacific coast
Scientists have identified scientists as the bacteria behind the fatal disease that has killed billions of sea stars along the Pacific coast since 2013.
More than a decade after mystical diseases began killing billions of sea stars off the Pacific coast, scientists say they have identified bacteria that cause fatal diseases.
A team of at least 15 scientists from a half-dozen organizations cooperated with the research in hopes of understanding what killed the sea stars. By solving that riddle, you can start your work by restoring the species and ecosystem.
After testing creatures for four years and scrutinizing the results of DNA analysis, researchers discovered that there are always bacteria present in healthy sea stars.
The study hopes that the sea stars could restore the bright future, potential treatments, and the kelp forests they had relied on to control sea urchins, said two co-authors Melanie Prentiss and Alyssa Goerman, who are colleagues at the Hakai Institute in British Columbia and the University of British Columbia. The study publishing the results of the project was published on August 4th in the journal Nature Ecoloy and Evolution.
Most people think of star-shaped animals as starfish, some of which are named starfish, but scientists call them “sea stars” because they are not fish. They are a group of animals that include sea cucumbers and sea urchins called echinodams.
What happened to the sea planet?
The first case of Seastar disease was reported in June 2013 from a tidal pool in Olympic National Park along the Pacific coast of Washington.
Soon, the sea star fell ill in Sitka, Alaska, then fell southwards into British Columbia and San Diego, and eventually Mexico. The sick sea star became lethargic, developed a lesion, lost his arm, and collapsed into a terrible mass within days, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
USA Today reported in 2013 that pathogens could kill healthy sea stars in 24 hours.
Between 2013 and 2017, the pathogen killed more than 90% of the sunflower sea stars in one of the largest marine wildlife disease outbreaks on record, NOAA concluded. These sea stars measure more than 3 feet from tip to tip and can be displayed in a variety of colors.
Once one of the more abundant and recognized members of the Seastar family on the Pacific coast, the sunflower seastar population plummeted off the coast south of Washington, disappearing almost entirely from the coast of Southern California. Although they are most susceptible to pathogens, diseases have been identified in more than 20 sea star species.
The vast kelp in the sea was also painful. Because the sea stars have been found to be useful in controlling the greedy sea wichin that destroyed kelp without checking.
What did the researchers do?
A large group of researchers gathered in February 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic grabbed the planet and developed a strategy on the science needed to restore the sunflower sea stars.
Their meeting and subsequent collaborations also included researchers from the Nature Conservancy, the Tula Foundation, and the University of Washington and the US Geological Survey.
Scientists collected wild sunflower sea stars in at least six locations in British Columbia and Washington between 2021 and 2024, and then conducted a series of control experiments.
Throughout history, scientists worked to stop the spread of a deadly virus on the sea stars as the world was dealing with the pandemic. As they had been quarantining sea stars they collected from the wild, team members who travelled were isolated and isolated to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
Seastar mystery has been announced
Was there a “aha” moment? Yes, Prentiss said. One day, she looked at microorganism data collected from healthy sea stars and compared them to microorganism datasets from wasting sea stars. As she was about to step into a meeting with other colleagues and learning co-authors, Gaeman and Grace Crandhall, she realized that a sick sea star had a “ton” of vibrio pathogens.
At their meeting, she opened the computer and showed Gehman and Crandall what she had learned, and they began to break the genetic sequence of Vibrios they were seeing. The perpetrator was identified as Vibrio Pectenicida.
“It was immediately clear that it was not included in any of our wasteful samples and any of our healthy samples,” Prentiss said.
They spent another year working to back up conclusions, continuing to increase evidence that it was a pathogen that causes disease.
What is Vibrio?
Vibrio is one of the vast species in the marine environment, many of which are known to be pathogens. Certain vibrios kill oysters and can be fatal to people commonly referred to as “carnivorous” bacteria. The other causes cholera.
One of the most shocking things about their discovery moment was that a group of scientists assumed that finding the answer would be complicated.
“We found out that the pattern is visual and we can really see it,” she said. “It was amazing and the moment I realized that I might be able to solve this question.”
Kevin Lafferty, a marine disease ecologist and senior scientist at the US Geological Survey who was not part of the research group, wrote a companion work for the journal, which praised the group’s work.
“The research was truly amazing, very careful and worked very hard,” Rafferty told USA Today. Marine diseases can be difficult to diagnose. “I don’t have much expertise in marine disease.
“It was a huge handicap and they overcame it with a lot of effort and modern molecular tools,” he said. “The fact that you can suck in the eyes of the sea and identify 100 species of bacteria is a huge leap to understand microbial diseases, especially in the water.”
What happens now on the sea planet?
The finding “opens a door that we weren’t able to use because we didn’t know what the cause of the illness was,” Gehman said.
“There are a lot of people trying to save this species,” she said. “There’s a lot of work that’s ready to take advantage of what we’re doing.”
Researchers are already working on a diagnostic test similar to the Covid test, which could be “really important” to test sea stars and water when considering implanting sea stars that are trying to restore population, Prentice said. “It’s really, really useful in the way you think about species management.”
Questions remain, USGS scientist Lafferty writes. The origin of the pathogen is unknown, he said. Can it be transmitted from the mollusks eaten by the sea stars, how people get sick after eating oysters infected with the Vibrio pathogen? Will it be transmitted from sea stars to sea stars, or will it spread through aquaculture? These questions and others are now expected to be part of the potential for future research.
With Alaska and British Columbia still having healthy populations of sea stars and Washington has some armed with information identifying diseases, Gehman and Prentice said they hope researchers can bring health.y Sea stars cast stars in breeding programs that raise animals that can resist pathogens.
Other possibilities include finding probiotics that can help sea stars fight diseases, similar to the methods scientists use to pretreat some corals, or identifying naturally occurring marine viruses that attack only certain types of bacteria, such as the viruses researchers use to recover Avalon populations from the Southern California coast.
“Hopefully one day we’ll actually bring the sea stars back into the wild and lose them there,” Prentiss said.
According to the city’s health department, 58 people in New York City have been diagnosed with Legionnaire’s disease, a serious bacterial pulmonary infection, and two have died.
Bacteria, Legionnaira, is suspected to be spreading by cooling the towers of the central harem building. A cooling tower is a rooftop device that releases mist into the air when a large building is cooled. If the water inside is too warm, stagnant or not properly sanitized, Legionnaires can raise people who inhale the fog and make them sick. Illness cannot spread from person to person.
The city’s health department first announced the cluster on July 25th. The city said it will test all cooling towers in the area, and as of Monday, repairs have been completed on 11, where there is the first positive screening for Legionella pneumoniae.
“Everyone with these ZIP codes who have flu-like symptoms should contact their healthcare provider as soon as possible,” Dr. Michelle Morse said in a news release Monday.
Legionaire’s illnesses cause flu-like symptoms such as cough, fever, headache, muscle pain, and shortness of breath. According to the World Health Organization, antibiotics can be treated but can be treated without treatment, but if left untreated, it can cause shock and multi-organ failure. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 10% of people who die from complications of the disease are more dangerous to older people and those with weak immune systems.
According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, around 6,000 cases of Legionnair disease are reported in the United States each year, but the total is reported to be lower than the actual cases as it is difficult to distinguish Legionnair disease from other types of pneumonia.
Taiwanese authorities have detained three current and former employees of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturer (TSMC), the world’s largest chip manufacturer, and allegedly stole occupational secrets, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Law enforcement officials questioned several suspects and witnesses later last month. The intellectual property division of Taiwan’s High Prosecutor’s Office searched their homes on Tuesday and detained three people over “serious suspicions of violating national security laws.”
Using leading clients, including Apple and Nvidia, TSMC produces more than 90% of the world’s advanced semiconductor chips that power everything from smartphones and artificial intelligence (AI) applications to weapons.
Taiwan’s leading exporters have raised suspicions that its “core technology” could have been illegally accessed by former and current staff of authorities after an internal investigation.
The prosecutor’s office said in the first cases of this kind, since Taiwan tightened its national security law to protect key technologies in 2022, it would investigate the motives behind the theft of trade secrets and whether TSMC proprietary information was leaked to other parties.
Nikkei Asia first reported Tuesday that TSMC fired staff suspected of illegally obtaining business secrets related to the manufacturing technology of the company’s 2-nanometer chip, the most advanced processor in the semiconductor industry, which is set to enter mass production this year.
Due to the development costs and the level of knowledge required, it is difficult to create ultra-advanced semiconductor chips. That is, much of the production is concentrated on just a handful of suppliers, such as TSMC, Intel, Samsung, and Rapidus.
The TSMC said it discovered potential trade secret leaks after unauthorized activity was detected during regular monitoring.
“TSMC has taken strict disciplinary action against those involved and has commenced legal proceedings,” the company said in a statement. “Such violations are strictly treated and pursued to the fullest extent of the law.”
Local Taiwanese media reported that a former TSMC employee is currently working for top chip manufacturing equipment supplier Tokyo Electronics Co., Ltd., and that the Taiwan office of a Japanese company has been attacked by investigators.
Tokyo Electronics’ Taiwan office told CNN there was no comment.
A violation of TSMC’s major trade secrets could have national security implications for Taiwan if proven true. This is because it could narrow down the technical leads the company has more than its advanced chip manufacturing competitors.
TSMC’s technical capabilities promote the general belief in Taiwan that the island’s global dependence on semiconductors will act as a “silicon shield.” This is a leverage of deterrence and global diplomacy against potential Chinese aggression.
The strengthened law, which caused penalties for theft of core technology and banned its use in foreign countries, came after years of incidents in a Chinese company that acquired know-how in chip manufacturing by poaching Taiwanese engineers.
MOSCOW, Aug. 6 (Reuters) – US envoy Steve Witkov arrived in Moscow on Wednesday and arrived on his final mission to seek a breakthrough in the Ukrainian war two days before President Donald Trump concludes the deadline set for Russia to agree to peace or face new sanctions.
Witkov was greeted by Kiril Dmitriev, Russian investment envoy and head of the Sovereign Wealth Fund. State media showed the two men walking together in the park near the Kremlin.
Trump is increasingly unhappy with Putin at the lack of progress towards a peace deal in Ukraine, and has threatened to impose heavy tariffs on countries that buy Russia’s exports.
He is putting particular pressure on India, a large Russian oil buyer, along with China. The Kremlin says it is a threat to be punished by a country that trade with Russia is illegal.
more: Moscow urges everyone, including Trump, to be nuclear rhetoric and “very careful”
Putin believes he is winning the war and believes his military goals will take priority over his desire to improve relations with the United States, so three sources close to the Kremlin told Reuters.
“Witkov’s visit is a lasting effort to find a solution that saves both faces. But I don’t think there’s anything like a compromise between the two,” said Gerhard Mangot, an Austrian analyst and a member of a group of Western scholars and journalists who have met with Putin regularly over the years.
“Russia would argue that it is ready to launch a ceasefire, but under conditions already formulated for the past two or three years (only),” he said in a telephone interview.
“Trump will be pressured to do what he has announced — all countries that buy oil and gas, and perhaps uranium, will also raise tariffs from Russia.”
Real estate billionaire Witkov has held several long meetings with Putin. He had no diplomatic experience before joining Trump’s team in January, but is also tasked with negotiating a crisis over Iran’s nuclear program, calling for a ceasefire in the Ukrainian and Gaza wars.
Critics portrayed him from his depths when he was pitched in head-to-head negotiations with Russian top leader Putin for the past 25 years. On his final visit in April, Witkov was not accompanied by a diplomat or aide – a lonely figure cut when he sat at a table from Putin, Dmitriev, aide to foreign policy in the Kremlin.
more: Top Trump aides accusing India of funding Russian wars in Ukraine
Critics sometimes accused Witkov of reflecting the Kremlin story. In an interview with journalist Tucker Carlsson in March, for example, Witkov said there was no reason for Russia to try to absorb Ukraine or bite its territory, and it was “silly” to put Putin in his desire to send troops marching across Europe.
Many Ukraine and its European allies have opposed it. Putin has denied the design of NATO territory, and Moscow has repeatedly cast accusations such as evidence of European hostility and “last phobia.”
(Reporting by Gleb Bryanski in Moscow, Editing by Mark Trevelyan in London, Lidia Kelly in Melbourne, and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
The U.S. Health and Human Services has “abolized” mRNA vaccine development and will instead fund other vaccine platforms through the Bureau of Advanced Biomedical Research and Development, the agency said Tuesday.
HHS Director Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement that Bada will end its investment in 22 mRNA vaccine development, saying the vaccine “cannot effectively protect against upper respiratory tract infections such as COVID and the flu.” HHS said some final stage contracts will continue, but “new mRNA-based projects will not be launched.”
“We reviewed science, listened to experts and acted,” Kennedy said.
“Today, Barda will focus on a platform with stronger safety records and transparent clinical and manufacturing data practices,” HHS said. “Technology funded during the emergency phase but failed to meet current scientific standards will be phased out in favor of evidence-based, ethically-based solutions, such as whole-virus vaccines and new platforms.”
Messenger RNA is a single strand of genetic codes that allow cells to “read” and make proteins. With Covid vaccines, mRNA instructs cells in the body to make specific portions of the viral spike protein. When the immune system sees it, it recognizes it as a foreign body and is ready to attack when there is an actual infection.
The vaccine was particularly useful as it could be developed and manufactured quickly during the Covid-19 pandemic. Multiple peer-reviewed studies have shown that mRNA vaccines that emerged under the speed of operation during the first Trump administration have repeatedly demonstrated that they are highly effective and extremely safe in preventing severe illnesses.
Kennedy, who has a long history of anti-vaccine claims and has previously said he has evaluated the mRNA project. In May, HHS also ended its $590 million contract with Modern to develop a vaccine to protect against avian flu.
Dr. Peter Hotez, a pediatrician who directs the vaccine development center at Texas Children’s Hospital, said the HHS announcement on Tuesday would “promote their pseudo-science agenda and undermine the biosecurity of our country.”
“Like all biotechnology, mRNA technology has its advantages and disadvantages, but in a pandemic situation with new, previously unknown pathogens, or in the case of cancer vaccines and immunotherapy, it has clear advantages,” Hotez said. “HHSUnder Kennedy, he says that even if he seeks biomedical innovation, he should no longer look to the federal government. The state is on its own. ”
HHS said it has cancelled Barda’s award to Moderna/UTMB for the mRNA vaccine for H5N1, known as the avian flu. We have also terminated our agreements with Emory University and Tiba Biotech. According to Barda’s website, Emory is working on an inhalable dry powder mRNA antiviral platform, while Tiva is working on a platform that uses nanoparticle carrier technology. HHS also said it was a “scope removal” mRNA-related work in its contract with Luminary Labs, Model and Sequirus.
HHS also said it has refused or cancelled solicitations for multiple previous awards on proposals from Pfizer, Sanofi Pasteur, CSL Schorus and Gritstone. It also restructured collaboration with the US Department of Defense to impact nucleic acid-based vaccine projects with AAHI, Astrazeneca and HDT Bio.
HHS said the affected projects were worth around $500 million. “Other uses of mRNA technology within the department will not be affected by this announcement.”
In a statement, Modanya spokesman Kelly Cunningham said: “We are not aware of the cancellation of new contracts by Bada, involving Modanya. As previously announced in May, the pandemic flu contract has been cancelled and there are currently no active collaborations with Bada.”
A Gritstone spokesman said the company had halted its operations “as a while ago.”
AstraZeneca declined to comment.
CNN responded to Tiba Biotech, Emory, Ffizer, Modelex, Luminary Labs, CSL Seqirus and Sanofi.
Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine scientist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and external vaccine advisor to the FDA, criticized Kennedy for making “policy decisions that contradict scientific data.”
“He says things like mRNA vaccines are unnecessary risk,” Offit said. “That’s wrong. It’s actually very safe and effective.”
“A decision based on a false statement and cutting all this funding is only difficult to see,” Offit added.
If another pandemic comes “we’re just behind eight balls again” and without additional research into mRNA vaccines. “It puts us in unnecessary risks and puts us in for no good reason, and for just a few bad reasons,” Offit said.
Dr. Jake Scott, a California infectious disease doctor, has worked many times for a long time to treat patients during the Covid-19 pandemic, and although he lost several patients early in the pandemic, the mRNA vaccine has brought about a major change by protecting billions of people safely from serious illnesses and death.
Scott, clinical associate professor of infectious diseases at Stanford Medicine, said:
When he heard that HHS was trying to eliminate investment in mRNA vaccines, Scott said he was “really depressing.”
“This hits differently. It makes me sad. It’s kind of heartbreaking,” Scott said.
Karol Naulocki, a conservative historian and supporter of Donald Trump’s Magazine movement, was sworn in as Poland’s president on Wednesday, setting the stage for a conflict with the centralist government and a potentially cool relationship with Ukraine.
Nowrocky took the presidential oath at a ceremony in the Polish Parliament.
Supported by Nationalist Opposition Law and Justice (PIS), Nowrocky’s election victory hit a blow to hopes that Prime Minister Donald Task would set it up for the bloc’s largest eastern member and solidify the European Union course, leaving the government to the vote.
Poland is now helping to continue the deadlock seen under the resignation of nationalist Andrzezi Duda, and Nowrocky was able to use his veto to hamper the government’s agenda, including rolling back the judicial reforms implemented by the PIS, critics said it would undermine the court’s independence.
Now Rocky also appears to be set to bring headaches to the government by proposing measures such as tax cuts that are popular with many voters but are difficult to implement for a growing budgetary administration.
“As Prime Minister, I have worked with three presidents so far,” Tusk, who was prime minister from 2007 to 2014, wrote in a post on X.
The next president has said he has not seen the NATO or EU Ukraine locations at present.
As president, Nawrocki must sign off to the ratification of Poland of new members joining NATO.
Tusk says the European Union should play a greater role in defense issues alongside NATO, but PIS and Nawrocki argued that this undermines Poland’s alliance with the US.
“The United States is definitely our preferred partner,” said Rafal Leskievich, a spokesman for Nowrocky.
But the fact that PIS is a political newcomer little known to the public before throwing that weight behind him is a political newcomer, says political observers.
Andrze Reicard, sociologist at the Polish Academy of Sciences, said:
Nawrocki won from a tumultuous campaign where allegations about his past frequently dominated headlines, including the acquisition of a second property from an elderly man in exchange for a promise of care he had not provided.
Nawrocki denied the allegations of fraud, but he admitted to taking part in a systematic battle between football hooligans, adding to the harsh image that amateur boxers were already trying to grow.
Following the election, supporters of the defeated liberal candidate Rafal Truzaskowski have filed thousands of protests with the Supreme Court over irregularities at some polling stations. However, irregularities were not sufficient to significantly alter the outcome.
Pis accused liberal opponents of trying to destroy the will of people, and their supporters are scheduled to march in the capital on their inauguration day.
“Anyone who can — come to Warsaw… for the president’s oath,” Senator Mikal Warzick wrote to X:
Trump’s global tariffs have been locked in: Who is winning and who is losing?
President Donald Trump’s new round of global tariffs is causing major economic changes. This is who gets it and who gets the biggest hit.
US stock futures are high as investors scrutinize separate batches of revenue.
After the end, automaker Libian, SkyWorks Solutions, social media company Snap, semiconductor giants AMD, Opendor, Arista Network and Super Micro were among the companies that reported quarterly results.
At 6:10am on ET, futures linked to the Blue Chip Dow rose 0.31%, while the Broad S&P 500 futures added 0.22%, while the high-tech Nasdaq futures rose 0.04%.
Corporate News
AMD missed second quarter earnings per share, even if sales broke forecasts.
Libian reported wider second quarter losses per share more broadly, but sales exceeded estimates. We also expect to see higher annual adjusted core losses than previously predicted.
SNAP just missed its second quarter sales estimate and reported a decline in global average revenue per user.
Opendoor reported better results in the second quarter than a year ago, but warned of a decline in revenue this quarter.
Toast said it has EBITDA and revenue adjusted in its second quarter beet estimate.
The results of the Super Micro have missed expectations for the last three months of the fiscal year. The company’s guidance on adjusted earnings per share for the current quarter has also fallen below forecast.
Lucid missed its second quarter estimate and trimmed its annual production forecast.
Disney’s ESPN will purchase NFL networks and other media assets from the league in exchange for the NFL’s acquisition of 10% stake in the sports network.
Cryptocurrency
The Securities and Exchange Commission said liquid staking activities are not securities under federal law.
Liquid Staking refers to the process of staking crypto assets through a third party, receiving “Liquid Staking Receide Tokens” and showing the ownership of the staker’s staker and the rewards accumulated on them.
Medora Lee is a money, market and personal finance reporter for USA Today. You can contact her at mjlee@usatoday.com and subscribe to our free daily money newsletter for personal finance tips and business news every Monday to Friday morning.
Without special events, the Enola Gay, the plane that bombed Hiroshima, will continue to be quietly displayed at the National Air and Space Museum’s airport annex.
Survivors of the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb tell the history
Setsuko Thurlow was 13 years old when the US dropped a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.
CBC English
The Smithsonian Association in 2019 is under pressure from the Trump administration for what the president called “wake” content.
The 1995 Aerospace Museum proposal for bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki had objected to the 1995 aerospace museum that underscored the suffering of Japanese victims too much.
Eighty years ago, the world entered the nuclear age. Enola Gay, the modified superfores of the US Army Air Corps B-29, has dropped an atomic bomb on a city in a Japanese city. Three days later, on August 9, 1945, Nagasaki hit a second atomic strike.
The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum has not held events or special exhibits to mark Wednesday’s anniversary, despite having Enola Gay in its collection. Instead, the museum will share information about the bombing on social media and existing web content.
Otherwise, the unmarked anniversary comes when the country’s museums are at a crossroads after President Donald Trump’s executive order, with the aim of restoring what he calls “truth and sanity” into a museum and history education.
more: Trump sets sights at the National Museum of African American History
Trump’s executive order is merely a recent attack in a long-term war on the American past, including the mid-1990s of Enola Gay’s planned exhibits for bombing.th The anniversary sparked major clashes between Smithsonians, politicians and veteran organizations.
Trump White House officials have blown up Ronnie Bunch III, the Smithsonian secretary and founder of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. (The White House did not comment on this story.)
In June, the Smithsonian responded to Trump’s orders and began content reviews for 19 museums. The National Museum of American History recently removed references to Trump’s bluff each from the presidency exhibition, but said they would soon recover them.
more: Trump fires director of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, who allegedly promoted Day
“Obligation” to History
Two nuclear disarmament advocates with personal ties to the atomic bomb told USA Today they wanted to see the Smithsonian tackle on their anniversary – perhaps a considerable number of Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors still live on, living in a more prominent and even way.
Multimedia storyteller and author Ari Beser is one’s grandsonst Lt. Colonel Jacob Bether, an Army Air Corps radar expert, was the only person to fly on both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing missions.
“I think the Smithsonian has an obligation to commemorate history from all angles,” said Besea, a member of the international campaign to abolish nuclear weapons. “It’s really important to understand the historical context in which these decisions are made, but that doesn’t mean you can’t learn from the negative consequences of what they did.”
more: Trump targets the Smithsonian. why? He is afraid of our history and is uneasy. |Opinion
North Carolina author Kathleen Birkinshaw survived the Hiroshima strike before her Japanese mother moved to the US with her Air Force father, living today in chronic pain from reflex sympathetic dystrophy, which she considers to be related to her mother’s radiation exposure.
She expressed concern about a potentially simplified narrative that focuses on the war-winning nature of bombs, without acknowledging the human suffering they caused.
“They just heard (the bomb) win the war,” Birkinshaw said of the student speaking about his mother’s experiences. “Well, what cost?”
Enola Gay Controversy
But when the Smithsonian planned a special Air and Space Museum exhibition featuring Enola Gay before the bombing 50th On the 1995 anniversary, attempts to broach the impact and legacy of weapons sparked a political fire.
The proposed exhibit, initially entitled “Crossroads,” and later called “The Last Act,” was to include information on photographs and artifacts from both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as survivors’ experiences. One of the proposed centerpieces: there is a lunch box of a 12-year-old Hiroshima girl who has been transformed by the heat of the blast, with burnt rice and peas still inside.
The draft exhibition would have asked them to consider a historical debate about whether bombs were necessary to end the war before the American invasion of Japan’s home island. Museum users would also have struggled with the dawn of the nuclear age, which began in August 1945.
Martin Harwitt, director of the Aerospace Museum, a Czech-American astrophysicist, told USA Today that his 1950s stint with the US military in the 1950s made a “big difference” to his approach at the Smithsonian as an engineer overseeing large-scale thermonuclear weapons tests.
However, a group of veterans, especially the Air Force Association and the American Legion, believed that the exhibition script portrayed Imperial Japan as a victim, not as the first invader of the Pacific War. Despite the committee’s review in early 1994, the revised script failed to satisfy both veterans and members of Congress.
Eventually, the Smithsonian pulled the display plug. Instead, Enola Gay was displayed with little contextual material. The plane is currently sitting at the offsite Udbur Hazy Center at the museum near Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia.
It didn’t satisfy critics. More than 80 lawmakers, primarily Republicans, have publicly requested Harwitt’s resignation, filed shortly before the Senate hearing just before the plane was displayed.
Tom Crouch, a key Smithsonian figure involved in the production of the 1995 looted exhibit, declined to comment when USA Today reached.
“I’m sure I understand the sensitivity of the topic, especially now,” Crouch wrote in an email. “Given the current pressure on the (Smithsonian) secretary, I wouldn’t be comfortable commenting on this subject. Sorry.”
“The bigger disaster”
Harwitt, now 94, argued that Americans need more than a pleasant history about war. He fears that “people have forgotten everything” the threat of nuclear war.
“When we celebrate the end of World War II, we don’t want to remind you that the very nuclear weapons that have ended could one day lead to even greater disasters,” he said.
Davis Winkie’s role in covering nuclear threats and national security at USA Today is supported by partnership with Autorider Foundation and Journalism Funding Partner. Funders do not provide editor input.
The iconic lawn adjacent to the oval office features many historic events.
Trump’s Rose Garden Redesign, Ballroom Plans Cause Controversy
President Donald Trump’s redesign of Rose Garden elicited a mixed reaction after it was revealed, causing controversy.
WASHINGTON – For more than 60 years, the White House Rose Garden has shown its reputation as the president of the United States.
The iconic setting is hosted by peace treaties, presidential press conferences, meetings with foreign heads of states, signing landmark bills, weddings of the president’s daughter to sit, judicial oaths of the Supreme Court, Turkish pardons, and even leaders of rival nations who sign the “beer summit.”
Now, after President Donald Trump ordered the garden to be paved with care, rose gardens, located outside their oval offices along the West Wing, have entered a new era. The recently completed controversial overhaul transforms one of the garden’s most striking features into a stone patio, maintaining rose bushes and other vegetation around the garden.
more: President Trump enjoys the new “very white” paved rose garden
Trump told reporters on August 3 that he heard “a great review” about the renovated Rose Garden. “We had to do that.”
Let’s take a look back at the history of Rose Garden and some of its memorable moments.
The origins of rose garden
The Flower Garden, located on the west side of the Southern Lawn of the White House, dates back to the president of Ulysses S. Grant in the mid-1800s. According to the White House Historical Society, the space later became known as the “colonial gardens.”
The garden was first transformed into a rose garden in 1913. In 1913, Mrs. Ellen Axon Wilson, who married President Woodrow Wilson, left her colonial garden to give way to the bed of rose hedge along the Arles that the president used for her walk.
President Franklin during World War II. D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill chatted from a yard chair in 1943 before holding a meeting with military leaders within the White House in 1943.
A modern rose garden appears under JFK
Modern Rose Garden was created when President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy led the overhaul by tapping architect Rachel Lambert “Bunny” melon.
“He wanted to start in his biggest rush to create an area near his office on the western edge of the White House, known as Rose Garden, into a convenient and attractive area,” Mellon later recalls. “I’ll design it for him? That was an incredible request to say the least.”
more: How the newly paved Rose Garden has changed, from Woodrow Wilson to Donald Trump
Melon said he imagined a sauce magnolia tree in the four corners of a large lawn on the side with a 12-foot border made up of small trees, roses and other flowers. The grass is 50 feet x 100 feet, and she said it was big enough to accommodate 1,000 people for ceremony and reception, and small enough to be covered in a tent in the center of the garden.
She said on the other side of the stairs leaving the oval office – on the east side of the garden – would become a flag terrace. “Here, the president wanted to have a place where he could sit and entertain his guests, or perhaps have a small luncheon,” Mellon said.
A place to celebrate civilians and championship teams
Rose Garden has become the go-to place for the president to honor civilians and recognize championship-winning sports teams in both university and professional positions.
During his first term, Trump awarded golfer Tiger Woods and others at a ceremony at Rose Garden in 2019.
In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson held a Rose Garden Ceremony to present the Federal Aviation Administration Gold Medal Award to Jerry Mock, the first woman to fly around the world.
Richard Nixon’s daughter will be married at Rose Garden
Tricia Nixon, daughter of President Richard Nixon, held her wedding at Rose Garden on June 12, 1971. It was my first wedding in the garden.
Most recently, President Joe Biden’s granddaughter, Naomi Biden, held a wedding ceremony in 2022 on the White House grounds. The Biden ceremony took place on the South Lawn of the White House, but not in the Rose Garden.
Where to host senior officials
Rose Garden is often the place that the president used to host the president, the prime minister, and other high-ranking officials from other countries.
In this photo, former President Gerald Ford can be seen giving Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau a book to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the US establishment in 1976.
Carter meets Anwar Sadatt
President Jimmy Carter appeared with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat at Rose Garden in April 1980 shortly after the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty promoted by Carter came into effect.
Ronald Reagan slap shot
Ronald Reagan picked up hockey sticks twice during his presidency and slammed the puck onto a special surface placed on the lawns of Rose Garden.
It was my first time in 1983 while hosting a US Olympic hockey team and NHL’s Washington Capitals player.
“And for the press that keeps asking questions on photo opportunities,” Reagan joked as he slapped the puck at reporters.
Reagan made another swing at a similar event four years later in 1987.
Bush meets Yeltsin after the collapse of the Soviet Union
The president has often turned his eyes to Rose Garden to hold outdoor press conferences, especially after holding bilateral meetings with other world leaders.
In 1992, President George HW Bush held Russian President Boris Yeltsin at Rose Garden and announced an agreement to reduce long-range missile warhead stockpiles within a year of the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Clinton is holding a signing ceremony for the Israeli-Jordan agreement
In 1994, President Bill Clinton hosted King Hussein of Jordan and Prime Minister Israel Yitzhak Rabin as the two countries signed a peace treaty that ended decades of conflict.
“Today we are gathering to testify to history,” Clinton said in his remarks. “As this century approaches the end, a new era of peace begins before us in ancient lands, just as the brave men reconcile the conflict. Today, our faith is new.”
Clinton deals with the state after the acquittal of the bluff each
In December 1998, Clinton used Rose Garden to tell Americans “I’m deeply sorry” about his actions in the Monical Winski incident, as he prepared to fire each scandal in the House of Representatives.
A few months later, Clinton returned to Rose Garden on February 12, 1999, addressing the country after the Senate voted to acquit him on all charges of fiasco each.
“I want to once again say to the American people how deeply sorry I am,” Clinton said, as the Senate fulfilled its constitutional responsibility and led this process to conclusion.
George W. Bush signs surveillance law amid “war on terrorism”
At the 2008 Rose Garden Ceremony, President George W. Bush signed a controversial law amending the Foreign Intelligence Report Surveillance Act to allow Americans to wiretap their phones without obtaining a warrant.
This was one of several actions Bush took to empower the US intelligence reporting agency after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
“One of the important lessons learned after 9/11 was that the American intelligence agency lacked some of the tools needed to monitor the communication of terrorists overseas,” Bush said at the event.
Presidential Dog in Rose Garden
The lawns at Rose Garden were a popular place for the president to take his dogs outside for fresh air.
The dogs floriched on the green space included George W. Bush’s Bernie, Barack Obam’s beauty, and most recently, Commander Joe Biden.
Barack Obama host “Beer Summit”
Six months after his inauguration in 2009, Obama hosted what became known as the “Beer Summit” at Rose Garden.
The unusual rally was organized by Obama to cool the tension after Massachusetts Police Sergeant Cambridge. James Crowley arrested prominent Harvard professor Henry Lewis Gates at home in response to a 911 call about a reported break-in.
Law enforcement opposed Obama, saying that Cambridge police had acted “silly.” The three men drank Budlight beer, while then-President Viese Biden was drinking non-alcoholic beer.
Rose Garden Turkey’s Blessing
Rose Garden is usually where the president pardons the turkey prior to the Thanksgiving holiday.
In 2017, Trump forgived one turkey by the name of the drumstick.
“I’m happy to report that unlike millions of other turkeys at this time of the year, Drumsticks have a much brighter future than him,” Trump said.
Trump is holding a press conference for the Covid ERA
During the 2020 Covid Pandemic, Trump held an outdoor press conference at Rose Garden to reduce the spread of the virus.
Reporters often sat in seats spread across the grass for a long time. Many of the press asked questions while wearing facial masks.
Melania Trump pushes the change in the rose garden
First Lady Melania Trump led several changes to Rose Garden during Trump’s first term.
This movement involves moving ten crabapple trees to another part of the garden, removing the sitting area of the garden, adding a limestone walk along the central lawn, and setting up an inner boundary next to boxwood shrubs and flowers.
Joe Biden deals with the country after winning Trump’s election
Two days after Trump’s 2024 election victory guaranteed his return to the White House, Biden committed to a peaceful transfer of power during his speech at Rose Garden.
Biden had warned that the second Trump presidency threatened American democracy. Four years after beating Trump in the 2020 election, Biden was forced to hand over his torch to him after completing his comeback to defeat Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris.
“It’s inevitable that a set-up will happen, but we won’t allow you to give up,” Biden said in his remarks.
Over the past 25 years, French-Canadian photographer François Brunel has traveled the world, photographing around 250 pairs of doppelgangers.
Translated from German to “double walker,” Doppelgängers originally meant the ghostly counterpart of a living person. In folklore and literature, meeting someone who could become your twin has traditionally been seen as a bad forehead. However, in modern use, the term often describes two unrelated people who are very similar to each other. This concept is the focus of Brunel’s photography series, “I don’t look!”
The inspiration for this project came from something like his own look: Mr. Bean, played by British actor and comedian Rowan Atkinson.
After years of being told he looked like a character, Brunel watched an episode that included a scene called “nasty” to see his doppelganger.
“I said, ‘Oh my god, he looks like me, he’s in the bath!”, Brunel said.
When he realized that he wasn’t the only thing he looked, Brunel began taking pictures of the doppelganger together. Some of the pairs he captured didn’t see the similarity of “sometimes very surprising (and funny)”.
He started a project in Montreal with Lookalikes, whom he knew in Canada. As media coverage grew and the words spread on social media, he received thousands of messages from people all over the world. Many of the doppelgangers he filmed know each other in real life and, like Estelle Scholten and Agnes Lonstra, find themselves similar to each other after being told by others.
In 2013, Loonstra was approached by a man on a Dutch train. He accidentally thought she was Scorten, one of his college students, and encouraged Rostra to reach out to her.
Meanwhile, Scholten learned about the encounter from her professor. Curiosity led Loonstra to find Scholten on Facebook. Scholten shared a translation of the first message he received from USA Today and Loonstra.
“Esther, maybe a bit unexpected message, but recently I approached the guy on the train and he thought I was you! He told me he was your teacher and told me I was an Arnhem girl. Maybe inger, bangs, almond-shaped eyes?”
Scholten felt that she was looking at herself when she saw the photo of Loonstra on Facebook.
“Even our mouths are somewhat similar. So strange!” Scholten responded to her message to loonstra.
They both found their traits to be so unique, and so surprisingly, as they thought they were unique.
The two decided they would enjoy meeting, and when they did it they realized it wasn’t just a similar look.
“There were almost horrifying moments during our first encounters, like the moment we put our legs and pulled up our chairs, or the moment we discovered a way to laugh and laugh at the exact same time,” Scholten said.
Loonstra was 25 years old, and Scholten was 30 when we met on May 4, 2013. At the time, Loonstra was part of an acapella group that rehearsed in Scholten’s hometown. People waved at her thinking she was Scholten.
“The people I knew told me when I overtook them, I was rude for not saying anything,” Scholten said.
There, Loonstra began to turn around to the stranger, followed by a text that informed her by Scholten.
From their first meeting, friendship was born as they discovered that the same music, literature and Scholten shared their love for what they call “struggling” cat love.
“About half of whatsApp conversations are about cats,” she said. “We’re proud of our crazy cat woman.”
That love gave us the inspiration for the book they published together, entitled “Crazy Cat Lady.” It has been featured by Workman Publishing in New York, released in English all over the world, and translated into Spanish, German, Finnish, and even Dutch, the native language of Loonstra and Scholten.
Agnes also played a special role as her honorary maid at Esther’s wedding.
“Agnes looks like a sister I didn’t have,” Scholten said.
They don’t live in the same area of the Netherlands, but they try to meet each other at least once a month.
Loonstra reaches out to Brunelle after hearing about his project from several people who sent it to her. Loonstra and Scholten were later included in a study at the Josep Carreras Leukemia Research Institute in Barcelona, confirming that other Doppelgängers photographed by Brunelle were not associated with other Lokalikes.
Of the 32 pairs studied, the researchers found that they expressed similar DNA variations, particularly regarding genes involved in the formation of facial features. Height and weight also showed similarities.
Manel Esterer, the lead investigator of the study, called it “a purely coincidence of genetics,” and does not imply that the pairs are related.
Despite research findings, Loonstra and Scholten are frequently asked by strangers whether they are biologically related.
The Brunelle website features a Lookalikes callout and created pages on Instagram and Facebook for the project. This year, Brunelle is set to release a book featuring around 100 photos of the pair he shot, as well as short stories from the subject or his perspective. He shared some of those stories with USA Today.
Roniel Tessler and Garrett Levenbrook | New York City, 2013
“I was born in New York, and a friend of Roniel, DC Roniel, in Washington, met me at the University of Michigan four years ago and mistaken him. They contacted us and discovered that we lived close to each other. – Levenbrook
Beatrice Nogueira and Bruna Soares da Costa | Lisbon, Portugal2015
“I work in HR and Beatrice is a student. We were both born in Portugal and we were friends since childhood. First, when people started mixing us, we had a look. I was sure my dad was me. – Soares Da Costa
Karen Chu and Ashley Wong | Culver City, California, 2013
“I’m a nursing student, but Ashley is a registered nurse. I think most non-Asians look like all Chinese, but that’s far from true. I think I’m lucky to have met my ‘sister’ Ashley in a traditional Chinese dance performance. – Chew
Tencent has expanded its family of open source Hunyuan AI models that are versatile enough for wide range of uses. This new family of models is designed to provide powerful performance in computing environments, from small edge devices to tough high current production systems.
This release includes a comprehensive set of pre-trained and instruction-tuned models available on the developer platform. The model comes in several sizes, in particular the parameter scales of 0.5b, 1.8b, 4b, and 7b, providing substantial flexibility for developers and businesses.
Tencent shows that these models can be developed using similar training strategies to the more powerful Hunyuan-A13B model and inherit performance characteristics. This approach allows users to choose the model that best suits their needs, whether it is a small variant of resource-constrained edge computing or a larger model of high-throughput production workloads, while ensuring powerful capabilities.
One of the most notable features of the Hunyuan series is native support for the extremely long 256K context windows. This allows the model to handle and maintain key features for stable performance of long text tasks, complex document analysis, extended conversations, and detailed content generation. This model supports what Tencent calls “hybrid reasoning.” This allows for both fast and slow thinking modes that allow users to choose according to their specific requirements.
The company also focuses on the capabilities of its agents. The model has been optimized for agent-based tasks and shows key results with established benchmarks such as BFCL-V3, τ benches, and C3 benches, suggesting high degree of proficiency in complex, multi-step problem solving. For example, on the C3 bench, the Hunyuan-7B-Instruct model achieves a score of 68.5, while the Hunyuan-4B-Instruct model achieves a score of 64.3.
The performance of the series focuses on efficient reasoning. Tencent’s Hunyuan model utilizes Grouped Query Attention (GQA), a technique known to improve processing speeds and reduce computational overhead. This efficiency is further enhanced by Advanced Quantation Support, a key component of the Hunyuan architecture, designed to lower deployment barriers.
Tencent has developed its own compression toolset, Angleslim, to create more user-friendly and effective model compression solutions. Using this tool, the company offers two major quantizations to its Hunyuan series.
The first is FP8 static quantum, which uses an 8-bit floating point format. This method uses small amounts of calibration data to predetermine quantization scales without the need for full retraining, and converts the model weights and activation values to FP8 format to increase inference efficiency.
The second method is int4 Quantation. This achieves quantization of W4A16 via GPTQ and AWQ algorithms.
gptq Approach process calibration data is used to model the model weights per layer to minimize errors in quantized weights. This process avoids the need for model re-training and increases the speed of inference.
awq The algorithm works by statistically analyzing the amplitude of the activation values from a small set of calibration data. Next, we calculate the scaling factor for each weight channel and extend the numerical range of important weights to preserve more information during the compression process.
Developers can use the Angleslim tool or download pre-quantified models directly.
Performance benchmarks check the powerful features of the Tencent Hunyuan model across a variety of tasks. For example, the pre-trained Hunyuan-7B model achieves a score of 79.82 on the MMLU benchmark, 88.25 on the GSM8K and 74.85 on the mathematics benchmark, showing solid inference and mathematical skills.
The instruction-tuned variants show impressive results in special fields. In mathematics, the Hunyuan-7B-Instruct model scores 81.1 on the AIME 2024 benchmark, while the 4B version scores 78.3. In science, the 7B model reaches 76.5 on Olympiadebench and 42 on LiveCodebench in coding.
We are expanding the Tencent Hunyuan open source LLM ecosystem with four compact models (0.5b, 1.8b, 4b, 7b). Designed for low power scenarios such as consumer-grade GPUs, smart vehicles, smart home devices, mobile phones, PCs, and more, these models support cost-effective fine-tuning. pic.twitter.com/cknskvqpem
Quantum benchmarks minimize performance degradation. In the drop benchmark, the Hunyuan-7B-Instruct model scores 85.9 in the base B16 format, 86.0 in the FP8 and 85.7 in the INT4 GPTQ.
For deployment, we recommend that you provide Hunyuan models using established frameworks such as Tensort-llm, Vllm, and Sglang, and create Openai-compatible API endpoints to ensure smooth integration into your existing development workflows. This combination of performance, efficiency and deployment flexibility positions the Hunyuan series as a continuous strong competitor for open source AI.
reference: Deep Cogito V2: Open Source AI to honour its reasoning skills
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Zane Lee was nine years old when he owned his sister, and her arrival drove her family into crippling debt in a small city in eastern China.
Under China’s strict one-child policy at the time, Li’s parents were fined 100,000 yuan (about $13,900) for having a second child.
“We barely survived,” recalls Lee. The third graders at the time were forced to grow up overnight, taking on most of the household chores and spent their school holidays to help their mothers at the food stalls.
Right now, Lee says he has no plans to have children. Something that worries the Chinese government as it tries to avoid its own population crisis and is increasingly common in his generation.
For decades, authorities have put pressure on the couple to pay large fines and reduce children through forced abortion and sterilization.
Last week, with the latest push to increase the flag’s fertility rate, China announced that it would effectively provide parents with an annual grant of 3,600 yuan ($500) to all children up to three years of age, retroactively from January 1st.
But for many young people like Li, the offer becomes flat.
“The cost of raising children is enormous, with 3,600 yuan per year being a slight drop in buckets,” said Li, who has earned a student loan to earn a master’s degree in medical services in Beijing.
A recent study by the Beijing-based Yuwa Population Institute found that in China, a mean of 538,000 yuan ($75,000) to raise a child to age 18, average GDP of 538,000 yuan ($75,000) is more than six times more than a person per person, making giving birth to a child in relative terms one of the most expensive places in the world.
In Shanghai, costs soar past 1 million yuan, while Beijing approaches 936,000 yuan.
“(Having a child) only has to struggle more. I’m not a capitalist or anything. My kids probably don’t have a good life either,” said Li, who is considering pursuing his job prospects and doctoral degrees.
Such a shady outlook on future parent-child relationships, spurred by slowing China’s economy and increasing unemployment rates among young people, presents a major hurdle that the government pushes to help young people marry and have children.
Faced with a shrinking workforce and a rapidly aging population, China abolished the one-child policy in 2016, allowing couples to have two children and three children in 2021. However, the birth rate continues to slip. Despite a small rebound at birth last year, the population has been shrinking for the third year in a row, and experts are now warning of a sharper decline.
The newly announced national childcare subsidies illustrate an important step in China’s birth campaign.
For years, local authorities have experimented with many incentives, from tax credits, housing perks, and cash handouts to maternity leave. Currently, the central government is taking the lead in standardized, national programs, allocating 90 billion yuan ($12.54 billion) in subsidies expected to benefit 20 million families this year.
“It’s no longer a local experiment. It’s a signal that the government sees the fertility crisis as urgent and public,” says Emma Zan, a demographicist and professor of sociology at Yale University. “The message is clear. We’re not only telling you to have a baby, but we’re finally putting money on the table.”
The new scheme, which provides partial subsidies for children under the age of 3 born before 2025, is welcomed by eligible parents, but Zan said it is unlikely that he will move the needle at an obesity rate. Similar policies have failed to significantly increase the birth rate of other East Asian societies, such as Japan and South Korea, she added.
For many Chinese youth who are tackling unfair home prices, long business days and unstable employment markets, subsidies don’t even begin to tackle deep seated anxiety that reluctantly wants to start a family.
“It’s not just about the cost, it’s really not just about the cost. Many young adults are skeptical of the future, such as job security, aging parents, and social pressures. That’s why cash handouts don’t address the emotional fatigue that people have been facing recently,” Zan said.
It is ironic that parents, especially those who witnessed the harsh penalties of only child policy, for helping parents to have more children, from being fined for unauthorized births, are not lost in Chinese millennials and General ZS.
On social media in China, some users have posted photos of old receipts showing the fines their parents once paid for giving birth to them or siblings.
Among them is Gao, who grew up in the far mountains of Giza and was asked to be identified only by her last name. The southwestern state is the poorest in China;Among many regions, the sculpture was recognized under the one-child policy, and if the first born was a girl, a country couple allowed a second child.
Like her two sisters, Gao was sent to live with her grandmother shortly after being born to hide from family planning staff. They eventually gave birth to four daughters before having a son.
Gao, 27, who currently lives in eastern Jiangsu Province, says he has no interest in marriage or raising children.
“I know that I can’t provide my child with a good environment for education and life, and choosing not to have it is also an act of kindness,” she said. “I definitely don’t want my kids to grow up like I do… I don’t have the chance to struggle with upward mobility and the bottom of society as I have.”
For decades, as China’s economy boomed and living standards improved, young people of a generation have grown with the belief that they live better than their parents.
That optimism is now declining.
Today, many young people grew up with the promise of upward mobility through hard work and education. Education is disillusioned. Property prices have skyrocketed beyond reach, and university degrees no longer guarantee a good job.
There is a growing sense of futile that their relentless efforts will only reduce returns in a more competitive society. This is a trend summarised by the popular buzzword “in lution,” a term borrowed from sociology to explain the self-defeating spiral of excessive competition.
In response, many people choose to “lie flat.” This is another catchphrase that refers to being kicked out of the grind of encountering social expectations, such as marriage or raising children.
In June, Zhao, 29, grew up in a middle-class family in Beijing’s Heidian district, one of China’s most “entangled” places.
With 3 million people and many of the nation’s top universities, Heidian is just as well known for his overly competitive approach to raising children. Zhao began attending private tutor classes every weekend in his third year.
After earning his bachelor’s and graduate degrees overseas, Zhao returned to Beijing to work in investor relations. She says the immeasurable pressure she grew up played a major role in her decision to not have children.
“The cost is simply too high and too low returns,” she said. “In general, I have a rather pessimistic view of life.
Zhao considers himself lucky. She rarely requires overtime for her job. Still, she has a hard time imagining finding time to raise her child. After commuting to work and having dinner, she spends two or three hours of free time each day before going to bed. It would be even more difficult for a friend who was trapped in a “996” crush that works six days a week from 9am to 9pm.
Like many of her contemporaries, Gao is simply not optimistic about the life she can provide to her child, or the society in which it will be born. “You just feel the urge to have a child when you believe that the days ahead are good,” she said.
Secondly, there is a long-standing gender imbalance in parenting, along with the physical and emotional sacrifices needed by women. In Zhao’s case, it was his mother who had to exchange work full-time to help with homework and escort her to a tutoring class.
“I saw firsthand how hard it was for my mother to raise me. I know that women are burdened with far more burdens and costs than men when it comes to raising a family,” she said.
As fertility rates fell, the ruling Communist Party underscored the domestic role of women as “noble wives and good mothers.” It promotes this as an important part of Chinese traditional culture and is essential for the “sound growth of the next generation.” Authorities have encouraged women to establish “the correct views on marriage, childbirth and family.”
Demographicist Zan said it is simply unrealistic to expect more children without addressing the real barriers women face.
“We can’t turn the clock back, and we hope that women will embrace more traditional roles. Young women today are highly educated, career-oriented, and want more equality. Fertility fees won’t be recovered unless they support that reality through paternity leave, workplace protection, flexible work, etc.”
“The government wants more babies, but society is not structured to support families,” she added. “Raising a parenting now looks like a trap, especially for women. Until that changes, the subsidies aren’t enough.”
Japan recorded a high of 41.8 degrees Celsius (107.2 degrees Fahrenheit) on Tuesday, urging the government to advise residents to stay indoors and promise measures to ease study abroad related to rice cultivation.
Readings for the eastern city of Gamma exceeded the previous high of 41.2 C marked in the western city of Hyogo prefecture last week, the country’s weather agency said.
So far, more than 53,000 people have been taken to hospitals due to heat stroke this summer, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency.
“It’s murderously hot today,” said Takeshi, a 63-year-old auto worker, who was buried in a water bottle at a fountain in central Tokyo. “If it reaches 42 degrees, preparing at 40 degrees would be hotter than baths.”
The average temperature across Japan has continued to rise after hitting record highs in July for the third consecutive year, but rain levels are very low in the northeastern region along the Sea of Japan, raising concerns about rice cultivation.
High temperatures have caused the spread of foul smelly bugs in several rice cultivation areas, despite the government officially setting it up to adopt new policies on Tuesday, an increase in rice production to prevent future shortages.
To prevent damage caused by high temperatures, we need to act with a sense of speed and a sense of crisis,” Rural Minister Ono said at a press conference. He said the government will provide support for pest control and measures to tackle drought.
The extreme heat of 2023 undermined the quality of rice, causing an acute shortage that was exacerbated last year by misreading government supply and demand. It led to historically high prices of very important staple foods, causing a national crisis.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a tricky balance while maintaining a close partnership between President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin, claiming that Moscow’s approved Western nations are a neutral party to the disappointing Russian-Ukraine war.
But now it appears Trump has lost his patience. Modi finally demands that he choose the side, using India’s continued purchase of Russian oil as leverage in his trade war.
The challenge pits Trump and Modi. Two nationalist leaders have often described friendship in warm words.
On Monday, Trump vowed to “essentially” raise India’s tariffs “for the next 24 hours” as he still buys Russian oil. It is not clear what will happen with the new tariff rate or whether he is currently having problems with India’s years of doing it. However, a new threat comes after he already announced a minimum 25% tariff on goods coming from India last week.
“Also, they’ve always bought the majority of military equipment from Russia, and together with Russia, they’re Russia’s biggest energy buyers, and when everyone wanted Russia to stop killings in Ukraine, everything isn’t good!” Trump wrote about the true society last week.
But for Modi it’s not that simple. Many other countries have been taken away to attack trade deals with the Trump administration, the world’s fourth-largest economy, but they have been unfairly targeted and rebelliously pushed back by saying they call the measure “unfair.”
The US and Europe still trade with Russia with other products, such as fertilizers and chemicals.
Here’s what you need to know about why India is reluctant to stop buying Russian oil:
India has long relied on Russia to help grow its crude oil-booming economy and population, and now has more than 1.4 billion people.
The world’s most populous country is already the third largest consumer in the world, and as India’s consumption rate is still growing rapidly, it is expected to surpass China by 2030, according to Reuters.
Millions of households have risen as India’s transformation into an economic superpower. This has resulted in more cars and motorcycles being purchased, and demand for gasoline has increased.
Russian crude accounts for 36% of India’s total imports, and Moscow has become the country’s top supplier, according to Muyu Xu, a senior oil analyst at trade information company Kpler, who cited figures for the first six months of the year.
After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, European countries largely halted Russian oil purchases. Now it flows mostly into Asia. China, India and Turkey are among the large Russian customers, and are important revenue streams for Moscow.
Delhi has a huge discount on Russian oil. “If not, it would not have been given to traditional oil and gas suppliers,” said Amitabsin, an associate professor at the Jawaharlalleneur University (JNU) Centre at the Centre for Russia and Central Asian Studies.
He added that India’s ongoing purchases are “a purely economic or commercial decision.” The Indian authorities have also claimed, but are filled with despair and rage from Ukraine and its supporters.
India has diversified its oil sources over the years, but once Russian oil is completely cut away, it leaves a large hole that is difficult to replace.
India imports 80% of its oil needs, and domestic oil production is not enough to make up for the difference. OPEC, a coalition of top oil producers in the world, said, “There may be a spare capacity, but it is difficult to ask you to pump 3.4 million barrels overnight,” Xu spoke with CNN in July, referring to Russia’s daily maritime exports.
That choice is also limited by other US actions. India was forced to stop buying oil from Iran and Venezuela after imposing sanctions on countries that Trump bought from those locations and threatened tariffs.
Before halting its purchases, India was one of Iran’s biggest clients, buying up to 480,000 barrels per day, according to Reuters.
“We tie our hands behind us,” Singh said. “India’s oil economy or markets can operate is very limited.”
For now, he added that it is unlikely that Delhi will succumb to Trump’s demands. Modi’s administration will continue trade talks with the US and work to break away from Russian crude oil, exploring the “traditional route” of Middle Eastern oil, but this “cannot be done overnight,” Singh said.
Russian oil also feeds India’s economy. The Indian economy plays an important role in the global oil trade. India claims that purchases from Russia have lowered global oil prices because they are not competing with Western countries for Middle Eastern oil.
When the Ukrainian-Russia war began during the Ukrainian-Russia regime, “everyone knew India was buying oil from Russia,” Singh said — but added that the Western countries tolerated it.
If India switches to import oil from elsewhere at higher costs, American consumers will also feel a hit. Some of the Russian crude oil sent to India is then refined and exported to other countries. This is because non-Russian products are not refined in sanctions against Moscow.
It is a loophole that has benefited both India’s economy and other recipient countries. In 2023, India exported $862.8 billion in sophisticated petroleum products, making it the world’s second largest exporter of petroleum products, according to the Bureau of Asian Studies (NBR).
According to the Energy Research Centre (CREA), some of the biggest buyers of these sophisticated products, made from Russian crude oil, include Europe, the US and the UK. Independent organisations have urged G7 countries to close this loophole and claim they will remove third countries, like India, to import Russian crude oil.
Historic Partnerships and Juggling Bonds
The India-Russia partnership goes beyond just oil, dating back decades. Another reason is that it’s not that easy to dismantle.
India officially formed nonalliance during the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union. However, in the 1970s, when the US began providing military and financial aid to its Indian neighbours and longtime rival Pakistan, India began to lean towards the Soviet Union. This was when Russia began to provide arms to India.
In recent years, India has approached Washington and has stepped up the purchase of arms from the United States and its allies, including France and Israel.
Still, according to Cipri, India remains the top recipient of Russian weapons. And Modi remains friendly with Putin. Even paying a controversial visit to Moscow last year, the Russian president greets his counterparts in a hug and drives him personally.
Trump and Modi previously welcomed friendship, but at a rally in 2019, Trump declared that India “had no better friends than President Donald Trump.”
Professor Singh said the friendship is expected to “continue” when Trump arrives at the White House for his second term. But things got worse this time. India is not satisfied with Trump’s claim to credit for the ceasefire in the latest India-Pakistan conflict, or his accusations that their oil purchases support “supporting Russian war machinery,” he said.
Trump has also assaulted him and is increasingly irritated that he is unable to end the Ukraine-Russian war. “I don’t care what India is doing in Russia,” Trump wrote last week in a furious post about the true society. “They can defeat their dead economy together for everything I care about.”
Coca-Cola agrees to switch to cane sugar with US drinks, Trump says
President Donald Trump says he has agreed to start using cane sugar in American drinks, similar to recipes used in other countries.
Heinz officially chatted, “Are you a tomato? A fruit or a vegetable?”
The Chicago and Pittsburgh-based food maker announced on Wednesday, August 6th that they are working with Smoothie King to showcase their new product, the tomato ketchup smoothie.
Heinz, who is described as the “first ketchup-based smoothie in history,” says the drink “fusing real fruit into Heinz to create a delicious, refreshing summer bite.”
Heinz Tomato Ketchup Smoothie Ingredients
Heinz’s tomato ketchup smoothie blends “sweet acai sherbet, crispy apple juice, juicy strawberries and tartrasberries.”
The food company says the end result is “a sweet, fruity smoothie with a bright, tangy ketchup finish that is perfect for Heinz and smoothie enthusiasts.”
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“The idea of ketchup smoothies was provocative, and our number one priority was to land a delicious tasting fruit smoothie with a unique and balanced ketchup note,” Kraft Heinz Exect Angie Madigan said in a statement. “The Smoothie King experts have helped us make this dream come true. We are extremely excited about the final smoothie we created together.”
“And, just like you would for all foods, from burgers to fries to eggs, the slightly sweet and tangy taste of Heinz ketchup brings this traditional fruit smoothie to new heights,” she added.
Heinz said the latest innovations “during the tomato harvest season, when Heinz tomatoes are fully ripe and ready to enjoy, and in the days of dogs in the summer heat, a refreshing smoothie needs to cool off.”
Where to get Heinz Tomato Ketchup Smoothie
Heinz Tomato Ketchup Smoothies are available at Select Smoothies King Locations nationwide for $5.70 starting Wednesday, August 6th.
The company said smoothies have “limited time at smoothie king locations in five markets, including the Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Miami, the Greater New York area and parts of the upstate New Jersey.”
“Fans who try out delicious products are encouraged to use #KetchUpsMoothie to consider cultural discussions about social,” added Heinz.
Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA Today. Contact her at sshafiq @gannett.com and follow her on X and Instagram @saman_shafiq7.
Governor Abbott orders arrest of a fleeing Texas Democrat
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered the arrest of Democrats who left the state to block votes in districts that could support Republicans in Congress.
In an escalation in the battle for Texas districts, Republican government Greg Abbott filed an emergency petition seeking to take Democratic House leaders into office after a massive run of lawmakers to block efforts to redraw the state legislative district.
More than 50 Democrats left Lone Star State on August 3, denying Republicans and denying the quorum needed to vote for President Donald Trump’s rezoning plan. By redrawing the state’s 38 Congressional districts, Republicans hope to overturn the five U.S. Congress seats currently being held by Democrats in next year’s midterm elections.
Abbott filed a lawsuit in the Texas Supreme Court, claiming that Rep. Jean Wu was removed from his duties and that other House Democrats who fled the state would “constituate abandonment of their offices and justify their removal.”
The governor further argued that Wu and Democrats “appeared to have received certain benefits in order to skip the vote. Abbott ordered the Texas Rangers to investigate whether Democrats violated the Bribery Act.
“Representative Wu and other Texan House Democrats have shown intentional refusals to return home, and the indefinite absence will take the House of Representatives of the quorum necessary to meet and do business on behalf of the Texans,” Abbott said in a statement. “Texas House Democrats have abandoned their obligations to Texans, but there must be consequences.”
In response to the lawsuit, Texas House Democrats said the governor “uses the law as a weapon to silence the people.”
“We have made a pledge to the Constitution, not to the agenda of politicians,” Texas House Democrats said in a statement on social media.
Texas Hold’em: Governor Abbott threatens legal action for absent DEMS
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott orders arrest of lawmakers who fled the state
The lawsuit comes after Abbott threatened to arrest a Democrat. Most of them went to Illinois, New York or Massachusetts. His order was designed to force immunists to comply with a civil arrest warrant voted to be issued by state Republican lawmakers during a state Capitol session held in Austin on August 4th.
“To ensure compliance, I have ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety to position members who waived their obligations against the Texans in residential rooms, arrest them and return,” Abbott said in a statement.
However, arrest warrants apply only within the state, and breaking the quorum is not a crime that allows Texas officials to pursue extradition from other states. On the aforementioned August 5th, Trump said the FBI might help the arrest lawmakers and return them to their homeland.
“A lot of people are demanding they come back. You can’t just sit there. You have to go back,” Trump said at a press conference.
What do you know? The eyes of the Texas GOP were re-zoned and the Dems were poised to fight back.
Abbott cites opinions from the Texas Attorney General.
Abbott previously argued that it could be legally removed to deliberately leave and destroy lawmakers.
On August 3, the governor cited a 2021 non-binding opinion from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Paxton told Fox News on August 4 that he hopes the Texas Supreme Court will consider the waiver case he finally filed.
Absent Democrats have already faced consequences, with $500 a day fines for being out of state. The penalty was established in 2021 after state Democrats protested new voting restrictions and halted their 38-day operation.
British hikers who had to be safely airlifted after he ignored the signs and crossed the warning barriers of Italian dolomite, pay a high price for his rescue.
According to the Veneto Alpine and Speedeological Rescue (CNSAS), the 60-year-old, whose name has not been published, was given a bill of 14,225 euros ($16,400) on Thursday to pay for the use of two rescue helicopters and more than a dozen professional rescuers and support staff.
A week ago, two Belgian hikers from the same area were handed a much smaller bill for rescue as they were citizens of the European Union. The UK left the EU in 2020.
According to the CNSA, more than 80 people died hiking in the Italian Alps and dolomite between June 21 and July 23, making it the deadliest hiking season of the century. Five people remain unrecorded.
Rescue calls, which have also risen 20% since last year, have also led to the closure of the most dangerous routes around Cortina and San Vitodi Caidea, where British hikers were rescued.
“A 60-year-old English hiker who left that morning from Pass Tre Krosi said he was in Berti via Ferrata and the rocks were falling from above,” the CNSA warned on social media on Thursday evening.
“After he reconstructed his theoretical position, he was told not to move from his protected location and wait for help as the mountain is now hidden by clouds. The exact position of the hiker was needed to determine the recovery strategy. 2,400 meters (nearly 7,900 feet).”
After the rescue, the first CNSA responder decided to work with Italian civil protection to close more paths.
“This operation was necessary as hikers ignored existing signs. This was clearly not enough to stop people due to carelessness or underestimation of risk,” the CNSA said in a Facebook post. This post will display images of existing signs that say “closed” in English, Italian and German.
“The measures are intended to protect the safety of people in transit, as well as both the helicopter rescue team and the foot team, as well as the rescuers themselves,” the Post continued.
Delantonio said the man walked past at least four signs, craped around the barrier, and was urged by the other hikers on the sign to turn around and return with them.
This year’s dangerous and deadly situation across the European Alps is responsible for extreme weather, and unpredictable storms dominate situations that lead to landslides, flash floods and snowstorms. Some of the recent rescued people have been hospitalized due to hypothermia.
Local governments warn people to prepare if they travel to the area to climb.
“What happened (with the British hikers) guarantees some reflection,” Giuseppe Dal Ben, commissioner of ULSS 1 health authorities in the Dolomites, told reporters over the weekend.
“Helicopters are essential for time-sensitive operations in harsh environments. To be precise, it’s important that they are not used as taxis and only put the risk of not only those who are providing assistance, but those who actually need it.”
Economy-strung Americans cut down on beer and donuts
Beer company Molson Coors and donut giant Krispy Kreme have lowered annual revenue outlook.
Straight Arrow News
Fall may be two months away, but pumpkins will be on the menu next week at Krispy Kreme.
The donut chain will bring back the pumpkin spice season menu on August 11th, including original glass-covered pumpkin spice donuts, original glazed pumpkin spice cake donuts, pumpkin spice lattes, and pumpkin spice coffee. If you are tracking the arrival of pumpkin spice products, you will receive a return on Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte on August 26th two weeks in advance.
At Krispy Kreme, all items will be on the menu by fall, with the exception of the original glass-covered pumpkin spice donut, which is only available until August 17th.
McDonald’s: McDonaldland Meal with Volcano Shake To Joinment Ment for Limited Time. When is this
“Pumpkin Spice fans are counting down the days leading up to their favorite season. They are pleased to start it by reverting the original glass-up doughnuts from pumpkin spice. But it won’t be long. Alison Holder, chief brand and product director at Krispy Kreme, said in a news release.
In 2024, Krispy Kreme had original glazed donuts on the menu for three days: September 20-22.
Krispy Cream’s Pumpkin Spice Season Menu
Starting Monday, August 11th, these items will be available on Krispy Kreme. Most are on the menu by fall:
Original glazed pumpkin spice donut – Classic glazed donut pumpkin spice twist (available only from August 11th to 17th).
Pumpkin spice latte – You can order hot, iced or frozen, topped with whipped cream and pumpkin spice seasonings.
Pumpkin spice coffee – Hot or iced.
Krispy Kreme Crocs and Donuts inspired by Tiramisu’s Cannoli
Do I need to fix the donuts in the future? The donut chain has a “passport to Italy” donut collection, available for a limited time, and three donuts are inspired by Italian desserts.
Crazy with Krispy Kreme? You can also get Krispy Kreme Crocs ($90) at Crocs stores and at Crocs.com.
Contributions: Julia Gomez and Gabe Hauari, USA Today
Mike Snyder is a national trending news reporter for USA Today. You can follow him in the thread, send BlueSky, X with X and send him an email Bliss & @mikegsnider.bsky.social & @mikesnider &msnider@usatoday.com
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Several recent crashes of US planes investigated by the NTSB
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating multiple fatal plane crashes, including those in Alaska, Philadelphia and Washington, DC.
Fox – Seattle
Phoenix – Four people died on August 5th, he said that a medical transport crashed while landing at airports in Navajo countries in northern Arizona, causing a fire.
The small dual propeller aircraft picked up patients from a nearby hospital, according to the Navajo Police Department. Onboard the ship was a medical worker who was “non-local,” Navajo Nation Buu Niglen said in a statement.
The Federal Aviation Administration, which identified the aircraft as Beechcraft 300, said the plane crashed while landing at the airport. Police said Navajo Police Station’s Chinle district, tribal emergency medical services and fire rescue services responded to the scene.
Police said CSI Aviation, an air transport and aviation charter company headquartered in Albuquerque, New Mexico, was involved in the crash crash. The company has issued a notification next door.
“These are people who have given their lives to saving others, and their losses are deeply felt throughout the Navajo nation,” Nyglen said in a statement. “We respect their service, their sacrifices and the love they have shown to our community through their work. On behalf of the Navajo nation, I will extend my deepest pathos to their families, their colleagues and all who are sad.”
She was “a real person”: The mother of the crash victim speaks as the FAA faces scrutiny
Police said the cause of the crash was unknown. The FAA and the National Road Safety Commission are investigating the collision.
Authorities have closed all access to the airport due to an ongoing investigation. Sinru Airport, located in Apache County, is owned by the Navajo tribe, according to the Navajo Transportation Bureau.
Latest aviation incidents in the US
Arizona has seen a series of fatal crashes at the Phoenix metropolitan area, including Scottsdale and Marana, and surrounding local government airports.
In February, two private jets collided at Arizona’s Scottsdale Airport, killing one and injuring four. More than a week later, two single-engine planes collided outside the Marana Regional Airport, killing two people.
The August 5 crash was also the latest aviation incident that will occur in the United States this year. Experts argue that aviation is still extremely safe, but recent incidents have raised concerns about US air safety.
NTSB investigators are still investigating two fatal conflicts that occurred in late January. An airborne collision between an American Airlines passenger plane and a US Black Hawk helicopter near Washington, DC killed 67 people. Seven people have been killed in a crash of a medical jet in Philadelphia.
American Airlines Flight Evacuation: Airplane evacuation safety concerns resurface after the incident
