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Facebook Tweet Email Link US President Donald Trump warned Wednesday that more punishment was coming for countries buying Russian energy products after slapping a 25% tariff on India that is supposed to go into effect Thursday. “You’re going to see a lot more. So this is a taste,” he said in the Oval Office. “You’re going to see a lot more. You’re going to see so much secondary sanctions.” The move is part of Trump’s high-stakes effort to cripple Russia’s economy over its war in Ukraine. He had set a Friday deadline for Russian President Vladimir Putin to make peace…

Facebook Tweet Email Link Astronaut Butch Wilmore is retiring from NASA less than five months after he returned from a troubled test mission that left him aboard the International Space Station far longer than expected, the space agency announced Wednesday. Wilmore, along with NASA astronaut Suni Williams, piloted the first crewed flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft last year. The mission gained worldwide attention when the spacecraft experience several serious issues en route to the space station, including thruster outages and gas leaks. Williams and Wilmore had been expected to stay about eight days in orbit. But NASA and Boeing spent…

Facebook Tweet Email Link From anchors aweigh to funnels ashore. As the historic SS United States gets ready to be converted into the world’s largest artificial reef off the coast of Florida, a new plan for an accompanying museum is coming into focus — preserving its iconic massive funnels. The two six-story-high towering funnels will soon be removed from America’s flagship, to be used as a “dramatic centerpiece” of the SS United States Museum and Visitor Experience, according to an announcement this week by the SS United States Conservancy Board. “By incorporating iconic components from the historic ocean liner into…

Facebook Tweet Email Link Tokyo  —  Japan’s precipitous population decline shows no sign of slowing, with the nation shrinking by more than 900,000 people last year – the biggest annual drop on record, according to government data. The data, released by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications on Wednesday, showed that the number of Japanese nationals fell by 908,574 in 2024, bringing the total population to 120 million. Since peaking at 126.6 million in 2009, the population has declined for 16 consecutive years, diminished by various factors like a struggling economy and deep-seated gender norms. With the population of…

Facebook Tweet Email Link The Israeli military has “illegally and indiscriminately” used US munitions to attack school shelters in Gaza, killing hundreds of people, Human Rights Watch (HRW) says. The US-based campaigners’ report, “Gaza: Israeli School Strikes Magnify Civilian Peril,” was published Thursday. Israel’s campaign following the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023 has made the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.1 million people homeless – forcing many to flee their neighborhoods in search of civilian infrastructure. Israel has frequently said its strikes on school facilities in Gaza target embedded Hamas fighters. But HRW said it only found seven instances where…

Facebook Tweet Email Link Heavy rainfall that triggered floods in Pakistan in recent weeks, killing hundreds of people, was worsened by human-caused climate change, according to a new study. The study by World Weather Attribution, a group of international scientists who study global warming’s role in extreme weather, found that rainfall from June 24 to July 23 in the South Asian nation was 10% to 15% heavier because of climate change, leading to many building collapses in urban and rural Pakistan. Pakistan’s government has reported at least 300 deaths and 1,600 damaged houses due to the floods, heavy rain and…

Facebook Tweet Email Link NFL players will be allowed to use “smelling salts” during games after all. The NFLPA sent a memo to players on Wednesday saying that the ban that the league informed teams about on Tuesday only prohibits team employees from distributing smelling salts and any other ammonia inhalant during pregame activities, games and halftime on the sideline or locker rooms. “The NFL Players Association is aware of the memo issued by the league Tuesday regarding the use of smelling salts and ammonia capsules,” said the memo to players, which was obtained by The Associated Press. “We were…

Facebook Tweet Email Link Early in President Donald Trump’s second term, plenty of ink was spilled on the question of whether his 2024 voters regretted their votes. The verdict – including my own – was generally that this theory was overblown. There were anecdotes, yes, but it didn’t seem to be an especially measurable phenomenon. More than six months in, that could be changing, at least somewhat. It’s probably still too simple to say that lots of Trump supporters regret their votes. But to appropriate a phrase you might have heard from your parents once upon a time: Many Trump…

Facebook Tweet Email Link A British holidaymaker has been charged with attempted murder after he allegedly tried to drown his daughter-in-law in a Florida swimming pool, authorities have said. Mark Raymond Gibbon, 62, was on vacation at the Solterra Resort in Davenport, Florida, with his family when deputies from the Polk County Sheriff’s Office were called to a disturbance in a backyard swimming pool on Sunday evening, the sheriff’s office said in a post on X. According to the victim and witnesses, Gibbon was in the swimming pool with his 33-year-old daughter-in-law when the pair started arguing about his grandchildren,…

Facebook Tweet Email Link As the Trump administration tries to chart a path out of its Jeffrey Epstein mess, senior aides turned to someone who has increasingly become one of the president’s chief problem solvers: Vice President JD Vance. Vance originally planned to convene top White House and Justice Department officials at his residence Wednesday evening to talk over the administration’s handling of the Epstein case, as well as the need to craft a unified response, though the meeting appeared to have been moved amid intense media scrutiny. Still, the planned meeting was just the latest high-stakes task following an…