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☆ Opinion: Ancient superstitions about eclipses paved the way for this scientific truth
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-06 | by ( Opinion Jason Colavito | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN —In ancient Mesopotamia, a solar eclipse was a cause for deep concern. Today, eclipses retain a little bit of their historic role as harbingers of doom. Many cultures imagined a solar eclipse occurred when a mythological being ate the sun. A group of people safely watching a solar eclipse in New York City in 1865. During the solar eclipse of 1842, 20,000 people of all social classes gathered in Perpignan, France, and applauded the sun’s performance.

Persons: Jason Colavito, Jimmy, James Dean, Herodotus, Thales, Miletus, Corbis, “, Pierre Gassendi, Christopher Columbus, Mark Twain, François Arago Organizations: New, Slate, CNN, puma, Thales, Connecticut Yankee, King Locations: New York, New Republic, Mesopotamia, United States, American, Vietnam, North America, China, New York City, France, Paris, Columbus, King Arthur’s, Perpignan

☆ Opinion | It’s Not the Economy. It’s the Fascism.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-30 | by ( Frank Bruni | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Not if he’s beaten by a Republican who had to buy into his fictions or emulate his ugliness to claim the prize. Not if the Republican Party remains hostage to the extremism on display in the House over these past few months. That assessment isn’t Trump derangement syndrome. Cheney describes House Republicans’ enduring surrender to Trump as cowardly and cynical, and she’s cleareyed on what his nomination in 2024 would mean. That’s why the stakes of this election are titanic even without Trump on the ballot.

Persons: Donald Trump, Trump, Liz Cheney’s, Peter Baker, Cheney, she’s, ”, ” Trump, inured, diatribes, they’re, They’re, Long, direst, cowered, Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis Organizations: Republican, Republican Party, Republicans

☆ The deadly Hamas rampage across southern Israel
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-12 | by ( David Clarke | Sophie Meyer | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +11 min

The deadly Hamas rampage across southern IsraelUnder a barrage of rockets, hundreds of Hamas gunmen stormed into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip in the early hours of Oct. 7, on motorbikes, paragliders and four-wheel drives, unleashing death, destruction and despair on nearby towns and villages. Major Hamas attacks Map showing location of five communities in southern Israel attacked by Hamas gunmen – from north to south, Ashkelon, Sderot, Kfar Aza, Be’eri and Re’im, the site of the Nova music festival. Video footage shows Hamas gunmen manhandling Be’eri residents and pulling them along. What the video shows Hamas fighters pulling people along the street at gunpoint, several with their hands bound. What the video shows Israeli police inspect rocket damage to a civilian building in Ashkelon on Oct. 7, 2023.

Persons: Kfar Aza, Be’eri, Be’eri Israel Gaza Be’eri, manhandling, Hami, Atias, “, He'll, ”, Mir Shani, Golan Abitbul, Ammar Awad “, revellers, Arik Nani, I've, Maariv, Christophe Van Der Perre Kfar Aza, Avidor Schwartzman, Ilan Rosenberg Organizations: Nova, Reuters, Hamas, Kan, Be’eri Israel Gaza, Be’eri, REUTERS, Nova Festival, Israeli Defence Forces Locations: Israel, Gaza, Ashkelon, Sderot, Kfar, Be’eri Israel, Be’eri, Gaza Sderot, Re’im Israel Gaza, Gaza's, Aza, Kfar Aza, ” Ashkelon Israel Gaza Ashkelon

He added that it took eight hours for the Israeli military to arrive to his kibbutz and start fending off the Hamas fighters. The last time he heard from his mother-in-law was at 10:30 a.m., he said, when she called him, panicked and distraught, to say that Hamas militants had shot and killed her husband. A fortified border fence, equipped with sophisticated sensors, proved no match for the heavy explosives unleashed by Hamas militants as they burst into Israel. Other footage captured moments of terror and desperation: Hamas fighters paraded a disoriented-looking elderly woman in a golf cart down a dusty Gaza street while Palestinian crowds cheered. Witnesses told Israeli media that Hamas militants sprayed bullets into the crowd of revelers, who just moments earlier had been drinking, laughing and dancing.

Persons: ”, Jehan Berman, ” Berman —, —, Adele Raemer, Nir Am, Janet Cwaigenbaum, Nir Yitzhak, “ I’ve, Moshe, Berman, “ Organizations: JERUSALEM, Hamas, Gaza, Israel's, Palestinian Locations: Gaza, Israel, Avshalom, Israeli, Kfar Azza, Palestine

☆ Putin meets Chechen leader Kadyrov after storm over prisoner beating comments
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Sept 28 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin met Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov on Thursday, a state television reporter said, three days after Kadyrov said he was proud of his 15-year-son for beating up a prisoner accused of burning the Koran. Putin said that there was a "positive dynamic" in Chechnya, largely thanks to Kadyrov and his team. The alleged Koran-burning did not take place in Chechnya but Russian investigators said they transferred Zhuravel to Chechen custody because Muslims there saw themselves as victims of the incident. The beating opened up Putin to accusations that he had handed over an ethnic Russian "to be devoured by the Chechens", former Kremlin speechwriter Abbas Gallyamov, now a harsh Putin critic, said this week. Kadyrov, 46, has been the subject of intense speculation over his health, with rumours swirling this month that he was dead or in a coma.

Persons: Vladimir Putin, Ramzan Kadyrov, Kadyrov, Pavel Zarubin, Putin, Adam, Nikita Zhuravel, Zhuravel, Abbas Gallyamov, Mark Trevelyan, Alexandra Hudson Organizations: Kremlin, Alexandra Hudson Our, Thomson Locations: Chechnya, Moscow, Ukraine, Russian

☆ ‘I Could Not Carry Any of My Art’
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-28 | by ( Abdi Latif Dahir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

That was on April 15 — and in the three days that followed, Mr. Algrai remained trapped in his studio, starving and dehydrated as battles raged outside his door on the streets of Khartoum. For hours every day, he cowered in terror as bullets pierced the windows of the building and the walls shook from errant shelling. When a small period of quiet to escape materialized, Mr. Algrai was eager to seize it — albeit with a heavy heart. “I could not carry any of my art or personal belongings,” said Mr. Algrai, 29, who got out, but left behind his favorite guitar and more than 300 paintings of different sizes. “This conflict has robbed us of our art and our peace, and we are now left trying to stay sane in the midst of displacement and death.”

☆ Sudan's well-off stuck in limbo at border town en route to Egypt
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Maggie Michael | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

While women, children and the elderly can enter Egypt freely, though often after waiting days in testing conditions at a packed border, Sudanese men aged 16-50 must apply for visas. When she got to Wadi Halfa the bus driver, who had promised to take her to Egypt, dropped her off with her family and demanded more money. He returned to Wadi Halfa to apply for his visa but was told to wait, so he sent his elderly parents to Egypt alone. Half the group continued on to Egypt while the rest settled in a school in Wadi Halfa, sleeping in a classroom with three other families. The school gave him and others a warning that they needed the classrooms back this week for end of year exams.

☆ Sudan Fears ‘Ghost of Civil War’ as Explosions Rock Capital
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-16 | by ( Declan Walsh | Abdi Latif Dahir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Fighter jets screamed over Khartoum, the capital, on Sunday, firing rockets into a city of millions. Artillery barrages slammed into the military headquarters, reducing it to a tower of flames. Civilian planes were bombed at the city’s airport, where terrified passengers cowered on the terminal floors. And when their relationship disintegrated into violence this weekend, it set off a breathless descent that appeared the realization of many people’s worst fears. One of the factions even captured and held Egyptian soldiers, along with seven Egyptian warplanes, threatening to suck a powerful neighbor into the fight and raising the specter of a regional conflagration.

☆ China's Alibaba to break up empire into six units as Jack Ma returns home
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Josh Horwitz | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Alibaba said the biggest restructuring in its 24-year history would see it split into six units - Cloud Intelligence Group, Taobao Tmall Commerce Group, Local Services Group, Cainiao Smart Logistics Group, Global Digital Commerce Group and Digital Media and Entertainment Group. Zhang will continue as chairman and CEO of Alibaba Group, which will follow a holding company management model, and also serve as CEO of Cloud Intelligence Group. The exception would be Taobao Tmall Commerce Group that handles China commerce businesses and will remain a wholly owned unit of Alibaba Group. Investors said the split signals the clearing of regulatory worries and allays concerns that Alibaba had lost the potential to grow. [1/2] The logo of Alibaba Group is seen at its office in Beijing, China January 5, 2021.

☆ A Peruvian man was found carrying around a 600-year-old mummy in his cooler bag, calling it his 'spiritual girlfriend'. It was male.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A 26-year-old was caught carrying an ancient mummy in his delivery bag in Peru. The man said the mummy was his 'spiritual girlfriend,' and that he shared a bedroom with it. The mummy is believed to be an adult male that died between 600 and 800 years ago. Inside his cooler bag they found an ancient mummy believed to be 600 to 800-years-old, cowered in the fetal position. Dirreción desconcentrada de cultura de PunoBermejo said he kept the mummy in his bedroom in a box, next to his television.

☆ Protests leave China facing a terrible trilemma
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Pete Sweeney | Thomson Reuters | Asia Economics Editor Pete Sweeney Joined Reuters Breakingviews In Hong Kong In September Previously He Served As Reuters' Chief Correspondent For China Economy | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Such behaviour undermines arguments that abandoning Xi’s zero-Covid policy will instantly stimulate economic activity. Even before factoring in Beijing’s response to the unrest, the International Monetary Fund expects a measly 3.2% GDP growth for China this year. Covid-19 cases began spiking in China in early November following a week-long public holiday. The government reported 40,347 new infections for Nov. 27 in an update issued Nov. 28. Beijing announced 20 relaxations of the country’s pandemic policy on Nov. 11, including shorter quarantine periods and more narrowly targeted lockdowns.

☆ Breakingviews: Protests leave China facing a terrible trilemma
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Pete Sweeney | Thomson Reuters | Asia Economics Editor Pete Sweeney Joined Reuters Breakingviews In Hong Kong In September Previously He Served As Reuters' Chief Correspondent For China Economy | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

HONG KONG, Nov 28 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Officials’ muddled response to spiking Covid cases has set off three consecutive days of demonstrations spanning cities and social classes. Such behaviour undermines arguments that abandoning Xi’s zero-Covid policy will instantly stimulate economic activity. Covid-19 cases began spiking in China in early November following a week-long public holiday. The government reported 40,347 new infections for Nov. 27 in an update issued Nov. 28. Beijing announced 20 relaxations of the country’s pandemic policy on Nov. 11, including shorter quarantine periods and more narrowly targeted lockdowns.

☆ With fresh firepower, brutal bank thieves blitz small-town Brazil
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-21 | by ( Gabriel Stargardter | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Using assault rifles and explosives to turn rural towns into war zones, the specialized crews have netted an astonishing $120 million since emerging in 2015, think tank Alpha Bravo Brasil says. In a related article, Reuters tracked how laws pushed by President Jair Bolsonaro make it easier for gangsters to obtain assault rifles like those used in Uberaba. WAR ZONEAbout a week before the raid, the robbers rented an apartment near the bank to surveil their target. The thieves told them to run into the bank - no funny business or they would be shot - where they cowered as their captors worked to blow up the safe. Outside, 10 of the robbers stood with assault rifles in each hand.

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