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☆ Republicans speak out against U.S. debt-ceiling deal, in sign of rocky road ahead
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a candidate for the Republican 2024 presidential nomination, said the deal does not do enough to change the fiscal trajectory. "After this deal, our country will still be careening toward bankruptcy," he said on Fox News. There's no question about that," said Republican Representative Dusty Johnson, who said he had talked to dozens of fellow lawmakers. McCarthy has predicted it will draw the support of most of his fellow Republicans, who control the House 222-213. Most of the savings would come by capping spending on domestic programs like housing, border control, scientific research and other forms of "discretionary" spending.

☆ Republican tries to scuttle debt limit bill in House Rules Committee as pressure grows on key swing vote
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( Manu Raju | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

That would essentially doom the debt ceiling bill since Roy – who sits on the panel – and another conservative committee member are trying to stop the bill from advancing. A third conservative who sits on the panel – Massie – has been mum about how he plans to handle the rule vote in committee. But in January, Massie told CNN he was reluctant to vote against rules to stop bills in their tracks. “And when I checked, there wasn’t a rule that something has to come out of Rules Committee unanimously. “I think that comment was that it had to be unanimous to come out of the Rules Committee to go to the floor is the tweet that I read.

☆ Biden and McCarthy lean on holdouts in both parties to pass debt ceiling deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( Kevin Liptak | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

The bill caps non-defense spending, temporarily expands work requirements for some food stamp recipients and claws back some Covid-19 relief funds. Speaking from the White House on Sunday, Biden hailed the agreement as critical to preventing economic disaster. But like Biden, McCarthy acknowledged the agreement required concessions from both sides. Dusty Johnson said on “State of the Union.”Passing the bill through the House will not be the final step. On Sunday, a handful of powerful Senate Republicans had raised concerns about the deal’s defense spending during a Senate GOP conference call, a source on the call said.

[1/5] Cars belonging to the Palmen collection are displayed in the warehouse in which they were stored over the last 40 years, ahead of Friday's auction, in Dordrecht, Netherlands May 25, 2023. He never showed off his cars but rather kept them a secret, scared people might steal them, Nico Aaldering from Gallery Aaldering said. Palmen could afford to buy the cars thanks to smart investments, including in real estate, said Hans van der Pluijm from Classic Car Auctions, which is running the auction. "It's a collection you will probably never find in this condition, in this quantity again," said Hans van der Pluijm from Classic Car Auctions. It's special in every shape and it's wanted in every collection," Van der Pluijm said.

CNN —After spending more than 300 days in Russian custody last year, Brittney Griner made an emotional return to her WNBA home court in the Phoenix Mercury’s 75-69 defeat by the Chicago Sky. The crowd went crazy in applause as she ran onto the court while giving her teammates high fives. “There might have been a little dust in my eye, a little dusty,” Griner told reporters after the game. Carstens joined Griner at the podium after the game, alongside Representative Shelia Jackson Lee, and said it was “emotional” for them both seeing Griner on the court. BG’s family in the crowd and BG back on the court, doing what BG does best which is playing basketball.

Ships in the Autonomous Port of Cotonou in Benin, West Africa. Prosper Dagnitche/AFP/Getty ImagesThe stream of used cars heading to West African ports is only expected to increase with the West’s shift to electric vehicles. “It’s not like people want to drive used cars; it’s an affordability issue.”Experts say demand for used cars could explode further as the take up of electric cars in the West increases the supply of used cars to African countries. Those states also have robust port operations, making them an ideal place to ship used cars to Africa. “In terms of where Africa goes, the transition shouldn’t necessarily be from used cars to brand new combustion engines, it should be from used cars to EVs,” Ipke said.

☆ Biden says GOP must move off 'extreme' positions, and that there will be no debt limit deal solely on its 'partisan terms'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-21 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

GOP lawmakers are holding tight to demands for sharp spending cuts, rejecting the alternatives proposed by the White House for reducing deficits. GOP lawmakers are also seeking cuts to IRS funding and asking the White House to accept provisions from their proposed immigration overhaul. Republicans had also rejected White House proposals to raise revenues in order to further lower deficits. He said "the socialist wing" of the Democratic party appears to be in control, "especially with President Biden out of the country." For months, Biden had refused to engage in talks over the debt limit, insisting that Congress was trying to use the borrowing limit vote as leverage to extract other policy priorities.

☆ Driving Lamborghini's new off-road supercar
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( Peter Valdes-Dapena | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

I was driving a $380,000 Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato, and I couldn’t help laughing out loud. Lamborghini worked with Bridgestone to create tires using rubber similar to that on Lamborghini’s other performance tires, but with an off-road tread. The idea for it emerged while Lamborghini engineers and designers were having beers after a day driving off-road in a prototype of the Urus SUV. That was a lot of fun, they thought, but wouldn’t driving one of our all-wheel-drive supercars off-road be even better? Even those of us who can’t afford one should perhaps be glad the Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato exists.

☆ Hegra has been inhabited for 12,000 years -- but has only had tourists for four
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Lilit Marcus | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Now, increased investment in archeology from the Saudi government means that more and more information is coming out of Hegra and other Nabatean sites. I think they just get absorbed in the story of the growth of the Roman Empire.”"Hinat" greets travelers at the Hegra visitor's center. Now, travelers can see her in the Hegra visitors’ center. Expand your searchMany visitors combine their Hegra trip with visits to the smaller nearby historic sites of Dadan and Jabal Ikmah. Don’t miss the covered outdoor station near the Hegra visitor’s center, where you can practice using a small chisel to carve your name or initials into pieces of stone.

☆ Pedro Almodóvar’s Answer to ‘Brokeback Mountain’
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Kyle Buchanan | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Follow our live updates from the opening night of the Cannes Film Festival. “How do you want me to look at you?” replies the gunslinger, flirting. It wouldn’t be a western without a fraught standoff, but when Pedro Almodóvar is behind the camera, the glances are even more loaded than the pistols. In “Strange Way of Life,” a new short film that will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday, Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal star as a lawman and a cowboy who reunite 25 years after having a passionate affair. But will their old magic be rekindled, or are both men concealing ulterior motives for the meeting?

Biden told reporters on Sunday that he thought both sides wanted to reach a deal. Staff from the two camps met through the weekend for talks that White House officials described as constructive. Republicans say there is plenty of time. Biden has insisted that Congress must increase the country's borrowing capacity without conditions, but the White House says it is also willing to discuss budget matters with Republicans who control the House of Representatives. The longer the two sides take to reach a deal, the smaller it is likely to be, he said.

Now, according to an internal U.N. estimate obtained by Reuters, 5 million additional people in Sudan will require emergency assistance, half of them children. Even before the latest crisis, U.N. humanitarian appeals for Africa faced a $17-billion funding gap this year, risking leaving millions without lifesaving assistance. Last year, it spent a third of its overseas aid budget housing refugees inside the UK, a British aid watchdog said in March. Sudan was hosting over 1 million refugees, mainly from South Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Syria, before the outbreak of fighting last month. Aid workers have been killed, food aid looted, and WFP says it's running out of stocks.

The US could breach the debt ceiling and run out of money to pay its debts as soon as June 1. A White House official previously told Insider that Biden would stress that Congress "must take action to avoid default without conditions." Additionally, Wall Street's response to the debt-ceiling crisis is different this time around. Even so, he added, this debt-ceiling crisis "seems much more dangerous" than the ones from the Obama years. Biden has options to avoid a debt-ceiling crisis that don't involve CongressTuesday's meeting between Biden and congressional leadership aims to break through the logjam.

☆ 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.

☆ Webb telescope spies evidence of hidden planets around nearby star
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

The revelation of the Fomalhaut’s two inner rings has suggested that planets hidden deeper within the star system may be affecting the dust belt’s shape. Stars form from gas and dust, and then a ring of leftover material called a protoplanetary disk orbits the star, where planets are born. Once the planets form around a star, debris belts form and become shaped by the gravity of the planets. Studying the dust belts can help unlock more of the secrets behind how planetary systems form. “I think it’s not a very big leap to say there’s probably a really interesting planetary system around the star.”

☆ The Eta Aquarids meteor shower is peaking, giving you the chance to see up to 40 shooting stars an hour. Here's how to watch.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The Eta Aquarids meteor shower is due to peak May 5, offering up to 40 shooting stars per hour. The dazzling display is known as the Eta Aquarids and takes place in May each year when Earth travels through debris left behind by Halley's Comet. The meteor shower is active this year from between April 15 to May 27, but it is expected to peak on May 5. NASAThe Eta Aquarids are one of the few showers that favor the Southern Hemisphere. So you will have to wait over 20 years to see another Eta Aquarids outburst," he added.

☆ Swiss army displays Leopard 2 tank as Germany hopes for sale
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Denis Balibouse | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/3] Recruits of the Swiss army Tank School 21 perform an attack exercise with the Leopard 2 tank in Bure, Switzerland May 5, 2023. Switzerland has 134 Leopard 2 tanks in service, some of which were used in training exercises by the country's Tank School 21 in the northwestern canton of Jura this week. But the Leopard 2 tanks that have drawn attention in Switzerland are, in fact, the 96 it keeps in storage. Under its neutrality laws and a separate arms embargo, Switzerland is prohibited from sending weapons directly to a country at war. The German government assured Bern that if it decided to sell its Leopard 2 tanks, these would not be used in Ukraine.

According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a short-term extension of the debt ceiling has been enacted six times since 1993 to buy time for a broader package to take shape. For now, the White House remains committed publicly to its position pushing for a long-term solution and remains open to a two-track process to negotiate spending separately from the debt ceiling. "This is not our plan," a White House spokesperson said of a short-term extension. Moderate Democrats in Congress have signaled a willingness to vote for a short-term extension — making it an option that could pass through a deeply divided legislative branch. "I think if the White House understands how important it is for us to do things like claw back unobligated Covid funds, not spend $500 billion on an unconstitutional student loan forgiveness, start to unlock American energy," Johnson tells NBC News, "I think they're going to find Republicans receptive if the White House understands our values."

☆ Macy’s opens more strip mall stores as expansion strategy faces pivotal test
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Melissa Repko | In Melissa-Repko | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +11 min

The shops, called Market by Macy's and Bloomie's, are about one-fifth of the size of the retailer's typical Macy's and Bloomingdale's stores. It has not announced the locations of the four Market by Macy's stores, but said the additional Bloomie's store will be in Seattle. By opening the strip-mall shops, the retailer could steal business away from its larger namesake mall stores. Market by Macy's stores have worked best in shopping centers with grocery anchors or stores such as off-mall retailers that draw traffic, Mastronardi said. Melissa Repko | CNBCInside of Market by Macy's, shoppers find a narrower mix of merchandise than in the mall stores.

☆ The Eta Aquarids meteor shower is about to peak, giving you the chance to see up to 40 shooting stars an hour. Here's how to watch.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The Eta Aquarids meteor shower is due to peak May 5, offering up to 40 shooting stars per hour. If you're heading out to see the display, here are NASA's top tips for getting the best look. The meteor shower is active this year from between April 15 to May 27, but it is expected to peak on May 5. NASAThe Eta Aquarids are one of the few showers that favor the Southern Hemisphere. So you will have to wait over 20 years to see another Eta Aquarids outburst," he added.

☆ Fifty-three million tons of electronics become junk every year. Here's how one company is tackling the problem.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Sponsor Post | Created Insider Studios With Dell Technologies | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Dell is stepping up to tackle this problem, committing to a circular business model. By 2030, Dell will ensure that 100% of its packaging will be either reused or made from recycled or renewable material. Additionally, more than half of its product content will also be made from recycled, renewable, or reduced carbon emissions material. Already, there are almost 400 million pounds of sustainable materials in Dell's products and packaging and 55% of its electricity comes from renewable sources. "Our emphasis on environmental, social, and governance measures ensures that while we accomplished our business goals, we also delivered positive results for all of our stakeholders," he said.

☆ Archaeologists in Peru find adolescent mummy wrapped in bundle
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The mummy was probably an adolescent and found in an underground tomb wrapped in a funerary bundle, along with ceramics and rope and including bits of skin and hair. [1/5] Skeletal remains and parts of the funerary bundle of a mummy found by Peruvian archaeologists are seen in the ruins of Cajarmarquilla, in the outskirts of Lima, Peru, April 24, 2023. The mummy was discovered about 200 metres (220 yards) from where the first mummy of Cajamarquilla was found, explained Huaman, referring to another mummy found nearby last year. The complex is the second largest mud-brick city in Peru after Chan Chan in the north of the Andean country. Located in a dusty area about 20km (12 miles) from Lima, the site was believed to be a thriving trading center.

☆ Russia-Ukraine War Russian Foreign Minister Wraps up Americas Tour at U.N.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Anushka Patil | Juston Jones | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Video For Valentyn, a Ukrainian soldier in the Donetsk region, the war’s death toll is more than a statistic. He is tasked with moving wounded troops — and dead bodies — away from the front lines, often under Russian fire. On the horizon, a military vehicle moves along a dusty road and screeches to a halt when it reaches the trees. A soldier named Valentyn parks it there for natural camouflage from Russian drones scouting for Ukrainian military positions. “This is a big tragedy for us.”“One more body is left behind with the Russian soldiers,” he added.

Meanwhile, BlackRock is part of another group investing $650 million to build chargers along freight routes. Because port real estate is at a premium, most early drayage charging projects will be "behind the fence" on trucking company property, experts said. Electric trucks cannot operate without chargers, but it does not make sense to build chargers if drivers are not using electric trucks. Prologis, the biggest U.S. warehouse owner, created its mobility business to install electric truck chargers and solar panels. "A marriage between real estate and energy infrastructure" will be needed to accelerate the transition to electric-powered trucking, Prologis Mobility's Holland said.

☆ Webb telescope captures glowing starburst as galaxies collide
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —A brilliant starburst feature shines in the latest image taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. The space observatory captured a bright burst of star formation triggered by two spiral galaxies crashing into one another. The colliding galaxies, known collectively as Arp 220, generated an infrared glow that contains the light of more than 1 trillion suns. This brilliant luminosity creates the diffraction spikes, or starburst feature witnessed by Webb. The new Webb image also reveals tails, or material streaming away from the galaxies due to gravity, in blue, to indicate activity as the galaxies continue to collide.

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