Category Archives: Around the World

“Tillerson is gone – the first Cabinet secretary ever to be fired by tweet”

The New Yorker: Rex Tillerson Gets Fired the Day After He Criticized Russia. By John Cassidy.

““There is never a justification for this type of attack – the attempted murder of a private citizen on the soil of a sovereign nation – and we are outraged that Russia appears to have again engaged in such behavior,“ Tillerson’s statement said. “From Ukraine to Syria – and now the UK – Russia continues to be an irresponsible force of instability in the world, acting with open disregard for the sovereignty of other states and the life of their citizens. We agree that those responsible – both those who committed the crime and those who ordered it – must face appropriately serious consequences. We stand in solidarity with our Allies in the United Kingdom and will continue to coordinate closely our responses.“

This was arguably the strongest condemnation of Russian behavior that the Trump Administration has ever issued. And it turned out to be one of Tillerson’s final official acts as Secretary of State. At 8:44 A.M. on Tuesday, Donald Trump announced Tillerson’s firing on Twitter. “Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State,“ Trump wrote. “

Link via Garret.

Think of the heart muscle as a rubber band […] put it in a drawer for 20 years and it will emerge dry and brittle.

NPR shots: Hearts Get ‘Younger,’ Even At Middle Age, With Exercise.

“Eventually it happens to everyone. As we age, even if we’re healthy, the heart becomes less flexible, more stiff and just isn’t as efficient in processing oxygen as it used to be. In most people the first signs show up in the 50s or early 60s. And among people who don’t exercise, the underlying changes can start even sooner.

“The heart gets smaller — stiffer,” says Dr. Ben Levine, a sports cardiologist at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and director of the Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, in Dallas.
[…]
Fortunately for those in midlife, Levine is finding that even if you haven’t been an avid exerciser, getting in shape now may head off that decline and help restore your aging heart. He and his colleagues published their recent findings in the American Heart Association’s journal, Circulation.”

“Mr Trump has given away the prize of a summit without getting anything in return”

The Economist: Proceed with caution: Donald Trump’s gift for Kim Jong Un.. “A premature summit will do more for the North Korean leader than for America’s president.”

“Mr Trump no doubt believes that it is his toughness alone that has brought Mr Kim to the negotiating table and that, once there, his unique force of personality and his genius for the deal will bully and coax Mr Kim into giving up his nukes.

In fact hell will freeze over before Mr Kim voluntarily surrenders a capability that his father and grandfather believed would be the ultimate guarantor of their dynasty’s survival and which has taken decades and huge sacrifices to construct.

[…]

The risk, however, is that an inadequately prepared summit between these leaders will fall into one of two traps. The first is that Mr Kim succeeds in charming the impetuous and inexperienced Mr Trump to such an extent that he makes foolish concessions that his opposite number has no intention of earning. The second is that, if it dawns on Mr Trump that he has been played by Mr Kim and made to look naive, he may react like a jilted, misled suitor. The motto for talks with North Korea should be “proceed with caution“ . A premature summit, by contrast, is an ill-considered roll of the dice.”

“He was going to be famous, the best shooter ever”

Chicago Tribune: Accused S.C. teen wanted to outdo other school shootings. The problem, he explained, was the weapon.. “Jesse Osborne detailed his motives in online messages, interviews and a 46-page confession.”

“”My plan,” wrote Jesse Osborne, who had turned 14 three weeks earlier, “is shooting my dad getting his keys getting in his truck, driving to the elementary school 4 mins away, once there gear up, shoot out the bottom school class room windows, enter the building, shoot the first class which will be the 2d grade, grab teachers keys so I don’t have to hasle to get through any doors.”

He had been researching other school shooters for months and, determined to outdo them, learned exactly how many people they’d murdered: 13 at Columbine High; 26 at Sandy Hook Elementary; 32 at Virginia Tech.

“I think ill probably most likely kill around 50 or 60,” Jesse declared. “If I get lucky maybe 150.””

[…]

“Jesse could have killed so many more children, he knew, with that Mini-14.

“To the media, it’s called an assault rifle,” he told interrogators before lamenting, for a second time, that it remained locked away.

But he was wrong.

Soon after the shooting, investigators searched the teen’s home for evidence. In his parents’ bedroom, they looked in the closet, and there, outside the safe and just feet from his father’s dresser, was the weapon Jesse coveted.”

I’m feeling sick to my stomach.

Link via MetaFilter.

“Die Gleichberechtigung liegt ihr am Herzen”

Die Zeit: Frances McDormand: Die Unerschrockene. “Ungeschminkt und unabhängig: Frances McDormand zeigt, wie Hollywood aussehen könnte, wenn Frauen nur für ihre schauspielerische Leistung beurteilt würden.” Von Barbara Schweizerhof.

“Bei allen Verleihungen, egal wie glamourös sie waren, erschien die Schauspielerin fast ungeschminkt, die kurzen, grauen Haare nur nachlässig in Fasson gebracht, und in Kleidern, die in Form und Farbe das Gegenteil von dem waren, was man figurbetont oder sexy nennt. Wenn die Kamera während ihrer Dankesreden prominente Gesichter im Publikum zeigte, wurde der Kontrast noch deutlicher: Jessica Chastain, Sally Hawkins oder Carey Mulligan, Meryl Streep, Margot Robbie oder Emma Stone, alle mit sorgfältig aufgelegtem Fest-Make-up, Dekolletés und Glitzerlook, wirkten fast wie artige Püppchen gegenüber dieser Frau, die unerschrocken ihr Alter zeigt und schon vor Langem aufgehört hat, im herkömmlichen Sinn gefallen zu wollen.”