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How Ukraine Pitched Trump on a Deal for Critical Minerals How Ukraine Pitched Trump on a Deal for Critical Minerals To Ukraine, they are a chit to play in an ongoing appeal to President Trump for more financial and military support. To Mr. Trump, they should be overdue payment for billions of dollars committed to Kyiv’s war effort. Either way, Ukraine’s vast and valuable mineral resources have suddenly become a prominent component in the maneuvering over the country’s future. Over the past week, Mr. Trump has repeatedly pushed the idea of trading U.S. aid for Ukraine’s critical minerals. He told Fox News on Monday that he wanted “the equivalent of like $500 billion worth of rare earths,” a group of minerals crucial for many high-tech products, in exchange for American aid. Ukraine had “essentially agreed to do that,” he said. For Ukraine, it is a hopeful sign that Mr. Trump, a longtime skeptic of American aid to Kyiv, might find a path to maintaining support that he finds palatable. But it’s still possible that the famously mercurial president will change his mind, and even his statements about a deal have been ambiguous about whether he wants Ukraine’s minerals for past or future aid — or a combination of both. Mr. Trump’s proposal followed a campaign launched by Kyiv in the fall to appeal to the U.S. president’s business-oriented mind-set by discussing lucrative energy deals and emphasizing that defending Ukraine aligned with American economic interests. The campaign included a meeting between Mr. Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky and trips to the United States by Ukrainian officials to pitch deals for exploiting deposits of lithium and titanium — vital for producing technologies like electric batteries. It also involved getting backing from influential political figures like the Republican senator Lindsey Graham. The campaign was launched after politically connected U.S. investors started showing interest in Ukraine’s underground wealth in late 2023, despite the war that has been raging since 2022. A consortium including TechMet, an energy investment firm partly owned by the U.S. government, and Ronald S. Lauder, a wealthy friend of Mr. Trump, has engaged with Kyiv to bid on a Ukrainian lithium field, according to a letter to Mr. Zelensky reviewed by The New York Times. Mr. Lauder, a cosmetics heir who planted the idea in Mr. Trump’s mind of buying resource-rich Greenland, said through a spokesman that he had not discussed Ukrainian minerals with Mr. Trump directly, but had “raised the issue with stakeholders in the U.S. and Ukraine for many years up to the present day.” As Mr. Trump pushes for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, Kyiv’s campaign around critical minerals has underscored Mr. Zelensky’s evolving strategy for retaining American support. Moving away from the moral appeals he used with the Biden administration, he has embraced a more transactional approach closer to Mr. Trump’s style. Mr. Zelensky recently said that he would also be interested in purchasing American liquefied natural gas. Speaking to Reuters on Friday, Mr. Zelensky said: “If we are talking about a deal, then let’s do a deal.” Mr. Trump said Tuesday that he was sending his Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, to meet Mr. Zelensky in Ukraine — the first visit by a Trump administration official. Mr. Bessent was directed to explore with the Ukrainians what a deal for the minerals might look like. He was expected in Kyiv on Wednesday, according to an official with knowledge of the trip. The idea of leveraging Ukraine’s mineral resources took shape last summer. Kyiv was crafting its “Victory Plan,” a strategy aimed at ending the war on terms favorable to Ukraine, and wanted to convince its allies to sustain their support despite rising war fatigue. Ukrainian officials were particularly concerned about a potential return to power of Mr. Trump, who had vowed to cut off military and financial aid to Ukraine, according to Ukrainian officials and lawmakers. Their attention was drawn to an argument voiced by a Trump ally: Mr. Graham, who was making the case that Ukraine was “sitting on a gold mine” of critical minerals. “If we help Ukraine now, they could become the best business partner we’ve ever dreamed of,” he said last June. He reinforced his message in a video with Mr. Zelensky in September. Ukrainian authorities say the country holds deposits of nearly half the 50 minerals the United States has identified as critical for its economy and national security. The Kyiv School of Economics says Ukraine holds the largest titanium reserves in Europe and a third of the continent’s lithium reserves. Groups like SecDev, a ********* firm, have valued the reserves at several trillion dollars. But some deposits are inaccessible because they are in Russian-occupied land. And experts caution that exploiting mineral reserves could be a costly and prolonged process, with new surveys needed to accurately assess their potential. In a November 2023 letter to Mr. Zelensky, Brian Menell, head of TechMet, sought assistance for launching a bid to exploit a state-owned lithium field in central Ukraine. The letter named Mr. Lauder, the Texas-based investment firm Privateer Capital and other U.S. and international investors as associates. Mr. Menell and other energy executives met Mr. Zelensky in New York in September. It is unclear whether they discussed the bid, which has yet to be launched. “TechMet, together with our partners, is available to move forward with further work if the U.S. and Ukrainian governments instruct us to do so,” Mr. Menell said in a statement. Kyiv then decided to offer allies access to critical minerals as part of its Victory Plan. Mr. Zelensky presented the plan to Mr. Trump during a meeting in New York in late September. During Mr. Trump’s first term, when Kremlin-backed troops were already waging war in eastern Ukraine, Kyiv won support from him, including for weapons supplies, by buying coal from an important swing state, Pennsylvania. Part of Ukraine’s argument now is to emphasize that should it lose the war, its mineral resources would fall into the hands of Russia and its allies like China, which already dominates the global market for such materials. John E. Herbst, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and now senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center, said Ukraine’s pitch was an obvious sell for Mr. Trump. “It involves vast energy resources, economically valuable assets which are not abundant in the Western world, and it’s a way to strip other competitors, including China, of their leverage over the United States,” Mr. Herbst said. “It’s a no-brainer.” Last fall, work was underway to finalize and sign an agreement with the Biden administration to cooperate on extracting and processing minerals. But Ukrainian authorities decided to postpone the signing of the deal and offer it to Mr. Trump instead so that he could claim credit for it. A Ukrainian delegation led by Yulia Svyrydenko, the economy minister, then traveled to New York and Washington in December for meetings with U.S. officials and business representatives, with critical minerals as a central topic. Ms. Svyrydenko outlined potential energy deals, including the acquisition of production licenses for critical minerals. A presentation, seen by The Times, emphasized that Ukraine was “capable of building the entire value chain to meet U.S. and E.U. metallic titanium demand for 25 years.” Matthew Murray, chairman of the advisory board of Velta, a Ukrainian titanium extraction company, said Ms. Svyrydenko had asked him and other U.S. business representatives for their help in making Ukraine’s case to the Trump administration. “We spent a good deal of this meeting talking about critical raw materials,” Mr. Murray said. He added that the exploitation of these resources could become a new pillar of the U.S.-Ukraine relationship. What shape this pillar may take remains to be seen. A draft of the agreement that Kyiv postponed, and which was reviewed by The Times, included only pledges to share information and expertise on potential partnerships. It contained no financial commitments and was nonbinding. It is unclear whether Kyiv and Washington will amend the agreement to align it with Mr. Trump’s latest proposals. Mr. Murray, a former Obama administration official, said one idea circulating in Washington was to offer Ukraine a loan to purchase U.S. weaponry, with access to critical minerals as collateral. This proposal could align with Mr. Trump’s vision, who has talked of obtaining a “guarantee” for continued American assistance. “There are many steps yet to be taken, but the concept is very viable,” he said. Marian Prysiazhniuk contributed reporting. Source link #Ukraine #Pitched #Trump #Deal #Critical #Minerals Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

MI5 lied to courts to defend handling of violent neo-Nazi agent MI5 lied to courts to defend handling of violent neo-Nazi agent Daniel De Simone BBC investigations correspondent BBC MI5 lied to three courts while defending its handling of a misogynistic neo-Nazi state agent who attacked his girlfriend with a machete, the BBC can reveal. Arguing for secrecy, the Security Service told judges it had stuck to its policy of not confirming or denying informants’ identities. In fact, MI5 had disclosed the man’s status in phone calls to me, as it tried to persuade me not to investigate the man – known publicly only as agent X. The service aggressively maintained its position until I produced evidence proving it was untrue, including a recording of one of the calls. The BBC can reveal: MI5 first lied in a court case where the government attempted to block the BBC from reporting on agent X’s wrongdoing – and succeeded in banning us from naming the foreign nationalThe Security Service then repeated the lie to a specialist court, where the woman attacked with a machete – known by the alias Beth – is seeking answers about MI5’s handling of its agentIt repeated the lie again to a judicial review, where Beth was challenging the specialist court’s decisionA senior officer said he was legally authorised to tell me X was an agent – so MI5 had not stuck to its policy of not confirming or denying agents’ identities In an unprecedented humiliation, MI5 has now issued an “unreserved apology” to the BBC and all three courts, describing what happened as a “serious error” and saying “MI5 takes full responsibility”. There will now be pressure on MI5 director general Sir Ken McCallum to explain what he knew, given that the officer said he had been legally authorised to disclose X’s role. It also raises concerns about the reliability of MI5’s evidence in the courts and the sustainability of one of its core secrecy policies. PA Media Ken McCallum, director general of MI5, worked closely with the senior officer who called me Beth’s case will now head back to the specialist court, which is investigating if the Security Service breached her human rights by failing to protect her from X’s abusive and coercive behaviour. It will reconsider whether it was right to to rule that the evidence should be heard in closed sessions which she would not be able to attend. Beth’s lawyer, Kate Ellis from the Centre for Women’s Justice, told the BBC: “I think this raises real concerns about MI5’s transparency, about whether we can trust MI5’s evidence to courts.” MI5’s lie can be revealed after the BBC applied to the High Court to report false evidence in a corporate witness statement by a deputy director in the Security Service, known as Witness A. His statement said the service had maintained its long-standing approach to neither confirm nor deny the identity of agents – a policy known by the initials NCND – and gave a false account of the MI5 officer’s calls with me. During a short hearing granting permission on Wednesday at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, Mr Justice Chamberlain said the relevant MI5 evidence had been “false”. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has appointed Sir Jonathan Jones KC, former head of the government legal service, as an “independent external reviewer” to investigate how MI5 came to provide false evidence to the courts. He has also been asked to recommend any changes needed to ensure that courts are provided with accurate information in future by the Security Service. MI5 agent X terrorised his partner with a machete After we reported in 2022 how X terrorised his partner, Ms Cooper – then shadow home secretary – had called for an “independent assessment” of the case, looking at the way concerns about “the appalling and dangerous crime of domestic abuse” were handled by MI5. MI5 says it is conducting an internal investigation into the false evidence which may result in disciplinary action. Sir James Eadie KC, representing the government at court on Wednesday, said the internal MI5 disciplinary process “indicates the seriousness with which this is being taken”. He said the court will be updated in April. The BBC has called into the question the lack of explanation from MI5. In legal submissions today, the BBC invited the court to take further steps to ensure that this “serious breach is properly investigated” and that the results of any investigation are brought into the public domain. Exposure of MI5’s false testimony will also damage its credibility in other court proceedings, where judges are obliged to give enormous weight and deference to the Security Service’s evidence. These often involve secret hearings which are closed even to those most affected – including Beth, people whose relatives have been killed in attacks and people whose *** citizenship has been stripped from them. MI5 has acknowledged the issue, saying in legal submissions on Wednesday that it is “acutely conscious of the particular responsibilities that MI5 bears” and that courts must be able to “trust completely any evidence it provides”. The Security Service maintains that the NCND policy is essential to maintain national security and keep agents safe. But the BBC revelations will add to concerns about the way the policy is being used, including that it may stand in the way of agents being held accountable when they abuse their positions or commit crimes. Because the senior MI5 officer told me disclosure of the agent’s status had been legally authorised, it means it had been signed off by lawyers and other senior figures in MI5. The Home Office and Cabinet Office should also have been informed, according to the policy for departures from NCND. In a new witness statement, the MI5 deputy director Witness A said he “sincerely” apologised for giving incorrect evidence. He said the false information “reflected my honestly held belief at that time, and which accurately reflected the information I was given”. If you have information about this story or a similar one that you would like to share with the BBC News Investigations team please get in touch. Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can contact us in the following ways: Email: [email protected].*** Signal: +447811921399 Click here to learn how to use SecureDrop, an anonymous whistleblowing tool that works only in the Tor browser and follow the advice to stay secure. More on this story Source link #MI5 #lied #courts #defend #handling #violent #neoNazi #agent Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

One dead, 25 hurt after train, truck collide in Germany One dead, 25 hurt after train, truck collide in Germany One person has died and at least 25 others are injured after a high-speed train and a truck collided on the outskirts of the ******* city of Hamburg. The ICE train had 291 people on board at the time of the collision with a truck that was loaded with rails. Police said the uninjured passengers were evacuated and taken to a nearby station by bus. A 55-year-old passenger died at the scene. The train rammed the truck on a crossing and windows in cars at the front of the train shattered, the ******* news agency DPA reported, citing a witness. The truck’s load was strewn around the accident site. It was not immediately clear what led to the accident. The truck driver was taken in for questioning by police. By Wednesday morning, the train had been towed away and one track of the railway line had been reopened. Source link #dead #hurt #train #truck #collide #Germany Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Scientists Reveal an Ambitious Plan to Detect Dark Matter in Space Scientists Reveal an Ambitious Plan to Detect Dark Matter in Space A new paper says that one dark matter candidate hasn’t killed anyone A new detector to home in on the mystery of dark matter is getting closer to deployment. At the University of Southampton in the ***, physicists are testing an apparatus that involves levitating sheets of graphite in microgravity to look for tiny anomalies that could point to the nature of this elusive substance. “Dark matter remains one of the fundamental questions scientists are still trying to answer – it dictates the structure of our Universe but is still undetectable,” says physicist Tim Fuchs of the University of Southampton. “There are lots of theories as to what dark matter might be but no experiment on Earth has ever come close to detecting it.” When we look out into the wider Universe, there’s a big discrepancy between the amount of normal matter that we can see, and the amount of gravity. Simply put, there’s way too much gravity to be attributed solely to normal, or baryonic, matter, the stuff that makes up all the stars and planets and dust. We can tell this by looking at things like the rotation of the outer parts of galaxies, which is way higher than it should be based on their mass, or the way space-time warps and bends around huge masses. We can tell, based on measurements of these phenomena, that dark matter outweighs normal matter by a ratio of about six to one. But we don’t know what dark matter is. We can’t detect it directly. It doesn’t give off any light, or interact with the Universe that we can tell, other than its gravitational impact. We may never know what it is, but scientists are not going to let it go without exhausting every possible avenue of inquiry. This is where the work of Fuchs and his team comes in, with an experiment set to launch into Earth orbit aboard a satellite called Jovian-1, from whence it will be jettisoned to orbit Earth for a planned two years. “Our experiment is unlike anything attempted before: we’ll be levitating graphite between magnets which, in zero gravity, are incredibly sensitive to small forces,” Fuchs explains. “If there is a sufficiently high density of dark matter, a dark ‘wind’ will softly push our levitated particles by an amount we can measure – detecting it for the first time ever.” Jovian-1 will be around the size of a shoebox, carrying several experiments designed by students at the University of Southampton, the University of Portsmouth, and Surrey University, all in the ***. The team plans to launch the satellite in early 2026, so we might be waiting a while to see results. But those results, when they arrive, could tell us a lot more about dark matter, whether a detection is made or not. “There are theories that say the dark matter interaction rate may actually be so high that it cannot penetrate our atmosphere or the mountains under which detectors have been built. This might explain why many of the major Earth experiments that have been built to detect dark matter have not revealed any conclusive signals,” Fuchs says. “Our mission is the first of its kind to use this levitating technology in space – and we hope it will serve as a proof of principle that we can detect dark matter above Earth.” Related News Source link #Scientists #Reveal #Ambitious #Plan #Detect #Dark #Matter #Space Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Motorola Razr+ Paris Hilton Edition With Custom Accessories Launched: Price, Features Motorola Razr+ Paris Hilton Edition With Custom Accessories Launched: Price, Features Motorola Razr+ Paris Hilton Edition was launched in the US on Tuesday. It comes in a Paris Pink shade and a vegan leather finish alongside customised accessories including a vegan leather case. The handset is equipped with customised ringtones, alerts, and wallpapers. It gets the same specifications as the standard Motorola Razr+ (2024), which was introduced in select markets outside the US, and in India as the Motorola Razr 50 Ultra. It is powered by a Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 SoC, a 4-inch cover display, and a 4,000mAh battery. Motorola Razr+ Paris Hilton Edition Price, Availability Motorola Razr+ Paris Hilton Edition price is set at $1,199.99 (roughly Rs. 1.04,300) for the sole configuration of 12GB of RAM and 256GB of onboard storage. It will be available for purchase in the US in limited quantities starting February 13 exclusively on Motorola.com, the company confirmed in a press release. The phone is offered in a Paris Pink colourway with Paris Hilton’s autograph on the back panel and the phrase “That’s Hot” engraved on the hinge. The smartphone comes in customised packaging and is equipped with “Paris-inspired ringtones, alerts, and wallpapers.” The Paris Hilton Edition of the Motorola Razr+ arrives with exclusive accessories including a vegan leather case in a Pink Icon colour option, as well as Pink Sparkle and Pink Vegan Leather strap options. Motorola Razr+ Paris Hilton Edition Specifications, Features The Motorola Razr+ Paris Hilton Edition specifications are same as the standard Razr+. It gets a 6.9-inch full-HD+ (1,080×2,640 pixels) LTPO pOLED main screen and a 4-inch (1,080×1,272 pixels) LTPO pOLED cover display with a Corning Gorilla Glass Victus protection. The phone carries a Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 SoC, paired with up to 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB UFS 4.0 onboard storage. It ships with Android 14-based Hello UI. For optics, the Motorola Razr+ Paris Hilton Edition gets a 50-megapixel primary sensor with optical image stabilisation (OIS) support alongside a 50-megapixel telephoto sensor with 2x optical zoom at the back and a 32-megapixel selfie shooter at the front. For security, it is equipped with a side-mounted fingerprint sensor. Motorola has packed a 4,000mAh battery in the Razr+ Paris Hilton Edition with support for 45W wired, 15W wireless and 5W reverse charging. Connectivity options include 5G, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth, GPS, A-GPS, NFC, and a USB Type-C port. The handset is claimed to meet an IPX8 rating for water resistance. It measures 73.99 x 88.09x 15.32mm when folded and 73.99 x 171.42 x 7.09mm when unfolded, and weighs 189g. Source link #Motorola #Razr #Paris #Hilton #Edition #Custom #Accessories #Launched #Price #Features Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

India’s inflation cools to lower-than-expected 4.31% in January India’s inflation cools to lower-than-expected 4.31% in January India’s central bank held its key interest rate for a seventh straight policy meeting on Friday as growth in the economy is expected to remain robust while inflation stays above the 4% target. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images India’s headline inflation dipped year-on-year for a third straight month to 4.31%, providing more room for monetary easing after the country’s central bank cut rates for the first time in nearly five years last week. The January reading was the lowest since August 2024, and came below expectations of 4.6% from economists polled by Reuters. A drop in inflation could clear the way for another rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India, which slashed the repo rate to 6.25% from 6.5% on Friday in its bid to boost a slowing economy. Get a weekly roundup of news from India in your inbox every Thursday. Subscribe now The RBI is currently facing a dilemma as it seeks to prop up growth in Asia’s third-largest economy, but rate cuts aimed at stimulating growth could weaken the rupee, which hit a record low earlier this month and has been under pressure due to a stronger dollar. The Indian currency, however, strengthened over that past two days, reportedly due to an intervention by the central bank. RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra said in his statement that the decision to cut rates was owed to a decline in inflation, which is expected to further moderate in 2025 and 2026 toward the bank’s target of 4%. Full-year growth for the fiscal year ending March 2025 is expected to come in at 6.4%, according to government estimates, sharply lower than the 8.2% a year earlier. The RBI also cut its growth forecast for the current fiscal year to 6.4% — matching the government outlook. The bank had pegged growth at 6.6% in its previous estimate. “These growth-inflation dynamics open up policy space for the MPC [monetary policy committee] to support growth, while remaining focused on aligning inflation with the target,” the central bank said Friday. Source link #Indias #inflation #cools #lowerthanexpected #January Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Monty the giant schnauzer wins Best in Show – BBC.com Monty the giant schnauzer wins Best in Show – BBC.com Monty the giant schnauzer wins Best in Show BBC.comArcher the Skye Terrier wins the Terrier Group | Westminster Dog Show FOX SportsWestminster Dog Show 2025: Behind-the-Scenes Photos The New York Times2025 Westminster Kennel Club dog show – in pictures The Guardian Source link #Monty #giant #schnauzer #wins #Show #BBC.com Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Tecno Camon 40 Series Launch Timeline, Colourways, Key Features Leaked Tecno Camon 40 Series Launch Timeline, Colourways, Key Features Leaked Tecno Camon 40 series is expected to be unveiled in select global markets soon. The handsets in the lineup have previously appeared on several certification sites. The series is expected to include base, Pro, and Premier variants. Several key features, colour options and designs of the purported smartphones have now surfaced online. The expected launch date of the series, including its probable India launch timeline has been tipped as well. The lineup is expected to succeed the Tecno Camon 30 lineup, which was initially unveiled during MWC 2024. Tecno Camon 40 Series Launch Timeline, Colourways, Key Features (Expected) The Tecno Camon 40 series will be introduced on March 4, 2025, at the Mobile World Congress (MWC), according to a Passionategeekz report. The handsets are likely to be unveiled in India later this year in May. The series will likely include a base Tecno Camon 40, a Camon 40 Pro 4G, Camon 40 Pro 5G, and a Tecno Camon 40 Premier 5G variant. The phones are tipped to be offered in Emerald Lake Green and Galaxy ****** colours. The vanilla and Pro versions will come in a third Glacier White shade, while the base Camon 40 model will be offered in a fourth Emerald Glow Green colour, the report added. Both base and Pro versions of the Tecno Camon 40 will sport a 6.78-inch AMOLED screen, while the Premier model will come with a 6.74-inch AMOLED display, according to the report. The Tecno Camon 40 4G and Tecno Camon 40 Pro 4G handsets will reportedly offer a 120Hz refresh rate, while the 5G Pro and Premier options will support a refresh rate of 144Hz. The vanilla version is said to get a flat screen, while the Pro and Premier versions are expected to have curved and quad-curved displays, respectively. The Tecno Camon 40 4G and Camon 40 Pro 4G are expected to be powered by MediaTek Helio G100 Ultimate chipsets paired with 8GB of RAM. They may support an additional 8GB of virtual RAM. Meanwhile, the Tecno Camon 40 Pro 5G and Camon 40 Premier 5G are tipped to offer 12GB RAM and use the MediaTek Dimensity 7300 Ultimate and Dimensity 8350 Ultimate AI SoCs, respectively. They are also said to support up to 12GB of virtual RAM expansion. All four handsets are expected to come with support for 256GB of onboard storage. Both Tecno Camon 40 Pro handsets as well as the base Camon 40 model are expected to carry a 1/1.56-inch 50-megapixel primary rear sensor with optical image stabilisation (OIS) support alongside an 8-megapixel ultrawide-angle shooter. The Tecno Camon 40 Premier 5G, on the other hand, is expected to have a 50-megapixel ultrawide-angle camera and a 50-megapixel telephoto lens with 3x zoom support alongside the same main sensor. All variants are tipped to support dual flash. The base model is claimed to sport a 32-megapixel selfie shooter, while the Pro and Premier versions are said to carry 50-megapixel front cameras. The Tecno Camon 40 Premier 5G is expected to house a 5,100mAh battery, while the base and Pro versions are said to pack 5,200mAh cells. All handsets are reported to support 45W wired fast charging. Source link #Tecno #Camon #Series #Launch #Timeline #Colourways #Key #Features #Leaked Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Monty the giant schnauzer wins Best in Show Monty the giant schnauzer wins Best in Show A giant schnauzer named Monty was crowned Best in Show at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show on Tuesday, the most prestigious dog show in the US. After reaching the final three years in a row, Monty beat more than 2,500 canines to become the first giant schnauzer to take home the show’s top prize. “The puppy did the damn thing,” Monty’s owner Katie Bernardin said in the event televised from New York City’s Madison Square Garden. The dog club is the oldest in the US dedicated to showing dogs, with its annual show – now in its 149th year – the second-longest sporting event held in the US after the Kentucky Derby. The winners of each of the 200 competing breeds advance to compete for one of seven group titles, with each group winner then moving to the finals. After two years of winning the Working Group, but failing to secure the overall prize, the five-year-old male with an all-****** coat finally came out on top. He gave the Working Group of breeds its first winner since 2004. Judge Paula Nykiel, who is a dog breeder and owner-handler, chose Monty as Best in Show after he stood out in the preliminary events during the three-day competition. When choosing a winner, judges also consider the breed’s ideal standard, and examine its body and mouth. Among the more than 2,500 Monty beat from across the country, was nine-year-old Bourbon, who snapped up runner-up – or Reserve Best as they are known in the show. The whippet came out of retirement for the event, and claimed Reserve Best for the third time. Other finalists this year included Comet the shih tzu, Mercedes the ******* shepherd and Neal the bichon frise. In 2024, a female miniature poodle won Best in Show. Source link #Monty #giant #schnauzer #wins #Show Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

UN says Sheikh Hasina’s crackdown may be crime against humanity UN says Sheikh Hasina’s crackdown may be crime against humanity Simon Fraser Asia editor, BBC News website Getty Images Last year’s violence was the worst Bangladesh had seen since its 1971 war of independence Up to 1,400 people were killed in last year’s anti-government protests in Bangladesh, most of them by security forces, the United Nations estimates. UN human rights investigators accuse the deposed government of Sheikh Hasina of a brutal response that they warn could amount to “crimes against humanity”. They found “an official policy to attack and violently repress anti-government protesters and sympathisers”, calculated to hang on to power in the face of mass opposition. Sheikh Hasina, who had been in office for 15 years, fled by helicopter to India shortly before crowds stormed her residence. Getty Images Student-led demonstrations against job quotas escalated into mass protests after a bloody police crackdown Thousands more were injured in the worst violence Bangladesh has seen since its war of independence in 1971. Student-led protests against quotas in civil service jobs escalated into a countrywide movement to oust Ms Hasina and her Awami League Party following a brutal police crackdown. The UN investigators documented the shooting at point blank range of some protesters, the deliberate maiming of others, arbitrary arrests and torture. Children too were targeted – the report estimates up to 13% of the 1,400 people killed were children. The report was requested by Bangladesh’s caretaker leader, Muhammad Yunus. While it attributes most of the violence to government security forces, it also raises concerns about attacks on those perceived to be supporters of the former government, and against some religious and ethnic groups. These must be investigated too, the UN says. Getty Images Bangladesh has issued an arrest warrant for Sheikh Hasina, who fled to India Source link #Sheikh #Hasinas #crackdown #crime #humanity Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Athena Lunar Mission Set to Deploy ‘Gracie’ Hopper for Crater Exploration Near Moon’s South Pole Athena Lunar Mission Set to Deploy ‘Gracie’ Hopper for Crater Exploration Near Moon’s South Pole A lunar mission involving a rocket-powered hopper is set to launch later this month. The spacecraft, named Athena, is expected to carry multiple payloads, including ‘Gracie,’ a small robotic explorer developed through a collaboration between Intuitive Machines and NASA. The launch is scheduled to take place from Florida’s Space Coast within a four-day window opening on February 26. If the landing proceeds as planned, Athena will touch down on a plateau approximately 160 kilometres from the Moon’s south pole, a region believed to contain water ice deposits. Gracie’s Mission Objectives and Design As reported by space.com, Gracie is designed to perform five controlled hops across the lunar surface using thrusters. The initial hop is expected to reach 20 metres in height, followed by progressively higher leaps, culminating in a descent into a shadowed lunar crater known as Crater H. This crater, located approximately 500 metres from Athena’s landing site, has a depth of around 20 metres. Trent Martin, Senior Vice President of Space Systems at Intuitive Machines, stated in a NASA press conference that the hopper is intended to operate in extreme conditions, with its final hop aiming to explore the crater floor. Efforts are being made to maintain communication during this phase through Nokia’s Lunar Surface Communication System, which aims to establish the first 4G/LTE network on the Moon. Scientific Exploration and Data Collection Gracie is expected to collect data using its onboard instruments. A key feature is the ‘water snooper’ sensor, designed to detect water ice in the surrounding environment. Additionally, the hopper is equipped with cameras, which will provide images of the lunar surface and its movements. The mission is intended to demonstrate alternative exploration methods beyond traditional rover-based designs, with Gracie’s success potentially influencing future lunar exploration strategies. Additional Payloads on Athena The Athena lander is set to carry several other payloads. NASA’s Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment 1 (PRIME-1) will conduct subsurface sampling using a drill capable of reaching depths of one metre. A mass spectrometer will be used to analyse these samples for signs of water and other volatile compounds. Another payload, the Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform (MAPP), developed by Lunar Outpost, will explore the lunar surface with high-resolution optical and thermal cameras. A smaller rover known as AstroAnt, developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will also be deployed from MAPP to collect temperature data. Expected Landing and Operational Timeline If Athena’s landing is successful, operations on the Moon are expected to last approximately ten Earth days. The lander and its payloads will function until the lunar night sets in, cutting off solar power. This mission follows the success of Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 mission, which landed the Odysseus spacecraft on the lunar surface in February 2024, marking the first private soft landing on the Moon. Despite minor landing issues, Odysseus provided valuable insights, setting a precedent for future commercial lunar missions. Additional lunar missions by private companies are currently underway, including Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost and Tokyo-based ispace’s Resilience lander, both launched aboard a Falcon 9 rocket in January. These missions form part of an increasing number of private sector efforts aimed at exploring and utilising lunar resources. Source link #Athena #Lunar #Mission #Set #Deploy #Gracie #Hopper #Crater #Exploration #Moons #South #Pole Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Jimmy Kimmel Pokes Fun at Trump’s Paper Straw Ban – The New York Times Jimmy Kimmel Pokes Fun at Trump’s Paper Straw Ban – The New York Times Jimmy Kimmel Pokes Fun at Trump’s Paper Straw Ban The New York TimesFact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Ends the Procurement and Forced Use of Paper Straws The White HouseWhat’s behind Donald Trump’s plastic straws move The HillPlastic straw makers celebrate ‘happiest days’ after Trump order Sky News Source link #Jimmy #Kimmel #Pokes #Fun #Trumps #Paper #Straw #Ban #York #Times Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Book Review: ‘Lorne,’ by Susan Morrison Book Review: ‘Lorne,’ by Susan Morrison LORNE: The Man Who Invented “Saturday Night Live,” by Susan Morrison Gerald R. Ford, the 38th president of the United States, was a football star at the University of Michigan and, as Susan Morrison puts it in “Lorne,” her new biography of Lorne Michaels, the creator of “Saturday Night Live,” “a man of some physical grace.” If he’s remembered otherwise, as a singularly clumsy occupant of the White House, it’s because his brief administration happened to coincide with the first seasons of the show, in the mid-1970s. On “S.N.L.,” Chevy Chase, a comedian with no special talent for impressions and a knack for pratfalls, played Ford as a man locked in a perpetual losing battle with gravity, crashing through a Christmas tree, a press-conference podium and his Oval Office desk. Does that count as political satire? Ford and his family are known to have appreciated the joke, and most American presidents since then have at least pretended to laugh along with their “S.N.L.” treatment. Donald Trump has been an exception, but on the other hand he is the only successful presidential candidate ever to have hosted. Answers to the trivia question implied in the last sentence include George McGovern, Jesse Jackson, Steve Forbes and John McCain. For most of its 50-year existence, “S.N.L.” has walked the fine line between provocation and caution, aiming for a sweet spot of non-bland consensus. It arrived at NBC in the wake of the cultural and social rebellions of the 1960s but attempted from the start to shed both the pop fizziness and the countercultural earnestness of that decade. What made it radical was that — in the words of Michael J. Arlen, The New Yorker’s astute TV critic — it seemed “to speak out of the real, non-show-business world that most people inhabit.” Through good and bad seasons, Republican and Democratic administrations and countless personnel changes, “S.N.L.” has served as a barometer of comedic normalcy, which is no small achievement. It’s been cool and cynical, surreal and silly, bold enough to make adolescents of all ages feel daring for staying up past 11:30 (or catching up on YouTube the next morning) and safe enough to keep advertisers and network executives happy. The sketches have refracted the comic sensibilities of hundreds of writers and performers, many of whom have graduated to movie and television stardom. But most of those alums would agree that “S.N.L.” is anchored in the personality of one man: Lorne Michaels. Before “S.N.L.,” Michaels (born Lorne Lipowitz in Toronto in 1944) worked, with modest success, as a joke writer and comedian. He doesn’t do those jobs on the show, but he isn’t an invisible behind-the-scenes puppeteer or a faceless network apparatchik either. Everyone who watches knows who Michaels is — the unreadable boss, the mystical Jedi of modern humor, the patient headmaster of a finishing school for misfit comics — but his fame is obscured both by his natural, stereotypically ********* diffidence and by the somewhat paradoxical traditions of modern media. An engineer of celebrity and a household name in his own right, he can walk undisturbed from his home on Central Park West to his office at Rockefeller Center. In “Lorne,” Morrison, an editor at The New Yorker and a former editor of The New York Observer, has built Michaels the kind of biographical monument usually consecrated to founding fathers, canonical authors and world-historical scientific geniuses. A fair question might be whether the progenitor and supervisor of a long-running sketch-comedy show (with lucrative side gigs as a movie and television producer) merits such treatment. That the answer turns out to be yes is largely a tribute to Morrison’s journalistic chops. Briskly written and solidly sourced, “Lorne” is in essence a nearly 650-page magazine profile — something I mean almost entirely as praise. (An excerpt recently appeared in The New Yorker in the guise of a standard-length profile.) Rather than plod chronologically through her subject’s 80 years on earth, Morrison adapts the magazine writer’s technique of cutting back and forth between present and past. The book’s sections correspond to the days of a workweek, each beginning with a fly-on-the-wall account of how an episode comes together. We’re in the room in the autumn of 2018 — pre-Covid, mid-Trump — and the forgettable nature of the resulting episode (Jonah Hill was host; Maggie Rogers was the musical guest; the funniest sketch involved wigs for pugs) works in Morrison’s favor. What she depicts seems like a more or less typical cycle of pitches, tweaks, minor dust-ups and ego massages. Through it all, Michaels — nobody ever calls him anything but Lorne — delivers koans, notes, non sequiturs, old showbiz stories and an occasional laugh, as current and former employees try to explain what makes him tick. More clues are provided as we flash back to his early life in Toronto and Los Angeles, his three marriages and his long march through the institutions of broadcasting. “Lorne” is not a comprehensive, season-by-season chronicle of “Saturday Night Live”; Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller’s “Live From New York,” published in 2002, still fills that niche, though it could use an update. Not that the recent history gets much attention from Morrison. Four hundred and fifty pages in, we are still in the early 1990s, but the foreshortening is merciful. Her two-track narrative counterpoints the self-contained, endlessly repeated drama of making an episode with the novelistic tale of a young man’s rise in a volatile industry. In such stories, the action is all in the climb. By the time he turned 50, Michaels had attained not a pinnacle but a plateau. Or, to put it another way, it’s more interesting to learn how he built the house of “S.N.L.” than it would be to read through decades of maintenance reports. In Morrison’s pages, Michaels is surrounded by famous acquaintances, admiring and sometimes baffled employees, and adjectives like “gnomic,” “inscrutable” and “aloof.” By the end of the book, you know a lot about him — about his habits, his social life, his taste — without quite knowing what he’s all about. This elusiveness may be the secret to his success. According to Morrison, Michaels counted among his friends William Shawn, the editor of The New Yorker, and Mike Nichols, the film and theater director. Each in his way stands as an enigmatic avatar of middlebrow, midcentury, Manhattan-centric American culture. Neither was a great artist, but both had exemplary careers, sustained by aesthetic instincts that were at once sophisticated and solidly mainstream. Michaels possesses a similar touch, not snobbish but not entirely populist either. Starting out as an iconoclast in the world of network television, he has lasted long enough to become one of the last living embodiments of its values. From this sometimes crazy tale of show-business resilience, Morrison extracts a suitably low-key moral: “If you learn how to stay afloat, and if you don’t expect that the show will always be great, if you know that it will go up and down, you’ll survive.” LORNE: The Man Who Invented “Saturday Night Live” | By Susan Morrison | Random House | 644 pp. | $36 Source link #Book #Review #Lorne #Susan #Morrison Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Grieving With Paddington – The New York Times Grieving With Paddington – The New York Times It was on the flight home from my father’s ******** that I first met Paddington. In search of an easy watch to take our minds off things, my partner, David, and I thought a movie about the adventures of a C.G.I. bear in a floppy red hat might do the trick. We went in cold, neither of us having grown up with the children’s books. If you’re familiar with the story, you’ll know this was a naïve, if not poor decision in a time of grief. Almost immediately, Paddington, already an orphan, loses his Uncle Pastuzo in a cataclysmic earthquake in Peru. Soon after, his Aunt Lucy tells him that he must find a new home — alone, without her. Orphaned doubly in the first 10 minutes. I began to cry. Since I was a child, I had been consumed with my father’s needs and longed not to be the parent to my parent. Poor Paddington, forced to navigate the world of adults. The “Paddington” films have acted as a strange benchmark. At 31, I watched the first movie the day after laying my father to rest in a pine box, and the sequel, which was pure delight and offered a reprieve from the darkness of mourning, a few months later. By the time “Paddington in Peru,” the third movie, is released on Feb. 14 in the United States, it will be nearly two years since my father passed. The series has become an unexpected grief tracker; Paddington, my fortuitous companion. My father and I had, at best, a complicated relationship, as he had with just about everyone. An addict with more than a few mental health disorders and, later, dementia, he’d burned bridges with anyone who tried to offer that fleeting, suffocating thing called help. There were years of unemployment, stints in rehab, bouts of disappearances and countless emergency-room visits. I thought I had “pre-grieved,” to borrow a term from Roman Roy, so the ripples of hopelessness and thoughts of what’s the point of it all? that followed his death arrived as a sick aftershock. I was emptied. On the plane, as I watched this innocent little bear, with his unshakable optimism and impeccable manners, experience loss after loss, that emptiness grew until it blackened the whole of me from the inside out. I’d been tricked by a children’s film. David reached out to hold my hand. Aunt Lucy tells Paddington that he must go to London, the birthplace of an explorer she and Uncle Pastuzo once hosted. She places a luggage tag around Paddington’s neck that says, “Please take care of this bear.” I winced, wishing someone would do the same for me. But, Paddington protests, he doesn’t know anyone in London. “There was once a war in the explorer’s country,” Aunt Lucy gently explains. “Thousands of children were sent away for safety, left at railway stations with tags around their necks, and unknown families took them in and loved them like their own.” This time, I wasn’t the only one trying to hold it together. David, a grandson of two Holocaust survivors, turned to me, and we erupted in sobs. We paused the film and leaned our foreheads together, weeping, letting our shoulders rattle the tray tables as we convulsed. David’s paternal grandmother — his safta, Frieda Scheindling — escaped the war in 1939 via the Kindertransport, the rescue operation that brought nearly 10,000 children from Nazi-occupied Europe to England. Frieda, 14, boarded a train alone, leaving behind her parents and older sister. All were killed in the concentration camps. In London, Frieda was sent to an orphanage and later adopted by an English couple who raised her as their own. An unfathomable gift. The Kindertransport was a relatively small operation, rescuing a fraction of the children facing death, and was cut short by Hitler’s invasion of Poland. Seeing it referenced in a movie unrelated — or so we thought — to the Holocaust left us stunned. Paddington, eyes glossed over in despair, asks, “What if they don’t even like bears?” Aunt Lucy reassures him that the good people of London “will not have forgotten how to treat a stranger.” As David and I later learned, the author Michael Bond based Paddington on the refugee children with tags around their necks that he as a child watched arrive at the train station in Reading, just outside London. When our hero arrives on the platform at Paddington, the station he gets his name from, he asks, “Does anyone know where I can find a home?” He, too, is taken in by kind strangers in London: the Brown family. Though not without reserve. Mr. Brown, played by Hugh Bonneville, sees Paddington as a safety hazard; neighbors are skeptical — some fearful — of the new addition; strangers roll their eyes. They pick and choose who is deserving of their compassion. But Mrs. Brown (Sally Hawkins) accepts his fur and quirky hygiene habits wholeheartedly. She is a match for Paddington’s own disposition — benevolence. And set to the joyful music of a calypso band, he soon befriends others with similar backgrounds, like Mr. Gruber (Jim Broadbent), an eccentric antiques dealer whose arrival in London sounds awfully familiar. At the antiques shop, overflowing with bronze sculptures and ornate lamps, a train snakes through to dispense tea. Paddington follows in awe. “Just like a train I was on many years ago,” Mr. Gruber tells him. “There was trouble in my country, so my parents sent me all the way across Europe. I was not much older than you are now.” Paddington peers into the rail car to find a small boy, scared and alone, a label around his neck. David and I paused to cry some more. The Jewish themes kept coming: Paddington as a stowaway on a boat (how my own great-grandfather Saul was said to have escaped pogroms in Poland before the war); Paddington written off as “a most unpleasant creature” in complaints by nosy neighbors; Paddington escaping death — from a vampy, taxidermy-obsessed Nicole Kidman — while trapped in an incinerator, surrounded by flames. When the credits rolled, David and I held onto each other, bleary-eyed, blindsided. LATER IN THE YEAR, when the grief was fresh, but not raw, we watched the sequel. This time we were not so green. We knew to expect a gut punch and braced accordingly. But any heaviness was immediately tempered by Paddington’s usual antics and a new villain: a delightfully silly Hugh Grant with a penchant for elaborate disguises and magic tricks. With its Wes Anderson-like whimsy and escape capers, it is my — and many others’ — favorite of the three. In it, Paddington has happily settled into London and the routines of life with the Browns. My own life hadn’t settled in quite the same way — my living situation was in limbo, my health a mess — but it was moving in that direction, and it was a comfort to see my fellow wanderer had found his way. I was rooting him on, and maybe rooting for myself, too. Paddington’s perpetual assumption of good will disarms even the most hardened of criminals, earning him allies at every turn. Here was Paddington with an entourage of friends! Here was Paddington getting a job (albeit one he promptly loses)! Here was Paddington sleeping easily each night, knowing he is loved. I, still clinging to bitterness and self-pity, envied his sense of belonging, but there was also hope, quietly peeking through. WITH “PADDINGTON IN PERU,” time has worked its miraculous alchemy. Nearly two years have passed since the ********. This movie, the third in the series, is centered on Paddington’s return trip to his native Peru, with the Browns in tow. ​​The calypso band is traded in for a cumbia ensemble, its up-tempo chik-chika beats a reminder that I am no longer sodden with despair. It helps, too, that the film is replete with high jinks even more ridiculous than the others. Olivia Colman, wearing a nun’s habit and wielding a guitar, plays the baddie; Antonio Banderas is a swaggering, gold-crazy ship captain. Still, I cried at the opening — a flashback to baby Paddington, all on his own, clutching a log in a perilous river — and at the end, which shows Paddington with his bear tribe in present day. I couldn’t help but think of David’s Safta, what she would have given to see her family again, to take a group photo. David and I are getting married later this year. We’ll exchange vows under a huppah with white linens that belonged to Safta. My dad won’t be there to walk me down the aisle. Even if he were alive, the truth is that I don’t know if I would invite him. His demons were contagious. The beauty of mourning, with the advantage of hindsight, is to be able to take the admirable and leave the rest. Individual grief, so entwined with intergenerational sorrow, can feel like an inheritance passed down to harden the heart. But what Paddington perhaps offers above all else is choice. The choice to be gracious, and to extend grace. The choice to resist the urge toward selective compassion. The choice to disrupt, against all odds, cycles of suffering. Paddington doesn’t gorge on sadness, as I’ve been known to do. His story is one of resilience. Source link #Grieving #Paddington #York #Times Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Finns Beach Club brawl: Video emerges of violent fight outside popular Bali venue Finns Beach Club brawl: Video emerges of violent fight outside popular Bali venue Shocking video has emerged of a violent brawl involving foreigners at a popular Bali beach club. Balinese media detikbali reported several foreigners beat up security outside Finns Beach Club in North Kuta. Badung Police Public Relations Chief Putu Sukarma said the brawl occurred on Tuesday night and was triggered by a commotion that began inside the club. Police said security spotted one of the alleged perpetrators strangling another guest after an altercation involving a woman. If you’d like to view this content, please adjust your Cookie Settings. To find out more about how we use cookies, please see our Cookie Guide. It then spilled outside where the confronting video of three men assaulting security with blocks of wood was captured. “Security tried to control the situation and remove the guests but once outside the guests began to rebel against the guards,” police said. Traffic outside the club was disrupted as the commotion turned more and more violent. According to police, the tourists then fled the scene. Police are still looking for the men involved, however they said they did question one person who they believe was involved. Source link #Finns #Beach #Club #brawl #Video #emerges #violent #fight #popular #Bali #venue Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

‘Modern Love’ Podcast: How to Fall (and Stay) in Love ‘Modern Love’ Podcast: How to Fall (and Stay) in Love This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email *****@*****.tld with any questions. archived recording 1 Love now and always. archived recording 2 Did you fall in love last night? archived recording 3 Love is stronger than anything. archived recording 4 For the love. archived recording 5 And I love you more than anything. archived recording 6 What is love? archived recording 7 Here’s to love. archived recording 8 Love. anna martin From “The New York Times,” I’m Anna Martin. This is “Modern Love.” speaker 1 Hi “Modern Love“. speaker 2 Hello, “Modern Love“. speaker 3 Hello “Modern Love“. speaker 4 Hi. speaker 5 Hi. nick My name is Nick. ebony My name is Ebony. speaker 6 I live in Austin, Texas. ebony I live in Atlanta. speaker 7 I live in Athens, Georgia. speaker 8 Calling from Vancouver. speaker 9 I live in Paris, France. speaker 10 New Zealand. speaker 11 Philadelphia. speaker 12 Charlestown, Wes Virginia. speaker 13 Chicago. speaker 14 Oakland, California. speaker 15 And I wanted to tell you about the moment that I knew I was falling in love. anna martin We’ve been asking you for this very special Valentine’s Day episode about the moments you knew you were falling in love. And we heard from so many of you about moments that led to a lifetime of commitment, relationships that ended almost as soon as they started, moments where your love was not returned. Stories from decades ago and others from very, very recently. Some of those moments were small and subtle. Others straight out of a movie. They were all a huge pleasure to listen to. speaker 16 So the moment that I knew I fell in love with my now husband was actually on our first date, believe it or not. speaker 17 We were walking back from a dinner date. speaker 18 We went to see a movie. speaker 19 We were watching the sunset. speaker 20 Jumping into the freezing waves like absolute children. speaker 21 We laid down on the grass in the cold, drinking our hot chocolate, and we were watching shooting stars. speaker 22 I thought in the movies, this is when he would kiss me. And as if he read my mind, he pulled me in and kissed me. And I thought, wow, I’m in trouble here. speaker 23 I just remember this moment of oh, no, I love him. speaker 24 I remember I dropped him off and I audibly said, oh ***** after he left my car. speaker 25 We got into the cab and then I said out loud to myself, just be cool. And he looked over at me and he said, what did you say? And I said, oh, you should probably kiss me. [LAUGHS] speaker 26 I couldn’t stop thinking about her. I could not stand the thought of being apart from her. When I was not with her, I felt physically sick. speaker 27 Without him, I felt that there was no air for me to breathe. speaker 28 I looked at him and I could just feel like time slowed down. speaker 29 She was wearing a ****** and white houndstooth coat. The snow was swirling around her. She was struggling with her luggage. She had snow in her hair and cold on her cheeks. She looked up the staircase at me and I just remember she smiled and waved. I can still conjure that image like it was yesterday. speaker 30 I was working from home, and he was trying to get some sleep in my bed. And I just looked at him and thought, I love that man. speaker 31 My head was on his chest, and I could hear his heart beating. And I suddenly knew very, very surely that I needed to hear his heartbeat my whole life. speaker 32 Frankly, there are no words. We talked for four hours. Seemed like four minutes. speaker 33 That was the moment I knew I was falling in love. anna martin Honestly, we got so many messages from you that we can’t possibly play them all here. But we did listen to every single one. And they just, they felt like fantasies. I felt like I was there with you under the stars, at dinner, watching the sunset. Listener, let me tell you, romance is not dead. speaker 34 He took me to an all you can eat cheese and chocolate buffet. Honestly, it was just the way to my heart. speaker 35 The moment that I knew that I was in love with her, that this was the most love I’d ever felt, she, without telling me, ordered beef tartare. And at this restaurant, it’s like a pound of raw beef. And she proceeded to eat the whole thing in front of me, and my heart opened in ways that I did not know were possible. And this was love like I had never felt before. And I knew that I’d fell hard. speaker 36 He was sitting on the couch, and he was like dusting his feet off before putting socks on. And yeah, I just knew in that moment, for some reason. speaker 37 Love” can come in very unexpected times. It’s amazing. It feels good. speaker 38 The first time I saw them, I actually thought I was in love with them. speaker 39 So I always thought that love at first sight was a myth. And then I was at a concert alone. When she walked in, we made eye contact. Moonlight poured through windows. It was so — it was so strange. That night, my life split into before her and with her. And now I believe. speaker 40 We spoke on the phone many times, because I was very, very reluctant and very shy and not ready. So we had months and months of phone dates, and they were spectacular. We laughed. We had so much oxytocin flying through the air. It was just deliriously wonderful. And we fell in love and we’re getting married this summer in our backyard. speaker 41 We decided to go for a walk in the neighborhood. And before we knew it, the sun was coming up and then we held each other. We didn’t say much. We just stood there holding each other like what felt forever. It was so comforting and warm. It was just perfect. And at that moment, I knew he was the one. speaker 42 There was this comfort of home, but this feeling of feeling like my world just opened up. speaker 43 I just looked at him and I just, I felt like I was home. speaker 44 After the date when I entered my apartment, I was leaning against my wall. I couldn’t move. I was asking myself the same question over and over again. What was happening with me and what am I feeling? And that was just amazing. speaker 45 This giddiness erupted in me that tickled my skin all over. It was like he split something in me, and the little girl inside me pressed herself all the way through. speaker 46 I felt this really warm rush in my body, where I just wanted to go and hug him and just tell him in front of everyone that, oh my God, I love you. speaker 47 It was so overwhelming. It was like a bolt had hit me. speaker 48 So my stomach was just churning. speaker 49 I felt like my heart was growing slightly. speaker 50 I felt this golden light burst and spread across my whole chest. speaker 51 It was like a drop of water in the desert. speaker 52 It was unbelievable. speaker 53 Throughout all of it, I was having so many pinch me moments. Is this real? Is this happening to me? speaker 54 I felt like I was floating. speaker 55 I felt like I was levitating. speaker 56 Feeling weightless, feeling like I was floating. speaker 59 It really felt like puzzle pieces falling into place. speaker 60 I wanted to bottle that feeling and save it forever. speaker 61 It feels incredible to be loved and to love somebody so deeply. speaker 62 And it’s something that I will treasure forever. [MUSIC PLAYING] anna martin I could listen to these all day. I mean it. And we’re going to play some more of your messages later in today’s episode at the end. But before we get to those, your messages, your stories, they got the whole “Modern Love” team thinking, what does it actually mean to fall in love? This feeling so many of you described, the puzzle pieces, the warmth and comfort and feeling at home, how do we get there? What makes us love each other? Today we’re going to spend some time on that exact question. 10 years ago, “Modern Love” published possibly the most iconic story of falling in love in the history of the column. It was in an essay called “To Fall In Love With Anyone, Do This” by Mandy Len Catron. In it, Mandy describes a list of 36 questions developed by a psychologist that are meant to help spark and deepen intimacy. What happened to Mandy after she used it reveals a lot about how we fall in love. So today, we’re going to talk to “Modern Love” Editor Daniel Jones about how people fall in love and the power of those 36 questions. Then we’ll hear the original essay from Mandy herself, and she’ll tell us whether she’s still in love with the same man she did the list with 10 years later. That’s after the break. Stay with us. [MUSIC PLAYING] Daniel Jones, welcome to “Modern Love“. daniel jones It’s good to be here. anna martin So, Dan, today we’re talking all about those singular moments that lead to falling in love. And I wonder if I could turn that to you. Can you share a moment where you knew you were falling in love? daniel jones I have been in love many times in my life, but it has never been a moment. It’s always been a gradual getting to know a person and all of that. But I did fall in love in a moment with a dog I was supposed to foster. It was a Puerto Rican mutt, and I’d agreed to foster him. And he was so sweet. And this couple came to take him for a visit to their house and test drive him. And I just had this moment. I was like, no. Like, no, this is our dog. What are you doing? And so yeah, that was 14 years ago. Still have Rico. Sweetest dog ever. anna martin Sweetest dog ever who you fell in love with. daniel jones In a moment. anna martin I love that. And I mean, you’ve read and you’ve heard thousands of love stories. And because we’re talking about the beginning of love stories today, I’m wondering if you have any kind of theory about how those moments happen, how people fall in love. daniel jones Yeah, because we fantasize about love. We have sort of a script in our mind about how it’s going to work out. And the real consistent sort of love stories where people fall in love sort of in a moment is something that goes against that fantasy often. There’s an essay called “Learning To Silence My Inner Editor” by Jessie Ren Marshall. And it’s about this woman. She’s a New Yorker. And all the guys she dates are cynical, and she goes off to a wedding and meets a guy from North Carolina, this is a column we published, who is just totally sincere and so sincere that she can’t quite know what to — didn’t know what to make of him. But because it goes so against what she’s sort of schooled herself to believe in, in what works in a relationship, she just sort of melts into that. anna martin I love that. daniel jones It’s those sort of surprising not what you expected stories that, I don’t know, they just really get you and say something about how we aren’t able to predict our lives. Stop trying to predict your life and live out some fantasy. Look at what’s in front of you. anna martin OK, so Dan, we wanted to have you on also to talk about what I think is fair to say is the most famous example of falling in love in the “Modern Love” column’s history, which is Mandy Len Catron’s 2015 essay “To Fall In Love With Anyone, Do This.” And it’s based on a list of 36 questions that have become incredibly well known in their own right. They’re questions you’re supposed to do with a partner. And supposedly doing them will lead you to fall in love with each other. This is an essay that people have come back to over and over again, even now, even a decade after the essay was published. Can you remind us of the story behind this essay? daniel jones Yeah, yeah. So Mandy Len Catron was studying love. She was a student of love in school, wanted to figure out how it worked, and came across this sort of obscure, I think, study done by a psychologist named Arthur Aron. And he’d come up with, and his team, had come up with 36 questions that would accelerate the process of falling in love. And she thought this was interesting and decided to do it, not with a total stranger. In the experiment, they’d done it with total strangers. But someone who was almost a stranger, who was someone who was at her climbing gym and who she already had sort of feelings for. They went out on their first date, went to a bar, started to ask each other these 36 questions, which are broken up into three sets of 12 questions. And they get increasingly deep and personal about your family, your worst childhood memory, your relationship with your mother. And they just talked for hours and got to know each other pretty well through that. And then at the end, you’re supposed to stare into each other’s eyes for four minutes. And at that point, she wrote the essay and submitted it. And I read it not long after that and thought, well, that’s interesting, but there’s not really any ending. [LAUGHS] anna martin They just stare into each other’s eyes and then it ended? daniel jones Yeah, I was like, so yeah. I was really interested by the study, but it didn’t feel like a story. It just felt sort of an essay that was written too soon, in a way. So I just sort of flagged it as interesting, but didn’t respond. And then a few months later, I got another email in my inbox from Mandy and she said, well, guess what? This essay has an ending now. We fell in love. anna martin Wow. Her and the guy from the gym who she did the 36 questions with, they fell in love? daniel jones And they didn’t fall in love in the moment, but it set the framework for them falling in love over time when they did. And so I said, OK, well, this is an essay now. I didn’t quite anticipate what the impact of that would be, that essay. And we worked on it, published it along with the 36 questions as a sidebar. And almost immediately, we started hearing stories of people trying these questions, falling in love. Down the line, we heard about marriages, marriage after marriage, long term relationship that was started with these questions. People did documentaries where they would set up in a warehouse and film the whole thing of people asking each other the questions. It just went on and on and on and went around the world. And wow, it changed millions of lives. And there’s no downside to asking people these questions and answering them. It sort of forces a vulnerability that can only be good. It can only be good, and it can only sort of deepen a relationship. You don’t have to fall in love. Just to get to know another human being more deeply is what we need in this world. anna martin I’m curious just personally, what have these 36 questions taught you about falling in love? daniel jones I don’t know. I think about how it was constructed and the range of questions that it asks. And this popular conception of falling in love is sort of a floaty, light, sexy, romantic. And there is that part. And I think these questions can pull that part out. But I think the range of the question shows the range of what you need to reveal and feel to fall in love. That it’s not just complimenting each other. It’s not just about how each other looks. It is those things, but it’s a lot more than that. And it takes you all over the place to all corners of yourself and the other person, and just keeps pushing and pushing and pushing. And that, I think, is what it reveals about what it takes to fall in love. anna martin I really like that. Dan Jones, thank you so much for this conversation today. It is always a treat and an honor to have you on the show. daniel jones Thank you, Anna. It was really good to be here again. anna martin As Dan told us, Mandy Len Catron spent a long time wrestling with all these questions about love. She was trying to understand how to find love and how she would know when she found it. That’s what led her to the 36 questions. And we do know that it worked. She did fall in love after doing them. But it’s been 10 years since her essay was published. So the question now is, did she stay in love? After the break, Mandy joins us to read her “Modern Love” essay, and she tells us what happened in the decades since she wrote it. Mandy Len Catron, welcome back to “Modern Love“. mandy len catron Thank you for having me. I’m happy to be here. anna martin Mandy, on today’s episode, we’re talking all about the process of falling in love, how it happens, what it takes, what it feels like. And you, of course, probably have the most well-known story of falling in love to ever appear in the “Modern Love” column. I wonder, when you first decided to do these 36 questions with a man you did know, but you didn’t super well, a man named Mark, could you possibly have imagined what that moment was going to lead to in your life and in the world? [LAUGHS] mandy len catron No. anna martin OK. mandy len catron No, not under any circumstances could I have possibly imagined any of it. Yeah. Really, I have heard from people all over the world since the article came out, especially in the first couple of years. I’ve gotten a significant number of emails from people who got married. I’ve had people send me their wedding photos. speaker 62 Oh my God, my heart is kind of melting at that. That’s incredible. mandy len catron Yeah, I mean, and this was like, Mark and I weren’t married. And I thought, oh wow. This is amazing. I don’t know. I kind of about it as something that exists apart from me. It came out at a time where a lot of people were dating online, and there was this kind of craving for intimacy. I think online dating can feel really dehumanizing at times, like we’re going down the checklist. We’re objectifying one another and looking for somebody who meets these predetermined criteria. And this is kind of the opposite of that. And so I think it kind of struck a chord. anna martin I mean, it really, really did. Mandy, I have so many more questions about the questions and about your own love story. But before we get too far into that, I would love to hear you read your essay. mandy len catron OK, sure. “To Fall In Love With Anyone, Do This.” More than 20 years ago, the psychologist Arthur Aron succeeded in making two strangers fall in love in his laboratory. Last summer, I applied his technique in my own life, which is how I found myself standing on a bridge at midnight, staring into a man’s eyes for exactly four minutes. Let me explain. Earlier in the evening, that man had said, I suspect, given a few commonalities, you could fall in love with anyone. If so, how do you choose someone? He was a university acquaintance I occasionally ran into at the climbing gym and had thought, what if? I had gotten a glimpse into his days on Instagram, but this was the first time we had hung out one on one. “Actually, psychologists have tried making people fall in love,” I said. It’s fascinating. I’ve always wanted to try it. I first read about this study when I was in the midst of a breakup. Each time I thought of leaving, my heart overruled my brain. I felt stuck. So, like a good academic, I turned to science, hoping there was a way to love smarter. I explained the study to my university acquaintance. A heterosexual man and woman enter the lab through separate doors. They sit face to face and answer a series of increasingly personal questions. Then they stare silently into each other’s eyes for four minutes. The most tantalizing detail. Six months later, two participants were married. They invited the entire lab to the ceremony. “Let’s try it,” he said. Let me acknowledge the ways our experiment already fails to line up with the study. First, we were in a bar, not a lab. Second, we weren’t strangers. Not only that, but I see now that one neither suggests nor agrees to try an experiment designed to create romantic love if one isn’t open to this happening. I googled Dr. Aron’s questions. There are 36. They begin innocuously. Would you like to be famous? When did you last sing to yourself or to someone else? But they quickly become probing. In response to the prompt name three things you and your partner appear to have in common, he looked at me and said, “I think we’re both interested in each other.” I grinned and gulped my beer as he listed two more commonalities I then promptly forgot. We exchanged stories about the last time we each cried and confessed the one thing we’d like to ask a fortune teller. We explained our relationships with our mothers. The questions reminded me of the infamous boiling frog experiment, in which the frog doesn’t feel the water getting hotter until it’s too late. With us, because the level of vulnerability increased gradually, I didn’t notice we had entered intimate territory until we were already there. I liked learning about myself through my answers, but I liked learning things about him even more. The bar, which was empty when we arrived, had filled up by the time we paused for a bathroom break. I sat alone at our table, aware of my surroundings for the first time in an hour, and wondered if anyone had been listening to our conversation. If they had, I hadn’t noticed, and I did not notice as the crowd thinned and the night got late. We finished at midnight, taking far longer than the 90 minutes for the original study. Looking around the bar, I felt as if I had just woken up. “That wasn’t so bad,” I said. Definitely less uncomfortable than the staring into each other’s eyes part would be. He hesitated and asked, “Do you think we should do that too?” “Here?” I looked around the bar. It seemed too weird, too public. “We could stand on the bridge,” he said, turning toward the window. The night was warm and I was wide awake. We walked to the highest point, then turned to face each other. I fumbled with my phone as I set the timer. “OK,” I said, inhaling sharply. “OK,” he said, smiling. I’ve skied steep slopes and hung from a rock face by a short length of rope, but staring into someone’s eyes for four silent minutes was one of the more thrilling and terrifying experiences of my life. I spent the first couple of minutes just trying to breathe properly. There was a lot of nervous smiling until eventually we settled in. I know the eyes are the window to the soul or whatever, but the real crux of the moment was not just that I was really seeing someone, but that I was seeing someone really seeing me. Once I embraced the terror of this realization and gave it time to subside, I arrived somewhere unexpected. I felt brave and in a state of wonder. Part of that wonder was at my own vulnerability, and part of it was the weird kind of wonder get from saying a word over and over until it loses its meaning and becomes what it actually is, an assemblage of sounds. When the timer buzzed, I was surprised and a little relieved, but also I felt a sense of loss. Already, I was beginning to see our evening through the surreal and unreliable lens of retrospect. Most of us think about love as something that happens to us. We fall. We get crushed. But what I like about this study is how it assumes that love is an action. It assumes that what matters to my partner matters to me, because we have at least three things in common, because we have close relationships with our mothers, and because he let me look at him. I wondered what would come of our interaction. If nothing else, I thought it would make a good story. But I see now that the story isn’t about us. It’s about what it means to bother to know someone, which is really a story about what it means to be known. It’s true you can’t choose who loves you, although I’ve spent years hoping otherwise. And you can’t create romantic feelings based on convenience alone. Science tells us biology matters. Our pheromones and hormones do a lot of work behind the scenes. But despite all this, I’ve begun to think love is a more pliable thing than we make it out to be. Arthur Aron’s study taught me that it’s possible, simple even, to generate trust and intimacy. The feelings love needs to thrive. You’re probably wondering if he and I fell in love. Well, we did. Although it’s hard to credit the study entirely, it may have happened anyway, the study did give us a way into a relationship that feels deliberate. We spent weeks in the intimate space we created that night, waiting to see what it could become. Love didn’t happen to us. We’re in love because we each made the choice to be. [MUSIC PLAYING] anna martin Beautifully done, Mandy. What’s coming up for you just in the immediate aftermath of having read this piece? It’s been 10 years since you wrote it. mandy len catron Yeah, and it’s probably been several years since I actually read it. I mean, much less read it aloud, but just read it at all. Yeah, it’s really sweet. anna martin It is. It’s sweet. mandy len catron You know what, so Mark and I have been together for a little over 10 years. anna martin Wow. mandy len catron And back in August, I proposed to him. anna martin August of this year? mandy len catron 2024, yeah. anna martin Oh my gosh, I would love to know about that. mandy len catron Yes, so an interesting side effect of writing and researching about romantic love is that it really kind of put me off marriage as an institution. I’m not a huge fan for a variety of reasons that I won’t get into here. But we had twins during the pandemic. So we have two three-year-olds. And after the pandemic and then being trapped at home with two newborns, which I found incredibly difficult and isolating and lonely, I really wanted to have a big party. I just had this overwhelming desire to have everyone I know and love in the same room. And the only way I could think of to make that happen was to have a wedding. And it turned out that he did want to get legally married. And so I thought I think if this is going to happen, I have to be the one to propose. And actually, that was great. That felt really good to both of us. And yeah, I bought the ring. And then many weeks later, because we have two toddlers. We never go anywhere without them. And so we had a babysitter and we were out to dinner at this nice restaurant. And I just sort of — I’m a writer. So I wrote everything out in a card and I handed it to him. And then I had the ring in my pocket and I think, yeah, he was very surprised. And so we’re getting married in May. anna martin That’s so wonderful, Mandy. Congratulations. I am wondering, though. I mean, you said that marriage is not something you’re really that interested in as an institution, but it’s clear that this wedding will be marking something for the two of you. What do you think it says about your love or your commitment to one another? mandy len catron Yeah. I mean, part of how I feel about it and part of why rereading the article seems very sweet to me is that we’ve been through a lot of challenging things in our relationship. We struggled to get pregnant for a long, long time. That was really hard. Then they were in the NICU for five weeks. And then we were home with them alone because of the pandemic. It was just hard. There were a lot of hard years. And I just have this desire to celebrate where we are, because things feel a little more stable. And I think you only get so many opportunities to celebrate in life. anna martin I love that. I mean, thinking about the beginning of your and Mark’s relationship being these 36 questions and those moments of intense connection you shared in the bar and on the bridge, 10 years out, do you think that beginning shaped your relationship in some fundamental way? mandy len catron Oh yeah, I definitely think so. A lot of what I struggled with when I was dating was anxiety over whether the person I was interested in was interested in me. And I felt this need to control what was happening, and it felt very much out of my control. And there was something about doing the 36 questions that I just didn’t feel that way. I really felt like I was excited to know this person. And if we became something more than friends, if we started a relationship, that would be cool. But if we just stayed friends, that would also be cool. I was just very open to possibility, which is not how I move through the world usually. I just trusted him and I liked him. And I think it’s so rare that a romantic relationship starts with that kind of trust. And that has really carried us a long way, I would say. anna martin Mandy, thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing this update. mandy len catron Thanks for having me. [MUSIC PLAYING] anna martin If you want to read Mandy’s essay in full, the link to it is in our show notes. All right, so that is our Valentine’s Day episode. Happy Valentine’s Day, “Modern Love” listeners. I hope it is everything you want it to be and more. And before we go, I did promise you at the top of the episode that we’d play more of your voice messages. Stay tuned for those after the credits. Like I said, we loved hearing from all of you. We quite literally listened to every single one and it was such a treat. This episode of “Modern Love” was produced by Davis Land and Sarah Curtis. It was edited by our executive producer, Jen Poyant, production management by Christina Djossa. The “Modern Love” theme music is by Dan Powell. Original music in this episode by Dan Powell and Marion Lozano. This episode was mixed by Daniel Ramirez with studio support from Maddy Masiello and Nick Pittman. Special thanks to Mahima Chablani, Nell Gallogly, Jeffrey Miranda, and Paula Szuchman. The “Modern Love” column is edited by Daniel Jones. Miya Lee is the editor of “Modern Love” projects. If you want to submit an essay or a tiny love story to The New York Times, we’ve got the instructions in our show notes. I’m Anna Martin. Thanks for listening, and keep listening. speaker 63 He was so into me and he showed me how much he liked me, and he was holding nothing back. And I sat him down and I said, look, Angelos, I have to tell you, I think you need to slow down. I mean, I just came from a long term relationship. It ended badly. And I’m not sure what I wanted. I’m not sure how involved I want to get with somebody. And you’re just too open and too vulnerable and giving too much of yourself, and I’m afraid that you might get hurt. I’m afraid you might like me more than I like you. And he turned to me and said, but I still have so much more to give you. Well, I mean, what do you say to that? At that moment, I felt, I really felt, the walls that I had put up around my heart, my defenses starting to crumble. And I felt like, oh my God, this is a guy I could spend the rest of my life with. Who is this guy? Who says these kinds of things? Anyway, we had a great life together. I lost him this last September to *******, but I’m OK. I have great memories that a lot of other people don’t. And the most important thing is that life gave me the chance to love someone greatly and to be greatly loved back. speaker 64 On the train ride back to our dorm, I was swinging around the pole on the subway, being loud and being rowdy, and he was sitting on one of the seats just staring at me in silence. And I remember thinking, we’re going to fall in love. And we did. speaker 65 When my wife and I met in 1976, it was because I had been hit by a car on my bicycle. And I walked my bicycle to a friend’s house where she was having a meal. The connection was that fast. It’s hard to explain and impossible to defend, but it truly happened that quickly. speaker 66 I was in the break room my new job, and my new coworker came in holding an orange. It had these marks on it, and he started kind of rambling to me about whether the orange was still good to eat. He wasn’t quite sure. He never knew. But I was just listening and loving it. I was thinking, here’s a guy I could talk to about deli meat and whether it’s gone bad in the fridge. I was like, I could have a life with this guy. This is the guy for me. It felt very romantic to me. speaker 67 Living on an academic schedule, I was traveling for 11 weeks one summer on a Eurail pass. In April, a friend of my mother, they had met at age 10 in Vienna, had introduced me to a young lady. She lived in New York, I in Springfield, Massachusetts. We had had three dates before I left for Europe. But halfway through the summer, a realization struck me. I do not want to spend my life without her. I’d been writing to her every few days, signing my letters yours, comma, Stephen. This became, your, no comma, Stephen. Soon after my return to the United States, we met for a brief fourth date at the edge of Central Park. I invited her to meet my parents in Springfield. During that visit, we agreed to marry. We had 51 years together. I still have thoughts which I want to tell Erica 13 years after she died. sarah I remember exactly when I knew I was falling in love with the guy who became my husband. It happened in the living room of our commune in the summer of 1976. I’d just been into town with another guy, someone who seemed so flashy at the time. We came back, and there was Steve. Steve knew that the other guy wasn’t so reliable, and he was concerned. So he waited up for me. Steve had been up since early in the morning tending to the avocado trees. The room was dimly lit and Steve’s head drooped a bit, but he was awake. The other guy and I and time stopped. Steve said, “I wanted to be here for my Sarah.” He wasn’t claiming ownership, just stating a level of connection that I didn’t yet know we had. And that was it. speaker 69 So I knew that I was falling in love, because growing up, phone conversations have always been about 10 minutes. You get on the phone, you say what you need to say, and then you get off the phone. So I knew that I was falling in love with my partner, John, when I wanted to talk to him for 15 minutes. And then that 15 minutes became 45 minutes. And sometimes an hour or an hour and a half, and it felt like no time had passed. I kept wanting him to call so that we could talk. speaker 70 When my husband and I met, we both smoked cigarettes, and he had a particular quirk where he would cut half of his ********** filter off. And as such, he always had a pair of scissors in his pockets. And I in my home had a lot of scissors. I still do. I like to have scissors in the kitchen. I like to have scissors in the bedroom. I like to have scissors around my crafts. So I had multiple pairs of scissors. And slowly in the weeks after my husband came to live with me, I noticed my scissors were disappearing. I would go to get the kitchen scissors. They wouldn’t be there. I’d look in the bathroom, find a pair. Next time I wouldn’t. They wouldn’t be in the bathroom and they wouldn’t be on the craft desk and they wouldn’t be at the phone. All these various places, the scissors slowly disappeared until one day, I had no scissors. And this really upset me, actually, because I felt like I’d wasted a lot of time looking for my scissors. And when I saw my husband next, I confronted him and it was probably the first time I was actually angry at him. And I just said, look, you’ve got this habit, you’ve got this thing. It’s cool. I think you’re quirky. But you don’t get to take my scissors. You’re coming into my space and it feels disrespectful, yada, yada. And I kind of let him have it. And a day or so goes by and I was at the house and my husband came home and he said, I want to tell you that I really took to heart what you said the other day. You’re really correct. I have no right to just take your things. And I dug around my car. I dug around my bag. And I want you to know I gathered up your scissors, and I have them all here for you. And he reached into his pockets, and he pulled out what must have been seven or eight pairs of scissors. And he held them out. And I looked down in his hands, and I was like, I have never seen a single pair of those ******** scissors in my life. And in that moment, I saw how genuine he was. But I also was like, where did you get all of these scissors? And I just, I knew then that I loved him and that life was going to be interesting. speaker 71 There was a moment on our fourth date where we were in my car driving to dinner, and we had parked my car and we were talking about everything from wanting our kids speaking both Spanish and Vietnamese to wanting friends to be very present in our lives and how important they are to our dreams and our desires in life and our careers. And things were settling down and the rain was drizzling against the car. And “I Think I Love You Again” by Aaron Taylor starts playing on the radio. And I look up and we make eye contact and I couldn’t look away. And I pulled him in, and it felt like the world was melting away. speaker 72 We were at his place, taking a shower together, but not a sexy shower. But when I looked up and I saw his face soaked, his beard with little water pearls here and there, his brown eyes so deeply into my brown eyes, and I thought, he’s unbearably handsome right now. So that’s how I knew I was sliding into love at fantastic speeds. speaker 73 Somewhere around date number five, she invited me to her apartment in Brooklyn to have dinner with her and her brother. From the living room, I could hear Katie and her brother in the kitchen cooking and laughing. Katie’s music was on shuffle, and “The Man In Me” by Bob Dylan came on. Now, I’d heard that song hundreds of times before, and I’d really never given it a second thought. But now, as Bob sang, “it takes a woman like you to get through to the man in me,” I realized I was going to marry Katie. It’s 17 years later, and I’m still married to Katie, and I’m happy to report that, as usual, Bob was right. speaker 74 So I first fell in love with my girlfriend when we were web chatting and I saw her punch a cockroach with her bare fists. Yeah, I thought that was pretty gnarly. And as to what I felt, I felt like she calls them pterodactyls, like huge butterflies in my stomach. speaker 75 It was a year ago on a Wednesday, the night we play poker, and coincidentally Valentine’s Day, that we had invited this new guy to dinner, hoping to recruit him to play with us. He was charming and I liked his looks. But after so many moons on Earth and 10 since my husband had died, I had made peace and was content living alone at the senior retirement home. After dinner, I went to the poker room to set up. And to my surprise, I saw him standing there in the dark, because I hadn’t yet turned on the lights. And I have absolutely no idea what happened, what was said, or how. I instantly morphed from a 90-year-old woman into a sexy teenager, heart beating like crazy, juices pumping, overwhelmed with astonishment. Don’t let anyone tell you that 80 and 90 is too old to fall crazy in love. noah It was a November morning in Juneau, Alaska when I realized I was falling in love. My name is Noah, and the person that I was seeing had just been in my car the night before. And that morning, I was driving to work. And I noticed that on the passenger side, his green olive beanie was sitting there. And so as I was driving, I saw the beanie, and then the thought creeped in my head, what if I smelled the hat? And then without my brain really telling my body to do it, my hand reached to the hat and I began smelling it. And it smelled lovely. [LAUGHS] And I kept driving. And minutes passed and I noticed that my right hand was still clutching the beanie near my heart as my left hand was driving. And I was like, girl, you smelled the hat. [laughs] You can put down the beanie. And my body wasn’t ready to do that. So I kept holding on to that beanie just in pure joy. speaker 77 I knew I was falling in love with David, my now husband of six months, by how he reacted to my college ****’s tragic death, an African snow leopard tortoise named Slim Shady, named, of course, after the global rap phenomenon we love, Marshall Mathers, a.k.a. Eminem. We had tickets to a hip hop music festival that evening, but I was hysterical over our loss and debating whether I could even make it to the show. David ever so sweetly put his 6’ 5’’ hands on my 5’ 2’’ shoulders, looked me in my big brown eyes and said, look, if you had one shot or one opportunity to seize everything you ever wanted, one moment, would you capture it or just let it slip? Yo, this is what Slim would have wanted. As a tribute to him, you have to go to this show. I melted. We went to the concert. And 10 years later, on 8/24/24, we got married. I love him. Source link #Modern #Love #Podcast #Fall #Stay #Love Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

China’s wealthy shoppers have a new mentality—and it’s terrible news for luxury brands like LVMH and Kering who bet billions on their loyalty China’s wealthy shoppers have a new mentality—and it’s terrible news for luxury brands like LVMH and Kering who bet billions on their loyalty LVMH, Kering, Burberry, and Moncler have been hit hard after pouring money into ******** consumers who have now turned their back on luxury. They are now choosing to spend their money in new ways. ******** consumers were once the crown jewel of customers for luxury brands. But fashion houses like LVMH and Kering have fallen out of favor with the country’s wealthy elite. Just a few years ago, China was the darling of luxe spending; from 2017 to 2021, the luxury market in the country tripled in size. Shoppers were obsessed with conspicuous consumption, and China became the new focus for fashion conglomerates hoping to revel in that growth. But then the COVID-19 pandemic struck, and the country went into lockdown. At the time, the majority of luxury goods purchased by ******** shoppers were picked up in travel hotspots like Paris, London, and New York. When in-person shopping and jet-setting came to a halt, retail giants like LVMH and Kering brought business inside the country. It proved to be a crippling business mistake. These fashion titans believed the ******** luxury ***** would only propel upward, but tension among consumers was simmering under the surface. Buyers were financially stretched thin and having a change of heart in terms of how they spent their money. The new Louis Vuitton bag or flashy Versace dress was no longer as appealing—they wanted to be more practical and invest for the long run. The shift to a more practical mentality bludgeoned luxury houses. The big fashion brands’ earnings reports in recent years showed how changing ******** tastes have impacted the industry. The share prices of luxury brands tanked in 2024—Kering plummeted 39.4%, Burberry fell 30%, LVMH dropped 13%, and Moncler dipped 7.8% last year alone. LVMH reported its worst company performance since the global financial crisis. ******** consumers have turned their backs on upscale fashion for a few reasons. A large part of this has to do with the country’s economic slowdown following the pandemic; housing and employment slumps tend to reduce flashy purchases, even if the wealthy aren’t hurting. Wealthy ******** consumers also shifted perspective, preferring to invest their money in high-end property or experiences instead of the latest fashions. Over the past two years, 50 million consumers have fled the luxury market. Brands aren’t keeping their promises with consumers: they’re charging more for the same products. “Since 2019, there’s been a high price increase across luxury without a corresponding increase in innovation, service, quality, or appeal that a luxury brand should provide,” Marie Driscoll, an equity analyst focused on luxury retail, told Fortune. “This year, that really hit consumers, and we felt the full impact.” Story Continues ******** shoppers caught wind of this during lockdown, and started to jump ship. The country’s economy was in a slump, and middle-class wealth was being bulldozed by a weak property market. With rising luxury prices and nowhere to show off their newest purchases, consumers became disillusioned with buying high-end goods. At the same time, “dupe” culture was sweeping the internet. Thrifty shoppers were copping a fake Prada bag for a fraction of the price, and the stigma of wearing knockoffs dissipated. There was also one group in particular that felt alienated: young, aspirational workers. They once represented more than half of China’s luxury consumers. But work has been hard to come by in recent years. China’s urban unemployment rate reached a sky-high 21.3% in June 2023, compared to the national rate of 5.2% at the time. Because of these factors—aside from the new things they’re purchasing—luxury fashion houses are struggling to recover from their investments in China. LVMH’s organic sales among Asian consumers, excluding Japan, dipped by 14% in the three months to June 2024, after falling 6% in the first quarter that year. Burberry has issued several profit warnings over sluggish sales in the region, and the company reported in 2024 that its full-year operating profits dropped 34%. Fashion titan Kering, the parent company of Gucci, Saint Laurent, and Balenciaga, also saw its first quarter revenue decline 11% last year. “Kering’s performance worsened considerably in the first quarter. While we had anticipated a challenging start to the year, sluggish market conditions, notably in China, and the strategic repositioning of certain of our Houses, starting with Gucci, exacerbated downward pressures on our topline,” the business wrote in a press release. Wealthy ******** consumers have new priorities. Owning high-end property has solidified as the primary status symbol in China—especially as the housing market struggles. Buying real estate has long been a promise of success in the country. During the 1990s and 2000s, ******** consumers poured their money into property—so much so that about 70% of the country’s household wealth is stored in their homes. But that bubble burst when the central government reined in developers’ ability to borrow money easily, halting many homes in development. Now many middle-class ******** families are still waiting for the properties they were once promised. Those who are rich see an investment opportunity in being able to afford and purchase luxury homes that are already built. There’s another thing ******** shoppers are chasing, that can’t be bought: life experiences. Like many of their international peers, these young consumers grew disillusioned with their luxury purchases; any fulfillment that they once got from splurging on brand-name items started to dissipate. Luxury goods weren’t getting better, and prices were rising. Consumerism was reaching a breaking point. Young ******** people wanted to experience things, rather than own them. They realized owning nice things didn’t make them happier. “They’re prioritizing either financial investments or prioritizing spending in other categories they deem more important to them,” Nicolas Llinas-Carrizosa, a BCG partner focused on luxury, told Fortune. This story was originally featured on Fortune.com Source link #Chinas #wealthy #shoppers #mentalityand #terrible #news #luxury #brands #LVMH #Kering #bet #billions #loyalty Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Exclusive deal: Save up to 83% off on Web Hosting at Bluehost Exclusive deal: Save up to 83% off on Web Hosting at Bluehost If you’re looking for a web hosting company that delivers excellent performance and a wide range of features, then look no further than Bluehost. Known for its high level of reliability and fast speeds, Bluehost has established itself as one of the best choices for those wanting to create WordPress websites. One of the best things about Bluehost is that all of their plans include unlimited bandwidth, ensuring that your website can handle surges in traffic without compromising performance. If you need hosting services, we have fantastic news for our TechRadar US readers. Save up to 83% off on web hosting at Bluehost. Make sure you use that link to take advantage of the offer. You can also take a look at our full set of Bluehost coupon codes for the latest offers. Why we love Bluehost One of the standout features of Bluehost is its 24/7 customer support. Whether you encounter technical difficulties or need assistance with your website, Bluehost’s support team is always available to help Bluehost provides robust security features such as firewalls, malware scanning, and SSL certificates to protect your website from potential threats. Additionally, their one-click WordPress installation makes it easy to get started with your website, even if you have no prior technical experience. You might also be wondering if Bluehost offers WordPress support. It certainly does. With every available tool at your disposal via its products and services portfolio, Bluehost is fully equipped. This includes full support from Wordpress, which is one of the main tools for building websites and online blogs that is commonly used by millions of customers around the globe. Source link #Exclusive #deal #Save #Web #Hosting #Bluehost Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

US Steel: Will Trump-Backed Nippon Investment Drive Upside? US Steel: Will Trump-Backed Nippon Investment Drive Upside? The steel industry is back in the news again, courtesy of President Trump. The president is leaving his mark on the negotiations between Japanese company Nippon Steel and United States Steel (NYSE:). So, what does Trump’s stance mean for U.S. Steel stock going forward, and is there ultimately still upside in this historic basic materials company? Below, I’ll provide a brief history of the recent U.S. Steel and Nippon saga and address this question. History Lesson: Nippon Looks to Buy Iconic U.S. Steel Maker In Dec. 2023, Japan’s largest steel maker, Nippon Steel, announced its plan to purchase U.S. Steel for $14 billion. On a per-share basis, the company agreed to pay $55. On April 12th, shareholders of U.S. Steel approved the purchase, with 98% of votes in support. It makes perfect sense why they did so. On that date, U.S. Steel’s shares were trading at just $39.50. Completion of the deal would have given shareholders a 39% return from that current price. However, in early January 2025, President Joe Biden, through the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), blocked the deal, citing national security concerns as the justification. This was an unusual decision. It is the only time that CFIUS has prevented a transaction without ******** ownership or influence ties. U.S. Steel and Nippon have filed multiple lawsuits against this decision. If they win these lawsuits, the deal could go through. Cut to early Feb., when newly inaugurated President Donald Trump exerts his influence over the steel deal. During a press conference with the Japanese Prime Minister, Trump stated that Nippon would not buy U.S. Steel. Instead, he said it would “invest heavily” in the company. At this point, markets know little about the specifics of the deal. However, there is some information on what Trump and the Japanese government are pushing for. New Steel Deal: More Questions Than Answers First off, Trump said that no one can have majority ownership when referring to U.S. Steel. This is important, as without a majority stake, Nippon cannot unilaterally force the company to take any specific action. Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary stated that Nippon is looking at a new deal proposal. This one is “completely different from anything it has done in the past.” Still, Nippon Steel officials have not yet released new comments. Last Thursday, just a day before these new developments, the company’s vice chairman said it had no plans to change the acquisition structure. What It Means for Shares of Once Industry Titan, U.S. Steel At this point, there appear to be two different ways things could go. First, Nippon and U.S. Steel could reject the ambitions of their respective governments to rework the deal. At the end of the day, the words from Trump and the Japanese government are just that: words. The two firms have the right to continue their lawsuit against the government and pursue the full, original deal. I tend to agree with the assessment of the lawsuit that the acquisition of U.S. Steel does not represent a national security risk. Japan is ultimately a United States ally and is the world’s third-largest steel producer. China, which produces by far the most steel in the world, is a known U.S. rival. The acquisition would strengthen U.S. Steel and Nippon, making friendly companies more competitive with ******** ones. Still, many legal scholars appear to agree that the chances of Nippon and U.S. Steel winning these lawsuits are low. Ultimately, this means that U.S. Steel shareholders likely won’t receive that locked-in $55 per share price. The much more likely option seems to be that U.S. Steel and Nippon will negotiate with the U.S. and Japanese governments. Without knowing the details of the new potential deal, it feels hard to say that U.S. Steel is significantly undervalued. It is trading at a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple of nearly 20x. That’s in line with competitors like Nucor (NYSE:). Shares are benefiting from the new 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum, but it’s hard to see them really breaking out until the parties resolve this deal. Right now, it’s prudent to wait for more information surrounding this deal and what actions U.S. Steel and Nippon will take. A recent $39 price target released by Morgan Stanley sees shares as fairly valued compared to their Feb. 10 closing price. Original Post Source link #Steel #TrumpBacked #Nippon #Investment #Drive #Upside Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

The Writer Who Understood the Power of Not Being ‘Nice’ The Writer Who Understood the Power of Not Being ‘Nice’ At one point, she gave the unfinished manuscript of “The Silent Woman” to Philip Roth. He gave it a slashing edit, with often ****** comments in the margins. He violently disapproved of her putting herself in as a character. He hated her metaphors and accused her of intellectual shallowness. Another writer might have been crushed or paralyzed, but Malcolm simply addressed what she thought were the few useful parts of his criticism and put aside the rest. She scribbled playful and defiant responses to his edits in the margins: “What’s bugging you, Philip? she said, with a sad shake of her head.” Later, in an unpublished interview, she said, “I didn’t accept his dislike of the book.” Some of his crankiness, she thought, arose from being a man of the 1950s reading about the female experience. But this preternatural toughness, this ability to assimilate and cast off disapproval, even from a writer she admired as much as Roth, was part of her extraordinary strength. To take this incident with equanimity, to not let it undermine either her friendship or her manuscript, requires a very expansive and shockingly healthy sense of self. I know from my own experience how hard it is to preserve your equilibrium and sense of purpose when you are under attack. I found myself coveting Malcolm’s aura of untouchability, wishing I could bottle it. But I also wondered if there are times when a radical independence from other people’s opinions is a liability, when this way of being in the world didn’t work for her. I have always been fascinated by Malcolm’s libel trial, because it was in the courtroom that the stakes of her perceived coldness or aloofness became higher. In front of a jury, being likable suddenly matters. In the first trial, in 1993, she projected a sense of being somehow above having to explain herself. In The New York Review of Books, she later described her own posture of “glacial distance,” drawing on The New Yorker ethos of “unrelenting hauteur.” It seems it had not occurred to her to smile a little at the jury or to project a little endearing vulnerability. She felt the facts would speak for themselves. A newspaper article at the time called her “an austere, driven woman.” Another reporter referred to her manner as “aloof, arrogant.” The jury came out against her but couldn’t agree on damages, so there was a mistrial. In the second trial, her lawyer, Gary Bostwick, struggled with how to make her seem like a more likable witness to what he called “a regular juror.” Bostwick grew up in Wyoming and cultivated a down-to-earth mien. “She couldn’t say to the jury, ‘I am shy, so this is hard for me’ ” he told me. “I considered that. I never suggested it to her. I didn’t think she would feel comfortable. That was not Janet. That was too unnatural.” He then arranged for her to see a famous voice coach, Sam Chwat, to give her pointers on how to be appealing to the jury. They talked, among other things, about trading in her ******-and-gray clothes for the more conventionally pleasing pastel palette. Like a man in the street, calling out to a passing woman, the world seemed to be saying to Janet Malcolm, “Smile, baby.” Bostwick and Malcolm debriefed by phone after each of her coaching sessions. Source link #Writer #Understood #Power #Nice Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

How Escalating Violence Is Upending Lives in the West Bank How Escalating Violence Is Upending Lives in the West Bank On Sept. 10, Mohammed Abu Dayeh, a volunteer medic in the West Bank city of Tulkarm, was shot while trying to save the life of 21-year-old Hiba Halawa. While the war in Gaza is now halted by a cease-fire deal, the Israeli military is dramatically escalating it’s campaign in the West Bank, which it says is targeting militant activity. It has also resulted in widespread displacement and dozens of deaths. Palestinians say these raids are some of the most destructive in recent memory, and civilians and medics like Halawa and Abu Dayeh are often caught in the middle of the violence. This incident occurred in the Tulkarm refugee camp, a densely populated neighborhood within the city. Many ************ families who live here fled or were forced from their homes after the creation of the state of Israel. The area is now dominated by various factions of ************ militants, who say they are fighting the Israeli occupation. The Israeli military says the goal of their raids here is to fight terrorism. On the afternoon of Sept. 10, Hiba Halawa was at home in Tulkarm with her family. At the time, Abu Dayeh was across the street examining a minor injury at a neighbor’s house. Abu Dayeh helped wrap Halawa in a blanket and took her through this passageway, attempting to transport her to an ambulance outside of the neighborhood. But they didn’t get far. Other medical volunteers believed Abu Dayeh had a better chance of survival, so they moved fast to get him out of the neighborhood, leaving Halawa and her mother alone, a moment captured on video. Eyewitnesses who spoke to The New York Times said Halawa and Abu Dayeh were both shot by Israeli military personnel positioned nearby around 2 p.m. The Israeli military denied having anything to do with the shootings and said they occurred during an incident unrelated to a two-day raid that began in the camp around the same time. Regardless of who shot them, their story highlights the dangers faced by many who live here. Halawa was transported to the hospital, where she died within hours, while Abu Dayeh faces a long recovery and is now learning to walk again. Abu Dayeh’s injury is part of a wave of attacks on medical personnel in the West Bank, documented by the World Health Organization and others. We spoke to two paramedics about the role of volunteers like Abu Dayeh. The Israeli military denied targeting medics or blocking access to medical care, but said that soldiers sometimes stop and search ambulances during their raids to target suspected militant activity. Halawa’s family now visits her grave in the Tulkarm camp’s cemetery. Source link #Escalating #Violence #Upending #Lives #West #Bank Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Is This an One Piece Easter Egg? Guide to Find Luffy’s Straw Hat in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II Is This an One Piece Easter Egg? Guide to Find Luffy’s Straw Hat in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II While playing Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, a player encountered Luffy’s straw hat—an Easter egg that honors One Piece. After sharing their discovery on social media, the player received additional information about this One Piece Easter egg from the Kingdom Come: Deliverance II community. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II was released on February 4, 2025. | Credit: Warhorse Studios. Players praised Kingdom Come: Deliverance II‘s historical accuracy and realistic portrayal of the Middle Ages after its successful release and many have been exploring and posting their discoveries on social media since the game’s February 4 launch. The Kingdom Come: Deliverance II community is currently very active, sharing everything from fun anecdotes and bug reports to helpful hints and tricks to make things easier for others. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II players find One Piece Easter Egg You can find Luffy’s hat in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. | Credit: Warhorse Studios. A Twitter user going by the handle @PookiePiece informed the community of a new finding that expands the collection of Easter eggs in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. This time, the reference is to the anime and manga series One Piece. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 has a One Piece reference pic.twitter.com/0i3lrlh1fH — Pookie Piece (@PookiePiece) February 12, 2025 The player saw Luffy’s straw hat while walking past a big tree honoring the famous “3D2Y.” It was placed close to some rocks on purpose because that’s where Luffy left his straw hat before training in the series. Community members began talking about the game’s hidden references after this discovery. Luffy’s hat has a distinctive voice line when picked up, according to another player who chimed in, saying, “It seems to carry with it the will of those who wore it before me.” The player shared a brief video that explained where to find the hat and the entire 3D2Y-style area, arguing that this was a deliberate nod to One Piece‘s Luffy. Many other players were astounded by this allusion and complimented the game on its immersive gameplay and Easter eggs. This is why One Piece is one of the most popular franchises One Piece‘s growth is huge. | Credit: Netflix. The captain of the Straw Hat Pirates always stands out, whether he is fighting strong foes or forming new alliances. A historical role-playing game now humorously acknowledges this characteristic. This inclusion demonstrates One Piece‘s appeal to a wide range of audiences by highlighting how its themes cut across genres and cultures. The inclusion of a One Piece Easter egg in a medieval role-playing game such as Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is a testament to the popularity of the series. Even though the game itself is renowned for its immersive realism and historical accuracy, the developers made the effort to pay tribute to One Piece, proving its influence outside of the anime and manga community. It demonstrates the franchise’s appeal to viewers of all backgrounds, from casual gamers to die-hard anime fans. The popularity of One Piece‘s manga, anime, and recent live-action adaptations indicates that its influence is only going to grow. If anything, its inclusion in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II demonstrates how well-established Luffy’s exploits have become in popular culture around the world. Fans can anticipate more surprises like this hidden Straw Hat to appear in unexpected places as long as One Piece inspires them. Source link #Piece #Easter #Egg #Guide #Find #Luffys #Straw #Hat #Kingdom #Deliverance Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

How Can My Valentine’s Flowers Show the Earth Love, Too? How Can My Valentine’s Flowers Show the Earth Love, Too? It may be more heartbreaking than hearing your Thanksgiving dinner is wasteful or your Halloween chocolate is problematic. But yes: Those Valentine’s roses do have an environmental cost. The majority of cut flowers this time of year are flown in from Colombia and Ecuador on refrigerated airplanes, burning through fossil fuels. Commercial flower farming has also been linked to other environmental problems, such as toxic pesticides and extensive water use. To be truly climate-conscious, you might consider skipping the luxury of winter flower bouquets. However, there’s some nuance to this decision. You can probably still put together a more climate-friendly bouquet at the most humble flower stand if you know what to look for. Roses are red, tulips might be greener “The carbon issue is definitely one that people are asking about,” said Debra Prinzing, the author of the book “Slow Flowers” and founder of an online directory for buying flowers locally. “But not everybody, including myself, is equipped to do that calculation.” Researchers have assessed the total carbon costs for some flower crops, but each stem in a bouquet could come from a different country and be grown in a different way, making the math tricky. One way to simplify things is by buying a classic bunch of tulips. This is the only flower mass-grown in the United States in the winter on such a scale that you can find them at most local shops. And the majority of tulips sold to Americans are shipped by truck for relatively short distances. It hasn’t always been that way. About a decade ago, “most of the supermarkets were dominated by Dutch tulips,” said David Kaplan, a longtime Rhode Island-based flower importer and distributor. Walmart said that most of their current tulips were grown domestically. Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and the Kroger grocery chain are often supplied by a grower in Virginia. There are major tulip operations in New Jersey, the state of Washington and across the border in southern Ontario and British Columbia. Together, ********* and American farms grew 253 million tulips sold in the U.S. in 2023, the last year for which full statistics are available. That was four times as many as the Dutch supplied that year. In other words, if you bought tulips for Valentine’s Day in 2023, there was a good chance that they were fairly locally grown. Some flower farmers have turned to them partly because they can be grown in abundance. “You can grow a lot of tulips in a very small space in a fairly small amount of time,” said Jennifer Kouvant, who co-owns a Hudson Valley farm. “In our pretty small space of, I would say, 18 by 25 square feet, we’re able to grow about 20,000 to 30,000 tulips over a two- or three-month *******.” Making tulips bloom early — tricking them into experiencing an early “winter” by first cold-storing the bulbs until they root, then simulating spring by heating and lighting them — is an age-old practice, but it’s seeing a “renaissance,” said Kouvant. Her farm sells a five-week tulip-bouquet subscription that starts in February. The greenhouse conundrum This surge in the local growing of tulips doesn’t solve every environmental problem, though, since many North American tulips are greenhouse-grown. If the greenhouses are highly automated and consume a lot of electricity that was generated by burning fossil fuels, the tulips can still be carbon-intensive, according to Rebecca Swinn, a U.K. researcher who published a carbon-life-cycle analysis for some U.K.-sold flowers and ran some rougher calculations on the U.S. market. Only 13 percent of Virginia’s power, for example, is renewable. “This factors in significantly,” she said. Still, after looking at the major growing states’ power mixes, “it is a fair assumption that U.S.A.-grown tulips would have lower overall emissions than roses imported from Colombia,” she said, adding that small-scale growers like Kouvant in Hudson Valley would have “much lower emissions.” The math could still improve as big growers build on-site renewable energy. It’s also getting more common for smaller American growers to force other spring flowers into bloom around Valentine’s Day, including anemone, ranunculus and sweet peas, said John Dole, a horticulture professor at North Carolina State University. Think outside the bouquet Don’t forget other gift ideas: candles, tickets to a show or — this can’t fail — a handmade love letter. If you want longer-lasting flowers, you could gift dried or pressed arrangements. Or consider a spring flower subscription from a local farm, or a wintertime tulip one. (This map might help you find some nearby.) For foodies, maybe a bouquet you can eat? One high-end grocer has a “radicchio not roses” campaign. But if a box of bitter produce would spoil the romance, all is not lost. Try buying tulips or another cool-weather flower, and take a minute to ask where they were grown. Try to skip the cellophane wrapping. And of course, compost that bouquet. Source link #Valentines #Flowers #Show #Earth #Love Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Where the Oscar Race Stands After “Emilia Pérez” Controversy Where the Oscar Race Stands After “Emilia Pérez” Controversy Sometimes, the ******* after the Oscar nominations can feel like a snooze. There may be a notable snub that’s worth discussing for a few days, but things eventually settle down and people begin to behave themselves as they head into the final stretch of the season. This hasn’t been that. The last two weeks in particular have been some of the most tumultuous in recent memory, thanks in large part to the controversy involving old tweets made by one of the “Emilia Pérez” stars, Karla Sofía Gascón. The initially defiant actress went rogue to defend herself, keeping her scandal in the headlines during several crucial voting periods. Now, a film that led the field with 13 Oscar nominations has been hobbled. After all of that turbulence, where do things stand? Here are five narratives now emerging from the season that I plan to keep an eye on. As this year began, the awards-season aspirations of “Anora” appeared to stall out. The Sean Baker-directed comedy went winless at the Golden Globes on Jan. 5, and that failure-to-launch feeling lingered over the next few weeks when the Critics Choice Awards, where “Anora” hoped to score anew, were postponed from Jan. 12 to Feb. 7 because of the Los Angeles wildfires. What a difference a weekend makes. On Friday, “Anora” picked up a best-picture prize at that delayed Critics Choice ceremony, and scored top honors the next night at separate shows held by the Directors Guild of America and the Producers Guild of America. Any movie that triumphs with both of those guilds has to be considered the best-picture front-runner, even though five years ago, “1917” conquered at the PGA and DGA awards and still lost the top Oscar to “Parasite.” While surveying the best-picture field in mid-December, I noted that whenever I spoke to voters and industry insiders about their favorite films of the year, “Anora” was the title that came up again and again. Both that movie and “Emilia Pérez” had built strong coalitions across many different voting demographics. With the latter wounded, it’s now “Anora” that has taken the lead. ‘Emilia Pérez’ looks for a lifeline “Emilia Pérez” may be down, but can it be counted entirely out? This past weekend painted a mixed picture of its post-scandal chances: Though it managed three wins at the Critics Choice Awards, including a supporting-actress prize for Zoe Saldaña, voting for that ceremony closed weeks before Gascón’s tweets came to light. At the PGA awards, where voting ended just as the Gascon controversy ramped up, and the DGA awards, where voting closed two days after the film’s director, Jacques Audiard, disavowed Gascón and her comments in an interview, “Emilia Pérez” went home empty-handed. If the movie still has a shot at picking up major Oscars, it needs to build a bulwark at this weekend’s BAFTA awards, since that British voting body shares a significant overlap with the academy. The movie swept December’s European Film Awards, where it won every category it was nominated in (including a best-actress victory for Gascón), so a good showing at BAFTA would indicate that international voters remain enamored with “Emilia” and either unaware or unconcerned when it comes to the controversies that have engulfed it. And though I don’t think stateside voters will take Gascón’s actions out on her co-star Saldaña, the Screen Actors Guild awards later this month will test that theory: That nominating committee went wild for “Wicked,” so I expect the supporting-actress contender Ariana Grande to at least put up a fight. ‘Conclave’ and ‘Wicked’ go the long route To be considered a major best-picture contender, a film typically needs to score a best-director nomination, too. So how should a movie press on after the directors’ branch delivers a snub? Two of this year’s contenders hope to chart an unconventional path. Pretty much everyone I’ve spoken to enjoyed “Conclave” as a pulpy but elevated thriller, though it’s rare to find someone who considers it their bar-none, number-one movie of the year. No matter: The “Conclave” awards strategy, which counts on the unique preferential ballot used by the Oscars, is to make a strong go of it by being everybody’s number-two movie. A movie that compiles enough points from second-place votes could very well beat out a film that ranks first on some ballots, but toward the bottom on others. In a season packed with controversy, maybe that likability will be enough. “Wicked” has an even tougher path, since it lacks both a director and screenplay nomination, and no film since 1932’s “Grand Hotel” has taken the best-picture trophy without those key nods. Still, I’ve talked to voters who plan to cast votes for “Wicked” simply because the success of that kind of spectacle is good for both Hollywood and the Oscars. (Pour out a glass of glowing Bene Gesserit juice for “Dune: Part Two,” the other blockbuster nominated for best picture, as it simply hasn’t been able to marshal that same rah-rah enthusiasm.) Bupkis for ‘Brutalist’ At a reception before the DGA awards on Saturday, I polled my fellow pundits and a clutch of publicists on which contender they expected to prevail. Every person I spoke to predicted that Brady Corbet would take home the night’s top honor for his epic ******* drama “The Brutalist,” which he somehow pulled off on a budget of under $10 million. For rising to that challenge, Corbet had already won the Golden Globe for best director, and in an era in which the best-picture and best-director Oscars can often go to two separate films, he seemed to have a strong shot at taking at least one of those prizes. I wondered if Sean Baker, who directed “Anora,” had heard those same predictions, since he seemed utterly shocked when he and not Corbet was announced as the DGA winner. It helped, I think, that Baker is an affable director who’s known in filmmaking circles, while the serious-minded Corbet is an actor-turned-director who is only just now breaking into the mainstream. And though those who love “The Brutalist” really, really love it, the three-hour, thirty-five minute movie can be polarizing: I have not encountered scads of women who consider it their favorite film of the year. Like “Emilia Pérez,” the movie will now have to count on some BAFTA victories to help it make up momentum. ‘I’m Still Here’ waits in the wings Is the international-film Oscar back in play? Just weeks ago, you’d have been a fool to bet against “Emilia Pérez” in that category, since the prize almost always goes to the movie with the strongest best-picture shot. But with that film now on the ropes, we could have a real race on our hands. Any Oscar voter who has befriended or even brushed shoulders with a Brazilian has likely received a text from that person in recent weeks, since advocating for “I’m Still Here” and its leading lady, Fernanda Torres, has practically become a national pastime. It’s true that the Walter Salles-directed movie, about an activist whose dissident husband is disappeared by Brazil’s military dictatorship, faces an uphill battle in the best-picture and best-actress categories. (“The Substance” star Demi Moore is still the favorite in the latter contest). Still, as the only other major contender in the international-film category, there’s a path for “I’m Still Here” to win over voters who’d prefer a tasteful alternative to the scandal-tarred “Emilia Pérez.” Source link #Oscar #Race #Stands #Emilia #Pérez #Controversy Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

How Ukraine Pitched Trump on a Deal for Critical Minerals How Ukraine Pitched Trump on a Deal for Critical Minerals To Ukraine, they are a chit to play in an ongoing appeal to President Trump for more financial and military support. To Mr. Trump, they should be overdue payment for billions of dollars committed to Kyiv’s war effort. Either way, Ukraine’s vast and valuable mineral resources have suddenly become a prominent component in the maneuvering over the country’s future. Over the past week, Mr. Trump has repeatedly pushed the idea of trading U.S. aid for Ukraine’s critical minerals. He told Fox News on Monday that he wanted “the equivalent of like $500 billion worth of rare earths,” a group of minerals crucial for many high-tech products, in exchange for American aid. Ukraine had “essentially agreed to do that,” he said. For Ukraine, it is a hopeful sign that Mr. Trump, a longtime skeptic of American aid to Kyiv, might find a path to maintaining support that he finds palatable. But it’s still possible that the famously mercurial president will change his mind, and even his statements about a deal have been ambiguous about whether he wants Ukraine’s minerals for past or future aid — or a combination of both. Mr. Trump’s proposal followed a campaign launched by Kyiv in the fall to appeal to the U.S. president’s business-oriented mind-set by discussing lucrative energy deals and emphasizing that defending Ukraine aligned with American economic interests. The campaign included a meeting between Mr. Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky and trips to the United States by Ukrainian officials to pitch deals for exploiting deposits of lithium and titanium — vital for producing technologies like electric batteries. It also involved getting backing from influential political figures like the Republican senator Lindsey Graham. The campaign was launched after politically connected U.S. investors started showing interest in Ukraine’s underground wealth in late 2023, despite the war that has been raging since 2022. A consortium including TechMet, an energy investment firm partly owned by the U.S. government, and Ronald S. Lauder, a wealthy friend of Mr. Trump, has engaged with Kyiv to bid on a Ukrainian lithium field, according to a letter to Mr. Zelensky reviewed by The New York Times. Mr. Lauder, a cosmetics heir who planted the idea in Mr. Trump’s mind of buying resource-rich Greenland, said through a spokesman that he had not discussed Ukrainian minerals with Mr. Trump directly, but had “raised the issue with stakeholders in the U.S. and Ukraine for many years up to the present day.” As Mr. Trump pushes for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, Kyiv’s campaign around critical minerals has underscored Mr. Zelensky’s evolving strategy for retaining American support. Moving away from the moral appeals he used with the Biden administration, he has embraced a more transactional approach closer to Mr. Trump’s style. Mr. Zelensky recently said that he would also be interested in purchasing American liquefied natural gas. Speaking to Reuters on Friday, Mr. Zelensky said: “If we are talking about a deal, then let’s do a deal.” Mr. Trump said Tuesday that he was sending his Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, to meet Mr. Zelensky in Ukraine — the first visit by a Trump administration official. Mr. Bessent was directed to explore with the Ukrainians what a deal for the minerals might look like. He was expected in Kyiv on Wednesday, according to an official with knowledge of the trip. The idea of leveraging Ukraine’s mineral resources took shape last summer. Kyiv was crafting its “Victory Plan,” a strategy aimed at ending the war on terms favorable to Ukraine, and wanted to convince its allies to sustain their support despite rising war fatigue. Ukrainian officials were particularly concerned about a potential return to power of Mr. Trump, who had vowed to cut off military and financial aid to Ukraine, according to Ukrainian officials and lawmakers. Their attention was drawn to an argument voiced by a Trump ally: Mr. Graham, who was making the case that Ukraine was “sitting on a gold mine” of critical minerals. “If we help Ukraine now, they could become the best business partner we’ve ever dreamed of,” he said last June. He reinforced his message in a video with Mr. Zelensky in September. Ukrainian authorities say the country holds deposits of nearly half the 50 minerals the United States has identified as critical for its economy and national security. The Kyiv School of Economics says Ukraine holds the largest titanium reserves in Europe and a third of the continent’s lithium reserves. Groups like SecDev, a ********* firm, have valued the reserves at several trillion dollars. But some deposits are inaccessible because they are in Russian-occupied land. And experts caution that exploiting mineral reserves could be a costly and prolonged process, with new surveys needed to accurately assess their potential. In a November 2023 letter to Mr. Zelensky, Brian Menell, head of TechMet, sought assistance for launching a bid to exploit a state-owned lithium field in central Ukraine. The letter named Mr. Lauder, the Texas-based investment firm Privateer Capital and other U.S. and international investors as associates. Mr. Menell and other energy executives met Mr. Zelensky in New York in September. It is unclear whether they discussed the bid, which has yet to be launched. “TechMet, together with our partners, is available to move forward with further work if the U.S. and Ukrainian governments instruct us to do so,” Mr. Menell said in a statement. Kyiv then decided to offer allies access to critical minerals as part of its Victory Plan. Mr. Zelensky presented the plan to Mr. Trump during a meeting in New York in late September. During Mr. Trump’s first term, when Kremlin-backed troops were already waging war in eastern Ukraine, Kyiv won support from him, including for weapons supplies, by buying coal from an important swing state, Pennsylvania. Part of Ukraine’s argument now is to emphasize that should it lose the war, its mineral resources would fall into the hands of Russia and its allies like China, which already dominates the global market for such materials. John E. Herbst, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and now senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center, said Ukraine’s pitch was an obvious sell for Mr. Trump. “It involves vast energy resources, economically valuable assets which are not abundant in the Western world, and it’s a way to strip other competitors, including China, of their leverage over the United States,” Mr. Herbst said. “It’s a no-brainer.” Last fall, work was underway to finalize and sign an agreement with the Biden administration to cooperate on extracting and processing minerals. But Ukrainian authorities decided to postpone the signing of the deal and offer it to Mr. Trump instead so that he could claim credit for it. A Ukrainian delegation led by Yulia Svyrydenko, the economy minister, then traveled to New York and Washington in December for meetings with U.S. officials and business representatives, with critical minerals as a central topic. Ms. Svyrydenko outlined potential energy deals, including the acquisition of production licenses for critical minerals. A presentation, seen by The Times, emphasized that Ukraine was “capable of building the entire value chain to meet U.S. and E.U. metallic titanium demand for 25 years.” Matthew Murray, chairman of the advisory board of Velta, a Ukrainian titanium extraction company, said Ms. Svyrydenko had asked him and other U.S. business representatives for their help in making Ukraine’s case to the Trump administration. “We spent a good deal of this meeting talking about critical raw materials,” Mr. Murray said. He added that the exploitation of these resources could become a new pillar of the U.S.-Ukraine relationship. What shape this pillar may take remains to be seen. A draft of the agreement that Kyiv postponed, and which was reviewed by The Times, included only pledges to share information and expertise on potential partnerships. It contained no financial commitments and was nonbinding. It is unclear whether Kyiv and Washington will amend the agreement to align it with Mr. Trump’s latest proposals. Mr. Murray, a former Obama administration official, said one idea circulating in Washington was to offer Ukraine a loan to purchase U.S. weaponry, with access to critical minerals as collateral. This proposal could align with Mr. Trump’s vision, who has talked of obtaining a “guarantee” for continued American assistance. “There are many steps yet to be taken, but the concept is very viable,” he said. Marian Prysiazhniuk contributed reporting. Source link #Ukraine #Pitched #Trump #Deal #Critical #Minerals Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]