All purpose news and politics thread part VII: News & Politics Total Landscaping

[aja_christopher]

I think they should add League to it so they can have a L on the end and get in on the Final Fantasy fandom. #MUGAL for life

Trump never laughs -- his crew could never hang with the Moogles.

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"Why Donald Trump never laughs, according to his niece"

"Donald Trump's niece says she has never seen her uncle laugh and thinks there's a good reason why. Mary Trump, who recently published a critical book about the US president, offers her insights as a licensed psychologist.

Mary, 55, is the daughter of Fred Trump Jr, the president's older brother, who died in 1981 at the age of 42. She says that Trump's father, Fred Trump, never laughed either, a man she holds responsible for a lot of her uncle's bullish behaviour.

"When you are able to laugh you’re also letting your guard down and that was frowned upon," she told The Guardian. "My dad had a great sense of humour; he was a very funny guy and did know how to laugh. I think with my grandfather it was also because he was not a fully human being.”

In her tell-all book, Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man, Trump brands her uncle a lecherous, narcissistic bully. The book was released on 14 July, despite Trump's legal attempts to block it. She has not spoken to her uncle since April 2017 at her aunt's birthday party and has no intention of doing so again.

She firmly believes her uncle is racist. “I don’t think he has any political ideology. For him, this is just expedient," she says. "I would say he behaves like a white supremacist, certainly. He’s acting on his own racism. He’s doing racist things that are endangering people of colour in this country. That’s much more important, so whether he would describe himself as a white supremacist or not, he’s certainly acting like one.”

Mary used to feel compassion and sympathy towards Trump, who, she says, was emotionally neglected as a child by his father, but ultimately his upbringing isn't a justification for his current behaviour.

“He’s an adult human being who knows the difference between right and wrong, even though he doesn’t think the rules apply to him," she says. "He knows what he’s doing and one of the reasons we’re in this position is because he’s never been held accountable for anything. So his transgressions become more egregious over time and he needs to be held to account.”

https://www.harpersbazaar.com/uk/cel...news/a33400420/why-donald-trump-never-laughs-according-to-his-niece/

[aja_christopher]

Meanwhile... back in Gotham City...

[Tendrin]

Thank you for those updates. Most of these types of stories go under the radar, as they aren't the type of attention-grabbing headlines that make top story news these days.

Reporting on the actual actions of government is too boring for a lot of 'journalists' today.

[CaptainEurope]

Reporting on the actual actions of government is too boring for a lot of 'journalists' today.

I've seen journalists actually say it is "not their job" to do "PR for the government."

That might be one of the roots of negativity bias in the media, which is one of the roots of the "vibesecession" problem.

[CaptainEurope]

A disaster that has been under the radar for many:

Russian Atomic Agency faces accusations of covering up Tobol River radioactive pollution

In April, massive floods devastated dozens of Russian far-eastern regions. The city of Orsk in the Orenburg region suffered the most from the disaster after a dam on the Ural River broke on April 5.

By April 9, the flood reached the Kurgan region, including the village of Zverinogolovskoye, forcing the evacuation of its residents.

This village’s location near the Rosatom’s Dobrovolnoye uranium deposits and mills led to concerns about potential radioactive pollution of the Tobol River waters.

Rosatom repeatedly dismissed these fears as “Ukrainian propaganda and disinformation.”

On April 20, Rosatom stated that the Dobrovolnoye uranium deposit is not affected by the flood, because it, like other deposits in the Zverinogolovsky district of the Kurgan region, is located “far from the river, on a hill.”

Dinis Ezhurov, general director of the Dalur company, which is part of Rosatom's mining division, assured that the flood will not affect uranium production at the Dobrovolnoye deposit, because its production sites are “reliably protected.”

On April 23, Rosatom stated that uranium mills in the Kurgan region of Russia are located on a hill and have not been affected by the flooding.

“The fields of JSC Dalur are located on a hill and away from the water. The flood did not affect them. There is no threat of flooding.”

Rosatom later clarified to TASS, the Russian state-owned news agency that “[we] are talking about all wells, both spent and operating.”

These claims are likely false.

After analyzing satellite images of the flooded area, Russian and Western investigative journalists concluded that parts of Rosatom’s uranium mills have submerged and are covered with water.

Russian environmentalists warned that this could lead to the release of the radioactive solution into the Tobol River, which supplies fresh water to hundreds of thousands of residents in Russia’s Kurgan region, before flowing into the Arctic Ocean.

On April 23, investigative journalists at Agentstvo, a Russian independent news outlet in exile, reported that satellite images confirmed the flooding of part of the Dobrovolnoye uranium deposit in the Zverinogolovsky district.

Agentstvo compared the satellite images published by Mark Krutov, the editor of VOA’s sister organization Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), and by Vadim Shumkov, the governor of the Kurgan region.

A comparison of Planet Labs's satellite images of the Zverinogolovsky district taken on April 20, 2024, and published by Krutov next to a map of the Dobrovolnoye uranium deposit shows that the territory of the deposit and wells was partially flooded.

Satellite images published on April 20 by Kurgan Governor Shumkov confirm the flood zone on the territory of the Dobrovolnoye deposit.

The Dalur company representatives demonstrated the map of the Dobrovolnoye uranium deposit during the public hearings in the assembly hall of the village of Zverinogolovskoye in 2019.

Alexej Schwarz, an exiled Russian physicist and environmental activist who studies uranium mining in the Kurgan region preserved a video fragment of that presentation showing the map.

According to Schwartz, the flood zone contains both old and new uranium mining wells.

Schwartz told Polygraph.info that Rosatom uses the cheapest method of uranium extraction in the Kurgan region — in-situ leaching, which also produces large amounts of radioactive waste.

“Thousands of wells are drilled to a depth of 400 meters, sulfuric acid is poured in, and the uranium is dissolved,” Schwartz said, explaining the in-situ leaching process.

Schwartz believes the flooding of the Dobrovolnoye deposit spread radionuclides, chemical elements that release radiation, across the earth's surface in a large wave. This wave will soon leave the Kurgan region and reach the neighboring region — the Tyumen region — and other associated rivers.

Tobol River is part of the Tobol-Irtysh-Ob-Kara Sea Drainage basin ecosystem flowing into the Arctic Ocean.

Andrey Ozharovsky, Russian nuclear physicist, and antinuclear campaigner, commented on the likelihood of the uranium washed away by the Tobol River floodwaters ending up in the Arctic Ocean.

“This depends on many factors, but in theory, if uranium salts are in a dissolved state (and this is what nuclear scientists achieved by pumping acid into the deposit), then it may well travel thousands of kilometers with river water to the ocean,” Ozharovsky told Polygraph.info.

Ozharovsky, told the Breakfast Show, the independent Russian YouTube channel in exile, that “a huge number” of people will receive a small fraction of uranium exposure, resulting in the growth of cancer among residents and even in the death of one or two of the most radiation-sensitive people.

Local environmentalists stated that this uranium mine site has always been in the flooded zone of the Tobol River and that authorities ignored numerous public protests against continued uranium mining in the area.

The Dobrovolnoye deposit is estimated to hold more than 7,000 tons of uranium.

Construction activities on the Dobrovolnoye pilot plant started in November 2021, the plant is expected to increase Rosatom’s uranium production capacity to 700 tons of uranium per year by 2025.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Trump never laughs -- his crew could never hang with the Moogles.

-----

"Why Donald Trump never laughs, according to his niece"

"Donald Trump's niece says she has never seen her uncle laugh and thinks there's a good reason why. Mary Trump, who recently published a critical book about the US president, offers her insights as a licensed psychologist.

Mary, 55, is the daughter of Fred Trump Jr, the president's older brother, who died in 1981 at the age of 42. She says that Trump's father, Fred Trump, never laughed either, a man she holds responsible for a lot of her uncle's bullish behaviour.

"When you are able to laugh you’re also letting your guard down and that was frowned upon," she told The Guardian. "My dad had a great sense of humour; he was a very funny guy and did know how to laugh. I think with my grandfather it was also because he was not a fully human being.”

In her tell-all book, Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man, Trump brands her uncle a lecherous, narcissistic bully. The book was released on 14 July, despite Trump's legal attempts to block it. She has not spoken to her uncle since April 2017 at her aunt's birthday party and has no intention of doing so again.

She firmly believes her uncle is racist. “I don’t think he has any political ideology. For him, this is just expedient," she says. "I would say he behaves like a white supremacist, certainly. He’s acting on his own racism. He’s doing racist things that are endangering people of colour in this country. That’s much more important, so whether he would describe himself as a white supremacist or not, he’s certainly acting like one.”

Mary used to feel compassion and sympathy towards Trump, who, she says, was emotionally neglected as a child by his father, but ultimately his upbringing isn't a justification for his current behaviour.

“He’s an adult human being who knows the difference between right and wrong, even though he doesn’t think the rules apply to him," she says. "He knows what he’s doing and one of the reasons we’re in this position is because he’s never been held accountable for anything. So his transgressions become more egregious over time and he needs to be held to account.”

https://www.harpersbazaar.com/uk/cel...news/a33400420/why-donald-trump-never-laughs-according-to-his-niece/

I read the book, and the way Fred Trump created the monster that's Donald made for disturbing reading.

I've seen journalists actually say it is "not their job" to do "PR for the government."

Yeah, right. The very same journalists who fall over themselves to slurp Trump every chance they can get.

[aja_christopher]

I read the book, and the way Fred Trump created the monster that's Donald made for disturbing reading.

[CaptainEurope]

Meanwhile in the UK, the Tories are having a horrible weekend as results from municipal elections are trickling in.




Conservatives crushed by ‘worst local election result’ in years

The spread of the Conservative losses led one former minister to claim there was “no such thing really as a safe Tory seat any more”, but the prime minister appeared committed to clinging on until polling day, with rebels in his own party lacking the support to oust him.

The polling expert Prof John Curtice of Strathclyde University said the results added up to “one of the worst, if not the worst” performances by the Conservatives in four decades.

The party is expected to lose up to 500 seats when all votes are counted, with Labour advancing in areas of both the “red wall” north won by the Tories under Boris Johnson and the traditional southern Conservative heartlands.

Labour also ousted a number of Tory police and crime commissioners, and took control of at least seven new councils, including in Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hampshire and Sussex in the south of England.

As of 10.45pm, Starmer’s party had won more than 200 new council seats to reach a total of more than 1,000 seats, while the Liberal Democrats added 90 seats to hit 500, passing the Conservatives who lost more than 370 seats to finish on 468.

Tories are the 3rd biggest party on a municipal level now.

[zinderel]

Prior to the Biden Admin’s statement on the matter next week, it might be worth reading this independent analysis of the actions of the current Israeli-Palestinian situation.

https://www.justsecurity.org/wp-cont...rt-_-Final.pdf

[achilles]

I wish Biden hadn't insulted Japan and India like that. He'd better find a way to apologize; the Japanese at least seem upset. I thought we were well done with that when Trump got deep sixed, but no, Biden's doing it too. As President, you just have to choose your words carefully, Obama and even Bush the Lesser understood that, neither Trump nor Biden gets it.