All posts by She Seeks Serene

My Journey of Reimagining Life, Love and Education

The New York Times – Friday, March 14, 2025

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Under G.O.P., Congress Cedes Power to Trump, Eroding Its Influence

On spending, oversight and other issues, Republican lawmakers have willingly ceded power traditionally reserved for Congress to the Trump White House.

White House Withdraws Nominee for C.D.C. Director

Dr. Dave Weldon was to have appeared on Thursday in a confirmation hearing before the Senate health committee. He has close ties to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the new health secretary.

Can a Billionaire Buy St. John’s a Basketball Championship?

Mike Repole, who loved the homegrown team of his youth, has helped assemble a juggernaut enabled by compensation rules that one critic says created “the wild West.”

Veterans Race to Bring Afghan Allies to U.S. Before Trump Travel Ban

The nonprofit No One Left Behind has raised millions of dollars for flights and other assistance to prevent Afghans from being stranded abroad and face retribution from the Taliban.

Science Magazine – March 14, 2025 Research Preview

SCIENCE MAGAZINE (March 13, 2025): The latest issue features ‘Interstellar Dust’ – Mapping dust properties in the Milky Way…

Studies seek signs of consciousness before birth

Fetal and infant brains offer clues to when human experience begins

In Ukraine, dam’s destruction sets off a ‘toxic time bomb’

Floods threaten to spread sediments laden with toxicants

Oceans’ trenches are home to ‘incredible’ diversity

In trio of studies, scientists explore life in the mysterious hadal zone

NIH kills existing grants on transgender issues

Some termination letters cite “biological realities” to dismiss usefulness of such research

Face to face with the first known Western European

At least 1.1 million years old, a fossil face suggests more than one type of early human inhabited Europe

The Economist Magazine – March 15, 2025 Preview

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THE ECONOMIST MAGAZINE (March 13, 2025): The latest issue features America’s new foreign policy

America’s bullied allies need to toughen up

To avoid being crushed, they need a better plan than flattery and concessions

The new economics of immigration

A fresh critique of migration is gaining ground. Liberals must take it seriously

Trump’s erratic policy is harming the reputation of American assets

Like the stockmarket, the dollar is also suffering from falling confidence and rising confusion

The Guardian Weekly – March 14, 2025 Preview

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THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY (March 13, 2025): The latest issue features ‘Call to Arms’ – The remilitarization of Europe…

With unaccustomed speed, Paris, Berlin and London, along with the European Commission, are stepping up with a new “whatever it takes” mentality to create a framework for their own defence. Our coverage, led by Toby Helm and with contributions from our correspondents in Kyiv, Brussels and Berlin, examines how fiscal shibboleths are being shed to allow for increased military spending, and from Berlin a growing enthusiasm for Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz to consider sheltering under France’s independent nuclear umbrella.

Spotlight | ‘Here you will die’
Mark Townsend reports from Sudan on how the retreat of rebel RSF forces has led to the discovery of a torture centre, evidence of what could be one of the worst atrocities of the civil war

Technology | Roboshop
Can an AI agent prove itself smart enough to help Victoria Turk with her shopping? And, if it can order groceries and a takeaway, what else might it soon be able to do?

Feature | All the young Reform dudes
What is it about Nigel Farage’s Reform party that is attracting young men fed up with establishment politics? Gaby Hinsliff finds out

Opinion | The Sicilian ways of Donald Trump
The US president’s way of doing business is uncomfortably close to the fictional Corleone method, but without the mafia’s sense of honour, says Jonathan Freedland

Culture | Arthouse animation moves on up
Hot on the Academy Awards’ success of Flow, Xan Brooks looks at how independent animators are taking on the big-budget Hollywood studios and finding audiences are falling back in love with stop-go techniques

The New York Times – Thursday, March 13, 2025

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Trump’s Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum Go Into Effect, Inciting Global Retaliation

President Trump imposed a 25 percent tariff on metal imports, sparking new global trade spats as he attempts to shield the U.S. economy from foreign competition.

Power, Money, Territory: How Trump Shook the World in 50 Days

The system America took 80 years to assemble proved surprisingly fragile in the face of Trump’s assault, a revolution in how the country exercises power across the globe.

Tuberculosis Resurgent as Trump Funding Cut Disrupts Treatment Globally

The United States was the major funder of tuberculosis programs. Now hundreds of thousands of sick patients can’t find tests or drugs, and risk spreading the disease.

At Columbia, Tension Over Gaza Protests Hits Breaking Point Under Trump

There were protests, arrests, the departure of the school’s president. Then, a new administration arrived in Washington.

Modern Age Journal – Winter/Spring 2025

MODERN AGE – A CONSERVATIVE REVIEW (March 12, 2025): The latest issue features ‘The Art of Civilization’; No Canon, No West; Kitsch- An Essay in Definition; Flannery O’Connor’s Century…

Canons Win Culture Wars

Daniel McCarthy

Civilization is a product of canons. The Bible is a canon, and while the Iliad and Odyssey were not quite sacred scripture to the ancient Greeks, the Homeric epics went a long way toward establishing what it meant for a man or a city to be part of the Greek world. That world was almost a synonym for civilization itself. What was not Greek was barbarian.

Noam Chomsky’s War on War

David Gordon

Noam Chomsky has attained fame in two different areas. He is a world-renowned authority in linguistics and also a major public intellectual. But while in the former area his achievements are universally recognized, even by those who disagree with him, this is not so for his work as a public intellectual, where he is idolized by some, respected by others, tolerated by yet others, and execrated by more than a few.

Flannery at 100—and Forever

O’Connor’s work, fiction and not, is Catholic, gothic, Southern, and timeless.

Chilton Williamson, Jr.

Nature Magazine – March 13, 2025 Research Preview

Volume 639 Issue 8054

NATURE MAGAZINE (March 12, 2025): The latest issue features ‘Good Or Bad?’ – Simple two-point rating system curbs racial bias in the gig economy.

Who’s likely to wake up from a coma? Brainwaves provide a clue

The presence of a pattern called a sleep spindle helps to predict which people will recover from an unresponsive state.

A super-gel stays supple from −115 ºC to 143 ºC

A network of two polymers plus sulfuric acid allows a hydrogel to keep its elasticity and softness at extreme temperatures.

Ancient puppets that smile or scowl hint at shared rituals

Clay figurines found on top of the remnants of a pyramid in what is now El Salvador might have been used in public ceremonies.

The surprising culprit for the loss of huge swathes of tropical forest

Analysis of satellite imagery of the Brazilian Amazon, the Congo Basin and New Guinea helps to show that ‘secondary’ roads take an outsized toll.

Times Literary Supplement – March 14, 2025 Preview

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TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT (March 12, 2025): The latest issue features ‘The Only Way Is Down’ – On hopeful pessimism; The death of a poet in war; On democracy; Did museums purchase or plunder and Crippen’s crimes…

Cold comfort farm        

Hope, despair and retreat in an unquiet age By Kieran Setiya

Taking up the cross

The crusades in the English literary imagination By David Abulafia

Not just a man’s war

The role of women in crusading history

Under the patriarchy

Sixty years of turmoil in Egypt

The Scientist Magazine – March 2025 Issue

Issues | The Scientist Magazine® | The Scientist

THE SCIENTIST MAGAZINE (March 12, 2025): The latest issue features ‘Peto’s Paradox’ – How gigantic species evolved to beat cancer…

Peto’s Paradox: How Gigantic Species Evolved to Beat Cancer

Scientists dive into the genomes of whales, elephants, and other animal giants looking for new weapons in the fight against cancer.

DNA Profiling: Tracing Killers and Solving Mysteries Using Genetic Clues

Every DNA fragment tells a story. Forensic experts use these genetic breadcrumbs to solve old mysteries and modern crimes.

Generation X and Millennials Face a Steep Rise in Early-Onset Colorectal Cancer Cases

Younger individuals are developing colorectal cancer earlier in life compared to older generations, and scientists don’t know why.

The New York Times – Wednesday, March 12, 2025

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Trump Pulls Back Plans to Double Canadian Metal Tariffs After Ontario Relents

The president had threatened to hit Canadian metals with 50 percent tariffs but opted not to go ahead after Ontario lifted a charge on U.S. electricity.

Education Department Fires 1,300 Workers, Gutting Its Staff

The layoffs mean that the department will now have a work force of about half the size it did when President Trump took office.

Ukraine Supports 30-Day Cease-Fire as U.S. Says It Will Resume Military Aid

The deal announced on Tuesday delivered new momentum to efforts to halt the fighting, with the ball for any truce now in Russia’s court, said Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Justice Dept. Official Says She Was Fired After Opposing Restoring Mel Gibson’s Gun Rights

Elizabeth G. Oyer, the former pardon attorney, said that she was not told why she was dismissed, but that as events unfolded she feared they might lead to her firing.