Author: Cristian Peters

WASHINGTON — Following the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government, the Biden administration said it would fully support a transparent and inclusive transition process toward a nonsectarian government accountable to the Syrian people. “The transition process and new government must also uphold clear commitments to fully respect the rights of minorities, facilitate the flow of humanitarian assistance to all in need, prevent Syria from being used as a base for terrorism or posing a threat to its neighbors, and ensure that any chemical or biological weapons stockpiles are secured and safely destroyed,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in…

MANCHESTER, N.H. — As she addressed a crushing crowd of volunteers and media at Donald Trump’s New Hampshire headquarters on Saturday, New York Rep. Elise Stefanik received a welcome chant. “VP! VP! VP!” one man shouted across the room. While vice presidential candidates typically aren’t picked until after a candidate has locked down the nomination, Trump’s decisive win in last week’s Iowa caucuses and the departure of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis from the race have only heightened what had already been a widespread sense of inevitability that he will be the Republican nominee. That has given the campaign trail stops by Stefanik…

A Connecticut judge has set Jan. 23 as the date for a new Democratic primary election in the Bridgeport mayor’s race after having tossed out the September election results because of alleged ballot box stuffing. Judge William Clark issued the order late Friday afternoon after Mayor Joe Ganim and challenger John Gomes agreed on the Jan. 23 date. Clark also ruled a new general election, if needed, would be held Feb. 27. Clark’s order also includes specific procedures to be followed in the new primary, including making absentee ballot applications available on Dec. 29 and a new safeguard requiring the town clerk to…

Brussels, Toronto (4/10 – 60) The general air of frustration and resentment wafting up from Washington is a reflection of the mood of the nation – in tune with the eternal and accurate appraisal of the federal government as “out of touch” with the mood and concerns of the people. The electorate expresses its disgust with Congress by giving it an approval rating that any executive in the business world or show biz egomaniac “celebrity” would get them ousted. All through the past year the answer to “Do you approve or disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job?”…

Canada, Britain, Sweden and Ukraine have taken Iran to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to seek damages for families of passengers on a jetliner downed by Tehran in 2020, the tribunal said Wednesday. The case at the UN’s top court says Iran “violated a series of obligations” under a convention on civil aviation by shooting down Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 after take-off from Tehran. All 176 people on board were killed. Three days after the January 8, 2020 crash, Iran admitted that its military had targeted the Kyiv-bound Boeing 737-800 plane by mistake. Canada, Britain, Sweden and Ukraine…

Smoke from hundreds of wildfires burning in Canada drove down air quality across swaths of the Eastern U.S. last week, a problem all too familiar in many Western states. In the New York City suburbs where I live, the air became smoggy and orange, categorized for a time by monitoring agencies as “hazardous.” During the worst of it, I wore a mask inside my house and kept my dog mostly indoors. But my plants stood in the garden with no choice but to breathe the toxic air through the tiny pores in their leaves. If your area is heavily affected by smoke…

JOHN SUTTON (“SUTTON”), a resident of Mandeville, Louisiana, was charged on June 13, 2023 with one count of wire fraud, announced United States Attorney Duane A. Evans. According to the charging document, SUTTON co-owned and operated a company called VetAttend Professional Services, LLC where hepurported to provide services to Veterans for home aid and assistance. According to the bill of information, SUTTON submitted fraudulent affidavits for home aid services provided, knowing that those services were not actually provided. As part of the scheme to defraud, beginning in or about April 2013 and continuing until at least July 2018, SUTTON devised a scheme and artifice to defraud…

The dramatic scene arose about 11,000 years ago when a star in the constellation Vela went supernova. During the violent event, the star shined 250 times brighter than Venus and was so luminous it could be seen during the day, according to NASA. (opens in new tab)Though nowadays the star is long gone, its remnants are visible to eagle-eyed skywatchers in the Southern Hemisphere. In the upper right of the frame, the blue-hued Pencil Nebula, or NGC 2736, shines against a backdrop of stars. The linear shape suggests that it is part of a supernova shockwave of debris that collided with a dense region of gas,…

It took 90 days for the fungi to degrade 27 per cent of the plastic tested, and about 140 days to completely break it down, after the samples were exposed to ultraviolet rays or heat. Chemical engineering professor Ali Abbas, who supervised the research team, said the findings were significant: “It’s the highest degradation rate reported in the literature that we know in the world,” the professor said.  I think it’s great news that scientists are finding ways to break down plastic—because lots of plastic trash isn’t recycled, and thus ends up in landfills. And even lots of the waste that is placed…

My mother was my greatest cheerleader. She grew up without a lot of money, so she worked tirelessly when she was young to provide for herself. She wasn’t able to get a college education, so she insisted that I go. My mom wanted nothing more than to see me succeed. In 2016, our dream came true when I enrolled in Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. But one month before I was supposed to leave home for the college dorms, my 43-year-old mother was diagnosed with colorectal cancer. In an instant, my family’s world, which had previously been predictable, was now precarious and uncertain. …