Nieuws Buitenland – 9

County officials are again exploring potential bids to sell 11 acres of land just blocks from downtown Rochester.... Read more »

President Donald Trump's proposal that the United States ''take over'' the Gaza Strip and permanently resettle its Palestinian residents was swiftly rejected and denounced on Wednesday by American allies and adversaries alike.... Read more »

Falls, overdoses and mental health concerns have driven up 911 calls. St. Louis Park, Richfield, Edina and Burnsville are among the cities that are trying something different.... Read more »

Advocates and providers are pushing back against Gov. Tim Walz’s proposed disability service changes and remain wary of potential federal changes to Medicaid.... Read more »

The SUV driver was behind the wheel with revoked driving privileges, a state official said.... Read more »

Two siblings in the buggy were injured in the collision southeast of Stewartville.... Read more »

Our Rescue, the focus of the film “Sound of Freedom,” plans to train police in a new city-run community safety center, drawing concerns.... Read more »

The District 3 seat has been vacant since former Board Chair Trista Martinson resigned last summer to lead a multi-county recycling and energy program.... Read more »

A Minneapolis man wanted to find a reason to gather on cold, gray winter days. Enter stump party, a do-it-yourself holiday that just celebrated its fourth year.... Read more »

Minneapolis Police said they are investigating a shooting that damaged a city snowplow Sunday night.... Read more »

The omicron variant has halted plans to bring more workers back to the Twin Cities' downtowns.... Read more »

Minnesota is known as the state of hockey.... Read more »

In response to a historic spike in carjackings around the Twin Cities in the last two years, federal agents and prosecutors are stepping into an area of violent crime that had mostly been left up to local authorities to solve in the past.... Read more »

Prosecutors have charged a man suspected of fatally shooting the mother of his child this past weekend in St. Paul's North End neighborhood.... Read more »

The DFL-controlled Minnesota House made history last May when it passed a bill to legalize recreational marijuana. However, don't look for history to repeat itself in the Republican-controlled Minnesota Senate this year.... Read more »

Crime prevention and public safety have moved to the top of the 2022 agenda of the Minnesota Legislature along with COVID response and the projected budget surplus.... Read more »

A crowd full of family members, fans and local elementary students held signs and American flags outside the Super Rink, as the bus full of Olympians headed out Monday afternoon.... Read more »

St. Paul Police are investigating an incident where a liquor store employee was reportedly shot during a confrontation with a shoplifter.... Read more »

Every Meal in Roseville has already served more than one million meals this school year.... Read more »

A woman is charged with second-degree murder in Scott County after she admitted to strangling her mother.... Read more »

The federal trial of three former Minneapolis police officers charged in the death of George Floyd officially began Monday morning.... Read more »

Opening statements began Monday morning in the federal trial of three former Minneapolis police officers charged in the death of George Floyd.... Read more »

Arvid Harry Johnson, 65, faces one count of second-degree murder in his wife's death. He is being held at the Ramsey County Jail with a bail of $1 million.... Read more »

Twists in the trans revolution upend film-industry journalism.... Read more »

People with intersex conditions have long been used as the bait in the Left’s motte-and-bailey argument to declare sex mutable at will. Don’t buy it.... Read more »

Rather than double down on the Biden-Harris approach, as Senator Hawley proposes, the GOP can choose to put the American worker first.... Read more »

A review of A Tyranny for the Good of Its Victims, by Andy Puzder.... Read more »

There will be legal issues ahead, but on the merits, overhauling the agency is worthy and important.... Read more »

On a California landlord’s fatal stabbing, a Border Patrol shooting, and a twisted transgender cult.... Read more »

They don’t need self-indulgent lectures on how to be more off-putting. They’ve already got the act down pat.... Read more »

Trump is cutting deals — from Central America to Canada.... Read more »

He is taking steps to block J6 defendants from state employment.... Read more »

Trump spoke loudly and swung a big stick in Panama’s direction, and it produced instantaneous results.... Read more »

Motivated and experienced personnel will be our asymmetric advantage in a potential future conflict with a near-peer adversary.... Read more »

Subsidy packages put together by state and local governments almost invariably include some component of federal funding.... Read more »

We shouldn’t return to the overreach of the past. But when America retreats, the void is filled by powers that don’t share our values or our interests.... Read more »

Trump and Milei are leading dissidents inside the gates.... Read more »

After days offline, USAID’s website was finally restored late Tuesday … with a notice announcing that all employees will be placed on administrative leave.“On Friday, February 7, 2025, at 11:59 pm (EST) all USAID direct hire personnel will be placed on administrative leave globally, with the exception of designated personnel... Read more »

Donald Trump’s latest plan to effectively “take over the Gaza strip” is seemingly too extreme for his Republican colleagues—though their tepid responses still leave wiggle room for Trump to push forward with the idea.In a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, the president claimed that the... Read more »

The following is a lightly edited transcript of the February 5 episode of the Daily Blast podcast. Listen to it here.Greg Sargent: This is The Daily Blast from The New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR network. I’m your host, Greg Sargent.As Elon Musk’s takeover of the federal government... Read more »

There is practically no way to describe what is currently happening in the United States without sounding hysterical, or like some sort of crank—or, maybe, insane. But here goes! Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has seized control of the Treasury Department. He is deciding who the government pays and who... Read more »

The author of the Declaration of Independence went to great lengths, on numerous occasions (as I detail in What Would Jefferson Do?), to point out that when Thomas Jefferson and his colleagues started the United States of America, they were explicitly rejecting—in favor of democracy—the men (they were all men... Read more »

The second Trump administration is waging the most aggressive war on the American constitutional order since Appomattox. President Donald Trump selected Elon Musk, a South African–born tech oligarch, to serve as the head of the “Department of Government Efficiency” after he took office. Musk has spent the last six weeks... Read more »

The story goes that the lyrics to “Black and Blue,” the jazz standard popularized by Louis Armstrong, were written at gunpoint. In 1929, the songwriter Andy Rafaz (born Andriamanantena Paul Razafinkarefo, son of Henri and Jennie Razafinkarefo, a nephew of a Malagasy queen in Madagascar and daughter of first African... Read more »

As Elon Musk’s government takeover continues, Representative Jamie Raskin has been sounding a particularly urgent alarm. After Raskin issued a harsh takedown of Musk, triggering a Twitter fight between the two, Raskin pressed further, asking Musk a simple question: As someone who supposedly works for the government now, will he... Read more »

Representative Ilhan Omar’s Republican colleagues are once again calling for her to be deported because they don’t understand U.S. law.Representative Brandon Gill posted on X Tuesday in response to a post falsely claiming Omar was “hosting workshops” with Somali immigrants about their legal rights in the face of Donald Trump’s... Read more »

Donald Trump’s federal government funding freeze is hurting the Head Start program, despite a court order blocking the freeze last week.In multiple states, the early childhood education program’s offices are getting error messages when they try to access the accounts used to request funds, HuffPost reported Tuesday, citing earlier reports... Read more »

Elon Musk is sending his digital minions after Representative Ilhan Omar, all based on a fake video posted by the pitiable right-wing shill Ian Miles Cheong.On Tuesday, Cheong posted an obviously edited video in which he claimed the progressive congresswoman was “conducting seminars for Somalians who are living illegally in... Read more »

Senate Majority Leader John Thune is playing dumb when it comes to Donald Trump’s significant efforts to shutter USAID. Since taking office, Trump has made several major moves to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development: He signed an executive order pausing all foreign aid, issued a stop-work order sending... Read more »

FBI agents who worked on cases related to the January 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection are suing to prevent Donald Trump’s new leaders at the Justice Department from retaliating against them.Agents at the intelligence bureau filed two separate lawsuits on Tuesday against the Justice Department. The first class action lawsuit was... Read more »

Trump is preparing an executive order to abolish the Department of Education—a move that will undoubtedly hurt teachers, students, and parents in red states the most.The draft order will direct the department to slash spending and slash staff, according to The Washington Post. Such an aggressive decision on such a... Read more »

Jeet Heer President’s bullying of allies yields symbolic results—but betrays substantive weakness. The post Trump’s Phony Trade Wars Are Evidence of American Imperial Decline appeared first on The Nation.... Read more »

Lujayn When I am finally able to return to the ruins of what was my house, I will do so, not to weep, but to make a promise to rebuild it. The post Everything Is Destroyed in Gaza. But I Still Feel the Pulse of Life. appeared first on The... Read more »

Anna Simonton Grassroots efforts in places like North Carolina show what we can—and increasingly must—do in a world plagued by climate disasters. The post The People in Charge Won’t Save Us From Climate Catastrophe. We’ll Need to Do It Ourselves. appeared first on The Nation.... Read more »

Joan Walsh Fearing a primary challenge, the Louisiana Republican and physician backed away from his critique of RFK Jr. to recommend his nomination. It’s unlikely to be blocked in the Senate. The post Cassidy Caves to MAGA Threats appeared first on The Nation.... Read more »

Steve Brodner The post Inaugural Brawl appeared first on The Nation.... Read more »

Joseph Geevarghese The party faces a choice: Will it embrace the grassroots energy behind its newly elected leadership? Or allow Trump and his corporate allies to tighten their grip on the country? The post Defeating the Democratic Party Elites  Is Just the First Step  appeared first on The Nation.... Read more »

Per Marquard Otzen, Jens Julius Hansen, Lars Andersen Three Danish cartoonists look at Trump’s Manifest Tonsillectomy. The post Abdominal Snowman appeared first on The Nation.... Read more »

Elie Mystal Like Sarah Connor, the heroine of the Terminator movies, Elie Mystal is trying to figure out how to prepare his children for the dystopian future. The post Parenting In the Age of Trump appeared first on The Nation.... Read more »

Dave Zirin The NFL, to my shock, has not prematurely surrendered to Trump and Elon Musk’s agenda of Black erasure. The post The Super Bowl Will Be a Spectacle of Black Excellence, but You’ll Need to Tune Out MAGA’s White Whine appeared first on The Nation.... Read more »

David Klion The president’s foreign policy agenda remains unpredictable, but his war on liberal culture has deep roots. The post What the Neocons Do—and Don’t—Explain About Trump appeared first on The Nation.... Read more »

David Schurman Wallace In If Only, the Norwegian novelist distills a story of romance into all its private discomfort and claustrophobia. Its intense ambivalence in regards to love feels truer to life. The post Vigdis Hjorth and the Novel of Ugly Love appeared first on The Nation.... Read more »

Shraddha Joshi, Asmer Asrar Safi The university’s adoption of the IHRA definition of anti-semitism conflates critique of Israel with antisemitic speech, directly attacking pro-Palestine activism and academic freedom. The post Harvard’s New Speech Rules Continue Their Pattern of Repression appeared first on The Nation.... Read more »

Joan Walsh Legislators and grassroots groups are showing new muscle in the wake of Musk’s weekend usurpation of power. It needs to ramp up, and quickly. And the media needs to cover it. The post Signs of a New Anti-Trump Opposition Amid Elon Musk’s Coup appeared first on The Nation.... Read more »

Chris Lehmann Paramount’s settlement negotiations with President Trump are just one example of the administration’s encroaching suppression of free speech. The post The MAGA Assault on the Media Is Picking Up Steam appeared first on The Nation.... Read more »

If you are looking for a way to help people, look no further. This article provides a comprehensive list of ways to help our own families, friends, and children to name but a few. There is at least one way anybody can practice an act of kindness each day from... Read more »

In a visit to the Future Library in Norway, environmental Professor and Researcher, David Farrier, learns about wild clocks. All organisms have a sense of time embedded in their tissues and organs; they also have “body time” to synchronize with the world around them, sensing their environment for fluctuations like... Read more »

In addition to traditional services, the Salt Lake City Public Library is among many working with “state and local agencies to help patrons access social services such as mental health counseling, homeless shelters or substance-abuse prevention programs.” A “Resource Corner” that includes a social worker provides all the information needed... Read more »

Whether it is a New Year’s resolution or other life-changing goal, friends and family like to help. However well-meaning, they can unintentionally hinder someone’s efforts to make changes. Psychologists say a person’s ability to change depends on motivation, and motivation depends on three things: confidence that we can make the... Read more »

Research through the years shows volunteering and acts of kindness increase happiness and psychological well-being. Newer findings reveal they can improve physical health as well. Some results: less decline in memory and executive function; ability to walk longer at older ages with better balance; lower levels of physical pain; healthier... Read more »

Los Angeles County social workers are getting a little help from an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system to identify people at risk of losing their housing using digital warnings such as “repeated emergency room visits, mounting unpaid bills, food stamp applications that suddenly stop.” It is a shift in social work... Read more »

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Every February, the United States celebrates Black History Month to honor the achievements and contributions of Black Americans. This tradition, which evolved from “Negro History Week” founded by Carter G. Woodson in 1926, expanded into a month-long observance in 1976 under President Gerald Ford.... Read more »

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM In cities across the globe, office vacancies are at an all-time high. In the United States alone, more than 20 percent of office spaces sit empty, a consequence of the shift to remote and hybrid work. While real estate developers scramble to repurpose these... Read more »

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Ecuador once again made history in environmental protection by granting legal rights to its coastal marine ecosystems. The Constitutional Court’s recent decision ensures that marine environments are entitled to “integral respect for their existence and for the maintenance and regeneration of their life cycles,... Read more »

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM For over three decades, Project Angel Food has been a lifeline for people in Los Angeles facing critical illnesses, ensuring they receive nourishing meals when they need them most. But in the wake of the recent wildfires that tore through the city, the organization... Read more »

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEA Have you ever had that prickly sensation on the back of your neck, only to turn around and catch someone staring at you? It’s tempting to attribute this experience to intuition or even extrasensory perception (ESP), but science offers a simpler explanation. According to... Read more »

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM For years, social media has been dominated by a handful of tech giants, each offering a seemingly inescapable ecosystem of content, connection, and controversy. But cracks in the foundation are beginning to show. TikTok faced temporary shutdowns, Meta scaled back its fact-checking efforts, and... Read more »

Episode Description: In this episode of The Optimist Daily’s Weekly Round-up, Arielle and Karissa dive into the latest solutions-focused stories making a positive impact worldwide. They discuss Michael Bloomberg’s bold move to fund the UNFCCC after U.S. withdrawal, highlighting how private initiatives can drive climate action. Shifting gears to better... Read more »

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM What happens when you mix craft beer, feminist ideals, and a dash of defiance? You get Muschicraft, the world’s first feminist beer, brewed in Vienna by artist and social worker Sophie Tschannett. With its cheeky vulva logo and a mission to shatter gender norms,... Read more »

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM For the first time in history, solar power has overtaken coal in the European Union’s electricity mix. In 2024, solar energy generated 11 percent of the EU’s electricity, while coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, fell below 10 percent. This milestone, highlighted in Ember’s European... Read more »

<![CDATA[The CIA has sent the Trump administration’s “deferred resignation” offer to its employees, the first intelligence agency to do so. An aide to CIA Director John Ratcliffe told the Wall Street Journal that the move is intended to help focus the agency on drug cartels, China, and even friendly Western... Read more »

The end of USAID is a win for China and Russia.... Read more »

The SpaceX leader's DOGE work may violate criminal conflict-of-interest statutes, one ethics expert said.... Read more »

Corps’ new aviation plan also expands squadrons—but not UAV-buying plans.... Read more »

Maj. Gen. Joseph Kunkel discusses his how his service's modernization strategy will shape the future of air combat in an increasingly complex security landscape.... Read more »

They said the rollback of diversity-equity-inclusion initiatives weakens intelligence operations, erodes workforce morale, and reduces America's ability to confront threats.... Read more »

<![CDATA[President Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico have been delayed 30 days, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Ottawa announced Monday afternoon, several hours after Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum forged a similar agreement with the White House.   What’s new…sort of: Trudeau agreed to appoint a border security chief and... Read more »

A new report from the top DOD weapons tester noted the program can’t "simultaneously" fix multiple software problems.... Read more »

Elon Musk's attempt to gut the congressionally established U.S. Agency for International Development is "unconstitutional," Democratic lawmakers said.... Read more »

Such diplomacy works both ways, but richer countries by and large have the upper hand.... Read more »

<![CDATA[Musk continues assault on USAID, seizes America’s purse Just in: Staffers have been locked out of the U.S. Agency for International Development headquarters in downtown D.C., after Elon Musk said Donald Trump approved a shutdown of the congressionally established foreign-aid agency, the Associated Press reports. Just Security: “Dissolving USAID would... Read more »

In a bid to dominate the information environment, the PLA created a force to build a resilient network system and drive innovation of cutting-edge tech.... Read more »

I helped negotiate the current one. It's high time to get started on its successor.... Read more »

The service’s fiscal 2024 mishap rate was the highest since 2007.... Read more »

The five-year agreement will see Draken simulate air combat, missile threats, and electronic warfare for Royal Air Force, Royal Navy, and Army personnel. The post Draken awarded £173m to ‘face off’ against British jets first appeared on UK Defence Journal.... Read more »

Navantia UK has unveiled plans to invest in Harland & Wolff’s four UK shipyards to bolster Britain’s defence, maritime, and clean energy sectors while safeguarding jobs. The post New owners announce investment plan for Harland & Wolff first appeared on UK Defence Journal.... Read more »

Since its launch in 2014, this platform has evolved from a niche blog into a trusted source run by a whole team to provide defence analysis, break major stories and shape public debate. The post Who Are We? The team behind the UK Defence Journal first appeared on UK Defence... Read more »

The Royal Navy’s Commando Merlin helicopters have reached full operating capability following a major upgrade programme to enhance their amphibious strike role. The post Royal Navy Merlin helicopters hit full capability after upgrade first appeared on UK Defence Journal.... Read more »

British maritime technology company SubSea Craft (SSC) has announced Penny Mordaunt, former Secretary of State for Defence, as its new Chair of the Board. The post Penny Mordaunt appointed chair of SubSea Craft first appeared on UK Defence Journal.... Read more »

By deploying a carrier strike group, the UK aims to boost regional security and demonstrate that European powers remain invested in upholding international law far beyond their own borders The post British carrier strike group to counter Chinese influence first appeared on UK Defence Journal.... Read more »

A Royal Air Force 'Shadow' aircraft observed conducting "unusual" flight patterns over Glasgow and surrounding areas has been confirmed to have been part of a routine training mission. The post Shadow surveillance aircraft conducts training over Glasgow first appeared on UK Defence Journal.... Read more »

Work has started on a £61 million contract to revive artillery barrel production in Yorkshire for the first time in nearly two decades. The post British steelworks begin producting artillery barrels first appeared on UK Defence Journal.... Read more »

The Ministry of Defence has awarded Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land (RBSL) a five-year, £110 million framework contract to provide post-design services for in-service heavy armoured vehicles. The post Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land in £110M Heavy Armour contract first appeared on UK Defence Journal.... Read more »