It's known for being the home of Mount Rushmore -- and not much else. But thanks to its relish for deregulation, the state is fast becoming the most profitable place for the mega-wealthy to park their billions.
Late last year, as the Chinese government prepared to enact tough new tax rules, the billionaire Sun Hongbin quietly transferred $4.5bn worth of shares in his Chinese real estate firm to a company on a street corner in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, one of the least populated and least known states in the US.
Sioux Falls is a pleasant city of 180,000 people, situated where the Big Sioux River tumbles off a red granite cliff. It has some decent bars downtown, and a charming array of sculptures dotting the streets, but there doesn't seem to be much to attract a Chinese multi-billionaire. It's a town that even few Americans have been to.
The money of the world's mega-wealthy, though, is heading there in ever-larger volumes. Read more
This Sunday, Kanye Wests highly anticipated service at Joel Osteens Houston megachurch went down just as many expected: as a perfect mix of celebrity narcissism, privilege, and fundamentalist Christian certainty.
An Indian politician, Vijay Jolly, was removed by security officials at the second Asia Pacific Summit emerged on Tuesday after he rudely interrupted an address by National Assembly (Pakistan) Deputy Speaker, Qasim Suri. Suri was raising the plight of Indian-Kashmiris in his address, when the Indian politician got up and interrupted him. In the video, Jolly can be seen gesturing to Suri and saying: "I voice my protest ... Jammu and Kashmir is not a part of this summit ... How can he say this. This is wrong, he cannot say this is a human rights violation". Jolly was then forcibly removed by security from the event. Read more
Republican policies have made us the world leaders in all the wrong categories.
Experiences like hearing voices are leading psychologists to question how all people perceive reality. Read more
After breakfast one morning in August, the mathematician Terence Tao opened an email from three physicists he didn't know. The trio explained that they'd stumbled across a simple formula that, if true, established an unexpected relationship between some of the most basic and important objects in linear algebra. Read more
The US government says sleeping in the office is a no-no. But experts say it's time they reconsider, writes Jonathan Berr.
The US government has decided to get tough on naps.
Although sleeping at work has long been frowned upon for federal employees, it had never been explicitly banned until now.
Ralph Nader Radio Hour | Nov 18, 2019
Welcome to this special edition of the Ralph Nader Radio Hour. I'm Steve Skrovan. In this series, Ralph and Constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, will lay out the articles of impeachment of President Donald J. Trump.
Count One: Solicitation of Bribery
video length 15:55 Read more
Doddering Prince Andrew, known as Randy Andy among the Teterboro class, appeared on BBC's Newsnight Saturday evening for a sit-down from Buckingham Palace to set the record straight on his relationship with dead sex trafficking kingpin Jeffrey Epstein. It's being called some of the best television of the year, or at least the best episode yet of Brass Eye, despite the BBC's Emily Maitlis failing to ask the Duke of York the most obvious question on everyone's mind, Who killed Jeffrey Epstein?'
It would be a considerable stretch to say he was a very close friend,' Andrew said of Epstein, explaining the pair only saw each other, like, three times a year, or triple as often as many people see their own parents. And what a parent Andrew must be, admitting he invited Epstein to his daughter Beatrice's 18th birthday party after Epstein was convicted of sex crimes with a minor. Read more
Fox News' Neil Cavuto defended his colleague Chris Wallace from an attack from President Donald Trump, telling Trump that it's not the job of journalists to praise him. "What makes something fake news?" Cavuto asked his audience on Your World Monday afternoon. "I would assume if the news being reported is fake or wrong and the person reporting that news knows it is fake or wrong, that is bad." But what if the news being reported is accurate, the facts are good they just sound bad? My colleague Chris Wallace has discovered again the president doesn't distinguish," he continued. Over the weekend, Trump lashed out at Wallace for giving a tough interview to House Minority Whip Steve Scalise on Fox News Sunday, whom Wallace called out for mischaracterizing testimony. Read more
U.S. State Department officials were informed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was feeling pressure from the Trump administration to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden even before the July phone call that has led to impeachment hearings in Washington, two people with knowledge of the matter told The Associated Press. Read more
Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said he's "proud of the team" at the State Department even as he refused to discuss the ouster of the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and the department employees who defied his orders by testifying in the impeachment investigation.
"I always defend State Department employees," Pompeo said in a press briefing at the department on Monday. But he refused to answer substantive questions about the ouster of Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, who was recalled from Kyiv at Trumps demand as the president pressed Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden and other Democrats.
Mice fed a ketogenic diet"in which 90 percent of calories come from fat and less than 1 percent from carbohydrates"were less susceptible to the influenza A virus, according to a study published today (November 15) in Science Immunology. The protective effects seem to be mediated by an increase of so-called gamma-delta T cells in the animals' lungs that induce the epithelial cells in the airway to make more mucus to trap the virus.
Why are we told a broken system that creates vast inequality is the only choice? Spain's amazing co-op is living proof otherwise.
In recent weeks, China's space program has made news by revealing some of its long-term ambitions for spaceflight. These include establishing an Earth-Moon space economic zone by 2050, which, if successful, could allow the country to begin to dictate the rules of behavior for future space exploration.
Some have questioned whether China, which has flown six human spaceflights in the last 16 years, can really build a large low-Earth space station, send taikonauts to the Moon, return samples from Mars, and more in the coming decade or two.
But what seems clear is that the country's authoritarian government has long-term plans and is taking steps toward becoming a global leader in space exploration.
By one important metric -- orbital launches -- China has already reached this goal.
In every other developed democratic country, the role of ambassador, with only very rare exceptions, is given to career diplomats who have spent decades learning the art of international relations.
In the U.S., however, many ambassadors are untrained in diplomacy, and have simply bought their way into a prestigious post. The involvement of the American ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, in the Ukraine scandal has prompted interest in the media and Congress in the role of non-career ambassadors like him.
On Oct. 30, U.S. Rep. Ami Bera, a Democrat from California, introduced legislation that would require at least 70% of a president's ambassadorial appointments to come from the ranks of career Foreign Service officers and civil servants.
Career appointees have to spend decades working their way up through the ranks in government before being nominated, as I did before becoming ambassador in Mozambique and later in Peru.
