Thailand launched airstrikes against Cambodia on Monday as a new wave of fighting erupted between the southeast Asian neighbors, marking the potential collapse of a peace plan presided over by US President Donald Trump just two months ago. Both sides accused the other of launching strikes along their disputed border Monday morning, after weeks of simmering tension and the earlier suspension of progress on the ceasefire agreement by Thailand.
The state's worst grades went to energy, inland waterways, roads and stormwater, all receiving a D. California roads are often picked on for being some of the worst in the country, and according to the report, about a third of the state's roads are in poor condition. Bridges also fared poorly in the report with a grade of C-. More than 65% of the structures are older than 50 years, the typical lifespan, and need significant reinvestment to ensure their longevity. Even the Golden Gate Bridge, one of the state's biggest tourist attractions, still needs to secure more funding to finish an ongoing retrofitting project. Earlier this year, a report from the National Transportation Safety Board found that seven California bridges had an "unknown level of risk" for collapse. Read more
To protect their money, the United States and European nations insisted on oversight. They required Ukraine to allow groups of outside experts, known as supervisory boards, to monitor spending, appoint executives and prevent corruption. Over the past four years, a New York Times investigation found, the Ukrainian government systematically sabotaged that oversight, allowing graft to flourish. Read more
The New Year's Eve concert on the Champs lyses has been cancelled for security reasons. Paris was supposed to host its usual spectacle. A free open-air concert at the Arc de Triomphe, video projections on the monument and the midnight festivities that once drew close to a million people. Instead, the concert has been scrapped. It will be replaced on national television with a prerecorded concert filmed weeks ago with a handpicked crowd to mimic a celebration Paris no longer believes it can safely host. A capital once famed for its public life now performs it under studio conditions. Read more
Anger over illegal migration helped return Mr. Trump to the presidency, and he has enacted even more aggressive policies than those Mr. Biden first campaigned against. Mr. Trump has drawn outrage from Democrats by sending masked agents to target immigrants, often aided by National Guard soldiers. But a New York Times examination of Mr. Biden's record found that he and his closest advisers repeatedly rebuffed recommendations that could have addressed the border crisis faster, and eased what became a potent issue for Mr. Trump as he sought to return to the White House and justify the aggressive tactics roiling American cities today. Read more
As farmers face historic headwinds and market hardships, calls to the national Farm Aid hotline and the Iowa Concern hotline " where farmers can get support in times of mental health crisis or need " are increasing. This fall, the Iowa Concern hotline saw four to five times the number of calls it had in the same months last year, said Tammy Jacobs, the hotline's manager. The Farm Aid hotline is also seeing a change in the urgency of calls. Financial losses and stress are also significant risks for depressive symptoms. And right now, times are tough for farmers. Producers have endured high inflation and growing input costs on farms since at least 2020. The spread of COVID and, more recently, policy decisions like President Donald Trump's tariffs and increases in immigration enforcement have all increased operating costs.
President Trump on Saturday offered more insight into his decision to pardon former Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, and his wife Imelda, who were both indicted last year on bribery charges, but criticized the former congressman for opting to run as a Democrat in 2026.
Self-serving hillbilly millionaire VPOTUS JD Vance publicly related this anecdote with his wife Usha shamelessly chuckling beside him. In the Oval Office, Dummkopf Trumpf had asked Marco [Rubio], what's your shoe size?' And Marco's apparently an 11 and a half. He says, JD, what's your shoe size?' My shoe size is 13. I asked this politician, who I won't embarrass, what his shoe size is, and he says, Seven.' "The president leans back in his chair and says, You know, you can tell a lot about a man by his shoe size.' JD Vance bleats: "We won't ask the Second Lady for comment on that particular topic."
Facing a backlog of school discrimination cases, US Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon begged hundreds of employees she fired months ago to temporarily return to work.
Juan Orlando Hernndez"narcotrafficker, former Honduran president, and recent recipient of a pardon from President Donald Trump"played a key role in what the Justice Department dubbed "one of the largest and most violent drug-trafficking conspiracies in the world." Now, Hernndez, who once reportedly told his co-conspirators that they were going to "stuff the drugs up the gringos' noses," is heaping gratitude on leading figures in MAGA (a movement purportedly in favor of stopping the influx of drugs into the United States, by any means necessary). On X Friday, Hernndez shared his first message since being released from a U.S. prison, where he was just over a year into a 45-year sentence: an 11-minute Spanish-language speech expressing his "profound gratitude to President Donald Trump," along with a tweet extolling Trump and other key figures in his orbit. Read more
Sen. Mark Kelly scoffed at the possibility of facing a court martial as he ridiculed President Donald Trump and War Secretary Pete Hegseth as unserious people.
Yeah, I've posted a couple three tunes this evening/night. So I decided to start up a thread ... No theme or topic in the tunes. Just whatever floats yer boat ...
Breakthroughs in cell and gene therapy have opened the door to life-changing treatment for people with sickle cell disease. Yet few patients know these treatments exist, and even fewer can access them due to the seven-figure price tag.
Sam Stein highlights 16-year-old cancer patient Mikaela Naylon, who spent her final days lobbying Congress for the Give Kids a Chance Act, helping revive the long-stalled pediatric cancer research bill, with her story inspiring new momentum and raising cautious optimism it could finally pass. Read more
President Donald Trump doesn't have his name on the Kennedy Center yet, but he's already shaped it to his tastes. Later this month, he's assembling the center's board of trustees, which he chairs, in Palm Beach, Florida " nearly 1,000 miles away from the institution's home in Washington, DC. Board meetings, one attendee says, now mirror Trump Cabinet meetings, with members going around the room to "talk about how great and visionary the president is and how he has so much class and taste." Read more
Whether you're logging into your bank, health insurance, or even your email, most services today do not live by passwords alone. Now commonplace, multifactor authentication (MFA) requires users to enter a second or third proof of identity. However, not all forms of MFA are created equal, and the one-time passwords orgs send to your phone have holes so big you could drive a truck through them.
