@#14

I did when your current trolling alias posted the same thing on a different thread.

@#1,2

Picking apart the wording of the two comments, Iran said it did not take part in the talks on Sunday, but said nothing about the remainder of the week.

Meanwhile, the US seemed to ignore Sunday's snub, and said that the talks later in the week would proceed as scheduled.

Diplomatic-speak is a wonderful thing ...

Another view...

More from the article ...

... "For example one of the reasons is checking if we have access to the unfrozen funds, if there is no access then this condition has not been fulfilled," Mehdi Fazaeili said. ...

@#4 ... Move the real facilities underground and have human shields on top. ...

Did Pres Trump ever mention he bombed the school because he thought there might be something underground there? Was the missile used in the strike capable of destroying something underground?

Why destroy the school above ground and leave the other imagined facility below ground intact?

@#15

... a two year 34 Million dollar reconstruction ...
... DC'S NO SO REFLECTING POOL IS FULL OF ALGAE AFTER 34 MILLION DOLLAR RENOVATION ...

A reconstruction (was the aim to reduce algae, r fix structural problems?) that took two years will be more expensive than doing a quick, erroneous, paint job. And then driving a heavy motorcade over the fresh paint.

Congress should vote to take the aid from Israel and give it to Ukraine.

@#33

The Pogues and Joe Strummer are individually great to listen to. Together they put on an excellent performance.

One from The Pogues ...

More from the article ...

... Years before the US attacked Iran at the end of February, an intelligence analyst examining information about potential future strike targets in Iran noticed changes at a site the US had previously characterized as a naval facility belonging to the elite wing of the Iranian military in Minab city in the southeast of the country. It was, in fact, now an elementary school.

The analyst remarked on changes at the site in a digital intelligence tool, but that tool wasn't linked up to the official intelligence database that the US uses to develop strike targets and the information was never conveyed to military commanders, according to people familiar with the matter who declined to be named discussing sensitive matters.

On Feb. 28 when President Donald Trump announced the start of major combat operations against Iran, a missile struck the school. The attack killed an estimated 120 children, and nearly 200 people in all, representing the worst incident of civilian harm resulting from US operations in decades.

The analyst's remarks, which one of the people familiar with the matter said were submitted in 2019, were never heeded, and the same building was reviewed multiple more times over the following years without anyone updating the targeting database. ...

... City plans to triple system of underground pipes that distribute chilled river water, reducing need for individual cooling units ...

Similar to Mew York City's utility distributing steam to buildings for heating during the winter

@#2

Yeah, air-conditioning (called air-con, as opposed to a/c, there) is relatively rare in France, a lot of Europe for that matter.

On one business visit to Rotterdam, Netherlands, the four-star hotel I was staying in did not have air-conditioning. That week the temps hit the mid-90's.

More from the article ...

... As heatwaves intensify across Europe, most cities are reaching for a familiar fix of more air conditioning. But in 1990s Paris, planning began for a different kind of solution: one of the world's largest district cooling networks.

The system has 120kms (75-miles) of underground pipes distributing chilled water to museums, offices, hospitals, schools and other public buildings including the Louvre, the Grand Palais, and some luxury hotels and office districts. Instead of thousands of individual air-conditioning units, cooling is produced centrally and shared across the city like a utility.

The system circulates cold water through a network of pipes: cold river water from the Seine is pumped through one pipe, which runs right next to a secondary pipe carrying warm water from the city's buildings. A thin metal wall separates them and a heat exchanger allows the heat from the warm city water to enter the cold Seine water without the fluids ever touching. It is similar to holding a cup of hot tea in a bowl of cold water " the liquids don't touch, but the tea cools down. ...

More from the cited article ...

... In the episode, footage was spliced together of a speech given by Trump from January 6, 2021, which gave the impression he had urged supporters to march with him and "fight like hell" before they attacked the U.S. Capitol.

When contacted for comment, the BBC directed Newsweek to a statement issued in March, which read: "We have said throughout we will robustly defend the case against us.

Put simply -- the documentary was never aired in Florida -- or the US.

It wasn't available to watch in the US on iPlayer, online or any other streaming platforms including BritBox and BBC Select.

We have therefore challenged jurisdiction of the Florida court and filed a motion to dismiss the President's claim." ...

More from the article ...

... The images illustrate how the Republican president has dominated daily life since returning to power and, to some, evoke more the style of a monarch than the leader of the world's oldest democracy. But it's also how he has wielded that power that has led to comparisons of an imperial reign.

Since returning to office in January 2025, Trump has nominated one of his personal lawyers to serve as attorney general, ordered the Department of Justice to pursue his political enemies, deployed the U.S. Marines to the nation's second largest city and leveraged the presidency to enrich himself and his family.

He has demanded that comedians who mock him be fired, has slapped his name on the Kennedy Center, has pushed to seize control of elections, has filed lawsuits against news organizations whose coverage he disliked and has sued his own government seeking $10 billion in taxpayer money.

With the 250th anniversary of the nation's founding fast approaching, Trump's own celebrations have overshadowed the bipartisan, congressionally authorized commission that was supposed to coordinate events commemorating the moment. He plans to return to the National Mall on July Fourth for what he calls a "Trump rally."

The president's actions have led to comparisons with King George III, the British monarch whose rule inspired the American Revolution. It is a parallel Trump himself rejects. ...

Perhaps the "unfeasible" aspects were the constraints Pres Trump insisted upon.

From the cited article...

... Specifically, it balked at two requirements -- the Trump administration wanted it done by July 4, and the pool bottom had to be blue, according to two employees with the New Jersey-based Sika Corporation, which provided the concrete construction and sealing products for a 2010 renovation project to the Reflecting Pool.

According to the two employees, who spoke to CNN on the condition they not be identified, both demands made the job "unfeasible." ...

Non-paywall version of the cited article ...

Tune linked in the title comment ...

oops, looks like more than four this evening for me ...

Oh well ... :(

Tune linked in the title comment ...

Is Pres Putin losing Crimea?

Pres Putin seems to be having issues lately ...

More from the article ...

... The US's response to the outbreak ended on Sunday, June 21, with the final 42-day monitoring period wrapping up for passengers of the virus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius. But without explanation, the Department of Health and Human Services announced the end of the response today, June 24, with a press release dated June 23.

Anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. touted how HHS acted "swiftly" to respond to the outbreak and credited federal efforts for preventing "sustained transmission of hantavirus ... in the United States," despite no Americans bringing the virus into the country for sustained transmission to be possible.

"The successful conclusion of this response demonstrates the strength of a coordinated response to infectious disease threats that occur outside of our borders," Jay Bhattacharya added in the press release. Bhattacharya is acting as the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention despite exceeding the 210-day limit for filling a Senate-confirmed position. "As a result, we prevented any new cases from arising in the US," he said.

Soon after the press release was sent out, the CDC held a very short press briefing about the response, during which an official continued to boast of the successful conclusion without directly answering any questions.

Excessive quarantines

Significant questions remain about the Trump administration's use of draconian quarantine orders during the response. Those orders exceeded those in Chile and Argentina, where the hantavirus in this outbreak (the Andes virus) is endemic. They also exceed what hantavirus experts recommend and what the CDC's own expert recommended.

Specifically, hantavirus has only been documented to spread when infected people are showing symptoms. Based on experiences from Chile and Argentina, where thousands of people have successfully quarantined amid Andes virus outbreaks, remote monitoring with daily symptom and temperature checks is sufficient. This is also what the World Health Organization has recommended.

Without explanation, Trump officials required potentially exposed, repatriated cruise passengers to either stay in a federal quarantine unit in Nebraska, where they were essentially in strict isolation, or, in some cases, people were allowed to go home if their local health authorities agreed to surveil them 24/7 and do twice daily in-person fever and symptom checks. Oddly, MV Hondius passengers who returned to the US before the outbreak was identified were not subject to this requirement once they were identified. ...

@#21 ... Their body, their choice ...

I am not convinced of that for the military.

Sec of Defense Hegseth has stated that he wants a responsive military.

So, how can a military respond if it is sick in beds with a preventable sickness?

Sec Hegseth's embarrassing reversal on the flu vaccine issue shows at least he is capable of learning something.

Though that something that he learned had been widely understood among other military leaders.

Unfortunately, he's the Sec of Defense.