One day at an Idaho hospital, half the newborns Dr. Tom Patterson saw didn't get the vitamin K shots that have been given to babies for decades to prevent potentially deadly bleeding. Their parents wouldn't allow it. "When you look at a child who's innocent and vulnerable -- and a simple intervention that's been done since 1961 is refused -- knowing that baby's going out into the world is super worrisome to me," said Patterson, a pediatrician for nearly three decades. read more
Senior Republican lawmakers are weighing an investigation into Nvidia over CEO Jensen Huang's reported affair with an alleged Chinese spy, putting them at odds with President Donald Trump, who has strongly defended the company. Russ Walker, an adviser to Trump's 2020 campaign, said he expects bipartisan support for an investigation: "I don't think I'm alone in this," Walker said. "This is a serious national security issue, and I think there will be Republicans that step up. There's going to be a lot of Democrats that step up, of course."
Bloomberg reported at least 11 deaths by suicide in the year through September as military commanders have since tightened shift rules for cyber staff and expanded access to mental health care.
Hungarian police took ex-leader Viktor Orban's brother into custody on Monday, according to a press report shared by Prime Minister Peter Magyar. read more
Corruption, integrity, ethics and money in politics are among the reasons many voters say they went to the polls for the midterm election. read more
Top intel Dem unsure if Alice Huang is a Chinese spy or useful idiot' after classified briefing
www.politico.com
... Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the likely incoming chair of the House Intelligence Committee, is unsure whether a business executive who cultivated close ties with Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang is a Chinese spy, based on information he received from U.S. intelligence officials in a classified briefing earlier this week.
In a wide-ranging interview on Wednesday, Himes told POLITICO he left the briefing given by heads of U.S. intelligence agencies to top lawmakers on the House and Senate intelligence committees without clarity on whether Alice Huang knowingly cultivated information for the Chinese government on the $4 trillion U.S. chip company, or was a "useful idiot" unaware of China's wider espionage activities.
"What's the relationship with Alice Huang and the Chinese, and what do we know about what influence or information was traded? Because today, at least, I don't know," he said.
He noted that the classified briefing touched on multiple subjects, including the Nvidia CEO's relationship with Huang, who is associated with Singapore-based data center company Megaspeed. ...
Oh, this looks to be a growing issue for the Trump admin ...
'Answer in front of God and country': GOP turns on Lutnick over chips
www.politico.com
... The blast radius from Nvidia's espionage scandal is now spreading to the Commerce Department, potentially setting up Secretary Howard Lutnick or other agency leaders to be the Trump administration's scapegoats.
Recent reports that the Commerce Department failed to take action on Megaspeed, the Singapore-based firm at the center of the spying and chip-smuggling allegations, have intensified scrutiny of the agency's decisions to allow more foreign chip sales, particularly of Nvidia's advanced artificial intelligence chips. Over the past 24 hours, more than half a dozen Republicans have demanded answers -- and potentially congressional testimony -- from Lutnick and top deputies over whether they put private tech interests above national security.
"The obvious question is why did he choose to sell advanced chips?," Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said in an interview Wednesday. "Secretary Lutnick needs to answer that in front of God and country. If I were he, I'd call a press conference this afternoon and explain what happened and why he agreed to sell em chips, and I would stop doing it."
"I mean, there will be a congressional investigation," Kennedy added. "But I don't think he ought to wait on Congress."
Kennedy and other prominent Republicans are calling for Lutnick to explain the agency's lack of action to block Megaspeed from buying advanced chips, despite U.S. intelligence warnings that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was having an affair with a Megaspeed executive suspected of being a Chinese asset. ...
Pyramids: Solving the Mystery
smithsonianchannel.ca
... How were the pyramids built? And how have they stood up over time? Thanks to CGI imagery and footage filmed from the sky, this series sets out to relive the construction of the pyramids and to recreate Egypt as it was more than 5,000 years ago. ...
There's also this ...
North Korea posts revised constitution online on propaganda website
www.koreatimes.co.kr
... North Korea has reposted its full constitution on a state propaganda website, more than 2 1/2 years after taking the document offline following leader Kim Jong-un's declaration of a two hostile state policy.
The version posted on Naenara appears to be the text revised in March, which the outlet said was amended at the first session of the 15th Supreme People's Assembly on March 23.
Previously, Naenara had pulled down the full text of the constitution in March 2024, along with its sections on modern history and overseas Koreans, which were believed to contain references to "unification" and "one nation."
The removal followed Kim's declaration at a party plenary meeting in late 2023 that the two Koreas are separate, hostile states, and his order in January the following year to strip expressions such as "peaceful unification" and "national unity" from the constitution.
At that time, Kim said he will no longer consider South Korea a counterpart for reconciliation and unification.
The website appears to have removed the old text because it conflicted with North Korea's new policy toward the South.
The text now on Naenara is largely identical to the version Seoul's unification ministry obtained and made public in May, which added a new territorial clause, dropped all references to unification with the South, elevated the leader's status and power, and granted him command of the nuclear forces.
There are some minor additions in the Naenara version, however, such as ...
Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms (1985)
www.youtube.com
Lyrics excerpt ...
...
This song was released in 1985 as the closer to the album of the same name and is the third single from it, reaching #16 in the UK that October. It did not chart in the US.
The song is about the brotherly bonds forged by the destructive fire and pains of war. A bond between soldiers on both sides of the trenches. It focuses on the Falklands War, which was going on when Dire Straits lead singer Mark Knopfler wrote the song in 1982. The Falklands War was a conflict between Argentina and the United Kingdom over islands off the coast of Argentina that each country claims rights to. A new version of the song was released in 2007 by Knopfler in order to raise money to bring veterans of the war back to the Falklands as a way to treat their PTSD.
The video shows images of World War I, which corresponds with the theme of the song about war and brothers in arms.
The song is reported to be the first ever released as a CD single. It was released in the UK in 1985.
[Verse 1]
These mist covered mountains
Are a home now for me
But my home is the lowlands
And always will be
Some day you'll return to
Your valleys and your farms
And you'll no longer burn
To be brothers in arms
[Verse 2]
Through these fields of destruction
Baptisms of fire
I've witnessed your suffering
As the battle raged higher
And though they did hurt me so bad
In the fear and alarm
You did not desert me
My brothers in arms
...
Also ...
Ranking Member Robert Garcia Statement on Incomplete and Misleading Epstein Report from Oversight Republicans
oversightdemocrats.house.gov
... Today, Rep. Robert Garcia, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, issued the following statement after Chairman James Comer released a partisan report on the mishandling of the Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell investigations.[emphasis theirs]
"Oversight Republicans have released a report based on an incomplete investigation and zero public hearings on Jeffrey Epstein. The Department of Justice continues to illegally withhold over 2.5 million pages of documents, there's been no investigation of Ghislaine Maxwell's transfer, and Attorney General Todd Blanche has yet to testify about his role in the largest government cover-up of the modern era.
"We will not allow the President and his allies to dismiss this investigation. We intend to hold real public hearings uplifting survivors and asking tough questions of the powerful men who associated with Epstein, including Donald Trump. Our work is just getting started," said Ranking Member Robert Garcia. ...
@#8 ... What can you say that hasn't been said? Hegseth is a disrespectful ogre. A weak man's version of a tough guy. ...
That's a given, imo.
But the manner in which he prances around the stage when he is on camera, may catch the attention of an apparent male-derriere-focused President of the United States.