Search

Just another WordPress site

Mary jane

Mary Trump explains Donald Trump’s “defiance” in face of indictment

by www.newsweek.com Leave a Comment

Mary Trump, the niece of former President Donald Trump , provided insight into how her uncle could be reacting to his indictment by a Manhattan grand jury during a podcast appearance on Friday.

On Thursday, a grand jury indicted the former president following an investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office into an alleged hush money payment of $130,000 paid by his former lawyer, Michael Cohen , to adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet ahead of the 2016 presidential election about an affair she claims she had with Trump in 2006.

The former president has denied having an affair with Daniels and has maintained his innocence in the case, accusing prosecutors of engaging in a politically-motivated witch hunt. Prosecutors, however, believe the payment violated campaign finance laws. He has responded to the indictment with a flurry of posts on his social media platform Truth Social attacking the district attorney’s office.

Mary Trump explained what the former president’s mindset could be like after the indictment during a Friday discussion on The Dean Obeidallah Show. She said Trump’s “defiance” on social media is likely a way of masking his true feelings about the indictment.

“The defiance is just a way to deflect from the way he is really feeling, which is terror,” she said.

Trump has lashed out at legal authorities following news of the indictment. In one Truth Social post, he attacked New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan , who will preside over the case, writing that the judge “hates” him. Merchan presided over last year’s tax fraud trial of The Trump Organization and Allen Weisselberg, its former chief financial officer.

Mary Trump, who has been sharply critical of her uncle and celebrated the news of his indictment, continued to explain on Friday why Trump’s response reveals he is “terrified” about the indictment.

“How can he possibly process the fact that for the first time in his 76 years, he is being held accountable for something when almost for that entire 76 years, he has done noting but get away with everything. And not only suffer no consequences, but be elevated and get even more success thrown at him from his enablers and sycophants,” she said. “I can’t even imagine how he’s reeling.”

She also ridiculed Trump and his legal team over reports the indictment caught them by surprise. Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopina, in an interview with Fox News , said both he and the former president were “shocked” and “angry” about the indictment.

“That just shows you the extent of the delusion and the magical thinking he has been engaged in,” she said.

Dan P. McAdams, a professor of psychology at Northwestern University, told Newsweek on Saturday that while Trump may be “terrified,” he also suspects that he’s “energized” by the indictment.

“He does not experience life the way most people do, as an unfolding story developing over time,” he said. “Instead, he goes from one combative episode to the next, striving with all his heart and soul to win each episode. The episodes do not add up. They do not built to form a narrative.”

Trump Indictment: When Will Ex-President Turn Himself In?

In the latest legal updates for Trump, his campaign revealed how the former president will turn himself in .

According to Trump’s campaign, he will spend the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida and keep his regular schedule. He will fly to Manhattan around midday Monday via his private plane and will spend the night at Trump tower.

Trump will turn himself into New York authorities on Tuesday morning, and his arraignment will reportedly take place at 2:15 p.m. ET.

Newsweek reached out to Trump’s campaign for comment via email.

England rolls out spring COVID booster vaccines for vulnerable groups

by health.economictimes.indiatimes.com Leave a Comment

England will be eligible for a spring COVID booster vaccine, including over 75-year-olds, those with a weakened immune system, and care home residents, the country’s health service said on Saturday. Those living in care homes will be prioritised and begin to receive their vaccinations to protect against the severe effects of COVID-19 from Monday, as roving NHS teams visit these homes to administer the jabs.

The National Health Service (NHS) said others eligible can book in on the UK’s National Booking Service or the NHS App from next Wednesday, with the first appointments available from April 17.

“Our successful vaccination programme has helped us all to live with COVID, saved thousands of lives and protected the most vulnerable from serious disease,” said Steve Barclay , UK Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.

“We’re committed to giving vulnerable people the protection they need from the virus, so I want to encourage those who are 75 or over or who have a weakened immune system to book their booster jab from Wednesday. It’s quick and easy and will give the protection you need for the months ahead,” he said.

The latest booster rollout marks the first time millions will be sent their initial invitations through the NHS App, also used for booking. Text messages and letters will also be sent to those without the app or not actively using it.

“As a society, we are learning to live with COVID but for many, it is still a virus that can cause serious illness and hospitalisation, and so it is still really important that those at greatest risk come forward and boost their protection in the coming weeks,” said NHS Director of Vaccinations and Screening Steve Russell.

“There are still around 8,000 people in hospital with COVID according to the latest data, and the NHS has now treated more than one million covid inpatients since the pandemic began. So if you are over 75 or have a weakened immune system, please come forward as soon as possible to book a COVID vaccine this spring so you can enjoy summer with peace of mind,” he said.

The taxpayer-funded NHS says it has administered more than 144.5 million free COVID jabs over several vaccination campaigns since Maggie Keenan became the first in the world outside of a clinical trial to receive the vaccination in December 2020.

This latest round of boosters is being offered to those considered most at risk as per advice from the independent Joint Committee of Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

Dr Mary Ramsay , Director of Immunisation at the UK Health Security Agency, said: “COVID-19 is still circulating widely, and older people are still at greatest risk of more severe illness and being hospitalised.

“Those with weakened immune systems are also vulnerable so everyone who is eligible must come forward for a spring booster to top up their immunity against what is still a serious virus.”

The latest drive will last three months, with the last spring vaccination appointments offered on June 30.

Goats are as loving and clever as dogs, say smitten scientists

by www.telegraph.co.uk Leave a Comment

They may seem an unusual candidate for the title of man’s best friend, but scientists have suggested that goats could rival dogs in forming an emotional bond with their owners.

Researchers from Queen Mary University of London aim to prove that goats are much cleverer than previously thought and interact with people in a similar way to pets, having trodden a path of domestication for 10,000 years.

Their latest experiment, documented in Biological Letters, showed that goats will gaze imploringly at their owners when they are struggling to complete a task, a trait common in dogs but not wolves, for example, who have never learned how to co-exist with humans.

The team has also demonstrated that goats can work out how to break into a sealed box using levers, a task used to gauge intelligence in apes. They can even remember the skill four years later without prompting.

“Goats gaze at humans in the same way as dogs do when asking for a treat that is out of reach,” said Dr Christian Nawroth, one of the study’s authors.

“Our results provide strong evidence for complex communication directed at humans in a species that was domesticated primarily for agricultural production, and show similarities with animals bred to become pets or working animals, such as dogs and horses.”

Goats were the first livestock species to be domesticated, about 10,000 years ago. There are 100,000 goats in Britain, and a billion worldwide, but until recently they have been considered no more intelligent than sheep.

In many countries, including Italy, and Germany the phrase “as stupid as a goat” is used as an insult.

However, co-author Dr Alan McElligott from Queen Mary’s Department of Biological and Experimental Psychology said the reputation was unfair.

“You can’t work with a sheep on its own,” he said, “People think they are the same, but they are very different animals. Anyone who has ever worked with both animals can tell you that.

“From our earlier research, we already know that goats are smarter than their reputation suggests, but these results show how they can communicate and interact with their human handlers even though they were not domesticated as pets or working animals.

“We know that in some areas goats are as intelligent as dogs, but there has been a lot more work done on dog behaviour and we are really just scratching the surface with goats.”

The stated aim of the research is to improve the animal’s welfare.

“If we can show that they are more intelligent, then hopefully we can bring in better guidelines for their care,” Dr  McElligott said.

Scientists had thought that dogs and cats could connect with humans due to changes to their brains over thousands of years as companion animals.

But goats were domesticated around 10,000 years ago so have had plenty of time to interact with humans.  Unlike sheep, which were domesticated later, they are perfectly happy outside a flock.

In the most recent experiment the team trained goats to remove a lid from a box to receive a reward. In the final test they made the box impossible to open and recorded the goat’s reaction.

The bemused goats turned towards their owners in a pleading manner, clearly asking for help in getting to the treat. They were also seen to gaze for longer when the person conducting the experiment was looking at them, compared to when they had turned away.

The research was carried out at Buttercups Sanctuary for Goats in Kent .

A Very Dusty Curiosity Rover Snaps a Selfie During a Work Break

by gizmodo.com Leave a Comment

NASA’s Curiosity rover has been hard at work over the past several months at a site thought to contain ancient surface materials. And

Curiosity has been exploring

Advertisement

The 59 according to a NASA statement. Imaging experts with the space agency carefully stitched the photos together,

G/O Media may get a commission

Amazon Fire TV 50" 4K Smart TV
42% Off
Amazon Fire TV 50″ 4K Smart TV

Incredible visuals This smart TV has access to a wide array of streaming services, all of which are easier to navigate, has 4K visuals for a stunning picture, and comes with an Alexa Voice Remote too.

Advertisement

Advertisement

An impressive, here , which I’ve done and made into my desktop wallpaper. A smaller version can be found here .

Oh, and check out the rover’s middle wheel at the right of the image. Lookin’ a bit rough, but we already knew that (don’t worry, the next Mars rover, currently en route, has much tougher wheels).

Advertisement

The workhorse rover has been drilling and analyzing surface samples at a new site called Mary Anning, which NASA mission controllers named in honor of the 19th-

Advertisement

Curiosity arrived at the Mary Anning site in July, where it has drilled three holes: Mary Anning, Mary Anning 3, and Groken (named for cliffs in Scotland’s Shetland Islands). The probe can analyze the samples taken from these drill holes by using its built- CheMin . The resulting data is then pored over

From here, Curiosity will be directed toward

Advertisement

Excitingly, NASA’s Perseverance rover, with its fancy extra-durable wheels , is now less than 100 days away from arriving at Mars. The next-gen rover is scheduled to land in Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021. Perseverance will join Curiosity and the InSight lander as the only three functioning probes still working on the Red Planet.

Canadian Court Says Asylum Treaty With U.S. Is Unconstitutional

by www.nytimes.com Leave a Comment

MONTREAL — A Canadian court has ruled that a treaty with the United States that allows Canada to turn away asylum-seekers coming from the United States if they originally entered there from a third country violates Canada’s constitution.

Human-rights advocates have long criticized the pact, saying it tacitly encourages asylum-seekers to circumvent Canada’s official land borders because if they try to enter at an official crossing, they will be refused entry and returned to the United States, subject to some exceptions.

In a case brought by several refugee advocate groups as well as by individual asylum-seekers, the Federal Court of Canada in Ottawa ruled that the bilateral pact, the Safe Third Country Agreement , breached Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees the right to “liberty” and “security.”

In a more than 60-page ruling , Justice Ann Marie McDonald cited the conditions asylum-seekers said they had faced while in detention in the United States, including lack of access to adequate health care or legal counsel.

She cited the example of Nedira Jemal Mustefa , a Muslim woman from Ethiopia and a litigant in the case, who testified that she had been forced to eat pork in contravention of Muslim dietary laws. She also was held in solitary confinement for one week at the Clinton Correctional Facility in New York State, describing the facility as “freezing cold.”

She told the court her experience had been “terrifying, isolating and psychologically traumatic.”

In her ruling, the judge wrote that “Canada cannot turn a blind eye to the consequences that befell Ms. Mustefa in its efforts to adhere to” the treaty.

Among the groups bringing the court challenge were Amnesty International and the Canadian Council for Refugees.

Mary-Liz Power, a spokeswoman for Canada’s Minister of Public Safety, said the ministry was reviewing the court’s decision, which does not become effective until Jan. 22.

The Canadian government has six months to respond to the ruling and can appeal to the Federal Court of Appeal . If the ruling is overturned, the litigants could potentially appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Canadian proponents of the treaty argue that it is an effective means to control the border and that the agreement was entered into on the basis that the asylum systems of both Canada and the United States meet the necessary level of protection for asylum-seekers under international law.

Karen Musalo, a professor of law at the University of California, Hastings College of Law in San Francisco, who testified on behalf of those making the legal challenge, called the decision an “indictment of the inhumanity of the American detention system for asylum-seekers.”

Justin Mohammed , a law and policy adviser at Amnesty International Canada, said the legal case was part of a longstanding effort to press Canada to recognize that the human rights of asylum-seekers were being violated in the United States, a situation, he said, that had worsened amid the anti-refugee ethos of the Trump administration.

He added that the decision was all the more important during a global pandemic when overcrowding in American detention centers posed an even greater risk to the health and security of asylum-seekers.

“The court decision throws cold water on the idea that when Canada returned refugees to the United States that they will be treated with respect for their dignity and human rights,” Mr. Mohammed said.