UK PM to chair meeting on government’s response to economic consequences of Iran war later on Monday
Starmer complained about other parties whipping up division, and he specifically criticised Nick Timothy, the shadow justice secretary, for “complaining about Muslims praying in public”.
Labour, by contrast, values bringing people together, he said.
Continue reading...Aarti Holla-Maini, of the UN’s Office for Outer Space Affairs, is primed and ready should a planetary strike occur – and just over 12 months ago, she thought it might
The UN official had trained for this moment. She had run drills and table-top exercises at her offices in Vienna, housed inside a grey and unassuming 1970s concrete tower complex next to the Danube River.
Aarti Holla-Maini, a British lawyer with a background in the satellite business, needed to have at least played out the scenario step by step. As the director of the UN’s Office for Outer Space Affairs (Unoosa), she was required to know exactly what she was expected to do if – and it was a big if – she were informed that a significantly large asteroid was on a possible collision course with Earth. Or, as she says with a laugh: “Armageddon.”
Continue reading...A New York congressional primary is exposing the gap between Democrats who want to fight Trump and Democrats who want to fight for something
The Democratic party seems more united than it has been in years, thanks to one man: Donald Trump. Opposition to his presidency has papered over what would otherwise be serious disagreements about economic policy, civil liberties, foreign affairs, and the role of corporate money in politics.
As long as Democrats can point to Trump as the common enemy, their coalition holds, and the ideological conflicts that once defined the party during the 2016 primary or the battles over the Gaza genocide during the Joe Biden years now feel like a thing of the past. But those divisions haven’t disappeared – and in New York’s 10th congressional district, they’re beginning to surface again.
Continue reading...If you’re the glass-half-full type, you should be overjoyed at the news coming out of Yale School of Public Health. But pessimists like me? We’re stuffed
There’s bad news for me and my fellow Eeyores (there always is): a positive mindset could help you age better. Research led by Prof Becca Levy of the Yale School of Public Health interrogated over-65s on their attitudes to ageing, following them for up to 12 years, and found that those with positive beliefs about ageing were more likely to be in the 45% whose physical or cognitive function improved over the study period.
If you’re a glass-half-full type, you’re probably thinking that nearly half of the over-65s studied upping their physical or cognitive performance over a period of years seems like great news. As the research says: “If this finding was extrapolated to the entire US population, it would suggest that more than 26 million older persons are experiencing an improvement in functioning.” And yes, even I have to admit that this is a heartening and stereotype-busting surprise.
Continue reading...Slumped on the pavement, she wasn’t breathing – and I wouldn’t have realised if I’d been listening to music as usual. Time to stop blotting out the world …
For years I walked the streets of London wearing noise-cancelling headphones, absorbed in playlists, politics podcasts or long voice notes from friends, and a million miles away from wherever I was. One damp January evening last year, I was walking home from my parents’ house, headphones dead in my bag, when I noticed a small figure slumped on the pavement with her eyes closed. I might not have noticed her had I been in my own world, fixated on what was playing in my ears.
I asked for her name. “Can you hear me?” I tried several times, my voice tightening. She didn’t respond, and worse, she didn’t seem to be breathing. My mind raced back to the one first aid class I took in school, but drawing a blank and worried that I might get it wrong, I dialled 999 and frantically tried to figure out if I could feel her pulse.
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