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A growing body of evidence suggests the vaccine may also lower risk of stroke and heart attack
One in three people in the US get shingles. Despite this, US vaccination rates remain low – about 35% of adults over 60, consistent with overall vaccination trends.
“We have a vaccine that works really well,” says Dr Andrew Wallach, ambulatory care chief medical officer at NYC Health + Hospitals. “But there is a lot of what I call vaccine fatigue right now.”
Continue reading...Berkeley is adopting the ‘Zone 0’ regulation, which mandates first 5ft around the home in high-risk areas should be clear of combustible material
Michel Thouati went through the five stages of grief before he ripped his beloved fig tree from the earth. There was a persimmon and an elderberry too, nestled close to his hillside home in Berkeley,California, and they all had to go.
The plants thriving on his small property had become overshadowed by the dangers growing with them: an emerging body of research had found landscaping can help fuel the disastrous fires sweeping out of the wildland and into neighborhoods like his. Tucked into the ridges overlooking California’s San Francisco Bay and against an expansive nature area, the house Thouati and his wife have owned for 30-some years sits in one of the highest wildfire-threat areas in the state.
Continue reading...The philosopher, who has died aged 96, was often caricatured as a consensus-seeking liberal. But his belief in the need for shared understanding had a radical underpinning
Despite its canonical name, the Frankfurt School is not a school. It is, at least according to my former teacher, the critical theorist Rahel Jaeggi, a constellation. For a century, this scholarly constellation has pursued the intellectual endeavour of critique. Critique here is not the “thumbs down” or “blocking” exercised on social media. It is the wild aspiration to describe reality in a way that transforms it.
Jürgen Habermas, who died on 14 March 2026 at the age of 96, was a fixed star in this constellation. He set the compass for several generations of mostly German and North American thinkers. Habermas was incredibly prolific, with more than 40 books to his name, and very charismatic. There was an intensity, a concentration to Habermas’s thought and dialogue that his writings convey only poorly. The thundering polemics he brought to public debates also seem a far cry from the consensus-oriented discourse ethics he is known for.
Eva von Redecker is a German philosopher and nonfiction writer
Continue reading...Woman known only as Beth says abuser claimed status made him untouchable, which terrorised her into silence
MI5 has apologised and paid compensation to a woman who alleged the Security Service was to blame for her being attacked with a machete and abused by one of its agents.
The woman, known only as Beth, was in a relationship with a man she says used his status as an MI5 agent to perpetrate abuse and terrorise her into silence.
Continue reading...President says he will ‘never (ever) endorse anyone’ who votes against Save America act as Senate prepares to take up debate on controversial bill
A top counter-terrorism official in the Trump administration has resigned over the ongoing war on Iran.
Joe Kent, who reported to director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, said that he “cannot in good conscience” support the joint conflict with Israel.
You can reverse course and chart a new path for our nation, or you can allow us to slip further toward decline and chaos. You hold the cards.
Continue reading...
Er is vanuit alle hoeken kritiek op de aanstaande uitspraken van NAVO-baas Mark Rutte.
Rutte zal zeggen dat de aanval op Iran volledig gerechtvaardigd is en dat alleen een geweldige leider als Donald Trump dit kan doen. De alliantie is sterker dan ooit, voegt hij er dan nog aan toe.
Europese leiders zeggen dat Rutte veel te veel op schoot zit bij de Amerikanen. De Duitse bondskanselier Merz heeft geen goed woord over voor komende slijmerij van Rutte: “Trump heeft Europa consequent gekleineerd, gedreigd Groenland aan te vallen wat onderdeel is van de NAVO, zonder enige ruggespraak Iran aangevallen en wil nu dat we de straat van Hormuz gaan verdedigen wat geen NAVO-gebied is, zonder duidelijk doel van de missie. Laat Rutte dat in hemelsnaam eens benoemen.”
Ook de Italiaanse premier Meloni moet niets weten van wat Rutte later deze week gaat zeggen. Meloni: “Niet te doen, die man bestaat inmiddels voor 80% uit glijmiddel.’’
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The rollback to the launchpad for NASA's monster Moon rocket has slipped by a day, though the agency is optimistic that the long-delayed return of humans to lunar space will still happen in early April.…
As a community built for photographers, we love celebrating the connections Flickr helps spark, whether friendships, collaborations, mentorships or any other bonds formed through a shared love of photography. That’s exactly what drew us to the story of Christopher Evans and Juliette Melia, whose Flickr connection many years ago blossomed into real life collaboration – a gallery exhibition featuring Christopher’s work which opened this past week.
Their friendship began online through genuine appreciation for art, film photography and Holga cameras. Both remain active on Flickr to this day. Christopher, based in Canada, has continued his work as an analog photographer while Juliette, based in France, curates exhibitions for HCE Galerie in Sant-Denis. We asked them to share their Flickr story and how it led to this exciting exhibition.
Flickr: In an era when you were both active on a digital platform, what draws you to analog photography?
Juliette: Flickr gave me the opportunity to share my photographs with a wide audience, whether digital or analog. I was child-free at the time and spent a lot of time shooting, of course, but also scanning, editing, and retouching. Even when scanned, there is something special about an analog photograph: the grain, the colors, a little bit of magic. Most of the time, other Flickr users react very positively to a scanned analog image. They feel the love and hence so do you!
Christopher: I like the feeling of developing negatives and making prints. In an age when so many things are artificial it’s nice to have something real. Vintage cameras are also a lot more fun to use. (I just wish film wasn’t so expensive.)
Flickr: You two first connected on Flickr – what was it about each other’s presence on Flickr that led to this friendship?
Juliette: I think Christopher first noticed my nudes (wasn’t he the only one!), but we really connected over our shared love of film photography and Holga cameras.
Christopher: Juliette followed me and we hit it off. We’ve had a great friendship ever since.
Flickr: What do you hope someone who is not familiar with Christopher’s work takes away from walking through this exhibit?
Juliette: Oh, I want people to take away many things. The look and feel of a faraway city and its transformations over the years. The quiet exoticism of Canadian store signs. And yet, even when separated by an ocean and several time zones, there are similarities between Chris’s Vancouver and my Saint-Denis, where I exhibit. I want people to become aware of how poetic it is to photograph your own shadow. Especially if you wear cowboy hats. Ideally, I would also like visitors to move beyond the nostalgia suggested by the exhibition’s name and return to film photography. I personally miss it so much, I would like to inspire people to go back to it, even for a short while.
Christopher: The photos in this exhibit were taken with plastic and pinhole cameras, simple and inexpensive. You don’t need expensive equipment to make interesting photos.
Flickr: When you look at this body of work through the lens of your long friendship, does that change how you approach curation?
Juliette: Curating Christopher’s work was no small task. He has thousands and thousands of photographs, many of which I discovered as he uploaded them, and there were so many more that could have been included in the exhibition. We had to make choices: representing the city, its pavements, its trees, its weird signs… And the iconic cow-boy hat shadow self-portraits of course!
Christopher: I’m lucky to have Juliette curate this show.
Flickr: Is there anything else you’d like to share about your friendship, connecting via Flickr and where that has brought you both today with this exhibit:
Juliette: Flickr is a big part of my life. Nowadays, I mainly document my everyday life through selfies and family photos, but I feel nostalgic for the time when my photography was more artistic. Organizing and curating this exhibition allowed me to reconnect with the way I used Flickr in my youth. In a way, I feel reborn.
Christopher: I’ve made a lot of good friends through Flickr. Juliette being the best of them. It’s a great place to meet interesting people and see great photography.
Urban Nostalgias
Christopher EvansThrough a “Foto Povera” approach, Evans explores the city of
Vancouver using vintage and “toy” cameras, capturing suspended
moments where tension freezes into a fictional memory. Driven by
nostalgia for a time when the latent image—hidden in the heart of our
cameras—carried all our hopes, this exhibition invites you to discover
the spontaneity of a photographic instant where dreamlike visions
prevail over reality.
Urban Nostalgias runs from March 12th to April 4th. For more details visit HCE Galerie’s website at www.hcegalerie.com
And to keep an eye on what Chris is up to, you can find him on Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/czarf and Instagram: @christopher.evans.photography
Visit his websites at: www.christopherevans.ca and www.czarf.com
STOCKHOLM (ANP/RTR/BLOOMBERG) - SAS, de grootste luchtvaartmaatschappij van Scandinavië, heeft "op korte termijn een beperkt aantal vluchten geschrapt" vanwege de snel stijgende brandstofprijs. De oorlog in het Midden-Oosten en de sluiting van de Straat van Hormuz drijven de prijs van kerosine, die veelal uit die regio komt, in rap tempo op.
Volgens SAS "voelt het hele Europese luchtvaartsysteem nu de druk van een plotselinge brandstofschok". Eerder liet de in Stockholm gevestigde maatschappij al weten de ticketprijzen tijdelijk te verhogen. Ook andere luchtvaartmaatschappijen besloten eerder de hogere kosten door te berekenen aan de passagiers.
Zo besloot Air France-KLM toeslagen in te voeren vanwege de hogere brandstofkosten. Het Nederlands-Franse concern werd na een herstructurering in 2024 een van de belangrijkste aandeelhouders en bezit op dit moment bijna 20 procent van de aandelen in de Scandinavische maatschappij. Air France-KLM liet vorig jaar weten dit te willen uitbreiden naar ruim 60 procent.
ROTTERDAM (ANP) - De Koninklijke Vereniging Nederlandse Reders (KVNR) vindt een Nederlandse bijdrage aan een militaire missie met als doel de Straat van Hormuz te heropenen niet verstandig. Een bijdrage kan ervoor zorgen dat Nederlandse schepen die vastzitten in de Perzische Golf mogelijk een doelwit worden, meldt een woordvoerder. "En die kunnen geen kant op."
De Amerikaanse president Donald Trump riep bondgenoten op om te helpen bij het beschermen van schepen die de belangrijke zeestraat willen passeren. EU-landen reageerden niet welwillend op het verzoek. De Nederlandse minister van Buitenlandse Zaken, Tom Berendsen, liet ook weten er geen heil in te zien.
In die lijn kan de KVNR zich vinden. "We vinden het op dit moment zeker niet verstandig", laat een woordvoerder weten. De redersvereniging pleit voor diplomatie.
De Straat van Hormuz is sinds het uitbreken van de Iranoorlog grotendeels gesloten. De afgelopen dagen varen schepen uit bepaalde landen wel weer door de zeestraat.
BEIROET (ANP/RTR/AFP) - Bij Israëlische luchtaanvallen in het zuiden van Libanon zijn in totaal drie Libanese militairen omgekomen. Dat meldt het Libanese leger op X. Het zou gaan om twee verschillende aanvallen rond de stad Nabatieh.
Israël, dat naar eigen zeggen alleen Hezbollah-doelen in Libanon aanvalt en daarmee niet het staatsleger, is volgens persbureau Reuters op de hoogte van het voorval en onderzoekt hoe dit kon gebeuren.
Maandag kondigde Israël een "beperkt en gericht" grondoffensief in Libanon aan, wat in de internationale gemeenschap breed werd veroordeeld. Zo kwamen Canada, Frankrijk, Duitsland, Italië en het Verenigd Koninkrijk met een gezamenlijk statement, waarin ze de escalatie veroordeelden en opriepen tot een "duurzame politieke oplossing".
HARDENBERG (ANP) - De gemeente Hardenberg heeft het Centraal Orgaan opvang asielzoekers (COA) definitief een last onder dwangsom opgelegd voor het niet volgens afspraak sluiten van twee asielopvanglocaties binnen de gemeente. Dat heeft het gemeentebestuur dinsdag besloten. Het COA krijgt van de gemeente een week om de overtreding te beëindigen.
De last onder dwangsom bestaat eruit dat voor elke dag dat het asielzoekerscentrum in Hardenberg na de deadline nog open is, het COA 55.000 euro moet betalen. Het openhouden van een noodopvang bij het dorp Loozen kost het COA nog eens 7500 euro per dag.
A single bright spot in the assessment of the US is that free and open elections are still being held, and the electoral system "remains stable for now". But executive orders since Trump came to power point to new risks for the electoral system.
Nobody Gets Promoted for Simplicity. “You can’t write a compelling narrative about the thing you didn’t build. Nobody gets promoted for the complexity they avoided.”
