President Trump has announced that an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) bout will be held on the grounds of the White House next year, one of many events to be held to celebrate America's 250th birthday.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/32477572

The use of chloropicrin gas is a grave violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention, which Russia signed on January 13, 1993, and ratified on November 5, 1997.

Putin does NOT deserve a seat at any table and should be completely isolated. When will Trump get this?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/hegseth-halted-weapons-for-ukraine-despite-military-analysis-that-the-aid-wouldn-t-jeopardize-us-readiness/ar-AA1HXER2

Hegseth halted weapons for Ukraine this week amid concern about the U.S. military’s stockpiles despite military analysis that the aid wouldn’t jeopardize U.S. readiness (claims by top military officials).

The first American academics fleeing Donald Trump's America for France have arrived.

Aix-Marseille University last week introduced eight U.S.-based researchers who were in the final stage of joining the institution's “Safe Place for Science" program, which aims to woo researchers who have experienced or fear funding cuts under the Trump administration. AMU offers the promise of a brighter future in the sun-drenched Mediterranean port city.

While both France and the European Union have launched multimillion-euro plans to woo researchers across the pond since Trump assumed the U.S. presidency in January, AMU's initiative was the first of its kind in the country — meaning the eight researchers who were welcomed are the first academic refugees planning to trade the United States for France.

Disaster declarations have been issued for parts of central Texas after heavy rains produced “a catastrophic flooding event” and killed an as yet unconfirmed number of people.

The National Weather Service issued multiple flash flood warnings followed by a flash flood emergency early on Friday morning for Gillespie and Mason counties, after more than a foot of rainfall fell in just a few hours in the hill country west of Austin.

The local news outlet KXAN warned that “life-threatening flooding is imminent or occurring. Leave low-lying or flood-prone areas immediately, but do not drive over water-covered roads.”

We begin our July Fourth special broadcast with the words of Frederick Douglass. Born into slavery around 1818, Douglass became a key leader of the abolitionist movement. On July 5, 1852, in Rochester, New York, Douglass gave one of his most famous speeches, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” He was addressing the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society. The late actor James Earl Jones read the historic address during a performance of Voices of a People’s History of the United States, which was co-edited by Howard Zinn.

A Los Angeles school district is demanding an investigation of an incident last month, during which Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents gathered at a local high school before a raid and were seen publicly urinating on school grounds, not far from where elementary school students were attending summer classes.

According to a statement from El Rancho unified school district, which also released video evidence in the form of surveillance-camera footage, the incident took place on the morning of 17 June at Ruben Salazar high school in Pico Rivera, in south-eastern LA county.

The school has since written to Kristi Noem, the US homeland security secretary, to request an inquiry. “At no time was a legal or legitimate reason offered or provided as to why ICE agents entered and remained on school grounds, nor did they provide any judicial warrant,” the school district said in the statement.

In a new interview on the Two Promoters One Pod podcast, organizer Catherine Jackson-Smith shared that the festival did not want to cancel the group’s headline set.

“It was categorically one of the most horrendous professional discussions I’ve ever had,” she said. “I cannot express clearly enough that I wanted Bob Vylan to perform at our festival. But this was not our decision.”

According to Jackson-Smith, Radar was caught between behind-the-scenes conversations involving the venue, its co-owners AMG and Live Nation, and local authorities. The decision to drop Bob Vylan was presented as an ultimatum: either cancel the band’s appearance or risk losing the entire Saturday program.

Support is lowest in France, Spain and Poland, while 21% back authoritarian rule under certain circumstances

Only half of young people in France and Spain believe that democracy is the best form of government, with support even lower among their Polish counterparts, a study has found.

A majority from Europe’s generation Z – 57% – prefer democracy to any other form of government. Rates of support varied significantly, however, reaching just 48% in Poland and only about 51-52% in Spain and France, with Germany highest at 71%.

More than one in five – 21% – would favour authoritarian rule under certain, unspecified circumstances. This was highest in Italy at 24% and lowest in Germany with 15%. In France, Spain and Poland the figure was 23%.

Nearly one in 10 across the nations said they did not care whether their government was democratic or not, while another 14% did not know or did not answer.