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Knowing that a vote on another aid package for Ukraine loomed in his future, Rep. Chuck Edwards, a freshman Republican, spent part of last week traveling across the country to see firsthand how U.S. dollars would be used in the the nation's struggle to repel the Russian invaders. .What he witnessed as he and a bipartisan group of lawmakers traveled across Ukraine for four days — a dozen airstrikes, a drone assault and sites of gruesome atrocities against civilians — led Edwards and his colleagues to vow to pressure Speaker Mike Johnson to advance a measure to provide more aid to the war effort.They told President Volodymyr Zelensky that their visit had given them a "new appreciation" of what his country was facing, Edwards said, and that they would pressure Johnson to make sure Americ...

Unlike the consumer goods, beverage or retail sectors, the note continues, there are no large consultancies publishing market share data in the Swiss watch industry. “This is due to the impracticality of conducting such investigations and the discreet nature of the Swiss watch industry,” he said.Perhaps no brand is more discreet and influential than Rolex, which continues to dominate the market. According to Morgan Stanley's seventh annual report, published in February, Rolex's share is said to have grown - to 30.3% - on the strength of its sales in 2023, estimated to have exceeded 10 billion Swiss francs.However, because the company is said to prohibit its authorized retailers from sharing point-of-sale data with third parties, Luxury Watch Barometer's monthly reports do not...

The United States sent its top Middle East military commander to Israel on Thursday, after President Biden said that despite recent friction, American support for Israel "is ironclad" in the event of an attack by Iran .Iranian leaders have repeatedly vowed to punish Israel for the April 1 attack in Syria that killed several top Iranian commanders. Israel has put its military on alert, and Biden said on Wednesday that Iran was threatening a “significant” attack.General Michael E. Kurilla, the American commander, will coordinate with Israel on what is expected to be an imminent retaliatory action by Iran and will also discuss the war against Hamas in Gaza and humanitarian aid operations in the area, according to officials who spoke at the debate. condition of anonymity given the sensitivit...

It was 1:53 a.m. and Peter Fink stood on a barren plateau near Campo, California, handing out blankets to people from four continents who had arrived there under the cover of night.It was a nightly ritual for the 22-year-old, dressed in a baseball cap and wool shirt, whose perch - just over 300 meters up a rocky slope from the US-Mexico border wall - had become a ride around the world. boarding space for people who have entered US soil illegally.With the armed National Guard of Mexico Now stationed at the most popular crossing points along southeastern San Diego County, migrant routes have moved further into remote wilderness, where people face more extreme terrain and temperatures with little to no infrastructure to keep them alive.For migrants who wanted to be apprehended by U.S. Borde...

Archaeologists working at the ancient site of Pompeii unveiled their latest discovery Thursday: a formal dining room that offers a glimpse into how some of the wealthier inhabitants lived, or at least the art they could ponder as they munched.Painted dark black so that soot from candle smoke doesn't stain them, experts say, the walls are divided into panels. Many of them are decorated with couples associated with the Trojan War.The dining room is part of an insula, the equivalent of a city block, excavated as part of a project to consolidate the perimeter between the excavated and unexcavated areas of the city, part of which remains underground. The project will help better preserve the site.“People met for dinner after dark; the flickering light of the lamps had the effect of makin...

Apple on Thursday said it would ease limits on repairing new iPhones with used parts such as screens, batteries and cameras, a reversal from its previous practice of using software to encourage people to work with new, more expensive parts approved by Apple.The change comes weeks after Oregon passed a law banning Apple's practice of attaching parts to software, known as "part matching." Similar bills are under consideration in Colorado and more than a dozen other states. Apple had opposed Oregon's legislation before its passage, saying customers could be left vulnerable to safety risks if Apple was forced to allow lower-priced parts made by third-party suppliers.In the past, if an iPhone owner broke a part, such as a screen, and installed an original, used Apple screen purchased ...

Since 2004, when the system was established, two famines, according to this definition, have occurred. In 2011, the IPC declared famine in parts of Somalia, which had endured decades of conflict. Years of drought have destroyed the agricultural sector and the economy, forcing many people to leave their homes in search of food. At the same time, a group of Islamic rebels blocked the escape of starving people and forced Western humanitarian organizations to abandon them. In all, around 250,000 people died.Six years later, famine was declared in parts of South Sudan. The country has suffered years of drought, but the UN has said the famine was man-made. Millions of people had fled a civil war that was destroying the country's economy, and rebel forces and government soldiers had blo...

The dengue fever epidemic that has swept through Latin America over the past three months is staggering in scale: a million cases in Brazil in a matter of weeks, a huge spike in Argentina, a state of emergency declared in Peru and now a other, in Puerto Rico.It warns of a changing landscape for the disease. The mosquitoes that spread dengue thrive in densely populated cities with weak infrastructure and in warmer, wetter environments, the type of habitat that is expanding rapidly with climate change.More than 3.5 million cases of dengue were confirmed by Latin American governments in the first three months of 2024, compared to 4.5 million in all of 2023. There have been more than 1,000 deaths this year. The Pan American Health Organization warns that this could be the worst year on recor...

Five years after WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was first jailed in a maximum-security facility in Britain while fighting a U.S. extradition request, the Biden administration has given its clearest signal to date who could abandon the legal proceedings against him.But Mr Assange's wife said on Thursday that her hopes were tempered by the reality that his extradition case had reached a critical juncture.“It's been five years, and now he's closer than ever to extradition,” his wife, Stella Assange, said in an interview, adding: “Obviously with a comment like this from the president, it's a good sign and we receive with hope. But as we know, this does not prevent us from fearing the worst."President Biden, when asked by a reporter on Wednesday about a request from Australia,...

One recent afternoon, I held a bagel in front of me and said, “Look and tell me if this is healthy.”A monotone voice replied that the bagel was unhealthy because it was high in carbohydrates, which could contribute to weight gain.I wasn't talking to a techie obsessed with the ketogenic diet. It was the Ai Pin, a tiny $700 computer equipped with a virtual assistant that pulls data from OpenAI (the research company behind the ChatGPT chatbot), Google, Microsoft and others to answer questions and perform tasks.Shaped like a pin that could be a "Star Trek" throwback, it attaches to your clothes with magnets and is supposed to offload tasks you'd normally do with a smartphone, such as taking notes, searching the Web and taking photos. Instead of a screen, the pin shines a green laser ...