‘Hit them where it hurts’: Americans boycott corporations to protest anti-DEI policies

Participants commit to not spending money for 24 hours to resist Trump administration and Musk’s cuts

On Friday, Americans across the country are participating in an economic boycott for 24 hours.

Organized by the People’s Union USA, a nonpartisan, grassroots organization, the boycott quickly picked up steam across social media, with thousands of users sharing posts with related hashtags. Participants are asked not to spend any money, and if they need to, it is recommended that they shop at a local, small business and pay in cash.

Continue reading...
Continue Reading‘Hit them where it hurts’: Americans boycott corporations to protest anti-DEI policies

A humiliation at the White House and what does it tell us? Trump would make a colony of my country | Andrey Kurkov

A cold reality hit us in Washington. Zelenskyy was being forced to buy hope of survival by people who have no care for our freedom

It’s warming up in Kyiv. The temperature has risen from -5C to 4C. Sometimes, the sun peeps through breaks in the clouds, but Kyivites are not much cheered by the sunshine. They are not watching for signs of spring as they usually do at this time of year. The atmosphere in the city and in the country as a whole has been one of nervous expectation. This was not an expectation of an end to military action or the signing of a peace treaty with Russia – nothing so specific. Indeed, it was not at all clear what we were waiting for, but it was something connected with Donald Trump and the change in US policy towards Ukraine.

Clarity emerged at today’s macabre theatre at the White House: handshakes, a thumbs up and some fist pumps from the US president, before Trump sat side by side with Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss a minerals-for-war-support deal and to humiliate him. At the same time, air raid sirens were sounding in northern and eastern Ukraine. Soon the talks were off and Zelenskyy was gone.

Andrey Kurkov is a Ukrainian novelist and the author of Death and the Penguin

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Continue reading...
Continue ReadingA humiliation at the White House and what does it tell us? Trump would make a colony of my country | Andrey Kurkov

Shortsighted Taiwan may have lessons for the world as a preventable disease skyrockets

Up to 90% of young people in Taiwan have myopia but eye experts say the growing global trend can be reversed

In the final days of their eight-week bootcamp, dozens of young Taiwanese conscripts are being tested on an obstacle course. The men in full combat kit are crawling underneath rows of razor wire and through bunkers as controlled explosions blast columns of dirt into the air. Pink and green smoke blooms in a simulated gas attack, requiring the conscripts to quickly don gas masks so they can rush the zone. But it’s here where many of them pause, stopping the assault drill to spend precious seconds removing their glasses so the masks will fit.

The conscripts mostly look to be in their early 20s. Statistics suggest that means anywhere up to 90% of them have some degree of myopia, otherwise known as shortsightedness.

Continue reading...
Continue ReadingShortsighted Taiwan may have lessons for the world as a preventable disease skyrockets