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Pentagon Developed Contingency Plan for War With Iran

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:46:35 GMT

The U.S. military allocated spending for secret contingency operations pertaining to an Iran war plan, according to a classified Pentagon budget manual listing emergency and special programs reviewed by The Intercept.The contingency plan, code-named “Support Sentry,” was funded in 2018 and 2019, according to the manual, which was produced for the 2019 fiscal year. It classifies Support Sentry as an Iran “CONPLAN,” or concept plan, a broad contingency plan for war which the Pentagon develops in anticipation of a potential crisis.The existence of Support Sentry has not been previously reported. It is not clear from the document how much the Pentagon spent on the plan in those years. When asked about the program and whether it is still in place, Maj. John Moore, a spokesperson for U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM, said, “As a matter of policy, we do not comment on numbered plans. Iran remains the leading source of instability in the region and is a threat to the United States and...

The Shadow Medical Community Behind the Attempt to Ban Medication Abortion

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:46:35 GMT

The Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, a new anti-abortion umbrella group that is spearheading a sweeping federal challenge to medication abortion, incorporated in Texas just months before filing suit. The incorporation documents, obtained from the Texas secretary of state, provide further evidence that the plaintiffs cherry-picked a court they believed would be amenable to their arguments, an act of forum shopping that was orchestrated to land the case before Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump-appointed darling of the far right.The Alliance incorporated in Amarillo in August 2022, bringing together five out-of-state anti-abortion groups: the Catholic Medical Association, the Coptic Medical Association of North America, the American College of Pediatricians, the Christian Medical & Dental Associations, and the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Three months later, the lawsuit was filed in the same Texas Panhandle city where Kacsmaryk hears all federa...

How to Save Yellowstone's Wolves

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:46:35 GMT

If you ever plan to dart a wild wolf sprinting over a snow-covered mountain from a low-flying helicopter, there are a few things you need to know. The wolf should be running away, and you should be aiming for the back or butt. Never take a shot at a wolf that’s facing you. The risk of injuring the animal with a dart to the face is too high. Also, a dart shoots hard but it’s not a bullet; you need to loft your shot. Try to keep the chase under a quarter mile. Push a distressed wolf much farther and you’re being cruel. Finally, while you’re leaning out over the helicopter’s landing skids focusing on the wolf, don’t forget the treetops rushing by under your feet. If you get snagged, you’re done.These were the lessons Doug Smith took home after a trip to the Alaskan outback in 1999. Smith had recently become director of the Yellowstone Wolf Project, the research program that followed the reintroduction of wolves into the national park four years earlier. At the heart of the nascent prog...

Scott Adams Echoes White America’s Resentful History of “Helping” Others

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:46:35 GMT

Scott Adams, creator of the comic strip “Dilbert,” in Dublin, Calif., on Oct. 26, 2006.Photo: Marcio Jose Sanchez/APWednesday’s peculiar YouTube remarks by “Dilbert” cartoonist Scott Adams about Black Americans being a “hate group” have certainly received a lot of attention. Hundreds of newspapers across the U.S. have now dropped Adams’s strip.What’s gotten almost no notice, however, is how Adams went on at length about his efforts to be “helpful to Black America.” But my ears perked up when I heard this, since the most berserk racial ultraviolence in U.S. history has always been accompanied by this kind of rhetoric from white Americans — i.e., we’ve done our best to help others, only for them to turn around and loathe us rather than respond with the gratitude we deserve for our openhearted kindness.Here’s some of what Adams said on this subject:As you know, I’ve been identifying as Black for a while. Years now, because I like to be on the winning team.And I like to help. And ...

Tucker Carlson Deserves a Raise for His Shameless Lies

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:46:35 GMT

Tucker Carlson speaks during the 2022 Fox Nation Patriot Awards at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Fla., on Nov. 17, 2022.Photo: Jason Koerner/Getty ImagesBy now you probably know about the filing by Dominion Voting Systems in its $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News. It includes a vast trove of communications to and from various Fox hosts — including Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham — as well as Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott and Rupert Murdoch, chair of the parent corporation of Fox News.The most wonderful part of the filing is Carlson’s inspiring, principled stand against telling the truth. On November 12, 2020, nine days after the election, Carlson flagged a tweet for Hannity and Ingraham by Fox reporter Jacqui Heinrich. In it Heinrich had accurately pointed out that there was “no evidence” for then-President Donald Trump’s preposterous claims about the election being stolen by Dominion’s voting machines.Heinrich’s reference to rea...

Tesla on automated system when it hit firetruck, killing 1

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:46:35 GMT

DETROIT (AP) — A Tesla was operating on an automated driving system when it crashed into a firetruck in California last month, killing the driver and critically injuring a passenger. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Wednesday it has dispatched a special crash investigation team to look into the Feb. 18 crash in Northern California where emergency responders had to cut open the Tesla to remove the passenger. Four Contra Costa County firefighters had minor injuries.The probe is part of a larger investigation by the agency into multiple instances of Teslas on Autopilot crashing into parked emergency vehicles that are tending to other crashes.The $1.4 million ladder truck was damaged in the crash on Interstate 680. The truck was parked to shield a crew clearing another accident, fire officials said.The driver of the the 2014 Tesla Model S was declared dead at the scene.NHTSA is investigating how Tesla’s Autopilot system detects and responds to emergency vehicles p...

Daughter unravels decades-old mystery of disabled mom’s rape

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:46:35 GMT

Magdalena Cruz grew up knowing she owed her very life to a horrid crime.She was born in 1986 to a mom who couldn’t care for her, or for herself. For a decade, Cruz’s mother had been a resident of a state facility for severely disabled people in Rochester, New York. She was nonverbal. She was 30 but had the mental acuity of a 2-year-old, wore diapers and needed constant care. She couldn’t consent to sex, so when she was discovered to be pregnant, it was obvious she must have been raped.Facility administrators told the woman’s family another resident was likely responsible and said they would file a police report and undertake an internal investigation.Nearly four decades later, Cruz says she has solved the mystery of her father’s identity herself, partly by using a mail-order DNA test and a popular genealogy database.He was an employee of the facility, not a resident, according to a lawsuit she filed this week.Moreover, Cruz also learned through her own sleuthing that no ...

On tap: Booze still allowed on Amtrak in New Hampshire

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:46:35 GMT

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Riders on an Amtrak train that runs from Maine to Boston can continue to buy alcoholic beverages during the 35-mile stretch of the trip that goes through New Hampshire as officials work out a “creative solution” to avoid violating a state liquor law, officials said.The Amtrak Downeaster takes passengers 145 miles from Brunswick, Maine, to Boston. The train includes a cafe car that serves alcohol.The Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority, a quasi-government agency that has a service agreement with Amtrak, said it was told by the New Hampshire Liquor Commission that the train can’t serve alcohol during the New Hampshire portion of the journey. There’s a law that forbids serving alcohol that hasn’t been purchased in the state. The liquor commission didn’t immediately comment Wednesday. It said in a statement Tuesday that the Massachusetts-based company that provides the train’s food and beverage service “inadvertently acknowledged th...

What to know about prescription drugs promising weight loss

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:46:35 GMT

WeightWatchers, the 60-year-old diet firm, announced this week it would acquire a telehealth company whose providers prescribe anti-obesity drugs for growing numbers of eager online subscribers.The $132 million deal with Sequence is the just the latest commercial push into the red-hot market for prescription drugs that promise significant weight loss. For months, the diabetes drug Ozempic has been touted on social media by celebrities even though it’s not approved for weight loss. The demand for it sparked shortages.WeightWatchers will be introducing its roughly 3.5 million subscribers to a new generation of medications that go beyond behavioral changes like gym workouts and diet tracking. Obesity experts say the drugs may revolutionize treatment of the disease that affects 42% of American adults.Here’s a look at the promise of these new medications and cautions about their use. WHAT ARE THESE NEW DIET DRUGS?The drugs that have generated most buzz are from a class of medications cal...

Is International Women’s Day a catalyst for change or just a symbolic gesture?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:46:35 GMT

Elizabeth Goodyear-Grant, Queen’s University, Ontario Listen to this articleInternational Women’s Day occurs yearly on March 8. The United Nations argues that international days are powerful tools for advocacy, awareness and action. On women’s rights and equality issues, action and awareness are badly needed, at home in Canada and around the world.But does International Women’s Day actually accomplish anything? Are these types of public recognition events helpful? What can governments do better on this front?One danger of international observances is they can become window dressing where the symbolic action of one single day covers for unsubstantive efforts on the other 364 days of the year.This year’s celebrations may seem exaggerated, or even performative, when juxtaposed against governments’ political records on gender issues. In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court removed constitutional guarantees of reproductive freedom with the repeal of Roe v. Wade.In Canada, rates of domestic...