Category: News
Editorial: The bizarre slandering of Google by Mayor Brandon Johnson’s City Council allies
Nearly seven years ago, then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced that Google had chosen Chicago as a new hub for its finance operations and planned to add hundreds of new jobs to a city workforce that already numbered 1,000.
A little over three years later, in 2022, Google said it would purchase the Thompson Center in the heart of Chicago’s Loop from the state of Illinois and establish a new office at that Helmut Jahn-designed building. The deal with Google marked an improbable rescue for an architecturally significant and generally exciting structure that a few years earlier had been at significant risk of demolition.
Beyond aesthetics and preservation, Google’s move also was a desperately needed jolt of good news for a moribund downtown sapped by the vestiges of the pandemic. Politicians ever since — including Mayor Brandon Johnson, who had nothing to do with the Google deals — have placed Google’s investment in downtown Chicago close to the top of their meager lists of examples of how Chicago’s economy was performing well on their watch.
We retrace all of this recent history because numerous Chicago politicians, including Mayor Johnson, seem to have conveniently forgotten these facts as they now highlight Google as one of the many greedy corporations unwilling to “pay their fair share” to solve the city’s budget woes.
On Monday, as the City Council’s Finance Committee was considering (and eventually rejecting) the mayor’s proposal to tax each Chicago job provided by Google and other large employers at a rate of $21 per month, Budget Committee Chair Ald. Jason Ervin, 28th, had this to say to his fellow aldermen: “Are you helping Google out? Or are we going to help grandma?”
So Google’s $280 million investment to overhaul the Thompson Center and shift a publicly owned building occupying much of a downtown city block onto the tax rolls is somehow robbing our seniors? Got it, Ald. Ervin.
Chicago Ald. Jason Ervin, 28th, prepares to leave the City Council chamber after Mayor Brandon Johnson’s proposed head tax was voted down in a committee meeting, Nov. 17, 2025. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)
During the same committee session, another Johnson ally, Ald. Anthony Quezada, 35th, noted that Google reported net income of $100 billion last year and that it had donated $22 million to President Donald Trump’s planned new ballroom at the White House earlier this year.
What Quezada failed to disclose was that Google made that contribution as part of a legal settlement between its subsidiary, YouTube, and Trump. Trump had sued YouTube for removing him temporarily from the platform after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters.
Quezada also bizarrely made Google’s Thompson Center investment sound like something nefarious.
“They’re building a big, massive (local) headquarters,” he said. “They have a lot of money. They can pay a corporate head tax.”
In his budget address last month, the mayor called out Google among a list of tech giants he said should put “more skin in the game” in solving the city’s budget woes.
We’re written before about the self-defeating nature of this continued demonization of corporations employing well over 100,000 people in Chicago. We remain flabbergasted that this administration dismisses the tens of millions of dollars Chicago’s business community has contributed to public-safety initiatives like community violence intervention.
Frankly, it smacks of desperation.
But Google stands out to us precisely because it’s not a long-standing corporate citizen of Chicago like, say, McDonald’s or Walgreens. Why smear such a successful company that has decided Chicago is a big part of its future?
We have no idea what Google’s position is on the head tax. As far as we know, the company hasn’t weighed in publicly. We also don’t know (nor do members of the City Council) just how many people Google eventually will move into the former Thompson Center in 2027 when it’s supposed to be ready for occupancy. In 2022, Google had about 2,000 Chicago workers housed in two buildings in the Fulton Market District west of the Loop. The company hasn’t said how many of those will be moved downtown or detailed its other hiring plans.
But here are some facts about Chicago and its relationship to Big Tech, particularly Google. Google is the only Silicon Valley giant that has made such a substantial commitment to this city. On Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal suggested that the so-called “Magnificent Seven” of tech stocks has now shrunk to the “Magnificent Three”: Nvidia, Microsoft and Alphabet, the Google parent. Just in case someone at City Hall is questioning their importance to our city.
For the record, we’ve not seen Nvidia knocking on many Chicago doors. The closest regional office is in Champaign.
Google didn’t have to invest so significantly here. From corporate giants to midsize manufacturers and distributors, there always are alternative options for business location, and progressive politicians — especially the mayor — consistently fail to comprehend that even great cities like Chicago exist in a competitive landscape.
In trying to score points with Chicagoans understandably frustrated by the financial state of the city, the officeholders choosing to verbally trash the one Big Tech player that has planted a significant flag here in order to force through an unpopular agenda is … well … stupid. There’s really no other way to put it.
Google bet big on Chicago while the mayor was Emanuel, who placed a high priority on showcasing the city as business-friendly. Emanuel understood that Chicago only could ultimately surmount its immense fiscal challenges through economic growth.
What does Google think of its wager now? We’d surely love to hear, but we have a strong suspicion the view from the Mountain View, California, headquarters of Google parent Alphabet has changed some in the intervening years.
More important, we’d bet that some of its hiring decisions are still live and in process. Anyone with a clue can see what needs to be done.
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.
Parkinson’s patients get a little choreographic help from a dance captain of the Neil Diamond musical
Patients at the Rush University Medical Center swayed and stretched as they followed choreography from one of the dance captains of “A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical.”
The medical center held a movement workout for patients with Parkinson’s disease on Wednesday with the help of J’Kobe Wallace, the instructor. About two dozen people came out to learn and create some of their own dances. Patients partnered up and made up their own eight-count dance moves and followed the motions of Wallace.
For over 12 years, Anna Pasteris, 67, has lived with Parkinson’s disease and to have an event centered around her and others that are diagnosed felt great, she said, but feels otherwise about a lack of a cure.
“The disease has been around like 200 years and yet we still don’t have a cure for it, so it’s kind of frustrating,” Pasteris said.
Without a cure for Parkinson’s disease, patients are dependent on treatments and medication for a better way of living, and exercise has been evident in slowing down the progression of the disease, according to Jori Fleisher, associate professor of neurological sciences and movement disorder specialist at Rush University Medical Center.
Nonetheless, it still helps to know that research is being done to find one, she said.
The cast of the Neil Diamond show have been fundraising and pursuing their goal of collecting $1 million to donate to the Parkinson’s Foundation for research. Currently, they have raised approximately $750,000, according to Gabrielle Perruzzi Sovers, a spokesperson for the Parkinson’s Foundation and the development manager for the Midwest chapter of Parkinson’s Foundation.
“Beautiful Noise” is based on the life of American singer-songwriter Neil Diamond, who in 2018 announced that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
Wallace chose the dance he wanted to show accordingly.
“To teach that choreography to other people that are experiencing a similar trajectory as (Diamond), and I think this choreography lends itself to just community, and I think that’s what I’m most excited for,” Wallace said ahead of the workout.
“Stadium Medley” is from the second act of the musical and doesn’t require great technique, Wallace said, which allowed everyone to take part. He showed a modified version of the dance and later showed the actual version that he does on stage.
Wallace talked about how he got to where he is in life and how he got into theater and dancing, but he called showing the dance to other people “the highlight of my career.”
There is no specific exercise that impacts the disease’s progression, but dance is beneficial to those that are diagnosed, Fleisher said. “There have been plenty of dancers out there who are differently abled this whole time and I love that this is an opportunity to shine a spotlight on that.”
Music is a motivator for patients, Fleisher said. Sometimes she will tell them to think of a song in their head, which leads them to move when they had been stuck, an example of mind over matter or mind over body, she said.
Mary Ellen Oliver, one of the participants, has had Parkinson’s for 25 years. She had a great time participating with others while having live and contagious energy, she said. “Having a group of people together and they all have Parkinson’s, it reinstates that you can still do things even though Parkinson’s steals from you.”
“A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Show” runs through Nov. 30 at the Cadillac Palace Theatre, 151 W. Randolph St.; tickets and more information at www.broadwayinchicago.com
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/20/parkinsons-neil-diamond-musical/
Supuesto hacker ruso buscado por el FBI, detenido en una isla turística de Tailandia
Por JINTAMAS SAKSORNCHAI y DAVID RISING
BANGKOK, Tailandia (AP) — La policía arrestó en la isla turística tailandesa de Phuket a un presunto hacker ruso buscado por el FBI por su supuesta participación en ciberataques a agencias gubernamentales de Estados Unidos y Europa, dijeron las autoridades.
El hombre, de 35 años y que entró en Tailandia el 30 de octubre por el aeropuerto de Phuket, fue detenido a principios de mes en su hotel y está retenido a la espera de una posible extradición, informó la policía tailandesa.
La identidad del sospechoso no ha sido revelada, pero la agencia noticiosa estatal rusa Russia Today lo identificó como Denis Obrezko, natural de Stavropol. La familia confirmó su arresto el 6 de noviembre y tenía previsto recurrir a su extradición a Estados Unidos, agregó.
En un correo electrónico el jueves, el Departamento de Justicia de Estados Unidos se negó a realizar comentarios acerca de la posible extradición o a ofrecer otros detalles. El Departamento de Estado de Estados Unidos y funcionarios estadounidenses en Tailandia también rechazaron comentar el caso.
El Ministerio de Exteriores ruso y la embajada del Kremlin en Tailandia tampoco respondieron a los pedidos de comentarios, pero el cónsul general de Rusia en Phuket, Yegor Ivanov, dijo a la agencia noticiosa estatal rusa Tass que el consulado “recibió notificación del arresto de un ciudadano ruso acusado de cometer un delito informático”.
“Fue arrestado el 6 de noviembre y trasladado a Bangkok ese mismo día”, indicó Ivanov, que no ofreció más detalles.
Ilya Ilyin, jefe de la sección consular de la embajada rusa en Tailandia, declaró a Tass el lunes que diplomáticos rusos visitaron al sospechoso en un penal en la capital tailandesa.
“El personal de la embajada realizó una visita consular al ciudadano ruso detenido a solicitud de Estados Unidos”, dijo Ilyin, añadiendo que se estaban realizando los trámites pertinentes para que pudiera reunirse con sus familiares.
La Oficina de Investigación de Delitos Cibernéticos de Tailandia señaló en un comunicado del 12 de noviembre que fue una pista del FBI sobre el viaje del “hacker de talla mundial” al país lo que condujo a su arresto en Phuket bajo una orden internacional.
En la redada en su hotel, la policía incautó computadoras portátiles, teléfonos móviles y billeteras digitales, según la nota, que explicó que funcionarios del FBI estuvieron presentes en el arresto.
Varios medios reportaron que un segundo ruso sospechoso de hackeo y buscado por el FBI —con vínculos con la inteligencia militar rusa— había sido arrestado en Phuket al día siguiente, pero la policía tailandesa afirmó que solo se había producido una detención.
La solicitud formal para la extradición del sospechoso ha sido presentada, la duración del proceso no estaba clara aún.
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Esta historia fue traducida del inglés por un editor de AP con la ayuda de una herramienta de inteligencia artificial generativa.
Today in History: Francisco Madero leads a revolt against Mexican President Porfirio Díaz
Today is Thursday, Nov. 20, the 324th day of 2025. There are 41 days left in the year.
Today in history:
On Nov. 20, 1910, Francisco Madero led a revolt against Mexican President Porfirio Díaz, marking the beginning of the decade-long Mexican Revolution.
Also on this date:
In 1945, 22 former Nazi officials went on trial before an international war crimes tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany. (Almost a year later, the International Military Tribune sentenced 12 of the defendants to death; seven received prison sentences ranging from 10 years to life; three were acquitted.)
1947, Britain’s future queen, Princess Elizabeth, married Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, at Westminster Abbey.
In 1969, Native American activists began an occupation of Alcatraz Island that would last 19 months before they were forcibly removed by federal authorities.
In 1982, the University of California, Berkeley, football team defeated Stanford University by scoring a touchdown on a lateral-filled kickoff return on the last play of the game, despite the Stanford marching band entering the field of play, thinking Stanford had already won. In college football lore, the bizarre finish is often referred to simply as “The Play.”
In 1992, fire seriously damaged Windsor Castle, the favorite weekend home of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II.
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In 2003, music producer Phil Spector was charged with murder in the shooting of actor Lana Clarkson at his California home. (After a first trial ended with a hung jury in 2007, Spector was convicted of second-degree murder in 2009 and sentenced to 19 years to life; he died in prison at age 81 on Jan. 16, 2021.)
Today’s Birthdays: Actor Estelle Parsons is 98. Author Don DeLillo is 89. Comedian Dick Smothers is 87. Former President Joe Biden is 83. Broadcast journalist Judy Woodruff is 79. Musician Joe Walsh is 78. Actor Bo Derek is 69. Actor Ming-Na Wen is 62. Rapper Michael “Mike D” Diamond (Beastie Boys) is 60. Actor-comedian Joel McHale is 54. Country singer Dierks Bentley is 50. Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Dominique Dawes is 49. Rapper Future is 42.
“Increasingly Becoming No-Go Areas” – Violent Crime Explodes At German Train Stations
“Increasingly Becoming No-Go Areas” – Violent Crime Explodes At German Train Stations
Exploding violence in Germany has long been tied to mass immigration, as the statistics clearly show, and German train stations are becoming another perfect illustration of this worrying trend.
The number of violent crimes at Berlin central station in 2024 has tripled compared to 2019, which was the last year before the coronavirus crisis. In Cologne, violent crime has grown 70 percent in the same timeframe, according to Welt newspaper.
Those are just two cities, but the same trend is seen everywhere.
“Look at a main train station, in Duisburg, in Hamburg, in Frankfurt. Neglect, drug dealers, young men, mostly with a migrant background, mostly from Eastern Europe or Arab-Muslim cultural areas. This also has to do with irregular migration, as it looks in our inner cities, in the marketplaces“, said Jens Spahn, the CDU parliamentary group leader, in a BILD interview. Remarkably, his own party is massively responsible for Germany’s incredible demographic transformation and crime crisis.
As the left promotes public transport as a big part of the solution to climate change, the reality is that taking public transport is becoming more and more dangerous.
According to police data, the total number of violent crimes at train stations rose from 25,640 in 2023 to 27,160 last year. Meanwhile, women are more and more at risk. Sexual crimes increased from 1,898 to 2,262 within a year, while property damage jumped from 30,961 to 32,671.
This follows data from earlier in the year that showed foreigners commit 59 percent of all sexual crimes on German trains and at train stations, with serious sexual crimes doubling since 2019.
According to a statement, Alternative for Germany (AfD) MP Martin Hess warned: “Train stations, once places of mobility and peaceful encounters, are increasingly becoming no-go areas.“
“In many areas of crime, foreigners are disproportionately represented among the suspects,” he added.
Saxony, which has far fewer foreigners, sees huge crime increase
Even in German states with far fewer migrants, foreigners are contributing to a massive rise in crime and sexual assaults. In Saxony, for instance, crime has jumped massively in just one year at German train stations.
Citing the new data, just released a few days ago, AfD MP Matthias Rentzsch states:
“The sharp rise in crime (total offenses: 11,065 in the first half of 2025) at Saxon train stations is alarming. Whether property crimes, vandalism, or violent offenses: virtually all forms of crime show massive increases. Violent offenses at Saxon train stations rose by a good 42 percent, sexual offenses by over 15 percent, and weapons offenses by almost 87 percent. At some individual Saxon train stations, there were enormous increases in crime. For example, the number of offenses at Dresden Central Station rose by 24.6 percent, at Leipzig Central Station by 57.2 percent, and at Bischofswerda Station by 100 percent,” he said.
Rentzsch points out an especially shocking statistic in one German city: “The Chemnitz Central Station is the unfortunate leader, with an increase of 212.5 percent.”
As with every single German state, migration is the biggest driver of this crime surge.
“The uncontrolled mass immigration, largely driven by the CDU/CSU and SPD, is clearly having an effect: almost Foreign nationals account for 50 percent of all crimes committed at Saxon train stations, and there is a significantly above-average proportion of foreign suspects in violent, property, sexual, and drug-related offenses,” he said.
Notably, in Saxony, only 8 percent of the population is made up of foreigners, yet they are responsible for 50 percent of all crimes in train stations. Another 5 percent or so of the population are German citizens with a migration background.
Government avoids talk of mass deportation, focuses on mass surveillance
Due to the drastic increase in acts of violence around the train stations, Federal Interior Minister Dobrindt (CSU) says he wants to take action, even as the police union speaks of “intolerable“ conditions.
Knives also play an increasingly large role in train stations. During just one year, the number of weapons offenses rose from 589 to 808, and property damage from 16,786 to 17,595. As Welt notes, “Foreign nationals are overrepresented across all crime groups.”
Meanwhile, German police unions are calling train stations across the country “crime hotspots.”
The fact that public space is closing to Germans is becoming more and more apparent, as young men from foreign lands, along with Germans with a migration background, increasingly dominate these vital areas. As with the case of swimming pools and Christmas markets, the solution is more surveillance that increasingly relies on artificial intelligence and a large police state presence.
As Welt notes, “Cameras are now running in many train stations, which are also intended to detect abnormalities at an early stage with AI support and can help emergency services assess the situation. According to Dobrindt, 200 cameras are now in use in Munich alone, which ‘contributes to de-escalation.’ The interior minister announced an expansion of video surveillance – technology has tripled the number of suspects identified in recent years.”
Remarkably, even as these technologies increase more suspects, crime keeps rising. In part, suspects are likely given light or no criminal sentence at all, and many of those who are caught are never deported.
The government admits itself it is not partaking in a mass deportation drive, but instead more “control” and “surveillance” to police the imported population.
“Control, surveillance, motivated emergency services. This is our model against crime and our model for an increasing sense of security in Germany,“ said Dobrindt to describe his campaign.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 11/20/2025 – 05:00
Tribunal de Filipinas condena a exalcaldesa por tráfico de personas
Por JIM GOMEZ
MANILA, Filipinas (AP) — Un tribunal de Filipinas condenó a una exalcaldesa, que según las autoridades es una ciudadana china, por tráfico de personas por ayudar a establecer un complejo ilegal de juegos de azar online en una provincia del norte del país, donde cientos de chinos y otros ciudadanos extranjeros eran obligados a realizar estafas.
El tribunal regional de la ciudad de Pasig, en el área metropolitana de Manila, sentenció a Alice Guo a cadena perpetua junto a otros siete acusados filipinos y chinos, y los condenó a pagar una multa de dos millones de pesos (34.000 dólares) cada uno y a compensar a varias víctimas de trata que presentaron denuncias.
Guo negó todas las acusaciones en su contra y afirma que es ciudadana filipina.
En los últimos años, en el sudeste asiático han proliferado vastos centros de estafas online, especialmente en las zonas fronterizas de Camboya, Laos y Myanmar. Naciones Unidas estima que cientos de miles de personas han quedado atrapadas en una esclavitud virtual por bandas que las obligan a explotar financieramente a gente en todo el mundo a través de romances falsos, inversiones fraudulentas y esquemas de juego ilegales.
En Filipinas, las organizaciones detrás de las estafas construyeron rápidamente vastos complejos con edificios o alquilaron oficinas de lujo en los distritos financieros de Manila y movieron grandes cantidades de trabajadores sobornando a las autoridades.
Las autoridades de Filipinas sostienen que Guo es una ciudadana china llamada Guo Huaping, que falsificó la ciudadanía para postularse como alcaldesa de Bamban, un pueblo de la región norteña de Tarlac, donde dirigía un extenso complejo ilegal de estafas cerca del ayuntamiento.
“Usaron parcelas de tierra y edificios para albergar a los trabajadores víctimas de la trata y obligarlos a trabajar como estafadores”, dijo el tribunal en su decisión.
El año pasado, el presidente de Filipinas, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., ordenó la prohibición de cientos de empresas de juegos online, en su mayoría dirigidas por chinos, que proliferaron bajo el gobierno de su antecesor, Rodrigo Duterte. Marcos acusó a esas compañías de delitos que incluyen estafa financiera, trata de personas, tortura, secuestro y asesinato.
Desde entonces, muchas han sido allanadas y cerradas, y se rescató y deportó a miles de trabajadores traficados. Pero todavía hay centros de estafas operando, según las autoridades.
“La condena de Alice Guo, también conocida como Guo Hua Ping, es una victoria contra la corrupción, la trata de personas, el cibercrimen y muchos otros delitos transnacionales”, afirmó la senadora Risa Hontiveros. “Pero aún queda mucho por hacer”.
Hontiveros dirigió el año pasado una investigación televisada en el Senado que expuso operaciones clandestinas de estafa online en el país, además de la supuesta participación delictiva de Guo.
Funcionarios de seguridad filipinos y Hontiveros señalaron que los centros de estafas operados por Guo y otros ciudadanos chinos también podrían haber sido empleados para labores de espionaje por parte de Beijing, que ha mantenido conflictos territoriales cada vez más intensos con Filipinas en el mar de China Meridional y se ha opuesto firmemente a la presencia de fuerzas estadounidenses en el país. Filipinas es el aliado más antiguo de Washington en Asia.
“Continuaremos exigiendo responsabilidad a cada agencia gubernamental que falló en sus obligaciones, y continuaremos investigando el alcance total de las operaciones de inteligencia chinas en nuestro país”, declaró Hontiveros. “Y a todos los demás que permitieron el imperio criminal de Alice Guo: Filipinas no es un campo de juego para la explotación, infiltración y espionaje”.
Guo no ha sido acusada de espionaje y niega cualquier conexión con el espionaje.
Bamban está a varios kilómetros (millas) de una base de la fuerza aérea filipina, donde se ha permitido la presencia rotativa de tropas estadounidenses con aviones y armas en virud de un pacto de defensa firmado en 2014.
Guo fue destituida el año pasado por el defensor del pueblo estatal, quien citó una mala conducta grave. Huyó de Filipinas en julio de 2024, pero fue localizada en Indonesia, donde fue arrestada y deportada. Está detenida desde el año pasado.
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Esta historia fue traducida del inglés por un editor de AP con la ayuda de una herramienta de inteligencia artificial generativa.
Russian Spy Ship Breached UK Waters, Aimed Lasers At Military Pilots, Britain Says
Russian Spy Ship Breached UK Waters, Aimed Lasers At Military Pilots, Britain Says
The British government issued a warning to Moscow on Wednesday, putting the Kremlin on notice over a Russian naval vessel allegedly having entered British territorial waters and aiming lasers at UK pilots.
Defense Secretary John Healey accused the Yantar, a special purpose intelligence collection ship, of its second intrusion into UK waters this year, following a similar incident last January. “At the moment, the Yantar is positioned just off U.K. waters north of Scotland, after moving through the wider surrounding area over recent weeks,” Healey told a press briefing held at at Downing Street.
The UK military scrambled aerial assets in response, including Royal Air Force jets as well as a naval frigate, in order to “track and monitor the vessel,” during which time “the Yantar directed lasers at our pilots.“
He condemned the use of the lasers against UK aircraft as “extremely dangerous” and then said he was addressing a warning Russian President Vladimir Putin directly: “We see what you’re doing. We are fully aware. And if the Yantar continues south this week, we are prepared,” he said.
Further according to the BBC:
Healey said the laser incident took place whilst the Yantar was being followed by a Royal Navy frigate and RAF Poseidon P-8 planes deployed to “track the vessel’s every move”. It is understood the episode occurred within the last two weeks.
Speaking at a news conference in Downing Street, the defense secretary added he had changed the Royal Navy’s rules of engagement so that it could follow the Yantar more closely “when it is in our wider waters”.
Western allies believe Russian naval ‘research vessels’ like the Yantar are assisting with Moscow-backed ‘sabotage campaigns’ in northern European waters. For example the last couple years have seen allegations of Russian vessels cutting telecoms cables under the North Sea and elsewhere.
Healey’s warning of being ‘prepared’ to act could be the closest London has recently come to threatening direct military action against a Russian naval asset.
Such action could start with an attempt to intercept or chase the vessel away from British waters, or even fire warning shots or more if things should escalate.
A response to the accusations was issued by the Russian Embassy in London. It said Russia isn’t interested in sabotaging anything in regional waters. “London, with its Russophobic path and increasing militaristic hysteria leads to further degradation European security, providing the premise for new dangerous situations,” it said.
Would appear an RAF voyager and Typhoons have been active in the potential area of the Yantar. https://t.co/ik2ZCu7IkU pic.twitter.com/UvAiB7E0bn
— Civic Intelligence (@CivIntelUK) November 19, 2025
“We call on the British side to hold off taking any destructive steps which might aggravate the crisis situation on the European continent,” the embassy added. Russian officials and institutions have been under intense scrutiny in the UK ever since the Ukraine war began, and relations are steadily worsening.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 11/20/2025 – 04:15
Erupción volcánica obliga a rescatar a más de 170 escaladores en el monte Semeru, Indonesia
Por NINIEK KARMINI
YAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Las autoridades de Indonesia dijeron el jueves que ayudaron a regresar a más de 170 escaladores que quedaron atrapados en la víspera por la repentina erupción del monte Semeru, mientras que la actividad sísmica del volcán más alto de la isla de Java indicaba que la erupción continuará.
Unas 178 personas —incluyendo escaladores, porteadores, guías, funcionarios de turismo y turistas— comenzaron su ascenso al monte de 3.676 metros (12.060 pies) en el distrito de Lumajang, en la provincia de Java Oriental, el miércoles y quedaron varados en la zona de acampada de Ranu Kumbolo.
“Están a salvo y se les está ayudando a regresar”, dijo Priatin Hadi Wijaya, jefe del Centro de Vulcanología y Mitigación de Desastres Geológicos, en una videoconferencia de prensa.
Hetty Triastuty, otra funcionaria del centro, añadió que Ranu Kumbolo es un punto seguro que está fuera de la zona principal de peligro de ocho kilómetros (cinco millas) desde el cráter. La zona de acampada se ubica en la ladera norte del monte, que no está en la trayectoria de la nube caliente que se observó que se desplazaba hacia el sur-sureste. Los escaladores, sin embargo, podrían haber estado expuestos a la ceniza volcánica.
El monte Semeru, en la provincia de Java Oriental, causó nubes abrasadoras de ceniza caliente y una mezcla de rocas, lava y gas que recorrieron hasta 13 kms (ocho millas) por sus laderas sin descanso desde el mediodía hasta el anochecer del miércoles, mientras una gruesa columna de nubes calientes se elevó dos kms (1,2 millas) al cielo, lo que hizo que los científicos elevasen la alerta por el volcán al nivel más alto, indicó Muhammad Wafid, jefe de la Agencia de Geología de Indonesia.
Según Wafid, una serie de corrientes de densidad piroclástica descendieron por las laderas y se observaron avalanchas incandescentes de material volcánico por el valle del río Besuk Kobokan, en el flanco sur.
“La actividad sísmica del monte Semeru indicó que la erupción continuaba a un nivel alto con un número creciente de señales que indican avalanchas”, manifestó.
Además, advirtió a la población que se mantenga alejada de una zona a lo largo del río Besuk Kobokan, que es la trayectoria del flujo de lava, ya que el gas abrasador descendía por las laderas del Semeru, y agregó que las autoridades están considerando ampliar la zona de peligro más allá de los ocho kms actuales.
Casi 1.000 residentes en tres aldeas más en riesgo en el distrito de Lumajang fueron evacuados a refugios gubernamentales, indicó Abdul Muhari, portavoz de la Agencia Nacional de Mitigación de Desastres. No se han reportado víctimas.
Videos publicados en redes sociales mostraron una densa nube de ceniza que se extendía por plantaciones y un valle boscoso hacia un río cruzado por un puente.
Las erupciones registradas a lo largo del día cubrieron varias aldeas de una espesa ceniza volcánica y bloquearon la luz solar. La prensa local reportó que algunos residentes estuvieron expuestos a un olor a azufre y que dos motociclistas chocaron debido a la ceniza caliente en un puente, que les provocó quemaduras graves.
El monte Semeru, también conocido como Mahameru, ha entrado en erupción en numerosas ocasiones en los últimos 200 años. Pero, como ocurre con muchos otros de los 129 volcanes activos en el archipiélago, decenas de miles de personas siguen viviendo en sus fértiles laderas.
La última gran erupción de Semeru fue en diciembre de 2021, y dejó 51 fallecidos y varios cientos de quemadas en aldeas que quedaron sepultadas bajo capas de lodo. Más de 10.000 personas tuvieron que evacuar la zona entonces y el gobierno trasladó unas 2.970 viviendas fuera de la zona de peligro.
Indonesia, un archipiélago con más de 280 millones de habitantes está en el llamado “Anillo de Fuego” del Pacífico, una serie de fallas en forma de herradura, propenso a registrar sismos y actividad volcánica.
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Los periodistas de The Associated Press Edna Tarigan y Dita Alangkara en Yakarta contribuyeron a este despacho.
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Esta historia fue traducida del inglés por un editor de AP con la ayuda de una herramienta de inteligencia artificial generativa.
Tea And Cocoa May Offset Health Risks Of Excessive Sitting
Tea And Cocoa May Offset Health Risks Of Excessive Sitting
Authored by George Citroner via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
We’re often advised to move more—whether through exercise or simply standing up—to counteract the adverse effects of prolonged sitting. But what if you could get the benefits of standing up simply by eating and drinking certain foods?
New research from the University of Birmingham, recently published in The Journal of Physiology, suggests that eating foods high in flavanols—such as tea, berries, apples, and cocoa—may help protect blood vessels from the damage caused by prolonged periods of sitting.
Sitting Increases Cardiovascular Risk
If you’re a young adult, chances are you’re sitting for about six hours a day—whether at a desk, in a car, or on the couch. All that sitting takes a toll on your blood vessels, raising your risk of heart disease, according to researchers.
Previous research has shown that even a 1 percent dip in how well your arteries expand and contract bumps up your risk of heart disease, stroke, and heart attacks by 13 percent.
The researchers set out to discover whether eating flavanol-rich foods could help offset such damage. Flavanols are naturally occurring compounds found in fruits, tea, nuts, and cocoa beans.
Lead author Catarina Rendeiro, assistant professor in nutritional sciences at the University of Birmingham, and her team recruited 40 healthy young men—half of them physically fit, and half not. Before having the participants sit for two hours, the researchers gave them drinks: some were given a high-flavanol cocoa beverage containing 695 milligrams of flavanols, while others received a low-flavanol version with just 5.6 milligrams.
The team then tracked what happened to the participants’ blood vessels during the two hours of sitting, measuring everything from artery flexibility to blood pressure, blood flow, and how well oxygen reached their leg muscles.
High Flavanol Drink Prevented Damage
After sitting for two hours, men who drank the low-flavanol cocoa experienced stiffening of their arteries, increased blood pressure, and decreased blood flow and muscle oxygenation, regardless of their level of physical fitness.
Conversely, those who drank the high-flavanol drink did not exhibit the same declines, suggesting that flavanols can prevent blood vessel damage associated with prolonged sitting.
“Our experiment indicates that higher fitness levels do not prevent the temporary impairment of vascular function induced by sitting when only drinking low-flavanol cocoa,” study co-author Sam Lucas, a professor of cerebrovascular and exercise physiology at the University of Birmingham, said in a statement. He noted that after drinking the high-flavanol drink, “both fitter and less-fit participants kept their FMD [flow-mediated dilatation] the same as it was before sitting for two hours.”
The study is the first to find that fitness levels do not influence how flavanols affect blood vessels, meaning everyone may benefit from flavanol intake regardless of physical fitness.
Rendeiro told The Epoch Times that the main mechanism by which flavanols work in the blood vessels is by boosting the availability of nitric oxide—a molecule that helps blood vessels relax and expand.
More specifically, she said, evidence from human and cellular models suggests that the flavanol epicatechin and its breakdown products can increase the bioavailability of nitric oxide.
The study did not include women, Rendeiro said, because hormonal changes during the menstrual cycle may influence flavanol effects.
“At the moment, we are not able to know whether these benefits would be apparent in women as well,” she said. ”This needs to be the focus of a future study.”
Estrogen, which rises during ovulation and falls when menstruation begins, has a vasodilatory effect on the vessels, which is generally associated with better blood vessel health, “so it is possible [the] benefits of flavanols may be more apparent during certain stages of the menstrual cycle versus others.”
Many Sources of Flavonols Available
“It is actually quite easy to add high flavanol foods to your diet,” doctoral student Alessio Daniele noted in the statement. He pointed out that there are cocoa products available in supermarkets and health stores that are processed through methods that preserve flavanol levels.
“If cocoa isn’t your thing,” (ZH: wtf) he said, “fruits like apples, plums and berries, nuts, and black and green tea are all common kitchen staples and are readily available.”
Rendeiro said that her research shows consuming high-flavanol foods and drinks during periods spent sitting down is a good way to reduce some of the impact of inactivity on the vascular system, but that breaking up sitting with standing or short walks should be our “main strategy.”
“However, in situations in which that is not possible, using healthy dietary strategies rich in flavanols may help mitigate some of the negative effects of sitting on vascular function.”
* * * Oh you thought this was an ad? Nope. Enjoy your chocolate and tea sirs and ma’ams.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 11/20/2025 – 03:30
https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/tea-and-cocoa-may-offset-health-risks-excessive-sitting
Choque de trenes en República Checa deja decenas de heridos
Associated Press
PRAGA (AP) — Un tren expreso colisionó el jueves contra otro tren de pasajeros en el sur de República Checa y causó docenas de heridos, según las autoridades.
El accidente ocurrió cerca de la ciudad de Ceske Budejovice alrededor de las 6:20 de la mañana.
Dos personas sufrieron lesiones graves y unas 40 más padecían heridas leves, explicó el servicio regional de rescatistas.
El tráfico entre Ceske Budejovice y la ciudad de Plzen quedó suspendido y no se espera que se reanude hasta por la tarde.
Las autoridades estaban investigando la causa del siniestro.
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Esta historia fue traducida del inglés por un editor de AP con la ayuda de una herramienta de inteligencia artificial generativa.
