U.S. News

Deforestation is one of many problems Brazil’s new government will need to address. source https://oto.oto-login.com/

She never took no for an answer, so women who came after her could hear “yes.” source https://oto.oto-login.com/

To rise through the Trump-era G.O.P., a young congresswoman gave up her friends, her mentors and her ideals. Will it be enough? source https://oto.oto-login.com/

Arizona’s water is running worryingly low. Amid the worst drought in more than a millennium , which has left communities across the state with barren wells, the state is depleting what remains of its precious groundwater. Much of it goes to private companies nearly free, including Saudi Arabia’s largest dairy company. Thanks to fresh scrutiny this year from state politicians, water activists and journalists, the Saudi agricultural giant Almarai has emerged as an unlikely antagonist in the water crisis. The company, through its subsidiary Fondomonte, has been buying and leasing land across western Arizona since 2014. This year The Arizona Republic published a report showing that the Arizona State Land Department has been leasing 3,500 acres of public land to Almarai for a suspiciously low price. The case has prompted calls for an investigation into how a foreign company wound up taking the state’s dwindling water supplies for a fee that might be as low as one-sixth the market rate. B

Some people are giving themselves permission to replace grand ambitions with more realistic expectations for 2023. source https://oto.oto-login.com/

Argentina's victory in the soccer World Cup tournament in Qatar has suddenly meant that many tattoo artists across the country are fully booked. (Image credit: Victor R. Caivano/AP) source https://oto.oto-login.com/

The Democratic-controlled Ways and Means Committee has released former President Trump's tax returns from his time in office, ending a multi-year legal battle for the information. (Image credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images) source https://oto.oto-login.com/

Shrines to skateboarding, bunnies, neon, aviation and citrus trees dot the sprawling region, highlighting its diversity. source https://oto.oto-login.com/

An intense cold snap caused rolling blackouts in some regions. But a more profound catastrophe didn't unfold, thanks partly to good fortune. (Image credit: Brandon Bell/Getty Images) source https://oto.oto-login.com/

Democrats in Congress released thousands of pages of former President Donald Trump’s tax returns on Friday, providing the most detailed picture to date of his finances over a six-year period, including his time in the White House, when he fought to keep the information private in a break with decades of precedent. The documents include individual returns from Trump and his wife, Melania, along with Trump’s business entities. They show how Trump used the tax code to lower his tax obligations and they reveal details about foreign accounts and the performance of some of his highest-profile business ventures. The disclosure marks the culmination of a yearslong legal fight that has played out everywhere from the presidential campaign to Congress and the Supreme Court as Trump persistently rejected efforts to share details about his financial history — counter to the practice of transparency followed by all his predecessors in the post-Watergate era. The records release comes just days bef

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Bryan Christopher Kohberger, 28, is being held for extradition in the criminal homicide investigation. The students were stabbed to death at a home near campus in the early morning hours of Nov. 13. source https://oto.oto-login.com/

It’s complicated and difficult, but they keep coming back because, said one, ‘it’s the hardest.’ source https://oto.oto-login.com/

DOJ officials say the drug wholesaler could face "billions of dollars" in penalties for failing to report diversion of prescription opioid pain medications shipped to pharmacies across the U.S. (Image credit: Matt Rourke/AP) source https://oto.oto-login.com/

When people were stranded in the storm, the local shop became a refuge. source https://oto.oto-login.com/

It’s no secret that many great dancers come from Utah — from “Dancing with the Stars” coaches Julianne and Derek Hough, to popular dancers Jade Chynoweth and Tori Kent, to the Brigham Young University Cougarettes. Utah has a plethora of dance studios where dancers can train no matter their age, giving rise to adult amateur dancing — particularly sexy or sensual dancing. In a state where the population is made up predominately of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, sexual expression is often discouraged for women (whether they are members of the church or not), who are encouraged by church leaders to embrace their virtue and morality . Many religious women do not have the opportunity to explore their sexual expression outside of sex in marriage. This makes the rise in popularity of amateur adult sensual dance classes especially intriguing. Perhaps the popularity has to do with a greater number of Utah women putting themselves, their sexual expression, and thei

An 80-1 shot who won this year’s Kentucky Derby, Rich Strike is preparing to race as a 4-year-old. “He is twice the horse that he was in May,” his trainer said. source https://oto.oto-login.com/

"Pope Francis renews the invitation to pray for him and accompany him in these difficult hours," Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said. (Image credit: Andrew Medichini/AP) source https://oto.oto-login.com/

George Santos, elected to Congress in November, has admitted to lies about work and education experience. source https://oto.oto-login.com/

LittlePuss Press specializes in work by transgender writers. Its founders also know it’s hard to resist a great party. source https://oto.oto-login.com/

Barry Croft Jr has been given a 19-year sentence for his role in a plot to kidnap Gov Gretchen Whitmer. source https://oto.oto-login.com/

A series of layoffs have hit Utah’s tech community, leaving hundreds of workers without jobs just before the holidays. The tech layoff tracker layoffs.fyi reports at least 15 Utah companies — 11 in the last three months of the year, or “Q4″ in corporate-speak — have laid off hundreds of staff. Companies on the list include some so-called unicorns, private companies valued at more than $1 billion, like Pluralsight , Route and Podium . Since 2018, Utah’s tech sector has grown faster than the national average. So while high interest rates are also fueling cuts at tech companies outside of Utah, a downturn in the tech sector here could have larger repercussions than elsewhere. Here’s what you need to know about why these Silicon Slope companies are reducing staff and what it means for Utah’s economy: 1. Why are companies cutting staff? It’s the economy — and some other things. Sunny Washington, CEO of the advocacy organization Utah Tech Leads , blamed the downturn on inflation and

The country’s president warned the far-right incoming minister of national security that he was raising alarms at home and abroad over racism, discrimination and undermining democracy. source https://oto.oto-login.com/

Elon Musk caused Twitter chaos, the streaming industry hit adolescence, late night TV lost its footing, there were lots of layoffs and some dispiriting indications of compassion fatigue. (Image credit: Patrick Pleul/AFP via Getty Images) source https://oto.oto-login.com/

The chaos has left thousands of passengers sleeping in terminals as they search for solutions. source https://oto.oto-login.com/

The rise of a new winter sports hero. The women’s soccer World Cup. A brisker pace of play in baseball. And, for heaven’s sake, less talk about pickleball. source https://oto.oto-login.com/

Adam Fox hoped to start a "revolution" but was sentenced to 16 years for targeting Gretchen Whitmer. source https://oto.oto-login.com/

Arnie Ferrin, named the Most Outstanding Player in the University of Utah’s victory in the 1944 NCAA basketball championship game, died Tuesday. He was 97. A graduate of Ogden High School, Ferrin also led the Utes to the 1947 NIT championship. He played for two title teams with the Minneapolis Lakers of the NBA and later became the general manager of the Utah Stars of the ABA and Utah’s athletic director. For more than three-quarters of a century, Ferrin has been viewed as a legendary Ute athlete and a prominent figure in college basketball. He was the chairman of the Division I Basketball Committee in 1988, presiding over the 50th championship game in NCAA history. Ferrin remained the only freshman named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player until 1986, when Louisville’s Pervis Ellison won the award. Arnie Ferrin. He was inducted into the Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008 and was Utah’s first inductee into the Pac-12 Hall of Honor in 2012. Ferrin’s No. 22 has been ret

Advanced genetic tracking has helped breeders make rodeo bulls meaner. Riders are having a hard time keeping up. source https://oto.oto-login.com/

South Korea's military says it detected five drones, and that one traveled as far as the northern part of its capital region. (Image credit: Lee Jung-hoon/AP) source https://oto.oto-login.com/

It’s too soon to celebrate, but the news is improving. source https://oto.oto-login.com/

“Usually what happens is it devalues that human labor.” Three illustrators discuss art generated by artificial intelligence. source https://oto.oto-login.com/

A kind of transparent frog achieves near invisibility by hiding its red blood cells during the day, scientists found. "I had never seen anything like that," researcher Carlos Taboada says. (Image credit: Jesse Delia) source https://oto.oto-login.com/

Perhaps you missed the big news: In 2023, there will be a record-breaking 12 women serving as governors around the nation. Way over the previous record of … nine. And your reaction is: • Hey, that’s 24% — not bad. • That’s less than a quarter! • Are any of them going to run for president? And does that mean we have to discuss Kamala Harris? Because I’m really not sure. … OK, one thing at a time, please. Just think of 2023 as the Year of Women Governors. Even so, we’ve still got a way to go. Eighteen states have yet to select a woman governor, ever. California! Pennsylvania! And Florida — really Florida, there’s a limit to how much time we’ve got to complain about you. New York elected a woman for the first time last month, a development that began when then-Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul was propelled into the job because of Andrew Cuomo’s sexual harassment scandal. Sorry, Andrew, but history may well recall this as your final gift to New Yorkers. Arizona hasn’t gotten enough attention

One in five Americans bet on sports this year. Against most odds — my total lack of interest in all professional athletics — I was one of them. And I was hooked. source https://oto.oto-login.com/

Transport chaos and power cuts wreak havoc as much of North America shivers in blizzard conditions. source https://oto.oto-login.com/

As a girl she brought out a childlike quality in Picasso. As an adult she became an authority on his works. source https://oto.oto-login.com/

Putin said in a state television interview, excerpts of which were released Sunday afternoon, that Russia is "prepared to negotiate some acceptable outcomes with all the participants of this process." (Image credit: Evgeniy Maloletka/AP) source https://oto.oto-login.com/

For decades, paleontologists have tried to explain what they assumed was a 230-million-year-old scene of mass death. source https://oto.oto-login.com/

Imagine what it’s like to live in a state of perpetual uncertainty — at any moment you could lose your job because you no longer have the right to work legally. Picture families ripped apart — a mother sent back to a country she barely remembers, forced to leave her child behind. What would you do if the teachers, doctors and nurses in your community were suddenly barred from entering your children’s classrooms or treating your loved ones? As someone who is protected by DACA, I think a lot about this. During this lame duck session of Congress, while Democrats still control both chambers, there was an opportunity to keep this scenario from becoming a reality. A bipartisan proposal, led by Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Thom Tillis, would have provided a path to citizenship for about two million immigrant youths, including recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. But negotiations to include it in the 2023 omnibus appropriations bill failed. This might’ve been t

TV in the streaming era is an endless feast. This year, series like “Barry,” “Ms. Marvel,” “Pachinko,” “Station Eleven” and “This Fool” offered some of the best bites. source https://oto.oto-login.com/

Kari Lake, a Republican who was defeated by Katie Hobbs in the Arizona governor’s race, had made false election claims the centerpiece of her campaign. source https://oto.oto-login.com/

Power struggles, resignations and made-for-TV moments — the untold story of the most important congressional investigation in generations. source https://oto.oto-login.com/

For former residents of Iqrit, where Israeli forces leveled everything but the church in 1951, religious rituals bind them to a place from which they were expelled. source https://oto.oto-login.com/

A legal victory last December raised hopes for an accelerated path to clean drinking water on Canadian reserves. But for many, the wait drags on. source https://oto.oto-login.com/

Sasha Solomon, a software engineer, joined others in the media business who lost their jobs this year after publicly taking on their employers. source https://oto.oto-login.com/

In 2002, “Blue Crush” depicted women competing at a major competition at Hawaii’s Pipeline. That’s only now become a reality thanks to grass-roots efforts and hard-charging surfers. source https://oto.oto-login.com/

So the Democrats avoided the usual midterm cataclysm. They lost the House, yes, but they gained a seat in the Senate, and they did so despite a bad economic climate and an unpopular president. Meanwhile, Donald Trump has embarrassed himself with stupid remarks, and maybe this time he will stay embarrassed. Liberal rejoicing fills the air. Now for some cold water. Democrats did so well, in part, because a conservative Supreme Court handed them a political gift by overturning Roe v. Wade and Republicans ran a group of dreadful celebrity Senate candidates. The reality of the triumph, however, is that liberals are back to stalemate. Stalemate, that is, with an opponent that has been radicalizing for 50 years. An opponent that continually produces outrageous fire-breathing extremists, then supplants them with a new crop when the zealotry of the first bunch has worn off. It feels like the cycle is endless. But there is an answer to this problem, if we can just think beyond the limits of ou

Mathias Kiss has painted the floor of his Paris atelier with a dramatic skyscape that evokes Renaissance frescoes. The rest of his home studio is just as untraditional. source https://oto.oto-login.com/

Health officials are concerned that people traveling home to their villages for the Lunar New Year could turn celebrations into superspreader events, catching ill-prepared rural systems off guard. (Image credit: Bloomberg via Getty Images) source https://oto.oto-login.com/

On June 18, 1940, Churchill delivered his celebrated “Finest Hour” speech. The British army had been evacuated from Dunkirk. France, under Pétain, had decided to surrender. “Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war,” Churchill told the House of Commons. “If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.” Two of those phrases — “broad, sunlit uplands” and “the abyss of a new Dark Age” — should ring in our ears as we approach the end of this hinge year in history. Broad, sunlit uplands are the women of Iran tearing off their hijabs the way the people of Berlin once tore down their wall. And Ukrainian soldiers raising their flag over Irpin, Lyma

For generations, tobacco was the king of crops in the region known as the Carolina Sandhills, the best way to coax cash out of the sandy soil. But the long decline of smoking in America idled many tobacco fields, and now farmers are eyeing a new crop. Instead of converting sunshine into bright-leaf tobacco, some of them want to convert it into electricity. This sunny region of the east-central Carolinas is an excellent place to build solar farms, with its plentiful land, sparse population, gentle terrain and need for economic development. But the farmers, and the solar developers who are looking to cut deals with them, are stuck. The power lines running through the Sandhills region and a larger area of the Carolinas surrounding it are too small and antiquated to move solar power to the booming cities and factories where it is needed. The situation is a microcosm of a large and growing problem. Huge backlogs of renewable energy projects have built up around the world as developers a

People are filling their homes with the meltable décor, as makers take candle crafting to the next level to look like familiar objects or to bring a whiff of nostalgia. source https://oto.oto-login.com/

A 16-foot python has been reunited with its owner after months slithering around Austin. source https://oto.oto-login.com/

Utah lawmaker Rep. Adam Robertson is resigning from the Legislature just weeks after winning another term in the Utah House. The two-term, Provo Republican says he’s stepping away to focus on his technology company. In an email sent to legislators, Robertson says his company, Fortem Technologies, is “poised to play an expanding role in detecting and defeating threats to freedom around the world.” “I find myself increasingly engaged with matters of national security for the U.S. Gov, [the Department of Defense], and with numerous allied countries in the Middle East, Europe, and in the Pacific rim. I will be focusing even more on the larger national and world stage and on bringing advanced technologies to those who fight for freedom,” Robertson wrote. Robertson is the chief technology officer and co-founder of Fortem Technologies, which develops drone technology. Recently the company was awarded a patent for technology that allows a drone to disable a second drone with a net. The Ple

Volodymyr Zelensky came to Washington wearing his reality on his sleeves. source https://oto.oto-login.com/

Dr. Marvin Moy was facing federal prosecution and a bitter divorce, and his life had been in limbo for months. Some immediately wondered if what looked like a boat crash was actually something else. source https://oto.oto-login.com/

The Florida governor is all about revenge, which means he’s utterly of his time. source https://oto.oto-login.com/

A Kharkiv metro station became a bomb shelter as the city came under Russian attack. Now, at the holiday season, it's also a Christmas village where kids can drop off letters to Grandfather Frost. (Image credit: Natalie Keyssar for NPR) source https://oto.oto-login.com/

On a busy day, Ukraine's leader visited the White House and gave a speech to Congress. source https://oto.oto-login.com/

Sam Bankman-Fried has agreed to be taken from the Bahamas to the US to face fraud charges. source https://oto.oto-login.com/

What is Shokuiku and why do we desperately need it in our schools? “Your son is doing well in math and science but he is having a difficult time eating his vegetables.” This is something you might hear in a Japanese parent-teacher conference. Wait, lunch is given the same level of importance as math and science? Strange. Then again, when was the last time you used the quadratic formula in your daily life? Many joke about the mitochondria being the powerhouse of the cell, but few put much thought into what fuel they are putting into their own bodies. What if we could change one aspect of school that would lead to higher academic performance, fewer behavioral problems and better overall health? It is time we change our outlook on school lunches and food in general. In the United States, we tend to view lunch time as a break from learning, but in Japan it is part of the educational experience that is called “Shokuiku.” Shokuiku is food and nutritional education. Children take turns be

Police said the girls, who ranged from 13 to 16 years old, connected on social media before meeting up, possibly for the first time, on the day of the killing. source https://oto.oto-login.com/

People are protesting a court ruling to sentence Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu to prison and bar him from politics for two-plus years. He's seen as a key challenger to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. (Image credit: Onur Dogman/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images) source https://oto.oto-login.com/

The retailer removed its collection after the star says he didn't approve it or give permission. source https://oto.oto-login.com/

Far-right groups stockpiling guns and explosives, preparing for a violent overthrow of a government they deem illegitimate. Open antisemitism on the airwaves, expressed by mainstream media figures. Leading politicians openly embracing bigoted, authoritarian leaders abroad who disdain democracy and the rule of law. This might sound like a recap of the past few years in America, but it is actually the forgotten story told in a remarkable new podcast, Ultra, that recounts the shocking tale of how during World War II, Nazi propagandists infiltrated far-right American groups and the America First movement, wormed into the offices of senators and representatives and fomented a plot to overthrow the U.S. government. “This is a story about politics at the edge,” the show’s creator and host, Rachel Maddow, said in the opening episode. “And a criminal justice system trying, trying, but ill-suited to thwart this kind of danger.” Maddow is, of course, a master storyteller, and she never lets th