Latest news with #GulfofAmerica
Sydney Morning Herald
17 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Words keep coming and they don't stop coming
Baby bump and Swiftie are in the dictionary, right? Um, not quite. Soon, but not yet. English evolves at warp speed now, boosted by social media's endless prose, seeing an archive like Collins barely finding time to add half-sibling or double-space, blastproof and compostable, only for newbies like warp speed and newbie to come knocking. Content creator is now a career, yet only recently made the database. Ditto for terabit (1000 gigabits) and dishwashing. Mid-strength and safe word, beach read and survivor guilt. The siege is relentless, as timezone (one word) and evote (no hyphen) clamour for inclusion. Hence my habit of loitering vestibules, those annexes linked to lexicons listing which words float in limbo, language midway between user-usage and publisher patronage. Some seem obvious, like old soul and outsiderism, slushie or reclick. Others like crickets (for a joke's silent response) or a dog's cone of shame are slang awaiting sanction. While another set is straight-out odd, like helixophile (a corkscrew collector) or hatfishing (wearing a hat in your Tinder pic.) Fusions reign, as usual. My fave is binfluencer, that neighbour who puts out their bins early, swaying everyone else's colour-coded array. Then there's sporror, a subgenre of horror writing centred around fungi, which feels too close to home. Meanwhile, exervious (a blend of excited and nervous) and todorrow (today-tomorrow) won't happen. Headlines can often summon new phrases, such as planet parade, Gulf of America and TACO: Trump Always Chickens Out. Sport can likewise keep the annex busy, the webpage receiving pine-time (minutes on the bench), scorpion kick, spoon bowl (battle for last place) and breadstick. Different from a bagel, where a player loses 0-6, a breadstick sees you go down 1-6. And yes, it can be used as a verb. Loading Sport and politics also mingle, notably in two more nominees. Gordie Howe, a Canadian great of ice-hockey, popularised 'Elbows out!' , shorthand for play hard. Since Trump's tariff splurge, the phrase has been a Canadian catchcry. Just as flood the zone – to overwhelm one part of the field with players – is now a civic ploy, where media are deliberately engulfed in so many new policies that none gain proper scrutiny. One Collins visitor adores Australian birds, insisting firetail and bronzewing find a nest. AlloyMiner, another contributor, digs South African words, from skabenga (hooligan) to moggy (irrational), zol (marijuana) and seshweshwe (printed cotton). The latter batch has enjoyed success too, as all four words were later enshrined in Oxford 's March intake.
The Age
17 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
Words keep coming and they don't stop coming
Baby bump and Swiftie are in the dictionary, right? Um, not quite. Soon, but not yet. English evolves at warp speed now, boosted by social media's endless prose, seeing an archive like Collins barely finding time to add half-sibling or double-space, blastproof and compostable, only for newbies like warp speed and newbie to come knocking. Content creator is now a career, yet only recently made the database. Ditto for terabit (1000 gigabits) and dishwashing. Mid-strength and safe word, beach read and survivor guilt. The siege is relentless, as timezone (one word) and evote (no hyphen) clamour for inclusion. Hence my habit of loitering vestibules, those annexes linked to lexicons listing which words float in limbo, language midway between user-usage and publisher patronage. Some seem obvious, like old soul and outsiderism, slushie or reclick. Others like crickets (for a joke's silent response) or a dog's cone of shame are slang awaiting sanction. While another set is straight-out odd, like helixophile (a corkscrew collector) or hatfishing (wearing a hat in your Tinder pic.) Fusions reign, as usual. My fave is binfluencer, that neighbour who puts out their bins early, swaying everyone else's colour-coded array. Then there's sporror, a subgenre of horror writing centred around fungi, which feels too close to home. Meanwhile, exervious (a blend of excited and nervous) and todorrow (today-tomorrow) won't happen. Headlines can often summon new phrases, such as planet parade, Gulf of America and TACO: Trump Always Chickens Out. Sport can likewise keep the annex busy, the webpage receiving pine-time (minutes on the bench), scorpion kick, spoon bowl (battle for last place) and breadstick. Different from a bagel, where a player loses 0-6, a breadstick sees you go down 1-6. And yes, it can be used as a verb. Loading Sport and politics also mingle, notably in two more nominees. Gordie Howe, a Canadian great of ice-hockey, popularised 'Elbows out!' , shorthand for play hard. Since Trump's tariff splurge, the phrase has been a Canadian catchcry. Just as flood the zone – to overwhelm one part of the field with players – is now a civic ploy, where media are deliberately engulfed in so many new policies that none gain proper scrutiny. One Collins visitor adores Australian birds, insisting firetail and bronzewing find a nest. AlloyMiner, another contributor, digs South African words, from skabenga (hooligan) to moggy (irrational), zol (marijuana) and seshweshwe (printed cotton). The latter batch has enjoyed success too, as all four words were later enshrined in Oxford 's March intake.
Yahoo
08-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Gavin Newsom Demands Trump Administration Remove National Guard From L.A. Amid ICE Protests: ‘Rescind the Order. Return Control to California'
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has formally requested that the Trump administration remove the National Guard from L.A.. The soldiers' insertion into the city was a retaliatory measure made by the President late Saturday night in response to ongoing protests against city-wide raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Newsom announced the move in an Instagram post Sunday afternoon, sharing his official letter to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and writing, 'I have formally requested the Trump Administration rescind their unlawful deployment of troops in Los Angeles County and return them to my command. We didn't have a problem until Trump got involved. This is a serious breach of state sovereignty — inflaming tensions while pulling resources from where they're actually needed. Rescind the Order. Return order to California.' More from Variety Donald Trump Boasts of 'Big Win' Over 'Fake News' AP After Court Rules White House Can Ban News Outlet's Access Over Its Refusal to Cite 'Gulf of America' Seth Meyers Roasts Elon Musk for Waiting Until Now to Allege 'That Trump Might Be a Pedophile': 'You Already Knew That and It Wasn't a Dealbreaker' Elon Musk Claims Donald Trump 'Is in the Epstein Files': 'That Is the Real Reason They Haven't Been Made Public' Best of Variety 25 Hollywood Legends Who Deserve an Honorary Oscar New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week Emmy Predictions: Animated Program — Can Netflix Score Big With 'Arcane,' 'Devil May Cry' and the Final Season of 'Big Mouth?'
New York Post
30-05-2025
- Business
- New York Post
Elon Musk's Starbase town in Texas warns residents might ‘lose the right' to use their property
Elon Musk's SpaceX-controlled town in Texas warned local residents that they might 'lose the right to continue' using their property, according to a report. Starbase, formerly known as Boca Chica Village, is run by current and former SpaceX employees who will hold a hearing on June 23 to consider rezoning the 1.6 square-mile town located in the Rio Grande Valley, CNBC reported. 4 Elon Musk speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House and wears a 'Gulf of America' hat in April. AP Advertisement In a letter to homeowners, Starbase administrator Kent Myers said a new ordinance proposes creating a 'Mixed Use District' for 'residential, office, retail, and small-scale service uses.' 'The City is required by Texas law to notify you of the following: THE CITY OF STARBASE IS HOLDING A HEARING THAT WILL DETERMINE WHETHER YOU MAY LOSE THE RIGHT TO CONTINUE USING YOUR PROPERTY FOR ITS CURRENT USE,' Myers wrote in the letter obtained by CNBC. SpaceX did not immediately respond to The Post's request for comment. Advertisement 4 A man wearing a Starbase t-shirt in the town formerly known as Boca Chica Village. AP Starbase was officially made a 'type-C municipal corporation' earlier this month after Musk's aerospace and defense contractor won a local election. The company town has a population of roughly 500 people, around 260 of whom are employed by SpaceX, according to the Texas Tribune. Most of the other residents are relatives of SpaceX employees. Starbase includes the launch facility where SpaceX's massive Starship rockets are tested. Advertisement 4 SpaceX's Starship spacecraft launches atop its Super Heavy booster earlier this week. REUTERS The town is actively trying to gain permission so it can close a main road and beaches for launches during the week. Musk's space firm earlier this week conducted its ninth test flight from the Texas facility of its huge Starship rocket, which exploded for the third time in a row after a major fuel leak. 4 A resident protests SpaceX's takeover of Boca Chica Village with a pinata of Elon Musk. AP Advertisement The Starship stands about 400 feet tall when stacked with the Super Heavy booster for a launch. SpaceX aims to use the Starship to transport people and equipment around Earth, to the Moon and to eventually colonize Mars, according to Musk. The FAA said there were no reports of injuries to people or damages to public property as a result of the failed launch. The billionaire's space firm is one of the largest government contractors, receiving more than $20 billion since 2008.
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
When facts become seditious, it's time to hit the panic button
Dear Leader had another open Cabinet meeting on Wednesday. For two hours, Donald Trump sat with his loyal sycophants and revelled in their professed unconditional love and appreciation. Pam Bondi told Donald Trump no one has ever done anything better in the history of mankind, or something like that. So after listening to people like Pete Hegseth, who probably texted the entire meeting to his family and a reporter from the Atlantic on his Signal app, you'd have thought Trump was once again shooting rainbows out of his nether regions while handing out gold nuggets like candy to an adoring populace. According to members of the Cabinet, and others including Elon Trump, or Donald Musk, who literally wore two hats on his head to celebrate the momentous occasion, the president has brought the world to the brink of Nirvana. Trump had placed promotional hats on the table for his Cabinet members (no word as to whether he sold those hats at discount prices, or just gave them away) but only Musk picked up the 'Gulf of America' hat and put it over his black Doge hat. 'Elon, I love the double hat,' President Trump said to him. Of course he did. It was too much to take for those of us who had to watch this broken circus. Even Ann Coulter, who's always making a bid to be relevant, criticized him, calling the meeting 'Kim Jong Il-style tributes.' It wasn't all fun and games, though. The economy has contracted for the first time since 2022, and Trump wants interest rates lowered, but Trump also had his favorite excuse ready for the downturn in the economy, and it has nothing to do with him being held accountable or responsible. On Truth Social, he said, 'This is Biden's Stock Market, not Trump's.' That's, of course, a contradiction to what he said on Jan. 29, 2024, when he posted, 'This is the Trump Stock Market because my polls against Biden are so good that investors are projecting I will win.' I know contortionists who aren't as physically limber as Trump is verbally, but every limbo boy and girl has made it 100 days into this limbo world, yet no one knows how low Donald the limbo artist can go. The best we can say is that we have all survived 100 days of Donald Trump's second administration. There are only 1,360 days to go! A reminder: John F. Kennedy only governed for 1,036 days total. He's still considered one of the best presidents we've had despite his shortened term. Wonder where we'll be 1360 days from now? I do. But whether you love him and claim his first 100 days are the best in history as the members of his junk box, err cabinet, claim – or you believe as Michael Cohen (his former fixer) does that Trump's first 100 days have been a quick trip to hell, we have to come to grips with an unshakeable truth; free speech no longer exists. Every positive thing that Trump claims he's done, he can back up because he's stifled dissent. Everything his detractors say he's done to the detriment of the country begins and ends with the same reason. Without dissent, without facts, without the ability to speak truth to power, you cannot have due process. You cannot educate. You cannot inform, and you certainly can't govern democratically. The most recent example of this occurred in a Tuesday briefing when White House press secretary (forever after to be referred to as the 'Pep' Secretary) Karoline Leavitt was asked a question about Amazon. The company said it would display tariff costs alongside its marketplace items' original prices. 'Why didn't Amazon do this when the Biden administration hiked inflation to the highest level in four years?' the Pep Secretary said, adding that 'it's not really a surprise' that Amazon would do such a thing since it has, per the Trump administration, 'partnered with a Chinese propaganda arm.' Trump went further. He called it a 'hostile and political act.' When providing facts to the American people so they can decide what's best for them is a hostile and political act, then you are living under a dictator and facts become seditious. When facts are seditious, it's time to hit the panic button. The White House took aggressive aim at Amazon, with President Trump putting in a call to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos Tuesday morning. As CNN reported, two senior White House officials told them that Trump called Bezos to complain about the reports that Amazon was considering displaying the cost of US tariffs next to prices for certain products on the company's website. Amazon caved a short time later. Trump later said it was a 'good call.' 'Jeff Bezos was very nice. He was terrific,' Trump told reporters on Tuesday. 'He solved the problem very quickly. Good guy.' Of course, Trump would think that. Bezos already killed a Kamala Harris endorsement prior to the election to satisfy Trump. Trump doesn't like the facts. But does like to have his, ahem, ring kissed. When he was interviewed by ABC's Terry Moran, he held up a poorly photoshopped photo of Kilmar Abrego Garcia (the Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador) and claimed Garcia was a member of the MS-13 gang. When Moran pushed back, Trump said the reporter wasn't nice and asked him why he just couldn't admit it was proof that Garcia was a gang member. Facts. That's why. We need them. Trump does not and doesn't want us to have them unless he dictates them to us. Trump is at his absolute worst when he can't accept the facts that counter things he has stated publicly. He exploded at the New York Times for that newspaper's coverage of Trump's implied threats against CBS's parent company, Paramount, that led to executive producer Bill Owens of '60 Minutes' resigning. Trump sued CBS last year in a case stemming from an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris that Trump said was deceptively edited. The New York Times piece included a comment from correspondent Scott Pelley, who said that Paramount 'began to supervise our content in new ways,' and that Owens 'felt he lost the independence that honest journalism requires.' Trump, of course, now wants to threaten the Times into silence with a lawsuit. Seth Stern, the Director of Advocacy for the Freedom of the Press Foundation, said that Trump's lawsuits are classic examples of SLAPP, 'Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation.' 'SLAPP strategy isn't to win. The plaintiffs don't intend to win. The point is to intimidate, to bleed opponents dry, that's what Trump is doing,' Stern explained. 'He can use those lawsuits as bargaining chips against corporations and media conglomerates that have other interests, other business before the government. He is essentially laundering bribery through the court system; file a frivolous lawsuit, demand a settlement. If this was done in a dark alley it would be an illegal bribe, but since a judge signs the settlement agreement, it's okay – or at least it is so far.' There are other examples of Trump's dismantling of free speech, according to Stern. 'We've got the weaponization of the FCC under Brendan Carr, an FCC chair who wears a golden bust of Donald Trump as a lapel pin who has pursued all sorts of frivolous threats against outlets from CBS to ABC to NPR to Odyssey-owned radio stations that had the nerve to report on an ICE raid.' But nothing compares to how we in the press have failed to hold Trump accountable in the Brady Briefing room. Because the parent companies have fallen in line, most reporters have done the same. Trump asks who a reporter works for when asked a question, and makes a note if he likes or dislikes what comes out of a reporter's mouth. How the question is asked, and who the reporter works for, could determine whether or not we ever see that reporter in the pool again. We have done little or nothing to stand against the tide. As bad as this administration is, we in the press are worse. Congress is even worse than we are. When Trump was asked who he'd support as Pope, he said himself. Senator Lindsey Graham then tweeted out that while Trump was a 'dark horse' candidate, he'd make an excellent Pope – and several media platforms took the bait and debated the merits of such lunacy. The jokes about it were even worse – simple hack comic Trump administration has successfully infiltrated the corporate media ranks and replaced the most experienced and critical reporters with mostly friendly reporters in the briefing room and in the press pool, or at least compliant reporters. Trump has taken it a step further and is now hosting special press briefings for the right-wing social media ('New Media') in the South Court auditorium of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. You can imagine what that's like. It's like the village idiot convention in a Woody Allen satire. 'My Uber drivers finally speak English again, so thank you for that,' MAGA influencer Arynne Wexler said before asking a question about transgender athletes in the first 'New Media' press briefing Monday morning. Former Trump Press Secretary Sean Spicer asked Leavitt why legacy media weren't outright being excluded from the White House. After all, why ask for facts and challenge the president? The room erupted in applause as Leavitt wrapped up the meeting. 'Thank you, I'm going to walk off now,' she said as the influencers clapped and cheered. Gone are the days when stalwart reporters like Sam Donaldson and Helen Thomas populated the ranks of those covering the White House and asked tough questions of any and all presidents. That used to be our job. Time after time it was drilled into me as a young reporter that even if you like a president, you ask them the hard questions. 'Because if the guy I voted for can't stand up to the challenge, I and the rest of the country need to know that,' I was told by Donaldson, Thomas, and every other reporter I admired back then. We knew we were battling the President – and the president knew it. It's built into the Constitution. And as Mike McCurry, the best secretary I ever worked with, told me, 'Brian, we learn as much from the reporters in those briefings as you learn from us. It's necessary to hear opposition so we can adapt our policy. We can't be brittle and refuse to listen to anything other than compliments. That does nobody any good.' Today, if we're not kissing the ring, we aren't wanted. What Trump wants and needs is a room full of sycophants like his junk drawer, errr, Cabinet, and media influencers who applaud the lunacy that has destroyed free speech. That's why Trump is an unmitigated disaster, and the next 1,360 days will be fraught with peril. But, on the upside, your Uber driver speaks English.
