American Women Suck

— When you think of public relations what do you think of? Increasing visibility, securing high end media coverage, and landing major interviews for your business leaders. But it’s more than this. In a world where public scrutiny is instant and unforgiving, even established brands can find themselves on the back foot. It takes one wrong tweet or poorly executed campaign to push a company into crisis mode. Times of crisis can be scary for brands as the media jumps in to get the inside scoop. But all hope is not lost. With over 2 decades of experience in the industry, our experts at leading PR agency, Holyrood PR, know the value of a well-executed crisis communications plan, turning a damaging narrative into long-term resilience. We know the power of expert reputational recovery. That’s why we’ve compiled our top tips for navigating PR blunders, allowing your business to emerge stronger than ever. From owning the narrative to rebuilding trust with your audience, here are the proven strategies we use to help clients turn short-term setbacks into long-term credibility. Acknowledge and Act Quickly In any emergency, the first few hours are the most critical. Your initial response to the crisis will define how the public reacts. This is why it is crucial not to shy away from the controversy and instead face it head on. Ignoring the issue will only fuel speculation and give people the chance to fill in the gaps for you, making the response far more difficult when you do eventually have to address the storm. That’s why having a good crisis communications team to stand behind you is pivotal in these early stages. They can guide you through a strong initial response and help put any speculation or misinformation to rest. Your communications team can help craft a response that is transparent and takes responsibility where appropriate, while clearly outlining the steps you are taking to resolve the situation. This guidance is pivotal for taking control of the narrative, reassuring your audience, and setting the tone for how the rest of the crisis will unfold. Control the narrative When a media storm hits, it can be difficult to pull together a unified face. But if you don’t provide a clear, consistent narrative, someone else will make up a narrative for you. Developing a clear, aligned message across the entire team is crucial to handling a crisis. Everyone from senior leaders to customer-facing staff should know what is being said, how it is being said, and why it matters. Mixed messages only add fuel to the fire. With a single, well-crafted message repeated confidently and calmly, you can help steer the conversation, reduce confusion, and begin to rebuild trust. A poorly delivered or inconsistent message, however, where one person says one thing and another contradicts it days later, can quickly make the crisis worse. Audiences are naturally drawn to drama, and research shows they are often more engaged by negative coverage than positive news. If your response is full of gaps or contradictions, the media and public will keep digging, and the situation is likely to escalate. By working closely with your crisis communications team to define a clear narrative — and ensuring everyone sticks to it — you give yourself the best chance of drawing a line under the story quickly and restoring confidence. Be sincere Audiences respond to authenticity. In the middle of a crisis, a cold, corporate statement will do little to reassure the public. People want to see that you understand the impact of the situation and that you genuinely care about putting it right. Words that feel scripted or overly sanitised can quickly fall flat and even make matters worse. Broadcasting a sincere apology — one that goes beyond legal-safe language and demonstrates real empathy — can make a critical difference in how a crisis unfolds. When people see a brand owning its mistakes, not deflecting blame or hiding behind vague wording, it signals accountability. That, in turn, helps to rebuild trust. Being sincere does not mean you need to reveal every internal detail, but it does mean acknowledging what has gone wrong and how it has affected those involved. A thoughtful response shows that the brand is run by real people who understand the emotional weight of the situation. It is crucial that you avoid sounding robotic and instead focus on connecting with a human audience. Use clear, honest language that reflects your values and intent. Let people know you are listening, that lessons are being learned, and that you are committed to doing better moving forward. In many cases, it is not the mistake that defines public perception, but the way it is handled. Sincerity helps ensure your response is remembered for the right reasons. Learn, Adapt, and Rebuild Once the immediate crisis has passed, the work isn’t over. In fact, what happens next is just as important. Taking the time to review the situation, understand what went wrong, and identify areas for improvement is key to turning a crisis into a growth opportunity. Start with a thorough debrief. What triggered the issue? How was it handled? What feedback did you receive internally and externally? This kind of honest internal reflection helps build resilience and prepares your team to respond even more effectively in the future. Transparency during the recovery phase also matters. Share the steps you’ve taken to correct the mistake and prevent a repeat. Whether it’s revising internal policies, improving training, or changing how decisions are made, showing the public that you’ve taken meaningful action can help rebuild credibility over time. Reputation repair is not about sweeping things under the rug. It’s about proving through consistent behaviour that your brand has learned from its mistakes. When handled well, a crisis can shift public perception in a positive direction — from a company in trouble to one that listens, evolves, and leads with integrity. Conclusion No brand is immune to mistakes, but what sets resilient businesses apart is how they respond when things go wrong. A well-handled crisis can be a turning point — not just for repairing reputations but for building long-term trust and credibility. By acting quickly, controlling the narrative, showing genuine sincerity, and learning from the experience, businesses can weather even the toughest storms. The goal isn’t just to survive a crisis. It’s to emerge from it stronger, more self-aware, and better equipped for whatever comes next. — This content is brought to you by Awais Shamsi iStockPhoto The post Turning a Negative Story into a Resilient Reputation: Leading PR Agency Share Top Tips for Navigating Crisis appeared first on The Good Men Project. View the full article

By Vlast.kz This article was written by Albert Otkjaer for Vlast.kz and published on August 19, 2025. An edited version of the article is published on Global Voices under a media partnership agreement. The vast Ustyurt Plateau, a transboundary clay desert spanning Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and western Kazakhstan, is home to the Central Asian tortoise, known as Tasbaqa in Kazakh. Human activity represents the main threat to this and other species in the region. Tortoises are traded, unintentionally killed, or trapped in cattle trenches. British director Saxon Bosworth recently completed his newest film, TASBAQA, a short documentary about the life of the threatened Central Asian tortoise. Yuliya Zaugg, the director of the Tasbaqa Fund, an environmental conservation organization focusing on Central Asian tortoises, said the film gives tortoises a voice. “Saxon’s film captures how a tortoise is meant to live, a way of life that might stop soon because its ecosystem is being threatened by human activity,” Zaugg told Vlast. In July, Bosworth presented TASBAQA at the Royal Geographical Society in London. Vlast interviewed Bosworth about the film and the significance of the topic. Albert Otkjaer (AO): What inspired you to make this film? Saxon Bosworth (SB): There isn’t a lot of film or media on the biodiversity of the plateau. I only discovered the Ustyurt Plateau when I came face to face with it in 2020. I was on the Karakalpak side in Uzbekistan, driving alongside the steep ridges on the way to the Aral Sea to document the last living species of the South Aral, the artemia brine shrimp. I was stunned by the 21–23 million-year-old layers of rock that form the “chinks” (cliffs) and “sors” (valleys) of the mighty Ustyurt. A few years later, I started to imagine a project that would investigate the biodiversity of the plateau. Through long dialogue with local researchers, I discovered and then focused on the unique story of the wild Central Asian tortoise. AO: What is the film about? SB: The viewer follows a day in the life of the tortoise, which represents the entirety of the two-to-three month active window in the life of a tortoise of the Ustyurt. It emerges in late March, it mates and feeds, and then in May returns to its very long hibernation. I wanted to show the Central Asian tortoise living its true, bold, wild life, because it’s something that is not commonly understood, or perhaps easy to imagine, and that certainly includes myself. What does a wild tortoise’s life look like? What makes up their day-to-day? And how has their life adapted to a place so extreme and vast as the Ustyurt Plateau? It is this age-old relationship between species and ecosystem. This is something I find really entrancing. The film is very much about the symbiosis of the plateau and the tortoise — a relationship more than 1 million years old. To me, this is where the film lies. We know that tortoises hibernate for a long time, but the Tasbaqa of the Ustyurt sleeps for up to 10 months. This is highly adapted, this is exceptional. AO: How does the dombra, a Kazakh national musical instrument, play into this? SB: From the beginning, I was set on recording Kazakh music for the soundtrack of the film. Friends introduced me to Kosaman Saparbayev and Ali Akyltai, and there it was: the soundtrack came together very naturally. The dombra has such an emotional depth. While it looks like a simple two-string instrument, the combination of technical skill, emotional intelligence, and depth of character makes it so powerful. I only play the role of curator, the album is made by two dombra masters, Kosaman from Zhanaozen in Mangystau in the west, and Ali from Almaty in the east, who both come with their respective regional styles of playing dombra. Kosaman plays Tokpe kuy and Ali plays Shertpe kuy. The two different styles come together beautifully. In the film, you have scenes like the tortoise waking up, gently going about its business where the more soft, tender dombra is played by Ali, and then you have a battle sequence where the more dramatic, epic piece is being played by Kosaman. Uniting their forces and styles covers the emotional landscape of the short film. AO: What do you hope that people will take from the film? SB: I like the idea that a viewer can watch and make up their own mind, that they can see and understand elements that perhaps even I as its creator cannot. Yuliya from the Tasbaqa Fund has said, “these humble tortoises don’t have a voice in the world we are building. But through this film they get one for a moment and speak not only for themselves, but for others too.” I would be delighted if the film does indeed offer a voice for voiceless creatures. I would recommend people to explore the work of the Tasbaqa Fund, a key objective of the project is to raise awareness for the tortoise. Presenting the bold life of a wild Central Asian tortoise is certainly a way in which the conservation efforts and film’s narrative are deeply entwined. I deeply wish that a product of this film and impact campaign is for both the tortoise itself and the Tasbaqa Fund to have more allies and friends looking out for them, standing by them, and supporting them for years to come. The documentary’s soundtrack is available on music streaming platforms (live performance, Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube). — Previously Published on globalvoices.org with Creative Commons License Photo Credit: unsplash — Subscribe to The Good Men Project Newsletter Email Address * Subscribe If you believe in the work we are doing here at The Good Men Project, please join us as a Premium Member today. All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS. Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here. The post A Day in the Life of a Central Asian Tortoise appeared first on The Good Men Project. View the full article

— Are you ready and excited to see the top 10 attractions on the Nile River? Then you are one of the finest websites with great information that covers you. Before proceeding, I must say that every piece of information that you look for has its own opinion. But the ones which we chose for you after thoroughly deep research is the best information you can ever find on Egypt tour packages. So, let’s get started. Luxor Valley Luxor Valley, yes, you heard that right, which is also known as the Valley of Kings. Its Luxor Temple transforms the global pattern in antiquity. And sunset mystic at Luxor Temple, you will not forget this moment once you have seen it. Royal Afterlife in the valley of the kings A second recommended place for us to visit in your life. Descend into chambers where pharaohs etched their final journey. Each tomb, especially Tutankhamun’s. Once you visit the experience, you will feel it will be immersive. The Giza Pyramids The Giza pyramids are the most famous, and every person knows about this, but you might be wondering why they’re the 3rd number or it’s on first place. It’s because this place is overcrowded. The magnificent Karnak temple This Karnak temple has a 2000-year-old history, which is considered the largest ever building in history. This served as a very religious and a center of worship to many Theban gods. The monumental Abu Simbel temples The monumental Abu Simbel temples are two rock-cut cut very magnificent temples which are located in southern Egypt. And it was developed by Pharaoh Ramesses. Abu Simbel Temples Abu Simbel temples are built by the remesses, the two massive rock-cut temples. Which is ideally known for its huge size and location near Aswan. It’s also recommended by many people to visit this place. Temple of Philae The Philae Temple is one of the oldest temples in Egypt. This is one of the great, I must say, very beautiful temple complexes. This is built only for the goddess Isis, located on the island of Aswan. Nubian Villages When you visit the Nubian villages, you will feel the real experience of the vibrant cultures and traditions of the people of Nubia. This is also along the Nile River in Aswan. Temple of kom Ombo The name Kom Ombo seems interesting, and when you see the temple, it will be more interesting than its name. Yes, you heard it right, this is a unique double temple which is dedicated to two different gods. Sobek the crocodile, and the other one is Horus, the falcon god. Sailing the Nile Sailing the Nile is also one of the best experiences you can have in Egypt. You can enjoy a nice classic Nile experience by taking a cruise or a boat ride on a traditional wooden boat called a felucca. These are the top 10 must-see places along with Nile River you can visit with your family. We keep updating the top priorities of the locations. — This content is brought to you by Hassan Javed Photo provided by the author. The post Top 10 Must-See Attractions Along the Nile River appeared first on The Good Men Project. View the full article

There exists a curious kind of self-doubt that slinks in at the weirdest hours. It can be often in line at the grocery store, or on a park bench, watching a stranger with nice hair tie their shoelace in what is, somehow, the most sensuous motion you’ve seen all week. That little voice creeps in, clutching its pearls and gasping, “Oh no. Am I creepy?” It’s not just any insecurity. This one is marinated in moral panic and topped with a generous dollop of shame. Suddenly, your inner monologue turns into a courtroom, and the charges start rolling in. Letch. Degenerate. Weirdo. Sleaze. Scumbag. Freak. Horndog. Skank. Predator. Peeping Tom. Voyeur. Pervert. Hound. Masher. Groper. Philanderer. Chester. Sicko. Slimeball. Creep. You sit there, coffee in hand, wondering if your passing thought about a stranger’s forearms has placed you firmly on some imaginary FBI watchlist. Or worse: is feeling creepy, making you look more creepy? Must avoid further eye contact at any cost. It starts innocently. You notice someone and something about their laugh, the style of their coat, the crinkle in their eye. Your mind, the overzealous improv artist that it is, begins a performance: You’re married. You share a dog. You argue about whose turn it is to unload the dishwasher. You make up. Passionately. Perhaps in erotic detail. And then the scene dissolves. You’re alone. They’re gone. And you’re left blinking, disoriented as if you’ve just come back from Narnia with a latte. Cue that insidious feeling that is flavored similar to guilt. You tell yourself, “People like me don’t think things like that.” You clutch your cardigan tighter. But what are people like you? Are we not allowed to have rogue thoughts, fleeting fantasies, or even full-blown romantic hallucinations that include joint tax returns with someone we saw once at Whole Foods? It’s easy, in the age of consent advocacy tattoos and HR training videos with suspiciously specific reenactments, to assume that the mere existence of uninvited desire makes us dangerously culpable of something sinister. But here’s the truth wrapped in tender humor and a little sarcasm: if you’re worried you’re being creepy, you’re probably not. The actual Chesters of the world don’t tend to sit around cross-legged on their floor at 2 am, whispering to their ceiling, “Am I the problem?” Erotic thoughts, especially the ones that come unbidden like the ghost of a crush past, are not blueprints for action. They’re just signals. Human ones. Like when your phone buzzes, and it’s not a text from a lover but from a politician. Unfulfilling, but not criminal. They say more about what you wish life could offer than any sinister agenda. Perhaps, they are violations of ancient personal blue laws in the key of shame. That thread might be worth a gentle pull. That daydream about the woman at the post office who had a tattoo of a tulip and a faint air of melancholy? That wasn’t predatory — it was poetry. (Terrible, unedited poetry, maybe — but still poetry.) These mental tangents are like fantasy Airbnb listings for a life we’ll never actually live. “Charming stranger’s loft with wistful eye contact and vintage jazz soundtrack. Sleeps two. No pets.” They give us color where life is beige. Meaning where days feel flat. They’re not threats to society; they’re salves for loneliness. Now, is there a line? Of course. Fantasies are one thing. Acting like a human trench coat full of unsolicited compliments is quite another. But that’s precisely what makes your internal reckoning so comforting: it shows that you care. It means you’re not blindly acting out your thoughts like a malfunctioning robot coded by Freud. You’re self-aware, and more importantly, you know the difference between imagination and entitlement. The trouble is, we’ve been taught to fear fantasy as though it’s a gateway drug to public disgrace. But in reality, our imagination often steps in where reality has failed to deliver. In the same way a crying baby imagines their mother into existence until she returns, adults construct pleasant illusions to soften the edges of loneliness, longing, and the mundane cruelty of unmet desire. So what if your mind runs wild when you pass someone who smells like cedar and mystery? You’re not launching a covert surveillance operation. You’re whispering into the fog of your mind, “What if?” And then you move on. And the world keeps spinning. Here’s the kicker: the more we demonize these thoughts, the more we risk stripping ourselves of one of the few innocent places our hearts can still roam freely. The world is full of unsolvable problems. The inner lives of decent people imagining harmless love stories with their baristas shouldn’t be on that list. So the next time your brain hands you a sexy little reel starring you and the person who just asked if the seat next to you is taken, smile internally. Thank your imagination for the serotonin boost. And remind yourself: Creeps aren’t employed with worry about being creeps. That job belongs to people with messy, yearning, moral, and tender souls like yours. And maybe that stranger? They were fantasizing about you, too. Now wouldn’t that be a twist? — This post was previously published on medium.com. Love relationships? We promise to have a good one with your inbox. Subcribe to get 3x weekly dating and relationship advice. Did you know? We have 8 publications on Medium. Join us there! Hello, Love (relationships) Change Becomes You (Advice) A Parent is Born (Parenting) Equality Includes You (Social Justice) Greener Together (Environment) Shelter Me (Wellness) Modern Identities (Gender, etc.) Co-Existence (World) *** – Photo credit: Rishabh Dharmani on Unsplash The post Am I a Creep? appeared first on The Good Men Project. View the full article

By news aktuell Bremervörde (Germany) – From autonomous driving to advanced safety technologies – the innovations presented at the IAA Mobility captivate car enthusiasts. However, one key comfort factor is often overlooked: the car seat. To meet the demand for ergonomic design, the production has become increasingly complex – up to 12 percent of a car’s development costs are attributable to the seat. “But not every seat advertised as back-friendly, actually is,” says Detlef Detjen, Managing Director of Aktion Gesunder Rücken (AGR) e. V. (Campaign for Healthier Backs). With its internationally respected seal of approval, the German organization offers guidance for back-friendly products, such as car seats. Leading car manufacturers offer AGR-certified seats in many of their models. “Sitting still for long periods is a major cause of back problems,” explains Detjen. “An ergonomic seat is the backbone of any healthy journey”. For 30 years, the independent medical commission of AGR experts has been testing and certifying car seats that are particularly back-friendly, among other things. Drawing on the expertise of over 150,000 specialists from various fields, AGR also influences industrial development. “The AGR seal is recognized as a trustworthy quality mark and a reliable guide by the medical community, consumers and industry alike,” says Detjen. To earn the respected AGR seal of approval, a car seat must pass rigorous testing and meet several criteria such as an extendable seat surface, adjustable height and tilt, and four-way lumbar support to help users find the perfect individual setting. Adjustable headrests ensure safety while maintaining an ergonomically correct seating posture. Dynamic seat systems with inflatable cushions provide lateral support when taking corners. Breathable fabrics help maintain an optimal seat climate. Depending on the manufacturer, the AGR seal of approval is displayed on the product, in its description or in its technical data. A list of models offering AGR seats is available on the AGR website, along with information on how to adjust the seat correctly: www.agr-ev.de/en/carseats Further information and press photos available at: www.lifepr.de/pressemitteilung/aktion-gesunder-ruecken-agr-ev/health-in-the-fast-lane/boxid/1033094 Press contact: Nina Grünewald, Aktion Gesunder Rücken e. V., Tel: +49 4761 926358329, nina.gruenewald@agr-ev.de Press release distributed by Pressat on behalf of news aktuell, on Thursday 21 August, 2025. For more information subscribe and follow https://pressat.co.uk/ — This post was previously published on PRESSAT.CO.UK. — Subscribe to The Good Men Project Newsletter Email Address * Subscribe If you believe in the work we are doing here at The Good Men Project, please join us as a Premium Member today. All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS. Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here. — Photo credit: iStock.com The post Health in the Fast Lane: How Modern Car Seats Protect Our Backs appeared first on The Good Men Project. View the full article

During the live-streamed JUJUTSU KAISEN 5th Anniversary Special, the first teaser trailer for JUJUTSU KAISEN Season 3 was shared, which also announced that it will air in January 2026. Here it is! – Also referred to as JUJUTSU KAISEN The Culling Game, it has been decided that Crunchyroll will stream the third season of the hit anime series exclusively worldwide, excluding Asia, with new episodes premiering weekly, same-day as Japan. Seen in the teaser trailer is Yuji Itadori in conflict and despair after believing he has killed many people from the “Shibuya Incident.” Also shown is a fierce battle between Yuji and Yuta Okkotsu, the main protagonist from the film JUJUTSU KAISEN 0. The preview also features a heated exchange between new character Naoya Zen’in and Choso. Megumi Fushiguro, Yuki Tsukumo, and Maki Zen’in also make brief appearances in the trailer, building anticipation before the start of The Culling Game. The Japanese voice cast and characters include: Junya Enoki as Yuji Itadori Yuma Uchida as Megumi Fushiguro Daisuke Namikawa as Choso Megumi Ogata as Yuta Okkotsu The animation production staff includes: Director: Shota Goshozono Series Composition and Script Writer: Hiroshi Seko Character Design: Yosuke Yajima and Hiromi Niwa Deputy Director: Yosuke Takada Art Director: Junichi Higashi Color Design: Eiko Matsushima CG Producer: Yusuke Tannawa 3DCG Director: Daisuke Ishikawa (Monster’s Egg) Director of Photography: Teppei Ito Editor: Keisuke Yanagi Music: Yoshimasa Terui Music Producer: Yoshiki Kobayashi Sound Director: Yasunori Ebina Sound Production: dugout Animation Studio: MAPPA ### About JUJUTSU KAISEN Yuji Itadori is a boy with tremendous physical strength, though he lives a completely ordinary high school life. One day, to save a classmate who has been attacked by curses, he eats the finger of Ryomen Sukuna, taking the curse into his own soul. From then on, he shares one body with Ryomen Sukuna. Guided by the most powerful of sorcerers, Satoru Gojo, Itadori is admitted to Tokyo Jujutsu High School, an organization that fights the curses… and thus begins the heroic tale of a boy who became a curse to exorcise a curse, a life from which he could never turn back. Based on the best-selling manga of the same title written and illustrated by Gege Akutami, the anime series is produced by TOHO Animation and animated by MAPPA (Chainsaw Man; Attack on Titan Final Season; Hell’s Paradise). With over 100 million copies currently in circulation, the manga was serialized in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump until the series ended in September 2024. In the US, the manga is published by VIZ Media. The first season JUJUTSU KAISEN aired from October 2020 to March 2021. The second season, which consisted of the Hidden Inventory/Premature Death arc and the Shibuya Incident arc aired from July to December in 2023. The anime series was named Anime of the Year at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards in 2021 and 2024. The global blockbuster prequel film, JUJUTSU KAISEN 0, was awarded Best Anime Film at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards in 2023 and earned around $180 million in global theatrical box office revenue. JUJUTSU KAISEN Showpage: crunchyroll.com/jujutsu-kaisen Official English Facebook:facebook.com/jujutsu.kaisen.official Official English X: x.com/Jujutsu_Kaisen_ Official English Instagram: instagram.com/jujutsukaisen #JujutsuKaisen About Crunchyroll Crunchyroll is the global anime brand that fuels fans’ love of anime. With the ambition to make anime an even bigger part of pop culture, Crunchyroll offers fans the ultimate anime experience and destination centered around a premium streaming service. Crunchyroll has the largest dedicated anime library, an immersive world of events, exciting theatrical releases, unique games, must-have merchandise, timely news, and more. Anime is for everyone and is accessible to stream across territories through Crunchyroll—whether on the go on mobile, through gaming consoles and big-screen devices at home, or on desktops anywhere. Crunchyroll, LLC is an independently operated joint venture between U.S.-based Sony Pictures Entertainment and Japan’s Aniplex, a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc., both subsidiaries of Tokyo-based Sony Group. About TOHO Co., Ltd. TOHO Co., Ltd. is a leading Japanese entertainment company founded in 1932. Its four main business pillars are the cinema business, which includes production, distribution and exhibition; the theatrical business, which includes production and exhibition; the anime business, which has been expanding globally in recent years; and the real estate business, which focuses on development in urban areas. TOHO’s worldwide acclaimed works include theatrical films such as the “Godzilla” series and “Seven Samurai” directed by Akira Kurosawa, and TV anime series such as “My Hero Academia” and “Jujutsu Kaisen”. These anime series are produced and distributed through the TOHO animation label, and are delivered to a wide range of audiences around the world. The post ‘JUJUTSU KAISEN’ SEASON 3 SHARES NEW TEASER TRAILER DURING THE ANIME’S LIVE-STREAMED 5TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL! appeared first on The Good Men Project. View the full article

Allies are looking for the US to lead on Ukraine matters, Matthew Whitaker said European NATO members are indecisive when it comes to the Ukraine conflict, US envoy to the bloc Matthew Whitaker said. The diplomat made the remarks while speaking at the Bled Strategic Forum in Slovenia on Tuesday. “I think it’s very naive to believe that the United States can decree that the fighting stop and that somehow Russia or Ukraine – either side – will stop the fighting,” Whitaker said. He criticized NATO for its “lack of political will” and reluctance to take any major steps without US involvement. The United States has contributed just over half of military aid to Ukraine, he noted. “The elephant in the room is that there’s no political will among our allies to do what it takes to stop this war, all the NATO allies,” Whitaker added. “Europe could put troops in. But nobody’s willing to do that.” Whitaker’s statements come after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc has “pretty precise plans” for a multinational force to deploy into Ukraine after the conflict is settled. The remarks were, however, rebuked by German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, who said the EU has no “jurisdiction or competence” on the matter. Russia has repeatedly stated that it would not tolerate any Western troops on Ukrainian soil, even under the guise of peacekeepers. View the full article

By Jessica Scott-Reid The advice to eat less beef and more chicken has become a common refrain — at least in certain climate circles. Proponents point to beef’s outsized emissions and chicken’s comparatively smaller carbon footprint, arguing chicken is much better for the planet. Some regenerative chicken farms are capitalizing on that advice: one New York City restaurant, Coqodaq, is charging $42 per person for a bucket of regenerative chicken (and sides). Regenerative farmers say the way they farm is better, for both the environment and the birds, but research suggests there are tradeoffs. A switch from factory farmed chicken to chicken from higher welfare and more environmentally friendly systems can only be feasible, modeling suggests, if we reduce the amount of chicken we eat to a little over half of what we eat now. In the 2021 study, researchers looked at organic and free-range farms, which offered birds more space to roam and raised slower-growing breeds as compared to factory farm chickens. While the study did not look at regenerative chicken specifically — a term that does not have a standardized or legal definition — the research offers insights into the environmental tradeoffs of switching to organic and free-range. To be precise, the study found that a national switch to higher welfare chicken (slow growing, on pasture) would require up to 60 percent more land. The researchers describe this potential switch as “untenable” — it would only work if per capita chicken consumption decreased by 37 percent. In 2023, per capita chicken consumption in the U.S. was 100 lbs by 2023. Dropping that by 37 percent would equate to around 63 lbs of chicken per year, or about as much chicken that was being consumed in the early nineties. In other words, this would mean a huge change in the way Americans eat. The welfare pitch for slower-growing breeds, such as the Rowan Ranger, is that these birds suffer fewer injuries and illnesses, and live longer, at least by a couple of weeks, before reaching slaughter weight. On most factory farms, the common breed of chicken used is the fast-growing Ross 308, which reaches slaughter weight in just 47 days. As a result of their rapid growth, these birds can suffer muscle strains, heart disease and bone breaks. There are environmental tradeoffs however, that come with slower growing breeds and more space. In order to have more land, for the chickens to roam and to grow food for them, farmers will have to expand, which comes with deforestation, the process of destroying uncultivated habitats to create something else, in this case, farms. More deforestation means fewer wild habitats and shrinking biodiversity, the authors point out. Regenerative farming can have some benefits for soil health, studies show. But in terms of local environmental impact — looking at the impact to surrounding wildlife and waterways — there isn’t enough data to know for sure. Matthew Hayek, an environmental scientist at New York University who co-authored the 2021 study, told Sentient by email that “regenerative chicken farming may enhance local biodiversity, or at least it may be less bad for it than an intensive industrial chicken operation. However, we lack data evaluating this at the farm level.” One issue is that applying chicken manure properly is no simple feat. Hayek also told Sentient over email, So while nitrogen found in animal waste is a useful fertilizer, he writes, it’s also easy to over-apply. Apply too much and “it seeps into groundwater and runs off into nearby streams. Even small-scale farms can cause this if nitrogen is not being carefully managed.” “It’s not clear whether the land they are on requires or can even handle these ongoing, long-term additions of nutrients. Adding nutrients to land is a bit like wetting a sponge: add too much and it leaks all over.” Green Circle’s regenerative chickens, the breed sold at Coqodaq in New York, are raised in a “pasture-based system of farming, where the waste is composted and returned to the soil to build the health of the land,” according to the website for D’Artagnan, a distributor for the product. While composting manure might help stabilize nutrients and lower the risk of water contamination compared to raw manure application, it still requires careful management to prevent leaching and nutrient loss. Higher welfare chicken farming systems also emit more greenhouse gases. A 2022 report by the World Wildlife Fund found that factory chicken farms produce the lowest greenhouse gas emissions when compared to other kinds of chicken farms, like organic. Slower-growing breeds and less efficient feed conversion — more grain is needed per pound of meat — results in more climate pollution. According to the researchers, because organic flocks are slaughtered at heavier weights, they require longer lifespans — more feed, land and manure. Hayek and his co-authors describe a scenario in the study where a switch to regenerative chicken might be possible — that is, if everyone ate far less chicken. But cutting back on chicken consumption or production isn’t usually part of conversations around regenerative farming. In the Regenerative Farmers of America’s Core Principles of Regenerative Chicken Farming for instance, there is no mention of reducing production or consumption. For a recent series on regenerative agriculture presented by TableDebates.org, the authors offer one possible explanation. Some proponents of regenerative agriculture, they write, “hesitate to endorse lowering meat consumption,” worrying that the higher emissions impact will stigmatize regenerative meat, “which they argue are part of the solution.” Advocates for any kind of food system change will tend towards highlighting the benefits of their proposed solution over the challenges. A farm might be better for animals and worse for climate change. A change to how we eat could solve a lot of problems at once but also be really unpopular. Food is complicated and it’s personal, but ultimately every proposed food system solution comes with tradeoffs, and getting people to talk about those tradeoffs is better than not talking about our food system at all. This article originally appeared in Sentient at https://sentientmedia.org/could-the-us-switch-to-regenerative-chicken/. — This story was originally published by Sentient. — Subscribe to The Good Men Project Newsletter Email Address * Subscribe If you believe in the work we are doing here at The Good Men Project, please join us as a Premium Member today. All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS. Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here. — photo: iStock.com The post Could the U.S. Switch to Regenerative Chicken? Only if Americans Ate This Much Less appeared first on The Good Men Project. View the full article

Matbucha will blow you away with its bold, savory, and smoky flavors! This Moroccan dish combines cooked-down tomatoes, roasted red bell peppers, and garlic with spices to create a thick, jam-like dip that pairs well with a variety of dishes. A Note From Kristen The first time I tested a matbucha recipe, I was blown away by how bold and flavorful it turned out. It takes a little patience to make, but it is absolutely worth it as the whole kitchen fills with the most incredible aroma while it simmers. Over time, I’ve created my own version that hits that perfect sweet, smoky and spicy balance. It is one of those dishes that proves you do not need a long list of ingredients to create something truly unforgettable. Happy eating! ~Kristen What is Matbucha? It’s an Arabic term that means “cooked” and is made by slowly simmering tomatoes, peppers, garlic, oil, and spices until the mixture becomes thick and spreadable. Matbucha is a popular dish in North Africa and the Middle East, particularly in Morocco and Israel. It’s often served as part of a mezze platter as an appetizer or as a condiment alongside bread, eggs, and protein-rich mains at a Shabbat table or Shabbat dinner. Ingredient Notes Please keep in mind that this is just a quick overview. Visit the full recipe for amounts and instructions! Ripe Tomatoes: Act as the base of this matbucha, giving it natural sweetness, sauciness, and acidity. They also create a jammy texture when cooked, which defines the dish. Roasted Red Bell Peppers: Contribute extra sweetness, smokiness, and body to the recipe. You can roast and peel your own or use the jarred variety! Fresh Garlic Cloves: Give savory notes and aromatic backbone. Extra Virgin Olive Oil: Used to sauté the ingredients and helps make sure the mixture doesn’t dry out. This is a great recipe for using a high quality oil! Tomato Paste: Deepens the tomato flavor, adding more richness and umami to the dish. Ground Cumin: Lends warm, earthy notes to enhance the smokiness of the recipe. Sweet Paprika: Adds color, depth, and mild smokiness. Sea Salt: Balances all the flavors and helps enhance the sweetness of the tomatoes and peppers. Cayenne Pepper: Imparts a subtle touch of heat. How to Make Moroccan Matbucha 01 BLANCH Score the bottoms of the tomatoes with an “X,” blanch in boiling water for 30 seconds, then transfer to an ice bath. Peel, then finely chop or grate into a bowl. 02 SAUTE Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Sauté garlic for 1–2 minutes until fragrant, then add tomatoes, roasted peppers, tomato paste, cumin, paprika, salt, and cayenne; stir well. 03 SIMMER Reduce heat to a gentle simmer and cook uncovered for 1½ to 2 hours, stirring every 10–15 minutes, until the mixture thickens, darkens, and turns jammy with a slight separation of oil. 04 COOL AND SERVE Let it cool to room temperature before serving. Enjoy! Serving Ideas Serve with crusty bread, crackers, or as part of a mezze platter. Serve over brown rice or couscous and top with roasted chickpeas and sautéed greens. As a sauce for falafel alongside hummus, harissa, and tahini. Drizzle over rice bowls, quesadillas or baked eggplant. Use as a dipping sauce for potato wedges or sweet potato slices. Serve as part of a shakshuka brunch with chickpeas, eggs, and sliced avocado. Serve alongside your favorite grilled proteins and salads. Expert Tips Use overripe tomatoes as they’re sweeter and they create a richer spread. If these aren’t available, try making the recipe with high-quality canned whole or diced tomatoes instead. Cook low and slow to achieve matbucha’s signature jammy consistency. Patience is key! Stir the mixture frequently to avoid it sticking to the pan or burning. Here are some recipe variations you can try: Add freshly chopped chili peppers or extra cayenne to make it as spicy as you want. Squeeze some lemon juice or add fresh lemon zest at the end for a tangy finish. This works best if you plan to serve matbucha cold. Sprinkle nuts, such as toasted almonds, walnuts, or pine nuts, for added crunch. Garnish with freshly chopped parsley or cilantro. Matbucha Recipe This Moroccan matbucha recipe combines smoky tomatoes and peppers into a flavorful spread. Make it easily at home with these simple steps! Author: Kristen Wood Servings: 6 servings Prep Time: 10minutes minutes Cook Time: 2days days 1hour hour 30minutes minutes Total Time: 2days days 1hour hour 40minutes minutes Course: Appetizer, Condiments, Spread Cuisine: Middle Eastern, Moroccan Diet: Gluten Free, Vegan, Vegetarian Ingredients 6 medium ripe tomatoes peeled and finely chopped or grated – see instructions 2 large roasted red bell peppers peeled and chopped 4 garlic cloves finely chopped 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 1 tablespoon tomato paste 1 teaspoon ground cumin 1 teaspoon sweet paprika 1/2 teaspoon sea salt 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper Instructions Score the tomatoes with an “X” on the bottom and blanch them in boiling water for about 30 seconds, then transfer to an ice bath. Peel off the skins and finely chop or grate the tomatoes into a bowl. If you’re not using jarred roasted peppers, roast the red bell peppers over an open flame or under a broiler until charred on all sides. Place them in a bowl and cover with a plate. Let them steam for 10 minutes, then peel, remove the seeds, and chop. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the chopped garlic and cook for 1–2 minutes, until fragrant but not browned. Stir in the chopped tomatoes, roasted peppers, tomato paste, cumin, sweet paprika, salt, and cayenne. Mix well. Lower the heat to a gentle simmer and cook uncovered for 1½ to 2 hours, stirring every 10–15 minutes. The mixture should slowly reduce, thicken, and darken in color. It’s ready when it’s thick, jammy, and the oil begins to separate slightly from the tomato mixture. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed. For extra richness, you can stir in a little more olive oil at the end. Let cool to room temperature before serving. Serve with crusty bread, crackers, or as part of a mezze platter. Store leftovers in the refrigerator for up to a week (it gets even better the next day!). Enjoy! Notes Storage Store leftovers in an airtight glass container in the refrigerator for up to a week. It gets even better the next day! You can also freeze them in portions inside freezer-safe containers or silicone cubes/pouches. Thaw overnight before using it the next day. Always give the matbucha a good stir before serving to reincorporate the oil and juices, which might have thickened slightly or separated while in the fridge. If it’s still too thick, add water or olive oil to thin it out. Nutrition Serving: 1serving | Calories: 94kcal | Carbohydrates: 7g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 5g | Sodium: 391mg | Potassium: 359mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 1315IU | Vitamin C: 24mg | Calcium: 26mg | Iron: 1mg — Previously Published on moonandspoonandyum *** Does dating ever feel challenging, awkward or frustrating? Turn Your Dating Life into a WOW! with our new classes and live coaching. Click here for more info or to buy with special launch pricing! *** On Substack? Follow us there for more great dating and relationships content. Join The Good Men Project as a Premium Member today. All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS. A complete list of benefits is here. — Photo credit: Kristen Wood The post Recipe for Matbucha (Moroccan Cooked Tomato and Pepper Spread) appeared first on The Good Men Project. View the full article

Republicans subpoenaed the documents after the FBI and DOJ said the convicted sex offender kept no “client list” The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has released more than 33,000 pages of documents related to disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The committee posted a link to the 33,295 pages on its website Tuesday evening. Chairman James Comer subpoenaed the files from the Department of Justice last month, after a DOJ and FBI review concluded that Epstein had kept no ‘client list.’ The disclosure prompted Democrats and some Republicans to accuse President Donald Trump of a coverup. DETAILS TO FOLLOW View the full article

By Peter Dizikes | MIT News In World War II, Britain was fighting for its survival against German aerial bombardment. Yet Britain was importing dyes from Germany at the same time. This sounds curious, to put it mildly. How can two countries at war with each other also be trading goods? Examples of this abound, actually. Britain also traded with its enemies for almost all of World War I. India and Pakistan conducted trade with each other during the First Kashmir War, from 1947 to 1949, and during the India-Pakistan War of 1965. Croatia and then-Yugoslavia traded with each other while fighting in 1992. “States do in fact trade with their enemies during wars,” says MIT political scientist Mariya Grinberg. “There is a lot of variation in which products get traded, and in which wars, and there are differences in how long trade lasts into a war. But it does happen.” Indeed, as Grinberg has found, state leaders tend to calculate whether trade can give them an advantage by boosting their own economies while not supplying their enemies with anything too useful in the near term. “At its heart, wartime trade is all about the tradeoff between military benefits and economic costs,” Grinberg says. “Severing trade denies the enemy access to your products that could increase their military capabilities, but it also incurs a cost to you because you’re losing trade and neutral states could take over your long-term market share.” Therefore, many countries try trading with their wartime foes. Grinberg explores this topic in a groundbreaking new book, the first one on the subject, “Trade in War: Economic Cooperation Across Enemy Lines,” published this month by Cornell University Press. It is also the first book by Grinberg, an assistant professor of political science at MIT. Calculating time and utility “Trade in War” has its roots in research Grinberg started as a doctoral student at the University of Chicago, where she noticed that wartime trade was a phenomenon not yet incorporated into theories of state behavior. Grinberg wanted to learn about it comprehensively, so, as she quips, “I did what academics usually do: I went to the work of historians and said, ‘Historians, what have you got for me?’” Modern wartime trading began during the Crimean War, which pitted Russia against France, Britain, the Ottoman Empire, and other allies. Before the war’s start in 1854, France had paid for many Russian goods that could not be shipped because ice in the Baltic Sea was late to thaw. To rescue its produce, France then persuaded Britain and Russia to adopt “neutral rights,” codified in the 1856 Declaration of Paris, which formalized the idea that goods in wartime could be shipped via neutral parties (sometimes acting as intermediaries for warring countries). “This mental image that everyone has, that we don’t trade with our enemies during war, is actually an artifact of the world without any neutral rights,” Grinberg says. “Once we develop neutral rights, all bets are off, and now we have wartime trade.” Overall, Grinberg’s systematic analysis of wartime trade shows that it needs to be understood on the level of particular goods. During wartime, states calculate how much it would hurt their own economies to stop trade of certain items; how useful specific products would be to enemies during war, and in what time frame; and how long a war is going to last. “There are two conditions under which we can see wartime trade,” Grinberg says. “Trade is permitted when it does not help the enemy win the war, and it’s permitted when ending it would damage the state’s long-term economic security, beyond the current war.” Therefore a state might export diamonds, knowing an adversary would need to resell such products over time to finance any military activities. Conversely, states will not trade products that can quickly convert into military use. “The tradeoff is not the same for all products,” Grinberg says. “All products can be converted into something of military utility, but they vary in how long that takes. If I’m expecting to fight a short war, things that take a long time for my opponent to convert into military capabilities won’t help them win the current war, so they’re safer to trade.” Moreover, she adds, “States tend to prioritize maintaining their long-term economic stability, as long as the stakes don’t hit too close to home.” This calculus helps explain some seemingly inexplicable wartime trade decisions. In 1917, three years into World War I, Germany started trading dyes to Britain. As it happens, dyes have military uses, for example as coatings for equipment. And World War I, infamously, was lasting far beyond initial expectations. But as of 1917, German planners thought the introduction of unrestricted submarine warfare would bring the war to a halt in their favor within a few months, so they approved the dye exports. That calculation was wrong, but it fits the framework Grinberg has developed. States: Usually wrong about the length of wars “Trade in War” has received praise from other scholars in the field. Michael Mastanduno of Dartmouth College has said the book “is a masterful contribution to our understanding of how states manage trade-offs across economics and security in foreign policy.” For her part, Grinberg notes that her work holds multiple implications for international relations — one being that trade relationships do not prevent hostilities from unfolding, as some have theorized. “We can’t expect even strong trade relations to deter a conflict,” Grinberg says. “On the other hand, when we learn our assumptions about the world are not necessarily correct, we can try to find different levers to deter war.” Grinberg has also observed that states are not good, by any measure, at projecting how long they will be at war. “States very infrequently get forecasts about the length of war right,” Grinberg says. That fact has formed the basis of a second, ongoing Grinberg book project. “Now I’m studying why states go to war unprepared, why they think their wars are going to end quickly,” Grinberg says. “If people just read history, they will learn almost all of human history works against this assumption.” At the same time, Grinberg thinks there is much more that scholars could learn specifically about trade and economic relations among warring countries — and hopes her book will spur additional work on the subject. “I’m almost certain that I’ve only just begun to scratch the surface with this book,” she says. — Reprinted with permission of MIT News. — Subscribe to The Good Men Project Newsletter Email Address * Subscribe If you believe in the work we are doing here at The Good Men Project, please join us as a Premium Member today. All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS. Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here. — Photo credit: Author The post Why Countries Trade With Each Other While Fighting (Book Review) appeared first on The Good Men Project. View the full article

By Kelly Malcom While the grip of the opioid epidemic is loosening, thanks in part to extensive public health efforts and rescue medications like Narcan, deaths from accidental overdose still threaten those who use synthetic opioids like fentanyl. The drug is increasingly mixed with other potent substances, including animal tranquilizers such as xylazine, making it even more dangerous. States across the country, including Michigan, are seeing a drastic increase in xylazine-involved fatalities, according to a report from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. However, very little is known about how the sedative, which is not approved for human use and causes severe skin ulcers, affects breathing when mixed with fentanyl. A new U-M study from the laboratories of John Traynor and Erica Levitt in the Edward F. Domino Research Center uncovers how fentanyl and xylazine interact in a mouse model. “We don’t have any clear data as to whether xylazine increases the risk of overdose, so we needed to test its physiological effects in an animal model,” said Jess Anand, Ph.D., research assistant professor of pharmacology at the U-M Medical School and author on the study. Working with first author, graduate student Catherine Demery, the team set out to test their hypothesis that xylazine would worsen the often-deadly decrease in breathing rate that is characteristic of fentanyl use. Fentanyl-induced pauses in inhalation, or apneas, correlated with a drop in blood oxygen levels. But xylazine did not amplify the extent to which fentanyl reduced oxygen levels. “What we found is the breathing rate depression is not a one plus one amplification. We didn’t see a drastic synergism of these drugs in their respiratory effects, which is good and somewhat surprising,” said Demery. However, they did find that xylazine reduced heart rate more than fentanyl. A potentially more important driver of increased risk of overdose is this decrease in heart rate caused by xylazine, said Demery. Thankfully, overdose reversal medications such as Narcan, which work by blocking the opioid receptors in the brain, are typically enough to overcome an overdose caused by fentanyl adulterated with xylazine, they stress. Their insights, say the authors, may open other avenues of research into polysubstance use involving opioids. “It’s crucially important to keep research up to pace with what’s going on in real life, otherwise the people facing issues now might not get the help they need,” said Anand. Additional authors: Sierra C. Moore, Erica S. Levitt, and John Traynor Funding: This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health grants UG3 DA056884, R21DA051723, R01 DA061320, R01 HL174547, and T32 GM132046. Paper cited: “Xylazine Exacerbates Fentanyl-Induced Respiratory Depression and Bradycardia,” The Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. DOI: 10.1016/j.jpet.2025.103616  Sign up for Health Lab newsletters today. Get medical tips from top experts and learn about new scientific discoveries every week. Sign up for the Health Lab Podcast. Add us wherever you listen to your favorite shows. — Previously Published on michiganmedicine.org with Creative Commons License *** – The world is changing fast. We help you keep up. We’ll send you 1 post, 3x per week. Join The Good Men Project as a Premium Member today. All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS. Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here. — Photo credit: unsplash The post Study Reveals How a Popular Fentanyl Additive Affects Breathing and Heart Rate appeared first on The Good Men Project. View the full article

By Frida Garza, Grist “This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here.” Not long ago, Guillermina ran into a coworker at her doctor’s office. The two women work together at a McDonald’s near San Jose, California. When Guillermina asked what her coworker was doing at the doctor, she responded that she’d been feeling ill, adding, “You know how hot it gets in the kitchen.” Guillermina understood. She is the shift manager at McDonald’s, and has worked in fast food for 22 years. The air-conditioning in her building is old, she said, and isn’t designed for the scorching summer temperatures experienced today. Last year, the employees went on strike after temperatures in the kitchen rose above 100 degrees Fahrenheit. According to Guillermina, she and her coworkers — mostly women, mostly Spanish-speakers — often work through excessive heat, struggling with dizziness, headaches, and fatigue, to the point of vomiting. She tried to comfort her coworker. Guillermina is a member of the California Fast Food Workers Union, a new effort by the Service Employees International Union, or SEIU, to organize low-wage, fast-food workers. She had invited her coworker to join the union many times before, but she’d always declined. At the doctor’s office, Guillermina took another chance at her pitch, but her coworker answered plainly: She and the other employees were scared. In an interview in Spanish, Guillermina shared that she also fears retribution in the workplace for organizing. (Grist is only identifying Guillermina by her first name to protect her identity.) Twice she’d had her hours cut, and after she and her coworkers went on strike, her managers threatened her, saying that because of her, they were all going to be fired. This month, SEIU held a series of actions with workers like Guillermina across California to protest dangerous heat in fast-food restaurants. In San Jose, workers at an El Pollo Loco location walked out on the job and went on a two-day strike after temperatures in the restaurant reached 90 degrees. The union’s “Heat Week” is the latest in a new wave of labor organizing focused on how climate change impacts workers. But the reasonable fear that Guillermina and her coworkers face underscores the challenges of holding employers accountable for worker safety on a warming planet. “I’ve been retaliated against,” said Guillermina, “and I’m not OK, physically or mentally, because of it.” After the strike, when her hours were cut, she fell behind on car payments and bills. Her husband, who suffers from diabetes and hearing problems, cannot work, and without her usual income, she couldn’t afford groceries. She later went to the hospital with signs of cardiac arrest. “But I’m not going to be quiet, and I’m not going to leave the union,” she said. “That’s the only place that cares about me knowing my rights.” Heat is the deadliest weather event in the U.S. And for decades, the fight to protect the U.S. labor force from heat-related illness has focused on outdoor industries, like farming and construction. But increasingly, the labor movement, environmental justice advocates, and policymakers acknowledge that indoor workers are also vulnerable to the effects of extreme heat. It is common in the fast food industry, for example, for the lobbies and seating areas to be well air-conditioned — but there are many sources of heat in restaurant kitchens, making them extremely difficult to cool down. Workers fighting to level these disparities intimately understand the connection between the heat stress they experience indoors and the grueling heat outside, said Yana Kalmyka, a labor organizer. Since 2023, Kalmyka has volunteered with the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee, or EWOC, a project born out of the COVID pandemic to help workers organize in response to the unforeseen public health crisis. EWOC has been especially effective at organizing restaurant and fast-food workers. Those workers “feel that the heat’s getting worse every year. They also know that if it’s really hot and their boss is pushing them to get out orders in 45 seconds, that the quickness they’re forced to move with is going to exacerbate their heat stress,” said Kalmyka, who previously helped organize Starbucks workers in Texas. It isn’t just that restaurants, coffee shops, and fast-casual chains might lack adequate climate control — or that working next to a scalding-hot oven is physically exhausting. If workers are commuting to work during a heat wave, especially if they walk, bike, or rely on public transit, then they are often starting their shifts with some degree of heat exposure. Once they clock in, the conditions increase the chances of health complications. “Unfortunately, this problem is only getting worse,” said Kalmyka, “because on the climate side, we’re not making the kinds of changes we need to be making as a society to prevent extreme heat from getting worse.” In California, employers are now required to offer water breaks and rest areas for indoor workers when the temperature gets above 82 degrees Fahrenheit. However, a new report from the SEIU found that 3 out of 5 fast-food workers reported excessive heat in their restaurants, and nearly half experienced symptoms of heat-related illness. Laura Stock, author of the foreword to the SEIU report, previously served on the Cal/OSHA Standards Board, which establishes the state’s workplace regulations. When the indoor heat rule was being developed, Stock said, workers’ testimonies, including those from fast-food and restaurant workers, demonstrated the need for stronger protections. “It was a tremendous victory to have this regulation passed,” said Stock. “But the only way it has any value is if it’s enforced.” Read Next A long-awaited rule to protect workers from heat stress moves forward, even under Trump Frida Garza In this way, California serves as a kind of test case for the U.S., as the federal government considers a nationwide heat standard for outdoor and indoor workers. Last year, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the federal workplace safety agency, shared a draft text of a proposed rule aimed at shielding workers from heat stress and illness; it includes provisions that advocates have described as necessary and common-sense, such as employers providing access to drinking water and shade, as well as training employees on how to identify signs of heat-related illness. The agency appears to be moving forward with finalizing the rule, although experts worry the Trump administration might stifle the process. It’s in this context that SEIU is organizing, at a time when “​​it’s unclear whether the Trump administration is going to cancel or move ahead with Biden’s good, proposed heat standard,” said Steven Greenhouse, a former labor reporter for The New York Times. The results of SEIU’s survey of fast-food workers suggest that, even in the best-case scenario, well-written laws may be toothless without extensive outreach, education, and enforcement. This presents a problem in California, where Cal/OSHA suffers from staffing shortages. But even if the law were followed perfectly, workers like Guillermina say current regulations, as well-intentioned as they may be, are insufficient when employers value profits over employee safety and comfort. For example, California’s indoor heat rule specifies that employers must provide workers with a cool place to rest when temperatures pass 82 degrees and encourage taking proactive breaks. But Guillermina says resting is often a lost cause at her McDonald’s, where the kitchen is staffed by two or three women at most. “If it’s rush hour, when the restaurant is at its busiest and orders keep coming in, even if the workers are dying of heat, do you think they can stop and take a break?” she said. When indoor temperatures surpass 87 degrees, California’s indoor heat rule does require businesses to slow the pace of production. Still, Guillermina says workers’ health is often an afterthought for bosses. “We’re just a number to them,” she said, “and when we make them money, it comes at great personal cost to our safety.” She says what would really help is if leadership fixed the air conditioning in their kitchen. SEIU’s report found that 4 out of 5 fast-food workers reported problems with their restaurant air-conditioning, and half said management claimed it was “too expensive” to permanently repair these appliances. If good laws are insufficient to protect workers, then the onus falls on advocacy groups to fight for change. “It’s very important to act collectively,” said Stock, adding, “your rights are often easier to protect if you’re working in a group.” Although Guillermina’s store didn’t participate in any Heat Week strikes, she hopes her coworkers can overcome their fear together to raise standards at work. “We have rights, the same as any other workers,” she said, “and we should know that.” This article originally appeared in Grist at https://grist.org/labor/fast-food-workers-dangerous-heat-inside-restaurants/. Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org — This story was produced by The 74, a non-profit, independent news organization focused on education in America. — Subscribe to The Good Men Project Newsletter Email Address * Subscribe If you believe in the work we are doing here at The Good Men Project, please join us as a Premium Member today. All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS. Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here. — Photo credit: iStock.com The post Workers Are Facing Dangerous Heat — Even Inside Fast-Food Restaurants appeared first on The Good Men Project. View the full article

Slovak prime minister has said his country will be the bloc’s lone representative at China’s WWII commemoration Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has criticized other EU countries for skipping China’s World War II commemoration events, calling their absence “embarrassing.” Fico made the remarks before arriving in Beijing on Tuesday, where he met Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and other world leaders. China will stage a grand Victory Parade on Wednesday to mark the 80th anniversary of Imperial Japan’s surrender. The Slovak leader stressed the importance of honoring every “single victim of the struggle against fascism,” adding that he does not understand why Slovakia is the only EU member represented in Beijing. He argued that a “new world order” is taking shape, with fresh rules and a new balance of power that he described as vital for global stability. Joining such discussions, he said, means encouraging dialogue rather than “playing the role of an offended little child,” a stance he accused EU leaders of taking. Fico will join dozens of foreign leaders at the commemorations, including Putin, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Earlier this year, Fico and Vucic traveled to Moscow for the May 9 Victory Day parade on Red Square, marking the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany – a move that drew sharp criticism from some Western officials. China’s war with Imperial Japan, which began in 1937, is estimated to have claimed 15 to 20 million lives, including both soldiers from rival communist and nationalist forces as well as civilians. The Soviet Union lost an estimated 27 million troops and civilians defeating Nazi Germany. View the full article

In episode 20 of the Roadmap to Secure Love podcast, Kim and Kyle unpack a topic that is essential: vulnerability in committed relationships. Prompted by a listener’s request, they explore the challenges men face in embracing vulnerability, particularly when societal messages and past experiences label emotional openness as unattractive. Vulnerability in committed relationships is far from weakness; it is the bridge to authentic connection, the foundation of emotional safety, and the gateway to secure intimacy. However, vulnerability can lose its allure when a relationship becomes one-sided, slipping into an unbalanced caretaking dynamic. Similarly, suppressing emotions to avoid potential pain creates barriers instead of fostering closeness. It’s crucial to remember that vulnerability thrives on trust—not everyone is a safe harbor for your openness. Let’s dive in to explore this. This blog post explores the core insights from episode 20, including why vulnerability is challenging, the benefits it brings to relationships, and practical steps to embrace it with your partner. Why Vulnerability Feels Risky One of the most significant obstacles to vulnerability in committed relationships, especially for men, is the societal pressure to remain emotionally stoic. From a young age, many men are taught that showing emotions equates to weakness, which can lead to the belief that sharing feelings may reduce their partner’s respect or attraction. These beliefs often drive people to hide their true feelings, ultimately creating a barrier to deep emotional connection. When we don’t express our feelings directly, they often surface in indirect behaviors, sending mixed signals that can confuse our partner. I guard myself by not exposing my vulnerabilities, but I also prevent you from being able to really see me and respond to me. Veronica Kallos-Lilly and Jennifer Fitzgerald in An Emotionally Focused Workbook for Couples However, research and real-life experiences in a couples therapy office tell a different story. When partners are open about their fears, insecurities, and needs, it not only fosters understanding but also strengthens the foundation of trust. Kyle notes that vulnerability has the power to break down walls between partners, allowing each person to see and appreciate the full complexity of their loved one. It requires courage but opens the door to a relationship where both partners feel truly known and valued. The Parent-Child Dynamic: An Unexpected Challenge to Attraction An essential aspect of vulnerability is balancing emotional support in a way that avoids an imbalance in the relationship. When one partner leans heavily on the other for emotional support without reciprocating, it can create a parent-child dynamic that erodes eroticism and emotional intimacy. This dynamic often happens in when a person who is being vulnerable and asking for support, does not make space to offer support back. To avoid this pattern, Kim and Kyle recommend that couples aim for mutual vulnerability. This means that both partners feel safe to lean on each other and provide comfort without overburdening one person with constant caretaking. When couples share emotional responsibility, each partner feels respected, valued, and equally invested in the relationship. This balance helps maintain a romantic connection and prevents one partner from feeling like they’re more of a caregiver than an equal. Avoiding Emotions Leads to Distance Avoiding vulnerability in committed relationships doesn’t only prevent connection—it can create emotional distance. When partners repeatedly choose to suppress or ignore their emotions, they begin to lose the authentic connection that once brought them together. Over time, this distance can lead to resentment, misunderstandings, and a feeling of isolation, eroding the very foundation of the relationship. What you and your partner do with your vulnerable feelings actually creates the emotional tone and culture of your relationship. Veronica Kallos-Lilly and Jennifer Fitzgerald in An Emotionally Focused Workbook for Couples Avoiding vulnerability also often pushes partners into counterproductive patterns, such as becoming overly focused on fixing problems rather than understanding emotions. Kim explains that instead of trying to “solve” each other’s feelings, partners should focus on acknowledging and validating each other’s experiences. This simple shift allows for genuine connection and makes it easier for partners to approach each other with empathy and understanding. Emotional Safety as a Cornerstone of Vulnerability Emotional safety is the bedrock of vulnerability. Kim and Kyle emphasize that building emotional safety in relationships involves creating a non-judgmental space where both partners feel they can share without fear of criticism or rejection. When partners feel emotionally safe, they’re more willing to open up, share their insecurities, and express their needs. This level of honesty creates a bond that goes beyond surface-level interactions, allowing couples to navigate life’s challenges together with a sense of unity. Emotional safety also fosters resilience in relationships, making it easier for couples to handle disagreements and difficult conversations. The Power of Vulnerability in Creating Lasting Love Vulnerability is the glue that binds a relationship together. When both partners are willing to be vulnerable, it enhances intimacy, strengthens trust, and builds a foundation of love that can weather life’s storms. Vulnerability isn’t just about sharing difficult emotions; it’s also about celebrating each other’s joys, hopes, and dreams, creating a partnership built on openness and authenticity. Being vulnerable doesn’t mean that each partner has to share every thought or feeling; it’s about creating a space where they feel comfortable sharing when they choose to. It means letting each other see the sides of us that might not be “perfect,” and trusting that our partner will be there for us no matter what. Practical Tips for Embracing Vulnerability in Committed Relationships Embracing vulnerability can feel challenging, but Kim and Kyle provide actionable tips for couples looking to incorporate it into their relationships: Start Small: Begin by sharing something meaningful but not overwhelming. This could be a small worry or a recent personal insight. Starting small helps you and your partner build trust with vulnerability. Practice Active Listening: When your partner shares something vulnerable, listen attentively without interrupting or offering advice. Show empathy by acknowledging their feelings and validating their experience. Create a Safe Space: Agree to make your relationship a safe space for openness. Let your partner know that you’re here to support them, and avoid criticism or judgment when they share. Show Appreciation for Openness: Acknowledge and appreciate each other’s efforts to be vulnerable. A simple “thank you for sharing” can go a long way in encouraging open communication. Be Patient with the Process: Building vulnerability and emotional safety takes time. Be patient with yourself and your partner as you both work to deepen your connection. Vulnerability and Passion Go Hand in Hand A surprising benefit of vulnerability is its impact on physical intimacy. When partners feel emotionally safe and secure, it enhances their romantic connection, allowing them to fully express themselves in every aspect of the relationship. Vulnerability and passion are deeply intertwined; when partners feel they can be themselves without reservation, it fosters a sense of closeness that often leads to a more fulfilling and passionate relationship. Conclusion: Embracing Vulnerability in Committed Relationship Vulnerability may feel intimidating, but as Kim and Kyle reveal in Roadmap to Secure Love, it’s the key to a lasting, fulfilling partnership. By embracing vulnerability and supporting each other emotionally, couples can cultivate a secure, resilient relationship grounded in mutual respect, trust, and understanding. Remember, love grows when both partners feel safe to be their authentic selves. Follow The Roadmap to Secure Love on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube. Sign up for The Secure Attachment Path course to learn practical tools for building secure connections. Until next time, stay connected and keep listening with love. Support my work: Buy me a coffee We won’t send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time. Listen to Previous Episodes Episode 1: Head Vs. Heart Episode 2: Activation Points: Managing Conflict and Intimacy through Attachment Theory Episode 3: From Smoothies to Fruit Salads: Navigating Autonomy and Co-Dependency in Love Episode 4: Secure Sex Episode 5: Navigating Neediness In Relationships: From Ick to Intimacy Episode 6: Rupture to Repair: 5 Steps to Effective Attachment Apologies Episode 7: Own Your Moves: How Taking Responsibility Can Revive Your Relationship Episode 8: Secure Self: Build a Secure Attachment from the Inside Out Episode 9: The Heart That Hears Can Heal: Creating Secure Attachment Episode 10: Shame: The Kryptonite of Secure Relationships Episode 11: Desire Discrepancy: How to Reignite Sexual Connection in Long-Term Relationships Episode 12: Boundaries and Secure Attachment: A Roadmap to Emotional Safety Episode 13: Breaking the Brick Wall: Navigating Stuck Relationships Episode 14: Desire Discrepancy Demystified: How to Thrive with a Higher Libido Episode 15: Reclaiming Erotic Power: A Guide for Low Libido Partners Episode 16: Own Your Pleasure: How Secure Solo Sex Enhances Relationships Episode 17: Overcoming the Tit-for-Tat Trap: The Path to Partnership and Peace Episode 18: Secure Society: Supporting Each Other Through Crisis and Loss Episode 19: Jealousy vs. Envy: How Attachment Styles Shape the Emotions That Make or Break Love Sign up for The Secure Attachment Path course to learn practical tools for building secure connections. FAQ: Episode 20 – Vulnerability in Committed Relationships 1. What is the main topic of Episode 20? Episode 20 focuses on the importance of vulnerability in relationships, exploring why it feels risky, how societal pressures impact it, and how embracing vulnerability can foster trust, intimacy, and emotional safety. 2. Why does vulnerability feel like such a risk in relationships? Vulnerability can feel risky due to societal expectations, past relationship experiences, and upbringing that often associate emotional openness with weakness. Fear of rejection or judgment can make it hard to open up. 3. What are the benefits of vulnerability in relationships? Vulnerability creates a foundation of trust, emotional safety, and deeper intimacy. It allows partners to truly see and understand each other, fostering stronger, more authentic connections. 4. How can vulnerability lead to relationship challenges? Vulnerability can become challenging if it creates an unbalanced dynamic, such as one partner relying heavily on the other without reciprocating emotional support. This imbalance can strain intimacy and connection. 5. How can couples cultivate vulnerability in their relationship? Start by creating a safe space for open communication, practicing active listening, and sharing emotions gradually. Mutual vulnerability and support help build trust and intimacy over time. 6. Does vulnerability play a role in physical intimacy? Yes, vulnerability enhances physical intimacy by fostering emotional safety and closeness. When partners feel secure in expressing themselves, it often deepens their romantic and physical connection. 7. What are some practical tips to embrace vulnerability in relationships? • Begin with small, meaningful shares. • Practice active listening without judgment. • Show appreciation for your partner’s openness. • Create a safe, non-critical space for sharing. • Be patient with yourself and your partner. 8. Who is this episode for? This episode is for anyone looking to strengthen their relationship through deeper connection, whether navigating new love or maintaining a long-term partnership. 9. What is the key takeaway from Episode 20? Vulnerability isn’t a weakness; it’s a powerful tool for building trust, emotional safety, and intimacy in committed relationships. Embracing it can transform your connection and create a more secure and fulfilling partnership. — Previously Published on kylebenson.net and is republished on Medium. — Subscribe to The Good Men Project Newsletter Email Address * Subscribe If you believe in the work we are doing here at The Good Men Project, please join us as a Premium Member today. All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS. Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here. — Photo credit: iStock The post Vulnerability in Committed Relationships appeared first on The Good Men Project. View the full article

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church was previously designated an entity linked to Russia, but has refused to “correct violations” Ukrainian authorities have filed a case with the country’s top administrative court to have the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) legally dissolved. Late last month, the country’s State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience declared Ukraine’s largest Christian denomination an entity linked to Russia. Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022, Vladimir Zelensky’s government has taken an increasingly hard line against the UOC, seizing several of its properties and opening criminal cases against a number of its clerics. During a press briefing on Tuesday, Viktor Elenski, the head of Ukraine’s State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience, announced that the lawsuit had been launched last Friday. He said that after the church refused to comply with the authorities’ demands, “a decision was made that the UOC should not be considered a part of Ukraine’s religious life.” He added that the church had filed several counter-lawsuits. The UOC has been self-governing since the 1990s, but maintained a canonical connection to the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) In May 2022, it declared independence. Nevertheless, late last month the Ukrainian authorities found the UOC to be associated with a “foreign religious organization whose activities are banned in Ukraine.” Metropolitan Onufry, the highest bishop of the UOC and whose Ukrainian citizenship was revoked last month by Zelensky, has refused to comply with the government’s order to “correct violations.” Commenting on the latest developments, Russia’s ambassador-at-large, Rodion Miroshnik, told TASS on Tuesday that the “Ukrainian authorities have made up a pseudo-legal mechanism for destroying the Orthodox church they hate… trampling on the religious feelings of millions upon millions of Ukrainians.” Outspoken Russian MP Vitaly Milonov told RT that the Ukrainian authorities’ decision was “one of the signs of the impending Apocalypse.” The UN and several international human rights organizations have accused Kiev of overreach and interfering with freedom of religion due to its actions against the UOC. Speaking in May, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov vowed that Moscow “will not leave the Orthodox people of Ukraine in trouble.” “These acts are being carried out with the connivance and even support of many European countries,” he stated. View the full article

Some 40,000 reservists are reportedly expected to be called up for the offensive Tens of thousands of Israeli reservists have begun reporting for duty as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) prepares for a new offensive to take full control of Gaza City, The Jerusalem Post reported on Tuesday. Israeli Army Radio said about 40,000 reservists were expected to be called up. The renewed pressure from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his security cabinet to speed up the operation reportedly has faced pushback from the military. During a heated cabinet meeting on Sunday, IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir called for a ceasefire deal, warning that the campaign could endanger hostages still held in Gaza and overextend the army, the Post wrote. According to officials present, the IDF said it cannot begin the operation for at least two months due to logistical and humanitarian concerns, as more time is needed for aid to civilians in Gaza, where starvation has spread. This follows similar exchanges between Zamir and Netanyahu’s cabinet last month, when the prime minister ordered the military to speed up the timetable for taking what he describes as Hamas’ last bastion. Some reservists have also voiced frustration with the government’s plan, Reuters reports. Surveys cited by the outlet have shown notable dissatisfaction within the ranks, with some citing the lack of a clear strategy for victory. “I don’t feel like I'm doing anything that really applies significant pressure to have Hamas release the hostages,” one combat reservist told Reuters, speaking anonymously. Israel launched the latest Gaza City operation last month, targeting Hamas command centers, weapons caches, and tunnel networks embedded in civilian areas. Over 1,000 buildings have been demolished, which has left hundreds trapped under rubble and thousands without homes, according to the Palestinian authorities. Israel has said the operation is necessary for national security, and that the goal is to eliminate Hamas infrastructure. The conflict began on October 7, 2023, after the militant group led an attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people and took 250 hostages. Around 50 remain in captivity. Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 62,000 people have been killed and about 156,000 wounded in Israeli strikes since then. View the full article

By John P. Ruehl This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute. Home to almost 70 percent of Fortune 500 companies, Delaware’s reputation as America’s “corporate capital” has faced challenges in recent years. Tesla’s and SpaceX’s high-profile exits to Texas in 2024 highlighted other cracks in Delaware’s seamless relationship with large corporations, compounded by other states jockeying to attract businesses. Delaware’s government has launched a legislative charm offensive in response, passing several amendments in March 2025, which have eased restrictions on insider deals and reinforced the state’s commitments to low taxes and a business-friendly legal framework. Corporations can be created in minutes almost anywhere, yet all share a core identity as legal entities with rights and responsibilities. Over time, they have replaced religious institutions and political parties as the most powerful actors in society, largely shaping what we consume, how we work, and influencing behavior and social norms. Their modern form traces back to 17th-century charters, with roots in Roman law. Though often tools of the state, global corporations have proven capable of operating across borders and legal systems, developing unprecedented sovereignty and power. The benefits of corporations, including lower prices from scale, capital-driven innovation and efficiency, and global reach, have been undermined by the relentless accumulation of financial assets, particularly in the West. Short-term gains often supersede long-term value and sustainability, and despite stronger regulation on paper, modern corporations operate with greater independence from the state and increasingly avoid public accountability. The basic model behind them remains intact, with core legal principles like limited liability and separate legal personality, stemming from early corporate charters from the 1600s and fully developed by the 1800s, still forming the corporate foundation despite enormous growth in their scale and influence. Over the years, calls for democratic renewal and institutional imagination have been mounting, pointing to a long-overdue rethinking of corporate power. Building up to and Defining the Corporation Before modern corporations, societies around the world developed institutions to pool capital and dilute risk for trade, construction, and investment. In the Roman Republic, societas publicanorum had transferable shares (partes), professional managers, and central offices, and bid on state contracts for tax collection and infrastructure. However, Roman law allowed any partner to dissolve the business at will, limiting their longevity, and these types of partnerships faded under the empire’s centralized bureaucracy. After 313 CE, following the Edict of Milan, which legalized Christianity, the Catholic Church gained legal standing that helped it become one of Europe’s first enduring corporate-like entities. By the eighth century, European monarchs began issuing charters that bestowed privileges to monasteries, universities, towns, and tax collection, while guilds of merchants and artisans also emerged in the 11th century. This century also saw the emergence of the commenda in Italy, which allowed passive investors to fund merchant voyages for a share of the profits, an early form of limited liability that spread across Europe. Family banking dynasties from Florence emerged in the 14th and 15th centuries, building pan-European financial networks and eventually expanding to other industries like mining and manufacturing. Similar models developed globally. The commenda is believed to be inspired by Islamic qirad partnerships that began in the sixth century, where one party provided the capital and the other conducted trade. Beginning in the 1600s, large family firms in China thrived with imperial support. Maritime guilds thrived in Southeast Asian port cities like Majapahit and Srivijaya. Still, it was in Europe, where Roman and Canon Law fused, that legal innovation evolved most dramatically and took on the modern corporate form by the 17th century. Before the rise of modern corporations, most businesses were family-run shops, temporary partnerships, or informal arrangements that lacked legal separation from their owners. What earlier institutions lacked was the five features defining the modern corporation; representation allowing designated agents to act on behalf of the firm without binding investors; entity-shielding protecting corporate assets from the debts of investors; capital lock-in preventing investors from pulling funds or forcing liquidation; transferable shares letting investors exit without disrupting operations; and limited liability ensuring investors aren’t personally responsible for corporate debts. The most foundational corporate characteristic is a legal personality, the ability to exist separately from its owners, with its own rights and responsibilities. From the Latin corpus (“body”), this concept lends context to former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s controversial 2011 remark that “corporations are people.” These features enable corporations to attract capital, own property, sign contracts, and avoid dissolution with membership changes. They vary widely from public to private, with tradable or restricted shares, and can be state-owned, profit-driven, or mission-based. But nearly all corporations share these core traits, which have been used by some to build the most flexible, powerful, and enduring institutions ever created. The Dutch and British East India Trading Companies The Dutch East India Company (VOC), founded in 1602, is widely considered the first modern multinational corporation. Though joint-stock ventures had existed earlier (mostly as short-term partnerships for single voyages), the VOC stood apart by introducing permanent capital, tradable shares, and a form of limited liability, attracting strong investment. As maritime trade and colonialism expanded over the previous century, long-term capital was increasingly required for risky, lucrative ventures in spices, textiles, and tea. The VOC met this demand by locking in investment, limiting shareholder exposure, and providing an orderly way to exit. Backed by the Dutch state, it merged competing firms into a single entity with centralized management, enabling it to scale up with unprecedented freedom. Dutch political institutions also played a role in the VOC’s power. As a new republic, the Netherlands offered investors protection from royal interference. Unlike other European countries where royal families funded and closely monitored colonial expeditions, the VOC operated with more autonomy. It received a perpetual charter and became the first company listed on a stock exchange, and was empowered to sign treaties, raise armies, and wage war, all while shielding shareholders from personal accountability. Despite collapsing in 1799 due to debt and corruption, it pioneered a corporate form unlike anything before. Two years before the VOC’s founding, its counterpart, the English East India Company (EIC), was formed in 1600. The EIC didn’t obtain permanent capital until 1657 and was slower to adopt liquidity. But the English Civil War curbed royal power after 1657, allowing it to evolve in ways that mirrored the VOC. The Bank of England, founded as a corporation in 1694, helped stabilize credit lines and made it easier for the EIC and other corporations to raise capital. The EIC eventually came to colonize and rule large parts of India, establishing a civil service and even clashing militarily with the VOC. Yet its power drew intense scrutiny. Following the Bengal Famine of 1770, the English parliament passed the Regulating Act of 1773 and Pitt’s India Act of 1784, curbing the EIC’s powers. The company was finally dissolved in 1874. “In 1857, the Indians rose in revolt against high-handed and oppressive Company rule… The Company lost all its administrative powers following the Government of India Act of 1858, and its Indian possessions and armed forces were taken over by the Crown. … The East India Company itself was formally dissolved by Act of Parliament in 1874,” according to the UK Parliament website. Though the VOC’s model was emulated by the EIC and influenced commercial ventures elsewhere in Europe, such corporations remained a form of special incorporation granted by state charter, not open to anyone. This exclusivity began to loosen over time, but the South Sea Bubble crash of 1720, seen as the first major financial crash, triggered fears of economic instability and unchecked corporate power. In response, governments reimposed strict controls, requiring corporations to obtain specific approval and follow stringent guidelines. Corporations proved essential during Britain’s industrial revolution, which began in the late 1700s. To support economic growth, parliament introduced reforms: the Joint Stock Companies Regulation and Registration Act of 1844 allowed businesses to register without special legislation, while the Limited Liability Act of 1855 extended legal protections to shareholders. These reforms, combined with Britain’s access to capital markets and imperial power, kick-started rapid corporate expansion in Europe. Arriving late to maritime trade, the Dutch and English drove corporate innovation to keep up with other European powers. Politicians supported corporate growth, benefiting from lucrative shares in the monopolies they helped create. But the VOC and EIC demonstrated the promise and peril of corporations. They could generate wealth and wield power beyond what states alone could achieve, but they also bred corruption and posed political threats. European leaders, therefore, aimed to harness the benefits of corporations while limiting their power by closely tying them to government control. The United States and the Modern Corporate Form Early British joint-stock companies like the Virginia Company planted the first corporate seeds in North America in the early 17th century. But while European models like the VOC and EIC inspired early colonial enterprises, the corporate form developed more slowly in the U.S. after independence, in both scale and structure. Shaped by a deep-rooted “distrust” of monopolies and state-chartered privilege, and wary of corporations as instruments of elite power and financial instability, many Americans didn’t trust companies that had special deals with the government. Instead, they preferred smaller, more personal business models like family-run shops, partnerships between a few people, or joint-stock ventures where people pooled money but didn’t have the legal structure of modern corporations that offered them protections. The early U.S. enterprises also lacked strong, centralized authority and consistent legal protections, especially for property and contracts, and many investors in states like Florida, Texas, and California avoided corporate structures until they were included in the U.S. Constitution. Yet this decentralized system ultimately gave corporations room to grow. Without strong federal control, states competed to attract businesses by loosening incorporation requirements. New York led with the first general incorporation law for manufacturers in 1811, with other states soon following and expanding the scope of the law. The vast, unexploited North American landmass and push for industrialization made the corporate structure increasingly attractive, further aided by America’s quicker and widespread adoption of limited liability and lighter state oversight compared to Europe. While state legislatures tried to regulate corporations with rules on capitalization, voting rights, and director terms, these measures proved mostly ineffective. Corporations amassed enormous influence, with “company towns” illustrating their growing control over local economies and governance. Corporate imperialism returned under an American banner, with the United Fruit Company, which controlled enormous banana plantations in Central America and used its political influence to overthrow governments. These towns still exist in some shape or form today. “The original coal and textile towns in America are now largely ghostly, but places like Hershey and Corning, New York, which were invigorated by the Corning glass company, are still going strong. Plus, as the LA Times writes, businesses such as Google and Facebook today are providing housing, amenities, and transportation for their workers—meaning that while we think of company towns in sepia tones, they’re also in digital blue,” states Smithsonian magazine. In The Visible Hand, Alfred D. Chandler Jr. suggests that the dominance of American corporations by the 20th century was due to their managerial hierarchies rather than entrepreneurs, which provided them with stability, coordination, and centralized planning. This is partly supported in The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea, which argues that robber barons were replaced by “the faceless manager” and the multidivisional firm. By the 1930s, legal scholar Adolf A. Berle and economist Gardiner C. Means, whose work shaped modern corporate governance theory, warned that dispersed shareholders had lost control to entrenched managers and called for reforms in corporate oversight. The 1919 Dodge v. Ford case had already enshrined shareholder primacy in U.S. law, declaring that directors must prioritize shareholder profits. But rather than democratizing ownership, the rise of institutional investors, like pension and mutual funds, and other financial giants, further concentrated power among select shareholders. By the end of the 20th century, globalization offered American corporations, as well as others, a platform to dominate beyond natural borders. The American corporate model became the ruling template in a worldwide ecosystem, largely controlled by shareholder interests and executive compensation tied to quarterly earnings pressures. The Growing Power of Corporations Over time, corporations have become the dominant business entities. Despite only representing 18 percent of U.S. businesses, corporations generate nearly 82 percent of all revenues. Around 20,000 large corporations employ as many people as the 31.7 million small businesses, according to the 2024 data provided by payment processor company Clearly Payments. Many of them now function as monopolies or organized cartels. In the 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission case, the Supreme Court affirmed that corporations have First Amendment rights, including the right to “use money amassed from the economic marketplace to fund their speech.” Borderless by design, major corporations drive a race to the bottom for cheap international labor and pass sustainability costs onto consumers. Countries often lack the strength to rein them in, and where they can, corporations simply exploit tax havens and flexible jurisdictions. As economist Lynn A. Stout observed, outdated yet profitable business practices like shareholder primacy are hard to shake. Accountability and sustainability appear largely ignored, with corporations long prioritizing profit over public safety. Asbestos manufacturers suppressed evidence of its deadly health effects to keep selling their products. Tobacco firms knowingly misled the public about cancer risks for decades. Purdue Pharma, owned by the Sackler family, used its LLC status and shell corporations to dodge accountability for the opioid crisis. According to an Associated Press investigation, “the Sacklers’ wealth is shielded in a web of companies and trusts, some registered in offshore tax havens far from Purdue’s Connecticut headquarters,” states a 2019 article by CBS News. Calls for corporate responsibility have grown as the power of corporations has increased. The corporate social responsibility movement began with philanthropy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and resurged in the 1970s. Beginning in the mid-2000s, ESG and stakeholder activism sought to revive this initiative, but became politicized and have waned, even as corporate influence continues to grow. As “universal owners” of the economy, institutional investors like BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street control vast shares and command corporate influence. While it was hoped their broad holdings would make them stewards of the economy, short-term thinking and weak oversight continue to limit meaningful action like prioritizing long-term sustainability, fair labor practices, and avoiding hoarding wealth. Corporations are wielding new tools of dominance through AI and digital technologies. “Companies such as Walmart, Tyson Foods, Koch Industries, Maersk, Siemens, and Unilever are using AI tools to swiftly find and engage with alternative suppliers during unexpected disruptions. They are also employing AI tools to pre-qualify suppliers ahead of time. These AI tools provide buyers with enhanced information that allows them to beat their competitors in securing alternate sources of supplies,” points out a Harvard Business Review 2023 article. They can also deflect accountability through PR campaigns, obscure controversies through complex supply chains and legal structures, and offload responsibility to subsidiaries, contractors, or consumers. Combined with the growing use of private military and security contractors, some modern corporations operating in unstable or contested regions are regaining a degree of coercive power reminiscent of the colonial-era trading giants. The core problem is that while we retain some voice in the political system, that influence doesn’t extend to massive corporate structures. “Voting with our wallets” offers little power when essential services are dominated by a handful of interconnected firms. Reform While the corporate model dominates, alternatives continue to evolve. In early 20th-century China, corporate law was weakly enforced, and corporations were uncommon. Today, China exerts control over both state-owned and private corporations, embedding Chinese Communist Party officials into corporate governance. This hybrid model places corporate activity under tighter oversight, supported in part by nationwide social credit scores for all companies. President Teddy Roosevelt promoted trust-busting as the solution to corporate abuse by big business, but as economist Lawrence Mitchell notes, the prior era of fierce competition among smaller companies was also disastrous. He identified the real problem of states competing for corporate charters in a “race to the bottom,” a danger that Justice Louis Brandeis also noted in 1933. Roosevelt even acknowledged in 1902 that only the federal government could properly regulate interstate corporations, which Mitchell supports. So, how should governments regulate monopolies? Some countries have taken a more open approach to consolidation. The German government, for example, legalized collusion and cartel formation to control prices and output in ways that serve national interests, actively encouraging the attempted merger of Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank since 2019. Cooperatives offer another path. The first successful cooperative, the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers, was founded in 1844 in the UK, championing democratic control, open membership, and profit-sharing. In Spain, the Mondragon Corporation, a federation of worker-owned cooperatives founded in 1956, has become the “leading business project in the Basque Country and one of the largest corporations in Spain.” Rather than lay off workers, Mondragon often reallocates them across its network. New reformist approaches are also emerging in Europe. France’s 2019 PACTE Act allows companies to define a social purpose beyond profit, embedding missions into corporate charters and expanding employee influence in mergers and executive oversight. Economist Mariana Mazzucato has promoted this mission-driven model as part of her vision for innovation-led governance. In the U.S., Delaware’s recent legislative push is part of a broader effort challenging shareholder primacy, notably since the 2019 Business Roundtable, where top CEOs pledged to serve all stakeholders. Delaware and other American states already allow businesses to register as benefit corporations (B-corps), balancing profits with goals like environmental protection or community development. Existing corporations can convert by amending their founding documents. CHS Inc., a major agricultural cooperative ranked 115th on the Forbes 500 list in 2025, meanwhile, demonstrates how cooperative principles still have traction in the country. It has emerged as one of the “largest farmer-owned cooperatives in the world.” Digital finance is also leading to experimentation in how businesses are owned and operated. Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), for example, are blockchain-based communities with decentralized governance that make decisions by vote. Aiming for transparency and shared control, they face clear hurdles. Unclear legal status has slowed adoption, while security flaws, including a major 2016 breach, have seen millions stolen due to a code exploit. Governance challenges include low participation, power centralization, and slow decision-making. “In some high-profile DAOs, the majority of governance tokens are often held by the founders and early investors, which can skew decision outcomes in favor of their interests rather than the broader community,” states a blog by Colony, a platform providing a framework for DAOs. Not all innovation prioritizes the public good. The “Network State” concept, coined by tech entrepreneur Balaji Srinivasan, envisions venture-backed private cities, colonies, and zones across the U.S., Latin America, Africa, and beyond. These digital-first enclaves aim for diplomatic recognition and eventual sovereignty through special economic zones, framing private microstates as expressions of libertarian freedom. Efforts to reduce shareholder power can also backfire by merely concentrating power in the hands of corporate managers rather than all stakeholders. Elon Musk is a clear example; by retaining large ownership stakes, employing dual-class shares, and keeping firms like X, Tesla, and SpaceX private or under holding structures, he has shielded himself from shareholder influence while consolidating control. The planned incorporation of Starbase, Texas, a township effectively governed by SpaceX, demonstrates how this management style can dovetail with Network State ambitions. Born in the Dutch Republic, matured in England, and transformed by the United States, the march of the modern corporation has proven remarkably resilient over the centuries. Hudson’s Bay Company, founded in 1670 as an English trading giant like the EIC, once controlled vast swaths of North America and now exists as a retail chain. Corporate power in general, however, continues to expand. After early overreach by the VOC and EIC prompted containment efforts, corporations have resurged through globalization, financialization, and advances in technology. Short-term profit maximization is seen as natural, with structures geared away from wider stakeholder responsibility. Many firms resist direct governance to escape the negative optics of being seen as too powerful, which would bring more scrutiny and accountability. Yet some corporations have grown so large that they have become pillars of modern society and carry significant responsibility, even if they do not openly acknowledge it. Without altering their growing influence, the future will be shaped less by democratic will through established channels and more by concentrated, private authority. — Previously Published on Resilience and reprinted with permission *** Does dating ever feel challenging, awkward or frustrating? Turn Your Dating Life into a WOW! with our new classes and live coaching. Click here for more info or to buy with special launch pricing! *** On Substack? Follow us there for more great dating and relationships content. Join The Good Men Project as a Premium Member today. All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS. A $50 annual membership gives you an all access pass. You can be a part of every call, group, class and community. A $25 annual membership gives you access to one class, one Social Interest group and our online communities. A $12 annual membership gives you access to our Friday calls with the publisher, our online community. 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Username Email First Name Last Name Password Password Again Choose your subscription level Dating Masterclass - $999.00 - unlimited Dating Masterclass: How to Date and Create Satisfying and Lasting Love and Sexi in this Crazy, Modern World 5 Ways to Build Confidence - $99.00 - unlimited 5 Ways to Build Confidence and Make Meeting and Dating Women Less Nerve-Wracking Monthly Platinum - free - unlimited Monthly - $6.99 - 1 Month Yearly - $50.00 - 1 Year Sponsored Columnist Annual - $1,250.00 - 1 Year Sponsored Columnist Monthly - $150.00 - 1 Month Annual Platinum - $50.00 - 1 Year Annual Gold - $25.00 - 1 Year Monthly Gold - $20.00 - 1 Month Annual Bronze - $12.00 - 1 Year Credit / Debit Card PayPal Choose Your Payment Method Auto Renew By completing this registration form, you are also agreeing to our Terms of Service which can be found here. — Photo: unsplash The post Questioning the Corporation appeared first on The Good Men Project. View the full article

By Leo Babauta One of the questions I get asked a lot is how to choose what to do. It seems like a simple question, but for most people, it’s actually not simple at all. In fact, it’s an overwhelming question! What gets in the way: A thousand things on my list A never-ending pile of emails and messages to answer A thousand browser tabs open Ten thousand things to do in my daily life (finances, cooking, shopping, cleaning, etc.) Interruptions and new demands on my time Things never go according to plan Projects, books, courses, and more that are waiting for me to start (or continue) them As you can see, it’s not so simple to choose. No wonder people get stuck on the question. The way to work with this, though, is pretty simple. In fact, usually too simple for most people, who hear the advice and then don’t tend to heed it. Here’s what I recommend: Make a long list of everything you need to do, pulling from emails and projects and browser tabs and more. This can be overwhelming, but it really helps to put everything down so you feel you’ve got it all. This list isn’t to be finished, just a place to pull from for your short list (below). Btw, I like to start with a fresh piece of paper or digital note for this list, when things feel out of hand. Make a short list of 3–5 things you need to do first. How do you decide? Listen to your gut. There’s no right answer, so practice choosing from your gut. Pick one thing from the short list and focus on it exclusively. Let it be your entire world. This is a pretty simple and flexible system, because if something comes up that interrupts you, you can decide whether to put it on the long list, the short list, or to make it the one thing you’re focusing on right now. Decide that from the gut as well. With practice, you get good at choosing from the gut. Take some time every week to get the long list updated. Also take some time to clear out some of the smaller tasks that pile up. Take some time at the end of each day (or beginning) to make your short list. If you finish the short list, give yourself the chance to do some of the smaller things. That’s the simple system! Give it a wholehearted try and see how it goes. If choosing what to do feels overwhelming, if your mind gets tangled in uncertainty, second-guessing, or pressure to get it right — you’re not alone. In Fearless Living Academy, we practice something different: trusting ourselves in the choosing. Taking action even when it feels imperfect. Returning to what calls for our focus, again and again. Join us and build this practice with the support of a community that’s committed to doing the same. — Previously published on zenhabits *** Photo credit: unsplash — — Subscribe to The Good Men Project Newsletter Email Address * Subscribe If you believe in the work we are doing here at The Good Men Project, please join us as a Premium Member today. All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS. Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here. The post How to Choose What to Do appeared first on The Good Men Project. View the full article

By Deyatima Ghosh Crows and other corvids exhibit remarkable intelligence — including tool use, problem-solving, memory and even social awareness — challenging long-held assumptions that such cognitive abilities are exclusive to humans or primates. Scientific research and experiments, some inspired by popular fables about clever crows, show that these birds understand cause and effect, plan for the future, and adapt their behavior based on context, environment and who’s watching. Urban crows thrive due to cognitive flexibility, as shown in an ongoing experimental project in India, which highlights their strategic foraging, memory and ability to learn and adapt in human-dominated environments. This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay. Corvus splendens — Corvus meaning ‘raven’ in Latin and splendens meaning ‘shining’ or ‘brilliance’ — is a fitting name for the strikingly intelligent birds that house crows are. Crows have long captured human imagination, perhaps most famously in Aesop’s classic fable The Thirsty Crow. In the story, a clever crow finds a pitcher with water too low to reach and solves the problem by dropping pebbles into it, raising the water level until its beak can reach it. For centuries, this tale was seen as mere folklore with a moral: Persistence and intelligence are the key to success — an example of human storytelling rather than avian truth. But, the science of animal cognition, particularly through the pioneering work of researchers such as Sara Shettleworth, Canadian experimental psychologist and zoologist, began to challenge those assumptions. Shettleworth and others asked: what if these stories held a kernel of truth? Could animals like crows really think through problems, use tools, and even plan ahead? As research progressed, especially within the field of comparative cognition, scientists began to uncover astonishing evidence that corvids — like crows, ravens, jays and jackdaws — possess advanced mental abilities. Experiments inspired by the fable, in which real crows were presented with water-filled tubes and objects to drop in, showed that New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides) dropped stones into water-filled tubes rather than sand-filled ones, chose sinking objects over floating ones, preferred solid to hollow materials, and even targeted tubes with higher water levels — choices that suggest a clear understanding of how their actions would affect the water level, hence food. This was a glimpse into a mind capable of understanding cause and effect, using tools, and perhaps even imagining future outcomes. Crows are street smart. In Davis, California, crows adjust the height from which they drop walnuts based on the nut type — researchers observed harder black walnuts were dropped from higher up than the softer English walnuts, which they chose to drop on pavement rather than on soil. They also seemed to factor in social risks: When fewer rival crows were nearby, they flew higher before dropping nuts, minimizing theft. These behaviors highlight the crows’ ability to make smart, flexible decisions based on context and experience. Corvids are also masterful hoarders, caching not just food but also stones, nesting materials and colorful objects. Among them, the Clark’s nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana) stands out: Each autumn, it hides over 30,000 pinyon pine seeds across thousands of sites to prepare for the long winter. Remarkably, these birds can recover their cached seeds even nine months later. Their secret lies in sophisticated spatial memory: They navigate using stable, vertical landmarks, such as trees and rocks — features that remain visible despite snow or shifting terrain. This strategy reveals not just memory, but foresight and an ecological intelligence finely tuned to survival in a changing landscape. Scrub jays (Aphelocoma genus), which were referred to as ‘nature’s psychologists’ by English neuropsychologist Nicholas Keynes Humphrey, employ several cache protection strategies at the time of caching, all of which appear to reduce pilferage — or theft by other animals — by minimizing the amount of visual information available to the observer. Ravens (Corvus genus) are masters of covert caching, often choosing ‘out-of-view’ spots to stash their food when conspecifics are nearby. However, when those neighbors are distracted, ravens seem to abandon their usual secrecy and cache openly. Rooks (Corvus frugilegus), on the other hand, offer an intriguing twist: They show little concern when other nearby rooks are also caching. But if a rook without a nut lands nearby, the cacher immediately suspends its activity, grabs its nut, and waits for the newcomer to leave. This behavior suggests that some corvids don’t just respond to who’s watching, but they can also measure the observer’s attentional state as well. In other words, cache protection strategies depend not only on the presence of potential pilferers but also on whether those pilferers are paying attention. Research has shown that these birds can recall the specifics of past caching events: what they hid, where they hid it, when they did it, and even who might have been watching at the time. This remarkable ability to mentally replay past events referred to as ‘mental time travel,’ believed to be unique to humans, checks all the boxes for what scientists call episodic memory. The full ‘what-where-when’ in episodic-like memory has yet to be convincingly demonstrated in non-human primates. In the intelligence stakes, crows are not just keeping up with the primates. Understanding how birds like house crows engage in complex cognitive tasks not only challenges long-standing assumptions about the uniqueness of human or primate cognition but also opens up new avenues for conservation biology and urban ecology. Insight into how corvids remember, plan and adapt can inform conservation strategies, particularly for species living in fragmented or human-altered landscapes. In urban environments, where crows often thrive, their problem-solving skills such as utilizing anthropogenic wastes as building materials for their nests, using poles for hiding food, exploiting human food, and social awareness may serve as indicators of how wildlife adapts cognitively to anthropogenic change. In India, a project studying the survival of urban crows in the cities — called the Cawgnition Project, initiated at the Animal Behaviour and Cognition in Conservation (ABCC) research laboratory in the Centre for Urban Ecology, Biodiversity, Evolution and Climate Change (CUBEC) at Jain University, Bangalore, with Amrit Pritam Mohanty and Shubhrajyoti Adhikary from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) — arrives at a pivotal moment in urban ecology research. It seeks to answer a compelling question: “What makes crows so extraordinarily successful in urban environments?” Preliminary results point to remarkable cognitive flexibility and problem-solving abilities in house crows. In controlled experiments, these birds consistently chose their favorite food rewards, even when easier options were readily available, showing persistence, discernment and goal-directed behaviors. This cognitive sophistication likely plays a key role in their ability to accept and evaluate anthropogenic food sources, which suggests that crows not only adapt to human environments but also learn about new food opportunities through experience and experimentation. In many ways, this validates what folklore has long suggested: the classic ‘thirsty crow’ fable. Current research-based observations like the Cawgnition Project offer a modern scientific lens through which to view this age-old story, showing that urban crows don’t just survive, they strategize, persist and show striking intelligence; they thrive, indicating rapid adaptability in human-dominated habitats. Another intriguing observation by a student at CUBEC documented a house crow engaging in strategic food caching. The bird was seen discreetly hiding a piece of meat when other family members were not present and later returning to it once the area was clear to retrieve the now-dried meat. This behavior showcases not only foresight and memory but also a keen sense of social awareness, adding to the growing evidence of cognitive sophistication in corvids. By engaging with novel food items — from chips in discarded packages to hidden caches — they exemplify how cognitive traits underpin success in anthropogenic landscapes. Studying animal cognition reveals the ingenious ways wildlife — birds, mammals, reptiles, insects — adapt to thrive in human-altered environments. It uncovers how animals like crows use memory, innovation and flexibility to make the most of available resources. In a rapidly changing world, understanding these minds helps us better protect the ecosystems we share. Banner image: A jackdaw feeds from a vareity of food in bowls. Image by Ralphs_Fotos via Pixabay (Public domain). Deyatima Ghosh is an assistant professor at the Centre for Urban Ecology, Biodiversity, Evolution and Climate Change (CUBEC), JAIN (Deemed-to-be) University, India. Citations: Jelbert, S.A., Taylor, A.H., Cheke, L.G., Clayton, N.S., & Gray, R.D. (2014). Using the Aesop’s fable paradigm to investigate causal understanding of water displacement by New Caledonian crows. PLoS One, 26, 9(3):e92895. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0092895 Cristol, D.A., Switzer, P.V., Johnson, K. L., & Walke, L. S. (1997). Crows do not use automobiles as nutcrackers: Putting an anecdote to the test. The Auk, 114(2), 296–298. doi:10.2307/4089135 Bednekoff, P.A. & Balda, R.P. (2014). Clark’s nutcracker spatial memory: The importance of large, structural cues. Behavioural Processes, 102, 12-17. doi:10.1016/j.beproc.2013.12.004 Bugnyar, T. & Kotrschal, K. (2002). Observational learning and the raiding of food caches in ravens, Corvus corax: is it ‘tactical’ deception? Animal Behaviour, 64, 185–195. doi:10.1006/anbe.2002.3056 Heinrich, B. & Pepper, J. (1998). Influence of competitors on caching behaviour in the common raven, Corvus corax. Animal Behaviour, 56, 1083–1090. doi: 10.1006/anbe.1998.0906 Kalla¨nder, H. (1978). Hoarding in the rook (Corvus frugilegus). Answer Supplement, 3, 124–128. Clayton, N. S., & Dickinson, A. (1998). Episodic-like memory during cache recovery by scrub jays. Nature, 395, 272–274. doi:10.1038/26216 Clayton, N. S., Griffiths, D. P., Emery, N. J., & Dickinson, A. (2003). Elements of episodic memory in animals. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 358(1435), 1481–1491. doi:10.1098/rstb.2003.1336 Dally, J. M., Emery, N. J., & Clayton, N. S. (2006). Food-caching western scrub-jays keep track of who was watching when. Science, 312(5780), 1662–1665. doi:10.1126/science.1126539 — Previously Published on news.mongabay with Creative Commons Attribution — Subscribe to The Good Men Project Newsletter Email Address * Subscribe If you believe in the work we are doing here at The Good Men Project, please join us as a Premium Member today. All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS. Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here. — Photo credit: iStock.com The post Are Crows Really Street Smart? Science Confirms the Genius of Corvids (Commentary) appeared first on The Good Men Project. View the full article

West Jerusalem used to have the “strongest lobby,” but its power has dwindled, the US president has said Israel previously had “total control” over the US Congress, and it was impossible for someone speaking “badly” of the Jewish state to be in politics, US President Donald Trump has said. Trump said that in an exclusive interview with the Daily Caller published on Monday, repeatedly stating that Israel used to have the “strongest lobby I’ve ever seen” in the US. “If you go back 20 years. I mean, I will tell you, Israel had the strongest lobby in Congress of anything or body, or of any company or corporation or state that I’ve ever seen. Israel was the strongest. Today, it doesn’t have that strong a lobby. It’s amazing,” Trump explained. There was a time where you couldn’t speak bad, if you wanted to be a politician, you couldn’t speak badly [of Israel]. Times have changed, and US politics now has all sorts of critics of Israel, namely “AOC plus three” and “all these lunatics,” Trump added. The US president referred to the so-called ‘Squad’, an informal progressive left-wing faction of the Democratic Caucus in the US House, originally composed of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib, known for their strong anti-Israel stance. The conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, prompted by a surprise assault on southern Israel mounted by the Palestinian group on October 7, 2023, has further eroded West Jerusalem’s influence in the US, Trump suggested. “They may be winning the war, but they’re not winning the world of public relations, you know, and it is hurting them,” he said. At the same time, Trump praised himself for what he had done for Israel, claiming that “nobody has done more” for the country. The US president said Israel was “amazing” since he has been enjoying “good support” from them in return as well. View the full article

We all like to imagine that we are rational adults, capable of handling our affairs with poise and firmness. Yet when it comes to ending a relationship, many of us suddenly resemble timid interns trying to tell the boss we accidentally erased the company’s entire financial database. We know we want out, we fantasize about escape routes, and yet the moment of truth keeps slipping away. There we are, holding our breath, inventing new deadlines like “after the holidays,” “after their birthday,” or “after my next reincarnation.” The great paradox is that we are often less afraid of a lifetime of mediocrity than of one single hour of sobbing, wailing, and tissue pyramids. We imagine ourselves not as people pursuing personal fulfillment, but as potential destroyers of civilizations. In our melodramatic inner cinema, our partner does not merely cry; they dissolve into operatic chaos, while we sit front row, guilt-ridden and munching on stale popcorn. No wonder we hesitate. Why end a relationship when staying miserable forever feels so much safer? There is also the charming possibility that by uttering the words “it’s over,” we will unleash a fury of biblical proportions. Some of us secretly believe our partner may accuse us of being a fraud, a traitor, or perhaps a minor villain in a Dickens novel. Worse still, we imagine furniture flying, crockery shattering, or a sudden re-enactment of a Greek tragedy with us in the role of the hapless victim. Our unconscious works with a simple binary logic: either we kill them with grief, or they kill us with rage. Shakespeare would have approved. Of course, sensible arguments rarely have much impact. Telling ourselves “they won’t actually murder us” has about the same effectiveness as telling a person with vertigo that the balcony is structurally sound. Logic bows out while primitive terror takes the stage, reminding us of childhood dramas where fragile parents or terrifyingly angry adults taught us the lethal consequences of disappointing others. Many of us were apprenticed in the art of tiptoeing, learning that our authentic needs could endanger the very survival of those we loved. Is it any wonder that, as adults, we still hesitate to break bad news, as if announcing a breakup might collapse the planet’s crust? Our adult selves, however, must eventually accept that disaster has already occurred. The fragile parent who seemed like they would disintegrate if we disappointed them? That was then. The enraged adult who looked ready to wield a hammer after breaking a vase? That too was then. We are no longer three years old, trembling at the sight of oversized humans losing control. We are adults now, allegedly with resources, police numbers, lawyers, and enough sense to survive an angry rant without assuming we’ll be tossed out of a window. And yet, many of us cling to what might be called “the tyranny of seeming kind.” It appears kinder to delay, to wait until after the summer holiday, to avoid distressing the person who has already booked the apartment, bought the matching pajamas, and casually mentioned baby names. But staying put to avoid a few hours of unpleasantness often translates into decades of bitterness, sarcasm, emotional withdrawal, and passive-aggressive sighs loud enough to shatter glass. That is not kindness. That is cowardice in disguise. The genuine kindness, paradoxically, is to march straight into the storm, even if it means being despised for a while by someone who still loves us. Yes, they will say they will never find anyone like us, which might sound flattering until we remember that “anyone like us” is precisely what they will be relieved to escape once our snide remarks and simmering resentment have had time to ferment. In truth, they will recover. They will grieve, rage, cry, and then, like resilient human beings everywhere, wake up one morning and realize the sun still rises without us. We must also entertain the liberating thought that moving on is not a crime against humanity. Ending a relationship does not signal the apocalypse, despite what our childhood terrors whisper. It is, in fact, the adult thing to do when the alternative is to ruin two lives simultaneously. It may hurt in the short term, but like a brutal workout, the sweat and tears eventually yield strength. Besides, martyring ourselves to avoid inflicting pain is not noble; it is absurd. Nobody hands out medals for staying in relationships as a form of emotional hostage negotiation. So what, then, is the funky psychology of breaking up? It is the bizarre dance between our craving for personal fulfillment and our phobic avoidance of causing pain. It is the tug-of-war between our inner child, terrified of shattering a parent’s fragile spirit, and our adult selves, who secretly know that people survive worse things than a breakup. It is the uncomfortable recognition that sometimes we stay not because of love, but because of cowardice disguised as compassion. When we finally gather the courage, the experience is rarely as catastrophic as our minds predict it to be. Yes, tears will fall. Yes, words may fly sharper than swords. But no, the world will not collapse, nor will we. We might even discover that truth, though painful, is less corrosive than decades of deceit. And perhaps, in a twist of irony, our partner will one day thank us for setting them free from a life of quiet desperation beside someone who stayed only to avoid hurting them. Ultimately, the funky part is not the breakup itself, but the sheer acrobatics of the mind as it leaps from melodramatic terror to cowardly kindness to martyr-like resignation. The act of moving on is far less theatrical than the endless rehearsals we perform in our heads. And if there is one thing we owe ourselves and those we once loved, it is to step onto the stage, deliver the lines, and exit with dignity rather than linger indefinitely in the wings, too timid to bow out. — This post was previously published on medium.com. Love relationships? We promise to have a good one with your inbox. Subcribe to get 3x weekly dating and relationship advice. Did you know? We have 8 publications on Medium. Join us there! Hello, Love (relationships) Change Becomes You (Advice) A Parent is Born (Parenting) Equality Includes You (Social Justice) Greener Together (Environment) Shelter Me (Wellness) Modern Identities (Gender, etc.) Co-Existence (World) *** – Photo credit: Jakob Owens on Unsplash The post The Funky Psychology of Breaking Up and Moving On appeared first on The Good Men Project. View the full article

The Slovak PM has said he “doesn’t understand” some of the decisions made in Brussels Brussels is out of touch with global realities and often fails to adapt to a changing world, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has claimed. Fico made the remarks on Tuesday during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in China, held on the sidelines of events marking the 80th anniversary of the end of WWII. He said that although Slovakia values its membership in NATO and the EU, it remains interested in normalizing relations with Russia. “Many in the EU are like a toad at the bottom of a well, unable to see the world outside” “Despite my high regard for the EU, I am disappointed it cannot respond to global developments, and I don’t understand some of its decisions,” he stressed. Since returning to office in 2023, Fico has taken a sharply different line from Brussels on Ukraine. He halted Slovakia’s arms deliveries to Kiev, opposed sanctions on Moscow, and warned against Ukrainian membership in NATO. He has repeatedly called for peace talks, a stance that made him the target of a near-fatal assassination attempt by a pro-Ukraine activist. Putin, for his part, told Fico that he did not want to put him in an awkward position by criticizing NATO and the EU but ridiculed the “growing hysteria” from Western officials about an impending Russian attack, calling them “experts in horror films.” Any “sensible person,” he said, understands that such claims are either a provocation or “complete incompetence.” Moscow has long condemned Western military support of Kiev in the conflict, which it views as a NATO proxy war. Russia has also criticized the EU’s growing militarization and increasingly bellicose rhetoric, accusing Western leaders of fear-mongering to justify inflated military budgets and to cover up their economic failures. Putin said that after the Western-backed coup in Ukraine in 2014, Moscow was “forced to defend its interests and the people who connect their lives, their fate, with Russia.” This was the essence of the conflict, he said, stressing “This is not our aggressive behavior at all, but aggressive behavior from the other side.” View the full article

With one deal in Beijing Russia redirected energy flows that had run to the West for fifty years, eastward The EU’s cheap-gas lifeline just got handed to Beijing instead. With three signatures, Russia, China and Mongolia rerouted half a century of energy history eastward. On Tuesday, the three countries signed a legally binding memorandum for the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline – a roughly 2,600-km line, at an estimated cost of around $13.6 bn, that will carry 50 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas every year through Mongolia into northern China’s industrial heartland. While the pricing structure has yet to be fixed, the signatories have effectively redrawn the European energy map. For decades, this gas was the bedrock of German and Western European industry, piped from Russia’s Yamal fields in the Arctic through Nord Stream 1 directly into Germany. Now, that same supply is being redirected east. Isn’t there already a pipeline? Yes. Power of Siberia 1, which came online in 2019, snakes east from Yakutia into northeastern China. What makes this deal different? Power of Siberia 2 is different: it will run a more direct route through Mongolia, which will gain access to the gas, tapping the very Yamal fields in western Siberia that once connected to Germany through the Nord Stream and Yamal-Europe pipelines, as well as transit revenues. Unlike POS1, which sources Russia’s Asian-facing fields, POS2 will draw gas from Arctic reserves that once fed Europe’s factories. In other words, it closes the chapter of Europe as the main customer for Russian gas and hard-wires China as the new anchor market. What's the timeline? The memorandum is binding but still vague. Key details such as pricing formulas, financing structures, and construction deadlines have not been finalized. One thing is clear though: once the backbone of EU’s growth, the gas will instead be sent into pipelines running east through Mongolia to China. For Brussels and Berlin, it’s not just a loss of supply but a structural break: the age of cheap Siberian gas for Europe is over. A whole new energy map As well as as the Power of Siberia 2 signing, Moscow also pledged to boost flows on existing lines. POS1 volumes will rise from 38 to 44 billion cubic meters a year – roughly a quarter of what the EU once bought from Russia. Russia’s Far Eastern route, piping gas in from the Sakhalin mega-projects, will rise from 10 to 12 billion cubic meters – about a tenth of what Europe used to purchase from Moscow annually. But the big figure is Power of Siberia 2: 50 billion cubic meters annually, slightly less than the Nord Stream 1 pipeline once carried into Germany before it was blown up. Add it all together and China will be importing over 100 billion cubic meters of Russian gas every year – volumes comparable to the flows that for decades underpinned Europe’s industrial base. For the EU, the symbolism is brutal. The same Arctic molecules that drove the post-war boom and kept German factories competitive are now earmarked for China. What does it mean for the EU? The EU attempted to cut itself off from Russian supply after 2022, in a rupture that was allegedly tacitly backed by NATO. Since then, the bloc has been forced to buy US LNG at much higher prices than Russian pipeline gas, triggering an energy price crisis across the bloc and helping drive Germany into recession. With Power of Siberia 2 signed, the option of reversing course and reconnecting Europe to Russian gas has effectively vanished. Beijing’s calculation For years, Chinese leaders hesitated. Beijing worried about becoming overly dependent on Russian energy and feared a dependency on a neighbor for transit. But something shifted. Analysts point to two triggers: renewed hostility between the EU and Moscow, which makes the west an unreliable transit for Chinese interests, and US President Donald Trump’s warnings about Chinese access to global LNG markets. In this light, a fixed Siberian line through Mongolia looks like a hedge – long-term, secure, and beyond US interference. The agreement also lands amid volatility in the Middle East, including the Israel-Iran confrontation, which rattled Beijing’s faith in seaborne LNG. Securing a land-based artery of cheap pipeline gas offers stability at a moment of global flux. By praising the project as “hard connectivity,” Xi made clear that for Beijing, energy corridors are not just economics but strategy – a way of locking in partnerships and reshaping Eurasia’s balance of power. The bottom line The Power of Siberia 2 agreement is more than an energy deal. It is a strategic redirection of Russia’s Arctic gas – from the pipelines that once powered Europe’s prosperity to a single buyer in the east. Europe loses the cheap fuel that underpinned its industrial strength for half a century, and with it any realistic opportunity to recover access to Russian gas in the foreseeable future. Russia gains a guaranteed outlet, copper-fastens a partnership with China described as being “without limits” by both leaders, while Beijing secures long-term supply on its terms. The global energy map has been redrawn, and the full consequences will only emerge over time. View the full article

Ankara is in contact with both Moscow and Kiev and hopes to build on progress made at past Istanbul talks, the Turkish leader has said Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky have yet to agree to a summit, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stated. Speaking to reporters on his way back from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in China on Monday, Erdogan said that he had discussed the Ukraine conflict with his Russian counterpart in Tianjin. According to the Turkish president, his country advocates “peace-focused dialogue,” and maintains contact with both belligerents. Türkiye has already helped achieve “concrete outcomes like the grain corridor and prisoner exchanges” during previous rounds of Istanbul talks, he noted. ”We aim to elevate these negotiations progressively, ideally at the leadership level,” Erdogan stated. However, he judged by his recent phone and in-person conversations with Zelensky and Putin that the two, while being positively inclined, “are not yet ready” to meet. During his bilateral with Erdogan on Monday, Putin said that Ankara’s role as mediator “will remain in demand in the future.” In May, Kiev agreed to resume direct talks with Moscow after encouragement from the Trump administration, a process it unilaterally abandoned in 2022. Several rounds of discussions have since resulted in prisoner exchanges and the repatriation of fallen soldiers’ remains. Speaking on the sidelines of the Tianjin summit, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov stated that Putin and Trump had indeed discussed raising the level of the negotiating teams, but no decision had been finalized, contrary to media reports. On Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that while the Russian president “does not rule out the possibility of holding such a meeting [with Zelensky],” it “should be well prepared… at an expert level.” Around the same time, Trump told the outlet Daily Caller that a trilateral meeting between himself, Putin and Zelensky “will happen,” but that the prospect of a bilateral Russia-Ukraine summit was uncertain, as “sometimes people aren’t ready for it.” Trump has actively called for direct talks between the two since his summit with the Russian president in Alaska in mid-August. View the full article