Latest news with #Its
The Irish Sun
5 days ago
- Science
- The Irish Sun
Inside ‘gateway to underworld' underneath 1,800-year-old city which holds ‘toxic' secret that scientists ‘can't explain'
AN ANCIENT pyramid thought to be a 'gateway to underworld' was discovered to contain a hidden secret. The historic site, located in an ancient city, is thought to house a supernatural secret. Advertisement 6 Archaeologists have spent decades uncovering the temple Credit: Reuters 6 The discovery is believed to have supernatural connections Credit: Reuters 6 Liquid mercury was discovered at the site in 2015 Credit: Reuters Quetzalcoatl Temple in Mexico, also known as the Feathered Serpent Pyramid is thought to have been built around 1,800 to 1,900 years ago. During an excavation project researchers discovered large amounts of liquid mercury in 2015. Its something experts believe means the structure was used to 'look into the supernatural world.' They also believe its presence could indicate that a Advertisement Read more News The pyramid was originally unsealed in 2003, allowing researchers like During this excavation, researchers uncovered three chambers at the end of a 300 foot tunnel. In addition to the liquid mercury, they also found artefacts like jade status, jaguar remains, and a box of carved shells and rubber balls. The tunnels and adjoining structures lie 60 feet below the temple. Advertisement Most read in The US Sun Exclusive In their 16 years excavating the temple, the research team uncovered over 3,000 ceremonial and ritual artefacts. They have used their discoveries to create a comprehensive survey of the pyramid and tunnel using LiDAR scanners and photogrammetry. Liquid mercury is not an Its believed that mercury symbolises an underworld river or lake. Advertisement "Mirrors were considered a way to look into the supernatural world, they were a way to divine what might happen in the future. "It could be a sort of river, albeit a pretty spectacular one," Dr Headrick added. The Quetzalcoatl Temple is located around 12 miles northeast of Mexico City in Teotihuacán - the heart of the Mesoamerican Teotihuacan universe. Advertisement Around 4.5 million people visit the temple - which is the third largest in the city - every year. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987, and was listed on the World Monuments Watch in 2004 as tourist visitation led to the site's deterioration. More than a The Aztecs believed it was the place where Gods were created, with sacrifices being made as tributes. Advertisement 6 The Temple is around 1,800 to 1,900 years old Credit: Getty 6 It is the third largest temple in the Teotihuacán region of Mexico Credit: Getty 6 It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987 Credit: Reuters
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Biden team scripted Cabinet meetings, used multiples cameras to cover flubs: Book
Members of former President Biden's White House staff scripted Cabinet meetings and used multiple cameras to cover flubs he had, according to a new book obtained by The Hill. The excerpts from 'Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,' by CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios's Alex Thompson, reveal further steps that those around Biden took to shield the signs of his cognitive decline as his presidency and reelection bid carried on. The book, set to be released Tuesday, also reported on a variety of struggles that Biden had, including an alleged incident in which he didn't recognize actor George Clooney at a fundraising event despite having known him for years, and planning from staffers for Biden's campaign and if he won reelection, including the possibility of him needing a wheelchair. Tapper and Thompson also reported Biden increasingly relied on teleprompters and note cards even for private discussions like Cabinet meetings. 'Before these meetings, White House staff called the various departments and agencies to figure out what they were going to ask the president so that answers could be prepared. The conversations were largely scripted, even after the press had left the room,' the authors reported. 'Some Cabinet secretaries felt that, in fact, Biden relied on the cards more heavily when reporters were absent,' the book states. Tapper and Thompson spoke to four Cabinet secretaries anonymously to allow them to be candid without fear of retribution. 'The Cabinet meetings were terrible and at times uncomfortable — and they were from the beginning,' one secretary told them. 'I don't recall a great Cabinet meeting in terms of his presence. They were so scripted.' Another secretary said they hated 'the scripts.' But the authors said that some aides argued that Cabinet meetings were always stiff and time-consuming and that Biden was more inquisitive in smaller meetings. And they weren't too worried about his frequent use of note cards or a poor speech from time to time. The authors report that the campaign held a staged town hall last April in a high school gym to film a commercial. It was made to appear that Biden was taking questions off the cuff, but the event was closed to reporters and the campaign was given questions in advance. When a group would ask Biden to record a five-minute address for keynoting an event, the White House usually responded that the video would be one to two minutes, Tapper and Thompson report. But Biden still struggled with that. 'To compensate for that, aides filmed Biden with two cameras instead of one. If Biden messed up, the edit was less obvious with a jump cut,' they reported. 'Other politicians use jump-cuts, but Biden aides noted to themselves how much more often they had to use them for the president.' The book's pending release comes in a tough series of weeks for Biden, most recently his diagnosis with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that has spread to his bone. The news prompted an outpouring a bipartisan support from his allies and rivals. It also came after the release of audio from Biden's October 2023 interview with special counsel Robert Hur in which some parts appear to show Biden struggling. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hill
Biden team scripted Cabinet meetings, used multiples cameras to cover flubs: Book
Members of former President Biden's White House staff scripted Cabinet meetings and used multiple cameras to cover flubs he had, according to a new book obtained by The Hill. The excerpts from 'Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,' by CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios's Alex Thompson, reveal further steps that those around Biden took to shield the signs of his cognitive decline as his presidency and reelection bid carried on. The book, set to be released Tuesday, also reported on a variety of struggles that Biden had, including an alleged incident in which he didn't recognize actor George Clooney at a fundraising event despite having known him for years, and planning from staffers for Biden's campaign and if he won reelection, including the possibility of him needing a wheelchair. Tapper and Thompson also reported Biden increasingly relied on teleprompters and note cards even for private discussions like Cabinet meetings. 'Before these meetings, White House staff called the various departments and agencies to figure out what they were going to ask the president so that answers could be prepared. The conversations were largely scripted, even after the press had left the room,' the authors reported. 'Some Cabinet secretaries felt that, in fact, Biden relied on the cards more heavily when reporters were absent,' the book states. Tapper and Thompson spoke to four Cabinet secretaries anonymously to allow them to be candid without fear of retribution. 'The Cabinet meetings were terrible and at times uncomfortable — and they were from the beginning,' one secretary told them. 'I don't recall a great Cabinet meeting in terms of his presence. They were so scripted.' Another secretary said they hated 'the scripts.' But the authors said that some aides argued that Cabinet meetings were always stiff and time-consuming and that Biden was more inquisitive in smaller meetings. And they weren't too worried about his frequent use of note cards or a poor speech from time to time. The authors report that the campaign held a staged town hall last April in a high school gym to film a commercial. It was made to appear that Biden was taking questions off the cuff, but the event was closed to reporters and the campaign was given questions in advance. When a group would ask Biden to record a five-minute address for keynoting an event, the White House usually responded that the video would be one to two minutes, Tapper and Thompson report. But Biden still struggled with that. 'To compensate for that, aides filmed Biden with two cameras instead of one. If Biden messed up, the edit was less obvious with a jump cut,' they reported. 'Other politicians use jump-cuts, but Biden aides noted to themselves how much more often they had to use them for the president.' The book's pending release comes in a tough series of weeks for Biden, most recently his diagnosis with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that has spread to his bone. The news prompted an outpouring a bipartisan support from his allies and rivals. It also came after the release of audio from Biden's October 2023 interview with special counsel Robert Hur in which some parts appear to show Biden struggling.
Yomiuri Shimbun
18-05-2025
- Politics
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Audio of 2023 Biden Interview with Hur Reveals Pauses, Halting Replies
Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post President Joe Biden is shown on a video as special counsel Robert K. Hur appears before the House Judiciary Committee in March 2024. An excerpt from the audio recording of a prosecutor's interview with President Joe Biden in 2023 shows Biden speaking slowly, often with long pauses, as he seeks to mentally assemble a sequence of events including his son Beau's death, his own departure from the vice presidency and the launch of his book. The excerpt, obtained by Axios, does not provide new information, since the written transcript of special counsel Robert K. Hur's interview with Biden was released in March 2024. Hur was investigating allegations that Biden mishandled sensitive documents after he left the vice presidency in 2017. But the long pauses and the widely meandering nature of the president's responses, as he seeks to recall events from several years earlier, are striking and flesh out the picture of the high-stakes session. President Donald Trump, 78, has repeatedly criticized Biden, now 82, as aging and mentally slow, continuing to take multiple shots at his predecessor well into his second term. That raised expectations that Trump would release the audio, something the Biden administration had refused to do. Earlier on Friday, Trump had said it was up to Attorney General Pam Bondi to decide whether and when to release the audio. Biden spokeswoman Kelly Scully downplayed the release of the audio Friday: 'The transcripts were released by the Biden administration more than a year ago. The audio does nothing but confirm what is already public.' Trump also came under scrutiny for mishandling classified documents after leaving office, though the scale and scope of the allegations against him were much broader. Special counsel Jack Smith charged Trump in connection with the discovery of hundreds of classified documents that were taken to his home in Florida after he left the White House. A federal judge ruled that Smith lacked jurisdiction; Smith appealed but then dropped the case after Trump was elected to a second term as president. Questions about Biden's capacity toward the end of his presidency have reemerged in recent days due to the publication of a book, 'Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,' by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson. It argues that Biden's aides hid his deteriorating condition from the public, a claim that Biden's office sharply denies. The audio excerpt obtained by Axios is a roughly four-minute segment of a much longer interview that took place over two days. In the excerpt, Hur asks where Biden kept documents for the projects he was working on at that time. Biden takes a long pause, then replies, 'Well, I, I, I, I, I, I don't know, this is what, 2017, '18, that area?' He adds, 'Remember, in this time frame, my son was either deployed or is dying.' Beau died in 2015. The president then appears to be searching his mind for exactly what was going on in his life during that period. 'What was happening, though – what month did Beau die? Oh god, May 30th. Was it 2015?' Biden says. ' … And what's happened in the meantime is that … and Trump gets elected in 2017?' Someone reminds Biden that it was 2016. Biden then begins talking about Beau's death, with numerous long pauses, either because he is trying to jog his memory or because he is overcome by emotion. The interviews also were taking place on Oct. 8, 2023, and Oct. 9, 2023, immediately after the Hamas attacks on Israel, a horrifying moment that became one of the biggest crises of Biden's presidency. 'In 2017, Beau had passed and … This is personal …' Biden says. 'The genesis of the book was … I know you're all close with your sons and daughters, but Beau was like my right arm, and Hunter was my left. These guys were a year and a day apart, and they could finish each other's sentences.' There are more long pauses, as Biden at this point has wandered relatively far from the initial question about where he stored documents. He begins talking about how he would travel home by train when he was in the Senate, then reiterates how close he was to Beau, prompting Hur to ask, 'Sir, I wonder if this is a good time to take a break?' Biden answers, 'No, let me keep going and get it done.' Although the recording does not include any startling new revelations, it provides a rare, dramatic window into a pivotal historical moment, as a sitting president was being questioned by a special counsel about a politically explosive matter. Biden's office in recent days has stressed that, for all the debate about his mental acuity, no allegations have emerged that Biden struggled to make decisions or perform his duties as president. 'We continue to await anything that shows where Joe Biden had to make a presidential decision or where national security was threatened or where he was unable to do his job,' a spokesperson said this week. 'In fact, the evidence points to the opposite – he was a very effective president.' In early 2024, Hur decided against filing charges of mishandling classified documents. He said his reasoning, in part, was that jurors would be unlikely to convict Biden because they would see him as a 'well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.' Democrats erupted in fury, saying Hur's characterization was a gratuitous slap. At the time, Biden was the likely Democratic nominee for president, and Hur's comment played into Republican assertions that he was not up to serving four more years. Biden has often struggled with words and been given to gaffes throughout his half-century public career, and his supporters argued that his occasional slurs or verbal miscues were irrelevant to his mental abilities. Biden pushed ahead with his campaign until last summer, when a stumbling debate performance against Trump reignited the concerns about his age and prompted him to withdraw from the race. In recent days, amid the publication of the book and a pair of television appearances by Biden, a growing number of Democrats have been revisiting their handling of the last presidential election and saying publicly that it was poorly managed. Biden's late withdrawal from the 2024 race prevented other major figures from jumping in, and it gave Vice President Kamala Harris a sharply condensed time frame for introducing herself as the nominee and making her case to voters.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘It's all Biden': Top Harris adviser blames former president for 2024 loss
A top campaign aide to former Vice President Kamala Harris blames former President Joe Biden for Harris' loss, saying 'it's all Biden' in a new book about the former commander in chief's apparent deterioration during the 2024 race. The perspective shared by David Plouffe, who worked on Harris' 2024 presidential campaign, underscores a frustration held by some Democrats: that Biden's reluctance to remove himself earlier from the White House race sealed the fate of Harris' election bid. Discussing the impact Biden's withdrawal in July of last year had on Harris' chances, Plouffe described the then-vice president's less than three-month bid for the White House as a 'fucking nightmare.' 'And it's all Biden…He totally fucked us,' Plouffe, who was also manager of former President Barack Obama's 2008 campaign and a senior adviser in his White House, told the authors of the report. First reported on by The Guardian and Axios, 'Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again' — a new book by CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios' Alex Thompson — provides accounts from interviews with over 200 people about what the authors describe as the then-president's physical and mental deterioration and the White House's quiet campaign to conceal it. The book will be released May 20. A Biden spokesperson did not immediately respond to POLITICO's request for comment on Plouffe's statements. The book goes on to detail how Plouffe would receive calls for donors concerned about Biden's mental acuity and energy on the campaign trail. Plouffe said he tried to question the White House and Democratic Party about if they were confident Biden could win another election and was assured Biden was equipped to score a second term. Despite ongoing concerns from the public and other lawmakers about his physical condition and mental acuity, Biden, White House officials and his family members held firm on their stance that Biden could defeat President Donald Trump throughout the former president's since-collapsed reelection campaign. But Biden and his team reached a fork in the road after his poor debate performance last June against Trump, which immediately sparked calls from top Democrats for Biden to withdraw from the race. Biden stepped aside a few weeks after the televised event. Biden recently held himself accountable for Trump's win during an interview on 'The View' last week. 'Look, I was in charge and he won, so I take responsibility,' he said.
