Latest news with #Ya
Ya Libnan
6 days ago
- Politics
- Ya Libnan
Is this the new America? Turning away global talent is a betrayal of our values
Photo: A judge has issued a temporary restraining order last week blocking the Trump administration's plan to strip Harvard University of its ability to enrol foreign students. By Ya Libnan Editoria Board – Op-Ed At a time when the United States should be reaffirming its role as a global leader in education, innovation, and diplomacy, we are instead turning inward—closing our doors to the very people who once saw America as the beacon of opportunity and learning. In 1972, President Richard Nixon made what he called his most important achievement: opening diplomatic relations with China. That historic trip was not about division or confrontation—it was about building bridges and recognizing the value of cooperation between two world powers. In the decades that followed, despite ups and downs, U.S.-China relations produced deep ties in trade, science, and most notably, education. For years, American universities welcomed tens of thousands of Chinese students who enriched our campuses, conducted cutting-edge research, and returned home with a deep appreciation for American values. Their presence wasn't just academic—it was a form of diplomacy, a powerful expression of America's belief in openness, merit, and freedom of thought. But today, we are dismantling that legacy. Driven by escalating political tensions and national security concerns, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has led efforts to restrict student visas—particularly for applicants from China. The implications are far-reaching: we are punishing individuals who pose no threat, while harming our own institutions and undercutting America's global standing. This is not how great nations lead. Harvard University—like many leading institutions—has benefited immensely from Chinese scholars, donors, and research partnerships. The Harvard China Fund has supported collaboration on climate change, disability studies, and legal reform. Yet the very students and scholars who would breathe life into these projects are now being shut out. Blocking Chinese students from entering the United States is more than a policy misstep—it is a strategic failure. It's like shooting ourselves in the foot. For decades, we've taken pride in seeing global leaders, Nobel Prize winners, and changemakers who studied in America. But if we close our gates today, what will we celebrate tomorrow? We risk losing far more than tuition dollars or research partnerships. We are forfeiting our soft power —the kind that cannot be replicated by military might or trade agreements. When international students come here, they carry home with them a piece of America: its spirit of inquiry, its tolerance for dissent, its belief in possibility. That influence has been one of our greatest strengths. We must ask ourselves hard questions: Is this the new America? Have we become so fearful that we no longer trust our own institutions to remain secure in the face of foreign scholars? Have we stopped believing in the values that once made us a magnet for the world's best and brightest ? This is not just about China. It's about who we are—and who we want to be. America was built by those who came from elsewhere, who brought their talents, ideas, and hopes to these shores. Our universities are not just centers of learning—they are symbols of what America aspires to be : open, inclusive, forward-looking. If we abandon that vision, we won't just lose students. We'll lose something far more precious: our identity as a confident, generous, and leading nation. Let us not become the country that shuts its doors to the future. Let us remain the nation that inspires the world to knock.
Buzz Feed
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
Pedro Pascal's Transgender Sister, Lux Pascal, Just Shared Her Pride For His Unwavering Support Of The Trans Community
By this point, Pedro Pascal is pretty much renowned for being a huge ally to the trans community, with the Hollywood actor regularly going viral for his no-nonsense social media activity. Back in February, Pedro won widespread praise for using his platform to showcase his support for trans people at a time when they are having their rights stripped away, sharing a supportive message with his 8.8 million Instagram followers. Posting a photo of a sign that read: "A WORLD WITHOUT TRANS PEOPLE HAS NEVER EXISTED AND NEVER WILL,' Pedro wrote: 'I can't think of anything more vile and small and pathetic than terrorizing the smallest, most vulnerable community of people who want nothing from you, except the right to exist." Sadly, anti-trans trolls flooded his post with nasty comments, but Pedro doubled down with a series of iconic responses to the haters. When one person wrote: 'You were my favourite actor…. I'm unfollowing you…. Bullshit,' Pedro sarcastically replied: 'nooooooooooo 💅' 'Man you were one of my favorite actors until this… 😔,' somebody else wrote, prompting Pedro to quip: 'that's too bad. Wait, no I don't give a shit.' More recently, Pedro called out British author J.K. Rowling when he commented on a video about her celebrating the UK Supreme Court's recent ruling that trans women aren't legally women within the context of equality legislation. Referencing Rowling, Pedro wrote: 'Awful disgusting SHIT is exactly right. Heinous LOSER behavior." Pedro's unwavering and passionate allyship with the trans community is unsurprising considering he has always been hugely supportive of his younger sister, Lux Pascal, who publicly came out as transgender in 2021 in a cover story for the Spanish-language magazine Ya. In the interview, Lux — who is also an actor — said that her big brother played a pivotal role in her transition 'and has served as a guide' for her. She explained: 'He was one of the first people to gift me the tools that started shaping my identity." Lux also recalled coming out as trans to Pedro over FaceTime, and how his initial response was to ask how she felt. When she told him that she was happy, Pedro immediately congratulated her, with Lux remembering him telling her: "Perfect, this is incredible.' Pedro shared Lux's cover story to his Instagram page at the time, writing: 'Mi hermana, mi corazón, nuestra Lux," which translates to, "my sister, my heart, our Lux,' and when he was asked about her transition in an interview with Esquire, Pedro noted that he wasn't comfortable to 'speak on her behalf,' but made it clear that he will always have her back. 'She is and has always been one of the most powerful people and personalities I've ever known,' he said. 'My protective side is lethal, but I need her more than she needs me.' And now, Lux has opened up some more about her and Pedro's sweet relationship in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, where she said she is 'incredibly proud' of him. She added: 'But the thing is that I've always known that he is a superstar. It's funny because people have been asking me: 'Is he as kind as we think he is?' And I'm like: 'Yes!'' 'What makes him so fabulous is that [Pedro] wears all of his humanity on his sleeve, and he doesn't hide who he is,' Lux continued, referring to his public allyship. 'And I think that's refreshing, because usually we move around the world hiding who we are. That's the main lesson I've gotten from him: there's no reason for me to hide who I am, right? And I think people are seeing that.' Needless to say, Lux's comments have warmed the hearts of Pedro's fans, who discussed the interview on a Reddit forum. One popular comment reads: 'Love how close these siblings are. I hope everyone has someone as supportive as Pedro in their lives.' Gareth Cattermole /'I absolutely love how Pedro is 1000% ride or die for her and the whole trans community 🏳️⚧️💕' somebody else wrote, while one more added: 'What an absolute KING Pedro is.' Another redditor, who is trans, said that Pedro and Lux's relationship had actually helped her personal relationship with a sibling after she transitioned. She wrote: 'As a Trans Woman with a Cis brother, I feel like Pedro's openly supportive relationship with Lux has helped mine. Not to say he wasn't supportive, he was but there was definitely a little weirdness still there. After sending him more and more Pedro & Lux videos/articles, he became more open. Hell, even more than pre-transition. We're at the strongest we've ever been and I have to thank Pedro for that ❤️'
Buzz Feed
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
Pedro Pascal Wore A Simple T-Shirt To A Marvel Premiere, But Here's Why It's So Important
It's no secret that Pedro Pascal is one of the biggest actors in the world right now. This year alone, Pedro will star in The Last of Us, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, The Materialists, and Eddington. And he's not slowing down anytime soon. And besides being one of the most beloved actors right now, Pedro is also incredibly outspoken about the causes he cares deeply about, namely, pro-trans rights. Just last month, he shared a message to his Instagram account, which has 9.8 million followers right now, that read: "A world without trans people has never existed and never will." He also wrote in the caption, "I can't think of anything more vile and small and pathetic than terrorizing the smallest, most vulnerable community of people who want nothing from you, except the right to exist." Then, Pedro proceeded to reply to numerous online trolls in the comments of the post. "Man you were one of my favorite actors until this… 😔," somebody wrote, to which Pedro replied: 'that's too bad. Wait, no I don't give a shit." Three days ago, he shared another Instagram post supporting the trans community, too, with the picture reading, "An unjust law is no law at all." At a time when transgender people are having their rights stripped away, Pedro is consistently praised for using his huge platform to advocate for their rights. Pedro's stance should be unsurprising considering he's always been a vocal supporter of his younger sister, Lux Pascal, who publicly came out as transgender in February 2021. In a cover story with the Spanish-language magazine Ya, Lux detailed coming out to Pedro, saying she FaceTimed him, and his first response was to ask how she felt. When she told him she was happy, he congratulated her, saying, "Perfect, this is incredible." At the time, Pedro also posted Lux's cover story, writing, "Mi hermana, mi corazón, nuestra Lux." And now, he's once again using his platform to support the trans community, this time by rocking a subtle t-shirt at the European premiere of Marvel's Thunderbolts, which was held in London. Pedro arrived on the red carpet, which marked his first Marvel premiere prior to starring in the MCU himself in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, with a purple hat embroidered with "New York" upside down and a simple white t-shirt that read, "Protect the dolls." His red carpet appearances and fashion moments have often been much-discussed, and this was no exception, with fans calling out how amazing he looked on the carpet — heck, even Florence Pugh was excited to see him. But what some might think was just a simple t-shirt actually has an even deeper meaning. The shirt was created by fashion designer Conner Ives. According to the brand's website, "All proceeds from the sale of this t-shirt will be donated directly to Trans Lifeline, a trans-lead US- based charity that delivers life-saving services to those who need them most." "The hotline connects trans people to a wider community, offering support and resources they need to survive and thrive. Given the US Federal government's current hostility towards trans people, support like this is needed now more than ever." Not only is Pedro wearing this shirt so incredible, but Pedro wearing it to a Marvel premiere in the UK is also significant. Just last week, the UK Supreme Court unanimously ruled that a "woman" in equality legislation should be defined as referring to a "biological woman and biological sex." After the ruling, CNN pointed out that it was a "worrying" development for transgender people. According to CNN, "the case centered on whether trans women with a gender recognition certificate (GRC) — which offers legal recognition of someone's female sex — are protected from discrimination as a woman under the nation's Equality Act 2010." So, yes, it's simply so important that Pedro wore the "Protect the Dolls" shirt to this specific premiere. It makes me love him even more, TBH. Pedro isn't the only actor who has voiced their opinion on the recent UK Supreme Court ruling. Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan immediately voiced how "horrified" she was. She said in an Instagram post that was shared to her 6.1 million followers, "Like many people, I'm completely horrified by the Supreme Court's ruling [...] about trans people and to see an already marginalized community being further attacked and attacked in law is really stomach-churning and disgusting. And to see people celebrating it is more stomach-churning and disgusting." Nicola also captioned her post with, "Allies of the Trans and Non Binary Community time to come together. Fuck the Supreme Court, fuck the TERFs let's raise some money 🩷🤍🩵" And, Bridgerton star Charithra Chandran posted on her TikTok, saying, "I have never felt unsafe around a trans woman. EVER. My womanhood has never felt threatened by a trans woman. EVER. And if your womanhood has, I think that speaks more to the fragility of your womanhood than anything about trans women, because, quite honestly, how pathetic to target one of the most oppressed groups in our society. Honestly? Loser behavior."
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Great Lakes basins may have formed millions of years ago from activity deep in the Earth — long before glaciers, study finds
CHICAGO — As an ice sheet thousands of feet thick began its final crawling retreat from North America to the Arctic toward the end of the last glacial period some 10,000 years ago, it left behind the planet's largest freshwater system. At least that's what scientists have long believed about the formation of the Great Lakes. But a recent study suggests that the timeline actually stretches further back — beyond the evolution of early humans and past the age of dinosaurs — to 200 to 300 million years ago when a hot spot, or plume of hot material, from underneath Earth's crust created a low point that the glaciers would finish carving out and filling with water much later. 'Most of upper North America was covered by glaciation. But why, in this particular area, (are there) these Great Lakes?' said Aibing Li, a seismologist at the University of Houston who co-authored the study, which was published in the scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters in December. 'We'll see this surface feature, and we usually just consider that's just some very shallow process. It could have, actually, some deeper source, a deeper origin. It's not just like, randomly, on the surface, you have something special. Anything that happened in that area must have some reason.' The continents, as they are today, didn't exist all those hundreds of millions of years ago until the supercontinent Pangaea broke. As North America shifted away, the site of the modern-day Great Lakes passed over the Cape Verde hot spot, Li found. When ocean hot spots interact with the planet's surface, it usually results in volcano chains like in Hawaii. But when these hot spots are located within a continent, the impact is more difficult for scientists to detect through the rigid, thick outermost layer of Earth. So, Li wasn't really expecting to find what she did. As they used a model to study seismic movements in the country's northeast, her team noticed that earthquake waves under the crust there traveled at different velocities, horizontally and vertically. 'We actually were puzzled, at the beginning, with what we saw,' she said. Upon closer inspection, they realized the plate movements indicated that the hot spot — now under an African island nation of the same name located in the central Atlantic Ocean — had sat for a long time right below what would later become the eastern part of the lakes, specifically lakes Huron, Erie and Ontario. Li explained that as hot, buoyant material from a hot spot plume rises under a continent, it finds resistance from the thick outer layer. 'It'll lift, push upward,' Li said. 'It tries to escape.' Since the last major ice age started 2.7 million years ago and until it ended about 12,000 years ago, the Laurentide Ice Sheet in North America expanded and melted between several millennia of cold and warm periods. This allowed the glacier to finish shaping the massive bodies of water. Maureen Long, a seismologist and professor of Earth and planetary sciences at Yale University, said the study contributes to scientific discussion about how natural geographical features can be affected by processes deep below. 'It is a hypothesis that still needs to be tested, but it really does illuminate the connection between what happens in the deep Earth and what we see at the surface,' Long said. 'And whether or not this particular hypothesis turns out to be right, that connection … is very real, so this is a really important line of research.' Long, an expert in mantle dynamics in the northeast United States, also believes like Li that there has to be a reason for the Great Lakes to be located where they are. '(It's) very simple physics. If you fill something with water, the water is going to go to the low point,' Long said. 'The more recent glaciation formed the actual lakes and filled them — that part is relatively well understood. The part that we're still puzzling over is, why was there sort of this low point there in the first place that then got carved out by the glaciers?' While Li plans to soon find out if lakes Michigan and Superior could've also been created in the same way as their eastern counterparts, she hopes the study encourages more scientific research into the formation of inland water bodies besides the Great Lakes. 'When you have a new idea, it's not easy (for it) to be accepted,' Li said. 'But I think this can stimulate some more discussions. And science always evolves.' Long said the study illustrates the concept of geologic time, which humans don't often think of as they go about their day-to-day lives on timescales of minutes and hours. 'The features that we see, mountains or lakes or rivers, those features get shaped over millions to tens of millions to hundreds of millions to billions of years. It's amazing to think about,' Long said. 'The Earth is 4.6 billion years old — that's a lot of time. And we see a snapshot of what the Earth is today, but over that long history and that long timescale, a lot has changed.' ____
Buzz Feed
27-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
Pedro Pascal Is Being Praised For His Seriously Iconic Replies To Trolls Who Are Making Anti-Trans Comments On His Recent Instagram Post
Over the weekend, Pedro Pascal won widespread praise when he shared a pro-trans rights message to his Instagram account, which has more than 8.8 million followers. At a time when transgender people are having their rights stripped away, Pedro used his platform to showcase his support as he posted a photo of a sign that read: "A WORLD WITHOUT TRANS PEOPLE HAS NEVER EXISTED AND NEVER WILL." Pedro's stance is perhaps unsurprising, considering he has always vocally supported his younger sister, Lux Pascal, who publicly came out as transgender in Feb. 2021 in a cover story for the Spanish-language magazine Ya. In the interview, Lux — who is also an actor — opened up about the pivotal role that Pedro played in her transition, saying that he "has been an important part of this. He's also an artist and has served as a guide for me. He was one of the first people to gift me the tools that started shaping my identity." She added that she came out as trans to Pedro over FaceTime, and his first response was to ask how she felt. When she told him she was happy, he immediately congratulated her, with Lux recalling her big brother saying: "Perfect, this is incredible.' At the time, Pedro posted Lux's cover story to his Instagram page and wrote: 'Mi hermana, mi corazón, nuestra Lux," which translates to: "My sister, my heart, our Lux.' When he was subsequently asked about Lux's transition in an interview with Esquire, Pedro said that he wasn't comfortable to 'speak on her behalf,' but made it clear that he will always have his sister's back. 'She is and has always been one of the most powerful people and personalities I've ever known,' he told the publication. "My protective side is lethal, but I need her more than she needs me.' And his most recent post isn't the first time that Pedro has expressed his support for the LGBTQ+ community as a whole on social media either, with the star regularly posting during Pride months, as well as sharing a photo of the Progress Pride flag in March 2023, when trans rights were, once again, under attack. Despite this, some of Pedro's followers were not happy with his latest trans rights post and felt the need to let him know about it in the comments — where Pedro had the most perfect responses. Replying to one person who wrote: 'You were my favourite actor…. I'm unfollowing you…. Bullshit,' Pedro sarcastically replied: 'nooooooooooo 💅' 'Man you were one of my favorite actors until this… 😔,' somebody else wrote, to which Pedro quipped: 'that's too bad. Wait, no I don't give a shit.' Needless to say, fans have been left obsessed with Pedro's sassy responses, and took to a Reddit forum to heap praise on his no-nonsense pro-trans stance. One of the top comments simply reads: ''Nooooooooo 💅' is iconic,' to which somebody else agreed: 'Right??? I love it so much.' Nbc / Jamie McCarthy / NBC via Getty Images 'God, I love him. These people aren't only vile, but they're incredibly stupid, Pedro is very close with his sister and has always been outspoken about transgender rights,' another redditor wrote. One more added: 'People throw this term around a lot but I really mean it. This is real king shit. Using your privilege and power to lift up others and put bullies in their place. Not the other bullshit theatrics we are seeing in other… places.' 'These replies are KILLING me. I love him so much. I need more men with this type of energy in my life,' somebody else echoed, while another commented: 'Every time I think I can't appreciate him more 🥰' One more user concluded: 'That's it. I'm watching Pedro Pascal's entire filmography.'
