Latest news with #superpowers
Fox News
3 days ago
- Business
- Fox News
Macron chides Trump, China over trade, Ukraine, Gaza: policies 'will kill global order'
French President Emmanuel Macron struck a serious note on Friday in his address to a Shangri-La security forum in Singapore, in which he hit on some of the biggest crises spanning the globe and appeared to issue an indirect warning to President Donald Trump and China. "I will be clear, France is a friend and an ally of the United States," Macron said. "And [France] is a friend, and we do cooperate - even if sometimes we disagree and compete - with China." "The main risk today is the division of two super-powers," he warned. Macron's speech was a warning to the U.S. and China that if they force nations to choose sides as tensions remain heightened following Trump's triple-digit tariff threat, such a move would "kill the global order." "We will destroy methodically, all the institutions we created after the Second World War in order to preserve peace and to have cooperation on health, on climate, on human rights and so on," he added. "We are neither China nor the U.S., we don't want to depend on any of them," he said. "We want to cooperate. But we don't want to be instructed on a daily basis what is allowed, what is not allowed and how our life will change because of the decision of a single person." But the French president didn't limit his speech to trade concerns, and chided China for aiding Russia amid its illegal invasion of Ukraine, and its refusal to play a part in stopping North Korea from sending troops to fight in the war for Moscow. "If China doesn't want NATO being involved in Southeast Asia or in Asia, they should prevent DPRK to be engaged on European soil," Macron said in reference to the formal name of North Korea, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Ultimately, he warned that every conflict that is plaguing European, American, Middle Eastern and Asian partnerships -- including the wars in Ukraine and Gaza -- are interconnected and there is a "big risk" that the universal principles which connect these conflicts have been forgotten. "If we consider that Russia could be allowed to take a part of the territory of Ukraine without any restriction, without any constraint, without any reaction of the global could happen in Taiwan? What would you do the day something happened in [the] Philippines?" the French president asked. "What is at stake in Ukraine is our common credibility to be sure that we are still able to preserve territorial integrity and sovereignty of people, no double standard," Macron said in a counterargument to claims that the war in Ukraine is a European issue. This extended to the war in Gaza, and Macron argued that giving Israel "a free pass" for its military operations in Gaza that have led to a humanitarian crisis could "kill our own credibility in the rest of the world."
WebMD
16-05-2025
- Health
- WebMD
Mania Super Senses
Changes in one or more of the five primary senses during a manic or hypomanic episode seems to be common among those of us with bipolar disorder. Sight is sharpened and hearing is amplified. Smell and taste are stronger and more intense. Some become hypersensitive to touch. We're often hesitant to talk about such perceptual changes. I know I was. I sat in medical screening rooms answering intake questions and thinking that I should be careful how much I shared for fear of being labeled schizophrenic. What I was experiencing was that everything was just more. Colors were more vibrant, like the difference between standard and high-definition television. I would go on walks and try to capture what I was seeing by taking pictures on my phone. I took dozens of pictures of the fields and meadows of a local nature preserve where I was dazzled by the delicate play of the light across the tall blades of grass. I loved the kaleidoscope of colors, from burnished golds and buttery yellows to tones of deep rich honey and chocolate. Those pictures look like a photo essay on the color beige now. I became obsessed with portrayals of enhanced senses in television and movies. One in particular was from the movie Man of Steel, in which a young Clark Kent is shown to be overwhelmed by the enormous sensory input created by his superpowers. It's like he had no sensory filters for the bombardment of sights and sounds he was trying to process. He had to learn to focus his attention by filtering out extraneous sensory noise. I also tried painting what I saw, and with paint I was better able to express the brightness of color and the interplay of light and shadows. In fact, Vincent Van Gogh had bipolar disorder, and in his paintings I feel a similar drive to capture what he was seeing. In my own paintings from that time, I remember thinking that I was able to achieve a radiance and a depth of color that I hadn't been able to achieve before. Not much is known about the specific brain mechanisms involved in sensory changes that occur with bipolar disorder. But I suspect that the secret lies with dopamine. Mania is associated with excess dopamine in certain brain regions. Intriguingly, sensory deficits are reported by many patients with Parkinson's disease, which involves dopamine deficits in some of the same brain regions where bipolar disorder patients have surpluses. I sympathize with those who don't want to take medication because they enjoy the sensory changes and natural high they get during manic episodes. They feel that mania gives them a creative edge backed by seemingly inexhaustible energy, and they don't want to lose it. Sometimes I wish I could recapture the heightened senses of my worst manic episode. The paintings of mine from that time that I felt had a special radiance don't sparkle for me like they did then.
Washington Post
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
The threat of nuclear annihilation demands our immediate attention
Take what consolation you can from this fact: There will not be a Third World War. Certainly not a protracted one, anyway. The last moment a nuclear conflict could be 'won' was in 1959, before ballistic missiles could freight a payload of gamma rays, black rain and pearlescent sunrise over an enemy city (over every city). Any openly hostile showdown between superpowers since then would see rockets flung instantly and in the thousands. During the Cold War, U.S. doctrine didn't bother ordering forward the armored divisions. It unfurled the black umbrella of Bomb Power instead. So far as we know, this doctrine remains. We have, in a sense, already had our nuclear war — the only one allowed to us. It ended in 1945. The weapon built to finish that war is a monstrous guarantor against the possibility of the next. Two options remain: deterrence or annihilation. How long do we have before the former gives way to the latter?
The National
12-05-2025
- Business
- The National
US and China agree to slash tariffs by 115%
The US and China on Monday agreed to pause tariffs for 90 days, as the world's top two economies continue discussions about economic and trade relations. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claimed the move would see tariffs slashed by 115 per cent. The 90-day pause will allow the superpowers to hammer out further economic and trade details. The announcement follows US's productive talks with Chinese officials in Geneva on Sunday. Updated: May 12, 2025, 7:52 AM
