-
Posts
15618 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Reputation
15588 Surly 1%Recent Profile Visitors
The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.
-
Trump tells Ukraine: Accept Putin’s demands ‘or be destroyed’ US president, shouting and swearing, pressures Zelensky to surrender the Donetsk region Memphis Barker Senior Foreign Correspondent 19 October 2025 9:01pm BST Donald Trump demanded that Ukraine submit to Vladimir Putin’s peace terms or face destruction in an angry meeting at the White House last week, it has emerged. The US president, who spoke with his Russian counterpart shortly before hosting Volodymyr Zelensky, warned that Putin would “destroy” Ukraine unless a peace deal was in place. Shouting and swearing, Mr Trump threw aside Ukrainian maps of the battlefield and pressured Mr Zelensky to surrender the Donetsk region to Russia. Putin is demanding the withdrawal of Ukraine’s army from the crucial eastern territory as a precondition for peace. However, the surrender of Donetsk is a red line for Ukraine, which has long refused to cede the territory, which Russia has failed to capture despite fighting since 2014. Kyiv still holds about a quarter of Donetsk province. The land makes up part of the so-called “fortress belt”, a string of heavily defended towns that blocks Russia from making rapid westward advances towards the capital. In the White House meeting, Mr Trump echoed Putin’s talking points, despite them contradicting his own recent assessment that Moscow was a “paper tiger”, European officials briefed on the meeting told the Financial Times. Mr Trump is said to have echoed Vladimir Putin's talking points during the meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky Mr Trump is said to have echoed Vladimir Putin’s talking points during the meeting with Mr Zelensky Credit: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters The US president told Mr Zelensky he was losing the war and said: “If [Putin] wants, he will destroy you.” Mr Trump is keen to secure another peace deal following the success of his intervention in the war between Israel and Hamas. In recent months, he has swung between Russian and Ukrainian positions, often cooling on sanctions or further military pressure on Moscow after phone calls with Putin. At the White House, Mr Zelensky held his ground and refused to cut a deal that would leave Ukraine badly exposed. But the Ukrainian president left in a bitter mood, dashed in his hopes that Mr Trump would authorise deliveries of long-range Tomahawk missiles. On Saturday, Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, said the visit “had not gone as Zelensky hoped”. On Sunday, Mr Zelensky told NBC News that “I don’t know the dialogue between President [Trump] and Putin,” adding only that he believed Tomahawks could pressurise Moscow into serious peace negotiations. Asked whether Mr Trump needed to get tougher on Putin, following his decision to turn the screws on Israel and Hamas, Mr Zelensky said: “Yes… because Putin is something similar but more strong than Hamas. It’s more bigger war and he is the second [largest] army in the world.” He denied that Russia was winning the war and said that Putin was after more than just a further tranche of territory, in remarks that appeared to reflect his discussion with Mr Trump. ‘This is not about territory for Putin’ Russia’s “army now [is] in a weak position,” he said, having lost 1.3 million men to capture just 1 per cent of Ukrainian land since near the start of the war. “And really I don’t understand why the leader of the country which has the biggest territory in the world needs some more kilometres – that’s why I think that this war is not about the land and not about territory for him. It’s about our sovereignty and about our independence.” Mr Trump is set to meet Putin in Budapest within the next fortnight in an attempt to make progress on a peace deal. During their phone call, Putin told Mr Trump he was willing to cede small parts of the southern Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions under Russia’s control in exchange for the rest of the Donbas. Moscow has struggled to control the territory and made almost no progress on the southern frontline since 2022. A European diplomat told the Washington Post that Ukraine would never accept such a deal. “It’s like selling them [Russia] their own leg in exchange for nothing,” they said. On Sunday, Mr Zelensky said he told Mr Trump he was ready and willing to attend the Budapest summit, but cast doubt on whether Putin was seriously prepared to make peace.
-
Do you have access to this one @PTINS? https://www.qcintel.com/article/ukraine-strikes-russian-gas-plant-refinery-in-weekend-attacks-50963.html
-
Need more detail. I think it could be lots of things from cancer to priapism to just being nervous that something serious is going on (like concerned you might have alzheimers or Lou Gehrigs). For a young female it could be an eating disorder. For a man or woman it could be depression/suicide. So really just about anything and everything is possible.
-
arch’s turnaround will happen about the same time we average over 4yrds per carry with the offensive line also providing adequate pass protection. New qbs don’t show much progress when the game is sped up and windows are tighter. Or perhaps a better way to say it is young qbs can’t progress when teams can stop the run and get pressure with 3-4 down linemen.
-
Great how we keep letting ourselves get gashed after putting them in second and long
-
I didn't picture you as a JD Vance fan.
-
Texas Recruiting Notes 2026: Boulevard of Broken Bagmen
Bevo replied to texifornia's topic in 🤫$9.95🤫
That doesn't look great for our offensive line hopes. -
Still better than what @NowThis has in him
-
I picture it like I’m duck hunting with my absent minded brother. He stands up to shoot and starts following the birds and I hide in the blind so he can’t shoot me.
-
Saw this in JAMA today: Microplastics and Human Health Summarize Plastics production and use reached 435 million tons in 2020 (up from 234 million tons in 2000) and by 2040 is expected to further increase by 70%. Plastics are synthetic materials composed of polymers, such as polyester, polyethylene, copolymers of polypropylene, and polyurethane, that vary in chemical composition and often contain additives. Although more than 13 000 chemicals are associated with plastics, 10 groups of chemicals are identified as being of major concern due to their high toxicity and potential to migrate or be released from plastics. These include specific flame retardants, certain UV stabilizers, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), phthalates, bisphenols, alkylphenols and alkylphenol ethoxylates, biocides, certain metals and metalloids, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Microplastics Plastics smaller than 5 mm are termed microplastics, which enter the body primarily through inhalation or ingestion after plastic litter in the environment degrades into smaller plastic fragments. Inhaled particles that have a diameter of 2.5 μm or smaller can enter the alveoli of the lungs and the bloodstream and accumulate widely in the tissues.1 Many foods, beverages, and drinking water sources contain microplastics, which can enter the body upon ingestion. A 2020 study performed in Mexico evaluated microplastic contamination in 57 common beverages (soft drinks, beer, cold tea, and energy drinks). Of the beverages evaluated, 48 samples showed detectable microplastics, 36 samples contained less than 5 microplastic particles/L, 9 samples had 5 to 10 microplastic particles/L, and 3 samples contained 11 to 30 microplastic particles/L, with the highest abundance of microplastics (mean [SD], 28 [5.29] particles/L) recorded in a beer sample.2 Many clothing pieces, cosmetics, and other personal use products contain microplastics and use of these products may lead to increased exposure through accidental ingestion or aerosolized inhalation. A 2024 review of 38 studies investigating 2379 cosmetic and personal care products reported 16.4% (n = 390) contained microplastics. Face scrub was the most commonly tested product (46.8% of total products tested) and 26.5% of the face scrubs tested contained microplastics. Microplastics’ unique surface area, defined by coarse shapes and heterogeneous material, enables them to act as a vehicle for various contaminants. Specifically, microplastics act as sorbents that adsorb or absorb various pollutants on their surface primarily through hydrophobic or electrostatic means and by pore filling (physically accumulating environmental contaminants, such as microbes, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and heavy metals, and encasing them in micro or nanopores) interactions.3 In vitro studies using human cell lines, organoids (3-dimensional, miniature organ structures grown in the laboratory that mimic the structure and function of real organs), and animal studies have shown that microplastic exposure increases oxidative stress, production of reactive oxygen species, cell membrane organelle damage, immune response, and DNA damage.4 Liver organoid exposure to polystyrene microplastics induced hepatotoxicity with increased alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase in the supernatant (liquid above a solid phase) and compromised antioxidant balance, suggesting oxidative stress and an increase in inflammatory response observed via elevated interleukin-6 levels, even at the lowest dosage used in this study (0.25 μg/mL; mean [SD], 102 [7] items/mL).5 Methods of Detecting Microplastics Current detection methods for microplastics, such as microscopy, spectroscopy (analysis of the spectrum of light that a substance emits or absorbs), and thermal analysis are being used, and most studies focus on detecting polystyrene particles.6 Many techniques have been validated, standardized, and published; however, methodological limitations include difficulty of isolation from complex environmental or biological samples and identification of each microplastic type. More robust and standardized methodologies for detecting and quantitating microplastics are being studied. Presence of Microplastics in Human Tissues Studies have reported the presence of microplastics in many human tissues and organs, including the lungs, brain, blood, liver, kidneys, heart and circulatory system, spleen, colon, testes, ovarian follicular fluid, and placenta as well as in human breast milk and infants’ first stools. Longitudinal studies suggest increased microplastic concentrations in biological tissues over the past several decades. Levels of microplastics were statistically higher among 24 individuals in 2024 compared with 28 individuals in 2016 in postmortem human brain tissue (median, 4917 μg g−1 vs 3345 μg g−1) and liver tissue (103.7 μg g−1 vs 432.9 μg g−1).7 A study using spectroscopy reported a substantial increase in the frequency and concentration of microplastics in human placentas in Hawaiʻi from 2006 to 2021.8 Based on examination of 10 placental samples in each time frame, microplastics were detected in 60% in 2006, 90% in 2013, and 100% in 2021. Average microplastic particles per 50 g of placental tissue increased from 4.1 in 2006 to 7.1 in 2013 to 15.5 in 2021. The increase in the number of microplastics per 50 g of placenta tissue from 2021 reached statistical significance in comparison with 2006 samples (P < .001) and 2013 samples (P < .05).8 Known and Potential Health Effects Associated With Microplastics Observational studies have shown an association of microplastics with adverse health effects, although this does not prove causation. In a study of 257 patients with asymptomatic carotid artery disease, microplastics (polyethylene) were found in the excised carotid artery plaque of 58.4% of patients (n = 150; mean [SD] level, 21.7 [24.5] μg/mg of plaque) and 12.1% (n = 31) also had measurable amounts of polyvinyl chloride (mean [SD] level, 5.2 [2.4] μg/mg of plaque).9 Patients with detectable microplastics in excised carotid artery plaque had a 4.5 times higher risk (20.0%; 30/150 patients) of a composite of myocardial infarction, stroke, or death from any cause at 34 months of follow-up than those in whom microplastics were not detected (7.5%; 8/107 patients).9 A postmortem study reported that brain tissue obtained from 12 patients with dementia had higher levels of microplastics than those obtained from 52 individuals without dementia (26 076 μg g−1 vs 4131 μg g−1; P < .001).7Further research into potential mechanisms of organ dysfunction and disease associated with microplastics is ongoing. Policies to Reduce Plastic Pollution Although many local and national policies exist to limit plastic pollution, few comprehensive international agreements are currently in place to decrease plastic pollution. Agreements that have been reached include the 2019 Basel Convention Plastic Waste Amendments, which control transboundary movements of plastic waste into countries with limited recycling options (such as insufficient recycling plants or lack of technical expertise to recycle in an environmentally sound manner), and the MARPOL Annex V, a legally binding agreement signed by more than 150 countries that prohibits ships from dumping plastic waste into the ocean. The United Nations Global Plastics Treaty has been in negotiation since March 2022 after a resolution was adopted to develop an international, legally binding agreement on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment, with a goal of addressing “the full life cycle of plastics, including their production, design, and disposal.” Conclusions Microplastics have been detected in human tissues at increasing rates and are associated with known and potential adverse health effects, raising concerns over the high levels of plastic pollutants in the air, water, and soil. International cooperation to limit plastic pollution and to find environmentally safe plastic alternatives is needed. Corresponding Author: David C. Christiani, MD, MPH, Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Ave, Bldg I, Room 1401, Boston, MA 02115 (dchris@hsph.harvard.edu).
-
Were any of the female hostages returned alive in the last week?
-
There was also a hospital that was hit overnight
-
Maybe that’s a good thing, but I saw no evidence that Gandalf was much of a pussy slayer in his old age so being like him seems to have some downfall? Maybe chicks just don’t like magicians.
-
Yeah, but I estimate 93.6% of heterosexual surlys would hit it.
-
Lots of land mines have been used and are probably still being used to some extent.
Football ... Basketball ... Baseball ... Other Sports ... Futbol ... 🤫995🤫 ... Gambling ... Movies & TV ... Music ... Hobbies ... Lulz ... Food & Travel ... Daily Texan ... Business and Markets ... Cloak Room ... Help ... For Sale ... Board Discussion ... Subscribe!... Donate!... COOKIE MONSTER!