The rare unfurling of an endangered plant that emits the smell of decaying flesh drew hundreds of devoted fans to a greenhouse in Sydney on Thursday where they joined three-hour lines to experience a momentous bloom -– and a fragrance evoking gym socks and rotting garbage. Tall, pointed and smelly, the corpse flower is scientifically known as amorphophallus titanum — or bunga bangkai in Indonesia, where the plants are found in the Sumatran rainforest. But to fans of this specimen, she’s Putricia — a portmanteau of “putrid” and “Patricia” eagerly adopted by her followers who, naturally, call themselves Putricians. For a week, she has graced a stately and gothic display in front of a purple curtain and wreathed in mist from a humidifier at the Royal Sydney Botanic Garden. Her rise to fame has been rapid, with up to 20,000 admirers filing past for a moment in her increasingly pungent presence. No corpse flower has bloomed at the garden for 15 years. A slow bloomer There are thought to be only 300 of the plants in the wild and fewer than 1,000 including those in cultivation. The corpse flower only blooms every 7-10 years in its natural habitat. “The fact that they open very rarely, so they flower rarely, is obviously something that puts them at a little bit of a disadvantage in the wild,” said garden spokesperson Sophie Daniel, who designed Putricia’s kooky and funereal display. “When they open, they have to hope that another flower is open nearby, because they can’t self-pollinate.” After seven years at the garden, Putricia’s flower was spotted in December when she was just 25 centimeters (10 inches) high. By Thursday, she was 1.6 meters (5 feet 3 inches) tall. During the day, her flower spike slowly opened like a pleated skirt around a majestic central tuber, the yellow-green outer curling to reveal a burgundy center. Putricia-mania builds As excitement grew in Sydney about the unfolding bloom, garden staff erected crowd barriers giving the Victorian greenhouse the air of a rock concert. Fans trod a red carpet to view Putricia from behind velvet ropes in a display inspired by Queen Victoria’s funeral, the Rocky Horror Picture Show and the oeuvre of the late director David Lynch. Inside, fans took selfies and leaned in for a sniff — a more perilous prospect as Putricia’s odor developed. People inhaled the “slaughterhouse” stench and canceled their dinner plans, said Sydney Morning Herald science reporter Angus Dalton. “I am sickened,” he added. “I am in awe.” One young woman raised her hands and bowed as though in worship. On social media, garden staff performed a viral dance in front of the plant to Chappell Roan’s summer hit HOT TO GO! It was difficult to say why the regal, mysterious and stinky flower had attracted such a following -– but perhaps the answer lay in the “reverence” viewers felt in the presence of “such an amazing living being,” Daniel said. A swift rise to online fame Along with her real-life visitors, Putricia’s online fandom has been rapid, global and deeply strange -– if much less smelly. A 24/7 live stream established by the botanic garden drew close to a million views in less than a week and prompted a shared language of memes and inside jokes. Frequently deployed acronyms included WWTF, or we watch […]
Palestinian terrorists in Yehudah and Shomron are heavily armed with weapons smuggled into the area by Iran, a former senior Shin Bet agent told Radio103 FM on Wednesday. “We know that the northern Shomron is flooded with advanced Iranian weapons,” Yossi Amrousi said, mentioning the IDF soldier who was recently killed with advanced explosives. Amrousi warned of the danger to Israeli communities on the seam line, saying that if Hamas in Yehudah and Shomron gain enough weapons, “what happened in Kfar Azza could happen in Kfar Saba, chalilah,” He believes that the danger is severe enough that the IDF should carry out operations like those they carried out in Gaza, displacing the civilian population and going from house to house to root out all the terrorists. Although he supports Operation Iron Wall, Amrousi said that from what he sees on the surface, it doesn’t seem to be significantly different than previous operations. Amrousi warned that the release of terrorists as part of the hostage release is likely to encourage further attacks. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
A California couple are suing JetBlue after a watermelon-sized block of ice, allegedly from a plane flying from New York to LAX, crashed through their roof around on New Year’s Day 2024.
In a close 51-49 procedural vote, the Senate advanced Pete Hegseth’s nomination for Defense Secretary, with Republican Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski siding with Democrats to oppose him; however, Hegseth is expected to be confirmed in the final vote in the coming days.
A federal judge in Seattle is set to hear the first arguments Thursday in a multi-state lawsuit seeking to block President Donald Trump’s executive order ending the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship regardless of the parents’ immigration status. U.S. District Judge John Coughenour scheduled the session to consider the request from Arizona, Illinois, Oregon and Washington. The case is one of five lawsuits being brought by 22 states and a number of immigrants rights groups across the country. The suits include personal testimonies from attorneys general who are U.S. citizens by birthright, and names pregnant women who are afraid their children won’t become U.S. citizens. The order, signed by Trump on Inauguration Day, is slated to take effect on Feb. 19. It could impact hundreds of thousands of people born in the country, according to one of the lawsuits. In 2022, there were about 255,000 births of citizen children to mothers living in the country illegally and about 153,000 births to two such parents, according to the four-state suit filed in Seattle. The Trump administration argued in papers filed Wednesday that the states don’t have grounds to bring a suit against the order and that no damage has yet been done, so temporary relief isn’t called for. The administration’s attorneys also clarified that the executive order only applies to people born after Feb. 19, when it’s set to take effect. The U.S. is among about 30 countries where birthright citizenship — the principle of jus soli or “right of the soil” — is applied. Most are in the Americas, and Canada and Mexico are among them. The lawsuits argue that the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees citizenship for people born and naturalized in the U.S., and states have been interpreting the amendment that way for a century. Ratified in 1868 in the aftermath of the Civil War, the amendment says: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” Trump’s order asserts that the children of noncitizens are not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, and orders federal agencies to not recognize citizenship for children who don’t have at least one parent who is a citizen . A key case involving birthright citizenship unfolded in 1898. The Supreme Court held that Wong Kim Ark, who was born in San Francisco to Chinese immigrants, was a U.S. citizen because he was born in the country. After a trip abroad, he faced being denied reentry by the federal government on the grounds that he wasn’t a citizen under the Chinese Exclusion Act. But some advocates of immigration restrictions have argued that case clearly applied to children born to parents who were both legal immigrants. They say it’s less clear whether it applies to children born to parents living in the country illegally. Trump’s executive order prompted attorneys general to share their personal connections to birthright citizenship. Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, for instance, a U.S. citizen by birthright and the nation’s first Chinese American elected attorney general, said the lawsuit was personal for him. “There is no legitimate legal debate on this question. But the fact that Trump is dead wrong will not prevent him from inflicting serious harm […]
A Royal Air Force Eurofighter Typhoon was forced into an emergency landing without its canopy following a bird strike; the pilot managed to jettison the damaged canopy and safely returned to base, appearing unharmed in what was a remarkable display of piloting skill.
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On Thursday, Sen. Lisa Murkowski declared her intention to vote against the confirmation of Pete Hegseth as head of the Pentagon, marking her as the first Republican to oppose one of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominations.
TRUMP: “America is a free nation once again. On day one, I signed an Executive Order to stop all government censorship. No longer will our government label the speech of our own citizens as misinformation or disinformation.” “We have saved free speech in America.”
Delta Airlines is restarting flights to Israel, with tickets now on sale for the Tel Aviv to New York route starting in April. This signifies the airline’s first service back to Israel since halting flights due to the conflict in October 2023.
Costco is pushing back on a shareholder proposal that urges the wholesale club operator to conduct an evaluation of any business risks posed by its diversity, equity and inclusion practices. Investors were expected to vote on the recommendation during the company’s annual meeting Thursday. The National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank based in Washington, submitted the proposal, arguing that Costco’s DEI initiatives hold “litigation, reputational and financial risks to the company, and therefore financial risks to shareholders.” The think tank has made a similar proposal to Apple, and like some American companies that already scaled back or retreated from their diversity policies, cited a U.S. Supreme Court decision in July 2023 that outlawed affirmative action in college admissions. Costco officials could not be reached for comment on the DEI proposal. But Costco’s board of directors voted unanimously to ask shareholders to reject the motion. The board said it believes “our commitment to an enterprise rooted in respect and inclusion is appropriate and necessary. The report requested by this proposal would not provide meaningful additional information.” The directors’ message to shareholders details how having diverse employees and suppliers has, in their view, fostered “creativity and innovation in the merchandise and services that we offer” and led to greater customer satisfaction among Costco members. Neil Saunders, managing director of consulting firm GlobalData’s retail division, said Costco can be confident the proposal will be rejected. “I think people generally have confidence in Costco’s management, and there’s an attitude of ‘Why rock the boat? It’s sailing very nicely,'” Saunders said. Costco’s public stance in support of diversity, equity and inclusion programs contrasts with the positions taken in recent months by other big consumer brands, including Walmart,McDonald’s and John Deere. Last week, more than 30 Walmart shareholders, including Amalgamated Bank and Oxfam America, asked the CEO of the nation’s largest retailer to explain the business impact of curbing the company’s DEI policies, a move they called “disheartening.” Prominent technology companies, including Amazon and Meta — the parent company of Facebook and Instagram — also have rolled back DEI initiatives, which are expected to face opposition from the administration of President Donald Trump. Emboldened by the Supreme Court’s decision on affirmative action at colleges and universities, conservative groups have filed lawsuits making similar arguments about corporations, targeting initiatives such as employee resource groups and hiring practices that prioritize historically marginalized groups. On Monday, Trump signed an executive order aimed at terminating DEI programs within federal agencies. Conservatives have long condemned them, arguing they violate the U.S. Constitution by considering factors such as race, gender and sexual orientation. As for Costco, the National Center for Public Policy Research alleged that at least 200,000 of the company’s 300,000 employees worldwide “are potentially victims of this type of illegal discrimination because they are white, Asian, male or straight.” If only a fraction of those employees were to sue Costco, the legal costs could be significant, the center said. Costco has a chief diversity officer, but the company’s executive ranks do not reflect the diversity of its customers. Nearly 81% of the executives Costco had in place last year were white, and 72% of them were men, according to data published on its website. Saunders said members of Costco’s management team typically stay a long time […]
A federal judge in Seattle has issued a temporary injunction against President Trump’s recent executive order, which aimed to eliminate the practice of granting citizenship to individuals born on U.S. soil.
Mexican military forces have started building a significant migrant detention facility in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, near the U.S. border, in response to the impending mass deportations declared by President Trump.
A new fire, dubbed the Laguna Fire, has erupted in Ventura County, California. Initial assessments indicate it has spread across approximately 50 acres, fueled by dry conditions and potentially strong winds.