Dubai’s Burj Khalifa is officially recognized as the world’s tallest building, measuring 2,716.5 feet and consisting of 163 stories.
However, various architecture firms are consistently striving to come up with innovative concepts and secure investments to beat Burj Khalifa.
Some of these concepts are so impressive that it is hard to imagine them being feasible.
One such example was proposed by Clouds Architecture Office, a New York-based firm, in 2017.
They presented a design for a tower named the Analemma Tower that would hang upside from an asteroid 31,068 miles above Earth, according to a 2017 report by CNN.
The huge structure would levitate above the ground and hold pricey apartments and would be accessible by drone.
Analemma Tower reaches for the heavens. — CNN via Clouds Architecture Office
WINNIPEG — The Winnipeg trial of admitted serial killer Jeremy Skibicki is expected to continue today with testimony from a DNA expert.
Court has heard DNA from three of the four victims was found in Skibicki’s home after police searched it in May 2022.
Skibicki has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder for the slayings of Rebecca Contois, Morgan Harris, Marcedes Myran and an unidentified women Indigenous leaders have named Buffalo Woman.
His lawyers have said he killed the four Indigenous women but is not criminally responsible due to mental illness.
Screenshot of the false post, taken on May 3, 2024
The same video was shared alongside similar claims and viewed more than 680,000 times across YouTube, SnackVideo and TikTok.
Although some social media users expressed doubt about the authenticity of the video, many others left comments indicating they believed it was genuine.
“It’s terrifying,” one wrote.
Another said: “Imagine if it hits Kalimantan island, maybe the entire Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore could disappear from the earth.”
Edited video
A reverse image search on Google found the same video uploaded to Instagram on September 21, 2023, credited to a user called diego.sinclair (archived link).
The video is captioned “Asteroid Hitting The Moon (CGI)”.
Further keyword searches on YouTube found the original video uploaded by a channel called Diego Sinclair on Feb 25, 2023 (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the false posts (left) and Diego Sinclair’s video (right), which shows the circulating clip has been mirrored:
Screenshot comparison of the video in the false posts (left) and Diego Sinclair’s video (right)
In comments on the video, the user said it was created using video effects and that it was “just an edit”, adding: “… the actual explosions don’t look anything like this one. They’re just bright flashes.”
A 3D computer graphics software tool called Blender was used to create the dramatic video, the user told AFP.
According to NASA, the Moon has little or no atmosphere so space rocks have nothing to stop them from striking the surface (archived link).
Scientists at the space agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center at the Automated Lunar and Meteor Observatory (ALaMO) in Huntsville, Alabama capture video of meteoroid strikes on the Moon several times a month (archived link).
In a video uploaded by the Marshall Space Flight Center, the lunar impact can be seen as small, bright flashes — nothing like the mushroom cloud explosion in the edited video (archived link).
AFP has previously debunked edited videos shared as genuine celestial events here and here.
Two prison guards were shot dead in an attack on a vehicle transporting an inmate in Incarville, France, after it stopped at a toll both, with more reported to be injured
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Manhattan prosecutors turned Monday to star witness Michael Cohen to describe the crux of their alleged criminal evidence against former President Trump stemming from his bid for the White House in 2016.
Cohen’s account of doing Trump’s bidding to hide extramarital sex as Trump sought the presidency eventually angered the defendant. Trump exited the courtroom to say he chafed at being off the campaign trail and he read at length from articles written by legal allies. Trump also blasted the presiding justice after hours of listening, sometimes with his eyes closed, to his former “fixer” retell a story now internationally familiar.
The Hill: Angry Trump blasts Justice Juan Merchan following Cohen’s testimony.
Last week, House Speaker Mike Johnson joined fellow GOP members of Congress to announce the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would require those registering to vote in federal elections to show proof of US citizenship.
Nor are Republicans entirely ignoring the lack of data to support their claims. “We all know, intuitively, that a lot of illegals are voting in federal elections. But it’s not been something that is easily provable. We don’t have that number,” Johnson said during the press conference. “This legislation will allow us to do exactly that — it will prevent that from happening. And if someone tries to do it, it will now be unlawful within the states.”
How convenient and unoriginal it is to use intuition to ignore facts. “The speaker said that this question is unanswerable and relied on his intuition, but in fact, the question is very answerable,” Eliza Sweren-Becker, a senior counsel in the Voting Rights & Elections Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, said in an interview. “And it’s been answered many times, in that there is not a serious problem with noncitizen voting in the United States.”
Washington, DC – In a report released on Friday, the United States concluded that it is “reasonable to assess” that the weapons it provided to Israel during its war on Gaza have been used in violation of international humanitarian law.
However, the same report said that Israel’s assurances that it is not using US arms to commit abuses are “credible and reliable” — and that the US can therefore continue to provide those weapons.
Advocates say the apparent contradiction shows that the US is willing to go to extraordinary lengths to continue arming Israel, even at the expense of Washington’s own laws.
“What those inconsistencies show you is that the administration does know what is happening,” said Annie Shiel, the US advocacy director at the Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC).
“They absolutely can see that there is devastating civilian harm, that there are apparent violations, that aid is being restricted. And they do not have the political will to do what that means — and end US support and US arms transfers to Israel.”
A batch of new polls from the New York Times, Siena College and the Philadelphia Inquirer has very bad news for President Biden: He’s losing. Among registered voters, he’s significantly behind in five of the six battleground states that are most likely to decide the election. He does slightly better among likely voters but remains behind in five key states.
It’s a snapshot, but it’s consistent with the overall trend of this campaign — which is, again, he’s losing.
Biden and many of his supporters seem to think the solution is to get right with the issues — the economy, the Israel-Hamas war, student loans, pot legalization, the threat to democracy and so on. If he can just find the sweet spot on policy, they believe, voters will come home.
That might be true to some extent. But I think focusing on the issues misses Biden’s real weakness: vibes.
“Vibes” is just a trendy word for “mood” or “feelings.” Whatever you call them, the relationship between attitudes and issues is not always as rational as some think.
Germany’s defense minister, Boris Pistorius is hinting at a new conscription plan for the German military that would make a one-year military service mandatory for teenagers. The plans have not been finalized and may have been leaked to test the tolerance of the German people towards such a change in their conscription laws.
Germany is believed to be considering the introduction of conscription for people aged 18 and over in the face of Vladimir Putin’s increasingly belligerent rhetoric.
Three alternative plans are understood to be up for discussion, including two which involve a year of compulsory military service for teenagers.
Boris Pistorius, Germany’s defence minister, is likely to go public with his proposals next month, The Sunday Telegraph reported.
Speaking during a visit to Washington last month, Mr Pistorius said he was “convinced” his country needed “a form of military conscription”.
He also criticised as a “mistake” the decision to scrap national service in 2011, under the Chancellorship of Angela Merkel, the predecessor of current leader Olaf Scholz.
The diary from Ashley Biden that exposed President Joe Biden’s alleged sexual assault of his own daughter was confirmed by Ashley Biden herself as belonging to her.
On Monday, Nuria Parlon, the spokesperson for the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC), stated that her party’s priority is to lead a tripartite regional government by joining forces with the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) and the leftist formation Comuns Sumar.
Previously, the PSC achieved a historic victory in the Catalan elections, securing 42 seats on Sunday. Together for Catalonia (Junts) increased its number of seats from 32 to 35, while the ERC’s seats dropped from 33 to 20 and Comuns Sumar obtained six legislators.
Parlon stated that her political organization would talk to all parties, except for the far-right Vox and Catalan Alliance, an Islamophobic party that entered parliament for the first time.
On Monday morning, former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont asserted that he would present his candidacy to be invested as president and emphasized that his party could achieve a broader majority than the Socialist candidate Salvador Illa could form.
OF the six recognized strategies for statecraft in conflict in international relations (negotiation, deterrence, coercive diplomacy, crisis management, war termination and détente), I have discussed so far coercive diplomacy and crisis management as strategic tools for statecraft that our government can employ in the present state of relations in the West Philippine Sea.
Continued aid to Ukraine from the West could secure them a victory over Russia. (Image: Getty)
Ukraine is still in “desperate need” of aid from the West in order to “thwart Russian state attacks” and regain lost territory in the ongoing war, an expert has said.
Pushan Dutt, professor of economics at INSEAD, said that the continuation of aid to Ukraine could significantly diminish the likelihood of a Russian summer offensive and potentially bring an end to the drawn out war.
Dutt expressed skepticism towards Russian officials’ assertions of a potential nuclear war and wider conflict with NATO.
General Syrskii says situation in northeastern oblast ‘significantly worsened’ this week as Russian forces continue to advance.
Ukraine’s military chief has admitted his forces are facing a “difficult situation” in the northeastern region of Kharkiv, where thousands more people have fled their homes as Russian forces continue to advance.
“This week, the situation in the Kharkiv region has significantly worsened,” Oleksandr Syrskii wrote on Telegram on Sunday. “There are ongoing battles in the border areas along the state border with the Russian Federation.”
While admitting that the situation is “difficult” and Russian attackers had achieved “partial successes” in some areas, he said, “Ukrainian defence forces are doing everything they can to hold defensive lines and positions.”
They’re playing the September 2016 tape in which Michael Cohen and Donald Trump can be heard discussing how they would buy the rights to Karen McDougal’s story.
In the tape, Cohen can be heard explaining to the then presidential candidate his plans to open a company through which he would finance the purchase of the rights to McDougal’s story.
Trump can be heard saying:
Let me know what’s happening, OK? … For that one, you know, I think what you should do is get rid of this. Because it’s so false what they’re saying, it’s such bullshit.
On Friday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) formally requested a sentence of 40 years in prison for the man who was convicted in the assault of Paul Pelosi, husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
According to Axios, the demand was made by federal prosecutors in a 20-page sentencing memo, which specifically stated that the goal was for the steep sentence to serve as a warning to others who may try to carry out political violence.
In October of 2022, David DePape broke into the Pelosis’ residence in San Francisco late in the evening and assaulted Paul with a hammer just as police were arriving. The former Speaker was not home at the time. DePape allegedly said that he wanted to assault Nancy Pelosi herself in order to “show other members of Congress there were consequences to actions.”
Heavily armed police are at the scene of a shooting in Hamburg, Germany, where a gunman has opened fire on officers below from the sixth floor of a building in the Altona district
‘Officials say some protesters charged at officers and one was arrested after attempting to strike an officer’
Pomona College officials had already relocated their graduation ceremony from the main campus to the Shrine Auditorium because pro-Palestinian protesters camped out on the Los Angeles-based school’s main stage refused to leave.
After the new location was announced, the anti-Israel activists hunted the ceremony down to the Shrine, prompting a clash with police on Sunday. The activists refused to disperse despite several requests from police to do so.
Officials say some protesters charged at officers and one was arrested after attempting to strike an officer.
Chants of “From the river to the sea” were heard in the crowd, a controversial slogan which some say is just a cry for Palestinian freedom but in other interpretations is seen as an antisemitic call for the destruction of Israel.
Some protesters were also attempting to block entrance to the auditorium, police say.
Parishioners in a southern Louisiana Catholic church accosted and removed a suspicious-looking teenager armed with a gun as about 60 children readied themselves for their first Holy Communion service on Saturday, according to reports.
The Abbeville Police Department (APD) received the report at 10:35 a.m. from the St Mary Magdalen Church in Abbeville, Chief of Police Mike Hardy said in a Saturday press release. “The person was confronted by parishioners and escorted outside. Upon arrival, Officers arrested the suspect and placed him in custody.”
“The suspect, a 16 year old…is being charged with Terrorizing and 2 counts of Possession of a Firearm by a Juvenile,” Hardy added, according to the press release. The charges followed a police interrogation of the suspect in the presence of his parent and a psychological evaluation of the suspect at the Abbeville General Hospital Behavioral Unit, the press release noted.
President Trump is back in court today in front of a New York City jury in the ongoing lawfare case where the prosecution has still not defined the criminal act that President Trump allegedly took part in.
This is the latest lawfare suit against President Trump that was completely derived by Democrats and the Biden regime to interfere with the 2024 election.
President Trump is currently leading in the polls in every battleground state except Wisconsin. Trump is ahead in Arizona and Georgia by 10 and 7 points.
Trump’s former attorney and close confidante Michael Cohen is testifying today at the show trial.
Former Trump Attorney blew away attorney-client privileges today and played a secret recording he had with President Trump.
The largest observational analysis study to date which investigated health outcomes following Covid vaccination confirmed a causal link between the shots and myocarditis, pericarditis, Guillain-Barré syndrome, cerebral venous sinus thrombosis and more.
The study analyzed health data from 99 million patients and encompassed eight countries through the Global Covid Vaccine Safety (GCoVS) Project.
“This multi-country analysis confirmed pre-established safety signals for myocarditis, pericarditis, Guillain-Barré syndrome, and cerebral venous sinus thrombosis. Other potential safety signals that require further investigation were identified,” the study said in the ‘Conclusion’ section.
On Sunday, CNN’s Fareed Zakaria started to prepare viewers for former President Donald Trump to win the White House in November, admitting that the race has not played out as he thought.
In a clip, Zakaria said, “As someone who worried about the prospects of a second Trump term, I think it’s best to be honest about reality.” He noted that “Trump is now leading in almost all the swing states” and polls “in general, they have tended to underestimate Donald Trump support, not overestimate.”
CNN’s latest coverage of the presidential election has become the news equivalent of a five-alarm fire.
Hours after longtime host Fareed Zakaria begged President Joe Biden on his Sunday show to “turn things around,” analyst Harry Enten broke down the latest poll numbers from NYT/Sienna showing the Democratic incumbent badly training former President Donald Trump in key swing states that are expected to decide the election. Among them: Trump leads Biden by 9% in Georgia, ground zero to the disputed 2020 presidential results and two stunning U.S. Senate wins by Democrats that year. Arizona, another close loss for Trump four years ago, now favors him by 6% among likely voters.
Madurai: Madras high court granted anticipatory bail to a man who set ablaze his brother’s two-wheeler over a property dispute in Pudukottai district on condition that he pays `20,000 to the cancer institute in Adyar.The court entertained the anticipatory bail plea filed by Chithiravel, also known as Chithiravelu, who feared arrest in a case registered by the Aranthangi police in Pudukkottai district.
