Rahul Verma’s son was born gravely ill with digestive problems, but over years of visits to the boy’s endocrinologist, Mr. Verma saw the doctor grow increasingly alarmed about a different problem, one threatening healthy children. Junk food, the doctor warned, was especially dangerous to Indians, who are far more prone to diabetes than people from other parts of the world.
One day in the doctor’s waiting room, Mr. Verma noticed a girl who had gotten fat by compulsively eating potato chips. He decided he had to do something.
“On one side you have children like my son, who are born with problems,” said Mr. Verma, “and on the other side you have children who are healthy and everything is fine and you are damaging them giving them unhealthy food.”
.
Mr. Verma filed a public interest lawsuit in 2010 seeking to ban the sale of junk food in and around schools in hopes of protecting children from an unhealthy diet.CreditAtul Loke for The New York Times
President Donald Trump is probably right: he doesn’t get due credit for the volume of achievements he’s stacked up during a tumultuous political year.
But to judge his presidency so far simply on bills passed, regulations slashed, executive orders signed and campaign promises kept would be to paint a skewed picture of the most divisive and controversial new administration in generations.
.
While Trump’s supporters approve of his actions and crusade against the establishment status quo, a majority does not, and it is Trump’s conduct and personality, more than his list of campaign promises kept, that is dictating how his first 11 months in office are perceived.
.
Trump’s conduct and personality is dictating how his first 11 months in office are perceived
You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen.But do you recall Saint Nicholas of Myra, the man behind Santa Claus? The jolly old elf of Christmastime lore is an embellishment on the historical persona of a Christian pastor from the 4th century. People adapted his legacy to suit their cultural needs, altering his attributes as they went along. As a result, the man behind the holiday fable is shrouded in myths and misconceptions.
.
A man dressed as Santa Claus entertains children. (John MacDougall/AFP/Getty Images)
Pope Francis used his Christmas message on Monday to call for a negotiated two-state solution to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, after U.S. President Donald Trump stoked regional tensions with his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Francis spoke of the Middle East conflict and other world flashpoints in his “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) address, four days after more than 120 countries backed a U.N. resolution urging the United States to reverse its decision on Jerusalem.
“Let us pray that the will to resume dialog may prevail between the parties and that a negotiated solution can finally be reached, one that would allow the peaceful coexistence of two states within mutually agreed and internationally recognized borders,” he said, referring to the Israelis and Palestinians.
“We see Jesus in the children of the Middle East who continue to suffer because of growing tensions between Israelis and Palestinians,” he said in his address, delivered from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica to tens of thousands of people.
A broad swath of the US won’t have to dream of a white Christmas as winter weather bears down on much of the Northwest, Midwest and Northeast on Sunday. They’ll be seeing snow from two separate storms.
More than 60 million people live in areas that are under winter weather alerts, which includes advisories, warnings and lake-effect snow warnings.
One storm system was located over Des Moines, Iowa, and Kansas City on Sunday morning and is moving eastward over the course of the day.
Every holiday season, families and friends convene to share affection, kindness and experience. In the ideal holiday atmosphere, one often depicted in commercials and media, such get-togethers are events of warmth, appreciation and general happiness.
If you find yourself in such a family, count yourself lucky and blessed.
If your holiday is marked with stress and difficulty, then you may be part of the rest of America, where the holiday season brings real issues to light in addition to the positive experiences of the season.
U.S. broadcaster Dick Enberg, who charmed sports fans with his “Oh My!” declaration as he called some of the most memorable sporting events during the last five decades, died on Thursday, ESPN reported. He was 82.
Enberg was found dead at his home in San Diego. His wife Barbara told the San Diego Union-Tribune that her husband failed to catch a Thursday flight to Boston, where they were supposed to meet.
“He was dressed with his bags packed at the door,” she said. “We think it was a heart attack.”
The football field-size CCGS Amundsen, breaking through the icy waters of the Northwest Passage, came to a halt. Traversing one of the most unexplored regions of Earth’s oceans, the Canadian coast guard vessel found itself amid ice 10 feet thick. It reversed course, turned 30 degrees, and proceeded forward again, trembling along the way.
This icebreaker’s objective was to carry scientists into little-charted seas high in the Canadian Arctic. There they planned to map regions of the seafloor at high resolution and pull up a sample that could reveal what happened here at the close of the last ice age, 10,000 to 12,000 years ago.
But the dilemma the scientists on this vessel faced had less to do with ancient history than the near future. By helping to map a region that’s only now becoming navigable, thanks to climate change, they’re part of a broader opening of one of Earth’s most untouched environments to a growing volume of ship traffic.
.
Mark Furze, a geoscientist and professor at MacEwan University, discusses the importance of understanding how climate change is impacting the Arctic.(Alice Li/TWP)
The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a new set of draconian US-drafted sanctions on North Korea that will further strangle its energy supplies and tighten restrictions on smuggling and the use of North Korean workers overseas.
Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, claimed that the new sanctions, levied in response to Pyongyang’s November 29 ballistic missile test, went even further than sanctions passed in September that, at the time, were called the toughest yet.
.
“Today, we cut deeper,” Haley said. She said the UN had repeatedly offered Pyongyang a choice and repeatedly, in its continued missile tests, the regime had “chosen the path of isolation.”
Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.
Mr. Verma filed a public interest lawsuit in 2010 seeking to ban the sale of junk food in and around schools in hopes of protecting children from an unhealthy diet.CreditAtul Loke for The New York Times
Trump’s conduct and personality is dictating how his first 11 months in office are perceived
Pope Francis
.
.
Stress
.
James' World 2 