Cattelan’s famous taped banana stolen from French museum

A museum in eastern France has filed a police complaint after a banana forming the centrepiece of Maurizio Cattelan’s multimillion-dollar conceptual artwork "Comedian" was stolen from an exhibition.


Issued on: 02/06/2026 - RFI

HOW IS IT THAT THE BANANA IS ALWAYS FRESH?STRANGE THAT!

People look at Italian visual artist Maurizio Cattelan’s duct-taped Banana entitled "Comedian," during a press preview at Sotheby's in New York, on 25 October 2024. AFP - TIMOTHY A. CLARY

The Pompidou-Metz museum, a branch of the Pompidou Centre in Paris, said the banana, famously taped to a wall as part of the Italian artist’s provocative work, was noticed missing by a guard on Saturday.

The museum reported the theft to police on Sunday and said it had lodged a criminal complaint against persons unknown.

The banana has since been replaced, in keeping with the artwork’s unusual maintenance routine: the perishable fruit at the heart of Comedian is changed every three days to keep the work fresh - literally - and in line with its playful challenge to ideas of artistic value.

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A fruit with a history

This is not the first time Cattelan’s banana has proved too tempting to leave untouched.

In July last year, a visitor to the Pompidou-Metz ate the fruit while it was on display. Guards intervened quickly and a replacement banana was taped to the wall. On that occasion, the museum chose not to take legal action.

Cattelan responded with characteristic mischief, saying he was disappointed the hungry visitor had eaten only the banana and not the tape as well.

This time, however, the museum said it had decided to file a criminal complaint because the perpetrator had not been identified, leaving “no possibility of dialogue”.

It also said the incident raised an issue of respect for the artwork, particularly as it was “the second time this has happened”.

Cattelan’s Comedian has sparked debate, disbelief and fascination since its debut at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2019, where it was offered for sale with an asking price of $120,000. The work whihc consists of a banana fixed to a wall with duct tape, quickly became one of the most talked-about pieces in contemporary art, in part because of its simplicity and in part because of the questions it raised about authorship, money, performance and the art market itself.

Its notoriety only grew when performance artist David Datuna ate the banana at the 2019 fair, saying he felt “hungry”. Rather than bringing the story to an end, the act helped cement Comedian’s place as a cheerful provocation in the art world – a work that seems to invite both serious debate and comic interruption.

Four charged with theft of gold toilet from English stately home
Value keeps rising

Despite – or perhaps because of – its repeated encounters with hungry visitors and would-be participants, Comedian has continued to climb in value.

In 2024, Chinese-born crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun paid $5.2 million for one iteration of the artwork. Days later, he ate the banana in front of cameras in Hong Kong, turning the purchase into another performance around value, ownership and spectacle.

The work’s physical banana is replaceable, but the concept, certificate and instructions behind it are what collectors buy. That distinction has made Comedian a striking example of how contemporary art can exist as an idea as much as an object and how even a piece of fruit can become a global cultural talking point.

Cattelan, one of Italy’s best-known contemporary artists, has long specialised in works that mix humour, provocation and institutional critique. Alongside Comedian, he is known for America, an 18-carat, fully functioning gold toilet that was once offered to Donald Trump during his first term in the White House.
A fully functioning solid gold toilet, made by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, is going into public use at the Guggenheim Museum in New York on 15 September 2016. AFP - WILLIAM EDWARDS


That work also became the subject of a high-profile theft. In March, a British court found two men guilty of stealing the golden toilet during an exhibition in the United Kingdom in 2020. It had been installed at Blenheim Palace, the 18th-century stately home where wartime prime minister Winston Churchill was born.

The toilet was later broken up, and none of the gold was recovered.

For the Pompidou-Metz, the latest disappearance of Cattelan’s banana is more than a prank. By going to police, the museum has drawn a line between playful engagement with a famously mischievous artwork and the unauthorised removal of part of an exhibited piece.

(With newswires)

Trump's big MAGA birthday bash in full meltdown

U.S. President Donald Trump attends an event to honor Angel Families at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 23, 2026. REUTERS

Nick Hilden 

May 29, 2026 

ALTERNET

On Wednesday, the musical lineup was announced for the Great American State Fair, an event that will be held at the National Mall to mark the country’s semiquincentennial, which President Donald Trump has promoted as something of a MAGA-patriot bash. By Friday, the concert series was in disarray as nearly all of the proclaimed performers had pulled out, asserting that they’d been misled by organizers. As Washingtonian explained, “They thought they were performing at a nonpartisan celebration of the nation’s birthday — and had not been informed that Freedom 250 was an organization closely tied to Donald Trump.”

As a result, “the Great American State Fair seems to be melting down, in a bizarre situation that involves dueling semiquincentennial celebrations, a congressional probe into possibly shady fundraising practices, apparently empty concert stages, and one very weird rant recorded to Instagram from the toilet.”

So far, 5 of 9 artists from the original lineup have dropped out, including Martina McBride, Bret Michaels, Young MC, Morris Day & the Time, and the Commodores. According to McBride, “I was presented with an opportunity to perform at a nonpartisan event but that turned out to be misleading.” Said Michaels, the event “has evolved into something much more divisive than what I agreed to be a part of.” Young MC claimed that “the artists were never told about any political involvement.” “It’s a no for me,” posted Morris Day, while the Commodores declared, “Our music has always been our voice and we choose not to publicly affiliate with any single political party. We support the betterment of all Americans.”

The remaining artists have delivered wide-ranging responses, from silence, to neutrality, to full-throated enthusiasm, to the just plain bizarre. Trump ally Vanilla Ice says he is “super honored to do this concert.” Fab Moran, the surviving member of the infamous 80s pop group Milli Vanilli, stated, “I am here to entertain and unite people, not divide them.” Flo Rida hasn’t responded to the controversy, but he previously pulled out of a 2015 Miss USA pageant after Trump made racist remarks about Mexicans, so his participation may change.

One artist, C+C Music Factory, hasn’t quit, but its frontman's unusual response to the controversy doesn’t bode well for the concert series.

As Washington detailed, “In a strange, profanity-laden Instagram video that appears to have been recorded from the toilet, frontman Freedom Williams claims that his agent didn’t mention Trump when he booked the Great American State Fair concert; all Williams knew was that he’d agreed to do ‘a show in Washington,’ which seemed fine. ‘I don’t fuck with Trump,’ he said multiple times. But he also said he’d ‘vote for Genghis Khan, Hitler, or Ivan the Terrible’ or ‘do a show in North Korea pissing on an American flag’ before he let the public tell him what to do. Williams stressed that he is un-cancellable. ‘I just might do it,’ seems to be where he’s landed on the Great American State Fair.”

While the United States’ 250th birthday is technically a nonpartisan event, Trump has gone out of his way to make the celebration a MAGA affair, right down to the organization putting it together. As Washingtonian notes, “The organization sponsoring the Great American State Fair is not America250, the nonpartisan entity created by Congress to administer the country’s semiquincentennial celebrations. It’s Freedom 250 (officially the ‘White House Task Force on Celebrating America’s 250th Birthday’), an organization created by President Trump, and run by a Trump appointee.”

Critics allege that Freedom 250 is really just another Trump grift that provides wealthy donors presidential access. According to Washingtonian, “For one million dollars or more…donors to Freedom 250 can secure an invitation to a private reception hosted by Trump himself. As the New York Times explained earlier this year, Freedom 250 allows ‘people and companies with interests before the Trump administration’ to make ‘tax-deductible donations to gain access to, and seek favor with, a president who has maintained a keen interest in fund-raising, and a willingness to use the levers of government power to reward financial supporters.’”

In response, Democratic senators launched a probe into the organization’s fundraising, writing that “Government-sponsored civic commemorations should not serve as platforms for political messaging or partisan activity, nor should they create opportunities for donors to exert influence with federal decision-makers under the guise of patriotic celebration.”

 

Survey highlights persistent uncertainty on STI vaccines

Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania

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Source: The Annenberg Public Policy Center's Annenberg Science and Public Health survey, April 2026. 

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While data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that the total number of U.S. cases of three sexually transmitted infections (STIs) declined from 2022-24, infection rates remain 13% higher than a decade ago. CDC provisional data show more than 2.2 million U.S. cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis were reported in 2024.

Now, a nationally representative survey of empaneled adults from the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania finds that while most Americans understand how STIs spread, there are significant gaps in public knowledge about which infections can be prevented through vaccination.

In the Annenberg survey, conducted April 14-28, 2026, among 1,639 U.S. adults, nearly half of the respondents (47%) say that they or someone they know has ever been diagnosed with an STI. Most of those (72%) who know someone with an STI report knowing two or more people with it. (Download the topline.)

CDC data show how common these infections are. The CDC says the most common STI is human papillomavirus or HPV, and about 85% of people will get an HPV infection in their lifetime. The CDC also has estimated that on any given day in 2018, about 20% of the U.S. population – 1 in 5 people – had an STI.

Gaps in identifying what is sexually transmitted

A sexually transmitted infection, the CDC says, is “a virus, bacteria, fungus or parasite people can get through sexual contact.” There are dozens of STIs. Some are spread mainly by sexual contact (such as genital herpes, gonorrhea, syphilis, chlamydia, and HPV). Some are sometimes spread by sexual transmission (HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), mpox). And some can be spread sexually but are more often spread in other ways (Zika).

The survey finds that a large majority of respondents know that infections which spread mainly by sexual contact are sexually transmitted. In most cases, there has been no significant change in public knowledge from 2024 to 2026. The percentages who know that these diseases are sexually transmitted are:

• 95% Genital herpes
• 94% Gonorrhea
• 91% Syphilis
• 89% Chlamydia
• 75% HPV, a six-point increase from 2024

Although sexual transmission is just one of several ways that HIV can be spread, Americans are much more aware that it can be sexually transmitted than they are about mpox or Zika:

• 92% know that HIV can be sexually transmitted.
• 35% know that mpox, also called monkeypox, can be sexually transmitted.
• 13% know that Zika or ZIKV, which is primarily mosquito-borne, can also be sexually transmitted.

“Public understanding improves when accurate health information reaches people clearly and consistently,” said Ken Winneg, APPC’s managing director of survey research. “But these findings show continuing gaps in awareness about diseases which can be sexually transmitted such as HPV, mpox, and Zika.”

Broad awareness of STI transmission but misconceptions persist

The survey shows strong awareness of common ways that STIs are transmitted:

• 97% identify vaginal sex as a transmission route
• 94% anal sex
• 91% genital-to-genital contact
• 89% oral sex

In addition, 49% selected kissing, which is not a common route for STI transmission but may be a form of transmission of syphilis when a sore is present and may be a risk factor for oral gonorrhea. And 1 in 5 (20%) chose sitting on a toilet after someone with an STI sat on it. CDC guidance for a number of STIs (HIV, syphilis, and genital herpes, for instance) says that sitting on a toilet seat is not a form of transmission.

Public understanding is uneven around less common transmission pathways for HIV, in particular. While 92% recognize HIV as sexually transmitted, only 33% know it also can be transmitted by breastfeeding. According to the CDC, HIV can be transmitted during pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding.

Limited understanding of which diseases are vaccine-preventable

The public’s awareness of which diseases can be prevented with vaccines varies widely. For most of the diseases in our survey, a substantial part of the population says it does not know whether there is a vaccine for them. For the two diseases which may be prevented by vaccines:

• HPV: HPV vaccine awareness is highest, with 68% correctly identifying that a vaccine exists. The CDC reports that HPV vaccination can prevent more than 90% of HPV-related cancers.
• Mpox: Only 42% know a vaccine exists for mpox, despite CDC recommendations that at-risk groups be vaccinated. The vaccine can help prevent an mpox infection if given in advance and can mitigate it if given shortly after exposure.

For some other infections, most Americans are unaware that no vaccine exists:

• Genital herpes: 54% are unsure or incorrectly think a vaccine exists
• Gonorrhea: 58% unsure or incorrect
• Syphilis: 61% unsure or incorrect
• Chlamydia: 60% unsure or incorrect
• HIV: 52% are unsure or incorrect
• Zika: 81% unsure or incorrect

Encouraging areas of public knowledge – and some misconceptions

The survey highlights the public’s strong knowledge of some basic facts about STIs:

• 93% know STIs can spread even without symptoms;
• 87% reject the myth that only people with many sexual partners get STIs;
• 83% know that HIV medications can control disease progression, a decline from 2024, when 87% knew this.
  • But only 45% know that most people in the United States who have HIV do not develop AIDS.
• 80% know STIs can be passed from a pregnant person to their baby
• 70% know that HPV can lead to cancer in women
  • But 14% also incorrectly think the vaccine leads teens to engage in risky sexual behavior, an increase from 10% who said they believed this in 2024. It does not.

“HPV vaccination is important for preventing cancers caused by HPV,” said Laura A. Gibson, an APPC research analyst. “The increase in awareness that HPV is sexually transmitted is a positive development, but it is concerning to see a similar increase in the incorrect belief that the HPV vaccine leads teens to engage in risky sexual behavior.”

Syphilis: Rising rates underscore importance of public understanding

The survey findings come as syphilis continues to pose a major public health challenge in the United States. According to the CDC’s latest provisional surveillance data, there were more than 190,000 reported syphilis cases in 2024, and the national syphilis rate reached 55.9 cases per 100,000 people. While overall syphilis cases declined about 9% from 2023 levels, congenital syphilis — when the infection is passed from a pregnant person to a baby — increased for the 12th consecutive year, with nearly 4,000 reported cases in 2024. The CDC reports congenital syphilis rates are now nearly 700% higher than a decade ago.

The current survey suggests that many Americans remain uncertain about how syphilis can be prevented and treated. Over 9 out of 10 people (91%) correctly identify syphilis as sexually transmitted but more than half of U.S. adults (61%) are either unsure whether there is a vaccine against syphilis (44%) or say a vaccine exists (17%). It does not, according to the Mayo Clinic.

“Too many Americans remain uncertain about basic facts surrounding syphilis, including how it is prevented and treated,” said Patrick E. Jamieson, director of the policy center’s Annenberg Health and Risk Communication Institute, which oversees the survey. “Those knowledge gaps can have serious public health consequences.”

About 4 in 5 respondents know how to protect against getting syphilis: 80% correctly identify abstinence and 78% correctly identify condom use as ways to protect against syphilis.

The CDC recommends regular STI screening, condom use, prompt antibiotic treatment, and prenatal testing during pregnancy to reduce transmission and prevent congenital syphilis.

Additional context on STI curability

Three bacterial infections – gonorrhea, chlamydia, and syphilis – can be cured with appropriate antibiotics, according to the CDC, but you can be re-infected. Three viral STIs – HPV, genital herpes, and HIV – cannot be cured. Although HPV cannot be cured, in 9 out of 10 cases, “HPV goes away on its own within two years without health problems,” the CDC says. When HPV does not resolve, it can cause cervical and other cancers. Genital herpes is a lifelong infection and has no cure, according to the CDC, but there are medicines that can “prevent or shorten outbreaks.” HIV has no cure but can be managed with medication.

Most patients with mpox who are not severely immunocompromised “will recover with supportive care and pain control only,” the CDC says. Zika has no specific cure but typically resolves on its own, although in rare cases it can cause severe disease affecting the brain.

APPC’s ASAPH survey

The findings come from Wave 29 of the Annenberg Science and Public Health survey (ASAPH), conducted April 14-28, 2026, among 1,639 U.S. adults. It was conducted for the policy center by SSRS, an independent research company. The nationally representative probability-based panel, which was first empaneled in April 2021, has a margin of sampling error of ± 3.5 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. All figures are rounded to the nearest whole number and may not add to 100%. Combined subcategories may not add to totals in the topline and text due to rounding.

Download the topline and methodology report.

The policy center has been tracking the American public’s knowledge, beliefs, and behaviors regarding vaccination, Covid-19, flu, RSV, and other consequential health issues through the Annenberg Science and Public Health (ASAPH) survey and separate national samples since April 2021. The ASAPH survey is conducted under the auspices of APPC’s Annenberg Health and Risk Communication Institute (AHRCI) by a team that includes Ken Winneg, managing director of survey research; research analysts Laura A. Gibson and Shawn Patterson Jr.; and Patrick E. Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Health and Risk Communication Institute.

See other recent Annenberg health survey news releases:

• How the public views scientists: Scientists esteemed by public, with vaccine scientists seen as similar to scientists in general (April 27, 2026)
• Alcohol and cancer: Awareness of alcohol-cancer link holds steady despite omission in new U.S. dietary guidelines (March 19, 2026)
• Trust in health leaders: Stark divide: Americans more confident in career scientists at U.S. health agencies than leaders (March 5, 2026)
• RSV: Most would recommend RSV immunizations for infants, older adults, and during pregnancy (Jan. 21, 2026)
• Shared decision-making: CDC urges “shared decision-making” on some childhood vaccines; many unclear about what that means (Jan. 5, 2026)

The Annenberg Public Policy Center was established in 1993 to educate the public and policy makers about communication’s role in advancing public understanding of political, science, and health issues at the local, state, and federal levels.

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Source: The Annenberg Public Policy Center's Annenberg Science and Public Health (ASAPH) survey, April 2026.

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Annenberg Public Policy Center

NASA’s Artemis-II Mission: Moon Race 2.0 Begins

D Raghunandan | 20 Apr 2026

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Cost cutting in NASA and commercial ventures in space may threaten the Artemis programme which, at least on paper, emphasises international collaboration for the common public good.

Solar Eclipse from the Moon

The US National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) launched its much awaited Artemis-II crewed mission, after several minor hiccups and postponements, on April 1, 2026 from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. The Orion spacecraft, launched by NASA’s revamped Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, carried four astronauts, including one from the Canadian Space Agency, on a 10-day mission around the Moon and back, as a precursor to a moon landing in 2028 and later, establishment of a permanent space station on the lunar surface and possible onward missions to Mars.

The Artemis programme is an international collaborative effort led by seven initial partners and joined by many countries, including India. A key role in Artemis-II, and the Artemis programme as a whole, is played by the European Space Agency, which provides the rocket boosters on Orion that propel and power the spacecraft beyond Earth’s gravity, during orbits around the Earth and Moon, as required to set the trajectory, and similarly on the return journey.

The Mission marks the first time humans have returned to outer space beyond low-earth orbit, as is usual in operations to the International Space Station, since the Apollo 17 moon landing by US astronauts in 1972. After that mission, NASA had jettisoned its crewed lunar expeditions given budget cuts against the backdrop of declining public interest in lunar expeditions, with audiences dropping sharply even for live telecasts of astronauts walking on the Moon, reflecting a bored attitude of “been there, done that.” There was also dwindling political backing and lack of the powerful motivation provided earlier by the space race with the Soviet Union, which had come to be considered “won and done.”

There is some sense of déjà vu now, since once again a space race, this time with China, appears to be propelling the US crewed space programmes aiming at prolonged presence on the Moon and potentially using that as a base for missions to Mars. China’s space programme is galloping ahead and targeting a crewed landing on the Moon in 2030. There can be no doubt this is accelerating the Artemis programme compared with the more leisurely pace of the earlier development phase of the SLS rocket and Orion capsule since 2016, with many postponements and budget overruns, in contrast to China’s steady and determined push with every operational deadline being met.  

Just before the Artemis-II launch, the hand-picked head of NASA, Administrator Jared Isaacman, announced a revamp of the Artemis programme with new architecture and timelines. It was felt that the long interval between the initial trials in Artemis-I in 2022 and the present Artemis-II mission in 2026 had been too long, such prolonged intervals being inimical to iterative and efficient modifications and corrective actions, and an accelerated and more purposive architecture was required.

A new Artemis-III mission was, therefore, added, before the planned crewed lunar landing in 2028. The new mission slated for 2027 would take a crew launched by SLS to low-earth orbit, where Orion would dock with the new lunar landing module, built by either SpaceX or Blue Origin depending on competitive evaluation, so as to test all systems before the moon landing in 2028 as per current schedule, with at least one more trial mission each year in between.

The crewed moon landing would be achieved by Orion docking with the landing craft brought separately to lunar orbit probably by SpaceX’s Starship. After this several, rather than a single or few additional crewed missions to the lunar surface as envisaged earlier, would be undertaken during 2028-2030 to set up the planned permanent lunar station.  

An additional budget of $1 billion has been provided for the revamped Artemis programme. However, this does not imply that money is being thrown into NASA’s US space effort. On the contrary, this enhancement of the Artemis budget, viewed as demonstrating and boosting US supremacy in space, is accompanied by a sharp cut in the overall funding for NASA, especially for science, as discussed later.

The Mission

Artemis-II is chiefly a test flight to try out the rocket and the spacecraft, both of which are being used in a crewed mission for the first time. Whereas Artemis-I in November 2022 had tested systems without crew, the present mission tries out the Orion space craft for sustaining human space flight, testing flight operations and maneuvers by crew, and conducting a dress rehearsal for future crewed missions. The mission, therefore, does not involve any major scientific experiments or goals.

The key aspects of the Artemis-II mission are a launch to orbit around Earth, a propulsion boost to take Orion beyond Earth’s gravity toward the Moon till capture by the Moon’s gravity, a figure-8 trajectory around the Moon and back to Earth including a prolonged orbital period on the far side of the Moon which is never seen from our planet, and back to Earth.

After successfully completing all these tasks, the Orion spacecraft, named Integrity by the crew, executed the usual high-risk high-heat re-entry through the earth’s atmosphere at a speed of about 40,000 kmph, when the spacecraft’s heat shields withstood and protected the crew from temperatures around 2,760 degrees C, during which a plasma layer causes a brief communication blackout, finally splashing down in the Pacific Ocean on April 9.

While much has been made of the “record” set by Artemis-II and its crew for the longest distance any human has travelled from Earth, this is really an incidental outcome of the trajectory planned. Apollo-13 held the previous record of traveling just short of 400,000km from Earth, whereas Artemis-II saw the crew traveling 404,410 km. At its closest point, Orion was 6,507 km from the Moon’s surface. Other perhaps more significant records in the Artemis-II mission were carrying the first woman astronaut to travel around the Moon, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, and the first black man to travel beyond low-earth orbit, Pilot Victor Glover.  

Earthset

Far Side of the Moon

The highlight of the mission was undoubtedly the 40 minutes spent by the crew on board Integrity on the far side of the Moon, often mistakenly called the ‘dark side’ of the Moon, and their observations during that time. Due to the rotational speeds, orbital trajectories and periods of the Earth and Moon, only one side of the Moon always faces the Earth while the far side always remains unseen from Earth.

However, this does not mean that the far side is dark. Indeed, the far side receives as much sunlight as the near or Earth-facing side of the Moon. Therefore, the Artemis-II astronauts were able to gain an unprecedented view of the far side of the Moon for 40 minutes and more, including some viewing time of parts of the lunar surface beyond the horizon. Of course, during this time, Orion lost all radio or other contact with Earth since all communication paths were cut off by the Moon obstructing ‘line of sight’ to Earth.

Again, it is not as if no humans have ever seen the far side of the Moon before. In fact, all crew Members aboard lunar expeditions such as in the Apollo missions, whether only orbital or landing on the Moon, have seen parts of the far side of the Moon. However, focus of all those missions was on the potential or actual landing sites on the near side, and orbital trajectories were designed with this goal in mind. So those astronauts actually saw the far side of the Moon from closer altitudes than in Artemis-II which, however, also meant that they saw only parts of the lunar surface. The Orion spacecraft in the Artemis-II mission was over 4000 km from the Moon, so astronauts were able to see the whole lunar disc, which was also illuminated for part of the time.

The astronauts observed a vast region pitted by craters caused by impact of meteorites or space rocks, but with less of the characteristic large dark patches visible from Earth on the near side, believed to be the result of volcanic activity. At non-illuminated times, they also saw flashes of light caused by such impacts. They also observed brown, green and orange patches. All these and other observations may yield interesting insights.

The excitement of the crew was palpable from their emotional live reporting after emerging from the far side. Numerous high-resolution photographs from both hand-held and spacecraft-mounted cameras have also been transmitted back to Earth. Some spectacular visuals and photographs, one of an ‘Earthset’ or setting of the Earth behind the lunar horizon (Figure 1) analogous to a sunset, and one of a solar eclipse behind the Earth, were described by the Canadian astronaut as ‘mind-bending.’

A significant technological achievement was the use of the new Orion Optical Artemis-II Optical Communication System or O20 laser-based data communication system which enables data transmission at 260 mbps or megabits per second enabling high resolution data and 4k video transmission at much higher rates than radio transmission.

Oddities and Novelties in Orion

The virtually round-the-clock live telecast from Orion and reportage also brought to life some of the odd specifics of space flight in general and the Orion spacecraft in particular.

Needless to say, there have been many changes in spacecraft design and construction since those now seemingly ancient Apollo days. There is more space to move around, although the priority of functionality over comfort or aesthetics continues to prevail. Wires and cables are still all over the place. There are only two relatively small windows in Orion, so astronauts had to watch the amazing spectacles on display in pairs, and the windows got dirty quickly, prompting queries to mission control for protocols on how to clean them! Sleeping arrangements continue to be tricky, since there are no fixed beds and, in zero gravity, there is no up or down, so with each astronaut had to work out their own method and location. One chose to sleep in her sleeping bag hanging ‘upside down’ like a bat, that is, with her feet towards the top of the spacecraft, another in a corner near the communication consoles, and yet another just floating mid-air! All reported getting adequate and comfortable sleep!

Then there was the toilet issue that had notoriously caused problems from the outset of the flight. Orion is the first spacecraft with a separate, closed and dedicated toilet, although the International Space Station (ISS) of course has one since astronauts stay on board for many months continuously. NASA has designed a Universal Waste Management System (USMS) with versions for the ISS and for the Artemis programme. Urine is recycled into potable water consumed by astronauts. Fecal matter is stored in special pouches which are dumped into space on re-entry where they burn up. Efforts are underway to filter out potable water from this matter too as would be essential for longer trips such as to mars. On Artemis-II, the urine froze inside the system thus clogging it for subsequent use. The problem was solved after two days, but the liquid had to be vented out into space in a procedure that was shown live, liquid droplets floating off into space for who knows how long, possibly containing bacteria into outer space!

New US Attitude Toward Space Science

A surreal moment during Artemis-II was a live call from US President Donald Trump to the crew aboard Orion. In his usual manner, Trump claimed that he had rescued NASA from being closed down, generously funded NASA and so on, and also praised a well-known Canadian ice hockey player and Canadian Prime Minister Carney having earlier attacked and derided Canada and demanded that it become a State of the US! These resulted in awkward silence from the crew requiring rescue by mission control checking audio transmission!

But nothing can hide the fact that the overall NASA budget has been slashed by as much as 23-25% with the science programmes undergoing a 47% reduction in grants, threatening Mars sample returns and more than 40 science missions, while privileging prestige projects such as Artemis which project US dominance in space, as prioritised by President Trump’s new executive Space Policy announced recently.

There has been substantial resistance from scientists, think-tanks and even the US Congress which reversed cuts announced in his first term, fearing cut backs and job losses in many constituencies around the US. Trump and his hand-picked NASA Administrator are focusing on the space race with China, cost cutting in NASA and commercial ventures in space. The latter may also threaten the Artemis programme which, at least on paper, emphasises international collaboration in space for the common public good for all of humanity, whereas commercial activities in space such as for identification and utilisation of resources will most likely lead to profit-making and narrow corporate interests. US priorities may well push this new space race in problematic directions.

The writer is with the Delhi Science Forum and All India People’s Science Network. The views are personal.

Donald Trump’s Tower Envy

Trump believes that being president should remove any barrier to erection of new structures, from arches to paint jobs to statues, no matter the violation of law or taste.


The main entrance of Trump Tower with the inscription on it and a US flag are shown in New York City in the United States of America.
(Photo by Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Paul Josephson
May 17, 2026

Common Dreams

In her 1984 book Missile Envy , Helen Caldicott identified the Freudian motivations behind the impetus of Cold Warriors to build bigger bombs and more powerful rockets. President Donald Trump has tower envy, a neurosis over the feeling that other world leaders have larger buildings. Why does Trump insist on putting his name on variously sized structures, commissioning statues of himself, and undertaking misguided and illegal renovations of existing facilities? The reason comes down to a narcissistic fascination with monuments to power such as those erected by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and Romanian dictator Nikolai Ceausescu, but dating to Napoleon Bonaparte and his Arc de Triomphe.

Trump has long aimed for the sky with his towers, his Mar-o-Lago castle, and his unfinished great Mexican wall. He first sought to make his name through a failed project for a 150-story skyscraper on New York’s Upper West Side. But Trump rose to the occasion with the Grand Hyatt Hotel that opened in 1980, and next erected the Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue with its gaudy interiors. Perhaps suffering from Stendhal syndrome, a transient paranoid psychosis brought on by exposure to cultural objects, Trump began supplication to Soviet leaders in the late 1980s to unveil a Trump tower in Moscow. Russian operatives have since forced his unconscious to contemplate Russian President Vladimir Putin’s scandalous virility as manifested in the $30 billion Sochi Olympics and a $1.4 billion golden palace. The result is rampant tower envy.

His Triumphal Arch

Trump believes that being president should remove any barrier to erection of new structures. These range from arches to paint jobs to statues. Trump is insisting on building “a gold-accented giant victory arch” along the Potomac River, at 250 feet taller than the Lincoln Memorial and the US Capitol. Despite overwhelmingly negative feedback from the public, the “Arc de Trump” gained approval of a commission stacked by Trump loyalists who share his lack of taste, sensibility, and history. Trump commission documents reveal a grotesque, grandiose, disruptive, and unnecessarily impotent structure. The arc may help the president overcome clear feelings of inadequacy like those of Napoleon Bonaparte who died well before his Parisian Arc de Triomphe, at 150 feet, was completed.

Napoleon apparently inspired Trump’s feelings of meager crowd size. Napoleon insisted upon a grand cortege to mark his passage from one palace to another, with immense crowds lining the route. Recalled one observer, “Bonaparte deployed the pomp of royalty … he was preceded by 150 musicians, two thousand guardsmen, gold and silver gleamed on the carriage, the horses decorations and on the guardsmen’s uniforms.” (Peter the Great assembled a parade of little people in 1710, but out of jest and love, not out of inferiority.) Trump, however, worries about size, especially crowd size. He ordered government photos retouched to show his inaugural crowd was bigger than Barack Obama’s. He said, “I get the biggest crowd size, and they keep getting bigger.”

He must affix his name to monumentalities to project virility and to deflect attention from corrupt deals with foreign governments, felonies, and alleged pedophilia.

Crowd size envy has its roots in psychological turmoil. Napoleon obviously had the first Napoleon complex. In the search for the source of his many complexes, the doctor who conducted Napoleon’s autopsy in 1821 secretly removed his penis. The member made its way through various collectors, becoming “like a piece of leather or a shriveled eel,” but perhaps bigger than Trump’s who, while tall and obese, is “smaller than average… not freakishly small,” but with “a huge mushroom head. Like a toadstool.”

Painting Over His Inadequacies

Napoleon commissioned the neoclassicist painter Jacques-Louis David commemorate his inauguration with a canvas over 20 by 30 feet. In 2014 Trump illegally used a Trump Foundation check to pay for a massive portrait of Trump in his golf finery at a Trump golf course that was well hung at the Trump Doral golf course bar. The Trump Foundation was closed over this and other fraud. Tower envy.

To inflate his diminished presidency, Trump paints over federal properties. Ignoring aesthetics, rejecting the will of the people, and breaking the law with every stroke, he ordered the painting of the reflecting pool between the Washington and Lincoln Memorials in blue. It may be that Trump has pool envy. Joseph Stalin never saw the finished “Moscow Pool,” the world’s largest outdoor swimming pool. It arose on the site of the demolished Cathedral of Christ the Savior, which the militantly atheist Bolsheviks tore down to erect a 430-foot Palace of the Soviets, with a huge Lenin statue on top. That project was abandoned as too costly, and it became a heated outdoor pool. Trump embraced his pool envy by tearing down the West Wing to build a ballroom.

For the reflecting pool paint job, Trump chose the color and contractor without any review, with a company that has worked for Trump at his private golf club given a no-bid contract, with sevenfold cost overruns before the job began. Trump used AI to make the pool great again: On May 1 the mortally obese Trump posted a fake image of himself, shirtless, but with his bulbous belly and breasts airbrushed away, alongside with several other Trump officials and an unidentified woman, but apparently one over 18 years old, as they lounged in the pool. The impotent creature followed by posting a photo of Presidents Obama and Joe Biden, and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in the pool filled with feces.

Trump Tower Tbilisi, Georgia

The diagnosis of tower envy describes all Trump erections. He must affix his name to monumentalities to project virility and to deflect attention from corrupt deals with foreign governments, felonies, and alleged pedophilia. His masculine maneuvers do not always promise results. After he added his name to the Kennedy Center, performing artists cancelled their appearances in droves. This has required its shuttering for two years for “renovations.” Usually, leaders have the good taste to die before being so presumptuous as to put their name on currency, park passes, centers, institutions, buildings, airports, steaks, and centers for the arts.

Trump has no intention of avoiding newer erections as president, even as these actions violate the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution. Having pocketed money from Middle East leaders, the Trump family is expanding into Tbilisi, Georgia, with a 70-story Trump Tower“ becoming the tallest skyscraper in the country; it will dwarf the 70-foot tall aluminum ”Kartlis Deda“ (Mother of Georgia, 1958) statue located on Sololaki Hill. Then there’s the Trump Tower Down Under, a $1 billion development at 91 floors, to rise with other real estate projects in Oman, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and perhaps the ”Gaza Riviera,“ if the president can get Jared Kushner and the Israelis to remove all Palestinians.

Tower envy, brute monumentalism, and cheap cover-up are Trump’s go-to aesthetic design.

Another tacky celebration of the Trumpian legacy is his Garden of American Heroes. The garden involves the creation of 250 statues depicting a list of Trumpian “founding fathers,” activists, political figures, businesspeople, athletes, celebrities, and pop culture icons. Trump ordered the garden to be finished before July 4, 2026, on the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence which, like the Bible, he has never read. Some of the funding will come from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), which has a new grant competition to create “up to three statues” at $200,000 per statue, and which “must be life-size and made of marble, granite, bronze, copper, or brass,” but no Botox or orange dyes. Sadly, Elon Musk’s “DOGE” illegally cancelled 1,400 NEH grants, and it remains unclear what impact Trump’s “garden” grants will have on more valuable NEH humanities research programs. In the meantime Trump covered the White House rose garden with concrete pavers because he actually hates gardens.

If You Paint it, They Will Come

Trump loves gloss paints and gold accoutrements to distract attention from his infirm, swollen, and discolored appendages; for them he uses concealer and support socks. He ordered covering the blemishes of the 130-year-old Eisenhower Executive Office Building across the street from the White House with white paint. White paint white may help make the building appear larger, but still not as large as Ceausescu’s Palace of Parliament, the second-largest administrative building in the world after the Pentagon, with more than 1,100 rooms and a nuclear bunker underneath. (Three thousand workers died during its construction.) Perhaps in response to Ceausescu’s grandiosity, Trump insists on erecting an ever-growing ballroom, now at $1 billion and with a nuclear bunker of its own.

But an authoritarian paint job will destroy the Eisenhower Building’s exterior of granite (quarried in Vinalhaven, Maine, in America, not like most Trump products that are manufactured abroad). Paint adheres poorly to granite, reveals its imperfections, leads immediately to peeling, chipping, staining, and requires forever high maintenance—which is why no one paints granite kitchen counters. But tower envy, brute monumentalism, and cheap cover-up are Trump’s go-to aesthetic design.

Everything He Touches Turns to Gold

If not his own Lenin-like mausoleum, which was constructed with polished, but not painted granite, there will be a Miami-based excrescence, the Trump Presidential Library, perhaps with a mock-up bathroom to display the secret documents he stole from the White House—modeled on the bathroom he used at Mar-o-Lago to hold them. Also to be interred are the 747 jet that the Qataris gave him in return for favors. An auditorium featuring an already completed 22-foot gold statue of Trump will crown the spectacle. As one of his potent progeny, Eric, wrote, “Over the past six months, I have poured my heart and soul into this project with my incredible team… This landmark… will stand as a lasting testament to an amazing man, an amazing developer, and the greatest President our Nation has ever known.” Sculptor Alan Cottrel manufactured the recently-unveiled statue, but was misled about its purposes and meanings, and he gently called it a “cluster f--k.” Contrell was instructed by the statue’s crypo investors “to alter Trump’s appearance… making him thinner and removing his ‘turkey neck,’” which may be a euphemism for some other appendage.

Whatever the size of the gold president, Trump’s Christian nationalist handlers have forgotten the fact that the 22-foot gold erection recalls the biblical story of the golden calf in the Book of Exodus and the punishment to those who embraced idolatry. Even more, the golden Trump will not rise above the largest bronze statues in the world, the 65-feet tall effigies of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il on Mansu Hill in central Pyongyang. One hopes that Trump does not set his eyes upon the 555-feet tall Washington Monument, the world’s tallest stone (marble) obelisk. We have heard that Trump wants to paint it orange.

If you have any doubt, remember after 9/11 Trump instinctively ejaculated on that day that one of his buildings had become the tallest in downtown Manhattan.

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.


Paul Josephson
Paul Josephson is professor emeritus of history at Colby College and the author of 15 books, with 40 years of experience working in archives in Russia, Europe, and the U.S. on the political history of modern science.
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Grifty Colossus Strikes Again and Again and...

Slapping the tacky gold everywhere
Image from Bluesky

Abby Zimet
May 15, 2026
Further

COMMON DREAMS

Oh man. Same old clown show, awash with boondoggles, each more cringey than the last. As the mad man-child deconstructs DC and slaps his hideous face and name everywhere - historic buildings, fascist arches, garish statues, possibly imaginary gold phones - others have taken his lead with their own patriotic spinoffs. Cue “Fuck You” upgrades, a Strait to Hell arcade for a video-game war, and a Trump/Epstein “Memorial Reading Room” packed with 3.5 million pages of files, where “the truth is hard to deny.”

Trump’s narcissistic vandalizing of D.C. - couldn’t his KKK dad have just hugged him now and then? - is “something dictators have done throughout history,” noted Bernie Sanders of his proposed SERVE Act, or Stop Executive Renaming for Vanity and Ego. Co-sponsored by six Senate Dems, the bill would bar any sitting president from naming federal properties after themselves, an act both “arrogant” and illegal. At this rate many weary Americans would likely argue, “Let the chiseling off begin,” but for now the bill sits in legislative limbo and we’re stuck with the resulting atrocities; they continue to multiply like locusts, even as he’s proposed a $10-billion fund for more “beautification” projects around “the capital of the greatest Nation in the history of the world.”

Though he increasingly nods off in public - or per the White House, blinks - he still clutches at a farcical show of dominance he’s leaned on in the endless self-glorification campaign that is his execrable life. There are posts quoting fictional “fans”: “Remarkable leadership,” “Master of the Deal,” “THE GREATEST PRESIDENT WE HAVE EVER KNOWN.” From the guy who’s “confused the country for his living room,” there’s D.C’s re-branding: the plaques, name changes, razed East Wing for a billion-dollar “albatross“ nobody wants. There are new massive Stalin-esque banners at construction sites proclaiming, ”Thank you, PRESIDENT TRUMP“- ”like Michael Scott buying himself a World’s Best Boss coffee mug“ we paid for - to which unenthused residents added, ”Fuck You Cunt.“

Snug in a delusional bubble where his approval is def not in the toilet, he feels free to rant, lie, melt down online without consequence. In one manic night, he posts 55 times in three hours: “Arrest Obama the traitor” and “DEMONIC FORCE,” also Hillary, Brennan, Comey, Kelly. Asked how much he thinks about the cost to Americans of his calamitous war, he blurts, “Not even a little bit.” His lackeys follow suit: Ka$h Patel yells, lies, hustles bourbon, pads his stats and takes a “VIP snorkel” in Pearl Harbor around the tomb of 900 U.S. soldiers as Sean Duffy takes his nine offspring on a “patriotic,” seven-month Great American Road Trip filmed for YouTube and complete with “head-spinning” corporate sponsorship, both on the taxpayers’ now-rapidly-shrinking dime.

Meanwhile, another project nobody asked for - draining and repainting the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, aka “reflective pond,” from traditional grey to garish blue - has shockingly veered off course. After boasting his bestest golf course pool painters could easy-peasy do a no-bid, $1.8 million, “smart and beautiful construction” that Dems stupidly opposed - “Dumacrats love sewage” - the cost has soared to $13.1 million, it’s now by a contractor he “did not know and have never used before,” staff are worried the job is behind schedule, with “uneven application” leaving bubbles, holes and “mottled shades of blue” in the pool, and a judge has set a May 21 hearing for a lawsuit charging the project wasn’t properly vetted, ditto a color “more appropriate to a resort or theme park.”

More winning in Miami, where another lawsuit charges three acres of multi-million-dollar waterfront land were illegally grifted by DeSantis to Trump for $10 for his presidential “library,” actually a gaudy hotel with no books but more vitally two gold statues of, you know. They will presumably join in grotesque kinship with the $300,000, crypto-bro-funded, bronze and gold leaf Don Colossus just unveiled at Doral Miami, “where the Republic is currently moldering.“ Before ”a robotic chorus of evangelical functionaries who (have) transformed themselves into the most theologically humiliated cohort in modern memory,“ the statue was honored as, not an idolatrous golden calf, insisted Pastor Mark Burns, but ”a celebration of life“ and symbol of ”the hand of God over (Trump’s) life.“ Definitely not a cult.

Tacky is as tacky does

Bluesky screenshot


Despite being heralded as God’s second favorite son - one who “understands the Scriptures better than the Pope” - Trump is also widely deemed “an economic serial killer” presiding over an “America First Corporate Graveyard,” skyrocketing inflation, national debt, farm bankruptcies, and energy costs, and possibly “the largest single act of grand larceny in American history” with a $10 billion payout by his own DOJ against his own IRS to settle his bullshit lawsuit for their leak of his tax returns, which every other president has released. Still, because grifting chutzpah thy name is, and because there’s never enough money to fill the ugly gaping hole where a soul should be, he’s still running penny-ante scams. Up next: Trump Mobile, “for the forgotten MAGA man.”

Last June, his huckster spawn announced the launch of “a sleek, gold smartphone engineered for performance.” The T1 Phone, “proudly designed and built in the United States,” would be available in August at $499. For almost a year, they urged followers to make $100 “deposits” to “pre-order” the beauties; over half a million did, ponying up about $59 million. Then, the bait and switch. The terms of service quietly changed: The “deposit” provided “a conditional opportunity” to buy if Trump Mobile chose to sell. Pricing, production schedules, shipping costs were “non-binding.” “Made in the USA” became “Proudly American Designed.” “Delivery” dates got pushed back. Unexplained charges appeared. A reporter who called “Customer Service” got “Omega Auto Care.“ To date, no fantasy Trump phones have shipped. Cheap Crooks ‘R Us.

"Service for the forgotten MAGA man"

Image from Bluesky

Also, liars. With even neo-cons now deeming the Iran War potentially more of a debacle than Vietnam, the good folks at Secret Handshake, creators of the Trump/Epstein bestie statues, decided that with the regime hyping war like a video game, they might as well turn it into one. Operation Epic Furious: Strait to Hell , which is also online, features three working, arcade video games set up inside DC’s War Memorial; they promise “high-octane, flag-waving, boots-on-the-ground...pure pixelated patriotism,” or, per Hegseth, “laser-focused maximum reps annihilation mission crushing (with) sustained unrelenting pressure.” Battles - by tweet, not gun - pit US forces against “Iranian schoolgirl,” “DEIyatollah,” low-flow shower heads, the Pope and other “threats to American freedom.”

Games open with Trump declaring, “Another big, beautiful day as the best President ever.” Options for the prompt, “Ready to ROCK Iran back to the Stone Ages?” are “Not Yet...” “Yes” and “Hell Yes.” Yells Pete, “Let’s liberate some oil!” Trump can order a Diet Coke or bomb Iran; search for barrels of oil, ideas for Truth Social posts, or endless threats that lead nowhere; he vows to “fight this war and win it by hamburger o’clock.” Melania: “I WAS NEVER ON THE EPSTEIN JET...Did you burn the files yet?” JD, fat-faced: “I love couch.” The only way you can lose is by trying to hold Melania’s hand, which abruptly ends the game; otherwise, it’s impossible to end or win it. Irony never dies: Images have surfaced of bored National Guardsmen - a $1 million a day deployment - playing.

Another piece of protest art brings the truth of “one of the most horrific crimes in American history” to Trump’s hometown. “The Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Reading Room,” in New York’s Tribeca, is a first-of-its-kind, 5,000-square-foot installation containing all the unsealed Epstein files - 3.5 million pages printed and bound into 3,437 volumes weighing 17,000 pounds, “a physical, undeniable record of corruption, cover-ups, and crime.” The pop-up project in the Mriya Gallery was created by the non-profit Primary Facts; it took them about a month to print the files. The exhibit is on view through May 21; admission to groups for a one-hour session is free; organizers are raising funds to cover the New York premiere and bring it to other cities.

The Trumpsonian installation is built around a candlelit tribute to Epstein’s more than 1,200 victims and survivors, whose names are all redacted here in closed binders - unlike at the DOJ, where they were badly, only partly redacted, a failure adding insult to injury along with an ongoing, multi-pronged cover-up. The Trump and Epstein Reading Room also includes a timeline documenting the decades-long crimes, legal proceedings and intersections between the two men’s lives, all underlining the criminal absurdity of federal claims “there’s nothing left to investigate.” The vast trove of information, organizers say, is “what 3.5 million pages of evidence looks like.” Trump, as deeply complicit as he is narcissistic, “wanted his name on stuff.” Now, here it is.

From the Trumpsonian

Image from Memorial Reading Room


Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.


Abby Zimet
Abby Zimet has written CD's Further column since 2008. A longtime, award-winning journalist, she moved to the Maine woods in the early 70s, where she spent a dozen years building a house, hauling water and writing before moving to Portland. Having come of political age during the Vietnam War, she has long been involved in women's, labor, anti-war, social justice and refugee rights issues. Email: azimet18@gmail.com
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