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Astronomers have observed record-breaking photons that strain classical theories of accelerationA little before sunrise on July 4, A.D. 1054, imperial astronomers of the Song Dynasty in China spotted an unknown star lighting up the eastern sky. “It’s as bright as Venus, with pointed rays in all four directions and a reddish-white color,” they wrote in notes delivered to the emperor. The glow, which remained visible to the naked eye during the day for almost a month, was from an explosion caused by the spectacular death of a star located 6,500 light-years away in the constellation of Taurus. Its relics are...

The International Olympic Committee has cleared a transgender athlete to compete in the upcoming Tokyo games. The IOC ruled Saturday that Laurel Hubbard, 43, who is a biological man, can compete for New Zealand in the women’s weightlifting super-heavyweight category and that her inclusion does not violate the current rules on the books. She is on track to be the first transgender athlete to ever compete in the games. “The rules for qualification have been established by the International Weightlifting Federation before the qualifications started,” IOC boss Thomas Bach said during a new conference Reuters reported. “These rules apply, and...

Many observers are forecasting that the world’s transition to electric cars will take place much sooner than expected. Now, BBC is also joining the fray. “What makes the end of the internal combustion engine inevitable is a technological revolution. And technological revolutions tend to happen very quickly … [and] this revolution will be electric,” reports BBC‘s Justin Rowlett. Rowlett points to the late ’90s internet revolution as an example. “For those who hadn’t yet logged on [to the internet] it all seemed exciting and interesting but irrelevant — how useful could communicating by computer be? After all, we’ve got phones!...

TikTok has become a hotbed for anti-Semitism, a new study revealed, with an alarming 912% spike in anti-Semitic content shared on the popular video-sharing platform over the past year. The study, led by Dr. Gabriel Weimann, a professor of communication at the University of Haifa, in conjunction with Natalie Masri, a research assistant at the IDC Herzliya’s Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT), discovered what they described as “a seismic increase” in anti-Semitic tropes, images and rhetoric compared to their 2020 study. At the end of a four-month systematic content analysis of videos, comments and usernames on the platform, researchers found a...

July 18 , 2021 Cathedral of St. Vincent De Paul, Tunis, Tunisia Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Green First readingJeremiah 23:1-6 ©I will gather together the remnant of my flock and raise up shepherds for them‘Doom for the shepherds who allow the flock of my pasture to be destroyed and scattered – it is the Lord who speaks! This, therefore, is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says about the shepherds in charge of my people: You have let my flock be scattered and go wandering and have not taken care of them. Right, I will take care of you...

Vietnam recorded 2,807 new local Covid-19 cases Sunday evening, pushing the day's tally to an all-time high of 5,887. Among the night's tally, Ho Chi Minh City, the epicenter of the ongoing fourth coronavirus wave, recorded 2,310 cases. It was followed by the southern provinces of Dong Nai and Binh Duong with 65 and 64 cases, respectively. The remaining cases were recorded in 23 other provinces and cities. Of the new cases, 2,108 were contained within quarantine centers or lockdown areas. The rest either had contact with previously confirmed cases or are being contact traced. Vietnam saw the biggest daily...

Sen. Ted Cruz hadn’t been an official contender for the presidency of the United States for 12 hours before the questions started coming, even in the warm and welcoming cradle of a primetime interview before what should be the friendliest of conservative audiences. “You were born in Calgary, in Canada,” FOX News host Sean Hannity asked him, glancing into the camera for an apologetic chuckle. “Is there a birth certificate issue?” It’s a question that’s lurked around the edges of Cruz’s political profile ever since the junior senator gained enough notoriety to be mentioned as a presidential candidate. Google searches...

WASHINGTON – Earlier today, Pope Francis issued an apostolic letter, Traditionis custodes modifying the norms regulating the use of the 1962 Roman Missal issued before the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, issued the following statement in response: “Today Pope Francis published Traditionis custodes, an Apostolic Letter issued motu proprio on the use of Latin liturgical texts approved prior to the reform of 1970. I welcome the Holy Father’s desire to foster unity among Catholics who celebrate the Roman Rite. “As these new norms are...

“A slothful man hideth his hand in his bosom, and will not so much as bring it to his mouth again” (Proverbs 19:24).

When the race for COVID-19 vaccines started, health officials knew the competition between rich and poor countries would be lopsided. But few expected poor countries to be at the mercy of donations from the rich, or that the inequity would be this bad for so long. Poor countries have vaccinated 1% of their population, compared with 55% in the United States and about 25% globally. The reasons for that gap return to decisions early on, in the initial bankrolling and distributing of the vaccines. Officials, primarily from the U.S. and Europe, have told the Associated Press they never thought to...

Anthony Fauci, was asked if his thinking has changed on the controversial topic. After saying that he’s keeping an “open mind” until something is proven, either way, Fauci said that he and other experts in the field believe Covid-19 was “most likely” first transmitted via natural origins, meaning from animal to human and was not created and leaked from a lab. “The most likely explanation is a natural evolution from an animal reservoir to a human,” Fauci told CNN’s Jim Acosta on Saturday. “Once you say that, which I believe is the more likely , you’ve got to make sure...

National surveys of the 2020 presidential contest were the least accurate in 40 years, while the state polls were the worst in at least two decades...But unlike 2016, when pollsters could pinpoint factors like the education divide as reasons they underestimated Donald Trump and offer specific recommendations to fix the problem, the authors of the new American Association for Public Opinion Research report couldn't put their finger on the exact problem they face now.

ABOARD THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER USS DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER – The busiest aircraft carrier on the East Coast is back home after two grueling, back-to-back deployments that kept the ship on station in the Middle East for a total of seven and a half months. Since USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) left for its first deployment on Feb. 20, 2020, the ship has been deployed for 320 of the last 514 days – not counting training exercises and restriction of movement periods that have kept sailors away from family and loved ones. On Sunday, Ike slipped up the James River with...

"They're killing people...Look, the only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated. And they're killing people" President Joe Biden Attacks Opponents Of Vaccination On Social Media-Friday July 15th, 2021 "Joe Biden kept talking about how good a job he's doing on the distribution of the Vaccine that was developed by Operation Warp Speed or quite simply, the Trump Administration. He's not doing well at all. He's way behind schedule, and people are refusing to take the Vaccine because they don't trust his Administration, they don't trust the election results, and they certainly don't trust the Fake News, which is refusing...

(CNN)Millions of Americans are jeopardizing their health, freedom and finances by not getting vaccinated and putting themselves at risk of the most infectious coronavirus strain yet, current and former federal health officials say. "Most people will either get vaccinated, or have been previously infected, or they will get this Delta variant," Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday. "And for most people who get this Delta variant, it's going to be the most serious virus that they get in their lifetime in terms of the risk of putting them in the hospital," said Gottlieb, who was commissioner...

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media. <font color =blue>I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone: for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. ~ 1 Timothy 2:1-2 Religion Forum Threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 1 JOHN...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WOWK) – Former U.S. Senate Candidate Paula Jean Swearengin has announced she is leaving the Democratic Party. Swearengin said the reason behind her decision is she believes both the state and national levels of the party allegedly ignored issues such as racism and children suffering across Appalachia. “Our system is broken. We can’t rebuild a two-party system with division & hate,” Swearengin said in a tweet. According to her website, Swearengin is a native of Mullens, West Virginia, who grew up in a coal-mining family. In June 2020, Swearengin won the Democratic vote in the primary election, beating...

The Democrats' Congressional proposals keep getting sillier and sillier. Let's take a look. "Deal" means agreement among radicals. The Greens hijacked Biden's already strained budget. Clean Electricity Standard In an interview with The Hill, Smith, who is crafting the clean electricity standard legislation with Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), said she had expected the standard to be part of the legislation… she’s hoping to see a requirement for 80 percent clean electricity by 2030. “My goal is to get to 100 percent clean electricity as soon as possible. President Biden’s goal is to be doing it by 2035,” she said,...

On this date in 1476, a peasant preacher who nearly stirred a revolution was consigned to the flames in Wurzburg. Hans Behem (or similar variations on that surname, e.g. Bohm or Boheim) is known to posterity as the Drummer of Niklashausen, for when he descended into that Tauber River town for Carnival he performed with this instrument. His vocation — his peasant’s lot in life — was sheep-herding. One frigid Lent night in 1476, a year when the protracted winter freeze promised gaunt months ahead for the peasantry, Hans was wrapped in his heavy cloak watching his flock when he...

The Norwegian women’s beach handball team just did not want to be sexualized and be comfortable as they played the sport that they loved. At the European Championships in beach handball, the game attire has landed in the spotlight with specific rules for how the women should be dressed, according to the sport’s regulations. “Women should wear a bikini where the top should be a tight-fitting sports bra with deep openings at the arms,” the international regulations state. “The bottom must not be more than ten centimeters on the sides.” “First we were told about a fine of 50 euros...