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Astronomers have discovered the closest pair of supermassive black holes to Earth. Not only are they the most proximate objects of this type to our planet, but they are also closer to each other than any such pairing ever before observed. This closeness indicates that the black holes, which are 89 million light-years away from Earth in the galaxy NGC 7727 in the constellation Aquarius, are moving towards each other and will eventually collide and merge, forming an even more massive black hole.... ...The two supermassive black holes are separated by just 1,600 light-years, half the separation ...

Yet another prominent evangelical Christian who proselytized against vaccines has died after being hospitalized with COVID. Marcus Lamb, founder and CEO of Daystar Television, was 64. “This morning at 4 a.m. the president and founder of Daystar and the love of my life went to be with Jesus,” said his wife, Joni, during a Tuesday morning broadcast, reported Religion News Service. “I wanted you to hear from me that he’s with the Lord.” She also said that Lamb had diabetes and went to the hospital after his oxygen levels dropped, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported. The network he founded also...

The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday sided with Republicans in a redistricting case that lays the groundwork for the state’s current political boundaries to remain largely intact for the next decade. In a 4-3 ruling, the court’s conservative majority said it would take a “least changes” approach to Wisconsin’s current legislative and congressional maps, effectively limiting any changes in political boundaries to population changes. The ruling means that the court will make as few changes as possible to political maps drawn and adopted in 2011. ....

Police checking cars near the facility in Darwin's rural area. (ABC News: Peter Lacey)Northern Territory police say they don't believe three teenagers who allegedly absconded from Darwin's Howard Springs COVID-19 quarantine facility this morning came into contact with members of the community.At a COVID update press conference, NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner confirmed the teenagers, aged 15, 16 and 17, tested negative for the virus yesterday.He said all three were from the Binjari community near Katherine and had been sent into quarantine as close contacts of positive cases.~~SNIP~~The facility is housing people affected by the Katherine region COVID-19 outbreak as...

Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said Monday that his department will no longer use the county’s coronavirus testing provider over concerns about the company’s alleged ties to the Chinese government. In a letter to the Board of Supervisors, Villanueva said the FBI contacted him last week and held a briefing the day after Thanksgiving to relay “the serious risks associated with allowing Fulgent to conduct COVID-19 testing” of county employees. Villanueva claimed DNA data obtained through tests are “not guaranteed to be safe and secure from foreign governments” and said FBI officials advised him at the briefing that genetic...

Thinking we should check in to see how things are going with the vax mandates for jobs. Specifically, those who don’t want a jab. Are you in conundrums from this? Possibly losing your job? Forcing you to come up with exemptions, or take testing that’s a big hassle, all so you can stay at work? What’s happening? How might you deal with it?

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina appeals court on Tuesday blocked enforcement of parts of a trial judge’s recent order that demanded $1.75 billion in state taxpayer funds be spent — without express legislative approval — to address public education inequities. The majority on a three-judge panel sided with a request by State Controller Linda Combs that it prevent Superior Court Judge David Lee’s order from being enforced. It agreed Lee crossed the line by appropriating money — a job the majority said rests solely with the General Assembly. Combs leads one of three state offices that Lee directed...

Join together with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media. 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.

President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas says the agency’s new so-called “sanctuary country” orders will ensure that the “majority” of illegal aliens living in the United States are not deported. On Monday, Mayorkas announced that the administration has started implementing its latest sanctuary country orders that protect most criminal illegal aliens by barring Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from arresting and deporting them. “Today is an important step forward in ensuring that our workforce is empowered to exercise its prosecutorial discretion and focus its enforcement efforts on those who pose a threat to our...

Former President Donald Trump called for states to deploy the National Guard to help deal with rampant retail looting, or "smash-and-grab" incidents, in a Tuesday statement. Trump said that if the Democratic politicians in charge of cities where the mass lootings are taking place don't take action, the National Guard "must be called out." “If Democrats don’t immediately stop smash-and-grab robberies, which are taking place in their cities, the National Guard must be called out. There has never been such a thing that has happened in our Country," Trump said in the statement. "Large numbers of stores are leaving San...

A woman who says she was sexually abused by Jeffrey Epstein testified on Tuesday that Ghislaine Maxwell helped lure her into his orbit when she was just 14 and described how the depraved duo were “giggling” when they first molested her together. The alleged victim, an actress identified by the pseudonym “Jane” in court, said she was at Epstein’s Palm Beach, Florida, mansion in 1994 when the pedophile and his accused madam led her upstairs to his bedroom, moved her over to the bed and “took their clothes off.” “They started to sort of like fondle each other,” she said,...

“The View” co-host Joy Behar said Tuesday that the 1st and 2nd Amendments to the U.S. Constitution needed to be “tweaked a little bit” because the Founding Fathers did not have things like AR-15s and Twitter. Co-host Whoopi Goldberg began the discussion with the news that Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey had stepped down a day earlier and noted that he had been proactive in policing hate speech — namely because Twitter was first to eject former President Donald Trump from its platform. “Australia wants to go a step further, drafting a legal process for those feeling they have been defamed,...

(CNN)An appeals court hearing Tuesday on former President Donald Trump's claim to keep January 6 documents from his presidency private showed that Trump faces an uphill battle to keep the documents out of the hands of House investigators... ...The case touches on some unsettled law around whether a former president can litigate executive privilege claims when the incumbent sides with transparency. And the three judges on the appellate panel -- all Democratic appointees -- signaled that they found some of the case's questions difficult, even as they expressed doubt about Trump's claims.... ...They also challenged the lawyers with several hypothetical...

Who has had COVID-19 here? I also figure it’d be nice to have a good idea of how COVID affected you all. What was it like? Sort of a survey so we can get a solid idea of what it was. Perhaps we could have a sort of list of survivors here. Possibly as ping to help organize any protests or especially those who have natural immunity.

NYC Mayor-Elect Eric Adams @ Menorah: ‘We NY’ers Know What the Rebbe Did for Us’ Shares Chanukah message of hope By Dovid MargolinNovember 30, 2021 11:15 AM On the first night of Hanukkah, New York City Mayor-elect Eric Adams helped light the world’s largest menorah at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 59th Street, sharing the message of Chanukah as taught by the Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory. On the first night of Hanukkah, New York City Mayor-elect Eric Adams helped light the world’s largest menorah at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 59th Street, sharing the message...

Dozens of people got more than they bargained for when a trip to the highest pub in England turned into a multiday event. More than 60 people found themselves stranded at the Tan Hill Inn, a pub and inn located in a remote portion of Northern England, after Storm Arwen unleashed brutal blizzard conditions across the region. The powerful storm unleashed destructive winds, dumped heavy snowfall and turned deadly across portions of the UK from Friday to Saturday. In the UK, the heaviest snow and some of the strongest winds from targeted the mountainous regions of Northern England in which...

Former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, now a CNN contributor, said Tuesday on “Anderson Cooper 360” that the “situation in this country with firearms” was out of control and causing our children to be in danger. McCabe was reacting to three students being killed and six others injured in a shooting at Oxford High School in Michigan.

On Sunday, House Representative Nancy Mace was caught flip-flopping on her vaccine stance, telling Fox News and CNN viewers different takes on the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine. On Sunday, House Representative Nancy Mace was caught flip-flopping on her vaccine stance, telling Fox News and CNN viewers different takes on the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine. "In some studies that I've read, natural immunity gives you 27 times more protection against future COVID infection than a vaccination. And so we need to take all of the science into account and not selectively choosing what science to follow when we are...

China's economy is finally getting some good news: Its big factories are staging a recovery as a power crunch that held back production starts to ease because of a big jump in coal supply. A government survey of manufacturing activity increased to 50.1 in November from 49.2 in October, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Tuesday. It was the first reading above 50 — indicating expansion rather than contraction — in three months. It was also the first time since March that the index increased over the prior month. Beijing on Tuesday attributed the...

A conservative group run by Marc Short, who served as former Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff, is set to launch an ad campaign to encourage Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va) to oppose the $1.7 trillion social spending and climate package in an attempt to stop it from being passed. The Coalition to Protect American Workers is set to launch an ad campaign worth nearly $800,000 this week in West Virginia. According to NBC News, the ads will air over two weeks and will reiterate issues that Manchin has raised about the social spending package in the past