Free Republic

Explanation: In 185 AD, Chinese astronomers recorded the appearance of a new star in the Nanmen asterism. That part of the sky is identified with Alpha and Beta Centauri on modern star charts. The new star was visible for months and is thought to be the earliest recorded supernova. This deep image shows emission nebula RCW 86, understood to be the remnant of that stellar explosion. The narrowband data trace gas ionized by the still expanding shock wave. Space-based images indicate an abundance of the element iron and lack of a neutron star or pulsar in the remnant, suggesting that...

China has clinched another security deal in the south Pacific, this time with Samoa. The deal was signed during a visit to Samoa by China's Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, who is on an eight-nation tour of the region. Samoan Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Fiame Naomi Mata'afa met with Mr Wang on Saturday in Samoa's capital, Apia, with both sides reaffirming commitment to win-win cooperation. It comes after the security deal Beijing sealed with Solomon Islands last month, which could see Chinese military personnel based there, or the establishment of a Chinese military installation. Australia's Foreign Minister, Penny Wong, has...

A former U.S. Army reservist described by prosecutors as a Nazi sympathizer was convicted Friday of storming the U.S. Capitol to obstruct Congress from certifying President Joe Biden's 2020 electoral victory. Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, who worked a security contractor at a Navy base when he joined the pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6, was also convicted of disorderly conduct and other misdemeanors. Hale-Cussanelli took the stand in his defense and claimed he didn't know that Congress met at the Capitol building. "I know this sounds idiotic, but I'm from New Jersey," Hale-Cusanelli said, according to WUSA-TV. "In all my studies, I didn't...

The San Francisco tech startup that helped popularize a push for a four-day workweek in Silicon Valley, is now laying workers off. As first reported by the New York Times, Bolt, the payment services startup with offices near San Francisco’s Union Square, laid off around 250 of its around 900 employees Wednesday in a move to “secure our financial position, extend our runway, and reach profitability with the money we have already raised” amid industrywide financial challenges, according to a letter to staff. A Bolt spokesperson confirmed to SFGATE Thursday that "approximately a third of the company" was laid off.

Paul A. Szypula @bubblebathgirl 46m · Uvalde Police Chief Peter Arredondo — who prevented law enforcement from entering the school — is reportedly a Democrat who donated to Beto O’Rourke.

CHICAGO: The 26-year-old son of Egypt’s Minister of Immigration and Expatriate Affairs, Nabila Makram, is facing charges of premeditated murder over the killing of two men in California in April. Ramy Hani Mounir Fahim, who lives in Irvine, California, has also been charged with two enhancements each of lying in wait and the personal use of a deadly weapon after a co-worker and his roommate were stabbed to death in their Anaheim apartment early last month. The special circumstances of “lying in wait” and multiple murders make Fahim eligible for the death penalty, officials said. Police allege that Fahim attacked...

President Joe Biden urged college graduates on Saturday to take the country back from what he described as growing darkness and hatred in the United States. “Get goin’ for God’s sake,” Biden said at the conclusion of his commencement speech at the University of Delaware. “Godspeed on your journey, keep the faith, and take it back. Please. This is yours. Take it back. We need you.”

Record-high meat prices are having a chilling effect on summer-grilling demand in the US With costs for ground beef and chicken breasts at all-time highs, consumers have few alternatives to switch to different proteins -- so some may skip them entirely. The US Memorial Day holiday on Monday is considered the unofficial opening of the outdoor grilling season, and the surging costs are pointing to a disappointing start. Price pain in meat comes after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine stalled crop exports in the Black Sea, pushing up the costs of animal feed. Even prices for propane used to power grills...

Scientists have detected a completely new type of magnetic wave that surges through Earth's outer core every seven years, warping the strength of our planet's magnetic field in the process. The waves — dubbed "Magneto-Coriolis" waves because they move along the Earth’s axis of rotation, per the Coriolis effect — creep from East to West in tall columns that can travel up to 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) per year, the researchers wrote in a March 21 paper in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Using a fleet of European Space Agency (ESA) satellites, the team pinpointed the...

Imagine one of your kids freezing to death in your home. Eleven-year-old Cristian Pineda's mother found her son dead during the Texas blackout in February 2021. Or you have a power outage for three days, losing a couple of hundred dollars worth of food because your refrigerator didn’t work, as Michelle Jones did last summer. The food she had just bought to feed herself, her daughter, and her granddaughter spoiled without electricity. This is likely to become all too common in the future. Why? My years as a Wisconsin state senator and in Gov. Scott Walker’s administration gave me some...

Long Beach, California, is the latest city gearing up to impose a vaccination requirement for workers, the Long Beach Post reported. According to the newspaper, the city manger's office announced on May 23 that it would be enforcing a mandatory COVID vaccination policy for city employees next month. Plans for this requirement were first revealed in Sept. 2021, when workers were informed that the City of Long Beach would be moving forward with a provision that "all new and current employees must be vaccinated for COVID-19 in order to further protect public health." But negotiations between the city and various...

<p>HAINES CITY, Fla. - A tractor-trailer delivery driver is facing possession of methamphetamine charges after crashing into the back of a Publix shopping center in Haines City on Thursday afternoon.</p><p>Michael Calvo, 51, of Cape Coral, was making a delivery in the back of the shopping center when his truck tore an awning off the building and hit an unoccupied pickup truck, pushing it for about 200 feet. Officers say both vehicles were totaled.</p>

<p>BALTIMORE (WBFF) — A Baltimore woman was arrested Thursday and charged with attempted murder after a group of neighbors held her until officers arrived, the Baltimore City Police Department said.</p><p>Cowanda Mills, 26, faces charges of attempted first-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder and weapons violations.</p>

When the data is so bad that it betrays the desired narrative, honest companies will adjust to the numbers. Dishonest companies like Pfizer will simply manipulate the numbers to match the goal.. Pfizer’s court-ordered compliance with a FOIA request has resulted in tons of damaging data being dropped every month. Their Covid-19 “vaccine” research, development, and implementation were pocked with warning signs that the drugs were neither safe nor effective. But the most recent release may be the most damning of all as it not only reveals the drugs are unsafe, but that Pfizer tried to cover it up by...

High inflation has captured the headlines as of late particularly as CPI recently hit the highest levels since 1981. Some are even suggesting we will face hyperinflation. However, while inflation is certainly present, the question to be answered is whether it will remain that way, or if the worst may already be behind us? To answer that question, let’s define the difference between an inflationary increase and hyperinflation. Not surprisingly, as Milton Friedman stated, “Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon. It is always and everywhere a result of too much money, of a more rapid increase of money,...

Every mass shooting has three elements: the killer, the weapon and the cultural climate. As soon as the shooting stops, partisans immediately pick their preferred root cause with corresponding pet panacea. Names are hurled, scapegoats paraded, prejudices vented. The argument goes nowhere.

A Persian-language content moderator for Instagram and a former content moderator have said Iranian intelligence officials offered them money to remove Instagram accounts of journalists and activists. "I was offered 5,000 to 10,000 euros [$5,350-$10,700; £4,250-£9,000] to delete an account. They were especially after removing Masih Alinejad," the former reviewer told BBC Persian. Ms Alinejad is an Iranian-American author and activist. Last year, the US justice department said Iranian officials sought to lure the New York-based journalist to a third country to kidnap her. Both content moderators also accused some Iranian colleagues of exhibiting "pro-regime bias" when reviewing posts on...

Boris Johnson will pave the way for the return of pounds and ounces in British shops this week, in a "common sense" move heralded by Tory MPs as taking advantage of freedoms delivered by Brexit. On Friday, the Government will publish proposals to repeal EU-derived law requiring metric units to be used for all trade, with only limited exceptions. At the same time, ministers will issue guidance to firms on restoring the use of the crown symbol on pint glasses, after it was replaced by the CE marking to help the UK conform with EU rules. A government source said:...

CHICAGO (CBS) -- With the holiday weekend upon us along with a surge in COVID-19 cases, we're all asking the same questions: Should we gather? and if we do, should it be outside? and what about masks? CBS 2's Suzanne Le Mignot talks to an expert to get some answers. "Now we've moved into the high risk and high risk means we have more people hospitalized related to COVID infection."

A Pakistani woman separated from her family during the 1947 Partition met her Indian brothers for the first time last month after 75 years. Mumtaz Bibi, who was separated from her Sikh family during the turmoil, met her brothers Gurmukh Singh and Baldev Singh for the first time at the Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara in Pakistan in April. "We are so happy that we've been able to meet our sister in our lifetime," Gurmukh Singh said. In 1947, the Partition led to the creation of two independent nations - India and Pakistan. It was the biggest movement of people in history,...