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A form of lightning with a knack for sparking wildfires may surge under climate change. An analysis of satellite data suggests “hot lightning” — strikes that channel electrical charge for an extended period — may be more likely to set landscapes ablaze than more ephemeral flashes, researchers report February 10 in Nature Communications. Each 1 degree Celsius of warming could spur a 10 percent increase in the most incendiary of these Promethean bolts, boosting their flash rate to about four times per second by 2090 — up from nearly three times per second in 2011. That’s dangerous, warns physicist Francisco...

Half the nation won't even share space with the other half because they've been told by teachers and the media that having different opinions and beliefs is racist, oppressive, and evil. What a time to be alive…

Chicago voters will be casting ballots for mayor, members of the City Council and, for the first time in city history, members of police district councils on Tuesday. Early voting —both in person and by mail — has been ongoing for weeks. But if you haven’t made your choices yet, we have organized our coverage to help you make up your mind. We have scores of stories about the mayoral race and the nine candidates running for mayor, including incumbent Mayor Lori Lightfoot. We also have tackled the biggest of the 50 aldermanic races, as well as a primer on...

Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg says Ukraine will become a member of the alliance in the "long-term", but for now it needs to remain independent in the face of Russia's invasion. Ukraine has sought to join the US-led military alliance for years. After Russia's invasion of the country, President Volodymyr Zelensky asked for that request to be fast-tracked. Ukraine also applied for EU membership days after Russia invaded, and gained candidate status in June. "Nato allies have agreed that Ukraine will become a member of our alliance, but at the same time that is a long-term perspective," Mr Stoltenberg told reporters...

BEIJING (AP) — China on Tuesday said it has been “open and transparent” in the search for the origins of COVID-19, after questions about how the pandemic began received new attention. Most recently, the U.S. Department of Energy assessed with “low confidence” that the pandemic that was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019 began with the leak of a virus from a lab. The report hasn’t been made public. China had “shared the most data and research results on virus tracing and made important contributions to global virus tracing research,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao...

That's the rationale of the Democrats in the Virginia state Legislature. Recently, Republicans in the Virginia state Legislature proposed a bill to instruct students on the dangers and victims of communism. All of the Democrats in the state Legislature opposed the bill. The College Fix reports: Democrats in both legislative chambers voted "nay" following the Virginia Education Association's claim that the bill might lead to negative reactions against Asian students. According to the VEA's Emily Yen, this is because four of the planet's five remaining communist countries happen to be in Asia: China, Laos, North Korea, and Vietnam. (The fifth...

Pray For The Peace of JerusalemMark 7Jesus Heals a Deaf and Mute Man31 Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon, down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis.[h] 32 There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged Jesus to place his hand on him. 33 After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. 34 He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh...

It would be interesting to see a “moderate Muslim” spokesman in the West, one of the legion who hoodwink conservatives by claiming that Islam, rightly understood, is peaceful and benign, discuss or debate these assertions with Islam Behery, or try to refute what he says here. Instead, they will ignore it. Now, why is that? “Egyptian Researcher Islam Behery: Mainstream Islamic Scholarship Is Radical, Leads To Terrorism – It Seeks To Wage Jihad, Spread Islam,” MEMRI, January 29, 2023: https://www.memri.org/tv/egyptian-researcher-behery-islamic-jurisprudence-needs-reform-terrorism-jihad Egyptian researcher Islam Behery said in a January 29, 2023 interview on Sky News Arabia (UAE) that like other fields...

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WASHINGTON, Friday, Feb. 27. After the failure of the second Finance Conference Committee to agree, and the report of the fact, an effort was made to induce the House to recede. This the House refused to do, and a new Committee was asked for. The conscript bill will come up to-morrow in the Senate, with the House amendments. It would have been taken up to-day, but the Peace Democrats asked for a day's delay, saying they wouldn't filibuster; but as they failed to make speeches against it when it was in the Senate before, they want an opportunity to do...

Ruslan Kubay was surprised to receive a draft notice in late January. Registered as seriously disabled since childhood—Mr Kubay is missing both hands—he falls under a list of automatic exemptions from service. Even more surprising, however, was the reaction of officials at the local registration office in Drohobych, near Lviv. Far from admitting their error, they doubled down and declared him fit for service. Only a social-media post and subsequent national scandal reversed the decision. “I was disgusted by how easily our blind people can start seeing,” he wrote on Facebook. Mr Kubay’s case was an extreme, but far from...

Everywhere you look, you're told what to think, what to say, what to do, what to buy. We are enslaved as never before in this country, and half of us want more enslavement and for government to "take care of us," even at the cost of enslavement. What does it mean, to be enslaved? First and foremost, it means that we have lost freedom of choice, and with it, acceptance of the fact that choices have consequences. That blank stare at the screen that I see in so many viewers reveals just how brainwashed they have become. Vote for Biden...

Ideally, the process of the judicial system would be free or cheap and painless. Unfortunately, it is expensive and painful, with long delays, expensive lawyer fees, and much uncertainty. The process of the judicial system has become a punishment in itself. A bill which would help alleviate punishment by process in self defense cases in North Dakota, has passed the North Dakota House by 50 to 40 on January 20, 2023. The bill, HB 1213, would allow a judge to provide reinbursement of costs to people who are prosecuted by the State for self defense, and are then found not...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Biden administration on Tuesday said it will require companies winning funds from its $52 billion U.S. semiconductor manufacturing and research program to share excess profits and explain how they plan to provide affordable childcare. The Commerce Department on Tuesday is releasing its plans to begin accepting applications in late June for a $39 billion manufacturing subsidy program. The law also creates a 25% investment tax credit for building chip plants estimated to be worth $24 billion. Recipients who receive more than $150 million in direct funding "will be required to share with the U.S. government a...

Much of the world lives in a split reality — divided between normalcy and despair. Most adults understand that at any given time, there are any number of possible calamities bearing down on the earth. Nuclear threats from Russia and/or China could mean disaster tomorrow. Economic meltdown could be only days away. A new plague could hit with more speed and greater impact than the last one. But such fears do not change the routine patterns of daily life. Most folks will get up tomorrow morning, go to work or school, return home at the appointed time, and generally go...

A Canadian Parliamentary committee is recommending lawmakers legalize euthanasia for sick and disabled children or those in Canada’s child welfare system. They think those whose deaths are what they consider “reasonably foreseeable” should be able to end their own lives. Even more horrific is the fact they want children to make the decision without parental consent. Evil? I’d say downright demonic. Lest we look down our noses on our northern neighbors, remember the birth control and eugenics movement took off right here in America with the help of Margaret Sanger, Planned Parenthood’s radical founder who inspired Hitler’s racial purity program....

West Point affirmed that prospective candidates should be vaccinated against COVID-19, weeks after the mandate was officially revoked, according to multiple statements obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. After the DCNF reached out, West Point reversed course, saying it no longer required the vaccine for new cadets. “There is no telling how many potential cadets this arbitrary mandate has dissuaded from serving our nation,” Republican Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana told the DCNF. The U.S. Military Academy at West Point affirmed a COVID-19 vaccination requirement for incoming cadets weeks after the Secretary of Defense did away with the military...

The Department of Defense reminded members of the military that although jumping out of a plane with a parachute and an American flag in tow may seem patriotic to some, it is not acceptable. In a memo sent to the public affairs offices of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and National Guard on Feb. 10, the DOD provided clarification on a policy requiring all uniformed service members to show proper respect to the U.S. flag while at community events. "In recent years, many sponsors of sporting events have instituted a tradition of requesting uniformed military members to unfurl and...

China approved 168 coal-fired power plants in 2022, the most rapid expansion of the country’s coal-fired power capacity since 2015, according to a report by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) and Global Energy Monitor (GEM) Monday. Chinese companies began constructing 50 gigawatts (GW) worth of coal-fired power capacity in 2022, more than triple the rest of the world put together and spiking 50% from 2021, according to the report. Conversely, President Joe Biden’s signature Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is expected to lead to the retirement of 30 GW to 60 GW of U.S. coal-fired power...

"Joyously giving thanks to the Father" (Col. 1:11-12). Joyous thanksgiving acknowledges God as the giver of every good gift. The inseparable link between joy and thanksgiving was a common theme for Paul. In Philippians 4:4-6 he says, "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! . . . Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God." He told the Thessalonians to "rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus" (1 Thess. 5:16- 18). As...