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KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says there can be no cease-fire in the war in Ukraine unless it is part of a “just and lasting” peace deal that includes Russia’s military withdrawal. Blinken said Friday that “a ceasefire that simply freezes current lines in place” and enabled Russian President Vladimir Putin to “rest, rearm, and re-attack” would not be “a just and lasting peace.” In a speech during a visit to Finland, Blinken said that Russia must also pay for part of Ukraine’s reconstruction and be held accountable for its full-scale invasion of its neighbor...

Physicists at RIKEN have created an exceptionally neutron-rich sodium isotope, 39Na, which was previously believed to be impossible. This breakthrough has major implications for understanding atomic nuclei structure and the creation of Earth’s heavier elements. In extremely neutron-rich form of the element sodium—which many models of atomic nuclei predict shouldn’t exist—has been created by nuclear physicists at RIKEN for the first time[1]. If you made table salt from this super-heavy version of sodium—and the most neutron-rich isotope of chlorine, salt’s other constituent—it would taste and behave like normal salt, except it would be roughly 1.6 times heavier, says nuclear physicist...

The White House announced the award of a non-compete contract to the Burisma Corporation for the production of a Presidential Walker. The Presidential Walker is required to be Green Energy compliant and contain an AI guidance system. Although a regular walker would normally cost less than $200 dollars, the Presidential model is expected to cost less than $20 billion dollars when produced to specifications. Extras expected are a built-in Sippy Cup, speedometer, teleprompter, and other creature comforts. Performance is expected to go from 0 to 1 mile an hour top end. In other unrelated news, Sam Brinton is being investigated...

President Joe Biden will deliver his first Oval Office address as president from behind the Resolute Desk as he seeks to hold up the bipartisan achievement of avoiding a default on the nation's debt. The speech is set to be a victory lap after the House and Senate on Thursday passed through the budget agreement Biden negotiated with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. It imposes flat funding for the next fiscal year, with a 1 per cent cut the next, while expanding work requirements for food stamps – but also accomplishes Biden's top goal of avoiding default.

The US Navy has scrubbed its social media of Pride posts and removed its rainbow banner just two days into Pride Month as it continues to distance itself from controversial topics. On Thursday - the first day of Pride Month - the US Navy reportedly changed its social media banners to feature a multi-colored photo of naval equipment streaked with pride flags. A day later, the Navy's profiles have all switched to featuring a photo taken from an aircraft flying by a naval ship.

A federal judge officially declared a mistrial in a federal case involving two doctors who were accused of conspiring to help Russia in its war with Ukraine by providing private medical records. Prosecutors accused Anna Gabrielian, a Johns Hopkins anesthesiologist, and Jamie Lee Henry, her active-duty Army officer husband, of attempting to become Russian assets after they allegedly shared private and "exploitable" health records of their patients to an undercover FBI agent, according to WBALTV 11. The couple was arrested in 2022 after allegedly meeting with someone they thought was from the Russian embassy, but who was actually an FBI...

California’s transformation — from a red state in the early 20th century, to a purple one after World War II, to deep blue in the 21st century — has had enormous consequences for American politics. SNIP The biggest reason to think that Reaganism might be part of the future here is unpredictability: nobody saw Reaganism coming in 1966, either. If California voters draw the Occam’s razor connection between Democratic hegemony, government dysfunction and a declining quality of life, Reaganism 2.0 may not only arrive, but it might show up sooner than anyone thinks possible.

The president’s son is under investigation for potentially breaking the law banning drug users from owning guns – but the law’s constitutionality faces growing challenges. Hunter Biden could soon find himself in a surprising position: at the cutting edge of the fight to strengthen the Second Amendment. The president’s son is the target of a Justice Department investigation scrutinizing his purchase of a gun in 2018 — a time when he has said he was regularly using crack cocaine. Federal law bans drug users from owning guns. But the constitutionality of that law — like many other provisions restricting gun...

An Iowa task force has completed its search for survivors at the site of a partially collapsed Davenport apartment building without finding three missing people who are feared dead, authorities said Friday. The focus has shifted to shoring up the structure so recovery efforts can begin. The remains of the six-story apartment building were constantly in motion in the first 24 to 36 hours after it collapsed on Sunday, which officials said posed a risk to rescuers who were trying to search for survivors. City officials earlier this week said that Brandon Colvin, Ryan Hitchcock and Daniel Prien were unaccounted...

[Catholic Caucus] Pope Francis, in message, invokes Mary as Mediatrix of all graces, warns against ‘sterile traditionalism’Thousands of people took part in a Marian procession in the Sardinian city of Sassari on May 28 to mark the 80th anniversary of the sparing of their city from Allied bombing during World War II. #rcbrand { width: 300px; font-size: 12px; color:rgba(45,45,45,1.00); text-align: center; padding-bottom: 10px; display: block; margin: 0 auto; } #rcbrand IMG { max-width:100%; } #rcbrand A { color:rgba(45,45,45,1.00); } <p> /*Smartphones and Phablets*/ @media only screen and (max-width : 450px) { #rcbrand { width: 100%; \ } <p> } Shop:...

Researchers have identified genomic variants that cause a rare and severe inflammatory skin disorder, known as disabling pansclerotic morphea, and have found a potential treatment. Scientists discovered that people with the disorder have an overactive version of a protein called STAT4, which regulates inflammation and wound healing. The work also identified a drug that targets an important feedback loop controlled by the STAT4 protein and significantly improves symptoms in these patients. Only a handful of patients have been diagnosed with disabling pansclerotic morphea, a disorder first described in the medical literature around 100 years ago. The disorder causes severe skin...

At the end of the 1950s — a decade shy of Apollo 11’s successful lunar landing — the US military had the radical idea of detonating a nuclear bomb on the surface of the moon, Air Force documents from 1959 show. “Nuclear detonations in the vicinity of the moon are considered in this report with scientific information which might be obtained from such explosions … The detonation of a nuclear weapon on or near the moon’s surface has often been suggested,” according to the now unclassified report. “The military aspect is aided by investigation of space environment, detection of nuclear...

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is nothing if not a political survivor. Underestimated from the start, the Republican who cruised around his California hometown of Bakersfield and stumbled into a career in Congress was never taken too seriously by the Washington establishment. With overwhelming House passage of the debt ceiling and budget deal he negotiated with President Joe Biden, the emergent speaker proved the naysayers and eye-rollers otherwise. A relentless force, he pushed a reluctant White House to the negotiating table and delivered the votes from his balky House GOP majority to seal the deal. "You still ask the same questions...

SALIX, Iowa — It has become a bit. In these early days of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ bid for president, Casey DeSantis joins her husband onstage, and the stories start to roll. There’s the one about bottled water from the Sea of Galilee, preciously savored for the children’s baptisms, that’s accidentally tossed out by a housekeeper at the governor's residence. Then there are Casey’s attestations of mom-hood, battling permanent marker scrawls on furniture and dragging by day’s end, when her husband comes home from work and she hands over the three children. The couple fires off all the indicators of...

Despite obstacles, Evanston officials say the city’s reparations program is moving forward though some residents say it’s not fast enough. Anthony Swope was one of many who gave a testimonial at the Evanston Reparations Committee meeting on Thursday. The Evanston resident shared how he convinced his wife, Eleanor, to apply. Unfortunately, she’s one of several approved applicants who died before receiving benefits. The issue is another that the city’s groundbreaking reparations program is facing. Yet, Swope says he is helpful. “I’m exceedingly full of joy to see that there are people who are recognizing people of color,” he said. Sixteen...

"And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. "Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double. "How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow,...

Blames ‘white scholars’ for inhibiting progress on this issueThe United Nations should set up a reparations tribunal and order the United States to pay out up to $5 million in reparations to black citizens, a Howard University professor said recently. Professor Justin Hansford, a law professor and proponent of critical race theory, made the comments at the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent, according to the Daily Mail. Hansford is a member of the forum, first created in 2021 and he spoke to the news outlet at the UN. The Daily Mail reported: Justin Hansford, a professor at...

A Texas judge has ordered attorneys to attest that they will not use ChatGPT or other generative artificial intelligence technology to write legal briefs because the AI tool can invent facts. U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr of the Northern District of Texas is specifically requiring that attorneys file a certificate to indicate either that no portion of any document they file was generated by an AI tool like ChatGPT, or that a human being has checked any AI-generated text. The new requirement comes after a lawyer representing a man suing an airline used ChatGPT to prepare a legal brief, which...

US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm got an up-close look at the opportunities of offshore wind power on a ferry tour of the Block Island wind farm Friday, then discussed the challenges the industry faces at a roundtable discussion at a Quonset Development Corporation building here. “It’s such an amazing time, and we cannot squander it,” Granholm said at the roundtable. “I keep saying your hair has to be on fire.” Rhode Island, she said, is doing that. “Your hair is so on fire, you have a hat on,” she told the state’s acting energy commissioner, Chris Kearns, who was wearing...

Dave Ramsey, the finance guru radio host who offered millions of people advice for managing their debts, is now being sued for $150 million dollars by some of those same listeners.