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Explanation: Some 4 billion light-years away, massive galaxy cluster Abell 370 is captured in this sharp Hubble Space Telescope snapshot. The cluster of galaxies only appears to be dominated by two giant elliptical galaxies and infested with faint arcs. In reality, the fainter, scattered bluish arcs, along with the dramatic dragon arc below and left of center, are images of galaxies that lie far beyond Abell 370. About twice as distant, their otherwise undetected light is magnified and distorted by the cluster's enormous gravitational mass, overwhelmingly dominated by unseen dark matter. Providing a tantalizing glimpse of galaxies in the early...

Ideas Have Consequences. Extreme Ideas Have Extreme ConsequencesIn 1948, American scholar Richard M. Weaver published a book entitled Ideas Have Consequences. In it, he argued that the decline of Western Civilization was rooted in the philosophical rejection of the notion of absolute truth. This worldview ultimately had devastating effects on western art, education, and morality.Five years earlier, the Oxford Christian academic C.S. Lewis wrote a book called The Abolition of Man, in which he discussed the consequences of higher education rejecting objective value and natural law. He likened the self-destruction of society believing such ideas to the removal of the...

Buffalo Bills owner Terry Pegula allegedly made a racist comment about Black players in the NFL, according to a racial discrimination lawsuit against the league filed Tuesday by longtime reporter Jim Trotter. Trotter alleges in the lawsuit that in 2020, a fellow NFL Media reporter recalled a conversation he had with Pegula, who was speaking to the reporter about the NFL's social justice initiatives and Black Lives Matter. The reporter, who was not identified in the lawsuit, told Trotter and approximately 40 other NFL Media coworkers during a Zoom call that Pegula said, "If the Black players don't like it...

Speaking of Kennedy, no single American has felt the sting of the Times’ historic disdain for so-called conspiracy theorists more than JFK’s legendary press secretary, Pierre Salinger. Unlike Landis, Salinger made the mistake of exposing a conspiracy that was very much in play when he exposed it. I speak here of the case of TWA Flight 800. The 747 was en route from New York to Paris when it crashed off the coast of Long Island in July 1996, killing all 230 people on board.

On Monday, a report from The Washington Post revealed that leading Republican presidential candidate and 45th President Donald Trump is planning to cut even more taxes if elected to a second term in 2024.Per The Post, the Trump team is expecting to cut both the corporate and individual tax rates after the success of his 2017 tax cuts that resulted in more money in the pockets of every American. The initial 2017 tax cuts took the corporate rate down from 35 percent to 21 percent and made a host of cuts to individual taxes. The advisors argued that the new...

Dean Obeidallah, a long-term Palestinian-American columnist for MSNBC, and radio host on SiriusXM, has argued that former President Donald Trump be given a long enough sentence that he dies in prison in order to “protect democracy”.Obeidallah responded to a guest on his radio show about “how conservatives would react” if Biden said Trump could die while in jail, to which he stated:“I think Donald Trump must die in prison because – I don’t care if he was 45 years old. You should get life in prison if you attempt a coup, and there should be no chance of parole.”“Either we’re...

The Governor has 10% support. New polling from the Lone Star State shows Ron DeSantis continuing to lose ground to Donald Trump. The Defend Texas Liberty PAC Texas Statewide 2024 Likely Republican Labor Day Issue Poll shows Trump ahead of the Florida Governor, 61% to 10%, among the 406 likely voters surveyed by CWS Research. This is by far Trump’s biggest lead over DeSantis in the state. DeSantis was at 13% in July, 19% in June and 23% in May, meaning the Governor has lost more than half his support in the last few months.

Rihanna’s Cousin Tanella Alleyne Dies Suddenly At 28, Weeks After The Grammy Winner Gave Birth “Umbrella” singer Rihanna is experiencing a downpour of grief for her cousin just weeks after welcoming another bundle of sunshine with partner A$AP Rocky. The 2023 Met Gala Celebrating "Karl Lagerfeld: A Line Of Beauty" - Arrivals Source: Taylor Hill / Getty According to Loop Barbados News, her cousin, Tanella Alleyne, passed away in Barbados after her doctor discovered a significant “black mass.” The 35-year-old’s relative’s death comes a mere six years after Tanella’s brother, Tavon, was shot dead. Her transition celebration was held on...

[B]y 59-33%, New Yorkers support making it easier for migrants currently in New York to be granted work authorizations regardless of their current immigration status ...

[Catholic Caucus] How this dissident Jesuit theologian is the key to understanding Pope FrancisFr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, 1955(Tradition and Sanity) — In his homily in Mongolia on Sunday, September 3, Pope Francis decided to quote Father Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955) at some length:The Mass is itself a way of giving thanks: ‘Eucharistía.’ To celebrate Mass in this land brought to my mind the prayer that the Jesuit Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin offered to God exactly a hundred years ago, in the desert of Ordos, not far from here. He prayed: ‘My God, I prostrate myself before your presence...

The vast majority of Ukrainians – 78 percent – say President Volodymyr Zelensky is directly responsible for corruption in the government and military, a poll published on Monday found. The survey, conducted in July by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation and the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, also found that Ukrainians ranked corruption within their own government as a bigger threat to “Ukrainian entrepreneurship” than the ongoing Russian invasion, according to the Kyiv Independent. The poll was taken after months of investigations, which followed months of firings at the highest levels of governments. Zelensky announced measures to fight bribery...

Global oil prices climbed above $92 a barrel on Tuesday for the first time in nearly 10 months as the energy market braces for supply disruptions caused by catastrophic flooding in Libya. At least 2,000 people have died and 10,000 are believed missing following the deadly flooding that broke dams and swept away countless homes there. Brent crude, the world benchmark, jumped nearly 2% to an intraday high of $92.38 a barrel. That’s the highest price since November 17, 2022. US oil prices popped 2.3% to as much as $89.29 a barrel, also the highest level since November. The latest...

BREAKING: New Mexico Attorney General tells the Governor that he won't defend her carry ban, saying "I do not believe it passes constitutional muster."

They’re offering bootleg online courses in robbery. The nationwide shoplifting epidemic could soon get a whole lot worse: As if looters weren’t acting brazen enough of late, self-proclaimed “borrowers” are now taking to the platform to teach aspiring criminals how follow suit, per the clips. The hashtag “borrow tip and tricks” has amassed 8.9 billion of views on TikTok amid the uptick in brazen theft, spawned by increasingly lax looting laws and “revolving door” bail reforms. “Today I went to the mall so I’m going to show you what I borrowed,” bragged user @borrowingqueen in one of the stealing tutorials....

American households now have an average of $10,170 credit card debt, as record numbers say they are worried about being cut off from access to loans. Data from the New York Federal Reserve shows nationwide credit card debt swelled by $43 billion in the second quarter of the year - the second largest increase on record. *** But some states are faring much worse than others as households in Hawaii have the highest debt currently, according to fresh analysis by WalletHub. Families in the Aloha state have $10,637 in credit card loans on average. It was followed by Alaska, California...

This artist’s concept shows what exoplanet K2-18 b could look like based on science data. K2-18 b, an exoplanet 8.6 times as massive as Earth, orbits the cool dwarf star K2-18 in the habitable zone and lies 120 light-years from Earth. A new investigation with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope into K2-18 b has revealed the presence of carbon-bearing molecules including methane and carbon dioxide. The abundance of methane and carbon dioxide, and shortage of ammonia, support the hypothesis that there may be a water ocean underneath a hydrogen-rich atmosphere in K2-18 b. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI),...

The early defense strategies being pursued by former President Trump and his 18 co-defendants in Georgia are quickly complicating prosecutors’ aim to go to trial next month. District Attorney Fani Willis (D) is attempting to keep all of the co-defendants together for a singular trial beginning Oct. 23, but several legal maneuvers already underway pose deep challenges to Willis’s goal, which legal experts have called extraordinarily ambitious. So far, five defendants have attempted to move their charges to federal court, two have demanded a speedy trial and a majority have aimed to sever their charges from fellow co-defendants. Fulton County...

Lyft is introducing a new feature that let’s women and non-binary riders choose a preference to match with drivers of the same gender. The ride-hailing company said it was a “highly requested feature” in a blog post Tuesday, saying the new feature allows women and non-binary people to “feel that much more confident” in using Lyft and also hopefully encourage more women to sign up to be drivers to access its “flexible earning opportunities.” The service, called “Women+ Connect,” is rolling out in the coming months. Riders can turn on the option in the Lyft app, however the company warns...

Squirming witness testifies there was "no evidence" of a crime committed by Paxton, only a "belief".

Melissa Kerr died from complications after cosmetic surgery. Credit: Justgiving.com/Natasha Kerr A coroner will write to the health secretary to warn of the dangers of cosmetic surgery overseas after a British woman died following a "Brazilian butt lift" in Turkey. Melissa Kerr, 31, travelled to a private hospital in Istanbul for the procedure, an inquest at Norfolk Coroner's Court heard. She was "conscious about her appearance" but had only been given “limited information regarding the risks and mortality rate” associated with it, the inquest was told. Norfolk's senior coroner Jacqueline Lake wants to raise the matter with Health Secretary Steve...