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Laura Michelle Owens filed a paternity claim against Season 26 star Clayton Echard, who celebrated the woman's indictment: "This nightmare is over."An Arizona woman lied about becoming pregnant with "The Bachelor" Season 26 star Clayton Echard, using a fake ultrasound image and a "fabricated ... pregnancy video" to make the bogus claim, authorities said Tuesday. A seven-count indictment accuses Laura Michelle Owens, 34, of Scottsdale, of false testimony that she was pregnant by Echard, prosecutors said. From May 2023 to June 2024, "Owens altered an ultrasound image, fabricated a pregnancy video, and lied multiple times under oath," the Maricopa County...

Russia and China warned on Wednesday that Donald Trump’s proposed “Golden Iron Dome for America” missile defense system would destabilize global security and turn outer space into a new arena for armed confrontation. “The recently announced large-scale ‘Golden (Iron) Dome for America’ program is deeply destabilizing,” the two sides said in a joint statement during a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Moscow. The U.S. plan “explicitly provides for a significant strengthening of the arsenal for conducting combat operations in space,” it added. -snip- Moscow and Beijing claimed nuclear states must “reject Cold War mentality” and avoid seeking military...

Melania Trump brutally snubbed by unlikely member of the Bush family. The most prominent living member of the Bush family will not be on hand when first lady Melania Trump holds an event announcing a new Barbara Bush commemorative stamp. Former President George W. Bush is not expected to attend the event. Nor is former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush expected. Instead, Doro Bush Koch, the daughter of President George H.W. Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush will be there, according to an announcement by the office of the first lady. A spokesman for the former president didn't respond to inquiries,...

Germany has sacked a top NATO general after he reportedly made a rape joke in front of a female British army officer. Major General Hartmut Renk, 62, was dismissed from his role as deputy commander for Ukraine support in the alliance after he was heard saying: 'If rape is inevitable, then relax and enjoy,' during a meeting. The offensive comment reportedly sparked outrage in the room, where a number of NATO colleagues were said to be present. The British military officer then lodged a formal complaint, prompting an urgent investigation by Germany's defence ministry. According to German news website Der...

A home depot was recently raided by a joint team of homeland security and border patrol agents... Journalistic report. Includes news footage and commentary.

One of the most prominent religions in ancient and medieval China was Taoism, or Daoism. This is completely unrelated to Christianity, an Abrahamic religion related to Judaism and Islam. For this reason, it might be surprising to learn that some medieval Daoist texts include brief Christian prayers that were used as spells. The writings of Lu Dongbin Lu Dongbin was born in China in the eighth century CE. He was a prominent scholar and poet, alleged to have performed miracles. His poems are collected in The Complete Works of Lu Yan or The Complete Book of Ancestor Lu. The overwhelming...

Laura Loomer, a right-wing provocateur and prominent supporter of President Trump, has set her sights on Dr. Casey Means, the physician-turned-wellness influencer who Trump tapped as his new nominee to be U.S. surgeon general on Wednesday. In a series of posts on social platform X that began shortly after Trump’s announcement, Loomer accused the president’s advisers of poor vetting and attacked Means’s background. This is honestly insane,” she wrote in one post Thursday morning. “I do not believe for one second that Donald Trump made this decision. I refuse to believe it.” Loomer went on to label chronic-disease entrepreneur Means,...

If you have an ounce of historical awareness (and basic empathy), the name “Guantánamo Bay” triggers images of torture and pain. It’s a site where the deprivation of the powers that be has been on full display. But what if Guantánamo wasn’t such a downer? What if it became a “prosperous charter city”? That’s the proposal coming from the most recent group of libertarian tech weirdos trying to rebrand Guantanamo with the help of a little modern-day slave labor. Since taking office, President Donald Trump has been courted by several groups proposing “charter”, “startup”, or “freedom” cities in the United...

Robert Prevost has been named as the new Pope and will become Francis' successor following two days of voting inside the Sistine Chapel. The pontiff, who will be named Pope Leo XIV, is the 267th Holy Father - becoming the religious leader of Catholics across the globe. The 69-year-old is also history's first American pope. His name was announced after cardinal Mamberti uttered the words 'Habemus papam!' Latin for 'We have a pope!' from the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica. Chants of 'Leon, Leon' ran through the crowds who had gathered in St Peter's Square, with some appearing to be...

Up in Canada, students have developed an incredible new way to synthesize drugs on plants — and they're using Ozempic as their test case. In a press release, the University of Ottowa revealed that some of its undergraduate students have invented a process that they're calling "Phytogene" turn tobacco cousin Nicotiana benthamiana into a pharmaceutical factory for the popular weight-loss drug. Though it could have lots of use cases in the future, Phytogene's first order of business is synthesizing glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists — the class of medications Novo Nordisk's Ozempic belongs to — which mimic the stomach's feeling...

According to the leaders of some immigrant rights groups, approximately 100 people were taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and brought to the Department of Homeland Security Field office in Nashville early morning on Sunday.

Could Cardinal Prevost be the first American pope?Seemingly out of nowhere, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost is being discussed as a serious candidate in the upcoming conclave.Why this piece is important: Prevost is being seriously considered as a papal candidate—but questions surround his silence and his actions as Prefect for the Dicastery of Bishops. The big picture: Prevost has cooperated in advancing Francis’ agenda, facilitated the appointment of heterodox bishops throughout the world, and tacitly denied the traditional teaching on the episcopate. Flashpoint: He oversaw the deposition of the most conservative U.S. bishop (Strickland) and the appointment of a notorious liberal...

Ozempic and other drugs like it have been threatening the established diet industry since they premiered — and it appears that Weight Watchers is now getting the hatchet. In a note to investors, the long-running weight loss company is taking the "strategic action" of filing for bankruptcy in hopes of consolidating its immense $1.15 billion dollars' worth of debt. The move comes nearly eighteen months after Oprah Winfrey, a Weight Watchers investor who served as the celebrity face and body of the diet company, admitted that she had started taking weight loss drugs like Novo Nordisk's Ozempic and Wegovy. Just...

@RepThomasMassie 🚨This wasn’t widely covered in the news, so I will tell you: Congress was scheduled to vote on rescissions THIS WEEK to cut the waste that DOGE found, but the votes were quietly canceled. USAID and other programs like PBS and NPR were to be targeted.

The Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops is charged with overseeing investigations into bishops accused of negligence, cover-ups, or improperly handling clerical sexual abuse allegations. The Chicago Sun-Times reported Feb. 26 that in September 2000, Fr. James Ray was permitted to live at St. John Stone Friary, a house of the Chicago province of the Augustinian religious order. The friary is half a block from a parish elementary school. According to diocesan records, the move required approval by now-Bishop Robert Prevost, who was then an Augustinian provincial superior. Prevost, now a diocesan bishop in Peru, was received in a private audience by...

A Chicago man says he did the unthinkable when he discovered alleged squatters in his property: He decided to move in with them. Marco Velazquez is the owner of a South Side property, which is on the market to be sold. He says his Realtor came by with a potential buyer, but there were already people inside. "I couldn't believe it. It was like a nightmare," Velazquez said. Velazquez says a woman named Shermaine and her boyfriend, Codarro, moved in, claiming they recently purchased the property. He says the couple showed police a mortgage document, but Cook County confirmed that...

Irish national broadcaster RTÉ director general said he was "appalled by the ongoing events in the Middle East and by the horrific impact on civilians in Gaza, and the fate of Israeli hostages." Irish national broadcaster RTÉ has asked the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) for discussions over Israel’s inclusion in the Eurovision Song Contest. The contest, which is hosted by the EBU, will begin on 13 May in Switzerland with the final on 17 May. Despite calls for a boycott, Israel will compete this year with singer Yuval Raphael, a survivor of the 7 October 2023 attack. She was at...

* After its original discovery in 1885, an ancient statue sanctuary in Cyprus was subsequently covered in sand and lost to time yet again. * However, a recent archaeological effort rediscovered the sanctuary, and uncovered historical finds from the seventh century B.C. * Statue fragments found buried in the sand can now complete statues on display in museums in Cyprus and Canada. A team of German archaeologists recently uncovered an ancient statue sanctuary in Cyprus dedicated to Apollo. Known as Frangissa (due to its location in the remote Frangissa Valley), the site was originally discovered in 1885 but was subsequently...

Newly elected Pope Leo XIV spent years amplifying criticism of President Trump’s policies on social media — with the Catholic Church’s first American leader taking particular aim at the Republican’s immigration policies. Leo XIV, until Thursday known as Robert Francis Prevost, 69, shared or retweeted the opinions of colleagues using his verified account @drprevost on X, formerly known as Twitter. His final X post before being elected by the Conclave in the Sistine Chapel was a retweet of a message from Philadelphia-based Catholic commentator Rocco Palmo, who on April 14 slammed Trump’s partnership with El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele on...

He emerged on the balcony, smiling, to greet the tens of thousands of cheering, jubilant Catholics in St. Peter’s Square: the first American pope. On Thursday afternoon—evening, in Rome—on a beautiful sunny day, Cardinal Robert Prevost from Chicago was elected the new leader of the Roman Catholic Church. He announced his new papal name: Pope Leo XIV. Prevost, a 69-year-old from the Augustinian religious order, had been considered a moderate candidate with solid practical skills in dealing with Vatican politics but similar priorities to Pope Francis on the matters of immigrants and the poor. He has held somewhat more traditional...