Free Republic

Fox News has reported a power struggle has broken out within Iranian leadership and a potential coup could be taking place against the new supreme leader. "Tonight there could be a coup, no-one knows who's calling the shots," Fox News' political commentator and host Jesse Watters said. Watters said that the US delegation, comprising of Vice President JD Vance, Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and Special Envoy for Peace Jared Kushner, were supposed to leave for Islamabad, Pakistan for negotiations with Iran. Watters claimed the Iranian delegation never left Iran. He went on to say that Trump...

Iconic rock star Dave Mason, who found fame as the lead singer and co-founder of Traffic, alongside Chris Wood, Steve Winwood and Jim Capaldi died on Sunday, April 19, at the age of 79. His family confirmed the news in a statement issued by his rep. No cause of death was revealed, but it read: "On behalf of his family, it is with deep and profound sadness that we share the news of the passing of Dave Mason. On Sunday, April 19, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, celebrated songwriter, musician, singer, and author, passed away peacefully at...

Paging Indiana Jones! An American archeologist thinks he may know where the lost Ark of the Covenant is hidden, and is hoping to mount a search to find it. Dr. Jones — err, Professor Chris McKinny — believes the Lost Ark may be waiting beneath the City of David, an archeological site just south of the Dome of the Rock which is considered to be one of the oldest sections of Jerusalem, the Daily Mail reported. McKinny — an associate professor of biblical archeology at Lipscomb University in Tennessee — drew on biblical and historical texts to zero in on...

According to an Ahram Online report, a Roman-era tomb has been discovered in Upper Egypt at the site of Al-Bahnasa -- the ancient city of Oxyrhynchus -- by a team of Egyptian and Spanish researchers including Maite Mascort and Esther Pons of the University of Barcelona. Several decorated, linen-wrapped mummies were found in the tomb in addition to wooden coffins. Three golden tongues, one copper tongue, and gold leaf were also uncovered alongside some of the mummified bodies. A papyrus buried with one of the individuals contains a passage from book 2 of Homer’s Iliad known as the Catalogue of...

Ancient Egyptian mummified remains in the collection of the MNMKK Semmelweis Museum of Medical History were examined with a CT scanner equipped with a photon-counting detector, according to a statement released by Semmelweis University. The remains in the study include two heads, two left lower limbs, a mummy bundle containing a foot, and a hand. The oldest artifacts in the collection are some 2,300 years old. The resulting images revealed the internal structure of the body parts, said team physician Ibolyka Dudás, providing a highly detailed view of abnormalities and preservation techniques used in antiquity. The new images of the...

Long ago in a land now lost to the sea, and event happened that changed how those that lived there, saw their landscape forever. This is Doggerland, the land bridge that once connected Britain with mainland Europe. It would take an eventual slow and long sea rise to remove this world, but.. something else happened. Something that changed the landscape in one instant. More devasting than we ever could image. Paul Whitewick examines how the 6,200 BC Storegga Slide tsunami dramatically altered the landscape of Doggerland. By analyzing geological cores and ancient artifacts, they explore how this catastrophic event fundamentally...

A handful of users in a private online forum gained access to Mythos on the same day that Anthropic first announced ‌a plan to ⁠release the model... The group has been using Mythos regularly since then, though not for ​cybersecurity purposes... Announced on April 7, Mythos is being deployed as part of ‌Anthropic's "Project Glasswing," a controlled ​initiative under which select organizations ​are permitted ​to use the unreleased Claude Mythos ‌Preview model for defensive ​cybersecurity. Mythos is ​a powerful AI model that has sparked concerns among regulators about its unprecedented ​ability to ‌identify digital security vulnerabilities and potential for ​misuse.

Multiple oil spills are visible from space after Iranian and US-Israeli strikes hit oil facilities and ships in the region, with experts warning of an impending environmental catastrophe. Satellite images are giving an insight into destruction in the region, including to the fragile biodiversity of the Persian Gulf. Oil spilt there has the potential to affect the lives and livelihoods of people along the Gulf coastlines, as well as the region’s rich marine life...such as turtles, dolphins and whales that might ingest or become trapped in the oil. They could also potentially affect the filtering systems of desalination plants, on...

The Brief Police arrested 34-year-old Gregory Lewis for capital murder after he reportedly confessed to killing his coworker and stealing his vehicle. Thomas King vanished after finishing his shift at a Fort Worth Taco Casa and was later discovered dead in a field. Family members allege King was bullied at work as investigators work to determine the exact motive behind the fatal confrontation. SNIP

COLORADO, USA — A "mega den" of rattlesnakes in Colorado is becoming active after the winter.Thanks to a livestream that launched Monday, scientists studying the den on a craggy hillside in Colorado are learning more about these enigmatic — and often misunderstood — reptiles.The public can also watch on the Project RattleCam website. The project is a collaboration between California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, snake removal company Central Coast Snake Services and Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.As the camera launched Monday, snake researchers said it is still a bit cold at the den, so you can expect...

President Donald Trump pushed back Monday on his own energy secretary's claim that a return to $3-a-gallon gas will not come through the end of the year. "No, I think he’s wrong on that, totally wrong," Trump told The Hill on Monday, when asked about Energy Secretary's Christopher Wright's interview with CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday. Trump remains steadfast in his conviction that gas prices in America are going to drop precipitously "as soon as this ends," referring to the oil blockade in the Strait of Hormuz... "The blockade is very powerful, very strong," Trump added to The...

Amazon has agreed to invest up to $25 billion in Anthropic, on top of the $8 billion that it has poured into the artificial intelligence startup in recent years, as part of an expanded agreement to build out AI infrastructure. In the announcement on Monday, Anthropic said it’s committed to spending more than $100 billion on Amazon Web Services technologies over the next 10 years, including current and future generations of Trainium, Amazon’s custom AI chips. Anthropic said it’s secured up to 5 gigawatts of capacity for training and deploying its Claude AI models. “Anthropic’s commitment to run its large...

An 18-year-old Atlanta Braves minor league catcher was arrested for leaving the scene of a hit-and-run crash that killed a semi-tractor-trailer driver on I-75 in Manatee County Monday morning, according to troopers. What we know: The Florida Highway Patrol says they found and impounded a 2022 Ford Mustang and arrested 18-year-old Jonathan Matos Morales of Cocoa for vehicular homicide and leaving a crash scene involving death. According to FHP, the Braves turned Matos Morales in after the team saw the mustang in their compound. Authorities say Matos Morales has been booked into the Manatee County Jail. First appearance Dig deeper:...

A Florida Democrat has resigned from Congress after allegedly stealing millions in COVID relief funds, some of which she is accused of spending on a glitzy ring. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, 46, was awaiting punishment after being accused of using millions that her family's health care company received during the pandemic to fuel her political campaign. Last month, the bipartisan House Ethics Committee found that she had committed numerous violations of House rules and ethics standards, including the alleged theft of more than $5 million in taxpayer funds - part of which she is accused of spending on a flashy diamond ring....

The U.S. blockade of Iranian ports will continue, and the ceasefire with Iran will be extended, President Donald Trump said Tuesday, citing "serious fractures” within the Iranian regime. “Based on the fact that the government of Iran is seriously fractured, not unexpectedly so, and, upon the request of Field Marshal Asim Munir and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan, we have been asked to hold our attack on the country of Iran until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal,” Trump said in a post shared on Truth Social. “I have therefore directed...

A Florida mayor jailed nearly two years ago for a drunk-driving crash is reportedly back behind bars after allegedly flunking a drug test while on probation. Teresa Heitmann, the mayor of Naples, was arrested Monday night for violating her probation after testing positive for cannabinoids, the main compound found in marijuana, during a court-mandated drug test on March 26, according to police records obtained by Gulf Coast News and WINK. The 62-year-old – on probation for an August 2024 DUI bust – was hit with unlawful possession or use of cannabinoids. “We are aware of the situation involving Mayor Teresa...

51 years ago, India marked a historic milestone with the launch of Aryabhata, its first step into space. But long before the satellite lifted off aboard a Soviet rocket, its story had already begun in an unlikely place: a small church by the Arabian Sea. In the early 1960s, India’s fledgling space programme, what would later become the Indian Space Research Organisation, was operating with limited resources but boundless ambition. Under the leadership of Vikram Sarabhai, scientists were searching for a location close to the magnetic equator to study the upper atmosphere. They found it in Thumba, a quiet fishing...

It’s time again to dig up the story about Al Capone’s vault. Forty years ago this Tuesday (April 21), a live syndicated television special drew a record 30 million viewers with a tantalizing premise: Crews were going to blast their way into a mysterious sealed chamber in the basement of Al Capone’s onetime crime headquarters, the Lexington Hotel, in Chicago’s South Loop. Would they uncover riches? Bodies of Capone rivals? IRS agents and a medical examiner would be standing by. Prohibition-era gun discovered in walls of distillery linked to Al Capone Alas, the final moments of “The Mystery of Al...

Explanation: Why are there three arches across the sky instead of two? Last month, after being dropped off by a helicopter at a high mountain peak in the Alps near the Swiss Italian border, an adventurous astrophotographer expected two arches of our Milky Way galaxy to be visible during the night. These were the inner arch looking in toward the center of our galaxy on the left, visible just before sunrise, and the outer arch on the right visible just after sunset. But there were three arches. The surprised astrophotographer soon realized that the sky was so dark that an...

Kevin Warsh, the 56-year-old former Federal Reserve governor, was in the hot seat for his Senate Banking Committee confirmation hearing and said his Fed would be independent from the White House. Warsh fielded questions on issues ranging from his views on monetary policy to his sprawling and complex personal finances to his ties to the Trump White House. He would become the wealthiest Fed chair if confirmed. Questions about the Fed’s long-cherished independence have dominated the discourse surrounding the central bank during President Donald Trump’s second term. Warsh gave a qualified endorsement of Fed independence — but noted he doesn’t...