Free Republic

Nova Scotia has placed further restrictions on the public as the province faces a dry summer and heightened wildfire risk. With a burn-ban already in place, officials announced on Tuesday that they’ve shuttered access to forests across the province – including parks – as of 4 p.m. In an update Tuesday evening, HRM officials confirmed the provincial order includes municipal parks. “We are telling Nova Scotians to stay out of the woods,” said Premier Tim Houston during a press conference. The province-wide woods ban restricts the public from unnecessary travel into the forests and partake in activities including hiking, camping,...

A Portland jazz legend has died at the age of 85. Nancy King was known the world over, praised for her voice and her improvisational skills on stage. Words like “treasure” and “unique talent” are often spoken by those who knew King. Vegetation fire on Hwy 58 prompts ‘Go Now’ evacs “Nancy King, to many, was perhaps the best jazz vocalist to ever live. And she just so happened to live in Portland, Oregon,” said Portland State University Jazz Professor Sherry Alves. Officials pledge support for Army shooting that wounded five soldiers Alves knew King well, having interviewed King many...

There are not many people who have survived a nuclear attack. There is only one person who officially survived two. On this day, 80 years ago, young engineer Tsutomu Yamaguchi was telling his boss about the horrors he had seen in the Japanese city of Hiroshima when the room went blindingly white. "I thought the mushroom cloud had followed me from Hiroshima," he told UK Newspaper, The Independent. Yamaguchi was an engineer with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries when the United States dropped atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yamaguchi, then 29, was in Hiroshima for a business trip...

Several weeks ago, I had a serious health scare. The emergency appointment and ultrasound were attended alone. I did a ring-around of my friends and sisters, but they were away or otherwise occupied. All I wanted was someone to hold my hand and give me a bit of moral support, but on a sweltering hot day, I sat alone in the hospital waiting room – a solitary figure among a sea of cosy couples, with only my Kindle for company as I bounced off the walls with anxiety. While the scare turned out to be just that, the stark realisation...

The Trump administration is targeting UCLA again for the second time in a week, seeking to force the school to pay a $1 billion fine for alleged antisemitism on campus. The news broke Friday, a week after grant funding to the university was frozen. The Los Angeles Times reports that the federal government’s proposal would restore that grant funding, worth more than $500 million, in exchange for the $1 billion fine. University of California System President James Milliken confirmed that they’ve “just received a document from the Department of Justice and [are] reviewing it.”

https://babylonbee.com/news/democrats-warn-new-trump-census-could-negate-all-the-illegal-alien-votes-biden-brought-inWASHINGTON, D.C. — After President Donald Trump ordered census takers to only include U.S. citizens in their counts, Democrats warned the country that the new rule could negate all the illegal alien votes Joe Biden worked so hard to bring in. After news broke of Trump's changes to the census process, top Democrats took to the airwaves to let the American people know that such a drastic shift in procedure could potentially trample the voting rights of the millions of illegals imported under the Biden administration. "This could lead to only U.S. citizens voting in U.S. elections," said House Minority...

Chubby Checker will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on Nov. 8, but the singer has made clear he won't be in attendance. And interestingly, the Rock Hall is on board with that. At Checker's July 27 concert in Des Plaines, Illinois, the organization presented him with his induction trophy early. Additionally, Checker then explained from the stage in an interview that he purposely had his manager book him a concert for the evening of Nov. 8. "I told my manager, 'Make sure when we go to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the...

A violent eruption under Greenland’s ice exposed a secret lake and left a crater the size of a city. Credit: ESA | The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel A hidden lake beneath Greenland’s Harder Glacier unexpectedly erupted, unleashing a powerful surge of water that carved a massive crater in the ice. The dramatic event caught researchers off guard, as water surged upward through thick ice, creating a profound impact on the glacier. Over just ten days, the lake released 23.8 billion gallons (90 million cubic meters) of water, equivalent to nine hours of Niagara Falls’ full-force flow. A Violent Flood...

Record-breaking heat continues for parts of the desert Southwest into the weekend, with sweltering temperatures beginning to expand east into the Heartland.Extreme heat warnings remain in effect for parts of the desert Southwest -- including Palm Springs, California; Phoenix; and Tucson, Arizona.High temperatures are expected to reach well into the 100s and up to 115 in spots.

What if we sent a probe to explore a black hole? One astrophysicist believes it. Black holes are among the most enigmatic and mysterious objects in the Universe, and our understanding of them is still limited by the extreme challenges of studying them. However, a new proposal, published in iScience, from astrophysicist Cosimo Bambi of Fudan University in China might open an unprecedented path to exploring these mysterious phenomena. Black Holes as Cosmic Laboratories The black hole’s gravitational field is the most intense in the universe, so much so that not even light can escape its grip. While scientists have...

Explanation: One of the all-time historic skyscapes occured in July 1054, when the Crab Supernova blazed into the dawn sky. Chinese court astrologers first saw the Guest Star on the morning of 4 July 1054 next to the star Tianguan (now cataloged as Zeta Tauri). The supernova peaked in late July 1054 a bit brighter than Venus, and was visible in the daytime for 23 days. The Guest Star was so bright that every culture around the world inevitably discovered the supernova independently, although only nine reports survive, including those from China, Japan, and Constantinople. This iPhone picture is from...

TAMPA, Fla. - Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc announced it will move its 2025 convention from Orlando due to what it calls "harmful, racist and insensitive" policies against the Black community. It joins other Black organizations, like the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) who are relocating its conferences out of the state as well. Earlier this summer, the NAACP issued a formal travel advisory for Florida saying it’s "hostile" to African-Americans

Lovell was part of a total of four space missions: Gemini VII, Gemini XII, Apollo 8 and Apollo 13. NASA Astronaut Jim Lovell, who famously led the historic Apollo 13 moon mission, died on Thursday at the age of 97, his family announced Friday.Lovell was part of a total of four space missions: Gemini VII, Gemini XII, Apollo 8 and Apollo 13. Lovell was most known for his calm leadership during Apollo 13's tragic flight, which experienced a major oxygen tank explosion far away from Earth.The astronaut's family highlighted Lovell's "legendary leadership in pioneering human space flight," and observed that...

Speaking about Bonhoeffer to a reporter in 1970, Bethge said, “Americans make him a saint without seeing him as a man who had a dirty job to do.” Namely, plotting Hitler’s assassination and the overthrow of his tyrannical government. “Yes, he is a modern saint,” Bethge continued. “But it has little to do with the old idea of sanctity and purity. He was a man of action whose sharp theological insights and Christian responsibility compelled him to act decisively in the real world of dirt, difficulty and danger.” The primary weakness in Komarnicki’s depiction of Bonhoeffer is that, as played...

The ancestors of all modern humans split off from a mystery population 1.5 million years ago and then reconnected with them 300,000 years ago, a new genetic model suggests. The unknown population contributed 20% of our DNA and may have boosted humans' brain function...In a study published Tuesday (March 18) in the journal Nature Genetics, researchers presented a new method of modeling genomic data, called "cobraa," that has allowed them to trace the evolution of modern humans (Homo sapiens).By applying their new method to modern human DNA data published in the 1000 Genomes Project and the Human Genome Diversity Project,...

Aaron Veckey, a former Border Patrol agent, shares the painful truth of his whistleblowing experience. Despite his efforts to expose violations within the agency, the very institution he trusted to uphold justice turned on him. Rather than investigating the corruption, the Office of Special Counsel targeted him instead. @JamesOKeefeIII adds, “When the system is more concerned with protecting its own than doing what's right, whistleblowers become the enemy.”

U.S.-Russian dual citizen Ksenia Karelina, a former ballerina, said she’s been “really, really happy” since she was released from Russia in a prisoner exchange in April. Karelina was arrested in February 2024 in Yekaterinburg after returning to Russia to visit her family. A Russian court convicted her of treason for donating just north of $50 to a U.S.-based Ukrainian charity, and she was sentenced to 12 years in prison. The State Department, which previously determined Karelina had been wrongfully detained, announced in April that President Trump had “secured her release” and that she was “on a plane back home to...

Attorney General Pam Bondi has all but disappeared from Fox News in recent weeks, after being all over the network during the first few months of the Trump administration. Bondi’s last appearance as a guest on Fox News was with Sean Hannity on June 30th, days before her DOJ and the FBI released a joint memo concluding that Jeffrey Epstein killed himself and did not keep a “client list.” Bondi subsequently found herself on the receiving end of a firestorm of anger from the MAGA base, which had been assured by President Donald Trump, Bondi, and others in the administration...

A mouse study finds a gut “gatekeeper” that decides whether allergens can get through — and an existing drug that could block dangerous reactions before they start. In A Nutshell * In mice, a “gut gatekeeper” controls whether allergens can cross into the body and trigger a reaction. * The protective version of this gatekeeper is linked to a more active enzyme (DPEP1) that clears chemical signals which open the gut barrier. * Blocking those signals with an existing asthma drug (zileuton) stopped allergic reactions from oral exposure in mice. * While promising, the findings are in mice; human safety...

https://babylonbee.com/news/gina-carano-settles-with-disney-will-replace-pedro-pascal-in-all-movies BURBANK, CA — In the conclusion to a years-long legal battle, actress and former MMA fighter Gina Carano announced that she had reached an agreement to settle with Disney and would subsequently replace Pedro Pascal in all movies. Carano had taken legal action against Disney following her 2022 firing from the Star Wars series The Mandalorian, with the studio eventually offering her a settlement that included having her replace Pascal, who had been signed to appear in every single movie for the next several years. "This is a resounding win for Gina, since she will now be cast in...