Leftists love to believe that churches should be run like clubs — the majority rules. So they’ll make a big deal out of polls, like the Pew Research Center finding six of ten Catholics disagree with the church’s opposition to abortion. They do not ask self-identified Catholics whether they actually go to church on Sundays, or if they stopped the minute they became an adult. You would get a more conservative result.
On Tuesday, NPR’s newscast All Things Considered brought on reporter Katia Riddle to channel the views of pro-abortion Catholics, but what made it more shocking is touting a pro-abortion nun — someone who is financially supported by the Church, and who should be accepting of all the Church teachings.
KATIA RIDDLE: Today, Missouri is replete with Catholic churches, iconography and people like Sister Barbara.
SISTER BARBARA: I certainly did not intend to, you know, become a sister or a nun.
RIDDLE: She’s standing outside her modest apartment, wearing jeans and a sweatshirt. She grew up Catholic but wasn’t all that religious. In her 20s, she describes a kind of love affair she fell into with Catholicism.
If there’s a competition for the most unhinged, unglued, wackadoodle conspiracy theorist in the United States House of Representatives, Maxine Waters has to be, if not in first place, then at least in the top three. And mind you, she’s up against some pretty stiff competition. In the latest episode of “Maxine Waters Gone Wild,” she took to MSNBC to decry the violence that will ensue if former President Trump wins reelection this November – not from the left, but from some shadowy right-wing groups up in the hills.
Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters floats a completely unhinged conspiracy theory that “right-wing organizations” are “training up in the hills somewhere” pic.twitter.com/EIDQgoeA9h
The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday (May 8) ordered the transfer of former prime minister Imran Khan’s wife, Bushra Bibi, from the Banigala residence to Adiala Jail, her lawyer said.
In her petition to the Islamabad HC, Bibi accused the authorities of violating her privacy and serving contaminated food in her home cell.
She and her lawyers also said that the Banigala residence, which had been declared a sub-jail, was dominated by men. The prison staff has denied the claims.
Bibi further accused the authorities of detaining her in one room at Khan’s hilltop mansion in Islamabad. The couple has been detained since January conviction on charges of illegally selling state gifts.
Kim Ki Nam, one of the longest-serving North Korean officials who served all three generations of its leaders cementing their political legitimacy and heading the propaganda apparatus for the dynastic state, has died, official media said on Wednesday.
North Korea leader Kim Jong Un visited the bier of Kim at 2 a.m. on Wednesday to pay tribute “with bitter grief over the loss of a veteran revolutionary who had remained boundlessly loyal” to the country until the very end, it said.
Kim died on Tuesday at the age of 94, official KCNA news agency said.
He was part of a core group of loyal officials who had worked to sustain the three generations of Kims by solidifying their legitimacy carrying the blood line of a revolutionary leader who founded the state in 1945.
A Western New York judge on Tuesday invalidated a ballot measure known as the Equal Rights Amendment that would have codified reproductive rights and protections against other discrimination into the state constitution.
State Supreme Court Justice Daniel Doyle, a Rochester-area Republican, ruled that the state Legislature did not follow correct procedure when it passed the measure last year.
“The constitution is the supreme will of the people,” he wrote. “Its amendment should be undertaken by strict adherence to the will of the people.”
The ruling deals a blow to Democrats’ attempt to bring the issues before voters and boost turnout in November, when New Yorkers will vote on a handful of competitive House seats that could determine control of the chamber.
Donald Trump had a very bad day in court on Tuesday, so after his trial ended for the day, he claimed that campus protesters are Biden plants and called for their arrest.
Trump said, “It’s Biden backers that seem to be funding the, what’s going on with the Palestinians.
They probably not Palestinians, They are agitators, they agitators really bad. And I think our government ought to find out who they are where they’re from and treat them the same way as they do the J6 hostages. You got to treat them the same way. These are agitators. They’re really hurting our country. It’s happening all over the country and cities.”
Video:
Stormy Daniels’s testimony was so bad for Trump that he left court and dreamed up a claim that the campus protesters are really Biden plants, “It’s Biden’s backers seem to be funding what’s going on with the Palestinians. They’re probably not Palestinians.” pic.twitter.com/PX428ghW1l
Gov. JB Pritzker unexpectedly moved away last week from his long-standing opposition to taxing services, saying he didn’t want to start taking ideas off the table as lawmakers search for ways to fund and reform the Chicago region’s mass transit system. A major business group predictably pushed back.
As you may know, Chicago area’s mass transit agencies are facing a $730 million “fiscal cliff” in 2026. The federal government’s COVID-era subsidies will expire that year. Also, ridership has declined as service worsens, operating costs have increased and average fare prices have fallen.
According to a report last year from the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, imposing a service tax could be part of the solution. The CMAP report claimed adding a service tax to the state’s existing 6.25 percent state tax rate could generate $1.1 to $1.9 billion in 2026. Some legislators are proposing a $1.5 billion annual funding increase for transit, as part of a consolidation effort.
The White House said Tuesday the Israel’s closure of border crossings into Gaza was “unacceptable”.
Washington:
The White House said Tuesday the closure of border crossings into Gaza was “unacceptable,” after Israel sent tanks into the southern city of Rafah and seized control of the crossing with Egypt.
“The crossings that have been closed need to be reopened, it is unacceptable for them to be closed,” Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told a briefing, adding that another crossing, at Kerem Shalom, was expected to reopen Wednesday.
A team of physicists and chemists has discovered a previously unknown way in which light interacts with matter, a finding that could lead to improved solar power systems, light-emitting diodes, semiconductor lasers and other technological advancements.
Kharintsev et al. found that photons can obtain substantial momentum, similar to that of electrons in solid materials, when confined to nanometer-scale spaces in silicon. Image credit: Kharintsev et al.
“Silicon is Earth’s second-most abundant element, and it forms the backbone of modern electronics,” said Dr. Dmitry Fishman, a chemist at the University of California, Irvine.
Georgia’s ruling party bussed in thousands of people from across the country on Monday for a rally in the capital aimed at countering days of mass anti-government protests over a controversial “foreign influence” bill.
The Black Sea Caucasus nation has been gripped by mass anti-government protests since mid-April, when the ruling Georgian Dream party reintroduced plans to pass a law that critics say resembles Russian legislation used to silence dissent.
The European Union has said that, if adopted, the proposed legislation would undermine Tbilisi‘s long-standing bid for EU membership.
Steve Cotton, President & CEO of Aqua MetalsAQMS, was recently a guest on Benzinga’s All-Access.
Aqua Metals is reinventing metals recycling with its patented hydrometallurgical AquaRefining™ technology. Unlike smelting, AquaRefining is a room-temperature, water-based process that emits less pollution. The modular Aqualyzers™ cleanly generate ultra-pure metal one atom at a time – closing the sustainability loop for the growing energy storage economy.
WTF?! As awful as ransomware attacks are, perpetrators have found a way of making them even worse: psychologically attacking victims to make them hand over their money. One of these methods involves calling company executives from phone numbers belonging to their children.
Speaking at a Google Security Threat Intelligence Panel at this year’s RSA Conference in San Francisco (via The Reg), Charles Carmakal, CTO of Google-owned cybersecurity firm Mandiant, said, “We saw situations where threat actors essentially SIM swap the phones of children of executives, and start making phone calls to executives, from the phone numbers of their children.”
Carmakal noted the psychological dilemma of seeing an incoming phone call from your child only to answer and hear a stranger’s voice. “Sometimes, it’s caller ID spoofing. Other times, we see demonstrated SIM swapping family members,” he said.
Two weeks after his return to the public eye, King Charles III is said to be “very good” amid his cancer battle.
British politician Penny Mordaunt, a minister in Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government, said during a Tuesday appearance on GB News that the 75-year-old monarch is happy to get back to work.
“He’s very good. And I know that he would have been so pleased to get back to public duties. He would have missed it tremendously,” the speaker of the House of Commons said, sharing details from her weekly meetings with Charles in her role as Privy Council Lord President.
SURREY, British Columbia — Two of the three men charged in the slaying of Canadian Sikh separatist leader Singh Nijjar in June made a brief first court appearance on Tuesday morning.
The killing of the prominent activist became the center of a diplomatic spat after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in September that there were “credible allegations” of Indian involvement
Canadian police said Friday they arrested the three Indian nationals in Edmonton, Alberta for shooting and killing the 45-year-old in his pickup truck after he left the Sikh temple over which he presided in the city of Surrey.
Kamalpreet Singh, 22, Karan Brar, 22, and Karanpreet Singh, 28, have been charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Recent archaeological research in Arabia has unveiled significant insights into the historical and cultural evolution of the region through the study of caves and lava tubes, highlighting ancient lifestyles and the global significance of Arabia’s archaeological heritage. Credit: Green Arabia Project
Recent advancements in interdisciplinary archaeological research in Arabia have revealed new insights on the development and historical progression of regional human populations. This research has also shed light on the shifting patterns of cultural change, migration, and adaptation to environmental variations.
Despite the challenges posed by the limited preservation of archaeological assemblages and organic remains in arid environments, these discoveries are reshaping our understanding of the region’s rich cultural heritage.
A new report from the World Bank called for resources to be allocated away from producing red meat and dairy and instead focus production on low-carbon foods, which could lead to an increase in prices for some foods.
In a new paper, the World Bank noted wealthy nations should switch from high production of red meat and dairy, which produce high levels of carbon dioxide and are dangerous for accelerating climate change, to producing more foods such as chicken, fruits, and vegetables. It argued the switch to chicken and plant-based production is one of the more cost-effective ways to curb climate change.
“We have to stop destroying the planet as we feed ourselves,” Julian Lampietti, the World Bank’s manager for global engagement in the bank’s agriculture and food global practice, told Politico.
Litigation against pharmaceutical giant Merck regarding one of its common childhood vaccines has lingered in the court system for more than a decade even though there has been seemingly little dispute about the veracity of the fraud claims against it.
Blaze News reviewed court documents related to the Merck cases and spoke with one attorney as well as several individuals who have put together a feature film, “Protocol 7,” about the allegations made in them. According to this evidence, it appears that Merck knew about problems with the mumps component of its measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine, often referred to as MMR II, in the 1990s and has spent significant resources in the decades since to cover up those problems rather than admit the truth or improve the vaccine’s quality.
Merck’s attorneys did not respond to Blaze News’ request for comment.
Microsoft is training a new, in-house AI language model large enough to compete with those from Alphabet’s Google and OpenAI, the Information reported on Monday.
The new model, internally referred to as MAI-1, is being overseen by recently hired Mustafa Suleyman, the Google DeepMind co-founder and former CEO of AI start-up Inflection, the report said, citing two Microsoft employees with knowledge of the effort.
The exact purpose of the model has not been determined yet and will depend on how well it performs. Microsoft could preview the new model as soon as its Build developer conference later this month, the report said.
Twitter co-founder’s decision to leave rival social network he helped start was apparently unexpected
The Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has left the board of Bluesky, the decentralised social network he helped start, and encouraged users to remain on his first site, now owned by Elon Musk and called X.
Dorsey confirmed he had cut ties with Bluesky on Sunday, telling a user on X that he was no longer on the social network’s board. The announcement was apparently unexpected, since Bluesky still listed him as a board member until late on Sunday evening.
Scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder and Princeton University have, for the first time, employed a tool often used in geology to detect the atomic fingerprints of cancer.
In a case of medicine meets earth science, the researchers discovered that cancer cells may be made from a different assortment of hydrogen atoms than healthy tissue. The findings could give doctors new strategies for studying how cancer grows and spreads — and may even, one day, lead to new ways to spot cancer early on in the body.
The team, led by CU Boulder geochemist Ashley Maloney, will publish its findings this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“This study adds a whole new layer to medicine, giving us the chance to look at cancer at the atomic level,” said Maloney, a research associate in the Department of Geological Sciences.
Researchers at Forschungszentrum Jülich have found that a high single dose of creatine can temporarily enhance cognitive functions impaired by sleep deprivation, specifically improving processing capacity and short-term memory. The study cautions against excessive creatine intake due to potential health risks, although it suggests future potential for cognitive enhancement with lower doses.
Creatine, a widely used supplement among athletes to enhance physical performance, has been found to also temporarily boost cognitive abilities affected by sleep deprivation. This discovery was made in a scientific study conducted by researchers at Forschungszentrum Jülich, with the results published in the journal Scientific Reports.
EXCLUSIVE: Rumble, a popular video-sharing and cloud service platform, has revealed a number of censorship demands it’s received from the governments of countries that may surprise many.
The major tech company shared the details of those demands with Fox News Digital, as well as CEO Chris Pavlovski’s prepared remarks for his testimony on Capitol Hill this week, which will take place at a House hearing centered on rising censorship and free speech concerns in Brazil.
“Freedom of speech and freedom of expression are the cornerstones of a democratic society,” Pavlovski is expected to tell members of the House Subcommittee on Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations on Tuesday.
SPECIAL REPORT | BIRD AGENCY | As unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) become increasingly critical for modern armed forces, African countries are investing in the local production of military drones.
The latest African drone procurement data shows the continent is recording ‘significant progress’ in developing indigenous drones – potentially sparking an arms race – as countries vie to gain a technological edge over their neighbours.
The data by Military Africa, an online defence industry resource, tracks up to 35 different made-in-Africa drone models – either in operation or beyond the prototype stage.
“The unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been developed across seven African countries by thirteen different companies, showcasing the continent’s growing expertise and innovation in this field,” said Military Africa in the 2024 procurement data report.
The future of cellular data transfer could lie in “curving” light beams midair to deliver 6G wireless networks with blazing-fast speeds — bypassing the need for line of sight between transmitter and receivers.
In a new study published March 30 in the journal Nature’s Communications Engineering, researchers explained how they developed a transmitter that can dynamically adjust the waves needed to support future 6G signals.
The most advanced cellular communications standard is 5G. Expected to be thousands of times faster, 6G will begin rolling out in 2030, according to the trade body GSMA. Unlike 5G, which mostly operates in bands under 6 gigahertz (GHz) in the electromagnetic spectrum, 6G is expected to operate in sub-terahertz (THz) between 100 GHz and 300 GHz, and THz bands — just below infrared. The closer this radiation is to visible light, the more prone the signals are to be blocked by physical objects. A major challenge with high-frequency 5G and future 6G is that signals need a direct line of sight between a transmitter and receiver.
Many political ads running on Facebook in India during its current election season are backedby organizations that hide their identity, according to civil society groups and recent studies, threatening the integrity of a process intended to enforce transparency in a system full of emotional appeals.
The world’s largest election and one of its most expensive, India’s voting season began last month and runs through June 1. Facebook has hundreds of millions of users in the country, which is the social network’s largest market, and is reaping a significant portion of an estimated $16 billion in campaign spending.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Donald Trump’s former campaign manager looked squarely into the camera and promised his viewers they were about to witness a bold new era in politics.
“You’re going to see some of the most amazing new technology in artificial intelligence that’s going to replace polling in the future across the country,” said Brad Parscale in a dimly lit promotional video accentuated by hypnotic beats.
Parscale, the digital campaign operative who helped engineer Trump’s 2016 presidential victory, vows that his new, AI-powered platform will dramatically overhaul not just polling, but campaigning. His AI-powered tools, he has boasted, will outperform big tech companies and usher in a wave of conservative victories worldwide.
It’s not the first time Parscale has proclaimed that new technologies will boost right-wing campaigns. He was the digital guru who teamed up with scandal-plagued Cambridge Analytica and helped propel Trump to the White House eight years ago. In 2020, he had a public blowup then a private falling out with his old boss after the Capitol riot. Now he’s back, playing an under-the-radar role to help Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee, in his race against Democratic President Joe Biden.
NEW DELHI: After numerous setbacks and delays, Boeing is finally ready to send astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) on behalf of Nasa. This marks the inaugural crewed flight of Boeing’s Starliner capsule, with two Nasa pilots on board to evaluate the spacecraft during the test mission and a week-long stay at the space station.
Following the retirement of the space shuttles, Nasa turned to American companies to provide transportation for astronauts.While SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, has completed nine successful crew missions for Nasa since 2020, Boeing has only managed two uncrewed test flights.
“There’s no doubt about that, but we’re here now,” acknowledged Mark Nappi, Boeing’s program manager, expressing his wish that Starliner was further along in its development.
The long-awaited crewed demonstration mission is scheduled for launch on Monday night. If the test flight goes smoothly, Nasa plans to alternate between Boeing and SpaceX for future astronaut transportation to and from the space station.
