Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Have you ever pressed a crosswalk button and wondered if it actually does anything? You might be onto something. Called placebo buttons, controls that don’t do anything exist everywhere. Sometimes it’s because of accidents of history; sometimes they’re installed specifically to trick people into feeling an illusion of control. Either way, they’re hard to notice. Here are a few buttons you press every day that might not actually work. Pedestrian buttons may or may not do anything In New York City, an official told…
Author: Whatfinger Editor
A suicide attacker blew up an explosives-filled vehicle near a railway track as a passenger train traveled through the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta on Sunday, killing at least 23 people and wounding more than 70 others, according to local reports. The banned separatist group known as the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), which seeks independence from Pakistan’s central government, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement. The explosion caused two train cars to derail and catch fire, according to videos shared online. The attack struck an area typically occupied by security forces and it severely damaged nearby buildings. More than…
A Walmart store in Florida, on Aug. 5, 2025. JC Milhet/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty ImagesRetail giants Target and Walmart reported higher sales for the fiscal first quarter this week, but offered a cloudy outlook amid signs of strain in the low-income segment of the consumer market.Target reported $25.4 billion in sales for the first quarter of fiscal 2026, which ended on May 2, up by 6.7 percent from a year earlier. Comparable sales rose 5.6 percent, led by a 4.4 percent rise in traffic and strong growth across all six core merchandise categories.We had a problem loading this article. Please…
[embedded content] For more exclusive interviews & videos like this one, subscribe to The Patriot Perspective YouTube channel. [HERE] The latest episode of The Patriot Perspective turned attention to Cuba, arguing that the communist regime just 90 miles from Florida remains one of the most serious long-term threats in the Western Hemisphere. The episode framed Cuba not as an isolated Cold War relic, but as part of a much larger geopolitical struggle involving China, Russia, Venezuela, and the future of American influence in the region. The discussion made clear that Cuba’s communist system is deeply entrenched, meaning any potential transition would be far more complicated…
“There has been no agreement over Iran’s highly enriched uranium stockpile to be shipped out of the country,” Iranian official tells Reuters. The post Iran Denies Agreement Over Enriched Uranium, Claims ‘New Sovereignty’ Over Hormuz Strait as U.S. Moves to Finalize Deal first appeared on Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion.
Actor Grizz Chapman, best known and widely applauded for his role in the NBC sitcom 30 Rock, has died. He was 52. His cousin, the Harlem Globetrotter Donte Harrison, confirmed Chapman’s death on social media. A cause of was not given but Harrison shared Chapman died in his sleep “after years of fighting illness and dialysis,” the New York times reports. The NYT report notes several acting credits listed to Chapman’s name on IMDb, however his role on 30 Rock as a member of Tracy Morgan’s entourage was arguably the breakout part for the towering actor. Chapman met Morgan while working as a…
ABOARD THE RFA LYME BAY (AP) – Aboard the RFA Lyme Bay docked off the coast of Gibraltar, hundreds of British sailors are waiting to be deployed for a mine-clearing mission to the Strait of Hormuz that is still in doubt. U.S. President Donald Trump has lashed out at allies for not doing more to support the United States’ war effort in Iran, whose chokehold on the strait has crippled international shipping and sent energy prices soaring. In March, Trump told NATO allies to “go get your own oil” and secure the strait themselves. On the southern tip of the…
Sign up to see the future, today Can’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech Imagine this scenario: your algorithm has pulled up a background YouTube video, or maybe a podcast. Unbeknownst to you, hackers have embedded inaudible sounds in it, designed to hijack your smart speaker or phone’s AI assistant — meaning the cybercriminals can now access your private photos, bank accounts, or any other personal information you’ve hooked up to your AI system. It sounds like an also-ran episode of “Black Mirror,” but it’s exactly what researchers have shown is possible in new research being presented…
All the news you may have missed. The post Democrats Are Out of Control Week at Legal Insurrection first appeared on Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion.
Saturday, May 23, brought yet another example of political violence – and, uncoincidentally, reports of mental instability. Around 6 p.m. local time, Nasire Best, a 21-year-old Marylander, opened fire on security checkpoint near the White House and was killed by Secret Service agents. Was this an attempt on the life of President Donald Trump, or was it just an attack on the Secret Service? The young man’s motives aren’t entirely known at this time – but what has been revealed is his history of mental illness and run-ins with the law. What’s interesting about most instances of political violence is…
A border health officer measures a passenger’s temperature at the Bunia airport in Bunia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, on May 21, 2026. Seros Muyisa/AFPThe U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has expanded its 30-day ban on entry to the United States to green card holders over the widening Ebola outbreak in central Africa.The May 22 update, states that any foreign nationals or green card holders who have been in countries experiencing a known or suspected outbreak of Bundibugyo ebolavirus disease—the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Uganda, or South Sudan—at any point in the last 21 days, regardless…
“[T]ens of thousands of people marched through Madrid on Saturday, demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez after a series of corruption scandals.” The post Spain: Tens of Thousands Rally in Anti-Government Protest, Demand an End to ‘Socialist Mafia’ Rule first appeared on Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion.
Sign up to see the future, today Can’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech The Sun has broken a new record for continuous radio wave transmissions, blasting a powerful signal four times longer than any other similar phenomenon ever recorded. Data from the cosmic outburst, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, details the record-breaking event, which lasted from August 21st to September 9th of 2025 — setting a record of 19 full days. To be fair to the Sun, it’s entirely possible — very likely, really — that this has happened before. What makes the event stand…
Bacteriostatic water, or BAC Water, is a type of sterile water that is used in diluting various substances for injection. A significant portion of the approximately six million Americans who take GLP-1s for weight loss need it to reconstitute their medicine, and those who take peptides for other reasons also require this liquid solution. The importance of this substance can’t be overstated. Let’s just say that without it, a whole host of medicines are unusable. This is perhaps why the public was shocked to wake up one day and find that all BAC Water listings on Amazon had been removed.…
At the behest of President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance is now in charge of a whole-of-government operation to do battle with fraudsters who have stolen billions of American taxpayer dollars and sapped programs many downtrodden citizens need. The new effort, the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, has been hard at work already in 2026. Not long after discovering major fraud going down in the state of Minnesota, the task force, working alongside the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), slapped a big “halt” sign on a total of $250 million in Medicaid funding that was…
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who most conservative folks refer to as “Pocahontas,” a nickname bestowed upon her by President Donald Trump as a way to mock her false claim to have Native American heritage, thought she was going to roast then-Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth during his confirmation hearing in January 2025, but the joke ultimately ended up being on her. At one point during the hearing, Warren asked Hegseth if he planned to go into defense work immediately following the end of his tenure serving in President Donald Trump’s cabinet. Clearly, Warren thought she had the former Fox…
An Illinois park executive is getting dragged after she was accused of using a taxpayer-funded credit card to help cover the cost for an $800 helicopter rental that was used for her daughter’s prom photo shoot, in a prime example of corruption within the state’s government. Quintina Brown, who serves as the head of the Markham Park District, located outside Chicago, arranged for the helicopter to land at Roesner Park on May 8, so her daughter Quamyra, 17, could pose for pictures in front of it. The company that owned the helicopter sent an invoice for the service to city…
An employee at a Speedway gas station located in south Minneapolis refused to serve Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, along with several other federal immigration agents, which kicked off a firestorm of controversy surrounding the issue of private businesses having the right to lawfully deny service to law enforcement officers. The incident was captured on video by conservative activist Cam Higby and shows Bovino being followed out of the Speedway by a man who identified himself as the manager of the business. When the manager was asked why he refused to serve the immigration agents, he said, “Because I wanted…
In terribly sad news out of DC, soon-to-be former Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard revealed that her husband is struggling with bone cancer, and so she needs to step away from her position as DNI to make sure he is properly cared for and she spends time with him as he fights the ravages of the diagnosed cancer. Such is what Gabbard announced in a letter that was soon spread around on social media, with the president responding by noting that her service has been much appreciated and she had done a wonderful job, but that he has…
MS Now anchor Katy Tur received massive backlash after seemingly not recognizing one of the most popular, well-known lines from the Declaration of Independence while having a conversation about Speaker of the House Mike Johnson on live television. Tur, 42, questioned if Johnson was elevating religion over the founding document after he made a reference to the idea that Americans are born “with certain unalienable Rights” that come from God, not the government. “They come from you, our Creator, and Heavenly Father,” the speaker said to a crowd of people at a government-supported evangelical prayer event held in the nation’s…
Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) has introduced a new piece of legislation that prohibits foreign adversaries from buying homes in the United States. The bill would place a ban on foreign adversaries, which is defined as nationals from foreign countries of concern, from buying American homes. Roy’s bill also requires divestment within two years of the law’s adoption, which means that all housing stock needs to be sold to a U.S. citizen. “American homes belong to American families — not the Chinese Communist Party, foreign Islamists, or our geopolitical foes,” Roy went on to tell the Daily Caller. “While Americans struggle…
In a big blow to Rick Jackson, a billionaire businessman running in Georgia’s gubernatorial election, and trying to win the Republican nomination in that race, he was made to admit in a public setting that he has been involved in donating to Democratic causes and siding with RINO Liz Cheney, the former congresswoman from Wyoming known for attacking Trump. Speaking about those matters, he began by admitting that he donated to a Political Action Committee (PAC) affiliated with Rep. Liz Cheney after she started her witch hunts against President Trump. He said, “The, it is true, slightly true, that I…
An Ebola vaccine based on the same technology that delivered the AstraZeneca Covid-19 jab is being urgently developed by British scientists to help contain the deadly sub-strain enveloping the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and its neighbors. The Daily Telegraph reports the new vaccine is being developed by the Oxford Vaccine Group (OVG) using the platform deployed in 2020 as a baseline start. The vax could be ready for clinical trials within two to three months, its makers say, then rushed into action once approved against the outbreak which has resulted in more than 204 suspected deaths and 870 suspected cases. The…
Is the dance between America and Iran interminable? Is the Trump administration falling into a forever fruitless negotiations trap with a maniacal regime in Tehran that has no intention of ever achieving closure in its talks with the US? President Donald Trump announced Saturday that Iran and the US were close – that the deal was mostly negotiated – but Iran states otherwise. Tehran sent a proposal for peace, but is making demands as if it had an effective army, navy, or air force. It does not. So, what are the stumbling blocks to a negotiated closure on a peace…
Speaking to Politico in an interview, finally outgoing RINO Senator Thom Tillis revealed explained how he has always detested the MAGA movement and worked to undermine it, leading to angry commenters sounding off on the idea that Tillis was ever in a position of power or prominence in Republican politics, and noting that Trump has always been right about him. As background, Sen. Tillis, a longtime RINO US Senator for North Carolina, is finally going to be out of the Senate after this term. He has long been detested by MAGA for refusing to back the president’s agenda, and indeed…
Thousands of Cuban Americans showed up for a rally to support U.S. intervention in Cuba’s communist government. Attendees held a sign saying “Cuba Next” in Hialeah, Fla., on March 25, 2026. Troy Myers/The Epoch TimesFormer Cuban leader Raúl Castro is facing murder charges from a U.S. indictment announced earlier this week, and Cuban Americans have said it’s more than just a symbolic gesture—it’s a promise that the 94-year-old will soon be facing justice.Sources told The Epoch Times that given the U.S. actions against Venezuela, with the capture of leader Nicolás Maduro in Caracas, and the decapitation of the Iranian regime,…
Sign up to see the future, today Can’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech If you needed any more evidence that Americans have lost any semblance of a shared reality, just take a peek at the average Fox News broadcast. During an appearance on Fox to discuss the US-Iran war, retired US Central Command (Centcom) deputy commander Robert Harward insisted that Donald Trump holds all the cards as the two sides negotiate for an end to hostilities. Outlandish as that idea might be — the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps currently has the world oil economy in a…
Nearly 400 illegal boat migrants reached UK shores this week amid reports that trained militants from the Middle East are gathering on the coastline of Belgium in a bid to break into Britain. Some 394 illegals successfully crossed the English Channel from Dunkirk in France on Friday, the Daily Mail reported. This marked the first crossings in nearly two weeks, a lull largely due to inclement weather. While nearly 8,000 boat migrants have made the often perilous journey since the start of the year, there has been a recorded decline of 44 per cent since last year, and 23 per cent over…
For days now, heartlanders young and old have quietly lined the streets, adorned businesses, decorated fence posts, and meticulously posted Old Glory on soldiers’ graves to help commemorate Memorial Day. Patriotism and love of country have been instilled in the locals dating back generations and handed down to kids today. We cherish the sacrifice others have made. But in the back corners of the back forty, and even as the last flag was planted, America said goodbye to Tulsi Gabbard, Stephen Colbert, Kyle Busch, and Schlitz. Some forever, others for a moment in time. Gabbard Does the Honorable Thing Director…
A housing complex in San Diego, Calif., on Dec. 10, 2024. John Fredricks/The Epoch TimesResidents of San Diego will decide on June 2 whether to approve or reject the proposed Empty Homes Tax in a Municipal Special Election ballot. If passed, the tax would go into effect on Jan. 1, 2027. We had a problem loading this article. Please enable javascript or use a different browser. If the issue persists, please visit our help center.
(Headline USA) President Donald Trump said Saturday that a deal with Iran on the war, including opening the Strait of Hormuz, has been “largely negotiated” after calls with Israel and other allies in the region.“Final aspects and details of the Deal are currently being discussed, and will be announced shortly,” Trump said on social media, with no details. He said he had spoken with leaders from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain, and separately with Israel. He described it as a “Memorandum of Understanding pertaining to PEACE” that still must be finalized by…
Corey Smith is a recovering bartender, and a freelance editor. He specializes in memoirs and novels but has a smorgasbord of experience in non-fiction works. In a former life, he ghostwrote several romance novels, which he denies. A cabin far away from sirens and motorcycles would be his ideal home. Instead, he lives near a construction site in New Hampshire.
On this edition of Liberty Nation Radio, we tackle the political comedy of Kamala Harris’ “Brainstorm of No Bad Ideas,” the redistricting frenzy, and OPEC’s coming demise. <iframe title=”Embed Player” src=”https://play.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/41401895/height/128/theme/modern/size/standard/thumbnail/yes/custom-color/0b0c0b/time-start/00:00:00/playlist-height/200/direction/backward/download/yes/font-color/df2c2c” height=”128″ width=”100%” scrolling=”no” allowfullscreen=”” webkitallowfullscreen=”true” mozallowfullscreen=”true” oallowfullscreen=”true” msallowfullscreen=”true” style=”border-width: medium; border-style: none; border-color: currentcolor; border-image: initial;”></iframe>
Bob Parant left his home on Long Island for the first time when he enrolled in college. Always interested in sports, he decided to try out for the football team in his sophomore year. One day, Parant got a message to report to the athletic office.We had a problem loading this article. Please enable javascript or use a different browser. If the issue persists, please visit our help center.
Iran has reportedly agreed in principle to surrender its stockpile of highly enriched uranium as part of the emerging U.S.-brokered agreement President Donald Trump said Saturday, confirming the now “largely negotiated” agreement could be announced as early as Sunday. In a report published late Saturday evening, the New York Times cited two U.S. officials as saying Tehran committed in broad terms to surrendering the near-weapons-grade uranium stockpile — one of the central demands of the Trump administration’s campaign against the Iranian regime and a potentially significant breakthrough after Iranian officials had consistently sought to separate the uranium issue from the…
(Headline USA) Authorities braced for the possibility that a damaged chemical tank in Southern California could leak or explode as an evacuation order continued into the Memorial Day weekend for 40,000 residents with no timeline on when they can return.No injuries were reported after the pressurized tank overheated Thursday and began venting vapors at a company site in Garden Grove, about 40 miles (60 kilometers) south of downtown Los Angeles, according to the Orange County Fire Authority. But officials said the valves on the tank are broken or “gummed up,” which prevented crews from removing the chemical or relieving the…
(José Niño, Headline USA) Tulsi Gabbard stepped down as Director of National Intelligence on Friday, with the resignation effective June 30, publicly attributing her exit to her husband’s cancer battle. However, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters that the White House had forced her out following months of mounting dissatisfaction.“A source familiar with the matter said that Gabbard had been forced out by the White House,” Reuters reported. Gabbard’s chief of staff Alexa Henning disputed this account directly, posting on X: “This is false. Her husband, who is an absolutely incredible human being, has been diagnosed with a…
A road trip turned into a nightmare for a professional baseball team after its charter bus was destroyed in an early morning fire outside a Canadian stadium. According to the New York Post, authorities in Winnipeg said a 15-year-old girl has been charged after the Kane County Cougars’ team bus was allegedly set on fire while players were asleep at a nearby hotel. The blaze erupted around 1:50 a.m. near Blue Cross Park, home of the Winnipeg Goldeyes, where the Cougars had parked the bus during their trip to Canada. When firefighters arrived, the vehicle was already completely engulfed in…
An alleged terror operative tied to Iran-backed groups reportedly plotted to assassinate Ivanka Trump in retaliation for the U.S. killing of Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani. Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, a 32-year-old Iraqi national recently arrested in Turkey, allegedly vowed to kill the president’s daughter and gathered information about her Florida home, according to sources cited by the New York Post. “After Qasem was killed, he [Al-Saadi] went around telling people ‘we need to kill Ivanka to burn down the house of Trump the way he burned down our house,’” former Iraqi embassy official Entifadh Qanbar told the outlet.…
I am out on a limb. The clock is ticking. On Wednesday, I wrote in my new Substack column that I thought it unlikely that “the ‘negotiations’ or (to describe what is happening more accurately) the grandstanding and playing for time by Iran will not result in an affidavit of surrender that is acceptable to President Trump.” If that is the case, and given that the U.S. Senate is making noises about enacting a War Powers resolution aimed at “forcing Donald Trump to end the war in Iran unless he receives congressional authorization to continue it,” I suspect that hostilities will resume quite soon. Today is Wednesday.…
Donald Trump has indicated a growing desire to challenge China’s expanding influence across the developing world, particularly in regions such as Africa and the Caribbean, where Beijing has entrenched itself through infrastructure, finance, and political access. Roads, ports, energy projects, and telecommunications networks increasingly bear the imprint of Chinese capital and Chinese priorities. Trump’s instinctive response is competitive. If China is gaining ground, the United States should contest it. Yet this ambition confronts a structural problem. China’s advantage in the developing world does not merely arise from money or speed but from the absence of a theoretical culture that constrains…
Americans often imagine Germany as the model liberal democracy: institutional, consensus-oriented, post-national, and morally disciplined by the catastrophes of the twentieth century. Yet Germany also offers a warning—and perhaps a fruitful lesson—for the United States. Modern democracies increasingly preserve the appearance of electoral competition while building vast state-supported ideological infrastructures that quietly entrench the political establishment and marginalize populist opposition. In Germany, this process is simply more visible than it is in America. The country operates one of the largest systems of taxpayer-funded ideological patronage in the Western world. Its major political parties are surrounded by sprawling state-funded foundations—officially independent,…
America’s history of intervention in Cuban internal affairs goes back to 1899 and the Spanish-American War. President William McKinley insisted on going to war in Cuba in order to fight the “barbarities” and cruelty of the Spanish imperial government against the Cuban people. That war was America’s first true moral crusade abroad. It set off more than a century of global adventurism by the American regime. These wars for democracy have been enormously expensive in both blood and treasure. Instead of defending the persons and property of the American people, our progressive government has adopted a program of global management…
Iran has reportedly agreed to hand over its stockpile of highly enriched uranium as part of the agreement announced Saturday by President Donald Trump. According to The New York Times, citing two U.S. officials, Tehran signed off on a statement committing to give up the uranium reserve material believed to be capable of producing as many as 11 nuclear weapons. The uranium issue had become one of the biggest obstacles in negotiations between the United States and Iran. Trump has previously referred to the material as “nuclear dust,” while U.S. officials reportedly pushed Iran to fully surrender the stockpile before…
Time magazine put Democrat Senate candidate Graham Platner – the self-proclaimed communist with the Nazi tattoo – on the cover and sold him as a solution for Democrats. He’s a “party crasher” who’s “scandal-plagued,” but he’s a “star.” They summed up in tweet: “Even in this antiestablishment political moment, Graham Platner’s rise has been remarkable. His candidacy is forcing the party to come to terms with what it’s willing to risk in exchange for a fighter.” TIME’s new cover: Even in this antiestablishment political moment, Graham Platner’s rise has been remarkable. His candidacy is forcing the party to come to terms…
The New Jersey man accused of killing and mutilating his younger brother — and later ruled not guilty by reason of insanity — has died behind bars in what authorities believe was an apparent suicide. According to the New York Post, Matthew Hertgen was found dead on May 8 inside his cell at Mercer County Jail, the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office announced. Officials have not publicly released the official cause of death. Hertgen had previously attempted suicide shortly after his February 2025 arrest, when authorities said he tried to hang himself inside the jail. The shocking case drew national attention…
On paper, we have all sorts of sanctions on enemy nations like Cuba, North Korea or Iran, in practice there’s a revolving door of influencers, celebrities and media types who prop them up. The Cuba situation is especially egregious with half of Hollywood having sat down to chats with Castro and the current mayor of LA, among many other elected officials and activists, having gone to Cuba with Marxist front groups. After the latest round of this stuff, the Trump administration is signaling that there may be consequences. Federal officials have served subpoenas to Marxist political influencer Hasan Piker and…
Panic erupted outside the White House Saturday evening when a gunman who previously claimed to be Jesus Christ, armed with a revolver, opened fire near a security checkpoint before Secret Service officers shot him dead. The suspect was identified as 21-year-old Nasire Best, who authorities said had a history of troubling behavior around the White House complex. Sources told the New York Post that Best began acting erratically near 17th Street Northwest shortly before the shooting around 6:10 p.m. Witnesses said he had been pacing back and forth outside the White House grounds before suddenly pulling out a handgun and…
Let’s meet up again in 2031.May 24, 2026 by Daniel Greenfield Leave a Comment There’s a reason we have a proverb about appointing foxes to watch henhouses, but at the UN that would just mean appointing the fox as vice president of the conference on henhouse security. In that spirit, Iran was appointed as a Vice-President of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Review Conference. In entirely unexpected news, that conference failed and failed badly. Talks at the United Nations aimed at reaffirming global commitments to nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament ended without agreement on Friday after four weeks of negotiations, dealing another setback…
The Katie Wilson era is off to a good start in Seattle where crime has gotten so bad that instead of the BLMers and Marxist radicals who elected her setting up their own no-go zones, neighborhoods afraid of crime are going their own way. One week ago, bullets blasted through the wall of a Greenwood neighborhood home and passed within inches of a window where a six-week-old baby boy was sleeping in his bassinet. Saturday morning, roughly 40 shell casings were on the pavement near Aurora Avenue N. and N. 98th Street in Seattle after another shootout near the Burgermaster.…