The Democrat-controlled Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to ban the use of masks by federal officials, and the Justice Dept. responded immediately with a fiery statement.All of the Democrats on the board voted 4-0 in favor of the ordinance on Tuesday, with the lone Republican member abstaining. A second vote on Dec. 9 is needed to pass it. If that happens, law enforcement officers will be required to wear visible identification and agency affiliation.'We will not expose our brave men and women to personal attacks by allowing agitators to dox them and their families through facial recognition tools.'Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, responded immediately to the vote."Let me be very clear: the county has no jurisdiction over federal agents, and we will not comply with any state or local laws restricting federal law enforcement," he posted in a statement on social media."Our agents are under unprecedented assault in Los Angeles, largely due to reckless narratives and rhetoric advanced by the media and local politicians," he added. "We will not expose our brave men and women to personal attacks by allowing agitators to dox them and their families through facial recognition tools."In a statement about the vote, Supervisor Janice Hahn accused ICE of behaving like an "authoritarian secret police" force."This is how authoritarian secret police behaves — not legitimate law enforcement in a democracy," Hahn said."ICE agents are violating our residents' rights every day they are on our streets. These agents hide their faces. They refuse to wear badges," she continued. "They pull people into unmarked vans at gunpoint and wonder why people resist arrest. We are declaring in no uncertain terms that in L.A. County, police do not hide their faces. That is our expectation, and this ordinance will now make it our law."RELATED: DHS slams Newsom over illegal alien accused in death of 11-year-old boy on Thanksgiving If approved in the second vote, the mask ban will go into effect 30 days after that vote.Hahn added that the board expects the Trump administration to challenge the ban in court, and it is prepared to take on the court battle.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

The left is attempting to paint Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as a war criminal — and it’s backfiring miserably.Hegseth is being accused of ordering a second strike on 11 Tren de Aragua terrorists who were running a drug-trafficking boat, while the left is attempting to spin it into an evil, unthinkable act.“Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill them all,” a Washington Post headline reads. The subhead follows, “As two men clung to a stricken, burning ship targeted by SEAL Team 6, the Joint Special Operations commander followed the defense secretary’s order to leave no survivors.”“Am I supposed to feel bad for the drug runners? Am I supposed to feel bad for the narco-terrorists? I don’t feel bad for the narco-terrorists. Who I feel bad for are all of the families in this country who had to bury their loved ones due to the importation of these drugs from these narco-terrorists,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales comments.“So, I don’t know, Washington Post, I don’t really feel bad for these two men clinging to a stricken burning ship targeted by SEAL Team 6,” she continues.Now, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) is claiming that what Hegseth allegedly did crossed a line that he should “never step over.”“If what has been reported is accurate, I’ve got serious concerns about anybody in that chain of command stepping over a line that they should never step over,” Kelly said in a segment on CNN.“This was the same guy who was just, like, last week telling the military to basically commit treason, telling the military to be insubordinate when it comes to the commander in chief and when it comes to orders that they are being given. So, it’s really, really rich,” Gonzales says.But Kelly isn’t the only one who went after Hegseth, with Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) telling ABC, “It’s very possible there was a war crime committed.”“Of course, for it to be a war crime, you have to accept the Trump administration’s whole construct here, which is, we’re in armed conflict at war with this particular, with the drug gangs. Of course, they’ve never presented the public with the information they’ve got here. But it could be worse than that,” Van Hollen said.“If that theory is wrong, then it’s plain murder. But even if you accept their legal theory, that it is a war crime. And so, I do believe that the secretary of defense should be held accountable for giving those kinds of orders,” he added.“You’re going to be shocked to hear,” Gonzales comments, “that it turns out, all of this was total bulls**t because Pete Hegseth, according to the White House, was not even in charge when the second strike was ordered.”“Secretary Hegseth authorized Admiral Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes. Admiral Bradley worked well within his authority and the law, directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat to the United States of America was eliminated,” she adds.Want more from Sara Gonzales?To enjoy more of Sara's no-holds-barred takes on news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

Halil İbrahim Sincar/AAThe mosaic was found while workers were cleaning and restoring a disused mill. A 1,500-year-old mosaic was recently discovered beneath the floor of an historic mill in southeastern Turkey. This stunning find is the first mosaic to be uncovered in the country’s Midyat–Nusaybin corridor. The mill sits on private land in the Çağ Çağ Stream Valley, an area that is no stranger to ancient forts and caravanserais. What began as a project to clean and restore the abandoned mill swiftly turned into an archaeological excavation. After workers uncovered the mosaic under the floor of the old mill, the owners notified the Mardin Museum, which quickly launched an official salvage excavation. This process aims to document and preserve archaeological remains that are discovered during modern construction projects. The Stunning Byzantine Mosaic Found Under An Old Mill In Turkey’s Midyat District Halil İbrahim Sincar/AAArchaeologists have uncovered about 430 square feet of the mosaic so far. According to Türkiye Today, the archaeological team has found about 430 square feet of the patterned tile floor, which spans across two areas inside the historic mill. Archaeologists believe the remains may extend to other nearby parcels of the site, indicating that the mosaic was once part of a larger complex. The mosaic primarily features geometric motifs, including squares, rectangles, circles and triangles. The design is tied together through wave, cross, and infinity patterns in the main panels, which are connected with knot-shaped medallions. The excavation team also uncovered a clue as to who may have owned or commissioned the 1,500-year-old mosaic: In one section, the floor tiles spelled out “Tittos Domestikos.” “Tittos appears to be a personal name, while Domestikos is known in Byzantine sources as a military or clerical title,” Idris Akgül, the leader of the excavation, told Anatolian Archaeology. “This suggests the building may have belonged to a local administrator or official.” Now, the mosaic could help researchers uncover more of the building’s history. It will surely also provide crucial information concerning the history of the region, as it is one of the first archaeological sites to be directly investigated in its immediate area. Planned Future Tourism Of The Mosaic And The Mill In Beyazsu Halil İbrahim Sincar/AAThe landowners of the mill are hoping to preserve the mosaic and turn the site into a tourist attraction. Archaeologists will know more about the site once conservation of the mosaic is complete and more in-depth study of the remains can commence. From there, the owners of the land on which the mill sits are looking forward to eventually opening the site to the public. Before the mosaic was discovered, the landowners had already begun to clean up the disused mill because they were interested in restoring this 19th-century site for tourism purposes. After workers first uncovered the history sitting right beneath the mill’s floor, they stopped their efforts immediately in order to prevent any potential damage to this important find. “We expected a 100- or 150-year-old structure, but the ground revealed something far older — nearly 1,500 years. Such heritage deserves to be protected and shared with the public,” property owner Reşit Coşkun told Anatolian Archaeology. Now, Coşkun wants to work with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in order to convert the mill and the 1,500-year-old mosaic beneath it into a tourism site for visitors from far and wide. After reading about the 1,500-year-old mosaic found beneath a mill floor in Turkey, check out the story of a Turkish farmer who stumbled upon a Roman mosaic while planting trees. Then, learn about the 2,700-year-old tomb discovered in Turkey that may belong to a member of King Midas’ family. The post Byzantine Mosaic Dating Back 1,500 Years Found By Accident Underneath An Abandoned Mill In Turkey appeared first on All That's Interesting.

Antiquity (2025)Some of the shells that were seemingly modified so that they could produce sound. It’s said that when you hold a conch shell to your ear, you can hear the roar of the ocean. Now, researchers have proposed that Neolithic people in Spain used conchs to hear each other — by modifying the shells to make them into effective communication devices. By studying the shells and testing their capability as sound-producing instruments, the researchers believe they’ve proven that the conchs were once used to communicate. Such a practice indeed existed in prehistoric times, and it continued into the modern era. The Conch Shells ‘Trumpets’ Used By Neolithic People In Modern-Day Spain According to a new study in Antiquity, the Neolithic shells were collected from an area near Spain’s Llobregat River and date back to between the late fifth and early fourth millennia B.C.E. Antiquity (2025)One of the 12 conch shells that were discovered at Neolithic sites in Spain. “[I]t was known that several Charonia lampas shells had been discovered in a relatively small area of Catalonia, specifically in the lower reaches of the Llobregat River and in the pre-coastal depression of the Penedès region, east of the city of Barcelona,” study co-author Margarita Díaz-Andreu explained in a University of Barcelona statement. She added: “The apex [the shell’s sharp tip] had been removed, leading some researchers to suggest that they may have been used as musical instruments.” What’s more, the shells had seemingly been collected after the sea snails inside them died, suggesting that Neolithic people had not sought them out as a food source. Díaz-Andreu and her co-author, Miquel López Garcia — a doctoral student at the University of Barcelona and a trumpet player — set out to explore if they had been used to make sounds. To do so, they “played” the shells. “We had the extraordinary opportunity to carefully play the original instruments,” the researchers explained in their study, “under the strict supervision of museum curators.” Margarita Díaz-Andreu and Miquel López-GarciaMiquel López-Garcia playing one of the shell “trumpets.” They found that the shells could indeed produce sounds when “played.” What’s more, these sounds could be modulated, raising the question of how prehistoric people might have used them. While Neolithic residents of Catalonia may have used the shells as communication devices, it’s also possible that they were used to make music. “Conch shells are capable of producing high-intensity sounds and would have been very effective for long-distance communication,” López-Garcia explained. “However, they are also capable of producing melodies by modulating the tone, so we cannot rule out the possibility that these shells were also used as musical instruments for expressive purposes.” The Role Of Conch Shell Trumpets In The Prehistoric World How did prehistoric people use conch shells? Though their exact purpose may remain a mystery, researchers have some ideas about how they were used to communicate. Such shells have been found at Neolithic sites separated by miles, suggesting that shell trumpets “may have played an important role in communication and coordination within and between communities.” They also possibly helped support coordination when it came to working in nearby mines, “where the valuable mineral variscite was extracted for the production of highly traded prestige items such as beads and pendants.” University of BarcelonaResearchers examining one of the conch shells. Indeed, not only have modified conchs from the late fifth and early fourth millennia B.C.E. been found across Catalonia, but such shells were also used to produce sound even into the modern era. While more study of shells in the region is needed, the researchers believe that they have shed some light on the use of conch shells by Neolithic people, who may have used them for communication and music. “Our study reveals that Neolithic communities used seashells not only as musical instruments, but also as powerful communication tools,” they stated, “which changes our understanding of sound, space and social relations in early prehistoric communities.” After reading about the Neolithic conch shells that may have been used as communication devices, discover the history of Tyrian purple, the dye made from sea snails that was sought after by elites in antiquity. Or, learn the sad story of Ming the Clam, the 500-year-old mollusk that was the oldest-recorded animal on earth before scientists accidentally killed it. The post These Trumpet-Like Conch Shells Found In Spain May Have Been Used For Communication 6,000 Years Ago appeared first on All That's Interesting.

Coup Spew: Mark Warner and Eric Swalwell Are Hoping the U.S. Military Will Rescue America From Trump

Book About Abortion Aimed Toward Five-Year-Olds Presents It as a 'Uniquely Human Superpower'

New Poll on Charlie Kirk's Alleged Assassin Confirms You Don't Despise the Media Enough

WA Democrat Rep Wants New Law to Tie ICE's Hands, Force Americans to Pay Illegal Aliens' Legal Bills

Watch: Trump Signing Car Industry EO, Which Seeks to End 'Burdensome' Green Energy Regulations

A veteran Russian cosmonaut was removed from an upcoming NASA-led SpaceX mission to the International Space Station after allegations he violated U.S. export-control rules by photographing sensitive materials at a California facility.