Several Republican senators are pressing the IRS to investigate nonprofit organizations that have backed pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses, reported The Hill.

Tonight and the rest of the weekend could be your best chance ever to see the aurora. The Sun has been extremely active lately as it heads towards solar maximum. A giant Earth-facing sunspot group named AR3664 has been visible, and according to Spaceweather.com, the first of an unbelievable SIX coronal mass ejections were hurled our way from that active region, and is now hitting our planet’s magnetic field. Solar experts predict that people in the US as far south as Alabama and Northern California could be treated to seeing the northern lights during this weekend. For those of you in northern Europe, you could also be in for some aurora excitement. Check the Space Weather Prediction Center’s 30-minute Aurora Forecast for the latest information. If the weather conditions are right in your area, you might hit the aurora jackpot.  See a map with predictions, below. A map from the Space Weather Prediction Center shows the aurora forecast for the U.S. on May 11, 2024. Credit: Space Weather Prediction Center “If you happen to be in an area where it’s dark and cloud free and relatively unpolluted by light, you may get to see a fairly impressive aurora display, and that’s really the gift from space weather, is the aurora,” said Rob Steenburgh, from NOAA’s (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC), during a briefing on Friday. A map from the Space Weather Prediction Center shows the aurora forecast for the northern hemisphere on May 10, 2024. Credit: Space Weather Prediction Center According to SWPC, the impact from the geomagnetic storm reached Earth-based magnetometers on May 10th at 1645 UT. More CMEs are following close behind and their arrival could extend the storm into the weekend. While these solar storms could provide stunning views of auroras, there is also the potential for disruption to communications systems, power grids and satellite operations. The Sun is super active right now! ?? ? ? The video below shows a series of flares that erupted over the past seven days… not counting another X-class flare that happened this morning! pic.twitter.com/O5jwUBmMDT— NASA Sun & Space (@NASASun) May 10, 2024 As we reported earlier this week, the Sun released three X-class solar flares — the strongest class of flares — in short succession. Solar flares are explosions on the Sun that release powerful bursts of energy and radiation coming from the magnetic energy associated with the sunspots. The more sunspots, the greater potential for flares. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured these images of the solar flares — as seen in the bright flashes in the upper right — on May 5 and May 6, 2024. The image shows a subset of extreme ultraviolet light that highlights the extremely hot material in flares and which is colorized in teal. Credit: NASA/SDO The sunspot group AR3664 is so large, it is visible to the naked eye — but you MUST be wearing special eye-wear (got any of your eclipse glasses left from April 8?) or use special solar filters for telescopes or binoculars. AR3664 is enormous, about 10 times the size of Earth. How to see the Northern Lights The aurora is an incredible sight. Your best shot to see it is to be in a dark area. “Get away from city lights into a dark, rural surrounding and look north,” said the National Weather Service in St. Louis, Missouri on X (Twitter). “Aside from some clouds associated with a passing front, much of the time looks mostly clear.” Check the weather forecast in your region for cloud cover. But if you don’t have any luck tonight, check again Saturday or Sunday night. With multiple CMEs, the storm was expected to last through the weekend. Good luck! The post If You’ve Never Seen An Aurora Before, This Might Be Your Chance! appeared first on Universe Today.

Earlier warnings, better treatments.

Just a few weeks ago, Israel, under extraordinary international pressure to respond to warnings of imminent famine in the Gaza Strip, announced new steps to increase humanitarian aid. But after an Israeli military incursion into the southern city of Rafah this week, the flow of aid has come to a near-total stop, first closed off by Israel and then further restricted, officials say, by Egypt. Aid officials warned that essentials like food and medicine were running dangerously low,...

Democrats in Congress are attempting to flip the script on border security, going on offense to try to blunt Republican attacks on a central 2024 election issue. Why it matters: The strategy shift reflects growing public hawkishness on the issue even among Democratic voters. "I am personally encouraged, as someone who has been talking about immigration for two election cycles," Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-Mich.), a former immigration lawyer, told Axios. "This is an area that Democrats...

In a turn that is oh-so-meta, a brand new hush money deal is now at the center of attention in Donald Trump’s ongoing hush money trial: $750,000 that prosecutors say the business mogul is dangling above Allen Weisselberg’s head to keep him testifying against his former boss. For the first time on Friday, prosecutors disclosed the strict terms of a severance agreement that the Trump Organization used to promise more than $1 million to its outgoing chief financial officer—as long as he kept...

The wealth of young Americans has grown rapidly after years of stagnation, thanks to the strong recovery of the U.S. economy. Data compiled by the Center for American Progress (CAP) has found that Americans aged under 40 are outpacing other age groups when it comes to accumulated wealth, employment rates and wage growth following the coronavirus pandemic. In four years, the average wealth of households under this age has grown by almost 50 percent since 2019. Compiling data from the...

The US government says Israel may have breached humanitarian law in Gaza using American weapons. In a delayed report, the state department says it is "reasonable to assess" that US-supplied arms have been used in ways "inconsistent" with Israel's obligations. But it says Israel has had to confront an "extraordinary military challenge" fighting Hamas in Gaza. The report, ordered by the White House, was submitted to Congress on Friday. While the report was a clear rebuke of some...