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BREAKING: Gershkovich, Whelan To Leave Russia in Multi-Country Swap; UPDATE: What About Fogel?

Men Are Beating Up Women at Olympics, and They Call it Sports

Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is a spiral galaxy. Its main components are a bulge at the center, a thin disk and a thick disk where the spiral arms are located, and a halo. The thin disk is believed to be the youngest component of the galaxy. So imagine how surprised astronomers were when they found some stars in it almost as old as the universe.The thin disk is where the Solar System is. The Sun is middle-aged, being around 5 billion years old, and the disk was believed to have started forming between 8 and 10 billion years ago. Still, there are uncertainties, so astronomers looked for old stars. At the beginning of the universe, only hydrogen, helium, and a dash of lithium were available. Ancient stars tend to have less “pollution” from heavier elements such as oxygen, carbon, or iron.So researchers set out to build an age census of stars in the thin disk within 3,200 light-years from the Sun. They found a surprising number of stars which are very old. Most of these ancient stars are over 10 billion years old. A few are over 13, billion years old. They formed when the universe was several hundred million years old."These ancient stars in the disk suggest that the formation of the Milky Way's thin disk began much earlier than previously believed, by about 4–5 billion years," lead author Samir Nepal from the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam said in a statement.The work suggests two things. First, the thin disk of a galaxy can form pretty quickly. This matches observations of ancient galaxies from JWST and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA). The Milky Way is now in line with the expectations from those distant observations.The second finding is that the Milky Way had to experience some pretty intense star-formation episodes. The massive stars from these episodes that went supernova provided the enrichment in heavy elements seen throughout the disk."Our study suggests that the thin disk of the Milky Way may have formed much earlier than we had thought, and that its formation is strongly related to the early chemical enrichment of the innermost regions of our galaxy," explained co-author Dr Cristina Chiappini. "The combination of data from different sources and the application of advanced machine learning techniques have enabled us to increase the number of stars with high quality stellar parameters, a key step to lead our team to these new insights."The data used in this study comes from the European Space Agency mission Gaia. The spacecraft continues to build the most precise map of the Milky Way galaxy, providing precise measurements on the position, motion, and properties of billions of stars.A paper discussing these results is accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

On Wednesday, ABC’s The View discussed the “very dark vision” Republicans have for America and described traditional values as “ominous.” Goldberg ended with what she thought was part of the “greatness of the U.S.” Sunny Hostin began the segment by listing the GOPS “very dark vision” of America, via Project 2024, including claims such as “getting rid of education, the Department of Education, getting rid of your overtime pay, making seniors pay more money for prescriptions. I mean the list goes on and on and on.”     Hostin went on to read the foreword of Republican Senator J.D. Vance’s (OH) Book: “we are now all realizing that it's time to circle the wagons and load the muskets in the fights that lay ahead, these ideas are an essential weapon.” Sarah Haines quickly asked: “Does he still have a musket?” But to Haines, the “scariest thing” was when Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said “our collective efforts to build personal apparatus for policy makers of all levels, federal, state, and local will continue.” Haines’ word of advice was to “keep your eyes open because they're trying to say don't look over there while we all know what they're talking about.” Something else that “haunted” Haines was a quote from Vance’s book where he stated that “cultural norms and attitudes matter.” To Haines, this was referring to “going back to the good old days.” She noted that Vance encouraged people to not “lose sight of those traditional values” which she found “a little ominous.” The hosts then went on a quick rant concerning “the good old days”: JOY BEHAR: The good old days were hideous, let's face it. HAINES: Yeah for a lot of people. GOLDBERG: For a lot of people yeah. HAINES: Yeah for a lot of people they were awful. GOLDBERG: For women they were not great. BEHAR: For women for nonwhite people, for immigrants. While they hinted that Vance’s comments had racial undertones, it seemed as though no one remembered that Vance’s wife is Indian-American and they had biracial kids. Regardless, Whoopi Goldberg weighed in with what she thought was part of the “greatness” of the U.S.: Putting a country together like this country where you have said to everyone, we want to hear what everyone has to say. We've lost sight of the fact that part of the greatness of the U.S. is the rough and tumble. You know, you and I have to figure out a way to be here together. Goldberg concluded that “Regardless of what I look like, what I think, you have to live with me like I got to live with you like we have to keep reminding people.” But she wanted to make sure that all “women know what’s going on” because “we need the men to recognize that the women are on top of their stuff. We're trying to help y'all.” Click "Expand" to view the transcript: ABC The View 7/31/2024 11:17:00 – 11:20:25 SUNNY HOSTIN: I think what's -- what’s so funny about it is that the hubris with which the current Republican nominee, Donald Trump, had going into this race against Joe Biden and then just picking J.D. Vance which obviously was a poor choice, and thinking he could get away with the American people not knowing about their plans for getting rid of education, the Department of Education, getting rid of your overtime pay, making seniors pay more money for prescriptions, I mean the list goes on and on and on. It's a very dark vision of America and they're trying now to say, we didn't have anything to do with it. Twenty-two people in his administration are part of it. WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Do you have the names? Do you have some of the names? HOSTIN: I don't have some of the names but what I do have -- SARAH HAINES: It's a long list. We don't have time. SUNNY HOSTIN: But what I do have and I'd like to read very briefly is J.D. Vance's foreword. He writes, “we are now all realizing that it's time to circle the wagons and load the muskets in the fights that lay ahead, these ideas are an essential weapon.” HAINES: Does he still have a musket? HOSTIN: That's what he wrote. GOLDBERG: That's what's scaring her. HOSTIN: Oh I’m sorry I misspoke. It's 140 people from his administration. I apologize. 140 part of Project 2025. HAINES: Well I think the scariest thing is Sunny you always talk about the long game of Republicans have historically done very well at laying the groundwork in local government. One thing that the Heritage Foundation president said after this stepping down of the 2025 person is “our collective efforts to build personal apparatus for policy makers of all levels, federal, state, and local will continue.” So I think the big thing is keep your eyes open because they're trying to say don't look over there while we all know what they're talking about. A lot of what they already want was implemented in Trump's first – think. GOLDBERG: Yes. HAINES: And there’s something that also haunted me in the book, a quote where he -- in J.D. Vance's foreword from the book that Sunny just referenced, he says that “cultural norms and attitudes matter.” Okay. Normal and cultural norms have been wrong a lot in this country and as he said it, it really was saying what we always talk about, going back to the good old days. He's kind of referencing that don't lose sight of those traditional values, he keeps saying, so that was a little ominous as well beyond the musket reference which I just didn't realize that was still a thing. HOSTIN: It's a thing for him. JOY BEHAR: The good old days were hideous, let's face it. HAINES: Yeah for a lot of people. GOLDBERG: For a lot of people yeah. HAINES: Yeah for a lot of people they were awful. GOLDBERG: For women they were not great. BEHAR: For women for nonwhite people, for immigrants. HAINES: We’re still working towards really good. BEHAR: It's always been rough for people. GOLDBERG: You know, a country is rough. HOSTIN: Yeah. GOLDBERG: Putting a country together like this country where you have said to everyone, we want to hear what everyone has to say. We've lost sight of the fact that part of the greatness of the U.S. is the rough and tumble. You know, you and I have to figure out a way to be here together. HOSTIN: Yeah. GOLDBERG: Regardless of what I look like, what I think, you have to live with me like I got to live with you like we have to keep reminding people, while we're talking about making sure women know what’s going on -- it's not because women don't, it's because we need the men to recognize that the women are on top of their stuff. We're trying to help y'all. You know?

If Republicans truly believe we are living through unprecedented, dire times, they should use their current power to demonstrate it. Canceling the August recess and building the case for a budget fight in September over the border would show the American people how Republicans would govern if they win the election. Instead of going on taxpayer-funded overseas trips, Republicans should use August to seize the spotlight and create a month-long closing argument for their budget bill to prevail by 11:59 p.m. on September 30, when the fiscal year ends. The political imperative The reality is that the positive polling for Trump over the past several months was an optical illusion, built upon Joe Biden’s uniquely unprecedented weakness. Even with Biden at the top of the ticket, most polls showed Democrats overperforming in Senate races, and many had Democrats leading in the generic ballot question. Now that Biden has been sidelined, Republicans must consider the possibility that they are facing the same political environment that has fueled a Democrat winning streak in swing states since 2017, despite the general malaise, terrible economy, and national security challenges. What if Republicans had a rallying cry heading into September: 'No border? No budget!' With Republicans on vacation all summer, Kamala Harris will command fawning headlines with the freshness of her candidacy, the intrigue behind her selection of a running mate (likely from a swing state), and the Democratic National Convention in Chicago at the end of August. Given that Republicans already had their convention and enjoyed one of the best three-week news cycles of all time, you’d expect them to be crushing the Democrats, especially since Harris should be forced to own all the failures of this administration. Yet that won’t be the case. Most polls have shown the race as a dead heat even after the Republican convention, with Democrats leading in most key down-ballot races. This may be a honeymoon period for Harris, reflecting a temporary media-cycle boost. However, Republicans must consider the possibility that the national environment is reverting to the trend seen since 2017. Over the past six years, Democrats have won almost every critical race in Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, overperformed in almost every special election, and defied 200 years of history by winning the midterms, despite negative public sentiment about their policies and the direction of the country. Clearly, there is a political imperative and a responsibility to Americans to focus the next 100 days on policies, not the soap opera politics that have disfavored Republicans in recent years. If there is one issue that burdens Harris, it is the border. The media has frenetically tried to erase her history as Biden's appointed border czar. Polls show that immigration is the biggest vulnerability for Democrats. The budget bill in September, right before early voting, is the final opportunity to highlight this issue for voters. The House of Representatives, controlled by Republicans, must command attention and maintain a sustained focus on this critical issue. It’s time to use it or lose it. Trump should call upon Speaker Johnson to reconvene at least a week before the Democratic National Convention. Three weeks of vacation is enough and much more than what most Americans take in the summer. Every day, lawmakers should hold hearings, press conferences, and votes on various aspects of illegal immigration that harm Americans. The RNC should showcase the excellent videos featuring victims of illegal immigration and fentanyl every day during the DNC. Unfortunately, there is an endless supply of American victims to choose from. We now have known terrorists crossing the border and being released by the Biden-Harris administration. Tens of thousands of Chinese nationals are coming over in droves. We face endless Venezuelan gangsters and Central American child rapists. Communities suffer from drugs, crime, and the cultural destruction of public school districts overwhelmed by these invaders. It’s sad but true that there are victims every day. Ted Cruz’s “every damn day” refrain at the GOP convention should serve as the blueprint for messaging during a special session on the border. Now is the time Republicans will never find a more important campaign issue coinciding with such crucial timing. Sitting out this entire six-week period and employing a run-the-clock-out strategy when they are likely behind is political malfeasance. It is evident from the past few years that Republicans have done an awful job elevating the issues to national prominence. A recent Angus Reid poll showed Harris leading by two points, but Trump is favored on every major issue. Voters support “mass deportations” by a margin of 13 points, and they believe Trump would handle crime, the economy, and foreign policy better than Harris.So what gives? It’s clear that Republicans have allowed themselves to be defined by personal politics, rather than the critical issues. Imagine if Republicans held a marathon session, supported by all their campaign apparatuses, centering their messaging around defunding the Democrats’ catch-and-release policy for criminal aliens at the border. They could refuse to fund the host of DHS programs used to fly in unvetted illegal aliens on the taxpayers’ dime to circumvent our asylum laws. This includes the 550,000 illegal immigrant spouses of legal residents Biden amnestied, as well as the 860,000 granted “temporary protected status.” What if they had a rallying cry heading into September: “No border? No budget!” As conservatives, we slept through the primaries and ignored the GOP's and Trump’s leftward shift under the imperative to unite and win the general election. So now that the general election is upon us and Democrats are flush with cash, ground game, and momentum, do we actually want to do what it takes to win?

News juggernaut CNN has decided to shut down the opinion vertical on its website permanently as part of an overall restructuring project undertaken by CEO Mark Thompson.The news of the shutdown was actually revealed several weeks ago in a Substack article by journalist Claire Atkinson. On July 10, CNN opinion editors and contributors were told that they would be laid off effective August 9, Atkinson reported.Moving forward, Thompson plans to turn his sights on 'more video and less text based content,' Atkinson said.A senior executive also confirmed to The Hill that CNN will soon shutter its online opinion section. "We did make the decision at the beginning of the month to sunset the opinion vertical on CNN.com; as a result, we will no longer have a standalone Opinion section," the executive said.News of the opinion shutdown trickled down to some writers just this week. The unidentified opinion editor apparently tasked with informing these writers about their impending job loss got right to the point."Just a quick note to let you know that unfortunately CNN has decided to shut down the opinion section. I hope our paths cross elsewhere!" the editor reportedly wrote in an email Wednesday.That seems to have been the entire message as The Hill reported that the editor "did not elaborate further in their correspondence."According to Atkinson, these layoffs at CNN are part of wider efforts by Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of CNN, to reduce its $43 billion debt load. Atkinson also indicated that the "disastrous term" of Chris Licht, the CEO of CNN from February 2022 until June 2023, forced Thompson to make tough decisions regarding staffing.In all, 100 CNN staff members were let go as part of Thompson's "newsroom rethink and a push into AI," Atkinson wrote, though whether all 100 were connected with the opinion section is unclear. CNN currently employs approximately 3,500 people worldwide.Moving forward, Thompson plans to turn his sights on "more video and less text based content," Atkinson said. For now, the CNN opinion section remains active and currently offers readers commentary on subjects such as Project 2025, the power of influencers, and climate change.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Nice Moment! At Pa. Rally Trump Welcomed and Thanked Woman Who Put Up Chart That 'Saved My Life'

BREAKING: Russia Releases Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan As Part of Massive Prisoner Exchange