The black holes went from having an area the size of Oregon to the size of California!

The video, taken on 30 October 2024, shows a missile appearing to strike the orb with no immediate effect.

It could make or break the species' future.

Small businesses – especially those owned by minorities – are being hurt by today’s level of interest rates, results of a new survey of employers conducted by John McLaughlin and Scott Rasmussen reveal. The national survey of small businesses, conducted August 1-20 for the Job Creators Network Foundation, asked the following question: “How difficult is it for your business to access capital in this interest rate environment?” More than two-thirds (69%) of small businesses report that it’s difficult to access capital in the current interest rate environment, three times more than the 23% who say it isn’t. Another 8% aren’t sure. Fully 85% of minority-owned businesses are having trouble accessing capital with today’s interest rates, as are 75% of female-owned establishments. Just 18% of minority and 13% of female small business owners say it’s not difficult to access capital. The smallest small businesses, as measured by revenue, are the most vulnerable to the current level of interest rates. Here, 77% of those with less than $100,000 annual revenue say it’s difficult to access capital with today’s rates, compared to 60% of those taking in at least $1 million yearly. When small business owners were asked if they “support or oppose the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates at its next meeting to lower credit costs and increase access to cheaper loans,” three-fourths said they want the Fed to lower rates at its September meeting: 74% support an interest rate cut. 16% oppose a cut. 9% are unsure. Small business owners’ view of what the Fed should do at its next meeting appears unaffected by the annual revenue of their operations. And, while the results for minority businesses mirror those of all small businesses, female-owned businesses (81%) are more likely to support lower interest rates. Until now, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell has steadfastly rejected President Donald Trump’s demands for lower interest rates, but recent economic news appears to have increased the prospects of a rate cut in the near future.

Along with celebrating older Americans pretending it’s the 1960s all over again by becoming hooked on marijuana and lamenting the Supreme Court gave President Trump the green light to continue mass deportation raids in cities like Los Angeles, Monday’s CBS Evening News provided yet another example of the liberal bias that ombudsman Ken Weinstein and hopefully future CBS News executive Bari Weiss can fix. The topic? A possible incoming shortage for in-home nursing workers because of President Trump ending a Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Hondurans stemming from Hurricane Mitch...in 1998. And yet, the liberal media peddle a sob story about individuals who did nothing for over a quarter century to go further in obtaining permanent residency or citizenship. One could presume the liberal media have a different definition of what “temporary” means. “Families caring for the elderly or disabled can face difficult choices, giving a loved one at home often requires home-health aides,” co-anchor Maurice DuBois began, followed by co-anchor John Dickerson saying what’s already “a shortage” could worsen given “changes in immigration policy[.]”     Correspondent Elaine Quijano opened with a predictable, perfectly curated anecdote: QUIJANO: Eddie Weinstein’s stroke paralyzed the right side of his body and left his daughter Caroline scrambling. CAROLINE WEINSTEIN: I knew the only way that he would survive and I would survive would be to have him live at home with care. “MARCIA”: And I’m gonna give you some water. QUIJANO: In 2020, Marcia became their home health aide. WEINSTEIN: It was the first time since my dad’s stroke I could trust somebody to know he would be okay. QUIJANO: Marcia is 53. She’s from Honduras and is afraid to show her face publicly, but she spoke to us about caring for others as a home health aide. “MARCIA”: That’s what I love to do. I don’t see myself doing anything else — just taking care of the elderly. Quijiano explained that Marcia’s time in America “began 25 years ago after Hurricane Mitch devastated Honduras and she was granted Temporary Protected Status, giving her legal authorization to work in the U.S.” But TPS, Quijiano noted, ended September 8 “for over 50,000 Hondurans[.]” Like the marijiana story, there was only a very short acknowledgment of Americans not feeling the same way: “MARCIA”: Sometimes I feel sad, sometimes I feel angry. QUIJANO: But some might say, well, we can’t let it keep continuing forever. “MARCIA”: Sigh. They should give us a path for a green card, because we are in the system already. 25 years paying taxes. Again like a good PR-stitched story, Quijiano included sound from a wider interest group. In this case, it was a New York City-based school many immigrants attend to receive training for home health care: QUIJANO: Marcia got her training at sunny side Community Services in New York where 90 percent of home health aides are foreign-born. Judy Zangwill is the executive director. JUDY ZANGWILL: We are concerned about it — about how it could exacerbate already a nationwide shortage and could result in a shortage for us as well. A few moments later and back live, Quijiano gave away a few important details about Marcia’s story and how she inexplicably hasn’t done anything to move toward citizenship, having family, or something else that would increase her chances of changing her immigration status: “Marcia isn’t sure what she’s going to do next. She’s essentially alone here in the U.S. and it’s been decades since she was last in Honduras.” To see the relevant CBS transcript from September 8, click here.

The brutal murder of Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte train shocked the city and the nation. Yet, the reaction from Mayor Vi Lyles revealed something deeper — and more troubling — about the worldview now shaping our institutions.Instead of calling it what it was — a violent crime committed by “a mentally deranged lunatic” and “well-known career criminal,” as President Trump described the suspect — Lyles chose to label it a “tragic event.” The tragedy, she suggested, was not the victim’s death so much as society’s failure to provide resources for the killer.We cannot blame 'the system.' We cannot blame God. Facing consequences for our actions is not oppression — it is humanizing.That rhetorical move matters. It echoes the same radical philosophy that has taken over higher education and increasingly influences our politics. In this worldview, criminals are not moral agents. They are victims of circumstance.The death of free willAs a humanities professor, I have heard this refrain for decades. Subjects meant to explore the human condition and the pursuit of wisdom have been hijacked by an ideology that insists “marginalized” individuals cannot be held responsible for their actions.The logical problem should be obvious. If the “oppressed” are not responsible for their actions, then they lack free will. That is a dehumanizing philosophy. It strips away moral agency and reduces people to products of “the system.”Yet, radical professors advance this philosophy because it props up political causes that would collapse under scrutiny. Their favorite tool is the fallacy of appealing to pity: “Don’t hold me accountable, I had a hard life.” But if failure is always the system’s fault, then so is success. The DEI professor will tell you that bad outcomes come from oppression — and good outcomes come from privilege. Individual responsibility vanishes.Crime 'happens' to the criminalIn this view, crime happens to the criminal. The system, not the sinner, makes the choice. The remedy? Education and therapy. Punishment for evil is rejected outright.Take two examples.First, Chicago’s Mayor Brandon Johnson (D). Listen to him describe gun violence and you’d think guns sprout legs and walk into the city from other states. Who are the human beings pulling the triggers? That question is avoided, because the system supposedly forced them into crime.Second, watch the recent Jubilee video featuring Patrick Bet-David. Anti-capitalist students invoked the plight of the single mother. To hear them tell it, single motherhood simply “happens.” No choices, no responsibility. Just victims of capitalism who have no choice but to work four jobs. The notion that having unprotected sex outside marriage is a choice is brushed aside.This isn’t compassion, let alone justice. It’s a simple refusal to acknowledge reality.Complaints against GodCharlotte’s racial equity policies rest on this same rejection of free will. And beneath that rejection lies something even deeper: complaints against God Himself.Christianity teaches that God created men and women with real differences and that He governs the circumstances into which we are born. Radical critics call this unfair. Why can’t Bet-David be a single mother? Why should people be born rich or poor? Why does God still hold us accountable?RELATED: Trump DOJ takes action against violent thug accused of savagely murdering Ukrainian refugee Maxiphoto via iStock/Getty ImagesThe apostle Paul anticipated this very objection in Romans 9:19: “Then why does God still find fault? For who resists His will?” The ultimate complaint is against divine providence.But denying free will is absurd. Many born into hard circumstances have learned to be wise and seek God. Many born into privilege have chosen evil. Our choices define us.The humanizing truthWe cannot blame “the system.” We cannot blame God. Facing consequences for our actions is not oppression — it is humanizing. It reminds us that we have the dignity of free will and the responsibility to choose between good and evil.And here is the one solution the radical professor will never offer: There is forgiveness for our sin, freely given in Christ. That is the antidote to a culture that excuses evil and denies accountability.

Recently, my wife and I spent a night in Milwaukee. I was there for work, and she came along just for the fun of it. We left the kids with our parents and had 30 peaceful hours all to ourselves. When you are in the thick of raising young kids, getting away for just one night feels like a hard reset or some kind of meditative retreat that leaves you clear in both mind and spirit. It was a good trip, it was a fun trip, it was a reflective trip.We sat outside on the roof at Benelux in the Third Ward imagining life if we never left. If we never had kids. If we never changed. If we just ... stayed.We lived in Milwaukee for a few years before we had kids. We rented a big loft with concrete floors and high ceilings. It was just one big, barren, concrete room. The only walls were the ones separating the bathroom from the rest of the place. It was up on the eighth floor; we had a great view of downtown. We used old shipping pallets to divide the room. We didn’t have any money back then. We still don’t, but we have more than we did. When we moved to Milwaukee, we didn’t have jobs. I convinced the landlord to rent us the apartment without proof of income or proof of employment. I don’t know if it was possible because things were just really different before, because she was just really nice, or because I was just really convincing. It was probably a mix of all three.Cart blancheA few weeks after we moved, we found a shopping cart abandoned by a bus stop. We took it home and used it every week at the grocery store. We would push it to store empty, buy our groceries, and then push it, now completely full, back to the apartment again, stowing it next to the front door until next week’s trip. It was efficient and worked well, and I am sure we looked absolutely absurd.We had a great time there. Those few years in the concrete loft before we had kids gave us a lot of great memories and a great start to our lives together. But going back and visiting was odd. We hadn’t been back since we left years ago, and finding ourselves in the same places completely unchanged as people who have very much changed felt somehow wrong.Don't look backIt felt like some strange corruption of memories or maybe like we were somewhere we weren’t supposed to be. Almost like someone might come up to us and ask, “What are you doing here?” It felt like we were taking a detour down some road that’s been blocked off and just looking around for a bit before getting back on the highway again. It was strange and surreal. RELATED: A nearly perfect dinner in Door County, Wisconsin Tamer Soliman via iStock/Getty ImagesMaybe it’s because life only goes one way. We can’t go back in time. We can’t change the past. We can’t revisit who we were. Maybe in some way, going back to where we lived before feels like attempting to do something we cannot do. It’s like building a replica of some old world city here in the new one. It’s just not right. It’s not as it should be. We can’t go back, and why would we want to anyway?The path not takenWell, I don’t want to go back and live life as it was. Walking around there, just us two, talking about how we were then and how we are now, all we could really say was that while we loved being there when we were there and that those memories are ones we treasure still, we are glad we are no longer there. I don’t just mean physically there, either. I mean mentally, spiritually, and situationally there. We very much like where we are now and wouldn’t change it for anything.We sat outside on the roof at Benelux in the Third Ward imagining life if we never left. If we never had kids. If we never changed. If we just ... stayed. We could have very easily done all that. That kind of life could have happened to us if we let it. The years would have passed at the same rate, we would be the same age, but we wouldn’t be the same. And we both sat there together, slightly nostalgic for who we were — and grateful for who we are today. Part of the planI think that’s how we are supposed to feel. All of it. We’re supposed to love those memories of youth, but we’re also supposed to cringe a little bit at our past feelings or opinions. We’re supposed to not quite respect our past selves. We’re supposed to laugh at how naive we were. It means we’ve grown and that’s a good thing. And we’re supposed to feel kind of weird going back to where we once lived. We’re supposed to feel a little out of step there in that foreign world of the past. We are no longer who we were, that’s the truth, and that’s OK.The next morning, we left on the ferry to take us back. Watching Milwaukee disappear into the distance as we headed east across Lake Michigan, we were glad we had a day away, thankful for the lives we lived years ago, and happy we were going home to who we are today

A 32-year-old career criminal allegedly beat to death a 76-year-old man at a Chicago bus stop Monday night, WLS-TV reported.But his night of crime reportedly was only beginning.The station noted that he has a lengthy criminal record spanning nearly two decades.Surveillance video shows two people standing at a bus stop near 95th and Halsted Streets on the city's south side, the station said.WLS noted that the silent clip shows the 76-year-old man hitting the 32-year-old suspect, but it's unclear what led to that altercation. However, the 32-year-old retaliates, punching the 76-year-old and shoving him to the ground, the station said.The station added that it paused the video at that point because what follows "is too disturbing," noting that the 32-year-old goes on to "beat and kick the victim multiple times, before eventually walking away."RELATED: Chicago thug accused of randomly punching mother of 11 in face, knocking her out on downtown street — and White House reacts WLS said Chicago police responded to the area around 9:15 p.m., found the 76-year-old victim on the ground with apparent trauma to the head, and took him to a hospital, where he later died.With that — according to a police report the station said it obtained — the same suspect carjacked an SUV from a nearby McDonald's.A 60-year-old grandmother told WLS she was in the restaurant when the suspect entered her vehicle while her grandchildren — a 3-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy — were in the backseat. The station said the suspect threatened to shoot the children and ordered them out of the SUV. WLS, citing the police report, said the suspect took off in the green Kia Telluride. However, the SUV's owner told the station she tracked the vehicle's location through the girl's iPad still inside it.Soon the suspect crashed the SUV in Schererville, Indiana, and police arrested the driver, the station said. Schererville is about 35 minutes southeast of the initial crime scene on the south side of Chicago.RELATED: 54-year-old repeat offender accused of fatally stabbing woman, 25, after first spitting on her in Chicago WLS said it's not naming the suspect because he hasn't yet been charged with a crime in the case, but the station noted that he has a lengthy criminal record spanning nearly two decades.More from WLS:A 2019 case in Cook County charges the man with robbery and aggravated battery.Court documents show that prosecutors say he repeatedly hit a man and then stole his bike in south suburban Glenwood.He also pleaded guilty and served jail time for a 2015 robbery in Matteson and was charged with resisting arrest in 2010.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

The chain's TV ads with the crazy pitch man were so ubiquitous in the New York metropolitan area, Dan Aykroyd spoofed them on Saturday Night Live. The post Remember Crazy Eddie, the “Insaaane” Music Retailer? appeared first on Best Classic Bands.

Clues point to tacit support from Jordan and Saudi Arabia, despite their public protests.