NASA’s old but still kickin’ Curiosity rover drove over a boulder, which crumbled to reveal yellow sulfur crystals. Rocks made of pure sulfur have never been seen before on the Red Planet, and scientists say the conditions in which such crystals form aren’t associated with the location the rover was exploring. Since October 2023, the […] The post NASA Stunned by Discovery After Mars Rover Breaks Open a Rock appeared first on Good News Network.

Movies & TV Babylon 5 Rewatch Babylon 5 Rewatch: “Eyes” The station gets a visit from EarthForce Internal Affairs… By Keith R.A. DeCandido | Published on July 22, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share “Eyes”Written by Lawrence G. DiTillioDirected by Jim JohnstonSeason 1, Episode 16Production episode 122Original air date: July 13, 1994 It was the dawn of the third age… Garibaldi is restoring an old Kawasaki Ninja ZX-11 motorcycle from 1992. Lennier interrupts him with a security matter, but becomes intrigued by Garibaldi’s project, and asks if he can help. He has a lot of downtime with Delenn off-station, and he’s intrigued. Garibaldi shows him one of his stumbling blocks: the manual is in Japanese, which he does not read. Lennier takes the manual with the intent of studying it. We then meet Colonel Ari Ben Zayn and a telepath named Harriman Grey, who are looking at various B5 personnel files, including those of Ivanova. They speak in vague terms that make it clear that they’re bad guys, though they (barely) stop short of cackling madly, and only don’t twirl their mustaches because they don’t have any. Sinclair, Ivanova, and Garibaldi meet to discuss the recent terrorist attack on Phobos, which appears to have been by the Free Mars movement. Sinclair is worried that terrorists will take advantage of the rules allowing arms sales on B5 (which was insisted upon by several of the alien species) to do arms deals on the station. Ben Zayn poses as “Aron Franks,” and starts asking Welch questions about Sinclair and the station. Welch is mostly peeved that “Franks” is interrupting his lunch. After Welch tells him to take a hike, he links Garibaldi. Garibaldi quickly determines that “Franks,” and his associate Grey, have been on the station for three days, asking lots of questions about the station. Sinclair authorizes him to investigate further. Garibaldi goes to their shared cabin to talk to them, at which point “Franks” outs himself as Ben Zayn and Grey as a telepath. They’re from EarthForce Internal Affairs Division, colloquially referred to as “Eyes.” They’re conducting an investigation into B5’s command staff. Credit: Warner Bros. Television Sinclair isn’t pleased, but Ben Zayn’s orders come straight from the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Ivanova objects to Grey’s presence, as Psi Corps isn’t allowed to scan people without their consent. Ben Zayn announces that regulations have changed in that regard, and officers must submit to a psi-scan. In private, Ivanova makes it clear that she absolutely will not submit to any kind of telepathic scan under any circumstances. Meanwhile, Garibaldi looks into Ben Zayn and Grey on his own. In CnC, Grey shows up, unannounced and unwanted, and despite Ivanova’s attempts to get him to leave (he’s unauthorized to be there, and besides, he’s annoying her). He explains that he dreamt of joining EarthForce ever since he was a little boy, but as a telepath he wasn’t allowed. He’s just trying to serve as best he can. Ivanova is uninterested and unimpressed. Then he mentions that she will have to submit to a scan, but it won’t be that bad, really, and Ivanova tears him a new one, reiterating that she will never submit to a scan. Ben Zayn asks a lot of probing questions about specific decisions Sinclair made. Garibaldi warns the commander that Ben Zayn seems to be going after Sinclair specifically. Sinclair isn’t worried, as his decisions are on the record and already approved, but Garibaldi isn’t so sure, reminding him of what Ironheart told them about Psi Corps’ growing influence, and the fact that Sinclair pissed off a Psi Cop. Lennier has been studying the history of the motorcycle (including a hilarious informative video), and also learning Japanese so he can read the manual. He offers to assist Garibaldi, but the security chief is incredibly distracted, and absently gives Lennier permission to work on the motorcycle without him. Later, Garibaldi returns to his quarters after working all night to discover that Lennier has also been up all night, working on the Ninja. Garibaldi grumpily kicks an abashed Lennier out of his quarters, though the former is impressed with what the latter has accomplished. Credit: Warner Bros. Television Ivanova hands in her resignation, but Sinclair refuses to accept it. He’s actually read the new regulation that Ben Zayn threw at them, and it’s very specific: a telepath can be used when charges have been made against an officer. No charges have been filed, so Grey can’t scan them. Grey agrees and leaves the room, annoying Ben Zayn, who then interrogates the shit out of Sinclair, questioning his decisions in virtually every episode prior to this one. Grey goes to the Zocalo to try once again to suck up to Ivanova, admitting that he really doesn’t like Ben Zayn. When he mentions Psi Corps, her reaction is very powerful, so much so that he can’t help but detect what’s in her mind—and he’s surprised to see that she can tell she’s being scanned. (It turns out her mother scanning her as a girl made her sensitive to it.) Ivanova is called away to CnC, which is the only thing that saves Grey from having his head ripped off, and she leaves in a huff. Ben Zayn’s questioning gets more severe to the point where Sinclair says he’s done with this. Ben Zayn, however, outranks him and orders him to remain, and then officially relieves him of duty on a charge of working against the best interests of Earth, which is vague enough to cover anything from sedition to treason. He also assumes command of the station. He orders Sinclair to be confined to quarters, escorted by Garibaldi, to await being scanned by Grey, which is now kosher with specific charges made. Sinclair appeals to General Miller, but to no avail. Ben Zayn announces to CnC that he’s in charge now. He informs Ivanova that she, too, will be required to undergo a telepathic scan. She and Garibaldi confer after that, with Ivanova taking him up on his previous offer of a drink. He says he’ll meet her in the casino. Before meeting her, he finishes his dive into Ben Zayn and Grey, and reports to Sinclair that Ben Zayn was in line to command B5, but was bigfooted by the Minbari insistence that it be Sinclair. Ben Zayn is also friends with Bester, who still is peeved at Sinclair for getting his aide killed and generally making him look bad during the Ironheart affair. Garibaldi is then linked with a report that there’s a bar fight in the casino. He goes down to find that Ivanova is at the center of it, and is also the only one standing and not injured. Garibaldi manages to calm her down and get her out of there. Credit: Warner Bros. Television Ben Zayn starts his interrogation, with Grey, Ivanova, and Garibaldi all present, and also with it being recorded. Sinclair accuses Ben Zayn of carrying out a vendetta against the person who beat him out for command of the station, and also of colluding with Bester to go after Sinclair. Ben Zayn gets furious, enough so that Grey can detect his thoughts, and since it’s now legal for him to scan Ben Zayn, he does so, and determines that Sinclair is absolutely right. Ben Zayn pulls a weapon, but Grey is able to telepathically zap him enough so that Sinclair can sock him in the jaw. Garibaldi returns to his quarters to find that Lennier has finished the Ninja. Garibaldi is at first disappointed, as he was looking forward to doing it all himself, but then Lennier shows that he’s put in a Minbari power source, so he can actually use it, which he wasn’t expecting to be able to do, since the original is based on a power source (fossil fuels) that is no longer in use. As Sinclair and Ivanova talk about how things are back to normal now, Garibaldi and Lennier go zooming down a corridor on the motorcycle. Nothing’s the same anymore. Sinclair stands by all his decisions and is exonerated when he, um, punches a superior officer. Sure. Ivanova is God. At one point, Ivanova has a brutal nightmare involving her mother, who is flanked by two figures in tragedy and comedy masks. Ivanova also sees herself in her mother’s place. One suspects this nightmare has happened before… She also gets into a bar fight and wins. The household god of frustration. Garibaldi apparently has a thing for twentieth-century motorcycles to go with his thing for twentieth-century animation. (And twentieth-century comedy movies, based on his Abbott and Costello reference.) If you value your lives, be somewhere else. Lennier learns Japanese and restores a three-hundred-year-old motorcycle in a day or two. Because he’s just that awesome. The Corps is mother, the Corps is father. Grey is actually an ethical and decent Psi Corps representative, which makes him something of a rarity. No sex, please, we’re EarthForce. Grey notices that Ivanova is thinking about Winters. This may be important later. It also may not be. Looking ahead. The unrest on Mars mentioned will be seen more in the future. So will Psi Corps’ growing influence, as well as Bester’s animus toward the B5 crew. Also the casting of Macaulay Burton as the guy in the tragedy mask is a tiny bit of foreshadowing. Credit: Warner Bros. Television Welcome aboard. Gregory Martin shouts his way through playing Ben Zayn who, despite being given an Arabic name, is played by a white guy from Hertfordshire. Frank Farmer plays Miller. Marie Chambers plays the dream image of Ivanova’s Mom, while Macaulay Bruton (who mostly plays one of Garibaldi’s unnamed security people) and Drew Letchworth play the “tragedy” and “comedy” figures, respectively, in Ivanova’s dream. David L. Crowley makes his second appearance following “Survivors” as Welch, making him officially a recurring character. He’ll return in “The Quality of Mercy.” And this week’s Robert Knepper moment is the great Jeffrey Combs as Grey. I’d totally forgotten that Combs—who has played several billion roles on four different Star Trek series—appeared on B5 four months before his first Trek appearance. Trivial matters. Ben Zayn specifically questions Sinclair’s decisions in “Midnight on the Firing Line,” “Mind War,” “Deathwalker,” “Survivors,” and “By Any Means Necessary.” Garibaldi offered to buy Ivanova a drink in “Born to the Purple.” It was established that the Minbari insisted on Sinclair commanding B5 in “Signs and Portents.” Although she is not seen, Lennier mentions that Shaal Mayan, from “The War Prayer,” is returning to the station. Because she was assaulted on that last trip, Lennier requests a security detail be assigned to her while she’s on station. The chant Lennier does over the fuel injector (“Zabagabee”) is also the name of the best-of album by Barnes & Barnes, of which actor Bill Mumy is a member (along with Robert Haimer). Among Barnes & Barnes’ many songs is the classic, “Fish Heads.” The echoes of all of our conversations. “Do I have the colonel’s permission to speak freely?” “Getting the truth is my job. I expect to hear it whenever you talk to me.” “Well, in that case, I think this is the biggest pile of horse hockey I ever saw! Who the hell’s running EarthForce, Abbott and Costello?” —Garibaldi speaking truth to power while referencing Abbott and Costello and Colonel Sherman Potter. Credit: Warner Bros. Television The name of the place is Babylon 5. “I don’t like being irritated—it gives me gas.” Just last week, I was discussing how having a good guest star can make an episode sing, and this episode is a prime example of the reverse of that, as Gregory Martin is embarrassingly terrible as Ben Zayn. His bad acting is contagious, too, as this is also one of Michael O’Hare’s absolute worst performances. The shouting match between Martin and O’Hare at the episode’s climax is just awful, a master-class in ineffective overacting to no good end. Not that the episode’s script helps matters. First we get a wholly pointless misdirect, as we’re not initially told who our mysterious antagonists are. Besides the fact that we already did this in “And the Sky Full of Stars,” the deception lasts all of half a second before we find out it’s an investigation by the “Eyes.” So why bother? In the abstract, it’s nice to see that some of Sinclair’s unorthodox solutions to some of the station’s problems are coming home to roost—except they don’t actually roost, they just sit there for a bit and then unconvincingly go away. So it’s bad enough that we’ve suffered through the terrible acting of Martin and O’Hare and a mediocre script, but then we get to the end, and it somehow all is settled, and I didn’t buy that for a second. Yes, this particular investigator was compromised, and perhaps should never have been given the assignment in the first place given his biases. But Sinclair’s conversation with Miller makes it clear that this goes a lot deeper than one colonel and one cranky-ass Psi Cop. It therefore makes no sense, none, that Grey’s scan and Sinclair’s belting Ben Zayn would be the end of it. Quite the opposite, as Ben Zayn pulling a weapon and Sinclair’s punch would both require an additional investigation. The edges of the episode are fun. I love the fact that Ivanova wins a bar fight all by herself. While it’s more than a little cheesy that Garibaldi happens to be restoring a motorcycle from the era in which the show is filmed, that subplot is kind of adorable, mostly due to Bill Mumy’s earnest enthusiasm as Lennier. And Jeffrey Combs is always worth watching. Still this episode is a disaster. It’s nice that it acknowledges what came before, but it doesn’t really address it in any meaningful manner. It would’ve been much more interesting to have an investigator who had a legitimate gripe against Sinclair, and who had a legitimate case against him. Instead, they went for the cheap conflict and the cheap solution. Next week: “Legacies.”[end-mark] The post <i>Babylon 5</i> Rewatch: “Eyes” appeared first on Reactor.

The Premature Hunt for Kamala's VP

The discovery of a source of deep-sea oxygen has shocked marine researchers, and could force a radical rethink across several areas of science, including the quest for extraterrestrial life. The oxygen is produced not by photosynthesis, but by minerals on the ocean floor.High school science classes teach that we get our oxygen from the photosynthesis of plants, particularly tropical rainforests. Scientists have known for decades that this is only half true – plants do indeed produce a great deal of the oxygen we breathe, but so do phytoplankton in oceans and lakes. In both cases, however, the basic process is the same – living organisms harness sunlight to turn carbon dioxide and water into the molecules they need and produce oxygen as a byproduct. The existence of this oxygen allows the Earth to support animals, including ourselves.Without light to power photosynthesis, oxygen is sparse in the deep ocean; much life depends on the tiny amounts available. It was thought the only oxygen present below a few hundred meters beneath the surface was a result of ocean mixing, making the possibility of mixing rates falling a dire threat. Yet when Professor Andrew Sweetman of the Scottish Association for Marine Science sampled part of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, a deep sea Pacific mountain range, he found something unexpected. Chambers placed on the seabed in waters more than 4,000 meters (13,000 feet) deep showed a rise in oxygen levels over a period of days.“When we first got this data, we thought the sensors were faulty because every study ever done in the deep sea has only seen oxygen being consumed rather than produced,” Sweetman said in a statement. “We would come home and recalibrate the sensors, but, over the course of 10 years, these strange oxygen readings kept showing up.” The team only believed their results after using a different method of oxygen detection.Sweetman and colleagues termed this “dark oxygen”, both because they didn’t know the source, and its production in the absence of light. The significance of such a discovery is hard to overstate.“For aerobic life to begin on the planet, there had to be oxygen, and our understanding has been that Earth’s oxygen supply began with photosynthetic organisms,” Sweetman said. “But we now know that there is oxygen produced in the deep sea, where there is no light. I think we, therefore, need to revisit questions like: Where could aerobic life have begun?”The role such dark oxygen plays in evolution might be the biggest question such a finding poses, but the more immediate challenge was to work out where the oxygen was coming from. Having failed to find a biological explanation, the team suspected polymetallic nodules, deposits made of a mix of minerals that have had mining companies drooling for decades, might be responsible. After consulting Professor Franz Geiger of Northwestern University, who had previously demonstrated rust and seawater can combine to make electricity, the team concluded metals on the seafloor were performing natural electrolysis, splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen.Nodules were collected and brought to Geiger’s lab, where he found some were producing 0.95 volts of electric charge. In the right orientation, multiple nodules can combine to produce higher voltages, potentially exceeding the approximately 1.5-volt threshold needed to split seawater.“It appears that we discovered a natural ‘geobattery,’” Geiger said. “These geobatteries are the basis for a possible explanation of the ocean’s dark oxygen production.”The removal of sediments from nearby nodule surfaces when the explorer touched down may have set off a surge in activity. This would explain why the oxygen levels rose quickly, before trailing off.The composition of polymetallic nodules varies, but the ones apparently responsible could be some of the most valuable. “The polymetallic nodules that produce this oxygen contain metals such as cobalt, nickel, copper, lithium and manganese — which are all critical elements used in batteries,” Geiger added. This is where the exciting scientific discovery runs into some harsh realities.Deep sea mining has been discussed for a long time, but has usually been too expensive for widespread use. Now, however, as technology brings down the costs, and prices for many metals shoot up, that’s expected to change. The team doesn’t know what the consequences would be for deep-sea life if this source of oxygen is removed, but Geiger sees a warning in one of the rare cases where metals were extracted from the ocean floor. “In 2016 and 2017, marine biologists visited sites that were mined in the 1980s and found not even bacteria had recovered in mined areas,” Geiger said. “In unmined regions, however, marine life flourished. Why such ‘dead zones’ persist for decades is still unknown. However, this puts a major asterisk onto strategies for sea-floor mining as ocean-floor faunal diversity in nodule-rich areas is higher than in the most diverse tropical rainforests.”The study is published in Nature Geoscience.

The icy moons of gas giant planets are considered a possible place for the formation of life beyond Earth. Enceladus and Europa have deep oceans with intriguing chemistry buried below an outer shell of ice many kilometers thick. We can’t simply go drilling through such an icy shell. But we might not need to dig deeply to find evidence of life.New research looks at how these biosignatures might survive in ice under the radiation exposure that exists around both Jupiter’s Europa and Saturn’s Enceladus. They found that while amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, degrade over time in such conditions, being trapped in ice allows them to survive for eons, especially from within biological sources.“Based on our experiments, the ‘safe’ sampling depth for amino acids on Europa is almost 8 inches (around 20 centimeters) at high latitudes of the trailing hemisphere (hemisphere opposite to the direction of Europa’s motion around Jupiter) in the area where the surface hasn’t been disturbed much by meteorite impacts,” lead author Alexander Pavlov of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said in a statement.“Subsurface sampling is not required for the detection of amino acids on Enceladus – these molecules will survive radiolysis (breakdown by radiation) at any location on the Enceladus surface less than a tenth of an inch (under a few millimeters) from the surface.”The experiment focuses on the breakdown of amino acids through radiolysis. It measured this breakdown in amino acids (on their own) in ice or in a mixture of ice and dust, as well as within dead bacteria (in this case E. Coli). They found that the one in dead bacteria had a slower decline in degradation.“Slow rates of amino acid destruction in biological samples under Europa and Enceladus-like surface conditions bolster the case for future life-detection measurements by Europa and Enceladus lander missions,” said Pavlov. “Our results indicate that the rates of potential organic biomolecules’ degradation in silica-rich regions on both Europa and Enceladus are higher than in pure ice and, thus, possible future missions to Europa and Enceladus should be cautious in sampling silica-rich locations on both icy moons.”A paper discussing this research is published in the journal Astrobiology. 

One of the rarest types of black holes might have been found incredibly close to Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. This new black hole is of the intermediate mass class, meaning that it’s not light enough to have formed from a star going supernova. But, it is also not heavy enough to be classed as supermassive. Only about 10 such objects are known, with one of them announced just a few weeks ago.The discovery comes from stellar cluster IRS 13 (occasionally written with a GC in front that stands for Galactic Center). It is a cluster of hot massive stars with a peculiar object at its center. Originally, it was considered that the central object was a massive star, but thanks to higher-resolution observations researchers were able to tell that it is not a star at all.The intermediate-mass black hole is estimated to have a mass of 30,000 solar masses. The evidence comes from the motion of the stars, which move in an orderly pattern, as well as X-ray emissions and ionized gas rotating around this object at several hundreds of kilometers per second. The combination of observations across multiple wavelengths from the Very Large Telescope, ALMA, and the Chandra telescope painted a picture consistent with an intermediate-mass black hole.The strong possibility of this being the case has widespread consequences. Researchers have long proposed that a steady diet of intermediate-mass black holes can help supermassive black holes grow. They get too close to the supermassive black hole and get gobbled up. IRS 13 is believed to have moved closer to the center of the Milky Way (and Sagittarius A*) over the last 10 million years.“IRS 13 appears to be an essential building block for the growth of our central black hole [Sagittarius A*],” Dr Florian Peißker, first author of the study, said in a statement. “This fascinating star cluster has continued to surprise the scientific community ever since it was discovered around twenty years ago. At first it was thought to be an unusually heavy star. With the high-resolution data, however, we can now confirm the building-block composition with an intermediate-mass black hole at the centre.”More observations will be necessary to confirm the intermediate-mass black hole and learn more about the cluster. Observations from JWST and the upcoming Extremely Large Telescope will certainly help.The study is published in The Astrophysical Journal.

Overshadowed by the Republican National Convention last week, CNN’s lawyers filed a motion for a protective order that aimed to block network host Jake Tapper from being deposed as part of the $1 billion defamation suit against the network. It was the second time Tapper was requested for deposition and the second time CNN put up resistance, this time more aggressively. CNN has also been accused of destroying evidence critical to the case.  “There is no basis to depose Tapper,” CNN counsel Deanna Shullman wrote in her motion as she argued against “re-opening fact discovery and deposing CNN employee Jake Tapper.” Further in her motion, Shullman seemed to produce contradictory information about the plaintiff’s interest in having Tapper deposed (bold text added to highlight): Plaintiffs did not attempt to depose Tapper during the fact-discovery period, which closed on January 15, 2024. The closest they came to doing so was in May 2023, roughly eight months before discovery closed, when their counsel briefly raised the issue of deposing Tapper. In response, counsel for CNN stated: “In that regard, please tell me the relevance of any testimony of [a former CNN employee]1 or Mr. Tapper as there is nothing in the record in this case to suggest that either has any information pertinent to this matter.” Ex. A (May 10, 2023 email from D. Shullman to A. Potter).2  Plaintiffs did not pursue the issue of deposing Tapper any further during the fact-discovery period. NewsBusters was in attendance during a 14th District Circuit hearing on July 1 via Zoom and witnessed Shullman’s reaction when Vel Freedman, counsel for plaintiff Zackary Young, brought up the possibility of deposing Tapper during financial-worth discovery. “He’s Jake Tapper,” Shullman said, seemingly as if he was above the situation. While the report at the center of the defamation suit was the work of CNN correspondent Alex Marquardt, the report aired on Tapper’s evening show, The Lead. Tapper himself also made some allegedly defamatory statements as he led into the segment: In our world today, the U.S. government, the Biden administration says that as of last week it had assisted in the departure of at least 377 U.S. citizens and 279 lawful permanent residents of the U.S. from Afghanistan since August 31st. Still, many Afghans, Afghans who desperately want to flee Taliban rule and Afghans who say their lives are at stake, they remain behind. As CNN's Alex Marquardt has discovered, Afghans trying to get out of the country, face a black market full of promises, demands of exorbitant fees, and no guarantee of safety or success.     As NewsBusters previously reported, the case hinged on CNN’s use of the phrases “black market” and “exploited” to describe Young’s legitimate business of helping corporately sponsored Afghans escape the country as it collapsed around them and the Taliban retook control. Young’s clients included Audible and Bloomberg News - one of CNN’s industry peers, and he saved 24 people, mostly women and children. “I would add that the ‘black market’ has one definition in every dictionary, not just the first but one in every dictionary we've looked at,” Freedman told a panel of appellate judges back in April. “And CNN has failed to put forward any dictionary with an alternative definition. It means illegal activity, full stop. And that's what the case law that we've to the court as well treats it: illegal activity.” The result of that appellate trial was the court affirming that “black market” only had one meaning. “While language like “exorbitant” could, perhaps, be a matter of opinion, we agree with Young that there is no doubt the term “black market” implies illegality,” wrote Judge L. Clayton Roberts. And following Marquardt’s report, Tapper had his own snarkiness to add: MARQUARDT: In another message, that person offering those evacuations, Zackary Young, wrote “availability is extremely limited and demand is high.” Jake, he goes on to say, “that's how economics works, unfortunately.” TAPPER: Unfortunately, Hmm. Alex Marquardt, thanks so much for that important report. CNN, Shullman, and Tapper did not respond to NewsBusters’ requests for comment. In a spoliation sanctions filing from the plaintiff's side, on Friday, CNN was accused of destroying evidence of how their allegedly defamatory report colored the public perception of Young in the comment sections. “[A]fter learning it was about to get sued in this case, CNN deleted [X, Facebook, and Instagram] posts, and did so without saving troves of data that relates to Marquardt’s “goal”,” wrote Freedman.  “CNN’s failure to preserve key evidence has resulted in the irreversible loss of critical information regarding the reach, impact, and interpretation of CNN’s defamatory statements,” he argued. Adding: “CNN deleted the Social Media Posts on or around March 25, 2022–well after’s duty to preserve arose. The duty to preserve evidence begins when litigation is reasonably foreseeable…Young first warned of potential legal action on November 3, 2021…” If the court agrees with the plaintiff’s argument, it would be another blow to CNN’s legal defense. Freedman conclusion asked that a jury be informed that the CNN deleted evidence of how the public perceived their reporting and took a negative stance against Young.

New York City, a sanctuary jurisdiction for illegal aliens, has experienced an 11% increase in reported rapes this year, according to the New York Post.The paper revealed that from January 1 through July 14, 880 rapes were reported across the city. New York Police Department data showed that over the same period the previous year, 796 rapes were reported.'Rate of cases being dismissed has gone up, [and] the rate of cases not being pursued has gone up because of the progressive prosecutorial methods.'Jane Manning, director of Women's Equal Justice, told the Post that the alarming increase in reported sexual assaults "should be a wake-up call.""The NYPD needs to allocate more investigators to its understaffed Special Victims Unit so that every case is investigated well and dangerous offenders are apprehended," Manning stated.In March, the Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York released a statement warning that the NYPD is experiencing a staffing crisis. PBA President Patrick Hendry told News 12, "No one is becoming an NYPD police officer right now for the long term. They're taking it for a stepping stone to get something better – something with better salary, pensions, quality of life."The 10th precinct, located in Manhattan, experienced the most significant jump in reported rapes with a 300% increase. Midtown South, which covers Times Square, saw a 111% year-to-date uptick, according to NYPD stats. While most rapists know their victims, there has been a recent increase in "stranger rapes," the NYPD reported.One such instance included a caught-on-camera attack on May 21 at East 152nd Street and 3rd Avenue. The assailant walked up behind a woman on the street, threw a belt around her neck, dragged her to the ground, and attacked her between two vehicles, the video showed. Christian Inga, a 25-year-old foreign national who entered the United States illegally, was accused of raping a 13-year-old girl at knifepoint in New York City on June 13. Rafael Mangual, a criminal justice policy expert and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, told the Post, "It's no secret that the NYPD is down significantly in terms of force size. Because it's down, whenever it decides to prioritize something — say for example subway offenses — that's going to make the topside slightly more vulnerable, as far as more cops are now below ground."Mangual also blamed the uptick in crime on the state's Raise the Age law and soft-on-crime Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg."The rate of cases being dismissed has gone up, [and] the rate of cases not being pursued has gone up because of the progressive prosecutorial methods of Bragg, [Brooklyn DA] Eric Gonzalez, and [Bronx DA] Darcel Clark," Mangual also told the paper.An NYPD spokesperson told the Post that the department "vigorously investigates every single rape complaint and will continue to work to bring justice to the survivors of these heinous crimes."Anything else?Other nonviolent crimes, including retail theft, also have become an issue in New York City since the increase in illegal immigration under the administration of President Joe Biden.Chris Sciacco, the owner of Kaiya's Pallets at 36-37 31st St. in Long Island City, recently told the Post in a separate story that his business "won't survive" if the rampant shoplifting crisis continues. He claims illegal aliens target his 4,500-square-foot variety store up to six times per week, costing him about $3,000 each month in losses. "It's affecting the business and affecting our overhead," Sciacco told the paper. "I don't know if we can continue to survive at this rate."On July 11, one man stole an entire pallet of Gatorade from Sciacco's store, he stated."I called [the NYPD] six times, waited over eight hours, and not one cop showed up to help me," he said. "I also tried to flag down over 30 cop cars on the street, and not one stopped to help me or even see what was wrong."New York's sanctuary policies have prevented local law enforcement officials from cooperating with federal immigration officials. However, the Biden administration's acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director P.J. Lechleitner recently told NBC News that some sanctuary jurisdictions appear to be reconsidering their policies."For many, many years, certain states and jurisdictions just have been really reticent about dealing with us because of the civil immigration piece of it," Lechleitner explained. "You've seen some examples of this where some individuals unfortunately were encountered by local law enforcement and because of the policies put in place, either at the state or local level, they weren't allowed to notify immigration authorities ... and all of a sudden you have people being released and reoffending."He added that "at-large arrests put the citizenry at risk because we have to do an arrest in neighborhoods. We shouldn't have to do that. Let's do it in a controlled setting, so everyone's safe. My folks are safe, the local community's safe, and the non-citizens are safe as well."Like Blaze News? 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Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle admitted at the start of Monday's House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing that the attempted assassination on former President Donald Trump was a massive failure — but went on to say she is still the best person for the job."The assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump on July 13 is the most significant operational failure of the Secret Service in decades, and I am keeping him and his family in my thoughts," said Cheatle. "The Secret Service's solemn mission is to protect our nation's leaders. On July 13, we failed. As director of the United States Secret Service, I take full responsibility for any security lapse of our agency."'I just don't think this is partisan.' — (@) Cheatle was evasive in much of the questioning from Republicans and Democrats about the attempted assassination, citing the ongoing investigation into the incident. When asked why the roof used by the shooter was left unsecured, Cheatle said it was outside the security perimeter. While there were plans to provide greater oversight for the rally, she said the agency is still looking into why the roof was left unsecured. — (@) Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) pressed Cheatle on whether she really is the best person to be director of an important law enforcement agency."I think that I am the best person to lead the Secret Service at this time," Cheatle replied.The calls for Cheatle to step down during the hearing were bipartisan. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) got Cheatle to again admit that Saturday's shooting was a failure of her agency."I just don't think this is partisan. If you have an assassination attempt on a president, a former president, or a candidate, you need to resign," Khanna said, pointing to Director Stuart Knight, who resigned after the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan. — (@) Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) also ripped into Cheatle for her lack of "answers" nearly 10 days after the shooting took place."The idea that a report will be finalized in 60 days, let alone prior to any actionable decisions that would be made, is simply not acceptable. It has been 10 days since an assassination attempt on a former president. There need to be answers," Ocasio-Cortez said.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Players from the St. Lous Cardinals and Tampa Bay Rays appeared to be referencing the assassination attempt of Donald Trump in their on-field celebrations. The Cardinals spoke to media and were downplaying the political connection, however.Cardinals players Lars Nootbaar, Brendan Donovan, and Nolan Gorman were all seen putting one hand over their ear and raising a fist when celebrating home runs recently, prompting questions about the connections to Trump.Then, after outfielder Alec Burleson hit a home run, video circulated online showing him doing the same celebration as he rounded third base, with cameras then cutting to the dugout showing the rest of the team joining in.'Definitely not a political statement. I think that’s a little off-base here.'Veteran player and designated hitter Matt Carpenter spoke to the media about the celebrations and seemingly downplayed any political references. However, it was also difficult to discern whether Carpenter was actually being sarcastic."Burleson is a former college rapper," Carpenter said. "He's been carrying us at the plate. [The celebration] is the furthest thing from a political statement," he told the Athletic.Carpenter then called it an "inside joke" and said the hand gestures were referencing a DJ."This isn't a political statement by any means. I don't know where that came from.""It’s slowly catching on," Carpenter continued. "I don't know who, or the first official guy to do it on the field, but it was for sure in the first half. It picked up steam in this series, for sure.""Definitely not a political statement. I think that’s a little off-base here," he added.While it's hard to discern the truth from those statements, the water is less muddied when it comes to Rays shortstop Taylor Walls. When the 28-year-old hit a double against the New York Yankees, he stopped at second base and pumped his fist twice while mouthing the words, "Fight, fight."Some alleged fans responded to social media posts by the teams with inflammatory remarks about Trump.One fan called Walls a "Nazi," while another social media user alluded to the team being "fascist."Looks like you need to suspend Taylor Walls. Fans will not tolerate Nazis in MLB.— Ken Krawchuk (@DetroitBoy16) July 21, 2024 Replies on the Cardinals' latest social media post received fewer negative remarks; however, one fan called the celebrations a "fascist salute."Loved the part where your guys all did a fascist salute as a HR celebration. Classiest team in baseball as always.— kit ?️??️⚧️?? (@HelluvaBttmCrtr) July 21, 2024 Some players have made it far less of a question as to where their support lies; Washington Nationals pitcher Patrick Corbin simply posted the iconic image of Trump raising his fist in the air on his Instagram page. The only caption for the photo was the American flag.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!