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Archaeologists working at an ancient site in central China have uncovered evidence that early humans may have become more inventive while living through a brutal ice age. The discovery comes from the Lingjing archaeological site, where researchers have spent more than 10 years excavating animal bones and sophisticated stone tools linked to an extinct human relative called Homo juluensis.

A new study found that the site dates back about 146,000 years, placing it squarely within a cold glacial period rather than a warmer era as scientists once believed. The findings challenge the long-standing idea that creativity and technological advances mainly developed during times of environmental stability and abundance.

“People often imagine creativity as something that flourishes in good times,” says Yuchao Zhao, the assistant curator of East Asian archaeology at the Field Museum in Chicago and the lead author of a paper describing the findings in the Journal of Human Evolution. “Finding out that these stone tools were made during a harsh ice age tells a different story. Hard times can force us to adapt.”

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When an itch strikes, scratching usually brings relief after a few moments. Scientists have now uncovered part of the biological system that tells the brain when enough scratching has occurred. The discovery reveals how the nervous system naturally limits scratching and may help explain why this process breaks down in people with chronic itch disorders. The findings were presented at the 70th Biophysical Society Annual Meeting.

Researchers from the laboratory of Roberta Gualdani at the University of Louvain in Brussels identified an unexpected role for a molecule known as TRPV4 in itch triggered by mechanical stimulation, such as scratching.

“We were initially studying TRPV4 in the context of pain,” Gualdani explained. “But instead of a pain phenotype, what emerged very clearly was a disruption of itch, specifically, how scratching behavior is regulated.”

While the signals from Iran continue to be conflicting and often changing from one moment to the next, the U.S. stock market seems to have adapted to this uncertainty.

The Strait of Hormuz remains unopened, mostly, and the President does not seem hard-pressed to settle on a ceasefire or resume “offensive” actions.

There continues to be troubling signs for the world economy should the Strait of Hormuz continue to remain unopened, especially for Europe, but so far, the U.S. has yet to feel the pinch, save for at the gas pump.

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The woman behind the Virginia special election to effectively eliminate 4 GOP U.S. House seats is now under FBI investigation. Virginia’s State Senator L. Louise Lucas saw her offices raided, along with other businesses connected to her.

So far, only anonymous sources are cited as claiming this is connected to a corruption investigation directly linked to her. She is considered the main driver of the Virginia gerrymander election plan that is currently under legal scrutiny.

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North Korea is no longer seeking unity with South Korea. It was once a part of their constitution, but now that article has been dropped.

The separation from the South is now complete, at least for Kim Jung Un and his family business, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

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Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) publicly confessed to working with foreign governments to undermine U.S. policy in Cuba.

She declared, “I was in conversations with the ambassadors from Mexico and some other places, other countries in Latin America trying to figure out how to get oil there. I’ve called these sanctions an economic bombing of the infrastructure of Cuba.”

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Democrat Gov. Tim Walz is facing mounting scrutiny after Vice President JD Vance confirmed that federal authorities are investigating whether Minnesota officials failed to properly respond to massive fraud allegations tied to taxpayer-funded programs across the state.

The investigation follows a sweeping federal operation carried out across the Minneapolis area late last month.

FBI agents and federal investigators executed more than 20 search warrants targeting businesses connected to child care services, autism treatment programs, and other publicly funded operations.

Federal officials say the probe centers on allegations involving fraudulent Medicaid reimbursements, abuse of state and federal child care assistance programs, and broader misuse of taxpayer dollars.

Trump administration officials have suggested the total amount under investigation could ultimately reach into the billions.

“[Minnesota is] under investigation by our great vice president,” President Donald Trump said Wednesday.

“They’re finding a lot.”

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Just days after a recent Supreme Court ruling against unconstitutional race-based gerrymandering, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced that it will enforce the decision nationwide.

Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Harmeet Dhillon told Just the News, “This is the law of the land now, and eventually every jurisdiction in the United States is going to have to comply with race-free line-drawing.”

Last week, Supreme Court justices ruled 6–3 in Louisiana v. Callais that the state’s newly redrawn congressional map relied “too heavily on race” in creating a second majority-black district in the state.

That decision is expected to affect states with maps drawn to heavily favor Democrats, including California, New York, Colorado, Illinois, Connecticut, Maryland, Minnesota, Oregon, Washington, and Virginia.

Many of these states have enacted their own Voting Rights Acts, which explicitly use race as a predominant factor in determining districts.

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The Department of Justice is still searching for answers about what happened in the 2020 presidential election.

The DOJ has filed a subpoena seeking the names of every election worker involved in the 2020 presidential election.

The subpoena also requests information about all volunteers who assisted Fulton County election staffers.

NBC News had the full scoop on the DOJ’s move and covered the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections’ response:

The Justice Department is seeking the names and contact information of election workers in Fulton County, Georgia, who worked during the 2020 presidential election, according to legal filings.

The Justice Department filed a subpoena in April to try to force the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections to release the names, addresses and contact information for 2020 election staff members and volunteers. The grand jury subpoena was made public Monday as the Fulton County board urged a judge to quash it. The New York Times was first to report the subpoena.

The subpoena marks an expanded effort by the Justice Department to investigate the 2020 election, which President Donald Trump has continued to focus on since he lost there.

Reached for comment, Fulton County Chairman Robb Pitts said that “the federal government once again is attempting to misuse criminal process.”

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Turning Point USA Frontlines reporter Savanah Hernandez has filed a civil lawsuit against Christopher, DeYanna, and Paige Ostroushko after they were caught on video violently attacking her at an anti-ICE protest in Minneapolis, while the journalist was covering the event.

The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the District of Minnesota, accuses the Ostroushko family of assault and battery stemming from the April 11 protest outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis. According to the complaint, Hernandez was “viciously and repeatedly attacked” while reporting on demonstrations connected to what organizers called “National F*ck ICE Day.”

Hernandez announced the civil suit on X, writing, “I promised to use every legal avenue to hold the Ostroushkos responsible and will be working with @MurdockJDF as we continue to pursue justice.”

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“My prediction is by the end of 2028, it’s more likely than not that we have an AI system where you would be able to say to it: ‘Make a better version of yourself.’ And it just goes off and does that completely autonomously,” Jack Clark, who heads The Anthropic Institute, told Axios.

Clark, co-founder of Anthropic, says his institute is seeing signs of “AI contributing to speeding up the research and development of AI itself,” a process known as recursive self-improvement. 

Clark adds, “It’s always been the case that humans outside the technology need to come up with the ideas that they then put back into it. What happens if we have a technology that can generate ideas within itself for how to improve itself? That’s a new concept.”

Too fast, too soon. The speed with which AI systems are evolving is far outstripping our ability to gauge the impact on humans and society. Lots of good things can happen in medicine, biology, and other sciences where AI is already making a big impact. The speed and autonomy of artificial intelligence models promise an abundant future.

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VATICAN CITY — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed “efforts to achieve a durable peace in the Middle East” in talks at the Vatican on Thursday aimed at easing tensions following U.S. President Donald Trump’s criticisms of Pope Leo XIV.

Rubio met with Leo and then Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin in a visit that lasted 2½ hours.

U.S. State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said that Rubio and Leo discussed the situation in the Middle East “and topics of mutual interest in the Western Hemisphere. The meeting underscored the strong relationship between the United States and the Holy See and their shared commitment to promoting peace and human dignity,” he said.

In a separate statement about the Parolin meeting, Pigott said that the two diplomats discussed “ongoing humanitarian efforts in the Western Hemisphere and efforts to achieve a durable peace in the Middle East. The discussion reflected the enduring partnership between the United States and the Holy See in advancing religious freedom,” the statement said.

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President Trump threatened Iran on Wednesday with new attacks, warning they would be at a “higher level and intensity” than previous rounds of bombing, if it declined to agree to a peace deal, which he said was “perhaps, a big assumption.”

His latest remarks, in a Truth Social post, came 13 hours after he said in a previous post that he was pausing Project Freedom, a U.S. military operation to guide vessels through the Strait of Hormuz that lasted one day and drew a violent reaction by Iran, to see if a peace deal could be reached amid “great progress” in negotiations.

“Assuming Iran agrees to give what has been agreed to, which is, perhaps, a big assumption, the already legendary Epic Fury will be at an end, and the highly effective Blockade will allow the Hormuz Strait to be OPEN TO ALL, including Iran,” Mr. Trump said Wednesday. “If they don’t agree, the bombing starts, and it will be, sadly, at a much higher level and intensity than it was before.”

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On Wednesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Ingraham Angle,” Border Czar Tom Homan said that “about 60% of everybody we’re arresting is a criminal. The other 40% are not. I think that’s a good percentage.”

Homan said, [relevant remarks begin around 4:20] “[L]ook, we’re going to arrest non-criminals, even though President Trump is prioritizing public safety threats, national security threats. If you look at the numbers right now, about 60% of everybody we’re arresting is a criminal. The other 40% are not. I think that’s a good percentage. I think that’s a better percentage than 40% criminal and 60% non-criminal. But everybody’s on the table.”

He continued, “And here is what Kathy Hochul (D) is going to get in New York: When you force us into the community to find the bad guy — and we will find them — many times they’re with others, others that may be in the country illegally, but not a target — not a criminal threat, not a national security threat. They may have been here for 20 years. But guess what? They’re coming too, because they’re in the country illegally. We’re not going to tell ICE to turn a blind eye to the oath they took or ignore the laws passed by Congress that we get appropriated to enforce.”

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“We gonna have to resist with every fiber in our body. We gonna have to take this system on at every election.”

Democratic Mississippi Representative Bennie Thompson compared the ongoing redistricting efforts in Southern states to a “second Civil War” as his state considers congressional map changes that could potentially eliminate his district. This follows the Supreme Court’s ruling that creating congressional districts based on the racial composition of its resident is unconstitutional.

“This is equivalent to a second Civil War,” Thompson said during an appearance on Al Sharpton’s MS NOW “PoliticsNation.”

“We’re gonna have to get our act together,” he added. “We gonna have to resist with every fiber in our body. We gonna have to take this system on at every election.”

Thompson later shared a clip of his remarks on social media, writing, “I don’t care what they say; we are committed to fighting this redistricting no matter what. There are more at stake than meets the eye, and we’ve come too far to ever turn around!”