Mass of Giant Sloths Died Together, and Scientists Can’t Figure out Why

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Paleontologists Dig Into a Giant Sloth Boneyard

By Scientific American. . .Fossilization is a fairly rare occurrence to start with. Most lives that ever have been lived left no record of their existence or passing. So when paleontologists come across dense pockets of bone, representing not just one animal but many, how such an ancient treasure trove was assembled is one of the core threads that we can pull on to unravel the mystery of a time long gone. So it is with a massive accumulation of sloths found in Santa Elena, Ecuador.

The site, called Tanque Loma, has just gotten a detailed description from paleontologist Emily Lindsey and colleagues. It’s a fantastically-rich Ice Age bonebed, containing the remains of at least 22 individual Eremotherium laurillardi – one of the largest of the giant ground sloths. What’s more, the bones are entombed in sediment rich in asphalt and the mashed-up plant material found at the site are the sloth’s feces, gut contents, or both. So how did so many sloths wind up buried in the same spot?

First, the asphalt is something of a red herring. This place wasn’t a sticky trap like the famous La Brea asphalt seeps in Los Angeles. Instead, the bonebed was created in a watery environment that was later infiltrated by asphalt. Digging deeper, Lindsey and coauthors write, Tanque Loma was “a low-energy, anoxic, marshy aquatic environment” that sometimes went dry for long enough to let terrestrial plants to grow there. And this backdrop may hold the key to what befell the sloths. . .

But why at this place, and why so many? There are other bonebeds near Tanque Loma, but none contain Eremotherium in such great abundance. And bonebeds like this can form in very different ways. Perhaps the sloths stuck around a dried-up watering hole too long. Maybe some local catastrophe killed a whole bunch of the sloths at once. Maybe this place took victims over time, with mud or some other trapping mechanism preventing sloth after sloth from escaping. Or perhaps ancient humans with a hunger for sloths created this site. (Read more from “Paleontologists Dig Into a Giant Sloth Boneyard” HERE)

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A Bone Bed Reveals Mass Death of Herd of Giant Ground Sloths

By Nature. . .The team found that the animals ranged from juveniles to full-grown adults, hinting that these Ice Age behemoths might have travelled in herds. The site, which has been carbon dated to roughly 18,000 to 23,000 years ago, features copious remains of the beasts’ digested food.

Ground sloths found at other fossil sites died after becoming mired in asphalt seeps. But the authors hypothesize that the Tanque Loma animals might have been gathered in a drying waterhole — as modern-day hippopotamuses do — when they perished of thirst or disease. (Read more from “A Bone Bed Reveals Mass Death of Herd of Giant Ground Sloths” HERE)

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Tulsi Gabbard Sues Hillary Clinton for Defamation

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Tulsi Gabbard said that the $50 million in damages sought in her defamation lawsuit against Hillary Clinton is not enough.

“It should have been for $50 billion,” the Hawaii congresswoman and Democratic presidential candidate said when asked how she arrived at the figure. “What is your life worth to you? What is your honor and loyalty and your identity worth to you?”

Gabbard on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against Clinton, asserting that the former Secretary of State’s October 2019 comments in which she asserted that Gabbard was being groomed by Republicans to run as a third-party spoiler candidate and appeared to call her a “Russian asset” harmed Gabbard’s political ambitions. (Read more from “Tulsi Gabbard Sues Hillary Clinton for Defamation” HERE)

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DHS Started Preparing Against Iran Threats Months Ago, Acting Secretary Says; The New Iranian General to Watch

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By Daily Caller. Chad Wolf, the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), said the U.S. government was well prepared for any threats from Iran because it had prepared months in advance.

Wolf visited Yuma, Arizona, earlier in January to commemorate 100 miles of border wall built since the beginning of the Trump administration. The acting DHS chief spoke to the Daily Caller News Foundation about construction progress, the roadblocks to securing the border, and about the recent security threats from Iran — which is largely under the purview of DHS.

While the events earlier in January between the U.S. military and Iran appeared to catch the public by surprise, Wolf revealed that his government was able to hit the ground running to ensure the public was safe because it had been preparing since the summer.

“The nation-state of Iran and the threats that surround that are nothing new to the department, nothing new to the U.S. government generally,” Wolf told the DCNF. “We started working collaboratively within our department to come up with contingency plans for the variety of different threats. We had that on the shelf this summer, so when the events on the second took place, we took that off and started implementing those right away.” (Read more from “DHS Started Preparing Against Iran Threats Months Ago, Acting Secretary Says” HERE)

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The New Iranian General to Watch

By Politico. The U.S. killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani earlier this month deprived Iran of one of its most singular leaders, and created new questions about Iran’s strategy of building and maintaining its power in the region. Without its charismatic and high-profile commander, would Iran be forced to retrench and pause? Or would it find new ways to lash out? . . .

This week, Iran announced a new and potentially more telling promotion: The new Quds Force deputy commander will be Gen. Muhammad Hussein-Zada Hejazi, who most recently commanded the Quds Force’s Lebanon Corps, overseeing Iran’s ties to Hezbollah and the Quds Force activities throughout the Levant more broadly.

The message behind Hejazi’s promotion is clear: Soleimani may be dead, but the Quds Force he led lives on, and is taking active measures to ensure it is able to continue pursuing the regional strategy he championed.

Forced to rebuild the proxy management and command and control mechanisms that Soleimani once ran himself by force of personality and longtime connections, Iran is developing a new strategy to oversee what Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei described as “fighters without borders.” And the strategy comes down to this: Since no one commander can replace Soleimani, Iran’s proxy network will now be run by committee, with the Quds Force cobbling together a crew of its more senior and experienced managers to collectively fill the roles Soleimani had taken on himself. Key leaders of Iranian proxy groups, especially Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah, are sure to play major roles. But policymakers should pay especially close attention to personnel shifts and promotions within the Quds Force itself. (Read more from “The New Iranian General to Watch” HERE)

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Trump Administration Releases Rule to Restrict ‘Birth Tourism’

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The Trump administration on Thursday formally issued a rule allowing customs officials to deny entry to travelers whom they suspect are headed to the U.S. for the sole purpose of giving birth on American soil.

A rule issued by the State Department marks the administration’s first formal effort to cut down on the practice known as “birth tourism,” which President Trump has heavily criticized and suggested should be a reason for ending birthright citizenship.

“This rule establishes that travel to the United States with the primary purpose of obtaining U.S. citizenship for a child by giving birth in the United States is an impermissible basis for the issuance of a B nonimmigrant visa,” the statute reads.

“Consequently, a consular officer shall deny a B nonimmigrant visa to an alien who he or she has reason to believe intends to travel for this primary purpose,” it continues.

The White House said in a statement that “the birth tourism industry threatens to overburden valuable hospital resources and is rife with criminal activity, as reflected in Federal prosecutions.” (Read more from “Trump Administration Releases Rule to Restrict ‘Birth Tourism'” HERE)

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Almost Two-Thirds of Americans Will Back Candidates Who Support Abortion Bans or Restrictions

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More than half of Americans say they are more likely to favor candidates in 2020 who support abortion restrictions ranging from an outright ban up to allowing the procedure only in the first trimester, a new poll has found.

The Marist poll, which was commissioned by the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic organization, found that 65% of Americans are likely to vote for a candidate who believes abortion should be outlawed after the first three months of a pregnancy; allowed only in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother; or not permitted under any circumstance.

Twenty-five percent said they would be more likely to vote for a candidate who believes abortion should be available at any point during a pregnancy, and 9% said they would back a candidate who thinks the procedure should be allowed only in the first six months of a pregnancy.

When it comes to how Americans characterize their views on abortion, 55% consider themselves pro-choice and 40% say they are pro-life. Public attitudes abortion have diverged in the last year, as a February 2019 poll found Americans were as likely to consider themselves pro-life — 47% — as they were pro-choice.

The survey also found that seven in 10 Americans support limiting abortion to the first trimester of a pregnancy. Twenty-one percent believe the procedure should be available to a woman at any point during her pregnancy. (Read more from “Almost Two-Thirds of Americans Will Back Candidates Who Support Abortion Bans or Restrictions” HERE)

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Alleged Al-Qaeda Jihadis Caught Trying to Enter U.S. With Fake Colombian Passports

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American authorities identified and apprehended three Syrian nationals accused of belonging to al-Qaeda in Dallas, Texas, from Colombia, the Colombian news agency RCN reported on Thursday, publishing images of the three individuals’ fake passports.

According to RCN, American law enforcement identified the three individuals as Al Raefee, Tuameh Tuameh, and Al Harari Al Harari. The three are believed to be in U.S. custody, soon to be charged with membership in a terrorist organization. The men appear to have entered Colombia through Venezuela, where they acquired Colombian residency paperwork, a government identification card, and a Colombian passport through an illegal documentation network.

Journalist Luis Carlos Vélez published images of the counterfeit passports on Twitter, noting that the men appeared to have crossed into Colombia through the La Guajira border crossing with Venezuela. Reports have not yet specified how the Syrians entered Venezuela or how long they had spent in the country after leaving Syria. Vélez reportedly stated that the U.S. embassy identified them as al-Qaeda terrorists when they attempted to procure U.S. visas, which does not align with the RCN report that police arrested them in Dallas. The RCN report does not note if Dallas authorities arrested them at the airport, which would suggest the men did receive U.S. visas and got onboard a flight to the country, or if they arrived by other means.

American authorities reportedly suspected criminal activity after inspecting the passports and finding several irregularities. The identification numbers on all three passports, RCN noted, did not match their birthdates. Colombian passports assign numbers to citizens based on when they were born. Although the youngest of the three men is 45 years old according to his passport, the identification number on his passport corresponded to a much more recently born person, at most 25 years old. (Read more from “Alleged Al-Qaeda Jihadis Caught Trying to Enter U.S. With Fake Colombian Passports” HERE)

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Start-Up Linked to Hunter Biden’s Firm Bagged $3 Million From Government Program Run by Biden Adviser

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An investment fund connected to Hunter Biden received three million dollars in taxpayer cash from a federal program run by one of his father’s top advisers, according to revelations in Profiles in Corruption: Abuse of Power by America’s Progressive Elite—a new book by Peter Schweizer, a senior contributor at Breitbart News and the president of the Government Accountability Institute.

In December 2013, Hunter Biden along with his long-time business associate Devon Archer invested in a Hawaii-focused venture capital fund called mbloom. The investment in mbloom, meant to provide seed capital for technology startups, was the result of a public-private partnership between Biden’s firm, Rosemont Seneca Technology (RST) Partners, and the state of Hawaii.

As part of the agreement, RST would provide five million for the fund, with the Hawaii Strategic Development Corporation (HSDC) matching the same amount. Little-known at the time, however, was that more than half of HSDC’s contribution would come from a federal program controlled by a confidant of the Biden family.

As Schweizer reveals in Profiles in Corruption, three million of HSDC’s matching funds came from the Treasury Department’s State Small Business Credit Initiative. The program, which expenses more than $1.5 billion to state economic development agencies, was administered by then-Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Don Graves.

Complicating matters is that while Graves was overseeing the Small Business Credit Initiative, he was also informally advising Biden on economic and domestic policy as the executive director of the president’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. That role took on a more official form shortly after mbloom received its contribution from HSDC, with Graves leaving the treasury department and joining the vice president’s office. (Read more from “Start-Up Linked to Hunter Biden’s Firm Bagged $3 Million From Government Program Run by Biden Adviser” HERE)

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DOJ Concludes That Two FISA Surveillance Renewals on Carter Page Were Illegal

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By The Blaze. The Department of Justice concluded that two renewals of the FISA surveillance warrant against a former Trump campaign official were illegal, according to a report Thursday in the Wall Street Journal.

Carter Page was targeted by the FBI for surveillance during the Obama administration because of ties he had to Russia, but critics have accused the government of acting improperly and out of political motivation.

Two of the renewals of the warrant against Page were made in 2017, and the DOJ now believes they had “insufficient predication to establish probable cause.”

The admission will undoubtedly help bolster claims of politically motivated abuse of power against former Obama officials.

“Today’s unprecedented court filing represents another step on the road to recovery for America’s deeply damaged judicial system,” said Page in a statement responding to the report. (Read more from “DOJ Concludes That Two FISA Surveillance Renewals on Carter Page Were Illegal” HERE)

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Justice Dept. Concedes It Had ‘Insufficient’ Cause to Continue Monitoring Former Trump Campaign Adviser in Russia Probe

By The Washington Post. The Justice Department secretly acknowledged last month that it had “insufficient predication” to continue monitoring a former Trump campaign adviser during the FBI’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to records made public Thursday — a notable admission likely to fuel continued criticism over how the bureau handled the high-profile case.

The concession was revealed in an order posted on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court’s website. In December, according to the order, the department told the court it had come to believe that in at least two of the four applications to monitor the former adviser, Carter Page, “there was insufficient predication to establish probable cause” to believe he was acting as a Russian agent. . .

The department’s concession is validating for conservatives who had long criticized the surveillance of Page, and it is likely to fuel continued attacks on the Russia probe, which was eventually taken over by former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. (Read more from “Justice Dept. Concedes It Had ‘Insufficient’ Cause to Continue Monitoring Former Trump Campaign Adviser in Russia Probe” HERE)

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Three U.S. Firefighters Killed While Battling Australia’s Wildfires; Destructive Hail and a Massive Dust Storm Descend on Fire-Ravaged Australia (VIDEO)

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By The Blaze. Three American firefighters were killed in Australia while fighting the country’s ongoing wildfires on Thursday, when the air tanker they were flying in crashed. . .

The victims were crew members on Tanker 134, a Lockheed C-130 Hercules that was carrying retardant when it went down in New South Whales. Canadian-based private company Coulson Aviation, the owner of the aircraft, confirmed the tragedy in a news release.
The names of the fallen firefighters have not yet been released, but according to the Los Angeles Times, the U.S. Forest Service confirmed the tragedy in an email on Thursday.

“The wildland firefighting community is a family and when there is a loss it is felt throughout the entire organization,” the email said. “We extend our deepest sympathy to the families of the fallen.”

New South Whales Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said during a press conference, “Initial reports are that there was a large fireball associated with the impact of the plane as it hit the ground. Unfortunately, all we’ve been able to do is locate the wreckage and the crash site. We have not been able to locate any survivors,” NBC News reported. (Read more from “Three U.S. Firefighters Killed While Battling Australia’s Wildfires” HERE)

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Destructive Hail and a Massive Dust Storm Descend on Fire-Ravaged Australia

By NPR. Australia’s southeast was already dealing with the terrible effects of historic bushfires and huge smoke clouds. Then Canberra, Melbourne and other places were hit by golf-ball-sized hail that destroyed car windshields, killed birds and shredded the leaves off trees.

The Bureau of Meteorology in New South Wales, the country’s most populous state, warned residents of “damaging winds, large, possibly giant hailstones and heavy rainfall” as it issued severe thunderstorm warnings in the east and northeast.

The storms also prompted warnings of flash floods — adding another element of risk to areas that have been hit hard by the fires.


In the Australian Capital Territory, which includes the capital city of Canberra, the weather service reported hail Monday measuring up to nearly 2 inches in diameter — accompanied by wind gusts that were near hurricane-strength.

The storm was intense and fast-moving. The territory’s Emergency Services Agency reported receiving a record 1,900 calls for help — more than three times the average for a storm. All of those calls came in after midday, the agency said.

(Read more from “Destructive Hail and a Massive Dust Storm Descend on Fire-Ravaged Australia” HERE)

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Report: Co-Workers of Alleged Whistleblower Say They Heard Him Plotting Trump’s Removal in 2017; Ted Cruz Says Adam Schiff Made Hunter Biden’s Testimony ‘Directly Relevant’

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By The Blaze. Former colleagues of alleged impeachment whistleblower Eric Ciaramella say they heard him discussing ways to get President Donald Trump out of office within days of his inauguration in January 2017, according to RealClearInvestigations.

The sources, who spoke to RCI under the condition of anonymity, said Ciaramella talked about ousting Trump with Sean Misko. Ciaramella and Misko were holdovers from the Obama Administration’s national security team.

According to the sources, Ciaramella and Misko, who are reportedly friends, were upset about Trump’s policy changes from the Obama administration.

“They were popping off about how they were going to remove Trump from office. No joke,” one ex-colleague told RCI. (Read more from “Report: Co-Workers of Alleged Whistleblower Say They Heard Him Plotting Trump’s Removal in 2017” HERE)

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Trump Disrupts Republican Trial Strategy

By Politico. Just five hours after Senate Republicans carefully assembled and passed an impeachment trial framework that could clear Donald Trump by next week, the president himself delivered an unwanted surprise to the GOP: The prospect of a longer trial with lots of witnesses.

Senate Republicans have been publicly and privately maneuvering to give Trump as quick an acquittal as possible while still keeping 51 GOP senators on board. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has largely thrown cold water on the idea of hearing from new witnesses and many of his members are eager to end the trial, not extend it.

In interviews Wednesday morning ahead of House managers’ opening arguments, Republicans empathized with the president’s call for new testimony. But they also said that they will tune out any outside noise if they can — including the running commentary from a president who demands party loyalty — and potentially wrap up the trial far more quickly than Trump desires.

“Certainly, the president has those in the Senate who are very interested in his views,” said Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), but added, “Those are decisions to more likely be made by senators themselves, and individually and collectively, than outside influences.” (Read more from “Trump Disrupts Republican Trial Strategy” HERE)

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Ted Cruz Says Adam Schiff Made Hunter Biden’s Testimony ‘Directly Relevant’

By Daily Caller. Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz told reporters on Wednesday that Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff’s day two impeachment arguments before the Senate made testimony by Hunter Biden “directly relevant” and “critical.”

“I think the House managers made a very serious strategic error today,” Cruz said, according to ABC News. “Adam Schiff’s arguments to open the day today directly drew into question Hunter Biden and made not only his testimony relevant which it already was but it is now critical.”

The Texas senator, who last week said he is “open to the possibility” of the Senate calling witnesses, including the whistleblower, contended that if the “House managers’ case is based on the allegations of corruption concerning Hunter Biden and Joe Biden being a scam,” then the Senate being able to hear from Biden is “directly relevant.”

“And I gotta say, the need for the Senate to hear the testimony of Hunter Biden and the need for the senate to grant the White House lawyers the ability to take that testimony has become all the more relevant,” he said per ABC. (Read more from “Ted Cruz Says Adam Schiff Made Hunter Biden’s Testimony ‘Directly Relevant’” HERE)

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