'Barbie' star America Ferrera delivered her speech in a lot of different ways.

Jayson Tatum scored 35 points, Jaylen Brown added 22 and Kristaps Porzingis had 21 to lead the Boston Celtics to a 114-98 victory over the New York Knicks

With the tragedy and horror wreaked in Morocco last week, it's unsurprising that people’s focus hasn’t been on the skies. And yet, Friday’s devastating earthquake, has also sparked renewed interest in a mysterious aerial phenomenon. Footage shared to social media just moments before the 6.8-magnitude tremor struck the High Atlas mountains appears to show blinding lights flashing across the sky. Experts have suggested that the jaw-dropping sight is evidence of an enigmatic natural occurrence called “earthquake lights”. Reports of these bright flashes go back centuries. And yet, very little is known about them, to the point that scientists aren’t even sure they’re real. Indeed, some experts have concluded that there isn’t sufficient proof to support their existence, the United States Geological Survey notes. Nevertheless, “people have wondered about them forever," Karen Daniels, a physicist at North Carolina State University, told the New York Times. "It's one of those persistent mysteries that hang around and never quite get nailed." The issue with studying earthquake lights is that since earthquakes are impossible to predict, so are any preceding celestial pyrotechnics. Not knowing when or where they will occur means researchers can’t preemptively install the necessary equipment needed to detect them. Essentially, the only evidence we have comes from eyewitness accounts and, more recently, video recordings. And there is an abundance of the former, with a 2014 study noting that aerial luminous phenomena were reported in relation to 65 earthquakes which occurred in Europe and America over a period of 200 years. These descriptions of earthquake lights vary in their details, with some recalling on-and-of lightning-style flashes, and others minutes-long glows of different colours. “All of these have been reported by observers,” John Ebel, a seismologist at Boston Collegel told the NYT. “Which ones are actually true, and which ones are products of their imagination, we can’t really say.” One theory behind the formation of earthquake lights is that they are the result of friction between tectonic plates generating electricity. However, most experts are unconvinced by this hypothesis, including Dr Daniels. She told the NYT: “Rock on rock is not a situation where people have been able to generate large charge separation. And so it just doesn’t seem like a very good explanation for what people see.” Other scientists have suggested electrical arcing from power lines shaken by earthquakes could be responsible for the sky flares. But Dr Daniels acknowledged it’s still possible that there’s no link at all between the lights and tectonic events. “We’re comforted by things that we can understand, and we’re scared by things we don’t,” she pointed out. “I think that’s part of the reason we’re so fascinated by this phenomenon.” Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Just one day before Friday's key monthly jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, private payroll processor ADP reported a massive, unexpected spike in hiring activity in June.

STAMFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 1, 2023--

British bank NatWest on Friday said it had launched an independent review into its handling of arch-Brexiteer Nigel Farage, whose account it controversially shut, costing...

Chile's state-owned copper mining giant Codelco has shut down its Ventanas copper smelter after decades of polluting Quintero Bay with toxic gases and turning it, along with 15 other companies, into an environmental “sacrifice zone.”

Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of killing four University of Idaho students last fall, was not at the location where the crimes took place, his defense attorneys suggested Tuesday, though they have yet to provide evidence or details about his whereabouts.

The Fulton County special purpose grand jury investigating former President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia recommended charges against 39 people, the unredacted grand jury report made public Friday shows.

CORVALLIS, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 4, 2023--

Miami Dolphins wide receiver Daewood Davis was released from the hospital on Sunday after being stretchered off the field following what proved to be an...

Donald Trump issued pardons and commuted dozens of sentences for people incarcerated for drug crimes while he was in the White House. His administration also hailed the passage of the First Step Act during his presidency as a rare bipartisan achievement towards criminal justice reform. But during his presidency, and throughout his 2024 campaign for the Republican nomination for president, with a string of violent, provocative statements from inside the White House and to crowds at campaign rallies, he has called for executing people convicted for drug crimes. In an interview with Fox News host Bret Baier that aired on 20 June, the host noted that Mr Trump’s demands to kill drug offenders would have applied to people like Alice Marie Johnson, a high-profile formerly incarcerated person who was pardoned by Mr Trump during an Oval Office event in 2020. “She’d be killed under your plan,” Mr Baier said. “Huh?” Mr Trump said after a pause. “No, no, no. Oh, under that? Uh, it would depend on the severity,” he said. “She can’t do it, OK? By the way, if that was there? She wouldn’t be killed, it would start as of now. So you wouldn’t go to the past.” He also stated that Ms Johnson would not have committed any crime, if she knew that a potential sentence, if convicted, was her death. In 2020, one day after she praised his administration during the Republican National Convention, Mr Trump granted a full pardon to Ms Johnson, who had served 22 years of a life sentence on charges related to cocaine distribution and money laundering. He had already commuted her sentence in 2018, but he issued a surprise pardon – effectively deleting her conviction and restoring her rights as a citizen – the day after she delivered a supportive speech at the RNC. “We’re going to give a full pardon. We’re going to do it right now. That means you have been fully pardoned. That’s the ultimate thing that can happen. That means you can do whatever you want in life and just keep doing the great job you’re doing,” he told her during an Oval Office event. Kim Kardashian had also personally lobbied him to take up her case at the White House. “Some say you do the crime, you do the time. However, that time should be fair and just,” Ms Johnson said during her RNC speech in 2020. “We all make mistakes. None of us wants to be defined forever based on our worst decision.” Republican officials and right-wing pundits have relied on “tough-on-crime” messaging – after 2020 uprisings against police violence, a steady stream of sensational crime coverage across media networks, and the villainizing of so-called “progressive prosecutors” in Democratic-led cities. GOP candidates competing with Mr Trump for the 2024 nomination are now turning to the former president’s attempts at criminal justice reform, zeroing in on Mr Trump’s support for the First Step Act. The law shortened some federal prison sentences, gave judges alternatives to mandatory minimum penalties, and retroactively applied 2010’s Fair Sentencing Act to eliminate racial disparities in prison sentences for cocaine possession. Ron DeSantis called the First Step Act a “jailbreak bill.” Mr Trump’s former Vice President Mike Pence said “we need to take a step back” from the law. Meanwhile, after praising China’s policy of capital punishment for drug traffickers while he was in the White House, Mr Trump has directly called on members of Congress to approve the death penalty for the same crimes in the US in his 2024 campaign. “Under Democrat [sic] control the streets of our great cities are drenched in the blood of innocent victims,” Mr Trump said at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania weeks before formally declaring his candidacy last year. “We would solve that problem so fast” he added. “I’m calling on Republicans and Democrats immediately to institute – to get to Washington and institute the death penalty for drug dealers. You will no longer have a problem.” Mr Trump’s push to execute drug dealers would appear to violate the US Constitution as affirmed by the US Supreme Court, which has held on multiple occasions that death sentences for non-lethal offences are considered cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the 8th Amendment. Read More Trump news – live: Judge sets Mar-a-Lago classified papers trial date as Hunter Biden reaches plea deal Trump calls Fox News ‘hostile’ as he declines to commit to first GOP debate on network Donald Trump helped release drug prisoners. Now he wants to execute them