Vice President JD Vance is leading the U.S. delegation, which is in Pakistan for talks with Iranian officials on Saturday.

The "after" will make you gasp.READ MORE...

Welcome back to the Abstract! Here are the studies this week that were ritually sacrificed, kicked out of the galaxy, taxonomically revised, and wore many hats.First, scientists shed light on human sacrifice and cousin sex using ancient DNA from the bones of people who lived in fifth-century Korea. Then: the yeeting of a star, an octopus imposter, and the indignities of a bare head.As always, for more of my work, check out my book First Contact: The Story of Our Obsession with Aliens or subscribe to my personal newsletter the BeX Files.All in the Family (this time with human sacrifice)Moon, Hyoungmin, and Kim, Daewook et al. Ancient genomes reveal an extensive kinship network and endogamy in a Three-Kingdoms period society in Korea. Science Advances.Ready or not, its time to visit an ancient burial ground packed with the bones of sacrificed families. Welcome to the Imdang-Joyeong site in Korea, which contains a cluster of 1,500-year-old tombs from the tumultuous Three Kingdoms period.As the name suggests, this era was dominated by a trio of warring dynastic factions called the Goguryeo, Baekjae, and Silla. Historical and archaeological evidence suggests that the Silla kingdom followed unique customs, including the practice of Sunjang, a coburial of sacrificed people with an elite grave owner, as well as consanguineous marriagesmarriages between close blood relatives.Now, researchers have now sequenced ancient DNA from 78 deceased individuals to corroborate the findings with confirmed lineages. The results revealed that consanguineous marriages were indeed common, and that adult women were often buried together with their own kin, which is a rarity in ancient graveyards around the world.The three main geographical locations of the tombs consisting of the Imdang-Joyeong burial complex with separate zoom-in panels (i to iii). The green gradient represents elevation, and the green circles represent the position of dirt mounds of the tombs. Image: Moon, Hyoungmin, and Kim, Daewook et al.Silla is thought to have practiced different marital customs from that of its neighbors, such as Goguryeo, said researchers co-led by Hyoungmin Moon of Seoul National University and Daewook Kim of Yeungnam University. Most notably, Silla royal elites are documented to have practiced consanguineous marriage, which is rarely observed in Goguryeo and Baekjae records. Historical accounts of consanguineous marriage are thought to be related to the consolidation of the rank and social status within Silla royals and local elites.However, because of limited ancient genome studies in Korea, no corroborating genomic evidence so far has been reported regarding the marriage customs of the Three-Kingdoms period Koreans, the team added. Our research is the first to analyze the genome-wide composition of closely related individuals from an ancient Three-Kingdoms period of Korea.From left to right, a Baekje, Goguryeo, and Silla envoy depicted in a 6th-century painting.Many tombs at this site include separate chambers for elite grave owners, and for sacrificed people, which often included entire families that may have been ritually sacrificed and buried alongside their masters. Both elites and sacrificed individuals were often born from unions between first or second cousins, suggesting that consanguineous marriages were common across class lines.We found decisive evidence of three cases of families in which parents and their offspring were sacrificed together in the same grave, the team said. Our genetic findings are the first to confirm the acts of Sunjang of an entire household and suggest that these practices might be common for sacrificial burials of the Three-Kingdoms period.In addition, some adult women were buried alongside their parents and grandparents, a pattern that is rare in most other ancient burial grounds in which women tend to be buried alongside their husbands and in-laws. The study offers a rare glimpse of a society with idiosyncratic customs that is ready-made to be the setting of a new HBO prestige series.In other news Its a shooting star leaping through the sky Bhat, Aakash et al. Discovery of a runaway star likely ejected by a Type Iax supernova. Astronomy & Astrophysics.Some space explosions go so hard that they can kick a star right out of a galaxy. Scientists report the serendipitous discovery of one of these so-called runaway stars that was likely ejected from the galaxy approximately 2.8 million years ago with an ejection velocity exceeding 600 kilometers per secondor about 1.3 million miles per houraccording to a new study.This cosmic sprinter is a white dwarf, the collapsed remains of a star, that was accelerated to ludicrous speed by a Type Iax supernovae, a type of stellar kablooey that occurs in some binary star systems.This runaway star is notably hotter than previously studied members of this class, said researchers led by Aakash Bhat of the University of Potsdam. Kinematic analysis indicates that the star has a high probability of being unbound from the Galaxy.So long, runaway star, and safe travels through intergalactic space.A 300-million-year-old case of mistaken identityClements, Thomas et al. Synchrotron data reveal nautiloid characters in Pohlsepia mazonensis, refuting a Palaeozoic origin for octobrachians. Proceedings of the Royal Society B.Prepare to be ink-pilled, because it turns out that the oldest known octopus fossil ever founda 300-million-year old species called Pohlsepia mazonensisis not an octopus at all. It is a member of the nautilus family that just ended up looking sort of like an octopus in part because its shell fell off during the decomposition process.Concept art of dead Pohlsepia mazonensis with its shell off. Image: Dr Thomas Clements, University of ReadingWe present the first comprehensive reassessment of this enigmatic fossil, alongside multiple new specimens, using a suite of advanced analytical techniques, said researchers led by Thomas Clements of the University of Reading. During this process, the team discovered a special radulaa feeding organ lined with rows of teeththat matched the nautilus family.As a result, P. mazonensis represents the oldest known fossil soft tissue nautiloid (albeit without its shell), the team concluded. The finding is a boon to octopus scientists (a.k.a. Doc Ocks) who have been perplexed for years by this specimen, given that the fossil record otherwise suggests that octopuses emerged much later in time, during the age of dinosaurs.It just proves the old adage: Dont believe everything you hear about the evolutionary origins of octopuses.Were all mad hatters hereCapp, Bernard. The Cultural, Social, and Ideological Role of the Hat in Early Modern England. The Historical Journal.Well cap off with a hat tip to a study that chronicles hat etiquette across early modern England, roughly spanning the 1400s to 1700s.Authored by the aptly-named Bernard Capp of the University of Warwick, the work is packed with madcap anecdotes about hats as signifiers of identity, instruments of shame, tools for salutations, and even makeshift toilets in the most ribald tales.The Pleasant History of Hodge tells of a simpleton humiliated by a maidservant who claps on his head the hat in which she had just defecated, Capp noted in the study. Such behaviour, moreover, was not confined to fiction; in 1747 a Wiltshire man admitted snatching a rivals hat, pissing in it, and clapping it back on the victims head.Roundhead and cavalier soldiers, wearing partisan hats, face each other and urge their dogs to attack each other. Image: John Taylor (attributed), A dialogue, or, Rather a parley betweene Prince Ruperts dogge whose name is Puddle, and Tobies dog whose name is Pepper (1643).Other highlights include the Cap Act of 1571, which allowed offenders to be prosecuted for wearing hats to church; jokes about fine ladies wearing towering ribboned hats that spooked local livestock; and a man named Thomas Ellwood who was rendered unable to leave his house for months in 1659 because his father confiscated all his hats, because who would dare, in his words, to run about the Country bare-headed, like a Mad-Man?Hats off to this heady historical work, and beware the bareheaded Mad-Men.Thanks for reading! See you next week.

Many coastal towns along the West Coast cant afford to build lifesaving structures in the event of surging waves, putting homes and residents in jeopardy.

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Gas prices are displayed at a gasoline station, Tuesday, April 7, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)2026-04-11T04:17:54Z FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) Junelle Lewis was on the hunt for a reprieve from Seattle-area gas prices driven high by the Iran war when an app on her phone gave her the answer: the Tulalip Reservation north of the city, almost half an hour from her home.She didnt hesitate.I purposely drove here just for the gas, Lewis said while filling up her Chevrolet Suburban at the Tulalip Market this week for $4.84 a gallon (3.8 liters) about 75 cents less than prices near home. Gas is ridiculous. But I have found, honestly, over the years, this gas station specifically is cheaper than a lot around here. Probably the cheapest.Lewis isnt the only driver who has discovered that some of cheapest fuel can be found on Native American reservations. Especially in California, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma and Washington state places with dozens of tribally owned stations, including some in busy travel corridors tribes exempt from state fuel taxes can sell for much less than competing stations nearby. Gas prices push the drive to find bargainsApps such as Gas Buddy make finding the cheapest gas easier than ever.Nationwide, gasoline prices have risen by well over $1 since the Iran war began Feb. 28, reaching an average of $4.15 a gallon, according to AAA.Prices have been higher, topping $5 during the summer of 2022, but economists believe they will continue heading up and contribute to inflation in the weeks of ahead as geopolitical tension persists. Deals are to be found, though, at many of the almost 500 tribally owned convenience stores with gas stations across the U.S. Read More Fifty-five are in California. At the Chukchansi Crossing Fuel Station & Travel Center between Fresno and Yosemite National Park, the $5.09 gas was 60 cents less than nearby stations.New Mexico resident Jamie Cross usually finds savings on the Mescalero Apache Reservation, where gas was as low as $3.79 this week. I hope we dont go any higher, Cross said Thursday.In eastern New York state, on Cattauragus Indian Territory between Buffalo and Erie, Pennsylvania, the cheapest gas was about $3.65 at more than half a dozen stations 50 cents less than in towns nearby. Tribal lands find a fuel tax escapeSo how do tribes do it? Two words: Tax exemptions.Generally tribes must pay the federal fuel tax of 18.4 cents per gallon for gasoline and 24.3 cents per gallon for diesel, and pass that cost along to drivers. State fuel taxes are a different matter. For well over a century, U.S. courts have found that states dont have authority to collect taxes from Native Americans on their land, said Dan Lewerenz, a University of North Dakota assistant law professor who specializes in Native American law.The Supreme Court consistently held to this view and its one of the most enduring principles in federal Indian law, Lewerenz said.Federally recognized Native American tribes are in 35 states with state gasoline taxes ranging from 9 cents per gallon in Alaska to 71 cents in California. From there, things get complicated based on where the fuel is taxed at fuel terminals, say, or when distributors buy or sell fuel and depending on various agreements between states and tribes. Court rulings come into play. In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that off-reservation distributors in Kansas may charge state tax on sales to tribes for on-reservation fuel sales. But in 2019, the Supreme Court held that an 1855 treaty between the U.S. and the Yakama Nation that ensured the free travel of tribal members on roads with their goods prohibited state fuel taxes on tribal lands in Washington state.This is a little bit different than the principle that Indians arent taxed within Indian Country because this particular treaty reserved certain off-reservation rights for the Indians as well, Lewerenz said.Gas is just one way stores make moneyConvenience store gas sales are not as profitable as bringing people inside from the pumps.Selling snacks adds profit. But tribal businesses are increasingly offering groceries in what otherwise would be food deserts far from grocery stores.Sometimes these gas stations and convenience stores are the nearest, best place to purchase affordable food or household supplies, said Matthew Klas, with the Minneapolis-based consultant Klas Robinson Q.E.D. Klas does market research and consults for tribal businesses and tracks the 245 tribes nationwide that, as of 2025, operated 496 convenience stores with gas stations.Oklahoma, California, Washington, Arizona, New Mexico, Wisconsin, Michigan and New York have the most. Some tribes, including the Choctaw Nation in Oklahoma and Oneida Indian Nation in New York, have their own store chains.Drive-through smoke shops, car washes and truck stop amenities also bring in revenue. Then there are the casinos: 205 tribally owned gas stations are located at or near casinos.Some tribal casinos are resorts with gas stations. Some tribal gas stations are casinos of a sort called gasinos, which only have a small number of gambling machines. Tribally owned businesses are a major revenue generator for Native American reservations. On the Seattle areas Tulalip Reservation, rising gas sales were being reinvested in the community, helping to cover the cost of roads, police, health care, education, housing and other needs, Tulalip Tribes Federal Corporation CEO Tanya Burns said in a statement.Like any government, we provide critical services to our people, Burns said.Its not just about savingsIts terrible, Todd Hall of Paden, Oklahoma, said of diesel prices as he spent about $90 to fill up his tow truck at the Citizen Potawatomi Nation gas station about 30 miles (48 kilometers) west of Oklahoma City. But, he added: Theyre cheaper here than anywhere else.Hall paid $4.57 per gallon for diesel, and said the price is over $5 at many locations in the area.Mark Foster said he saves about $5 a week buying fuel at the tribally owned gas station. But hes a faithful customer because the tribe is a good community partner, he said.I like the way the tribe operates, he said. And the price is good too.At the Tulalip Market north of Seattle, Jared Blankenship was griping not about prices but that he was having to pay for gas at all. Yeah, well, my electric car just got totaled, Blankenship said. So this sucks. This is new. Its either Costco or looking wherevers cheap, like the rez. So here we are.___Lindsey Wasson in Seattle; Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City; Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Savannah Peters in Edgewood, New Mexico, contributed. RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Azura Stevens has agreed to a three-year deal to return to the Chicago Sky, sources told ESPN on Saturday.

Arsenal suffered a major setback to their Premier League title hopes with a 2-1 defeat to Bournemouth on Saturday.

China may have shipped missiles to Iran, and Beijing is allowing some companies to sell Tehran supplies that can be used in military production, American officials said.