The Summary Lead pollution likely dropped the average IQ in ancient Rome by 2.5 to 3 points, a study found. The research is based on an analysis of lead concentrations in ice cores extracted from Greenland. The findings offer evidence that lead may have contributed to Rome s downfall, a question historians and experts have debated for decades. According to recent study, the airborne levels of hazardous lead in ancient Rome were so high that they probably caused the average person's IQ to plummet by 2.5 to 3 points. The study, which was released on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences publication, raises long-standing concerns about whether or not lead contamination contributed to the fall of the empire. After connecting lead discovered in Greenlan...

According to the FBI on Sunday, the guy who crashed a pickup truck into partygoers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans on New Year's Day wore Meta smart glasses while preparing and carrying out the assault. The use of the glasses as a tool to carry out a terrorist act is a troubling development for the product, which Meta introduced in 2023, even if there is no proof that they were necessary for the incident, which left 14 people dead and numerous others injured. The company's foray into the market, where Google and Snap had already tried and failed, is Meta smart glasses, which are functional eyeglasses with many of the features found in smartphones, such as a camera, speaker, and an AI assistant that can translate text and look up answers online. On Meta's website, models range in price fro...

On Monday, President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden met with local law enforcement, survivors, and families who were impacted by the New Year's Day attack in New Orleans that left 14 people dead and several others injured. Shortly before the president arrived at St. Louis Cathedral, where he will make remarks at an interfaith prayer service on Monday night, the secret meeting took place. Biden was welcomed to New Orleans by Democratic Mayor LaToya Cantrell and other officials, including FBI special agent Lionel Myrthil, who was in charge of the investigation, and Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and his wife, Laura Cassidy. In the afternoon, the president and first lady made a visit to Bourbon Street. At a memorial service for the victims, Jill Biden placed flowers, and both of them stood si...

The Los Angeles County medical examiner reported that Jeff Baena, an independent filmmaker best known for co-writing I Heart Huckabees and directing Life After Beth, passed away on Friday.His age was 47. Since 2021, Baena and actor Aubrey Plaza have been wed. Plaza starred in the 2014 movie Life After Beth, one of the several movies the couple worked on together. According to the medical examiner's reports, he committed suicide at home. On behalf of the Baena-Stern family, Plaza stated in a statement on Monday, "This is an unfathomable tragedy." "We sincerely appreciate all of the support that we have received. Please be considerate of our privacy at this time. According to Deadline, Baena relocated to Los Angeles to further his career after graduating from the film school at New York Univ...

Rudy Giuliani, a top Trump attorney, was convicted in contempt of court by a federal judge in New York for failing to provide two former Georgia election workers he defamed with information about his holdings. After Giuliani testified for two days to answer questions about why he had not turned over assets and court-ordered discovery information to help satisfy Ruby Freeman and Wandrea Shaye Moss's $146 million defamation judgment against him, U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman made the contempt finding Monday afternoon. Liman claimed that Giuliani, the former U.S. attorney and mayor of New York, "willfully violated an unambiguous order of the court" by not providing information when he was required to. "The defendant has attempted to run the clock by stalling," he stated. "Discovery is not s...

While Nicki Minaj was on tour in Detroit, her former manager has accused the rap artist of repeatedly slapping and berating him. Brandon Jovan Garrett filed a lawsuit alleging that Minaj, 42, who is actually Onika Maraj, attacked him on April 21 during a performance at Detroit's Little Caesars Arena. The Grammy-nominated performer is accused of assault, violence, and deliberate emotional distress in the case, which was submitted to the Los Angeles County Superior Court for the State of California on Friday. Pink Personality Inc., her business, is also listed as a defendant. A request for comment on Monday was not immediately answered by Minaj's lawyer. In the lawsuit, Garrett, who identified himself as Minaj's "day to day manager," claims that on April 21, while returning after purchasing ...

At least 67 instances of bird flu have been reported in the United States, marking the somber milestone of the country's first human fatality from the illness. Considered the nation's first serious human H5N1 infection, the patient, who was over 65 and had underlying medical issues, was admitted to a Louisiana hospital in December. The patient was exposed to both wild and backyard birds, according to the Louisiana Department of Health. In a statement, the Department offered its sincere condolences to the patient's friends and family as they grieve the loss of a loved one. This will be the patient's last update due to patient confidentiality and family respect. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, all but one of the documented human bird flu cases in the United Stat...

How a year can change things. At this time last year, Donald Trump was facing hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties from civil actions that had been filed against him, as well as the possibility of four criminal prosecutions that may result in years in prison. The criminal proceedings against him are currently in doubt; two federal prosecutions have already been dropped, one state case is pending, and the heavy civil judgments against him may be weakened by appeals courts. Trump's election victory is mostly to blame for the situation's transformation.The Justice Department's ruling that sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted led to the dismissal of the federal cases; Trump's attorneys have stated that this ruling should also apply to the state cases. Meanwhile, Trump's lawyers in h...

WASHINGTON—In response to President-elect Donald Trump's demand that his program be passed in a single, stunning measure, House Speaker Mike Johnson is outlining a very ambitious plan that will put his razor-thin Republican majority to the test. Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, stated on Sunday that the party-line plan will have issues pertaining to manufacturing, energy, taxation, and border security. In addition, he demanded that the package be passed out of the House as early as the first week of April and that the debt ceiling be extended. For a slim House majority of 219–215, which is predicted to get much smaller in the upcoming months as two GOP lawmakers step down to join the Trump administration, that is an extraordinarily high order. Johnson will then be unable to lose a sin...

As he attempts to bring his recent political triumph to the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, tech entrepreneur Elon Musk is encountering strong opposition in European cities. In separate speeches on Monday, the leaders of four European nations—France, Germany, Norway, and the United Kingdom—denounced his influence and cautioned that Musk, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, shouldn't get involved in their nations' politics. Musk, the richest person in the world and a close friend of Donald Trump, has been attacking international leaders on social media. He has been writing constantly on his app, X, and is attempting to replicate the impact he had on American politics the previous year. Musk has frequently used his social media posts to support far-right candidates in different European nations. ...