2,400-year-old puppets with ‘dramatic’ faces found at top of ancient pyramid in El Salvador

This was a kiln-er find.

Puppets with remarkable facial features believed to date back some 2,400 years have been discovered at the top of an ancient pyramid in the jungle of El Salvador.

The incredible find suggests that indigenous Salvadorians had a much closer connection to the wider ancient Mesoamerican world than previously thought, according to a study published in the journal Antiquity on Wednesday.

The five human figurines, which depict four women and a man, were discovered in 2022 at the top of a pyramid in San Isidro and are notable for their versatile facial expressions.

“One of the most striking features of the puppets is their dramatic facial expression, which changes depending on the angle that we look at them from,” Jan Szymański, an archaeologist at the University of Warsaw and the study’s led author, told Live Science in a statement.

From above, they appear to be smiling; at eye level, they appear frightened, and from below, they look scared, researchers said.

“This is a conscious design, perhaps meant to enhance the gamut of ritual performances the puppets could have been used in,” Szymański said.

The puppets, which date from 410–380 BC, were initially believed by archaeologists to be part of an elaborate burial — but no human remains were discovered at the site, leading researchers to believe they were used for public rituals or displays.

Three of the puppets are roughly a foot tall, while the remaining two are about half that size.

The larger statues are all naked and have movable heads that spin on sockets and open mouths, according to the study. The two smaller statues each have hair on their foreheads and earrings hanging from their lobes.

The researchers suggested they may have been used like puppets to tell stories — mythical or real — that have been long lost to history.

Part of the smallest figure recovered fits inside of another hollow torso figure, perhaps representing a birth scene.

Ancient peoples in El Salvador were previously believed to have been largely isolated from their neighbors.

The puppets, along with other artifacts recovered at the site, suggest elites were culturally connected to other communities in the region, as similar figurines have been found in Guatemala, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama.

“This discovery contradicts the prevailing notion about El Salvador’s cultural backwardness or isolation in the ancient times,” Szymański said.

“It reveals the existence of vibrant and far-reaching communities capable of exchanging ideas with remarkably distant places.”

https://nypost.com/2025/03/05/world-news/2400-year-old-puppets-with-dramatic-faces-found-at-top-of-ancient-pyramid-in-el-salvador/

RT

@RT_com

Black Hawk Down: 4 injured as UH-60L chopper crashes near Soto Cano Air Base in Honduras

9:38 PM · MST Mar 5, 2025

https://x.com/RT_com/status/1897507131210752178

Gene Hackman’s dog was misidentified as other mysteries swirl around actor’s death

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Authorities misidentified a deceased dog while investigating the deaths of actor Gene Hackman and his wife, pianist Betsy Arakawa, according to a pet care specialist.

The couple’s German shepherd, named Bear, survived along with a second dog named Nikita, but their kelpie mix, Zinna, died, according to Joey Padilla, owner of the Santa Fe Tails pet care facility that is involved in the surviving dogs’ care.

The dog that died “was always attached to Betsy at the hip and it was a beautiful relationship,” Padilla said in an email statement Tuesday. “Zinna went from being a returned shelter dog to this incredible companion under Betsy’s hand.”

Authorities have been searching for answers after the deaths of Hackman and Arakawa, whose partially mummified bodies were discovered on Feb. 26 at their Santa Fe home. Hackman and Arakawa may have died up to two weeks earlier, Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said.

Authorities did not perform a necropsy on Zinna, who was found in a kennel in a bathroom closet near Arakawa, a sheriff’s office spokesperson said. Investigators initially noted the discovery of a “deceased brown in color German-Shepard canine.”

Denise Womack Avila, a sheriff’s spokesperson, acknowledged that sheriff’s deputies initially misidentified the breed of the deceased dog.

“Our deputies, they don’t work with canines on a daily basis,” she said.

USA Today first reported on the mistaken identification of the dead dog.

Arakawa’s body was found with an open prescription bottle and pills scattered on the bathroom countertop, while Hackman’s remains were found in the home’s entryway.

The two bodies both have tested negative for carbon monoxide, a colorless and odorless gas that is a byproduct of fuel burned in some home appliances and can be fatal in poorly ventilated homes. No gas leaks were discovered in or around the home.

On Tuesday, the sheriff’s office also said that a more extensive utility company inspection found that one burner on a stove in the house had a miniscule leak that could not be lethal.

Authorities retrieved personal items from the home, including a monthly planner and two cellphones that will be analyzed. Medical investigators are still working to clarify the cause of deaths but the results of toxicology reports aren’t expected for weeks. ___

This story has been updated to correct the definition of carbon monoxide.

https://www.today.com/news/gene-hackman-dog-misidentified-santa-fe-home-death-rcna194842

NPR runs fact check on Trump speech (they never did this to Biden)

https://www.npr.org/2025/03/04/g-s1-50488/trump-congress-joint-address-fact-check

Initial DOGE Findings Reveal $80 Million in Wasteful Spending at DOD

A quick review of some of the initial findings within the Defense Department by the Department of Government Efficiency reveals some $80 million in funds wasted on programs that do not support DOD's core mission.

In a social media video posted yesterday evening, Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell read off a few of the initial findings from DOGE, which revealed expenditures many service members would be hard-pressed to connect to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's focus on lethality, meritocracy, accountability, standards and readiness.

"At the DOD, we've been working hand in hand with the DOGE team," Parnell said. "And as the secretary said, we welcome that process because that process will make us more lethal. And that means that our warfighters on the battlefield will be more successful."

Among the DOGE findings, Parnell highlighted $1.9 million for holistic diversity, equity and inclusion transformation and training; $6 million to the University of Montana to "strengthen American democracy by bridging divides"; $3.5 million by the Defense Human Resources Activity to support DEI groups; and $1.6 million to the University of Florida to study the "social and institutional detriments of vulnerability and resilience to climate hazards in [the] African Sahel."

Altogether, he said, the full set of initial findings of DOGE reveals about $80 million in wasteful spending that could be better spent on lethality and readiness.

On the day he was sworn in, Hegseth released a message to the force spelling out his three top priorities. Those include reviving the warrior ethos and restoring trust in the military; rebuilding the military by matching threats to capabilities; and reestablishing deterrence by defending the homeland.

Parnell said the DOGE team is just getting started rooting out department expenditures that are not aligned with the secretary's top priorities.

"This stuff is not a core function of our military. This is not what we do. This is a distraction from our core mission," he said. "Today's actions are just the start; [there is] more to come this week. Again, we are working hand-in-glove with DOGE. So, stay tuned in the weeks ahead as we trim the fat, preserve the muscle, [and] make the DOD more mission-capable and more lethal."

https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/4096431/initial-doge-findings-reveal-80-million-in-wasteful-spending-at-dod/

Weekly mortgage demand surges 20% higher, after interest rates drop to the lowest since last year

-The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances, $806,500 or less, decreased to 6.73% from 6.88%.

-Total mortgage application volume jumped 20.4% last week compared with the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index.

-This was not only the first increase in three weeks, but it is an outsized weekly move.

A sharp drop in mortgage interest rates finally lit a fire under loan demand. Both current homeowners and potential homebuyers jumped back into the market, after a lackluster showing for this year so far.

Total mortgage application volume jumped 20.4% last week compared with the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index. This was not only the first increase in three weeks, but it is an outsized weekly move.

Mortgage rates were clearly the culprit. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances, $806,500 or less, decreased to 6.73% from 6.88%, with points falling to 0.60 from 0.61, including the origination fee, for loans with a 20% down payment. That is the lowest level since December 2024.

“Mortgage rates declined last week on souring consumer sentiment regarding the economy and increasing uncertainty over the impact of new tariffs levied on imported goods into the U.S.,” said Joel Kan, an MBA economist, in a release. “Those factors resulted in the largest weekly decline in the 30-year fixed rate since November 2024.”

Applications to refinance a home loan, which are most sensitive to weekly moves in interest rates, jumped 37% for the week and were 83% percent higher than the same week one year ago. While the vast majority of borrowers today still have loans with rates well below what is being offered today, more recent buyers from the last two years are now able to benefit from a refinance.

Applications for a mortgage to purchase a home rose 9% for the week but were still just 2% higher than the same week one year ago.

“This is a period where we typically see purchase activity ramp up and purchase applications were up over the week and continued to run ahead of last year’s pace, more green shoots as we head into the spring homebuying season,” Kan added.

While the weekly jump in purchase volume is certainly positive, it is still historically low. Buyers are up against high home prices, limited inventory and more uncertainty about the overall economy. The new tariffs levied on China, Canada and Mexico are widely expected to raise home prices, especially for new construction.

Mortgage rates moved very slightly lower to start this week, according to a separate survey from Mortgage News Daily. Tuesday, when the tariffs went into effect, the stock and bond markets rode a roller coaster, with bond yields, which mortgage rates follow, dropping along with stocks.

“As the day progressed, stocks and bonds bounced back in the other direction and the move was big enough for most mortgage lenders to reprice back toward slightly higher rates,” wrote Matthew Graham, chief operating officer at Mortgage News Daily.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/05/weekly-mortgage-demand-surges-20percent-higher-after-interest-rates-drop.html

Supreme Court denies Trump request to block $2 billion foreign-aid payment

A divided Supreme Court on Wednesday turned down a request by the Trump administration to lift an order by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., that had directed the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development to pay nearly $2 billion in foreign-aid reimbursements for work that has already been done.

In a brief unsigned opinion, the court noted that the Feb. 26 deadline for the government to make the payments had already passed. It instructed U.S. District Judge Amir Ali to “clarify what obligations the Government must fulfill to ensure compliance” with the temporary restraining order that Ali has entered in the case, paying attention to how feasible it is for the government to comply with those timelines.

Ali is expected to hold a hearing on the aid groups’ motion for a preliminary injunction – which, if granted, would suspend the freeze on foreign-assistance funding going forward – on Thursday, March 6. This means that the dispute could return to the Supreme Court as an emergency appeal again soon.

Four of the court’s conservative justices would have granted the government’s request to put the order on hold. Justice Samuel Alito, in a dissenting opinion joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh, described himself as “stunned” by the ruling, calling it “a most unfortunate misstep that rewards an act of judicial hubris and imposes a $2 billion penalty on American taxpayers.”

The brief unsigned order came six days after Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily paused Ali’s Feb. 25 order, which had ordered the agencies to pay contractors and grant recipients by 11:59 p.m. on Feb. 26 for work that had already been done before he issued a Feb. 13 temporary restraining order that prohibited the State Department and USAID from suspending foreign-aid payments.

In an executive order last month, President Donald Trump ordered a halt to the distribution of foreign-aid funds so that federal agencies can ensure that those funds are only disbursed in ways that are “fully aligned with” Trump’s foreign policy. Following that order, Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered a freeze on all foreign-aid programs funded by the State Department and the USAID.

Several groups that receive or have members that receive foreign-aid funds challenged the pause in federal court in Washington, D.C. They argued that the funding freeze violated both the federal law governing administrative agencies and the Constitution.

Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris came to the Supreme Court on Wednesday night, asking the justices to quickly put Ali’s Feb. 25 order on hold before the deadline for the State Department and USAID to make the payments and then ultimately to lift it. She argued that Ali’s order infringed on the executive branch’s power to make decisions about foreign aid and “stands on the brink of placing USAID into a court-run receivership.” And although she agreed that the government “is committed to paying legitimate claims for work that was properly completed,” the government could not “pay arbitrarily determined demands on an arbitrary timeline of” Ali’s choosing.

A few hours later, Roberts – who handles emergency appeals from Washington, D.C. – granted Harris’s request to temporarily pause Ali’s order before the midnight deadline.

Foreign-aid recipients on Friday urged the Supreme Court to quickly lift the Roberts order. In a 21-page brief, they told the justices that “the government’s actions bring their very existence—and the existence of fellow foreign-aid partners—to the brink.” Their work, they said, “advances U.S. interests abroad and improves—and, in many cases, literally saves—the lives of millions of people across the globe.”

The foreign-aid recipients emphasized that, as a general rule, temporary restraining orders like the one Ali issued on Feb. 13 are not appealable. But the government has not even asked the Supreme Court to lift the TRO, they observed. Instead, it has asked the justices to lift Ali’s Feb. 25 order directing the government to comply with the TRO and pay for work that had already been completed – something that is even less amenable to an appeal than a TRO. Moreover, they noted, because the government has not appealed the temporary restraining order, it would still have to comply with it even if the court were to lift the Feb. 25 order.

In a one-paragraph order on Wednesday, the court emphasized that Harris’s request to lift the Feb. 25 order “does not challenge the Government’s obligation to follow” the Feb. 13 temporary restraining order.

Alito’s dissent acknowledged Ali’s “frustration with the Government,” and that the aid groups had broached “serious concerns about nonpayment for completed work.” But the court’s denial of the Trump administration’s request to lift Ali’s Feb. 25 order, he contended, “is, quite simply, too extreme a response. A federal court,” he suggested, “has many tools to address a party’s supposed nonfeasance. Self-aggrandizement of its jurisdiction is not one of them.”

https://www.scotusblog.com/2025/03/supreme-court-denies-trump-request-to-block-2-billion-foreign-aid-payment/