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What a newfound kingdom means for the tree of life

What a newfound kingdom means for the tree of life

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Jonathan Lambert writes: The tree of life just got another major branch. Researchers recently found a certain rare and mysterious microbe called a hemimastigote in a clump of Nova Scotian soil. Their subsequent analysis of its DNA revealed that it was neither animal, plant, fungus nor any recognized type of protozoan — that it in fact fell far outside any of the known large categories for classifying complex forms of life (eukaryotes). Instead, this flagella-waving oddball stands as the first…

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Trump’s claim that he didn’t violate campaign finance law is weak — and dangerous

Trump’s claim that he didn’t violate campaign finance law is weak — and dangerous

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George T. Conway III, Trevor Potter and Neal Katyal write: Last week, in their case against Michael Cohen, federal prosecutors in New York filed a sentencing brief concluding that, in committing the felony campaign-finance violations to which he pleaded guilty, Cohen had “acted in coordination with and at the direction of Individual-1,” President Trump. And this week, prosecutors revealed that they had obtained an agreement from AMI, the parent company of the National Enquirer, in which AMI admitted that it,…

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Is Trump’s financial interest guiding his foreign policy?

Is Trump’s financial interest guiding his foreign policy?

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Jeffrey Toobin writes: President Trump said some time ago that he believes his personal finances should be off limits to investigators. In an interview with the Times in July, 2017, he asserted that if Robert Mueller, the special counsel, sought to investigate the Trump family’s business dealings he would be crossing a “red line.” When, later that year, several news reports suggested that Mueller had subpoenaed Deutsche Bank for records relating to Trump’s businesses, the President reportedly told members of…

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The Steele dossier holds up well over time

The Steele dossier holds up well over time

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Sarah Grant and Chuck Rosenberg write: [W]e thought it would be worthwhile to look back at the dossier and to assess, to the extent possible, how the substance of Steele’s reporting holds up over time. In this effort, we considered only information in the public domain from trustworthy and official government sources, including documents released by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office in connection with the criminal cases brought against Paul Manafort, the 12 Russian intelligence officers, the Internet Research Agency…

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After 41 years, Voyager 2 spacecraft enters interstellar space

After 41 years, Voyager 2 spacecraft enters interstellar space

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Science News reports: Voyager 2 has entered interstellar space. The spacecraft slipped out of the huge bubble of particles that encircles the solar system on November 5, becoming the second ever human-made craft to cross the heliosphere, or the boundary between the sun and the stars. Coming in second place is no mean achievement. Voyager 1 became the first spacecraft to exit the solar system in 2012. But that craft’s plasma instrument stopped working in 1980, leaving scientists without a…

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Senate votes to limit war powers in Yemen, angered by Saudi murder of Jamal Khashoggi

Senate votes to limit war powers in Yemen, angered by Saudi murder of Jamal Khashoggi

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The New York Times reports: The Senate voted resoundingly on Thursday to withdraw American military assistance for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, issuing the latest in a series of stinging bipartisan rebukes of President Trump for his defense of the kingdom amid outrage in both parties over Riyadh’s role in the killing of a dissident journalist. The 56-to-41 vote was a rare move by the Senate to limit presidential war powers and send a potent message of official disapproval for…

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Conservative peer Lord Heseltine on Brexit: ‘My generation betrayed the young generation’

Conservative peer Lord Heseltine on Brexit: ‘My generation betrayed the young generation’

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"My generation betrayed the young generation." Conservative peer Lord Heseltine says it is "appalling…that our young people are being ignored" over Brexit, in the latest Ways To Change The World podcast. pic.twitter.com/qWzBxuNHsg — Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) December 12, 2018

Facebook’s fake concern about fake news evident to its factcheckers

Facebook’s fake concern about fake news evident to its factcheckers

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The Guardian reports: Journalists working as factcheckers for Facebook have pushed to end a controversial media partnership with the social network, saying the company has ignored their concerns and failed to use their expertise to combat misinformation. Current and former Facebook factcheckers told the Guardian that the tech platform’s collaboration with outside reporters has produced minimal results and that they’ve lost trust in Facebook, which has repeatedly refused to release meaningful data about the impacts of their work. Some said…

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The new authoritarians are waging war on women

The new authoritarians are waging war on women

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Peter Beinart writes: [B]esides their hostility to liberal democracy, the right-wing autocrats taking power across the world share one big thing, which often goes unrecognized in the U.S.: They all want to subordinate women. To understand global Trumpism, argues Valerie M. Hudson, a political scientist at Texas A&M, it’s vital to remember that for most of human history, leaders and their male subjects forged a social contract: “Men agreed to be ruled by other men in return for all men…

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Former Ford executives convicted for crimes against humanity

Former Ford executives convicted for crimes against humanity

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The Associated Press reports: An Argentine court on Tuesday sentenced two former Ford Motor Co. executives to prison for helping agents of the country’s former dictatorship round up 24 Argentine union workers who were tortured and held in military jails. The courtroom was crowded with some of the victims and family members, some of whom broke into tears and hugged after the sentencing for crimes against humanity was announced. The court said that factory manufacturing director Pedro Muller and security…

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‘Self-aware’ fish raises questions about mirror test

‘Self-aware’ fish raises questions about mirror test

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Elizabeth Preston writes: A little blue-and-black fish swims up to a mirror. It maneuvers its body vertically to reflect its belly, along with a brown mark that researchers have placed on its throat. The fish then pivots and dives to strike its throat against the sandy bottom of its tank with a glancing blow. Then it returns to the mirror. Depending on which scientists you ask, this moment represents either a revolution or a red herring. Alex Jordan, an evolutionary…

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The race to understand Antarctica’s most terrifying glacier

The race to understand Antarctica’s most terrifying glacier

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Jon Gertner writes: Few places in Antarctica are more difficult to reach than Thwaites Glacier, a Florida-sized hunk of frozen water that meets the Amundsen Sea about 800 miles west of McMurdo. Until a decade ago, barely any scientists had ever set foot there, and the glacier’s remoteness, along with its reputation for bad weather, ensured that it remained poorly understood. Yet within the small community of people who study ice for a living, Thwaites has long been the subject…

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