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Tiny tubes in primitive Asgard archea may have been the precursor of our own cellular skeletons

Tiny tubes in primitive Asgard archea may have been the precursor of our own cellular skeletons

Veronique Greenwood writes: In 2010, biologists made a shocking discovery. Living in the mud of the North Sea were microorganisms whose genes looked a lot like ours. Genetic analysis revealed that humans, oak trees, blue whales — any living things whose cells have nuclei and mitochondria — are related to these microbes, which were named the Asgard archaea after the home of the Norse gods. Two billion years ago, it was an ancestor of an Asgard that diverged from its…

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The Supreme Court has greenlit racial profiling in immigration enforcement

The Supreme Court has greenlit racial profiling in immigration enforcement

Noah Feldman writes: In a ruling likely to go down in history as a shameful expression of anti-immigrant prejudice, the Supreme Court has allowed ICE agents to re-start “roving stops” of people suspected of being undocumented immigrants because of what they look like, how they speak, and where they are gathered to work or seek employment. The 6-3 ruling in the court’s emergency docket reversed a July order by federal district court judge in Los Angeles, which found ICE had…

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Project 2026: Trump’s plan to rig the midterms

Project 2026: Trump’s plan to rig the midterms

Mother Jones reports: On an April episode of the popular Politics War Room podcast, the veteran journalist Al Hunt posed an increasingly common question from listeners to Democratic strategist James Carville. “Is Trump looking to spark enough protest to justify declaring martial law in 2026, thus suspending the election?” Hunt asked. “You’re so correct to be concerned about this,” Carville responded. “It’s getting worse by the day. It is not going to stop getting worse. And I would be—we ought…

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Johnson claims that when he said Trump was an ‘FBI informant’ he didn’t mean FBI informant

Johnson claims that when he said Trump was an ‘FBI informant’ he didn’t mean FBI informant

The Hill reports: Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) sought to clarify Monday his comments that spread widely last week about President Trump being an “FBI informant” against the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, suggesting he misspoke about the president’s efforts to assist law enforcement as it investigated the wealthy financier. “I don’t know if I used the right word,” Johnson told reporters Monday. “I said, ‘FBI informant’ but I’m not sure. I wasn’t there — this isn’t my lane.” “I’m…

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How JPMorgan enabled the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein

How JPMorgan enabled the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein

The New York Times reports: One day in October 2011, Jeffrey Epstein walked into the cavernous lobby of 270 Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. The skyscraper was home to JPMorgan Chase, arguably the world’s most prestigious bank. The sex offender — who barely a year earlier was under house arrest after serving 13 months in a Florida jail — was ushered onto an elevator and whisked to a top floor where Jamie Dimon, the bank’s chief executive, and the rest…

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How UK bureaucracy enables Israel’s genocide

How UK bureaucracy enables Israel’s genocide

Katie Fallon writes: For the last four years, my job has been to comb through government statements, along with policy and legal documents, and then brief members of parliament on exactly what linguistic and legal gymnastics the government of the day is using to justify exports of military equipment – despite evidence that these exports are likely to be used in war crimes. At a certain point, I recognised these documents and legal arguments for what they really are: the…

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The untold saga of what happened when DOGE stormed Social Security

The untold saga of what happened when DOGE stormed Social Security

By Eli Hager This story was originally published by ProPublica On Feb. 10, on the third floor of the Social Security Administration’s Baltimore-area headquarters, Leland Dudek unfurled a 4-foot-wide roll of paper that extended to 20 feet in length. It was a visual guide that the agency had kept for years to explain Social Security’s many technological systems and processes. The paper was covered in flow charts, arrows and text so minuscule you almost needed a magnifying glass to read…

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The billionaires fueling the quest for longer life

The billionaires fueling the quest for longer life

The Wall Street Journal reports: How much would you invest in the possibility of living to 150 or beyond? Or having 20 extra healthy years? For the ultrawealthy, it’s more than $5 billion over the past 2½ decades, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of longevity investment deals in PitchBook, public company statements and regulatory filings. Silicon Valley giants Peter Thiel, Sam Altman, Yuri Milner and Marc Andreessen are among the boldface names behind the influx of money in…

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What happens if AI turns out to be an economic failure?

What happens if AI turns out to be an economic failure?

Rogé Karma writes: If there is any field in which the rise of AI is already said to be rendering humans obsolete—in which the dawn of superintelligence is already upon us—it is coding. This makes the results of a recent study genuinely astonishing. In the study, published in July, the think tank Model Evaluation & Threat Research randomly assigned a group of experienced software developers to perform coding tasks with or without AI tools. It was the most rigorous test…

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Republicans brace for redistricting ‘catastrophe’ in California

Republicans brace for redistricting ‘catastrophe’ in California

Politico reports: Republicans wield almost no power in California. But as a moribund state party gathered here over the weekend, it confronted an even grimmer reality now suddenly settling in: If the state gerrymanders its congressional map, they’ll practically be an endangered species. “It’s a guillotine,” said Dale Quasny, a party delegate and real-estate broker from suburban Los Angeles County. “We won’t be able to pick up the pieces and move forward. I mean, we were making a little headway,…

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Trump is following Perón’s path to economic failure

Trump is following Perón’s path to economic failure

Scott Lincicome writes: When the populist strongman Juan Perón ran Argentina’s economy from his presidential palace in the mid-20th century—personally deciding which companies received favors, which industries got nationalized or protected, and which businessmen profited from state largesse—economists warned that the experiment would end badly. They were right. Over decades of rule by Perón and his successors, a country that had once been among the world’s wealthiest nations devolved into a global laughingstock, with uncontrollable inflation, routine fiscal crises, rampant…

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With GOP acquiescence, Trump tramples Congress’s power

With GOP acquiescence, Trump tramples Congress’s power

The New York Times reports: The Pentagon barred the senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee from making an oversight visit to a military spy agency. Armed forces off the coast of Venezuela began a military campaign against alleged members of a drug cartel without any authorization from Congress, and without notifying key members. The White House informed Congress it planned to use a rare maneuver to skirt a vote and cancel nearly $5 billion in foreign aid funding that…

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‘This is Putin’s response to calls for peace’: European leaders condemn Russia’s latest mass attack on Ukraine

‘This is Putin’s response to calls for peace’: European leaders condemn Russia’s latest mass attack on Ukraine

The Kyiv Independent reports: Russia launched a large-scale overnight attack on Ukraine on Sept. 7, killing at least four people and injuring more than 40, prompting swift condemnation from Kyiv’s European partners. The attack, one of the most severe in recent months and which claimed the life of a 3-month-old baby, came as Ukraine’s allies seek to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin into pursuing a diplomatic resolution of the war by imposing additional sanctions on Moscow. As Western partners explore…

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Russia steps up disinformation operations as Trump abandons resistance

Russia steps up disinformation operations as Trump abandons resistance

The New York Times reports: Since returning to the White House in January, President Trump has dismantled the American government’s efforts to combat foreign disinformation. The problem is that Russia has not stopped spreading it. How much that matters can now be seen in Moldova, a small but strategic European nation that has since the end of the Cold War looked to Europe and the United States to extract itself from Moscow’s shadow. The Trump administration has slashed diplomatic and…

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