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Gargantuan black hole 30 billion times the mass of the sun is one of the largest ever discovered

Gargantuan black hole 30 billion times the mass of the sun is one of the largest ever discovered

Live Science reports: Astronomers have discovered one of the largest black holes ever found — an ultramassive monster roughly 30 billion times the mass of the sun — using a space-time trick predicted by Albert Einstein. The colossal black hole, which lurks 2.7 billion light-years from Earth in the brightest galaxy of the galaxy cluster Abell 1201, was given away by a giant arc of warped light from a background galaxy that had been stretched and smudged by the black…

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How the AR-15 became the weapon of choice for mass murderers along with 16 million other Americans

How the AR-15 became the weapon of choice for mass murderers along with 16 million other Americans

The Washington Post reports: The AR-15 wasn’t supposed to be a bestseller. The rugged, powerful weapon was originally designed as a soldiers’ rifle in the late 1950s. “An outstanding weapon with phenomenal lethality,” an internal Pentagon report raved. It soon became standard issue for U.S. troops in the Vietnam War, where the weapon earned a new name: the M16. But few gunmakers saw a semiautomatic version of the rifle — with its shrouded barrel, pistol grip and jutting ammunition magazine…

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Netanyahu finally went too far

Netanyahu finally went too far

Zack Beauchamp writes: Throughout the day on Monday, Israel was consumed by protest. Massive crowds gathered outside the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, and in the streets of its major cities. The economy ground to a halt amid a general strike; everything from airports to Israeli embassies abroad to the country’s 226 McDonald’s franchises shut down. It is the largest protest movement in the entirety of Israeli history, one that has been taking to the streets for the past several months but…

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The Trump campaign’s collusion with Israel

The Trump campaign’s collusion with Israel

James Bamford writes: “Roger, hello from Jerusalem,” read the message from the Israeli secret agent. Dated August 12, 2016, it was addressed to Roger Stone—at the time a key player in Donald Trump’s presidential election campaign. “Any progress? He is going to be defeated unless we intervene. We have critical intel. The key is in your hands! Back in the US next week.” Later, the agent promised, “October Surprise coming!” While the American media and political system fixated on Russian…

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Russia supplies Iran with cyber weapons as military cooperation grows

Russia supplies Iran with cyber weapons as military cooperation grows

The Wall Street Journal reports: Russia is helping Iran gain advanced digital-surveillance capabilities as Tehran seeks deeper cooperation on cyberwarfare, people familiar with the matter said, adding another layer to a burgeoning military alliance that the U.S. sees as a threat. The potential for cyberwarfare collaboration comes after Iran has, according to U.S. and Iranian officials, sold Russia drones for use in Ukraine, agreed to provide short-range missiles to Moscow and shipped tank and artillery rounds to the battlefield. Tehran…

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Obama alums are pushing Biden to the right

Obama alums are pushing Biden to the right

Alexander Sammon writes: In mid-March, the Biden administration formally approved the Willow oil drilling project on federally owned landed in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve. The ConocoPhillips-led effort is a massive operation, with the potential to produce 600 million barrels of crude over 30 years and release an additional 9.2 million metric tons of carbon pollution annually. It is also a major campaign promise betrayal, one that came as a surprise: “No more drilling on federal lands,” Joe Biden said in 2020. “Period. Period. Period. Period.” In…

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The House Republicans who identify themselves with the Mafia

The House Republicans who identify themselves with the Mafia

Timothy Noah writes: Sometime late last year, the leaders of the five power centers within the House Republican caucus started calling themselves the Five Families. “You know my reference,” Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (whom Kevin McCarthy admitted to Five Family meetings to secure her support for speaker) told Steve Bannon in a December 14 interview. “I would hope,” Bannon replied, “that those meetings turn out better than the Five Families’ meetings in The Godfather.” They did not. In The Godfather there are five (Mafia)…

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‘Rewilding’ parts of the planet could have big climate benefits

‘Rewilding’ parts of the planet could have big climate benefits

Bob Berwyn writes: Restoring populations of land and marine animals in targeted “rewilding” zones would speed up biological carbon pumps that remove carbon dioxide from the air and sequester the greenhouse gas where it doesn’t harm the climate, new research shows. An international team of scientists focused the study on marine fish, whales, sharks, gray wolves, wildebeest, sea otters, musk oxen, African forest elephants and American bison as species, or groups of species, that accelerate the carbon cycle. Collectively, they “could facilitate…

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Israel spirals into chaos

Israel spirals into chaos

The Washington Post reports: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Sunday, a day after Gallant called for a halt to the judicial reform that has spurred a national crisis. “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided, this evening , to dismiss Defense Minister Yoav Gallant,” said a statement by Netanyahu’s office. Gallant had become the first cabinet member to break with Netanyahu over the judicial overhaul a day earlier, saying in a public address that the…

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Ukraine offensive takes shape, with big unknowns

Ukraine offensive takes shape, with big unknowns

The Wall Street Journal reports: After months of new weapons deliveries from the West, Ukraine is poised to punch back at Russia’s invasion forces in coming weeks—a high-risk campaign that will set the course of subsequent battles and potential peace negotiations. Ukraine’s operational plans remain confidential, but some aspects of what is to come are discernible from a look at the equipment each side has—or doesn’t have—and their recent performance on the battlefield. Both are struggling to make gains and…

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Putin’s timeline for storing tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus is hard to believe

Putin’s timeline for storing tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus is hard to believe

Julian Borger writes: Like a lot of what Vladimir Putin says about nuclear weapons, his suggestion that Russia would start storing its bombs in Belarus may add up to less than it appears. In February last year, Putin said he was putting Russia’s nuclear arsenal on high alert, but there was no perceptible change in the country’s nuclear posture, or any unusual movements of its weapons. Putin and the leader of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, have been hinting at some kind…

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Trump lawyer threatens: Ron DeSantis will emerge a ‘bloodied pulp’ if he challenges her boss

Trump lawyer threatens: Ron DeSantis will emerge a ‘bloodied pulp’ if he challenges her boss

The Daily Beast reports: Donald Trump lawyer and Right Side Broadcasting Network contributor Christina Bobb declared Ron DeSantis will emerge “bloody” if he challenges the former president in 2024. The fighting words from a top Trump official follow increasingly vicious attacks being directed at the Florida governor by the former president. “I would not want to enter the octagon with Donald Trump. Nobody comes out of that and looks pretty,” Bobb said at a MAGA rally in Waco, Texas, Saturday…

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Would President DeSantis be worse for American democracy than President Trump?

Would President DeSantis be worse for American democracy than President Trump?

Brian Klaas writes: After Donald Trump sabotaged the 2022 midterm elections for Republicans by endorsing unelectable extremists, a comforting narrative took root among GOP elites. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis would offer a return to “normal” politics, continuing Trump’s aggressive, unapologetic defense of traditional American culture and values but without all that pesky authoritarianism. He would continue to wrap himself in an American flag, but he wouldn’t invite people to dinner who preferred wearing the Nazi one. Many on the political…

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How forcing TikTok to completely separate its U.S. operations could actually undermine national security

How forcing TikTok to completely separate its U.S. operations could actually undermine national security

Yoel Roth writes: Back in August 2020, the Trump White House issued an executive order purporting to ban TikTok, citing national security concerns. The ban ultimately went nowhere — but not before TikTok and Oracle cobbled together “Project Texas” as an attempt to appease regulators’ privacy worries and keep TikTok available in the United States. The basic gist of Project Texas, Lawfare reported earlier this year, is that TikTok will stand up a new US-based subsidiary named TikTok US Data Security (USDS) to…

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