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Primitive Asgard cells show life on the brink of complexity

Primitive Asgard cells show life on the brink of complexity

Joshua Sokol writes: An oak tree. The symbiotic fungus intertwined with its roots. A cardinal chirping from one of its branches. Our best clue yet to their shared ancestor might have arrived in electron microscope images that were unveiled in December. “Look!” said the microbiologist Christa Schleper, beaming as she held a printed, high-resolution image in front of her webcam at the University of Vienna. “Isn’t it beautiful?” The cells in the micrograph were 500 nanometer-wide orbs surrounded by a…

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From Discord to 4chan: The improbable journey of a U.S. intelligence leak

From Discord to 4chan: The improbable journey of a U.S. intelligence leak

Bellingcat reports: In recent days, the US Justice Department and Pentagon have begun investigating an apparent online leak of sensitive documents, including some that were marked “Top Secret”. A portion of the documents, which have since been widely covered by the news media, focused on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, while others detailed analysis of potential UK policies on the South China Sea and the activities of a Houthi figure in Yemen. The existence of the documents was first reported by…

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The leaked documents on the Ukraine war are chilling

The leaked documents on the Ukraine war are chilling

David Ignatius writes: Intelligence is always about what philosophers call epistemology — the study of how we know what we know. But let’s try to focus on facts, by examining some baseline themes in the documents that accord with information from other sources. By restricting ourselves to this subset of information supported by collateral evidence, we can make out some basic themes. First, Ukraine is facing a severe shortage of air defense weapons that could cost it the war. We…

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New details on intelligence leak show it circulated for weeks before raising alarm

New details on intelligence leak show it circulated for weeks before raising alarm

The Wall Street Journal reports: In total, just over 50 documents with Secret and Top Secret classification markings have surfaced so far, and have been viewed by the Journal and a variety of independent intelligence analysts. A critical question is who had access, and when, to the hundreds of others that were posted in the original group between January and March, and how significant are the secrets that these files contain. The U.S. intelligence community is expected to take measures…

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Egypt secretly planned to supply rockets to Russia, leaked U.S. document say

Egypt secretly planned to supply rockets to Russia, leaked U.S. document say

The Washington Post reports: President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi of Egypt, one of America’s closest allies in the Middle East and a major recipient of U.S. aid, recently ordered subordinates to produce up to 40,000 rockets to be covertly shipped to Russia, according to a leaked U.S. intelligence document. Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for the latest updates on Russia’s war in Ukraine. A portion of a top secret document, dated Feb. 17, summarizes purported conversations between Sisi…

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Mifepristone should not only remain in use, but it should be easier to get

Mifepristone should not only remain in use, but it should be easier to get

Elizabeth Janiak writes: Even before [U.S. District Court Judge Matthew] Kacsmaryk’s decision, existing federal regulations on mifepristone also reinforced abortion stigma. The drug, which works by blocking a hormone needed to sustain pregnancy, held promise of improving access to abortion care when it was introduced over 20 years ago. Before mifepristone’s approval, most pregnancy terminations in the U.S. used vacuum aspiration, a brief and safe procedure with high patient satisfaction, but one that requires specific clinical training many clinicians do…

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Research with exotic viruses risks a deadly outbreak, scientists warn

Research with exotic viruses risks a deadly outbreak, scientists warn

The Washington Post reports: Some of the workers received booster shots to prevent infection by common rabies, and none of them reported illness, according to their supervisor. But the incidents raised disturbing questions about the research: What if they encountered an unknown virus that killed humans? What if it spread to their colleagues? What if it infected their families and neighbors? As if to underscore the risks, in 2018 another lab on the same Bangkok campus — a workspace built…

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Unearthing the origins of agriculture

Unearthing the origins of agriculture

John Carey writes: Archaeobiology involves gathering and analyzing the remains of humans and plants to discern how people were living and what they were eating and doing. It started first with bioarchaeology, a term coined in the 1970s for the study of human bones and teeth, explains Clark Larsen, an anthropologist at The Ohio State University in Columbus. Researchers can use clues in bone structure and advanced technologies to determine whether our ancestors walked or ran a lot, measure isotopes…

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Is the GOP becoming the American fascist party?

Is the GOP becoming the American fascist party?

Robert Reich writes: I hate to say this, but America no longer has two parties devoted to a democratic system of self-government. We have a Democratic Party, which — notwithstanding a few glaring counter-examples such as what the Democratic National Committee did to Bernie in 2016 — is still largely committed to democracy. And we have a Republican Party, which is careening at high-velocity toward authoritarianism. Okay, fascism. What occurred in Nashville last week is a frightening reminder of the…

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GOP embraces a new foreign policy: Bomb Mexico to stop fentanyl

GOP embraces a new foreign policy: Bomb Mexico to stop fentanyl

Politico reports: A growing number of prominent Republicans are rallying around the idea that to solve the fentanyl crisis, America must bomb it away. In recent weeks, Donald Trump has discussed sending “special forces” and using “cyber warfare” to target cartel leaders if he’s reelected president and, per Rolling Stone, asked for “battle plans” to strike Mexico. Reps. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) and Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) introduced a bill seeking authorization for the use of military force to “put us at…

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U.S. deems WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich ‘wrongfully detained’ by Russia

U.S. deems WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich ‘wrongfully detained’ by Russia

The Wall Street Journal reports: The State Department on Monday designated Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter who was arrested by Russian security services last month, as ”wrongfully detained,” launching a broad U.S. government effort to exert pressure on Russia to free him. Mr. Gershkovich is held on an accusation of espionage that the Journal and the U.S. government vehemently deny. His case now shifts to a State Department section known as the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy…

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The U.S. Army increasingly lets soldiers charged with violent crimes leave the military rather than face trial

The U.S. Army increasingly lets soldiers charged with violent crimes leave the military rather than face trial

ProPublica reports: Stationed at Army posts thousands of miles apart, two soldiers faced a flurry of criminal charges after they allegedly assaulted women within days of each other in early 2017. One soldier was accused of physically assaulting his wife and firing a gun as she tried to flee their home near Fort Hood in Texas. Police later found a bullet hole in a window screen. The other told investigators in Alaska that he’d had sex with a fellow soldier…

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China sentences leading human rights activists to 14 and 12 years in prison

China sentences leading human rights activists to 14 and 12 years in prison

The New York Times reports: Two of China’s most prominent human rights lawyers were sentenced on Monday to 14 years and 12 years in prison, some of the lengthiest such sentences in recent years and an indication of how the space for expression has evaporated under China’s leader, Xi Jinping. The lawyers, Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi, had been charged with subversion for promoting what they called a “New Citizens Movement,” which encouraged ordinary Chinese to exercise the rights such…

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How plants react to climate change could make floods a whole lot worse

How plants react to climate change could make floods a whole lot worse

Chad Small writes: Tree-planting is a cornerstone of numerous environmental and climate campaigns, and for seemingly good and logical reasons: When plants photosynthesize, they exchange carbon dioxide for oxygen. The reality of planting trees to combat climate change is a bit more complicated. Planting the wrong trees in the wrong places can do more environmental harm than good. There is an ongoing debate as to whether reforestation will compete too much with necessary agriculture, or if trees—which can take a…

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