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James Webb telescope spotted the earliest known ‘quenched’ galaxy

James Webb telescope spotted the earliest known ‘quenched’ galaxy

Science News reports: The James Webb Space Telescope has spotted the earliest known galaxy to abruptly stop forming stars. The galaxy, called GS-9209, quenched its star formation more than 12.5 billion years ago, researchers report January 26 at arXiv.org. That’s only a little more than a billion years after the Big Bang. Its existence reveals new details about how galaxies live and die across cosmic time. “It’s a remarkable discovery,” says astronomer Mauro Giavalisco of the University of Massachusetts Amherst,…

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Biden and Zelensky stand united on the frontline of democracy

Biden and Zelensky stand united on the frontline of democracy

David Rothkopf writes: Biden, in going to Kyiv, offered the clearest possible reminder of his stance against Russian aggression from the first moments of his presidency. It illustrated that he did not hesitate to support Ukraine when it was imperiled and that his leadership among our allies worldwide has been one of the signature triumphs of his first term in office. NATO, recently adrift and doubted by other U.S. political leaders, was stronger than ever, on the verge of expanding….

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Biden went to Kyiv because there’s no going back

Biden went to Kyiv because there’s no going back

Anne Applebaum writes: An American AWACS began patrolling the skies west of Ukraine last night; Kyiv was locked down this morning. Motorcades crisscrossed the city and rumors began to spread. But although it was clear someone important was about to arrive, the first photographs of President Joe Biden—with President Volodymyr Zelensky, with air-raid sirens blaring, with St. Michael’s Square in the background—had exactly the impact they were intended to have: surprise, amazement, respect. He’s the American president. He made an…

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Biden’s trip to Kyiv was not a political stunt

Biden’s trip to Kyiv was not a political stunt

Eliot A. Cohen writes: Symbols matter: a Kennedy or a Reagan at the Berlin Wall, a Churchill with a cigar and a bowler, for that matter a green-clad Zelensky growling, “I need ammunition, not a ride.” Simply by taking the hazardous trip to Kyiv, Biden made a strategic move of cardinal importance. While the president clearly intended to bolster the confidence of Ukraine, and the commitment of ambivalent Europeans and neo-isolationist Americans, his real audiences lay elsewhere, as his remarks…

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Ukraine counts war’s cost for nature

Ukraine counts war’s cost for nature

The Guardian reports: Toxic smoke, contaminated rivers, poisoned soil, trees reduced to charred stumps, nature reserves pocked with craters: the environmental toll from Russia’s war with Ukraine, which has been detailed in a new map, might once have been considered incalculable. But extensive investigations by Ukrainian scientists, conservationists, bureaucrats and lawyers are now under way to ensure this is the first conflict in which a full reckoning is made of environmental crimes so the aggressor can be held to account…

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You can’t save democracy in a Jewish state

You can’t save democracy in a Jewish state

Peter Beinart writes: The warnings come every day: Israeli democracy is in danger. Since Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government announced plans to undermine the independence of Israel’s Supreme Court, hundreds of thousands of Israelis have demonstrated in the streets. All of Israel’s living former attorneys general, in a joint statement, have warned that Mr. Netanyahu’s proposal imperils efforts to “preserve Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.” Liberal American Jewish leaders are cheering on the protests. Earlier this month, Alan Solow, the former head of the…

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As the pandemic swept America, deaths in prisons rose nearly 50 percent

As the pandemic swept America, deaths in prisons rose nearly 50 percent

The New York Times reports: Deaths in state and federal prisons across America rose nearly 50 percent during the first year of the pandemic, and in six states they more than doubled, according to the first comprehensive data on prison fatalities in the era of Covid-19. The tremendous jump in deaths in 2020 was more than twice the increase in the United States overall, and even exceeded estimates of the percentage increase at nursing homes, among the hardest-hit sectors nationwide….

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The birth of the scientific method

The birth of the scientific method

Tim Adams writes: Something very startling happened in Miletus, the ancient Greek city on the modern Turkish coast, in about 600BC. That something, physicist Carlo Rovelli argues in this enjoyable and provocative little book [Anaximander and the Nature of Science], occurred in the interaction between two of the place’s greatest minds. The first, Thales, one of the seven sages of ancient Greece, is often credited as the pioneer in applying deductive reasoning to geometry and astronomy; he used his mathematics,…

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One year into war, Putin is crafting the Russia he craves

One year into war, Putin is crafting the Russia he craves

The New York Times reports: The grievances, paranoia and imperialist mind-set that drove President Vladimir V. Putin to invade Ukraine have seeped deep into Russian life after a year of war — a broad, if uneven, societal upheaval that has left the Russian leader more dominant than ever at home. Schoolchildren collect empty cans to make candles for soldiers in the trenches, while learning in a new weekly class that the Russian military has always liberated humanity from “aggressors who…

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Putin, czar with no empire, needs military victory for his own survival

Putin, czar with no empire, needs military victory for his own survival

The Washington Post reports: President Vladimir Putin likes to portray himself as a new czar like Peter the Great or Ivan III, the 15th-century grand prince known as the “gatherer of the Russian lands.” But Putin’s year-long war in Ukraine has failed so far to secure the lands he aims to seize, and in Russia, there is fear that he is leading his nation into a dark period of strife and stagnation — or worse. Some in the elite also…

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Neutrality towards Russia’s war on Ukraine amounts to tacit support for imperialism

Neutrality towards Russia’s war on Ukraine amounts to tacit support for imperialism

Slavoj Žižek writes: Last May, before being newly re-elected as president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva claimed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, bear equal responsibility for the war in Ukraine. Yet whether the refusal to pick sides comes from Brazil, South Africa, or India, claiming to be “neutral” on Russia’s war of aggression is untenable. The same is true of individuals. If a passerby saw a man relentlessly beating a child on a street corner, we…

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F-16s, longer-range missiles could help Ukraine beat Russia, U.S. general privately tells lawmakers

F-16s, longer-range missiles could help Ukraine beat Russia, U.S. general privately tells lawmakers

Politico reports: The top U.S. general in Europe is quietly telling American lawmakers that giving Ukraine advanced Western equipment — such as F-16 fighter jets, drones, and long-range missiles — could help Kyiv rule the skies and bolster its own offensives against Russia. In a Friday morning closed-door briefing with more than 10 senators and House members, Gen. Christopher Cavoli was asked if F-16 fighter jets would help Ukraine win the war against Russia. He responded: “Yes,” according to five…

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How Putin’s Russian goon squad used Mexican gig workers to troll an American election

How Putin’s Russian goon squad used Mexican gig workers to troll an American election

Mattathias Schwartz reports: In March 2020, a freelance writer in Mexico City was browsing the internet at home when he saw an ad for a self-described “social media” company that was looking for writers to post messages online. The company didn’t appear to have a name. Instead, there was a WhatsApp number and an address for an account on an encrypted email service. “Fluent English is a must,” the ad emphasized. The freelancer — I’ll call him Carlos — thought…

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China is dying out

China is dying out

Yi Fuxian writes: China’s population decline, which the Chinese government officially confirmed in January, has led many observers to wonder if the country’s current demographic trends threaten its stability. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, China’s population shrank last year for the first time in 60 years, nine years earlier than government projections had anticipated. The fertility rate (births per woman) fell to 1.0-1.1, well below the official forecast of 1.8. Most notably, the number of births dropped sharply to 9.56 million, the fewest since 1790, despite China’s…

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