Researchers dig deep underground in hopes of finally observing dark matter

Researchers dig deep underground in hopes of finally observing dark matter

The inside of the LZ outer detector. The LZ is a super sensitive machine that may one day detect a dark matter particle. Matt Kapust, SURF, CC BY-SA By Hugh Lippincott, University of California, Santa Barbara Physicists like me don’t fully understand what makes up about 83% of the matter of the universe — something we call “dark matter.” But with a tank full of xenon buried nearly a mile under South Dakota, we might one day be able to…

Read More Read More

Ohio vote shows abortion’s potency to reshape elections

Ohio vote shows abortion’s potency to reshape elections

The New York Times reports: Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio, a Republican, argued that Tuesday’s vote over how to amend the State Constitution was about protecting the state from a flood of special interest money. Secretary of State Frank LaRose, another Republican, urged voters to protect the “very foundational rules” of their constitution. But Ohio voters clearly didn’t buy it. About three million of them showed up for a vote dominated by the debate over abortion rights — an issue…

Read More Read More

Ex-federal judge and prominent conservative, J. Michael Luttig: ‘There is no Republican Party’

Ex-federal judge and prominent conservative, J. Michael Luttig: ‘There is no Republican Party’

  CNN reports: J. Michael Luttig, a conservative retired federal judge and key adviser to former Vice President Mike Pence, declared on Wednesday that “there is no Republican Party” and said former President Donald Trump is even more dangerous than he was in the aftermath of the 2020 election. “American democracy simply cannot function without two equally healthy and equally strong political parties. So today, in my view, there is no Republican Party to counter the Democratic Party in the…

Read More Read More

Special counsel obtained search warrant for Donald Trump’s Twitter account

Special counsel obtained search warrant for Donald Trump’s Twitter account

Politico reports: Special Counsel Jack Smith obtained a search warrant for Donald Trump’s Twitter account, @realDonaldTrump, earlier this year, according to newly revealed court documents. Twitter’s initial resistance to complying with the Jan. 17 warrant resulted in a federal judge holding the company, now called X, in contempt and levying a $350,000 fine. A federal court of appeals upheld that fine last month in a sealed opinion. On Wednesday, the court unsealed a redacted version of that opinion, revealing details…

Read More Read More

Previously secret memo laid out strategy for Trump to overturn Biden’s win

Previously secret memo laid out strategy for Trump to overturn Biden’s win

The New York Times reports: A lawyer allied with President Donald J. Trump first laid out a plot to use false slates of electors to subvert the 2020 election in a previously unknown internal campaign memo that prosecutors are portraying as a crucial link in how the Trump team’s efforts evolved into a criminal conspiracy. The existence of the Dec. 6, 2020, memo came to light in last week’s indictment of Mr. Trump, though its details remained unclear. But a…

Read More Read More

‘Weak dictator’ Ron DeSantis ousts another elected prosecutor he dislikes

‘Weak dictator’ Ron DeSantis ousts another elected prosecutor he dislikes

The Daily Beast reports: The Orlando-area prosecutor ousted by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday hit back at the shock suspension, calling the stunt a “smokescreen” to distract from DeSantis’ spiraling presidential campaign. Monique Worrell is now the second democratically elected state prosecutor to lose her job to a DeSantis power grab. The governor attributed Worrell’s suspension to her being too forgiving on crime, despite her comfortably winning 67 percent of the vote in Orange and Osceola counties in 2020….

Read More Read More

Winter heatwave in Andes is sign of things to come, scientists warn

Winter heatwave in Andes is sign of things to come, scientists warn

The Guardian reports: Exceptional winter heat in the Andean mountains of South America has surged to 37C, prompting local scientists to warn the worst may be yet to come as human-caused climate disruption and El Niño cause havoc across the region. The heatwave in the central Chilean Andes is melting the snow below 3,000 metres (9,840ft), which will have knock-on effects for people living in downstream valleys who depend on meltwater during the spring and summer. Tuesday was probably the…

Read More Read More

Secrecy in China

Secrecy in China

Michael Schuman writes: The disappearance of Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang has generated a torrent of speculation about what might have happened to him. The mystery points to a larger, and disconcerting, truth: We understand very little about the inner workings of Chinese politics at a moment when we need to know more than ever. China’s Communist regime has always been opaque. But the more China’s global power rises, the more problematic the Communist Party’s secrecy becomes. The decisions made…

Read More Read More

Fears over Antarctic sea ice as yearly ozone layer hole forms ‘very early’

Fears over Antarctic sea ice as yearly ozone layer hole forms ‘very early’

The Guardian reports: The hole in the ozone layer has begun to form early this year, prompting warnings that a larger-than-average hole may further warm the Southern Ocean while the level of Antarctic sea ice is at a record low. Satellite data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts suggests the hole has already begun to form over Antarctica. Dr Martin Jucker, a lecturer at the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, said the…

Read More Read More

Behind all the ‘clean energy’ talk, this is what big oil is actually doing

Behind all the ‘clean energy’ talk, this is what big oil is actually doing

Jason Bordoff writes: If you’ve been listening to the world’s major energy companies over the past few years, you probably think the clean energy transition is well on its way. But with fossil fuel use and emissions still rising, it is not moving nearly fast enough to address the climate crisis. In June, Shell became the latest of the big oil companies to curb plans to cut oil output, announcing that it will no longer reduce annual oil and gas…

Read More Read More

DeSantis’s Florida approves climate-denial videos in schools

DeSantis’s Florida approves climate-denial videos in schools

E&E News reports: Climate activists are like Nazis. Wind and solar power pollute the Earth and make life miserable. Recent global and local heat records reflect natural temperature cycles. These are some of the themes of children’s videos produced by an influential conservative advocacy group. Now, the videos could soon be used in Florida’s classrooms. Florida’s Department of Education has approved the classroom use of material from the Prager University Foundation, a conservative group that produces videos that distort science,…

Read More Read More

Florida schools will restrict access to Shakespeare in English classes

Florida schools will restrict access to Shakespeare in English classes

The Messenger reports: Some Florida educators don’t plan on teaching William Shakespeare in full this fall. Instead, they’re required to teach only excerpts of the plays in an effort to comply with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ conservative education policies. Joseph Cool, a teacher at Gaither High School in Hillsborough County, told the Tampa Bay Times, “There’s some raunchiness in Shakespeare,” and he hardly blames the district for taking the “safe” route in limiting Shakespeare. However, he still thinks the new…

Read More Read More

Special counsel still scrutinizing finances of Trump’s PAC

Special counsel still scrutinizing finances of Trump’s PAC

Politico reports: Special counsel Jack Smith’s probe of efforts by Donald Trump and others to subvert the 2020 election remains ongoing — with at least one interview this week that focused on fundraising and spending by Trump’s political action committee. Meanwhile, the grand jury that indicted Trump last week was spotted meeting Tuesday in the federal courthouse in Washington. In a closed-door interview on Monday with Bernard Kerik, investigators asked multiple questions about the Save America PAC’s enormous fundraising haul…

Read More Read More

UAE tests it’s relationship with the U.S.

UAE tests it’s relationship with the U.S.

The New York Times reports: The ruler of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, is a key American ally who counts on the United States to defend his country. But he has traveled twice to Russia over the past year to meet with President Vladimir V. Putin, and in June, his country was celebrated as the guest of honor at the Russian leader’s flagship investment forum. Later this month, the Emirati and Chinese air forces plan to train…

Read More Read More