James Webb Space Telescope prompts a rethink of how galaxies form

James Webb Space Telescope prompts a rethink of how galaxies form

Adam Mann writes: Katherine Whitaker was on a video call with colleagues last summer when NASA released the first pictures from the ultra-powerful James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Among the many awe-inspiring images was one of a sliver of sky surrounding the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723: It was brimming with some of the oldest and most distant galaxies ever recorded. “We would zoom in and be like, ‘Oh wow,’ and ‘What the heck is that?’” recalls Whitaker, an astronomer at…

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Putin wants to lead Russians into a civilizational conflict with the West far larger than Ukraine

Putin wants to lead Russians into a civilizational conflict with the West far larger than Ukraine

Roger Cohen writes: Through towering pine forests and untouched meadows, the road to Lake Baikal in southern Siberia winds past cemeteries where bright plastic flowers mark the graves of Russians killed in Ukraine. Far from the Potemkin paradise of Moscow, the war is ever visible. On the eastern shore of the lake, where white-winged gulls plunge into the steel-blue water, Yulia Rolikova, 35, runs an inn that doubles as a children’s summer camp. She is some 3,500 miles from the…

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There is no First Amendment right to overturn an election

There is no First Amendment right to overturn an election

Ian Millhiser writes: Shortly after special counsel Jack Smith unveiled four new criminal charges against former president Donald Trump — all arising out of Trump’s failed efforts to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election — one of Trump’s lawyers revealed one of the legal arguments he plans to use to defend the former president. “This is an attack on free speech and political advocacy,” Trump attorney John Lauro told CNN Tuesday evening. In a separate appearance on Fox News, Lauro claimed that Trump is being prosecuted for…

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Trump says he will seek a recusal, venue change in Jan. 6 case

Trump says he will seek a recusal, venue change in Jan. 6 case

Politico reports: Donald Trump will ask for the federal judge overseeing the case involving his attempt to subvert the 2020 presidential election to recuse herself and will seek a venue change, he wrote in a post on social media Sunday. “There is no way I can get a fair trial with the judge ‘assigned’ to the ridiculous freedom of speech/fair elections case. Everybody knows this, and so does she!,” Trump wrote in all caps on Truth Social. “We will be…

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U.S. company Haas appears to still indirectly supply Russian arms industry with technology

U.S. company Haas appears to still indirectly supply Russian arms industry with technology

  American machine tools giant Haas Automation faced allegations in March it sold technology to the Russian arms industry via a former distributor. Haas denied the story and said it halted sales when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. But research shows Haas may still be supplying the Russian arms industry indirectly. Special correspondent Simon Ostrovsky reports with support from the Pulitzer Center.

Russia and China sent large naval patrol near Alaska

Russia and China sent large naval patrol near Alaska

The Wall Street Journal reports: A combined Russian and Chinese naval force patrolled near the coast of Alaska last week in what U.S. experts said appeared to be the largest such flotilla to approach American shores. Eleven Russian and Chinese ships steamed close to the Aleutian Islands, according to U.S. officials. The ships, which never entered U.S. territorial waters and have since left, were shadowed by four U.S. destroyers and P-8 Poseidon aircraft. “It is a historical first,” said Brent…

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RFK Jr’s presidential campaign is just a ‘vanity project’ says JFK’s grandson as Kennedy family backs Biden

RFK Jr’s presidential campaign is just a ‘vanity project’ says JFK’s grandson as Kennedy family backs Biden

The New York Times reports: Jack Schlossberg had enough. The only grandson of President John F. Kennedy, Mr. Schlossberg had been watching the presidential campaign of his cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr. with increasing dismay. To Mr. Schlossberg, the quixotic challenge to President Biden for the Democratic nomination was just a “vanity project” that was tarnishing the legacy of his grandfather and their storied family. Just days earlier last month, his conspiracy-minded cousin had suggested that the Covid-19 virus had…

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Another path to intelligence

Another path to intelligence

James Bridle writes: It turns out there are many ways of “doing” intelligence, and this is evident even in the apes and monkeys who perch close to us on the evolutionary tree. This awareness takes on a whole new character when we think about those non-human intelligences which are very different to us. Because there are other highly evolved, intelligent, and boisterous creatures on this planet that are so distant and so different from us that researchers consider them to…

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Donald Trump is a leading driver of domestic extremism

Donald Trump is a leading driver of domestic extremism

Donell Harvin writes: Federal intelligence and national security agencies — from the FBI to DHS — are in universal agreement that domestic extremism and terrorism is the leading threat to the U.S. homeland. But homeland security officials are also trained to be apolitical, so here’s what they can’t tell you: Donald J. Trump poses a significant threat to homeland security. While generally highly decentralized and fractured, violent extremist groups have begun to mesh over a unifying figure: Trump. The former…

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Feds alert judge to Trump’s ‘If you go after me, I’m coming after you!’ post

Feds alert judge to Trump’s ‘If you go after me, I’m coming after you!’ post

Politico reports: Prosecutors on Friday night called a judge’s attention to a social media post from Donald Trump — issued hours earlier — in which they say the former president appeared to declare that he’s “coming after” those he sees as responsible for the series of formidable legal challenges he is facing. Attorneys from special counsel Jack Smith’s team said the post from Trump “specifically or by implication” referenced those involved in his criminal case for seeking to subvert the…

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Trump’s legal team is enmeshed in a tangle of possible conflicts

Trump’s legal team is enmeshed in a tangle of possible conflicts

The New York Times reports: The potential conflicts confronting the lawyers in Mr. Trump’s prosecutions come from a variety of sources. Some involve situations in which the lawyers could be put in the untenable position of cross-examining a former client in the service of defending a current one. Others stem from bumping up against the guardrails put in place to keep lawyers from advocating for their clients with one hand while possibly incriminating them with the other. Then there is…

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How Jack Smith structured the Trump election indictment to reduce risks

How Jack Smith structured the Trump election indictment to reduce risks

The New York Times reports: In accusing former President Donald J. Trump of conspiring to subvert American democracy, the special counsel, Jack Smith, charged the same story three different ways. The charges are novel applications of criminal laws to unprecedented circumstances, heightening legal risks, but Mr. Smith’s tactic gives him multiple paths in obtaining and upholding a guilty verdict. “Especially in a case like this, you want to have multiple charges that are applicable or provable with the same evidence,…

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How Code Pink became an opponent of human rights in China

How Code Pink became an opponent of human rights in China

The New York Times reports: [Jodie] Evans, 68, was once a Democratic insider who managed the 1992 presidential campaign of the California governor Jerry Brown. After the 2001 terrorist attacks, she reinvented herself as an activist. She became known for pink peace-sign earrings and sit-ins that ended with her arrest. She helped form Code Pink to protest the looming war in Iraq. The group became notorious for disrupting Capitol Hill hearings. Ms. Evans has organized around progressive causes like climate…

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19 ‘mass extinctions’ had CO2 levels we’re now veering toward, study warns

19 ‘mass extinctions’ had CO2 levels we’re now veering toward, study warns

Live Science reports: Within a human lifetime, concentrations of CO2 in Earth’s atmosphere could reach levels associated with 19 “mass extinctions” that have taken place in the last 534 million years, new research suggests. By 2100, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels could rise to 800 parts per million by volume (ppmv) — almost double the concentration of roughly 421 ppmv recorded this year — if we fail to curb emissions from burning fossil fuels and converting land for agriculture. That would…

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