As ISIS resurges, U.S. is drawn back into the fray

As ISIS resurges, U.S. is drawn back into the fray

The New York Times reports: An audacious attack on a prison housing thousands of former ISIS fighters in Syria. A series of strikes against military forces in neighboring Iraq. And a horrific video harking back to the grimmest days of the insurgency that showed the beheading of an Iraqi police officer. The evidence of a resurgence of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq is mounting by the day, nearly three years after the militants lost the last patch of…

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Overclassification of information undermines national security and erodes public trust, spy chief says

Overclassification of information undermines national security and erodes public trust, spy chief says

The Wall Street Journal reports: The U.S. intelligence community’s approach to classifying vast amounts of information is so flawed that it harms national security and diminishes public trust in government, according to Avril Haines, President Biden’s director of national intelligence. The acknowledgment of such concerns about how the nation’s spy agencies choose what information to keep secret under various classification levels is among the most significant by a president’s sitting intelligence chief, government transparency advocates said, and could indicate broader…

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Did a mega drought topple empires 4,200 years ago?

Did a mega drought topple empires 4,200 years ago?

Nature reports: The missing earthworms were a sign. As archaeologist Harvey Weiss and his colleagues excavated a site in northeast Syria, they found a buried layer of wind-blown silt so barren there was hardly any evidence of earthworms at work during that ancient era. Something drastic had happened thousands of years ago — something that choked the land with dust for decades, leaving a blanket of soil too inhospitable even for earthworms. The drought hit in roughly 2200 BC, when the…

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How the physics of resonance shapes reality

How the physics of resonance shapes reality

Ben Brubaker writes: Almost anytime physicists announce that they’ve discovered a new particle, whether it’s the Higgs boson or the recently bagged double-charm tetraquark, what they’ve actually spotted is a small bump rising from an otherwise smooth curve on a plot. Such a bump is the unmistakable signature of “resonance,” one of the most ubiquitous phenomena in nature. Resonance underlies aspects of the world as diverse as music, nuclear fusion in dying stars, and even the very existence of subatomic…

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Putin is no chess master

Putin is no chess master

Eliot A. Cohen writes: A terrible thing may be impending in Ukraine. Undoubtedly, subversion, sabotage, and murder await, although such miseries have been going on for some time without the West paying much attention. But a Russian onslaught, to include air and missile strikes followed by an invasion, would be a lot worse. Thousands of people may die, and the foundations of European security would be rocked as they have not been since the early days of the Cold War….

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Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is among the leading candidates to succeed Justice Breyer

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is among the leading candidates to succeed Justice Breyer

The New York Times reports: Attention quickly turned on Wednesday to Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as one of a small number of likely options who could fulfill President Biden’s pledge to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court, after the disclosure that Justice Stephen G. Breyer has decided to retire. Judge Jackson, 51, already successfully went through the Senate confirmation process last year, when Mr. Biden elevated her from the Federal District Court in the District of Columbia…

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San Jose just voted to institute first-in-the-nation gun ownership requirements

San Jose just voted to institute first-in-the-nation gun ownership requirements

CNN reports: The San Jose, California, city council voted Tuesday night to adopt a first-in-the-nation ordinance requiring most gun owners to pay a fee and carry liability insurance, measures aimed at reducing the risk of gun harm by incentivizing safer behavior and easing taxpayers of the financial burden of gun violence. The council in the Silicon Valley city split the vote into two parts: the first approving the bulk of the proposal, including the insurance provisions, and the second approving…

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Doctors find ‘antibody signature’ for patients most at risk for long Covid

Doctors find ‘antibody signature’ for patients most at risk for long Covid

The Guardian reports: Doctors have discovered an “antibody signature” that can help identify patients most at risk of developing long Covid, a condition where debilitating symptoms of the disease can persist for many months. Researchers at University hospital Zurich analysed blood from Covid patients and found that low levels of certain antibodies were more common in those who developed long Covid than in patients who swiftly recovered. When combined with the patient’s age, details of their Covid symptoms and whether…

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90% of Americans have a poor diet, and 25% don’t exercise

90% of Americans have a poor diet, and 25% don’t exercise

Ars Technica reports: As the pandemic enters its third year with cases and hospitalizations as high as ever, fresh data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reminds us that we already had a long track record of failing to manage our health. The latest data from a decades-long health survey finds that—yet again—the vast majority of Americans have a poor diet and many of us are inactive. Specifically, just 10 percent of Americans eat enough vegetables, and only…

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Scientists find hints of a hidden mass extinction 30 million years ago

Scientists find hints of a hidden mass extinction 30 million years ago

Inside Science reports: Nearly two-thirds of mammal species in Africa and the Arabian Peninsula may have died off about 30 million years ago, a mass extinction that escaped detection for decades until now, a new study finds. During a time span known as the Eocene-Oligocene transition between 40 million and 34 million years ago, Earth’s climate shifted dramatically, with the planet growing cooler, ice sheets expanding and sea levels dropping worldwide. During the Eocene, Antarctica was covered by lush forests,…

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Biden says a Russian invasion of Ukraine ‘would change the world’

Biden says a Russian invasion of Ukraine ‘would change the world’

CNBC reports: President Joe Biden cast a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine in stark historical terms Tuesday, saying, “it would be the largest invasion since World War II.” “It would change the world,” said Biden, if the tens of thousands of Russian troops who have been amassing on the Russian-Ukrainian border were to launch an incursion into Ukrainian territory. Biden’s remarks reflect a growing consensus among experts that any conflict in Ukraine is unlikely to be confined to a small…

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Michael Flynn sides with Putin against Ukraine

Michael Flynn sides with Putin against Ukraine

Forbes reports: Michael Flynn, the former national security advisor who resigned and pleaded guilty for misleading authorities over his ties to the Russian government—before later pardoned by former President Donald Trump—attacked the Biden Administration Monday for its support of Ukraine in an op-ed article on a right-wing site criticized for spreading misinformation, appearing to parrot the views of Russian President Vladimir Putin. [Continue reading…]

What the Trump documents might tell the January 6 committee

What the Trump documents might tell the January 6 committee

The New York Times reports: The National Archives has turned over to the House select committee investigating the assault on the Capitol last Jan. 6 a large batch of documents that former President Donald J. Trump had sought to keep out of the panel’s hands, citing executive privilege. The committee has yet to make the documents public or disclose how far along it is in scrutinizing them for any new information about the roles played by Mr. Trump and his…

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