Monday, June 23
Headlines
Anadolu/Getty Images
More news from the aftermath of the US strikes on Iran. Details of Operation Midnight Hammer, the US military operation against three Iranian nuclear sites that unfolded on Saturday, emerged yesterday: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that 14 “bunker-buster bombs” and seven B-2 bombers were used in the operation. Hegseth said, “Our initial assessment is...that all of our precision munitions struck where we wanted them to strike and had the desired effect.” On ABC’s This Week, Vice President JD Vance suggested that Iran still controlled its enriched uranium stockpile that could be used to make around 10 nuclear weapons. The International Atomic Energy Agency said that Iranian authorities did not report any contamination or pollution as a result of the US attacks. Sources told NBC News that Iran warned President Trump through intermediaries last week that if the US attacked its nuclear facilities, it would activate sleeper-cell terrorists within the US. Last night, NYC Mayor Eric Adams said the city was on heightened alert, particularly for potential “lone wolf attacks” and cyberattacks.
Tesla robotaxis, commercialized and supervised, hit the streets in Austin. Yesterday, the autonomous ride-hailing service became available to an invite-only list, with trips taking place within a geofenced area of the Texas capital for the special promotional price of $4.20 each. In The Verge’s roundup of initial reviews, the outlet found “smooth,” “great,” and “normal” to be common descriptors of trips. While CEO Elon Musk said in January that the service would launch unsupervised, the vehicles include Tesla-employed safety monitors who verify the identity of the passenger when they enter the car (but seem to be instructed not to talk to passengers otherwise). The initial trial is said to include about 20 Tesla Model Y vehicles with special branding; the fully autonomous Tesla Cybercab will not be available until at least 2026.
Fred Smith, FedEx founder and chairman, died at 80. Smith, a Marine Corps veteran and Yale graduate, founded Federal Express in 1973. He became an overnight shipping pioneer with a small fleet of planes based out of Memphis and the “hub and spokes” air cargo fulfillment system plan he devised in college. An under-the-radar philanthropist, he made generous donations to the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation, the University of Memphis, and Yale, among others. But one big bet he placed in Las Vegas became legendary: In 1973, FedEx was close to bankruptcy when Smith decided to wager its last $5,000 in a blackjack game. He won $27,000, which bought him enough time to get more funding and restructure. Maybe don’t try that at home.—HVL
Robert Reich
Centralize even more power and curtail even more civil liberties
Friends,
One of my goals in writing this letter to you every day is to alert you to dangers to our democracy so you can alert others, who then alert others, and by this means we enlarge and strengthen our bulwark against the tide of fascism.
Wars pose particular challenges to democracy because nations at war often become more xenophobic and willing to give those in power extra leeway to protect the homeland. That’s an underlying danger in Trump’s war with Iran.
Trump has already tried to use three pretexts to usurp power — terrorism, national emergency, and war itself — to justify his mass deportations, universal tariffs, and consolidations of power. And he has tried to use these to gain legal legitimacy under laws that give presidents additional power when the nation is threatened.
At A Glance
Telegram's CEO to give $14B fortune to his 100+ children.
Gorgeous images of Earth from space.
Photos of 2,500 revelers at Great Masked Ball in Versailles.
Never-before-seen Picasso ceramics auctioned for $332.4K.
... and Alan Turing's scientific papers sell for $625K.
How volcanoes shape planet Earth. (via YouTube)
Ducklings leap off bridge to mother in viral video.
Learn about the man who preserved over 17,000 folk songs.
Clickbait: When life gives you glass bottles make an Airbnb.
In The NEWS
Breaking down SCOTUS
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest authority in the country's judicial system, standing alongside the executive and legislative as a coequal branch of government (see 101).
The main role of the court is to interpret the US Constitution and ensure that laws and policies align with it. The court also resolves legal disputes involving the federal government's authority and serves as the final appellate body, reviewing decisions from lower federal and state courts, that is, hearing appeals.
The Supreme Court consists of nine justices—one chief justice and eight associate justices—a number that has remained unchanged since the Judiciary Act of 1869 (the number of justices can be changed through an act of Congress). Justices are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, serving lifetime appointments. As of 2025, 116 people have held the position of justice. See current justices here.
The Supreme Court has delivered landmark decisions that have significantly influenced the nation's legal and social landscape (see table of laws ruled unconstitutional).
... Read our full write-up on the court here.
Also, check out ...
> The only criminal trial in the Supreme Court's history. (More)
> Why Supreme Court nominations have become so bitter. (More)
> Why SCOTUS justices serve for life. (More)
The Hubble Telescope, 101
For the last three decades, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has served as the pinnacle of space-based observation—generating unprecedented images of the universe and rewriting textbook theories on black holes, dark matter, exoplanets, and more. The observatory is named after Edwin Hubble, the astronomer who first revealed and classified galaxies other than our own.
The telescope was released from the space shuttle Discovery’s cargo bay into low Earth orbit on April 25, 1990, 320 miles above Earth’s surface. Since becoming operational, Hubble has made more than 1.6 million observations, making it NASA’s most productive mission ever. For years, it was serviced regularly via space shuttle missions.
Hubble is expected to reenter and burn up in Earth’s atmosphere sometime in the mid-2030s, far surpassing its original 15-year mission and inspiring a new generation of space-based observatories.
... Read our full explainer on the Hubble here.
Also, check out ...
> The time Hubble witnessed a comet hit Jupiter. (More)
> Investigate the cosmos in this Hubble-based interactive. (More)
> The story behind Hubble's first photo. (More)
SOURCE: 1440 NEWS
Broken Window Glass Theory
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The broken window glass theory is an economic theory that says there are positive outcomes when a pane of glass in a storefront, for example, is broken.
Let me explain,
A criminal breaks the window of a storefront in order to steal some merchandise inside. The cost of replacing that window is a business expense that could be labeled vandalism. The store owner hires a handyman to replace that window so new wages for the handyman. The handyman must buy supplies at a local hardware store so new revenue for that store. The handyman has to buy himself lunch the day the work is done, so the restaurant has new revenues as well and that restaurant had to buy supplies and hire people.
So that alone causes an econ0mic impact that before the window was broken may never have taken place.
Using this same theory, we can now speculate that every time something similar happens it will result in a positive economic impact. Something similar could be:
- Hurricane damage
- Wildfire damage
- Flood damage
We could also speculate more and say that the destruction that results from WARS causes a positive economic impact for that society because of everything, except lives, that needs to be replaced.
Every time there is a legal trial, look at all the expenses that are involved associated with that trial:
- Court room expenses (electricity, heating, air)
- Reporters/camera people
- Security guards
- Legal fees/investigators
- Taxis/gasoline/electric batteries
- Restaurants/people/supplies
- Coffee purchases
- Opportunity costs
New Calculations Shake Foundations of the Big Bang Theory
New findings from the University of Bonn challenge the assumptions of the standard cosmological model.
The faint “afterglow” that fills the universe has long been one of the most important clues supporting the Big Bang theory. Known as cosmic microwave background radiation, this ancient light not only serves as a snapshot of the early universe, but also helps scientists understand how the very first galaxies came to be.
Now, a team of researchers from the Universities of Bonn, Prague, and Nanjing is challenging what we thought we knew. Their new calculations suggest that the strength of this background radiation may have been significantly overestimated. If their findings are confirmed, it could force scientists to rethink some of the most fundamental ideas in modern cosmology.
Sunday, June 22
Science
Ron Magill/ Zoo Miami
Here are some illuminating scientific discoveries from the week to help you live better and maybe even see a baby tortoise.
Goliath, the 135-year-old tortoise, became a father. Electricity was still a novel invention when Goliath was born, and it took until the age of AI for him to find a mate he was willing to breed with. Earlier this month, Zoo Miami welcomed the first Galápagos tortoise hatchling ever born there, a win for the species and for handlers who had been unsuccessfully introducing Goliath to female tortoises for years. With Sweet Pea, the hatchling’s near-centenarian mother, Goliath finally found his match. The zoo submitted the pair to the Guinness Book of World Records to officially make them “The Oldest First-Time Parents in History.”
Breakthrough HIV prevention drug gets FDA approval. This week, US regulators greenlit Lenacapavir, a twice-yearly injection that was at least 96% effective at protecting against HIV infection in clinical trials. The current leading HIV prevention drug is a daily pill known as PrEP that’s 99% effective when taken on time every day, but its efficacy plummets if you skip doses. The convenience of Lenacapavir—which was Science magazine’s “Breakthrough of the Year” in 2024—could, in practice, make it more effective than PrEP if the manufacturer, Gilead Sciences, broadens access. The drug is now available in the US…but right now it costs $28,000 per year.
Blood test could detect cancer three years earlier. Tumors shed genetic material that can show up in a person’s bloodstream months to years before they’re diagnosed with cancer, according to a new Johns Hopkins study. When analyzing the blood samples of 26 patients who were diagnosed with cancer within six months of blood collection, the researchers detected tumor DNA in eight people (or 31% of the time). The team also had three-year-old blood samples on hand for six of those eight people, and microscopic cancer mutations were detected in four of them. The discovery paves the way for early intervention at a time when tumors are “more likely to be curable,” one of the study’s authors said.—ML
Robert Reich
What's really going on
Friends,
The United States is now at war with Iran.
A single person — Donald J. Trump — has released the dogs of war on one of the most dangerous countries in the world, and done it without the consent of Congress, our allies, or even a clear explanation to the American people.
Anyone who has doubted Trump’s intention to replace American democracy with a dictatorship should now be fully disabused.
I share your despair, sadness, and fear. Even if our president was a wise a judicious man, surrounded by thoughtful advisors with impeccable integrity and wisdom, this would be a highly dangerous move.
At A Glance
What summer was like the year you were born.
Watch this year's summer solstice event at Stonehenge.
Why humans only have 10 toes.
How the cicada's screech entered popular music.
The rare British language used as code in World War II.
The coolest small towns in the US.
Mapping the strongest-ever hurricanes in the Atlantic.
The origins and growth of Juneteenth.
Why bestie psychologists Freud and Jung broke up.
How to cope with post-vacation blues.
The features that make our voices unique.
Nine airplanes that transformed aviation.
Are hotels cheaper than Airbnbs?
How neurons flush waste during sleep.
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