Goose bumps build for the Webb’s 1st snapshots of the universe
On Tuesday morning, NASA will show off the first pictures and data from the new James Webb Space Telescope. That will bring to an end about 30 years and $10 billion of planning, building, testing and innovating, followed by six months of anticipation. The pictures constitute a tour of the universe painted in colors no human eye has seen — invisible rays of infrared or heat radiation. Infrared rays are blocked by the atmosphere and can be studied only in space. They can penetrate the clouds of dust encasing the cosmic nurseries where stars are born, turning them into transparent bubbles that show the baby stars nesting inside.
Defense firm said US spies backed its bid for Pegasus spyware maker
A team of executives from an American military contractor visited Israel numerous times in recent months to try to purchase NSO Group, the cyber-hacking firm. The impediments were substantial for the team from the American company, L3Harris. They started with the fact that the U.S. government had put NSO on a blacklist months earlier because the Israeli firm’s spyware, called Pegasus, had been used by other governments to penetrate the phones of political leaders, human rights activists and journalists. But five people familiar with the negotiations said the L3Harris team had said that American intelligence officials supported its plans.
Biden says he’s mulling health emergency for abortion access
President Joe Biden says he’s considering declaring a public health emergency to free up federal resources to promote abortion access even though the White House has said it doesn’t seem like “a great option.” Biden also has a message to people enraged by the Supreme Court’s ruling last month that ended a constitutional right to abortion and who’ve been demonstrating across the country: “Keep protesting. Keep making your point. It’s critically important.” He tells reporters while spending the weekend in Delaware that he lacks the power to force the dozen-plus states with strict restrictions or outright bans on abortion to allow the procedure.
In Eastern Ukraine, attacks intensify as Russia readies new offensive
Russia’s offensive in eastern Ukraine is intensifying in Donetsk province, with a string of towns and villages coming under bombardment in the last week as Russian troops turn their firepower farther west after seizing control of the Luhansk province. For days, the attacks have mostly seemed random and without purpose, but taken as a whole they make clear that Russia is preparing to capture another slice of Donetsk, the other province in the Donbas region. As the Russian military command announced an operational pause to allow its main troop force to regroup, its forces have increased bombardment of the area.
Shinzo Abe’s party triumphs in parliamentary vote, extending legacy
Two days after Japan’s former prime minister Shinzo Abe was gunned down at a campaign stop Friday, his Liberal Democratic Party and its allies swept to victory in a parliamentary election that gave them a chance to pursue Abe’s long-held ambition of revising Japan’s pacifist constitution. It was the clearest sign that Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, remained a guiding political force. Even before his death, he was no longer leader of the country or its governing party, but his legacy shaped voters’ choices at the ballot box and his party’s vision for the future.
At Sri Lankan president’s house, protesters make themselves at home
Sri Lanka’s political and economic crisis offered a peculiar tableau Sunday: The protesters were cooking in the prime minister’s garden and lounging in the president’s bedroom while the leaders were nowhere to be seen. With President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe both in hiding after indicating they would resign, it was not clear who was running the country. But it mattered little to the thousands who have flooded into the capital city, Colombo, since Saturday: For months they had felt they were on their own anyway as they queued up for hours for fuel and cooking gas.
At least 21 dead after 3 tavern shootings in South Africa
At least 21 people were killed over the weekend as gunmen opened fire on three taverns in South Africa, in what police described as “random” shootings. Early Sunday in Soweto, in Johannesburg, a group of gunmen stormed a tavern, police said. The men opened fire after midnight, killing 15 people and injuring 23. The gunmen fled the scene. Hours before, gunmen in Pietermaritzburg killed four people and injured eight in a tavern outside the city, police said. On Friday night, four gunmen killed two people and injured four in the Katlehong township.