WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has four cases still undecided. In particular, the justices are still weighing whether former President Donald Trump is immune from criminal prosecution in the election interference case against him, roughly two months after hearing arguments. Though the justices typically issue all of their rulings by the end of June, this term they are expected to continue into early July.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]The court heard 61 cases this term.
Here’s a look at two of the major undecided cases:
Donald Trump is arguing that former presidents are immune from prosecutionfor official acts they took in office and that the indictment he faces on charges of election interference must be dismissed.
The Supreme Court has previously ruled that former presidents can’t be sued in civil cases for what they did in office, but it has never weighed in on criminal immunity.
The timing of the decision may be as important as the outcome. Trump’s trial in Washington, D.C., may not take place before the November election, even if the court rules he is not immune.
Two cases involve social media laws in Texas and Florida that would limit how Facebook, TikTok, X, YouTube and other social media platforms regulate content posted by their users. While the details vary, both laws aimed to address conservative complaints that the social media companies were liberal-leaning and censored users based on their viewpoints, especially on the political right.
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday sided with the Biden administration in a dispute with Republican-led states over how far the federal government can go to combat controversial social media posts on topics including COVID-19 and election security.
The justices threw out lower-court rulings that favored Louisiana, Missouri and other parties in their claims that officials in the Democratic administration leaned on the social media platforms to unconstitutionally squelch conservative points of view.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]The case is among several before the court this term that affect social media companies in the context of free speech. In February, the court heard arguments over Republican-passed laws in Florida and Texas that prohibit large social media companies from taking down posts because of the views they express. In March, the court laid out standards for when public officials can block their social media followers.
The cases over state laws and the one that was decided Wednesday are variations on the same theme, complaints that the platforms are censoring conservative viewpoints.
The states had argued that White House communications staffers, the surgeon general, the FBI and the U.S. cybersecurity agency are among those who applied “unrelenting pressure” to coerce changes in online content on social media platforms.
But the justices appeared broadly skeptical of those claims during arguments in March and several worried that common interactions between government officials and the platforms could be affected by a ruling for the states.
The Biden administration underscored those concerns when it noted that the government would lose its ability to communicate with the social media companies about antisemitic and anti-Muslim posts, as well as on issues of national security, public health and election integrity.
The Supreme Court had earlier acted to keep the lower-court rulings on hold. Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas would have allowed the restrictions on government contacts with the platforms to go into effect.
Free speech advocates had urged the court to use the case to draw an appropriate line between the government’s acceptable use of the bully pulpit and coercive threats to free speech.
A panel of three judges on the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled earlier that the Biden administration had probably brought unconstitutional pressure on the media platforms. The appellate panel said officials cannot attempt to “coerce or significantly encourage” changes in online content. The panel had previously narrowed a more sweeping order from a federal judge, who wanted to include even more government officials and prohibit mere encouragement of content changes.
The case is Murthy v. Missouri, 23-411.
Titan, Saturn's largest moon, is the only other planetary body in the solar system that currently hosts active rivers, lakes, and seas. These otherworldly river systems are thought to be filled with liquid methane and ethane that flows into wide lakes and seas, some as large as the Great Lakes on Earth.
The existence of Titan's large seas and smaller lakes was confirmed in 2007, with images taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Since then, scientists have pored over those and other images for clues to the moon's mysterious liquid environment.
Now, MIT geologists have studied Titan's shorelines and shown through simulations that the moon's large seas have likely been shaped by waves. Until now, scientists have found indirect and conflicting signs of wave activity based on remote images of Titan's surface.
The MIT team took a different approach to investigate the presence of waves on Titan, by first modeling the ways in which a lake can erode on Earth. They then applied their modeling to Titan's seas to determine what form of erosion could have produced the shorelines in Cassini's images. Waves, they found, were the most likely explanation.
The researchers emphasize that their results are not definitive; to confirm that there are waves on Titan will require direct observations of wave activity on the moon's surface.
"We can say, based on our results, that if the coastlines of Titan's seas have eroded, waves are the most likely culprit," says Taylor Perron, the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at MIT.
"If we could stand at the edge of one of Titan's seas, we might see waves of liquid methane and ethane lapping on the shore and crashing on the coasts during storms. And they would be capable of eroding the material that the coast is made of."
Perron and his colleagues, including first author Rose Palermo, a former MIT-WHOI Joint Program graduate student and a research geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey, published their study in Science Advances. Their co-authors include MIT research scientist Jason Soderblom, former MIT postdoc Sam Birch, now an assistant professor at Brown University, Andrew Ashton at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and Alexander Hayes of Cornell University.
'Taking a Different Tack'
The presence of waves on Titan has been a somewhat controversial topic ever since Cassini spotted bodies of liquid on the moon's surface.
"Some people who tried to see evidence for waves didn't see any and said, 'These seas are mirror-smooth,'" Palermo says. "Others said they did see some roughness on the liquid surface but weren't sure if waves caused it."
Knowing whether Titan's seas host wave activity could give scientists information about the moon's climate, such as the strength of the winds that could whip up such waves. Wave information could also help scientists predict how the shape of Titan's seas might evolve over time.
Rather than look for direct signs of wave-like features in images of Titan, Perron says the team had to "take a different tack, and see, just by looking at the shape of the shoreline, if we could tell what's been eroding the coasts."
Titan's seas are thought to have formed as rising levels of liquid flooded a landscape crisscrossed by river valleys. The researchers zeroed in on three scenarios for what could have happened next: no coastal erosion, erosion driven by waves, and "uniform erosion," driven either by "dissolution," in which liquid passively dissolves a coast's material, or a mechanism in which the coast gradually sloughs off under its own weight.
The researchers simulated how various shoreline shapes would evolve under each of the three scenarios. To simulate wave-driven erosion, they took into account a variable known as "fetch," which describes the physical distance from one point on a shoreline to the opposite side of a lake or sea.
"Wave erosion is driven by the height and angle of the wave," Palermo explains. "We used fetch to approximate wave height because the bigger the fetch, the longer the distance over which wind can blow and waves can grow."
To test how shoreline shapes would differ between the three scenarios, the researchers started with a simulated sea with flooded river valleys around its edges. For wave-driven erosion, they calculated the fetch distance from every single point along the shoreline to every other point, and converted these distances to wave heights.
Then, they ran their simulation to see how waves would erode the starting shoreline over time. They compared this to how the same shoreline would evolve under erosion driven by uniform erosion. The team repeated this comparative modeling for hundreds of different starting shoreline shapes.
They found that the end shapes were very different depending on the underlying mechanism. Most notably, uniform erosion produced inflated shorelines that widened evenly all around, even in the flooded river valleys, whereas wave erosion mainly smoothed the parts of the shorelines exposed to long fetch distances, leaving the flooded valleys narrow and rough.
"We had the same starting shorelines, and we saw that you get a really different final shape under uniform erosion versus wave erosion," Perron says. "They all kind of look like the flying spaghetti monster because of the flooded river valleys, but the two types of erosion produce very different endpoints."
The team checked their results by comparing their simulations to actual lakes on Earth. They found the same difference in shape between Earth lakes known to have been eroded by waves and lakes affected by uniform erosion, such as dissolving limestone.
A Shore's Shape
Their modeling revealed clear, characteristic shoreline shapes, depending on the mechanism by which they evolved. The team then wondered: Where would Titan's shorelines fit within these characteristic shapes?
In particular, they focused on four of Titan's largest, most well-mapped seas: Kraken Mare, which is comparable in size to the Caspian Sea; Ligeia Mare, which is larger than Lake Superior; Punga Mare, which is longer than Lake Victoria; and Ontario Lacus, which is about 20 percent the size of its terrestrial namesake.
The team mapped the shorelines of each Titan sea using Cassini's radar images, and then applied their modeling to each of the sea's shorelines to see which erosion mechanism best explained their shape. They found that all four seas fit solidly in the wave-driven erosion model, meaning that waves produced shorelines that most closely resembled Titan's four seas.
"We found that if the coastlines have eroded, their shapes are more consistent with erosion by waves than by uniform erosion or no erosion at all," Perron says.
The researchers are working to determine how strong Titan's winds must be in order to stir up waves that could repeatedly chip away at the coasts. They also hope to decipher, from the shape of Titan's shorelines, from which directions the wind is predominantly blowing.
"Titan presents this case of a completely untouched system," Palermo says. "It could help us learn more fundamental things about how coasts erode without the influence of people, and maybe that can help us better manage our coastlines on Earth in the future.
Tech giant OnePlus has officially announced the launch date for its upcoming budget smartphone, the OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite 5G. According to Tom’s Guide, the device is set for release on June 24 and promises significant improvements over its predecessor, particularly in battery life, charging speed, and camera performance.
Kinder Liu, President and COO of OnePlus, emphasized the Nord CE 4 Lite 5G's transformative potential within the affordable smartphone market. He highlighted that the device will offer flagship-level features such as superior battery life, fast charging, a high-quality display, and enhanced photography, all at a competitive price point. Liu's comments underscore the company's ambition to set a new standard in the budget smartphone segment.
The OnePlus Nord CE 4 Lite 5G will feature a refreshed design, including smaller camera sensors arranged in a pill-shaped module to ensure minimal protrusion and stability on flat surfaces. The device retains a boxy aesthetic and will be available in a striking new blue color, as teased by OnePlus.
Ahead of its launch, some specifications of the Nord CE 4 Lite have been disclosed. The phone will come equipped with a 5,500mAh battery supporting 80W fast charging. It will sport a 120Hz AMOLED display with Aqua Touch technology, ensuring the screen remains responsive even when wet. Additionally, the display will boast an impressive peak brightness of 2,100 nits and will support 5W reverse charging. Further details are yet to be announced.
Rumors suggest that the Nord CE 4 Lite might feature a 6.67-inch AMOLED screen with FHD+ resolution. The rear camera setup is expected to include a 50MP primary sensor, while the front camera is likely to be a 16MP unit. Other sensor details remain undisclosed.
The anticorruption laws enacted in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria have inadvertently created a lucrative anti-corruption market centered on outsourcing public procurement to private corporations. Despite millions invested in platforms, websites, training, and consulting services to ensure compliance, fraud and corruption have persisted, driven by profiteering, a new study suggests.
Study author Jose Atiles, a sociology professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, argues that these flawed anti-corruption policies were a façade to legitimize state-corporate crime. Instead of eradicating corruption, the policies perpetuated a system of wealth extraction benefiting corporations and local elites.
"Under the guise of fighting corruption, the Puerto Rican government has spent over $787 million on public procurement for anti-corruption and fraud prevention since 2018," Atiles said. These policies have created opportunities for government contracting and new corporations to serve these laws, operating as a regime that condones state-corporate crime.
Atiles explores Puerto Rico's history of corruption in a recent paper published in the Journal of White Collar and Corporate Crime. Factors contributing to the anti-corruption market include Puerto Rico's government-corporate relationship, its colonial history, and inequities in federal resource allocation. Economic struggles and a surge in corruption cases since 2006 worsened after Hurricane Maria in 2017. U.S. pressure to fix the economy and address corruption to qualify for disaster relief funding exacerbated the situation.
While Puerto Rico was labeled corrupt, many corruption cases occurred in the federal system, Atiles noted. The Puerto Rico Oversight Management and Stability Act (PROMESA), aimed at helping Puerto Rico manage debt, has limited state resources and increased opportunities for private firms to take over government services.
Austerity measures further opened the door for corruption, constraining government workforce recruitment and leading to outsourcing essential functions. The Anti-Corruption Code for the New Puerto Rico, or ACT 2, enacted in 2018, commodified anti-corruption efforts, creating profit opportunities for marketing companies, corporations, and law firms through digital technologies and surveillance.
Public procurement and government contracting grew, making up over $4.4 billion or 20% of Puerto Rico's budget in 2021. Despite numerous policies, including executive orders and emergency measures, compliance issues limited economic resources for those in need. Corporations and local elites profited, while government communications cultivated a public perception of efficiency and integrity.
ACT 2 authorized a Public Registry of Persons Convicted of Corruption, outsourced to SNAC LLC with 14 contracts worth over $851,700. However, the registry was kept from public access until a 2021 lawsuit made the information available. The management of the registry and access to data depended on a private corporation.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Puerto Rico Department of Labor and Human Resources outsourced the development of a website for unemployment assistance applications. Technological issues and lack of staffing at the call center led to an investigation, revealing that the website's inefficiencies facilitated corruption, exposing applicants' personal information.
The study concludes that anti-fraud policies and corporate profiteering have rendered the local state unable to deliver basic services, trapping individuals in a flawed system.
Introduction: "Surely this is the most solitary organism in the world," wrote paleontologist Richard Fortey in his book on the evolution of life, referring to Encephalartos woodii (E. woodii), a rare South African cycad.
Background:
Current Status:
Research Initiative: Inspired by the plant’s predicament, my team employs remote sensing technologies and AI to search for a female E. woodii in the Ngoye Forest.
Evolutionary Significance of Cycads:
Conservation Challenges:
Innovative Search Technology:
Genetic Diversity and Threats:
Conservation Hope:
