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Judge Allows Construction on Offshore Wind Farm To Resume (Maria)

The author writes, “On Monday, a judge blocked the Trump administration’s latest attempt to stifle the U.S.’s nascent offshore wind industry. The ruling allows construction to immediately restart on Revolution Wind, which the Danish company Orsted is building in the waters off Rhode Island and Connecticut. While the preliminary injunction can still be appealed, the project is 80% completed, so construction could wrap up while the case is still pending.”

The White House Peace Vigil, After Standing for Decades, Is Dismantled (Laura)

The author writes, “The White House Peace Vigil, widely considered the longest continuous act of political protest in US history, was dismantled by federal law enforcement [last week] in what activists described as the most direct attack on the protest in its 44-year history. What was left after demonstrators said National Park Service workers and US Park Police officers closed Lafayette Square and hauled off protest banners, flags, and other supplies was the vigil at its most bare: a handful of protesters lined up on the redbrick sidewalk to the north of the White House, holding whatever signs they managed to salvage. The peace vigil was dismantled nearly two weeks after President Donald Trump ordered: ‘Take it down. Take it down today. Right now.’”

‘I Have To Do It’: Why One of the World’s Most Brilliant AI Scientists Left the US for China (Sean)

From The Guardian: “In 2020, after spending half his life in the US, Song-Chun Zhu took a one-way ticket to China. Now he might hold the key to who wins the global AI race.”

Trump’s Economic Promises to Black Voters Fall Short After a Modest Shift in Support for Him in 2024 (Reader Steve)

The author writes, “At one of his final rallies before the 2024 election, then-candidate Donald Trump warned that Black Americans were losing their jobs in droves and that things would get even worse if he did not return to the White House. … But with Trump back in office since January, an already fragile financial situation for Black Americans has worsened. Upset by inflation and affordability issues, Black voters had shifted modestly toward the Republican last year on the promise that he could boost the economy by stopping border crossings and challenging foreign factories with tariffs. Yet a recent spate of economic data instead shows a widening racial wealth gap. Black unemployment has climbed from 6.2% to 7.5% so far in 2025, the highest level since October 2021. Black homeownership has fallen to the lowest level since 2021.”

Trump’s Kids Sure Have Gotten a Whole Lot Richer in the Past Year (Dana)

From The New Republic: “A new Forbes report reveals that the Trump family has profited enormously from the presidency, doubling its fortune to a total of about $10 billion. For Donald Trump, the year of his White House comeback has also been ‘the most lucrative year of his life,’ with the president raking in $3 billion, two-thirds of which came from cryptocurrency — including his meme coin and World Liberty Financial, a crypto company started by his family. … Trump’s second son, Eric Trump, has seen his wealth balloon from $40 million last year to an estimated $750 million, in large part thanks to crypto. His older brother, Don Jr., is worth $500 million, compared to $50 million last year, having also cashed in on crypto and ‘the anti-woke economy,’ among other ventures. The president’s youngest son, Barron Trump, is worth $150 million at 19 years old — again, largely from crypto.”

Scientists Just Made the First Time Crystal You Can See (Mili)

The author writes, “Imagine a clock that doesn’t have electricity, but its hands and gears spin on their own for all eternity. In a new study, physicists at the University of Colorado Boulder have used liquid crystals, the same materials that are in your phone display, to create such a clock — or, at least, as close as humans can get to that idea. The team’s advancement is a new example of a ‘time crystal.’ That’s the name for a curious phase of matter in which the pieces, such as atoms or other particles, exist in constant motion. The researchers aren’t the first to make a time crystal, but their creation is the first that humans can actually see, which could open a host of technological applications.”