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Last Survivor of First Team to Conquer Mount Everest Says It’s Too Crowded, Deserves Respect (Maria)
The author writes, “The only surviving member of the mountaineering expedition that first conquered Mount Everest said Saturday that the world’s highest peak is too crowded and dirty, and the mountain is a god that needs to be respected. Kanchha Sherpa, 91, was among the 35 members in the team that put New Zealander Edmund Hillary and his Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay atop the 8,849-meter (29,032-foot) peak on May 29, 1953. ‘It would be better for the mountain to reduce the number of climbers,’ Kanchha said in an interview in Kathmandu on Saturday. … During the spring climbing season in 2023, 667 climbers scaled the peak.”
Backlogged With Blockbuster Cases, Supreme Court Takes on Trump (Russ)
From The Washington Post: “In the next four months, the Supreme Court will resolve a huge number of highly consequential cases — as many as the justices might typically confront across several years. Their decisions will address some of the nation’s most pressing issues and influence the course of this fall’s presidential election. The most closely watched question: whether Donald Trump is immune from criminal prosecution on charges of trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election. … The justices are already grappling with other blockbuster cases that will shape the future of free speech online, the power of federal government agencies and access to the most widely used abortion medication. In addition, they have two other cases with significant legal and political impacts for Trump.”
Texts Reveal Shadowy Role Witness Played in Defense Attorney’s Push to Disqualify Willis From Trump Case (DonkeyHotey)
From CNN: “A key witness in the push to disqualify District Attorney Fani Willis from the Georgia election case against Donald Trump had a much deeper involvement in the effort than was previously known, according to hundreds of text messages obtained by CNN. The 413 texts between Terrence Bradley and Ashleigh Merchant, an attorney for one of Trump’s co-defendants, reveal months of communications between the two, underscoring the extent to which Bradley assisted Merchant’s pursuit of evidence to back up claims Willis and her top prosecutor, Nathan Wade, engaged in an improper romantic relationship.”
The Red-State Governor Who’s Not Afraid to Be ‘Woke’ (Al)
From Time: “Even as the words come out of his mouth, the governor of Utah knows his outburst is out of character. ‘There is nobody more cowardly than Tucker Carlson,’ Spencer Cox says, gesturing with both hands over his plate of puntas de filete a la norteña. ‘This idea that you’re a coward for being kind, it’s so anti-Christian. It’s so anti-American. I mean that.’ Over lunch at the Red Iguana, Salt Lake City’s most famous Mexican restaurant, the Republican governor of one of America’s most conservative states is trying to explain how he came to be accused of the gravest sin on the right these days: being ‘woke.’”
Hamas Says Seven Captives Killed in Israeli Army Bombing of Gaza (Mili)
The author writes, “The military wing of the Palestinian group Hamas says seven more captives held in the Gaza Strip have died as a result of Israel’s bombardment of the besieged enclave. Abu Obeida, the spokesperson for Hamas’s Qassam Brigades, made the statement on the Telegram app on Friday. The group said it confirmed the news following investigations conducted over the past few weeks after it had lost contact with the fighters who had been holding the captives.”
Who Fakes Cancer Research? Apparently, Lots of People. (Sean)
The author writes, “Dana-Farber was rocked this January by a blog post by Sholto David, a molecular biologist and internet data sleuth, in which he presented evidence of widespread data manipulation in cancer research published by leading researchers including the institute’s CEO and COO. David reportedly contacted the institute with concerns about 57 papers, 38 of which were ones for which the institute had ‘primary responsibility for the potential data errors.’ The institute has requested retractions for 6 of them and initiated corrections for 31.”
This Texas Company Wants to Bring Species Back From the Dead (Laura)
The author writes, “Leaders at Colossal Biosciences hope to bring the dodo back from the dead by genetically engineering animals into existence after centuries of extinction. To do this, researchers would have to identify the genes that made the dodo unique and insert them into a close relative, the Nicobar pigeon, so that the resulting offspring resembles its extinct cousin. The result wouldn’t quite be the extinct animal, but it wouldn’t be the still-living species either; it’d be something entirely new. That makes this process, called de-extinction, distinct from cloning.”
