>One of the biggest galaxies in the universe seems to lack its dark centerpiece.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/19/science/astronomy-black-hole-abell.html
https://archive.is/tqmIQ

Astronomers are searching the cosmic lost-and-found for one of the biggest, baddest black holes thought to exist. So far they haven’t found it.

In the past few decades, it has become part of astronomical lore, if not quite a law, that at the center of every luminous city of light, called a galaxy, lurks something like a hungry Beelzebub, a giant black hole into which the equivalent of millions or even billions of suns have disappeared. The bigger the galaxy, the more massive the black hole at its center.

So it was a surprise a decade ago when Marc Postman, of the Space Telescope Science Institute, using the Hubble Space Telescope to survey clusters of galaxies, found a supergiant galaxy with no sign of a black hole in its center. Normally, the galaxy’s core would have a kink of extra light in its center, a kind of sparkling cloak, produced by stars that had been gathered there by the gravity of a giant black hole.

On the contrary, at the exact center of the galaxy’s wide core, where a slight bump in starlight should have been, there was a slight dip. Moreover, the entire core, a cloud of stars some 20,000 light years across, was not even centered on the exact middle of the galaxy.

“Oh, my God, this is really unusual,” Tod Lauer, an expert on galactic nuclei at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tucson, Ariz., and an author on the paper, recalled saying when Dr. Postman showed him the finding.

That was in 2012. In the years since, the two researchers and their colleagues have been ransacking the galaxy, looking for X-rays or radio waves from the missing black hole.

> China is the only major economy expected to report growth for 2020, helping it close the gap with the U.S. Lifted by its quick recovery from Covid-19, it has also expanded its role in global trade and shored up its position as the world’s factory floor.

While the U.S. and Europe wait for vaccine rollouts to get fully back on track, China is the only major economy expected to report growth for 2020, helping it close the gap with the U.S.

It has expanded its role in global trade and shored up its position as the world’s factory floor, despite years of U.S. efforts to persuade companies to invest elsewhere. China’s consumer market—lifted by its quick recovery from Covid-19—keeps gaining momentum, making it a bigger driver of global companies’ earnings.

And the country has solidified its standing as a force in global financial markets, with a record share of initial public offerings and secondary listings in 2020, large capital inflows into stocks and bonds, and indexes that far outperformed even the U.S.’s strong showing.

The upshot is a world more reliant on China for growth than ever before. For 2020, China’s economy is expected to account for 16.8% of global gross domestic product, adjusted for inflation, according to forecasts by Moody’s Analytics. That’s up from 14.2% in 2016, before the U.S. and China entered a trade war. The U.S. is expected to make up 22.2%, virtually unchanged from 22.3% in 2016.

China’s 2020 increase in its share of global GDP—1.1 percentage points—is its largest in a single year since at least the 1970s.

The country is scheduled to report fourth-quarter and annual growth on Jan. 18, a moment that’s likely to confirm its ascendancy.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinas-economy-powers-ahead-while-the-rest-of-the-world-reels-11610552422

>US soldier arrested in plot to blow up NYC 9/11 Memorial
https://apnews.com/article/us-soldier-plot-blow-up-nyc-memorial-2b7225db9f47a21097b981ab0e5e3687
NEW YORK (AP) — A U.S. Army soldier was arrested Tuesday in Georgia on terrorism charges after he spoke online about plots to blow up New York City’s 9/11 Memorial and other landmarks and attack U.S. soldiers in the Middle East, authorities said.

Cole James Bridges of Stow, Ohio, was in custody on charges of attempted material support of a terrorist organization — the Islamic State group — and attempted murder of a military member, said Nicholas Biase, a spokesperson for Manhattan federal prosecutors.

The 20-year-old soldier, also known as Cole Gonzales, was with the Third Infantry Division out of Fort Stewart, Georgia, when he thought he was communicating with the Islamic State online about the terrorism plots, Biase said.

Unbeknownst to Bridges, an FBI employee was in on the chat as Bridges provided detailed instructions on tactics and manuals and advice about attacking the memorial and other targets in New York City, Biase said.

“As we allege today, Bridges, a private in the U.S. Army, betrayed our country and his unit when he plotted with someone he believed was an ISIS sympathizer to help ISIS attack and kill U.S. soldiers in the Middle East,” said William F. Sweeney Jr., head of New York City’s FBI office.

“Fortunately, the person with whom he communicated was an FBI employee, and we were able to prevent his evil desires from coming to fruition,” Sweeney said in a release.

“Our troops risk their lives for our country, but they should never face such peril at the hands of one of their own,” U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said.

https://apnews.com/article/rachel-levine-health-secretary-4eee53439e9c2b4c27fcf4e7f572cb0e

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden has tapped Pennsylvania Health Secretary Rachel Levine to be his assistant secretary of health, leaving her poised to become the first openly transgender federal official to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

A pediatrician and former Pennsylvania physician general, Levine was appointed to her current post by Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf in 2017, making her one of the few transgender people serving in elected or appointed positions nationwide. She won past confirmation by the Republican-majority Pennsylvania Senate and has emerged as the public face of the state’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

“Dr. Rachel Levine will bring the steady leadership and essential expertise we need to get people through this pandemic — no matter their zip code, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability — and meet the public health needs of our country in this critical moment and beyond,” Biden said in a statement. “She is a historic and deeply qualified choice to help lead our administration’s health efforts.”

A graduate of Harvard and of Tulane Medical School, Levine is president of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. She’s written in the past on the opioid crisis, medical marijuana, adolescent medicine, eating disorders and LGBTQ medicine.

“Her nomination is groundbreaking and shows the Biden administration will choose the most qualified individuals to lead our nation regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity,” Annise Parker, former Houston mayor and president & CEO of LGBTQ Victory Institute, said in a statement. “Dr. Levine is making history and will transform Americans’ perceptions of trans people when she takes office and begins to work on their behalf.”

Haspel did not articulate the reason for her departure, which comes on the last full day of Trump’s presidency!

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2021/01/19/cia-director-gina-haspel-announces-resignation/?sh=749edbb67cf2

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-pardons-final-days/2021/01/17/7a57969c-5905-11eb-a976-bad6431e03e2_story.html
I really wish he'd just do a blanket pardon for all non-violent drug offenders or just mandate marijuana is not a criminal drug at the federal level
why can't he just do one thing I asked for end his presidency on a good note and just decrease the american prison population by a lot

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/jan/19/parler-website-partially-returns-with-support-from-russian-owned-technology-firm

P a r l e r, the social network popular with Donald Trump supporters, has partially returned online with the help of a R u s s i a n-owned technology company.

The network vanished from the internet after it was dropped by Amazon’s hosting arm and other partners over a lack of moderation after its users called for violence and posted videos glorifying the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January.

On Monday, P a r l e r’s website was reachable again, though only with a message from its chief executive, John "Lev" Matze, saying he was working to restore functionality.

DDoS-Guard’s other clients include the Russian ministry of defense, as well as media org in Moscow. Until recently, it offered 8 k u n – which was previously known as 8 c h a n – protection from DDoS. Last week, DDoS-Guard became the latest company to cut ties with 8 k u n’s hosting company, V a n w a T e c h, following inquiries from the Guardian.

https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-bali-indonesia-coronavirus-pandemic-graphic-design-cad88d12e86c4bec4297dde2a8085f82

DENPASAR, Indonesia (AP) — An American graphic designer is being deported from the Indonesian resort island of Bali over her viral tweets that celebrated it as a low-cost, queer-friendly place for foreigners to live.

Kristen Antoinette Gray arrived in Bali in January 2020 and wound up staying through the coronavirus pandemic. Her posts on Twitter, including comparisons between Bali and Los Angeles and links to buy her e-book, began going viral in Indonesia on Sunday.

>“This island has been amazing because of our elevated lifestyle at much lower cost of living. I was paying $1,300 for my LA studio. Now I have a treehouse for $400,”
one of Gray’s posts on Twitter said.

Gray’s posts were considered to have “disseminated information disturbing to the public,” which was the basis for her deportation, said Jamaruli Manihuruk, chief of the Bali regional office for the Ministry of Law and Human Rights.

A statement from the office cited her descriptions of Bali providing comfort for LGBT and being easily accessible during the pandemic. It also referenced tweets with links to her e-book, which had direct links to agents who could help foreigners move to the island.

Many Indonesian social media users were furious that she was showing off living and working in Bali without a proper business visa.

Gray and her partner, Saundra Michelle Alexander, are currently in immigration detention while waiting for a flight to the United States.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/18/world/europe/duhamel-france-incest.html

PARIS — The testimonies have surfaced by the hundreds.

“I was 8, I was abused by my uncle,” read one post on Twitter. “My father, from 7 to 14 years old,” another tweet said. “It was supposed to be a vacation, which quickly turned into a nightmare,” someone else posted.

A scandal involving a prominent French intellectual accused of sexually abusing his teenage stepson has prompted a wave of testimonies on social media from people in France who say they were also victims of incest, shedding light on what campaigners say is a major problem.

Just as the #Metoo movement gained momentum on social networks three years ago, France’s current reckoning on incest has been driven by a hashtag, #Metooinceste, under which some 20,000 tweets had been posted as of Monday afternoon. Hundreds of the posts were wrenching accounts from people who said they had been sexually abused as children by adult family members.

“Victims’ voices are getting louder,” said Patrick Loiseleur, the vice president of Facing Incest, a French organization that has advocated for better recognition of the extent of the issue.French law defines incest as a sexual relationship between two people who are related to each other to a degree where marriage is prohibited, including between siblings or between stepparents and stepchildren. But French law criminalizes incest only in the case of sexual abuse, such as rape or a sexual relationship between an adult and a minor.

The deluge of testimonies on Twitter have come in the wake of the scandal surrounding Olivier Duhamel, a prominent political scientist and TV commentator, who was accused by his stepdaughter, Camille Kouchner, of having abused her twin brother, starting when he was 14. Such abuse would be considered incest under French law, even though the boy was Mr. Duhamel’s stepson.